1 Timothy Part 3)

Verse 17) Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul declares that God is the “Eternal King”

This refers to the absolute sovereignty of God over creation,

he is the eternal King who will rule and reign throughout all ages, world without end.

But notice that we live in a very particular time in eternity's history.

The King Eternal has allowed us for this short time to have free will.

He has given mankind the choice.

Will you obey me as King? Or rebel and resist me?

Will we embrace God through his Son Jesus Christ?

Will we meet God at the foot of Calvary's cross and have peace?

or will we join the forces of Lucifer and meet God on the field of battle?

if you are lost this morning....if you have never believed in the name of Jesus.

You are already from your mothers womb the “chief of sinners” and a Luciferian soldier in the war against the King.

If that's you today, throw down your weapons of sin,

forsake the Devil and all his ways and surrender your heart to the King eternal

and find mercy and grace in the name of Jesus Christ.

Paul calls God “Immortal” pointing to the timeless and eternal nature of God.

The Triune God has no beginning and has no ending.

All thing fade and decay but he remains the same, a perfect and constant standard.

That is why he is worthy of heavens throne, why he is worthy of your worship.....

He is eternal and you are not, he is immortal and timeless and perfect, and you are not.

you will age, decay and die, But God remains.

This should inspire awe in the temporal and mortal children of Adam who are cursed with death.

it is only through faith in Christ that we can receive true immortality from the immortal and eternal God and live forever in heaven,

if not we will die in our sin and perish forever in a devils hell.

Jesus said in John 8 ) “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he(the Son of God), ye shall die in your sins”

Luke 13:3) “ I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent (of your unbelief and sin), ye shall all likewise perish”

Next Paul refers to God as “invisible, the only wise God”

What does it mean that God is “invisible”?

It means God is “incorporeal” meaning he has no body and he is a “Spirit” and completely transcendent from physical creation.

because of this God hates idol worship, he hates when men make idols of rock, stone, wood and gold and try to bridge the gap to the invisible God.

any attempt to reach the invisible God through the worship of relics and idols is wicked and sinful and hated by God.

The Catholics, orthodox and other religions must realize, the only image of God they are to worship is the person of Jesus Christ.

the only image God has given by which sinful man can find him, see him, and worship him is Jesus Christ and his inspired word.

Mother Mary images wont do it, Buddha statues wont do it, statures of saints and monks and strange gods wont do it, only through Christ can we commune with the invisible God.

The important part of this is, we would have no ability to reach out to the “invisible” and transcendent God if he had not first descended and reach out to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the “expressed image of the invisible God” Colossians 1:15

Jesus Christ “is the fullness of the God-head bodily” Colossians 2:9.

You see why God hates image worship and idol worship?

The Invisible God carved his image into the very EGG in the virgin Mary's womb and that egg

developed and grew into the God-man, the expressed image of the invisible and incorporeal and eternal God.

The Transcendent incorporeal, invisible God descended and became a physical, fleshly, mortal man whom we call Jesus Christ who is “Immanuel-God with us”

He came to us, because we could never have reached him.

Therefore Glory and honor and service do we owe him, forever worship without end.

AND may every idol, statue and image be shattered at the feet of Christ Jesus, the incarnation of the living God.

You don't need to make a Idol to get to God, he has come down to you this morning...

...you just need to grab the corner of his robe this morning...

you need to handle him, placing your hands into his wounds.....like Thomas

you need to cling to him weeping as Mary Magdalene clung to him weeping.

I thought of the leper in the Bible, the leper who was unable to touch anyone because he was unclean.....

Mark 1:40-42) And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. 41 And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. 42 And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.

There is a picture here............

Mankind is filled with sin, like loathsome sores our sin makes us unclean before God.

We could never reach God, our flesh, our sin prevents us...

....we could never reach the invisible God and touch him.....

But God came to us, he touched mankind, in the virgins womb the incorporeal, invisible God reached down and took to himself mankind.........

.....and cleansed it, and became the perfect man Jesus Christ.

Jesus cleansed the leper, touching him and showing him mercy, grace and love he didn't deserve.

and God through the person of Christ, will do the same for all of Adams children...

who are willing to call out to Jesus, the expressed image of he invisible God and cry out for healing.

Verse 18) “This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;”

Timothy was ordained by Paul and other ordained Elders.

They laid hands on him and prophesied over him and commissioned him to the Gospel and church planting ministry.

In 1 Timothy 4) Paul tells Timothy to “Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery”

So Paul tells Timothy to look back to the words spoken over him, look to the charge that was preached over you and walk in the power and authority of the Lord as you do his will in the Churches.

You may not be a preacher or Apostle this morning.

But if you have been scripturally Baptized by full immersion upon a profession of true faith by the authority of a true church....

that means you have made a covenant with God, you have made baptismal vows to the Lord.

and through the waters of Baptism you now have a special anointing of the Spirit to enable you to wage spiritual warfare as a member of the church of Jesus Christ.

As Timothy was told to walk in the power of his ordination, i want to encourage you to think back to your water baptism and by it “thou may war a good warfare” for Gods Kingdom.

If you don't know what I'm talking about....then you need to do a deeper study on the power and history of Baptism.

And i commit this unto thee, South Crossett Missionary Baptist Church.

You are at war rather you know it or not.

We are at war with spiritual wickedness in high places the Bible says.....

Pick up your sword of the Lord (hold up my Bible)

and make war with sin, death and the devil.

Verse 19-20) Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Look at the men mentioned in Verse 20

Hymenaeus and Alexander.

these two men have shipwrecked their faith on the sharp rocks of false doctrine.

They have polluted their good conscience before God with false doctrines.

They have failed to “hold on” to the faith.

They are guilty of blaspheming doctrines related to Christ and the Gospel.

Dr. Charles Law writes.......

“Their false teachings distorted the truth about many topics....in regards to God...Very likely their heresy about God raised questions about the deity of Christ, a false teaching that became incorporated in Gnosticism(a heresy) that troubled many of the early churches. Any false teachings regarding the Son of God would certainly be blasphemous”

The false teachings and Jewish fables being taught by these two men were so dangerous to the church

and was so destructive towards the Gospel that Paul had excommunicated these men from the Church of Ephesus.

Meaning he had them excluded from church fellowship and had their membership in the church revoked.

However.....This does not mean what many people today mean.

today Church discipline is done by “removing someone's name from the roll” but still allowing them to attend church service.

Paul did not just remove his list from the roll, he had these men cast out of the church and banned from entering the assembly until they repented of their sin and false doctrine.

What does Paul mean that “he delivered them to Satan”?

meaning is they were completely cast away from the fellowship of the church and were to be left unprotected by the church.

Imagine a herd of zebras are being hunted by lions.

the lions cant get to the herd because the herd is fast, efficient and strong in numbers.

So the lions stalk the herd and devour those who trail behind such as wounded or old and decrepit zebras.

Any zebra who is young and healthy who fails to abide with the fellowship and protection of the herd is eaten and devoured by the lions.

The church of Ephesus is like a herd of zebra and Hymenaeus and Alexander are wounded by their sin, unbelief and false teachings, they are crippled by their blasphemy and unrepentance.

and PAUL CASTS THEM OUT of the herd, he kicks them out of the church......they are left behind, unprotected, unguided.....

and the Devil like a prowling lion seeking whom he may devour......is coming.

1 Peter 5:8) “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:”

These men were probably not saved, for if they were, they would have returned to the church and sought forgiveness and restoration.

Sometimes we as Christians don't know how to act right Amen.

and we need to feel the breath of Satan on our necks, feel his teeth on our backside....

in order to get right with God and his church.

Matthew 18) “Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 16 But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. 17 And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.

1 Corinthians 5) It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, 5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.