Today we wrap up our series through the book of 1st Timothy entitled, “Molded by the Gospel.” We’ve given this sermon series that title
because 1st Timothy was written to charge Timothy to confront false
teachers and teaching by allowing the truth of the gospel to shape the life of the church and her
members. We’ve been exploring what it
means for the gospel to mold the church into a “pillar and buttress of the truth” (3:15), that we might uphold
and support the truth of the gospel.
In 1
Timothy 6:17-21, Paul charged
Timothy to persevere in the work that God had called him to do by remembering
two passions that the gospel gives to all believers. These instructions are important because even
though the world has radically changed since Paul’s day, the transforming power
of the gospel has not changed. The
gospel still awakens these same two passions in the lives of genuine disciples
of Jesus Christ. My prayer today is that we would first examine ourselves and
then ask God to fan the flame of these passions in our hearts. What are the two passions that the gospel
awakens according to this passage?
[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. [18] They are to do good, to be rich in good
works, to be generous and ready to share, [19] 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.
[20] O
Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and
contradictions of what is falsely called “knowledge,” [21] for by
professing it some have swerved from the faith.
Grace be with you. (1
Timothy 6:17-21 ESV)
I.
The Gospel Awakens a Passion for the Treasure that
God Is in the Hearts of His People (17-19):
In verses 17-19, Timothy is told to give a charge
to “the rich in this present age.” Now, right out of the gate we need to
notice three things about this charge.
First of all, this instruction is a corrective to the wrong view of
wealth that Paul addressed in verses 3-10.
Second, this charge implies that there are going to be rich believers
and so it is not necessarily a sin to be rich.
It is hard to have money and not love it and it is impossible to love
money and go to heaven, but it is not impossible
to have money and to not love it. With
God all things are possible (Mark 10:27)! God can so change a heart through the gospel
that a rich person will find himself or herself treasuring God above their
money. Finally, notice that there are
two kinds of riches. There are the
riches of “this present age” and there
are those riches that belong to the next age.
The riches that belong to this age are temporary and uncertain; the
riches of the next age last forever.
So with these three understandings about the
charge, what is this charge that Timothy is to give to the rich? There are five commands that Timothy is to
charge the rich with here that I am going to summarize as three charges. First, Timothy is to charge the rich to set their hopes on God and not themselves or their
riches (17). There is a two-fold temptation
to commit idolatry that having a lot of money gives rise to. The first temptation is to become “haughty,” or to hope and trust in
ourselves, rather than God, as the source of our provision. Money can make a person prone to think that
they are god and also to look down upon those who don’t have money. The second temptation is to set our hopes on our
riches. Having a lot of money makes a
person prone to think that since they have a lot of money, they don’t need to
look to God for provision (Proverbs
30:7-9).
Trusting in one’s earthly riches is foolishness
because earthly riches are uncertain and
deceitful (Matt. 13:22). Proverbs 23:4-5 cautions us, “[4] Do not toil to acquire wealth; be
discerning enough to desist. [5] When your eyes light on it, it is gone, for
suddenly it sprouts wings, flying like an eagle toward heaven.” As John Stott said, “Many people have gone to bed rich and woken up poor.”[1] Jesus illustrated the uncertainty of
riches in Luke 12:13-21: [13] Someone in the crowd said to him,
“Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” [14] But he
said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” [15] And
he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for
one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” [16] And
he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,
[17] and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to
store my crops?’ [18] And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my
barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
[19] And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for
many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ [20] But God said to him, ‘Fool!
This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared,
whose will they be?’ [21] So is the one who lays up treasure for himself
and is not rich toward God.”
Those who have money (and everyone else) are
charged to hope in God, not themselves or their riches, because He is the
ultimate source of their provision. It
is God who “richly provides us with
everything to enjoy.” As James 1:17 says, “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of lights.” Everything that
we have and are meant to enjoy comes
from His benevolent hand. Our wealth
should make us humble and grateful, not proud. May we learn to hope in God as
the infinite source of provision and stability in our lives because He is the
greatest treasure in the universe.
The second summary charge is that Timothy is to charge the rich to be rich in good works of
generosity (18). In other words,
they are to express the fact that their hope is in God and not their earthly
riches by being generous with their
earthly riches. They are to “do good” and to “be rich” in good works.
Paul described these good works as being “generous and ready to share.”
Generosity is simply sharing what we have with those who are in
need. Someone may be in need of food and
clothing; others may be in need of the gospel.
Either way, we are to share out of our abundance so that the needs of
others can be met because in doing so we are following the example of Christ (2 Cor. 8:9).
Finally, this is really a charge for people to be truly rich and to truly life (19). It is a charge for the rich in this age to be
rich in the next age. God’s people are
to make eternal and not earthly investments.
This happens as we let go of our earthly riches and “take hold” of God as the supreme treasure of our lives. Paul says that when we hope in God and not
our money and express that hope through good works of generosity, we are
storing up “treasure” for ourselves
as a good foundation for the future (eternity).
This allows a person to “take hold of that which is
truly life.” This is a reference to
the “eternal life” that he charged
Timothy to take hold of in verse 12. In
other words, for those who have money, keeping their hope in God and being
generous is part of how they are to work out their salvation. This implies that a person’s attitude towards
their money is an indicator of
whether or not they are saved. Jesus
expressed the same idea in Matthew
6:19-21: [19] “Do not lay up for
yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves
break in and steal, [20] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and
steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The story of the Jesus and the rich young man in Mark 10:17-31 is a vivid and tragic
illustration of what we are seeing in this passage. Jesus instructed this young man to let go of
his riches and to take hold of Jesus, expressing that exchange through
generosity to the poor. In doing so, he
would be showing the world that he had found a greater treasure than earthly
riches. Sadly, the man chose his earthly
riches over Jesus, proving that he had failed to keep the commandment that
mattered most: to love God with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. His attitude towards his money was the litmus
test for what his heart really looked like before God.
I believe that application of this passage is
two-fold. It charges us both to see God as the treasure that He is and
then to show the world the treasure
that He is. It is primarily a charge to charge the rich and secondarily a charge to the rich.
Paul is directly charging Timothy and indirectly charging the rich. Have you come to know the treasure that
Christ is? Are you holding Him out as
the greatest treasure in the universe?
One of the ways we do that is by our generosity to those who are in need.
II.
The Gospel Awakens a Passion for the Purity of God’s
Truth in the Hearts of His People (20-21):
The second passion that the gospel awakens in the
life of a disciple of Jesus Christ is a passion for the purity of God’s truth,
especially the truth of the gospel. Paul
tells Timothy here to “guard the deposit
entrusted to you.” Here he is speaking of the gospel and the truths of
Scripture as a deposit that has been entrusted to Timothy and which Timothy is
to guard. We see Paul speaking this way
in 1 Corinthians 4:1, saying that
the apostles were “stewards of the
mysteries of God,” and also in 1
Thessalonians 2:3-4, where he says that he, Silas, & Timothy have been “entrusted with the gospel.”
Part of guarding this deposit is in avoiding “irreverent babble and contradictions of
what is falsely called ‘knowledge.’” This
is a reference to false teaching and the idea is that their teaching is a counterfeit truth. It claims to be “knowledge,” or truth, but is
in fact a lie that is causing some to depart from the faith. For examples of their teaching, see 1 Tim. 1:3-11, 4:1-5, 6:3-10, 2 Timothy
2:16-18.
When it comes to the purity of God’s truth, it is
as if we are guarding the vault of God’s treasury of truth. What Satan, demons, and false teachers desire
to do is to not only rob that vault but also replace its contents with
something that is counterfeit. This way
we live under the illusion that we still possess the real thing when in fact we
possessing something phony. The results
are tragic: people are robbed of the very resource that will secure their
eternity [GOSPEL].
When it comes to guarding truth against
counterfeit truth, it is essential that we know the truth well. This is how people are trained to spot
counterfeit money: they know the real thing through and through. Every Christian should know the gospel
well. Every Christian should know their
faith well. Every Christian should know
their Bible well. How are you doing with
this? This is not the first time I’ve
issued this challenge. Are you
disciplining yourself as a life-long student of Scripture? Have you been mentored? Are you mentoring others? Are you reading the Bible consistently? What books about the Bible are you
reading?
Paul’s closing words are very fitting: “Grace be with you.” The “you” is plural, as in “Grace be with you
all.” Timothy and his congregation will
only be able to stand against these false teachers and the problems in this
church by God’s grace. This church will
only get through what they are facing by God’s grace. This dynamic must never be forgotten in the Christian life. As one of my professor’s likes to say, “The
Christian life isn’t just hard; it’s impossible!” We don’t obey God through sheer will
power. We can’t. Our will is defected
and in bondage to sin. Just as we need
God’s grace to be saved by God, we need God’s grace to live for God. In other words, the Christian life looks like
this: we receive instruction from God, then we beg Him and depend upon Him for
grace to follow those instructions, and then we act in faith, believing that
God will supply the grace we need to obey His commands. That is how you should respond to this sermon
and that is how the church will be shaped by the gospel into a pillar and
buttress of the truth, by God’s grace.
Grace be with you all. Amen.
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