First Timothy lesson 20 Continued

All right, we are in lesson 20 of the Timothy class, 1 Timothy, lesson 20. And today, I'm going to go over the verses again, just for context, because everything that we're going on verses 4, 5, and 6 relate back to the first part. So I'm going to read, excuse me, 1 Timothy 4. 1 through 6, so we have the context and just for the verse that we're going to go over today.

So, but the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, by means of hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron. Men who forbid marriage and advocated abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth." And then our verses, "...for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer. In pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished, on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following so again uh... just this is uh... warnings and and guidance from paul to timothy uh... on how to uh... administer the local church into uh... to go to the body there uh... and it's the first part is a warning about the false teachers and now we're getting into some of the verses uh... which we did it in uh... verse five uh... And now we're getting into some things about him being a minister and what that means for us and for him. So I think we got through four questions, so we're on question five.

How is false doctrine defeated? And also, in question eight, we'll get to the it part, because basically these things, which relates to it. So how is false doctrine defeated? So it says, well, we've said in verses 1 through 5 about the false doctrine, the hypocrisy. We're not even supposed to pay attention to it. But how do we defeat false doctrine?

Just say no. Just say no. Okay. That's one way. And that's probably the best. Actually, in joking, in the first part, in verses 1 through 3, the harsh wording is don't even pay attention. Don't even turn your ear to them. Just say no, basically, is what he said. That's the best defense. Don't even turn your ear to them. Don't even listen to them. Don't pay attention. Don't give them any reason to argue with them. Just don't even pay attention. It's a harsh word that he used in the first one through three.

But then how do you really defeat it? I think by knowing your position. Knowing your position. How do you know your position? Being in the world. In the words, you have to know. And so we'll get into that. So in verse six, it says, in pointing out these things to the brethren, about being the false teachers, all those things, in pointing those things out, because remember they said, we forbid marriage, don't eat these things, and all this. Now he says, in pointing these things out to the brethren, you'll be a good servant of Christ Jesus and constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound doctrine which you've been following. So these verses tell us something about how to handle false doctrine. False doctrine is defeated by teaching what? True doctrine.

It is never enough to identify her, we must also teach truth. So you can't just say no, but you have to know the truth too. So no is one thing, but to know the truth why, you're saying no. You have to know the truth. And I go back to one of the things we've talked about several times.

How do you detect counterfeit $100 bills? Because it has Mickey Mouse on it, and you know that's not it. The real thing. Correct, yeah. You know the real thing. So it's not that you can look at the fake one and say, oh, gee, looking at the fake, it's like, oh, that maybe had Mickey Mouse on it instead of George Washington or whatever. You don't do it that way. You know the real thing. They've got some pretty good fakes. But you know the real thing.

That's how you detect it. And a lot of times, you know, if you actually now they have so many things in it, they have the stripe, they have holographic, they have all sorts of things in the bills now. But you know that, you know that that counterfeit has got to have all these things. Why? Because you know what the real thing has to have.

And that's how you know it. You know it by the real thing. Same thing here. You know what's false. Why? Because you know what the true doctrine is. You can defeat it because you know it. Something may sound good, but if you just go on what it sounds good, is that good enough? You need to know what is true in order to say, wait, that's wrong. Yeah. Do you have a mic on? Say that again. Well.

Yeah, the Holy Spirit is the one who directs us, but it's really nourished on the faith. This is what he's telling us. It is, I shouldn't paraphrase, constantly nourished on the words of the faith and sound doctrine, which you've been following. What separates sound doctrine from good doctrine? Well, it's based on God's word. Good doctrine, what is that?

Well, here's where I'm going. I'm leading, so my bad. Grace is the number one thing that reveals the truth of God's Word. Because good doctrine can come in the form of Reformed theology, it can come in the form of these are the things, and they sound right, but there's a there's a thing you must do, right, associated with it. However, grace is the revealing of the counterfeit, in my opinion. Yeah, still, the process maybe, but the foundation is still the word.

Yeah, I think I think that's from the source. Yeah, I think that's it. You know, grace may help you identify something that like you said, if it's a works oriented or you have to do something, it defeats grace. So yes, that would be a that would that would be a way, but still it's based. How do you know grace? Yeah, from the word. So I guess the foundational is in what's said here is it's on the word.

You know, that's, you're constantly nourished in the word. And if you're constantly nourished in the word, you know, grace, which then helps you say no. So, so it's really being, you know, what the scripture here is telling us, it's nourished on the word and word will be, you know, to identify all the different things. So, um, let me, uh, Where's that verse, I think it's in 2 Timothy, study to show thyself approved, a workman needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I think that's the admonition from Paul, how you find out about the truth.

Not only do you need to know it, because you know how to divide it, you know what piece goes where. Yeah, I think it's still the foundational is the word. I agree. You're kind of talking what JD is talking about. It's knowledge and wisdom. Knowledge is knowing. Wisdom is skillfully applying. And I think that's where the foundational part is knowing.

Yeah, and I think sometimes we get into criticism because someone who is not as spiritually mature as you are, you identify in your mind that their doctrine isn't exactly what it ought to be, and it's because they're young in Christ. And sometimes we're critical of those people, and we don't need to be. The point is that there are what Miles Stanford called the birth truths, and then there are growth truths. And, you know, if you're a growing person, you can't criticize somebody who's just...

Oh, yeah. Well, you know, it's like, you know, what they say in scripture, you know, the milk of the word, you are the milk of the word, and then you get to meet. This is spiritual growth. I'm not going to pound on somebody on the first day they became a believer. Don't you know about all the edification? Don't you know grace? Don't you know? Yeah, I don't think we'd ever, you know, that's right.

But again, what I would still go back to is if a young believer is not understanding, what do you do? Do you tell them you're wrong? What do you do? Pointing back to the word, the word is not my feeling, it's not my interpretation. It's always back to the word. And that's what's said here. You always go back to the word. It's not my feeling, not my thoughts.

It's like, what does God's word say? So that's how I identify a young believer who is maybe straying a little bit or has something a little bit off. Were you going to say something, Gary? No. Okay. So, the other is, can you be, as verse 6 states, nourished without reading God's word? What does it say here?

You're nourished by consuming God's word. Yeah, I think Bob Wolford's been on this a lot about getting in the word. And I really think of that a lot. How many and how much do people actually get in the word each day? We may listen to broadcasts. We may listen to great speakers or great whatever. But how many get into the word every day? Every day. No, no, I don't want that. But I think that's really being what's taught here.

So what happens if you don't eat? You lose weight. You lose weight, which I need. Yeah, you're undernourished. You get weak. You start to not function right. The analogy here is he's saying nourish, which is to feed upon, or so to feed upon the word. If you don't, you become malnourished. And I think that's a key thing with what we're seeing today, is a lot of people listen to people, but they don't actually get into the word. And that's great, and they may have great wisdom, total wisdom. But really, it's still the nourishment comes from the words.

I'm reminded of Hal Malloy talking about how, as a believer of a year or so, his enthusiasm began to wane. And of all guys, he knew J. Vernon McGee. He went to McGee and told him, he said, you know, my enthusiasm for God's word and all the Christian stuff. I don't have the enthusiasm that I had.

McGee's answer to that was, go ask God for a reason to study. I think what's cool about that answer is that it puts it under the heading of grace. In other words, and so what happens, within a week he starts this Bible study at Hughes Aircraft for 30 years. Well, now he's got a reason to study. Well, I think to say to believers, ask God for a reason to study. He'll give it to you. You may not be a teacher, but you'll have a reason. I always like to puff him up because he loves to be puffed up.

You told me years ago when I first started, just read the Bible, don't do it to study, just read it. And that has helped me immensely, that you just read it. And it's just feeding, realizing what this is. It's just feeding. And my daily is that this is just me. I read a chapter a day, starting in John, and I read up to Revelation, one chapter a day. And then I read The Hungry Heart. And that's just my everyday routine. But it gets me into the Word every day.

And it's not that I'm studying it. No, I know. I don't study it. I just read it. And that's the biggest thing you help me with. I agree. As I tried, you know, and it became cumbersome because I try and dig out everything from the scripture I read that day and I was like, oh, but then that got be burdensome or just. Just read it. And just read it. Just read it. And I get so much more out of it just reading it. When I get teaching, I study 10 hours and study and do all that. That's study. But for just everyday consumption, like you have breakfast. You know, it's feeding every day.

And I just don't think a lot of believers do that now. And hence, they're malnourished. And when the false $100 bill comes, they don't know how to determine that, or to understand what's false. Or just growth, you know, their own spiritual growth, is they're just not feeding. And you really need to do that, and not just listen to people. Like I said, you can listen to J. Vernon McGee every day, great.

But it's still getting in the Word yourself, and just reading it. That's helped, personally, that's helped me immensely. Just thoughts, yeah. Yeah, I've been reading through the Bible every year for, I don't know, 40 years, something like that. I started with Genesis and then go all the way to Revelation. programs that I follow, so you can end it with revelation. So it's not how many chapters you read, but just whatever the script says. Yeah, in order to get through it in a year. I think Ingrid's gone through that. And Bob kind of challenged people. Bob Wolford kind of challenged him. So I think Ingrid's reading through every day. But I've told Bob I'm a little bit different.

I focus on Who we are in Christ and Paul's mainly Paul's epistles but I started John because you realize John John was written after all the Paul's epistles and John is very different than the other Gospels. John is specifically talking about and focusing on the deity of Christ And it was really putting the exclamation on all of Paul's epistles that basically says that Christ is who he said he was, and that he is fully God, fully man. And John is really putting the exclamation point on all of Paul's epistles. So I start in John and go through, and I focus on basically the things that deal with us in Christ.

I know Ingrid's going through the full, and that's great. I don't want to say that's wrong or anything. Everybody has their own thing. But I just kind of focus on what Paul is talking about for us and who we are in Christ and the epistles and all that.

So anyway, that's just personal. True is different than studying it. Yeah. Well, and that's the really... Just balls of epistles. Yeah, I mean, when I read through it, like I said, it's just a different way to do it, just reading it. And it's just kind of like feeding. Like I said, it really is just what's here. It's feeding. But you do have the foundation of the Old Testament already in place. Yes. And that's a good point. We've gone through studies, and I've been through the Bible. We've had tremendous studies on all the Old Testament stuff.

So I do have the foundation, because when you get to some of the things that Paul's quoting, it's like, If you don't know that, it's like, where did that come from? That's out of the blue. So no, and that's a good point. I've had the foundational of all the Old Testament to understand what Paul is talking about or when Paul references back or something he's talking about. We have the foundational about the Old Testament. That's a good point, great point. So if you haven't done studies in the Old Testament, it's also good to go through all that so you have the foundational for what Paul talks about. All right, question six.

The word for brethren is the Greek word for brother. In what sense are we brethren? So again, from the beginning of verse six, in pointing out these things to the brethren. So if I'm your brother, what does that mean? Don't say anything bad like that. We had fights and we, yeah, it's brotherly fights now. So what does it mean? If I'm your brother, what does that mean? We know Christ. We know Christ. So, but what does it mean, brother? I'm your brother.

There's a type of intimus or union. You're getting to where I'm trying to get at. Just like JD, I'm trying to lead the witness. I just have too many expert witnesses. The attorneys lead the witnesses. So if I'm your brother, what does that imply? Don't lead for men. I'm trying to be creative with your leading. Obviously, I'm not leading. It's not leading in the right direction. I've got to create the shit. Where did it come from?

There's a relationship. And what is that relationship? Family. Family. That's what I was trying to get at. If I'm your brother, I'm part of your family. I'm not just a male. We're all part of the family. It's a family. We are a family. And whose family are we? Come on. God. Yes. We are in Christ. We are part of that body, that family.

That's who we are. And so, if we're family, who is our similar father? They're sons of the same parent, so the parent is the Lord himself. God the father is ultimately our father. All of us. That means we are the same family. We have the same father. So again, it's a family relationship. It's not just we come to church together or anything like that. So I have a couple of questions on that.

So the word brethren is the translation of the Greek word for brother, Delphos. The word literally means from the same womb. Christians are brethren in the sense that they have the same heavenly father. Do you see each other in that light? That we are family, just like your family, the back row. That same family has the same connection or even greater in Christ's family, in God's family. It's the body. I noticed that when I travel and I meet a Christian. I suddenly have a bond. It just feels different.

You know, guys at work that I, you know, I tell the story, there's a guy who was at Highlands Ranch, he was in the water district, and you know, we're coming out of a meeting, and he goes, I really liked your message on Sunday. What? And, you know, he was looking my name up for something, and the message came up, you know, under Holly Hills. And so we got talking, we talk about the Lord all the time.

There's several engineers that I know that are brothers. And it's just a different relationship than other engineers. It's just completely different. It's familial. Yeah. Not to chase a rabbit, but I know in my family, those that are believers and those that aren't believers, the ones that are believers realize, or for the most part, recognize that to use the phrase, we came from the same womb. They didn't. They didn't, yeah. We might have come from the same physical womb, but not the spiritual one. And so therefore, the lines of communication are minimal at best. And it's different. Yeah, it is. It's different.

Even though your family, like I have family members who are not in the Lord. And I mean, I love them. Sure. I have a great relationship, but it's not as much as the family who I know, who know the Lord. It's like a super relationship. I have the family relationship, but I have an intimate relationship that'll be eternal. And that's a whole different relationship.

It is. But it's just the understanding that, when you use the word brethren, what that means to us. It's not just a kind of a club. It's family. Family is, we are a family. And that's, you know, that's why when one member hurts, we all hurt. It's all part of the same family. So, any other thoughts before we move on? I was thinking this lie in the family. I have to go sit in that corner. No more coffee. Hopefully it's not Sly and the Family Stone. So, what happens when the family of God is is cross with one another. We know that we come from the same spiritual womb, as we've talked about, but when there are undeniable issues, let's call them that, you still recognize them as family.

However, how do you How do we carry this verse out? I think Paul answers that in a lot of different ways. One, he says, and I don't know the scripture, I can't quote it, but it's like, why are you taking your problems before worldly judges? You should solve it here, within the body, number one. You shouldn't go out, so we shouldn't be suing our brothers. You know, we shouldn't be figuring out because we're going to put it between a Gentile judge.

So he talks about that. But then he also says about how to deal with problems and issues. And, you know, it's a brother who is sinning. What do you do with that? Take two witnesses, three witnesses, you do that, you bring it before, and there's ways to handle it within the family of God. So, again, you also have to go back to what we just talked about is the Word of God. What is it that is the issue?

Go back to the Word. I think that's what Hal was really good at. You know, he'd come up with, you'd have an issue, a problem or something, and it's like, yeah, so what does the word say about it? That it resolved 90%, 99% of the issues. You go back to the word.

So I think there's several instances where it talks about, you know, what to do with brotherhoods. Even in, is it, Thessalonians, I think or no. What am I thinking of the lost letters, Corinthians, Corinthians, because he had an issue and there was an issue and then he said deal horses with it. And then the second he goes, hey, wait a minute, try and restore that brother. And so he goes through a lot of different things on how to resolve issues within the family. So does that answer or did you have another thought? Yeah, I mean, sometimes those relationships can't be restored on your own time.

So, you know that you're both part of the family of God. You're of the same womb. No question there. There's just a difference that you can't reconcile. And so, you have to be prayerful and wait. And those are difficult situations that happen within the body at times. You know, and I think, you know, because we have, you know, on the board of directors that can't feel them or something, things like that. We have, you know, a lot of times we agree to disagree.

But we love the brother, and we don't hold anything against it, and we move on beyond that. There used to be in the Brethren, too, things about head coverings and different things like that. They had some things like some people didn't ever want to have musical instruments. That's all Aiden can wear a hat to this day. This was for the women, so.

But I mean, we had to come to some of those things where it's just we agree to disagree and love your brother. And it really comes down to that is to love your brother and love your family member. If you disagree, you can still disagree, but you still love the brother. And that's really what it comes down to is loving it. And Paul goes into a lot of those things on how to do that. And again, to restore that brother or to bring him. But if there's an impasse, you keep that, but you still love the brother.

And it kind of goes to my ism, which is when you're offended, if it's just an offense, this is what I tell people, you choose to be offended. And so you realize if you got an impasse with somebody and you're offended, that's your choice. That's your choice. And you can choose to do that, but I've found in life, if you don't choose to be offended, it's a whole lot better. Because number one, you're not angry and upset and whatever. And the person who offended you usually has no problem with what they did. They're happy to go lucky and having fun. You're the guy who was, quote, offended. And you're burning, heaping coals on your head. And so when you choose to be offended, that's when you kind of put an impasse. So that's just a worldly thing that somebody told me 50 years ago.

But yeah, so again, the thing is love, I think, is the key. You can disagree and still love the brother and have a relationship, a family. Because we have a family that I disagree with. Some politics and things which are so worldly that we try and agree to disagree and not bring them up, but yeah. Two points as we're talking, one is, In all of these circumstances, you have to come to a realization that God is sovereign and he orchestrates every circumstance in your life for you to bless you, no matter what it is.

And sometimes you just have to wait for him. And the second thing about offense is interesting because I can personally, in my flesh, be offended. But I also find that if somebody takes the Lord's name in vain, I'm offended about that. I don't know if I... I mean, I would say something. Blessing is something that I deal with all the time, but taking the Lord's name in vain is a whole other thing. He's my Savior, and so I'm definite when I hear that.

I'm offended. I'm not saying there's not a time to be offended. You choose to be offended, and rightly so. It's not that you ever not choose to be offended. There are times. I think what you do is smart, because you say, who's getting offended here? Is it the old man? It is. It's the old man. If it's on the Lord and somebody, yeah, I'm offended.

Yeah, but I still love them. The other thing is, you know, and it's just like we're going through and this is you guys probably missed my confession on Romans, where, you know, if your enemy, you give him water and food and, you know, and what does that do? It heaps burning coals on his head. I said, my, my motive is wrong in that because I'm like, I'm going to do this just because I want to see those coals on his head. He's going to burn.

So I have a little issue with that one, so I'm dealing with that, that it's not the right motive for that verse, but yeah. Oh, I would say, too, just giving the Lord time to work His growth into different people. I know there's a chapter in the three letters about time, and it's just, you know, we want immediate resolution of some of these things, and it doesn't really happen that way. Great, great point. We have to give the Lord time in His way of working with us and them, and whatever. It seems obvious to us that if we just follow these verses, it should work out, but, you know, it has to work out. for the other guy in their timing too. A great point. Time is, you know, we want it now.

And we're fast food. Commercials now drives me nuts. Every commercial is less than a second on the visual. And it's quickly, because we have an attention span of a nap now. And so everything, in a microwave, you do, I want my food, and I got it in 30 seconds. I have everything, fast food, quick, everything.

Time is what we, We don't allow the Lord a lot of time to do this. That's a great point. Time is a key factor. Are you packing up for week and a half shoots? Well, we got through two questions. We will have the rest of them next week then. So we'll begin in question seven next week. So let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again for this time. We thank you again for your Word.

Again, our nourishment comes from the Word. We just thank you that you provided that Word and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to help us understand and utilize your Word. in these situations where if there's conflict with a brother, one of the family, just to give us understanding and a loving attitude, even though we may disagree, to have a loving attitude to just still love that brother. Again, we thank you for this wise counsel that Paul gave Timothy, and how we can apply it in our lives. And we just thank you again that you haven't left us alone. You did leave us the Word, and more importantly, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We thank you for this time.

We pray for Mike in the next meeting. Just be with him as he gives us the Word, and just prepare our hearts to receive it. And we just thank you for all that you do for us, moment by moment, and just your love and care for us. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. you