1st Timothy chapter 1. As we'll be finishing up the chapter today, knocking out a larger chunk of scripture than we've done the last several weeks, we'll be looking at verses 12 to 20. Sickness has struck our household. My wife was looking quite beautiful and lovely and ready for church this morning when I left and then had to text me at the end of Sunday school and said one of our children had gotten sick. And so the Hughes home is in recovery, if you would. Pray for us, we would greatly appreciate it. But it is a privilege for us to be here and to continue in this series as we have been in 1 Timothy. Today, as I mentioned, looking at verses 12 to 20. In honor of the word of the King, would you please stand? Reading 1 Timothy 1, beginning in verse 12, I'll be reading from the English Standard Version. The Apostle Paul writing to his servant Timothy in Ephesus. Hear the word of the Lord. I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. Though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I receive mercy for this reason. that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith with a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. You may be seated as we pray. Heavenly Father, as we come into this passage today, as we wrap up this particular chapter in 1 Timothy, may we see in it the mercy of God as Paul, by his testimony, was displayed to him and that we may understand has been demonstrated to us. We, like Paul, have been insolent opponents by our sin, by our rebellion against God, the High King of the universe. What do we deserve? But death and destruction. And yet you have shown us mercy and grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. May these reminders be ever before us here. And may we understand even how we may apply this mercy that has been shown to us, that we may show mercy to others. And we may do even as Paul charges Timothy here to wage the good warfare and continue to fight the good fight until we are with our Lord in glory. It is in the name of Jesus that we pray and all God's people said, amen. I think it can be officially said now that we have entered into the holiday season. Whatever debates you may have had with regard to when it's okay to start listening to Christmas music or when you can put the tree up, if you are between Thanksgiving and Christmas, it's official. This is the holidays, so you can listen to Christmas music all you want now without any scorn from friends and family. Christmas is a holiday that needs no introduction. It's still marked on every calendar that you buy that Christmas day, specifically that day that we commemorate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, is on December 25th. As secular, as increasingly secular as our world is becoming, we still have not gotten away from that fact. Christmas is still on the calendar. It's Christ's name that's right there. as we remember that day that God became incarnate and put on flesh and dwelt among us. Every year on December 25th, billions of people from around the globe celebrate Christmas with worship, music, gifts, food, decor, lights, stories, and festivities. Some of you have been enjoying some of those holiday activities already. No other holiday, not even among the seasonal solstices and equinoxes, is as woven into so many cultures and endeared to so many people as Christmas Day. Christmas comes with many fond memories for my family and me. I have traditions that I grew up with, that my parents gave to us kids, and then I take some of those traditions and share them with my wife and kids, and we even make new memories of our own, and that has probably been the case with you and your family as well. But not everything around this holiday season is peace on earth and goodwill towards men. The commercialization of Christmas can sometimes suck the joy right out of things. I actually found it discouraging to walk into Home Depot in September and found a whole Christmas display. It's like, come on, it's not time for that. You're just trying to make a buck off of Christmas. We haven't quite gotten to that season just yet. For some, the holidays are even full of stress and anxiety and depression. The beauty of the gospel and the Christmas story is often shrouded by myth, legend, and paganism. Meanwhile, cynics clamor every year to defrock Christmas of its religious heritage and make it more secular. Indeed, Christmas has its share of Scrooges, Grinches, and Herods. Even among professing Christians can be that way. But no one can change the fact that Christmas has been and will continue to be a Christian tradition for generations. We live in a fallen world and not all was calm and bright that first Christmas either. Despite some of the cons that the Christmas season may bring, it can be a wonderful time with friends and family, experiencing all the warmth the holidays make us feel. But however you feel about Christmas, maybe you celebrate it and maybe you don't. At the heart of the story that surrounds this holiday season is the truth that all humanity is fallen from God because of our sin. And God sent us a savior. In all of your celebrations, and whether it be seasonal or every day of the year, There should be at the heart of all that you do this message of the gospel. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And that is right at the center of this passage. that we are looking at this morning. Paul's saying in verse 15, the saying is trustworthy, meaning that this was a confession that was in the church that Christians memorized and repeated and rejoiced in. It is deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. and then saying, of whom I am the foremost. Now, was that part of the saying that Paul said was trustworthy, or is that something that Paul is applying specifically to himself? We'll consider that as we delve into this passage further. But it's in light of this saying, Christ came into the world to save sinners, that Paul charges Timothy to wage the good warfare. And what is the good warfare? But that we would continue in this gospel message and share the gospel message in the world against the powers of darkness in this present age. Yet we go out in this spiritual war to declare that Christ came into the world to save sinners. And it is against those forces of darkness that we have fought back and had victory over every time someone comes into the kingdom of God one out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. So may we wage this warfare faithfully, even in the present age. As we look over this passage here this morning, it's divided up into three parts. You'll actually notice that the word blasphemer comes up two times. Paul says in verse 13, formerly, I was a blasphemer. And then he's going to turn this against the false teachers toward the end when he says that Hymenaeus and Alexander have been blasphemers. But God shows mercy to those even who have blasphemed. And you see this kind of turn of phrase here twice in verses 12 to 17. Paul says, but I received mercy in verse 13, and then says it again in verse 16, but I received mercy for this reason. So we see Paul saying that he had received mercy to display God's grace, that's in verses 12 to 14. And then Paul received mercy to display God's patience, that's in verses 15 to 17. So there's our division there in that particular section. The last paragraph, verses 18 to 20, We have a contrast again between true and false teachers, but it's there in that contrast that Paul gives Timothy the imperative to wage the good warfare in light of the fact that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. wage the good warfare for the cause of Christ. So let's look at these passages further here. We've had the bird's eye view now. Let's get right down on the ground level and look at this line by line. In verse 12, Paul says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service. So you have several stanzas in there. First of all, with Paul saying, I thank him. I thank God who has given me strength, the ability to preach, the zealousness to defend the gospel in the face of all of the opposition that Paul came up against. He had the strength and endurance to do this because Christ had given it to him. Many of you are probably familiar with Philippians 4.13. You could probably recite it by heart. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Now that verse is often ripped out of context. I see athletes all the time love to use this verse to say, I have strengthened Christ to win a marathon. It's Stephen Curry, who's one of the basketball players for the Golden State Warriors, on his basketball shoe. Printed on his basketball shoe is the phrase, I can do all things. And that's taken directly from Philippians 4.13. But it kind of has that message of I can win an NBA championship through Christ who gives me strength. So the way that verse gets taken out of context and applied, it makes it sound more like I can do all things through a Bible verse that's taken out of context. But when you look into the context of Philippians 4.13, you recognize that Paul is saying there that whether times are good or times are bad, I know what it's like to be in plenty and I know what it's like to be in want. And whether I am relaxed or I am in desperation, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Our ability to be sustained in even the worst of circumstances is not dependent upon us and our strength. It is especially in those moments that we depend on Christ and his strength. And Paul gives full recognition here that even his ability to preach the way that he does is in the strength of Christ. I thank him who has given me strength. And think about who it is that he is talking to. Timothy, who he sent to Ephesus, who is in a very pagan culture and one that is incredibly hostile to Christianity. We read about that in the book of Acts with the riot that had happened there in Ephesus. Paul even wanting to go into the stadium and calm the people down, but he had friends that were like, don't do that. You go in there, they will kill you. And he says, I fought with the beasts at Ephesus. He sends his most trusted protege into that environment, into a church that he loved, but into a city that was very hostile against Christianity. And Timothy being as young as he was, and yet Paul sets forth for him this example, the strength for you to do what you've got to do and the task that is in front of you as a preacher there in this church. It is not dependent upon you and your strength. You must depend on Christ and his strength. And so Paul says, I thank him who gave me strength. Christ Jesus, our Lord. because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service." Now, I've heard people take that phrase, he judged me faithful, or he considered me faithful, and I've seen them say, see, Paul had a faithfulness about him even before he became a Christian. He was a Pharisee, he loved the law, and he, as a lover of the law of God, wanted to make sure that people followed the law. And even he followed the law to the best of his abilities, but he just did not yet know Christ. So because of his faithfulness, God chose him as a servant in this work that he had in front of him to make him an apostle of Jesus Christ. I actually read from one Methodist minister earlier this week who interpreted the phrase exactly like that. seeing that Paul was faithful, he was already faithfully zealous in the word of God, and so therefore God said, well, I'm gonna choose that guy to be my apostle. But that's not the understanding of the phrase here. That's not what it's meant. For he judged me faithful is really to understand it this way, as Matthew Poole summarized it, a 17th century theologian, really to understand it this way, he made Paul faithful. He judged me faithful means to make him faithful. And Poole goes on to explain that if God looked down the tunnel of time and saw that Paul would be faithful, then Paul earned the benefit received and he would have no cause for thanksgiving. Look how good I've been. And that's why God appointed me to this service. But what does Paul say? I thank him who has given me strength. He judged me faithful. He made me faithful to this cause, appointing me to this service. John Gill, the famous Baptist minister, said this, God counted him faithful, having made him so by grace. and thus kept him, faithfulness being a necessary requisite and qualification for a gospel minister, he having a great trust committed to him, being made a steward of the manifold grace and mysteries of God. And here Paul is entrusting Timothy with that work. For as he says later on in 1 Timothy 3, I write these things to you so that you may know how one ought to conduct himself as a steward in the household of God. So as Paul has been a steward of the manifold grace and mysteries of God, so Paul is saying this responsibility is even upon you. that you would be a good steward of these things, and that Timothy, by Paul's testimony, would know that this is never to our congratulations. It is to the praise and the glory of Christ, who counts us faithful by His strength, not ours. and consider that Paul gives no credit to himself at all. When in the next verse he says, formerly, I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. So how could you take that phrase that he judged me faithful to mean I was faithful when Paul goes right into saying, no, I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. That's who I was before I came to Christ. Paul as a Pharisee was not faithful to the Word of God. We know from what Jesus said about the Pharisees, the Pharisees added to the Word of God. They twisted God's law. They made up their own laws and imposed them upon the people. So this was not in any way a faithful office. Paul says that in that office he was a blasphemer. He was a persecutor and an insolent opponent. He blasphemed God. And really the understanding of that word blaspheme, we tend to take that word and make it mean that it's just using God's name in vain. That is certainly one form of blasphemy. But really the way this word is understood and applied is as a blasphemer, Paul is accusing God of wrong. That's really at the heart of blasphemy when we understand that word and its application here. So Paul as a blasphemer, how would he be accusing God of wrong? Well, if the Pharisees are twisting God's word and making new laws and adding to it, it's as though to say, God, you don't have this right, let me help you out. And to write God's word for him. And to say, this is really the better way. And Paul understands that when that was his ministry prior to coming to Christ and a preacher of the gospel, that he was a blasphemer. It was a false ministry, wicked in opposition against God and leading people to destruction and not to salvation. No one would have been saved under the ministry that Paul was in prior to his conversion. Formerly he was a blasphemer and he was a persecutor. He was one who persecuted the Church of God. You know his story as we talked about in the introduction of 1 Timothy in Acts chapter 9 where he's on his way to Damascus to round up Christians to persecute them. He was one who opposed the Church of Jesus Christ. He was an insolent opponent. He opposed God. As I had often heard R.C. Sproul preach during the years of his ministry, that all sin is cosmic treason against the king of the universe. And Paul was an insolent opponent. He was foolishly opposing. He who is enthroned upon high. But Paul says, he goes on to say, I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. Now remember when we had talked about the law in the previous section, that ignorance of the law is no what? Excuse. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You can get pulled over for speeding. The officer asks you, do you know how fast you're going? If you say, I don't know, that's not going to get you out of a ticket. Ignorance of the law is no excuse. And so Paul is not making an excuse for himself either. He's not saying that because I was ignorant, God had mercy on me. For he says to the Greeks at Athens in Acts chapter 17, the times of ignorance God has overlooked, but now he is calling all men everywhere to repent. So even to pagans, that message would be proclaimed, you were ignorant, And yet God is showing mercy to you. And so here he says, I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. I was ignorant, I was in unbelief, God showed mercy to me. Because what does he deserve for his ignorance and unbelief? Does he deserve mercy? No, he deserves judgment. He deserves the wrath of God. And yet God showed mercy in that Paul did not get what he deserved. And so in this first section, in verses 12 to 14, Paul says, I receive mercy. to display God's grace. I received mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, verse 14, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The very faith that Paul has, the love that he has for God, comes not from himself, but it is by the grace of God. You never will yourself to be a believer of God. Today, I'm gonna decide to follow Jesus. And though we sing that in the hymn, I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back, no turning back. As far as our human experience goes, yes, you made a decision. But when you look into the theology of it, you recognize, I had no ability to make that decision. but it was only because God was gracious to me that I experienced this transformation of heart that went from being an insolent opponent of God to now being a worshiper of God. And that is because of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit within our hearts. You had nothing to do with your first birth. You have nothing to do with your spiritual birth. To be born again is a gracious work of God that we would be brought from death to life. You don't raise yourself from the dead. It is God by the powerful working of his spirit that has brought you into his kingdom. And Paul, with complete humility here, and incredible lofty language of the greatness and height of God. Does he say, this was not me, it was all of God. And Paul tells this to Timothy. so that Timothy would know, once again, the strength you need for the task that is at hand, for the things that are in front of you, is not gonna be dependent upon you and your strength. It is dependent upon God who showed us grace and mercy. So look to Christ for your strength and continue to preach these things to others that they may know that Christ is our strength. Whatever circumstance that you are dealing with, whatever you might be going through, it is Christ who strengthens us and sustains us in our most desperate times of need. And so here in this section, Paul says, I receive mercy to display God's grace. That's verses 12 to 14. And then in the next section, I receive mercy to display God's patience in verses 15 to 17 here. So he begins this next part by saying in verse 15, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Now again, this was a saying, this was a creed or a confession in the church. So we see here, especially in the pastoral epistles in 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus, that there was confessional tradition that was going on in the church even in the first century. I hear this all the time, especially as a confessional minister, as somebody who is reformed, that somebody will say, you know, no creed but Christ, no confession but the Bible. You've probably heard statements like that that have been made before. Well, what do you mean by no creed but Christ? Do you mean the Mormon Jesus? No, I don't mean the Mormon. I mean the Jesus of the Bible. Ah, okay. Well, see, by that very explanation, now you've become confessional because you're confessing it must only be this Christ and not the Jesus of the world's invention. When somebody says no confession but the Bible, well, the Bible's a big book. It's over 750,000 words. What do you believe about the Trinity? What do you believe about baptism? That came up in our discussion in Sunday school this morning. What do you believe about living a new life, new life in Christ, the new birth? What do those things mean? How do you define those terms? And when you summarize those terms and you give them definitions, you're being confessional. This isn't some new invention or some new practice or tradition that we've come up with in the modern age of the church. We can see from scripture that this was going on even in the times that the New Testament was still being written. There were confessions that the church had. These summarizing statements that state plainly what it is that we believe. One of the shortest and earliest confessions of the church is Jesus Christ is Lord, karyos aesus, in the Greek. And that was in opposition to the statements that the Caesars had for the people, Caesar is Lord. The Christians said, we are not gonna declare Caesar is Lord. We're gonna declare that Christ is Lord. That was one of the earliest creeds and earliest confessions of the church. Here we have another saying, a trustworthy saying, Paul says, that the church had adopted as a confession, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And we have there in that very confession a statement of Him being the Messiah. That's what Christ means. So He is the one who saves. He is Jesus, the one whom Yahweh sends, for that is inherent in that particular name. And that He came into the world. He is God who put on human flesh and dwelt among us, as John confesses at the beginning of his gospel. And He came here to save sinners. Christ did not die to make sinners savable. Jesus died to save sinners. When he died and when he declared, it is finished, something was accomplished. And it was the salvation of those whom God had elected for salvation. And all those who believe in Him, who put their faith and trust in Christ Jesus, show themselves to be the ones whom Christ died for. Not one drop of His blood is wasted. It will accomplish everything that He died for it to accomplish. Christ came into the world to save sinners. Those who have opposed God, those who broke his law, as said in 1 John, sin is lawlessness. It is going against what God has said we must do and instead going our own way. Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. That's sin. And yet the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all, Christ came into the world to save sinners. But then Paul tacks on these next six words, of whom I am the foremost. Is that part of the confession? Or is that something that Paul is saying autobiographically of himself? The saying is trustworthy, deserving of full acceptance. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. So if that's part of the confession, then it would be as though to say that no one knows my own sin better than I know it. Right? So if that's part of the confession and that's part of what you would even say as a confession, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. Well, how could it be that every one of us can say that I am the foremost sinner? But simply as to say, I know my sin better than anybody. And there's no one else's sins I know more than I know my own. As Charles Spurgeon said, When the world ridicules you, cheer up, for you are far worse than they think you are. Whatever the world would have to say about me and my own sins, I want to say to them, brother, you don't even know the half of it. I had committed such travesties against God and the harm that I had caused to others. It baffles me. that God would show such mercy and grace to me. And speaking even of myself, speaking of my own testimony personally, growing up, I grew up in a Christian household. I worked at a Christian radio station. On paper, I look like a squeaky clean kid. I was the guy that moms wanted their daughters to marry. Dads were a little more suspicious of me, but the moms wanted me to marry their daughters. But they didn't know. They had no idea the secret sins that I was concealing, the things that I was doing in my private life, that looking back on, so wicked and so fallen. And I had everybody fooled and was just living life as a hypocrite. Saying one thing but in secret, doing another. It's like as John Owen said, who you are in secret is who you really are. And that was who I was. And it's amazing to me that God has yet shown me mercy and has forgiven me those sins. So I fully recognize and fully adopt, if this is indeed part of the confession, what it means to say of whom I am the foremost. Because I know no one's sin better than I know my own. But I want to make an argument here to say that Paul is not saying that that is part of the confession. He is actually autobiographically attaching this to himself. and saying that he is the foremost sinner. Now even though that's not part of the confession and Paul is saying that of himself, that's not to say that he's the worst sinner that ever lived and there's never anybody who sinned worse than I have. That's not really the statement that Paul is making. There is something hyperbolic about this. But it is Paul to confess that I am the chief of sinners. Though that may not be part of the confession, yet you can find application in it for yourself, just as I explained it. Because you don't know anybody's sin better than you know your own. And so for Paul to say of himself, I am the chief of sinners, I am a sinner of sinners, is to say that I am in desperation of the mercy and grace of God. So that any one of us can apply that same understanding and recognize that I am a foremost sinner and I am in need of foremost grace. But I receive mercy, Paul says, for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. There was a particular sin that only Paul was guilty of and the rest of the apostles were not. And this is one of the reasons why Paul says of himself in 1 Corinthians 15, 8, that he is one as untimely born. So the rest of the apostles, they actually spent time with Jesus in his earthly ministry. Paul didn't have that. What was the sin that Paul committed the rest of the apostles did not? He persecuted the church. And yet, though he persecuted the church, Christ chose him to be an apostle to the Gentiles, one who had formerly persecuted the church, and now he's working on building the church. And so Paul says, I receive mercy for this reason, that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. Because if God can be patient with the man who was persecuting his body, then surely he can be patient with me. Paul had not committed sins as egregious as David did, but yet even the sins that David committed, committing adultery and then trying to cover it up by having the husband of the woman that he committed adultery with murdered, And yet it was through this sin even that God displayed his patience through David. And we read in Psalm 51 what David prayed after he had been convicted over that sin. Created me a clean heart, O God, and renewed a right spirit within me. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. And then I shall testify to sinners of the grace of God that has been shown to me. Even that's in Psalm 51. So David becomes a testimony of that even through these things that he had done in opposition to God. So Paul demonstrates even by his life that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might show his perfect patience. as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life. So you've come to faith in Jesus Christ, guess what? That's because of God's perfect patience toward you. Romans 3.23, we read that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith. And it says that in His divine forbearance, He passed over former sins. Another way of saying God had perfect patience toward us. And yet while we were sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5, 8. God shows his love for us in this way, that while we were sinners, Christ died for us. I love the way that Paul phrases this as his perfect patience. Why did God save me when he did? Why didn't he save me earlier? Because his way is perfect. Why did he let me continue in the sin that I would do worse and worse things and save me later? Because his patience is perfect. I pray for my children that they would come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ earlier than I did so that they would not repeat the same stupid mistakes that I made and come into the same kinds of sins that I did. Even though God has shown me mercy for those things, there were still consequences for those behaviors. And I pray that God would be merciful and spare my children from those things, that they would know his grace early. Yet whenever he shows his mercy to them, it will be in his perfect patience. And so Paul concludes this, that he has said to Timothy, talked about receiving mercy to display God's grace. He talked about receiving mercy to display God's patience. Though he deserved death, God showed him mercy. and he gives praise to the King of the Ages. Look at verse 17, which closes this paragraph. To the King of the Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. Now notice there's something very, very important, that Paul has just called Jesus God. He is the king of the ages. He, the God-man, is immortal, invisible, and the only God. Christ Jesus, who came into the world to save sinners, who died at the hands of those he had created, and rose again from the dead. Yet, however man would characterize this Jesus, he is God. He is immortal. He is invisible, we cannot see him, but to him be honor and glory forever and ever. Why can't we see God? I was blessed that in the teaching of R.C. Sproul on Renewing Your Mind, it was just this past week that they had a teaching from Sproul on exactly this. Why is God invisible? Sproul said it's one of the hardest things about being a Christian, that you believe in and worship and obey a God you cannot see. Why is he invisible? Why can't we see him? Because of what God said to Moses, no one can see my face and live. If God were to appear right now in front of us, it would melt our faces right off. We cannot stand in the holiness of God. We are being sanctified and prepared for that day when we will stand in his presence. But for now, as we inhabit these mortal bodies, we do not see his face. But soon, as said in 1 Corinthians 13, we will see him face to face. In the Beatitudes, in Matthew chapter 5, who was it that Jesus said would see God? Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. It is the holiness, the righteousness that God has imputed to us by faith in his son. It is only that that becomes our access into the very presence of God. And on that day, we will see him because of his grace and mercy to us. To him be the honor and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Now it's these two statements that Paul has made, receiving mercy to display God's grace, receiving mercy to display God's patience, that he then gives this imperative to Timothy. in verses 18 to 20. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you. This is not permission for us to go and lay hands on one another and say, I prophesy on you this, now go out and do it. You've not been given that authority, but the apostles had been. So the prophecies that were made about Timothy in the teaching that was entrusted to him, Paul says, by them you may wage the good warfare. holding faith and a good conscience. And by rejecting this some have made shipwreck of their faith. So he says wage the good warfare and then in verse 19 he defines it, holding faith and a good conscience. So the work that we do preaching the gospel and even defending the truth from those who malign it, that's spiritual warfare and keeping a good conscience, continuing in purity, walking in holiness, growing in the sanctification that you have been given in Christ Jesus. This is also spiritual warfare. We tend to think of spiritual warfare as like some battle that's going on between angels and demons with these spiritual swords behind this veil that we cannot see. Right here in this room, we're worshiping God while there's angels and demons duking it out, and that's spiritual warfare. Every day husband, you wake up and love your wife. That's spiritual warfare. Every day wife, you wake up and submit to your husband in honor of Christ. That's spiritual warfare. When you love your children and you train them and raise them up in the discipline and the instruction of the Lord, guess what? That's spiritual warfare. When you feel grieved and depressed and you fall before God on your face in tears and say, God, help me. That's spiritual warfare. And as we grow in the holiness that we are given by God, we wage the good warfare. When we resist temptation and go the right way that honors the Lord, we wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. But some, by rejecting these things, they've rejected the truth. They do not have a good conscience, but give in to temptation, walk in the way of the world, following their own sinful desires. They have made shipwreck of their faith. They cannot demonstrate that their faith is genuine in Christ. They have destroyed it instead. and have gone about something that they've defined on their own, something that would allow me to have the passions of the flesh that I want to have. And in verse 20, Paul says, he even gives examples to Timothy, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander. Now, we don't know exactly who these men are. Hymenaeus, that name comes up again in 2 Timothy. We don't know if it's the same guy because he's mentioned with a different person there. Alexander is also mentioned in 2 Timothy, but not in the context with Hymenaeus. So it could be that this is a unique circumstance, and then when Paul mentions another Hymenaeus and Alexander later, then those are different men under a different circumstance. We don't know for sure. We also don't know exactly what it was that they were teaching that caused Hymenaeus and Alexander to be put out of the church, as Paul says here. I've handed them over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. That was another way of saying that they've been put out of the church. Paul tells the Corinthians to do that with the wicked and unrepentant in 1st Corinthians 5, turn him over to Satan, which means they must be disciplined out of the church. So we don't know exactly what it was that Hymenaeus and Alexander were teaching, but it was most likely the kinds of things that Paul was talking about at the beginning of the chapter. They've gone beyond sound doctrine and they ventured off into these speculations and myths and endless genealogies. They're not even teaching the stewardship from God that is by faith anymore. They've gone on into their own pet doctrines that they may permit people to do whatever it is they feel like doing. But Paul says, I've handed them over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. He sets these examples before Timothy, and Timothy surely would have recognized the names. knew exactly what these men were guilty of, and they were put out of the church. But notice here that Paul does not clear anathema upon them. Like he doesn't say of them that there's no hope for them anymore. These men are condemned and they're going to hell. What does he say about them? I've handed them over to Satan that they may learn. not to blaspheme, that they may know the words that they declared were in opposition to God. They were, as I said earlier, even accusing God of wrong. Your word is wrong, my word is right. Paul said that was exactly where he once was. Formerly, I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, and I was an insolent opponent, but God showed me mercy. And so Paul does the same even with these false teachers. They're blasphemers, but he shows them mercy, handing them over to Satan that they may learn this is wrong and it separates you from God. Leaving them in the church would be a detriment to themselves and to the church. And so presents these two false teachers to Timothy as here's what not to be like. And here's what you are to charge certain persons not to teach. That was the instruction he gave earlier in verse 3, charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, like the doctrines of Hymenaeus and Alexander. Instead, what is the example that Timothy is to follow? But the example that Paul has given him and himself. And to even remember those things that were prophesied upon him when hands were laid on him and he was told to wage the good warfare. So my friends, as I said earlier, in light of these things, we must do the same. Paul received mercy to display God's grace. He received mercy to display God's patience. He then charges Timothy to wage the good warfare, and the same applications can be said of us. You have received God's mercy. And you must remember that the mercy that you have received is to display God's grace. It is not to congratulate yourself for all the wonderful things that you have done, but it is to give glory to God for what he has done for you. May your life be a testament to the work of God. A friend of mine just this morning on social media, she posted the following. Before I was saved, I chose my sin every time. My free will was encompassed in my heart of stone. I could never choose Christ until I was given a heart of flesh. I thank God for his mercy and grace for a loser like me. And as the testimony of your life where God has shown mercy to you, something by which you give glory to God and you are pointing others to Christ because he showed you mercy, let me tell you about the God of mercy. So secondly, because you have shown God's mercy. First of all, you've received God's mercy. Let that be a measure of your testimony. Secondly, because you have received God's mercy, you must show God's mercy to others. There are others that have surely sinned against you, that have done all manner of wrongs and unrighteousness, righteousnesses against you. Is that plural? Anyway. But do you live this life now of vindictiveness, of vengeance, of bitterness, where you're trying to find ways to gain revenge against the person who had wronged you? Or because God has shown you mercy, do you understand that you now must show mercy to others? We must not walk in bitterness any longer, for praise God, he did not have bitterness toward us. He was patient to us, and so we must likewise demonstrate patience with others. Let me read to you what Paul says to the Colossians in Colossians chapter three. In Colossians 3.12, he says, put on then as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts. kindness, humility, meekness, and, oh, here's a big one, patience. The same patience God shows to us we should have with one another. Bearing with one another, and if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. As God has shown you mercy, so you must also show mercy to others. So you've received God's mercy, be a testament of God's mercy. Secondly, if you've been shown God's mercy, you must show mercy to others. And this is the way that we would apply these things that Paul has given to Timothy. But then thirdly, just as Paul instructs Timothy to wage the good warfare, so we must also wage the good warfare in our lives. Resist the powers of darkness in the present age. One of those passages that was especially convicting to me when it came to understanding how I am to live in the midst of this present darkness, Philippians 2.14 says, do everything without grumbling or complaining. I was immediately convicted by that. Because my friends, this world will give you a license to complain and argue and bicker about your circumstances. You want to complain about your circumstances, that's great. I'll let you do it if you let me complain about mine. And we're just a big room of complaining people. If you're sitting at a restaurant complaining about your circumstances, no one around you is going to fault you for that. Yeah, I've got them too. I can sing the blues also. But what is the reason that is given there in Philippians 2.14 to do all things without grumbling and complaining? Paul goes on to say, so that you become children without fault in a crooked and depraved generation among whom you shine as lights in the world. It is otherworldly for us to live lives of rejoicing instead of lives of complaining and arguing. And it's in this, even, that we wage the good warfare, resisting the way of the world and even the temptations of our flesh, that we would rejoice in Christ who gives us strength. And we testify in our very lives this confession that we have committed ourselves to as the Church of Jesus Christ, the saying is trustworthy and it is deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And one of those sinners, my brothers and sisters, is me. Christ Jesus came into this world to save. me, and save you also, that we might be holy and blameless before Him in love." Whenever we come to this table, we remember the body that was broken to save sinners. We remember the blood that was poured out for the forgiveness of sins as represented in the cup. We heard this morning, if you were in Sunday school, you heard the teaching on church history where Robert Godfrey had talked about how eventually in church, myth and speculation came into these elements, that we can transform this into the actual body of Christ. We can transform this into his actual blood. And then those that believe such things would even bow down and worship this because it's the actual body and the actual blood of Christ. But these things are not Jesus themselves. They represent the true Christ and what he did for us. And when we partake in them, we remember him. We worship him. For he came to save sinners like you and me. Let us take a moment of silence. and reflect upon this and prepare our hearts to partake of the Lord's table as those who are going to serve it will come forward.