First Timothy lesson 2 continued

We are in lesson two of the first Timothy study. And we're going over verses 3 and 4, but I always like to get context. So I'm going to reread the section here, 1 through 4, 1 Timothy. So 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. in our verses.

As I urge you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus, so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation, rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. So I think we got through question four, so we are on question five. So in that section it says, what do the words not to teach strange doctrine mean?

So does that mean a new doctrine that the men were teaching? Or was it just an incorrect interpretation of doctrine? What do you think? New doctrine or just a poor interpretation of the doctrine? My version says false doctrines. False? So would that be a new doctrine, you think, or not the real one?

OK, that's getting to where I want to get at. So yeah, I guess the... I guess the last question I had, so it was something false. It wasn't correct. So if there's a strange doctrine, what does that also imply? This is kind of a converse. So if there's a strange doctrine, what does that also imply? There's a good one.

So, that there is a true or correct doctrine, a doctrine that these certain men were teaching, were opposed to the true doctrine that Paul had taught. So, I have from a colleague, The words teach, no other doctrine, are the translation of a negative, and the verb heterodescaleo, the latter word meaning up of the verb to teach, and the word heteros, which means another of a different kind. So the idea is not merely that those exhorted are not to teach any other doctrine, but they are not to teach a doctrine, a different doctrine, a doctrine which is contrary to the true doctrine. Our word heterodoxy, namely false doctrine, refers not to doctrines, not to doctrines of false religions, but to doctrines which pose as true Christian doctrine, but which is diametrically opposed to the true teaching of Christianity. This is what Paul was referring to. So again, it's a twist, it's off. Remember what we talked about last week where don't let these men teach.

And why? Because if it's just off a little bit, it begins to expand and grow where we said like Catholicism or covenant teaching or charismatic. If you start it and if you don't, so to speak, nip it in the bud, what happens? It grows. And it manifests itself, and we have a whole Catholic with popes and all these things who are never in scripture. We have millions upon millions of people who are under that teaching, and it's wrong. And it started somewhere. It started somewhere.

And what Paul, in the earlier question we were talking about, is don't even let them start. I urge you, I desperately urge you, don't let them teach. Don't let them start this false doctrine. Nip it in the bud. And so this same thing is that don't let them teach certain false doctrines, these strange things, because what? He's warning that it will manifest and tear apart the body, and we see this also in Titus too, the same warning, that you'll get the divisions in the families and all these different things. So I guess the question I had was, was Paul instructing Timothy to take these men aside and discuss with them about what they were teaching? After I gave that, what do you think? No. From the earlier verse, don't let them teach. Urge you. Stop them. Don't do it. I'm not going to come beside you and say, hey, let's just discuss this. Continuing with Macaulay here. The charge is twofold.

First, they were not to teach strange doctrine, which shows there was a body of fixed teaching that existed in church, to which nothing was to be added. Again, the true doctrine. Strange doctrine assumes the presence of correct doctrine, which it varies. So again, if there's a strange doctrine, there's a correct doctrine.

Second, Timothy is clearly charged with the responsibility of maintaining purity of the doctrine, and he has to do so by the exercise of authority. Again, don't let them teach. Timothy is not told to discuss their error with those teaching error. He is told to take decisive and authoritative action to see that the error is banished.

So Paul expressed the same instruction to Titus in Titus 3.9.11, but avoid Don't come anywhere near foolish controversies and genealogies and strife and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject a factious man after first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned.

Also in Titus 2.15, these things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you. Is Paul pretty consistent between the church at Ephesus and the church on Crete? You're supposed to come beside these guys right now. All authority, slam them. Don't let them get started.

Does that seem harsh? Should it be harsh? I thought about this. We talked a little bit about this. that you have to love and compassion, but do you, in love and compassion, go and just come beside these people and say, it's okay, let's talk about it?

I don't think it is, and it's really tough as being an elder, or for us, anybody in the body who meets with people, how long do you go with somebody who is off base? How far do you go? Go anywhere with them. Miles, as you can see, like, the tightest reference series is after 1st and 2nd warning. Which is kind of like, I don't know, 3 strikes, but I mean.

We had an interesting example when I was in, you know, in our youth growing up. There was a guy, just one of the dads, taught to the youth group devotional one night, and he started teaching theistic evolution. And he had kind of just discovered this for himself, and he was all excited about it. He's like, oh, here's how we can reconcile the Bible with science.

And I didn't really, I wasn't really in on the behind the scenes stuff that went on. But the next week he came back and he said, hey, guys, I got to apologize. You know, some of the other some of the other men, you know, took me aside and I was wrong. And so, you know, he on that particular point. You know, he came around quite quickly and far as I know, he never caught it again. So I think there's an example of where someone can be kind of just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're off track here and brought back around.

But I think it's if they, you know, if you were to just kind of reject that, there'd have to be some firm action taken, I think. Yeah, I think that's why I brought up that Titus one. Somebody teaches something, you show them the door. I don't think it's that harsh, but it is once or twice. trying to teach people that or, you know, aside out from, you know, even from here, at homes or whatever, and you start doing that, I think after just a few warnings, one or two is what, you know, Paul says in Titus, then if they still keep doing that, you know, it's incumbent upon, I think, the elders to address that.

I think it's really important to understand this concept because I think we have tolerated so much stuff in love and compassion and that's why I kind of brought that up. I think a lot of times we tolerate a lot of things just because we want to be loving and compassionate. But especially in the tightest one where we saw, I mean, it tears apart families. It tears apart the body if you let this go on. And so it is not sympathetic and compassionate to let this go on.

It is incumbent upon us to address it in a fairly straightforward, strict way. one or two or three warnings or meetings, and if it's still pervasive, they didn't say, I'm wrong, or yes, I see where you're right. If they still go, I think it's incumbent upon the elders to really address that in a fairly strict manner. So, yeah.

So given the argument, if you're Timothy or you're Titus, is the true doctrine only what Paul teaches? I mean, where do they go for verification? We can go to, you know, scriptures that we think are pretty solid and then to people who understand the Greek language and, you know, that kind of thing. But is the authority at that time resting solely in what Paul has written and taught?

I think it probably is. And this is what I go back on. We have the Bible. We have it on our phones. We have it anywhere. We can do it on the internet. We can see it. We can look. We can research. I have a PC study Bible on here. I can look at the Greek. I can look at everything on it. I can tear it apart. What were these men, you know, Timothy and Titus had? They had letters like this.

But more importantly, I think they spent, you know, and what we don't, I think, get a sense of is, you know, we read this and he's over here in Crete and he's over here in Ephesus. But how long did they spend with Paul? It wasn't a day. These were years with him. It's like, you know, go to college, or even here, if you're under the teaching for years, you pick it up. You know, like, I don't think we, those that have gone through the identification tours all the time, I don't think you need to have, you know, I mean, you can look back at identification, but you know it because you've been taught that. for so long that you know it. That's, I think, what Timothy and Titus had is so much time with Paul. And he's now reassuring them. I was looking for it, because I think one of these verses, it says, what I taught you. Stay true to what I taught. Or there's some variation of that. So it's really saying, go back to what I taught you.

That's the authority and what you know. I find it interesting how much power that the apostles had, and that especially Paul being the lone apostle to the Gentiles, and the other 12 primarily to Jews, and I would think that the Jewish Ministry would be a lot tougher than Paul's because you you have to unlearn something. That's why there are so many on the Jews I think that's very true. Paul always laid out his authority You know and and you got I mean You know our society the way it works today would we would have a poll to see if Paul was right or not Right, you know And from his perspective, what he got directly from the Lord Jesus, and this is it.

Right. Well, and remember, how long did Paul spend with the Lord? Three years. Yeah, three years. Three years in the desert with him being taught. Same concept. Yeah. Is that, you know, the more you spend with somebody, day in, day out, not, you know, take, you know, Saturdays and Sundays off, this is every day being taught by the Lord for three years. Yeah. And then, now, Paul takes that teaching to Timothy, Titus, and others. There were several that were taught under Apollos, I'm sure. There were several that were probably taught under Paul.

And we don't get that concept of time. We just read it, and it's like, well, he was in Ephesus, and then he was over at Macedonia, and then he's over here. Well, he spent three years over here, and then he spent two years over here, and he spent six months over here. And so, again, it wasn't just a Monday through Friday 8 to 5. It was every day he was teaching.

Well, I think I'm trying to make the point that uh... you know we'd in two thousand twenty four can be disciples of lewis fairchieffer or whoever but really when it when it boils down to who do i think depend on it better be a possible it better go to him well if and one step above that the word yeah i mean yes uh... yeah i mean And that's why you see in a lot of denominations, they didn't take religion out, they didn't take Christianity out, they took Paul out.

Right. But also, I go to heed the warning that in Corinthians, where it's I Apollos, I Apollos, It's the Word. The focus, number one, is Christ and God the Father. And how do we see that? Through His Word. Now, His Word is through Paul. And yes, to vacate Paul is to vacate who we are in Christ.

I agree. So again, if you pull that out, if you're only in the Gospels, And, which a lot, I think, where Catholicism is born, a lot of the covenant is, you know, a covenant is basically, a lot of the Gospels, it's talking about what is true about Israel. You know, the Sermon on the Mountain, you know, the Beatitudes, all these different things, they're in the Gospels, but that's for earthly, and the Millennial Kingdom and that. So, again, yes.

I think we just can't lose sight that we worship Paul. But I understand what you're saying. Without Paul's teaching, we don't know who we are in Christ. We don't know what Christianity is. We don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But there's some even like John, the last apostle alive, I think. Right. And again, which I always thought was interesting, is that John was written after all of Paul's epistles. Right.

And so he's the one who points out deity. He's the one who's pounding about Christ or is God. Basically, putting a foundation under all of Paul's teaching. Yeah, well, and he's also, which I think is interesting, Paul gives you chapter and verse instructions on things like justification, sanctification, position, condition, the church, all of that. And when you read John, you realize that John already knows all this, and he doesn't have to repeat Christianity 101, that he's 30 years later.

But that's what I'm saying. So what's his purpose? Christ is God. Well, his purpose is that you might believe. Yeah, but most of his is about the deity of Christ. That's right. And so he's just putting, again, the way I look at it is the foundation of Paul's teaching. Because he's saying, in Christ, we're in Christ, we're in Christ.

Who is Christ? God. And that's where I think John is uplifting or doing the foundation for all of Paul's teaching. Who is Christ? And that's why John is such a different gospel than all the others. And again, that's because of the position of when it was written. Other thoughts? I think the last question I have, which is really intuitive, and we've talked about it. So based on Paul's instruction, what is the bottom line about people teaching incorrect doctrines?

Shut them down. Shut them down in a couple warnings. Come beside them. Talk to them. I think it's also helpful to correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Ephesus was commended on their casting out of false apostles. I think he may be telling Timothy, this is going to be obvious. This is a false apostle. He's claiming to be an apostle on these teachings.

It's not necessarily like, oh, I got this thing wrong. No, he's completely off. Yeah, off the rails. Yeah. And that's why, like I said, strange doctrines, things like that. It's going to be obvious, not maybe one thing. You can come along with one thing. Yeah, and usually that can be corrected in a fairly short time.

Somebody who is doctrinally way off the tracks is harder to bring back. As I was saying, I think with his brother in Portugal and to the Catholics, the Catholics are the hardest to witness to. because they are off the tracks and they have this whole religious hierarchy that was never what Paul's teaching is. It's hard to bring them back. Those are much harder than, I think I said last week, the person in the jungle, missionary comes upon them and gives them this.

Hey, that's new, great, I understand it, boom. Versus somebody who's rock solid and had 50 years of their family in the Catholic Church, or a whole, I think Spain, Portugal, and South America. Catholicism is huge, and it's very hard to uproot that. I thought of one example, too. You got your mic on? What's that? Yeah, it's on. Okay.

When Connor said that, um, I was thinking about Apollos in the book of Acts, chapter 18. It says he was teaching about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, when Priscilla and Echoa heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately. And he responded? Yeah. I mean, Connor didn't know.

Right. teaching what he knew. Right. So it depends what they were teaching, probably. Well, see, that's it. That's what they did exactly correctly. They took him aside, one or two, but didn't take, you can't tell how many times, but it sounded like he responded pretty quick because he didn't know. So they informed him of that and got him back on the right track. It's almost like he wasn't teaching necessarily wrong, it just wasn't the whole truth.

So, well, that's the point. There are people that, you know, the gifted peoples, if you're an evangelist, you may or may not be well-schooled in identification, but you are well-schooled in salvation and the grace doctrine. Right. And, you know, you're not living or teaching or functioning outside the realm that God has called you to be. Right.

I think of Sam Dalton. Sam Dalton, although we came to know that with Pearl, that she knew this. And we've known Sam for 40 years or 30 years. But the most gifted, literally, evangelist I've ever known. But it was more him to lead them to the Lord in salvation. It wasn't the feeding and the subsequent as much, although Pearl was always there to talk to people. But, you know, very strong, you know, in his lane, his gift.

Well, and that, I think, points out why sound teaching in churches is so important, because when a person gets saved, whether as a child or as an adult, I used to kid Sharm Sherman about that. Once a guy in the NBA becomes a believer, where do you send him? Well, we send him to church in the town he's in.

I said, well, do you know what they're teaching? You've got to know that. Yeah, I think it's so hard, and this gets into a whole bunch of different things. Like coming here out of the Brethren Church, which teaches all this in the old days, not as much today. And then getting this, as I think I said, it's almost like coming to a cult. This made so much sense.

Why isn't everybody doing this or teaching this? And we've had this discussion, why aren't there churches, 10,000, you know, like whatever, the Crystal Palace and all these different things, why aren't they just filled with people who are being taught this? And that's one of the questions I'll ask the Lord, not that I'd really be thinking about that in eternity, but it is kind of, why isn't that? I don't understand why this isn't picked up by everybody and taught. Again, I think there are billions of people who are saved, but in the nursery.

Salvation is simple. Saved by grace through faith. Simple. But growth is dependent upon knowing who you are in Christ. And I think that's where so many people are saved, we'll see them in eternity, but they just never grew in this life. They never got taught. Yeah, they never got taught. So yeah, it's kind of an interesting thing. I don't think, you know, and that's kind of one of those things where it's like, and thinking about how it relates to this. No salvation, but then they're off track on the prayer of Jabez, or the purpose-driven life. The purpose-driven life. Life-driven purpose. Life, yeah, and all these things.

They're off. It's wrong teachings. Should have been nipped in the bud, and they don't. But they get carried off. But they're believers. So I think that's the warning to Timothy and Titus is don't let it get off. Don't let it start. Don't get the book out there. Don't even let them get absorbed by this book. Some of the questions which are intuitively easy right now after discussions, do we do that or do we tolerate slightly off doctrines? Do we tolerate that? Should. Shouldn't, but do we? Oh, yeah. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we do. And that's where the trouble ends up, quite frankly. When we tolerate something that's not scripturally proven or what Paul taught, that's where the issues.

I think there are some things you've dealt with or dealing with, and that's just off a little bit. And when you have to deal with that, you have to stop it. The obvious question I had was, are we supposed to have continuous discussions with those with incorrect doctrine, or how do we deal with them in this situation? Obvious, not continuous, long discussions. One or two, bring them in. If they're contentious, factious, you have to separate from them.

And again, it's very harsh. Do you not let them fellowship here? That's a hard hit. In today's society, it's like that's not being fair. He just doesn't agree with you guys. And you guys are so rigid in your belief. That's what Paul's telling him. Be rigid in your belief. It doesn't comport with what we do today.

All right, question six. What do the words pay attention mean? So in verses, this is in four, but starting with verse three. As I urge you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus, so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. So pay attention. Pay attention. Pay attention. I can say the same thing. Pay attention.

So I looked it up in Zodiates and it's kind of interesting. It has a pretty good definition. It has, to have in addition to hold the mind or the ear towards someone. to hold the mind or the ear towards someone, to pay attention. As a nautical term, it means to hold a ship in a direction, to sail towards. It means to hold on one's course towards a place.

So don't pay attention. So don't even chart a course towards this bad teaching. Don't even head in that direction. Don't give your ear or your mind thought in that direction. So I thought that was kind of a good term to say what pay attention means. Don't even start there. Don't even start going in that direction. And I thought that was a good word.

He also has, in this verse, he says, in the sense of to yield assent, believe or embrace. So don't embrace this. Don't pay attention to it. Don't believe it. is what he's saying. So what the definition of apology is, Timothy, to not yield or embrace myths or endless genealogies. So what do you think? Kind of a subtle light warning?

I would think that if you're honest about God's word, then you have to go to God about, say, hey, look, I read this, or I had a discussion about this, and sounds okay, but I don't know, and I need you to teach me about this or persuade me. And I think there's ample scriptures that say that the Spirit of God will. He'll show you. And it might be through somebody else. It might be through something you read. But, you know, the sin nature and the war that goes on for spiritual growth, a lot of it has to do with what you believe. aren't sure about something, or the Spirit of God in His Word has said, I'll confirm you in the truth.

But is that what he's saying here? You took a different tack, and it's not what he's talking about here. No, it's not what he's talking about here. And if someone has taken the tack, what do you do about it? It's a difference between somebody teaching and wanting this, versus you're saying, I don't understand this, and I come to you. Awesome. That's what you're supposed to do.

But that's a different tech than I'm out there teaching something incorrect. If I'm coming to you and saying, Mike, I really don't understand this scripture, explain it to me. That's completely different than, Mike, this is what it says. So he's addressing the latter, that don't come to me and tell me this is right and I'm supposed to believe it. Don't even pay attention to it. You know, so I think that's, I guess the question is, how does that apply to today? And I think it's the same. What we're talking about, that's 1 direction is, hey, I don't understand this, but it's a different 1 that says, I might.

This is what and we've had those people. I mean, even in the early days, when I was here teaching about this Tuesday study, teaching about grace, and some of those guys had no clue and were like, uh-uh, that's not right. And they were in your face with that. And they ultimately left. But it was like, wow, these guys have been putting it back in your face, and it wasn't like, I want to learn this. It was, I'm telling you this. And it's a completely different thing. Paul's addressing the people who say, I want to teach you. I'm going to tell you this. We've had several of those over the years, where it's just they don't understand and I'm right.

Again, as I alluded to last week, it's incumbent upon the elders, really, the local body. We individually, if we meet outside and teach, that's one thing. But from the local body standpoint, which is what Paul is addressing here in Ephesus and Titus and Crete, it's up to the leadership to basically take care of that. And so that puts a lot of weight or a lot of pressure on the elders to maintain a pure doctrine that is in line with scripture. potential types of false teachers, one who's entrenched in a false doctrine. And the elders should be aware of that beforehand. And he never should be put into a position of, of teaching, you know, in within the body.

And then there are those who are, you know, doctrinally sound, but they, they get off track onto some, some little thing that's drawing them off. And, and that's kind of goes back to what you're saying about nipping that in the butt. And, and it also speaks to the fact that as we learn new things, Scripturally, we need to be slow about our pace. And if something is new to us, you know, maybe we're off track with it or maybe not, you know, but we need to take the time to slowly learn those things before we begin turning around and teaching them. Because, you know, that'll protect us. And then, like Mike was saying, take that to the other, you know, other mature believers and discuss those things, you know, before you start teaching some strange doctrine. Yeah, and I think it's kind of what Inger brought up on Apollos, too.

He just didn't know, so he was taken aside by Kellen Priscilla and taught, and he responded. He just didn't know. And that's one. Like I said, if somebody's teaching something, they heard it on a radio or they heard it from a friend and they come to the elders or to us, maybe we can straighten them out if they still don't understand it as to the elders and explain it. That's one thing. But somebody who is rigid in their doctrine and doesn't yield to basically the elders, that's the person I think Timothy is getting the warning. I know some Titus had too.

I'm just about out. One last thing, Mike had in his notes that another commentator says, to give heed is a Greek word, literally to hold on to. It means here not merely to give attention to, but to give assent to. It has a basic meaning of turning one's mind to something. The believer is responsible for controlling that which occupies his mind. He is to deliberately turn his mind away from additions and fanciful speculations concerning the Word of God. I think that was a pretty good summary statement, you know. Turn your mind, don't give a cent, don't embrace, don't believe, don't even go there when there's a doctrine that is not what Paul taught.

So any other thoughts? Otherwise, we will start with 7 next week. Question 7. Anything else before we close? I think we're at time here. See if the other classroom went out. All right, that's right. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again for this time.

And Father, we just pray we'll heed these words that you have, that again, false doctrine, false teaching, strange doctrines, we'll learn myths, fables, genealogies, all these distractions. that don't focus on you or are not in accordance with what you taught Paul and taught us through your word, those are dangerous. Don't give it a leg, don't give it a start, don't give it a beginning. stop that as quickly as possible. We just pray for wisdom and how to do that and for the elders here and for us individually as we come across other individuals with doctrine that is not in accordance with Paul's teaching in your words. So we just pray for that. Pray now as we depart again that this day all that we do and say will honor and glorify you. And it's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.