The True Life of the Man of God

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit us at our website at graceedmonton .ca. You can also find us on Instagram, Grace Church, Y-E-G, all one word, or on Facebook.

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Well, the year was 1532 when God saw fit to save a young 24-year-old man, altering his life and the course of history forever. Up until that point, this young man had shown tremendous promise as a law student and as a scholar.

He came from a well-to-do family. His father was a very accomplished lawyer, and he sent his son off to law school to follow in his footsteps. And it was right for his father to do this with his son, to expect great things from him because this young man that we're speaking of had a remarkable mind.

He graduated from law school and published his first book at the age of 23. He had a photographic memory. He could tell you where he read something, in what book, on what page, and on what part of the page.

He mastered, by the time he graduated, Latin and then Koine Greek. And for those of you who have studied Koine Greek with me or elsewhere, you know the difficulty of learning the language. He learned it while on a trip to Burgess, France over the course of 18 months, simply to read the New Testament in the original language.

What a remarkable thing. Many historians have called him one of the most rigorous intellectuals, intellectual thinkers of the 16th century. Even as I was looking at some research online, there were some who said that he had an IQ as high as 150, maybe even 170 if they were to test him today.

He was a young man who, by all possible metrics, appeared to be destined for fame and fortune. But in the year 1532, God got a hold of this young man's heart. And rather than pursuing the world and everything that the world said was worthwhile, he left it all behind to follow after his savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Though he was raised a Roman Catholic, he immediately began proclaiming the true gospel, going to the University of Paris and there proclaiming and defending the gospel of Christ until eventually he was labeled a member of Luther's sect and driven out of the city.

And commenting on the experience of his early Christian life, this man said this. He said, God, by a sudden conversion, subdued and brought my mind to a teachable frame. It's interesting. I would think that he was already a teachable man, but brought it to a teachable frame.

Having thus received some taste and knowledge of true godliness, I was immediately inflamed with an intense desire to make progress. And boy, did he make progress. He lived as one who had a single-minded devotion to the Lord in many respects.

With all the faculties that God gave him, he used them to the end that God would be glorified. He moved out of Paris as he was driven out, and he settled in a little city called Geneva, where God used him to great effect, to hold sway not only over the European continent, but the British Isles, and even into the new world.

At the age of 27, he published the first edition of a little book that would later become one of the most important theological treaties of the last 1 ,500 years, a book entitled The Institutes of the Christian Religion.

He traded prestige, and money, and comfort, and glory for an embattled life. He was sometimes expelled from his home. Other times, gangs of men threatened his murder with their hands at their daggers.

He was often sick. He worked tirelessly, but he knew that it was worth it because that he knew because it was a life, excuse me, a life of service rendered to an awesome God. B .B. Warfield said of this man, he said, no man ever had a profounder sense of God than he.

And the motto of his life became this. He would write these words. He said, my heart I offer to you, O Lord, promptly and sincerely. And as he would write his letters, he would stamp each of these letters with this seal that would be emblazoned on the front.

It was a blazing heart in an outstretched hand reflecting the offering of his whole life in service to God. And by now you probably know who I'm speaking about. Who is it? John Calvin. You passed the test.

I'm glad somebody answered. It was in fact John Calvin. And the reason why I bring up John Calvin is because his life, at least to some extent, illustrates the point that I think the Apostle Paul is trying to make as he writes these next few verses that we're going to be studying here in 1 Timothy 6.

That we are now at the tail end of Paul's first epistle to Timothy. Lord willing, we will have one more sermon in two weeks time in this epistle and then we're done. And as we near the conclusion of this epistle, we find the Apostle Paul exhorting Timothy to do just what we have seen in this opening illustration.

To free the love of money. To flee, excuse me, the love of money. To run as fast and as far away as he can from the temptations that come with worldly riches. The desire for riches as we studied last time.

And to pursue a greater and greater commitment to Almighty God and his revealed purposes. Here we come to a very personal part of the letter at the tail end where Paul is beseeching Timothy to forsake the pursuit of the world and to give his all to God as a man of God.

And as we come to this text, I'm glad she found that. As we come to this text, what I want us to see today is that whether you are called to some form of pastoral ministry or not, we are all called to the same level of what I would like to call heart-inflamed devotion to God.

That is a degree of devotion and commitment and service rendered to God. Because after all, we are called of God to give our all to God. And what I want to show you as we make progress through this text is that this is a call to the greatest, the most glorious, the most soul satisfying purpose that we can find on this side of heaven.

I've titled the sermon that the true life of the man of God, taking from the substance of it, but you could just say a life well lived, a life well lived in the service of our glorious God. Now as I expound this text, what I want to do is show you that we find this expressed in at least three ways.

We'll look at our pursuit of godliness, our purpose, and our glorious aim. And we'll first consider this, our pursuit of godliness. Dear brethren, if we are going to forsake the enticing desires of this world and give our all to God, we will never succeed at this if we are not fundamentally committed to pursuing true godliness.

If I can say it this way, the pursuit of God necessitates the pursuit of godliness. And I want you to see in first Timothy six and verse 11 what Paul says. He writes to Timothy, but as for you, oh man of God, flee these things.

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. In verse 11, Paul begins by addressing Timothy with these words, but as for you, oh man of God. Now this is really interesting.

In the New Testament, we almost never find that title, man of God, except in Paul's letters to Timothy. We find it here. We find it again in second Timothy three, 16 and 17. You know when you memorize the verse about God's word and how it enables the man of God to be complete, lacking in every, or not lacking in every, oh I'm going to butcher that, complete in every good thing.

I'll leave it there. But what we see is that this title, the man of God, is actually one that's pregnant with meaning, that it imports meaning from the Old Testament. In fact, if we were to go to the Old Testament, we would find that there are 70 references where we see this phrase or title, man of God, used.

And it's not a term that's used for the common man of Israel, but always in reference to a man who leads God's people and who speaks on God's behalf. If we look for it, we find it in Deuteronomy chapter 33 and verse one, to speak of Moses, who led Israel out of Egypt.

It is used of Samuel. In first Samuel nine and verse six, and we're told that he was able to speak accurately on God's behalf. This title, man of God, is used to refer to men like Elijah and Elisha and other great prophets and messengers of God.

And it appears that what Paul is doing, as he invokes this language, is to remind Timothy of who he actually is. He might be a young man. We see him, Paul referenced that in first Timothy four, speaking about setting an example, though he is young.

But we see it again in second Timothy chapter one, when Timothy is referred to as a timid man. But because Timothy has been placed in a place of leadership in the church in Ephesus, he's not primarily a young man.

He is not primarily a timid man, but he is God's man. And therefore he is to conduct himself accordingly. And I think that this holds broader application for us today, even as we consider that the men who serve in our church, that we do not appoint men who are simply man's men, who are the world's men.

But every man who is to serve as an elder in this church, or to serve as a deacon, for that matter, should be God's man, a man of God. And as Paul continues his instruction, verse 11, he tells Timothy to abandon the sinful traits that we looked at last time.

These are all those things that according to verse three, do not accord with godliness. And we looked at that list in some detail. It includes conceit, ignorance, controversy, constant friction, discontentment, the desire for riches, and the love of money.

And using the kind of vivid language that we'll see littered all throughout this passage, what we see is that Paul tells Timothy to flee these things, literally to run, to escape, as if there is some form of danger.

Don't walk, don't shuffle, run. But scripture always does this. I want you to notice this. Maybe you've already noticed in your study of scripture, that it's not enough to flee from something, but that we must flee to something.

And that's where Paul goes, as one commentator rightly observes, for every no in Paul, there is a corresponding yes. And when you're reading scripture, look for this. You will find it, that for every put off, there is a put on.

For every prohibition, there is almost always a positive imperative. And the positive imperative that Paul puts before Timothy is this. He says, flee from this, flee from those things, and pursue something that he's about to mention.

Now this too is an interesting word, this word pursue. It's actually 75 percent of the time that we see it in our Bibles. It's not translated as pursue. It's translated as persecute. It means to chase after something, to be purposeful, to hunt something down.

It's not a casual interest, but it's something where you see something, and you're going to have it. You must have it, and you will not stop until you get there. And whatever Paul is about to say then, is of great significance.

That we're to flee, conceit, love of money, all of these things. And then he gives us what we are to pursue, a six-part list. The faithful man of God, and certainly the faithful Christian, is to pursue these things.

He writes, righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness. Now what's interesting, is these are all words that we hear often. In fact, these are all words that we use, I think, fairly often.

But what do they actually mean? And if I can just illustrate this, I think that maybe you'll capture, you'll catch this with me. That if I were to put you on the spot, and ask you right now, what is the difference between righteousness and godliness?

How would you make a distinction between those two? Do we not use those almost synonymously, as we speak? That I want to live a righteous life, a godly life, a holy life, a good life, whatever it might be.

We use these words on the daily, but in reality, I think we lack the nuanced understanding that is needed, not only to explain these things, but to pursue these things, to actually pursue them. And brothers and sisters, if we're going to live lives to the glory of God, brothers, if you're going to be men of God, men who want to serve in pastoral ministry, if you want to be men of God, we need to know what these things are, and then pursue them.

So Paul says, we should pursue righteousness. Now when Paul speaks about righteousness in this instance, he's not speaking about what we would call imputed righteousness. That is the righteousness that when we place our faith in Christ, his active obedience, his passive obedience is imputed to us.

But rather, what he is speaking about, what we are to pursue, is an outward form of righteousness, an expression of our own imputed righteousness. It has to do with the outward conduct of a person who has been saved by Christ and transformed by the work of the Holy Spirit.

To live then a righteous life, to pursue a righteous life, means to be just and pure in conduct. It is to live in accord with God's revealed will. In the words of John MacArthur, it means doing right in relation to God and to man.

And so it is, as it were, righteous conduct, vertically and horizontally, and we are to pursue this. Now if that is righteousness, what then is godliness? Well, whenever you think of godliness, I think that you can think of it this way, that godliness is God likeness.

You can actually translate it that way. Godliness is simply to be like God. And it's been defined in this way, it is to possess accurate beliefs resulting in appropriate action. It is to think like God and then thinking like God to act like God.

It is characterized then by devotion to God, a piety and a Godward orientation in your life. But it's not enough. Paul tells us to pursue not only righteousness and godliness, but faith. We see this in Hebrews 11 6, where we read, and without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Yet I think that when most of us come to this idea of faith, I know that I'm inclined to think this, that we think of faith almost like a light switch. We have it or we don't have it. And when we struggle with anxious thoughts or a lack of peace or disobedience that results from unfaithfulness in our lives, we think, but I have faith.

Why do I still struggle with this? But you see what Paul is saying here. We don't just possess faith, but we are to pursue faith. That we are to seek to grow in our faith. And this can only come by meditating on the object of our faith.

That we must look to our God. We must look to our Christ and seek by his aid to pursue and to grow increasingly in our trust in him. Paul says that we should pursue love. This is the cardinal Christian virtue.

Without it, everything we do is futile. We are nothing more if we have not love. We are nothing more than noisy gongs and clanging cymbals. And if you join us on White Avenue, you will hear me. It's not vain repetition on my part.

It is a prayer that I pray every single time we go out. Lord, give us love for these people so that we would not be noisy gongs and clanging cymbals, but that we would be messengers, that we would be ministers of reconciliation, coming to people in love for God and in love for them, saying, be reconciled to God.

And I think that sometimes, at least in myself, in my own life, I can become so heady, so focused on truth that I forget the truth in love, the truth and love. Just recently, I had a phone conversation with a new believer who, he knows almost nothing about scripture.

But when I spoke to him, he had been a believer for maybe a week or two. And as I spoke with him on the phone, he said, I just want to love people. I want to love my wife. I want to love my children. He explained that when I drive on the road, and I know that the character of this man before the Lord saved him, it was not like this.

But he said, when I see someone who's a bad driver and they cut me off, I just say to the Lord, well, Lord, this is an opportunity for me to love that person. I want to love them. And as I listened on the phone, I was convicted to the core, because I thought, here is this, this guy, he knows almost nothing.

You know, in a theological foot race, I could run circles around this guy. But as it relates to love, I have a great deal to learn from this man. That we must learn and pursue love. And a question I pose is, has your love cooled?

When was the last time you thought? When was the last time you prayed? Oh, Father, you have commanded me to love. Help me to be better at loving you and loving others. Oh, I desire to do this. This is one of the ways that I will show the world your glory is by my love.

We're to pursue steadfastness, translated as patience or perseverance. It comes from the same root word where we get our word, abide. It is to stay put, even when things are hard. We're to pursue gentleness.

And this is incredibly difficult, I think, in a clickbait-oriented age where controversy sells. And I think that we love to watch people who are unpredictable, who are rough around the edges, who are harsh, who are abrupt, who say surprising things.

The internet just loves it. The algorithm feeds it to us because we want to know what the person is going to say next. But it can be said of a man of God who is growing in Christ-likeness. That a bruised reed he will not break and a faintly burning wick he will not quench.

This does not mean weakness, but it means Christ-likeness, kindness and humility and care expressed in your words and your actions and in all of life. Now, brothers and sisters, I ask you, are you fleeing quarrels, controversies, discontentment, the love of money, and the desire of stuff?

I went through this two weeks ago. I preached on contentment, and the following day I thought to myself, why am I so filled with discontentment? Why, as if I preached this, now do I feel a hungering and a yearning for these things that I had no desire for before?

Are we fleeing these things? Do we recognize them for what they are, real dangers to our soul? And I ask you, are you running toward godliness? Are you hunting it? Are you seeking it like a persecutor?

It's prey to make it yours. Brothers, for those of you who aspire to pastoral ministry, who aspire to be men of God, your focus should be more, it should not be less, but it should be more than the acquisition of biblical knowledge.

It should be the assimilation of that truth in your life and the application of it in every single thing that you do. How many of us, Christian brother and sister, do we wake up in the morning and read God's word for mere information, as if the Christian life consisted of the accumulation of biblical facts?

I think about it sometimes, that most of us, we have nothing, we have nothing compared to these 18 year old, 15 year old kids who are Bible quizzers, who can answer every single question. They can know King David's third cousin, track it down through the genealogies.

They can call it like that, but are we reading the Bible not only for information, but for transformation, that we would read it, that we might live it? Are you taking every thought captive? Are you mortifying the flesh?

By God's grace, with his help, are you seeking to vivify righteousness in its place? A number of years ago, I read a book by Jerry Bridges entitled The Practice of Godliness. It is an excellent book. I commend it to you.

And there's a little quote that I bookmarked. This was something like 10 years ago that I revisited this week, and it just hit me again, but maybe harder than the first time I read it. And in that quote, Jerry Bridges writes this.

He says, there is no higher compliment that can be paid to a Christian than to call him a godly person. Think about that. What do you want to be known for? He might be a conscientious parent, a zealous church worker, a dynamic spokesperson for Christ, or a talented Christian leader, but none of these things matter if at the same time he is not a godly person.

And let us ask ourselves, what are we seeking to become? What are we pouring our energy into? What are we pursuing? But when you look at how you spend your time and your money, your energy, your life, I must confess that I at least am inclined to drift in this regard.

Sometimes I look at my life and I would have to say, you're pursuing this. You're pursuing, you want to be a dynamic expositor. You want to be a skillful pastor, a knowledgeable teacher. You want to be thought intelligent.

You want to, whatever it might be. But what a blessing if when we die and go to be with the Lord, if people should say about us after we go, you know, there were a lot of things about that man or woman that were memorable.

But the most memorable thing was this, that they were godly. I've noticed in church growth circles, there's a new buzzword. It's the word legacy. It's, I don't, it keeps coming up. I see people getting baptized with this picture.

You know, the beginning of a new legacy. I know Mark Driscoll's talking all about it. All these silly things that we say. You want a true legacy? You want a real legacy? Make it a legacy of godliness.

An example that lives after you're gone. An example that lives in your children after you're gone. To possess true godliness. This should be one of the driving passions of our life. But as Paul goes on, he goes on to highlight a second expression when he speaks to this, our enduring purpose.

In verses 12 through 14, Paul reminds Timothy that as a man of God, he is called to an embattled life of his own. He is to fight the good fight. He is to take hold of eternal life. He is to fulfill his charge by confessing Christ and stewarding the truths of God.

In like manner as Christians, we are called to boldly confess Christ and to fulfill the purposes for which we have been made. And this is what we see in verse 12. Paul says, fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul's not done using his vivid language. But beginning in verse 12, he again leads out with these words, fight the good fight. No doubt this was military language. Interestingly enough, you can trace it back.

It was language that was used in the Olympic games also around that time. And as Paul uses this language, he understands that the faithful Christian is a Christian at war. The Christian has real enemies.

It's the world, it's the flesh, it's the devil, and it's more. And the Christian's purpose ultimately is one of combat. I'm sure that you can relate to this even as you think about your own Christian life.

I've shared this story previously, perhaps a few years ago, that I remember as a Christian when I believed in the Lord Jesus. Yes, my life got better, but my life also got much harder. I think we can relate to that.

I certainly can relate to it on a Saturday when, a beautiful Saturday like we did yesterday, I can hear kids playing street hockey and other things like that. And I'm trying to work this sermon out. I'm trying to give birth to something here with God's help.

And I think, wouldn't it just be easy to be, to Saturday I'm going to go out and ride my, ride my bicycle into the middle of nowhere, play street hockey, whatever it might be. But alas, the Lord has called me to serve as a man of God with its own unique struggles.

And it's not because I didn't work on it during the week. It's just that hard. Now, Paul knew that. That's why he said at the end of his life, in 2nd Timothy 4, in verse 7, he said, I have fought the good fight.

I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. It's something that needed fighting. It's something that needed endurance. It was something that needed keeping. And I like what J .C. Ryle says on this point.

He says, a true Christian, and you can ask yourself this, it's telling I think, am I at war? Because a true Christian is at war. He says, a true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within.

This warfare, I am aware, is a thing of which many know nothing. Talk to them about it, and they are ready to set you down as a madman, an enthusiast, or a fool. And yet it is as real and true as any war the world has ever seen.

It has its hand-to-hand conflicts and its wounds. It has its watchings and fatigues. It has its sieges and assaults. It has its victories and its defeats. Above all, it has consequences which are awful, tremendous, and most peculiar.

He goes on, in earthly warfare, the consequences to nations are often temporary and remediable. In the spiritual warfare, it is very different. Of that warfare, the consequences, when the fight is over, are unchangeable and eternal.

And yet there is one warfare which is emphatically good, and one fight in which there is no evil. That warfare is the Christian warfare. The fight is the fight of the soul. The brothers and sisters were engaged in a war, and we'll touch on this as we go.

Paul uses more vivid language when he says, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called. Not the eternal life he chose, but the life that he was called to. And this language, again, is language that was used of runners in Rome's arenas.

It means to run, to exert yourself, and to grasp something. Now we might look at that and say, is this then a denial of justification by faith alone? If we're to run, and to grasp, and to take hold of eternal life, does that not necessitate some labor on my part?

I agree with Sproul when he says this. He says, what Paul is teaching us is that we should not be complacent, but that the goal of the Christian life, at least on this side of eternity, is always in the future.

There's a sense in which we are pursuing something, and while we have it in our hands, there is still a pursuit to be had. It speaks about not only the possession of this life, but the quality of this life.

Paul talks about it in Philippians 3 .12. Not that I've already obtained this, or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. So there's this language again of pursuing, that we're pursuing godliness, that we're pursuing the full experience of this salvation that we are already in possession of.

And then Paul goes on speaking about this. He says, I charge you, no, a little bit earlier, which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Now what is this talking about?

Scholars are almost united in looking at this and saying, this is speaking about Timothy's profession of faith, likely at his baptism. And what's remarkable about it is that even here in the beginning of New Testament Christianity, in Bible times, we see already the emergence of these creedal and confessional statements.

We see them take full form in the centuries that follow when certain people were to go before the church to be baptized and would be made to recite the Apostles' Creed, or something like this. And it's not likely that we have Timothy memorizing and reciting the Apostles' Creed, but likely the earliest creed that we find in the New Testament, in Romans chapter 10 and verses 9 and 10.

Maybe you know this creed. It's simple. It's three words. Jesus is Lord. Paul says, 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.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. And so what Paul is telling Timothy is part of this race, part of this experience as a man of God, is not only pursuing godliness, it's not only living in the midst of war, it's not only seeking to grasp fully the full experience of your salvation, but it is maintaining your confession.

One brother writes, the Christian is first and foremost a man who has pledged himself to Jesus Christ. When a Christian confesses his faith, he does what his master has already done. Paul speaks about that, making the confession before Pontius Pilate.

When he suffers for his faith, he undergoes what his master has already undergone. When we are engaged in some great enterprise, we can say, brother, we are treading where the saints have tread. But when we confess our faith before men, we can say, I stand with Christ.

Surely this must lift up our hearts and inspire our lives. Brethren, if you're going to live a godly life, it's a life that includes the confession of Christ before all men. The people who know you best outside of this church, do they know that you are a Christian?

Do you confess Christ with your mouth outside of these walls? That is what Paul is telling Timothy. Do not let go of this. Christ is your hope. Christ alone. And then he says something that I think has confused myriads of people in verse 14.

To keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus. Now, as I counted all the differing perspectives, there has to be at least seven or eight different interpretations of verse 14.

What is this commandment? What is it? Some people have said, it's the whole Bible. I think they take the easy route out, right? It's the whole Bible. He's just, just obey the whole Bible and he's good.

Others have said, well, I think it's the Ten Commandments. Others say, well, it's based on the Great Commission. It's probably all that Jesus taught. Some have said it was the charge that he received at his baptism when he made his confession of faith.

But I think that what we need to do is we need to capture the context of the book and in the context of the passage. And then we will with certainty know what this commandment is. If you go with me to first Timothy chapter one and verse three, what do we read there?

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

In verse 17, we see something that's very, very similar to our own passage to the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, and according with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding the faith and a good conscience.

By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith. You see the similarities there? Timothy is bookmarking this right, or Paul, excuse me, is bookmarking this book with these phrases. Or in first Timothy six, if you go there in verse 20.

Oh Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. Where I have landed on this and I've landed here with a few other people, is that as Paul is speaking about keeping this commandment, the commandment is this, Timothy, you have been given a charge.

This is the purpose for which you have been made. This is why you are in Ephesus. You are there as a steward. You're in charge. You've been entrusted by us and ultimately by God to fulfill this task. And so what it is, this great command that Timothy is to obey, it is to fulfill the purpose that he is there for.

R .C. Sproul says it is Timothy's discipline and duties. It's to fulfill the duty that he has there in that church. Calvin says, thus to keep the commandment would be nothing else than to discharge honestly the office committed to him.

That's why in first Timothy or second Timothy four in verse one, if we go there really quickly, we see similar language when Paul says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom, preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching. What Paul is telling Timothy is that when difficulties arise as they have, you have to remember this letter didn't take months to read like it has us.

Right? This is coming almost instantaneously after the first chapter in Timothy's experience. He's going to read this in one go. And as he's speaking to Timothy about him, he's saying, I know you're there.

There are false teachers. You've been sent to be a steward of the mysteries of God. Go there. You've been entrusted. Make the word of God fully known. Preach the word. Let people hear the truth. And when difficulties come, do not withdraw.

There's a picture of this again in Calvin's life. Calvin's life is such an interesting story. Those of you who are going through our church history class know this, and you can appreciate some of the humor in it.

But Calvin, after he was saved, you know that he didn't end up in Geneva because he wanted to be there. He was just passing through Geneva, making his way around a regional conflict. He was going to go into Geneva and then on through Geneva.

And a man named William Farrell came to him and with great intensity said, you need to stay in Geneva. And Calvin said, I have scholarly work to do. He wanted to live as a hermit, a theological hermit, and just do his work and publish it out of the limelight.

And William Farrell said, if you do not stay in Geneva to help pastor this church, then may God place a curse upon you. And he essentially utters this divine curse that keeps Calvin in the city of Geneva.

And then remarkably, as often happens, Calvin is in Geneva. He's ministering faithfully. And then what do the Genevans do to him eventually? They kick him out of Geneva. And he spends two years in exile.

And as he's there for those two years in exile, eventually he's invited back and he writes this to William Farrell. He says, I yield my soul chained and bound unto obedience to God. He knows his command.