God’s Word On Evangelism

Transcript

GRM 1168
09/11/2016
God's Word on Evangelism
1 Timothy 1:3
Gil Rugh

Well, it's good to be back here to preach the Word again. Appreciate the emphasis that has gone on this week in various ways of carrying the Gospel out to the people of our city. That's a privilege we have year round but in a special way we have been focusing on that. Evangelism is foundational to the ministry of the church. The church is to be a center where the truth of the Gospel is continually going forth, not only on Sundays in services like this, but then as God's people are spread out in different places through the week we have the privilege of bringing the light of the Gospel to those we have contact with.

I was in a hotel lobby while we were gone, it was interesting, the place where we were staying. And there were two old men, really old, older than I am. I always feel awkward saying they were old men and people are sitting out there saying, what does he think he is? But these were elderly men and sitting in two chairs in the lobby and one man speaking loud had a rather strong voice that carried, was talking about the Scriptures and the Gospel to this other old man. It was interesting to hear as he talked about it's not by your works, and works are not what can save you. And hearing that, and it went on for some time because as we moved on to other things, probably 45 minutes later came back and they were just wrapping up. I thought it was interesting, the man who was hearing this presentation had a cane, as he got up he said, “I want to tell you I appreciate your sharing these things with me.” I thought how great to hear one old man telling another old man about the Gospel. What more important could this old man hear from this other old man?

And isn't that true about all of us, what more important happened in our life or my life than at a point in time we sat and heard the Gospel. You stop and think, you can probably think back when and where. Some of you were raised in a Christian home and not so much a specific time you heard but over time you did hear and believe. I can remember back all the way to 1953 when I heard and believed the Gospel. Amazing! And that's the privilege we have, to carry that truth of the saving work of Jesus Christ to others.

I'm going to direct our attention to the book of 1 Timothy, just select a portion of this book to talk to you about the Gospel, the work we are called to, an evangelization. We used to talk about the 3 E's—evangelization, edification and exercise or exertion. When you are evangelized you hear the Gospel, you are edified you are built up and nourished in the Word of God and you begin to serve him as you have been transferred from the slavery of sin to the slavery of righteousness, from slavery to Satan to slavery to the living God. So we exert ourselves, we work, we serve Him. The beginning of that process was when we were evangelized, gospelized, the truth of the good news was brought to us and by God's grace we responded and believed it, recognized our sin and guilt before a holy God, recognized that Christ paid the penalty for sin. He died on the cross, He was raised the victor; through faith in Him we experience cleansing and new life so now we can live for Him.

Paul is writing to the young man Timothy when he writes this first letter to Timothy. Timothy is at the church at Ephesus. We know that because in 1 Timothy 1:3 Paul says, “As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus.” So Paul had been in Ephesus with Timothy but he was compelled by the Lord to move on over to Greece, the northern part of Greece, Macedonia, where cities like Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea were located and Paul would carry the Gospel there. But there were things to be settled and dealt with in the church at Ephesus. Work is never done and Paul had brought the Gospel here, Paul and Timothy had worked in sharing the Gospel but already false teachers had risen up within that church and were teaching contrary things. And Timothy was left there to complete a work that Paul did not have time to finish. The last part of verse 3 says, “So that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” And he goes on, some of these things involved “myths, endless genealogies,” the things that don't enable people to grow by faith, that don't make the Gospel clear to people, don't give them appreciation of how they now walk by faith and in accord with the truth of God's Word. So you can't allow the teaching that is contrary to the truth that God has made known.

Verse 5, “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.” And the truth of the Gospel transforms a life from the inside out. “But some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussions.” What happened, some of the Jews who had professed faith in Christ had impacted Gentiles as well, they are teaching that you have to not only believe in Christ, and this is where it gets confusing and I want you to pay attention because the confusion has continued down to today. What confuses a church like Ephesus that had heard and believed the Gospel was how the truth of the Gospel and the responsibility to obey and serve God fit together. So often these Jewish teachers would come in and they were experts in the Old Testament Mosaic Law, but they had also professed faith in Christ. We had Jews who say we believe that Christ is the Messiah, that He died on the cross, that He was raised from the dead. You must believe in Him but . . . And that's where the danger is—but you must also keep the Mosaic Law. And that confusion comes down to today. There are people who say you must have faith in Christ plus good works, whatever they may be—baptism, partake of the sacraments, communion and so on, obey the Ten Commandments. That results in salvation. That is heresy. That is a corruption of the truth. It has the pieces but they are put in the wrong order.

The Bible teaches faith in Christ alone results in salvation and salvation always results in a changed life, being made new in Christ. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things pass away, new things have come. We have died with Christ, been buried with Christ, been raised with Christ to new life. Now we live as slaves of righteousness, not as slave of sin,” as Paul wrote in Romans 6. But you see you have three pieces—you have faith, you have works, you have salvation. But if you put those in the wrong order, you have corruption. Faith in Christ and Him alone results in salvation, that salvation includes your being made new, new within. So now you live, serving and pleasing God. Those who would say it's faith plus your works that results in salvation have corrupted the Gospel and are not saved.

Now that's the issue that Paul is dealing with here in the church at Ephesus, that's what Timothy has to correct. It was the same problem that infiltrated and infected the churches of Galatia, another region that Paul had evangelized. It's the same thing that confuses people today. Talk to the average Protestant, the average Roman Catholic about faith in Christ—yes, I believe in Christ. Might even say I believe He died and rose again. Are you sure you are going to heaven? Yes, I try to keep the Ten Commandments, I've been baptized, I partake of the communion, I do my best to be a good father, a good husband, a good …. fill in the blank. That's not the Gospel that saves a person. They have committed the same error.

Now we get confused. I often wonder, how does the church get so confused? I mean, why would the church at Ephesus already by confused? It was at such a level that Paul had to leave Timothy there so he would instruct certain men, command them not to teach strange doctrines. He says these men, verse 6, “have turned,” straying from the things he talked about in verse 5, “have turned aside to empty discussion,” fruitless discussion. They want to teach the Law, they don't understand what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. This is a serious matter. Do you know why? Well, we agree on a lot of things, can't we emphasize what we agree on? If we agree that Christ was born of a virgin, He lived a sinless life, He died on the cross, He was raised from the dead—that's what is important. That is of foundational importance, but that is not all that is important. If you add anything to that, you are lost. And we get confused and say, I think Catholics are saved. You know Roman Catholic official doctrine stated in their catechism, stated in their councils, anyone who says you are saved by faith in Christ alone is cursed to hell. Now we have a strong disagreement here. If Roman Catholic doctrine is right, you are going to hell because you believe you are saved by faith alone. I'm assuming that. I believe that you are saved by faith in Christ alone. They say if that is what you teach and believe, you are going to hell. But don't they believe . . . ? Yes, but they also say you must have faith in Christ plus do these things, that's where the sacraments for their church come in and works and so on. That is what results in salvation. In fact if certain works don't continue, then you have lost your salvation.

So the issue that Paul is dealing with is of foundational, eternal significance. That's why Jesus could say in the Sermon on the Mount, “in the day of judgment many will say to Me, Lord, Lord, we did all these wonderful things in your name. And He'll say depart from Me cursed ones, I never knew you.” We have to be sure that we have things in proper order and perspective.

So that is what Paul is concerned for in the church at Ephesus. The church, come back to 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul is writing this thing not just for Timothy, but for the church that Timothy is going to be directing. “I am writing these things, hoping to come to you before long. In case I am delayed I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” And once the truth gets corrupted the church is no longer the pillar and support of the truth, where are people going to hear the truth? Where are they going to learn the truth? Where are they going to hear that which will bring them salvation? They can't be saved by a corrupted message. The church begins to get lax in these things and then the corruption spreads. This is Paul's concern.

He uses himself as an example of a man who thought he could be saved by his works. He says I was really just the chief of sinners in his own self-righteousness, in his persecution of believers. You come down, he talks about the grace that he experienced in Christ. Then he says in verse 15, back in 1 Timothy 1, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That's a good place to start if you are talking to a Protestant or a Catholic. Talk about Christ. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes. Every Protestant or even not a Protestant believes in Christ, so also Roman Catholic. Do you know why He came into the world? Sure, He did good works, gave us an example of how we should live and serve other people. Well, there is truth in that, but that's not the real foundational reason He came into the world. The Bible says Christ Jesus “came into the world to save sinners.” Did you know you were a sinner that Christ came into the world to save? I think I'm a pretty good person, I go to church, I've been baptized. You know what Jesus said, I didn't come to save the righteous, I can't help them; I came to call sinners to repentance. You are saying you don't need Him. Oh no, I need Him but I need to do my good works, too. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. You see how Paul's attitude of himself and perspective on himself is shaped, and “I am the foremost.” I was so convicted of how sinful and wretched I really was, and yet God saved me. Not by my attempts to keep the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law, “I found mercy,” verse 16, so that other people could have hope. The end of verse 16, “who would believe in Him for eternal life.” Paul saw the Gospel at stake here, the purity of the Gospel.

The church's testimony at Ephesus is as a pillar and support of the truth, and it's going to be a fight, Timothy. Paul didn't just leave Timothy there to wrap things up, he left Timothy there to do battle. But he said, I left you there that you may command, verse 3, “certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” Then you come down to verse 18, “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, fight the good fight.” This is going to be a battle, a conflict, there is going to be opposition. These false teachers won't go away easily. This is a concern, we bring the Gospel of salvation.

A number of years ago now we had a movement, “Together for the Gospel.” Some of these things get confusing. You can have people who assent to certain facts but were not together on the Gospel.

We're coming at the end of 1 Timothy1 he even names some men. He probably would have gotten sued for that today, but he says some have made a shipwreck of the faith. Now here are men who have professed the faith, but somehow they have been infected with the false teachers and then made a shipwreck of the faith. That's a pretty descriptive picture from that day of sailing ships and a man like Paul who experienced several shipwrecks, and left floating on a piece of board. You realize what a shipwreck does. They made a shipwreck of the faith. And that includes Hymenaeus and Alexander. I take it they would have been men well known in the church at Ephesus, there would have been no other reason to mention their name. And I've had to hand them over to Satan because they wouldn't stop their blasphemy, they wouldn't stop their false teaching.

1 Timothy 2 opens us, “First of all then.” We say, what do you mean first of all then? In light of what I've said and the importance of the truth, here is what I want you to do. I want you to pray. And this would be instruction not only to Timothy, but for the church that Timothy is leading. And this section is bracketed by prayer because he'll say, “First of all then I urge that entreaties, prayers, petitions, thanksgiving be made on behalf of all men,” that you'll be praying for everyone. And then verse 8, “Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath and dissension.” So what he is going to say here brackets it, what he has instructed Timothy to do, what the church has to do because Timothy won't be able to do this alone. They are going to have to stand against that which is against the truth and thus corrupts the Gospel. I want then first of all, and if you look for the second and third, this is not the beginning of a list—first, second, third. First of all he means of greatest importance. Foundational to what you are going to do, I want you to saturate it with prayer. You recognize that only God can do a work in a heart and life. And so to acknowledge that, and you come before Him, Timothy is going to serve Him with all his energy, all his strength. He already told him, fight the good fight. You didn't just say God, I'll fight the fight for you, so just sit back and relax. You have to fight the fight.

He uses various words that are part of all of our prayers. This is not that sometimes you pray as an entreaty, sometimes you pray specifically giving honor to God, another time you have a specific request. This is really part of our prayer. When you come to God, you often start out by acknowledging His greatness and the privilege of coming before Him. You give Him thanks for what He has done and the work He has done in your life and the prayers you have seen answered, and so on. You bring specific requests before Him. These kinds of things we do for all men. We ought to be in prayer for them. He doesn't just say pray for others in the church. Because the impact is felt broadly. And naturally much of our prayer time is going to focus on those we are closest to, have most contact with and so on. But we ought not to limit our prayer to that. As Paul said, we should pray for all men.

Then examples—“for kings, for all who are in authority.” So the all men, you see he is going all. This letter would have been written around 65 A.D., 63-66 A.D., somewhere in the middle there, 1 Timothy. Do you know who is ruling the Roman Empire from 54 A.D. to 68 A.D., so it includes this time? A man named Nero. We think we have problems with our Presidents and rulers. We haven't seen anything. And we think of Nero as the epitome of evil, his name has become synonymous with that. But you understand he is in the line of like rulers. You read about the rulers of New Testament times that ruled the Empire, they are not nice men. Their corruptions were so open and vile, you sometimes don't like to read about these men because their life is so intertwined with their violence. Yet Paul says you pray for kings and for all who are in authority. So naturally we are praying for our President, members of Congress and so on. The leaders in various ways. Doesn't mean we can pray for every single one all the time, but our prayers ought to include all. Why? “So that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”

Some of you may have your Bible marked, the word all is key in this section. It appears twice in verse 1, twice in verse 2, once in verse 4, once in verse 6—all, all, all, all, all. He's talking about praying for all men because he is moving us to the point, God's provision of salvation is for all men. And here he picks up, “We pray for all in authority that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.” His concern is we conduct ourselves biblically. I don't think he meant here that there is some particular, not pray that we get a good emperor because Paul didn't intertwine biblical Christianity with the political situations of the day. That didn't mean he didn't witness to the rulers that he stood before, he did. And he was even happy in h is imprisonment in Philippians 1 because he says some from Caesar's household have even had opportunity to hear the Gospel. But his prayers are not Lord, give us a Christian king. Disaster would come and centuries later Constantine the Roman Emperor professed Christianity and wed it to the political situation. And the church has never recovered from that corruption of now we have a Christian king, now the government ought to support Christianity and all the mess that came out of that.

No, but we do pray for them. We want to lead a tranquil and quiet life. He is not saying by this, just leave us alone in our holy huddle, don't bother us and that's all we want. No, he wants to lead a godly life with dignity honoring God, conducting himself us as a godly man should. And rulers do that. Look at them. We gather here in a city where we have emphasized sharing the Gospel. I'm glad we have rulers that have provided a relatively secure environment for us. And we could go out on the street and talk to people about Christ. Would you rather live in Syria or other parts of the world where governmental rule is broken down and it's so difficult? Think of being a believer in that kind in that situation. The Romans, I mentioned how corrupt the emperors were, the things they did could hardly be talked about. But do you know what? Rome by the power and their authority brought a certain peace to the world they ruled, and Paul could travel from Asia Minor over to Greece. It was all under Roman rule, and he could share the Gospel. Paul could appreciate the benefits that came from that. We have benefits. We wring our hands, and what is the world going to come to with the decisions of our leaders, and some day they will be closing the door on preaching and our churches. Maybe, but what are we doing with our freedom, if we're not telling anybody about Christ. Why are we worrying in ten years you may not be free to share Christ, if we don't share Him anyway? If we don't proclaim the truth, are we really being anything but disingenuous when we say ten years, we may not have the freedom to preach and proclaim and stand for the truth. We're not doing it today while we have the freedom, but I am worried about ten years from now. Stop and think, how many people have we shared the Gospel with in the last month. Well, we haven't shared it with anybody, the day comes when they don't allow us to share won't change much for our life, will it.

Paul's concern for what should concern a believer. He wants to be able to conduct his life, and when he stands falsely accused he testifies, I haven't done anything wrong, I haven't violated any Roman laws. The opposition to me comes just because of one thing—I preach Jesus Christ, crucified and raised from the dead. That's why these false teachers had infiltrated the church at Ephesus, they want to undo that.

You understand the devil is a very religious being. We think atheism, that's a great threat to Christianity. The devil is not looking for people not to be religious. What did he offer Christ in the temptation in the Gospel of Matthew when Christ was here on earth? I will give you all the kingdoms of the world if you will fall down and worship me. That's what he wants, worship. Where are we going in the coming tribulation when the devil sets up the Antichrist? He is setting up the man who will be worshiped because behind him is the god of this world, small “g”, who is being worshipped through his man, just as God the Father is worshipped through God the Son. The devil is a very religious being, he just doesn't accept the truth, and that's what must be corrupted. That's why Paul will warn the Corinthians, false worship is the worship of demons and I don't want you to join in fellowship with demons. I mean, you have to tell the church at Corinth that? You have to write to the church at Ephesus and warn them about false teachers?

Pray, and pray for all men, and pray for the kind of situation that will be conducive to sharing the Gospel, the tranquility that they can bring. “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.” I believe in the sovereignty of God, I believe in the responsibility of man, I believe in the complete sovereignty of God, I believe in the power of prayer. How do you put those two together? I don't have to, God does. Well, why pray? God is sovereign, isn't He? He'll do what He wants to do. There's an element of truth in that. Then it doesn't matter what I do, my prayers won't make a difference and those who are going to get saved will get saved. That's not true. Then tell me how it comes together. I don't have to tell you how it comes together, I am not God. I don't have to solve God's problems, I can say that with respect. We are finite created beings, we are going to live forever, but you know you will never get bored in eternity. Now be honest, sometimes don't you think that living forever and ever, getting up every day. I won't have to get up, there is no night. Singing 24 hours a day, even if you like to sing and can sing, and I trust I will be able to then. That's all we're going to do every day? I'll never get bored, I'll never know there is everything to know about the infinite God because I will never be God. I will always be finite. In a hundred trillion years I will not have exhausted the knowledge of God. Now my finite mind can't grasp that. Doesn't have to, I'll just live it out in eternity.

So that's where I am. He says to pray, I'm going to pray. What am I going to do? Stand before the Lord and say I didn't pray for the rulers and those in authority, I didn't think it made any difference. I believe in your sovereignty. If you believe in My sovereignty, why didn't you submit to Me and do what I told you? Well, I thought….. Well, don't think. Some things I don't have to think about, I just have to do what I'm told, right? You tell your kids to do something, they don't have to think about it, just do it. I realize we don't live in that kind of environment today. But basically God says pray. All kinds of prayer, come before Me, beseech Me. See, believe. Isn't it amazing? God is going to answer my prayer.

“This is good and acceptable in the sight of our God,” now we come to the sovereignty again, “who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” He desires all men to be saved. Well, all men won't be saved, so all that God desires will not happen. We're not going on a sidetrack, but we talk about the “decree-tive will of God” and the “permissive will of God”—certain things God decrees and they will happen, certain things He desires but they won't happen. He doesn't desire men to sin, but they sin; He doesn't cause them to sin, but they sin. “He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” But they are not all saved. Jesus put it simply when He was on earth—you will not come to Me that you may have life. You are fully responsible. Why aren't you saved? You won't come to God through Christ, you won't come to Christ who is the only Savior so you can't be saved. God desires you to be saved. Isn't it wonderful to know there is an eternal all-sovereign God who created all things and He desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth? That's why we tell people the truth of the Gospel, because they can't be saved without hearing. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ,” Romans 10 says. God desires for you to be saved, evangelized. I want to tell you something God Himself says He wants for you, He wants you to be saved, He wants you to come to truly know the truth and enter into the knowledge of the truth that Christ Jesus, come back to verse 15, “came into the world to save sinners.” And God desires to save you, that's why He had His Son come to earth. I am trying to do my best, I go to church, I've been baptized, I try my best. No, no, no, no, stop, quit. God is trying to tell you, “I did it for you, the work has been done, Christ Jesus My Son came to this earth so that it would be possible for Me to save you on the basis of what He has done. I can't save you on the basis of what you do because all your works are like filthy, polluted rags. I save you on the basis of what He has done, He did it. Remember when He died on the cross He said, it is finished. And Satan keeps infiltrating—no it is not, no it is not. It's good to believe in Him but it is not enough.”

“God desires all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” This is the truth. Jesus prayed in John 17 to His Father, “sanctify them into truth, Your Word is truth.” Well, truth is wherever you find it. There is only one saving truth, there is only one sanctifying truth; that is the truth of the Word of God. The truth of what Christ accomplished in His death and resurrection on the cross. He wants us to come to the knowledge of that truth. When we come over to 1 Timothy 3:15 again, the church is the pillar and support of the truth, we must come to the knowledge of the truth. They can't believe what they haven't heard, so faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ. That's why we are so deceived. We give out the Gospel, we give them a piece of literature that will go through what we just shared with them and we pray for them. And we trust and believe. We read what those who go out door to door share, names of people and who they have shared with. These are people who have heard, who have received literature. We can pray for them even if we weren't there. Lord, take that truth that they heard, bring it back to their mind, convict them of their sin, cause them to lay awake at night and pick up that piece of literature that they were given and read it. We are praying. God desires all men to be saved. We want the kind of situation where we will have opportunities to share the Gospel.

1 Timothy 2:5, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” Get the last of those “alls” in this section. And you get the same idea down in verse 8 when he says, “I want the men to pray in every place.” That's the point. There is one God. We don't have the time to go back and go through the Old Testament and all the passages. Let me read you a couple passages from Ezekiel. First will be from Ezekiel 18:23, “Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord God, rather then that he should turn from his ways and live.” God desires the salvation of men, not their destruction. “Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the Lord, rather that he should turn from his ways and live.” Ezekiel 18:32, “For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies, declares the Lord; therefore repent and live.” Ezekiel 33:11, “Say to them, as I live declares the Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked should turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways. Why will you die O house of Israel?” They are the nation that was to belong to Him, that had turned away from Him.

Why has God not come? We sometimes say, “Lord, look what is happening, where are You? When are You coming?” We are going to get to it in 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slow about fulfilling His promises as some men count slowness. But He is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” How gracious God is. He is not a mean God. I don't think God would send people to hell. He doesn't desire to send people to hell, that's not what gives Him pleasure. His pleasure is the salvation of the wicked, but there will be pleasure for the living God in the destruction of the wicked. He must function consistent with His character.

There is one God, He is the God who does not desire the death of the wicked, but the salvation. So He has provided the one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus. Job said he wished, in Job 9, “there were an empire who could stand between God and him, the God who is so sovereign and awesome in me such a weak, frail human being.” God has provided that mediator, that same basic idea we mean in a mediator. It's a go-between. The purpose of that mediator is often to establish a relationship between parties. Christ the Man, someone who could be identified with me. And He was, because when He died on the cross in His body on that cross He bore the penalty for my sins, to make it possible for me through faith in Him to die to sin and live to righteousness, to be brought into a relationship with a holy, righteous God. Amazing! There is one God, one mediator. One person noted. Some people take this as one mediator among many, and they add the virgin Mary and other saints. We just had someone declared a saint in the Roman Catholic Church as though God in heaven were waiting for . . . Now you can pray to certain people and they will intercede. They say He is one mediator but he's not the only mediator. But if you are going to be grammatically consistent, there is one God and one mediator. If He is just one mediator among many, is God just one god among many? Of course not. There is only one God, there is only one mediator.

We don't have time to go through a list of verses I have, beginning in Deuteronomy 4:35 where God emphasizes He “is the only God, there is no one besides Him.” And that follows through, He is the only Savior, He is the one God who has provided the one mediator. And what a relief. He desires all men to be saved. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” The Son of God, God Himself, became a man so He is the God/Man. There is something else I can't fully explain. But that One born in Bethlehem was the creator and sustainer, the One who holds it all together. And yet He was fully Man and He grew in knowledge and learning. I believe it and it is true, He is the God/Man. No wonder I don't understand it, there was nothing like it to compare it to—fully God, fully man so He could be the mediator. He came into the world to save sinners. That's why it is such a lie to think that our works could contribute something. Our situation is so dire, so hopeless that there is nothing could be done on our side. God Himself became a Man. “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God,” John 1:1. And down in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” God became a Man.

We have people say, “yes, I agree with that.” Do you know why Christ Jesus came into the world? Your situation, my situation is so absolutely hopeless God had to come into the human race so there could be hope for the human race. That's the point. “There is one God, one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.” That's why Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Me.” He is not one of many ways, He is the only way. That's pretty narrow. It's very narrow but it's broad enough to include you, broad enough to include me. Because 1 Timothy 2:6 says Christ gave “Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony borne at the proper time,” meaning that which had been prophesied in the Old Testament was testified to with the coming of Christ. “In the fullness of time God sent for His son, born of a woman, born under the Law that He might redeem them who are condemned under the Law,” Galatians tells us.

He is a ransom. You know what a ransom is, that's what the basic Greek word here is. It's an intensified form. Some of you have been taking some Greek classes, has the preposition anti on the front. Then he has another preposition, hupar translated for. Emphasizing this is done instead of, for, on behalf of others. The word ransom, He paid. “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is life in Christ.” He gave Himself as a ransom for all. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 Timothy 2:4, “God desires all to be saved” so He had His Son come to the earth to pay the price necessary to set us free, satisfy the requirements of a holy and just God. “The wages of sin is death.” Who can pay that? Christ came and paid it.

He gave Himself as a ransom for all, but all are not saved. What a tragedy. What a tragedy. Why not? Well, they have to hear and believe the Gospel. Well, that's the only way? What about those who don't hear? They are lost for eternity. That doesn't seem fair to me. Well, you are not God. You understand it is fair if He sends everyone to hell, He is not obligated to save anyone. If you don't believe that, you don't believe in salvation by grace, you don't believe salvation is on the basis of God's mercy. You believe that we deserve to be saved. We deserve to be punished for eternity in hell for our wretched, sinful condition. We deserve nothing better, nothing else. It's God's grace, He has provided salvation for all and then He brought salvation to us. And now what are we to do?

Well, Paul told the Philippians, “you are lights in the darkness.” So here we are, numbers of people sitting here and we will go out and we will be in different places through the days of the week and the month, in contact with different people and are to be lights wherever we are. What does that mean? I'm glowing, I am to be living my life as he said as a godly person with all dignity and the end of 1 Timothy 2:2, and I know “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the message of Christ.” So then we must be telling people about the most glorious truth. Isn't it amazing, we can talk about yesterday's football game and go on and on and on. Somehow when it comes to talking about Christ it's like you have a mouth full of cotton. It just won't come out, I'm tongue tied. Why? Well, the devil wants to grab onto that tongue and hold it down, but we have a message of salvation.

So Paul says, verse 7, “I was appointed a preacher and apostle, a teacher of the Gentiles and faith and truth. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath . . .” We are back, prayer is the foundation and the atmosphere because we acknowledge this can only be a work of the sovereign God. He has chosen to involve me. And I come before Him desiring that He use me, desiring that He provides the kind of atmosphere and situation where I can present the Gospel. Paul later asks for prayer that I might have boldness with the Gospel. We would be praying for Paul if he were coming to Lincoln to don't overdo it. He could create a lot of trouble in this city for us when he is gone. But he's praying, pray that I will be bold with the Gospel. Do you pray for others in the congregation that way? I pray for members of our church family wherever they are, wherever you put them that they are bold. Make me bold. How long would it take a thousand of us telling a new person every day about the Gospel to saturate the city with the Gospel? That's what Paul says it is about. But as the church loses its hold on the truth, where will it drift to? Look around, you know the history of churches and denominations. We had a speaker here many years ago who is now with the Lord who said every church, every Christian school goes liberal. It's just the relentless tide. As soon as you stop fighting the fight you begin to get carried along the stream and you can't determine where that takes you.

So we hold on. Doesn't mean we agree on every interpretation of every passage, we are all growing, never done. But there is truth and that truth was intended to be understood, not to confuse the believer. The unbeliever can only be confused. We want to grow in that truth, it is worth standing for. It is worth dying for. No one ever said the ministry of the church as the foundation of the truth would be comfortable and easy. The conflicts will be relentless.

I've shared with you, we had a dear family that left many years ago and they came and told me, “we just don't want any more conflict. I want to go someplace without conflict.” The sad thing is you have to go someplace without the truth because the devil won't quit fighting. Don't let him wear you down, don't let him wear us down. Be faithful with the truth. We look forward to the opportunities of this day to share the Gospel, to bring it to those who may not have yet believed.

Let's pray together. Lord, how gracious You have been. We are here as testimonies of Your grace, trophies of Your grace, testimonies by the lives that have been transformed within. You have given us a new heart, a new mind. You have made us new so that we can now live for You. We testify that You are a God of salvation, You a God of mercy, grace. The salvation that You have provided in Christ is powerful, it saved us. We can share that with others as Paul did. This Gospel saved me, it will save you if you will believe Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He paid the price, He is the ransom, He paid what you cannot pay, what I cannot pay. Lord, in Your grace Your Son paid it. May we bold with this, may we count the truths precious, may we hold it tight, may we be faithful as we look forward to the coming of Christ. We pray in His name, amen.