1st Timothy 6:11-21

1 through 21. He's giving final instructions to Timothy. It actually several years passed between Paul's writing of this letter and the next one, 2 Timothy. So we're going to see a kind of a progression. At the same time, there's still commonality in what Paul writes to Timothy. Sometimes he says some things and we're going to make note of it. There are things that he doesn't write to anyone else. So, anyway, it goes like this.

In the first one, 1 Timothy 6, 11, But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue practical righteousness, godliness, faith, love, agape, perseverance, patience in circumstances, and gentleness. So this is an interesting verse. It has flee and pursue. What kind of military strategy is that? You know? Run away from one while you're pursuing the other. Right? Isn't that interesting? So what's Timothy to flee from? This isn't anything to do with those little things that bite you. Right? Yeah? Yeah. In other words, he is previously, in the prior passage, he's talked about youthful lust. Now, Timothy is, you know, probably at this stage, you know, in his thirties somewhere here.

But he says, flee those things. And an interesting point we have here is this term, man of God. Paul only uses that term with Timothy. And it's the only places that it shows up in the New Testament, that phrase, man of God. A lot of times in the Old Testament. But in the New Testament, Only Paul and only with Timothy. Once in this and once in the next letter.

So why does Paul call Timothy a man of God? What does the term mean? Because of his ministry? Yeah, because of his ministry. If you look in the Old Testament, a man of God was someone who had God's commissioning, God's assignment to ministry, right? So what Paul's doing with Timothy, he's focusing on, look, you have a specific assignment to ministry that's very intentional. So he uses that term, man of God, to put a focus on that. This isn't some incidental thing, it's not a hobby. This is what you're out there to do. This is to be forefront and center. So, let's look at the third bullet.

What are the spiritual advantages of pursuing righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness? What are the spiritual advantages of pursuing those things? Yeah? I think it has to do with what we said in the first part of the class, where the interpersonal relationship provides for growth. Maturation, spiritual growth and maturation. Provides for spiritual growth and maturation, maturity.

How about we have in there in brackets, pursue practical righteousness. Why practical? Shouldn't he pursue positional righteousness? Yeah, it's already done. In other words, what we have in our position, what does to be justified mean? in Paul's writing. To be justified means to be declared righteous. So that's a declaration that God makes, right? So I can't pursue that in the sense that I already have it. God's already made the pronouncement, you are righteous. So there's no pursuing of that per se.

But in a practical sense, there is a need to pursue it. It is in our condition, right? pursue the righteousness that we already have in our position. Yeah? Yeah, you know there are various ways that it's said, is this not the working out of your salvation? The salvation that you have already says I've been declared righteous. So working out of that salvation, not working for, right? But working out of that salvation is a practical righteousness. Let's look at something else.

Godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. That love is agape love. What's the characteristic of agape love other than a funny Greek sounding word? It's unconditional. How do we know it's unconditional? Yeah, it's God's love. God is the source. It doesn't say, well, you know, if you do this, then I'll love you. If you do this, then I'll love you. Rather, it says, I love you regardless of condition. No ifs. Right? No ifs. Yeah. Yes. Yep.

And one of the things you'll notice is a few of the different words in here are out of Galatians 5.22, same words.

Something else we make note of here is that it's translated perseverance. It's sometimes translated patience. It's patience in circumstances. The Greek word is hupomone. I won't test you on that one. But it's patience in circumstances. There's another word for patience with people. This one here is about patience in the circumstances. Why make a difference? Patience with people, patience with circumstances. Yes. Yeah. And enduring through it. Yeah. Being sustained in that. It's not just, oh, just grit and bear it and hope it gets over soon. But it's a matter of a character that bears up underneath those pressures. Patience and circumstances. None of you have any circumstances though, right? Yeah. What kind of circumstances could there be? What kind of circumstances do we have to bear up under?

You think of different things? Life in general, yes. That's one good way to summarize it. Yes, how long a list do you want? Sort of a joking card that I saw one time, you know, how long until the next delay? Sometimes, you know, we have that situation in life where, you know, we have to wait until the next delay and then there's other things that jump up and surprise you.

You ever have that? Probably both of those, right? We have that. How about health issues? Recurrent health issues. You just, you know, it doesn't go away. Or you could, instead of saying how long until the next delay, how long until the next health issue shows up, right? So, yeah, there can be things with our bodies, things in outside circumstances of all kinds. Financial issues. Yeah. Political. Military. All sorts of different issues, some of them farther away, some of them always with us. Okay, let's take a look here.

1 Timothy 6.12.

Fight the good fight of faith, and this is interesting, he started off chapter 1 with this fighting the good fight, and he's going to bring it up again in 2 Timothy 4.7, which is towards the end of 2 Timothy. So this fighting the good fight is apparently an important one. Alright, so is that what we ought to be having here at church? Fighting the good fight? We'll have Stan take on Wayne here, and then Dave just walked in. I'll take on Dave here after we have the buzzer ring once. That'll start the first round. Yeah. Uh-huh. Hi. Thank you, sir.

That does give a good definition, though, of passivity. that we see today in a lot of Christian thought. The fact that you're just supposed to sit back and take it and not do anything or say anything. You're saying, I mean, if it's a good fight, you're involved. Then you think about Ephesians 6 with the armor of God. I mean, there's everything from the person up to the back. You know, you were facing What does a good fight look like for a Christian? One in which your glasses don't get broken? What is a good fight? We are in a spiritual battle. That's the nature of things here. We are in a spiritual battle. There's a need to keep up a fervency in that battle.

In my early 30s, I decided that I wanted to go into boxing, amateur boxing, not professional. And I worked out for it and all that, but never did pursue it because Nancy thought I was insane. Anyway, but in that, one of the things that in working out, you'd get out there with a sparring partner and in the middle of You know, once the bell started things and up until the time it went off, you didn't want to go down like this, right?

What's going to happen? Woo! It is a matter of keeping them up, keeping things in guard there and not, you know, oh, okay. Not a good idea, right? Not a good idea. And for the Christian, it is a matter of keeping up our guard. And what does that mean? Does that mean we lay awake at night just wired? What does it mean for the Christian to be of a mindset of fighting the good fight? He needs to trust. Here's the interesting thing. It is a matter of trusting all the time, right?

Yeah. What else? And this is the last item, if you will, in the spiritual armor in Ephesians 6, right? Yeah, isn't that something? Our trust in, and actually we use the word believe and trust as separate words in the Greek. Believe, trust, and faith are all the same word. And although in English those have different nuances, but they're all the same word in the Greek. Yeah, Pat?

It's true prayer, but then you get discernment. I mean, your bombardment, I remember when Superman came in, but every day we're bombarded with some kind of ridiculous stuff about the world and about Christianity. Ultimately, I need to know the helmet of salvation. I need to know what really is basic to my salvation, the belt of truth. I need to be able to assess what's true and what isn't. And unfortunately this world is going to throw a lot of things at us that, you're right, are simply not true.

Yes, yes. Yeah, yeah. Several years ago a friend of mine from back in Carson City was out in Denver here at the Christian Booksellers Association. And so he gave me a pass to come walk around and look at it. And I said, well, where are the good study books? He says, there aren't any. And I said, you're kidding. He says, no, really, there aren't.

You can go over there, and you get Christian gum. And you go over here, and they've got all sorts of, they call it Jesus junk. It's just something, you put a fish sticker on it, or a cross on it, or stamp some words on it. It's just Jesus junk. But in terms of what's really deep and true, not too much concern for that in today's Christian market, so to speak.

Okay, so the first bullet there, it is fascinating that fighting the good fight is a term that Paul used with Timothy three times, but with nobody else. Why would he use it just with Timothy, but nobody else. Here is Timothy. He is out in a particular place. Can Paul be there? And Timothy calls up Paul on the cell phone. Hey, I've got a problem here. I need to consult with you. Q&A session tonight, and I've got to have good answers. No, that's not going to happen, is it?

So Timothy needs to be there and be aware and be ready. Paul, other than writing this letter, and pray for him, but Timothy has to understand the fervency, the depth of the need. Timothy's got to get it in his mind. Now let's ask one other question. Could it be that three times this fighting the good fight comes up because Timothy needs the reminder? I think likely so. Three times is quite a bit and especially only with Timothy and nobody else. It was something that perhaps Timothy needed a reminder of. It may also be something where Paul and Timothy had maybe even seen some kind of a competitive match and noted, boy, it makes a difference whether or not you're paying some attention here.

Second bullet, Paul tells Timothy to take hold of the eternal life to which he's been called. Is that so that Timothy becomes saved or remains saved? Or what does Paul mean? What does he mean by take hold of eternal life? I mean, isn't Timothy saved? Is he afraid he's going to lose it? Is that the problem? Why take hold of eternal life?

Yeah. That's our hope. Okay. That's our hope. Yeah. Let me ask you this question. Is it possible for someone to have eternal life but not take hold of it? Yeah, yeah it is. And how does that happen? How is it that someone has eternal life but doesn't really take hold of it? What does that look like? Yeah.

I think it goes back to the common analogy that God can't steer a parked car. Yes, yeah, good point. God, do you hear that? God can't steer a parked car. You need to be in motion, you need to be doing something in order to be able to steer the vehicle. Otherwise you just turn the steering wheel and nothing's happening. What else, sir? Any other things? It's a type of control that you might know. Good Lord, Jesus. As we pursue the Word, God's Spirit is able to have many things to tell you. He has many things to tell us through this Word. It opens our eyes to really understand. It may be a thousand times, but the Holy Spirit invites you.

You don't see the truth of it. There needs to be a present reality and understanding, doesn't there? Yeah, I could use an analogy. Nancy and I have been married for almost 38 years here. If somebody were to come up to me and say, well, how's Nancy doing? Oh, I don't know. I haven't talked to her in days. So yeah, something's not quite right there, right?

It means that the position that we have also needs to be a moment by moment reality. I as a believer can have eternal life in the positional sense but not be enjoying it and living it and not having a continuing fellowship with the Lord. Relationship, yes. but not a continuing fellowship. And he's saying you need to maintain that fellowship and relationship with the Lord.

Okay, how about the last bullet? Does making a good confession mean that Paul tells a bunch of people all of the things he has been doing wrong, every single one? Is that what it means by good confession? Is that what he's urging here? Let me tell you all the things that I've been doing wrong, and this is going to take days, so I hope you're ready. Go up and get a cup of coffee if you need, because I'm going to take a while, right? What's he talking about? What is a good confession?

Yeah? Kind of straightforward, sincere. Okay. Keeping your account short, as he talks about. Having good conscience, which Paul talks about a lot. Keeping your conscience clear. It goes back to the relationship. If you have a good friend, you talk about that on a personal basis. You know that it's not going to be shared, but it's between you and that other person. If you have that relationship with God, I think that's what you should have.

Let me use the analogy with Nancy again. If someone says, you know, how are things going with Nancy? And I say, well, I don't know. I haven't talked to her in days. You're kind of, huh? On the other hand, if I say, you know, Nancy's doing good. She and I were talking. And so, in a way, it's kind of like that.

I would say a good confession would be, how's my relationship with the Lord? And how is my fellowship with Him? And to be able to actually testify about that. To testify about that. Presence of many witnesses. That's what people are looking for a lot. Yeah. I think that's the thing. If you look at it, we don't live in isolation. I'm not a Christian in a closet. Right? I'm not a Christian in a closet. We have an interaction with one another. And when something is said, others are watching and listening. What does it say? What is the testimony? Yes, do you hear that? His position and his condition. should line up before other people.

Why is it important with Timothy? It seems like he's saying things that he doesn't necessarily write to all the churches about. Why is he writing to Timothy about this? Why is it important for Timothy? He's got to be working another faithful mess. Yes. Yes, he's going to be working with others and there needs to be that expression, that consistency, that constancy in order to carry out the ministry. Yeah. I heard once explained that Timothy is kind of like the, what do you call that race where there's four people in it or five? The relay race. Oh, I thought you were talking about the presidential, you know, okay.

Paul is a son of Christ. He's now passing the baton to a younger man. And I think that's pretty scary for him because he's going to die and he knows the responsibility that Christ Jesus gave him. And he's passing it on to someone else. And I'm sure his heart's a little heavy about this. What Timothy is doing matters, doesn't it?

It matters. Yeah. It doesn't confess or profess. It means saying the same thing. Well, and that would be necessary for a good confession. It's not a, you know, boy, I had such a great time meditating on Buddha today. What? That's not going to do it, is it? We have a common fellowship, a common relationship, and it is with the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. Some other, you know, you hear this term, people of faith. What does that mean? It means I believe in something, you know? And that's about as specific as it gets. It is specifically a common fellowship based on a common relationship with Jesus Christ.

You know, it's interesting that we can talk about, okay, we're individuals, but, you know, are we saved in different ways? No, we're saved by faith, every single one of us. Are we identified with Christ in somewhere between one and five different things? No. We each one of us identified with Christ in those five ways from the crucifixion to being seated in the heavenlies. There are things that are true and in common about our fellowship with the Lord.

The bottom of the page here, here is Paul's pattern of charging Timothy. So here's 1st Timothy 5.21, which was previous there. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ and his chosen angels.

Or 1st Timothy 6.13, which is the next verse that we're looking at in this passage. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Jesus Christ who testified the good confession. Interesting, there's the word paragon. Before Pontius Pilate.

And 2nd Timothy 4.1, I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing in his kingdom. Okay, so why would Paul charge Timothy in the presence of God and Jesus Christ every single time? Why Timothy three times but not once for Titus?

It's kind of amazing. We don't have quite as much information for Titus, but it's interesting. Titus gets sent out, it seems, more frequently on these single, you know, take-the-beach kind of missions. Yeah, often the case, and also let's remember a progression. Here's Timothy who at first just went along with Paul and then got left with one other by Paul and now is being sent off on a singular mission, so far as we know. So there's a progression there. First he's alongside Paul, then he's alongside someone else under Paul's assignment, and then finally it's just Timothy going out. Might this also have to do with the pattern that we saw, fight the good fight? There's something specific about what Timothy needs to hear. Now, in the presence of means literally before the face of. Before the face of.

Exactly what is the distance in, you know, angstrom units, light years, between here and heaven? What's the distance? Anybody tell me that? Not far. Here's the interesting thing. You would say, well, how many of you have been to heaven? Are you going to go there this weekend? On the one hand, you say, well, I've never been there. On the other hand, you say, well, I'm there all the time.

Right? So here, in the presence of, that's very interesting, As Christians, are we in the presence of God? Yes, we are. All the time. All the time. We uniquely and especially have privileged access all the time to come to the Lord. So he could put this before Timothy as a reality. It's like reminding Timothy. Timothy, remember. I'm going to tell you something and I want you to remember.

We are always in the presence of God. We are always in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever we're taking on. Whatever we're taking on. It seems Timothy needed that reminder. Do you ever feel like God's far away? Or talk to somebody who's felt that way? How true is that? Or is it just a feeling? What's true? Yeah, Stan?

Well, I agree with the Old Testament prophet. He talks about God turning his face and not listening, and the fact that he's angry. I mean, according to the Old Testament, it's a totally different organization than Jesus Christ. But still, it indicates that God can be where he wants to be. Should we be constantly checking, do I feel close to God?

Or what should we be doing? Well, trusting, huh? Trusting? Yeah, Beth? It's up to you how close you are to God. Really. Yeah, listen. Yeah. And let's have this question here. Does God ever move away from us? No. And that's a very important point. God's not, whoa, he's out there, you know? And God's not wandering off, and God's not backing away. If there is a distance between ourselves and God, it is our movement that has put us there. And the checking of the feelings is maybe not a real good indicator. Because the reality is, in truth, we are always close with God. Have we moved away in our position at any time? No. We've not moved away in our position. If we've moved away, it is in our condition.

You know, all these messages are going through the air and the earth, you know, but how much greater God's communication is made available for us just by thinking, here's our very calls, our desires. It's amazing. You know, there's a reality there. I mean, the cell phone certainly had an illustration of communication through the air. I mean, you think you can send messages that are whole books in the air, download a whole heap of books. A lot, just, and yeah, we don't see books flying by, right? Yeah. Whoa, man! You know? Yeah. Yes?

I think that, you know, the insight starts out with a plea from these things, you may have got. Timothy was kind of like a young person that, I want to be a youth pastor, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that, and it's all out of itself, but it is. Yeah, isn't it interesting, yeah, Paul, here's Timothy, he doesn't say, well, Timothy, I'm sorry, you're just not ready, you need to stay home. But what he does do is he puts them out there, but he does give consistent reminders, and that's something we're seeing here in today's passage. He'll start off a letter and then finish a letter with the same reminder. And into the next letter, he remains consistent with these reminders. And I think that that's something that reflects, at very least in part, on what Timothy needs to be reminded of. Oh, by the way, do we ever need to be reminded of anything?

Probably so, huh? Probably so. Yeah, Stan? When you talk about the closeness of God, it reminds me of in some of these churches, when you go, there's a lot of people who think that they need the closeness of God at Christmas and Easter. Yeah. Seasonal closeness. Yeah. I want to get that seasonal closeness. Our positional closeness happens by sitting in the pew and getting the right songs played at the right season. Because that's what it says on the calendar. Let's look at 1 Timothy 14-16 there.

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 the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone possesses immortality and dwells in inapproachable light. whom no man has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

Now I want to compare that with a passage that was in the first chapter. So 1st Timothy 1, 17-19. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience."

And it says, compare to 1 Timothy 6.12, which of course we just read.

2 Timothy 4.7 also has something similar.

So what commandment is Paul writing about? Does he want him to just pick one of the ten and run with it? What's the commandment that he's talked about? That is a great one, but yeah. Let me suggest here that he's referred to this command or commandment twice and the first time he referred to it was at the very beginning of the letter. So let me suggest to you that the command is actually his assignment.

Timothy, I sent you to Where? Ephesus. To do what? To correct the false teaching. I sent you there for that. Keep that in mind. You know, if you're fighting the good fight, Just to take a comparison, in the boxing ring, you know, if you're in there, you might, boy, you know, that's a really neat shirt that the referee has on over here, you know. You're going to get nailed.

Don't get distracted from what your assignment is, see? And that's really what he's putting, he's not trying to lay it on them, you know, okay, now, look, I know ten's a little tough to keep hold of, so just keep one. He's saying, look, you've got an assignment. And it isn't just a here's three things and which one do you pick. I've given you an assignment. You need to go out and do that and you need to fight the good fight and you need to keep focused on what you've been sent there for.

Nancy and I start off from our house. You know, we're coming here and we're supposed to be here with certain things and get the papers ready to get copied and all that. Oh look, they're having a garage sale. Look at that. And I go over and stop at the garage sale and I wonder if there's other garage sales. But they've got a desk here and I want one of those. I wonder if the garage sale down the street has a desk. And before you know it, I'm off to that. And then, boy, I'm getting hungry. Let's go to the restaurant. Nancy is saying, Vern, what about getting a church, right? It is keeping focused on the thing that God has assigned you to. Keeping focused on the thing that God has assigned you to. Oh, this is a good one, because this passage actually has some really good brain teaser questions.

Is the appearing of Jesus Christ the rapture when he comes to take his church to their heavenly home, or is it the second coming of Christ to earth? Which one is it? Yes. In accordance to your sermon last week and this week, I would probably have guessed that it would be the rapture. Yeah, I would say so, and why? Because Pauline letters are a church dispensation. Right.

Without standard or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Are we waiting for the second coming? No. We're waiting for that day when the Lord takes us home. And something else that this verse implies, The rapture could happen any time.

It could have happened in Paul's day, in Timothy's day. Right? That's the implication of this passage. It could happen at any moment. And I wouldn't mind if we didn't get to finish the lesson here today. Right? Oh yeah. Believe me, I won't be taking any garage sale items through the gates of heaven. Okay.

Alright, from He who is blessed to the end of verse 16 is that about Christ or about the Father or about God? When you look at the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, what does that make you think of? That particular title, does it make you think about God, Christ, or the Father? Christ, alright. So is this Christ?

Yes or no? Let me, let me, who no man has seen or can see. Hmm. Pardon? Yes, I think that's the correct answer. Now, why would he say King of Kings and Lord of Lords, which sounds like, well, it must be Christ, which is what you correctly connected. Must be Christ. How could that not be him? How could being king of kings and lord of lords apply to God, whom no one has seen? I would say it's the Trinity, but that word's not in the Bible. Yes. So you don't believe in the Trinity because it's not in the Bible? Yeah. You can't separate them. Okay. Let's ask this.

Remember, what are the two kingdoms we've talked about? There's this specific coming kingdom and that title that Christ has when he comes again for that second coming to earth. For that earthly kingdom, he will have the title King of Kings and Lord of Lords, which gives him dominion over the entire earth, Jews and Gentiles included, but specifically focusing on all these Gentile nations, right? But the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, in this context, given the clue that nobody has seen him, refers to God's universal kingship, which fits with the sovereign, right?

He is the sovereign. He is the one who is over all. So I believe that's the way in which it is used. Although as soon as we see that, I'm sure The first thing that comes to mind is refers to Christ. But the rest of the clues in this passage point to God. And this King of Kings and Lord of Lords is a phrase in this context that refers to the universal kingdom. God's sovereignty, matter of fact that's the word there, sovereign. God's sovereignty over all things. And that's something especially important to remember in these days.

When you look at politically, economically, are things a little crazy? Yeah. Are things out of God's control? No. There is nothing that is going to happen between now and the election, and was that 14 months from now, something like that, between now and the next election that will change or impact in any way your position in Christ. God is managing everything, and I mean everything, to sum up all things in Christ. Everything will be summed up in Christ. God is managing things.

Nancy and I were talking to our son Ed, who was up at a conference at Lake Tahoe, and the fellow who was speaking is an author of a book that Ed and I read a couple decades ago practically. And this fellow has point man ministries and he got there from going through battles over in Vietnam and having to deal with the spiritual issues that were coming out of that.

But Ed was saying, he was sharing at the conference, the speaker was telling everybody at the conference Never forget, God is always in control. Don't get wrangled about, you know, this is happening here and this is happening there and, you know, what Congress did. Congress is always going to bother you, right? Mark Twain said, we're all safe and well until Congress is in session.

So there are lots of things we could get wrapped up about. There's a bunch of stuff going wrong. There's no question. But God is in control. And what really matters is untouchable. That's why it's really great that you're blessed with every spiritual blessing. Where? In the heavenly places where people can't touch it. And Congress can't vote on it. Right? And it can't be vetoed. Right? All right.

Verse 17, instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good and to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold, as a term used in winning an athletic competition, of that which is life indeed.

So, should a believer fix one's hope? And does that have anything to do with repairs? Do I need to go to the mechanic and say, hey, my hope needs to be fixed? Pardon? Yeah, and a locked-in focus. Think about it. What if your hope is in the political system? What if your hope is in the latest poll for presidential candidates? Or what if your hope is in the Dow Jones Industrial Average? I hope that your hope is not in Enron.

It's just not a very good idea. So fixing one's hope on things that this world can't touch. That's important. And it's not fixing repair. It's a continued focus. This is where my hope is. Yeah. I go back to the word stranger and alien. Stranger and alien. Tell me what you mean. Well, it said that Abraham was just an alien in this world. Okay. The city. Yes. Right. So he lived here. I can't keep up with it, but it's focused on the eternal. Isn't this great?

Here's Genesis 12, 1-3, God says, the land that I will show you. So sometime later, I mean quite a bit later, here's Abraham walking in the land that God's going to show him. Did Abraham get the deed for the whole thing? No. All the time Abraham lived in the land that God was showing him, it belonged to somebody else. It belonged to Canaanites.

As far as we know, all he got out of it was a cave at Machpelah. Right? Somewhere to bury Sarah. So that's it. He got this little tiny piece of property with a cave on it. So now, What's in it for Abraham? He had a hope that was fixed beyond, it wasn't like, oh, I'm despairing because here I come to this land and I don't have a deed. I don't have anything that says I own it.

What he did was he had God's promise. He had God's promise. How good is God's promise? Here's the thing, what God promised to Abraham approximately 4,000 years ago, what God promised to Abraham, God's still going to be faithful to it all the way to the very end. The land that 4,000 years ago, God says, I will show you will be the land where Jesus reigns. It will be the land that Israel will be blessed in according to the blessings of the law.

Right? Is God going to be faithful to that? Absolutely. So here is a hope that depends not on who gets elected president, and who the president appoints to this and that, and what Congress votes. Here is a hope that is fixed on God's eternal character. And that's a really good hope to have. It does not disappoint.

So, should believers shun and avoid enjoyment? I am miserable. Isn't that good? Does this passage give us any insight here? How about the end of verse 17? Yeah, for enjoyment. There was a period of time in the early church when things gravitated, and matter of fact, much of the church stayed there, gravitated towards, you know, you need to have this asceticism where deprivation is really where it's at spiritually. Now it doesn't mean we fix our hope on this world's pleasures, but in fact, enjoying things that the Lord gives us is okay. Yeah, it's okay. It's from him. It is not necessary that we deprive ourselves in order to show our spirituality.

One of the reasons, this is kind of amazing, one of the reasons the early church gave up on the idea of a literal millennial reign of Christ is they thought that that much enjoyment wasn't good. All those earthly blessings, they thought, well that's not good. And so they spiritualized, they allegorized the Bible in order to allegorize and throw away the literal understanding of the coming kingdom. Because they thought enjoying things that much, that's just sinful.

So enjoyment is something that is okay. It's fine. Okay, so are works good or bad? And he says in here, verse 18, he talks about rich and good works. Is he talking works? Oh no, Paul is talking works. It's terrible. What does he mean? What's the problem here? What's the issue? Yeah? Instead of self-directed, other-directed. Okay, and why?

They're fixing their hope. They're fixing their hope on this stuff, right? How about if your hope goes up and down with the Dow Jones Industrial Average? Yeah, get ready for the hope roller coaster, you know? So it does matter where we fix our hope, but it seems like there's an encouragement for good works here. Is Paul being contradictory? For by grace are you saved through faith, not of works. So why the encouragement to good works?

Ah, Ephesians 2.10, right? God has prepared every good work that we may walk in. Yes, Michael. Yes, sir. I like this. My favorite song. Our hope is in Him. Our hope is not in the good works. So why the encouragement of good works? Are we hoping that the good works will make sure we stay saved? What's the reason for them? Yeah? Well, I guess if you're doing works, they have to be either good works or bad works. Okay, yeah. We've got a little chart there that shows all sorts of alternative definitions of works.

We're not doing good works to gain a position. We're doing good works because of the position. Big difference. And that's the difference between law and grace, isn't it? The law says, boy, you'd better do the good works or you want to hold on to your position. Grace says you do the good works because of your position. Big difference. Big difference.

Should the sharing of wealth be legislated so as to enforce Christian principles upon society? If this is what the rich people ought to do under Christian instruction, shouldn't we just pass some laws and define exactly what that means in terms of how much good works and how much they have to share and all that? Why don't we just do that? Yeah, it seems like there's some political action that seems to match that, doesn't it?

But from a Christian standpoint, is that the fix? No, what's wrong with that? What's wrong with just, hey, we'll make some laws and that'll just fix it right up? What's wrong with that? It doesn't help your heart. Yeah, it has nothing to do with the heart. It has more to do with the IRS, right? Okay? And so it has nothing to do with the heart.

Is it possible that someone gives lots of money to the poor and regrets every penny of it? Yes. Is that what the Lord's looking for? No. So reluctant giving, forced giving is not what God's looking for. Looking for giving from the heart, that's what pleases God. Other things may please the IRS, I suppose.

Okay, last page, 1 Timothy 6, 20-22, and we may not get through here. O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.

Grace be with you. And we won't have time to go through this, so we'll have to call it quits so that we can avoid oil smudges on the glass. Okay? Okay. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for this passage. We thank you for the book that we've just completed studying here. We thank you for these important and very focused instructions to Timothy. And for the enlightenment that we have through the Holy Spirit, we pray also, Lord, as we've been beholding you through your word, that you would indeed transform us in the process by your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.