1 Timothy 4          Message 23

    1.   Commitment to right Doctrine                             

          The instructions were given in chapter 1:3-20

Paul then began to instruct Timothy in the –

    2.  Conduct of the church.  1 Timothy 2:1-3:16

    3.  Calamity in the church  1 Timothy 4:1-5

Pay attention to the message today, do not let your mind wander off –

Today we will learn from God’s Word about –

    4.  Correction of the church.                  1 Timothy 4:6-16

      a.  Our Promise – the Word of God –

        1).  Resolve to teach the truth

          a).  With conviction  “…whereunto thou has attained.”

1 Timothy 4:6  If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.

          b).  With courage.    The truth is always the same and does not change based on who is listening. 

1 John 4:6  We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

Keep on telling the truth, rejoicing when people agree with the truth, and resolving to keep on when people will not hear the truth.

Knowing the truth enables us to –

        2).  Reject the lies

1 Timothy 4:7,8a  But refuse profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little…”

            a).  Tales told by superstitious people.  (Headless John story)

            b).  Tales believed by irresponsible people – too lazy to search out the truth.  We are commanded to –

2 Timothy 2:15-18  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness. And their word will eat as doth a canker: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

Knowing the truth, we –

        3).  Rejoice in the promises of God –

          a).  The Lord is our satisfaction

1 Timothy 4:8b  “…but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”

          b).  The Lord is our Surety

1 Timothy  4:9  This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.

          c).    The Lord is our Saviour.

            (1).  The course of our service

1 Timothy 4:10a  “For therefore we both labour…”

John 4:34-35  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.

Mark 16:15  And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

            (2).  The cost of our service.

1 Timothy 4:10b  “…and suffer reproach…”

We are not to be surprised when the message is rejected and we are rebuked for preaching it. We soon experience the results of the unbelief of –

              (a).  Our families

Matthew 10:35-36  For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.

              (b).  Our friends

1 Peter 4:4  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

We are representing the Lord and it should be no wonder that we will receive the same treatment that He received – 

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…

 As experienced from His day until now –

1 Thessalonians 2:15  Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men:

Knowing the trouble facing us for our testimony, we must remember –

            (3).  The Cause of our service. 

1 Timothy 4:10c   “…because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.”

            (4).  The confidence in our service –

1 Corinthians 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

          (5). The command to His church

1 Timothy   4:11  These things command and teach.

The consequences are not temporary, difficulties to be faced.  The consequences are eternal – life or death!

John 3:16-18  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Everyone needs to hear the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ because they are in desperate need of salvation – they are on, so to speak, “death row”, condemned to eternal separation from God.  They need the Pardon from God, be redeemed through faith in Him.

Believers and unbelievers need to understand this truth –

Those who are saved have been moved off of death row and now how life through the Lord Jesus Christ.

They heard that they needed salvation that only God gives through His Son, Jesus to everyone that believes, confesses, and calls upon Him to be saved.

Romans 3:10-18  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.

When they acknowledged their condition, they confessed it to God, believing that His Son, Jesus, took their sentence of death upon Himself, and called upon Him for salvation –

Romans 10:9-13  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

At that moment, they were moved from death unto life –

Romans 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Believers and unbelievers need to know that once the unbeliever dies, the offer of salvation is no longer available!  The decision is urgent and needs to be considered now.

This is the message that Timothy was to preach and it is the message that we must continue preaching, not being sidetracked by old wives tales and false doctrine. 

God is real

Jesus died for our sins

Now is the day of salvation

You know it is the truth

Rejoice that you have a chance to be saved, that you have heard the Word of God –

Do not put it off to another time – you may not have “another time”.

Call upon Him now!