First Baptist Lenoir City

I. 8 Ways to Guard the Gospel:

1. By strength in God’s grace - v. 1

2. By training God’s pastors - v. 2

3. By sufferings w/ God’s blessings - vv. 3-6

4. By understanding God’s calling - v. 7

5. By remembering God’s King - v. 8

6. By courage in God’s will - v. 9a

7. By confidence in God’s Word - v. 9b

• Deut 4:2; Pro 30:5-6; Rev 22:18-19

• Genesis 3; Exodus 20; Ezra 7:10;

• Psalm 1:1-3; 19:7-14; 119:11, 105

• Isaiah 40:8; 55:11-12

• Matthew 4:4; 5:17-18; 7:24-27

• Acts 6:7; 12:24; 15:35-36

• II Timothy 3:16-17

• Ephesians 6:17 - only offensive weapon; Hebrews 4:12; I Peter 2:1-3; II Peter 1:16-21

 II. By enduring for God’s chosen - v. 10 (cheap grace*changing grace) 

• The chosen are kept - John 10:27-30

• The chosen bear fruit - John 15:8,16

• The chosen conform - Romans 8:28-29

• The chosen work out - Philippians 2:12-13 (vv. 5-11)

• Looking ahead - vv. 19-20 (our languages, actions, & attitudes)

 III. By understanding the conditions of salvation - vv. 11-13

The Difference Between Night and Day

BUT - The light of Christ breaks through the darkness and futility and darkness of our minds. 

PAUL POINTS OUR WHAT SHOULD BE OBVIOUS - Ephesians 4:20

 “But that is not the way you learned Christ!—” 

The Display of True Repentance

The Life of the Believer is a life of transformation - 

Examples of Repentance:

1. Telling the truth.

2. Not allowing anger to consume you. 

3. No longer a thief. 

4. No corrupting talk. 

DOES YOUR SPEECH GIVE GRACE?

The Contrast of Christian Living We are to put off the old way, the old man, the flesh.

Those things are not Christ-like.

Compare and contrast: Bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander, and malice

Kindness, Tenderhearted, Forgiving, 

SO let’s ask the question -

What does my life look like as a believer?

Where do I need to repent?

What do I need to change in my life?

Where do I need to grow?  

By Strength in God’s grace - v. 1

By Training of God’s pastors - v. 2

By Suffering for God’s blessings - vv. 3-6

Suffer / as a Soldier / for Victory - 

Train / as an Athlete / for a Crown - 

Work Hard / as a Farmer / for First Share - 

By Understanding God’s calling-v. 7

I. John 3:16 

  1.  God acts - FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON 

  2.  We react - THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM (trust in, rely on)

  3.  The 2 Consequences - SHOULD NOT PERISH / BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE 

II. Luke 19:10 

  1.  Who Jesus is - FOR THE SON OF MAN (SON OF GOD - John 1:14)

  2.  Why Jesus came - CAME TO SEEK AND TO SAVE THE LOST 

  •  God sent me to tell you that He is looking for you (just like in Eden)

  •  Saved from our sin and from sin’s consequences (“Man on a pier”)

  •  Lost communicates 3 things - How did I get here? What do I do here? Where am I going from here? Our salvation answers all three!

III. Romans 6:23 

  1.  The Contrasts 

    WAGES             GIFT

    SIN                 GOD

    DEATH     BUT    ETERNAL LIFE 

IV. I Timothy 2:5 (One Qualified Mediator)

V. Romans 10:9-10

  1.  The conditions of salvation

  •  IF YOU CONFESS (agree with) THAT JESUS IS LORD (verbal surrender)

  •  IF YOU BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART GOD RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD 

  •  (Then) YOU WILL BE SAVED 

V. Ephesians 2:8-10

  1.  Three Verse Evangelism (Catholic influence) 

  •  FOR BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED (God’s grace)

  •  THROUGH FAITH (our faith)

  •  THIS IS NOT YOUR OWN DOING

  •  IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD 

  •  NOT A RESULT OF WORKS SO THAT NO ONE MAY BOAST

  •  FOR WE ARE HIS WORKMANSHIP CREATED IN CHRIST JESUS FOR GOOD WORKS, WHICH GOD PREPARED BEFOREHAND, THAT WE SHOULD WALK IN THEM

  •  We are not saved BY our good works — We are saved FOR good works 

Christian Character produces Christian Unity.

Gentleness

Patience

Love

We have a Singular, One and Only, Unifying Faith

One Spirit - One Hope - One Lord - One faith - One Baptism - One God and Father -

“of all who is overall and through all and in all.”

Jesus Christ has given us the gifts we need by his grace.

What Gifts did Jesus give us?

Apostles - most importantly, writing the Scriptures

Prophets - proclaiming the Word of God

Evangelists - Preaching the Good News

Shepherds/Pastors - Caring for and feeding the flock

Teachers - rightly handling the Word of God.

What is the result of the work of the church leaders?

 Our calling to Maturity In verse 4:13-14, we see a list of benchmarks to maturity . . .

1.  Unity of the Faith -

2. Knowledge of the Son of God - no sermon should be without Christ.

3. To Mature Manhood

4. To Become like Jesus. This is our calling as believers. “To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

5. No Longer Be Children - unsteady and easily led astray - EXERCISE WISDOM

Wind of Doctrine, Human Cunning, Craftiness in deceitful schemes

The Encouragement of the Common Christian & The Equipping of Christ-Called Pastors) / II Timothy

(SHARE * FOLLOW * GUARD)

Message 7

I. Three Commands for a Fearless Life:

SHARE in the sufferings - 1:8-12 (Charlie Kirk became this example - John 15:18 - 16:33)

Matthew 28:11-15; Acts 7:54-8:4; Acts 13:1-12

II. The Comfort from a Common Christian (Onesiphorus) - 1:15-18

Questions to ask ourselves:

Are we willing to go where Christ takes us for the sake of others?

Have we trusted in the Gospel for our salvation, now revealed?

Are there people that you fear, resent, or otherwise hold at arm’s length because you are better than them, or are better than you?

Do you know the love of God in a way that allows you to walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil? Have no bitterness against the loving heavenly father?

Jesus Loves His Church

“Fearless to the End” / II Timothy

(SHARE * FOLLOW * GUARD) Message 6

John Hunn, Senior Pastor

I. Three Commands for a Fearless Life:

1. SHARE (1:8-12) - the sufferings

A. The birth of Jesus

B. The death of Jesus

C. The life of Paul - Acts 9:13-16

D. The life of Timothy - 2:2; 4:5

2. FOLLOW (1:13) - my example

A. The dedication of discipleship

B. The Lord is the Leader - I Corinthians 11:1; I Thessalonians 1:6-7

3. GUARD (1:14) - the good deposit

A. Who guards the United States?

B. Who guards the gospel? 4:1-5; Jude 3

Ephesians 2:1-10 - From Sinner to Saint: The Free Gift of Salvation

The gift of salvation is the greatest gift humanity could ever receive. It is the gift we have always needed but it isn’t always the gift we have wanted. Tonight we will see in scripture a description from Paul of the work of God when he saves a man or woman. What happened to Chris Harding when he was saved at 16 years old? When I was in an evening church service at Ridgecrest Baptist Church, going through a sense of despair, and by faith, I asked Jesus to save me, what was God doing? What was the supernatural work of God to transform me from sinner to saint.

Acts 16:31 

Similarly, we can wonder about the thief on the cross. Many of us have seen the profound sermon clip from YouTube of Alistair Begg preaching about the how we are saved and his recounting of the Thief on the Cross. Alistair’s point is the only Way the thief is in heaven is completely the invitation and work of Jesus Christ. We will see that the way you and I come to the cross to be saved is through the loving gift of the grace of God through Jesus Christ. From yesterday’s devotion from his website Truth for Life “God could let us drown in our wretchedness. Instead, through Jesus, He grants us peace and gives us hope. We are justified; Jesus has taken our condemnation so that now, when His Father looks at us, He sees Jesus and all His perfection.”

The Spiritual Condition of Humanity. 

Ephesians 2:1-3 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience - among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

After Paul’s powerful and moving doctrine and prayer in Chapter 1, we come to a shocking contrast as he describes the spiritual state of humanity. This description of utter sinfulness - that is spiritual death - can be very difficult for us to accept and acknowledge. The reality of our sinfulness is overwhelming and the world often attempts to deny the depth of depravity that every human being carries. Situationally, people know how bad humanity can be. We will identify straw men, so to speak, that we can then hold up as pictures of evil, but rarely do we want to accept the reality of sinfulness and spiritual death that Paul describes.

We are dead - spiritually dead - in our trespasses and sin. 

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” 

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 

Colossians 3:5–10 “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.” 

We were going in the wrong direction. We were not walking with God or following Jesus. We were actually following Satan. Here Paul refers to him as the Prince of the power of the air, the spirit of the day, the sons of disobedience.

Ephesians 6:12 

We lived in the passions of our flesh and did the desires of our flesh and our mind. (Some of you were in very restrictive environments and could not “live out” our desires but the still burned within our hearts. For some of us, it was merely the lack of opportunity that kept us from carrying out these desires. The Pharisees are a picture of this level of hypocrisy.

We were children of wrath. In this dead, spiritual state - we are here because of our sinful nature and our sinful desires and actions - we are at war with God but for the believer we must be at war with sin. Either way we must fight a battle, but the unbeliever fights against God.

“God’s wrath is his revulsion against everlasting, his settled displeasure with sin and sinners.” 

Yes God loves. Yes God has mercy. But the wrath of God, the justice of God must be satisfied. 

The Love of God at Work through Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:4–7 

Perhaps the most hope-filled worlds in the Bible “But God” In our darkest hour, God showed his love and compassion for us. 

Romans 5:6–11; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11; Deuteronomy 3:24; Daniel 2:27–28 

Let’s look at what God provided for our salvation and who he is . . . 

Rich in mercy . . . 

Great love . . .

Resurrected us with Christ . . . 

Ephesians 1:19–20 

Colossians 3:1 

Immeasurable riches of his grace . . . 

Kindness in Christ Jesus . . . Hebrews 2:14–17. 

Salvation is an act of mercy.

Salvation is an act of love.

Salvation is resurrection.

Salvation is the grace and kindness of God.

The Results of Receiving the Gift of God. 

Ephesians 2:8–10 

Saved. by grace. Our condemnation has been removed. Romans 5:1 

Humility. This is not your own doing. 

God is most glorified. Because it is the work of God, we give God all of the praise honor and glory.

We are sanctified - to be like Christ - and do good works. James 2:14–17 

v.23 -Abraham believed God.

We are enabled to do God’s work, and the work is laid out before us by God. Spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities for the glory of God.

One New Man, the Body of Christ, Made Possible through Sacrifice of Jesus.

Jews had the law but it had to be fulfilled. The gentiles had nothing but Creation. Through the cross we are brought together into one fellowship, one church, the body of Christ.

Ephesians 2:22 “In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” 

Colossians 1:11 “being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;”