Discipline & Godliness (1 Timothy 4:1-10)

First Timothy chapter three verse fourteen.

Paul is writing, he says, I write these things to you hoping to come to you soon, but if I should be delayed, I have written so that you will know how many people how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the earth of the truth, and most certainly the mystery of godliness is great.

He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared.

They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth.

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

Since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.

But have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths.

Rather, train yourself in godliness.

For the training of the body has limited benefit, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance.

For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you that we can gather here together publicly in person to and seek your face, pray and worship.

We pray that we not take for this for granted.

We ask that you we tell we we uh we give you permission, Father.

What uh you know what's best.

We can trust you to work in us, to convict, to admonish, to encourage, to speak and direct.

Ask that you would have your work in us in a fellowship this morning.

In Jesus' name, amen.

You may be seated.

We got a little bit of a jam-packed uh session here.

We're wrapping up chapter three, which wasn't exactly intentional.

I'll tell you in the little uh the little our little spreadsheet of schedules on the scripture.

So I'm covering the last part of chapter three, but I think it actually works pretty well.

We're gonna read several times about godliness this morning.

And it's we're gonna kind of see it from a little few different angles.

Godliness and conduct.

As a little reminder and introduction, you know, we're we're the the Bible is just not a s a collection of stories.

We're we're reading and studying this morning a letter from the Apostle Paul to Timothy.

Timothy was like a little protege, a little disciple of Paul.

He's he's sending him, he sent him to Ephesus.

There's some problems there.

Ephesus is this port city, it's like in New Orleans of, if we could kind of think of a city, known for worship, uh idol worship of Diana.

Practicing magic, idol worship.

Uh there's a lot of sin going on.

He sent Timothy to handle some doctrine issues.

They needed peep, they needed uh oversight, really.

They needed pastoring.

Well, he sent Timothy, and he's and he's reiterating over and over.

He's he is just giving them the instruction, he's pouring out.

Because Paul wants to visit, we're gonna read that, but he can't get there yet.

He wants to, he sent Timothy to be his eyes and ears and his hands, basically release him, to get him out there in ministry.

And you can imagine at in the context of this, he is really trying to pour into this man because Timothy's Timothy's doing the work of ministry.

Reminder in chapter 1, verse 3, he's uh Paul said to Timothy, wrote, He says, I, as I urged you when I went to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrine or pay attention to miss and endless genealogies.

We're gonna he's gonna talk more about that this morning.

Last week, Pastor Chris led us through, remember the last two weeks we've talked about elders and talked about deacons.

We're wrapping that chapter up, but the chapter breaks, right?

He wrote 1 Timothy, the the epistles are written, they're not chapter breaks.

They're just continuous, uh, they're just letters continuous.

So we're we're wrapping up.

Paul's going to talk about the mystery of godliness.

Starting in chapter 3, verse 14, he says, I write these things to you, hoping to come to you soon.

But if I should be delayed, I have written so that you may know how people ought to conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

Paul reiterates several times in this book.

He says, I'm writing so you'll know how the church is to conduct itself.

You can imagine.

Have you ever seen someone come to the Lord?

They've maybe they are into the they were a biker, they were into the party scene, right?

Maybe they come from a totally different culture and they were just steeped in the world, they were living it up.

Well, sometimes when you're brand new to the Lord, you don't really know like how you're supposed to go about being in church, which isn't always a bad thing, right?

Because sometimes we just get about doing things because we do them.

It's not always a good thing, but but when uh but sometimes when you're fresh to the Lord, you're like, oh, I didn't even know that was sin, right?

So so there's some instruction happening because these people are coming straight, some of them, right?

The Greeks are coming straight out of idol worship.

So this is a new paradigm shift for those coming to Jesus.

It's not just that Paul's like, man, these people need to follow some rules.

Let's get some more, let's get some more rules for everybody to listen to.

Okay, he says.

So the words don't fall away so quickly.

So people will conduct themselves in God's household, which is the church of the living God.

The church, that word literally means called out ones.

He's saying, these called out ones to God, he's saying, I want them to know how to conduct themselves and this church, think about this church.

It is the pillar and foundation.

This is the church is an important body.

It is the mechanism by which people hear the gospel and the word of God.

And here's the mystery: the mystery of godliness.

This is the first time we're gonna we're reading it this morning, but this word godliness, the mystery of godliness, sixteen times in the CSB version anyway, sixteen times in the New Testament, the word godliness is used.

And in the book of 1 Timothy, nine times.

We read it nine times.

Kind of a theme, isn't it?

Something to listen to.

We're first this morning going to talk about this mystery of godliness.

Paul's gonna tell us very simple.

Let's listen to the words here.

And that word godliness, it literally means piety, and I'm like, that's too big a word for me.

So it think of the word devotion, highly devoted.

Devoted to God.

Well, maybe you could think of it as the character and attitude of God.

That's how David Gusick summarizes it.

If we want to kind of, I have to put them in different words because I'm dense.

So when I go through, I go, okay, what is this, what does it mean?

Just this, we're all this real.

I want to just have a bunch of religious words, right?

Okay, so here's what he says about the mystery.

He, this is Jesus, right?

He just got talking about the living God.

He was manifested in the flesh.

That's the incarnation, vindicated in the spirit.

That's not uh made right, that he was already right, but just shown to be righteous, vindicated, declared to be right.

Seen by angels.

Hmm.

It turns out the angels are super interested in the things of God.

They don't know.

Just because they're up there, just because they're in the spiritual realm, didn't mean that the angels had all of the info ahead of time.

There were mysteries to the angelic beings as well.

Preached among the nations.

That's Paul's work, believed on in the world.

That's the world coming to faith, taken up in glory.

This mystery is a picture of the gospel.

Well, Paul is going to address some issues here getting into chapter 4.

Paul says in verse 4, verse 1, he says, Now the Spirit explicitly says, so we're seeing this is sort of like the Lord says.

Paul seems to have had a message from the Spirit of God, and he's saying it's explicitly.

That means it's direct, no confusing this.

These are direct words.

He says, in latter times.

So this latter times is the Greek word usteros, and really it just means the word afterward.

So it's not so much like the latter days, like this is a far yet final event or condition.

He's saying, and this is used several times through the New Testament, like in Matthew, afterward Jesus being tempted was afterward he was he hungered.

Paul is saying, in later, in later times you're going to see something happen.

Don't don't be surprised.

This is going to be here among us, this is the going to be the condition.

And he says, some will depart from the faith.

This is still in verse 1, departing from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits, and the teaching of demon, teachings of demons through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences, I can't see that word, consciences are seared.

Some of your Bibles may have a heading, says the apostasy, in New King James, I think, at least.

This word depart is the word aphistomy.

You can kind of break it out.

It just literally kind of has two little root words that are st that means standing out of or standing apart.

It just means drawn away or withdrawn, standing apart.

Some will depart.

So Paul's saying, he's warning to Timothy, because I think Timothy needs to hear it.

Because you're there and you're shepherding among the people.

And when you're there and you he's Paul is telling Timothy, be ready for this.

People are going to be walking away from their faith.

And here's how they're going to do it paying attention.

We're going to break this out several, kind of word for word, or phrase by phrase in this little section.

They're going to pay attention.

They're paying attention, they're turning their mind to, or they're bringing or giving their attention to.

So they've turned their heads, right?

And there's three things.

We're going to break it out into three things deceitful spirits, teachings of demons, demons, and the hypocrisy of liars.

So Paul's saying there are there are a few things that are going to draw people away.

Deceitful spirits, that's like spiritual deception.

And we're going to we're going to go back a few times to Genesis this morning.

This is not a new thing.

Do you remember when Satan told Eve, he says in Genesis 3, no, you will certainly not die.

Does that sound familiar?

Then teachings of demons.

Lost my place.

Hold on a second.

Teaching of demons.

So what is this?

You know, false and evil teaching.

These aren't just factoids or trivia.

This is demonic doctrine.

Did you know that demons have doctrine?

Okay, so this, and this is this is why this seems as this is a pretty heavy, because it's not just that we're hearing little things drawing people away, but there there is an evil realm, whether it comes through demonic spirits or not, but there is demonic doctrine that wants to draw us away from the truth of God and walking in the truth of God and the gospel.

Here's an example.

You don't have sin.

You're not bad.

You're not inherently bad.

Man has a good heart.

He's got a good heart.

And I understand what that says, right?

People want and have an intent, but the Bible says, the truth says, all have fallen short.

The heart is not good, it's deceitfully wicked above all things.

Other examples of teach teachings of demons.

I don't.

There is no longer an Oprah Winfrey show.

Does anybody remember Oprah?

And I don't mean to be bagging, but these things in our modern media, in modern age, there's a lot of lies that happen through even their media and influencers.

The oh, just feel good.

You don't feel like you need to feel ashamed.

And I understand there's a there's sometimes people are trying to help people through things, but they're steering them away from the truth.

We're real truth and grounding in reality in healing of our sin, where they're getting away from that.

How about Mormonism in the cults?

Teaching that you'll become godlike, right?

It's really just focusing people on themselves, self-glorification.

Teachings of demons, deceitful spirits.

Okay, and by, the script, the passage says, by the hypocrisy of liars.

Okay, what's hypocrisy?

Is that a three three-syllable word?

Okay.

Putting on a play.

That's what the word means.

Hypocrisy.

It means you're putting on a play.

You're you are saying one thing but doing another.

What's an example of hypocrisy of a liar?

Do you remember Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira?

They sold the land.

Now, these are believers, right?

People who were in and of the, or they were of the church.

They were in the church.

Sold some land, but they misled in what they were really giving or how much they'd sold it for, maybe to put on a show.

Well, there's a hypocrisy that he's saying is leading people away.

That it's saying, hey, uh, you can put on one thing and then avoid kind of feeling or showing what really is going on because you don't want to have to portray that.

And he says, Paul says, whose consciences are seared.

That word seared, think like a hot iron.

You ever cook you cook a lot?

Put your fingers on the hot pan, right?

And eventually you just don't feel the hot pan as much anymore?

Okay.

Contextually, one thing that the culture may have heard when they heard consciences seared, I will hear maybe I'll say that well by the end of the service.

Um branding.

So the culture, when you were convicted of a crime, they would brand your forehead.

They'd brand your forehead with a symbol that said that that person committed the crime.

So imagine if you knew this of the culture and you said their consciences were seared.

Well, you'd I guess you'd hope if you were branding the forehead, your conscience might be seared, be saying their consciences, which is worse, right?

You can be branded all you want, but if your conscience is seared, you no longer have a sense of awareness that something's wrong.

I kind of think of a fire or smoke detector.

You know, smoke detector goes off, it says something's wrong, right?

You get tired of it going off because you're cooking, and you take it off the wall and you throw it outside.

Okay.

Is that something people have done?

Yeah, well.

Well, think of your conscience that's seared.

Well, you've taken your smoke detector and you threw it outside.

So Paul says, these are the things that you're going to see, and they're they're drawn away to these things.

And so and as we get into verse 3, there's some examples.

He says, They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth.

For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.

So Paul's saying this isn't happening by lectures and theology.

It's not like people are just necessarily sitting down and hearing lectures of this.

This is slyer than that.

It's a set of rules.

People are coming up with rules that don't actually exist in Scripture.

They're hiding this in euphemistic asceticism.

This the culture of the day, if you want to say asceticism, asceticism, people had the, there was, there were people who had very strict rules for how they would live life.

And these strict rules, do this or don't do that, were ways they were, they were intending on becoming closer to God.

If they would just show how serious and strict they were about the things they did or didn't do.

What's ironic about this in the passage is that we're seeing that there is there are a couple things that might come off as godliness, and one of them is godly and one of them is not.

All right.

Going back to Genesis, Genesis 3, if you were gonna write a note, they forbid marriage.

And here's the lie.

There's lies and half-lies in what happened in these deceitful spirits and demonic teachings.

The truth, oh sorry, the lie.

Man can't enjoy and benefit from companionship.

The truth, Genesis 2, God put Adam and Eve in the garden to tend and keep it.

Then the Lord said, It is not good, he put Adam there.

He says, It's not good for man to be alone, I will make a helper comparable to him, right?

Does that sound like God didn't intend people to be married?

Or he said, Don't marry.

But let's balance it.

Paul will say in 1 Corinthians, I say to the unmarried and to widows, it is good for them if they remain as I am, but if they do not have self-control, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with desire.

So Paul, he notes, yeah, there might be a case when you don't when you don't marry, but this is really a gift.

This is a gift and a calling where being innately not marrying is not more spiritual.

That's what Paul's getting after.

The same thing, abstinence from foods.

Let's go back to Genesis.

The lie.

You can't enjoy good food and be spiritual.

You can you're gonna you're gonna be more spiritual if you don't eat the tasty food.

You need to eat steamed rice.

That's what you get.

Unsalted bread.

Genesis chapter one.

God blessed them, Adam and Eve, and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And God said, See, I have given you every herb that yields seed, which is on the face of the of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed, to you it shall be for food.

Okay, the counter.

Fasting.

Does God does God anticipate, does he have us fast?

So there might be a time when we're not to eat food or a certain food.

Maybe God calls us to that.

But again, what they were twisting was that it is more spiritual just to abstain from those things.

We will get God's attention.

We're going to somehow earn a at a higher state if we just avoid things that are inherently pleasurable.

And here's how Paul summarizes it in verse 4 for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.

Okay, here's some application.

Let's let's something practical, right?

Okay, you're in and out.

And right in front of you is a triple triple.

Extra, extra onions.

Okay?

Now I mean maybe this is a different meal for you.

But at that moment, the food needs to be sanctified by the word of God, doesn't it?

Yeah, we need to pray.

The food's not healthy.

I'm not saying it's healthy.

No one's saying it is, and we're not saying that food isn't, there's not, there's not some bad food or good food, but God does not saying you may not eat good food and that it's part of being spiritual.

There's a lie here, and there's rules that the people and the culture were putting on themselves that weren't from the Lord, and it was it was mimicking or feigning godliness.

And we're gonna go look in the next section about what Paul really says about training in godliness.

Paul's first gonna remind Timothy here next in verse six.

He says, If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of the faith and the good teaching that you followed.

So Paul is he's gonna bring this back to Timothy and remind him.

Remember, this is him instructing.

He's he's got a protege, a disciple.

He's he's gearing Timothy up to lead the churches or church in Ephesus.

He's saying, You've been nourished, you've been filled up with the good stuff.

And if you want to be a good servant, Timothy, teach the congregation about these pitfalls, these evil things that will endanger their faith.

You want to be a good servant?

Teach them this.

Point these things out, teach them, enforce uh uh uh encourage them.

And then, he says in verse 7, but Timothy, but have nothing to do with pointless and silly myths.

Does this seem obvious?

Does this seem a little out of date?

Pointless and silly myths?

In that culture, think Greek mythology, right?

Maybe wives' tales.

In our day, maybe it's similar, but it is different.

What does it look like?

I'll pull my phone out.

Internet conspiracy theories, and that's not so super spiritual.

Maybe it's maybe it's the 9-11 towers.

How you know we can get really sucked into what happened.

We can politically, right?

There, and some things are important, don't get me wrong, some things in our world, but but there can be a lot that distracts us.

Okay, how about History Channel TV, history channel specials on the resurrection?

Have you all watched any history channel?

Drives me totally nuts.

You sit down to watch a show thinking maybe I'll get edified.

And I hear a bunch of things that just really, they're just total rabbit trails on topics that are really a waste of time.

Did Jesus really die?

Maybe he had a secret relationship with Mary Magdalene.

Okay?

Silly myth.

And I'm not saying that apologetics and being able to defend these things aren't good.

We need to defend these things, and there are answers to those questions.

But when we get pulled off, because someone's created a documentary because they really just want to sell advertisements because they think it's gonna draw people in.

Silly myth.

All right.

So stay away from silly myths, Paul says to Timothy.

Verse 7 But instead, train yourself in godliness, for the training of the body has limited benefit.

Underline that word.

But godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Verse 7, if you have a Bible, highlight those verses.

Super important verses.

Then let's break them apart a little bit.

Train.

Some of your translations may say discipline.

So it can be translated, has been translated as discipline.

Train yourself or discipline yourself.

And let's bring this into the cultural context.

In the center of this culture, and remember, we're in Ephesus.

We're not in Jerusalem anymore.

We're in Asia.

Greek culture, Greek and Roman culture, at the center of that culture was the gymnasium.

That word gymnasium, gymnasium, is the root of that comes from gymnozo.

It means, pardon me, it means to train naked.

That's what the athletes did.

They trained naked.

They honored the gods by showing their bodies in great fitness.

It was a tribute to the gods.

So when the people would hear, training has limited benefit, train yourself in godliness, think of what they would then think about and refer to.

They're going, wait a second, like there's an entire world of the gym, the gymnasium, where people are dedicating lives, hours and hours of their lives and their attention.

Can you think of a culture very, very focused on uh physical fitness and uh supplements?

Hmm, diet.

Man, yeah.

It's kind of similar.

Now, uh, we train a little differently.

And I was thinking about this, like, well, we don't train without clothes on.

I'm like, well, yeah, but weightlifting, like bodybuilding competitions, and they're practically, they're not wearing clothes.

Sorry if that brings up bad imagery to you, but but this is the culture.

When he says train yourself in godliness, the culture would have known.

Hey, oh, training and godliness, that is that is uh that's a great, what a great thought.

All right.

And stand instead of training, and he's saying, remember, we're look we're comparing these sections here, instead of training and disciplining in myths and silly myths in teaching of demons and fables, Paul says, train yourself instead in godliness.

Look in verse 8.

Training of the body has limited benefit.

Underline the word limited.

Does he say it has no benefit?

He doesn't say no benefit.

Does he say it has great benefit?

Doesn't say that either.

Training of the body has limited benefit.

Okay.

Science, for what it's worth, it's pretty clear that physical fitness has benefit, training or exercise.

Anyb find that they are in just a better mental state through exercise?

Taking a walk, getting out there, getting physical?

I think for sure.

But Paul says it has limited benefit.

So as much as we see in all of our scientific studies that physical, let's say exercise is beneficial, Paul says, no, no, it's still limited.

As much as we think this is part of living healthy, being happy, and even being effective, right?

Sometimes we're just more effective when you get the fair the the uh uh when we we have the benefit of getting out and and being active.

But Paul says, this is like revolutionary, right?

He's talking to a bunch of gym rats, right?

Maybe they aren't all gym rats, but he's he's saying then, but godliness is beneficial in every way, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

Underline every if you have an un if you have an underlinable Bible.

Do you believe Paul's statement?

This is this is the question to really evaluate.

Do you believe, Paul, that godliness is beneficial?

Training in godliness is beneficial in every way.

Or more so, do we believe that training our bodies has limited benefit?

It's a little amazing because physical training, there's a lot, there can be a lot of benefits, right?

Well, Paul is saying there is a limited extent and limited time to which training your body is beneficial.

Because Paul is thinking eternally, right?

He's thinking, how how are you investing?

And is that rate of return, is that return on investment, when's the horizon of that return on investment?

Training the body has this limited horizon, right?

Because our bodies are really not going to remain fully trained forever.

We all die, we all have a limited life.

So he's saying, as much as it's important, look, training in godliness has impacts on eternity for us and others.

All right, if it's important in and if it is beneficial in every way, and Paul says it holds a promise for the present life and the life to come.

What are some ways that we that practically looks?

If you're training spiritually, does it look like time in the word?

Or memorizing, exercising the brain muscle, memorizing, putting scripture to the mind.

Or prayer, the discipline of prayer, lifting up praise and thanksgiving, supplications, requests, and intercessions.

What about serving others?

Serving others as exercising in godliness.

And God, remember that word, that devotion, the word godliness, exercising in devotion or in the character and attitude of God.

Paul says, this statement indeed is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance.

That's verse 9.

Because this is a statement that we want to fully put our confidence and life and direction in.

Alright, verse 10.

Paul moves on, and he's saying, For this reason we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the savior of all people, especially of those who believe.

Paul says, Timothy, this is why we're putting in the effort, why we're striving.

We've put our hope, and remember the culture of the day in Greek mythology, right?

We have our hope in a living, real God.

He is active, he is moving, he has not died, he is not a figment, and he's not made out of wood and rock or gold-plated statue.

We don't have a whole service to go through the verse.

This verse has some packed, some stuff packed in.

Uh verse nine, if you'll uh sorry, uh excuse me, sorry, it Paul says, Jesus, this hope in the living God, who is the savior of all people.

Underline that word all.

You'll have it there as a reminder.

Does this mean that he's the savior of all people, so all people are saved?

Not all people are saved just because Jesus went to the cross.

Did he die for all people?

Jesus died.

In fact, we we know from 2 Peter, he says, the Lord does not delay his promise as some understand, delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all come to repentance.

John says in his in the Gospel of John, he says, For God so loved the world in this way, he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life.

This gets into a topic called limited atonement.

And without taking a whole service to dive into part of the doctrines, I just want to look at the verse and have this aspect, the truths of this verse here, as Paul presents it, it's not even necessarily the main point of the passage, right?

And the way I look at the verse, and again, Paul is really focusing, the point of the verse is that we're striving for the Lord, for Jesus who went to the cross and made himself available that we could be saved, right?

Let's get the point of the verse is really saying we we're laboring for Jesus who died for our sin.

So let's keep the main point the main point.

But I also want to emphasize that Paul is saying that Jesus has died for all.

Man, those people who were saved, and well, the scripture says and it abide, we take the truth and we don't necessarily try to reconcile truths that are in Scripture that don't need to be reconciled.

Okay?

So Jesus, think about this.

You're you are on a ship and the shipwrecks.

Just happens to be a lifeboat for everybody who is on that ship, full capacity.

We're not talking Titanic.

Okay?

There's a lifeboat and it's size for everybody on that ship.

Lifeboat is in the water and ready.

Okay.

If you don't get on the lifeboat, are you gonna be saved or are you gonna drown?

You're gonna drown.

Is the lifeboat for everyone?

Yes.

Is it there and intended for everyone to be saved?

It is.

But what do you have to do?

Put your trust that that lifeboat is going to keep you floating and from drowning, right?

But if you don't put your faith in it, he says, especially of those who believe.

Well, put your faith in the lifeboat.

But if you don't, the lifeboat's there.

It was intended for you.

Okay?

Maybe, I don't know if it's oversimplistic, but I thought it's really simple, though, right?

So without getting carried away in theology, we want to be grounded in the simple truth of the word.

Jesus is the lifeboat.

Just got to get on the boat.

Okay, we don't need to worry about whether he intended that boat, and the boat's only there for the people he knew were going to be getting on the boat.

Doesn't matter.

Jesus died, and we all can get on the boat, and he wants us to put his faith in the boat, in Jesus, this morning, if we don't have it there in every day.

And guess what?

Guess what?

We, if you're serving here this morning, if you're in this room, we are called and he desires us to labor and strive for the one who went out and made himself a lifeboat for us.

All right.

Does that help with that verse?

Wrapping up here.

These ten verses, they're a picture, and we start in chapter three, the mystery of godliness.

We're a picture of devotion and discipline.

And this is where what Paul's trying to say through this is on one hand, there are those who are departing from the faith.

They're turning to deceitful things.

They're picking up their phones and looking at these, looking at these half-truths and watching the media or listening to people who've walked away from the faith.

There are people, right, who've walked away from the church.

You're like they they were solid, they were amazing preachers, or they were, you had friends who were in the church, and they just end up getting carried away in all this weird theology.

They go to seminary, maybe, right?

Suddenly they're not really grounded in the gospel.

They're grounded in lots of little tangential rabbit trails.

I don't know about you.

I've had friends and seen friends.

You're like, where are they, where are they?

Well, they're they're off wandering around in theologies that don't have any bearing or root.

They've they've drifted.

Maybe people spending too much time in conspiracy theories, right?

On the other hand, Paul is saying, discipline yourself in real godliness.

Remember, he says that some have these rules about abstinence from foods and forbidding marriage?

That can look like godliness.

It can look like godliness.

Even the church can have these rules.

Churches, and I don't want to call out certain churches, but certain churches can even have these rules where people are doing things that aren't really called in Scripture by Scripture.

Paul says and really addresses this best, I think, better than I can say it in Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians 1 · chapter mention

All right, chapter chapter Colossians 1, starting in verse 20.

He says, Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations?

Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men?

These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility.

There's that the hypocrisy, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.

That doesn't mean fasting's not good.

That doesn't mean abstinence is not good.

It means that we're focused really on the things that God has commanded us in his scripture, and we're not doing it out of sort of earning our way to God's attention, or somehow that we would have these rules distract from the one who really makes us right before God.

That's Jesus.

So wrapping up, Paul says we labor and strive because we've put our hope in the living God.

For the believers in this room, Paul's focusing us on here's what godliness is.

There's a mist, the mystery of godliness, and there are things that feign or fake godliness.

Stay away from them and don't turn your attention to them.

And then there are things, yet, though you don't have these rules of abstaining from food or forbidding marriage, but at the same time, discipline yourself to godliness.

He's not saying forget all the rules.

He's saying train yourself, discipline yourself in godliness.

For those, if you're in this room and you have not gotten on the lifeboat, if you have not, he is available, he's made himself, Jesus is died for all that you can put your faith in him.

That's as easy as confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and putting your faith in him and his death on the cross, it's as simple as uh surrendering our life to him, confessing our sin.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for for Paul's direction, exhortation to Timothy.

We thank you that we don't have to earn our favor before you as the half-truths and lives and the demonic teachings would say, that we somehow can earn our way if we just if we just have strict enough habits or sacrifice enough.

But we praise you that Jesus has died on the cross, that we are made right with you by his grace and by the blood of Jesus that was spilled out, that we can boldly come to you, to your throne of grace, not by another man, not by a set of rules.

We pray that you would show us how to train ourselves, Father, that you would train that you would train us in godliness, that you would draw us, not by our own desires, but you draw us by your goodness to be pulled over by your word and to be disciplined and to be made like Christ.

I pray that you'd fill us with your spirit as we go forward, that you be glorified in us.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.