TRAINING FOR A LIFE OF GODLINESS 1 Timothy 4:6-10

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1 TRAINING FOR A LIFE OF GODLINESS 1 Timothy 4:6-10 January 27, 2013 Providence INTRODUCTION: Since I was 18 years old, I have had occasional bouts of lower back troubles. Sometimes it would just be a twinge of pain, but other times I would be laid up for a couple of days. Last year when I was having back problems again, I finally listened to what medical professionals had been telling me for years. After getting treatments for a while, the consistent remedy proposed to me was to follow a series of exercises that would prevent recurrence of the back pain. So I began to do those exercises and stretches each day, training the muscles and stretching them to give greater stability to my lower back. Just as I was beginning to feel pretty good about my progress, I started looking forward to the day I could ease up on the exercises and not have to do them every day. But after one of my treatment sessions, I ran into the doctor who told me he was glad to hear of my improvement. Then he said, Welcome to your new normal! You will need to do those stretches the rest of your life! Training! The very word brings back bad memories! And now I was told that as long as I live, if I wanted to avoid lower back flare ups, I would need to remain consistent in training my muscles to respond in a healthy way! Today, Paul applies the same principle to our spiritual lives. THESIS: Living for Jesus Christ means a lifetime of training so that He can shape and strengthen us and make us like Him. We can never let up never back off never grow complacent in the process of being trained for the purpose of godliness. In fact, Paul tells Timothy that one of the most important things we can do for the brethren is to point that out to them. I. WE SERVE PEOPLE BEST WHEN WE TELL THEM THE TRUTH 1Tim. 4:6 In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. --If we want others to be a good servant of Christ Jesus, we serve them best when we point out the power of the truth of the gospel the power that builds godliness into their lives as they give themselves wholeheartedly to Him. A. POINT PEOPLE BACK TO THE GOSPEL OF GRACE --When Paul refers to these things in 4:6, he points back to what he just said in 4: Briefly, to review, he reminds the believers that our relationship with God is through the grace of Jesus Christ and not on the basis of our efforts to win His approval, or favor. --The gospel we preach and the truth we believe leaves no room for a religion of self-righteous deeds Paul always points us back to the gospel of grace. B. NOURISH THE PEOPLE WITH THE TRUTH OF GOD S WORD --But now, Paul challenges Timothy to serve the people by making sure he is feeding them the kind of spiritually nourishing truth that will strengthen them to live godly lives and protect from from godless deceptions. 1. Words of the faith nourish by calling us to believe

2 2 --By faith, everyone who believes in Jesus Christ receives new life in His name and so we tell others the Gospel and call them to put their trust in His saving grace. Rom. 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 2. Sound doctrine nourishes by filling us with truth --Once we have believed in Jesus Christ, in order for us to grow and mature, we must be nourished with that which is profitable we must feed on things that are good for us! --New life does not come until words of the faith have been believed and we come to know Jesus Christ as Savior. a. Food for spiritual health --But then Paul reminds us, we must then be nourished by sound doctrine, good teaching, that feeds us truth to live by. ILLUS. As colds and flu continue to infect so many people, one of the best things you can do is to pay attention to your own patterns of eating and rest. You need to eat healthy food and use wisdom in choosing those foods most likely to strengthen you and protect you at the same time. In the same way, if you are being nourished regularly with sound food from God s Word, the disease of deceptive teaching will be rendered harmless truth will serve to make you immune to falsehood! b. Protection against ridiculous myths 1Tim. 4:7 Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths [ old wives tales ]. --Armed with truth, silly superstitions and foolish ideas have little hope of drawing us away into godless myths and irreverent views. ILLUS. One of the greatest harvest grounds for cults is untaught church members. When we fail to nourish new believers with sound doctrine, good teaching in the eternal truths of God s Word, we leave them vulnerable to whatever winds of deception sweep down upon them. Counterfeits are best discovered by those most intimately acquainted with the real thing! So the more we know of Christ, the less inclined we will be to abandon Him for that which is vastly inferior to Him who is Lord of all!! Note: The sound teaching must take root, not just be learned by rote, if strong, healthy, vibrant followers of Christ are to mature in Him. We must be as diligent in modeling love for a Treasured Savior as we are in presenting truth about a Trustworthy Savior! II. WE SERVE CHRIST BEST WHEN WE TRAIN TO BE GODLY. 1Tim. 4:7b-8 On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8 for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. A. THE PROFIT COMES FROM TRAINING WELL, NOT TRYING HARDER --A little background on the text will be helpful as we take a closer look at this passage.

3 3 Discipline/Training Guvmnaze (gumnaze) train yourself for godliness, gives rise the idea of going to the gymnasium to exercise, to work out, as the means to train in godliness. --Up in 4:6, the word translated in ESV as trained is a different word [ejntrefw]that normally is translated as nourish, feed. Toil/Labor (kopiw'men) and Strive/Agonize (ajgwnizovmeqa) Training in godliness and for godliness does not pretend to be easy, but involves a commitment to endure, remain consistent, and be diligent no matter what the cost, how much it hurts and how long it takes. ILLUS. In an age of instant everything, some find it bothersome to have to train for a godly life and think it should come as a guaranteed right, complete with a certificate when we trust Christ as Savior! The very notion that they must train, laboring and agonizing in the process strikes them as wholly unappealing and seriously not worth it! So, many who dare to enter their life with Christ by faith are quite unwilling to train themselves in godliness and feel that they are entitled to be godly without all the bother of having to toil and agonize in the training process! 1. Trying Harder --The idea is that once I have put my trust in Him for salvation and new life, I guess it now depends on me to give it my all and do my best to be worthy of Him. --How wrong is that? You could not be worthy of His salvation how do you expect now to become like Christ through human effort trying harder? Note. Paul has already addressed this in the 4:1-5 no amount of self-denial, no level of exertion on my part, no extraordinary or heroic effort none can match the incomparable grace of Jesus Christ. ILLUS. Suppose you decided to try to swim from America to Europe. No matter where you started or where you intended to end up no matter your skill level or the amount of conditioning, you could not make it. No matter how committed, how much you tried, you could never make it. Trying harder sometimes is not the answer! In the case of our relationship with the Lord God, only Jesus can take us all the way to Him! --But once you have made it to Him by grace through faith in the One who did everything necessary for you to get to your heavenly Father, trying to live right and making every effort to be nice, be a good Christian, the results are still out of your hands. --You still must rely entirely on His grace to train you, strengthen you, anchor you and grow you up to be a godly man or woman for Christ s sake! 2. Training Diligently --God has provided a way, a plan, for you to grow to maturity in Christ, a plan that does not negate trying harder, but that excels it by far He wants you to be trained! ILLUS. We do not train toward no purpose but we have a specific goal in mind when we train. Motivation is hard enough without having some goal in mind lose ten pounds, not be winded going upstairs, be able to keep up with my kids or grandkids, read through the Bible this year, save enough to get a new car, etc. all offer a pay-off and a reward for the amount of work involved! NT Words for Training:

4 4 Paideo instruction with the intent of forming proper habits of behavior Gumnazo experience vigorous training and control, usually through keeping yourself disciplined (sometimes with the idea of commanding your own heart, making yourself obey) --In spiritual training, there are goals ito keep in mind: --Righteousness Knowledge/Wisdom Holiness a. Trained in Righteousness By God s Word 2Tim. 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training [paivdeia] in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. --Everyone seems to want to define right and wrong on their own terms, but only one standard will pass the test as absolutely true all the time God s Word is the only place to find that standard we have to train our minds and hearts to take His Word for what is righteous! b. Trained in Wisdom By Consistent Practice Heb. 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained [gumnazw] to discern good and evil --Practice and training go together, don t they? We repeat what is right over and over again and we become trained to reproduce those actions without having to think about it! --Once we have learned to know the difference between what God wants and what we want, between what is good and right and what is harmful and wrong, we can count on that training to sustain us when tempting situations come along. c. Trained in Holy Living By the Father s Discipline Heb. 12:10-11 Our fathers disciplined [paivdeuw] us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11 No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained [gumnazw] by it. 1) Trained by Fires of Refinement 1Pet. 1:7 These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 2) Trained by Words of Rebuke Psa. 141:5 Let a righteous man strike me it is a kindness; let him rebuke me it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it. 3) Trained by Practice of Restraint Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. 12 It teaches us to say No to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live selfcontrolled, upright and godly lives in this present age, 4) Trained by Promise of Reward

5 5 1Cor. 9:25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. --The Father promises that those who run the race with diligence and have been trained according to His discipline will receive the victor s crown of righteousness (2 Timothy 4:8), but even more they gain Christ Himself our greatest desire (Phil. 3:8)! 5) Trained by Rigors of Exercise 1 Tim. 4:10 For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers --Training involved repetitive exercise and building good habits. --So we should not be surprised that to train in righteousness we labor and strive to gain the benefit of the training. Grow in Grace Ungracious people (grace builders) Love Unlovely and unloveable people Peace Worrisome troubles Joy Adversity Patience Trying circumstances Faith Sight that says don t do it B. THE VALUE COMES FROM INWARD TRAINING, NOT OUTWARD CONDITIONING --Paul s perspective on training addresses the relative value of the two primary ways people are likely to train themselves. 1 Tim 4:8 for bodily discipline/training is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come 1. Training physically is valuable in some ways --There is an obvious value of physical conditioning and training our bodies as an act of good stewardship. --Since our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we have a responsibility to the Lord to keep ourselves physically fit. NOTE: To be physically undisciplined and let our bodies go undermines our testimony that we are servants of Christ and not our own. So if you do not care about physical training for your own sake, at least pay attention to it because you are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit! 2. Training spiritually is valuable in every way --But Paul wants to make sure that the emphasis is on that which matters most to the Lord, that which is of highest value to Him. --We are to train in godliness because that is profitable for all things. --Jesus addressed this same idea in principle when He taught that we should Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you (Matthew 6:33). a. Godliness holds promise for the present life

6 6 --Those who live godly lives in this world experience the fullness of life with all its abundance of love, joy and peace. --God is most glorified through us when we are living for His good pleasure and therefore our hearts find contentment and satisfaction in Him something impossible to find otherwise. b. Godliness holds promise for the life to come --But as we come to terms with the temporal nature of our life in this world, we want to live in such a way that we hold onto that which endures forever. --That can only be found when our life is in Jesus Christ and the power of the resurrection guarantees eternal life for us in His name. Phil. 3:20-21 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; 21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself. --Those who have been made godly by the righteousness of Jesus Christ will live forever and those who remain in their own ungodliness will be eternally separated from Him in everlasting condemnation! 3. Training rigorously is essential in every way. 1 Timothy 4:9-10 It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. --Those who fix their hopes on the living God do so by trusting in the saving grace of Jesus Christ. --Our hope is in Him alone, not our human efforts or abilities but that does not mean we are not responsible to give ourselves wholly to the kind of training in righteousness that will bear the fruit of godliness in our lives! --Two words Paul uses here make it clear that he does not want anyone to think that this path is easy: 10 For it is for this we labor and strive, Labor get tired, grow weary (kopiw'men) Strive fight, struggle, agonize (ajgwnizovmeqa) ILLUS. The sacrifices that people make for physical training can go to extraordinary lengths because they see a certain value in that accomplishment hours of practice for musicians, athletes, physicians, technicians of every sort. But when it is suggested that living a godly life in Christ Jesus will require them to train themselves in godliness, they fail to see the value and therefore neglect this highest of all values! CONCLUSION: Some have observed that the Christian life seems hard to them. It is! Apart from the power of Jesus Christ, it is altogether impossible! But He does not expect us to succeed by our own will power or by our own abilities but to rest in His grace, while training in His righteousness. God saves us by His grace God trains us in His righteousness God empowers us by His might. Nothing is impossible with God!

7 7 Takeaways: 1. Sound doctrine builds consistent spiritual vitality. --Therefore, commit yourself to feed well on substantive portions of biblical truth stop settling for spiritual fast foods that will not nourish your soul! 2. Inward godliness, not outward conditioning, lasts forever. --No matter how good your physical shape is, or how disciplined your behavior is, only the inward transformation of your heart lasts forever. --Therefore, give more time and attention to the inner person of the heart than the outward development of the body. 3. Training, not trying, makes the difference! --Training hard employs God s resources to grow stronger, while trying hard depends on man s resolve to do better. --Therefore, let God be your Trainer to develop godliness in you so you can grow to be like Christ. May God give us the passion and persistence we need to grow in godliness all the days of lives until we see Him face to face and are made like Him once for all!! January 27, 2013 Providence Baptist Church David Horner, 2013 Sermon outlines are copyrighted in the event of future publication. They may be used for preaching and teaching purposes but may not be published or sold.