1 Timothy chapter 4. Let's begin reading in verse
6. This is the apostle Paul writing to Timothy, who was a preacher
of the gospel. We've been going through the
book of Ephesus. And if you want to know what was going on at
Ephesus, read 1 Timothy, because Paul had left Timothy at Ephesus,
and he was telling him what to teach, what to preach. And this
is needed in all churches, but this reveals some of the things
that was going on in Ephesus. But here's our passage for today.
Verse 6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance
of these things, everything he had said up to this point, thou
shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words
of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. but refuse profane and old wives'
fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth
little. But, now here's our text, 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. Godliness is profitable. That's our subject today. Godliness
is profitable. Godliness is genuine Christianity. It's true, vital, experimental,
God wrought religion in the heart. That's what true godliness is. It's begun when God gives us
a new heart by grace. When He gives us spiritual life
and God puts a fear of God in our hearts. And He teaches us
that by the work of Christ Jesus, by what He's accomplished for
His people, Himself alone, He's purged His people of our sins,
and He's made us the righteousness of God in Him. And when God brings
us there, we begin to exercise ourselves unto godliness. We give ourselves in thought,
in word, and in deed to the object of our affection, who is Jesus
Christ. That's what it is to exercise
yourself unto godliness. is to give yourself to the object
of your affection, the Lord Jesus Christ. You think about it, every
man exercises himself toward the object of his affection.
Every man does that. Every man does that. And every
man, therefore, becomes more and more conformed to that object. Every man does this. You think
about it, the man of this world, he has his thoughts set on this
world. He has his thoughts set on worldly
gain, and that's what he exercises himself toward, and so he becomes
more and more conformed to this world. The man who is self-righteous,
who has a form of religion, he has his heart and his mind set
on his form. He has his mind set on how others
see him, and on making sure that others see him. So everything
he does is towards his form, and he becomes more and more
conformed to that image, to that form of religion. But the man
who is truly godly, the man who's been born of the spirit of God,
he gives himself to the object of his affection, which is Christ.
And he exercises himself in the means that God has given, along
with God's people. and he has a communion with God
and that communion grows more and more with God. And as Paul
says, we're renewed in our minds and we're transformed by it. It has a transforming effect. So to exercise ourselves under
godliness is to have our affection set on things above rather than
on this earth. Paul said, our life is hid with
Christ in God. So Christ is the object of our
affection. Set your affection, he said,
on things above, not on things of this earth. On spiritual things
is what he's saying. And exercise yourself to those
things. A true, genuine, God-wrought
godliness seeks to be more in communion with God and seeks
to walk in a way that is more pleasing to God. That's true. All genuine godliness seeks a
more godly life in conversation. That's our goal. That's our goal.
Now to exercise ourselves unto godliness requires effort. It
requires effort on our part. Paul says make it your business.
Make it your exercise. Make this your exercise. Pure
religion and undefiled true godliness is not by fits and starts. You don't get a fit of religion
one day and say, oh boy, you've seen that, you know, it just
springs up overnight and I'm going to be here next week, I'll
be here from here on and it fizzles out as fast as it sprung up.
That's not true religion. Ungodly men, they exercise themselves. The scripture says, a heart they
have exercised with covetous practices. But the Apostle Paul
said, After the way which they called heresy, so worship I the
God of my fathers, believing all things which are written
in the law and in the prophets, and I have hope toward God. And
he said, Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience
void of offense toward God and toward men. Now our text tells
us here that godliness is profitable unto all things having promises. Promises from God to his child
concerning this life right now and the life that is to come.
I want to make that my two divisions. This life and the life to come.
God promises to furnish the believer with whatever is necessary for
us in this life. That's God's promise to you who
he's called and given faith in Christ. We have the promise of
the life that now is. Now let's understand this first
of all. There is a difference between what we want and what
we need. A vast difference between what
we want and what we need. God does not promise to give
his child what we want. Our gospel is not a prosperity
gospel. It's not a health, wealth and
prosperity gospel. Christ said in this world you
shall have tribulation. That's what we're going to have
in this world. We can bank on that. But God does, He does promise
to give His child whatever we need in this life. He does. The
Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. Paul said my God shall
supply all your need. all your need according to His
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. So first of all, concerning spiritual
blessings, that's where we're going to start, because that's
the most important thing. Concerning spiritual blessings
in this life right now, God promises His child, every born again believer,
that we are accepted of God. That's the first thing He reveals
in our heart. Look at Hebrews chapter 9. To your right there, Hebrews
chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. We have been
reconciled to God by the death of His Son. That's true of all
God's elect. That's true of those He calls
to faith in Christ. Therefore, God promises us there's
nothing else for us to offer. We don't have to be striving
and working in this life to find acceptance with God. Look at
Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 26. In the middle part of the verse
there, it says, Now, once in the end of the world hath Christ
appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That's
why He came. That's what he did. That's what
he did. He appeared to put away sin by
the sacrifice of himself. And for every child for whom
he died, he put away sin. He put away sin. Look over at
Hebrews 10 and look at verse 14. For by one offering, Verse
14, for by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. This is what the Holy Ghost bears
witness of in our hearts when we're called by grace. Look at
verse 15, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us, for
after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I'll
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. The Lord promised
this in the Old Testament. I'll make a covenant in their
hearts. I'll make a promise to them. I'll make a promise in
their hearts. I'll put my laws in their hearts
and in their minds will I write them. And he says, and their
sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now look at verse 18.
Now where remission, where forgiveness of these is, there is no more
offering for sin. God tells us that. God promises
us that. You don't have to keep offering
to try to find forgiveness with God. We have it. God promises
then that He'll never leave us and He will never forsake us
and that we shall never leave Him. Listen to Jeremiah 32, 40. He said, I'll make an everlasting
covenant with Him. And when he makes that covenant
in our heart through the Holy Spirit, he says that I will not
turn away from them to do them good. That's God's promise. I
will not turn away from them to do them good. But I will put
my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me. You understand? So there's a
two-fold promise. He will not turn from us to do
us good and he will not allow us to turn from him. He's put
the fear of God in our heart. Alright? Look at Matthew chapter
6. Now brethren, this is the life
of godliness. The life of godliness is to have
the burden and bondage of our sins removed. is to have the
burden and bondage of every kind of formal ceremonial form of
religion taken off of us, removed from us, and it's made to see
that we have the promise of God in this life that we're perfect
in Christ, our sins are gone, God accepts us, and He'll never
turn away from us, and He'll never allow us to turn away from
Him. That is peace. That is such precious peace,
brethren. Now look at this. In addition
to this, in this life Christ promises us food and raiment. He says in Isaiah 33, 16 that
we shall dwell on high. And he says in our place of defense
shall be the munition of rocks. Christ our rock. Bread shall
be given him and his water shall be sure. We'll have bread and
water. bread and water. Now look at
this. Christ our Lord is speaking. This is Christ our Savior. This
is our righteousness, our all that's speaking. Matthew 6, 25.
He says, let's begin in verse 24. No man can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and
love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the
other. You cannot serve God in manhood. There's no way. Now
Christ says that's plain It's impossible. It's impossible.
Therefore, I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what
you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor yet for your body
what you shall put on. He's saying anxious thought.
Don't be worried and fretting and at your wits end over what
you're going to eat and drink and put on. It's not the life
more than meat and the body then raiment. Behold, the fowls of
the air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather in the
barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them." Isn't the bird
a good lesson to us? I mean, he doesn't store up.
He don't have a savings account. He don't have a retirement plan. He don't have all these things. And yet every day he has his
food provided for him by God. If you have food provided today,
what else do you need? Now look, he says, are you not
much better than they? Are you not much better than
the bird? Which of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto
his stature? And why take you thought for
raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow.
They don't toil, they don't spin, yet I say unto you that Solomon
in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore,
if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today he is
in the mars cast into the oven, Shall he not much more clothe
you of little faith? Hey, you've been looking at the
leaves lately. Aren't they pretty? These bright red and bright orange
and bright yellow leaves. I went out yesterday morning
and took pictures of them to send to my mother. They're just
beautiful. God arrayed those trees. He clothed
them in those garments. He made sure they had that garment
on. And you'll see them bare all
through the winter, but guess what happens back in the spring?
There comes those leaves again, right back out. He says, if God
clothes the grass of the field, He'll clothe you. He'll clothe
you. Now look at verse 31. Therefore,
take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
For after all these things do the Gentiles seek after. That's
what the world is seeking. That's all they have on their
mind. That's it. Your Heavenly Father knows you
have need of these things. You have a Heavenly Father, child
of God, and He owns everything, and everything is at His disposal,
and He knows exactly what you have need of. He says, But seek
ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, exercise yourself
unto godliness. Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to
you. That's a promise. That's a promise.
That's a promise from Christ. Alright? Let's be looking at
Psalm 46. Psalm 46. Brethren, God's given
us His Son. He gave His only begotten Son.
He gave us the bread from heaven, Christ. He gave us the water
of life, Christ Jesus. He's robed us in Christ's righteousness.
He'll give us temporal bread and water and clothing. He'll
provide that. He provided His Son. He provided
His Son. If He provided the greater, He'll
certainly provide the lesser. Alright, now here's the fourth
thing. When God, by divine power, has made us godly, he promises
that in this life he will give us comfort when we're afflicted
and when we're oppressed. Now we will be afflicted and
we will be oppressed, but God will give a comfort that's beyond
words, that's beyond description, in the heart, in the midst of
that suffering. Let me read Isaiah 43 to you. He says, When thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. You will walk through waters, you will go through rivers,
you will pass through the fire of affliction. But he said, it's
not going to consume you. It's not going to consume you. The Israelites said, When we
cried unto the Lord, The God of our fathers, He heard our
voice, He looked upon our affliction, and our labor, and our oppression,
and He delivered them. He delivered them. So God will,
He will hear us. He sets the poor on high from
affliction and makes them families like a flock. He doesn't set
us on high, Temporally speaking, necessarily, he sets us on high
in the heart by making us see we're set on high in Christ.
And he makes us families like a flock, not necessarily that
our family's going to be like a flock. David's house had all
kind of trouble in it, King David. But yet, he had a family of God. He had a family in heaven and
in earth that was the household of God, a people no man could
number. That's what he's given us, brethren
with one another. Now look at Psalm 46, verse 1.
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though
the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though
the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains
shake with the swelling thereof. Now you think about that, he
said, when all the world is shaking and trembling around us, we don't
have to be fearful. Why? We got a refuge that cannot
be shaken and cannot be moved. And that's who we're in. Verse
4. There is a river. The streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. That's
the river. God is in the midst of her. And
she shall not be moved. God shall help her. And that
right early. Now that's His promise to us,
brethren. Now, there's another thing. God also promises the
child that he makes to pursue true godliness, that he will
support us even to old age, even unto death. Look at Isaiah 46.
Isaiah 46. In verse 3 and 4. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the
remnant of the house of Israel, which are born by me from the
belly, which are carried from the womb. Now that's a description
of God's true spiritual Israel, where Jacob's in ourselves. Sinners,
rebellious, supplanters, and most of the time when we see
trouble, we do what Jacob did. Remember how he started scheming
and planning and trying to save himself from Esau? And then with
one side of our flesh we're doing that, and then with our other
heart We're praying to God, but that's half-heartedness. That's
half-heartedness. But if we're true Israel, we're
God's Israel, He's carried us from the belly, He's carried
us from the womb, and this is what He says He'll do. Verse
4, And even to your old age I am He, and even to gray hairs will
I carry you. I have made and I will bear,
even I will carry and will deliver you. Psalm 23 says, Though I
walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear
evil, for He is with me. His rod and His staff, they comfort
me. David lived a long time, a long
time. And he saw lots of trouble in
his own house, in his kingdom, and in the world all around him.
He saw lots of trouble. But David said this, I've been
young, And I'm now old, yet I hath not seen the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread." David said, I've never seen that.
I've never seen that. Now, all these promises, brethren,
are the promises that accompany true godliness. And besides these
things, think of this. Think of this. True godliness
promotes every interest of the believer in this life. It does. By seeking God, by seeking Christ
in true godliness, God keeps our minds clear and He gives
us peace of conscience. What's that worth? If you ever
had a guilty conscience, you know peace of conscience is priceless. It's priceless. Godliness does
nothing to promote anything that's bad for our physical health.
You think about that. There's nothing about godliness
that's bad for you. It never prompts injury to anybody. It doesn't tell you to injure
anybody. True godliness gives us comfort in trial and it gives
us calmness in death. It makes it so that you will
never have anything that you look back on when you get to
death's door and you're laying there on death's pillow. Godliness
doesn't give you anything to look back on and regret. Nothing. True godliness affects our lives
for good. From our worship of God to our
homes to our businesses. It's profitable in all things. In all things. But infidelity? a life of sin in this world,
a form of godliness that denies the power of God, it takes away
all the promises that true religion gives in this life. It puts all
the burden on the back of the sinner, and it puts all the work
in the hands of the sinner, and it leaves you without any comfort
in this life, without any promise in this life, and with no hope
of life to come. That's what it does. Vice doesn't
give you any promise in this life. And it gives you no promise
of life to come. And you know what men still do
though? Rather than seeking God, they seek this promiseless world
and its way. Why? Why? It promises you nothing
but harm. Nothing but harm. So, the Lord
said, having these promises, come out from among the world,
come out from among them and I'll receive you and I'll be
a father unto you, He said. Listen to this scripture. I want
you to look at this, Psalm 37. We were on our way over here
this morning and we passed by a field and there was three of
Will's best buddies out there playing football in this field. And I said, Will,
I said, do you wish you was out there with them? He said, yes
sir. I sure do. And I said, well you don't understand
it now. And I said, but just if God gives you a heart to know
this, He's going to make you to see that He's done something
for you that He doesn't do for the rest of the world. Listen
to what He says here, Psalm 37.1. Will, look at this with your
mother. Psalm 37.1. fret not thyself because of evildoers,
neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity." Those
that are out kicking up their heels today and enjoying life. He says, don't be envious of
them, don't be envious of them, for they shall soon be cut down
like the grass and wither as the green herb. Trust in the
Lord. and do good. So shalt thou dwell
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself
also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine
heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and
he shall bring it to pass, and he shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. Alright, now
let's look now at this second part. this second part. True godliness has the promise
of life to come. Now, none of these promises of
life to come are based on any works we do. None of these promises
of life to come can be earned. This is all the free salvation,
the free grace, the free gift of God given to His people by
the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is freely given. There's no accomplishment you
can accomplish in this life that's going to promise you anything
in the life to come. It don't matter who your mom
and daddy was. It don't matter how highly educated. It don't
matter how rich. It don't matter how much the
world recognized you. The world and everybody in it
could know who you are. And when you get to Christ on
the day of judgment, He'll say, but I never knew you. But I never
knew you. You see, that's the issue. That's
the issue. It's only those who continue
in true religion, trusting Christ alone, looking to His merit alone,
that shall receive these promises. Now first, in Christ, we have
the promise of eternal life and resurrection. Listen to this,
in John 6, verse 54. He said, Whoso eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. Now, faith is not a one time
thing. He says there, whoso eateth my
flesh and drinketh my blood. That means Christ is our life. That means we eat and drink Christ. That means we have to, just like
you have to eat and drink regular food to sustain your body, we
have to eat and drink Christ for Him to sustain our spiritual
body. And He's our life. The promise
is not to those who start in faith and then turn back along
the way. The promise is to those who start
in faith and continue in faith and die in faith. And if we do
that, God's going to get the glory because He preserves His
people and makes us to persevere in faith. This is the promise. He will give us eternal life. You have it now. If you're a
child of God, believe on Him. You have eternal life now. And
He promises, I will raise you up at the last day. Alright,
secondly, because He's given us the spirit of adoption, we
have the promise of inheritance as His children. Listen to Romans
8, verse 17. It says, If children, then heirs. Heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. We're going to
have promise of inheritance, promise of being glorified with
Christ, promise of being with Him in glory forever. This is
our inheritance. You know, it's a precious thing
in this life when God gives you an understanding that these deceitful
riches in this life are not worth anything. The true riches are
to have the inheritance that's in Christ. When He gives you
that, He teaches you, don't be covetous. Be content with the
things that you have because He's promised you, I'll never
leave you and I'll never forsake you. He's promised you, I'll
make you an heir. You're my heir. You're going
to inherit the inheritance that God has to give to His child.
Alright? Thirdly, we have the promise. Look at 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians
5, we have the promise of a new immortal body, a house not made
with hands. 2 Corinthians 5, this is the
life to come. 2 Corinthians 5 in verse 1, he
says, For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle
were dissolved, We have a building of God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly. In this body, in this house,
this tabernacle, this flesh, we earnestly desire to be clothed
upon with our house which is from above. If so be that being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
not simply that we would be taken out of the body, but clothed
upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now, He
that hath wrought us, worked us for the selfsame thing, He
that has worked salvation for us for this very thing is God,
and He's given us the earnest of the Spirit. He's given us
an earnest promise, a foretaste of what's to come to say to you,
this is going to happen. I'm going to raise you. Mortality
must be swallowed up of immortality. Corruption must put on incorruption. And God says, I'm going to bring
this to pass. He's going to conform us perfectly
to our Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to make us, without
sin, to be spotless, to be glorified with Him, to have a perfect Body,
soul, and spirit, like our Savior. That's what He's going to do.
Alright, lastly, our Savior has given us the promise that we
will reign with Christ. We'll reign with Christ. Listen
to Revelation 3, verse 21. Christ says, to him that overcometh,
how do we overcome? John said, by faith. Through
faith, we overcome. We trust Christ to make us overcome. Now, to him that overcometh will
I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame
and am set down with my Father in his throne. That's what God
promises his people. So believer, listen to me. Do
you see we have the promises of the life that now is? We have
the promises of the life to come. Rest all your hope on the promises
of God. Nothing in this world can be
more sure and certain than God's Word. God cannot lie. God will not deceive His people.
We have the promises of God. Now, if we truly realize the
might of His promise, if we realize the majesty of these promises,
if we realize the meaning of these promises, it will give
you such an inward peace such an inward peace and such a rest
and such assurance like you've never known. It sure will. This
is peace Christ gives. He said, My peace I give unto
you. Not as the world gives. And when He gives this peace,
He makes us to operate more calmly in this life. He makes us to
operate with a judgment that's regulated and guided by light. That's what He does. It makes
us want to walk in His light. It makes us want to exercise
ourselves under godliness. And He gives us more light. And
it makes us want to exercise ourselves under godliness more.
It's a continued growth in grace and the knowledge of Him. But
that person without peace, he's so torn and twisted and tossed
and just been out of shape all the time. All the time. But the
believer's got peace that God gives. Here's why we have it. Because all the promises of God
are in Christ, yes and amen. Unto the glory of God by us. Yes and amen. These things we've
looked at today, they shall be. They shall be. God promised it,
God will do it. Amen. Our gracious Father, we thank
you for this day. We thank you that you settle
our hearts, that you truly make us want to exercise ourselves
unto godliness by continually reminding us of these exceeding
great and precious promises that you've given us. Lord, we have
you and what else do we need? We have nothing else to worry
about. We have the fountain of every good blessing, of every
good and precious gift that's from above. Lord, teach us this in our heart.
Make us to rest right here. Make us to camp out right here
at this fountain of eternal, temporal, and everlasting blessing. Christ our Lord. Forgive us our
doubting and our fretting and our anxious thought. We have
to contend with this flesh. It's never satisfied. It's never
content. It's never believing. It's never...
It's always causing us to doubt and throw us into a turmoil. Lord, subdue our old man. Make us to see Christ is all
and shall provide all we need. It's in His precious, glorious,
all-providing name that we pray. Amen. Alright.