Stewardship, Not Speculation

1:44Well, friends, today we begin our study of the pastoral epistles, 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus. These are letters that were written by the Apostle Paul to two men that he had trained for ministry, Timothy and Titus. And he wrote 1 Timothy around 64 AD, right before his final imprisonment in Rome. Throughout Paul's life and his ministry, his greatest concern, his number one concern, was that the churches that he had established and that he had worked to build up would be healthy, that they would go on and what they had learned, that they would go on loving one another and serving one another, and in so doing, honor the Lord who had called them. So Paul often wrote letters to churches as a whole. In fact, when you look at his letters in the New Testament, nearly every one of them is addressed to a church.

2:36But in these letters that are known as the pastoral epistles, he writes to an individual and specifically to a church leader because leaders need instruction too. The old saying goes, as go the leaders, so goes the organization. And we could say the same about churches. But these letters clearly apply to both leaders and churches. Paul obviously ends. Intended for a wider readership than just Timothy or Titus. And one of the primary themes that we find in these letters is the title of our sermon series: To Fight the Good Fight.

3:12You see, the gospel message, the message of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, is under attack both inside and outside the church. And so, as Christians, we are called to preserve the gospel message, to preserve anyone from adding to it or subtracting from it, so that we have a message to proclaim, so that the good news is pure and unadulterated, because it is the good news of Christ alone that can save. And so, we're called to fight the good fight so that that message is preserved.

3:44But, of course, we wage a battle that has many different fronts. We fight against the spiritual forces of wickedness, evil that are talked about both by Jesus and his apostles often in the New Testament. And we know that we fight a battle within against our own sin and temptation as well. And so, we have to fight the good fight in order to honor the Lord with our lives. We're called to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel.

4:10And so, today's message is called stewardship, not speculation. And as I was preparing for this message, I laughed out loud when I thought about this T-Mobile commercial that I'd seen recently. Maybe you've seen it too. Watch this. You said $30. Yeah, well. Was 30 before my fees, like the pizza order AP and the oxiding AP, and the Raw Missionary Closet fee. Yeah, yeah, we're the same size and shoes. I think we can all agree that babysitter was not the best steward, not the best steward of that home and those children. Clearly, the mom and dad had different expectations of how she would manage their children and how she would manage that home. And yet, that babysitter was totally convinced that she still deserved to be fully compensated for her work. She says, that'll be 50 bucks. And in the same way, many of us who profess faith in Christ haven't been faithful to the stewardship that God has given to us, and yet we still think that God should bless us for it.

5:24That's a common idea that you see in many churches today. But as Paul is going to write to Timothy, God has entrusted us with the gospel message. We've been given a stewardship, and we have to be faithful to the calling that He's placed on our lives. And so, what we're going to learn today is that Christians are stewards called by God to preserve and proclaim the gospel. So, let's look now at verse 1 together. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by command of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, our hope.

6:02Now, if you're unfamiliar with the Apostle Paul, previously he was known as Saul. He was a Pharisee that was very quickly rising in the ranks of Judaism. In fact, he was discipled by one of the greatest rabbis of his generation, a man named Gamalale. And Saul was zealous for Judaism. He was zealous for the law, and so he persecuted Christians, imprisoning them and in some cases even putting them to death. But as Saul was traveling on the road to Damascus, where he intended to persecute even more Christians, the Lord Jesus, the risen Jesus, appeared to him.

6:34Look on the screen at Acts 26. And I said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me, and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.

7:18And so from this point, Saul the persecutor becomes Paul the apostle. His calling from God is recognized by the church at Antioch, and they send him out to go and plant churches. And spread the message of the gospel. Now, Paul introduces himself here as an apostle. That word means a messenger or a sent one. And he's an apostle of Jesus Christ. And this is an introduction that he makes in almost every one of his letters. He starts off most of the time by reminding the recipients that he is an apostle from God. And Paul doesn't do this to brag about his calling or to set himself apart in some ungodly way, but he does it to remind them that he is not speaking on his own authority. He's not saying to these churches, you need to do these things, you need to believe these things, because this is Paul's opinion. He's saying, I am an apostle, I'm a messenger or one sent by God with a particular message, and he's calling them to be faithful and remain faithful to that message.

8:19And so typically in the introduction, he'll remind everyone of his apostleship, that he's being sent by God and that he speaks not the words of man, but the words of God under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. You also notice in his introduction that there's important reminders there that sometimes when we read these letters, we can be quick to skim over. But he reminds everyone that God is our Savior, and Christ Jesus is our hope. Friends, that's what makes Christianity different from every other religion.

8:52The fact that God is our Savior and that Christ Jesus is our hope. See, in nearly every other religion, salvation. Comes or forgiveness of sins comes through strict adherence to a religious code. So as long as you do the right religious actions, as long as you try hard to do more good things than evil things, you will be counted right before God, the judge. But Christianity is a totally different message. It teaches us that we cannot save ourselves. No amount of church attendance, no amount of religious works, no amount of trying to outweigh our bad with our good, none of those things are going to make us right in God's eyes. God does not count those righteous who try hard to be good.

9:38Instead, what the gospel teaches us is that good intentions can't make up for our sin. And we know that even in a human court. If I've committed some kind of an evil and I go to court for it, I might tell the judge, I might tell the people that are in the jury that I will try hard to do better. I will do differently from this day forward. But it doesn't matter how many good things I do after that. No amount of good things can ever erase what I did. How much more so with a holy God? No amount of good things that we do can ever make up for our sin. But Jesus was sent to be the Savior that we needed. He was sent to do for us what we could not do for ourselves, to live a perfect life, to offer his life as a sacrifice in our place, to die and to rise again. And so Paul. Reminds Timothy that God is our Savior and Christ is our hope. Every Christian needs to be reminded of that, and especially those of us who serve in leadership in churches like Timothy. We're not the Saviors. Our preaching and teaching are not the Saviors. Our events are not the Savior. Jesus is the Savior that we need. And so he starts off in this way. Now, the question is, who is Timothy? Some of us know his name. Many of us are unfamiliar with him as a person, though. Paul met Timothy on his second missionary journey, kind of toward the front end of that journey, as he was traveling back to some of the cities in which he had planted churches. And so we find this in Acts chapter 16, verses 1 and 2. Paul came also to Derby and to Lystra. A disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer, but his father was a Greek. He was well spoken of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.

11:27If we read ahead to 2 Timothy, Timothy's grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, were believers in Christ. And they probably came to faith in Christ during Paul's first missionary journey. And in that middle period, in between these two times at which they came to faith in Christ and Paul is writing to Timothy, Timothy himself was led to faith in Christ by his grandmother and his mother, Lois and Eunice. And I think there's some important things to consider when we reflect on that. For those of you who are raised, Children, parents, grandparents. For those of you who serve in kids' ministries, preschool children, youth, it's important that you see the impact that Lois and Eunice had on their son and grandson.

12:14I once heard Andy Stanley say, Your greatest contribution in this life may not be something you do, but someone you raise. And certainly we see that in the case of Timothy. And so let me encourage you this morning, if you are discipling young people, to press on, even when the work is hard. Because God has a plan for every young person's life, and this plan for Timothy was that he grow up to lead a church one day. And what an honor. Well, Timothy was apparently quite young when Paul met him. Most people believe that he was in his late teens or early 20s. About 13 or 14 years have passed. Now it's the mid-60s. It's around AD 64. And so Timothy is in his early to mid-30s. He was still considered a young man in his culture. And I actually came across this quote by Irenaeus, who's a second-century bishop. He wrote this: 30 is the first stage of a young man's age and extends to 40, as all will admit. I read that and I was like, Still a young man. Still a young man. Timothy was considered young in his culture. He was a godly man, but he needed encouragement. And he needed encouragement because the work there in Ephesus was very difficult. And probably also because he was young and timid. I mean, it's hard when you're young to lead, and Timothy was placed by God in that position. But whatever the reason, Paul encouraged and instructed him because he regarded Timothy as what? Look at verse 2, to Timothy, my true child in the faith.

13:51Those words had to have blessed Timothy so much because as you'll read in these letters as well as in the book of Acts, we saw in Acts 16, his mother was Jewish, but his father was a Greek. And so according to Jewish culture, he was Jewish because they trace Jewish lineage through the mother's line, but he didn't have a Jewish father. And so to most people in that culture, he was kind of a half-breed. He didn't really count.

14:17But into that, into that kind of identity crisis, Paul calls him what? My true child in the faith. It's critical that we allow God to identify who we are. So many of us struggle with identity, not just children, not just teenagers, not just those of you who are in school, but adults as well. We struggle with our identity, and it's because we allow other people to say, this is who you are, rather than going to God's word and saying, God, who do you say that I am? And Paul reminded him, no matter what anybody says about you, you are my true child in the faith. He closes his introduction by saying, grace, mercy, and peace from God. And then he launches into the body. Look at verse 3.

15:05As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus, so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. We've mentioned the city of Ephesus a few times, where Timothy is living and where he is serving as a pastor in this church. And Ephesus, this ancient city, is on what we would call the western coast of modern-day Turkey. It was a very important place. It was a cultural and commercial center. It's where the ancient temple of Artemis or Diana was. So it was also a religious center. And Paul actually came to Ephesus early on in his second missionary journey, but then decided not to stay, but go on to other cities and preach the gospel. And he told them, I will return to you if the Lord wills. Well, clearly it was God's will for him to return because he did come back to Ephesus, and he actually ended up staying in that city and preaching longer than any other city that he stayed in. He was there for almost three years. And so he began preaching in the synagogue, and then after they kicked him out of the synagogue, he went to a place called the Hall of Tyrannus, where he taught for over two years. And so I want you to think about this, the setting that he's in here, this commercial and cultural and Religious center where he's preaching the gospel. And if you were with us a couple years ago when we went through the book of Acts, you know that Paul's preaching was so blessed by God that many people in the city came to faith in Christ. So many people came to faith in Christ that the silversmiths, the men who made idols, statues of Diana, they started going out of business because those people had turned from idolatry to faith in the one true God. And those people got very upset. The silversmiths started a riot and they had Paul kicked out of town. But he came back briefly and he met with the elders on a beach one day. And he gave them a charge. And I want you to look at how he warns them in Acts chapter 20.

17:14He says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that for three years I did not cease night or day to admonish everyone with tears. So when you know the background of the city of Ephesus and you know what Paul is dealing with there and now what Timothy is dealing with, it becomes very clear why Timothy as a young pastor would need encouragement. And so Paul writes strongly urging him to remain in Ephesus even when it gets hard.

18:01He needs to remain there to charge certain persons to stop teaching false doctrine. I want you to reflect with me for a minute on this passage from 1 Corinthians 16 and what Paul writes there. We'll put this on the screen for you as well. He's writing to the Corinthians, and Paul says, For I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to spend some time with you if the Lord permits. But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.

18:36Just reflect on that last line for a moment. A wide door for effective work is open to me, and there are many adversaries. How do most of us make decisions about God's will? We often look at our circumstances and we say, things are really hard, so this can't be God's will. But friends, for the Apostle Paul, just because things were hard didn't mean that it was God's will. In fact, in this particular case, he said, things are hard, but I know it's God's will because he's opened a wide door for effective ministry for me. So Paul is not calling Timothy to anything that he himself does not believe in in any way how he doesn't live his own life. He's saying, Timothy, I urge you to remain in Ephesus. I urge you to confront these false teachers, and you know that I stayed and did the same thing for three years. There's a wide door for effective work, but there are. Many adversaries. There's much opposition. So Paul writes and he urges him to charge certain persons to stop teaching false doctrine. Now, Paul doesn't name any names. He doesn't identify these false teachers for us, but I think it's fair to assume they were Jews. And I think that assumption is fair because we learn from verse 7 that they wanted to be regarded as teachers of the law, that is the Mosaic law. But what is it that they were teaching exactly? Look at the scripture. Paul says they were devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies.

20:09Well, if we use the scripture to interpret the scripture and you go and you read the letter to the Ephesians, one of the things that stands out to you is Paul is obviously dealing with a lot of disunity in the church at Ephesus. And he spends a lot of chapter 2 and then into chapter 3 talking about the unity that we have in Christ. And so I think it's a fair assumption that they were using these endless genealogies to divide the church. What is a genealogy for? It's to prove who is in a certain family and who is out.

20:44And in the church at Ephesus, as we learn from the book of Ephesians, there was a lot of disunity between Jew and Gentile. And so Paul writes in that letter to them in Ephesians chapter 2: For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one. And has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached, peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father.

21:33See, his point in this section of Ephesians is that Jew and Gentile are both one in Christ, that there is no second-class citizen in the kingdom of God. And friends, those are important words for us to reflect on today, not just for the Ephesian church in the first century, but for us today, when Sunday morning can be the most segregated hours of the week, where all of us seek out churches with people that are in our same life stage or made up of people of the same ethnicity and background. But instead, we're called to have unity with one another. That's hard enough with other Christians who are in your same ethnicity and who are from the same socioeconomic background. But then you add in people from different ethnicities, different cultures, different backgrounds, and it becomes even harder. And so Paul has to remind them again and again: we are all one in Christ. He has to confront false teachers that. We're teaching differently and remind them we are all one in Christ. It's not okay to divide the church. And so Paul confronts them and he asks Timothy to confront these false teachers because his concern is what these false teachers are promoting. Look again at the text.

22:49He says, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. You see, God entrusted his apostles and through his apostles, everyone in the church with the gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave to us a stewardship. And the gospel is a message that is to be proclaimed to people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. But for it to be proclaimed, for there to be good news that can be shared, we first have to preserve that good news.

23:30That's why our church's mission statement is what it is. Look on the screen. New life exists to preserve and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, to make mature disciples of all nations for the glory of God. Our mission statement is what it is because that's why we exist. We exist to preserve the gospel, to keep anything from being added to that message, Jesus plus anything. And we preserve the gospel. To keep anything from being subtracted from it, Jesus, but no repentance. Faith, but no repentance. Christ as Savior, but not as Lord.

24:13No, we preserve the gospel to keep anything from being added to it or from being subtracted from it. And we do that so we have a message to proclaim. Because Paul teaches in the book of Romans that the gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. There's no other name by which we can be saved other than the name of Jesus. So, friends, Christians are stewards called by God to preserve and proclaim the gospel. We've been entrusted with a stewardship, so we can't offer speculations.

24:46But that's what so many pastors do. They stand up and they offer speculations to their people, they offer opinions. And it's a great tragedy that in our country we have so many that stand up each Sunday and offer speculations and opinions rather than proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I think the result is that we see an entire generation of Christians who know how to speculate, who know how to offer opinions on a wide variety of subjects, but who don't know how to explain and apply the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyday life.

25:20And so we must preserve and proclaim the gospel. That's why Paul writes to Timothy: you need to confront these false teachers and tell them to stop. Teaching is leading to speculation rather than stewardship, and that's not good. But the question is, what is Paul's motive in all of this? What is his angle? Everyone is coming from some point of motivation, some different angle on everything. Why is Paul writing these things? Look with me at verse 5.

25:55He says, The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. See, these false teachers were promoting these speculations, and what did those speculations lead to? Swerving and wandering into vain, pointless arguments that divided the church.

26:39It becomes clear in the rest of the letter that the reason that the false teachers were doing this is because they were hungry for fame and greedy for money. That's why they were doing all of this. That's why they were promoting these speculations. But in stark contrast, Paul says that the aim of our charge is love, and that that love Issued from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith. You see, Paul and his co-laborers taught the truth in love. His unwavering aim was love. And if you really love someone, you're going to tell them the truth. The Apostle Paul had no ulterior motives. He wasn't trying to become rich or famous, far from it. Look at all that he endured for the sake of the gospel. Look on the screen at 2 Corinthians 11.

27:30Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less than one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I was adrift at sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Isn't that remarkable? Apart from all that other stuff that I just mentioned, the worst part of it is the pressure, the anxiety that I have for these churches.

28:30That was Paul's concern. His concern wasn't for his own well-being to become wealthy or famous. It wasn't even for his own well-being in the sense of just taking care of himself many times. His overarching concern was the churches that he had helped to plant. He had a stewardship from God to preserve and proclaim the gospel. And so he's not afraid to call out these false teachers. And he's not afraid to call Timothy to do the same. He knew it was the most loving thing that he could do.

28:59And he had to do it because of his stewardship. But the false teachers led the church into these vain discussions rather than fruitful conversations about the gospel and its implications. You know, I talk to some people and they think that any theological conversation is vain. You know, it's pointless to talk about theology. I've met people before who say, I don't want to talk about theology. I just want to talk about Jesus. Well, the problem with that is that as soon as you start talking about Jesus, you're having a theological conversation. Who do you think Jesus is? Was he just a good teacher or was he the Son of God? Those are theological statements. Do you believe that Jesus was born of a virgin? Do you believe that he lived a sinless and miraculous life? Do you believe that he rose again from the dead? All of these are theological statements, the answers to all of those questions.

29:51So for any of us, we don't get to decide whether we're going to be theologians, and we don't get to decide whether we're going to have a theological conversation. We just simply get to decide: are we going to be biblical or unbiblical in that conversation? So, the problem with the false teachers wasn't that they were talking about theology. The problem is that they were leading people into vain theological discussion. It was conversation that did not build up, it did not edify the church, it divided them.

30:22And so, at New Life, one of our primary goals is to major on the majors, especially the gospel of Jesus Christ and its implications. We want to minor on the minors, those second-handed issues, those open-handed issues that Christians disagree about. And we want to just leave the silly stuff out of the conversation entirely, because we don't want to wander into vain conversation, vain discussion. The false teachers did these things because they, as Paul says, wanted to be teachers of the law. But look at how Paul blasts them in verse 7. He says, essentially, you don't even know what you're saying, much less what you're actually talking about.

31:06Let me remind you of James chapter 3, verse 1. He says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. You know, as a pastor, my greatest concern is not that you won't do what I say. But that you will. I have to stand before God according to the Bible and give an account for how I have taught and explained and applied the Word of God to you.

31:47And that should make anybody who desires to be a teacher, desires to be a preacher of God's Word, pause and soberly reflect on that reality. I don't say that to discourage you from teaching. I don't say that to discourage you certainly from making disciples. I just simply say that to say we should approach the work soberly and with great humility because teachers will be judged more strictly. But these false teachers did not seem to know that. They wanted to be teachers of the law, but they didn't even know what they were talking about. And so Paul corrects their wrong understanding starting in verse 8. Look there.

32:33Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and And whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

33:12See, the false teachers were teaching the law. The text that they were using was the Bible, but they weren't using it lawfully. In other words, they had the right text, but the wrong explanations or the wrong applications. And friends, that is exactly why expositional preaching is so important. Expositional preaching and teaching is where the point of the passage is the point of the sermon or the teaching. It has to be that way, or else we're wandering into speculation. We're wandering into vain discussion. There's a book that I have young men read that are studying with me that are going into ministry. It's called Why Johnny Can't Preach. I love that book. And in the introduction, the author notes that of all of the sermons that he and his wife have ever heard, about 10% had a discernible point.

34:07One in 10 sermons they walked away from, and they could say, the sermon was about X. He says, of that 10%, 10% of those sermons, so 1% overall, was the point of the sermon responsibly based on the text that was being preached? In other words, in sermon after sermon, 9%. Percent of them had no point at all, and only 10 percent of the sermons with a point was the point that which came from the text itself. Friends, so many preachers and teachers stand up and they do quote from the Bible. It's just that they take it out of context, and that's why it's so important for you to be expositional listeners. Anytime you hear preaching and teaching, you need to be asking yourself: is this really the point of this passage? Don't take my word for it, take God's word for it, examine it. So, Paul affirms the law is good if one uses it lawfully. I was just reading Psalm 119 the other day, it's 176 verses of meditation on the law of God. And the whole point of all those verses is the law is good. The law is good, but it has to be used lawfully. That is, in the way that God intended. And what did God intend with the law? Look at verse 9.

35:29The law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient. In other words, the law is not for those who keep it, but for those who break it. It's counterintuitive almost. That's why the law is laid down. We understand this when we think about things like speed limits. Why do we have speed limits? It's not because everybody goes the appropriate speed, it's because nobody does. So we have those speed limits to say, if you're going faster than this, On this road, you're driving at an unsafe speed for yourself and others. If everybody drove at an appropriate speed on all roads, we wouldn't need speed limits. But we're all tempted to drive too fast, and so we have those speed limits because we break them. And the same is true for God's law. It was laid down for everyone because all of us are or were lawless and disobedient.

36:25And then Paul goes and explains what he means by that. And it's so amazing when you look at these last few verses, it's basically an exposition of the Ten Commandments. He starts off and he says, All of us have been ungodly. In other words, choosing to worship other gods or images, idols that are not God. He says, All of us have been unholy and profane. We've all failed to keep what was God's intention for the Sabbath. We've profaned God's name by using His name in ways that dishonor him.

37:04He says, All of us have failed to honor our parents as we've been commanded. We might not have actually struck them with fists, but we've certainly struck them in our hearts. All of us are murderers. We may have never killed someone, but Jesus says that if we even harbor hatred towards another person, we have murdered them. All of us have been sexually immoral. And what I love about this passage and so many others for our society is that you notice Paul does not only mention one type of sexual sin. He does not only mention homosexuality, he says sexual immorality. Why is that?

37:49That's because all things that are outside of God's design for one man and one woman to enjoy in marriage are sexual immorality. Friends, Christians, Christianity, and the church are not just against one type of sexual sin. God is against all types of sexual sin. And that's why he names these separately here for us, for our benefit, to see that all types of sexual sin are sinful to God. He says, all of us have coveted and stolen what does not belong to us. He even goes so far as to name enslavers, those who have stolen people and have used them for their own benefit. What a word today for all of the trafficking that goes on in our world.

38:39And he closes by noting that all of us have lied, failing to tell the truth in big and small ways. He says it's not just these sins, but it's, look at this, whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. Whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. In other words, it's not just these specific sins, it's whatever. Else is contrary to sound doctrine. In other words, not just the letter of the law, but the spirit of the law.

39:09Because God knows all of us are legalists. What do we want? We want a list. Tell me what I cannot do, and I will avoid those things. But you cannot possibly codify every single thing that falls under the umbrella of love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as you love yourself. Jesus says that's the summation of the whole law. So here, Paul just sums that up by saying, whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, whatever does not lead you to love God and love your neighbor as you love yourself, that's sinful. That is breaking God's law.

39:49So friends, the right way to understand God's law is his perfect and holy standard that none of us have met. And the good news of the gospel is only good news to you if you first understand the bad news of our sin and how we have all broken the law of God. You see, you won't ever go into a doctor's office where he or she will sit you down and begin by going through the cures that are available and the treatments and the procedures.

40:24But in every case, when you sit down with a doctor, they're first going to examine you and they're going to say, Here's the bad news. Here's the bad news about your symptoms. Here's the bad news about this disease that you're not aware of that's ravaging your body without your knowledge. They're going to give you the bad news first because only after you've had the bad news of your disease will you see the good news of the cures and procedures and treatments for what they really are. It's the same with the gospel. Until we understand that every single one of us has broken God's law and that we are unable to save ourselves, the good news won't be good news to us. It only becomes good news when we see that we are sinners before a holy God who have no way of saving ourselves apart from the person and work of Jesus. We then see our need for a Savior. And as the gospel is unfolded before us, we see Jesus as the Savior that we need, the one who came, born of a virgin, and who lived a perfect life of obedience. The Bible says that he was tempted in every way. He went through all of the same types of temptations that you and I go through. And yet he was without sin.

41:44He therefore earned the right to offer himself as a sacrifice in our place. One sinful man or one sinful woman could not die for anyone else, but Jesus was not a sinful man. He was able to offer himself because of his perfectly righteousness. Life. And see, when we understand the reality of our need for a Savior, the gospel becomes the beautiful good news that it is. And friends, you and I have been entrusted by God with that gospel, with that good news of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. In fact, when Paul writes in other places, he says that we are ambassadors who have been given the ministry of reconciliation. Look on the screen at 2 Corinthians.

42:32Paul says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

43:29You see, In Christ, God has done everything necessary to save us from our sins. As Paul talked about at the very beginning of this letter, the very beginning of this section, God is our Savior and Christ Jesus is our hope. That is the message with which we have been entrusted. That is the message that we bring to family and friends and co-workers and classmates. We don't come with them with a message that says, if you try really hard to clean up your life and you make this fall semester a little bit better in terms of doing more good than bad, you will be saved. That is bad news because that is news that rests on our own performance. Instead, we are ambassadors who go with good news that Jesus has done everything that needed to be done in order to reconcile us to God forever.

44:23And so, for those of you who joined us today who are not yet followers of Jesus, I implore you as Paul did here in this passage, be reconciled to God. You can't do that through promises of how you will be a better person or try harder. You can only do that through repentance and faith in Jesus. And if you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Jesus and you're here today, let me encourage you to make the choice to link arms with other believers. Don't wait any longer, but commit to a local church. Covenant with them so that we together can be what God calls us, stewards called by God to preserve and proclaim the gospel. Let's pray.

45:21Father, it's hard to comprehend that you have entrusted us with the message of reconciliation. We know ourselves. We lack courage and commitment. We so often feel as though we lack the right words to say. We feel many days and in many situations wholly unprepared and unqualified for the task of sharing the good news. And yet, in your infinite wisdom, you have chosen to make us ambassadors, ministers of reconciliation. So, Father, our prayer for ourselves and for this year is that we would be about the work of reconciliation. I pray for moms and dads. That the gospel would be on their lips in front of their children. And that we would not only talk about the grace found in Christ, but that we would be gracious people. I think so often in my home, how I talk of the grace of Christ, but I don't live that out very well for my wife and my kids. And I know many parents feel the same way.

46:56God, I pray that those who are living with other roommates in the dorm or in an apartment or house in our community, I pray that they would see themselves as ministers of reconciliation. Open our eyes to the opportunities at work and on campus and in our neighborhoods. Forgive us, God, for neglecting our responsibility, our stewardship. And I pray that we would be found faithful this year, opening our mouths and speaking the good news of the gospel every time we can.

47:29Thank you for Paul's charge to Timothy. We pray that we would hear it, that we would believe it, and that we would live in light of it. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.