For Us and Our Salvation

At this time, we’re going to turn our attention to Psalm 67. Psalm 67, then we’ll read three verses in 1 Timothy 3, and then we will read also the second article of the Nicene Creed together this morning, reminding us of the work that Christ did for us and for our salvation. Before we do that, I just want to point to your attention that tonight’s Sunday evening gathering, that we’re going to have the bulletin for that, it’s on the back, if you want to peruse that before the service is, or after the service, that would be a benefit to you.
So this morning, let us stand, let us read Psalm 67. Hear these words, the very words of God to the choir master, with string instruments, a psalm, a song. May God be gracious to us and bless us, and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you. Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity, and guide the nations upon the earth. Let the peoples praise you, O God, let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase. God, our God, shall bless us. God shall bless us.
Let all the ends of the earth fear him. Now we turn our attention to first Timothy chapter 3 verses 14 to 16. I hope to come to you soon, but I’m writing these things to you, so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.
Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness. He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, and here you get an allusion to Psalm 67, proclaimed among the nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory. Now we turn our attention to the second article of the Nicene Creed.
Let us read together. We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven. He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and was made human.
He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. The third day he rose again according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end.
Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this, your Word, and we thank you for the preservation of your Word, even through the creeds that we hold as a proper confession here at Emmanuel. We pray, Father, that your Word would continue to move mightily and powerfully in our hearts and lives, knowing that you are working in and through the gospel of your Son to bring us into a greater understanding of who you are.
And may that be clear today. It is through Christ we pray. Amen.
Amen. You may be seated. In the year 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 was traveling from the city of New York to Seoul, North Korea.
And after making a stop in Anchorage, Alaska, it departed towards Seoul. However, unbeknownst to the pilot, as they traveled toward Seoul, they veered off the path 200 miles and found themselves 200 miles inland in what was Soviet airspace. And because this was during the Cold War, Soviets believed that this was an American spy plane, and so they proceeded to shoot it down over the ocean.
How did this plane get off course? Well, it initially started with a small inch, and that inch gradually became 200 miles. We have to acknowledge that the pilots didn’t have GPS, so they didn’t they didn’t veer off course purposefully, but the end result was the same. Whether accidentally or purposefully, the demise of the entire flight was the result of them veering off course.
And what happened to this flight in 1983 is the predicament of Christians. Just one degree of shift from sound doctrine, and you end up abandoning the faith altogether. What starts as a small compromise can end up being in a disastrous shipwreck of faith.
And this is what Paul is trying to prevent, and that’s why he is instructing Timothy here in First Timothy chapter 3. Paul is telling Timothy that he must guard the gospel and not let any slight of theological compromise come in, because it can damage the witness, and it can hinder the progress of the gospel. And that is also what was happening in ancient church history. When the council of Nicaea was convened, it was because theological error, slight theological error, was intruding into the church.
Now, I know if you’re familiar with the historical context of the Nicene Creed, which was written in 325, 1700 years ago, but I’m not going to bore you with all the details. But in essence, this is what was going on. There was a presbyter of Alexandria named Arius, and he began to teach that Jesus was like God, but not as equal to the Father.
He was teaching that Jesus was like God, but not same as God. He used the phrase of like substance. Against Arius, Athanasius and those who were compelled by scriptures to refute the errors of Arius, Athanasius was a deacon at the time, said no, Jesus is not like God.
He is God. But in the Greek, the difference between those two words you see on the screen is one letter. Homoousios means in likeness to God, or of like substance.
Homoousios is of the same substance. One letter is the difference between orthodoxy and heresy. And so Paul, wanting to safeguard the truth of the gospel, is warning Timothy to guard the gospel.
Because this is what can happen, a error that even though it’s slight, brings disastrous consequences. And Athanasius, and like Paul, didn’t want to swerve one inch and end up 200 miles over Soviet airspace. He wanted to stay firm to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
He wanted to stay committed because he did not want to cause a shipwreck of his faith. And so this careful observation of doctrine is what we are being called to this morning. I know doctrinal squabbles is not, it’s frowned upon in our society.
Why don’t we just stick to loving Jesus? But it is hard to love a Jesus whom we don’t know how to define. And that’s why doctrine is important. And that is why Paul here, as we look at what we have read in 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul is instructing Timothy to defend the gospel.
He clarifies for Timothy the purpose of his writing. If you look at verse 14, he tells Timothy, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things so that if I delay, you know how to conduct yourselves. Timothy, Paul says, I’m making my way toward you.
I’m moving to go and give you advice, but because of circumstances, I can’t be there. But there’s a pressing issue that if you allow false doctrine to persevere, the gospel will be at stake. And therefore, we will lose the truths that have been entrusted to us.
And so Paul is writing with urgency. He wants Timothy to guard the gospel. And this is the main point.
This is the main point that we must guard the gospel. And how we guard the gospel is by our conduct and by our confession. And so Paul is going to give us three essential realities.
He’s going to point out three essential realities. He’s going to say we must have a proper conduct, a proper awareness, and a proper confession. And I’m going to take those three up here in proper order.
Paul begins by saying, Timothy, you must have a proper conduct. I am writing these things to you so that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God. There is a conduct that pertains to the gospel.
And he says, I am writing you these things. And what are these things? That’s the question we must ask ourselves. What is Paul alluding to? Well, I think it’s what he has written in chapter two and in chapter three.
One can make an argument also chapter one. But in chapter two, Paul begins saying, first of all, I want prayer to be the focus, have primacy in the church. Paul knows that there is a way to believe without it impacting your life.
And because he wants to guard the gospel, he wants to also guard the conduct of the Christian, of the Christian. And so he says, first of all, then I urge supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. Paul is speaking about the proper activities and engagements of the church.
And so Paul is saying, if we’re going to guard the gospel, proper conduct must be had. And he begins with prayer. Now, if I were Paul, I’m not sure I would have began with prayer.
I probably would have began with doctrine. I would have began with affirmations of the truth. If you’re going to guard the gospel, you would tell them, hey, you have to commit yourself, your life, and it may show forth your love for your neighbor, your devotion to God through gathering together.
But Paul begins with prayer because prayer is the chief expression of our faith. Paul tells Timothy, first, pray. He makes an emphasis on prayer, and it’s an all-encompassing prayer.
Look at the how he describes prayer, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving. Paul is saying that if the church is going to be a gospel-preserving church, it must be a prayer-filled church. For the progress of the gospel to continue to go forth, we must rely not on human strength but on supernatural power.
This is not a human institution that can be guided by policies and ideas made up by men. Prayer is essential. And so, a prayerless church is a soulless, gospel-less, dead church.
And that is why we should endeavor to pray and pray and pray because God’s Word commands it. You see, one of the reasons why I think I wanted to make an effort in prayer, it’s not because I, as a pastor, want to fill up your calendars with activities. The focus on prayer is because it’s a requirement.
It’s an indispensable requirement of the church. Paul here is saying if we’re going to conduct our lives according to the gospel, prayer must be paramount. Now, there’s a reason for this because you look at all world religions, prayer is a key component of those religions.
You think of Islam, they pray. You think of Judaism, there’s a wailing wall where they pray. You think of eastern religions, they also devote, even in a way that it’s not according to God’s will, but they devote themselves to speaking and thinking and meditating because it’s an expression of faith.
And so Paul says prayer must be paramount. So a conduct according to the gospel is a devotion to prayer. But then Paul also talks about that there should be godly men who are gentle, not given to wrath, and women who adorn their lives with good works.
And then he moves on in chapter 3 to speak of elders and deacons who are also to be gospel witnesses in the way they live their lives. Paul is saying we guard the gospel by our conduct. We guard the gospel by living lives according to God’s ways.
And so prayer is essential. Godly living is essential. Men should, he says in chapter 2 verse 8, I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or quarreling.
And then women should not dress themselves with costly attire, but what is proper for women who profess godliness, that is they should dress themselves with good works. Now ladies, I want to encourage you that as you compliment one another, I’ve, you know, it is common to compliment one another in attire. I wonder how much we compliment one another in good works, in devotedness to the gospel.
I’m sure that happens, but I want to encourage you to do it all the more. That as you encourage one another in the faith, that one of the encouragement is, hey sister, I really appreciate your steadfastness. I appreciate your devotion to love God.
Here this morning I can say without embarrassing, I think Linda has been one of those persons that have exhibited that faith in the midst of trial, and that has been an example not only for me, and I’m sure for many of you, even as they are enduring this difficult circumstance. There are others among here that can, we can be here all morning speaking of how one another, how the women in this congregation are being devoted to God and dressing themselves up with godliness. That is an encouragement to me, and I’m in the leadership here at Emmanuel.
But notice here when Paul is talking about the conduct of the church, many people when they look at these verses, especially chapters two and three of first Timothy, they focus only on what Paul is speaking about concerning women. But I think that Paul actually speaks more to what men are supposed to do. And so, as point of application, I want to encourage the men here to lead in godliness.
The attention that Paul wants to drive forward here is that men should be leaders in preserving the gospel, that they should be ones who lead in prayer, that they should be the ones directing and giving guidance in godliness. It is your, and I’m speaking to the men, your natural inclination, men, to abdicate responsibility to lead in godliness. That is your natural disposition.
How do I know? I’m a man, and that is a temptation I face. There’s times where I know I have to lead in godliness, and I can think of 10 other things I can do instead of pursuing godliness. But here, we’re going to preserve the gospel.
There’s a call for men to lead, to show the way, to do it in a gentle and uncoercive way, not backbiting or fighting, but lovingly leading in godliness. So Paul says, the way you preserve the gospel is by your conduct. But then he says, he shifts that there has to be an awareness.
So there’s a proper conduct, but then there’s a proper awareness. And what is this awareness? We must be aware that we belong to a family, and that the church is a structure that protects the gospel. So if you look at verse 15, he says, he describes the church as the household of God.
Now household can be the building, or it can mean the family. I think Paul is talking about here as a family. We are here as Christians, our family.
We are a household. We are a unit of unified souls. And I just want to impress upon you that the relationship that we carry with one another is an eternal relationship.
In other words, we’re going to carry this relationship we have here as those who have believed in Christ to eternity. And so I know it’s challenging here on this side of eternity, but this is the truth. Just like we don’t pick our siblings when we’re born into this earth, we don’t pick those whom God has united to us through faith in Christ.
And so we must understand that if we’re going to enjoy heaven, we must enjoy our brothers and sisters here. It’s amazing how many people think that they will enjoy heaven when they can’t enjoy being around God’s people now. Someone wrote humorously, to live above with saints we love, oh that will be glory.
To live below with saints we know, well that’s another story. I think there’s truth to that. But we must be committed because we’re a household, we’re a family, we are called to be unified.
And in families, I’m part of a family, me and my sisters have disagreements, and but we persevere beyond them or we try to resolve them. We don’t hunker down and take our own way. We move towards one another.
Why? Because the gospel unites us. And that is the language that we speak, the common language, the common tongue, the common voice that we speak in this family is the gospel. And I honestly would rather go to church where I can disagree with someone with differing political views and social ideals, but that we find unity in the gospel.
I’m okay with divergent political aspirations, but as long as the gospel is central. Now I would argue that the gospel does inform our political values, but even if in the beginning we are far from one another, and if even if we stay looking at things politically differently, as long as the gospel is central, we will provide proper awareness of who we are. But Paul here in the B, he says not only that we’re a household, but he says, which is the church, which church means the called out ones, the assembled ones of the living God.
Now living God in the Old Testament was a designation given to God to differentiate Himself from the dead gods of the pagans. And one of the key ideas that was promoted by God as living is that God was among His people. And that’s why if you remember when God is giving Israel instructions, He says, I am among you, I live among you, I dwell among you, and therefore you should be holy.
The fact that we are the household of a living God, that God dwells with us, and just like Israel, because God dwelled with us, they couldn’t have, you know, bowel movements hanging around around their tents. They had to clean up their space. They had to remember that they were in the presence of a living God.
So also we, we must understand that we live in the presence of a living God. We must be aware, proper awareness. But Paul not only says that we are the church of the living God, but he further says that the church is also a pillar, buttress, or foundation of the truth.
That is that the church, the foundation, it’s like this bulwark that is supporting the gospel. It functions as a stabilizing a building. And applied to the church, the church holds the truth steady against heresy and unbelief.
That is what the church is called to do. We’re supposed to guard the gospel by by protecting it from heresy and unbelief. But it’s also a pillar.
In pillar, it’s a supporting beam. I mean, a pillar is used to support the roofs in ancient structures. And one of the greatest examples of this is the temple of Artemis in Ephesus, where there was more than 100 marble columns making the structure visible and admired.
And in applied to the church, it lifts up the truth for the world to see and admire. So with these two words, Paul is saying we protect the truth, but we also proclaim the truth to the world. So it is admired by all.
It is proclaimed to all. The church doesn’t promote itself. It promotes the truth of the gospel.
And so this morning, what Paul is trying to help us understand, so we have to be aware. We’re going to guard the gospel. We must protect it, and we must proclaim it.
We must protect it, and we must proclaim it. And you’ll say, but I thought it was, I thought the church was laying on the foundation of the gospel, not the other way around. Well, both are true.
We are both the protector of the gospel. In other words, we guard it against heresy, but we’re also resting on the gospel. And we find the truths of the gospel to be what supports the existence of the church.
But finally, Paul moves from a proper conduct, proper awareness, and finally, to a proper confession. And this is what we find in verses, in verse 16. He says, great indeed we confess is the mystery of godliness.
The mystery of godliness. The mystery of godliness. That word mystery is not because godliness is some way mysterious.
Paul is saying that what was hidden in the Old Testament is now revealed in Christ. Paul is declaring, this is an early church creed. If you read it, it reads like a creed, just like how we just read the nice part of the Nicene Creed.
And what Paul is saying is that godliness is centered on a person. And if we’re going to be godly people, we must be centered on Christ. That everything, this is actually the most, this is the high point, the apex of the entire letter to Timothy.
Because he is saying everything flows from this confession. All our conduct flows from understanding who Jesus is. There is no godly life apart from understanding rightly who Jesus is.
And Paul is saying godliness is centered on a person. Great indeed we confess this mystery.