Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Timothy and chapter 4, the
portion that we read, and reading from our text, verses 8 and 9. 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. This
is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. 1 Timothy 4 verses 8 and 9. Paul gave to Timothy three faithful
sayings in his letters to him, and then a fourth one to Titus. I spoke to you on Lord's Day
morning from the first of these sayings, which is found in the
first chapter of this epistle. And the saying is in verse 15,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am
chief. Now this evening I desire to
speak to you on the second of these sayings and this then is
found in our text. Now our text is speaking not
of bodily exercises like running or going to the gym or walking
and exercising our body in that way though the saying would indeed
hold true for that, but it is not a comparison between such
exercise and godliness, but rather a comparison between the outward
exercise or acts of worship and of the true inward heart worship
that is, in the sight of God, really true worship to Him. We've sung in our hymn about
rounds of dead service, forms and ways. And our Lord reproved
the scribes and the Pharisees that they in vain did worship
God and teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And so it is in that way that
it is said before us here 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. This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. we spoke on the Lord's Day of
what faithful really meant. And what the apostle was setting
before Timothy is that which is true to the facts of the original,
that it is a loyal representation of the truth and what really
will profit. The real danger with the Church
of God, as has ever been, is that it gradually goes away from
the true worship of God and replaces it with something else. Even
the brazen serpent that was commanded to be made by God and was effectual
in a symbol that men looked upon it and lived, they saw past the
serpent They saw the Lord Jesus Christ, they saw the true remedy,
and by faith they were healed. But in the days of Hezekiah,
many years later, the children of Israel were worshipping it
as a relic. And he then grounded the powder,
he called it hustan. That is a piece of brass, that's
all it was. but how easy it is to go away
from true worship. David did that. Instead of bringing
the ark up on the shoulders of the Levites, he imitated the
Philistines and carried it on a cart, the Lord reproving him
for it. And then we mentioned with the
scribes, the Pharisees, They were not faithful, they were
not true to the commandments of God. They were bringing in
something else. And with the Lord what counts
is not numbers, it is not great congregations. What He shall
say to His dear servants at the end is, well done, they are good
and faithful servant. Jeremiah was very faithful to
his generation. He suffered for it, and he didn't
get converts, and he saw the temple destroyed. But he was
faithful in warning them, in setting before them what was
coming upon them as a nation. And so in these Gospel days as
well, when we handle the Word of God, we must handle it faithfully,
and we're to be so with our own souls, and to be very aware how
close it comes. It's easy to see if we were to
look at this text in a natural way and you say, on the one hand,
there's a person tonight going down to the gym and they're exercising
their body, and some of us here in the house of God, and you
say, well, it's better to be in the house of God than just
be down to the gym. It'll profit them a little bit,
but it'll profit us much better is much easier to be seen when
you're comparing with something so different as that. But when
it comes to us in the house of God or gathering round the word
in your homes, and you're saying, well, you're all gathered for
worship, but are we truly faithfully worshipping according as God
has set it before us? or have we replaced true worship
and true godliness with something else? And so when he says that
this is a faithful saying, it is a saying that is setting before
us something that is true to the word of God, true to the
message of God, that it is a true saying. that the bodily outward
exercise of religion profits little, but godliness, that is,
of the heart, is profitable unto all things, having promise of
the life that now is and of that which is to come." And so in
looking at these faithful sayings, the apostle is giving the saying
and he's really emphasizing it and saying this, this is a faithful
saying. And he says it's worthy of all
acceptation, that is to be received, to be taken on, to be believed,
to be regarded as correct, and to walk in that way. And it's
worthy of that. I want then to look with the
Lord's help this evening, following the similar points as we had
Lord's Day morning, Firstly, the faithful saying itself, rather
than disjointed too much to look at the saying itself. And then
secondly, its worthiness of acceptation. And then thirdly, the example
of the Apostle Paul, and specifically from his conversion from being
a Pharisee to then a believer. So firstly then, the actual saying
that is set before us. 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. Notice that this saying does
not say, for bodily exercise profiteth nothing. The margin it gives the rendering
for a little time and that of course would answer as well to
what is later on in the verse having the promise of the life
that now is or for a time and of that which is to come. Godliness
has both sides, whereas a bodily exercise may be just profit for
time. But I prefer the rendering that
they have chosen, for bodily exercise profiteth little. And thinking, comparing this
with what we have in the epistle to the Thessalonians, when Paul
writes to them and he says to them, our gospel came not unto
you in word only, but also in power. Now it did come to them
in word. The word was used, but if it
was just the word and the word only, then it would have been
no benefit and no promise and no blessing upon him. So with
our text as well, when we think of bodily exercise as the actual
going through the rounds of service, we come into the house of God,
we offer up prayer, we read the word of God, We expound the Word
of God, we preach the Word of God, you hear the Word of God
preached, we sing God's praise. We do these outward things. Now, when we look at the word
here, for bodily exercise profiteth little, that on its own, You
might say it does profit in that it keeps us from evil things
or from other places. It brings us under the sound
of the word. It brings us amongst God's people. It does profit. We don't say, well,
just because, that for some that it is just an outward worship
and no inward worship, then we just dispense with it all. We
just throw it all away. No. It is not saying that. The same
as what Paul to the Thessalonians doesn't say, well, you might
as well throw away the Word because if it's not with power then it
won't be any blessing. But rather, He would say, look
for the power, pray for the power. Rather he'd say, in gathering
for worship, make sure that your heart is in it. Make sure that
actually you're mindful, that you come before the living God.
You're not just deriving some pleasure, you're not just doing
a performance, you're not just giving a lecture, a speech, you're
not just Just having a rounds of dead service? No. We have
come to worship the living God, to give praise and honour unto
God. And it should then exercise our
minds as to how we actually are gathering and what we are doing. Bodily exercise profiteth little. May we be consistent In our exercise
of worship, our coming to the house of God, if we are unable
to, and by lawful means detained and not able to gather, then
still gathering, but gathering mindful that God looks at the
heart and he desires that true worship from the heart. and that
our affections are placed on things above, not on things on
the earth. You think of the children of
Israel through the wilderness, and not only through the wilderness,
all through their history. They were given the types and
the shadows, the sacrifices and offerings. Now, the Lord in one
late, he says, away with them, they are smoke in my nostrils,
as if he doesn't want them at all. But he'd commanded them,
he'd given them those things. We are told in the Hebrews that
the blood of bulls and of goats could never put a waste in. It
was never meant to. They were types, they pointed
to Christ. There no doubt were many Israelites
that took great care in selecting out a spotless lamb or slaying
it the right way, the careful way, and much labor. If you read those accounts, there
was a tremendous amount of labor in all of those sacrifices. But they never looked past them
to Christ. They never saw Christ. Paul says,
The children of Israel in the wilderness, they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them and that rock was Christ. In all of those things, there
would have been those worshippers that just did the outward ceremony
and their heart never was in it. They never saw Christ. It was never acceptable. The
Lord charged them with their fasting. that in the day that
they fasted, they exacted their pleasure. In the Lord's day on
earth, he charged the scribes and the Pharisees that for a
pretense they made long prayers. And when they fasted, they disfigured
their faces so that they could be seen a man to fast. He said,
verily, thou hast thy reward. It's not been before God at all.
He says, if you want worship that is before God, you go into
your closet and you pray unto God that is in secret, and he
that seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. And he says before
them that worship, that though it comes under the name of worship,
was actually a smoke in his nostrils because it wasn't unto the Lord
at all. He fasted with strife for debate. It wasn't for true worship at
all. And so the bodily exercise, that
which the Lord has commanded, the gathering together, baptism,
the Lord's Supper, the singing of His praise, the reading of
the Word, the preaching of the Gospel, these things must be
done, but done in a way that we have an eye to the honour
and glory of God and desire to see Christ, to receive him, he
that believeth in God. He must have faith, to believe
that he is, he that comes to God, and that he is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek him. And so It is a very searching
word because it comes right into our worship. If we could have
a list, a checklist, and say, are you doing this right? Are
you doing that right? And you can measure it all in
outward things. That would be quite easy. But
when the Lord says, no, what is needful is true godliness,
godliness of heart. true worship in the Spirit. And it is one that comes as a
hell-deserving sinner and seeking mercy from the Lord. We think
of the contrast in the temple, the Lord told the account of
the Pharisee, who when he prayed only told of all his good works
and all what he did. and how he despised that publican
who stood afar off, beat upon his breast and prayed, God, be
merciful to me, a sinner. The scribes and the Pharisees,
they despised the publicans and sinners that flocked to hear
the Lord. Those that received him because
they felt they knew they were sinners. They needed a saviour. They really had a need. godliness, a tender conscience,
the fear of God, a real belief that the Lord exists, that he
does hear our prayers, that he does answer our prayers, that
he does convey blessing down into our souls, that he does
give us faith to believe and to receive his word. and to trust in his finished
salvation, that which he wrought out at Calvary. You know, the bodily part, the outward
part, that takes from us. Even in a natural sense, it makes
us weary and tired. And yet that which is the godliness
part, If we have true faith, that strengthens us, that helps
us. You know what a difference it
was with the two on the way to Emmaus, they began that journey
sad, but as they went those seven and a half miles, the Lord speaking
to them in all the scriptures, the things concerning himself,
they said afterwards, did not our heart burn within us? They
were true hearers. They were drinking in that Word
and those precious truths they were feeding upon it. They were
believing, they were loving what they heard. And you know at the
end of the journey when the Lord, and they said the day was fast
spent, they constrained him, he went in with them, but when
he revealed himself to them, late in the day or not, seven
and a half miles away or not, they immediately returned to
Jerusalem. The Lord is risen indeed, that's
what they were saying at Jerusalem and they told what was done in
the way, how the Lord had made himself known to them. That is
what we want, a sight of the Lord that so picks us up, renews
our strength, revitalises us, enables us to really run the
race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus. You know, the Apostle
Paul, all the trials, and we must have tribulation, but the
Lord says, in me shall there be peace. But someone that is
just an outward worshipper doesn't have the peace. Those who are
in tribulation, as the Apostle was, The Lord said, my grace
is sufficient for thee. But if he's not receiving grace
because he's just expending it all in outward service without
receiving any blessing, then what does that profit him at
all? Those Baal worshippers were cutting
themselves and crying unto their God on Mount Carmel, but their
God didn't exist. that worshipped him for years.
No doubt imagine they were receiving helps, but when put to a true
test, there's no help, no hearing, nothing. And just the simple worship according
to the commandment of God of Elijah, and he cries unto the
Lord and the Lord sends fire from heaven. The feeblest prayer, if faith
be there, exceeds all empty notion. And so this faithful saying,
comparing that which is just an outward worship, a bodily
exercise, to true godliness of heart, the true exercise of soul,
when we come in, if we're under the chastening hand of God, to
be exercised over it, have in Hebrews, no chastening for the
present seemeth to be joyous but grievous. Remember, every
one of God's true children are chastened and corrected by him
when they sin and don't listen to his word. But it shall yield
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised thereby. Really, the apostle gives. Timothy,
those things that make up real godliness. He doesn't say neglect. Reading Exhortation Doctrine,
you know, he says in verse 13, give attendance to it. But then
he says meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to them. There's many things that imitate
true worship and are not true worship. We can be very, very
close to the Lord like Martha was, and yet be so cumbered
about with serving that we never hear his word. Mary, she sat
at his feet and heard his word. We can go about our closet worship. We can have our morning reading
and prayer and evening, but we do it in such a rush and so hurriedly
that our heart is never engaged. We never have time to have communion,
fellowship. with the Lord as speaking to
him as our friend, as our Father which is in heaven, and having
that sweet communion. The Lord, he was whole nights
in prayer to his Father, going out into the mountain, into the
deserts. He valued that time with his
Heavenly Father. And we should without having
any father, he says, I ascend unto my father and your father
and my God and your God. And that godliness then, profitable
unto all things, having the promise of the life that thou is. How
much promise is there? Why, the short time we have here
below, the blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, it addeth no
sorrow with it, And when we're exhorted to give diligence to
make our calling in an election sure, our calling is not made
sure just with outward worship, but inward worship it is. Enoch,
he walked with God and was not. And that profitableness, that
blessing, really what we're saying here as well, that the Lord really does help
and bless his dear children. In their worship, there is that
which is great joy to them in true worship, hosanna to him
that cometh in the name of the Lord. And there is that which
is received, that which is known and handled and tasted and felt
of the good word of life. and the fellowship enjoyed with
him and with his dear people, then they that fear the Lord
spake often one to another. That is enjoyed here below. But
then it has the promise of that which is to come. He gives grace
and glory. No good things shall he withhold
from them that walk uprightly. It is always joined together,
the calling of the Lord here with his people, the shepherd,
the sheep hearing his voice, and their security in his and
his father's hand, and to present them faultless before the throne
at last. It is a searching word. How does
it find us, dear friends? How does it find us? How much
of our worship is just bodily exercise? It's particularly searching for
those of us that conduct the services because you might say
there's much more of bodily exercise both in the preparation and in
the discharge of the services, then there is, you might say,
to come and hear the Word of God. Though we hope that with
those of you that hear that there's prayer before and prayer after.
But you know it can be very much with those that conduct the worship
that our hearts are not fully in it, that we're not truly walking in a godly way. And so
it is a very searching word, a vital word. It is a faithful
saying, faithful to the word of God,
faithful to that which the Lord teaches that is so vital. I worked with a man once and
he said that he liked to go to the services at the church where
he was. And he gave the reason because
he wasn't a godly man. He didn't walk in the ways of
the Lord. but he liked the pomp, the ceremony,
he liked the robes, he liked all of the order of the service. And that's what he went for.
In other words, he openly really professed that he just went for
the bodily exercise, just the outward part. Wahoo is with us that We're concerned
that it's not just the outward part. In a way, that's why we
like to keep our services simple and plain and without adorned
with those things that can so easily take over. But even as
they are, how careful, how we need to ask of the Lord Keep
us lively. Keep us at thy footstool. Keep
my soul alive. Give me a true spirit of worship. You think of what the Lord said
to the woman at the well of Samaria. And he said to her, the Samaritan
woman, in John 4, And verse 22, ye worship ye know not what we
know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews, but the hour
cometh and now is, the gospel day, when the true worshipers
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father
seeketh such to worship him. God is a spirit. And they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in truth. How clearly the Lord revealed
himself to her. That dear woman, she said, I
know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. When he has
come, he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto her, I that
speak unto thee am he. The saying that Paul was stating
before Timothy is faithful to what the Lord has said to this
dear woman and what the Lord reproved with the scribes and
of the Pharisees as well. And so this is the faithful saying
that bodily exercise of religion profiteth little, but godliness,
that which is of the true spiritual worship of the heart is profitable
unto all things, having promise of the life that now is and of
that which is to come." The Apostle says when he writes to the Corinthians,
if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we've all been
most miserable. We want to then look in the second
place of how that it is worthy of all acceptation. We have the solemn account in
the Gospel according to Matthew and chapter 25 of the parable
that our Lord spoke concerning the five wise and five foolish
virgins. And we read that they that were
foolish took their lamps and no oil with them. They were waiting
for the bridegroom to come to go out to meet him for the wedding. But the wise took oil in their
vessels with their lambs. We read, While the bridegroom
tarried, they all slumbered and slept. At midnight there was
a cry made, Behold the bridegroom, cometh go ye out to meet him.
Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. Then
the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our
lamps are gone out. Why are they gone out? You know,
when they went to buy, then the bridegroom came and the door
was shut and it was too late. Really what it is, is the lamps
are like a profession. And the oil is like grace. They had a profession without
grace, a profession without life. And when Christ came, it didn't
avail anything, it was too late. If you and I just have an outward
profession, but no grace in our hearts, if we worshipped all
our days and been in our seat and been in the house of God,
you know, this is what the Lord actually had to contend with
and spoke of those that were saying these very same things
in Luke 13 and verse 26 or those where the Lord had exhorted to
strive to enter in at the straight gate and He says, when once the
master of the house is risen up and shut to the door and he
begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying, Lord,
Lord, open unto us. And he shall answer and say unto
you, I know not whence ye are. Then shall you begin to say,
we have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught
in our streets. In other words, we have sat down
at the Lord's table, we've been in thy house, we've worshipped,
we've been with you, But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not
whence ye are. Depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity." And one of the things that is so often the characteristic
of such a worship is the outward worship is carried on, but because
the heart is not with it, the rest of that person's life is
not consistent. They're always still walking
in iniquity, in sin, in evil. That is not touched, that is
not done. This is a searching word. I find
it so myself. He says, there shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. When you see Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you
yourselves cast out. The letter to the church of Sardis
was a solemn letter in Revelation chapter 3, the very first verse,
the unto the angel of the church, that is the pastor of the church
in Sardis Rhine. These things saith he that hath
the seven spirits of God, and the seven spirits I know thy
works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the
things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not
found thy works perfect before God. That which the Lord requires
is not just a name to live, but that true work in the heart. It is worthy of all acceptation. It is worthy to be embraced,
considered, received, searched out by the people of God. Because it treats to that which
is our eternal comfort and joy and it seals to us that which
is vital before we come to the grave. Otherwise it's just wasting
the precious time that we should be redeeming. Don't be, and I
speak this to myself, don't be satisfied with just hollow, empty,
outward worship, but maybe truly have that which is from the Lord
and accept and embrace such a faithful saying as this. And think of
it, really, every time we come into the house of God, every
time we have an outward devotion, is there that inward devotion
of the heart? Well, the last point I wish to
bring before you is the example of the Apostle Paul. And very
often you find with Paul's writings, you find it with Peter's, that
the things that he is emphasising are those things that he himself
has actually walked through. And the Apostle Paul was a Pharisee
once. And he caught himself as to be
a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And he says to the Galatians
when he writes to them, he said, ye have heard of my conversation,
that is, his way he lived in time past in the Jews' religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God and wasted
it. and profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals
in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions
of my fathers." So he's very, very diligent and very zealous
in everything that he did. And then he says, "'But when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach
him among the heathen immediately, I conferred not with flesh and
blood what the Lord had revealed to him." We read, he immediately
preached that Jesus was the Christ. And he counted all things but
loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his
Lord. And then when he views his fellow
countrymen and the longing that he has for them, He says in Romans
10, verse 1, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. But then he views them
and he says, I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but
not according to knowledge. They're ignorant of God's righteousness. They're going about to establish
their own. They're trusting in their works,
their deeds, their worship, as if that would get them to heaven.
Many do that today, dear friends. Your worship, my worship, that
is not acceptable unto God. That won't get us to heaven.
What will is the faith in Christ, in his sacrifice, in his blood
that is shed, in his robe of righteousness imputed to us,
in the Lord's keeping. It is the communion and fellowship
with Christ, the being reconciled to God by Jesus Christ, and to
come to God through him. Paul was ignorant in all his
religion that he had. He was ignorant of Christ. But
when he viewed, when he knew Christ, then he counted all things
but loss for the knowledge of him. We don't want just a misplaced
zeal that misses the hallmark. The Lord Jesus said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And in John 6, when he says a
very searching word, except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood
of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. Not literally. Many
were offended. They thought of that. But what
he meant was, that by faith we would feed upon him. Man shall
not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out
of the mouth of God. He was that true manna from above,
and our meat and our drink is what Christ has done, and to
do his will, and to serve him, and to trust in what he has provided
and done. God is honoured by that work
he does in a sinner's heart, in showing mercy to sinners,
in helping those that cry to him for help, in revealing to
them his hands, his feet, his side, his sufferings for them,
that his sacrifice is what their sole merit is for heaven. When we think of how the Word
of God and worship, true worship, begins and is set before us,
and we have the illustration of Cain and Abel. And Cain is bringing the fruit
of the ground, but Abel is bringing a blood sacrifice. And God had
respect to that, but not to Cain's. And Cain couldn't bear that God
should so accept his brother, so he slew his brother. But right there at the very beginning,
the Lord says, this is what is acceptable, Weshem, when the
eye is upon the sacrifice that is to be made and was made at
Calvary. It is why with the Church of
God, the ordinance of believers' baptism, buried with him by baptism
into death, risen again in newness of life, the ordinance of the
Lord's Supper, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he come,
and the Apostle Paul preaching Christ and Him crucified and
determined to know nothing among the Corinthians but that. It
centres in that faith in Christ and what Christ has done, a real
relationship with the living God, with our advocate with the
Father, with Him who appears in the presence of God, for us. And so the Apostle, he walked
this path. I believe many of us that have
been converted, especially brought up under the sound of the truth,
many, many years I spent just in an outward bodily worship,
but with no heart in it, no love to the word, no love to the Lord,
no desire to receive the word, to chew the cud, to go over it,
nothing. no life. May I trust, I hope,
when the Lord has given life that that is what I desire, the
life of God, the living word from the living God, and to truly
worship Him for who He is. Well, may this faithful saying
abide with us and profit us, may it exercise our hearts, and
we remember it as we come in the attitude of worship, whether
in the Lord's house or at home. 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. This
is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. Amen.