First Timothy lesson 35 begin at question 9

All right, we are in lesson 35. We are, I guess, question actually down to question 9. But I'm going to read the passage again that we focused on this lesson. I just went by it, sorry. Okay, the verses for this lesson are 1 Timothy 6 verses 13 through 16. I'll read it for context on the latter part of this section.

So beginning in verse 13, I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate. that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time. He who is blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings, Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

So we got down and we're actually down into where we're discussing the titles in question 9 of lesson 35. Let me get to it here. So who is he and what are his titles? And we kind of went, who is he? And we kind of fell on that that was God the Father rather than Christ referenced, because he will bring about at the proper time.

And that was referring to God's ability to do that. The interesting part, which was in the Mark passage, Mark 13, 32, But of that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." Which was kind of an interesting thing, that the Father alone knows, and you think of the Trinity and all of them being together, but it's only the Father who knows when the return of the Lord will come. So, I think based on that and at the proper time that the Blessed One is sovereign, even though it says Lord of Lords and King of Kings, which we'll get into, it's really referring to God because He knows the proper time.

So then we got into sovereign and of course the Webster's Dictionary. One such as a king or queen possessing or held to possess supreme political power or sovereignty. I don't like that. And when you use the word in there, the adjective, having unlimited power, authority, unlimited extent, absolute, having independent authority and the right to govern itself. Again, so that was the sovereign part. We looked at the actual Greek word. And to be able to have power, the strength, power, ability, and deutonomous. Tim, are you? Yeah, basically dynamite. Yeah, it's the power of the strength.

So, we get into the Blessed Sovereign, we got through that, and then we were down to, well, also which I don't think we touched on much, was the Only Sovereign. Again, are there many Sovereigns? There's only one. Only one. And that's important because a lot of people today kind of go, well, there's many ways to God. There's many gods. And that's not true. There's only one. And there's only one way to him, through his son.

And so this is reiterating that fact that there's only one, only one sovereign. And when you kind of think about that, how could two sovereigns be together? I don't think that could function. So really, by almost definition of sovereignty, there has to be only one. So again, the only one, God and sovereign. Sovereign God.

Then we're getting into king of kings. What does that mean? King of kings? King over all rulers. Good? That's pretty good. When you're king of kings, so you got all the kings here, you're the king of the kings. So you're king of kings, you have ultimate superiority over all things. King of kings, now lord of lords. Same thing. You are lord over all lords. You are the top.

So, this little section of scripture basically is saying to Timothy, who he serves, who he serves is the sovereign. And that word also can be translated into potentate, potentate or the sovereign, king of king, lord of lords. So, is there anybody greater than who he's referring to here? Absolutely not. So again, I think this is comforting Timothy in that he's saying, who are you serving? Who are the one who you are ministering to here in Ephesus?

You are ministering under the sovereign, only God, King of King, Lord of Lords. And I think it's to encourage him to stay the course. that this is giving him strength and the person you're under and ministering to and your faith is based on is this God, only God, King of kings, Lord of lords. Again, kind of at the end of this letter from Paul to Timothy, this is the encouragement after all the things we talked about in the first chapters from 1 Timothy 1 through here, all the purity of the doctrine, faith, the challenges he's after, all these different things. And now I think he's encouraging him. He's saying the one you're serving is this one, the sovereign, the king of king, lord of lords. So, any other thoughts?

I think a lot of times we think that we don't realize that God is the orchestrator of everything that happens in a person's life. The ruling authority of the country or whatever may seem to have sovereignty over what's going on with you, but it's really God who orchestrates it all. It's one of those lessons, I think, that we're willing to leave It takes a while to learn that, even though it looks like my circumstances aren't very good, for whatever reason, that the blame is always on the circumstances, or those who are involved with the circumstances of God's work of strength and love. Thank you. So I think that's an important point for, as you grow spiritually and you realize that trials and suffering are part of the growth process, it's comforting to know that the Lord is in charge of all of that too.

Well that's, you know, in the titles here, Lord of Lords, King of Kings, President of Presidents, you know, He's above everything. And we touch on that a little bit of what last week and kind of jumped on my soapbox again, which I seem to be doing quite a bit, is my two things. There's sovereignty and the love of God. If you truly understand that He is sovereign and He's in control, and I mentioned that I think last week's class, is that He's in control of all things.

He uses material things He uses people, brings into situations. He uses all of that. And it's the Romans 1, he uses all things. When you look at all things, what does that eliminate? Nothing. He uses all things. He can do anything. And he's a sovereign God. He can use anything material in the world. He can use people. weather. He can make it cold in Florida. He can make it really cold in Florida. He can do any of that.

And so I think when you have that, again, I really think that's an important thing, this sovereignty. He's in control. He's in control. So when something happens to you, unfortunately, you lose a job, you have medical, you have all of these things. He's still in control and he's using that for his purposes, which is ultimately to conform you to the image of Christ and ultimately to glorify himself.

And those are the things behind it. And if you grasp that, even though you don't understand the situation you're going through, even if you go through that, you have a peace that surpasses all understanding. And that's the peace that he promised you. And it's, you know, you bring the Thessalonians, by prayer and supplications, let your request be made known to God.

And what's he going to do? He's not going to say he's going to answer it all. He says he's going to guard your heart. That's what he's going to do. And guarding your heart means I can go through anything. If he doesn't answer the way I wanted, he's going to guard my heart and say, OK, I wanted this, but you're taking me here. OK, I have peace about that. And that's the sovereignty part.

If you understand that, that gets you through anything. And then, like I said, if you put that on top of the end of Romans 8, that he has an eternal love for you that you can't be separated from, when you're going through this, you understand he loves you.

Even though he's taking you through this and you don't understand all the outcome. I find in my life, there's been a lot of things where I don't understand now, but when I look back five years, I understand now why you took me through that. At the time, I had not a clue. Not a clue. But five years out, I looked back and I said, that's why.

And so he's in time, all the time that he's given us to mold us into his image. And so yeah, if you can grasp a hold of those two things, and I think that's why. He's given it to Timothy here. He's sovereign. He's the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. All the things you're going through, all these old men who are challenging you, your youth, all these guys with false teaching, all these things, you're under the God of the sovereign God. He's in control, Timothy.

And the same to us. Sorry, my soapbox again. Oh, amen, brother. Anything else on that before We get into immortality. The only God, only sovereign, king of kings, lord of lords. Incredible titles for him. Okay, 10. Define, you know where I go, define immortality. This is from verse 16. Who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light? whom no man has seen or can see, to him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Okay. From the glorious Webster's Dictionary. Immortal. Right off the bat. The quality of your state of being immortal. Can't do that. You can't use the word in the definition. It's like, I don't know, defining what color is white. Well, it's white.

Okay. That helped me a lot. The second part of it, which was much more in what I would like, unending existence. Unending existence. That's probably a good definition for it. It's a characteristic of the Immortality, he can, well, I get to the Greek definition and I should really have Tim saying these words. Immortality is athanasia, made up of thanatos, death, in the Greek letter alpha, which then, prefixed to the word negates its meaning, thus, no death, incapable of dying. I thought that was kind of interesting. Immortal. You're incapable of dying. And thanatos means physical death. Yeah, physical. So, it's kind of, who alone possesses immortality?

And the question I kind of had on this one was, so what about us? Are we immortal? Our spirits? Is that what? Yeah, I mean... The body will die. Yeah, and we'll have a new body, but are we immortal? And I kind of was like, interesting, is this between eternal and immortal? Is there a difference between those two words? Because if you read this, what does it say? Who alone possesses immortality?

That's the resurrection. No. No, this is talking about God. God always existed, never had a beginning. Or, what does this say? What's interesting about this verse is it's not talking about me. No, it's not. This is about God. It's not about resurrection, life, or anything. It's talking about who God is. Exactly. So, again, it's not about us. This is all about King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Sovereign. Now, verse 16 comes along.

Who alone possesses immortality? He cannot die. Which is then, so for us as believers, do we have immortality? And I thought, well, it says right here, he's the only one who possesses immortality. He alone. So we have eternal life, but he has immortality. He can never, yeah. No, that's fine. It's just one of those ones where I read this and it's like, I'm thinking, well, we're immortal. We're not going to die again. I mean, we died and have new life in him. Yeah, that's where I was going. So I was going to kind of play off what was said.

Yeah So So I don't know I is the is that Is that correct in that, why does it say, and I looked back at the Greek, but who alone, alone possesses immortality? And that's the one that kind of tripped me up was he, who alone possesses immortality. But at the resurrection, isn't it mortality puts on immortality?

Well, that's... You're talking about us. This is God. I'm talking about God. Yeah, and again, is this different than us? Because it says, who alone possesses immortality? And that was what it was kind of like. So, this is a jump ball for anybody out there. I was kind of like... Just the way this is phrased is, who alone possesses immortality? We have eternal life, but what about immortality?

I would say we didn't exist before we were conceived, even though he knew us before the foundations of the earth, which I can't figure that one out. But, I mean, we will live forever, but he's always existed. And he created all things, which means he created the angels, he created us, he created everything. So he was the only one that was from eternity past.

But the immortality part is not dying. So you're going from the front side, which is eternity past, always been, always will, always can. This is, if the Greek word, maybe it's just hung up on maybe the way the Greek is here, it's like the negative of death, no death, he can't die. So this is more, I think, on the forward looking, he can't die. And when he says, who alone? Sorry. confusing, it was just like, when I read this, it was like, who alone possesses this? And that's the part that just tripped me up. Because I thought, I mean, we're all, quote, immortal, I thought.

We won't die. I think you have to look at it from the standpoint that your life came from Him. If He didn't give you that life, you wouldn't have it. You're not the originator of it. And so, God in His very person, it's impossible for him to die. Well, death means separation. Separation from what? What would God be separated from? Human beings have spiritual life, soul life, and physical life. And when Adam sinned, he died. His soul was separated from God. His spirit was separated from God. But now we're in him. But as a human being, Every human being is going to go on and live eternally.

It's just a matter of where. Yeah, it's just a weird thing. It's just like the other one that we just touched on. It's like only God knows, not the Son nor the Holy Spirit knows when he's going to return. Not that they're kind of all one unit, you know? Individual, but one unit. Why does one not know, or one knows and all the rest? There are two of these in here that just kind of baffled me. And this was the second one. This was, who alone possesses immortality?

And it's like, if it's not dying, we're not going to die. I read the other day that the Triune God all share the same life, but they're three different persons. And because they're three different persons, their activities are different. But their life is the same. Yeah, it's just weird.

There's some knowledge that is Separated God the father. Yeah, I thought like all knowledge, but you know he's always doing the will of the father So he's he's you know searching the father's knowledge and doing what the father wants So there is this separation of the three entities and Holy Spirit's different than the son So there is it's just it was just kind of a weird thing that only the father knows that yeah It's interesting because the father and the son enter into this eternal covenant And it says the father sent the son, you know, he sent him. And then the son said, well, I don't do anything of myself, I only do what I see my father doing. And everything that he did was because it was the father's will, but it was also a contract. Yeah, right.

Yeah, the covenant. So anyway, this was the second one, who alone possesses immortality. You're talking about the triune God, I think. Yeah. So, just if you figure that one out. It just was a little baffling to me, who alone possesses that. Well, five years you can look back. Yeah, look back and I'll figure it out. Somebody will tell me five years from now, that's what you were talking about. I was wondering, did he write this after he'd been to the third heaven? When I read that, that's what runs through my mind, is that he's trying to express to us who God is. He saw him.

Yeah, I don't know when that would be. Yeah, I don't know when it was either. Yeah, where that is in relation to all these epistles. Yeah, that's a good thought. I think he wrote Timothy after it. Yeah, I don't know. I'd have to look that up. That could be, yeah.

Trying to express things, you know. Well, it's like John tried it, you know. Revelation tried to explain things. It's like, what? You know, again, if he translates to somewhere now or in the future of us trying to explain that in his terminology. So, yeah. Yeah, that could be. Anyway, that was just, if anybody has a great answer for it, yeah.

Well, God is spirit. And only one of the Trinity took on flesh. Now he's glorified. Will we ever see, I mean, he's seeable. Yes. Yeah, we'll see him. Yes, we will. Yeah. Yeah, no that's, again we were talking about it a little bit earlier, you know, with the glory of when God went by Moses, he held him in the cleft of the rock and he couldn't, he just saw the back side of him in the cleft and he was glowing for weeks or whatever it was.

He wouldn't have lived. Yeah, he couldn't have lived, yeah. Anyway, that's just a baffling thing. If anybody has a better answer, I could not come up with one that really satisfied me. So if anybody has one on that one. Okay, so then question 11. What is the environment in which God dwells or is made of? Made of. Made of. Okay, so in verse 16, He alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

So, what does dwell mean? Hang out. What is a dwelling? Or to be at home. It's where you live. Yeah, it's where you live. It's where you live. You know, sometimes, you know, there are houses that are referred to as dwellings. So a dwelling is, uh, oikio, to be at home. God has spoken over here as being at home in what? What's he at home in?

Light. Light. Unapproachable light. So, um, this is, I mean, This is one of those ones I think, as we were just saying, I was just saying about with John, try to explain this. What is unapproachable light? What is unapproachable light? Well, it's not photons. I think this has to do with all of this character being displayed at once.

So it's really where you have to create a creature distinction. perfection, holiness, all of these sovereignty, love, when that's the word glory that's used to communicate an unapproachable, perfect being in all of his attributes at once. I think of a point of origin. point of origin. The Greek word light is phos, from obsolete fish, to shine or make manifest, especially by rays, compare luminous in the wildest application, or artificial, abstract, concrete, literal, figurative. So it's basically light, as we know it.

Would we have seen a little bit of this, or would the disciples have seen a little bit of this? Transfiguration. Yeah, I think that's right. It would be God's glory that overwhelmed them. Well, also, what about Paul on the road to Damascus? It blinded him. Blinded him. Yeah. Couldn't see.

So it's more than just light. It's God's glory. Yeah. It's who God is. Yeah. It's something, I guess, I was getting to, something we can't understand. It's something that, I mean, we know it, but to translate it to something we can, like light. Yeah. Yeah, we think light. But it's something different.

It's His glory that is blinding to Paul, overwhelming at the Mount of Transfiguration, made Moses glow for a long period of time. Isn't that how we grow in grace? From glory to glory? This is his glory we're talking about here, which is unapproachable. It's something we can't comprehend. What happened to Paul? Paul didn't know what was going on. He was just blinded by the light. And it was the Lord. He knew it was the Lord. Well, I asked him, who is it? Oh, he knew who it was. At first he didn't. Why are you persecuting me? But then he knew who it was.

And then, totally blinded until the scales fell off with Ananias. Again, these are brief things we can look at. But this is an unapproachable light. I would say that God in and of himself, no creature can approach him or comprehend this unapproachable light. However, the fact that the second person of the Trinity became a man, and because of our identification, our identity in him, Wrap your head around the fact that this unapproachable light, you'll be in it for all eternity. And we'll be the only ones who are.

Right, and we can handle it because we are... I mean, greater than angels, greater than any other creature in unapproachable light. We'll be able to approach because we're in Christ. Right. And I remember a simple question a guy asked one time. Well, what kind of clothes am I going to wear? And the answer was white. Yeah. Clothed in light. This light. Yeah. I was thinking about something. If you think about approaching God, He's unapproachable on our terms. You can't simply investigate from a neutral position what God's like. He has to reveal that to you. And he's called the God of Light, and Father of Lights. So as we think about that, that's something we can't comprehend because of our finititude. And so, this represents what is unique to him as a creature. I'm sorry, as the creator. And our inability as creatures to comprehend that.

Which is exactly what you would expect from an Indian god, right? Well, you know, a lot of different things I think of too, like the Lord leading the Israelites out as a cloud and these different manifestations of His glory, but never seen. So there's been a whole bunch through scripture where He's had to mute His glory in order to communicate to us. But then when the Son came, fully God and fully man, and revealed himself to us, to be able to be on a level that we can understand it and reveal his attributes and his glory to us in a way that we could pick it up.

It sounds real stupid, but there used to be a Paul Harvey thing about a guy with the birds, anybody remember that? And he's like, there are all these birds, it was a frigid night, it was cold, birds are out there and they're all huddled around and he's like trying to get them food, trying to get them inside, then he can't, you know, and I think it was, His wife and everybody went to church, but he was there. He was not going to church. And he kept trying to get these birds in.

Finally he comes to it and he goes, you know, if I could only talk to them, if I could only get with them and be on their level and talk to them, I'd tell them I want to help them. Emotionally. He realizes that. That God came to be able to communicate. Christ came to us so he could communicate to us. Because he's in an unapproachable light. And so, you know, it's, you know, he came to be able to reveal himself. Otherwise he can't. I like the birds a little better. Just saying, just saying.

I think Romans 1 tells us that God holds man inexcusable because he can know that God exists because he reveals enough about his works that you can tell that there's a God. And there's glory in that. And I think a lot of times when you become a believer, and if you are ignorant about the position that you actually have been taken into, you keep looking around in the world for evidence of God where the real evidence is in the spiritual world, by knowing Christ.

He's the one, no one has seen God at any time, but the Son. Yes. Who came from Him, reveals Him, or explains Him, or shows you. And so, add the third person of the Trinity, who is the Holy Spirit, what's his job? His job is to reveal Christ to the believer. Right. To glorify Christ. To glorify, yeah.

Now, it's, like I said, it's, again, kind of an interesting thing to try and understand unapproachable light, that, you know, it is so glorious that we can't even approach it. And yet, you know, we have Christ, who is fully God, in the flesh, being able to reveal himself, which is the only way it could have happened. Well, I mean, he could have done it other ways, but that's the way he chose.

By the way, Mike and Donna can talk to birds and get them in your house. I heard if you find a bird in the house, somebody's going to die. Well, there's a pleasant thought. Okay. It's not fun getting a bird in the house. We've had a couple of those too. You can't talk to them and explain the doors that way. It does not work that way. Anyway, just to kind of summarize, because we're there. Summarize verses 15 and 16.

First, he is the supreme ruler of the universe. Second, he is untouched by death. Third, he is perfect holiness. Fourth, he is invisible but knowable. Fifth, he is the one to be honored for all eternity. I think those are some of the characteristics we've seen just in this past. And I think you've got an expanded version.

I don't know. I can do it. It was from Wiest. Wiest. So this is the expanded of 13 through 16. I am giving you a charge in the presence of God who is constantly preserving in life all things, and Christ Jesus, the one who, in his testimony before Pontius Pilate, made the good profession, preserve this commandment intact, unsullied, irreproachable, until the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ, which, glorious manifestation, He will expose to the eyes in His own strategic seasons, the One who is the blessed and only potentate, the King of those who are reigning as kings, the Lord of those who are ruling as lords, who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom not even one in the human race has seen nor is able to see, to whom be honor, power forever. Amen. I think that was a good expanded version. All right, anything else? Otherwise we can close. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again just of this description of who you are, Father.

And again, you dwell in unapproachable light, amazing glory that we can't even comprehend the glory which surrounds you. And again, we just rest in the fact, again, that you are intimately involved with each and every one of us. And as we've seen all these characteristics and titles, that you are Lord of Lords, King of Kings, the Sovereign, and yet, you individually care for each and every one of us. You individually deal with each and every one of us. In all the universe, you still work with individuals and we thank you for that. What comfort we have that we're not left alone.

You have given us the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and again his work in each and every one of us just to draw us to you and your son and to conform us to the image of your son and we just thank you for not only the Holy Spirit, but your word, and what we glean even from this passage. We again thank you for your word, the Holy Spirit, and again, the Lord Jesus who went to the cross for us. And we have new life in him through your gracious offer of salvation. And we again just thank you for this time we've been able to spend in your word. We pray for Roger as he gives us the message in the next meeting. And again, we ask for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.