Good things in 1. Timothy

… I'm going to give it back to you quickly. Then the First Episcopal Trinity. First Episcopal Trinity. Chapter 1. First going to Chapter 1, verse 3. Even as I begged thee to remain in Ephesus, when I was going to Macedonia, that I might as enjoin some not to teach other doctrines, or to turn their minds to fables and internal materialities, which bring questioning, rather than further God's dispensation which is in faith. At the end of what is enjoined is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith. And then a chapter, verse 19. I'm sorry, verse 18. This charge to my child Timothy I commit to thee, according to the prophecies as to thee foreseeing, that thou mightest war-bide in the good warfare, maintaining faith in the good conscience, which lasts, and having put away a made shipwreck as to faith. And then, chapter 2. Verse 1. I exalt, therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men, for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all Godless nations. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who hath all men to be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one medium between God and man, the man of Christ Jesus, who gave himself for ransom for all. We testify in the New Testament. Verses 9. It says, In my plan also that the women in the decent department should dress adorned themselves with modest indiscretion, not with places of hair and goads, or curls, or costly clothing, but with what becomes woman-making precious in the field of God, by good works. And then, in chapter 5. Verse 10. We're going to get the connection again when we read verse 9. Let a widow be put on the list, being of not less than sixty years, having been wife of one man, bore witness to a good work, that she hath brought up children, that she hath exercised hospitality, that she hath washed the saints' feet, that she hath imparted relief to the distressed, that she hath builded upon every good work. And then chapter 6. And verse 18. Chapter 6 and verse 18. He again enjoined them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be liberal in discreeting, to dispose to punitive assumptions. Well, dearly beloved, I didn't intend to come here and give a talk today. It's wonderful how the spirit of God works. I fully thought there would be a Bible reading here today, you see. But as our brother here wrote in the Marks of our faith, we and certainly we're very thankful for it. We were led to pray for her on Saturday afternoon at the London meeting. We were led to pray for her there and give God thanks for certainly the moral stance he gives when there's so much immorality rampant in this world today, even by our own sister. At least she still stands for what is right and we can thank God for that, that he still has his restraining hand in this scene. And it came to my mind as our brother gave his opening remarks to this passage in chapter 2 of the festivity of our prayer's intercession and giving of thanks be made for all men. For all men, that wouldn't be anybody else. It wouldn't be any specially singled out kings and all that authority. So surely we would always do this. We do pray. In the prayer meetings perhaps we're being a little bit grateful for that. I was first here in the meetings about 30 years ago now and I first attended prayer meetings. There was always at least one brother in the prayer meeting praying for all those above and sometimes one or two. And the aim was to see if we might lead quiet and peaceful lives in all godliness and honesty. And the reason that I'm expressing this verse as well as its bearing on our God's opening remarks is it brought to me that verse where it says this is good and acceptable before our saviour God. Good. And this epistle of Timothy is full of good things. I'm sure all you here by then who are much older than me will for many years enjoy the good things in this epistle. And all, of course, the good things right through to Genesis for revelation. But it's rather remarkable, I just forget the number of times, you see, it's not fresh in my mind, the number of times that the word good comes in here. Of course, there are two words in Greek for good. There's one which means beautiful, of high shape, from which we get our word. Calligraphy means beautiful, white and good in that sense. And there's another word which means good in our sense of moral goodness. And here the apostle says this is good and acceptable in the sight of our saviour God. How wonderful it is. So often he mentions against one of his themes in this epistle the saviour God. Good men, whose desire is all men should be saved. Those that have anything less than that dear beloved will be drawn to the gospel. Some of us in my work, we do have a Bible study from time to time. And recently they were getting on the subject of election. And we have all stopped along there to profess to be wanting help by the word of God. And as long as you don't disrupt the meeting, you're only too pleased to have them there. And this dear friend of the Salvation Army says, I can't see him, Gordon. We've cut him in a way. And I said, well, I've permanently been in predestination in the election. But I'm still going to go down to Leatherney Market tomorrow and preach the soul-saving gospel to whose ever will. And so this is a wonderful thing that we can preach this wonderful message. God, all men should be saved. And come to the knowledge of the truth. It's not just a matter of bringing them in just for a gospel vessel. That's wonderful. But once they're there, they need instruction and teaching. And we can be thankful to God, we younger brethren, for those who have gone before and laid the foundation and carried on these blessed truths. As the Apostles would say in the second epistle, That which thou hast heard of me, the same commitment, thou art a faithful man who shall be able to teach others also. And we can thank God for coming down with the mighty teachings that I've been faithful man to whom the word of God has been evident and have passed on these messages. And as we are still doing today, and this is what God desired of men, should come to the knowledge of the truth. Now we might just turn back to chapter one, where thus far we have a good conscience. This is the first of these goods that I wanted to speak about, a good conscience. You see, Timothy, who was Paul's son in the faith, he was asked to remain in Ephesus. As we've seen from the wonderful letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian saints, that they were in a very good condition of soul and understanding God's word. They didn't seem to have any error in them at all. And there was indeed correction of God's error. And the glory of the Lord and the truth of the body could be brought out in a wonderful way as nowhere else in scripture. And a wonderful condition at the same way where Ed was in. Paul was in there, in Acts 20, remember, the whole counsel of God. And, well, I think he was really concerned about the fact that he had no man-like mind. Timothy was a man of his own mind. The mind of Christ he was, of course, it wasn't his mind, it was the mind of Christ. He had a grasp of the truth. It was everything to him. And here he said, you're the only one, Timothy, that I can entrust to the master of caring and looking after these dear saints in Ephesus. And it seems now that other doctrines were coming on, coming in, telling their minds to fail with interminable genealogies. And so we've seen it today in this day and dispensation that there have been those that have broken away from us, they've been covered to the truth, and then they've gone off and they've got their mind occupied with interminable genealogies and hair split over this and that and the next thing. And we have seen the terrible radicalism that we've got in how we've misnamed the Lord Jesus and even we've got him distributed in the public press to those who have been obsessed with the letter of the Lord rather than with the living reality of a blessed man in the glory who is now the one that can engage and fill and satisfy their heart and is more than adequate for the sake of God's pathway here. And so these ones they've come aside and they don't turn God's dispensation which is in faith, God's blessed dispensation which is in faith. And that's where we are here in the beloved country. We are in the pathway of faith. And we are walking here without God's dispensation in view. God is going to head up all the things in Christ, even in faith, that blessed man. God is administering that and a steward to that blessed and wonderful administration. And it's in faith. We don't come into it intellectually in any way like that. No, we come into it in faith. And we hold it in faith. And here everybody let us have a walk in this pathway of faith. Holding these things vital and true in these last few closing days of the Ascended's history here and now. And it says, May all who join with mine and a pure heart for all we need. How much this is needed, isn't it? So often this is where the breakdowns come in because there's nothing above the edge. Yes, there are rights and wrongs in every case but we've got the blessed love to deal with it. John the Epistle. Nearby knowing that we love the brethren but we bear that life down to the brethren. That's a real test. A real test of how prepared are we to show our love and manifest it. Love out of a pure heart. Not just loving, you know, because you want something in return. Not inviting somebody to your house so they'll invite you back again or anything like that. No ulterior motive in you. Love out of a pure heart. The blessing of God is pure. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. That's an experimental thing. Do you know anything of that experimental? Do you really love it? I challenge the prior heart as well as yours in that. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Do you know the reality? Seeing the blessed one who is intrinsically pure. Love out of a pure heart. And a good conscience. We are here. It's wonderful. A good conscience. As we travel down today we happen to remark on a dear brother who seems to have no conscience about exceeding the speed limit and breaking the law. And he says don't look. There's nobody around. It's a quiet road. There's no police around. That isn't the way, you know. We don't just keep law because there's no police around. We should be proper citizens here in this scene and have a good conscience for those who are without so they can't legitimately point the finger as regards these matters. They will never, of course, leave us alone because they don't like our testimony but at least they don't have anything legitimately against us. A good conscience. An unfeigning faith. No dubiety in the country. No dissimilarity. No two-facedness in this faith. A complete and implicit faith in the law of Jesus Christ. So it's a good conscience. And again we have in verse 19 the same good again and again a good conscience which is needed to war, to good warfare. Holding faith. Maintaining faith. This is a day in me when we really need to maintain faith, don't we? The attacks on the faith are becoming multiparous and diverse in various ways and they are attacking through their signs, as Paul said in the last chapter falsely so called and the dear rather loses his job as a school teacher because he teaches at this place as well as follows through from the very beginning and he loses his job as a school teacher. How sad it is for the reversal of values when a man like him William Baston who in 1872 Education Act introduced the teaching of Scripture in the schools and he was speaking about the imperishable work of Holy Scripture whom they wrote to Baston and when he gave advice to the man who was going to succeed him as Prime Minister he didn't give him advice about how to manage the House of Parliament and how to get on with the Board of Leaders and things like that he always said take care of your soul the Lord goes with it, the grandfather of this man whose house many more is being sold. That Lord goes with it and he puts up these treasures there that was Baston's advice to him Rosemary, take care of your soul to Blads numbers to have interest beyond his feet and his heart and so maintain faith, how wonderful it is to hold faith and in this day and dispensation have a good conscience and you see he mentions some having put away doesn't quite it's not quite clear whether they put away the faith or the good conscience, it may be both but it's a sad thing to put away a good conscience because you see they've lost they've made shipwreck that's for faith, you know how sad it is so we desire to make a point of those that are going on with the Lord here and then in verse 9 we see the word well of course in verse 8 there's a word for the man, the man in faith in every place lifting up pious hands, godly hands and then the word to the sisters in the way of the department and it says, spoken to me in verse 10, but forth becomes women making profession of the field of God making profession of the field of God good works that's a real desire of the sisters and others to have good works making a profession of the field of God do we say that we are believers in the Lord Jesus, do we confess the Lord Jesus Christ do we profess to be righteous and fall in before God and this will be our test, this is what we market as far as we're making such a profession today, good works you know some people often ask what is your profession and things like that you know and men make profession of being engineers or doctors or scientists or various things like that and those who are setting out on life's journey you know I say that to my own children when they talk about their future careers and professions and things like that well I say the first and foremost thing is to have a profession of good works and if you don't leave it with them and pray that God will use it in them they will always desire to have good works as their profession maybe a blessing thing some earthly vocation or calling but the first thing is to have a profession of good works and then moving on just to not take up too much time and leave plenty of room for another two prophets to speak and trusting of course and speaking ethically and leave the others to judge in verse 10 we have a word about the widows and they have to be law witness to in good works which is the other word for good the moral good and then come down to the end about if she had imparted relief from the distress if she had willed it and followed every good work what a blessing testimony in this matter a practical matter for us in this day and age as we have a care of those who are wounded among us to look in their needs and help them in that way and we can garland dear sisters who are so marked by this there are no earthly stay one might say from the husband but we know that the Lord is the husband of the widow and the father of the fatherless and we can be thankful to these dear sisters who despite the limited means they are diligent in following every good work and we can seek to encourage them and to help them in the things of God practically and that they might be an encouragement to us washing the, exercising hospitality washing the saints feet the Lord's must of this being a trust and focus and a practical way of caring for the saints we can also be thankful I know I am as a young boy in my teens I was very thankful for the dear sisters who washed my feet as I was an unruly believer and I didn't just want to take anything because the brethren said so but the dear sisters, the dear old sisters who could go on their side and wash my feet in a practical way for the word of God and give me a scripture and teach me a few things from the scripture so I am very thankful to God and the dear sisters many of them now work for the Lord who gave me certain things from the truth of God to encourage me in these things and to be encouraging for all the dear sisters they might be washing the feet of the saints by passing on the word a little verse here or there and some practical instruction along the way there was a dear sister Miss Heinemann and I heard about in a meeting I haven't stopped in the days of brotherhood missionary in Brazil and that dear sister, I believe all the young sisters in the meeting used to come at all and ask for advice and of course there were a lot of young sisters who were from Christian homes and they needed some godly older experienced sister to give them advice in the matter of Christian living and finally we come now to the last one of these good things and actually you read in verse 18 of chapter 16 was to do to do it's not led, it's not qualified what we do, it just says to do good well that's a very all embracing thing and I would just seek to encourage our hearts if we might do good works, good things and the good of course that we can do the very best good that we can do is to tell someone about the Lord Jesus Christ to tell our neighbours, those across the plains they might do us a good job and help us in some way and the very best thing that we can do is to tell them of the heaven to me and the saviour who died for the cause of us that's the very best good we can do we may not get much time sometime you know, but don't let us weary in our work, for in due season we shall reap that we faith not and so the apostle joins in those which in his presence he has aged, not to be in my mind, but to trust on them as if they were riches God who affords us all things brings the power of God you know and so a dear brother was telling me in the last century you see there was some sister some family had their shares in a gas company and another family had shares in a new electricity company a couple of hundred years ago I don't know what they were doing with shares in any company but anyway that's as it was they had shares and of course the gas was declining and the economy was rising and those who had their shares in gas were very depressed and those who had their shares in electricity were exulting their joy was limited and affected by these material things oh you might say perhaps we might stand up and say let us examine our hearts and see how much of our joy is really in the Lord and in that which is going through you a dear old brother used to challenge our hearts and say what have you got that death can't touch have you got some in the bank of heaven have you got reserves there and is your joy linked up with that blessed man in the God who apposes all things richly for our enjoyment and he enjoined them to do good do rich and good works remember this reading lay not for themselves a good foundation for the future but they may lay hold of what is really life they may lay hold of eternal life yes there has been much discussion about eternal life here's an exhortation to lay hold of it and make it your own and enjoy it even now until at the blessed day when we wake and light that blessed man the Lord Jesus Christ the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the one who is coming again the man of the day for that we might indeed enjoy now David could say in thy presence this fullness of joy at thy right hand that our confessors forevermore may have the power to talk of thee all these things and we might talk of that blessed man amen amen amen amen amen amen …