1 Timothy 4, 7, but refuse profane
and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. Now this verse is the flip side
of verse 6. opposite of Words of faith and
good doctrine you see that in verse six Words of faith and
good doctrine the opposite of that is profane and old wives
fables That's what he's saying profane now is ungodly It just
simply means ungodly or not godlike That's why he uses the word godliness
at the end of the verse, to contrast that profane is ungodly, exercise
thyself rather to godliness. Most of the religion of this
world, no matter what brand it is, preaches that which is not
godlike. And that's what he's talking
about here, is the preaching. He's talking to Timothy. a young
preacher writing to him, and these words are to him, and you
remember verse six, if thou put the brethren in remembrance of
these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ. He's
talking about the gospel, not how you act in everyday life,
although that goes with it, of course. He's talking about the
gospel. He's talking about the church,
the preaching. And when he says godliness or
ungodliness. So that's why I say most of the
religion of this world, doesn't matter what brand it is, preaches
that which is not godlike. It's profane. That's what he's
talking about. Again, a word that we use differently,
it's in the scripture, so we need to understand what God is
saying. When we say somebody's profane, that means they use
cuss words. It's not God-like. And he's talking about what they
say, what they teach, what they preach. What kind of minister
are you? That's what he's talking about
here. God loves everybody, and yet
most people are gonna go to hell anyway. It's not God-like. That
is not God-like, that's profane by the definition of God's word.
Christ died for everybody, but most of them are gonna go to
hell anyway, is not God-like. That's not how a God acts. That's
not what happens when somebody's God. God wants to save you if you'll
let him is not God-like. That's what this is talking about,
profane. What is God-like is God saves
who he wants to save. That's God-like. What is God-like is I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I'll harden who I want to
harden. That's God-like. What is God-like is I lay down
my life for my sheep and they shall never perish. If Christ
died for you, you're in real good shape. That's God-like. Not he died for everybody and
people were already in hell when he died. That's not God-like. So understanding that word profane
in our text is key here. Old wives' fables, you got profane,
you got old wives' fables. That's stuff that's just made
up. You know that preachers just make stuff up. That's what an
old wives' fable is. Half of what false preachers
preach is a perversion of scripture, profane, and the other half is
complete fairytale. You know it and I know it, purgatory? That's not even relevant enough
to be profane. It's a fairytale. Walk in an
aisle, That's made up. Where do you see that in the
Word of God? Saying the sinner's prayer? That's a fairy tale. Having your sins forgiven by
a sinner? Where do you see that in the
Word of God? Praying to Mary? They just make stuff up because
it sounds good. to them, forbidding to marry. We saw that recently. That's
self-righteousness. Rosaries, crosses, it's all completely
made up. It's the opposite of words of faith and good doctrine. And it's what religion preaches.
Refuse all of that, he's saying, and exercise thyself. And that's
an interesting word. The Greek word there for exercise
thyself is gymnasio. Pretty sure that's where we get
the word gym from, or gymnasium. Exercise thyself. In other words,
spend your efforts, exert yourself in godliness. not that which
99.9% of all religion is exercised with. God-likeness is simply
believing that God is God and acting like it. It's not complicated. Spend your efforts on that. Reverence. Do what you do reverentially. That's God-likeness. That's understanding
that God is God. To reverence him, to worship
him, to obey him. Mary said, whatever he tells
you, do it. And he didn't say pray to Mary.
Whatever he says, do that. That's what God-likeness is in
us. is to act like God is God. Obedience is not perfect obedience,
it's not meritorious obedience, but if God says, this is my beloved
son, hear him, you better hear him. Obey the gospel. I want to listen up when God
speaks. Whatever God says, I pray he'll
give me grace to obey it with all my heart. It's to know that
God being God saves whom he will and act, worship him accordingly. False religion believes that
everything's up to me and I act accordingly. It's to know that any covenant
that's of God is ordered in all things and sure. Because it's
God to worship and to walk accordingly. It's to know that Christ is all,
Christ is all of our righteousness. God requires the righteousness
of God and Christ is the righteousness of God for sinners. Christ is all of our salvation. The concept of salvation is a
very simple one. God is holy. You're a wretched,
vile sinner that deserves to go to hell. And if you're not
gonna go to hell, God's gonna have to do something about it.
The more you do, the more you sin. The more you do better,
you think, the more you sin. Your righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. So God's got to do something.
Christ is all of our salvation. Christ is all of our salvation
and we understand this, he's all the salvation we need. We
don't have anybody but him. Bless God, we don't need anybody
but him. and to act like that, to act like that, to worship
and walk according to that understanding. Remember the word doctrine in
verse six, it still applies here. To believe Him and to act accordingly. Now look at verse eight for a
minute in our text. For bodily exercise profiteth
little but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise
of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. Now
man's religion, you know this, and I know this, it's all about
the physical, the outward exercises of religion. Doing this and doing
that. Walking around door to door,
not so much anymore, since they don't want to get shot. Doing
charitable events, though, and don't necessarily think of strenuous
exercise as in a gym. That word is used in a spiritual
sense here. It's spiritual exercise. It's just anything to do with
the physical rather than the spiritual is what they exercise.
Bodily exercise, bodily effort, bodily motions profit little
All the bead counting the repetitive praying that they do that pouring
this and draping that I don't even know what it is All the
food drives in the soup kitchens. They always got some kind of
an event going on Some of these things have their place Which is why Paul said little
rather than nothing They profit little Profit a little bit and I'll
tell you the key to that Is the last part of the verse But think about this now God
is not worshipped with men's hands Paul said he's not worshipped
with men's hands men's activities men's efforts as though he needed
anything and Think about it. God has spoken.
Here's what God said. And man does all this stuff because
he thinks that God needs us to do all those things. Let's get
people saved. Let's get people to come to church.
Let's get people down the aisle. Let's get decisions. Wait a minute. God didn't say he'd save sinners
like that. He doesn't need all your efforts.
Just listen to what he said. believe him, tell what he said,
and pray that sinners will believe by his grace. They will according
to his purpose. Whoever he's ordained to eternal
life will believe. And that's it, not the bodily
exercises. You see what he's saying? All
that stuff that religion does. It profits very little. They
might every once in a while do something that's good on some
level by charitable events and things like that. Feeding the
poor is something that's important, but it's not the ministry of
Christ. It's something we should just
do. And what he said he will use to save
sinners, though, is not that. It's not feeding them soup. That's
not how sinners are saved. That'll profit them a little
bit. But if they go to hell, it doesn't matter whether they
go to hell hungry or full of soup. That's what profits is
the gospel. That's what men need. The one
thing needful is not a meal. It's Christ. That's what he means
by little and much. Feeding the poor is important.
I don't want you to take me wrong on that. It has nothing to do
with the life that is to come, though. You see what he said?
That which is to come. We got to think about that. Religion
travels across the world to give people free dental work or medical
care in these remote villages, but they don't have any gospel
to tell anybody when they go. That profiteth little. It may
profit a little bit. That's not what we do. I'm glad
that poor folks can be relieved of ailments and such, but that
ain't gonna help them in the life to come. If you're gonna
go over there, go preach the gospel to them. That's what the
missionaries that we've supported Do. Even in the life that now is, think about this, not only is
the helping in charitable things with regard to the flesh, not
gonna affect the life to come at all, but it's not even gonna
help them in this life, like knowing the Savior would. That's
the reason for the word little, Verse nine goes right with it.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Now,
this is important. This is the gospel. Don't ever
forget this. This is a faithful saying. Most
sayings are not, but this is. Help people all you can now in
any way and every way you can. Somebody needs a coat, we're
to give them one. Somebody needs a meal, make them
one, provide them one if you can, but always, always remember
this, this is a faithful say, what they really need is Christ. If you can tell them about Christ
now, that'll help them in this life and in that which is to
come. It'll help them in this life
like nothing else will. And you'll realize in the effort
to be useful in people knowing the Lord, you're gonna find now
that since the religious gimmicks and cliches are completely useless,
that being useful is not so easy during just a brief encounter
with somebody. That's something we're gonna
find out. When we find out we wanna really be useful to somebody,
Probably not going to happen at the grocery store. The gimmicks
that religion uses. Somebody asked me in, I think
it was Walmart or Target. It might've been Target. Do you
know you're going to go to heaven when you die? I said, none of your business.
It ain't none of his business. Not if he's going to confront
me like that. What's gonna be helpful is for
somebody to hear the gospel preached That's what's helpful But let
me say this again now true charity true charity is a beautiful thing
helping people It's a beautiful thing. I see hungry children.
That's what tears me up more than anything is I don't know, maybe those dirty,
skinny little kids on TV, that may be staged, I don't know.
But I know there's hungry children in this world, and that kills
me. I want to smoke them a brisket
or something so bad it hurts. You know what I'm talking about?
To feed people that are hungry. But never forget this. Christ is more than our necessary
food. The true Christ of the Bible
is the one thing that every sinner needs. Verse 10, for therefore we both
labor and suffer reproach. You see
what he's saying? We labor in that, we exercise
ourself unto God-likeness. Because we trust him. You see, what I was talking about
a while ago, here's God's word, and here's religion doing all
this stuff that has nothing to do with God's word. God said,
here's how I'll save sinners, here's how a sinner's saved.
And we got all this that has nothing to do with that. Paul
says we do this, why? Because we trust Him. We listen
to Him. We get our marching orders from
Him. We don't just do what feels right to the flesh, we do what
He said. We do things His way. We trust in the living God, who
is the Savior. Think about that, we're gonna
get people saved. Wait a minute, he's the savior
and he said just preach the gospel to them. How about that? He's the one that's gonna save
them if they're gonna be saved. Maybe we ought to just do what
he said. You see what he's saying here? Paul says, we labor, we
labor to benefit the souls of men, not just the body. We labor
for that which benefits not only in this life, but in the life
that is to come. We labor in that, in God-likeness. We preach a God-like God. You
know what I mean by that? I know that's a weird way to
say it, but we preach a God that's God-like. Words of faith. Words to believe
and which to believe is everlasting life. Thou hast the words of
eternal life, the words of faith and good doctrine. I like the
way he said that in verse six. What a beautiful thing. What a privilege we have to tell
forth the words that are conducive to faith in
Christ. Good teaching. Godly teaching,
God-like teaching. God saves who he wants to. That's
God-like. Christ died for his people and
everybody he died for, he redeemed them. That's God-like. The truth of Christ. We do that
in order to profit sinners Eternally, we care about God's
grace for the souls of men. We want to see sinners saved
by the preaching of the doctrine of Christ alone, through faith
alone, by grace in Him alone, through faith in Him alone, by
grace alone. We want sinners to know the God
like God, the sovereign, the one who said, I've spoken it,
I'll also do it. We want them to know the Savior
who is God, who gives life to whomsoever He will. You come
to Him, He'll give you life. And something else, we both labor
and we suffer reproach. We gladly make ourselves repugnant
to this world, not just for the sake of being repugnant, But
knowing that this world hates our Savior, we preach Him, we
go gladly with Him outside the camp, rather than enjoy the popularity
and the earthly prosperity that goes with telling people what
they want to hear. Free will, man-centered, anti-Christ
religion. We know that that won't profit
anybody. and that the gospel will profit
everybody, and so we choose by God's grace the reproach of Christ. So be it. Why? Because we trust in the living
God. If I trust what I see, if I gauge
success by what I experience, I would do things a lot different.
But I don't do that. Why? the living God. Religion does all of the begging
and pleading and compromising the truth and all that they do
in order to get results. But by God's grace, we do what
he told us to do because we know he's the savior of all. And we
trust him. We trust him to save by the means
that he said he would save. Think about the next words in
that verse now in conjunction with what we've already said.
Who is the savior of all men? We speak the words of faith and
good doctrine and we guard against profane, ungodly, false doctrine,
because God is the savior of all men. Think about this now. The words of faith and good doctrine
is foolishness to men, but it's what God said. It's God's gospel,
and he's the one that we need to save us. Man's not gonna save you, so
why listen to man? Will you give heed to what sounds
good to the flesh, or will you give heed to what God said, God
who is the only one that can save? What religion says might
make more sense to you, might sound more fair to you, for example,
but religion can't save you. Paul, or Peter said to those
ones in the book of Acts, he said, you're gonna have to come
and bow before the very one that you crucified. Because there's
no other name under heaven given among men, whereby you must be
saved. We know that God doesn't save
all men. He's not the savior of all men
in the sense that he saves all men. It's not that anybody, anywhere,
and everybody, everywhere is saved by God. We know that from
the word of God. We don't say that because we
deduce that. We know from God's word. He loves
and he hates. He casts into hell And He redeems
and takes to be with Him forever those whom He chose. But I'll
tell you this, if anybody anywhere, anytime in this whole world asks
me, what must I do to be saved? I'm gonna point to Him. That's
how He's the Savior of all men. I don't care who you are. He's
the Savior. He's the Savior. I'm going to point him to the
God of the Bible, His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, His sacrifice,
His blood, His saving grace, His power to save. He's the Savior
of all men, though He doesn't actually save all men. And Paul
adds this to be clear, God is specifically or chiefly the Savior
of them that believe. In that sense, He is the Savior
of all of them. Everybody that believes on him.
He's not the Savior of all men in the sense that he saves all
men But he is the Savior of all that believe on him Because those
are the ones that the father gave to him in the eternal covenant
of grace That's what he said in John 6 35 Turn there with me because I'm
almost through and I Let's look at this together,
John 6.35. This is very familiar scripture, but boy, I tell you,
the more I... The Lord reveals, like when you
read this from the viewpoint of another text of scripture,
scripture sheds light on scripture. Thinking about what we've been
talking about this morning. Look at this passage John 635
and Jesus said unto them. I am the bread of life He that
cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst But I said unto you that you also have seen me
and believe not All that the Father giveth me shall come to
me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For
I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the
will of him that sent me. And this is the father's will,
which has sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which
seeth the son and believeth on him." That's our text. Believeth
on him, especially, specifically, chiefly, them that believe. And who are
they? This is God-like doctrine right
here. This is God-like. All that the Father gave me,
I'm not going to lose any of them. That's God-like. Everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will
raise him up at the last day. That's God, that's how God talks,
I will. I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. So we labor, like Paul said,
we labor. Not so much bodily, physical
labor. There's some of that always,
of course, involved in any ministry. But our real fight, our real
labor, our real work is in spirit. We labor. We do war with his
flesh for one thing, don't we? All the time. Preaching the gospel and hearing
the gospel and Be in part being in on this ministry is not difficult
because preaching the gospel is Strict is Grievous or burdensome But because of our flesh The spirit is willing but the
flesh is weak Because of our flesh it's burdensome It's difficult. We labor. We labor to enter into the rest
that is Christ alone. Still learning that, aren't we?
Christ alone. Christ alone. We labor in the
word. It is called the burden of the
Lord because when God gives you a message, There are times I
wanna just jump up here and not just start preaching. There's
times I wanna call all of you up and get you on Zoom or something
and just preach on Saturday night because God's given me a message. We labor. In the word, we suffer whatever
reproach may come for Christ's sake. Why do we do that? Because this is how God saves
sinners. Because our gospel is God-like. Boy, I love to tell sinners about
a God who's God. I'd hate to have to apologize
for my God. I'd hate to have to talk about
somebody that wants to do things he can't do. You've got to let
him do this and that. How shameful that is. He's the savior of all who call
on him. And how shall they call on him
and who they've not believed? And how shall they believe on
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? How shall they hear unless we labor? How shall they preach except
God send us? God help us to labor and to rejoice,
to be counted worthy if necessary, if he deems it appropriate. Count
it all joy to suffer reproach for his sake. Amen. Let's pray.