Faith in Action

0:311 Timothy 6, verses 11-16. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

1:18He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, Whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. This is God's word. You may be seated. Last week, I finally got around to seeing Hacksaw Ridge, which was nominated for six Academy Awards and won two of them. Hacksaw Ridge is the movie that's based on the book Conscientious Objector. It tells the incredible true story of a man named Desmond Das who enlisted to serve in World War II as a combat medic.

2:03But as a conscientious objector, he was willing to risk his life for others, but he was unwilling to take a life. In fact, he was unwilling even to handle a firearm. So during basic training, he was persecuted for his beliefs. He endured mocking, harassment, even physical violence from the other men in his unit. He was eventually court-martialed and imprisoned on his wedding day for disobeying orders from his superior officer to handle a firearm. However, the Constitution protects freedom of religion, and so Desmond Das was found not guilty, and he was commissioned to serve in the Pacific along with the other men in his unit, most of whom were skeptical of him even being there. His unit arrived in the Pacific on Okinawa, and they were given the task of taking the Meda Escarpment, which is also known as Hacksaw Ridge.

2:57So they ascended this escarpment way in the air. Had to climb up the side of this ridge, and they sustained very, very heavy losses. Desmond Das remained behind when everyone else retreated, and he treated the wounded and then lowered them down to safety. He did this over a period of days, and when all was said and done, he rescued 75 men. He prayed after each one of them, Lord, please help me get just one more. For his efforts and for his valor, he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Truman.

3:33He was one of only 431 men out of 16 million who served in World War II to receive such a distinction. Desmond Das was a godly man who put his faith into action. He lived out his convictions, he would not compromise on them, and he risked his life so that his former persecutors could be rescued and saved. Friends, the Christian faith, as we will be reminded today in 1 Timothy 6, is not mere intellectual assent to a set of facts. It's not passive belief in a God who may be out there somewhere. It is active faith in the living God of the universe.

4:18And so Paul is going to challenge Timothy and us today to be godly men and women. And what we're going to learn here is that godly men and women put their faith into action. So let's look at. The text now together beginning in verse 11. He begins, but as for you, O man of God. You can see right here that Paul is setting up a contrast, and he's setting up a contrast between Timothy and the false teachers that he had been talking about in verses 2 through 10.

4:51He says, but as for you. See, these false teachers saw godliness as a means of gain. They loved controversy. They loved financial gain, and so that's what they were after. They only faked godliness to get those things, fame and fortune. Timothy, on the other hand, was a man of God. You see that phrase used all throughout Scripture, especially in the Old Testament. And what's significant is that in the Old Testament, it was almost always used of a prophet of Israel.

5:29So Moses is called a man of God. Samuel is called a man of God. It refers to both God's anointing and to their own godliness. And so Paul is calling Timothy here man of God, and he selects that phrase purposely to remind Timothy that he has been empowered and called by the same God that called Moses and Samuel and all of the other godly men and women of Israel. He wants him to understand that that same God has called him. His calling has been revealed. Recognized by the church, and so Timothy doesn't need to be afraid.

6:04Yes, he has to confront these false teachers. Yes, he has to teach the truth in an era where the truth was not well received, but he could do so with confidence. He didn't have to be afraid because God had called him. He was a man of God. And with that encouraging transition, Paul is going to issue four imperatives, four commands over the next one and a half verses. And I want you to pay special attention to these verbs because it shows us so clearly that Christianity is a faith of action.

6:40Look at what he starts with: flee, flee these things. Now, what things is Paul talking about? Well, it's the very things that the false teachers were known for: love of controversy and love of money. What's significant is that in the Christian life, sometimes we're called to fight and sometimes we're called to flee. And strangely enough, a lot of us fight against the things that the scripture says that we are simply to flee. Think about sexual immorality.

7:17So many people are battling, fighting sexual immorality. The scripture says flee sexual immorality. There are certain things that are so dangerous that have the ability to undermine our walk with. With the Lord in such a profound way, the scripture says, don't fight these things, run away, flee. And another one of those things is the love of money. You see, I think we can understand why we're called to flee controversy. We don't want to be divisive people.

7:49We don't want to start fights in the church, especially with one another. I mean, I think we can understand that. Why does Paul call us to flee the love of money? Well, as Beau taught last week from 1 Timothy 6:2 through 10, we saw that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. And that's very important what the scripture says because it's one of the misquoted verses, one of the most misquoted verses from the scripture. It's probably just behind judge not, or you also will be judged.

8:27This is probably the second most misunderstood verse. It does not say money is the root of all evil. Anytime somebody brings that up, just say wrong. Lies, fake news. The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. And it is a root of one of the worst kinds of evil. That evil is idolatry. Loving, worshiping anything other than the one true God. Many professing Christians would say, I don't love money. And what they mean by that is they're not pursuing monetary gain as an end in and of itself.

9:15In other words, they're not just trying to build up their bank account bigger and bigger and bigger. It is true that some people love money in that way. Money is an end in and of itself. The end goal is just to get more of it. But I don't think that's the struggle for most of us. I don't think we want money for money's sake. I think we want money to purchase a lifestyle. That's what we want.

9:42Instagram is the great truth teller of the past few years. Instagram reveals what we really love. And if you stop and think about it for a minute, most Instagram posts fall into one of three general categories. Look who I'm with. Look what I bought. Look what I'm doing. Look who I'm with. Look what I bought. Look what I'm doing. Almost every single post falls into one of those categories, and that's because what we really love is not money itself, but what money gives us the ability to purchase products, experiences.

10:30Going for a lifestyle. So it doesn't matter if that lifestyle that you're going for is the golf lifestyle or the vacation lifestyle or the hunting lifestyle or the experiences lifestyle of being at the right place at the right time with the right people. Money opens those doors. So most of us rightly say, I don't love money, meaning that we're not trying to get our bank account as big as possible. We're trying to get money to purchase the life that we want. And we want that life because we think that it will give us meaning and purpose and value.

11:01So the reason that Paul says, flee the love of money, is because it's so dangerous and it exists in all of our hearts to some greater or lesser extent. And one of the reasons that it concerns me so much is because I have felt this tension since I became a Christian when I was 19 years old. Some of you know my backstory. I was not raised in a poor family that had little. I was raised in North Dallas, in one of the wealthiest parts of North Dallas. I grew up around money. I grew up with money. And I grew up having the ability, either through my parents or through my own work, to purchase the things that I wanted. And so the lie that I have believed at various times in my life, and the lie that I think many of us believe is, I can do both.

11:52I can follow Jesus, and I can have the things that money can buy. I will be the exception to the rule. Rule. But look at what Jesus teaches in Luke chapter 16 on the screen. No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. That last phrase is so important. Jesus does not say, it is hard to serve God and money, but you can do it if you try hard enough. He says, you cannot serve God and money. It is impossible.

12:48And so when it comes to our own lives, we have to flee from the love of money so that we don't flee from the love of God. So that our love of money does not lead us to a place that we don't want to go, forsaking God for the things of this world. And so Paul says, flee these things. That's the first imperative. Flee. Second, pursue. Look what he says. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.

13:25This Greek word that's translated pursue is so rich. It means something like strive toward, do something with intense effort, with a definite goal in mind. Do something with intense effort with a definite goal in mind. I think so many people conceive of the Christian faith just as a faith of negatives. Don't do this, and don't do this, and don't do this. But we see right here, we're reminded again: the Christian faith is not merely don't do these things, it is positively do these things, pursue these things. And what are we called to pursue? What are we called to strive toward with intense effort? First, righteousness.

14:13That has the sense of doing what is right and fair to other people. And you may remember from just a little bit ago, we talked in the text about how Timothy was called to show no partiality, no favoritism, do what is right and fair before all people. Pursue righteousness. He says we should pursue godliness. A godly person has both right doctrine and right practice, not one or the other. And so we should be those who believe the truth and teach the truth, but also who live in light of the truth. We want to pursue purity in our actions and our motives. We should be godly. We're called to pursue faith. That word could be rendered. Faithfulness or integrity as well. And so, if Paul means faith, then we understand faith is a gift of God that should grow over time. Our faith shouldn't be the same as the first day we believed in Christ years later. We should be growing in faith. We should pursue growth in faith. But if he means faithfulness, then we can especially understand the importance of that characteristic today.

15:25Where so many leaders, not just in the church, but in government, in Hollywood, in business, they lack integrity, they lack dependability. We should be those who are pursuing faithfulness. He calls us to pursue love. That's having a genuine concern for others and their well-being, doing what is best for someone else, even when it costs us something. Love is not merely a feeling that we either have or don't have, it's a choice that we make to do what is in someone else's best interest. We're to pursue love, we're to pursue steadfastness. Another great word, it means endurance, or to bear up under difficult circumstances.

16:18That's a really hard thing to do, to bear up under difficult circumstances. And I think it's especially hard for us today because so many advances in medicine and technology and everything else. Have made it so that we don't have to bear up under difficult circumstances almost ever. You have a headache, that can be immediately solved. Your body is sore, you have medicine that can immediately solve that problem. You want something to eat, go to the fridge, microwave something, go to a fast food restaurant. We don't have to bear up under almost any difficult circumstances. So then, when God brings trials into our lives, we are unnecessarily burdened. We complain. We fail to realize that trials are one of the greatest ways that God sanctifies us. We're called to pursue steadfastness, to endure and bear up under difficult circumstances. And then, finally, we are to pursue gentleness. I love what John Stott said about this. He said, if steadfastness is patience in difficult circumstances, then gentleness is patience with difficult people.

17:36Gentleness is patience with difficult people. That does not come naturally to us, does it? Most of us, we meet a difficult person or we have interactions with a difficult person in the classroom or in our office or at home, and we do everything we can to remove ourselves from that person, to just not be around them. But we're called to be gentle, to bear. With difficult people. And when it's hard for us to bear with difficult people, to have patience with them, the greatest thing that we can do is meditate on how God has been patient with us.

18:17Patient with people like you and me, who are rebellious sinners, who have rejected his commands time and time again, and have broken his laws time and time again. And yet, God continues to bear with us. God continues to pour out his grace on us. Difficult, rebellious people who commit the same sins and make the same mistakes again and again. And so, friends, we are called to pursue, to strive after these characteristics, and there are no shortcuts to that. As much as we love shortcuts, as much as we love hacks in 2017, there are no hacks for becoming this kind of person, a righteous, godly, faithful, loving, steadfast, gentle person. There's no shortcuts. The only way to become that kind of person is to devote yourself to studying God's Word, to devote yourself to prayer, and perhaps most importantly, to put those things into practice in the local church. The Christian life is the only way to do this. Area of life that we expect to make progress without practice.

19:37We don't expect that in academics. We don't expect that in athletics. We don't expect that with our careers. But for some reason, we expect to make progress without putting those things into practice in the local church. We're called to be meaningfully connected, where those things can be lived out and we can grow in them in and among other people who are difficult to bear with, just like we are. We're called to pursue those things. Third command: fight. Look at what he says. Fight the good fight of faith.

20:17This takes us back to chapter 1, verse 18, where Paul called Timothy to wage the good warfare. We name the series What We Did because so many times in 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus, we are reminded, fight the good fight, fight the good fight. Well, friends, fighting is nasty. I was reminded of that this past week as I was watching Hacksaw Ridge. It is dangerous, it is bloody, it is painful. So, any wise person flees from a fight when you can, but the reality is, not all fights can be avoided. Not all fights should be avoided. Sometimes we have to fight. Fight. Just a month ago, we celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church had come to a place where its theology and its practice were so far removed from what the Bible teaches that there was no choice to flee. The Catholic Church could be reformed or people had to leave it. But either way, a fight was coming. A fight had to be fought. And in the same way, those same principles are still at stake today. The gospel is still under attack outside the church.

21:42People questioning the scriptures and the witnesses of Jesus' resurrection. The gospel is under attack inside the church. It's like every week I learn of a new church who is moving away from biblical teaching in some area or another. And of course, the gospel is under attack even in our own hearts as we battle to believe the truth about Jesus and live in light of that truth. And so Paul tells Timothy, fight the good fight of faith.

22:17Every single time I get on social media, I'm like wondering, why do I do this? Every time I get on social media, somebody is fighting about something. Somebody is fighting about something. And more often, Often than not, they're fighting about something that doesn't matter in an ungodly way. We are not called to fight about things that don't matter. And anytime we are in a fight, we are called to do so in a godly way. We are called to fight the good fight of faith. So, friends, are we engaged in the battle? That's the first question. Are we even engaged in the battle? And then, if we are, are we fighting the right fight in the right way? Paul calls Timothy to fight the good fight of faith, and that word is for us as well.

23:06And then, fourth and finally, Paul tells Timothy, take hold. Look again at the text: take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. Well, the word take hold or that phrase take hold is translating a word that means something like seize it, grab onto it. And at first glance, that seems kind of odd that Paul is telling Timothy, take hold of eternal life. I mean, surely Timothy had eternal life. Why did he need to be told to seize it, to take hold of it? It's something that he had.

23:50Well, friends, the reality is we can possess something without fully realizing the benefits of the thing that we possess. Think about a man or a woman who goes out and buys a beautiful new sports car. And they drive it home and they park it in the garage and leave it there because they're afraid if they drive it, they're going to get it scratched or dented or there's going to be an accident of some kind. So it just sits there in the garage. They possess the sports car, it's theirs. But are they enjoying it? No.

24:26And in the same way, we can possess eternal life. Timothy obviously possessed eternal life. Paul reminds him, he's been called to it, just like we have. In fact, in Ephesians 1, Paul says that we were called before the foundation of the world. We made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses for those of us who have put our faith in Christ and been baptized, just like Timothy had. But for a lot of us, we have not seized eternal life. We haven't taken hold of it.

24:58Look at what Paul wrote in Galatians 5 on the screen. He says, For freedom, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Friends, we don't have to submit to a yoke of slavery any longer. If you've put your faith in Christ, you're no longer a slave. And in the context of Galatians 5, what that means is you no longer have to submit to the Old Testament law. Or to any man-made laws. Christ has set us free by fulfilling all of the demands of the law in our place.

25:40But it means more than that. Not only have we been set free from trying to keep the law, whether God's law or the man-made law that people come up with, we've been set free from sin. We don't have to go back to being slaves to the same sin that has held us in bondage for years. Instead, we've been given freedom in Christ. And so Paul reminds us: take hold of eternal life. Don't settle. Don't settle for slavery anymore. You don't have to be a slave. You're free.

26:15And so we see here: Christianity is not a passive faith, it's an active one. We're called to flee, to pursue, to fight, to take hold of. The question is: how are we going to be able to do those things? Well, we can only do it as we hold fast to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look now at verse 13 with me. Paul says, I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession.

27:00For the third time in this letter, Paul is giving Timothy a solemn charge. That's a command or an order. And why do his commands or orders carry authority? Well, it's because, first of all, they're made in the presence of God. And God is the one who gives life to all things, including you and me. And as a result, we are going to stand before God. We are held accountable to him and by him. And it's not only made in the presence of God, it's made in the presence of Christ Jesus. And in the context of this letter, that's really important because when Jesus' enemies bound him, what did he do?

27:46Before Pontius Pilate, he made the good confession. He said, I am the Son of God. I am the Messiah. He testified truly to who he was. He didn't back down. So Paul says, I give you this charge in the presence of God and in the presence of Christ Jesus. And what is that charge? Look at verse 14. To keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

28:24So the charge is to keep the commandment, to keep it unstained. Unstained and free from reproach. Well, what is the commandment that he's referring to? Is it all that he just taught in verses 11 and 12? Is it the whole context of the letter? Or is it something else? Well, I think we can conclude that, of course, Paul wants Timothy to keep his words in verses 11 and 12 as well as what he's written in the rest of the letter. I think that goes without saying. It seems to me from the context that now that Paul is wrapping up his letter, he is referring back to the initial charge that he gave to Timothy back in chapter 1. Look on the screen at verses 3 and 4.

29:11As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. You see, the twofold problem of the false teachers is that they didn't teach the truth and they lived ungodly lives. That was the problem. They taught lies and their lives were ungodly.

29:49And so the commandment that Timothy is having charged to him afresh here in chapter 6 is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, to keep it. Unstained, not allowing it to be tainted by false teaching of any kind, and to live a godly life, one that would not bring reproach on the gospel, but instead would commend the gospel. Because there are two parts to godly living: the first is believing and teaching the truth about God and about ourselves and about Jesus, and the second is living a life that backs up that teaching. So, Paul says, keep the commandment, the command to repent and believe in the gospel, unstained and free from reproach until Jesus returns, until he comes back in all of his glory.

30:42And that is the very same command that we have been given, friends, to go on preserving and proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ, to keep that gospel unstained by living godly lives in an ungodly age, pointing to Christ as our hope for salvation until he comes back. We have the same charge that Timothy had. And friends, the reason that this is so important is because God is worthy of worship. He is worthy of worship, and he is not yet worshipped by people from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

31:23John Piper made famous the quotes where he said, missions exist because worship does. Missions exist because worship doesn't. And so Paul is going to take this last section and he's going to remind us why God is worthy of worship. And he does that in this beautiful doxology, this hymn of praise to God that arises out of Paul's meditation on the return of Christ. So look with me now at verses 15 and 16 as we wrap up.

32:02I'll back up to verse 14 just to give the context here. Keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time. He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the king of kings and lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. Without a right view of God, our passion for worship, to say nothing of our passion for missions and evangelism, is going to wane.

32:52Some Christians believe that the reason that we don't share our faith with more fervency and more frequency is. Because we don't love the lost enough. But I want you to listen to what Dawson says in his book, Taking Our Cities for God. Look at this quote: It is impossible to love the lost. You can't feel deeply about an abstraction or a concept. You would find it impossible to love deeply an unfamiliar individual portrayed in a photograph, let alone a nation or a race or something as vague as all lost people. It is not primarily out of a compassion for humanity that we share our faith or pray for the lost. It is, first of all, love for God. Humanity does not deserve the love of God any more than you or I do. We should never be Christian humanists taking Jesus to poor, sinful people, reducing Jesus to some kind of product that will better their lot. People deserve to be damned, but Jesus, the suffering Lamb of God, deserves the reward of his suffering.

34:10This is why, in all of Paul's letters, he labors to connect worship and mission. When we see God clearly for who he is, we worship him. And when we worship him, our greatest desire. Becomes that people from every tribe, tongue, and nation would worship him also. You cannot disconnect worship from mission. Worship is the fuel for mission. And so, here in verses 15 and 16, Paul is going to move us to worship by reminding us of the nature of God's character. Look at what he says about God. First, God is sovereign, he is the king of kings and lord of lords, the one true God of the universe. He numbers the hairs on our heads, he numbers the days of our lives, he is in control of every minute detail of this universe. He is sovereign.

35:17Second, he is immortal. Everything that has life, either now or in eternity, has life because God bestows it on us. God alone is eternal. He had no beginning and has no end. All of life ultimately derives from him. He is immortal. And third, he is perfectly holy. The text says that God dwells in unapproachable light. No one has seen him or can see him. No sinful human being can be in his presence. That is very bad news.

36:00But the good news is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want you to look on the screen at John 1, 14, and 18. This is an especially wonderful passage to meditate on during the Advent season. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

36:38What a wonderful truth. God is unapproachable. There was no way for sinful people like you and me to ever approach God. So God took it upon himself to approach us. His Son, Jesus, the second member of the Trinity, took on flesh and came and lived among us. He lived a holy and perfect life in our place. And then he gave himself up for our sins, rising from the dead and defeating sin and death. And he did this in order to become our mediator, which we were reminded about in 1 Timothy chapter 2. Look again on the screen.

37:21For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a men. A ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. See, we're reminded through this whole passage that there was no way for us to be right with God, and so God took it upon Himself to send the Savior and the mediator that we needed in the person and work of Jesus. And through faith in Him, sinners like you and me can approach the throne of grace not with trepidation and fear, but with boldness and confidence, because we have access to God through faith in Christ.

38:07Friends, the Christian faith, as we've seen very clearly in this passage, is not mere intellectual assent to a set of facts, it's not passive belief in a God who may exist out there somewhere. It is active faith in the living God of the universe. And because that's true, we must put our faith into action. We have to flee from sin, pursue holiness, fight the good fight of faith, and take hold of eternal life. We have to put our faith into action. But maybe you've been listening today. And as you've been listening, you thought to yourself, that does not describe me right now.

38:54My life, my faith, could not be described as active. I'm not fleeing, I'm not pursuing. I'm not taking hold of, I'm not fighting the good fight of faith. And maybe that's the case because your passion for God has waned. And your passion for God has waned because you've lost your vision. At one point, after coming to faith in Christ, you set your eyes on heavenly things. You loved God, you loved His Word, you loved to talk about Him and to learn about Him, you love to be on mission with Him and for Him. But over time, your gaze lowered to the things of this earth and you've been distracted. And if that's you, today is a day where you are being called to return to your first love, to return again to a God who is not angrily waiting for you, but a Father who waits for you with open arms to again make Him the priority of your life that He deserves to be.

40:04And for others of you, maybe as you've been listening today, you realize that your faith isn't active either. But the whole reason that your faith isn't active is because you've never had saving faith at all. You may have been in the church your entire life. You may have considered yourself a Christian. You may have claimed to be a Christian for one reason or another, but through reading this text and hearing it preached, you've realized, I don't. Have saving faith in Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And if that's the case for you, there is hope.

40:40Jesus is not waiting for you to become a religious enough person. Jesus is not waiting for you to get rid of the sin in your life before you come to him. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. He is calling you to himself today to turn from your sin and to trust in him today. And once you do that, you'll be able to put saving faith into action, like we talked about in James chapter 2 at the opening of the service. Friends, the scripture is clear. If we are really Jesus' disciples, then we will know, everyone will know that we are his disciples because we put our faith into action.

41:21So my prayer for us is that we would be godly men and women who do that, who put our saving faith into action. Let's pray.