Big Grace, Deep Truth and Great Love

1 Timothy 1:1-5

Rev.  Dr.  J.  Ligon Duncan III

Scots' Church, Collins Street, Melbourne
Saturday 4th April 2009
150th Anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria

Mr Moderator, Mr Moderator-General, Principal Clerk, Dr Harman, honoured guests, brother and sisters in the Lord Jesus Christ, I bring you greetings from your American cousins in the other PCA.  It's been my joy to serve as a Moderator in the Presbyterian Church in America in the past.  I've been following what God has been doing through your lives and ministries in the Presbyterian Church of Australia for more than 20 years now, and it is truly a joy to be present with you today.  I have nothing that I can teach you as an American, only much to learn from you, but as we go to God's word, perhaps He will teach us together something that we both need to learn and to live, and so I want to direct your attention to the book of first Timothy in the New Testament, and to Paul's words in that great book.  And I believe that it's a very timely thing for us to do on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the Presbyterian Church of Victoria.

One hundred and forty-nine years, three hundred and sixty-three days and about six hours ago, the Presbyterian Church of Victoria came together, literally came together, and in God's grace and mercy He has sustained one hundred and fifty years, almost, of Gospel ministry.  Well, the Principal Clerk was asking the right question, “What will the next generation hold?” That's the question.  What is it that we ought to aspire for in the generations to come? 

There are a lot of legitimate places that we could go to to answer that question; there are a lot of legitimate places in the Scripture to answer that question, “What should be our guide? What should be our goal? What should be the standards? What should be the substance and message of our ministry?” but I can't think of a better place to go than to the Apostle Paul in First Timothy chapter one, verses 1 to 5, because the Pastoral Epistles, the Pastoral Letters of Paul, First and Second Timothy and Titus, were written to the Church about the Church, about the message of the Church, about the ministry of the Church and about the method of that ministry, and when we're looking for guidance about what our message ought to be and about what our ministry ought to be, there's no better place to for us to go than to the Apostle Paul, who by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit spoke to us what God intends for the Church.

What's the Church supposed to be like? Well, we all have our own opinions about that, don't we? We may wish that our church did more of this or that, or did less of this or that.  We may wish for a church that's more friendly or more evangelistic or more “with it”, but what does God want the Church to be? And does He say what He wants the Church to be like anywhere in the Bible?

Well, the answer is “Yes,” emphatically, yes.  Right here in the Pastoral Epistles, First and Second Timothy and Titus, God tells us so much about what He wants the Church to be and do.  We find in these three tiny little letters a descriptive and prescriptive pattern for the Church and its ministry.  We not only find an example of what life looked like in early Christian congregations, but we find a divinely appointed set of directives for how we are to live and minister as an among God's people, not only in this age, but in every age.  These letters reveal to us the closing activities of the life of the Apostle Paul and they disclose to us church life at the end of the first century, but more importantly, Paul tells us explicitly that these letters were written for our instruction, not just for our information, not just for our entertainment or our amusement.  In other words, they were written to show us what the Christian Church and what Christian ministry ought to be like.

So, let me ask you again, what makes a good church? Is it a great facility, an active church program, outstanding youth ministry, warm and friendly people, small groups, relevant preaching, exciting worship, contemporary music, cutting edge men's ministry, world-class women's ministry, convenient location, accessible and plenteous parking? Well, let's measure our thinking about what makes a good church against the standards of God's word and see what He says about what makes a good church, and then let's determine to conform our thinking to His revealed will.  Here's a test, if what you think is most important about the life of the Church is not even mentioned in the Pastoral Epistles, well you may want to rethink your idea of the Church because Paul is giving us divine priorities here, he's telling us what we want and ought to be like as the Church.

It's amazing the range of things he covers in the Pastoral Epistles.  He tells us about church administration and public worship, and the qualifications for ministers and elder and deacons; He tells us how men and women are to be involved in the work of the Church, and who ought to provide for the needy, and how spiritual council ought to be given to aged men and women as well as to young men and women.  These letters stress sound doctrine, consecrated living, the value of creeds and confessions, and they reveal to us the final activities of the life of the Apostle Paul, and they're written for our instruction.

I think they're especially important because in our own time, three models of informing the life of the Church have existed for about one hundred and fifty years and continue to exist today.  These three types or models of how the task of the Church ought to be conducted can be seen in Britain and America and in Australia.  We might call them the Liberal Model, the Modern Evangelical Model and the Biblical Model.

The Liberal Model goes something like this; it says that the Gospel needs to be rethought in contemporary terms, that that is the key to the vitality of the Church.

On the other hand, the second model, the Modern Evangelical Model says that the Gospel's fine, the message is fine, but the key to ministry today is our methods and our methods have to change if we're going to reach the lost.

Now I want to submit to you that neither of those views is Biblical.  The Biblical view believes that God's message and method always accomplish what He intends.  And so, the crucial task of the Church is always then striving to be faithful and living out God's message and His method.

Let me put it another way, Liberalism has said that the Gospel won't work unless the message is changed.  Much of Modern Evangelicalism, on the other hand, has said that the Gospel won't work unless our methods are changed, but the Bible says that the Gospel works and that God's has given us both the method and the message, and here in the Pastoral Epistles we find that message and that method.  Now, very frankly I'd love to preach to you from all three of these books, but I don't think anybody would be here when I was finished, so I just want to direct your attention to these first five verses in First Timothy, and hear God's Word from them.  And before we do so, let's look to Him in prayer and ask for His help and blessing.  Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, this is Your Word, and so that we ask that You would open our eyes to behold wonderful things in Your law.  We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

This is God's Word.

Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope,

to Timothy, my true child in the faith;

Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 

As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus in order that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith, but the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

Amen, and thus ends this reading of God's holy, inspired, inerrant and infallible Word.  May He write its eternal truth upon all our hearts.

What's your dream for the Presbyterian Church of Victoria in the next half-century? Should the Lord tarry, what sort of life and ministry, what kind of message and work would your heart desire to see be done in the Presbyterian Church of Victoria?

Well, my friends, I think that in this passage, the Apostle Paul actually charts out for us a threefold emphasis in our ministry.  It's a threefold emphasis that I would desire to see manifest in every church.

In the very first two verses, I think you see Paul draw attention to grace.  In verses 3 and 4 I think you see him draw attention to truth, and then in verse 5, I think you see him draw attention to love.  And here's my prayer for you, Presbyterian Church of Victoria; that you would a half-century from now, if the Lord should tarry, still be preaching the message of Big Grace, and of Deep Truth, and of Great Love.

Let's learn that message from the Apostle Paul today.

First, the message of Big Grace.  You see what Paul says to Timothy here; he is “an Apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope.  To Timothy, my true child in the faith; Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now, do you see in that passage how God-centred he is in his thinking and how grace-oriented he is in the message that he has for Timothy.  You see that in a couple of ways; first of all, notice how he refers to the Father and to the Son, how he refers to God the Father and to God the Son.  In verse 1 he speaks of God our Saviour.  He can't even speak of God without speaking of the redemption that we have in Jesus Christ and of God's work and initiative for our salvation.  And he speaks of Jesus Christ as our hope.  And so, the Apostle Paul draws attention to God who is our Saviour and our Father, and Jesus, who is our hope and our Lord, and thus he draws attention to the fact that the message of grace and the message of the Gospel is not to you, “Do better, live a better live, turn over a new leaf, try and change yourself, improve your own person.” His message is “Your hope doesn't come from you, it comes from God.  Your salvation doesn't come from your works or your goodness; it comes from God's grace.” It's a message of grace, and you see this emphasized in the little word of salutation that he has for Timothy in verse 2: “Grace, mercy and peace”! And so, the Apostle Paul begins the letter, even in his words of greetings, emphasizing the big grace of God and that's hugely important in our own day.  My dear friend, Dr Albert Mohler, who is the President of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States, says that we live in a day and age where all around us there are people who are saying that our fundamental problem is outside of us and the fundamental solution of that problem is inside of us.  That is, our greatest problems in life are in our context, in our community, perhaps it is something that has been done to us, and the answer to that problem is found within us.  Perhaps it's by changing, or perhaps it's by reorienting our attitudes, or perhaps it's by self-actualizing, but whatever the case is, you'll find everywhere this message that the problem is outside of us and the solution is inside of us.  And then Dr Mohler goes on to say that is the exact opposite message of Christianity.  Christianity says, the Bible, Paul says, that out problem is inside of us and the solution is outside of us.  The problem is sin.

You remember Chesterton's famous response to the question from the editor of the London Times, “What is the greatest problem in the world?”, and Chesterton wrote in, “Dear Sir, I am.  Yours sincerely, G.  K.  Chesterton.” The Times editorial page was filled with editorial opinions about how the great problem in the world was homelessness or war or some other thing, famine and deprivation, and he said, “No, I am the greatest problem in the world.  The problem resides in my own heart.” The brilliant and Godly Scottish minister Thomas Boston once said, “It men knew what was in my heart, I wouldn't have four friends left in Scotland.”

And the message of Christianity is, we're the problem, Christ is the solution.  It's God's grace to us, His good news to us in Jesus Christ.  So the message of Christianity is not “Look within,, and find your salvation,” it's “Look up, look out, look away, and find your salvation in Jesus Christ!” and Paul is stressing that, even in his opening words of greetings in First Timothy chapter one.

My friends, we need to teach and preach and live out that big grace! We go among people, not saying to them, “We're better than you.  We're smarter than you,” we go among people saying, “We are sinners, and frail and weak, but God has been merciful to us in Jesus Christ.  Let us introduce you to our great Saviour so that you might have the life that He has given to us! We're not better than you and smarter than you.  We're the recipients of big grace and big mercy, and therefore we have great peace.”

So there you are, Presbyterian Church of Victoria.  In fifty years time, should the Lord tarry, believe in the big grace of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's a second thing here that I want to draw your attention to as well, and you'll see it in verses 3 and 4.  Now this book, you understand, is a manual on ministry.  Well, if you were going to sit down and write what was going to be the world's leading seller on Pastoral Theology, I guarantee you would not begin the way the Apostle Paul begins in verses 3 and 4.  Look what he says, “I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus in order that you may instruct certain men to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith.” In other words, “Ok Timothy, here's job number one as a minister: Don't let people teach false things! Don't let the people of God listen to teaching which is in error, which is out of accord with the Bible.” Now, my friends, that would not be how we would start a masterpiece on Pastoral Theology if we were writing it today, but do you understand why Paul is saying that? He's saying that because truth matters! “Error,” he says, “leads sheep over cliffs.  It leads them to places where God does not want them to end up.” Truth, on the other hand edifies.  “Truth,” Paul will say elsewhere, “leads to Godliness.” Truth is for life! Truth is to inform our living, and so, my friends, we not only need to have a message of big grace, but of deep truth.  Now that's countercultural!

We live in a day and age where people at least claim not to believe in truth anymore.  The fact of the matter is that no one doesn't believe in truth.  There are plenty of people that claim not to believe in truth, but you can't live without believing in truth.  Everybody believes in something.

Now, there are many people that'll tell you, “If you believe that some things are true and other things are false, you're going to  end up being intolerant and tyrannical, and you're going to oppress other people.” and I just want to tell you, friends, that that is absolutely wrong.  It's provable that that is wrong historically.

You know, Presbyterians in Scotland and in Northern Ireland and in America and in Australia actually are the inventors of the modern idea of religious toleration.  Through a long history of our own persecution, we have been determined to establish religious liberty for other peoples who differ with us, but we do not do it on the basis of there being no truth or all truth being relative. 

No, it is on the basis of the absolute truth of God's word.  We believe that God has made everyone in the image of God and, therefore, every human being, from whatever tribe, tongue, people and nation, must be treated with dignity.  We also believe that human beings are sinners and, therefore, we are distrustful of human beings exercising absolute authority on their own, without checks and balances.  And we believe in divine regeneration, and therefore we know that no one can be coerced into salvation; God's grace must do its' work in their heart, and because of that we do not believe in religious persecution and religious intolerance.  But the reason that we do not do this is not because we do not believe in truth, but because we do believe in truth.

Gene Genovese, the great American historian, once upon a time a Marxist, wrote a brilliant set of essays that were given as the Massey Lectures at Harvard in 1992 and which more recently been published in a book called The Southern Tradition, and he made this very interesting observation, that Jewish people and Roman Catholics, who were a religious minority in the United States in the 19th century found themselves more at home, more accepted and more loved by their communities when they were among conservative evangelicals than liberal progressives.  Now, this genuinely made Professor Genovese curious.  How could that be? Surely those that were in religious minorities would have felt more at home amongst liberal progressives than against conservative evangelicals, but in his studies of the 19th century over and over, he found it confirmed that this was the case, that they felt at home. 

Why is this? Because the Jewish minority and the Roman Catholic minority and the conservative evangelicals held in common a belief that there was such a thing as absolute truth, and even though they disagreed, they felt more at home with people who also believed in absolute truth and more accepted by them, even though they differed. 

Genovese, in an amusing way, described the difference between these two attitudes.  He said, the liberal progressives' motto was, “You worship God in your way, and I'll worship him in mine.” The idea was, it really doesn't matter what we agree about or disagree about because all truth is relative anyway and it's all up to you.  We all make it up as we go along.”

Whereas the conservative evangelical approach was this, “You worship God your way, and I'll worship him in his.” In other words, the conservative evangelicals were absolutely committed to religious toleration and freedom, but they were not about to compromise their assertion of absolute truth.

Now, many people will tell you that people who believe in absolute truth are a danger to you, but I want to propose to you this: If you do not believe that religious freedom is a universal human right established by a transcendent creator, then there is no way that the belief in religious freedom can hold today.  Only people who believe in absolute truth can guarantee that freedom.

Elsewhere that particular freedom simply comes by social contract and when the social contract changes, the religious freedom is gone.

Well, that's a bypath.  The real reason that the Apostle Paul is emphasizing the importance of truth here is that truth is for life, truth is for godliness, and leads me to the third thing that I want to say to you briefly today.

Fifty years from now, big grace, deep truth, fifty years from now, great love.  Look at what the Apostle Paul says that truth is for: “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” You see what the Apostle Paul is saying there?

He's saying that the purpose of the ministry of God's Word and truth is to cultivate in the hearts of God's people, real Christian love, Gospel-animated love, grace-wrought love, from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.  The purpose of the minister of God preaching the truth of God is not so that we walk around with great big heads and tiny little hearts and tiny little hands and feet, but it's so that the truth takes hold of us and transforms us. 

Do you remember the woman that Jesus forgave who broke the expensive jar of oil and anointed Him with that jar of oil, and his disciples were criticising her for doing this, and He said, “Those who are forgiven much, love much.”? When you have learned the truth of big grace, when you have learned the deep truth of big grace, it ushers forth in great love in your heart.

A dear friend of mine was a very, very accomplished and successful banker in Charlotte, North Carolina.  He and his wife had four beautiful children.  He was climbing his way up the ladder in one of the nation’s largest banks.  He was a workaholic; he was ignoring his wife and his children.  He was climbing the corporate ladder and he became involved with another woman.  The marriage dissolved; his wife divorced him.  In the wake of that, a Presbyterian pastor shared the Gospel with him and God did an amazing work in his heart, and his life was changed and he was converted and became a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, and immediately he had a thirst for truth, an insatiable thirst for truth.

So he went to the pastor and he said, “Pastor, teach me through the Bible,” and the pastor started teaching him through the Bible, and he said, “Pastor, would you read through Calvin's Institutes with me?” and the pastor reading through Calvin's Institutes, and he said, “Teach me through the Westminster Confession,” and the pastor taught him through the Westminster Confession, and all the while, as he learned more of the truth of the God of big grace, he was convicted of his own life and his own sin, and after a number of months, he went back to his wife, and he said to her, “I have done you wrong, and there is absolutely no reason why you ought to accept me back, but I know that it would be better for us to be together for our four little boys sakes,” and he said to his wife, “and I want to be with you because I love you and I treasure you, and I want to make up to you in as much I can what I've done to you, and I love you,”  and his wife, who was a Godly woman, in great courage received him back to her.  And I want to tell you today, that it is a joy to be around the two of them.  I have rarely been around a man who adores his wife like this man adores his wife, and I have rarely been around a woman of such faith and grace as his wife, and their four boys, their wonderful boys! One of them is the President of a college now in California.  Now my friend Steve, he's the chief administrator of a theological seminary and an elder in a Presbyterian Church, but what had happened in his life and in their life together? The big reality of God's grace had been worked deep into their hearts and it had issued forth in love, a love big enough to forgive.  And there is no better display of the fruit of the Gospel than the power of love to endure all things and hope all things and to bear all things and to be victorious over all things.  Truly, those who are forgiven much are able to forgive much because they realise how much we have been forgiven in Christ Jesus.

Presbyterian Church of Victoria, in the half century to come, however long that the Lord gives us to serve and minister together, may you be a people of big grace, deep truth and great love, to God's praise.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the truth of the Gospel.  We thank you for the purposes of Gospel truth in our hearts to transform us by grace so that we're people who love, people who have a self-denying love for every human being, because we know that every human being is created in the image of God, people who are able to exercise forgiving love towards those who have wronged us the most deeply, because we have been forgiven by the God who wronged and we've been saved by the blood of his own Son so that we are no longer under the just condemnation of God, but we've been forgiven and welcomed into your family of all people! Of all people we ought to be a people of grace and truth and love! That's what we want to be, Lord.  We want to be a people that revel in your grace and care about your truth and live lives of love that the world cannot deny the Gospel reality of.  And we want it all because, Lord, it is our desire that at the end of time billions upon billions of men and women and boys and girls from every tribe, tongue, people and nation will stand before the throne, and they will proclaim the love and the grace of the God and Saviour and Hope and Lord, the Father and the Son and the Spirit, who came to save us.  O Lord, do this thing we pray in Jesus name.  Amen.