Turn with me, if you would, to
1 Timothy 1. 1 Timothy 1. I feel like I have an important
Bible study for us this morning, an important Sunday school lesson,
as some people call it. Very important. We've been going
through First Timothy on Wednesday nights. Mainly, we've had a few
messages from here. We're going to look at verses
three and four today. Let's begin reading in verse
one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God, our Savior, and Lord Jesus Christ,
which is our hope. Unto Timothy, my own son in the
faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God, our Father, and Jesus
Christ, our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still
at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest
charge some that they teach no other doctrine, neither give
heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather
than godly edifying which is in faith, so do." Paul said,
Timothy, As I urged you to do this, do this." That's what he
said. Timothy was the first pastor
of the church at Ephesus. First pastor to the Ephesians. And he was traveling with Paul.
And when Paul went into Macedonia, he asked Timothy to stay at Ephesus
for the purpose of preaching and instructing the brethren
there in the one and only true doctrine that there is, the one
and only true gospel that there is. He said, don't give heed
to fables or endless genealogies. And he said, here's the reason
why. They only bring confusing questions. rather than godly
edifying, which is in faith. Verse three, he said, I besought
thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that
thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine,
neither give heed to fables. In endless genealogies, which
minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith.
He said, Timothy, don't give heed to fables. That means don't
give any attention to. That's what heed means. Don't
give any attention to. Don't spend your precious time
setting forth, trying to expose fables. A fable is a lie. That's what a fable is. It's
a fictional story. A story that's not true. That's
what false religion is. That is what false religion is.
False religion takes place when a man stands up in a pulpit and
tells men and women things that are not true. That's what false
religion is. Men stand up and tell things
that are not true. And there really is something
for us to learn in this, whether we are preaching or listening
to the gospel, it doesn't matter, either way. preaching or listening
to the gospel. This is something we really ought
to get a hold of when it comes to the declaration of the gospel. We do not need to spend our precious
time focusing on the lies of false religion. Obviously, If we're listening
to a man preach lies, then we don't need to give any heed to
that. Get out. I can't tell you how many times
I have heard people say, I attend here, and no, they don't exactly
preach the truth, but you know, it's convenient, I've always
gone there, my family goes there, I like it there, there's a little
bit of truth in it, so I just get that, I throw the rest away.
No sir, get out. Get out. Don't give heed to it. Do not give heed to it. Do not
listen to error. It will only harm you. Sometimes
we believers, I've done it too, we will pull up on TV, sermon
audio, whatever it may be, error, and we'll listen to it so we
can go, see, you hear that? That's wrong. That will not profit
you. That may harm you. Don't do it. Just don't do it. As soon as
you realize this is lies, don't give heed to it. But the thing about this is Paul
is talking about the context of preaching the truth. He's
talking to Timothy, instructing those in the truth. And he said,
we don't need to give our heed. We don't need to give our time
and our attention to fables. There's a saying that has been
passed down through the generations concerning preaching. True preaching. And the saying goes like this. You don't have to spend your
time exposing the crooked stick. Just lay down the straight stick
right next to it and the crooked stick will be exposed. Does that
make sense? That's something I need to remember.
And all of us who preach and all of us who hear, that means
everybody here, that's something we all need to remember. We're
not called to give our heed to fables. I need to remember that
for the good of God's sheep and for the good of myself. We're
not called to give ourself to fables. We're called to give
ourselves to truth. Let's focus on the truth and
put all our emphasis on the truth. Truth, truth, truth. I heard
one time that the way banks teach their tellers to spot counterfeit
money is they only let them handle real money. As soon as it doesn't
feel like real money, they know that's counterfeit. Let's focus on the truth. As
we preach the truth of Christ clearly, the lies on Christ will
be exposed. They will be exposed. If we're
not careful, it's possible for us to spend all of our time preaching
against the lies on Christ. This is possible. I've heard
it and I fear I've done it. But it is possible and in preaching
against these lies, we're telling people the truth. We are, but
may God let us understand what this means. It is possible to
spend all of our time preaching against the lies on Christ and
never get around to preaching the truth on Christ. Just preaching
against, can you believe that? And can you believe that? And
can you believe? We need to hear the truth about Christ. That's
what feeds God's people and lifts up God's people and edifies God's
people. Lies are exposed in the preaching
of the gospel. They just are. We're exposing
error all the time, but we just need to make sure that that's
not the only thing we're exposing. We need to expose Christ, the
truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must set him forth. We just
must. It would be a crying shame for
us to stand up here for 30 minutes, whipping goats. Do we know, we
understand what, our Lord referred to, uh, those who are not His
people, unbelievers who are not His people, as goats. And He
referred to those who are His people, believers, as sheep. And it would be a cry in shame
for us to spend our precious time whipping goats and not ever
getting around to feeding sheep. Our Lord, whenever He asked Peter,
He said, Do you love Me? And Peter said, yea, Lord, I
do. You know, he asked him three
times and it convicted Peter, but Peter said, I do. The Lord
didn't say to him, then Peter, go whip goats. He didn't say
that. He said, you go feed my sheep.
You go feed them. You make sure you go out and
preach the one thing that will feed their souls. What he was
saying was teach no other doctrine. That's what he was saying. Teach
no other doctrine. Verse 4, neither give heed to
fables and endless genealogies, generations, events, times, seasons
that Men get so hung up on sometimes. He said, they just minister questions
rather than godly edifying, which is in faith. Do not get hung
up on these things, he said. They're insignificant things.
And they only distract from godly edifying in faith. Godly edifying
in faith is when the preaching points men and women to Christ. That's what godly edifying in
faith is. If you hear a man preach and
come to the end of the message, you walk away with nothing but
confusion and questions. Something's wrong. I'm not saying
that a person has never heard the truth and the Lord doesn't
bring confusion and questions to them. But that's different,
that's because they clearly understand what was being said. I'm talking
about if you listen to a man and you don't have any idea what
this man's talking about, something's wrong. I find that when men do not know
what they're talking about in any subject, especially in preaching,
I find that when men do not know what they're talking about, they
become masters at confusing people. This is what I have found. They
will, you know, this is what we ought to be focusing on, but
what they'll do is they'll bring everybody's attention over here
and they'll say, now if you want to get to this, you're going
to have to start over here. And we're going to have to talk
about this for a minute. But you're never going to understand this
until we get to know something about this over here. And they
get people so confused and running around in circles. They'll say
words and things that make you think they know what they're
talking about. What they're doing is they're trying to convince
you that whatever it is they're talking about is so deep, it's
gonna take you a while to catch on and catch up to their knowledge.
There's something wrong with that. There's something wrong
with that. The only knowledge that we need
to know takes no time to grasp. Christ. Christ. People come, hopefully, with
questions. Eternal questions. People come,
hopefully, searching for the one thing needful for life after
this earth. Eternal life. They come wanting
to know, what's the answer? Because you all are saying it's
baptism. And you all are saying it's tongues. And you all are
saying it's whatever. What is it? Christ. How's this gonna happen? People
see themselves and they go, how is this gonna happen? Christ. How can a sinful man be justified
before a holy God? Christ. Where's my assurance? Christ. Where's my wisdom? Where's my righteousness? Where's
my sanctification? Where's my redemption? Christ.
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's it. Christ, that's it. That's godly edifying, which
is in faith. That's the declaration that points
men to Christ and lifts up Christ and lifts men up to Christ. Christ. Paul said, Timothy, when you
get to Ephesus, you only preach one thing. If men and women are
having marital trouble, what do they need? Christ. Financial trouble, what do you
need? Christ. Whatever the problem is, Christ. Preach Christ, preach Christ,
preach Christ. He said, you only preach one
thing. And he said, you charge the brethren
there who teach and the brethren who hear and the brethren who
believe to look to one thing, Christ. Teach no other doctrine. And this is important. This is
really important. I would love for us to really
get a hold of this. I think you'll find a nice simplicity
in this. He did not say, Timothy, teach
no other doctrines. There is only one true doctrine. He said, teach no other doctrine.
There's only one true doctrine. I do not have a problem at all. I want to make it very clear
that I don't have a problem at all with the phrase, the doctrines
of grace. Most everyone here has heard
that phrase. People have been using that term
for centuries now. describe the truth regarding
God and the truth regarding man and the truth regarding salvation,
the doctrines of grace. I don't have a problem with that
phrase. I don't really have a problem with that term, as long as we
understand that that term is not in the Bible. That's not
a scriptural term. That is a man-made term. And
in the scripture, every time the word doctrines, plural, is
used, it is always in reference to false religion. Always. Always in reference to man's
error, man's made-up teaching, man's fables. Always. Every time
the word is used in reference to the truth, it's singular doctrine. Paul said, teach no other doctrine. I wanna show you that. I want
you to see that with your own two eyes. Turn with me to 1 Timothy
4. 1 Timothy 4, verse one. It says, now the Spirit speaketh
expressly That in the latter times, some shall depart from
the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Doctrine means teaching. It means
words. That's what it means. And he
said, be careful of the teaching of this kind and the teaching
of that kind, doctrines. Well, you have all of these doctrines. Hebrews 13 calls them divers
and strange doctrines, different doctrines. Look with me at Colossians
chapter two. Colossians 2 verse 20 says, wherefore
if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why
as though living in the world are you subject to ordinances?
Touch not, taste not, handle not, which people say that all
the time. You better touch not, you better
taste not, you better handle not. He said, why are you subject
to that? Verse 22, which are all to perish
with the using after the commandments and doctrines of men. He said, men made that teaching
up, not God. Look with me at Mark chapter
seven. Verse five, Mark seven, verse
five says, then the Pharisees and scribes asked him why walk
not bad disciples according to the tradition of the elders. And that's how a false religion
walks just according to the tradition of the elders. He said, why walk
not bad disciples according to the tradition of the elders,
but eat bread with unwashing hands. He answered and said unto
them, Well hath Isaiah prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written,
This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." The false,
wrong fables of men. He said that's their doctrines.
Every time the word is used in a plural way, it's in a negative
way, referring to error and lies. This is how the scripture refers
to true doctrine. All right, let me show you a
couple here that refer to true doctrine. Turn to Acts 13. Acts 13 verse 12, then the deputy, when he saw
what was done, believed being astonished at the doctrine of
the Lord, the doctrine of the Lord. Look at Titus 2. Titus 2. Verse 10 says, but showing all good fidelity,
that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things."
The doctrine of God our Savior. Who is that? That's the same
person as the Lord. The doctrine of the Lord, the
doctrine of God our Savior, to put it plainly, go with me to
2 John, just before Revelation. 2 John, there's one chapter in
2 John. Verse 9. whosoever transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. He that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God speed. This doctrine, the doctrine of
Christ, there's only one. There's only one. There's only
one thing to preach, one thing to teach, one thing to know,
Christ, the Lord. God our Savior. Paul said, I
have determined, and I love that, that means I've made the conscious
decision. I've thought about it, I've prayed
about it, and the Lord has just settled my heart on this. I have
determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. His life, His death, His body,
His blood, His willingness, His accomplishment, His success,
His mercy, His grace, His compassion, His forgiveness, His everything,
His right, His sovereignty, His glory, His honor, His praise. The common denominator in all
that is Him. Him. Paul said, Timothy, that's our
doctrine. If you want to get right down
to it, what's our doctrine? Y'all are sovereign grace. What's
your doctrine? Christ. Jesus Christ. This is what Paul said. We preach
Christ. we preach the person and the
work and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are there five
points involved? Sure there are. We are totally
depraved sinners. Therefore, God the Father had
to unconditionally elect us. We are totally depraved sinners.
It had to be an unconditional election. And Christ particularly
redeemed all of the souls the Father elected because they're
one. They're not two. They're not going to go against
each other. And God the Spirit is one with them and is going
to call every one of them. Christ didn't do anything in
vain. Christ wouldn't redeem someone and the Spirit say, I
will just leave that one there. There's no possible way God's
people are not going to make it to glory. Absolutely. Are
there three R's involved in what we preach? Yes, man was ruined
by the fall, redeemed by the blood, regenerated by the spirit. God's people were all of those
things, but here's the thing about it. When you get right
down to it, we preach Christ. We preach a person. We're not
preaching doctrines. And we're not preaching opinions. It's not about John Gill, John
Calvin, or John the Baptist. It's about Jesus Christ. I love
all three of those men. It's not about them. It's about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is possible. And I know
I've got to stop and I'm done. But it is possible. We have to
know this. It is possible to get a hold
of some points of doctrine and still miss Christ. A man
can grab hold of election so hard, he misses Christ, because
he's so focused on election, he just isn't even looking to
Jesus Christ. It's possible. Getting a hold of election is
not salvation. Jesus Christ getting a hold of
me is salvation. He's our doctrine. By His grace,
we won't get sidetracked on anything else. By His grace, by His doing,
we won't get sidetracked on fables, endless genealogies. When all
that comes in, we're gonna say, nope, we're determined. By God's
grace, He has determined us to teach no other doctrine. Him,
Him alone, He's our doctrine. And that's, if we can get ahold
of that, hopefully we'll walk out with a very clear understanding
of what the point of this was. Christ is our doctrine. Okay.
You're dismissed.