Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Some years ago, a man named Howard Hendricks did a study that examined 246 men in full time ministry.
[00:00:12] And this study was centered upon 246 men in full time ministry who had sadly lost their ministry because of a moral failure they committed in their life.
[00:00:26] As far as Hendrix could discern, these full time clergy were born again followers of Jesus.
[00:00:31] At least their theology and understanding of the Gospel was orthodox and their repentance at least appeared to be genuine.
[00:00:42] However, though these men shared a common salvation, they also shared a common feat of devastation.
[00:00:50] All within 24 months of each other have been found out, exposed and brought to the light. An adulterous relationship.
[00:00:59] They were unfaithful to their marriage vows.
[00:01:02] After interviewing each man, hendricks compiled those 246 interviews and came up with four observations from the men's responses After a long time of counseling, here are the four characteristics of all these men.
[00:01:19] First, none of the men were involved in any kind of real personal accountability, I.e.
[00:01:26] no one really knew them.
[00:01:29] Second, each of the men had all but ceased having a daily quiet time of personal prayer, Bible reading and worship.
[00:01:37] In other words, it began to be a show instead of a real genuine walk with Christ.
[00:01:44] Thirdly, more than 80% of the men became sexually involved with the other woman after spending significant time with her, often in counseling situations.
[00:01:54] Which goes to show you the subtle temptation of sin.
[00:01:59] Fourthly, this one should be more chilling to all of us. Without exception of the 246 men, each of them had honestly admitted on the back end that they had convinced themselves that this would never happen to me.
[00:02:19] This reality only became more personal to me. This past summer, while I was on sabbatical, I got a word from another pastor I fellowshiped with in previous years who had become disqualified from the ministry for sexual sin.
[00:02:33] I reached out to him and I asked, brother, looking back, with hindsight being 20 20, what would you say to yourself when the dive into sin began after now, what's been brought to the light? In other words, what have you learned through this really painful process so far?
[00:02:51] Verbatim, here is his reply to me, man, there's so much, but I can think of a few things.
[00:02:58] Number one, trust your brothers in Christ and don't fight sin alone.
[00:03:04] They're not going to abandon you because of your sin. They can actually help you fight it.
[00:03:09] Gritting your teeth and trying to beat something on your own won't work long term.
[00:03:16] Secondly, the Gospel offers us a better version of whatever pleasure sin is offering you. For me, it was the love of the praise of man, which is just a shadow of the approval I have from my Heavenly Father.
[00:03:34] Thirdly, sin as a pastor never just hurts you.
[00:03:39] It will spill out and hurt others eventually.
[00:03:44] Friends, these stories are to serve as a sober wake up call to everyone.
[00:03:51] And not just me as a pastor, not just your elders, but everyone in this room.
[00:03:55] From middle schoolers, high schoolers, college students, those in their 20s, all the way to those in their 70s and 80s. From stay home moms, to career oriented ladies, to businessmen, teachers, coaches, plumbers, everyone in this room who professes faith in Jesus is all tempted to believe it would never happen to me.
[00:04:22] And friends, this is a solemn warning for all of us.
[00:04:25] Cause none of us are incapable of committing something that could totally cost our life.
[00:04:31] But what was the root cause of these moral failures? Like my pastor friend, we don't want to just look at the bad fruit. We want to get to the ugly root.
[00:04:41] What was the cause that precipitated losing your family, losing your ministry friends? In the end, it wasn't a lack of giftedness.
[00:04:54] It wasn't a lack of charisma, it wasn't a lack of life experience.
[00:04:57] It wasn't a lack of talents that led to their fall.
[00:05:01] It was a lack of love.
[00:05:04] It was a lack of genuine love for Christ who first loved them.
[00:05:15] Friends, if that's true, what can we do to prevent such a miserable fall in our life?
[00:05:23] Well, it's important for those of us who profess faith in Christ to consider what we believe and what we teach others.
[00:05:31] But it's not only what we believe and teach, it's also what we love and why we love it so much.
[00:05:36] But it's not only what we teach and what we believe and not only what we love, but it's also what we're living for.
[00:05:42] In other words, who it is whose approval we're really seeking after.
[00:05:48] And friends, all of these things need to be examined in light of Scripture.
[00:05:53] Many years ago, this very thing of utmost importance became true for another man in ministry named Timothy, who was facing difficult challenges and temptations in his church.
[00:06:04] Difficult challenges in the church that ranged from wonky doctrine to wicked hearts and everything in between.
[00:06:12] And yet, in God's kindness, Timothy was given a mentor.
[00:06:16] Someone to coach him and lead him and even shepherd him on how to combat false doctrine, false teaching in the church the right way, and to look at that together. I invite you now to turn into God's Word. Let's look in our Bibles at a copy of God's Word and The New Testament Letter of First Timothy. First Timothy Chapter one. If you're using one of the Pew Bibles or Cheruback Bibles, provided you can find that on page 1177. First Timothy chapter one.
[00:06:49] Now, as many of you know, last week we began our new sermon series in the letter of First Timothy. First Timothy was penned by the Apostle Paul. It says there in verse one as a letter from a mentor to a beloved mentee or student or disciple. His name was Timothy and Timothy would be called by Paul his true child, you see there in verse two, or his genuine son in the faith.
[00:07:14] Why did he call Timothy his true child or genuine son in the faith? Well, likely Timothy had been converted under Paul's ministry back several years previously through probably one of his first missionary journeys. And even if he wasn't converted under Paul, he was heavily discipled by Paul for well over about a decade or so.
[00:07:33] Either way, this relationship looked more like a loving father to a son he loved like the apple of his eye, so to speak.
[00:07:43] Paul and Timothy had likely met 10 to 13 years prior to this letter. After traveling many places to plant churches and strengthen them, Timothy's leadership duties, as we'll see throughout this letter that we'll be studying, are largely the same as the local church pastor. As I said last week, if you want to know how to pray for and keep your elders and pastor accountable, first and second Timothy and Titus is is a good accountability script how to be praying for that. But as we also learned last week, Paul may have written to Timothy. It was a letter to be delivered through Timothy to the church. And that means every follower of Jesus Christ, every member of CCBC here this morning should see one Timothy written as an application for all of our responsibility as one team, one family, one body with head, Jesus Christ as our head over us.
[00:08:31] Let's look together now in first Timothy chapter one. Starting in verse three, I'll be reading to verse 11. Please follow with me as I urged you when I was going to Macedonia.
[00:08:48] Remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
[00:09:05] The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
[00:09:13] Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or or the things about which they make confident assertions.
[00:09:29] Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.
[00:09:35] Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral and men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
[00:10:06] This is God's word.
[00:10:08] If you're taking notes, here's the main idea of the sermon.
[00:10:12] The goal of sound doctrine is loving God and living to please him.
[00:10:24] The goal, the aim, the telos, the overall purpose. The goal of sound doctrine is loving God and living to please him.
[00:10:39] Now, to guide our time this morning, I have an outline that helps you break it up into two sections.
[00:10:45] And these two sections are broken up into two urgent pleas.
[00:10:49] Two urgent pleas that Paul communicated urgently to Timothy. Urgent plea number one. He tells Timothy, stay put and keep doing what God has called you to do.
[00:11:06] Stay put and keep doing what God has called you to do. That's verses three to seven.
[00:11:16] Urgent plea number two.
[00:11:19] Love the glory of God far more than the glory of man.
[00:11:26] Love the glory of God far more than the glory of man. That's verses 8 to 11. Let's look at that first urgent plea together. Paul tells Timothy to stay put and keep doing what God has called you to do. Now look down with me in verse 3.
[00:11:43] Don't read past this. You will lose. I will lose. The weightiness, the urgency of what Paul is communicating to Timothy. Notice what he says. He says, as I urged you. He says the Greek word is parakaleo, which means to come alongside and to encourage someone.
[00:12:01] Very closely related to the word paraclete, where we get the idea of the Holy Spirit being our helper, our advocate, our comforter who comes alongside us to meet us in our time of need. So the word can mean like a friend who comforts someone when they're weak and weary. And that's great. In many contexts, that's the application.
[00:12:24] But there's also a broader meaning to parakaleo, and the context always determines the meaning. And it is this. It is more than just a word of encouragement or a word of comfort, like a friend giving to a weary person. No, this is more like a loving father who blows the whistle on the field as a coach. And he's saying this, Timothy, you don't quit.
[00:12:47] You don't give up.
[00:12:49] Don't throw in the towel. You've got work to do, young man. Now do it.
[00:12:56] And in this particular section, that's exactly what Paul is embodying to Timothy. He urges him.
[00:13:03] This is important.
[00:13:05] He's to have ears that are listening, a heart that is ready to heed what Paul says.
[00:13:11] And he says that he urged Timothy that while Paul was heading to Macedonia. Where is Macedonia? It's where Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea were located.
[00:13:22] He says, as I was heading there, he was charging Timothy. He was urging, Timothy, you can't come with me.
[00:13:32] You've been with me for years now, Timothy, You've learned a lot. You've watched a lot.
[00:13:38] In many ways, Timothy, I've held your hand for about 10 years of discipling, but you can't follow me.
[00:13:48] You have to stay where you are.
[00:13:51] And in fact, Timothy can't just go throw in the towel and look for another job either.
[00:13:58] No, Paul laid it to Timothy. Cut and dry.
[00:14:03] Remain at Ephesus, Timothy.
[00:14:08] The word remain here means to be constant in, to continue in. It's to persevere where you are. It's the idea of standing in long, long traffic and you can't go anywhere. You're going to have to stay right where you are for a very long time. It's the idea of holding fast to something or holding tight. In other words, Timothy, continue in what you've already been doing because the work is not finished yet.
[00:14:34] In essence, he's saying, Timothy, remain in that dark city that doesn't want you there.
[00:14:44] Remain in Ephesus to be the salt and light of the city, in the midst of the anti Christian Jewish opposition, in the midst of the pagan magic arts, in the midst of the pagan worship of the Goddess Artemis, in the midst of the wonky doctrine and the wicked influences that had infiltrated the very church in Ephesus. And he says, timothy, in the midst of all that chaos, stay put, don't evacuate.
[00:15:19] Stay right where you are, friends. Paul's embodying for us what some of us need to grow up and say to people we love and care about.
[00:15:29] Paul gave a loving and direct word. Timothy, you are tempted to run out of fear. You are tempted to hide out of fear. You are not to do that, Timothy. You, God has called you, he has equipped you, and I've poured my life into you. Now, by the grace of God, stay put.
[00:15:50] You see, Paul wasn't trying to sugarcoat this language here. Paul, if you read this letter, there's a lot coming at Timothy There's a lot of reasons to go. I need to get on the Internet and find me another job. I need to get on the Internet and find me another neighborhood to live in. I need to get on. Well, I don't have a phone, but I need to call Eunice and Lois, my grandma and my mama, to come pick me up.
[00:16:12] Paul said, I ain't sugarcoating it, young man. I'm not putting fabric softener on my tough love this time.
[00:16:19] He told him, without nuance, without qualification, to stay at his post.
[00:16:25] For you, it might be, keep the same job, stick with your team, stay in that class. Do not leave that neighborhood, Live in your present house. Stay committed to that friend or that marriage. Be. Be present in that church preacher. Remain in that pulpit, friends. Maybe that's a word that some of us need to hear in a loving but direct way.
[00:16:53] As a young man now I'm in that middle age years, I can say that and feel, yeah, the number one thing I needed to be rebuked of and corrected by older men was, son, you run when it gets hard, you freak out and you stress out when you're a little uncomfortable and you look for the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. And thinking that's gonna make you happy. Now you understand why I challenge men so hard here. Because I speak from conviction and repentance.
[00:17:23] What men need and what women need are thick roots that go really deep.
[00:17:30] That's why we have a pandemic of people more consumed with their screens and they don't know how to talk to people face to face.
[00:17:38] We are living in a day and age where it is delayed maturity.
[00:17:42] Men in their 20s, 30s, and 40s still acting like they're in middle school.
[00:17:47] We need direct and loving admonitions.
[00:17:51] Sometimes the greatest word of advice we could tell someone when they're stressed and freaking out.
[00:17:57] It's hard.
[00:17:59] So what?
[00:18:02] Stay put.
[00:18:04] Stop looking for greener pastures.
[00:18:07] Stop comparing your life to someone else's.
[00:18:11] Stop come looking for some easier or comfortable path in obeying Jesus.
[00:18:17] Stop looking back and wishing you could get some previous chapter from your life.
[00:18:21] Stop working at your job, serving in your church, traveling all over the place with one foot in the door and one foot out of the door.
[00:18:29] It's two feet in or nothing.
[00:18:32] It's all or nothing. What did Jesus say in the Gospels? No man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for his kingdom.
[00:18:43] You might be visiting here this morning and thinking, man, this has got really intense, really quick.
[00:18:48] Yeah. This is not geriatric aerobics for church people.
[00:18:51] This is CrossFit. We're trying to get people ready for the real world because it's a real war.
[00:18:57] And we want to talk like that because Paul talked like that to Timothy.
[00:19:01] Friends, what a good word of advice for all of us.
[00:19:04] There are times there is the right response to persecution and evil and injustice. To flee, to run, to hide. That's a different sermon for a different day.
[00:19:14] But I would encourage us all before we hit eject on something that's difficult or uncomfortable, that maybe God wants to teach us how to trust him by staying where we are.
[00:19:27] Warren Wiersbe once said, God prepares the person for the work and the work for the person and brings them together in his providence.
[00:19:36] May God open our eyes to see the good works he has prepared for us, which means we all have purposes for where God has us right now.
[00:19:45] Now, what is Timothy's purpose? What is his first responsibility? For those of you who used to play this video game, what is his first Call of Duty?
[00:19:53] Well, he was to stay put. Okay, got it. I ain't running. I'm not following you, Paul. All right, I'm staying put. Buckle it up. Yes, sir.
[00:20:04] What problems does Timothy need to address and by God's grace, resolve with the advice he gives him? Look at verses 3 and 4.
[00:20:16] Paul says, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.
[00:20:32] As Timothy remained in this role here in Ephesus, he was to notice charge certain persons.
[00:20:39] Not certain, necessarily ideas, not theory, not made up stuff, but persons. The problems were resulting from people doing things in the church in Ephesus.
[00:20:53] It says he was to charge them, to command them, to instruct with authority. And he says these people were propagating certain teachings.
[00:21:03] There were teachings that were influencing people to believe them hook, line and sinker and lead them astray in essence. Now you see why Paul found this as an urgent plea.
[00:21:17] If you and I think that all our problems go away by ignoring and avoiding them, you got a hard thing coming.
[00:21:28] Sometimes avoiding, sometimes removing yourself will. But oftentimes you sweep something under the rug, guess what happens. The rug gets brought back up again. I don't know how many times I've counseled parents in this church, still ongoing on admonishing them, counseling them how to respond to their adult children who are bringing heartache into their life.
[00:21:49] And again and again I keep saying you're not dealing with the real problem, you're enabling them.
[00:21:55] And so Paul says you got to deal with people, not just theory people, real humans in your church that are spreading these problems by their teaching.
[00:22:05] In other words, friends, we should be paying attention to sermons, Bible studies, counseling literature and discipling materials that either contradict or undermine sound doctrine.
[00:22:17] That's what Paul was telling Timothy. Timothy, that's not what I taught you.
[00:22:21] This isn't what Jesus taught the apostles. They are spreading things around the church and it's making headway, it's causing division, it's causing younger Christians to be led astray.
[00:22:33] Friends, it says there in verse three, Timothy had to speak up and refute any different doctrine that undermined what he was taught from Paul.
[00:22:48] In essence, he was basically saying this is foreign stuff, strange stuff, weird stuff going on in the name of Christianity and it doesn't fly with the teachings and words of Jesus.
[00:23:03] So what was being taught then as truth but it was really poison in the drinking water?
[00:23:11] Well, this wasn't a small matter.
[00:23:13] The fact that this is the first thing in the letter means it's of great importance.
[00:23:17] He says there notice, he says he calls them myths and endless genealogies.
[00:23:23] Myths and endless genealogies. People are devoted to this stuff. They weren't just listening to it and entertaining it. They were beginning to fixate their minds on it and believe it.
[00:23:34] So what are the myths that he's referring to?
[00:23:37] The word means fictitious.
[00:23:40] We understand that. We use that in our normal every day, true or false, fiction or non fiction. These are myths.
[00:23:46] In other words, these are things that people just made up.
[00:23:49] It's invented, it's a figment of their imagination.
[00:23:53] This is fanciful stories that are passed off as thus saith the Lord.
[00:24:00] Now what were these myths? We're not entirely sure, but from the context it seems to have been a Jewish influenced myth.
[00:24:08] Whether it was folklore or Jewish culture or just rhetoric taken from all different types of resources outside the Bible, they became Jewish urban legends. Passing around a bunch of religious people and eventually people started believing that stuff.
[00:24:26] Paul had a big deal with these myths throughout Timothy's ministry. And Titus, you want to jot these down, you can first Timothy 4:7, he tells Timothy, have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness or second Timothy 4, 3, 4. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. And will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.
[00:24:56] Or consider Titus 1, 13 and 14 this testimony is true.
[00:25:01] Therefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth.
[00:25:12] Now let me go ahead and answer what's probably on like half of your mind if you have young kids or grandkids.
[00:25:18] This is not saying that you can't have a made up story, a child time bedtime story and read fiction or watch fiction. It's not that the application don't hear me say that God can use sanctified imaginations for us to be involved in as long as we're not masquerading or preaching it as if it was true.
[00:25:44] And here we also see that it wasn't just myths made up stories, but it was endless genealogies.
[00:25:52] In other words, these people were looking at the genealogies of the Old Testament, those long lineages of where people came from, their families, the priests, etc. And so forth. And even outside the Bible, different Jewish writings, and they were literally looking for a sign under every bush. It was endless. It was constant. They made massive assumptions, bizarre hermeneutical gymnastics with Bible verses. They spent an enormous amount of time, enormous amount of energy, an enormous amount of emotion, an enormous amount of effort on JewishAncestry.com and spouting off ideas as if they were true. And yet at the end it resulted in nothing.
[00:26:32] It was like half the garbage people post online today.
[00:26:37] As spiritual as biblical.
[00:26:44] Really, it's just a soup bowl of the gossip at the hair salon, a Sunday school class led by Joel Osteen combined with a neighborhood cult taking verses out of context all in one.
[00:26:55] Let's just say it was a mess.
[00:26:58] And Paul said some pretty sharp words about those who spread myths and stir up endless genealogies and propagating them as truth.
[00:27:08] Titus 3:9 11 but avoid foolish controversies, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Notice verse 10 as for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful, he is self condemned.
[00:27:30] Now let's just get real in here. Have you ever had one of those conversations with someone?
[00:27:35] Man, they sound real spiritual. They'll even quote some things in the Bible and you're just left going huh?
[00:27:43] What?
[00:27:46] They go to the Christian bookstore or whatever the Christian bookstore claims to Be Barnes and Nobles, the rock, whatever.
[00:27:53] They come back and say, man, I'm reading this wonderful book called Jesus Calling, or maybe from a different generation, the prayer of Jabez or your best life now, or the Waymaker, Circle Maker. How many maker books can they come up with?
[00:28:10] The Purpose Driven Life. I could come out all the classics and I can bring you up some modern ones. And they're super excited. And you go, what are you excited about? And they read it to you. It's just New age mysticism with the cross of Jesus Christ taped on it.
[00:28:26] You might be saying, I don't know if I've ever come across those things.
[00:28:30] You ever had anyone in your family say, hey, we can talk about anything except religion and politics at the table.
[00:28:36] Get them talking about religion and politics at the table and myths and endless genealogy kind of conversations will eventually come up.
[00:28:44] Friends, it might not be books, but it could be YouTube you're watching or TikTok and you're seeing someone. Man, they're a good speaker, man. They're funny, they're clever, man. Way better speaker than Pastor Blake. I can get way more out of this. But man, if you just stare at some of those teachings and some of those videos long enough, you can see right through it. It's stuff and fluff. It's cotton candy. It's American Idol for Jesus. It is a bunch a waste of time.
[00:29:10] And friends, at the end of the day, we need to be bereans who know what the scriptures say and examine everything with it.
[00:29:17] Friends, how can you and I be better discerners to know whether we're hearing a different doctrine or sound doctrine? Let me give you some words of advice. Number one, study church history.
[00:29:28] You don't have to be an expert, but study church history. Christianity wasn't invented by CCBC in 2020.
[00:29:34] Christianity's been around a long time. We stand on the shoulders of giants that have gone before us.
[00:29:39] How can you study church history? Consider Nick Needham's classic church history series, Nick Needham, or maybe even Justin Holcomb's Know the Heretics. That's a smaller volume.
[00:29:51] Or consider studying some of the creeds and councils that we confess here together. The Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, other creeds like it.
[00:29:59] Pick up those doctrines and do a deeper study. They were all surrounding ancient heresies that the church was combating against. So let me give you a classic example. In the 4th century, you have the Nicene Creed 325 that is going against the Arian controversy. Arian was basically or Arius was rather espousing that Jesus was a God, but not Yahweh in human flesh, he was a created being, but he's not eternally God himself.
[00:30:29] Well, in our modern day, who espouses basically Arianism, Jehovah's Witnesses.
[00:30:37] It's just an ancient heresy that's been repackaged. So when they come to your door, you know where it all came from. The church has dealt with this heresy a long time ago.
[00:30:47] Or in a more modern example, consider Andy Stanley at North Point Community Church in Atlanta, Georgia, who had said things publicly, both in sermons and in his books.
[00:30:58] Unhitch yourself from the Old Testament if you want to reach people with the gospel today.
[00:31:05] Now, in a book he wrote a number of years ago, these are verbatim quotes from him, he says this. Would you consider unhitching your teaching of what it means to follow Jesus from all things in the old covenant? This is necessary because when it comes to the stumbling blocks to faith, the Old Testament is right up there at the top of the list. But simply put, when people struggle to believe, it's the Old Testament usually is the culprit at one point, get this, he says, quote, the Ten Commandments have no authority over you. None. To be clear, thou shall not obey the Ten Commandments.
[00:31:40] Now, why am I bringing this up? I'm not picking on Andy Stanley. He's a much better speaker than I am. He's way more engaging.
[00:31:47] This is an ancient heresy that's been repackaged. This is the second century heresy of the Marcion heresy. Marcion rejected the Old Testament. He believed the God of the Old and Jesus of the New are two separate gods. We should literally unhitch ourselves and cut out our Old Testament. I'm not calling him a Marcion follower. I'm just saying an ancient heresy influencing a modern and very popular preacher.
[00:32:12] Now, what is the big deal here?
[00:32:15] The big deal is we must be a people of discernment.
[00:32:19] Don't take my word for anything.
[00:32:23] Examine the Scriptures to see if these things are so. And friends, sound teaching and unsound teaching is not a matter of a cerebral exercise like an exam you're going to take.
[00:32:34] Unsound teaching in time will produce rotten fruit from people's lives. And that's exactly what happened. These people espousing and promoting myths and Jewish genealogies, they were endless. It says they only produced speculation.
[00:32:52] It literally means endless theological tail chasing, constant doubting, constant arguing.
[00:33:00] In other words, it left people unstable.
[00:33:03] It left people uncertain to the point they couldn't even know if anything was true.
[00:33:11] John Stott said, speculation raises doubts while revelation evokes faith.
[00:33:19] Friends, that's why in verse four, Paul says, don't get caught up in all this nonsense, expose it, confront it, and teach sound doctrine. And what is sound doctrine? It is the stewardship from God that is by faith.
[00:33:34] Friends, we do not receive the mail from God and edit it to fit our desires.
[00:33:42] We do not receive the word of God and put words into it or take words out of it that God never did.
[00:33:52] He has a purpose behind every verse, every dot, every tittle for his people throughout redemptive history.
[00:34:00] Your Bible may even say the translation is administration of God or the plan of God.
[00:34:06] The point here is that God's word cannot be tampered with. It's what God has revealed to us to be received by faith, not something we reject and got to edit it so it looks better for our hearers, brothers and sisters, what does sound doctrine, God's revelation actually do to the hearts and the lives of his people?
[00:34:31] Instead of confusion, listen.
[00:34:34] Sound doctrine produces clarity and peace.
[00:34:40] Instead of chaos, sound doctrine produces order and faithfulness to Jesus.
[00:34:48] God's word cannot be twisted, it cannot be muted, it cannot be edited. But. But it must be received by faith.
[00:34:56] And when our faith is built on nothing less than the excellent word, the gospel, the plan of redemption, guess what it will lead to? A rightly ordered life, a rightly ordered ministry, and a rightly ordered heart. And that's precisely what he says in verse five. Look at me in verse five. The aim of our charge, the goal of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
[00:35:26] Look at that. The aim of our charge. This is why he was urgent. This is what he said is most important. He said, timothy, the thing you and I lack apart from God is love for God and love for others.
[00:35:39] Sound doctrine received by faith produces, by the grace of God, love for God, love for his church, love for. Love for people.
[00:35:48] We begin to love what God loves and we begin to hate what God hates.
[00:35:56] You know, one of the most painful things that can happen to our life is when we see someone we looked up to not turn out to be who we thought they were.
[00:36:11] Could be a spouse cheated on you, a leader that lived a double life, a mother or father who lied to their children, an adult child that turned against their parents.
[00:36:30] Friends, the longer I've been following Jesus and the more I keep hearing story after story of tremendous moral failures in the church and outside the church, it rarely Happens because someone made one bad decision.
[00:36:52] A fall was not. I tripped in one decision and I blew it. No, no, no. When people fall into grotesque immorality and hypocrisy, it is because they've made dozens and dozens of compromises in private.
[00:37:14] No one falls into sin. They slide into sin.
[00:37:19] JC Ryle said we may be sure that every men who fall in private long before they fall in public, they are backsliders on their knees long before they backslide openly in in the eyes of the world. That's why Paul now he goes beyond sound doctrine.
[00:37:35] It's not just listen to a sermon, read a good book, follow some famous pastor and go amen. I'm a Reformed Baptist, 1689 can quote it with the best of them, yada yada yada yada. Sound doctrine, good preaching, clear exposition. It always must lead to a transformed heart or it's useless to us.
[00:37:57] Do you hear that? The aim of our charge, Timothy, is you are going to be a hypocrite like them if your love for God's not real.
[00:38:05] Your heart's got to be pure, your conscience has got to be clear, your faith has got to be sincere. And it's got to start with you believing this stuff for yourself.
[00:38:16] So many of us want to change somebody else when we have spent not enough time being changed by God's word ourselves.
[00:38:26] Friends, this is what Paul's after.
[00:38:28] He doesn't want hypocrisy, he wants sincerity in Timothy.
[00:38:33] He doesn't want an impure motives driving Timothy's ministry. He wants a pure motive.
[00:38:41] Friends, sound doctrine, when rightly understood is loving God.
[00:38:46] That's the goal and living sound lives for him.
[00:38:51] John Kitchen says the primary goal of our preaching and teaching ministry is not the imparting of information or merely the increase of knowledge, but the production of love. That love looks outward at others with good motive. That's a pure heart. It looks inward in self judgment at a good conscience and it looks upward at God without ulterior motive. Therefore, those who speak God's word must seek to bring people into an authentic encounter with God through His Word.
[00:39:19] Well, how are we doing at CCBC with that?
[00:39:26] If you're a member here, you've affirmed the statement of faith.
[00:39:30] You've signed the church covenant.
[00:39:33] You recite church covenant vows. I research church covenant vows like we'll do today at the Lord's Supper.
[00:39:39] Here's a better question though.
[00:39:42] Are you walking with Jesus right now?
[00:39:46] You talk with him.
[00:39:49] Are you confessing known sin when your conscience bothers you?
[00:39:54] Are you suppressing it?
[00:39:58] Are you showing up to church? Are you spouting things at Bible studies with ulterior motives?
[00:40:05] Do you and I just want to be seen by men or is this real?
[00:40:12] Now we're talking real, aren't we?
[00:40:15] That's what Paul was doing with Timothy.
[00:40:19] One thing you can do is pray for your elders because leadership matters. It will influence the life of the church.
[00:40:27] As elders, we meet once a month and we pray for members of the church. We work through pastoral counseling situations. We also study doctrine and theology. We examine church practices in our ministries here. We also talk about ways that we're struggling, ways that we're sinning, ways that we need each other's help.
[00:40:46] Friends, why do we do that?
[00:40:48] Well, if Satan is going to attack a church and really do damage to it, generally speaking, he's going after the leaders and their families.
[00:40:57] The leaders and their families. And so it is crucial that, that we are walking in holiness. It's crucial that our families are walking in holiness. And we need your prayers and encouragement to do that. And I praise God, we have a church that. I know you're praying for me. I know you're praying for our elders. You're a wonderful church to pastor. Just don't get complacent. We are not exempt, just like you aren't. We too need a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.
[00:41:25] Friends also pray that we would be clear in our sermons, clear in our teaching. If you've got a question about something we've taught that's off, wrong or confusing, ask a clarifying question. Don't assume the worst. Don't write us off as heretics. Ask a follow up question. We could be wrong. Need to go. Yep, got that wrong. Said that wrong. I know I've said things in sermons wrong. I feel it as soon as I walk to the door. So it's a part of how we grow.
[00:41:50] Pray that we would be bold to confront false teaching and those who bring it into this congregation.
[00:41:57] I'll be honest with you, I'm not going to go through every story. I want you to feel safe and secure and loved here. But yeah, there are definitely some wolves that have tried to get in here and they've tried to show up in the membership class. And I make it abundantly clear about what we believe and teach. And I make it abundantly clear about church discipline here. And it's run a few of them off, but they like to come on back and some hard conversations got to have.
[00:42:21] Years ago we had one guy leaving Pamphlets in the lobby. I don't think he meant anything malicious, but it was garbage. It was garbage. It was eschatology. Ah, biblical. I mean, it was just ridiculous.
[00:42:32] So in the membership classes, pray that we be clear. There are people that have come here that have believed in things like annihilationalism, you know, denying eternal conscious torment. I said, well, you can't join our church. I'm happy to teach you on that. We've had others believe in full preterism show up here, which denies the bodily resurrection of Jesus or not the bodily resurrection, the bodily return of Jesus and the bodily resurrection of us.
[00:42:55] Those are things that are undercutting the ancient creeds and councils of the Bible. So I've had to have hard conversations that some went well, some didn't. But that's to protect the unity in this church and the sound doctrine we teach. There's plenty of other things we could talk about.
[00:43:09] Here's my main point. Pray that your elders would be patient with the sheep and courageous with the wolves.
[00:43:19] Mike Whitmer said briers and wolves are both detrimental to sheep, but not in the same way. Wise shepherds are gentle with the sheep. They gently guide the sheep away from dense thickets, whereas they shoot the wolves dead.
[00:43:35] Pray for us to be kind and patient, but also courageous and bold. And I want to admonish all of us and encourage us. We are a congregational church. Guess what that means? We're equipping the saints to be bold for sound doctrine as well.
[00:43:52] Well, then, in verses seven and eight, how bad, how detrimental was it to these people espousing this? Myths and lies and figment of their imagination and endless genealogies. Look at verses 7 and 8.
[00:44:08] Certain persons listen to this by swerving from these. What is the these there?
[00:44:13] It's a pure heart, it's a good conscience, and it's a sincere faith. Have wandered away into vain discussion desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
[00:44:29] Did anyone read that this week and just think that's sad and hilarious all at the same time?
[00:44:35] These guys wanted to be the teacher.
[00:44:38] They wanted to be in the eldership.
[00:44:40] They wanted to be the next Paul or Timothy. They're desiring to be teachers of the law. And here's what Paul says.
[00:44:48] They had no idea what they were talking about.
[00:44:51] It'd be like me trying to be like Brett and being a master carpenter. Don't hire me to build anything for you.
[00:44:58] Hire Brett. But if I said I Am the carpenter of all carpenters. And I'm more than a carpenter. Okay, that's a terrible joke. But the point is, if you look at my work, you look at my track record, I don't know what I'm talking about. Talk to Julie. She's been married to me. Oops, she's laughing. There it is.
[00:45:16] That's what these guys are doing. They want to teach. They don't even know what they're talking about. They have confident assertions. Their head is this big.
[00:45:24] But really, there's not a whole lot in there.
[00:45:27] They came off as know it alls.
[00:45:30] Who knew nothing.
[00:45:32] Pray that CCBC would never have leaders and teachers leading you with that description.
[00:45:39] And what an indictment on so many churches that do.
[00:45:45] Paul's first urgent plea. Timothy, stay put and keep doing what God's called you to do.
[00:45:53] Paul had a second urgent plea, which was really a byproduct of the first one.
[00:45:58] In essence, he says, love the glory of God more than the glory of man.
[00:46:04] Now, after renouncing the false teaching that had crept into the church, which led to controversy, trivial distractions, Paul had Timothy to deal with the problem head on, deal with the problem maker, deal with the problems themselves, the ideas, the teachings, and correct it with the truth.
[00:46:27] In other words, rightly teach sound doctrine which is consistent with the law of God and how it was meant to lead us to Christ, our only righteousness.
[00:46:40] Look at me. In verse 8, he says how we know Paul saying, hey, Timothy, you got the truth, man. We know that the law. This is speaking of the Ten Commandments, but really the Mosaic law is. And all the Old Testament. Andy Stanley ought to read that sometime.
[00:46:55] By implication, it's good. He says, if one uses it lawfully, if you understand the Old Testament rightly.
[00:47:05] He says that the law is not laid down for the just or the righteous. In other words, those who think they are a good person, those who don't really need a savior.
[00:47:16] No, it's not laid down for those is for those who realize by the law they are not righteous, they are not just. And then he lists all these people, all these types of sinners. Notice what he says? It's been laid down. It's actually laid against the lawless and disobedient, the ungodly and sinners, the unholy and profane, those who strike their fathers and mothers and murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
[00:47:54] Friends, you could do a long word study on all these terms. The lawless, they live as if God never gave us a law to obey.
[00:48:02] The law is laid against those who don't want to have anyone enforce rules upon them. The disobedient are those who don't want to have anyone tell them what to do.
[00:48:12] The ungodly and sinners. They love rebellion. There's no fear of God in their eyes.
[00:48:17] Paul would say in Romans that we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We are all by nature and by choice, sinners.
[00:48:26] We are also unholy and profane. He says, those who lack genuine piety, those who are ceremonially unclean, profane even has the idea of vulgar off color speech or actions. Those who strike their fathers and mothers. Here Paul is raising one of the ten Commandments. Honor your father and mother. Again, Scripture tells us in the Old Testament, if you were to strike your parents, you would be put to death.
[00:48:52] He also mentions murderers, those who take innocent life.
[00:48:57] Friends, it's not just children who have murdered their parents, but also parents who have murdered their children.
[00:49:05] Think of the Lindsey Chancey case right now. The absolute abomination going on in that courtroom where people want to vindicate someone who has slaughtered their own children.
[00:49:16] Next he talks about the laws laid against the sexual immoral and those who practice homosexuality.
[00:49:22] Sometimes people say, is God anti gay? God's anti sin.
[00:49:27] God's anti unbelief. Unbelief's the root of homosexuality. Unbelief's the root of pornography. We're looking for pleasure and fulfillment and identity in our sexuality and not in God. It's all sin. Ultimately, because we reject God.
[00:49:41] Every type of sinful perversion in the scriptures is condemned outside of sex between one man and one woman in the covenant of marriage. He also speaks of enslavers, man stealers, kidnappers. This is of course condemning what happened to the Hebrews under Pharaoh.
[00:49:56] This is certainly condemned what happened in Europe and America through the 16th and 19th centuries of race based chattel transatlantic slave trade.
[00:50:05] All of that is forbidden in Scripture.
[00:50:08] He also goes on to say the law is laid against liars and perjurers, those who represent more like Satan than God. They twist things, they pervert things, they hide the truth and propagate lies.
[00:50:20] Paul then takes all of these things and as Alex said earlier, for Romans, if you know the law and use it lawfully, the law is good, the law is holy, the law is right.
[00:50:39] If we were just to keep the law. If Adam and Eve would have just obeyed God in the garden, they would have experienced life, life, life. But once they took from that fruit and they believed the lie, they experienced death and shame and slavery. And that's what happens to us.
[00:51:00] See, the law, Paul says, promised life because it's good can never give us life because we're bad.
[00:51:09] It's only good because God gave it.
[00:51:12] But the law condemns sinners who have impure hearts and dirty consciences and hypocritical faith. And guess what? That's really bad news for you and me, because that's who we are.
[00:51:26] The law of God is a schoolmaster. It's a tutor to drive us to the ground, to drive us into powder. So the only thing we can look up is see the righteousness of Jesus, the perfections of Jesus, the acceptance of God through Jesus. Because he kept the law, he taught the law, he interpreted the law. And in the law's punishment for sin, he took it on for us.
[00:51:52] The lawgiver, the lawmaker was judged under the law for the ungodly, for the sinner, for the homosexuality, for the fornicating, for the lying, for the perjuring, for our impure hearts. He died for all of those sins, and he died for all of us who would repent of those sins and look to Him.
[00:52:12] Friends, if you think you're going to make it to heaven because you tried hard and you did more good than bad, you got a really rude awakening coming. God looks at our hearts, he looks at our conscience, and he looks at our faith. And if we don't have the righteousness of Jesus imputed to us and adopted in his family by grace through faith, we will be condemned.
[00:52:33] Friends, I lived in Washington, D.C. for four and a half years.
[00:52:36] I may not know a ton about everything that went on in the city, but I do know this. If you walk up to the White House and you try to jump that fence and you think you can outrun everyone to go meet President Trump or whoever you want to meet, there's one of two things happening.
[00:52:53] You about to get tackled or shot.
[00:52:59] You see, it doesn't matter what I say about going to the White House.
[00:53:03] If I try to go in there and meet President Trump or whoever it is, I'm not going to be allowed.
[00:53:11] But whoever the President is, whether it's Trump or someone else, if they say, I know Blake Boylston, let him in, makes the whole difference, doesn't it?
[00:53:19] The only way we're going to make it to Heaven is because we belong to Jesus.
[00:53:24] He looks at you and me and says, he's with me.
[00:53:28] She's with me.
[00:53:31] That's grace.
[00:53:33] That's why the law is good and the law condemns to drive us to Christ.
[00:53:41] Friends, if you want to know more about what that would look like for you, come speak with me after the service. Love to talk more about that, friend. Sound doctrine is not an end, and of itself it flows to and flows from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:54:00] Look at verse 11.
[00:54:02] He says, if anything's taught contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the Gospel of the blessed God, of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.
[00:54:16] If sound doctrine is rightly interpreting God's truth, then why is the Gospel the fountainhead from which all truth comes from?
[00:54:33] Notice again what Paul says here. It's fascinating.
[00:54:37] In accordance with the Gospel, which means the good news about Christ, of the glory of the blessed God with which I've been entrusted.
[00:54:50] This is how it literally reads.
[00:54:52] What is good news for sinners who break God's law?
[00:54:57] The Gospel of the glory of the blessed God.
[00:55:03] The good news is God's glory.
[00:55:07] The good news is God's glory revealed in the person and face of Jesus Christ.
[00:55:17] And notice he is the blessed God.
[00:55:22] Some of your translations could even rightly say the happy God.
[00:55:27] John Piper says, a great part of God's glory is his happiness, an essential part of what makes the gospel the death and resurrection of Christ. Good news is that God.
[00:55:38] It reels that God is infinitely joyful. No one would want to spend eternity with an unhappy God. If God were unhappy, then the goal of the gospel would not be a happy goal. And that means it would be no gospel at all. Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a supremely joyful God when he says to us what he will say at the end of the age. Enter into the joy of your Master.
[00:56:01] Last night Julie and I had the LSU and Clemson game on.
[00:56:06] It was pretty lopsided and I told Julie, I said, I think LSU's one of the biggest stadiums in the country. When I was an avid college football fan and I looked it up to see if that was still true. And they are. They're number five.
[00:56:21] But there are stadiums bigger than LSU. LSU's stadium can fit 102,000, 321 people.
[00:56:28] Guys, that's way bigger than Fort Smith.
[00:56:31] Michigan boasts number one.
[00:56:35] They can house 107,601 people to watch a two to three hour football game.
[00:56:44] Now you don't have to like or know anything about football. And you're like, good, cause I don't like that.
[00:56:52] But if you want to have like a psychologist mindset or an analytical mindset or a discerning Christian mindset, watch the football game, the before and during and just pay attention to the fans.
[00:57:07] You don't have to know a lick about football to understand something about football by watching the fans.
[00:57:15] The fans are loud, the fans are mad. The fans are happy. The fans, some of them are inebriated.
[00:57:24] Regardless, they have centered their entire night, some of them for days leading up to it and hours leading up to it, to center and behold 22 sweaty teenagers beating each other up for a game. You don't understand what are they doing.
[00:57:46] They are beholding something they find glorious.
[00:57:50] They are beholding something that makes them happy.
[00:57:54] You know what the good news is for Christians? When the law brings us to our knees, our hearts are exposed, our lives are exposed. But when we see that Christ, the end of the law, is Christ, the righteousness of Christ is, has been given to us. We enter into the eternal presence of God, into the joy of the happy God, Father, Son and Spirit. Not because of anything we've done, but because we belong to Him.
[00:58:24] A church that really understands the joyful, happy God we serve will turn into a happy and joyful church that the unbelieving world goes. I want some of that.
[00:58:39] Our joy in the Lord will always be determined by what we are beholding. It's either our performance or the finished work of Christ for us.
[00:58:51] So, brothers and sisters, what should you want in your leadership here?
[00:59:03] What did Paul want for Timothy and the leadership in Ephesus?
[00:59:10] Michael Reeves recently spoke to a group of pastors at Grace Community Church.
[00:59:15] Pretty well known church.
[00:59:17] It's where the late John MacArthur pastored for over five decades.
[00:59:22] Michael Reeves got up in the pulpit and he spoke to the pastors and he said this. Brothers, what is the greatest need of the shepherds of Christ Church today?
[00:59:33] Is it biblical orthodoxy? Is it scriptural knowledge? Is it the ability to teach? Well, of course, those are essential. The word of God is the manna on which the people of God thrive.
[00:59:45] And yet you can have all those things and have a catastrophic problem.
[00:59:49] For there is something fundamentally necessary for all shepherds.
[00:59:54] There is something you can lack even when people applaud you for your mastery of scripture and your ability in the pulpit. It is a quality. It is a disposition picked out for us in John's Gospel. It is a yearning, it is a love for the glory of Christ.
[01:00:13] That's what you should want from me, that I would be happy and glad and joyful, beholding, staring and exulting in Jesus.
[01:00:25] And that's what you should want for yourself.
[01:00:28] That's what you should want for this church. That's what we should want for everyone. We share the good news of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[01:00:40] Read the gospel sometime.
[01:00:42] When Jesus healed the leper, when he raised the dead to life, when he healed the sick, it says the people marveled, the people were astonished and they glorified God because they were staring at the glory of God in human flesh.
[01:01:05] The goal of sound doctrine is loving God and living to please him.
[01:01:15] Friends, how are you and I reflecting these gospel priorities in our life today?
[01:01:22] It might mean stay put and keep doing what God has called you to do.
[01:01:28] Be an agent of change, an instrument of righteousness like Timothy would be in Ephesus.
[01:01:35] And love the glory of God far more than the glory of man.
[01:01:40] Because Christ is the great and sure fulfillment of the law.
[01:01:44] And in him we stand.
[01:01:47] Let's pray.
[01:01:51] Heavenly Father, we pray that you would open our eyes to how joyful and happy you are towards all of us through your son.
[01:02:01] Lord, we praise you that the love that you show your son is a love that now you have invited us in to experience and enjoy with you.
[01:02:10] Father, we pray that when we hear sound doctrine or when we face false doctrine, or even just myths and trivial things that distract us from the gospel, Lord, help us be discerning. Help us be kind and patient with those who are learning. Help us be courageous and bold with those who are leading others astray.
[01:02:29] Or make your people here at CCBC make me happy and joyful in you, our happy God. It's in Jesus name we pray.
[01:02:37] Amen.
