Sermons on 1 Timothy 4:3

we ask, gracious Father, that you will take your truth, plant it deep in us, and shape and fashion us in the likeness of your Son, in whose name we pray. Amen. Well, what I want us to spend this first session doing is taking seriously the notion of being a good servant of Christ Jesus, as Paul puts it here to Timothy. If you do these things, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Now, the framework in which we consider this, indeed the context in which chapter 4 is set, is very, very straightforward. forward. If you look at verse 14 of chapter 3, there Paul explains, I hope to come to you soon. He's not there, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. So, at the moment, he says, I'm not with you, but it is imperative, Timothy, that you know and that your congregation also understands what it means for you to fulfill the calling that you have. And very specifically, although we won't spend time on this, the opening five verses here of chapter 4 further provide the context. What he's describing there is departure from the faith, people who have been led astray by deceitful spirits. These deceitful spirits have come to them, not in some magical way, but demon-inspired doctrines had gained an entry into their world …

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… go live normal human life without jesus or might you go from here and live in your body in a holy way that's what we talk about these in these moments so this is first timothy chapter 4 verses one to five. Paul is here writing to his protege Timothy and the Ephesian church is reading this letter over Timothy's shoulder and he's warning Timothy and the Ephesians about a group of false teachers who apparently under demonic influence. This is demonic. This is what Satan did in the garden when he tempted Eve. He questioned God's goodness. And so he's warning them of these false teachers, he says, who forbid marriage and outlaw certain foods. So these false teachers are ascetics. You know that word, ascetics? That is persons who pursue severe self-discipline. They have disavowed God-given pleasures in marriage and among certain foods, apparently they can't outlaw all foods because the people who do that tend to die within a few weeks. So they have to make, some foods have to be okay, but because we have this suspicion of physical life, of bodily life, we're going to outlaw some of these foods. …

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… is in 1 Timothy 4. 1 Timothy 4 verse 3 sets the scene about God's good gifts of bodily life. Verse 3, he's talking about food, talking about the marriage bed, which is, this is bodily life in 1 Timothy 4, which is why I think it applies to exercise and to sleep. Let's put sleep in there as well, bodily life. Here's what he says in verses 4 to 5. Everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy, consecrated, made holy by the word of God and prayer. I finish with this. what does it mean to make it holy by the word of God and prayer right so what's the word of God the word of God is his speaking so don't first think leather round book think God's communicating himself the concept of God's word he's revealing himself he does that through his word we rightly capture it in the leather and bound book amen but the word of God conceptually is he's telling us about ourselves. He's telling us about himself. He's telling us about his world. He's telling us about your body. So hear what he's got to say. If you're going to make your bodily life holy, you need to know what God has to say about it. He made it. So listen to him. But then the other thing is, he says it's made holy by the word of God and prayer. He means for us to ask him. …

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