First Timothy lesson 21

All right, well, I've got a number of verses to cover here. I'm hoping to get through four questions. I don't have, what lesson am I on, 21? Yeah, that's what I thought. Yeah. Would someone like to read 1 Timothy 4, 6 through 11, just to get the context going? Okay, I'll read it. I can do it if you want. Go for it Myles, thank you. I am 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, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is only of little profit. But godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance. For it is for this we labor and strive, because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of believers. Prescribe and teach these things. Thanks Miles. Okay. So, in the NASB, it titles this section of scripture, A Good Minister's Discipline. So, we can evaluate that as we go. Question number one.

What tells us if Timothy has been doing a good job? And we touched on this last week, but we'll dive into it a little deeper today. Why in this initial set of verses, especially verse six, what tells us that Timothy has been doing a good job? We all want to be told we're doing a good job, right? Why Timothy? What has he been doing?

Following sound doctrine. Say that a little bit slower. Sorry. Following sound doctrine. Following. Got you. Okay. Yeah, that word, go ahead, hurt someone. I was just saying, I think he's following sound doctrine, but in verse 6, it's in pointing these things out for the brethren. That's what he's been doing. And you'll be a good servant of Christ Jesus. So he says that, but I think the phrase that really says he was doing it is the last part of that, which you have been following.

Which you have been following, which is actually just one word in the Greek. Parakotheou, leou, I don't know. But yeah, to follow beside and attend closely. sound doctrine, and I like the way that the NASB translated it, which you have been following. So there's a history there, right? For Timothy.

It's not just that he just learned something, it's that he's been learning along the way. And there's a perfect tense to this word as well, that Timothy has done, he's done stuff. He's finished work. by way of teaching and sound doctrine. He's already accomplished. some sound doctrinal teaching.

And in terms of his Christian instruction in those days, and remember he didn't have a Bible, so he was having to listen really closely and follow along, and he followed along very closely. That was unique to Timothy in this case. How does that apply to you? I mean, we're not all ministers and in the same boat, but what principle comes from this first verse that applies to each of us? I think the thing is, he's telling Timothy he'll be a good servant. We do the same, we'll be a good servant. Yeah.

A great part of that is that Perfect Ten has past, completed, and actually present results. I like that part of it. He's done it, and it has continuing results of what he has done. The active voice where Timothy did it, and the indicative, it's a statement of fact. So I think that's powerful for a good servant. You do this and it'll have continuing results if you are a good servant. What's a good servant? It's somebody who points these sound doctrines out to people. Yeah. Just to kind of plug the Bible church. word out there.

It wasn't until I got involved with a Bible church, and by Bible church we mean those that typically teach verse-by-verse, stick to the words of the Scripture, get into the Greek, make sure that we understand what was actually being said. We are careful about the other types of literature and influences that we have. And so, you know, in terms of Holly Hills Bible Church, that's one of the things that really attracted our family to be a part of this body is that it was in love with sound doctrine, and most importantly, in love with the Lord Jesus, who is the Word. So that was something that Timothy had already started to take in.

I have no doubt he would love to be in a Bible church if he were here in this day and age. Yeah, selfish plug, really don't care at this point. It's just the truth. There's only so many bodies that really stick to the soundness of the truth of God's Word. So this was what Timothy was involved with.

He was spending time in the Word, meaning he was taking in Paul's words that Paul received directly from the Lord Jesus. He was spending time there, and he was growing with that. I've got some commentary I want to read for you on this first question. I use the Bible Knowledge Commentary a lot. It's one of my go-tos. So I've got a couple quotes from that this morning.

It says, from his warning of the apostasy to come, Paul turned to Timothy and exhorted him to pass along these same warnings to others in the church. One of the works of a good minister of Christ Jesus is that he is a faithful conduit of the truth to other Christians. You've got 2 Timothy 2. Can somebody look up 2 Timothy 2?

Let's flip over a couple. And just read, somebody read it. The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Is that you? People don't listen. people don't listen. That's the idea. Yeah, that is the idea, is that you have a hungry heart that can listen to sound doctrine.

I think that 2 Timothy 2 applies to all of us in whatever way we do minister, some in an official capacity, others in family, children, friends. So, I think that what the point here is, is that the works of a good minister of Christ Jesus is that he's a faithful conduit of the truth to others, and especially to other Christians. And it goes on to say, to do this, however, Timothy first had to keep himself nourished. Meaning, it's not like you take a course and then you get to go teach others.

It means that you're feeding off the Word of God. Not brought up, but you're feeding, literally the objective truths of the faith. And there's a really kind of interesting quote from Jude 3 that says that we were once for all entrusted to the saints, and that the truths of the good teaching that you have followed It means that Paul's teaching had been passed on and it is even active this morning, right? The things that Paul had revealed to Timothy and that we're studying in this book have already come thousands of years later to us, right? But it's because of being faithfully having a desire to faithfully carry out the teaching. So there's a lot of really good verses in 1 Timothy that we've already studied.

If you look back to 1.10, you're going to see sound teaching mentioned there. We're in a number of those passages now, but let's see, there's one, two, three, four, five, six different times The term sound teaching is mentioned in just this book. See a theme there?

Yeah. I think it's important to point out the fact that in verse 6, it says you're nourished in the words of faith and sound doctrine. You're not nourished by the guy. The guy doesn't nourish you, it's the word that doesn't. That's a really good point. So what would it look like if the guy nourished you, to use your words? Well, you'd never get, you'd never progress any farther than he was. Yeah, I mean, you get your favorite theologian out there, right? Your favorite guy.

Plenty of those. You wouldn't have reality. Why do you say that, Mike? Because truth is reality. And you have to find it for yourself. Not just hear it from others, but to be and to do. That's interesting. So you're saying, and I can't climb to the top of Long's Peak and find the truth? Whatever blows your air, guys. I got to write that down. But you ain't gonna find it there.

I'm in trouble. Gary says he's in trouble. I think an answer to being nourished by man versus the Word, man is always flawed, and you'll always be let down by somebody. We've had great men of faith who have failed miserably. And if you put your faith or stock in a person, it's guaranteed to fail. So nourishment doesn't come from a person, it comes from the Word. You'll be let down. Somewhere, somehow, that person sins just like everyone else, and is apt to fail also. So if your faith is based on a person other than the Lord Jesus, you're in trouble. I think you're right.

Timothy would have been in deep trouble. It wasn't just that Paul had given it to him. Well, I mean, sure, he was an apostle, the one that was responsible for the church truths, but the truths themselves are more important than Paul. Yeah, that's so important.

Go ahead, Donna, I'll talk after. I was just thinking of Romans 10, 17, so that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. That's a really good point. I think that's exactly what sound doctrine is meant for, is faith. It's an incorruptible. Yes, that's really good. I was just going to say, is so easy to latch on to a teacher, especially someone like with Timothy and Paul, who was so instrumental. I mean, JD, we've experienced that.

To me, you were my Paul at a point in my life, right? And we follow after. But something I heard Jeremy Thomas teach on a Sunday morning, he said, don't you, I can't remember exactly how he said it, but don't you dare, you know, put me in the places, you know, as the authority or kind of put me on a pedestal because I will fail you. And, you know, our, I think, you know, Paul is looking, Paul is nearing the end of his earthly ministry and he's making sure that Timothy is weaned off of him and is firmly rooted in the word, not in a man. Yeah. J.D., I've so often thought that these faithful men are guys, like if you go to a basketball game at a ball arena, there's the guy in the parking lot with the two flashlights that tells you where to go.

This way, that way. That's our job, is to point them to Christ. That's the whole job. That way. Yeah. That's a good analogy, and I think that one of the statements that I hold pretty close to myself as a teacher is, don't take my word for it. Take the word for it. Find it in the word, sound doctrine, follow it, be nourished by it constantly. That's kind of the teaching that we get here. Well, let's move on to verse 7. Thanks for all that commentary, that was great. It says, verse 7, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

So, question number 2, what are some of the fables mentioned here? And I think It might be, and Mike, Doyle, I'll lean on you for just clarifying here, that I'm not sure if the Greek is better rendered in the New King James Version as profane old wives' fables or worldly fables.

I think there's a little bit of flexibility there, but it's definitely the word you know, profane or worldly. So what do you think that means? And then I'll get into the Greekiness of it. What is worldliness or profane? Because it could be translated possibly either way. I think more accurately profane. And I think it's important contextually to see that it's contrasted with sound doctrine.

So that should shape our thinking about the worldly fables. That's a really good point. Verse 7 is in context to verse 6. He's telling Timothy, don't have anything to do with that stuff. But what's the stuff? How do you know what that is? What is profane? worldly, and then fables. We don't use that word very often anymore, I don't think, or at least I don't. It means quit watching the news.

For me. It's every book we pick up, We lost you a little bit there, Miles. You're cutting out. You're on mute. Every book we pick up. Sorry. Sorry. Yeah. Let's look at the word. Miles will chime back in here in a minute. The word profane or possibly translated worldly. Just saying it's every book that we We still are. You're kind of in and out. I'm sorry. Hang on to that thought, OK? Sorry, JD, I'll just hang tight here. You guys go. Yeah, maybe your internet just needs to kind of catch up or something real quick. But I have the word profane, bebelos. I probably didn't say that very well, but I'll use my Greek sounds a little bit Spanish sometimes. Bebelos. I don't know. Maybe that sounded more Greek. I don't know.

But the absence of divine or sacred character. I mean, that's a mouthful, and it may not be as friendly of a definition, but I thought it was really accurate. The absence of a divine or sacred character. So, don't have anything to do with the absence of a divine or sacred character. In other words, if it's not sound doctrine, don't sit around and talk about it.

Because that was what was happening, right? And it's related to this whole idea of having to do with godless myths and old wives' tales. I wondered why, you know, the mention of old women was here. Why do you think that is? And I'll ask the women to speak.

I'm not touching that one. I'm curious. Not touching that at all. It's in here. It's sound doctrine. It's in the scripture. You got to have to think about it. What do you think was the reason that this word bebelos, profane, and old wives tells were connected? I think one of the references that kicks back to 1 Timothy 1, verse 4, well, if you read 3, I urge you, upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on ebb so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrine than this one, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies. And I think that maybe is where the old women or whatever is, you know, thinking about genealogies and this kind of stuff. Maybe that's where it's at.

They're worried about the genealogy of things rather than our genealogy in Christ. Yeah, and I think that's a really good observation, Courtney. And the question number three, we're going to get into this a little bit further. I'm going to read from the BKC and just kind of give us a little bit more context. But since Timothy was to channel God's truth to others, So he was the conduit.

He was to have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales. And the godless and the worthless go hand in hand. So there's some verses that we could look at, but we'll, for time's sake, we'll move on. And it should be shunned. You have to remember that in Timothy and Paul's day and age, it was largely the men that were learning and were teaching, right? So there had to have been, in my thinking, a lot of time spent kind of talking about, I think about some of my co-workers and things of that nature that get into genealogies and astrology, and they've filled their mind with other myths that had nothing to do with sound doctrine. And Miles' point a minute ago was really accurate, is that this is in the contrast of sound doctrine. So I'll read on.

He says Timothy was to devote himself to much more manly pursuits. I don't, not sure why that would be just manly. I think it applies to all of us, but in that particular instance, it was Paul to Timothy. So Paul introduced an athletic image with the words, train yourself, right?

So looking at verse seven, discipline yourself, train yourself. And the verb here is gymnase. So where do we get that English word from? Or where do we get our English word from this Greek word? Gymnasium, right? To train yourselves. But Timothy's training was not for physical fitness. What was it for? That's exactly right.

Look at 1 Timothy 2.2. What does that say? for kings and all who are in authority so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." That's exactly what he's talking about. He nailed it.

So this is, even though it's a fitness analogy, he's talking about the fitness of godliness, sound doctrine. nourishment So Paul, yeah, I mean Paul uses a lot of athletic analogies to drive home, you know spiritual disciplines There's a sister verse that I want to read that I think has to do with With kind of the question number two is Second Timothy 2 16 but avoid worldly and empty chatter for it will lead to further ungodliness." That's not easy! Do you think this just applied to Timothy? And Paul? And ministers in general? Or does this apply to all of us? The principle. I think it does. I think it applies to all of us.

So, number three, and then we'll try to wrap up here today. We've got four minutes, so. Are there in Christianity, number three question on your sheet, are there in Christianity what we would describe as fables today? Talk about some. Would you consider fables like traditions? Yep. Well, we've defined that, you know, fables are related to what is profane, what is worldly. So, I'll get you started.

What about astrology? Yeah, waste of time. What else? I'm going to just read off of Mike's notes here, because I thought they were interesting as he was thinking about them. And then I'm going to ask Mike a question, and then we'll wrap up. How about evolution?

Yeah. It's a pretty good narrative of fables, right? Yeah. Not good, but pretty strong. What about climate change? Mike, you mentioned the show The Chosen. Yeah. I've only watched a little bit of it, but it's not biblical. Yeah, and fables, by definition, a fable, a story, a narrative purporting to set forth facts. And it would be in opposition to sound doctrine if you knew it. Yeah.

You've got also world-based archaeological discoveries. And how do those, you know, millions of years ago, you know. Or just what they've discovered in Egypt about the pharaohs and that kind of thing, you know, the mysticism that goes with it. But I think Indiana Jones actually did the right thing. That's kind of a fable, don't you think? So J.D., calling the California psychics lying, is it worth it? It will take on your ego. That was wasted money? Let me give you a good one that I heard last week.

A person I know was going to their life coach. What's a life coach? The teacher of fables. That's really what they are. Or a psychologist. Psychology is the study of the sin nature. That's what it is. What about Catholicism? They're the king. Mysticism. Courtney was going to go to Rome last year, but he never made it. Because last year was the jubilee year, and if they walk through the door, they get salvation. That's right. It was so close to going. So close. It offered so much. Walk through a door and you're saved. Awesome.

Well, think about the whole thing of Mary and the rosary and all of that nonsense. And then I put AI in there. No, I wanted you to answer the reason that you put AI in there. What fables is A.I. telling you? I'm not sure A.I. has a theologian. Does A.I. believe in God?

No, they don't. Ask and it says no. Once it becomes self-aware. So honestly, I think there are millions of fables out there. Yes, there is. But you can only know a fable as a counterfeit. How? By knowing the truth. Sound doctrine. That's how you identify it.

You know, the word fables, it's just quite, you know, it's an invention of falsehood. And any one of us in our sinful nature, whether we're believers or not, can invent falsehoods. So I think fables comes across in many ways, but here in this verse, and I'll wrap up and we'll pray, have nothing to do with it. Don't play around.

You know, stick and nourish yourself in sound doctrine. So we'll stop there and pick up with question number four, maybe a little bit on three next week, but we'll move on to four. Let's pray. Father, how we thank you that we can have sound doctrine, that you've entrusted us with your word, and that the word is a person. It is your son, the Lord Jesus, and he has instructed Paul And Paul has instructed Timothy, and as we look at the truths here and we see the principles of staying close to sound doctrine and avoiding the falsehoods and the godless myths, Lord, I just pray that we would maintain our perspective and our dependence upon you. We thank you that you love us enough to give us your word and entrust us to literally be able to pass that on to others. And it's in your name we pray. Amen.