1 Timothy 6:11-21 "The Final Charge"

This whole letter of 1 Timothy, we've been going through it for several months, and if you were to take the letter and just boil it down to this message, you just kind of condense it all down, it is that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.

Therefore, so that we should faithfully follow Jesus.

Going back to chapter 1 and verse 5, when Paul was writing to Timothy, he said, Our aim, the aim of our charge, is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

This letter deals with all kinds of things from false teachers to the role of men and women in the church, the praying pattern of the church, how the church should gather on the Lord's Day, how the church should be doing evangelism to see the great commission fulfilled, how there are some people who will depart the faith, so much instruction.

But it all goes back to this charge: love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

That is the aim that Paul has for Timothy.

That's Timothy's job to work that into the church at Ephesus, and that is our job as brothers and sisters, as Christians, gathered as a local church, that our aim, as we gather and as we scatter and go throughout our days, would be love.

Love that issues again from a pure heart.

Not faulty motives, not confused about how we show love.

It's from Christ, it's bearing truth and love and grace.

It's not something we can kind of get people to do what we want them to do.

It's love that issues from a pure heart.

In a good conscience, in a sincere faith.

These last few verses are just packed.

They're filled with emotional language, this emotional charge from Paul to Timothy to stay the course, to not give up.

Talks about who God is and how rich people are to spend their money and how Timothy is to stay the course.

It's this final charge for Timothy.

Let's look at this beginning in verse 11.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things.

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

Fight the good fight of the faith.

Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, about which you were made, which you made the good confession, in the presence of many witnesses.

I charge you in the presence of God who gave life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

To him be honor and eternal dominion, amen.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on things, hope on the uncertainties of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

O Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.

Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge, for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.

Grace be with you.

And he just was talking about false teachers and how they want to use godliness for gain and how they they're trying to use religion to kind of motivate or move people along for their own benefit.

They're talking about those who are who are seeking to be content in the riches of the world.

But rather we are to be content in the Lord.

He's talking about this love of money and how deceptive it can be.

And how this love of money, this love of anything really other than Christ, can lead us astray.

And then he says, But as for you, O man of God.

See, Paul's telling Timothy that you must take action.

You must take this action.

But as for you, O man of God, flee these things.

Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

Fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Flee, pursue, take hold, fight.

Four imperatives, just in these two verses, four commands, do these things.

Can Paul be any more clear on what he's expecting Timothy to do?

He's compelling him, live this way with all the distractions in the world, all the selfish desires around, and all the selfish desires in our own hearts, all the things that pull at us.

We're pulling at Timothy as well.

Pulling him, distracting him, pulling him away from Christ.

But he's to be sober-minded and strong and contend.

This singular focus to exalt Christ, to adore Christ much more, far above all other worldly responsibilities, to pursue and proclaim Christ.

Paul's helping Timothy and helping us understand.

We're not just going through life trying to kind of figure out, like, what do I want to do today?

Opening our mind and our heart, just kind of seeking to receive whatever energy or thoughts or ideas might be out there.

But rather, we're to contend, we're to fight and to pursue.

It shifts our whole thinking.

When I read this, I imagine a parent who's getting ready to send their child off to college or the military or something, and they they kind of get them by the shoulders and they just look him in the eye and say, listen, stick to it, stay focused, flee the things of the world and follow Jesus.

That's contending, this final charge to Timothy to take action.

To take action, to lead, to live as an example, to flee things that are ungodly, to pursue things that are godly, to fight the good fight of the faith.

How often do we grow weary and burdened in life?

And you just grow tired of doing good.

You're tired of fighting sin.

You're tired of dealing with church people that are difficult.

You're tired of dealing with the world, which is really difficult.

You're just, you kind of feel done.

And what a blessing! And how much is it needed for us as brothers and sisters in Christ to say to one another, fight the good fight.

You know, tomorrow, Monday, if the Lord allows, we wake up, we go to work, we take care of our families.

Fight the good fight.

There's no better thing you can give your life to than for fighting the good fight of the faith.

That you might take hold of eternal life.

With all the things pulling at you, pulling at Timothy, pulling at us, pulling in all the people of the world, all these things pulling at us, seeking to distract.

That we might lust after things, long after things, pursue things that are ungodly, that we might fight the good fight, take hold of the faith.

What message, brother or sister, do you need more?

When all the things, and we're no different.

I'm not different because I'm a pastor or an elder, and you're not different because you're a layman.

Like we all have sin and struggles.

We're all contending to follow after Christ.

What a good reminder.

What a good charge.

Fight the good fight.

Think about all the struggles that you have going on in your life.

Maybe you have marriages, marriage issues.

It's a significant struggle with you.

Maybe you have singleness issues.

You're struggling with your singleness.

Maybe you have issues with your job or not having a job or not being fulfilled in your job.

Maybe you have issues with family members, kids who are walking away from the Lord or don't want anything to do with you.

Maybe you've hurt people severely.

Maybe people have hurt you severely.

No matter what's going on in your life, this is what you need to hear.

That you are to take hold of eternal life.

Pursue Christ.

Give your life to Christ and follow Him all the days of your life.

Yes, all the things, I'm not saying there aren't things in your life that matter.

There are lots of things that matter.

Your job, your finances, all the things in your life, those things matter.

But far and way above all those things is your affection for the Lord, your desire for Him.

We say this a lot, but the issue with the Pharisees in Jesus' day, in his time, the issue with the Pharisees was not that they didn't know enough.

It wasn't that they were just kind of clumsy with their Bibles and they didn't really know understand theology and they didn't know how to really follow Jesus faithfully or have eyes to see who the Messiah was.

That was not their issue.

It wasn't knowledge.

Their issue was obedience.

They did not obey.

And here you can just see this theme in this book, this letter, where Paul's just saying to Timothy, and he's saying it to all churches.

Follow Jesus.

This final charge is to keep following Jesus and to obey him.

To obey him.

Not know more things for the sake of knowing more things, but to obey him.

This is what Jesus says in John 14, 15.

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Sometimes we want to take a passage like that or a verse, and we want to start putting in all these caveats.

Well, keep in mind this, keep in mind that.

Just let that stand for a moment.

Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commands.

This wasn't manipulation.

He wasn't saying, well, if you actually love me, maybe you'd obey me sometime.

He was just making a logical connection.

He's saying, listen, if this is true that you love me, then this will be true, you obey my commands.

If you're not obeying my commands, you don't love me.

Again, he's not throwing weight or shade or like trying to get people to feel real bad about something.

He's just saying this is a reality.

If you love me, you will obey my commands, you'll keep them.

So often it's not a knowledge issue.

It's not understanding, it's obedience.

So the charge is to keep following Christ, to take hold of the faith, to fight the good faith, pursue righteousness, godliness, and to flee the things of the world.

The charge for you and me is to follow Jesus.

Paul's saying to Timothy, love Jesus.

Follow him, love Jesus, obey him.

Do not follow the false teachers, don't follow the shadowy thinkers who have shallow thinking and teaching and deception.

Don't let the things of the world, money, ego, or influence, worldly wisdom, passing ideologies, don't let these things pool at your heart, that they might pull you away from God, but to flee them.

Paul's not telling Timothy, and I'm not telling you, to go isolate yourself.

You know, this would get this would be a whole lot easier, this Christianity thing, if we could just get a couple hundred acres, right?

And get a get a good fence around that and just kind of barricade ourselves in.

It doesn't work that way.

It's not what we're called to.

That's not what what Paul's arguing for.

To isolate and to just flee from everything that could potentially in some way be detrimental.

Or to be wise.

Or to be wise.

The thing that I know that the Bible tells me about you, and you should know this if you don't, is that you have a sinful nature.

You desire things that are contrary to God.

And if you if you're not aware of that, I I would love to talk with you more after the service.

I'm just telling you, you have a nature.

There's a thing about you that wants to do things that are against God.

They're not what God has desired for you, they're not what He has designed you for, but those desires are in you.

And so when Paul says to flee the things of the world, you should have the understanding, man, there are things in my life that I need to flee from.

I need to just flee.

I'm not like staying around, seeing if I can convert them to Jesus or if I can redeem these things for God.

No, no, no, that's not your job.

You flee.

You you get out of there, you you run away, you flee.

So think for a moment.

Are there things in your life that you're fleeing?

Or are you just kind of like, I just kind of go into my day, see what comes about, and I'll use some discernment and think about it when it comes?

Or do you kind of wake up knowing there's gonna be a challenge before you?

This day, this day, you will have to decide, do I flee from things and fight the good fight, or do I entertain worldly things?

Do I compromise?

We are to take hold of the faith.

Christ is worthy of our obedience.

He's worthy of us obeying Him and following Him and trusting Him.

We can say we believe, but action must be taken.

Action must be taken.

There's people in your life who would be more than happy to affirm just about whatever you want to believe.

I mean, there's people who are just and they mean well.

They mean well.

They're just like, yeah, I affirm that.

That's good.

But knowledge in random affirmation does not make something true.

Just because you have knowledge about something, and then you have someone who's gonna affirm that, and it just happens to work out because that's what your sinful desire wants, and they're affirming that, doesn't make it true.

Me wanting to be a pilot, and someone saying, Yeah, Rick, you seem like a smart guy.

You could probably just go fly that plane, sure.

My desire and their affirmation doesn't make me a pilot.

Now you might say that's a really silly illustration.

Of course.

Of course it is.

But how many of us, or how many of you are sitting here today and you believe yourself to be a Christian?

Not because your life or your doctrine have been examined by godly, faithful people around you, but you believe yourself to be a Christian simply because, well, you believe yourself to be a Christian.

You own a Bible, maybe, you read it occasionally, maybe you grew up in the church, you have some kind of thoughts about these things, or maybe you feel some kind of guilt or shame when you do something wrong.

I'm not saying you're not a Christian, but how do you know that you're a Christian?

Are you walking in the ways of Jesus?

Are you obeying his commands?

See, the concern that Paul had for Timothy in this whole letter, and he's kind of culminating to this, was that he would be enticed and deceived and pulled away from following Jesus.

This is Paul's encouragement to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12.

1 Corinthians 10:12

Let anyone who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.

If you think you are safe from any kind of deception of the enemy, you're in more danger than you could ever imagine.

If you think you're safe from any kind of deception of the enemy, you are in more danger than you could ever imagine.

So here, Paul is charging Timothy with all this language of take hold and take charge and hold fast and flee, so that we might faithfully follow Jesus.

I don't know Paul's mind.

I can't get into his mind, right?

But what I do know is the Lord's working in Timothy to be faithful at the church in the church at Ephesus.

That we, Proclamation Church, are the beneficiaries of that.

That 2,000 years ago, when the church at Ephesus was struggling, there's difficulty, there's false teachers, and Paul says to Timothy, stay the course, stick to your guns, follow Jesus, be true to Jesus, don't be distracted.

That for the church for 2,000 years has been blessed by Timothy being faithful to Jesus Christ.

Timothy was faithful by God's grace, and here we are as a church 2,000 years later.

So we can't be cavalier about being faithful to Jesus and playing with sin.

I think Paul had some grasp, some grasp of the magnitude of this when he was writing to Timothy.

What was at stake wasn't just Timothy's reputation.

It wasn't just the church at Ephesus that Paul had helped start.

Right?

Paul wasn't just thinking, well, I've got some skin in the game because I helped start this, and if it goes south, it's gonna look bad on me.

He had the kingdom of Christ in mind.

He had Christians for generations in mind when he says, take hold of the faith.

Fight the good fight.

This argument, this persuasive argument to Timothy was so important that he begins to anchor it, anchor this charge.

Not in the world's a bad place.

Stay faithful.

Hey, you know what?

We need to make sure we have a good reputation.

Stay faithful.

He anchors the charge in who God is in the hope that we have.

In him.

Look at verse 13.

I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of Lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see.

To him be honor and eternal dominion.

Amen.

So again, Paul's using this language, this charge, and he's saying, listen, it's because of who God is and what God has done.

In the presence of God.

God's omnipresent.

He's everywhere.

It's done praying in our prayer.

So why would he say, in the presence of God?

And then he goes on, who gives all things.

And he did this before Christ Jesus, who made the good confession before Pilate.

And we don't know exactly what that confession was.

Most people believe it's in John 18 when Jesus was indeed affirming that he is God, his deity.

But he's saying, listen, I'm reminding you of who God is.

Takes this very basic, simple doctrine.

God's everywhere.

He's reminding Timothy that.

How often in our own battle with staying faithful to the Lord.

Not as a manipulator, like, well, God's watching.

God's everywhere.

You cannot begin to think and operate in a system as if you can do what you want separate and have no effect or influence on those around you.

Or as if God isn't aware and God doesn't care.

His presence is everywhere.

He gives life to all things.

The charge isn't be faithful because you know there's some bad people in the world.

Avoid them.

Be faithful because if you're not, you might, you know, lose out on some opportunities.

It's be faithful because God is real.

He is real.

What he says is real.

And who he is, and everything he declares is true.

The confession he's made is true.

So keep the command, Timothy.

Keep the command unstained and free from reproach.

How quickly do we forget God?

How quickly, how easily we just we forget him.

You'd be like, I've heard of that before.

But you're just going about your day, you're doing things, you're thinking about yourself, you're doing what you desire, and you forget.

Oh, there's a God who created all things and he's good and he's over all things, and he's called me to follow him faithfully.

Let us do that.

How quickly we forget.

So Paul is charging Timothy again to keep the command.

I like how the CSB renders verse 14.

To keep this command without faults or failure until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, what command, what command is it that Timothy is supposed to keep without fault or failure?

Well, it could be verse 11 and 12, all those imperatives that charge.

It could be the Old Testament commandments or just God's commands in general, which all are beneficial and satisfying, right?

But I think what he's talking about is the apostolic commands that Paul has given Timothy.

This is what I think he's charging him with.

The teachings, Timothy, that you've heard from me, that you've received, keep them.

He's to keep and follow these teachings, which would also affirm all of the Old Testament in God's commands.

They're all worked out through the apostolic commands as well.

He's to keep them without fault or failure until Jesus returns.

Until he comes back.

I'll do that for a season.

I'm content with singleness for a season.

I'm content in my marriage for a season.

I can not give into that sin for a season.

But there's still part of us that wants some kind of hope that we can kind of get what we want in this world.

There's still a part of us that has a hope that what we desire will be satisfied here and now eventually.

And this command, this instruction to Timothy, it's saying, listen, this isn't just for a little while.

This isn't why false teachers are kind of running around the church, and why there's some unique division.

But you're to keep this until Jesus comes back.

Or until Timothy dies.

There's no resting.

There's no passing it off and saying, well, I kept the command for a good ten years.

It's time someone else kept the command for a good ten years.

And I'm kind of can go on sabbatical and be free and do whatever while they keep the command.

Brother, sister.

As a Christian, when you give your life to Jesus and He comes and He transforms your heart, He gives you a new nature.

He does not say, now give me the best 20 years of your life.

Or give me half the time you have on earth left.

He says, Come to me and die.

Crucify your desires, your worldly sin, all those things, and then trust me that in the midst of all that, you will be sustained, you'll be provided for, there will be life for you there.

But this is from this moment on, for all of time, all of eternity.

That's the call of Christ on our lives.

We would come and die and surrender and follow after Him in all things.

Paul's reminding Timothy who God is.

I mentioned this before, it's good to remember this.

Everything we do, church, listen, everything you do is affected and formed by what you think of God.

The way that you work, the clothes you wear, the way you talk, where you live, everything you do, it's affected and formed by what you think of God, what you believe about God.

Is he the King of Kings?

Is he the Lord of Lords?

Will he return?

Is he sovereign?

It's all of those things, what you believe, it's affecting your life.

All theology is practical.

Never for a moment think that theology does not have real implications.

All of it, where you land on things in the Bible, have real implications.

This charge is anchored in reality, that God is real.

False teachers are real, the adversary and the adversaries around are real.

The deception is real.

So what we believe really, really matters.

It affects everything about our life and how we're to live.

So we must understand our obedience isn't just for our own good.

It's because God is who he says he is, and that he is sovereign, he's good, and there is eternal life, and we're to enjoy him forever, therefore obey.

Then Paul slides in these next verses about rich people.

This instruction about money.

We know in the last week we went through verses 8 and 10.

It's talking about money, being content with very little.

Don't set your heart on money.

But then there's this teaching.

But listen, if you do have money, here's how to live.

Verse 17.

As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

They are to be, they are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

Just some basic, very fundamental, simple instructions.

Paul's saying before, don't be content with money, don't be pursuing money.

And he's saying, like, listen, if you do have money, here's some helpful instruction for you.

And I just want to preface that with saying most of the people in our day and age, in our culture, would fall into the rich category, not the poor category.

So if you're thinking, well, yeah, I know some rich people, they need to hear this.

It's probably you.

Right?

Most of us would definitely fall in this category.

And if you doubt me, I just encourage you to go to your home and open your pantry and see if there's food in there.

Alright?

Just open your closet, see if you have some extra clothes in there.

This isn't just about cash in the bank.

So the first thing is to not be haughty.

Don't be the kind of people who have money and let everyone know that they have money.

Don't be haughty about these things.

Don't set your desires on riches.

Isn't that so encouraging and helpful?

Don't set your desire, your hopes on the uncertainty of riches.

So often we do that.

And I don't know about you, but I don't think it's the man, I just need five billion dollars.

Right?

And that would, that's the riches of my heart set on.

It's like, man, if I just had it, if I just had another 50,000, or if I just had another, you know, 5,000, if I just had that extra money, that would really solve my problems.

If I could just get my hands on like$10,000, my life would be changed.

You set your heart on those things.

Don't set your heart on these things.

Set your hope on God, who richly provides everything.

He provides.

I read that passage in out of Matthew 6.

He provides in abundance.

He took care of the movies of the field, he's going to take care of you.

And he does it so that we can enjoy it.

He provides so that we can enjoy.

So this is my like word to you.

If you the Lord has given you things, enjoy them.

But you know the way to enjoy them isn't like, hey, God's given me 500,000.

The best way to enjoy that is just to start spending it.

You can spend it, sure.

That's definitely part of enjoying it.

But I'll guarantee you that you're not going to enjoy that very much if you're looking to it for satisfaction and hope.

See how brilliant is God, right?

He makes this so like you you have this money, he's giving you the money.

He's like, hey, here's a ton of money.

Have fun with that.

By the way, guess what?

You can't have fun with that unless you're worshiping me.

It's brilliant, right?

Because he's saying, I'm the one you need, I'm the one that your heart's been made for.

I'll give you all kinds of good things, but you won't enjoy them if your heart is set on them.

The only way you will enjoy them is if your heart is set on me.

So set your hope on God.

Do good, be rich in good works.

What a testimony that would be for us as Christians.

That whenever the time comes, whether we die tomorrow or we die in 60 years, not everyone here probably has 60 years.

Some of you do.

At the end of your life, for people to say, man, they were rich in good works.

There wasn't a question.

People weren't talking like, well, how much money do they have?

Like, man, they were just rich in good works.

It doesn't mean you're busy doing stuff all the time.

But it does mean when you're doing stuff, you're doing it intentionally.

You're being rich in good works.

Generosity.

Be generous, ready to share.

We all know that there's a natural disposition in us to not share or to share for the wrong reasons.

He's saying, be generous, ready to share from a pure heart.

You're investing in something for eternity.

Storing up treasures, true, real, genuine treasure for eternity.

You're not letting the things of this world distract you and keep you from taking hold of eternal life.

And as I said, like this is most of us.

Most of us have the problem of letting stuff distract us from God.

We let money, our possessions, the ability to travel, the ability to go do things, distract us from God.

Do not let the things that God has given you distract you from him.

And then Paul closes this whole letter, these final words to Timothy.

Timothy is like a son to Paul.

Paul loves him and he loves the church at Ephesus.

And he says, Oh Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you.

Think about your own life.

What has God given you?

And I don't mean your stuff anymore, I mean the good news of the gospel, the way of salvation.

He's given that to you.

If you're a Christian, you follow Jesus Christ, He's given you a relationship with Him, He's given you the knowledge of the gospel.

The man is sinful and needs a Savior.

Because God is holy and omnipotent, and He can't be in the presence of sin.

So because of that, He sent a Savior, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross, paying the price literally for our sin, that we might follow Him and walk with Him for the rest of our life on earth and then for all of eternity.

If you have that knowledge, if you have that with you, O brother, O sister, guard that.

Do not let the things of the world distract you and pull you away.

Do not let your own desires, your own insecurities, don't let those things steal that from you.

Guard that.

People talking about all kinds of stuff.

They're not authorities, they don't even know anything.

They don't even know God.

People professing to have knowledge.

Well, if you just understood historically what was going on, if you just understood this and that and the other thing, and the reality is, I think there's a beautiful case, a watertight case to be made for the for the God's Word, the Bible, for Christianity.

I think it's all there, scientifically, logically, it's not gonna fail.

But aside from that, so what you right now, I want you to look around the room, I want you to look around the room.

Not at me and other people.

There are people, lots of people in this room.

They've been changed forever.

And I don't mean like they did some kind of hypnosis thing and they're under a spell.

I mean they were dead in their sin.

They hated God, they hated the things of God, they did not want Him.

They were selfish and worldly, they were dead in their sin.

And now they're alive in Jesus Christ.

That's your testimony.

If you're a Christian, that's your testimony.

It's not like, well, I just had so much knowledge that then I just decided to become a follower of Jesus Christ.

It's no, Jesus has saved you from your sin.

You're alive in him.

Be faithful to him, follow Jesus, stay the course, do not give up, do not fail.

May we be a church that's encouraging one another weekly in this.

Stay faithful to Jesus.

Follow Jesus.

This is done by God's grace alone.

So let us take this charge and follow Jesus.