Hello, everybody. Good evening. Good evening. Good afternoon. Good morning. Guten tag. Buenos dias. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your constant and tender care and mercy in our lives. That you are always in control. Even when we think that things are spiraling out of control, you are in control. And even when the waves, the winds of fear and doubt. The winds have changed, the waves of fear and doubt come. You are in the vessel with us and you speak your word and the wind and the waves obey you. We just thank you, Father, that your plan is perfect and that we have every reason to rejoice and be happy, to be content, and to look forward to wonderful, bright and brilliant future that you promised to those Who love you the kingdom that you promised to those who love you a kingdom of bright light And wonderful things beyond anything that we could think ask or imagine So father we thank you for these things bless the Word of God as it goes forth Magnify the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ the guest of honor in this place where two or three Are gathered together in his name welcome Lord Jesus in your name that we pray man. I Avoiding shipwreck Paul's advice to the young pastor teacher Timothy who he found when he was in Lystra, the place he was stoned to death. That's where Timothy came from. Timothy had a Greek father and a Jewish mother. His mother and his grandmother taught him the word of God. Paul says to him in 2 Timothy 2.15, how from a child you have learned the holy scriptures, you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Here he says, asks him and challenges him, fulfill his call, and that which was prophesied concerning his very fruitful life and ministry. It's Tuesday, February 18th, 2020. We were talking about the law on Sunday, and the law is not for the righteous. They don't need any laws, restrictions, or threats of punishment. or measures to correct wrong thinking and bad decisions and wrongdoing, but for the resistant, the laws for the resistant, the rebellious, the arrogant, the violent, and the insolent. It is sure, in every case, because God has programmed the consequences of every wrong step and bad decision with negative results. It's sure to reduce them, those that do those things, and resist God, restrict them, restrain them, from succeeding in the end, finding what they're looking for. In many cases, in many if not most cases, should they persist, they will be viewing the world through iron bars because God has also implemented and established law enforcement. According to the Decalogue, for those who would steal and kill and do the other things against their neighbors because they don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ and therefore they don't have a proper relationship with mankind. Because the first is essential for the second. There's two tablets of the law. The first is love the Lord your God. The second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. But they'll be looking at the world through bars if they violate the law. That is, until they come to understand, if they ever do, and respect the law of God, due unto others, as they would have others do unto them, rather than do unto others before they do unto them, which they do. That's their motto. Said, yes, I believe in the golden rule. Do unto others before they do unto you. That's not what Jesus meant at all. They always want to have the upper hand. These are the laws of divine establishment, the foundations of truth that underlie the divine institutions. that serve and protect man from anarchy and from self-annihilation eventually, because man's evil has no foresight at all. These benefit one and all, and are only logical and are foundational, even ontological. That means everybody knows. that these things are right and true the world over. As man knows innately, that's what ontological means, he knows that innately. It's programmed into the conscience of man by God. Jesus Christ lights every man born into the world with the light of the moral conscience. And having these things formatted, everyone does, in the hard drive of the soul, in the hard drive of this conscience, the moral conscience. It's Paul's duty to explain all these things and to align all that came before with all that came by Christ, that is, from the Old Testament times, in this new era. grace and the spirit verse 11 you can turn to 111 first Timothy 111 Paul says here according to The kata toe according to the eungelion the gospel Here he calls it the gospel taste dokes ace the gospel of the glory of to Makarios, glory of the blessedness of God, the glory, the gospel of the glory of the blessedness of God, or the happiness of God. Makarios means happiness, the happiness of God. He says, which was entrusted to me. This is the message that Paul has for them. The gospel of the glory of the blessedness of God that's his message which Paul says he entrusted to me to Paul these were entrusted more so than to any other two-thirds of the epistolary doctrine and Gospels of the New Testament and revelation of the New Testament was given to Paul two-thirds that is 13 Epistles containing precise procedures for the implementation and execution of a spiritual life, the spiritual life from Jesus, spiritual life truth regarding a life beyond any other that was ever given with full and complete information and power for its execution. Enter God the Holy Spirit and the inspired canon of the Word of God Old Testament and New Testament Paul has a message of how to be saved by grace more so than anyone else in the greatest detail with the greatest precision how to be saved by grace and through faith And then how to live by grace and through faith all to the glory of God. Because grace, growing in grace, in gratitude, growing gratitude brings glory to God. That is the chief end of man is to glorify God. So you then you know why you're here. you get about doing what God has called you to do, and living a life that brings glory to God through faith, by grace and through faith, to the glory of God. For those who believe in Christ, all condemnation is forever passed. You have to know that before you can ever progress. And eternal judgment no longer exists. There will be rewards that will be withheld from some because they did not execute the spiritual life and they know exactly why that is. And they just never came to grips with the Word or the will of God. That was the only thing God asked them to do, is get the Word in their soul, and they refused to do it. And so now, there's no wonder. I mean, to them, there's no problem and no mystery as to why they don't have. what they could have, would have, and should have had, had they done the one necessary or needful thing, which was to get the Word in their soul. In Luke 10, 42, Mary chose that one needful or necessary thing, and it will not be taken from her. She chose the good thing, the good part. It wouldn't be taken from her. Jesus said, there's only a few things, no, only one thing that's necessary, and she chose the good part. Her sister was working so hard, and she was so distorted and so unhappy, and she wasn't working at all. She was learning the Word of God seated at Jesus' feet. And she asked, and Martha asked if she would please, if he would please tell her to help. And he wouldn't. Does that mean he shouldn't help others? No, that doesn't mean anything of the sort. It just means in the circumstance, the situation of things that are most important, it's the Word of God first. first each day before you do anything receive the Word of God each day so you know that right but do you do it there's the question So I said, everybody goes, yes, pastor, I know, that's good, yeah, that's wonderful. We don't do that, we'll never do that. We try to, but other things are, aren't other things far more important than that? Come on now, get real. Okay, I am getting real. That's real, that's true. So anyway, let's go on, let's move on. Jesus said it like this. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me. Is that you? Not only has eternal life, but he doesn't come into any judgment. All judgment has passed. And he's passed out of death into life. In an NLT, New Living Translation, says it like this. I assure you, Jesus said, And those who listen to my message and believe in God, who sent me, have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, never. But they've already passed from death into life. Paul says it like this, two different passages in Acts 13.38, through the law of Moses Romans 8 1 therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, couldn't make you holy, had no power to accomplish it, to fulfill what it required. What the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did. sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh so that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, those who don't try to fulfill it, but according to the Spirit, by the Spirit's work in us, and love being the fulfillment of the law. Loving God and loving man. If you love God, you love man. If you love God, you will fulfill the will of God and the will of God it's the Word of God the Word of God teaches you how to walk and to live even as the Lord Jesus did in the days of his humanity if anyone alleges that he abides in him that one ought to walk around as Jesus did filled with the Spirit and filled with the Word of God Jesus took the Word of God in every day fought with it, spoke it, and lived by every word of God. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Kiss the Son, lest he be angered with you. And you perish in a way when his anger is kindled just a little. That means get it from his mouth. Kiss him. Get the word from his mouth. Nothing else pleases God but faith. Faith is the perception, hope, the metabolization, and love the application of God's word. That's the spiritual life he's given us. That he's bequeathed to us. as sons of God, as members of the royal family of God, our elder brother and role model, Jesus Christ, the great hero of human history. So, we are declared righteous, and the law, where we are concerned, is once and for all fulfilled. No sin or infraction of the law will ever be charged. It was all paid for on the cross. It was all charged to Christ and judged. Though all to some degree suffer the inevitable negative consequences of thinking wrong and speaking the wrong things and choosing and doing the wrong things, faith in Christ as God and Savior ensures eternal life in heaven by the legal acquisition of righteousness as a gift. along with eternal life. You know that in Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. With this, the Lord is satisfied with faith, never with the righteousness of man, because it's not real righteousness, it's relative righteousness, comparative righteousness, or Self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is not God's righteousness. What God requires is absolute or perfect righteousness. That is his own righteousness. His very own righteousness. Not yours, but his. In Psalm 39, five man in his best estate doesn't have any righteousness. His vanity. In Isaiah 64, six we are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy cloth rags, like autumn leaves. We wither and fall, and our sins, like the wind, sweep us away. In case you've forgotten, that's Isaiah 64. Verse 12 of 1 Timothy 1. Paul here says, I thank, or thanks be, Kyrie. He says, I have thanks. Or, yes, I have thanks. Thanks be, I have. Thanks I have. to him who having strengthened me, Christ Jesus," that's how it says it in the original Greek in the word order, which doesn't make much sense to us, but he says, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, putting me in the ministry. He says, thanks I have who having strengthened me, Christ Jesus the Lord of us. that faithful me, he considered, placing me into ministry. Here Paul shows us what Christ has done with the law and to the law. where man is concerned. Paul says, I thought I kept the law, but I don't keep the law. No one does. In Romans 10.4, but thank God, Christ, is the end of the law. For righteousness to everyone who believes, in Ephesians 2.15, he abolished in his flesh the enmity, which is the law. commandments he took care of in his own body paid for sin by the set by the sacrifice of himself contained in ordinances the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man thus establishing peace that means to take away all distinctions and differences between people between Jews and non-jews everybody's on equal footing Equal privilege and equal opportunity. And through the Spirit of God and the Word of God, equal spiritual insight and IQ for everyone. Everybody has the same equal privilege and opportunity. Paul being the most egregious offender, as we'll see in a moment, that is in his unregenerate status as a radical religious terrorist Christ made him this is what grace will do Christ made him the chief apostle and the most faithful follower of Christ was vehement enemy the most faithful follower of Christ from the chief of sinners to the chief apostle, from the destroyer of churches to the wise master builder, 1 Corinthians 3.10. Just as he did for you, for some of us, taking us from the ballroom to the throne room, from the sickbed to the banquet table, where his banner over us is lopped. so we can feast and be set with the people, with the princes of his people, at the banqueting table where the banner over us is love, in Song of Solomon 2. Next he says in verse 13, even though I was formerly, he says formerly, being a blasphemous person and a persecutor, and hubristas, which is insolent or arrogant, but was shown mercy. He says, because I was agnoeo, because I was ignorant and acted in unbelief. In other words, I was an unbeliever. That which we did, all of us, Before we knew Christ, we did in ignorance, not considering the consequences or weighing the damages that we cause to ourselves and to others, which does not make it right in any way, but at the same time, we're still ignorant of those things, and God is patient with ignorance. These, Paul tells us, we did in unbelief, and therefore all of them and the results that would follow were expunged when we believed in Christ. Mercy wiped them away with the suffering that was due to them. You didn't suffer for those. Providing the fullness of opportunity for a good life that would otherwise not be possible. And you do have a wonderful life. It's a wonderful life that you have, that you've been given. Not only eternal life, but abundant life. He came to give you, John 10.10b. Verse 14 he says, then he says, more than abundant, but more than abundant was the grace of our Lord with faith. All these things that he'd give us, all packed, packaged with faith and love that are in Christ. Not only did the Lord Jesus come to provide eternal life, but abundant life as well. And John 10 10 B. I came that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly the thief comes only to kill steal and destroy But I have come that they might have life and have it overflowingly parachute With or without Abundant life with or without large sums of money. It doesn't mean you can have a whole bunch of money with or without great prosperity and with or without health, vibrant health of soul and body. Proverbs 22, for the reward of humility and the fear of the Lord are spiritual riches, honor where God is concerned, and abundant life from Jesus Christ, just as he promised. 3 John 2, beloved, I pray that in all respects You may prosper and be in good health just as your soul prospers. Prosperous soul is health and healing to the body and bones through the word of God. He sent his word and heals us. Yes he does. Does that mean you'll never get sick or never have any health crisis or issues? Not at all. But he'll keep you going as long as he wants to and will keep you here as long as he has chosen or decided to do so. And you will have a fruitful and a happy life. As happy as you can be this time of eternity. As happy as you can be in the devil's world. There will always be opposition, but be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world so He is, the same way He did, by the Word and by the Spirit, by relationship with Jesus Christ, and by going through the rough times with Jesus on board so that He can speak the Word to the wind and the waves, and calm your soul in the most difficult circumstances where there is fear and trepidation. Romans 5.17 says, for if by the transgression of one death reigns through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life. through the one Jesus Christ. That's abundant life that he's describing there. The gift of righteousness, the fruit of righteousness. For the crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge will award to those on that day who love is appearing, even as he will, even as the Apostle Paul knew for sure, awaited him on the other side. After salvation, should one decide, and they can and they do, In certain instances, not that often, not long range, generally, because it's too painful to do so. But after salvation, should one decide to cast off all restraint, and so do the flesh, the harvest of corruption will be very great and bring great suffering and losses. You can count on it. You can read 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 10 through 15. But this we are taught not to do. Though we may do so for a while, we will return, by discipline, by pain inflected, and in the end, to avoid premature death, early dismissal, or in military analogy that's used here and afterwards, dishonorable discharge. Hebrews 10 26 to 31 you can read that for yourself for if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth is no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of fire which will consume the adversaries it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God we don't want to trifle with God after salvation The Lord will judge his people, and he does. He knows how to do it. He knows how to get your attention and keep it. That's my phone. You told me to turn this off, didn't you, Dan? And I didn't, did I? Okay, well, I'm a bad boy. We'll do it now, in case the Lord calls me in the middle of the message, which he does from time to time. Okay, verse 15 Faithful is the word that's what it says. It is a trustworthy statements faithful is the word It is pissed off Logos faithful is the word indeed it is the word of the Lord faithful is the Lord faithful is the word and it says and is worthy of all acceptance or approval. Epidoxy is approval or acceptance. And that is that Christ Jesus came into the world. to save sinners. Armatolos. Sinners. He came into the world to save sinners, unbelievers, and to make believers of them, to save them eternally, by faith in himself, in his substitutionary, atoning death upon the cross. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, Paul says, of which I am first, or chief. There's no doubt here that Paul holds the chief place among sinners, having ruined so many lives in a short span of time. He was like a tornado, so zealous for the Jewish traditions, thinking he was doing God a service or a favor. having ruined so many lives, inflicted so much suffering, sponsored so much opposition and persecution, so much terror and sorrow in and among those that he sought to ruin, from Stephen to the hundreds of thousands, probably thousands, that he and his posse hunted down and arrested, the many he had imprisoned, scourged, stoned, whose homes and possessions he had confiscated, who were left homeless and jobless by the sentence of Jewish ostracism. In other words, if you were convicted of these crimes against Judaism, they would take all of your possessions in your house and you would lose your job. So you would be homeless, ostracized from society. all of which he did in ignorance, supposing he was defending the true and living God, as only partially revealed, which he found out later in Judaism, and only fully revealed in Christ, which Paul would soon discover for himself when he met him that day. on the road to Damascus, it would only take one encounter, and then just the plan of God would begin to dawn and unfold for him in wonderful ways. Verse 16 says, and it says, yet for this reason, or rather through this, this reason, it doesn't say reason, it says two-two, which is this, I found mercy. Thank God for the mercy of God. Which means we don't get what we deserve, whereas grace is we get what we don't deserve. We don't get what we deserve in mercy and we get what we don't deserve in grace. The good things and the bad things in mercy are held back with help. Get that? He says that by me, first, he might show, that is Christ Jesus might show, his perfect macrophobia, which is patience. He's going to show his patience toward me. He let me do all this stuff and he was just patient with me until the time was right. And then he would seek me and find me and save me. to demonstrate his perfect patience, and use me as a hupetiposus, which means make an example of me, of those who are about to believe upon him unto life eternal. How patient he was! With Paul, with me, Paul says. You think about how patient he was with you. Took you a while to come around. And he did it. How gentle, how kind, how gracious. How merciful is our Lord Jesus Christ with us, even as He was with the Apostle. No less than He was with the Apostle. With you, no less than He was with the Apostle. Verse 17, then He says, and ever. Amen. Paul does this often. Here Paul breaks forth in a hymn of praise in the midst of his letter, as he often does, when words escape him or elude him. He can't find the words to express the glorious truth of reality of this wonderful person, Savior Jesus Christ. When he wells up with awe and gratitude for all that Jesus Christ has done and given him, And likewise, next, he's going to exhort Timothy to do likewise, that is, to always be enthralled with Christ. That's one thing that you note about Paul. He is so enthralled in love with Jesus Christ. And he says, Timothy, Find this for yourself. Have this kind of relationship with Jesus Christ, the kind I have with Jesus Christ. I'm the example of this. His perfect patience did this in me. His grace toward me did not prove vain. I labored more than all the rest of them, but it wasn't me. It was Him in me. The grace of God that was with me and upon me. Paul remembers the revelation and prophetic utterance that accompanied Timothy's ordination I mentioned at the beginning of the message. And once here and elsewhere to remind him in order that he might fulfill the call issued by the Lord for the glory and honor of Jesus Christ. Verse 18. I'm referring to verse 18. He says, this command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, by them you fight the good fight and then he says here keeping faith and a good conscience which we saw in verse 5 faith and a good conscience with the addition of love from a pure heart which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith now we're getting to the subject of our message keeping faith in a good conscience which some have rejected and as a result suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. carried forward from verse 5 where he says that the end of the commandment or the objective of all biblical teaching is love from a pure heart good conscience agathos divinely good programmed with norms and standards of divine good and he says unhypocritical faith so we're carrying this forward from verse 5 Paul challenges and charges Timothy to lead by example by unhypocritical faith and a good conscience lead by love to avoid at all cost and by all means the shipwreck that occurs when the winds of change and the waves of doubt and fear a sail, one's vessel, one's voyage, and Jesus is not on board. They went out on their own, left Jesus behind. And to calm the wind. Jesus is not on board to calm the wind and the waves with his word. And those who set off on their voyage across the lake or the sea to reach the other side hit the hidden reefs and rocks. that you were warned about, failed to heed, and as a result missed the blessing, squandered the opportunity, passed up the privilege of progress and spiritual success. And it didn't end very well at all. You hit the reefs and the rocks. and never recover. That's called shipwreck of your faith. Read Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10. If you don't know what it means to wreck your ship, then he has two people that have shipwreck of their faith. He names them Hymenaeus and Alexander. He says, whom are Hymenaeus Alexander whom I have given over to Satan why just as he did with the incestuous brother in Corinth for the destruction of their flesh that their spirit might be saved in the day of Christ, that they might turn around through discipline. He uses Satan as an instrument of discipline, of the most severe discipline, and actually the destruction of their flesh, maybe the well-being of their bodies, either long-term or very intensely, short-term but very intensely, but possibly even long-term. Like Paul said, it was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me. His was providential, preventive suffering in his case, because of the exceeding great revelation that was given to him. It was also given to him a thorn in flesh and a messenger of Satan to buffet him, so that he wouldn't be proud And he would be needy, and he would have to depend completely or entirely upon the grace of God, the Word of God, the Spirit of God every moment of every day, cleave to Jesus Christ, and prosper mightily in the Spirit as he did, and accomplish so much by the grace of God. So he says, I've given them over to Satan, Satanos, in order that they might learn not to blaspheme. They were distorting the word of God and teaching things that they shouldn't have taught. They were teaching what was called false doctrine, strange doctrines, very strange doctrines. probably a blend or combination of Gnosticism and ritualism or Jewish mysticism on top of it all, mixed all together with theories instead of the simple truths of God's Word, and the glorious gospel of the blessedness of God our Savior that was committed to Paul. So he says that they might learn not to blaspheme. If you want to see examples of this, you could see these men and watch them throughout the scriptures on their way down. They've forsaken the truth and gone after money or prestige or power and think that they're going to prosper by gathering people to themselves and gathering a large following of people, by opposing the teaching of the Apostle Paul and his prime pastor teacher, his apostolic legate, the first or prototype pastor teacher, who is Timothy. who is a weak man but very gifted in with the gift of the ascension gift of Jesus Christ the gift of pastor teacher in the first century and this writing of Paul to Timothy all the other ones were Paul and Timothy to the churches this is Paul to Timothy to my son Timothy on how to avoid shipwreck of your faith and the faith of others. And here, Timothy is challenged in every way, as is every other pastor. And this is the instruction manual for pastors 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. They're called the pastoral epistles. And indeed they are, but they also have principles for every single one of us, because we're all pastors. And we all feed on the same truth. And the shepherd, our shepherd, all of our shepherd is one shepherd, Jesus Christ. He is the good shepherd, the great shepherd, the chief shepherd of the sheep, Jesus Christ. Every pastor has a pastor. That pastor is Jesus Christ. Every person has a pastor, not a human pastor only, but up over and above and beyond that. The Lord, our shepherd, so that we don't need any man. to teach us. We have an anointing that abides. And you don't need anybody to convince you of what's true. The Holy Spirit who's in you is your teacher. Jesus Christ is your teacher, your pastor, your shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He restores my soul. He does many things for me. He prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. He anoints my head with oil, and my cup overflows. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for He is with me. His rod and His staff, they comfort me. Surely only goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that you did fulfill what was prayed for in our prayer session tonight, that you would give us something that we didn't expect, something that suddenly became important, suddenly became real, and took us by surprise. Even in this little place, these few people that come together to receive the word of God, you never disappoint us, Father, in some way or another. you make us glad by your word glad that we came to fellowship together with Jesus Christ father may we know that everywhere we go that Jesus Christ is with us even when the storm storm comes and the sea is tossed the wind blows the waves come that Jesus Christ speaks into our Circumstances situation is calming word peace be still and we are in amazement that even the wind and the waves Obey him what manner of man is this the God man Jesus Christ our glorious God and Savior Jesus Christ Father we thank you for all these things if I could have masters, please father bless the offering this evening also in the name of Jesus Christ our our Lord and Savior. We love Him, and we know He loved us first. In His name we pray, Amen.