1 Timothy (Quality: Good)

[0:00] Depending upon the help of God, I would direct you the fourth chapter, first epistle to Timothy, and the eighth and ninth verses.

[0:32] For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

[0:58] This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. First epistle to Timothy, chapter 4, verses 8 and 9.

[1:17] When Adam and Eve fell apostatized and the whole human race in them, they did not lose their humanity.

[1:42] And that's very solemn. Nothing can rise above its nature.

[1:58] And the nature in which they were created, they lost. The image, the blessed image, in which they were created, they lost.

[2:15] And instead of that, they were born in sin and shapen in iniquity.

[2:26] Every one of them, even the Lord's people, were thus born. And so their nature was depraved.

[2:42] And nothing can rise above its nature. As there is in the Corinthians, to my mind, an explanation of this.

[3:05] For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man that is in him.

[3:33] That is to say, a man has given to him reason, faculties, different altogether from any other creature.

[3:49] He doesn't lose that humanity. He doesn't lose that humanity. But he cannot rise above it. And he goes on to show, for what man knoweth the things of a man, say, the spirit of man which is in him.

[4:13] And that is what a man can attain to. The beasts of no reason, have instincts, but they can do nothing in this world, but just to follow their different instincts.

[4:40] But man is far above it. He has intelligence. He has a reasoning power. And when that's depraved, he's a terrible creature.

[4:53] He's not a more terrible creature than a violent man in his natural condition.

[5:11] When you look at this, I think you'll find it has a connection with the text. For what man knoweth the things of a man, the things that belong to the man, the power of inventions, all that his reason can accomplish, different altogether in a higher grade than any other creature.

[5:48] There's no other creature with a reason. There's no other creature with a conscience. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God.

[6:08] So you may be raised to the nature of a man, with all your reason and a conscience, but even so, the things of God knoweth no man, not intelligent man, not a natural man, not a natural man.

[6:36] And knoweth no man but the spirit of God, a man in whom is the Holy Ghost, to create him a fresh and new creature.

[6:49] So there are the three of natures, animals and a human being graceless, and yet has a conscience and reason and intelligence.

[7:08] And then there are those who possess the life and grace and faith of God in their hearts.

[7:22] And today are they who possess the spirit of God. For now, the connection with the text. For bodily exercise profiteth little.

[7:42] And this is spoken of man in his natural state, and yet is a professor of religion. For bodily exercise profiteth little.

[8:05] This man is not raised into a spiritual condition by the possession of the Holy Spirit and divine life in his soul.

[8:17] It's another nature. It's a spiritual nature. It's a nature that comes from heaven. And while man is a wonderful creature, in his natural intelligence and ability, yet it is often abused.

[8:43] But you see what I'm trying to speak. If you cannot be raised above what your nature is. None of the beasts of the earth can be raised above instinct.

[9:03] They have no reason. They have no conscience. They have no law. They have no law. They have no law. They have no law from God. God keeps them. And they just follow their instinct. But man is different. And I emphasize the fact that nothing can raise a man from what he is in his nature.

[9:14] And I emphasize the fact that nothing can raise a man from what he is in his nature. And I emphasize the fact that nothing can raise a man from what he is in his nature. If you have no law from God, and I emphasize the fact that nothing can raise a man from what he is in his nature. And I emphasize the fact that nothing can raise a man from what he is in his nature.

[9:31] If you have nothing but the intelligence of a man, and you could be great in your attainments, not have nothing but the Jesus.

[10:02] But if you have not the Holy Spirit, then you only know that which a man could know. But when the Holy Ghost comes to the election of grace, and creates them new creatures, they become this people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. They have a nature that we never attain to without the Holy Spirit. Well now bring that to the text. For bodily exercise profited little. That is in a professor that is destitute of grace.

[10:57] There are thousands of them. But they exercise the body. They've got no grace, no knowledge of God except an idea that there is such a person in the Bible. They've no need of him.

[11:22] They never pray to him. Their prayer is a bodily exercise. Everything they do is from the body. There's nothing from the soul. Nothing comes from heaven. It's a solemn thing to be there.

[11:38] And that is their nature. For bodily exercise profiteth little. So that all religion devoid of the Holy Ghost is bodily exercise. The exercise of our natural faculties. We may know a good deal. We may be able to write concerning the scriptures. We may be correct notionally. But it's not our nature. We partake of nothing of Christ. Nothing of the word of God belongs to us.

[12:42] It's bodily exercise. It's bodily exercise. And this is a very solemn thought. And to those, and there have been those, I've known some, who have gone to learn religion in some Bible college.

[13:02] It's bodily exercise. It's bodily exercise. We must not learn God's truth as schoolboys learn their task. Such knowledge is not proof against delusions blast.

[13:19] Oh, that's a good thing. It's bodily exercise. Oh, that's a good thing to remember. It would be a good thing if our dear young people, if it would sink into their heart.

[13:32] We must not learn God's truth as schoolboys. If we do, it's bodily exercise. Profiteth little. It profiteth little. It profiteth little because it'll come to nothing.

[13:49] It'll die with our body. It'll die with our body. All bodily exercise will die when our body dies. And often decays with decaying age. Because it's not your nature.

[14:07] Oh, what a mercy it is then. How to be made a new creature. It makes that opening word of the 50, one of the Isaiah chapters.

[14:29] Thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, that formed thee, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name. Thou art mine.

[14:54] And the Holy Spirit has raised thee. And the Holy Spirit has raised thee into a nature that you never had before. And without that, all religion is just bodily exercise.

[15:13] And there's this to be said. Every human being is a religious person. You might say, can't be. Look at those that never read the word of God. And never think of him.

[15:35] I say, can't be. I say, can't be. Every human being is a religious person because they've got a conscience.

[15:49] If a dog should go into a butcher shop and run away with a bone, there's no sin in it. He's not accountable. He's got no conscience.

[16:01] But every human being has got a conscience. And therefore he's a religious person. And oh, sometimes that conscience will work out of such a degree.

[16:20] You look at Esau. His was bodily exercise in a false repentance. He's not a false repentance. He's not a false repentance. He sought repentance and sought it with tears.

[16:32] But he hadn't got any. Not that repentance unto salvation. It was remorse. It was hatred to God.

[16:42] He knew he was a lost man. Bodily exercise profited nothing.

[16:53] He profited nothing because he is speaking of that which such a character would never possess.

[17:15] He lived on ideas. He lived on ideas. On suppositions. On traditions.

[17:26] And a very subtle thing. On emotion. Emotion is bodily exercise really. Emotion.

[17:37] Emotion is bodily exercise really. Everything that is connected with religion that is not of the Holy Spirit and raises the soul, transforms the spirit of the mind, is bodily exercise.

[18:03] It all comes from the faculties of the body, the mind, the conscience, the reasoning powers, the carnal suppositions.

[18:16] All bodily exercise. And you may sit under the truth. And what should be said of such is what the Paul said to the Athenians.

[18:31] I saw an inscription to the unknown God. And those who are exercising bodily exercise.

[18:45] All their religion is to an unknown God. Never be possessed. And there is nothing, no beauty in him that they should desire.

[19:00] Oh, what a solemn thing. To go from the cradle to the grave. And have for a religion mere ideas. Take things for granted.

[19:12] For any exercise profit is little.

[19:24] But godliness is profitable unto all things. Oh, the difference. Oh, the sound of it.

[19:36] Can you feel the sound of it? Looking at yourself. Looking at myself. And it's one thing or another when we come to worship.

[19:48] And you may come to this chapel and mere bodily exercise. Your prayers will be bodily exercise.

[20:04] And there are some evidences of it in the scriptures which we should take need of. As for instance that last verse in James.

[20:20] A forgetful hearer. He forgets what manner of man he is.

[20:31] The word goes into the outward ear. And I feel warranted, if not irreverent, to say that the preaching of the gospel goes in one ear and out of the other.

[20:49] Never touches the heart. Makes no difference to your life. You won't seek first the kingdom of heaven.

[21:00] You will seek success. Your heart will follow your appetite. Oh, but when the Lord comes and brings that poor sinner down to see what he is and who God is and what eternity is.

[21:24] Never ending. Never ending. A thousand years and yet a thousand years to come and then another thousand years to come.

[21:35] Tremendous sound. Not so bigas. A thousand years later. A thousand years. All anyways gute quand many boys sh Validars, Theoreticidad the puzzles, Theしcent ericidad, Magong then half the chapter, The ascent americans, The Marcelinocript d Gabriel.

[21:55] A thousand years, A hundred years behind you in healing. A thousand years you need to love to hope to. Great," A thousand years sedan that you even made your right, Uh, The Ascent leur dome and your father won't forceange in view A thousand years.

[22:06] The man begins una sierraым. But godliness is profitable unto all things.

[22:18] Well, what is godliness? Godliness is to have Christ in your heart by faith.

[22:32] Godliness is spoken to us and that in godliness it is profitable for all things.

[22:44] We find again in the Corinthians. Therefore let no man glory in men.

[23:15] This is godliness for all things are yours. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things that come.

[23:33] All are yours. Why? Why? Hear Christ. And what is a virtue there? And Christ is God's.

[23:48] Godliness is profitable of all things. And there are some of the all things. Paul or Apollos, the ministry is yours.

[24:01] The world is yours. The world belongs to the people of God. It belongs to him. And all that they need of it they shall have.

[24:14] But he's some better thing awaiting for them. But whatever his people need.

[24:25] As the psalmist said, I have been young and now I'm old. Yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.

[24:35] The fullness of creation is the Lord's. And he'll take care of his people. But all that is inferior to that fullness that there is in Christ.

[24:52] In salvation. In salvation. Godliness. But godliness.

[25:05] Well, let's have a look at ourselves. You must come to the character. Godliness. would you rather me talk of something that you could reach a little easier nothing less godliness it is to possess God they shall say I will say it is my people and they shall say the Lord is my God and therefore all the fullness that it pleased the father to dwell in his beloved son that fullness was there to be emptied into the church a fullness of life a fullness of power a fullness of virtue a fullness of purity a fullness of power a fullness of love that godliness is to and to have that wonderful word belonging to us if God be for us who can be against us nobody and if God's against us who can be for us nobody bodily exercise property nothing nothing worse than nothing worse than nothing

[27:08] I've held it I've trembled under a sight of it and if it makes you tremble my friends you will pray for this godliness let us pray for God and he's made himself he's made himself possessible in Christ in the Corinthians again it says of God are ye in Christ Jesus that's how you read him of God are ye in Christ Jesus well if I'm talking the truth my friends do you find these things search your heart they do mine I wonder sometimes whether the scene will end and he'll make you know it he'll make you know what a sinner you are and what sin is and what the world is he'll put things in their right places he won't make you worse servants or masters he won't make you do your work other than the best you can this world has its importance and we are put in this world for a purpose and there's an appointment all the decrees and purposes of God in the covenant of grace are completed in the stage of time with respect to every one of his people and bodily exercise will help nothing profit nothing not in anything but godliness oh the attraction of it how I long for it no far off at times

[29:31] I feel from it god will be the author of your faith it is god that elects his people he's chosen them he knows them my sheep know me and I know them and I give unto them eternal life eternal life spiritual life the life of christ sanctification is in him and he sanctifies people and make them fit to dwell with him throughout eternity godliness but then there will be godliness in our actions and in our thoughts but the conflict is that our nature remains the same there's two armies if one is called by grace he's still a sinner but my friends our death sin is finished we went bodily exercise it profited nothing a death gives nothing it has nothing it's done nothing and nothing is done oh this is destitution to eternity to be without god and without hope in the world but oh to have god godliness is profitable in all things not some things profitable in the worst of things and the lord in his wisdom puts his people in the worst conditions in order to teach them i have been alarmed and ashamed at how little i know of this godliness if we had as sure a token of our sinnership of our of sure a token of godliness as we have of our sinnership we should have a good hope but sin seems almost to swallow us up but the lord will bring us down self-destruct will bring every one of his people sooner or later despair itself in every way nothing top lady intended that when he said nothing in my hand i bring simply to thy cross i cling naked come to thee for dress helpless look to thee for grace fell i to the fountain fly wash me saviour or i godliness godliness all things are yours every loss is yours all sorrows all bereavements all pains all disappointments everything as you pass through this world is sanctified

[33:31] to this one end that we may be taught of god who we are and what we are and who god is and what he is and what he has all things are yours for bodily exercise profited little but godliness is profitable unto all things is profitable in all things until you get a heavenly self we can't tell what heaven is but there is such a thing as an earnest of it an earnest of heaven oh i do believe once i knew what that was just for a few moments under the preaching of the gospel drop down ye heavens from above a walk and drop down from heaven nothing unless the lord jesus had condescended to the ignominy and shame and poverty of a poor man that they don't look for a gardener they saw no difference in him from anybody else but he came and he fulfilled the law he satisfied the law and he satisfied the law for his people and one of the greatest blessings that in the gospel is if the lord was our substitute and did everything he did for us and we did it in him that's his godliness profitable to all things that he did profitable to his righteousness he makes his people righteous holy but how he does cause us to mourn because we got a body of sin in there and if we have this treasure we have it in an earthen vessel but the earthen vessel won't affect the treasure that's in it that's the mercy the treasure that the lord has laid up it's in that chapter in corinthians i had not seen nor hear heard neither has it entered into the heart of man what he has prepared for them that love him what is prepared in heaven we shall not know it in the fullness but what he prepared down here is taken up to heaven and therefore the benefit that everything that he is and everything that he's accomplished for his people in salvation and everything he is now doing in heaven as an advocate above is theirs it's to possess

[37:30] God and it is to be brought into relationship with him you think of it my friend and then look at poor gold and silver ah you take a sack of golden sovereigns to a dying person you might as well take a sack of stones off the beach no more good but godliness is profitable unto all things here below and all things prepared in heaven eternal glory and we are moving on to one or other of his eternal destinies and he is of one mind and none concerning as a mercy for his people but solemn for the wicked having promise of the life that now is that doesn't mean to say our natural life and doings and enjoyments and so on but it is the life of god in the soul as for instance to be called by sovereign grace and to be made partakers of christ and to be born again to have the tender fear of god in the conscience to have communion with the lord in secret to know him to have his visitations his presence in your heart his comfort in your troubles and a good hope in your soul for heaven at last having promise of that life the work of the holy ghost in the soul is that life and of that which is to come oh what a verse this is do you feel sometimes to be stopped at some verse of scripture did it look at you have you trembled at some have you had a little hope in others oh my friends in these days of my sorrow

[40:52] I look much into eternity but I shall soon be there and so must some of you and it's real oh how real it is to watch a dying person how real it is to see them lowered in the grave he must come for they live it is bother the exercise while you live profiteth little but godliness is profit of all things all things whatever you copy for you some people they have a poor body weak body diseased body but it comes into that godliness is profitable unto all things and how sweet it is when you are in a predicament at the ends of the earth or fear your poor mud walled cottage shake to have this godliness working the holy ghost and your soul the scriptures belong to you and all that it says concerning his people is said to you remember it friends it's spoken to you it's not written hundreds of years ago like a tale that is told it's yours for bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things therefore if there's any of you who know and love the lord love the habitation of his house love his presence would give up all for him you might say be careful give up all for him

[43:26] Moses did he had this godliness there's a wonderful magnificent court in Egypt and when he had a view of heaven that looked a dungeon compelled with it well may the lord bless his truth and bring us if his good will to a good hope and speak to us through the scriptures and you can be raised up not into heaven but into a heavenly atmosphere in your soul then you will be able to say yeah come unto mount Zion to the city of the living

[44:27] God the heavenly Jerusalem an innumerable company of angels to the blood of sprinkling that speak it better things than that of Abel you can come to that here my friends when the holy ghost transforms you in the spirit of your mind for a time it may be in the service it may be walking along the road amen god willing mr jabez field folks to be with us this evening here though weak following his operation and this next week our pastor hopes to speak to us on christmas day morning the service being at 10 30 there will be no prayer meeting this week and on friday evening we hope mr brunker will preach to us here next lord's day we hope our pastor will be able to preach to us in the morning and mr field again in the evening i would just remind you that next lord's day we propose holding our quarterly collection for the cause in number 1073 tune kingston 646 holy ghost dispel our sadness pierce the clouds of nature's night come thou source of joy and gladness breathe thy life and spread thy light hymn 1073 three yeah yeah

[47:19] THE END THE END THE END

[48:21] THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END

[49:23] THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END THE END May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost abide with us.

[50:23] Amen. The children the tossed the the loveatha the the the dead