First Timothy lesson 34 start

All right, we are in lesson 34 of the First Timothy class. We're in First Timothy, chapter six, and we're looking at two passages, or two verses today, verses 11 and 12. So again, lesson 34, chapter six of First Timothy, and verses 11 and 12. And these are the verses for today.

But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you are called. And you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses."

So again, And when we get into verse 12, I really want to delve into that a lot too. I'll kind of explain later. But I think that's one of those verses that's many times misquoted or misused. And we'll kind of take you through that when we get to that. But I think that's one of those ones that I'd really like to explore a lot on, is the fight the good fight of faith.

But, we'll start away with question one. What are we, oh, this is, again, we've had to avoid all sorts of things. Now, what are we to run away from? We see this in, in verse 11. But flee from these things, you man of God. So, what are we to flee from?

What he said previously. All kinds of evil. All kinds of evil. These things, okay. I will put more onto these things and I go with Mike. It's really everything I think before he's given us these warnings. He's been giving us a whole lot of things to avoid and now he's telling us really just flee from these things. Run away and we'll get into even the words there. But it goes back to everything that's before that, I think. And again, remember, this is Paul giving Timothy guidance on how to run the church and how to minister to the body at Ephesus. And so this is the guidance. So we've gone through all these, but I'll read them just for context.

So beginning in verse 3, if anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with a doctrine conforming to godliness, He is conceited and understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. 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.

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 the root of all sorts of evil, and some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

Then we get into this verse that we're to run away from. So, from this passage of everything he listed, what is the motive of the people that we're fleeing from? What is the motive? There's a whole bunch of things, but what is the motive that he gives out in there, in those verses? motive. It lists a whole lot of things in there, but there's a motive. Desire to get rich in, I think it's verse 5, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

So that, you know, out of all of the stuff they're doing, their motive is to gain, gain power, gain money. So all these different things that they are leading in different doctrines and different things, their main thing is to gain power or gain money.

And he's warning, stay away from these people. Flee from them. Run away from them. These people don't have any good for you. And really their motive is just power and a means to get rich. And also we see in verses 9 and 10, but those who want to get rich. And then also in verse 10, for the love of money. So a lot of this is about money and power.

And I put this out. Do we see that today? Just a little bit. I look at it like Joel Osteen. you know, mega, mega, mega, and some of these mega churches that are out there. And you think about that, you know, can they really minister individually to people? And what is their motive with just massive buildings and massive, you know, programs that need to be funded? I crack up, there was a guy, he was a pastor somewhere, I think a Baptist preacher maybe in the South.

He was just imploring his membership to pour in the money because he needed another Gulfstream with a longer flight path, distance, so he could minister to farther away places in his Gulfstream jet. I thought, you know, that is exactly what he's talking about here. Flee, run away, get away from him. Don't even get in this guy's church, because he is nowhere near wanting, the motive is wrong, let's put it that way.

And I see that, you know, and it used to be a lot of televangelists on TV, you know, and prosperity doctrines, you know, you'd be on TV, and oh, if you give $100, it'll come back $1,000 to you. If you give me $100, you know, it'll come back to you, and all these prosperity doctrines. So this is what Timothy is warning about. These people have no desire to make you spiritually grow. They want their bank account to grow. They want their church to be mega church so they can look out with pride about how many people they have. That's who he's warning against here.

Yeah, Ron. 700 Club and Oral Roberts. What happened to them? Oh yeah, well there was a guy, who was the guy here, he bilked a bunch of people, your grandmother. Calvary Temple. They looked all these old people at all their money. And again, this is what Timothy is warning, stay away from these people. When you see that their biggest thing is money, stay away from them. They're not looking after your spiritual growth. So there's some other things I think these Mike had some in the notes and from Macaulay and some others.

These things refer to commercial godliness. I thought that was pretty good. Commercial godliness spoken of and it's a constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived truth who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. So commercial godliness. I thought that was a great term. And from Macaulay, big time Christianity is big bucks Christianity and Timothy is to have no part in it.

So again, the people who are just, you know, offering, you know, you got to give more. That kind of goes, just sorry, all these memories. When we were in Fiji, and they were giving the offering plate, and it goes around, and everybody, yeah, ooh, and everybody who put it in, ooh, they cheer, and then it went around, and then they count it. Well, that's not enough, so you had to go around again. And then I think they started saying, well, Fred, your family didn't give enough. It was like, wow. Unlike us, we don't even take a collection. We just have a box that you can throw it in. We don't make a big deal of it.

Again, just be wary of those churches that have money as their main object. their facilities. We need three more wings of this building so we can minister more. Then we need more money for all those people who are going to do that. It's always focused on growth or money.

It's not on the individual. That's what Timothy is worried about here, which is kind of fascinating. I wouldn't think in this time that he was here, or when Timothy was being ministered to, that that was a big thing. that that was something that was prevalent at that time, that people were doing it for money. So I thought that was kind of a weird thing. Does anybody else think that way? Do you think that big time Christianity was... You have to find a seat somewhere. There are two seats by you. Oh no, that's Mike's too. Don't let me introduce him. Zach. Yeah, it's Zach. Uh-huh, thanks. Uh-huh. So I just thought it was a little weird. Go ahead. Well, I was going to say, it does seem a little weird because we don't live in that context. Well, they weren't all into money and pursuing wealth. They lived in mud huts and wore sandals and whatever. But the reality is that human nature has never changed. Right. Desire for wealth, prestige, power is always the same.

Some of the scriptures were, you let the rich man here and put the poor man over here. It's those kind of things. There was a divide between rich and poor. This is just warning those who like commercial godliness. They were doing it for commercial purposes, not to make you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord. One of the subtle ways to raise money like that is the donor's list. It comes out semi-annually or annually, and who gave the most. And then they categorize them as patrons.

Oh yeah, you're silver, you're gold, you're whatever. The guy said to me, are you on that list? I said, yeah, I'm under the A's. He said, what do you mean? I said, anonymous. Or they're really bad when you have the thermometers that are, oh, the giving is up to, oh, yeah, we need more. Oh, you're almost at the top. Raise your hand if you've never done that. I don't think we have. Not here. Yeah, no. Ever? A what? You've never had a thermometer? I don't think so. Have we? Have we? I don't think we ever, ever. OK.

The brother, yeah. I'll tell you about the thermometer. So you guys have all had thermometers, huh? I think you get more out of Fahrenheit. Actually, now that I think about it, I think we did have for Camp Elam. They had that if they had a saw I think there was you know building it was a big like saw climbing up We did have it and I take that back. I I Didn't do that it was Dan. I believe in my parents damn and Stan Stan yeah, yeah, it didn't see anything right now as a boy as a board member I couldn't change that Oops. Anyway, all right, so we've proven that it is prevalent even today.

So, in verse 11, who is the man of God? So, but flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. So, who is the man of God? Well, I kind of thought about that. I mean, I tend to just read by that as like, okay, now this is addressed to Timothy or to the believer, but there's really something in that man of God, because the contrast is the man of the earth. The earthly man versus the heavenly man. That's, I think, what he's figuring out here. Earthly man pursues earthly treasure. The man of God, or the heavenly man, has a whole different, you know, pursuit.

So, so, yeah, again, this would be, this would be for, for Timothy himself, but brought more broad is for all of us. So it, it applies to us today, you know, the man of God. You can grab a, you want to give him a lesson or. So, so yeah, this was a, this was a, This was specific to Timothy, but then the broader application is to a man of God. I like the contrast, Miles, that it's contrasted to a man of the earth or a man who is not of God.

The designation of man of God means a man who belongs to God, and it's also used in 2 Timothy 3.17 if you look at that one. In ancient times it was used frequently by the prophets indicating the special relationship they bore to God. The phrase, O man of God, is not an official designation of Timothy's position in the church, so it wasn't a title or anything, it's a characteristic, but a strong form of address. The word God is in the genitive case, the descriptive genitive, here describing the kind of man Timothy was, a godly man.

That's really what it says. It's not saying a title, it's just you're a godly man. Your life is exhibiting the life of Christ. So you're a godly man. So that's the one he's saying, flee from these things, you man of God. And this is also a strong imperative command. So you flee. You flee from this, you godly man. It's imperative that you do this. If you don't, what's going to happen?

Not. You just take the contrary. If you know, you have to follow it up, since you probably don't know where the question is. Not is... It's not really an answer I know. And by the way, I'm a total stranger, but Lord, I love you guys. You've been here before. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you've been here. Norm. Did you expect me to expand on that? I won't. Well done.

Timothy, in what we've been going through in all of 1 Timothy, is all these warnings to stay away from. Don't even listen to them. Remember when we were in chapters 1 and 2, I believe, it was like, don't even listen to them. Don't even give ear to it. Aggressively stop them from listening to them. He's imploring the same thing. Stay away from these people who, in this one, have the commercial godliness. Stay away from them. It's just not going to end well if you do.

Again, it's the imperative which is again a command. It's do this, do this. I also put this question again. As we discussed in question one, should we as men and women of God be supporting churches, pastors, etc. that have a focus on money, power, grandeur? Should we be supporting those or to flee from them?

If you're in a church that is really pounding money as the principal thing that you focus on, stay away. Flee. Don't stay there. Get away from that teaching. If you're online or something, this guy's great, but you suddenly realize it's all about money. It's all about him growing his church or whatever. Flee from that. Paul is telling them, flee from it. Don't even get in there. Get away. Don't just sit there. Flee. Get away. Very important, I think, that we understand that. You don't just kind of sit there and tolerate it. You're actually supposed to flee. Get away from it. One quick thought there.

On the man of God, you talked about him being the character, right? The new nature, right? In 2 Timothy 3.17, it talks about that the man of God, same phrase there, be adequate, equipped for every good work. And so I was wondering, okay, so Timothy needed to be adequate and equipped for every good work, and the gain was righteousness, in the previous verses there. And it's interesting to use that contrast of gain and righteousness versus the love of money, for the work of eldership, which he's placed into. I was wondering, how does that character of the man of God apply to us?

Because we're not elders, or many of us aren't. So I just was wondering where the rubber met the road for the Christian. I think it shows up, to answer J.D.' 's question, I think it shows up in the character of the man. whether a man or a woman, it doesn't matter, is that the Lord has a priority in their life in terms of how they live, what they do, what they don't do. And so all of us belong to God who bought us at the cross.

And as a believer realizes God owns him, He learns how to become a man of God and that's what influences his thinking and his decisions and how he lives. that he's given to Timothy. Just remember that all we've gone through for a very long time in 1 Timothy, a lot of it is, watch out for this, here's the godly aspect, watch out for this, this is a response.

He's doing it here again too, where he's given all these warnings in verses 3-10, and then he says, stay away from it, but then what's he going to do? pursue this. So he's had the same basic guidance through all of 1 Timothy. He contrasts those that are not of the Lord or not profitable versus those who are, those who pursue righteous, who are all these different good attributes with the manifestation of Christ. So I think the application is still the same. I think so too, and that's kind of where I was getting at there, is that here you've got the main concentration being on the office of eldership and Paul. you know, teaching Timothy what is required, but those are characteristics that every Christian receives because we all have the same source. Right, and I think that's another reason why the designation here of a godly man, it's not Timothy's in the title.

This is of a godly man. Applicable to everyone. So that's again the broad brush of what he's telling you is of a godly man. What does a godly man do? We should answer that first. I was like, what is the answer to that question? It is, it's coming up. It's amazing that Paul gave us the answer to that. What a concept.

So what are the items of true riches as opposed to commercial or physical gain and money and all that? So what are they? So, but flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. So, the commercial, flee from, now pursue, what?

These six different things. So, the contrast is very straightforward. Get away from the guy who is all about money and power and big buildings and not worried about your personal growth. Stay away from that. Now, you pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. So, yeah. I think this is more representative. These are just, well, and we'll get into it. Only if you're a man. This is the generic men and women. In Christ there is no man, woman, Jew. There is no man, woman. So this is in the life of Christ there is no sex distinction.

So as with fleeing from men who want power, the Greek word for pursue is in the present tense, active voice, and indicative mood. Meaning we as people of God should be continually going after these six things that Paul lays out for Timothy. So, yeah. I think that whole idea of pursue is what indicates if you're a godly man or not. Yeah, that's a good point.

Everybody knows when you get to know a man, what is he after? What is he doing with his life? What does he hope to gain? If it's riches, you know that. If it's prestige, you know that. If it's whatever. But this is the key to the man. What does he pursue? The godly man. The godly man. Right. This is what he is after.

You know, and I fail in this routinely, is the fact that when somebody asks me about who I am or whatever, what's my first response? Well, I'm an engineer. I do groundwater. I blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know, that's my first response. And most men, that's their first response. And women. I shouldn't be, you know, women who are working or whatever.

Usually the first response is who you are in the world. What you do is who you are. And I do it all the time. I'm the first to admit, I do it all the time. But our real thing is who we are in Christ. But it's hard. Not hard, but it's not normal for most conversations that your first thing is, I'm a Christian. I follow Lord Jesus.

Those things are not typically the things that come out of somebody when you ask, what do you do? Or who are you? It's not that. I say Armenian because it doesn't put anything on my foreheads. We're not getting into Armenian or Calvinism. We're not touching it.

You know, this is, we're to pursue, which the follow is, and Tim, I apologize probably for butchering, you know the Greek, and I, diako means to run swiftly in order to catch some person or thing to run after, pursue, metaphorically, to seek eagerly, earnestly, endeavor to acquire.

So that's how we're to go after righteousness and all these six things. And Zodiates has it, to follow or press hard after, to pursue with earnestness and diligence in order to obtain. To go after with, I like this, with the desire of obtaining. So if you put that, the desire of obtaining righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness, that's the characteristic of a godly man. You earnestly desire that. That's what you want, is to pursue righteousness, gentleness, all these things.

That's the godly man. He wants to do that. That's the key to what his motives are in life, is to pursue these things. Sadly, I think many times we're not doing that. We get wrapped up in the world and different things, but the godly man is the one who pursues these things with an eagerness. I love the word desire. That's what you want to do. That's really what you want is to find righteousness, gentleness, all these different things. That's your heart's motive.

So I was thinking about this list of things, and we use that word things a lot to talk about quality, right? This is an echo of the fruit of the spirit. It also ties in on the qualifications of the elders, but most noticeably you see the fruit of the spirit, and as we've talked so many times, it's not fruits, it's fruit, and it's personal. And so, well, it does go into, if I need you to find me, you're going to get into all of that.

That is all centered on a person, the Lord Jesus, right? So, we think about being a godly man, we're thinking about pursuing that relationship with the Lord, right? With the Lord Jesus, and getting to know who you are in Him. But like Myles was talking about, you know, the godly man is a heavenly man.

What do you know about that? And that's what you pursue. And it's all wrapped up in your union with Christ. Well, it's not all explicitly laid out here. It does connect with other verses throughout, but not the things, but the person. And again, if these are what you pursue, what's going to be manifest in your life?

You're going to be a godly man. So, if you are a godly man, you're pursuing these, and guess what? That will be evident. Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I think the godly man is pursuing this, but by pursuing this you become a godly man. When you tell the old man to pursue these things. Not the old man.

But a lot of leaders see that list and that's why next price is so critical. Excellent. Yeah. And that is true because I'm going to do this. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that from get go? I'm going to do this. Not happening. Not happening.

And that's a great point, that it's the Holy Spirit working in us and putting that desire in us. That's who puts the desire in our hearts. Yeah, and I think this desire often comes earlier in your walk as a believer, and you do have this desire for this kind of life. You just have no idea how to get it out. Well, I think typically early on, how can I do this? How can I do this?

I go through, which I've told a hundred times, with the play, I thought it was by memorizing scripture. I was going to be a godly man because I am going to memorize these scriptures. Like in the Brethren Church, in the morning Lord's Supper, men would quote scripture by memory. I thought, that's what I want to do. I'm going to memorize those verses and I'm going to be a godly man by that.

I'd got me a flat forehead into the wall. Nothing. I can't memorize, as evident by the play. But that was under my assumption that that was the way to be a godly man, was to memorize. And I was totally wrong. You messed it up? I didn't know that. A lot of things you didn't know about it. It went off flawlessly. Flawlessly, yes.

Delight yourself. That's the beginning. Delight yourself in the Lord. But the delight is the desire. That's the desire to do that. Delight and desire. As a young Christian, I got saved and was around Christian men, young white people. And then I met Miles Stanford. He was different. He was one of these guys. And he was quietly attractive. I thought, I don't know what it is about him, but he knows the way. Well, to puff you up and tear you down, I realized when I met you, you were a different person. in a lot of ways.

But as I said many times, he's helped me by just reading scripture. That's what I do every day. I start at John, read one chapter a day until I get to Revelation, and then I just One chapter a day, and with not the study in it, just to read it. I've learned so much more that way, and I know more scripture in my head than I ever did trying to memorize, to be a godly man.

And so, again, I think it's great. It's the Holy Spirit that's doing this. The old man has nothing to do with this. In fact, it's the guy telling me, hey, bud, memorize those things. You're going to be a godly man. Do it. You guys, through your own effort, do this. That's the flesh that was in me. And, and so, you know, that's, it's the Holy Spirit that's the one that puts the desire on you, and you respond to that. So, I, the, the things too, the, the six items, these six items constitute true wealth. You know, we've said what wealth is, and now the six items, these six items are what true wealth is. I had a question here, a question I think.

Do these verses say Paul is condemning rich people? No, it's not. And there are other verses, which we'll actually get to in verses 17 and 19, that actually talk to you about being a rich person. And he's not condemning it. So this is not to be taken as, if you're wealthy, you're over here. Flee from me. It's not that. It's the people who have the motive of money is their motive. flee from them.

But a rich man can be as godly as anyone else. So he's not condemning. I just want to make sure because sometimes it's like, you know, money is the root of all evil that we saw and all this kind of stuff. But it's not condemning a rich man. It's the motive of that rich man. And if it's all about wealth, then it's the wrong motive. Love of money. That's the motive. It's the love of money rather than the love of the Lord.

So, as we look at the six things Paul is telling us to pursue, the first two virtues are general, righteousness and godliness. And then faith and love are two fundamental principles of the Christian life. Finally, perseverance and gentleness describe the virtues necessary in a world hostile to Christ. So it's kind of broken up into three different sections. There's a general, which is righteousness, godliness. And then fundamental, which is faith and love, which is part of being a manifestation of Christ, faith and love.

And then the last one is perseverance and gentleness. How do you function in a world? How do you function in this world that hates Christ? And it's with perseverance, so don't get dragged down by the people who are attacking you. They took Christ and crucified him. They hated him. They hated us because just in the same way as they hated Christ. What he pins on this is gentleness. Don't go out and scream at people. Don't go out and beat them up. Gentleness. I'm going to write it on my arm, on my sleeve.

I was trying to get the exact words, but it's something of the thing is that I've never seen a person saved by an argument. Sorry, I was struggling for the words, the exact words. I can improvise. As known in the play, I can improvise. But that's very true.

Yeah, you don't win people over by screaming at them. As I've said, God uses all methods. I've used this several times. There's a guy down at the Rockies out there on a tin can and he's screaming at people, yelling at people. I'm like, that's horrible. But God allowed it for some reason. He's allowed it. Maybe it's one person he's getting to or it's spurring in some people. I don't know. It's not the way I do it, not the way I think about doing it, but he's down there telling people they're all going to hell and all this kind of stuff. God didn't want that. He'd take them away. So anyway, Gentilus is the key, but he uses all things. I think a lot of times, using that guy as an example, the Lord puts us through an environment where we learn what not to do. Yeah, exactly. That's a good point. Yeah, I can go through it.

Before I was a believer, I was coming back on a flight and this guy button-holed me and just wouldn't let me off for three hours telling me about the Lord. I didn't want any part of it, but for three hours I was like, if I was on the emergency exit, I was going to pull the door and get out of there. And that's before I was a believer, but it was like, that really impacted me about, you know, buttonholing somebody and just grinding them into the ground with the gospel. You know, you're gonna, you're gonna say, I'm gonna save you today regardless, you know, so. All right, these six items. Righteousness. What is that? What is righteousness? We're to pursue it. What is it? Nobody knows what righteousness is. hard word. Righteousness. justice.

He always judges rightly because He's righteous. When compared with His sovereignty, He's righteous and is sovereign over all things that He has created. Therefore, He can not only create man in the image of His righteousness, But he also rules righteously and manages his creation righteously. So what does it mean for you to pursue righteousness?

That's godly, right? So I have been created in the image of God, and therefore I have righteousness through the Lord Jesus in his life. There is no righteousness of my own. That's the gospel message. I can never meet the righteous standard, therefore I'm judged. You know, I think, and it's kind of a hard thing to, you know, because it's a very hard word actually, righteousness in God and that and how that applies to us.

I think the note in here was that it refers to moral integrity. I thought that was a good equivalency of what it means for a believer. Moral integrity. You know, you're following the word. You're not being thrown all over the world, your beliefs and all that. You're following God's Word. Your integrity is based on the Word of God. So I thought that was a good definition for it.

It has to be related to God's character, because there is, in Philippians 3, 9, Paul talks about a righteousness of my own, which would be a righteousness that lines up with what I think is right and good, which may not be in line with what is truly right and good. So righteousness in this sense is what aligns with God's character. And God's word. I mean, I think that's in how we're to live our life. is in keeping with God's word. That's where I look at it. You may not feel like something God said is right, but if he said it... Oh yeah, he said it.

With respect to the character of God as transparently holy and righteous in all his acts, when combined with love, his righteousness results in grace. God's righteousness is ever absolute. It's perfect to infinity. In Him, there's no darkness at all. It's seen in two ways. He's a righteous person, and He's righteous in all of His ways. The person is.

Yeah. So, when it comes to the position of righteousness that we have, we share the righteousness. And that's why the word pursue is so important. Right. arrive at God's righteousness through sinful human effort. You have to let the Spirit of God do that. There will be a day. And I think it goes back to the word desire.

The Holy Spirit puts a desire in your heart to pursue this. and what is it to pursue the righteousness of God, which is, to me, the manifestation of Christ in our life. That, to me, is when I say pursue righteousness. That's what I take it to be, is that I am going to manifest the character of Christ. Zodiates had this definition, too, of disposition or conduct in common life, which was, you know, kind of with the moral integrity, I think, too. Uh oh, that means the music is leaving here. What time is it? I haven't seen the other class leave yet. So we'll go on the rest of these terms and then think about fight the good fight. Think about that.

I find this one is one of those verses that gets misrepresentative or misquoted. A ton of times. And I've seen it down at camp and it just makes my hair bristle when I hear some of this. And it's misinterpreted. And so just think about that as we get into that. We'll finish up these different words, the six things he's talked about. We'll get with those next week and then get into fight the good fight. So let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again just for who you are.

And as we think of righteousness and all these different things, we realize that your character is righteous, you're holy, and you're sovereign, all the characteristics you are. And we just thank you that we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that gives us the desire to pursue these things. And it's with an earnest desire to pursue righteousness and all these godliness and gentleness and all these different things that Paul provided for Timothy. We pray for each one of us that in our hearts through the Holy Spirit you plant that desire for these things. We just give you thanks again for this time in your word. We just pray for the next meeting with Roger. We give him the message that He'll give us the message clearly, and just prepare our hearts to receive it. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.