A Charge to a Man of God — Part One

1:37 forever. Amen. Let's pause in a moment of prayer. Make the book live to me, O Lord. Show me yourself within your Word.

1:58 Show me myself, and show me my Savior, and make the book live to me. For Jesus' sake, amen. Do not be like them. That was Jesus' statement to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount when he encouraged them to be radically different from those who were their pagan neighbors. These individuals were concerned about all kinds of things on a very natural level, and Jesus said to his disciples, If you're going to follow me, and if you're going to declare your trust in me, then do not be like them. Now, that simple phrase could so easily have been taken up and employed by Paul as he comes to this particular point in his exhortation of Timothy. Because he has been pointing out to Timothy and to Timothy's readers the fact that the false teachers who had made such an impact in the community in which Timothy was ministering, were themselves involved in fruitless squabbles. They were greedy, double-talking, troublemakers. And it was imperative that if Timothy's ministry was going to have the kind of impact that God intended, then Timothy mustn't be like these folks—individuals who, by their very lifestyle, had indicated the fact that they saw ministry and godliness as a means to financial gain. And between verse 3 and verse 10 of chapter 6, although not for the first time, Paul is pointing out the vices of these individuals.

3:51 And as he begins the eleventh verse, he does so in a very decisive way, making sure that Timothy understands that while these other characters have made a career out of vice, that it is to be a commitment to virtue which marks Timothy's life and ministry. Now, in my notes, I simply proceeded down through these early verses with two phrases in mind, the first of which is this, look at how he describes him, and the second is, consider how he directs him. And so that's the framework in which we're going to pursue a line through these verses. Look at the way in which Paul describes Timothy in a phrase, man of God. But you, man of God. It is a striking phrase. If you pause for just a moment and say to yourself, I wonder why he would refer to him in this way. He could have said, my fellow soldier. He could have said, as he does other places—my son in the faith. He could have encouraged him as a colleague at arms, as it were. But he chooses purposefully, obviously, to use what is a very striking phrase. But you, unlike these other individuals to whom we may refer as men of gold, insofar as they were so interested in possessions represented by gold, he says, Timothy, you're not a man of gold.

5:25 you are a man of God. Now, it is this point of identity which builds the foundation for all of the exhortations that follow. What Timothy is, or if you like, who Timothy is, determines his principles and his practice. And despite the fact that in our present time that notion has fallen on hard times in relationship to public acceptance, insofar as it is customary to assume that what a man is in private is somehow isolated from his activities in public. The New Testament knows nothing of such a distinction. Rather, it says, it is the very character of the individual, the identity of the individual, which gives foundation and explanation to the principles by which he makes decisions and to the practice of his life.

6:23 Now, this comes out in all kinds of ways in our daily routine. And there is a wonderful story told by Sinclair Ferguson in one of his books, which I couldn't find despite my searching this week, and therefore I must do it by memory and without the actual names, but he describes a scene where a gentleman, an elderly gentleman in England, is walking down the street of one of the cities in England. And as he walks along the pavement, he sees a young man coming towards him, and he is struck by the deportment of the young man. And so as the young fellow reaches him and is alongside him, the elderly gentleman simply turns his head and says to him, What is the chief end of man? And the young fellow walked two further steps beyond him, and he turned around and he said, Sir, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. And the elderly gentleman said, I could see that you were a Westminster Confession man.

7:26 His very deportment, the way in which he carried himself, had an aura about it, had an air about it, and it was his identity that gave the basis to his deportment. And that is true of every one of us. It is the youngster's identity that is revealed in his clothing and in her clothing. They may seek to find an identity in the way they dress, but in actual fact, their identity is simply mirrored in the way they dress—unless, of course, they're dressing up for some pageant or another. We give testimony to the identity by the principles and practices of our lives. And so he says to Timothy, I'm addressing you as a man of God, which was a staggering statement, because man of God was one of the most striking titles that was contained in all of Old Testament Scripture.

8:25 Moses is referred to as a man of God in Joshua 14. Samuel is a man of God. Elijah is a man of God. Elisha is a man of God. David is a man of God. So can you imagine receiving a letter from your commander-in-chief, as it were, and as you unroll the scroll and you're reading about these false teachers and their commitment to worldly gain and stuff, and then you turn the scroll over just a little, and it says, But you, man of God! Do you like that designation? Would you fit that designation? You see, each of the Old Testament individuals so described had been entrusted with a high office, and Timothy had been entrusted with a high office. But the fact is this morning, loved ones, that this designation, by the time you reach the New Testament, is a designation not uniquely pertaining to those called to a special office, but is a designation that is generic. For example, If you turn to 2 Timothy chapter 3 and look at verse 16 and 17, you find there the same phrase being used. The Scriptures are given as God-breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so that—notice—the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. To whom does the writer refer? He refers to the believer. It is used in a generic way. Therefore, it might equally have been said of a woman who is in Christ, to the child of God, to the individual who has been redeemed by God's outstretched hand.

10:09 Says Hendrickson, Surely if every Christian is a man of God, Timothy, having been placed in a position of great responsibility, is this in a special sense. And of course he was. Timothy, man of God. Now, this is made all the more striking when we consider the fact that Paul was keenly aware of the fact of Timothy's own limitations. We said in the commencement of this study that there is a realistic sense in which Timothy had more disqualifications than he had qualifications. After all, he was comparatively young. People were talking about his youthfulness. It seemed to be a bit of a hindrance. He was naturally timid. He didn't move amongst people with perfect ease. He was physically frail, and hence he had to make sure that his tummy that was set off by all kinds of things did not debilitate him in ministry. But Paul doesn't write to him and say, Now, Timothy, I know that you're naturally young, you're physically frail, and you're timid in that way. That would have been no great encouragement. That would simply have induced despair. We don't need to be reminded of our imperfections. We're aware of those.

11:38 But what a challenge and what an encouragement by the reminder of his identity. Timothy, you, the man of God. You've received a divine commission. You've been enlisted in God's service. You have been called to God's purpose, that you might give God glory. Now, if you're a believer here this morning, all of that is true of you. Whatever else may be true of you, whatever you may or I may choose to muster up to put on my resume, whatever I may determine gives me significance in the journey of my life. The fact of the matter is that the great consequential truth of our lives is in a phrase here, you are a man of God. So if we didn't get up with a spring in our step yesterday, or the day before, or the day before that, because we've been focused on our own imperfections, or our own inabilities, or our own inconsequential natures, then a simple reminder like this may be a great encouragement.

12:46 So often, the way in which we tend to approach people is the very reverse of this. I've told you before of Mr. McFadgen, who was the deputy principal of my primary school in Glasgow, how he was a great bagpipe player and won competitions and blew his bagpipes all over the place. He also blew children all over the place, as it turned out. And he had a most acerbic wit. And sometimes there was no wit. It was only acid. And I remember one occasion, of which I've told you before, where one poor, unfortunate soul in the class was told to stand, and Mr. McFadgen told him that instead of having a head on his neck, he had a turnip on his neck. And so he said to him, Witherspoon, fictitious name, you have a turnip on your neck. And then he said, Now, Witherspoon, tell the class what you have on your neck.

13:44 And so he had to say, Class, I have a turnip on my neck. Now, somehow or another, this was deemed as a great therapeutic tool on the part of the bagpipe player. What it did was mark the young man's primary school career forever because he became immortalized as turnip head, courtesy of Mr. McFadgen, the bagpipe blower. Now, man of God, What do you think that would do to Timothy? I can see him squaring his shoulders just a little. I can see him tilting his head. I can see him trying to stand up straight, knowing full well that he is young, that he is timid, he is frail, but he is a man of God.

14:45 Now, let me pause here and make a point of application in relationship to identity in general and the identity of a Christian in particular. Men and women today, especially our young people, are tempted to believe that they're nothing other than a combination of chemicals suspended in a solution, that they're just a bunch of junk. and consequently their life is really trivial. It's not that life is ultimately tragic, it is that life is ultimately trivial. And as a result of that, they have no notion of identity. Therefore, to such individuals, we want to go and we want to read, for example, the 139th Psalm, And we want to tell them that they were intricately wrought together in their mother's womb, that they were designed purposefully by God, so that they might, in their awareness of this truth, arise of a morning and say to themselves, I'm not simply a bunch of grown-up jeans.

16:03 I am God's creation. In this respect, I have stature. I'm not junk, readily disposable, essentially irrelevant. I have my own fingerprints. I have my own DNA. I am like nobody else in all of the world. I have value in the fact that God the Creator made me, and that somehow in the mystery of his plans, moment by moment, he makes it possible for me to live. And what a radical difference that is from the hopeless, helpless, wandering through this earthly life of those who have bought an evolutionary hypothesis and who see themselves as totally irrelevant. Now, when you add to that the experience of new creation, it is a great wonder. Because here is what it's like. Let me think in terms that I've used before.

17:12 But in Scotland, there are all of these wonderful castles. Indeed, I keep meeting you, and you tell me that your ancestors had a castle. And I'm glad that they did. And presumably, you're all intermarried, because there aren't enough castles in Scotland to cover all of you who apparently had castles. But anyway, every so often I meet an honest man, but that's fine. most of the castles are no longer resplendent in their glory.

17:46 When you come around a bend on the road, you see them, and you're struck by a grandeur, but it is a marred grandeur. It is a tribute and a testimony to what it must have been like. And you look at that and you say to yourself, I wonder if I can't imagine that in all of its resplendent glory. Now, the picture of a ruined castle is the picture of a man or woman who does not know Christ. They are the child of God by creation, and he made them in all of their pristine beauty. But they were formed and fashioned with an endemic flaw which led to the disintegration of the building, which led to the fact that that which had a measure of beauty to it as made in the image of God was inevitably marred by the fact of human sinfulness.

18:54 And so when we look at the life of this individual, we see them, and we see the marks in them of God, the marks of his kindness, the marks of his beauty, and they may even see that in themselves. That's why deep in their hearts they say, I am not junk. I am not chemicals just in a solution. I know I'm not. I don't know what I am, but I know I'm not that. It is because they were made in the image of God. But now they're saying to themselves, But I'm a mess. Of course!

19:23 And so they set about trying to refurbish the castle of their lives, trying to landscape it a little, trying to put together some curtains and some fabric and some refabrication on the outside to try somehow or another to look like I once did. And that doesn't work. It can't work. What is necessary is for another to come and take up residence in the castle of my life. and to bring about a transformation from the inside that I, in all of my best endeavors, could never accomplish. And that is exactly what happens in the new birth. That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, Unless a man is born again, he can't see the kingdom of God, he can't enter the kingdom of God. That's why Paul is able to say to Timothy when he writes his second letter to him, I am reminded of the sincere faith that was once your mother's and lived in your grandmother, and now I am convinced lives in you also. And it is this sincere faith, wrought by God's goodness, that gives to Paul the conviction to be able to say, Timothy, you are a man of God. And it changes everything. In Romans chapter 8, as Paul refers to it in the 15th and 16th verse. He says, You did not receive a spirit—talking about becoming a Christian—you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of Sonship, and by him we cry, Abba, Father. And the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. This, you see, is what it means to be a Christian.

21:21 People tell me all the time, I had someone tell me in the last 48 hours, you know, I do believe in a higher power. That's all right. I do believe in a great unmoved mover. I do believe in some of the theistic explanations for the universe. Fine, but so does the devil. He's completely orthodox in his belief. You see, you've got these people in these ruined castles—that's their lives—so you take ruined castle plus a belief in an unmoved mover, followed by a bunch of religious externals, and you try and turn that into Christianity. And the people are going, this stinks. Absolutely it does. It can't work. IT HAS NEVER WORKED. But when the Lord Jesus comes to take up residency in our lives,

22:25 and when we become God's children and as children heirs and as heirs of God and co-heirs with Jesus Christ, what a radical transformation that brings. So instead of allowing my identity to be defined by concerns of finance or status or color or affiliation My identity is completely wrapped up in this. Either I am a man or a woman of God, or I am not. And that matters more than any other thing. When the queen is in residence in London, as in every royal residence, alongside the Union Jack, there flies the standard of Her Majesty. And the royal standard testifies to all who observe the ramparts of the palace that the queen is in residence.

23:35 There are times when it is there. There are times when it is not there. But as you drive by, you can look at that and with confidence say, The queen is in. Now, here's the thing. When Christ comes to make a man of God or a woman of God, he raises his royal standard on the ramparts of our lives. There is no question of it. And when, as it were, he views the scene of a congregation like this, he doesn't look on us in terms of race. He doesn't look on us in terms of finance. He doesn't look on us in terms of education. He looks for the royal standard. He looks to see if Christ is exalted in that life. Now, in the great transition that took place in Hong Kong some months ago now, some of us, with a tear in our eye, watched the scene as for the last time the Union Jack was lowered, and the Chinese flag was put in its place, and the world looked on and said, I understand. Until this moment in history, for the last 99 years, sovereignty in this place lay in London. As of today, sovereignty is in Beijing.

25:04 You cannot have a Chinese flag and a British flag flying up the same pole. And you cannot have the flag of my own selfish, sinful rebellion, my own religious orthodoxy, flying in the place of the royal standard. There's no two ways about it. Either the castle of my life bears the standard of Christ's presence, or it doesn't. Can I ask you this morning, what's the flag that's flying from your life?

25:39 Are you flying the flag of agnosticism? Quite honestly, I don't know. Well, then I'd love to help you to know. You flying the flag of religion? It's got to be a real chore for you. You're flying the flag of rebellion that sits on the outside and stands on the inside. You hate every minute of it. You're stuck in here as a kid or as a teenager, and you can't wait for the day when you can be gone. You're prepared to humbly bow down and ask Christ to raise his royal standard over your life. Now, I belabor this point of identity, because unless we understand the fact of identity, then the call to activity is useless. The order of things is so very important, but you, man of God—consider how he describes him—flee from all this. It's the second point.

26:51 Consider how he directs him. Look at how he directs him, from his identity to his activity. And there are four imperatives that come in verses 11 and 12. We won't get beyond the first one, I'm sure. But it's there in that simple verb, flee. Flee. Make a run for it. Dash. Clear off. Get out of here. In other words, run from all the sins and errors that have been mentioned in the previous section. Don't get involved with the greediness and the lack of contentment. Don't get involved in malicious talk, the constant friction between men of corrupt minds. Don't embrace false doctrines and the divisiveness that comes with it and the destruction that follows. No, Timothy, man of God, run away from all this. As a spiritual leader, you need to be an example to your people. The fact of the matter is that spiritual leadership will always find that if it is prepared to tolerate x, the people will tolerate x plus y. As soon as we fudge on one issue, our flock are just waiting to fudge it plus the x factor.

28:02 So Timothy says, you've got to be an example to these people back in chapter 4 and verse 12. You better be an example in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity. You remember that Sunday where I said, judging by that, I probably should leave the ministry. In other words, you've got to establish a pattern for your people. Your Christian life and mine, if you're following Christ, can be quantified in a number of ways. Spiritual maturity can be determined in part by gauging what it is we're running from and what it is we're running to, what it is we're chasing after, what we've set our hearts upon, and what it is we have set our minds against. You take, for example, the illustration of that in the matter of morality, as described by the two responses to the potential for moral failure in the life of Joseph and in the life of David. You go to the story with Joseph, and you read the phrase in Genesis 39, Joseph ran out of the house. You go to 2 Samuel chapter 11, and you read the phrase, David walked around on the roof. You've got it all there. Man of God, run out of the house.

29:23 Don't walk around on the roof. Child of God, make a run for it. Now, you see, people look at this and they say, Well, doesn't that sound a little negative, you know? Aren't these days when we need something a little more positive? I don't like a Christian life that's a list of do's and don'ts. There isn't a Christian life without do's and don'ts. There isn't a life without do's and don'ts. You can't fly a plane without do's and don'ts, drive a car without do's and don'ts, do surgery without do's and don'ts. So why do you think you can live your Christian life without do's and don'ts? And sometimes the don'ts come right up front. Look at Titus chapter 2, verse 11. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, it teaches us to say, No. No. To what? To ungodliness, worldly passions.

30:28 Now, what Paul is saying is simply a reinforcement of the wonderful picture that opens the Psalms, where the man is described in the opening psalm as the one who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the mockers. No, he runs away from this. And Paul is so concerned for Timothy that he would run away from all that would be detrimental to his life and ministry. When he writes his second letter to him in chapter 2 and in verse 22, he says, I want you to flee the evil desires of youth. Run away from that. Run away from a desire for power, and run away from a desire for possessions, and to let your passions run freely. Well, you say, this is a tall order, is it not? I'm not sure that I can do this. Well, you can with God's help, but you can't on your own, and neither can I.

31:35 You see, the activity to which Paul calls Timothy, which is really the activity of a Christian lifestyle, is not as a result of human striving, but it is as a result of God's divine enabling. Again, back in Romans chapter 8 and in verse 13 this time, Paul makes the point with great clarity. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die. But if by the Spirit—that phrase is crucial—you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live. There is a way of living, says Paul, that leads to certain death. If, however, on the other hand, you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit, then you will discover life that is really life. That you cut the nerve of your instinctive actions by obeying the Spirit. That's how it's done.

32:37 There is a mystery to it, and yet it is the apex of simplicity. The Word of God is given to instruct us. The Spirit of God is given to enable us. The Spirit of God comes and prompts us to the Word of God, and we are called to obedience to the truth of God's Word. And the well-being of the Christian is directly related to this. Sin must be put to death in me if I am to enjoy the comfort of the gospel and if I am to know energy in my spiritual life. The reason that a number of us find ourselves in the difficulties that we face, bouncing between one notion and another, between one opinion and another, is either because we have no Christian life at all, we merely have externals without a change, or it is that we have never been taught, or we are unwilling to obey, or we are misunderstanding the point of application that calls us to put to death within our lives everything that mitigates against following hard after Jesus. Now, we'll deal with this in detail on another day, but let me turn you just to Colossians chapter 3. And I'm just going to use this as I draw this to a close. In theological terms, what we're referring to here is the mortification of the flesh. To mortify simply means to put to death. In an earlier generation, much more was spoken of it, and the absence of instruction on it is one of the reasons why there is such chaos in so many Christian circles. But you have it here in Colossians chapter 3, Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.

34:28 Now, who is to do that? The child of God, right? How are we to do that? Well, Romans 8.13 said that we do it by the Spirit. What does that mean in the most practical terms? It means that on a 60-second-per-minute basis,

34:52 as we are confronted by the decision-making processes of our lives, some larger and more significant than others, but none of them without issue, that we are determining not to sow to the flesh and to our own desires to please ourselves, but we are determining to sow to the Spirit and to reap life.

35:14 And what a man sows, that's what he reaps. So in a few weeks, as we drive down our streets, we will be able to observe, by the presence of flowers in the gardens, the unseen activities of our neighbors. The reason that they have this, and it is now so public, is because in a more private day and in a different way, they sowed that in the ground. Now, what the Bible says is this, that such abilities, such activities, cannot be accomplished by man-made means. In other words, you can't do this by human effort. Bishop Ryle, addressing this, says, Mortification from a self-strength carried on by ways of self-invention unto the end of self-righteousness is the soul and substance of all false religion in the world.

36:22 And the trouble with it is, dear ones, that those who teach it are themselves stuck with it. Now, I'm currently reading a book about a man, an unknown man largely, from the 18th century in England. He was a curate in the Church of England about 80 years before Charlotte and Emily Bronte's dad showed up to be curate in the exact same parish in Howarth. He was a young man of exceptional abilities. A graduate of Cambridge felt that he really ought to be involved in the church, and so became involved in the church. But he was involved in dispensing to his people a religion and a mortification carried on by ways of self-strength, self-invention, and to the end of self-righteousness. In other words, he himself was not a man of God.

37:26 In the ramparts of the castle of his life, there was no royal standard. The biographer says of a period in his life where he is now the curate in this church. He is preaching sermons Sunday by Sunday. It says, there was nothing he did There was nothing he did not try in order to gain peace of conscience. He reformed in every branch and every relation, abstained from every immorality, said many prayers, spent much time in reading and meditation. Now also he began to pray four times daily, a habit which he maintained to the end of his life. He also spent seasons in fasting and self-searching. And yet to Grimshaw's burdened conscience, it all seemed of little avail. And those spiritual consolations he longed for seemed as elusive as ever.

38:34 Now, if we had met this man, or if we'd been hanging around him, we might have been tempted to say, Wow, here's a man of God. He prays four times a day. He's been fasting. He has abstained from every kind of immorality. He is most of the day reading holy books. And when he is not reading holy books, he's engaged in meditation. Oh, now there's a man of God. But when he put his head on his pillow at night, he had no peace with God whatsoever. Why? Because religious activities impressed upon the soul of man from the outside in cannot cleanse the conscience. And I speak to numbers here this morning who are believers in the sense of believing in God, even in believing that Christ is the person he claimed to be, even believing that he is the Savior for sin. But there is no royal standard on the rampart of your life, because you have never come in repentance and in faith and lowered the standard of your rebellion, and had Christ raise his royal standard in your heart. Goodness gracious, how wretched and miserable you must be!

40:03 how my heart longs for you, that you would come here Sunday after Sunday and be enduring a religion of self-strength by self-invention to the end of your own self-congratulation and to know deep in your soul that if you were dead to die tonight, you have no assurance of heaven at all. You see, your identity and my identity is in this, that either by grace we have entered into God's eternal family, or we remain in our natural condition, which is without God and without hope in the world.

40:58 Today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts. Let us pray. Father, you know that the structure of my study led me in a different direction from this. I do believe that there are those who have been coming regularly to worship, for whom this is a word in season. And if you find yourself seated here today saying, You know, this explains why I've struggled so long, because I've been trying to do this by myself, trying to clean up the castle, trying with some fabric and drapery and some finery to change myself, and it's such a chore and leaves me so empty. Well, now you're at the point of great opportunity.

42:22 Now it's possible for you to pray to God, Lord Jesus Christ, I admit that I'm weaker and more sinful than I ever before believed. But I recognize that through you I am more loved and accepted than I ever dared to hope. I thank you for paying my debt and bearing my punishment and offering forgiveness to me. And I want today to turn from my sin and receive you as my Lord and Savior. If you prayed in that way, or you desire to or to talk with someone concerning this, then our prayer room is always open and our desire is always to be of help. And for those of us who have been limping through our Christian pilgrimage because, having begun by grace, we have decided to continue by our works, those of us who've been keeping little books about how well we've been doing, and when our pluses outweigh our minuses, by the end of the day we congratulate ourselves and feel that we can sleep in safety.

43:35 Remind us that all of our acceptance is in the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ that all of the credit to our account is an account of what he has accomplished. that all of our acceptance before you, the living God, is because we have been gathered up in your Son. Raise your royal standard in our lives today, we pray, and may grace, mercy, and peace from the the Son and the Holy Spirit be the abiding portion of all who believe, today and forevermore. Amen.