PIETY

PIETY

1 Timothy 2:1-4; 1 Timothy 3:14-16; 1 Timothy 4: 4-10; 1 Timothy 6:3-9; 1 Timothy 6:11

I feel impressed, dear brethren, I trust by the Lord, to say a word as to godliness, or piety, believing that there is great need of our being reminded of the importance of it. The Lord is bringing before us in these days much that is connected with the greatest truths of Christianity, the highest privileges of the assembly, intending that we should have power to move into these things, and that requires spirituality; but I believe that before we can be spiritual, we must become marked by righteousness practically, and piety. You will remember that the Scripture speaks of Simeon in the second chapter of Luke’s gospel; how the Holy Spirit was upon him and that it had been revealed to him by the Spirit that he should not see death till he had seen the Lord’s Christ; and how he came in the Spirit into the temple. He was one who was evidently characterised in large measure by spirituality, by being spiritual. But before saying these things about him, it says that he was just and pious, meaning that he was characteristically righteous practically in all his ways and that he was pious; and I believe those two things, practical righteousness and piety, are essential foundations to spirituality. That is, unless we are concerned and helped of the Lord to maintain righteousness practically in every detail of life and to cultivate piety, we shall not be able to go very far in the way of spirituality. The Lord is stressing, dear brethren, that the recovery of the truth which we are now enjoying - truth that the Lord has given to the assembly now for the past hundred years - has in mind that all the thoughts of God, the best thoughts regarding the assembly, should be entered upon by us at the close just before we are taken to be with the Lord. But I say again, and I believe it is incontrovertible, that we cannot in any real power touch spiritual things unless there is a foundation with us of practical righteousness and piety.

Now this first epistle to Timothy says much about piety. If you read through the epistle, I think you will be perhaps surprised at the constant references to piety, or godliness as it is rendered in the Authorised Version. In chapter 2 the apostle exhorts first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving should be made for all men, for kings and those who are in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all piety and gravity. It was a prominent thought in the mind of the apostle, so that he gives exhortation first of all, and with a view to this, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives, in all piety and gravity; for, he says, “this is good and acceptable in the sight of our Saviour God, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” I believe the force is, dear brethren, that not only are we ourselves to be marked by piety and the blessing that flows from it, but the result of it is to be a testimony to others that saints who are marked by piety are manifestly in the good of salvation. God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth, enjoying all the truth, involving the knowledge of God; and there is nothing like the knowledge of God to save us practically from all the different features that are current in the world around. Take discontent for instance; a great feature of the present time is discontent and many things of that kind, that characterise men at the present time. The great power for salvation from things of that sort is the knowledge of God, and piety brings the knowledge of God into our everyday circumstances; so that we are encouraged to prayer and supplication,

intercession and thanksgiving. All these are things that belong to the knowledge of God; indeed intercession is a wonderful privilege; it is the exercise by those who know God of their privilege of drawing near to God, it is the privilege of exercising that power on behalf of others.

Abraham, who is spoken of as the friend of God, took up the attitude of intercession with God in regard of Sodom. What a wonderful privilege, that one man outside of those wicked cities, should exercise the power he had with God, as God’s friend, in intercession on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah! and yet not doing it in any sentimental way, but doing it with a right sense of what was due to God, having the knowledge of God. So that he says, “There are perhaps fifty righteous within the city.” And God says, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” And then Abraham comes down to forty-five, forty, and thirty, speaking in a becoming way, saying he was but dust and ashes, thus showing what a low sense he had of himself; for, like Job who repented in dust and ashes, Abraham had to do with God. He himself was but dust and ashes, and yet what power he had with God. He came down to twenty and he came down to ten, but he did not go below ten. That is to say, while he was thoroughly with God as discerning that men should be saved, yet at the same time he had a right sense of what was due to God, that if a city was so wicked that there were not even ten righteous in it, then it was not suitable to pray for its salvation, it should be judged. Both Sodom and Gomorrah had to be judged, yet at the same time all that was due to God was maintained by Abraham in the way he interceded. There is great need for that at the present time, for there is no question but that evil is increasing by leaps and bounds in the world.

Government, which is of God, is increasingly insecure in every country, and therefore the urgent need on the part of the saints is, that we should give ourselves to this kind of prayer, praying on behalf of all men and praying for the support of the government; praying without any political bias at all for whatever authority God has established. We are to pray for it because abstractly it is of God and it has in mind the maintenance of what is right and the repression of what is evil: These are things that the saints do well to pray for, that we should be able indeed to lead quiet and tranquil lives in all piety and gravity.

Piety has the effect of saving the saints from every kind of bitterness of spirit, discontent, and anxiety. All these things that more and more characterise the world, and along with that the grasping after being rich with some. All these things are cured, or rather we ourselves are saved from them by piety. Piety is that we know God and we bring the knowledge we have of God in a practical way into our every-day circumstances. And so the apostle says that “the mystery of piety is great,” but before this he speaks of how we should behave ourselves in the house of God which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth.

Now I say, for the sake of any who may be unaware of it, that we are always the house of God. The house of God is not simply when we are together. Bear that in mind. Let the young ones especially bear this in mind, but every one of us, that we are not the house of God simply when we are together. We are always the house of God by virtue of the fact that God is dwelling with us by the Spirit and therefore, this question as to how we are to behave ourselves in the house of God is a matter that affects us every day and every hour of the day, when we are by ourselves, just as much as when we are together with the saints. It is a question of the kind of behaviour that is suitable to God in His dwelling place, and we are His dwelling place by virtue of the fact that God dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. Thus not only is there this question of suitable behaviour in the house of God, because we are the house of God, but there is also the fact that the house of God is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth. The assembly has a place in the testimony as the great testimony to and support of the truth. Hence you can see how sorrowful it is if anyone of us in any way, by his conduct, acts unbecomingly to God and His house. Not only is it an affront to God personally, but it brings the name of God into disrepute. The testimony of the truth is bound up with it and hence we can see how important a matter it is, this question of how we behave ourselves in the house of God. And this involves the practical exercise of piety.

Well now, the apostle says, that “great is the mystery of piety,” and great it is indeed. God, he says, has been manifest in flesh, that is God Himself in the person of Jesus has entered into the ordinary circumstances of human life. Wonderful fact! How did He conduct Himself when He entered into the ordinary circumstances of life? What principle of life, so to speak, was set forth in the Lord Jesus, as having come into the ordinary circumstances of human life? Because that is what piety is, it is bringing God into the ordinary circumstances of human life. God Himself in the person of Jesus entered into those circumstances. According to what principle did the Lord Jesus move in these circumstances, having come in as a Man? He moved as characterised by unswerving confidence in God and unfailing satisfaction with the circumstances which God ordered for Him. They were not such as the natural man would choose, to be laid in a manger when born, to be brought up in Nazareth,

a despised city. His reputed father a carpenter, and He Himself working as a carpenter. All these are not things that appeal to the natural man, they are not the kind of thing that the natural man would grasp after, and yet that is what was brought into expression in this world when God, in wonderful grace, deigned to enter in the person of Jesus into the circumstances of human life. He glorified God in the way He went through life, finding His confidence in God, doing the will of God, finding His satisfaction in God’s will.

In the spirit of the Psalmist Jesus could say, “The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places, yea I have a goodly heritage.” The goodly heritage was what He found in God, in the circumstances which God had ordered for Him, and He moved through on that principle; and even though His pathway led to death. He could enter into death in confidence in God, saying, “thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life,” Psalm 16. “Great is the mystery of godliness.” We are to contemplate the way God has come into human circumstances in the person of Jesus and how in these circumstances was set out the true principle of life for men in obedience to God, in confidence in God, in finding satisfaction in God. We shall prove it, dear brethren, if we lay ourselves out for these things. We shall prove that the knowledge of God is the great thing that abides and gives us peace and rest of mind and heart, so that you can come through whatever circumstances are ordered in the sense that God is with you and that you are with God, as it says “The God of love and peace be with you.” And so it says, “Great is the mystery of godliness. God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit.” There was nothing outwardly to vindicate the Lord Jesus, but He was justified in the Spirit. There was undeniable power about His movements, and there is a certain measure of power about our movements if we go on in that simplicity of piety which lies in bringing God into every circumstance of our life.

You will remember how touchingly the piety of the Lord Jesus is referred to in the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 5, “who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up supplications and prayers with strong crying and tears unto him who was able to save him out of death.” The Lord did not go through circumstances in any stoical or unfeeling way. The circumstances that God ordered for Him were such that they called forth from Him strong crying and tears, and then it says, “having been heard because of his piety; though he were Son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.” He moved on that principle, learning what was an entirely new thing for Him, for in the form of God obedience did not attach to Him, but having entered into human conditions. He entered into a condition to which obedience applied, and He filled out the principle of obedience to the full in a most absolute way, “having been heard on account of his piety.” See the link, the affinity between our souls and Christ, as we move on that principle of obedience. He has “become the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey him.” It is as we are characterised by obedience and have the principle of it in every detail of our life, that we get the full gain and support of the priesthood of Christ.

In chapter 4 we have the apostle referring to such a simple thing as the matter of our food, what we eat, and he says “every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be rejected; being received with thanksgiving; for it is sanctified by the word of God and freely addressing him.” One often wonders whether we are in danger sometimes of becoming careless and set and formal in our thanksgiving at meals, for it becomes an occasion of having to do with God. The very food we eat is sanctified by the word of God and our freely addressing Him. Every time we eat, it becomes an occasion for the heart to go out to the blessed God, our freely addressing Him. Think of the liberty into which we have been brought as His beloved children, and every meal becomes an occasion for us to receive it from the hands of the living and blessed God and address Him freely in a spirit of thanksgiving. How important are the little details of human life, becoming an occasion for us to have to do with God in a living way and to become deepened thus in the knowledge of God. Of course, the knowledge of God brings its own exercises because of what He is. Our God, it says, is a consuming fire; we have to face that.

God intends that we should become partakers of His holiness. How should we ever be at liberty with Him, if we do not become partakers of His holiness? He intends that the very exercises and circumstances of human life, as taken up by us with Him, should serve to develop us with a view to our becoming partakers of His holiness. Think of that! So that we might be completely at home in the presence of the blessed God. Hence even the ordinary meal, and they recur three or four times every day in our life, each ordinary meal becomes an occasion for turning to God, not in any formal way, but as having to do with the living God. It says the food is sanctified by the word of God and our freely addressing Him. And then the apostle goes on to say we are to “refuse profane and old wives’ fables and exercise ourselves to godliness.” That is, allow it to develop with us and have scope with us. To be practical in these things means not allowing anything in our lives that is inconsistent with the knowledge of the blessed God. In all these things we shall develop strength,

first moral and then spiritual, as growing by and increasing in the true knowledge of God. So he says “bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come,” and the apostle goes on to say that he himself and his fellow workers were putting things to the test. He says, “For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.”

In chapter 6 he brings in the thought of practical contentment. What a thing that is, dear brethren, in a world such as this is! We all know how testing conditions in the world are, and they are likely to be more so rather than less. How easy it is for us to become in our spirits irritated, or discontented, or anxious, restless, and all that kind of thing, beloved brethren. This is dishonouring to God, it is as though God were not to be trusted or were not sufficient. See how important piety is in these practical matters, not only for our own blessing and our own comfort, but as a testimony in the world that there is something that is greater than all the trouble in it, the knowledge of God; something which has power to save people from all the discontent, bitterness of spirit and restlessness that are found marking the world. There is something that can practically save us from it - the knowledge of God, and bringing this in in a practical way to bear on our every circumstance here. The apostle speaks of some who regard godliness as the means for gain, as though material gain were to be pursued, but he says, “godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can carry nothing out.” Mr. Raven used to say (he was very fond of referring to this verse, he was constantly bringing it in) the one thing that we can carry out of the world is the knowledge of God, and that is what stands us in good stead at the present time.

I venture to say this, as impressed by the Lord with it. One great thing that we all need is to cultivate and devote ourselves to piety; that is, the knowledge of God and bringing it in practically to the circumstances of our every-day life. This will provide a moral basis in our souls on which the Lord can build up spirituality, but if we attempt to move into the higher spiritual side of our blessing without moral foundation of practical righteousness and piety, I believe we shall find that we cannot do it.

May the Lord graciously encourage us on this line of piety and the knowledge of God and bringing it into our lives in a practical way.