First Timothy lesson 7

So I'm not up here too long. In lesson six, we were going through 1 Timothy chapter 1, 12, and 13, which states, go to it, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service. Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorant. And so we have covered most of this. The last two questions is, is Paul here offering an excuse for his previous actions against Christians? In other words, when he says that I found mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief.

Is that an excuse? Yes and no. Oh, that's a great answer. I'm going to take both sides of the issue, right? I say yes. You say that that's a legitimate excuse? Yeah. Because he did it in unbelief. I acted in unbelief, is what he said. And that's just the sin nature, right? But is that the reason why God extended mercy to him? What is an excuse? What's that? What is an excuse? How do we define excuse? That wasn't an excuse. What's an excuse?

That I don't deserve the consequences because I didn't know what the rules were. So when you're going home this afternoon doing 40 and a 20 and a cop stops you, you can say, I didn't know. And not only that, I'm a Christian, so all my sins are paid for. So you can't give me a ticket. But taking that example, look at Miles and Melissa talking about the difference in the laws for driving. They could very easily do something unintentionally or in ignorance. OK.

In a sense, Mike's right, because on the one hand, The reason that Paul needed mercy was because he was ignorant. But that isn't why God gave it to him. Why did God give it to him? Well, yeah, that's the first answer. God is a merciful, gracious, loving God. Paul can't say that I got mercy from God because I deserved it, or I earned it through ignorance, or I didn't have it. Somebody said, I heard the other day, God is the ultimate discriminator. We hate the word discrimination in our society. Well, God discriminates. He picked Mike. And he picked Donna. He discriminates. There are still consequences. Oh, sure. Absolutely, there are consequences.

So that was the point of that question is that you're not You can't go to God and say, you know, you got to bless me because I was really ignorant of what what the what the game was you know, so Last question is ignorance a good excuse for bad behavior Well, I'll give this one yes and no no Because he had the Holy Spirit within him. I In other words, is ignorance before a holy God excusable? Because all you have to do is study Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3, and by the time you get to the end of that, not one single person is excusable because of ignorance. Not one.

So we know. I don't care what's mercy exists, right? So you're talking about the fact of ignorance and unbelief, though to Mike's point, Ola, is that there are consequences to that unbelief. However, that's where mercy kicks in. And that's what's so wonderful about the Lord, is that while in unbelief, while not knowing necessarily what it is that you're acting in, because you're in ignorance, He is still merciful. So you don't want to see consequences without mercy, I think. This is a great line. He said, Paul declares on the contrary that his was a positive act of sinful disbelief. He wasn't passive about anything. He was gonna get those Christians. See? Well, God stopped him dead in his tracks. Yeah, he did. And so when you come up to the verse that says where sin abounded, grace did much more abound or exceeded it, we all are in a position where we are saved by grace.

Nobody deserved it, nobody earned it. You can't deserve it, you can't earn it because there isn't anything you can do to be pleasing to God. And the real reason is that because you come from Adam and Adam wasn't pleasing to God. He sinned, so we sinned, we inherited it, so we just have this innate attitude about doing what I want to do. And the big reason that the Lord Jesus was so pleasing to the Father was because he only did what the Father's will was. That was it. He didn't take Saturdays off to go do his own thing. He only did what, and he was the first man to do it. And so as being born into Christ, the new life that you have has that same goal, has that same motivation.

I think the question of ignorance is a good excuse for bad behavior. It's got to be distinguished between believers and unbelievers. If you're an unbeliever, from Romans 1 you know that there's a God, but do you know salvation through Christ? Unless you're told, you don't know. And like Paul, even though he had all the scriptures and was misled, as he says, as an unbeliever, I don't think you can be held accountable for anything, really, because you don't know. The problem you have with a statement like that is you can have Romans 1, 2, and 3 to counteract what you're saying.

Yeah, but do they know that? Does a non-believer know that? It doesn't matter, because they know there's a God, they know He's righteous, and they know somehow they have separated themselves through sin, and they've got some sort of system to try to fix it. even those that have never heard of Jehovah or Jesus Christ or anything from Adam forward.

But how do they know it's bad behavior? Because they instinctively know that they have fallen short of what's required by their Creator. And also, the experiences that people go through, the guilt they acquire through. All right, when you go to Romans chapter one, starting verse 17, for it is the righteousness of God, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the righteous man shall live by faith, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness. Do all men know that they're being ungodly? Yeah, they do. All ungodliness. And men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness because that, great. Because that which is known about God is evident within them, and God made it evident to them.

Can't plead ignorance. Sorry. Well, I think that there—if I may—a couple of thoughts here. I think that there is—we're talking about unbelievers, we're talking about God's his own self-witness to mankind in general here, right? So he has made himself evident, which Paul was guilty of as a number figure. That was true. In these verses, I'm thinking about the fact that this is really personal to Paul.

And I'm curious about how we apply this as a principle Or is it a perspective on the fact that Paul, as an unbeliever, was shown mercy, and he's explaining to Timothy and us that he was considered faithful. Well, how is he considered faithful? because God showed me mercy. And I was acting in unbelief, but God showed me mercy. I was ignorant of God's grace, and so God showed me mercy.

And I think that that's true for all mankind. But specifically, this is really personal in the sense that he was strengthened from this mercy. He was considered faithful to serve. And even though he was a former blasphemer, and acted in unbelief, God showed him mercy. And I think that while he had no excuse, he was the recipient of God's mercy. And I think that verse that you talked about there where sin abounded grace even more so. And that's really the point there is that even as an all-mankind, God still shows mankind mercy, but they're still guilty. It's still evident to them.

You continue on in Romans 1, for even though they knew God, they didn't honor him as God and give thanks, so they weren't thankful. They became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Can I go to God and say, listen, I've got a darkened heart, so you can't condemn me? No, because professing to be wise, they became fools.

So God extends his grace and mercy in spite of man's deserving of it. is the best way to say it, I think. But Paul chose to believe, right? Yeah. Whereas if you don't believe, and we're talking all of mankind, if you don't believe, then the consequences are clear. However, the grace and the mercy that was extended to Paul is the same that's been extended to all mankind. I agree. Yeah. I agree. And all mankind was invited by God just to do what? Believe them. Believe it. Believe that it existed.

That's the question, I think, for bad behavior. And if you go on, therefore God gave them over to the lust of their heart, to impurities, so their bodies would be dishonored, or they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. You know, we've had this discussion, like, I can look at, you know, and I scuba dive, I can see God's creation, it's wonderful, but I have no knowledge of the Son of God through that. But that isn't how I get it. I know, that's what I'm saying. He builds it into me. But this is what I say.

I think everybody knows that there is a God, but what is the behavior? They have no clue as to Paul's epistles about how the body is to function. They have none of that knowledge. Well, how about the Old Testament guys? They had no clue, but God said something to them, and they believed him, and they were counted righteous. for what they knew.

So yes, everybody's held accountable because everybody knows that there's a God. But we're talking about bad behavior in this question, that's what I'm getting at. Everybody knows there's a God, and they're all held accountable by these verses. But behavior, I can't see how their behavior is related to I think the Romans 1 verse is just, we'll use your example of a coral reef. I can look at that, I can look at a tree, I can look at whatever, and I know that I wasn't responsible for that, and God was, and there's a responsibility I have for the one who built that tree, because he built me. I didn't just show up. But like I said, I don't know how I'm supposed to act unless I... Oh, I don't know the rules. Right, I don't know the rules.

That's what I'm saying. But I have a conscience. And I think that that's where he created every man with a conscience. And that conscience is guided by the awareness that he's given to mankind. So I don't know the rule I broke, but I know my bad behavior I know what good and bad is, to a degree. I don't understand all of the rules, but my conscience convicts me, even as an unbeliever, that I am sinning, not with that word, but I am taking...

Falling short. Falling short of some greater creator than me. And I know that I'm guilty. That's what Romans 1 and following tells us. So, yeah, I don't know why it's bad, but I know it's bad. Yeah. Did Adam, before he fell, have a conscience? I think a conscience comes with a sin nature. Adam was innocent. He just did what God told him to do. He didn't sit down and discuss it. Even when he sinned, he didn't discuss it. He just did it.

Eve went through a long discussion with Satan, but part of the obtaining of a sin nature due to sin or departing sin nature comes this thing called conscience, which excuses me for the things I do that are good and condemns me for the things I do that are bad.

Well, who set those rules? Well, you can go to societies over the last 7,000 years, and there was always a code of good and evil. Well, what we think is good, some other society may think, no, that's a bad thing. And what we think is bad, they would think it's good.

And it's because their foolish minds are darkened. They don't know. Right off the bat, I mean, it was a woman that Well, the very first thing that Adam did is he went and hid. Not a cool thing to do. And God went and found him. There's mercy right there. There it is. Did Adam deserve it? No, he deserved... Adam and his whole progeny, is that the right word? Deserved condemnation on that day. And all of us in him. Every one of us. Sure. Yeah, oh gee, now I did something I better hide. What do I do? And in his case, he knew the rule.

And what I think Courtney's saying is that you don't know why it's wrong. And what I'm adding to that is, even if you don't know why, God has created you in such a way that you are conscious of the fact that you have done something on the side of evil against someone who is good. And that being, I don't even know God's name yet. I disagree with that. I disagree with that because the only reason I know it's good is because God said it.

Period. I don't have to think about it. He said it. What was the temptation that Eve got? Did God say? I'm talking about the tribal man in the middle of Papua New Guinea. He's never heard of God, let's say. He's not been told those things, so he hasn't been told yet. Adam was told. And he may not ever be told. He may not ever be told.

However, he can still operate in such a way that his conscience is aware that he is doing something wrong against a creator. That's what he knows. That's all that he knows. And that's what the Lord uses to lead a person to their lost state. And Adam knew.

He was given direct... Adam and Eve are kind of in a different category altogether, because they started out innocents, and they were given the rule, don't do this, don't do that. But if you've never heard, you're stuck in the middle of a jungle, and you don't know anything of the Word of God, it's my belief, based on Romans, that God responds to the conscience of a man who recognizes his sinfulness against him as a creator. Period. And that's it. Well, the problem every man has, except for believers, is that there's going to be a judgment day. And guess what? Not a single person that goes before God is going to say, well, I didn't know.

And he's going to say, yeah, you did, and here's when you knew. It's like that woman I read years ago that was in maybe New Guinea, I don't know. She looks at a tree one day and she said, you know, I don't know who you are, God, but my village worships this tree, and I know it's not you. I know you're the one who made that tree. You know, again, I guess my problem is trying to conflate behavior with knowledge of God.

Let's not go to Papua New Guinea. Let's go to Littleton, Colorado when I was growing up and I had no knowledge. I did everything I wanted and I didn't feel guilty against God. I did. I didn't. I had no knowledge. I liked what I was doing. That's what I mean. I liked what I was doing. I had no conscience that said, that's wrong.

Okay, so let's put you in Jerusalem in 35 AD, and you're a Pharisee. And Paul says, even with what he knew, as a Pharisee, he didn't have, he was persecuting the church from his perspective innocently. Ignorantly. Ignorantly. He didn't know, that's the fact, knowing. And what didn't he know?

That the church, all the things that he's discovered later. Right. Or Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a good example. He goes to the Lord and He thinks he's got it wired because he's a Jew and a Pharisee and he's already in the kingdom. And the Lord said, wait a minute, unless a man be born again, he isn't even going to see the kingdom.

But then he knew, and then you can respond. It's the knowing part that I think... What did he know? But see, it's ignorance and bad behavior. Linking those two, it's the ignorance. If you don't know, how are you responsible for it? We're responsible to know God. That's clear in Romans. But as I said, in Littleton, Colorado, when I was growing up, I had no knowledge, and I didn't feel bad about anything I did. Well, that's you.

The other qualifier to that word, Courtney, and I'm not disagreeing, I'm trying to understand my own thinking on this, is there's an ignorance in unbelief. It's not just ignorance. It's like a pure vacuum of ignorance. It's ignorance in unbelief. And that's what I was saying.

There's a distinction between unbelievers and believers, too. Because believers know, or at least have the knowledge of Christ. salvation through him. An unbeliever has no knowledge of it. He knows it may be good and bad. He knows that there's a God. But bad behavior is, if he doesn't know what the rules are. He doesn't need to know. He doesn't need to know.

When you were, how old were you when you got saved? What was I? 19 probably. 19. So when you were 16 with your first driver's license, did you ever get a speeding ticket? Nope. So, what were you doing? You were abiding by the rules. Not all the time. I just never got caught.

The point is is that god says you're without excuse because what is the standard? He says the standard is you won't honor me as god. That's the standard but the That's, I think, the excuse. There's no human being that can say, I don't know that there is a God. That's what I get out of Romans. And because he's God and I'm not, I have responsibility to him. But I refuse to do it. Or I'm going to do it based on what I think is the way to go. Because if there's anything the first three chapters of Romans does, it quiets every argument against the sovereignty of God, because he gets everybody to just be quiet. You can't say anything more because you're all guilty, all of you.

Okay. But there's excuses. Well, the world, the flesh, the devil. Yeah. And what's interesting is that for believers, the great thing about our brother Paul, He's so expansive about God's grace that we're without excuse in that realm too. Because if I do something as a non-believer, because I think I need to be pleasing whoever God is, I get self-righteous about that. That in and of itself is sinful. Oh, I did, you know. We're toast. I mean, Cain and Abel, perfect example. What did Cain tell God? He said, I don't care, like what I'm bringing or don't. Did he know? Sure he did.

So, yeah, I, you know, I understand. Sometimes it's like maybe the question itself is getting us off the... Oh, now you're going to attack the guy who... I actually am not going to attack you, but I do think we've used some semantics here that have got us in a really cool conversation because it's clarifying some things. Yeah.

But in terms of Paul himself, we can't take issue with the fact that he has He's not making an excuse, he's explaining where he was and what God did to rectify that situation through his mercy. And beyond that, Romans 1 can speak to all the things that we also are talking about here this morning, but in this case, it's not an excuse, it's an explanation of, I didn't understand, I didn't know the exact way in which I was Acting but I don't know that bad behavior as a quote-unquote you know we can put but the same kind of Perspective on bad behavior as a like a global term. Mm-hmm. So ignorance is bliss It might be okay I'm going to pick up and head your way, so I'm signing out. Bye. Bye. Maybe I should have asked, is ignorance, is a Christian's ignorance an excuse for bad behavior? All behavior has a source. And so, I may have the source. If I'm not in Christ, I only have one source, and that's the source that's against. Here's the point I think Paul's making.

I did all of this stuff, and I didn't know what the truth was. I'm not saying that I'm not guilty of what I did. I'm saying that God found mercy or extended mercy to me that had nothing to do—as a matter of fact, I was doing everything I shouldn't have been doing. He was still merciful. Well, you know, earlier in verse 12, you see, you know, Christ is our Lord who strengthened me because he considered me faithful, putting me into service. As we discussed last week, you know, God uses extremes to make it more powerful. I mean, you know, I'm going through Acts right now. I'm reading through Acts. what better witness for Christ than the guy who was out there slaying them all?

And he even prayed to go back from Damascus to Jerusalem because everybody thought nobody was going to sit down and have break bread with him. But what a witness. He used that, and Paul expresses that several times in his epistles. Well, and he's the perfect example because he is the the poster child for grace and mercy. I'm the least deserving guy possible that God did it. Well, you know, we're going to get into the next lesson, you know, who I'm foremost of all of the sinners. I'm the extreme, and yet God showed me mercy, grace, and now, you know, I have been shown, I have knowledge now. It's not an excuse. I did all these things, but now I know. He knows mercy. He knows grace. He knows all these things now.

But I think, like we discussed last time, I think God uses – well, think of all these people, and I'll touch on that in my lesson, but it's David. man after my own heart. Let me look out on the patio here and look at, ooh, she's pretty over there. Or Abraham, who is pretty much a loser, but he used him in amazing ways. And he uses, I think, the extremes to make a more powerful point.

Was Abraham's visit to Hagar a sin? My wife said, go for it. Yeah, go for it. I know. Well, that's kind of like... Yeah, it was, because he didn't trust God about what God told him. Well, Eve, here, take a bite, you know. Hagar, yeah, she's pretty. That's social conflict. I think I'll just read a couple of verses, and then we've only got a couple of minutes.

So, there's a bit of a change in verse 15, 16, and 17. First Timothy, chapter 1, verse 15. So Paul says in 15, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. However, However, for this reason I obtain mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on him for everlasting life. I'm reading from the New King James. Now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible to God, who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever, amen.

So next week, the first thing we're going to have to discuss is what does a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance mean? There's a reason why that statement is there and put that way. So we'll discuss in other passages why it's there. And one last question out of my head.

What qualifies you for salvation? God. No. What? Ungodly. Unworthiness, ungodliness. You got to be that to get saved. Because he doesn't save people who already got their act together. He only saves those who don't. So, yeah. So the qualification for salvation is not keeping the rules.

So let's close. Father, how we thank you for this day, this time that we can spend studying your word. And we thank you for the openness that we can have to discuss and get down to and learn exactly what you mean by your word. We thank you for the grace that we live under. We pray in your son's precious name. Amen.