Exemplary Christian leadership

I Timothy 4:11-13 Command and teach these things. Dont let anyone look
down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in
speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. Until I come, devote yourselves to
the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.
All of us in this congregation believe that chief vocation of the minister is to
preach all the word of God in a holy, vigorous and loving manner to all the
church. That is not a common conviction for most professing churches. The
vast sacramentalist denominations, the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox
churches, certainly do not believe that their church officials are first and
foremost to bring the word of God to them Sunday after Sunday. Our priests
celebrate the mass, they say. The influence of the enlightenment has also
affected many Protestant churches so that their leaders are most concerned
about organising and motivating people to serve their fellow men, the
homeless in this country and victims all the world over. But though the Lords
Supper and the ministry of mercy both have a place in our faith we have been
influenced by the Scriptures to believe that our preachers are to do first what
the apostle tells Timothy here (v.11), Command and teach these things. The
apostle uses the phrase these things eight times in this letter alone. He is
referring to everything Timothy has been learning from him. Command and
teach these things, as your priority. You see how significant it is because he
repeats this two verses later, devote yourself to preaching and to teaching
(v.13).
The whole emphasis is upon the Bible. He even tells Timothy not to neglect the
public reading of Scripture: devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture
(v.13). There might have been many in a congregation who were illiterate, and
so when the congregation assembled Timothy was to read the Old Testament to
them, and then as the apostles letters and gospels were written and circulated
these were also read clearly and distinctly. The congregation charged their
memories to retain what they heard. All the duties Paul draws to Timothys
attentions centre upon the Bible.
How wise of the Holy Spirit to insist on this, and we experience the benefits,
dont we? I once was speaking with a lady doctor who had a very responsible
position in the Health Service, and I asked her how best could she be helped in
her daily work by a ministers sermons. By preaching the gospel to me week
after week, she replied immediately. She did not mean by that, Give me a
simple 3-point alliterative sermon on the blood of Christ every Sunday. She
was referring to the Biblical message of Gods grace which, constantly brought
to her, would be her balm and benison in all the pressures of her daily work.
She could survive in her life by the word of God coming to her every Lords Day.
Command and teach, Paul says. In other word Instruct with authority as you
teach. The world doesnt appreciate that kind of Christianity. Look at the
Radio Times and see what it was presenting this morning on its God-slot. It
was a programme called Jesus 2000 and we are given this information about
it, Pupils at Lampton comprehensive school in Hounslow, west London, share
their views on Jesus. That is the world exactly. You take a microphone and
camera to a school and ask teenagers what are their ideas of the Lord Jesus

Christ, the Son of God. But Paul tells Timothy, Command and teach these
things.
But the responsibility of applying the word of God to a congregation has also
fallen out of favour within the church. One of the most famous theologians of
the last century was a modernist named Karl Barth. For him it was enough for
the preacher to explain the passage of Scripture and then, he said, God would
do the rest. His actual words were, Expound the Book and nothing else. But
Paul tells Timothy to command as he expounds, that is, to charge the
consciences of his hearers to obey the Bible. As John Trapp said, Teach the
tractable, command the obstinate, lay Gods charge upon all. There is an
encounter in a true sermon between God who is the author of his word, and
those who are hearing it. In this encounter the purpose is that sinners change.
John Flavel said that real preaching is hissing hot, searching and expository. It
is to bring the most serious indictment upon any minister when he is judged to
be a pastor and not a preacher. Such a man should not be in the ministry. John
Foxe condemned preachers who were nothing more than droning bees. Maybe
some of you are going off to sleep because the air in this building is the same
as last week. But nobody should go to sleep in a sermon because the sermon is
the same as last week, and the week before.
Preaching is boring when it lacks this note of command. My sister-in-law says
she likes sermons which make her realise she has duties to perform and truths
to believe. Of course she is absolutely right. She is talking about the pleasure
of having the apostolic word applied to our lives. Richard Baxter lamented, It
would grieve me what excellent doctrines some ministers have in hand, and let
it die in their hands for want of close and lively application. Command the
flock, Timothy, says Paul. In other words, Bring your teaching home to them.
A sermon is not merely to be preached until the preacher is done, but until the
sermon is being done by the hearers. The best hearers of the word are the
doers. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and in the services it is the
preacher who wields that sword. He is not a sword juggler. He is to thrust Gods
sword into mens hearts and lives.
It is not enough to teach a Christian his duties. They must be spelled out.
Command does not mean shout at them. After you have been shouted at for
twenty minutes you want to shout right back at the preacher. Command
means persuade the people what they ought to do, and also help them know
how they can do it. Derek Thomas has written, In order for Neil Armstrong to
make his giant step for mankind on the moon, there first had to be a series of
baby steps. Every giant step is made up of prior little steps. So it is with direct
and homely preaching. It is cruel simply to command duties. We must preach
little baby steps that help people to do their duty toward God and man. This
kind of practical help is what people are crying out for.
Now this does not mean that when a preacher has commanded and taught
most simply and faithfully he is guaranteed success. It is assumed by the
apostle here as everywhere in his writings, though it be not stated, that if
Timothy became a genius at commanding and teaching all his labours would be
barren without the work of the Holy Spirit. The Puritan Stephen Charnock turns
to a group of preachers and says to them, Have you never discoursed with
some profane loose fellow so pressingly that he seemed to be shaken out of his

excuses for his sinful course, yet he was not shaken out of his sin? You might as
soon have persuaded the tide at full sea to retreat, or a lion to change his
nature as have overcome him by your arguments. So it is not our commanding
and teaching that will change men but the mighty pleadings and powerful
operations of that great Paraclete or Advocate, the Spirit, to alter the temple of
the soul. That is Charnocks belief which he got from the apostle Paul who
knew and taught the indispensable and sovereign work of the Regenerator. But,
again, as we all know, the Spirit of God uses means, and one means is the
preacher commanding and teaching.
But there is this minor problem that Timothy was facing, his youthfulness was
resulting in people looking down on him (v.12). Some would turn away
immediately they saw this ruddy-cheeked man getting up in the pulpit and
announcing his text. When others had the word of God applied to their lives by
Timothy they squirmed, and got their revenge by saying to him as they left,
Young man, youve got a lot to learn. If they say that sort of thing to us, keep
smiling. We must not be too touchy about comments about our age. When
William Pitt, the Earl of Chatham. was making a speech at the House of
Commons at the age of thirty-three he said, The atrocious crime of being a
young man I will neither attempt to palliate or deny.
There is a recognition of youthfulness which is without disdain. Charles Haddon
Spurgeon was converted in 1850 at the age of 15 and it was in the summer of
that same year that he walked one Sunday afternoon with a friend from their
Cambridge congregation to the village of Teversham. Each thought the other
was going to give the sermon there, and when they arrived and discovered the
dilemma the decision had to be taken which would be the preacher. Spurgeon
asked God for help and in that gathering in a thatched cottage he spoke for the
first time on I Peter 2:2, Unto you therefore which believe, he is precious.
When he had completed the sermon and was picking up the hymn-book to
announced the closing hymn a womans voice from the congregation broke the
silence: Bless you, dear heart, how old are you? Spurgeon looked gravely in
her direction, You must wait until the service is over before making any such
enquiries. Let us now sing. But the woman was not easily silenced and after
the service she repeated the question. Spurgeon replied, I am under sixty.
The woman responded, Yes, and under sixteen. Never mind, said Spurgeon,
think of the Lord Jesus and his preciousness. In eighteen months he had
become the pastor at nearby Waterbeach and was preaching to 450 people. He
wrote to his aunt, I am called the boy preacher or more commonly the lad.'
However, such expressions were used with great affection for Spurgeon. He
was never looked down on.
Why was that? Because he never reacted to comments on his youthfulness by
irritation, or aggression. Spurgeon never threw his weight around. About thirty
years ago I made some youthful criticisms in a magazine concerning some of
the phenomena of the 1904 Welsh Revival. It brought upon me some eyebrow
raising from a great London preacher, prefaced with the remarks, Some young
men have been saying But that was probably deserved (I mean, he actually
read what I had written) and would not be the sort of pressure being brought to
bear on Timothy. Paul could think back of the response of Goliath to the
teenager who was going to be his youthful executioner, He despised David

and said, Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks? And the Philistine
cursed David by his gods. Come here, he said, and I will give your flesh to the
birds of the air and the beasts of the field' (I Samuel 17:43&44). The Lord
Jesus enemies even said to him, You are not yet fifty years of age, (Jn.8:57).
The Lord Christ met disdain because of his youth, and Timothy was meeting
that same spirit from different quarters in Ephesus. I can ignore what you say
because you are younger than me.
However, many young men have a hang-up about criticism that might hint at
their inexperience. All of us made youthful mistakes when we set out as
preachers. We were in those days more impetuous and unloving. The
congregation was wonderfully tolerant and forgiving. If they had only heard
some of our other blunders! But the Lord veiled them from the people. John
Stott writes, Timothy had been called to Christian leadership beyond his years.
His responsibility to command and teach was in danger of being undermined
by his youthfulness, and by the signs that his ministry was being rejected. Paul
is not concerned now with error (and how it could be detected and rejected)
but with truth (and how it could be commended and so accepted)How then
should young Christians react in this situation, so that their youth is not
despised and their ministry is not rejected? (John Stott, The Message of I
Timothy and Titus, IVP, 1996, p.119).
If Timothys life were to be marked by credible godly living, and so be an
unmistakable role model for those who watched him, it would be impossible to
despise his youth. So it has always been with young men of integrity. At
twenty-two Gladstone was a member of Parliament, and at twenty-four he was
Lord of the Treasury. Sir Robert Peel entered Parliament at twenty-one, and was
Lord of the Admiralty at twenty-three. Washington was a distinguished colonel
at twenty-two. Napoleon commanded the army of Italy at twenty-five.
So the apostle tells Timothy that they sure way to silent his critics was to set
an example for the believers (v.12). The apostle Peter has the same concern,
he tells the elders that they are not to be lording it over those entrusted to
you, but being examples to the flock (I Pet.5:3). Doesnt the spirit of the
minister propagate itself amongst the people? As Robert Trail says, A lively
ministry and lively Christians (Trails Works Banner of Truth, Volume 1,
p.250). John Stott says, The great temptation, whenever our leadership is
questioned, threatened or resisted, is to assert it all the more strongly and to
become autocratic, even tyrannical. But leadership and lordship are two quite
different concepts. The Christian leads by example, not by force, and is to be a
model who invites a following, not a boss who compels one (Stott, op cit,
p.120). Timothy was pledged to a consecrated life, not merely the pursuit of a
profession, Paul goes on to expand the exemplary role of Timothy in five areas.
i] in speech: Paul is telling Timothy to be an example in how he speaks. He
begins with speech because every Christian sins more readily with his tongue
than with any part of his body. But also the tongue has the greatest potential
for good of all the members of the body. The apostle has already exhorted
Timothy to be restrained and moderate in his personal life (I Tim.3:2), and not
quick tempered or quarrelsome (I Tim.3:3).
Let us suggest that here Paul is thinking about Timothys manner of speaking in
his official pulpit ministry. He is to command and teach these things given to

him by the apostle. But should he do so with the greatest accuracy yet without
the affectionate quality each truth required then men would have cause to look
down on Timothy. In other words his speaking must be under the emotional
control of the truths he believed. You dare not separate religious truths from
religious affections. E.W. Johnson, the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church, Pine
Bluff, Arkansas, illustrates that in this way. He asks whether Winston Churchill
could have spoken to the English-speaking world as he did during the struggle
with the Nazis if he had not spoken of the realities of those times from within
the emotional parameters of those realities? Could Demosthenes have
delivered his Philippics, warning his Athenians of the threat to their liberties to
be seen in the rising power and ambitions of Philip of Macedon, if he had
merely delineated facts without conveying the emotional resonances of those
facts? Could Abraham Lincoln have spoken at Gettysburg as he did, briefly
outlining the meaning of Americas greatest war, as well as honouring the
fallen of the nation on that field, if his words had lacked emotional content?
Was it necessary for Churchill to become emotional when he addressed the
nation with such effectiveness that his speeches were as military power itself?
Was it necessary for Demosthenes to become emotional when he tried to rally
the Athenians to the dangers rising from the north in the person of the
Macedonian king? Was it necessary for Mr. Lincoln to become emotional at
Gettysburg? None of those men had to write in the margin of their manuscripts,
Shout here! or Weep here!
No. It was only necessary for Churchill to know the ugliness of Nazism in order
to speak clearly about the peril his country faced with a deep love in his heart
for all that England meant to him. It was only necessary to Demosthenes to
know what he was talking about when he warned Athens, and be sure the
information was true, and then to speak with a devotion for all that Athens
meant to him and ancient Greece. It was only necessary for Mr Lincoln to
understand the meaning of the great American war, that in his eyes the very
existence of the nation was at stake through those years, and to be in love with
his country.
So too whenever Timothy ascended the pulpit to speak to the Ephesian
congregation, he was facing a gathering of men and women who would live as
long as God himself. He was to speak to them about the invisible world of
eternity, of a heaven to win and a hell to avoid, of a holy God who in his pity
had spared not his only begotten Son from the death of crucifixion that many
sinners by faith in him might be saved. Then Timothy was to plead with them to
entrust themselves to this Jesus Christ. His speech could not be without feeling.
Timothy did not need to become emotional. Timothy needed to know whereof
he spoke, and to believe what he was saying about sin and redemption. When
a preacher believes from his heart those truths his speech is going to be
affected. He will speak with feeling. His message will grip both his own heart
and the hearts of his hearers. How can we meet the awful foolishness which
goes by the name of Christianity in our time unless we appear before men with
our words shaped by the truths of what we believe in all their emotional
content? They exist in us as a living experience, a tear of repentance, a
glorious enthusiasm, a trembling hope, and an intense reality.

Men will forgive nervousness, a stammering tongue, poor grammar, weak

theology even, and some confusion in exegesis if the preacher can only give
men a glimpse of the God they trust in and reverence and fear and love. Do
they show by their whole manner that they feel themselves to be utterly
inadequate poor in spirit but the salvation which they themselves have
known is immeasurably great and worthy of the whole congregation rising up
as a man and making their own? Can the assembly see Jesus Christ more
clearly and lovingly through their speech? Then they have succeeded when
many a qualified orator will fail. The gospel of the Son of God has
overshadowed and even transfigured the preacher by whom it has come to
them.
Ten years ago Eric Heffer made one of the great speeches that the Houses of
Parliament has heard in recent years. There was a crisis in the Gulf in
September 1990 and Eric Heffer was dying of cancer. He had served in the war
in the RAF, and so he had a military record and he also had much trade union
experience. Parliament was recalled for a two day debate, and Eric Heffer took
pain killers and dragged himself along to speak. He began his speech by saying
that in situations like this one should always leave room for negotiation.
Somebody on his side interrupted him, and Eric cried, Please dont interrupt
me, this may be the last speech I make in the House of Commons. The House
listened with extraordinary intentness, and when he sat down he put his head
on his knees. He could hardly move for exhaustion. He was dying, and his voice
had been very very weak. In terms of a performance it was perhaps very poor,
but this was an old dying man, known for his personal integrity, who was
making his last stand. He was so tired and ill that he wasnt thinking about how
he would say what was on his mind, but its power was immense. He never
made another speech. His words on that day reflected what he believed. Heffer
did not have to become emotional. He simply had to speak from his heart,
believing to the end all his convictions, and set them before the House. Often it
is not in strength but in weakness that power-filled words are spoken. Anguish,
engagement, sweat and blood punctuate the stated truths to which men will
listen.
ii] in life: you talk the talk, Timothy. Now make sure you walk the walk. If you
mean what you speak you will surely do what you speak. The apostle is
pleading for a consistency of word and life. The first inquiry that we always
make of ministers is whether they know the Lord. There have been too many
unconverted preachers in pulpits for us to take that question for granted. But
then much more is required. It is not enough that the Holy Spirit has brought a
man to life. Is there the fruit of the Spirit in that life? A man cannot preach
alone. He must also live. And the life that he lives either emasculates his
preaching or it gives it flesh and blood. The life of a servant of God is the soil
out of which his teaching will emerge. It has been said, A ministers life is the
life of his ministry. Isnt that a familiar New Testament emphasis? Paul tells the
Thessalonians, You know how we lived among you for your sake (I Thess.
1:5). There was a direct relation between the gospel coming to them not in
word only but with power and the Holy Spirit and much assurance and the kind
of men who preached that gospel. Paul further appeals to them, You are
witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among
you who believed (I Thess. 2:10). Paul stood as a living embodiment of the

message he brought to them so that his whole life endorsed and illustrated
what he said. A preacher is in some degree a reproduction of the truth in
personal form.
Al Martin refers to a well-known actress who may be famous for her moral
escapades. She may live like a common harlot. Yet she can enter the theatre at
eight oclock on a Wednesday night and play the role of Joan of Arc in such a
way as to move the entire audience to tears. The way in which she lives may
have no direct relationship with the exercising of her professional art. Mike
Tyson, the former world heavyweight champion, is in London these days. He is
one of the great boxers of all time, virtually unbeatable for years because of his
power and speed, but there is no relationship between his skill in the boxing
ring and how he behaves outside it. A homosexual actor filled theatres in
London and America by reciting the whole of Marks gospel which he had
memorised. He even gave a performance in the White House. But there need
be no direct relationship between how that man lived and the words of Jesus
which he repeated so eloquently.
How different is the preacher. Al Martin says, If preaching is the
communication of truth through a human instrument, then the particular truth
thus communicated is either augmented or reduced in its effect by the life
through which it comes. The secret of the preaching power of Whitefield,
MCheyne, and others like them, is not found primarily in the content of their
sermons or in the manner of their delivery. Rather it is found in their lives. Their
lives were so clothed with power, and they lived in such vital communion with
God that the truth became a living principle when it came through such
vessels. Their anointed lives became the soil of their anointed ministries. This
principle is particularly true in the life of the resident pastor. The more you and
I are known by our people, our influence will increase or diminish to the tenor
of our lives (Al Martin, Whats Wrong with Preaching Today?, Banner of Truth,
p.6).
If you were an Old Testament believer and knew the actual Priest and that
Levite who walked past the man who had been beaten up and left half dead on
the road if you actually saw them avert their eyes and keep walking straight
ahead leaving the man to groan there alone, then you would never listen to
anything that those men said again. Think of a pharmaceutical salesman who is
commending a cure for the cold while sneezing and coughing between each
sentence. Who would purchase his cure? But if you were a New Testament
believer in Ephesus and saw the apostle Paul willing to work hard and not take
money from anyone (2 Thess. 3:7-10), utterly unmotivated by money (I Tim.
3:3), rejecting anything to do with dishonest gain (Tit. 1:7) then you would
mightily impressed by that lifestyle and ready to hear more about it.
Nobel Prize-winner, William Golding, has written a novel called Free Fall which
is the story of the life of an artist, Sammy Mountjoy. When he was in school
there were two teachers who initially attracted him. There was the Religious
Instruction teacher, Miss Pringle, and the science teacher, Mr Shales. Her world
was the burning bush and the Bible. His world was a rational universe. Sammy
was pulled in two directions until he became the victim of Miss Pringle. She
discovered that he had been adopted by the minister she had hoped would
marry her. So she took revenge on the boy and put her knife into him at every

opportunity. Sammy says to himself, But how could she crucify a small boy
and then tell the story of the other crucifixion with every evidence in her voice
of sorrow for human cruelty and wickedness? I can understand how she hated,
but not how she kept on such apparent terms of intimacy with heaven. How
different was Nick the science teacher: Nick persuaded me to his natural
scientific universe by what he was, not by what he said, I hung for an instant
between two pictures of the universe; then the ripple passed over the burning
bush and I ran towards my friend. In that moment a door closed behind me. I
slammed it shut on Moses and Jehovah. Paul is telling Timothy not to demolish
by his living from Monday to Saturday what he has built up with his speech on
Sunday.
iii] in love: this is the next area of his life in which Timothy is to be an
example to those who watched him. The first letter to the Corinthians was
written by Paul in the 50s and this letter to Timothy a decade later. So there is
every reason for us to believe that Timothy would have been acquainted with
the teaching of the letters to the Corinthian church, especially with its great
definition of love in chapter thirteen. Let us do to Timothy what we say we
must do to ourselves when we need to go through a time of self-examination.
We put our own name in the place of love and we ask ourselves if this is truly
a description of how we live. For Timothy to live in love means this:
Timothy is patient. Timothy is kind. Timothy does not envy, he does not boast,
he is not proud, he is not self-seeking, he is not easily angered, he keeps no
record of wrongs. Timothy does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth. He
always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Timothy
never fails (I Cor. 13:4-8). That is living in love, and that is how every Christian
is to live. That is the standard, but that will also be Timothys power. The fruit
that the Spirit has created in Timothys life is love. Timothy has received the
root of love from heaven. God has grafted it into Timothys heart. Then love!
Dont be crushed, Timothy, by these duties. Gods love in you and through you
will enable you too to love. Whatever God commands, his grace will enable
you to perform. Timothy will only move the Ephesian congregation by loving
like that. Love enables preachers to do loving sorts of things and become loving
sorts of pastors. Love is the power which enables people to endure, and
believe, and hope. Love is a duty Timothy must perform, yes, but the good
news of that love is power, and love enables us to do what love also obligates
us to do.
Let me illustrate that by telling you of a remarkable evangelist named Erino
Dapozzo who worked in France a generation ago. He had a deformed arm
caused by an injury in the war and a long spell in a concentration camp. He
tells of an incident that occurred in that camp: The commandant of the
concentration camp in which I was interred called for me one day about noon.
They led me into a room where the table was set for one person. I was starving.
The camp commandant came strutting in. Then he sat down at the dinner table
and had a royal feast served to him. I had to stand to attention all the time and
watch him devour one course after another. He was licking his lips and I was
dying of starvation. But the worst was yet to come. When his coffee was being
served, he took out a small parcel and placed it beside his cup. Then he turned
to me and said, Do you see this parcel? Its from your wife. She sent it to you
from Paris. Its full of cookies. There was very little to eat in France, and my

wife must have deprived herself in order to bake those cookies. Then the man
picked up the first one and ate it, and then the second, and the third, one after
another. I could not contain myself, Please, I begged him, give me one, just
one, to keep as a souvenir from my wife. I promise you, I wont eat it! But the
commandant only laughed and gobbled them all up right to the last one.
Then a remarkable thing happened. Suddenly Dapozzo understood what the
Bible means when it says, The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. He
said, I felt there and then real affection for this man. I thought, Poor man.
Nobody loves you. You are surrounded by hatred. How privileged am I to be a
child of God. Dapozzo was filled with compassion for the commandant. He did
not allow the man to irritate him, and the commandant must have felt it, for he
got up hastily and left the room.
That, though, is not the end of the story. When the war was over Dapozzo
searched for the man and eventually found where he lived. He went to call on
him. He knocked on his door and the commandant turned pale when he saw
Dapozzo standing on this doorstep. Youve come for revenge? he said, Yes,
replied Dapozzo, Ive come for revenge. Lets have a cup of coffee together.
Ive got a cake in the car. It will make a nice snack for the two of us. The
commandant was suspicious and then, as Dapozzo spoke to him, was very
moved by how Dapozzo loved and what he believed. The man who has
submitted to Jesus Christ is no longer under the power of hatred. He is under
the power of love. That love enables him to deal with his enemies as Dapozzo
did, and forgive those who have despitefully used us.
That is what the gospel can do. When it is received into our hearts it becomes a
power as well as a duty. It is not easy, because in the process of loving Jesus
shows us that we get on other peoples nerves even more than they get on
ours, and that it is harder for them to put up with us than for us to put up with
them. When the King of love is dealing with his subjects he often puts his finger
on wrongs we have done to other people. Then we appreciate more and more
the fact that Jesus bore the guilt of how weve hurt other people on the cross
and given us forgiveness. The Lord Jesus was beginning in Ephesus the greatest
revolution the world had ever known. It was a revolution of the love of God
operating in the lives of ordinary people in this world.
iv] in faith: the best book Spurgeon wrote what a marvellously pretentious
statement is An All-Round Ministry. It is a series of addresses which he gave
to his annual conference of ministers, many of them former students who had
attended his College. He speaks to them as Paul is speaking here to Timothy,
and in the very first address Spurgeon talks about this subject of faith and he
says, Our work especially requires faith. If we fail in faith, we had better not
have undertaken it; and unless we obtain faith commensurate with the service,
we shall soon grow weary of it. It is proven by all observations that success in
the Lords service is very generally in proportion to faith. It certainly is not in
proportion to ability, nor does it always run parallel with a display of zeal; but it
is invariably according to the measure of faith, for this is the law of the
Kingdom without exception, According to your faith be it unto you. It is
essential, then, that we should have faith if we are to be useful, and that we
should have great faith if we are to be greatly useful We, above all men,
need the mountain-moving faith, by which, in the old time, men of God

subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the

mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the
armies of the aliens' (C H Spurgeon, An All Round Ministry, p. 3, Banner of
Truth).
Pastor Wilhelm Busch was thrown into prison by the Nazis and one night was
particularly wretched and bleak. There had been an arrival of prisoners who
were on transit to a concentration camp. These were people without hope,
some might have been criminals but many were Jews and there were other
innocent people, young and old. On this particular Saturday night, with their
hearts filled with deep despair, they all began screaming and shouting at the
top of their voices. You can imagine the scene, an entire building filled with
desperate people wailing, banging against the walls, bars and doors of their
cells. The guards ran through the building shooting into the ceilings and then
opening this cell and that cell, running in and clubbing people into silence.
Sitting in his cell Busch said to himself, It must be like this in hell. It is
impossible to describe the hideous scene, but at that moment of utter despair
Busch said to himself, Jesus. Surely he is here. That was the voice of faith. He
sat on his little bed and he whispered softly, very softly, Jesus. Jesus. Jesus.
And then slowly and steadily a silence fell over the whole prison it took two or
three minutes for the shrieking that seemed to come from the pit itself to go.
You understand? Wilhelm Busch cried out to the Lord. No one but Jesus heard
him but he did, and the demons had to withdraw. Then Busch stood and sang
through the bars in his cell door,
Jesus, lover of my soul,

Hide me, O my Saviour, hide,

Let me to Thy bosom fly,

Till the storm of life is past;

While the nearer waters roll,

Safe into the haven guide,

While the tempest still is high:

Oh, receive my soul at last.

All the prisoners in the silence listened to him. No guard came running to club
him down, not even when he sang the second verse. By faith he appropriated
his great Saviour
There was a Christian soldier fighting for Germany in Russia during the Second
World War. This letter to his mother was found on his body: What is happening
around us is atrocious. When the Russians fire their rockets we are panicstricken. And such cold! And all this snow! It is terrible. But I have no fear. If I
were to die it would be wonderful. In one leap I would enter into glory. The
turmoil would be over I would see my Lord face to face and be enshrouded in
his brightness. No, I would not mind dying here on the battlefield. That is
exactly what happened. This young man did not fear being killed because he
trusted in Jesus.
v] in purity: Make it your goal to live a pure life. That is what Paul is telling
Timothy. It has to be your constant aim. Job knew that. He had servant women
working all over his large estates more than that lecher Samuel Pepys.
Temptations come to all of us but Job had resolved to do something about
them. I made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a girl (Job
31:1). When he knew that first stirrings of lust he remembered the covenant he
had made and he looked away, or he left the room, or he busied himself with
other things. Pity the poor man who is a slave to his lusts, so that all he talks
about or laughs about is sexual sin, and how adept he is at turning innocent
remarks to the same tired theme. Keep an eye covenant. In other words, keep
your eyes from wandering to images and dwelling on passing women. A
battering ram may hit a castle wall a thousand times, and none of the blows
seems to have any effect, yet finally the wall cracks and falls. For most men
their thoughts are readily influenced by images. There is a cumulative
development of mental indulgences and tiny compromises. By themselves
what they achieve is indiscernible, but all together they prepare a man for a
great fall, and we who look on are shattered.
Henry Martyn was an early English missionary to India, and he prayed for the
purity of a young woman whose beauty could so easily have attracted him in
unhelpful ways. He prayed for her holiness and purity and so he could not at
the same time harbour impure thoughts about her. Think what it would mean if
you fell into sin, for your wife, your children, your closest friends, your
congregation, your whole future life. The promise was rich excitement at no
cost to anyone. The reality was the deepest pain.
If we are married our total and uncompromised allegiance is to be to our wife.
She must be the sole fountain from which we drink for the fulfilment and
satisfaction of our physical and sexual desires both in thought and action. We
are to love our wife not only as we did in our youth but with a growing love. Our
behaviour to those of the opposite sex is to be above reproach, and worthy of
respect. Spiritual leadership constantly brings shepherds and teachers into
contact with women in a variety of situations. There is a natural pleasure and
helpful stimulus through the interaction of the sexes in everyday life this is
part of Gods gift to us. But in a fallen world and with our fallen natures
there is plenty of scope for temptation and moral failure Purity of life begins
with purity of heart (Pastors and Teachers, Derek Prime, Highland Books,
1989 p.30).

It meant for Timothy that he never became an isolated loner, and relationally
independent. There were always fellow officers, a group of men to whom he
was accountable. I have my wifes brother-in-law who has been a faithful and
straight friend to me since we first met at a Christian conference for students in
Bala in 1959. There is not a week goes by without us talking together. But most
of all it is fierce loyalty to your wife that will guard any marriage against failure.
In the Lloyd-Jones Exhibition in the National Library of Wales this week there is
displayed one of those wonderful letters which the Doctor wrote to Bethan.
How he loved her and whenever he spoke of her in public it was in a positive
and edifying way. That is the basis of purity.
Speech, life, love, faith and purity: these are the priorities. For those entrusted
with Gods work they are absolutely essential. The flock we care for is not ours,
but Christs. The blood that was shed for them was Christs blood.
23 January 2000 GEOFF THOMAS