You know, we've claimed many times in our church where two or three are gathered together in my name, there in my laments. And so we praise God that we can have church and that we can be refreshed in the middle of the week here. At Bob Jones University where I was a student, after my sophomore year, I didn't know if God, what God had for my life and I was praying about what God had. And I said to my dad, I said, what about just being a Bible major? And my dad said, well, it wouldn't be wasted and got counsel from him. So I went back, I wasn't called to preach yet. I went back to Bob Jones, and being a Bible major, I got into something called a Preacher Boys class, and back then, praise God, there were several hundred students, I think about six to seven hundred young men that were training for the ministry. And the preacher boys were the guys that they're developing teaching doctrine to. It's kind of like seminary and undergrad level. And then there was seminary after that. And some of the guys were grad students as well. But it's just a practical truth about being a minister, being a pastor. And with the pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and then also Titus, that's really what it is. It's Paul instructing a young man in faith, Timothy. So he's kind of his preacher boy. And so last week we looked at, if you remember, Paul's authority, that he was apostle that had been appointed by Jesus Christ, and that Timothy was Paul's disciple. So there's encouragement to Timothy right away that Paul saw God's hand at work in his life. and then remember to give that threefold blessing to Timothy as well, grace, mercy, and peace. And so tonight, we're gonna begin to consider three aspects of Timothy's ministry, and we're only gonna get to one part of that this evening, Timothy's charge, then we'll look at Timothy's church and Timothy's challenge, okay? So Timothy's charge is what we're gonna look at tonight. Let's pray as we get started, ask God to bless our Bible study this evening. Father, I thank you for the grace that you give, we thank you. for the opportunity that we have to gather together tonight. And Father, it's our desire that the Spirit of God would speak to our hearts. Lord, I thank you for the young men that are sitting in front of me this evening. It may be that some of these are gonna be called to preach or are called to preach. And Father, I just pray to encourage them and to walk with you. This is a very practical book along those lines, but it's practical for the church as well to consider things that are areas of conflict, areas that need to be resolved in the church. And Father, I pray tonight that you bless our service. I pray that the presence of God will be known in this place. And Father, we claim the verse that I mentioned, and we've already claimed it tonight, but where two or three are gathered together in my name, they're mine in the midst. And Father, we pray that church would grow. We pray that God would bless us with those that desire to get together in the midweek and seek the face of God and those that are able to do so. And yet, Father, we praise you. here this evening and Lord we thank you that you're merciful God a gracious God a good God and father as we just noticed the sound system needs some work yet and I pray that the Spirit of God to give us wisdom about that but Lord we commit that to you and we praise you for the grace that you can and pray God that you'd be glorified tonight it's in Christ's name we pray amen all right sorry about that we'll sort it some other time all right Timothy's charged Timothy's charged so Timothy was a companion of and a fellow laborer of the Apostle Paul. Acts 16 verse 1. It says, then came he, Paul, to Derbe and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple, and so you're, and going back to Acts, it's where it's all beginning, it's a story of what's happening, but it says a certain disciple. It doesn't just say a certain young man that was in the church. It was a certain disciple. It means that he was a pupil, that he was a student, all right, that he was, he really was a preacher boy. He really was desirous of understanding the word of God, named Timotheus. the son of a certain woman which was a Jewess and believed, but his father was a Greek, which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium. Him would Paul have to go forth with him." Okay, to Timothy's credit, as they looked at this young man, they saw a young man that had the hand of God upon his life. The Bible says he was well reported of by the brethren. So as those churches looked at Timothy, they thought, you know, there's a young man, that's a sharp young man, God's hand is on him. As Paul comes, Paul looks at him and says, that young man is really sharp. In fact, I'd like to have him go with me and travel with me and be my companion and fellow laborer in the work of the Lord. As you continue to read the book of Acts, you'll see Timothy or Timotheus traveling with Paul. It says in Acts 17 verse 13, And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea, but Silas and Timotheus abode there still. And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed. Paul was persecuted, he had to flee, he left Timotheus, he left Silas, but then he says, he gets somewhere else, he says, send the guys, and so they come, and you just see that Paul is the leader of the group, he has the authority, and that they're just ready to be servants and do whatever needs to be done for God and for God's Word. And so we find that Timothy's charge is that Timothy was called to oversee God's work at Ephesus, and so we come down to our text in 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 3. It says, as I have sought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia. And so Paul, again, he's in the position of authority and he says to Timothy, Timothy, I really want you to stay there at Ephesus. I'm going to go into Macedonia, but this is where I want you and I put you here to serve the Lord here. Now as Paul does that, Paul exhibits a great faith in what Timothy would do and we see that in other texts as Paul speaks about Timothy that he knew that Timothy had the same heart that he had. In Philippians 2 verse 19 he says, but I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortland to you that I will also be of good comfort when I know your state for I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state. And Paul goes, hey, I am glad to send Timothy because Timothy thinks like me. And I think we can say about Paul, Paul was a biblicist. Paul was somebody that agreed with the word of God. Paul was somebody that stood, if Jesus Christ was there and Paul stood where Jesus Christ would stand, he looked at Timothy and said, hey, that guy's gonna stand where I stand, where Christ stands. And he says, I know this guy is gonna do that which I desire to see him do to the glory of God. You know, how important is it tonight that we be like-minded with the men that have gone before? Okay, how important is it tonight that we be the same, biblically, as Paul was back in his day? You know, I share with our church a lot of times, I loved reading the guys back in the 1800s. I love reading about their devotion to God. They held a high esteem for the Lord's Day. They were serious about personal devotion. They were serious about personal piety. They were serious about having family devotions and sitting down and studying the Word of God together and coming together for prayers at night. It wasn't just religiosity. It was that they really understood that they desired a real relationship with God. I like, in my mind, to go back to the 1950s and the movement in the United States that was called the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement and that went up into the 1990s and early 2000s and was strong for God. And I say this very sadly today, there are great changes that are taking place in that movement. There's a great shift away from things that I look at and I say those things are important and we ought to get back to what the Word of God says about those things and honor those things. I've recently been told this, we live in modern times and you still appear to be in the dark ages. You know, as I read something like that and I think about something like that, I say this, I hope somebody can say about me, I stand back in the days of the early church, okay, and I'm not saying wear robes and sandals and, you know, let's go and do everything like they did back then with house churches, but I am saying this, I want to stand where they stood back in the day because that's where we ought to stand. There ought to be nobody that apologizes for taking a stand that's a biblical stand That is a historic stand, that's a consistent stand with the Word of God. So we need men who stand where God's men stood. Christianity is 2,000 years old in our day. 2,000. So imagine this, everybody just writes steps, writes steps, writes steps, writes steps. Pretty soon we fall off the precipice because we have stepped so far away from God just by a little bit, little bit, little bit. What prevents that? What prevents that is that God's given us a book that tells us by absolute authority what God's mind is. And what prevents that is also that by the grace of God, there's been faithful men and each generation that have stood up and honored God. They might be a remnant, they might be a minority, but by the grace of God, they have stood where God's word stands, and they have stood there in obedience to God, and they were men like the old prophets in the Old Testament that didn't care what men thought about what they were preaching, but cared very much about what God thought about their preaching. Men like Jeremiah, who set their face like a flint and would not be moved because they were standing in obedience to God. 2 Timothy 2 says, And the things that thou hast heard of me, among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. And so Paul looks at Timothy, he says, man, I see a faithful man. He's able to teach others also. And he gets excited. I can just imagine the heart of the Apostle Paul as he comes, he sees this young disciple, Timothy. He looks at him and he says, hey, praise God. This guy's got a heart for God. He's burdened about it, excited about it. Says, hey, come on, go with me. And he starts putting him into positions of authority in God's work. And so Timothy is there in Ephesus. He's there because he's a faithful man. He's given the charge over that area kind of to do some very specific things. with regard to establishing these churches for God. And so he's called to oversee that. But then he's called to preach God's word in Ephesus. He's called to preach God's word, protecting the doctrine. It says that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. For those who wanted to preach another gospel, Timothy had a responsibility and that was to go to them and say, no, no, no, you can't do that. And to stand up in the church and to declare against that false gospel and against that false gospel and against that false teaching, Timothy's job was to be a man that would be there and say, hey, this is not OK. We're going to we're going to stand up and we're going to honor God in God's word. So Timothy had a charge, it was preach against it. You know, our society is big on tolerating false religions. I've said before, our family had to take the life of the UK test, you know, to become permanent resident and then to become a citizen. The Life of the UK test, as you take it, they'll say, what are the five values of being British? And one of the first ones is tolerance. And I think, who wrote the book? Who's the one that segmented society and had the authority to say, these are what British values are? But I'll say this, in modern day thinking and societal thinking and political thinking, their idea very much is that it is a virtue to be tolerant as if a tolerance is is a godly thing. And so they'll say things like this. All religions are good. Right. I mean, it sounds very men pleasing and very warm. You know, we want to embrace you into our society. All religions are good. All religions are equal. There's no religion that is better than another religion. They're all the same. In fact, in fact, they'll say that all religions that believe in God are the same. It's like all roads lead to the same thing, is their idea. And they say you ought to respect all faith. And by respect, they mean accept. OK, and it's a doctrine of tolerance. But I'll say this about that doctrine is not a biblical doctrine. It's not something that we ought to take into the church and take on board as a church and say, OK, OK, we got to start to pat on the back. Those that are unbelievers, pat on the back. Those that are false teachers, pat on the back. Those that are standing against the truth of the word of God. The Bible says in Titus 111, It says whose mouths must be stopped who subvert whole houses Teaching things what they ought not for filthy lucre sake and for the sake of money for the sake of whatever they're teaching a false religion the Bible says their mouths gotta be stopped and Just like Timothy here Timothy had a charge and it was to command them not to preach any other gospel Galatians 1 8 says but though me or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you. Let him be accursed." Now there's religions that claim angelic revelation. Islam says that Muhammad received angelic revelation. Mormons claim that Joseph Smith Received angelic revelation. I don't I'll just say I don't personally disagree with that because I believe they got it from an angel But they got it from a fallen angel and that is satanic and that it has power and that it has been a strong movement But Paul said it this way But though we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached Paul just said this hey let him be damned and Paul took a stand against that a false teaching and Jesus has a warning for false religions that are also seeking to cater to the world and seek the approval of men. Luke 6, 26, Jesus said, Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets. You know, it'd be a bad thing today if I, as a Christian, have the world and everybody on my side patting me on the back saying, hey, that's great. I agree with the message that you teach. I agree with the music that you sing. I agree with the dress that you wear. I agree with the places that you go. Hey, you're great. We love you. That's great. God says, if that's the way that I am, then beware, because I'm a false teacher. That's what they did to those that were anti I was witnessing to a man this past week, and I reminded him that false religion is what put Jesus Christ on the cross. False religious leaders were those that gave their voice against the Lord, those that despised the Lord, those that hated the Lord, those that crucified the Lord. And if we're standing where Jesus stood, then those false religions are going to rise up against us as well. And Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, you're to stand there and to charge them, charge some. that they teach no other doctrine. And so called to preach God's word in emphasis protecting the doctrine. And then refuting a false doctrine, refuting false doctrine. And part of that was superstitious stories. It says in verse four, neither give heed to fables, okay? And we understand the word fable is a made up story. And Barnes Notes says this, the commentary says this, The fables here referred to were probably the idle and puerile superstitions and conceits of the Jewish rabbis. The word rendered fable means properly speech or discourse, and then fable or fiction or a mystic discourse. Such things abounded among the Greeks as well as the Jews, but it is probable that the latter here are particularly intended. They were composed of frivolous and unfounded stories, which they regarded as of great importance, and which they seemed to have desired to incorporate with the teachings of Christianity. Paul, who had been brought up amidst these superstitions, saw at once how they would tend to draw off the mind from the truth and would corrupt the true religion. One of the most successful arts of the adversary of souls has been to mingle fable with truth. And when he cannot overthrow the truth by direct opposition, to neutralize it by mingling with it much that is false and frivolous. And so Satan would desire to get kind of some mystical aspects and things into true religion and try to corrupt religion, true religion with those things. If you know about this, or think about this, but Scots are pretty superstitious. A lot of people, you know, you talk to them, you talk about calamity, and they'll go, you know, knock on wood, you know, as if that really kind of, they think, does something. I've had people talk to me and say, you know, my mom died, my dad died, I was really heartbroken over that, but then this butterfly flew in the window, and I just knew it was my mom, I just knew it was my dad, you know, somehow saying something to me. And you know, a lot of religious people want to go pat on the back and encourage you, and that's great, and I think that's real, but the Bible says that these fables, These mysticisms, these false ideas, are things that, in this case, Timothy was to stand against and say, hey, we're not going to introduce into our religion these superstitious ideas that make men maybe feel good or kind of get thinking about things they ought not be thinking about. We'll just stick with the truth of the Word of God. And so refuting false doctrines, superstitious stories. but then unnecessary interest in bloodlines. It says in endless genealogies. Genealogy is very interesting. You study your family history and try to go back in time and see kind of where you came from. You know, we all go back to Adam and Eve and go back to Noah, but to see, you know, in recent history who our forefathers were. And we were at a church this past, well, actually a year ago in the summer in Sauk City, Wisconsin. And my brother told me, as we were there in Sauk City, he said, you know what, one of our ancestors, and he named him, I can't remember his first name, you know, I remember his surname, sure, but he was one of the first ones to sit down with the Sauk Indians in Sauk County, and we were in Sauk City, Wisconsin, so we're very close to that area where he met with the Indians. So that's neat, and that's interesting, and you know, even here in Scotland, there's a great interest in genealogy. If you go down into Edinburgh, you've got the tourist shops that have the clan histories, and you've got the maps, and you've got the kilts, and you've got, I suppose if you can attach somebody to some lineage here in Scotland, you can make a lot of money trying to maybe sell them some of the goods that have to do with their history. And with the Jewish man, you know, his history as a Jew was very important to him. It had been very important within God's economy in the past with Israel. It was very important to them that they were a Jew, that they weren't a stranger, that they were somebody that could prove their lineage, you know, that went back to Abraham, as well as their tribal lineage. that they were a part of this tribe, maybe for the sake of being, you know, maybe of the tribe of Levi so that they could be involved in serving in the temple or in the worship that was there. But you know, all that genealogical history was done away with at the cross and done away with in Christ. Remember Paul? was speaking about the fact that he was a Jew of the Jews. If anybody could have stood up and said, you know what, my genealogy is good, Paul could say that. Philippians 3 verse 3 says, we are the circumcision, we're the Jews, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. He's talking about a true child of God, the circumcision of the heart. No confidence in the flesh, that's the genealogy. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath wherever he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, Blameless, but what things were gained to me those I counted loss for Christ and Paul Paul had all this I mean he had it could it could could open up You know the CV of all the stuff He was as a Jew and it was great and a lot of Jews would look up to Paul and say hey, that's that's amazing You know what when Paul was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, but Paul just counted it loss for Christ Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done refuse that I may win Christ. Paul looked at all that history of who he was, and he set it aside, said it doesn't matter, what matters is Christ. And there's a lot of people tonight that are trusting the fact that they've been a good Catholic since the day they were born, and they have been a Christian their whole life, and they've been a Church of Scotland person since they were born, and they were christened, and they've got that history of being in the church, and the family history of being in the church, and they've been very religious, but Paul is saying your genealogy doesn't matter. It doesn't matter, and it was kind of a different, a little bit different deal than that within the early church, because it still kind of wanted to go back to that old religion that was done away with in Christ. And so Paul said to Timothy, Timothy stand against those endless genealogies. Why? Because they are things which do not strengthen faith. All that history and all that past of what they had done, the Bible says about it, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in the faith. So do, okay? It's not going to help. Imagine you get to church and you got Barnabas and Titus that they're there and they're arguing about their genealogical history and who's the greatest Jew and it's going back and forth and it seems kind of interesting and maybe, you know, we might find some interest in it, but it has no benefit. It has nothing to do with actually strengthening the church. So Paul's principle is this, if what you are discussing does not build up the church, stop. There's a lot of interesting things in our day. We're living, as Daniel prayed on Sunday night, in the last days of the last days. Jesus Christ is coming soon, and it could be very interesting to talk about the Tribulation. It could be very interesting to talk about the Antichrist. It could be very interesting to talk about vaccines, and the Mark of the Beast, and what's taking place, and there could be contingents that come in from those things. those issue type side things do not do anything to strengthen the spiritual strength of the church. Satan loves to introduce petty arguments into churches. He's very keen to do that. He did that even in the early church. The church in Corinth got into it, arguing about spiritual heritage. In 1 Corinthians 3, verse 1, Paul said, and I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual But as unto carnal, somebody that's a fleshly person, even as unto babes in Christ, I fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able. For ye are yet carnal, whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions. Are ye not carnal? Walk as men. For one saith, I'm of Paul. They were claiming their spiritual heritage. You know, I got saved when Paul was preaching, or baptized by Paul. And another, I'm of Apollos. Are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I plan as Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planneth anything, neither he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." You know, they thought they were being spiritual, saying, I'm of Apollos, and Paul just said, hey, you're just being fleshly, you're just getting into it about something that is non-essential. Something that has nothing to do with Christianity. And so Paul says to Timothy, Timothy, all these endless genealogies and these spiritual aspects, these things minister questions. They don't bring us to godly edifying, do away with those things, shun those things. You know, we ought to look at our life and say, you know what, let's stay away from pet issues. Let's stay away from miniscule doctors. I praise God. I wasn't given in college to coffee shop theology. I wasn't somebody that was an intellectual type person that would sit down and love to argue about, you know, the little things in the world. I praise God and probably protect me from that. I probably wasn't smart enough to do it. Maybe that's it. But the thing is, those things don't matter. Those things are side things. We got to set those things aside and say, I'm going to focus on the big thing. So preaching doctrine that builds up the church, because he said, which is a godly edifying, which is in the faith, so do. Okay, don't miss out on preaching the faith. Again, you could get focused on things that are not essential. The Pharisees did that in Jesus' day. The Pharisees were religious leaders and they had such a scrutiny of the supposedly of the law and yet they missed the big things. Matthew 23, 23 says, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you paid tithe of mint and anise, and come and have admitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith. These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. God said, hey, that's not bad, tithe off the things that you got. You're scrutinizing, hey, but you're missing the big things. You're missing the big things. Sometimes you'll see a new convert, and I've said recently, I just pray for converts that just get a hunger for God and look in the Word of God and be faithful to the house of God and set apart the world and obey God and honor God. But you kind of have two things in our day that we're seeing, and that's a new convert that gets zealous about the minuscule things and is focused on kind of pet issues that they can look up on YouTube and watch a lot of videos about and see a lot of things about kind of their pet interests, whether it's End Times events or some other history about the Bible or something like that. And they're so focused on, they know everything about that, but they don't know the basics about God. They don't know the basics about just hey, loving God, just fellowshipping together, just being faithful to the house of God, just participating in evangelism, just reading your Bible, just praying, just listening to the teaching and preaching that is there at the local church and becoming a part of that assembly and really seeking to do something in a local community for Jesus Christ. They can't see that, but they're focused on little pet issues that they could write a dissertation on that, but they don't really have a beginning understanding the Bible. The other one I've mentioned too, the other one is a person that gets saved and just like they're just not growing and you just don't see any life in them and you just don't see any any any zeal whatsoever. I pray in our day God help us, God give us people that will get saved that would just steady grow, be kept from these things that Paul is speaking about, these things that minister questions rather than godly edifying. which is in the faith. And so our desire is, hey, you know what, be careful. Satan wants us to go down the path of contentious things that are not essentials. Well, we gotta stick with the Word of God. No, we gotta stand up for doctrine, we gotta stand up for practice, but be very careful that we're discerning in the things that we take a position upon. And so Timothy, week he's a young sickly timid man and Paul says hey get in there to Ephesus and fight for the faith fight for the faith tonight we don't look at our life say by the grace of God I mean I you know it doesn't matter what I feel like my gifts or my strengths are by the grace of God. I wanna be somebody that'll take a stand for the faith. I wanna be somebody to be a faithful man to say to God, God, you know what? I just wanna be faithful to do what you called me to do. Just willing to get in there and toe the line with God's word. We gotta be somebody that stands up for this book and says, you know what, it's there. It's in the Word of God. And I'll tell you this, I'm getting burdened about the doctrine of separation. I'm getting burdened about godliness. I'm getting burdened about people that would be faithful to the Word of God and stand for the truth of the Word of God and a generation that loves God. And I understand this, the Bible says, but in the last days, Perilous times shall come and it speaks about a falling away. It speaks about them that would keep to themselves teachers Having inching years, but I just pray as a church We just look at what God's words is going to tell us about in this in this past world pistol and and say you know what? We're just going to stand. We're just going to stand We're going to trust God to do a great work. You know are we more tolerant than we should be and Have we swallowed it? Have we swallowed the idea the world gives? You gotta be tolerant, you gotta kinda come alongside and agree with somebody that is in a clear position of doctrinal error. Are we somebody that says, you know what, I'm gonna refute that. I'm gonna refute that. I'm gonna stand with the word of God, but I'm not gonna refute silly things. I'm not gonna argue over little things in the word of God, but I'm absolutely gonna stand for the truth of the word of God. The things that build up, the things that edify. the godliness of which the Bible speaks. May God help us to do that, all right? Just a little challenge for us tonight from the life of Timothy. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for Timothy. And Father, I thank you that the Apostle Paul could look at Timothy and say, you know what, I'd like to have this guy on my team. And Father, I just pray tonight in the hearts of these young men that there would be a desire in their heart to say, you know what, God, would you use me like that? And Father, I pray that we fight and stand. And Father, on the one hand, fighting for truth like Timothy, on the other hand, fighting against the false teaching that's creeping in, the things that are causing error and causing people to turn aside away from the gospel to a false gospel. And Father, I pray that the Spirit of God will bless the Word. As it's been preached tonight, I pray, God, just stir our hearts. I pray, Lord, to harvest, send forth laborers into the harvest field. And God, give us grace to be true to you. It's in Christ that we pray, amen. Amen, all right, praise God for our time together tonight. And we'll go ahead and take prayer requests, and we'll just wait one second while we end the live stream. And we'll take prayer requests and praises, all right? Something God's done in your life this week to encourage you. be thinking about it.