1 Timothy and then 2 Timothy.
You know, one of the comforting thoughts as Craig was praying,
he mentioned the trials that are upon us now. And the thought
just hit me when he said that, when you said that, is these
things are appointed of God before creation. Before we were ever
born, that was appointed, whatever it is, for me and for you. Isn't
that comforting? Things don't just happen. I'm so glad of that. I'm so thankful
that these things do not just happen. God appointed them for
us, for our good and His glory. And that was such a comforting
thought when I heard Greg mention that. 1 Timothy chapter 1, the title
of the lesson, Teach No Other Doctrine. Teach No Other Doctrine. And I can say it like this, teach
no other gospel. No other gospel, because all
the doctrine is in the gospel. We call it doctrines, the doctrines
of grace. It's really the doctrine of grace.
We speak of laws, but with God it's law. To offend in one point
of the law is to break the whole law. With God it's one law, though
it may have many precepts, it's still only one law. So here with
this in mind, teach no other doctrine, let's look at the first
11 verses. Now Paul had been writing to
the churches, church at Ephesus, Thessalonica, Colossians, he'd
been writing to the churches. But now he writes to a young
man named Timothy, whom he counted as his son in the faith, that
is, He was brought to faith under the ministry of Paul. You know,
one time, one time Henry was speaking and he looked over at
me and I don't remember the exact message, but I remember this
statement. He said, John is my son in faith. And that's the
truth. Timothy, Paul counted him as
his son. God had begotten him under the
ministry of Paul. And I wrote this down just before
coming out here. I thought every pastor needs
a Timothy. What a blessing. Every pastor
needs a Timothy. Someone he can rely on. And it's
a real blessing when God gives such a person. Now he wrote this
to instruct and encourage him in the ministry. God's ministers
need encouragement because they are in a warfare. Look in verse
18. Paul says, This charge I commit
unto thee, son Timothy. What a tender way to address
him. According to the prophecies which
went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. We are in a warfare, and especially
the one who stands in the pulpit, because that's the one Satan
wants to take out more than anybody. It is. You become a leader. I told this to Billy, I think
Thursday, you become a leader, you've got a target on your back
and on your front. You don't have it just on your
back. You've got a target on you. When you become a leader,
you become the target. And in this spiritual warfare,
the pastors, the preachers are Satan's target. You are too,
but he wants to take the man in the pulpit out of the pulpit.
Now, here's what Paul is saying to Timothy, basically, like Solomon
said in Proverbs, he says, Son, give me thine heart. And when
Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, that's the attitude Paul wrote
it with. Give me thine heart, listen to
me. Give real attention to what I
am writing to you, the instructions I'm giving you. Now Paul states
that he is an apostle in verse 1. And he does this not to let
Timothy know, or to use it in such a way that, Timothy, I'm
an apostle, now you do what I say. He's saying this for the benefit
of Timothy, that others will pay attention to him, that Paul
has laid his hand on Timothy. The apostle Paul to the Gentiles
has put his hand on Timothy. Now, you give Timothy some attention. You listen to him. I told Henry
this one time, and it dawned on me after a few years sitting
there, I said, Henry, I realize now, And this made him cringe,
he went like that. I said, I realize now that you
have to be very careful who you put in the pulpit because people
believe that whoever you put in the pulpit, that whatever
they say is right. And man, he went like that. I didn't mean
it to sting it, but it's true. It's true. You have to be careful
with that because somebody's gonna believe you. And also,
let me say this, some men's approval means something. You know that?
When Paul and them laid their hands on a person, that meant
something. You know, if a man is called
to the ministry, It means something when those who've been in the
ministry for a good while, who are just right standing with
the gospel, with the church, it means something to have their
approval. You know, I have a certificate signed by Scott Richardson, I
think Henry, seemed like there's somebody else. And that's sad,
I can't even remember who somebody else is. But there are signatures
on that. That means something. It means
something to me. And it ought to mean something
to the church. So when Paul puts his hand on Timothy here, it
means something. An apostle's doing this. And
Paul's apostleship was by the commandment of God our Savior
and Lord Jesus Christ. They don't operate independently.
Jesus Christ is God also, which is our hope. Our hope. You know most people have some
kind of hope of being saved when this life is over. But the only
hope that any sinner has for being saved is the one that God
has given, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ Himself in His person
is our hope. It is written in Colossians 1.27,
to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory. Christ is my hope of glory. My
hope sits at God's right hand right now. My hope is seated
in glory at God's right hand. My hope is making intercession
for me. My hope died for me. My hope provided a righteous
for me. That's my hope. My hope is in Jesus Christ, Him
alone. My hope is not, Lord, I preached
in your name, cast out devils in your name, done many mighty
works in your name. That's not my hope. And that's
not the hope of anyone whom God has saved. Jesus Christ is, in Him alone. And God has given us this good
hope in Christ through His grace. through His grace. We didn't
earn it. We didn't even ask for it. He
gave it to us. He gave it to us. He gave this
to us in the covenant of grace before the world began. He gave
it to us. This hope was given to me before
I even knew about it. And Christ is our hope. Let me
say this. It jumped out at me this morning. He's our hope in His person.
First, as God. We call Him the God-man, don't
we? We don't call Him the man-God.
We don't call Him the man-God, we call Him the God-man. And
here's why. In Jeremiah 17, 5, "'Cursed is
he that trusteth in man.'" If Jesus Christ is only a man, it
is a curse to trust Him. You're cursed of God. If He's
not God, you're cursed of God for trusting Him if He's just
a man. That's why the Lord said to that
man, that young ruler, when he came and he called him good master,
He said, why callest thou me good? He is good because He's
God. But if you don't understand that,
then all you're saying is that you're just a good man. He's more than just a good man.
He's the God man. But yet he is a real man. A real
man kept the law and satisfied justice. A real man did that.
A real man. A real man died the death I deserve
to die. A real man died in my place. A real man was put to death,
executed under the law of God in my place. And not my place
only, but for a multitude of sinners no man could number.
A real man was put to death. A real man suffered at the hands
of justice. A real man rose from the grave.
A real man touched me. He said, a spirit has not flesh
and bones. He didn't say blood. He shed
his blood. The life of the flesh is in what?
The blood. But not his life. His life is
in the Spirit. And the life of his flesh is
in the Spirit. As a real man, he is seated in
glory at God's right hand. There's a real man seated in
glory right now, in heaven, in the Holy of Holies, at God's
right hand, making intercessions for us this morning. As we sit
here, as I stand here, We don't realize how much sin's going
on, do we? We don't realize it. And yet,
through His intercession, our worship is accepted. You know
that? Our worship is accepted through
Him this morning, who sits there and makes intercession for them. Now, verse 3, Paul had Timothy
to stay at Ephesus when he went into Macedonia. This is how much
confidence Paul had in Timothy. He left him there while he went
to Macedonia to put a stop to some who were teaching the keeping
of the law along with faith in Christ. They were trying to combine
the two, put the two together. We went through this in Galatians.
But you know how prevalent this was in the early church? It's
just this preaching of the keeping of the law. Now, in our day,
it just takes on a different face. It just takes on a different
face than back in that day. Depends on where you live. You
go over there now, it'd still be the same way. But it depends
on where you live. Here in our day, it's Arminianism.
It's accept Jesus as your personal savior. It's just one thing and
another, but it's not Christ alone. It's not grace alone.
They mention grace because you can't say you preach the gospel
and not mention grace. They use the same Bible we use.
They use the same words we use, they just apply them differently. So Paul left Timothy there in
Ephesus while he went to Macedonia to put a stop to them, to stand
against them, to defend the church. Because this can't be tolerated
for a minute. Grace and works can't be tolerated
for a minute. Not for a second. Not for a second. It's either
all of grace or it's all of works. But we know this, God has taught
us, we know this, our election is all of grace, isn't it? There's
not a thing about me and you that moved God to choose us. Not a thing. The whole matter
is found in God Almighty. It's found in Him. Our calling
is all of grace. He called us by His grace. Our
new birth is all of grace. It's by the sovereign grace of
God that you and I were born again. And the final glory is
all of grace. The final end. When we come to
our end, the whole journey has been all of grace. Never at any time did we perfect
this by the works of the flesh, or did we ever add to it. It's
all of grace. It's all of grace. Now he says here in verse 4 of
1 Timothy here, he says, Well, in verse 3, that's where I got
my title here. He said, "...that you might charge
some that they teach no other doctrine, they preach no other
gospel." That's what he's saying, they preach no other gospel.
We saw this in Galatians, where Paul said, there's only one gospel.
You say, that's too dogmatic. No, we're only as dogmatic as
the Word of God is. There is only one gospel, and
God only saves by one gospel. Only one. There's only one truth,
and God only saves by one truth. And he charges Timothy here that
they teach no other doctrine, no other gospel, no other revealed
truth. God has revealed the truth to
us. And that's what we stick with. That's what we stay with,
is the truth. And don't give in in verse four.
And don't give in to their endless genealogies and fables. And they
had a lot of them. Boy, no one on this earth has
kept genealogies except for maybe the Mormons a second. They've
kept a lot. But the Jews, boy, they kept
their genealogy. They can trace their way back
all the way back to Abraham. It's funny, they never went back
to Adam. Isn't it? I'm like, why'd you stop at Abraham? It was like, well, we'd be in
trouble if we go past that. Yeah, you're right. You go all
the way to the garden and you'll find out why you need Jesus Christ.
You'll find out why you need a savior if you'll trace your
origin all the way back to the garden. But they stop at Abraham. That's how convenient. But don't
give in to their endless genealogies and fables and questions and
things that they bring up. Turn over to Titus 1, chapter
1. I've got this written down. I
can't remember exactly what it was. It'll be in verse, let me get
there, 14, 13. Hold fast the form of sound words. That's sound doctrine. which
thou hast heard of me in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus,
that good thing which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost
which dwelleth in us." Well, anyway, Paul told him to
hold fast the form of sound words. That's not quite what I was looking
for, but it fits. It works. Hold forth sound doctrine. Keep sound doctrine. Anything
that is contrary to the gospel, don't mess with it. Don't get
involved with it. I had someone say to me, I had
someone say to me here not too long ago, they said, you know,
I believe that Adam and Eve had children before the fall. I didn't even get into that.
I didn't get into that discussion. I didn't get into it. You know
why? That statement alone told me they didn't understand the
gospel. Here's what you don't understand. Representation. Now,
if they were born before the fall, they're still alive, they're
still on this earth. Because only sin is the reason
why we die. I thought, you don't even think
about what you're saying. We die because of sin. And if
you didn't, you know, if you've never sinned, if you've never
sinned, you can't die. And then you don't understand
representation. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners, and by one man's obedience, many were made
righteous. There's a sense in which God deals with His whole
human race in two people, the first Adam and the second Adam.
I didn't get into that discussion. Then I heard someone say once
before, said to me that they believed that the angels or the
sons of God who met with the daughters of men there in Genesis,
they had children and that's where you got the giants. I didn't
get in that either. That's what he's saying. Stay
out of these genealogies and these fables, these legends. Stay out of those. Change the
subject of the weather or whatever you like. Get off that subject
because it's not going to go anywhere. Listen, it doesn't
promote faith. It doesn't promote the glory
of God. And listen here, it does not promote love, which Paul
says here, you know, that's the end of the commandment. The end
of the commandment, the end of why I'm telling you this, is
to promote love between the brethren. It's to promote love. So don't
give in to these endless genii. They're endless. Anything contrary
to the gospel, leave it alone. Don't get sidetracked. Boy, that's
Satan, you know. Get sidetracked. He's a master
of confusion and diversion. He is. Stay with sound doctrine. I've said this to Jeremy here
the other day. Stay with the Word of God. and
ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to you, and sit under sound
preaching. Don't take the Word of God and
run to a commentary. I use commentaries. I do. I have
some good commentaries. A few, not many. I have a few.
I've got a whole bunch of them in there. But I've got a few
good commentaries. Henry told us in the preacher
school, you know, you can study much of a few good men, because
that's all there are, a few good ones. But I don't take the Word
of God and read it and then try to see what they say about it.
I learned this, and Henry told us this in the preacher school,
when you come across the scripture, like I studied the scriptures,
you make the first application. Don't go to the commentary to
make the first application, you do it. You study the word of
God, you seek the Lord, you ask him to open the scriptures, you
make the first application. And I do that. I take a sheet
of paper, and I'll read it, and I'll just start writing down
what I see. And it really makes me glad and happy when John Gill
agrees with me. I read these guys, I thought,
well, you know, they agree with me. But I make the first application. And so anyway, here, listen.
Don't get sidetracked. You study the Word of God, you
stay of sound doctrine. For in so doing, you'll save
yourself and those that hear you. It's safe for you. Now,
the end of the commandment, and I think Paul's talking here about
the end of what he's commanding him to do. He's commanding him
to stay with sound doctrine. He's commanding him to stay with
the preaching of the gospel. Because the end of that is this,
love. It promotes love among the brethren. You want the love of God to grow?
You want to grow in the love of God? You want to grow in that?
Stay with sound doctrine. Stay with the truth. Stay with
the gospel. Stay with it. Stay with it. The
law, listen. He says in verse 5, Now the end
of the commandment is love, charity, out of a pure heart and of a
good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. This is what it produces. This is what it produces. So
don't get sidetracked. You stay with it. Because the
end of it is love, love to one another. The law was given to
lead us to Christ. That's what it says over in I
believe it's Galatians. It was a master schoolmaster
to lead us to Christ. But the law never shed abroad
the love of God in our hearts. The law didn't do that. God did, and He did it through
the preaching of the gospel. That's how He did it. He did
it through the preaching of the gospel. Now, it says here in verse 6,
"...from which," from this gospel, this sound doctrine, "...from
which some, having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling."
And all these endless genealogies and all these questions, they're
just vain jangling. Desiring to be teachers of the
law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm."
That's a dangerous teacher. That is a dangerous teacher.
A teacher that does not know what he's talking about is a
dangerous teacher. But he's saying here, some have
missed the mark, they've missed the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and one of the reasons they...
They desire to teach the law is this. They wanna be called
rabbi, teacher, teacher. I tell you this, I believe this.
If the grace of God doesn't humble you, being a teacher will make you
arrogant. It will, it'll make you arrogant. I know some teachers, I know
you're some teachers here. God has given you grace. God has given you grace and mercy.
But I'm telling you what, carrying around the title of teacher just
reaches into that human ego that we have, that Adamic nature.
Teacher, I need to ask you a question. Well, good, I got the answer.
That's the attitude. I'm telling you the truth. There's
nothing that'll lift a man or woman up that's a teacher. That's why they wanted to be.
That's why they wanted to teach the law. They wanted to be called
Rabbi, Teacher. That's what Nicodemus called
the Lord. Teacher, Master, Rabbi. They liked that title. They liked
that title. If it wasn't for the grace of
God, calling me a preacher would lift me up. It would. You're a pastor. You're a pastor, aren't you?
Oh, yeah. It takes grace to keep us down,
doesn't it? It takes grace to keep us down. It's amazing God
will use any of us. It really is. But Paul says in verse eight,
and I got to move here. I'm not taking too much time. But we
know that the law is good. We know that, don't we? The moral
law. He's talking about the moral law, not ceremonial laws. It's
good not to shoot somebody, murder. That's what he's talking about.
It's good not to take another man's wife. It's good not to
murder. It's good not to steal. Those are good. That's good. I love thy law. I love it. God gave it, how could it not
be good? How can it not be good? God gave it. There's nothing
wrong with God's law. It's holy, it's just, it's good.
If a man use it lawfully, as it was intended to be used. But
I tell you this, a good law in bad hands equals trouble. It
equals trouble. Now verse 9, now we know that
the law was not made for a righteous man. That's not why God gave
the law. You know, the law of God, the moral law of God is
written in your heart, isn't it? You love God's law because
it's written in your heart. You love it. It's not just because,
well, it's what I ought to do. No, you love it. That's right.
You love it because it's right and it's God's law. You love
it. But listen, it was not given for a righteous man. It was given
for the ungodly to keep them in line. It was a fence to keep
a bunch of ungodly people in line. That's what it was given
for. Take away the law out here in society. I mean, we see bits
and pieces of it now. We see bits and pieces of it.
But you literally take law away. You couldn't live on this earth.
You couldn't live. But it's not written for a righteous
man, it's written for the ungodly. Knowing this, that the law is
not made for righteous men, but for the lawless and disobedient.
Then he goes and lists, here's who it's made for. It's for the
ungodly and for sinners. These are sinners, people who
hate God, who've not been born of God. Unholy, profane, for
murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, Manslaughter, murderers
of men, whoremongers, them that defile themselves with mankind,
that's homosexuals, that's what he's talking about. He said that's
who it was made for. Men stealers, that's talking
about slavery. You know, back, especially in
that day, if a servant wanted to stay with his master, he could
have his ear bored. And he'd say, I love my master,
I want to stay with him. And someone would come along
and steal him and take him and sell him to another master. You know, the Lord said over
in Exodus 21, let him be put to death. Put to death. Liars? You know, that's just
a little white lie. Really? That came from a black
heart. It's made for liars, for perjured
persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary
to the gospel. Now here's something I want us
to see before I close here. Anything that's contrary to sound
doctrine. Now listen, the law of God, is against everything the gospel
is against. It's not contrary to the gospel.
The law is not contrary to the gospel. They're in harmony. The law is against anything that's
not sound doctrine, just as the gospel is. And this shows the
harmony of the law and the gospel, God's law, God's moral law. The
gospel doesn't give me any license to go out and sin, no more than
the law does. The gospel does not excuse sin,
no more than the law excuses sin. It doesn't do it. What we
have in the gospel is the remedy for sin. What we have in the
gospel is the atonement for sin. What we have in the gospel is
the way God can forgive us of our sins, but no excuse for them. And then he says here in verse
11, and I'll close. In verse 11, according, and this
shows he's talking here about the gospel and the law being
in harmony. according to the glorious gospel of the blessed
God, which was committed to my trust." You know, the gospel
is not only committed to my trust, but the gospel is committed to
your trust as a church. You know that? It's committed
to your trust also. God has put this treasure in
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. But he has entrusted That which
is His chief glory, the gospel, the gospel of redemption, the
gospel of His Son, He's entrusted it to us. And listen, we do not need to hedge it about
with laws and rules, as they were trying to do. We don't need
to have... Let me see your church regulations
and rules. Well, here it is. Here it is. A lady called me
last week. A lady called me last week and
said, could you send us the letter of recommendation for
so-and-so that she was baptized. She's joining the Methodist Church
somewhere here in town. And it was apparently an older
lady, because I told her I don't want to be in here. I didn't really
know her. She said, well, yeah, she's a lot older than that. And I
said, we don't keep records here. She said, oh, it was a little
pause of silence. She didn't expect that. She didn't
expect that. I said, we don't keep records
here. Those records are kept in heaven. That's where the records
are kept. They're not kept here. I don't
know who really knows God and who doesn't. I don't know that.
God does. God does. I've seen people leave
that was around for years that just shocked me. And they just
packed up and left. Some have quit, some went to
another gospel. God knoweth them that are His,
that's what the Scripture says. He knoweth them that are His. So we don't do that. We don't need to hedge the gospel
about with rules and laws and regulations. Someone said this,
you don't have to defend a lion, you just turn it loose. That's what I do when I stand
here in the pulpit. I'm not defending the gospel,
I'm just turning it loose. You don't have to defend the
line, just turn it loose. It'll take care of itself.