 Now that you would plow up the stony ground of their heart, that cold, dead, lifeless heart, or that you would indwell them with your spirit, now that you would bring them new life in Christ, that you would save their soul for your glory, for your worship, or that they might be with us in heaven. And we praise you in this, Lord, we praise you that your word, now the gospel is the power of God into salvation. We trust it, and we believe it, and you've changed us by it. God, continue to change us, or continue to conform us. We love you, Lord, and thank you for this time of studying your word together in Jesus' name. Amen. May be seated. Our sermon title is The Good Servant, The Good Servant, and we are in 1 Timothy chapter 4, and we've begun looking at this paragraph that runs from verse 6 through verse 11. And the first part really of a two-part section here, running all the way through verse 16, dealing with what are the characteristics of a good servant of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says in verse 6, as we study this paragraph together, that if you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed, but reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance, for to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach. And we are working again through 1 Timothy chapter 4, especially from verse 6 through 16 over the next several weeks, and we're working from that in 1 Timothy here, that defines what it means to be a good servant, a good servant of Jesus Christ. The word that you have there in your New King James, translated minister, is the word diaconos. It was the same word that was translated deacon in 1 Timothy chapter 3, when we looked at that passage. Here translated minister, a good way to think about that word is the word servant. This defines what it means to be a good servant. Now certainly there was good instruction for deacons in 1 Timothy chapter 3. There's good instruction here for Timothy as a pastor, good instruction here for all pastors, but make no mistake about it. There's good instruction for all of us in this. We're all to be good servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now being a good servant, mind you, comes with an ultimate purpose. And we see the ultimate purpose for this in verse 16, where Paul says, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, and here we see the purpose. For in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. And we know that salvation is fully of the Lord. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone that we're saved, that we're made right with the Holy God. Has nothing to do with your works. There's not one thing that you can add to your salvation. But now knowing that our faith is a working faith, what Paul is saying here is that in doing these things and exercising yourself toward godliness, in taking heed and to your doctrine, you are confirming that you are genuinely saved. It's the fruits of faith and those fruits of faith the Lord uses as a means of effectively saving someone else. It is through the spread of the gospel, through preaching that people are saved. So you can save both yourself and that sense and those who hear you. You must take care of yourself first. We used the analogy last week of the flight attendant and the presentation before you take off of taking the mask and putting the mask over your own face before you put the mask on your child. You must take care of yourself first. You can't be of any use to your family. You can't be of any use to your spouse. You can't be of any use to your kids. You can't be of any use to co-workers, to neighbors, to loved ones. You can't be of any use to the Lord unless you are first going to take heed to yourself and to your doctrine and continue in them and carefully follow them and exercise yourself toward godliness. Otherwise, if you don't do those things, you are worthless to the kingdom of God. You're worthless when it comes to the gospel and the Lord can't use you effectively. You must take heed to yourself and to the doctrine here taking care of yourself first. In that sense, you must make your own spiritual health, your own spiritual maturity, your growth in the Lord that has to be a priority to you. You must value that in your own life so that you can be useful to the Lord. Number one, in verse 16, so that you can save yourself in that sense, but number two, so that you can save those who hear you so that you can be effectively used for the Lord. We saw that the first priority that Paul gives us in verse 6 is that that must include a regimen, as we've talked about, of diet and exercise. Think that way. If you want to be a good servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's going to take diet and exercise. Last week, we looked at diet from verse 6. The first quality of the good servant is a healthy and robust diet in God's word. In verse 6, Paul says, if you instruct the brethren in these things, you'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed. Now remember with respect to instruction, we looked at Jeremiah and the worthless shepherds. A good minister will instruct from the words of God. A good servant of the word Jesus Christ will instruct. You may not be in the role of a pastor. You may not be in the role of a deacon or be in the role of a teacher, but every good servant of the Lord Jesus Christ is a teacher. In what way? Oh, you teach your kids. You may have Bible studies with your spouse. You evangelize the lost. And in that way, you need to be a good instructor of the word of God, and you have to know it yourself. Ezekiel chapter 3, verse 17 says this, Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Therefore hear a word from my mouth and listen to what God asks us to do. Hear a word from my mouth and give them warning from me. When I, when God says to the wicked, you shall surely die and you give him no warning nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. The Lord comes and the Lord says, give them warning from me. Speak the words of God to them. Many today go out and they give them no warning. They speak peace, peace, when there is no peace. Rather than give them warning from God and impending judgment, we pass out bottles of water, free hugs, and we'll build a well, build a house. Those are all good things to do. I wouldn't prescribe hugs all the time. However, those things are good to do, but we've got to give them warning. The Lord has given us words and we're to give them his words. We're to give them warning. Speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way. Next though is nourishment. You need nourishment in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you've carefully followed. Ignorance or neglect of God's word will leave you malnourished. It'll leave you sickly and weak. It'll leave you inept and ineffective. You must have a rich, healthy diet of God's word. If you don't take in God's word, you're going to be ready to lap up any garbage that comes along. If you don't stand for something, you'll fall for anything. You must invest yourself in a healthy intake, a healthy diet of God's word. But also we saw point three from that first section is that we have to reject error. The same time that we take in God's word to know the truth of God and allow the truth of God by the spirit of God to transform us. At the same time you have to reject that which is false. Those things which are profane, those things which are worldly, those myths and old wives fables. They have to reject that ungodly influence in your life. Reject false teaching. You've got enough to deal with learning the word of God to not be messed up with or involved with false teaching and error. Spend your time learning the word of God and reject those myths and errors. In 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 6, Paul covers our need for a healthy and full spiritual diet. If you don't have that diet in the word of God, you're going to shrivel up and die. You'll shrivel up and die spiritually. Deuteronomy chapter 11 in verse 18, the Bible says, therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. That's how important the word of God is to beat us. That's what we're to do. It means all the time. We'd have the word of God before us all the time. In Deuteronomy chapter 17 and in verse 19, the Bible says, and it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life that he may learn to fear the Lord his God and to be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statues. Some people can't read it one day of the week. We're to read it all the days of our life and that is to the Christian a delight, amen. We're to learn. We're to invest ourselves in the word of God. Proverbs chapter 6 verse 23, for the commandment is a lamp and the law a light and reproofs of instruction are the way of life. Therefore no proofs of instruction are the way of death. We get reproof from the word of God. We need that instruction, right? But beyond a healthy diet that we see in verse 6, you need to get your exercise. We need to put those spiritual nutrients that you're taking in from the word of God. We've got to put those to work, right? You need to exercise yourself toward godliness. Verse 7 says this, but reject profane and old wives' fables and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise, profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. To be a good servant, think diet and exercise, right? You are of no use to yourself or others if you're not feeding yourself the word of God, but you're of no use to yourself or others if you're not exercising yourself toward godliness. It takes this exercise. The first thing I want you to see from this, from this passage as we look at verses 6 through 16 is that all of this in the Christian life takes action. It takes action. This is not a dead, passive or static faith. This is an active faith. The Christian life is a life of action. It's a life of exercise. Look at all these action words in the text. Look at verse 6. If you want instruct, that's an active word, something we must do, okay? Instruct the brethren in these things. You'll be a good minister. Look at the end of verse 6, those things which you have carefully or faithfully followed. We're to faithfully follow. Verse 7, reject profane things. Exercise yourself toward godliness. Look down at verse 10. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach. That word suffer reproach there is the word aganitsamai, it's derivative, which means to strive. It means to agonize. A better translation would be to strive, to labor, to toil because we trust very active. We trust the living god. God is not passive, right? God is not a dead idol. It's the living and powerful and active god of all creation. He is the living god who's the savior of all men, especially those who believe. These things, here it is again active, command and teach. Look at verse 12. Be an example. Verse 13, till I come, give attention. Verse 15, meditate on these things. It takes time, takes energy, takes forethought to meditate on the word of God. You need to plan to do that in your life. Give yourself, it says, partly to them. Give yourself a day a week to them, a few minutes over lunch to them. No, give yourselves entirely to them. Action. 16, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this. See all the action words in these paragraphs? The Christian life is not a static life. It's not a dead, passive faith. It's an active faith. It's a living faith. It's a working, laboring, toiling, striving faith. And this is the faith that we've been delivered to. So what is this training? Just take these two paragraphs alone. What is this training and exercising look like? It looks like labor. It comes dressed up in overalls and looks like work. This because it is work. It looks like dogged persistence. It looks like sweat. It looks like toil. It looks like strenuous self-discipline. Has this burdened some to the Christian? Is it? No, this is a delight. The Christian wants to work in the Lord's vineyard. I want to please the Lord. You have a desire for these things. You're not burdensome. They're your delight. It looks like making sacrifices, right? The Christian life is full of do's and don'ts, stop signs and green lights that characterizes the Christian life. Now, many are so uncomfortable with that because they think that anything involved with do's or don'ts, smacks of legalism. Listen, holiness, obedience to Christ's commands, living for and serving the Lord is not legalism. It's a joy. It is commanded. It is holiness. It's righteousness. It's living for the Lord. It's not legalism. And beware, on the other side of that, there is such a thing as license. There are sins of commission and sins of omission. There are things that you are to do that you don't do. And there are things that you do that you shouldn't do. And in all of that, if you believe that living the Christian life gives you the freedom in Christ to live in any way that you want to live, that's taking the grace of God and turning it into licentiousness. The Christian life is full of work, full of effort, full of toil, full of labor. We see that throughout the pages of Scripture. Scripture is replete with that. That is part and parcel with the Christian life as the Bible teaches it. So many today are objectionable to that because somehow they want to live their lives for themselves and at the same time claim Christ. That's just not the way that it works. This active energetic work is far from the old teaching of quietism, or pacifism, or let go and let God. In other words, you don't do anything. You let God do everything. Is that what the Bible teaches? No, we'll look at several passages today that will just absolutely destroy that false thinking. You need to allow yourself, your heart, to be pierced by the word of God with respect to that. None of us are immune to that kind of pacifism in the Christian life. None of us are immune from that stinking thinking that begins to infiltrate our mind saying that it's okay if I tack Christ on as an ancillary part of my life and he's not the focus of what you're doing here. There's a story of an old cobbler and the story goes that a man came up and asked him what he did for a living. He's got his bag with him and obviously a cobbler and the cobbler replied, I serve the Lord and I fix shoes to help pay for it. It was his response. That's our lives. We are aliens and sojourners here. We're here to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be conformed into his image, being prepared for heaven, being prepared to worship Christ for all eternity, and we do other things to pay for it while we do, right? We're to serve the Lord. That work, as the Christian that we are to be engaged in, is described in verse seven as exercise, exercise. That's the word gumnazo in the Greek. It's where we get our word, English word, gymnasium from. I don't know how many times you've been to the gym lately, but it's rigorous, arduous, and demanding work. I'm not sure that I've heard people say that. It is rigorous, rigorous work. You're going to work up a sweat at the gym. It's hard work. It's rigorous work, demanding work. It literally means gymnasticize yourself toward godliness. I like that. Gymnasticize yourself. The word here refers to athletes and in the first century and centuries that followed, athletes at this time worked out similar to the way they do today. In the same way that we seem to have an obsession with diet and exercise and working out and the body beautiful today, they had the same obsession back then. They were obsessed with athletic contests, with competing, with games and races, and they would work out as athletes work out. The word carries the sense here, mind you also, of working out completely naked. They would take their clothes off completely so that they would have no restraints. They had the freedom to move. They had the freedom to exercise as they needed to or compete as they needed to without being entangled or ensnared by their clothing. But some people take this to mean that this freedom is freedom in Christ to continue sinning. That I can live in my sin and have Christ. I don't know. We're to remove ourselves from those things that so easily ensnare us. We're to remove ourselves from that sin that entangles us so that we may run our race. That's the image there, the sense of which this word carries. All restraints are removed so that we are free to serve Christ. We have the freedom in that sense in Christ to live a holy life. In Christ, the power of sin has been defeated. The penalty of sin has been taken away. But in that power of sin being defeated, we have the power in the spirit of God in Christ to obey, to live for Him. And we have the freedom in Christ to do that. It is, you understand, the enslavement of sin that the Christian still struggles with. It's not freedom in Christ they struggle with. It's enslavement to that flesh that comes in and tempts us. And in your flesh it's that war from Romans 7 that we see. I, with my mind, delight in the law of good God that it is holy just and good. But I see another law in my members, right? So it's that fight, that war with sin that so easily entangles us. The Christian's not enslaved to sin any longer in Christ. Christ has broken the power of sin in the life so that we, in freedom in Christ, may live for Him. And Scripture is replete with this metaphor, if you will, of Christian athleticism. We see this throughout Scripture. And it's a manly pursuit here, if you take it that way, or a pursuit of strength as opposed to the pursuits of old wives' fables. This is to be pursued heartily. And similar to our day, Paul says that this training in exercise, this exercise in godliness, must take place to get yourself right, to train yourself toward the things of God. We see an example of this throughout Scripture. But flip the page to 1 Timothy chapter 6. Let's look at a, an example right here in our context. 1 Timothy chapter 6 and beginning in verse 6. And here Paul says to Timothy, now godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing with these we shall be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. Now listen to verse 11. But you, O man of God, run for your life. Right? So that word means flee. You, O man of God, flee these things. As Peter says, flee youthful lusts which wage war against the soul. You're to run. This is effort. Right? This is work. This is striving. You strive against sin. You strive against these things. Flee them. And it says pursue righteousness. We just thought I just, I'm supposed to put my Bible under my pillow at night and I thought I would just be righteous when I woke up in the morning. Right? I thought that righteousness was, I could just be a couch potato and the Lord would just grant me righteousness positionally. The Lord has granted you. If you're in Christ, you have the righteousness of Christ. This righteousness that we're to pursue is an active practical righteousness that flows from genuine saving faith. If you have genuine saving faith, you're going to be practically more and more righteous over time. That's the direction that our faith takes us. It's a living and active faith. But if you're not in Christ and you're not going to see more and more practical righteousness, you're going to see more and more just a pattern of your sin. But here, we're to pursue this righteousness. If you pursue righteousness and you're getting nowhere, then examine yourself whether you're in the faith. It would mean if you're getting nowhere that you don't have the spirit. The power of sin has not been defeated in your life by Christ and that you need to turn from your sin and place your faith and trust in Christ to save you and allow the Lord to fill you with his spirit and strengthen you for that life. But if you're a Christian, you're to be pursuing righteousness. You're to pursue godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness. Here it says fight the good fight. That doesn't sound passive, does it? That's active. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold. That's a wrestling term. Lay hold on eternal life. Wrestle it. The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and violent men take it by force. Wrestle. Lay hold on eternal life. To which you are also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. These are active words, active words. First Corinthians chapter 9 in verse 24, Paul says here, do you not know that those who run in a race all run? Again, it's this metaphor of Christian athleticism, right? But one receives the prize. Run in such a way that you may obtain it. He goes on to say, therefore I run thus, not with uncertainty. Thus I fight. Again, it's a fight. Thus I fight, not as one who beats the air, but I discipline my body and I bring it into subjection. Lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. That word there disqualified a document. It's the same word that Romans uses for reprobate. We don't want to be disqualified. Beat and buffet your body into subjection. You have another law in your members that wages war against the law of your mind, that the law of God is holy, just and good. And you must fight the good fight here. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 10, Paul says, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. I like this. But I labored more abundantly than they all yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Well, at first blush, one, it could seem as though the Christian life is made up entirely of your own self-effort. Well, I'm gonna grit my teeth. I'm going to put my knuckles to the grindstone and I am going to work, work, work and dig out this Christian life. Is it like that? Yeah, it's not in your own effort. It's not in your own strength. It's in the power of his might. Not in your own strength. You must trust in the Lord and in the power of his might. Here it's the grace of God. This is not a static, passive or dead grace. This is an efficacious grace, an effective grace that works in us. Remember, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because God works in you to do and to will according to his good pleasure. It's the Lord that work in you. Here it's his grace toward him that was not in vain. It was working in Paul. And so, according to that grace, he labored more abundantly than they all. Does that sound prideful to you? You know, Paul looks at all the others and says, you know what? I labored more than they all. Is that what he's, that's not the intent here of Paul. It's not the spirit of Paul. Paul, being very humble here, he says, yet not I, but it was the grace of God in me. If you have any victory in this Christian life, you don't get the credit for that. That's the Lord's victory. It's the Lord working in you. But at the same time, that the Lord works in you to accomplish your sanctification, to accomplish conforming you into the image of Christ. At the same time, you work doggedly as a means of grace the Lord uses to conform you to Christ. It's you working because God works. That's the Christian life. If it sounds like work, it's because it is. It is. And we've got to, you've got to come to grips with that. You need to resolve that in your mind. The Christian life is labor. And by the way, this labor, this striving, this work is the outward evidence of a genuine faith. Now bear in mind, I don't want anyone going out of here saying that we teach a works righteousness. This is not a righteousness. This is not a works righteousness. This is a righteousness that works. This is not salvation by works. This is a salvation that works. Genuine saving faith produces a labor produces a striving produces a an active, striving, healthy, vibrant, living faith. And James says it's the dead faith that proves you're lost. It's those hearers of the word only that are lost. This is an active faith, faith that is a dead faith does not save. So let me ask you how much of your Christian life is marked by strenuous self discipline. Now, for those of you here who claim the name of Christ, allow the word of God to convict you of this. Are you living your Christian life passively? Or are you in labor? Are you living your life, your Christian life so called with a dead faith, a passive faith and inert faith? Or are you striving? The Bible says to agonize, strive to enter in at the narrow gate. Wide is the way, broad is the way that leads to destruction. That narrow gate is hard to find. It's difficult. There are a few that find it. Is your Christian life marked by strenuous efforts towards self discipline, strenuous exercising, gymnasticizing yourself toward godliness? Or are you passive, inert? Are you making progress? If you're indwelt by the spirit, you have a healthy intake of God's word, and you are exercising yourself toward godliness, you will by the spirit of God, you will make progress. Are you making progress in your Christian life? Or are you static? Are you just sitting? It's the shark that has to keep moving, to pass air over his gills, to keep breathing, to keep living. As soon as he stops, he dies. Are you making progress? With this, this work, this effort, there must be a goal. There must be an aim, an end result, and we have a glorious goal, don't we? If you claim the name of Christ, you have a glorious end, if you will, to this Christian athleticism, this Christian labor. Discipline without direction is drudgery, but our discipline has great direction, and it's not a drudgery, it's a delight. And what's the point, if you think about it this way, what's the point of practicing scales if you're never going to play music? What's the purpose of lifting weights if you're never going to go out on the field? Right? Our discipline has a goal, has an aim. The goal to which we exercise, the bullseye, in a sense, for which we are aiming is godliness, is Christ's likeness, to be conformed into the image of our Lord and Savior. That word godliness means piety, reverence. It refers to holy living, it refers to holy character. It is Christ's likeness, and godliness is the target of all that self-discipline and sacrifice. It is that we are to exercise ourselves toward godliness. That being said, godliness is the inevitable outcome, the inevitable result if you are in Christ taking in His word and exercising yourself. It's going to, isn't that a great promise to you, Christian? A great joy to you? Listen, you exercise yourself toward godliness. You take in and live by God's word. You take heed to yourself and to your doctrine, continue in them because promise from the Lord, you're going to save yourself, your hearers, that you, this godliness will be the inevitable result. The Lord will see to it in you. Just like physical disciplines lead to physical strength, spiritual disciplines lead to spiritual strength. Do you want to be godly? Do you want to be godly? Amen. If you want to, you're a Christian. You want to be godly. Lord, I want to live a godly life before you. Do you want to be godly? Amen. If you want to be godly, then you must view godliness as that result which follows from diet and exercise. It doesn't come, you understand? Our sanctification doesn't work that way. It doesn't come on its own. You're not just going to wake up one morning and be like Christ. The Lord sanctifies you and he uses means to your sanctification and the means that the Lord uses to your sanctification is an exercise toward godliness and an intake, a diet of God's word, the spirit of God working through you. It doesn't happen by osmosis. You've ever gone into a test, right? You've ever gone into a test without studying and then you came out complaining because you failed it. What are you complaining about? You didn't exercise yourself to learn that material and you failed. What's more destructive to you, all right, is to go into that test without studying for it and you come out with an A, right? It just fuels that notion in our minds that I can get by without any work, without any labor, without any effort. And so many of us are trained in that kind of destructive thinking, stinking thinking, right? You cannot live the Christian life, be godly, be disciplined, be holy on your own strength, number one. But you cannot be godly on your own charisma, on your own personality. You can't be godly on your own wit, your own charm, your own looks, your own strengths. You can't be godly in your own efforts. You can't be godly on your own gifts, your own talents, on your own personality. You cannot be godly on your own natural abilities by themselves. Godliness is that which is undertaken by a healthy intake of God's word and a gymnasticizing of yourself according to God's word, effort. It's not so with godliness. Many attempt that and some around them might say, we're such a godly man because he's nice. Maybe a person grew up memorizing scripture in some kid's program. And now they can quote some scripture and someone says to them, well, they're so godly because they know a few Bible verses and it's easy to hide, easy to fake. It's not so with true godliness. True godliness comes from a healthy intake of God's word and an exercising yourself toward it. Bunyan talks about the man who is a saint abroad and a devil at home. Does that describe you? People at home know you best, right? Hard to fake godliness before those at your home. But that godliness can often be faked. There's a real opportunity for being a hypocrite here. But God sees all. You can't fake this godliness with God. Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 24 says this, can anyone hide himself in secret places so I shall not see him, says the Lord? Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord? In other words, you can't hide from God. You want a true godliness, a godliness that is the inevitable result of the spirit of God in dwelling you and you taking in God's word and exercising yourself toward godliness. Godliness is that we saw in chapter 3 that was explained as a mystery, right? But once mysterious, now revealed in Christ, because as it says there, Christ was manifested in the flesh. Christ came, lived a perfect sinless life. He became the perfect example of godliness, right? Christ was godly in everything. He fulfilled all of the righteous and just demands of God. And then that was perfectly godly. He's our perfect example. That godliness that God demands rightly and only flows out from that righteousness which Christ obtained for us in his perfect fulfillment of God's demands and flows out of our union and only out of our union with him. And try all you want to fake it. You can't fake true godliness because it only comes as flowing out of a union with Christ in his death and in his resurrection. But through his death and resurrection, he conquers death. He breaks the power of sin in our life. And in breaking the power of sin in our lives makes us free in him to live godly, to live for God. In that sense, he enables godliness in his people. He does that through the power of the Holy Spirit that was sent after Christ's ascension. He gave us, the Holy Spirit was poured out on us, in us, in dwelling us to enable us and empower us to live godly. And in having the Holy Spirit in us, seeing Christ in the words of Scripture, we have the visible expression of that godliness from the Word of God as we're transformed day by day by day into the image of Christ. In that sense, the godliness that you as a Christian want, the godliness that God demands, the godliness that we desire is all of Christ. For of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever, amen. It is all of Christ. You want to be godly? Look at Christ. You want to be godly, scour his Word and learn of him. You want to be godly. Look at that example. You want to be godly. You must begin with that righteousness that is imputed, that is credited to your account when you come to the Lord Jesus Christ by turning from your sin and trusting him alone to save you. You must have that positional righteousness in order for you to have practical righteousness. In order for you to be able to live it. You must be in Christ. At the same time that we recognize this as a sure and inevitable gift of God in salvation, which it is, God uses means to accomplish this godliness in us. And as such, there is the responsibility of man. In the same way that this godliness is a gift of God, you have to work doggedly to get it. We are to use all of our might to this end to exercise ourselves toward this godliness. In Colossians 1, I love this in verse 28, Paul says this, him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. That's a glorious statement. It's saving both ourselves and those who hear us. Paul had that end, that aim in mind of presenting every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Listen to what he goes on to say in verse 29. To this end, I also labor, striving, there's two same words that we see here in 1 Timothy chapter 4, laboring, striving according to his working which works in me mightily. You see the connection there. That godliness that you desire as a Christian is forever and inevitably and exorably linked to Christ, linked to the word of God, the spirit of God, the grace of God. It's not just your labor and striving. It's been accomplished for you by Christ, provided for you by his grace according to his working which works in us mightily. In Philippians, Paul says work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because it's God at work in you. Look at another example of this. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy chapter 2. This is another example. Listen to these words here and these metaphors, these analogies of the Christian life and these active words that Paul uses. 2 Timothy chapter 2, look beginning in verse 1. It says, you therefore, my son, be strong. Why do you have to be strong? Because there's going to be work. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things which you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship. I remember witnessing to a lady and I quoted this passage of scripture, eventually took her to the Bible where it said this because her response was, where's the joy in that? What do you talk about the Christian, endure hardship? That's not a Christian life. It says that all over the Bible. As a Christian, are you going to endure hardship? Yes. All those who desire for godliness will suffer persecution. Yeah, it's endure hardship. As a good soldier, as a good soldier, there's supposed to be a vacation. I suppose to put my feet up. I just want to, you know, sit around eating bonbons on the couch all day. What is a good soldier? Jesus Christ. Verse 4, no one in warfare, what is that all about? These words that describe the Christian life entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier, didn't enlist you as a couch potato. He enlisted you as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, here it is again, this Christian athleticism. He's not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. I don't know, what a bunch of rules. That's legalism. It says here in 2 Timothy chapter 2, there are rules. There are dos and don'ts. I want to run this race, but I'd rather run on my own track. I'd rather go over here. The view over here is much better. So I'm going to run over here. Everybody else can, I want to be on the basketball team, but I'd rather shoot on this basket. You guys can all, I want to be able to kick the ball. You know, you can't kick the basketball. There are rules involved. You can't run on your own track. You're going to run on this track over here. And when you run on this track over here, you're going to run in your lane. Right? You're going to start this way. You're going to finish that way. There are rules. And anyone who enjoys the race, right, wants to follow the rules, following the rules makes that a delight. This is not burdensome to the Christian. This is a joy to the Christian. This is a delight to the Christian. But there are rules, make no mistake about it. Verse 6, the hardworking farmer. Anybody know anything about farming? That's easy, right? All you got to do is put some stuff on the ground and wait for it to come up. No, it is labor, man. It is up early and up late. And it is toiling and sweating. You're going to work up a sweat being a good farmer? Yes. You're going to work up some blisters. You're going to work up some heartache. You're going to work as a farmer. A hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say and may the Lord give you understanding in all things. And consider what is said, Christian. Consider what is said non-Christian. When you come to the Lord, it's not just that you can ask forgiveness and everything is fine for you to live your life the way you've always lived it. There's a cost to following Christ. The cost of discipleship is high. It's a free gift that will cost you everything. That's 2 Timothy chapter 2. To the unbeliever, listen, this is impossible. It's impossible because you don't have the Spirit of God. You can try, try, try. And if you find yourself defeated, defeated, defeated, it's because you don't have the Spirit of God. You don't have the enablement from God's grace. You must turn from your sin. Leave that filth behind you and follow Christ. And the Lord will cleanse you, forgive you, give you of his Spirit and cause you, as the Bible says, to walk in his statutes. You will do according to all that is written in this book. The Lord says that he'll give you a heart to obey him. He must obey him. Ultimately, to that unbeliever, you just have no real desire. You may have guilt, right? You may have an accusing conscience. Don't confuse guilt and an accusing conscience with genuine salvation. You can't confuse the two. That may be the Lord drawing you. But genuine salvation produces righteousness. Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous. He who sins, makes a practice of sinning, is of the devil. In this, the children of God and the children of the devil are made manifest. If you're in Christ, it'll make a radical change in your life. You'll start serving Christ and it won't be a burdensome to you. It'll be your delight. You'll start pouring yourself into the Word of God. It won't be a burden to you. It'll be your delight. You'll start hating that sin that you once enjoyed and you'll start hungering and thirsting for the righteousness that is yours in Christ if you'll obey him and live for him and exercise yourself toward godliness. We look at everything that people today devote themselves to. I think about it for a moment. You know, the American dream. You just come to this country. You work hard, right? You'll accomplish your dreams. All your dreams can be yours. You'll just work hard, greet it out. People come and they will say, you hear the testimonies, right? Grown up in the slums. When I worked my way up the ladder, you know, bare knuckled myself up that corporate ladder until I became a manager, became a business owner, became a whatever. And now look at all that I have. The big house, the car, the boat, whatever it is. I've got all my dreams. I've accomplished all my dreams and then they die. And all that is what? It's good for nothing. It is all good. You can't take anything with you.