Good morning. Can you hear me okay? You guys got me all right? Okay, what, huh? Can you hear me all right? Okay, just making sure. All right, if you would, please open your Bibles to 1 Timothy. And if you don't know where 1 Timothy is, it's right before 2 Timothy. So, if you get to 2 Timothy, just go back a little bit. So, what a great song, huh? Behold our God, seated on His throne. Come, let us adore Him. Behold our King. Just a glorious, glorious song that we get to sing. And when we looked at God's attributes, didn't we see that? Didn't we see how majestic and how splendor, what splendor and majesty and holiness that God dwells in? That it's an unapproachable light. And yet Christ has come to reveal that glory and that majesty and to make God known to us. What a blessing and what a place of honor that we sit that he would be so gracious to save us. What an amazing God we have. Truly an amazing God. Let's go ahead and pray now and then we'll start. Father, Lord, we thank you as our words pierce the very throne room of heaven, that Father, because of the blood of Christ, because of the sacrifice of Christ, we enter in, boldly we come into your presence, Father, as we are washed clean from all our sin by the blood of Christ. Father, may we never cease to give you praise and worship and honor because of the work that you have done through your son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Jesus, may we never cease to give you that same praise and that glory and that honor for your sacrifice for our sin. You truly are our God and our King. So today I ask, Father, that you would be with those that aren't here with us today, Lord. Whether it be they're sick, or they're on vacation, or they're ailing some way, Lord, or they're battling in their minds, Lord, that you would be with them, and you would comfort them, and you would show them your grace, Lord. The Father that they would know that it's okay to feel pain, but it's not okay to let the pain win. Father, I pray that you would come here today, Lord, and that your spirit would be with each and every one of us, that you would convict us where we need to be convicted, and you would edify us where we need to be edified, and that you would glorify your name in our hearts, Lord, if it is not glorified. And Father, I pray that your spirit would come, and if there's any in here that is not saved, that you would move them to see the beauty and the glory of Christ on the cross, and his sacrifice for their sin, that they would trust in that work, Lord. that they would see that he was laid in a tomb and three days later rose from the grave triumphantly. Father, now he sits at your right hand interceding for us. So Father, please come and bring your saving power today. Lord, we just thank you for all of this and ask your blessing upon this service, Lord. Please guard my words as I ask it in your name, amen. When we have children and our children do something wrong, we're always correcting our children, right? We correct them when they burn their finger, you know, don't go touch that. Or even as they get older and they come home and they bring the world home with them, we are correcting them. of all these things, we're showing them false ways that are out there. And we know that there's many false ways out there, and even within the Christian church, there is false teachers that are in the Christian church. Paul says that to the Ephesian elders in Acts when he goes to them at Miletus and he tells them that from among you, wolves will rise up. So what he's saying is that they're gonna be in the church, there's going to be false teachers in the church, there's gonna be wolves in the church, and they're going to rise up, and they're going to preach false doctrines. And so we have to be very studious of their tactics and what they do. And so we have many false teachers that are out there today. And simply, it just doesn't add up what they say. So I'll give you an equation that I like to use. Jesus plus nothing equals what? Everything. Jesus plus nothing equals everything. Jesus plus my good works equals nothing. because it's not about our good works. And so today as we go through what we're gonna go through in 1 Timothy, Paul unmasks these false teachings to us. And so let's look at this. Look at 1 Timothy, we're gonna look at verses one through 11, or three through 11 as we dealt with one through three last week somewhat. We're gonna deal with three through 11 today. So if you would, let's read this. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations, rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussions, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, for the sexual immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, purgers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. Wow, that is a lot to take in. But we'll just kind of break it down as we go. So what I want us to look at, first of all, is we see this charge to Timothy, right? We see a charge to Timothy in this. And the charge to Timothy is in verse three. Paul says, I urge you, when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine. So Timothy's charge was to correct doctrine, to correct strange doctrine. Paul says he urges him, he evokes him, he implores him, he's beseeching Timothy to remain, to stay further, to remain in place. It's to be like glued to something. That's what the word tells us. It's like two pieces of paper being glued. Timothy is to stay there. He's to remain there. Paul urges him this way. His charge, this word charge means to transmit a message, to charge. It's a military term for a superior to a subordinate, a commanding officer giving a charge to an enlisted person. This is what Paul is telling Timothy to do. He's saying, I need you to be there to protect the sheep, to correct false doctrine, right? Now, who's doing the bad teaching? Well, it tells us that it's certain men, right? It's certain men. So who are these certain men? Well, most likely, according to the letter, can't totally nail it down on this, but these certain men were probably elders in the church. They were probably elders that were there. Given verse seven says that they were desiring to be teachers of the law. So we know from chapter three that for an elder to be an elder, he must be able to teach. So these men were desiring to be teachers. They were desiring to be teachers of the law. They most likely were unqualified. Because of that same passage in 1 Timothy 3, Paul is saying what a qualified elder should be. So most likely, these that were teaching strange doctrine, a different doctrine, were those who were not qualified. They were most likely in it for their own gain. They wanted their own popularity. They wanted their own fame and desire. And we'll see that. Their motives were not pure. And we'll see that as we go through. So this was the call for Timothy. He was to remain in Ephesus. He was to abide there still. He was to command not to have strange doctrines teached or taught. That's what he was to do. So now, what was the false doctrine that was being taught? What was the false doctrine that was being taught? Look at verses one, or four through seven. This is the false doctrine. So pick up at the end of three, where he says, charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that is issued from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons... by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussions, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertion. So this was what was going on. They were preaching a different gospel. They were preaching different doctrine. It wasn't the apostolic doctrine that was to be taught. That's what we see in Acts 6, 3, and 4. he says therefore brothers pick up from among you pick out from among you seven men of good repute full of the spirit and of wisdom who will appoint to this duty but we will this is the apostles talking but we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word so they were they they were giving the ministry of the word. Paul had discipled Timothy. Timothy was Paul's child in the faith. He knew the doctrines. He knew the doctrines of grace. He knew Paul's theology. He knew what was to be taught. He knew what was not strange doctrine because he knew the truth. And so this is why Timothy is there. So they don't do this. They were teaching myths and endless genealogies. When we get into the Old Testament, when we see like 1 Chronicles and we get into Numbers, we see a lot of genealogy in the Old Testament. A lot of genealogy. Matthew talks about Jesus' genealogy. Luke talks about Jesus' genealogy. One takes it back to Abraham, one takes it back to Adam and Eve. So we see that there's genealogies. They were teaching legends and fantasy, stories that were made up by men. This is what they were teaching. They were infatuated with these things. They were myths and endless genealogies. Paul actually calls them doctrines of demons. And he calls them irreverent, silly myths. In 1 Timothy 4.1 it says, now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons. Same thing today. We have to be on the lookout, brothers and sisters. We have to be very vigilant with who we listen to and who we read because there are charlatans out there. that want to deceive you. They want to take you away from Christ, from the purity of the word. And these are doctrines of demons. In 1 Timothy 4, 7, it says, have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness. Stay here, brothers and sisters. Stay in your Bible. This is where you will find truth. This is the only place you will find truth, is in the Word. Stay away from silly myths. Stay away from those things. So we see that they were teaching myths and genealogies. Now, the letter's not clear on how the myths and genealogies were actually used. It just says that they were myths and genealogies. We don't know how they were taught, but we do know that what some of the teaching was that was going on there from 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy. So listen to what he says. Some of the teaching that the letters do say is they contained elements of Judaism. And that's 1 Timothy 1, 7, right? They desired to be teachers of the law. Now the law, that was something that was in Judaism. Now I don't know, it just says the law. It could be law in general where it meant the sacrificial, ceremonial, and moral law of God, but I think it's probably more on the lines of the moral law of God because we see in verses eight through 11 where we see that the law is put out there. So we know that there was some aspects of Judaism in there. There was false asceticism, according to 1 Timothy 4.3. Their fascination with myth and genealogies resulted in controversial questions and disputes about words, 1 Timothy 6.4. Their teaching was worldly and empty chatter with no substance, 2 Timothy 2.16. Their teaching spread like gangrene and led people away from the truth, 2 Timothy 2.17 and 18. and it produced quarrels in 2 Timothy 2.23. This is what Timothy was up against. And we have to look at the same thing. This letter was just not for that church at Ephesus, but we have to be sure that that doesn't even creep into the church today. We have to be sure that false teaching doesn't spread like gangrene, right? Gangrene's infection. Right? That's what it is. I remember when I was, oh, I don't know how old was I, 16, 17 when I had my knee surgery? And I was at school one day, and I had to change the bandage on my knee. Right? I had to change the bandage on my knee. And so I'm doing it, and my scar on this side of my knee broke open. And it looked like, anybody ever had that like Heinz 57 ketchup sauce stuff? That's what it looked like. I mean, it just, it was like, oh, man, that's, so I call the doctor, I go in, and he cuts it open even more, and he starts squeezing, right? And this stuff's coming out, and then all of a sudden, blood, then all of a sudden, this green stuff started coming out. And this was the gangrene that was in my leg. It was this infection that was in my leg. And finally, after he got that out, blood started to flow out to clean out the infection. Well, that's the image that we got. If I never would have went in to the doctor, that gangrene would have spread like crazy through my leg, and I would have lost my leg. And that's what we have to be careful of, brothers and sisters. We have to be careful of, and that's what Paul was saying, is that these guys' teaching, it was spreading like gangrene. It was infecting the sheep. The sheep would be infected. We have to be careful with what we read and who we listen to so that we're not infected, so that this doesn't spread. So it doesn't spread. What else did their teaching do? Well, their teaching promoted speculation and questioning. Speculation and questioning, 1 Timothy 1.4. It says, nor to devote themselves to myth and endless genealogy, which promote speculation rather than the stewardship from God by faith. It created speculation. It wasn't truth, it wasn't objective truth that we've been talking about. It created speculation, which brought about questioning. It brought about questioning. What else did it do? It was an assault on the gospel. Their teaching was a literal salt on the gospel. Same thing in verse four. It says not to devote themselves to myths and any genealogy which promotes speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. This stewardship of God that is by faith is the saving plan of the gospel. This is what they moved away from. This is what they weren't promoting. And so what we can sit there and say pretty clear is that what they were looking at was a works righteousness type of teaching where it wasn't Christ alone. It wasn't faith alone. It wasn't grace alone. It wasn't to God be the glory alone. But what it was, was added on. It was Jesus plus. That is a false doctrine. And so this is what they were teaching. And we can't take it lightly. We can't just sit there and say, oh, well, they're just a little misinformed. Right? We can't do that. Listen to what Paul says to the Galatians. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to one we preach to you, let him be accursed. Anathema. Right, as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. If you were in Sunday school, the last section, the last segment of the Sunday school, Mike Riccardi put the gospel out there pure and true. I hope you picked up on that. And it was brilliant how he put it out there. This was not what the teaching was. The teaching was something else. It wasn't all of Christ's work, and then we just trust in that work. This was all of Christ's work, plus the work that you do. That is not how it is. Now, are we to do good works? Are we to do good works as God's people? Absolutely we are, James tells us that. Right? James says, I will show you my faith. I will show you my trust in Christ. I will show you that Christ has done a work in me. How? By my works. He is not saying that my works... are gaining me an entrance into heaven. No, brothers and sisters, we have to always keep in our minds when we look at the gospel that we are already accepted in Christ. That's why we are obedient. We are not obedient to be accepted. We have to keep that clear or it becomes legalism. So we see that was their false teaching. Secondly, what we see now is this contrasting motives. We see a contrasting motives in verses five and seven. Paul says this, the aim of our charge is love. Now we know that, that the aim of our charge is love. We preach the gospel, why? Because we love the one we are preaching the gospel to. because we love the lost. So we know that our charge has to be from love, it's out of love, that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussions, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confidence searching. So our aim in claiming the word of God is love from what? A pure heart. A pure heart. When you preach the gospel, brothers and sisters, your ambient love needs to come from a pure heart. A clean heart. It's the same heart that David asked God to create in him in Psalm 51 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. This is after David's great confession of his sin with Bathsheba. He sees his sin, he knows his heart is darkened, and he asks God, God, create in me a pure heart. Isn't that what we should all desire, brothers and sisters? A pure heart. A pure heart. Titus 3.5 says this, that Jesus has saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing and regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. This is how we get the pure heart. Christ has saved us. He has washed us with the renewal of the Holy Spirit. Romans 6, 17 puts it this way, but thanks be to God that you were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed. An obedient heart, brothers and sisters, is a pure heart. An obedient heart is a pure heart. Second, that love that we preach the gospel in with motives that comes out of a pure heart but also a good conscience. But also a good conscience. Now, this is with a pure heart. It's not a condemned conscience. It's a good conscience. It's one free of offense against God or man. That was Paul's goal. It was a conscience that was free of any offense of God or man. We don't wanna violate our consciences, brothers and sisters. Now, we're all gonna have different consciences. There's gonna be some things that is sinful to some and maybe not to others, but don't violate your conscience. Don't sin against your conscience. Have a good conscience. Love what God loves and hate what God hates. That is a good conscience. When we love what God loves and hates what God hates. Acts 24, 16, Paul says this, or Luke says this. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience towards both God and man. As Luke wrote this, probably Paul said this. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience towards both God and man. So not only out of a good conscience, but a sincere faith. A sincere faith. What this sincere faith means, it's not a hypocritical faith. Now we talked about hypocrisy in Sunday school, right? We talked about that. And sometimes when I'm watching, when I'm looking at Sunday school, I'm like, oh man, I'm gonna talk on that. So I hope nobody thinks that I watched this first and got all this stuff, because I didn't, because I don't even know what Dick's gonna teach on. But it's not a hypocritical faith. Right, now what does hypocrite mean? So in the Greek, the hypocrite means an actor under an assumed character, right? It's a person in a play who wears a mask. That's what a hypocritical person is. Are you, brothers and sisters, claiming to be a Christian with a mask on? What happens when you take the mask off? The real you is seen. Right, the real you is seen. That's what we're gonna, that's not a sincere faith. A sincere faith is the one who is seen for who they really are. Right, and our goal is not to point people to us, our goal is to point people to Christ. Because we're always, like in Sunday school, what they said was right, we're always going to be hypocritical. We are never going to live up to our own standards. We are always going to walk in hypocrisy, but Christ never did. That's why our aim has to be to Christ. And that wasn't the aim of the false teachers. Christ was not their aim. Therefore, they didn't have pure hearts. but they had unclean hearts. They had dirty hearts. They didn't have a good conscience, but they had a guilty conscience. And this guilty conscience triggered by an unclean heart produced a hypocritical faith that had no love for God. Didn't have a genuine love for God. Do we have that in our own lives, brothers and sisters? Do you have a genuine, sincere, good, pure love for your Savior? Or do you walk through that door and you put on the hypocritical mask? It's a good question to ask yourself. The false teachers do it all the time. They walk through the door, they preach the gospel, and they steal your money. We've seen it, we've heard it, we've seen it in the news. We've seen scandals. The recent scandal in the Southern Baptist Convention of all the sexual abuse charges that are being covered up. That is a pastor that walks through the door and puts on his hypocritical mask. Don't be that way. Third, we see the effect of this false teaching. We see the effect of the false teaching. It's a false teacher's, their false use of the law. Their false use of the law. Look at verses seven through 11. Desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertion. These teachers had no understanding of the law. They didn't know what the law even was for. But they're laying it on the people. They have no understanding of it. That's what Paul says. They didn't even understand the things they were saying. Now I can understand this. A lot of times when I teach, I understand what I'm saying and the hardest part of all of it is applying what I say. It's easy to preach it, but man, it's hard to live it and apply it. But these guys didn't even know that. They didn't even have a clue what they were saying. They couldn't even make confident assertions about what they were saying. These are the false teachers. They were unsaved, they were not holy, they were unconverted, they were spiritually dead, and they were teaching God's people. This is why Timothy was there. 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. A spiritually dead person cannot understand spiritual things of God. It's the natural person. This is what he's saying. These false teachers used the law in the wrong way. They were using it as a means of salvation. The law was never meant to save anyone. We have to understand that. When the law came to the Israelites, it was never meant to save them. Listen to what Romans 3.20 says. For by the works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. since through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Galatians 3.11, now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith. So the law was never meant to save, but it was to show us how sinful we are. How sinful we are. Go to Romans 5 really quick. Just go to Romans chapter 5 really, really quick. if you got your Bible or your phones. At the end of Romans chapter five, this is what it says. Now the law came in, verse 28. Now the law came in to increase the trespass, right? This is what Paul says. But where sin increased and grace abounded all the more. So what the law did, the law came in to show the Israelites how sinful they really were. Why? so that grace may abound even more. The more sinful they saw how they were, the more gracious they saw God to be. That should be us, right? The more sinful you see you are, you get to the point where you are the chief of sinners, oh, the more precious and beautiful God's grace is to you. This is why the law came in. It was to show the beauty and the glory of God's grace. And that's what Paul wants. Paul wants us to know that the law is good. That's what he says in verse eight. Now we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. This word good is useful. The law is good because it reflects God's holiness and his will. When you look at Exodus 20 and you look at the 10 commandments, that's what you see. You see God's will and you see God's holiness. You see his will of how he wants you to live and you see his will and how he wants you to worship. And brothers and sisters, we fall miserably short of that. That is why Christ needs to be the central theme of all of our preaching. He needs to be the one glorified, not the one doing the preaching. He should be the one glorified. Listen to Psalms 19, 7. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. Oh, man. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Romans 7, 12. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good. So we know that the law is good when we use it lawfully, when it's used for good. Paul tells us that the law was not made for the righteous man. Right, the law was not made for the righteous man. Jesus, when he came, he did not come for the righteous man, but he came for who? Sinners, those who were sick, in need of a doctor. That's who he came for, Luke 5.32. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. That is why Jesus has come. The purpose of the law was to show us our sin. It was to show us our need of Christ. The purpose of the law was a guardian. It was a tutor to lead us to Christ. That's what Paul writes to the Galatians in 324. So then the law was our guardian or our tutor until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith. So the law is good. The law forces us to see the bad news There is bad news. How many of you have told a lie? You're all lying if you haven't raised your hand. Right? Do you know what that makes you and I? It makes us a liar. It doesn't make us a good storyteller. It makes us a liar. That's what it does. Have you ever wanted something from somebody else that somebody else had? Coveted something? That makes us a covetous person. You ever hated anybody? Jesus brings that hate into murder, right? So now, if we just look at those strings, we are lying, hating, murderous, covetous people. The bad news, guess what? You are guilty under God's law. That's why he sends you to hell. Because you have broken his holy law. And that's one lie. That's one lie. Think if you just did that one day of the year. Now you got 365 of them. Multiply that by how old you are. Could be a lot of lies, right? How do you, brothers and sisters, I know, I know, but how do you get rid of one? How do you atone for one? You can't even atone for one. with a holy, righteous, just God. You need Christ, and that's what the law does. The law shows us our need for a pure, holy, infinite, righteous sacrifice, and that is Christ, our God. He has done that. He has done the saving work for us. Paul tells us that those who the law was against, these are the first four commandments, right? He says it this way in 1 Timothy. They were lawless, disobedient, ungodly, unholy, and profane. That's when we don't worship God purely. When we have other images, when we have other gods, guess what we are? We are lawless, we are disobedient, we are ungodly, and we are unholy, and we profane his name. And secondly, he says it's for those who sin against man. That's the next six, right? He puts it this way, for those who strike mother and father, they don't honor their mother and father, right? Murder, sexual immorality, they commit adultery. They commit sexual acts, men who practice homosexuality. They're enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. Brothers and sisters, at one point in time, we were all of those. And Jesus has come and he has cleansed us. He has made us pure. He has brought us into the throne room of God by his blood, by his work, his robes for ours. He took our dirty, filthy robes and he gave us his righteousness. This is why the law is good. The law shows how guilty you are and points you to Christ and your need of Christ. Paul tells us that the law, when used correctly, what does it do? This is what it does. When we use the law correctly, it's verse 11, it's in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which when he has been entrusted. When we use the law lawfully and what it's for, guess what it does? It puts the gospel on glorious display. It puts God on glorious display because it doesn't only show His just and His righteousness, but it shows His love and His mercy and His forgiveness and His compassion. It puts him on glorious display, is what it does. The law tells us that we hear there's bad news, but the law shows us how glorious the gospel is. The law shows us that the gospel shows how blessed God is, and the gospel is what Paul was entrusted with, and we have the same gospel that we are entrusted with, brothers and sisters. We are ambassadors of God, and we have a message that we are to give to the people. and it's a message of hope, but that message has bad news. And we have to show the bad news. So this is what Paul says. So now, what about us? What about us? Are you using the law lawfully when we preach the gospel? I mean, it's very simple. I use just three aspects of it, right? I just use lying, you know, there's lying, cheating, stealing, all that stuff. that we could use. But what about us? How do we keep our eyes? What are we to look for in a false teacher, right? One that's using the law wrong, one that's putting a burden on the people. What are we to be looking for? First of all, when we look at a false teacher, Paul says that they teach a strange doctrine. So we have to know our doctrine. You have to know the doctrine in the Bible to be able to point out, oh, that doesn't sound very good, right? And we've all done that, we've all sat in sermons where someone has said something and you're like, oh, hold on a minute, that doesn't sound right. Our eyes pick up. False teachers, they will not teach sound doctrine. They will not teach sound doctrine. Secondly, are their motives godly? Do they have pure motives? And you brothers and sisters are responsible to keep myself and Martin and Dick in line with these things. Do we teach sound doctrine? If we don't, we are a false teacher. Do we have godly motives? If we don't, you have to question our motives. Right? Do they pursue self-love? Is it all about them and their glory and their fame? Are they, as a pastor, this is what a shepherd does. A shepherd exists for the sheep. I exist for the sheep. You guys do not exist for me. I am to lay down my life for you. You are not to lay down your life for me. And we have to make that difference, because there'll be some pastors that will fleece the flock, and they will use the flock for their own personal gain, their own pursuit of self-love. Are they in it for the money? Is it just about the money? I want you guys to take care of me. It's your job to take care of me. No, that's not right. A shepherd is not in it for the money. The money can't be what drives the shepherd. It's got to be care for God's sheep. The false prophet won't have that. The false teacher, are they humble? Are they selfless? Or do they want to be the main person and control absolutely everything that happens? Are they the micromanager of everything that happens? Do they properly use the law or do they put extra biblical burdens on the people? Do they preach God's grace? Do they preach God's mercy? Or do they come and lay heavy burdens on you? Well, not only did Christ die for you, but now you must do this. and this, and this. See, that's what Jesus called the Pharisees out on, didn't he? He says, you say this, but you lay heavy burdens on them. And Jesus, using scathing words, he says, you scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites. He did not mismatch words at all. Does the shepherd, does the teacher come to you and lay extra biblical burdens on you? Should not be. Do they preach the purity of the gospel? Do they define the gospel well? And do they promote salvation by grace or by works righteousness? Those are just a few of the things that we should have our eyes open to when somebody gets behind this pulpit or when somebody's an elder. Is this what they stand for? Is this what they've seen? If they're not, you have to get into your mind, this could be a false teacher. This could be a false teacher. So brothers and sisters, may you and I be very vigilant. May we not be afraid to unmask the false teachers. May we not be afraid to call them by name. Paul does it, I mean, yes, and Alexander. Paul wasn't afraid to call them by name. We should not be afraid to call them out by name. So may we today, brothers and sisters, be vigilant in what we read and who we listen to. May we spot the false teachers. May we unmask them. And yet, may you see the beauty and the glory of your salvation in Christ as Paul dealt with it in 1 Timothy. Let's pray. Lord, thank you again for your word and for this time. May you be glorified and may you be edified. And Father, may we see that your law is good.