 Our sermon title is Conduct Worthy of King and Cause, Conduct Worthy of King and Cause, and we have been, again, working through 1 Timothy chapter 3. We've looked at the qualifications for overseers, next the qualifications for deacons, and now we're coming to this paragraph from verses 14 through 16 in 1 Timothy chapter 3. And here, to give you a little background, on Paul's third missionary journey, that missionary journey began in Acts 19. If you want to follow that along in Acts, and he firmly plants in Acts 19 this church in Ephesus. Priscilla and Aquila had gone before, had met Apollos. There were some disciples who had come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in Ephesus. And then Paul comes through on his third missionary journey beginning in Acts 19 to solidly plant this church in Ephesus. Now he labored there, the Bible says, labored in Ephesus for three years. As he said in Acts 20, shedding tears, praying night and day. He was reasoning daily, it says, in the school of Tyrannus, and he was building what would become this fledgling church in Ephesus, this church that Timothy is now pastoring. Paul poured his life into these people, reasoning with them from the scriptures, pleading with them about Christ, teaching and working and laboring and toiling and evangelizing and teaching and laboring and working and toiling and evangelizing. Constantly in Ephesus, this was Paul's life. Paul loved the church and he loved this church and he loved to see people saved. God was working miracles through Paul, attesting to the truth of the gospel and attesting to Paul's apostleship. And sometime after a period of three years in Ephesus, riots broke out in Ephesus related to the spread of the gospel. That's awesome. We need the gospel spread so fervently around here that riots break out. Riots broke out in Ephesus related to the spread of the gospel. And so Paul continued traveling on and went to Macedonia. He was later arrested. He was eventually taken to Rome, arrested and confined in Rome. And meanwhile, the church at Ephesus is pressing on despite great opposition, despite great difficulty. Once released from Roman custody, it's thought that Paul, with Titus and Timothy, traveled east, headed to the island of Crete, southwest of Ephesus in the Mediterranean Sea. Because of immorality in Crete, Paul leaves Titus there in order to get those churches in Crete in order. It had gotten so bad. Immorality was at such a level in Crete that there were sayings in Crete about the Cretans. To act the Cretan became synonymous with playing the lyre. To be a lyre was to be a Cretan. We even use the word Cretan, don't we, sometimes today. Ladies, if you call a guy a Cretan, that comes with a connotation, doesn't it? That was true when it began back then. The Bible says they were lazy gluttons, they were evil beasts. Titus was charged in Crete with hitting this immorality head on by putting the churches in order and by preaching right conduct, holy living. Titus was to preach holy living among the Christians there. They were to obey the scriptures and live righteously. In Titus chapter 2 verse 12, they were to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. They were to live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age. In chapter 3 verse 8, Titus was to affirm constantly that those who believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. Titus was pressed for order and right conduct in the churches in Crete. Now today, to most people, obey is a four letter word. They don't want to hear obey, they don't want to hear that constantly affirming that those who believe in God should practice good works. It's just not accepted in churches today. People want to be left alone. But meanwhile, Paul and Timothy were on their way to Macedonia when a stop in Ephesus turned out to be a disaster. You have false teachers, false teaching that were undermining the church and the people there were suffering shipwreck of their faith. Their conduct was affected, their understanding of the gospel was affected, holy living was being compromised and people were dying. People were suffering shipwreck of the faith. Satan had gotten a foot in the door at Ephesus and the church was in dire straits. It had Paul heartbroken over this. While there, Paul had to disfellowship two of the ringleaders of the group that was teaching false doctrine in the church and leading the people there, Hymenas and Alexander. But Paul had to keep going on toward Macedonia. He had to keep going. And so Paul, in the same way that he left Titus and Crete, left Timothy in Ephesus to get the church in order, to stem this tide of wickedness that had grown up in this church. And Timothy was to preach order and right conduct in the church, holy living. When Paul got to Macedonia, maybe even on the way, he began writing this letter to Timothy and a similar one to Titus. And the first thing I want you to see here in chapter three, verse 14, is the necessity of Paul's writing and the urgency with which he wrote. There's a necessity communicated here and an urgency to Paul's writing. Listen to what he says in first Timothy chapter three, verse 14. These things, Paul says, I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. Remember, Paul is in Macedonia. Macedonia is in northern Greece. In his letter to Titus in chapter three, Paul gives his intent that he plans to spend the winter in Nicopolis. Nicopolis was a city on the west coast of Greece, about halfway up central part of the country. And however, after winter, after Paul had wintered there in Nicopolis, it's apparent from first Timothy chapter three. And then understanding the seriousness of what Paul had just witnessed at this church when he came through with Timothy on his way to Macedonia, it's apparent here from verse 14 that Paul had planned a return to Ephesus. There was a lot of work to be done in Ephesus and that church was in trouble. He says in verse 14, I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, you need to get this letter. And though Paul says, I hope, here literally in the Greek, this is a concession. For you Greek guys, this is a concessive use of that participle, hoping. Literally, it's even though I am hoping, and that's a present active participle that's continuous, Paul is hoping to get back to them. Even though I am hoping to come to you quickly, Tachyon. If he's delayed, they've got to get instruction. They've got to have this letter. Paul knew that there were certain contingencies that could come up that would keep him from making it back to Ephesus. All kinds of things could happen. Paul had said in Acts 20 that he knew from the Holy Spirit that in every city, chains and tribulations awaited him, and he couldn't risk a failure of communication with Timothy in the church. He had to get to them. He had to communicate. He had to write this letter. It couldn't wait. They needed the these things that Paul had written here. These things here refers to everything written in this epistle. Some want to try to restrict that these things, so just chapter 2 and chapter 3. An example of this is in 1 John chapter 5, where John writes these things that you may know that you have eternal life, and these things refers to the entire letter. There's no reason to restrict this here in 1 Timothy either. These things refers to all of the instruction, all of the correction, all of Paul's writing here in 1 Timothy. If Paul was delayed, this letter, in a sense, would replace his presence with them in Ephesus. The letter was going to, in a sense, replace him. This letter, in a sense, replaces Paul's presence for us, too, doesn't it? Paul has written the letter, and this instruction comes with apostolic authority. This instruction comes from the Holy Spirit. It comes through Paul to our church today, in a sense, it replaces his presence for us. But it carries all of his intention for the church. It carries all of his authority to back it up, and also carries the weight of all his love for the church and his concern. There's a necessity to write to the Ephesians. There's a necessity to write to Timothy here, because Paul loved this church, and it had to have been heartbreaking for him to see what was going on. There were wicked enemies, wolves that had crept in, unnoticed, risen up from among them, as he said in Acts 20, that were not sparing the flock, and they were leading away disciples after themselves. And this church was going down in a hurry, and there were people who were being lost. And he poured his life into those people. He saw them grow and mature in the faith. He raised up leaders there. He may have even raised up himself, Hymenes and Alexander. He poured his life into those people, and now they're being picked off one at a time by these wicked piranha who are swimming through the waters there around the church at Ephesus. We need to take heed to this and follow Paul's example here. Paul gives instruction and correction with respect to how we ought to conduct ourselves in the church of God, in the house of God. And first and foremost in Paul's example is this love for the church of God, this love for the house of God. We know from Scripture that love is far from being mere emotion. Paul didn't just emotionally love these people in Ephesus. He just didn't love them in a sentimental way. Paul poured his life into them, nurtured them as he says later, like a father of his own children, like a mother nourishes her babe. He nourished them, cherished them, loved them. We just finished our series on a servant's heart. We need to throw ourselves into serving God's people and serving his church like Paul did, following Paul's example, out of love for the people of God. We're to love our brothers and sisters. This is love. And Paul's passion and his emotion for the church certainly followed that. He invested his life and then the tears flowed, right? This is love for the church. When you see her hurting, you jump in and work to heal the hurt. Paul certainly did. When you see her divided, you labor to see her unified and at peace again. When you see her persecuted, you stand with her and rejoice at bearing that reproach. And when you see her purpose, you toil in the Lord's vineyard to see her prospered and multiplied. Do you love the church like Paul did? Cultivate that love. Knowing that love isn't merely or doesn't begin with emotion, it begins with action. How do you love the church like Paul did? Devote yourself to her like Paul did. Devote yourself to the church. If you do, you'll throw your life in with the church as Paul did. Membership, commitment, service. All that isn't even a question. You just give of yourself. And if you cultivate that love for the church, then you won't so quickly abandon her when the going gets a little tough. It's interesting, but when you look through the New Testament, all of the letters go to churches. They're not going to individuals, they go to churches. Even this pastoral epistle written to Timothy for the benefit of the church, for the benefit of the body of Christ in the gospels. Jesus Christ says in Matthew 16, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. In Matthew 18, even the idea of conflict resolution is given to the church to be worked out among brothers and sisters in the church. And when that person is unrepentant, you tell it to the church. It's to the church. The church is the body of Christ. All of the instruction here in the New Testament, all of the instruction in these epistles, all given to the church. It takes some time. Figure out which one you want to join and then get committed. Join the church. If you're not throwing yourself in with the people of God in the local church and working your Christian life out in service to and through the body of Christ, you're in sin. This is not to be a lone ranger spectator sport. You're to be in with the people of God in the church. Commit. And this is a testimony, an example of Paul and his love for the church that we should aspire to. This is not some ethereal thing, this nebulous thing. Paul is our example. He loved the church, loved the people of God. We're to love one another, love our brothers and sisters. And our love for one another is a reflection of our love for God. We have fellowship with one another. We have fellowship with him. I love this hymn. This is it. Listen to the words of this. I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode. The church, our blessed redeemer saved with his own precious blood. I love thy church, oh God, her walls before the stand, dear as the apple of thine eye and written on thy hand. If ever to bless thy sons, my voice or hands deny, these hands let useful skills forsake this voice in silence die. Should I with scoffers join her altars to abuse? No, better far my tongue were dumb, my hand at skill should lose. For her my tears shall fall. For her my prayers ascend. To her my cares and toils be given till toils and cares shall end. Beyond my highest joy, I prize her heavenly ways, her sweet communion, solemn vows, her hymns and love and praise. Jesus, thou friend divine, our savior and our king, thy hand from every snare and foe shall great deliverance bring. Sure as thy truth shall last, to Zion shall be given. The brightest glories earth can yield and the brighter bliss of heaven. That's a love for the church, a love for the body. Do you pray for the church? Do you pray that as a church our conduct would be as it ought to be as the house of God? It's the house of God, the house of our creator, the house of our redeemer. Do you pray for the church? Do you pray for her peace? Do you pray for her prosperity? Do you pray for her evangelism? Do you participate in her evangelism? Do you live for her? Do you are you joined with the scoffers who throw their voice in to abuse her, silence her? To her my cares and toils be given till toils and cares shall end. That's a love for the church. This incidentally was written by Timothy Dwight in 1801. Timothy Dwight was the president of Yale University, which we had university presidents like Timothy Dwight today. Paul's concern was for the church and he was concerned in verse 14 that he would be delayed from making it back to them and unable to be with them to work through these problems and these difficulties. Paul loved this church. As far as we know, Paul never made it back to Ephesus. He had to hear of the difficulty in Ephesus from afar. After his stay in theropolis, Paul was arrested again, likely in Troas, likely from Alexander the Coppersmith, and he was carried off to Rome in this time to his eventual death. Some 30 years later, this church was still in great danger. Christ himself sends a letter through John in Revelation 2 to this church, charging them with abandoning their first love. The church had difficulty. The church needs labor. The church needs toil. It needs men, like qualified elders, qualified deacons, who will lead Christ's body, fend off wolves, and invest their lives into the church. What was so important? What was it that couldn't wait? What was Paul so concerned about? Why was he pressed to write? Here it is in chapter 3 at the turning point of this letter. In this brief pause in verses 15 and 16, we see Paul's primary reason for writing this letter that we're investing a year or more of our time together studying. I write, he says, so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. We've been entrusted with the very truth of God. We are members of the very family of God. We've been entrusted with the very gospel of God to a lost world, and we need to act like it. Just like Ephesus, the church in our day needs to hear what Paul has to say. We need the these things here that Paul is talking about in 1 Timothy. Our conduct as disciples of Christ must be worthy of our King and worthy of his cause. It's the conduct here that Paul is concerned with. In these verses that lie between these two parts of Paul's letter, chapters one through three being part one, chapters four through six being part two. These verses that lie in between, in these verses Paul puts his instructions in perspective. He puts his correction to the church at Ephesus in perspective. These verses represent a a restatement of the grand purpose, if you will, of the church. They are a re-clarifying of values. He is taking a breath for a moment in his correction, in his instruction, to rally the troops again, okay, to get everyone on the same page again before we plunge back into the details of correction and instruction in chapters four through six. This is a time for everyone to remember what we're here about and to get on board, to reaffirm what we are to know and how we are to live. We all need that, don't we? It's a time to refocus, a reminder of our roots. We've been in three chapters of correction and instruction. We need to remember the foundation on which that is built. We need to remind ourselves whose we are. It's easy to see here in verses 15 to 16. We see in these verses our identity as the family of God. We see our essence as the church of the living God. We see our stewardship as the pillar and bulwark of the truth, and we see the great message that we've been given to proclaim. These verses are specifically here precisely because the church at Ephesus must be refocused. In a sense, they've got to be recommitted, a little reorganized. They've got to rally around these things. In many ways, they have lost their way. They've been plagued by false doctrine, endless disputes, myths and genealogies, errors with respect to the law, ungodly living. They've strayed from that conduct which should mark their station as Christians, should mark them as the body of Christ. With that in mind, if you think about it now, Paul's letter here in 1 Timothy is corrective. It's corrective. Paul is correcting the errors that have come up in the church. He's instructing them on how they ought to live because by and large they've not been living that way. They're errors that have come in. So there is a here, there's a corrective tone throughout the letter. And with that correction, there's a sense of urgency and a sense of seriousness. He's been saying in effect, listen, you have got to get your act together. You need to have godly men in leadership, the right people in leadership. You need to have godly living with respect to roles. Here this conduct, this letter is about conduct becoming a Christian and correcting the conduct in Ephesus that is unbecoming of a Christian. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3, 16 that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. Paul is giving Timothy in the church at Ephesus all of these, giving them doctrine, but he's giving them reproof, correction, and instruction. The difficulty is, is that people don't like correction. What about you? Can you handle it? This is the last time you've been corrected. How did you respond? Can you take correction? Are you humble in that sense? What is your attitude toward it? We're not always going to have the same problems that we see here in Ephesus, but we have our own problems, don't we? The church today certainly has problems. Are you easy to correct? Are you easy to entreat? When you hear something that pokes you in the eye or stabs you in the heart, do you take that as an insult? Or do you take that as conviction from God to change your life? Do you take that humbly as being from the Word of God? Are you easy to correct? Do you take instruction well? Do you take correction well? You need to. You need to. Proverbs 10, 17 says this. He who keeps instruction is in the way of life, but he who refuses correction goes astray. And all God's people said, amen. Proverbs 12, verse 1, whoever loves instruction loves knowledge, but he who hates correction is stupid. Proverbs 13, verse 18, poverty and shame will come to him who disdains correction, but he who regards a rebuke will be honored. Listen to Jeremiah, chapter 5, verse 3. Oh Lord, are not your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, but they have not grieved. That striking is conviction from God over sin, over error, over the error of your way. Certainly here, the children of Israel, he struck at them with conviction, struck at them with rebuke, struck at them with correction, and they've not grieved. They looked at that with pride. They looked at that with self-righteousness. They weren't grieved by it. The Lord says, you have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock, that is, pride, and they have refused to return. What's your attitude when you hear the Word of God? When you hear the Word of God, the Word of God is to convict you. Multitudes sit in church with never an ounce of conviction. There's no preaching against sin. There's no preaching for holiness in the church, and so there's no conviction. The Word of God is not being preached, but where the Word of God is being preached, and we see, we are woefully short. Are we not of the standard to which we aspire to attain? This life is a life of conforming us into the image of, if you're in Christ, then your sanctification is the will of God for you, and you are to be conformed into the image of Christ, that comes with conviction and repentance and growth, and conviction and repentance and growth, and sin and conviction and repentance and growth. Without the preaching against sin, without correction, without reproof, without rebuke sometimes, without instruction, how do you grow in the faith? You need to relish that instruction. You need to endear yourself to that correction. Be easy to entreat. Jeremiah also said in chapter 7, this is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God nor receive correction. The reason for correction is because they do not obey. If you're glorified, you don't need any correction when we're glorified, that'll be the end of correction. That'll be the end of rebuke. There'll be plenty of instruction. Praise the Lord. We'll be learning for all eternity. But there's no need for correction. While we're here, we need correction. We need instruction. We need rebuke. We need reproof. He says, it goes on to say, truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. It's the Lord that does that, cutting off. You don't take joy in the truth or you lose the truth. Do you believe that you need correction? How do you handle it when you get it? When confronted, as the Ephesians were here, in 1 Timothy chapter 3, when confronted with the notion of how you are to conduct yourself in the house of God, how do you stack up? Do you accept that correction, that instruction, or do you revile it? Get feedback all the time from that soft-hearted, genuine, true believer who just wants to live for the Lord, wants to be cleansed of sin, wants to be conformed into the image of Christ, just wants to be holy living. They are convicted over their sin in great humility. They thank God. There's gratefulness to God for the instruction, gratefulness to God for that conviction, right? Gratefulness for his correction, grateful for the rebuke, and then a desire from the heart to repent and to live wholeheartedly for him. It's just this joy. God, thank you. Help me, Lord, to live for you. It's this Christian life, it's this bittersweet life of, Lord, thank you for saving me. God, help me live more fervently for you. I want to please you with my life. And that's the desire of that genuine Christian's heart to be free from sin, to live holy before God. That humble attitude, they are more and more day by day conformed into his image, grown up in the faith matured in Christ. But I also get feedback from that hard-hearted, prideful, so-called Christian that hears the correction and they make all kinds of excuses for why it doesn't apply to them. Besides, they say Christianity is not about performance. And in their pride, they confuse conviction with insult and they rebel against the Word of God. And when difficulty and persecution arise because of the Word, immediately they stumble. Remember the parable of the Sower in Matthew 13? Difficulty arises because of the Word and they stumble, they fall. This letter from Paul to Timothy is about how you are to conduct yourself in the house of God that you may run the race with endurance. We've seen some examples of misconduct in 1 Timothy, haven't we? We certainly have our own examples of misconduct in the church today. There are numerous ways in which the professing church has lost its way and is not living up to its name. This principle from this passage must be applied to what plagues the church today. The truth of God in a vast majority of churches, you don't understand this, the truth of God is denied as Holy Spirit inspired. It is denied as infallible and it is denied as an errant. The average sermon today is devoid of the whole counsel of God preaching only what people want to hear. The average professing Christian cannot biblically define faith and no longer believes that repentance is essential for salvation. The average professing Christian no longer believes that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. Mainline denominations are now condoning homosexuality accepting same-sex marriages and even ordaining sodomites into the ministry. Most churches preach a false gospel that does not save. This foolish ask Jesus into your heart thing or pray to receive Christ or make a decision for Christ or accept Him as your personal Lord and Savior, whatever you want to call it, is not the gospel that Jesus preached. It's not the gospel that the apostles preached. It's not the gospel that is contained within Scripture. Let me ask you a question. Every head raised, every eye open, no looking around, no music playing. Are you a false professing Christian? Are you a nominal Christian, a so-called lukewarm or carnal Christian? That's what's produced by that gospel. That's what's being factory made by that gospel. Just factories for false conversion. You claim to be a Christian, but there are no marks of genuine salvation. This is the plague of the church today. This easy believism, this antinomianism, this nominal so-called Christianity. It's no Christianity at all. There are no marks that you've been truly born again. This is the tragedy and travesty of American modern Christianity. This is the filth that is being exported around the world. And it's likely there may be even a biblical church like this, many of you in this room that fit that description. There is something that is tragically wrong with the church when an unbeliever feels comfortable going there. Or when a nominal so-called Christian is comfortable going to your church. The professing church today has become a merry-go-round and so-called Christians get on in exactly the same place where they get off, lost. It's a sign that the world has come in. It's a sign that error has taken over. We need to take this exhortation from Paul about how we are to conduct ourselves in the house of God. If you examine yourself and you wonder yourself, am I a nominal Christian? Am I a hypocritical Christian? A fake so-called Christian? A tear among the wheat. It's verses like this that will help you examine the truth of that. How we are to conduct ourselves in the house of God. Are you fruitful? Are you fruitful wheat that will be gathered into the Lord's barn? Or are you the worthless chaff that will be bound up and cast into the fire? There are those that are on board and those that are not. Remember, if you're here today and you are not a Christian or you fall into that category of carnal or nominal or hypocritical, then there's hope. Maybe you're here today and you've not been serving the Lord. You've been half-hearted. You've been lukewarm, living a so-called Christian life. There's hope in Christ. Take correction. Take instruction. Why would you rebel against it? Take the instruction and escape for good to Christ. Jesus tells the parable of a certain man that had two sons. He came to the first and said, Son, go work a day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not. But after what did he do? He repented and he went. Repent and get to work in the vineyard of our Lord. Repent and get to work for Christ. Live for Christ. We are to take correction and instruction that we receive in 1 Timothy so that we know how we are to conduct ourselves in the house of God. We know how we are to behave. We know how we are to live a life marked by conduct that is worthy of the king and worthy of his cause. That's the way we're to live. In verses 15 and 16, we're going to see the basis for humbly receiving and faithfully responding to this correction and instruction given by Paul throughout this letter. We can say that this is good to remember regardless of where that instruction or correction comes from in the Word of God, right? Any instruction, any correction from the Word of God should be received in the same way. First, in these verses, verses 15 and 16, we're going to see what should be our response. Paul then, after talking of our response, gives us good reason to respond that way. Then we're to remember our responsibility. Church is not a right. Church is a responsibility. We need to be reminded of our responsibility and then we're to rejoice in Christ, our righteousness. So response, reason, responsibility, and righteousness. Let's take a look at verse 15 first. Paul describes for us here how we are to respond to the correction and the instruction that we're getting in 1 Timothy, but also how we're to respond to any correction and instruction from God's Word. And in verse 15, he says, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God. The first here, we respond, we're to respond with a humble reception of the facts. You've got to know. You've got to be taught. You must learn. I must learn. We must receive humbly with meekness the implanted Word which is able to save our souls. We must know instruction from God's Word. Know there, this is not for you, Greek guys. This is not the word Ginosko. This is not a process of gaining knowledge through experience. This is Oida. This is the possession of knowledge or skill in order to accomplish a goal. It is the possession of knowledge or skill that is required to accomplish a goal. Do we as the church have a goal to accomplish? Amen. We have to have the know-how to get there. One commentator said this is not theoretical knowledge, but know-how. This is that which is to be so thoroughly known that you just possess it in its entirety, how you ought to live. This is so that you may know. This Word conduct yourself on a strefo. This is a compound Word that was a figure of speech at that time for how you're to live, how you're to act, how you're to behave. This has to do with your conduct. Now there's an expectation inherent here that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself. There's an expectation given that the knowledge with the knowledge will come the conduct. This is the doctrine that accords with godliness. With the knowledge will come the conduct. We've already seen that in 1 Timothy and we see that throughout Scripture. If you're a Christian, if you're truly born again, if you're indwelt by the Spirit, then when you hear correction and instruction from God's Word, you come to know God's Word, then you respond with right behavior. Listen, it's not the Christian. It is not the Christian that hears instruction and correction from God's Word that rebels against it and refuses to implement it. That's not the Christian. The Christian hears instruction from God's Word. They know how they ought to conduct themselves in the house of God and they apply that to their life, apply that to their heart, and they obey it. That's the Christian, the Christian indwelt by the Spirit. All of that again, this again, is under the divine necessity of day. Literally, this is how you must conduct yourself, how you must conduct yourself in the house of God. Paul is saying here, hey, Timothy, hey, the church, I want you to know these things because it is imperative that you behave appropriately in the house of God. Now that you behave a certain way when you come to church, this is how you behave because you are the church. You're the church that Christ purchased with his own blood. This is how we are to live. How are you to respond to that instruction? If you're in Christ, you respond with obedience and it's just that simple. Do you hear commands you don't like and you rebel against them? Or as a humble spirit indwelt Christian, you hear that instruction, that correction from the Word of God, and you just say, Lord, I'm trusting you and I want to obey you in this. And you set off with a right heart, a humble heart to obey is just that simple. If you're that nominal so-called Christian and you're just stowing away with the family of God, you're not really a part of it, then you can know here and not respond with right conduct. In a lot of cases, you won't respond with right conduct. The Bible says don't do this and yes, you're hell bent on doing that. The Bible says to do this and you're too comfortable in your station to do it and you won't. You're a stowaway. Paul wrote about you in his letter to Titus, the letter that he penned about the same time that he wrote 1st Timothy. He says there in chapter 1 verse 16, they profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work. Man, we got good works going on around here. We got a good work that we're to be a part of. We've got the works of God, his work, his kingdom, that we are his vineyard that we're laboring in around here. And yet, if you're this nominal so-called Christian that won't respond with obedience to correction, then you're unfit for that. You come here, but you're unfit for any good work. You're not involved in any good work. There's also a test administered for this in 1st John. Turn with me to 1st John. We're familiar with this text, but it's good again to stir us up by way of reminder. There's a test with respect to this. 1st John in chapter 2. 1st John chapter 2. How are you responding to correction and instruction from God's word? Here in 1st John chapter 2 beginning in verse 3, the Bible says, now by this we know that we know him. Here it's interesting. This word for no is the word gnosko. This is coming to a settled assurance of these things based on experience, coming to a settled understanding or a settled knowledge of these things based on continually perceiving this through experience. Here's how you know that you know him. If you keep his commandments, you want assurance of your salvation, then you keep his commandments. And through the continual and consistent and persistent keeping of his commandments, you come to know gnosko, that thing by experience. You come to know that you know him. And John writes these things so that you may know. You are to know. Verse 4. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Assurance of salvation then comes from responding to correction and instruction from the word of God with obeying God's commands, with right conduct in the house of God, with how you are to conduct yourself in the house of God. Those who fail to consistently obey should. It is right for them to wonder about their salvation. It's right for them to possibly think that they're not genuinely converted. It's what the apostle is saying here. Believers who are responding to correction and instruction from the word of God with right conduct in the house of God can be assured. They can know. Goes on to say in verse 5. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked. We are to keep his word, that we're there for keep. Toreto means watchful, careful observance, thoughtful observance, guarding the law, guarding their obedience. And that word for walk, we're to walk just as he walked. It's a metaphor for the daily, consistent, regular, persistent, everyday life of a genuine Christian. I just want to get up in the morning and obey the Lord, live for the Lord. That's a genuine Christian. Lost carnal Christians in the church are simply disobedient. Paul in Ephesians 2-2 calls them sons of disobedience, sons of disobedience. Believers, genuine Christians are obedient. Peter describes them as obedient children in 1 Peter 114. Look with me at John chapter 14. Another example of this. Gospel of John chapter 14. Is this making sense? John chapter 14. How we are to conduct ourselves in the house of God. Our conduct is to be worthy of that calling. John chapter 14. Look beginning in verse 15. John 14-15. Here, Christ himself speaking. If you love me, Christ says, keep my commandments. If you don't love me, don't keep them. If you love me, keep them. And I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. By the way, a little footnote there. This is when the Holy Spirit comes and in dwells believers. He is sending him. He's going to send him another helper and this is the helper he says in verse 17. He dwells with you and will be in you. I'll not leave you orphans. I'll come to you. Look at verse 19. A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me because I live. You will live also. At that day you will know that I am in my Father and you and me and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them. It is he who loves me. If you don't keep them, you don't love him. It's he who keeps them who loves him. It is he who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my Father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. Judas, not a scary, it said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Verse 23, Jesus answered that question and said to him, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words and the words which you hear, word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. Look over at chapter 15 and look at verse 9. Chapter 15 verse 9, as the Father loved me, I also have loved you, abide in my love. How do you abide in his love? Verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. What is this issue with modern Christianity today that you can call yourself a Christian and live any way you want? You can call yourself a Christian with utter disregard for the commandments of Christ. We are to be a testimony to the world of holy living, the power of the gospel to change a life. And yet, so-called Christians just disregard this teaching altogether as being optional. You don't have to keep it. Well, keep the ones you want to keep. Don't worry about the ones you don't want to keep, or I can be fervent about keeping this one because that one relates to me, but this one over here, I can disregard. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. It just doesn't get any clearer, and this is all over. Scripture, it's everywhere. How do you escape it? So when the correction comes, when the instruction comes, how do you respond? Are you ready with the right heart, the right mind, the right attitude to respond? The humble attitude of the Christian is, I want to conduct myself rightly in the house of God. I want to know how I ought to conduct myself as a child of God, in the house of God. God, give me the correction, give me the instruction, and Lord, by your spirit, help me to obey. And the Lord promises you that he will. You're not going to obey perfectly, but you're going to respond by Lord. Command what you will and then enable what you command. It's going to be your heart. Let me give you an example. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 28. Where's your heart, Christian? Matthew chapter 28, and look at verse 18. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18. Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Verse 19, go therefore and make disciples. This is the work of the church. This is the mission of the church. This is what the church on this earth is to do. We are to go and make disciples. This is the job. When you want to know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the mission of the church is to go and make disciples. This is the work the Lord has given us to do. This is the same thing as the Son going into the vineyard to work a day in the vineyard of the Lord. We're to go and make disciples. This is every Christian is to do this. There's absolutely nothing here, nothing in the language, nothing in the context that would presuppose that this is only for those gifted or only these apostles. This is Christ's authoritative commission to the body of Christ in his absence until he tarries to get the gospel out and to make disciples. This is the work of the church. All authority has been given to me on heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. The word there go at the beginning of verse 9, 19 is a participle. Literally it's having gone. It's just assumed. It's assumed that you're going. It's assumed that you're going and you're going to make disciples. Making disciples requires faithfulness and evangelism. Allow me to correct you. If you're not evangelizing, you need to evangelize. What are you doing? Are you setting time aside for the Lord's work? This is the Lord's work that he's given us to do. This is the mission of the church. Do you set aside time to obey him in this? Not only that. It's not only just going and evangelizing. It is reproducing. It's making a disciple. Are you going with someone to train them to reproduce? When you make a disciple, are you spending time teaching them to observe all the things that the Lord has taught you? Maybe you're here and you're in the position of a learning disciple, someone that needs to be discipled. Are you under someone learning? Are you being taught by the brothers? Are you coming to group? Are you around God's people? This is, this is the mission of the church. Go and make disciples. Now, what do you do with that? How do you respond? Well, when I get around to it, or I'll try to free up maybe on the sixth Thursday of the seventh month, every each year, I'll try to. How do you respond to that? Are you going to accept correction? Are you going to accept instruction? The Lord in His Word gives you instruction here. And frankly, for some of you, this is correction. This is a rebuke. How do you receive that? Am I going to respond to this correction with obedience to the Lord in His mission for the church? We get out there and we do that work. We go into the vineyard. Many of you say, I'll go, and then you don't go. Many of you have not been going, but like that sun, there's room for repentance. You can turn, you can repent, and you can go. You can get into the vineyard. Repent of your neglect of God and His kingdom and His work. If that's you, repent of your neglect. If you do not, then publicans and harlots will enter in before you. I love this from Spurgeon, speaking of that parable. Spurgeon says this, you have said to the great father, I go, sir, but you have not gone. Let me sorrowfully sketch your portraits. You have regularly frequented a place of worship and you would shudder to waste a single Sunday in an excursion or in any form of Sabbath breaking. Outwardly, you have said, I go, sir, when the hymn is given out, you stand up and sing, and yet you do not sing with the heart. When I say, let us pray, you cover your faces, but you do not pray with real prayer. You utter a polite, respectful, I go, sir, but you do not go. You give a notional assent to the gospel. If I were to mention any doctrine, you would say, yes, that is true. I believe that. But your heart does not believe. You do not believe the gospel in the core of your nature, for if you did, it would have an effect upon you. A man may say, I believe my house is on fire, but if he goes to bed and falls to sleep, it does not look as if he believed it. For when a man's house is on fire, he tries to escape. If some of you actually believe that there is a hell and that there is a heaven, as you believe other things, you would act very differently from what you do now. I must add that many of you say, I go, sir, in a very solemn sense, for when we preach earnestly, the tears run down your cheeks and you go home to your bedrooms and you pray a little and everybody thinks that your concern of mine will end in conversion. But your goodness is like the morning cloud and the early dew. You are like dung hills with snow upon them. While the snow lasts, you look white and fair. But when the snow melts, the dung hill remains a dung hill still. Oh, how many very impressible hearts are like that. You sin and yet you come to a place of worship and tremble under the word. You transgress and you weep and transgress again. You feel the power of the gospel after a fashion and yet you revolt against it more and more. Ah, my friends, I can look some of you in the face and know that I am describing some of your cases to the letter. You've been telling lies to God all these years by saying, I go, sir, while you have not gone. By the way, to be a Christian is to say, I go, sir. When you become a Christian, when you become a disciple of Christ, you're saying, I go. You know that to be saved, you must believe in Jesus, but you have not believed. You know that you must be born again, but you are strangers to the new birth. You are as religious as the seats you sit on, but no more. And you are as likely to get to heaven as those seats are, but not one whit more. For you are dead in sin and death cannot enter heaven. Oh, my dear hearers, I lament that ever I should be called to say such a thing as this, but and not be more affected by the fact and wonder of wonders that you, some of you know it to be true and yet do not feel alarmed thereby. It is the easiest thing in the world to impress some of you by a sermon, but I fear me. You never will get beyond mere transient impressions like the water when lashed, the wound soon heals. You know, and you know, and you know, and you feel and feel and feel again. And yet your sins, your self righteousness, your carelessness or your willful wickedness cause you after having said, I go, sir, to forget the promise and lie unto God. The letter in first Timothy is a letter of correction. It's a letter of instruction, a letter of rebuke. It is a letter that contains what we ought to know, what we must know in order to rightly conduct ourselves in the house of God. Conduct that is worthy of king and cause begins right here. You know how you're to conduct yourself. What do you do with that? How will you respond? Will you respond with humble hearts, humble minds? Just I go and you go. Or do you despise correction, despise instruction? You despise this correction is stupid. And you're on a fool's errand. The Lord is calling out. It is a glorious vineyard and it is a glorious work and it is a glorious church as a glorious body and there's a glorious reward. Will you go? Will you go? Right now, you can say, I go, sir. And you can take the step immediately into the vineyard and work for the Lord. Turn from your sin, put your faith and trust in Christ. Turn from your sin, put your faith, your trust, your reliance, put your trust in Christ. But if you're here today and you profess to know Christ, you're sitting outside the vineyard, there's time for you to repent too, repent of your neglect. Get in the vineyard and work with God's people. Do that which the Lord has called you to do. That is conduct that is worthy of Christ and worthy of his cause. It's conduct that is expected of every single disciple of Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, thank you, God, for this instruction. I pray that this correction, this instruction from your word would pierce our hearts. We know, Lord, that you work by your spirit through the word of God to conform us, to sanctify us. So we praise you, God. Thank you, Lord, for that glorious gift of sanctification. Pray that we would humbly receive it. We would humbly respond to it and that we would by your spirit rejoice or in conducting ourselves accordingly as we should in the house of God. And Lord, I pray that anyone here who is rejecting that, rebelling against it, or that you would give them no quarter, you give them no rest, or that they would come to understand that there's no place for rebellion, no place for rejection. We must simply turn by faith to Christ, abandon ourselves to him and be saved. Or that you would save souls to add more laborers to your harvest field. And we pray for that, Lord, as you've commanded us to, would add more laborers to your harvest field. Fields are white for harvest. You've given us a glorious work to do. You'll find us faithful to do that by your spirit. It's not that we do that knowing, Lord, that we're thinking that somehow that gains merit with you. Only merit that we have with you is through the righteousness of Christ alone, Lord, in coming to Christ out of a grateful heart, out of a joyful heart. And as Paul is instructing here in 1st Timothy, we want to conduct ourselves rightly before you as we love you, Lord. We thank you for the gift of salvation. And we thank you for this glorious privilege of being joined with you in this work. And we pray that we be faithful to you in that. For your name, in Jesus' name, amen.