WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.160 This morning we're going to continue in our series Broken Vessels. 00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:11.279 This is through Paul's letter, his first letter to Timothy will be in chapter 1, verses 12 through 20. 00:00:11.439 --> 00:00:15.119 If you're here this morning and you don't have a Bible, we have some for you. 00:00:15.199 --> 00:00:17.440 They're on the back table at the welcome desk. 00:00:17.600 --> 00:00:25.280 Everything that we do here at Missio is fueled and centered around the scriptures, the word of God breathed out for us. 00:00:25.440 --> 00:00:30.239 And so if you don't have one, we would love for you to leave here this morning having your own copy of the Bible. 00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:31.519 That's our gift to you. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:34.399 So please take one of those on your way out. 00:00:34.960 --> 00:00:42.399 Also, as we move forward, you can check out our app in your app store if you have an iPhone or Windows or whatever, Android. 00:00:42.479 --> 00:00:44.560 You can download our app, Missio Day Church. 00:00:44.640 --> 00:00:47.920 And in that app at the bottom, there's a sermons tab. 00:00:48.079 --> 00:00:58.079 And if you click on that and go to Missio Day North, you'll be able to find the notes for this morning and follow along and even fill in some blanks as we make our way through this text. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:04.159 Again, 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 12 through 20. 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.040 Hear the word of the Lord. 00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:32.319 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:42.239 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am the foremost. 00:01:43.120 --> 00:01:56.079 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 00:01:56.480 --> 00:02:05.359 To the King of the Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory for ever and ever. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:06.319 Amen. 00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:19.439 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:30.319 By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymeneus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. 00:02:30.639 --> 00:02:31.919 This is God's word. 00:02:32.240 --> 00:02:33.439 Thanks be to God. 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:35.919 Would you join me in prayer this morning? 00:02:39.280 --> 00:02:51.919 Father, we come to you empty-handed with nothing to bring apart from the grace that we have received in Christ. 00:02:54.000 --> 00:02:58.960 And so, Father, we ask that through your word and by your spirit you would fill us up. 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:11.199 And not just fill us up for our own selves and for our own good, but for the good of this city as your kingdom goes forward. 00:03:14.080 --> 00:03:22.319 Father, we pray all this in the name of Christ, our Lord, who was dead and who rose from the from the grave. 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:23.840 We pray this in his name. 00:03:24.080 --> 00:03:25.199 Amen and amen. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:46.000 Last week in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verses 3 through 11, we saw how the Apostle Paul, who is the author of this letter, draws a clear connection between right doctrine, that is what we believe about God, and right practice, that is how we live. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:54.319 He makes quite clear that what we believe about God determines how we live in light of what we believe. 00:03:54.800 --> 00:04:05.919 In other words, doctrine and practice are not exclusive and self-contained, but rather they're necessarily and inevitably linked to one another. 00:04:06.080 --> 00:04:09.520 They cannot be separated or compartmentalized. 00:04:10.560 --> 00:04:14.240 They're not opposed or contradictory to one another. 00:04:15.039 --> 00:04:20.000 Many are often under this impression that that's the case. 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:24.959 Some would say things like, I'm not into that doctrine stuff. 00:04:25.279 --> 00:04:27.279 I just want to love Jesus. 00:04:27.920 --> 00:04:30.079 I just want to try to do what's right. 00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:35.519 Or maybe you've heard, or perhaps even this morning, you may think yourself, doctrine divides. 00:04:37.199 --> 00:04:38.800 We just need to love. 00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:50.639 But Pastor Justin last week greatly compelled us to consider Paul's teaching that these two things are not, in fact, opposed to one another. 00:04:50.959 --> 00:04:56.720 Rather, they're complementary and they are necessary to one another. 00:04:57.279 --> 00:05:04.879 Right doctrine and right living, right doctrine and how we love are inextricably linked. 00:05:06.879 --> 00:05:27.120 And in today's text, the Apostle Paul stays in this same stream of thought, going just a bit further, and communicates to us that not only are doctrine and devotion, our doctrine and practice connected, but so are doctrine and doxology. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:44.560 What we mean by doctrine, some of us, when we hear this word doctrine or theology, what we picture in our mind is a textbook that we can barely carry, words that we have no interest in looking up, let's be honest. 00:05:46.079 --> 00:05:52.560 Some dry, dead, golden towered information. 00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:55.120 It's not what we mean. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:05.839 When we use this term doctrine, when we talk about theology, what we mean is what God has told us about himself. 00:06:08.399 --> 00:06:13.839 And brothers and sisters, that fuels everything else that we do. 00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:27.920 So this is not just some dry rote memorization of information, it is what God has communicated to us about who he is and how we're to live in the world. 00:06:28.000 --> 00:06:29.279 That's crucial. 00:06:30.319 --> 00:06:32.879 And that's immensely practical. 00:06:35.040 --> 00:06:39.120 And the word doxology, it's a word that no doubt many of us have heard. 00:06:39.199 --> 00:06:46.000 You may have heard it as a title of a song, Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, right? 00:06:46.800 --> 00:06:49.519 Amen. 00:06:53.680 --> 00:06:59.120 It's a word that means simply the expression of glory. 00:07:01.040 --> 00:07:04.639 Or we could simply say it like this: worship. 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:22.079 And in our text, we see Paul drawing this beautifully connected line between doctrine, that is, what we believe about who God has communicated himself to be, and then doxology. 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:29.360 How we are then to worship God in light of who God has said he is. 00:07:32.399 --> 00:07:35.279 He's a pastor and a theologian from Louisville, Kentucky. 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:44.639 He writes in his book, Rhythms of Grace, he says worship isn't something other, something external, compartmentalized or confined. 00:07:44.800 --> 00:07:55.279 He says worship is life with God, lived unto God, for his glory and for our pleasure. 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:17.600 If that's true, and I would purport that it is, then what we believe about God deeply affects how we live in this life unto him for his glory and for our pleasure and how we respond in worship. 00:08:18.480 --> 00:08:26.079 So as we press into this text, this is the premise or the summary statement, if you will, that we need to see. 00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:32.000 If you walk away with nothing else, I'd encourage you to write this down and meditate on this. 00:08:32.960 --> 00:08:43.440 Right doctrine, understood and believed, produces humble and confident worshipers. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:51.440 Right doctrine, understood and believed, produces humble and confident worshipers. 00:08:53.279 --> 00:08:58.559 As we work our way through the text, we're going to look at four main things. 00:08:58.720 --> 00:09:02.399 We'll start in verse 12 by considering this. 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:07.120 Right doctrine helps us to see ourselves honestly. 00:09:08.559 --> 00:09:11.759 Right doctrine helps us to see ourselves honestly. 00:09:11.919 --> 00:09:33.840 Verses 12 through 14, Paul writes, He says, I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent opponent, but I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief. 00:09:34.159 --> 00:09:42.480 But the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:47.360 Paul in these verses lays out for us a couple of things. 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:53.759 He lays out his foundational understanding of both conversion and calling. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:10:04.240 And he shares with us his honest self-assessment of who he was in light of who he sees Jesus to be. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:14.399 In other words, Paul is able to be honest about who he was because of his understanding of who Jesus is and what Jesus has done. 00:10:15.519 --> 00:10:21.919 He was a blasphemer, a persecutor of the church, an opponent of Jesus himself. 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:25.759 Paul, prior to his conversion, was a Jewish zealot. 00:10:26.000 --> 00:10:38.320 His mission was to snuff out this little sect of Judaism that was going around saying that this carpenter from Nazareth was crucified on a cross and then was raised from the dead, and he's the Messiah. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:43.679 And Paul was on a mission to kill that thought. 00:10:47.039 --> 00:10:59.279 And to Paul, who had studied and even memorized the books of the law, who had learned at the feet of the Pharisee Gamaliel, we see this in, we learned a lot of this information in Acts chapter 22. 00:11:00.159 --> 00:11:07.679 He had been sent out by the high priest and the council to imprison and even kill these people, claiming that Jesus was the Christ. 00:11:07.840 --> 00:11:13.840 To him, he no doubt thought that what he was doing was good and right. 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:19.679 But he was blinded by his sin, by his blasphemy. 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.879 And in fact, he was opposing the Christ whom God had sent. 00:11:26.960 --> 00:11:32.879 And to make a long story short, is Paul was on his way to Damascus, continuing this crusade. 00:11:33.840 --> 00:11:37.679 He was met by the very person of Jesus and was converted. 00:11:39.919 --> 00:11:48.000 And when Paul saw Jesus for who he truly is, Christ revealed to him who Paul truly was. 00:11:59.600 --> 00:12:16.720 In these verses, we see Paul practicing even the very words of John the Baptist by decreasing his own name and his own glory and increasing the name and the glory of Jesus Christ as he's telling this story. 00:12:17.039 --> 00:12:24.639 As Paul is telling us of who he was and who Jesus is and what Christ had done for him. 00:12:26.639 --> 00:12:39.759 John Calvin, who was a 16th-century pastor and theologian, said it like this: Paul's intention was not only to boast courageously in the Lord, but to give up all the glory that may have been his own. 00:12:41.519 --> 00:12:47.600 So Paul is making very clear here that none of the glory to be had is his. 00:12:49.840 --> 00:12:54.720 Neither for his conversion nor for his calling to be an apostle. 00:12:57.039 --> 00:12:59.840 Christ gave the mercy. 00:13:01.279 --> 00:13:07.759 He said it was Christ who gave him strength, Christ who judged him faithful, Christ who appointed him to the ministry. 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:15.840 He gave him mercy and grace and love that he needed to be converted and to live out this apostolic calling. 00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:21.759 Paul makes very clear here, it was Christ from beginning to end. 00:13:25.360 --> 00:13:33.919 It would be wrong of us to assume that what Paul is saying here is that Christ Jesus looked and saw that Paul would be faithful. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:48.960 Then in response to that seeing, Jesus then appointed Paul into his service in response to seeing something in Paul that was worthy of this calling. 00:13:50.320 --> 00:14:01.759 Rather, the apostle acknowledges in thanksgiving that it's Christ Jesus himself who gave to him both the strength and mercy and faith to be called faithful. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:07.759 Or to put it more simply, he was judged faithful because Christ gave him faith. 00:14:10.320 --> 00:14:15.519 See what Paul believed about Jesus, that's that's doctrine. 00:14:16.000 --> 00:14:20.480 What he believed about who Christ is, that's that's doctrine. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:35.039 Gave him the freedom to be honest about himself, recognizing his own depravity and then rejoicing in the gift of grace and faith that only comes from Christ. 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:42.639 Right doctrine helps us to be honest about who we are. 00:14:42.879 --> 00:14:50.320 Second, right doctrine gives us confidence, it gives us confidence. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:53.200 Look at verses 15 through 16. 00:14:53.279 --> 00:15:03.120 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of who I am foremost, Paul says. 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:18.000 Verse 16, but I received mercy for this reason that in me as the foremost Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:26.480 This morning we can be confident as we see this text in two specific ways. 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:33.759 First, we can be confident in the sure mission of God to save his people. 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:40.639 Paul is saying, you can take that to the bank. 00:15:41.840 --> 00:15:50.399 You can put all your eggs in this basket, or whatever catchphrase you want to plug in there. 00:15:50.559 --> 00:15:55.519 He's saying this is trustworthy. 00:15:56.399 --> 00:16:00.320 This is deserving of your acceptance and your belief. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:06.399 Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners. 00:16:07.519 --> 00:16:10.559 You can be sure of this, Paul says. 00:16:12.480 --> 00:16:23.360 To save them from their sin, to save them from death, to save them from the very wrath of God that they deserve because of their sin, to save them from this broken world. 00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:33.519 And ultimately to remake and to set all things right again for them to live in and enjoy for his glory and for their pleasure. 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:46.000 Friends, though there are many things in our life, there certainly is in mine that are uncertain. 00:16:48.159 --> 00:17:01.360 I want you to know that the Holy Spirit's use of Paul's words here, you can be more confident of this than anything else in your life. 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:08.000 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 00:17:13.279 --> 00:17:18.079 There is nothing in this world that we can be more sure of than that. 00:17:20.000 --> 00:17:20.559 J.I. 00:17:20.720 --> 00:17:21.440 Packer. 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:32.720 He wrote that the whole doctrine of salvation could be summed up in three words. 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:37.200 God saves sinners. 00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:41.759 God saves sinners. 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:43.039 That's why he came. 00:17:43.119 --> 00:17:46.160 That's why he humbled himself to become like us. 00:17:46.319 --> 00:17:49.359 That's why he hung naked on a cross. 00:17:50.400 --> 00:18:00.240 That's why he was buried in a borrowed tomb, why raised from the tomb in the power of the Holy Spirit in order to save sinners and to make all things right again. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:12.000 So the first thing that we can be confident of is the sure mission of God to save his people. 00:18:13.759 --> 00:18:15.599 God does not fail. 00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:22.400 Second thing, and I want you to hear me here. 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:23.440 Second. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:35.920 You can be confident, friend, that you are not outside the bounds of the mercy and grace of God to save you. 00:18:37.359 --> 00:18:46.079 You can be confident that Jesus will accomplish his mission to save his people, and you can be confident that you are not outside his reach. 00:18:48.960 --> 00:18:51.440 You might say, Casey, you don't know me. 00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:56.319 You don't know the things I've done. 00:19:05.200 --> 00:19:06.559 I'm not lovable. 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:11.279 You don't know just how broken I am. 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:13.920 Please listen to me. 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:19.680 You are not too deep into sin that the mercy of God cannot reach you. 00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:30.480 You are not so broken that the goodness of Jesus Christ cannot pick up the pieces and form you into something even more beautiful. 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:43.839 No matter what you've done, no matter what's been done to you, you are not outside the bounds of the grace of Jesus Christ who has come into the world to save sinners. 00:19:45.599 --> 00:19:47.519 Paul recognizes this in his own life. 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:53.119 He says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:03.839 That I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. 00:20:04.079 --> 00:20:06.400 Paul says that he was the foremost sinner. 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:09.599 Now, I don't think Paul's comparing metrics here. 00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:32.400 No, he's simply extolling the best that he can the grace of God. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:38.000 He's saying, listen, I was a blasphemer, I was a persecutor, I was an enemy of Christ. 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:42.799 And all of that flows out of the sin of unbelief. 00:20:44.240 --> 00:20:53.200 And if Jesus Christ can save this unbeliever, he can save you from your unbelief as well. 00:20:58.000 --> 00:21:03.440 In other words, as one theologian put it, Paul is essentially saying, repeat after me. 00:21:05.359 --> 00:21:10.400 Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. 00:21:11.039 --> 00:21:19.440 Extolling the reach, the breadth, and the depth of the grace of God to save sinners, to save unbelievers. 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:40.640 John Calvin again writes: the apostle's meaning is that from the very beginning, God held out such a pattern as might be visible that no one might doubt that he would obtain pardon, provided that he approached Christ by faith. 00:21:40.880 --> 00:21:47.519 No one should have doubt that if they will approach Christ by faith, that Christ would not save them. 00:21:49.039 --> 00:22:01.200 And Paul's point here is that if he can save me out of my unbelief, he can save you out of your Your unbelief. 00:22:06.720 --> 00:22:24.160 When we understand the sure nature of the mission of God to save sinners by sending Christ into this world, then we can be confident that neither we nor our neighbors nor the nations are outside the bounds of his saving grace. 00:22:24.799 --> 00:22:27.759 If we will come to him by faith. 00:22:32.960 --> 00:22:34.240 Number three. 00:22:35.359 --> 00:22:42.960 Right doctrine, understood and believed, produces right worship. 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:49.119 Right doctrine understood and believed produces right worship. 00:22:49.279 --> 00:22:50.720 This is verse 17. 00:22:51.599 --> 00:23:00.319 To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God be honor and glory forever and ever. 00:23:00.799 --> 00:23:01.440 Amen. 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:25.519 Here in the middle of Paul's argument for the sure nature of the gospel, as he's recalling the work of God in his own life, as he's reminiscing on how Christ Jesus rescued him from his unbelief, Paul breaks out in song. 00:23:27.039 --> 00:23:34.000 He breaks out in this beautiful doxology, this song of worship to the God who had rescued him. 00:23:34.799 --> 00:23:42.400 He can hardly finish his point before he has to take a praise break. 00:23:47.599 --> 00:24:01.119 We must never, brothers and sisters, think long on the grace of God expressed to us through Christ Jesus without it leading us to expressive and joyful worship. 00:24:01.920 --> 00:24:03.119 How could we? 00:24:05.119 --> 00:24:14.319 How could we gaze at the face of a resurrected Christ who extended this depth of grace to sinners like us? 00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:20.640 Ponder that in our hearts and then not respond in praise. 00:24:26.400 --> 00:24:35.279 The words Paul uses in this doxology are informed about the nature and the character of Christ our Lord. 00:24:35.440 --> 00:24:38.000 That's doctrine. 00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:46.240 And they're declarative of the vast and ineffable reach of his grace. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:59.839 In other words, Paul, while recalling the depth of his unbelief, rejoices in the inexhaustible scope of Christ's work to overcome that unbelief and to bring him into his kingdom. 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.400 There is no depth, friends, to which you can go. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:07.920 There is no length to which you can run. 00:25:08.720 --> 00:25:15.440 That the inexhaustible grace of God cannot meet you there and call you into his kingdom. 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:18.799 If you'll come to him by faith. 00:25:20.480 --> 00:25:48.960 And as we ponder that, it produces in us naturally joyful worship of this God that we've learned, that we've come to know, that He has shared Himself with us, informed by good and right doctrine. 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:58.319 And when we understand that and when we believe that, it will produce in us right worship. 00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.839 See, we were created as worshipers. 00:26:06.319 --> 00:26:10.240 There's not an image bearer on this planet who can say that they don't worship. 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:11.680 We all worship. 00:26:11.839 --> 00:26:16.079 The question is, what or who are we worshiping? 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:25.359 And if we divorce doctrine from doxology, theology from worship, then we can't answer the question, who are you worshiping? 00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:34.880 But God in his kindness and his grace has given us all that we need to know about him. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:43.119 And when we understand that and when we believe that, it produces in us worship. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:47.039 And I say, understood and believed. 00:26:49.279 --> 00:26:53.599 Right doctrine in and of itself does not create new life. 00:26:56.240 --> 00:27:03.279 It's when the Holy Spirit of God again, through his kindness, awakens our hearts to believe. 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:07.440 Paul said, He gave me faith. 00:27:09.759 --> 00:27:16.799 He gave me grace to move from unbelief to belief. 00:27:18.400 --> 00:27:24.720 And when that's understood and believed, it produces in us, friends, worship. 00:27:25.680 --> 00:27:40.079 Paul expresses this beautifully in his letter to the Romans chapter 11, verses 33 through 36, as he is expressing in this context how the gospel is not only for the Jews, but it's also for the Gentiles. 00:27:40.240 --> 00:27:42.880 Remember, Paul is a Jew of Jews. 00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:44.400 It doesn't. 00:27:45.279 --> 00:27:46.480 I'm not gonna say it like that. 00:27:46.960 --> 00:27:49.519 He was uh the best Jew. 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:57.759 And now he's communicating this, the scriptures call it a mystery, this beautiful mystery that's being revealed. 00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:08.000 He's saying, this good news isn't just for the Jews, it's for the Gentiles, it's for the nations, it's for everyone, which by the way is good news for us. 00:28:11.440 --> 00:28:23.759 And in the midst of sharing this mystery that the gospel is not only for the Jews, but it's for the Gentiles, it's for the nations, he again cannot help himself and breaks out in song. 00:28:23.920 --> 00:28:34.400 He says, Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, how inscrutable his ways. 00:28:34.640 --> 00:28:41.440 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor, or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? 00:28:41.599 --> 00:28:47.680 Verse 36, for from him and through him and to him are all things. 00:28:48.640 --> 00:28:51.359 To him be glory forever. 00:28:51.920 --> 00:28:52.559 Amen. 00:28:55.359 --> 00:29:04.880 As one theologian stated it, the intrinsic glory of God should produce in us ascribed glory to God. 00:29:05.119 --> 00:29:09.519 In us is his creation, and in us as a redeemed people. 00:29:13.279 --> 00:29:14.880 See, this is important. 00:29:15.200 --> 00:29:21.519 God is not some weak creature who needs to be affirmed in order to feel special. 00:29:21.759 --> 00:29:24.079 It's not the point of worship. 00:29:26.880 --> 00:29:30.559 No, he is intrinsically glorious. 00:29:31.440 --> 00:29:36.319 He's glorious by his own nature and according to his own terms. 00:29:37.680 --> 00:29:42.799 He was glorious in eternity past before anything was ever created. 00:29:42.960 --> 00:29:46.079 We are not told to worship because God is needy. 00:29:47.440 --> 00:29:50.960 He needs to be affirmed in order to feel special. 00:29:55.119 --> 00:30:03.359 No, we're told to worship him because we were created to be worshipers out of the overflow of the goodness and grace of God. 00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:09.440 And it's through worshiping our Creator rightly that we ultimately find our joy. 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:20.400 The first question of the Westminster Larger Catechism asks this: What is man's chief and highest end? 00:30:23.839 --> 00:30:28.160 To glorify God and enjoy him forever. 00:30:29.359 --> 00:30:32.240 To glorify God and enjoy him forever. 00:30:32.319 --> 00:30:35.519 This is what Paul is getting at here in this doxology. 00:30:35.680 --> 00:30:41.680 Our chiefest and highest end, our greatest joy is to glorify God. 00:30:44.160 --> 00:30:49.759 And not only just to glorify God, but to glorify him for our own pleasure. 00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:56.720 It's in our finding joy in God that we find joy in life. 00:31:02.079 --> 00:31:13.200 And the beauty of this is that it frees us to not feel the need to find joy in other and lesser things. 00:31:15.119 --> 00:31:20.799 We don't have to have a stable job or income to have joy. 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:27.680 We don't have to have our relationships intact to find joy. 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:28.559 Why? 00:31:29.519 --> 00:31:34.400 Because we're not primarily worshipers of financial stability. 00:31:38.960 --> 00:31:43.039 We can walk in joy even as we walk in suffering. 00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:44.079 Why? 00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:54.960 Because God is our source of joy, our chiefest and our highest end, friends, is to worship God and enjoy Him. 00:31:55.119 --> 00:31:58.160 We miss, I tend to miss that part. 00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:07.920 We will never run short on worship for an eternally glorious God. 00:32:09.680 --> 00:32:25.359 Frederick Lehman, he was a late 18th, early 19th century pastor and hymn writer, did what Paul does in this text and beautifully describing or attempting to describe, or describing the ways in which it can't be described, the nature of God. 00:32:25.440 --> 00:32:26.480 He said it like this. 00:32:26.720 --> 00:32:29.599 Could we with ink the ocean fill? 00:32:30.079 --> 00:32:37.920 And were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. 00:32:38.079 --> 00:32:43.039 To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:50.480 Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though it stretched from sky to sky. 00:32:52.559 --> 00:33:00.799 Right doctrine, understood and believed, produces in us worship. 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:09.359 And then finally, right doctrine and worship. 00:33:09.599 --> 00:33:13.839 Help us identify wrong doctrine and worship. 00:33:16.559 --> 00:33:20.480 Paul, he's almost been going in a circle. 00:33:20.640 --> 00:33:28.480 He begins his proposition up in verse three with a charge to Timothy, and then he begins to elaborate. 00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:37.519 Then he comes into verse 12, this new paragraph, as he elaborates on the gospel of God who has sent Christ into the world to save sinners. 00:33:37.759 --> 00:33:41.359 He pauses for a minute to worship. 00:33:42.240 --> 00:33:45.119 And then he comes back around in verse 18. 00:33:45.200 --> 00:33:54.240 And he says, And this charge, and so he's referencing back, this charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you. 00:33:54.720 --> 00:33:59.920 But that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. 00:34:00.079 --> 00:34:06.559 By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom, and Paul doesn't mess around. 00:34:06.799 --> 00:34:12.000 He starts naming names, Hymenaeus, Alexander, like you know these dudes, you've seen them. 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:18.320 He says, I've handed them over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. 00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:36.719 When people are trained to detect uh counterfeit money, it's most often done by comparing that with real money. 00:34:36.960 --> 00:34:48.159 They're not generally trained on simply spotting specific things about the fake money on its own or on its own account, but rather they're trained in what makes real money real. 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:55.360 And then they use that as a template for spotting the fake. 00:34:56.639 --> 00:35:14.400 And Paul helps us see here that it's a good understanding of right doctrine and living a life of right worship that helps us to be able to spot that which is wrong or that which is fake, both in ourselves and in the world around us. 00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:31.599 The charge that he's talking about here, same thing again, he mentions at the beginning of the letter, this charge to live a life of love that proceeds from a pure heart, a good conscience, a sincere faith, and to speak against those who were teaching things that were contrary to this. 00:35:33.599 --> 00:35:38.800 And in verse 18, Paul tells Timothy to wage a good warfare. 00:35:40.480 --> 00:35:55.440 Based on confident belief in the grace of God in Christ, Timothy was to enter into war for the care of his sheep and for their defense against false doctrine, against false gospels. 00:35:56.480 --> 00:36:02.239 Paul exhorts him to set out on this mission with a fierce conviction of victory. 00:36:03.280 --> 00:36:12.719 Not because of his own effort and zeal, but because of the good news that Christ Jesus had come into the world to save sinners. 00:36:13.679 --> 00:36:20.880 Then at the end of the verse, verse 18, Paul gives us an example of what it looks like to step out of the bounds of right doctrine. 00:36:21.039 --> 00:36:25.199 He says, by rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith. 00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:33.840 Throughout this text, the word faith is generally in reference to sound doctrine. 00:36:34.960 --> 00:36:39.920 Not just believing, but believing rightly. 00:36:43.199 --> 00:36:55.920 And this term good conscience generally means obedience to sound doctrine or living life in congruence with what it is that we say that we believe. 00:36:57.440 --> 00:37:00.400 One without the other is useless. 00:37:02.639 --> 00:37:11.039 To affirm sound doctrine, but to walk in disobedience to it is to undermine the very affirmation of that doctrine. 00:37:12.320 --> 00:37:15.039 It's to neglect its true calling. 00:37:16.639 --> 00:37:26.159 And consequently, to pursue holiness and obedience apart from good and right doctrine, is to do so without true knowledge and wisdom. 00:37:26.400 --> 00:37:30.400 We're trying to build the train without the instructions. 00:37:32.159 --> 00:37:35.760 We're trying to build a train when it's actually a house. 00:37:40.719 --> 00:37:43.199 And that's what these two men that Paul mentions had done. 00:37:43.280 --> 00:37:49.679 They had abandoned sound doctrine, and therefore we're living out of step with true faith and a good conscience. 00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:56.400 Homenaeus, for example, was saying that the resurrection of the dead had already come, and therefore we could just live however we'd like. 00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:01.519 It had already come, we were in the new heavens and the new earth, and Paul's saying, No. 00:38:03.039 --> 00:38:05.519 No, that's false doctrine. 00:38:07.039 --> 00:38:09.840 You're blaspheming, Paul even says. 00:38:11.440 --> 00:38:13.840 They had abandoned what was good and right. 00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:16.159 He says they had shipwrecked their faith. 00:38:16.400 --> 00:38:18.880 They were living like an unbeliever. 00:38:20.719 --> 00:38:28.639 Paul said that he was handing them over to Satan, that they would learn the error of their ways, that they would learn not to blaspheme. 00:38:28.800 --> 00:38:43.280 What Paul is saying here is that he is allowing them to walk in this unbelief, in the confident hope that Jesus does not lose any of his people. 00:38:44.559 --> 00:38:54.880 And so if Hymenaeus and Alexander are truly gods, then he will by his grace teach them not to blaspheme and bring them back into faith. 00:38:58.320 --> 00:39:01.199 But they had stepped outside the bounds. 00:39:01.440 --> 00:39:04.960 But Paul charges Timothy. 00:39:06.719 --> 00:39:16.079 In congruence with both sound doctrine and right worship, wage war against what is false. 00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:28.239 Sound doctrine is not only crucial in our own lives and our own worship, but it's crucial in helping us speak against false doctrine. 00:39:28.480 --> 00:39:43.119 We live in a culture who proposes day after day many, we could say, gospels, many asserted good news. 00:39:46.000 --> 00:40:00.800 Ways in which they are purporting to you, purporting to me, that no, no, no, no, no, it's not Jesus who saves you, it's not Jesus through whom you find joy. 00:40:01.280 --> 00:40:02.079 That's not the point. 00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:03.519 I have good news for you. 00:40:03.679 --> 00:40:10.960 It's actually climbing the ladder as high as you can in your company to where you're making as much as you can. 00:40:11.119 --> 00:40:12.480 That's where freedom is at. 00:40:12.639 --> 00:40:14.159 That's where joy is at. 00:40:17.360 --> 00:40:28.719 It's not Jesus, it's sexual freedom that really sets us free, that really allows us to live in joy. 00:40:32.960 --> 00:40:46.239 But it's our understanding of right doctrine and our aim of right worship that helps us spot the fake when it comes in and says, No, worship me. 00:40:49.280 --> 00:40:55.360 Trust in me, trust in this teaching, trust in this ideology. 00:40:58.239 --> 00:41:01.440 It's not primarily just about these other things. 00:41:01.519 --> 00:41:14.639 If we can just know everything that we can know about them, brothers and sisters, what I'm what I'm encouraging you is dive into the scriptures, dive into sound doctrine and then live a life of worship. 00:41:16.559 --> 00:41:26.000 And then when the false gospels, when the false narratives begin to creep their way in, and they will, and they do, then we can spot them. 00:41:26.639 --> 00:41:29.840 We can wage war against them in our own hearts. 00:41:32.159 --> 00:41:39.440 It helps us to recognize false gospels and to see the beauty of the true gospel, which is this. 00:41:39.599 --> 00:41:41.920 This is our gospel conviction. 00:41:42.079 --> 00:41:47.119 Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners. 00:41:48.639 --> 00:41:50.079 To save sinners. 00:41:51.519 --> 00:41:54.159 And you can be sure of this. 00:41:55.199 --> 00:42:02.000 And you can be certain, friend, you are not outside the reach of that good news. 00:42:06.159 --> 00:42:15.199 And in light of this gospel truth, let's walk out just for a moment, very quickly, three gospel practices. 00:42:15.360 --> 00:42:19.119 The first, worship with an informed mind. 00:42:20.960 --> 00:42:23.039 Worship with an informed mind. 00:42:23.199 --> 00:42:26.719 In fact, the first and greatest commandment is what? 00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:33.360 Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. 00:42:33.760 --> 00:42:50.400 It goes against the very greatest commandment to try to say that doctrine and worship, doctrine and love don't go together when God said, Love me with your mind, with literally with your intellect. 00:42:51.920 --> 00:42:56.000 And so, brothers and sisters, worshiped with an informed mind. 00:42:56.960 --> 00:43:00.800 What we believe about God, what we learn from the scriptures. 00:43:02.079 --> 00:43:04.800 Second, worship with a joyful heart. 00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:11.599 Express the goodness of God and the beauty of the gospel with joy. 00:43:11.920 --> 00:43:15.199 We were created to be worshipers. 00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:17.280 So do it with joy. 00:43:18.000 --> 00:43:19.679 Do it expressively. 00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:27.599 And third, worship as a means of waging war. 00:43:30.880 --> 00:43:33.199 Wage war against your own sin. 00:43:34.320 --> 00:43:38.079 Wage war against the false narratives and the false gospels. 00:43:38.400 --> 00:43:42.159 Wage war and love for the souls of your neighbors. 00:43:42.880 --> 00:43:47.760 We will not prime in um uh John Owen. 00:43:47.840 --> 00:43:49.840 This is this isn't in my notes, so I'm having a pause. 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.480 In uh John Owen's book, uh Help Me Out, The Mortification of Sin. 00:43:55.599 --> 00:43:56.559 John Owen? 00:43:56.880 --> 00:43:58.880 Yes, yes, the mortification of sin. 00:43:59.840 --> 00:44:04.880 He tells us that it's not primarily a focusing on our sin that will help us kill our sin. 00:44:05.920 --> 00:44:07.920 It's primarily focusing on Christ. 00:44:10.239 --> 00:44:17.519 And so as you try to wage war against your sin, do not make your primary focus that sin. 00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:22.800 Look to Jesus and wage war. 00:44:23.760 --> 00:44:32.079 Fight the false gospels that are vying for your attention and your worship, and fight the false gospels that are stealing away our neighbors. 00:44:32.880 --> 00:44:40.000 And do that with informed, rigorous, joyful, warful worship. 00:44:40.559 --> 00:44:41.840 Pray with me. 00:44:42.639 --> 00:44:51.519 Father, I pray that you would stir our hearts to gaze at Jesus beautifully, standing there, resurrected. 00:44:52.800 --> 00:44:58.559 That we would be overwhelmed by the fact that He came into this world to save sinners. 00:44:59.119 --> 00:45:03.599 And that we, no matter what we think, are outside of the bounds of that. 00:45:03.679 --> 00:45:15.519 And therefore, as we look at that, as we gaze at that, we can respond in worship, joyful worship, informed worship about who you are and what you've done. 00:45:16.079 --> 00:45:26.320 And we can wage war in worship as we fight our own sin, as we fight our false gospels and narratives around us. 00:45:27.599 --> 00:45:31.280 All to the praise of your glory and for our joy in this world. 00:45:31.440 --> 00:45:33.199 We pray this in Christ's name. 00:45:33.519 --> 00:45:34.800 Amen and amen.