Sinners Set Free to Serve

We have been given this great, glorious gospel from our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. It has been committed to us, and God has enabled us to share it.

Open with me to First Timothy as we discover these truths together. Please take out your Bibles. If you don’t have one, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are going to be in the book of First Timothy, which is right near the end of your Bible. If you open to the very last book, Revelation, and turn to the left, you will find First and Second Timothy there.

We are in a series called "On Course," going through this book together, and we are starting in verse 8 today.

First Timothy, chapter 1, verse 8 states, "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 anything that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust."

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, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 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, immortal, invisible, eternal, to God alone who is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

I discharge you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you.

You wage a good warfare by having faith and a good conscience. Some, having 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.

Father, heavy words there. I would pray that You would open our hearts and minds to receive from You Your implanted word, that it would continue that awesome work of transforming us by the renewing of our minds. Beyond this moment, when we're gathered here together in a place like this, throughout the rest of this week, we would show what is Your good and perfect will in this world. God, thank You for Your word, which is able to save and transform. Speak to us, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

I was looking recently for a whole bunch of pictures that should be on my computer, but I couldn't find them. I had been looking around the house and found a couple of old computer hard drives. I put them into the little device, plugged them into the computer, and this last week, I was able to find a folder with 30,000 pictures that I didn't have on my computer. I moved them over and started to scroll through the pictures.

As I began to scroll through these pictures, I started to instantly go back and think about all the places, times, and things that were happening at that point in time. My kids started to huddle around the computer, and my oldest, Ethan, who will be nine this month, said, "Dad, show me the pictures from the day I was born." I scrolled through and found those pictures. As we looked at them, I started remembering and thinking back to nine years ago, almost to that day, when Ethan was born—the day when I became a dad.

There is something weighty about that experience, isn't there, moms and dads? When you are there and for the first time see your firstborn, there is a heaviness to it. There is a little bit of fear mixed with that heaviness and some dread. At least that's what I experienced. I know now, having gone through three births and three pregnancies, that the experience of pregnancy and birth is different for mom and dad. Obviously, mom has the experience of movement and all the stuff.

Through the whole experience, I felt disconnected until that moment when I saw the child. I was looking at this baby and thinking, "Oh my goodness, this is our son, our firstborn son." When Ethan was born, there was a little bit of fear associated with that. The scripture says that children are a heritage from the Lord, something that is given or entrusted to me and my wife, but especially to me as a father.

Interestingly, the same year I became a father, just about six months before Ethan's birth, I also became the pastor of this church. When I stepped into the role as pastor, I paused and asked myself if I really knew what I was getting into. The answer to that question is no; you don't. However, there was not as much weight and heaviness in becoming the pastor of the church as there was in becoming a dad.

About a month before I became a father, my wife and I signed the papers for our first home loan. Buying our first home came with its own weightiness. As we signed through a big stack of papers, we wondered if we could really afford this. Would we be able to make the payments? Would we survive? There was a weightiness to that, but it was not the same as when you become a father.

I tried to find an analogy that relates to this experience, but I couldn't find one that carries the same weight. Perhaps it would be like someone taking their most prized possession and handing it to you, asking you to take care of it while they go away. Even that doesn't begin to touch the reality of becoming a parent.

The funny part is that when you go to have a child, you go to the hospital, and maybe 24 to 48 hours later, you walk out with this new baby. All they care about is whether you have a car seat. That's it! We went through three weeks of credit checks and background checks to buy a house, signing a stack of papers. Yet, when you have a baby, they just ask if you have a car seat. If you do, they say, "All right, see you later." You're left thinking, "Wait, is that all I need to be a dad? Just a car seat?" There is a heaviness to the reality of stepping into that role that is profound.

We have been entrusted with the stewardship of something great, the stewardship of another life. There is a heaviness to it, and I think that is similar to what Paul is describing here in verse 11 when he talks about the gospel. He says, "according to the glorious gospel of the Blessed God, which was committed to my trust."

The first thing we need to take careful note of here is that it is called the glorious gospel of the Blessed God. It is something immense, something of majestic quality and magnificent value. It is excellent, splendid, and glorious. This gospel has been committed into our trust, and I think sometimes we fail to acknowledge or even realize just how great and majestic this valuable thing is that has been committed to us.

A number of years ago, I was at a baseball game with my friend David Guzik. As we were sitting and watching the Padres play down here at Petco Park, just in the middle of one of the innings, he casually said to me, "I think I'm going to be donating one of my kidneys." I looked at him and said, "What?" He replied, "I've decided that I'm going to donate one of my kidneys." I asked, "To who?" He said, "I don't know, just an anonymous recipient."

I was curious and asked, "What is kind of leading this?" He explained, "Well, my sister did it, and as I heard about it, I thought, you know, I have two healthy kidneys now. I can live with one, and there are some people who are sick and diseased and can't live with what they've got. So, I can give one of mine, and they can live." I was blown away by that.

As he started the whole process of getting checked medically, he ultimately went to UCLA Medical Center, where they put him under and took one of his kidneys. They gave it to a woman who lives on the other side of the country, and afterwards, they were able to meet. It was an amazing thing that took place.

What a phenomenal act that someone would say, "Hey, I'm going to give this to you because you can't live unless I give you this thing." There is such awesome value in that little organ. Of course, most of the time when there is a transplant like that, the person who is giving their organs is not going to live beyond that. In the case of a kidney, you can survive, but most of the time when there is an organ transplant, the donor dies.

Being given to the recipient has awesome and amazing value, and it's connected to the same sort of idea here. Christ died for us so that we could have life. Without His death on the cross, there is no gospel; without His death on the cross, there is no salvation, and there is no life. In one sense, He died to take our diseased, sinful hearts and to replace them with new life. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords died so that we could have eternal life, both here abundantly and forever. God incarnate died so that we could have salvation, and there is no salvation without the cross.

When we think of it in those terms, it helps us to begin to fathom the weightiness of what has been given to us. Paul says this is the glorious gospel of our blessed God that was entrusted or committed to my trust, and it has been entrusted to us just as it was to the Apostle Paul 2,000 years ago.

Point number one on your outline: God entrusts us with glorious good news. What exactly does that mean? We have been entrusted with the glorious good news of salvation for those who are sick from sin and dying—not just dying in a physical sense, but they are going to experience what the Bible calls the second death, or a spiritual death: eternal separation from the living God.

All of us have this condition, whether we realize it or not. We all have this fallen condition; it was given to us. It's a genetic disorder, and we all have it passed down from our first father, his name was Adam. Romans chapter 5, verse 12 says, "Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin," and it has spread to all humanity. We all have this condition, and it is seen very clearly by our actions. You see the sinful actions that we are involved in; every single one of us falls short of the glory of God. We all sin, but the sinful thoughts...

Sinful actions come from a sinful heart. Jesus said that in Mark's Gospel, chapter 7: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and evil actions." We can see our sinful condition manifested in the sinful things that we do. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried and rose again the third day, also according to the Scriptures. This is the gospel, briefly recorded in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 1 through 3.

He died for our sins, and the spiritual heart transplant for spiritually sick hearts of sinners has been given to us. We were utterly without hope in this world apart from that transplant from Christ to us. We were doomed. If you are a Christian today, you have this new life by the Son of God because you have put your trust in Him, and He is freely giving it to you. Not only do you have this new life, but you also have the responsibility to share it with others. You have been entrusted with the stewardship of this great, glorious gospel.

Imagine the potential salvation of countless souls. Within ten miles of this building, there are half a million people. Every single day in this world, one hundred fifty-two thousand people step from this life into the next. A brother who has been a part of our church for many years died last night; he was one of the one hundred fifty-two thousand people who will die today.

If we consider the numbers compiled by the UN and others, about thirty-one percent of this globe is inhabited by people who say they believe in Jesus. Let’s imagine that a third of those who died today had this spiritual transplant and will step into eternity with Christ. In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore, and they will rejoice with joy unspeakable. However, this also means that over one hundred thousand people today will die without this great, glorious gospel.

We have been entrusted with a significant responsibility. Every day, a hundred thousand people, totaling 36 million over a ten-year period, step into eternity without Christ. This is the state of California, and it is phenomenal yet tragic. Many will face eternity without hope because of the sin that has spread from Adam down to us.

I must be honest; to my shame, I realized last week that I am often far too casual about this valuable thing that has been committed to my trust. I am far too casual with what has been given to me for salvation and what I am meant to share with others.

Paul, in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, says that God commanded light to shine out of darkness and has shown it into our hearts. We were dead in trespasses and sins, lost in darkness without hope in this world. Sometimes we sing that great hymn, "Amazing Grace": how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now I’m found; was blind, but now I see. We were all lost, in darkness, and blind, and God shone light into that darkness through the Light of the World, Jesus. He came and shed light abroad upon us.

In that very same passage, Paul says that immediately after the light has shone into our hearts, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. It has been freely poured into us, these earthen vessels, these fleshly tabernacles. We have the treasure of the great, glorious gospel given to us. As Jesus said in Matthew chapter 10, "Freely you have received; freely give." May it be that we are those who freely give and that we are never guilty of hoarding this great gospel.

Paul goes on in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12: "I thank Jesus Christ our Lord who has enabled me because he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." If you would say at this moment that Jesus is Christ and Lord in your life, that is, you are a Christian, you have put your trust in Christ for salvation, and you have received this spiritual heart transplant.

If you would say that you are a Christian today, then this is true of you as well. Point number two on your outline: God enables us to be ambassadors of glory. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, He was with His disciples on a mountain just outside the city of Jerusalem, to the east of it. It's a mountain called the Mount of Olives. As He was there with His disciples, some of the last things He said to them before ascending into heaven and disappearing out of their sight were to stay in Jerusalem until they received the promise of the Father. He said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses of Me in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth."

He instructed them to stay there because they were going to receive power when the Holy Spirit came upon them. Now, that word "power" in Acts chapter 1, verse 8 has the same Greek root as the word "enabled" that Paul uses in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12. They share the same Greek root. So, you, Christian, who have put your trust and faith in Jesus and have been saved by Him, shall receive power, and you shall be witnesses. You have been empowered for this purpose of being witnesses, which is wonderful.

However, I don't know about you, but more often than not, I feel completely unable and insufficient in myself to do this work of sharing the good news of Christ. An amazing thing has happened in our time and in our own nation. We struggle with this in a very interesting way because we live in a culture that values, almost as one of its chief values in American culture in the 21st century, the idea of never offending anybody. As a result, we have this weird fear.

You see, some Christians today, and at other times in the past throughout history, had fear for their actual lives, fearing they might be put to death if they said anything about Christ. We live in a time and place where we really don't have that fear of being put to death for being a witness for Jesus, but we're scared to death.

Because I might offend somebody, I don't want to say anything that might hurt their feelings and lessen their self-esteem, even for a moment. I don't want to do that. What is that? I don't know exactly what it is, but let me tell you, it's real, and every one of us wrestles with it. We often think, "Oh, I just don't know if I can do this. I don't know if I have the strength or the ability to do this."

You know what? In and of yourself, you might not. But what did Jesus say? You shall receive power from another source, not from yourself. This is power to be witnesses of Him in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost parts.

Paul, in one of his letters, writes this in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 5 and 6: "Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as being of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who has made us able ministers." He has enabled us to be servants of the New Covenant of the gospel. He enables me, and He enables you to be servants of the New Covenant, and He calls us to be ambassadors.

God enables us to be ambassadors of glory. An ambassador is an official representative of a kingdom, and we are official representatives of Christ's Kingdom. He enables us to do this. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 20, Paul says, "Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God."

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. This is awesome! Jesus took your sin and my sin, all of our failures, all of our issues, and He put them on Himself like a garment. He took upon Himself all of God's wrath and all of God's fury against sin. In so doing, He takes His righteousness like a robe—the Old Testament calls it a robe of righteousness—and He places it upon you and me. What an amazing switch that happens there! It almost, from an accounting standpoint, makes no sense whatsoever.

Fairness is a value we hold highly in our culture. It is totally not fair what happened to Jesus for me and for you. It is completely unjust, but I am so thankful for the unfairness of it because I deserve it. He who knew no sin became sin for me so that I could receive His righteousness, and so that you could receive His righteousness. Therefore, we have the ability to come before God.

What happens in us when we frame someone as a sinner? We often want to lessen the point of it, so we say, "Well, what kind of issues do you have? I've got issues; we all have problems." But no, it is sin—sin before a holy God who is completely righteous and cannot abide the presence of sin. Therefore, there will be wrath. However, Jesus took all of God's wrath upon Himself to deal with my sin and yours. Consequently, we become official representatives, ambassadors of that good news.

You might think at this point, "Of course, the guy who wrote this letter, Paul, an apostle, would be worthy of being able to do this. Of course, God would look at this highly religious man and say, 'You are the perfect specimen to be an apostle,' not me. I could never do that." If you're thinking that, look at verse 13 of 1 Timothy chapter 1. Paul says, "Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, an insolent man, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." In another place, he says, "I am not worthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church."

Maybe you sit here today and feel unworthy. You might say, "I get it that God hasn't entrusted to me this great prize, the glorious gospel of our blessed God. I understand that He has enabled me by His Spirit to share this, but I'm just not worthy to do that. You don't know who I am; you don't know what I've done. You can't imagine the horrible things in my past. There's no way I can do this."

Paul speaks up and says, "Listen, I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor of Christians, and I did it ignorantly in unbelief. I am not worthy to be called an apostle, but it was because of God's grace." He says in 1 Corinthians 15, after stating that he is not worthy to be called an apostle, "I am what I am."

By the grace of God, I don't deserve this position. I'm not worthy to do this, and maybe today you identify more with the list of sins that we read previously in verses 9 and 10: the lawless, the insubordinate, ungodly sinners, unholy, profane, murderers, fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers. Maybe you identify with those more than with saints, and you say, "I can't possibly do this thing that God has called me to do or enabled me to do or entrusted to me to carry because I'm a sinner." If that's the thought you're having, then point number three is for you.

God's entrusting and enabling are according to the riches of His mercy and grace in spite of our sin. You are absolutely right; you are and never will be worthy. You're totally unworthy of His grace. That's why it's called grace. We don't deserve it; we've been given unmerited, undeserved favor from God. This is not according to our efforts; we could never be good enough. Jesus deals with us on the basis of His rich mercy and grace, and I'm so grateful that He does. I'm grateful that it's rich mercy.

So Paul goes on in verse 14: "And the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant." There it is—rich grace, exceedingly abundant grace—with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. He mercifully does not give me what I deserve; that's what mercy is all about. I'm not getting what I deserve. I deserve the same wrath that was poured out upon Jesus there on the cross. I deserved that, but He has been merciful. He's not giving me what I deserve, and He has graciously given me the salvation and the enabling power that I don't deserve. He's gone beyond just not punishing me; now He's heaped an abundance of grace upon you and upon me.

Why would He do this? Look at point number four. Look at verse 15. Why would God do this? This is a faithful saying; this is a statement completely reliable and worthy of all acceptance. It should be universally accepted that Christ Jesus came into the world.

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Point number four: God is rich towards sinners because He is the Savior of sinners.

Now grasp this: it's not just His title, Savior Christ. It's not just what He does; He saves people. This is His actual nature, His identity. This is who He is. He is Savior. That's why His name is Jesus. Jehovah is salvation. It's not just an identifying mark; that's His nature. Jehovah is salvation, and because that's His nature, He can't help Himself. He can't help but save people. That's what He does, and He does it really well because that's who He is.

Many of us, probably most of us, can understand this idea of finding our identity in the things that we do. If you watch any two guys meet each other for the first time, within three minutes—there are actually studies that have been done on this—one of them will ask the other, "So, what do you do?" The other one will say, "I am a..." and fill in the blank. They identify themselves by their work: "I am an architect," "I am a contractor," "I am a police officer," or whatever it is. They identify themselves like this.

I don't think it's just men; I think women do this as well. If you're not in the workplace, women identify themselves by saying, "I am a mom." We find our identity in the things that we do. It becomes a part of our nature; it's the very thing that we can't help but do. But it's even more so with Jesus. His very nature is that He is salvation. That's who He is.

So, God is rich toward sinners because He is the Savior of sinners. This is why He came. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. It is really important that we grasp this as the purpose statement of Jesus. What are you here for? "I came to save." Really? Who? Sinners. The purpose statements of Jesus—I love them. We find them in a number of places in Scripture.

The positive aspect we find in the negative is beautifully illustrated in John chapter 3, verse 17. Most people know John chapter 3, verse 16: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life." Verse 17 continues, "For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world." He didn't come to condemn, which is truly awesome. He had every right to condemn sinful people, yet He chose not to.

Why did He come? Mark's Gospel, chapter 10, tells us that Jesus came for the purpose of giving His life as a ransom for many. He came to die in our place so that we could live. He came to give of Himself and to impart His righteousness upon us, as we have no righteousness of our own. Luke chapter 19, verse 10 states that He came to seek and save that which was lost.

Maybe you're here for the first time today, wondering why you're here. You're here because Jesus came to seek and save you. He has been looking for you, and He brought you here today for that very purpose. In John's Gospel, chapter 10, He says, "I've come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." He came to give abundant life because He is the Savior of sinners.

Paul expresses this beautifully in verse 15, stating, "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." Some of you may object, claiming that you are a much worse sinner than Paul. You can argue about that when you get to heaven, but for now, let's focus on Paul's transformation.

Prior to this, Paul was quite boastful and insolent; he tells us he was an arrogant, boastful religious Pharisee. God's grace, along with the proper use of the law, is essential. Last week, we discussed how we want to use the law of God in a lawful and right way. The proper application of God's law takes an arrogant, proud Pharisee and transforms him into a humble saint and a useful servant. You cannot be a useful servant of Jesus until you have experienced this transformation.

Come to this place of realizing who you are in relationship to God. We see this time and time again throughout the Scriptures: those who were useful for the kingdom, useful for the Master, were those who could humble themselves before Him. One of the beautiful pictures of this is a man by the name of Isaiah. He had an encounter with God, which is described in Isaiah chapter 6. When he saw God for who He was, he said, "I am undone," and he was humbled. Then he could be used by God.

Paul continues in verse 16, stating, "However, for this reason I obtained mercy." Why did Paul get mercy? Why do we get mercy? We don't deserve it. Why does God give us mercy? Notice this is amazing: in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe in Him for everlasting life. Paul considered himself the chief of sinners; he was a first-rate sinner, and Jesus came to save such sinners. Because of his sin, God was merciful to him, for Jesus is the Savior of sinners.

But why would He give this kind of mercy to sinners like you and me? For this reason, Paul says, that those who are going to believe in Him for everlasting life would see in us the patience and steadfast long-suffering preserving grace of Jesus.

What is that? Point number five on your outlines: you are God's masterpiece of grace for sinners in need of the same. Jesus has been merciful to me, and He has been gracious to you so that He could set us up as a masterpiece to show off His mercy and grace to other people. He wants to demonstrate His mercy and grace through us to those who are going to believe but haven't believed yet.

How are they going to believe? They are going to see God's mercy in your life and God's grace in your life. They might think, "Wait a minute, how come God saved you? Aren't you wicked?" Yes, I am wicked. They might say, "Wow, He must be really gracious." Maybe you have some of those people in your life who think, "I don't think God could ever save a person like you." Oh my goodness, how did that happen? I know you win. You might have those family members around, maybe.

God wants to set you up. It was a spectacle of His grace. This is why, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus would say, "You are the light of the world. Let your light so shine that men will see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven." We are a masterpiece of God's grace, meant to display it to a world in need of the grace of God.

In 2014, while investigating a leaky roof in their home, a French couple went up into the attic and found a section that was sealed off. They thought the leak was in that area, so they were able to get past it. When they entered this sealed-off part of the attic, they discovered a large canvas painting. They thought it looked pretty impressive and was in good condition, so they called in the art authorities. There are a few of those in France, and they came in to investigate the painting. They deduced that this is most likely one of the lost prints of the Italian master Caravaggio, and that this print, which just happened to be in that sealed-off part of the attic, is worth 136 million dollars. It has now been placed in a museum in Milan, Italy.

Artwork like that, masterpieces like that, do not belong in leaky attics; they should be in beautiful museums in Milan, Italy, just as that is. Masterpieces like this show off the handiwork of the Master. When you see the handiwork of a master sculptor or a master painter, you don't look at that sculpture and think, "Well, that's just a beautiful piece of marble." You don't say, "Isn't that just a wonderful piece of marble? Oh, wow, look at the grain in that marble. Wouldn't that look good on my countertops?" No, you look at the amazing work of the Master who put that together.

That's what God wants from your life. He wants people to look at your life and say, "Look at the amazing work of the Master." The good works of your life should point to your Father in Heaven and glorify Him, not us. It’s not about being seen as a good person or a nice person who is always doing nice things for people. No, it’s all about Jesus, and it will point back to Him. For by grace...

You've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His masterpiece, His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:8-10). These good works point to Christ, and with this beautiful reality presented—that we are His masterpiece to show the great glory and grace of God to this world—Paul breaks into a doxology. It is as if he can't contain himself, just overwhelmed by the joy of this revelation.

In verse 17, he breaks into a doxology. A doxology is a formal liturgical praise, and it is believed by commentators and scholars that this was one of the earliest Christian doxologies, well known in the church and not just something that Paul writes here. He says, "Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."

What does this mean? God, the master artisan, has taken your broken, tattered life and made it into something beautiful that He wants to put on display for eternity in His house, to show the awesome glory of the immortal, invisible, only wise God. He wants to set you in His house to show forth His glory forever.

Paul finishes this section with verse 18: "This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you wage the good warfare; fight the good fight." This charge I commit to you—what charge? The charge that he gave him at the beginning of this section in verse 3, to charge some that they teach no other doctrine.

So, I'm giving this charge into your hands; I'm handing it off, Timothy. Paul knew his life from this point forward was short; he knew he did not have a lot of time. He says, "Timothy, I've given it to you. God gave it to me; I received it by revelation. I've now given it to you to carry and to fight the good fight and wage the good warfare." When you're done, you're going to hand it off to someone else, and they're going to hand it off to someone else. This has been happening for the last 2,000 years.

It's been handed off to us. The great, glorious gospel of Jesus has been committed into our trust, and we've been enabled by Jesus to share that with other people. The handoff has come to us; therefore, fight the good fight, wage the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience. Run the race with endurance and know that some have rejected it along the way. Unfortunately, some have fallen away. They've rejected this call concerning the faith and have suffered shipwreck.

Then he names two individuals: Hymenaeus and Alexander. How would you like to have your names written by the hand of Paul in this way? Hymenaeus and Alexander are the ones whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. An apostolic warning is what that is. We don't exactly know who Hymenaeus and Alexander are, but we do know that there were two men named Alexander in the city of Ephesus. One was a coppersmith; he made little idols. The other was a Jewish leader at the time that Paul was there about ten years before this. Somehow, one of them, probably Alexander the Jewish leader, had become a Christian and had risen up in some place within the church, but he was causing problems.

So Paul says, "Listen, Hymenaeus and Alexander, I have delivered them to Satan." What's that about? The only other place we find this in the Bible is in 1 Corinthians 5:5, where it says, "If there is someone who is sinning continually in the church and they will not repent, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of their flesh, that their spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." That's heavy. That's called church discipline. God wants you on display in His house to show forth His glory to the world. But if you're in His house and you're tarnishing the glory by your carnality, by your flesh, by your sin, Paul says that person should be sent out, delivered to Satan. Hopefully, their flesh will be destroyed so that their spirit can be saved in the day of Christ Jesus.

That's a heavy reality, and so maybe none of us are like Hymenaeus and Alexander. Amen. Let's stand and pray together.

Father God, I thank You for Your word. It is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Your word is able to save and to...

I pray, God, that you would cause Your word to be alive in our hearts and that we would not be able to hold it back. We want to share that with others because, Lord, You have given us a spiritual heart transplant. You've made us alive for eternity, and there are friends, co-workers, family members, and neighbors who are still under the curse of sin. They have diseased hearts. God, stir our hearts to give forth freely the gospel of grace, not to be ashamed of the gospel, knowing that it is Your power unto salvation to everyone who believes.

As we're standing here today, this may be news to you: Jesus died for your sins so that you could receive salvation and new life for eternity. If you'd like to receive the grace of Jesus and the forgiveness of God, I want to give you a chance to do that this morning. If that's you, would you just lift up your hand high so I can see it during this time of prayer? Is there anyone here today who needs the forgiving grace of Jesus? Lift up your hand high so I can see it. I see you there in the back. Anyone else? Praise the Lord!

You may say, "I want to receive His touch, His grace, His mercy, to know His forgiveness." If that's you, would you just pray with me where you're at, out loud?

Dear Jesus, I know I need You in my life. I know I've broken Your commandments; I have sinned. But I thank You that You came to save sinners. I pray that You would come into my life and that You would save and forgive me. Help me to follow You by faith. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Praise the Lord! Welcome to the kingdom of God.