Seeking once more the Lord's
gracious help to grant me the words to speak to you this morning,
I'd like to direct your prayerful attention to 1 Timothy chapter
4 and the text you'll find in verse 15. Meditate upon these
things, give thyself wholly to them, that thy profiting may
appear to all. or it can be written that thy
progress may appear to all. Those of you who were here on
Wednesday will hopefully remember that we were in Timothy then
and we looked at the contrast between a worldliness and godliness. In the Sunday school this morning,
the children also looked at worldliness and godliness. And we saw that
in the life of Cain, that Cain, he pursued after worldly things. He built himself a city. And
then his children, they added to themselves wives. And then
they committed the same sins as their father. And we saw that
the family of Cain Their focus was on the things of this world
and the things that are temporary, the things that are passing away
and that is what sums up worldliness. The things that are around about
us, that are fleeting, disappearing and fragile, unable really to
be laid hold of completely for they can be snapped away in a
moment. The opposite was the line of
Seth. and Seth and his family they called on the name of the
Lord and we saw that in the line of Seth it brings us all the
way to Noah and Noah was a righteous man and found grace in the eyes
of the Lord and then we followed the family line of Noah and we
see that goes all the way to the Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous
Son of God, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And Timothy then was to, as he
faced worldliness and as he faced false teaching coming into the
church and as he faced wolves trying to divide the church of
God, that he was to remain faithful. Although he was surrounded by
materialism and false teaching and natural tendencies towards
the things that he could see, he was told, but you, man of
God, flee these things. and follow after righteousness,
godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness. Fight the good
fight of faith and lay hold of eternal life, whereunto thou
also called and hast professed a good profession before many
witnesses. And so Timothy says he is told, you are different,
but you, man of God. And we saw that Although Timothy
was a preacher of the gospel, though he had been set aside
by the Lord Jesus Christ and for that work, it doesn't mean
that the church is to say, well, you know, we don't have to worry
about those things. It is only the ministers that
have to worry about not being worldly. It's only the ministers
that have to worry about not being pursuing after godliness
or Christlikeness we don't have to worry. But the apostle tells us, follow
me as I follow the Lord Jesus Christ and so as Timothy was
a preacher of the gospel he was also to be an example to his
fellow believers. They were to look to him as an
example of the Lord Jesus Christ and to follow his example as
he followed the Lord Jesus. And although it is as the preacher
there is to be that striving after holiness yet there is also
within those believers as individuals are striving after holiness and
godliness. We read in chapter three about
those two positions in the church. If a man desires the office of
a bishop or an overseer, there is a certain criteria which is
to be looked for. It's not just that some man feels
himself to be a preacher, but he has to have the ability and
the gifting that has been given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ
the same. as a deacon. The preacher deals
with the spiritual needs of the congregation, of the flock and
the deacon as we read in the book of Acts we see that they
were used to fulfill the physical needs of the flock but it couldn't
just be any person. there is a specific criteria
laid down in the Word of God to help us choose those who are
suitable for the ministry and for those offices as deacons. And so in these two letters to
Timothy and the other to Titus, it is laid down very clearly
the work in which Timothy and Titus were to do and the things
that they were to focus on and the way in which they were to
encourage and to exhort those people whom they preached to. They were not just to say anything
that came into their heads. their ministry was to be grounded
upon the word of God. Timothy is told preach the word,
he is told study to show yourself approved of God, a workman rightly
able to divide the word and he is told to meditate, to think
deeply upon these things and to give himself completely to
them that thy progress or profiting may appear to all people. And so on Wednesday there was
that worldliness, that battle within the church and within
every single individual of that tendency to go after those things
that we can see and that tendency to struggle, to lay hold of spiritual
things. And so Timothy is told to flee
after worldliness. Do not spend too much time seeking
to lay hold of things that are just eventually going to disappear
and to pass away. Don't chase after things which
we'll never be able to grasp and never be able to hold on
for long. Focus your mind on spiritual
things. We look around us and we see,
as we looked at on Wednesday, that Satan is a lion. And as
we look around us we can see that materialism is like a lion. It devours millions and millions
of people, bringing them into hell. And it makes millions and
millions of Christians lukewarm. It is dangerous here to live
in a material world and to be so focused upon material things. And that's why Paul tells Timothy,
flee these things because those things are fleeting, passing
away. And the problem is, the problem
that we have is that Satan knows our weaknesses too well. He knows the things that are
tempting to us. He knows the things that will
draw us aside. He knows the things that will
make us into a lukewarm condition and he is happy when we have
called off, when we have been drawn aside and slain or wounded
by these things. When Jesus was tempted after
he had been baptised, in Matthew chapter four. Satan tempted Jesus with material
things. In the middle, in chapter four
and verse 18 it says, and again the devil take them up to an
exceedingly high mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms
of this world and the glory of them. said unto them all these
things will i give thee if thou will fall down and worship me
then said jesus unto him get thee hence satan for it is written
thou shalt worship the lord thy god and him only shalt thou serve He shows him the material things
of this world. He knew that all other people
would be totally tempted and drawn aside by all of these material
things. He shows him all the kingdoms
of the world, all the money, all the buildings, all the glory,
all the authority that Christ would have. But Jesus was not
interested in those things. But he knew that the weakness
of the flesh The way in which to draw a normal person aside
is to present to them things that they can see, things that
can enter into the heart, that can be thought about, that could
be lusted after. We know that sin of itself is as it were, enters into the eyes. Remember Eve, she looked, she
thought about and then she touched. And so it is with all sin really,
it's the looking and then the thinking and then the action. Jesus was shown all of these
things and the glory of them but they never corrupted his
pure mind. Yet you and I, we're different. We're not God manifest in the
flesh. Sin still dwells in the body
of the believer. The old nature is still there.
And we're so easily drawn aside by the things that we can see.
And so Satan gives us those opportunities to look. and to think and then
to act. And in acting we bring outward
shame to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Timothy is told, you flee
these things, run away from them. But in fleeing from these things,
Think about these things. Meditate upon these things. And so there is a fleeing in
one way and there is as you're fleeing from this way think about
and meditate upon other things. And so he says meditate upon
these things. Meditation is more than just
thinking. It is to think deeply, to contemplate. It is almost as you sit there,
you unravel mysteries in your mind and you're able to enter into
a deeper thought process. But it takes time. And time is
something that our modern age doesn't allow us to have. Our
lives are so crammed with things to do that we don't have time
to think and to meditate. Why is it that the greatest books,
the theological books that are written are from 200 years ago? And the Puritans and such like
They had time. They weren't rushing here, there
and everywhere. No doubt they had their own problems
and their life had other temptations but they had time. They went
from one city to another city. They went on a horse. Maybe they
walked. They couldn't rush back the same
day. They stayed. They had time. to meditate upon
the word of God and to be in prayer and to study the scriptures. Meditation needs quiet. You cannot be disturbed. Your
thoughts have to be channeled in one direction. It needs calmness. Very interesting isn't it that
With all the modern technologies that we have, our lives are even
more busy. In Kenya, if a lady wants to
go and wash her clothes, she takes a whole day. She bags them
all up, walks down to the river, stays there all day and comes
home in the evening. That's her day done. We throw
things into the washing machine, into the dishwasher and we rush
off this way, rush off that way and the more handy things that
we have the more busy our lives have become. We have cars, take
us 10 minutes, shoot somewhere, shoot somewhere else, shoot somewhere
else and there's no peace There's no calmness it's just rushing
here there and everywhere and there's no time to meditate. We have devices that are meant
to save us time yet they use up more time. Timothy was told
you need to meditate Timothy. You need to be at peace. You
need to take time to think about these things and unravel them
in your mind. And I thought that meditating
is a bit like the sun and the rain on a seed. As a seed is
placed into the ground it sits there But as the rain comes and
as the sun shines, that seed begins to grow, it cracks open
and the shoot begins to come up. And meditating is like that. It is deep thinking. It's like
the sun and the rain shining upon a seed and it's thought
about. It begins now to grow within
the mind and you see more deeply things that you didn't see very
clearly. But it's not about meditating
on anything. He's speaking about meditating
on a specific thing. You see Lydia will tell us there
is something called premeditated murder. and the judges are able to see
that somebody has sat somewhere and thought about what they are
going to do maybe over a period of time. They sit and they think
and they plan about the murder that they're going to commit
or the crime that they are going to commit and it's premeditated
they've thought about it beforehand not a spontaneous act. but they have deliberately gone
out to commit a crime. And so we can meditate on things
that aren't good and that meditation brings forth a fruit that also
is not good. And our minds they are constantly
full of thoughts. We are constantly thinking throughout
the day. Sometimes Thoughts are quick. We see something and we think.
We walk past a shop and maybe we see something there and we
think oh that's nice or I'd like to buy that or something. Or we walk through the town And
we see people and we think, oh, they must be a poor person, or
they're a drug addict, or they're not very smart, or they've got
funny hair, or they walk in a peculiar way. And we're constantly thinking,
oh, I must turn left here and go straight on there, or I've
got to be back soon. And our minds are constantly
thinking and churning over information that we are receiving. sometimes
they're thoughts that linger for a little while and we begin
to talk within our minds to ourselves and we reason things out that
I'm going to do this and that and then go there and such like
and so our minds are full of processing information some quick
some a little longer and some for an extended period of time.
Sometimes we sit maybe at home and we begin to imagine what
we are going to do. Maybe you're sitting in chapel
right now and you're imagining what you're going to do tomorrow
or what you've got for lunch or how long is the preacher going
to be and or maybe you're thinking about your career or your future. And so our thoughts be quick,
they can be brief or they can be extended and we think about
everything. We imagine things that could
take place if only I lived there or if only I had this or if only
I had that. We think about things for a while
Martin Luther he said, you cannot stop a bird from flying over
your head but you can stop a bird from nesting in your hair. There
are some thoughts that come into our minds and we wish they had
never come and we throw them out as quickly or we try to throw
them out as quickly as possible and we get rid of them. The problem
comes when we enjoy the sinful thought or the sinful imagination
that we have and we allow it to fester in our mind. like a bird making a nest in
our hair. It's like we pull up a seat with
Satan and we say, yes, let's communicate with each other.
That evil thought that you've dropped in, let's think about
it and reason it out and imagine. Just imagine what that might
be like if that actually happened. And so we can meditate and we
can think about things that are not good, things that are not
right. But Timothy is told to meditate
on a specific subject, specific things. Not to pull up a chair with Satan,
but to pull up a chair with God and God's word. Verse 12 says, let no man despise
thy youth but be thou an example of the believers in word, in
conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith and purity. Verse 13, till I come give attention
to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine. Neglect not the
gift that is in thee which is given thee by prophecy with the
laying on of hands of the presbytery. Meditate on these things. And
as you go through chapter four you will see that he's told a
few times to think about these things. These things command
and teach. And so there are certain things
that he's been pointed to by the apostle. This is what I expect. This is what you are to do. This
is what I expect. This is what you are to do. And
he's to give himself to be an example. Now you cannot give
yourself to be an example without any thought process. He's got
to be following something. Where does he get his example
from? He gets his example from the
Apostle Paul, he gets his example from the teachings of scripture
as they are written about the Lord Jesus Christ and so he's
presented with Christ, he's presented with the Apostle Paul, he's presented
with the Word of God and he's got to meditate upon these things
so that those meditations bring about a fruit, a product, that
he is to be an example to other people. Yes he is a young man,
yes he is ministering to people that are older than himself,
but he's to overthrow any criticism about himself by his godly example,
by his godly walk, by his godly conversation. And so the meditations
are to bring a Christ-like walk and a Christ-like talk and a
Christ-like action. Charity. Charity is love in action. And so his life was to be mimicking
or representing the Lord Jesus Christ in spirit and in purity. He was to give attention to reading
personally for himself but also publicly as a minister of the
Word of God. And looking up this, it was the
habit of the Jews in the synagogues to read large portions of the
scripture. Each of us have a Bible and some
Bibles can fit in our pockets, others we carry. But in those
days was the Jewish scroll and it could not be taken here, there
and everywhere. And so they came to the place
of worship, to the synagogue and to hear the reading of the
word of God for extended periods. And then there would be the explanation
of that which is read. And the early church continued
following on that habit, preaching and reading the word of God,
give attention to reading and to exhortation, to encourage
and to motivate the congregation to adhere to the teachings of
the scripture. It has been said that a Bible
study is meant to inform but preaching is meant to move. Preaching the gospel or preaching
from the Word of God is to take the people from one point and
move them to another point. When you come into the place
of worship we should be here. When we move out of the place
of worship we should have been moved by the preaching of the
Word of God to here. The progress has been made. Challenges
have been presented. We have been exhorted to follow
the Word of God and to follow the teachings of the Word of
God. And Timothy was told, give attention
to these things, reading and exhortation and doctrine, the
teaching of the Word of God. In chapter 3 it says that the
preacher must be able, apt to teach. Part of the task of the
word of God or the gospel preacher is not just to, as I've said,
proclaim anything. What he says is to be founded
upon scripture, not wives' tales, not ungrounded tradition, but
grounded upon the truth of God's word. to preach and to teach,
to inform and to move the congregation to be more Christ-like in their
living. And I would add that he himself,
having been in the word beforehand, it has affected him also. One
minister said, that as I point the finger at you, I have three
pointing back at myself. And in the meditation and in
the preparation for preaching the word of God, the minister
is challenged. He is challenged by the subject
that he is bringing. In no way do I ever say that
I'm better than you. like on Wednesday. The Word of
God is challenging, it moves people, it affects people. And so he is told meditate on
these things, give yourself to reading, to exhortation and to
doctrine. In Philippians the apostle tells
us there Philippians 4 and from verse
8 it says, Finally brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things
are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good
report, If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think
on these things. And so there are certain things
that our minds are told to be thinking upon. Ultimately our
thoughts are to be Godward and heavenward and Christward. And from there descends the things
that are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report. And if there be anything worthy
of any praise, think on these things. And there are times that
we can think upon answers to prayer that we have had, to encourage
us. We meditate upon them to help
us in the way. There are times we can think
on in historical circumstances that we can think about how the
Lord has worked in a mighty way and delivered his people and
helped. We can think about other people's lives and how the Lord
has helped other individuals and we can be encouraged and
challenged and we can meditate upon them and our faith is also
encouraged and challenged to continue. In Romans it tells
us there in Romans 12. Verses 1 it says, I beseech you
therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your
bodies a living sacrifice holy except one to God which is your
reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind you may
prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Be not conformed to this world,
flee these things but meditate upon these things, renew your
mind. It is said that the battleground
of our being is the mind. Satan wants to control our minds. If he controls our minds, he
controls our whole bodies. And if you look at modern life and all the things that have
been invented, what do they do? They want to
stop us from meditating. They want to stop us from thinking. Constantly, information overload. You can't go anywhere and have
peace. You go into the shops, there's
music. You go into the streets, in the
town centres, there's music. There's screens placed all over
the place, bombarding us with advertising and such like. You
watch the television and you just constantly things are being pressed
and pushed into our mind. You go onto the internet and
it's exactly the same. There's adverts that pop up that
want to draw you away, that want to attract your eyes that you
may think upon immoral and a horrible thing. And so all the time Satan has
been seeking to tempt, just like he did the Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at the glory of all of these cities. Just fall down and worship
me and you'll have them all. And he still says the same things.
Just have a little look at this. Fall down and worship me here
and you'll be satisfied. It'll give you some pleasure
for a little while. Don't think about anything too
deeply. Just think about shallow things
and how you can enjoy yourself. Be busy. Throw yourself into
everything. Master masters out careful and
troubled about many things. But one thing is needful. Meditate
on these things and give yourself completely to them. Renew your
mind. You lay in bed don't you after
you've been out? And things that you've seen during
the day pop into your mind. You wish you hadn't seen them,
but they're there. And Satan seems to bring them
up at the worst time. But we're told renew your mind,
refresh your mind, meditate upon godly things, upon God, upon
the Lord Jesus Christ and upon his holy word. And there is a
promise of a prophet progress will be made. As we said, as
I said last week, oh sorry on Wednesday, exercise thyself rather
unto godliness and we see that those people who go to the gym
they want to see a progress in their physique They want to become
stronger and more fit and more healthy and more lean so that
others may see and that they may have more self-confidence
in themselves. There's a progress, they want
to see progress. And Paul says to Timothy, you
meditate upon these things and you give yourself completely
to them and there will be a progress. and it will be a progress that
is seen. Jesus says in Matthew chapter
6 in his Sermon on the Mount. And when thou prayest, verse
5, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they
may be seen of men Nearly I say unto you, they have their reward. And the reward of the hypocrites
was the praise of men. As people passed them, they would
see them and say, what a good prayer he is. And
those who go to the gym, they get their reward. People admire their physique.
Wow, what a strong person they are. What big muscles they have. Look how far they can run. They
get their reward, an earthly reward. But when you pray, enter
into your closet, into your room. And when you have shut the door,
pray unto thy father which is in secret, and thy father which
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. there is a reward. Timothy is told there will be
progress as you meditate upon the word as you unravel the doctrines
in your mind as the sun and the rain beat down upon the seed
so it will unravel and grow and there will be a progress that
is seen. Meditation as I said is a quiet
thing not to be done in the busyness of life. We have to press the
pause button and we have to go aside and we have to go into
our rooms or go into the countryside or be alone in the car as we're
driving and meditate quietly upon Christ and upon God and
upon his word and there will be an evidence that those things
have been taken place by your life. They will be seen. As the seed comes up out of the
ground, it is an evidence that the growth has taken place under
the soil. And Jesus says, when you pray,
enter into your room. And your father, which seeth
you in secret, shall reward thee openly. if we were to take our day our
thought process during the day and put it onto an Excel pie
chart and we type in all the data that
has passed through our minds the thoughts that we've had the
imaginations that we had had and such like and we were to
type it all in How much of that pie chart would be filled with
thoughts about God? Thoughts about the Lord Jesus
Christ? Thoughts about God's holy word?
And how much would be filled up with thoughts about the things
of this life? Thoughts about a car. Thoughts
about a nice house. Thoughts about a nice dress or
a nice clothes. Thoughts about a holiday. Vain
imaginations about the previous things that have taken place
in life. If only this had happened. If only that had happened. How
much would be given to godliness and God. And how much would be
given to worldliness. How much of our thought process
would we want nobody else to see? We'd be ashamed, wouldn't we,
of some of the thoughts that fly by in our minds as birds
that fly over. But then imagine those that we've
said to Satan, Sit down, we'll have a little chat about that
thought. Joshua is told in Joshua chapter
1 as he is commissioned by the Lord to take Israel over into
the promised land. In verse 8 it says, This book
of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth but thou shalt meditate
therein day and night and thou mayest observe to do according
to all that is written therein for then thou shalt make thy
way prosperous and then thou shalt have good success The book
of the law, the books of Moses he was to meditate upon them
to think deeply upon them that they would affect the way that
he lived you may observe to do according to all that is written
therein for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous.' And so as
Paul says to Timothy, meditate upon these things give thyself
completely to them that thy profiting or thy progress may appear to
all. Joshua meditate upon the law
of God night and day and it will make your way prosperous. Psalms if you look at psalms
about many times especially psalm 119 about meditating on the word
of God but the first psalm Blessed is the man that walketh not in
the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners,
nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is
in the law of the Lord, and in his law does he meditate day
and night. He shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season. His leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doth, it shall prosper. The ungodly are not
so, but they are like chaff which the wind driveth away. Therefore
the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in
the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way
of the righteous but the way of the ungodly shall perish. His delight is in the law of
the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night. Meditate, to think deeply upon
that it may have an effect upon our thought process that it may
cleanse our minds that it may bring about a change in the way
that we live and the way that we think. When we were in Kenya
in mango season the cows and the goats would eat the mangoes
that fell from the tree and in the evening they would or in
the in the daytime they would sit under the tree and chew the
cud They would chew over what they
had eaten. But then you would hear them cough and spit. And they would spit out the mango
seeds. They would take that which was
nice and they would chew it over. But as they came to a hard, big
mango seed, they'd spit it out. I think that's what we need to
learn or I need to learn to do. There are those things that are
right to meditate upon and to think about and are beneficial
to our Christian walk and Christian life. But there are those things
that are worldly and are not worth entertaining, are not worth
thinking about. We just spit them out. and to
meditate upon those things which are beneficial. Take heed unto
thyself and unto the doctrine and continue in them. Well may the Lord help us then
in this age where we are bombarded by media, sensory overload. to rightly cipher through those
things which are beneficial to our souls and our minds and to
give ourselves to meditating upon the word of God in a busy
time that we have. In those quiet times to think
about things that are eternal, to think about God, to think
about Christ and to meditate upon his holy word. May the Lord
add his blessing. Amen. Closing hymn for service is hymn
number 1053. Love divine, O love excelling,
Joy of heaven to earth come down, Fix in us thy humble dwelling,
All thy faithful mercies crown. Jesus, thou art all compassion,
Pure unbounded love thou art, Visit us with thy salvation,
Comfort every sinking heart. Hymn number 1053 to the tune
894. of heaven to earth come down. Fix in us Thy humble dwelling,
all Thy faithful masses crowned. Jesus, Thou art all-powerful, Visit us with thy salvation,
comfort every sinking soul. Let us find thy promised rest. Take away the love of sinning. ? Alpha and Omega be ? ? May your
faith as it's beginning ? ? Set our hearts at liberty ? by thee. Change from glory into glory,
till then can we take our place, till we come Heavenly Father and Almighty
God, we thank Thee for Thy Word and the challenges that it gives
to us and we pray that Thy people may be helped to renew their,
renew our minds as we walk in this difficult and digital age
where we are so easily distracted and drawn aside and our minds
are so pumped full with so much information, Lord, we pray that
we may be granted some opportunities of time of meditation upon thee
and upon thy Son, the Lord Jesus, and upon thy Holy Word. Do bless
us now, we pray, as we part from each other. Do bring us here
this evening in peace and in safety. And now may the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father, with
the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, to be with
us each now and for evermore. Amen.