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1 Timothy chapter 1. We just started in 1 Timothy last Wednesday. We looked at the first five

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verses tonight, Lord Willem, we're going to get the next 11 verses, verse 6 through 17.

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First Timothy, that's going to be pretty close to the back of your Bible. 1 Timothy chapter

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1. We'll start in verse 6, just kind of picking up right in the middle of where we left off

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last week. Let's pray and then we'll get started. Father God, we come to you tonight and I thank

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you for this beautiful group of folks. I thank you for the love that we can come in here

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and just love on each other and laugh and just come to be in your presence, God. I just

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thank you for that. I pray that you bless the time that we have left, dear Lord. You've

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already blessed our time of song and I pray that you'd bless the reading of your word,

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dear Lord, that there would be something here that we would take home with us tonight. God,

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there's plenty that we need to hear and I pray that we would listen, that we would open

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our hearts, open our ears and see what your word has to say to us tonight. I pray that

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your Holy Spirit would hide me behind the cross, that you would help me to preach until

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I'm gone, that you would teach in a way that you take control and that you help us to hear

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what we need to hear. I ask these things in Jesus' name, amen. Just a brief refresher

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from last week. We were introduced to Paul being the writer of the book and he was writing

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to Timothy who was in Ephesus kind of carrying on some of the work that Paul had asked Timothy

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to do. There was a problem there that Paul was saying that Timothy needed to address.

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We see what that problem is here in verses three and four, that Timothy was up against

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some people who were teaching different doctrines and they were paying attention to myths and

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endless genealogies and they weren't operating by faith. So what he told Timothy to do is

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what we talked about last week in verse five. Now the goal of our instruction is love that

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comes from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. So the goal of Paul's

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instruction to Timothy, Timothy's instruction to the people was love that comes from a pure

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heart, that the people needed to be established on something better than the false doctrines

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and the endless genealogies and the myths and things they were focused on, that Timothy

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would come in and ground them on the love of God, on the love of Jesus Christ. They

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weren't living in that way, but that's the hope, that's the desire for Paul as he writes

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to Timothy, that he can make some progress in this area where he is ministering. And

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so we continue tonight right there in verse six. It says, some have deviated from these

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and turned aside to fruitless discussion. That is, they've turned aside from the good

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things, the things that are important, love, and the things that are relationship with

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Christ and the community should be founded on. And they had turned away to things that

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were fruitless. They were, as he says here, they were having fruitless discussion. And

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sometimes we may find ourselves in that trap of discussing things or debating things or

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arguing things or making a big deal out of things, and they can become fruitless discussion.

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I think we need to be careful. Now it's good for us when we look at God's word and try

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to understand God's word, sometimes we can say, well, what does this verse mean? Or what

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does that verse mean? Or what could we make of this or that? And we may have our differing

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opinion or differing views. And sometimes we can get so caught up in kind of arguing

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or debating or discussing our differences of opinion or our different views that sometimes

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that becomes our main focus. And we need to sometimes just kind of put those things to

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decide those fruitless discussions that we may find ourself in. But obviously the fruitless

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discussions they were having were not beneficial to them. As Paul had said, look, these false

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doctrines and these endless genealogies that you're trying to figure out and that you're

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trying to live by and paying attention to all these things, these are fruitless discussions.

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And people had turned away from what really mattered. And Paul is telling Timothy, hey,

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look, build something founded on love, build something better from a pure heart. This is

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what the people really need to hear. This is what their foundation needs to be. Verse

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seven, they want to be teachers of the law, although they don't understand what they are

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saying or what they are insisting on. Now, certainly Paul knows about those who want

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to be teachers of the law. Paul himself would have been one who would have known the law

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very well. The scripture tells us that Paul was a Pharisee by his own admission. He was

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a Pharisee and he knew what the law said. The Pharisees, to sum up part of what the

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Pharisees believed, they were really big on the law, the spoken law and the written law

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that we see early on in the Old Testament. The Pharisees would have been somewhat of

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experts in the law of God. They knew the law of God. They thought they were those who were

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living by the law of God. And to some level, they may have been living by some of the letter

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of the law of God, but even though they lived by the letter of the law, they were missing

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the intent of the law. And so they really prided themselves in their knowledge of the

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law, but they weren't really living for God. They were just trying to check some boxes.

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Oh, I checked these boxes, so I'm doing good. Now, Paul certainly knew what it meant to

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have that mindset. And that's what he's talking about with this audience here. Now, Paul himself

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says in Philippians chapter three, verses four through six, although I once also had

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confidence in the flesh, if anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh,

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I have more. Circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin,

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a Hebrew born of Hebrews, regarding the law of Pharisee, regarding zeal, persecuting the

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church, regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. So Paul says, look,

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I used to be a Pharisee and I was by every standard that you could see, I was the perfect

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person in the kingdom of God, or so he thought. He was a Jew. He knew his lineage. He knew

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his ancestry. He knew his genealogy. He knew the law. He was zealous for that law. He had

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so much zeal that he was going out and seeing that Christians were arrested and persecuting

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those Christians. And so by Paul's admission, by the way, he used to think this is who Paul

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was. He thought he was really something because he knew the law. So when he talks to Timothy

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here about dealing with these people who are struggling with this and think there's something

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special because they know the law, Paul says, oh, I could relate to that. I know Paul by

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his own admission tells us in Philippians what he used to be like. All right. So though

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they want to be teachers of the law, they don't understand what they are saying or what

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they are insisting on. And neither did Paul at that time. He didn't understand at that

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time. He was ignorant at that time, as we're going to see as we continue to read verse

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eight, but we know that the law is good provided one uses it legitimately. And so what are

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we to make of the law? Well, certainly in the Old Testament, there was a law there for

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the people to follow, but we're not saved by the law. We're not saved by the law at

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all. There's no way we can be made righteous by the law. We are only made righteous by

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Jesus Christ. And Romans chapter 12 verse, or excuse me, chapter 10 verse four, it says,

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for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. So Jesus is the

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end of the law because Jesus does for us what the law could not do for us. Or should I say

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what we could not do because of the law? Now the law can tell us what our sinfulness is.

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It can tell us what God's requirements are. Here's the standard that God requires. And

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the Old Testament is full of those laws of how God desires for us to live. But none of

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us are justified by those laws because we cannot live in accordance to those laws. And

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so we are not under the law. We are under grace, it says in Romans, Paul tells us. And

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that's because Jesus has fulfilled all of the law's requirements. And so for that reason,

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we don't live under the letter of the law today, but the law is in our hearts. The law

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is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Jesus dealt with this very topic in the Sermon on

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the Mount. When Jesus spoke about a few things there in chapter five, he said, you have heard

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it said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you, anyone who looks at another person with

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lust commits adultery in their heart. What Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount,

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and this is very important, I believe, is he's showing them it's not about the letter

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of the law. Because any Pharisee might have said, well, by the letter of the law, I'm

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not committing adultery. Yet all the while, they may have been looking lustfully at someone

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who walked by. But in their belief system, well, that's not part of the law. But what

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Jesus is saying is you're missing the intent of the law. Yes, the letter of the law says

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one thing, but the purpose of the law is for you to love one another, for you to love your

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neighbor, for you to treat people right, for you to not have impure thoughts. And that

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begins in your heart, Jesus says. So what Jesus is saying, it's not about the letter

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of the law, it's about what's in your heart. And so what Jesus says is harder in a sense.

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Now we can look at the law and say, man, it's hard to live by those laws in the Old Testament,

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and indeed it is. But then in some sense, what Jesus says is even harder because now

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we really have to look closer. It's not just about a checkbox, am I doing this thing that

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it says in black and white, but what's really in my heart? Because we can check the box.

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We can do things that other people can see, and we can give the impression that, oh yeah,

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we're living by what God says. But Jesus says, not so fast, what's inside? And we know what's

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inside, we can fool other people, but we know what's inside, and God knows what's inside.

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And Jesus says, that's what's important, because what comes out of the mouth comes from the

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overflow of the heart, Jesus says. And so the heart is the real deal. That's what God

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is focused on in the Old Testament. Even with the law, he wants his people to say, hey,

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these are the things that are wrong, therefore we don't do these things. We want to have

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a better heart, and we want to treat people right, and we want to love God first and foremost

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more than anything, and love our neighbor as ourselves. That is the intent of the law.

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That's why Jesus said, it's summed up in these two things, that you love God and that you

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love your neighbor. That sums up everything in the law. If you do those things in your

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heart, then all the other laws will be fulfilled in the way that they need to be fulfilled.

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And so this is the problem that obviously Timothy was going to have to deal with. He

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said, look, these people are really focused on the law, but they need to realize what

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Jesus was saying.

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All right, let's continue on. Verse 9, we know that the law is not meant for a righteous

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person, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy

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and irreverent, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexually

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immoral and homosexuals, for kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and for whatever else is contrary

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to the sound teaching based on the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was entrusted

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to me.

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Okay, so what does he mean there? He says, we know that the law is not meant for a righteous

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person. And then he goes off to list a bunch of sinfulness. Okay, but people who live in

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these ways, the law is meant for them. Well, what does he mean there? Well, what I think

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he means there is for the righteous person, we've come to faith in Jesus Christ. We have

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some acknowledgement here. We have some understanding of what God desires. So we don't need the

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letter of the law. If we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and follow Jesus Christ and

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put our faith in him and the Holy Spirit and dwells in us, then we have some conviction.

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We don't have to live by the letter of the law because the Spirit is within us and guiding

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us. But the law still has benefit. What's the benefit? Well, it's not for us because

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we don't do any of those things that are in the law anymore. Those things are gone. They

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have been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Well, let me rephrase that. We don't do any of those

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things in the same way. We do them in a different reason. We do them because we live in obedience

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to Jesus Christ. And so certainly in living in obedience to Jesus Christ, some of the

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things in the law are fulfilled, but it comes in that order. Through Christ, we fulfill

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the things that God desires. It's not the other way around. It's not that through the

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law we come to Jesus Christ and are made righteous because of that. No, we come to Jesus and

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through Jesus we do the things that God calls us to do, hopefully. But the law still has

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benefit because for the unrighteous, the one who's living in sin, when they open up God's

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word and they read the Old Testament and they see the standard that God has set, then hopefully

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it's an eye opener that God says, don't do this, don't do that. This is wrong. This is

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sinful. Stay away from that. Do this. This is good. This is right. Seek me. So when the

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unrighteous person sees the law, there's benefit there. The benefit hopefully is that they

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say, whoa, God is serious. God has serious commands and serious instructions for me.

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And God is a powerful and mighty God and look at who God is. And one day I'm going to have

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to stand before him. And so when we see the law, it helps us to see our shortcomings for

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those who are unrighteous. So that helps us to hopefully put our faith in Jesus Christ

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because we see, wait a minute, I can't live by all these laws. I can't do it. I encourage

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you to try. Well, no, I don't encourage you to try. But if you think you can try, just

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read through them and you'll find out real quick, you can't do it. You're going to sin.

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You cannot live by the law. But Jesus Christ has fulfilled all things. And so we are made

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righteous by Jesus Christ because Jesus has fulfilled the law and all its commands. In

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every way that we have failed, Jesus has succeeded. And so that's why when we say, wait a minute,

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God calls me to a higher standard, God, I'm a wretched sinner. What do I do? We call on

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the name of Jesus. Jesus, the son of God. And that's who makes us righteous through

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our faith and through forgiveness of sins when we repent to put our trust in Jesus.

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All right. Continuing on in verse 12, I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened

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me because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry. So this is good. Paul

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recognizes where he came from. He knew who he was, but he rejoices in God that God saw

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fit to strengthen him and call him to service. Now we may in this room not all be called

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to ministry as Paul was or as Timothy was, but nonetheless, should not we rejoice in

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God that God has strengthened us and chosen to use us for his kingdom in some way, maybe

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not to stand and preach a message, maybe something as simple as giving someone a phone call or

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a text message or dropping by for a visit or buying groceries for someone in need, whatever

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it may be. There are lots of ways in which we can serve and should serve that God puts

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before us and shouldn't we rejoice that, Hey, wait a minute. There was a time in my life

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that I was a pretty wretched sinner, but man, I heard the gospel, the good news of Jesus

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Christ and I was made righteous by him. And even though I'm unworthy and not capable of

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serving God, he strengthens me anyway. He uses me anyway in service to him. And Paul

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says, I praise God for that. So, so next time God puts something on your heart, even something

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that's kind of difficult or hard and you say, man, God, do you, man, are you sure you really

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want me to do this? And we try to find excuses why we shouldn't go do it or cause it's scary

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or cause it's dangerous or whatever. Maybe we just need to say, you know what God, thank

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you for this opportunity and give me the strength to go and do what you have called me to do.

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Verse 13, one who was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor and an arrogant man, but I received

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mercy because I acted out of ignorance and unbelief and the grace of our Lord overflowed

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along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Okay. So Paul says exactly who

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he was here. He was not a good guy for this. Now in religious circles, he was a very religious

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guy before Paul came to Jesus Christ. He was a very religious guy. Oh, he knew the religion.

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He knew the law. He knew the way to dress and the way to pray and all the things that

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the religious people of the day would have looked at and said, Whoa, look at Paul. He's

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very religious. And maybe sometimes we fall into that trap. We fall into the trap of religion.

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It's easy to do, but there's a difference between being religious and being a follower

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of Jesus Christ. Now, if we're a follower of Jesus Christ, we are religious, no doubt

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about that, but some people are religious and they're not a follower of Jesus Christ.

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And it's important we make a distinction between the two. Paul was very religious before he

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came to Christ, but he wasn't a Christian. He was all of these things that he mentions

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here. He said he was a blasphemer, a persecutor and an arrogant man, but praise God, he received

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mercy. He said, I was, I was ignorant. Now at the time he was doing these things, he

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didn't know he was ignorant. He thought he really knew God's word and he was really doing

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God's will. But then Jesus Christ came and opened his eyes and revealed to him the truth.

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And then Paul got it. And then Paul said, hold up, I'm not doing these things anymore.

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I'm following Jesus. And so he had that experience where Jesus revealed himself to him. Now we

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might not have that same experience that we're going down the road and a flash of light

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blinds us and, and those around us. And there it is. It's, it's Jesus there before us. We

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may not have Jesus reveal himself in that way. However, if he chooses to do so, I believe

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he probably still does in some occasions in the world. But nonetheless, I believe Jesus

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reveals himself to us, maybe in the Holy spirit speaking to us, or maybe it's in, in the word

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of scripture that, that, that our eyes are opened up to who Jesus is and the commands

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of Jesus. And, and what do we do? Well, hopefully we say, Whoa, Jesus, I want to follow you.

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I don't want to live in my own way. That's what Paul did. That's a good example. When

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we experienced Jesus, we need to be ready to turn from our old ways and say, look, Jesus,

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I see that you're a better way. You're the way. And I'm going to turn to you. All right.

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Verse 16 or 15, excuse me. This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance.

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Christ, Jesus came into the world to save sinners and I am the worst of them. Now that

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is one of my favorite verses right there. Listen to what Paul says. He says, Jesus came

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to save sinners and I am the worst of them. I am the chief. Some of your translations

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say, I am the chief of sinners of all the centers in the world. Paul says, I was rotten.

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This could be, I was the worst center of all sinners. Now I like this verse because I read

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it and I think, well, praise God, there's hope for the rest of us. If Paul was the worst,

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if he was the chief of centers and yet he received mercy, then praise God because we

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can sit here and we can make a list. And probably if we were writing a letter to another Christian

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friend, we may say the same thing about ourselves. We may say, man, I'm so rotten. I have messed

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up. I have messed up as a pastor or as a husband or as a father or as an employee or as a boss

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or as whatever it is. We can come up with all these ways in which we have failed and

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blew it and not lived according to the way that God wants us to, but praise God that

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we are the type of people that Jesus Christ died on the cross for, that we receive mercy.

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And Paul says, look, I was the worst of all sinners, but God had mercy on his soul and

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praise the Lord. God will have mercy on our soul today, even in the midst of our sin,

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no matter what our past is. You can go and read about Paul. His past was pretty rough.

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He was a pretty bad guy, but yet we read his words all the time in the New Testament. Why?

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Because he turned his life over to Christ and God used him in a mighty way. And God

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may want to do the same for you. God may, he may want to use your life tonight. He may,

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he may want to tell you tonight, okay, if you just seek me and listen to me, don't worry

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about what you did. That's in the past. You cannot change that. But who you are is not determined

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by what you did in the past. It's determined by what Jesus did, not what you did. And Paul

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had experienced that. And so his past wasn't dragging him down. Instead, he had his eyes

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on the prize. He had his eyes on the goal. He had his eyes ahead, not looking on what

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was behind, but focused on Jesus Christ and on what was ahead. Verse 16, he says, but

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I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might

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demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him

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for eternal life. So what does he say? He says, look, I can be an example. I can be

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an example because look at me, I was the worst of them. But in, in being the worst of them,

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it demonstrates the love of God. It demonstrates the patience of God. It demonstrates the mercy

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of God. It demonstrates the grace of God and praise the Lord for these words. These words

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are uplifting because it lets us know that we have hope. Now, sometimes the enemy would

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like to convince us that we do not have hope, that we are too rotten, that we are too sinful,

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that we are too far gone. But then we read these words of Paul and Paul says, Hey, let

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these words be a reminder that God saves the worst of sinners. He saved me. He was merciful

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to me. He was patient with me and he'll be patient with you. We have to make that decision

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as Paul did when Jesus Christ is revealed to us and we come to that understanding and

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that realization that we are sinners and that Jesus Christ is the son of God. We have to

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say, Lord Jesus, I put my faith in you. I repent of my sins. I trust you and I'm going

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to live for you. So these are beautiful verses here where Paul kind of gives his testimony,

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if we can call it that. And then he ends this section here in verse 17. He says now to the

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King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, the honor and glory forever and ever.

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Amen. What does he do? He ends with praise. We see that so many times. We see it at the

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beginning of the letter. We just saw it a few verses. He was praising God and here he

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is again. He's praising God. Why? Because God had delivered him. He had freed him. He

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had brought salvation to him through Jesus Christ and that's worth praising God for.

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It would have been years before this that this event would have happened to Paul when

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he experienced Jesus and when he came to faith in Jesus Christ and yet even all of these

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years later, he's still about the work of God. He's still on mission for God and he's

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still praising God. So maybe for some of you, maybe you've never come to faith in Jesus

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Christ. Maybe you know the word. Maybe you like Paul. Maybe you know who God is. Paul

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knew he knew what we would call the Old Testament very well, but he did not know God. He did

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not understand the heart of God, but he understood it once he met Jesus Christ. And maybe there

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are some tonight that need to put their faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe there are others tonight

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that are like Paul and we've walked with the Lord for a long time, but maybe we need to

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see these verses just to remind us of just how much of a sinner we are in our past and

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maybe even in our present and to know that God is merciful and that that is worth praising

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him for. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you. We thank you for your good word. I pray

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that you would help us to take these words home with us when we leave tonight. I pray

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dear Lord that we don't fall into the trap of a bunch of fruitless discussions and things

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that don't matter, but that everything is founded on Jesus. God, I pray tonight that

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we would be those who are righteous. We are not righteous God because we are religious.

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We are righteous because we have come to faith in Jesus Christ. So God, let us rise above

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religion and make sure that all we do is founded on Jesus Christ. Dear Lord, maybe there are

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some tonight that are struggling with sin. I pray God that you would just give them peace

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from that. We see Paul's beautiful words that you are patient, dear Lord, and you are forgiven

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to those who would seek you and come to you. So God, I pray that if there are some who

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are struggling with sins, that they would leave those things behind and that they would

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put their faith in Jesus Christ and focus on him tonight and be used by you, dear Lord,

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that we would be obedient just as Paul and Timothy. God, we may not all be missionaries

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or preachers as they were, but God, we are all called to serve in your kingdom in some

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way. And so let us see the ways that we can serve. Let us rejoice in those ways and let

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us continually rejoice in you, dear Lord. And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.