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.”
