1 Timothy 1:8-11
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Pawn Shop Show-People thinking they have something valuable and it ends up being worth nothing.
Pawn Shop Show-People thinking they have something valuable and it ends up being worth nothing.
The man who had an old baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. The man had heard that the ball might be valuable, so one day he decided to sell it. He was worried, however, because he could see that the signature was badly faded. In order to make it clearer, he took out his baseball and carefully traced over the letters with a marking pen: B-A-B-E R-U-T-H. The effect was to obliterate the real autograph, so that by the time he was finished, he had turned something priceless into something worthless.
Sometimes the things we think are so valuable are worthless. This show illustrates an important point
When it comes to the Gospel, if we clinging to anything other than Christ work as our treasure, we will one day get to the counter and be disappointed, because anything other than Christ is worthless.
Our work. Our goodness that we are so proud of, is ultimately worth nothing. Christ’s work is perfect and valuable.
We see that here in this passage, but first.. let me remind you of the context.
Don’t forget he is dealing with people who are posing to know what is the Law.
He is dealing with false teachers, who are swerving from the true purpose of the Law.
Established elders.
But Paul corrects them .
But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully,
I believe there are two purposes of this verse.
The first is to call out those who were teaching false doctrine and their unlawful use of the Law.
Now what is the Law? When we think of the Law, We may think of the Ten Commandments. And we would be right and that leads us to another question.
What are the Ten Commandments?
They are the moral law of God codified.
Essentially, He wrote the Law down for us, and thats what the Ten Commandments are.
God
But even before the Ten Commandments, beginning with Adam and continuing, every human being has a God given understanding of what is right and was is wrong. I believe its apart of being created the image of God.
But God did us a favor. He codified his Law. He wrote it down for us.
In , it says:
“The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.
God delivered the Law to Moses, and they were to follow it in perfect obedience.
When we think of Law, at times, we may think negatively of it. We think of rules associated with limitation.
The Law of God, is a set of rules, but it is more than just a set of rules. The Law reveals God to us.
This is why David can say he loves God’s Law.
O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day.
I have inherited Your testimonies forever, For they are the joy of my heart. I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes Forever, even to the end.
I opened my mouth wide and panted, For I longed for Your commandments.
Psalm 119:
The believer, like David, should be able to rejoice in the Law. Because the Law reveals to us the Law Giver.
But...
These false teachers in Ephesus that Timothy is dealing with had taken the Law and turned it to fit their own purposes and desires.
He
But God has a specific purpose for the Law. And it is not to be trifled with.
The Law of God is meant to serve at least three purposes that I see in Scripture.
The Law is meant to:
1. Restrain Sin, encourage toward obedience.
2. Reveal Sin.
3. Reveal the moral character of God.
When the Law is used lawfully, whenever its restraining sin, encouraging obedience, revealing sin, revealing God, it is being used lawfully.
That was its purpose from the very first time it was given.
But these men that Paul is instructing Timothy to silence were not using it this way.
They were taking Scripture and using it as a point from which to launch into all kind of crazy speculations and myths that would lead people away from Christ.
These things would lead people away from Christ.
The Law is meant to lead people toward Christ.
And we have the same confusion today with the Law. There really is two sinful tendencies among people today when it comes to the Law of God.
The first extreme is legalism.
The idea that strict adherence to the Law and religious practices somehow earn God’s favor.
If I do this this this this and this, surely God will love me. This is false.
Someone who says that misunderstand both the Law and their ability in the human sin and depravity.
You do not want to be standing clinging to your righteousness on the day of judgment. Its not Jesus plus your goodness.
Its not doing the best you can. What Christ has done is enough. He doesn’t need our worthless additions.
There was a man who had an old baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. The man had heard that the ball might be valuable, so one day he decided to sell it. He was worried, however, because he could see that the signature was badly faded. In order to make it clearer, he took out his baseball and carefully traced over the letters with a marking pen: B-A-B-E R-U-T-H. The effect was to obliterate the real autograph, so that by the time he was finished, he had turned something priceless into something worthless.
Christ work is good enough on its own to save me. He does not need my works. In fact my righteous the declares are filthy rags.
For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
But practically we live this way. “Well he is a good man. He just needs to get in church.” Or when they die. “They’re in a better place. That was a good man/ good woman.”
But thats not the purpose of the Law. The purpose of Law is not to reassure you that you are good.
No. They aren’t. We aren’t.
We are not good people. We are sinners and the Law tells us that.
We have to fight our own tendency toward legalism and thinking that we are good enough on our own.
The Law assures you that apart from God’s grace, you are condemned. It exposes your sin.
On the other hand, there is another extreme.
This other extreme says, I’m under grace now, I can do what I want and they throw out the Law altogether.
This is also false.
God expects his people to live holy lives,(Be holy for I am Holy- 1 Peter 1:16) and grace in Christ doesn’t change that, it should empower it through His Spirit.
We don’t throw out the Law and think that because we said a prayer that we can live how we want.
If we have truly met Christ, we will desire repent of our sin and to live in accordance with God’s character and Law.
This is what Paul did.
Paul recognizes the usefulness of the Law in his own life in
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.
What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died;
Paul’s own conversion experience was a result of a lawful use of the Law. The Law exposed His sin and killed his understanding of his righteousness, so that he was left with only one option. Repent and Believe.
Ray Comfort’s- Gospel presentation.
Have you ever considered yourself in light of what the Law says?
Thats what its supposed to do. its supposed to leave you HOPELESS.
Every Christian should understand that the Law of God is good when it is used in the way God intended it. Thats what verse 8 says. Don’t leave behind the truth of verse 8, that the Law is good, when you go on to verse 9-10.
Thats what verse 8 says. Don’t leave behind the truth of verse 8, that the Law is good, when you go on to verse 9.
Look with me here.
1 Timothy
realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers
realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching,
God did not give the Law to righteous people. He gave it to sinners.
He gave it to people who look at the Law and see their need.
The Law isn’t for people who think they are somehow already righteous.
The people who think they are good enough without Christ.
Essentially what Paul is saying here is the same thing Jesus said in
“I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
The Law and the Gospel are for people who by the Spirit of God understand their need for it.
If you think you’re perfect, you’re wrong.
And if you think you’re perfect, then you have no need for a Savior which then make the Law useless for you.
Because the Law of God, the Ten commandments are meant to exposes us for what we are.
Look again at verse 9-10
Law is made for:
Lawless people- people who by their lives have lived in unbridled sin.
Rebellious- people who have rebelled against God.
Ungodly- living contrary to God.
Sinners- those who have fallen short of the glory of God.
Unholy- imperfect
Profane- irreverent, blasphemous.
Murderers
Dishonorer of parents
immoral men
Homosexuals
kidnappers
Liars
Perjurers
Etc. Whatever Else is contrary to sound teaching.
The Law is for the people named and people who fall into the categories in verses 9-10 which is all of us. In other words, the Law is for me.
Because I am a sinner.
The Law tells me that.
If your life has been characterized by sin at any point, if you fall into any of those categories, I believe this passage is doing the same thing for you.
It is revealing and exposing your sin for what it is, a breaking of God’s perfect Law and living contrary to His character. But thankfully that isn’t the only thing this passage is doing. Thats not all the Bible does.
The Bible is not all law and no gospel. And our message shouldn’t be either.
Practically how that works out is this: We do not shy away from preaching sin, hell, and damnation, but if we only preach sin, hell, and damnation, we are only preaching half the message.
Do sins need to be called out from the pulpit? Yes. Does the preacher need to preach that the eternal consequences of sin is hell? Absolutely.
But the preacher also must be faithful to proclaim to those who are lawless, those who are rebellious, ungodly, sinners, the unholy, the profane, the murderers, immoral men, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and anything else, we must also proclaim the good news of Christ or we have not been faithful. Paul does this.
This passage also delivers to you the good news.
The bad news is that we are all disqualified. The messenger of that bad news is the Law. It reveals our sin and our desperate need.
The Good News comes through a different messenger. The Law delivers damnation and thats its purpose, but the message of the Gospel in Christ is good news.
And if we fail to preach the good news to people, we leave them hopeless.
They leave saying, “Well I guess I have to keep the Law better.”
We are called to speak against sin.
Practically, if there are members in your family who are actively practicing a lifestyle of sin. Something in verses 8-9.
On the other hand, Christ delivers the good news.
Then by all means, you should be proclaiming the Law to them. You should be telling them that they are living in rebellion against God and that if they continue down that path it will lead to destruction.
But You also need to be telling them of the glorious Gospel of our blessed God.
I say this because there are two bad tendencies that we have.
I say this because there are two bad tendencies that we have.
Preaching all law and No Gospel- that leads to legalism.
Preaching All Gospel and No Law- That leads to people thinking they have a license to sin.
Both The Law and The Gospel are indispensable parts of our message.
The Law delivers bad news to them, and it is good and necessary for it to do that.
Christ delivers good news to us. This is why Paul mentions it in verse 11. The Law is for sinners and thankfully the Gospel is for sinners.
The good news of the Gospel is that Law Giver, comes to be the Law Keeper, and takes the place of Law Breakers in their punishment, so that Law breakers can live in unhindered relationship forever with the Law Giver.
This is why
Let me explain this a little further.
God in His justice must punish sin.
We break the Law, the punishment for that law breakage, is death. Thats what we deserve.
Christ comes, lives perfectly in obedience to the Law, thus he earns the favor of God through obedience of the Law.
Then He goes to the cross, takes on Himself the sin of all those who will believe in Him. He fulfill the justice of the Law by being punished on our behalf.
Earns the Father’s favor through his obedience. He curbs the Father’s anger through his death. Both are necessary.
Paul says in is just and the justifier.
for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
He is just in that he punishes sin.
He is the justifier in that by his righteousness, he he makes us righteous.
This message is glorious.
Look in verse 11.
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.
We see three important truths in this verse.
The gospel is glorious. Our eyes should sparkle in amazement at the glory of these blessed truths.
God is the source of the Gospel and the fountain of all our blessings.
We have been entrusted with it.
Entrusted with it to guard it from error.
Entrusted with it to faithfully proclaim it.
Entrusted with it to forever cherish it as our ONLY hope.
On the day of judgment, to what will you be clinging?
What’s your hope built upon?
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. Cling to the Gospel of Jesus Christ .