Laborers In The Harvest – Part 1
Luke 10:1-20 (1-2)
January 13, 2019

Well this morning we begin a new section in Luke’s gospel.
You’re aware of the themes we’ve seen.

1) Jesus, the Long-Awaited Redeemer of Israel
Luke 1:1 – 3:38

2) The Gospel Ministry of Jesus
Luke 4:1 – 7:17

3) Who is this Man?
Luke 7:18 – 9:20

4) Messianic Misconceptions
Luke 9:21-62

Well this morning we introduce a 5th theme,
“THE NECESSITY OF JESUS”

It is very simply that reminder that submission Christ is not optional.

We all understand that eternity depends upon our relationship with Christ.
We often read:
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

1 Timothy 2:5 “For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,”

Verses like that cannot be overemphasized.
That truth is one that all of humanity must embrace.

Humanity has fallen short of the glory of God
And abides under God’s holy wrath,
And the only means of reconciliation with God
Is through the atonement offered in Jesus Christ.

That makes Jesus the pinnacle of importance.
No decision you make in life will ever even come close
To the importance of that decision.

I saw a post on Facebook recently that said:
“There is a 0.0296% chance that your child will become a professional athlete. There is a 100% chance that they will stand before God.”

There is nothing that you will ever encounter or deal with
That even comes close to the importance of Christ in your life.

To call Him necessary is actually even a bit of an understatement.
But that’s what Luke is putting on display here in chapter 10.

This section would serve to remind us that
His call to deny self and take up the cross and follow Him
Is NOT an optional one.

Our world must seek and love and submit to Christ.

LUKE 10 WILL MAKE THAT POINT.
I can go ahead and give you a quick rundown to help you see that.

It begins in the first 20 verses with the sending of the 70 and their return to Him.
• And everything they are called to preach only further emphasizes the necessity
of Christ.
• Since those who receive Christ enter God’s kingdom and those who do not fall
under judgment worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
• But even upon their return and their excitement at having seen the demons
subject to them Jesus says:
Luke 10:20 “Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.”

It is a reminder that a relationship with Jesus
Is even more important than authority in this world.

Victory is nice, victory over demons is especially rewarding,
But even that pales in comparison to being saved by Christ.

And then comes the heartbeat of the entire chapter.
Luke 10:21-22 “At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

That is the heart. That is the point of the section.
Namely that no one knows the Father
Except those whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

YOU MUST HAVE JESUS.
• This even leads into Jesus reminding the 12 of how blessed they are that they
have been granted the right to know Christ.

From there we go to the story of the Good Samaritan which most people think is a story about being neighborly.
• No. Luke uses the story as negative illustration.
• We have here a man who is rejecting Christ but trying to justify himself through his own love of God and love of his neighbor.

• The story Jesus gives is meant to reveal the great lengths that are entailed in loving your neighbor properly.
• No one should read that story and then be able to say, “Yep, I do that.” That story is meant to condemn our lack of brotherly love and once again drive us to Jesus.

And then the chapter concludes with Jesus expressing that very reality as He dines with Martha and Mary.
• Martha is upset that Mary isn’t helping in the kitchen and Jesus says:

Luke 10:41-42 “But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

That’s why we call this chapter “The Necessity of Jesus”
He is in fact the one thing that is necessary in this life.

So there’s the theme we’re going to be embarking upon
For the next few weeks.

AND IT BEGINS WITH JESUS SENDING OUT THE 70.
I, once again, find the Lord’s timing to be impeccable,
• Since not only are we currently in the middle of our “Mission’s Month”
• But we are also having our first meeting this afternoon for “Mission Malawi”
• I can promise you that when we started studying Luke in July of 2017 I had no
idea that we’d be here at this time.

God always has a way of directing His people.

So let’s begin this study of the necessity of Christ,
Even as we currently focus on our mission as believers
To go and proclaim the gospel.

We can divide this text into 5 points, but it will take a few weeks to get through them all
#1 THE SOVEREIGN APPOINTMENT
Luke 10:1

“Now after this” is more than just an insignificant transition.

What Luke is really indicating is after Jesus’ Galilean ministry.

We talked about this some a few months ago;
Namely that Jesus ministry in Galilee was rapidly coming to an end.

Now it is over.
• Jesus is moving now to Jerusalem.
• As you know, He has tunnel vision, He is headed to Jerusalem to suffer and be killed and to be raised from the dead.
• In order to do that, He must leave the northern region of Galilee, He must travel south through Samaria, into Judea and ultimately down to Jerusalem.

His Galilean ministry has come to a close.
You will even see down in verses 13-15
• That Jesus will now pronounce final judgment on those Galilean cities which
saw all His miracles and heard all His preaching and yet still refused to repent.

(13-15) “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. “But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. “And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades!

That is not a warning of what could happen,
That is a declaration of what will happen.

They rejected Him and now He is leaving,
He is heading south to Judea and Jerusalem.

Certainly He is on a mission to go and offer Himself a sacrifice for sin,
But He is also on a mission to PREACH THE GOSPEL ON THE WAY.

But before He arrives in any city,
He has ordained to send messengers on ahead of Him.

“Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.”

This is NOT THE FIRST TIME you’ve seen such an action.

We remember the man named John the Baptist who said:
John 3:28 “You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’”

Of him we read:
John 1:6-8 “There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.”

I’ve always liked that passage
Because of the peculiar reality that it seems to reveal.

Because in that passage we have “Light”
And we also have one who came “to testify about the Light”

It actually seems a little redundant.
Light is self-evident. If light enters your darkness
You don’t need anyone to tell you, it is unmistakable.

And yet, we find that God sends one to testify about the light.
The reason of course is because it is so important.
We don’t want anyone to miss it.

That was John’s purpose.
• To make sure that no one missed the Light when He came through.
• He was to prepare the hearts of the people for the coming King.

Well here we have “seventy” John the Baptists
Going out in “pairs ahead of Him”.

They are doing the same thing John did.
They are making sure that everyone is ready for Jesus when He arrives.

These are not the 12 apostles,
• These are 70 others who have no doubt been following Jesus and listening to
Him preach and watching His miracles.
• We know that when our Lord ascended there were 120 in the upper room.
• Certainly these 70 were part of that group.

Here the Lord appointed them to go ahead of Him
And prepare each place for His coming.

This would have been southern Galilee
This would have been Samaria
This would have been Judea

You go and tell the people that the King is on His way.
These were SOVEREIGNLY APPOINTED MISSIONARIES

For those of you mulling over the idea of going to Malawi this summer,
• We’re going to talk about this in more detail in our meeting this afternoon.
• Namely how to recognize when the Lord is doing this.

But namely here, you simply must see that missions at its core
Is about submission to the will of the King.
He calls, He appoints, we obey.

Well the Lord is sending the 70 here.
It is a Sovereign Appointment

#2 THE SPIRITUAL ASSESSMENT
Luke 10:2a

Here we find WHY their sending is so important.

“And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;”

This is a reality that the Lord wanted them to be aware of.

And it is a reality, that rightly understood,
Should operate as a chief motivator for mission involvement.

THE REALITY IS THIS,
Namely that “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few”

But let’s make sure we understand what the Lord is saying here.

The GENERAL ASSUMPTION I think to this statement is
• That Jesus is saying that there are lots of people out there who are ready to be
saved
• They are just waiting on someone to go out there and share the gospel with
them and in effect harvest them into the kingdom.

I think we take that interpretation largely from the way Jesus used it
When talking to the woman at the well.

John 4:27-38 “At this point His disciples came, and they were amazed that He had been speaking with a woman, yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why do You speak with her?” So the woman left her waterpot, and went into the city and said to the men, “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” They went out of the city, and were coming to Him. Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples were saying to one another, “No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work. “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest. “Already he who reaps is receiving wages and is gathering fruit for life eternal; so that he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. “For in this case the saying is true, ‘ One sows and another reaps.’ “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

That is a fairly straightforward analogy and a strong rebuke of the disciple’s lack of focus and priority.
• As they seen the people of the town they had just left all coming out to meet
Jesus, and Jesus says they are like a great harvest coming into the kingdom.
• Jesus says, “I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored”
• They thought they had been sent to buy lunch, Jesus said, “That’s not what I
sent you to do. That whole town was ready for salvation, but you didn’t say
anything to anyone about Me.”

And certainly from that story we could easily make an assumption
That Jesus means the same thing here.
There’s a whole group of people ready to be saved,
They’re just waiting for you to go and reap the harvest.

But that’s NOT ALL that Jesus means,
And that’s not exactly what He means here.

In our text, Jesus doesn’t refer to the 70 as REAPERS,
He refers to them as “laborers”, and THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

The “laborers” worked the field and worked the vineyards
TO PREPARE IT FOR THE HARVEST.

At what you need to understand here is what the “harvest” represents.

The “harvest” represents THE COMING JUDGMENT.

We certainly see that in the Old Testament.
Joel 3:11-14 “Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down, O LORD, Your mighty ones. Let the nations be aroused And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to judge All the surrounding nations. Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”

And most of the time this is how Jesus referenced it.

Remember the parable of the wheat and the tares?
Matthew 13:30 “Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”

Matthew 13:40-42 “So just as the tares are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. “The Son of Man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

THE POINT IS THAT
The harvest represented more than just the salvation of elect.
It also represented the destruction of the wicked.

The harvest is the final culmination.
The harvest is that day when the redeemed are delivered
And the day when the wicked are destroyed.

Revelation 14:14-20 “Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying out with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” Then He who sat on the cloud swung His sickle over the earth, and the earth was reaped. And another angel came out of the temple which is in heaven, and he also had a sharp sickle. Then another angel, the one who has power over fire, came out from the altar; and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, “Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe.” So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters from the vine of the earth, and threw them into the great wine press of the wrath of God. And the wine press was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the wine press, up to the horses’ bridles, for a distance of two hundred miles.”

There you see it again.
• There is coming a day of absolute finality when this entire world will give an account to God.
• Those are the redeemed will be delivered and the wicked will be destroyed.
• And it is often portrayed with the analogy of the harvest.

We also see it from Jesus with the analogy of a dragnet.
Matthew 13:47-50 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a dragnet cast into the sea, and gathering fish of every kind; and when it was filled, they drew it up on the beach; and they sat down and gathered the good fish into containers, but the bad they threw away. “So it will be at the end of the age; the angels will come forth and take out the wicked from among the righteous, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Different analogy, but the same point.

And I give you that to help you understand what Jesus has in view here.
He is referring to a “harvest” that is certainly coming.

In fact He says, “The harvest is plentiful”
It is the Greek word POLYS (Polus)
It means “great” or “much” or “large”

We know it as a harvest which will encompass the entire world.
JESUS SAYS THAT IT IS WHAT IS COMING.

And certainly you should understand this.
THIS WORLD IS HEADED FOR JUDGMENT.

Peter said:
2 Peter 3:7 “But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.”

And again:
2 Peter 3:10 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up.”

There is a coming judgment
In which the righteous will be gathered to the Lord
And the wicked will be destroyed.

The ONLY MEANS TO BE SAVED from this judgment
Is through the Lord Jesus.

John 5:24-29 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. “For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself; and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.”

SO, IF judgment is coming,
AND the only way to escape it is through Christ
THEN you understand what Jesus is expecting from these “laborers”

They aren’t going in necessarily to reap,
They are going in to proclaim the truth
So that these people will run to Christ.

And if you look at another account when Jesus used this same phrase
Then you’ll understand WHY IT WAS HIS DESIRE that they do that.

Matthew 9:35-38 “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”

• Why does Matthew say that Jesus gave commands regarding
laborers before the harvest?

“He felt compassion for them”

• Do you understand that Jesus knew better than anyone about the certainty of judgment and the agonies of hell?

• Do you understand that this was a driving reality in the life of Jesus?

• Do you understand His desire to rescue sinners from hell?

• Do you understand His compassion?

What else can be said but that a lack of missions
Is nothing short than a lack of compassion?

It was the compassion of Jesus that drove Him to beg for more laborers.

We have before us a world that is lost in sin and headed for judgment,
And those who by in large don’t know it.

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

We have here Satan who is a liar
• And he has convinced the world that they are fine and that there is no need
for concern.
• He has raised up hordes of false prophets to proclaim to them a false gospel
to keep them focused on their comforts and the things of this world.
• They push people through the wide gate and onto the narrow way which
leads only to destruction.

AND THIS WORLD IS BUYING IT.
They need laborers who will do the work
Of preparing the field for the coming harvest.

Hoe up the weeds… Prune back the vines… Bring in the water…

THAT IS WHY THE LORD IS SENDING THESE 70.

THAT IS WHY HE SENDS YOU.
• You aren’t called to save anyone,
• But you are called to go to work in the field,
• Because there is a day of judgment coming to that field.

If nothing else, general compassion should kick in
And cause you to go to work.

So Jesus has sovereignly appointed these 70
And explained to them why the mission is so important.

Let’s begin looking at the next point.
#3 THE SPECIFIC ASSIGNMENT
Luke 10:2b-12

This morning let’s just look at the rest of verse 2.

• Because the judgment is coming.
• Because the wicked will be destroyed.
• Because this judgment is great and will cover the whole world.
Jesus recognizes a need for something.
What is it?

MORE WORKERS

Do you understand that?
• That we live in a world that is in desperate need of missionaries.
• We live in a world that is in desperate need of preachers.
• We live in a world that is in desperate need of teachers of the truth.

And I might just go ahead and add that it is SUPPOSED TO BE YOU.

Can I remind you of what the writer of Hebrews said to his congregation?
Hebrews 5:11-14 “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

I understand the reality of spiritual gifts and vocational callings
BUT DO NOT MISUNDERSTAND THAT TO MEAN THAT
God is just ok with everyone else sitting back and doing nothing.

You are expected to be mature enough in your spiritual growth that you can articulate that truth to someone else.
• The writer of Hebrews was frustrated that more of his people could not.
• They were teenagers still eating baby food.
• They needed to grow up and accept responsibility and do the work.

Our world doesn’t need lazy and immature believers.

Our world needs laborers who will enter the field
And do the work of teaching the truth about judgment and salvation.

Jesus could see that, and we still see it.

LET ME SHOW YOU HIS SOLUTION

He says, “therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

He DOESN’T start with “pray for the lost”
He starts with “pray for the workers to get up off their rears and do the work”

It is the simple reality that we have been reminded of time after time.

Romans 10:13-14 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?”

The simple truth is that the lost won’t be saved
If no one presents to them the gospel.

And Jesus said the first thing you need to do is pray that “the Lord of the harvest [would] send out laborers into His harvest.”

Well Church, there’s our first directive for missions month.
• To pray that God would send missionaries into the world.
• To pray that God would raise up preachers and teachers of the gospel

There’s our first directive for things like Mission Malawi
• We’ve had here before our church for the past 2 months a Macedonian Call.
• We’ve had a fellow believer contacting us, begging us for help in his fields.

You know what he is begging for?
TEACHERS
People who can give foundational doctrinal truth to his people
So they can go labor in their fields.

Have you prayed that God would send people to that mission?
Have you asked God to raise up people from our own congregation who would answer that call?

And I know that’s hard because
In order to offer such a request you have to be willing to answer it.
Certainly Jesus is aware of that reality.

But His first assignment to the 70
And to the rest of the disciples and even to us
Is that in light of the harvest that we should “beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

“beseech”
DEOMAI in the Greek.
It means to beg.

It is the word the leper used when he wanted to be cleansed from his leprosy.
Luke 5:12 “While He was in one of the cities, behold, there was a man covered with leprosy; and when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and implored Him, saying, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.”

It is the word the demon used when he wanted to escape the immediate judgment of Christ.
Luke 8:28 “Seeing Jesus, he cried out and fell before Him, and said in a loud voice, ” What business do we have with each other, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg You, do not torment me.”

It is the word the father used when asking Jesus to heal his son from the demon who afflicted him.
Luke 9:38 “And a man from the crowd shouted, saying, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only boy,”

Does that paint you a better picture of the command here?

We are talking about a world that is facing a sure and certain harvest.
• We are talking about a coming day when the Lord will return and will gather the wheat into His barn but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

The only salvation from this judgment is through Jesus Christ.
• Trusting Him is absolutely necessary for the world.

The whole world is facing this judgment, and the mission is highly understaffed.
• We need more workers.
• We need more people to enter the field and do the work of revealing that judgment is coming.
• We need more people to enter the field and do the work of calling the wicked to repentance.
• We need more people to enter the field and do the work of proclaiming the gospel of salvation through Jesus Christ.

It all points to the necessity of Jesus.
Certainly we believe that.

Well, in that belief, the first thing the Lord tells us to do
Is to beg God to send those workers.

THIS IS WHERE OUR LORD BEGAN.
This is where we start our Missions month.
This is how we begin our Malawi mission.

• There will come a time when we pray for the lost.
• There will come a time when we pray for current missionaries.
• BUT FIRST we pray that God will raise up more missionaries who will go
and do the work.

THE HARVEST DEMANDS MORE LABORERS.

So there’s the beginning.
If you have not done it yet, I’m asking you this morning to start praying that God would send out workers.

Not just to Malawi, but ultimately to every home in Spur
and to every corner of the globe.

This is the command.
START BY PRAYING FOR OBEDIENT WORKERS.

Guarding Your Treasure
1 Timothy 6:20-21
August 1, 2010

Last week when we met, we saw Paul tell Timothy the truths about “Growing Your Treasure”

We listened as Paul told us the secrets to handling wealth.

And the main emphasis was that you and I learn that
The wealth of this world is NOT the true treasure.

The wealth of this world should be used to attain the true treasure.

This is what Jesus meant when He said:
Luke 16:9 “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

That is why Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 6:18-19 “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”

And so the truth of the matter is that we grow treasure by giving treasure.

Tonight we actually conclude the book of 1 Timothy
And we a similar yet absolutely different topic.
Tonight we talk about “Guarding Your Treasure”

I will help steer you down the right path by telling you at the outset that We are not talking about money at all here.

This passage however has everything to do with stewardship

Most of the time people think stewardship is only about money.
But you understand that God has entrusted more to you than just money.

Listen to Paul:
1 Corinthians 4:1-2 “Let a man regard us in this manner, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.”

There it is obvious that Paul had received the explanation of God’s mystery,
And therefore stewardship for him detailed how he shared God’s truth

Stewardship is the same for you and me.
1 Peter 4:10-11 “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

This is the same truth Paul implied in Romans 12
Romans 12:6-8 “Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”

And so there you begin to understand the concept of biblical stewardship.

And just to make sure you are clear on the subject,
Stewardship is very important to God.

Remember the parable of the talents? (Matthew 25)
One man received 5, another 2, another 1

The 5 gained 5 more
The 2 gained 2 more
The 1 hid the talent and did nothing with it

Matthew 25:26-30 “But his master answered and said to him, ‘You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. ‘Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival I would have received my money back with interest. ‘Therefore take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.’ “For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. “Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

And that is not the only place stewardship is mentioned by Jesus.
Matthew 13:51-52 “Have you understood all these things?” They said to Him, “Yes.” And Jesus said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has become a disciple of the kingdom of heaven is like a head of a household, who brings out of his treasure things new and old.”

In fact there is also a negative connotation to that same truth.
Matthew 24:45-51 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And so you see that stewardship matters to God.

There are certain things He has entrusted to you,
And He expects that you be a good steward of it.

Now certainly your money is included in that, but so is your ability to serve,
Your ability to show love, your ability to show mercy, etc.

And not the least of these is also your ability to know the truth.
Do you realize that your ability to know and understand the truth is a tremendous stewardship from God?

A lost man cannot even understand the things of God.
1 Corinthians 2:14 “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.”

Lost men cannot understand the things of God,
But God has allowed you to know and understand them.
This above all else makes you a steward of the truth.

And it is that very stewardship
That Paul has been reminding Timothy of throughout this letter.

1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

The church is literally “the pillar and support of the truth.”

We are the only people who have it.
And that makes our stewardship very important.

That is why he has been so concerned about:
• False teachers
• The Role of Men
• The Role of Women
• The Qualifications for Overseers
• The Qualifications for Deacons
• The Expectations for Widows
• The Expectations for Elders
• The Expectations of the Preacher

Paul knew that all of those things matter because they effect
How successful we are in our stewardship as those who have the truth.

Of all the things God has entrusted to First Baptist Spur,
Nothing is as valuable as the truth He has entrusted to us.

And tonight Paul closes this letter to Timothy by telling him
(and the entire church) how they are to treat that treasure.

There are four ways in which they are to treat the treasure of the truth.

#1 GUARD IT
1 Timothy 6:20-21

Now I will tell you that we are going to read those two verses for all four points,
Because all four of these truths are literally intertwined throughout them.
And you see that clearly here as Paul tells Timothy to guard the truth.

“O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you”

This is not so different from what Paul tells Timothy in his second letter.

2 Timothy 1:14 “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”

And we all understand what it means to “guard” something.
We are to protect it so that it doesn’t get removed.

This world has launched a full-scale attack to steal the truth from people.

Today we call it “Post-Modernism”.
“There is no such thing as absolute truth, and even if there were, it would not be possible for you to know it.”

“That might be true for you, but it is not true for me.”

And that means that you and I must “guard” it.

Jude 3-4 “Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.”

And if you want a visual picture of exactly what we are talking about,
Let me simply reverse the roles.

2 Timothy 1:12 “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”

He has entrusted His treasure to you.
You have entrusted your treasure to Him.

And in exactly the same way that you want Him to guard your treasure,
He wants you to guard His.

We must protect the truth.

And sadly we are reminded that this protection is not only needed in the world, but is also needed in the church.

For truth is even being lost in the church.

“avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge” – which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.”

Do you realize that even in churches there are people who are not proclaiming the truth?

I saw one church who did a sermon series on “The 80’s”
To which one of the sermon topics was “Spandex”.

I was at a Pastor’s Conference a few years ago (and one that promotes expository preaching)

But at that conference a well-known preacher took the podium
And used his entire segment to do nothing more than be funny.

Instead of avoiding “worldly and empty chatter”
He was embracing it.

And in Paul’s mind, by doing so he had
“gone astray from the faith”

The point is that truth is under attack and it must be guarded.

WHO ELSE BUT THE CHURCH?

Guard It
#2 PRESERVE IT
1 Timothy 6:20-21

I just told you about the man who used his sermon time as comedy hour,
And by doing so he had “gone astray from the faith”

And that can be the temptation of any and every preacher.

But Paul explicitly tells Timothy to do no such thing.

“avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called “knowledge””

Not only was Timothy to be focused on truth,
But there were several things he was to avoid altogether.

1) WORLDLY CHATTER

This is obviously carnality and crudeness.

It is to talk about things that should not be talked about.
It is worldly and crude and should be avoided.
Ephesians 5:11-12 “Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.”

Later in that same chapter Paul will say
Ephesians 5:19 “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;”

It is Christian speech
Colossians 4:6 “Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person.”

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.”

Today churches can be so concerned with being relevant
And modern that their speech even becomes that way.
(We’ve even heard of some preachers using profanity in their sermons)

We are proponents of truth and “worldly…chatter” must be avoided.

2) EMPTY CHATTER

This may not be crude or carnal, it’s just empty.
It is pointless talking to fill the time.

(Joel Olsteen gave a 45 minute sermon with no Scripture and about 50 illustrations)
(Jessie Duplantis did a sermon on why women go to the bathroom together)

That is EMPTY

Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.”

Titus 1:10 “For there are many rebellious men, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,”

It is simply a waste of time.
And a preacher does not have right
He must avoid it.

3) OPPOSING ARGUMENTS OF KNOWLEDGE

And this one is tricky.

Obviously we are not to fill our conversation
With worldly education and intellectual truths.

But here Paul tells Timothy that his conversation
Must not even include their arguments.
In other words:
Don’t quote from the Koran in order to prove it is wrong
Don’t quote from the Book of Mormon to prove it is wrong

You would be far better to pick a verse of Scripture at random
Than you would to spend time quoting what is known to be false.

The point is that the church is to be consumed with the truth not error.
Spend your days speaking truth, not fighting error.

The truth is the treasure, spend your days speaking that.

Ephesians 5:15-17 “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.”

And we make sure that while we protect the truth
We also make sure that it is not watered down or diluted
With stuff that does not belong.

This was a lesson God taught me early on.
TURN TO EZEKIEL 2

Speak the Truth (3:1-15)
The Whole Truth (3:16-21)
Nothing But the Truth (3:22-27)

THE TRUTH IS THE TREASURE!

Guard it, Preserve it
#3 USE IT
1 Timothy 6:20-21

Though it is never explicitly stated,
We do understand the reason the truth is to be guarded
Is because God desires that we clearly proclaim His message to the world

He doesn’t want you to guard it in some back room for no one to ever see.

God’s Word was never meant for the museum,
It was meant for the highways and the hedges.

Matthew 5:15 “nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.”

And that is what God expects here as well.

Paul said:
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Furthermore, that is what he encourages Timothy to do in the next letter.

2 Timothy 1:8 “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,”

2 Timothy 1:12-13 “For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.”

God gives the truth so that we will also use it.
God wants us to guard it and preserve it so that we can use it.

Guard it, Preserve it, Use it
#4 TRUST IT
2 Timothy 6:20-21

Here I want you to focus mainly on the last four words.
“Grace be with you.”

This is far more than a salutation,
This is the very source of the church’s power.

Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 “And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

What we are talking about here is the strength God has
To make His word work!

Did you notice the only difference between Paul’s command here and his command in 2nd Timothy?

Here
“Guard what has been entrusted to you.”

There
2 Timothy 1:14 “Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.”

There Paul references the power of the Spirit to make God’s Word work,
Here Paul mentions the grace of God to make His Word work!

But the point is that God provides strength that makes His word effective.

We are all familiar with that famous passage of Scripture.
Isaiah 55:11 “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
Bro. Bob told me, “God is not promised to honor your illustrations or your jokes, but He is promised to honor His word.”

TRUST IT!

There is tremendous temptation today
To abandon God’s word in the ministry.

Bible preaching is seen as old fashioned
As counter cultural
As irrelevant

There are some church growth books that will flat out tell you
Not to bore people with long Bible-based sermons filled with Scripture.

When you take that advice and couple with the fact that there are churches who follow that advice and actually have numerical growth,

It can be very tempting to jump on the band-wagon.
BUT DON’T

Trust the Truth
God’s grace will go to work.

Mark 4:26-32 “And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows — how, he himself does not know. “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. “But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” And He said, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? “It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.”

The point is that God’s Truth will work.
In fact it is the only thing that will work.

As the Church we are stewards of God’s truth.
We are “the pillar and support of the truth”

Therefore we must:
• Guard It
• Preserve It
• Use It
• Trust It

1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

Growing Your Treasure
1 Timothy 6:17-19
July 25, 2010

Tonight we enter the final portion of this letter
Paul wrote to his young protégé.

This final section deals with how a Christian handles his treasure.
Verses 17-19 deal with Growing Your Treasure
Verses 20-21 deal with Guarding Your Treasure

Of course the truest application then relates to
WHAT WE VIEW AS OUR TREASURE.

The Christian’s treasure can never be the things of this world,
But must always be spiritual things.

Matthew 6:19-20 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;”

And so when a Christian rightly understands his treasure,
We then get to study this final portion of 1 Timothy
To see how to grow it and how to guard it.

If we wanted a more literally title for the sermon tonight, we might call it:
“How The Christian Handles Money”

You see immediately who Paul is dealing with in our text.
(17) “Instruct those who are rich in this present world”

Now, I know that most of us are tempted to read about those who are rich
And instantly think about someone else.
(typically anyone who has more than I do)

But that is not an accurate mindset.

After all, can anyone in here give me the dollar figure that separates the rich from the poor?

If someone has a million dollars, does that make him rich?
(Zimbabwe is full of millionaires who can’t afford bread)

If someone only has $100, does that make him poor?
($100 American dollars goes a long way in some countries)

I once heard a statistic that if you own a car,
That puts you in the top 2% of all the world’s wealthy.

It is really a difficult thing to define the difference between rich and poor.
So we will just do our best to define it biblically.

1 Timothy 6:7-8 “For we have brought nothing into the world, so we cannot take anything out of it either. If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.”

And so I suppose that if food and covering are the status quo,
Then anyone with less than this could be considered poor,
And anyone with more than this could be considered rich.

The point is that this is a relevant passage of Scripture.

We can’t just pass it off as talking about some sports athlete
Or high investment banker.

The rich are defined as those who have extra.

It was they who John the Baptist confronted when he said:
Luke 3:11 “And he would answer and say to them, “The man who has two tunics is to share with him who has none; and he who has food is to do likewise.”

So we all have to honestly admit that Paul is addressing us here.
We all have something to give, because we all have extra.

Now before we dive into those instructions,
I want to help set your mind on the right course here tonight.

I want to first remind you that the Scripture speaks a lot about the rich,
And it is quite usually in a negative light.

Luke 6:24 “But woe to you who are rich, for you are receiving your comfort in full.”

In other places we see why.
James 5:1-6 “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver have rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you and will consume your flesh like fire. It is in the last days that you have stored up your treasure! Behold, the pay of the laborers who mowed your fields, and which has been withheld by you, cries out against you; and the outcry of those who did the harvesting has reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived luxuriously on the earth and led a life of wanton pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and put to death the righteous man; he does not resist you.”

Of course we are all familiar with the rich man who denied the beggar Lazarus.
Luke 16:25 “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.”

The point is that many times in Scripture those who have riches
Are portrayed as those who cheated or lied or withheld to obtain it.

The implication is that a person who is rich should ask why?
They are also portrayed as those who are idolatrous,
Having served their wealth more than they served their God.

Luke 16:10-13 “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? “And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another’s, who will give you that which is your own? “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

The Old Testament also spoke of the wealthy.
Psalms 49:16-20 “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he congratulates himself — And though men praise you when you do well for yourself — He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”

And who could forget the revelation Asaph received when he desired to get rich?
Psalms 73:18-20 “Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. How they are destroyed in a moment! They are utterly swept away by sudden terrors! Like a dream when one awakes, O Lord, when aroused, You will despise their form.”

And really we could go on and on
With the negative connotation Scripture often gives to the rich.

And one of the reasons riches get such a bad name in Scripture
Is because of how successful they often are
At pulling people away from the faith.

Matthew 19:21-24 “Jesus said to him, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property. And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. “Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

And this echoes what Paul taught us earlier in this chapter.
1 Timothy 6:9-10 “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

And so we see that riches can be very dangerous,
And those who have them are often looked upon
As those who fell prey to the danger.

NOW DOES THAT SCARE YOU?
I truly believe it should.
If I am rich, (and Scripture says I am) then I am foolish to turn a blind eye
To all that the Scriptures say about those who are rich.

The question then becomes, WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Here Paul reveals 5 things:
#1 BE HUMBLE
1 Timothy 6:17a

“Instruct those who are rich in this present world not be conceited…”

In other words, don’t you dare set back and assume
That you either deserve, or that you earned all of that wealth.

How many times have I seen the rich withhold generosity because they assume the poor man doesn’t deserve it?

It makes one wonder what they would have said to a homeless man
Who lived 2,000 years ago named Jesus.

“If He would have just stayed with His father’s carpentry business…”
“If He would quit running around with those other loafers…”

But Paul’s point here is that if you have money, you must understand,
It is not because you were so smart, or hardworking.

It is because God has been merciful and gracious to you.

After all, look at the end of this verse.
“God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.”

Don’t forget who the provider is.
James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

If you have it, it came from Him.

And this attitude that you did something to earn or deserve it
Is nothing but sheer arrogance.

Ezekiel 28:1-5 “The word of the LORD came again to me, saying, “Son of man, say to the leader of Tyre, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “Because your heart is lifted up And you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods In the heart of the seas’; Yet you are a man and not God, Although you make your heart like the heart of God — Behold, you are wiser than Daniel; There is no secret that is a match for you. “By your wisdom and understanding You have acquired riches for yourself And have acquired gold and silver for your treasuries. “By your great wisdom, by your trade You have increased your riches And your heart is lifted up because of your riches”

James 2:1-4 “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?”

If you are rich, and you think you are so because you deserve it,
Then you are already handling your money pathetically.

God doesn’t call us to be proud for the things we have,
But to be thankful for the things we have.

If you have it, then it is because God gave it to you.

“who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.”

God is a generous God.
He gives us all sorts of things.
And it is ok to “enjoy” what He gives.

(Don’t you like your kids to enjoy the gifts you give them?)

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20 “Here is what I have seen to be good and fitting: to eat, to drink and enjoy oneself in all one’s labor in which he toils under the sun during the few years of his life which God has given him; for this is his reward. Furthermore, as for every man to whom God has given riches and wealth, He has also empowered him to eat from them and to receive his reward and rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God. For he will not often consider the years of his life, because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of his heart.”

It is ok to enjoy what you have, but the first rule is to understand that
The only reason you have it is because God gave it to you.

Be Humble
#2 BE RATIONAL
1 Timothy 6:17b

“or to fix their hope in the uncertainty of riches, but on God”

Someone once said, “Money talks”
To which another person replied “It says good-bye”

Money is uncertain to say the least.

Proverbs 23:4-5 “Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens.”

Proverbs 11:28 “He who trusts in his riches will fall, But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.”
And therefore anyone who banks upon the certainty of money
Is a very foolish person.

James 4:13-17 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.”

Riches don’t last, money is uncertain.

Our hope is not to be in money.
Our hope is to be “on God, who richly supplies with all things to enjoy.”

Philippians 4:19 “And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

WHY ARE WE SECURE?
Because the God who promises to care for us has infinite resources.

Have we not talked about it quite a bit lately?
Deuteronomy 8:2-3 “You shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you, testing you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. “He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the LORD.”

God can take care of the temporal things,
He is a far better place to put your hope than on your wealth.

The children of Israel had to learn this.

Remember God’s command concerning the manna?
– Don’t store it (or it gets worms)

Hence came the concept, “Give us this day our daily bread”

YOUR HOPE MUST BE IN GOD

And if you honor Him with your wealth, He will bless you with it.
Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

And so it is not wrong to be rich in this world.
In fact, if you are, it is because God made you that way.

But it is wrong to be conceited about that wealth or to put your trust in it
As though that wealth makes you secure.

You may notice that both of these first two points deal with a mindset.
God hasn’t really asked you to do anything yet.

But if this is not your mindset in regard to your wealth,
Then you will not obey the rest of this passage.

Be Humble, Be Rational
#3 BE PROTECTED
1 Timothy 6:18a

“Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works”

I don’t know a whole lot about money management,
But I do know a word I hear all the time in regard to wealth.
DIVERSITY

“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket”

That is actually good advice, for that is what Paul is saying here.

If all your wealth is found here on this earth,
Then you have all your wealth in one basket and that is foolish.

You need to invest in another area, that is untouchable.
Heaven.

Matthew 6:20 “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;”

Don’t just be rich in money, “be rich in good works”

Have a backup plan.

Remember the guy who wanted to tear down his barns
And build bigger ones?
Luke 12:20-21 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?’ “So is the man who stores up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

He was left totally poor because he had no other treasure.

And even if you don’t want to see it in an eternal sense,
Then see it also in a temporal sense.

Who can estimate the value of friendship?
Who can estimate the value of a good church family?

Acts 4:32-35 “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them. And with great power the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales and lay them at the apostles’ feet, and they would be distributed to each as any had need.”

I can’t tell you the number of times other people have given to me, But I can tell you that amount far exceeds anything I have given.

“be rich in good works”

Be Humble, Be Rational, Be Protected
#4 BE GENEROUS
1 Timothy 6:18b

He said to “be rich in good works” now he gets a little more specific.

“to be generous and ready to share”

“generous” speaks of the heart.
“ready to share” speaks of the eagerness.

It is the call to take your excess
And not only be willing to share it, but eager to do it.

After all, if you believe God gave it to you,
And if you believe God will supply all your needs,
Why not?

Be generous.

One of my favorite passages actually hangs in Peggy’s office.

Deuteronomy 15:7-11 “If there is a poor man with you, one of your brothers, in any of your towns in your land which the LORD your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart, nor close your hand from your poor brother; but you shall freely open your hand to him, and shall generously lend him sufficient for his need in whatever he lacks.”Beware that there is no base thought in your heart, saying, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near,’ and your eye is hostile toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you. “You shall generously give to him, and your heart shall not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in all your undertakings.”For the poor will never cease to be in the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall freely open your hand to your brother, to your needy and poor in your land.’”

God desires generosity.

WHAT DOES IT SAY?
2 Corinthians 9:7 “Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

And of course we know why.
God is a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 8:9 “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.”

And so it becomes clear.
This is the area where we put our money where our mouth is.
If we believe it is all God’s.
If we believe God freely gives it.
If we believe God will give more of it.
THEN WHY NOT BE GENEROUS?

I remember my parents used to talk about my sister.
“She gets it from us and gives it away”

But it is the same principle that Alaina knew.
If God is my supplier then I can be generous.

Be Humble, Be Rational, Be Protected, Be Generous
#5 BE FOCUSED
1 Timothy 6:19

The idea here is that you understand where the truest riches are.

If God has supplied you with wealth, that’s fine,
Just understand that He did so
In order for you to exchange it for eternal riches.

Luke 16:1-9 “Now He was also saying to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and this manager was reported to him as squandering his possessions. “And he called him and said to him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’ “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do, since my master is taking the management away from me? I am not strong enough to dig; I am ashamed to beg. ‘I know what I shall do, so that when I am removed from the management people will welcome me into their homes.’ “And he summoned each one of his master’s debtors, and he began saying to the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’ “And he said, ‘A hundred measures of oil.’ And he said to him, ‘Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.’ “Then he said to another, ‘And how much do you owe?’ And he said, ‘A hundred measures of wheat.’ He said to him, ‘Take your bill, and write eighty.’ “And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. “And I say to you, make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings.”

Money isn’t meant to be hoarded or stored, but used.
It is a tremendous tool to help you store up eternal treasure.

That is “a good foundation for the future”

Furthermore, a person
Who will give earthly wealth to obtain eternal wealth
Is a person who has figured out what it means to truly live.

They have taken hold “of life indeed.”

Psalms 41:1-3 “How blessed is he who considers the helpless; The LORD will deliver him in a day of trouble. The LORD will protect him and keep him alive, And he shall be called blessed upon the earth; And do not give him over to the desire of his enemies. The LORD will sustain him upon his sickbed; In his illness, You restore him to health.”

The generous are the people who have figured out how to really live.

If you are rich in this present world:
Be Humble – You didn’t earn it
Be Rational – It is unstable
Be Protected – Invest in other areas
Be Generous – share what God shares
Be Focused – use it for eternal wealth

Now understand.
This passage does not mean,
“I can go get rich, so long as I use it correctly”

No, the previous text still applies.
1 Timothy 6:9 “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

Furthermore, according to verse 11, the man of God flees from that.

Rather this passage says if you are rich, then use it for the kingdom.

1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

The Man of God – part 2
1 Timothy 6:13-16
July 18, 2010

As you know Paul is closing down this first letter
That he has written to Timothy.

And one could easily see that Paul is really getting personal with Timothy as this letter closes.

It has been a letter consumed with the conduct of the church,
And how Timothy was to lead the church to be pleasing to God.

But obviously at the heart of his ability to lead
Stands his ability to follow.

If Timothy could not follow God with a whole heart,
Then he would never be able to lead his church to follow God.

And so in order for Ephesus to be a church of God,
Timothy had to be a man of God.

And this he was.
In verse 11 Paul called Timothy “you man of God”.
It was a title that only Timothy received in the New Testament.

Paul gave it to him because that is what he believed him to be,
And because that is what he wanted him to remain.

This portion of Scripture is a wonderful description of “The Man of God”
And it is meant to give Timothy a clear understanding
Of what sort of man he is to be.

We examined the first two verses of this text last Sunday night
And we learned four attributes of the man of God.

1) What he flees from.
(namely the greed and love of money that describes those corrupt leaders of the church)

God’s man can say like Paul, “I have been crucified to the world, and the world has been crucified to me.”

The man of God flees from worldliness.

2) What he pursues.
“righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness”

He is not stagnant
He is not apathetic or complacent
He is active and in pursuit of the things of God

You can tell a man of God by what he pursues.

3) What he fights for

And as we said last week, this did not indicate that external battle,
In which we contend for the faith.

Rather this word indicated that inner struggle to get back up after falling down or to push through pain to obtain the prize.

In other words, the man of God is not a quitter.
He doesn’t give up when things get difficult.
Instead, he is one who buffets his body and makes it his slave so that after he preaches to others he might not become disqualified.

He fights the fight to become all that God wants him to become

4) What he obtains

Timothy had told the church that God had called him to eternal life
And that he had accepted.

In short, Timothy’s desire to please God was public knowledge.
No Paul says, “Take hold of “it.

You said God called you to it.
You said you wanted it.
You said it in front of many witnesses.
Well, go get it.

In short, the man of God is a finisher.
While he knows that God will finish what He began in him,
It is also his desire to make good on his confession.

Those were the first four attributes of the man of God.

Tonight we conclude this passage
By revealing the final four attributes of the man of God.

And we see them as Paul moves from a command to a charge.

What he flees from – What he pursues – What he fights for – What he obtains
#5 WHAT HE PERCEIVES
1 Timothy 6:13

It is clear that Paul is calling for a great deal of perception from Timothy.

“I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,”
What Timothy becomes is of interest to more people than just Paul.

Indeed, the God of the universe is watching.

And this is not the only time Paul issues such a charge to Timothy.
2 Timothy 4:1-2 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”

Because Paul wanted Timothy to conduct himself as a man of God,
Paul wanted to make sure that Timothy had a proper perception.

And that perception is that God is watching.

And it is even important to understand
In what capacity Paul reveals God here.

“in the presence of God, who gives life to all things,”

Paul reminds Timothy that God is the creator of all things.
He is the giver and sustainer of life.

Certainly this is true in a physical sense.
Colossians 1:16 “For by Him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created through Him and for Him.”

But we also know that this is true in a spiritual sense.
Ephesians 2:4-6 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ ( by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,”

Secondly Paul reminds him of:
“and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate,”

Here Paul introduces Christ as the faithful one.
(Standing strong even under the pressure of Pilate)

John 18:33-37 “Therefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Are you saying this on your own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.” Therefore Pilate said to Him, “So You are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say correctly that I am a king. For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.”

So we have the God who gave us life
And the Lord Jesus who taught us how to live it.

And here Paul reminds Timothy that both of them
Are taking careful notice of how we live our life.

The man of God, must live with perception.
He must understand that God is watching how he lives
And that God will judge how he lives.

Job 9:1-4 “Then Job answered, “In truth I know that this is so; But how can a man be in the right before God? “If one wished to dispute with Him, He could not answer Him once in a thousand times. “Wise in heart and mighty in strength, Who has defied Him without harm?

1 Corinthians 3:10-15 “According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any man’s work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.”

It is important that we remember that we do not serve as our own judge.
We are accountable to the God who gave us life,
And to the Lord who shows us how to live it.

That is why Paul said:
1 Corinthians 4:4 “For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.”

Judgment is real, God is watching, and that must dictate how we live.

Listen to what Peter said:
1 Peter 1:17-19 “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

2 Peter 3:10-12 “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!”

The man of God is man who walks with perception.
He realizes that he will give an account
And that concept of judgment motivates how he lives.

What he flees from – What he pursues – What he fights for – What he obtains
What he perceives
#6 HOW HE WALKS
1 Timothy 6:14a

“that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach”

It is easy to see that Paul wants Timothy to be a spiritual perfectionist.

After all, it was Jesus who said:
Matthew 5:48 “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

In the early 90’s there was a popular phrase running around the church:
“Christians aren’t perfect, they’re just forgiven.”

And while that is a true statement,
For many it also became a source of enablement.

It wasn’t long before Christians stopped striving for perfection altogether.
They just saw it as something God didn’t really care about.

But that is foolish.
Romans 1:7 “to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Now let me ask you a question.
What are you?
Are you a sinner or are you a saint?

Now most, if not everyone in this place will probably quickly answer,
“Oh, I’m a sinner.”

If that is true, then you are on the road to hell,
And you need to be redeemed.

HERE IS THE DISTINCTION.
A lost person is a sinner. That is what they are. Now, they may occasionally do good things, but it doesn’t change what they are. Only Jesus can change that.

A saved person is a saint. That is what they are. Now, they may occasionally sin, but it doesn’t change what they are.

Here is my point.
The Christian life should be the struggle to be who you are.

If Christ died to make you righteous.
Then desire of your life should be righteousness.

Somewhere along the line, the church lost sight of that.
In fact it seemed some would rather be sinful
Because that made them less offensive to sinners.

But not the man of God.
He strives to “keep the commandment without stain or reproach,”

He wants to do it perfect, because he desires
To glorify the God who gave him the ability to do it.

What he flees from – What he pursues – What he fights for – What he obtains
What he perceives – How he walks
#7 HOW HE ENDURES
1 Timothy 6:14b-15a

“until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time”

This portion of the verse does not reveal how the man of God walks,
But rather for how long he does so.

And the answer is that the man of God does not quit until the devil does.
His aim is to walk in absolute perfection until the end arrives.

You may remember the parable of the 10 virgins.
Matthew 25:1-13 “Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. “Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. “For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. “Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. “But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ “Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. “The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ “But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ “And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. “Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘ Lord, lord, open up for us.’ “But he answered, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you.’ “Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour.”

What was the problem with the five foolish virgins?
They didn’t have enough oil.

They couldn’t imagine that the bride groom would be that long in coming.

In short they were not prepared for the long haul.
They were not prepared to persevere.

But the man of God must be prepared to persevere.
He doesn’t know when Jesus will return.

But he knows to persevere until He does.

When Jesus comes, evil will be destroyed.
When Jesus comes, Satan will be bound.
When Jesus comes, we will be glorified and our body of sin done away with.
When Jesus comes, our ministries will be over.
When Jesus comes, preaching will no longer be necessary.
When Jesus comes, life will be perfect.

But until then, we must persevere in our striving against sin.

Matthew 10:22 “You will be hated by all because of My name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be saved.”

The man of God is not a man who has spurts of momentum,
But who easily flames out.

The man of God is consistent, faithful, perseverant, unwavering, focused UNTIL THE END.

What he flees from – What he pursues – What he fights for – What he obtains
What he perceives – How he walks – How he endures
#8 WHO HE FOCUSES ON
1 Timothy 6:15b-16

And this may be the most important attribute of the man of God.

Here we read a doxology of praise by Paul.
(Paul is famous for them)

And in reading them it is obvious that
Paul never lost his amazement of God.

And through all of these doxologies we read,
They all have two things in common.
1) You get the sense that Paul is amazed by God
2) You get the sense that Paul just can’t put his amazement in words

PAUL WAS BLOWN AWAY BY GOD

And here is the simple truth.
You can’t be a man of God if you are not focused on God
And subsequently blown away by Him.

We are all in awe of Moses, as his face shines with God’s glory.
It is obvious that Paul many times stood in God’s presence in much the same way.

But in reality this is the calling of all men.
2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.”
You can’t be a man of God if you don’t spend time with God,
And if you are not focused on God.

A.W. Tozer wrote:
“The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man’s spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God…For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like…Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, “What comes into your mind when you think about God?” we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man.” (sited in MacArthur commentary to 1 Timothy, pg. 270)

And isn’t that true.
If your God isn’t holy, then you won’t be holy.
If your God isn’t love, then you won’t love.
If your God isn’t merciful, then you won’t show any.
If your God isn’t giving, then you never will.
If your God isn’t faithful, then you won’t be.
Etc.

The point is that in order to be a man of God,
You must search out the depths of God and seek out who He is.

Listen to how Paul viewed God
1) GOD IS WORTHY
“He who is the blessed”

If we see a great athlete or a great artist we say, “They are blessed”
If we see a man with a beautiful family we say, “He is blessed”
If we see a man with good fortune to escape peril, we call him “blessed”

How much more so with God?

Not only is He the best there is in terms of giftedness,
But also in terms of what is His, and what is coming to Him.

In fact, God is so blessed, that our definition of being blessed
Can only be understood in light of how close we are to Him.

He is “the blessed” and so we are only blessed when we are close to Him.

Paul could find no one more worthy of blessing.
Paul could find no one more worthy of praise.
Paul could find no one higher

God is the highest and chief and most blessed that there is.
For Paul no one was bigger or better.
2) GOD IS SOVEREIGN
“and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords”

For Paul God was also the highest of all authority.
Everything and everyone answers to Him.

No man must be feared, no man must be revered,
For God ranks higher and has more power than them all.

WHO CAN REBUKE OUR GOD?
WHO CAN TELL HIM HE WAS WRONG?
WHO CAN SCOLD HIM FOR DOING SOMETHING DIFFERENT?

No one, God is the highest, He is the “only sovereign”

3) GOD IS ETERNAL
“who alone possesses immortality”

Not only is God the most worthy and the only sovereign,
But He always will be.

We live in a day when we wait for rulers to come into and out of office.
If you have one you don’t like, don’t worry, he won’t rule forever.

But not so with God.
He has always been the highest and He will always be the highest.
He is God most high, and none can compare to Him.

4) GOD IS HOLY
“and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see.”

It speaks of the transcendancy of God.
He would not be known, nor could He be known
If He hadn’t chosen to make Himself known.

He is above us, He is beyond us.

Moses counted it a privilege to see His back,
And even then his face glowed like the sun.

He is too far above us in every way.
It is only because He chose to make Himself known that we are able to know Him.

5) GOD IS HONORED
“To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.”

Because God is worthy and sovereign and eternal and holy,
He alone will be honored.

It is to Him that every knee will bow and every tongue confess.
It is to Him that all worship for all eternity will go.

All things are for Him.
All things are to Him.
He is the highest and most holy and most worthy of all things,
And He will be treated accordingly.

And obviously there is no way we can really get close to what God is.

It is like the preacher on “That’s My King”
“I wish I could describe Him to you”

But none the less, you get the picture
As to why Paul was such a godly man.
Look at what Paul thought of his God.

Paul served a huge God, and so it’s no wonder Paul was a great servant.

Here he is reminding Timothy that
The man of God must be focused on God.

If you serve a little God, then you won’t be much of a man of God.
But if you serve a big God, then you can be a great man of God.

This is what a man of God is.
• He flees from worldliness and sin
• He pursues the things of God
• He Fights the inner fight to continue to live right
• He obtains the eternal life he said he would obtain
• He perceives that he will give an account for how he lives
• He walks in a way that is perfect and holy
• He endures in that walk until the very end
• He focuses on God in every moment and it is that view of God that fuels his life.

This is the man of God.
It is what we are to become.

1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”

The Man of God – part 1
1 Timothy 6:11-16 (11-12)
July 11, 2010

As you know, we are starting to sort of close down this book of 1 Timothy.

It was a unique letter written to Timothy with tremendous emphasis
Placed upon God’s expectation for the church.

And as Paul brings this letter to a close he has done so
With a very important exhortation to the church’s young pastor.

In verse 3 Paul began warning Timothy
Of a dangerous type of teacher in the church.

We called them “Those who Disagree”

In reality they are Conceited, Ignorant, Irrelevant, Divisive, Corrupt men
Who cause more harm to the body than they do good.

They were called “Those who Disagree” because they “[Advocate] a different doctrine and [do] not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness,”

They are those who don’t think godliness is important,
And only see it as a means to achieve worldly gain.

In other words, their religion is all a sham.
They only conform to the truths of Scripture
Enough to be able to make material gain from their sacrifice.

And Paul warned Timothy about them.

Following that warning, Paul then encouraged Timothy
In regard to the true value of godliness.

Godliness is not to be used or corrupted to fund one’s selfish desires, “BUT godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.”

While our goal is not the gain, there is gain involved in being godly.

Paul wanted to make sure that Timothy knew that godliness was not the problem. In fact godliness is the aim.

Corruption is the problem, and men who are corrupt “fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.”

And we saw that two weeks ago.

And so now Paul has sort of prefaced what he really wanted to say to Timothy.
And what we see here is the heart of the text.
Paul is about to issue a command and a charge to Timothy.

And as we study it, we are enlightened to the truths about
“The Man of God”

And this is precisely what Paul calls Timothy.
(11) “But flee from these things you man of God,”

And that is an interesting title.
In fact, Timothy is the only person in the New Testament to receive that title.
(Frequently used in the Old Testament to speak of prophets)

And here Paul uses it for two reasons.
1) Because that is what he believes Timothy to be
2) Because that is what he wants Timothy to remain

So we study this passage with much interest,
For it is the desire for every man in this place to be a “Man of God”.

Well tonight, in our text, we will see four attributes about “The Man of God” and so we should be easily able to evaluate our lives as well as receive a clear blue-print for the direction in which we need to go.

#1 WHAT HE FLEES FROM
1 Timothy 6:11a

“But flee from these things, you man of God”

Now obviously the context of this passage must be understood,
For we must identify what “these things” are.

Paul has been talking about one sin primarily above all others.
GREED (or at the very least discontentment)

(9) “those who want to get rich”
(10) “longing for [money]”

And so it is clear that the things Paul wants Timothy to flee from
Are the feelings of greed and discontentment.

(SIDE NOTE: it is amazing how small the Bible can get at times. As we talk about Jesus focusing on spiritual things over bread, we again hear the same encouragement tonight – makes you wonder if God is trying to tell us something)

But none the less, Paul tells Timothy if he desires to be a “man of God”
Then he must “flee from these things”

The reason is because “these things” [greed] will bring you (9-10) “into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

At the very least greed opens you up for temptation,
And the very worst greed can lead you to apostasy.

And so it is obvious why Paul warns Timothy to “flee” from it
If he desires to remain a “man of God”

And let me for a moment talk about what it means to “flee”.

Incidentally greed is not the only thing Christians are told to flee from.
1 Corinthians 6:18 “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.”

1 Corinthians 10:14 “Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

2 Timothy 2:22 “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

And so there are other things we must flee.
BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

Let me give you another place that same Greek word is used.
Matthew 2:13 “Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.”

Of course that is in reference to Joseph and Mary having to leave Israel
And flee to Egypt because of the wrath of Herod.

If that was your child, how would you flee?

That is the same concept here.

In our society we have seemed to have forgotten the danger of sin.
Somehow we have seemed to have forgotten just how attractive it can be
And just what it can do to us if it snares us.

We don’t see sin as that big of a threat, but this is a mistake.
Paul told Timothy that not only could it snare you, but this sin in particular
Had actually made other men leave the faith altogether.

Remember Gehazi and the leprosy he received?
Remember the Rich Young Ruler and the salvation he forfeited?
Remember Judas and the condemnation he received?
Remember Demas?
2 Timothy 4:9-10a “Make every effort to come to me soon; for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica…”

We aren’t just messing around here.

That is like saying, “Don’t eat lead paint chips” or “Don’t breathe asbestos” or “Don’t stick your face in a fan”

IT IS DANGEROUS AND YOU SHOULD FLEE FROM IT.

If you are into picturesque illustrations, try this one.

Joseph
Genesis 39:11-12 “Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside.”

Or this one: Lot
Genesis 19:15-17 “When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, one said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away.”

Sin brings the same dangers.
Paul told Timothy to FLEE from sin (especially greed)
If you want to a “man of God”

And so, we know a man of God by what he flees from.
#2 WHAT HE PURSUES
1 Timothy 6:11b

“and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.”

We learned again with Jesus this morning that “man shall not live by bread along, but by on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.”

Jesus taught us that we are not to live this life focused on the temporal,
But that our focus is to be on spiritual things.

These spiritual things must also be our ambition.
Matthew 6:33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

2 Corinthians 5:9-10 “Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.”
And so it is not just that we flee from sin and danger,
But that we also pursue the things of God.

And just as we talked about what it meant to flee,
Let me show you what it means to “pursue”

“pursue” translates DIOKO
And it is commonly translated “to persecute”

2 Corinthians 4:9 “persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

So if you want imagery.
When we flee from sin, we mimic the way Joseph fled to Egypt.
When we pursue righteousness, we mimic the way Herod pursued Jesus.

In other words, we go hard after it.
We must want it bad.

This is not just a nonchalant attitude that says,
“If I get it fine, if not fine.”

6 things

1) RIGHTEOUSNESS

I think we are all aware of what this is.
We could call it moral perfection, but in reality is more than that.

It is perfection with regard to the Laws of God.
It was God who said, “Be holy for I am holy” and that should be our very desire.

That we take our lives and force them into conformity
With the commands of Scripture.

Psalms 119:24 “Your testimonies also are my delight; They are my counselors.”

And that is precisely the desire of a man of God.
He desires to take his life and bring it in line
With the revealed word of God.

2) GODLINESS

Some ask, “What is the difference between this and righteousness?”

Well certainly God is righteous, but He is also much more than that.
God is also compassionate.
God is also loving
God is also kind
God is also merciful
Furthermore God is real
The Pharisees would have made a claim to righteousness…
The Rich Young Ruler certainly thought himself to be righteous…
But they fell far short of God-like-ness.

One might say where righteousness is the outward,
Godliness is the inward.

• This is a heart that thinks like God thinks,
• The heart that acts like God acts.
• This is a heart that responds like God responds
• The heart that wants what God wants.

And the man of God pursues that.

Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”

A man of God pursues righteousness, godliness
3) FAITH

This could be describes as dependence on God.

Romans 14:23b “…whatever is not from faith is sin.”

We also know that:
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”

And so naturally a man of God would seek the life of faith.

John Piper once said:
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”

And the man of God wants God to be glorified.
He knows that God is most glorified when we trust Him.

Righteousness, Godliness, Faith
4) LOVE

And of course this is obvious.
“God is love” we hear it over and over again.

Furthermore love is the opposite of self.

“God so loved that He gave”
“God demonstrated His love for us”
“Greater Love hath no man than this…”

We cannot be like God if we don’t love.

FURTHERMORE TRUE LOVE IS ONLY POSSIBLE IN CHIRST.
And therefore loving others brings glory to God,
Because we can only truly do it if He is in us.

That is why Jesus said:
John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

So certainly the man of God pursues love.

Righteousness, Godliness, Faith, Love
5) PERSEVERANCE

I suppose that the previous four would be futile,
If it were not for this attribute.

For the man of God does not seek to have moments of righteousness, or of godliness, or of faith, or of love.
The man of God desires to consistently show all those things.

Furthermore those attributes can’t be truly seen,
If not exhibited during the difficult times.

• If a man is righteous only at church and not at work, can he be called righteous?
• If a man is godly only around godly friends, but not at home in front of his computer, can he be called godly?
• If a man has faith only when all is going well, but not during difficult times can he be said to truly have faith?
• If a man only loves those who first love him, can he be said to truly have love?

In reality it is only during the difficult times
That the man of God really shows his true colors.

Therefore the man of God also seeks perseverance.

He can take and willingly will apply James’ words:
James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

6) GENTLENESS

It is the opposite of arrogance.
It is “strength under control”

It is the attribute to balance all the previous ones.

He is a man who manages all those things, understanding
That it is for God’s glory that he has pursued such attributes.

But none the less, you see what a man of God pursues.

“Righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.”

What He flees from; What He Pursues
#3 WHAT HE FIGHTS FOR
1 Timothy 6:12a

“Fight the good fight of faith”

This phrase can be a little misleading,
Many assume that he must be one who contends for the faith.

We certainly don’t deny the need for men to stand up for the truth of God,
But that is not the emphasis here.

Earlier Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 1:18-19 “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith.”

There Paul used the word STATEIA which is a word that means “warfare”.
And Paul was encouraging him to fight for the faith.

But here Paul doesn’t use that word.
Here Paul uses the word AGON

And it just refers to a struggle.

Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Colossians 2:1 “For I want you to know how great a struggle I have on your behalf and for those who are at Laodicea, and for all those who have not personally seen my face,”

Philippians 1:29-30 “For to you it has been granted for Christ’s sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, experiencing the same conflict which you saw in me, and now hear to be in me.”

And so you see that sometimes it is called “conflict” other times “struggle” and other times it is a “race”.

And so we are not talking about some battle with others over the truths of the gospel (although that is important).
The man of God must fight the fight within himself
To keep going and be what God wants him to be.

It is the inward struggle of a runner to keep going.
It is the inward struggle that a soldier faces to charge the hill.

The man of God takes the struggle head on.
He fights to become what God desires him to become.

2 Timothy 4:7 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”

What he FLEES from, What he PURSUES, What he FIGHTS for
#4 WHAT HE OBTAINS
1 Timothy 6:12b

“take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

Obviously we are here talking about obtaining eternal life.

But let me show you a little something that Paul adds to this concept.

1) God called Timothy to it.
“to which you were called”

2) Timothy obviously accepted the call
“and you made the good confession”

3) Others heard him accept that call
“in the presence of many witnesses.”

So we are dealing with a man who has publicly stated
That God called him and that he desires to answer that call.

Then to Timothy Paul says:
“take hold of” it.

In other words, don’t just stop at words, GO GET IT.

“take hold” translates EPILAMBANOMAI
It means to seize something.

The EPI in the front intensifies the verb.

One lexicon said this.
It is “practically appropriating all the benefits, privileges and responsibilities involved in the possession of it.”

It is to not just say you have, but to demonstrate you have it.
Don’t just claim eternal life, go out and get it!

Now, I know to us that seems strange.

We believe that Jesus paid it all, and that eternal life is from Him,
Apart from any help from us at all.

And that is true.

But this is one of those mysteries in Scripture.

While Christ chose us, we still choose Him.
While Christ saves us, we still repent and believe.
While Christ seals us, we still persevere to the end.

And while Christ gives us eternal life, we still work for it.

Listen to Paul:
Philippians 3:12-14 “Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

WELL IF JESUS ALREADY PURCHASED IT FOR YOU, WHY ARE YOU STRIVING FOR IT?

Because that is what a man who really wants it does.

It is not a denial that eternal life only comes from Jesus.
It is simply revealing a heart that will do anything it can
In order to help it become a reality.

What you see here is that a man of God is not a passive man.
He’s not one who is complacent or apathetic.
He is concerned about spiritual things.

And while he fully trusts Jesus as His Savior,
He still strives to become all that Christ is making Him.

Philippians 2:12-13 “So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.”

“God is doing it, but you do it too”

This is the man of God.
And you can spot a man of God by:
What He Flees from
What He Pursues
What He Fights For
What He Obtains

This is a man after God’s own heart,
And this is what Paul encourages Timothy to continue to be.

1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.”