Would you please be seated? I was once impressed with a fellow minister and his evangelistic ability. He was one of those kinds of men who shares the gospel with everything that breathes. If he's at the restaurant, he's going to get into a conversation about spiritual things with the waiter or the waitress. If he's just out in the community interacting with others, it's always going to go back to Christ and the gospel. And I told him how impressed I was with his being a witness and being an evangelist, and he said to me, Logan, I have no choice. I am under orders. I knew what he meant, he was referring to the Great Commission and how as a minister of the gospel he has a responsibility to proclaim the words of eternal life and to bear testimony to Christ to those who are outside the church and seek to win the loss to him. But as I thought about that expression that he used, I am a man under orders, I thought how well that captures this passage here in 1 Timothy 6. Essentially we see as Paul is giving his final charge to Timothy, as this letter is coming to a close, he's really impressing on Timothy that he is a man under orders. And Paul is just stringing mandate after mandate like pearls on a string as he speaks to Timothy. He says, flee these things and pursue these other things and fight the good fight and take hold of eternal life. And it's just like a barrage of commands and mandates and imperatives to Timothy as a man of God to live in this way, to be a man under orders. The whole passage takes on a really solemn and serious tone. Paul refers to Timothy as a man of God. That phrase is used in the Old Testament for spiritual leaders of God's people who spoke the word to the people of God. It's used for Moses, for example, and David. It's used for Elijah and Elisha. Samuel is called a man of God. And so it's a very serious and sobering thing for Paul to refer to Timothy, this young minister, as a man of God, as a spiritual leader of God's people. We also see that Paul is highlighting the fact that Timothy, as a man of God, is called to be different. He's been speaking about these false teachers, and he's been speaking about those who would love money. And he says in verse 11, but as for you, it's a strong transition, but as for you, Timothy, you are to be different. You are a man of God, and you are supposed to live pursuing different things. And then you see the solemnity and seriousness of the tone throughout this passage, and just the way that he charges him, as he's done throughout the letter, he charges him again in verse 13, in the presence of God, the God who gives life to all things, and he speaks of God in this glorious way, because he's trying to press home on Timothy's conscience that he's a man of God, and he's called to live in a certain And so there's a very serious tone here as he's urging him to recognize that he's a man under orders. He's a man who has mandates to keep. Now, these mandates that are given to Timothy as a man of God are given to him as a minister. I understand that. Timothy as a man of God is a minister. But let us not forget also that Timothy as a man of God and as a minister was called to be an example to all Christians. We were told in 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 12 that he was to set the believers an example by the way that he lived his life. And so these commands are not only given to Timothy as a man of God and as a minister, but really they go through Timothy to all Christian men, and we could even say for women there are applications as well. But especially I want to focus in on the man of God. What is the man of God called to be? What are the mandates that are given to him in this passage? It's a very straightforward passage, and it's very encouraging to us in our pursuit of holiness. Really, this passage has two sections. Let's look at the mandates that are given to the man of God. That's most of what the passage is about, these mandates or commands or imperatives. And then we have the motives for keeping those mandates that Paul also attaches to the commandments that he gives to Timothy. First of all, let's look at some of these mandates. Notice the first one there. If you're underlining your Bible, you could underline the word flee. flee, a command, but as for you, oh man of God, flee these things. Now that word flee means run away, go in the opposite direction, turn your steps in a different way and run that way, flee, get out of the way of a danger. Paul uses this command in multiple places in his letters, you may know. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, in verse 18, he says, flee sexual immorality. So godly men are called to run away from sexual sin, all different kinds of sexual sin, any kind of activity, sexual activity outside of marriage relationship between a man and a woman and covenant for life, flee, run away from that. In 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 12, the Apostle Paul says, flee idolatry, run away from idols, run away from false gods. Anything that you would love more, serve more, think about more, find your identity more in than God, run away from that. In 2 Timothy 2 and verse 22, he says, flee youthful passions. There are passions that come up with youth and inexperience. Flee, run away from those things. And yet here he's not speaking about fleeing sexual immorality, or fleeing idolatry, or fleeing youthful passions. All of those, of course, are things that we should run away from as men of God. But also notice here he says these things, verse 11, as for you, O man of God, flee these things. And the these things can only be understood by context to refer to the love of money that we studied last Lord's Day. This love of money that is a root of all kinds of evil, this love of money that has caused some to abandon the faith and pierce themselves with many pangs to come to this sorrow over love of money and covetousness, and we talked about that, the dangers of the love of money last week. And He says, run away from these things. There's a real danger. There's something that can really rob you of joy. It can rob you of your Christian profession. It can ruin your ministry. It can harm you. Run away, He says. Flee these things. Now, that word flee is significant because we know that there's a temptation in our lives. Instead of fleeing from the love of money and the love of this world, to flirt with it. To think about it, allow the love of money and the things of this world to dominate our thoughts. To allow us to find our security and how much money we actually have in our retirement account. Or to get caught up in the materialism and greed and the affluence of our capitalistic society and get too much into that. And we realize sometimes we really are straddling the fence. We are not following the admonition to run away. Fleeing means we're decisive. Fleeing means we really recognize the danger of covetousness and the love of money, and we turn our back and we run away in the opposite direction with full strength. Ask yourself, men especially, ask yourself if you're running away from these things. Are you running away from those dangers we talked about last week, the love of money? Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Are you primarily spending your time laying up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal? Is that really where your heart is? Are your possessions possessing you? The human heart, Calvin says, is a factory of idols. We have to be realistic about our dealings with this world and know the dangers of how we're constantly tempted to turn good gifts from God into idolatry. And we're to examine our hearts, and Paul says to Timothy, you must run away. But it's not only fleeing that he talks about here, as he also talks about pursuing. The second mandate there is pursue. He says, but as for you, O man of God, flee these things, run away from these things, but run towards something else, pursue something else. Righteousness and godliness and faith and love and steadfastness and gentleness. Paul's always reasoning this way when he's talking about our call to holiness, it's not enough to run away from sin. It is important to run away from sin, but you also have to run towards godliness. The Apostle Paul will talk about the Christian life as putting off vices, taking off the filthy robes of vice and sin, and he'll give a list of all those in his letters, and he'll say, put it off, put it to death. But he'll also talk about putting on virtue, putting on holiness, and the positive, it's negative and positive. You might say it's re-habituation. We get rid of the bad habits and we replace the bad habits with good habits. And we run after the things that are pleasing to God. What are these things? Gives us an inventory or a list here of the things that the man of God is to be running after. One is righteousness. When it talks about righteousness there, it's not talking about imputed righteousness. As a believer, Timothy already had the imputed righteousness of Christ. He was clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Paul sets before him is the practical day-to-day outworking of righteousness, the righteous life, the godliness that he is to pursue daily. That is, a life of conformity to God's law, righteousness that is a righteousness of the heart, a righteousness of growth and sanctification. Seek after this. Seek after it, run after it, run away from the love of money, but towards righteousness. He also mentions godliness. The word godliness has the idea of really almost what we would say fear of God, reverential awe. Have an awe of God, have a sense of honoring Him and standing in awe before Him that you want to be like Him and you fear displeasing Him. He also mentions faith, which of course Timothy had faith, but also he's called to exercise his faith and grow in developing that faith and trust in God and confidence in God and in His Word. He calls him to love, pursue love, love for God, to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love others. Love for God and knowledge of God's love for you. Seek after that a growing experience of that love and a knowledge of that love. And then isn't this an interesting one? Gentleness. Harshness often comes naturally for men. We can be rough, we can be crusty, we can be mean, just naturally because of our flesh. But he's called to lay aside harshness. and to restrain his strength and use it for the betterment of others. Of course, in the Bible, gentleness is not talking about weakness. There's nothing impressive about being weak if that's the only thing you can be. But gentleness is about having strength, but restraining the strength and using it appropriately. Think about Jesus, when Jesus could have called a legion of angels to protect Him at the time of the crucifixion, but how gentle, and He restrains His power, and yet He is bold to still speak the truth to Pilate, and say He is a king, and say, Pilate, you have authority only because it's been granted to you by God. Gentleness is not weakness, it is not just being nice at all costs, but it is restraining that attitude, and restraining that natural inclination to be harsh and unkind, and yet speak with love and tenderness. Later on, the Apostle Paul would exhort Timothy in this way about gentleness, 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse 24, the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone. able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance, leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. So there is, there has been some teaching where it says that if you're gentle, you're just weak and you're soft and you don't really stand boldly for the truth. But there's also been some overreaction against that teaching that's always talking about being a man and being aggressive and being strong and biblical masculinity. But let us remember that included in biblical masculinity is a gentleness of the Lord. David said, the gentleness of the Lord has made me great. Christ spoke of His heart as gentle and lowly. Are we running after that, men of God? Are we running after the quality and virtue of gentleness along with righteousness and godliness and faith and love and steadfastness? That is the mark of a man of God. Second Peter talks about the pursuit of virtues in this way, second Peter chapter One, in verses five through seven we read this, it says, for this reason make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue and your virtue with knowledge and your knowledge with self-control and your self-control with steadfastness and steadfastness with godliness and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they will keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." Peter is saying, exert effort in growing and adding virtue to virtue and pursuing these things, running after these things. We have a race to run, brothers. We have a calling to run after Christ, to look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of God. There's a race, and we lay aside every weight and every sin, but we also run positively to Christ in pursuing these virtues. Especially again, not trying to leave out the women today, but trying to capture the spirit of our text. Men, are we setting these virtues before us? Are we running after these things? Are we chasing after money or success or worldly applause? But are we chasing after these virtues? Can you honestly say that these virtues are in front of you and you want them and you're sprinting towards them? You want to have them. And you're desiring to grow in these virtues. This is a mandate for the man of God, not only to flee these things, the love of money, but to pursue these other things, these virtues that he lays out here. There's another mandate he gives there in verse 12. Again, these like pearls on a string, these mandates, these commands coming at us, fight. He says, fight the good fight of the faith. That's a theme that Paul had used earlier on in the letter, you may recall. In chapter 1, in verse 18, he said, this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, by them you may wage the good warfare. Remember when we talked about that? Wage the good warfare. It's a military term. You're in a battle. There's the world, the flesh, and the devil. Everything in this world hates Christ, hates holiness, hates the pursuit of it, and is all against you. If you are a Christian, you're going to be going against the grain. You're going to be going against what the world wants and what the world says is great. And you're going to have to fight. You're going to have to man up. You're going to have to stand up, speak up, fight against your own flesh. It calls for wholehearted devotion to the Lord, a determination to put to death all known sin in our lives. It calls for pursuing the defense of the Christian faith. Jude talks about contending for the faith, once for all delivered to the saints, fighting the battles of the Lord. There is a battle to fight. The language that is used here is actually not just military in 1 Timothy 6.12, it was in chapter 1, but here it's almost like engage in the good contest. It's almost athletic terminology. There's an agonizing struggle. Some of us have watched the Olympics, and we've seen how those athletes put everything in them to competing in the competition. And they put it all out there to get the medal and win the gold, or whatever it might be. And you realize that that's what he's saying about the Christian life. There should be single-mindedness. There should be perseverance. It is a struggle, it is difficult. But fight the good fight of the faith. And notice also he uses another mandate here. Look what he says, another one to underline, fight the good fight. And then look in verse 12, take hold, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. The idea is reach out and grab it. Now that could be misleading, because we recognize that, in a sense, a believer like Timothy, and like every man of God, already has eternal life. Jesus said in John 5, 24, "'Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears My words and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but he is passed from death to life.'" So if you are a believer in Christ, you have eternal life as a present possession. But the Bible also speaks of eternal life eschatologically, future, in terms of the life that we will have in the life to come. And the language Paul uses here with Timothy here is, reach out and grab it, take it, grasp it. It's the language of personal appropriation. Thomas Watson the Puritan called it taking heaven by storm, reaching out and seizing it, appropriating the reality of eternity in the present. Think about the Olympics again, and think about those who are running in relay runs, and they're about to pass the baton, they reach out and they grab it and they seize it. And you realize we're to seize eternal life, we're to make personal appropriation. James uses this kind of language in James chapter one and verse 12, where he says this, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. He perseveres under trial. Blessed is the man who perseveres under that trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. The crown of life, a laurel wreath is the image that James is using there. The crown of eschatological life to come. There's a future orientation to the Christian life. A longing to be with the Lord and a reaching out and appropriating the blessings that are future for the here and the now. These are mandates for the man of God. Notice also there's another one that's not technically an imperative, but it has imperatival force. It's in verse 14 where he says, keep the commandment. He says, 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. keep the commandment, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach. So he tells them to flee and pursue and fight and take hold, but he also tells them to keep the commandment. Various commentators debate the precise nuance of what commandment might mean. Does it refer to one specific commandment? Does it refer to 1 Timothy and the charges that Paul has given to him? Or most likely, does the commandment, singular, refer to the whole Christian faith as a duty of obedience towards God, something like the law of Christ? I tend to think that latter idea is what's conveyed there. He's saying, be faithful to what God has called you to do, Timothy. Keep the commandment, and he uses language that is reminiscent of the Old Testament sacrificial system. He says, keep the commandment unstained, like an unstained or unblemished sacrifice, free from defect. And keep it free from reproach. The same word was used of officers in the church who were to be above reproach. Stay true to the commands of God. Stay true to what God has called you to be. Avoid the allure of the world, the love of money, the snare of sin, all these things that can get you off track, and keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach. The idea is essentially to be a man of God you have to pursue doctrinal purity and moral integrity. Doctrinal purity, moral integrity, both of those are important for the man of God Earlier on he had said, keep your what? Keep your life and your doctrine pure, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. Paul recognizes, as all men need to recognize, that there really is no such thing as small sins. Small sins grow and they become big sins. We sow a thought and we reap a decision, and then we sow a decision, and we reap a character, as it's been said. We sow a character, and we reap a destiny. There's this impact of our, the sins we allow. We allow a little doctrinal impurity into our life, and it blemishes the commandment, at least as it's viewed before a watching world. And the man of God is supposed to be careful and holding to that commandment tenaciously so that he might be faithful to the Lord. Essentially, all of these imperatives are a call for perseverance. You saw that word in verse 11, steadfastness. It has the idea of bearing under a great weight for a long time. Staying in the race, even though you're exhausted and you wanna throw in the towel. Staying in the fight, even though you've got two black eyes and your nose is bleeding. You're in it for Christ, and you're taking hold of eternal life, and you're living for the glory of God. Now we recognize, men we should recognize if we are Christians, that we cannot possibly keep these commandments in our own strength. And so it is important for us to realize how Paul grounds these mandates in certain motivations. He gives motivations for why Timothy is a man of God and why any man of God would keep these mandates. Consider some of the things that he says here. Consider one of the things Paul says to Timothy is, consider your profession of faith, your public profession of faith. Go back to verse 12. He had said, fight the good fight of faith, take hold of eternal life. And notice what he says, take hold of eternal life to which you were called. That's referring to effectual calling. When God opened up Timothy's eyes to the knowledge of Christ and enabled him to repent and believe in Christ, called out of darkness into the marvelous light of God, and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. What is he doing there? He's saying, Timothy, remember your public confession of faith. Now, some people would say this refers to the confession of faith that he made at the time of his ordination. I think it's more likely that this is talking about the public confession of faith that Timothy would have made at the time of his baptism. the Christian faith, where He publicly confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord, and He was united to Christ in the waters of baptism and joined the visible church. And there was this beautiful picture of I belong to Jesus now, and He made that confession of faith. We recognize that that is so important, that Christ never calls any of His followers to follow Him as secret disciples. but rather to confess Him before men. Jesus said, if you deny Me before men, I'll deny you before My Father in heaven and before His angels. But if you confess Me before men, I will confess you before My Father and His angels. Christians are supposed to be bold. And what Paul is saying is here, remember, you publicly stood before a group of witnesses and you said, I am a follower of Jesus. And he's reminding him of the commitment that he made. and that the grace of God that He experienced at that time and to be faithful to the one who called Him out of the darkness of His sin, who called Him by name and said, You are mine and You belong to me, and He called Him to Christ. just as an aside here, let me just say to any of our covenant children how important it is that at some point in your life it is your duty and it's your privilege to publicly confess your faith in Christ and come to the Lord's table. It is wonderful that you've been included in the covenant of grace and baptized in your infancy, but it's also important when God is working on your heart to come before this congregation and publicly confess your faith in Jesus and say, I am a follower of Jesus. And I want to come to His table and I want to live as a full communing member of the church. If you're not yet a Christian, you've never been baptized, it is important for you to confess your faith in Christ, to come to Him. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. And that is so important that we publicly identify, and Paul is building on that as a motivation. Don't forget who called you. Don't forget what you said before a crowd of witnesses, that you were Christ. You belonged to Him, body and soul, and life and in death, and be faithful to that. Never forget who you are as a Christian. Notice also he motivates him by telling him to consider the example of Jesus. The example of Jesus. Look what he says there in verse 13. He says, 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. So he not only reminds Timothy, you made the good confession before all the witnesses, but he says, don't forget about Jesus and the good confession that Jesus made before Pilate. There's a lot of debate about exactly what he's talking about there. Maybe he's talking about when Pilate says, are you a king? And he says, you say that I am. Maybe he's talking about when he was before Pilate and he said, I have come into this world to testify to the truth. Or maybe he's talking about when he was before Pilate, and he says, my kingdom is not of this world. And if it were, my followers would be fighting and defending me. Whatever it might specifically refer to, the point is that Jesus is the faithful witness, as Revelation 1 and verse 5 calls him. He never failed to confess who he was and what he came to do, even when he was under duress. Pilate said to him, don't you understand the authority I have? I can put you to death, I can set you free, and Jesus says what? Talk about manhood. He says, the only authority you have, Pontius Pilate, is the authority that has been given you by God above. He made the good confession. The example of Christ, following the example of Christ will not save us. But living our lives of godliness based on pursuing imitation of Christ is the path of sanctification. Following Him, He made the good confession. We too must make the good confession. We must follow His boldness, follow His gentleness, follow His righteous resolve before the powers of this world. We may, in our generation, be given an opportunity to testify to the gospel before the powers of this world. And we must do it like Christ did, not defending ourselves, not simply talking about our own self-preservation, but speaking the truth with boldness and yet with great love. Christ made the good confession, and Timothy is also to consider how Christ, as the godliest man who ever lived, lived and confessed the truth before a watching world. But he also gives him another motivation. He says, not only consider your public profession of faith and the example of Christ, he also refers to the second coming of Christ. Look what he says in verse 14 when he was talking about keeping that commandment unstained and free from reproach. Keeping it until what? What's the end game? What's the prize? What is said in front of us? Look what it says, the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what motivates the man of God. Jesus is the reigning king. Jesus is the returning king. Paul calls it in his letter to Titus, the great appearing of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. That is 1 Thessalonians 4, when the archangel shouts and the trumpet of God blows, and Christ literally, visibly, publicly, gloriously descends to this earth and restores all things. That is a motivation for us. Maranatha we say, our Lord come. His kingdom is coming and it is filling the earth, it is growing, but we long for the consummate return of Christ on the last day. We look forward to that. What makes you fight against the false doctrines and love of this world, fight against your own sin and pursue these virtues that we've talked about? Jesus is coming back. Set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ and gird up the loins of your minds, the Scripture says, and be sober-minded and pursue Him. That's the motivation, the return of the King. And then, of all the motivations that he gives, there is the greatest one of all in the man of God pursuing these mandates, and that is the absolute glorious character of God. In these mandates that he's given to Timothy here, he's really, really stressing the grandeur, the spectacular ineffable beauty of who God is. Look what he says in the charge. He says, this God, I charge you in the presence of this God. It's as if Paul summons Timothy before God's tribunal, before the courtroom of heaven and all the seriousness of heaven. And he says, this God is the God who gives life to all things. Everything everywhere owes its life to this God. He is the supreme being. All other beings are dependent on this being. He is the one who gives life and breath to all things. In Him we live and move and have our being. He is the Lord and giver of life. And He sets before Timothy eternal life and sets that life before us as well. He is also a God who is the blessed sovereign, verse 15. When He talked about the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, He says, He will display it at the proper time, He who is the blessed and only sovereign. There were a lot of lowercase S sovereigns. There was Caesar and there were other kings and rulers and officials at the time Paul wrote this, but he says, really, there's only one king. He is king of kings. He is Lord of lords. In Revelation one in verse five, it says, Jesus is the ruler of the kings on the earth. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. He is the highest King. He is the high King of heaven, working all things according to the counsel of His will. All things are at His beck and call. He is not wringing His hands. He is not unsure or uncertain about what is going to come to pass. He is the blessed and the only sovereign. That word blessed refers to the self-sufficiency of God. God is happy being God. God is blessed in and of Himself, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God did not create the world because He was lonely and needed a friend. God doesn't need anything. He has full happiness and contentment and self-sufficiency in the very essence of His being. He's the blessed sovereign, the happy God, the God who delights in being God, the source of all true blessedness. He's also the uniquely, the uniquely immortal one. Look what it says in verse 16, he alone has immortality. You think about that and you say, well, aren't our souls immortal? Don't we share immortality with God? When it says he alone has immortality, it means he alone has immortality in himself. The only immortality we have is what He shares with us, but He, by the very essence of His being, is the immortal one. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever He formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, He's God. There's never been a time He didn't exist, there will never be a time where He doesn't exist. He is the great I AM. Immortal we sing, invisible, God only wise, and light inaccessible, hid from our eyes, this glorious God. He speaks of that here as invisible spirit. He cannot be seen with the eyes of mortal men. He dwells in unapproachable light. The Scripture says, He is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. He is the thrice holy God of Israel who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. He is of pure eyes than to look at evil and cannot tolerate wrongdoing. He is in His temple. Let all the earth keep silence before Him, the Scripture says. This picture of who God is is motivating to the man of God. When we realize He has given us these mandates, when we realize He's placed these upon our heart, we realize the greatest incentive of all to flee the things of this world and to pursue these virtues and to fight and take hold of eternal life and to keep the commandment unblemished is that we have a great and awesome God, do we not? infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the God, as it says here, the God to whom belongs honor and eternal dominion. Honor forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever, and rule forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever. What a great and awesome God we have. And men, when you are gripped in the depths of your soul by this God, you'll want to run away from things. Running away from the love of money, which is a trap. running away from that love of money that leads to apostasy by which some have pierced themselves with many pangs, running towards those virtues of righteousness and faith and love, perseverance and gentleness, running towards those things so that you can't have enough of it, you love it so much, actually grasping eternal life, thinking about heaven often. Your heart is heavenward. Your citizenship is in heaven. And from it, you're awaiting a savior who will come and transform your lowly body to be like his glorious body. A Godward life is what Paul is putting on Timothy and putting on us. Is our life genuinely Godward? Are we genuinely in love with the Lord of glory? And when we love Him, that love that comes from His love for us causes us to lay aside every hindrance, and with all of our strength and all of our might, run the race that is set before us. May this be true of us men, may this be true of us as fathers, true of us as husbands, true of us as elders, as deacons, true of us as just laymen, whatever you may be, to be a man of God, to hear and heed these mandates, but most of all, to be gripped in your soul by these motivations. the greatest of which is the glory of God. Let's pray together. Father, how we confess our, how we sin and stray from Your ways. We thank You that You are merciful and gracious to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness because Jesus died in our place. We also pray that by the Spirit you would grant us the grace to be godly men. Pray for the men in the room this morning and ask that you would help us to be men of God who follow these mandates, but also who are driven by these motives. May we be gripped by all the truth of who you are in Christ, and may we live soli deo gloria for your glory alone. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen.