Sept. 10, 2017 PM Service Character Matters by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Character Matters in 1 Timothy 6

In 1 Timothy 6, as we have been these past several weeks, a few months actually, in these afternoon services. 1 Timothy 6. Now my text is going to be verses 5 through 10, but I'm going to begin with the last half of verse 2, and so we're going to cover some of the same ground in the reading that we covered last week in the preaching, but this will help us to remind ourselves of the overall context and how we're getting to where we are this afternoon.

So 1 Timothy 6, beginning with the last part of verse 2, this instruction from the Apostle Paul to young Timothy, teach and urge these things. 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, 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 of mind and deprived of the truth.

And here begins our text for this afternoon, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world, but if we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content.

But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.

It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.". That's the word of the Lord from the Apostle, from the Lord to the Apostle, from the Apostle to Timothy and from the Spirit of God who preserves this word to us this morning.

You know you can be ruined by heeding the teaching of men whose character does not match up with the gospel that they preach. It can be ruinous not just to the church, which it can be, but to you personally and individually.

And so much of that is what Pastor Mike preached to us this morning, is it not? The importance of hearing the true gospel, hearing the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. The message this morning is not too much different from that in a lot of ways, but what the Apostle Paul is telling Timothy here, what this scripture is telling us today 2 ,000 years later, is that character matters.

It matters desperately. The character of the men who stand at this pulpit and preach to you this word. I might say presume to preach to you this word. There's not so much a warning against the pitfalls of loving money, and I'm not going to speak very much about the pitfalls of loving money.

Towards the end of this epistle, Timothy will be told to warn those who have much money not to rely on their money, and that's when we'll pick up more of a doctrine of money, and the love of money, and what that causes, and what it means to rely on that rather than God.

We'll talk about money more specifically at that point, and we'll pick this up again from here. This morning, I don't want to talk so much about the pitfalls of loving money, so much as I do the consequences of bad preaching.

And by bad preaching, I don't mean the quality of a man's exposition. Any man, a true man, a true faithful man of the gospel can stand here and make a mistake, can flub up, or cannot even be a good speaker, and yet a true man of God called to shepherd a church.

That's not the kind of bad preaching I mean. I don't mean the quality of exposition. I mean the quality of the man himself. His preaching, you see, his preaching will infect the church, and I could even say preaching will infect, or to put it positively, will flavor the church.

It's often said we get the leaders that we deserve, and there's a lot of truth in that saying. First Timothy, if it's anything to the church today, if it means anything to us here in 2017, it's a countermeasure to the easy believism that is so prevalent today, so often led by pulpiteers who are more interested in their reputation for crowded pews than they are in developing spirit-led Christians, and preaching a message that is true to the sound words and teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ and none other.

There is an exclusivity to it. This letter to Timothy is meant for us all. Notice that back in chapter three, we do not find Paul instructing men to be above reproach, the husband of one wife, and all the rest of that, where he gives the qualifications for your pastors and for your deacons.

What does he say? He tells Timothy to select such men. He says it's like when Peter told the church, go and find seven men of good reputation and full of the Holy Spirit. Don't tell them to become good.

Don't tell them to get full of the Spirit. Don't tell them that. That's not the message. Find men who are of that character. Bring them to us. You, the church of the living God, must choose well and wisely who will be entrusted by you to deliver to you this gospel, this gospel that we preach from this pulpit.

You are told to be sure you know who this man is who stands here and delivers this word to you. Most of you weren't here when I was ordained as the pastor of this church, so you weren't really part of the decision in that way, but you affirmed it when you joined this church.

That's one reason we tell you. We say, what do we have to do to join? And usually my first answer is stay a while. Get to know us. Get to know me. Hear me preach several times. Get to know me well enough to see if my character is one that lives out this gospel that I impose upon you.

It would be true with any man who would ever stand here or at any true gospel church. You see, a church inevitably takes on the flavor of the man or the men who lead it. The personality of your leaders, which is a product of their character, inevitably flows from their teaching and their preaching and their counseling, and so it flavors the church that they serve.

I do need to stop for just a moment. One bit of housekeeping, an excursus. Did the air conditioner get turned off? Did it suddenly warm up in here, or is that just me? It got warm. Would you check the temperature, please?

The Warning Against Unqualified Preachers

The thrust of the passage we have here this morning is a warning. It really is a warning. An unqualified man cannot, mark it well, church, an unqualified man cannot produce in you godliness. His character will ultimately be found out.

We can look back to Numbers 32 -23, which says your sin will find you out. Can we say, by extension, your character will find you out? A man who does not match up to what Paul so stringently insists upon as a gospel preacher, as a pastor, to the people of God, those redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, if his character is not such as what Paul requires, it is impossible for him to produce in you the godliness that he purports.

It's that important. He'd be one who does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose teaching accords with godliness. How can someone who doesn't have this character, someone who, Paul says, disagrees with Jesus, produce in you the image of Jesus?

He's puffed up with conceit. Now, how is that? He thinks he knows better than does the Lord. Greater conceit is never to be found than to prefer your own wisdom to Christ's. He understands nothing, says Paul.

He might be wonderful with rhetoric and logic. He may be able to connect the dots in ways that confound his enemies and amaze his friends, but he disagrees with Jesus, which says everything about his knowledge and any possible outcome of his preaching.

He craves controversy the way a good field general creates diversions. It keeps people's attention on quarrels about words and endless controversies and off of him. What is the product of all this? Paul made it clear.

Envy, dissension, slander. The word for slander is blasphemia, blasphemies. The NIV puts it, malicious talk. He produces evil suspicions. Rather than unity, the unity he promotes or says he promotes, what does he actually produce?

Distrust, constant friction, and all this among people depraved of mind, deprived of the truth. And the original is actually quite a bit stronger. More like constant bickering among men destroyed and utterly spoiled in their mind.

And all this leads me to a question. Why am I here? Not a question for you. Why am I, me, your pastor, Joshua Sheldon, why am I here? Motive is everything. Am I driven by 1 Corinthians 9, 16? For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting, for necessity is laid upon me.

Woe is me if I do not preach the gospel. Is that what drives me to climb these steps every Sunday? Or am I a partner of Balaam, willing to sell his prophecy to the highest bidder? Is Simon the Samaritan sorcerer my example?

I mean, Balaam was executed by Israel for his willingness to sell the sacred. Simon was cursed by Peter for wanting to buy it. And then centuries later, there was Tetzel and indulgence marketing, terrifying vulnerable people into purchasing indulgences, special grants from the Pope, a sort of get out of jail free card.

And by free, I mean, of course, free without Christ. They weren't free of money, they had to buy them, but free of Christ. They sold for money what only Jesus Christ at his cross could provide, as the prophet says, come by wine and milk without money and without price.

Character matters. That's why Paul is so concerned and gives the details here in this letter in the third chapter, which we went over some weeks ago. It really does matter. The description of church leaders to be avoided is at the end of verse five, they're supposing that godliness to be a means of gain.

So we begin this morning's text after reviewing from last week a bit. Supposing godliness be a means for gain, they're in it for the money. Now when we say they're in it for the money, we don't need to, and actually we must not, limit that idea to just wealth.

The word used for means of gain doesn't lend itself to a lot of study because it's only used in a couple of places, and actually in first Timothy 6 .5 and then first Timothy 6 .6, it's the only place we have it.

And even in the extra biblical sources we don't have a lot to go on. Plutarch says of someone he had only two means of gain, there's our word, farming and frugality, and gives us no qualitative or ethical assessment of that.

And then Aesop's fables uses it to speak of a swindling magician. Some men go into the ministry, or into what we should say so-called ministry, to make money, serious money, private jet sort of money.

But just as bad as that is the one whose only aim in being a gospel minister is just to make a living. A pastor should make a living. A pastor should make a good living. We handle that in chapter five with the double honor that's to be conferred upon your pastor, references to the ox sharing in the fruits of its own labor.

It made that very clear. But making a living, even a modest living, making a living cannot be the reason for standing here. It cannot be the sin quo non. If it weren't for the salary, a modest salary even, I wouldn't be here.

That's a disqualifying attitude. So what I'm saying is don't limit this to the big names, and I'm not going to give you a litany of names, that fly around in the jets and drive the fancy cars and stay in the best hotels because they get lots and lots of money from the ministry.

Don't limit it to that. This pulpit does not exist for me to make a living. That's moderated by the fact that if we can let the pastor make a living, he should, but that's not the reason for it. That's not the motive behind it.

There's another word we need to stop and chew on for a moment, and it's that word imagining. He's imagining that godliness is a means of gain. The word itself is often translated suppose or supposing.

Sometimes it's think. Jesus used that word in Matthew 5 17. Do not think, do not suppose, do not imagine that I came to destroy the law. It's that same word. In Acts chapter 7 verse 25, Stephen in that great sermon just before he was stoned to death, he said that Joseph supposed, he imagined, he thought, he supposed his brothers would understand that God would save them by his hand.

So a word means something like to proceed on the basis of something that's not entirely proven by the facts, not well supported by reality. Nothing Jesus said, we have to understand, nothing he said or did ever gave evidence that he was in any way opposed to God's law.

So he could say don't imagine, don't think, don't even start to go down this road that I came to destroy something that God gave. Joseph's brothers, I mean if we read about them in Genesis, they gave Joseph no reason to think that they'd see him as their savior.

So that's a couple of words we need to have there. Gain. Gain is just for the reimbursement. It doesn't have to be huge. And imagining that, supposing that, thinking something and proceeding on the basis of that thought, though it's not grounded in reality.

There's no fact behind it. There's no basis for it. If nothing of those sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, it implies that godliness is to be pursued as any means of gain. We don't need to name names or recite a long list of men who became rich by the gospel.

We cannot pretend to know men's hearts. This letter was written to the church at Ephesus. It was written to us. It is meant for the local church. It is not for us to judge whether this man ought to own a jet or another man should drive an old Chevy or anything like that.

We're simply talking about our pastors. Why are they here? Why are they standing before you? It is up to us. It is up to you. It is up to the church to raise up men of character. Men who can do no other than preach.

Men who would do so without salary rather than overburden a church. Men who would do what we call Paul's tent making in order to sustain a church's viability. In order to fill that one need that they can't live without.

That one thing woes me if I don't what? Preach the gospel. If I don't love the Lord Jesus Christ and live a life that shows that my character reflects him, not perfectly, not better than yours even. But matching up to 1 Timothy 3 and the qualifications woes me if I don't preach the gospel.

Has to be the reason for being here. I'm not saying it's the only reason. Why do I love the people of God? Because I love Jesus Christ. You're all very lovable but I love you because I love the Lord Jesus Christ who bought you with his blood at the cross and he by his spirit founded this church.

1 Corinthians 12 would say that he put you here each one of us exactly as he pleased. So I love the Lord Jesus Christ first and because of him you and nothing else can drive this pulpit. Nothing else can drive this ministry.

Godliness with Contentment Is Great Gain

The next three verses 6, 7, and 8 tell us what should emanate from the pulpit. It would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle to borrow from Jesus than for Amanda the character described in verses 3 to 5 to produce this fruit.

Listen again to these verses. Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment. For we brought nothing into the world we could take nothing and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these we shall be content.

Why can he not produce it? Because he doesn't believe it. No matter what the words are how is the spirit going to use him to give you something that's actually antithetical to what he believes. We all know the situations in the bible where God used ungodly men to rebuke his people.

Those are the exception not the rule. Paul affirms here that godliness is gain adding that it is great it is mega gain and what's added here missing from the unfounded supposition of verse 5 is what? Contentment.

Godliness with contentment is great gain. Now contentment means to have a satisfaction or sufficiency in oneself that is independent of circumstance. Now this doesn't mean that we as Christians are self-satisfied or self-sufficient because we're Christ-satisfied we are Christ-sufficient.

In fact we could say the Christian is self-nothing. We are fully dependent on Christ who is the true vine. He's the only one from whom we the branches can receive any life. Our sustenance is from him and if we take ourselves off of him we have no sustenance.

We are dependent people. We must always attend to Christ in his word because that's where we find in his word that word that is able to save our souls. There we are led in the ways of righteousness. We are led in the ways of life everlasting.

Without the indwelling presence of God by his holy spirit we can as Jesus put it so bluntly do nothing. He doesn't say you can do no good thing. He said you can do nothing and more than that according to first Corinthians 12 Romans 12 the Ephesians 2 metaphor of the church is a building that is growing together by those and many more we are not independent we are dependent on each other.

Each one of us placed here as a particular and needful part of this body each with a particular and needful contribution to make and so far from independent far from a lone wolf sort of life we're totally dependent on each other as Christ Jesus our Lord has put us together.

All that to say if contentment is self-satisfaction and sufficiency that's a technical definition. Don't take it to mean okay I'm not connected to the body anymore because what he's talking about there what is in if all that other stuff is out if all that independence is out what's in a satisfaction in Christ that is so enriching as to afford contentment that cannot be shaken by circumstance.

That's what he's getting at. That's where great gain is to be found. It is a focus on Christ. It's an appreciation of him that transcends all the vagaries of the world. Anything that can be imposed upon you not saying it's easy to go through we're not being unrealistic here but the satisfaction we have in Christ transcends it all.

Like money lovers we have something in common with them don't we? Because Christ lovers like those who love money we can't get enough of what we love. Money can change the value can fluctuate inflation can erode its worth investments can fail and salaries can grow stagnant but the word of the Lord endures forever.

What God has done for us in Christ isn't for just the here and now though it is and the many blessings fall upon us it has to do with eternity. It endures forever and whatever happens in this world whatever happens with our jobs with our bank accounts with our cars with our homes what Christ has done for you the church for us the church is invulnerable to it.

It's the house built on the rock and the storms come. What are the storms? Obviously it's the intrusions of the world upon the godly. What is the house? It's where we are protected from that by Christ and what's the rock which is his word invulnerable to circumstances.

I quoted earlier from Isaiah 55 the next verse says why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me and eat what is good and delight yourselves in rich food.

The psalmist says Christ satisfies the longing soul and the hungry soul he fills with Jesus calls himself the bread of life and promises rest to all who come. Here is a satisfaction so great as to be unmoved by any circumstance.

The false teacher the one who is here for the gain whether great wealth or just a scratch living that motive these cannot leave you reveling in Christ Jesus our Lord and living so securely in him that nothing can intrude.

If we have that what can a circumstance possibly mean? Let me just read through some psalms and a couple of new testament references just go through them very quickly to get the feel of this. Psalm 56 verse 4 in God whose word I praise in God I trust I shall not be afraid.

What can flesh do to me? The same psalm few verses down in God whose word I praise in the Lord whose word I praise in God I trust I shall not be afraid. What can man do to me? Psalm 118 verse 6 repeated also in Hebrews 13 verse 6 the Lord is on my side I will not fear what can man do to me?

Romans 8 32 was that six weeks ago we preached through this one? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all how will he not also with him graciously give us all things and then Jesus himself.

Luke 12 32 fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. First Timothy 6 7 gives us a logical basis for it as we move through this text. For we brought nothing into the world and we could take nothing out of the world.

How hung up are we going to be to use a 21st century kind of word on things that what's going to happen to them? Ultimately they're going to be burned when God recreates everything. What's going to happen to them when we die when the Lord calls us to himself?

The answer is surprisingly simple. We don't know. It won't matter. We leave them here. They're right where they were when we were born. We brought if we have food and clothing with these we will be content to gain by subtraction like so many other things in the Christian life.

Sort of counterintuitive. You want great gain in your investments? Well you put more money into it. You watch the papers. You follow the stock market. You put your money. You transfer it here and there so you get great gain.

But in the Christian life how do we get great gain? By subtraction. By being satisfied with less here and more of Christ. The cares of this world are cast off. They're given to the Lord who cares for you in place of worry is complete satisfaction in Jesus Christ and confidence in his supply.

The barn building fool found satisfaction in the enormous crops his land produced and his answer was to build more and bigger barns so he could store it all. This will satisfy he thought and with this I shall be content and what does Christ say to him?

You fool. This night your soul is required for you and the things you have repaired whose will they be? What's the answer to that? Don't know. Now we know who we sign the papers and the will that they should go to but ultimately they're not with us.

So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. Contentment comes from trust in something. I'm content in the things that I think will accomplish what I want them to accomplish.

I use my truck often as an example. Why am I content with it? Because every time I hit the key the starter whirs and the engine fires to life and when I point that truck somewhere it gets me there. I'm content with it.

It accomplishes what I want it to accomplish. What is contentment in Jesus? Contentment in Jesus is because of what he accomplished. His blood spilled on the cross. We're going to take the communion table in a few minutes.

His blood spill on the cross wasn't just done as an act. It actually happened in time and space in history and it accomplished something. It did something. Why are we content in the Lord Jesus Christ?

Because we know he saved us. We know that the promises of the scripture testified to us by his spirit are real and substantive and true and that the Lord Jesus Christ will do what he promised so we are content in him and while we wait for those promises to be fulfilled we are content in him because even now while we wait for him to return he does what he promised.

He speaks to us by his spirit. He reminds us by his spirit that we are his children. He tells us in his scripture which his spirit speaks to us and tells us is true. Every word of it, every jot and tittle will be fulfilled.

That our inheritance is Christ himself. That we will see him as he is. This, brothers and sisters, this is contentment. This is a satisfaction that the world cannot disrupt. All the things that happen to us are hard.

They're terribly hard and they drive us God willing to our knees in prayer before God and God doesn't say, what are you worried about? So you're losing your job and your house is collapsed and your car broke down.

What's your problem? No, God doesn't speak to us that way. We have a merciful high priest in Christ Jesus our Lord. He doesn't speak to us like that. He knows how hard it is and yet if we follow what Paul says in 1st Timothy 6, the godliness, striving after the image of Christ, knowing that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

He is working in you now. He is accomplishing his will. It is he who works in you to will and to do for his good pleasure. That's contentment. That's great gain. And how do we manifest this great gain?

By subtraction. By being less concerned with this stuff and this life and these worries and these concerns. Now we still work. We provide for our families. Our wives keep our homes beautiful and orderly for us.

We do what we are to do in this life in the here and now and yet we lose our grip on it more and more. That's godliness with great contentment. That's godliness with contentment. That is great gain. I didn't leave myself time and I'm not going to force in the last couple of verses.

Lord willing, we will be here again next Sunday afternoon and we'll pick those up again. The character matters and this is not your pastor standing up there here and telling you what a great character I am or how great character I have.

This is telling you as I've been saying all through this book of 1st Timothy that the book is written to you and to me. To me telling me how I'm to manage the church, what I'm to do, how things are to be orderly here and to you to know what I'm responsible to give to you.

There's a two-way communication in this letter that God by his spirit has preserved for all these centuries for us. Character matters because what I preach to you, anyone I allow to this pulpit would preach to you.

My dear friend Pastor Kelly this morning preached to you the gospel. He pushed us towards what? Towards godliness, towards trusting Christ, towards being more in his image, to doing what he says, to relying on him more and more.

That's the goal of this ministry and this place. Character matters. Church will ultimately take on in some way the personality as much as we try to take our personality out of it. It will take it on in some way and that's why we have to be careful about this.

That's why Paul spends so much time warning Timothy of the dire consequences of otherwise. So let's just pray that as we go through this letter we see our mutual responsibilities. How I am to behave towards you and how you are to hold me accountable in this gospel that we must preach from this place.

Amen. We prepare for the table.