You have a Bible. Let me invite you to turn to first Timothy chapter 6 It's page 992 and your pubibil is we are nearing the end of our study of Paul's letter to a young minister in the church at Ephesus Where he is pastoring it's a book about how we ought to conduct ourselves in the household of God and last week Dr. Bruce mentioned in verses 3 through 10 as the apostle Paul does that Paul warns Timothy and us about false teachers who promote a corrupt form of Christianity He's been talking about people who believe and teach false doctors who think godliness is a means of financial gain People who are driven by a desire to be rich people who because of the love of money He says have have brought upon themselves ruin and destruction. He's been warning us about them here He turns to Timothy and tells him what he ought to do positively And so we want to consider this in contrast to the false teachers.
What should a faithful Christian do? And why me by to hear God's word first Timothy chapter 6 verses 11 through 16 But as for you, oh man of God flee these things Pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness gentleness Fight the good fight of the faith Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate Made the good confession to keep the commandment Unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Which he will display at the proper time he who is the blessing only sovereign the king of kings and Lord of Lords who alone has immortality who dwells in unapproachable light whom no one has seen or can see to Him be honor and eternal dominion Amen Amen This is God's word. May he mold and shape us by it. Let's look to have been prayer father honor yourself through this word Be our teacher and our guide to good to our souls and by your spirit help us to receive to learn to grow and to be changed for your glory In Jesus name I pray amen Christians are people who have been saved to serve We here are going to think about service but start with that first part a Christian somebody who has accepted the gift of Forgiveness of sins and eternal life through Jesus They've accepted the gift of the finished work of the Savior Jesus Paul has previously said in the text chapter one He came to save sinners of whom I am the foremost Paul says he chapter two came to be the one mediator between God and man He brings us to God acceptably and believing in him for salvation means we receive what he has achieved on our behalf a man who was deeply troubled about his own relationship with God wrote to Martin Luther and Luther who himself had plenty of seasons of difficulty and Misunderstanding and struggling his relationship with God so he's full of compassion he wrote to him and he wrote him back And he said learn to know Christ and him crucified Learn to sing to him and say Lord Jesus you are my righteousness and I am your sin You took on you.
What was mine? You said on me? What was yours? You became what you were not that I might become what I was not So now here in verses 11 to 16 of this chapter as Paul makes clear resting on Jesus for salvation is not an excuse to fail to serve Jesus Doesn't not don't understand don't serve Jesus as a way to pay for your salvation He had paid it all and don't serve Jesus as a way to get paid That's what he's just been talking about the love of money is the rid of all kinds of evil and don't think like the false teachers that Your Godliness is a way to get rich in this world But do serve Jesus because he paid with his own life to ransom you for God to get you for God He served you to make you free as his servants He's gonna talk about that service to Timothy and what that means he turns from the lifestyle of the false teachers to the lifestyle of The true servants of God he says oh man of God lived this way So that's what we're thinking about how we live in light of what Jesus has done for why do we live that way?
And so I want to highlight three things in the text I want to point those out to you and then we'll walk through the passage together He speaks in verses 11 and 12 a command to press on this is where he says we need to flee you need to pursue You need to fight you need to take hold so it's a command to press on in verses 13 and 14 He he charges him he gives him a charge to persevere in this until Jesus returns And then in the last place the first 15 and 16 he actually prays his God the doxology and he says remember that there's a king to be praised So there's a command to press on there's a charge to persevere and there is a king to be praised Now let's think about these things together in the first place verses 11 and 12 this command to press on four imperatives for commands flee Pursue fight take hold and these are all strong verb commands But as for you he begins oh man of God flee these things It's the language of somebody who realizes there's an avalanche coming that will crush their head if they don't get out of the way The person who knows that there's a lava flow that will burn them up or a tsunami that will swallow them whole run for your life Away from these things Paul says flee flee what it's from the private passage flee the false teaching flee the unhealthy craving for Controversy flee from imagining that godliness is a means of financial gain flee from discontentment before the Lord with what he has given to you flee from a lack of contentment with what he has provided for you flee from the desire to be rich and From the love of money because he says those things cause people to wander away from the faith and Then they pierce themselves with many pains and they plunge themselves into ruin and the destruction of hell He says don't do that but turn away from those things and run and then Pursue in this new direction. He says secondly pursue pursue what pursue righteousness and godliness and faith and love and endurance It's a just wrong word here in some circumstances. It's used in for a persecute or to persecute It's a strong it's it's a chase down hunt down Seek and find and and and so he's saying you've got to do this now Why is he saying to pursue these particular things? Well, I think in part because they are related to the whole problem of pursuing love The things listed here if we pursue them will provide an antidote to the love of money So for instance, he says pursue righteousness and godliness and you remember the words of our Lord Jesus when he said Well, that's not those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied But you do know that those who love money never have enough and are never satisfied He says remember that godliness and pursue that godliness is God wordness.
It's the orientation of life in respect and reverence to God Jesus said you cannot serve two masters You'll either hate the woman love the other or you'll be devoted to one and you'll despise the other He says you cannot serve both God and money You're gonna be oriented in one of the two directions And if you love money, you're gonna grow to despise God because he will never give you enough to make you happy satisfied in this life And you can't take it with you anyway, but it will turn your heart away So pursue godliness and then he says pursue faith trusting God This is a key to contentment trusting our Father in heaven is good and that our Father in heaven is doing good to us Even in our circumstances that he is providing for me and we know that he will never leave us or forsake us And so he says pursue faith and trust in him and pursue love looking out for the best interests of others Will keep you from loving things more than people or using people to acquire things for yourself at their expense Pursue love and it will keep you from loving money And at the end of the list you see steadfastness and gentleness again the impact of the false teachers teaching with its emphasis on riches Was likely to create a people who were so driven by their love of money that they could be easily impatient with anybody who got in their way And likewise any circumstances that stood between them and their pursuit would have been met surely with lots of irritation and impatience So pursues steadfastness and gentleness and perseverance so Paul urges Timothy to pursue these qualities that are diametrically opposed to all those other things So he says flee he says pursue and he says fight Wrestle he either has in mind a soldier fighting or the Olympic champions wrestling But either way fight the good fight of the faith He says we're in a battle and he's not saying fight for faith He's a fight the good fight of the faith and it's very likely that what he has in mind here for Timothy is that he should guard and protect The sound doctrine he has received as verse 10 states some had wandered away from these truths But Timothy is not to do that he's staying on to them and fight for them Fight for the faith fight for the content of the faith Sometimes you'll hear people say that they wish that Christians wouldn't fight over doctrine But that's exactly what Paul is commanding Timothy to do Now there is a difference between contending for the faith and beating people up with the truth and though he says fight He's already said pursue gentleness So there's certainly a manner in which we we fight and wrestle for the truth The fight they could fight with the faith and last command take hold he says of the eternal life to which you were called And about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses remember You may wonder why does Paul tell Timothy to take hold of something that he already has right? He already has eternal life every believer receives eternal life the life of the age to come They receive at the moment they believe in Jesus and Timothy has already confessed his belief in Jesus before many witnesses Right? It's life that starts at a point in time and continues now and on into eternity So he already has the beginnings of eternal life He's a believing man Why tell him to take hold of what he already possesses and I think as one commentator put it's possible to possess something without embracing an Enjoying it making use of it you can hold on to a thing But not very tightly and you can believe something not very firmly and he's using a strong word here grab it Hold on to it lay your hands on it and don't let it go If you're walking along the street and you're holding the hand of your little daughter, and it's busy a traffic is flying by You hold that hand firmly for her well-being She is too precious to hold casually and so it is what we turn a lot hold on to it He says and what is this eternal life Jesus defined it in John 17 3 this is eternal life to know the only true God and Jesus Christ Do Nia said sent hold on to Jesus He called you Paul says and you've confessed him hold on so flea pursue fight take hold in other words A good reminder here Christianity is not a spectator religion It does come to us as good news and we are to stand back and see the salvation of Lord We are to be spectators at the foot of the cross at what Jesus has done once and for all for us You're just to be a spectator to that But then we participate in it as the spirit applies Christ do us and we grow in Christ like this and we're not to be passive in that We are by the help of the spirit. We're to flee pursue invite and take hold And so we're to do something active press on that's the first thing versus 11 and 12 The command to press on then versus 13 and 14.
There's a charge to persevere not just move forward or move in a new direction And I just hold on but persevere verse 13 I charge you in the presence of God verse 14 to keep the commandment to keep on keeping it But unstained and free from reproach probably what he means by that commandment probably is what he's just been commanding And do it until Jesus returns now Why should he persevere in this couple of reasons? He lists one reason is because he lives life We all do in the presence of God notice again verse 13 the second half of it verse 13 I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and in the presence of Christ Jesus who in his testimony Before punch the pile made a good confession so he references God the Father and God the Son and we live in their presence They're unblinking always seeing never sleeping Witnesses to the unfolding story that's Timothy's life and our life and he says you're in the presence of God He gives life to all things hold on persevere may not I boss Guinness get Guinness who's a writer tells a story of general Charles Gordon 19th century officer of British Army He was a committed Christian and during one of his many military campaigns found himself a prisoner of war in Abyssinia or modern-day Ethiopia or portion of it and after his capture he was taken before the king of that country I mean known for his cruelty and he was questioned at one point the king got into the general general space and asked Do you know general that I could kill you on the spot if I liked? I'm perfectly aware of it your majesty Gordon replied do so at once if it is your royal pleasure. I am ready What was the reply you're ready to be killed the king said as thong certainly said Gordon I am always ready to die Then my my my terrors have no power over you and so the king or my power has no terror for you None whatsoever Gordon answered and with that the king left him speechless and amazed now what's that about simply this general Gordon Me that in spite of this man this man's pretensions to power He knew that the one who truly had power over his life and over his death was not the king of Abyssinia But the king of kings the king of heaven and earth in his hands He was held and firmly grasped and this is what Paul is saying You are in the hand of the one who is the giver of life who can alone create it and sustain it both physical life and spiritual life Hold on fear him honor him persevere because though others may take your life.
He can give you back your life And not only this but he's the persevere secondly because of the example of Jesus who he reminds you in his testimony before conscious pilot He gave the good confession. He's reminding you of that story of the life of Jesus when after he was arrested and placed on trial He was brought before the governor and he was questioned and there were two things in particular that Jesus said to Pontius pilot You remember that when pilot asked Jesus if he was king of the Jews if he was the long-awaited Messiah of Israel When Pilate asked that question Jesus responded by saying you have said that it is right in other words, yes, right? But then also in John 19 There's this exchange the Jews were insisting to pilot we have a law for seven John 19 seven and according to that law He ought to die because he has made himself the son of God and when Pilate heard that statement He was even more afraid and he entered into his headquarters again and said to Jesus Where are you from but Jesus gave him no answer? So Pilate said to him you will not speak to me Do you not know that I have authority to release you an authority to crucify you and Jesus answered him you would have no authority over me At all unless it had been given you from above Do you see what Jesus is saying he who faced the greater difficulty in danger and made a good confession before Pontius Pilate he confessed that he was the long-expected King He told even Pilate that he had no power over him But the power that God had given and only by God's permission could Pilate take his life And so he's holding him up as a example for Timothy you do likewise Confess and press on and and hold on and persevere no matter what cost you It's a reminder to us that your Savior never leaves you where he has not been that he never requires of you More than the key himself has suffered that he sympathizes with you in your temptations to compromise your faith Or to let go of God's hand or to trade the kingdoms of this world for the kingdom of God to give it all away to get this world This was what Jesus was offered and he said no he held on to God So you likewise he say persevere and he can help you this he's a sympathetic hyper iced He knows exactly what you need from the inside out So he says persevere and do so how long until Jesus returns and when will that be Paul says that Will be what God brings about in about in his own time It doesn't tell you when that will be and he could have just stopped there and said he's gonna bring it out his own time So just hold on But he doesn't really stop there He goes on to remind Timothy of who this God is who holds that day and time and hour in his hands And that's where we close because he turns to this king in a doxology of praise and it's meant to actually help us hold on What kind of daughter we serving will notice what he says though though?
They're called to endure for a long time in an indefinite period of time time We know we don't know how long that time will be and there will be lots of temptations to doubt to wander away To question the wisdom of God right why has God not brought Jesus back yet? And Paul is saying you have got to have a vision of the glory and greatness of God on his throne To sustain you in your perseverance Maybe you're saying you know I can barely do is put one foot in front of the other in my weakness Then Paul is saying to us draw your strength from him to his sovereign and rules over all and who can do exceedingly about it More than you can ask or imagine according to his power work within you What kind of God is he he is the most blessed and sovereign one the ruler who he says is for things invincible He's the king of kings and Lord of lords the blessed and only sovereign ruler No human ruler can prevail against him and to serve on his side policy is to side with the victor over all evil Remember him. He's invincible and he is secondly immortal. He doesn't decline.
He doesn't decay He doesn't die and to serve him is to side with the one who who bestows immortality upon his people He possesses it Paul says in himself, but he gives it to his people and thirdly He says God is inaccessible. He dwells in unapproachable light Even angels cover their eyes in his presence He is beyond the reach of sinful people in the light of his goodness and glory No one can see him and to serve him Paul is saying he's to side with the true and the good and the beautiful overall that is false and evil and ugly before our faces every day and not only is he Invincible and immortal and inaccessible that he is invisible No one has seen him or can see him to serve him is to side with the one though who does make himself visible in and through his word and in He's incarnate son. He is this great Transcendent sovereign ruler invincible immortal inaccessible and invisible who sits on his throne and runs the universe and is sending back Jesus you remember him and this is so helpful to us as we close because sometimes when you are most doubtful About God it's then that you need to remember most how little you really know of him and how poorly you understand this It's when you are convinced that he doesn't know what he is doing that you most need to remember relatively speaking You have no earthly idea who he is in his essential being and nature Yeah, there are some things you can know great and wonderful things here and now yet as through a glass darkly one day face to face In the face of Jesus, but we know so little and that's a great comfort to us His ways are not our ways his thoughts are not our thoughts and at the moment you're saying to yourself This would be a great time for Jesus to come back because it would rescue me from this mess Even in the midst of that whatever it is and we all have those moments you remember that God controls the clock He sets the timer he sees further than we do and he is unspeakably glorious and cannot be fathomed by us And if this got us for you who can stand against you not? Trouble not tribulation not persecution not famine not nakedness not danger not sword not death not demons not deprivation Not anything else at all creation can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord to him Be honor and glory forever and ever amen.
Let's pray father Lift high Christ before us and give us eyes to see and these to bow and hearts to trust in him and find our help and hope in him And aid we pray most especially those who have no idea how they can make it another day without you and grant us the humility To know that that is us without you in Jesus name. I pray amen