1 Timothy for the life of..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Good evening, everyone, and welcome once again, by the grace of God, to our Bible study on Wednesdays. Please go to the first letter of the Apostle Paul to Timothy on your Bibles.

Go please to chapter number six. And this evening we are going to be addressing brothers and sisters. Verses 11. through 16 verses 11 through 16 but let's read together as we did last week from verse 3 all the way until the end of the chapter Let's just pay close attention to the section of scripture that I said that it starts in verse 11, in which the apostle is going to give a contrast to speaking of Timothy as a man of God. So let's read the scripture from verse three in chapter six on the first letter of Timothy.

It says, If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, He is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with this we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and hurtful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of many is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. But as for you, O men of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment and abstain and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty. nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. O Timothy, Guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.

For by professing it, some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen. That's the words of God. And as I said, we're going to be focusing on the section that starts in verse 11 and goes through verse 16, brothers and sisters.

And in this section, The Apostle Paul is going to give to Timothy an exhortation or he's going to give instructions to five things. Five commandments are going to be given to Timothy, five verbs the apostle is going to use to give clear instructions to Timothy, whom he calls a man of God. The first one is to flee, to depart, to run away, to flee from these things, he says. The second one is to pursue certain spiritual virtues. The third one is to fight the good fight of the faith.

The third or the fourth one is to take hold of eternal life. And the fifth one is to keep the commandment that he has given. And then he's going to end the section that we have here with praises given unto God, with what they call a doxology, giving glory to God. is speaking of the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and certain attributes of God there at the end of verse 15 and all verse 16, when he speaks of God as the blessed, as the sovereign, as the King of kings, as the Lord of lords, as the one who is immortal, as the one who dwells in unapproachable light, the one that no one has seen, that no one can see, that one to whom all honor and all eternal dominion is due. The Apostle Paul is going to exhort, is going to give five commandments to Timothy and is going to finish this section with these praises and this giving glory to God.

And the reason why I'm pointing to you is just because if we were going to address the contents of that last section, of this person of Scripture, probably we will need a Bible study for each one of those terms, each one of those concepts of attributes of God that the Lord speaks of God or that the Apostle speaks of God as the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Sovereign, the Blessed, the Immortal, the one that is unapproachable, that no one has seen, that no one can see, the one who has dominion over everything. This is an exaltation of the soul, of the heart of the Apostle after giving this exhortation. Our focus is going to be on the practical exhortations that the Apostle is going to give to his disciple Timothy in light of this glorious doxology that comes in the end to those five things that I have mentioned to you. The Apostle is going to call Timothy to flee from certain things, to run away from certain things. Second thing is that he's going to call him to pursue something else.

He's going to call him to fight for something. And then the fourth thing is that he's going to call him to take hold of the eternal life and then to obey a commandment or to keep a commandment. And the way that the apostle is going to give these five exhortations of these five commandments to Timothy is by the way of a contrast. He starts in verse 11 is saying these were but But he is going to contrast Timothy as the man of God. He's going to contrast him to those men that he has already described in the previous section.

So remember, brothers and sisters, the last time when we came, we spoke about the nature in a sense of the false teachers and what they had within them and what they were looking for. These false teachers were people that were teaching a different doctrine. For a doctrine to be just simply different, that made that doctrine opposite and contrary to the doctrine of the Apostle or the doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ. A different doctrine was a doctrine that was not according to the words of the Lord Jesus Christ and therefore was a powerless doctrine. The doctrine of the false teachers was an unhealthy doctrine.

When we said that Paul speaks of a healthy or a sound doctrine, he speaks of a doctrine that is healthy. So therefore, false teachers teach a doctrine that is unhealthy. And because it's unhealthy, it's a powerless doctrine that does not have the power to produce the fruit that only sound or healthy doctrine can do. The fruit of the teaching of false teachers is a heart of pride and deceit, is a mind that is unable to know the spiritual things of God, and it is deeds that produce division, dissension, conflict among the people. Why?

Because false teachers have their eyes set on things that are temporary and not things that are eternal. Their eyes are set on things that are passing away, and therefore they make their godliness or their profession of faith The means of gain is because they are not contempt or satisfied with the things which are eternal in comparison and in contrast with the man of God who is satisfied with the things that are eternal and therefore his godliness is the means for great gain. The result of the teaching of false teachers, as we said last week, is destruction. It's not only division, but it is destruction. These people make shipwreck of their faith.

They fall away from the faith. And the apostle now is going to present to us five commandments of five instructions given to Timothy by contrasting who he is compared with these men that he described in the previous section. So he starts. but you, Timothy. And he is going to give us a short single letter word that sometimes we bypass.

He says, O men of God, speaking of this exaltation of his soul, because of the things that he's about to say, he's going to compare Timothy as the man of God, as the servant of God, he's comparing it with the reality of these false teachers and what he's about to say, brothers and sisters, fills the heart of Paul with joy to the point that he, as he's writing or dictating this or he's writing this, he comes and says, oh, because his heart is filled with joy that what he's about to say, what he's about to say is the status of what Timothy is. He calls him a man of God, he starts the verse by saying, but you different to these false teachers, but you, oh, men of God. And this is a glorious reality, brothers and sisters, because false teachers are men of unrighteousness. But the one who by grace through faith is in Christ is a man of God. And this does not speak of the condition to which team he belongs, but rather of whom he is property or property of.

Timothy is of God. That means that God is the owner of the soul of Timothy. And for that reason, Paul says, O men of God, because these false teachers are servants of money. Remember that you can have only one master, you cannot have two masters. You either serve God or you serve money, because if you have two masters, you're going to hate one and you're going to love the other.

And you're going to devote yourself to one and not to the other. You're going to despise the other. He says, but you men of God, you belong to God. You're a servant of God. These false teachers are men of unrighteousness.

They belong to Satan. They belong to the evil powers of this world and the heart of the apostle is filled with joy when he comes and and gives these praises and he's about to write you oh men of God now brothers and sisters this is very important Because always in the Bible, commandments and instructions, as we're going to see now, these five commandments and these five instructions are always preceded either sequentially or logically by the spiritual condition of the object of the commandment. That it is that every time that the Bible is going to tell us what to do, always points us to who we are ought to be or who we are by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. So we are to understand the commandments that Paul is going to give to Timothy in light of the glorious condition of Timothy as a man of God, a man who belongs to God, a man whose owner is God, the God of the universe, this God who was described in the end of the section, the sovereign, the Lord, the king of kings, the one that is unapproachable. He is the owner of the soul of Timothy.

And this is what fills the heart of Paul with all of these praises and enables him to point him to the things that this man of God is supposed to do. But before your mind and your heart departs from the reality and instructions of this text, just because you may think that these things are about to be said, apply only to Timothy or to those men who are in charge of the Word of God and those who are called elders or pastors before your mind departs from that and makes your heart not attached to the realities of the text. Before your mind takes you and deceives you that way, brothers and sisters, I have to tell you that as we have said many things, the man of God who has been called for a specific office by the power of the Spirit, is a Christian who has shown maturity in spiritual virtues that are meant to be the reality of all Christians. So if we are going to speak here of a spiritual reality and the requirements, the apostolic requirements given to this person, in this case Timothy, we are to see this as God speaking through His Spirit to us. So if we were going to change the text, and we are not to do so, but if we were going to see the text and see ourselves in there, this will be like child of God, because this is the condition of the spirit and the soul of every single Christian.

In this case, of course, particularly given to Timothy as a man of God, a servant of God, a person that is given entirely, that has been taken, captured by the powers and the operations of Christ's grace. that can take him from darkness into light, from death into life, and capture him unto glory. So then having that clear in our minds that this is a spiritual reality, that those who are not in Christ are unable, incapable of following these five instructions that he is going to give to Timothy, that for those who have not experienced the abundant grace of God, these commandments are going to be impossible things to accomplish, just as it's impossible for those who are in Christ, apart from the grace that has been given to them by the Spirit. So it is the condition of the soul first that the apostle portrays and puts in the table before pointing to these five things. O men of God.

The first commandment that he's going to give him in the text that you have in front of you in verse 11 is to flee these things. He is going to call Timothy to run away, to flee from these things, and those things refer to the things that he has mentioned in regards the false teachers. the false doctrine, a prideful heart, a heart that is filled with lies, a mind that is unable to know the spiritual things, this that causes division, this desire to obtain a shameful gain, this power that money had over these false teachers. He is going to call Timothy to flee from these things, brothers and sisters, and the word flee has and contains in and of itself this sense of urgency of escape from those things, run away from those things, and what we are to meditate. It is, brothers and sisters, that these things, that they are close to Timothy, and that they have power to affect Timothy.

And therefore, Timothy is to be aware of these things, he's to be alert of these things, and he's to actively flee from these things. Just think and meditate upon what I have said, that these things, there's no reason why Paul will call Timothy to flee from something that is not real. These things are to be real in the life or at least surrounding Timothy for him to flee. That is that they exist, that these temptations of money and gain and all of these temptations of false or other doctrine, all of these things that surround people who are in the Word of God, this reality. And not only that, but if you are to flee something, you don't flee something that you are not close to.

You don't flee something that is kilometers away from you. You flee something that is either approaching or that you're approaching to that, that you flee and you run away from something that is a danger to you, because they have existence and they are close to you. But if the Apostle calls Timothy to run away, to escape, to flee from these things, that means that these things have certain power to affect him. We are not to run away or to flee from things that are not going to cause any damage in our souls. We are not to run or escape from things that do not have the power to do anything within us.

We are to run away from things that do have the power to affect us and to do something in us. So the apostle calls him to flee. from those things. And if we are going to flee from all of these things that were in the life of the false teachers, then that means that we need to know those things. How are we going to flee from things that we do not know?

How are we going to understand the danger of something if that something is not known by our mind or by our hearts? We are to know these things. The man of God, the child of God needs to know the things that can put in danger his soul so that he and she as a child of God are to flee from those things. We are to be not only aware of the existence of those things, but also we're to be alert. How are we going to flee from that which is dangerous to our souls if we are not alert?

flee from these things, Paul calls to Timothy. These things have power to affect the soul of Timothy. These things have power to affect the soul of the child of God. And therefore, the commandment is to be taken with seriousness that we are to flee from these things. And the commandment is an active commandment.

And if you know what I'm trying to say, it is not avoid like when you are approaching something that you are going to hit and just simply avoid this commandment is flee from it take a different direction if you see it if you perceive it if you know that it is close to you flee from it actively do not be passive about it do not just say i'm okay i'm strong enough and if it comes to me i'm going to be able to destroy it or or support it or hold it no he says flee from it So that means that they are close to us, and they have power to affect us. So the apostle says to his disciple, flee from these things, as he has said in other instances to Timothy, to flee from different things, that he's to run away. Don't take that for granted, brothers and sisters. Sometimes we think that we are so strong in ourselves. We prove, we can say with our mouth that we are weak, that we are not strong enough, that we might even speak of saying, Lord, I'm weak.

But then with our lives, we demonstrate that we think ourselves to be strong. You can prove to yourself how strong you are by how much you pray. by how much you commune with God, because the less that you commune with God, the more that you say, I'm good enough just to live my life and the life in the world just in my strength. I do not need the presence of God in my life. I do not need to commune with God because I'm strong enough and I can flee from these things.

Do not let the deceitfulness of your heart and the deceitfulness of your mind to diminish the seriousness of the commandment that the Apostle is given to Timothy to flee from these things. Because money is the root of all evils, and that means that money has power to move the intentions, or at least gain, temporary gain has power to move the affections and the condition of the heart of a person. That's why the Apostle, or that's why in the Gospel it speaks of two masters, money or God. Flee is the first thing that the apostle is going to tell him. It's like a person who is in the middle of a forest and who knows that there is an animal or a beast that is coming to catch him or catch her and to destroy him.

And then he's just fleeing. He's just running away. But the next instruction is glorious because the apostle is not only going to tell this person who is running in the middle of this forest, that is a beast that is coming to pursue him. He's going to tell him, pursue something. Not only flee from these evil things and righteous things, but he's going to say the next instruction is pursue spiritual things.

So this man or this woman who is in the middle of this forest, running away from this beast that is coming and approaching him or her to destroy him. It's not like this man or this woman is just running unaware of the destination where they have to go. But this man or this woman is running with a destination. a clear destination because the man that is fleeing from unrighteousness is a man that is actively pursuing something he says pursue And the heart of those two words, brothers and sisters, speak of an urgency, just the same urgency that the man or child or God is supposed to have while fleeing of these evil things is the same urgency that this man or child of God is to have in his or her heart in pursuing certain things that in summary, these six things that the apostle is going to give us can be summarized in Christ likeness. Can all of them summarize in Christ likeness, just as you flee and run away and escape from things of the world that are passing away that have power on you to affect you and to transform you, just flee.

You have the power and the ability to do it. Flee from them and go to those things that, as I said, can be summarized. in Christ-likeness, in becoming like Jesus Christ. He's going to give us a set, three sets of two things. He's going to speak, first of all, speaking of righteousness, that we are to pursue, that we are to seek righteousness, not the legal righteousness that is required of a person to present him or herself before the presence of God.

Another righteousness that Christ has accomplished for those who are in Him. Another righteousness that is required of the person to have peace with God. Because the same Paul that gives the instruction of righteousness is the Paul that wrote Romans 5 saying that we have been justified by faith and being justified by faith we have the peace with God. Why? Because we have the righteousness of Christ.

So the apostle is not calling Timothy to pursue righteousness so that we might be able to present ourselves before God, but rather he is calling to righteousness that is imparted or given to us by the Spirit. Not the righteousness of Christ that is imputed by faith, but the righteousness of Christ that is given by faith in the Spirit and the workings of the operations of the grace of the Spirit of God within us, making us more like Christ. Have you not read, if your righteousness does not exceed that of the Pharisees, the practical righteousness that Christ living in us by faith allows us to produce, the righteousness that makes us more like Jesus Christ. And it comes to the second term, that is, godliness, not only righteousness, but godliness. Godliness is god-likeness, that we are to be like God.

The godliness that the Apostle had spoken in a couple of chapters before, this godliness that we are to give ourselves unto because he has value, great value, not only for this life but for the life that is to come, not only for this age but for the age that is to come, making us more like Christ. Now, brothers and sisters, the Apostle is necessarily saying That just as those who are in Christ by grace through faith have the power to flee from unrighteousness, that we also have the power by the grace of Christ and His Spirit to pursue these things. that we have the power and the ability to pursue righteousness and godliness. Not that we have that in and of ourselves, but by the workings of Christ through his spirit in us, he has made us able to pursue righteousness and godliness. And just as actively we were supposed to flee the unrighteousness of the things that are passing away, we are supposed to actively pursue righteousness and godliness.

Think about the next ones that come there in the text, faith and love, that we are supposed to be like the man that says, I believe, help my unbelief, that we are supposed to come to Christ and pursue the grace of faith, that yes, this is given unto us by the Spirit, but that the saint, the child of God, is meant to pursue Faith is meant to pursue and have the desire to believe more, to know more. Not only that, but also loving. Imagine the next thing he says, not only faith, but also comes to love, that we are to pursue love. That love is not only something that is out there, that sometime it may come to us, it might dwell within us, but that we are to actively pursue faith and love, that all of these spiritual virtues are the requirement of the soul of the son of God or the child of God, that it is the duty, that it is the requirement of the Christian, not only to flee those things, but to proactively pursue these things so that we will externally have steadfastness or perseverance as other Bible, other translation will say. that we will endure, that we will continue in this path of pursuing Christlikeness, that we might endure in those things, that we might not stop.

We are to pursue steadfastness. But not only that, also he concludes saying that we are to do it meekness or gentleness. Brothers and sisters, what I want to point to you is that when this man who is in the middle of a forest, just as we were singing that glorious song of how great thou art, this person that is in the middle of a forest and just seeing these birds that are singing, and then he claims how great thou art, that that's the reality of the Christian, that he's in a forest of darkness, that he's running away from a beast that is about to destroy him or destroy her and pursue her and come and destroy him or her, but there is a And as we are pursuing that destiny, which is Christ Jesus, we are becoming more like Him. But it is the duty of the Christian not only to flee, but to run towards Him. We have the power and the ability, brothers and sisters, and these two words, as I said before, this fleeing and this pursuing, they have this sense of urgency, this sense of need, that it is something that we are supposed to strive, that we are to work, that we are to push, that we are to do, that it's not something that happens in a passive way, but it's something that happens in an active way.

And the apostle is going to give us more light of this reality when he moves to the next clause. when he says that we are to fight the good fight of the faith. Because the Christian is not only to flee these things, but it's also to pursue this. Why? Because this is the spiritual reality of the Christian that is a spiritual reality of a war.

War against the things and righteous things of this world. Fighting that fight, pursuing the things that are righteous. He calls us to fight the good fight of the faith. He calls us, this word speaks of a state of war, of this state of urgency that we are to fight. You see how this is so active, brothers and sisters?

This is not a passive state of the mind that we are supposed to fight the fight of the faith in our minds while we're laying on our beds. That we are to actively fight the good fight of the faith and this speaks of the spiritual reality of the Christian that he and she is in a war. So if we are going to fight a fight, the good fight of the faith, that means that we are in a war. That means that there's something that we need to fight. There is something out there that we need to fight.

And the reason why Paul is calling Timothy to flee from these things is not only because they are outside, but it's because they have certain power in him. It is because of the sin that abides within him. We have been redeemed by Christ and we have the certainty that we belong to him. But in us, there's a remnant of sin that is naturally attached to the sin that abides in this world and to the scheme of this world. And therefore, we are to fight the sin that is within us, the sin that is outside of us, and the powers and principalities and the spiritual powers of the kingdom of Satan.

We are to run. We are to work. We are to fight the good fight of the faith. Just as Jude called the early Christians in the book of Jude to content earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, Jude chapter one, verse three, to content earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints, that we are to fight not only for the faith of the Christian, but for the faith that it is within us, that we are to fight the good fight of the faith, which requires of us, endurance and striving. This is what Apostle Paul says to Timothy in 2nd Timothy chapter 4.

When he is speaking about the conclusion and coming to the end of his ministry, he is going to speak of himself, brothers and sisters, of Paul. He is going to speak of himself as a person who has fought the fight, as a person who has run the race. Read it with your own eyes in 2nd Timothy chapter 4 verse Verse six, the Apostle Paul is going to speak with these same terms of fighting the good fight of the faith. The good fight of the faith, verse six, chapter four, he says, for I am, let's just read it from verse five, sorry. As for you, speaking to Timothy again, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. He's about to be taken up to glory. He's about not to be there anymore. Verse seven, I have fought the good fight, similar language or exactly the same language of the instruction that he gave to Timothy in verse 12, fight the good fight of the faith. He says something that is going to give us light of that exhortation that he's given to Timothy.

He says, I have pay attention to the three things that he has when he says in the first person, I have I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Why? Because fighting the faith is a race that requires endurance.

It's a race that requires ongoingness. It's not something that is temporal, but in our lives it's something that is continual. So that which we are to flee from, and that which we are to pursue, which is fighting the good fight of the faith, it's something that is meant to be done until the end of our calling, so that we might be able, just like the Apostle Paul to say that we have run the race, that we have kept the faith, that we have fought the fight of the good faith. Now, pay attention to what he says in verse 8, in the same passage that we read in chapter 4, verse 8, 2 Timothy. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.

And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. the fighting of the good fight of the faith, the running the race, or the keeping of the faith, which are terms that explain the reality that the apostle is trying to communicate to Timothy in the first letter, the speak of an ongoing endurance, brothers and sisters, that goes until the end of the life of the person. All of those who have loved the Lord, to persevere, to be steadfastness, to continue, not to stop, not to say, I'm okay. I'm strong enough now, so I don't have to flee from the unrighteous things of the world. I'm good enough now.

I'm strong enough. I'm righteous enough. I'm godly enough. I have faith enough. I have love enough.

I have gentleness enough. I have steadfastness enough. No. to continually fight the good fight of the faith until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ either until he appears to you when you're taken up to glory or until the Lord Jesus Christ comes in the clouds to judge the living and the dead that's why he's going to take his exhortation to a higher level after he has said Fight the good fight of the faith. The next instruction is, therefore, if you are to fight the good fight of the faith and enduring until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So then, therefore, Timothy, what you need to do is to take hold of the eternal life. because you're not going to be able to endure the temporary things of this world if your eyes are not set on the eternal life that you have by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But not only to abstractly believe and acknowledge this eternal life, but rather take hold, apprehend, this eternal life, this life that is here, but it is not here, that is yet to come. Apprehend it with your arms, with your spirit, with your soul, with your heart. Apprehend this eternal life.

And that eternal life, Timothy, that you are to take hold is the eternal life that you were called to. Don't think, Timothy, that you produced this life in and of yourselves, but this eternal life you were called to. That's what you have in the text. He says, take hold of the eternal life, the eternal life that you were called. This condition of being a man of God, a child of God, has been sovereignly produced by the grace, the abundant grace of God that has called the child to be his child.

He has been called to be a son of men. So take hold of that eternal life that I have called you into, that I have given you, that I have produced in your soul and in your heart. Take hold, apprehend it with your soul. That's the life that you need to pay attention to so that you will be able to flee from unrighteousness, to pursue spiritual virtues that produce a Christ-likeness to fight the good faith with endurance until the glorious Jesus Christ arise. But now I love what the apostle is going to do mixing this last exhortation then with the final exhortation because he does not only say that Timothy has been called to this eternal life but that he's going to speak of the witnessing or or the good confession and if you pay attention to the text there it says something very interesting and i want you to pay attention to that because he's going to mix it with verse 13 and about which this eternal life take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which, of course, eternal life, you have made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

You, Timothy, you were called into this eternal life, and you, Timothy, you made the good confession that is publicly you communicate to witnesses this good confession of who you are a man of God that you have this eternal life in Christ you have made this good confession before many witnesses and people may think that this good confession was when Timothy was called to the ministry or that when Timothy was anointed or that was called and they laid hands on him just to be an evangelist or to be a teacher, to be an elder, to be a pastor and that all of that's true. The apostle is going to give us light of the witnessing or given testimony of this good confession with the example of Jesus Christ and when he comes after in verse 13 says, I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus. And see what he says of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession. Christ Jesus made the good confession before Pontius Pilate and then the apostle has called just in the previous verse to Timothy to this eternal life to which you were called and about which you Timothy made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses this is a faith This is a spiritual reality, brothers and sisters, that transforms utterly the life of the soul of the person to a point that the treasure that is holed in earthen vessels cannot be contained anymore, and the only thing that comes out of our lives and mouths it is the good confession that the one who saved me it is the king of this world that the one that saved me is God that the one who did this in me was not myself but it was Jesus Christ by what he did on the cross that there is the good confession before the world that we might be able to take the message not of our lives but what Christ did Upon the cross, apply it through this Puritina so that we may be able to make this good confession of who we are before everything, everyone. the church, those who call us, those who appoint us, those who are very close to us, those who are beyond us, we are to make the good confession, taking hold, apprehending, reaching this eternal life.

Flee from unrighteousness, Timothy. Pursue spiritual virtues. Pursue all of these things. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold, apprehend the eternal life to which you were called.

And you have made it with us before many people. But now he's going to give the commandment, or the charge better, to keep that commandment. to keep that commandment without a stain and free of reproach. These things that I have said to you, it could be the things before or the whole thing, the whole thing in the book, all of these things, all of these commandments, all of this charge that I gave you, even from chapter one, all of these things, keep this commandment, keep this commandment without a stain or unstained, as your Bible would say. And free of reproach.

obey the commandment. But I think about the nature of the commandment that is given to him in verse 13. Think about the nature. He is going to say, I charge you, Timothy, before God, who is the giver of all life, and before the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave the testimony before Pontius Pilate of his good confession. Think about the nature of that commandment.

Just in the same way that Timothy has made a good confession of his faith before many witnesses, Now the apostle is going to give an apostolic charge to Timothy before two witnesses. And these witnesses or the presence of these are no less than God himself, the giver of life. and the one who gave the example of the endurance and making the good confession. He says, I charge you before the presence of God. And this is trembling.

This should make us tremble, brothers and sisters. Paul, first of all, has the power, the authority, the clarity of mind, the clarity of heart to say, I, the apostle of God, charge you. And I'm calling the presence of God. He is my witness. This keeps the testimony.

and of Jesus Christ who was an example to you brothers and sisters. Paul has, by the power of the Spirit and his conscience being cleansed and clear, not because of his good deeds, but because the justification that he has in Christ to speak of these things and to call God as his witness. He does this so many times in First Thessalonians. Speaking of those who receive the word, you can read that chapter one, chapter two, he speaks of God being the witness of the charges that he brings before the church. Every time that he does that, my soul, my heart fills with fear.

How can a man bring a charge against another man, bringing God as his witness, and the one that is supporting and is backing up, that which he says? So this command to keep or this charge to keep the commandment is an apostolic commandment. So he says, I, Paul, charge. It is not someone or anyone that is given this charge. It is Paul, the apostle.

I charge you before the presence of God. And to add to that, he could have said, I loving God, I gracious God, I mighty God, he says, the one who gives life. Because the one who gives life is the one who can also take the life. So you see the seriousness of the commandment? Before the presence of God who gives life, I'm charging you, Timothy, to keep this commandment, and not only before Him, but also Christ Jesus, the one who made this good profession in the times when the presence of Pontius Pilate He sets Jesus Christ as an example.

He is your example, and therefore you are to keep this commandment, Timothy. You are to be like me when I reach the end of the time. Not like me, but like Paul. I have fought the good fight. I have kept the faith.

run the race, that race that is run by the Christian, that just as the author of Hebrews will say to his audience that we are to keep by faith, that in chapter 12, there in the book of Hebrews, after the apostle, or after the author of Hebrews has spoken of all of these people, Abraham and Moses, and all of these examples of faith. So he said that you, in the cloud of witnesses, or before this cloud of witnesses of the faith, that you are to endure the race, that you are to keep going, that you are to be steadfastness, that just like Jesus Christ endured the race for the joy that was set before Him, just as the Lord Jesus Christ did, that endure until the cross that He might give His life, you are also to endure this race, looking unto Jesus, the author and the perfecter of your faith. That's what the puzzle is saying. Flee from unrighteousness. Pursue Christ.

This is a spiritual warfare that you are in. So fight the good fight. Fight the good fight because you have the power to do so. Apprehend this eternal life that you were called to and that you have the ability to make a confession before many witnesses. You are being charged, Timothy, to keep this commandment.

to keep this commandment. I'm not only charging you with my apostolic authority, but I'm calling before you the giver of life, God himself, and Christ Jesus, the one that is to come. And because this endurance or because this race is eternal, you are to do it until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he says there. Unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The life of the Christian is a life of endurance and persevering in the faith. Just as Peter says in first Peter chapter one, verse five, that we are kept by God's power through our faith unto a salvation that is ready to be revealed. It is God's power, the one that preserves us by the faith that we have received by the spirit unto a salvation that is ready to be revealed, because when that salvation is fully revealed, then God will take us entirely from the forest that we are running away from, the beast that is trying to destroy us. He's going to take us like the King of Kings, like the Lord of Lords, like the blessed God, like the sovereign God, like the one who deserves all honor, the one that deserves all dominion and all power to Him. He's going to take us out of that and take us to His presence.

The one that is unapproachable, the one that no one has seen, can be seen in Jesus Christ. The one who cannot be approached, can be approached in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ has made a reconciliation by His blood with the Father. We can come and approach Him. Brothers and sisters, what a glorious What a glorious truth!

That's why the apostle, when he's writing these things, he doesn't only say, oh men of God, but he ends up this section with this glorious doxology, speaking of who God is and what he has done in his children. that we have the power to flee, the power to pursue, the ability to fight, the ability to apprehend and to take eternal life, and the obedience that is required of us is an attribute of our soul, not because we can, but because the workings of the grace of Christ Jesus have been made effective in our souls by the sovereign eternal grace of the triune God of the Bible. Amen?