Tony Merida - Watch Your Life and Doctrine - 1 Timothy 4:6-16

if you have a Bible I invite you to grab it or get your device and would you stand with me as we read from first Timothy chapter 4 1 Timothy chapter 4 from verses 6 down to verse 16 and let's talk about what Paul says here about watching our life and doctrine closely 1 Timothy 4 beginning in verse 6 it is such an honor to be with you today let's read this text and pray together Paul writes if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed have nothing to do with irreverence silly myths rather train yourself for godliness for while bodily training is of some value godliness is a value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come the saying is trust worthy and deserving of full acceptance for to this end we toil and strive because we have set our hope on the Living God who is the savior of all people especially those who believe command and teach these things let no one despise you for your youth but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith in purity until I come to vote 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 this is God's Word let's pray together father as we often pray not mindlessly but from our hearts today what we know not please teach us what we have not please give us and what we are not please make us for Christ's sake we pray amen thank you much you may be seated well I like many of you I'm a really big Charles Spurgeon fan I think I probably have more books that bear his name than any other author I have a wooden Spurgeon head on my on in my book case pictures on the wall I don't know that it might may even sound idolatrous but I don't worship the spurge but but there are many days in which I wish he would talk to me and I think if Spurgeon could address us today there is a chance that he would address us from first Timothy 4 verse 16 because in Spurgeon's famous lectures to my students the very first lecture that you find there is entitled the minister's self watch and its reflection on once him before 16 Spurgeon says in that particular lecture we have all heard the story of the man who preached so well and lives so badly that when he was in the pulpit everyone said he ought never come out again and when he was out of it they all declared that he should never enter it again our characters must be more persuasive than our speech or perhaps he would address us from verse 15 because Spurgeon also in lectures to my students has a lecture entitled the necessity of ministerial progress well as cool as it would to it would be to to hear Spurgeon lecture us today we actually have something better we have Paul's lectures to his students Timothy and Titus we know them as the pastoral epistles and in the passage that we just read Paul exhorts Timothy to faithfulness both in his public ministry of the word and with his personal example as well this text is all about life and doctrine I loved a heading in the in the ESV a good servant of Christ Jesus he's going to list for us good sir good qualities qualities of good servants are good ministers of Christ Jesus and he addresses both life and doctrine now I don't know about you but it's a lot easier for me to talk about doctrine than my life it's a lot easier for me to talk about what's happening in my church than my life or your church in my life or our denomination than my but Paul here has the temerity to talk to Timothy about his personal life because it's absolutely essential you see we we don't have a ministry if we are not spiritually healthy one of the things they tell you when you get on an airplane is that you need to put your oxygen mask on first before you take care of other people and you could hear those that that instruction and think to yourself with that that seems a bit self-serving doesn't it well of course not if you think about it you you can't save anyone if you're dead you've got to put your own oxygen mask on first you need to do self care if you're going to care for other people and we Minister best out of a healthy heart we don't minister best out of gifting or effort but out of health and that is why the pastoral epistles are loaded with with exhortations about watching both our life and our doctrine in fact the pastoral qualifications in 1 Timothy 3 verses 1 to 7 include just that it's a list of character qualities about life and then the ability to teach on down in chapter 3 regarding the church in general he says I've given you these instructions so that people may know how to behave in the household of God life and then he calls the church the pillar and buttress of truth doctrine and so then the the leader of the church is obviously to lead out in these things to to set an example of both sound doctrine and healthy living now the beginning of chapter 4 begins with a particular type of false teaching that has corresponding problems in in one's life the false teaching that Paul addresses in chapter 4 verses 1 to 5 is asceticism there were people in Ephesus who are denying pleasures given by God pleasures that they did not necessarily need to deny and they were doing this for some religious goal and while Christians are called to abstain from sin we are not called to live as ascetics they denied God's good gift and some of those included particular foods in marriage I don't know about you but I'm excited that you can be a Christian and eat steak and get married right those are good gifts to thank God for and Paul says that this particular false teaching is demonic in origin verse 1 chapter 4 and then it has spread through human wickedness it looks very godly and very pious so he tells Timothy in chapter 4 verse 4 and verse 5 to reject this asceticism and instead be grateful be biblical be prayerful regarding God's gifts we should thank God today that we have taste buds to enjoy honey and coffee and guacamole and chocolate and fall weather and books and art these are good gifts from our good God and we should thank God that we are not saved by rule keeping but by the precious blood of Jesus that's one type of false teaching and that's one type of false teacher and our day is no different than Timothy's though we may not be dealing with a lot of asceticism we have our own false teachings that are being promoted and this is a good reminder for us that that we are not the only religion that has preachers we're not the only religion that sends missionaries what makes our preaching unique and what makes our sending of missionaries unique is what we preach it's what we send our missionaries with well with that in view now there are five exhortations I'd like to point out in this particular passage from verses 6 to 16 the first comes from that first paragraph verses 6 to 10 and he tells Timothy to exercise for godliness passionately now it's quite interesting after talking about the rigor of self-denial of the ascetics he doesn't tell Timothy to be passive and to be lazy there's actually an exhortation here to discipline right if you put these things before the brothers you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus being trained in the words of faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed have nothing to do with irreverent silliness but rather train yourself for godliness so there's a difference obviously in spiritual discipline and asceticism or legalism spiritual discipline is god-centered it's motivated by love by gratitude it's empowered by the spirit it's overflowing with awe that's at the root of this word godliness is a reverence for God we love our God therefore we want to grow in godliness legalism however is man centered is motivated by earning by works based righteousness now this word for godliness appears 15 times in the New Testament 13 in the pastoral epistles if there's one thing that Paul is a it's emphasizing over and over again and again in the past roles it's that those who are in ministry leadership should pursue godliness 9 of those 13 are right here in 1 Timothy so what does it mean to exercise for godliness well I'm glad you asked just like in a fitness plan you need a good diet and you need good discipline or good exercises that's what's emphasized first a healthy diet and then second healthy discipline so the diet you see it there in verse 16 he's being trained in the words of faith if you're holding a CSP it I think it says nourished which is a better translation he is saying here that you should you should be nourished on that which you are nourishing others with which is often a big challenge in ministry he tells Timothy to avoid spiritual junk food right have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths how many of you know there's a lot of things you could you could fill your mind and heart with that's just silly in the pastoral we read of asceticism foolish controversies myths genealogies extra biblical teaching prosperity theology empty rituals and Paul's telling Timothy here hey train yourself nourish yourself in in these things verse 6 that is that which I've passed on to you in the words of the faith of the good doctrine have a healthy diet so the question is what are you consuming as part of our challenge when it comes to physical fitness isn't it it's it's often what we're eating it's what we're consuming that is hurting us now the second piece in verse seven is the discipline right he says have nothing to do with the irreverent silliness but train yourself for godliness some of you perhaps are doing p90x this is our t25 this is Paul's t47 to - thank you - exercise for godliness if it's a courtesy left Goom nods oh that's the word here we're from which we get the word gymnasium or gymnastics it implies spiritual sweat you don't just passively become godly you you are you are to pursue godliness now we know from titus and elsewhere that it is also by God's sovereign grace that we are growing in godliness grace is training us Paul says to renounce ungodliness right and we read in Philippians 2 that God is at work in us to both willing to work according to his good pleasure but here in this tax the emphasis is on your responsibility you are to train for godliness it's by His grace that you can renounce ungodliness and pursue godliness but what are the exercises involved in this regimen well the only thing that's actually mentioned in this verse is reading and hearing the Word of God you need a good discipline of reading the Bible of praying the Bible of singing the Bible of humbly putting yourself under the Bible that means by which God conforms us to the image of Jesus well what are the benefits of that kind of discipline verse 8 he says while bodily training is of some value you might just underline by the way some because you should do it alright some of you might ought to do a little more I don't know but godliness godliness is a value in every way now in Ephesus they love their sports men they love their athletic and we're in a culture that loves their athletics and they're people who love their workout programs there is some value but don't don't overemphasize it don't idolize it well we should be most focused on is godliness because it holds the promise of life in this life and the life to come now verse 9 he says this is a trustworthy saying that's deserving of full acceptance which can either go with verse 10 or verse 8 I think it goes with verse 8 most commentators agree with me and I'm glad they do it which is because and most people make this argument because it seems more proverbial that idea that godliness is a value in every way regardless he moved to verse 10 and he tells us who is behind this promise life now and life to come how do you know that those benefits are yours well who hears who is behind those promises for this end we toil and strive in our ministry as we exercise for godliness because we have set our hope on the Living God if your hope is in the Living God if your hope is in Jesus Christ the Living Lord you have the promise of life now and the life to come he is the savior of all people all kinds of people Jew Gentile slave free male-female especially those who believe that is you cannot be saved unless you believe this promise is enjoyed by those who believe so my friends have you perhaps taken a casual approach to godliness if so hear this paragraph this morning to get back in the gym and train yourself now number 2 Paul says in verses 11 and 12 a good servant of Christ Jesus you need to exemplify your teaching personally exercise for godliness passionately exemplify your teaching personally verse 11 is a heading phrase for what is to follow in the paragraph that introduces us to the subject which is teaching now we get all kinds of stuff about teaching so command and teach these things these appears eight times in the past orals it refers to that which has been passed on apostolic doctrine the gospel command them and teach them but before Paul gets around to telling Timothy how to teach them in verse 13 he tells him first to exemplify his teaching and that is very instructive itself I think so here we go verse 12 let no one despise you for your youth you see in the old days people used to be critical of the youth Timothy was apparently looked down upon because he was a youngster most scholars tell us that he was probably in his 30s it's a good question it right what constitutes still being young it's a question I find myself asking IRA næss the church father said one could be young up to 40 so III have now earned the right to be called an old man and talked down on all you youngsters out there they were under 40 some of you in this room were rolling your eyes at me Luke calls Paul Young in acts 7 38 who would have been around the same age as Timothy here so the point is though Timothy has been called to a position beyond his years and some of you two will be in churches where you are young and this is very instructive you can imagine that what Timothy would have been going through the human condition hasn't changed has it people could have been jealous of Timothy because he was promoted to leadership and they reacted critically as a result there is a world of jealousy and ministry it is a work of the flesh and not a fruit of the Spirit they could have doubted his own capability he doesn't know what he's doing they could this surely involved a lack of respect and you're gonna deal with this if you're a younger pastor this happens all the time I had a lady in my first church I was 27 years old she refused to shake my hand and one day she looked at me and she said I have socks older than you they're real blessing now there have been young leaders throughout history you're not an anomaly Spurgeon was young Edwards was young Calvin was young HB Charles was like what 18 19 years old and besides this 43% of the world is under 25 so we need young leaders the question is how do you respond as a young leader and what is said next in verse 12 is this you do exactly the opposite of what you really want to do you do the opposite of what your flesh wants to do what does your flesh want to do you want to defend yourself you want to respond in perhaps an aggressive tone or manner you want to tweet up a storm you want to fight or flight but notice the but here but this is what you do set the believers an example in speech in conduct and love and faith in purity you have an opportunity when you are being criticized to set the believers an example it's an opportunity to put the gospel on display you see the point is this people will be less likely to despise your youth if they admire your example and to be sure there still be people who despise your youth but there will be less likely to despise your youth if they admire your example the way you overcome this challenge Paul is telling him at the year and us is by maturity this is Christian leadership 101 leadership is not lordship it's setting an example and inviting other people to follow you it's precisely what Peter says in 1 Peter 5 right do not be domineering over those in your charge but set the believers in example and Jesus revolutionized the world with this model of servant leadership he just didn't bark orders at the disciples he says come follow me he didn't just teach them to pray they watched him pray the Pharisees in contrast were horrible examples demanding of people things were that were not biblical and things they weren't even doing themselves now here's the deal every leader is actually leading by example whether one realizes it or not the question is what kind of example are we setting well Paul gives us a list here of word indeed graces that we should consider it's not an exhaustive list but I think they're very helpful and they're probably geared toward again a younger person knowing our own condition and these characteristics these virtues are made possible because of our union with Jesus Christ and they're supercharged by our communion with Jesus Christ by training for godliness so speech so we are to avoid falsehood scripture tells us anger bitterness abusive speech filthy talk instead let your words be filled with encouragement words of grace tenderness and Thanksgiving this will be the real test this was the test for me when I when I went to my first pastor I was ready to debate the Trinity the inspiration of Scripture the resurrection and the only problem is no one wanted to talk about those things but how will you respond when you're criticized attacked gossiped about slandered will you revile in return or will you follow the way of Jesus and fall on the sword will you entrust yourself to him who judges justly conduct that is putting off your old self putting on this new creation that God has made you what would people learn from you if they lived with you would you be like a magnet drawing them to Jesus would it inspire faithfulness if they watch you said of believers an example in love this is throughout the New Testament right above all put on love Paul says in Colossians 3 Fijians 5 walk in love as Christ has loved you 1 Corinthians 16 let all that you do be done in love love for neighbor love for sure look for the lost but all that you do be done in love are you known for warmth and hospitality and compassion I love what Spurgeon says in the lectures he says I love a minister whose face invites me to make him my friend on whose doorstep you read welcome not beware of dog give me the man around whom the children come an individual who doesn't have a friendly cheerful manner about him and better be an undertaker and bury the dead for he will never succeed in influencing the living a man must have a great heart if he is to have a great congregation when a man has a large loving heart men go to him as ships to a haven such a man is Hardy in private as well as in public may God make us those kinds of people you see my friend becoming an expository logn shouldn't turn you into an angry pit bull it's actually possible to be an expository and gracious to love theology and be humble that's what our doctrine should be doing to us and if you're a younger pastor and you're going to be a pastor and you're gonna be young one of the way you're gonna gain respect from other people is by loving them forgiving those who wound you asking for forgiveness when you wound them because you will opening your home to people being generous and warm and accept accessible faith set the believers an example in faith that you're trusting God set an example in purity that you're not hiding anything my friends you know this really well there are so many crazy ideas about pastors and so many negative ideas that was in England not long ago in that waitress was coming around as she was refilling our our water and and just bringing us our dishes and we were having a nice little cordial conversation and eventually she said well what are you doing in England and I said I'm a pastor conversation over I might as well said I kill puppies that would have carried the conversation over own but as soon as I said I'm a pastor done now why is that well it's true it's sometimes because of our gospel and if they stumble over that that's on them but sometimes it's not because of what we're preaching it's because of what they're seeing and that's on us set the believers in example thirdly he tells Timothy hear something about preaching and teaching expound the Scriptures publicly you see my friends you will show people what you believe about the Bible by how you use the Bible not merely by what you say about the Bible and I want people to be convinced of scriptures authority of its sufficiency of its Christos centricity I find myself defending all three of these things all the time and one of the ways will cultivate such a people that embraces biblical authority sufficiency and the redemptive nature of the Scriptures is bada the way we handle it in corporate worship and so we have here in verse 13 a really important verse I think for understanding the preaching of then in corporate worship because I think this is in the context of the assembly until I come to vote yourself to the public reading of scripture to exhortation into teaching now notice here verse 13 comes right after verse 12 Timothy's young he's being attacked he's being criticized what should he be doing well first of all he should be set an example second of all he should expound the Bible young person going into a church do those two things love people well and teach the Bible I mean why should they listen to the young guy notice verse 13 it's because he's got the Bible it doesn't come from your experience you don't have any it doesn't come from how many books you've written you if you're a student maybe rinse the books I don't want to be condescending as Bruce uses that term but but you probably haven't written any books why should they listen to you it's because you've got the Bible and to rightly interpret and preach the Bible to people then puts them under obligation to God so Timothy what should you be doing well here's the pattern stand up read the Bible exhort and teach people from the Bible it's not that hard but it's so rare he uses this word ana gnosis the public reading of scripture scripture is actually supplied here it's it's implied from the rest of the New Testament but this this word was used with the public reading of wills a petition of reports it's used in Nehemiah 8 when Ezra reads aloud Luke 4 when Jesus reads in the synagogue acts 13 acts 15 as their reading in the Sabbath and the synagogue practice was then taken over by Christians as they assembled for corporate worship the Apostles letters were included in those readings we know that from 1 Thessalonians 5 Colossians 4 and Paul clearly has in mind here the public reading and exposition of that which was just read this is our historical pattern that you and I'd been given and we know from the sermons and acts that the early Christians viewed all Scripture as Christian Scripture they got this from Jesus who said that you search the scriptures to the religious leaders thinking that in them you have eternal life yet it is they that bear witness about me if you believed Moses you would believe me because Moses wrote of me you don't really even understand Moses because Moses wrote about me there is a messianic wind that blows through the pages of the god-breathed Bible we see it in theme development types shadows the overarching storyline this is the pattern to explain the Bible and to point people to Jesus and do it until you die you know sometimes pictures are worth a thousand words and I stumbled on one the other day this illustration will make Steve very happy Lucas Cranach was the you might say artist of the Protestant Reformation and if you go to st. Mary's Church today you can see a number of paintings from chronic one of like the Lord's Supper you know different things going on in church and one is of Luther preaching and it's a beautiful summary I think of what we ought to be doing we have the pictures up on the screen first picture here is a picture of Luther in st. Mary's Church in a picture here pointing people to Jesus from the Bible you notice that all the people are looking at the cross the next picture shows Luther with a finger on the text and pointing people to the cross and all the people next picture shows them looking if you span out you can see looking at the cross and not at their world famous preacher and then there's this one little girl I love this little spot here she's looking at you inviting you to look to the cross and that's what's happening in corporate worship right finger on the Tech's pointing people to Jesus all eyes on Jesus not like Tupac all eyes on me but all eyes on Jesus and then the people are looking at the world saying will you look at Jesus - well Luther had his flaws for sure but the Lord used him to recover the gospel defend the gauls proclaim it in a context that was saturated with false teaching and that's what Timothy's in and that's what we're in and we need an army of faithful expositors today in this post Christian pluralistic relativistic spiritually confused culture we need an army of them who will love people explain the Bible and point people at Jesus we don't need 20 more sensational conference speakers we're good we need millions I mean millions of faithful ministers who will saturate the nations with sound doctrine this is hard work why Paul says in 1 Timothy 5 you're laboring like an ox doing this work but it's a privilege it is a privilege number 4 I move quickly it tells Timothy here to exhibit ministerial growth progressively progressively so he says here to Timothy not only should they see your example but there's something else the people ought to see see your example are gonna see you teaching the Bible they should see progress that's one of the ways they're gonna tolerate you if they're gracious is that they're patient and they see progress he says do not neglect and neglect the gift you have the gift here is generic it it I would imagine just refers to that the the gift of teaching to do that which Timothy's been called to do because God gives us to do the things he's called us to do don't neglect it there seems to be some temptation here for Timothy to withdraw and not exercise his gift don't neglect it but use it remember your gift is for the good of the church it's not for you don't hold back your gifts your gift is is to bless the church which the was given you by prophecy there seems to be some utterance spoken over Timothy perhaps the way we read in in acts 13 when Paul and Barnabas were singled out where hands were also laid upon them before they went out he mentions here also the laying on of hands from the Council of the elders that is the the leadership there affirming your gifts that's also very important isn't it and then he tells them in verse 15 practice these things I love how practical this is how do you get better at preaching and teaching preach and teach a lot it's gonna take you a long time I was telling a church planter the other day man don't even really stress I mean work hard in your sermons but listen in 10 years you won't want to preach any of your sermons I don't want to preach any of my first sermons I hope they're not out there you can grow right he says immerse yourself in them let let them see your progress I remember going up to John Piper and I was telling him I was writing my dissertation on him and his first words back to me was please take recent sermons please take recent sermons that made me feel really good let them see that you becoming more clear you're more concise you have better application you're addressing the heart better that you can actually preach from the Old Testament by the way there's a great new book called progress in the pulpit by the Jedi Master himself Jim Shaddix well this is this is a wonderful word to us and it's really a word of Grace's and it's a reminder to us who are in ministry that we have not arrived let them see your progress and it's a word to the church to say please be patient with us let them see your progress there's still more for us to learn my friends more for us to do more room to grow so we press on in this good work again from Spurgeon he says know Jesus sit at his feet consider his nature his work his sufferings his glory rejoice in his presence commune with him from day to day to know Christ is to understand the most excellent of Sciences you cannot fail to be wise if you commune with wisdom you cannot miss strength if you have fellowship with the mighty son of God saints of 60 years experience who have walked with him every day think they know him but they're only beginners yet we're only beginners my friends let's never forget it let's stay hungry last exhortation it tells Timothy to examine your life and teaching persistently here is a great warning to us and it's a great summary of the pastoral isn't it to watch your life and doctrine God warns us because He loves us you warn your kids because you love them and God gives us a sober warning here because it loves us and he loves his church really three exhortations are bound up in verse 16 first watch your life second watch your teaching and then third don't miss the third one persist in this that is to say don't ever stop watching your life in doctrine we don't like this we don't like examinations my first PhD seminar was with dr. Keithley I was so nervous we picked our topic and I said dr. Keithley I'd like to write on the destiny of those who've never heard the gospel and he said that's great Tony that's why I wrote my dissertation on I'd like to reconsider no I think you should do that as I am presenting this paper and I'm sweaty I'm nervous he is writing so much with a red pen that the pen explodes it goes all over his arm he has to leave the room to wash his arm off I'm like I'm done I'm done man nobody likes evaluation but this is for our good this is for the people's good and what is it that you should be evaluating faithfulness faithfulness I used to also be very ambitious when I was in my 30s now I'm 40 I just want to live 10 more years and it's it's it's become very clear to me in all seriousness the ambition is to finish well I was talking to a friend who is well known you would know him if I mentioned his name and he he succeeded big-time in what we would consider success in the church world and he's a young guy early 40s now and he was he was talking to me he says Tony I just don't know what this was a couple years ago what's the next hill for me to take and this past summer we were together in light of a lot of things just went on and he says faithfulness is the hill there is no other hill faithfulness to Jesus and not success in the eyes of people that's the hill notice he doesn't exhort Timothy to climb some denominational ladder to play politics or to use the church in Ephesus at some stepping stool no his words are pure and and higher they are be faithful watch your life watch your doctrine and persist in this and the need regarding your life is not just for more accountability though we can all use that watch your affections guard your heart we live out of the overflow of that heart what's at stake he says you save yourself and your here is of course Paul doesn't mean that Timothy can save himself we know Jesus alone does that but the the emphasis here is on Christian endurance to work out your salvation with fear and trembling for the hearers God has ordained that people be saved through the preaching of the word through the hearing of the word and they grow by that same word and so Timothy is called here to persevere in godliness and teaching sound doctrine and if he does he will save his hearers from the dangers of false teaching which will cause some people to make shipwreck of their faith at the center of our glorious salvation is Jesus Christ who stands behind all of this our great mediator that's who we stay faithful to and that's who we keep pointing people to that's today my friends see him as our source of hope as our perfect perfect example of godliness who died on behalf of those who were ungodly that we may be declared righteous and now have power to pursue godliness and to be faithful in our Ministry of teaching let's keep pointing people to Jesus both in our public ministry and in our personal example until we see him and on that day you will be most glad you did let's pray together father keep us faithful keep our eyes fixed on you we nose off the pleasures of this world and give us an ever-increasing joy in the Lord Jesus guard our hearts even now as we sing to you as we go about this day in classes at our workplace wherever we are we pray that you would have inflamed our hearts of for the beauty of Jesus Christ who's worthy of all of it and his name we pray everyone said amen

Channel: Southeastern Seminary

Views: 4,236

Rating: 4.8730159 out of 5

Keywords: Southeastern, Baptist, Theological, Seminary, Chapel, Message, Jesus, Preaching, God, Book, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Gospel, False Teaching, False spirits, Spirit, Danny, expository, Great Commission, Truth, Grace, Love, Discerning, Training, Education

Id: TJd4AVWzeCs

Length: 39min 44sec (2384 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 25 2018