Take hold of you calling.

1 Timothy 6:11-21

1 Timothy 6:11–21 “But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. T…”

The 2 letters written to Timothy and the letter to Titus are known as the Pastoral Epistles. Paul in these letters is giving instructions on how to conduct the order the church. How to conduct oneself as an Elder and how to avoid falling into the snare of false teaching. The first part of chapter 6 that we talked about last week, really gives a detailed account of the reasons so many fall into this trap of false teaching. and those main things are pride, arrogance and the love of money.

Now starting in verse 11 Paul turns to application of what he has thus far taught and shows us how to avoid falling into this error.

Keep in mind that even though these instructions Paul is giving Timothy are a great help to Pastors and Elders, they are also very helpful to the rest of us as we shepherd our families and our personal ministries.

There are 4 words that stood out as great reminders of how to stay on track with sound teaching and godly living in these 10 verses. and these 4 words are

Flee

Fight

Keep

Command

Flee

This is definitely not the first time in scripture we are told to flee from evil.

1 Corinthians 6:18 “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.”

there are many other instances where we are told to flee although that patricular word may not be used. and almost every occasion is telling us to flee from the devil or some pervasive evil. The biggest instance fleeing from your sin. Repentance right? turn from your sin. flee from it. Do not give it a chance to take hold of you.

But, fleeing is only the first step. fleeing. So instead of just fleeing from something we should be fleeing to something. And that something is Jesus Christ the righteous. as James puts it in.

James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

The devil isn’t going to flee from you or me because he is sneaky. He will continue to hang around in waiting to cause us to slip up. But he will always flee from the righteous and holy master of all creation and that is why WE flee to Christ Jesus.

Fight

again Paul is giving wise counsel.

How are we to fight?

Well Paul says to take hold of the eternal life to which you were called.

So how do we do that?

Confess our sins. If we have been truly transformed by Christ we recognize our sin. Once we recognize it we don’t just sweep it under the rug. Instead we are to confess our sins to God.

Not because he doesn’t already know about them.

But because he wants us to be faithful, honest and dependent upon him. If we don’t confess why should we be forgiven?

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

He is not going to judge us when confess he is going to forgive us. His time of judging us is not yet upon us and we should all be very thankful for that.

Another way we fight is to be actively working toward our sanctification every day. That means we should be praying and soaking our minds in the inerrant word every single day.

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

This is how we figth. Not physically but spiritually

2 Corinthians 10:4 “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

Keep

In verse 14 Paul says to keep the commandment without stain or reproach until when? Until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now the commandment as Paul says here is speaking of the entire word of God which Paul charged Timothy to not only preach but also to guard it.

Those who preach the word of God are preach it to be consistent with the word as it was given from the beginning. Last week we saw Paul telling Timothy in verse 3-4

1 Timothy 6:3–4 “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,”

Keeping the word means that we are not to add our own meaning to it but to search for the scriptures for the true meaning. This means studying scripture and learning from those who have given their lives to Christ for the study, preaching, and teaching of the word.

We also keep the words by visbly living lives in accordance with the sound teaching of scripture.

Look; you probably arent going to speak to every single person you run into about the word of God, but, if you are living a holy life in the prescence of men they will see and know that there is something different about you. and just the fact that you are visibly living a godly life can have a tremendous influence on the new believer and possibly even the unbeliever who may be predestined for glory with Christ but has not yet come to the saving knowledge of the Gospel as of yet.

Matthew 5:16 “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

So by living your life; holy and blameless before God you may well be the catalyst that God uses to light that spark in someone that brings them to Christ.

If we do these thing God the only wise God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords will bless and enrich our lives with joy and contentment. To him belongs all honor and glory. Amen?

and finally Command

Those who speak the true word of God speak with authority. That authority has been given to all who have been given eternal life through our adoption as children of the living, Holy God.

All authority over all things has been given over to Christ Jesus. Matthew 28:18 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

We do not yet share in that all knowing authority because we have not yet been glorified. We are still in the sanctification stage and will be until the day we enter into the presence of God.

We have though been given authority as ambassadors for Christ to call men to repentance. to command them to turn from the sin in their life and to walk in the light of Christ and his glory and honor. Christ didn’t ask he commanded them.Believers have been given authority as fellow heirs with our great high priest to preach and teach the the word as given by Christ and his Apostles and admonish men to come to Christ.

We are called to command rich men not to put their hope in earthly riches which are fleeting and will not last but to put their hope in the God who is sovereign over all things as Paul states in verses 18-19

1 Timothy 6:17–18 “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share,”

What eternal good does it do to be selfish with riches and to use them for evil intent? well thats a simple answer. Absolutely none. Any gain that is of the world is only temporary and may well lead others and our own selves into eternal damnation. Riches of this world will disappear as quickly as they appear. Worldly fame and power is fleeting. But the word and love of Jesus Christ the righteous will last forever. A person is only truly rich when he has Jesus as his savior.

Paul echos thes words of our Lord from the sermon on the mount here in verse 19.

Matthew 6:19–21 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Command them to do good, to be rich in good works, and to be generous and ready to share.

He also ends by again citing a passage thats likely familiar to all of us.

Matthew 6:19–20 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

telling Timothy to take hold of that life, which is to say, the get a grip on the reality of matters associated with eternal life. So that he would live and minister with a heavenly and eternal perspective in mind.

and lastly he yells timothy to guard what has been entrusted to him. Reminding him to avoid the irreverence that is called knowledge by the carnal, false teachers. Those which have gone astray from the faith.

False teachers may or may not be deadly to the physical body. But leading someone away from the truth and knowledge of scripture can be harmful to the walk of one who is a believer and the consequences deadly to the unbeliever who may be forever led away from the saving knowledge of Christ Jesus. We truly need to be aware of the fact that just worshipping on Sunday morning isn’t all there is to the life of the believer. Not only the Elders and other leaders but also all of us must take it upon ourselves to know the true Father, Son and Holy Spirit of scripture and be always ready to proclaim him to the world.