Sermon Tone Analysis

“I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

To him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen.” [1]

Whenever I speak of God, I am fully aware that I am addressing a subject that is greater than my mind can grasp.

I cannot possibly define Him or adequately express His character—no one can do so.

How can the finite understand the infinite?

Had God not chosen to reveal Himself to mankind, how would we know of His existence?

Except God informs us of His Person, we are ignorant of Him.

However, God has given a revelation of His Person in His Word.

We are able to speak of Him according to the knowledge that He gives of Himself.

Thus, we know something of who He is, and we are able to speak of His nature and the attributes He has revealed of Himself.

We know that God is a Triune Being; and we speak of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We do not worship a god manifesting himself in three separate persons; we worship God who is Triune.

We know that God is self-existent and infinite.

Concerning the attributes of God, we speak of His omnipotence, His omniscience and His omnisapiaence.

We say that God is omnipresent and eternal.

We are convinced on the authority of the Word that He is immutable.

We who are born from above are able to speak knowledgeably of God’s love, His mercy and His grace.

Though all mankind should speak of God’s faithfulness, we who are alive in Him speak not only of His faithfulness, but also of His holiness.

Because we know these attributes of God, we recognise that we are to reflect these same attributes because having been twice-born we bear the image of the divine.

Writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the Apostle pens a glorious doxology, ascribing to God and to the Christ, attributes that are essential to well-rounded worship.

We can perform a liturgy and we will say that we have worshipped.

If we will worship truly and well, we will know the One we worship and we will understand what we are doing rather than merely performing a rite.

And that is the purpose of our study today—to know Him whom we worship and to lay a solid foundation for worshipping well.

*THE CONTROVERSY* — “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

To him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen.”

As we saw in a previous study [2], Paul focuses on the life-sustaining activity of the Lord God.

Then, he launches into this beautiful doxology.

The doxology turns our attention to what is coming—“the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Though I do want to study this doxology, I dare not ignore what is next on God’s time-table.

Therefore, let’s refresh our memories and encourage our hearts by reminding ourselves of what is coming next.

As He prepared to depart this earth, Jesus spoke to His disciples concerning where He was going.

“Let not your hearts be troubled.

Believe in God; believe also in me.

In my Father’s house are many rooms.

If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” [JOHN 14:1-3].

To be certain, the Risen Saviour would send His Spirit to be with His disciples.

During that same time as He prepared His disciples for His exodus, Jesus taught them, “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you.

But if I go, I will send him to you.

And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you” [JOHN 16:7-15].

Paul will speak of this return as “the Blessed Hope” [see TITUS 2:11-14]; and the anticipation of that return has encouraged saints until this day.

I have no doubt that the followers of the Christ who are being dispossessed of all possessions and turned out of their houses, crucified, burned and buried alive, or who are being sold into slavery in Muslim lands even at this hour, find themselves crying out as shall the Tribulation saints to the Son of God, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth” [see REVELATION 6:10].

And though He should delay, yet we are confident in the promise of Christ our Saviour.

Do you remember these comforting words penned by the Apostle to the Gentiles?

“We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope.

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep.

For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God.

And the dead in Christ will rise first.

Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.

Therefore encourage one another with these words” [1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18].

There is real encouragement in those words!

Indeed, the people of God should encourage one another with the words the Apostle has written!

We shall be caught up together with all the saints; and the time must surely be near.

When I preached among the black believers in Dallas, we would sing:

Soon and very soon

We are going to see the King

Soon and very soon

We are going to see the King

Soon and very soon

We are going to see the King

Hallelujah, hallelujah,

We're going to see the king

We don’t know when, but we know that we will soon be called out of this world.

This is as it should be, for “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” [PHILIPPIANS 3:20, 21].

When he was writing the Corinthian believers, Paul addressed this same vital issue.

These are his words, “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Behold!

I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

‘Death is swallowed up in victory.’

‘O death, where is your victory?

O death, where is your sting?’

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” [1 CORINTHIANS 15:50-58].

Notice the phraseology in the FIFTEENTH VERSE: “I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” [1 TIMOTHY 6:13-15].

Focus on the third person singular pronoun in that verse—“He.”

Does the “He” refer to Christ or to God?

Those who favour the understanding that this pronoun refers to Christ is the fact that He is the one just mentioned in VERSE FOURTEEN.

If that is your understanding, you are in good company.

Jesus is called “the King of kings and Lord of lords” [see REVELATION 17:14; 19:16].

However, the designation originated as a statement for God.

Take note of a couple of instances.

“The LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords” [DEUTERONOMY 10:17].

Here is another instance where the Lord God is identified by these designations.

“Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for his steadfast love endures forever”

[PSALM 136:3]

As I said, if you believe Paul is referring to Jesus, you stand in some distinguished company; however, I do not believe that is correct.

The reasons I say that Paul’s reference is to God Himself is as follows.