So tonight, to 1 Timothy chapter
6. Message tonight and then next
Wednesday, the Lord willing, we will finish our time here
in this first letter of Timothy. Looking at verses 1 through 6.
1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 1 through 10. Let as many servants as are
under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor. Let the name of God and his doctrine
be not blasphemed. And they that have believing
masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren,
but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved,
partakers of the benefit these things teach and exhort. If any
man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is
according to godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting
about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife,
railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt
minds, and destitute of the truth, Supposing that gain is godliness,
from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment
is great gain, for we brought nothing into this world, and
it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment,
let us be there with content. But they that will be rich, fall
into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful
lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of
money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after,
they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. I'm going to divide these 10
verses into three parts tonight, The first part will be verses
1 and 2, and then the second part, verses 3 through 5, and
the last part, verses 6 through 10. First, the relationship between
slaves and their masters. That's the first thing that Paul
is dealing with. The relationship between slaves
and their masters in verses 1 and 2. was a part of the world at the
time of the New Testament, the time when the Apostle Paul wrote
this letter. Slavery was very common in this
world. We know that from the number
of times that he himself, the Apostle Paul, deals with this
matter, this subject, with this time, four other times in his
New Testament letters. I believe tonight that it would
surprise us if we could know, and there is no way, as far as
I know, for us to know, but I'm convinced it would surprise us
if we could know the percentage of the number of slaves that
made up these New Testament churches, the churches of Thessalonica,
Rome. It is believed that at the time
This letter was written, a third of the population in Rome were
slaves. Martin Lloyd-Jones, very gifted
preacher in London years ago, in his writings, I don't recall
the exact percentage, but way over 50% of the members of these
churches, he said, were slaves. Now, there was different kinds
of slavery. We know slavery as it existed
in our country, and we have a tendency to think of slavery only like
that. But that's a mistake. That's
a mistake. You know, there were a number
of ways that a person could become a slave. Let me mention five. Some were slaves because they
were the spoils of war. The Roman soldiers would go out
conquering the world as they knew it at that time and they
would bring back spoils of war. And many of those spoils would
be men and women and children who were conquered and brought
back to serve them. I think of one example in the
Old Testament. We're all familiar with Naaman,
Naaman who went down to see Elisha, Naaman the leper. You know why
he came to see Elisha? Because of the testimony of a
slave, a young girl who had been taken captive by the Syrians
by Naaman's master. In fact, Naaman, he was a general
in the army. And she had been given to his
wife to be her servant, her slave. And she told her master, would
to God, or told the master's wife, would to God, the master
was in Israel. Because there's a prophet over
there. And he would be cleansed of his leprosy. So that's one
way that men were made slaves. They were the spoils of war. Some because they had spent themselves
into debt. They didn't have debtor's prisons,
I guess, at this time, so some men just ended up in slavery.
You know, that's what in the nation of Israel, in the law
of God, a person could become a slave in that sense, but he
had to be set free after seven years of service. but debt, indebtedness. Another way that men became slaves,
some were sold by their parents. Their parents, for one reason
or the other, maybe extreme poverty, they were sold to be slaves. Some were kidnapped, and that's
what we're the most familiar with, people who were kidnapped. and brought to this country.
Some, of course, were born slaves. Their parents were slaves, and
so they were born slaves. And you and I tonight know that
it is still practiced in this world. There are places where
people are slaves, where they are sold, and places where parents
sell their children into slavery. So the Apostle Paul is dealing
with this relationship of believers who were slaves and their masters. Let as many servants as are under
the yoke, that means they were slaves, they were under the yoke
of slavery, count their own masters worthy of all honor. Let the
name of God and His doctrine be not blasphemed. You know, in this place, in this
text here in 1 Timothy, Paul only addresses the slaves. But he does in other places address
the masters. For instance, in Ephesians 6
and verse 9, he said, And you masters, here it is, you who
are under the yoke. as many servants as are under
the yoke. But in Ephesians chapter 6 and
verse 9, he addresses those who were the masters. And you masters
do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening, knowing
that your master also is in heaven, neither is their respective persons
with him. What an admonition to the masters. Just remember this, Paul said,
you've got another master. You've got a master too. And
your master's in heaven. And he's not a respecter of persons. One writer understood Paul's
teaching to this, to be saying this. Let the slave honor his
master and the master be kind to his slave. Let both bear in
mind With God, there is no respect of persons. Now, you see the
reason for this exhortation here. Notice at the end of verse 1,
the reason Paul is exhorting, and these are believers. They're
slaves, servants, but they're believers. And the reason that he exhorts
them to honor their master that in order that the name of God
and his doctrine be not blasphemed. The conduct of the slaves as
well as the conduct of their masters should never be such. If they're believers, if they're
children of God and no one would choose to be a slave, I understand
that. But if we were a slave and God
saved us by His wonderful grace, then it should be foremost in
our mind not to bring reproach upon our God and His doctrine,
which is according to godliness. That would be our responsibility. To be a slave and have a master
who was an unbeliever would be one thing. And I'm sure there
were many of these believers who were slaves and their masters
were not believers. That would be one thing. But
Paul cautions those slaves whose masters were believers. Think
like this tonight. What if, in our group here tonight,
there were some who were masters and some who were slaves? When
we come into this building, we're one. One's not above the other. We're one in Christ. We worship
the same God. There's no respect of persons
with God. When we were here in this place
in worship, but then when we went home, things were different. Now, he's our master. Yes, he's our brother. He's our
brother in Christ, yes, but he's also our master. The same principle
with believers and employers. If a man, and this is the way
we would use this today, we would recognize that in our country
at least, thank God there is no slavery, But men and women
do work for others. There are employees and employers,
servants and masters in that sense. And if you work for a
believer, just because he's a believer, that doesn't mean that you can
loaf and not serve as you're required to do on your job. Just take advantage of the fact,
well, he's my brother in Christ, he's not going to to report me
or, you know, he's going to cut me some slack here. No. You are to honor him that God
and his doctrine be not blasphemed. A believing slave's service was
not to be inferior because his master was a believer. Whether his master was a believer
or an unbeliever, the service that he is to render, he's to
honor him as his employer, as his master. Now, notice in this
verse two that Paul says three things about the masters. And
these three things about the believing masters are true of
all believers. Very simple. First of all, they
are faithful. Notice that. Because they are faithful. In other words, they are believers.
When the question was asked, what must I do to be saved? The
Apostle Paul said, believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Every believing master and every
believing servant, we're all saved by faith, by grace through
faith. We're justified by grace through
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's true of
all believers, right? They're faithful. That's just
the common denominator, one of them. The common denominator
among all believers, and this is The bottom line, if a person
is not a believer, that person is not saved. If a person does
not trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord, as his Savior, that
person's not saved. No one would believe anyone is
saved or shouldn't believe anyone is saved who does not believe
in Christ. He's the Savior. And we must
be in Him by faith, as He is in us by His Spirit. We're in union, we're one with
Him. Well, notice the second thing,
beloved. Because they are faithful and
beloved. And this is true of all believers.
All believers are the beloved of God. He's our beloved, and yes, we
are His beloved. We all experience the love of
God, the love that the Apostle Paul tells us from which a believer
can never be separated. There's nothing that can separate
us from the love of God. And then the third thing Paul
says about The believing masters, it's true of believing servants
as well. He says they have received, partakers
rather, of the benefit. This is true of all of God's
children. We're all partakers of the benefit. We all believe, we all are the
beloved of the Lord, and the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and we all partake of the benefit. Now, that word benefit here is
singular, isn't it? But we know the benefit, that
is the blessings of salvation. It's not singular. There are
many benefits. Look with me in Psalm 103. When
I looked at this word benefit, immediately this came to my mind. I'm sure it probably does to
yours as well. One of our favorite psalms, remember
Brother Ray McGrew, I believe this was his favorite psalm.
First time I ever heard him pray, he quoted the first part of this
psalm. I never forgot that. And many
times back in the study, when he read the scripture, this was
the scripture he would read. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and
all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord,
O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. Believers are partakers
of the benefit, the benefits of salvation. And the psalmist
David, he names just a few of these benefits, doesn't he? And
look at these benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquities. Aren't you glad that he forgives
all of our iniquities? Not just most of them. Yeah,
that might be good, but my, all, all, all of our iniquities. And you and I, we couldn't, we
couldn't calculate the number of our iniquities. more than
the hairs of our head. And yet he forgiveth them all
through the blood of Jesus Christ. He forgiveth all our iniquities. He healeth all our diseases.
I remember years ago out at the television studio where I used
to go and make programs, I don't remember if it was this verse
or some verse that mentioned God's healing us, but I pointed
out this is not speaking of physical healing. And one of the cameramen,
he just shaking his head no, he was in such disagreement with
me. But you see, if this is speaking
of all physical, diseases and sufferings who healeth all our
diseases, then obviously some believers get a disease and die
of the disease. Does that mean the blood of Jesus
Christ doesn't have the power? No. If you speak to those people
who think along those lines, it becomes very obvious they're
not trusting in the healing power and the blood of Jesus Christ.
They're trusting in something that they do. Their faith are
something of that nature. But then afterwards, I got to
thinking about this. He healeth all our diseases. One day this diseased body is
going to be changed. And in that sense, yes, it does
include our physical diseases, doesn't it? We're going to get
a new body, a brand new body that's fashion-like unto our
Lord's glorious body. Who not only healeth all thy
diseases, who redeemeth thy life from destruction. I don't know. None of us do. If in heaven, in glory, maybe
God will let us look back over our life here in this world,
and we'll just see how many times one of his angels delivered us
from destruction. I'm sure all of us here tonight
can think of a few times, few of our experiences when it just
seemed like had it not been for God's redeeming power put forth,
we would have been destroyed. Who redeemeth us from all, from
destruction. Who crowneth thee with loving
kindness and tender mercy. There's these two things, loving
kindness and tender mercy. Reminds me of the verse, surely
goodness and mercy, those two things, shall follow me all the
days of my life. who satisfy thy mouth with good
things. And we'll get into this in just
a moment. Contentment. Satisfy thy mouth with good things,
so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles. One of the men said last Sunday
night how refreshing it is to come to a worship service. Made
a point of that. He does renew our strength, doesn't
he? When we come together to worship
the Lord, we can come into this building tired. I remember before I became a
pastor or preacher, going to service on Sunday or Wednesday
night and being physically tired. I worked on a job at that time
that was labor, laboring. And yet, somehow, just in the
service, being refreshed and strength renewed. I can't explain
that, but I know it's so. It's just refreshing God's blessing,
God's presence upon a service, not only spiritually, but physically
as well. So that's the first thing. All
the saved, masters and slaves, we all partake of the benefits
of the grace of God, and we partake of them by grace, by grace, not
by desert or merit. Now, turn back with me to our
text. The second, verses three through
five, the man who teaches otherwise, man who teaches otherwise and
does not consent to wholesome words. This word, which is translated
consent, does not consent to wholesome words. Literally, that
word consent, that Greek word means to approach. And William
Hendrickson translated this word as come over to, come over to. That is, join, fall in with. And he goes on to explain this
in this way. A mere listener, suppose we're
just listening like you're doing tonight. A mere listener may
mentally agree with the words of the speaker. He may mentally
agree with what's being said. An enthusiastic listener may
come over, may come over too. or join with the speaker. He will eagerly come to the same
fountain and drink of the same water. He will take to heart
and will begin to proclaim sound words, the sound words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. These words are wholesome words. They're healthy words. You know,
we need to eat healthy, don't we? We need healthy food, wholesome
food. for our health. And the same
thing is true of our spirituality. We need wholesome words, wholesome
truth, wholesome doctrine. Where will we find that in the
word of God? And if we don't, then we're likely
to get spiritually sick and spiritually weak. And so Paul says, if a
man doesn't consent, if he doesn't come over, join with, enthusiastically
believe and begin to preach and receive and teach sound words,
the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. These words which tend
to produce godliness in our heart and godliness in our lives. The
man who does not come over to such wholesome sound doctrine,
Paul said he's prevented from knowing anything. Notice what
he said. If any man teach otherwise and
consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ,
and to the doctrine which is according to godliness, he's
proud knowing nothing. Knowing nothing. If he rejects
wholesome words, the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, words
which tend to produce godliness, in our heart and in our lives. And he doesn't know anything. And he doesn't come over, he
lives in his own world. He concerns himself about questions,
about different meanings of words. When a person rejects healthy
words, he becomes sick and he loves controversies. And you
can imagine, remember Paul's writing to this preacher who
is in Ephesus, overseeing the church in Ephesus, because there
was need for things to be set in order. And we can just imagine
a church with a person like this in it, who doesn't come over
to the truth. to consent to wholesome words. What he's interested, or she
for that matter, is interested in is questionings, controversies,
always keeping something stirred up. Something stirred up. Then the church where there is
supposed to be, and thank God in our church we can say this
tonight, there is supposed to be unity and love. But where
there's controversy, then what do you have? Well, notice what
he says. You have envy, strife, railings,
suspicion of others. And such disputings are produced
by those who are void of the truth, whose minds are corrupt,
and their minds actually lead them to believe that gain is
godliness, that somehow the more material things that I have,
that is godliness. Remember in James, he said, hath
not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith? And I know
every believer is poor spiritually, but even materially poor, God
has chosen his people. And that was certainly true of
these who were slaves, who had a master. Well, let's go to the
last part, the true riches of believers in verses 6 through
10. True riches, such as justification. How do you put a price on that?
To be declared righteous before God. You can't put a price on that.
To be reconciled to God. to be adopted into the family
of God. These are the true riches. I'm convinced that most of us
are influenced by things that we've heard and things around
us and we get the idea that blessings always have to do with material
things. What would it matter, our Lord
said, if a man gained the whole world and loses his soul? The true riches, the true riches
that God's people have, peace with God, spiritual joy, and
everlasting life, these things cannot be purchased. To know
Christ and to be content with His provision, whatever it is,
is to be truly blessed, is to be truly content. You know, the Lord told that
parable of that man whose fields just brought in so much And he
said, I don't know what to do. I guess the best thing to do
is tear down these barns and build bigger ones. And he just
had them full of everything. And he said to his soul, now
eat, drink, and be merry. You know, much is laid up for
you. And the Lord said, you fool. You fool. Tonight thy soul shall be required
of thee. And whose shall these things
be? These things in the barn could not minister to his soul. Just couldn't do it. You know, many people misquote
verse 10, and they quote it like this. For money is the root of
all evil. People quote it like that. That's
not what it says, not at all. For the love of money is the
root of all evil. We've all known, I'm sure, I
know I have, I've known some men that were very wealthy and
yet they used their wealth to spread the gospel. It's not money, it's the love
of money that's the root of all evil. Notice in closing, the
apostle says two things here, two simple facts that all of
us know. Fact number one, we will leave
this world and take nothing with us. Verse seven, we all know
we're going to leave this world And just like Job said, naked
came I into this world, and naked am I going to leave. I've heard
this at a few funerals. I'm sure you've heard it before,
but you never see a U-Haul trailer hooked up to a casket. I've never
seen that. No, no. When you leave this world,
you leave everything, as far as material things, behind. Paul says that in verse 10. Verse seven, I'm sorry. Verse
seven. For we brought nothing into this
world. This is a fact. When you came
into this world, you brought nothing with you, right? You
came in naked from your mother's womb, and when we leave this
world, that's the way we're going to leave. Brought nothing, take
nothing. One old English preacher said,
six feet by two and a half, six feet long
by two and a half wide, is all the ground that the richest man
in England will shortly occupy." We had a very wealthy man die
this past week in our city. Very wealthy man. If I heard
right, he'd given away over $500 million to charities and things
like that. But I tell you what, He left
it all when he left here. He didn't take anything with
him. And just like this preacher said, all he's going to need,
the ground he's going to need is not a big stadium out there.
It's six feet long, two feet, two and a half feet wide. That's
it. Fact number two, to make riches
a goal is to invite trouble. The troubles of the worst kind,
verse nine. They that will be rich, fall
into temptation and a snare, and to many foolish and hurtful
lusts." You say, what troubles? Temptations, snares, and hurtful
lusts such as deceiving, lying, stealing, cheating, things of
that nature. I think Matthew Henry one time
said something like this, men, they worry about getting riches,
and once they've got them, then they worry about someone stealing
their riches, and then they worry about leaving their riches when
it's time to die. That's just a fact. They that
would be rich fall into many, many snares and number That's
two facts. Here's a third truth. To seek
godliness with contentment, that's great gain. That is great gain. If you and I tonight, if we have
godliness with contentment, that is great gain. If we know Christ
is our Lord and Savior and we're content with what God's providence
has given unto us, supplied us with. That's great gain. That's
great gain. I pray the Lord would bless His
word to all of us here tonight. Brother Bill, lead us in a prayer.