1 Timothy 4

0:00 piano plays softly Thank you.

1:00 Thank you. Thank you.

2:00 Thank you. Good morning again.

2:48 Okay. This morning we're going to be back in 1 Timothy, chapter 4. You'll find that on page 992 of one of these Red Pew Bibles. If you don't have a Bible with you, feel free to grab that from the seat back in front of you or underneath the seat in front of you, and you'll find it on page 992, continuing on in a series we've been doing the last few weeks here in 1 Timothy. So, I don't think of myself as that old, but apparently I am. So, the gray aside in the beard, I know there's some of you older, though not many here in the church.

3:26 Believe it or not, a long time ago, before many of you were alive even, we actually had to get around from place to place on our own without a smartphone. Yes, gasp. We actually had to know where we were going or stop and ask for directions, and people there would presumably know how to get us where we wanted to go. So it felt a little bit like the Wild West, but one of the greatest inventions in that time frame then was the GPS. And this wonderful little gadget that was about the size of a TV monitor you could buy, you know, for way too much money and throw it up on your dashboard there.

4:04 And that thing would presumably tell you in real time where you needed to go. The problem was, though, is that it wasn't always correct. So the best example of how bad a GPS could be at times is actually, I think, from the TV show The Office. So it sounds like many of you know the episode where Michael and Dwight are driving, and all of a sudden they come up on a turn, and Michael's told to turn, and what happens there is just hilarious. So he's actually stopped just a little bit short of an intersection, and the little GPS is telling him, kind of barking at him, turn right, turn right, turn right.

4:38 But he's not at the turn yet. He's shy of the intersection. So he stops fully, kind of looks, and he's at this point of, what do I do? What do I do? Well, Dwight, his buddy, if you don't know the show, sitting next to him, is saying, no, no, no, Michael, that means go up there to the intersection and then bear right and cross over that bridge. You can see the road signs. That's what it's telling you to do. Well, Michael doesn't really believe that. No, this thing's telling me to turn right, turn right. So what's he do? Well, of course, he turns right immediately, drives through a gate down a little path and straight into a lake.

5:10 I mean, that is just hilarious, especially the way it all unfolds. But what's striking about all of that is it's not that he just trusted the GPS too much. It's how many small decisions got him to that point in the first place, right? He kept listening to the wrong voice in spite of the fact that there was common sense, there were road signs, and he had a friend right there telling him, don't do that, right? He still trusted the wrong voice. That's exactly the dynamic, I think, that Paul is warning Timothy about in 1 Timothy chapter 4.

5:43 People don't set out to fall away and depart from the faith. They just simply devote themselves little by little, decision by decision, choice by choice, to the wrong guide. And those small choices then create a direction which finally result in a destination. And Paul here in this chapter is holding up two paths. Two paths for us to see. One that leads away from the faith and one that leads toward godliness. So, as I said, we've been in 1 Timothy the last few weeks, but maybe this is the first time that you've been here with us, and so just very briefly catching you back up on that.

6:19 This letter of 1 Timothy was written by Timothy, or excuse me, by the Apostle Paul to his co-laborer named Timothy. Timothy was at this church in a city called Ephesus, and in the church that had been planted roughly a decade prior to Paul sending him this letter. And in that time, in that decade or so, significant issues have bubbled up to the top that they're now facing, most of all of which have to deal with false teaching. So there's false teaching that's causing confusion on men and women and how they're to relate to one another. There's false teaching causing confusion on how the leadership of the church should function. We looked at that last week, and now there's false teaching that's causing confusion on what things in life should and shouldn't be enjoyed and how they can and can't be enjoyed. That church was bombarded by confusing false teaching and so just like the gps that gives persistent but wrong directions those false teachings confronting the church were becoming hard to ignore and for some of them they

7:19 had just quit trying to ignore the false teaching altogether and instead they were devoting themselves to that teaching and that's where we are today so let's read first timothy chapter four with that in mind. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons 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 is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. 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

8:23 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 our hope set 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, in 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 so that whole chapter i think structurally breaks down into two big chunks you've got two

9:25 overarching chunks there with the second chunk kind of having a few different facets to it but those chunks are verses one to five you see that really clearly there it's paul showing the wrong path of devoting oneself to false teaching that's the wrong path and then verses six through 16 it's generally showing what devotion to the right path looks like you've got two little subsections verses 6 to 10 and 11 to 16. 6 to 10 is really Paul showing this is what it looks like the right path at a general level. You train for godliness, and then 11 to 16 it's at a specific level for Timothy. What does training for godliness look like for him and for those whom he would help?

10:05 So with those two kind of paths in mind, here's what I think the main idea of this passage that Timothy, that Paul is writing to Timothy, and therefore what we need to understand as well. here's the main idea for this. You'll either devote yourself to a path leading away from the faith or to a path leading to godliness. You either devote yourself to a path leading away from the faith or to a path leading to godliness. Which path will you choose? That breaks down into two very easy points for the sermon. There's those two paths that we've talked about. That first one rejects what God has done. And the second point, there's a path that hopes in what God has done.

10:51 So first, the path that rejects what God has done, the path that leads to apostasy. One of the more important things to do when reading your Bible is to understand the context, right? You've been told that time and time again, even from this pulpit, that you've got to remember where you are in the letter, that that matters tremendously. Well, here, right here in chapter 4, we're on the heels of this mountaintop teaching. Look back over to chapter 3, what came right before this. What did we talk about last week? There's this hymn of who Jesus is. Paul's explaining this mystery of godliness, and it's really just the gospel, that Jesus has come to save sinners. And it's right on the heels of that that you get this passage, right? That was the crescendo not only of this book, but really that teaching about who Jesus is. It's the crescendo of all of the universe. And yet Paul follows it up by saying, hey, you know what? Some are going to resist that teaching. But Paul didn't just come up with that on his own. What does it say here? It

11:56 says that the Spirit expressly says somehow the Holy Spirit had communicated this very thing to Paul. And Paul's concerned now to make sure that Timothy understands, look, you're going to preach the gospel, and some will believe, yes, but some will fall away. Some will fade. Some will not listen. It's a stark picture of reality. It truly is. And when will this happen? Well, he says it's in the later times. He's talking about their times, really, and it extends all the way to today. This will happen even today. But how will that happen? How will these people fall away? Well, look at verse 3. They'll depart from the faith because they believe wrong doctrine.

12:48 They don't believe the truth about God. And in particular here, they're not believing that what God has created is good. Look, this is vital to wrap your mind around. If you're going to understand how people fall away from the faith, how they depart from the faith. I think when we start talking about apostasy or deconstruction, right, that'd be the term that you might be more familiar with in today's world, someone deconstructed from their faith. When we start thinking about deconstruction, we often wonder how in the world did that happen? That guy, that girl seemed to be a faithful Christian. How did this happen? What steps were missed along the way? How did we not see that coming with that person. Well, it's usually because we're looking for wrong signals.

13:31 We're just looking for something flashy that screams at us, false teaching, false teaching. But that's just usually not how it works. That's probably not even the case here in 1 Timothy 4. For whatever reason, we simply don't know here, these false teachers, or liars as they're called in verse 2, they've begun teaching that the good gift of marriage and that certain foods, those things in particular here are to be shunned. They're to be rejected by Christians. Look, they may have even developed some sort of plausible reason for this. You could just imagine something like, hey, look, if you're single, that means you've got more time to devote to the gospel or to God, so it's better to be single, and you should not want to get married, right? You can imagine something like that, but we simply don't know exactly why or how they phrased it. But whatever the case, we do know this, that they were saying that the good things that God had given were now bad and they were to be rejected. And some of the people there were falling for it.

14:37 Verse 2 says that the insincerity of liars is what they were falling for. That's really the hypocrisy of liars. It would maybe be a different translation for that. Well, what is hypocrisy. What do you understand hypocrisy to be? Hypocrisy at its root is just saying something that you don't mean. You said this, but you never actually meant that. You meant this instead. It's acting. It's playing a part. That's why at the root of it behind that word, it's the word for actor. So these liars, they're just saying things. They don't even actually mean these things.

15:13 They're smooth talkers, but that's all that it is. They're playing a part. They're acting so well, they're so convincing that now the listeners of those liars can't tell what's real and what's fake. Maybe their arguments were sophisticated and crafty, maybe they were polished and shiny. Certainly, they were enticing, but there was no substance to it. At the end of the day, it's just words, it's just hypocrisy. But what's worse here in this situation was that it wasn't just a matter of confusion. These weren't just people who said, I don't know what to believe.

15:51 I thought I was believing the right thing, but I'm believing this now. I don't know. I'm just kind of confused. No, this isn't like when a person first becomes a Christian, right? Think back, if you're a recent Christian or if you've been a Christian for decades, think back to that time as a new Christian, and you needed to be taught. You needed to be instructed, right? The Bible uses imagery over and over that those who are new Christians need milk, not solid food. They're not yet ready for the solid doctrines, the heavy doctrines. They will be. They should get to that point, but at the beginning they're not there. That's not what's happening here. This isn't immaturity necessarily. No, this is the slippery slope that we talk about. What should have been received with thanksgiving and seen as good is now rejected. And that very action sets in motion.

16:41 They're stumbling down the path of departing from the faith. Look, the reason this false teaching here is so bad in 1 Timothy 4 isn't just because it confuses what is good and bad or what is acceptable and unacceptable. No, it's because the goal of it seems to have been that you can obtain a salvation by works. Right? If you abstain from this, if you just keep this list of do's and don'ts correctly, then you'll have salvation. Oh, friends, you know that's a distortion of the gospel.

17:12 That's not the biblical gospel that's held out for us in the rest of the scriptures. But the way that plays out is familiar, isn't it? It's got a ring of familiarity to it. I mean, think about it. The thing being whispered in the ears of those there in Ephesus was more like, if what God has said is good is actually not good and right, then what else has he lied to you about? Can you really trust his word to you? Friends, that same hideous lie has been used from the garden, from the very beginning. Our enemy has used that tactic. And you can see how that works here in this passage, right? The people are what? They're devoting themselves to something.

18:03 That's an active thing that they're doing. They didn't wake up one day and suddenly find themselves entangled in a mess as though it wasn't their own doing. No, they gave attention to something over and over and over. Look, a good diagnostic question for you, what does it mean to be devoted? Well, you know what that's like. When you wake up and the first thing you do is grab your phone, because that's every one of us, I'm assuming, you grab your phone, what is it that you check? What's the first thing you check in the morning? Is it sports scores, the stock market, is it your work email? Look, those things aren't bad. This isn't me coming at those things necessarily, but it probably does reveal what consumes most of your heart, at least a certain percentage of your heart. You've devoted yourself to those things at some certain level. That's what's happening here. They've devoted themselves not to benign things, but to false teaching. They've given themselves over to it. And notice how all of that's in contrast to the truth. Look back to chapter 3 again. What did we end with last week in chapter 3? What did we see? Verse 15. The church

19:09 is to be a pillar and buttress of what? Of the truth. And that truth says something about who God is. But these people are liars. They're deceitful. What they say is contrary to the truth. And because they seem to be altering this good gift that the Lord has given and saying, what is good is now bad, that act in and of itself is distorting their conscience. That's what Paul means there in verse 2 when he says that their consciences have been seared. Look, if you hear truth over and over and over and you say it's not truth, that act distorts your conscience and eventually it serves to cauterize your conscience like hot metal pressing in on you. Friends, this is just a little sidebar, but be careful that this doesn't happen to you. Your conscience is intended to help guide you. But your conscience is not perfect. Your conscience needs to be trained constantly.

20:13 If you don't train it, or if you just consistently run roughshod over its warnings, you will sear your conscience. So where did all of this begin? This seems like a really bad position that they're in. Where did this begin? What's the origin of all of this? Well, look back in verse 1. What does it say? It says that it's deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. Look, this is spiritual in nature. These teachings originated in the spiritual realm. We don't know how. We don't know the mechanism by which it came to the people, but we do know that it's not simply neutral. It's not even just rational arguments that they were believing. No, these teachings were spiritually driven and spiritually directed, and they were pushing people in a direction spiritually.

21:08 Like false teaching that's effective, that actually works its way into our lives and into our hearts, is almost always presented in a certain way. Hear me on this. It's smooth. It's subtle. It's even convincing. It's definitely not something that comes announcing itself as false teaching, right? That wouldn't work. And here, what's happened is that they've taken something good, something that's created by the Lord to be enjoyed, something that's right, and they've twisted it. They've altered it. In effect, what they were saying is this pattern of life is not good. That this pattern of receiving good things from God is not good. It's actually to be rejected, to be avoided. The people were saying to believe that the way that the Lord has ordered his creation as good and right for you, that's wrong. But that's not so different than the evils we face today, is it? Isn't that really similar to what you and I face throughout

22:08 the week? You don't have to look very far to see how that plays itself out in our days. We're surrounded by a world that calls what is right wrong and what is wrong right. Our world says that it's right to have a choice to murder babies in the womb. We're told over and over that it's right for people to decide what gender they are or if they want to marry a man or a woman. Influencers, celebrities, cultural elites, they insist over and over that it's wrong to tell people that their choices could possibly be sinful. And our screens all day long bombard us with messages that say it's wrong to believe that there is salvation in no other name than Jesus.

22:57 And friends, where does all of that begin? Where's the origin for all of that? It begins in the spiritual realm. False teaching at its core, at its very basic core, is demonic. And it's driven by spirits that are opposed to the gospel and that are opposed to your faith in Jesus. Look, behind all of this, behind all of this that Paul is saying here to Timothy is that these things are evil, wicked spiritual forces.

23:30 That's not obvious on the front end, right? It might even look noble or wise or sophisticated. But they're not ever going to reveal themselves as demonic outright. But here's the deal. Here's the deal we need to understand. Their sole purpose, their sole purpose is to drag people away from the faith once delivered to the saints. And when Paul talks about how those around Timothy would believe wrong things, about what God has done and the good gifts that he's given, he doesn't just say that they're committed to a different and viable option. Oh, those people just have a different opinion on this, right? They have freedom of choice over here. No, he doesn't say that at all. He shows what's really going on. So, brothers, sisters, where in your heart do you see signs of attacks like this? Is it tempting for you to soften just a little, maybe just a little on your stance

24:30 regarding biblical sexuality and marriage? Maybe it's okay for others to believe that, just as long as I don't, right? Or are you finding yourself trying to make excuses for the claims of the gospel, yeah, I get it that Jesus said he's the only way to the Father, but maybe that was all culturally understood, and we just don't understand it correctly. Do you sense that you've started to look at the good gifts that the Lord has given you, the many good gifts in your life that the Lord has given you, and you grow frustrated, and you start to call them bad because they don't quite match up to your own expectations?

25:09 Friends, devoting yourself to believing and thinking about God and his gifts in that way means you're actually devoting yourself at the end of the day to evil forces. And in the end, those who do so depart from the faith. Look, we're not simply playing games when we're talking about false teaching. This is not some academic endeavor. Don't devote yourself to those who call the good that God has done bad. well then what are we supposed to do all right so if we don't do that what are we supposed to do instead well it's wonderful what we're supposed to do in fact we're to enjoy the good gifts that the lord's given us like if your view of enjoying things in in this life in in your life if it doesn't somehow include an understanding that the very things that god created are good and were meant to be received with thanksgiving then at best you just have a horrible misunderstanding of how you're supposed to live in God's creation. You just don't understand

26:11 it. It's not only permissible. I think this text is showing us that it's necessary for Christians to look around them and to see the good gifts that the Lord has given them. And then, guess what? To enjoy them. Look, your friends and your relationships here in this church, that's a good gift from the Lord. Enjoy them. Your ability to walk outside and enjoy a beautiful fall afternoon? Friends, that's a good gift from the Lord. That didn't just happen by accident. Your hot meal that you're going to eat in, I don't know, 30 minutes, an hour, however long I go, right? That's a good gift from the Lord. Like those things and a million other things, we go on and on listing all the good gifts the Lord has given us. Those things are made what? What does it say there in verse 5? That they're made holy. They become acceptable for Christians insofar as we recognize they're from God, right? We receive them by faith in the living God who saves us, and then our hearts return praise back to Him for those things. That's the key. These gifts are not

27:17 God. They come from God, and they show His love and goodness to us. Friends, some of you need to enjoy life. Some of you just need to calm down, go for a walk, enjoy a meal, laugh with a friend, read a book, build something, do whatever it is that brings you some joy, but you need to go do that, maybe even today. What you need to do in that is stop pretending like those things are bad, or even probably for most of you, just neutral, and can be pushed to the margins of your life.

27:49 Like, if you don't, you might be, but just a few steps away from falling into a view that leads you down a very dangerous path. Like, these verses don't give license for sin. Don't hear me wrong on that. What the Bible calls sin in other places is still sin. But what the Bible calls good in other places is also still good for us. Friends, enjoy this life. Smell the roses. Revel in a sunset. Go eat some good food this afternoon. enjoy time with friends, rejoice in your God. Believe it or not, all of those things, that's the best way to protect yourself from the path that leads to walking down away from your faith. So that's the first path. It's a path characterized by rejecting what God has done, and it leads to a departure from the faith. Let's look at the second path as well.

28:49 Point number two, the path that hopes in what God has done, leading to godliness. So thankfully, there's this other path, the one that hopes in what God has done. Look back at verse six. Paul says, if you put these things before the brothers, they're putting these things is probably more like instruct or teach. Timothy wasn't just giving out buffet options. It wasn't just, here's one of several different options. No, instruct them. Teach them that this is what they're to do. And what will happen if he does that? What's Paul say? You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Man, what an incredible status to have. Incredible. If you've ever done much flying, you know that there are huge benefits to having some type of status with the airline.

29:32 The trick, though, is that you got to do a lot of stuff to get that, right? You got to spend a lot of money, take a lot of flights, do something. There's always a trick to getting the status. Well, it's really easy, it turns out, to get this status of being a good servant of Christ Jesus. He just needs to faithfully instruct the church, put these things before the church. Well, how is it that Timothy's even able to do that? Why would he be qualified to do that? Well, it's because he's been trained by right teaching. He's been prepared by drinking from this well of good, solid, healthy doctrine.

30:07 The issue here then isn't, is Timothy ready for the task or is he not? Is he going to fall into the trap of just devoting his time and mind and heart to silly and irreverent things? That's what Paul says in verse 7. Or is he going to devote himself to training for godliness? He can't have it both ways. He's either going to devote himself to this or devote himself to this. Paul tells him what it needs to be. He needs to train for godliness. Well, how do you do that? What is training anyway. You know what training is. You know what it means to train. It's to seek to have an ability or have mastery over an ability or a skill or some set of way of living. We know exactly what that is with our bodies. We may not do it very much, but it's called exercise, right?

30:54 It's that grueling hard work of exercise. You can train your body in order to stay in shape and be a good steward of it and be healthy, and that's why Paul uses that as an example here. Look, I don't think Paul's worried that Timothy's going to confuse bodily training and godliness. He doesn't really have in mind that, Timothy, if I don't say this, you're going to think that your working out at the gym is going to earn you salvation. That's not what he's saying. No, instead, he's just pointing out, you know how the process of bodily training works. It's hard work, that you have to be consistent, that those gains are imperceptible, right? But that in the end, it's effective.

31:34 It's good work. But that whole process of training your body, well, what's it amount to? What in the end, what does it give you? Well, it results in some value, Paul says, something that fades away after time. But he says, if you take that same mechanism, devotion and effort and patience and trust in the process and you apply it to godliness, oh friends, that results in value in every way. Why? Well, what does he say? He says because godliness has eternal value. Look, there are two very clear things that we need to understand from that, from that alone. Number one is this, what you put into your heart and your life is in fact training you. It's doing something to you.

32:27 That's what Paul says in verse 6. Timothy's been trained by a certain type of teaching, and those things have developed within him something useful, something godly. So when he tells him to train himself for godliness, he's telling him just keep being trained by that good doctrine that you've already followed. Look, that's why you gather here every week. I don't know if you're aware of that, but that's why you gather here. It's to be trained. That's why you read your Bible on your own. It's to be trained. That's why you encourage one another with the scriptures, maybe over a coffee meeting.

32:58 It's to train one another. That's why you put yourself under the teaching of God's word at every chance you get. It's to be trained for godliness. Friends, you will be trained for something and by something. That's clear in this passage. The false teachers were training the minds and the hearts of those that they were leading astray, And that resulted in them rejecting the faith and walking away. But you can also train yourself for godliness.

33:30 The risk for you is that you'll devote yourself to the things that are worthless or secular or silly or just meaningless, right? That's the warning of that first part of verse 7. That's an allure that Paul knows exists for Timothy and it exists for you as well. What you put into your heart and your life will train you. But number two, the other thing we need to take away from this is that we were made for eternity. Friends, we are eternal. Our eternal home is not on this planet with these bodies in this age. Praise God. There is coming a day when there will be a new heavens and a new earth and you'll have a new body. But today's not that day, at least not yet today, right? So the risk for us then is that we'll devote all of our thoughts and energy and time to this body in this age, in this life. Paul points out that we should train for godliness instead. Why? Well, because godliness is eternal, and we are eternal. Brothers and sisters, don't lose sight of the fact that you are eternal, that you will live forever. Yes, if the Lord doesn't come back first, you will face that

34:37 death of this age. But that death is not the end. No, far from it. You will live forever with the Lord. As Christians, your citizenship is not here in America or some other country on this planet. Your citizenship is in heaven. This life is not all there is. So friends, it just doesn't make sense to devote all of your time and all of your energy and to live your life as though this is all that there will be friends prepare for the life to come prepare for eternity don't get stuck here don't let your minds wonder for the things of this earth and long for the things of this place when it's not even your final home you want to make an investment that matters invest in godliness it has value in every way both for this life and the life that's yet to come. And Paul says that teaching is so important, he just kind of double clicks on it there in verse

35:39 9. He brings back that statement that he's used in a few other places. This is a trustworthy statement. He's just saying, this thing, man, yes, pay attention to that. And then in verse 10, he wraps up the little bit by including himself in all of it. He's willing to work hard at it, just like he's asking Timothy to do. That's what he's saying there in verse 10. We toil and we strive and we give our max effort to this. Why? Well, because our eyes aren't set on the things of this life. They're set on the living God who is himself the Savior of all people.

36:11 What does he mean by that? Right? You notice that there at the very end, verse 10? God is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Oh, man. Well, for centuries there's been quite a debate on how to interpret this, but I think it's not as bad as we might fear on a first reading. I think the best approach, remember, is to read things in context. So, contextually, I think there's some clues that will help us, but first, a few things on it. So, a few different ways to help us interpret this over the years. People have said, maybe this God is the Savior of all people literally just means He's the Savior of all kinds of people, right? So, you may have even heard the phrase put like this, God saves all people without distinction, not all people without exception, all that really means is that he offers salvation to all kinds of people, right? It's like the Bible says that there will be people from every tribe and language and people and nation around the throne. So there will be salvation of people everywhere as opposed of all people, period, right? Because if it was all people,

37:16 period, that would mean that everyone experiences salvation. That's contrary to what we know from the rest of Scripture. So that's one thing that might help us understand this a little better. Another way is to think that this all people, comma, especially those who believe, could actually just, that last phrase that gets added on after the comma is just really explaining who all people is. So in other words, he saves all people, i.e. those that finally believe. He saves those that believe. I think that's actually probably a better translation of the language there underlying it, but you don't find that really in many English translations. At the end of the day, though, don't be confused by this phrase. Don't be confused by the whole phrase, of all people, especially of those who believe. Paul is not a universalist. Paul didn't forget the gospel that he's proclaimed in so many other places in this one sentence. No, Paul's holding on to two

38:17 different things at the same time that are even contextually important. Number one, he sees the mission of the church as global and thus not exclusive. And this is probably contrary to what the false teachers were saying, who were probably trying to limit that salvation to a certain group of people. So he's pushing back against them. That's one thing. But he's also preaching salvation by faith alone and Christ alone, and those things seem to be at odds, and he's holding on to both of those at the same time. The point at the very end is this, that God saves those who believe.

38:54 Look, there's a clear thread in the whole passage saying that, right? It's those who believe, verse 3, who receive the good things that the Lord has created. It's the believers, it's those who believe. In verse 12, it's the believers who will receive Timothy's example of godliness and be encouraged. And here, it's those who believe who are saved. That's Paul's drumbeat in all of this. He's talking about those who believe. Look, friends, that's the message of the gospel, that God saves those who believe. Maybe you're here for the first time and you are not a Christian. We're glad that you're here with us. This is the message of the gospel then that you need to hear. Maybe you've been here dozens of times and your ears have kind of metaphorically plugged your ears every time this has been preached to you. This is good for you to hear as well. But the message that Paul is preaching to Timothy, reminding Timothy of, and that we as a church believe that all of Christianity forever has believed, is simple.

39:55 that you are a sinner, and because of that, you stand in condemnation under a holy God because of your sin. At the end of the day, you face an eternity being punished for that. But God has given his own son to save you. He lived, died, was raised from the dead to defeat your sin and death, and all you have to do is do what? You have to do some more good things? You got to look a certain way. No, friends, the Bible makes it clear that all you have to do is believe. It's those who believe who are saved then from that condemnation of their sin. So if that's you, if that describes you, you've not yet believed that. Friend, believe Jesus today and be saved. God is the Savior.

40:45 He's the living God who saves. He will save you even today if you believe him. And finally, these last few verses here, verses 11, 16, there's just one kind of instruction after the other, rapid-fire instruction. This feels like a coach or a parent just kind of rattling off, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this, right? We've got teenagers at home, probably sound like this to them a lot when we're just saying, do this, not that, do this, not that, and just rattling off imperatives to them.

41:17 But notice that all of these fall into really just two categories. He's not covering a bunch of ground. He's just kind of saying the same thing in a lot of different ways. He's talking about Timothy's life or his conduct. And he's talking about Timothy's teaching. That's really the two areas he's concerned with here. And the only tricky part in this entire paragraph, I think, is verse 14. Look there. Do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. And when we start talking about prophecy and laying on of hands and we start going, what is going on here?

41:51 Is this mystical, magical? What is happening here? No, I think it's way easier than that. The gift was confirmed by, it was accompanied by prophecy. It wasn't given through prophecy like they were little magical words that had fairy dust on him and kind of landed on him and boom, he's got this gift, right? No, that's not what's happening. And the laying on of hands, well, that's just really the New Testament way of showing that you've been authorized. You've now been commissioned to go do something. So you put that together and it's just the elders laying hands on him, speaking words of prophecy.

42:27 They're just recognizing the gift given by the Spirit and saying, you are now sent out to go do this work. That's the reminder that Timothy needed, that he had everything he already needed to do the work. He had a gifting from the Spirit, and he had a commissioning from the elders of that church. So then how do we apply these verses? What do we do with verses 11 through 16? Are we all supposed to do what Timothy does? Should we all, each one of us, devote ourselves to public reading of Scripture?

43:00 Should we all practice these things and give ourselves over to them? Are all the young folks of our church, all the youth that we prayed for earlier, are they all to set an example for all of us who are older than them? no, and yet, yes. It's kind of both and. So, this whole paragraph, remember who it's aimed at. It's aimed at Timothy. He's a leader in the church. He's gifted by the Spirit to do certain things, certain elder-like things, namely to teach. So, because of that, we know it doesn't apply to everybody, right? So, I think there are two perspectives that we can apply this, two perspectives from which we can apply this to ourselves. The first one is the more obvious one, to pastors.

43:41 and to those aspiring to preach. Brothers, those, these things here in verses 11 through 16, they should mark your ministry and your life. They should. Your effort should be on proclaiming the Word of God and growing in the gifting to do so. That's what verse 15 means there, right, so that all may see your progress. Give yourself, brothers, to these things. devote yourself to these things. Surround yourself with things that are aimed at you getting better at teaching and you growing in your teaching abilities. You can make progress. You should make progress in teaching. Aim for progress. That's what verse 15 is saying. Timothy, do these things, and in your ministry, in your skills, in your conduct, get better at them.

44:33 Others should be able to see that there's progress. Look, I don't think that one of the biggest struggles that we have here as a church, and especially as pastors or others who stand in this pulpit or in teaching in other venues in this church, is that we have a temptation to fight off flashiness or to do something really kind of nuanced and tricky and catchy and just want to tickle the ears, as Paul will say in 2 Timothy. No, but I do think that our hearts can begin to wonder if it's all that there is. Is this all that there is, just to kind of hold this out and teach it? is this enough? Is that it? Or do I need to do more than that? Brothers, don't think that you have to do more than hold out God's Word. Don't think that you've got to be most up-to-date culturally in order to apply God's Word. No, we have everything we need in God's Word.

45:28 hold this out faithfully, consistently to the brothers and sisters in the church while at the same time pointing their eyes to the life that is yet to come. That's all we do. That's what Paul's telling Timothy to do. But then what about the rest of the church, right? If that kind of applies to pastors and those who will consistently hold out the Word of God to us, what about the like, I don't know, 98% of the rest of us? Well, you should follow the examples of your pastors. and their life. That's what verses 12 and verses 15 and 16, I think, are getting that. I think that's what they're showing us, that as you see progress in godliness in your pastors, you should be encouraged to follow in their pattern. As you listen to the teaching of your pastors, you will be trained to stay the course, and you won't walk away from the faith. You'll be able to stay on the path. So as your pastors and others who teach, as they give themselves over to following after

46:29 good doctrine, as their life begins to more closely fall in line with that, you should do the same in your life. Look, along with that, what you need to do is pray. Every Sunday night, nearly every Sunday night, we pray for the regular preaching of God's Word. That's not just a rote prayer. That's because this act and the dozens of other ways that the Word of God is preached and taught in this church is hard work. It's good work. In fact, a lot of times it's fun to be up here doing this work, but it is hard work. That's why Paul reminds Timothy to keep at it. He has to encourage him to do it. He knows he's going to struggle with wanting to keep doing it. Like your pastors and other teachers here in this church, they're not just saying words to you, right? We just have other things we could do with our week than to come up with a long sermon of just words.

47:18 we're not just downloading data into you that's not what's happening pastors are aiming at truth they're aiming at truth which is what you need to hear if you're going to go down the path which leads to godliness so pray that they'll do that faithfully pray for the men continue to pray for the men who stand here to preach the word to you that they'll do that faithfully pray for your sunday school teachers and different classes pray for the sunday school teachers of your children and other friends. Pray that they'll do that faithfully and with a life that commends the gospel, both to you and to others. And look, this last phrase at the very end, in verse 16, I think sums up what's at stake here really, really helpfully for us. So if Timothy devotes himself to the path that hopes in what God has done, and if he devotes himself to training for godliness, what will happen? He'll save himself and his hearers. How in the world? How

48:21 will he do that? Not because he's the Savior, not because Timothy's the Savior, but because he'll be holding out the truth which points to the Savior. Look, those who might have departed otherwise, they'll only not depart insofar as they're instructed to stay the course with God's word. That's why we must choose this path. That's why you must choose that today. Like so many other times in life, this passage is presenting to you kind of a fork in the road type of option. You can either go this way or this way. You've got a decision to make. There are two different paths that you can follow. You can follow the path of devotion to teaching that's opposed to God, which leads to departing from the faith, or you can choose the path that's devoted to teaching that's filled with hope in God and His salvation for your soul. Look, whether you're recognizing that for the very first time this morning, whether that's falling on your ears

49:25 for the very first time, or you've heard it for the thousandth time, there's really no difference. you need to follow this path. You need to follow the path that hopes in what God has done. Friends, devote yourself to that path, and you'll find that at the end of it, there's godliness, and most importantly, salvation of your soul. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this clear word to us this morning, and this clear warning that in this life, there are two different ways we can go.

49:56 Oh, Father, we pray that you would help each and every single one of us who heard this this morning, to choose the path that's devoted to following you, to calling what you've done good and right and correct. God, we pray for those who are struggling with the choice of what to do. We pray that you would bring salvation to those who need to be saved this morning. We pray that you would confirm in the hearts of Christians who are maybe wavering that they should repent and come to you and trust your word. God, we pray that you would do all these types of things for your glory and that it would be obviously your work. Father, we praise you this morning for your word. We pray that you would do good in us, and we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.