Bibles to 1st Timothy chapter
1. I brought our message last week
from verses 1 & 2. And we looked at several things
that we're told about Timothy in the scriptures, and I was
only able to read the blessing that Paul desired for Timothy
in verse two, grace, mercy, and peace. Cannot think of any three
blessings greater than these, grace, mercy, and peace from
God, our Father, and Jesus Christ, our Lord. I want to bring the
message tonight from verses 3 through 11, and then the next time, the
Lord willing, from the remainder of the chapter, verses 12 through
20. One man outlined this first chapter
like this. Roman numeral one, the salutation,
verses one and two. Roman numeral two, Paul's commandment
to Timothy, verses three through 20. A, under number two, to teach
only sound doctrine. B, to observe Paul as God's pattern. And three, to wage successful
warfare. So we're looking tonight to teach
only sound doctrine. In verses three through 11. 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. Now the end of the commandment
is charity or love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience
and a faith unfeigned, from which some, having swerved, have turned
aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding
neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. But we know that
the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that
the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and
disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. Now, before
we begin to look at these verses, I want us to turn to two passages
of scripture. I want you to keep your places
here, of course, but look back with me, if you will, first to
Ephesians, Ephesians chapter four. Reading verses 8 through 12,
Ephesians chapter 4. Wherefore he saith, when he ascended
up on high, he, that is Christ, led captivity captive and gave
gifts unto men. Now, that he ascended, what is
it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of
the earth? He that descended is the same
also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill
all things. And he gave some apostles and
some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, there are two
things that I want to point out to us from these verses, and
that is that the ascended Lord Jesus Christ, he gave, first
of all, he gave gifts unto men. And one of those gifts that he
gave was the gift of an evangelist. Along with apostles and prophets
and pastors and teachers, he gave the gift of the evangelist. This is what Timothy was. This
was the office that Timothy had. Because in 2nd Timothy, the apostle
Paul wrote this, But thou, speaking to Timothy, but thou watch in
all things, Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. Now this office today, the office
of an evangelist, I would assume refers to missionaries. Missionaries
who go out carrying the gospel of Jesus Christ. We know they're
no longer apostles and prophets. Those offices are not in the
church today. But an evangelist, yes, missionaries
who go out, not necessarily to a foreign field, but that's what
we think of most often probably, but they're home missionaries
too. And certainly this country needs missionaries, needs men
to go and to preach the gospel. And that's what Timothy was.
He was an evangelist. And of course, there's the gift
of pastors and teachers. That's one office, pastor, teacher. So that's the first thing I'd
point out to us, that the ascended Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the glorified Christ on the throne in heaven, he ascended on high,
he gave gifts, he led captivity captive. He conquered all the
foes of his people, of his church. He led captivity captive. The
picture is like the Romans did when a Roman general would defeat
a foe in some country and conquer that for Rome. When he came back
to Rome, there would be a parade, what we would call a parade.
And all of the captives with the spoils would be behind him. He would be at the front, at
the head of the parade, and all the praise would be given unto
him because of the battle he had fought and won. And he led
captivity. He would bring these people back,
some of them in chains, captives. They'd been defeated. So the
Lord Jesus Christ, he defeated all of our spiritual enemies. He defeated Satan and all the
hosts of hell. And he went back, he ascended
on high, led captivity captive. I love that Psalm, I believe
it's Psalm 22, which says, you doors, or lift up your gates,
and the King of glory shall come in." Who is this King of glory? He's the Lord, mighty in battle. And he ascended on high, but
he gave gifts. And one of those gifts was the
gift of an evangelist. That's what Timothy was. The
second thing I'd point out from this verse, these verses here
in Ephesians is the purpose of these gifts. The purpose of these
gifts to edify, to build up the saints. Notice that in verse
12, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ. That's the work of
a pastor teacher, isn't it? And also an evangelist, it is. to build up, to edify the church,
the body of Christ. Now, I said two places. I want you to look in Acts, just
a moment, Acts chapter 20. So we see those two things there
in Ephesians concerning an evangelist and the purpose of the gift is
to edify the body of Christ, the church. Now here in Acts
chapter 20, We'll just read two verses, verse 29 and 30. These are the words of the Apostle
Paul to the elders of the church at Ephesus. Now that's where
Timothy is when Paul writes 1 Timothy. So this is the reason I'm turning
here. Verse 29, Paul said, for I know
this, that after my deporting shall grievous wolves enter in
among you, not sparing the flock, Also of your own selves shall
men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples
after them. So it was to the elders of this
church where Timothy was, where Paul had charged him to remain,
that Paul said, I know that Grievous Wolf shall come in, and what
seems even worse to me every time I think about that passage
of Scripture, Paul said, Of your own selves men shall arise, and
shall seek to draw men after them. So the title of the message,
let's look back to 1st Timothy. The title of my message is Paul's
Charge to Timothy. And I've divided the message
into two parts. First, what was the charge that
Paul gave to Timothy? Notice in verse 3. As I besought
thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, now
here's the charge, that thou mightest charge some, that they
teach no other doctrine. Notice it says that they teach
no other doctrine. Singular. No other doctrine. Let's look at another place over
in 2 John. 2 John. only has one chapter,
but in 2 John verses 9 and 10, we read, 2 John verse 9 and 10,
Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine, singular,
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 Godspeed. In the New Testament, I'm sure
most of you are aware of this, but let me remind us of this
again. In the New Testament, every time
that we read of doctrines, plural, of doctrines. It always has a
bad connotation. I think there are only three
places where we read of doctrines. Let me give them to you. We read
of doctrines, the commandments of men. Doctrines, plural, the
commandments of men. Not the commandments of God,
not the word of God, but the commandments of men. And then
we read of doctrines of devils. Doctrines of devils. And we read
of strange doctrines. But the doctrine is singular. The doctrine of Christ and the
Apostle Paul. And let me say this. I know it's
common for us to say the doctrines of grace. And when we say that
we usually have reference to five truths that we believe,
and that is man's total depravity, unconditional election, limited
atonement, irresistible grace, and the perseverance of the saints. And we, many times, we say the
doctrines of grace, but we should say the doctrine of Christ. All
doctrine focuses in Christ. It all relates to Christ. You
take those things I just mentioned, they all relate to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, every doctrine which is
not agreeable to the Scriptures must be classified as a strange
doctrine. I said one of those places, strange
doctrines. Well, every doctrine which is
not agreeable to the Word of God to the word, to the law,
and to the testimonies. If they speak not according to
this, it is because there's no truth in them. That's what we
read in Isaiah chapter 8. Every doctrine which is not agreeable
to the scriptures, it must be classified as a strange doctrine. Now, this charge, this charge
that Paul gave to Timothy here, It not only speaks of the substance,
not only of the substance of what is to be taught, but it
includes the method of teaching the doctrine. The substance and
the method of teaching it. John Calvin made this comment. He said, and I quote, as God's
truth is one, So there is but one way of teaching it that is
free from false pretense and savors more of the majesty of
the spirit than of the outward show of human eloquence. There's only one way to teach
the doctrine and that is that which shows the majesty of the
spirit. And then John Gill, he made a
similar comment, but he said, nor would he have them teach
in another way, in new words, but hold fast the form of sound
words, for new words often produce new doctrines. That's one of
the faults I find with some of these newer translations of the
scriptures. They don't use the Words that
the church has used for the last hundreds of years. They've changed
the words, and words have a way of changing their meaning. And
they don't like to use the word repentance. They don't like to
use the word propitiation. They don't like to use the word
atonement. They like to change these words.
But I believe, as John Giff said, new words New words often produce
new doctrines. Words have meanings, don't they? They have meanings. I have a
big dictionary. I have several dictionaries,
but I have one big dictionary, and I very seldom ever prepare
a message, I don't have that big green dictionary out looking
up some word. I want to make sure, the best
I can, that I know what the word means, first of all, and that
I use it correctly. The one doctrine, now notice
here, the one doctrine that Paul charged Timothy that he was to
have taught is given to us in verse 11. Verse 3, he said, that thou mightest
charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Well, Paul, what
is that doctrine? Well, verse 11, according to
the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my
trust. The doctrine that he would have
Timothy make sure was preached and nothing else, the glorious
gospel of the blessed God. What a statement. The glorious
gospel of the blessed God. There are two things I'd point
out from that statement. Two things that we may learn.
First of all, we learn, and of course we know that here, but
we learn again that the gospel has God as its author. the gospel, the blessed gospel,
the glorious gospel of the blessed God. The gospel of Jesus Christ,
it has God as its author. It did not originate with man. It wasn't that the best minds
of the centuries got together, or any denominational council,
and came up with the gospel. No, the gospel originated with
God. And that's one reason it's called
the everlasting gospel. It never changes, like its author. The same yesterday, today, and
forever. The sin of Adam did not take
God by surprise. What I'm going to say may sound
strange to some of you, but there are actually people who believe
that God was taken by surprise when Adam ate of the fruit. But the scriptures tell us that
Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In other words, when God laid
the foundation of the world in the purpose and mind of God,
the Lamb was already slain. Before there ever was an actual
sinner, Adam, there already was an actual Savior, Jesus Christ,
our Lord. And we learn, the second thing
we learn, that the gospel relates to the glory of God. It's called
the glorious gospel. It's in the gospel that we see
God's glory manifested. When we think, and we think of
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, And we know that there are many
characteristics of God. We think of His holiness, His
love, His wisdom, His righteousness, His wrath, His justice, His mercy,
His grace. All of these meet in the cross
of Jesus Christ. When we think of the gospel,
we see the glory of God. How it is, that a holy, righteous,
and just God may show mercy to a fallen sinner. It's all there. It shows the glory. It's a glorious
gospel and it gives all the glory to God, the gospel. It gives all the glory of man's
salvation to God because the scripture says, let not the wise
men boasts her glory in his wisdom. Let not the rich man boast her
glory in his riches. Let not the strong man glory
in his strength. But he that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord. And the gospel gives glory unto
God. I see in this passage that we're
looking at tonight, this about the gospel from what Paul says
about the law. We may learn that the gospel
cannot do, excuse me, we learn that the gospel can do what the
law cannot do. If you notice in verse five,
the apostle said, now the end of the commandment is love out
of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfaith. We learn that the gospel can
do what the law cannot do. The end of the law or commandment
is love. Now, the law can command love,
and it does, but it cannot give love. The law can command a pure
heart, but it cannot give a pure heart. And the law can command
unfeigned faith, but it cannot give faith. It cannot produce
love out of a pure heart, as the scripture here says. Now
the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart and
of a good conscience and a faith unfeigned. The law can command
all of these things, but it cannot give them. And the law does command
love. Remember when our Lord was asked
the great commandment here in Matthew chapter 22, Verse 36 through 40, when he
was asked by that lawyer what was the great commandment, Master, verse 36, Master, which
is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy mind. Now that's the first commandment,
the great commandment. Law can command that. But it
cannot give that love. It cannot give that love. And
the second commandment, and the second is like unto it, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets. The end of the commandment is
love, Paul says. Love out of a pure heart. But where's a man going to get
a pure heart? He can read the law, he can memorize
the law, he can try his best to keep the law, but he can never
give himself a pure heart. That is one of the blessings
of the new covenant, isn't it? A new heart. The law If you notice these three
things, Paul says here, charity out of a pure heart, and of a
good conscience, and a faith unfeigned. Well, if you think
of those three things, first of all, the law is not a faith. Paul says in Galatians 3.12.
And then he goes on and says, for if there had been a law given
which could give life, really righteousness should have been
by the law. There is no law that can give
righteousness. It cannot give faith. The law
is not a faith. And in Hebrews chapter 9, we
see that it is the blood of Christ that purges the conscience. Only
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ can cleanse the conscience from
dead works to serve the Lord. And as I said, a new heart, that
comes from the new covenant. the end of the commandment, what
the commandment, the law commands, but it cannot give. And that brings me to the second
part of the message. Why? What was the charge? First of all, what was the charge
that Paul gave Timothy? He was to charge them not to
preach or teach any other doctrine. Any other doctrine than what?
The glorious gospel of the blessed God. Now the second part of the
message, why was the charge given to Timothy? Well look in verse
six. Paul says, from which some, having
swerved, have turned aside. Now we read
that passage in In Acts, remember, when Paul was speaking to the
elders of the church here at Ephesus, and he told them what
was going to take place, and we see that it soon took place.
Paul says, some have already swerved, have turned aside unto
vain jangling. They had turned aside from the
doctrine of Christ. Where did they turn? Well, he
names two places. They turned, first of all, to
vain jangling. What does that mean? Well, we
know the word vain means empty. Some have turned aside to empty,
unprofitable subjects. They're just unprofitable subjects.
They have nothing to do with our relationship to God. They
have nothing to do with our service to God. They're unprofitable.
subjects, and these teachers, they spent their time entertaining
men with foolish matters, foolish matters, answering foolish questions
about the law, which only produced strife, and it did not edify
the church. As we saw, that was the reason
for the gifts to edify, to build up. But some had already swerved
and turned aside to vain jangling, empty subjects, useless subjects,
answering useless questions, and all it produced was strife
among the members, among the church. It didn't build up. If
anything, it tore down. And second, some turned aside
to be teachers of the law. Notice that in verse 7. Some,
they turned aside, not to vain jangling, but to be teachers
of the law. In Romans 6, Paul tells us that
the law is holy, just, and good. And we know it is. And no child
of God would say anything different about the law of God. It's holy,
just, and good just because it's God's law. It's God's law. It must be holy because He's
holy. It must be just because He's
just. And it must be good because He's
good. Every child of God confesses
that. The law. is good, and it is spiritual. The problem here was a man who
desired to teach the law, who did not understand the law. They
desired to teach the law, but they did not understand the law. What they sought was preeminence. They wanted to be known as teachers
of the law. They wanted to be called rabbis. Rabbi. You know, men, they love
titles. Now that's just so. They love
titles. They love to have a title that
somehow distinguishes them some way from someone else and puts
them up a little bit higher. You know, the apostles, they
referred to each other as James and Paul and and Matthew, but
men today, they've got to have these titles. Doctor, and right
reverend, and bishop, and pope, and all of these titles that
men desire. And that had already come into
the church. They desired to be teachers of
the law because they desired the title of rabbi, to be a teacher. But they didn't understand the
law, Paul said. And then he says, the law is
good if a man use it lawfully. The law is good if a man use
it lawfully. They didn't understand its purpose.
They didn't understand its limitations. Think with me tonight for just
a few moments. It is used unlawfully, the law. It is used unlawfully if men
use it to teach that by your obedience you may obtain righteousness. That's an unlawful use of the
law. To tell men if you keep the Ten
Commandments or you keep the law, you know, you're going to
make yourself acceptable unto God. And that's taught everywhere
just about, isn't it? Just keep the Ten Commandments
and remember the Golden Rule. And no, that's to use the law
unlawfully, to use it to teach that by man's obedience that
he might be justified. In Romans 3, Paul makes two statements
that should just drive a nail in the coffin of that teaching.
And it does, but people still teach it. He said, first of all,
therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. Now that ought to settle it,
shouldn't it? But it doesn't. It doesn't. Men go on. Men still try to teach
and do teach that by your obedience, by you keeping the law, that
you're going to make yourself acceptable unto God. And then
he said, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law is used lawfully. Now listen, the law is used lawfully
when it is used to give men and women a knowledge of sin. When it shows us our sinfulness
and it serves us as a schoolmaster, as Paul says in Galatians, a
schoolmaster that takes us by the hand and leads us away from
the law and leads us to Christ. That leads us to Christ to show
us our need and then to point to Christ as the answer of our
need. That's when it's used lawfully. Paul says the law was not made
for a righteous man and Let me say this, the law is used unlawfully
when preachers use it to terrify believers, to terrify God's sheep. They use the law like a big old
whip, you know, to hold over and to strike over the heads
of God's sheep and keep them in bondage. not recognizing that
a right use of the law is to show men that our righteousness
is not in ourselves, it's in Christ. The law, let me say this before
I close. John Gill, he mentioned several
ways that the law could serve a believer. He said as a glass,
that is as a mirror. a glass, as a glass to them to
behold their own deformity. When we look into the law, we
see the perfection it commands, and we see our deformity. We
see we come up short. It can be used for that, the
impurity of our nature, the plague of our own hearts, and the imperfection
of our obedience, by which we see the insufficiency of our
own righteousness. How far we are from perfection
and what carnal creatures we are when compared to God's law. And as this serves to put us
out of conceit with ourselves, so it tends to make Christ and
his righteousness more lovely and valuable in our esteem, who
has wrought out a righteousness as broad and as long as the law
is. You know the verse there in Isaiah
that speaks about that bed, or the covering, rather. The covering
is too short and the bed is too narrow. That's speaking to us. that we need the righteousness
of Christ to rest on. It's broad enough, long enough,
and it covers us. It's sufficient, the righteousness
of Christ. But if we're working to obtain
righteousness, it's like a bed that's too sharp and cover that's
too narrow. Now, you know, my brother-in-law,
Milton Howard, he's a pretty tall guy. He likes to preach
from that text. Of course, he likes to tell about
some beds he's had to sleep in, you know, when your feet are
hanging over the front of the bed. But seriously, the righteousness
of Christ, it's sufficient, it's long enough, it's wide enough
to cover us. Now, let me close with this,
as a church, We are instructed from this, we are instructed
from this to see how relatively short, here was a church founded
by an apostle, the church at Ephesus, how relatively short
a period of time there were already some in the church who were teaching
something vain and something useless, and it should cause
us Remind us to be diligent and watchful for our congregation
as to what is taught here in this place. Let it be that one
doctrine, the glorious gospel of the blessed God. May the Lord
bless His word to us tonight.