Alright, so 1st Timothy chapter 4 and we'll read verses 11 to 16. These things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy prophesying may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. You know it has to be said the churches in our present day have abandoned preaching a biblical gospel to the lost, and instead they've adapted worldly methods and slick marketing techniques to attract a crowd to their churches. I was looking at some of the local church advertisements in a local phone directory, and one of the slogans that one of the churches has is, it's just two words, making winners. So this church, what they're all about is making winners. And I guess the point is, if you go to that church, you're going to become a winner, whatever that means. So I guess if you don't go to that church, you're what? A loser. Nobody wants to be a loser, do they? So let's all go to that church and we'll be made winners. And one of the verses that these groups often like to use is John 10, verse 10. And the part of the verse that says, I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." And so they'll say, see Jesus wants you to have an abundant life. And if you come to us and we'll show you how you can have the abundant life. And who doesn't want an abundant life? But do they really understand what that life really entails? Do they understand what is required to gain that life that Christ offers? And what they won't tell them is that if you want the life that Christ offers us, you have to die. You have to die to yourself? You have to take up your cross? He says, you need to deny yourself. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. But leave that part out, because it's not very appealing to the flesh, is it? You remember what the Lord said in John chapter 6, that the way to life was by eating his flesh and drinking his blood. That's the words he used. That is believing in Him, submitting to Him as your Lord and ruler of your life, unconditionally. And so those who possess that life that Christ offers, they're transformed to living for themselves, to living for Him who died for them and rose again. But they won't tell you these things, alright? But when we come to Biblical Christianity, we see what it's really about. And I believe Timothy was a man who understood what it was to be a true Christian, and he lived that life. He lived a life that involved suffering, involved sacrifice and service for the Lord Jesus Christ. And his mentor, his spiritual father, that's the Apostle Paul, He wanted Timothy to continue in that Christian life, to continue being conformed to the image of Christ and continue walking in godliness. So last week we began studying this section of chapter 4 verses 6 to 16 and the essence of the text is what it takes to be, as it says in verse 6, a good minister of Jesus Christ. That's really what could summarise verses 6 to 16. What it takes to be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Last week we saw in verses 6 to 10 what should be in a minister's personal life. He advances in the word of God, he avoids all that is false and he applies himself to godliness. that personal aspect of this good minister. And now when we come to verses 11 to 16 the focus moves from the minister's personal life to look more at his public life. You notice in verse 15 Yeah, it says at the last part of the verse, that by profiting may appear to all. This is something that was open and public, that everyone would be able to see. It's an outward manifestation of godliness. So, a good minister of Jesus Christ must be certain things, but he also must do certain things. There's that inner aspect and then there's that outer, outward aspect. These instructions here in this chapter primarily are directed to those in ministry. So, does that mean that all the rest of us can just disregard what is being said here and switch off? No, it doesn't mean that at all. These things that we find in these verses, they should be found in the life of every believer. They are required in the life of a minister, the things that a minister must be, Every Christian should be. These things should be in every Christian's life. But they must be in a minister's life. So we can take, all of us can take application from these things. And we can also see that by, in verse 11 where he says, these things command and teach. So what Paul has been saying to Timothy, you need to command and teach them to everyone else. To the whole congregation. Now in these verses, that is verses 11 to 16 that we're studying, there's 10 imperatives. So Paul doesn't merely advise Timothy to do certain things or encourage him to do certain things. He gives him direct commands to follow. And I guess it seems, from what we know, of this book and what we know of Timothy, it seems that he required some prodding into action at different times. He needed Paul to say, look Timothy, you need to do this. You need to get onto this and do this. He needed some prodding. I wonder if there's anyone here who doesn't at different times need a little bit of prodding into action. I think we all do. We all need to just be reminded what we are supposed to be doing as Christians. Well, as we look at the outline, what does a good minister of Jesus do? First of all, in verses 11 and 12, he conducts the flock of God. And in verse 11, he says, these things command and teach. So we see that the preaching aspect here of Timothy in the pulpit is to command and teach. Command, that's a strong word, isn't it? But yet the preacher is to command certain things. He's not just to make suggestions, but to give commandments. And that requires boldness. Remember Timothy, he seemed to have some issues with being a little timid, and maybe introverted, and had some fears and different things. And so Timothy needed boldness. Paul wrote to him in 2 Timothy 1.7, God has not given to us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. And what you find with this term command, it's military language. And this military analogy is used frequently in the New Testament. We understand that there's a great spiritual war in progress. There's a battle between the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of light. It's been in progress for the ages. And the weapons of our warfare, they're not carnal weapons, they're not swords, they're not guns or carnal weapons like that. They're spiritual weapons. And we understand the word of God for instance, prayer, these are spiritual weapons. The individual Christian is described as a soldier, good soldier of Jesus Christ. And we need to understand that just as a soldier of this world does not reach his full potential until he's enlisted in the army, Likewise, the Christian does not reach his full potential for Jesus Christ until he is enlisted, he is joined together with other soldiers in the local church. It's like an army, essentially. So the church is the operations unit through which the commander-in-chief, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, commands his troops into battle. And this military analogy is used, you find In Colossians 2 verse 5, Paul writes to the Colossians, he says, Thou art the Absinthe in the flesh, yet am I with you in spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. That word for order, he says, I just rejoice at the order of the church. It's a military term that indicates an unbroken line. And he commended them for holding the line, for staying in rank. in spite of the opposition of false teaching. On the other hand, in 1 Thessalonians 5.14, Paul says, Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, unruly. And that word unruly is essentially the same word as order, except it has an A on the front of it, to mean disorderly, unruly. And he speaks of those in the church who are unruly. They don't keep rank. They step out of line. And their disorder does not just put them in danger, but it adversely affects the whole church. And he says, you need to warn those who are stepping out of rank. Command them. The other day, I spoke to one of the children. And I told him to go and do something. And this particular child says, but dad, you didn't say please. I said, I don't need to say please, because I'm the boss. And this is not a relationship of equals, this is a superior giving a commandment to a subordinate. And now often we will say please as parents, but we don't have to, we give the command, they obey. And Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, you need to command these things, command these things. to the brethren who are under your charge. So churches need ministers, they need pastors who will boldly stand up and proclaim, thus saith the Lord. Who will take the word of God and command the people from it. God gave commandments, he didn't give ten suggestions. He gave ten commandments and the role of a minister is to convey those commandments to his people. He's to command, He's to teach, and that is a requirement. It's an essential requirement for a bishop or a pastor. We saw that in chapter 3. It says there in chapter 3 verse 2, that a bishop must be apt to teach. You find that also in 2 Timothy 2 verse 24. He must be able, must be equipped to be able to teach the Word of God. So he's to do those things and he's to conduct the flock by preaching but also as we come to verse 12, by his example. by his example and he says there at the start of verse 12, let no man despise thy youth. Let no man despise thy youth. There was some criticism perhaps going on, maybe just an attitude in the church where Timothy was that despised him for his youth. And we need to understand the reality of criticism. There will be criticism and ministers will be criticised. And there are times when that criticism is legitimate. But it's only legitimate when it is based upon the Word of God. All right? And we know that the Scripture is given in 2 Timothy 3.16. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So when we reprove, when we correct people, it's got to be based on the Scripture. That's what it's for. You can think of the example of Paul rebuking Peter for his hypocrisy. When Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles when the Jews were there, it says in Galatians 2 verse 11, But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. He was ready to rebuke Peter and criticise him, correct him, on a scriptural basis. And that's the only appropriate time we should criticise anyone. It's got to have a scriptural basis. In this instance it wasn't a scriptural, they were just despising him because he was young. You might have heard the story about John Wesley. At one time he was preaching and he was wearing a new bow tie and he had two streamers coming down from his bow tie. There was a lady in the meeting, she didn't hear a word that he preached. She sat with a long face and saw nothing but those two streamers. When the service was over she went up and said, pardon me Mr. Wesley, will you suffer a little criticism? Yes, replied Mr. Wesley. Well, she said, your bow tie is too long and it is an offence to me. He said, have you got a pair of shears? After receiving the shears, he handed them to her saying that she would know how they would best look. He reached over and clipped off the streamers. Then he said, is that alright now? Yes, that's much better. He said, do you mind letting me have those shears? Would you mind a little criticism? Your tongue is a great offense to me. It is a little too long. Would you mind sticking it out for me?" But you know, there's a lot of criticism goes on against other believers, against the preacher, against the pastors and so on. And as I say, there are times, and there are times when I might need some criticism from time to time. But if you want to criticise me, do it from the Word of God. Say, preacher, you said something and you preached something and I just, could you kind of explain that to me because I had a different understanding of that and it doesn't sound right to me. And do it with a gracious spirit. But you need to have that biblical foundation. Don't just say, well, I just don't like that or I don't agree with that. I just never heard that before. That's not a biblical criticism. You need to have a biblical basis. But Timothy, he was probably in his mid-thirties, they think, but there are obviously people in his church who are quite a bit older than that. And Timothy's relative youth, evoked an attitude of disrespect from those older people. But there was no grounds for that. In fact God has often used young people to accomplish his will. You can think of Joseph, that young man God sent to Egypt to preserve his family and so on. Samuel, the young Samuel, God spoke to him and gave him a prophecy and so on. The young David, most notably, when he defeated Goliath. We could also think of Josiah and that young king, he became king at the age of 8. When he was 16, it says that he sought to serve God. When he was 20, that's when he made those religious reforms throughout Judah and purged the land of the sodomites and the idolatry and so on. Just a young man. So, you know, the fact is old age does not guarantee wisdom. In fact, there's a lot of old fools around the place. A lot of people who are old and who are fools. The Bible says in Proverbs 16.31, the hoary head, the grey head, is a crown of glory, if, there's a condition, if it be found in the way of righteousness. It's only a crown of glory, that grey hair, if it's found in the way of righteousness. But being old does not necessarily mean a person is wise. I believe that Charles Spurgeon, he started pastoring his first church at the age of 16. But he was really an exception to the rule. But God can and does use young people. So he's getting this despising, this criticism for being young. What's his respect? How is he to respond to that criticism? Paul says, be thou an example of the believers. Here's how you can put a stop to this criticism to show that it has no basis. You be an example of the believer. And he goes on and tells him what this is to entail, this holy life. What does it mean to be an example of the believers? Well, he says, in word. In His speech, you need to be an example of a believer in your speech-trithy. And how we need to have control over our tongues. You know, God put two gates over the tongue. God knew how unrestrained our tongues were. He put two gates over it. A gate of ivory and a gate of flesh. And yet still, the tongue No man can tame it. It's an unruly evil full of deadly poison. James 3 verse 8. That's why David prayed in Psalm 141 verse 3. He said, set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Like putting a guard in front of his mouth. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. Keep the door of my lips. That's something we all need to pray. That God would just guard our mouths from saying the wrong things. Ephesians 4.29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of others, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Verse 31, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Colossians 4.6, Let your speech be always with grace. seasoned with salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man." Can you say your speech is always with grace? Everything you say is just gracious. It's godly. It's in accordance with the will of God. I don't know if any of us can say that. That's what we're called to. Our speech is to be always with grace. And so our words are to be used to build up and not to tear down. And you know, the best words that we can use are the words of Scripture. That's why it's so important to learn the Word of God, to memorize the Word of God, and when we're speaking with people, we can give those verses of Scripture, and quote the Word of God. The best words we can use are from the Word of God. Psalm 19 verse 14, Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Are our words acceptable in the sight of God? We need to pray that God would let them be. In word, be an example in word, be an example in conversation. Now, is he saying the same thing? The way we use the word conversation, well, it's like speech. But in the Bible, it includes speech, but it's more than that. It's our whole behavior, our whole manner of life. Not just what we say, but how we behave. And it's used that way in the New Testament. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. That's Philippians 1.27. You find it also used in 1 Peter 1.18. And so he says, Timothy, you're young, and as young people are prone to, they're prone to maybe fall into levity and indiscretion. That's just a part of being young. He says, you need to be an example of the believers in your conversation, in your lifestyle. And then he says, be an example also in charity. in charity. Now that's the biblical word for love. So we ought to think, okay, I've got to be an example of the believers in my love. That ought to be in my life. And we should ask ourselves, what motivates me to be godly? What motivates me to serve the Lord? Is it duty? Well, God says I have to do this, so I'll do it. Is it fear? If I don't do this, well, God's going to punish me and chastise me. Is it to earn rewards? I'm laying up treasures in heaven and I just want to have a big reward in heaven. All those things are legitimate motivations to serve God. But the greatest motivation ought to be a love for God and a love for God's people. That is the greatest motivation. That was Paul's motivation, 2 Corinthians 5 verse 14. He says, For the love of Christ constraineth us, compels us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then we're all dead. He goes on to say, and that he died for all, but they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. He says, I'm just compelled by God's love and for what he did for me, his death for me, that I don't live to myself anymore, I live to him which died and rose again for me. Be an example in love and be an example in spirit. in spirit. And I think what he's talking about here is a zeal, is a fervour. You need to have a zeal, a fervour for the service of God. This isn't just your occupation Timothy, it's not just you go to the Portland and do your work and then you go home again. No, you need to have a zeal for these things. And just incidentally, this word spirit is not found in the critical Greek text. That's the modern Greek text which is corrupted, so a lot of you modern Bibles will have that word missing. But the preserved word of God does have it in there. And many would relate this word to enthusiasm. And you actually look at the etymology of the word enthusiasm, it actually means in God. It comes from theos. Enthusiasm. So if anyone should have enthusiasm, it ought to be the Christians who are in Christ and who have Christ in them. They should be the ones who have enthusiasm. But how many enthusiastic Christians do you know? There's a lot who have no enthusiasm. Guy King, he said, Enthusiasm is a quality strangely lacking from the makeup of many Christians. Plenty of enthusiasm for a football match or election campaign, but so little of it for the service of God. How the magnificent enthusiasm of the Christian scientists or the Jehovah's Witnesses, the communists, should put us to shame. Oh for the flaming zeal again that once the church knew. This fine spirit will greatly help Timothy as he seeks to consolidate the position and to advance the line. He says you need to be an example in your spirit. In your spirit. And then he says also in faith. And we could probably understand that as faithfulness. And so as Timothy, as he might undergo trials, as he suffers poor health, he needs to show the brethren how he stays faithful to God, and just trusts Him more, and is not deterred by any of these things. And his confidence in God is unshaken. It says in 1 Corinthians 4, 2, Moreover it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. It's required in a steward of God that you be faithful. And he says, you be an example in faith. And then finally, be an example in purity. Purity. The city of Ephesus was rife with immorality of a sexual nature. And young Timothy, a young man, would have faced many temptations in that environment. And so it was vital that he guarded himself, particularly in dealing with women. And Paul actually points that out in the next chapter in 1 Timothy 5 and verse 2. He says, the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters with all purity. He says you be very pure when you're dealing especially with the young women. just treat them as you would treat your sister and this is a great danger for many ministers and I know personally of more than a few men who have been pastors and have served God but they had to leave the ministry because they did not take precautions to guard themselves against immorality with the opposite sex and You know, these men not only lost their ministries, they often lost their wives and lost their whole families because they were not pure. They did not keep themselves pure. They were not an example of the believers in purity. And so he says, this is how you're going to overcome this despising of your youth, Timothy. You just be a good example in your outward life. and your outward godliness. And it's so important for all of us, we have an outward godliness. We don't just have a profession from our mouths, we have a lifestyle that matches it. And if you're familiar with the Pilgrim's Progress, there's a character in the book named Talkative. And you could probably guess from his name, this is what Christian says about him, religion has no place in his heart, or house, or conversation, all he has lies in his tongue. And his religion is to make a noise therewith. And he comes along and he starts walking with Christian and faithful, and faithful and talkative fall into conversation, and faithful finishes by saying this to talkative, He says, To tell you the truth, I have heard of you that you are a man whose religion lies in talk, and that your conversation gives this your mouth profession the lie. They say you are a spot among Christians, and that religion fares the worst for your ungodly conversation, that some have already stumbled at your wicked ways, and that more are in danger of being destroyed thereby. Your religion, and an alehouse, and covetousness and uncleanness and swearing and lying and vainglory keeping etc. will stand together. The proverb is true of you which is said of a whore to wit that she is a shame to all women so you are a shame to all professors. I hope we have no talkatives here. Just all talk that I've come across many of them. Yes I'm a Christian but you look at their lives. It's just all talk. There's no godliness, no practical godliness. And so, what is a good minister of Jesus Christ? He conducts the flock of God. Secondly, he cultivates further growth. In verse 13, till I come, give us attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. And here we see the importance of the Word of God in the growth of the minister and of the Christian. He says, give attendance to these things. Don't be distracted by other duties and disregard these core elements of the ministry, to disregard the Word of God. He says, to reading, to reading, and this would include all good Christian reading, but primarily the reading of the Word of God, both public and private. I was looking at a survey that was done a few years back, and the headline was, 80% of churchgoers don't read the Bible daily. Don't read the Bible daily. It says they surveyed more than 2,900 Protestant churchgoers and found that while 90% desire to please and honour Jesus in all they do, only 19% personally read the Bible every day. Every day. And how's that going to affect your life? It's going to destroy you spiritually. You're going to dry up, you're going to starve, You're not being nourished spiritually, and it's going to affect your behaviour as well. We need to give attendance to reading, in private and also in public. In the front of your King James Bible there, it'll say something on the title page, like mine does, appointed to be read in churches. Appointed to be read in churches. Some people take that a little too literally, and the only time they read it is in church. But nevertheless, this was authorised to be translated so that this would be read in the churches of God. And it's very important that as a church we read the Word of God publicly. And probably if there's one change that I think we could make to our liturgy, if I could use that word, would be to have more Bible reading. I think we could probably implement some more Bible reading in our church services. But nevertheless, he says, give attendance to reading and then to exhortation This word is elsewhere translated as comfort and entreaty. And so it means to implore, it means to solace. So the minister is to use the word of God to exhort the people. He's not only to read the scriptures, but to expand it in a way that may be practiced in the lives of of the hearers. And that's what we seek to do each time we meet. We don't just read portions of the Word of God, we take those words and we try to explain them in a way that we can implement them into our daily lives and live what the Word of God tells us. And so what we believe is vital. We need to have the right doctrine. But those beliefs must be translated into our daily lives in a practical way. And then he says give attendance also to doctrine. Doctrine means teaching. So he's to teach the Word of God, give the meaning and the sense of it, so that people will obey it. It's one of the key words in the pastoral epistles. Doctrine. Doctrine is the teaching of God's Word. It should have priority in our lives. We need to give attendance to doctrine. And so he's to grow through the Word of God. He's to grow through using his spiritual gift in verse 14. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbytery. Alright, so it talks about the perspective there is the eldership, the pastors there who at his ordination laid their hands on him and so it seems what this verse is saying was Timothy was approved by the church as a man called of God to the ministry And in addition to that, it says there's a prophecy spoken about him. So there's a prophet in apostolic times, there were prophets, there's no prophets today. But there's a prophet who spoke a word of prophecy and perhaps said that this man has been called of God to minister the gospel or something. But there's a word here given by a prophecy. And so he was ordained and the elders laid their hands on him. It doesn't necessarily mean that their laying on of the hands conveyed some spiritual gift, but it could simply mean that they publicly acknowledged what the Spirit had already done in him. And there's another reference to this gift with the laying on of hands in 2 Timothy 1, verse 6. It says, I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. putting on of my hands, and so this may have been different to what happened here, because it's Paul putting his hands on Timothy, it's not necessarily the elders or the presbytery, and the gift, as Paul is an apostle in his office there, a gift being conveyed upon Timothy. But in this post-apostolic period, we're outside of this period where there were apostles and prophets, The Holy Spirit directly imparts spiritual gifts on believers. We don't lay hands to give gifts to people. God the Holy Spirit does that directly. But the point is God equips his people to do his work. And so he's saying to Timothy, God has given you a gift here. You're not on your own. You're not trying to do this of your own power or your own efforts. Remember that there's a gift in you. The Holy Spirit has equipped you to do this. And this should have been an encouragement to Timothy, who perhaps was prone to fear and different things, to remember, hey, God has given me a gift. And I just need to rely on His power to perform this work that He's called me to. And that should encourage us as we think that as believers, God has given us spiritual gifts. to do his work. And when God calls us to do a work, whether it's a small work or a great work, some ministry in the church, we need to understand that God has equipped us for that work. And we need to put that gift into operation, not to neglect it, as we could have been prone to do. And as Timothy was told not to do, neglect not that gift. And so we should ask ourselves, what are we doing with the gifts that God has given us? You can think of the parable of the talents, and the talents that were distributed, and some put those talents to work, but one, he just buried his talent. Just buried his talent, and the Lord gave him that talent, not to bury it, but to put it to work. And the same is true for us. He's given us these things. How are we using them? And then, so here's to be growing through the spiritual gift and through full devotion to Christ. In verse 15, meditate upon these things, give thyself wholly to them that thy profiting may appear unto all. Give thyself wholly to these things, a full devotion to Christ. And where does it begin? Meditate. Meditate upon these things. It begins with the mind, it begins with the heart, the inner man. That's where the battle begins because there's a battle going on for control of your mind. Is it going to be yielded to the Holy Spirit or is it going to be yielded to the flesh and the course of this world? And he says this idea of meditating, it's a mind completely focused on the work of God. He's a minister, he needs to focus his mind on what he's been called to do. Because the man who's mind is divided between serving God and serving himself, he's going to achieve nothing for the Lord. He'll be ineffective for God. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 5 talks about how we need to discipline our minds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Have you reached that point in your life? Have you brought into captivity? Have you subdued every thought in your mind to be in line with Jesus Christ? I haven't. I don't know anyone who has. But that is what we are supposed to be doing. And we are to gird up the loins of our minds, 1 Peter 1.13. And I read to you Psalm 19 verse 14 before. Let the words of my mouth and what? And the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. You know, it would be one thing to have our words acceptable in the sight of God, but to have the meditations of our hearts acceptable to God, That's a whole another level, and we need God to help us. That's why he prays, God would you let these thoughts and meditations of my heart be acceptable to me as I meditate upon these things and under the doctrine, under these things and give myself wholly to them. We are to be completely given to God's service. And you know, if you wanna, I think a good way of understanding the need to do that is to think of how much God gave to us. How much did the Lord Jesus give for us? Did he give himself partially? Did he give a certain percentage of himself for us? No, he gave himself wholly for us. He gave his whole self for us. Titus 2.14, who gave himself for us. He didn't hold anything back for us when He sacrificed Himself. So what should our response be? To give ourselves wholly to Him and to His service. Romans 2 verse 1, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable under God, which is your reasonable service. It's not unreasonable, it just makes complete sense after what He's done. to offer ourselves as a sacrifice, to give ourselves wholly to these things. It's a marvellous statement right at the end of 1 Corinthians as Paul gives these salutations. And he mentions a man called Stephanas in 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 15. He says, I beseech you brethren, you know the house of Stephanas. that it is the first fruits of Achaia and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. You know, we think, most of the time when we talk about or think about addictions, it's in a negative sense. You know, that person is addicted to something and it's usually something bad and it's got control over them. And there are things we need to avoid, watch out that we don't become addicted to. But to become addicted to the things of God and to the work of God is a great thing. I mean, wouldn't it be wonderful if our young people, for instance, instead of being addicted to these games, addicted to the devices and all these computer games and so on, wouldn't it be wonderful if our children became addicted to the Word of God. And it's like, they just, the first thing they want to do is get up and they just want to read the Word of God. And we look at them and think, boy, they're just addicted to the Word of God. They're addicted to serving God. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every one of us were addicted to the ministry of God? He says you need to just give yourself wholly to these things. Our complete selves, not partially. completely. And then he says at the end of verse 15, that when you do this, thy profiting may appear to all. Thy profiting may appear to all. So there is a profit in being godly. We saw that when we looked at verse 8 last week, when he compared bodily exercise, it profits a little bit. But godliness is profitable unto all things, both in this life and the next. We know that there's profit in godliness. It's so beneficial. It's good for us. But he says, it's going to be seen by all people. It will appear to all. You know, there's no such thing as secret religion. And you know, people say, well I think religion should be just a private matter. That's not biblical Christianity. If you're saved, if you're a servant of Jesus Christ, It will be obvious in your life. There'll be fruit, there'll be evidence, and your godliness will appear to all people. You've probably heard the story about a man who went to church, and he came out of the church, and the pastor shook his hand, and the pastor said to him, you need to join the army of the Lord. And he replied, well, I'm already in the army of the Lord, pastor. And the pastor said, how come I don't see you except at Christmas and Easter? He said, well, I'm in the secret service. I don't think he was in any service at all. That's not what a servant of Jesus Christ does. He doesn't keep it a secret. It'll appear to all. And so, Timothy, he needed to be mindful of how his life appeared to others. And as a Christian, as a pastor, he was setting an example for others to follow. And the fact is, We are all setting an example. We are all setting an example, either an example to avoid or an example to emulate. You think about the example you're setting. What example are you setting? Is it one that people should say, I don't want to be like that? Or, I want to be like him because he serves Jesus Christ. And then, what else do we find in the life of a good minister of Jesus Christ? He continues in the faith under godliness. Look at the last verse, verse 16. Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. He must take heed, first of all, to himself. So before he can worry about other people and guarding them against error and sin and immorality, he needs to take heed to himself. That's what Paul said to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20. He said, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock. Same order, take heed first of all to yourselves. He needed to make sure his own life, first of all, was in order, was in accordance with the Word of God, that he was being godly, he was living purely, and then he was able to convey that to others, and take heed to others to help others. So he had to take heed to himself and to the doctrine. to the doctrine. See, this shows that the business of the pastor is to be taking heed to the doctrine of God's word. And it's not a simple thing, it's not a passive thing, it's an active thing we have to apply ourselves to. It requires serious study. Study to show thyself approved under God. A workman, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2.15. It requires the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 1 John 2.27, that we need the Holy Spirit's teaching and illumination in these things. And it requires diligent meditation upon the Word of God. To take heed to the doctrine, it requires these things. The psalmist said in Psalm 119.97, O how I love thy law, it is my meditation all the day. It wasn't just relegated to Sunday morning. It wasn't just at the first part of the day. It was his meditation all the day. All the day. And we need to be meditating on these things and taking heed to the doctrine. And then he says in verse 16, and continue in them. Continue in them. You know the natural tendency of us spiritually is to go backwards, not forwards. If we're not taking heed to certain things, we're going to grow cold spiritually, put it that way. In Revelation 2.4 you can see an example of that with the church at Ephesus. They were laboring for God, they were refuting the false teachers and so on, but the Lord Jesus said, nevertheless I have someone against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Thou hast left thy first love. They went backwards. They departed from that place that they were once. They didn't continue in them. And yet the fact is many that begin well, finish poorly, finish poorly. And we could all think of examples. Many people we've known who once seemed to be on fire for the Lord and they've just gone into the world, given up on God, given up on church. Demas is an example of that in the Word of God. Demas, Paul said, has forsaken me, having loved this present world. Demas was once a fellow labourer with Paul. He wasn't just the average Christian. He actually went with Paul and served as a missionary with him. He said, you know, Demas is gone. He loved the world. And that could be said of any one of us if we are not taking heed to continue in these things. the last part of verse 16, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Saving. What does it mean to save here? What's the salvation speaking of? Well it doesn't refer to being justified with God. He's not saying if you do these things then you're going to do enough to get you to heaven. No, that's not what he's talking about at all. We know the word save or salvation can be used in different ways in the Word of God. it refers to some different things, not the soul salvation and I think it's actually helpful if you look back in chapter 2 and verse 15 when it speaks about the woman and the role of the women in the church, it says in 1st Timothy 2.15, notwithstanding, she shall be saved in childbearing if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. So again, it's not talking about the woman being saved to go to heaven through childbearing. It's a different type of salvation. And I believe if you look at it in the context, what it's essentially saying there for the woman, if she fulfills her role, as a wife who's in submission to her husband, and as a mother whose role is to be the keeper of the home and to raise children, if she fulfills that God-given role, she'll be saved from these things, like from usurping the role of authority over a man, from teaching men, and from stepping outside of that role. She'll be saved from that if she should be... She does that, and I think it's used in a similar way in chapter 4 and verse 16. What will the person be saved or delivered from? They'll be delivered from doctrinal and moral apostasy. Remember that's how we started the chapter talking about there's going to be some who depart from the faith. He's warning about these things and these apostates. He says you're going to be saved if you continue in these things. You're going to be preserved against that falling away. It refers to deliverance from being spiritually empty and barren instead of nourished and fruitful. We'll have a fruitful ministry instead of being fruitless. It refers to deliverance from falling into temptations and snares. which is talked about in chapter 6 and verse 9. It refers deliverance from having no rewards in the next life. I mean there's going to be many Christians who are saved but have no rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. Okay, and so in 1 Timothy 6 verse 19, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life. So it talks about thinking about the next life, laying hold on that and living for the next world, laying up treasures in heaven. And it's also about being saved. from being a castaway, being laid aside from the ministry. That's what Paul said that he wanted to guard against in 1 Corinthians 9.27. I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. He said, you know what, if I'm not careful, if I don't restrain the carnal appetites and the lust of the flesh, Even I could become a castaway. Doesn't mean he's going to end up in hell. But God will set him aside and use someone else to do his work. And God does that from time to time. And he says, look, if you take heed, if you continue, if you do this, you'll save thyself. and them that hear thee." Not only preserve himself against this, but the congregation that he preached to. And that should show us the vital importance of hearing sound Bible teaching from faithful ministers. And you know, the safest place for the Christian is to be in frequent attendance at the house of God where God's Word is faithfully being preached. It's a dangerous thing to neglect God's house. When we remove ourselves, when we're not hearing the Word of God being preached, We're denying a safeguard against us falling into these errors and being set aside by God. But he says if you do these things, you can deliver and save those that hear thee. So what do we understand from this? This is what a good minister, a good Christian should have in their lives. It teaches us that God expects inner godliness and outward godliness. There's got to be both there. And our lives should be exemplary as ambassadors of Jesus Christ. He said, Timothy, you're a young man, you just be an example. You be an example of the believers in all those areas. And we all, we represent, if we are Christians, we represent Jesus Christ. And we be an example. Is God ashamed of us or is He happy with our testimony before the world? And can we say we are wholly given to the service of God? He says, you give thyself wholly to them. Well, I give up part of my life and I give part of my week to serve God, but I'm in this holy business. There's a lot of things that I want to do for myself. He says, no, give yourself wholly to them. As the hymn writer said, so let our lips and lives express the holy gospel we profess. So let our works and virtues shine to prove the doctrine all divine. Let's have a word of prayer.