 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. Thank you, brother. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, we acknowledge the authority of your word and we joyfully God submit ourselves under that authority. Praise you, God. Thank you for revealing your word to us. I pray that you would attend the preaching of your word with your spirit. God enable us by your spirit to apply these truths to our heart and live for you by them. God, that you'd be glorified in this. There's anyone here, Lord, that isn't saved? I pray, Lord, that you would crush them over their sin or that you would show them the excellencies of Christ and save them for your worship and for your praise. I thank you, Lord, for this time of study. Pray that you'd be pleased in it in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Sermon title is Building an Effective Personal Ministry. Building an Effective Personal Ministry. And we have been working through steadily, slowly but surely, through this paragraph, 1 Timothy chapter four, verses 12 to 16, this is a power-packed paragraph. There's a lot in it. And today, I believe that we're gonna finish this paragraph. We've got a lot of ground to cover, and I talk fast already, so you're gonna have to listen quick. I would encourage you, as if you're taking notes, that you would evangelize a court stenographer or evangelize someone who knows shorthand so that you can have someone take notes for you if you like. We just have a lot of ground to cover, and there's just a lot in this paragraph. It's a wonderful, wonderful paragraph of Scripture, and it has been a joy for me. I hope it's been a joy to you to work through this and a blessing to you. The Bible says, Paul says to Timothy here in this paragraph, 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, and 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. Dr. Howard Hendricks, many of you may recognize that name, tells a story about the time that he saw a young reporter interview Bud Wilkinson. At that time, Bud Wilkinson was the head football coach at Oklahoma, and so the reporter enthusiastically asked, Coach Wilkinson, tell us what contribution collegiate football has made toward physical fitness in America, that time as it is today. There's a big fitness craze going on. And so he was stunned when Wilkinson replied to him, I don't believe that football has made any contribution to physical fitness in America. So what do you mean? Ask the dumbfounded reporter. I define football, replied Wilkinson, as 22 men on the field desperately needing rest and 50,000 people in the stands desperately needing exercise. But then Wilkinson followed that statement up with what a description of the local church today. I think about that for a moment, that's a tragic description, that's a sad description, but also we have to concede that it is largely today a true description. Now that's of the professing church. We need to put that qualifier in there. The true church of Jesus Christ made up of genuinely saved believers is a working, thriving, healthy, working, laboring, striving church. These are professing churches. And many professing Christians who attend church today really attend as no more than a glorified spectator. And if you were to watch college football on a Saturday, you'll find that most of the spectators in those stands watching a football game are far more zealous for their cause than most professing Christians are today for theirs. We cannot allow this mindset to prevail. As we've been working through the paragraph verses six through 11 and now from 12 to 16 here in 1st Timothy chapter four, you've got to allow the word of God to inform your understanding of this and to change your thinking, okay? We can, we can come to a text like this and we can listen to the high standard here commanded by Paul, commanded by the Lord. And we can think to ourselves, yeah, yeah, yeah, I got it. I got it, I got it, I got it. You know, we've been listening to three and four exhortations about wholehearted and giving ourselves in time. I got it, I got it. And go on about our lives. It's like, no, no, no, wait a minute. Let it sink in, allow it to change your thinking and then allow it to change your life. The Christian life is a work of ministry. It is a whole sold, wholehearted investment in the work of Christ. Every Christian, God's word clearly commands that every Christian is involved in the work of the ministry and oftentimes in churches today, that's not a popular thing to preach. And in many cases in a vast majority of churches, you come to church and the purpose of the sermon maybe is just to make you feel good before you walk out. It's not what we're gonna do here. We're gonna speak the truth out of God's word and you should feel, as I do studying this, you should feel convicted. You should feel motivated, charged up to work and to serve the Lord in the way that the Lord has commanded, the way that the Lord has charged. And here we have a very high standard being called for. There is no special class in Christianity called the clergy. We are all saved into full-time ministry. We've all been given God-given gifts that we are to employ in the work of the ministry and we need to fulfill the ministry. We need to build into our lives an effective personal ministry for the Lord. And that's what's being commanded here certainly to Timothy, but also to everyone who's a Christian. And the scripture is very clear on that. As Paul says to Timothy in chapter one, verse 18, this charge I commit to you, son Timothy, I entrust you with this charge, Timothy. And then the Lord says to you through the pages of scripture, when he saves you into his body, he says, this charge I commit to you. I entrust to you, Jack. I entrust to you, Jay. I entrust to you, Josue. I entrust to you, Brian. He entrusts it to us. He entrusts us. He gives us the stewardship of having a ministry among God's people and among the lost for him. Every Christian is charged with having a personal ministry. You need to understand that this is not optional. This is not something that you volunteer for. The Lord isn't calling volunteers. We are, as the Bible describes, slaves, bondservants of Jesus Christ. Now, for the Christian, this is not a burden. It's not burdensome, it's a joy. For the Christian with a new heart and the spirit of God and dwelling them, this is a joy to enter into that labor for the Lord. But certainly, as much as it is a joy, it will be the priority of a Christian's life. In 2 Timothy, chapter two, verse four, Paul says this, no one engaged in this warfare, and see how he describes it. Describes it there as warfare. No one engaged in this warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. In other words, we have temporal things that we're involved in in this life, but all of them are a part of our ministry to the Lord. We're not to be entangled with earthly mindedness, if you will, we're to be entangled with heavenly mindedness. We're to be entangled with the affairs of the life which is to come and serve the Lord in that respect. In Romans chapter 12, verse two, the Bible says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. You are dead for Christ while you live. I have left this world behind and I am serving my Lord until he calls me home, right? We are to be a living sacrifice. It goes on to say, holy, acceptable to God, which is your exceptional service. So what it says? No, no, no, which is your reasonable service. It's just your duty to do. And in thinking about that, just your reasonable service, remember Christ in Luke 17.10, where Jesus says when you have done everything you were told to do, you should say we are unprofitable servants. We have only done what was our duty to do. That's the Christian life and the Christian service. So why? Now why would you commit your life? Why would you invest yourself so wholeheartedly, so whole sold in this hard work of the ministry? Well, and one answer to that question is because the Lord has commanded it. And is that reason enough? Amen, that's reason enough. The Lord says it, and so I do it. And that settles it, right? But there are many glorious reasons. We'll talk about those as we work through this passage. If you're a Christian, the great driving desire of your heart is to live in a way that is well pleasing to him. So live in a way that is well pleasing to him. If you're lost, you've never been born again. If you've never been given a new heart in Christ, then the fruit of that will be evident in your life. You'll obey your excuses more than you will obey the Lord. That fruit will be evident. You obey to look good on the outside, in front of men. But on the inside, you're full of dead men's bones. There's no real love or affection or zeal for Christ in the heart. And we're gonna look at some other great and glorious reasons to devote yourself to this as we work through the text. The Bible teaches that we must build an effective personal ministry. As we've said, the components of this are very basic, but very profound, and we are to invest ourselves in them. One, we got from verse 12, that we are to maintain an exemplary life. He says to Timothy, let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word and conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity. Unless we forget, this is a command, an imperative command from Paul to Timothy and down through the ages to us. Our second point was that we are to devote ourselves to scripture. We saw that in verse 13, till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, another imperative command. Point three, we've all been given gifts when we were saved into the body. We are to employ those gifts and cultivate our God-given gifts for the work of the ministry. We see that in verse 14. Don't neglect the gift that is in you, which was given you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership. That's not normative today. When the Lord saves you, he, especially and purposefully, very sovereignly and providentially, gives you gifts by which you will serve the body of Christ in a miraculous, very specific way, such that if you don't employ your gifts, some work or some person is being neglected. We're not to neglect our gift. But today, point four on your notes, this ministry, we are to pursue with uncompromising devotion and we see that in verse 15. Here, Paul says to Timothy, meditate on these things. Give yourself entirely to them that your progress may be evident to all. So first now, the uncompromising devotion commanded in verse 15 is to be given to these things. And we see these things throughout scripture. Certainly, that these things refers to everything in this letter to Timothy, everything that Paul's talked about. Certainly for us today, that these things is everything written in the Word of God. We are to give ourselves entirely to these things. But now we see that these things in several places, even here, within our own context. Look at chapter three, just one page over. Look at verse 14. These things, Paul says, I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly. Look at chapter four, verse six. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ. Down in verse 11, these things command and teach. And here in our context, meditate on these things. Paul uses that often. Here, certainly, everything to do with this letter, but specifically now, these things being referred to are those things that we see here in this paragraph from verses 12 to 16. We are to be devoted to, in an uncompromising way, the building blocks that we see in verses 12 to 16 of building an effective personal ministry. We're to be devoted to being an example. Means we've got to be devoted to our personal life, our character. We've got to be devoted to holy living. We're to be devoted to giving attention to the reading, to exhortation, to doctrine, to be invested in the Word of God. And then third, we are to be devoted to employing our gifts in the work of the ministry. We are to meditate on these things, give ourselves entirely to them. So we're to pursue with uncompromising devotion these things. Now, the uncompromising devotion commanded here in verse 15 is described from two perspectives. We also see this as a good communication device that's used throughout Scripture as a way of emphasizing something. So if you really want to emphasize something or you want to make a strong point, you want to press it upon your hearer if you want to give it weight, right? You want to lend importance to a statement or stress it, see what I'm doing? That's what Paul is doing here. He's lending emphasis, he's stressing the point by looking at it from two different perspectives. He uses two strongly word imperative commands to do that, to describe the level of devotion that is required here. One, meditate on these things. Melatao is the word. It means to practice, to take pains with, to keep thinking about. Now we think of, we hear the word meditating, we think of meditating as just thinking about, we just, you know, it's just, right, right. But this word in Greek doesn't carry the sense of simply thinking about it. It means taking action. You ponder it, you keep it in your mind, but while it's in your mind, you take action on it. You actually practice it. So now think about it for a moment. You study, you ponder, all right? You use all of your mental capacity, your concentration, and then you think about these things, the these things Paul is talking about. With that, if you will, isn't there, if we're gonna put this into action, there's a planning that's going on. There's a strategizing, there's a thinking through how I'm going to do this, how I'm gonna implement this, how this is gonna work out. This is not flying by the seat of your pants. This is a working it out in your head so that I can implement it in my ministry. When it says meditate on these things, this is the sense that this clause carries. We're not just to think about it, we're to plan. We're to strategize, we're to work it out and then we're to put it into practice and we're to live it. When it says meditate on these things, that's what it's communicating here. Now, this is present active, which means it's an ongoing continuous action. It's a habit of your life. It's just a way of life to you. You meditate, you think, you ponder, you concentrate on these things and then you plan and you strategize and you put them into action as a habit of your life. That's what's being commanded, that you go to work on it. And that, if you will, goes back to that continuous athletic imagery, doesn't it, that we talked about in verses six through 11, that Christian athleticism of putting these things into place. So, you think, you strategize, how do I become a good example on the job? What can I do? How can I be intentional in my evangelism to make sure that I'm being faithful to the Lord with a great commission? How can I work daily devotions into my life such that I'm consistent with those? How do I raise up my kids in the nurture and admonition of the Lord? How do I edify my wife, edify my husband? How do I do these things? And it's often, right, can't we get into a habit or get into a rut where we sort of just get caught up in the flow of life and we don't think about these things. We don't ponder how we're going to serve the Lord. We don't put those things into practice because we don't think deeply about them. And many times you can see it today all over the place, can't you? That the Christian life for most professing Christians is just, okay, well, I show up on Sunday morning at 11. That's not the Christian life. That is unbiblical. It's not what the Christian life is because we are to think and ponder and concentrate. We have a ministry that the Lord has saved us to that we're to put into practice. So again, meditate on these things, plan, strategize, work it out, I've often heard. There's a lot to be done in there. Ministry's hard work. How do I get all this done with the time that I've got? You gotta think through it, plan, strategize. How can I work this out so that I'm faithful to the Lord? While you're doing that, you know that the Lord does not pit family against ministry or ministry against your husband or your wife or your husband or wife against evangelism. Those things aren't pitted against each other. They're together. We're to be faithful in all of these things. And so it takes concentration. It takes working it out. It takes planning. It takes scheduling. It takes self-discipline. It takes hard work. But that's what we're to do. And that's the ministry. So what does this look like in a practical way? The second perspective here that Paul gives, he says at the end of verse 15, he says, giving yourself partially to them. So he says, no, giving yourself mostly to them. No, giving yourself entirely to them. This is all over scripture, isn't it? Sometimes feel like a broken record. We come back to the same points. Praise God for that. Because sometimes I feel like I have a three-foot mound of concrete in my head that someone's got to drill before I get the point, you know? So the Lord is very gracious at reminding and reminding and reminding and reminding because sometimes even thick-headed guys like me will finally get it. The Lord reminds us of this on a regular basis. We are to give ourselves entirely to these things. So once again, we're back to whole-sold commitment. All your mind, all your strength, all your soul, all the time, right? Full immersion. It's literally in the Greek here, what it's saying is in them in these things, you be is what it says. We're to be in them. That's giving yourself entirely to them. It's another present active, which means a continuous way of life. These things, in a sense, are to be as frontlets between your eyes, constantly thinking, constantly worked out. As one commentator said, as a fish is made for water, as a bird is made for the sky, as a worm for the earth, we are to be in them. It's like the Lord just takes you and submerses you in water, you're wet. You're just in it. We're to be in these things all the time. Now it's easy, isn't it? To think of a full-time pastor as being in them entirely all the time. But this is not just for the full-time pastor. Remember, there is no clergy split, different classes of Christians. We're all in full-time ministry. This has application for all of us. And so when it says we're to be entirely given to them and entirely in them, think about it. You have a ministry on your job. When you go to work, you're a Christian. You may go to work to be an engineer. You may go to work to be a teacher. You may go to work to be whatever, but you're a Christian first and an engineer second. You're a Christian first and a teacher second. You have a ministry on the job. And that ministry is to be an excellent example, excellent example of a Christian. To serve the Lord on the job by doing everything as unto the Lord. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God, right? So you have a ministry on that job. Whatever the Lord has you doing, you are the Lord's workman. You're the Lord's testimony. You're the Lord's example. You have a ministry at your home. You've been given stewardship of your family, stewardship of your husband, stewardship of your wife, stewardship of your kids. You have a ministry at your home to serve the Lord and do all to the glory of God as it pertains to your kids, as it pertains to your spouse. You're to serve the Lord with your finances. You've been given a stewardship over how you spend your resources. You've been entrusted to be the Lord's workman when you go to school. How do you approach your classes, your classwork? Are you doing that to the glory of God? It's not the teacher, ultimately, that you're working for. You're in ministry for the Lord and in your classwork, you're working for the Lord. And you're in ministry for that. The Christian, and listen, every Christian, this is not some other class. I know we're inundated in this country, inundated around the world with other examples that aren't this standard. But listen, they're unbiblical. This is the Christian. The Christian is to be single-minded in their devotion to the Lord. Not double-minded, as James says in chapter one, unstable in all his ways, but single-minded. And you can see what this would look like in a man who is in the role of a pastor, like young Timothy here. But you should also be able to see what this looks like in the life of a Christian who has an effective personal ministry for the Lord. And that's what we're to do. See your work as a ministry for the Lord and be a great example. You're to be absorbed with the word of God in personal study, in your thought. You're to meditate on these things. You're to pray without ceasing, as Paul says. In constant communion with the Lord about everything that goes on in your life. And that has to be cultivated and worked out. You need to be always evangelizing. Scripture clearly says that we're to share the gospel with every creature. We're always to be teaching, always exhorting, always discipling our wife or kids, lost neighbor, a co-worker, family, friends. We're to be heavenly minded with a heavenly perspective, not earthly minded. As you go about your work, your job, and home, at school, wherever, we're to have an eternal perspective. We're to have a heavenly perspective on those things. Always looking at those things through the filter of God's sovereignty and God's providence. Knowing that the Lord, even through difficulty, is working all things out for our good. It's just that constant heavenly mindedness. We're to have an eternal perspective. Always, always, always on the job. And what is on the job? It's ministry for the Lord. That's what you've been saved to, always on the job. Even rest is seen as a blessing from God, isn't it? That you can worship and praise Him for. We took a little vacation, praise you, God, thank you. It just doesn't need, rest, you know. All of that is a worthy motivation for worship, motivation for praise, always on the job. In other words, as a Christian, and it's important to understand, you can't compartmentalize your Christian life. On Monday through Friday, from eight to five, I'm an engineer. On Tuesday and Thursday, at night, I'm a student. And on Sunday, from 11th to 12th, I'm a Christian. You can't compartmentalize our Christian life that way. It's just not as the Bible intends it. You cannot be a worker during the day, a TV junkie at night, a husband some of the time, and a Christian one day a week. A Christian is full-time ministry, 24-7, 365 days out of the year, right? And if you're a Christian, this is a joy. Now, let me ask you, a Christian's in the room, with a little Christian experience under your belt. Have you ever had a week where, man, you are just firing on all cylinders? You feel like when you're praying, the God is right there. That you're witnessing every time you get a chance. The witness, that your devotions have been so soul-enriching. You feel like you'll never sin again. You've had such victory over sin that week. It's just like, man, it's been a great week in the Lord. Have you had a week like that before? Yeah, right? We are most happy, most content, most enriched when we are fully invested like that in the Lord's work, aren't we? And aren't you most miserable, most discontented, most discouraged, most downtrodden when you are being overrun by your sin or overrun by the world? This is for our good. This is a standard that we're to attain to. J.C. Ryle said this, to have this clear conscience, you gotta understand that kind of life leads to a pure, clean, clear conscience with the Lord. To have this clear conscience is clearly bound up with high aims, high motives, a high standard of ministerial life and practice. I am quite sure, he says, that the more we give ourselves wholly to the work of ministry, the more inward happiness, the greater sense of the light of God's countenance are we likely to enjoy. Aren't you thankful that the Lord has given us a high standard? God says, you know what? Don't worry about it, just do the best you can. You know, send it up over here if you want to. I know it's hard. No, the Lord gives us a high standard and we are to press on and attain to that standard. It's not perfection, but it's certainly better be the direction of your life if you're a Christian. And it's supposed to be hard work. It's supposed to take diligent effort. It's supposed to require of us strenuous self-discipline. It's supposed to be a high standard. There's a great example of this that I want you to see. Turn with me to Philippians chapter two. Philippians chapter two. And I love this. The example in Philippians chapter two of Epaphroditus. I tell you, you know, the old Western notion of when I go out in a blaze of glory and Christians can attest to that and say, amen, I don't go out serving the Lord in a blaze of glory, guns firing, you know? Charging hell with a squirt gun and working for the Lord and seeing somebody save, you know? Just went up, went with the Lord to wear us out. And here we see an example of that with Epaphroditus. That we're to be working. And the Lord gives us many examples. But I love this in Philippians chapter two. Look down in verse 25, verse 25. Here Paul says of Epaphroditus, I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier. Gotta get that thinking into our heads. The Christian life is a life of a soldier. It is a warfare. It's a battle. We're to be engaged in. It's a life and death struggle, okay? Fellow soldier. But he says, but your messenger and the one who ministered to my need since he was longing for you. Listen to the heart of this brother. He was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. So here's Epaphroditus. He's distressed because they are distressed that he's sick. It's like he's concerned about them being concerned about him. He's a great brother. Verse 27, for indeed he was sick, almost unto death, but God had mercy on him and not only on him, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. This brother was valuable to the work. Don't you want to be valuable to the Lord and the work? God, please use us in that way. I want to be valuable in the work. It's like, remember the old phrase and I can't remember who said it off and off my head, but when my feet hit the ground in the morning, I want Satan to know. It's like, I want to be so enwrapped in the work, man, and charging the kingdom of darkness that Satan knows who you are, you know? It says in verse 28, therefore I sent him the more eagerly that when you see him again, you may rejoice and I may be less sorrowful. Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness and hold such men in esteem. Well, that's true, right? Those brothers, those sisters that just faithfully serve the Lord, we should hold them in esteem. They're faithful examples. It points back to that issue that Paul mentions to Timothy in verse 12 that we're to be an example, we're to be an example. He goes on to say here, because for the work of Christ, he came close to death, not regarding his life in order to supply what was lacking in your service toward me. Well, that is a faithful ministry for the Lord to the point of death. And you know, lest we talk to cavalierly about these things, we see certainly many examples in scripture, but many examples throughout church history of just that, the brothers and sisters. Just like you, you know, James makes a comment that there's a spirit in you, just like a spirit of Elijah. Elijah was a man, just like you are. And yet Elijah prayed and the Lord shut up the heavens from rain for three years. You, just like Elijah, are a man. You, just like those in Hebrews 11 that the world is not worthy of, you know, that those throughout church history who went to the stake to die for the scripture, to die for the truth of God's word, to die to see sinners saved. We're in a war and we're in a ministry and we're to give ourselves entirely. Would you give yourself entirely if it meant that you went to the stake for the truth of God? If you went to jail, time's coming. I read an article last week where a brother was talking about religious liberty and he was talking to a group, an apostate group, a false group, a heretical group, and he said, listen, we may not go to heaven together, but we may go to jail together. Those days are coming. Will you take a stand? Will you invest yourself entirely in these things? It may look like a high standard. And many, when they look at a high standard, they think to themselves that, okay, the standard is just too unattainable. It's just too lofty, it's too high for me. And so they use the loftiness of the standard and their own inability as a way to excuse not trying at all, as a way to excuse sin. And let me exhort you, you cannot find in scripture any excuse for sin. It becomes an excuse for why they don't just obey the straightforward commands of the Lord. You're to obey. You're to obey and you're to obey from the heart. The standard that is set here is sure to give yourself entirely, entirely. That is the standard. You really must be all in. And if you're not all in, you're not in. There is no half-hearted class of Christians. Carnal Christianity is a heresy. There is no half-hearted Christian. And we've talked about this before, but there is no middle ground. Please understand. In scripture, people are described as saved or lost. People will go to heaven or people will go to hell. There is God's way and there is every other way. There are children of the devil and then there are sons and daughters of the kingdom. There are good fish and bad fish, wheat and tares. There are wise virgins and foolish virgins. In other words, there are true Christians and there are false Christians. There is good fruit and there is bad fruit. There were trees in the garden that were allowed and there was a tree that was forbidden. There is life and death, dark and light. There is true and false. There is wisdom and foolishness. There is the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan. There is eternal life and there is destruction. There are those who gather with him and those who scatter abroad. There was Mount Gerizim, the Mount of Blessing and Mount Ebel, the Mount of Cursing. There are those who are lost, who are of the world and those who are saved, who are merely in the world for now. You are reconciled to God or you are an enemy of God by your wicked works. There are those who live on the rock and those that have built their life on nothing more than sand. There are those that merely say, Lord, Lord and there are those who do the will of the Father who will be saved. There is a narrow road and there is a broad road. There are those who shrink back to perdition and there are those who persevere to the end and are saved. There is one name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved. There is one mediator between God and men. There is one way, one truth, one life. There is no middle ground, right? If you are God's people, then you are a people of one thing. One thing that is ministry for the Lord. Christ said, no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Christ said, come and follow me. So one responded, first let me go bury my father. He said, let the dead bury their own dead. You come and preach the kingdom. This is a people of one thing, wholehearted commitment. Isn't that what being a Christian is from the pages of scripture? First John chapter three verse seven begins this way. He says, little children, let no one deceive you. Please don't let anyone deceive you. Hear the word of God on this issue. He who makes an ongoing habit or practice or way of life that is righteous is righteous just as he is righteous. But he who makes an ongoing habit or a practice or a way of life that is sin is of the devil because the devil is sin from the beginning. Whoever has been born of God does not make a practice of sin for God's seed remains in him and he cannot make a practice of sin because he has been born of God. In modern evangelicalism, when by and large churches and preachers boil down or water down the gospel taking the miracle power of God out of the gospel there is no miracle power of life transformation. They boil the gospel down to nothing more than a decision that you make and as a result people live the way they've always lived and yet call themselves a Christian and then you've gotta make excuses for that. Well, I don't know why their life hasn't changed. Maybe they're a carnal Christian, right? It's not how it works. You cannot make a practice of sin because when the Lord saves a person he miraculously changes their life. Miraculously changes their heart such that John can say this and not be a liar. He cannot make a practice of sin because he has been born of God. And many in their lives betray that truth by calling themselves a Christian and yet continuing to live in their sin. Simply an error. The Christian looks back at the Lord saving him and sees the Lord saving him as a rescue. As a rescue out of sin. A rescue from sin and death. They don't see the works that they have done. They see the work that the Lord has done in them and they turn and trust Christ. They see the triumph of Christ over their wickedness. They see a new heart. They see a new nature. They see new desires. But if you've never wholeheartedly turned from your sin if you've not ever biblically repented and turned from your sin to put all of your hope, all of your faith, all of your trust, all of your reliance in Jesus Christ alone to save you then you've not experienced that radical transformation in your life and you're not a Christian. This is the life. This is the transformation of a genuine Christian and it is a wholehearted turn to the Lordship of Jesus Christ turning to trust him. Turning to trust him alone for salvation. If you're not then you'll face the fierceness of God's wrath and you'll pay for sin. John says again that if we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness we'd lie and do not practice the truth. Do you wanna be forgiven? Do you wanna be cleansed of sin? Do you wanna turn the life that you've made a complete wreck of give that to the Lord and allow him to work in you and through you as he created you to do and you need to walk in the light turn from your sin, put your faith in Christ and allow the Lord to change you. If you're lost, the standard that we're talking about you can't attain this high standard yourself. You must trust Christ alone for his righteousness. If you're a Christian, you can't attain this high standard for yourself. You must trust Christ alone for his righteousness. I believe it was Spurgeon who said may we look to the great chief shepherd, the great pattern in whose steps we are to walk. May we abide in him and never trifle. May we hold on our way looking to ourselves, looking to our own works, looking to our own strength, our own efforts. No, looking to Jesus by faith in him keeping clear of this world, its pleasures and its follies, carrying nothing for the world's frowns and not much moved by the world's smiles. Looking forward to that day when the great shepherd shall give to all who have done his work and preached his gospel, a crown of glory that does not fade away. The more that we have the mind of Christ, the more we shall understand what it is to give ourselves wholly, entirely to these things. Once you're a Christian, it's not the perfection of your life, it's the direction of your life but you must be diligent. You must be diligent in making progress. And that's Paul's next point to Timothy. There's a purpose for this. We're to be given to these things entirely. He says, so that your progress may be evident to all. Now we're not perfect, we haven't yet attained to that. The Lord will make us perfect one day, praise God. But we press on to make progress. Now in this exhortation, this command to make progress, there's a positive aspect to this. There's also a negative aspect and there's a warning. Now let's do the bad news first. You've got a negative aspect to this. We see negative progress all the time, don't we? We see negative progress here in our context in these letters to Timothy. Look at second Timothy, chapter two. Let's take a look at this. You can make progress in the wrong direction and if you're making progress in the wrong direction, there's a reason for it. You simply need to correct what you're doing. Second Timothy, chapter two. Look now I'm beginning at verse 14. We see some negative progress here. Second Timothy, chapter two, verse 14. Remind them, Paul says of these things. Here is these things again, right? Charging them before the Lord, not to strive about words to no prophets. Okay, that's the cause and here's the progress. To the ruin of the hearers. So if you're not giving yourself entirely to scripture, if you're not investing yourself in the reading, the exhortation of the doctrine, and you are investing yourself in things that are of no prophet, then you'll make progress toward the ruin of your spiritual life. You'll make progress the wrong direction. Don't strive about words to no prophet, to the ruin of the hearers. Look at verse 15. Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Verse 16. But shun profane and idle babblings for they will increase to more and more ungodliness. If you involve yourself in profane and idle babblings, words of no prophet, then you're gonna make progress, you're gonna make progress toward ungodliness, right? That's just that simple. Verse 17. Their message, that message will spread like cancer. You wanna make progress towards spiritual cancer, well listen, give heed to their message. But if you wanna make progress that is evident to all in a godly direction, then give yourself entirely to these other things. Here, Hymenaeus and Phylides of this sort gives us an example who strayed concerning the truth, saying the resurrection has already passed. They overthrow the faith of some because people were devoting themselves to Hymenaeus instead of devoting themselves to the word of God. This is progress in the wrong direction. Look at chapter three, just drop down chapter three. And look at beginning in verse six. Here Paul says, for of this sort, are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. You know, you can make negative progress, you could also make no progress at all. And there's a reason that you don't make progress or there's a reason that you make progress in the wrong direction. You gotta identify that and you gotta do something about it. Paul says, give yourself entirely to these things, to the reading, to the exhortation, to doctrine. Give yourself entirely to living a holy life, entirely to the word of God. Here, if you're learning and not able to come to the knowledge of the truth, you're not learning the Bible. You're not living the Bible. You're not putting these things into practice and you're making progress the wrong direction. Another example, drop down to verse 13. Verse 13, same chapter. Here, evil men and imposters, they're making progress, they're gonna grow worse and worse. Deceiving and being deceived, what does he say? But you, but you must continue in these things, right? These things which you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you've learned them and that from childhood, you've known the holy scriptures which were able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Got to make progress. You can't be making progress in the wrong direction. There can also be no progress, which is also progress in the wrong direction. You gotta make a change there. If you're not making progress in the Lord, examine yourself in this for a moment. Think, examine your life, where you're at. Are you making progress for the Lord? Sometimes a Christian can make such small progress or little progress that it sometimes is imperceptible. But there will be progress. You'll be able to see progress over time. Ask your brother, ask a sister. It's gonna be evident to someone. There's gonna be progress and there's gonna be growth if you're giving yourself to the Christian life the way that the Lord commands you to. If you're making no progress, there is a problem. And it's a cause for great concern. Be concerned. Be fearful over this. Are you making progress? It means one of two things. It means one that you're lost or it means that you aren't doing these things here that Paul's commanding. You're not giving yourself to them. Are you making progress? None of us, right? If we're honest with ourselves or making the progress we wanna make. I feel like I'm in the way of progress. A lot of the time, we wanna make progress for the Lord. We wanna live for the Lord wholeheartedly. But by the grace of God, it's not by our own efforts. It's by the grace of God, we'll see some progress. Won't we? That's what the scripture's saying. So examine yourself in this. Is there progress in your Christian life? The positive aspect, we see the negative aspect of this. There's also a positive aspect that your progress may be evident to all. Maybe obvious to all, okay? It means that Timothy here wasn't perfect but he was making progress. That's a great grace, isn't it? Great encouragement. We don't have to be perfect. We're not perfect yet, but we must be making progress. And his progress and our progress must be evident, must be obvious. Philippians 3, verse 12. Paul says, not that I've already attained or am already perfected, but I press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. We press on. In distinction to the false teaching that was going on, write doctrine, obeyed faithfully from the heart in the enabling power of the spirit of God will produce growth. It will produce progress. On the authority of God's word, I'm gonna make you a promise to that. The scripture says it and it is true. Write doctrine, obeyed faithfully from the heart in the enabling power of the spirit of God will produce growth, will produce progress. Examine yourself. Have you made evident progress? The word of God wielded in the believer's life by the spirit of God is effective. It is efficacious. It will have an impact in your life. You will grow into your ministry. You will. So go back to the, we said in the beginning, right? These things are very basic, but they are very profound. You gotta do the basics. It's not rocket surgery. You gotta read the Bible. You gotta do it from the heart and let the Bible change you, transform your life. Allow the spirit of God to work in you. Get yourself working in the ministry. Lord doesn't steer a parked car. You gotta get moving. Get that stinking thinking out of your head and the Lord is gonna grow you, grow you in the faith. There's a warning here in this too, John Wooden. Boy, a lot of sports analogies in the sermon today. Just got on that trend, I guess. John Wooden, old basketball coach, said don't mistake activity for achievement. You can get yourself busy, right? But you can get yourself busy with the wrong heart. Get yourself busy with the wrong mindset. Get yourself busy for the applause of men, the approval of men and you, all your activity can be nothing more than just polishing the outside of the cup. You've got to do this with the right heart and the right attitude. It is a joy to the Christian. So make sure you just have to constantly remind yourself of that. You're in a church that is a serving church like this is. A fellowshiping, a loving, a working church like this is. Gotta constantly remind yourself of that. We are in the Lord's vineyard working for him because we love him. Because he is our Lord. Because look what he did for me. I don't want to serve him forever for what he did for us. The word here for progress is procapé. Not sac passe. Somebody says nabule, procapé. It's the progress there. It's a military term. It's a military term used for an advancing army. It's a military term. It's the force of an advancing army. That's what we're to be. We're to be an advancing force in our Christian life. Again, this carries the sense of a diligent effort against opposition. We're to press forward despite obstacles, especially those obstacles that rise up in our own flesh and our own minds. You don't arrive with all the skills in place. You've got barbed wire to go through, walls to climb, trenches to go through. You've got mortar fire all the time but you press forward. There must be discipline and it's gonna be work. There's no success or true effectiveness in a personal ministry aside from hard disciplined work. The standards are so high. Let me encourage you with this. The Lord who commands these standards also knows that you'll never attain to them on your own. The Lord knows that and yet when we depend on him, when we press forward in his strength and yield ourselves to the spirit of God, we will accomplish in him what we could never accomplish in our own strength. Never. We're going to fall short but this is a high standard and we are to press on to attain to it. So the purpose here to be making progress that is evident to all because we make it our aim to be well pleasing to him. Very quickly, second Corinthians chapter five verse nine says this, therefore we make it our aim whether present or absent to be well pleasing to him. We don't have time to turn there but that we make it our aim, we have is our goal. It's our life's ambition to be well pleasing to him. This is not worldly or self-centered ambition. The word there is philatime, oh my, philatime, oh my. It's a compound word love and to honor. In other words, we are to love that which is honoring to God such that we pursue it. It becomes our goal. We are pursuing the lovely, honorable thing to be well pleasing to him. It's the highest aim, the Christian's prevailing goal, the Christian's prevailing ambition is to be marked by the pursuit of that which is honoring to God. We make it our aim to be well pleasing to him. It's interesting there that it says whether present or absent. Think about for a moment. Whether present means here on the earth to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So absent there means in heaven with him. Whether it's here or whether you're in your eternal rest in heaven with the Lord, we make the same aim. We have the same aim. We have the same goal. Think about what you'll do in heaven, worshiping him and serving him for all eternity with great joy in your heart. It's our same goal here. We're to live for the Lord with the same aim here whether present or absent. We make it our aim, our ambition to be well pleasing to him. For, the Bible says, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he's done, whether good or bad. This isn't judgment of sin, but every Christian will go before the judgment seat of Christ. Sin has already been judged. Where was it judged? On the cross. Praise God, been done away with. But here, it says we go to judgment. There's a word there for judgment used in the Greek called Bema. And Bema is a word that is for steps that rise to a platform. And so think about the Bema judgment of Christ as steps rising to a platform. This again, goes back to that athletic imagery. The athletes that would climb the steps to a platform where they receive their rewards. This is an evaluation of sorts where the Lord, you'll stand before the Lord and the Lord will pass a verdict if you will or a sentence on what you've done. Whether your life was, in here, again the word is whether good or bad, that word for bad, is not kakos or funeros, meaning evil, or meaning sinful, it's phallos, meaning worthless. If your life, your life's work is worthless, or if you'll receive a reward, it's the Lord in that sense, looking at whether what you've done with your service is precious stones or whether it's wood, hay, and stubble. It's our aim, it's our great joy to pursue precious stones, right? Such that when we stand before the Lord and give, there's a tremendous accountability here, right? That we're all going to face, we're all gonna be there. There's a tremendous accountability and we wanna hear well done, good and faithful slave. First Corinthians four, Paul says it's a small thing. Whether I'm judged by you, I don't even judge myself, he says. Basically he says, I really don't care what you think. The Lord is my judge and he knows that we'll stand before the judge. Revelation 22 is similar here in verse 12. He says, behold, Christ says, I'm coming quickly and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work. We make it our aim to be well pleasing to him. In conclusion, verse 16, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this, you'll save both yourself and those who hear you. This is not a work's righteousness. This is not salvation by works. It is evidence of a salvation that works. This is speaking here of the perseverance of the saints, the perseverance in fruits of faith that the genuine Christian will produce through their life if they're a genuine Christian. It demands a constant state of vigilance, a constant state of watchfulness. This is addressed to sloth. It's addressed to laziness and indifference. This demands work. And here, this is a future. We'll save, looking forward to a final fulfillment of all that salvation means, all that salvation entails. God alone saves. But isn't it an amazing joy, amazing blessing that we can be used by God as a means by which he does his work to save sinners? That we, through being a herald of that message, can be a part of God saving those who hear us and God saving us. It's a glorious blessing. In the words of James too, it's not salvation by works, but it's a salvation that gives evidence of itself, affirms itself in good works. And it's the perseverance in these things that marks true faith. Well, if you're a Christian, just from Scripture, it's been such a conviction to me and such a charge to me in studying this. I pray that it's a charge to you. Let's get out there and do the work of the ministry that the Lord has given us to do. Serve in the way that the Lord has commanded us to serve. And let's be spent for the Lord to see the Lord work mightily through that. What a glorious blessing. And if you're not a Christian, this is what you were created for. This is what the Lord put you on this earth to be and to do. Be redeemed to that work by the blood of the Lamb. Turn from this worthless existence as a rebel against God. Turn from that, put your faith and trust in Christ and serve Him with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, all the time. And the Lord will give you such joy, forgiven of your sin. Pardon, a child of God. Listen, you're not a child of God if you're outside his kingdom. You become a child of God. He'll give you heaven and a glorious purpose to life. Need to be saved. And there's no greater blessing. Turn to Christ and live, right? Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for this time together. God, thank you for these dear brothers and sisters and these sweet people here. I'm just so grateful to you, Lord, to be able to serve you with them. God, charge us up to greater and greater faithfulness. God, greater and greater maturity in your word. Greater, greater deal of love and affection and zeal for you in our hearts that motivates this great ministry, Lord, that you've given us. And may we see it as a great ministry. God, may we see it as a great sin to neglect it, Lord, and help us to live for you. We know we can't do it in our own strength. God, and we rejoice that it's in your strength. In our weakness, you are made strong and, Lord, be mighty in us for your glory. To the ends for which you created us, God, to worship you, to praise you, to serve you for the good of your people, for the furtherance of the gospel, and for your eternal praise and worship. We pray all these things in the blessed name of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, amen.