The following sermon was preached at Christ Reformed Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma. If you are interested in our church or would like more information about us, you can visit us online at ChristReformedChurchTulsa.org. First Timothy chapter four. Verses 6-10 is what we want to look at this afternoon, and we want to consider the time that we have, faithful living in the days of departing faith. Last week we talked about the difficult days of departing faith. We considered some alarming statistics as we began about apostasy, the walking away from the gospel faith. It's no secret that the church in the United States is in decline and has been in decline for a while. But even when others are walking out of churches, it does not mean that it gives us the license to do so ourselves. As a matter of fact, it's in the hardest times that the true church should continue to gather so to show our faithfulness. After all, it takes little effort to walk with Christ when the road is easy. But in the difficult times, often is when we learn, when we grow, and when we test our spiritual character. It's no secret that as we come closer to the second advent of Jesus, that faithfulness will become harder and harder to find, much less to model. So what are we to do? alarming as it was last week to consider what it means to walk away from the faith and those that never truly understood it, never really received it. We do not live as those who are without hope or encouragement as we remain. Yes, there will come a time, even the Lord Jesus said, as the love of others will grow cold, But the question is, how should we then live and respond to departing faith around us? Well, that's what I want us to consider with the time we have today. We want to look at faithfully living in the days of departing faith. How do we do that? Well, Timothy shows us some answers from the Apostle Paul here. In 1 Timothy 4, verse 1, we saw that Paul was clear that The latter times, there will come this departing of the faith. But here in verse 6 through 11, we see a response to this apostasy. What are we to do to live faithful in the midst of those walking away from the gospel of Jesus Christ? We see in verse 6, the Apostle Paul says, if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life, also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe, command, and teach these things. As we look at the passage, as we consider the departing faith of others around us, we want to see how to continue to be faithful, to live faithfully in the days of departing faith. And the first way we see that we are to live faithful in the days of departing faith is we must train ourselves in good doctrine. First, train yourself in good doctrine. As we look at verse 6, Paul exhorts Timothy to put before or literally remind the brothers of what he had previously written. Well, this relates back to chapter 3. Remember we prefaced last week, verse 16 of chapter 3, this great early hymn possibly for the church, speaking of the mystery of godliness, Christ manifest in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among nations, believed on in the world, taken up to glory. Paul says to Timothy, if you put this gospel message before the brothers, lay it before them. What do you do when people are continuing to walk away from the faith? They're continuing to respond to the gospel with apostasy. You continue to lay the gospel forward. You don't give up on it. We see that Paul is saying to Timothy, this will expressly come. So in these days, when people walk away from the faith, what should we do? He begins by saying, train yourself in good doctrine. We respond to apostasy, those walking away from the gospel message of Christ, not by changing the message as so many are trying to do today, not by changing the approach of how we speak of the gospel. We do respond instead by remaining faithful to our only source of authority, the good word and good doctrine of God. Don't give up on it, even though others may walk away from it. Paul uses this word here when he says, being trained in the words of the faith. And we remember the faith as a reference to the message and the work of the gospel in believers' lives. He's saying, be trained in the words of the gospel. And the word trained is a beautiful word picture here. It literally means, in the original text, to nourish or feed upon. In some contexts, writers use it to mean to educate or to shape the mind. What a wonderful picture, isn't it? What are we to do when people are walking away from the Gospel? You continue to nourish and feed upon it. You continue to let it shape and educate your thinking. I believe the King James Version has a better translation than the ESV here. It says, If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. Looking in the context of this passage then, we see Paul is encouraging Timothy, train or nourish the minds of the believers under your charge in the church. Even in difficult days, when people depart and walk away, they follow, as we saw last week, the teaching of demons. They follow after deceitful spirits and false teachers. You and those who remain faithful continue to be nourished upon the gospel message of the faith. This is done only by continually putting it before the people of God. It's interesting to note that Paul emphasizes to Timothy, he is to present the truth of God's Word to the people. He cannot force the people to accept it. But it is his responsibility nonetheless to present it. He has the responsibility. And every man who stands behind the sacred desk has a responsibility to continually and regularly put the word of the faith before the people. But on the other side of that coin, it is the hearer's responsibility to accept it or reject it. As I lay before you today, present the truth of Scripture to you. You have a responsibility. You have to decide as the hearer whether you're going to accept it and follow the authority of God or whether you are going to reject it in disobedience. Note that Paul tells Timothy, if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Good servants are those who put before the church the pure and unadulterated Word of God. And as I can say, being a sitter and hearer in this church, I am thankful for the man of God that we have in Brother Jared, who faithfully, week after week, puts the Word before us. Now I have to admit, as sinners, we are always as responsive as we should be, aren't we? We need to take what He puts before us and feed upon it and carry it out. But I'm thankful that we have a man of God who does so. It is very rare to find, sadly, in many contexts in churches today. So we both have a responsibility. Those who teach the Word, we have a responsibility not to put before you some great novel idea or philosophy or something we think has a value of ourselves. but to put before you the good doctrine. It is your responsibility to train yourself in it then, to nourish upon it, to feed upon it. So the responsibility is a two-way street, isn't it? You, the church, are responsible to take the words of the faith that are presented to you in good doctrine and train and be instructed in it. Timothy, as well as all ministers of the gospel, then must be faithful in laying that truth before the people of God. Paul tells this young pastor, train yourself in good doctrine so that you in turn can be a good servant of Christ and help the church be trained as well. And we know it is only the faithful teaching of God's Word. It is only the good doctrine, the good teaching of Scripture that brings spiritual development in our lives. It is not felt needs. It is not our own perception of what we think is good for us. It is the full and authoritative standard. The whole of God's Word. This is what trains us in spiritual maturity. Now we might think, or we may have even said or heard said to us, that our experience trains us. Those that we surround ourselves train us. Even our personal inner voice trains us. But the Scripture is clear that it is God's Word that is profitable to train us. We all have life experiences, don't we? We all have the influence of others and even our inner conscience, but none of those things are the final authority of how we live. The Scripture is the only source of good doctrine, and our experiences, personal advice, the direction from others, what we think, all find themselves under the submission of the authority of the truth of God's Word. The careful study of it is what brings us then joy and peace and life in Christ Jesus. If you're struggling in your development and relationship with God, what you need to do then is look at how much time you're spending being trained in the Word. If you're straying from the careful study of God's authority in every part of your life, you will ultimately stray away from the author of such authority. As a church, we will become more nourished in our minds and souls when we commit ourselves to not just the casual reading and acquaintance of Scripture, but the careful study and feeding upon it, and the living out of it in every part of our life. As the church, our authority doesn't rest on pious popes, wealthy contributors, or iron-fisted dignitaries. It is upon the training power of the Word of God. The Scripture is the source of faith and good doctrine. It is the ultimate rule for our lives. What it tells us to do, we do. Where it tells us to go, we go. And by heeding it and keeping it, we honor Christ and we continue to be nourished in Him. Paul tells Timothy, if the church is going to continue to be faithful in the midst of hardship, in the face of apostasy, those walking away from the gospel message, the church must be trained. We must see the root of that training, though, is in the good doctrine and the authority of Scripture. How do we live faithfully in the days of departing faith? First, we continue to be trained in the good doctrine. Second, Paul tells us to turn away from error. There's a positive and then there's a negative. Train yourself in good doctrine, which obviously means you turn away from that which is wrong, that which is false. Turn away from error. Look at verse 7. Paul writes, have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths, rather train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness note is a value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come. So in the original text, irreverent here means silly myths. It literally means godless old women's tales. Now don't get upset with me, that's the word that Paul used. Godless old women's tales is the euphemism he uses. The King James again translates it this way, refuse profane and old wives' fables. This was a description in Paul's day that spoke of useless, sensational stories in order to stimulate someone to a response. It gives us a little insight to what was going on in Ephesus too, I believe. It seems that the false teachers we mentioned last week, those that are giving the deceitful spirits and the teaching of demons a platform in the church, it seems that they had entered into the church at Ephesus, possibly even gaining the attention of older women, the widows of the church, and stirring them up with false doctrine and false teaching. In the second letter that Paul writes to Timothy, in chapter 2, verse 5, Paul writes of these same perverse and godless individuals. He says that they have appearance of godliness, but denying its power. He tells Timothy, avoid such people, for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins, led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. The entry point in the church by Satan, we might say then, is often the most vulnerable. Where Satan tries to bring division in the church, he always peeks at the weakest among us. False apostles, false teachers are treacherous, and they feed upon the vulnerable even in our midst, which should give us even greater urgency to protect those within the faith. But yet, the American church model today, if I can be critical, often we turn our kids over to them because they package themselves as entertaining and fun. We turn our vulnerable and hurting adults over to them because they often make promises, and yet they don't intend to keep them, but they make them nonetheless to make people feel special at the time. John Calvin once said, quote, false teaching is easily identified by the fact that it is willingly received by all and to everyone's liking, end quote. The point is we should never tolerate in the church those who teach error and lead others away into it, especially not the most vulnerable among us. There are some who depart from the faith because they have never really known true faith to begin with, but they do so because they have a connection, most often, with false teaching. We must turn away from such error, and we must even expose such charlatans for who they are. As servants of Christ, being trained and training each other in good doctrine, we must be able to distinguish the truth of God's authoritative word from teaching that comes from outside it. Timothy's responsibility was to maintain doctrinal integrity, to protect the church from what Paul categorizes as irreverent, silly myths or old wise fables. Church, we must see the responsibility not to be caught up in the teaching of sensationalism at the cost of the teaching of good, sound doctrine. Timothy, as a shepherd and overseer, was charged with the protection of truth in the church. And yet many churches today have pulpits filled with pastors who are derelict in this command of God. They stand in the church, even on this Sunday, no doubt, speaking of heartwarming stories, strange visions and revelations, and godless self-help lingo, while ignoring the truth of God's Word, that they are commanded to lay before the people. They come across as warm, caring individuals, but they have led worldly influences into the life of the church. They get up and proclaim all religions are really just worshiping the same God, and that they just identify Him in different ways. They preach that it doesn't matter what you believe, as long as you have a good feeling in your heart, you really try to do better. John MacArthur once said, quote, such weak preachers are often said to compensate by having what some call a pastor's heart. A pastor's heart, however, is not measured by how good a man is at petting sheep, but how well he protects them from wolves and feeds them so they grow to be mature and strong, end quote. That's quite a way to think of it, isn't it? How many guys, though, today are not protecting from the wolves, but instead wasting time petting sheep? If you look back to verse 2, we saw last week Paul calls again such teaching the doctrine of demons. This demonic teaching has no place in the church of Christ. We as the church must see the importance to turn to the truth of God's Word, which then causes us to turn away from error and to warn each other to turn away as well. The counter to error, Paul says in verse 8, again, is to be trained. Look, he says, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. At the end of verse 7, he says, rather than train yourself for this godliness, a natural way to combat the doctrine of demons is to train in the doctrines of God. As followers of Jesus Christ, we must be trained to know who God is. Who is this God that we claim to worship? And what does He require of our lives in our worship? Now, the word train here in verse 7 is actually different than the word that we see in verse 6. Now, in English, it is the same word, but it is actually different. It's what we derive our word gymnasium from in English. In other words, we must now exercise ourselves in godliness. Whereas before, we were to nourish and to be feeding upon the Word, that then leads us to what we learn and what shapes our minds to be exercised and how we live. It is a godliness then that is exercised and lived out. And Paul shows this in the image of bodily exercise, doesn't he? It's a great example. Just as bodily exercise, discipline and training and getting yourself to peak performance for a sport of some course, as it is profitable physically. So we must see the discipline in our lives to do so spiritually. Godliness is this means then of living for God on what we have learned and been trained upon. It's how we choose to live in a way that glorifies God in our lives. In other words, as we deliberately seek to know and follow God, our lives will then be transformed in the image of Christ and will become more like Christ, being lived out in godliness. This is something we exercise intentionally. You think about bodily exercise, you don't just do it for a couple of days, one week, and then you've attained it, right? Yet that's how we often speak spiritually, isn't it? You know, we have a spiritual moment, or we did this or that, and we feel like we're good for the rest of our lives. Just as bodily training is something that has to be done and maintained, sometimes on a daily basis, for whatever reason, the physical fitness you're seeking after, so it is spiritually. It is a daily exercise for us. It's not good enough to do it on Sunday. It's not good enough to do it every now and then. It is something we have to do every day. And a part of that exercise is to turn away from error. You can't just say, you know, I accepted Jesus, I'm good. We can all be deceived and misled. None of us are exempt from being misled by error, and so we must train ourselves in godliness daily to recognize the truth from what is error, from the teachings that contradict Scripture for a feel-good emotion. We instead must constantly turn our attention to God's word so that we can discern truth from error and turn away from error present in our lives. And the promise of godly training and exercise is not just a promise in this life. It is an eternal promise. Why waste our lives training ourselves to be better acclimated to the world when we can spiritually exercise ourselves to live in this world in godliness, which rewards us now and in the life to come? In order for us to do this, though, we must be trained. We must live our lives in godliness by turning away from every form of error that may manifest itself in and around us and our church. Last, Paul says that faithfully living in the days of departed faith means we toil in hope. We toil in hope. Look at verses nine and 10 for me. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For this end we toil and strive, because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe, command and teach these things. Paul says, the saying is trustworthy. In other words, what Paul is writing seems to be a common confession of the early church. This is something that the church was acquainted with. Maybe Paul had taught this when he had first planted the church in Ephesus. Maybe this is something he had done in training and developing the elders there. We see an ax he left behind when he left. Whatever it is, it's something that the Ephesian body, it's something that Timothy was familiar with. This is trustworthy. This is deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe." I can't think of a greater purpose statement for the church than that, right? This is trustworthy. This is deserving of full acceptance, that you toil in the hope of a living God as you wait for the end. This is what we do. This is something we set our lives and our ministry around. We work not for ourselves, not for our own personal ambitions, not even for the building up of a well-known reputation and ministry. We toil in the hope of salvation that comes from the living God given to us through the faith or the gospel of Jesus Christ. The reason we work so hard in our daily lives in presenting good doctrine and turning from error is so that we then can work diligently to uphold the gospel and the glory of Christ to the world. This is deserving of full acceptance in every part of our life. This is worth working for, church. even when people seem to walk away because of the pettiness of hurt feelings, or because of personal preference, or just because it's just too hard, preacher. What you're saying, it's just too hard to do. for the true church to stay and continue to work in it though, and not give up on it. It's worth sleepless nights because you hurt for the one you shared the gospel with, but still will not yet repent. It's worth the animosity that comes from one in which you held firm in a biblical conviction while they tried to tear you down. It's worth the sacrifice, not just of your time, but of financial resources. of our emotional value that we have to pour into it in order to help people know Christ where He's never been named. As well as to equip and train those in Christ who have yet still to grow. This gospel hope is something Paul saw as worth being spent on. As George Whitefield once said at the end of his life, when they asked him to slow down, he said, I'd rather wear out than rust out. The Apostle Paul states it so often in his writing. Let me just give you some examples. Colossians 1 verse 29, Paul says, For this I toil, struggling with all his energy, that he powerfully works within me. That's passion, folks. In Colossians 3, verse 23, Paul says, Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord, not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You're serving the Lord Christ. 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 9, Paul says, Remember, brothers, our labor and toil. We work night and day that we might not become a burden to any of you while we proclaim to you the gospel of God. 1 Corinthians 15, 10, Paul says, but by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was I or they. So we preach, so you believe. Church, don't stop working and toiling in the hope of the salvation that God has promised us. Live faithfully, even in the face of departing faith. God is faithful. Paul reminds us he is the Savior, the only Savior that we have. He is our hope, He is our salvation, and we must continue to endure for His namesake to the very end, even in the midst of striving and apostasy and hardship, knowing that our salvation is secure and that He will continue to save to the very end. We looked at the days of departing faith last week and it almost left with a sense of, what do we do? Such a heavy tone to the message. Today we see our response. Faithfully living in the days of departing faith, means that we see the encouragement and the instruction from scripture to train ourselves in good doctrine, turn away from error, and toil in hope. May God bless you and bless us as a church as we continue to present this gospel faith to the world. Would you pray with me? Most gracious Heavenly Father, we again thank you for the opportunity you've given us today to come and to open this wonderful sacred word. Let it be a reminder to us today that It is the source of truth to us. It is the good doctrine that we should feed upon, the rich theology that we should nourish our lives upon, to be exercised living daily in our lives as we turn away from everything that may contradict it. We thank you for a fellowship where it is a value and a priority above all else. We pray that you would help us to continue to preserve and protect it, Lord. We know that we have a mighty adversary. He seeks as a lion to devour the weak around us, Lord. May we lean upon each other in difficult days. May we be discerning and open to see truth, even in the context of a seeming deception of error. May we strive together hand in hand, arm in arm together to present the gospel to so many who need it. Lord, we pray that you would help us even today as we conclude our service to leave being challenged in some way. Whether it is a recommitment to our daily exercise of training in the Word or exercising godliness, or just to get back to the work because we've grown slack in our commitment to toil in it. Lord, we pray that you would continue again to be with Jared and Sarah. Bless them in this work. Bless them for his faithfulness to proclaim to us and lay before the brothers here your word. Give them a measure of your grace in a way unexpressable and filled with glory. We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen.