The God We Hope In

Well, good to see all of you here today. Let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4 for time of study in the word, this morning, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of First Timothy. As we continue in our series to this book, we come today to 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 10.

And we've looked at the first half of verse 10. Today we're going to spend the entirety of our time looking at the second half of 1 Timothy 4:10. And if you want to give a title to the message, it would be The God We Hope In. The God we hope in.

Let me start off with this question just to get us thinking. how would you answer this question? Just think about it, don't blurt it out. But what is the most important thing about you?

What is the most important thing about you? And I want to suggest to you, AW Tozer's answer to this question. Listen to what he says. The most important thing about you is what comes into your mind when you think about God.

The most important thing about you is what comes into your mind when you think about God. And I think if you guys were to think it all through, you'd realize, man, what I think of God is so fundamental. Everything else flows from, from that. If I view God as weak and powerless, that's going to affect the way I handle trials and difficulties.

If I see God as powerful but uncaring and unconcerned about me, then that's going to affect the way that I, handle difficulties in my life. If I see God as a God who frequently gets angry with me as his child, whenever I sin or mess up, then that's going to affect the way that you either relate to God or just choose not to even bother relating to, God, so the list can go on and on. at the very core of our being is this fundamentally important issue of what we think of God, what comes to our mind when we think of Him.

There's other things that we all care about very much with regard to our lives, but nothing is more important than our view of God and the thoughts that come into our minds when we think.

Of God. Well, as we look at verse 10 today, the second half of the verse, let me reword this question. What's the most important thing about the apostle Paul? Well, the most important thing about the apostle Paul is what comes into his mind when he thinks about God, right?

And today, at the end of verse 10, we're going to observe three things that come into the mind of Paul when he thinks about God. Look what he says in verse 10. He's talking about godliness and exerting ourselves toward godliness. And he says in verse 10, for it is literally into this, into this godliness, that we continuously labor and strive, because here's what our motivation is.

Here's what drives us. Here's the fuel that, that empowers us in this pursuit. It's because we have fixed our hope on God. But he doesn't just say upon God.

Paul feels compelled to add some descriptions of God. He says the living God. The God who is the Savior of all men. The God who is the Savior, especially of believers, you can learn a lot about a person.

And what's important to them and what they think of their subject by what adjectives or descriptions they add. If a man is introducing his wife and some new people, would he say, Well, yeah, here's my wife. Or would he say, this is my lovely, gorgeous wife, or this is my first wife. Some people have done that in a joking way, or this is my only wife.

what adjectives do you, do you attach to your wife, and the adjectives or descriptions you attach reveal something about anyone listening to that would, would be able to infer some things about your attitude, your disposition towards your wife, and that's what Paul does at the end of verse 10. And so what we're going to do is we're going to look at these three descriptions of God that we find at the end of verse 10. And so just to put you at ease, this is, this is what I love about this message and you might love.

There's no commands in our study today, no imperatives.

I'm not going to tell you guys to do anything. All we're going to do is just behold God and contemplate Him. Is that OK? if you want to be godly and want a passion for godliness, the way to get that is to not, make a list of things to do to be godly.

The way to get that is to go first and foremost to God and gaze at Him. And Paul says, these things that I'm saying about God here, these are the things that that serve as the reason why we are striving for godliness in order to please Him. Now, I'll warn you, as we contemplate God today and think about him, your, your brains will probably grow, especially if Spurgeon is right in his prediction. Listen to what he says.

He who often thinks of God will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect. Nothing will so magnify the whole soul of man as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the deity, which is God. So that's what we're going to do today.

And as we behold, the glory of the Lord in these descriptions is in a mirror. Our prayer is that God's glory As we see it displayed here will actually attach itself. Deposits of His glory will attach themselves to our person and we'll be transformed and impacted by what we see. So here's how we're going to break it down.

Paul's saying we're striving for godliness, laboring for godliness. Here's the reason why, because we put our hope upon God. And let me tell you something, 3 things about the God. That we put our hope in.

So there's 3 descriptions here or 3 truths about God, or 3 motivating truths about God that, that serve as fuel for our pursuit of sanctification. Any of you need fuel for your pursuit of holiness? Man, I do. So let's, let's gaze at God and, and get that.

All right. I rarely, I, I was thinking about this last night. I, I have 3 points to the message today, and I rarely have only 3 points. That's the stereotype, 3 points in a poem.

but it's rare. I usually have more than that. But today, I have 3. And the first of the descriptions that we find here in 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 10 of God.

That Paul wants to just cherish and celebrate is that he is the living God. Look at this, for it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope not just on God, but on the living God. Now it's easy for us to say, yeah, God's a living God. He's not dead, so that's great to know.

Let's move on and see what else Paul says. But Paul would say, No, no, wait a minute, wait a minute, this, this means a lot to me. And I put this word in here because it is precious to me. So let's meditate on what it means.

Why does Paul say that God is the living God? Well, in referring to him as the living God, part of what he's saying is he's a living God versus a dead God or a non-existent deity. All other gods that claim to be gods that people say are gods, they don't even exist, so they're dead, they're nonexistent. Our God is the only true God and He is the only living God.

This is in one sense simply another way of saying what Said back in chapter 1 verse 17 that our God is the only God. There are no other gods beside Him. He is the living God as opposed to all the other actually non-existent gods that people worship and the idols of Paul's day that people worship. It's amazing when you think about it that people are like, we want a God that we can worship, so we have a sculptor and an artist who will sculpt an image of God.

the God we want to worship and then after having done that we'll, we'll get them all polished because this God can't polish himself, and then we'll, we'll put him on a wagon because he can't walk himself and we'll put him in a temple and we'll make sure he stands upright and if he totters, we'll be there to, to make sure that he doesn't fall over because this God is not able to take care of that himself. And then they bow down and worship this God that they have made. These are dead deities that are deaf and that are dumb.

Paul says though, our God is the living God.

And Paul would say that means a lot to me that I'm not worshiping a non-existent deity. But there's something else that he is conveying and referring to God as the living God, and that is that the verb here is a is a present tense verb which means that he is the continuously living God. In other words, Paul cherishes the fact that God is not just alive today, but he was alive yesterday, and he will be alive tomorrow, and he'll be alive trillions and trillions of eons from now on through all of eternity.

He's not just a God who is alive today.

He will always live. He is the perpetually living God. This is simply another way of saying what he said back in chapter 1, verse 17. referring to God as the King, eternal, immortal, and now here in this passage, perpetually living.

There's something in the, in the heart of Paul that really appreciates the fact that God won't die. Yes, he's alive right now, but he's going to be alive tomorrow and through eternity, and he's never going to die. why that's precious to Paul and should be precious to us? Because our salvation will last as long as God lasts.

Our salvation will last as long as God lives. And imagine our insecurity, if God were merely a mortal who loved us, and wanted to do great things for us, but, and he, and he saved us and we're saved today, but we just didn't know that he'd be around and alive tomorrow. We would not have the security that we have. We know that God will save us forever because he lives forever.

Hebrews 7:25, the writer of Hebrew says, therefore he, Christ is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives. He can save us forever, because he lives forever. And he will always be around to show us love and to lavish His grace upon us. I remember several years ago, a man in our church was a dear brother in the Lord was diagnosed with cancer and it was quickly obvious that it was a terminal condition, and we watched this brother.

Waste away week by week as a result of the cancer, and yet he had such a spirit of joy. over his imminent homecoming with the Lord and his joy was so great that we just would watch this guy and I know I felt jealous. I was like, man, he's so beautified his, his dying process to such a degree that I remember asking him about a month before he died, I said, Is there anything that bothers you about dying? I see your joy and everything, and does anything, do you struggle with anything?

He said, what, Milton, I'm not, I'm not afraid to die. I'm looking forward to it. I can't get over the fact that in a few weeks, I'm going to be standing in front of Jesus. That's just, it's just a matter of days, I'm going to be, I'm going to be there.

So I'm looking forward to that. But then he said this, he said, but one thing really bothers me that, that I struggle with every day. And that is that I won't be around to love my wife and to love my children. Some of the children were young, some were teenagers, some younger than that.

And he said, I just, it bothers me that my children as they grow and they face different things that I want to be there for their sake, to love them and to direct them to be a dad to them, and, and I'm not going to be able to do that. So here's a man who's mortal. He loves, but he's mortal, and his mortality limits the degree to which he's able to love. And show love and be a dad to those who were his children.

But what? God is not mortal. God has a, God has an amazing love for all of us. And guess what?

He's always going to be around. He's always going to be around. He's never going to say, man, I'd love to be there to love on you, but what? I, I'm not going to be there.

I'm mortal. Everyone dies. No, God loves us with an eternal love, and he will always live and always be able to fully carry out his loving intentions on us. Paul says, we fixed our hope on the living God, the continuously living God, who loves us today with the love that will be with us tomorrow, and he will be loving on us for all of eternity.

There's another element of Paul's description of God as the living God. And let me, let me start off by saying this, that you see the definition at the top of the screen. The concept of living, especially when it's applied to water in the Bible, speaks of water that is not passive. It is not still, it is not stagnant, but it is vibrant.

It is flowing. It is lively. It is moving. It is coming from the source, and it is moving.

In flowing water in the Bible that would be called living water. We actually have passages where that occurs. So in our English language we use the adjective living to describe a 20-year-old amazing stud athlete who's just full of life and can do amazing athletic feats. We would use that same description living to describe a 90-year-old lying on a hospital bed.

Unconscious, but technically, clinically their heart is still beating. And their lungs are still breathing. Both, we'd say, yes, that 90 year old is living. This 20-year-old amazing athlete is living.

Paul would say, listen, when I describe God as living, I'm not talking about, the fact that God is clinically alive. He would, part of the idea is, is God is lively. God is vibrantly alive. He is not passive.

He is not still but vibrant and And and lively. Look at this in Psalm 42. As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for you, oh God, my soul thirst for God. So he's using a metaphor depicting God as as water, and he's saying, My soul is thirsting for God, for the living God.

All right. In fact, let me show you the next screen just as an example. God describes Himself in Jeremiah 2:13. He says, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters.

and also in, Zechariah 14:8, the prophet speaks of living waters that flow from Jerusalem, meaning flowing, moving waters. Now let me see if I can go back here. so God is being depicted as water that the psalmists thirst for, but He's the living God. He's a living water God.

He's a God that that is flowing, that is vibrant, that is lively, that is moving. It is not sitting stagnant. And the psalmist says, My soul thirst for the living God. And interestingly enough, in verse 5, the psalmist says to his own soul, Why are you in despair, Oh my soul?

Hope in God. So we have hoping in God tied to the fact that he's the living, vibrantly lively God. And in 1 Timothy 4:10, we have hope and the living God tied together once again. God is not just alive, but he's, he's moving, he's vibrant, he's full of life, He is the lively God.

He's not a boring God, a stagnant God. He's, he moves and is full of life. Another idea of referring to God as the living God is there's a personal touch, no doubt, that's here, and that is that this God is alive toward us. He's alive toward us.

God is living. And he is lively, and he's lively toward us. Paul cherishes this. Sometimes when I pray for people in our church body, maybe they're going through a hard time.

I, I, I'll often pray, God, I just pray that you would Help remove the scales from this brother or sister's eyes so that they can see your countenance and see how alive you are towards them in this circumstance in which they find themselves. That doesn't, wouldn't that make a huge difference to just be able to look at God, even before he moves in some powerful way, to just see his countenance and to see how engaged and how alive he is towards us? Would that not minister comfort and help to You You ever been in a social setting where you were bored?

And Maybe people were They're talking about things that just weren't interesting to you and you're like trying to act interested, but you're you're struggling to stay awake., that's happened to me at times.

Maybe that's happening to you right now. But not that these people were boring, but a number of years ago I visited with a couple in our church on a Tuesday afternoon. after driving in from Los Angeles and I, I couldn't stay awake to save my life, I'm paying them a pastoral visit and guzzling their tea and chewing ice to stay awake on a hot summer day, and I ended up falling asleep on their couch, and I woke up to the sound of them saying, Pastor, would you like to use our bed?

So I felt pretty stupid, but I wasn't very lively, in, in that situation.

But what, I imagine in those social situations, and this has happened to all of us, that suddenly someone brings up something that you really are interested in. And what happens? You come alive, right, and now you're engaged in the topic and socializing with this person and I want you to take that image and realize that when Paul says God is the living God, part of the idea is he is lively. He is alive.

Towards us and towards everything that concerns us. If we look at God, if we could see Him somehow as we make our way through this world, we would not see a God who's looking elsewhere, but a God who is gazing at us and His countenance would indicate He's very much alive towards us. And when we come into his presence and say, God, it's, it's me. It's me, God, we would see by the way he engages us and greets us that he is alive towards us.

And then also if we say to God in the morning, God, I want to be godly today. Oh man, God is alive towards that and the pursuit of godliness. His attitude is not, oh, you want to be godly? OK, what do you need?

hurry up and tell me because I've got other things to focus on here. No, God is like, he loves godliness. He's alive towards godliness. It's like, what do you need?

And hey, here's what I have planned for you today anyway, and you weren't even thinking about it, and I'll give you everything that you need, and you would see a God in relationship with Him. You would see a God that is alive towards you and alive towards your pursuit of godliness and who is happy to give you all that you need. Pa This God that we have put our hope in is the living God. He is the living God in all of these ways.

There's a second description or motivating powerful truth about God that Paul wants to celebrate here, and that is that God is the savior of all. So as we gaze at God, let's, let's just relish the fact that in the text of Scripture, it says that he is the savior. Of all. Look at this in verse 10.

It is for this godliness that we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the savior of all men. And ladies, you're included in that. He is a savior of all. Of all people.

Now, that's the exact literal wording of the text. We have to reckon with that and take it at face value and preserve the integrity of this statement that Paul is making about God. Nonetheless, we do want to think about what is Paul saying and what is he not saying. When Paul says that God is the savior of all, is he saying that God saves everybody in an eternally redemptive sense?

Does this mean everyone is going to go to heaven? OK, no. in fact, in Revelation 14:11, we learn of people that are cast into the lake of fire and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. The writer says, Judas, Jesus says of Judas in Mark 14:21, Judas who betrayed Jesus, Jesus said it would have been better for him to have never been born.

So there's some people who believe everyone, when they die, they go to heaven, no matter what. Some believe when you die, you go to purgatory and you suffer. for your sins and you get purified and you end up in heaven. Some people word it to where, they believe that certain people will go to hell when they die for their sins and having rejected Christ, but after a lengthy period of time, God will bring them into heaven.

And that's there's different views that we call universalism in that sense, but if everybody ultimately made it into heaven, why would Jesus say of Judas it would have been better off if he had never been born? If Judas would ultimately end up in heaven anyway, so there's just too much in Scripture that would argue against that, and I think all of us in this room that are a part of this church would agree with the fact that whatever Paul is saying in this statement, he's not saying that God redemptively and eternally saves every single human being.

Well, if he's not saying that, then what is? He's saying, so let me go over a few things with you.

When Paul says that God is the Savior of all. At the very least, I think we're safe in saying that He's the Savior of all in the sense that he desires all to be saved, right? And that's actually, I'm not even being original in my wording here. I stole the wording from Paul.

He says in 1 Timothy 2:1, 1st of all, I urge that prayers be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority. This is good and acceptable to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Whatever a person's theology is, he must take that theological statement and insert it into his theology and preserve the integrity of that, that God in a real way desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

We even see that manifested in Jesus that somehow in God's providence, the, the Jews rejected Christ and it was through that God used that to bring salvation to the Gentiles, right?

and yet, when Jesus was coming into Jerusalem on the week of his death, contemplating the rejection of the city, the Jews of him, he didn't say, well, it's in God's sovereign decree that they would reject me, so it is what it is. Let's move on. No, he wept over the city. He was pained in his heart and grieved.

This, this could only be explained by an understanding that Jesus desired the Jews to repent and to come to Him to come to the knowledge of the truth. So we must reckon with the fact that God desires all to be saved. And so when Paul later says God is the Savior of all men, at the very least it means that he's the Savior of all in the sense that he desires all to be saved. Secondly, He's the savior of all in the sense that Christ gave Himself as a ransom for all.

Christ gave his own life and death, and he did so as a ransom for all. Look at verse 5 at the bottom of the screen, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus who gave Himself as a ransom. For all, so there's no exceptions here. He gave Himself as a ransom for all.

In dying on the cross, Jesus, in effect, died for every human being. Ultimately he died to be the Savior of those who would believe in Him, and He died to vindicate his right to be the judge of anyone that would reject Him. But we can honestly go to anyone. That we give the gospel to and give them this news that Christ gave Himself as a ransom for all and tied to that is a third sense in which we can understand God to be the Savior of all, and that is that God insists that we all preach the good news to all.

Look at Mark 16:15. Jesus says after his death and resurrection, go into all the world. I want you guys to cover this planet, go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation. In other words, I want you to go to every single human being and preach the good news to them.

I want you to go to everyone and say, I have good news for you. Not good news for other people. And I'm not sure if it applies to you. No, preach the good news to every creature.

Jesus says. He insisted on this. So God is the savior of all in the sense that he desires all to be saved. Christ gave Himself as a ransom for all, and God insists that we preach the good news to all.

There's a final sense in which we can say that God is the savior of all. but before I tell you what it is, I need everybody awake. OK. I need you to listen very carefully to what I'm about to say.

I am very happy to be held to account for what I say in the next few moments, but I don't want to be held to account for something I did not say, but what you thought I said, OK, so everyone awake, in fact, check the people sitting next to you, make sure they're awake. And let's all pay very close attention, all right. Here we go. If we define save as rescue or preserve, which is one of the, some of the meanings of the terms or deliver, then we can actually say that to a degree, God acts as everybody's savior countless times every day.

Not in a redemptive, eternally saving sense. But God countless times every day is acting at various levels as every single human being's savior. How? Well, every second that he spares a human being from the immediate full fury of his wrath in the lake of fire.

Every second that he allows even an atheist to continue to live on his good earth and to enjoy life and to be spared from the fury of God's full wrath that that atheist deserves in the lake of fire in that moment. Even though God is not redemptively, eternally saving that person, God is acting in a preserving, delivering, rescuing way every second he lets that person live. God is acting in mercy. In fact, Paul, even in Romans 2, says this, these are the riches of the kindness and the tolerance and the forbearance of God.

God every second is rescuing, preserving, Unsave people's souls from hell. Every second he allows them to live on his good earth. Also, God is acting as everyone's savior countless times every day, every time he prevents them from being as evil as they otherwise could be. Not every human being, not every atheist, not every person who rejects Christ is as evil as he could be, and It's no credit to that person that he's not as evil as he could be.

That is God in His grace and in His mercy, saving that person from being as evil as he could be. Also, God acts as everyone's savior countless times every day, every time he acts to spare a person's physical life. just as an example, the San Bernardino Crisis Pregnancy Center, it's a wonderful ministry that is right by a Planned Parenthood, abortion clinic up in San Bernardino, and, gals come in that are seriously planning and thinking about an abortion and, and these Christian men and women at this ministry, are, are reasoning with these women and pleading with these women to not abort the baby.

In their in their womb, and what, they succeed many times, and these women are persuaded away from Aborting the child that is in their womb, and what, how does that happen?

Who causes that to happen? Who causes that change of mind to happen? Who is it that moved these men and women to work in a ministry like this to preserve the lives of the fetuses that are in the wombs of the mother? God is behind all of that, and that fetus who doesn't even know what's going on, God is, is already acting as their savior, rescuing their life from death when, when, when God's people feed the hungry.

Who might starve if they are not fed. That is God working through his people as his agents to, to bring rescue and deliverance, delivering and saving their physical lives. God acts as everyone's savior countless times every day, every time he acts to spare someone's life, or every time he acts to sustain their physical life with rain, sunshine, food, And health. We know from Matthew that God causes the rain to shine on the evil and the good, the sun to shine on the evil and the good.

It is not an automatic thing that every human being should just be able to expect to live for another minute. In fact, we might take that for granted, but what? God every second is saving us from a certain death that would be ours if He were not actively engaged in giving us oxygen. Every time we inhale, God is giving us oxygen and letting that flow into our lungs so that we Live a few more moments longer.

Every heartbeat that is a gift from God. When we speak of God sustaining our lives, part of what that means is he's saving us from a death that would ensue if he were not actively engaged in sustaining us. And so part of what Paul would say is, man, open your eyes when, when I look around at the human race and see God's mercy, even as non-redemptive. mercies at work.

I, I see God acting in countless ways as a deliverer, as a preserver in the lives of people everywhere. In fact, we can use this fact, Listen carefully, we can use this fact to come to people to point them to God's amazing grace. He's already been showing them and preserving their life. giving them sustenance to say to them, God already in so many levels is acting as a rescuer and a deliverer to you and sustaining your life.

And I got great news for you. God wants to do far more than that, and to save you eternally. Through Christ Paul actually does this in Acts 14. He's speaking to pagans, and he says God did not leave Himself without a witness concerning Himself.

God, God does certain things to let about Himself. What is that? And that he did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness. To the pagans on Mars Hill in Acts 17:28, Paul says, In God we live and move and exist.

In other words, without Him actively engaged in preserving and sustaining our lives, we would die. We're being saved every second. From a certain death. And so part of evangelism is actually to get to know people well enough, even, even an atheist, nonbeliever, Christ rejector, get to know them well enough to look for evidences of God's just gracious mercy in their life.

I read a few months ago in my son's science book that our body produces 2 million red blood cells every second. And I started thinking about this. It's like wow, I didn't even know God was up to that. But every second I live, He's, he's giving me 2 million new red blood cells every single second.

And when I, when I witness to people, I like to share that with them. Just, man, God is already so active in your life and sustaining you, and He's giving you thousands, millions of gifts every second as He's acting on your behalf in these ways. And I've got good news. God has so much more that He wants to do in saving you eternally and redemptively.

I remember in my first year of seminary we moved next door to, some neighbors, I guess you're always next door to neighbors, but we And this person, we hadn't lived there for very long, and he came up and introduced himself to me, and I I said, Well, tell me about yourself. And one of the first things he told me is he said, I've been going to AA for the last month and I've been sober for 30, 30 days. And I said, Man, that's, that's awesome, and I said, I understand with AA that you have to choose a higher power.

Who did you choose for a higher power?

He says, I chose Jesus. And I said, Oh, that's, man, that's great. What do about Jesus? He said, I don't know anything about Jesus, but I know this.

He, he's made me sober and he freed me from my addiction. So I stood there, first year seminary student, just wrestling through the theology of this, like, do I tell this guy, no, he didn't do that because you're not a Christian yet, what do I do? And so in the moment I said, what, would you like to know more about this Jesus who has done you this great favor? He said, yeah.

And so thus began a series of conversations that a few months later led to this guy coming to know Christ as his Lord and Savior. But having said that to him, I was like afterwards like did I do the right thing? And so I, I called John MacArthur's personal assistant at the time and I said, Here's what happened. Did I say the right thing or did I mess up theologically here?

And he put me at ease. He said, No, you did the right thing. This is God in His grace just doing a work in this person's life to show them His love, his intentions towards this man, to bring this man to a point where he would even be talking to you and telling you about it, to where he actually now wants to know about this Jesus that has done this kind deed for him. So man, as you interact with the lost, we do need to make them aware that they're under God's wrath and communicate that to them, but we also, we, we want to be good observers of, man, God, what are you doing in their life and are there things that you're doing to them, showing your kindness to them that I can actually point to, and that could be a stepping stone of just revealing your heart to them to where they might now be open to hearing the fullness of what you desire to do in a fully, eternally redemptively saving way in their life.

Does that make sense? Paul, unfortunately, this statement theologians have like fought over, and I think Paul would say, hey guys, I'm, I'm just celebrating here. I, I'm amazed at my God, our God. I, I look around and it's just blatantly, God is a savior.

It just oozes out of every pore and Even those that may never even be redemptively eternally saved God every second of every day in countless ways, God is always busy preserving and rescuing and delivering and showing the riches of his kindness, even to those that are presently rejecting Him. But then that leads to the 3rd contemplation, the 3rd description of God that Paul is relishing here and that he wants us to behold along with him. And that is that yes, God is the living God.

Yes, in various senses, God is the savior of all men.

But number 3, God is especially the savior of all who believe. He says at the end of verse 10, he's the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of believing ones. OK, so there's a category of people called believers who have believed in God. They put their faith in Jesus Christ in God's provided way of salvation.

And God says, I am especially the savior of those that believe in me, who put their hope. In me, in fact, in John 3:16, this is a literal rendering from the Greek text. we see the largeheartedness of God and what he does for believing ones. John 3:16, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son in order that all believing ones will not perish but have everlasting life.

God loved the world, gave His Son over in death in order that the believing ones will not perish, but will experience everlasting. life. God is delighted to be, especially the savior of those that believe in Him. When people believe in Him and His provided way of salvation through Jesus, God instantly forgives them of a whole lifetime of sins.

He declares them. Righteous in his sight, where now they have a favored status with Him that will never wane, never fluctuate from day to day or go away. God gives them the gift of the Holy Spirit, brings them into relationship with Himself, gives them eternal life, prepares a home for them in heaven. And they have all of that to look forward to and so many other things.

God is especially the savior of people that believe in Jesus. And notice that's all Paul says. He's the Savior of all men, especially of believers. He doesn't say of all men, especially of those who do good works.

Especially of those who do penance, especially of those who do deeds of righteousness. no. He says, believers, that's, that's all it is. That's the only qualification, as it were.

That's all a person has to do is to believe. And God for salvation. Now, having said that, it's actually not quite that simple. When you look at 1 Timothy alone, there's actually two qualifications in order to have God as your especially savior.

All right, two qualifications. Get a pen out. There are two qualifications that you have to meet if you want God to be your savior. All right.

Qualification number 1, you must be a sinner. You must be a sinner. God saves no one who is outside of the category of sinner. How are you guys doing on that one?

OK. All right. A small number of us fit that category. No, go back to chapter 1, verse 15.

Look at this. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save whom? Sinners. Those are the only people he came to save.

And that ought to make our heart leap like, oh, that's great, because that's what I am. And that's who he came to save. In fact, when you look at the logic of Romans 3, a lot of times people say, yeah, I use the law to show people the bad news that they're sinners. Paul would say, actually, I don't word it that way.

I say to people, That God only wants to save sinners. I use the law to show people the good news that they're in the category of sinner and thus qualified for salvation. That's actually good news in that sense. Read the logic of Romans chapter 3 and you'll, you'll see that.

So The two qualifications are you must be a sinner, and then the second qualification is what we find in this passage that you must believe. Paul says we have fixed our hope upon him, and it's that preposition upon. We have taken our hope. We have deposited upon God, so we don't have any hope in ourselves.

We don't have any hope in our own righteousness or anything. We've done in our life history, some good deed or giving to charity. We have taken all of our hope for salvation. We have deposited it outside of ourselves upon God.

And notice Paul doesn't say we have fixed our hope on God plus anything else. No, it's all on God, not 50% God and 50% myself, 50% God, 50% some deeds that I did to really help somebody out one day. I remember at a nursing home, I was trying to witness to someone, give them the gospel. They wouldn't hear of it.

They knew they were on their way to heaven, and they told me, they said, because my cousin's a deacon in a Baptist church. So they were putting their hope on the fact that they had a relative who was a deacon in a in a Baptist church. Isn't that amazing? People will, they'll deposit their hope.

And diversify their investments as much as they can to make sure that they're safe. But no, listen, it's it's all or nothing. Paul says we have taken the sum total of our hope. We have deposited that upon God and only God.

We have believed in Him. You say, man, that's too easy. Actually, it's not easy. No one can do this but by the power of God.

Because the truth is to say I will believe in God alone. Means that I must acknowledge first my bankruptcy and that I can't save myself. I can't even contribute one iota of a contribution to my salvation. That it must be all God, and there are people that are offended by that thought.

It takes humility and the work of God in the heart of a person. To take their trust and put it away from themselves and put it totally upon God. But anyone that takes that step in response to the gospel, God says, I am especially your Savior. Yes, I bless everyone on the earth.

I sustain their life. I give them 2 million red blood cells every second. I do so many things for, for everybody, whether they deserve it or not, but you, I am especially your Savior. Paul is cherishing and just beholding God.

And all of us are the richer for being able to behold Him today. We've been thinking on God, as Spurgeon said, and As I look out over you, your heads are a little larger. then, When we started, And our souls are much richer for having taken the time to behold our God. You want to be holy.

You want to be sanctified. Come and behold God like we've done today, continue doing this. And you're going to want to just say, man, I want to love this God, I want to live for this God. What an amazing God this is.

I want to be holy for him. Let me ask you to bow your heads. If you're here today and you've never deposited your hope and your trust in God, then If you're willing to say, I meet the two qualifications, I am a sinner. And God is my only hope, so I put my hope in Him.

And what he's done for me through Jesus, that's it. That's it. And may God work in the hearts of people, even in this room right now to, to bring about that transaction. If you've got questions, feel free to talk with me afterwards.

I'd love to talk with you further. God has so much. So much that he wants to do. He doesn't just want to be your savior, he wants to blow you away with the savior he is.

And so come to him today. For us as believers, let us Let us cherish this God. And may we strive and labor into godliness all the more because we fixed our hope on such a God. We're going to take up an offering in just a moment.

We would encourage you to give as the Lord leads. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for your amazing grace. I just, just thinking about these descriptions of you, I just, I'm left amazed at.

At your generosity with your mercy and your grace upon the undeserving. But also excited about as grand as all the saving things you do for everybody in a non-redemptive way, man, if, if, if all those things are so phenomenal, what must the salvation in Christ look like for those who believe when this same God says, I am especially your savior. I single you out. To be a special recipient of my full salvation.

Oh God, help us to walk in the good of this and keep our eyes forever and only upon you. Receive our offerings that we give to you, Lord. And use these funds to spread. The fame of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And of your saving intentions for all. We commit ourselves to you in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said,