Bromley Baptist Church – 9th July 2006 PM – 1 Timothy 4

Paul sets out his purpose in writing to the young man Timothy in ch 1:3-6 – In a society of pluralism, where religions abounded and where fear was bolstered by superstition and immorality was encouraged by false teaching, Paul is concerned that the church should have a clear grasp of the truth, that the truth of God’s word should be told. It is also true in our society today.

He wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim 2:4.

Paul knew that it would be an uphill struggle to proclaim the truth.

1. Find the truth

Jesus had told his disciples that there would be deception Mark 13:5-6 - "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am he,' and will deceive many.

This would be the way the enemy tries to hide the light of the gospel, shouting louder to drown out God’s voice. It was the way he did it in Eden, - ‘Did God really say…?’ (Gen 3:1) sowing doubt and confusion.

It was happening then - people caught up in devious stuff. It happens today - I’ve known confident Christians who are offered tin instead of the gold they have in Christ - and they take it! - backsliding into the world, or into a sect or cult.

Don’t get too blasé about your standing as a Christian! You are held by God - but value being held by God! We may actually end up more confident in ourselves than God to hold them!

Don’t get over confident or you will fall!

Paul outlines what can happen when false teaching takes hold in 1 Timothy 4:1-4

His specific examples consist of those who want to stop everything that’s good! In his case it’s sexual union in marriage and certain foods. For some reason they’re on a ‘lemming chase’ to get back to Jewish ceremonial cleanliness - a salvation of works and ritual, a God who will only talk to us if we give up pork or stop sexual intimacy as though both of these were evil. (Or the only evils! - they don’t mention other things as evil like dishonesty or materialism!)

No - says Paul - that’s not what God is like and not what we should be like either!

2. Tell the truth about a God who saves us by grace not works, who does not snub his children when they fail and for whom pork and love is created as good not evil!

· Tell the truth about God who wants all good things for his children.

· Tell the truth about God who tells us that all hypocrites will be judged by their own measure.

· Tell the truth about God who loved us so much he sent his Son to die for us regardless of what we have done or are doing!

· Tell the truth about God who calls us to pray for ourselves and for each other that we may all, regardless of our faults, grow in him.

No - shun those godless myths, shun those old wives’ tales - what some will present as ‘deep’ Christian teaching! Don’t be intimidated by anything that contradicts with grace!

3. Rather - Live the truth 4:7-8 - train yourselves to be godly!

What does it mean to be godly? -Is the chief image we have of godliness that it consists in negatives - no drink, smokes or girls! It’s the kind of thing Paul is warning us against in vv1-5.

Godliness will include negatives - but not because godliness is negative - it means leaving one way of life behind and taking on a different one - God’s way for us. You can’t please two masters - God and mammon - love one and hate the other, - if you want to love and serve God then you need to get close to him and seek to replicate in your lifestyle the lifestyle revealed in Jesus – righteousness - being like God!

I want to challenge all of us to forsake the world’s way and seek God’s way for our lives.

It’s not only good for this life but what a store there is we’re storing up in heaven! Not for ourselves to have a better time in glory but of a store of glory to present to God! 1 Tim 4:8 but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

4. Teach the truth - 4:11-15

Timothy was a young man - possibly a lot younger than many of us would like as our pastor! Paul was prepared to put a much less capable man in place than we’re prepared to sit under.

I’m so grateful to those who were (and still are) remarkably forgiving and gracious so that I was trained in church work and in preaching in my young teens. I preached my first sermon in Aveley Methodist Church at the age of 13 as a member of a faith sharing team. As I trained as a preacher from the age of about 15 I made all kinds of mistakes. I could also be quite ungracious to some of those who were gracious to me. But they encouraged me and it’s down to them I heard and followed God’s call. They were God’s messengers to me.

Never discourage or quench the fire in our young people - they are God’s gift to us. And when we have someone learning in the pulpit don’t think of it as second best - open your ears and hearts even wider because God may smuggle something into your life in a way you’d never have thought! And encourage them - you have a chance to be God’s messenger to them! Don’t think that you can’t learn something from someone who is learning! It’s the height of superiority to think that those training in the Lord’s work should only do it at ladies’ meetings!

Clearly Paul didn’t have any such problem in sending Timothy to Ephesus.

5. Learn the faith - 4:11-16

But - as Paul tells Timothy - those young in the faith do have to learn the truth as well as preach the truth.

vv12-16 are all instructions to Timothy - telling him to learn to set an example, learn how to read, preach and teach the scriptures, learn to use the gift of leadership given when the apostles laid hands on you, learn to live more closely to the gospel you preach (v.16). BE DILIGENT IN THESE MATTERS, PERSEVERE IN THEM (15&16) - means learn them! Set yourself to do them so that your progress will become apparent - if not to you then at least to others.

Some young people are most insistent that they ought to be doing it all without learning anything!

You may think you have more of the Spirit, more enthusiasm than those older than you and a better idea of what God is wanting in His church, but you have to learn like all of us have had to and still are. We all need to learn grace and love and how to live out what you’re trying to preach. If not you’ll be just as hypocritical as you think others are!

What is it you're learning?

· Is it an empty Christianity? Is it frothy, heady religion? Is it dry-as-a-bone judgmentalism?

· Is it ‘churchianity’?

· Is it Christianity?

Or is it - as Paul put it - ‘Christ’? Warning the Ephesians (4:20) he said (NIV) ‘You, however, did not come to know Christ that way’ cf. the original - ‘But you did not so learn Christ’. (AV). A disciple learns not a theory or just teaching but Christ himself. - Copy him, learn his ways, his righteousness, his attitudes, his breath, his Spirit.

A ‘disciple’ is a learner!

Yes, you get tired of school, tired of having to learn everything… maths, chemistry, relationships, to drive, to dance, to play guitar, - yes I know it’s frustrating that you need to learn Christ but He is the most important one to learn.

Learn Him, the living word, and learn the word of Christ too. While you’re younger and the brain is able to take it! Set yourself to learn verses, passages from the Bible.

But above all learn Christ – the living word!

That’s how you’ll learn the truth - He is the truth!

For further thought

· What areas of my thinking about Jesus are unclear at present – that make me vulnerable to false ideas without realising it? What measures can I take to clarify these?

· What have I learnt about the Bible in the past year? If I can’t think of anything what steps can I take to learn more?

· Is there a young person I can specially pray for each day?

· Is there anything I’m doing, or any attitude I hold now that could discourage a young person?

· How can I encourage a young person to go on to serve Jesus?

· How can I move towards a more positive approach to godliness?