Shoring Up the Defences

We've already started thinking and talking about, and Gary prayed for it, the word of God to powerfully be involved in our lives, and that is what our talk is going to be on this morning. The word of God, the scriptures where we really, if we think about it, all of our hope has come from. Everything we believe about God, everything we believe about the gospel has come from this. And last week we spoke about some of the very good groundings that we have to believe in it, why we may believe in the Bible, the wonderful historical aspects of trusting in it as something that is authoritative. But this morning I want to think a little bit with you about what we believe about the Bible.

How we believe in the Bible. So this morning I just want to start with thinking that in a world where we are experiencing greater pressures to conform to a worldview, to conform to a pattern of living that is very far from God's intentions revealed in the scriptures, the Bible says in Ephesians 6 that we are to fight against these forces or these powers or these philosophies. We are to fight and defend them by using the armour of God. Do you remember those images?

We protect ourselves with the shield of faith, Paul says. That we put on the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness. Now along with this kit, along with this armour that we wear to fight against, to resist thoughts and pressures that would lead us away from God, there is also the sword of the spirit, Paul writes, which he says is the word of God. The only offensive, the only attacking bit of equipment in this whole thing is the sword, and the sword is the word of God. The sword in the ancient world not only protected you and defended you, but it also helped push back against the advances of an enemy.

This morning I want to ask us and have us reflect on how good we are at using God's word in the right way. How good are we at using God's word in the fight? How do we resist Satan? How do we resist people who would seek to overpower what we believe? Well, the Bible says we do it with God's word.

But I want to start this morning by showing that there are good ways of using God's word and then there are not so good ways of using it. I want to show you a funny video of a Christian comedian. He's a believer, so what he says is very, very tongue in cheek. It's not meant to offend. Take it as a critique of Christianity, of Christians using God's word in the wrong way.

So his name is John Christ, and this is how not to use the Bible. It's fashion now. "Lean not on your own understanding." Oh, Spencer's gifts? Mm-mm.

"Guard your heart." Finish line? Oh, yes. "Run the race I have set before you." 30% off all things.

"Work together for good." Oh, would you look at these here. "Run and not grow weary. Walk and not faint." No.

Thank you. I don't need any skin care samples. "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Oh, there's Starbucks. Thank heavens.

"Streams in the desert." Look at these watches. "For such a time as this." Look at all this baggage. No, thank you.

"I have left my burdens at the cross." Oh, I love this bedding. Yes. "All who are weary, He will give you rest." Look at these knives.

"These are perfect. Iron sharpens iron." "Oh, man does not live by bread alone." Hey, Adam, you wanna take a bite of this?

Mm-mm. "Man's original sin." Microsoft only for me. Thank you. Oh, Lululemon.

"He will not tempt you beyond what you can handle." Oh, Zales. Absolutely not. "My treasure is in heaven." Payless is having a sale.

"Lead me not into temptation." Temptation. Les, oh, "judge not, you without sin cast the first stone." Oh, I love this hat.

Look at this. "Anyone who is in Christ is a new creation." "I will dwell in the household of the Lord forever." I come all the way in here for a sale and they don't have my size. Jesus, please. "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion."

So that is good in one sense, that he is trying to bring the Bible into his everyday life, but probably he's kind of missing the points on all of those scriptures that he was quoting there. So I think most of us would say that we wouldn't use the Bible and scripture to motivate our shopping habits in a shopping centre like that. But at least, like I said, this person is trying to think biblically about what is happening in his life. But this morning I want us to think about how often and how regularly and in what way we think about what is happening to us and we apply it to how the word of God would have us view that, what the word of God has to say about these things. And this morning we're going to have a read of 1 Timothy 4, a situation where the apostle Paul writes to a pastor, a young pastor by the name of Timothy, who was a pastor of a church in a place called Ephesus, and he reminds his young protege that the falling away of Christians, which was what was happening in his church at that time, falling away of Christians, people who had once professed to have understood the gospel but had now been swept up in a very strong heresy and false teaching of that time.

Paul is reminding Timothy that this falling away, first of all, is not to be unexpected, that that would happen, that that will happen in the church, people will fall away from the faith, but that he should also stand firm and shore up his defences. Be strong. Understand what the essence of what he believes is and to teach that as well. So let's have a read of 1 Timothy chapter 4, and we're going to read from verse 6 to the end of the chapter. 1 Timothy 4:6.

And we are reading from the ESV. Paul writes to Timothy: "If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather train yourself for 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 trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hope set on the living God who is the Saviour of all people, especially of those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching.

Do not neglect the gift that you have which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practise these things. Immerse yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers."

So far, our reading. Like I said, Paul writes to Timothy in the context of people who had started to reject the faith, and Timothy was fearful that his entire church would be lost to this very particular, very strong heresy that was prevalent in the church. Now we don't know exactly what it was, but it had things to do with suffering for the sake of an enlightened spirituality. So not eating certain foods, fasting extremely, not marrying, not committing yourself to enjoy some of the physical things that God had given us, and we'll deal with that a little bit more. But Paul is in essence talking to Timothy about a mentality that is rejecting the truth about Jesus Christ.

But like how a skilful coach takes his team or takes a particular player in his team and goes back to the basics about the sport, Paul takes Timothy back to the basics of what it means to live a Christian life. This is how you shore up your defences, Timothy, he says. And three things we're just going to briefly touch on, three aspects, if we can just chuck those up there. Thank you.

The first is that Timothy is to point out the goodness of God and His gifts. The opening verse, verse 6, says "if you put these things before the brothers" — another translation says point out to the church. Point out to the church. And what he's referring to is actually not the stuff that will follow in verses 7 and 8, but the stuff that he's talked about previously in verses 4 and 5. This is what he says there: "for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer."

See, what was happening in this time is that people were saying that we will not eat this sort of food. We will not indulge in these physical things because we are holier than that. Our spirit is where it's at. The physical, whether that is our body or the physical world around us, is secondary and is evil inherently. Paul says to him, point out.

Notice that. It's not a fight, this cause. It is not a start a crusade. It is just point. And what is Timothy to point to?

Well, Genesis. Genesis 1 and 2, that God created everything. And He said it was what? Good. It was very good.

Point them to that. Point them to biblical theology, creation of the world theology 101. Everything that God has made is good. Tell them that. So first of all, Timothy simply has to point out from scripture that God is the Creator God in Genesis 1 and 2, and that all that has been created is inherently good.

Secondly, so the first thing is to point out the realities of God. The second thing Paul encourages Timothy to do to shore up these defences is that Timothy should simply focus on how he lives. Now this is interesting. This is something that kind of surprised me when I read this for the first time. Instead of being embroiled in refuting the fables and the myths, Paul calls them silly things, instead of doing this, he should be careful how he lives.

So I read that and I thought, I have to take note of this. Don't focus on your apologetics, your defence of the gospel, your explanation of why the Bible is understandable and reasonable to believe. Don't try and persuade them with wise words and careful logic. Paul says, make sure you live a godly life. Focus on your relationship with God and how that lives out in reality.

He says, Timothy, you're not simply to train your body physically, although that is good, that is fine, there's nothing wrong with it. Physical self-discipline has some limited value, but spiritual self-discipline results in future as well as present improvements. The reason for this is that we look forward beyond our life to something that lasts an eternity. An eternity compared to our very small, very short reality is incomparable. Paul says the hope that rests in the living God who is the Saviour of all mankind, he says here, is what is worth investing in.

It is worth pursuing. It is worth enduring and persevering in. God, he says, is the Saviour of all people. And this is true in the sense that He saves all mankind from temporary disaster and chaos and pain today. Jesus says Himself that God makes the sun to rise on the righteous and the unrighteous.

God, in a sense, loves all mankind in this way. But he says, God saves especially those who believe in the gospel. That is His ultimate salvation. That is worth pursuing. That is worth reflecting on.

That is worth orchestrating and coordinating and calibrating your life according to. That hope is what produces godliness, and that hope is what we should be focusing on. Godliness therefore comes from a right heart, Paul says, not a right body. Paul says, ultimately focus on the heart. And then thirdly, Paul talks about teaching.

The third point about a focus specifically on the Bible. Verse 11 says "command and teach these things." Verse 13, "until I come to you, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation and to teaching." Now this teaching Paul is referring to is a systematic theology.

It is seeing the Bible as a whole rather than our little proof texts that we heard. It is understanding who we are in the created order, that we are mankind made in the image of God. It is understanding how far we've fallen short and how sinful we inherently are. It is understanding the process of Israel and how they try to live a life righteously before God, but because of this inherent rebellion against God couldn't, and the need for Jesus Christ and the flowing out of it. It is understanding all of those things in our life.

And how do we understand these things? By devoting ourselves to the scriptures. To understand it, to desire it, to pursue it, to prioritise it. Devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to the exhortation or the preaching thereof and to its teaching, Paul says. When the cultists of the time came knocking on the door, they wanted people to adopt their views and to abandon the belief and the truths of Christianity.

Paul's encouragement to Timothy in light of this is to know the Bible. It's not to fight. It's to know the Bible and to share it with others to encourage them as well, to be devoted to the reading of scripture. So how, this question, how devoted are we to that? How devoted are we to that?

How systematic is our thinking about the world and seeing it happening and seeing things happen to us and then reading it through the lens of scripture? How do we make sense of it? How do you relate these things back to God? Because our time is not very different from that time two thousand years ago, but nothing has really changed.

In a time of severe rejection of the Christian faith, today, fractured families and hectic schedules, there is such a need in Christian families to be rooted in God's word. There has never been, in my time at least, a need that is stronger than that. There is a need to go back and focus on godliness, on how we live to the glory of God. We need to point out how God works in our lives. And these three principles is what Paul and God gives Timothy: to point out the realities of God, to reflect on how God fits into our world, to focus on how we live instead of fighting those fights that can be out there or can be behind a keyboard on a Facebook rant.

How we live and devote ourselves to understand and to know scripture. There's an urgency to know God and His ways more, not less. To think about things biblically and theologically and in a world that is increasingly hostile and anti-Christian. And so on the one hand, do and encourage this, as you know often, regular church attendance is an important thing.

A church that provides Sunday school for your kids is an important thing. If you don't stick to this church and move on, that's fine, but find a church that teaches your kids. But apart from this, what is almost more important than any of these things is what happens in your family. How you deal with God, how you deal with life and explain it and read meaning into that. Christ must be at the centre of the most basic fundamental level of our lives.

Now I want to start by saying there is no one-size-fits-all fantastic model to how to have a Christian home, but I can guarantee you that by growing in the knowledge of God and the outworking of the gospel through the Bible, focusing on that, you'll be well on your way. Because these things have given Christian families through the ages joy, strength and guidance. It is time-tested. For example, during the Great Reformation, in the fifteen hundreds and the sixteen hundreds, pastors and elders would go from house to house, family to family in a time where entire generations had grown up without knowing the Bible. They didn't have the Bible in their own language.

It was in Latin. They didn't have copies of their own Bible anyway to be able to decipher. It was kept by the church. Elders and pastors would go from family to family and they would teach them how to read the Bible, how to study the Bible. They would take Dad as the spiritual head of the family or Mom and they would teach Mom and Dad how to read, how to study, and encourage them to lead that in a regular way with their kids.

That is how the Reformation came to be. The reformation and overhauling of an entire church, a worldwide church, was built on the backs of families reading their Bibles at home. Time-tested. How do we transform our church? By having families know the Bible, by families reading it, families devoting themselves to the reading of scripture, to the preaching thereof, and to teaching.

So I want to just leave us with a few practical ways to do this. So it's, you know, we're dealing with the concept, let's land the plane a little bit. How do we do this? Because it is hard and time is so precious and scarce. How do we do this?

The first step towards effective family devotions is setting aside regular time. It has to start there. Many families have devotions at the breakfast table if there's time, and I know there's people that just grab a bit of toast on their way out. It may not work. Breakfast table or after dinner.

These times naturally bring the families together. Not always, but it's probably the best time where you have the chance of having the most people there. For other families, the best works at bedtime, when we put the kids to bed. But whatever works, whatever schedule it may be, I don't know, Mom and Dad may have the lunch break off and they can be at home or something like that. Whatever works, set aside a time regularly.

Find a time regularly where the whole family can be together, and consistency is important. Paul talks about godliness as a discipline. So a discipline is where you say, I need to do this on a consistent basis. I need to create habits. So that is part of the godliness training that Paul is talking about here.

Alright. So if we find a regular time, what happens then? Devotions can include many activities, but it's important to include at least these three. Reading from God's word. Reading from God's word.

The second thing is to discuss and to reflect and to teach that passage or what has been said. And the third thing is to pray. Now firstly, reading from the Bible. The Bible is always a stimulating book. I understand and I've been there.

When you read a passage and you just have absolutely no idea what's going on there, you read a fantastic passage in Leviticus and you have like, what does what the priests were wearing at that time have to do with me? But because it's difficult, doesn't necessarily mean it's boring. The Bible, that passage can be very stimulating. It can generate and it should generate lots of discussion. Why?

How? When? The Bible is always a stimulating book. I think that's where we can really start changing the way we think. It's true that we may not understand it all, but it's far from boring.

So be challenged by it. Be challenged by it. Because on the other hand, we also know that the Bible is filled with true stories of God's incredible heroes. We find in the Bible very down-to-earth advice. We find deep spiritual insight into our lives and our hearts.

And we see a plan of marvellous complexity and marvellous outcome in the salvation of Jesus. It is the way we hear God's voice. The Bible is how we hear God's voice. Now there may be many approaches on how to do these set times of reading and reflecting on God's word. We may read a chapter or a portion every day.

Our family used to do that. We just used to start at a spot. I mean, I don't even know where we started. We just started reading the Book of Esther, or we just started reading Proverbs, or we just started reading the Gospel of Matthew. We did chunks like that.

And this can help a person to see and hear how God's word applies to them daily. All the children can read and give Mom and Dad a break, and we can take turns doing it that way as well. And they can take turns reflecting on that as well, each of the kids. The second option is to have Bible reading plans. A similar approach is to follow a program designed to guide your family through the Bible in one or more years.

The advantage of this is that you get through the Bible in a systematic way, so you will have to read Leviticus. You will have to read Ecclesiastes. But it's done in a consistent way then. So Bible reading plans. The other option is to have family study programs, and there's lots.

If you go to Coorong in Springwood, I think it's our closest one, you can find so many devotionals, family devotions that you can read together. Family study programs that you can do together. Families with older children can try and study the Bible in-depth and bring out some points that they want to share as well. And then there are very basic children's Bibles. Almost story-time Bibles that you can read for your younger kids as well.

So there's a whole plethora of ways that you can read the Bible together as a family. There's no single one way that you have to use it, but I think there's a good healthy option there for you to choose from. The second thing is not only then to read it, but then to discuss it. Discussion and teaching about the Bible passage for the day is an integral part of Bible reading. Firstly, because it gets us to understand.

It gets us to not simply know these awesome clichés, but to understand in what context they took place and why they are significant to us. So the first way is to try and keep the discussion about this passage we have read clear and concise. Don't start focusing on the difficult aspects of it, the things that you don't know. Ask the question, what has happened in this passage? What's happened?

How has the story unfolded? Ask the question, what is being taught here? What is Paul trying to tell us in 1 Timothy 4? What are some of the things that he brings out? And then very importantly, how does this apply to our life?

What do we get out of this passage for us? So keep the discussion clear and concise. Secondly, it's important to maintain a good balance between leadership and participation, like I said. Dad or Mom may often lead that, but it doesn't have to be them all the time. Get kids to read, get them involved, get them to think through the implications of some of these things.

But then there is also this point where Mom or Dad may need to correct some things where it's starting to go down a particular track and can just bring them back and remind them of some of the other passages of scripture or the other theological implications as well. So there should be one that corrects that discussion in a way as well. And then thirdly, it's important to be sensitive to the family's special needs. You know, we can open the word at the end of the day, read together, and someone can bring up something that seems completely unrelated to the passage we've just talked about. Someone said, yeah, today someone said this and this and this.

And you may think, well, how is this related to 1 Timothy 4? Be sensitive to that because somehow what you've read has stimulated something in their thinking. So maybe try and pick back how that is affecting it or maybe what God might be saying to them in this passage, how it connects to them in some way. Be sensitive because we believe the Holy Spirit is involved in this whole process as well. So that is how we can think through and digest what we've been reading, reflecting and discussing it.

And then the third thing is prayer. God communicates to us through His word, but we communicate to God through prayer. Those moments should never be just a one-way discussion. Our loving Father wants us to talk to Him as well, and He delights in us coming to Him as a family. So there's a few ways we can do this.

Just very quickly, worship and praise. We come to God after we've heard from Him and we see how much He cares for us. We can even see just very basically that God cares for Timothy here. He's a man who's losing his church. He's a man who's losing people that he cared for and loves.

And God comes to him through Paul and He says, just do these three things. Just be careful. Know that I love you. Reflect on how much I love you and the good things that I've given you. Out of that comes praise and thanks, doesn't it?

We can thank God for how much He cares for us. So in our prayers, at the end of these sessions, praise and worship God for what we've seen and heard in the word. There can be a point of confession where we can confess how far we've fallen short of God's ideals as He's listened to us and say sorry for those things. It can be an awkward thing to do publicly like that in our families even, but how powerful it is for a Dad to say, I'm sorry. I have not loved my kids well enough.

And how powerful is it for a child to say, I'm sorry, Lord, that I've bullied my friend today. Those are powerful things that can happen in a family session like that. So confession, reflecting how we've fallen short and how we've broken what God wants of our lives. And then thirdly is that petition, that request, that intercession that God also wants from us. Like a loving father, God desires to know our deepest concerns as much as He enjoys our praise.

We can open our hearts to Him there knowing that He hears and He often answers our prayers and that He will work all things together for our good. And as we share with one another, we will draw closer as a family. So, again, practically, some families have a prayer notebook that they keep alongside their study, and they can just write down the things that they are praying for, and they can come back to them a week or two weeks or a month later and see what God has done in that area. As we seek God daily, we renew our relationships with one another. It brings our families closer together.

It brings us closer to God as He talks with us and as we talk with Him. He receives our praise. He receives our petitions, our confessions, and we receive His joy of being in His presence. So I want to finish by saying if you have not already or if it's sort of been lost along the way as is prone to happen with busy lives, won't you make family devotions a part of your home? Whatever your family may look like, maybe just Mom and Dad at home now.

Kids are long moved out. It may be a single person. Those moments that are the cornerstone, that are the centre point of our lives. Whatever your family looks like, whether you have a bunch of very fidgety kids or kids that are all grown up, create that moment of intimacy so that as the apostle Peter says, that you may grow in grace.

And in growing in grace, you may grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. So that to Him will go the glory both now and forever. Grow in grace, to grow in knowledge, to give glory to God. Let's pray. Father, we need to hear these things sometimes again as reminders.

I pray, Lord, that we can take some of these things. We can reflect on them in our lives, we can have important discussions with our loved ones about these things, and Father, create in our families, in our most intimate personal spaces, areas that the enemy can never attack, that he can never overcome or overwhelm. Father, help us create those safe spaces, those defensive areas in our lives where we can be safe. Lord, we need Your protection against Satan and his onslaught. We need Your protection against ourselves and our sin that is so self-destructive, so self-absorbed.

Help us to resist. Help us to defend. And then, Lord, create in our hearts a love for Your word. We thank You so much. This hope that we so regularly profess and rejoice in these wonderful words and these truths that we sing, the worship on our lips, the sensation and the emotion in our hearts, we come to worship You, Lord.

All these things have come about because of Your word, about the truth that's contained in it. And so, Lord, why do we seek other things? Why do we look elsewhere for things that satisfy? Nothing else satisfies. Nothing else brings these realities to bear. And so we pray for Your continued presence in our lives.

We pray for Your cultivation by Your Spirit. And we ask, Lord, that You bless each and every family here as well. In Jesus' name. Amen.