Aug. 28, 2016 The Greatest Hymns of the Faith by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Well, our text this morning for the preaching

is 1 Timothy 3, verses 14 through 16.

You know, 1 and 2 Timothy and the book of Titus are called the pastoral epistles, the

pastoral letters.

They were written by the apostle Paul to the men after which they're named.

And they were written in their immediate context meant for the recipients to whom they were addressed, for those

men, for Timothy and for Titus who were pastoring those churches where they were at.

But in a larger context, of course, these letters, these books in the Bible are meant for all the

church throughout all time.

They're meant for as much for my instruction as your pastor, as for your instruction

as my flock.

This message this morning is the third in a short series we've been doing on the great hymns of the

church, by which we mean the hymns that are cited in the epistles of the New Testament.

A couple weeks ago, we preached on Colossians chapter 1, verses 15 through 20, which starts by

naming Christ as the image of the invisible God and then goes on to show how he has preeminence over

everything which he created, which is, of course, everything that exists.

Last week, we preached on what was called the great parabola of Philippians chapter 2,

verses 5 through 11, another great hymn of the faith.

That one's speaking of Christ's humility in his having become human and having

emptied himself of his glory, of his divine and heavenly prerogatives in order to save the likes of you

and me, humbling himself even to the death of the cross.

And today, I would like us to turn our attention to another of these early, early

hymns of the church, this one written so soon after the church's founding that Paul was able to

cite it as a known quantity as early as the mid -60s, which is about when

1 Timothy was written.

I'll read it to you in a moment, and just notice that what we have here is six lines divided evenly

into two stanzas, each stanza being three lines each.

It's all here in one verse, in verse 16, so verses 14 and 15 serve as sort of an introduction to the hymn,

and then verse 16 is the hymn itself.

Verse 14, the apostle writes, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so

that if I delay, you may know how you ought to behave in the household of God,

which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Now the hymn itself in verse 16, Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of

godliness.

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Well, this is our text this morning, primarily just that one verse, verse 16, which is the hymn

itself, but we also do need to cover verses 14 and 15, which give us the introduction to the hymn.

And as I prepared myself for this morning's message, I found myself a little bit surprised at

how little preaching can be found on just these verses.

Yeah, I did a very brief, a very unscientific perusal of sermon audio, and

it's interesting what I found there, and you'd see the same thing if you looked.

Whenever you see a message on 1 Timothy 3, anywhere in chapter 3,

virtually every message you'll find has to do with a message about church

leadership, or it's someone ordaining church leaders, either pastors or deacons.

Now this is okay, as far as it goes, this makes sense.

The most detail we have on the qualifications of the men who would aspire to office in the church, either

pastor or deacon, we find in chapter 3, verses 1 through

7, about the pastor, verses 8 through 13, regarding the deacons, so this is where we

should go to find instruction for who to raise to those offices.

But it was a bit surprising to me that this hymn, these verses here, 14 through

16, don't ever seem to be preached along with those messages,

that they stop there at the qualifications for the pastors or for the deacons.

And it's surprising to me because the basis for our insistence that the man who fills

one of those offices be of the highest spiritual quality is found

in this hymn.

Matter of fact, this hymn serves as a hinge for this whole letter to Timothy, where prior to it he's

giving instruction to the church, instruction in chapter 2 at the beginning on prayer for all men, and

in the middle of that chapter, the last half of that chapter, on certain aspects of conduct in the church, and we're not going to cover those

this morning.

And then he goes into the offices of pastor and deacon, and

chapter 4, after that, he speaks more about conduct within the church.

And hinging those, chapter 2 and 3, regarding

conduct, chapter 4, right in between those verses, is this hymn,

which tells us the reason why we should conduct ourselves in a certain way,

which we will, Lord willing, cover somewhat.

It tells us why the pastor or the deacon should be the man who fits what is described there.

We don't just do it because we've got a checklist here, though we do have something of a checklist where we can

test the qualifications against.

But we do it for the reasons embedded in this hymn.

This hinge, it gives us the basis for the conduct that Paul would have

us have to have in the church.

And Paul is telling Timothy, as the pastor of that church where he was at, he's telling him not

only what he expects him to engender in the church, but he gives him the basis for it.

He wants Timothy to bring in a certain culture, if you will, in the church, a way of being, an ethos,

a characteristic.

And here's the reason why, it's in this hymn.

And what he expects in the church of Jesus Christ is godliness in conduct and character,

the basis for which is the person and work of Jesus Christ.

He expects the pastors and elders to live and preach this godliness, and he expects you to hear

and obey the call to this godliness.

I want to go through the hymn, and after we go through the hymn, I want to spend a little bit of time looking at this

church, this church in Ephesus, and the situation they were in when this letter was written.

But first, the hymn.

And then we're going to talk a little bit about the situation that Ephesus was in when Paul wrote this to Timothy.

And then we'll see how it applies to us.

But I want to begin with the hymn because the hymn is the basis for our conduct.

The hymn is the basis for what Paul requires Timothy to promulgate throughout the church.

The purpose of the hymn is there in the introduction.

If you want to look again at that in verse 14,

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things so that if I delay, you may know

how one ought to behave in the household of God.

How one ought to behave.

How you ought to behave, Timothy.

How you ought to behave, members of the church.

How you ought to behave.

All who are within the household of God are covered by this.

Now if I had a blackboard, or if I was any good with PowerPoint, and we had one of those drop -down screens, I'd show you just where Paul was

at this time in his missionary journeys.

But that's probably better suited to Sunday school, and it's certainly better suited to people who can

manipulate and organize PowerPoint and programs like that.

So for now, we have to be very simple.

I don't have any graphics for you.

But Paul is writing this letter of instruction to Timothy so he'll know how to carry on if Paul is delayed

in his coming, or prevented in coming altogether.

So he said, I hope to see you soon, but I'm writing these things so that if I'm delayed, you may know how one ought to

behave.

If I'm delayed or don't make it at all, you need to know what is required to be the

conduct of the church of the living God.

So they were a church.

That's the first thing we need to notice.

They were a church, not just a meeting of like -minded individuals.

That'd be a social gathering.

There's nothing wrong with that, nothing at all wrong with that, but that's not what the church is.

That's not what the church is.

The church is the household of the living God.

The church, we, here in this place, Paul, by the Holy Spirit,

tells us in inspired scripture that this place right here, right now, is

the household of the living God.

Think of how important this is.

Think back to Jesus' anger when he cleansed the temple.

Why was he angry?

Why was that so important?

Because the temple was being misused.

It was being abused.

Its purposes, its function was not being executed properly.

Matter of fact, it was being horribly done the other way, the opposite way of being used as a house of

commerce.

It was so corrupted that even God's name, His honor were being impugned.

Paul says that we are the temple of the living God.

We individually and as a body, we're the temple of the living God.

That's something the temple of Jerusalem was supposed to prefigure, but they failed miserably.

They failed miserably.

We are not the replacement temple as though God had to punt and try again.

We are what the temple was supposed to look forward to.

We are the fulfillment of that.

This is why Paul says that the church, we here in this place,

right now, this is the household of the living God.

Jesus says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

Is this real?

Are those just words to cause us to get out of bed early on Sunday morning?

Or is this truly what Jesus Christ, in the word of God, says this place is?

Of course, most of us would vote for the latter.

This is the house of the living God.

This is a place where we're gathered in Jesus' name, and here He is now, literally, in the midst of us.

Not physically, but literally.

He goes on, he says, the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

What are we doing here?

What are we gathered around?

We're gathered around a truth of which we are the pillar and buttress.

Now the New King James, the NIV,

the NET, the New English Translation, all say the pillar, which is how I read it to

you.

Your ESV, which is our Pew Bible, says a pillar, and I don't think a pillar is as good as the pillar,

because it's the pillar and the buttress, designated by God to have some

relationship to the truth.

What's a pillar and what's a buttress?

It's something that protects, it's something that guards.

We are a guardian of the truth, and what's the truth that Paul could have in mind is nothing but the gospel

of Jesus Christ.

We are that pillar, that buttress, and the gospel,

being that which we protect, which is the ultimate, the final embodiment of God's truth.

This is a precious inheritance we have, and something that we need to guard

tenaciously and jealously, because a guardian protects from

corruption and error.

We need to ensure the purity and the clarity of the gospel that we want to proclaim.

We do proclaim the gospel.

We do care if the gospel goes outside these walls.

Do we not?

I think Francis of Assisi, he famously said, preach Jesus every day, if

necessary use words.

And of course, what he meant was to live out the gospel, and if we're going to have any credibility with those outside, those who are

watching us, we do have to live out the gospel.

It needs to be seen in our lives.

It has to make a difference.

As my friend Pastor Phillips says, the gospel changes everything.

It must change everything.

And people need to see it.

In the afternoon, we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount, and recently, a few weeks ago, spoke about what

it means that the church is that light on a hill, which everyone sees.

And what are they going to see?

Jesus makes it plain.

They're going to see your good works, and they're going to glorify your Father in heaven because of them.

So it's true enough that we need to use words

to proclaim Jesus.

The accuracy and purity of what we say, though, that's the

thing that the church must protect.

The accuracy and the purity of the gospel message.

Now that means we are to know, we are to protect that truth.

We need to know the gospel.

I'm responsible to proclaim it to you, and you

are responsible to know it well enough to judge what I'm saying.

You need to know it well enough to judge what I'm saying, like the nobler Bereans.

You need to know if what I'm preaching to you on any Sunday is right.

You're not passive hearers.

You are part of the pillar and buttress, guarding and protecting, and watching over the truth of the gospel

because you are the house of the living God.

I don't mean you to separate from me.

We together.

But you're not just passive hearers, taking in whatever I say because I'm the one who's ordained.

You are part of that pillar and buttress of the truth, therefore it is your responsibility, if you're going to guard

that truth, to know what the truth actually is.

I'm speaking of knowing the gospel, I'm speaking of knowing the scripture, I'm speaking of being able to put it together

so that as I bring one verse in to support another and I draw up my conclusions, you can say,

yes, he's telling me what the scripture means or says, or no,

pastor, you got it wrong.

Now, Lord willing, my mistakes are not heresies, but I do make mistakes.

Last Sunday after the afternoon portion of the service, just before I got in my office, I was asked about a few

of the things I said and how those work, and there were some questions about them.

I'm a man like the rest of you, obviously, so

we together are part of this pillar and buttress of the truth, guarding over it, protecting it,

and that as we gather together as the very household of the living God.

Now as I said before, the structure of this hymn is two stanzas in three lines each.

The first three speak of the acts of God in Jesus Christ, what God did in Christ when Christ was here on

earth, and the second three speak of the Christ -glorifying response of the church in godliness and character

and conduct because of what Jesus Christ did.

So let's speak for a moment about this revelation of the mystery of godliness.

Great is the mystery of godliness.

That's how Paul started.

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness.

Here it is.

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels.

And there's your three lines for the first stanza.

What happened with Jesus Christ when he came, it is in our carnation.

The second stanza, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up

in glory.

His person in his life is first.

He was manifested in the flesh.

Now we know clearly, he is no other than Jesus Christ.

Manifested translates a word in the Greek which is phanerao.

It means to reveal something, to display it, to show it,

to explain it as it were.

The way Paul uses the word has a sense there of revelation, of revealing something, of uncovering

something.

It's like what he says in Romans 117, though he uses a different word there, but in Romans 117 he says, for

in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed.

That word is apocalypto, where we get the apocalypse, the apocalypse of John, the revelation

of John, the unveiling of Jesus Christ that John gives us in that book.

In Romans 3 .21, Paul writes, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested.

And here's our word from 1 Timothy 3 .16, manifested apart from the law.

Something revealed to us.

That Jesus was manifested in the flesh, that he had to be manifested, it implies that

this wasn't something intrinsic to his mode of existence.

See, you and I don't need to be manifested or revealed to be human, to be flesh, to be

physical, because that's what we are.

It doesn't have to be revealed, anybody can look at us and know that.

Jesus had to be revealed as that, or manifested as flesh, because that's not his

core being.

His core being is deity.

His eternal state is different than how he had to be revealed, explained,

manifested.

That's why in Galatians 4 .4, Paul writes that Jesus, God's son, was born of woman,

born under the law.

Why make this point?

It's because you and I have to be born by woman under the law.

You and I must be born that way because of who and what we are.

That's our nature, it's our state of being.

The $64 word is ontology, the state of being, the study of existence.

But not Jesus.

Not the son of God.

Not the eternal second person of the triune Godhead.

He had to be manifested as that.

Because it's mysterious that God would become flesh.

So he had to be revealed as such.

It's obviously speaking of his incarnation.

Matthew and Luke make it very clear that his birth was normal, but his conception was anything but normal.

It was by the Holy Spirit.

John's prologue, verse 114, says,.

And the Word, meaning the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

So this is the first point of the hymn.

That Jesus Christ had to be manifested as flesh.

Because he, in his eternal state, is and was different than that.

So it had to be revealed to us that God became flesh in him.

Second point in the hymn is he was vindicated by the Spirit.

He looked like any of us because he was truly man.

So how were they to know the difference between him and anyone else?

He was vindicated.

Some translations say he was justified, but vindicated is better.

This speaks of God's testimony that Jesus Christ was and is his Son, the second person of the

Trinity.

The Spirit vindicated Jesus by the way of his birth.

Being conceived by the Holy Spirit, he was free of the stain of original sin.

When he was baptized, Matthew 3 .16, Luke 3 .22, and John 1 .32, all of those

record that the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, stayed on him, hovering over him in

much the manner that he did at creation, thus vindicating him as God's Son in

whom he is well -pleased.

After his baptism, Matthew, Mark, and Luke all say he was driven into the wilderness by the Spirit,

vindicating him as the one designated to succeed in wilderness temptation

where Israel had failed.

The height of this vindication was the resurrection from the dead.

The resurrection from the dead.

Jesus Christ did in history, in time and space, as a man and as God, never the

two being confused, never the one overcoming the other, overshadowing, God and man

in perfect balance in Christ died for the sins of his

people.

More than vindication, his resurrection from the dead, showing that God had vindicated the work

of his Son, that God approved what he had done, that God's wrath was actually expiated in his Son,

that it was through.

More than that, the resurrection is a down payment for we who believe in him.

He the first fruit, says Paul, and we will follow after him.

All this is in the vindication of Jesus Christ by the Spirit of

God.

He was seen by angels.

This is third.

He was seen by angels in the sense of 1 Peter 1 .12, where he speaks of the

gospel as the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels

long to look.

Their longing was satisfied as they watched Jesus live his perfect, his sinless life in complete

obedience to God his Father and total compliance to his will.

Angels saw him after his 40 days of temptation and attended to him after this wilderness exodus was brought to a

gloriously successful conclusion.

An angel strengthened him while his Father remained silent at Gethsemane.

And finally, it was angels who took away the stone from the entrance to the tomb and announced

to the women that he was risen, he is risen indeed.

He was seen by angels throughout his time here on earth.

So those are your first three lines.

He was manifested in the flesh, he was shown to be flesh, and it had to be revealed because he's God

who became flesh.

It's a mystery that had to be unveiled to us.

He was vindicated by the Spirit when the Spirit hovered over him so that John the Baptist could

see that this is the one.

He was attended to by angels throughout his ministry.

So we can move to the last three lines of the hymn, which are about the world's reception of his person and his message.

Proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

So his proclamation, his proclamation.

This is the preaching of the cross, the apostolic commission in which the church today stands.

His disciples were sent to proclaim him in Matthew 10 and Luke 9 when he sent out the disciples and

later he sent out the 72.

They're all sent for the same purpose, which is to proclaim God's salvation of sinners in his son,

which is to proclaim the intrusion of the kingdom of God into the affairs of men.

The word here for proclaimed is the Greek word kairouso.

Kairouso is something more than just preaching, though preaching does include it, but it's something more.

You see, when Jesus was at the temple teaching and preaching, the word there for preaching was euangelizo,

meaning good news.

But proclamation here, he was proclaimed, says Paul.

It has more the sense of official pronouncement, of a public, of a verbal

declaration in a formal sense.

Now that proclamation was then, still today must be

indiscriminate.

The spirit we know, he moves as he will.

That's what John 3, 8 tells us.

It is he, the spirit, who opens heart by transforming souls.

The Holy Spirit is the agent of conversion.

Throughout the book of Acts, it is he, the spirit, who uses the proclamation of the gospel to save sinners.

It is he who saves those who are appointed to eternal life.

That's Acts chapter 18, excuse me, 13, 38.

But only he, only the spirit of God knows who those are, so what do we do?

We preach to whoever we can.

We declare to whoever comes into this place.

We proclaim indiscriminately, confessing we have no knowledge who God has

predestined and who the Holy Spirit will touch at any particular time.

Using any particular word from the scripture, we proclaim

his word to whomever.

With the hymn, we say we know not how the spirit moves, convincing men of sin,

but we do proclaim it.

He's proclaimed in the world, his death, his burial, his resurrection, in short, the

gospel.

He was believed on in the world.

That's the fifth line of this.

The second of the three in the last half of this hymn, the fifth

overall line, he was believed on in the world.

In the sphere in which he was manifested as a man, the world, the message was believed.

Some believed the foolishness of this preaching of the cross.

Some hearts were changed by the Holy Spirit of God to receive this message.

He was believed on in the world.

There's a distinction we can make here.

The message of the cross must be believed.

That's true.

But the subject of believed here, of the verb believed, is not so much the

message as it is the person of the message, who is Jesus Christ.

He was believed on in the world.

His person.

The church is the pillar and buttress of this gospel, of the truth of this gospel.

And so our gospel must be what Paul, early in this letter, says with a trustworthy saying.

Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

May it be him that we proclaim.

May he be the one we lead men to that they might be saved.

Because there's no other name given to men under heaven by which they must be saved.

It's him that we proclaim.

It's him that we bring men to.

Not our message.

Not our eloquence.

Not our ear -tickling accessibility.

But to the person that we must proclaim, which is Jesus Christ.

And him alone.

And finally, he was taken up in glory.

Now this could be his resurrection.

This could be his return to the father by his ascension.

Could refer to both, which is what I think it is.

He was glorified when he was raised from the dead.

He was glorified when he went back to heaven on a cloud.

And now he sits in glory at the father's right hand.

So there it is, really.

That's our hymn.

One verse, 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16.

It's six lines divided into three, excuse me, into two three -line stanzas.

It's a hymn that brings glory to Jesus Christ.

It's a hymn that recounts his person and his work.

It's a hymn that speaks of his true humanity as eternal deity.

And it's a hymn that serves a purpose.

It gives us the theology that must stand behind our character.

It tells us why godliness must be the rule of the church, of its members

individually, and us as a whole, as a unified body.

That's Paul's purpose here.

So that Timothy would know why he must proclaim this message of godly

character in the church.

The hymn is the motivation behind it.

The hymn is the theology behind it.

So with this hymn unpacked just a bit, I want us to take a quick look at the situation

to which this letter was written.

It's very likely that it came just a couple of years after the letter to the Ephesians was written.

And if you read 1 Timothy, you might notice something.

This church is a mess.

This church is a mess.

You read through 1 Timothy, do it tonight at home, and you're gonna see that they had almost as many problems as Corinth.

We like to look at 1 Corinthians and just, we almost take it as humorous how many

problems that church had.

Look at 1 Timothy tonight.

And consider all the things that Paul corrects.

And all the things that this hymn is a theological motivation for

their improvement.

Now on a whirlwind tour, because we're not gonna go through these in detail, but just hear these.

In this book, 1 Timothy 1, 3, 1 Timothy 1 in chapter 1 verse 3,

Timothy is given a charge to stop certain known persons from teaching

doctrines other than what the apostle had invested in them.

Verse 1, 3, As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you

may charge certain persons, certain persons, Timothy, who you know.

I've mentioned them to you before maybe.

We know who they are.

Certain, distinct, known persons, not to teach any other doctrine, nor

devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than

stewardship from God that is by faith.

Verse 1, 6 refers again to certain persons who had wandered into vain discussions, who wanted to teach things that

they couldn't understand, having to do with the law.

They want to teach the law, they're teaching things they know nothing about.

Timothy, you need to stop them.

This can't go on.

In chapter 2 verses 1 through 7, they're told to pray for rulers so that they could be allowed to live peaceably.

And I might see sort of shadowing behind that charge to Timothy the fact that they are

not living peaceably.

And I can almost hear the apostle Paul saying, you get these people, calm down.

Not only should they live peaceably, they should pray for those rulers, those pagan rulers,

that they should be allowed to live this way and be able to continue like that.

In verse 8 of chapter 2, I'll read this to you.

I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or

quarreling.

Imagine, Paul has to tell Timothy to remind these men who are worshiping together

in the household of the living God that when they pray, they shouldn't be

quarreling or clamoring against each other.

Chapter 2 verses 9 through 11, the women are rebuked for their immodesty.

Remember, this is in the house of God.

Chapter 2 verses 12 to 13 speaks of the women usurping the male authority, and that has to be tamped

down.

Chapter 3 verses 1 through 13 is the qualifications of pastors and deacons.

Now, we can stop for a moment.

Ask yourself, why is this here?

Wouldn't it have made sense to put some more detail in Acts chapter 6 where the first deacons were named?

Why are there 13 verses divided about in half between how to choose pastor

slash elder and how to choose deacons?

It seems to me that this instruction is here in this book where

all these problems are being corrected because this church had raised up the wrong kind of men.

This church was indiscriminately raising men, perhaps being respecter of persons, maybe taking the one who dressed better, the one who had more

money, the one who was more impressive outside the church and so had more status, this sort of thing.

Are not these the sort of things that Paul argues against in this very book?

Chapter 5 verses 1 through 2 demand that respect be shown to the elderly.

Implying that respect and good manners were lacking.

Chapter 3 verses 3 through 16, it rains in the young widows who took advantage of the church's generosity

all the while castigating relatives who wouldn't step in and help their own flesh and blood.

Well, there's more, but I think you can take my point.

The church in Ephesus was in major need of a reboot,

a major tune -up.

There were some adjustments they needed to make.

And this hymn, this hymn right in the middle of all these instructions,

this is the basis for it.

Why should we live godly?

Why must we conduct ourselves in a certain manner, in a godly manner?

Because of the household of the living God.

Why must you know the truth that I'm preaching to you so you can discern if I'm preaching it to you rightly?

Because we together are the pillar and the buttress of the truth of the gospel

that God has invested in us.

And then there's this church with all its problems.

I think as many problems as the Corinthians seem to have had.

Paul left young Timothy, though he may not have been as young as is often thought.

He left him at this church in Ephesus to get things in order.

The hymn of 3 .16 with his introduction in 3 .14 and 3 .15, this is the

motivating basis for their submission to Paul's apostolic authority wielded by his protege, Timothy.

What it called them to, what it calls us to is godliness

in the house of God.

And this idea of godliness in the house of God is a prevalent theme in 1 Timothy.

The word means recognition of dependence on God.

The tribute of homage rendered in the certainty that man needs his favor.

Manifest in conduct and in conversation, in sacrifice and prayer.

It embraces the confession of the one true God and life that corresponds to this knowledge.

There's a long definition of godliness.

I'll read it to you one more time and I'll read it a little bit slower.

Godliness is the recognition of our dependence on God.

It's our tribute of homage rendered in the certainty, in our certainty

that we need his favor.

And this certainty is manifest by us in our conduct, in our conversation, in our

sacrifice, in our prayer.

It embraces the confession of the one true God and life that corresponds to this

knowledge.

You see how this definition includes not just while we're here together at Providence Church on Sunday morning.

Our whole life is encompassed by this idea of godliness.

The word actually comes down to meaning etymologically if you take it apart.

It means good or right worship.

And this idea of godliness comes up throughout this letter.

Chapter two, verse two.

Pray that we might lead a peaceful and quietly life, godly and dignified in every way.

Chapter three, verse 16, we've covered.

It's the mystery of godliness.

Chapter four, verses seven and eight.

Train yourself for godliness.

For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise

for the present life and also for the life to come.

Chapter six, verses three and five.

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, and does not this warning tell you that there are many preaching

and teaching something different there at Ephesus?

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, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth,

imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

The next verse.

Now there's great gain in godliness with contentment.

Chapter six, verse 11.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith,

love, steadfastness, gentleness.

Well, can we do this?

Can we be godly like this in the house of the living God, where we

together are the pillar and the buttress of the truth of the gospel of God in

his son, Jesus Christ?

Can we do this here?

Be upright in our speech, our talk, our conversation.

Have a right respect for authority, for our elders.

To do nothing out of conceit.

Are we able to do this in our homes, our workplaces, in our cars?

Can we do this when we're arguing with our husband or wife?

Well, Jesus said, what is impossible with men is possible with God, for nothing will be impossible with

God.

Zechariah 4, 6 says, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord of hosts.

It's repentance for sin that makes, that gives, repentance for sin and faith in Jesus Christ

and the Holy Spirit of God who makes us able to do this.

Are we able to conduct ourselves rightly in the house of the living God and be that pillar and

buttress of the truth?

It's not just the way we speak and the things that we say.

It's the heart behind them.

It's not just what we do in the outward body.

Where does God look?

God looks to the heart.

And what does he expect here?

Right worship, godliness, a complete submission to

his will that we conduct ourselves rightly in his house, which is here in this place.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Lord God, Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the day again that you've given us and for this

instruction to Timothy so long ago that still instructs and constrains us.

I pray, Father, that we would be a house that honors your name rightly, that we would be that pillar and buttress of

the truth, that we would acknowledge in all that we do and say from our heart to our mouths

and to all our actions that this is the household of the one true and living God.

In his name we pray.

Amen.