Galen Call's Sermon Library
"Serving God Acceptably= Part 1" - July 13, 1986
He writes to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith, who was the pastor of the church at Ephesus. He writes to exhort Timothy in his work. It is a book of practical instruction and revelation from God as to how ministry ought to be conducted. I believe the theme of the book might be stated this way, serving the Lord. Just those three simple words, serving the Lord. You notice that Paul begins by reminding Timothy that he, Paul, served the Lord with a clear conscience in verse 3. Again in chapter 2, verse 24, in instructing Timothy he says, "And the Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind and so on." And again in chapter 4, he puts it a little bit differently as he speaks in verse 11 regarding Mark, and he says, "Bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service." So several times we see that specific word used, and then there are other thoughts that connect with it very clearly. If the theme then is serving the Lord, I believe the book falls into two sections very nicely. In chapters 1 and 2, he tells us about serving the Lord acceptably. And then in chapters 3 and 4, serving the Lord expectantly. And so today we begin with chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, as we talk about serving the Lord acceptably. Paul in apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, according to the promise of life in Christ Jesus, to Timothy, my beloved son, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day, longing to see you even as I recall your tears so that I may be filled with joy, for I am mindful of the sincere faith within you which is first dwelt in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, and I am sure that is in you as well. For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, and with that we'll stop our reading for this morning. The title of the first two chapters is serving the Lord acceptably. That title insinuates that it's possible to serve the Lord in a less than acceptable manner. Can God be served unacceptably? Well the answer to that is yes, God can be served in that way. We have only to look into the Old Testament for a very sad example. Turn with me if you will to the book of Isaiah and the first chapter. The Lord speaks to his people Judah. Notice these amazing words as God addresses them in verse 10. Here the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom, give ear to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah. Now God is talking to Judah, he's talking to Jews, to his people, but he addresses them with these strong and harsh terms. "What are your multiplied sacrifices to me?" says the Lord. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle, and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who requires of you this trampling of my courts?" Now wait a minute, who was it that commanded them to come together? Who was it that commanded them the blood of bulls, lambs and goats, the burnt offerings, the fat of the fed cattle? It was God himself. But God says to his people, "I have had enough." He says in verse 13, "Bring your worthless offerings no longer. Incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath, the calling of assemblies, I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly." Now there you have an insight as to the problem. God says, "I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly." Now He says, "I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to me. I am weary of bearing them. So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are covered with blood." Isaiah continues a similar theme in the 29th chapter of this book. And he says in verse 13, "The Lord said, because this people draw near with their words and honor me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from me and their reverence for me consists of tradition learned by rote." What is the problem? The problem is that while the people of Israel were going through the motions, performing the rituals, coming to their feasts, saying the right words with their lips, their hearts were far from God, and their lives were filled with sin. They were serving the Lord, but God did not accept their service because their service was unacceptable. The Lord Jesus quotes verse 13 in Matthew 15, 7, "To the generation of His day, and He says to them, 'While you are going through the rituals and you're going through the traditions of your fathers, your hearts are far from God.' You see it is possible, terribly possible for us to serve the Lord unacceptably. It is possible for an evangelical today to go through the motions, to sing even scripture songs, the more popular ones these days. It's possible to sing the great hymns of the faith, even to pray, go to prayer meeting, to attend, even attend regularly, to talk spiritually, even to witness to other people. That is to do all of the right things, but with a heart that is not right with God, that is possible for us today as much as it was possible for the people of the Old Testament. There are a few things that are more important than for you and for me to understand what it means to serve God acceptably. I believe that's what Paul writes the Timothy about. How we serve the Lord in an acceptable manner. He begins in chapter 1 by pointing out to us six essentials to serving the Lord acceptably. We will not cover all six of them today, but I hope at least the first three. How do we serve God in a way that He will be pleased? How is our service to God acceptable? Well, the first essential is a sincere faith. I want you to notice in verse 5, he says, "I am mindful, Timothy, of the sincere faith within you." This is faith in a saving sense. Paul is saying to Timothy, "I know as much as I can know that your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is a genuine faith. It is a sincere faith." You see, there is a faith which does not save. Did you know that? There is a faith which does not save. It is an insincere faith. You may be characterized by at least three things. An insincere faith that does not save is characterized in the first place by an intellectual understanding of the gospel without a heart commitment to it. A faith that does not save the soul is characterized by an intellectual understanding of who Jesus Christ is and what He has done without a heart commitment to Him and to the gospel. This was true even in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Go with me to the gospel of John, and I think we see this exemplified in something that happened there. The gospel of John the second chapter. It says in verse 23, "When Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in His name." Now notice that. It is the word "believe." The same one is John 3, 16. The same one is John 1, 12. There is no difference in the Greek word here. It says, "Many believed in His name, beholding His signs," which He was doing, "but Jesus on His part was not entrusting Himself to them." The word "entrusting" there is the same word as the word "believe." It's while they believe Jesus, Jesus did not believe on them. He did not entrust Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man, for Himself knew what was in man. What is happening here? Well these people believed in a certain sense because of the signs which they saw, but their faith was a superficial faith. Jesus did not entrust Himself to them because He knew that their faith was in genuine, and it was not unto the saving of their souls. I believe that this is the kind of faith that Jesus talked about in the parable that's recorded in Luke chapter 8, as well as in other places. But in Luke chapter 8 and the 13th verse, Jesus explains the meaning of the seed that is sown on rocky soil. Without recounting the whole parable, perhaps you remember it and turned to this verse, and look at what Jesus says, "Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy." So here are people like in John chapter 2, who receive the word with joy, who believe in a certain sense. They have an intellectual appreciation for what's going on. But it says, "And these have no firm root. They believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away." So here are people who have an intellectual understanding of what the gospel is. They can tell you who Jesus Christ is, but there has been no hard commitment. My friend, churches today are filled with people exactly like this. I heard one national speaker say recently that it was his opinion. It was only an opinion because he has no way to prove this. But he speaks in a lot of places and he says it is his opinion that up to 50 percent of the people in evangelical churches have never truly been saved. They have a faith, but it's not a faith that saves the soul. It's not a sin-sier faith. I believe that faith that does not save is characterized as unaccompanied by repentance, secondly. Turn with me to Acts chapter 20 verses 20 and 21. Acts 20 verses 20 and 21. Paul here is telling about his ministry, and he says that he was among them solemnly testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, verse 21. Repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. I am personally of the conviction that repentance is an inseparable part of saving faith. Today there is a brand of gospel that I am going to label false gospel that is preached, which does not call for repentance. We say what is repentance? The word repentance simply means the changing of the mind. There is a call for faith in Jesus Christ today where there is no call for the changing of the mind regarding sin and oneself in God. There is no thorough dealing with conviction of sin. Now I do not see repentance as a separate act from saving faith. I am not saying that. I don't believe that we need to repent and to believe the gospel, but we need to repent and believe the gospel. There is a subtle difference there. In saying it the first way I am saying that there is a separate act involved. In saying the second way, I am saying that incorporated in saving faith is a genuine repentance, a change of mind regarding sin. Instead of one loving sin and desiring to sin, one hates sin and turns from it, repudiates it. There is a change of mind regarding self instead of wanting to be self fulfilled and self realized. One understands that his self is sinful. There is a change of mind regarding God instead of running from God and hating God. There is a turning to God and loving Him a desiring of God, a repentance. It is a part of saving faith. The faith that does not save is unaccompanied by that kind of repentance. Repentance and faith are like two sides of one coin. Now my point this morning is not the origin of repentance or the origin of faith, but it is rather that genuine faith is accompanied by a change of mind regarding sin, self and God. A faith that does not save thirdly is characterized as without works. You say wait a minute, I thought that the gospel was believe apart from works. That is the gospel my friend. But faith that is not accompanied by works which follow the faith is a faith that is suspect at best. Faith plus works is a false gospel, but faith that works is a result of the true gospel. I believe that we see this in James chapter 2. Now there are those who believe that James is contradicting Paul here, but of course that cannot be. God does not contradict himself. In the second chapter of James in verse 14 it says, "What use isn't my brethren if a man says he has faith, but he has no works." Can that kind of faith save him? That is the heart of James' question. If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself. The faith that saves the soul results in good works in one's life, works that testify and witness to the fact that that faith is genuine and sincere. There is a faith which does not save. Beware of that kind of faith. John Stott from England reported some time ago on a survey which was done. The survey reported that 92% of Presbyterians believe in God. That is rather generous isn't it? The survey also said that 95% of Baptists believe in God. I am not sure where the other 95% are, but you know I can top that. There is a group of beings where 100% of the people believe in God. We find them in verse 19. You believe that God is one, you do well, the demons also believe and shudder. The group that believes in God 100% is the demons, but not a one of them is saved. But they believe. They believe in God the same way that some of you may believe in God. With a faith that does not save. If one is going to serve God acceptably, it must begin with genuine faith. And this morning I bring this word to you not to shake the security of any of you, but as a warning, a warning of the terrible deceit that can give a false sense of security and ultimately leads one to damnation. Because that sense of security is based upon an insincere faith. I think it's worthy to note that Timothy's insincere faith was caught from his grandmother and his mother. He observed it in them and it took hold in his own life. It apparently took hold during the ministry of the Apostle Paul when he came to Lystra, where it does seem that Timothy was one of Paul's converts and thus he calls him a beloved son. But the groundwork was laid in his life by the home in which he was raised. He was of a Greek father who apparently was a pagan. But in his mother and in his grandmother he saw something real. I think that's a real precious privilege that is pointed out to those of us who are parents. We cannot save our children. We cannot force them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we could, I suppose we would force them because we know the importance of it. But we can't force them. We cannot make our children trust the Savior. But what can we do, like Lewis and Eunice, we can live such a life before them that they see what sincere faith is. And the groundwork is at least laid for the Spirit of God then to do a work in their lives to bring them to Jesus Christ. Maybe we'll have the opportunity to pray with them, see them trust the Savior. Maybe it will be the Sunday school teacher or camp counselor or teenage worker. Maybe it's an evangelist in the church. But we have the joy of living before them the kind of faith that's going to stick with them all their lives. I believe that not only is sincere faith critical as the first step of the Christian life, but it is critical for every step of the Christian life. You see, a genuine faith is a principle of life that is vital to acceptable service for God. That's why in Hebrews 10 and verse 38, the writer quotes from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk, where God says, "My righteous ones, my justified ones shall live by faith." And it goes right on then in chapter 11 to point out great examples from the Old Testament of men and women who, having trusted God for salvation, went on to live by faith a sincere faith that gripped them and caused them to make great decisions to take great steps in serving God. Their service was acceptable because it was with sincere faith. Not going back to Timothy. Let's notice a second essential if we're going to serve God acceptably. It is a clear conscience. And we see this in Paul himself as he writes in verse 3, "I thank God whom I serve with a clear conscience." The conscience is the smoke detector of the soul. It sounds a guilt alarm at the presence of disobedience. The conscience bears witness to our spirit, either accusing or approving us in our actions. The New Testament talks about different kinds of conscience. It talks, for example, about a good conscience. In 1 Timothy 1, 5, and again in verse 19, a good conscience is one that functions as God intended for it to function. It does what I've just explained. But the New Testament also talks about a defiled conscience in Titus 1, 15. A defiled conscience is one that is polluted or it's constantly overridden. The conscience, in other words, sounds the alarm and the alarm is turned off and the action proceeds. A defiled conscience is one that is polluted or constantly overridden. And it can lead to a third kind of conscience that the New Testament talks about. And that is a seared conscience, 1 Timothy 4, 2. A seared conscience is one that no longer functions at all. It is hardened by callus that is built up. The continual overriding of the conscience can result in a conscience finally becoming insensitive to sin, so it doesn't function at all. I've heard people say, as you have, my conscience doesn't bother me in this. You know the silence of the conscience does not necessarily mean that everything is okay. That one's conscience is not working, is not necessarily a good sign. Indeed, if it's not working at all, it's a very bad sign because it means the conscience is seared. There are people in our society today who do heinous things, perverted things, inhuman things. And they say it doesn't bother my conscience. That is an awful statement to make because it indicates a seared conscience that is no longer doing its work in their lives. In contrast to that kind of a conscience is a clear conscience. A clear conscience is one that okayes the actions or which signals that the offense that has been made has been properly dealt with can be either. A clear conscience may approve my actions or a clear conscience may result from my having been accused by it and my properly dealing with that guilt so thus it's cleared now. Paul says, "I serve God with a clear conscience. To serve God, my inner voice must be satisfied that I have done what God can approve." A Sunday school teacher was teaching in her class regarding conscience on one occasion and she said to her children, "What is that small voice you always have with you?" A little boy's hand immediately shot up and she said, "Yes." He said, "A transistor radio?" Well, he missed the point in that. That is sometimes though the clearest voice that some people have with them. Only it's not transistorized anymore. It's a boom box. My friend, that inner voice, that's the most important voice. You say, "Well, my conscience perhaps is defiled. Maybe you'd have to say today your conscience has become seared because of persistent overriding of that inner voice." You say, "What can I do about it? Well, God can deal with it by confession, by admittance of your sinfulness, by telling God what you have done, agreeing with him, then by doing whatever is necessary to make restitution, to ask forgiveness of people. Those are important steps to the clearing of the conscience. First, we begin by confessing it to God. But then if there are other people who have been offended, who are involved, the conscience is not clear until we have made a right with them. It may involve going back to someone who owns a store where you worked at one time and making right with them what you did wrong in that store. Or it could be that you'll have to write the IRS, a dear IRS letter, and say, "I owe you some money." You cannot serve God, my friend, unless your conscience is clear. And it will not be clear until sin has been thoroughly and properly dealt with in your life. It begins by confession to God that it must also mean restitution or asking forgiveness of those that you may have offended. You say, "I don't know if I can do that." Then you'll have to suffer with an unclear conscience until you're willing. That's as I serve God with a clear conscience. There's a third essential if we're going to serve God acceptably, and that is found in verse 6 where he tells Timothy to kindle afresh the gift of God. The word gift here is the word charisma and refers to undoubtedly the spiritual abilities which were brought to Timothy by the Holy Spirit. These spiritual gifts are bestowed upon believers for service. It is found in the singular here, the gift of God, because I believe there is a sense in which each of us, while being the recipient of perhaps several gifts in various measures, have that one summary gift from God. The combination of several abilities given by the Spirit, the gift of God, it is the equipment that you and I need to serve God in our tasks in this life. That gift is given that we might employ it in the power of the Holy Spirit in serving the Lord. It is to be dedicated to him. But the danger is this. It is the possibility of becoming careless or cold in our service, and allowing that gift to be underdeveloped or underutilized, what a tragedy that is, for a gift from God to be underdeveloped or underused in our lives when it's given that we might serve him. Timothy was given a gift. It was given to him when hands were laid on him, which was specifically done in apostolic days. The laying on of Paul's hands brought to him the Holy Spirit and the gift, and yet Timothy apparently had, in some measure, failed to utilize that gift. And so Paul says to him, "Kendel it a fresh that is fanned into flames, stir up the smoldering embers." Timothy, in the ancient world they did not have matches to start fires. A fire was kept over from one day to the next by glowing coals. It was necessary when a flame or heat was desired to kindle those coals, to fan them into flames once more that it was Timothy's condition. It may not have been a reprimand, just an exhortation, but it does seem that Timothy lacked something here in terms of zeal. I believe that if we are going to serve God acceptably, it must be with a fervent zeal for the Lord. Every one of you that is saved today has a gift from God to serve him. But what is your zeal like? Your zeal is the motivation of that gift. Your zeal is the fire within your bosom that impels you to serve the Lord that zeal needs to be fervent. General William Booth said, "The tendency of fire is to go out. Watch the fire on the altar of your heart." Wesley said, "If I had three hundred men who feared nothing but God hated nothing but sin, and were determined to know nothing among men but Jesus Christ and Him crucified, I would set the world on fire." One heathen said to a missionary, he was a convert by this time, he said to the missionary, "Send us men with hot hearts." We love it if we are going to serve God, it must be with a zeal at his hot. What is your zeal level today? What is the temperature down in your heart? Are you serving God or with a zeal that is fervent or you today like Timothy need to fan in the flame? That zeal, it's cooled, it's smoldering there and needs to be hot. If we would serve God in a manner acceptable to Him, our service must be characterized by zealous willingness and service. It must be characterized by a conscience that is clear so that we have properly handled the offenses and we are not serving God with a nagging guilt. Then our service must be characterized by a genuine faith in God. We are willing to be involved in something that is God-sized and for which we can't take credit alone. God must get the glory. Are you serving God today acceptably? Is your faith genuine or is your faith the kind of faith that will not save your soul? Let's bow together in prayer. Gracious Father in heaven you know our hearts and you know exactly what you want to say to us about our hearts condition. It's easy for us to blot out the voice of the Holy Spirit. Forgive us. Lord, tune our hearing that we may hear that inner voice of God's Spirit and they respond to you as we need to, that we might serve you acceptably in Jesus' name amen. .