You are listening to a sermon from River Community Church in Prairieville, Louisiana. Remain standing, if you will, for the reading of God's word from 1 Timothy 4, verse 11. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. Please be seated and join me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word and for your grace to us in Christ. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who enables us to first understand your word, but even more, to be able to apply it and live it out, and that not in a legalistic works-righteousness capacity, but out of faith and love and trust, and that Your ways are good ways, and our life is better and more blessed when we live out Your Word in faith and in trust. So would You, O Lord, be at work in us now as we Turn to your word and seek to grow in the faith and knowledge that is in Christ Jesus our Savior and our Lord. Amen. I want to begin this morning as we look at this passage at the very end in verse 16 where Paul writes, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. Now, this verse seems to be at odds with where we ended last week with the conviction that God alone has the power to save. This creates an apparent contradiction between verses 10 and 16. We might ask, which is it, Paul? Does God alone save people or does the minister save people? Is the pressure on or is the pressure off? How can you say that Timothy can save himself, let alone his hearers? Is this salvation by works? What's going on? Before we answer that question, we need to walk through the logic of this paragraph. There are a total of 10 imperative commands in these five verses. Prior to this paragraph, in the entire book of 1 Timothy, there have only been two. direct imperative commands. In particular, the command to teach is repeated three times with the verb command being the first verb of this paragraph, being supportive to that teaching imperative. Then we have another three or four commands emphasizing the necessity of Timothy's self-development and personal sanctification. So Paul is doubling down in this paragraph on the twin emphases of healthy ministry that we have seen woven throughout this letter. Of first importance is the right and faithful teaching of God's Word in sound doctrine and specifically in the gospel, following immediately upon it and supporting it. is the godly character of the minister. We see this twin emphasis right there in verse 16. Again, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. These are the two areas where Timothy needs to focus attention, personal sanctification, and rightly understanding, applying, and teaching God's word. His whole ministry stands or falls on these two legs. My whole ministry stands or falls on these two legs. And insofar as you are called to do ministry, wherever that is, your ministry stands or falls on these two legs. And they'll provide our outline. First, we'll discuss Timothy's watch on himself, and then we'll discuss Timothy's watch on the teaching. We'll conclude by discussing how these things come together to illuminate the meaning of verse 16. So first, keep a watch on yourself. You see this idea developed in verses 12, 14 and 15 where Paul highlights three things, three sub-points. First, verse 12 tells us that Timothy was a relatively young man. certainly younger than Paul and the elders of the churches that he was serving in Ephesus. Commentators suggest that Timothy was a man in his mid-30s, and this would pose problems for him in a culture where age was revered as equivalent to wisdom. Age was status. And where Timothy was being charged to confront and even oppose elders who were engaging in false teaching and who were lives were blatantly out of line with the gospel of Christ. Even today, it is completely natural for older leaders in the church to be a little skeptical of a young green minister. I was 39 in 2021, not too far off. I was even younger when I started in ministry. But Timothy was the type of minister who was totally new to the Ephesian church. He hadn't paid his dues yet. He was still wet behind the ears. He may have a whole lot of head knowledge, but he probably hasn't learned too much from the school of hard knocks. He certainly doesn't know how we do things around here. Who does he think he is challenging me like that? Doesn't he know I've been teaching Sunday school here for years? Who does he think he is changing this program? Doesn't he know how we've done it for years? But Timothy was not to allow people in the church to dismiss him on account of his age. Now, how was he to do this? By holding his ground? By arguing his point? By appealing to his authority under the apostle Paul? How would that have gone? I learned even before I went into the ministry, the absolute folly of trying to flex your authority muscles and titles. I was working at Twin Lakes Summer Camp in Florence, Mississippi, and I, this summer, was made camp manager. The highest position on the summer staff. And there was one disagreement happening over the awesome walkie-talkies leadership got to carry around camp, you know, about when when dinner was supposed to be. And I pulled out my binder, because people were going back and forth. And I said, this is Trey Owens, camp manager. You see where this is going. Dinner is at 5.30. The camp director immediately got on the walkie-talkie and said, hey, Trey, this is Matt, the camp director. Sorry, we had conversations without you in the room, but we're actually having dinner at six o'clock. Talk about the feeling of eating crow, putting foot in your mouth, all in one. From that point, I have endeavored to never flex my title. Because there may be things happening you don't know around. No. So rather than trying to flex or hold his ground, Paul tells Timothy to bolster his authority in the church and his ability to command that things happen in the church by proving his wisdom and commanding respect by the character of his lifestyle. Paul writes, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity. Kent Hughes writes, the natural inclination when our leadership is challenged is not godliness, but the opposite. To become defensive and respond with sarcasm, or put down, or to pull rank, or to become coldly above it all, aloof or grieved, Paul's advice is to be an example of a lovely five-fold godliness because godly character creates moral authority. Ultimately, godly character wins over those who would naturally look down on one's youth. So Paul highlights five areas in which Timothy is to show himself a model Christian minister. First is his speech, not just in the pulpit, but in all of life. This is the first area in which a minister will be evaluated, not just if his speech is true or accurate, but if he's well-spoken. If he speaks with wisdom and grace, if he shows over time, he can deliver hard words that are seasoned with salt. Second is his conduct, his behavior, the way that he lives. In other words, does Timothy, does the minister practice what he preaches? Is his lifestyle in line with what he says from the pulpit? Third is his love. Is he a compassionate man? Is he kind? Is he faithful in his relationships? Is he committed to the people in the church? Do they know that he cares for them? Fourth is his faith. Does Timothy exemplify not only saving faith, But living by faith, is his trust in Christ Jesus evident and obvious? This isn't a showy piety. Paul's not telling Timothy, make sure you wear your faith on your sleeve. Rather, he's talking about genuine discipleship. Your discipleship, your faith will come out of your fingertips. It will enmesh itself on everything you put your hands on. Be an example of living by faith. Finally comes purity, which is a word that speaks primarily to the question of chastity. As a young man, probably single, Timothy needs to be self-controlled in the area of sexuality. He needs to be circumspect in his interactions with women. And this is how he will prove his moral authority, his right to be heard, his wisdom that he really does know what he's talking about, by living it out before a watching church. Timothy was to develop and make the most of his gifts. Paul writes, do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. I say gifts, but the word here is singular. Paul is probably speaking comprehensively of the suite of spiritual gifts that he received from the Holy Spirit to enable his call to ministry, together with a call to ministry itself. The sense is supported by the phrase, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands upon you. Paul speaks here of what we today would call Timothy's ordination. The laying on of hands was a long time Jewish right of recognition, of authorization and commissioning for leadership that hails all the way back to when Moses ordained Joshua to follow him in leading Israel. It hails back to the ordination of priests under Aaron. It was embraced by the Christian church, and we see it in Acts 6 with the ordination of the seven, who we believe were the first deacons, and several times throughout Acts after that. Now, significantly, the connection of Timothy's gift with the giving of prophecy and laying on of hands is one of public recognition not original bestowal. In other words, when the elders, including Paul, laid their hands on Timothy and there was this prophecy that was given over him, that's not where his spiritual gift came from. That's not where his call to ministry came from. It rather recognized and validated his call to ministry and his gifts for ministry. and it publicly authorized him to use them with authority. Furthermore, the sentence, don't neglect the gift you have is what we call a negative imperative. It's like when we say, don't be late, we mean be on time. So if Paul says, don't neglect the gift you have, he says, open it, develop it, put it to work. He'll reiterate this idea in 2 Timothy 1, 6, and 7 when he writes, for this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God. Same idea, positively expressed. Which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Fan into flame. Fan into the flame the gift that you have from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's lit the kindling. He's put it there. Now fan it gently so that the whole stack of wood is engulfed and burning brightly. Don't let the fire that the Holy Spirit has kindled in you, don't let that go out. Don't let the spark go out. Indeed, Timothy can't assume, you can't assume, that just because he has been called to ministry and given gifts by the Spirit, that he will automatically be fruitful. Nothing in life is automatic. Ministry is not automatic. Being fruitful in your Christian life in whatever area doesn't happen automatically. It takes effort. It takes intentionality. It takes a knowledge of oneself and the gifts that you've been given by the Holy Spirit and by providence, intentionally developing them and putting them to use, not just to make money, but to advance the kingdom of God, to serve the body of Christ. Personal growth takes effort. Preparing sermons takes effort. Delivering them takes effort. Discipling, counseling, encouraging, and correcting people in the church takes effort. And if Timothy's spark doesn't catch fire, it's in danger of going out. Timothy needs to develop the gifts he's been given. So do I. And so do you. Third, Timothy was to devote his time and energy to understanding applying the Word of God and of the apostles. We see this in verse 15 where Paul writes, practice these things, immerse yourself in them. These things refers to what Paul has just written and also to the whole of the letter and to everything that they represent. which includes faithfulness and exposition of all of the scriptures. Paul wants Timothy to study, practice, and take a deep interest in the things he is teaching him in this letter. He wants Timothy to immerse himself in them, to be in them constantly, to abide in God's Word so that God's Word will abide in him. There are lots of things that Timothy could give his attention to and will require his attention. Certainly there are a lot of conflicts at work in the churches of Ephesus, power dynamics and leadership issues which Timothy needs to address. But none of those things to Paul are as important as Timothy's own personal spiritual development through personal intensive Bible study and the application of Scripture to himself. Indeed, one of the greatest hurdles for the studious teacher of the Bible is the temptation to apply God's Word to everybody else but oneself. Of course, ordinary Christians like you have the same issue. It's easy to think about all the other people that need to hear this sermon. Well, it's easy to do it on my side, too. It's easy for me to approach the text and think, oh man, all these people need to hear this. But it's dangerous for the minister to operate this way. It's dangerous when the minister spends hours studying a text. studying theology, thinking about application, and he's only thinking about this person or that person in the congregation, thinking about this cultural or political issue, thinking about his wife needs to hear this, or his children. As Charles Spurgeon wrote, the preacher who neglects to preach to himself has forgotten a very important part of his audience. We must first address our own soul. If we can move that by the words we might utter, we may hope to have some power with the souls of others. Therefore, sanctification, especially for the minister, is not a personal, private matter. It affects the whole church. Because the minister is the example of the Christian life before the congregation. He is the example of how to apply the sermon he is preaching. The Scottish minister, Robert Murray McShane, is famed for saying, my people's greatest need is my personal holiness. Your greatest need is my personal holiness. The holiness of the minister is a very important thing, not only because it provides the validation of the message I preach, but it provides the pattern of sanctification by which you, the congregation, will be shaped. A congregation cannot outgrow its minister. A congregation will begin to resemble its minister. So I need to make sure that I am growing in a manner consistent with Christ Jesus, that I never reach the point where I feel like I've spiritually arrived. Because wherever I top out, wherever I plateau, that's where this church is going to plateau. That's where you're going to plateau. That brings us to the second point, keep a watch on the teaching. I've said this before, but it's worth repeating. When Paul talks about teaching, he's talking about the primary responsibility of the pastor, what we ordinarily call preaching. My job as the preacher is not mere proclamation, not mere announcement, not mere evangelism. My job is to explain and apply the Scriptures in general and the gospel of Jesus Christ in particular. Likewise, when Paul speaks about teaching, he's talking about a definite, delimited body of doctrine. He talks about the teaching. He says in verse 11, command and teach these things, not whatever you please. Not ever whatever strikes your fancy, whatever you're interested in in the moment. There was indeed a particular confession of faith and creed that Timothy was to explain to the congregation. There was indeed a particular doctrinal tradition and hermeneutic, an interpretive lens that Timothy had learned from the Apostle Paul and that he was to pass on to the Ephesian congregations. He wasn't just to teach his view or his interpretation of things. He was to teach the gospel as he had received it. Sound doctrine as he had received it. The interpretation of the Old Testament as he had received it. Timothy was to do no thing that was creative. I'm not called to be creative in the pulpit. If you teach Sunday school or a Bible study, if you have occasion to preach, you're not called to be creative. You're called to teach the gospel as you have received it, to teach the word of God as you have received it. Indeed, this is where the authority of the minister comes from. This is how he can command obedience, because he's not teaching his interpretation. If I'm teaching you my interpretation, what right have I to say, okay, you've got to do this? But if I'm teaching the scriptures, I can say, thus says the Lord. And if thus says the Lord, you have a certain responsibility to obey. In the words of the Westminster Confession, we believe that the authority of the church is ministerial and declarative of the Word of God, not just legislative or judicial or punitive. The pastor cannot demand an implicit trust from the congregation. I can't demand you obey my will. nor can the session demand your obedience to the session's will. We can have a policy in place, and that sets boundaries, but we can't command that you do what we say. If you do something different, that's on you. We can't bless it. But what we do and we endeavor to do in all of our policies as a church, we want to be in line with this, but we command obedience to the word of God. We proclaim, thus says the Lord. It's not the pastor you need to fear disobeying or the session, but God himself. If I tell you God's word says you need to do this, or God's word says you need to stop doing this, I can't make you go either way. I can't force you to do what's right, but you will have to answer to God for how you respond to His Word. I can lead a horse to water, I can't make him drink. You have to decide for yourself whether you're going to drink from the river of living water. This is why Paul says, command and teach these things. It's not enough for the minister to tell the congregation what the Bible means. He must apply it. He must explain what it means for them, for their lives, where they are currently with authority. This is why the sermon isn't a self-help talk. We seek a clear understanding of the text of scripture. And flowing out of understanding, there will be clear areas of application which the minister must impress upon the congregation. Sometimes this will be uplifting and encouraging and it will make you feel good. You'll leave church rejoicing because of the mercy and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Other times it will have the opposite effect. when Scripture shows you your sin. Indeed, there will be times when the Scripture, and therefore the minister, makes uncomfortable and imposing demands on the congregation. But whether the application of Scripture is a balm to your soul or abrasive and rough to you, whether you receive it with joy or you groan inside, insofar as the Scriptures themselves are saying, this is what you need to do, or this is what you need to not do, you, my friends, must obey it. It is not legalism to say that when God's word says do this, you have to do it. It's not legalism to say that when God says don't do this, you have to obey him. Legalism is trying to earn your righteousness through obedience. Faith is obeying because you have been made righteous. I'll say that again. Legalism is obeying so that God will see you as righteous. Faith is obeying because God has made you righteous. The second major thing we see about teaching in this passage is that such teaching is to shape the worship of the church. Verse 13 says, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of the scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. This verse teaches us that the content of public worship is all about the Bible. If it's what Timothy, as the pastor, is to devote himself to, then that's what the church should devote itself to, because Timothy, the pastor, is leading the church in being devoted to the reading, exhortation, and teaching of the scriptures. Ligon Duncan is known for saying, when the Christian church gathers for worship, we read the Bible, we sing the Bible, we pray the Bible, we preach the Bible, and we see the Bible. Worship is all about God's word from start to finish. It provides the language of our worship. It's why we begin with a scriptural call to worship and we end with a scriptural benediction. Scripture guides our heart in worship. It instructs our minds in worship. The word of God is at the center of what we do when we come to church. True Christian worship is biblical worship. Amen. What is more, these three infinitives, reading, exhorting, and teaching, are interrelated and interwoven with one another. They describe for us the pattern of what we call expository preaching. Expository, the root of that is expose, right? So when we're doing expository teaching, I'm trying to expose you to the word of God, but I'm also trying to do this. I'm trying to expose your heart before the Word of God. I'm not just exposing what's in the Scripture, I'm also exposing what's in you. I should say the Holy Spirit is exposing what's in you. In order to properly benefit from God's Word and worship, we must have each of these three elements present. First, God's Word must be read, because only in the reading of God's Word God speaking to his people. I want, when I preach, to represent God's Word faithfully to you. And there's a sense in which we could say, Jesus is in the mouth of the preacher, but I'm not inspired. What I say is not God's Word. It's an exposition and application of God's Word. This is God's Word. This is the only way, by reading the Word is the only way the congregation can know that what they're hearing actually represents what God says. And so the sermon must be anchored and grounded in the Bible. If the minister gives a sermon that does not obviously arise from the text of Scripture, then look out. He's literally disconnected his message from the Word of God. He is literally unhinged. Take anything he says with a grain of salt. Second, God's Word must be explained. There must be a measure of teaching because lasting transformation cannot come by a mere exercise of the will. Lasting change comes by understanding God better, by understanding His Word better, by understanding ourselves better. Understanding Scripture changes our minds, the way that we think about things. It motivates deep changes in our behavior. Likewise, as we learn more about God and more about his word, we grow in our ability to worship. Our praise occurs at a deeper level. It's not just on the surface. As Romans 12 says, we are transformed by the renewing of the mind, which happens through learning the Bible. Third, God's Word must be applied. James says we must be doers of the Word and not hearers only. As I've already noted, when Scripture speaks a word of exhortation or command or encouragement or prohibition, the minister must direct that word to the congregation. When the minister faithfully exhorts the congregation from the text, it leads to repentance. It leads to transformation and change lives and growth and holiness. It leads to Christian maturity. Finally, the regular reading and exposition of God's Word from both Old and New Testaments helps the people of God to understand themselves within and through the broad lens of God's redeeming work throughout Scripture. It provides a constant and balanced diet. It constantly calls us back to the true faith, away from whatever errors we may have embraced, or out of any rabbit holes we've fallen down. When Scripture is read, we're brought back to reality. We're reminded that the church wasn't created yesterday, Christianity wasn't created yesterday. Rather, we are created in Christ and through Christ and for Christ. And we have a pedigree that predates Christ because there's a story we're a part of that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It's too easy for us to collapse our understanding of life and our understanding of our problems into just me and what I'm experiencing in the here and now. But there is a grand drama of which we are all a part. There is a true meta-narrative, a true overarching story that is the definition of reality in general, but of my life in particular. And the story of the Bible is the story that must define my life, because it's the story I've been written into. I've been written into the story of the Bible in blood, by the blood of Christ. And if you believe, so have you. This is your story. It's in the text of Scripture. And thus the job of a teaching minister is to constantly remind God's people of who they are in Christ Jesus, the story that actually defines them. It means to read that story, explain that story. It's to apply that story and encourage people to embrace the story of Christ and to live out that story wherever they are. Now this can apply to particular areas, such as what you do with your money. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the story of Scripture, affects what you do with your money. It also affects what you do in your bedroom, and with whom. And it also applies to the general character of your life as something that must be shaped by the death and resurrection of Christ. So to conclude, how does all of this help us to understand this last verse, verse 16? Where Paul writes, keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching, persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. Remember that the word save in Scripture is not to be equated simply with the doctrine of justification or the idea of the forgiveness of sins. It represents a broad deliverance from things like sin and death and the devil. Even so here, Paul is not telling Timothy that his devotion to personal sanctification and expository preaching will provide for the forgiveness of the congregation's sins, nor will it secure their justification or right standing with God. Rather, his faithful ministry will deliver them. But deliver them from what? First, recall the specific context of chapter 4, which is the presence of false doctrine that originates from demons and comes through hypocritical false teachers. Thus, the way that Timothy can be confident that he will deliver his congregation from these lies and the dangers of their sinful life is by committing himself to the faithful exposition and application of the truth. beginning with his own self. I'll say that again. The way that Timothy or any Christian minister is to oppose the lies of the devil and false teaching present in the church is by committing themselves to the faithful exposition and application of God's word, beginning with the self, beginning with the person of the minister. After all, the power of the gospel to sanctify and deliver from sin will be evident in Timothy's life as he pursues his own growth before the congregation. And this would provide a marked contrast with the shameful, hypocritical behavior of the false teachers and the demonic doctrines they were teaching. Paul is also speaking to the power of proper ministry, of healthy ministry, to deliver Christians from the enthralling nature of their own sin. And with that, from the judgment on the last day. This comes because it is through the faithful ministry of the Word, empowered by a godly sanctifying minister, that people in the church are actively delivered from the power of sin and are enabled to grow in holiness. It is through a steady diet of God's Word that we are enabled to persevere to the end and to grow in our faith. Phil Reichen comments, what this verse acknowledges is that ministers of the gospel have a crucial role to play in the salvation of sinners. Salvation comes only by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but faith comes through hearing and hearing through the Word of Christ. And the Word of Christ, in turn, comes by preaching the gospel. Therefore, Christian ministers are indispensable to God's plan for the salvation of the world. There is even a sense in which they can be said to save their hearers, not by their own merits, but by the proclamation of Jesus Christ. The spiritual destiny of any church is tied up with the spiritual destiny of its minister and his faithful proclamation of the gospel. I'll read that last line again. The spiritual destiny of any church is tied up with the spiritual destiny of its minister and his faithful proclamation of the gospel. This is why it's so essential that a minister keep a watch on himself as well as his teaching. His own character and godliness matters. Indeed, the proclamation of the gospel cannot be separated from the character of the proclaimer. Both are necessary for the Word to go forth with power. So pray for us. Pray for me, please. Thank you for listening to this sermon from River Community Church in Prairieville, Louisiana, where you will always find biblical preaching, meaningful worship, and the equipping of disciples. For more information on River Community Church and its ministries, please visit rivercommunity.org.