Ahem.
Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in heaven, we bow before your throne, grateful for the day that you've granted to us, the life that you have granted us.
We're grateful for all that you do each and every day.
We ask that you forgive us when we sin and fall short of your glory.
We pray for this nation and we pray for its leaders.
We pray for the nations throughout the world and their leaders.
We pray that they make decisions that will lead to open doors of opportunity for the gospel to be preached throughout the world.
Lord, we pray for peace, for the furtherance of the gospel.
We also pray for boldness that we might speak the truth no matter what comes.
Lord, we pray that your hand will be with those who are serving in mission fields throughout the world, who stand firm in the truth and are sound in the faith and who are
working diligently in difficult places throughout the world.
Especially, we pray for those who are under threat for their life as a result of the message that they preach.
We pray that you will be with them and grant them protection and pray that you will also grant them opportunity.
Lord, we pray that you be with us as we go through this morning.
We pray that we might focus our minds and our attention on your Word and on your will and how we can apply those things to our lives.
And may we grow closer to you each and every day.
All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
In 1 Timothy chapter 6, has provided a...
final admonition to Timothy as to how he is to live, how he is to the things he is to pursue, the things he is to flee.
He has spoken concerning the confession of Christ, that is the confession that Christ made before Pontius Pilate, that he was the Son of God, that his kingdom was not of this world,
that he was a king, and that his authority surpassed the authority of Pilate.
But he also has described
the nature of deity as the one who dwells in unapproachable light whom no man has seen or can see to whom be honor and everlasting power.
Now, some would suggest, well, this must be talking about God the Father because
uh no man has seen the Father.
Well, except who then did Moses see?
Do you remember when Moses was on the mountain?
Moses desired to see God and God said, you'll see the backside of me, but not the front.
So.
How do we understand this statement?
I don't want to go too deep into it or spend too much time on it, but how do we understand this idea of God who no man can see?
What are we to understand from that?
All right, so like very, very first step, number one, God is the spirit.
God is not flesh and blood.
He is not of the nature that we have, okay?
That's number one.
And as such, His,
eternal nature, because that's exactly what John has, or what Paul has in focus here, the eternal nature of God and Christ are so significantly beyond our physical world.
that when we see a manifestation of God in the sense of when the apostles or the prophets or the Old Testament uh leaders or prophets in their days saw a manifestation of God, it
was
so much in view of the glory, it was so significant that it either brought them to their knees, it was, you know, Moses, when he appeared before the burning bush, fell on his
face.
You had uh Joshua, when he sees the soldier and realizes who it is, he falls on his face.
You have examples of individuals when they see God or they see a manifestation of God or even sometimes when they see an angel, they're so afraid that they immediately bow.
down or they immediately fall in their faces though dead.
All of these examples that we see.
are still a limited experience of the nature of God.
They are, and I think this is where Paul's point is and where the other passages points are where Jesus says no man has seen God, is that they have seen a manifestation of God's
glory
They have seen a manifestation of God's presence, but they have not and cannot stand and see God in His full unmitigated glory.
We talked last Sunday about the fact that when John writes Revelation, he writes concerning the throne room of God there in Revelation chapter 4, and he writes the
description of the one who sits on the throne, yet he doesn't describe the one who sits on the throne at all.
He describes the glory emanating from the throne.
He describes the beasts that are around the throne.
He describes the elders that are around, but he doesn't describe the one who's on the throne.
Just his glory.
Just the manifest power that is there.
Now, that whole picture is also derived from Ezekiel, where Ezekiel describes God and his throne.
And yet again Ezekiel does not describe the one who sits on the throne other than his glory, his power.
But all of this is still just a manifestation, a glimpse to the true nature of God.
to which Paul says, when you're discussing the true nature and full nature of God in His dwelling place, he says, no man's seen that.
No man has been that, been able to endure and experience that.
So you have here,
just one of those slight phrases that gives us an explanation of the limited glory that man had experienced in all of these interactions that we have described to this point.
And it's telling us that, have you ever thought about, um
Maybe this would be a good way to think about it.
You've seen uh some of the visuals or some of the footage from years ago when they used to test nuclear bombs, right?
And the light streaming, you know, they'd have the little view ports that they could see out into where things are being tested and sometimes you'd have the photographer capture a
view of the people and this very bright light coming in through those view ports to the people who are inside.
But the viewport they're looking through is so minimal for their own protection.
If you could almost think about us in relationship to God that we're, every glimpse, every picture that we have of God is like looking through the little viewport, because that's
all we can stand.
That's all we can experience while in the flesh of the nature of God,
is the slightest sliver, the slightest experience, the slightest knowledge of His true glory.
Now watch this, 1 John chapter 3.
If you were to think, no, wait a minute, surely someone like the Apostle John would have experienced, I mean, he walked with Christ, he was present when God spoke from heaven, he
was present when God spoke from heaven on the Mount of Transfiguration, he was there when Jesus was transfigured, he was there when Christ died, he was there when Christ was
resurrected, he was there when Christ descended, surely oh
in the visions he was drawn up into heaven.
If there's anyone who could describe the nature of God, it would be John.
except in 1 John chapter 3, John writes, verse 1, behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.
Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know him.
Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
He's talking about in eternity.
He's talking about our existence in eternity.
He says, has not yet been revealed what we shall be.
John is writing, 1 John, 80, 70, 80, 68, if you give an early date to it, or a later date, 80, 80, 80, 88, somewhere around there.
He's writing this decades after Jesus ascended back into heaven.
and he's writing to the early church and he says we still don't know what we will be like in eternity.
You're nearing the end of all miraculous revelation and all writing from the New Testament.
And John says clearly, still don't know what we will be like.
But, he says, we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as
He is.
John is telling us.
as an elder, as an old man, as one of the aged apostles who was still alive, I don't have a clue what we will be like in eternity.
But I know this, we will finally see God as He is.
we will finally see the true nature of Christ.
and we'll be like him.
John is making it clear, as Paul is making it clear in these words, in these small statements, that our suppositions about what eternity are like, our ideas about what
spiritual beings are like, our concepts of the nature of God are slivers of knowledge.
and that what we long for and what we hope for and what we anticipate and what is promised to us is experiencing God as He is.
We need to remember that while we're surrounded by people who through the centuries have brought forward their own visuals and concepts of eternity, that none of them are close.
None of them are close.
for the individual who writes Revelation and paints the only spiritual, divinely delivered picture of the very throne room of God says, I'll have a clue.
what we're going to be like.
That tells us that all the language there in Revelation is accommodative to our understanding.
It's a picture to communicate to us because if it were described in true spiritual terms in the spiritual nature of the existence in heaven, we wouldn't understand it.
We'd have no relationship to it.
So it's given in our terms.
when the four beasts are around the throne.
I wouldn't expect when we get to heaven we're going to find a beast sitting there that's got a head of an eagle and a head of a lion.
I don't think lions are in heaven.
By the way, sorry for disappointment, but dogs aren't in heaven either.
Cats aren't either.
Horses aren't either.
The point that we should be getting from this is not a disposition, well, and who knows what it'll be like, rather an anticipation of the vast glory yet unexperienced by
humanity.
Oftentimes people.
think about eternity.
And they think about the few passages that give us pictures into eternity, like when Jesus describes the events of the rich man in Lazarus.
And yet, all those pictures that we have are accommodative to us.
They're accommodative to our understanding.
But they're also painting a understanding that there is a waiting period.
until Christ's before those who are in eternity, even now, will experience the very presence of God.
There's reason why all the pictures are consistent indicating that there's a waiting place for those who have already passed away.
Where Paul describes that those who have died in advance of Christ's return will wait.
They will not proceed or prevent the rest of us into eternity.
Okay?
So Paul is...
reminding Timothy a couple of things.
Number one, that our experience and our knowledge of God is miniscule.
But when you understand that, and then you look at all the powers and mights and principalities and people who have such power that they can cause your life to be taken,
and it means nothing to them, just a word, and your life is gone.
we're to be reminded that that doesn't even begin to compare to the power of God.
There's a reason why Jesus in Matthew chapter 10 says, not fear Him who can destroy the body.
but rather fear Him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.
Jesus is saying all those people, all those authorities, all those kings, all those individuals of great power, their power is so limited it does not even begin to compare.
to the power of God.
And so, Paul is encouraging Timothy to continue making that good confession.
All of this statement, all of this is in view of pursue righteousness, pursue godliness, make that continual confession that Christ is Lord and never waver from it.
Because there is a king
in eternity.
who not only reigns, who not only has all authority in heaven and earth, who not only dwells in unapproachable light.
but who specifically cares for you.
You see, it's one thing to have a picture and an image of a great and an awesome God.
But if that great and awesome God is not also personal, loving, caring, full of tender mercy and grace...
then all you've created is a picture of a very, very dangerous presence.
And yet that's not the picture of God.
It's the picture of God when the psalmist writer says, is man that you are mindful of him?
As the psalmist writer there in the psalm paints that picture of look at all of the things that God has created and done and all the things just in this physical universe that we
experience and in view of that man is so inconsequential.
So God, why do you care about man?
And yet it is asked with the knowledge and the assumption that God does care.
So when we view God, we are not to view him as the God who is separated from man.
We are not to view God as the God who is so powerful that man
could not possibly matter, rather we are to view God as the God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but
have everlasting life.
That's the picture of God that we are to hold on to.
Now, he says,
command, verse 17, those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty.
In chapter 6, his discussion has been on wealth, money, and riches, and warnings concerning them, and in this process of giving this admonition to Timothy about what
Timothy's focus is to be on, he hasn't changed topics.
He just described God who is so glorious and is so amazing that we have never even seen Him.
Now he reverts back to, all right, now these people who have money.
He says, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty.
Why is it important?
Well, first of all, what does haughty mean?
Prideful?
Puffed up.
It is the visual that I get with it is the strutting around of the rooster when he's in with the hens.
He is the one.
Look at me.
Everybody look at me.
And that's how too often the rich behave.
There's a reason why there's a red carpet event for this thing and that thing and that.
It's to where the rich can strut down the red carpet and be seen.
Paul says, no, no, no, no.
Not Christians who are rich.
He says, you command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
Paul, as he writes to Timothy, gives authority over the lives of rich people to a simple preacher.
Have you ever thought about the fact that when Paul says command
He is taking all those Christians who have wealth and he's actually making them subservient to the instructions of the minister.
about their attitude toward their riches.
Now he's not telling Timothy, Timothy all these people's riches are at your disposal, you tell them what to do with it.
No, no, no, that's not what he told them to command.
He told them to command them about how they are to behave towards it.
He says, you command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches.
So what's the difference between riches that are certain and riches that are uncertain?
Okay.
Okay, all physical riches are uncertain.
How do we know?
Matthew chapter 6.
Turn back there.
Matthew chapter 6.
Paul is not bringing this point up out of nowhere.
This is exactly what Jesus taught.
Matthew chapter 6, beginning of verse 19, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal.
What's that a description of?
Uncertain, uncertain, uncertain, uncertain.
says, not put your treasures there, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroy, where thieves do not break in and steal, for where your
treasure is, there your heart will be also.
If they are not to place their trust in uncertain riches, then they are to place their trust in certain riches, and the difference between the two is the uncertain riches are
earthly, the certain riches are eternal.
to her faults.
Gold is earthly.
True or false?
Therefore gold is not eternal.
True!
Paul is teaching Timothy to be forceful in his command toward those who are wealthy.
Now usually by nature of circumstances in life and positions in life, you find that reversed.
You find that those who should be the spiritual leaders start deferring to the thoughts and the opinions of those who are wealthy.
They start humbling themselves to do whatever the wealthy person wants done, right?
Hey, ah you're the big wig around here.
You're the one with all the money.
You're the one who makes sure the bills get paid.
So since you're the rich person, whatever you say goes.
Paul says, uh-uh, not happening.
Rather, he tells Timothy, the young, to a degree inexperienced, just by nature of time of living,
Preacher
You command.
You instruct.
You set the mentality toward riches that these individuals are to have.
And it's all about what do they put their trust in.
When you go back over to Matthew chapter 6, what's the question that Jesus is continually putting forward?
Why are you worried about what you shall eat, what you shall drink, what you shall wear?
And his point is, when you look at the grass that grows, the flowers that are in the grass, when you look at the birds of the air, who takes care of them?
Father does.
Jesus even emphasizes that not one sparrow falls from the sky.
God doesn't notice.
So if you are concerned about all these worldly things, if your focus, your attention, and your trust is, you know what, when I have a certain dollar amount in the retirement
account, then I know that my life will be secure.
Paul says, uh you've put your focus in the wrong spot.
Now, Paul is neither condemning the rich, nor is he condemning their planning for the future, nor is he condemning any attribute of making sure that people are provided for.
He is condemning a trust in riches.
He is commanding Timothy to command the rich to trust in God and not their wealth.
When we get our focus on God, not on possessions, when we get our focus on, as Paul puts it, the living God and not this earth, then all of the things that we have become a
resource for God.
When you look at this back and forth between Christ and those who listen to him on a continual basis, you have, for instance, the man who comes to Jesus and says, tell my
brother to split the inheritance with me.
And Jesus said, who made me a judge in these matters?
Jesus focuses
his attention on a covetous heart.
His attention on the fact that he is focused on physical matters, yet he is standing in front of the teacher who could deliver him spiritual riches.
And all he's worried about is the money.
you find the rich young ruler comes to Jesus, what do I need to do in order to obtain eternal life?
And Jesus gives him the answer, but what's it going to cost him?
every physical possession he has because he had great possessions.
Now, Paul throughout this has warned over and over and over again about the love of riches and the desire for riches.
Paul is making it clear to Timothy that this is a trouble area in the church.
Turn to James chapter 2.
James chapter 2 verse 1, My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality.
For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one
wearing the fine clothes and say to him, You sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man, You stand there or sit here at my footstool.
Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?
But you have dishonored the poor man.
Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?
Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?
If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scriptures, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, you do well.
But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
James, as he writes to the church, knows the struggle that exists within even the body of Christ, that they would be willing to show deference to a rich person and dishonor a poor
person just because they both walked through the door.
Is James saying that there is not an appropriate way to act towards dignitaries and to those who are in authority and that we shouldn't act appropriately towards them, we should
be dismissive of their position?
No.
When Paul appeared before Agrippa and Festus and others, did Paul
poo-poo their positions, ah you're not important.
Did he do that?
No, he called him most noble festus.
He gave them the honor that their position warranted.
That's not what's being talked about here.
This is a disposition of individuals to say, wow, did you see that car that that guy just drove up in?
And he comes out and he's wearing a $4,000 suit and ring on every finger.
This guy's got some money.
We need to get him in this congregation.
And here comes the guy from down the street walking because he doesn't have a car.
And when he gets to the door, he didn't smell all that good either.
And he's unkept.
Because, well, you you walk outside in the wind today and you walk for a foot or two and you're gonna be unkept.
And he walks in the door and everybody kind of, sit over there.
James says, no, you don't.
James says the very act of doing that is sin.
you've committed since.
Why is the very act of acting towards and behaving towards people that way sin?
That's right.
We have become, as James puts it, judges of evil.
We have judged with a judgment that is the antithesis of the very nature and character of God.
That is to judge without partiality.
Now what if one man had come in and you said, now I know the reputation of that guy and he opposes Christians everywhere they go.
He beats them?
he imprisons them, he brings them before judges.
I'm staying as far away from that guy as possible.
because I know his reputation of his actions.
And here comes another guy and he's not reacted towards Christians that way.
And you show deference to that individual versus that one.
Have you judged evil thoughts?
No.
Which is, by the way, the reason why we don't have a harsh condemnation of the apostles or those in Jerusalem when Saul of Tarsus shows up claiming to be a Christian.
Because they knew what he had done.
And they weren't altogether certain about this guy, except there was one individual who judged differently.
Who was it?
Part of us.
Barnabas said, I'll put my reputation on the line for this man.
And he brought him into the presence of the apostles.
One is characterized by uncertainty but people's actions.
One is described by you see them and you attribute their physical riches to be an indication of their character.
and physical riches are not.
Yes.
Did not.
Absolutely.
So that picture comes from Revelation chapter 2 concerning Laodicea, this very wealthy city, this very wealthy church, that they thought of themselves as they had everything.
And God says, you have nothing.
You're destitute, you're poor, you're blind, you're naked.
You're all those things you think you're not, because spiritually that's what you are.
And then you have Philadelphia, Smyrna, which is a very poor, it was a very poor location, it was a very poor city in first century Roman culture.
It was one that had nothing really going for it and a church that was there that was already struggling.
Yet John writes to them that they are rich.
because they are rich in spiritual matters.
So, Paul says here in verse 17, command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all
things to enjoy.
Let them do good that they be rich in good works.
The idea of let here is not a allow.
This is a continuation of the command.
He's instructing them first, here's their disposition that they are to have towards their riches.
Second, here are their actions that they are to have with their riches.
He says, you are to have them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come that
they may lay hold on eternal life.
True or false?
We will all be judged for what we do in this life.
True.
True or false?
Those who have great resources and abundance and benefits in this life will be judged based upon whether they use those things for God.
True.
Does the person who has nothing get judged the same way?
They get judged the same way, but they don't have the same responsibility.
It is important for us to realize that with everything God blesses us with comes responsibility.
The more blessings, the more responsibility.
The greater the weight of the responsibility.
And so it is important for us to realize that those who God says, here, use the example from the talents.
Here's the man, the servant who the king puts five talents in his hands.
Is he going to hold him to a different level of accountability than the one with one talent?
Are they both accountable for their talents?
Yes, but the king has placed more in his hand.
What happens when he now doubles it and now he has 10 talents?
and then he has 11 talents.
Is he going to have the same responsibility with five that he now has with 11?
No, he's going be held to greater responsibility.
Why?
Because he has more entrusted into his hand.
Are elders judged the same way that a person who's just become a Christian a month ago is judged?
We know that's not the case.
Why?
Because one group has a greater responsibility that has been placed in their hands.
Now at the end of the day, we're all going to be judged for what we do.
So Paul is telling Timothy, you're there in Ephesus.
By the way, that indicates to us that there were rich people in the church in Ephesus.
There were wealthy people in the church in Ephesus.
And Paul is telling Timothy, you there in Ephesus, you command those in that church who are rich to be active in good works, to be benefiting those who are in need.
He says they are to be ready to give.
They are to be willing.
to share, which also indicates that likely there at Ephesus they had those who were very rich and there were those who were destitute.
Paul tells Timothy, you command them to first have the right attitude.
Then you command them to do the right thing.
And then he says, when they do that, they will have transferred.
They're uncertain riches to assure foundation in eternity.
There is an exchange rate that exists in this world between physical riches and eternal riches.
and it's called giving.
that when we give out of a benevolent spirit, out of a trust for God, not to be seen of men, because Jesus makes it clear, if you give to be seen of you have what reward?
what you just experienced, right there, that's it.
That's all you're But rather when you give to not be seen of men.
You're storing up riches.
We were talking just a few weeks ago, a conversation there in the back, and I read in a biography of a preacher in, I think, the early 1900s, maybe the early 1900s, and rather
well-known, but always poor.
And uh it was said concerning him that one of the struggles that his family had is he was willing to give away anything to anybody who needed it.
But it was also said of him that he had set a goal, now bear in mind, early 1900s, that he had set a goal to store up in eternity $50,000.
In other words, he had a goal in his life to give away $50,000 as a poor preacher.
And so when he had access to money, he'd find somebody who needed it.
But the way that he thought about it is, I'm going to put these treasures where they're actually going to matter, and that's in eternity.
And there's times in our lives where we need to be thinking that way.
We need to be moving out of the abstract idea of we need to be benevolent or we need to be giving and into a real question of how are we planning for eternity?
How are we acting now to set plans for eternity?
We're going to close the book.
Paul writes, Timothy, guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.
By professing it, some have strayed concerning the faith.
Grace be with you.
Amen.
As Paul closes this letter to Timothy, he reminds him this battle's not going to be easy.
your actions as a teacher, as an instructor, as one who's put, as one who has had these things put in your hands.
It's gonna be easy.
It's not gonna be easy.
It's going to be one you're going to have to guard against these pitfalls.
All of these are things which previously we've already discussed in the book.
He just brings them back up.
Don't forget the warning.
Don't forget, people will try and sidetrack you.
Don't forget.
people will claim to have knowledge didn't originate with God.
If it didn't originate with God, it's false knowledge because it does not accord with the word of God.
Thank you for your attention and that will be a conclusion of First Timothy.