Joshua and Judges: Push to the Promised Land: Return to Kadesh, part 5; Moses' failure. 1Ti 6:11-16; 1Pe 2:18-25.

Title: Joshua and Judges: Push to the Promised Land: Return to Kadesh, part 5; Moses' failure. 1TI 6:11-16; 1PE 2:18-25.

 

Announcements/opening prayer:

 

 

1TI 6:11 But flee [present tense] from these things, you man of God; and pursue righteousness [practical righteousness], godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

 

1TI 6:12 Fight the good fight of [the] faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

 

1TI 6:13 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to [preserves alive] all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,

 

Timothy is charged to be enlivened with moral and spiritual courage since He is in the hands of the One who enlivens all and as a man He put that very life to the test with flawless success.

 

He was the holder of this life and He gives this life to all believers. He revealed what that life is, and it is a careful and cautious handling in which we respectfully care for the gifts that God has given us. We are in His hands and we have been given a precious life. We cannot do anything about the evil people around us.

 

1TI 6:14 that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

"keep" - thre,w[tereo] = watch, observe, guard, protect, preserve.

 

Paul gives this command with the proper military snap and curtness. Timothy was not cast in the heroic mold like Paul was. He was bashful and somewhat timid in his personality. So then, he needed a sharp command every once in a while. The commandment would sum up all that Timothy would be commissioned to do as the lieutenant of Paul and the one who would take charge of Paul's work. Without stain means his ministry and his teaching are to be without compromise, without vice or covetousness of money, without falsehood, and without roughness or condemnation of others. It is to be in gentleness, love, hard work and boldness of truth.  

 

Without reproach refers to is genuineness of truth so that the ministry cannot be legitimately discredited.

 

1TI 6:15 which He will bring about at the proper time —  He who is the blessed [happy and prosperous] and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords;

 

1TI 6:16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

 

Much more than Moses, our Lord was surrounded by evil, unbelieving people, who personally attacked Him. To this Moses was a type. We are to be conformed to the Lord's sufferings and so that means that we will be personally attacked by people as we give our heart and soul into following Christ.

 

So Timothy, who was the target of such attacks, was told -

 

I charge you to keep the commandment without stain or reproach, in the presence of God who preserves alive all, and testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, though He was surrounded by the most evil people, and keep doing so until He comes back, and He will at the proper time, at which time your fight will be complete, so take comfort in that.

 

Of course, Timothy died before His return and so at physical death his fight was complete.

 

Php 1:12-14

Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, so that my imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole praetorian guard and to everyone else, and that most of the brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear.

 

2TI 2:8-9

Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned.

 

Before we go back to Moses I want to share with you some of the  life of a Christian house slave during the early church.

 

1PE 2:18 Servants [household slave], be submissive to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.

 

Peter is likely addressing Christian slaves who were working in pagan households.

 

Twenty to thirty percent of the population in the Roman world were slaves. Many in the early church were from this social class.

 

Some of the masters had good hearts and were fair and gentle, but there were others that were unreasonable. Which type of master a Christian slave was bound to was in the decree of God.

 

The masters had their faces dead set against these Christian slaves. We can understand that attitude when we remember that these slaves lived lives of singular purity, meekness, honesty, willingness to serve, and obedience in the households of their heathen masters. This was a powerful testimony for the gospel, and brought their masters under conviction of sin. All this irritated them, and they reacted in a most unpleasant way toward their slaves, whom they would punish without provocation. Yet they did not want to sell these Christian slaves and buy pagan ones, for the Christian slaves served them better.

 

1PE 2:19 For this finds favor, if for the sake of conscience toward God a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.

 

verse 19: "for this [is] grace or thankworthy…" It means that the believer operates in God's agape and grace and so goes beyond what would "normally" be expected.

 

There is no verb in the first part.

 

Peter will also use Christ as the example. The cross was not what was ordinarily expected from God dealing with rebellious, ungodly, sinners and so our showing of grace in the face of evil persecution is not normal or ordinary in the worldly sense, but it is Christ like.

 

The unsaved slave would react toward unjust punishment in an expected way: in a bad-tempered, rebellious, sullen, vindictive manner. That would be the expected and ordinary thing. But Peter exhorts these Christian slaves to be obedient to these unjust and cruel masters, and when punished unjustly to behave in agape love, gentle, patient, forgiving, eyes on God and not on the suffering.

 

This would be an action beyond the ordinary course of what might be expected, and would therefore be commendable as acting in God's grace; in God's agape love flowing through the believer towards the evil man.

 

Grace refers to God's action of stepping down from His judgment throne and in infinite love taking upon Himself the guilt and penalty of human sin in order that He might satisfy the just requirements of His law which we disobeyed, thus making possible the righteous bestowal of His mercy on the basis of justice satisfied.

 

Grace is the favor of God, from His agape love, towards those who deserved divine wrath.

 

This is just another proof of the divine source of the Bible. Such an act of grace never occurred to sinful man because it is beyond the ordinary course of action which would be expected of a member of the human race. The race simply does not act that way.

 

And Peter gives the motivation - "for conscience toward God."

 

The conscience of man is his process of thought that enables him to determine good and bad.