First Timothy lesson 4 start

So did you guys all get that thing I sent out this week? The reason I sent it out was because I listened to the tape and I thought, when I asked the question, what was it, question five or six, what's the difference between real faith and, how did I term?

Huh? Pretend. Pretend faith. And as I listened, I thought, I don't think that the question was presented very well, but just let's take three or four minutes and maybe we can clarify what I meant. First of all, just a basic definition. What is the essence of faith? Those of you who were in the faith class should know this. I sent you a diagram.

Hebrews 11.1, which is the verse that actually defines the essence of faith. It's not personal faith, it's not the faith, it's just what it is. And what is it? What is faith?

Quote the verse. It's the essence of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. So it's essence, and things not seen. But really what it is, what are those things? What are the things that that verse is talking about? The things of God. The focus is the things of God are known by knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.

So if that's what real faith is, then what's false faith? Anything else, yeah? I don't think this is widespread, but you guys remember this book? In this book, Al Molloy says, What is personal faith? What is the essence of faith? What is non-biblical faith?

That's what he calls it. And that's really what I was after. What is a personal non-biblical faith? What is it? He says, it's the subjective trust or faith in the ways and wisdoms of man. which is assumed reality and is uncertainty resulting in man's unrest. The object of that faith is self.

That's really what I was after with that question. And we have lots of that going on all the time. So the things of man are things like the things of the earth, expectations, performances, hope, wisdom, self-esteem, self-image, Self-assurance, self-worth, self-awareness, self-confidence, self-control, self-worth. Oh, he did a typo. Nice. Self-reliance.

So there's a whole chapter in there about what I would call not genuine faith. It just is that the object changes. It changes from the things of the word of God, written in the word of God, and God himself, to what you personally and subjectively think faith is. And that goes, I think, under the heading of personal faith. Not faith as an essence, but personal faith. It depends on the object.

Before we became Christians, and even when we were young Christians, we would ask God to help whatever our own chosen object was. So verse 5 in 1 Timothy chapter 1 says, but our goal of instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. So sincere faith has to do with biblical faith. It just means that you learn and rely upon the things of God's word.

OK? So. starting in verse seven, wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they're saying or the matters about which they make confident assurance. So my first question on this lesson was, are there those who want to teach the law to Christians? Yeah, there are plenty of them. There are a lot more than want to teach grace. So what teachers of the law in Greek here is one word, and it just means a law teacher. And there are those that want to teach the law. Their exclusive stock and trade was law teaching. They should have been at a law school. They aimed at being a professional interpreter of the law. And I think the world is full of those guys today.

And if you went to any sort of non-grace-based seminary and you came out with a degree, what you really are is a professional interpreter of the law. That's really what you are. You don't have any sense about what grace is, because nobody ever taught it to you. So when true doctrine is neglected, the error will soon be embraced.

What's interesting about men, this interesting phenomenon, men can't live in the middle. We as people can't live on the yellow line. We're either over here, or we're over here. You're either an Avs fan or a Dallas fan. You're either a Bronco fan or anybody else. You have somebody you want to win the Masters golf tournament today. In business, it's this or that. You think about our life in this planet, it's all based on competition. Do you think there'll be competition in eternity? What do you think? You ever had that thought? There won't be any. There'll be nothing to compete about.

It's really kind of cool. And the subtlety of sports is that it has put holy water on competition. The believer is to compete for the faith. So you're either in it grace-based faith or you're in law-based faith, one or the other, you don't walk down the middle. I'll put it this way. If you happen to be walking in grace and you come down the road and you find a pond full of law and you stick your toe in it, you're already all the way in the water. because law does not fit in the environment of grace. Okay? Yeah.

Is there a little difference there in the fact that, I'm thinking of Romans 7, where you want to be in one, but you find you're not. And what's the essence of the question? Well, you say you're one or the other. You know, sometimes believers want to be one, but you find a lot of times you're the other. Okay, yeah, and I think Romans 7 spells that out very clearly.

What I would do, what I want to do, I don't. Well, what is the list of things he wants to do? They're law-based. What I hate, what I don't want to do, that's the very thing I'm doing. And he says it more than once. And he cries out, oh, wretched man, I need to be delivered. From what? From the entire system of, I call it the tyranny of the oughts. I ought to be doing this or I ought to be doing that.

And so what does he find? What's the answer? The answer comes in Romans 8 too. There's a new principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, grace. that has already set me free from this old principle of what? Law. So you can understand grace and not be living in it, and I think that's part of spiritual growth, where you get to the point where you really do want to do the right thing, but you're not able to perform it. And what's the lesson there? The lesson is that What God demands of the Christian is impossible to perform. That the life of the Lord Jesus is to be lived through us by the Holy Spirit. That's a different way of looking at things. You know what's interesting about that life? It's not competitive. It's restful and finds no need to compete. It does find a need to trust in what God has said. That answer your question? OK.

So notice that teachers desire. So I spent time with the word desiring. This biblical source says the word desiring is explanatory and conformity of the previous statement, that is, they have all turned aside unto vain jangling, since they desire to be teachers of the law. Desire?

Well, let me put it in the form of a question. What is the one thing, if you were to describe the sin nature, what's the one thing it does that fits What is it, what is the essence of the sin nature's activity? It's desire. See that? Sin nature desires. What's that? Yeah, when you identify what kind of desire it is, it's selfish. But it's desiring, what is it desiring? to assert itself.

I have to laugh. The Catholics don't do very many things that I like, but they did something last week I really liked. I think I told everybody on Wednesday night. They came out with this encyclical, which is a letter written by the Pope or whoever, and it goes out to all Catholics, and it's put the stamp, this is what we're doing. And the encyclical dealt with transgenderism, and transgender surgery, and all this other kind of stuff.

And they said, that's absolutely a no-no. And here's the reason they said people want to do it. It's because they want to play God. I thought, oh, that's self. That's what self does. It desires to be God. So they didn't get much of it right, but they got one thing right. Desire to be a teacher of the law. I mean, do you think teachers of the law sit at home and think, oh, I want to be a law teacher?

Or is it just because they don't know grace? Do you think it's based on ignorance, or it's based on knowledge, biblical knowledge. Boy, you guys are quiet today. I think early on, they were studiers of the law. Today, it's not. They just are law-based without realizing it. Whereas in the early church and all that and before, they were studiers of the law. That was what they did and tried to force the law. Today, it's law by, not by accident, by self. So they don't sit at home thinking, I'm going to do the law.

It's just, they fall into the law because they don't have grace. Well, you know, if you're saved as an adult or even as a child early on, you're thinking, well, what do Christians do? I mean, they act different than, well, hopefully, they act different than others. human beings, so we're always looking for what do they do? You know, are they really loving? Are they kind? Are they whatever? And that's fine until you try to do it under your own self-strength, and you become a failure.

And a law teacher just reinforces the same thing, just try harder, pray more, you know, refrigerator list of how they would implement legal behavior. And God eventually, with the Jews, he's going to put the law in their hearts and in their minds to a group of saved Jews going into the Millennial Kingdom. But they're still going to have a sin nature. So they'll be able to, what, depress the desire, the sin nature, and live under the law? I think so, because they'll be indwelled by the Spirit. But a believer, what's a believer's relationship to the law?

You don't have any. So really what we're doing as Christians, trying to live under a law system, is trying to live like somebody else would live. It isn't part of who we are. the Lord Jesus and the work that he gave, then you're bound to the earth, and the law's gonna be automatic in that respect too, right? Yeah, if you don't understand a gentrification, you can't get free from the law, because there's no information that you can rest your faith on that would allow you to be free from it. And it's a scary proposition when you first address the word of grace and address the, is your microphone on? I want to make sure everybody can hear you. I don't want to say this.

The great thing about understanding and knowing the identification truths means that through them you get free conditionally, personally. because of what's already happened to you positionally by being crucified with Christ. And the separation process not only separated you from the sin nature, but from the entire law system and the earth and the world. Well, you look around and you think, how can that possibly be implemented in me? I'm so worldly, what can I do?

But eventually as you grow, you begin to trust the Spirit of God to implement in your life what He says He's going to do. And that's why I thought just talking a little bit about faith this morning makes sense, because faith is not a hard thing. It's just taking God at His word. He said so, and whether I'm in compliance or not, your obedience, your compliance has nothing to do with the fact that that is true. You see that? It is true. I was crucified. I was buried. I was resurrected. I am a new creature in Christ. I'm free from all that. That's what God said. Okay.

And it's not a fatalistic attitude, well, that God over time will somehow work it out. Because we're intimately involved in the walk all the time. We have to do this little thing called confession, stuff like that. So question two, is the desire to ambition to teach the same as the qualifications to teach the word? Is the question clear? Question three. Kind of. Yeah. Question two. Three. Three. That's what I'm saying. Question three. Oh, wait a minute. Well, that's right. I took that out of there, because I think I asked it twice. OK. Is the desire or the ambition to teach the same as the qualifications to teach? In other words, you want to be a teacher, but are you qualified? What do you think?

If you look at the verse, it says, but teachers who taught the law, among other things, but their exclusive stock and trade was Old Testament law. But the verse tells us they do not understand either what they're saying or the matter about which they make confident assurances. So here you have this group that really want to be teachers.

They don't know what they're saying, but they're confident about it. It's like walking out of Costco with a lady standing there wanting to sell you a furnace or something. She's confident. The guy selling his siding, he's confident. How much do they know about what they're selling? So desire to teach is not the same thing as qualifications to teach.

So did they understand the nature of the law? What do you think? Do you understand the nature of the law? I think they thought they could be justified by the law, but you can't be justified by the law. By keeping all the laws, you're justified, but I forget which scripture it is that nobody is justified by the law.

So I think they didn't know the law was to basically point us to the sin nature. And as they say, law exaggerates or enrages the sin nature. And that was the purpose of it. They didn't know that. They thought it was to justify. And it was completely opposite of what they thought they were doing.

And again, I ask the question, is the world full of these guys today? The church is overrun with people that teach the law that don't understand what it is. You see that? I think that's really important because what does it show? Ignorance of God's Word? Does it show a desire? Be like all those other guys who teach the law. You know, I wanna be one of them. It's ignorance itself. Yeah, is it purposeful ignorance?

I don't know. Grace is a hard thing to understand because it doesn't fit with the world's operating system. So when you're presented with grace, it's much easier to say, well, I'd rather have the law. than I would living under a principle of grace. I don't feel comfortable. I'm losing control. Grace initially appears to be anarchy. How am I going to feed my family? How am I going to do everything that I do? That doesn't mean that we're lawless people. Yeah.

From what I understand, or I'm thinking, their thoughts would be, you know, they would read verses like this that say, so then the law is holy and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. So they would, you know, fester on that. But then, I've heard that there's different kinds of law, like there's the moral law and this law. I don't even know what they all are. No, you're right. They kind of divide the law, the Old Testament law, into groups. And they would say, well, of course it's okay to eat shellfish and, you know, the mixed fibers and, you know, some of those laws don't pertain to us.

But the moral law, like the Ten Commandments and things like that, would pertain to the Church. Well, law keepers today would say, you know, if they're teaching the Mosaic Law, it had you know, different elements to it. One was ceremonial. Two was the morality, how you're supposed to live. Well, and they separate them. You know, we're not going to be sacrificing animals down at the local Baptist church, because that's not the law we're talking about. We're talking about the moral law. Problem is, is that a verse like that, or a verse like, if you've broken one element of the law, you broke the whole thing.

And that makes it difficult to answer because, give you a great personal example. My mom was a devout Catholic. She went to mass every single day of her life. I had a conversation with her one time. We were talking about loving your neighbor as yourself. And she said, well, she said, I think that you have to love yourself first before you can love your neighbor. Do you understand what she was saying? She's got to work on self-love in order to be qualified to love your neighbor. Well, good luck with that. And mom, you know, one of the hardest people to talk to are people who are set in legalism. It's very difficult to talk to.

Oh, and Mike, I think the long foot paper is saying rightly dividing the Word of God, you know, for like what we're studying on Wednesday nights, you know. It's important. for your frame of reference, you know. Yeah, no, it really is important for your frame of reference. Because I don't think, unless you are down the road a bit, that you have any sense that...

So anyway, it's interesting how quickly in the book of 1 Timothy, the law issue is being dealt with. And how quickly, like in the town of Ephesus, which we know in reading the Scriptures, that the most gracious of all epistles is the book of Ephesians, isn't it?

But they had these law guys hanging around there, and Paul is telling Timothy, don't give them any room. Don't give them any room, and one of the reasons is they don't know what they're talking about. They're really enthusiastic about it, and they're really doing a great job. You know, they're like a barker trying to get you into their restaurant, but they don't know what they're saying. Well, the Lord Jesus said that. He said that the people that want to crucify him don't know what they're doing, and they didn't. They didn't know. Yeah.

Al said faith is reality. Reality is reckoning. Reality is what? Reckoning. Reckoning. Well, you know, when you think about reality being, it really is God. Reality is Him. And so when Hebrews 11, one talks about that faith is the evidence, evidence of the things, evidence of things not seen, reality of things not seen, he's talking about the things of God. And you don't ever even get to see him without faith. Yeah, okay. So let's see.

Some of the notes I wrote down, although they were ignorant, they still spoke dogmatically. The verb, make confident assurance goes as far as to mean insist on something. Ignorance and silence often shy away from one another, as is the case here. concerning the phrase, what they are saying, or the matters about which they make confident assurance, they know not what they say, nor the kind of things that which they are so speaking so confidently. But they assert them very strongly, because a lot of times we are, maybe put it this way, false teachers. Always announce confidently because we're so easily sold by a confident salesman. He may not know anything about his product, but he's confident. There's a saying in my old profession that goes with that, but I can't say it in Sunday school.

So, in what sense were these people legalists? Were they the same as the people that were disturbing the Galatians? I think it goes back, you know, we dissect these into It goes back to the beginning of this where you instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrine or to pay attention. whether it's law-based or whatever genealogies.

Paul is giving Timothy the warning. Don't even pay attention to these people. They don't understand. They're off on left field. They're teaching all these strange things, and going back to the beginning is don't even give them the time of day. misappropriating what the law was meant to do and teaching incorrectly. I mean, it's just what the law-based people do now.

If you do this, you get this. And if you do that, you get this. And that's not under grace, totally not under grace. I have a sense that the difference between these teachers and those that invaded Galatia The ones that invaded Galatia were Judaizers. They came with the law and they understood the tenets of it.

These people don't know what they're talking about. The natural man only understands rules. Tell me what to do and I'll do it. That's all he understands. He doesn't understand grace. Plus, like Schaeffer said, the world hates grace. And the reason the world hates grace is because it doesn't give any room for the desire of the self. Does that make sense? It says, no, we're living under grace and your opinion and your input is not needed. Oh, wait a minute, myself is needed. I'm important. All right, I think we can do maybe one more.

Verse eight says, but we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. So in what sense is the law good? What makes the law good? It just went out of Romans 7. It's holy and righteous and good. And what makes it good? God made it, I would say. He set it up.

But they don't know what the purpose was. The purpose was to point out the sin nature, ultimately to point us to Christ. To identify sin. Yeah, to identify sin. That was the holy and righteous purpose of it. I wrote down a couple things. The law is good in the sense of its moral quality revealing, as it does, the righteousness of God. God is righteous. You know, when you look at the Mosaic Law, what is God really telling the Jews? You're my special people, and I have set you aside from all other nations in the earth. And because you're my special people, and I'm righteous, here's how my special people should live." Hence, 620 things.

The other thing about the law is good in the sense that it was designed to show man the utter impossibility of man producing a righteousness that could merit salvation. Can't do it. I have a lot of Catholic friends, and when I talk about this kind of thing, it makes them angry, especially the ones that are serious about Catholicism. They think that they have been involved in producing righteous acts which will give them salvation. Well, any legalist, that's what he's selling. the self wanting to do something. Under law, self has a purpose.

Under grace, self doesn't have a purpose. So they gladly eat that up, the flesh and the self does, because it's doing something. There's nothing under grace other than as we've taught, all you can do under grace is say thank you. It's not anything you do, you receive. And it's not a cause and effect, like the law. You do this, you get this. Grace isn't that way. Grace is just receiving what you already have in Christ. And it's all from Him, not anything out of self. Self loves the law.

How long does it take a growing Christian to realize that God doesn't need anything from me? Nothing. He wants me to believe. him. And what is he going to do? What's his purpose is to conform me to his image of his son, which is likeness to him. The problem is, is that when sin entered the world, man, the whole human race became gods. We're all little pin gods. We think we're relevant.

We're not. We live under grace, you know. There isn't anything we could ever do, meritorious-wise, to deserve the kind of salvation God has offered us. It isn't there. Even the Jews. A Jew who understood, understood that it was faith that saved him. It's just the opposite. We have nothing in the law but how great we are in Christ. We can't get any better than that. The polar opposites.

You know, I think sometimes, is the sin nature ever going to shut up? Just leave me alone. Yeah, when we're taken home. Alright, we're out of time. Next week, I better check the number before I say, I made a note, I know where I am. Father, how we thank you for your word. There's so many what on the surface seem like easy to understand principles, but without Your Spirit implementing them in us, they won't be actually part of our life or be our very life. And so we trust You and we rely on Your Spirit to not only teach us, but also to implement the resurrected life of Your dear Son in us. And we pray in His name. Amen.