Faithful to the Word, Part 2

I want to welcome you all to Calvary Chapel this morning. We also welcome those of you who are joining us online. Would you all come on in and join us and stand up as we want to and join me in prayer. We thank you for this opportunity, Lord, to gather, to worship you and pour our hearts out to you, Lord, and enjoy that time of being in your word. Please, by your Holy Spirit, speak to our hearts.

Fill us afresh, Lord. Oh, we thank you for the opportunity to gather as believers, Lord. Just move now in Jesus' name. You've heard me share before when I did first service, I think of that grace, God's riches, and Christ's experimented favor. Awesome. I'm glad there's life with you, Lord, and we realize that we need you in everything, Lord. We can't handle it ourselves, and we just thank you that we spoke to them,

and then you began to rise into the clothes, those dressed in white, the angel on boys. Why are you looking? I'm looking up in a sense, because they gazed steadfastly like you'd be really viewing a movie or something. You know, ooh, I'm taking in. I guess we would be, wouldn't we, if we saw the Lord Jesus start rising in the clouds? And he said, listen, boys, the same way he left, he'll return.

Amen? So let's be ready. Let's be ready for the glorious coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Live as though he could wait a while. Amen? And also live, Lord, as though he could come any minute. Thank you, Lord Jesus. And we ask that you would bless now as Pastor Ryan comes up to teach your word, anointing him by the power of the Holy Spirit. Just fill us afresh this morning with your Holy Spirit,

and we lift up the teachers out at the other end, but the kids, that you would bless them, anointing all of the youngsters. May they be learning things of you, and give them listening ears, Lord. Give us listening ears. Help us see clearly. Help our hearts. Be willing to perceive and obey that which you call us and show us to do. And we'll give you all the thanks in Jesus' name.

Amen? The Lord bless you.

Good morning.

If you could begin to locate your seats. Grab your bulletin, and we'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side are the things that are going on throughout the week. So find yourself a spot. There's a lot to get plugged into. Over in the middle section, a few things to take note of. The new Experiencing God Women's Study. Sorry, guys.

Man, my brain just absolutely farted right there. I'm not allowed to say that.

Meanwhile, back at the Bible study. Beginning March the 3rd, led by Elaine Phillips. There's a couple of spots left. Okay, intercessory prayer also is tonight at 6 o'clock p.m. So come join us for that down at the other end of the hallway. Great time to spend a little bit of time lifting up the things that are going on in the community to the Lord. Ladies, there's a women's breakfast coming up next Saturday at Steamy Joe's, 8 o'clock a.m.

And then we also have a March Madness. There's my man. Second annual March Madness night. Bit of fun. I was scouring the room to make sure you were here because I don't know anything. The first service, I was like, it's going on. We'll find out more later. So March 15th, we're going to do a March Madness fundraiser. It is going to be a chili cook-off. So I am here to tell you to prepare your best and hopefully some of them spiciest, for my sake, chili contest or chili recipes.

We're planning on doing Frito Chili Pie for the kids. There's going to be a full, hopefully full entertainment basketball game going on. And then we're also going to be doing, I've been told there's going to be games for all ages. So from the littles up to the basketball game, it's going to be a great time of just fun and fellowship and fundraiser for Agape Fruits and for the youth group.

So please. Prepare your chili recipes and stand by for more details on that. Thanks. Yes, at the Rec Center. Awesome. Very good. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Looking at the New American Standard for this part.

So that we all sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you are turning to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Psalm 32. Psalm 32. If you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Drummer Glenn. And the even verses. Psalm 32. A Psalm of David. A Maskell. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin. When my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

With the heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledge my sin to you and my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely in a flood of great waters. They will not reach him. You are my hiding place. You preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be as the horse, the mule, which have no understanding. Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check. Otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked.

But he who trusts in the Lord. Loving kindness shall surround him. And read verse 11 with me. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice you righteous ones. And shout for joy all you who are upright in heart. And Father we do thank you for the grace that you show to us on such a continual and overflowing basis. And so Father I just pray that you would minister to our hearts right now through the power of your Holy Spirit.

Draw us near to you. Teach us what you would have us to learn. In Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. And if you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. Well we said that there was a theme that would really run through all of the pastoral epistles. And that theme would be to be faithful. And as we looked at chapter 1 we said that ultimately what we were looking at in chapter 1 is that Paul would tell Timothy to be faithful to the word.

We said that as he told him to be faithful to the word there were three things that he needed to be faithful to about the word. The truth of the word. The gospel. And to fight the good fight. And so last week we looked at the truth of the word as he told him to stick around even though things were hard. And to warn those who were giving in to strange doctrines and silly controversies.

To keep love at the center of everything that they did and make sure that Jesus was the focus. And then he talked to us about the law. That the law had a purpose. That legalism is what we tend to lean towards but that the law really only had one purpose. And that was to be like a thermometer. To be like a thermometer in our lives. That revealed the issue but is powerless to actually solve the problem.

The problem is actually solved with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And that's what he begins to segue into in verse 11 when he says according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. And so we pick up in verse 12 of chapter 1 and it says this. I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me. Because he has considered me faithful.

Putting me into service. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am the foremost of them all.

Yet for this reason I found mercy so that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience. As an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God. Be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. The gospel. He tells him to be faithful to the gospel. And he's going to tell him two things about the gospel.

He's going to talk to him about the ministry. And he's going to talk to him about the gospel. And he's going to talk to him about the gospel. And he's going to talk to him about the mercy. He starts off by talking to him about the ministry. In verse 11 he reminds him that gospel is what Paul had been entrusted with. It was the message that had been given to Paul that he was to give out to the people that were around him.

And ultimately it was the message that Timothy was to give out to the people that he was serving. But as he begins to talk to him about the gospel he sort of deviates, which Paul often does, just into talking about his own personal testimony. Because honestly the most powerful gospel message that you can speak into the life of anybody is the gospel message of what Jesus did to change your life. The gospel message of what Jesus did to take you from being a lost sinner, dead in their sins, to somebody who is not only alive in Christ but thriving through the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's what Paul does. And so he starts off by talking about his ministry. He says, And as he talks about the ministry, because he's been entrusted with the gospel, he starts off simply by thanking God. He says, Because in order to minister the way that God would want us to, in order to be those who are faithful to the gospel, it takes a lot of strength.

It takes the strength of the Lord to do so because the gospel is an unpopular message because the gospel tells me that I'm a sinner and I need something outside of myself in order to give out the truth, in order to believe the truth. And the only way that I can minister that the way that I'm supposed to is with the strength of God. And so he says, I thank God that he's given me all of the strength that I need in order to preach the gospel because God considered me faithful. It's interesting because the one thing that is required of anybody who would be used by God is faithfulness.

You see, the one measure of whether or not you are successful in the ministry is whether or not you have been faithful to what God has called for you to do. The world looks at success and they try to put different markers on it. In sports, it's wins and losses. In business, it's money made. In politics, it's power achieved. And there's always some form of success that we're looking for.

But ultimately, at the end of the day, what God is looking for in his ministers is not some form of success that the world would say, this means you've done it right. What he really requires of us is faithfulness. Will you show up every day? Will you obey the way that you have been called to? And will you simply do what the Lord has called for you to do, whether anyone notices or not,

whether you see any success or not, whether anybody appreciates it or not, but just because that's what God has called for you to do. He says, let me be faithful in this ministry. And of course, he's put him into service. Now, I want you to think about something. Paul always likes to deflect things off of himself. And ultimately, that's the way that we all should be.

And as he starts talking about this ministry, you can almost imagine his face kind of turning red because he's dictating this letter. And you can almost imagine his face turning red because he's going, it's kind of silly for me to talk about this ministry that God's given to me if I don't also talk about the mercy that he has shown to me. So he begins to deviate. He starts to deviate and talk about his own testimony.

He says, God's strengthened me and he's considered me faithful and he's put me into ministry, but that's not who I was. Notice what he says in verse 13. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy. See, Paul begins to deviate and think about who he was before he ever came to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, before he ever became a servant of God, before he ever truly became a believer, in Jesus Christ.

And he identified himself three ways. He said, first of all, I'm a blasphemer. And that has to do with the words that you speak. The idea of blasphemy is to speak against or to speak down about God or any of his people. But it's a words thing. He said, I was a blasphemer. The words that I spoke were blasphemy. I spoke against Jesus Christ. Because while Paul was a religious man,

Jesus came in and interrupted his religion. Jesus came in and interrupted his religious ideas and he didn't like that Jesus interrupted his religion. But isn't that what Jesus still does today? Like he comes into people's lives that are really religious and he absolutely disrupts them. He's like, that's great that you've got a lot of religious beliefs. Let me tell you the truth.

It's great that you have a lot of religious fervor, but let me tell you the truth. And he comes in and interrupts the ideas that we have and interrupts our religion and shows us that it was really all about him. And because of that, Paul hated him. And so he spoke against him. And he spoke against the people that served him. He said, I was a blasphemer. But Paul didn't stop with blasphemy.

It carried on into persecution. It carried on into actions. And his actions were those of persecution, arresting Christians, beating Christians, ultimately trying to seek to imprison and even put to death Christians. It turned into persecution. And at the end of the day, it all led to this one place that he saw himself as a violent aggressor. That's a pretty powerful phrase that he uses there.

The word violent aggressor is also translated insolent, which nobody knows what that means. But it's also translated like this, violently arrogant. Now, that's not true. That kind of speaks to me. I know what that means. He's violently arrogant. I want to read you the definition of this. Those who are violently arrogant are those who are uplifted with pride,

using insulting language, and deviating into committing shameful acts against those that they disagree with. Those who are uplifted with pride, speaking with insulting language, and ultimately committing shameful acts against those with whom they disagree. He is a violent aggressor. And that's exactly what Paul had seen himself as. Those are the words that define

who Paul was before Christ. And I have a question for you this morning. What words would define who you were before Christ? Maybe you're like Paul. Maybe you blasphemed the name of God. Maybe you tried to persecute those who followed God. Maybe you were violently aggressive against the things of God. Or maybe you were just the average pagan. Maybe what defines you is alcohol.

Maybe what defines you is drugs. Maybe what defines you is just simply being an angry person all the time. Like who I was before was just angry with everybody that I was around. Maybe what defines you is impurity because you watch so much garbage that it turns your brain into being something that is so impure and all you saw yourself as is impure. Maybe you were violent before you came to know Jesus.

Maybe the name that all the guys called you was whore before you came to know Jesus. Maybe the name that everybody called you was a jerk before you came to know Jesus because everything about your life was so opposed to Jesus. Who were you? What words would you use to describe who you were before Jesus? Because I'm here to tell you right now, it's important that we remember who we were

because it helps impress upon us who we are. Because as Paul remembers, these are the things that defined me. These are the things that encapsulated me. These are the things that described me. And now I may be in ministry. Now I may be a preacher of the gospel, but that's not who I was. I've been put in this position in spite of the fact that I was a blasphemer

and a persecutor and violently aggressive against the things of God. He says, but I found mercy. Mercy as we defined it a couple of weeks ago is not getting what you deserve. You see, what Paul ultimately deserved was eternal separation from God. What Paul ultimately deserved was to be completely set apart from God for all of eternity, experiencing eternal fire in hell.

That's what Paul deserved. And quite frankly, that's what you and I deserve, apart from the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. That's where we are headed. But if you're here this morning and you're born again, you have found mercy. Paul describes it like this. He says, but I found mercy. Into verse 13, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.

Paul says I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Now when I first really started walking with Jesus in high school, I struggled with this verse. And you know why I struggled with this verse? Because I was not ignorant about anything that I had ever done wrong. As a matter of fact, everything that I had done wrong, I knew exactly what I was doing.

Because I was raised in the church. I was raised to know the truth. I literally grew up inside of this church building. I grew up going to Christian school. I grew up memorizing Bible verses. I grew up knowing all of the praise songs. I knew all of those things. And yet I still walked in all of the sin. And so when I first started walking with Jesus, I dealt with some guilt because I'm like,

Lord, I didn't do it ignorantly. I knew exactly what I was doing. So what does that mean for someone like me? Can I still have this mercy? Is this still mine to have? And you know what God said to me? Remember David. See this morning in our responsive reading, we read Psalm 32. Psalm 32 where David starts off by saying, blessed is the man whose sin is forgiven,

whose transgression is covered. You know why David said that? Because he had committed some of the worst sins you can imagine. He had committed adultery and tried to cover it with murder. And because God sent someone to convict him of his sin, he became aware of the sin that he had committed with knowledge because he was the king who knew the law, who was the psalmist of Israel.

He knew everything that he was doing was wrong. And yet when he came to God and he said, I've sinned and I've sinned greatly. God said, you have, but I forgive you because there's going to come one after you who will take all of that upon himself. And when God said, remember David, I was like, oh, thank God, because I too can be shown mercy. Paul said, that's who I was, but I received mercy.

And he goes on to describe it even further in verse 14 when he says, and the grace of our Lord was more abundant with the faith and the love which are found in Jesus Christ. He said, I was shown mercy and I received grace. Grace, of course, is unmerited favor. It's a gift that is bestowed upon us simply because God's desire is to give that to us. But I want you to notice what he says.

He says, the grace of our Lord was more abundant. Go over with me to the book of Romans chapter five. Go to your left. If you hit the gospels, you've gone too far. If you hit Jesus, you've gone too far. If you hit Genesis, you really went too far. Romans chapter five, and I want you to look at verse 20. This is Paul writing to the Roman church about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And this is what he says. He's again talking about the law, just like we talked about last week, and that the law reveals sin. But I want you to notice what he says in Romans chapter five, verse 20. He says, the law came in so that the transgression would increase. But where sin increased, pay attention, grace abounded all the more. Grace was abundant all the more.

Wherever sin increases, wherever you see those areas of sin in your life, wherever you see the guilt of sin in your life, and you see it increased by the knowledge that what you did was wrong, grace abounds all the more. That word abundant in 1 Timothy means to overflow. And that's the same idea of the word that's given to us in Romans chapter five, verse 20. The idea is to overflow.

Let me give you a little illustration. Okay, so this cup has water in it right now. It started off here at first service. That's where I put the mark, but it's middle of second service now, so it's about right here. So it's got some water in it. And this is how you and I usually view grace. We view us as the cup, and God's put a little bit of grace in it, right?

And we're like, oh, thank God, he's given me a little bit of grace. But that's not the idea that Paul gives to us here in 1 Timothy chapter one and in Romans chapter five. He gives us the idea of overflowing grace. Picture it, if you will, that I picked up a pitcher full of water, and I start pouring the water into this cup, only I don't stop, and the water just starts overflowing the cup, and it's running down the cup, and it's running down the table, and it's all over the carpet, and the girl that takes care of the carpet would be really mad at me, which is why I didn't do that.

But that's exactly what he pictures here with grace. He says, God's grace was overflowing to me. It didn't just kind of fill me up. It filled me up to the point where it was spilling all over the ground around me, and it hit everybody that was around me, because that's how great God's grace was in my life. And brothers and sisters, that's how much grace God has for you.

That's how much grace God has for the worst of sinners, which Paul is gonna describe himself as in just a moment. And so wherever you sit here this morning, whether you're the believer in Jesus Christ that's walked with Jesus since you were 19 years old, and you're 150 now, and you've walked with Jesus forever, that grace is still abundantly overflowing in your life. Whether you came here this morning and you've never put your faith in Jesus, and you went, you know what? I could give you a few words that define me.

I could give you what all the people say that I am. God's grace wants to overflow you in the exact same amount, because where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. Go back to 1 Timothy 1. Paul says, And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant. It overflowed with the faith and the love which are found in Jesus. With the faith and the love which are found in Jesus.

He goes on to make a great statement. I think one of the most beautiful verses in all of the Bible. It says this, It is a trustworthy statement deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am the foremost of all. Paul says this is a trustworthy saying. Some of your translations may say this is a faithful saying.

In other words, if you're gonna believe anything, believe this, because this is worthy of full acceptance. That Jesus Christ came into the world. The miraculous nature of that very first statement is enough to occupy us for quite some time, because the idea that Jesus Christ came into the world means the one who already existed came into the world in a different form. John chapter one, verse 14 puts it like this.

In the words, speaking of Jesus, became flesh, he put on a tent, and he dwelt among us. That's the idea of Jesus coming into the world. And when he came into the world, and when he dwelt among us, we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. He says this is a faithful and trustworthy saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world.

Only why did Jesus Christ come into the world? People seem to have all of their ideas about why Jesus came to the world, right? Well, Jesus came to the world to be a social reformer. Jesus came to the world to teach us what kindness looks like. Jesus came into the world to show us that he gets us, right? This is all the ideas that the world tells us. No, those aren't the reasons Jesus came into the world.

Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You see, a lot of people think that the biggest problem in the world right now is world hunger, right? Like if we could just solve world hunger, but listen, if world hunger was the problem, God would have sent a farmer, right? Everybody says, no, no, the problem is that there's all of this disease in the world. If we could just cure disease, no,

because if disease would have been the biggest issue that we dealt with, then God would have sent a pharmacist, right? Everybody says, no, no, the problem is education. People don't have enough education. Well, if that was the case, then God would have sent a teacher. But none of those things are our biggest problem. Our biggest problem is sin, because our biggest problem is sin.

God sent a savior to save us from our sins. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Jesus had to say it over and over again to the religious leaders. He says, I didn't come for those who think that they're good. I came for those who know that they're a sinner. Do you realize that this morning, churchgoer who's known Jesus your entire life? Do you remember that Jesus came into the world

to save sinners? He didn't come for those who think that they're healthy. He came for those that know that they're sick. Do you know that person who's sitting in here who's never heard the gospel before in your entire life, that Jesus came into the world to save sinners not those who think that they're fine, but those who know that they have a problem? That's why Jesus came into the world.

As a matter of fact, do you realize that the only people that can approach Jesus are the sinners? The only people that are welcome to come to the feet of Jesus are the sinners? And you say, well, I'm a pretty good person. What's that mean for me? It means you're self-righteous, and you need to realize that you're a sinner, because otherwise you can't approach Jesus,

because that's the problem today. Too many people say, well, I'm a pretty good person. I've done it pretty well my entire life. No, you haven't. You're self-righteous. You have sinned. And until you realize you have sinned, you can never go to Jesus, meaning you'll always be lost. One of my favorite verses in all the Bible comes out of the book of Isaiah. God declares,

thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in a high and a holy hill with him who is of a humble spirit and a broken and a contrite heart. See, brothers and sisters, what we have to understand is, if I want to go to Jesus, the first thing that's required of me is I have to know I'm a sinner, because only the lost can apply. It brings me a whole lot of hope, because if there's one thing that I've become deathly aware of in my life, it's just how much of a sinner I am. And Paul says, this is a trustworthy saying, worthy of all acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Some of your translations may say, of whom I am the chief, or of whom I am the first, and the idea behind that word, foremost, means first in place or rank. In other words, Paul says, Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and I'm the first place of that group. There's an interesting thing that takes place in the life of Paul, and this isn't self-deprecation. God does not want us to live in a place where we always feel guilty about our sin.

He wants us to live in a place where we are painfully aware of our past, and so incredibly aware of our present and what God has done for us. And it keeps us humble before the Lord. But there's an interesting transition that takes place in the life of Paul if you follow his writings. One of his earlier writings is in 1 Corinthians. And in 1 Corinthians, he refers to himself as an interesting thing.

He refers to himself as the least of the apostles. In other words, when he thinks about the 11 men plus himself that God sent out, that Jesus sent out, to be the ones who would start the early church and who would set the doctrine of the early church, he started looking at himself and the fact that he was a persecutor and a blasphemer and a violent aggressor against the church. And so he said, when I compare myself to the other boys, I am 12 of 12. I'm in last place of all of the apostles.

And then he continues on in his writings, and he comes to about the middle of his life, and he comes to the book of Ephesians. In the book of Ephesians, he talks about the fact that he was a persecutor of the church, therefore he is the least of all the saints. He says, when I think about all those who belong to Jesus, I'm in last place because I persecuted the church, because I'm well aware of who I am, and I'm well aware of who I was, and even though I belong to Jesus now, man, I'm the least of all the saints. And now when we come towards the end of his life, make no mistake, 1 Timothy was written towards the end of his life.

He says, and I'm the chief of all the sinners. Brothers and sisters, there's something fascinating that happens to us when we walk with Jesus. One of the things that happens to us is that he produces humility in our lives. If you're really walking with Jesus, if you're not walking with Jesus, but you're just walking with knowledge, then it produces pride in your life.

If you're really walking with Jesus, and you are constantly comparing yourself with the righteous and holy savior of the entire world, it produces a certain amount of humility. The closer you get to the light, the more you realize how dark you are. The closer you get to the truth, the more you realize, I need the truth so bad. I need the gospel so bad in my life because I'm so well aware of my sin.

I'm so well aware of my failure. I'm so well aware of who I want to be because I just know my sin. I've shared it lots of times, but this feels like a really perfect time to share it again. I had a really good friend at one point in time, an elderly gentleman named Truman. Truman lived in the section that I took care of at Lakeview Village. I'd go over to his house every day,

and I'd say, talk to me about Jesus and the Bible, and he taught me. Taught me lots of things, knew the Bible just about as well, if not better than any human being I'd ever been around in my entire life. Not only that, but he knew Jesus just about better than anybody I'd ever been around in my entire life. I was in his room in the healthcare center about three days before he went home to be with the Lord, and I'll never forget the words that came out of his mouth.

He looked at me, he said, I'm more aware now of my need for God's grace in my life than I ever have been before. The guy knew the Old Testament frontwards and backwards. He'd walked with Jesus for over 55 years, and he had taught countless kids what it looks like to walk with Jesus. Before he went home to be with the Savior, he said, I'm the least of all the saints.

I'm the chief of all the sinners. I need God's grace more now than 55 years ago on the day that I accepted him as my Lord and Savior. Because the closer you get to Jesus, the more you're aware of who you are. And that's what Paul says. That's what the gospel did for me, is it showed me who I was, it's made me who I am, and it's helped me understand that the one thing I still need in my life,

just as much as I ever did before, is the grace of God. Because this is a true and faithful saying, trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. He goes on to say, yet for this reason, verse 16, I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example of those who would believe in him for eternal life. He says, you know why he saved me?

You know why God showed me mercy? So that he could be like, if I can save him, I can save anybody. You know why God saved me? Because if he can save me, then he can save anybody. And that should be true in your life too. You should say, man, if God can save me, all the rest of y'all are in pretty good shape, right? Like God's grace is not weak, because he can save the worst of sinners.

And as somebody who committed all of my sins with the knowledge that everything that I did was wrong, I can tell you that if he can save the worst of sinners, he can save you. And if God doesn't give up on somebody like me, he won't give up on somebody like you. And his grace will continue to pursue you until you finally say, I'm yours. I give up. Because his grace is so good like that.

He says, that's what it does. He did it so that he could show in the absolute worst of sinners the absolute grace of God so that everyone else who would believe would say, man, God's really good. And brothers and sisters, that's the humility of the gospel. You see, if we as believers in Jesus Christ, would start presenting the truth like that, then the world around us would not say, why are you so judgmental?

And a lot of times they'd say, can you tell me more? Because if I'm gonna give the truth of the gospel to somebody else, there's always gonna have to be three components. I'm gonna have to tell them who I was. I'm gonna have to tell them who I am. And I'm gonna have to tell them how I got there. And if I'm gonna have to tell you who I was, that means I'm gonna have to get really honest

about myself and get a little bit transparent, which means a great deal more. It's a great deal of humility, right? And if I'm gonna tell you who I am after I told you who I was, you're gonna be shocked, because if that's who you were, how are you who you are? And then I can tell you how I got there. And it wasn't because I did anything. And it wasn't because somebody else did anything.

It was because God did everything. And there's humility in that, and people are willing to listen to that message. And then in the midst of all of this, Paul sort of breaks down into spontaneous praise. Notice what it says in verse 17. Now to the king, eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. Paul just sort of takes this moment

to just belt out like a line of praise to God. And I wanna go through these words that Paul uses, and then I wanna talk a little bit about spontaneous praise. Paul says, first of all, to the king, eternal. The idea of the word eternal is always has been and always will be. That's the idea of that word. It's not just eternity future, it's eternity past. Always has been, always will be.

I don't get that, me neither, but man, isn't it cool that that's who God is? Now to the king, eternal. Second of all, to the king, immortal, that means incorruptible. And unto the king, invisible, meaning he's beyond our finding out, the only God. Some of your translations may say the only wise God, but really the most accurate translation on this is the only God.

The only deity, true deity in life. Be glory and honor forever and ever, amen. Now again, I want you to think about something. So Paul was dictating this letter, right? Because that's how he did all of his letters. So I want you to think about how Paul might have started this thing off, right? This is how I view it. I don't know if this is gospel truth or not.

I think he probably started off kind of like this. You can just picture kind of an old guy by this point in time. His body's been pretty well racked by all the things that he's been through. So he's just kind of sitting and dictating, and tell Timothy this, and tell Timothy this, and I'm telling you this because I've been entrusted with the gospel. And he starts to think about the gospel.

He's like, I have no idea why God did that because I was a persecutor, and I was a blasphemer, and I was violently aggressive against the things of God, but man, he showed me mercy. And his grace to me was super abundant. It overflowed more than anything I could ever imagine in the faith and the love of Jesus Christ. And as he showed me that grace, I'm just reminded of this faithful saying that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief.

As a matter of fact, this is the reason why God showed me mercy is so that for ages to come, everyone would say, if God can save him, God can save me. Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be glory and honor and praise forever and ever, amen. You see how he probably just sort of picked up on it as he went? He got excited as he went because the more he thought about who he was, the more he thought about what God did, and the more he thought about who he is, the only thing he could do was throw his wounded hands up in the air and cry out, praises to God.

You see, that's what praise is. Some of y'all may be new, or maybe even new to the faith, and you're like, why on God's stinkin' green earth do we sing so many songs at the beginning of this church service? It's because we know who we are, we know who we were, and we know what God has done. And sometimes the only thing you know how to do is throw your wounded hands up in the air and praise God for it.

Because the King that is eternal, that is immortal, that is invisible, the only God saw fit to save me. And now I just want to praise Him with all of my heart. And that's why sometimes, brothers and sisters, I don't mind it getting a little bit rowdy up in here during worship time, okay? Like, throw those hands up in the air. I don't want you to run around the church.

That's going to get weird. I'll ask you to stop. But throw those hands up in the air. Belt it out as loud as you can. Jump up and down a little bit. I don't care. That's praise to God. That's praise to God. But you know what? If you don't praise on your own, you'll never praise in this room. You know that? You ever just take time to allow yourself to be overwhelmed with who God is on a daily basis

or maybe it's a weekly basis, whatever. But where you just really stop and you just slowly think about all the things that God has done for you and it turns into spontaneous praise? You should do that sometime. We don't do that. You know why? Because we're focused on our phones all the time. Because we're focused on entertainment. We think our job in life is to be entertained.

But your job in life is to worship God. So every now and then, let your brain just sort of marinate on who God is and let it turn into some sort of spontaneous praise. I was sharing this with somebody the other day. I said, you know, when I went through some really hard times, especially right after college, my early 20s, I went through some really hard times and I would get into my truck and I didn't know how to express it and I was just so frustrated because I felt like God wasn't answering my prayers that sometimes I'd be driving my truck and I'd just yell, right?

Like, don't look at me weird. You do it too. You should sometimes. I just would let it all go. And I'd just yell, get it all out. But then God began to bring healing into my life. And when God brought healing into my life and he brought restoration into my life and he reset all of my thoughts, I'd be driving in my truck and I'd hear a great worship song and I'd crank that thing up

and I would just belt it out at the top of my lungs because I was like, that's me. And I would just absolutely belt that thing out to Jesus. I always wanted to be the people around me who were just kind of like, hmm. I don't know what's going on over there, but he apparently needed that. Right? You know, just tears flowing the whole nine yards. Do that sometime.

Ryan, people will see me. I have news for you. No one's looking at you. Okay? Like, all of the things we think about in our life, someone's going to see me do that and they're going to think I'm weird. They already think you're weird. No one's staring. Okay? That's just all that there is. But if you don't praise God there, you won't praise God here. And if you don't praise God there

and you do praise God here, it's probably not genuine. It's probably for a show. Allow the truth of God to penetrate that truth. That's what Paul does. He's going to take that stoic soul and turn it into spontaneous praise and pour it out to God. That's what Paul does right here. Well, now that we've seen the ministry and the mercy and the praise of the gospel,

he says, Amen. It means it's time to move on to the next point. Verse 18. In this command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight. Keeping faith and a good conscience which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander,

whom I have handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. The last thing that he tells them to do is that he needs to fight the good fight. And so he starts off. He's going to give a command and he's going to give a warning. Here's the command. He said, This command I entrust to you, Timothy, in accordance with the prophecies that were made about you

through the laying on of hands. Now, I want to deal with this issue of prophecies here for just a minute, okay? I have no problem with the fact that there is still the gift of prophecy in the church today. For the most part, the gift of prophecy in the church is the foretelling of God's word. It's not always foretelling the future, but it's the foretelling of God's word.

Like just speaking God's word into someone's life or speaking God's word into a situation. That oftentimes is the gift of prophecy that's used in the New Testament situation. But I have no issue with somebody speaking a word of prophecy over someone else's life because we see it throughout Scripture. I've seen it in my own life. And it was nothing weird, right?

Usually if we think about somebody using the gift of prophecy, we get this weird picture. Anybody start watching House of David this week, by the way? We get this weird picture of Samuel. You should be watching that on Amazon Prime. It's a little bit violent, but it's a really cool show of like this big, long-bearded guy. He's speaking like this and he's doing something really weird.

Right? We think about that with the gift of prophecy. Listen, that's not the way it works, okay? Dwight, I'm gonna start speaking like that too. Twice I have had the gift of prophecy used in my life. One time I was a teenager and I wasn't walking with Jesus and somebody came up to me at a church where my dad was singing one time and they said, God has a plan for you

and he's gonna use you someday. And I was like, whatever, dude, because I wasn't walking with Jesus at the time. And it wasn't until years later that I thought about the fact that that guy spoke a word over my life. I just wasn't paying attention to it at the time. But the most powerful way that God's ever used this gift of prophecy in my life is a good friend.

A friend of mine in Bible college wrote out a little note for me and she said, you're gonna go through really hard times where you're gonna question your calling. And when you begin to question your calling, I need you to remember today because God had used me to do something that day. She said, I need you to remember today because God's gonna keep using you in that way. I didn't think too much about it, folded it up, stuck with a bunch of my notes from Bible college and it happened to be at just the right time when I was doing exactly what she said was gonna happen.

I pulled that note out and it said, you're gonna question everything about it. I'm like, done. And she said, you need to remember what God did. I'm like, I'm working on it. And she said, remember that God's not done with you. And it was a word of prophecy over my life and that's kinda what happened with Timothy. Probably somebody just, you know, the Holy Spirit moved him

and they laid hands on him and said, God's gonna use you and I know you're timid but keep doing what God's called for you to do. It's just as simple as that. And so he says, I command you in accordance with the prophecy previously made concerning you that you fight the good fight. Some of your translations say, wage the good warfare. Fight the good fight. What's the fight he's supposed to fight?

Well, I think it's twofold. First of all, I think the fight that he's supposed to fight is warning those who have given in to strange doctrine and silly controversies, right? That's part of the good fight that he's gotta fight. But on a large scale, the fight that he has to fight is the fight for the word of God, the fight for the truth. He says, fight the good fight.

And it brings me to a really good point that we have to keep in mind. We have to keep in mind that we have to fight for the good fight. We have to fight for the good fight. We have to fight for the good fight. And it brings me to a really good point that we all need to understand. Brothers and sisters, as believers in Jesus Christ, we are in a battle. Too often in the Western culture church,

we have sold Jesus as a way for your life to be better. We have sold Jesus as life improvement. If you want a better life, if you want world peace, and you want your own apartment, then you need to have the gospel in your life because he will improve everything about you. Listen, is my life better with Jesus? 150,000%. Did I enter a fight? Absolutely, I did.

Here's the thing, though. Everybody in this world is in a fight right now. It's just all the people that don't know Jesus are losing. They're losing the battle. That's why you and I have a fight that we have to fight. And we need to know as believers in Jesus Christ that we can't just take this as like, oh, I just hope I live a better life. No, you're in the middle

of a battle. And you're in the middle of a battle that you need to fight and you need to decide you're gonna get involved in the battle. Otherwise, you're gonna lose the battle. And that's the warning he's gonna give in just a minute. But brothers and sisters, I'm gonna tell you, just like Paul told Timothy, fight the good fight. Wage the good warfare. Understand that what's

in front of you is a battle every single day. But God's given you everything that you need for it. I hope you're asking yourself a question right now. How am I supposed to fight the good fight? What is that supposed to look like? Well, I'm really glad you asked because it tells us right here. He says, fight the good fight, end of verse 18, keeping the faith

is a good fight. To fight the good fight, we do two things. Number one, we keep the faith. We keep the faith. What does that mean? Well, it means two things. First of all, it means that we are going to cling to faith. You are gonna cling to the truth of who Jesus Christ is with everything that you have in you because there are days where that's all that you've got.

There are days where all you can do is just hold on as tight as you can to Jesus because everything in the world wants to pull you away from him. Right? State wrestling this weekend, and nothing about wrestling is the same as it used to be when I was in high school. They've ruined it. But, the way overtime used to be when I was in high school is you had two overtimes.

The first overtime, if you could take a guy down, you won because you were the first to score points. If no one could do that in the first overtime, the second overtime was called sudden death and you'd have one guy on top, one guy on bottom. The guy on bottom had one goal and that was to get out. The guy on top had one goal and that was to hold on. And so we used to do

these 30 second starts when I was in high school and the 30 second start is, coach would blow the whistle and you got 30 seconds because that's how long sudden death overtime was and you had one job if you were on top. You just had to hang on. It didn't have to look pretty. You didn't have to do moves correctly. You just had to hang on. Even if that meant all you had was an ankle,

you just had to hang on. Brothers and sisters, sometimes fighting the good fight means all you can do is just hang on. Because the world is doing everything that they can to pull you away from Jesus and you just cling on as tight as you possibly can. How do you fight the good fight? You cling to faith. You keep the faith. But that's only one part of keeping the faith.

The other part of keeping the faith means you need to mature in the faith. You see, once you came to know Jesus, that was only the beginning. And now there's no excuse for you to continue to go back to the things of the world. There's no excuse for you to not grow because God's given you everything that you need for life and godliness right here. And so you need to mature

in the faith. Too many people are satisfied with fire insurance. It's okay, I'm saved. I'm not going to hell. But you're not growing. And we're gonna explain why that's a problem in just a minute. But you've got to, you have to mature in your faith. You need to learn what this word has to say. You need to obey what this word has to say. And you need to get to know

the God who gave you this word. I don't understand it. Stop using that as an excuse. Start praying. Start praying and asking God to teach you what his word says. And I promise you, he will. Maybe not in day one, maybe not day two, but he will. Because he still has a lot of world he's got to clear out of you. But we've got to mature in the faith. And if we're not maturing

in the faith, we'll become shipwrecked. We'll talk about that in just a minute. Number one, you need to keep the faith. Number two, you need to keep a good conscience. You need to keep a good conscience. What does that look like? Again, two-fold, I think. Number one, you need to trust in Christ for your past. A good conscience means we need to trust in Christ

for all those past things. That means every time that all of the guilt of past sins come up, you have to take them right back to Calvary. You have to take them right back where they came from. Right? It's one of the biggest things I had to learn early on in my walk with Jesus Christ, is I could not let past sins rule my life. And I don't mean the committing of past sins,

I mean the guilt of past sins. I had to keep taking them to Jesus and saying, Lord, that's yours. Right? I remember when I really understood that when Jesus carried the cross outside of the city and bore in his own body my penalty on the tree, that that's exactly what it meant. That he lifted all of my sin off of me, and he put it on Jesus. And it wasn't mine

to carry anymore. And so every time the guilt of that would come up, I would have to say, Lord, that one belongs to you because you took that from me already. That's part of having a good conscience. The second part of keeping a good conscience means you need to obey today. You need to obey today. Right? George Bentley, a guy that used to come and speak at my Bible college

all the time, also runs a fantastic ministry. We support him here. We have the magazines out there called Far Reaching Ministries, has this saying. He says, Obedience is the safety net of the believer. Obedience is the safety net of the believer. Because obedience maintains the good conscience of the believer. And if you don't obey, then it's time to confess.

If you, listen, you're not gonna go through life and not screw up sometimes. You're not gonna go through life and not screw up sometimes. You're not gonna go through life and not fail sometimes. Trust me. But when you do, you have to keep the account short with God. And the moment that you fail, you have to take it to Jesus and say, Lord, I screwed that one up.

I messed that up and I stumbled again. But we have to maintain that good conscience. Obedience is what God is continuing to call us to. He says, fight the good fight, keep the faith, and keep a good conscience. Why? Because he gives us the warning. Which some have rejected and suffered shame and fear and have been shipwrecked in regard to their faith. See, if you reject

keeping the faith, if you reject a good conscience, then your life will become shipwrecked. And you know who understood a shipwreck about as well as anybody? It was Paul. I think he was probably reminiscing on the time that he was shipwrecked from Antioch on his way to Rome. And as he thought about that, he thought about the fact that when the storm came up,

they drifted off course. And he noticed some rocks which caused the ship to break apart and caused the ship to wreck. And he thought that's exactly what these two guys that he's about to name did, is they got off course. And when they got off course, they landed into danger. And that's what happens in our lives. And listen, it happens quickly. Getting off course

happens faster than you think it's going to. And it always starts small. Right? It starts off with small little areas of our lives. One time when I was working construction, we were putting these rocks in their shape like this, right, because they're all along the ridge cap there. So we're working along, you know, putting them all in there. And as we go, we get about a fourth

of the way through and we thought, hey, we should look and make sure that we're not drifting off course. And so we stopped and we looked and we were like, whoops, let's start over. You know why? Because a sixteenth of an inch in this span of about four pieces, you don't notice it that much. A sixteenth of an inch in two, you get about 15 foot down the way and then you go,

that's a pretty big deal. You start, you start noticing it because pretty soon what was a ridge cap is now guttering, right? Because that's what happens because you start to get off. You have to constantly check because it only takes little bits to end up getting off and that's the way it is in our lives, right? It only takes a little bit to get us a little bit off course.

He says, some of these folks have shipwrecked themselves because they have gotten off course and so he gives this warning and then he goes on to name a couple of them. Notice what he says, among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I have handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. I think one of the things that fascinates me the most about Paul is he names people. Have you ever noticed that?

Like Paul does not mind calling out names, name dropping guys that have failed. In our culture today we don't do that anymore. You know, you can't name that person because maybe they should be embarrassed about it. I think that when this letter was read, I don't know if Hymenaeus and Alexander were there but I think everybody knew who they were and they were like, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander?

And they were like, what? I had no idea. I had no idea those guys had gotten off course. You know why he names names? Because it makes it real. Because when you can go, I know who that guy is and I know who they were and I can't believe where they've landed, it makes it really real. I remember as a Calvary Chapel pastor hearing about a guy by the name of Bob Coy.

Some of you that have been around Calvary for a long time know who Bob Coy is. If you haven't, you don't know who Bob Coy is and don't Google his name later because it's pretty embarrassing what he found himself falling into. Pastor of a fantastically huge Calvary Chapel down in Florida. Incredibly successful and he got off course and it was slow but sure but he finally hit the point where no one knew him until his sin came to light in a legal way.

And I remember when his name got named and we were all like, that's a big name guy who pastors a mega church and he got massively off course. And when you start to name a name that you recognize, everybody pays attention because you go, I heard him speak at conferences. I've, I've listened to him. And so he gives us this warning so that we'll pay attention to it.

So this is what God wants us to do. He wants us to pay attention to it so that we don't get off track. I want you to notice what he says in verse 20. Among whom are these two guys whom I have handed over to Satan so that they will be taught not to blaspheme. What does he mean by that? Well he means I've ultimately turned him over. I've set them outside of the church

to give them what they want until they realize what they need. Let me give you a little bit of an illustration. I was reading the book of Numbers this last week. Numbers chapter 11. In Numbers chapter 11 it says the children of Israel on their wilderness wandering. And God had already given them the perfect food. It's called manna. Only it's more fun to call it manna

because that feels a little bit more like how God would have said it. Anyway, so he gives them the manna and they're completely content. We have this perfect food that we're supposed to eat. But eventually and I love the Christian Standard Bible on this. It calls them the riffraff. It's amazing. We had all this meat to eat. And God says fine. You want meat to eat?

He'll give you meat to eat. He'll give it to you today and tomorrow and every day for the rest of the month. As a matter of fact you're gonna eat so much meat that it is gonna come out of your nostrils. God's words not mine. He said I will give you in judgment what you want until you come to realize what you need. And that's what Paul says he does here with his son.

The prodigal son comes to his father and says I want my inheritance now. The dad says okay. I'll give you what you want. And then when you realize what you need you can come home. And that's what he does for the purpose of repentance. But brothers and sisters the gospel is powerful. Let it do its work in your life. But keep yourself on track and fight the good

fight of faith. And the last thing I want to say is that I'm gonna be here on Sunday and I'm hoping we have a line of kids about to head this way. I'm gonna invite the worship team to come on up. As the kids come in the door parents if you could keep an eye out so that your kid doesn't wander around the sanctuary a few times. Not that that's happened before

last time. And when the kids get in here when the kids get in here we'll talk to the guy towards the front. There she is. All right we got one more crew coming right up here. OK. It is communion Sunday and what a beautiful one for us to be able to partake in today with the discussion on the gospel. So inside of each of these trays are the elements that we'll partake

of. As always there's the two cups that are stacked together the bottom cup has the cracker in it and the top cup has the cracker in it. But Paul in 1 Corinthians tells us that if we're going to do this we need to do it in a worthy manner. So I'd like to take just a few moments to talk about what we do with communion. On that last great night of the feast Jesus took the bread

and again as I like to point out it's not the bread like you and I think of. It's not some big fluffy loaf of bread. It would have been unleavened bread because that's what they would have used and the bread really did speak of his body because leaven speaks of sin and it's unleavened meaning it's sinless and pure and it's pierced just like he was for us and it's striped just like he was for us and he took that bread and he broke it. He said this is my body take and eat.

And then he took that last cup the cup of the new covenant or the excuse me the cup of redemption and he said this is this is my blood shed in the name of Jesus. He said for the new covenant for you take and drink. And while we know that that what's in here is not the body of Jesus and the blood of Jesus nor does it become that. It is incredibly symbolic of what Jesus did for us because we are reminded that his body was broken for us.

We're told in the book of Isaiah that he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement or the punishment for our peace was laid upon him and his stripes were healed. So as we partake in that bread we are reminded of the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ for us and everything that he endured for us. We're also told that the blood of Jesus Christ is enough to cover all of our sins. That through the shedding of blood comes the forgiveness of sins.

So as we partake in that we are reminded that the blood flowed down his cheeks from the beatings that he endured and that the blood and water flowed from his side when he was pierced for our iniquities. The blood of Jesus Christ was enough to cleanse us of all of our sins and we're told that every time we do this it declares to the world the death of Jesus Christ and that that is the one hope that we have. So if you're here this morning and you've never accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior you're believers. Now today could be the day that you give your heart to Jesus and I would encourage you that if you've never done that that today is the day that you say you know what I know who I am apart from Jesus and I don't want that to be me anymore.

I want to be born again. I want my heart to be given to Jesus so that I can with all of these other people say that I found mercy and that I was given grace abundantly through Jesus Christ. If you're here this morning and you're a believer in Jesus Christ and we need to make sure that our hearts are right before him because like I said sometimes our conscience accuses us and so we have to deal with that conscience and the way we do that is through confession. So as they sing this last song for us the ushers are going to come down and they're going to hand out the elements and I would encourage you just to allow the Lord to search your heart and do whatever business with God needs to be done.

When you've received your elements if you'll please stand and then we'll partake together. Father we come before you and Lord I just want to praise you and thank you for the sacrifice and thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord for all of the things that you endured on our behalf. Lord I thank you for the body of Jesus. I thank you for your blood

that was shed for us Lord. Your blood that was shed to set us free from sin. Not only to cover our sin Lord but to take it away and allow us to be as white as snow. And Father I thank you that Jesus even endured having you turn your back on him so that you would not have to turn your back on us. Father I thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. And Lord we just thank you

for who you are in Jesus name. And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father thank you for the time that we've had in your word. And I pray that the gospel of Jesus Christ would sink deeply into our hearts. Lord that it would continue to change the fabric of who we are. And Lord that we would be drawn near to you. In Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed and don't forget

to turn your clocks back next week.