First Timothy lesson 5 continued

All right, we are in Lesson 5. JD got through the first and a little bit in the second, I think. But I kind of want to go through, and it's going to be quick, I hope. But I thought it was important. Well, let me go first and go through the verses that we're going to go through today. chapter 1 of 1 Timothy, verses 9 through 11. But I'll read for context, starting in verse 8. So this is 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verses 8 through 11. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.

According to the glorious gospel, of the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted." So again, we kind of went through that, but I really want to go through actually some of the words, you know, because some of these, when I wonder, you know, it says, you know, different things, a lawless, what does that really mean, or these ungodly, and a lot of times I just went back to the Greek word and what it meant, which gives us a lot more insight in a lot of these words a lot of times.

So I'll try and quickly go through them. It's a long list, a laundry list of a lot of different things, but I just want to go through because I think it emphasizes, when we say lawless, okay, somebody just went 75 miles an hour in a 65 mile an hour zone. Lawless, it's not just that. It is a lot stronger than that.

The lawless, and I'll butcher all the Greek names, but anonymous, lawless in the sense of transgressing the law, a transgressor, wicked, strong, positively wicked. So when you say lawless, it's a lot more than that. Someone who is positively wicked, rebellious, and I'm going to leave the Greek out there, Greek word for it, but disobedient to authority, disorderly. So, somebody who is rebellious, disobedient to authority, or disorderly.

The ungodly. Basically, it means godless, without fear or reverence of God. It does not mean irreligious, but one who actively practices the opposite of what the fear of God demands. One characterized by immoral or impious behavior. So I think it just adds to what ungodly means.

This isn't somebody who just doesn't go to church on Sunday. This is somebody who is actively going against God, an ungodly person. Sinners, and again, transgressor, impious person, points to those who have disregarded the will of God. It kind of adds a little more emphasis than just kind of basic sinner. Those who have disregarded the will of God. Unholy is unholy, ungodly, no regard of duty to God or man. But that kind of added a little bit to that. No regard of duty to God or man. The profane. We'll get that into the next question, what that means.

So, Ron, those who kill their mothers and fathers. And they're really actually, I thought that was kind of, is that? Directly in the Greek, and it really was, there are two words, patrolos and maitrolos, which one who murders the father and one who murders his mother. And then the other word in there can be a manslayer. So it really is people who kill mothers and fathers. And I thought, well, that's interesting. I don't know how much that is, but those who kill their mothers and fathers.

Remember, this is who the law is for. Immoral men. Guess what the word for that is? Pornos. Where do you think we get our word? Pornography. So a fornicator, a whoremonger. So an immoral man is a fornicator, somebody who goes out or an adulterer type whoremonger, those who are prostitutes. Also, I was always wondering about this, because we hear it today as homosexual. Is there really the word in the Bible that is homosexual? And there is. It's actually arsenokotes, a man who lies in bed with another male, a homosexual.

So that's who he's actually talking about here. These are, again, who will go against sound doctrine, kidnappers. We'll get more into this also in I think question four or five. And a man stealer, a kidnapper, one who steals men to make them slaves or sell them into slavery. I think that's question five, we'll get into that. Liars, a liar, one false towards God, a wicked person. So when you say a liar, it's just yeah, somebody told a little white lie. Now this is one false towards God, a wicked person. And then perjurers, To swear falsely, one who speaks lies.

So somebody, again, these are all the ones when we get back in, if you go back up to the verses, realizing the fact the law is not made for a righteous person, but for, it's for all of these people that we just went through. All of these different people, that's who it's for. So, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.

So I guess out of this, I ask a question. What is at the center of all of these people or acts? What is the center of all of that? It's in nature. It's in nature. A little more specific than that, I think. What is that? I'm searching for a word. Sin is true. That's what ultimately drives it all. You have two focuses in your life. One is God and the Lord. What is the other? Do you think it's self? Self. Think about all of these things.

They're all selfish desires. They're all about focusing and getting desires. You lie because you want something. Sexual things, immoral, homosexual, it's all to satisfy a selfish desire. Liars, you lie to get something. Perjury, you perjure yourself to avoid a penalty or to get something on somebody else.

All of these Center around self which Mike I agree. It's all it's all through this through the same nature But it was I went through this list and I went through everything. It was it was all self-driven All of these don't anywhere focus on on God or Christ is the center None of them do and so it's all selfish base. So and they By the verses, what are these all go against and says in here, but it's not God, but what is it that it goes against, if you look at the verses?

Sound doctrine. And so all of this goes against sound doctrine. We'll get into that in question five about what sound doctrine is. But again, when you look at all these, it's selfish desires, and that's what the laws are to address and to point out, I think. It's to highlight or point out to somebody that it's selfish, that all these things are self-driven, that they're not of sound doctrine, which is, of the Lord.

So, you know, yeah, that that that murders of mothers and fathers, I'd read that before and kind of thought, well, we don't have that going on. I thought, wait a second. Yes, we do. I mean, I don't know exactly what it's like from state to state there, but Canada in the last few years has made, they call it medical assistance in dying. Yes.

And And people are murdering their mothers and fathers because, you know, they've convinced themselves that, oh, you know, granddad's life isn't worth living anymore. He's in such a terrible state. We're going to relieve him of his suffering. And really, they're relieving themselves of the burden.

Well, it's a very hate, you know, and self-centered thing. Yeah, again, selfish, and you're right. I thought about, when you think about it, it's like, I think Oregon, Washington, and Colorado may be close. I don't know if we have it or not, but I know I think Oregon, Washington have that very thing, the assisted suicide, basically, the euthanasia, but yeah, it's really, It's selfish. It's either that I don't feel like my life is worth it so I'm going to have somebody take me away or yeah, grandpa is really a burden on us right now and his quality of life isn't good so I'm going to take care of that problem. And again, it's all self-focused, I think. Selfish in that if you're the one asking for it, I guess, you're saying you're not happy enough in life, so I want to end it. It's almost a selfish desire in that. But then usually if you're doing it for grandpa or grandma, I got to watch out. I'm a grandpa. Nick's in the back. Nick, don't think about these things. Yeah, he'll be coming out with a smile on his face.

The other thing I thought about, and I kind of tried to see if that was what it was, but I don't think it was a thing at the time that Paul addressed this, but abortion. you know, that is that almost in the same vein, you know? Maybe in projection of killing a male or female baby or killing a mother, a potential mother or father, but I thought more of that, that, you know, we kill hundreds and thousands of babies every year and, you know, is that the same thing or in the same vein as killing mothers or fathers? So, yeah.

What's interesting when you brought up the idea that all of these our definitive sins are the source itself, and self-desire. It's interesting, when we were working on this, there are Romans 7 verses, especially 6 or 7, 7-7, where the word says, what shall we say, it's the law of sin, and it goes on, and he says, I would not have known covenants. We love, we hide under that word coven. What it really is, is desire. Selfish. So in that sin nature, like Mike says, is desire to do all of these things.

Yeah. So I may not be, right, I may not be a, you know, a killer of my mother and father, but I can find a couple others in here that I'm really interested in. Well, or lying. And there's So what God says, I'm not forbidding the sins necessarily. I'm forbidding the desire to do them. Yeah, right.

Because in sin nature, that's all it does do is desire. And again, desire, why? What is desire? Desire is selfish. I want. Yeah, yeah. I mean, all of those. When you say desire, it's not about somebody else. It's you. And I guess in some, you can be desire the Lord. but 99% of the desire is self-focused. One point about that is that if I put my focus on the individual sins and I try to deal with them from a law-based, if I focus on the fact that God says, I don't want you to tell us the sin nature, you can't desire, then I have to put myself under grace because I can't stop the flow of desire coming to me I can do something about it under grace as it goes out from it. I should have researched this more. It's in Romans about how the law actually incites sinning.

And I actually looked it up, but it's like, okay. Yeah, I think, yeah. Opportunity through the commandment produced in me all desiring of every kind. Yes. So, sorry, in the back of my mind as I was going through that Paul is now saying the law is for these people.

Is that to enrage them into doing these things? And it is, and it's kind of a weird thing, but it's to ultimately say that you know, you need somebody, something to get out of this. And that's where I think, you know, it's the desire, it inflames it to know that I wouldn't have known covenant had I not had the law. And that's really what he's saying is that these laws will point out that you are a liar, you are, oh, you know, that's contrary to the sound doctrine or contrary to God. You know, I think a lot of self-righteous non-believers have their own personal code of ethics.

And they say, well, I wouldn't do these five things, but I would do those things. I feel justified in doing them. Well, and what you said is, I think, also, it's all, what's the word? It's moral relevancy. I can justify doing these five, but oh, I would never do this. That's because I'm the one making the rules. And I'm the one selfishly saying, that's bad, this is good, I can do this, because that's really not that bad.

So again, it gets away from the moral absolutes of God's law and God's sound doctrine. That's where the Holy Spirit comes in. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's to convince and convict us of those things. And that's why I said the law is to enrage that, to know that, wow, I am sinning. And I need somebody, because I can't get out of this. Yeah, it's kind of like the blind leading the blind. Were you going to say something, Miles? I don't know if I said it. OK, sorry.

So a lot of these things, yeah, that list is kind of an interesting list. And what it means, those words are a lot more powerful than, I think, when you just go through the list. I mean, these are like powerfully wicked things, not just kind of, eh, it's a, yeah, I can kind of justify that one, or it's not that bad. Well, they're all bad, number one. But the Greek really pointed out, at least when I started to go through that list, of just how bad those words and what they mean.

I was watching this week, the president gave out the Oliver 13 medal. I was looking at the different people that were getting them and they fit a moral code of what Joe Biden said, but they're all guilty of something in this list, or two or three things.

They're unrighteous. It's a moral relevancy. It's my morals. This is what's good. I'm going to tell you what's good, and I'm going to tell you what's bad. You're in my camp here, so I'm going to make it good. I just thinking about it here, like, you know, these are wicked, wicked things. And it's and it describes the nature of the self life that we all have.

You know, we haven't we haven't all expressed all of these things in the particulars, but we all have that same characteristic nature. I think, you know, go ahead. I was just gonna say that that's the old man that the law could apply to. But because we because he's dead, you know, then The law doesn't apply to everything. Right.

But before believing, I was capable of all those things. And I say, Hitler or whatever, I could be any one of those. I have the same nature as Jeffrey Dahmer or all these people who are just horribly wicked. I have that same sin nature in me. I just didn't go to the extent that they did.

And I'm fully capable of doing any of those in the old man or in the flesh, which is kind of a horrifying thought. I'm capable of any and all of those things. It's kind of a horrifying thought that you have a whole room full of people who are saved who know that that's what their thoughts are, and they're still friends. That's great. Well, there were days, Mike, at the beginning with you. Now I know. Anyway, no, it is kind of an interesting thing.

And like I said, we are capable of any of those things. That list, that could apply to any of us, given that the sin nature goes wild. Even in a believer, the sin nature is still resonant. We still have a sin nature. We can do any and all of these things.

I just found out last night that a dear friend of mine, a relative from childhood, grew up in church together, loved the Lord, served a Christian camp together. She just came out as a lesbian. It's quite possible. It's right there in the flesh. Our daughter's friend, they're in college through the Christian fraternity, sorority, and all that, and they've had a dinner club thing they go to. Well, he suddenly announced, and then they just got married, two guys, after going through all believers. And it's really a hard thing on that one, and just a quick rabbit trail.

How do you deal with that? And I think it's still in love. You still love to show God's love. There's an interesting ministry, Calibrate Ministries, which we heard him when he was down here at Littleton when we were with Josh McDowell and all that. He's got a really good way. Hate the sin, love the person.

That's a hard thing to do. You're blatantly saying something that—well, as I was saying, this word homosexual, it really is. A word in Greek. Sure it is. And so it's not like we're making this up or trying to adjust a word to make homosexual. And it's, like I said, it's a very hard thing to do.

You still have to show love to them, and I think this calibrate kind of shows, this calibrated ministry shows it. It's interesting that the tent that covers us is sound doctrine. Which we'll get to in here, yeah. Whether you love a person or not, these things aren't part of who you are as a believer. Right, right. And you know, the others is, if you continue in those, if you're a believer, that has, you know, a lot of times some of the wording and some of the addressing these things or in somebody who does it all the time. That's why I put that word, profane. Yeah, which will, yeah. So we'll move on to that word. In particular, question three, in particular, how would you define a profane person?

Any thoughts out there before I do my usual? What do I usually do? Oh, yeah. You go to Webster's. Oh, I was at the word that popped to mind was everyone. Not not not wrong. So, of course, yes, I had to go to – I'm just curious, because when we ask about definitions of words, my first thing is, well, what does Merriam-Webster have to say about this?

Just to see if it's anywhere close to what the Greek says or what the Bible says about it. Strangely enough, it's very, very close. And I was really kind of surprised, because that's what I was going to get, what profane means. If you had your own definition, what would profane be? Because I was surprised at what the dictionary actually had. And I thought to myself, what is profane?

I thought, you know, somebody who's kind of not religious. I think it's kind of bold, brash, and going against people or something. All right, we're getting it from two different directions here. So Merriam-Webster actually wasn't bad. I didn't think of it this way. To me, it wasn't as much not religious-based, but more interaction-related somehow, something like that. So Merriam-Webster, number one, not concerned with religion or religious purposes, secular. Second, not holy. Not holy because unconsecrated, impure, and defiled. Unsanctified. Three, serving to debase or defile what is holy. Irreverent. It was very strange.

All of these words were in there, secular, unsanctified, irreverent. Those were all in the online Merriam-Webster, I give credit to him. This is more kind of what I thought, I think, obscene vulgar. You know, it's kind of what I thought, not being among the initiated, not possessing esoteric or expert knowledge. That's kind of what I thought it was, kind of obscene and vulgar, that you profane person. But the first three were all pretty much what I think the Bible characterizes it, or the scripture does, secular, unsanctified, irreverent, which kind of was surprising to me. The actual Greek word is babelos, and it's probably denoted one who either was or ought to have been debarred from the threshold or entrance of a temple, lacks all relationship or affinity to God, or those who have zeal only for the secular and thus have no place for the spiritual.

So strangely enough, the Greek and the Merriam-Webster hit it pretty much head to head. So is that what you thought of? I thought maybe, like I said, when I looked at the obscene and vulgar, I thought it was more profane. But really, all the first three were in keeping with the Greek word. So did anybody else think of profane? That's what I was trying to get. Yeah, obscene vulgar, that's kind of what I thought it was, but it's not.

And it's all related to being unholy. I don't know, I can't neuter. I don't know, Nick, can you, I think Cheryl's coming through. I found that someone said a profane person is one who has made himself accessible to evil influences and that struck me because, talk about this person that just got married that you mentioned, you don't get that way overnight, but you do allow yourself to be influenced by evil influences or it's like I wonder why there are so many people that are so vehemently opposed to and defend the Palestinians. They have allowed themselves to be influenced, evilly influenced, that all Jews are bad. And it's K through 12 into college, all of it, yeah. Like they're some sort of special evil racist people.

Right. Or it's like just prejudice against black people or any of them. You were influenced that way, and you allowed yourself to be that way. Right. No, I think also, the other is I think with the James, how you get to ascend, you turn away and you look, and it's a desire, a lust for, and then the cascading effect down to where you get to.

And I think there's so much that's saying today, homosexuality, it's fine. It's glorified. You can't watch, actually, it's so hard to see commercials now. Almost every commercial has a lesbian or gay couple in it, almost. It's that subtle influence just all the day. Well, maybe that's OK. And then you start that James cascading effect down to, yeah, it's OK for me. Well, then you got a guy like the governor of Colorado, and he seems to be normal. He's anything but normal. Yeah, exactly.

People just become blind because the government allows it. Well, the government promotes it or allows it, either one. People are blind. Yeah. It's like all the transgender stuff. I mean, mutilating kids and doing that now. And we suddenly say that's OK. And it's also the frog in the pot syndrome. That's what I think more than anything. It's incrementalism. But I think that's where we get to it. You don't see it right off the bat.

They don't just come out this week and say we can kill babies, you know. It's like it's regression and a slow progression now that, you know, really it's okay to abortion. Well, if it's the, you know, incest or something, you know, it's whatever, you know, we suddenly are okay. And now it's okay for, If you're in a bad situation, your economics, and it just creeps up and now you can have it if you want. Then it becomes woman's health. Yeah, woman's health, or you can just do it any time. But it's that incrementalism.

My thought was that it seems like there used to be some caution there, though, that we don't catalyze the sins. These are bad ones and that influence shouldn't be there. I think inherently, in and of ourselves, in our sin nature, we possess all of those things and don't need really any influences.

It's the Word of God. I think I'll balance that against the James progression. is that if it's out there and allowed, it inflames the sin nature to go after. But that's for a believer. If you're not a believer, you don't have that choice. Right, you're just going to do it.

And I think you missed the beginning of it with all these words. We're capable of all those. I went through all the different things and it's like, yeah, we're capable. We, our sin nature, is capable of any and all of those. So, yes, I think for the believer with this guy, it started with something, and then it's again the James progression. It became a desire, it became this, and it led down the stair steps to where he's at.

Again, we're talking about the law and sound doctrine. Law is meant for these people, but it's to point it out that it's wrong. Then you go against sound doctrine. Sound doctrine tells you what is right. The other example in our society is marijuana. I mean, the scripture's very clear about keeping a sound mind. But if I hang around with people that smoke or drink too much, pretty soon that influences. And sin loves company. But then you get into the pharmaceutical aspect of it. Sure. Anything that takes over your body, basically. So, do you trust the Lord with the doctor and his prescriptions? Sure.

A guy has to go through these things. Yeah, you have to be wise in all of it. It's not that you can't have a drink. You're just not supposed to get drunk. You don't go to a doctor just to get Oxycontin because you need a fix. It's like the guys who, when it started out with marijuana, when it was only medical, oh, my back hurts.

OK, here you go. So yeah, there was a lot of that going on. Any others? Yikes, we're timing right. You're over. Yeah. we have to justify everything to do it. You know, to believe something or to follow something, we always have to justify it. How so? Expand on that, I guess. Well, to get everyone to believe that this is true, that it's right and proper. You know, the abortion issue, for example, It didn't just start out as one thing and, okay, this is the way it's got to be.

No, we had to progressively justify everything along stages to where now this is where it is. Again, ultimately, we call it faith. You have to have faith. Faith in either scripture and the word, sound doctrine, or you're going faith in the world. Not a good place to be.

But that's where it starts. And James, I keep alluding to that. Once you take your eyes off and you have a desire somewhere else, then it starts that, it can be slow, it can be fast progression to where you get into these behaviors or to where abortion is 100,000, 500,000 a year, or a million a year. So it didn't start at 500,000 the first year. This was a long, it's like all these different things, all the different drugs, all the different everything that we go through. It's a very slow process.

I think the flesh is willing to go the long game. To get there, so any other final comments before. So we'll start with question for next week. And their final comments thoughts. All right, let's pray. Let me tell you, we thank you. Again, as we contemplate these things, it is somewhat a daunting or overwhelming thought that dwelling within us are sinful flesh that we're capable of any and all of these things that we just listed.

And it's only as we go to the cross and realize our death to self that we can overcome these through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's only through understanding by faith your sound word that we are co-crucified with you. You have dealt with all our sins. You've paid for them. Now we have life in Christ, and we either choose to walk in the spirit or succumb to the desires of the flesh.

And we just pray that we remain focused on sound doctrine, your word, faith in what is true of us individually in you. And again, we just thank you again for the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which convinces us and convicts us of these things. And again, keeps us focused on your son, the Lord Jesus, and you, Father. We just thank you again for this time, and again we just pray we'll honor and glorify you this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.