1 Timothy 4:12-16 (January 12, 2025)

1 Timothy 4 and the Call to Church Order for Godliness

Amen. We can turn in your Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter 4. 1st Timothy chapter 4. We are back in 1st Timothy. We started this series back in the fall. Took a little break over Advent and Christmas and now we return picking back up in verse 12.

We'll be in verses 12 through 16 this morning. Very simply what I want to do this morning is just go through this verse by verse, one by one, and apply them to our church. Now for context I want us to remember that that Paul is writing to his young protege Timothy.

Timothy would have been appointed the pastor at the church in Ephesus. It turned out to be a pretty difficult job. There were false teachers in the church. There were false teachers around the church.

There were those in the church who were who were tempted towards spending all of their time and all of their energy focused in on on endless genealogies and and silly myths and controversies. We'll read about that back in chapter 1.

And this is not to mention the fact that Ephesus itself as a city was a center of pagan worship centering on the on the goddess Artemis. And so Timothy had a he had a tough job cut out for him. Also he was, relatively speaking, pretty young.

He was in his 30s. And this is in a culture where old age was highly esteemed. And so the Timothy had he had a tough gig. Paul wrote this letter to Timothy to exhort him in his pastoral work, to exhort Timothy to order the church for godliness.

We've said this the whole time we've been going through 1st Timothy that the theme of it is church order for godliness. And so we'll see that as we go through verses 12 through 16. Let me read those verses to us.

God's Word says, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Amen. This is God's Word to us this morning. I want us just to run through this passage verse by verse.

And he begins by giving this instruction to Timothy. And he says, let no one despise your youth. Now again, remember Timothy is serving in a context where age is is venerated. Age is highly esteemed, and Timothy is relatively young.

But notice that Paul's instructions are to Timothy. They're not to the church. Had Paul been writing directly to the church in Ephesus, he may have told them to not count Timothy's youthful age against him, but rather to listen to him and submit to him as the man God had appointed to shepherd them.

He may have said that to them, and he likely would have. But as it was, in this letter, he's writing to Paul. Excuse me, he's writing to Timothy. Paul is writing directly to Timothy, giving him instruction about his behavior and his demeanor.

The onus here is on Timothy to let no one despise his youth. It's as if Paul was saying, Timothy, don't give people any occasion to despise your youth. Don't give them any occasion to write you off as as young and dumb.

Don't give them any reason to ignore you or oppose you because of your youth. Don't let them despise your youth. In other words, don't act despicable, despisable. In other words, he was instructing Timothy to carry himself with some gravitas, to carry himself and act in such a way that would afford him respect.

And how was he to do this? Well, he was to do this by his godliness. You see, he was to set an example to the believers in word and in conduct and in love, spirit, faith, and purity, we see in verse 12.

He was to be the the pace setter for the congregation in these things. So it begins with an example in word, in your speech. His speech was to be seasoned with salt. His speech was to be the kind of speech that builds others up, that infuses them, gives them grace to strengthen them.

Proverbs has a lot to say about our words and how to set an example for others in our speech. And so Timothy, he was to be prudent and restrain his lips, knowing that when words are many, transgression is not lacking, Proverbs 10 19.

He was to listen before he speaks, for Proverbs 18 13 says, if one gives the answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame. He was to preserve his life by guarding his mouth, for he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin, Proverbs 13 3.

He was to tame his tongue, knowing that one's words, though they be small, are like sparks that can set a forest ablaze, James 3. And rather than use his words like sword thrusts, he was to have a wise tongue that brings healing, Proverbs 12 18.

He was to set an example in how he spoke through his words. He was also to set an example by his conduct. His day-to-day life was to be an example of honest dealing, of diligent labor, of courage, of service.

He was to treat others well and to attend to his duties with diligence. As one commentator put it, Timothy was to teach by the way he lived, for if not, he would tear down with one hand what he had built with the other.

And so the first two things that Paul tells him to be an example in are external, his words which can be heard, his conduct which can be observed. But then he gives four other things that are that are internal, that people cannot see, but they're still manifest in one's life and how one behaves and lives, love, spirit, faith, and purity.

And in all of these things, Paul is telling Timothy to give himself to be an example for the church. And if he conducts himself well in these ways, no one will have an opportunity, no one will have occasion to despise his youth.

Now let's apply verse 12 to our church. As we go through these, I want to look at what Paul says to Timothy as the pastor. I'll try to apply some of those to me, serving as your pastor, and then apply all of this to our church because what we see here is that Timothy is to be the example, which means that all of what Paul is instructing Timothy, he's really also at the same time instructing the church, who's to follow Timothy's example.

And so applied to me, I am called to conduct myself as your pastor with godliness and gravitas in such a way that gives you no occasion to despise my behavior. To some of you, I am still young, and so I want to carry myself in such a way that none of you ever think, well, that pastor's just kind of young and dumb, he just needs to grow up a little bit.

I need to give attention to my words, to my behavior, love, spirit, faith, purity, and I need to do this before I come and stay in here to preach to you about your words and behavior and love, faith, spirit, and purity.

This is the principle that Jesus spoke of when he said that one's to get the log out of their own eye before getting speck out of someone else's. Or as one friend used to put it, you need to be a lumberjack before you're an eye surgeon.

Now I'll admit to you that reading this whole passage, these four verses, there's a lot packed into these four verses, and it was a difficult passage to wrestle through this week. I had to ask myself, am I really living in such a way that is an example in these things?

And I was confronted with sin I needed to repent of and turn from and seek forgiveness for this week as I read these verses. And I would encourage you to wrestle with these things as well, to let the Scripture be a mirror to you to show you who you are and where you need to repent and where you need to go further up and further in, so to speak.

I would encourage you to examine your life. Are you living in such a way that gives no one an occasion to despise you? It doesn't open the door at all for anyone to despise you. How are your words? How is your conduct, your love, your spirit, your faith, your purity?

Are you an example in these things to others in your family, an example of these things to others in your church, in your community, at your workplace? In a way, verse 12 answers the question of how pastors specifically, and Christians generally, are to be marked.

How are we to be marked before the world so that they know that we belong to Christ? Well, it's not by wearing crosses on our jewelry or Christian t-shirts or a clerical collar or a Hebrew tattoo or a bumper sticker on the car or something in your social media bio or whatever else.

No, we are to be marked by our godliness. We are to be marked by our godliness in speech, conduct, faith, purity, spirit, love. That's the whole point of the book of 1st Timothy. We've said this all along.

The whole point of the book is about how Timothy is the order of the church for the godliness of the people. This is how we are to be marked in the world, by our godliness, by our love for one another.

Give yourself to this godliness. Move on to verse 13. It says, till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. This verse outlines some of Timothy's primary duties. And if we think it all the way through, I believe it tells us how we get godliness in the church.

So let's start with Timothy's duties and then we'll move on to godliness in the church. His duties are to give attention to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. Three areas where he's the focus. Three areas that he's to give attention to.

Let's take them one by one. Now it could be, what does it mean by when he says give attention to reading? It could be that he is exhorting Timothy to be studious. That he is to give himself to the study of God's Word so that he can show himself a workman approved.

And that is certainly true. A study. He ought to prepare to feed the flock of God from God's Word. Now some pastors err in this way or err in this area, I should say, on the side of spending too much time in study.

They'll spend 30 plus hours working on a single sermon. I don't exactly know how you do that and still be with people and pastor them and attend all the other duties. And often these will be kind of ivory tower pastors who are well versed in books but don't smell like sheep.

Then on the other side of the coin you have you have pastors who are lazy and spend hardly any time in study. And the church gets a Saturday night special every Sunday morning. And somewhere in the middle is a diligent student of God's Word, of God's world, and of God's people who gives attention to reading so that he can feed Christ's sheep.

And he knows Christ's sheep from spending time with them too and studying them too. And so that's one way of taking that this instruction that he ought to give himself to reading. I think that is true.

However, I think the the primary thing that Paul is talking about here in telling Timothy to give attention to the reading is the giving attention to the public reading of Scripture, particularly in the in the gathered worship service.

And so Timothy was responsible for the congregation hearing God's Word. This was especially true at a time, remember, when everybody didn't have a personal copy of the Bible at home and they didn't have a personal copy of the Bible to bring to worship with them.

They certainly didn't have a personal copy of the Bible on a phone because they didn't have phones. They heard God's Word when it was read to them by the pastor on the Lord's Day. They didn't have 12 different Bible translations and versions at home to choose from.

And so Timothy was responsible for feeding the sheep the Word of God. And today, even though we have personal copies and we have the Bible on our phones and we have all of that, still pastors today are responsible for feeding God's Word to God's people.

And so we give attention to the public reading of Scripture here at First Baptist. At the beginning of every worship service, Pastor Gary reads a call to worship from the Bible. This morning, John chapter 1 verses 1 through 5.

When I come for the gospel focus to assure you that your sins are forgiven, I do so on the authority of God's Word, reading to you from God's Word that you are forgiven if you are in Christ Jesus. Often before a psalm, Pastor Gary will either read a Scripture or allude to a passage of Scripture.

Then we have a portion of our service, Darren came and read to us today, we have a portion of our service dedicated every week to reading an Old Testament passage and a New Testament passage. Straight up, no commentary, no sermonette, just the Bible.

And then I preach. Usually an expository sermon going through a passage, usually that is part of a series going through a particular book. We go through the book chapter by chapter, verse by verse. At the beginning of the sermon, I'll read the passage in its entirety normally, and then we'll go through kind of verse by verse like we're doing today.

Why? We are reading, giving our attention to the reading of the Scriptures, feeding you God's Word because it is the words of life. We don't live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

And then we end the service with what? A benediction from the Bible. In other words, we give ourselves to the public reading of Scripture here at First Baptist. Second duty that Paul says that Timothy is to give attention to is exhortation.

By this, Paul primarily is referring to the preaching. Timothy was to exhort the church from God's Word, giving them instruction, equipping them from God's Word, and encouraging them from God's Word to lead lives of glad submission to God and obedience to His Word.

A major part of my week each week is dedicated toward preparing for this very moment, for the preaching, for the for the exhortation, for the heralding of God's Word and calling you to love it and calling you to keep it.

So one of the most important things that I do as your pastor, it's one of the most important things that we do together, is come together to worship and to hear from God through His Word. I want you to note that preaching, this is not the same as lecturing.

This is not like a classroom, a church. It's not what we're doing here. It's similar in some ways, sure, but I'm not wanting to just download some information to you, to give you some interesting facts about the first century church, to give you some interesting doctrinal facts that can inform your life in some way.

No, that's not the point. I'm not trying to get you where you could pass a religious studies or Bible test. No, I want to speak to your soul as well. I want you to feel the weight of glory, of God's glory in such a way that you love God more.

I don't want you to just know about Him, but I want you to know Him. Not just know about Him, but to love Him, worship Him. I want you to feel the weight of God's glory each week as we open up His Word.

I want you to feel it in such a way that His words weigh heavy upon you, so that you keep those words and walk according to them. I want you to feel the weight of God's glory in such a way that it leads you to worship.

Paul instructed Timothy to give himself to the exhortation, to the preaching. And then lastly, third duty is to give attention to the doctrine. Give attention to doctrine. It was Timothy's responsibility in Ephesus.

It's my responsibility here to guard the church. That is to know right doctrine and be able to explain it and teach it such that people understand it and live it. And to spot false doctrine and be able to fight against it and defeat it.

Now that tells me about, that tells us about Timothy's role and by extension mine. But what about the church? What about the congregations? What about you? What are your duties in relation to verse 13?

Well you are to give your attention to the hearing of God's Word. To the listening to the pastor's sermon and exhortation. To the believing and the holding of right doctrine. You're to give yourself to be receptive towards God's Word.

To be teachable. This is part of why the image of the church as the bride of Christ is important. See a bride is feminine and it's part of the feminine nature to be receptive. In male-female relationships a man moves towards the woman.

He initiates. The woman is receptive. For example a young man asks a young lady to dance or to go out to dinner. She receives that invitation and accepts. So in the church Jesus Christ through his minister projects his word and the congregation, the bride, receives his word and accepts his word and is taught by his word.

So your responsibility is to hear the word taught. Hear the word read. Hear the word preached in the church and to accept it. Now you don't do that blindly. Pastors are fallible men. You need to test all things by the scriptures.

These scriptures are the final and ultimate authority. But the default demeanor of God's people is to receive God's Word from whom God has given them to shepherd them. In this way we collectively are people of the book.

We are a people of God's Word and it is the Word of God that shapes us. It is the Word of God that conforms us into the image of God's Son Christ Jesus. Moving on verse 14. It says do not neglect the gift that is in you which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

When Timothy was ordained to the ministry the elders laid hands on him, prophesied over him. He was gifted for the ministry. But this gifting was not a once-for-all type of thing. He needed to cultivate it.

He needed to fan it into flame. It's kind of like when God created the world. God created the world and he put Adam in the garden and the garden was perfectly manicured and just you know well-ordered and he and he told Adam to have dominion over the whole earth.

But the rest of the world was not at all as pristine and manicured as the garden was. Most of the world needed to be tamed and to be put into, set into order. There was the gift, the world. The world was a gift to Adam but it needed cultivation.

Often, not even say usually, what God gives to us he intends for us to improve it, to cultivate it. In a similar way, Timothy he was gifted for ministry but he couldn't just rest on his laurels. No, he he needed to give attention to it, to cultivate it, to fan it into flame.

How was he to do this? By giving attention to the reading, to the exhortation, and to the doctrine. By giving himself to the pastoral work of shepherding the congregation. Kent Hughes commenting on this passage said the operative principle at work in verse 14 is to use it or lose it.

And so Timothy needed to use his gift to keep the gift. And so applying this to the church said we all need to cultivate that which God has given to us. God has gifted us. If we if we have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit has gifted us for ministry in the church in some way and we need to fan that into flame, cultivate that.

We ought never to be just to rest content on our past service to Christ. Rather we ought to fan into flame that which God has given us so that we can be of further service to Christ. And so let me ask you, how has God gifted you for your service in his church?

And are you using those gifts? Remember the principle is use it or lose it. So do not neglect what the Lord has given to you. Verse 15, meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all.

The instruction here for Timothy is to is to live and breathe his ministry. He's to give himself to the work that God has given to him. He's to be devoted to the reading, to the exhortation, to the doctrine in such a way that he cultivates his gifting for ministry.

He's to go, again to use that phrase, he's to go further up and further in in his ministry. That is, he's to do so in such a way that his progress in the faith is evident to all so that he may be an example to them in word and conduct, faith, spirit, love, purity.

So that they too can progress in the faith. And this calls for two things. Focus and diligence. Focus and diligence. First, focus. Verse 15 begins with the instruction to meditate on these things. That is, turn these things over in your mind.

Contemplate these things from different angles. Or as we might say around here, just chew on it a little bit. To meditate, meditate on something, you must focus on it. You give extreme focus on it to actually meditate on it.

So Timothy was to focus, he was to meditate on his duties. He was to carry himself in a respectable manner so that no one was given an opportunity to despise his youth. He was to be an example in word, conduct, love, spirit, faith, purity.

He was to give attention to reading, exhortation, and doctrine. Not neglecting the gift that was given to him by God. And so Paul's instructions to him are, think on these things. Focus on these things.

Give yourself entirely to these things, Timothy. Put away distractions. Don't join the babblers in their endless controversies and genealogies and silly myths. Don't get caught up in the good things that make you neglect the great things or the most important things.

And this is good instruction for all of us, right? Are we not all at one point or another tempted to give attention to lesser things? I know as your pastor, I'm, you know, there are temptations to get too caught up in denominational squabbles or other controversies among Christian pastors and leaders.

And I know there's no shortage of things, you know, in and around the church that could keep me busy. And they're not bad in and of themselves, but they're not the most important things. And so one thing you can pray for me as your pastor about is that I give myself entirely to the things that actually matter.

To the things that Christ has appointed me to do. To the ministry of prayer and the Word. To shepherding the flock of God at First Baptist Shepherds Rest. And then I would ask that you turn that attention on to you.

And I would say keep your eye on the ball. What is it that God has gifted you for? What is it that God has equipped you for? What is it that God has given for you to do? Keep your eye on the ball as you serve in Christ's Church.

Focus. Meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to that which God has equipped you and called you for. And then the second related thing that verse 15 calls for is diligence. We have focus and diligence.

You see, once you zero in on what that is that God has called you to, be diligent in it. Be hard-working in it. Give yourself entirely, to use verse 15's language, to it. Live and breathe it. Progress in your God-given calling and be diligent so that others can see.

So that progress will be evident to all so that others can see it. And then lastly, verse 16. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

The message to Timothy and to us all is be watchful. Watch your life and doctrine. Last night at dinner, kids asked me, what are you preaching on tomorrow? So I was giving them the short rundown of these four verses.

And Caitlyn, she said, it sounds like the theme of 1st Timothy is watch your life and doctrine. So that's perceptive. It's come up over and over and over again hasn't it? Watch your life and doctrine closely.

Watch your life. Does your conduct match your confession? Does your conduct match the profession of faith that you have made? Are there any inconsistencies? Are you keeping God's commands? So watch your life, your behavior, the outward manifestation of your life.

And then also watch your doctrine. What do you believe? And does it actually come from the Bible what you believe? About ultimate things, important things, current cultural questions, whatever it is. Situations you're facing in your family and relationships.

What do you actually believe and does it come from the Bible? Have you departed from the faith in any way? Life and doctrine. And these two are intertwined. Because often, you know, when a man's doctrine slips so does his life.

What we believe actually matters. Because as one pastor says it, your theology is going to come out of your fingertips. What you believe is going to come out in how you live. But also the reverse is true.

When a man's behavior slips, oftentimes rather than repent, he'll shift his doctrine to match his behavior and to excuse his behavior. You see, life and doctrine go hand in hand. As we said a few months ago, if we want to make it safely to harbor, if we want to make it safely home, if we want to make it safely to heaven, then we must watch our life and doctrine closely so that we don't make a shipwreck of our lives.

We must take heed to life and doctrine. And if we will continue in right doctrine, if we will continue in believing and staking our lives and our eternities on right belief about God that He has revealed to us in His Word, and if we will continue in right behavior, that is in living according to what God has revealed in His Word, then we will be saved and make it safely home.

And so watch your life and doctrine closely. Give attention, give your attention, and give your life to the things that matter. Being an example, Word, conduct, faith, love, spirit, and purity. Amen. Let's pray together.

Public Reading, Exhortation, and Doctrine

Our Father in heaven, we come to you asking for your grace to help us watch our lives and doctrine closely. Father, I pray that we will live in such a way that matches what we confess to be true from your Word, and that we would confess what is actually revealed in your Word.

Father, I pray that we would carry ourselves in such a way that it is respectable. I pray that we would set an example for one another in how we speak and how we act, how we love, believe, and trust you.

And that in all of this, we know we can do nothing apart from you, John 15 tells us. So Lord, I pray that all of this will abide in Christ. And when we say that if we will watch our lives and doctrine closely, we will be saved, we are in no way saying that we can save ourselves, but rather we are confessing that it is all by grace.

Our watching of our lives and our watching of our doctrine is all by grace. It is because of what Christ has done. So Father, we thank you for the work of Christ, who lived in our place perfectly, died in our place perfectly as a sacrifice for sin, and rose again on the third day victoriously, so that all who would trust and believe in him would also be raised to new and everlasting life.

Help us to hold fast to that doctrine and may it shape our lives. And we ask all of this in the name of Jesus, Amen.