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Open up your copy of the scriptures
to the book of 1 Timothy. The book of 1 Timothy. We'll
be reading this morning from the book of 1 Timothy chapter
4. 1 Timothy chapter 4. Paul writes, 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 of 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 and 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 set our
hope on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially
of those who believe. Command and teach these things.
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. I have a vivid memory from my
first years as a young Christian in mid high school. It's the
memory of a vase with a dozen roses in the hand of my pastor,
the man who preached the word week in and week out, given to
his wife on their anniversary. I was close friends with his
two twin sons, still am close with them. And I was in their
home quite a bit in those years. And I watched their father engage
with their mother. I watched their father engage
with his sons. I watched their father suffer
and struggle with back pain and the difficulty that that presented
him in a variety of circumstances. And on that particular day, I
watched their father honor their mother with those flowers on
the occasion of their anniversary. And the images burned into my
mind. It was on that evening when I was over there that I
remember thinking to myself, I want to be a man who gives
roses to his wife. if the Lord gives me a wife on
our anniversary. I want to be a man who loves
a woman. I want to be a man who loves one woman and makes her
smile and makes her life bright. And it was in that example of
that pastor, really that man, that Christian man, that mere
man, that God was growing me. And so it is today that that
legacy to some extent is realized in my own life. I wasn't around
for their harder days or conversations, but he held out to me by way
of example in his life, something that I ought to aim for. And
he made a godly Christian man's life attractive to me. Well,
Timothy is an Ephesus. Timothy is the original recipient
of the letter that we are in the middle of. Husbands in Ephesus
were not famous for spending money on flowers, by the way.
Husbands in Ephesus were famous for spending money on prostitutes.
The people in this city did not live for the glory of God, but
for the glory of the local goddess, Diana. And every city and every
place has its own local God or goddess, whether it has a physical
temple or not. There is a place where the money
goes. There's a place where our hearts go. This city of Ephesus
was an upside down place, examples of godlessness abounded. And yet God was at work in that
city. And you could see it in the life
of this local church. And you could see it in the lives,
in particular, as it ought to be, of those who were appointed
as elders at the church at Ephesus. Christ's church, whom he calls
in this letter, the household of God, the assembly of the living
God, an outpost of heaven in this age as we await Christ's
return, and a pillar and a buttress of truth. That is, if you will,
a people who are themselves a building holding forth the truth of the
gospel for all the world to see. not with her pillars and her
structures, but with her very life, a display, a radiation
of the very beauty of the glory of the gospel that saved her.
And if you're just joining us, we are in the middle of a series
through this first century letter to this first century church.
It's a letter called, we call it First Timothy. It's the first
letter of the Apostle Paul to his protege in this city at that
church named Timothy. And a brief review will be helpful
to us as we get back into the series after a few weeks off.
In First Timothy, you may remember that Timothy was addressed with
an urgent charge. wage the good warfare. And we said it was as though
we opened the book under fire, like almost starting a movie,
a war movie, and bullets are flying around, and it's an intense
scene. Well, we open with an intense
scene, and that makes sense. For it's the occasion of this
letter that Paul is writing to a pastor in a city where the
church is being built, every place where the church is built,
occupied territory. where Jesus is setting up an
embassy where people will come and be saved. Little localized
rescue operations for the spread of his mercy and grace and gospel,
and Satan hates the whole thing, and so we should not be surprised
to find that false teaching lurks at the doors, and it always lurks
within our own hearts and is a threat from without and from
within. Fight the good fight, he'll say later. Wage the good
warfare, he opens his letter. That's chapter one. Chapter 2
focuses on the matter of church life. It's as though we go inside
the church where men should be found godly and praying, not
punching one another. and where women should be found,
not merely professing godliness, but studying the scriptures,
not dressing to impress one another at church, but dressing modestly. Paul addresses men and women
with their different kinds of temptations and vulnerabilities
and the matter of church life. Chapter three, we turn to the
matter of church leadership. church leadership. Crucial to
a healthy church is the leadership of the church. Here we looked
at the structure of the church, the qualifications for elders.
And for deacons, elders we find. We also call them pastors. If
you're new to church, you'll be familiar with the term pastor.
Elder is another term in the Bible for pastors. We always
find them in clumps. They're never alone. A lone pastor,
you always find a group of pastors or elders. We at Heritage have
a plurality. And oh, I feel like I need more
than just me and all of us do. Elders, by the way, are not some
priestly class who does ministry for you. This is so important.
just because there's a page about given to leadership in the church.
We shouldn't think that this is the hired out ministry, but
elders and pastors are there for the equipping of the saints
for ministry. It's not a class of the super
spiritual people who are godly on your behalf, like a kind of
mediator between you and God, but they are godly before God
and godly before you as models for what God is working in every
one of his children. Deacons partnered to support
the ministry of teaching and leadership on the part of elders.
And in chapter four, which is where we arrived last time we
were in the book, we arrived at what we might call the matter
of church work. Pastors are theological watchdogs. This Sunday, examples of godliness
we'll see. And next Sunday, public leaders. Godliness. Godliness is the subject
for this morning. You know, it was good to have
a few Sundays not preaching to be preached at before one preaches
a sermon on godliness. You want a tender heart. And
preachers have a high volume of word output. I will say, I
don't wanna count the number of words I'll say to you in a
year. It's obnoxious, but it's appropriate. It's what God has
ordered. I would never say, how about
God leads his people by putting a man in front of him and then
he talks at him for an hour a week. No, no, no, this is an assignment
from the Lord and we're all under the word. Nevertheless, when
a man says too many words, sometimes he needs to stop talking and
listen to the word. And I was blessed to listen to the word
with you and now I'm blessed to preach this humbly with you. Godliness, the subject for the
morning. What is it? A life lived like
God is God and we are his creatures. How about that? A life lived
like God is God and we are his creatures. Rightly ordered humanity. Not just outwardly ethical, but
inwardly transformed by an actual relationship with the living
God. Living as though God is God and
we are his creatures and we actually know him. We'll explore a little
bit more of that shortly. Why is it so hard? Well, we could answer that in
many different ways. I suspect there may have been
some hesitations on Timothy's part in the pull into godliness,
for there is always a pull into godlessness. I count four misconceptions. That it's supposed to be easy.
Oh, how we get discouraged when it's not. That it's not worth
it. Can't see what it's for. That
it's all you, that you're on your own for it. And then it's
just maybe unappealing, not terribly helpful. Well, this letter was
written to Timothy, a pastor and an elder. But friends, this
letter is also written for us. I like the title, Elders as Examples
of Godliness, in part because it helps us to discern the texture
in the book. When we read these pastoral epistles,
they're written to Timothy first, but they were written to be heard
by the congregation. And when we hear it first to
the spiritual leaders, it helps us to hear not only how, for
example, in this sermon, we can grow in godliness, but what we
need from our leaders by way of godliness. It was written
for us to think of first Timothy one. He says Paul an apostle
of Jesus Christ by the command our God are of God our Savior
to Timothy to Timothy, but then notice in verse 6 where we were
today. If you put these things before the brothers, you will
be a good servant of Jesus Christ. So God through his spirit Jesus
is spirit has given. through Paul, this letter to
Timothy, who is to give these things, to put these things,
to command and teach these things to the saints. And so that's
what we do this morning. It was written to an elder pastor,
but it was to be read out loud for all to hear because all need
it. Well, we all know what it's like
to pick up a sport for the first time. If you throw a football
and it wobbles, like it does most of the time when I throw
a football to this day, You might, if you're a kid, I've noticed
this happens, you throw the football and think, I can't do it. Like you come either out of the
box with all the skill to perform at the level of professionals,
or you come with no skill. And the idea that trying again
and trying again and trying again, that over time with training,
one can grow, that idea needs to be taught. And maybe we need
that. as well when it comes to godliness.
That's what Paul does here. Look at verse 6. 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 of the good
doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent
silly myths. Rather, train, there's that word
again, yourself for godliness. Friends, godliness is not easy.
First, godliness requires personal training. It requires personal
training. Verses 6 and 7, as we've just
read. I don't know if Timothy was a gym rat or not. We know
he was frail. Maybe that's because he hurt
now. It wasn't because he hurt himself. He had a difficult stomach.
He might not have been a gym rat, but he would have known
all about them. In every age where there have been humans,
at least where there have been men, there have been body sculpting
and exercise and athletics. And there was in the Roman world
at the time. If you frequent the gym, you
have either had a personal trainer or you have been pitched on personal
training. I like personal trainers. A personal
trainer directs your nutrition. That's one thing that they will
do. What you put in your body, protein, calories, what kind,
at what time and in what amounts. It's not much use to exercise
if you're eating junk or if you're not eating the right food. They
say it's 80% diet. I rummaged around the internet
to see if that's true. I wasn't able exactly to isolate
it. Maybe it's true, maybe it's not,
or maybe it just needs to get said because diet is the harder
thing to keep up with. When you're at the gym with your
trainer, you've got a person right there holding you accountable.
When you're on your own with the nachos or with the menu and
a Dr. Pepper and free refills, your
personal trainer is not there. So you've got apps where you
can keep track and whatnot. In any case, diet's super important,
and a personal trainer will help you with nutrition. If you're
disciplined with your diet, you're likely to see results. Well,
Timothy was to train himself in the words of the faith in
sound doctrine. He was to train himself, to nurture
himself on the words of the faith and sound doctrine. And the church
is nourished with words. This language of good doctrine
or sound doctrine, you'll remember is where we get the language
of healthy church, soundness or healthy. A healthy church
is a church nourished on the word, nourished and fed on the
word of God, sound. words comes from the idea of
health. The healthy church is nourished
on good words, not silly myths, but sound words, not sugary treats,
but the substance of scripture. Jesus himself said, as you'll
remember, man does not live on bread alone, but by every word
that comes from the mouth of God, which means friends that
at Heritage, we give ourselves to words. I need to put it that
simply, don't I? We're a people who give ourselves
to words. We sing words that mean things. We preach sound doctrine. I pray
with God's help. And we work hard at getting words
right because the health of the church hangs on her words. The church is not a social club,
although I love socializing. with you, and socializing isn't
at odds with what we actually are in the first place, and that
is a book club or a Bible club. And there's socializing that
happens, but it happens around the book. And when it happens
around the book, it multiplies the book's strength for our godliness.
There's a second kind of training that a personal trainer helps
with. It's exercise, go figure. A personal
trainer will put that nutrition to work through exercises and
regimens. Verse 7, train yourself for godliness. Train yourself for godliness. These things are connected, by
the way. These aren't like two entirely separate things. Listen,
listen carefully. In chapter one, he speaks about
the law laid down, not for the just, but the lawless and disobedient. He ticks off a list of godless
sins, the unholy, profane, those who strike their fathers and
mothers, murderers, sexual immorality, those who practice homosexuality,
enslavers, liars, perjurers, and then to just capture it all. And whatever else is contrary
to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory
of the blessed God with which I've been entrusted." There's
a connection between sound doctrine, training in it, and Godliness.
Chapter 6, he says, if anyone teaches a different doctrine
and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus and the
teaching that accords with godliness. So our training and our nurture
in the sound words is step one on the way to our training in
godliness. This idea of training is helpful
to us, isn't it? It's helpful to me. It tells
me that the matter of growing in godliness and God likeness
is hard. It encourages me to know that
it does take time so that while there aren't always immediately
apparent results that in the course of time God does work
through these words to grow a man. And it takes discipline. Like so many things that take
discipline. These things don't come naturally to us. Training
in godliness. Here's D.A. Carson on our natural
drift. People do not drift toward holiness,
he writes. Apart from grace-driven effort,
people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience
to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord. We drift toward
compromise and call it tolerance. We drift toward disobedience
and we call it freedom. We drift toward superstition
and we call it faith. We cherish the indiscipline of
lost self-control and call it relaxation. We slouch toward
prayerlessness and delude ourselves into thinking we have escaped
legalism. And we slide toward godlessness
and convince ourselves we have been liberated. Oh, how we have
to be careful. No wonder in chapter one, Paul
warns against those, even by name, who have drifted from the
faith and have made a shipwreck of their faith. Indeed, godliness
takes work. Well, how can we protect ourselves
against this drift? Train yourselves for godliness. He doesn't give us the specific
regimens, the specific exercises. We certainly know what it is
not. We are tempted to fill in the blank here in the wrong way.
We need only to go back a few verses. Look with me to verse
1 in chapter 4. This is the guess and the approach
of some on the ground at Ephesus to godliness. He speaks about
the teaching of demons, verse 2, through the insincerity of
liars whose consciences are seared. who forbid marriage and require
abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving
by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created
by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it's received
with thanksgiving, for it's made holy by the word of God in prayer."
So one approach to godliness on offer in that church was the
constriction of human appetites, the protection of the Christian
in the church against sin by the walling off of the church
from the indulgence of particular appetites, be that an appetite
for certain food or drink or the appetite for sex that God
has put in all of us, but with boundaries, but with both. There
is sin and abuse, and yet these appetites are God-given, and
they're a gift from God. And through the means of the
Word of God, objectively, in prayer, subjectively, these things
are set apart and made holy, and they're the rightful part
of every godly Christian's life, if God grants such a thing as
marriage as an example. So one way to approach godliness
that might feel disciplined, that might feel hard and therefore
like it's what God wants is asceticism. the restricting of ourselves
from certain behaviors, from this or that, and we can all
drift into this. License on the one side, and
sometimes it's called legalism on the other side. It was on
offer there in the first century, and it's always a threat. It
rises from the human heart, mine and yours. But that's not actually
the way to godliness, although it might have looked it, and
although those who were committed to it might have felt it, it's
a kind of fake protein It had the label, but it wasn't even
just fake and not nutritious. It was actually poison. It's part of why Paul urges Timothy
to instruct some not to teach a different doctrine. No, those
who would give themselves to this kind of approach to godliness,
he even connects it to God. They miss God himself and his
goodness in his gifts. Well, what is it to train ourselves
for godliness then? It's going to involve exposure
to God himself, which can be hard because we do not naturally
want exposure to God himself. But in salvation, God makes us
to want exposure to him. We have a reflex that we are
drawn into him. And as we feed that reflex, it
grows as we grow in the knowledge of him. discipline or training
and godliness involves the regular engagement with God through his
word. It involves the regular engagement
of God through prayer, both of which we see highlighted across
this book sound doctrine, sound doctrine and prayer and prayer
and both of which are to be engaged by every Christian individually,
but not just individually, but corporately. which means training
in godliness is yes, opening up the scriptures daily. Maybe I'll put a parentheses
in daily because we don't get a command daily, but we are told
that we don't live on bread alone, but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God, there's no command to. Eat bread every
day, and yet we do it because we know we need it. And as we
do it, we grow in our hunger for it. Well, same is true with
the Word. Give yourself to it. Set aside
time to open the Word of God. Pray as you do for an encounter
with him in the Word that he's given. And I pray he'll meet
you there. Maybe it is the case that you
haven't had a daily time set aside to open the scriptures
and to hear from God's word. And maybe it's the case that
over time you're, maybe early on that was something you felt
guilty about and it was bothered by, maybe you've gotten used
to it. It's possible that like anyone
malnourished and underfed, your body, your soul has learned to
accommodate. and you've lost a feeling for
God. Well, I would encourage you that even if you don't at
the moment have a hunger for God, the hunger you know you
ought to have, that God can give it to you and he'll actually
do it through his word. So open up the scriptures. Maybe
delete Facebook and Instagram and Hootsuite off your phone
like I have to do sometimes. So maybe put the phone somewhere
else. I have it in a drawer sometimes
in my house. Find yourself in a desolate place like the Lord
Jesus himself was to open the scriptures and to pray. And if all that's new to you,
or if you need a kick, tell a Christian friend, I need a kick. So I need
a plan. Let's talk about this. I need
you to ask me about it and pray for me that God will give me
a hunger for himself through his word. And I pray that he'll
do that for you individually. But guess what? There's a corporate
dimension to this too. And this is an aspect that God
uses in a far greater measure than I think we give him credit
for. For many of you, it's a habit to go to church on Sunday morning,
and that's a biblical habit. Don't forsake meeting together
as is the habit of some, for you need the encouragement from
the scriptures and the saints when you come here, all the more
as we see the day drawing near. It's from Hebrews 10. And when
we come here and we put ourselves under the word, God is at work
as we hear his word. It feels a little less, like
a little less work, although it's work to listen to a sermon,
maybe perhaps my sermons, a little less Abe, he moves around. It's
a little less work. It feels more passive. Listening
to a sermon is not a passive engagement. But be encouraged
that in the first century, did you know that these saints didn't
go home with a copy of the Bible? They may have some memorized,
but they probably didn't feel guilty for not having their daily
devotion, if you will. It's a stewardship we should
give ourselves to. No doubt they were in the scriptures. I don't
know what the pattern exactly looked like, but what they were
doing was getting in the room together and opening the word
and praying it and singing it and reading it and hearing it
preached. Even next week, Paul will tell Timothy, you immerse
yourself in these things and you publicly read and you publicly
preach the scriptures. Here's my point. God will use
your individual daily prayers and scripture reading and I pray
you give yourself to it. But if you don't, Keep showing
up. And if you do keep showing up
because every week I'm fully convinced that he is using the
preached word. Even as you sit there and look at me and hear
the words I'm preaching and as much as it's faithful to scripture,
his spirit is using it to change you. Week in, week out and to
fill you. This here being in the room together
is a matter of spiritual discipline. This is one way in which God
is training you. for godliness. And I pray that
as you look back in your life over years, that unless you have
been hardening your heart in hearing the word, which is possible
by the way, that God has increasingly softened your heart to hear the
word and conformed you into the image of his glorious, beautiful
son. And I'll tell you that you don't
feel as godly as you should be, and that's appropriate. Neither
do I. But there are so many lovely,
godly saints in the room. And I pray he's at work in you.
I know he is. I was talking to my brother this
last week. This last month, he had some travel, and he's out
of the pulpit. He's a preacher as well. We have
a similar pattern. We're just talking about how
the month went. And he said he had to drag himself into his
study, and his heart wasn't there, and just felt spiritually flabby,
to use the imagery of training, personal training. And then it
occurred to him that he'd fallen off the wagon on daily prayer
and scripture, and really hadn't been disciplined in his repentance
from sin, and acknowledging and confessing sin, And no wonder. And it might be that you don't
know what you're missing. You're intermittent at church.
You're intermittent in your Bible reading. And you don't feel like
the Christian man or woman that you ought to be. And maybe you're
right. And maybe it's that you need
to give yourself in discipline and training to those ordinary
means of grace God has given to us. Prayer and the Word and
gathering with his people. My brother recognized that in
part because he had a taste for God. and a love for the training. And if you've ever had a personal
trainer or just trained yourself, or if you go running at five
in the morning like some of you clowns on a Strava or Instagram,
thank you Dan Rundle for your morning tweets with pictures
of yourself and your little map. I'll never do it. I'll never
do it. But as you do it, isn't it true
that you get used to it and that you have a hunger for it? And
what was painful is still painful, but for some reason you love
it. It's that way too. It's that way too with scripture.
So give yourself to the words, nourish yourself on the words,
train yourself for godliness and see what God will do. How
incredible a thing it is that God would take a sinner like
me, a sinner like you, and that we could even presume to say
that God is at work to make us something like himself. Don't
miss, don't miss, don't miss the training. And thank God our
personal trainer is the Holy Spirit. And that we have the
help of each other. No silly myths, friend. No spiritual
sugary teaching. It doesn't help. It's all poison.
We don't need to merely wall ourselves off from appetites.
We need to open our hearts up and our affections up to God
himself. Now there are some things that
are hard and they're worth it. There are some things that are
hard and they're not worth it. Frankly, godliness comes with
costs. Jesus himself promised that he
not, that persecution would follow for righteousness. It's a promise. Pursue godliness, you're going
to get hurt. But the promise included more
than that. He said, blessed are those of you who are persecuted
for righteousness. Friends, godliness is worth it. It may not feel worth it, and
that may be one reason why you're lax in your training, but friends,
it's so worth it. And so number two, godliness
is powered with a promise. It's power with a promise. We'll
start in verse seven. Have nothing to do with these
irreverent silly myths. Train yourself for godliness.
For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is a
value in every way as it holds promise for the present life
and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy. It
deserves full acceptance. Full acceptance. Partial commitment
won't do. Not just full acceptance of the
training program, full acceptance of the promise that it holds
out. All in. Why? Because we're talking about life
here. We're talking about life. And
Americans get life. A better life is why we Americans
are obsessed with exercise and nutrition. Not all Americans,
of course, but enough of us. It's a hallmark of our particular
culture. Diet fads and home and gym exercise
programs abound. P90X to the ab flex. I almost improv'd and made you
raise your hand if you ever bought an ab flex, but then I... exercise
pastoral discernment and decided to pull that one. And I know
some of you do P90X, and I won't call you out, and that's a good
thing that you're doing it. I found this quote interesting on Wikipedia. Every preacher's brainstorming
partner. As with most fitness products marketed to homes, advertisements
often emphasize that the thigh master could be used while doing
something else. It occurred to me this is true.
The infomercials featured people watching television and exercising
with the Thighmaster at the same time. Hey, I guess that's better
than just watching TV. The Thighmaster holds out a certain
promise for this life. The joke, but of course all physical
training holds out a certain measure of promise for this life. The Bible is happy to affirm
that. Making a god of your body? Bad. Exercise? A given, even. It holds out promise for this
life. Here's what training for godliness
holds out. Verse 8, promise for the present
life and also for the life to come. Holds out promise for the
present life. Godlessness. Godlessness is a
life suck. Who wants to work with the kind
of person described in chapter one? The lawless and disobedient,
the ungodly, ungodly and sinners for the unholy and profane, those
who strike their fathers and mothers or for murderers for
the sexually immoral. And he goes on. And in chapter
six, If anyone teaches a different doctrine and doesn't agree with
the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that
accords with godliness, if he doesn't, he's puffed up with
conceit. This is ungodliness. And he understands
nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for
controversy and quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension,
slander, evil suspicions, constant friction among people who are
depraved in mind and deprived of the truth. Imagining that
godliness is a means of gain and godliness is only a matter
of gain in this life in their mind. It's utilitarian. Oh, scary,
scary people. How many of these characters
are actually happy? Who would want to be married for somebody
who craved a quarrel, who loved the friction? Oh, they exist. I exist. Sometimes I, You just
have to listen to me, apparently love the friction. It's the nature
of ourselves and our own sin in our godlessness. We are sometimes
in our flesh, even though we have the spirit that we can relate
with some of this, even if it's not full, full blown. Who would
want to work with that person? It provides promise for this
life. The South Carolina Chamber of Commerce recognized this past
week, 75 businesses, as the best places to work in the state,
and substantive interviews, surveys, and engagement with employees
at these companies was worked out. So it's not like, you know,
they interviewed the boss, rate your company, we trust you. No,
it's like a report card, one friend said, on the company,
and a huge achievement to make it to that list at many, many
levels. Well, three, get this, Someone
do the math for me on this and then email me this week. Three
Heritage members accepted awards on behalf of their companies
at this event. Given the number of businesses
in the state, given the number of churches in the state, I think
that's a testament, a humble testament to God's work through
his word in training men and women for godliness. to yield
promise for this life in fruitfulness in the workplace. I pray that
if you're a boss, that you're good to work for, and that you're
happy, that you're a good spouse, that you're not a liar or a perjurer
or engaged in an affair on the side. And if that can be said
of you, that is that you aren't those things, but you're a good
boss and spouse to whatever extent praise to God for the promise
that he keeps. Godliness holds out promise for
this life, but it also holds out promise for the life to come.
That's a curious statement. I take it. I take it that godliness
now is a kind of preparation for the life to come. It's the
start of what comes into completion in the life to come. And in some
measure, perhaps there is some way in which we taste things
we wouldn't otherwise taste for the way that godliness was worked
in us here. That to me is a bit of a mystery,
but it is at the very least to lay beside bodily training, which
we're so good and committed to good at and committed to next
to training for godliness, which is immeasurably more valuable. than what we give ourselves to
in this life. Give yourself to physical training
and your studies and whatever else you work hard at. Train
yourself for godliness. It holds out a very great promise. Indeed, it is powered with a
promise. It's powered with a promise.
Now, does this mean, we've got to ask this, does this mean that
godliness in this life is a ticket to the life to come? It holds
out promise for this life and the life to come. Is it a ticket
for the life to come? That we have to be like God in
order to be with God. I pray you have a clear answer
to that one. It's one reason we have verse
10 for to this end godliness. We toil and strive. because we
have set our hope on the living God, who is the savior of all
people, especially those who believe. Third, godliness, my
friends, flows from a person. It flows from a person, verse
10. To this end, godliness and all that promises, we toil and
we strive. We toil, we strive now. Why? So that we will have hope,
No, because we have already set our hope in the living God. And therefore we toil and we
strive. Our hope is not in ourselves.
It is not in our own ability. It is not in our family heritage. It is not in our church here.
It is not in our preacher or our elders or our closest and
most encouraging Christian friends. We have set our hope in the person
of the living God himself. And that's the way a church grows
in its health. When each of its people's hope
is fixed squarely on its God and not in its church, but in
its God. The God who has life in himself
fills us so that we overflow in life to one another. Not the
God who is an idea, not the God who is a system, not the God
who is a philosophy, not the God who is a way of life that
works. We set our hope in a living person,
the living God himself, and it is a sturdy and it is a secure
hope. This is the beginning and the
end of godliness. And Paul won't let Timothy miss
who God is. For godliness begins with staring
him in the face, which is why we read Excuse me. In chapter 1, he's
speaking to Timothy concerning his calling, concerning God's
mercy, and he says to the king of ages, immortal, invisible,
the only God to be honor and glory forever. Amen. And toward the end of the book
in chapter six, he'll say, he who is blessed and only sovereign,
the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality,
who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen
or can see, to him, this God be glory and honor and eternal
dominion. How long? Forever. Paul has held out before Timothy
and Timothy holds out before his church. And we today hold
out before each other the glory of the eternal God, immortal,
invisible, the only God who dwells in unapproachable light. And
it's in gazing into his face and it's an exposure to who God
is in himself that we're drawn into his glory and changed by
it. Spurgeon put it this way. Nearness
to God brings likeness to God. The more you see God, the more
of God will be seen in you. And so friends, hear this. We are not a church that emphasizes
the God of good news without emphasizing the God who makes
us godly. because we are not so cruel as
to suggest God saves us from the penalty of our sin without
rescuing us from the power of sin that keeps us from him and
our full enjoyment in him. We're a church committed to the
good news that saves us, that produces in us, that makes possible
in us godliness. But equally as problematic, We are not a church, that is
if we were. We are not a church that emphasizes
godliness without emphasizing the God who makes it possible. Oh, how hellish a church that
would be. Have you been a part of a church
like that? I pray I don't drift there in my preaching, in my
own emphasis on my own heart. A church that would emphasize
godliness, being like God, without God. hopeless because you don't
have anything in yourself that can be like God. It's only through
exposure to God and all of his glory that you can be drawn into
that glory and be changed. Now, does the living God extend
salvation to every person? Because it kind of sounded like
it, doesn't it? That's what it sounds like in verse 10. We have
set our hope in the living God, who is the savior of all people,
especially those who believe. In a given sermon, there's usually
a moment where we need to pause and tool around and get clear
on something. And this is a passage that's
worth a few moments along those lines. Does this mean that God
saves all people? Two insights will help us here.
It may sound like there's a general salvation and then a specific
kind of salvation, a more special kind of salvation. First, In
Rome, Caesar was the savior of the whole world, as in he was
unrivaled and his reign was not confined to his own. But Christians
proclaimed Jesus as the savior of the whole world, and so do
we, as in Jesus is the savior of all people in the sense that
he is the only savior that is. That's the first helpful contextual
qualification. And the second one, it has to
do with this word especially. And I hate to point out a word
that's not a very good translation, but grammatical work has been
done to show that, especially in terms of how we hear it, isn't
the best way to hear this original word. It sounds like he saves
one group and then saves another group, especially. Does Jesus's
blood cover the sins of those who do not believe is a question
that's asked sometimes. I don't believe he does. That
word especially should better be translated in other words.
It's a way of narrowing the field of what he means while emphasizing
the universality of Jesus's saving work. As in Jesus saves men and
women from every tribe and language and nation. He's the only savior
that is. And he saves specifically those
who believe. So what are we to take away from
this? the sheer saving sovereignty of God. Christianity, friends,
is not about us becoming like God unto salvation. Christianity begins with God
becoming like us to save us. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. It's a trustworthy saying. Paul
hasn't forgotten it. He's got a whole paragraph embedded
in chapter one where he speaks of God's mercy twice on him as
a foremost of sinner. God saves, in other words, the
worst kind of people, a blasphemer, persecutor, an insolent opponent. He doesn't save those who are
neutral toward him. He saves those who are insolent
opponents of him. But I received mercy, Paul writes,
and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, what overflowed for me
with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is
deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I'm the foremost. He saves the
worst kind of sinner, and friend, he can save you. I pray you believe. If you haven't believed on Jesus
because you felt unworthy for him, you're just about there
because you have to get that. You have to get that you aren't
godly and that you're not worthy of God. You have to get that
you're an insolent opponent of God at base in order to be able
to acknowledge your great need for such a thing as a cross,
which God has provided. And it's often on offer for you,
for those who believe. At Heritage, our hope is in the
living God. We toil and we strive to be like
him, not because we are on our own in this, but because we know
him. And because it starts and ends with him, we want friends
to give him the credit for all that he works in us. Timothy
would need to remind his people of this. Listen to how he would
remind the rich about this in his congregation. It's beautiful
language. He says, as for the rich in the
present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to, here's
the language, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches,
but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.
They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous
and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as
a good foundation for the future so that they may lay hold of
that which is truly life. It's like Paul is applying what
he said in today's verses and showing Timothy how to speak
to those with with incredible wealth concerning where the source
of true life is and where their hope must be. What would give Timothy the clout
to say such a thing to such people? Well, there's a final misconception
that godliness is unappealing, that it isn't basic to the work
of eldering. Yes, it's unappealing to the
world, yes, but perhaps even in the church, we feel that godliness
could be communicated as snootiness or put us elders at a distance
from you. Maybe it's easier to laugh at
the ungodly on the edge joke than it is to, maybe it's easier
to participate in the, what's slander or gossip, but maybe
it's clouded in other language and terms and prayer than it
is to rise above it. It's hard to be above reproach.
It comes with costs even in the church. It would for Timothy
in this church. But it was more than just a qualification.
It was basic to his persuasion as an elder where he was at.
Perhaps Timothy underappreciated the power of an upright life
for his ministry at Ephesus. Verse 11, command and teach these
things. 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. Godliness, fourth, spreads through
a pattern, spreads through a pattern. Timothy was probably, oh, 37
years old. Yours truly is 37 years old. I think Leonard announced that
it was my birthday when I turned 37 back in January. Did anyone
hear that? I turned 37 on a Sunday and he said, happy birthday,
Trent. And I heard it from where I was at, but I heard other people
didn't hear it. And so as I was walking down these stairs, I
said, happy birthday to me. And in any case, he called it
first and then I called it. I'm 37. Timothy was 37 years
old. If you're 15 years up on me,
maybe 10 years up on me, frankly, if you're a year up on me, it
might be hard to respect me. Can I say that? It might be hard
to defer or take my lead. And I'm not the only elder who's
young. We've got a whole span of ages,
largely I think from early thirties to early sixties is about the
range. Maybe it's gone a little younger.
It's certainly gone a little older at times and then across
that spectrum. But it's generally the case,
and I can testify to this, that you get 10 or 15 years up on
a guy and he's kind of got to prove himself. Let no one despise
you. I suspect Timothy was in a position
of being despised by some in his congregation. This is not
a license to despise the younger who are among leadership here. It is merely to acknowledge a
social reality given the nature of sin. What is Timothy to do
about it? Is he to assert his position?
Is he to call on his rank? Is he to demand followership?
Is he to ignore those who despise him? No, he's given a strategy
here. His role as an example will gain
him a hearing and is itself a form of teaching. So here's some takeaways.
It means that spiritual leadership is more than talking or doing
or deciding, but it is at base. It is also being. We do not merely
talk people into growing into godliness as elders, but we walk
them into godliness as elders. Youth is not a disqualification
for leadership, granted that the man is the right kind of
man. The congregation will not look down on somebody that they
apparently, by virtue of his life, they look up to. And that's
a challenge in such a large congregation because there are so many of
you. Shepherds need to be visible and present. Their example needs
to be seen, corporately and individually. Godliness is for everyone, not
a special class. Elders are not godly for you,
they're an example for you in which you follow. And godliness
is socially cultivated. Your relationships with one another
and with leaders are a part of how God will cultivate godliness
in you. None of us are alone. And get
this, godliness is actually possible for every Christian. We just need to say that it's
God's work. It's not a human achievement, but in God's kindness,
he saves us and then he gets to work on us. And one of the
ways that he does that is through the example of elders. So back
to that, let me speak to our elders in closing. Men, the 17
of you, through our speech, we show how a person speaks when
they believe God hears every word and when they believe Jesus
died to forgive every sin of speech. Men, through our conduct,
our lives show how a person lives when Jesus is for us the king
of ages, the king of his kingdom that will last forever. Through
our love, we transmit the very heart of God to those around
us with tenderness and concern and interest in sacrificial services,
those who have first received mercy and overflowing grace. And through our faith, we show
how trustworthy this God is. We believe every word that comes
from his mouth by God's grace. And through our purity, we reflect
the very purity of God. And in all of this, we set an
example for the believers with the hope and with the prayer
that over time, the water level is always raising on the work
of God to make his people godly. And for to this end, friends,
we toil and we strive. All of us toil and strive in
congregation, an elder on behalf of an elder team. We toil and
strive for you because we have set our hope in the living God.
As we pray, you will. This saying is trustworthy and
it's deserving of full acceptance. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for this word concerning godliness, what it is and how
it comes about. And father, we pray, even as
we read these words, and I pray, even as I speak these words,
that you would do what only you can do to make us more like yourself. And we give you all of the credit
and all of the praise for it. Father, as we have sung, we are
compelled by joy, compel us by joy to fight the sin that turns
our gaze from your glory. For your Holy Spirit dwells within
us and his present arms us for victory. Let death and hell against
us rise. Through death, we'll gain eternal
joys. All powers of hell will bend
the knee before my great King of glory. In his name we pray,
amen.
Elders as Examples of Godliness
Series 1 Timothy series
| Sermon ID | 8518825244 |
| Duration | 58:05 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 4:6-12 |
| Language | English |
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