Stephen Palmer - Living on Appreciation for the Scriptures - Class 4 - Healthy Words - Example of Timothy

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1. 0:00

   Well, this is our 4th class and our last opportunity to enjoy and benefit from the administrations of our brother Stephen Palmer for today. He will be exhorting, God willing, tomorrow in the Los Angeles Ecclesia and then he leaves in the afternoon to go back to Wales. We want you to take our loving greetings with you, Stephen, to your Ecclesia and Cardiff from all the brothers and sisters here in Southern California. The 4th class title is Healthy Words, the example of Timothy. We’ll ask our brother Mark Patterson of the Los Angeles Ecclesia to read for US one Timothy chapter. 4 1st letter. Of Paul to Timothy, chapter 4, and I will be reading from the Revised Standard Version.

2. 0:58

   Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoy and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

3. 1:22

   For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with Thanksgiving, for then it is consecrated by the Word of God and prayer. If you put these instructions before the brethren, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the words of the faith and of the good doctrine which you have followed.

4. 1:42

   Have nothing to do with godless and silly myths. Train yourself in godliness, for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe, command, and teach these things.

5. 2:13

   Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love and faith, in purity. Till I come, attend to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have which was given you by prophetic utterance when the elders laid their hands upon you. Practice these duties.

6. 2:35

   Devote yourself to them so that they all may see your progress. Take heed to yourself and to your teaching. Hold to that, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers. Thank you brother Mark 4th class Healthy Words, the example of Timothy, our brother Stephen Palmer. In this class, dear Brand sisters, we’d like to take a New Testament example of the way in which the Word of God and the way in which we live our lives is brought together. That’s what we’re trying to address, the gap between the Word in our understanding and the practice of it in our daily lives.

7. 3:28

   An example I want to take is from Paul and his epistle to Timothy. We like to set the scene, really by getting some points about what Paul and Timothy were like as people at this time. It’ll find, it’ll provide a background for looking at some of the words that Paul chooses to use by the Spirit to Timothy. What we find is in Timothy that the apostle is speaking about strong men.

8. 3:58

   He’s speaking about soldiers in Christ. He’s speaking about fighting the good fight, about warring, the warfare. He’s speaking about being men of God, all terms of robust spiritual strength. But Paul himself and Timothy were not like that naturally speaking. In fact, it’s quite amusing really to think that how Timothy and Paul must have smiled as they wrote and read these epistles.

9. 4:32

   For a start, the apostle Paul was a man who was dogged by ill health. He had critics in Corinth and this is what 2nd Corinthians 10 verse 10 says of Paul. What they thought of Paul. They said his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible. So the apostle Paul didn’t cut a fine figure at all.

10. 5:01

    He was no person that would have been admired in a crowd. His bodily presence is weak, his speech contemptible. By that it seems Paul may well have had an impediment in his speech, just like Moses. Remember that Moses says he can’t couldn’t speak because he couldn’t speak properly and. And God says, well I’ll give you Aaron who can actually say the words. You can tell Aaron what to say.

11. 5:34

    And isn’t it interesting that God chose 2 great men? Moses under the old covenant had fallen to the new to, to minister the word when naturally speaking they were not appropriate for it. They’re not the people that we’d send on a missionary journey, are they? Somebody who couldn’t get his words out properly, Somebody who was stuttered or stammered. But God doesn’t do things according to natural principles. He does them according to spiritual principles. And this is the the twist that’s happening in the epistle that Paul writes to Timothy.

12. 6:13

    He himself was a man who had a thorn in the flesh. People have speculated over what this thorn in the flesh might have been, but perhaps Galatians chapter 4 really tells us what it was. Three times Paul prayed that it might be removed from him, but God had said to him, no, it’s not going to be removed, and don’t ask me again about it.

13. 6:39

    That’s your answer. Your answer’s no. Live with it. It’s there for a purpose. It’s there to keep you on track. It’s there to make you trust in the living God and not in your natural powers.

14. 6:55

    Paul was told, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And that may be true for us. Mind it, that some of the troubles which come upon us, and some of the burdens that we have to bear of the chronic sort, those that go on and on, are there for a purpose to remind us to trust in God, not ourselves.

15. 7:22

    Galatians 4. Anyway, says verse 14. And my temptation which was in my flesh He despised not nor rejected. That’s reminiscent of the thorn in the flesh. He spoke in verse 13 of through infirmity of the flesh that he preached the gospel. But then the Galatians says he received me as an Angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Whereas then the blessedness he spake on, for I bear you record that if it had been possible he would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me.

16. 8:03

    So the infirmity of the flesh had to do with the his eyes. And the Galatians were so concerned that they would have plucked out their own eyes if it had been possible and given them to Paul. So clearly Paul had something wrong with his eyes. It’s been suggested he was suffering from trachoma and infection of the eyes which would cause partial blindness and would have been disfiguring.

17. 8:29

    Clearly something was disfiguring because his bodily presence was weak. So that was Paul. You see, when he did the work of the Lord and he went from city to city, wasn’t like coming on a on a Boeing 747, you know, feeling rather cramped for 9 hours. Actually the very nice seat on the bulkhead and I could stretch my legs, which is easy. This was a man who walked wherever he went, hundreds and hundreds of miles, with his chronic problem, whether it was his eyesight or another problem.

18. 9:07

    But imagine that and not even having a a freedom of expression, a speech which the Corinthians thought was contemptible and the care of all the ecclesias to carry around with him. And so here is a man who naturally speaking his burden, writing to a man who naturally speaking is not much better. So when you look at Timothy in the first epistle and chapter 5, we have an insight into this young man where we’re told in verse 23 of first Timothy 5.

19. 9:48

    Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmity. So yours of robust health. He had a chronic problem with his stomach. Perhaps maybe you had an ulcer. He’s a sort of worrying, fretting sort of person. It seems he seems to bottle things up. A man who was rather timid in himself. Paul, when he writes to the Corinthians and says Timothy’s coming, he gives them some advice on how they should treat Timothy.

20. 10:33

    He says, now, if Timothy has come, see that he may be with you without fear. Now you lay off Timothy. You know, he’s a very sensitive sort of person. He’s the sort of person that if he saw a lot of people in the room, I’ve imagined that he’d just stay on the door.

21. 10:50

    You know, he wouldn’t really like to come in. You wouldn’t go charging in and I’d be the centre of attention. He wouldn’t like that. He was reserved and shy,

22. 11:02

    probably a Welshman, and that was an impediment. It was a real problem, you know. He was so worried perhaps about others and now they react to him that that he went back into his shell and he had to be drawn out and others had to help in that respect. The Corinthians had to make allowances because he was the one who was going to help them to put their problems straight. Perhaps not the sort of person that we would imagine could have helped us to timid.

23. 11:38

    What could he contribute? And if you look at the second epistle and chapter one, this is brought out by the apostle who sees in Timothy talents which are being hidden and obscured by this natural fearfulness and timidity. He had a good upbringing. He had known the truth from a child. His mother and his grandmother had had instructed him well. He had a good foundation, but he wasn’t using it. But we might be in that position. There’ll be some of us here who are third and 4th and 5th generation Christadelphant.

24. 12:22

    So we might have a long upbringing, as it were, a tradition which has served us well. But it’s the point of whether we are using that potential anyway. Chapter one of Second Timothy, he says in verse 5, when I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in the that dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois and thy mother Eunice.

25. 12:48

    And I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance, that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. But Timothy had been given spirit gifts. Paul had laid hands upon him and conferred certain gifts, but they were lying dormant in a man who had a spirit, it seems from verse 7, of fear.

26. 13:22

    For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love, and of a sound mind. Oh, I don’t know whether you can feel for Timothy, because you may not be the same sort of person that he is. Some of us might feel closer to Timothy because we are fearful. We worry.

27. 13:48

    We worry about the problem, we worry about how we’ll cope with it. We worry what we’ll say. We worry about our children, we worry about our work. We worry about the ecclesia. And part of that is feeling well. It all depends on me. If I do it wrong, wrong, dear. And what we’re focusing on is ourselves as opposed to God. We’re not putting or trusting God. How many times have we thought, well, I must speak to people in work about the truth?

28. 14:24

    But, you know, we’re frightened. We’re frightened actually to say anything. You know, they’ve got to laugh at me, aren’t they? You know, it gets onto the subject of creation and evolution, you know, and then a situation that probably arises the very day we’re worried about it because God is going to test us now.

29. 14:45

    And you know, it, it’s a big thing this. Are we going to say something about about the truth? It’s like a it’s like a great mountain to climb. It’s like the Assyrians have camped around us just to say something about the truth. We say it.

30. 15:02

    They haven’t started laughing. So that’s interesting what he said. Did I hear you right? You said that was interesting. And all of our fears have melted away. And well, how silly we were to think that was such a big thing. And so often our problems loom so large because we are focusing on the problem, on ourselves and not upon the God in whom we should trust.

31. 15:33

    And what Timothy had to do in verse 6, it’s to stir up the gift. The the word stir means to rekindle a fire, the flames that died right down. If you think of a bonfire or, or the charcoal on a BBQ, you know it gets covered with ash and you don’t really know if it’s a light. And then you blow on it, and the ash flies off all over the food, and the flames and the heat come back. You rekindle a fire.

32. 16:08

    And that may be the situation that we’re in. There may be some of us here who have been brought up in the truth. So are parents, and so have their parents. And yet the zeal and enthusiasm and our first love, well, it’s got down to the embers, and even the glow is fading. And before it goes out, it’s got to be stirred up. That may be the spirit of fear.

33. 16:36

    Our problems are too frightening for us that we’ve gone back into our shell and that are useless as far as the work of the Lord is concerned. That’s not what we’ve been called to. We’ve been called to power, love, a sound mind. Well, you know these two men that are corresponding with one another, neither in the best of health, Paul robust in spirit, Timothy fearful and weak.

34. 17:06

    But Timothy has to rise to the occasion and put his trust in the living God. And the language Paul uses is interesting. The soldier that he has in mind, I don’t believe is the Roman soldier at all, although Timothy would have been familiar with Roman soldiers and that would have been a contrast. If you look at First Timothy chapter 1 and verse 18, Paul speaks to Timothy as a man in an army speaking to somebody under his command.

35. 17:42

    Verse 18 of First Timothy. One this charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that by them thou mightest war, a good warfare. The word charge is a military term. It’s the Commission, the command that the soldiers been given, and he’s got a warfare to fight. And it’s through the word of God that they knew what his job was to be.

36. 18:07

    Now come on Timothy, get on with it. Stir up yourself, fan the fire into flames. Verse 18, War a good warfare. Follow the words back to Numbers chapter 4 and verse 23. Book of Numbers chapter 4 speaks about the Levites who were not to be numbered with the soldiers of Israel because they weren’t to go out to war.

37. 18:40

    They didn’t have the same warfare that the other tribes had to engage in. But that doesn’t mean to say that in the service of God, the Levites were conscientious objectors. They were not they had a charge, they had a a military duty to perform and this comes out in the language that numbers chapter 4 uses of the Levites.

38. 19:05

    For example, in verse 23, from 30 years old and upward until 50 years old shall down number them all that enter in to perform the service to do the work in the Tabernacle of the congregation. The authorised version margin tells you that against the expression to perform the service. The literal Hebrew is to war the warfare.

39. 19:36

    Now if you don’t know, that’s worth making a point of that because it is a fairly well known connection that Timothy is being spoken to in terms of numbers. Chapter 4, verse 23 war a good warfare, just like the Levites. That’s the model that Paul is using. Not the Roman soldier, the Levitical soldier because his warfare was a spiritual warfare against sin.

40. 20:05

    He was there to serve the high priest in the battle against sin. Interestingly, the expression to do the work is a Hebraism as the first. To war, the warfare where one word is repeated, that’s a particular form of Hebrew expression we call a Hebraism. So is the next. To do the work is literally to work the work, to work the work. And you find that in First Corinthians 16 and verse 10 where I’ve just quoted it to you. Paul writes to the Corinthians and says, if Timothy come unto you, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work of the Lord as I do.

41. 20:54

    That’s beautiful, isn’t it? It’s one of those little joys you’d get during the Bible readings. I knew about the warring, the warfare for several years, and only relatively recently during the daily readings, we read Corinthians and it stood out like a beacon. If Timothy come, he woreth. Sorry. He worketh the work even as I do.

42. 21:18

    And it’s the second-half of what it says in verse 23 of Numbers chapter 4. So Timothy, Paul must have been having an ongoing discussion with Timothy. Now come on, Timothy. Well, Timothy says, oh, Paul, I’ve got a real problem. You know, I can’t do it. You know, I’m not up to it. I’m not that sort.

43. 21:37

    I haven’t got it in me, You know, I you know, it’s just a burden. I can’t carry it. Paul says, come on, Timothy. Think of yourself like a Levite, you know, think of yourself as a a spiritual warrior or the warfare work, the work you’ve been given to Christ. He’ll give you the strength to carry on.

44. 22:00

    While we’re in Numbers chapter 4, we turn back a few pages into Numbers chapter 3 and you can see a word there. It’s actually at the top of my Bible where it says the families, numbers and charge of the Levites. And if you look in that chapter, you’ll see the word charge used time and time again. It’s in verse, starts off in verse 7 they shall keep His charge.

45. 22:33

    And in verse 8, the charge of the children of Israel, it’s in verse 25 and the charge of the sons of Gershon and it’s in verse 28 keeping the charge of the sanctuary. And so it goes on many times. The charge that was the Commission they were given. And that’s what Paul says in chapter 1 and verse 18. You can follow it through in Timothy with a concordance. It’s used more than once.

46. 23:01

    This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, that the war of good warfare. It’s quite clear what’s happening. Paul is saying, Timothy, Timothy, you’re a Levite. The Levites are the pattern of the Saints under the law. So we could look at the Levites if we had a separate study on the Levites now we could.

47. 23:24

    We’ve given them the clue, aren’t we, to opening up Bible teaching concerning the Levites. The Levites are portraits of the Saints in the Old Testament, men and families dedicated to the service of the high priest, with a Commission to wage war against sin and to instruct the people in the Word of God.

48. 23:53

    The one little expression in the Epistle to Timothy can open up a whole Old Testament seen for us and see how it apply to us.

49. 24:08

    So that’s the spirit in which he’s speaking out. Come on, let’s pan the flames, let’s good up our loins, let’s stiffen our resolve. Let’s get on with the work. Let’s trust in the Lord to strengthen us. I can do all things, says Paul through Christ, which strengtheneth me. And so can we if we will but lean upon him. Well, again, in that context, now we’d like to look at the language that Paul uses to Timothy, because it’s it strikes a chord with Timothy.

50. 24:46

    Surely he uses a word four times, a Greek word from which we get our English word hygiene. These are hygienic words in in the third epistle of John chapter 3, it is to be in health healthy words. Let’s just note where this is used in chapter 1 and verse 10. He says for whoremongers, for them that defy themselves with mankind, for men, Steelers, for liars, for perjured persons. And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. So those things of the world, adultery and fornication and homosexuality, those things which pervade all aspects of society today, those things which would count escape just by reading even the front page of a newspaper or or just listening to the the main BBC News on the radio. It’s almost guaranteed that every news broadcast will have something on this subject put forward in the pretence of news, but actually winning audiences because of the vicarious pleasure that it gives people.

51. 26:20

    That’s the society we’re in. You can’t leave the radio on during the day in the house. The danger of the children hearing something that none of us would want to hear. Now, those are the things that he he lists there that the law was given against. And he says at the end of first ten, that these things are contrary to sound doctrine, or the word sound. Is the word hygienic, healthy doctrine. These are the things which pollute our minds and make us sick in mind and spirit.

52. 26:59

    And knowing that, why then do we allow them to come into our thoughts and minds by deliberate acts of what we do with our time? They, they crowd in as it is without much effort, just walking down the street, the the hoardings and the, the billboards and the and so on.

53. 27:27

    They’re contrary to sound doctrine. They are unhealthy teaching. They infect and contaminate the mind. But the things which the gospel speaks of, they give help. But Timothy must say, well I need help, where’s he going to get it from? Chapter 6 and verse 3 and verse 3 of chapter 6.

54. 28:01

    If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness. He is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions stripes of words. The word wholesome in verse three. That’s the same word who gain no, it means healthy, sound

55. 28:35

    wholesome words. It’s a wonderful tone to that expression. It’s wholesome. Now. That’s what people look for today, don’t they? People are worried about what they eat. They’re worried about the the E numbers. They’re worried about the preservatives, about the chemicals that are in the food. Understandably, people want something that is wholesome, but a beautiful expression of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s nothing but health in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine which is according to godliness. So when we fill our minds to those things, the world just can’t make any inroads.

56. 29:24

    If you have that experience, we have been written a preaching, preaching efforts we call campaigns where say 15 people will go and live in a town perhaps where there’s no ecclesia for a week and preach the word. We have say, 30 campaigns here in different parts of Britain. And some Ben and sisters, they spend all their holiday going on campaigns, going to strange towns and giving out leaflets, knocking on doors, canvassing, standing by these exhibitions that we have. And what you find when you’re on that sort of thing where you spend a whole week, it happens in Bible school as well. The whole week doing that is that you hardly have a wrong thought.

57. 30:15

    You come to the pride and think perhaps there’s a note of pride in it. But I don’t think I’ve sinned this week because you feel so wholesome. You feel you feel right. It isn’t really pride. It’s not saying look how good I am. It’s you just feel right with God. You feel everything is is in the right order in your mind.

58. 30:40

    So you get up in the morning with brethren and sisters, you do the readings, you sing hymns, you have some study out, you speak to the adversary, you speak to people ridiculous. You carry a placard down the road and the street is laughing at you and you feel good for it because you’re suffering in some little way for Christ. And you stand on a street corner and you shout at the top of your head to pass us by.

59. 31:07

    And they think you’re mad and your brothers and sisters are cheering you on and you feel wholesome, but you’re out on the street with the world, but you’re not.

60. 31:21

    You come back and you have a meal together and you do another reading and you go out again. You come back exhausted and you do another reading and and you stay up there 2:00 in the morning singing hymns and you feel wholesome because you know it’s the place to be. You know of, of anywhere in the world this is the place to be. And it’s not often that we feel like that because unwholesome things are contaminating us and our homes because we’re not 100% committed.

61. 31:59

    It’s only when we are 100% committed that we feel like that. That’s what the Epistle of John says. We didn’t have time to look at it in relation to our first subject, but have a look at the Word to know and how we know. We know that we’re in Christ. It’s when we’re 100% committed to practising the truth.

62. 32:19

    And that’s where the real blessing comes. And it’s wholesome. It’s healthy. In chapter 1 of the second epistle and verse 13, he repeats this idea when he says, hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. And it seems that in verse 13, he’s speaking about a statement of faith as we would understand it, a written record of the truth of the gospel, a a form of words which he would hold fast to because this represented the life giving word of God in faith and love.

63. 33:10

    Not a a letter to be applied coldly, but a doctrine to be encouraged in through faith and love. Why? Because it was help giving.

64. 33:24

    And in chapter 4 and verse 3, sadly, he warns Timothy that the time was going to come when people would depart from that statement of faith. Shall we say that form of sound words, verse 3. For the time will come when they will not endue a sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they keep to themselves. Teachers having itching ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned and to fables. They will not endure a sound doctrine. Healthy doctrine becomes boring.

65. 34:05

    It is not exciting enough. They want something new and they’re given something new and they turn to fables and away from the truth. It’s a sad day, isn’t it, when the truth, the first principles of the truth, become boring to us. Now we’ve been talking about the seminar series and those who’ve been privileged enough to to sit in or teach the seminars. I’ve been thrilled.

66. 34:32

    Everybody’s experience is the same, to see how people respond to the first principles of the Word of God when they discover them for themselves. Why, you just lay before somebody averse and say, well, there’s a verse which speaks about this subject and without all the prejudices that have been stripped away by the approach that’s taken.

67. 34:54

    They read, they’re saying, oh, Oh dear, look at that. Oh, well, if that’s the case, then what about people in heaven? How’s that fit in? And you say, well, what do you think? What’s it say? Well, oh, so there’s nobody in heaven. People come to that conclusion themselves. Are they stunned by it?

68. 35:18

    And those who accept the truth are thrilled by it because it is a quick way of presenting, perhaps by not giving sufficient attention, or by not allowing the word to speak for itself, by getting in the way of it somehow. See, if the brother presenting is not interested, why should anybody else be? If the brother presenting hasn’t found time enough to prepare, why should the audience think it’s interesting? No reason at all, is it?

69. 35:52

    So come on, brethren, let’s stir up the fire. Let’s make things interesting because they are interesting. Let’s be interested. They can’t complain about our young people not being interested. If we’re not interested, we can’t make our young people read the scriptures. If we don’t read the scriptures, we can’t make them live the truth if they’ve got no example to follow. Suppose say, come on, Timothy, don’t be so fearful. Stir up the gift.

70. 36:27

    This is where you get your health back. You’re going to get it on tablets or drinking water all the time, so frightened that something’s going to poison you. Get back to the word, the hygienic word of God.

71. 36:45

    There’s a second word we want to look at. It’s the word which has to do with mental health, Sophron, and it’s got some variations and it’s translated sober sobriety and sound mind. We won’t look at them all, but we look at the last one and Second Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7. As we’ve read Timothy, God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, a healthy mind. You know, an unsound mind is is a mentally ill mind in spiritual terms and the power of this word, we can see it by connecting it to Mark chapter 5 and verse 15 because this basic word of Sophron and it’s variations is derivations. One of them is used in Mark chapter 5 and verse 15 where it is translated right mind.

72. 38:02

    In Timothy it’s Sophronismos and in Mark 5 it’s sophronio or something like that. But in Mark chapter 5 and verse 15 it is recorded of a legion. Remember the man who was mad, The man who lived in the cemeteries, who ran naked on the hills, who cut himself. A man that they tried to tame, but they couldn’t. A man who was out of control.

73. 38:29

    A man whose mind was racing everywhere, filled with all, as if the world was in his head. They were a legion of things, contaminating him, driven by every influence. He didn’t have a mind of his own. He had been invaded by the Roman armies. They were a legion of spirits. But he can see the Lord Jesus coming across the water. He runs down to meet him.

74. 39:01

    He must have recognised him and heard of him. There would have been times when he would have had some clarity of thought. And of course the Lord sends the legion out into the swine. And there’s a dramatic transformation in verse 15, because when the country folk come to see what was going on, it says they come to Jesus and see him that was possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind.

75. 39:36

    And each of those statements is a contrast. He ran on the hills, but now he was sitting. He was naked before, but now he was closed and he was out of his mind before, and now he is in his right mind.

76. 39:55

    So see that man sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ? One of the disciples must have given him one of his coats.

77. 40:05

    Perhaps the Lord gave him his own. There he is sat, clothed by the Lord Jesus Christ, quiet, sitting, listening. He’s in his right mind. You know what happens when we have problems? Often we try to shut out the problem by increasing the noise, by racing to and fro, by filling our time with distractions, by doing everything except what we ought to do, which is come to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and sit and listen and then pray. When we do everything but that, we are out of our minds. We are being driven by the forces across the mountains. Like Legion.

78. 41:03

    We could see ourselves racing up and down the mountains, sleeping amongst dead men, naked. But God hasn’t called us to that. He’s called us to the power of a sound mind, which is to sit quietly. You know, you have to be at ease to sit quietly. Now. If we can’t sit still on our own

79. 41:31

    more than a couple of minutes, there’s probably something wrong. If the silence worries us so much or our thoughts are so disturbing that we have to talk to somebody, we have to race here or race there. We have to put the wireless on the television on. We have to go out. We have to do something to to block out the thoughts from our mind.

80. 41:56

    Well, we’re not in our right minds there. That’s what the apostle is saying. Go and sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will find wholesomeness there. Interestingly, in Timothy there’s a word for sickness of mind. In First Timothy chapter 6 and verse 4, it talks about the opposite of wholesome words. There are a number of words actually in Timothy which are about disease.

81. 42:31

    Let me just mention one or two. Now we’ve got time. First Timothy chapter 6 and verse four. In contrast to the wholesome words of verse three, it says he is proud, knowing nothing but doting about. Questions and stripes of words were off come with envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds. And the word doting is the word nosio, which is the word for disease.

82. 43:06

    Nosology is the study of the names of diseases, right? This is no seal disease that those who have rejected the wholesome words are sick about questions and stripes. There is a way of debating the truth of being involved in Bible class which is sick and not wholesome. There is a way of being engaged in discussion, to beat your opponent, to catch them out, to ask them a question they can’t answer, to trip them up, to trick them, to take the limelight, to have people in admiration.

83. 43:58

    And that is completely and utterly false, unhealthy, and nothing at all to do with Scripture study, but everything to do with the pride of man. The whole point of Bible study is to minister wholesome words to build up faith.

84. 44:24

    So Timothy was being told, don’t be distracted by these questions, which are trick questions. You’ve stopped arguing about what somebody meant by that and how somebody else has interpreted it and you get lost in a morass of words to no prophet rather get back to the wholesome words of the Lord Jesus Christ.

85. 44:47

    That’s not but it gets Bible study a bad name, doesn’t it that be drawn into that fruitless and prophetess charade. Chapter 2 of Second Timothy, we get another idea of this sort of disease of the word, because this is the apostles showing Timothy the stages that the ecclesia was going to descend into before it wouldn’t endure some doctrine. You know, it was the IT was the beginning of the rot that was setting in Bible class, given over to to questions, to no profit, not aimed at ministering and edifying, but just an intellectual curiosity.

86. 45:35

    The whole point of Bible study is to minister wholesome words to build up faith. So Timothy was being told, don’t be distracted by these questions, which are trick questions. You’ve start arguing about what somebody meant by that and how somebody else has interpreted it, and you get lost in a morass of words to no profit.

87. 46:07

    Rather, get back to the wholesome words of the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s not, but it gets Bible study a bad name, doesn’t it? It’d be drawn into that fruitless and prophetess charade.

88. 46:27

    Chapter 2 of Second Timothy. We get another idea of this sort of disease of the word because this is the apostle showing Timothy the stages that the ecclesia was going to descend into before it wouldn’t endure sound often, you know, it was the IT was the beginning of the rot that was setting in fibre class given over to to questions to no prophet, not aimed at ministering and edifying, but just an intellectual curiosity.

89. 47:01

    So in verse 15 of chapter 2 of the second epistle, Paul says to Timothy, study to show thyself approved unto God. That’s the purpose of study. It’s not talking about study in the sense that we speak of it, but it’s helpful. A Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Now This is why you can’t rush Bible study. It’s not a matter of throwing some verses together and and putting them down, perhaps on paper and or perhaps not. If we’ve got the ability to put words together as we go along. You know, they’ve got some thoughts. There we are.

90. 47:46

    Study to show thyself approved unto God. You see, we want gods to prove we don’t want brethren and sisters come and talk. It’s a great talk. Thanks very much. We don’t want to be discourteous, but that’s not what we want. I mean, it’s good if they’ve enjoyed it, but let’s hope that what people get out of it is that they say isn’t the word of God. Marcus, what a wonderful thing God has done for us. That’s what any speaking brother here, I’m sure will say. That’s that’s what we want to achieve. We want the word of God to be in people’s minds, but it’s got to be rightly divided.

91. 48:24

    The lines have to be cut in the right places for it to actually open up for us. I’m just thinking of an AMA letter. You know, we get them sometimes where they’re folded and, and stuck around the edge. And I always cut it the wrong way so that I’m reading a letter, you know, and I have to keep doing this because I haven’t rightly divided the word.

92. 48:51

    I didn’t follow the instructions. Open this in you know, so cut it wherever I want. So we have to give attention, and the only way to do that is to listen to what it says. Verse 16 Shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat us death.

93. 49:15

    A canker. The word canker gangreina means to gnaw as a rodent gnaws away. You’ve had rats or mice around. You see the signs. I’ve been gnaw away. And this is what these false students are doing. The teaching, which is not scriptural, it’s not based on scriptures, It’s not trying to rightly divide. It is acting as an ulcer. There is a skin condition, a sort of cancer, but doesn’t spread, metastasize.

94. 49:52

    It’s called a rodent ulcer. A rodent ulcer. It gets its name from the fact that it gnaws away through the skin. Slowly but surely it gnaws away.

95. 50:08

    And I saw a patient once who came in to see the surgeon and she had this problem for a number of years and she covered it over. She’d put lint on it and cream. And when she took off the Linton cream, the chest wasn’t there.

96. 50:32

    All that were there were the you could see the bones of her rib cage. The flesh had gone and she just covered it up. Over a couple of years, she’d been so frightened to face up to the truth of what she had she had not sought out. But the surgeon said I can’t do anything for you and he sent her home.

97. 51:00

    They can’t do anything for you. Their word will eat Asda a canker. What a dramatic warning then to a man who was concerned about his health. Stay away from that prophet. Let’s debate and dispute, which arises from the philosophy of men and is not the wholesome listening to the Word of God. Though I wonder what our Bible classes are like in relation to this epistle.

98. 51:30

    Brethren, sisters, do they match up to what Paul is speaking to Timothy about? Well, let me just finally draw attention to this last word that is used in Timothy. It’s a characteristic of this, these epistles. It’s the word eusebia, and it’s translated in all those places by the word godliness doesn’t have the word God in it.

99. 52:00

    So it’s not a good translation. Literally, it means good devotion. I’ll see how Paul brings all these threads together in chapter 4 of the first epistle.

100. 52:19

     In the at the end of chapter 3, he has spoken about the mystery of godliness. That’s the Word, the mystery of that good devotion which is what we are trying to achieve, that bridging the gap between our belief and our practice. The mystery of good devotion was manifested in the flesh.

101. 52:47

     The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

102. 53:02

     The mystery of godliness was seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. But in chapter 4 the record begins, not with the Word now, but with the Word But but the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. We don’t dwell on that. That’s the warning. How are we going to combat it? Verse 6.

103. 53:31

     If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, were unto thou hast attained nourished in the good doctrine. That’s the antidote. Verse 7 Refuse profane and old wives fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

104. 54:05

     For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. And there’s your definition of godliness. Bodily exercise, physical gymnastics profits little. Literally for a little time it does profit. Keeping fit is a good idea if it reduces our risk of heart disease and so on. Isn’t that a good thing? If we can live a little bit longer to serve the Lord, then surely we should.

105. 54:40

     But it’s a little. A study was done in the United States to estimate how many extra years of life we’d have if you could remove one disease after another. These are actuarial calculations for the insurance industry. They calculate that if you removed heart disease at a stroke, that’s not what you want to do.

106. 54:58

     If you remove heart disease, If you had a vaccine against heart disease and you gave it to everybody, how many extra years would we live on average? The answer was 7.

107. 55:13

     If you took away cancer or cancer, the answer was 2. If you took away all the disease and accidents, the answer was about 30 years. It profits a little for a little time, but godliness is profitable and to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. It has a promise of the life that now is. Because if we are wholesome in mind, then that is a wonderful state to be.

108. 55:54

     Imagine sitting clothed and in our right minds at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. But a wonderful position to be. It is profitable for the life that now is. It is Peace of Mind. But it also has promised of eternal life, that unending life of fullness and joy to be with the Lord Jesus Christ now and forever.

109. 56:28

     That is the day that we hope to attain to by the grace of God. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those that believe these things, command and teach.