Well, good morning, and I always have the joy of asking you to join me in your copy of God's Word. And I invite you this morning to open your copy of scripture to Ephesians chapter 4. Ephesians in chapter 4, and I trust you were able to receive a handout for our study together this morning. Ephesians chapter 4. If you're our guest today, my name is Jim and I look forward to meeting you after the service as well. It's a great joy to serve here as one of the pastors and we welcome you to our worship, our corporate worship today. We have several in our church in this room right now who are involved in some grueling training. Several of you are training to run the Detroit Marathon at the end of this month. And my hat is tipped to you. In case you've never done a marathon, it's running 26.2 miles. Why? I'm not quite sure. Some people think it's fun. You say, what does that look like? Well, in downtown Detroit, they're going to go across the bridge, through the tunnel, run part of this race in Canada, the rest over in Detroit downtown. It's going to be just a fascinating marathon from what I understand. Dave Dietz has run this marathon in the past. But that would be like you, if my calculations are right, depending on where you start in Ypsilanti, it'd be like you right now starting to run towards West Bloomfield, using roads, not as the crow flies, or you running from this region, this area, downriver to Monroe, running. You say, again, why do people do that? I don't know. I don't know, but they think it's fun. Two of the people training are in my family. My daughter, Alicia, and my son-in-law, Andy, are training together to run this marathon. I'm not running it, but I've been watching them get ready. And I know what's not involved in getting ready for a marathon, and that's this. You just don't say, I'm going to do the marathon. And what I'm going to do is just pray real hard, and I'll be ready when it gets here. That's not how you train for a marathon. You don't train for a marathon, at least from what I can tell so far, by just buying the t-shirt and the fan gear, if you will. You don't get ready for a marathon by drinking a lot of coffee. By only worrying about the selfies at the finish line, you don't get ready for running a marathon with any connection with eating a lot of pizza between now and then. Well, here's what I'm observing. If you're getting ready to run a marathon, it's a multi-month training session. And it's recommended that you do your training during these months with two different pairs of shoes, going back and forth between two types of running shoes to strengthen your gait and do something with your feet. I'm not quite sure what that is. But you have to be careful also how you eat during these many months, and the fuel you're putting into your body, and the fuel you'll have with you in the marathon itself. You have to be careful during this training time to stretch very strategically and faithfully. And then, of course, there are different charts you need to pay attention to, charts that will tell you how often to run as you train, when to take days of rest, and when your run on any given day is going to be a short run or a long run or merely a timed run. And in the case of our family, my daughter and her husband, child care has to be planned for their training. And that's the part I like, because that means Selah's spending the night with us, so they can get up for an early morning run. I don't know. It sounds exhausting to me. It sounds unfun. But people are into that. But I guess you can put it this way. If you're getting ready to run a marathon, the Detroit Marathon, at the end of October, There's always a next, isn't there? As hard as you might gut it out this week or even today with a run or with a regiment, there's always going to be another one right after it, and another one, and another one in order to get you prepared. There's always a next. I can't relate to running marathons, but I can relate to that principle. There's always a next. especially when I think of the local church and the Christian life. It's tiring, isn't it? When it comes to you growing as a disciple of Jesus, when it comes to you being involved in the corporate life of a local church like Calvary, there's no rest for the weary. There's always a next. J. Oswald Sanders, in his wonderful book on leadership, puts it this way. If a Christian is not willing to rise early and work late to expend greater effort in diligent study and faithful work, that person will not change a generation. And then he puts these words at the end. Fatigue is the price of leadership. Mediocrity is the result of never getting tired. I like that. But before he said that, Solomon put it this way in Proverbs 13, verse 4. The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the soul of the diligent is made fat. As we have endeavored to start our new series working through 1 Timothy, we no doubt have already begun to get to know Timothy in a personal way. And you know what? Timothy's learning quickly in this epistle we're studying. Timothy is learning, too, that there's always a next, especially when it comes to the local church, especially if you're connected with the Apostle Paul, and especially if you happen to be focused on a particular local church, It's the church at Ephesus. This is a church that is one of the most well-known churches in the New Testament. This church shows up in letters to other churches and individuals. And for the time being, as we get into this epistle we call 1 Timothy, we're learning that this, this church at Ephesus, is Timothy's next I have your Bible surprisingly open to Ephesians chapter 4. I just want you to regain in your mind and feel the weight of the importance of this church in the heart of the Apostle Paul and I believe Timothy as well. Paul wrote these words to the believers at Ephesus while Paul himself was in prison. Paul planted this church in Acts chapter 19 with Timothy at his side. And then he would later be incarcerated in Caesarea and then Rome. And Paul writes these words to the church. Therefore, I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. There's one body. There's one spirit. Just as you were called in one hope of your calling, there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. who is over all and through all and in all. What a commendation from the Apostle Paul, but let's recall the context of this epistle. Paul had to spend chapter one just recalling to the minds of all those in the church the magnanimous dimensions, the Trinitarian drive in the whole plan of salvation. He takes a half of a chapter in Ephesians 1 to bring everyone up to speed. They're using the same tuning fork when it comes to the gospel. And then he spends a second half of chapter 1 praying that they would be able to understand and see what he just explained to them in the first half. You see, why is he getting red in the face with the theology of the gospel? Because in chapters 2 and 3, he's laboring hard to bring two factions, if you will, of the church together. Jews and Gentiles. There had been some disunity, and Paul rightfully is sounding the tuning fork of the gospel message itself, saying, this is what will bring you together. And then at the end of chapter 3, he prays once again for this unity that comes from the gospel. That's what's leading up to this praise, these words of grace that I just read to you in chapter 4, verses 1 through 6. You say, well, this church is probably doing well, isn't it? Paul's calling them to a better place than where they were. And if you keep reading in chapter 4, you'll see that Paul was very much aware that there was a proneness at Ephesus to be distracted doctrinally. Go down further in chapter 4, look at verse 11. And He, the resurrected and ascended Jesus, He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Why? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith. and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Paul is saying to not just the church, but also the leaders, the elders in this church at Ephesus, that you better be doing your job. The reason you exist as leaders in this church is to disciple the people in the church and to make sure that they are discipling each other and not going off on tangents. You say, how do you know that? Well, keep reading. Verse 14, as a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. Paul knew that there was a proneness in this local church to be distracted doctrinally. And guess what? As Paul continues on with his freedom and traveling and ministering after his first Roman arrest and he was released, he's checking back in on this church in Ephesus. He even went there with Timothy. And he said to Timothy, Timothy, I'm going to leave you here. There's still a problem. What I feared is continuing to blossom here, doctrinal distraction. So Timothy, Ephesus is your next. I know you're tired. We've been through a lot in ministry, but it's not time to rest yet. There is something vitally important here. Now with that in mind, go with me to 1 Timothy chapter 1. 1 Timothy chapter 1. This is Timothy's next. This is Paul's greetings to his protege. And though there's kindness and affection in these first two verses, they are merely an introduction to something heavy on Paul's heart and urgently wrong in the church at Ephesus and you're gonna learn, and I put this in your notes that you're taking here, you're gonna learn early on in these verses in chapter 1 that the first matter of business in any local church is for the leadership to clearly establish boundaries of what addresses the conscience of believers. It's so important. Timothy, I know you're tired but I need you and I need the church to actively confront gospel distractions. And that's our challenge this morning as we press through verses three through seven. Actively confront, all of us, actively confront gospel distractions in this church. The outline's very simple. It's very urgent. It's very much about now. Just two points. Locking horns and looking out. First of all, locking horns. Thinking of rams going head-to-head in combat. Look at verse 1, chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, To Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. And as I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct men not to teach strange doctrines. Paul, as I said, in his post-Roman imprisonment, his first one, is released and he travels again now with Timothy and Titus and they will visit cities and regions such as Ephesus and Crete and Macedonia. More writing will still be done that will end up in our copy of the Bible. But he leaves Timothy in Ephesus. And as we look at verse 3 especially, Paul says, I urged you. I'm imploring you. Remember, before I said goodbye, I implored you that you stay here in Ephesus without me in order to accomplish something very important. So important that Paul not only reminds him of what he said face to face, but he's imploring him again here in verse three. It was upon my departure and again right now, you must instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. Paul is focused on this very important church. It's a church that, don't forget, a city that he established And we find in Acts chapter 19, verse 9 and 10, a school of theology that went for at least two years, if not closer to three. There was a curriculum that Paul would have established. It was what he had received by revelation from Jesus himself, the glorious gospel of Christ, and also how Jesus Christ, the Messiah, is a fulfillment of all Old Testament promises. That's in chapter 19 and Acts chapter 20 when Paul is making his way to Jerusalem where he will eventually be arrested. It's the elders from this church at Ephesus in Acts chapter 20 that come and meet Paul en route as he's on his way to Jerusalem and weep with him and he preaches to them. He's so leaning into this church. So I want you to put yourself in Timothy's sandals right now. As you're reading verse 3, getting a fresh command of something that he commanded you about in person the last time you saw him, put yourself in his sandals. Because I suggest to you that Timothy's sandals right now are pretty lonely sandals. Timothy's sandals are nervous sandals. He knows how much this church, where he is right now, how much that church means to the Apostle Paul's heart. He knows Paul's burden for the Ephesus church. Paul had invested so much there, yet there still remains so much instability and a leaning towards that which doesn't profit. Timothy was also aware of Paul's absence. I mean, Paul left me here. And he went on to Macedonia. It's as if he knows his time is short, and it was. He was down to just probably a few years of life before he will be rearrested and martyred in Rome. And Paul is just on a mission. But he left Timothy in Ephesus. And Timothy hadn't heard anything from Paul since he got the charge in person. that we read about in verse three, to the time that this letter we're holding in our hands arrived. There had been silence. Paul left them with one instruction, and until he heard differently, that still stood, and the letter confirms that. There's a lot on Timothy here. He knows Paul's burden. He's experiencing Paul's absence. Then there's also Paul's awareness of Timothy. We'll see this more whenever our study takes us to 2 Timothy, but you see it here in 1 Timothy right here in verse 3. There is a proneness in Timothy to quit too early. There's a proneness in Timothy to fear intimidating people. There's a tendency in Timothy to dodge problems, to run. Paul says, Can't happen this time. Can't happen here in Ephesus. Don't give in, Timothy. He says, here's my priority. You must lock horns with fruitless discussion, as he'll call it in verse six. There are problem people and bad teaching, look at verse three again, that you must confront, you must instruct certain individuals not to teach strange doctrines. Now, we studied verses one and two last week, but do you remember them? There were three aspects, just by way of review. First of all, in verse 1, Paul reminds Timothy of Paul's apostolic authority, and it's God himself that recruited him. Paul reminded Timothy in verse 2 of Timothy's appropriate submission. not just to an apostle, capital A, but to Timothy's spiritual father who discipled him through the decades. But then there was a third reminder in verses 1 through 2. It wasn't just a reminder of Paul's apostolic authority and Timothy's appropriate submission to him, but also a reminder of God's power. At the end of verse 2, Paul says, grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord be yours. This isn't just a normal salutation. Paul's setting Timothy up in the first two verses to feel the weight of verse three, you gotta lock horns with error. The sentimentality of Paul's greeting quickly hardens into a firm cement as he deploys Timothy to pursue distracting doctrines. It's time to lock horns. There's a time to fight. There's a time to confront. The reformer John Calvin put it this way, a dog barks when his master is attacked. He continues, I would be a coward if I saw that God's truth is attacked and yet would remain silent, end quote. Local church doctrine is not a free for all. Local church doctrine is not to be the Wild West. You gotta lock horns, Timothy. And I would suggest to you that Paul's urgent launch of his letter is to identify the problem by noting the footprints of false teaching. And that takes us to our second point and final point. When's the last time I said that at 1130? Looking out. As we get into these verses, I have to admit from my study that it's very lively in the commentaries as to the exact nature of this error that's being confronted in 1 Timothy. I'll tell you more about it as we get to it, but let me say you can whittle it down to two main components. One I would call a Jewish legalism of sorts. The other would be a mystical teaching that's built on legends and myths, not just Jewish, but also pagan. in itself would give birth eventually to something that would come into full bloom beyond the Apostle Paul's day, and that's the era of Gnosticism. But no one's quite sure where the dividing line is and how many scoops of one and how many scoops of the other are involved, but it appears that it's scoops of these two schools of thought. I lean a little heavier towards the Jewish legalism, but I can't deny the mythology of pagan worship and even some mythology of the rabbis of the time. But you know what? Some people would say, well, that's discouraging. We don't know exactly what it is. And even some of the best scholars today will give it their best shot and then conclude that section with, but we just don't know for sure. We just know some of the elements that were involved. You say, well, that's a problem. How do we preach to that? And I want to say to you, it's not a problem. Actually, I find this really, like, super helpful. that we don't have 100% clarity on all the details of the false teaching, only portions of it. In a sense, the Spirit of God through this text is giving us a lack of precision so that when we see these same marks in 2024 in churches like ours, we can recognize common denominators and flag things that concern us. Someone would call it a blank check. What I want you to do is I want you to notice in the text as we go through verses three through seven, the seven characteristics, seven footprints of fruitless discussion that you are to watch out for in your local church, listen, in any generation. You see these footprints, you put up a flag. What are the characteristics here? Well, the first one, and I'm gonna give them to you as one-word descriptions with a little explanation. Maybe you can catch that in your notes. The first word, letter A, is the word deviation. Deviation. This is gonna be in verse three, and what I mean by deviation is this. It complicates the simple. Or you could say it blurs the clear. There's a deviation. He says in verse 3, I want you to remain in emphasis so that you may instruct certain men not to teach, and here are the two words, strange doctrines. Strange doctrines. A doctrinal turn, ever so slightly, which is hardly to notice now, but given time, the gap will become more obvious, like the letter Y. It's not that there's a hard right turn, it's just gone off a bit now, but it's not going in a good direction and the problem is it's split from the one clear direction of the gospel. Paul saw this and even prophesied about this. Hold your finger here and just go to the right to 1 Timothy chapter 4. just to see this coming. We'll land harder on it in the series when we get to this. But he says in chapter four, the spirit explicitly says that in later times, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. By means of the hypocrisy of liars, they've seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing's to be rejected if it has received gratitude for it is sanctified by the means of the word of God and prayer. What a description. that some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. He knew this was coming. He'd even told the believers at Ephesus, probably at that theology school, that this was coming. Even as he spoke with the elders from Ephesus, He told the elders, false teachers are going to come. This is in Acts chapter 20. They'll come from outside of you and from within you. Not just the church, but from within the body of elders. There's false teaching that will be tolerated. You say, well, what happens if this isn't checked in Ephesus, if it's not corrected? Well, it wasn't. It wasn't. Because we see the fruit. in Revelation chapter 2, don't we? When Jesus has a message for the church at Ephesus through the pen of John, who by the way, John would eventually be a pastor at Ephesus too, before he got this revelation. Revelation chapter 2 verse 1, to the angel of the church in Ephesus write, the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this, I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance and that you cannot tolerate evil men and you put to test those who call themselves apostles and they are not and you found them to be false. So in a sense they had listened to Paul and or Timothy, but there were still loose ends earning this challenge. Look at verse four, but I have this against you. You have left your first love. Therefore, remember from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first. or else I'm coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent." I find it interesting back here in 1 Timothy chapter 1, we know the verses that are coming up in this chapter without even looking, right? Paul's going to give his personal testimony, his personal salvation testimony, starting in verse 12 of chapter 1 and concluding with doxology in verse 17. And we're like, yeah, we know that's coming. We read that all the time. But do you know why his testimony is at this point in this epistle? I promise you that Paul doesn't just arbitrarily drop his salvation testimony down in this chapter for no reason at all. His salvation testimony will itself encapsulate the simple, clear gospel message that they were starting to veer off from. Deviation. When you see someone teaching a different doctrine and they're just wanting to go off just a little bit, you put a flag up. That's fruitless discussion. That's the first word, deviation. The second word, letter B, supplementation. Supplementation. You're gonna see this in verse four, the first part of the verse. You say, what do you mean by supplementation? Let me give it to you first, give you what I mean, and then see it in the verse. I mean granting biblical authority, biblical weight, to extra biblical sources, whatever they are. Taking something that is not in our 66 books of the Canon of Scripture and giving it equal weight and authority and consideration as we do the books of the Canon of Scripture, the Old and New Testaments. That's what I mean by supplementation. Look at verse 4. The end of verse 3 says, not to teach strained doctrines nor to pay attention, listen to this, to myths and endless genealogies. And this is the part where we don't have precision on all the details of what myths and what endless genealogies, but there is a common note in the scholarly work on this, as one source says, these are traditional stories that are given weight. These are legendary accounts of individuals in genealogies, in history, whether Jewish or pagan. This was actually something that was very prominent. These myths and genealogies were very prominent in pagan worship. Another authority says that this is tied, these myths and endless genealogies are tied to, this is their words, unrestrained speculation. And it would also likely include allegorical interpretations of the Old Testament that were also taught by the rabbinic writings, Jewish writings. Another theologian put it this way, these are just mythical legends, both pagan and Jewish. That's all we know. Do not pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. That's why I used the word supplementation. These people had started to give, listen, weight and authority to extra-biblical sources, and that authority must be contained and reserved for the scriptures that we have in their clarity. I want to give you a couple of examples, some pastoral observations. I don't expect you to write these down, and I've got to move through them quickly. Obviously, the first one is, we still have to say this today, we can't give ancient pagan writings the authority and weight of scripture. Study, perhaps, but not given the same weight of scripture, nor inflating scripture with authority, only due to their insights. And even where we see inspired writers of scripture quoting a non-biblical resource that doesn't teach us a hermeneutic or give us a freedom of a blank check to do that as well. Another example, non-authoritative revelation. It's very popular in our day and has been. This is extra revelation given in the form of prophecy or an unlearned dialect. and its revelation in addition to what scripture is. One theological book, Systematic Theology, has a cartoon picture they draw to teach this, to help teach this, and it's a human head and an arrow coming down from the sky, pointing into the guy's head, and that's supposed to be new information coming from God. and then an arrow going out of the guy's mouth, and that's supposed to represent me reporting that revelation. I better be careful and do it right. Well, if you're going to do that around me, I'm going to write it down and put it behind revelation. I mean, if God speaks, it's authoritative, right? You don't have major and minor revelation. But many today, even in a conservative evangelical church, argue that you can have that. I don't know how that's different from myths. An extra biblical extra biblical data getting the same authority and weight as the Bible itself. Number three would be mysticism, another example. This is where someone lives their Christian life based on hunches, based on dreams or voices they hear or visitations they believe they've had from God himself or from an angelic source. Another example would be, and this is in air quotes, science. Whether we're talking about evolutionary theory and that forcing us to rewrite our understanding of the clarity of scripture and what scripture teaches on creation, because science is right. Yeah, that one says enough for itself. Another example I would suggest are evangelical fads here in the West. whether those fads are political, whether those fads are pragmatic. Another example would be allegory, interpretation of scripture, where it's not warranted or mandated, where it's up to the creativity of your imagination to take a picture to mean something beyond what it was intended. Another example would be arguing from silence, saying things like, well, the Bible doesn't forbid this interpretation. Another example is something I came across yesterday on a podcast I was listening to while I was cutting the grass. And it's just the example of rumors. And I'm not just talking about rumors from the major network news outlets. I'm talking about rumors by supposedly Christian podcasts who are just trying to get to the bottom of an issue. They'll often say anonymous sources close to the situation have said, and there's no way to verify them, but we give them the weight of scripture. Another example would be cultural pressure, whether it's complementarianism versus egalitarianism, whether it's Critical race theory, whether it's politics, whether it's cancel culture, the weight that those can lay on your shoulders sometimes makes you revisit the clarity and simplicity of scripture. And another one that's an example, and this is the last one I'll point out, is just what I'll call a reactionary, a Christian reaction. These are those who are so against any kind of license, any kind of license in their living, and they're afraid people will go off the deep end. They become super rigid and legalistic. But I'm talking about the other extreme, too, of I grew up in a legalistic and rigid setting in the church, and now I want to do what I want. Both of those are reactionary, and both of those, strangely, seem to carry the same weight in your mind as Scripture does on these issues. I agree with the commentator and scholar Doug Moo when he writes these words. Many false teachers cannot force their opinions on anybody. They can only persuade people to adopt their ways of looking at things. And false teaching, of course, often has, listen to this, an attractive veneer. People like new ideas. And false teaching, by definition, trades in new ideas. Hold your finger here and you'll see Paul covering this as well in chapter 6 of 1 Timothy verses 3 through 5. If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, he is conceited and understands nothing. He has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and depraved of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Supplementation. There's a third mark, a third footprint of false teaching. I call it fixation. Fixation. This is going to be in the middle, in the second half of verse 4. Let me tell you what I mean by it so I can point it out to you. When I say fixation, I mean this, and I don't know how you're going to write this down, so just listen. This is elevating the uncertain, the unclear, the possible, elevating that with tunnel vision that de-emphasizes the certain. The clear and the guaranteed. Tunnel vision. Look at verse four again. These give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. What's this word, administration, here? This is a word that, it can go one of two ways, but it's gonna be helpful in delivering the same message whichever way you take it. We get our word steward from this word. It can mean to plan, but also it can mean to provide management, be a good steward. Either way will get you to the same definition, the same destination, if you will. When we talk about the stewardship that Paul felt with the gospel, that Paul was called to in the gospel, you could also say that was his administration. And those are the words, strangely, that he will have used already in his letter to the Ephesians. Don't turn there, but listen to these words from Paul about this administration. Look for the word mystery as well in Ephesians 3, starting with verse 1. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit. To be specific, here it is, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel of which I was made a minister. Paul lived in the reality of these words he not only wrote to the Ephesian church previously, but what he's saying to Timothy now. He's saying, I feel the weight of this message of the gospel. It's the administration or the stewardship of this message and this proclamation that I live for. that we are sinners and we are brought near to God through the work of the Son. Jew and Gentile alike, we were lost and now we're saved. And that salvation not only has ramifications when we enter His presence someday, but between now and then, that gospel is going to continue to conform us and transform us into the image of His Son. And we are never left alone. As we become more like Christ, we become closer to each other as well. This is the administration of the gospel of God, which he says is by faith. But these false teachers were fixating. I mean, first of all, that administration of God, which is by faith, that's clear. That's guaranteed. That's certain. And what the false teachers are doing, though, is they say, yeah, okay, that's nice. But I want to focus on something that's uncertain, unclear, and merely only possible, and that's where I'm putting all my energy. And not focusing it on the gospel and growth in the gospel, which he calls godliness. There's a fixation. John Stott put it this way. They were certainly speculators, these false teachers. They treated the law, the Old Testament, as a happy hunting ground for their speculations. Kent Hughes put it this way, it was not so much that they set out to be heretical, they simply wanted to go, quote unquote, deeper into the scriptures. They wanted to go beyond the, quote unquote, simple exegesis of Paul. And by giving people and events allegorical meaning, simple stories would reveal fantastic truths. And their progressive accretions smothered the gospel. There's a very important principle I see here. Very important. Fruitless discussions are not merely, listen, issues of content, what it says. Fruitless discussions are even more so an issue of eclipse, What they block. There's another word, letter D, culmination. Culmination. This one's easy to define. By this I mean, false teaching produces carnality. False teaching produces carnality, either to the extreme of license, there's no restraint, or to the extreme of external good works to make God owe me. Either way, false teaching produces the carnal. Look at verse five. But, in contrast to the false teaching speculators, in contrast to that, verse five, the goal of our instruction is love. You say, just a mushy love, a hallmark love? No, it's love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. That's the end goal, the end conscience. This word goal is talking about the end consequence. I believe that the ESV Study Bible note on this is on point. The ESV Study Bible says this is the central verse of the whole epistle. Verse 5, chapter 1. Here's what Paul's saying. You want to know what the true gospel does? The true gospel produces love where there had been no love before. And Jesus, remember, tells us what that love is in Matthew chapter 22, verses 37 and 40. We are loved, and what we do now by God's grace is we love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. That's different. That's grace. But not just that, we now love others as ourselves, the second great command. And this love thing going on, that grace has worked in our heart, this is the end goal of the true gospel message. This is the telos. And it's described, listen, as being undiluted. It's from a pure heart. It's uncontaminated. It leaves a good conscience. And it's authentic. It's authentic. You say, what does that mean? It's not hypocritical. It's genuine. That's what the gospel does. But the false teachers, because of their fixation and supplementation, everything that's going on, they're producing a parade of people, false teachers always do, who are diluted at the heart level. They are hypocritical, and they don't have a good conscience. At one point, you just have to see, give false doctrine and the true doctrine time, and you can judge them by their fruits. Doug Moo again said it this way, false teaching is often revealed in false living, and he's right. Fruitless discussion produces a carnality. The main concern here, Paul is driving into Timothy and to this local church at Ephesus, is the effect, the end goal of the false teaching, not merely being able to say this is the identity. It's where it leads. I love to walk on Merritt Road. My wife and I have a three, I found out yesterday, it's longer than a three mile walk. You go from our backyard, just go down Merritt Road, cross Tuttle Hill, and go all the way to the barn and the roundabout and back. It's so peaceful. Cornfields, deer, saw three deer earlier this week. Lots of wildlife. And just country smell and feel. I just like doing our walk that way. Except a few days ago I did that walk and I was, I think I can say it in a microphone in a sermon on Sunday, I was ticked off. Because someone, the night before, had made it their business to dump junk. It was the same payload. It was just spaced out in three or four different places on this country dirt road, on Merritt Road. It was the same wood, just different piles, and lots of it. And what was most concerning to me, not only are they messing with my walk scenery, but I was upset with what they left behind. That's what bothered me. It's the same thing with false teaching, a false emphasis. It leaves behind what is not good. Next word, attention. Attention. What do you mean attention? A false teacher covets the platform. A false teacher covets visibility. A false teacher covets respect. Look at verse six in the first part of verse seven. For some men, straying from these things, the gospel clarity of verse five, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, there's our phrase, why? Wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they're saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. They want attention. And they have to do whatever they can to get people's eyes off of the Apostle Paul and off of Timothy and onto them. So you know what they do? There's two words that we're familiar with in 2024. They deconstruct them and reconstruct something that's brand new and fresh. If anyone says to you, until you understand my teaching, you haven't been able to read the Bible right and understand it, put a flag in the ground. Because the perspicuity of Scripture, the clarity of Scripture, is something that even a child can embrace. They want attention. This can happen in denominations, it can happen in evangelical networks, it can happen on YouTube and in blogs. But just be careful if you're into attention-getting because Jesus himself said in Luke 6, 26, woe to you when all men speak well of you, for their fathers used to treat the false prophets in the same way. I'll tell you this though, every new legalism always produces a new fear of man and a new bureaucracy. Letter F, one more word, two more. Impression. Impression. What do you mean by impression? They'll have the facade of scholarship. The facade of scholarship. It says, verse 7, though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions, they're saying things and then underlining and highlighting them and say, this is the truth we've been missing. Robert Thomas, who was a professor for years at the Master's Seminary, puts it this way, all it takes to start the road to heresy is a craving for something new and different, a flashy new idea, along with a little laziness or carelessness or lack of precision in handling the truth of God. And I agree with him. And by the way, as Paul is bringing the law into play here, Paul's not saying that the Old Testament law is bad. He's stating that they are using it merely as window dressing to sell it as if their new ideas come from God. Paul will prove how the law is good in verses 8 through 11, the next sermon, which I'll call the good and the bad. But these false teachers have long verse lists in their blog enterings. They have lots of technical footnotes, a growing social media following, and traffic. But there's one more word I want to point out to you that Paul points out to Timothy in Ephesus, and it's the word, letter G, promotion. Promotion. By this I mean they got to sell their material, their ideas, not just by reaching back for extra biblical information and systematizing it, but they have to season it with truth, as I just said. And I want to break that out separately here with verse 7. They're using the law, but they don't know even what they're handling. They don't even understand the true understanding of the law, the true use of the law. They are just seasoning that, using that as seasoning to sell their new truth. You know, just keep it simple. That's what Peter said. 1 Peter 1, or 1 Peter 2, putting aside all malice, all deceit, and hypocrisy, and envy, and all slander, like newborn babies long for the pure milk of the word, so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. So look at that list. I have a few things I want to say about that list, and you're going to discuss it at the Grace Gatherings today. This list, listen, is timeless. It's timeless. It applies in any nation, in any language, with any error or doctrinal distraction, through any means, electronic or personal or microphone, by any person. If you see deviation, supplementation, fixation, culmination, attention, impression, and promotion as I've described it, as Paul has taught Timothy, put a flag up. Any road that comes out at the same destination means it's the same road. You can rename that road if you want, it doesn't change the destination. Keep in mind that Timothy will read this, what we call second Ephesians, to the entire church They're gonna hear Timothy read these words from Paul about Timothy and about the problem in the church. As a matter of fact, I find it interesting that Paul not only starts this epistle challenging Timothy, imploring him to engage with fruitless discussion. He does it in chapter one, verses one through three. Guess how he ends this epistle? He ends the epistle with these words, chapter six, verse 20, O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge, which some have professed and gone astray from the faith. Brothers and sisters, you understand what this is. These are the two bookends for this epistle. And everything between these bookends is one theme. This helps you understand every paragraph of chapters one through six. It's sandwiched between these two bookends. So it's true. The first matter of business in any local church is for the leadership to clearly establish boundaries of what addresses the conscience of believers. And so Timothy, Calvary Baptist Church actively confront gospel distractions in this church. We gotta close fast. I'm competing with last week. Can I say something to you? First of all, what do we do with all this? Be content with your Bible. Just be content with your Bible. The 66 books you have, the end game of that is is there's no extras needed. Be content with your Bible. Don't look for extra biblical authorities that stand over scripture. Number two, be careful with your Bible. Remember, the end game for the Bible's message and the gospel is your godliness. The end game is not finding something new and novel. And then finally, be cautious in your church. Yes, watch for gospel distractions, but see moving behind every last one something or someone that Paul's going to mention not only in chapter one of this epistle, but chapter two, chapter four, and chapter five, the entirety of the demonic world. He's at work. This is not just a me, pastoral thing. This is a we thing, because he ends this epistle in the plural you, grace be with you. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that we hold in our hands, that we carry around, that we have on our phones and on our laptops and our tablets and in many different good translations and many Bible study helps, but help us to be content with this book and what's clear and guaranteed and right. Protect this church. I pray that the gospel message will never be diluted or distracted from on our watch here at Calvary. I pray for those who under the sound of my voice kept hearing about the gospel that transforms and rescues and is sure and it's guaranteed. I pray that you'll move in the hearts of those who don't yet know you as Lord and Savior. Give them faith and repentance even in this moment so that they may believe in you and your work, Lord, and repent of their sin and enter into this new life. Would you do that? In Jesus' name we pray, amen.