First Timothy lesson 5 end 6 begin

All right, we are going to finish up. We're on the last question of Lesson 5. Well, let me just go through the verses again. It's just kind of an interesting section that we've been through. This is Lesson 5, 1 Timothy, Chapter 1, verses 8 through 11.

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, and for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers and immoral men, and homosexuals, and kidnappers, and liars, and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. So that's a laundry list of who the law was for.

And then we get to, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which I have been entrusted. So the question seven, question seven is, let me get to it here again. How would you describe according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God? So I want to hear what you think is the glorious gospel of the blessed God. Who has a definition or what that means? Nobody knows what it means.

It's the all-encompassing work of the Father. Okay, the all-encompassing work, okay. Well, from 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4, it's Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Okay. The good news. Sure. Sure, whatever. Any others? Well, I think it's kind of interesting because when I pick up this next Lesson 6, there's a lot of Thanksgiving, but the reason Paul went from a Pharisee who was zealous For persecuting those who believe the gospel you have a complete shift here That's radical this is a this is radical to Paul in the sense that he's entrusting Timothy with these things but here he is he is grounding him in the glorious gospel, and I think that's really pretty key.

What happened? How did that go about for him to be so focused on sound doctrine when just the other day, so to speak, he was not on that boat at all? Yeah, I mean, obviously a huge switch, which really didn't touch on this one, which I've been entrusted, you know, he was entrusted with this. So he holds this in great esteem that he has been entrusted with this gospel.

And I think the radical transition, one, I think if you're met on the road and blinded and you hear the voice of the Lord, that might be a radical transition that I might get into. He basically had a radical transition, but then he also had three years with the Lord in the desert, personal. So, quite a story for Paul, and I think God uses Paul because of such a transition. Remember, when he first went out after he'd had the conversion, nobody trusted him because he'd been throwing people in jail, having them killed, everything, and now suddenly he had a radical transition.

Do you really believe that or not? So, I think he's really the glorious gospel. So I think he really realizes what that is now, number one. But any other thoughts? One is verse 10, and before that lists the things that are contrary to Psalm teaching. So I bet we've been taken from that. to verse 11, which is according to the glorious gospel of the blessed Lord, which I have been entrusted. I think it would be good if somebody defined glory. Yeah, and that's the second thing I was going to talk about. Here's Paul the apostle. Was he guilty of murder? I think he probably was. I think he was. Yeah. Not in the church's eyes. Yeah. And so, you know, when he starts listing these sins, you know, some of them attach to him. And then he goes from there.

Now he starts his ministry with the Father, with the Lord Jesus, by beholding the glory of Christ. So he recognizes that One, that God does everything he does to glorify himself. And so, the fullness of the glory of a human being is in the person of Christ. And so, the gospel or the good news about the Lord Jesus Christ is that man, as such, There's been a change in men from Adam to the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus himself is a glorious man in whom God finds all of his pleasure. And there are principles that align themselves with what it is to be according to the glorious gospel of the blessed Lord. It isn't do good and avoid evil. It has to do with the glory of God himself. And then he says, I've been entrusted to it. This is what I've been given to do. Yeah, I think, well, getting, maybe, Mike Polos, what does this mean?

You know, the glorious gospel, the Greek words for glorious and gospel are doxa, which is God's glory. So this is God's glory. And then the other word for gospel is euangelion, gospel, or good news. So it really is. God's glorious good news. It's about His glory.

I look at this as the contrary. That's why I wanted to go back and read the verses 8 through 9. 10, I think, whatever, verses through 9 is all the list of everything, all those nasty, horrible things, and then you get to God's glory and good news. Talk about a polar opposites is all of this. stacked up against God's glorious good news, the good news of God's glory.

There's a transition there. Like Stoney says, it's not what we're saying from, but what we're saying to. Condition is prepared compared to position. I think the transition is also what Mike brought up, too. It's by sound doctrine. You have all this list according to sound doctrine, and then if you have that, what do you get? You get God's glorious news, the glory of God, His good news. So the transition part is the sound doctrine. And that's where, through sound doctrine, you have or experience or know that God's glory and the good news of salvation.

There's discipline there. The other thing that's there that I think is really important is to understand that the gospel of the glory of Christ is not just to eliminate the bad stuff in your life and create a righteous walking man. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the full-on glory of God manifested through those who believe Him. Yeah, we can get to, you know, what expresses that is in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 through 5. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they may not see, what, the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. So that's basically the importance of teaching the glorious gospel, or lack thereof.

So that's the positive side. On the negative side is Galatians 1, 6 through 9. I'm amazed that you're so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of God for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel of heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you." Again, remember he was entrusted with this, so the gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed. As we have said before, so I say again, if any man is preaching you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed.

So again, he was entrusted with the sound gospel, the glory of Christ, the image of God. That's the glorious gospel. And he was entrusted to it. And he said, anybody who teaches anything different from this is to be accursed. And so he's been entrusted with this, and he's telling Timothy again that with sound doctrine, you will see or know the glory of God. through the glory of God, which is the good news. So again, it's kind of, I think the entrusted part is kind of how precious it is to Paul, and he's been entrusted with this, and he wants Timothy to only give out sound doctrine, which will lead to the glory of God.

Yeah, his measuring stick changed all of a sudden, right? He encountered God's glory. He uses that word and we we defined glory last week, right? So we know that that's all of god's attributes Present in one instant, right? So we don't We don't have the the benefit of seeing that fully yet Um, we will but paul did and it became a new measuring stick.

He he had the law before That was how he measured everything and now he's measuring it by the glory of God, and like Romans 3.23, one of our go-to verses for sharing the gospel, all have sinned and fall short of what? The measuring stick of God's glory.

Why? That was a huge change for him to go from law to sound doctrine, and those were very different. I just can't imagine how he had to process that. You know, only God can work in a man's heart in that way, but here he went from measuring men, according to the law, to all of a sudden now he understands after, as you mentioned, the time that he spent with the Lord, now the measuring stick is God's glory itself. And that was a huge shift. for him, and for the church, for us as well. I mean, you think about trying to talk to someone who doesn't know the Lord, and you introduce them to his attributes. He's sovereign, he's righteous, he's just, he's holy, he's loving, he's omnipotent. Wow, okay, that's a totally different measuring stick. How am I ever going to do that? Because I can do some of the law, but to be glorious as God is glorious, how am I supposed to do that? He was entrusted with that.

That's the problem, thinking you can do it. That is the problem, Mike, you're right. And the flesh thrives in wanting you to do something. So you're fighting internally with the flesh, wanting you to do something, and how can it be so free? How can it be so gracious? And you struggle with that. Our only option is to behold. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's by faith. You have to believe what the scripture says.

And the others, which I think you hit on in Romans 3.23, there's others that talk about the glory of God.

In Romans 5.2, we've obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exalt in hope of the glory of God." Again, in Romans 15, 17, "...therefore accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God." Again, when you think about that, we've been accepted to the glory of God. Try and swallow that one, too. how we fall short of the glory of God. Then I've been reading through in John, and going through 17, the intimacy and the union that we have with the Lord and the Father now.

It's almost hard to comprehend that. But we have that, and it's just, you said, we have to behold, we have to believe, we have to understand that. That's the position we're in right now. And I think that's what Paul is telling Timothy here, is the glory of God, and he's been entrusted, and now he's basically telling Timothy to be entrusted with the same. Any other thoughts before we go on to you, JD? I think this whole thing about sound doctrine and God's glory causes something in Paul.

He has a reaction to this. So I can pick up if you're ready. I'll just go into Lesson 6. Go for 6. Yeah, everything with regards to sound doctrine is wrapped up in the glorious Lord as well as the gospel. So we've got some really significant themes that Paul is laying down for Timothy, and I think they're appropriate for us as well.

So we'll roll into 1 Timothy 1.12. Can someone read that for me? 1.12. I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Well, thank you. Wow. Can you say that? That's kind of an interesting thought, right?

So, here he stops. He kind of like takes a pause. working through what is not sound doctrine, what is sound doctrine, what is sinful, what is glorious. There's a lot of contrast in these first 11 verses. So the first question we have for this lesson is, what is the first thing Paul is thanking God for? What's the first thing? For that glorious gospel. Look closely. Verse 12, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who, what?

What did he do? Enabled him. He enabled him. He strengthened him. So there's a bit of a parenthetical Thanksgiving. Paul is, he's using words like, which was committed to my trust. He considered me. He looked at me. You know, a lot of times we don't think about being considered or being looked at or being entrusted, but why? Always. Is that different for you? What do you think?

That takes me to Colossians 1.11. strengthened with all power according to his glorious mind, for the attaining of all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in line. That's a perfect reference. And why? Because he does the strengthening one thing. And what's your response to that? Are you strength and might? Brian? Courtney?

Only according to his glory. Anything else is a waste. Why is it a waste? Because it's in your power. Here you see Paul having literally switched gears a hundred percent Because he encountered grace he encountered The Lord Jesus in his glory and all of a sudden in his life he went from I'm Strong because I do the thing. I'm the guy and I have the power, so to speak. And then all of a sudden, he's stripped of that, and he has to rely and depend. And you see, even in verse 11, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted, I've been given something.

And what is my response? His response is 100% thankfulness. The words, I thank Christ, Jesus our Lord, that's a constant, continual gratitude. I talk to my kids a lot about this, and I talk to myself a lot about this, is that what does gratitude bring? Why is gratitude towards the Lord important for us as believers? Why is thankfulness so important for us? Well, it's a command. I think it's the response to grace. Okay. You're thankful.

It's interesting, this word, I think, Christ Jesus, our Lord, in verse 12, that word is charis. That's the word for grace. And it's grace which particularly causes true joy for the believer. I have to be reminded of this constantly, and I think Paul did too. Having an attitude of gratefulness because of the gospel, those are identification truths for us in this class.

I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. What is that cause? Instant gratitude. And it's bound in what Mike and we've been talking about for years now is this reality of grace. You exist in a reality of grace. And Paul kind of, I almost feel like in this verse, he, he rec recognized the fact that he was in the reality of grace and it struck him, right? It just overwhelmed him to the point where, which he was, all he could do was be grateful.

Yeah. My, Do you think this applies to a believer's life just in general? I do. In other words, if God works all things together for good, then whatever's going on in your life is one of the all things. And so he's called each one of us to be in whatever, you know, bring up your own list. Yeah.

Your role as a husband, a father, a wife, a mom, wherever you are in business, that the primary calling or entrustment of God is the things of God. They supersede everything else and filter down into how you live your life. And what I see here is that in all walks, There is this sense of thanksgiving because God strengthens you to live moment by moment as he has called you to live. And whatever environment you're in, whatever responsibilities you have, whatever relationships you have, they're all part of that. And so it makes a difference. I imagine Paul understanding greater than any other man on the earth what the glory of the gospel of Christ is, and then he's entrusted to carry that out. I mean, if I had that in my mind, I'd think, well, there's no way that I'm going to be able to do that. And I think Paul felt the same way. Me too. I can't do this. Are you kidding?

And yet, he thanks God because God has strengthened him to carry out what God had called him to do. And I think that's true of every Christian in their life and whatever they're doing. I think so, too. I think, actually, going back to what Mike had shared in Colossians, there are a couple, when he said that, I read those verses that strike me now with what Mike's saying. knowledge in verse 10, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of God to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God. Then there's verse 11, strengthened with all power according to His glorious might. It's again, it's His. After all of this, it's His glorious might. For the attaining of all steadfastness, patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father.

What? Who? Who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in life? Again, it's God doing it. Giving thanks to God. Who has qualified us? We didn't qualify. He qualified us. And it comes from a position of rest. Yeah, the world doesn't give us peace. The rest of the peace is through Christ and God's glorious news that he has given to us, or what we've seen in verse 11. and Timothy, but it's the realization that it's him, and he's the one who's doing this.

And that's such a hard thing to do. And I kind of sit back and wonder, how do I do that? Do I sit back in a room and just, okay, you do it. Well, first, you've got to understand Romans 5. It's the glorious results. I know. How do you let him do it sometimes? Sometimes I think about that. Am I letting him do it or am I doing it myself? And I wonder about that sometimes. Yeah, I do too. Well, I'll share my personal perspective, and I think it relates to verse 12 here. When I get all bound up in the things, whatever the things are for each of us, the Lord calms my heart and I have to recognize what I'm thankful for.

There's an attitude of gratefulness that Paul had here. He could have said a lot of other things. He could have jumped into, you know, oh, what a wretched man I am. But that's not what he did here. What he did here is he said, I thank Christ Jesus. who has strengthened me. I didn't do it.

I'm the recipient and I'm thankful for it. I have a special attitude of thankfulness. What does thankfulness do to a person? How does that shift? I've got to do this. I've got to get out there. I've got to serve. I've got to take care of this and raise my kids and make sure, you know, and all of a sudden Paul's like, hey, I just want to be thankful."

What do you think that did to him? What does that do for you when you shift your mind towards a thankfulness to the glory of what God has done, specifically in the gospel in this case? It's acting from your position. flows the life of Christ rather than your condition. I think also by doing that, it shifts your focus. It's kind of what we've started in here and Titus 2. Don't deviate from looking. Once you deviate from looking at God or Christ Jesus, that's when the troubles begin or everything. Don't even turn.

And the thankfulness, I think, directs us to Christ. If we're thoughtful for it, I'm looking to the Lord and thanking Him. That keeps my focus on Him rather than, man, I did a great job. At least in my mind, I think that's where it is. I thank Him because now I'm realizing who's the one doing it.

Yeah, a lot of, well, I'll speak for myself. Anxiety is a real thing. You wake up Monday morning, you're hitting the ground, you've got a lot of stuff to do. You're working it through, you're thinking your day out. And, you know, I think about my kids, too. They're waking up, they're like, oh, I've got so much to do. I can't do all of that. That attitude, like you said, is very self-centered. And it's easy to go there because you have to do it.

But you also have an opportunity, as Paul did here, to stop, pause, and have thankfulness to the unmerited, unearned, unlimited favor of God. Where do you stand before him? And then that shifts things. And I believe that that attitude of dependence that you're talking about there, Courtney, has a lot to do with being strengthened for the things that God has for you. And in this case, it was Paul properly declaring the gospel which he was entrusted. And maybe that's what you have for this next week. But the attitude of thankfulness takes it off of yourself and places it on the dependence of the Lord, which is a complete shift for the believer.

You know, what comes up, you know, I think that when I'm anxious for anything, when I get that anxious, it comes up in Philippians 4, 6, and this hurts. Be anxious for nothing. So I'm reminded, if I'm anxious, I'm going against this right here. Be anxious for nothing. But the key is what the same thing is.

But in everything, by prayer and supplication, what? With thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And what do you get? And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. What do you do? You immediately focus on the Lord. And if you're anxious, let Him know in thanksgiving. But what have you done? You've turned to Him. And guess what? The anxiousness will be subsided because you're turning to Him and trusting in Him. So it's the same thing. Once we get our focus on Him, there's thanksgiving. And what do you get?

The peace of God. It doesn't say when you have prayers that they're going to be answered. you know, the way you want it. It just says, the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension. Well, what guards your heart and your mind? And I think, again, it's the same thing. When you focus on the Lord, all the things, the chaff gets taken out. And you have peace through that. So it's all of what we're talking about here, same thing. It's just when you focus on the Lord and what the glorious gospel, all these things, you know, the thankfulness, the peace, the rest, all of that falls into place. Preach it, brother. Awesome. Donna, you had a thought?

I was just struck on this verse how he's thanking Christ for putting him in ministry. Along with that package just came incredible suffering. physically, mentally, you know, beaten, everything else, and yet in this verse, what does he do? He thanks Jesus Christ for putting him there. So the relationship that he has with Christ totally overshadows anything else that's going on.

Yeah. I think they call it that single line. Well, my question for you guys, as we wrap up here for the morning, what have you been entrusted to? And how will you respond to that? Right? So are you entrusted with the glorious gospel of the blessed God? Well, it's not my response. It's his. It's all of him. I've been entrusted to you have been entrusted to sure Rita and What is our response to that?

Thanksgiving It's a special kind of Thanksgiving. It's the grace It's responsive because it's gracious that word is that thankfulness is Keris. It's grace particularly that which causes joy so when you're confused this week, or you're thinking about, like, what is my purpose?

What am I doing? Because sometimes we get that way, right? I mean, not all the time. We know how to get up and go to work and clock in and clock out and do the thing. But at the end of the day, you're still thinking, what am I doing? What am I really doing here?

Well, I can tell you this. Just like Paul, not in the same way, but similarly as believers, you've been entrusted with the glorious gospel and you have an opportunity to depend and respond to him by thanksgiving. And that takes the shift from you to him. And those kinds of attitudes have results. Attitude, gratitude. That's what Les just told me.

You know, I think one other thing, putting an exclamation on what Donna was saying about putting into service, you know, and he's been entrusted in all this, you know, and if you don't think you're worthy for that, you know, to be put in, to be entrusted with the gospel. Verse 13, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, He's been entrusted with this, even though his past is not stellar. Am I worthy enough to do this? I'm a failure. Paul pretty much had the hit list of all the things wrong, and yet God put him into faithful service. And I think we have the same, you know, we were all sinners, and we're all cut out of the same cloth that Paul was. And yet now, as believers, you know, we are entrusted with the gospel, the good news.

I'll leave you with the thought that this word also has the idea of clothing with, to furnish. God furnished him, he clothed him with that, and his grace is specifically related to an unmerited, unearned favor that God did. for Paul. And the same is just like the Colossians verse that Mike read earlier. These apply to you as well. He's doing He's operating from the same principles that he did with Paul with you. So something to think about. Lots of things to be thankful about. So I'll go ahead and close in a word of prayer and we'll move on today.

Father, how we thank you for your unmerited, unearned favor. The fact that you are gracious to us and that you would even reveal your glory to us. We know that that comes through rest, it comes through prayer, it comes through trust, and the fact that you have done exactly what you said you have done. And so, Lord, we're thankful that you are so gracious to us, that you love us in the way that you do, and that we're not capable of being the type of person and showing the glory that you have, you do that through us because you love us. And we just pray that our thankfulness and our dependence upon you would be one that your word would be known, that your sound doctrine would be clear, and we're thankful that we've been entrusted to that as well, just as Paul was. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.