1 Timothy for the life of..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Okay, so welcome once again to our Wednesday night Bible study. We're continuing in the book of Timothy.

So it's Paul's first letter to Timothy. So if you open your Bibles, we'll be opening our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter 4. And by the grace of God this evening, we'll complete that chapter which our brother had started for us two weeks ago. So we'll read the whole chapter from verses 1 through 16. But we'll be concentrating this evening's study on verses 10 through 16.

So from 10 through 16 is where we'll be considering those verses this evening, but we'll do our reading from verses 1 through 16. We'll read the whole chapter. Now the Spirit expressly says, in latter times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teaching of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from food 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 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 and 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 hopes 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 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 you hear us. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. So already in the fourth chapter of 1 Timothy, we see common themes that we've seen running through this book already. And one of those things, well actually there's two that we see in this chapter already, and they're two very very serious things that Paul is instructing Timothy, things that will happen and things that will happen in and among them.

And the first is that there will rise among them false teachers. And the second thing is that among them will those false teachers will lead some astray and some will depart from the faith. Men will rise up among them as Paul says and he's using very strong words here and he says these men these false teachers will teach deceitful or themselves are deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. They are enemies of the church. They are motivated by selfish desires and cause much harm to the people of God.

The teaching they teach is a departure from scripture and it's riddled with many many errors. It's a very sad thing but many people will be allured by this deception. Many will depart from the truth. And by doing so, as our brother showed us the other week, they become what we call apostates. False teachers are not only a problem in the first century, they are a problem throughout the church in all times.

Actually, they are the major threat to the church from when Christ was crucified, resurrected, and from the day the church was birthed, the New Testament church was birthed on the day of Pentecost. We find that false teachers are a very big concern and a major threat to the church, and we see it's no less a concern. False teachers are no less a concern here and now in our day and age. In our day and age, how many do we see rise up and act or impersonate as though they are expositing God's Word, as though they're doing proper exegesis, but in fact they're only teaching what they want to teach from selfish motives. And they are deceiving people, and as Paul would say, they are deceptive spirits and advocates for doctrines of demons.

In fact, in our day and age, we find that false teachers are probably more of a concern today than it was back then, simply because of the avenues and the angles that can reach us. There's now TV, there's now internet, there's a plethora of books on the market, and I'm talking Christian books in Christian bookstores. One theologian in particular said that when he walks in some of these bookstores and he looks on the shelves he imagines or he when he looks at those books it's as though he can see coiled snakes because some of these books are poison they're teaching error they're teaching doctrines that are not grounded in the word of God and this is a real problem in our day In our age, these teachers cloak themselves in humility. They cloak themselves in righteousness. They come across as orthodox, but indeed they are unorthodox, and they are not from our God.

So as we've said on many occasions, the best way to identify false teaching is to know the truth. That's the best way. Because I've said this analogy before, but at a bank when the tellers are taught how to identify false currency, they don't show them all the false ones. They bring the real deal, the authentic $50 note, and they say, study it. Look at it.

This way, when you see a false one come through, you'll be able to identify the false one. Not because you've known all the false ones. They don't bring all the false counterfeits. If we're going to go out there and try to study all the counterfeit religions and the counterfeit doctrines, then we would never end. But if we dedicate our lives to the study of God's Word, then we know God's Word, it becomes innately part of us.

Then when we come across false doctrine, we will be able to understand, we'll be able to identify it, because we've been meditating upon God's Word, the Bible, the Scripture that we have in our hands, which we are so blessed with. So now in the passage before us, the Apostle Paul, through his exhortation to Timothy, identifies for us, not the false teachers, he's already done that, he's already said how we can identify the false teachers, but now he's identifying for us a true teacher of God, a true faithful servant of Jesus Christ, and what that faithful servant ought to look like So in doing so, he gives two practical instructions to Timothy, and of course to all the ministers of God's Word, to be faithful ministers of Christ. Two practical instructions that ought to be the hallmarks of every elder, of every shepherd, of every pastor. But also, you'll see in these principles that they're not only applicable for the elders, not only are they applicable for the teachers of God's Word, but they're actually applicable for every Christian. So we would do well to pay attention to these and pray that the Lord will press these truths into our hearts.

The first is to keep watch over his life. This is to take his spiritual life and personal holiness seriously. And the second is to watch over his ministry, not to neglect his gifting and also understand how to operate within his gift in a manner that is pleasing to God. Because if a minister of the Word does not understand these two principles, personal holiness and how his gifting ought to be used in the Church of Jesus Christ, then all his efforts will avail to nothing. Too many, too many have made shipwreck of their own faith and their ministries, neglecting one of these two things, either not watching over their own souls, or not watching over the sheep or the flock or the ministry.

Because ultimately it is God's work. Ultimately Jesus Christ is the one who builds the church, but he's ordained the means by which he will build his church. And so the minister knows that apart from Christ and His Word and the way He has ordained His Word, and apart from the minister being able to dedicate his time in studying and meditating so that he would operate in a biblical manner, then all his work is vain. Beloved, personal holiness and biblical fidelity are the seals, they're the seals of a true minister of God. Because he knows he is a servant who labors and toils, but his hope and trust is not in his own work, but in God who brings about the increase.

It's God who is in the business of saving people, building his church, and edifying his beloved. And he's the one who brings, it's God, it's God in Christ Jesus who brings his people into the maturity of the faith. And so we as faithful servants ought to remember that and only take our place within what God has already ordained. This is what Paul says in verse 10. This is the hope of the minister of the word.

It's why he toils. It's why he strives. It's what makes everything he does worthwhile. See, Paul exhorts Timothy to this end because he knows that the ministry is not easy. It's difficult.

It's demanding. He uses the words toil and strive. Both these words connote physical and mental work. The work is both draining on the body but it's also draining on the mind in fact the word used here is the greek word agonizomai agonizomai and we know that that our word for agonize comes from the word agonizomai previously in in verse 8 in the same chapter paul refers to bodily training probably appealing to the fact that the ephesians were really big on sports and and they love their athletes and i love the games that the athletes would compete in And Paul was aware of their training and their commitment and their dedication to try to win these games. He knew the commitment that the athlete would have to wake up early and do hard training.

He would strive and he would contend, he would struggle, he would agonize in trying to be better than the next person, to win the games. And so now in verse 10 he uses the same word agonize which is commonly used for how athletes would struggle in their training to motivate them to achieve the trophy that they have in their vision in their eyes. You see having that in their mind his gaze is fixed upon the prize. And he strives for that prize. We remember in Philippians, in the book to the Philippians, Paul uses a very similar language, you'll remember.

He writes, "...but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward," there's that word, "...straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." This is Philippians 3, chapter 3, verse 14. So why is the striving for the minister of the word worthwhile?

Well, Paul says, because our hope is set on the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially those who believe. Now, there's a word hope in here, and the nuance for the biblical word for hope is different to how we use the word hope. You see, we in English use the word hope. I could say, for example, I hope it doesn't rain on Saturday. Because if it rains on Saturday, it'll just spoil our church picnic.

The possibility is that it may rain on Saturday or it may not rain on Saturday. Either or could happen. But the way hope is used biblically, it's more an assurance. It's more something that is sure to happen, but yet unattained. So when Paul says our hope is set on the living God, it's not we hope He's the living God, but we know He's the living God, and we know He is the Saviour of all people, especially those who believe.

In other words, we know it's going to happen, but we haven't attained to it yet. And that hope, beloved, that sure assurance that makes all the toil and the striving worthwhile is rooted, he says, in the living God who is the savior of all people, especially those who believe. So trusting God that he will use the means that he has ordained, which is ordinary men teaching and preaching his word, will bring about the salvation to all who believe. Now this verse is a difficult verse and for many many people and many commentators have espoused what we call universalism through this verse and universalism is simply to say that in the end everyone goes to heaven. In the end God saves every single person.

But this can't be right because if Jesus Christ died on the cross and his death was payment for every sin for every single person then he has no legal basis. God has no legal basis to to enforce a penalty upon anyone to send anyone to hell because Jesus has paid the sins of for all mankind. So that's not what this passage is speaking. Our Lord taught that there is a hell. He taught that there will be an eternal punishment for those who do not believe.

He says in Matthew 25 for an example, speaking about heaven and hell, He says, and these will go into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. So clearly some do go to hell. This verse does not teach universalism at all. But having said that, there are other interpretations to this verse. And as I said earlier, it is a difficult verse.

The other interpretation would be, and it suggests that it is God's will to save all people, but His will is being frustrated by their unbelief. So some would say, God really wants to save everyone. but he's being frustrated or his will's being frustrated because some or many don't believe in God. But that's not the God of the Bible. That paints an impotent God, a God who doesn't get what he wants.

How God gets everything he wants. He's sovereign over all things. Yet others still propose that salvation spoken of to all people is a benevolent, general, preserving salvation. So that is like as to say when Jesus says that the rain falls on the just and the unjust, the sun shines on the just and the unjust. So in a way they're saying that God's benevolence in a way saves these people in that they're not dying instantly because they're sinners, their lives are prolonged in some degree.

But that really paints a picture that the saving that's spoken of in this word, that God being a saviour to all men, is different by nature, has a different meaning than God being a saviour to those who believe. But the text doesn't say that. The text really is giving the same meaning to both. So there's really two plausible options here. The first is, just like all people in 1 Timothy 2.

4, if you remember back then when we spoke about all people, that God desires all people to be saved, we said that the context really paints the picture that he's speaking about kings and authorities, so he's speaking about all types of people. So we know that God desires all types of people to be saved, whether they're rulers or authorities, whether they're Jews or Gentiles, whether they're common folk or whoever. It's all types of people that the Lord desires to be saved. So in this passage, I think, And I believe that what we're speaking, what Paul is saying, is rather than every single person being saved, he's speaking in a general sense about humanity or mankind as a category. You see, because of sin and disobedience, God's justice would call to condemn all people.

That's all humanity. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, justice would have been that God would then punish Adam and Eve. He was well within his rights to destroy them then and there and do away with humanity altogether. But he didn't because God had a plan of salvation. He had a plan of redemption.

He allowed humanity to continue and the human race will be saved because of the special salvation that God has accomplished through his only begotten son Jesus Christ to all humans who believe. In other words, the human race will exist throughout all eternity because God chose to save it through the God-man, Jesus Christ. So God is the saviour of all humanity. There is another possibility that it could be, and it could be that Paul uses the term living God here to affirm the monotheistic reality of God. So in other words, he's saying that the only saviour is the living God because all other gods are dead.

Small g. All other gods are dead. There are no other gods. There is one God only. Humanity has no other saviour.

There is no competing saviour with this living God. So it's just like Acts 4 confirms. Remember Acts 4 verse 12 tells us, there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Now, they're the two plausible options. I can't be sure which one it means.

Paul means, I would be more inclined to take the first option, which is the saving is of all humanity as a category, and that saving is specially done through those who believe, because they're the ones that God applies his saving grace upon and redeems them for all eternity through his Son, Jesus Christ. But we can definitely dismiss that God doesn't save every single human being, because Jesus himself said that many will be cast into the lake of fire. But now we move on to verse 11 through 16, which is probably more of a unit, and the twofold instruction that Paul gives to Timothy. And by extension, the instruction he doesn't only give to Timothy, but to all ministers of God's word. And the first pertains, as I said before, to Timothy's personal walk with God, and the second pertains to his faithfulness to fulfill his calling, his ministry.

And beloved, it's important that we realize that both these go hand in hand and they are both of critical importance to the minister of God. You cannot have one and not have the other and remain faithful. The weight of this truth is summarized in the very last verse of this chapter. Paul says, keep a close watch on yourself and on your teaching, or on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers.

There's a weightiness to this. Paul is saying to Timothy, you need to watch yourself and you need to watch your teaching. Because it's not just you who's at stake, it's the people that the Lord has appointed you to shepherd. See, in verse 12, Paul stresses to Timothy five key areas pertaining to his Christian walk, and that's the first category. And he must be vigilant in these areas, because as we've seen in our study on the church in chapter 3, godly character and personal holiness and evidence of Christ's likeness is a qualifier for the ministry.

not only as identifying characteristics to enter into the eldership or for someone to be identified as a shepherd or a pastor, but also to remain in that calling. In other words, if an elder neglects his walk with Christ, if he ignores his Christian disciplines and his pursuits of holiness, then he is disqualified from serving in that capacity. You see, there's a lot at stake here. In fact, listen to the Apostle Paul's exhortation to the Ephesian elders in Acts chapter 20 verse 28. There he says, pay attention to yourselves and to all the flock.

There you go again. Pay attention to yourself. He's speaking personally now. Take care of your personal holiness. Make sure that you're living right with God.

and to all your flock now that's your ministry in which the holy spirit has made your overseers and i want you to hear this point to care for the church of god which he obtained with his own blood beloved it is the blood of jesus christ the blood of jesus christ that has purchased the church The church is at stake. Therefore, they who teach and they who shepherd must be seriously concerned with their own holiness. And these virtues or fruits must be evident to others. See, Paul says, set the believers an example. Set the believers an example.

So one must ask, how can Timothy, or an elder for that matter, exhort God's people to godliness if he himself is unconcerned with his own? How can someone spur or encourage a believer to forsake his sins and to trust in Christ if he is unaffected by his own sins? How is someone able to exhort the Christians to maintain their Christian disciplines when he himself is neglecting his own? Timothy as an elder is to set the example to follow. He's an under-shepherd, and the sheep ought to walk in the path that he is familiar with, path that he's trodden upon, path that he's worn out because he's trodden upon and he's lived this way and he knows Christ and he understands these things.

You see, he must be diligently committed to pursue Christ-likeness in his own life. in order to be an example for the flock. This is how the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 11 is able to say, be imitators of me as what? As I imitate or as I am of Christ. Now having said that, of course, Christ's likeness is the goal, therefore perfection is the goal.

And we all know in this room that that perfection, it will not be attained unless or until we are in glory. But beloved, perfection is still the goal. We won't get there, but it's still the goal. We don't slacken off and say, I know I won't become perfect until I'm in heaven, so I won't try to be perfect. The Lord says be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect.

Now we are redeemed by the righteousness of Christ, but our zeal, our zeal for holiness, our zeal for purity, for Christ-likeness ought to be real and we ought to strive for that which is perfect. If they talk the talk. So if the elder, if the example, if the shepherd is one who talks the talk, but doesn't genuinely at least attempt to walk the walk, then the Bible has a word for such people. Hypocrites. And you remember the hypocrites that Jesus dealt with in his own day?

They were the Pharisees. You remember what Jesus said to the hypocrites, the Pharisees in Matthew 23? He said these words, The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses's seat. Okay, that means they have the true oracles of God. They sit on Moses's seat.

They're able to teach that which is consistent with the true scriptures, with the true word of God. But then Jesus goes on to say something interesting. So do and observe what they tell you, do and observe what they say, what they tell you, but do not the works they do. Do what they say, because they're saying things, they're reading in the synagogues, in the temple, they're reading from the scripture, but they're living their lives in a hypocritical manner. However, the New Testament elders must not only teach what is true, but live according to that truth and be an example that should be followed.

Beloved, this is evidence that Christ is truly at work in one's life. Because if there's no Christ-likeness, if there's no pursuit for holiness, if there's no concern for sin, if there's no concern to keep up the Christian disciplines, then that person is counterfeit. Jesus says you will recognize them by their fruits. Now probably no older than 30 years of age, Timothy was deemed in these times, my apologies, probably in his mid-30s, not 30, probably in his mid-30s at this point in time, he was deemed as a youth and you'll see that Paul addresses him and says don't let anyone despise you for your youth. Now he was probably deemed as a youth because in that time the elders may have been a little bit older than he was and especially that his role, see he was the apostolic representative to the church or the churches in Ephesus, there may have been more than one.

The text suggests that he was despised for his youth. However, the remedy according to Paul in our passage is not force. Realize what he says. It's not force. But rather, through personal holiness, through his life, through his conduct, he'll be able to earn the respect of his peers.

By setting an example, he'll be able to earn the respect of his peers. And that example must be one of godliness. So Paul encourages Timothy to that end. And then he names five virtues to excel in. Five.

And these, brothers and sisters, we must realize are not virtues only for Timothy. They're not virtues only for the elders or the shepherds or the pastors in our day, although they must be in them or they will be disqualified from the faith, or not from the faith, my apologies, from the ministry. But these virtues should be present, at least to some degree or another, in the life of every Christian. Because remember when we went through the characteristics of an elder, we said an elder is a Christian. who has been appointed and called to a particular role and gifted by Christ for that role.

But he's a brother in Christ. And so when we look at those characteristics, we as Christians ought to see at least evidences of these things in our lives. So let's have a look at these things. First of all, he brings up, be an example with your speech. What comes out of his mouth is so important.

You remember the words of James where he says about the tongue? How great a forest, James says, is set ablaze by such a small fire. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. James will continue to say these words, from the same mouth comes blessing and cursing and then he says, my brothers, these things ought not to be. Our mouth must be clean, must be righteous.

Our speech must not be destructive like that used for, but rather used for the edification of our brothers and sisters. Like Ephesians 4.29 tells us, Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fit for the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. We need to be conscious of what comes out of our mouth. The words we speak.

If we're angry, we ought to probably bite our tongue before we say anything. We must make sure that when we speak, we speak to edify, not to tear down. but that doesn't mean that we don't say the hard words but we have to say them in love and in grace because truth sometimes beloved hurts and there is a place there is a place to lovingly rebuke our brothers and sisters but it must be done in love and in grace you see Hebrews tells us Exhort one another every day, as long as it's called today, that none of you may be hardened by this deceitfulness of sin. It's critical that we exhort one another in Christ. It's critical that we use our mouth to build one another in love.

It's critical. And it's also critical that if we find our brothers and sisters in sin or an error, we pull them up and lovingly, lovingly, Speak to them about these things. These are not only the elders responsibilities Beloved this is the responsibility of every single person in the church Every believer because you all have a stake in this we ought to be loving each other in this way, but before we do that Matthew Jesus says in Matthew that we ought to take the plank out of our own eye first in other words we need to examine our own hearts are we doing these things because We want to be proud. The natural tendency in the human being is to bring down people around them, and then by bringing them down, they look bigger and higher and better. If that's the case, we're better off being quiet, because now we're tearing down rather than building up.

But when we take that plank out of our eye, we examine our hearts through the scripture and through prayer, and we consider what we're thinking, we consider what we're going to say to our brother and sister, and it's consistent with scripture, and we are convinced it's because of the love in our hearts for them, then we approach them in love and in grace, and we tell them what we think. And then we bring God's word and we show them that what we're saying is consistent with God's word. The second thing Paul says to Timothy is that Timothy ought to be an example in his conduct. Basically, if you're going to talk the talk, he's saying, then you need to walk the walk. As I said earlier, if one of us, if one is going to herald the Word of God, he needs to show that he also believes in the Word of God.

And as James writes once again, if you really believe What does it say? Faith without works is dead. It's useless. You really believe, you'll act upon it. Conduct is always consistent with what one believes.

As Jesus said in Matthew 7, once again, a healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Again, this is an indicator of a true believer, and especially of a true teacher of God's Word. Does he live according to what he preaches? How is his conduct? Remember, it's not perfection we're looking for.

We're looking for fruits of these things. Then he says, be an example in love. This speaks of the true biblical love. Not a sappy, worldly, emotional love. This love shows itself through actions.

One loves through what he does. This is the evidence that he loves. A love that seeks the genuine well-being of others. An honest concern for brothers and sisters to grow in the Christian faith. To grow in maturity in Christ.

To grow in holiness. To grow in Christ-likeness. To grow in love for the Savior and love for their brothers and sisters. This love is sacrificial. It forbears with others.

Paul reminds us of this beautiful love, this Christ-centered love, this love that we can love with only because he loved us first in 1 Corinthians 13. He says, love is patient and it's kind. Love does not envy or boast. It's not arrogant. It's not rude.

It does not insist on its own way. It's not irritable or resentful, and it does not rejoice in wrongdoing. but rejoices with the truth. Love rejoices with the truth. It's consistent with the truth.

And beloved, love is a distinguishing mark of the true teacher of the Word of God. You see, false teachers according to Titus chapter 1 verse 10 are motivated by shameful game. And in 1 Peter 5, Peter speaking and addressing the elders, he says, don't do it. for shameful gain. You see, a false teacher is selfish.

He's doing it because of self-love. He's devoid of love for God, and he's devoid of love for others, for the church. However, love defines an authentic believer, and especially one who is called to minister God's Word. Listen to 2 Corinthians 5.15.

Paul says, For the love of Christ controls us. because we have concluded this that one has died for all therefore all have died and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him but for him who for their sake died and was raised You see, love, you see, we love because he loved us first. 1 John 4.19. And the next thing Paul brings up is that Timothy, you ought to be an example in the faith.

You ought to be an example in the faith. Are you doing these things by your own strength? Or are you trusting God in all things? Is your reliance completely and fully grounded in God and in Christ Jesus? Or are you doing things by your own strength, by your own intellect, by your own ability?

Are you relying on your own wisdom? Or are you truly trusting in God? Trusting in God means that you take the good from God. And you take the things that don't look so good to you. You take it all and you trust Him.

You trust in His complete sovereignty. And you trust Him both in your personal life and your ministry. True faith apprehends the promises of God. It apprehends God's promises in His words and it believes that He will fulfill every single last one of those promises. Paul has already charged Timothy with keeping the faith, keeping this faith.

In chapter one, if you remember, I think it's verse 18, he says, this charge I entrust you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. Hear this, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting, some have made shipwreck of their faith. Among whom are Himemias and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme." Beloved, all the virtues that Paul has spoken of here, all of them, are grounded in true saving faith.

True saving faith is at the heart of all the Christian virtues. Because without faith, you cannot have the other virtues. Why? Because it's true faith that justifies a man. And the faith is the instrument by which God saves a person and gifts him with the Spirit of God.

God's Holy Spirit. And that Holy Spirit, He is the one who empowers true spiritual virtue. True fruit of the Spirit. Genuine fruit is not rooted in man. It's rooted in God.

So without God's Holy Spirit, one cannot produce these spiritual virtues, and one cannot have God's Holy Spirit without true saving faith. Therefore one must not rely on his own ability, his own strength, his own wisdom, but on God, and that requires Faith. True faith. And that faith shows up in everything a man does, starting in his own home. That's why Paul, in the very next chapter, will say these words.

He'll say, if a man neglects to provide for those in his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Faith impacts us from the very heart, from our household, and then it produces fruit for others to see. And finally, Paul mentions purity. This word is only used twice in the New Testament, the word that has been translated purity, and both times it seems to refer to purity in relation to the opposite sex. Purity of the mind as well as purity of action.

The other time it's used is only a few verses down. In chapter 5 verse 2, you'll see it in your Bible, where Paul exhorts Timothy to deal with older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, and then he says, in all. purity. There must not even be a hint of sexual immorality in the mind of a pastor, of an elder, of a shepherd and beloved, of any Christian for that matter. See, it begins subtly in the mind and then it always manifests outwardly.

This is so prevalent in our world today. As I was preparing our study, I came across some statistics, and these statistics are in America. Very sad statistics. And according to these, and again, they may be using the word church quite loosely, or the word pastor quite loosely, but Christian evangelical churches, statistically speaking, 50% of pastors' marriages will end up in divorce, according to this statistic. 50%.

40%. 40% have admitted to having an affair from the time they began their ministry to the point that they were asked. 40%. This is a real problem in our society today. The stats are very, very, very sad, but they hit home.

And the question we need to ask ourselves is this, what do we allow our eyes to see? What do we allow our minds to entertain? It starts in the heart, beloved. It starts in the mind. And if we leave it unchecked, if we don't bring all thoughts captive to Jesus Christ, it will manifest, it will grow, and it will produce.

Sin begets more sin, and it will take over our lives. We must deal with it from the mind level. Every temptation, every impure desire must be dealt with at the thought level. As Paul says in his next epistle to Timothy, he says, So how is it done? Romans 13 verse 14.

Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. Put on, clothe yourself with Christ. Saturate your minds and your hearts with the words of Jesus Christ. Commune with Him in prayer. Meditate upon His Word.

Cast your cares, cast your sins, cast your thoughts, your temptations at His feet. He'll empower you to overcome. Don't allow even a hint of sexual immorality to dwell in your mind. It's a problem in our day and age. It's a problem in the church.

But it ought not to be. We ought to submit these things to the Lord. When the temptation comes, deal with it then and there. because it starts on the inside but it manifests and we need to deal with it. But then Paul turns his emphasis now to Timothy's calling and his ministry.

Verse 14, do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. A gift that was confirmed by, it seems, Paul through prophecy. As God was working through the church, or in the church, supernaturally in its infancy, in the early days, in the days where the apostles were, so we know in this case that Paul had a prophecy of his gifting and hands were laid upon him. The hands laid upon him just simply means that he was confirmed by the elders. He was identified by the elders to be a man who is gifted, who is called by God to this giftness, to this ministry.

You see, it's not self-professed. You didn't stand up and say, hey, I want to do this. I want to be an elder. I want to be a pastor. I want to be a shepherd.

It is something that is identified by the church in particular, and especially identified by the leaders in the church, who are being able to, by the Spirit's help, identify the next men who will be the ones who shepherd the church. Now verse 13 tells us what he must not neglect. So he's not to neglect, but what must he not neglect? Paul says, "...until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching."

So among other things, Timothy has the gift to faithfully handle God's Word. He has been Spirit-endowed to teach and exhort the Scripture. Beloved, this is central to the Church of Jesus Christ. Central. The scripture is absolutely central.

If anything in our study in the book of Timothy has taught us, it should teach us that the Bible is central for the church. We've seen on many occasions in this passage the devastating outcomes of what false teachers and their demonic teachings do. Christians hunger and they thirst for the true word of God. And this is how Christ builds his church. Through his word.

See, Scripture has a sanctifying effect on the believer, and Paul knows it. It's how we attain spiritual knowledge. It's how we grow in godliness. It's how the Spirit produces in us true spiritual gifts or true spiritual fruit. So he exhorts Timothy to the public reading of the Word.

And this was so important in this day and age. Can you imagine? Because it wasn't as though what we have now, every believer has a Bible in his hand, in a language you can understand. People would wait from week to week to go to the synagogues or to the temple, wherever they were. In this case, it would be the synagogues.

And they would wait from day to day just to be able to hear God's Word read out loud. Because they didn't have scripture that some rich people may have had portions, because it was all copied in those days. But if God's people hunger and thirst for the reading, for the Word of God, the genuine Word of God, then if Timothy was to neglect that, if he was to become careless in his ministry or in his giftedness in reading the Word, then you can see that the church and its members will become anemic, spiritually anemic. And if they didn't have the Word of God, if they weren't filled with the Word that gives them the truth of what God requires of them, of what true doctrine is, then how are they able to refute false doctrine? How are they able to know the Himalayases of the world and the Alexandrias of the world when they teach false doctrine?

How are they to know? They have nothing to compare it against. teaching, reading God's Word. Doctrines, true doctrines, as Paul says, are critical to the church's health. They are central to the church back in that day and today.

And that's why the minister of God ought to always commit to studying faithfully God's Word. It should be at the heart of what he does. The Word of God ought to be working in and through him. And then as the Lord by His Spirit works in and through him, he ought to then explain and teach and preach what the Lord has already worked in his own heart. See, the Spirit of God then applies that word supernaturally in the hearts of the believers.

To some he exhorts. to others he rebukes, to others he comforts, whilst strengthening and maturing the people of God in Christ-likeness. This is how the church grows. The Word also has a purifying effect. It prevents a Christian from sinning.

Let's open our Bibles to Psalm 119 quickly, and we'll just read a few verses there. Psalm 119. Sorry, I didn't write the verses down, so I'll find them here for you. Here we go, from verse nine. Let's read from verse nine through 11.

Psalm 119, from verse nine through 11. How can a young man keep his way pure by guarding it according to your word? With my whole heart I seek you. Let me not wander from your commandments. And hear this, I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

I've stored up your word in my heart that I may not sin against you. Beloved, the word of Jesus Christ has a purifying effect on your soul. We ought to be committing our time to study, to meditate upon that Word. The Spirit, as I said before, the Spirit of God who dwells in the believers, in every believer, He makes that Word, it's a written Word, but He makes it living and breathing and abiding. and it changes us from within.

Our minds cannot even conceive how it changes us from within, but it does, and it produces in us Christ-likeness. Never neglect that discipline, the discipline of sitting down very regularly and opening up God's Word and reading God's Word. It's immensely, immensely fruitful. Faithful teaching reveals also the eternal attributes of God. His eternal love for the elect in Christ, His sovereignty, His goodness, His grace, His mercy, His plan of redemption that He has accomplished through His only begotten Son.

Beloved, His Word is sufficient. It's sufficient for His people. It's sufficient for His church. So the ministers ought to spend time studying the Word and then preaching and teaching the pure Word. They are not to fabricate.

They are not to add to the Word. They are to bring out, this is what exegesis, to bring out what is in the Word and lay it bare upon the people of God. Because otherwise we end up corrupting God's Word. Timothy knew this all too well because his mother and his grandmother taught him in the Scriptures when he was young. Do you remember what Paul said in, or he says in 2nd Timothy, this is what he says, he says, but as for you, Timothy, Continue in what you have learnt and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learnt it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

And then he says the beautiful passage that I think most of us, at least here, have heard from our mouths maybe 50 times or more. That means not lacking. So if the Word of God is sufficient to make the man of God complete, it means he needs nothing apart from that Word. complete and equipped for every good work. Again, every good work.

We need the scripture and what the scripture instructs and nothing else, beloved. And so Paul in verse 15 then encourages Timothy not to simply practice these things, but he says, immerse yourself in these things. Saturate yourself in these things. Timothy, saturate yourself in God's word. Meditate upon it.

Timothy, saturate yourself. Make sure that you're producing, that you're concerned with your purity, concerned with your conduct, concerned with your faith. Timothy, make sure that your speech is wholesome and holy. Saturate yourself in these things. Watch yourself because if you do these things, you will grow into maturity and your gift that the Lord has given you will also mature.

He will be immensely edified by doing these things as he spends more and more time in the Word. Beloved, we will too. Benefits will be more obvious to both him and to others alike. And this is his calling. This is his duty.

This is the duty of the man who's been appointed to teach and preach God's word. The health and the well-being of the flock rely on the elder being faithful to these things. Because in the last verse, one that we mentioned before, Paul gives a powerful appeal and quite humbling and actually scary, a scary verse for most who are teachers of the word. Now to be clear, To be clear, that verse tells us, and I will open it up. Let's read it.

I haven't got it in front of me here. If someone's got it, can you read it out loud? Verse 16. Both yourself and your heroes. That's a pretty big statement.

If he were to persist in these things, he would save himself. Now, to be clear, as I said before, I started saying that salvation is of the Lord. It is only our God, our good God, who saves through the means of the preaching of the gospel and through the instrument of faith. Salvation is of the Lord, but it's critical that the minister of God also preaches that which is from the Lord, that he preaches the truth in God's Word, that the gospel is not maligned or corrupted. And it's important that for him to be able to do these things, to understand God's Word, and to be able to preach it and teach it in a way that is consistent with the truths and its context and its grammatical settings and so forth, he needs to be a man who is in love with God and therefore in love with His Word.

He needs to be one who spends time studying in God's Word, because he knows that if he neglects his purity, if he neglects his holiness, his godliness, if he neglects these things, then he is diminishing towards the love for God, which means he diminishes in his love for his Word. And if one becomes careless in these things, one will begin to believe error. And it won't be long before one begins to teach that error. And error, beloved, being taught to the people of God, has dire consequences. It creates great harm to the church.

And the book of 1st Timothy, 2nd Timothy, and Titus is so clear on that point. People become spiritually anemic. And if they don't have doctrinal purity of the matters of faith, they will be swayed back and forth by every wind of doctrine. They'll consume anything they're told and they'll believe it. Why?

Because of a lack of understanding of God's Word. This is very serious. This is a weighty task and it's humbling because the men who were appointed to do these things have great weights on their shoulders but they are simply men. Simply men. They are Christians who have been saved by the same means as every other Christian.

The only difference is they've been gifted and they've been appointed by Christ. And this is why James says that not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. This is why, beloved, it is very important that you pray for the men who bring you the Word. Because if these men who bring you the Word neglect their own spiritual life, if they neglect their own personal holiness, if they neglect their own disciplines, their spiritual disciplines, time of the Lord in prayer, time with the Lord in the Word. If they neglect their own purity, if they're not careful with what goes on with their own minds, if they entertain thoughts that they shouldn't entertain, then it affects the whole church.

But beloved, I'm going to turn that back around and say, you're also responsible for these things, because the church's purity doesn't depend on only one, two, three, five, or whatever plurality of elders there are. It depends on all the Christians that these are things that we ought to all carry very dearly in our hearts. Because we remember we live our lives to honor our Savior. May the Lord protect His church. May He protect her from false doctrine and false teaching.

And as I said, it's a beloved, it's a responsibility for all of us, but I want you to remember this. Ultimately, the sheep are safe, not because of who their elders are. They're safe because of who their Savior is. Because they're safe in His hand.