Christ Grows His CHurch

Who are the people that you trust the most? What is it that makes you trust these people? Maybe they're the people who are closest to you, who know you the best, whom you know well enough to trust. Likely these are people who've proven themselves over time to be dependable and trustworthy. For the last several weeks here at Jefferson Park, we've been looking at the concept of trustworthiness. The elders have been preaching through the trustworthy sayings found in the pastoral epistles, that's 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. And these trustworthy sayings are specific sections of these letters where the Apostle Paul calls out an idea or instruction as being particularly worthy of taking to heart. We've looked at how Jesus came to save sinners, that was in 1 Timothy 1. We've looked at the noble task of serving as an elder, that's in 1 Timothy 3. We looked at the faithfulness of Jesus in 2 Timothy 2. And last week, we looked at God's grace in our salvation in Titus 3. Today we're back in 1 Timothy, looking at chapter 4. Now I know what you're asking. Why are we going out of order? Why did we skip 1 Timothy 4, and why are we coming back to it now? I'd love to stand up here and say it's because we've saved the best for last. That would be just this awesome intro for me to give, but that's not the case. The reality is more like this. The elders who were preaching looked at the texts we wanted to go over, we each picked one, and then we set the schedule. And some of your elders need more time to prepare than others, so that's why we're doing 1 Timothy 4 this week. All of the trustworthy sayings that we've looked at are trustworthy because it's God who has said them. But in this world, God's voice is not the only voice that we hear. We often hear very untrustworthy claims about what is right and true coming from very untrustworthy sources. And in today's passage, Paul writes to Timothy concerning these competing voices. His goal is to instruct Timothy on how to protect his church from trusting in the wrong things. And ultimately, the message of the passage is this. God's people must train themselves for godliness in order to protect themselves from being deceived. I'll say that again. God's people must train themselves for godliness in order to protect themselves from being deceived. The passage and also the sermon breaks down into two main parts. The first part is the problem. That's in verses one through five. And the second part is the solution. That's in verses six through 10. So let us start by looking at the problem, part one. And if you wanna give this a catchy title, you could call it Watch Out for Demonic Lies. So Paul begins the passage by foretelling a rather troubling future for the church. He says that some are going to depart from the faith. And the means by which this will happen involves evil spirits who seek to deceive, and it involves demons who promote their own teaching. So then Paul goes on to reveal a little bit more about exactly how this is going to happen. It's going to happen through the words of human beings. So people who are influenced by these demons and evil spirits, they're going to come. These people are described as insincere liars with seared consciences. They're numb to the sin that they're committing and the harm that they're causing. Their thinking has become so polluted that they no longer have the ability to discern right from wrong. Now at this point, your interest may be piqued. what exactly is it that this false teaching is going to be? What about it is going to be so harmful? And if we just read up to this point in the passage and stopped, we might speculate, okay, what is going to be said that's so bad? Is it going to be a denial of Christ's godhood? Maybe it's going to be a denial that the resurrection occurred. Perhaps it's going to involve promotion of paganism and idol worship. Maybe it's going to have something to do with giving permission to commit blatant and gross sin. We can speculate about a number of very sensational things that might be wrong about this teaching. But actually, the danger that Paul is going to warn us against is much more subtle than any of these things. and he explains it in verse 3. He says that the teaching that's so harmful to the church is going to involve forbidding marriage, and you can take that to mean requiring celibacy, and it's also going to involve requiring abstinence from eating certain foods. So if you thought about what this teaching might be and then you read what he actually says it is, it might be somewhat surprising. it doesn't sound like the stereotypical demonic plot to lead the church astray. You know, we've been conditioned to think of the devil as this cartoon character who sits on our shoulder telling us that we should break the rules. And yet the deceitful spirits in this passage, they're not telling us to break any rules, they're actually giving additional rules that people have to follow. So back to my earlier question, why is this teaching so bad? I think there are three reasons. The first of those reasons, this is the most direct answer, it's the one that Paul literally gives us, it's in verses three and four, and it's that this teaching is just factually wrong. God doesn't actually forbid marriage or forbid the eating of certain foods, so why should we? In fact, when it comes to these two items, marriage and various types of food, God actually created these things to be enjoyed by us and to be received with thanksgiving. Now, I'll admit that it's true that in the past, there was a time when God did prohibit the Jews from eating certain kinds of food. But now that we live under the new covenant under Jesus, this prohibition is done with. All food has been declared clean, and this declaration is one of the hallmarks of the new covenant we have in Christ. In other words, bacon is on the Christian's menu. The godly requirement now isn't to wall ourselves off from enjoying these good gifts, but rather to receive them with thanksgiving, and we actually honor God by taking pleasure in what he's created. But the devil is very crafty, and he rarely works in the way that we expect him to. I believe we can trace a thread from the lies being warned against here in 1 Timothy to the original lie that was told by the devil in Genesis chapter three. Most of us are probably familiar with this chapter. God has created the earth, he's created the Garden of Eden, he's put Adam and Eve there, there to enjoy the garden, to work it and keep it, and there's one rule, there's one tree they can't eat fruit from. And Satan, in the form of a serpent, he comes to Eve, and he says to Eve, he says, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? Now, we know that this actually isn't what God said. God said there was one tree that you can't eat from, and all of the fruit of all of the other trees was totally valid. You could eat from that. In fact, that's why it was there. What Satan does here, what his plan involves is he's twisting God's actual words. He's taking the one rule that God said and he's making it sound like God as a whole is overly restrictive. That God was opposed to Adam and Eve enjoying his creation. And what he does here is he succeeds in casting doubt on God's love and care for the people that he created. And thereby he's able to trick them into committing sin. Now back to 1 Timothy. The false teachers that Paul has in mind here, they're not doing the exact same thing as the serpent in the garden. They're not outright trying to tempt Christians away from obeying God's commands. But within their teaching is the same root of untruth, that God doesn't want his people to be happy. These teachers are attempting to argue that closeness from God doesn't come from rejoicing in God's good gifts, but rather that these gifts should be rejected. Now it's important to note that the particular gifts that are mentioned here, and that is marriage and enjoying different types of food, both of these things point to ways in which we will enjoy God in the life to come. Now, they're different than the kinds of pleasure we might seek through overindulgence in sin. So, there are pleasures we can find on earth that God does prohibit, but these are not the same as those types of pleasures. So, for example, marriage is a biblical image that God gives us for what it looks like for Christ to be united to his church. And similarly, the proclamation that all food is clean, that we can eat whatever we want, this proclamation shows us how the kingdom of God has come not just to one race, not just to one nation, the Jews, but rather it comes to all people of all nations and all races. So when we reject these good gifts that God has given us in this present world, we're to some extent actually passing judgment against what God is going to do in his eternal kingdom. So that's problem number one with our false teachers. Problem number two is that this teaching is a way in which these false teachers can manufacture misplaced guilt. All right, the one who's teaching and practicing these things is able to stand over his fellow Christian and assume a superior state because he's able to claim that he's going one step further and living out his faith. This false teacher can say something like, oh, okay, Christian, you keep yourself from sexual immorality? Well, that's nice, but I'm actually completely celibate. I'm not even marrying. And you say, okay, Christian, you're not a glutton. You always thank God before you eat. That's great, but there are actually whole categories of food that I don't even eat. You might think you're a little holy, but you are nothing compared to me. I want to say that when we've honestly done something wrong, guilt can be a proper motivator for us to repent and seek forgiveness. But for Christians, dwelling on guilt is a destructive state of mind. That's because God is one who seeks to draw near to us, and persistent guilt makes us feel like God is unapproachable and far away. Therefore, as this teaching puts guilt in the heart of the believer, it is completely destructive. Problem number three, and this one is the most important. And it lies in the use of the words forbid and require. So if we remember back in verse three here, it says that these teachers forbid marriage and they require abstinence from foods. So the problem isn't that celibacy in and of itself or this restricted diet is outright sinful. And in fact, there could be individual circumstances where these things are actually helpful practices. But it would be wrong to teach that any person has to do these things in order to attain salvation. What Paul is doing here is he's actually warning us against this teaching because it is actually the most anti-gospel notion that a person could have. It's anti-gospel to believe that any particular action, aside from believing in Christ, is a requirement for being a Christian. If we have a correct understanding of our salvation, we know that there's nothing we could have done or could do to earn it. God is so holy and we have fallen so short of his holiness that there's no possible way for us in our own strength to bridge that gap. God in his judgment would have been totally right to punish us for our sin. And the only man who can solve the problem of bringing us close to God after we've committed sin is Jesus Christ. Jesus led a perfect life in perfect obedience to God, and he lived a life perfectly avoiding sin in a way that no other human has ever done. And yet, on the cross, he voluntarily took our place in receiving the punishment that we deserved as sinners. Now thankfully by God's grace, the righteousness that Jesus earned in his life is credited to us who put our faith in him. And by God's mercy, the wrath that we actually deserved is placed upon Jesus instead of us. And God's word is clear on this point, that if we are trusting in anything other than Jesus Christ for our salvation, we are rejecting him and rejecting this free gift of salvation that he offers. Even if we're still saying we trust in Jesus, but we're trying to add additional obligations on top of that, such as abstaining from certain foods, then we're essentially saying, no, Jesus, this great price you paid to reconcile us with God, it's not good enough. There's just this tiny little thing additionally that you need me to do so that I can really be saved. Now folks, God doesn't actually need our help with anything, and our salvation is certainly on that list. Seeking to add our own works to the work of Christ is to steal glory away from him. Keith preached on this last week. It doesn't make us more holy to do this. In fact, it actually cuts us off from receiving the only grace that could atone for our unholiness. So I wanna speak for a moment to those of you in the room who are Christians. Christians, we've got to recognize how harmful it is to miss this main point of the gospel. But before you take on the task of chastising others for their faulty teaching, before you get on others' cases for getting the gospel wrong, you've got to examine yourself. Are you, in your life, promoting the gospel rightly, or are you doing it in the way according to these false teachers, maybe even unintentionally so? Are you witnessing to your neighbors and exhorting your fellow believers with a focus more on what they should and shouldn't do, rather than a focus on who Christ is? Are you taking practices from your life that have been merely beneficial to you and prescribing them as gospel essential to other people? Are you more concerned with helping others look more like Christ or to look more like yourself? Now, I want to speak to those in the room who may not be Christians. Let me ask you this. Has Christianity been explained to you simply as a long list of rules? If it has, let me apologize. This is not what the Bible is all about. Yes, the Bible does contain lots of rules. God calls his people to be holy like he is, and this is an immense demand. It's so immense, in fact, that we can't possibly meet it. None of us can. You've already fallen short, and that statement is true for everyone in this room. Now don't get me wrong, your life does need to change. Your life as it is right now isn't pleasing to God. But you're not gonna change God's mind about you by making little tweaks and additions to your external behaviors. It's not true that you have the ability to clean yourself up a bit to make yourself more presentable to God. Even the most mature Christian is still each day learning more and more about the depths of his or her sin. You're not going to earn yourself eternal life by simply copying the words and behaviors of other Christians like the people in this room. In fact, please don't do that. All of us here are constantly messing up as well. But there is something that I believe you can observe here today that will contribute to your repaired relationship with God, and that is faith in Jesus Christ. Placing your trust in Jesus, that is to say, declaring that he's your only hope of salvation and that you are a sinner and are in desperate need of him as a savior. That's what I'm talking about. He calls us to turn away from our pursuit of sin and to believe in him. And if you're here today not a Christian and you're interested in learning more about what this means, what this looks like, please after the service talk to me or another member of this church. We'd be happy to talk to you about what it looks like to follow Christ. Now, if you haven't yet put your faith in Christ, what I've just said should be your main takeaway from this morning's service. I have a lot more to say, though, and the passage that we're looking at today does as well. But most of the rest of this sermon and the rest of this passage is aimed at people who've already made a profession of faith, people who are already living as believers. So I hope that what I have to say will provide you a helpful picture of what that Christian life looks like, But I wanna be clear to say that this is not a to-do list for how to become a Christian or how to become saved. Apart from the faith in Christ that I just mentioned, the things I'm gonna talk about are of no more value for you than the false teaching that the writer of this letter, Paul, has warned us about. But for Christians, there is much here that is profitable. And so that brings us to our second section, which is the solution. So the solution, part two, and I'm gonna actually break this into two sub points, so if you wanna call this section 2A, you could title it Train Yourself for Godliness, and this is gonna consist of verses six through eight of our passage. So we've looked at how Paul has warned Timothy about the deceiving spirits and the demonic teachings that the Holy Spirit has said will fall upon the church. So now what he's gonna do is he's gonna prescribe us the antidote. This is the needed protection that Timothy must seek after. Paul says that Timothy and all of us, believers, we are to train ourselves in godliness. Let's look back at the passage, starting in verse six. 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 the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. Now, as if verses one through five didn't already make it clear enough, Paul again has harsh words for the false doctrine that's here posing a threat to the church. In verse seven, he has something to say about it again. He characterizes it as an irreverent, silly myth. Now, as we've already seen, this myth, this lie is irreverent because it's a form of works righteousness that directly flies in the face of the gospel. And it's silly because it should seem completely illogical to anyone who has a Christian understanding of theology. Our sin is so vile that it required the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ to atone for it. And any system of belief that suggests we can impress God because we stay away from certain types of foods is silly. I want us to focus though on another word that Paul uses, which is the word myth. Why would Paul call this teaching a myth? In one sense, I think he's simply just pointing out that it's untrue. He's labeling it as a false belief system. Now we use the word myth all the time in this way. We use it to correct things that people believe are true. So we might say, after we've studied American history a bit, we might say, okay, it's actually a myth that George Washington had wooden teeth. He had false teeth, but they weren't actually made of wood like we often hear. Or we might say, it's a myth that Napoleon was short. All right, he was about 5'7", so he wasn't the tallest guy in the world, but for his culture, he would not have been considered short. And the main point that we're making when we call these things myths is we're saying they're not true. We're debunking them. But a myth, I believe, is more than simply something that's just not true. It's not the exact same thing as a lie. So imagine this. What if I stood up here and I told you, hey guys, I just dunked on LeBron James last night. He and I were playing one-on-one and I just absolutely took him to school. All right? It would be really obvious to you that that was not true. Now, if Ben Bullard or Luke Tomlinson were up here, you might have to think about it for a bit. They're at least tall enough to reach the rim, right? But if I said it, you would definitely know I was lying. But I doubt you would call this statement a myth, because no one would ever believe it. See, a myth, it has more staying power than a simple lie. It describes something that is widely believed by a certain community to be true. It's not obviously false on its face. A myth needs to be debunked. And so it is with much of the false doctrine that threatens believers in the church. As an example, let us think about the specific things Paul called out back in the earlier part of the passage, specifically the forbidding of marriage. So Paul says there are people who are going to claim that Christians shouldn't get married. So let's ask, might this idea in some way carry weight for the believers here in Timothy's church? Is there something about it that would sound particularly convincing? In order to answer that question, I want us to take a look at another letter that Paul wrote. That is the letter to the Corinthians, the book of 1 Corinthians. I think it's interesting, this letter was actually written while Paul was in Ephesus. Well, Ephesus is the city where Timothy currently is, so Paul has left that city, he's left Timothy in charge of the church there, and he's writing back to Timothy. So this letter is being delivered to Timothy at the church in Ephesus, where Paul wrote 1 Corinthians. And in 1 Corinthians 7-8, Paul wrote, To the unmarried and the widows, I say that it is good for them to remain single as I am." Just for a moment, I'm going to intentionally take this verse out of context. All right? So if you're a Christian in the Ephesian church, you might actually remember Paul's teaching about this. You might have been there when he said it or wrote it. So when a few years later, some other person comes around and starts saying that you can attain a special degree of holiness by not marrying, you might think, yeah, that makes sense. I think Paul said something similar. It's the kind of idea that might have enough staying power in this particular church and this particular city, and it could rise to the level of becoming a myth. But now let's go back and put this verse into its proper context. If you remembered the rest of Paul's letter to the Corinthians, you could easily recognize that this myth of forbidding marriage was false. So right before the verse I quoted you, Paul wrote this, this is starting in verse six. Now as a concession, not a command, I say this, I wish that all were as I myself am. And he's talking about being celibate, that he wishes that all could be celibate. But each has his own gift from God of one kind and one of another. So here, our myth has been busted, right? So no one who has the full counsel of Paul's writings could claim that he taught that celibacy was a practice that was universally required for every believer. Paul did say that for some cases, it was best to remain single. That was the case for himself. Being single allowed Paul to focus wholeheartedly on his gospel ministry, which took him across the world. It wouldn't have been a life where it would have been easy for him to be faithful to a wife. So therefore, God granted Paul the gift to be celibate so that Paul could do this specific work for God. So singleness and celibacy for Paul was a good way to live, but it might not be a good way for everyone to live. Now you can envision how this one kernel of truth that Paul taught, the fact that singleness can be good, you could see how this might give credence to the completely false myth that marriage is meant to be forbidden for everyone. It's easy to convince the uninformed that something that's good for some people in some situations is necessary for everyone in every situation. But if you know the whole context of what scripture is saying on this topic, it's also very easy to discern the truth from the myth because God's word tells it very plainly. Now this discussion of marriage and celibacy and singleness, it's just one example. We already talked a little bit about how the early Christian church dealt with the issue of food and what you could eat and what you couldn't eat. We could just as easily take that example and see how there's a kernel of truth behind abstaining from certain foods, but then there's the full context of scripture which tells us that all foods are okay to eat. And what Paul wants Timothy to do here is he wants to make sure Timothy is very clear on the full context of what God says. He wants Timothy to have that clarity of discernment as he's leading his church. So Timothy is to have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. And these myths are gonna crop up constantly. They're often gonna sound true. Lots of people are going to accept them as true without question. The default position, if you don't know any better, is going to be to believe them. And this is a very dangerous situation for a Christian whom God calls to be committed to the truth. So in order to tell the difference between the silly myths and the truth, Timothy needs to be well informed. So Paul says he is to train himself in godliness. And that is to say, to train himself in the ways of God himself. So Timothy, we can presume, Timothy's already, he already has a great deal of training. He spent a lot of time with Paul, such that Paul felt comfortable leaving him in charge of this church. But even Timothy, with all of his training, needs to continue to train himself, and that's the same as it is for us. the deceitful spirits that Paul mentioned in verse one, they're not gonna stop their efforts to confuse God's people. So God's people must be vigilant, and we must constantly return to the things that God has taught us. What does it mean specifically to train ourselves for godliness? I think we can learn a lot by how Paul contrasts training for godliness with bodily training. So he says in verse eight, While bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also the life to come. Now, at first glance, this looks a lot like one of Paul's patented athletic metaphors. He's very fond of using the earthly example of the athlete as a model for heavenly behavior. And I think that is applicable here, at least to a certain extent. We all should be familiar with how bodily training, such as exercise, pays off our short-term pain with long-term gain. And this is how it is with training for godliness, only it's just to a greater extent. The long-term gain that we get from godliness is eternal, whereas the gain that we get from bodily training only lasts as long as our bodies are alive. But I also think that Paul means for us to have in mind how bodily training greatly lacks benefit as compared to training for godliness. So it's not just a comparison, it's actually a bit of a contrast. Bodily disciplines, and we might include the bodily disciplines of the false teachers, such as celibacy and abstaining from certain foods, These disciplines admittedly do have some value in certain cases. We looked at Paul's example of not being married himself. But that value is limited. And on the other hand, godliness has unlimited value. As Paul says, it is of value in every way. It goes beyond just the physical and the external. Training for godliness is an inward exercise first, one that ripples outward to ultimately change how we act in addition to how we think. You can't really fake godliness. Throughout the pastoral epistles, again, that's 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, Paul uses the term godliness 11 times. And seven of those times, it's used as a direct contrast to the character of false teachers. These are people who may look righteous on the outside, but who are instead actually corrupt deep down beneath the surface. Now Paul says that godliness holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. So how does godliness help us in the present life? Well, it gives us the proper understanding of God's ways, the proper understanding of what comes with godliness. It gives us the freedom to enjoy the good things God has created for us on this earth. It helps us avoid being bogged down in misplaced worry and guilt. Godliness gives us a peace and calm as we endure trials here in this life because it helps us see more clearly that God is in control. There are many ways in which we benefit today from pursuing godliness. But in the life to come, none of the efforts we make here on earth to cultivate godliness will go to waste. As we grow in our godliness in the here and now, God brings us step by step closer to the glorified state we will one day enjoy with him forever, where we will be made completely perfect and without sin. The godliness that you are learning today will stick with you beyond the end of time. It's not like going to the gym and working out, which might stick with you for a little while, but then fade away. Training for godliness is good forever. So I think naturally we should ask, okay, godliness is good for us, training for it is good, but how do we actually do it? What are some specific ways that we can train in godliness? Honestly, there are lots of ways. I'm only going to pick out three to discuss this morning. So the first of those is to learn what God has actually said by studying the Bible. As the myths we discussed spread throughout this world and threatened to overwhelm us, there's no better defense against them than having a deep, intimate knowledge of the truth found in scripture. We can think about how Jesus used God's word to fight back against the temptation of Satan, as Satan tried to twist God's word into a lie. And we can also think of how Adam and Eve should have done that when Satan told his lie in the garden. Without a knowledge of God's word, you can have no reasonable hope to avoid being lured in by the falsehoods that will lead you to ruin. But on the other hand, these lies are no match for the men and women who hold God's word close to their hearts. Number two, what else can we do to train ourselves in godliness? We can build our relationship with God through regular prayer. Now in addition to giving us his thoughts and instructions via the Bible, God has given us a way to talk to him personally through prayer. As you develop a habit of putting your desires and concerns before God, you will grow in your trust in him as a loving provider. Now that said, I think we often sell prayer short when we make it only about asking God for things. Now an answered prayer request is a great blessing, but so too is time spent in prayers of praise, prayers of confession, and thanksgiving. And these prayers can often be guided not by what we're wanting or thinking, but by what scripture says about God's character. When we take the focus off of ourselves in prayer and the things that we want, our prayers can become effective tools for experiencing who God is, and thereby we can place him in the proper place in our hearts and minds as these competing forces come and try to sway us away from him. And I think there are some practical ways that members of this church particularly can learn more about how to pray these other types of prayers. I think we all know how to ask God for things. I think many of us, myself included, have a hard time figuring out how do we do these other prayers. Now, if you're here on Sundays regularly, you'll know that our service typically involves someone leading us in prayer between the first and second set of songs. And each week we do this, the prayer that happens in that slot in the service, it's actually a specific type of prayer. So this morning, John led us in a prayer of confession. Other weeks, we might have a prayer of praise or a prayer of thanksgiving in this slot. So I would suggest that if you're here on Sunday and you see what type of prayer we are praying at that point in the service, just take note of it. Pay attention to how that type of prayer is modeled for you and see how it is based on the scripture that we read before it. There's another thing we can do practically if you're a member of this church. On Wednesday evenings, we gather here together for a time of prayer. And during that time, yes, we do include prayers, many prayers, where we ask God to do things for us. This is a good thing for us to do. But we also try to include other types of prayer during that time. So this Wednesday prayer meeting, it's just another example for you to see other types of prayer modeled, to hear your fellow church members to pray, and as well as for you to participate in it. And that last point about participating in it brings me to our third way that we can train for godliness. Our third way is that we can see godliness lived out by gathering together with other believers. Now, if you're listening closely, you'll remember, yeah, I did say earlier that the members of this church were not perfect examples of holiness to follow, all right? That's true. But it's also true that God means to use believers and the fellowship of believers for his people to sharpen and encourage one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. And the church is the main arena that God has provided for you to live out your godliness as you seek to grow in it. The church gives you your best opportunity to serve others with your gifts, to care for others, and to point them back to Christ if they begin to drift away. And the church is also the place where others can do the same for you. The church is the place where you can best experience here on earth what kind of kingdom God is building for the future. The church is made up of all types of people who might otherwise have nothing to do with one another. And these people who seemingly have nothing in common come together with Christ in common, loving one another. This is a picture of eternity and this is, observing this, taking part in it is a way that we can train ourselves for godliness. There's a reason that so much of the New Testament focuses on building up the church. It's the same reason that the devil wants to infiltrate the church and tear it down. It's because a strong, faithful church is one of the primary means by which people are held fast to the gospel and by which unbelievers are drawn to the gospel, away from the falsehoods of the world. So those are just a few ways that we can practically live out Paul's call to train ourselves in godliness. There's another important piece of this, and that is our motivation. What drives us to actually do this? And that's our second sub-point. This is point two B, if you're taking notes. This is we are to be motivated by hope in a trustworthy God. This is found in verses nine and 10. So Paul tells Timothy in verse nine that the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. We need to trust that training in godliness does hold promise for the present life and the life that is to come. Now, why is it important for Paul to point this out? It's probably because actually living out this instruction is going to be very hard. As time goes on, we aren't going to feel like pursuing our training in godliness. It's going to be painful. Paul characterizes it in verse 10 as toil and striving. And when the going gets tough, it's very easy to become bogged down in frustration and uncertainty. If you're a Christian, you likely have or will encounter this at some point in your life, probably at many points in your life. And it's probably going to go down something like this. Today, I just don't feel like reading the Bible. It's confusing. It's very long. I can't find time in my day. I already know enough about what the Bible says. I don't feel like hearing today what the Bible has to say. Today, I don't feel like praying. I'm tired. Praying feels repetitive. I don't know what to say. I'm in a bad mood. God doesn't listen to me anyway when I pray. We might say, today, I don't feel like coming to church. I don't wanna put on a happy face for everyone there. I'm angry at someone else who goes to my church and I don't wanna see them. The church I go to is dealing with difficult issues right now. There are people who used to go to my church who I love to have left. I don't like to be reminded of that. When I go to church and I'm in a bad mood, it doesn't feel like worship. If any of these statements struck a nerve with you, know that you're not alone. Many here in this room have felt these exact things many times over. I have felt these things. And in these low moments, it's going to feel like the saying here in 1 Timothy isn't trustworthy. It's going to seem like all the work you're putting in to train in godliness isn't actually of value. It's going to seem like godliness is just too hard to attain, and you're going to feel like quitting. Now, when this kind of discouragement hits us, we've got to avoid subscribing to yet another myth, that our feelings are more trustworthy than God. When Paul says that the saying here in 1 Timothy is trustworthy, he's not saying it's trustworthy because we ourselves can be trusted to finish out our training. What Paul is saying is that this is trustworthy because it is based in the character of God himself. In verse 10, he writes, 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. God knows that the pursuit of godliness is hard, and he's not unsympathetic to your feelings. Consider the fact that God the Father understands your suffering and he understands your hardship because he knows God the Son, that is, Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered like no man ever has, and through his suffering, God's will for our salvation was secured. Jesus, in the midst of his suffering, set his eyes on God's perfect will and on God's good character in order to stay on course to pursue God's ways. And this same focus that motivated Christ also exists as a possibility for us to motivate ourselves. Paul also says that God is the savior of all people. Now, he's not saying that all people actually have been saved by Jesus, but he's saying that Jesus is the only one by whom anyone could become saved. And for those who believe in Jesus, we actually have received that salvation. And so we must pursue his ways so that we don't fall prey to the myths that would lead us away from that salvation. Remember, God is not an enemy to our joy. God has gone to great lengths to secure joy for us in salvation by performing the great work of sending Christ to atone for our sins. Now, if God has done that for us, why would we think he would stop short of bringing us through whatever trial we endure right now? And we know that in the short term, our feelings are going to betray us. But God will not. As we persist in seeking after God, he will change our affections so that we find our joy and satisfaction in him more and more. We can look back to how God was trustworthy in the past because we know what he has accomplished for us in Christ. And by doing so, we can have the confidence that God will continue to be trustworthy for us. We can rely on him at every single point going forward. Let us go to God in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for your good character. We praise you for being wholly reliable, for being trustworthy like nothing else on this earth. And Father, we thank you especially for the ways in which you've shown your trustworthiness to us by giving us Christ and by saving us from our sin. And Father, we ask you to help us grow in our godliness. We ask you to protect us from untruth, from lies that would take us away from you. Help us to hold fast to these things that you have told us are true and to be reminded of what you've done for us and your good character so that we may not fall away. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.