First Timothy lesson 20 Continued

All right, we are in Lesson 20, and again, I think we're down to Question 7. Again, I know it's repetitive, but I always like to see the scripture we're looking at. So we're in 1 Timothy, and I'll go through the verses that we've gone through in this one section. 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 6.

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 the hypocrisy of liars, seared in their own conscience, as with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocating abstaining from food, which God has created to be gratefully shared by those who believe and know the truth. 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 doctrines you've been following.

So we're going to focus on verse six on these last few questions. So question seven, if I can get down there. What does the word minister or servant mean here in verse six? And pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, Jesus.

So what is the current or basic thought of what a minister means? What do you think of when you say minister? What comes to mind? Never think of minister. Okay, that's true. Minister. You're a servant. What? Well, you know. A servant, maybe. A servant. That's what he's talking about here.

But what minister... See, when I think of a minister, it's like a pastor, you know, somebody who's ministering. I think of... Those who are not too much into the word, you know, getting married. You need a minister. You need a minister to get married. And somebody who is, quote, a religious person may be something like that, a minister who he'll minister your wedding or he'll be a guy who is in a church and he'll be the front guy.

So you think that's what's being said here? Somebody who's just a guy who is religious? No. No. Well, you passed the online test. You passed the online test, yeah. He answered the 78 questions or whatever he had. 75. Yeah, he had 75 questions. So, no, it's really in this one, it's a little bit different.

It's, like I said, I said serving a minister today generally refers to an ordained clergyman, a pastor of the church. And while Timothy was a pastor of the local assembly at Ephesus, the Greek word here does not have the technical meaning which we give to the word minister today. So it's not the same thing. He is the leader of the church. So he does fit the quote minister, but here it says it's a different word.

It's one of the words used as a servant. It has a special emphasis upon the serving as seen as its activity of serving. And that's where, where do you think the word deacon comes from? Diakonos. So it's really here, it's the idea of a servant, and it's not an official title.

It's not like he's the minister of the church at Ephesus. It's not like that. He's not the head pastor. He's not the head teacher, although he is, actually. But in this one, it's a little bit different because he uses that word, diakonos. And so it's a servant. So here it's really saying that and seeing that he's a servant of Christ and rendering him service by setting himself against these errors that we read in the first verses one through three. He's a servant, he's serving God and he's giving him the true doctrine as we said last week.

Remember the true doctrine versus non-true doctrine? And that he gives them the true doctrine as an inoculation against the bad doctrine. Remember how I was talking last week about a counterfeit, what do you do to identify a counterfeit? You know, the real thing. He's given me the real thing.

So that, he's a servant. He's providing the word to all these people who are being misled by these people who are trying to pull them off to the side and say marriage is forbidden and you can't eat these things. He's now a servant by telling them no, that's not. Don't even listen to him. So here it's a little bit different. Kind of when we read it, we see he's a minister, but he's not like the head of the church. Although he is, in this one, he's really saying he's a servant. So, any thoughts? pretty straightforward, not a lot of... I have a question. Yeah.

Why do you think that there were conversations around marriage being forbidden? What was the reason behind that? You know, I think it's probably, and maybe you can give some more, my initial is, same thing with the Catholic Church, you know, father, priests are not to be married. And I think it was just purity and focus. is that if you're married, and even Paul gets into some of that too, you know, if you're married, you have thoughts to support your wife and do all this stuff. I think it's probably because of that, maybe you can clarify that, but that would be my initial understanding, is that if you're married, you're not focused on the Lord only. So, unless you, do you know anything on that? Well, you know, My family grew up with a Jesuit priest who was a missionary in Jamaica. He came to Denver a couple of times and stayed with us. I asked him about that one time. He said his name was Charlie Judah, a Jamaican.

I said, what's the deal about why you can't get married? That's exactly the answer he gave. I couldn't do what I do if I had a wife to think of. But that doesn't preclude the fact that he could have. I think that a lot of times, like with Donna and I, she's so helpful. You don't have that, and the idea is that you can... and Paul all remained single. So I don't know, I was just kind of trying to chase that down. I think that's what it is.

My understanding of that, just from past Catholic priests and that, is it's the thought that if you have a wife or family, you're distracted. If you're not married, you can focus solely on the Lord and serving the Lord. So that's what they're trying to preach is purity of, you know, direction for you is you don't get married because you can't focus on on everything.

No, no, but like Peter, you know, Peter had a wife and and all that. So they were, I mean, so I don't know these if they came down from Jerusalem. You know, it is strange that Peter obviously had a family or, you know, married, and so coming out of that, I think it's their own, well, as they said, deceitful and lying. It's their own makeup of, you shouldn't get married, you know? It's what we think. That became an extreme for this case for these ministers to deal with. However, there is a place for it. It's just...

What, not to be married? Yeah. It's just they're forbidding it. Yeah. Which means that's the difference. That's the difference. Yeah. You know, you can get married or not. In fact, Paul says it's. The human race falls off the face of the earth. Yeah. You know, so I think, you know, for Paul, he said, you know, it's better to be single like me, but he doesn't preclude it. Yeah. It doesn't forbid it. It's the forbidding part. It's a condition that is not in accordance with the word that the apostles were teaching.

I think a lot of young men that go to study for the priesthood or the ministry, their being single is more of a attempt to be personally pious, rightful, rather than the real reason. A good example is Steve Dupuy, who we support as a missionary. He is a 35-year-old guy who left and went to the Slavic gospel mission and worked in Belarus and Russia.

And he was, I think, 50 years old, and he wanted to be married. And he tells the story that he said to the Lord, you know. I'd like to be married, but if you don't want me to be married, then you're going to have to sustain me." And a week later, he met his wife in Moscow. And they're married, and they have kids, and they have a ministry.

And again, it goes to the forbidding. That was never a requirement that Paul or any of the apostles had. Well, I just want to say that I forbid my daughters to get married yet. Good luck with that. Brother, you got a long road ahead. I tried that and it didn't work at all. First one out of the bunch got married right away. So yeah, that's a whole other thing. First dates, yeah. All right, next one, eight.

The words in this, Donna, back to the it, kind of. The words, these things, refer to the contents of verses one through five. So if we read that. But the Spirit explicitly says that in a later time, some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars, seared into their own conscience as with a branding iron.

Men who forbid marriage and advocated staining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in those by who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and all these things. Now we'll get to the it. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it, everything created by God, is received with gratitude. For it, everything is sanctified by means of the word of God in prayer.

So I'm pointing out these things that the brethren you'll be a good servant of God or of Christ Jesus constantly nourished by the words of faith and of the sound doctrine so at the end is everything created by God and I didn't you say even one of the one of the translations versus it had that as It was in one of the You know and I don't know So verses 1 through 3 basically explains or points out the dangers of those who fall away from the truth of God's word. And then verses 4 through 5 points out the truth of God's word, that God created everything, and that for the believer it is good not to be deceived by saying foods or marriage or these things.

So in verse 6 now, there are two people being pointed out here, people or group. What is it in verse six that there are two different people, really? In pointing out these things to the brethren, you'll be a good servant of Christ, even if it's constantly nourished on the words of faith and the sound doctrine which you've been following. So who are the two that are being included in this? The brethren is one. Brethren is one. So in pointing these out to who? The brethren. So that's one group. Who's the other one? You. The servant. Yeah. So the first part of the verse tells what a good servant is to do for others. So the minister or servant is to point out the issues raised in verses one to five to the brethren.

So he's saying it's a good thing to point these things out that these are These are terrible things, and as we said, don't even give ear to it. Don't even think about it. Don't listen. Just stay away from it. It's terrible. They're liars. They're hypocrites. Don't even go there. So he's telling the brethren that. So that's to the group. That's to us as a whole.

But then the second part of the verse talks about the results to the minister or the servant. So in pointing out these things to the brethren, what happens? you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. So in doing so, in teaching and telling people, giving them the truth of the word, you become a good servant. That's who you become, is a good servant. If you point out using the truth of God's word, you're a good servant of Christ Jesus. So in the first, you're helping everybody, but then you're good in the eyes of God. You're a good servant.

So, the second part of the verse tells about the results of the minister or servant. If the servant teaches or ministers to the brethren about the false teachers, he will be a quote, good servant of God. Not only will he be a good servant, but he himself will be what?

Constantly nourished on the words of the faith and on the sound doctrine which you've been following. So again, if you are in the Word and constantly nourished by the Word, as we discussed last time, constantly in the Word, which I think is very remiss today, is people not getting in the Word. So you're not being nourished. You're not being able to be a good servant to show people what the true gospel is, because you're not in the word. So again, you're a good servant if you do this, pointing it out, but how do you do that?

Being constantly nourished in the words of faith and the sound doctrine. So it's a key to us to be a good servant. What do you have to do? be nourished in the Word. If you want to be used and be recognized as a good servant, you have to be nourished by the Word. You can't correct people. It's the counterfeit again. You have to know the truth in order to identify the false. So again, constantly nervous.

Train up. What's that? Train up in? Yeah. To be trained. Trained, yeah. Like 2 Corinthians 1, that we may comfort them with a comfort wound. That's a little different. That's in the comforting part. This is actually the teaching part. I just went through looking at that on the comforting, which is really, what a great set of verses. If you're going through a trial, guess what? Yeah, you're going through a trial, but if you get through it with the Lord and the peace, a year later, five years later, you can help somebody else and say, you know, I went through that same thing, and God helped me. Those are tremendous, but I think that's a different characteristic.

This is actually the word to be able to refute poor doctrine. And the only way you do that is through constantly nourishing the word. It says right here very clearly on the words of the faith and the sound doctrine. So, think about the time you're in your word. If you're not in the word every day, are you nourished? Are you able to refute false doctrine if you're not in the word, knowing what the truth is?

One analogy would be, you exercise to keep yourself healthy, right? And we put a lot of emphasis on that. However, there's spiritual nourishment and training that is Um, so that's what this is talking about. Yeah. You know, he uses the word nourish. I should look at it from the Greek, but it's, it's just like feeding. Yeah. If you don't nourish your body, how does your body react? You're weak. You know, maintenance has another synonym to it. Maintenance, cleanup. Yeah, it's, you know, the workout. It's being healthy. Being healthy in the Word.

And if you're not in the Word, you're not spiritually healthy. And you can't serve in the capacity that this verse is kind of talking about. That's exactly what he's saying. What is a good servant? He's constantly nourished in the words of the faith and of sound doctrine. That's a good servant. Because, you know, how do you refute somebody if you don't know the Word? Don't fool yourself. Yeah. I mean, then it's on your own knowledge.

And how far does that get you? I like the guys in verses one through three. Well, there's times like I'm sure we've all been where we're like, I don't know the answer, but we've always kind of talked about it in this capacity of let me get back to you. I've got to go do some exercise. Yeah. Like an analogy of what nourish means. I got to go nourish myself and I won't speak before I don't. No, right?

Yeah, and I think the beauty of being nourished is you're more able to answer any time. In season and out of season, you can have an answer for them if you're nourished on the word. And God will prepare you. And I think that's the thing, is if you've got to rush to get nourishment, it's better to be nourished all the way along and be a useful servant.

But we all have those areas where we're like, well, what does the White Rock of Revelation really mean? Right. Well, I think I think I think one of the one of the things that I think of when you're talking about wife supporting, you know, she does. You know, what was that verse? Tell me about a hundred times. She knows the verses. She's my walking. No. Your nourishment. Yeah. No support.

I may know what the verse, you know, what it is, but I can't, I don't know what the verse, you know, it's 1 Corinthians 1, 4. You know, there's some that, you know, I know, but there are a lot that it's, I know it's here, but what is it? It's like, anger's like, oh, it's this. You may be Googling it quickly, I know, but.

But no, I mean, that's, there's always times that I don't know a verse that I want. I always just kind of call it out, especially for, Yeah, I think the thing is you learn The questions that you're asked to be a good servant are going to encourage you to continue to be nourished, right? So you're not going to be at your peak you know performance like Take gary in tennis. He had to train like he had to do the work and it took time and by work, it's not something that is is changing how God sees you as much as it's changing you and how you're prepared to serve others.

Yeah, you know, I think about this now, you know, kind of the world example is I'm a much better engineer I am now than it was 30 years ago. Just because of what I know and the experience and everything, my knowledge base has been expanded over 40 years of doing consulting. So I'm much better off than I was 40 years ago. But that's just because I have the experience and the knowledge of 40 years.

Same thing in the world. The more you're in the world and the more knowledge you have, the better you are as a good servant and be able to serve. That, you know, it's that you've been doing it. Yeah. Yeah. I think, too, part of this is like what we have contemporarily is I need a reason to be prepared. So one of the reasons that we are in Bible studies with each other is that very reason. Because like around here, there's The Man on Tuesday, a different subject. Wednesday Night, a different book. Eccles, a different book. Sunday Morning, a different book.

And so, just to be up to speed in all of those, you're always sort of, well, let's see what's next. And so you spend some time getting prepared. And that's outside of the phone call that comes in and says, what do you think about John Piper? Well, just running into people, you know, and getting, you know, you may not have the answer, but you can find it quickly.

And I, you know, all of those to me is every time one of those is feeding time. Yeah. It's feeding. It's nourishment. That's why Bible studies are so important. And I think that, you know, many people, you know, go to the big church and they give it, you know, this gloriously great Happy feeling thing and maybe Bible based and I mean it could be but really that that's not the same It's just an in-depth Bible study and I think Warm fuzzies, you know, I think you know, I I think there's you know There's there's value and you know, and they can be in a large church have a great message, but it's the follow-up It's the it's the ability to get dig into the word and really really study it and versus just absorbing a message. I was thinking one of the jobs of the Holy Spirit is to bring things to our remembrance, the things that we've learned. So that assumes that we have learned it and been in the Word to initially read it, understand it. Yeah, remembrance means you saw it somewhere. It doesn't remember out of nothing. That's a good point. You had to study it in order to bring it to remembrance.

But I think, as I said, that's all nourishment. And the more you study, the more you're able to talk to people and be a good servant. And we'll get the benefits to the servant. But I'm also thinking about what Mike probably isn't saying, but wants to say is that this nourishment is about a person. Yeah. Right. because he's the one that sent it and you leave him about it. You settle your heart about it. So you're prepared.

For example, Ron's got the emergency Bible verses that he shared with us a couple of weeks ago. Those are the things that come to your And so it does come back to spending time being acquainted with the Lord himself and his word. I think Ingrid made a great point. I hear a lot of times, you know, talking to somebody and a verse comes to me. Well, that'd be stuffed in there sometime. It's remembrance. You had to know it sometime. Does she have an earpiece? That's right, that's right, Ingrid. Or one versus zero, I don't know. All right, so question nine, and this is it.

How has Timothy been doing with this? from verse six, in pointing out these things, brethren, you, Timothy, will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of faith and the sound doctrine, which you have been following. So how's he been doing? He's been spending time. The last part of the verse, which you've been following. You've been doing it.

You're a good servant. Paul's patting him on the back, saying, you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. And so, 1 Timothy is told by Paul that he's a good servant or teacher. So that's the first thing. You're a great servant or teacher. But why? In many respects, a good teacher is nothing more than a good learner, nourished up, in the present participle of the Greek, indicating by which Timothy was a good minister.

The idea is that he's constantly nourishing himself. That he's a good servant, And he's been doing it. He's been following it. Paul's saying, you've been doing it. You're a good servant. So, you know, I hope, you know, I keep saying when these things are in the Bible, I always think, could the Lord say the same thing of me? Could he say the same thing? I hope so.

But it's like, are you a good servant? Are you nourished up in the words of faith? Are you nourished up in sound doctrine? Can he say I'm a good servant? I don't know. Not that I'm looking for the accolade, but could Paul say the same thing about us? I think, too, that one of the principles here is the fact that As you grow, I think spiritual growth is really important in terms of understanding and being nourished.

As you go along, an interesting thing happens. You become more interested. It captivates you more. You spend more time doing it, not because somebody told you you have to. You just think, oh, rather than do this, I'm going to spend some time. Or you find that, like you said, you're an engineer for 40 years. You're much more competent. It's the same thing with the Word of God and involved with the Bible-believing, Bible-focused church. you're much better at it after 10 years than you were the first year. And on you go.

I think the key that he's saying here is very important for us today. And what's missing in a lot of groups, you know, churches and different things, it's the feel good, it's the, you know, it sounded good. It's like, let's talk about the current politics and what that means today. Sure.

I think what, you know, the thing that I was saying as you were saying that is it's, it's a relationship, it's a person. We saw something this morning, we were just getting ready and these two women who were on for some, podcast or something that they had for believers, and it was good. They kind of said, what's missing is the Holy Spirit involved. It was good, but they really weren't getting into specifics. It's like, come on, just jump over that hoop just a little bit more and say the person. I think she even said it was a relationship. I think it's more a relationship. To who? To who? Jump over that hurdle. Come on, get there.

But that was encouraging. Their podcast is blowing up, I guess. At least they were close. They were mentioning it's the Holy Spirit and things like that in a relationship. But anyway, I digress. It was interesting that being Bible study is the key. That's the nourishment.

That's where you go to feed. Yeah, I was just thinking about how many fellow believers that have spoke to me over the years about not feeling like they're being fed. And they're like, well, how are you being fed? And I'm like, well, there's two different aspects of that. fed through with the Lord himself by conviction and convincing of the Holy Spirit. And then there's the fellowship. If you're not being fed, you have to consider your own nourishment, right?

And that's just another word or way of saying it. There's a lot of believers that make decisions about where they go and what they do and the studies that they participate in, if it's an online study or whatever. The reason we show up, you know, we can't always, everybody has a different schedule and different lifestyle and things of that nature. However, At the end of the day, the body itself and spending time here, right now, is a very important aspect of nourishment.

Oh, yeah. The thing I think about, we forget, again, when I read these verses, the whole thing is the context. If you're not nourished, what do you fall prey to? the people in verses one through three. And how many people are led astray now in really strange doctrines? Because they don't know. And it sounds good. You know, there's lots of people who are, you know, probably believers, but they're being led astray and it doesn't allow growth.

And so I think the key is, again, the nourishment. You have to have the nourishment. Otherwise, you're gonna fall prey to the men in verses one through three. And the other important part of that is sound doctrine. No, that's it, the words of faith and sound doctrine. Oh yeah, that's, again, reality versus counterfeit. Know the reality.

So, I guess, so now with respect to the question of how Timothy, how has Timothy become a good teacher? Timothy has been consistently, present tense, been nourished, fed in the words of the faith and of good doctrine, sound doctrine. The article is used, the faith and the good teachings or doctrine, namely the body of the Christian truth as it is found in the word of God. So it's the word, the doctrine, and the faith in that word. So what are the words of the faith? What does that mean? Words of the faith versus sound doctrine. You can have sound doctrine that's not of the faith. It could be sound doctrine of something totally off of the faith. So what kind of things do you go by faith? What are some of the things by faith? Well, this is the faith, right? This is the death and the R equals C. So this is the body, the whole body of it. whole body of the faith.

So, you know, great doctrinal words such as justification, redemption, propitiation, reconciliation, salvation, grace, all of those things are the words of faith, the faith, the whole doctrine. So, those are all the quote The faith that comprise the faith and you go through several of those just a few of them and then sound doctrine is the whole Word the Word of God so Sound okay All right, so I can get through this thing you might be able to get through all of them What makes doctrine sound? And then in verse six again constant nurse and words of faith and of the sound doctrine which you've been following and Is it not dependent upon the faith?

Well, yeah. That's what makes it sound. Yeah, which came first, chicken or the egg? The faith creates sound doctrine. Yeah, I think so. Well, sound doctrine, you have to have belief in something. It's the, what is it? Read this thing. I think the chicken comes first.

Yeah, I think you need the trades and the tracks and the facts and the knowledge first before you have the faith. The faith comes from believing in what the word of God says. So I think you have to have the doctrine in order to know what to believe. So faith is belief. If you can say that right, I'll make a concession. OK. There's that scoreboard. It's right there in front of you. One scoreboard here. Yeah, whatever this thing is, yeah.

I might point out that Timothy doesn't have a Schofield Reference Bible. And so he, from Paul and others, he has learned what we have cataloged as justification. assurance, those kinds of things, you know. And so he, based on his association with Paul and his letters and fellowship with other believers who are gifted, the doctrine shows up in the conversation and shows up in the writings, but he doesn't have a Bible. A text, yeah.

I'm still amazed at how the church spread. Well, it's because of the gifted men that were and women that were part of the early body of Christ. I think the Holy Spirit was working in a mighty way at that point. He was. He still works that way today. Sure he does. I think at that point there were miracles, there were different things, there were things that added to that knowledge.

Substantiation of the word and to also bring remembrances, you know said bring remembers I think the Holy Spirit was once somebody got it, you know teaching from Timothy I think the Holy Spirit was working away that probably even greater than today about remembering that word So because it wasn't a printed text and it wasn't that there was not opposition right now there's oh yeah opposition and I Still, they found their way through to what we've described as the truth, the doctrine, and that they were settled down on. Yeah.

Like I said, I'm amazed. It's got to be the only way I justify how the church spread at the early church was the powerful working of the Holy Spirit at that point. To be able to bring remembrance, to really sear in their minds this new doctrine of salvation, the mysteries that were now revealed to them. I think the Holy Spirit had a much powerful effect to establish the foundation of the church.

So, did I just do question 10? Yeah, while you swerved into it. Sound doctrine. So, the word translated into Greek means sound doctrine. So, the word sound translates into a Greek word that means good as quality and character. The following word is very strong and refers to the careful tracing out of something so as to have a meticulous understanding. So, very precise. Sound doctrine. That's just the word. Just the word. That's where the doctrine comes from. I have one more question, but I'll cut it. Ingrid left. The singers need to sing. All right, let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for this time. We thank you for each day that you give to us, including this day.

And we just give you praise for just every day that you give to us. We realize, again, that you are the one that provides every breath, every heartbeat for us. And we just thank you again for your bountiful provision to us. And many times we're neglectful for how good you are to us each and every day. And we just want to say, we thank you. We love you.

We realize that you are a sovereign God in control of all things, and you have an eternal love for us, which we can't be separated from, no matter what. And we just rest in that fact and realize just what a gracious, loving God you are, even in the trials and the blessings. And we just pray for Mike as he gives his message in the next meeting, and just prepare our hearts to receive it. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.