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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.
Locking Horns with Fruitless Discussion
Series His Church, His Glory
| Sermon ID | 10624173258641 |
| Duration | 1:00:06 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 1:1-7; Ephesians 4 |
| Language | English |
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