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Preacher Take Heed to Thyself By Al Martin

Evangelical Tapes has pleasure in presenting this address entitled "Take Heed to Thyself" which was given by Pastor Al Martin at the Banner of Truth Christian Ministers Conference in 1985 at the Merroo Conference Center in the western districts of Sydney please direct all of your inquiries to Evangelical Tapes 140 Warner's Bay Road Mount Hutton New South Wales Australia post code 2290 phone 049 489 742.

Now may I encourage you to turn with me please to first timothy or one timothy chapter 4 and follow as i read beginning with verse 12 and may i suggest that the brethren who know how to operate the speaker system give me a little less mic i think i'm that's just a little bit too much voice coming across all right first timothy chapter 4 and verse 12 paul writing to his son in the faith and companion in labor writes as follows let no man despise thy youth but be thou an example to them that believe in word in manner of life in love in faith in purity till i come give heed to reading to exhortation to teaching neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery be diligent in these things give thyself wholly to them that thy progress may be manifest unto all take heed to thyself and to thy teaching continue in these things for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee as we come to the general subject of devotion to god in life and ministry i know of no single text in all of scripture addressed specifically to a servant of christ involved in the work of the ministry that more succinctly and yet more comprehensively
involved in embodies what it is to pursue devotion to god in life and ministry
than does first timothy 4 and verse 16 before we begin to unpack that text and what it says
to timothy and by way of application to us let me just sketch in briefly the general thrust and
content of the entire epistle to timothy most if not all of you i am sure are familiar with the
general purpose and contents of the epistle so for most of you this will simply be a brief
review paul is very clear in chapter one in verse three in telling us why it is that he left timothy
behind in ephesus as i exhorted you to tarry at ephesus when i was going into macedonia that you
might charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine so one of the major purposes for which
paul left timothy behind in ephesus while he himself went on to macedonia
was that timothy might be god's instrument for the maintenance of doctrinal integrity and purity
in the church at ephesus furthermore according to chapter three and verses 14 and 15 paul
anticipating that though he desires to return soon to ephesus recognizes that he might not be able to
return and just a little aside even the apostle paul did not always have direct revelation and
certain guidance he talks about hoping to come shortly but if i carry long in other words he
had no clear revelation he was left to the sanctified desires of his own heart and the
general principles of guidance and he says if i am not able soon to return i have written to you
that men might know how they ought to behave themselves in the house of god
and so from chapter two and verse one through to the end of chapter three he addresses the subject
of behavior in the church of god particularly paul is concerned that the church maintain a
god-centered kingdom-centered salvation-centered focus in its public prayers i exhort first of all
that supplications prayers intercession thanksgiving be made for all men and it's
interesting that when he descends to particulars that prayer for all men is not that uncle harry
or cousin annie twice removed might have her ingrown toenail healed
prayer meetings that are taken up 90 of the time with everyone's aches and pains are out of the
orbit of the emphasis of the word of god he says prayers are to be made but prayers that take in
the sweeping concerns of the kingdom of god and the advancement of the kingdom of grace
prayer prayers that are expansive and large in their vision kings and those in authority in the
light of god's saving purpose and then he's concerned not only about behavior with respect
to the overarching focus of the worship and prayer of the church being kingdom-centered and
christ-centered and salvation-centered but he's concerned in verses eight to the end of chapter
two that men and women in the church have a clear understanding of and on question commitment to
their god-assigned roles i desire therefore that the men definite article and the specific word
used for adult males not anthropoth man or mankind generically but we have on air we have
the use of that word which everywhere refers to adult males i desire therefore that the adult
males pray in every place lifting up holy hands without wrath and disputing and then he gives a
description of the role and bearing and demeanor of women within the church and with reference to
their general place in the purpose of god then he moves on in chapter three to deal with church
behavior as it pertains to the increased blessing of additional elders and deacons in the church at
ephesus we know from acts 20 that the church already had elders and yet paul is desirous
that timothy would be instrumental in securing an expansion of the godly leadership in the church
so these are some of the great and sweeping concerns that are in the heart of the apostle
himself but because he is not able to remain at ephesus he sends timothy as his apostolic
representative to carry out the burden of his own heart with reference to the church
and if we learn nothing else from this we should learn that a deep concern for the details of
church life is not a doctrinaire issue it is an apostolic perspective it is not enough that the
church be in existence in the mind of the apostle it is not even enough that the church be a thriving
church with some measure of order he is passionately concerned that behavior in the church
reflect commitment to and conformity to the norms of god at every level and then throughout the
rest of the epistle he picks up various strands of these same concerns he returns to the concern
of doctrinal purity in the opening part of chapter four then in chapter five he deals with the
practical concern of the care of widows he deals in chapter 5 17 and following with additional
perspectives relative to the ministry of elders particularly their support and then in chapter
six he deals with specific practical directives for godliness as it pertains to servants and
masters and then he gives various warnings to various groups within the church who are
particularly vulnerable to satanic attack now when timothy received this letter and sat down
and worked his way through the parchment with this question in mind what is the will of god for me
as that will comes in the particulars of the letter received from the apostle paul
surely if he read it with any comprehension he would have come to the last words grace be with
you and said oh god thou knowest that's precisely what i'm going to need if i am going to have to
have an eye that is continually looking for the encroachment of doctrinal errors and the courage
to go out and meet it head on and stop the mouths of gains there if i'm to have the fortitude to
stand up against men's native self-centeredness who would turn the church's worship and prayer
life inward upon itself and if i'm going to have the spiritual guts to say no in this place and in
these churches the worship the prayers the concerns will be large kingdom-centered salvation
centered concerns and when he went on to say to himself and i am determined that men shall take
their proper place of leadership that women will not be allowed to intrude upon areas that do not
belong to them well as you go through the epistle and just put yourself in timothy's place you would
come to the end and cry out who is sufficient for these things add to that the fact that
temperamentally he seemed to be somewhat timid and retiring we know that he was generally a sickly man
he had the disadvantage of his relative youth i tell you this poor fella had a tremendous task
and he didn't exactly bring the best tools to it and yet the task was his but added to all of these
responsibilities and in a sense towering above them as to importance are the charges which paul
brings to timothy himself and intermittently throughout the letter paul breaks off telling
timothy what he is to do ministerially and charges him with reference to personal responsibilities
look at a couple of specimen passages 118 this charge i commit unto you my child timothy
this charge i commit unto you my child timothy here is something for you timothy to be concerned
about with reference to your own life chapter six in verse 11 but thou old man of god flee
these things and follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness fight
fight the good fight of faith chapter six verse 20 oh timothy guard that which is committed
unto you turning away from the profane babblings etc but now among these personal charges
none is more crucial than the one read in your hearing that is nestled a little bit toward the
end of the middle of the epistle not quite in the middle but nestled amidst all of these
ministerial duties and these occasional personal charges is this charge directed to timothy himself
beginning with verse 12 let no man despise thy youth and concluding with verse 16
take heed to yourself and to the teaching and i would suggest brethren that if you want a text
that can be a profitable basis of repeated meditation self-examination reorientation
to fundamental ministerial duty as it touches devotion to god in life and ministry
you will find no better text in all of the word of god than the text that is before us so if the
preaching on the text isn't all it should be you've got the best text to take home with you
now as we come to the text notice with me first of all the two-pronged imperative with which it
begins the two-pronged imperative take heed to yourself and to thy teaching then we shall
consider together the prod to perseverance in this course continue in these things and then finally
we shall consider together the word of encouragement with respect to this duty
first of all then the two-pronged imperative the heart of timothy's duty is bound up in a present
imperative of a word which means literally to keep a close watch on to pay concentrated attention to
someone or some thing we have a use of it by luke in the gospel of acts that helps us to get a feel
for what paul meant when he said to timothy take heed or pay close attention to yourself
and to the teaching in acts chapter 3 the story i'm sure is familiar to all of us
peter and john are on their way to the temple at the hour of prayer and there a man lame from
his mother's womb was carried as he was day by day to the door of the temple to wait upon people
and to ask for alms peter and john are passing by and as they do verse 4 peter fastening his eyes
upon him with john said look on us well if you're a beggar dependent upon the gifts of others and
two men come by and say look on us you're going to turn with an attentiveness with an expectation
that they are going to give you something that will answer to your need verse five
here's our verb and he gave heed unto them and he turned his concentrated attention
to them up until that point as he held out his cup and the multitude swirled around passing to the
left and to the right peter and john were just two more men in the milling multitude but once
they said look on us suddenly as with a camera when you open up to the largest opening and all
of the background is blurry and fuzzy your depth of field is short suddenly only two men mattered
the two men who fasten their eyes upon him and who say look upon us and the text says that he
gave heed to them he concentrated his attention the gaze of his eyes and the expectation of his
heart was all now focused upon them now that's the verb the imperative by which paul addresses timothy
is this timothy be continually paying close concentrated attention
and now here are the two prongs of that imperative to yourself and to the teaching timothy
you are to be engaged in a lifetime spiritual exercise of close concentrated attention
to two realities the first one is this take heed pay close attention to yourself this is the
imperative of continual attention to himself now we might say anyone receiving an epistle like this
with all of these duties laid upon him how in the name of common sense is he going to have any time
to spend any mental or spiritual energy paying attention to himself and yet the word of god to
timothy is amidst all of these responsibilities timothy and in a sense supreme above all of them
is this responsibility the imperative of attention to yourself now what did that mean well surely it
was not a call to a carnal narcissism in which timothy was to sit around and simply pick over
his own heart or stare at his own spiritual navel nothing is more destructive of spiritual life
than that morbid preoccupation with oneself and yet the text does say timothy pay close
concentrated attention to yourself well if it does not mean that he is to involve in a perpetual
exercise of self-destructive carnal narcissism what does it mean well from the context we learn
that it means at least four things and we'll see them all right in the epistle itself number one
he's to pay close attention to himself in one maintaining a tender blood-washed conscience
at all times maintaining a tender blood-washed conscience at all times turn to chapter one
having spoken of men who have come and taught a different doctrine having charged timothy to war
a good warfare chapter one in verse 18 he now tells him the way in which alone he can war a good
warfare this charge i commit unto you my child timothy according to the prophecies which led the
way to you that by them you may war the good warfare holding faith and a good conscience
which now that pronoun which in number and gender refers only to conscience
not which things but which thing that is a good conscience some having thrust from them
made shipwreck concerning the faith of whom is hymenaeus and alexander whom i delivered unto
satan that they might be taught not to blaspheme what a sober charge and no doubt timothy was aware
of hymenaeus and alexander and paul mentions their names in order to drive home the exhortation
timothy or a good warfare come to the end of your days a conqueror in christ and if you're to do this
you can only do it as you hold faith either faith subjective that is the attitude of trustful
reliance upon god and his promises or faith as the objective revelation of god's mind
often referred to as the faith and that's a moot exegetical point and i won't stop to try to sort
it out but he says holding faith and a good conscience which thing a good conscience some
having put away from themselves having distance from themselves have made shipwreck concerning
the faith and timothy this is no hollow warning this is no mirage no boogeyman with which to scare
you we're talking about real issues that involves real people who once held to the faith and seemed
to walk in the face but who now have been delivered unto satan because they've become
blasphemers and how did they make their first step into such a course which ultimately found
their profession under the imagery of the passage like a ship that ran upon rocky shoals and has been
dashed to pieces how did they make their first step when they gave up a good conscience conscience
that moral monitor within the soul that looks to the law of god and in the light of every action
every word every motive speaks with a very very limited vocabulary
right raw and stubborn little critter we spend a lifetime trying to teach him a third word in his
vocabulary and he will not learn it we try to teach him the word neither and you say to conscience
vocabulary is very limited every time i'm conscious of reflecting upon the moral
quality of a thought a word a deed an attitude an action you either say right or you say wrong
now everything's not so black and white now conscience look me in the face
like i used to have to do with one of my daughters here her eyes were always off in the ends of the
earth and when i wanted to get a message through to her i'd cup her face in my hand and i'd say to
her now dear look daddy right in the eye and she would look up with her big brown eyes
and then i tried to get my message will you do that with conscience you take him by the
cheeks and you look and sit now conscience look you've been saying for as long as i can remember
your companionship right wrong now look you say this word neither can you say that conscience
neither and conscience looks up and goes right raw stubborn stubborn that moral monitor
present in all men saved or unsaved but cleansed and quickened in the mystery and glory of god's
regenerative grace that moral monitor paul says to timothy must be kept good that is healthy we
must not seek to stifle his voice and when he says wrong we must not seek to argue with him debate
with him but let his indictment of wrong always be a finger pointing us to the fountain open for
sin and uncleanness and go afresh to the lord jesus to have our consciences purged in the blood
of christ to have them purge the fresh as they were initially purged the great message of the
book of hebrews the worshiper could not have his conscience purged there was continual remembrance
sin but he says now through the blood of christ our consciences are purged from dead works timothy
you pay constant attention to yourself first of all that you maintain a tender blood-washed
conscience at all times because the first step to apostasy is thrusting away just a half an inch
and then it's a little easier to thrust it away for an inch and then a yard and then a half a mile
until a good conscience is utterly given up and when we hear the stories of men who once preached
with unusual anointing men and women who once apparently walked with god who have utterly
abandoned the christian faith where did it all start it started when they put just a millimeter
away a good conscience it's just a thought no one knows it it's just an attitude no one sees it
i can tolerate the luxury of that occasional indulgence of fantasy to that woman in the church
to whom i am particularly drawn by the chemistry of hormones and and overarching bearing oh i have
no intention of being unfaithful to my wife i have no intention of bedding up in a motel
with that woman three weeks from now it's just a little indulgence of mental fantasy
and conscience indicts wrong who so lookest to lust thou shalt not
covet thy neighbor's wife and conscience speaks and thunders and what have you done
just put your hand over his mouth and said be still
instead of letting his voice lead you to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness
i would be very surprised if there's not at least a man in this place this morning
to whom this is a very pointed word he may be even be sitting there and saying who told about me
it's sitting in front of the telly everyone else has gone to bed
something comes over that is sorted and salacious and lecturous in its whole bearing
and conscience smites and says no that's contrary to your walk as a christian and as a minister
there is a time when you vowed with david i will set no vain thing before my eyes and conscience
said wrong and you said the conscience be quiet i'm mature and certainly if i'm going to be in
touch with the things that influence my generation i've got to look enough to be able to expose the
sin as though with remaining corruption you could sit on the outside of what passed before your eyes
with bland detached moral indifference no you didn't you entered in vicariously you felt in
your own physiology sexual stimulation by what you watched didn't you and instead of getting up and
turning off the telly and falling upon your face and saying oh god i'm a dirty man i'm a filthy
lesser at heart cleanse me in the blood of your son he said well no one knew you put a good
conscience my friend that's the first step to apostasy according to this passage that's the
first step to apostasy remember john owen's unanswerable victim indwelling sin in its first
proposals along with temptation though modest always aims at its ultimate in kind
you remember in volume six every thought of anger if it could have its way would be murder
every thought of lust would be adultery every thought of covetousness would break out in
thievery though its first proposals are modest its end is never modest
oh my brothers i cleave with you as paul enjoined timothy pay close attention to yourself
there is the imperative of a continual attention to yourself first of all in the maintaining of
a tender blood-washed conscience but secondly this involves the maintaining of the disciplines
essential to spiritual growth and vigor the maintaining of the disciplines essential to
spiritual growth and vigor and where do we find this in the epistle chapter 4 and verse 7
refuse profane and old wives fables and exercise thyself unto godliness the verb here
transliterated is the verb from which we get our english word gymnasium
and again another present imperative be continually exercising yourself unto godliness
unto godliness timothy you've seen men who are in training for the games and you have seen them
as they concentrate all of their faculties upon gaining optimum proficiency in whatever
particular sport or discipline is their field of choice now timothy you've got to do the same
thing with respect to spiritual growth and vigor you will not maintain spiritual growth and vigor
automatically or simply resting on your oars what is true physically is true spiritually muscles
left to themselves atrophy first of all there's the loss of muscle tone any of us who've had an
arm or a leg in plaster for a time we have seen a graphic illustration of this there is no ability
to use the muscle that is in the cast and first of all there's the loss of muscle tone and then
there's an actual loss in the thighs and what a horrible sight it is the first time the cast is
taken off and you stand in front of a mirror and see the shriveled calf or the shriveled arm and
the only way to bring it back to its previous strength and vigor and tone is to engage in
conscious concentrated physical discipline now that's the vigor that is in the language of paul
timothy would you increase in godliness would you have a vigorous healthy tone of
practical godliness then timothy it won't come automatically you must constantly and deliberately
engage in the spiritual disciplines essential to attain that goal exercise yourself under godliness
and what are the disciplines essential to spiritual growth and vigor
they are exactly for us what they are for our people
god has no special exercise class for his servants you do not grow by feeding others
you grow by feeding your own soul upon god and his word and communion with his son
though i am fully conscious that our own spiritual life is strengthened in the very act of ministerial
duty when those acts are performed in the spirit it is not likely that we will know the strengthening
enlivening ministry of the spirit in our service if we have patterns of neglecting the ordinary
means of grace in the secret place i'm talking brethren about systematic prayerful reflective
reading of the bible with no conscious thought of my office as a minister
with no conscious thought of preparation for others coming to the word of god consciously
for one purpose there to meet my god in his word there to have his mind revealed to me
the blessed face of his son reflected to me there to have my own sins exposed there to be led
afresh to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness the prophet could say thy words were found
and i did exegete them and thy words were unto me the sum and substance of my official ministerial
duties that isn't what jeremiah said he said in jeremiah 23 thy words were found and i did what
i did eat and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart and i'm convinced
that the only spring of a perennially fresh pulpit ministry is the closet of the minister
where the word of god is sweetness to his own soul we cannot week in week out month in month
out year in year out be fresh unless our roots like the roots of a tree that search out water
the roots of the inner life search out the water of the word of god in which we meditate
day and night i'm talking about secret prayer brethren prayer in which our primary purpose
in drawing nigh to god is not interceding for our people not interceding for the other concerns laid
upon us ministerially but drawing near to see the light of his countenance drawing near in the
language of the psalmist because as the heart pants after the water brooks our souls pant after
god we long to know him and experience that mystic but real communion that in a peculiar way is
mediated at the throne of grace now there's a cursed cursed idea floating around in reformed
circles today that it's pietistic to talk about a special presence of god
in the disciplines of secret prayer and secret bible reading these so-called reformed brethren
have become so pious and so spiritual that they say in every duty done according to the word of
god in the name of god is an act of worship and god's presence can be known as much there as
anywhere is that right well then explain to me the draw near language of the book of heapers
let us draw near to the throne of grace having a great high priest over the house of god and having
our bodies washed with pure water let us draw near draw near to god and he will draw near to
you don't be deceived by that sophistry i've never yet met a man who dares to speak it who has
anything of a contagious fragrance of christ about it no i take the advice of the mccains
and the bonars and the edwards and the spurgeons the men whose lives exuded the fragrance of jesus
over the long haul and on many things they differed but on this they were agreed
it is in the drawing near that there is the strengthening of the inner man in the drawing
near there is the resensitizing of conscience as the psalmist says thou has set our sins before
thee our secret sins in the light of thy countenance it's amazing how imperceptibly
the conscience can become dull in the ordinary affairs of life but when we draw near and we have
lift up the light of his countenance upon us we see no longer with 2050 vision but 2010 vision
timothy oh timothy my son timothy i've laid many tasks upon you but timothy here's your great task
pay close attention to yourself timothy and by that i mean maintain a tender blood-washed
conscience at any cost secondly maintain the disciplines essential to spiritual growth and
vigor exercise yourself unto godliness thirdly timothy maintain and increase
in vigorous balanced exemplary piety maintain and increase in vigorous balanced exemplary piety
isn't that what he told him in verse 12 let no man despise your youth timothy
anyone who's prepared to whisper to his fellow church member ah you know timothy's still wet
behind the ears is the term we have in the states he's still not quite with it he said let no man
despise thy youth how are you going to overcome the natural liabilities of your youth people who
would try to take away some of the weight of your instruction simply because it comes from a man
younger than themselves timothy how are you overcome this by assuming a pompous ministerial
air beyond your years that's the way some try to do it few things are more ludicrous than a
27 year old man trying to talk like he were 60 because he feels somehow he's got to carry the day
by the impression of authority beyond his years no paul says this is how you make up for the lack of
years let no man despise your youth but be an example to them that believe in word in manner of
life in love in faith in purity timothy by the maintenance and the increase of a vigorous
balanced exemplary piety you will neutralize the liabilities of your youth he says essentially the
same thing in chapter 6 in verse 11 but thou o man of god flee these things and in the context
that these things are the love of money flee these things and then you have that vigorous
word follow after standard new testament word for persecute dioco track down with a view to
apprehending timothy persecute follow after track down with earnestness with a view to apprehending
and retaining in custody follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness
you see how god blends these things just by way of an aside then he says fight the good fight faith
this idea you see that men of conviction men with right angles men who know how to rear back on
their hind legs and roar a thundering no to the devil to ecclesiastical structures that would force
compromise to the pressure of society the notion that such men will not be gentle and meek
that's not found in scripture he's enjoining him to pursue these dimensions of practical
demonstrable godliness righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness and timothy that
will make a wimp out of you it'll make a fighter out of you who cannot be explained people will
know that the fighting spirit is not a native carnal pugnaciousness for they will see you on
the one hand clothed with love and gentleness and meekness while at the same time a warrior in the
name of christ who will not give quarter to any enemy of christ oh that god would give us a
generation of such men they don't need to be clever men they don't need to be men of great
expansive minds god has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty and the things
which are not to bring to naught the things that are he takes the foolish the weak the things that
are of no account fox called them god's five ranked army of descending human weakness
with which he will conquer the world do you feel limited in native ability you say i find that when
i draw near to the massive mind of an owen and when i draw near to the sharp and theologically
precise and exegetically astute mind of a john murray i feel like a pygmy will join the rest of
us join us welcome and then go to first corinthians one and say lord here's a bunch of pygmies who
want to sign up that's right you've chosen weak you've chosen foolish you've chosen things that
are not the things that are despised but what is desperately needed men who like timothy whatever
they may lack in age whatever they may lack in terms of impressiveness and expansiveness of
mental quickness and power they have vigorous balanced exemplary piety that is the constant
validation of their message that's why he says in chapter six and verse three if any man teaches a
different doctrine and consents not the sound words even to the words of the lord jesus and
of the doctrine which is according to godliness timothy why must you constantly pay attention to
yourself well for the simple reason that you traffic in the doctrine and the doctrine accords
with godliness and if you who traffic in it are not the living embodiment of the power of truth
to make a man grow in godliness why should the people believe that there's any truth in what you
say by and large brethren the low level of piety in many places not always by and large over the
long haul it is a reflection of the low level of practical balanced exemplary piety in the pulpit
but then there's a fourth strand of what it means to pay attention to himself and this will be the
last one i'll take and now my exercise about lord what shall i do tonight is over i'll preach the
last half of the sermon god willing it's happened two days in a row you men have been so attentive
to the word that one finds he's not able to just get through what he had on paper but it means this
and this may seem like we're dropping right smack out of the clouds down onto a dung hill but it's
here in the passage so i'm going to say it timothy pay attention to yourself in the maintenance of
optimum physical health pay attention to yourself in the maintenance of optimum physical health
and where in the world do we find that chapter five verse 22 lay hands hastily on no man
neither be a partaker of other men's sins keep yourself pure now he gives him a command
for some reason whether out of a scrupulous conscience whether out of concern for weaker
brethren timothy was an avowed teetotaler now paul says give up your teetotaler practice be
no longer a drinker of water that is an exclusive water drinker but use a little wine for your
stomach's sake and your oft infirmities now what's the great principle well the principle is not that
every minister should go out and start having a glass of wine every night before he goes to bed
so that he might obey the injunction of the apostle the principle is this and this is what's
beautiful about the passage if you look at the preceding context he's dealing with the weighty
matters of the scriptural basis of supporting the elders proving it from old testament scripture and
what had already been regarded as new testament scripture the words of our lord the labor is
worthy of his hire and then he's telling him in this matter so vital timothy don't let every
single person who's got a gripe with an elder come to you and say oh timothy you know what
elders are he said wait a minute you tell him look bring two or three witnesses right i want to hear
you if you can't establish your accusation about one of the elders with two or three witnesses
i don't want to hear you he's dealing with this vital matter of how to squelch and put down
unnecessary gossip about the servants of christ in the church then he goes on to say them that sin
reprove in the sight of all that the rest may be in fear that awful responsibility of direct
confrontation of fellow spiritual leaders oh brethren i know a few things that give me a
quicker case of temporary colitis and i don't mean that to be irreverent i'm telling you the truth i
had an instant recently where on scriptural grounds i had to go to a fellow leader and as i prayed
over that matter for half a day i had a case of temporary colitis my stomach churned and my whole
digestive tract and all that goes with it was thrown out of whack terribly difficult thing
then he charges him brings him right up to the throne of judgment verse 21 i charge thee in the
sight of god and of christ jesus and even the elect angels that thou observe these things without
prejudice doing nothing by partiality i mean he's really laying it on timothy if ever the poor young
man shook in his boots he was shaking then don't be hasty to lay hands on any man don't partake of
other sins and now he says oh by the way timothy in the midst of all this remember you're not a
disembodied spirit you do not serve god as angels do you serve him as a man and in the providence
of god whether genetically or whether because of early childhood sicknesses timothy you have
a tendency to be sickly and weak and timothy in carrying out all of my orders don't forget you're
a man in the flesh and take every legitimate means possible to secure optimum physical strength for
your manifold that's the principle that is embedded in that text you see it and brethren
that's a duty god thought enough of your body to purchase it with the blood of his son you were
bought with a price glorify god therefore in your body which is his now i know again we live in the
day of what must be called the idolatry of physical fitness poor men and women in the world
swing from one extreme to another and from a lifestyle in which people fought nirvana was
sitting by the backyard pool with the feet propped up sucking down cigarettes and beer
they've now come to know a little better they know that's the best way to an early cardiac arrest
and so instead of sitting by the pool with the feet propped up sucking in tobacco and sipping
beer they're doing laps in the pool wonderful good we're all for that but it's gone to the extreme as
you know to where there is a horrible body worship as there was in the days the decadent days
of Greece and of Rome but brethren don't let that deter you from a balanced biblical obedience to
this injunction may i say it very frankly and very bluntly a man who must lay 30 pounds of
blubber on the pulpit in order to find a little more room than for his bible he wrote his
credibility when he calls men to a life of self-control and self-denial and discipline
the man who is continually haggard and continually gives the appearance that god must be a horribly
cruel taskmaster that his servant is always going around like this is no commendation of the gospel
now again i am not saying that we ought to be such in our bearing that the local health club
wants to hire us to be a model i'm not saying that but what i'm saying brethren is this
real prayer takes all of the physical and mental energy of your humanity that you can bring to it
preaching whether you're volatile and animated or more quiet and reserved if it's preaching that
comes from your heart makes a tremendous strain upon your whole redeemed humanity
and therefore you need to pay attention to yourself and part of yourself is this body
you're not a disembodied spirit and over the years i've had preachers now it goes into the dozens
call me and spill out their tale of woe that prayer is dead and the bible has lost its life
and the ministry has become dull and they say can you help me i said well i'll help you if you'll
listen to me even though what i say is going to sound terribly unspiritual and most of the time
you know what the problem is they have no regular exercise they have no discipline over their eating
habits and i give them a little regimen of practical advice and i say now if you're not
materially better in three months call me back and then we'll go rooting around for some deeper
problem i've never yet had the second call and years later i've had many of them come and say
oh brother martin thank you the best thing that ever happened to me was beginning to walk two
miles a day beginning and run 10 miles a week doing pushaways not push-ups pushaways you know
pushaways from the table pushaways wonderful exercise
and people want to push more food push away no thank you and scriptural take heed to yourself
timothy you see timothy had no more right to disregard verse 22 than than he did to
regard disregard chapter 4 and verse 7 and neither do you nor do i brethren we don't hope to cheat
death at best we'll all have our three score in ten if god is merciful and perhaps our bonus ten
but i hope we want to have the most vigor and strength for that allotted time that we can
possibly have take heed to yourself brethren that's your lifetime task that's a present
imperative be continually paying concentrated attention to yourself in what ways in the
maintaining of a tender blood-washed conscience in maintaining the disciplines essential to
spiritual growth and vigor in maintaining an increasing balanced exemplary piety
and in the maintaining of optimum physical health i say in closing brethren there is no greater task
for the minister there is no more difficult a task and alas there is no more neglected task
than taking heed to oneself i had naive notions back in my late teens when i first began to preach
that when i got to the ripe age of 30 it'd be a bit easier to keep a good conscience
and at age 30 i had the naive notion that maybe when i became 40 and was could be called the
middle-aged man it would get a little easier and when i passed the half century i gave up all
notions that it's ever going to get any easier and i said lord if for 32 years the battleground
of all battlegrounds is here i believe that's where it's going to be till i go to my grave
i'm not much for reading poems
but dr francis steel and i were talking the day before yesterday and he passed on a poem written
by a contemporary that embodies so much of what has been the cry of my heart may i beg your
indulgence for three minutes to read it in closing we got a little late start being so i'm going to
cheat a little on the time it's called let me get home before dark it's sundown lord the shadows of
my life stretched back into the dimness of the years long spent i fear not death for that grim
foe betrays himself at last thrusting me forever into life life with you unsoiled
and free but i do fear i fear the dark specter may come too soon or do i mean too late that i
should end before i finish or finish but not well that i should stain your honor shame your name
grieve your loving heart few they tell me finish well lord let me get home before the dark
the darkness of a spirit grown mean and small fruit shriveled on the vine bitter to the taste
of my companions burdened to be borne by those brave few who love me still no lord let the fruit
grow lush and sweet a joy to all who taste spirit sign of god at work stronger fuller brighter at
the end lord let me get home before dark the darkness of tattered gifts rust locked half
spent or ill spent a life that once was used of god now set aside grief for glories gone or
fretting for a task god never gave morning in the hollow chambers of memory
gazing on the faded banners of victories long gone cannot i run well unto the end
lord get me home before the dark the outer me decays i do not fret or ask reprieve
the ebbing strength but weans me from mother earth and grows me up for heaven i do not cling
to shadows cast by immortality i do not patch the scaffold tent to build the real eternal me
i do not clutch about me my cocoon vainly struggling to hold hostage a free spirit
pressing to be born but will i reach the gate in lingering pain body distorted grotesque
or will it be a mind wandering untethered among light fantasies or grim terrors
of your grace father i humbly ask let me get home before dark
and i'm convinced those who do have taken heed to themselves
throughout their earthly power may god make us of that number