The Epistles to Timothy

… 1 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man named Jesus. Now chapter 3 and verse 15 But if I tell you long, that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now in chapter 2 and verse 13 For Adam was first born, then Eve. And lastly in chapter 1 verses 1 and 2 All 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. In a few moments we will show how there is a connection between these scriptures that we read. The simple exercise that we desire to follow is in 1 Timothy with the objective view that we might understand something of the blessedness of belonging to God and also the responsibility that such a position incurs. I thought first of all this evening we might have a little talk as the Spirit helps us to bring before us something of the greatness and glory of the God who dwells in his house. It's interesting to know that Paul wrote to Timothy so that he might go to Ephesus and there hinder those who were teaching false doctrines. I think throughout this epistle we get many indications of the truths that Paul spoke to the Ephesians or that he wrote to concerning great truths. The wonderful unfolding of divine purpose and blessing in Christ and we find him I believe embodied in a simple way in this first epistle. But he doesn't develop them. But I think in writing to Timothy to tell him to combat those false teachers he indicates the main outline of these wonderful truths. This is what we want to be involved in this evening. The greatness and glory of God that we might be impressed by and that we might be governed by. I think there are three things that we ought to look at to show how important this epistle is and how it should affect us in our lives. First of all chapter 3 and verse 15 which we have read together. But if I carry along that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. Now the apostle is deeply concerned that Timothy might know how to behave himself and of course every other believer to behave themselves in the house of God. Now if you look at chapter 1 and verse 11 he speaks about the gospel of the blessed God, the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to his trust. And he is warning Timothy against teaching which was contrary to that gospel and warning Timothy that this kind of thing had to be withstood. The gospel of the glory of the blessed God. Any teaching that was contrary to that had to be refused. Now chapter 6 and verse 1. Let as many servants as is under the yoke count their own master as worthy of all honour that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed. Now there is a very solemn statement that in the ordinary occupation of life, master and employer there is a possibility that the name of God might be blasphemed and his teaching blasphemed. Now this brings Christianity right down to earth if you like and as we are occupied in the daily course of life it is possible that we might live in such a way that God, the name of God is blasphemed and his teaching blasphemed also. So now we have three very important statements in this epistle that Paul is showing to Timothy how serious it is to be a Christian. I am not in any way going to water that statement down. It is a serious thing to be a Christian and to live in the light of it so that we might behave ourselves properly in the house of God. So that we might teach the proper things that nothing might be cracked from the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. And that the name of God should not be blasphemed by our foolish living. Now these are very very important and solemn statements. Now it seems to me that we shall never rise to this responsibility unless first of all we have a very definite understanding of who God is. I feel very inadequate to stand before you this evening to attempt to tell you how great God is. But I have read a few statements from this epistle to bring before you five different features of our great God and trust the Holy Spirit will impress upon us his greatness and his glory. First of all there is one God. Secondly he is the living God. And although it is not very apparent in the verses I read in chapter 2 verse 13 where Adam was first born. The creative God because I believe this is what it presents. The creative God. And then in two verses we read in chapter 1. Now this is a very comprehensive subject and we can only deal with it very briefly. But first of all there is one God. Now we know in the world at the present moment there are many Gods. There are many nations which are given over to idolatry. So there are many Gods. But the Bible presents exclusively one God. And all the other Gods that men have made in name are false Gods and not worthy to be mentioned in the same name or in the same light as our God. There is one God. Now if we trace the history of man's departure from God. From the Garden of Eden. The fall there. Then Cain going out from the presence of God. The building of Babel. From then on we realize how far away man got from God. And when he got away from God he created his own Gods. And so from that moment onward we find a multiplicity of Gods. And in the Prophets we find many allusions to this. Idols being made. Trees cut down. And idols made and painted and formed. And gold and silver. Idols being made. Men worshipping them. The works of their hands. And over against this again and again is affirmed that only God is God. Indeed he affirms this so often himself. In the book of Isaiah. I am God. Beside me there is none else. Indeed the great call in Deuteronomy. That God. He was the one God. The one Lord. And beside him there was none else. And you remember when the scribe came to the Lord Jesus. And asked him which were the great commandments. This is what the Lord quoted from Deuteronomy chapter 6. That God is one. And to love him with all one's strength and mind and so on. Is the duty of everyone. And the scribe said yes this was perfectly correct. And of course it was bound to be correct. Because the author of Deuteronomy was speaking to him. And so this is a very important thing for our hearts to realise today. A very sad thing to realise that idolatry is on the increase rather than the decrease. And if the further man gets away from God. Of course he has to recourse to other things. And Satan will find idols to occupy his attention. And although in this land we may not bow down to stocks and stones. And painted images and the like. Yet there are other forms that idolatry can take. And we always have to remember that covetousness is idolatry. And that is a moral feature that we want to avoid as much as possible. But throughout the New Testament it is affirmed again and again. There is one God. Now dear brethren. This is a very important thing for our hearts to take account. There is a God. The epistle to the Hebrews reminds us. That those who follow him must believe that he is. And that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So dear brethren. God is. A few years ago there was a philosophy that God was dead. But he isn't dead. God is. He is very much alive. And very much in control. Although man might not think so. God is one. Now Paul says to the Corinthians. There are Gods many. And there are Lords many. But to us there is one God. And that God is known to us as Father. We'll touch on that later on. You remember when Paul was in Athens. He was very much upset. Because wherever he turned he saw idolatry. Idols in every corner. Idols for every feature of life. Indeed I don't think we fully realize how idolatry permeated the ancient world. Gods for marriage. Gods for death. Gods for war. Gods for business. Gods for everything. And what a serious thing it was. When a person became a Christian. To cut away from idolatry. And to stand by this wonderful truth. That there was one God. And there must be no worship of false gods. And so it was a very very great challenge. To turn away from those idols. As the Thessalonians did. To worship the only true God. And so dear brethren. I believe it is very important. That this great truth. Fixes itself in our hearts and minds. And takes possession of us. That there is one God. To the exclusion of all other gods. There are no other gods. That can stand beside this God. I like to think of that incident. In the book of Samuel. When the ark of God. Was captured by the Philistines. And they took the ark of God. And they placed it in the temple of David. The fish god. And in the morning. When they went into the temple. The fish god was lying in his face. It could not be thought for one moment. That the fish god. Could find a place beside the ark of God. Well they propped the idol back on its pedestal. After all they had made it. So they could lift it up. So they propped it back up on its pedestal. And the next morning. When they came in. It was shattered to pieces. That was the end of it. Now I think this incident shows us. That God will not have anything. Placed alongside himself. He is exclusively God. There is no other. And man might think. There are other gods. He might claim there are other gods. Sad to say he worships other gods. But the New Testament says. There is one God. In Ephesians 4. Paul says the same again. One God. The father of all. And so on. And so dear brethren. Let's get this firmly in our minds. I don't think there is anyone here. With dream of thinking anything else. That there is one God. But it's always important. To be reminded. That there is one God. And only one God. Now this second matter. The living God. If there is one God. What kind of God is he? Does he just sit. Biasing. And watching affairs of men go past. Without any concern about them? Can't he intervene in the affairs of men? Must he allow wicked men. To reap their will as they wish? No. He is the living God. And he is very much concerned. About the way man thinks. And he is very much concerned. About the bringing to light of his own will and purpose. And of course when he puts forth his hand. Who can stay? And I believe it's a wonderful thing. To get into our hearts. That this God. We know. Is a living God. And if you search carefully. In the New Testament. You'll find many. In the Old Testament. Many many references. To the living God. Now it wasn't only a truth. It was a reality. That those believers in those days. Put into practice. And wonderful results go from. I want to refer to one. And it's very well known to you. A subject so often spoken about. In the Sunday School. The battle between Goliath. And David the young man. Now when that young man. Went into the Valley of Elah. To face the champion of the Philistines. It looked a very unequal contest. A seasoned warrior. And a mighty one at that. Indeed Saul. Head and shoulders above his brethren. Wasn't very keen. To tackle this giant of a man. And Saul. Was a very strong. Courageous warrior. He had proved himself. But he wouldn't go in and face Goliath. But the little lad did. And how did he go? He went in the face of the living God. You remember what he said? This uncircumcised Philistine. Who defies the armies of the living God. You see the armies of Israel were actually nothing. If God wasn't with them. They had proved that. You see if God is with his people. And his people are with God. Then everything is alright. But if the people of God are not walking in faith. And in dependence upon God. Then things will be all wrong. And Israel had proved that over and over again. And here was this young lad. Going in to face this Philistine. In all the faith that he possessed. In the living God. After all he had experienced help from him. In private. When the bear and the lion attacked the clock. David in the strength that God gave him. Was able to save the clock. And now he went forth in confidence. That the living God would be with him. Because it was God's battle that was being fought. Not the battle between Israel and the Philistines. There was the other occasion you remember. When the armies of the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem. And Hezekiah had a very small army. And he was very much afraid. Because he knew that he had no strength of his own. Nor was his army competent. To meet this threat to the city. But he went in to the presence of the living God. And he spread out the letter. That the Assyrian king had presented. And he was able to win a remarkable victory. Not by his strength. But because of the power of the living God. Now you see the truth. Had a practical bearing upon those people in their day. And dear brethren there are many many references. To the living God in the New Testament. To show us that we too can experience the living God in our lives. And experience health and blessing. What is the use of truth or teaching. If it doesn't have some impact upon our lives. And produce something for the glory of God. We'll find some other night if the Lord will. That teaching forms a very important part. Of the first epistle of Paul to Timothy. Now when we go to school. We're taught certain things. In view of the time. That we'll take up employment in some form or other. Or if we're going on to higher education. Our education is directed into certain channels. So that we're able to qualify for a degree or whatever. Now this has in mind. To help us in life. In some calling or profession. It surely would be folly. To spend a great deal of time in secular teaching. And then just to ignore it. It would be wasted time. And we would confess. That we could have spent our time in a better way. Now this is exactly the same with divine teaching. It's not simply the amassing of a great deal of knowledge. However important it might be. It's that that teaching might govern our lives. Mold our lives. And qualify us if you like. To take our part in testimony here. For God in this world. And also to help us in response to him. Surely that is the real reason for teaching. You remember when the Lord Jesus finished. His discourse to his disciples and others. On the mount in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. He said at the end. Now if anybody hears my teaching. And does it. He's like a man who built his house upon a rock. And when the flood came. Against the house. The house stood fast. You see the accepting of the teaching. And the teaching forming the life. Produces stability. And when the stress and strain of temptation. Difficulty and pressure comes along. Then we're able to stand. If we're ill taught. Well very often we'll succumb. To various pressures and trials. So if we know that God is the living God. He's not dead. He's the living God. He's very much interested in you. Me. Every Christian. He's interested in us. And he wants us to follow him. And to be formed by his teaching. We can take account of the resources. That he has supplied us with. And we can follow them. We can adopt them. We can appropriate them. And by so doing. We're able to be here for his glory. And we're able to avoid. The things that we mentioned. Bad behavior. Either in secular calling. Or in connection with ecclesiastical things. Or bad teaching. In connection with the glory. And the blessings of God. So. The fact that God is a living God. Is a very important thing. For each one of us. To take account of. When we come to the New Testament. There are some very fine things said. About the living God. You remember in Matthew 16. When Jesus asked his disciples. What did people say about him? Who he was? Peter said. Thou art the Christ. The son of the living God. The son of the living God. You remember in. When Paul was writing to the Corinthians. In his second epistle. Chapter 3. He spoke about the writing that's going on. Upon our hearts. And that writing is being done. By the spirit. Of the living God. The verse that we read. In chapter 3. Verse 15. Speaks about the church. The church. Of the living God. So you see. This is a very important form of teaching. In the New Testament. It's not a dead God. In the Old Testament. We find God. Can I say so reverently. Speaking with sarcasm. Against the Gods of the nations. Why he says. You down a tree. You form it. You paint it. And you carry it. You have to carry it with you. Then he says. I have carried you. What a contrast in Gods. A God that has to be carried. And a God who with infinite power. We have the living God. The other Gods. We cannot hear. No good praying to them. They cannot see. They cannot take account of the difficulties that we are in. They cannot move. They cannot stretch out a hand. To help us in our difficulties. They are dead Gods. But we have a living God. He hears. He sees. He knows. He has the power to put at our disposal. So that we might be here. For his pleasure and glory. In the epistle to the Hebrews. I think I am right in saying. That four times God is referred to. As the living God. Yes dear brethren. God is very much alive. I believe that we need to take account of this. More and more. How upset we get. When the little problems come along. And the large problems too. Our faith is trying. And very often falters. And fails under the pressure. And we have to remember. That we have a living God. There were great pressures. In the apostolic period. And through all the centuries. Of the Christian testimony. Those pressures have remained. They still remain today. And without the living God. There would be no Christian testimony. Thank God for the son of the living God. Who is at his right hand. And the spirit of the living God. Who dwells in each one of us. And in this way. We are well equipped. To meet the stresses and strains. Of the Christian life. And well equipped. To respond to God. In the way that he requires of us. I told you brethren. God is the living God. Now we come to. The creator God. It says. In verse 13. Adam was first born. We might have read. Chapter 4. Verse 3. Where certain bad teachers. Say that we are not to marry. We are not to eat meats. And it says God created them. To be received with thanksgiving. Of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature. Or every creation of God is good. And we refuse. If it be received with thanksgiving. So here are two very definite references. To God. As the creator. In this epistle to Timothy. Adam. Was first born. Now I don't know anything about. The theory of evolution. And I don't intend to waste my time. To inquire about it. But I know. That it's a very evil form of teaching. That is presented in various ways today. And it is a direct contradiction. To the many statements. In the word of God. God created man. He didn't evolve. The universe as we know it. Came from the hands of God. If that isn't true. Then there are many large. Portions in our Bibles. That we will need to cut out. And dispense with. Throughout the Old Testament. Two references to this. The creation. The creator. God. Infinite in power and wisdom. And might. Brought the worlds into being. Why? Does evolution present any reason. For this universe as it now exists? Not a single reason. It cannot give one. But the Bible gives us a reason. Why God created the universe. To be a platform. For the unfolding. Of his eternal purpose. Before ever time began. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Dwell together in oneness. In conditions of glory and love. That are infinitely beyond. Our poor minds to understand. Dwelling there. They form the eternal purpose. That was to be. Unfolded by Christ the Son. He coming into this world. To die and rise from amongst the dead. And go back to glory. So that God might have the opportunity. To bring into effect. Those wonderful purposes. Of glory and love. And it was necessary. To bring into being. A platform that this kind of thing. Might be demonstrated to all. And that is the reason. Why God created the universe. And this little speck of dust that they call. That they refer to. However small and insignificant it might be. In the eyes of the astronomers. Or the scientists. Is the one important place. In the universe of God. Because on it. The Son of God lived and died. And accomplished the work of redemption. And upon it. There is the unfolding. Of God's eternal purpose. On it God has displayed his love. His mercy, his truth. God has been manifested in flesh. And they can go to Mars. Or Jupiter or Saturn. Or any other place they like in the universe. They will find nothing to compare. To what has been brought out. Upon this little speck of dust. How we thank God for it. God made the worlds. This is what Hebrews 1 tells us. He made them by the Son. All things were created. For his pleasure. All things were brought into being. By divine wisdom. By weight and measure. And thank God we see it. As the Bible says it was born. And it continues. Thank God for that. But then has the knowledge. Of the Creator God. Any place in Christian testimony. Is there any way. That we can use this knowledge. That God is the Creator. Is it only to refute. These evil teachings. Concerning evolution. I would say when we look into. The acts of the apostles. We find that the apostles themselves. Use this truth with very great effect. You remember in chapter 4. When the leaders of the Jews. Were doing their utmost. To stifle the Christian faith. In its infancy. They went together. Into the prayer meeting. And they prayed aloud to God. And this is how they appealed to him. That God. The God. Who made the heavens and the earth. And the seas and all that's in there. All that's therein. They cried aloud to God. As the Creator. Why? Because the God who created. Was possessed with power. And wisdom. And might. That man could never possess. And that power and wisdom. Could be exerted on their behalf. To help them in their Christian testimony. And of course God answers the prayer. A God who can bring a universe. Like this into being. Is a God who can deal. With the power of puny man. However great he might think himself to be. This God. Can do wonderful things. And of course when we look into the Old Testament. We find this power exerted. In many many ways. The Red Sea and in Egypt. The destruction of Jericho. And in many other passages. God and his power. Dealt with creation. When we come to the Lord Jesus. We see the Creator made flesh. What do we find? He's with the wild beasts in the desert. Not afraid of them. They don't make any effort to attack him. They're in the presence of the Creator. And they're quiet and they're peaceful. He gets a coat to come. A coat upon which man never sat. That means it wasn't broken in. A wild coat. He sits upon it. It's quite peaceful. He can quieten the waves. He can tell them where to go to catch fish. The Creator. Was there in the midst. Divine power and wisdom. Know how humble he was. He allowed himself to be taken. By a puny wicked man. And nailed to a tree. And he died on a cross. What humility. What kindness. What love. We find on a few other occasions. In the Acts of the Apostles. God is referred to as Creator. Paul refers to him. In Acts chapter 17. When he was speaking to the Greek philosophers. He spoke about the God. Who created. The God who made men of one blood. And so on. Quite interesting to know. Evolution began with the Greek philosophers. Very very crude form. Charles Darwin of course. He polished it up. Made it feel very intellectual. Made it appear very true. And reasonable. But it existed a long long time. Before Charles Darwin got it forward. So Paul. He spoke to those philosophers. And he told them. That God was the creator. Of the heavens and the earth. And of course he was bringing forward God. In his power and greatness. And glory. In the portion you remember. Where people thought. That Barnabas and Paul. Were Gods who had come down. And they went to worship them. They said oh no. We are just mortals like ourselves. Oh no. God is the one who is to be worshipped. God who created the earth and the heavens. Is the one who wants you to turn away. From vanity and serve him. So you see. The knowledge of God as creator. Can be very useful. In Christian testimony. Oh think of what it brings before us. His power. His greatness. And he has not in any way given up. That right to rule and guide and control. Indeed. If for one moment he gave up. His right to control the universe physically. Then the whole thing would go wrong. It would be absolute chaos. Because the Lord Jesus. In Colossians 1. Is the one who upholds all things. By the word of his power. Now this is the kind of God. Who dwells in the midst of his people. The one. Exclusive God. The living God. The creator God. This gives us some idea. Of his majesty and glory. But dear brethren. If we only knew God in this way. I think we would still feel. That he was very far off from us. That he wasn't near to us. That he was a God who. Bows us down before him. In awe. In the sense of his greatness and glory and majesty. But we wouldn't feel very near to him. I suppose we would all feel. Something. Like Job. You remember in the last chapters of Job. How God came before him. And presented himself. As the one who created. And Job he abhorred himself. He was cast in ashes. And confessed what a great sinner he was. Thank God. Our God is a saviour God. And when we know him in this way. And as we shall see I hope in a few moments. That he's our father. We get a wonderful sense. Of how our God thinks about us. And how he wants us to respond to him. God. A saviour God. Well this is all true. In the New Testament also. God was a saviour God then. The many references to salvation. Is a reminder to us. That God is a saviour God. But the greatest. Expression of God. As a saviour God. Is when we come to the New Testament. There we find salvation. In it's greatest possible expression. And that is all. The coming of God the son. Into this world. To accomplish the work of redemption. On the cross. I also said. When we were speaking about. The one God. That in the light of the revelation of that one God. In the New Testament. We now know. That that God. Consists of three persons. God the son. God the father. God the son. And God the spirit. Not three Gods. This is where human language fails us. Where human logic fails us. And we have to go extremely careful. Because we might say something wrong. But this is what the New Testament. Presents to us. God the father. We can explain that clearly. By quoting scripture. To us there is one God. The father. God the son. We say in Hebrews 1. Unto the son he said. God the spirit I believe. Hebrews 9. Who through the eternal spirit. Only God is eternal. In the sense. That he ever existed. Having no beginning. Or no end. So the eternal spirit. The verse in Hebrews 9. Would give us ample right to say. God the Holy Spirit. Not three Gods. Three persons presented to us. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God. One substance. One will. One purpose. Never divergent. Always working together. In complete harmony. So we find God the son. Came into this world. In order to accomplish the work of redemption. Oh how God yearned. For his creature to be near to himself. And oh how the barrier of sin. Prevented him I say reverently. From giving his full and qualified love. To his creature. Sin. That awful thing. That came in at the fall with Adam. And has existed ever since. God had devised means. Whereby his marriage. Could be brought back to him. And the son of God. Died on the cross. Accomplished the work of redemption. After appearing to his own for a short period. Went back to glory. The Holy Spirit was sent down. And on the day of Pentecost. The servants of God were empowered. In a remarkable way. To begin the testimony. Of the Gospel period. When the good news went out. To all in Sunday. That God was a Saviour God. And again and again and again. We find this expression. In the New Testament. God our Saviour. This is what we find in chapter 2. For there is one God. And one mediator. Between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. Who gave himself a ransom for all. To be testified in due time. And it was preceded by the statement. That prayers are good and acceptable. In the sight of God. Our Saviour. Dear friends. If we had all got. What we deserve to get. If not one of us here this evening. Would know anything of God. Our Saviour. How thankful we should be. That our sins are forgiven. Sin is an awful thing. In the sight of God. It's an affront to his majesty. And glory and dignity. And he hates it. In all the hatred of his being. And that hatred was expressed. If I could so say. When the Lord Jesus Christ. The Son of God hung upon the tree. And in the darkness. And in the abandonment. Experienced the wrath of God. That was due to us. When he was made a sacrifice. For sin. I'm afraid I can't speak adequately. Of those moments of darkness and horror. That the Lord Jesus experienced. When God our Saviour. Was dealing with the question of sin. In his own beloved son. The spotless and holy one. There it was. The work of redemption was accomplished. And then the good news went out. That God was a Saviour God. It's quite interesting to know. That in the epistle to Titus. Three times God is referred to. As a Saviour God. And our Lord Jesus Christ. Is referred to as Saviour. And in one place. He's not only referred to as Saviour. But as God. It's a glorious appearing. Of the great God and our Saviour. Jesus Christ. So there we find an assertion. Of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Saviour. He is God. And God is God our Saviour. Wonderful assertion. Of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. But again. Dear friends. Let us consider for one moment. What a wonderful thing it is to be saved. What a glorious thing it is to be saved. We might have been going on this evening. Without any thought. Of our soul salvation. We might have been going on. Carelessly. As millions are doing this evening. But God according to his eternal purpose. Had thoughts and designs for us. And in the time of responsibility. He appealed to us. He called us. By his glad tidings. That we might be brought to himself. That we might be stones in this building. In which he is dwelling. We form the house of God. His dwelling place. But God cannot dwell. Amongst corruption and evil. God dwells in the midst of holiness. And so the people. Who build, who make his house. The people who compose his house. Are persons who are cleansed. Pure. Their sins are gone. There is nothing obnoxious in them. But according to the work of Christ. They are all formed. According to his will and purpose. And in that company. God dwells. That is his place. And thank God for that. God doesn't dwell in temples. Made with hands. Says the new testament. He did in the tabernacle and temple systems. But then they all. They proved themselves ineffective. Not because there was anything wrong with them. But because of the people who were connected with them. The priesthood failed. The nation failed. And consequently the whole system failed. But now God. Is dwelling in the midst of people. Not in stones and lime. And that kind of thing. I am sure I don't need to say this. In a company like this. That the house of God today. Is not a building. A material building. The house of God is a spiritual building. God dwells in this building. Where spiritual sacrifices are offered up. By spiritual people. Priests. All believers. Priests. Not a select company. But those who are constituted priests. To respond to God in worship. And in praise. So you see the importance. Of understanding God. As a savior God. Because now we realize. That we are the persons. Who form the house of God. Where God dwells. And where he wants a correct behavior. For those who form his dwelling. What a wonderful thing it is then to realize. That such a great and glorious God. The one God. The living God. The creator God. Deigns to dwell with persons like ourselves. But you see he's not looking at us. In all our frailties. Or the way it is in all our weaknesses. He's looking at us. As we have been formed. According to his mind. Because of the death of Christ. And the work of the Holy Spirit. We must keep this in mind. Now we come to the last thing. God our father. Now that's the greatest. And cruelest. And deepest. And best. When God is our father. We possess not only for time. But throughout all eternity. In Ephesians chapter 1. We read about God. His eternal purpose. And this is that we might be. His sons by adoption. So that we can be for his pleasure. Throughout all eternity. This is the greatest. And most glorious blessing. That we can possess. We are the sons of God. Now to know God is our father. Is our father. Is a very wonderful thing. We might have to lose. Because of their faithfulness to God. So God says. Now you'll be my sons. And my daughters. Says the Lord God almighty. That is all my resource. Will be at your disposal. If you are faithful. And you are involved in loss. I'll look after you. The other nine occasions. We can understand this. Because it's a conflict. Between good and evil. And there's no doubt. About the outcome of that conflict. Almighty God will see to it. That every opposing power. Is put down. We might well tremble. As we look abroad today. And see the mighty powers of evil. That seem to be carrying everything. In front of them. And we might say well. And we say. When God. Puts forth his hand. Then all this. Will come to an end. There is one. Who in the power of his might. Will deal with all the evil. We read about this. In Revelation chapter 19. When the son of the Lord. Goes forth in conquering power. Upon the white horse. He puts down all evil. And deals with it. Nine times in the book of Revelation. We find Almighty God. Now we come to the name Father. How often is that mentioned? Over 260 times. In the New Testament. What does that convey to us? What should be most upon our lips? Almighty God. Or Father. What is the characteristic name of God. In the New Testament? Surely Father. And yet I think it would be right to say. That generally speaking. I'm not referring to those instructed in the truth. But generally speaking. God is referred to as the Almighty God. And yet the New Testament. Refers to him so often as the Father. 260 times more. So dear brethren. This is to show to us. How we have to think of God. As our Father. In a normal family. Children love their father. They have no fear of their father. They respect their father. They know that their father provides for them. But there is something more than that. They have the nature of their father. And there is a kinship there. An affinity that provides love and nearness. And happiness in the home. I'm speaking about normal families. Now when we think of this in connection. With the divine family. How much more this is. Oh what a wonderful God he is. An affinity yes. We have a new nature. We have a divine nature. And because we are sons. God has sent the spirit of his son. Into our hearts. And this enables us to speak to God. As Father. His sons. We refer to him as our Father. And we know the care he has for us. We know the love he has for us. We know the purpose that he has for us. We know the resources that he has for us. So you see. It's a wonderful thing to know God. As Father. But we only know it. Because we are in association with his beloved son. We couldn't understand God as Father. Apart from the son. We couldn't know God. Apart from the revelation. That has come out in the son. He has made known the Father. He has declared and revealed God. And so dear brethren. If we understand these things. And if we appropriate them. And if we appropriate them in any measure in our lives. It's going to help us tremendously. When we come to the practical details. That Paul presents in 1 Timothy. Because he has some very very solemn. And challenging things to say to us. But if we try and work up to God. By performing the responsibilities. We'll be at the wrong end. We first of all. Have to get some impression. Of the greatness of God. And of his love for us. And of his love for us. And of the greatness of God. And who he is. And what he is towards us. And once we know that in our souls. We are well on the way. To performing the things that he wants us to do. And surely. If we realize something. Of the blessedness of belonging to God. And that he is our Father. And also to know that he has. Infinite resources. For our blessing and help. Then we'll take courage. And find a challenge. Of these solemn injunctions. That God gives. Through his servant Paul. To Timothy and to us. So I trust dear brethren. That something has been said. And something that the Spirit will use. To impress upon us. The greatness of our God. Tomorrow night. I thought we might have a Bible reading. On the assembly. Because that's mentioned I think. In this epistle. And it might be that. We should have some proper idea in our minds. As to what the assembly is. Either universally or locally. And if we understand that too. We'll understand something. Of the wonderful blessing it is. To be called out of this world. To be for God. So tomorrow night. If the Lord will. We'll have a Bible reading on the assembly. As it's presented in this epistle. Thank you. …

… 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 God edifying which is in faith, so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity, or love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfaithful, 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. 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. Now chapter 4, and verse 7. Now chapter 6. Verse 13. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession, that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 17. That they may lay hold on eternal life. In these five portions that we've read together, I think you would notice that there were two words that came into each portion. Charge. Commandment. I think Mr. Darby has enjoining. And this is a very, very important matter as we consider the truth of the house of God. In a well-ordered house, there is discipline. In a well-ordered house, there is the direction of the head of the house. He wills what he wants in his own house. And of course, he has the right to determine what is to be done in his own house. And I believe that Paul, inspired apostle that he was, was directing Timothy to indicate to others what God wanted of them in his house. Now I understand that this word charge, or enjoin, means the command of a superior to an inferior, and the inferior to pass on the communication to others. If we can make it simple, the command of a captain in the army, commanding his sergeant to tell the private of some command that was to be done. Now this is what we find in Paul enjoining Timothy to tell the Christians what God wanted of them. And I feel, dear brethren, I've been feeling this for a long time in my own soul before God, that this perhaps lies at the very base of much of our failure and declension as Christians. Perhaps because we are living in the day of grace, that we've taken it for granted that certain things are optional. That they're not binding upon us. We can more or less choose what we want to do, and do it with impunity. Now I think this is a grave mistake. And if you take time to go through the Old Testament, the New Testament rather, you'll find again and again that there is presented to us commandments from God. The apostle enjoining the Christians, charging the Christians, and they all have the same meaning. Now if we search carefully, you'll find that there cannot be any possible doubt as to those commands. For instance, in one portion we find the centurion was charged to keep Paul and his companions safe until they reached Rome. You couldn't imagine for one moment that that centurion could say, well, I'll please myself. I'll do as I like. It doesn't really matter whether the prisoners get to Rome or not. I can please myself about this charge from my superior. It's unthinkable why the Roman discipline would have ordered the instant execution of anyone who disobeyed the orders of a superior. And this same word is used over and over again in relation to charge, commandment, enjoinings to the Christians. So I think you can see that if we fail to obey those commands, then it's going to seriously affect our Christian enjoyment and testimony. And this is what we want to speak about this evening. These five occasions when Paul enjoined Timothy, charged Timothy, to bring before the saints certain things. Now if we go back for a moment into the Old Testament, we'll find that when Moses built the tabernacle, again and again he was charged by God to make it according to the pattern shown to him in the mount. There was no possible opportunity given to Moses to please himself. God put before him a pattern, and the tabernacle had to be built just right according to that pattern. Moses couldn't say, well, I think this should be done in this way. I think it would be better if the tabernacle was built in another way. There was no opportunity for him to do this, because again and again throughout the instructions, we find this said, make it according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount. Now not only the building of the tabernacle, but all the functioning connected with the tabernacle was under the same command. And Nadab and Abihu, they did something that they ought not to have done, and they lost their lives. David gave orders for the act of the covenant to be taken on a new cart and brought to a certain place, and of course there was trouble. And David later on said, we sought him not after the Jew order. In other words, we didn't do it right. We didn't do it as God wanted us to do it. When we come to the temple, we find the same thing again. Commandments given by God for the building of the tabernacle and for its order. And when we come to the book of Ezekiel, when the future temple is described, we find that the order of priests after Zadok, they are given the charge of the house of God, the commands of the house of God. So you see that all through the Old Testament, God is insisting on a certain order being maintained, and no one has the right to infringe that. No one has the right to say, I can do it better, or I'll change it. Because what I've said in connection with Nadab and Abihu, and also with David, indicate to us that it doesn't matter who they are. Suppose they are priests or a king, if they disobey, they suffer the consequences. Now we are not under law. We are under grace. But that doesn't mean that we can please ourselves, not for one moment. Paul wrote to the Galatians and said, stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free. That doesn't mean that that gives us license to do what we think we ought to do. It doesn't give us the right to please ourselves. It means that the bondage of the law has been put away, and the liberty of Christianity is now ours in Christ. And we are not under a grievous bondage, we are in the liberty of the grace of God. And he's saying, don't, for one moment, go back to the bondage of the law. And again I say, dear brethren, that all through the New Testament, this is stressed again and again. Obedience, doing the commandments of the Lord. You remember when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, at the end of the epistle he says, Ye that are spiritual, ye that think yourselves to be prophets, acknowledge that what I have written to you is the commandment of the Lord. That letter was the Lord's commandment to the Corinthian Christians. Now dear brethren, we remember the Lord Jesus himself. He says, I keep my father's commandment, and I abide in his love. He was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Peter tells us that we are sanctified, set apart, to the sprinkling of the blood and the obedience of Jesus Christ. We are set apart to obey as he obeyed. Now I'm perfectly convinced in my own experience that much of my failure stems from this. That I fail to recognize that in the Christian life there is such a thing as Christian obedience. Christian commandments that have to be obeyed. We have no option in the matter. They have to be obeyed. God has written them for our direction and for our guidance, and if we don't obey them, we suffer spiritually. And no Christian can make progress who refuses to acknowledge that what God has written is right and binding upon him, and in the power that the Spirit supplies, do whatever God desires he should do. Again I say, this is one of the reasons, perhaps one of the main reasons, why the Christian testimony has declined in Britain, and if we date it to ourselves, individually, because of the lack of simple obedience to the work of God. Now Paul says to Timothy, I wanted you to go to Nephesis and to stay there. Because there were people who were teaching about fables and endless genealogies, which ministered questions rather than God edifying which is in faith. I've often thought about this verse because we know that the assembly at Ephesus was one that was greatly blessed by God. If you look carefully in the New Testament, you'll find how much it was upon the heart of the Apostle. Acts chapter 20, wonderful unfolding of the truth of God by the Apostle to the elders of that assembly, warning them of things that were to come. When he was in prison at Rome, he wrote a letter to them, we have it now, the epistle to the Ephesians. We have the Lord's address to Ephesus in Revelation chapter 2. So you can see Ephesus occupies a very important place in the Apostle's mind and also in the mind of the Lord. So there's a great deal of teaching for us in these various portions. But here we find the Apostle's concern about certain things that were going on in the Ephesian assembly. There were people who instead of ministering Christ, instead of ministering about God, instead of ministering the truth, they were talking about fables, they were talking about genealogies. And those things, instead of building up the saints, edifying them, they were only causing discussions, dissension. And all sorts of things were the result of this false teaching. Now Paul says, Timothy, you go there, charge them not to continue in this kind of teaching. And he goes on to say, now really what I'm getting at, this is why I'm commanding you, Timothy, this is what I have in mind, I want this. And he mentions it in verse 5, the end of the commandment on what is enjoying is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith and faith. Now whatever we might understand from these expressions, there's one thing that comes home to us clearly, and that is God wants us to be real. A pure heart, a good conscience, and faith and faith. Now the love that we express towards each other, towards God, towards Christ, towards the unconverted, is to be this kind of love. Out of a pure heart, and from a good conscience, and from unfeigned faith. Have we pure hearts? Well we would all look into our hearts, and we would remember what the Lord said, out of the heart proceeds, and he mentions a large list of sins, wicked things. And we might say yes, we can identify these things in our own hearts. But have we pure hearts? And we say yes, we have. On the authority of the word of God, every Christian has a pure heart. Don't think for one moment that when it says in 2 Timothy 2 that we call on the Lord out of a pure heart, that only belongs to a certain elite class of Christians who have advanced in spiritual condition and status, and so they can be recognised as calling on the Lord out of a pure heart. A pure heart belongs to every Christian. Because in Acts 15 it says, our hearts were purified by faith. Not by doing some particular service for the Lord, not by being extremely capable of expounding scriptures, however important these things are. Our hearts were purified by faith in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. And every Christian has a pure heart. And so every Christian has the capability to love in this way. In 1 Peter 1 it says that we are to love one another from a pure heart, fervently. Now I ask you, dear brethren, suppose we were to talk this evening about the best fables that were ever written. Some fables were extremely interesting, with a good moral connected with them. Aesop's fables, for instance. And suppose we were to consider tonight something about genealogies, the Hebrew genealogies, tracing our descent back to a certain point. One thing's sure, if we all trace our genealogy far enough, we all come to the same point ad hoc. That is, we all inherit a fallen nature. Now, suppose we were to engage in these things tonight. What would it mean? Would it build our souls up? I suppose after the meeting we would be engaged in all sorts of disputations about who was right and who was wrong. And it wouldn't build our souls up one bit. What, says Paul? Let us exercise ourselves to love out of a pure heart. This is the kind of thing that builds up. Not tearing each other to pieces, not looking for the faults in each other, not drawing attention to inconsistencies, although in another context that might be necessary. But love, love out of a pure heart. We have the capability to do this kind of thing. Then he says, and out of a good conscience. I think we ought to say something about conscience here. You know that Adam received a conscience, a knowledge of good and evil, after he sinned. He was innocent before that. There was no evil in him or in the garden that he could take account of. And all that he was conscious of was all that God had graciously given to him in his sovereignty. Wonderful place to be. Everything that was necessary for his well-being was there. But after he sinned, his eyes were opened and he realized he had done something that he ought not to have done. You see, back to where we were at the beginning. He disobeyed a command of God. And we know how he suffered. And we know how the world has suffered because of one man's disobedience. That's what Romans 5 says. Now, he received a conscience, a knowledge of good and evil. Now, if man, before God, after Adam, exercised that conscience according to the commands of God, then he knew what was right to do before God. If he ignored his conscience and ignored what God said, then his conscience became seared. That is, he became unconscious as to what is right or wrong. And unfortunately, this is the place that many of the people in the world are in today. They have no knowledge of what is right or wrong because their consciences have become seared. And sad to say, that's possible for a Christian. Now, a good conscience, I believe, is a conscience that is enlightened by the word of God. The word of God tells us what is right to do and what is wrong. And to avoid the wrong and to do the good. Now, Paul says we are to love out of a good conscience. It means that we look into our hearts and we examine the motive that governs us in our love. Not partiality. Not because we like some people and dislike others. Not because there are certain reasons that cause us to love some and perhaps not love others. But out of a good conscience that would teach us that we are to love one another. Dear brethren, listen to this, the words of the Lord Jesus. A new commandment I give you, that ye love one another. Now, that's a command and it's not optional. Now, you look into your heart and I can look into mine. And we can all ask ourselves, have we really obeyed this command of the Lord? A command that is binding upon us. It's so easy to become distant. It's so easy to shut up our bowels of compassion and affection towards each other and be governed by many, many things. Now, the Lord says, I command you, it's a new commandment, that ye love one another. Now, he says, you're my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Now, this is a very solemn thing for each one of us to take account of. Now, this kind of love, then, is to be from a good conscience, enlightened by the word of God and the power of the Spirit enabling us to put it into effect. Lastly, he says, love out of faith and faith. Now, this word, anthein, if you examine it in all its connections, simply means without hypocrisy. I understand that the word hypocrisy comes from the days when they acted certain plays in Greece and the way they spoke to each other was to convey certain ideas. It was obvious to the hearers that the persons who were speaking were not the persons they were representing, but by their words they sought to convey this idea. And sometimes they put a mask upon themselves to indicate the persons whom they were representing. And from this word comes this term hypocrisy. That is, by certain words and by certain actions, trying to represent something that we ought to be, yet inwardly we are. Now, that's a very solemn thing. Now, it's easy to do this. Easiest thing in the world to do this. By words, trying to convey a certain impression, and by actions, trying to convey a certain impression, and yet inwardly we are not really in keeping with the thing we try to represent. This is hypocrisy. This is what the word of God tells us is hypocrisy. Putting on a front, if you like. Trying to act being a Christian and yet not really being a Christian. And Paul says we are to love out of faith and fame without any hypocrisy. Now, dear brethren, just think for one moment of these things being in activity in any company of Christians. Love operating from a pure heart, love operating from a good conscience, and love operating through faith and fame without any vestige of hypocrisy attached to it. That's going to be a very powerful influence for building up and edifying amongst the people of God. And this is what Paul says to Timothy, I charge you, I enjoin you, put this before the saints as their obligation. Not an onerous obligation, because unlike the children of Israel, we have the power to do the things that they're enjoined. The children of Israel were commanded to keep the Ten Commandments and other laws too, but they had no power to keep them. They had a fallen nature, a corrupt nature. They were men and women in the flesh, and they were asked to do things that it was impossible to do because of the corruption that was in them. But thank God, we have a divine nature, and we have the Holy Spirit, and we have the Lord Jesus Christ in glory, and we have the Word of God, and we should all hang our heads in shame if we know that our spiritual condition is weak and failing. Because we have so much that the children of Israel hadn't. And yet it is right to say, I think, that we would all like to be better Christians than we are. So these things are enjoined upon the Ephesian believers. Now he says, From which some, having swerved, have turned aside, and to vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm. Oh dear brethren, how we want to avoid this kind of thing. In the declension of Christianity in this land, we have seen the introduction of cults and ideas that are contrary to Christianity, and I believe they come into this category. Teaching things that they don't really understand themselves. Unconscious that they are the tools of Satan. Because we are warned in the last days, there will be teachings of demons. Satanic influences operating. And of course, wherever Christianity declines, this kind of thing begins to grow. Wherever there's a powerful Christian testimony, these things are kept in abeyance. And so we want to avoid this kind of thing. Now we move on to chapter 4. And we find much the same thing. Refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto goodness. Now you might say, well, I don't read fables. I don't listen to old wives' tales or profane things. Well, we might have to examine ourselves if this is true or not. There is a great deal in the media today that is this kind of thing. Profane. Fables. Things that are the product of men's imaginations. Much of it is corrupt. There may be much that is intellectual. It may not just fall into the same category as that which is corrupt, but there's a great deal that's false and calculated to lead the heart of the saint away from Christ. Now, there are different forms of communication. We have newspapers. We have books. Radio. Television. And I want to ask my heart and ask your heart that if we give our attention to these things, newspapers, books, radio, television, how much of Christ do we find in these things? How much of Christ can we really say we find that builds up our souls? Does it not come within this category, profane? Does it not come within this category, fables? Things filling the mind that aren't truth, that don't edify. Things that hinder our appetite for spiritual things. Now says Paul, avoid these things. You'll find in verse 11 that he says, these things command and teach. This comes within the scope of Paul's commandment to Timothy and hence to us, to you, to me, to every Christian. A command to avoid anything and everything that does not promote Christ in our lives. We're not talking about legitimate things. A teacher at school very often has to read things that certainly doesn't promote Christ in his heart or in the pupil's hearts. But he has to teach it. He has to learn it. He has to give his time to it. Same with our daily calling. Many things that we have to give our attention to that we can't possibly say promote Christ. But then there are things in our own time when there's no need to occupy ourselves with them. We can give our time to these things and there'll be no profit whatsoever as to building up Christ in our souls. Now these are the things that Paul says we have to avoid. Now he says, bodily exercise profiteth little. I understand it should be a little. From the authorised we would get the impression that it doesn't really matter if you exercise your body. But it says bodily exercise profiteth a little. But, he says, godliness is profitable unto all things. Now I'm greatly indebted to two dear sisters who told me of their father. And they said their father was firmly of the belief that the best possible exercise for a Christian is a good long walk. And his reason for saying so was that there is so much in the Bible about walking in a good sense that he believed that this was the best exercise for a Christian because it leaves his mind clear and undistracted to be occupied with the things of the Lord and at the same time he's getting exercise. Now we all know that in much of the exercise that's connected with the sporting world this would be absolutely impossible. If you're occupied with the thrill of the game whether it be football, tennis or any other name you like to mention, if you're occupied with that your mind, your body is thoroughly engrossed in what you're engaged in. And I'm perfectly sure, I know from my own experience that you cannot be engaged with these things and enjoy communion with the Lord at the same time. But I believe what this old brother said that he believed that walking because it's so much enjoined in the scriptures you know, walked with God. Noah walked with God. And so often we are enjoined in the epistles to walk in the spirit and so on. I know that they are spiritual ideas but the emphasis is upon walking and so we get running too. But the idea behind it is that our minds are free while we are doing these things to be occupied with the Lord. Now bodily exercise does profit a little. We all know that. But occupation with many of the sports that are available for young people and other people too, do not cater for Godness. I think I can speak with some measure of I won't say authority, but experience in this. When I was a young lad, I dearly loved football. I was converted when I was 17 and I was playing for a football team. And I discovered that to play football and to be a Christian were two things that just didn't go together. And I wasn't very long converted before the Lord showed me that the best thing to do was to give up the football not because there was anything wrong with the game but the company that I was in and the associations that were involved in it made it something that was hindering rather than helping. And I thank God for being able to answer to what the Lord put upon my conscience. Now one is not seeing anything at all about school children who have to engage in activities at school which are perfectly legitimate. Even the school authorities recognize that some measure of exercise is necessary for the pupils. They are working hard with their minds and a little bit of exercise does them good. But for mature Christians to be occupied with sporting activities and clubs and associations can very often lead to things that are detrimental to their Christian life. So says Paul, here he says Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that thou is and of that which is to come. Now here is something that's well worthwhile because it's not only that you get the gain of godliness now but you're building up, shall I say, a reward in the time to come. As you live a godly life as you're faithful to God and you bring God into your life then you're getting the benefit of what this means. And dear brethren, there are many, many secondary benefits from being a Christian because we live sheltered lives and there's no need to be apologetic about it. People might say, well, you people you don't do this and you don't do the next thing and you don't care about other people. That's not true. We do care about other people. But we lead sheltered lives. We are hindered from many of the abuses that are abroad in the world and this is one of the secondary benefits, one says of being a Christian. The main thing is our association with Christ. The destiny that we have, we're going to be with him. And these are the main things. But all the other benefits. Leading a godly life means we're sheltered from sin and evil and corruption and these are wonderful things. I say that the Christian's power it goes much farther than the unconverted man's power. He always seems to be in difficulty but that's yet enough to keep him going. And yet the Christian, as he exercises himself in discipline he's not only able to provide for his own needs he has always something to give away to worthy causes, to help the Lord's interests. That's because he doesn't waste his money in things that the worldling does. And so there are many benefits from leading a godly life. Godliness profits not only from time but thank God for eternity. Now he says we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men especially of those that believe. I'm sure we all rejoice in the other statement that Paul made when he says it's a faithful saying and wordly of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We all hold on to that verse and we rejoice in it. But here's another one. It's wordly of all acceptation and it's a faithful saying that we both labor and suffer reproach and we trust and hope in our living God. These things, Paul says, command and teach. Now we move onward to chapter 6. Verse 13 I give thee charge in the sight of God quickeneth all things and before Christ Jesus who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession that thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now if Paul had said I, Paul, charge you to do certain things I suppose there are plenty of people who would have said that's only Paul. That's Paul who is saying that. And unfortunately there are Christians who use this kind of language. It's only Paul who is saying it. Now listen. I give thee charge in the sight of God. Now no man could say that unless he was inspired of God to say it. I didn't say that I'm telling you something that is of God if I'm not absolutely sure that it is of God. And the only way I can be sure of that is that I quote the word of God correctly and in its context according to its truth. I can then say with some measure of confidence I'm telling you what God wants you to do. But if it were something that I have no confirmation from Scripture for I would be extremely hesitant in saying to you this is what God wants you to do because I have no confirmation of it. But Paul says I give thee charge or I command you in the sight of God. If you turn over to the book of Kings, 1 Kings and you remember Solomon he uttered a prayer before God at the dedication of the temple. And he asked God he says now if we're in difficulty and we cry to you come to our aid because we need help and he mentions many many things. And he says give us your presence in this house. Afterwards God answered that prayer and he said to Solomon he says not only will I put my name there I'll hallow this house, that is I'll set it apart from the holy purposes that have to be done in it I'll hallow it but he says I'll put my name there and not only will I put my name there but my eyes shall be upon it continually and not only that but my heart my heart shall be there. But this that he mentions my eyes shall be there perpetually. Now this means that whatever was done in the temple that Solomon built was under the eye of God. He was watching what was being done, watching that it was according to his mind and his will. It was all in the sight of God. Now Paul says we too have a house, a spiritual house. God is dwelling in that house. Now he says Timothy I'm charging you in the sight of God. God's looking on. He's watching what is being done. He's watching your conduct. He's watching mine. He's watching the conduct of every Christian. Now here is a command. A command that is being laid upon each one of us and God is watching how we react to this command. Very solemn consideration that. I think our secret lives before God are the lives that test us. Our brethren don't see us. If we're before our brethren then we make sure we don't see anything or do anything that we would be ashamed of. We don't want to do it. I'm sure we don't want to do anything wrong. But it is possible we could put a front on before our brethren and before the world too. But our secret lives when no one sees us but God, in his sight, how do we react then? What are our motives? What do we do? Now says Paul I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things and before Christ Jesus. He's watching. Paul is charging us before the Lord Jesus Christ. Very solemn consideration this. This isn't something that we can afford to bypass and say well it doesn't affect me. Paul, inspired by God the Spirit is charging us before God and before Christ Jesus and what he's saying is that thou keep this commandment without spot unrebukeable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the commandment is extensive but Paul brings forward the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ before Pilate. Now he says there is our example. He stood before his enemy in dignity, in humility, in power and he was spotless in everything that he said and did as he stood before his accuser. Now he says Timothy this is what we want you to do, this is what the word of God enjoins upon you to do that you keep this commandment spotless and unrebukeable for a few days no he says until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ the Christian testimony is to continue in your hands in mine, in every Christian so that there is something that is for God right until the very end. And so dear friends Paul is saying to us as he said to Timothy there are commandments to be followed and they involve our full allegiance to the will of God and obedience to his commandments. Now lastly we don't want to say much about it here is another charge charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. I suppose in all ages there have been those who have been motivated by this desire to get rich and to be unscrupulous as to how we acquire it and Paul is saying now Timothy challenge the believers that this isn't the kind of activity that should govern them there are better things there are the riches that God can give of a spiritual character but if there are those who are rich tell them not to trust in those things. There is nothing wrong with riches it's the way they are used and so often they can be used to gratify oneself. Very very sad when we come to the Lord speaking to Laodicea this is the kind of thing that he brings before them. They are rich they are increased with goods they are in need of nothing in other words they are independent independent of man independent of God and sad it says they kicked they were blessed wonderfully before this but when they got into the land and they possessed all that God gave them they became independent their hearts were lifted up in pride and they forgot that God had blessed them and then came all the troubles so says Paul Timothy command the believers that they don't trust in material things but they put their unqualified trust in the God the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy now we are not going to say any more about that but I think enough has been said to show you that the commands of the New Testament and particularly in 1st Timothy that we are considering these commands are of an extremely challenging kind and to be profitable strong Christians of any kind whatsoever it is absolutely necessary that we pay attention to them and in the power of the spirit seek to obey them may it be so for his name's sake …

… We come again to 1 Timothy, 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 1, this is a true saying, if a man desires the goodness of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality and to teach. Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy or filthy looker, but patient, not a brawler, not covetousness, not covetous, one that ruleth well with his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be brave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy or filthy looker, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless. Even so must their wives be brave, not slanderous, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have used the office of a deacon, well, purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. Now, chapter 1, we'll read verse 19 and 20. Holding faith and a good conscience, which some, having put away concerning faith, have made shipwrecked, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they learn not to blaspheme. Now, in chapter 5, verse 19. Against an elder, receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others also may fear. I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality. Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Keep thyself pure. If we read in the Old Testament about God's dealings with his chosen people Israel, we find that he cared for them with a love and a care and concern that is very touching to read. He was deeply concerned that his people might receive the best and might be attended to and might acquire every blessing that was there for them. Now, while he could do this solemnly, yet he often used people so that they might be channels of blessing for his people. And when we come to the New Testament, we find exactly the same, that God deigns to use human vessels for the care and blessing and nurture of his beloved people. Now, I think it's very important to see this, that God cares for his people. Well, you might say that's very obvious. Well, if we really get it into our soul that God does care for his people, we understand something of the heart of God and we understand something too of our value to God. Because we as humans, we care for the things that are of value, things that we really like, things that we possess, that we don't want to lose, we still a great deal of care and attention upon them. Now, God has his people. He had them in the past, he has them now, and God has expressed his care, his love towards them because they are precious to him. Now, just you think of any company of people, just forget for the moment about Christians, and think of any company of people and say now, just live the way you want to live. Now, just let everybody do what they want to do, just let everybody please themselves. Well, it wouldn't be long before there would be utter chaos. There would be no cohesion, there would be no integrity, everything would just be haywire. Now, this kind of thing cannot exist in the Christian company because God is not the author of confusion. God is not the author of disorder. God wants to see order amongst his people, he wants to see them moving forward according to his mind and will, and so he provides those who are able to help in this respect. You remember Moses was caring for the people of Israel until his father Jethro gave him some very sound advice. Now he says if you carry on like this, he says, you'll never be able to attend to it, far too much for you, too many problems. He says you're judging all the difficulties of the people from morning till night and you'll wear yourself out and you won't be able to perform your great service to God. And so Moses, he chose evil men, men of truth, men who hated covetousness, men who feared God. You see they had excellent qualifications. And those men he appointed over Israel that they might attend to the various duties that were necessary. And so the burden was shared and all the problems were attended to. Now I believe this is what we find in the Christian church as we find it here in 1st Timothy and as we find a history of it in the Acts of the Apostles. One of the outstanding cases is in Acts chapter 6 where we remember the Christian widows and the Hebrew widows ought to have been the objects of care without partiality. But instead of that, the Hebrew widows were being attended to and the Grecian widows were being neglected. So they came to the Apostles and the Apostles said yes, this is something that is wrong, it has to be righted. And they said to the company in Jerusalem, search for seven men full of faith in the Holy Spirit, which they did. And those seven men they attended to the problem in hand and the widows were cared for and this matter of contention was healed. Now this is the kind of thing that we expect in the Christian company. Those who are addicted to the care of the people of God. And we find them mentioned in the New Testament as elders and we find them mentioned as deacons. We find other names, bishops, ministers, servants. And of course when we read the authorised version we say bishops, elders, servants, deacons. Why haven't we those people? Why haven't we bishops? Why haven't we elders? Why haven't we deacons? It's there in the Bible. Well of course we have to examine what these terms mean. And with the help of the Lord we want to say a little about it tonight. Now here in chapter 3 Paul says, it's a true saying, if a man desired the office of a bishop he desired a good work. Now first of all we want to draw attention to this word office in the authorised version. If you have Mr. Diver's translation with you at the moment, you'll find that he says if any man desires the work of an elder. Now that's a bit different. He dispenses with this word office and he uses the term work, the work of an elder. Now I'm not a Greek scholar, my brother Nigel isn't here tonight, he can correct me if I'm wrong if you tell him about it. But I understand that there isn't any word in the Greek language in this section that indicates an office. I think that's very important. Because amongst the saints of God today there isn't any such thing as an official. All the service and the work of God is spiritual. Now when we think of an official, we think of a man who has been appointed or is qualified to fill a certain position, a position of authority where he directs, where his word has to be obeyed and where he is some measure of prominence. Now this word does not obtain in the New Testament as far as I understand. Now if I'm wrong, please correct me after the meeting. But it's very important I think to observe this, that any service rendered amongst the people of God is spiritual. That is, it's done in the power of the spirit and in the humility of Christ. In all of the New Testament, apart from the apostles who are unique with authority and power, apart from them you'll find that the setting up of the Christian company and its functioning is that they're all together on the same platform of blessing but occupying different positions and all contributing to the spiritual well-being of the whole without anyone claiming any position of preeminence or importance. Now that's very, very important because the natural heart desires prominence, desires preeminence and loves authority so that it can direct and demand and enforce. Now this kind of thing we can say most definitely is out as far as the Christian company is concerned. And we're all to serve in the humility of Christ. If we have of course the spirit of diatrophies that you find in John's epistle, there we find a man who arrogates to himself a certain position of power and authority and what havoc he caused in that assembly, even casting out the apostles. What presumption. So from the very beginning we want to stress this, that the idea of a notice that someone is appointed to by vote or by appointment any other way is certainly not found in the New Testament and we hope to show this as we go along. Now we want to get to this term bishop because it's found in other portions of the scriptures. And you'll notice, or shall I tell you the passage, it's better to turn to Acts chapter 20. Turn to Acts chapter 20 and verse 17. And from my leaders he sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the church. Now note that he called the elders of the church. Now further down in verse 28. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers. Now note that word, overseers. He's addressing the Ephesian elders and then he says to them that the Holy Spirit has made them overseers. Now the importance of noticing this is that the Greek word that is translated overseers is exactly the same word that is translated bishop. Now the inference is obvious. That elders, bishops, overseers all designate the same person. Now they don't in the Ecclesiastical setup in what is called hierarchy in Christendom today. Bishops, deacons, elders. I shouldn't have brought in deacons. Bishops, overseers, elders are all the same persons doing the same kind of work in the scriptures. But they convey different ideas in Christendom at the present moment. Now come again to Titus chapter 1. Because we want to confirm what we are saying from scripture. Titus chapter 1 and verse 5. For this cause left thy thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. Now verse 7. Now he's talking about the same persons. For a bishop must be blameless. Now there again is the scriptural proof that bishops and elders are exactly the same person doing the same kind of work as far as the New Testament record is concerned. Now one other scripture in the fifth chapter of 1 Peter. 1 Peter chapter 5. And verse 1. The elders which are among you I exhort who are also an elder. That's verse 1. Now verse 2. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight. Now that's the verb of the noun overseer. Taking the oversight. So here again we find scriptural confirmation from what we are saying that the terms elder, bishop, overseer all denote the same person. I hope that that is clear. There are three scriptures that we refer to and they are all saying the same thing. Now we believe that the term elder is to indicate a person of spiritual maturity. We've already quoted in 1 Timothy that the person is not to be a novice. That doesn't necessarily mean he's not to be a young person. We could have a young person with maturity. We could have a young man who is married, who has a wife and family and be mature in the things of the Lord and would be perfectly entitled to do the work of an elder. But a novice suggests a newly converted person without experience without sufficient knowledge and not qualified to perform the service. So what we keep in our minds is that an elder is a mature person competent to help the saints of God. And of course when we read down these verses we find very very high qualifications are demanded of those who seek to care for the people of God. It's no light matter. A most responsible matter. And so those qualifications are of a most exacting kind so that those who have them are well equipped to care for the saints of God. Now the term overseer of course explains itself. If we have an overseer at work his responsibility is to see if the work flows, that those who are doing the jobs are doing them correctly and if they're making mistakes to correct them and to make sure that everything is done according to the master's desire. Now an overseer amongst the people of God is exactly the same. It's not a person who stands with a big stick and bullies the Christians into doing what is right. That's not the idea. He's looking over the saints of God tenderly, affectionately, with care and love at his heart. While he sees faults he's not putting himself on a pedestal and talking about those faults in a patronising manner and bringing home to the person the seriousness of their faults but doing nothing to correct them. That's not the idea of the overseer. He's caring with all the love and concern in his heart for the people of God and he tries to correct them and be a blessing to them. Now in I think it's the 34th chapter of Ezekiel we'll find that God has a very striking indictment against his shepherds. Now we have the term in the New Testament shepherds, leaders, sinners. People who are caring for the saints of God. Now we find that those shepherds of Israel they sadly fail in their care for the people of God. They cared for their own interests but the sheep that went astray they never sought them out. They never went after them to find them. The sheep that were wounded they never bound them up. The sheep that were hungry they never fed them. They didn't care for the sheep they only cared for their own interests. Now Paul in Acts 20 you remember he said to the elders shepherd or feed the flock of God which is amongst you. Now there's the responsibility of those who care for the saints of God. There are some farmers here who know far more about feeding sheep than I do but I know that there's much more to feeding sheep than getting a few bales of hay and putting them in the field and let the sheep do away with themselves. It's much more than feeding. There's care and attention required and he's a poor shepherd that thinks he's done his work if all that he does is give them a bale of hay. Now when we transfer this to work amongst the people of God we are confronted with the same problem. Not enough for me to stand up here for instance behind this table and tell you something about the Bible. Most important in its own place but that's not enough. Can I get sufficiently near to you so that I can understand and hear your problems and by the help of God try and correct them and give some feeling of love and care and concern and I think this is the true character of a shepherd. Indeed in Ephesians 4 you remember that one of the gifts that is given is the shepherd teacher, the pastor teacher. They're both combined and I believe the pastor is very akin to the elder, the shepherd, the leader. And he's not only saying what is to be done but he gets sufficiently near to the saints to wash their feet if you like and you have to be near the saints to wash their feet and to care for them and to be a blessing to them. Now notice again in 1 Peter chapter 5 when Peter wrote to the saints he said to them, they were elders, and he also says I am an elder. Now Peter, the one for whom they claim the title of being the first pope and the place of preeminence and greatness says I also am an elder. He didn't say I am the elder above all the elders. He said I am an elder among the elders, not one above many but one amongst many. And that devoted servant of the Lord he took his place amongst them just as a fellow elder and he exhorted them too to care for the flock of God. Notice, not their flock, the flock of God. And it's always the flock of God and that puts it in its proper place. The flock belongs to God and if it belongs to God it's entitled to the best possible care and attention and those who serve are doing so in a most honoured place. Now when we read down, I'm not going to go into all the details of the qualifications of an elder but I'm going to divide them up into three classes and I think if you read the portion you'll find that what I'm saying is true. First of all there is what he is personally. His personal standing and relationship and responsibility before God. Secondly there is what he is in his home. And thirdly there is what he is in relation to the saints if you like in the assembly. Now it might be that we aspire to some form of service in the assembly but if we have failed in person, if we have failed in our forms then we are disqualified from partaking in any definite spiritual service amongst the saints of God. It's absolutely necessary that we are right personally before we attempt to try and help others. And so dear friends, I would exhort you as I would exhort myself to be concerned about our own personal standing before the Lord before we embark on any service whatever it is for the interest of the Lord. And then the home circle, a very important place where Christ is honoured, where the rights of God are maintained and so if a man is right in himself and right in his home then he is ably qualified to help the people of God. And I think the inference is this, that if a man is right in himself and he is right in his home there is nobody who can come round and say to him, it's all right you talking but look at yourself or look at your home. You see if he is right in himself and he is right in his home and he is trying to help the saints of God nobody can come round and say to him you are not qualified to do this kind of thing. And so I think and I find what I am saying is true that in these three areas the elder has to be right personally in his home and in the assembly. Someone said, I think it was in the Bible reading, what about the appointment of elders? Well if we come to the New Testament we find there are three things that are mentioned in an elder having this place. First of all by apostolic choice. Now the apostles were in a unique place. They were the link between the Lord having gone on high and the commencement of the Christian testimony here upon earth. No man were so well qualified to present the truth of God as they were. For three and a half years they had accompanied the Lord, they had heard him ministering, they had seen the wonderful things that he did, they had seen him ascend back to glory and so they were ably qualified to represent him in all things pertaining to the church for the poderic. Now there isn't anything in the Bible to indicate that there is such a thing as apostolic succession. The Lord never spoke about it, the apostles never spoke about it and there is nothing in the New Testament to show that they handed on their authority to others and that what existed in them was to continue. We believe that apostolic authority died with the apostles and so we find that they, as they went about, they appointed elders in the assemblies that were formed and by the wisdom that was given to them of the Lord they appointed persons who were qualified to help in relation to the things of God. Now there are two other things, we mention one of them in Acts 20, it says the Holy Spirit hath appointed you as overseers, that's the first thing. And the second thing is, as we find here in chapter 3, if a man desired the work of an elder. Now there we have two things, the Holy Spirit choosing and a man desiring. Now I believe that these two things still exist. I believe that the choice of the Holy Spirit and the exercise of the individual coalesce and when you see a person with the qualities of an elder you can say there is a person who has been empowered by the Spirit to care amongst the saints of God and it is connected with his own personal desire. I believe that these two things exist today. What we don't find is anywhere in the New Testament that the members of the local company came together and had a vote and certain people were elected to serve as elders. There isn't any place in the New Testament that I can find where this kind of thing happens. In the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians, chapter 5, Paul said to them, know those who take the lead amongst you, know them. Now isn't it inconceivable that the Thessalonians should be directed to know them if they had already been appointed by vote. If the assembly had come together and had appointed elders by vote, everybody would have known these are the persons who are our elders, we have appointed them. But, says Paul to the Thessalonians, know them, observe them, discern them. They are there to see by the qualifications that they possess. So I think, dear brethren, we would say that any company that attempts to elect elders by vote are doing something that scripture doesn't want them to do. Now we come to another question, why do we not have elders? And it's wrong to say that we haven't elders. We have people who are concerned about the well-being of the saints of God. In private praying, in public praying, and by their attitude towards the people of God, they certainly indicate that they are elders. They have cared for the saints of God. We don't say brother so-and-so is elder so-and-so. We don't give him a title because we've already seen that there is no such thing as office amongst the saints of God. But we do have work, and that work, thank God, is being done. Now let us suppose for one moment that we did come together in this hall and say, well we want to appoint elders. On what ground do we come together? Well, we say we want to come together as the assembly of God in this place most of, on the ground of the one body, and we want to appoint elders that they might function here. Now if we understand the truth of the assembly, we would be appointing elders for the assembly in Lowestock, not simply for the company here. If we understood the truth of the assembly correctly, all right, suppose we appointed twelve persons to be elders here. Would they be recognised by any other Christian company in Lowestock? And of course you tell me the answer, no, they wouldn't be recognised. And if they appointed elders, would we recognise them? And the answer is no. So you see, because of the utter confusion and breakdown that exists in the assembly public today, we shouldn't attempt to appoint elders, but we should make sure that the work of an elder is being done. And I believe, dear Brethren, that while we refuse to appoint elders, and rightly so, it may be that we've sadly fallen down in attending to the work of the elders, in the care and attention being paid to the saints of God in whatever way they require. How often do Christians leave Christian companies and nobody makes any attempt to visit them, to see why they left, to enter into their problems, to get near enough to them to ascertain why they left? If we find persons are sick spiritually, do we get near enough then to apply healing ministry, the love of Christ? If we see them wandering away, if we see them ill, if we see them neglected, are we concerned enough for the interest of Christ to get near to them and care for them that they might be blessed? Now this is the kind of work that is absolutely essential, should be functioning in any local company of Christians. Now we come to this other person called a deacon. There are various words used for servant in the authorised version and there are various words in the Greek which are translated in various ways in the authorised. But this word deacon is one that is a very wide application. I was looking in one of Brother Elgin's Bible treasuries this morning and my eye happened to note just a little paragraph and it said, deacons attended to the money matters in the church and elders attended to the spiritual matters. Now that's an extremely elementary approach to the matter I can assure you, which I hope to show up in scripture. Now this term deacon is derived from a Greek word diakonos and as I've said already it's widely used in scripture to cover a variety of work. The common idea is that the deacon does the kind of work that's mentioned in Acts chapter 6. Widows required some attention, persons were appointed to care, hence their deacons. Now that's the common idea. I've written a few things down here and if you have a pen and pencil or if you can remember them, a tape recorder will, but if you can remember them it will give you some idea of the service. Now Luke chapter 10 and verse 14 refers to household duties. You'll find the word ministering. Acts 1 and 17 is apostolic service. Acts 6 and verse 1 what we've already referred to, the care of widows. Matthew 4 and 11, when the Lord Jesus was in the wilderness the angels came and ministered unto him. Deacon service. Matthew chapter 20 and verse 28, I think I can remember the scripture, it says the son of man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Deacon service. Think of the Lord being a deacon. The Lord just doling out money as it was required. Not in that verse. He came to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. Romans 15 and 8, I think I can remember the scripture, the Lord Jesus was made a minister of the circumcision. Deacon service. Acts chapter 6 and verse 4, you remember that the apostle says it's not right that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. We'll give ourselves over to prayer and the ministry of the word. Deacon service. Ephesians 4 and 12, the gifts are given for the work of the ministry. Again, the same word, deacon service. Then 1 Timothy 1 and 12, Paul was appointed to ministry. Paul was appointed to service. Was Paul appointed just to look after money matters amongst the people of God? Not at all. He was appointed to be the apostle to the Gentiles. Now here are two that may lift your eyebrows. Romans 13 and 4, a magistrate in the service that he does is doing deacon service. We think of the magistrates in the world today and no one would ever dream of saying that magistrate is a deacon, lest of course he held that post in some company of Christians. But as a deacon, as a magistrate rather, no one would ever dream of saying yes, he's a deacon. 2 Corinthians 11 and 15, Satan's agents transform themselves into ministers of life. Deacon service. Now you see, this word simply means a job of work that has to be done. Now whether it's the apostle to the Gentiles or the apostles attending to their apostolic duties in the ministry of the world or the Lord Jesus Christ himself in all his glory ministering, giving his life a ransom for many, the same word underlies them all and denotes what I've said already, it's work that has to be done and it's extremely varied in character. Now this is far removed from the general idea of a deacon. Now I'm indebted to another for this when I was informed by reading that when the Greek word doulos is used, it means a bond slave and that's the bond slave's work, it is in relation to his master. But when the word diatonis is used, it's a servant in relation to his work. Well, in all businesses there are servants who perform different duties. They can all be classified as servants to their master but they're all doing different varieties of work, different forms of work. They're all servants but they're doing different jobs and that's the idea behind a deacon. Note, dear brethren, thank God there is a variety of work to be found amongst the saints of God and we can't do everything. No one person can do everything. There's something for each one to do and if each one attempts to do a work as it's laid upon his and her heart, then thank God the burdens will be shared and there will be, shall we say, a community of work of a spiritual character that binds the saints together and makes sure that nothing is left undone. And if we see something to be done, then thank God we can attempt to do it not in our own power but in the grace of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Now I think I've said enough about these two things, the elders and the deacons, and I think I've said enough from scripture to show their true character in the world of God. Now I want to say a few words before we finish about the verses we read in chapter 1 about Hymenaeus and Alexander who were delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme and then the sin that is rebuked and also our personal responsibility. And what I'm referring to here is the discipline that is necessary amongst the saints of God to make sure that what belongs to God is maintained according to his mind and will. In the Old Testament there was no provision made for persons who sinned willfully. If persons sinned inadvertently, then God made provision for them. But willful, deliberate, premeditated sin, there was no provision made for it whatsoever. Now Paul is referring to something of this kind when he's speaking about two men, Hymenaeus and Alexander who blaspheme. Now this is an extremely serious sin. We're all subject to sin. We can go outside this hall this evening after listening to the word of God and we're in Satan's realm and we're all subject to succumb, we're all prone to succumb to some form of sin or other. That's a different thing altogether from following a course of sin, our habitual conduct day by day, premeditated, willful, deliberate sin. That's a different thing altogether. And the scriptures indicate this kind of thing and I believe these men, Alexander, Hymenaeus, were guilty of this kind of thing. They deliberately, willfully blasphemed God or the Lord Jesus Christ, something that was fundamental to the Christian faith. Now, says Paul, the discipline that belongs to the house of God demands that those persons be expelled or, if you like, excommunicated from the Christian company. Now in 1 Corinthians 5, when Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he spoke in exactly the same way about the man who was guilty of such abominable behaviour in Corinth. So much so that it was publicly spoken about. It was a crying shame that a man called a Christian should behave in such a way. And Paul says you'd rather not to be ashamed of yourselves that you haven't dealt with this thing. He says you're boasting about your gift and your knowledge and your ability and you haven't mourned that this shameful behaviour is still amongst you and a dishonour to the name of the Lord Jesus. Now he says put it out from among you. Expel it. And of course it meant that the man was excommunicated from the Christian company. Now we've got to make this clear. If a person is a member of the body of Christ, it doesn't matter how much he sins, he ought not to sin, but it doesn't matter how much he sins, he cannot be put out of the body. He's there forever. The scriptures indicate to us that God sets the members in the body and if God sets them there, they can never be taken out. But when it comes to the discipline of the house of God, there are privileges, there are responsibilities, and if a man or a woman does not live according to the principles of the house of God, then it is right that they should be expelled or excommunicated. They should be denied the privileges that belong to the house. Now this is the most extreme form of discipline that can be enacted amongst the saints of God. And ought not to be done until every effort has been made to bring the person to repentance and an acknowledgement of their sin. If a person acknowledges that they have sinned and are demonstrably repentant, then the forgiveness of the saints should be operated. But where there is self-will and a refusal to repent, there is no other course left to the people of God but to put the person out from among them. Now we come to chapter 5, verse 20. Some sin, not to be excommunicated, but something that shouldn't have been done. Now perhaps we have an instance of this where Peter, the apostle, was dissimulating with the Jews and the Gentiles. You remember the history of this is in the epistle to the Galatians. When Peter was with the Jews, then he lived like a Jew, and he observed their customs and their ways. And when he was with the Gentiles, then he was like the Gentiles. But the main direction seemed to be pleasing the Jews when with all the knowledge that he possessed, he ought to have indicated to them the law was finished forever as a means of blessing. Christianity had superseded the law and he ought to have known better. Now when Paul heard about this conduct, he went to Peter and he withstood him to the face. And he rebuked him because of this conduct. It was a form of action that was leading the saints astray. And even Barnabas, a very able man, he was being led astray by Peter's action. And I suppose that others were too. So Paul didn't speak about it, he didn't go round all the meetings and say, you know what Peter's doing? You know what Peter's saying? He didn't go about criticising Peter. He went straight to his face and in the presence of the brethren he rebuked him before all. Now that put an end to the matter. Peter was adjusted. It put an end to this dissimulating way. Now it says that the others might fear. Now if there is sufficient power amongst the saints of God to publicly rebuke persons who are not walking correctly, obviously it's going to have an effect upon others and say now we need to be careful what we say and what we do. The Lord wants us to do what is right and if we are going to do what is wrong we are going to be publicly rebuked for it. Now I believe this is a form of service to the Lord that requires a great deal of spiritual power. But there it is in the word of God and it is to be followed by those who are able to do it. Now lastly, it says in verse 22, neither be partaker of other men's sins. Now this is intensely individual. I wonder how do we become partaker of other men's sins? Suppose someone tells us an obscene story and we laugh. Is that not partaking of another man's sins? Instead of rebuking such talk, if we show that we have some interest and some sympathy with that kind of thing, if we are asked to do something that is underhand or shady and we say well I have no other choice and you partake of it perhaps reluctantly, you are still partaking of someone else's sins. They are the prime mover in it, you are involved in it and you become equally guilty. Now this matter of being guilty and yet not actually doing the thing is something that scripture teaches. No amount of argument or persuasion can help us to see why it is when we say Godspeed to a person who holds bad doctrine we become partaker of their evil deeds and that is what John says in his epistle. If a man comes to your door and he doesn't bring the doctrine of Christ, he says that Christ is not the Son, he says that Christ was not God, he denies the Bible, he denies the miracles, he denies the truth of Christianity and you say well come into my house, I'll give you a cup of tea, it's cold. Or when he goes away you say well God bless you, I hope you get on alright. Now that's equivalent to saying Godspeed to him. Now the Bible says that you become partaker of his evil deeds. Now again if we reason about it, if we argue about it, how far will we get on? The Bible says that by so doing we become partaker of his evil deeds. Now this indicates that a very high standard of self-discipline is required of each one of us, that we don't allow ourselves to be involved in anything whatsoever that is a dishonour to the Lord's name. We've spoken about the assembly discipline, we've spoken about a form of discipline that doesn't go as far as excommunication, but here is a form of self-discipline that we make sure we are not in any way laying our hands upon something that's wrong before the Lord and by so doing becoming contaminated by it. Indeed we have to remember even in a collective sense that if we allow some form of evil to be there, then we're all guilty because the Bible says a little leaven leavens the whole lump. And we might say well it's that person that's wrong and yet we might refuse to judge that person because of partiality, business connections, relatives. We might say well we can't do this kind of thing, if we lose that brother we might lose half the meeting. And there are all sorts of persuasions that come into the mind and we leave this matter and it's not judged and the Bible says a little leaven leavens the whole lump. In other words because that sin is there, known and unjudged, the whole company becomes guilty before God. So you can see here brethren that in connection with the holiness that becomes the house of God, a great deal is demanded of us to stand for what is right before God and make sure that the things of God are maintained in holiness and in purity. Now whatever else we may remember of the meeting tonight, there is one thing I would like to stress and that is if we are going to attempt to serve amongst the people of God, let us remember to do it in the grace of Christ. It's this that means so much. He showed us the way to serve, he watched the disciples speak, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death and any service that is done must be done in this spirit if it is going to be of any worth, of any benefit, of any profit to the saints of God. We all know how much we have benefited because the Lord Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death and if we can serve in that same spirit, then thank God others will get the benefit. May it be so, for his name's sake. …

… 1 Timothy Chapter 4 and Verse 1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every picture of God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. Now Verse 11 These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them. For in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. If you look at this chapter carefully, you'll find there are some very important words. We'll find mention of the faith, and the truth, and doctrine. And this is what we want to speak about tonight, very simply. Before we begin to speak about teaching, as is presented in this chapter, perhaps it may be necessary to say a few words in general about this great matter of teaching. First of all, man after the flesh lives in absolute ignorance of the things of God. You remember in Acts chapter 17, Paul says, The God whom ye ignorantly worship, him I declare unto you. Paul said to the brethren, I would not have you ignorant, brethren. And there are other scriptures that stress the same thing. That man after the flesh, and even Christians, who don't go in for the things of the Lord, it's possible for them to be in a state of ignorance. Now that's a very serious thing, because God desires that his creatures should be intelligent as to his mind, and should know his things, and should know about God, and should know about the Lord Jesus, and should know about the Holy Spirit, and many other things. Hence, we have divine teaching. Now, to know the things of the Lord, it's a waste of time to turn to the philosophies of men, because they don't know anything about it. It's in vain to turn to the religions of men, because they are in darkness as to God. So if we want to know anything about the things of God, there is only one source to which we can turn, and that is the Word of God. Enshrined in the Word of God is the knowledge of God himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and all the truths that are proper to this day in which we find ourselves. To neglect the Word of God means to be in a state of ignorance as to God's mind. Now, I think it's extremely important that we remember this at the very outset, that God the Father teaches, and God the Son teaches, and God the Holy Spirit teaches, and we just need to quote a few scriptures to prove it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 4, we're more accustomed to speak about the coming of the Lord in that chapter, but prior to Paul's teaching regarding the rapture, he says, and you yourselves are taught of God to love one another. Therefore, we can deduce from that that God teaches, and in this particular context, he taught them to love each other. Now, in the Gospels, there are many, many scriptures where the Lord is referred to as a teacher. I think you'll find in the authorized version, this word is translated master, but the real meaning behind it is teacher. Not always, because in Luke's Gospel, a particular word is used as master which doesn't mean teacher, but generally speaking, we find he is referred to as a teacher. Do you remember in John chapter 13, the Lord said to his disciples, ye call me teacher and Lord, or master and Lord, and he says you do well to do that. Now he says, if I, your Lord and teacher, he reverses the order, if I, your Lord and teacher, showed you these things, then you ought to do it, because I have set you an example. Now I think the inference is this, that unless we know something about vowing our wills to the Lord as Lord, we'll never really get the gain of his teaching. Absolutely essential to submit our wills to him. And if we do this, we'll make rapid progress in the knowledge of his things. Then of course we have the well-known chapter in 1 Corinthians 2, where we are told that the Holy Spirit teaches and teaches by particular words. That is, the inspired words of the Holy Spirit really convey the truth of God. Now, unfortunately, we haven't those original manuscripts existing today, but by careful study of all the ancient manuscripts that are available, those who are competent to do this thing have given us a very exact translation so that we can rely upon it with the utmost confidence that it is the word of God. I understand the percentage of error is extremely small, and we can have the utmost confidence that we have the word of God in our hands. And the Holy Spirit inspired those particular words to convey the truth of God. Beware of so-called paraphrasing of the word of God, because by so doing, much of the truth of God is really destroyed. Now, in order to get the full gain of what the Spirit has inspired, the full gain of the truth that the Spirit has inspired, we should make sure that we have a reliable translation in our hands. Now, much of the modern paraphrasing is really destroying the truth instead of making it plain and true to us. And then, of course, we have the Lord's words about the Holy Spirit. He shall teach you all things. Now, there at the outset, then, we have those scriptures referring to the Father teaching, the Son teaching, and the Spirit teaching. And dear brethren, who can teach as they can teach? Surely their teaching is perfect, and if we imbibe their teaching, we are going to be extremely well-equipped Christians, and we are going to have an abundance of truth in our souls. I think it's right to say that when we come to the Christian era, the responsibility of conveying that teaching rested, to begin with, uniquely upon the shoulders of the Twelve Disciples, the Apostles. Hence, we get at the beginning of the Church period, the new converts, they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine or the Apostles' teaching. And what was resident in them was what the Lord Jesus had made known to them when they were with him. He was the center of that fellowship. They were gathered around him, and he made known to them all that was in his heart. He kept nothing back. All that was essential for their health and blessing. Oh, what wonderful blessing they had. They were the depositories of wonderful truth received from the Lord Jesus himself. But then, as the truth spread, and of course it spread rapidly in those early days, the power of the Spirit there in the preaching of the gospel and in the ministry of the truth, it became perfectly apparent that the Twelve could not bear the burden of conveying the truth because so many were converted. And so we find the Holy Spirit gives gifts to the assemblies. And one of the gifts he gave was the gift of a teacher so that the assemblies were equipped with those who were able to teach the truth of God and build up the hearts and minds of the new converts. So there we have, I believe, simply, much more could be said, but I believe simply, we have the line of divine teaching. The source, divine persons themselves, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The human means conveyed to begin with, the Twelve Apostles. And then gifts given by the Spirit in all the assemblies that were formed by the wonderful work that took place at that time. Now we have the Lord Jesus with us today, neither have we the Twelve, but I believe we still have the teaching that comes from them as the source, and we have the teaching in the gift of the Holy Spirit, and all based upon this wonderful book. Now it's good to remember that in the Reformation period, the Reformers, they stood for three things. First of all, justification by faith to overthrow the errors of Rome in relation to salvation. Secondly, the right to question everything that was said. Because prior to this, they had been fed with error, and there was to be no question as to it. If the church taught it, it was right, and no one had the authority to question it. And so they contended that every man had a right to question what was said according to his conscience. And thirdly, and I believe the most important, they contended for the authority of the word of God in all matters pertaining to the faith. And that was a remarkable step forward. Now I think it would be right to say that if we read the history of the Reformation, we would say they went a good distance in destroying much of the errors of Rome that existed at that time, but they didn't go far enough in following the directions of the word of God and breaking down totally the ecclesiastical system as it existed at that time. Hence, there was a long, long period of adherence to many ecclesiastical errors before the Lord gave further proof that helped the saints to get clear of them. But so today, thank God, we have this book, and the Reformers contended for it as the sole authority for faith and for teaching. And any teaching that comes before the saints of God that cannot be found in this book ought to be refused very definitely. This is where we get the basis of our teaching. Now having set out in principle the, what shall I say, the progress of teaching from divine persons to ourselves today, we have also to say now, what have we to do? What have we to do in order to obtain this teaching? Because it's perfectly obvious to us how often we hear things and so seldom does it stick in our minds or affect our lives. We seem to be unable to appropriate it properly. And I think you will agree, after 50 years attending Bible readings and listening to addresses, we ought to be extremely good Christians. We ought to be extremely well-informed Christians. And yet, sad to say, it's not always so. That perhaps there is a lack of apprehension on our part for some reason. And I think there's three very definite reasons that we, or rather three definite exercises that we ought to follow in order to gain divine teaching. Now, the first thing I think is that we ought to very definitely be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, through the Gospels we'll find that the Lord taught his disciples. The beginning of Matthew 5 says the Lord went up to the top of the mount with his disciples with him and they sat down and he sat down and it says he opened his mouth and he taught them. Now, we read chapters 5, 6 and 7 and we find a concentrated form of teaching that covered a very, very wide scope of instruction. Now, these people were there not just as casual hearers. They were there as disciples. That is, they wanted to learn. It wasn't that they just happened to be there by chance. They were in the presence of the Master. They were his followers. He had chosen them and they in obedience were following him and now he was teaching them and they had to take time and I'm sure they were willing to take time to listen to what he had to say to them. And so, for that concentrated period he expounded to them the principles concerning the kingdom. And I'm sure this is absolutely essential for us today that we as disciples of the Lord listen to what the Lord has to say to us through his word, either by addresses or Bible readings or open ministry or in whatever way the word of God is presented to us. If we're casual about it, if we're careless about it, then we won't get the gain of the Lord's teaching. If we're earnest, if we consider ourselves disciples of the Lord, if we really exercise, to use that word, then we will make progress. The Lord Jesus, in the Gospel by John, he says, if any man desires to do his will, he's talking about the Father's will, if any man desires to do his will, he shall know of the doctrine. And I think the inference here again is perfectly obvious that if anyone really, really and truly desires to do the will of the Father, then immediately he's going to make progress in the knowledge of the truth concerning the Father. I'm sure this is true in many walks of life. Now this is the second thing. To really desire to do the will of the Lord, it won't be long before we make progress in the knowledge of that will. It's very akin to Romans 12. You remember there Paul says that we should deliver our bodies as a sacrifice to God. And then, after that, we prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God. The one follows the other. Now the third thing is faithfulness in our lives. You remember Abraham was an extremely faithful man. He followed God. He was obedient to God. And you remember God said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm going to do? My friend Abraham, I'll make known to him what I'm going to do. Now this is absolutely essential in the Christian life. Faithfulness, obedience to God, and then we very quickly make progress in the knowledge of his will. Now in secular things, a man can have an extremely acute mind. He can lead a debauched life. He can be a very evil man. But that doesn't hinder him in acquiring knowledge in a particular realm, some particular form of knowledge he wants to acquire. By applying himself assiduously to that, he can acquire it. And his life, his private life, doesn't matter one bit. But no Christian can make advance in the knowledge of the Lord if he's not living a life that's consistent. If he's living an evil life, a worldly life, and that's possible for a Christian, unfortunately, he'll never make progress in the knowledge of God's will. The Holy Spirit will not unfold such truth to a Christian of that kind. And we find this exemplified for us in the epistle to the Corinthians, where in spite of all that had been given to them by God, they were allowing evil in their midst. And Paul says, I would like to have fed you with strong meat, but I've got to speak to you as babes. You see, their spiritual life was stunted because they were entirely indifferent to what was due to God. So, dear brethren, I believe these three things, and there might be other things, I'm only suggesting these three, as being essential on our side for the apprehension of the truth of God. We go over them again briefly. Being disciples, not casual in our approach to it, but desirous of learning, because that's what a disciple means. Desirous of learning the mind of the Lord. And then, like Abraham, being faithful and receiving the knowledge of the Lord's mind. And then, the other one, I think we quoted second, was the question of being subject to the will of the Father, knowing the will of the Father, and doing it, and then the doctrine is made plain to us. Now we come to this chapter. I want to say a word about verse one. It says, The Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils or demons. I think we should say that this is one of the great truths in the house of God, that the Spirit speaks in the house of God, and speaks distinctly and emphatically so that all can hear and understand. You remember when God gave instructions to Moses to build the tabernacle, we read at the end of the book of Exodus that Moses did everything that was commanded of him by God. The glory of God filled the tabernacle. And then immediately at the beginning of the book of Leviticus, we hear God speaking from out of the tabernacle. God speaking out from his house and instructing his people how to approach him. Now this is very akin to that. God is in his house and he's speaking to us by his Spirit. And the Spirit is speaking expressly. Now what he's drawing attention to here is the latter times. I want to draw a distinction between the latter times of the Christian period and the latter times of Israel. In the Old Testament prophets, whenever we find the expression the latter days or the latter times, those are days of blessing. The old failures of Israel are dispelled with and they are brought into blessing and power and glory under their Messiah. The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former and many other scriptures. The latter days in relation to Israel refer to blessing. The latter days of the church refer to failure of the most grievous kind and is anticipated in the period prior to the coming of the Lord for his assembly. So here the Spirit is saying in the latter times there are those who shall leave the faith and they'll pay attention to the doctrines of devils, the doctrines of demons and seducing spirits. Now that's very serious dear brethren. That there is a form of teaching in this world today that is energized by Satan himself. It's not yet the time after the church is gone that we read about in Revelation. This is when the church is still here but it's at one of the darkest periods of the church when so much has gone astray. And we have to face this because we are living in the latter times, the latter days. They are here now. What the Spirit of God prophesied is now upon us. And there are teachings abroad which are of Satan himself and they are the doctrines of demons. That's a very, very serious thing to consider. Now there are many warnings against bad doctrines in the Bible. The Lord Jesus warned his disciples against the doctrine of the Pharisees and the doctrine of the Sadducees. Now the doctrine of the Pharisees was hypocrisy and the doctrine of the Sadducees was infidelity. They were the modern intellectuals who dispelled portions of the Bible saying that they can't be relied upon. They are myths, they are legends. We'll cut out the miracles and these things that reason cannot accept. These are the modern Sadducees. They are preachers of infidelity. They don't adhere to the Word of God. You remember the Sadducees? They didn't believe in spirits and they didn't believe in the resurrection. And the Pharisees were guilty of the utmost hypocrisy. So there are teachings which promote this kind of thing in the lives of people. Denial of the truth of God. A form of pride and arrogance and presumption that is contrary to the teaching of our Lord Jesus. We find in the book of Revelation the teaching of Balaam who led the people of God astray. His particular form of evil was greed in relation to the things of God. You remember the king hired him and hired him through giving him gifts to curse the people of God in total opposition to the revealed mind of God. Then there is the doctrine of the Nicoletans. I understand that there the word means the will of the people. And we find much of that today. The democratic spirit that jacks as good as his master. And people can club together and form opinions and then this is more important than the declared word of God. Now all these things are extremely serious. In the fourth chapter of Ephesians we read about Paul warning the saints that they should be built up in their souls with the truth of God so that they might be able to stand and not be blown about by the devil's wind of doctrine. And the kind of doctrine which he says is systematized error with a view to leading the saints of God astray. We might think as we sit in our meetings well we aren't in any danger of that kind of thing. Thank God we have the truth. All this kind of thing is circulating about us day by day. And it creeps into Christian periodicals. It creeps into the preaching of people. The doctrines of devils. And behind it is Satan's endeavor to lead the saints of God away from the truth. Now to counteract this kind of thing we read in verse 6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things thou shalt be a good minister and by the way that word minister is what we were speaking about the other night deacon, so it's the brethren. Thou shalt be a good deacon of Jesus Christ. Now it doesn't go on to say Timothy would be given some job in the house of God as men think of it. It says you'll be nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou hast attained. Now look at the words. Nourished up in the words of the faith I think it should be. Nourished up in the words of the faith and of good doctrine. I think four times in the New Testament we get the expression sound doctrine and that word sound has a connotation which means strong, physically strong in contrast to weakness and sickness, physical weakness. Now here is something that is really worthwhile sound doctrine that is it can stand the test and if people invite it and take it into their souls they are nourished up and they are able to withstand all this kind of thing that we've been speaking about the doctrines of demons. Now this is what Timothy was to do. He was to be nourished up in the words of the faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou hast attained. You see words. In 2nd Epistle Paul says to Timothy have an outline of sound words. Have it in your mind. Have it in your mind. You have a grasp of the thing. You have in your mind an outline of God's operations from glory to glory. Perhaps you don't understand all the details. Who does? There is much that we don't know but at least we have an outline in our minds how the church was formed because of the death and resurrection of Christ and his ascension and the descent of the Spirit. We know something of the Spirit's activities on earth, in the assembly and in individuals. We have some ideas through the course of things. We have an outline in our minds. Now it says Paul to Timothy have this outline and you see if you have that well it's a great barrier to prevent it from coming into your mind of erroneous thoughts and you're going to be able to withstand and you'll be nourished. A constitution that is able to stand against these evil things that Satan has presented. Now if we turn over to the second portion which I particularly want to draw your attention to from verse 11 to verse 16 there are many things that are mentioned. First of all he says these things command and teach. Now I think that expression goes over a little of the ground that we were speaking about one other evening when we spoke about the commands of the Lord. Now what Paul is saying is this teaching is not an optional kind of thing, not a thing that we can say well it doesn't matter very much. Paul says command and teach. There's authority in this teaching. Now we've got to be very careful here. The Church of Rome through the Pope makes what is called ex cathedra statements. When he does this he's speaking as the infallible mouthpiece of the Lord or so he claims to be. Now these things are binding upon all loyal Roman Catholics. Whether they like it or not, this is a command it's the Church that makes the command through the Pope. The Church teaches these things and they are binding. Now the Word of God nowhere presents any kind of thing like this connected with the Church of God upon earth. The Church does not teach. There is teaching within the sphere of the Church but the Church itself doesn't teach. The Father teaches, the Son teaches, the Spirit teaches and they teach through the Word of God. And if any man, doesn't matter who he is, says anything that is contrary to the Word of God then he's teaching error. And so we judge everything that is said by the Word of God. Now some time ago amongst certain Christians a pamphlet was published and it was called The Authority of the Ministry. Now this in itself was on the road to Rome because it meant that certain people who were ministering certain things had to be obeyed. There was no question as to whether this ministry was to be judged by the Word of God. There was authority in the ministry and one would say yes there is authority in the ministry when it is according to the Word of God. By all means yes, let's hold on to that. But no man, no matter how spiritual or how gifted he is can stand before the saints of God and claim that his ministry is divinely inspired. Because even in the best of men it's possible for error to be spoken. And so it's always wise for those who are listening to turn up their Bibles and make sure that what is being said is according to the Word of God. Never adopt a certain thing in your mind by saying well if brother so and so says it, it must be right. It's not a question of what brother so and so says, it's a question of what the Word of God says. And so you turn up to the Word of God and make sure definitely in your own mind that what is presented is true. Now when Paul said to Timothy, command and teach, there was no doubt in his mind but that Timothy would speak the Word of God and that that Word was binding upon those who heard it. And of course when Paul too spoke he spoke inspired by the Holy Spirit and there was no hesitation in accepting his words. Now in verse 12 he says to Timothy, let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word, in manner of life, that's the meaning of conversation, in word, in manner of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Now here we find a very great challenge. First of all Paul says to Timothy that he was to command and teach. Now he says to Timothy, you make sure that your life is in consistency with what you're preaching. And that's a very great challenge to any brother who seeks to instruct the saints of God. It's very important at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles to read about the things which Jesus began to do and to teach. Now that's always the order. In the Old Testament we read of a man called Ezra who set his heart to learn the law of the Lord and to do it and then to teach in Israel statutes and judgments. There's the order. Learn, do, and teach. And here we find Paul saying to Timothy, now be a model of the believers. Don't just be a teacher. Let your life be such an example that they will not despise the teaching nor despise the vessel who gave the teaching. In Acts chapter 20 Paul went over all the wonderful things that he presented to the saints. The counsel of God, the kingdom of God, the gospel of the grace of God, all the wonderful things that he unfolded to them. Then he says, I have showed you. And I understand that that phrase means, I have showed you by example. No one could turn around and say to Paul, Paul, you're a very fine preacher, you're a very fine expounder, but you set us a bad example. No one could say that about Paul. He not only taught the truth, he lived the truth. And that's a very, very great challenge to every Christian. Not only to talk about it, but to live it. And so Paul says to Timothy, be an example in the way you speak. Be an example in your manner of life. That people look at you and they don't see any disparity between what you say and what you do. And then he says, be an example in love. Be an example in spirit, in faith, in purity. You see, we're coming back to what Paul says to Timothy, how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. This is true behavior for all those who form the house of God. Not only speaking about divine truths, but putting them into expression in what we say and what we do. Now, in verse 13, he says, till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Now, I know that this verse is often used, especially in relation to young people, to exhort them to read the Bibles, and to exhort them to read ministry. And of course, it's an excellent application. But it's not the true one. Because when the Christians were there at the beginning of the Christian period, they hadn't Bibles as we had. They hadn't the ministry that we had. And also, many of the Christians couldn't read. Most of them were drawn from the ranks of bond slaves. And were illiterate people. Now, says Paul, if my letters are sent to you, you stand up in the midst of those people and read them. Make sure that those people get to know something about my mind. Now, thank God, we are not an illiterate community. There's a great deal of good, solid learning in this land. And thank God for it. And we don't need this kind of thing in our meetings, where a person has to stand up and read the Bible, or read portions of the Bible, because people can't read themselves. But I do think that it is a good service where perhaps people are blind. Where perhaps people are grown so feeble that they can't perhaps read for themselves. And it would be a good exercise to say, well, old sister so-and-so, or old brother so-and-so, they don't get out to the meetings now. Well, we'll go along and we'll read them a portion of the Word, and we'll seek grace and guidance from the Lord that it might be for their encouragement. So that might be an application of it for our paths today. And it certainly would be a good service. I can remember one old brother who was quite blind. He had every contrivance to help him to see, but none of them were good enough. And I used to go along and read a portion of the Word, and he never got enough. And he was always wanting some more. But it was a joy to him just to have someone go along. There were many others who did, apart from myself. But this was something he loved. Just someone to read the Scriptures to him, and to speak about them, to have a word of prayer, and although he couldn't get out to the meetings, what a joy it was to his spirit. Now, here again, then, is something we could be concerned about, and we might be able to fill a little niche for someone's blessing. He says, give attendance due to exhortation. While there is the realm of teaching, in laying bare, or laying a good foundation in the hearts of the people by expounding the Word to them, such a thing as stirring them up. A stirring word that causes them to be more concerned than they were, and to be more anxious and diligent to acquire the things of the Lord, and to enjoy them. Then, he says, to doctrine. It's a sad thing when you hear people saying, oh, don't give us doctrine. Give us something practical. And there's so much about doctrine in the Word of God, it's scarcely understandable how people can speak in this way. The Lord spoke about doctrine. All through the New Testament, we find it mentioned again and again. It simply means teaching. That's the true meaning of the word, teaching. Now, it's absolutely essential that we be properly taught. That's true in secular things, isn't it? Just think for a moment, if all the schools in the country closed, if all the technical schools closed, all the colleges closed, and there was no learning of any kind whatsoever, I suppose with what we have at the moment, we could go along for a long time. But then children are born, and there are no schools for them to be sent. And gradually, the level of education sinks, and in our foreseeable future, we could see a time when nobody would know anything at all that was worthwhile. It would all die out, and we would go back to the Dark Ages, would we not? So in secular matters, it's absolutely essential that teaching is maintained in all walks of life. And hope how much more in connection with the divine realm. You see, the cause of the Dark Ages, as far as the Church was concerned, was because teaching was neglected. Philosophy, man's imagination, superstition, tradition, all these things were taught diligently, but the truth of God wasn't. Hence, the condition of the saints sank and sank and sank, until there was very little for God. Neglect through teaching, and spiritual condition and exercise sadly declines. So it says, Paul to Timothy, you give attention to doctrine, to teaching. Now he says in verse 14, neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Now our good friends in the Presbyterian Church in Scotland would tell us that this is the verse that they depend upon for the ordination of their clergymen, the laying on of hands of the presbytery. That the elders, they are the people who can lay their hands on the chief elder, who is the minister, and this is their form of government by the presbytery, or by the elders. Now, we believe that Timothy was called of God, was chosen by God, and prophecy was made in relation to him. He had a faithful grandmother, he had a faithful mother, and there were prophecies in relation to this young man, and then those who laid their hands upon him were not ordaining him, or choosing him, or calling him, or qualifying him to be a preacher or to be a servant, they were identifying themselves with him and saying, yes, this man is obviously called of God and we lay our hands upon him and identify ourselves with him. You remember the same thing happened in Acts chapter 13 when Barnabas and Saul were called by the Holy Spirit, and then the persons in the church they laid their hands upon them and said, yes, we identify ourselves with your service, and they were sent out, not by them, by the Spirit, and there was this happy communion in relation to the service. So this was true of Timothy. He had a good start, the brethren had identified themselves with him, in relation to him, but there was just the danger that he himself was neglecting this gift that he had, and that's always true of every one of us as Christians to allow neglect, carelessness. It's not so much neglecting the gospel, it's neglecting the calling that we are in. We are inside, we belong to the house of God, we have the opportunities, and yet we can be so careless that we neglect this wonderful opportunity to serve God. Now neglect can be a very serious thing. Neglect can be a serious thing in every walk of life. I remember one young man in our hometown who was quite a brilliant young man. His parents weren't wealthy, but they gave him the opportunity to go to college, to obtain a degree. Well, for a little while, he pursued his studies with diligence, and then he began to be found in the billiard room, and playing cards, wasting his time. Well, it wasn't very long before his studies slipped behind, and eventually he had to give up. He didn't pass his exams, his parents couldn't afford to keep him at college any longer, and then he had to take a labouring job. Now he neglected his opportunity. How many Christians have neglected their opportunities? Brought up in Christian homes, brought up, perhaps, in a good company of believers. Every conceivable opportunity there is for them to make progress in the things of the Lord, and they've neglected their opportunity. They haven't applied themselves with diligence to the things of the Lord, and as time goes on, it becomes more and more apparent that they aren't growing. They're not making progress because they've neglected the things of the Lord. The book of Proverbs is a very interesting book to read, and very often the writer draws attention to the slugger, and it says many things about him. One of the things it says is the slugger desires and has nothing. Not enough to have right desires. The next part of the verse says but the soul of the diligent shall be made fine. There's just no short road to the acquiring of divine things. There must be diligence, constant diligence to the things of the Lord in prayer and in study before the Lord. Now, I know that in this modern age, time is one of the things that we find at a premium. Long working hours, many calls upon our attention, studying in various ways. There was a little book written once by a dear woman, and the title of it was Little is much if God is in it. And I believe that's a great encouragement to give the small portion of time that we really have, and give that to the Lord, and you'll find he'll make it up. He'll make it work, and he'll make you advance. Now, if this is the great problem, the real desirable part of that there, then you can be sure the Lord will support and help in a very distinctive way. But in Proverbs we find when we pass by the garden of the slugger, it's all but grown with weeds, the walls are broken down, nothing attractive about it, simply because he neglected what he ought to have been paying attention to. It's very sad if at the end of our lives it has to be said of us that we're like the slugger. We haven't applied ourselves to the things belonging to our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I see the time is about gone. Verse 15 says, meditate upon these things, or occupy yourself with these things. Give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. We're just going over the same ground again, that if you occupy yourself in these things, very soon it will become apparent that you're growing, you're making progress. It will be evident to all. Now lastly, verse 16 take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine or unto the teaching continue in them for in doing this thou shalt save thyself and them that hear thee. Why is it we have so little influence with people when we speak to them? Our words seem to have no power. Well, here Paul tells us the secret. He says, pay attention to yourself first. And if you do that, and then apply the teaching, you'll find that there's gain for yourself and there will be gain for other people. In the epistle to the Romans, and I can tell you dear brethren this verse is often a challenge to me. Epistle to the Romans at the beginning, Paul says thou that teachest another dost thou teach thyself? Now that's a great challenge. Do we read our Bibles simply to get substance for a lecture or for the Bible readings or for gospel addresses or do we read the Bible to build up our own souls food for our souls bringing its challenge to us so that our lives might be governed by it. Because if we do this, if we are nourished up as Timothy was exhorted to be, then we're going to be strong, not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of others. So I think dear brethren we've said enough about divine teaching as it comes from divine persons themselves in all its greatness and glory and I think there are a few things that should be said here that that teaching makes us knowledgeable as to themselves and that's the greatest truth of Scripture the knowledge of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And it also makes us knowledgeable as to the church, its various aspects how it functions here in responsibility and privilege and it makes us knowledgeable as to ourselves it makes us knowledgeable as to the future with Israel and the nations and so we have a comprehensive view of the mind of God if we apply ourselves to that and obtain it and it will be a blessing to us So may these few thoughts be a help to us all and encourage us all in these difficult days to make sure that our hearts and minds are built up so that there will be no entering into our thoughts and hearts of the doctrines of demons. They're all around us dear brethren and we need to be aware and we need to be strong to withstand them and may God give us the grace to apply ourselves more diligently to the knowledge and understanding of these precious things. …

… 2 Timothy, Chapter 1, Verse 1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. To Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, of whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day, greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy. When I call to remembrance the unfading faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice, and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved us and called us with unholy faith, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. For unto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles, for the which cause I also suffer these things. Nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelt in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia will be turned away from me of whom have I jealous and homogenized. The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus, for he ought to refresh me, and was not ashamed of my shame. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy on the Lord in that day, and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well. Now lastly, chapter 4. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. We have been privileged to look at the first epistle to Timothy, and we have seen a little, I think, of the truth of the house of God, some of its blessings, some of its privileges, some of its responsibilities. Now not for this last address, we might say a few words about the second epistle. We have often been taught, and rightly so, that the first epistle takes account of the church when there was order, when there was blessing, and when there was no division or great failure attached to it. But in the intervening period between the writing of the first letter and the second letter, a great deal of declension had come in amongst the people of God. And now the beloved apostle is not free to carry on his service as the Lord guided him, he's a prisoner in Rome. He's not a free agent, although he's under the hand of the Lord still. And from Rome, a prisoner, he writes this letter to Timothy to encourage him to continue in the path of faith and obedience. I don't think that we fully realize just how much the apostle was under pressure at this time. You think of this devoted servant of the Lord, and for years he had gone about Asia preaching the word of God, what we call Asia Minor, preaching the word of the Lord. Souls were blessed, assemblies were formed, and everything seemed to be successful and thriving. And then the apostle is arrested and he is sent to Rome, and there shortly he's to be on trial for his life. But he's writing from Rome to encourage a young man who showed such great promise. And yet, apparently, he was on the point of being turned aside because of the circumstances of the day. And I think it's a great chapter to us all, that when things are going well, souls are being blessed, there's great interest in the meetings, great interest in the truth, and everything is flourishing, and it's so easy to go along in such conditions. But when the trials and difficulties and oppositions and problems come along, and it's not a popular thing to be a Christian, indeed involves a great deal of danger, then things aren't so easy. And it would seem from what Paul wrote to Timothy in this first chapter, the element of fear, perhaps of cowardice, had entered into Timothy's mind and spirit, and he wasn't so bright as he ought to have been. And so this father in the Lord, because it's obvious this is what Paul was, he addresses Timothy as his beloved child or his beloved son, and he's seeking to encourage him to continue in spite of the difficulties that prevail. I believe, dear brethren, this is a word that we all require, because it is, because of some reason or another, so easy to feel, well, others can go on and carry on the work, it doesn't really matter if I go on, others will do it, and it won't be noticed if I fall out of the ranks. Now that's a fatalistic view, a defeated view, and we don't want to have that in our mind in any shape or form. We want to be encouraged to go on, and if Satan puts anything in our pathway, to overcome it, and to make sure we allow nothing to deviate us from the pathway of faith and obedience to the Lord. In recent years we have seen many Christians giving up. Giving up because their well-ordered system came to pieces. And one is faced with this conviction that many of them felt, well, this is all that existed in Christianity, and when that failed, there was nothing else worth going on with. That's a terrible point of view. Now, it doesn't matter what happens, we are always Christians. We are responsible to the Lord, directly to Him, and suppose every other Christian gave up, we individually are responsible to go on, because we belong to the Lord, and our responsibility is to Him. I feel it's a very, very bad indication, a very poor indication of one's devotedness, or of one's faithfulness, if we assume because conditions have gone bad, we must give up. And yet, apparently, this is what was happening with Timothy. Now, I feel in this chapter there's a tremendous amount of encouragement for us. And I think it's great to see the Apostle Paul taking account of what has happened. He says, look, all those in Asia have forsaken me. All that he had labored for, all that he involved himself in, seemed to have come to an end. They had all forsaken him. Here he was in prison, and yet he's so happy in his soul, and he's presenting positive truths for the encouragement of his child Timothy. And I think we can well take account of this, each one of us, tonight, to our own hearts and consciences, that this is what the Lord desires of us. And perhaps, very similar circumstances, because there's a great deal of opposition to the truth of God, there's a great deal of attraction in the world, and to draw us away, and unfortunately we know in our hearts and minds, there are many things that are contrary to the truth. Because we have a nature that would follow all that's evil and corrupt, and all that's an abomination to God. Thank God we also have a nature that thrives and enjoys the precious things, thrives in the precious things of God, and enjoys them too. Now this is what we want to concentrate on. What is positive? What is encouraging? What is helpful in these last closing days? I suppose when you were going through the second book of Timothy, the second epistle to Timothy, you would notice, I'm sure you did, because it's often spoken about, that seven times the Apostle Paul draws attention to the things that are in Christ Jesus. Seven times he mentions this in this short letter. Now this is as much as to say now, suppose everything goes by the board down here in this world, suppose everything fails that is in the hands of men in responsibility, everything is secure in the man who is at God's right hand. Now that is a very encouraging thing. Because you see, what Paul is presenting to Timothy is very closely related to what he had taught the Ephesians. That there was a man in glory, the saints were united to him, and all God's purpose is centered in him. So again and again he comes back to this point, the things that are in Christ Jesus. Three times in this chapter he mentions them. But before we speak about that, we want to show how Paul spoke to Timothy in an encouraging way. He mentions him as his dearly beloved son in verse 2, and then at the end of verse 5 he says, I am persuaded that there is in you also unfamed faith, just like your mother and your grandmother. Now sometimes, unfortunately, we may be subjected to a form of ministry that tells us all about our faults. And that's not a very happy form of ministry, because I'm sure we all feel in some way or another that there are many faults attaching to us. But if someone tells us that there is something in us that is pleasing to God, then at least we're going on something positive. And from that standpoint, we can move on a little further. And there's nothing more demoralizing than to be told, well, you're a failure, you don't do this, you don't do the next thing, and all that kind of ministry, that's extremely demoralizing. But Paul, as was his wont, he sought to encourage the saints. Look at the epistle to the Corinthians. There were many, many things amongst them that were a positive disgrace. And yet again and again Paul says, my beloved brethren, my beloved brethren, ye are the temple of God, ye are the body of Christ, ye are this and ye are that, referring to what God had made them and to what God has done in them. And I think this is the same. Paul's saying to Timothy, you're my dearly beloved son. There's a bond between us that's divine and it can't be broken. This is something positive. No matter how far you may go astray, no matter how much you may fail, you are a child in faith. And then he says, I'm persuaded that there's faith in you that's real, it's unfeigned, there's no hypocrisy attached to it, it's something that you have through faith in Christ and it's the same kind of faith that your grandmother and your mother had. Now I feel these are very encouraging things for Paul to say to young Timothy and calculated to encourage him. Dear brethren, let's encourage each other and try and see the best in each other. There may be things that we have to draw attention to and let us do it in love and in faithfulness in such a way that recovery or adjustment is done for the Lord's glory. And I feel again I say this is what Paul is doing, seeking to encourage before he goes on to draw attention to things that Timothy should adjust. Now he says, another thing I ought to speak about is Paul's remembrance of Timothy in his prayers for Timothy. Think of this man in prison. He might very well have been thinking of his difficulties, his trials, his privations and saying to Timothy, Timothy, please pray for me. Please help me. I'm in difficulties. Terrible conditions. I'm living in here. And he might have been entitled to speak in this way. But instead of that, he's telling Timothy, Timothy, I'm praying for you night and day. He says, I'm remembering your prayers. I'm very, very much concerned about you, greatly desiring to see you. Now this is surely not part of a father, a real spiritual father who is concerned about his son. But he says in verse 6, wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. Those who have missed the Darvish translation will know that instead of stirring up, Mr. Darvish put rekindle, rekindle the gift of God that is in thee. And of course the figure is so easy to understand, like a fire. It's dying down. It's in danger of going out. There are only a few glowing embers. And if it's not stirred up and more fuel put upon it, it's going to die out. Die out completely and then be cold and lifeless. Now says Paul to Timothy, you rekindle the gift that is in thee. And again I would refer to a footnote by Mr. Darvish in connection with this verse. And he says what Paul is designing of Timothy is energy in the darkening state of the assembly. All around there was gloom. There were those who had departed from the apostle. They weren't faithful. It doesn't suggest that they had stopped being Christians. But they had stopped following the apostle Paul. His ministry was too exacting. It demanded too much of them. And so they left Paul and they didn't follow him. Now says Paul to Timothy, in this darkness I want you to rekindle that gift that is in you and be faithful to the Lord. Well, we've all got to take account of our own hearts. Is that enthusiasm that once marked us dying down? Are there influences coming into our lives that would hinder us from being faithful to the Lord in the way that he has revealed it to us? Are we more concerned about other things than the will of the Lord? Then says Paul to us through the Spirit, now let's get back to that real zeal that we had at the beginning when everything was so fresh and we were keen to make progress in the things of the Lord and keen to do his will. Rekindle. Put more fuel on the fire. Make sure it's burning bright. And you see Paul is deeply concerned that this young man should regain his position in the testimony where Paul had so much confidence in him. Paul said many things about Timothy. He said, I have no man like minded. He cared with genuine concern how the Christians are getting on. He said, he works the work of the Lord as I do. What a testimony from the beloved servant of God to this young man. He worked the works of the Lord as Paul did. He was marked with genuine concern for the people of God. Surely the mark of a real man of God. Indeed we now read in the first epistle that Paul spoke to Timothy and said, O man of God. Now that was a wonderful commendation. A man of God. The only person in the New Testament who is spoken of in this way. So Paul is saying now, Timothy, rekindle the gift of God that is in me. And if any of us feel like giving up or wavering or not so bright as we ought to be, well the word of God is coming to us this evening. Don't give up. Don't let your testimony die down. Rekindle that fire for the Lord. That fire in your life that will be so much in testimony for him. Now he says to Timothy, God has not given us the spirit of fear. He has not given us the spirit of cowardice but of power and of love. Here of a sound mind or wise discretion. Now I think here we have this inference that Timothy was somewhat intimidated by the opposition to the truth and he was, as it were, drawing back in some measure of fear and trembling. Now this is Paul to Timothy. We are well equipped to meet this, Timothy. God has given us a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. Let us take the last thing first, a sound mind. It means that we are able to take account of things in a clear, understanding way. Now if we look at the difficulties and we say they are too great. We can't overcome those difficulties. I need to give up. I can't possibly go on any longer. The difficulties are too great for me. It's tantamount to saying God is not able to deal with the difficulties. You see you are not thinking soberly. You are not thinking rightly. You are only thinking of the difficulties and you are not remembering what God can do. I am sure it doesn't matter how great the difficulties are. If we get down before God and we tell him simply we want to do his will and we want to do it with humility and faithfulness, then help will come from the only place we can get help, through God our Father and through our Lord Jesus Christ. So he says, think properly. Wise discretion or a sound mind. And then love. Well if the spirit of love is in us and say love to whom? I believe it would be to God himself, to Christ, to the saints of God. Love of the truth as John says in his epistle. Love would be operative rather than this fear and this drawing back. And then power? Well this is exactly what we require above all else when we think of difficulties of one kind or another. My dear brethren, we all know how easy it is to be theoretical. Comparatively easy for me to stand here behind this table this evening and tell you these things. And yet when the slightest difficulty comes along, that's another matter. We forget about the power. We forget about the love. We forget about the wise discretion. We forget about the Lord and the Holy Spirit. And everything seems so difficult and so impossible. And I believe this is a continual challenge with us every day of our Christian lives. To put into working effect the truth that we have been told, the truth that has been laid before us. So Paul is saying to Timothy, now we have these things and I believe we have them in the spirit of God. The spirit that dwells in us is the source of power, of love and the ability to think clearly. So says Paul, we have the spirit. Timothy lets it be put into effect. Now he says in verse 8, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor be his prisoner. Now Paul was the servant of the Lord in a very marked way. And Paul in prison was an object of reproach and shame as far as everyone else was concerned. He wasn't there because he was a criminal, we see it so often. Hadn't done anything wrong, either against the state or against society. He wasn't a criminal in any shape or form. He was the servant of the Lord and that was the real reason why he was in prison. And anyone who was ashamed of Paul was ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. And so this is what Paul is saying to Timothy, don't be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. I don't know how you feel, but quite often in prayer I have been asking the Lord to give me help and courage to do some form of service for the Lord. Let's say for instance we give some tracts away and one rises from one's knees imbued with desire to do this service for the Lord and out we go, a bucket full of tracts and we go along the road and we see a person coming towards us and we're ashamed. Fear takes over. If I give this tract to this person they'll be offended. Oh what good will it do anyway? All sorts of things come into the mind and I believe this is a direct power of Satan to hinder us from doing this particular form of service. Now maybe you haven't felt that, thank God if you haven't. And if in your courage and strength you serve the Lord. I'm only expressing what I have felt on some occasions and one feels it's a direct power and interference by Satan into service for the Lord. But of course when we forget our fears, our forebodings and we say well this is what the Lord wants me to do, I'm going to give this tract away. And then you're amazed when the person receives it so happily, so glad to receive this, a message from the Lord. And then you say well that was well worth while. I don't know why I was afraid. And I know the scripture says that if a man's ways please the Lord he'll make even his enemies to be at peace with him. And so we have to be marred by the spirit of not being ashamed of the testimony of the Lord. If the Lord gives us something to do then seek his grace and power to fulfill it and do the thing that pleases him. Now he says from verse 9 to verse 12 some of the most wonderful things that Paul could say to Timothy. I feel that here between his exhortations to Timothy to be true and faithful he includes this parenthesis from verse 9 to 12 which is full positive blessing. And we can all take account of this. As much as to say now Timothy just sit down quietly and think of what the Lord has done for us and then see is it not an awful thing to be ashamed of the Lord, to be ashamed of his testimony. Is it not an awful thing to give up the service for the Lord that he has given you to do. So first of all he says who has saved us. Now it's a wonderful thing to be saved. It's a marvelous thing to be saved. You think of all the people in Moses who aren't saved and there are many thousands of them and yet God in his mercy has saved us. Isn't it a marvelous thing. We are sure that we are on the right side of the fence. We belong to God. Our sins are gone. We are bound for glory and every blessing that God has for us belongs to us because we are saved. Who has saved us and I'm sure if we just sat quietly and took account of the things that God has done for us and meditated upon them it would produce blessing to our souls and would give us firm resolve not to give way and to be maintained here in the pathway of obedience. Then he says he's called us with an holy calling. There are many unholy callings in this world, many of them. Their object is to overthrow the truth of God. That might not be their vowed object but in Satan's power it is the object. And men are blind of course and don't realize that they are the tools of Satan and they give themselves wholeheartedly to those objects little realizing that they are overthrowing the truth of God. But we have been called with a holy calling. He's called us out of this doomed world. He's set our vision upon another world. And in the meantime he has given us the power to walk here in this world for his pleasure. Just as Abraham was called out of out of the colonies and his eyes set upon the land of promise and God empowering him every step of the way so we too have been called. Bishop Redmond, oh how wonderfully blessed we are that we ever heard the call of God. Who are we that we should be called by God? And we would say we don't deserve to be called by God, not one of us. And yet God called us by his grace. You remember Paul saying that? He said he was set aside from the day of his birth and then God called him by his grace. We believe that purpose belongs to eternity, calling belongs to time and the call of God comes to us as we hear the gospel. Oh how wonderful that God calls us through our Lord Jesus Christ with a holy calling. Then he says, according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. God's purpose and his favor that was to rest upon us was all secured in the man who was to be for his pleasure Christ Jesus. And it's all secure in him now. Now we often say if you search the Gospels you never find this title Christ Jesus. If you search the Acts of the Apostles you don't find this title Christ Jesus. James the Apostle never mentions it. John the Apostle never mentions it. Peter only mentions it once. And when he does we could say it's a Paul-like expression. Paul uses it some 48 times. So it's clearly a characteristic of Paul's ministry. What does it mean? It means that Paul saw man in the glory of God at God's right hand and he saw all the truth of God centered in that man. Now if anyone is at the right hand of God in glory he's outside the realm of Satan's power or man's malice. He's there right in the presence of God representing the people of God and the depository if you like of every thought of God. So everything's secure. What a wonderful man to know as our Savior. That all our blessings are in Christ Jesus. And so Paul said to Timothy the purpose and favor of God that is resting upon us now and that we enjoy is in Christ Jesus the man who is our Savior. Well who wants to be ashamed of such a one who holds all our blessings for time and for eternity? Are we going to turn our backs upon this Lord and Savior and not represent him in this world? Are we going to allow anything to come into our lives that will hinder our testimony for him and for God? I believe this is a powerful lever that Paul is bringing forward to produce movement in the life of Timothy. Then he says it was made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished or annulled death. We can't say that death is abolished. That's not the true meaning of the word. All of us know that death is very busy around us. It's not yet abolished. The time will come when it will be abolished. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. At the present time it's very busy. But it's power has been annulled. You see if you're a Christian, if you're a believer in Christ, you have what Paul mentions in verse 1. The promise of life which is in Christ Jesus. The life that we have now is a life that is subject to decay and eventually will come to an end when our responsible life is over. This physical life that we have. But then, thank God, we have another life. A life which is in Christ Jesus. Eternal life. A life that has come to us as a result of his death on the cross and the descent of the Holy Spirit consequent upon Christ drawing on high. How time and sense and Satan's power and man's malice mean nothing at all to this kind of life. It cannot affect it, cannot destroy it, cannot in any way interfere with it. Why? Because it's in Christ Jesus. It's beyond the reach of any opposing power. And every believer in Christ has this wonderful life. Oh dear brethren, how wonderful it is to have the possession of eternal life and to know too that the source and power of that life is Christ Jesus. Finding its origin no doubt in God himself but made available for us through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. And so Christ coming here and accomplishing the work of redemption on the cross has brought to light life and incorruptibility. Now you know that death, death itself is really the end of the physical life and also the beginning of corruption and decay attaching to the body. But this kind of death, this kind of life rather that Christ has brought to light, there's no incorruptibility attached to it. None whatsoever. How could there be? It's the very life of the Lord himself, the eternal life. And so this is beyond the reach of corruption. And the Lord has brought it to light and we thank God it's made known to us in the preaching. Now in verse 12 Paul gives his own personal testimony and it's a wonderful thing to listen to the testimony of a man like Paul. He says I'm suffering, I'm suffering because I'm appointed a preacher, an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles. That's why I'm suffering. The Lord appointed me to these things. I'm a chosen vessel and because of these things I'm suffering. Was he complaining? Was he grumbling? He says nevertheless I am not ashamed. I wonder if you'd been able to say to Paul, Paul was it worth it? And Paul would have said yes it was worth it. Every moment of it. I'm sure Paul would say I'm glad I've been able to suffer for the Lord because I've entered somewhat into fellowship with his sufferings. Short of course of the atoning sufferings in the hours of darkness. Paul went through the experiences of his master in a very real way. You see the Lord Jesus as you very well know laid down his life for us, suffered for us, died for us. Paul when he got converted and was made to realise he was a chosen vessel says I don't count my life dear unto myself but I might finish my course and administrate which I have received from the Lord Jesus. I think you'll notice that I left out two words there which are quoted in the authorised. That I might finish my course with joy. I understand with joy should be left out because it didn't matter whether Paul finished his course with joy or with sorrow. The main thing was he was to finish his course and do what the Lord wanted him to do and do it in faithfulness and obedience and that he was prepared to do. He was not ashamed and he was ready to lay down his life in service for his master and in service for the people of God. So like his master. He goes on to say I know of hope whom I have believed. That's a very wonderful thing to say. I say yes we know that Jesus Christ the son of God is our saviour but I think this is something deeper. Paul knew him. You remember when he wrote to the Philippians from the prison he said the consuming passion of his life was to forget all else and give up all else for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord on whose account I suffer these things. He was prepared to give all else up if he might increase in the knowledge of his saviour and I think this is an intimate knowledge. Personal knowledge. A knowledge that he acquired through communion with his Lord and Master as he sought to serve him. So when he says I know whom I have believed it's not just a what shall I say the technical knowledge that Jesus Christ the son of God was his saviour. It was more than that. It was an intimate knowledge that he acquired in the company of his Lord and saviour. And how much knowledge have we of that time. I think it's one of the great challenges of the Christian life is how much personal communion do we have with the Lord Jesus. We know a lot about him. A great deal of information about him but personal communion where we speak to him and we know him is another matter and I'm sure we could all make greater progress in this form of knowledge. I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded Paul had many persuasions and this is one of them. I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. There might be a great deal of speculation as to what it was that Paul committed to him but there is one thing definitely clear that Paul considered that the Lord was able to keep what he had given to him. There was no possibility of breakdown, failure, no possibility of anything being lost. Paul could safely say now what I commit to the Lord will be held secure against that day. I don't think Paul was referring to his soul salvation. That he well knew was secure because of the death of Christ. I feel there was something intimate here between Paul and his saviour that he had committed to the Lord and that he well knew that the Lord was able to hold it until that day. Then he goes on to say in the exhortations again, hold fast the form of some words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Paul is encouraging this young man to go on in the face of these wonderful blessings or should I say because of those wonderful blessings and in the face of all the opposition that was against him. He is saying now hold fast the form of sound words or as we said last night have an outline of sound words. Keep it in your mind the truths that have been presented to you and don't give them up let them govern your life. Now he says in verse 14 that good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. Now the first thing we want to speak about is that every Christian has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Every Christian, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is sealed with the Holy Spirit. God does not put his seal upon anyone who is unclean. But the moment a person accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their saviour their sins are gone, all their uncleanness and guilt and folly and shame is dealt with because of the Lord's atoning death. And then immediately they are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. If you want to look this up you find it mentioned in the first chapter of Ephesians. You'll find it also in the 15th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. You remember there was a great deal of concern about the giving of the Spirit to the Gentiles and I think the speaker says now look these Gentiles received the Holy Spirit in exactly the same way as we did because they believed. It was given to them when they believed the truth of the glad tidings. So we say this on the authority of the word of God that every believer in Christ is indwelled with the Holy Spirit and this is the power by which things are kept. I think we've all lived long enough as Christians to realise we don't keep anything in our own power. We are so powerless, so helpless. But we have a power that enables us to keep going on for the Lord and to keep faithful to the things that he has committed to us. Now says Paul to Timothy this good thing. Now I'm not going to try and specify what the good thing is but this I know that every Christian is responsible to keep the truth of God in all its variety and fullness. And I'm thankful to say that they have the power to do this because they are indwelt by the Spirit. That's a very wonderful thing dear brethren. And if we desire to be faithful, thank God we have the power to be faithful. Now Timothy of course was an exceptional case. He was a unique vessel. He was one called of God. He was a gift, an outstanding gift. And so in this sense he was unique. And in the exercise of this gift he had the Holy Spirit to help him. But we are Christians. We are all believers and we are all responsible to God. And God gives each one of us something to do. As we said already we can't do it in our own strength. Thank God we can do it in the strength and power that the Holy Spirit provides. Now Paul says to Timothy there are those who have gone sadly astray and he speaks about them by jealous and homogenous. They have gone sadly astray and he mentions all those in Asia too. Then he breaks off exhorting Timothy. As much as to say now Timothy all those in Asia have gone aside. These two well known persons have gone aside by jealous and homogenous. But there are those who are going on Timothy. And so he mentions Onesiphorus. And he says the Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus for he ought to refresh me and was not ashamed of my change. I like to think of this man. I think he was a remarkable man. First thing is he was a refresher of Paul. He went and he visited Paul and by so doing he was able to impart some spiritual refreshment to him. It's a very encouraging thing when someone comes along and has some work to say or a prayer to offer or even just by their presence just to show that they're thinking about you and they're concerned about the difficulties you're in and they want to try and help. That's real refreshment. It's very fine too if you can sit down and write a letter to someone who needs a little bit of encouragement. I think it's better still if you can go along and just sit with the person and impart some spiritual encouragement and refreshment in that way. Now I don't know where Onesiphorus came from but Paul says he came to Rome and he sought Paul out very diligently. It must have been a difficult thing to find Paul but eventually Onesiphorus found him. And what I often like to think about are things that Rome boasted of are all the marvellous acquisitions of the Lord in that day and how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well. He was a diligent worker for the Lord. He hadn't gone astray. He hadn't forsaken Paul. Instead of leaving him as those in Asia had done he sought him out very diligently. He says I want to keep close to this man. I want to encourage him. I want to be a help to him and he certainly was. Paul says he had done a great deal of service at Ephesus. Now lastly in chapter 4 I just want to draw attention to two things. In verse 5 Paul says to Timothy watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. Just a word about this do the work of an evangelist. Many amongst the saints are feeling that this is a form of gift that is sadly lacking amongst the saints of God. How do we cure this? You can't make a gift. Nobody has any power to do this kind of thing. What we can do is we can pray that God will raise up evangelists who will be empowered by God to reach the people, to reach their consciences and to bring about salvation in the hearts of many people. Now this is something we can do. We can pray that God will raise up evangelists and we need them. Now Timothy is exhorted to do the work of an evangelist. He didn't say that Timothy was an evangelist but he was to do the work of an evangelist. So in the absence of evangelists who are known and recognized there is work to do and that is to have a desire to reach the unconverted. It doesn't mean that you conduct a large campaign. We are not disparaging that kind of thing but those who want to do it go on with it. But the work of an evangelist can go on in all our lives all the time whether we are brothers or sisters we can have a desire to reach the unconverted and we can do this by giving away of tracts, by personal conversation or as we did the other evening by preaching in the open air. This is the work of an evangelist. Now I think there is a great need as I have said and many others feel the same of obvious gifts given to brothers to be evangelists to reach the unconverted. Now there is no reason why the Lord should raise up others again and if the exercise is there and prayer is given to the Lord we might see before the Lord comes brothers empowered to do this kind of service. Dear brethren make it a special plea in your private and collective prayers that the Lord will raise up those who are competent witnesses in his hands to meet the unconverted. Now he says and I want to draw your attention to this before I close at the end of verse 5 make full proof of thy ministry. I think Mr. Darby uses the expression fill up, fill up. Now I want you to note this because in verse 6 I am now ready to be offered, Mr. Darby renders this, I am ready to be poured out. Now you cannot possibly miss the influence. Paul is saying I am ready to be poured out. I know that my life of ministry and service for the Lord is coming to a close. I am poured out just like this tumbler full and slowly we can pour it out until the last drop is gone. Now that was like Paul's life. He was full, the Lord had empowered him, he had served the Lord all his life since he was converted and now he was finished. He had come to the end of his life. He had fought the good fight, he had run the course, he had been faithful. Now he says to Timothy you fill up because you can't pour out unless you are filled up. Now this is what he is saying to Timothy, you are a young man, you get filled up. Now I believe the way to get filled up is to be in the presence of the Lord, to seek constantly daily his will, to be guided by the word of God and to be free from all the hindering elements. Filled up with all that belongs to the Lord and that means the exclusion of all that is contrary to the Lord. There is no mixture. It is not a mixture of the world of flesh and sin with divine things. It is the exclusion of those things and filled up with the things that belong to the Lord. And when you are filled up with those things then you can start pouring out. Thank God this kind of process has gone on since Pentecost. The brothers of a few generations ago, they are gone, they are home with the Lord. There are those today who are carrying on. If the Lord doesn't come, you young brothers and sisters upon your shoulders will rest the maintenance of the testimony as we know it today in simplicity in gathering to the Lord. You will be responsible to maintain it. So you have to start filling up and you can't start early enough. The younger you are the better. And keep on filling up and when it comes your turn in responsibility you will be able to pour out and be a blessing to the younger ones who may come along if the Lord should come for us. So here is something that the Word of God is saying to you, to me, to us all that we have a part to play in the maintenance of this testimony that began nearly two thousand years ago and is coming to an end shortly. What a happy thing it would be if the Lord came and we were all pouring out. Pouring out something of divine blessing that had already been poured into our souls in the power of the Holy Spirit. May it be so. God bless you. End …