God's Law and The Gospel | 1st Timothy: Ch. 1

of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope.

To Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God our

Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I urged you when

I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.

Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience and from sincere faith from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous person but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the glorious gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our

Lord who has enabled me because he counted me faithful putting me into the ministry although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an insolent man.

But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our

Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom

I am chief. However for this reason I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long -suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life.

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever.

Amen. This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them you may wage the good warfare having faith and a good conscience which some have rejected concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck of whom are

Hymenaeus and Alexander whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

You may be seated. First and second

Timothy and Titus are called the pastoral epistles because they are focused on work related to pastors.

They are related to the work that is to be done. Titus and Timothy are both given instruction by the

Apostle Paul and so they in their pastoral work receive much and so they are very helpful to us to think about from the perspective of leading a congregation things to do and so it provides a sort of a perspective on the church that is from a leadership position that allows you to think about the church and to think about the way that the church should be ordered and therefore also what the community is supposed to look like so it provides interesting blueprints for us about the way that the church is to be formed and organized.

This text starts off and it tells us who is from Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our

Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope. Now this idea of the commandment of God who is it that that made

Paul an apostle? Well he was made an apostle by Jesus Christ and he was commanded to do this work by the

Lord Jesus Christ. He was met on the road to Damascus and on the road to Damascus he was commanded by the

Lord Jesus Christ to begin to do work and to follow him and he was commissioned by Christ as the other

Apostles were and so he's an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our

Savior and that's a statement about Jesus and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope. This is a repetition this is a idea that God and the

Lord Jesus Christ are the same. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior, he's our hope, he is our

God, he is our Lord, he is the Christ which is an office right he holds the office of prophet priest and king the word

Christ means anointed one and so he is anointed for the three offices prophet priest and king.

Now who is he writing to? To Timothy a true son in the faith.

Now Timothy is being sent to do work he's doing the work of an evangelist and in his work what he is doing he is he holds an office under the oversight of Paul the

Apostle he holds a revelatory office but he is also doing work that needs to continue the work of planting churches organizing churches and so we find instructions here that also would apply as churches are being organized by elders that are sent off to plant churches and so we also find the work that needs to be done in terms of the continued organization of churches because he's dealing with Ephesus and Paul's time in Ephesus we find talked about in the book of Acts where they had many elders and so there's this work to be done to encourage the continued reformation of the church.

So this is to Timothy a true son in the faith. How is he a son? He's a son in that he's under the teaching of Paul the possibility that there's conversion that occurs is is one thing but Timothy we're told was taught by his mother and grandmother the faith and so we don't have any particular reason to think that he came to conversion specifically under Paul's teaching elsewhere

Paul talks about those who were evangelized as opposed to broadly discipled and talks about them as sons but here this seems to be as one who is receiving discipleship so that term son we remember the

Fifth Commandment gives to us principles to understand in terms of the organization of relationships and in terms of authority and honor and deals with teaching us that not only our natural parents and authority but all those who have authority from God in the institutions that God has made the household the and the state and so as we think about those institutions that God has made there's also individuals relating to each other there's duty of honor owed to those who are of greater age and there's duty of honor owed to those who have greater gifting and so we find the use of father and son type of language in various places that show us that application but here we have

Timothy under the discipleship of Paul who has a higher office the office of Apostle and so it's to Timothy a true son in the faith and he's a true son in that there's evidence that he has a true conversion that he is a person who's walking in the truth and therefore giving joy to Paul who's teaching him there's a call of benediction here at the beginning grace mercy and peace from God our and Jesus Christ our

Lord here we have the persons of the Trinity differentiated the father and the son and we have this call for grace in terms of the giving of salvation itself but also there are gifts of grace which are in particular the spiritual giftings and sanctification that occur mercy which involves the forgiveness of sins but also the removing of temporal troubles and peace the giving of prosperity and the removal of strife so grace mercy and peace we can think about peace also in terms of the peace with God and psychological peace but so these here grace mercy and peace from God our

Father in Jesus Christ our Lord the emphasis in this case seems to be on the idea of God's attitude of demerited favor grace his forgiveness of sins mercy and the peace with God that comes by the redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ we get to verse 3 let me get into Paul quickly gets down to business he says as I urged you when

I went into Macedonia remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine this charging of some the word charge can be used in a number of ways one of the ways the word charge is used in terms of the idea of charges you're rebuking somebody of sin you're saying here's a sin that you've committed the other the other use that we have here is not that it's this idea of charging some is is giving people a duty and not just a duty but the idea that you're saying

I have an authority to make you responsible to do this it's to put people under oath you frequently find this idea of charging this you're you're exhorting and then you're in you're putting them under oath to do a duty and so when the

Lord Jesus Christ for example was before the Sanhedrin being tried unjustly he was charged with an oath to answer the court here

I have this idea of charging with an oath in other words causing a responsibility and covenant to teach the doctrine and not just to teach the doctrine but to teach no other doctrine so the question of if we're supposed to if there's a responsibility for some people they remain in Ephesus who are those people and they're going to teach they're charged to teach something what what is that and they're not supposed to teach else who are these people these people are the people that are to remain in Ephesus these are the ordinary officers in particular the elders at Ephesus that are to remain and teach the doctrine to the church what doctrine well a doctrine is defined for us as there's continued discussion down the line here in these verses in chapter 4 there's a teaching of things that are for godly edification which is in faith this is in contrast to fables and endless genealogies it's in contrast to idle talk and there is this idea of at the very end here verse 11 at the very end of the book at the end of this paragraph so to speak we have according to the glorious gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust so the glorious gospel is something that is supposed to be taught it was committed to Paul's trust and there's a command to teach doctrine and to not teach other doctrine so the doctrine supposed to be taught is the glorious gospel which the word gospel can be used in three ways in the scripture one it can be used to refer very specifically to the assertions the indicatives the declarative sentences the promises those are ways of saying the same thing the things that describe what is that's in contrast to for example imperatives which are commands it can be something where you think about the gospel and you're talking about the

New Testament as opposed to the Old Testament law versus gospel in that sense it can also be used in reference to the idea of the gospel as the whole counsel of God and so all that which has been revealed in the word delivered to the church now verse 11 talks about the glorious gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust that which was committed to his trust was not just the New Testament that which was committed to his trust was not just the promises without any commands what was committed to his trust was the whole counsel of God to be given to the church we have the

New Testament as a completion of the scriptures and so what is supposed to be taught is the gospel that's what the church is supposed to teach and that gospel is the whole counsel of God and no other doctrine so what we find is the

Apostle Paul has commissioned Timothy to do work to remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine now in contrast to the doctrine that's supposed to be taught we have fables now these fables well how do you know the difference between a fable and not a fable somebody might say well we should just investigate the stories and determine if they're fables or if they're true well how would you how would you investigate them how would you differentiate them how would you figure out if they're fables or not you might say archaeological evidence you might say we'll go through reporting process we'll go around we'll try to figure this out okay so if that's the case then the doctrine that was committed to Paul is going to keep growing because we're going to have all sorts of things that we have to go investigate to determine whether they're fables or not and the the news that the church is supposed to preach upon then becomes something other than what is contained in the scriptures it becomes things that are supposed to be found in a bunch of other places the fables as opposed to the doctrine supposed to be taught the fables are a human tradition outside of the apostolic deposit so the fables are their human tradition outside of the apostolic deposit elsewhere there's discussion of this idea of Jewish fables and you would imagine well why talk about Jewish fables because the

Jews were the Old Testament Church and that's where the tradition of the church would start to build up is in the church and the

Old Testament the only church was the Old Testament Church so where would the fables come from the

Old Testament Church the other danger is fables coming in from you know

Greek mythology or Hinduism or whatever right these this idea of of a tradition that's outside of the apostolic tradition it's outside of the apostolic deposit that's outside of what was delivered to the church so we're not to give heed to the traditions that are outside of the scriptures as having any authority for our doctrine or life the endless genealogies well this time this would have been a reference to in particular claims of honorific genealogies some reason why somebody might have authority for example in the priesthood in the

Old Covenant and in the priesthood in the Old Covenant you have a great concern to make sure you know where people come from right in Nehemiah and Ezra the people who could be priests had to be able to demonstrate that they had a genealogy that went back to that priestly line to be able to defend that claim and the

New Covenant doesn't matter if we're trying to track a genealogy the genealogies were useful to track up to the point of the fulfillment of particular prophecies that made reference to them and the genealogies that had to be tracked those prophecies have been completed the most important of which was getting to the

Messiah and so we have a complete genealogy going from Adam the first man to the

Lord Jesus Christ without any gaps that genealogy is meticulously and infallibly preserved that's the genealogy you need to care about it's not an

English genealogy it's a genealogy that goes back 6 ,000 years that's a relatively short amount of time that genealogy is what we were to be concerned about any genealogies besides that that continue to be asserted as important major things for us to be dealing with as a church is an effort to bring in Old Covenant things into the church or things that are alien to the strange alien and stranger to the church altogether another interesting thing and this was

I don't believe this is at all what Paul meant from the text okay so what I'm about to say to you is something that I don't think is the intent that he has in the text but for our time it's ironic to talk about how the church shouldn't deal with endless genealogies because in our time one of the great heresies that we have to confront is the heresy of macro evolution where you go we have millions or hundreds of millions or billions of years of genealogies from single -celled organisms up to us here in this room and those genealogies not quite endless but pretty long are somehow important for us to understand and if true then we need to realize that the world was red in tooth and claw far before Adam the death didn't enter the world because of Adam's sin no no death would have been going on for millions and millions and millions of years before Adam and the

Bible would be a joke we should pay no heed to these relatively endless genealogies they are silly stories about dust turning into living objects and material chemical reactions of brains turning into propositional thought not to mention even the idea of the material world itself a changeable thing having some sort of a beginning apart from the

God of the Bible or having itself an eternal existence we have to give no heed to these traditions these fables or to these endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification why do they cause disputes because you end up with an authority that is greater than the

Word of God you have something outside of the scriptures that becomes the judge or comes alongside of the scriptures nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith godly edification is in faith it's it's believing the propositional content that proceeds from the mouth of God this content that we are to believe

God's Word is the highest authority there is no higher authority than God's Word there is no higher authority than what

God says it provides godly edification when it is believed it builds up the soul if the soul is built up it's because it's been believed there is no being built up in the soul apart from the revelation that God has given verse 5 now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart so we have the commandment here is a part of the doctrine that's been given another thing it helps us to know we're not merely talking about the indicatives we're talking about the whole counsel of God the commandment the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart whenever you see love you need to remember what we're talking about is the desire for the well -being of the object if you love something you desire its well -being you desire it's good sometimes you can talk about loving chocolate or whatever right when you love chocolate you're not desiring it's well -being you're you're you're valuing it as a thing that you think perhaps is for your good but when we talk about the love of rational beings

God angels men we're talking about seeking the good of the object so the purpose of law of the commandment is love or the commandments are detailed instruction that show us how to seek the good of the object so when we love someone we are seeking their good we desire their good and the way we seek their good is to apply the commandment and to do so from a pure heart a heart that is consistently with integrity without contradiction pursuing the good of the object so the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart from a good conscience and from sincere faith you you must believe the

Word of God in order to have true love because love depends upon knowing the definition of what's good so you can seek what's good for the object verse 6 from which some have strayed what are they straight from a sincere faith the faith is integrity they have strayed from that faith why well

Paul starts by talking about not preaching not teaching any other doctrine and so when you have other doctrine being taught it undermines the faith from which some have strayed so from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk the faith is in contrast to idle talk the faith is in contrast to idle talk the faith is useful doctrine useful words they glorify

God they build men up they teach men how to love versus idle talk verse 7 desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm so this desire to teach the law whether the law here is commandments or whether the law here is the desire to teach the whole

Testament or the whole Council of God the desire is to be teachers of the law now since he's in the narrow context talking about the commandment he says the purpose of the commandment is love

I think he's talking about desiring to be teachers of commandments desiring to be teachers of the commandments but when we talk about fables and endless genealogies and the desire to teach the law there's a big emphasis here on things from the

Old Covenant Church where what we call Judaizing holding on to Old Covenant ceremonies also potentially the bringing in of human traditions which

I think is a significant emphasis in Ephesus you have the Judaizing and you have the human tradition you have these things coming in together being a danger to this church in Ephesus people desiring to be teachers of the law but they don't understand the goal of the law to seek the good of the person in the glory of God and they don't base it in a faith of integrity rooted in the doctrine of the apostolic deposit but there are extra doctrines brought in desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm okay so what they say and what they affirm how could it be said that they don't understand what they say or what they affirm doesn't mean they don't understand any issue is when there's false doctrine there might be some truth there but there's also this danger of an incoherence now to some extent we all have to deal with that we all have places where we have incoherence in our own thought that's what our indwelling sin is our ongoing sinful nature is the fact that we have false beliefs we reason wrongly and so those things where we have internal contradiction those are places where we don't understand what we're saying or what we're affirming the greater degree to which that is true the more the teaching of a person is going to be babble or idle talk a useless speaking because the more you just contradict yourself side by side the more what you're saying becomes sort of useless or people have to like ignore pieces and pick at the other right so this idea of the the person unless they already have discernment what you're saying to them becomes more and more useless if you're a teacher who's only useful for people who already know the things you're trying to teach them

I mean you're not a very good teacher you have to be useful in helping people to understand stuff that they didn't understand before they were talking to you and so clear speech useful talking about the things that are most helpful most orderly most clear is how you teach the best as opposed to idleness desiring to teach but saying things you understand affirming things you understand now verse 8 but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully knowing this that the law is not for a righteous person but for the lawless and insubordinate for the ungodly and for sinners for the holy and profane for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers for manslaughters for fornicators for sodomites for kidnappers for liars for perjurers and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine according to the gospel the gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust so the law is useful for the lawless the preaching of the law is very helpful to show a breakers of the law that they are breakers of the law you preach the law to show people that they need salvation this is the mirror use of the law the lawlessness of a person is made plain to them with the teaching of the law in an age filled with lawlessness what gets shouted down like just if you were to go to a street corner and just preach on the love of Jesus Christ and how if you believe he'll save you okay are you gonna get shouted down a lot

I mean some people might like catcall you that's not it's not generally gonna get a huge response think a lot of yawns if you want to make people yell at you you start teaching about the law and this lawless wicked age will scream at you they will shout you down they will get red -faced at you they will get furious take any of the

Ten Commandments and preach it faithfully in detail loudly as people walk by and I promise you you will make plenty of new enemies as you tell them the truth the law puts hooks in the hearts of the lawless it hurts they don't want to hear it they want it to stop they want you to be quiet and if they can't get you to be quiet they want to figure out how to put you in a place where they can't hear you if they can't put you in a place where they can't hear you they want to avoid you if they can't avoid you they'll stop their ears this is the effect of the preaching of the law in a lawless age this is in contrast to preaching the law unlawfully there look at verse 8 but we know that the law is good if it if one uses it lawfully the law is used lawfully as a thing that shows you the difference between good and evil the law is used lawfully and a thing to restrain evil the law is used lawfully to show you that you're a breaker of it and you need salvation the law is used illegally when you try to say that you must fulfill some level of law -keeping in order to have right standing before God law -keeping to have right standing before God requires perfect and perpetual obedience from you as an individual person the illegal use of the law is using the law to obtain the favor of God we are in the covenant of works guilty in Adam we are guilty from our own conceptions being unbelieving and not glorifying

God as we ought and we are guilty as breakers of the law on individual offenses not having done the things we should do and having done stuff we ought not to have done but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous person it's not made for you to have righteousness before God the law is not for you to have justification by its keeping but it's for the purpose of showing you your sin your guilt it shows you the difference between good and evil now some types of lawlessness was classically known as antinomianism says this

I am free from the law and I don't have to keep it it's not obligatory on me anymore if the law is not obligatory on you then you can't sin where there is no law there is no sin we know sin but the law so the law is not made for a righteous person but for the lawless and insubordinate it's a boarded to what to God to God's commandments and to God's law which is this the connect the set of his commandments the law is not made for a righteous person it's not for you to be justified but for the lawless and insubordinate for the ungodly and for sinners for the unholy and profane in a lawless insubordinate those who reject the law and those who are breakers of the commandments of God who won't obey for the ungodly those who who are not concerned about their duties before God for sinners those who break

God's law for the unholy those that are not focused on the glory of God for the profane they're not set apart for God they're focused on other things of vulgar concern for the things of this world as opposed to a separation from the world for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers those who who kill the people that they have a greatest duty of loyalty to those people the law is for them to see their law breaking and I go that person's real do you have to be to murder your own parents

I mean so what's that for it's for taking hardened hearts and breaking them that's what the law does for fornicators lots of people want to try to find ways to justify sexual sin they try to find ways of taking verses in the

Bible and saying well you know sexicide and marriage isn't forbidden it's just it's just adultery now fornication is forbidden for sodomites you can take that and make it so it means something that doesn't mean what it's plainly saying there there's a big thing now to say you know the

Bible never talked about homosexuals until the 1940s that's a recent thing people are talking about sure the word homosexual was invented as a like more

I don't know I would just say family friendly but I mean like not even that or I could be just it's supposed to be a less offensive way of referring to sodomites you go well you know until the 40s the meaning of talk about homosexuality the

Bible it's like yeah I mean that's a lie like it's just right I mean this is just taking something sure technically true right that word literally written out in the

English in that exact way yes okay fine but the word sodomite spin around it's been here this is not a new thing go look into the

Greek terms if you're gonna don't do it don't don't don't look into the Greek terms just don't but but if you have to deal with it and you have to deal with people who are saying no this isn't there it's not in the

Bible people are making this stuff up okay fine look into the record show them and what they're doing is is is a lie that they're just pulling stuff out of context to try to say though this word they're trying to invent a new meaning for it as opposed to its historic usage so sex outside of marriage forbidden sex between males forbidden kidnapping forbidden for liars and that seems a little bit less bad than murdering your parents sodomy kidnapping right these we get into liars then we go into a worse form perjurers right those who are lying under oath and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine the point of this list is to say here's a whole range of sins and these sins all of them by the preaching of the law conviction is brought hearts are broken hard hearts shattered by the teaching of the law you're in sin this is forbidden you need to repent that type of preaching that type of preaching you're in sin you need to repent is a type of preaching that is unacceptable that's the thing it's not acceptable

I can I can walk through lots of doctrine and people will go okay

Calvinism the but but people hate the preaching of the law the preaching of the law and the lawful use of the preaching of the law is to show people their sin it's the mirror use of the law that is one of its lawful uses in contrast to the illegal use of the law which is trying to justify yourself by law -keeping and here's what's really weird is there's so much of a mixing of law and gospel in so many churches where you say live by faith and then also live by law -keeping and at the same time then also detailed application of the law being hated so we need to care about the law care about the detailed application of the law try to apply what the scriptures teach and be very careful to not mix law and gospel when you differentiate law and gospel and demand the very clear distinction of them that will make some enemies in the church and when you preach the law that will generally make enemies in the world but it will also make a number of enemies in the church these actions that are forbidden are sins that are contrary to sound doctrine you can't uphold the doctrine if you won't also uphold the law as teaching what the law says because a part of the doctrine and what the gospel saves us from is our sin defined by the law verse 11 according to the glorious gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust now what does that connect to this according to the glorious gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust is connected to and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine the sound doctrine is that which is according to the glorious gospel of the blessed

God which was committed to my trust. The apostolic deposit, which is the gospel, is the sound doctrine, and we're to teach no other doctrine.

Verse 12, And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man.

So this thanking of Christ Jesus, we can praise the various members of the

Trinity, we thank the various members of the Trinity, remember we make petitions to the Father in the name of the Son for the empowering of the

Holy Spirit. We thank, we see this thanking of Christ by the

Apostle Paul because the Lord Jesus Christ enabled him, he enabled him because Christ counted

Paul faithful, and put Paul into the ministry.

That faithfulness is not a sinlessness, it's a qualification for ministry. He was found to be qualified for ministry by the

Lord Jesus Christ. And notice that these sins, these huge sins, are not sins that permanently disqualified the

Apostle Paul from ministry. He was formerly a blasphemer, capital crime, a persecutor, he was literally killing believers, so a murdering persecutor, capital crime, and an insolent man.

This idea of an insolent man is sort of the, the man who's so arrogant that he rejects authority, you might say rebel, he's a rebel, rebellion, capital crime.

So what he's listing out here is, I was counted as faithful, as qualified to go into the ministry, even though in my past I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a rebel.

Even though I'm a triple capital crime committer. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

Now the Apostle Paul, let's remember this, he studied with Gamaliel, he was a part of the Sanhedrin.

The Apostle Paul was very learned, very knowledgeable. What does he mean, ignorantly in unbelief?

Even though he had a bunch of information in his mind, he did not understand it properly. He had built it into a false system involving, for example, a doctrine of the illegal use of the law.

And so, as a Pharisee, Paul was not only holding to the orthodox positions of the

Pharisees, but seemed to have adopted the doctrine of tradition that the Pharisees had, that the doctrine of the elders was authoritative, and seems to have adopted a self -righteousness and had rejected the

Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Persecuting the followers of Christ, blaspheming the

Lord of Glory, a rebel against the authority of Jesus. He did it without faith, because he did not understand and did not believe the truth.

And when he was given understanding, and given a belief in the doctrine he then understood, he was forgiven through faith alone.

Verse 14. And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

So the grace of the Lord was exceedingly abundant. He gave Paul a huge amount of faith.

He caused Paul to know tons of doctrine and to believe it. He gave him a huge faith.

You have a small faith if you understand and believe very little of what God has revealed. You have a big faith if you understand and believe a lot of what

God has revealed. Christ was exceedingly abundant in giving faith to Paul.

And he was exceedingly abundant in giving love to Paul. He caused

Paul to value God and to value his brother, to value his neighbor, to desire the salvation of men, to desire their good, to desire the glory of God to fill the earth as the waters cover the sea.

The gift of faith and the gift of love to Paul, both of which are gifts, were exceedingly abundant.

Verse 15. This is a faithful saying.

As you go through 1 Timothy, I want to really encourage you to mark off the faithful sayings.

The faithful sayings are little confessional statements, they're little patterns of sound words and the

Apostle Paul is kind enough to tell us, I'm giving you one of these. Here's some patterns of sound words that I would encourage you to remember and to use, to meditate on them.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom

I am chief. Now, if you take that and you say, alright, here's the worthy saying,

Paul, I got it. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and Paul is the chief of sinners.

If that's how you understand it, I would like to humbly suggest to you, you're doing it wrong. The understanding here is supposed to be that you, as an individual, can say this.

And you go, well, how does that work? If I'm the chief of sinners and you're the chief of sinners, it seems like they can't both be true.

One of us has to be the chief of sinners. And in this contest, I'm happy to let you have it. If we want this to not be a contradictory mess, then what we have to understand is, this is not talking about an objective guilt standard.

This is not saying that every one of us is the person who has the most guilt in our account.

Some people try to resolve this by saying all sin is equal and therefore we're all the chief of sinners because we all tie first place.

That is not the point. Some sins are worse than others. There are worse punishments for worse sins.

We are taught that in many places of Scripture. Some sins are more grievous than others. Every sin deserves everlasting punishment.

Every sin deserves everlasting punishment. But some sins are worse than others. Some are more grievous than others.

God reveals that in many ways. He talks about how some sinners, He deals with Judas, for example, and talks about Judas's sins being such that it would be better for him if he were never born.

And talks about that in the sense of there being worse places of punishment and talking about the demons and talking about unrepentant people.

He also talks about different rewards for good works and measures of rewards.

So there are measures for positive rewards and measures for negative rewards. The point is not that there is an objective equality between all sins.

The point is when you examine yourself, you know more about your sins than you know about anybody else's sins.

Even if you have wickedly, sinfully, inordinately given your time and attention to other people's sins, you still have more information about your sins than anybody else's sins.

So if you take the information in your mind about your sins and compare it to the information in your mind about anybody else's sins that you know about, you're going to be able to go, yeah, the information

I have about my sins makes me certain that I am the chief of sinners.

And if you don't think that, you're deceiving yourself. Because you sin so much more than you're giving yourself credit for.

The amount of sin that you commit, you have forgotten more sins than you can remember.

You have forgotten more sins in the last month that you actually are guilty of than you can remember.

The amount of sin in your own life is such that no matter how many of the sins of other people you are aware of, you can, in truth, with integrity, say,

I am the chief of sinners based upon the information I have about my own sin. What are the things that the gospel does and that the law of God does?

The gospel helps you to see the greatness of the grace of God, but it's rooted in recognizing the justice of God in His law.

And as you study the law of God more, it's going to give you a greater and greater view of your own sin.

The more you know the law, the more you will see your own sin. And so, as you study the law, as you study the gospel, and you grow in sanctification, your objective performing of sin will reduce so that you do less sinning today than you did a year ago, or two years ago, or seven years ago.

But you will see your sin more clearly and be able to identify your sins more frequently so that you will actually see your sin in increasing degrees faster than you'll be putting off the sin.

And so as you grow in the knowledge of God and grow in the knowledge of God's law, what you will find is that you are seeing more sin, the queue for sins to put off will grow faster than the throughput of throwing off the sins.

So your own estimation, the more you grow in knowledge, the more you will see yourself as a wicked sinner, which makes the first part of the sentence increasingly valuable.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.

If I'm the chief of sinners and Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, then it seems like I'm the biggest target.

The more you see your sinfulness and recognize it as sin, the more you would see the greatness of the salvation worked for you.

This is a doctrine, a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptance.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom

I am chief. One of the ways that we become more capable of forgiving sin quickly is by seeing our sin rightly and evaluating it rightly.

The more we recognize our own sin, the smaller the sins of others appear in comparison and the easier it is for us to forgive them.

There's an interesting verse in Ecclesiastes that talks about, you know, if you hear that one of your servants is cursing you, get over it.

You know that you yourself have cursed people lots of times. Don't deal with it as though it's this huge thing, this idea that you hear rumors of people saying negative things about you and you kind of go, okay.

This ability to be able to forgive, to overlook, comes from a recognition of the greatness of our own sin.

He who has been forgiven much, loves much. Verse 16, however, for this reason

I obtained mercy that in me, first, Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Paul's sinfulness as a blasphemer, murderer, persecutor of the church, and rebel are meant as a typology for us to recognize, yes, you, your sins, that one, yep, that one, that sin, that can be forgiven.

Paul's life is given for us as a typology to be able to recognize that.

Now to the King Eternal, immortal, invisible, to God, who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen.

He ends this thought about the gospel with doxology, with praise.

That is what happens when you use the law rightly and see your guilt properly and you see the gospel and therefore the grace of God and the fact that you have been forgiven, it leads to gratitude that overflows in praise.

One of the praises that he gives is that God alone is wise.

God is the alone source of wisdom and anyone who has wisdom has wisdom because they've received it from God.

Wisdom is the knowledge of what's good and how to get it. Wisdom is the knowledge of what's good and the knowledge of how to get what's good.

Knowledge of God and of His law. If we want to have wisdom, we need to get it from the one who alone is wise in Himself.

And so what we need is the mind of God given to us. And that reminds us of the fact that we are to teach no other doctrine except that which is the glorious gospel that was committed to the trust of the

Apostle Paul. That sound doctrine which is given to us in the scriptures, its explicit statements and its good and necessary inferences, it is the mind of Christ.

It is the mind of God who alone is wise and it's delivered to us. And part of the praise of God is that He alone is wise.

So now having told Timothy that Timothy was supposed to stay in Ephesus to charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

Paul gives a charge to Timothy. This charge I commit to you, son

Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare.

The good warfare is waged by prophecies. The word of God is our sword.

Verse 19, having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected.

What has been rejected? The prophecies, which is what is believed in, so therefore also the faith, and therefore the conscience is seared.

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by those prophecies you may wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience, which prophecies, some having rejected, concerning the faith, have suffered shipwreck.

You reject the prophecies of God, you reject the word of God, you reject what God has given by His apostles and prophets, your faith is shipwrecked.

Of whom are Himenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

How can a man who says he was forgiven of being a blasphemer hand over Himenaeus and Alexander to Satan for committing blasphemy?

Because he recognizes that the forgiveness of sins is by faith alone, and people can't read each other's minds.

And so the forgiveness of sins, in terms of dealing with them in a church context, involves their statement of repentance.

So, Himenaeus and Alexander rejected some doctrine of the faith, would not repent with the mouth, and therefore were delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Comments, questions, objections from the voting members and those with speaking privileges. Mr. Nye?

Yeah, I think there was a period of time in which he received teaching from Christ. And the 14 years that's referenced in Galatians, I think

I've in the past emphasized that as the length of time. I think somebody showed me I was wrong in the text.

It's like he spent like three years being teaching, and then there's like 14 years before he went to Jerusalem or something. So that's something

I think I've said like two or three times publicly that probably stuck in your mind. And I think I had a wrong memory, and it was like three years, and then it was like 14 years before he went to Jerusalem, something like that.

So I think his time of teaching before he went into public ministry from Christ was a shorter period than a decade, but it was like a period of years.

Yeah, so Mr. Nye, what you're saying is teaching that's done before a person's converted, like Gamaliel's teaching of Paul, Gamaliel was a lawful church officer,

Paul was a lawful church officer, he was receiving teaching in the Old Testament church, and if he wasn't converted before, then these truths were still being stored up in his heart, and then the

Holy Spirit could use all of that at his conversion to have that become very powerful, to cause faster sanctification and gifting, to have that.

Is that accurate? Yes. God uses everything for the elect, he loves them eternally, he uses everything that happens to them even before their conversions for their good.

Absolutely. Thank you. Okay. Then let's pray.

Father, we ask that you would bless the teaching of your Word, we ask that you would help us to store up faithful sayings in our own hearts, we thank you that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, and Father, we confess that we are the chief of sinners, and we ask that you would help us to be a humble people, that you would help us to love mercy, that you would help us to see the greatness of your

Gospel, we ask that you would help us to love your law, as that which shows us our sin, we ask that you would use the law to show us our sin more and more, that you would help us to see the greatness of the

Gospel, to be grateful people, we pray this in Christ's name, Amen.

Okay, let's sing Psalm 125, please stand. Psalm 125, a song of a sense, all who trust in the

Lord will not be moved, like Mount Zion which abides forever, as the mountains that circle

Jerusalem, so the Lord is ever round his people, the wicked's rod will not strike the righteous, lest the righteous take part in wickedness, do good

O Lord unto them that are good, and unto them that are upright and in heart, as for those people who then turn aside to pursue their own crooked ways and sin, the

Lord will lead them out with the sinners, but there will be peace upon Israel.

All who trust in the Lord will not be moved, like Mount Zion which abides forever, as the mountains that circle

Jerusalem, so the Lord is ever round his people, the wicked's rod will not strike the righteous, lest the righteous take part in wickedness, do good

O Lord unto them that are good, and unto them that are upright and in heart, as for those people who then turn aside to pursue their own crooked ways and sin, the

Lord will lead them out with the sinners, but there will be peace upon Israel.

Please be seated. If I could please have the Shaffers come forward. Okay, so what we have here now is we will be going through the baptismal covenant, and the baptismal covenant involves promises of the parents to the child, and also promises of the congregation that I will be giving as your representative to the child.

And so this is a covenanting act in baptism, and so we'll begin with an explicit statement of the covenant that it represents, as well as some of those parts being emphases on things that are basics of the faith, but also things that are sins of the time that need to be dealt with, and so we have promises here that have to do with that.

So if you're holding children, you probably can't raise your right hand conveniently, so I'm not going to require that of you, but just know that you're about to enter into covenant, and swearing is a weighty matter.

You ask for God to bless the truthfulness and the keeping of that sworn statement, and you ask

God to curse the falsehood and the breaking of that statement. So it's my understanding that at this time you would like to covenant and see your child baptized.

Is that correct? Okay, and I will read the vow,

I will say, do you, at which point I would like you to say, I do, both of the parents, and I would like you to say it loudly, recognizing this is an opportunity to confess your faith publicly.

So, Mr. and Mrs. Schaefer, Deacon and Mrs.

Schaefer, do you promise to diligently guard this child, both body and soul, with your own life, and to diligently disciple and discipline this child, not provoking your children to wrath, but nourishing them in the instruction and admonition of the

Lord by providing a godly example in the whole of life, truthful teaching in the full counsel of God, and just correction as the occasion is fitting, and storing up the words of scripture in your heart so that you may teach them to your children, and talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up.

Do you? Do you believe and promise to diligently teach this child that all the statements and necessary inferences of the scriptures of the

Old and New Testaments are the rationally coherent and infallible word of God, the very truth itself, and the only rule for faith and life.

Do you? Do you believe and promise to diligently teach this child that the contents of the scripturalist church covenant are accurate representations of the teaching of scripture, and to demonstrate the same by careful discipleship in the word of God.

Do you? Do you promise to diligently teach this child to seek the knowledge of the truth to the glory of God by both explaining and exemplifying the need to engage in both private worship and household worship, keep the

Lord's day, observe the appointed sacraments, and attend to the call of the church to gather for the worship of God and for the government of the church.

Do you? Vow five.

Do you promise to diligently teach this child to act according to the knowledge of the truth to the glory of God as revealed in the moral law, which is the whole duty that God requires of man, is summarized by the two great commandments, is summarily comprehended in the ten commandments, and is explained accurately in the

Westminster Shorter Catechism. Do you? Do you promise to diligently teach this child to spread the knowledge of the truth to the glory of God by both explaining and exemplifying the need to engage in and support evangelism and discipleship in the whole counsel of God, provide a

Christian education for your household and for this child, tie it to the church, and cooperate with others in the church in order to fill the earth with the knowledge of the

Lord as the waters cover the sea. Do you? Vow seven.

Do you promise to protect your household and this child from all false doctrine, all false worship, and all false or usurping human authority, and to teach this child to carefully examine the doctrine, worship, and government of the church according to Scripture alone to determine whether these marks of the church are being kept pure and entire, to submit unto the government of the church in all lawful exercises of church authority, and to refuse submission in all unlawful exercises of church authority, to follow the biblical requirements of conflict resolution prior to separation from this body, as summarized authoritatively in Matthew 18 and Acts 15, and subordinately in the

Constitution of the Scripturalist Church, and to work in the church with zeal and knowledge for peace, purity, and unity in the truth.

Do you? And now, you witnesses, everyone who's witnessing here is obligated to hold those who covenant responsible to keep their covenant.

But only those who are members of Puritan Reformed Church are those who are covenanting now with these promises.

And so, as we do this, as we swear these things, those of you who are members of Puritan, as I make these promises,

I am making them as your representative, and it's as though you were making them yourself. So these promises of the church are promises from all of us to this child.

First, we promise to fulfill our duties to this child of seeking to support the lawful authority and duties of the father and mother by encouraging covenant keeping and submission to Christ by the members of the household, by providing training and accountability for the parents in teaching godliness through household discipline and discipleship, household worship, and private worship, by teaching in the public worship of the church and imposing external discipline on the household to assemble, by protecting this child from the sin of the parents through the application and teaching of the scriptures and the diligent use of correction and of church censures as circumstances require.

Two, we promise that if this child should be without father, then we will joyfully provide the orphan child and the widow mother with shelter to prevent homelessness, clothing to avoid nakedness, food to stop hunger, and drink to satisfy thirst, means and assistance to combat ignorance and unbelief under the oversight of our elders and deacons, to the end that this child would think, speak, and act in such a manner as to bring honor to the name of Christ, including a

Christian education and protection from false teachers and anti -Christian institutions until this child is an adult or catechized and able to interact as a mature believer, being ready and able to come to the

Lord's table and also to defend the truth against error. Third, we promise that if the parents of this child are negligent in the performance of these duties, then we will correct, exhort, and assist in the bearing of their duties.

But if the parents of this child are found obstinate in their refusal to perform their duties, then we will proceed with the censures of the church against them in the hope that public use of the spiritual sword will reclaim and gain the offending brethren, deter others from like offenses, purge out dangerous leaven which might otherwise infect the whole lump, vindicate the honor of Christ and the holy profession of the gospel, and prevent the wrath or discipline of God from justly falling upon the visible church, if we should suffer

His covenant and the seals thereof to be profaned by notorious and obstinate offenders.

Now, as we begin with baptism, let me read to you the word of institution out of Matthew 28.

Matthew 28, verse 18 forward.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. Now, having given the word of institution, let's pray for blessing upon this ordinance.

Father, we ask that you would bless this baptism, that you would cause this water to be holy in its use as a symbol of the covenant.

Father, we thank you that you have chosen us, that you've sent your Son to die for us, that you've sent your

Holy Spirit to cause us to have new life. And we ask that you would give all the blessings of this covenant to this child.

We pray this in Christ's name. Amen. Baptism is a symbol of the covenant of grace.

Baptism is a symbol of Christ as the mediator of the covenant. Baptism is a symbol of the benefits of the covenant.

And baptism is a symbol for initiation into the visible church. And so as we give this now, all those meanings are contained in this symbol.

Please open your Psalters to Psalm 133, and please stand. A song of a sense of David.

Oh, truly it is very good and pleasant to behold when the brethren come together and dwell in unity.

Oh, it is like the precious oil poured out upon the head, which does run down from Aaron's beard even to his garments, as the dew from Hermon descends upon Zion's mountain.

For there the Lord his blessing gave even eternal life. Oh, truly it is very good and pleasant to behold when the brethren come together and dwell in unity.

Oh, it is like the precious oil poured out upon the head, which does run down from Aaron's beard even to his garments, as the dew from Hermon descends upon Zion's mountain.

For there the Lord his blessing gave even eternal life.

Lord bless you and keep you. Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.