The Mystery Revealed - [1 Timothy 3:14-16]

Well, good evening It's a blessing to be back with you having just been down to Virginia and Washington DC We got to visit with Lewis and Dallas and that was a lot of fun for us

Did the what was that the skyline Drive? One afternoon evening that was beautiful.

We just had a really good time of fellowship with them Well, I would invite you to open your Bibles to first Timothy As I warm up my hands

You know, I I think I Think I'm gonna move this before I walk into it.

How many of you Have ever owned a car the first car pretty exciting

For me, it was a little bit less exciting. I Guess I was just kind of spoiled in a way.

My first car was a 1963 Ford Falcon I Wasn't really that excited about it.

It was big and boxy and everything, but then eventually I got a 1969 Mustang Now that was kind of exciting who wouldn't love that vehicle 351 eight cylinders

Really cool vinyl roof. Well, that wasn't so cool, but It had an am8 track player in it.

You just don't find those these days Also had an air conditioner and this was it was memorable because when you crank that thing up full blast it would actually throw ice on you pretty sweet but you know,

I was just thinking about because we went on this trip and You know, I honestly know I might be exaggerating but it seems like this is true because you know

Driving the truck. I had to get gasoline a few times and it seemed to me like I actually put in 83 octane at some point during this trip 83 that seems pretty low because I was thinking back to when

I owned that Mustang and you know, you got to put in premium fuel because it's I think

I put in 105 octane one time 105 octane. I don't

I don't even know if that's legal anymore I don't know if there's anywhere in the United States that you can get that Thank you,

Frank. There you go There's anything on the border

Frank knows all about it. I just remember thinking 100

I mean I can remember putting it in the gas tank and going 105 like it was gonna make me go faster

But I was excited about it. I was excited about that car. I was excited about everything This is kind of a

I get excited about Church about the church about God's Church, you know, you just think well, how can you be excited about it?

It's what you do for a living It's not what I do for a living.

I Get to preach and teach and that's all well and good But I come to church. Anyway, I mean look at Pastor Mike.

He doesn't have to be here tonight. I Mean he does but he doesn't if you know what

I mean Doesn't need to be here in the sense that you know, he's going to come here and be

Mystified, you know Church is a priority for God.

It's a priority for the Bible the New Testament Christ gave his life for the church

Christ said he would build his church and yet so many Christians are just so kind of They could settle for that 83 octane

This is a 195 octane passage today. This is a fired -up exciting passage

This is kind of the the core it is the the center It is the heart of this book and I would submit that it is one of those mountain peaks in the

New Testament Just to kind of bring us up to where we are Kind of doing this review a little bit differently when we just thinking about it personally the interaction between Paul and Timothy And he does call him his beloved

Child beloved son Technon in the faith, but but I think there was just so much more.

I think Paul had a genuine love for Timothy Now, we don't know if Paul had a physical son.

At least I don't know But personally I doubt that if he had a physical son

He could have loved him any more than he loved Timothy. I think Timothy was

Kind of that that special Convert Partner just the person that he loved more than any other man in the world.

He just had so much invested in him Was so pleased with how the Lord had used him

He trusted him. He'd seen him Come around in terms of ministry seen him develop he'd seen his giftedness

He encouraged him in that in this book and I think he really kind of hand -picked

Timothy to go to the church at Ephesus and to Set things in order there.

He knew it was gonna be hard He told him in chapter one that he was gonna have to Basically tell the false teachers that were already there at Ephesus to be quiet to stop teaching

In fact all of what Paul assigned Timothy to do was difficult.

It was hard Timothy had some self -doubts But Paul encouraged him in chapter 1 also to use the law lawfully.

He reminded him of his God -given abilities told him that his task was going to be the equivalent of warfare and Then he got into the nuts and bolts of ministry.

How do you actually run a church? He gave special priority to prayer special priority to knowing the saving nature of God Focused on the appropriate roles of men and women in the church particularly with respect to leadership and vital ministries

So here we come to the end of chapter 3 he's just finished

Paul's just finished giving the Qualifications for elders and deacons and talked about the promises that are available to deacons who are faithful in ministry

Then we come to what I call this mountain peak in Chapter 3 and it is just kind of breathtaking especially the way it closes very unique different And this evening

I want you to see three truths about the Church of God Found in our text tonight so that you will know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God How do you view the church?

Is that a cold sterile object of thoughts? Do you think about it? Is it kind of like, you know, it could be work

It could be school the church is a manifestation of the love and grace of God toward each saved person

I Want each of you to love the church at least as much as Paul did he didn't even lay down his life

Sacrificially for the church at least not in the full sense of it. I think he certainly did lay down his life sacrificially as Much as any human being can but this is no

Handbook kind of written by a bureaucrat. I remember we used to have these, you know large Regulation books

I've wrote one of these things, you know in this situation you could do this this and this all these kind of things

This isn't like that in fact this

Message tonight this little section of this book this heart of the book of first Timothy is really an impassioned

Insight into what the church is all about Why it exists and you should be

Excited about God's church. You should be excited about being with God's people even as I was thinking this week about all the things

That God has granted me since I've been saved. I'm just amazed if I think about it too long.

I'll start crying right here Church is a place where we can go not only to worship

God Not only to serve God's people but to be reminded again and again and again of the goodness of God of saving us of Rescuing us.

Let me read our passage tonight in first Timothy chapter 3 verse 14

Paul writes I hope to come to you soon But I am writing these things to you So that if I delay you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God Which is the church of the

Living God a pillar and buttress of the truth Great indeed, we confess is the mystery of godliness

He was manifested in the flesh vindicated by the Spirit seen by angels proclaimed among the nations believed on in the world

Take it up in glory Let's pray father.

We delight in your word. We thank you that we have Received it that you have opened our eyes to it that we may learn from it father

I pray that this evening as we look into what your word says here about your church that our hearts would be kindled or rekindled

That we would look at things differently that we would see that a church is not we intellectually know that it's not

Just a building But father, I pray that we would look at it rightly that we would see it as you do that We would be delighted to be here that we would be delighted to be among your people

Lord that we would love the church as You do father.

We pray these things as we look to your word in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I Have these three truths.

The first truth is The church's principles the church is built on principles look at verse 14

I hope to come to you soon But I am writing these things to you so that if I delay you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God Now this is

Really more of a personal letter this isn't like, you know I Paul's not writing to the church at Thessalonica the church at Ephesus the church at Rome This is to Timothy not the church at Timothy It's very personal and he wants

Timothy his disciple his student to take a much bigger role in the church at Ephesus Because Paul's got other things to do

Literally what he wrote here This is my own translation He said these things to you

I write Hoping to come to you in haste or speedily in his own hand

Paul wrote this with a persistent. Hope it's a present active participle meaning He was in a state of hopefulness that his desire would become reality that he'd get to go to Timothy.

I Mean, it's one thing to just send Timothy off there and it's another thing to think, you know this would probably go a whole lot better a whole lot easier for Timothy if I could just kind of Transition him into this if I could sort of be there, you know to be the kind of you know to use the law enforcement analogy

Andy Griffith to his Barney Fife, although he was no Barney Fife. He was much better than that Some of you guys are going who's

Barney Fife. You're not old enough The point is it would have been easier for Paul as the

Apostle to show up and say look I'm gonna straighten things out Rather than Timothy saying well, you know what?

I have this letter from Paul and he told me to do this and to do that It's always easier for the person with the most authority to set things, right?

He wanted to go there he wanted to help but Paul knew one thing and That's that God is in control of our travel plans.

It happened to Paul over and over again Paul would try to go somewhere and get shipwrecked

Paul What you know, I mean the the number of events that happened in the life of Paul. I Don't think he was fatalistic here

But I think he knew that he wasn't in control Of course

Proverbs 69 says the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps James talks about you know, we can't presume to know anything, but we need to say as the

Lord or if the Lord wills but when Paul wrote in verse 15

If I delay it Or if I delay it's a third -class conditional in the

Greek and it's not like he really doubted He was going to delay whatever was going on He's like, you know what?

I really want to be with you Timothy, but I'm probably not gonna make it. It's probably not gonna happen.

I am most likely going to be delayed And so then we come to the purpose of this entire letter

When you see those words so that you just kind of need to underline it because that is in the

Greek it's a henna It's a purpose clause and that means that this is it. This is why he wrote this entire letter

He thought he was gonna be delayed And he says so I'm writing these things so that with this purpose

I'll get to that purpose in just a minute, but Paul was not going to leave Timothy to trial and error well

I'll just tell you the purpose is obviously that so he would know how to conduct himself in the household of faith that he would know how to run a church that he would know how to organize things but imagine that a

Man who had never run a church on his own Timothy was going to be given leadership over a church that had problems

You think Paul was just gonna let him wing it? Hey Timothy, just go out there and you know, whatever happens happens.

Que sera sera We think about this Timothy had never even been a seminary How was he gonna do this?

You don't have to go to a seminary, but that's not the point Paul gave these instructions at Timothy so that he could implement put into practice

Organize the church The way the

Lord Jesus Christ wanted it organized Church needs to have godly spiritual leadership.

This is not optional. It is a fundamental principle Upon which the church must run.

That's why Paul went on at great length about the spiritual qualifications of the men

Who would be elders? It's a principle When Paul tied the prohibition of women

Teaching he prohibited women to teaching to the fall of Eve to creation It is a bedrock principle upon which the church is to operate.

You cannot have women teaching men another principle of the church another basic function of the church prayer

He focused on prayer because the church has to be about the practice of prayer This letter is filled with divine principles for operating the church as a spiritual enterprise so often churches today operate as if they are a political entity or as if they are a business concerned with the bottom line or maybe as some kind of social club where we all gather together and Share our problems or try to solve problems and All of those things may be fine

But they're not the basis for running a God -honoring Christ exalting Church. I was reading a book

Recently that kind of detailed some of the seeker sensitive problems and Probably a lot of you know this but Willow Creek Over the last couple years has come out and acknowledged that they made a lot of mistakes.

They said hey we missed it we We've over the course of many years we've observed some problems one problem that we've noticed is that it seems like our church is divided by age

There's some groups, you know, there there's this 30 -something Gap, and they don't really want to you know intermingle with these people or a 50 -something and you know

We've got these teenagers and they won't you know interact with older people and you know, what's going on?

They also noticed that they had some people who just seemed they were stuck in a rut like they never grew spiritually and they had

Problems too with people just leaving the church So they did surveys

Here's what they found out that their problem with the age groups not

Intermixing not intermingling was because for years they had targeted Specific age groups with specific services.

Okay, you're 20 to 30 You need to be in this service and it's gonna be loud. It's gonna be rock and roll.

It's gonna be hip -hop It's gonna be whatever you want. That's what we're gonna give you Okay, and when you go to the 50 and older service, you know, you're gonna get

Johan Sebastian Bach and you're gonna you know And so then they try to bring these two groups together and they can't figure out why it doesn't work

When you've tailor -made your services for a specific group You've you've trained them that that's what they should get and if they don't get it, then what do they do?

I don't like this anymore. I'm out of here and Then with the people who never seem to grow well maybe just maybe it had to do with the fact that on Sunday morning you would come and you would be entertained for an hour and And then you just go home you get your car wash and your oil change in the parking lot and then you take your you know the

Valley parking would come around and drop your car off and you'd go home without any kind of interaction with Scripture and they couldn't figure out why people weren't growing.

It's because they'd never been fed spiritually and Then some people were leaving.

Well, why did that happen? because those who independently studied Figured out that they shouldn't be in a church that didn't preach the word so One might think that Willow Creek after admitting all these things would then look and go

You know what? We need to go back to the Bible and figure out what we're doing wrong and correct that it makes sense in that What they do, what do you think they did?

They did a survey They talked to they talked to all the churches in the Willow Creek Association and they said hey

What's working for you guys, how are you guys overcoming these problems, you know, how many of you did and so they're just gonna keep doing

Surveys until they get it, right? That's no way to run a church

Might be a great way to run a focus group. You could do a lot of different things, but that's not how to run a church many years ago

It's an amazing number of years ago when I was in the seminary remember a professor

This really wasn't in a class this was in a discipleship lab, you know one of these things where they're just supposed to impart their wisdom to you and He used to drive me crazy because I would find myself.

I had this little tiny Bible I carried around and I would actually write notes in the back of the Bible wouldn't

I would just be listening to him and I'm Going I don't have any notebook paper, but I got to write this down And so the notes would be in the back of my

Bible and he said Listen the church

Today's modern church is all about for peace People principles property and programs

People principles property and programs. He says Jesus spent his time on people and principles

But what a church is today focus on Property and programs

What's gonna pack them in How do we keep them entertained? How do we keep the all those kids busy?

How do we make sure that all their comfort needs are met? wrong focus

Paul here in this entire letter focuses again and again on principles on truths on Things that the church has to be involved with no or that they're non -negotiables

First Timothy as the rest of the New Testament does focuses on the principles for which a church must stand

It also focuses on the issues that a church must stand against When Timothy understood how he and others were to conduct themselves in the household of God Meaning not the building but the corporate body of Christ the gathering of the family of God When he did that mean he understood it and when he implemented it they wouldn't need surveys they wouldn't need

Attendance consultants or whatever these other churches use Or even books on what their purpose was to be

Paul wasn't gonna be with Timothy personally He was going to be delayed, but he was writing this letter

To give the church at Ephesus and Timothy her leader the requisite principles

To bring a group of sinners saved by grace Together in a way that would honor the

Lord who bought them. It's gonna take some organization. It's gonna take some structure What happens if you don't have organization you don't have any kind of structure at all

You're gonna wind up with chaos factions, you're gonna wind up with some kind of dare

I say it Corinthian Church Principles are vital in building the church

Secondly the church's purpose Look at verse 15

I'm gonna start about halfway through there the household of God Which is the church of the

Living God a pillar and buttress of the truth? Well, what is the church to do?

Once Timothy's kind of got the leadership and all the structure in motion. What what does the church do?

Well first Paul begins by telling us who the church actually is the church is the assembly or the ecclesia of Those who belong to the

Living God This phrase Living God has so many connotations. We talked about it a few weeks ago in Sunday school

Isaiah 40 through 53 Over and over again the

God who lives the God who exists the covenant God of Israel Yahweh challenges

Idols to do what he can do He mocks these so -called gods the ones who are made of wood and stone by human beings

It is rather foolish right take a piece of wood take a stone Carve paint something into it or whatever, you know, and then after you're done with it, you fall down and worship it you just made it

What kind of power does that thing have? But we the

Church of God belong to the one and only God who exists the one who can say

I Am that I am Only he has the power to tell us what will happen to bring it to pass as he did in Isaiah with Cyrus Listen what

John Stott says? When we come together as the

Church of the Living God Every aspect of our common life is enriched by the knowledge of his presence in our midst

In our worship, we bow down before the Living God Through the reading and exposition of his word.

We hear his voice addressing us We meet him at his table in our fellowship

We love each other as he has loved us and our witness becomes bolder and more urgent Indeed unbelievers coming in may confess that God is really among you

That's the picture of the church We come together to strengthen one another and to focus on our purpose

So what is that purpose? What is the primary duty of this assembly of those who belong to the

Living God the one God who exists? Paul says that the church is a pillar and buttress of the truth.

How does a pillar run? What does it what does a pillar look like? Does the pillar go, you know like this or?

No, it goes straight up and down It's vertical the picture here is we've got a pillar that goes straight up and Then the buttress or foundation or support or ground any of those

Translations will do is what it is. The horizontal base It is the support in that aspect so we've got a vertical aspect and a horizontal aspect and that no that isn't some kind of you know,

God and Congregation aspect it's nothing to do with that What it's talking about is

The church is to support The truth Vertically and horizontally in other words in every way in every way the church as a spiritual or is a spiritual entity and It is involved in this support of the truth.

How does it do that? well, I Would argue that there are two ways that the church supports the truth and not vertically and horizontally

But they both defend and proclaim. It's like we have defense and we have offense. We have both when we

Defend and proclaim the truth. We are defending and proclaiming the content of Christianity as the ultimate truth, that's the

Dictionary definition it just means all the gospel all the truth all of Scripture We are to defend and proclaim

Just as a side note, I would say it's important to notice that God is not dependent upon the church to defend the truth and I say that because There are some circles in which it seems like God is kind of put on the back burner and the church comes front and center as the defender of the truth as The defender of Scripture maybe even as let's say the determiner of Scripture the determiner of what books were in the

Scriptures Let me be clear here. The Roman Catholic Church did not determine the canon of Scripture It did not even defend the truth

For centuries until the Lord brought about the right man and the right political climate The truth and those who believed it were actually targets of the

Roman Catholic Church she was not the pillar and buttress of the truth, but the cross upon which the truth was executed in Defending the truth one aspect of what it must do the church must fend off the error of Distortionists those who would twist

Scripture those who would twist the truth and false teachers You know some people say well, you know

Bethlehem Bible Church That's a place where you go and you've got kind of prideful and arrogant teaching

They act as if they know what they're talking about You know, I remember, you know, it's so true

People would bring this charge up against John MacArthur when I was there and I just I remember one woman saying that you know

He's so arrogant He's so unloving I Just said well, have you ever talked to him?

She said no, and I said, well, why don't you go talk to him? And of course she came back and said he's just so nice You can't get up in the pulpit.

You can't say, you know, that says the Lord And you know would have people just say oh, he's just a big warm fuzzy

Teddy bear, that's just not how it's gonna come across But it's not out of pride or a desired show -off

It's by divine command that the church and its leaders its teachers must stand strong against those who would misrepresent the

Word of God People say well what can't you just tell us what you're for? We don't want to know what you're against Just tell us what you're for I'll tell you what we're for.

We're for the truth Which by definition means what? We're against error.

You can't just say If I say well, that's true If I don't say that's true, then what am

I saying? You're so black and white well, yes, I am because the

Bible is very black and white even though I have some really nice blue numbers now in my New MacArthur Study Bible We have to say what we're for we have to say what we're against because we are defending the truth

We have to go straight after error. We have to debunk it 2nd

Corinthians 10 5 he says this Paul writes we destroy arguments Paul was sure me and listen that we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and Take every thought captive to obey

Christ You can't just say what you're for because inevitably

False teaching is going to come your way and you're gonna have to say listen You have to warn the flock

You have to tell the truth. Yes, but you part of telling the truth is defending against error To allow false teaching to stand is to fail to follow

God's design for leadership and for elders Titus 1 9 says give instruction and sound doctrine talking about elders

They must do this give instruction and sound doctrine and also to rebuke or to refute those who contradict sound doctrine

It's both it's not either or it is both Commentator kitchen writes this

The church thrives when divine love life and truth exist in dynamic balance in other words we want to be

Loving But we also have to be truthful We have to be honest

We have to shepherd the flock of God. We have to take great care to do that the church must support in Every way the truth

What have you tonight? What part do you claim?

What part do you have in the church being a defender and a proclaimer of the truth? How can you do that?

How can you help defend? The truth well, I'll give you one way. It's really pretty simple I'm sure that people hear no compromise radio and by the way one thing

I didn't mention I mentioned at the newcomers lunch, and I have a new nickname I'm known in Virginia at least as the

Tuesday guy. I was pretty pleased with that. You know at least I have a Have a nickname I'm that Tuesday guy on no co but If you if someone is maligning even somebody who doesn't go to this church if they're maligning pastor

Mike Pastor Dave elder Pradeep. What do you do?

I? Think it's a very practical matter If you love the church you will love those who?

Try to the best of their capacity to be faithful to the Word of God you will defend them

You'll not let these things go you just can't let's move on to Our third truth the church's proclamation the church's proclamation is that of Jesus Christ pastor

Michael this morning, and it is also known as the great confession look at verse 16

Great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness So many ways to translate the beginning of this verse here

And ranges all the way from most certainly to undeniably beyond question Both positive and negative in other words.

He's just trying to eradicate any kind of doubt Pole is well.

What is there no doubt about? There's no doubt about the mystery of godliness

I love this word mystery and mystery on The word simply means something that was unknown that has been revealed one of my favorite examples is in Ephesians chapter 3

Let's turn there just for a moment Ephesians chapter 3 because it does illustrate what a mystery is

You know it's not mystery theater Mystery is something that when?

It was proclaimed originally in the Old Testament Some of these truths must have seemed very odd and Almost unfathomable how could this ever happen and when it comes to be we say oh,

I get it now Ephesians chapter 3 verse 1 for this reason

I Paul By the way just to give you great insight. This is one of the reasons I believe

Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians for this reason I Paul a Prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you

Gentiles Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you these

Gentiles and in the area of Ephesus Asia Minor How the mystery was made known to me by revelation as I have written briefly when you read this

You Can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ? which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it now has been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the

Spirit Paul has insight into the mystery of Christ.

It was previously not known and now it is but listen verse 6 this mystery is That the

Gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel

They've been grafting in these Gentiles. Thankfully. What a great mystery

Why because here you had throughout the Old Testament the separation that existed between Jew and Gentile why?

Because God wanted a holy people a separate people so he set up the law and all the strictures of the law which

Separated the Jews from everyone around them because they couldn't eat things and they couldn't wear things and they couldn't worship all these false gods that were all around them and they were completely separated from the

Gentiles in terms of culture and that didn't go well Didn't go well at all

So, how could all the Old Testament prophecies about Jews and Gentiles someday worshiping together?

How could this be? in Christ in his fulfillment of the law back in first Timothy Here's a mystery for you

How could sinful man Ever be made right with God. How could he ever act in a godly way?

Again thinking about my own life and just my own desires How could this ever come to pass

I was not running around trying to figure out how

I could be right with God How does that happen, how is it that even though I have a

Sinful heart God can accomplish his purposes through me, even though I don't perfectly obey him.

How can he do this? this mystery of godliness How does that happen through the finished work of Christ?

and this is the truth that the church must defend and Proclaim that in Christ we have been transformed and now act in obedience

Demonstrating godliness as a result of the mediatorial work of the

Lord as a result of the work of the Holy Spirit in us That's the mystery

That's the solution to that mystery. That's the mystery revealed How is it that anyone produces godliness?

Because the gospel because the Gospels that work in them and in this next section

Really a probably an ancient hymn six lines in the ESV we see six aspects of this work of Christ of his

Existence of all the all the things that he accomplished Again look at verse 16.

We see the incarnation of Christ in verse 16. He was manifested in the flesh Listen, what

Walvoord says? He says the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ is the central fact of Christianity Upon it the whole superstructure of Christian theology depends.

That sounds pretty much like a foundation to deny that Jesus is eternally

God as Mormons Jehovah Witnesses and others do or that he became fully man as many also do

Some say that he only existed as a spirit and only gave the appearance of being a man

To deny those things is to deny the gospel one cannot claim that Jesus was a created being or that he only appeared to be human and Have any justification of the claim that he or she is a

Christian That the word became flesh and dwelt among men is an absolute central truth of the gospel

God Always Existence second person the

Trinity Coming in the flesh made manifest in the flesh showing being shown in the flesh secondly, he was vindicated by the

Spirit in verse 16 and Vindicated normally means justified

But when it is passive as it is here, it means that it actually proved God, right?

And I think Probably most of your translations have spirit capitalized and I think that is correct

We'll get to the other idea here in a minute, but Jesus was not declared innocent

In other words, he wasn't vindicated or justified by the Holy Spirit in that sense But he was shown to be the

Son of God as he says he was By virtue of the fulfillment of his own prediction that he would be raised three days after his death

Romans 8 11 Don't turn there I'll read it But it says if the

Spirit of him the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you

He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies Through his spirit who dwells in you as I used to ask ask in fundamentals of the faith

Which person of the Trinity raised Jesus from the dead? The answer of course is yes

Others take the spirit to mean that Talking about the moral purity and that he never sinned his absolute innocence with regard to the law.

That's true But I think this is a clear reference to the work of the Holy Spirit in the resurrection of Christ Also verse 16.

He was seen by angels Gramacchi says that angels were actively involved throughout

The life and ministry of Jesus Christ think about it Gabriel announced to Mary that she would be the mother of the

Messiah Then angels proclaim his birth to shepherds. They ministered to Christ after his temptation

They strengthened strengthened him after he prayed in Gethsemane They declared his resurrection to the women who were there and they explained his ascension to heaven to the

Apostles Angels have learned about divine wisdom and grace even as they they peer longingly into the plan of God's salvation as they see people come to faith in This verse the emphasis is upon his post -resurrection sightings.

Where did angels see him after he is resurrected at? the Ascension and Now seated at the right hand of the

Father Again look at verse 16. He's proclaimed among the nations Paul himself was a participant in this

This is how he spent his post salvific life from the moment. He was saved. This is what he did Well, he was trained for a few years.

That's true But he went out and he was the Apostle of the Gentiles proclaiming

Christ among the nations proclaiming the gospel his sinless life his

Unsubstitutionary death his resurrection on the third day and the free offer of forgiveness for sins past present future peace with God which was carousel or proclaimed preached far and wide and Continues today in keeping with the

Great Commission Again, look at verse 16 He was believed on in the world

Jesus Christ believed on in the world. The Word of God does not return void when proclamation is faithfully made the

Holy Spirit uses it to produce godliness in those who hear and obey and Finally in verse 16 the ascension of Christ that he was taken up in glory

Look at Acts 1 He's taken up and guess what? He's coming back in that same way

With glory. How about you?

Could you defend these doctrines? Do you proclaim them It is the job not just of the church at large not just of the elders

The more spiritual among us the senior senior saints those who've known the

Lord for 40 years or more each of us as individuals this as I said in the beginning this letter from Paul to Timothy is

An individual letter written to him. Yes, it gives us principles for Operating the church, but it also tells us

What the obligation for individuals within the church is? The church must proclaim these truths the church must be faithful to carry out the

Great Commission as Individuals, what else can you do?

How else do you support? How else can you participate as the pillar and the buttress of the truth

Certainly you can pray for the leadership here. I think you could pray for the church universal just being down in Virginia and seeing what's gone on there and how

The leadership there was maligned and how the church split there This is nothing new we see

Almost it seems like every week. We're getting a report of some pastor in difficulty certainly every month

The church is under assault why because These truths are not being practiced among not the leadership

But among the people out there among the membership Nothing is more precious to God Than the church his son bought at the price of his own life nothing and Paul instructs

Timothy on how that church should function what it should look like how it should serve How it should be structured

He lays down some fundamental principles. He gives its purpose

He gives the proclamation the message Paul loved the church

Christ loved the church. God loves the church How about you? Do you love the church?

Let's pray father.

What a blessing it is to be among your people not just tonight But whenever we have the opportunity

So we think about Our own lives individually and about our own desires and how

Left to our own devices where we would have gone Father we thank you that you are not a

God who leaves men and women Estranged from you to their own devices

We thank you that you are a God who causes Us to be born again We thank you that you are a

God who draws us who calls us Who effectually changes us who so inclines our will that we don't run from the cross we run to it father, would you bless us as We consider our own salvation that we might also consider where we fit into the church and How important the church is to you and how we ought to view it

Father would you increase our love for the church as you increase our love for you and For your son we pray in Christ's name.