Train Yourself for Godliness (1 Timothy 4)

1 Timothy 4

Train Yourself for Godliness

Sunday, January 30, 2022

Intro

Training

Main Point

A good servant of Christ is trained in godliness that is rooted in the words of faith and lives it out before others.

Points

Beware of false godliness (4:1-5)

Train for godliness (4:6-10)

Set an example of godliness (4:11-16)

Point #1: Beware of false godliness (4:1-5)

False Godliness is rooted in Asceticism

False teaching is something that most of us probably have given little to no thought about. When it comes to being aware of false teachers lurking around, we are either dismissive or negligent to what is lurking around, waiting to snatch us. Or maybe it is the thought that I would know better if false teaching was to creep in. Whatever the case, we seem as a society, as the church to heed much warning when it comes to the call to beware false teachers. This certainly was the case in Ephesus. Paul had warned them in Acts 20:29-30 saying, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.”

Yet, we must grasp the real dangers of false teaching, it leads others away, causing them to depart from the faith as they give themselves to these false teachings. For it is not a matter of if false teachers will come, but when and how? Paul reminds us here in 1 Timothy 4:1 that the Spirit expressly, that is definitely or explicitly, says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. False teaching comes with the purpose to lure people away from the truth of who God is and his already given word. For as Satan has always done, he works to twist the words of God, causing people to doubt it’s truth.

Notice again there in verse 1 the language given to this false teaching, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.

Every false teaching is rooted in the work of Satan and his liege of demons and evil spirits.

False teaching is deceptive, it is not just wrong. It aims to lure and entice by turning our attention elsewhere.

For in luring Eve to eat of the fruit of the forbidden tree, Satan himself talked about the beauty of the forbidden fruit, accusing God of withholding good from Adam and her.

Satan dismissed that the curse would happen. Saying they wouldn’t die.

Deception is woven into the heart of every false teaching. For what makes it false is that it turns from the given, certain, trustworthy word of God.

False teaching comes in such subtle ways though, that if we are not careful ahead of time, guarding ourselves, it will creep in and can lure any of us away.

False teaching is also hypocritical.

For the false teaching comes through that of hypocrites. That is what is being mentioned here in verse 2 when it says through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

False teaching comes from those who are disgenuine in the faith, they do not believe it themselves, so they get up and act as if they do. They are more swayed by the attention of man than they are glorifying God. And therefore their teaching flows with the culture rather than stands as the pillar built upon the foundation of truth.

False teaching has its great work in every age, from the early church here in Ephesus to our day and time.

Here in Ephesus, Timothy is having to deal with the false teaching that calls for asceticism. In his commentary, Kent Hughes defines asceticism as “the intentional denial of things that God has declared to be good.”

Hence the call to forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving.

False teaching seeks to have the appearance of rooted in faith and godliness, but the sure sign of false teaching is when it’s call to godliness directly rejects what God has deemed good.

False teaching puts on a good show, but it is a show. It is to deceive and distract us from what is really going on. It puts up barriers to keep one from getting in and seeing the heart of man. For to do so, it would expose who they truly were.

This was what the Pharisees, Sadducees, and many others missed in their day. They put up so many walls against possibly breaking the outward law, but they never dealt with the heart. For it is theirs and our hearts that are the root cause of sin and ungodliness, not the outward circumstances.

Did Jesus not tell us it is not what goes into the body that defiles it, but what comes out of it? From the heart?

The false teaching says that we will give up these good things that God has given us and forbid them, so that we may appear to be sacrificing to God in our faith.

The problem here is that this is not what God has called us to do. He has indeed called us to godliness. But godliness is not the rejecting of the good things God has given us.

Godliness is not the rejecting of marriage, for marriage was initiated by God and good.

Godliness is not abstaining from foods. For God has made all good and told us that all is clean to eat. In fact, God has created these to be received with thanksgiving by those of us who believe and know the truth. Nothing is to be rejected if it is received this way.

But do you see the danger?

False godliness calls us to give up something good from God’s creation.

False godliness calls us to reject God’s goodness to us in these gifts.

False godliness calls us to begrudging duty, rather than heart-filled worship.

And while food and marriage may not be the main practice of asceticism, false godliness we see in our day and time, we still see it.

I think one area we see this in our current evangelical circles is with friendships with non-believers. When we become Christians, we seem to cut all ties with those who don’t believe.

Now, we don’t leave those relationships staying in the same shape and form.

We don’t keep going to hang out with those same friends in the same places that have caused us to sin and that will lead us to harm.

But, we don’t completely cut off either. For as we walk with Christ, it is godly to live before them and be a light to the world. It is good and right to have acquaintances and friendships with those who don’t know Jesus for the purpose that we may lead them to Jesus. It is good to have these friendships and be good neighbors to one another.

Giving these up doesn’t make us more godly. What makes us godly is how we live with them. Either as a light that shines or a light that is hidden under a basket.

Godliness receives God’s good gifts with thanksgiving and prayer

Godliness comes as we acknowledge the goodness of God and his gifts and provisions for us through food, through marriage, and ultimately through Jesus. These good gifts are to be received with thanksgiving to God. For it is he who has made them, and they were good. It is he who has provided them for us, and therefore they shall be received.

Godliness is rooted in recognizing the goodness of God and his means of providing us with good things. Yes, these good things can be perverted by sin. But in and of themselves they are good in their right created order and purpose. Therefore, let us brothers and sisters receive them with thanksgiving for they are made holy by the word of God and prayer. That is, good and acceptable.

Point #2: Train for godliness (4:6-10)

Godliness is rooted in the words of faith and good doctrine

Having now heard the dangers of the lure of false teaching and hypocritical godliness, we must turn our attention to our second point, train for godliness. Paul tells Timothy there in verses 6, if you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed.

To be a good and faithful servant of the LORD, we must correct false teaching. We must stand against it. This starts with faithful elders, shepherds, pastors. But the reality is, the call to guard against false teaching is the responsibility of the whole church. It is every church member’s duty to beware of false teaching and to help guard against it if we are to be good servants and a church fit for purpose.

And we do so by not studying the false teachings, but by training ourselves in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine.

We train ourselves in the words of the faith by studying the Bible. The very words of God given to us to reveal God, our human nature, and God’s solution for our sin.

For Timothy, this means continuing to study and immerse himself into the deep study of God’s word. This is my aim, week in and week out is to make sure that I too am immersed into the word, continuing to be trained in it and by it.

But it is also the means for all to be trained in godliness. While the study of the Bible is not a guarantee of godliness, no Christian can grow in godliness apart from it. Reading and studying the Bible is the main way in which we are to train ourselves in the words of faith and train ourselves for godliness. For in the reading and studying of the word, God’s word is a mirror to the deepest and darkest parts of ourselves, drawing them out and exposing them, so that we may truly see ourselves and begin to grow in godliness as we learn to live in light of who we are in Christ.

To train ourselves though in godliness is of great value.

The irreverent, silly myths have no value.

These were talked about back in chapter 1, the vain discussions the false teachers were going into of genealogy. These things that the Bible doesn’t speak on or give little detail about are not of such value. Therefore, we should pay little attention to these vain discussions.

Bodily training is of some value.

It is valuable in the care of our present, physical body. And while we are in this life, it is valuable to care for our bodies. Exercise, eat well, train our bodies for the work that we have to do. Just as an athlete must train his body for competition, so should we train our bodies for the purpose of simply caring for them.

Training for godliness is of greater value though (here and future)

But training ourselves for godliness is of great value now in this present life and in the life to come.

As we train for godliness now, it teaches us to be better neighbors, better workers, better employers. It teaches us to be better husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children, friends. As we live in godliness, we are all around better in the way we live out our lives. As we grow in godliness, we grow in service and care for others, and grow out of our own self-centeredness.

But as we train for godliness, there is a great eternal value for the life to come. Kent Hughes puts it this way, “When godly lives move into the new climate, their godliness will bloom like an ever-unfolding flower for all eternity. Godliness will continue its occupation begun on earth—that of serving God to his glory. And who knows what reward the fruits of godliness, spoken of metaphorically by Paul as ‘gold, silver, precious stones’ will receive from God?”

Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, adds: “They overvalue this life who consider it to be a better thing than divine love, for the love of God is better than life—his loving-kindness is better than life itself. Some would give anything for their lives, but they would give nothing for God’s love. If their lives were in danger, they would hasten to the physician; but though they do not enjoy the love of God, they yet sit at ease and seek not the priceless benefit. They who feel rightly think it a cheap thing to die but an awful thing to live apart from God. They recognize that life would be but death unless God were with us and that death itself is but the vestibule of life while God is our joy and our strength.”

Training for Godliness will take discipline.

Notice the 3 phrases here on pursuing godliness: train in verses 7 and 8, toil and strive there in verse 10.

We must discipline ourselves for the pursuit of godliness. It will not just happen, it takes energy, intentionality, and discipline. If we are to be a people who pursues God, we cannot just expect it to happen. It will take work.

There is a great book available to help in this work called Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life written by Donald Whitney. Dr. Whitney lays out 10 spiritual disciplines to help us grow in godliness. They are: Bible intake, prayer, worship, evangelism, serving, stewardship, fasting, silence and solitude, journaling, and learning.

Each of these helps us in the task of growing in godliness in our lives. And each is dealt with in detail. I would encourage you to check out this great and valuable resource.

To help us train in the pursuit of godliness, it can be helpful to do these:

Make a plan.

Anytime I get serious about working out, I make some kind of plan to train. I have set workouts I do. Same with the discipline of growing in godliness. Make a plan for when you will set down to read the Bible and carry out the other spiritual disciplines.

Get a reading or study plan and follow it. This is of a great help to ensure you are reading through the whole of the Bible and helps you stay on track.

Get an accountability partner.

Have someone who will help ask you how you are doing in your training plant towards godliness.

They can encourage you along the way and help you. You can even work together through this and discuss what you are reading and studying. This is doing life together.

Start small

Don’t aim to do to much to fast. It will only discourage you. If you have struggled to make time to train for godliness, especially in Bible reading, set aside 10 minutes at first. 10 minutes, that’s it. Spend time in those 10 minutes, reading, praying, and meditating or journaling on what you read.

These small things will help us in the task of training for godliness and growing in it.

Godliness is pursued because of where our hope is.

In verse 10 we saw that we toil and strive for godliness. But its root, its purpose is because our hope is set on the living God.

We do not pursue godliness for the means of godliness. We pursue and work towards godliness because it is what draws us nearer to our God, the very God who created us and has pursued us in Christ.

For while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God has worked to save us through his beloved Son, Jesus. Our hope rests in our faith in Jesus. That it is he who has delivered us from sin. That it is he who has saved us. Therefore all who believe should not perish but have eternal life.

This is our hope. This is why we strive for godliness.

Do not miss the distinction here. It says that the living God is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Salvation comes to those who believe. If your faith is already in Jesus, you believe that he died for your sins, rose again and defeated death, then hold to that belief, remember your hope is in that work of Jesus. Find comfort and rest in that!

But if you, friend, have not yet believed in Jesus, then salvation escapes you. For the only way to be saved is by faith in Jesus. Believing that he died to cover your sins, no matter how great and wide they are. Believe this, accept it today. Then, this salvation can belong to you as well! Jesus stands ready to save you, all you need to do is come to him and rest in his open arms! Put your faith in him alone! This is where your training for godliness begins, by simply coming to the Savior himself.

We must beware of false godliness, we must train for godliness, but we also must set an example of godliness for others. That is where we turn in our final point this morning.

Point #3: Set an example of godliness (4:11-16)

Set an example in teaching others

Godliness is to be taught to others. It is not meant to come and end with us. It is meant to be passed on, helping others to grow as disciples of Jesus. Timothy, being a minister of the gospel, is charged to command and teach these things to others. This same charge is given to me as an elder, a pastor, a shepherd. I am charged to teach God’s word.

I’m charged to command and teach by devoting myself to the public reading of Scripture.

I’m charged to command and teach by exhorting and teaching the word.

Set an example in living well

Godliness is to be seen in our lives before others. It is to be seen in our

Speech

Conduct

Love

Purity

Godliness is to be immersed and persisted in