Well, our text this morning will be in 1 Timothy 6 this morning. We're coming to the end of Paul's first letter to Timothy and the end of our series here in this letter. We've been looking at what we've called house rules. As Paul has been very careful, uses a lot of terminology to talk with Timothy about his responsibilities within the family of God. And he wants Timothy to convey those instructions and those responsibilities to the church because they constitute the family of God. And how should they live given that great reality? We all have responsibilities within our families. That's part of what it is to be a part of a family. And Paul unpacks that here in this letter as he outlines house rules in the family of God. In this particular section in 1 Timothy 6, Paul gets into the issue of motivation. A very critical issue. If you're a parent, you know the importance of motivation. Of how to work with your kids to kind of speak their language, right? To the things that are going to motivate them. Certainly in the workplace. We're familiar with the importance of motivation. In an educational setting, teachers have to be keyed in to the issue of motivation. When I was a sophomore in high school, we moved. It was not a real big move. Matter of fact, we moved around the block within the town of Oxford, Michigan. One of the first things my dad did was help me get a basketball hoop up. That was kind of priority for me. So it's kind of out back of the house. But we didn't have a light. I've shared this story with you before. It's one of the more formative episodes in my life. There was no light there. We had a big floodlight at the old house. My friends and I like to play in the rain. We like to play at nighttime. And so I had asked my dad, can we get a light out there? And he said, well, that's fine. There's no power out there, though, at the barn at the back of the property. So if you want to dig the trench, 125 140 feet from the house to the barn Then I will work with you to help get a light up Well, they don't call Oxford the gravel capital of the world for nothing And it was tough sledding. And day after day, over the course of a week, my dad would come home and inspect the trench and tell me that it had to be deeper. He wanted to make sure that it was not going to interfere with anything else that happened in the succeeding years. And so he had this certain depth in mind. About three inches would have been fine for me. But I was motivated. He really didn't have to stay on me about it because I wanted this light. There was a certain upshot to it. I knew that I'd enjoy hours and hours with my friends, playing basketball, enjoying good times together. And so I was motivated. Now, oftentimes in the area of motivation, we talk about carrots and sticks. I've kind of entitled this teaching Carrots and Sticks. That was a carrot, right? There was something out there that was sort of drawing me. There's this inner motivation. My dad didn't really have to conjure it up. It was already percolating and I wanted this to happen. And that was driving me. On the other hand, there's sticks, right? Sometimes it's somebody behind us with a stick, or it's a circumstance, or it's the threat of a certain consequence. Maybe it's structured by a parent that if you don't do this, this will be the repercussion. But sometimes just in life, right, we realize that if I don't do certain things, I'm gonna pay for it later, right? If you don't fix that suspect spot on the roof, it's not gonna go well, okay? So that's kind of a stick. It's this threat that hangs over that motivates you to action. Motivation is very important. Here in this text, Paul, gives Timothy several motivations for his service to Christ. That's what we want to consider today. 1 Timothy 6, beginning in verse 13. Hear the word of the Lord. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in His testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. May God add His blessing to the reading of His Word. So there is a main idea here in this text that I want to draw your attention to. It's the backbone of this text. And it is this. I charge you... to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach." That's kind of the big idea. There's a lot of other sort of prepositional phrases. There's some supporting material. We're going to look at that. But I just want you to kind of break it down. This is the central command that is issued in this particular text. So we could note here that Paul wasn't making a suggestion to Timothy. He wasn't, you know, sort of, if you feel like it, you know, there's a solemn charge here. He's entrusting a certain responsibility to Timothy, and Timothy was to guard over this responsibility. So we see the seriousness there. And then there's this unique language of, I charge you to keep the commandment. Kind of this singular mandate. And there's a lot of discussion. What commandment does Paul have in mind here? We could go back immediate context to verses 11 and 12 where Paul's just given Timothy some instruction. But even if we go to those two verses, we would find four imperative commands. So it seems that at some level, Paul is using this singular command to just summarize the instruction that has been given to Timothy. This is the mandate. Probably based on where this is in the letter, right at the end, Paul probably has in mind all of what he has given to Timothy by way of instruction in this letter. And John Calvin believed that Paul was speaking of all of the Gospel mandate that had been entrusted to Timothy. Paul is giving here at this point this great exclamation point. This great point of emphasis as he closes the letter. That Timothy would carry out all of his responsibilities before God. We also see here at the end this little qualifier to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach. And I would suggest to you that this takes us into the realm of lifestyle and behavior. That not only was Timothy to speak the truth of the gospel, to not alter God's words or the message of salvation, but that He was to do it in a way that brought weight to His message. So these words are used here, and I think they're credibility words. If you want to talk about something but your life, you know, the way you live sort of conveys the opposite message, that's a problem, right? That's a credibility issue. And I think here Paul is reminding Timothy, as he does at other points in the letter, watch your life and doctrine closely. Paul was concerned and wanted Timothy to be concerned about not only the message, the content, but also the lifestyle, the whole package, the way that message was going to be conveyed. So, unstained, or some translations might say without spot. Here we have reference to like a perfect sacrifice. Without spot or blemish. There's a great text in James 1 where it talks about true religion being to care for the orphans and the widows. And it says this is to keep oneself unspotted or unstained by the world. It's speaking of lifestyle. It's speaking of character and conduct. And then this idea of free from reproach. Paul doesn't want there to be any reason for people to reject the gospel, to think less of the gospel. So this terminology is used earlier in the letter where Paul's talking about widows. He talks about the care of widows. He talks about the church's care of widows. But then he really zeroes in on believers. And he instructs them that they are to care for their own family, particularly for widows. And if they don't, they bring reproach on the cause of Christ. So you can say and talk about the gospel of love, but if you don't care for your own family, then you undermine the credibility of your message. So in this simple command, we kind of have all these elements, a stern, authoritative instruction. We have this comprehensive sense of all that Timothy has been commanded. And then we have attention here to Timothy's lifestyle and his patterns of life. that undermine his ministry or substantiate his ministry, bring credibility to his ministry. Again, that's kind of the main thrust here of this particular text. Now what I want us to focus on in the time that we have this morning is the motivation. Because in the midst of this singular instruction, Paul gives several motivations to Timothy as to why he should carry on and continue in the cause of gospel ministry. And I think these things give us great impetus to carry out gospel ministry as well. For we too have been charged by Jesus to make disciples. We've been given a commission. We've been called not just to salvation but to ministry and service to our lord and savior And what are the things that that buoy us? What are the things that push us and drive us and compel us? along the road of christian discipleship Number one when we are discouraged and demoralized remember that we serve the god who gives life to all things when we are discouraged Demoralized, remember that we serve the God who gives life to all things. So verse 13, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things. Paul says, I'm talking to you, I'm writing to you, Timothy, but I want you to realize that I'm conveying these instructions to you in the presence of God. That I am the messenger here. And he says he's the God who gives life, the loaded statement. It could reflect the fact that God had created us, right? We gained our life from God. God is the one who sustains us. He's the one who gives us breath. He has numbered our days. It could also reflect the fact that God is the one who has given us new life or new birth. He's caused us to be regenerated in the realm of the Spirit. When we were dead in our trespasses and sins, when we didn't have a pulse, any sort of life in terms of our relationship with God, we were under His wrath and God made us alive. So all those things could be pertinent. All those things could be motivations for us to serve God. In many cultures, if someone has saved your life, you owe them your life. But I think there's another element here in this text as well, as Paul very clearly puts this in the present tense. He doesn't just say that you were created in the past by this God, but that God is the one who gives life. Present tense. I want you to think about Ephesians 1 with me, and I've included this in your notes this morning. I think we've got it here on the screen. Ephesians 1. In this particular text, Paul is wanting the church to understand some things about God. And he outlines three different things, beginning here in verse 16. He says, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. I want you to know God. Verse 18, having the eyes of your heart enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe. According to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. So one of the things that Paul wanted the church to grasp and get a hold of was the power of God that was vested in the church. The power to raise the dead to life. Resurrection power. That same power is active in the church today. And I think this is likely what Paul was emphasizing here in the midst of Timothy's service that he wanted him to realize that he served the God who brings life out of death. I'm not real mechanically inclined. I'm pretty quick to give up on Projects when the washing machine isn't working or when the chainsaw you know doesn't doesn't spark and the car doesn't start and I can get pretty demoralized pretty quickly and be calling for help and calling Someone to come in and help me and there's these wonderful people called mechanics and People who actually know what to do with an engine people like Jim sites ma and Michael green and amazing they huddle over this thing and and do a few diagnostics and Michael pull out some little tester out of his pocket and and he's off to work and he's got a little duct tape and He's got a part in the car there that he brings over to Hawaii had a part in his car I'll never know you know, but amazing and pretty soon boom and this thing is running again. Unbelievable. Just a little weak picture of what God does in bringing life out of death. Do you have any impossible projects in your life when it comes to people? People that you don't know Christ, despair of hope that they will ever respond to the gospel. I mean, gospel ministry, when you're in a sense of communicating your faith to someone, that can be discouraging, can be demoralizing. I've got a few people on my list that way, and I was so encouraged by Angela McBride's testimony a couple weeks ago on Easter as she was baptized, and she said, she exhorted the congregation. She says, don't give up on people. She said, I'm testimony that God can still save someone who's desperately gone astray. God can bring dead people to life. And Paul wants Timothy to remember that in the midst of ministry. A second motivation that Paul lists here, when we feel inadequate to speak the gospel, remember that we serve Jesus who went before us and made the good confession. When we feel inadequate to speak the gospel, remember that we serve Jesus who went before us and made the good confession. So verse 13 again, I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and in the presence of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession." A very interesting reference. Paul says, I want you to realize that you're receiving this charge, you're receiving this sacred trust, this sacred responsibility in the sight of God and in the sight of Christ Jesus. And he draws attention to a specific episode in the life of Christ, that being his appearance before Pontius Pilate when he issued what Paul calls the good confession. What exactly did Jesus say? What did He proclaim? What did He confess? Well, He confessed and proclaimed Himself, right? He identified who He was. He identified where He had come from. He identified what His purpose was. All of this in a very brief conversation with Pontius Pilate, right? Pilate is examining him, trying to see if there's any grounds for punishment. The Jews are calling for crucifixion. Pilate is saying, what did he do? What has he done wrong, right? So he's interviewing Jesus. And Jesus identifies himself as king. This is Pilate. "...Are you the king of the Jews?" And Jesus answered, "'Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about Me?' Pilate answered, ''Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to Me. What have you done?' Jesus answered, ''My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would have been fighting that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But My kingdom is not from the world or is not sourced in the world or is not limited to the world. A great proclamation that he was a king. He was not simply king of the Jews. He was not some parochial ruler. He was no threat to Rome in that sense. He represented a kingdom that was not of this world. He was a king. And where did He come from? Jesus says, for this purpose I was born, and for this purpose I have come into the world. That is a statement of deity. It says not only that I was born, but I came into the world. The preexistent one entered into time and space. Tremendous statement there that He makes, that He confesses His deity. His pre-existence. And then He talks about His purpose. He says to bear witness to the truth. To speak the truth. To call people to respond to the truth. And He says everyone who is of the truth listens to My voice. calling people to Myself, to respond to the truth, to come to Me, to hear My voice. This is the good confession. It's the Gospel account that God, Son of God, took on humanity. He came to be the King, to reign and to rule, to call people to Himself. Jesus gives here in this brief encounter with Pontius Pilate the good confession. It's interesting within this context, if we were to look again back at verses 11 and 12, there in 1 Timothy 6, we would see that Timothy too had made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Probably referenced to his baptism, where he proclaimed his allegiance to Christ. He identified himself with Christ and he responded to the gospel. So he is being asked to give the good confession and he's being reminded that Jesus gave the good confession before he did. Jesus showed the way in which the gospel was to be proclaimed. John Chrysostom, Great preachers of the early church commented on this very text. I think we have this here, don't we? The point is that a Christian man is to be an echo of the Lord's confession, and is to keep within the lines of it, and to be sure that all of it is echoed in his life. Christ has told us what to say, and we are here to say it over again. There's this wordplay going on here about the good confession, Timothy's good confession, and Christ's good confession. Timothy's good confession is to be rooted and grounded and patterned after the confession of Christ. There are some influential people that have influenced me down through the years for which I am very thankful. One of those is a pastor by the name of George Kuhn. George currently pastors down in the Kalamazoo area. He's in his mid-60s. Matter of fact, he's gonna be retiring. His wife has some significant health issues, so he's stepping down. But there's just been a number of times where I have been appreciative for George's pattern. 30 years ago, before I was associated with this church, George Kuhn and several others were part of a mediation team. They came from around the state to meet with the leaders of this church at a very dark day in this church's history when the church was threatened by division. And George Kuhn spoke the truth and had a great ministry in this church, a turning point. If you look back 30 years ago, a turning point in the life of this church. I always respected George for that. George Kuhn, at the age of, in his early 60s, went back and got his master's degree in biblical preaching. I love that. Here's a guy that just was always wanting to improve his ability to communicate God's truth and God's word. And he was always learning, he was always growing, he had an inquisitive mind. I always appreciated that. To go back a little further, I've been encouraged by the pattern of Augustine. Fifth century. And Augustine wanted to live a very quiet life, writing in a monastery somewhere. And yet he was thrust into leadership in the church against his will. The bishop of Hippo had died. Augustine avoided going into the city of Hippo for a long time because he was afraid that something like this might happen. And it did. They actually physically put him into office as the bishop of Hippo, a responsibility he did not want. He felt ill at ease with. And yet he recognized the call of God. He recognized the authority of God. And he committed himself to serving the church, even in the midst of his own feelings of inadequacy and his own personal desires. That account, if you read Augustine's Confessions, that account has always kind of echoed down through the ages to me. But friends, we have no greater pattern than our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave the good confession before Pontius Pilate, knowing the consequences of his answers. knowing that crucifixion was the cost, and he gave the good confession. And now we are being called to give the good confession. When we feel inadequate to speak the gospel, remember that we serve Jesus who went before us and made the good confession. The final motivation that Paul gives When the future seems uncertain, remember that God has determined to unveil His victorious kingdom at the appointed time. When the future seems uncertain, remember that God has determined to unveil His victorious kingdom at the appointed time. Let's look at our text again. Verse 13, I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach, and here it is, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He, the Father, will display at the proper time. The return of Christ. One of the great doctrines of the church. Jesus is coming back. His second coming. His first coming was in humility to die for the sins of the world. His second coming will be in power and great glory. He will come back victorious. There's various words that are used. Some words, the most common word is parousia, His coming. And it refers to not just His coming for a brief visit, but His coming to stay. It's a great word of hope for the believer that Jesus is coming. He's going to fully establish His kingdom. But this is a different word that's used here. It speaks of His... of his appearing. And it's the word from which we get epiphany. An epiphany is the light bulb, right? When you've been thinking about something, we had this in my life group just this last week. Somebody's talking, I have no idea what they're talking about. So I ask the question, so do you mean this? And they're like, no. So they explain it again. And after like two or three times, Now I know what you're talking about. That's an epiphany. There is a coming epiphany for the people of God when it will all be made clear. There's a few ways in which this could motivate Timothy. Many times the return of Christ brings great sobriety. As a matter of fact, if you're here today and you don't know Christ as your Savior, you've never confessed your sin, you've never cast yourself on the grace and mercy of God, you've never looked to Jesus to be the Savior of your sins, then the return of Jesus should be fear-inducing. It should make you afraid. Because you stand under the wrath of God. You are not prepared for the return of Jesus. You are His enemy. And His return does not bode well for you. There could be a sense in which Timothy would be motivated by that aspect that Christ is going to return. He'll have to give an account for his labors, right? That is true. But I think what's going on here is something different. Within the context here, I believe that Paul intends this to be an encouragement. Paul intends for Timothy to be emboldened to be hopeful because of this great truth. following this is a list of attributes of God. So it's God that is going to bring back Jesus at an appointed time, a predetermined time. It will happen. In the midst of all the uncertainties and in the midst of what things look like and how circumstances appear, God is going to bring Jesus back at a predetermined time. There's a certainty. There's an assurance in that. And then God identifies these aspects of Himself. This God who is going to bring Jesus back is the one who is blessed. The one who is blessed and only sovereign. The King of kings and the Lord of lords. We were meeting this morning for prayer. Eric Anderson was praying for the worship team and he prayed, blessed God, And that's the designation right there that we're going to be looking at today. God is blessed. That means He is happy. He is unbothered. He is not riddled with anxiety. He is not overcome with bitterness. He is not chafing with angst. God is the blessed God. He is the God of happiness and joy. He is the one sovereign. He is without rival. He is not threatened in any way. This is the God that Timothy is being reminded of. God alone. He is the one who possesses immortality. Not just that He is immortal. Not just that He is not subject to death, but that He possesses immortality. In John's Gospel, we see that God dispenses immortality. He is the one who pours out life. And God is unapproachable in His holiness. He is unapproachable in His holiness. He is transcendent in all of His ways. He is totally other. He never makes mistakes. He never wavers. He is completely trustworthy. He never forgets. He's never swayed by selfish motivations. I believe that the return of Jesus for Timothy was meant to encourage him. That there was going to be a coming epiphany of Jesus. in which all of it would fall into place, and all things would be made right, and all things would make sense. I don't know if some of you have been watching maybe the development of the village of Ada. A very unique cooperative between the village and Amway Corporation. And they've been working together to buy up properties and basically reformat the entire village of Ada. It's fascinating to kind of think through that. And to be honest, I don't get it. Like, they had this road, supposed to be the new Main Street. Every time I drive down it, I never see anybody else on it. And now there's trees being taken out. It's two houses that went down. And so there's a lot of things happening. But it just doesn't make any sense to me. I've seen some of the schematics. So we're in the township offices this week. Actually, because my mom was here. My mom's a junk collector, and she wanted something off one of the houses that was being torn down. And so I find myself in the township offices with my mom, trying to accompany her, trying to be her chaperone. So we're there, and the township planner pulls out this big map. And for the first time, after seeing what's going on out there in the village, and then seeing the diagram in conjunction with that, Like, I get it. I finally, like, understand what's happening. It was an epiphany. The light bulb went on. And that's what's coming for the people of God. We see through a glass, but we see darkly, right? It's clouded. It's foggy. We see by faith, but one day we will see by sight, and it will make sense to us, and we will understand, and it will all come together. And that, my friends, ought to encourage us when nothing in our lives makes sense. Paul intended that for Timothy's encouragement to motivate him. In part, what I'm struck with here, first of all, that God gives us motivation. And secondly, as I read this text, I see mostly carrots. Sometimes God gives us sticks, right? He warns us. He makes us aware of the consequences of sinful choices. There are sticks, to be sure. But God, in His grace, has given carrots. I was praying this morning, thanking God for the carrots that He gives us, the incentives, and one young boy in the front laughed. His parents kind of swatted him afterwards. There's something about that that just made my heart kind of swell this week to just think of all the things that God has provided by way of motivation and incentive for us to continue to serve. Not just because we have to. Not just because it's our duty. Those things would all be true. Those things would all be enough. But God in His great grace has extended a number of promises and images to capture our hearts inspire us toward obedience. When we find ourselves in the midst of gospel ministry, we should remember that we're serving a God who gives life to all things. This particularly difficult, obstinate, godless person that God can do a work in their life. Remember we feel inadequate. We don't know what to say To remember and look again to Jesus who gave the good confession The cost of his own life Leaving us a pattern to follow The future seems uncertain when nothing seems to make sense We should remember that there is a coming epiphany for the people of God when it will make sense.