Devoted to the Word

0:32Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things. Immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearts, and your hearers. This is God's word. You may be seated.

1:17Professional baseball is generally not a young man's game. There are exceptions, but for the most part, many of the people who play professional baseball are. in their early 30s. Now you may not have heard, but the Houston Astros did win the World Series recently. That did happen. And they did it with a pretty young team. Although they're not the youngest team in professional baseball, most of their superstars are fairly young. Altuve and Springer are 27 and 28. Correa and Bregman are both 23.

1:54So a fairly young team of superstars. And baseball is not like most other professional sports. And most other professional sports, if you're bigger, stronger, and faster, you can make up for not having played the game as long. You can make up for not studying the game and not being a student of the game. But baseball, in particular, rewards patience and hard work over time. Now the Houston Astros had plenty of talent on their roster this season. Anybody that looked at the roster could see that.

2:25But if you go back to before this season began, most of the experts did not pick them to win either the AL Pennant or the World Series because they thought that many of their key players were too young. Well thankfully for Houston fans, they were wrong. And sadly, for Rangers fans like myself, they were also wrong. Youth, in general, is looked down upon. But in life, as well as in the scripture, we see many examples of faithful men and women who were young, who obeyed the word of the Lord, who did hard things in his name, who walked by faith. And I think it's especially fitting that we're preaching this text today here at New Life in a predominantly young church, because we, I think, can be challenged together to live in a way that honors the Lord, even though we are, by and large, relatively young, that we can set an example with our lives, our doctrine, our teaching in every way. And we do that by remaining committed to God's Word.

3:38So, friends, what we're going to learn this morning in the text is that when we devote ourselves to God's Word, our teaching and example points others to Christ. Let's look now at the text starting in verse 11. Paul tells Timothy, command and teach these things. Now, we've seen that expression, these things, pop up several times in this letter. In fact, that expression occurs eight times in 1 Timothy. And this expression, these things, encompasses everything that Timothy is to believe and pass on to the church that he is pastoring.

4:14And how is he to pass those things on? Well, Paul says in two ways, through commanding and teaching. First word is command. That could also be translated give orders. Now, most scholars are in agreement that Timothy was in his life. Late 20s to mid-30s as a pastor. So he was young by any standard, but especially in the early first century. And so it's safe to assume that Timothy probably felt uncomfortable issuing commands to men and women who were older than he was. I think today pastors feel uncomfortable issuing commands, and many churches are uncomfortable receiving commands. Our culture at this point in the year 2017 is accustomed to preaching as life coaching, where the preacher's task is to step forward on a Sunday morning and give you 10 to 15 minutes of tips on how to live a more fulfilling life. And so both pastors and congregations are uncomfortable in our day and age with commands.

5:18So the key for Timothy and the key for us today is to remember that we serve God, who is the king of the universe. And kings don't issue suggestions. Kings issue commands. They give orders. And so as we consider that, any faithful pastor is not going to be issuing his own commands. He's going to be passing on the commands of God the king. He's not going to be making suggestions. He's going to be saying, this is what our king commands us to do. So first thing is command. Timothy's supposed to do this, but secondly, he's supposed to teach.

6:00And this word can also be rendered to explain or instruct. And any good teacher not only tells the truth, but they explain it. Now, what's interesting as you read God's Word is that God does not owe us an explanation for his commands any more than a boss doesn't have to explain his or her orders to his or her employees. God doesn't have to tell us, this is why I'm commanding you to do this. But nevertheless, all throughout the scripture, we find not just dozens and dozens of commands, but we find explanations for those commands, where God is helping us to understand the heart behind why he's commanding what he's commanding.

6:48So if you're a parent of young children, or if you work with young children in any way, then you know that kids benefit not just from commands, but from explanations. So you can tell a young child, don't play in the street, but as long as she understands that command as just something that you want her to do, that's going to only seem to her to be a restriction on her freedom. It's not until she gets a little bit older and as you explain the heart behind the command that she comes to see the command as a good thing. That command is issued for her safety and well-being. And in the same way, every good teacher not only helps us to know. What God commands, but why he commands it, for his glory and for our joy. So Timothy is to teach and command these things, pointing others to Christ at all times. But as we just mentioned, he's a very young pastor, and so he was going to need encouragement for that difficult work. And Paul begins to encourage him in verse 12. Look there.

7:54Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Pastoring a church is challenging work, and it's particularly challenging when many of the people in the congregation are older than you are. That can feel intimidating. You can feel unqualified to say the truth to a group of people where you're younger than they are. And so Paul writes to Timothy: Let no one despise you for your youth.

8:30The word despise could also be rendered scorn or look down upon. And in Scripture, we find many examples of faithful young people. You have Samuel, who was a very young boy at the time that he became a prophet and priest and a judge. You have King Josiah that we read about earlier, eight years old when he became king, 16 when he began to reform things in his nation, 20 years old when he got rid of all the idolatry. He was a young man. The prophet Jeremiah was young when he was speaking very hard things to the southern kingdom, and they did not want to listen to him. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was just a teenage girl. Several of the apostles, Timothy himself, were just young men and women. And so God reminds us all throughout his word that young men and women can do great things for God.

9:25But I think that young people can also be too quick to grab a hold of this verse and remind older believers that it's in the Bible. We can be a little bit fast there, like it's a blanket defense for any behavior and any speech, and we can just point to this and say, see, the Bible says don't look down on me. Well, it's critical that we keep all of verse 12 together as one unit of thought in our minds. And so look again at what it says. It says, let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct in love and faith and purity.

10:04So in other words, if you are a young leader or if you are a young believer and you think older people are looking down on you, they're despising you, the answer is not to fire back at them, the Bible says don't do that. Rather, the answer is to set an example worth imitating. I love what J.B. Phillips said about this. He said, Let no one look down on you because you're young, but see that they look up to you. See that they look up to you by the example that you are setting. Friends, respect must be earned, and respect is earned through consistent faithfulness over time.

10:49Respect is earned through consistent faithfulness over time. And so Paul tells Timothy, set an example. for all the other believers. It doesn't matter if they're younger or older. And he tells them to do it in every area of life. And he gets very specific, doesn't he? He highlights five different areas. So I want to look at each one of these that Paul mentions. He says, first, set an example in your speech. So in our day and age, that covers what we say out loud, but that also covers what we text and what we type on social media. Look at what Ephesians 4.29 says. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

11:44So our goal in all of our speech is gracious, well-suited words that build others up. I love this reminder from Paul in 1 Corinthians 10. Look on the screen again. He says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. So, as a reminder, we can post anything that we want to on social media, but not everything is helpful. You can say whatever you want on the internet, but not everything builds up. This is a critical reminder for us. And it's a critical reminder in our day where, and you've probably seen many examples of this, people feel like they can say anything as long as they preface it with IMO, in my opinion, or I just feel like, like that excuses us to be able to say anything we want because now we're talking about feelings, and who can argue with feelings.

12:54I think what we're doing is we're using that as justification to cover up sinful speech that's not gracious, that doesn't build up, it doesn't help anybody. And so, friends, we are called to set an example in our speech. That covers what we say out loud, but also what we text and what we type. In every area of life, we should be setting an example with our speech. Secondly, he says we should set an example in our conduct.

13:24People around us are always observing our conduct, particularly if they know. Know that we profess to be believers in Jesus. And so, at your job, when you've missed an important deadline, people want to know how are you going to react. When somebody in your department drops the ball, makes a mistake, didn't turn in the PowerPoint on time, there's missing slides, something's wrong, they want to see how you're going to react to that. Always watching. In traffic, when everyone is doing what is right in their own eyes, they want to see how you are going to respond. And one of the things that you notice about this community is that it's a fairly large city, but this is no Houston, this is no Dallas, no Fort Worth. So, fairly regularly, people come up to me and they say, hey, I saw you driving the other day. My first thought is always, was I sinning?

14:26Like, what did you see? Like, I saw you at the grocery store. Did I look mad? People are always watching, always looking at our conduct. Or think about how we deal with sports. What do you think it communicates when we stand expressionless on Sunday mornings singing about the resurrection of Jesus? But we go crazy when our team scores a touchdown and try to. To think about how you would explain that to someone not from this planet. The young man carried the piece of inflated leather over the painted line in the grass.

15:12Obviously, this is a cause for jubilation. People are always watching us, and they're learning what we think it means to believe as a Christian and to live as a Christian from our conduct. So we're called to set an example in those areas. Paul says, set an example in love. Love is not a feeling, love is the choice to do what is best for someone else, even at great cost to ourselves. It's the choice to do what is best for someone else, even at great cost to ourselves. Look at what John writes in 1 John 3: By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

16:05Right or wrong, young men and women all throughout history have been looked at by older generations as self-centered. This is not a modern problem. If you read history, you know that every generation tends to look at younger people and think they're self-centered. Well, sadly, in our day and age, many young people are not doing anything to dispel that notion. I think what older men and women see us doing in a lot of cases, Cases is approaching each situation and asking what's in it for me.

16:36And I see this often in Facebook. I've mentioned this before. You get invited to an event, and there's not two options, there's three. Yes, no, maybe. Maybe. Well, you're coming or you're not coming. Like, you're either free or you're not free, and you want to go or you don't. But we have maybe, because we like to send the message, like, hey, I might be there. I like you. But if I get a better offer, I'm not going to come. That's really what's going on, most of the, right? That's really what's happening for a lot of us is we're saying, like, I want to weigh all my options as the event approaches. Because we're asking what's in it for me. We're not asking, as we approach each situation, how can I die to myself, lay down my life, and serve other people.

17:26Last week was Halloween, kind of. It was raining and, you know, a nasty night. But we have a Halloween outreach that we do every year, and our youth group staffs that entire party. And so we had a bunch of teenagers and preteens that gave up their whole night to come and serve little kids to make sure that they could have a fun and dry and safe Halloween. Now, those preteens and teenagers could have been doing any other things that they wanted to do with their friends that night, but they are learning to lay down their lives. To ask, not what's in it for me. What's in it for them that night was like two and a half hours of bending over and picking up a ball or a ring or a beanbag like a thousand times. That's what was in it for them. But it was a way for them to serve, it was a way for them to lay down their lives. Everybody asks, What's in it for me? But we're called to set an example in love.

18:21Fourth, Paul says, set an example in faith. The world insists on walking by sight, but we're called to walk by faith. Look at Hebrews 11:1. I love this verse. Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. What a juxtaposition of words. How can you be assured of that which you hope for? How can you be convicted about things that you haven't seen? You see, friends, even though many people will tell you otherwise, especially on the college campus, every single person in the world is exercising faith. All of us. We're all examining the evidence that is available before us, and we're saying, This is what I choose to believe based on the evidence. So some people look at the evidence that's out there and they say, I don't think that God exists. Others of us look at the evidence and we say, I do believe the God exists. I do believe that Jesus was his. Son, I believe he died and rose again on my behalf. But every single person is living their life by faith.

19:39And so when we look at this verse, we're reminded that that's what it is. It's being assured about things that we hope for and convicted about things that we can't see. Now, I think it may come as a surprise, but walking by faith is hard for me. If you're here and you're just kind of exploring Christianity, you may have thought that for Christians or for Christian leaders, faith comes naturally. That it's just easy to believe for most Christians or most Christian leaders. But that's actually not the case. And it's not the case because every day we are called to believe not in what we can see, but in what we can't see. We're called to trust not what everyone is saying around us, but in the Word of God.

20:30So we're called to believe, for example, that God is caring for us, that He's going to provide for our needs, that we're not on our own, that He is watching out for us. And that's really hard to do when all of your circumstances around you are sending you a different message. Your financial position is tenuous, and you're not sure how you're going to pay your bills this month. Or your health takes a turn for the worse, or the health of somebody that you love. Or your relationship status is not what you want it to be.

21:00And so you can look at those circumstances, and your two options are to walk by faith. I trust that God is going to care for me and provide for me in every way, or to walk by sight and say, this must be evidence that God is not here, that He doesn't care. But every single day, those of us who consider ourselves Christians are making the hard choice to walk by faith. To say, in spite of what I see around me that might lead me to a different conclusion, I'm going to choose to believe God's word because he has always proven himself faithful in history, and he's proven himself faithful in my life many times. And so I will choose to believe. We're called to set an example in faith.

21:43And then finally, Paul says that we are called to set an example in purity. And this may be the most challenging example to set in our culture today. Look at Ephesians 5:11 and 12. Paul says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. Look at that phrase, take no part. That's such a challenging phrase. It leaves no ambiguity. Take no part.

22:25As believers in Jesus, we should have nothing to do with the unfruitful works. Of darkness. But I think that's a tough thing to do in our day and age when you think about the things that are promoted in the media. You listen to the music of our day, you watch the television shows of our day, you see what's being put out in the movies in our day. And that's a very hard thing to do. And there is a real difference between music and movies and television shows that tell the truth about the human condition.

23:02That we all have sinful motivations and sinful hearts and what results from those things. There's a difference between movies that tell the truth about those things and movies and music and shows that glorify sin. And I don't think many professing believers today are asking the hard questions: Should I listen to this? Should I watch this? Should I participate in this? It seems that our standards are: if it's critically acclaimed and available on Netflix, I should watch it. I should listen to it.

23:35But Paul says that we should take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness. We're called to set an example in purity. And that will lead to awkward situations. Or we could say they lead to gospel opportunities. When you tell your friends, this is why I don't want to go see that movie. This is why I don't think I should watch that show. This is why I choose not to listen to that kind of music. And the same is true for our relationships.

24:04The world is not surprised when young men and women are engaged in sexual immorality outside of marriage. They expect that that goes on in the church as well. What's a surprise to them is when we conduct ourselves differently. And when we explain to them, this is the reason that we do these things. We've been transformed by the grace of God. And we want our lives to be an accurate representation of Jesus and his message. And so we are called, young as we are, to set an example in purity. And you think about all of those things that Paul just named. I mean, look back at that list. In love, speech, conduct, faith, purity, all five of those areas. That's quite an example to set. But one of the things that I love about God and I love about his word is that he sets the bar high for young people.

24:58The Bible does not say because you are young or if you're young, you don't have to set an example. You get a free pass. But rather, the Bible sets the bar high for all of us, no matter our age, no matter our spiritual maturity, there's a high bar. And that's a wonderful thing. I think our expectations for preteens and teenagers, for college students and young singles, young married couples is way too low. It's way too low. If we have been saved by the grace of God, and if every one of us who has believed in Jesus, Has the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Why should the standard be low? The standard should be high.

25:40And as we strive to meet that standard, people are pointed to the person and work of Jesus. And as we fail to meet that standard, and we confess our sin and our failure before our family members and our friends and our co-workers and classmates, we point people to Jesus and His work. That's the whole point. We need a Savior. We don't match up. We don't live up all the time to those standards and never perfectly. So we are to set an example that will point others to Christ. And we do that, as we're going to see, through devotion to God's Word. Look at verse 13.

26:21Paul says, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. So Timothy is supposed to devote himself to three things until the Apostle Paul gets there. The first is the public reading of Scripture. Now, he's referring particularly to the Old Testament. Not only was that fully written, but it was available in most of the synagogues and churches. Most of the New Testament letters had been written by this point in time, but they weren't widely available. They hadn't been copied and distributed widely yet. And so he's mainly referring to the Old Testament.

27:00And that's so instructive for us today because I think there's a lot of people out there that think, you know, as Christians, we can only benefit from the New Testament. But, friends, all of God's Word is pointing to the person and work of Christ. We can benefit from all of it. And so, Paul tells Timothy, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture. Now, that was especially important when you didn't have the internet, you didn't have a copy of the Bible in your home. You might have had one copy of certain books of the Bible. It was especially important back then. But, friends, public reading of Scripture is just as important today because we need to hear the Word of God read without any comment or discussion.

27:44We live in a society that wants to engage in debate about everything, but there is a time and a place where we need to sit down or stand up and be quiet and simply listen to the Word of God as it is read to us. We need to hear God's Word without discussion or comment at times. Now, there's a time and a place for comments and discussion. That's what the sermon is. That's what teaching is. In life groups, when we sit around and we talk about the text together, that's what we're doing. There's a time and a place for that. That's good. But we also need room just simply to hear God speak. And that's why we devote at least two times during our worship service to the public reading of Scripture so we can hear it without commentary.

28:29He says, Yourself to exhortation. That Greek word could also be translated to encourage or console. It's referring to the preaching act generally, but specifically to encouragement and consolation. So back then in the Jewish synagogue, it was customary for the Old Testament scriptures to be read, and then that would be followed by an exposition. This was the basis for the expository sermon in the New Testament church. So if you're familiar with the Gospels, you know that Jesus did this. He was present in a synagogue one day. He was handed the scroll of Isaiah. He read from the book of Isaiah, and then he made comments on that. This is what happened. And every preacher's job is to take the biblical text and to unfold it before you in such a way that you understand it and that you are encouraged and consoled by it, as exhortation is referring to. I know that all of us walk in on Sunday mornings and we have some version of a smile on our face.

29:35And people, as we walk in, say, How are you? And in that split second, you have to decide what do they mean? Do they mean hi? Or do they mean, I would like to know if you just had a fight with your children and your wife before you got here? What does how are you mean? All of us come in. With what we could call church faces. And I'm not saying that's a bad thing. I don't necessarily think we should all come through the door weeping and gnashing our teeth. We're here to celebrate the resurrection of Christ. We're glad to see one another, but it is also true that every one of us walks in these doors every single Sunday in various stages of discouragement.

30:22We're discouraged over things that are going on in our lives, relationships, challenges at work, challenges at home, and we need encouragement. We need consolation. So every single time that we stand up to preach the word, that's the hope: that through the word of God and through the gospel, particularly, you are encouraged afresh to place your hope in a great Savior who knows and understands every difficulty that you're going through, and that you are consoled by the Word of God. If you are distressed over your sin and failure, you should know there is a Savior, Jesus, who takes all of your sin and failure, who died and rose again for it.

31:05And so Timothy is to give himself to exhortation, to encouraging and to consoling. And finally, he's to give himself to teaching. Because there's always a couple of potential hang-ups with the Word of God. Sometimes we just don't understand what we're reading. Isn't that true? You're going through the Bible in a year and you're in the book of Numbers. There are some passages you read, you're like, I do not understand what I am reading. Reading. We need faithful preachers and teachers to help us understand the meaning of the text sometimes.

31:38But then at other times, it's not that we don't understand it, we understand it just fine. The question for us is: how does this apply to my life today? We need help to apply it to our lives. I love the book of Nehemiah. It's one of my favorite books in the Bible. If you've never read it, I highly encourage you to do so. In this book, there's a time where the Levites, those who are responsible for worship, are leading in worship and they're reading God's Word. And in Nehemiah 8:8, we find this.

32:09They, that is the Levites, read from the book, from the law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. So I want you to look at what they did there. They read from the law of God, so from the Old Testament. They did so clearly. That word could also be translated with interpretation. They gave the sense so that the people understood the reading. This is a model for all expositional preaching and teaching. We want to open up God's Word. We want to help you understand it, to interpret it rightly, and then to apply it to your life. These are the things that Timothy was to devote himself to, to public reading, to exhortation, and to teaching. And all of that was important because it would keep the Devoted to God's Word. And as we learned from Romans 10, faith comes through hearing. So remaining devoted to God's Word is so important. The Word of God has power to change hearts and lives unlike anything else. So Timothy is to devote himself to those things that highlight the Word of God. And he's going to do that by using His gift. Look at verse 14.

33:30Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the Council of Elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Now, what gift is Paul referring to? He doesn't specify either here or when he mentions it elsewhere, like in 2 Timothy 1. However, he does mention that the gift was given to him by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on him. And so, briefly, I just want to point out here that the church recognized God's call on Timothy's life.

34:11They recognized that they laid their hands on him. They acknowledged that God had called him to the work of ministry in this way. Timothy didn't appoint himself, the church didn't appoint him, but they recognized that God had called, God had appointed him, and so they laid their hands on him. And that's important because all authority is derived from God. So, a pastor's authority in the local church comes from the fact that he's been appointed by God to preach and teach God's word, not his own opinions.

34:43And so, Paul says, I want you to use the gift that you have. Now, spiritual gifts are gracious gifts from God. That's actually what the word means. It means that which is given freely or a gift. And I think when we look at elsewhere in Scripture, 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12, we learn that every single Christian has at least one spiritual gift. When we believe in Jesus, every one of us is filled with the Holy Spirit, and we're all given at least one spiritual gift. And Timothy's spiritual gift seems to be that of shepherd-teacher. We encounter that gift being described in Ephesians 4. We talked about that in the second sermon in our counterculture series back in August. So, if you want to listen to that sermon, it's on the website.

35:31Pastor, teacher, or shepherd-teacher, that seems to be Timothy's gift. And what's really interesting is that Paul tells him, look at what he says, do not neglect the gift you have. I think that many of us, if we think of spiritual gifts at all, don't think of them as something that can be neglected or developed. We think of spiritual gifts just as something that's static. You either have it or you don't. But here, Paul is insinuating that a spiritual gift can atrophy from lack of use, or that it can be developed through practice, through devoting yourself to it. That's a very interesting thing to consider. And if we think about other gifts that God gives to people, that would make sense. So think about what we would call natural gifts, maybe intelligence or athletic ability. You might be born a naturally intelligent person.

36:32But if you don't develop that through studying a subject or many subjects, your intelligence is not going to be put to full use. Or think about athletic ability. If you enjoy sports, you can probably think of players like this. They had tremendous natural ability, but they didn't work very hard to develop that gift. And as a result, they did not achieve what they could have achieved. In the same way, our spiritual gifts can be developed or they can be neglected. And in Timothy's case, God seems to have given him the gift of teaching. So Paul says, practice these things, immerse yourself in them so that your progress will be evident to all. Timothy was supposed to make progress as a teacher that was observable by everybody around him. That would benefit not just him, obviously, but it would benefit the church. Charles Spurgeon, I've mentioned him before in Sermons. He was a Baptist pastor in the 1800s, and he started a pastor's college. And he wrote a book called Lectures to My Students. It's really just the manuscripts of many of his classes that he taught. And one of those classes became a chapter in the book. It's called The Necessity of Ministerial Progress. Here's one of my favorite quotes from Charles Spurgeon. Look what he says. If some men were sentenced to hear their own sermons, it would be a righteous judgment upon them. And they would soon cry out with Cain, My punishment is more than I can bear. Let us not fall under the same condemnation.

38:10See, Spurgeon knew that spiritual gifts like that of teaching God's word could be neglected or it could be developed. And so he says, It is necessary that we make progress. Hopefully, those of you who have been here at New Life since the beginning would say, Pastor Allen has made progress. You can go listen to the early sermons on the website and judge for yourself. But hopefully, we could say, This is what we're all doing with our spiritual gifts. So, whether your spiritual gift is mercy, or administration, or prophecy, or helps, or any number of gifts that are mentioned all throughout the scriptures, that we are devoting ourselves, practicing them, immersing ourselves in them, so that our progress is evident to everyone around us. Whatever gift we have, we need to develop it. And so, Paul concludes then this section with this important reminder. Challenge. Look at verse 16.

39:07Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers. All Christians are called to watch their lives and their doctrine, what we believe. And I think for most of us, we're pretty careful with our doctrine. We're pretty careful to watch what we believe, but we stop at some point watching our lives. And so, for a lot of people, there comes a time where you believe the right things, at least on paper, but your life is not matching up to that. And that's called hypocrisy.

39:48But for others, they keep a careful watch on their lives, but they fail to watch their doctrine. So when you look at these folks, there's nothing about them externally that would lead you to think anything is wrong. Their lives are above reproach. They're setting a good example. But maybe they're doing that because they have wrong beliefs, and they're doing it from a wrong motivation. And eventually that's going to result in leaving the gospel altogether, as we saw a couple of weeks ago. So Paul commands Timothy to watch his life and his teaching and what he believes. He needs to make sure that he teaches the truth about Jesus, because as we talked about, everyone is watching. And look at what Paul says. This is a remarkable statement. Persist in this, for by so doing, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

40:44Now, maybe you've read that verse before, maybe you've never read that, but it probably stands out to you, and you're thinking to yourself, what in the world? I thought we were saved by grace through faith. How could we save ourselves? How could we save anyone else? Now, of course, Paul did not believe that Timothy could save himself in the sense of earning forgiveness and reconciliation with God. But he meant that as long as Timothy holds fast to the gospel, as long as his life is giving evidence that he is genuinely converted through the good news of Jesus, then he's going to be saved. Look at what Jesus himself said at the end of the Gospel of Matthew when he's teaching about the last days. He says, And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

41:42Or look at Hebrews 3, verse 14. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. If we hold our original confidence firm to the end. What is this original confidence that he speaks of? That original confidence is the gospel message. Because in Timothy's case, as well as in our case, there were many people who started off saying, I believe in Jesus. I believe that he was the Messiah. I believe that he rose again from the dead. I believe that I can be saved only through him.

42:24That's the original confidence. And what Paul is saying is backing up the teaching of Jesus himself, as well as the other apostles, who are saying there is no other way to be saved other than holding on to the gospel message. So we know from other parts in the New Testament that if we are genuinely converted, if we truly trust in Christ, we cannot lose our salvation. It is God who is our good shepherd that holds us, who knows his sheep by name. But he is pointing out that there are many people who profess to believe in Jesus at one point, but don't hold on to that original confidence, don't hold on to that original hope until the end. But that's the only way to be saved. The only way to be saved is to trust in Jesus and in Jesus alone for salvation. So as long as Timothy himself held fast to that message, as long as his trust was in Christ, and as long as he pointed others, his hearers, to Jesus as the only way to be saved, he would be saved. Would be saved through that message that he's preaching.

43:34Friends, nothing is more important than what we believe and how we live our lives. That's why it's critical for us to keep a close watch on ourselves and on our doctrine. And so, perhaps you're here today and you've been listening to this message, and you think to yourself, you know, Alan, I'm not a teacher like Timothy. I'm not a preacher in a local church. I don't see what this has to do with me. But you must understand that to someone in your life, you are a teacher. To the children who look up to you because you're a parent or because you work with kids as a teacher or maybe a volunteer here at the church, you are teaching them something with what you say and how you live. For your coworkers at your office, you are teaching them every day, this is what a Christian believes, and this is how a Christian lives in light of what we believe. For your classmates and neighbors, every single day we are setting an example and we are pointing others to Christ or away from Christ through what we believe and how we live our lives. And so we want to ensure that what we teach and what we believe, as well as how we live our lives, is pointing people to Jesus, the Savior that we need. That's why devotion to God's Word is so important. Important because when we devote ourselves to God's Word, our teaching and example points others to Christ. Let's pray.

45:15Father, we reflect on your word to us this morning and we see a high bar that you've set for us. You haven't just set a high bar for people in their 50s and 60s and 70s who have been walking with you for decades, but you set a high bar for every single person. People in their 40s and 30s and 20s, teenagers and children who profess to believe in you. And yet, as we reflect on our own lives, we see how many times we fail to clear that bar with our example.

46:10We may have spoken to our children in an angry way this morning. We may have gotten into an argument with our spouse today. We may have not honored you with what we did last night. We may have lost our temper at our job or driving down the street. And so, God, we are thankful this morning that you haven't just called us to a high bar, that you've sent Jesus to save us from our failure to meet your perfect standard. That he cleared that bar for us.

47:00And so, God, we don't rest on any kind of cheap grace that would tell us that because Jesus is the Savior that we need, it doesn't matter how we live our lives. We do want to be godly people. We do want to set an example that points others to Christ. But we also are so glad to be reminded that Jesus is the Savior that we need for our failures. And so, I pray for the parents who are discouraged.

47:34I pray for the marriages that are going through a rough time. I pray for the singles who are working many hours a week at their job and may have had a difficult time with a boss or a coworker recently. I pray for the college students who are trying to set an example in all of these areas when everyone around them is calling them to do it. Something else. I pray for the kids, some of whom have already professed faith in you, because it's not easy growing up to set an example worth imitating of faith in Christ. And so, God, for all of these people and many more, we pray.

48:23And we are so thankful that your word tells us that if we confess our sins and our failures to you, that you are faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness and to cleanse us from our sin. We pray that we together would set an example worth imitating. And we pray that you would be honored. And we pray that people would come to faith in Jesus through our teaching and example. Thank you, God, for speaking to us today. In Christ's name, amen.