Gospel Devotion

Good morning. Words you'll often hear among Christians and we gather as a church or in fellowship are grace, faith, love, and hope. And those are right, good, words we should always be talking about, but words you might not hear as often. Effort, work, diligence, practice, devotion. These are words that are throughout the Scriptures. Why don't we talk about those words as much as we talk about grace, faith, and love? Well, I have a hypothesis. It's because we have a difficult time with tension. There are many truths in Scripture, and a proper Christian, a good theologian is going to hold tension in proper place, and we don't really like tension. We like it to be simple and clear and easy. But these two things are held together with a real important tension, grace and effort, faith and work. To be clear, the gospel of Jesus Christ is received by faith, given to us by grace. The gospel of Jesus Christ also gives us the grace so that we might be disciplined in devotion and good work. We're looking at Titus, the last sermon series. The theme there was right teaching, right living, sound doctrine, good works. Here we see another emphasis. We see that emphasis continued in diligence and good work. It's very important. Works are not the cause of salvation. We do not have salvation as a result of works. It's a very important distinction. But we're saved for good works. We're created in Christ for good works. Good works are important, believer. Our behavior, our conduct, our works matter. They're how we enjoy all those gracious blessings from God. They're how we bless one another. This morning we're looking at a text and we're in 2 Timothy. Letter from Paul, we believe it's his last letter we have written for us as a church. It's a very personal letter. It ends with great anguish and difficulty. He's in jail. He's writing to his beloved son, whom he calls, not his physical son, but someone he's ministered with, he's mentored, Timothy. Timothy's the pastor in Ephesus. It's important here, we're gonna see over and over again. If you've been with us, you've seen this over and over again. There's a repetition of commands, imperatives. Paul has high expectations for Timothy. Why? Because he loves him. Paul has high expectations for Timothy because he loves him. He also sees his importance. He's a pastor. One of the best ways you can love somebody is to make sure the expectations are clear. Lowering expectations is not loving. It's not expecting the best of somebody and the best from someone. Over and over again, Paul is going to command Timothy with numerous expectations. The grounding is always the grace of God. There's three main passages, there's three main parts to our text this morning. Timothy is to be an approved worker. If you're taking notes, you wanna write down approved worker. And notice there, the command is do your best to be an approved worker. Second, useful vessel. Useful vessel, that's verses 20 and 21. And the expectation there is that you cleanse yourself. Approved worker, do your best. Useful vessel, cleanse yourself. And finally, Lord's servant, flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness. This morning we're gonna be looking at this letter that's primarily for pastors. But I believe there's implications for us as a church all together to consider what it means to be a good worker, a useful vessel, and the servant of the Lord. If we look at our text, verse 15, I wanna jump there first. I believe this is the key verse for this particular passage. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved. A worker has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. If you've been with us, we walk through books at a time, and we're in 2 Timothy. We looked at 2 Timothy chapter one, verse six, and I believe that is the key verse there where he He commands him, fan into flame the gift of God. Notice there the grace. Fan into flame, be encouraging the gift that God has given you so that you're not fearful, but you have power, love, and self-control for the benefit of the church. The next sermon, the next section, chapter two, verse one, be strengthened is the key command. Fan into flame, be strengthened. Do your best to present yourself before the one God, the one whom you should be seeking approval from. Here we need to think about, do your best. That's a high, significant declaration. Really, we all give our best to something. We all do give our best to what we think is best. Here, the command is, do your best, give your best to what is the best, God. Do your best in whatever your work is. Do your best in whatever your actions, your time, your focus, whatever you're doing, do it for the glory of God. Do your best, well, simply, if you think about a coach, give 110%. Do your best is make every effort. Do your best is work hard. Make sure your activity is focused. Do your best to present yourself before God. Now here it's a pastor. The call is for a pastor to make sure he's a a faithful worker, and that he will have to give an answer before God, there's gonna be a higher responsibility, a higher expectation, an answer before God, when he stands before God, how have you treated my people? How have you loved my people? How have you handled my word? Notice a worker not to be ashamed. There's two things that will bring shame. Disloyal conduct and disloyal words. The passage runs through these two themes. We're looking at an approved worker, and the two themes are very clear. Be diligent, do your best in your conduct and your character and the formation of who you are and how you live, and do your best in your words. This is how we do affect people most, period, right? Across the board. Our deeds and our words. When you think about that, do not be ashamed. There's an answer that a pastor and every Christian will have to give before God. Do not be ashamed by the way you lived your life, the way you prioritized your life, the way you used your words. A pastor must watch himself and his doctrine. We've seen that before. I want to broaden this out in that we all should be thinking this way. What are my deeds? What are my words? How are they influencing my relation with God? How are they influencing my other fellow believers? Here he's talking to a pastor, a preacher, because I wanna say the pulpit is the pace setter. The pulpit is where we should be and hearing the word of God in a way that challenges us and helps us understand the significant truths and Lord willing, rightfully handled, we see the most clear and important truths from God's word. But the whole church is really speaking with one another. We're building a culture and a community by the way we interact with one another. Don't lessen, don't lower the power of little words you share after the service. Don't think less of the importance of the kind of words we use, but we think about it, any community has to have a shared communication. What kind of words are we using? What kind of behaviors are we showing? Just to step back just another moment, any community requires commitment, character, and communication. Discipleship doesn't happen accidentally. In order for us to be a community of God's word, pastors need to be rightfully handling God's word, and we as a church must be following those words we hear in our conduct and our character. So do your best to present yourself as a worker, not ashamed, to be approved And notice there, rightly handling the word of truth. It's important how clear and repeated the teaching ministry of a church is. Verse 15, rightly handling the word of truth. Verse 14, remind them of these things. Those are the truths of that teaching we read earlier, and we'll look back at that in a moment. Charge them before God not to quarrel about words. Verse 16, but avoid irreverent babble. And then verse 23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies. You know that they breed quarrels. The Lord's servant must be able to teach. There's an importance on the words we share. Let's just go back up to chapter two, verse 11, and this is a trustworthy saying. These are words we should memorize and be ready to share. If you were with us last week, that first line, we have died with him, we will also live with him, that's conversion. If we endure, we will also reign with him, that's encouragement to persevere. If we deny him, he will also deny us, that's a warning. If we are faithless, here it means faithful. It's a promise. We can be assured that if we have believed in Christ, we've died with him, and we can live with him in obedience. If we endure, we will reign with him. There's a great promise of reward for those who will persevere, and then there's a warning. Are we denying him? He will deny us if we deny him. We cannot remove that simple, clear truth that Jesus taught over and over again. Why verse 13 is so important? When we're faithless, he's still faithful. There's the invitation, if you've denied him, if you've been living unfaithfully, the invitation is he's faithful to forgive anyone who will confess their sins. God does promise judgment, but he also promises that he will relent for anyone who repents. He will relent for all who repent. Here there's a charge. The importance of our words. Don't quarrel about words. Why? It's no good. It ruins the hearers. Avoid irreverent babble, why? Because that only promotes ungodliness and it spreads like a disease. It upsets the faith. Verse 23, have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant, quarrel. Notice verse 25, it's important. Correcting his opponents with gentleness, and there's a promise. God may grant repentance. The reason we want to avoid those things is because they're unhealthy. You don't entertain, you don't engage slander, gossip, quarrel, you stay away from it. And the only thing we can do here is gently correct with the hope that God may grant repentance. That's how kind God is. Now, the word quarrel is all over this place. Verse 14, charged before God not to quarrel. An elder, one of the qualifications, he cannot be quarrelsome. You're to avoid quarrels that are foolish and ignorant. What is a quarrel? What kind of thing, what kind of disagreement is unhelpful? Because we do wanna see in Jude, we're supposed to contend for the faith. How do we know when we're contending for the faith versus engaging in an ungodly quarrel? Well, verse 18 gives us a very clear example of what kind of quarrel we should not engage in, we should avoid. There we see some opponents of the gospel are saying the resurrection's already happened. What they're saying is Jesus Christ will return. The new life has already been given. They're twisting God's truth, and they're denying an essential element of it. This ran amok in a number of churches, who could not fathom miracles like the virgin birth, or that God would punish sin on a savior, on a cross, that he would rise from the dead. They would argue, we don't see anybody rise from the dead, so we can't believe in that. Well, there you go. God is limited by your reason. rather than your reason being transformed by God and his word. One of the ignorant, foolish quarrels is saying the resurrection's already happened, you've missed out on the promises of God. I would flip that over today and say one of the fears I have is that we don't even think about that resurrection. It's not that we think it hasn't happened, it's already happened, it's we have no expectation of it. We're not longing to hear that trumpet sound. We're not concerned how God would find us if he came down today. We live as if that resurrection will not happen, not that it has already happened. So one way to identify a foolish quarrel is arguing against or denying some essential truth of the gospel. There's another way of recognizing a quarrel. It's found in James 4. And I want somebody to tell me what it is. James 4, verses one and two. How do you recognize a quarrel? What's behind a quarrel? I'll embrace the awkward silence. What is it, James 4, one and two? Selfish ambition. Jealousy. That's what causes quarrels. sinful posture, a sinfulness that says I want my way, I'm gonna insist upon my opinions, I'm gonna insist upon these things, that is what's going to cause quarrels according to James 4 and 1 and 2. Avoid quarrels caused by selfish ambition, jealousy. Other ways in which we can see quarrels, those trying to find ways to deny or reject Jesus's clear I remember Satan's great question for Eve that was so powerful and painful. Did God really say that? Would God really deny you something so good as that? Surely God wouldn't give you that restraint. Surely God wouldn't say, that's a significant role, a restriction. A quarrel comes up in a church when our selfishness says, no, I don't need God's restraints. They're not for me. We'll see in a few weeks. Paul state clearly, God's word is true, authoritative, and sufficient to make us ready for every good work. It is good for reproof, rebuke, correction. we're gonna quarrel about certain words, like justification, we're gonna make it clear. Justification is the doctrine that says when we believe in God, when we believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, at that moment, God says, not guilty. We'll quarrel about that. We will contend for that truth. There's some truths that we must contend for. And then we must seek to apply God's word carefully, precisely, gracefully, gently, so that we would all be well corrected. There's a truth here, very important. Right teaching is what causes stability in a church. Right teaching is a staple and stabilizer. It helps us recognize error. It helps us stay on the right path. It helps us know how to emphasize and handle the word of God rightly. Verse 15, we're gonna go back to that basic declaration. One of the things pastors should be doing, doing our best to rightly handle the word of God. This means we must talk about sin in light of the gospel in a way that makes it clear what we confess and are forgiven of. We're talking about sins that we know how to repent and be renewed and restored. There's two kinds of pastors that, well, I think I can speak for Ben and Brian, we want to avoid. We want to avoid being sheepish. We want to avoid binding the conscience at all. We want to be fearful that there's a way in which God's word is binding on us if we proclaim it and teach it properly. There's also something we want to avoid, and that is acting as if our opinions are as authoritative. Those are two difficult errors. Hold us accountable. Be Bereans. When we're teaching, make sure we're not insisting upon an opinion, but what we're saying is coming from the text. and make sure that we are properly binding the conscience according to the word of God. Verse 15, over against quarrels is rightfully handed the word of truth. Another way of just translating that is cut straight. You cut straight through the word of God. One of the reasons we do expositional preaching, we wanna walk through books of the Bible at a time. We wanna make sure we don't avoid difficult teaching. We wanna walk through and make sure our noses are down in the text. As one person described Exodus or preaching, it was an interesting analogy or declaration. He said, it's just going verse by verse, no sauce. I'll let you figure out who that might be. Kind of an interesting person to declare on Exodus or preaching, but you don't need to add any sauce to the word of God. It's good. You don't subtract from it, you don't add to it. You don't try to make it more flavorful. It is itself the substance of God that we live by. Go back to this declaration. Do your best to be approved as a worker. This really calls, this requires our character, our conduct. We should all be longing to be lovers of God, lovers of good, lovers of one another, lovers of his word, lovers of his church. We're all seeking approval of somebody. Let's pull back and recognize that. We're all seeking approval of somebody. And it's easy to be consumed and overrun by a fear of man rather than a fear of God. That's a real problem, it's a real temptation, it's a real difficulty. But here it's clear. Our answer is before God. We're to do our best to present ourselves to him. A helpful question for us to meditate upon as a church. A helpful question for you to meditate on as an individual, as a believer, as a member of this body. Who gets your best? Where are your best efforts given? It's time for a reflection. That's helpful. We could do New Year's resolutions before Thanksgiving. Where do I need to realign where I've put my priorities? Where do I need to realign where I think something is truly the best and it's important, it's good, but it's not God? I fear we treat God like a hobby and our hobby's like God's. We live in a me world, let's be comfortable, let's be consumers. Today's an opportunity to see that the best, the most glorious, the most satisfying is inviting us in. Give me every effort. You will be unashamed. Give me every effort, you will not be dissatisfied. Give me every effort, you will stand before me rejoicing. What does it mean to be ashamed? If you wanna look that up, 1 Corinthians 3, verses 14 and 15, Paul here talks about this unashamed and shamed. If anyone tries to do works that are not built on the apostles and foundations and Jesus Christ as a cornerstone, then the fire will consume and it will consume everything that was not done according to God's word. And there'll be shame. You don't lose your salvation. He makes that very clear. But there is a shame that comes from not working for God according to God. 1 Corinthians 3, 14 to 15 is one of the clear passages there. Before we move on to our next point, I wanna look at verse 19 because every time, when Paul gives commands, he always grounds them in the gospel. Remind them, charge them, do your best, avoid. Those are the commands there for that first section, 14 to 19. Remind them of these things, the gospel truths. Charge them not to go into the things that are unuseful. Do your best. Verse 19. But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal. He's alluding to a building structure, and if you're an architect, you would use a seal to give your imprint This is my work. This is the foundational truths that Paul is declaring that we should be reminding of one another, that we should not be avoiding, that are actually a solution to the things that upset whole households. This is the foundation for faith, these two statements. This is one of the ways he's gonna summarize the gospel. Other ways he summarized the gospel, chapter one, verses nine to 11. Another way he summarized the gospel, chapter two, verse eight. Here is yet one more way he's going to summarize gospel truths. These are worthy of your memorization and meditation. The first is the Lord knows who are his. The Lord knows who are his. Let's say that together. The Lord knows who are his. This is emphasizing the power and grace and authority of God. To be His means to have every blessing in Christ. To be His is to be held by, loved, saved, cared for, promised. It emphasizes the sovereignty of God. But look at the second one. That everyone who names the name of the Lord Depart from iniquity. This is hopeful for us. The Lord knows we're his. There's no fooling God. Many will go before Christ and say, but I healed in your name. I fed the poor in your name. I never knew you. How do you know? How do we know if we're really naming the name of the Lord? How do we know who is naming the name of the Lord? Notice that it's very clear. What is it? They depart from iniquity. They repent of sin. They stay away from the sickness and grossness of sin. These are two truths we hold together. God knows who his children are. God knows us. God calls us. God loves us. God justifies us. God adopts us. God redeems us. God forgives us. He will glorify us. And if we name the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ, as our Savior, there's something that's going to mark us. The assurance we have is that we're departing from iniquity. The opposite of that is naming the name of the Lord and holding on to iniquity. Keeping it close. If we name the name of the Lord, we are seeing that his grace abounds where our sin abounds and we are trying to stay far away from that sin so that we can enjoy that grace. If you're not a believer this morning, I need to make something clear. Verse 15 is talking about how we will be approved when we see God face to face when we die as believers. There is no amount of work or effort you can do today to find His approval if you have not believed in Christ. You cannot gain God's favor, but God grants it. The Bible tells us very clearly, God loves us, God shows His favor while we're sinners. There's no washing and cleansing we can do to earn God's love, to earn God's salvation. What we do is receive it by faith. Work does not earn you salvation. We work after we're saved so that God would say, well done, good and faithful servant. Fair believer this morning. Please hear this. You cannot do your best to earn any favor or approval of God apart from belief in Christ. And that is simply receiving what God says. I will forgive you of your sins if you believe in Jesus Christ. I will save you from death if you believe in Jesus Christ. It's received by faith and it leads to works. You do not get salvation by works. The invitation is to believe. If you have not believed, please not leave here without talking to somebody about what it means to truly receive by faith. As we continue, our next point, the first point was the longest point for those of you who are watching clocks and whatnot, so there you go, a little cue for you. Useful vessel. Useful vessel. And there we see the end. Useful to the master of the house. Well, Paul seems to be continuing on with this foundation and seal and household metaphor. He's using the metaphor of a home. He's continuing on there after declaring these gospel truths, verse 20. Now in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use and some for dishonorable. Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, He will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. Verse 20, we need to make sure we understand what he's saying there. He's using a common understanding, a common metaphor. Every household has nice things and just ordinary things. Gold and silver, honorable use, clay and wood, Dishonorable use, unholy, not special. Make sense? That's simple. We get this. If you come to my house and we're grabbing hot dogs on the patio and you have kids, we're probably gonna do paper plates. That doesn't mean we dishonor you, it means we really respect you. Enough to give you paper plates. If it's a sit-down dinner, we're gonna get out the glass dishes. And we don't have china because we don't expect the queen to pop in for brunch anytime soon. But when you think about, you know, the typical household, we've got, you know, paper plates and your typical dishes, and then some might have fine china for those very special occasions. Well, we get this metaphor. Gold and silver, precious material, honorable for the most dignified and worthy occasions, and then we just have common items for common use. Verse 21, therefore, If anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use. He seems to have flipped and mixed a metaphor here, right? Because a piece of clay, they can't repent of being clay. A clay spoon, a wooden spoon can't turn itself all of a sudden into a golden goblet. So what is he doing here? I believe he's talking about the foundation of the church, the great house, this is God's house. There are always going to be within God's house some kind of problem makers. Some kind of folks who are causing disruption. Like those who are teaching the resurrection hasn't, has already happened or will never happen. Notice here the clarity though. Cleanse. That's the action. Believer. The one thing that turns you from being honorable use or dishonorable use. Repentance. Cleansing. That's it. He calls every single believer. to every single person within the church, every human being. If you want to be used for God's honorable use, there's just one requirement. Be cleansed. Be washed. Now, to pull back a little bit, let's remember it from Titus chapter three, the gospel declaration. God washed us and renewed us. the Holy Spirit that that indwells us, who came down from the Son, who died for our sins. There's a powerful God-ordained washing that is already indwelling those who believe, and we can be washed and cleansed as we follow the Spirit, not quench the Spirit. Notice what happens if you cleanse yourself, you're now a vestibule for honorable use. Set apart as holy. God delivers us from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his Son. There's a holiness. You become a saint. Useful. Ready for every good work. God has given members of this church incredible abilities. Intellectual, physical. Talents. God doesn't need any of it. None of our natural God-given talents and gifts are what make us useful in the church. There's only one thing that makes you useful. Repentance. That's good news. The only thing that makes you useful is pursuing God and putting off the passions of the flesh. For those of you who think I've got nothing to offer, no. Your life. If you want to be used by God, repent. It has nothing to do with how gifted you are, or how talented you are, or how capable you are. It's how much you're going to set off your sin and put on Christ. That's what determines how useful anyone is in the household of God. God doesn't need our gifts, but He requires. He requires. Our holiness. This morning, if you feel like you're not useful, is there a sin to be repented of? Is there a commitment that needs to be made that I'm going to set us off this sin? I'm going to stop prioritizing these activities. I'm going to stay focused and commit to God. Let's just make sure we understand how terrifying this actually is. Look at verse 26. They may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do his will. There are only two ways to live according to scripture. We can live in sin, follow in the way of the prince of the air, follow in the way of our passions. We can live according to the Holy Spirit. Following his conviction. Being washed by his power. We're either doing the will of Satan or the will of God. We're following along the way of the world or the way of Christ. There's no such category as bystander or spectator. We're being used by God. We're being doing, we're foolishly being deceived into being used by Satan. What kind of work, what kind of usefulness are we giving ourselves over to? That's terrifying. God has graciously given us an invitation to be part of his holy kingdom, his household. God has graciously invited us to be part of that building up of his kingdom. God has graciously said, these things are out of bounds, repent of these sins, and these things are what we should be pursuing. God has graciously told us what he expects of us and how he can use us. And again, notice there, verse 25. The cleansing we need is granted to us by God. Our responsibility is repent. This whole passage comes together. You wanna be a worker approved? You wanna be a useful for every good work? Be about that cleansing work of repentance. Finally, our last point, the Lord's servant. To be an approved worker means we depart from iniquity. To be useful in the household of God means we are part of that, we're focusing on that cleansing of ourselves because of the grace of God already given. And then verse 22, flee youthful passions. So it might be the Lord's servant. The Lord's servant flees those passions. The useful instrument cleanses themselves. The good worker departs from iniquity. You see a theme. God desires our holiness. There's three main commands in verses 22 and 23. Flee youthful passions, pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, along with those who call on the Lord, and have nothing to do with the foolish controversies. So there we see conduct and words, again, these two qualifiers. First, what does it mean to flee lust? Every lust, every passion promises some kind of satisfaction. And the goal of the Christian is to weigh what that promise is and what it is and recognize from scripture, no, it's a lie. Every time we're tempted to look at something that is inappropriate, it's not gonna satisfy. Flee from it. Every time we think a lie will help resolve a situation, no, it's a lie. Flee from it. Every time we think holding on to anger and resentment is going to bring some kind of satisfaction, no, it's a lie. Flee from it. Paul goes further in other letters, Colossians and Romans. Put it to death. Put it off. Put it away. Every passion that is opposed to Christ must be put away to enjoy Christ fully. What does it mean to flee? Run like your life depends upon it. Run like your life depends upon it. The second commandment. Pursue righteousness, these two things go together. You can't stop sinning unless you start putting your heart's affections and your heart's commitment and your best on something better. Stop pursuing sin, flee from it, and then pursue righteousness, that which is good. Pursue faith, growing in more trust in God. Pursue love, the love that comes down from God, the love that overwhelms into others, and peace. I believe like Paul says to Colossians, put your mind on the things above. Notice that end qualifier. Along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. We gotta stop believing we're somehow individuals that do not depend upon others in our walk and growth and faith. There's a great lie that you can be an individual Christian that you're just fine by yourself, just be a consumer, just sit back, don't engage. Isolation has this promise of security, but no, it's gonna kill you. Don't be a free agent. Be bound by others who wanna walk in Christ with you, alongside of you, for you, and you for them. And third, we see here, avoid the controversies. If you wanna be a faithful servant, flee those passions. Pursue righteousness. Don't engage in those ungodly, foolish quarrels. We end here, verse 24. Here's another list, must. Keyword's must. This is another list of qualifications for an elder. 1 Timothy 3, we saw it in chapter one of Titus. Here's a shorter, simpler list that repeats some things in the previous two lists, but complements it. Don't be quarrelsome, instead be kind. Those two things correlate. Able to teach, that's the one unique thing that every elder must be able to do. Patiently enduring evil, correcting with gentleness. Do not be quarrelsome. There's a way in which the goal isn't to win an argument, the goal is to win the person. The goal is to make God and his word so clear that the person is won over to God. That's very different than wanting to engage in an argument for the argument's sake. An elder can't be quarrelsome. There's no such thing as the devil's advocate elder. Don't engage in disputes. No one do step away from disputes. The other, be kind to everyone. This is an opposition to harsh. There's a prioritization of kindness, of gentleness, of care. Now a lot of people will look at this and say, well kind, well that, there's a way to be kind and not ever talk about anyone's sin to them and correcting. But that's not really kind, is it? To leave somebody in sin is not kind at all. To approach them with a gentleness that draws them out of that sin, that's true kindness. Able to teach, well that means you're rightfully able to handle the word of God, you cut straight. When you look for teachers, look for teachers who are constantly putting your nose down. Look for teachers, I want you to help you see this is what the word of God says. This is the clarity of God's word. This is the importance of God's word. This is what is weighty and clear. You feel more equipped and ready to be courageous in your faith. Patiently enduring evil. There's an endurance that is required for anyone wanting to do gospel work. We pointed out earlier later on he's gonna say anyone who desires to do the will of the Lord They will be persecuted. They will go through tribulation. I said there's two ways to live. There's two ways to be useful. You're either useful for God or useful for Satan. If you're useful for God, you're knocking up against the gates of hell. And yeah, the promise is that they can't withstand it, but they're not gonna like it. When we're confronting evil, when we're constantly in the front lines of evil, there needs to be a patient endurance. And finally here, verse 5, correcting with gentleness. Now in Titus, he talked about giving a sharp rebuke. I look forward to hearing Paul and how he's gonna distinguish here the audience and who, and then one day I'll get to ask, why did you say sharp rebuke here and gentle rebuke here? But here's one thing that's obvious. The rebuke is not saying that's who you are as a sinner and that's who you'll always be, you're condemned. No, the goal is God might grant repentance. Anytime you talk about somebody's sin, it's not that's who you are. That's what God saved you from. The goal is restoration. No matter how sharp or gentle that is, the goal is restoration. The goal is to pull up out of the mire. The goal is to restore by being clear about what sin is. Being clear about the power of God's grace. As we conclude, I wanna make sure that we are a church that holds true to the declaration, the Lord knows who are his own. He knows us, he knows his children, he saved his children, he called his children. There's a great assurance. And if we're gonna name the name of the Lord, we're gonna depart from iniquity. This isn't unique here for pastors. The gospel of Jesus Christ has these two truths. We're saved by grace. And we're saved for good works. We're not saved by works, we're saved for works. Let me just go through a very short, simple list of these kinds of commands from other epistles. Romans 12, do not be conformed to this world. 1 Corinthians 6.18, flee from sexual immorality. 1 Corinthians 10.14, flee from idolatry. 2 Corinthians chapter 7, cleanse yourself from every defilement, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Galatians 5, live by the spirit or by the flesh. These two are opposed to one another, Paul says. Those who live in the flesh will not inherit eternal life. Ephesians 4, walk worthy of the calling of the Lord Jesus Christ. Put off your former ways of deceit. Put on Christ. Chapter five, verse seven, sexual morality and impurity must not be named among the saints. Philippians 1.27, let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ. Chapter two, verses 12 and 13, work out your salvation. Colossians 3.5, put to death all that is sinful. 1 Thessalonians 4.3, this is the will of God, your sanctification, abstain from sexual morality. Control your body in holiness. 1 Thessalonians 3.6, sorry, 2 Thessalonians 3.6, keep away from a brother who is idle. If anyone is not obeying, have nothing to do with him. 1 Timothy 3.14, know how one ought to behave in the household of God. Titus 2.10, adorn the doctrine of God. Live according to sound doctrine. Philemon, verse 21, be confident Paul says, I am confident that you will be obedient to forgive Onesimus. Hebrews is wrapped up in this two truths. Christ provided that once for all sacrifice. Christ died as the perfect lamb. Christ died in the true holy of holies. He's now seated and now enter boldly, enter boldly, enter boldly. Lay aside every sin and weight and enter boldly to the place of joy. James 1.22. Be doers of the word. You cannot be religious and not bridle your tongue. 1 Peter 1, be holy in all your conduct, having purified yourselves. 2 Peter 1, be diligent, make every effort, practice these qualities. 1 John, do not love the world. Flee from idolatry. No one who abides in Christ keeps on sinning. A sampling from every epistle. The sampling of the high call of obedience. Of course, we could have just quoted our Lord and Savior himself. But be my disciple, you'll deny yourself, you'll carry your cross, you'll follow me. Will you pray with me?