The Pastoral Epistles Pt.

The Pastoral Epistles Pt.1

This week we're going to start a new series looking at something a little different than we have in the past little bit. We're going to look at the Pastoral Epistles. We're going to look at Timothy first. Second Timothy. We're going to look at Titus. And a lot of great wisdom from Paul comes from these two three books. Several topics that we can learn from as well. You know, a lot of times we see these and we think, well, I'm not a preacher, I'm not an elder, I'm not a Deacon. I don't know that I really need to read that. But that couldn't be further from the truth. We need to make sure that we're reading and applying the scripture to our lives because yes, these books talk about the qualifications. Duties for a preacher, an elder, and a Deacon. There's also things that we can all apply to our lives as well.

Well, that is what we're going to talk about during this series, things that all of us can do. And we're going to talk about elders, deacons, preacher. We're going to talk about all that as well. We're going to talk about the duties of everybody. But I want everyone to understand this is not just for the church leadership. This is for everybody. Everybody has a part to play. Everybody has something to do.

So let's go ahead and get into a little bit of the scripture this morning. Look at First Timothy chapter 1, verses 12 through 17. It says, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement, deserving of full. Acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as a foremost Jesus Christ can demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, but the only God be honor and glory, forever and ever. Amen.”

A lot of things that I want to talk about here real quick. The first and foremost is the power of God's grace. God's grace is sufficient. Yeah, I know we talk about that a lot here. We talk a lot about grace. But we can't neglect how important grace is, because without God's grace. Who would never have the opportunity to be saved. It is impossible. We're not good enough on our own merits. We have all sinned. We've all broken God's law.

One thing that I want to mention here really quick. That Paul is thanking God for being chosen. He's thanking God for grace. He's thanking God for being transformed by grace. Do we ever do that? Do we ever think about? Where we would be. Do we ever thank God for giving us His mercy and His grace? Do we truly understand what Jesus really did on the cross? Truly, do we really understand what he did for us? Do we really, truly understand where we would be without it? Without Christ dying on the cross? Without the cross in the picture, we would be lost with no hope. We would be lost with no chance. I think a lot of times we kind of push that off to the side. I think a lot of the times we kind of remember it. It's there, but we really don't think about it. We really don't think about where it would be without it. We don't think about our lives if Christ wasn't in it.

Because a lot of times, if we are a Christian, maybe we've been a Christian for many, many years. A lot of times we get out of the habit of thinking where we would be without Christ because we don't remember that long ago. We cannot get complacent. And the reason I say that is because when we witnessed to somebody. When we talk to somebody, when we try and disciple somebody. When we do the work that we are supposed to do. We need to remember that because we need to tell them the transformation that happened to us, where we was before, where we are now. We can't lose our witness here. We can't lose sight of where we came from. Because that is where the testimony comes in.

Last week and even this morning, just a second or two, we talked about discipleship. When we are going to disciple somebody, when we set out to do that, we have to get these. Foundation principles first. What I mean by that is we have to build the foundation before we can build the house. We talked about that few weeks ago as well. Jesus even said that in his scripture talking about. Preparation about building a foundation and not having enough to build the house. We've you've got to start with the foundation. You have to start with grace. You have to start with mercy. You have to start with the cross. Because without those things, the rest of it would be null and void.

Paul, in his letters, talks a lot about grace. He talks a lot about trials, he talks a lot about weaknesses. 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 verses 7 through 10 says, “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations. For this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this I implored the Lord 3. Times that it might leave me. And he has said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distress, with persecutions. Difficulties for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong.”

And we've talked several times in the past about these verses, about the thorn in the flesh that Paul had. Now we don't know what was bothering him. We don't know what was going on. Nothing we didn't. We know that he had something going on. He had something that was causing him problems and he asked God to take it away. God said no. God said my grace is sufficient, for power is perfected in weakness. What does that mean? First of all, some lessons that we can take away from that, God told Paul no. There are times that we pray for something and unfortunately we get the answer no. It's hard to do, hard to deal with. It's hard our prayer lives. It's hard in her faith.

But the reality of the situation is that is a possibility. That's why we need to pray for God's will to be done. And that's a hard prayer to pray. It's hard to think about because a lot of times when we pray that prayer, we desperately want something. Whether it's a healing, whether it's a family member to be healed, whether it's something else, we desperately want something. That we have to understand that if it's not part of God's plan, it's not best for us. We don't like it. We don't like being told no. From a little child we're told no. From our parents we start to grumble, we start to fuss because we think we know everything. We think that we know best. We don't like the word no. Sometimes that word no is what's best for us.

Just like a little kid holding the car key. Got a car key in his hand, walking towards the light socket. You know what's gonna happen. A little kid thinks it's just a game. I think it's no harm at all. You know what's going to happen. You know bad things can happen if he gets that in that light socket. So you tell him no. They scream, they cry, they throw a fit. Because you told them no, they couldn't do what you wanted, what they wanted to do. But you might save their life. Sometimes we may want to do something, we may want something that's very harmful to us, and God says no. We don't understand. We get frustrated. We don't want to come to church anymore. We don't want to pray anymore. We don't want to read our Bible anymore. And just because you told your child no to keep them safe. Doesn't mean that you don't love them any more, does it? You know what? God still loves us. Even when he probably gets frustrated at us because we won't listen. Even when he has to tell us no. He still loves us. Remember that His grace is still sufficient.

Move on to another book here. Look at the Book of Titus chapter 2. And verses 11 through 13 it says, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and unworldly and worldly desires, and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope. And the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus.”

You know, a lot of the stuff that we're going to talk about today, a lot of the verses. That we're going to look at today. Talk about grace. And that should clue you in on how important grace is. But I'm gonna ask you a question. If we have been given this grace, if God has given that to us freely and willingly. Shouldn't we give back to him? By following his commands. By living the way we're supposed to, By doing what we were supposed to. By doing his work. Wouldn't that stand to reason to be a something that he would want us to do? Grace should instruct us on how to live a godly life. We need to live a godly life. We talked a little bit about last week about living the Christian life, and I want to touch on that a little bit today. We need to act like a Christian. We need to live the Christian life. We need to walk the way that we should. We need to speak the way that we should. We need to act the way that we should.

Now I know that should go without saying, but the fact remains a lot of times this doesn't happen. A lot of times we stick to our past. When we take that leap of faith and we become saved, a lot of times we still want to go back to our past. We still want to go back to the old sin that we enjoyed so much. We still want to go back and back and back, and we don't ever want to move forward. We don't ever want to try to live a better life.

There used to be an old gospel song and I don't know if many of you will remember it or not, but The words to it said take off the old coat and put on the new. That's what we need to do. When we're saved, we're transformed. We need to take off the old coat, take off the sin, get rid of all that and put on the new. Start living our lives for Christ. And in the middle of that, there are things that we shouldn't do anymore. They're sins that are prescribed in the Bible. They're laid out plainly. Tells us not to. Do we need to make an effort to follow those? We're going to look at some of those Colossians Chapter 3 verses one through 10.

It says, “Therefore if you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed. Of human glory. Therefore, consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and the in them you also once walked when you were living in them, but now you also put them all aside. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you laid aside. The old self with its evil practices and put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.”

You see, there's several things in those verses that it tells us not to do. Even talks about consider yourself dead. Consider yourself dead to these things. They shouldn't be a part of your life anymore. They shouldn't even be with you anymore. And it also tells you if you take these out, what to replace them with. Those are some verses we probably need to go home and read again. We'll probably need to study those a little bit. Study those in our lives. Are they there? If those things are in our lives, we need to get rid of them. We need to replace them. Place them with things of God.

Go back to the Book of Titus for a second. Chapter 3, verses 4 through 8 says, “But when the kindness of our God, our Savior, and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of Deege, which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing, regeneration, renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ. Our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we made errors according to the hope of eternal life. This truck. This is a trustworthy statement concerning these things. I want you to speak confidently so that those who have believed God will be careful to engage in good deeds these things. Are good and profitable for men.”

One thing about these verses that is obvious and is right there that we need to discuss. Is we can't do enough good deeds to be saved. You know, we've talked about that a lot. We can't. We can't do enough to be saved. You can't help enough people to make it to heaven. It doesn't work that way. We can do good work after good work after good work, and that's what God wants us to do. He wants us to do those works. However, that doesn't save us. That is what we're supposed to do. That's what we're supposed to live. That's supposed to be our lives. But it doesn't get us to heaven. Being saved gets us to heaven. The grace of God gives us that opportunity to take that salvation.

When we follow the steps of salvation laid out in the scripture. When we accept him into our lives, When we believe Him, When we're baptized. When we repent. That's what saves us all, by the grace of God. You know, a lot of people are caught up on work salvation, but it's not in the scripture.

Salvation involves a transformation. Last verse we're going to look at today, 2nd Corinthians 517. It says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come.” It's what we've talked about all morning. We're changed. We have to be transformed, there is no other option. Because just like we have talked about when we looked at Colossians just a minute ago, there has to be changes in our lives. If we are not making those changes then we are not growing, we are not living the life that Christ wants us to live. If we are still living the life of sin, that is not what God wants us to do. It is all throughout scripture, not just in one place or two places it is everywhere. We need to pay close attention to that.

I just want to recap for a minute on just a few things that we have talked about this morning. The first is that God’s grace is sufficient. We have looked at several verses today that talked about God's grace and talked about God's mercy. I want to make sure that we understand how important those things are. I want to make sure we understand where we would be without God's grace, where we would be without God's mercy. Think about if God just said I told you what not to do, I told you what to do, you wouldn't listen. You're done. There is no second chances. There is no grace, there is no mercy. Just to be quite blunt, we would be dead in our sins and we would be doomed for hell. Because we have broken the command. And without grace and without mercy, we would have to be perfect. We all already know that we are not. We are not perfect. We have sin. We have done things that God doesn't approve of. So thank God for the grace and the mercy that He has given us.

The last two things that we talked about really go together. The first was take off the old and put on the new because we're changed. When we're saved, there are things that have to happen. There are changes that have to be made. Changes in our lives, changes in our actions, changes in our words and our speech. You know, before we were saved, we lived a different life. Once we take the leap of faith, once we are saved, we're called to do things differently. We're supposed to do things differently. We're supposed to live differently. We're supposed to live by the scripture. We're supposed to be changed. That's what we need to do. We need to live that Christian life. We need to be that person.

Invitation.