First Timothy lesson 31 last question, lesson 32 thru Q3

Well, let's just discuss it. What's the question? Describe the difference between the slave master and the old testament and the new testament. Okay. The topic we've been talking about for two weeks is that how are slaves to treat their masters, and how are the masters to treat their slaves? And if we bring it into the 21st century, how do employers treat their employees and how should employees treat their employers.

So in the Old Testament, so the question is really appropriate because slavery in the Old Testament and the first part of the New Testament was not an odd thing. There was nobody demonstrating against it. It was common. And a lot of times a slave was an indentured slave, someone who sold himself or herself to someone who was wealthy so that they'd have a place to sleep and food to eat and survive. And a lot of times the relationships were pretty good. But in the Old Testament, under the Jewish law, How long could you, if you were a master, how long could you keep a slave? Seven years. Seven years, and then what did you have to do? Let him free. Let him free. Or put your ear in his day. What's that? Or put your ear in his day, right? Yeah, and he had a choice, if you wanted him to, to stay.

And I think a lot of, a lot of quote-unquote slaves that were in the church were like that. They wanted to be with their masters because they were treated well. But under the Old Testament Jewish system, seven years was at the end of seven years, which fits. They could walk. Could they buy their freedom? Could a slave buy his freedom?

I thought they could. I thought they could. Yeah. They could. They could. And especially in the Roman culture, you could buy your freedom. Okay? So what's the difference between that and New Testament? What makes it different? The first thing that makes it different is that we're talking about believers. Not Jews, not the Roman Empire, Gentiles, but believers, where two men, one could be a master and one could be a slave, and they both became Christians.

How do they treat each other? How do they treat each other? We respect. Respect? Is that just what it is? No. What else? Let's start with a slave. How should a Christian slave treat his Christian master? Not disrespectful. Not disrespectful? He should honor him? He should pray for him? And you should seek every advantage you could.

No. But that's not in the scripture. No. But as we talked about, I mean, wouldn't it be normal for a slave who becomes a Christian, thinking, well, my master's a Christian. That means I'm going to have a little bit better shape than the slave next to me who isn't a Christian. But politicians know, you know, whatever your role is as a slave, it continues the same. Except your heart's different because you willingly serve your master.

Okay? But the real change comes with, I think, with the masters. How are they supposed to treat their slaves? Because think about this. Most churches in that time were small. Hollyhills would be considered a big church in the early time. And you as a slave matcher having become Christian, you go to church and you find out one of your slaves is the pastor. Now what do you do? How do you treat him?

I think that word, beloved, is really important in verse 2. It kind of centralizes on the fact that You know, you double down when you're working with the leader in the sense that you're beloved. You've got a brother or a sister in any case. And that changes the game to a degree. It doesn't change your response to the job. It does change your response to the mercy that you have to change where you're living. Yeah. Is that fair? Yeah, I think that's good. And I think it revolves around one other responsibility that a believer has, no matter what your role in life is, and what is that responsibility?

Who do you really serve? You serve the Lord. So, as a slave, it's not too beneficial to be grumpy about being a servant of the Lord. Or to maybe do it half-baked, you know? I almost got it out there. you know, that you just, you know, did as much, because Paul talks about in other places, you know, that don't be the kind of person that you work hard when the Master's there, and when he's gone, you just don't give him eye service, you know. So it goes a long way. First Timothy goes a long way in laying out for the behavior pattern for a believer in terms of master, slave, employee, employer? I think it's more important actually with the non-Christian master or bot. I think that's really where it comes down to.

You're working at the hand of the Lord. That regardless, you're working at the hand of the Lord. No matter how bad, whatever your focus is. Yeah, you're not trying to skate around things or do things, you know, on the fly or whatever, or only when he shows up, or any of those things.

Yeah. The command of the other scriptures is what that's due, if you're working in adoration to the Lord. Yeah. That's the key. Well, of course, even in a Christian, when you're still working in front of the Lord, then I think it's more important that they've been in a non-Christian thought master. that you work at the end of the work. Yeah, yeah.

And I think for those of you who are in the work-a-day world, you see that everywhere where employees are cutting every corner they can get, make it as easy as possible, violate the rules and that kind of thing. That's one of the things that I notice about, trust me, I'm a moderate Charlie Kirk fan, But he did have, his principles of employing people were really good ones. You know, he always encouraged everybody who had a business that you need to have at least a one-page list of things you expect.

You know what the first one is? Show up on time. You know what the second one is? Don't lie. I like that. That stops a lot, right? It sure does. And don't lie not only verbally, you know, but don't check out early. Or come in late and fudge the time clock. Don't lie. You know?

And then he would make it relevant to whatever. But he said ten principles would be enough. I think that's a great idea. See, we're together. I think you got it on the first note. This trickles down to management as well, right? So, we're talking about employee and downstairs management. Yeah. But, I mean, there's layers, usually, in any organization you might be involved with, or even within, you know, industry. Sure. There are layers of leadership, and these same principles apply all the way up that chain. Yeah, they do.

If you've met, you know anybody who's a chief executive officer of any corporation, no matter how small or big it is, if he's a good one, his attitude is that he serves the people that work for him. That's his mindset. So the last question, what's the last question? Yeah, what's the best way to teach and preach these principles? Living. Living. That's the best way. You know? Okay.

I'm done with that lesson. So actually I did two lessons coming up. I think I sent out 32 to everybody. And I finished 33 yesterday. And they kind of go together. So we'll see how it works out. It's along the same principles that we've been talking about. The next group, Lesson 32, deals with 1 Timothy 6, verses 3, 4, and 5. So, verse 3 says, If anyone advocates a different doctrine, or does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness, Let's deal with that part of it.

First of all, I'll read the rest of it. He is conceited, understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words, out of which writhe envy, strife, abusive language, and evil suspicion. These verses here are pretty condemnatory.

Let's look at The first question I ask, Paul reverses direction here. What's he going back to? I think he's going back to the first main line. Glyphitea is even farther back than that actually. How about the trees, 1-3? 1-3, go to 1-3, see what it says. Where's Timothy 1-3? I don't know. As I beseech you to abide still of ethics when I'm writing to Macedonia, that thou might charge them that they teach no other doctrine. Okay. So, what I was really after here was to point out that Paul does, in chapter 3, actually returns to chapter 1 in terms of what he's introduced back there.

And he revisits it here. And the focus here is the importance of sound doctrine. How important is it? How important is it? It's critical. It's absolutely critical. You know, sound doctrine is, and I know when you start using terms like sound doctrine, you start sounding like a theologian and people don't listen to you. But the Word of God is sound. And as we're going to find out in Lesson 33. There's a reason for that. And I'll ask it now to set you up. What's the one word answer for why sound doctrine is so important? Here's the word.

Contentment. Contentment. If you're not settled on sound doctrine, you're not ever going to be content. And I'm comfortable with what God says no matter what I, even though if I initially chafe against what he said, I gotta go with it. Just say no. What I find in my life and my role as an elder, You know, people call me. That's the issue almost every time. I'm not content. I'm nervous. I'm upset. I can't rest. I can't sleep.

And you know what it dovetails down to? Sound doctrine. Every time. You know? Jesus is God. Or of Him. Yeah, you've got to know the peace with him, but the peace of him is just as important. So sound doctrine is really important. So what I did was, in my answers, I put 1 Timothy 1, he uses the term certain men. In 1 Timothy 6, he says everyone. In 1 Timothy 1, he says teach strange doctrines.

In 6.3, it's advocate different doctrines. There's a difference between teaching it and advocating it.

Third one is, he uses the term mere speculation, and in 1 Timothy 6.4 he says controversial questions. And lastly, he talks about, in 1.10, sound teaching, and 6.3 he talks about sound words.

So what was going through my mind was the fact that the Lord Jesus made a promise to the world. He said, if you come unto me, I will give you rest for your souls. So he offered the world something that they couldn't The world can't get anywhere else. Rest for your souls. Contentment.

So, why does the whole entire world not have rest? Those that aren't believers. And a lot of non-believers too. Because they don't have sound doctrine. Okay. But why? I mean, I can say, well, you don't have sound doctrine. of a different doctrine. He says, we are, dude. You're the one that doesn't have some doctrine. Because they are the same nature. You don't believe it.

You know, it comes down to belief, but if you understand that what Christ is offering is contentment and rest for your souls. If you don't have that, there's something wrong with what you believe in. I'm not saying we function as believers without stress and without circumstances that cause us angst, but the Lord says you can rest. You can rest. Why? Because I took care of the issue of your sins. I took care of that. And as we're learning the main service, He did a lot more than that. Who said believe? Did you say believe? He said believe. It's like we're going through... He doesn't need any more gold stars. What's interesting is that as you grow as a believer, what you're really finding out is that the minimum that God did was send Christ to die for the penalty for your sin. That's the minimum. He did so much more than that. And as we grow and learn and study Psalm doctrine, what do we find out? Wow, what he did, the 33 things he did on the cross, 33 of them.

And if you understand them, believe them, rest in them, guess what? You have contentment. You have rest for your souls. And it's the energy of the goddess in him, that's where you defeat what you tell him more and more, you know, the word. And I can go back on the line a little bit more to get an indication of that, and if we have the energy with him, it would be, let's see, before, let's be anxious enough to, especially when, how are you, remind me when I'm, when you're all anxious. That's my answer, to guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus. I think that's my answer. You know, especially when you get a little older like I am, you have people that have been colleagues and friends your whole life.

Especially men. Men's minds. You know what the number one issue is with older men? The number one problem they have? They don't sleep. And I ask them, why not? Well, my mind went shut off. Well, what are you thinking about? I don't know. All the stuff that goes on in the world. So, you know what my answer is going to be? If you ought to pray for a while, fall asleep. I heard Mary being there longer, too. Really? Well, then you're in trouble, honey. I want to go back to 1 Peter 5, 7. The captain, all your anxieties. Sure. Absolutely. And that's the thing. And if you're not a believer, you don't know that you're cared for. and you don't have a place to put that in the garden, you have to carry it yourself. You can't count the harm in anything other than yourself.

And the other thing that that opens the door for is if you don't... included in sound doctrine is the whole idea of a grace reigning environment. You see that? Where grace is the reigning principle. So, what is grace? It's okay to give me Macaulay's definition. That's not it.

So if I live in a, if I understand that The whole atmosphere and the air I breathe as a believer is grace-based. It's not a substance that's in a jar in your kitchen. It's the whole environment that you live in, which means God does everything and you're the receiver. If you walk away from that and say, well, he only does this much and I've got to do the rest, you're not going to sleep at night.

What comes first, mercy or grace? Mercy. Because you got what you didn't deserve. I'm going to go back exactly to what you were saying. Think of your dream. Grace and knowledge. Sure. Those two things. If you go into grace and go into knowledge, you'll still have all of these things. Yeah, you will. One thing about the question you just asked about mercy and grace is, it's not that they're versus second, but they're two sides of the same coin. They are. They really are. Yeah. They go together.

So, holding on to that grace idea, look at the next question. The word gift. Verse 3 starts, if anyone advocates, it's a first-class conditional particle. What does that mean, and what does it tell us about the information that follows? What's a first-class conditional particle? Tim knows the answer, but he's not telling.

It seems true. I think it's true. Assume said it's true, so it'd be okay if you put a line through ifs and put the word since in there. A first-class conditional It means that this is true. What's true? Since anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words, etc., he's saying that, yeah, people are doing that. Since that's happening. It's not if it's going to happen or not. It is happening. Okay? So, if in the case... as in the case, any man teaches otherwise, this presumes that verses 3 and 4 are true. He's not speculating. This is true. It may be safely assumed that false teaching will be introduced into the churches. So if you If you come to Holly Hills thinking that nobody around here is going to introduce false teaching, you're dreaming. Because it happens all the time. It happens all the time. Well, I feel like it ought to be ABC. You know? And that is a tough job for... Miles has come to help us be an elder. Wait till the first person shows up and says, I know he hadn't been around here long enough, but here's what the truth really is."

And he said, no it's not. Here we go. So Paul assumes that false doctrine is coming or is already there. Isn't it interesting that when he, these are the last letters that he wrote, that he's saying to the elders and his buddy Timothy, the false gods are already in the body. They're right there. Is he just being overly cautious? He's being realistic. So, yeah. Now that doesn't mean that an elder walks around you know, with the pocket doctrine thing and he's got names in there. Gotta watch out for you because you and you too, not there.

Courtney says, grow in the grace and the sound doctrine, the truth, the knowledge of what is. There are a lot of people, and I'm sure you've noticed this, that have a lot of the doctrine and they can They can repeat it back to you, but they don't understand the grace that goes with it. Do you know, have you ever noticed that? You know, I mean there are tons of guys that write books and theologians and have, but you know, I'm always looking for the grace. And if it's not there, if I don't see grace in the man's viewpoint, he makes me nervous.

Where does order come in? Where what? Compared to grace, order. Oh. Because this world is chaos. Well, grace is very orderly. Yeah. You know. I mean, you can say to somebody who says, you've got to have your refrigerator list of commandments in order to be a Christian. So what motivates you to do that? Number one to have a list, well I need to know what to do. And you know my next question is, well what if you don't? What if you don't do it?

Well then I have to confess. And then I say to them, that's a terrible life to have to live like that. I came out of Catholicism, that's all Catholicism is. You know, break the rules, confess, break the rules, confess. That's what it is. But if you live under a grace basis, what does it mean? People don't realize that grace is a greater motivator than love. It's a much bigger motivator. When the Lord Jesus says, or Paul says, I love God because he first loved me, that's grace.

I respond to it. I love God because he gave me the rules, and if I obey them, things are going to be okay. I don't know. Where's love in that deal? I think it relates to some of the most misunderstood things, but I really respect the thought of grace. People would say to me, do whatever you want. It doesn't matter. Well, you know, in a sense, there's a lot of extreme to that. I mean, grace means that whatever you do doesn't change God's universe. love toward you, His acceptance of you, right? As a believer, He's talking about. But we have to understand grace doesn't mean do whatever you want. Grace means...

I always just try to put it the other way. Grace always invites me to do something with Him. They must be received by the King. And then there's the Christian life. Well, that was Grace's provided work to you. Grace was a very mean, treacherous gift of the life of the son in you, in the leader.

It's very orderly. It operates in a certain way. You can see it in the First Timothy. slave serve his master? And why does the master deal fairly and honestly in love with the slave? It's grace that does it. And it's personal, too. I'm sorry? It's order, but it's personal. Yeah. Yeah. You know? I mean... Easy order. Yeah.

It's like Donna and I, you know? I know she loves me, so I don't have to work at her. And she knows that I love her, so she doesn't have to work at me. So we just hang out. You know, we enjoy each other. Every other once in a while just slips me a note. You're slowing down.

The other thing that I remembered from the article, and I think this is what I was left with from your screen, is the law demands love. The law demands love of God. Grace declares God so loved. And the difference between that. Sure. The law demands that you love God. Sure. And you're great. God loves that. And I think it goes back to what you said, Courtney, this growing the knowledge and grace.

And marriage is a great example. If I'm growing in the Lord, in the knowledge and grace of Him, then I'm growing in my marriage. If I'm not doing that, I'm not growing in my marriage. Because it isn't how much I love my wife or how much she loves me, it's how much God loves both of us. So what about a single person? You're in trouble. I mean, what's the difference? What is the difference?

If you grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, then you're not married. Right. You grow in any relationship. That's right. Obviously, but any relationship. Sure. Always single. Yeah. Always single. Yeah. You know, at the end of Romans, when he goes through that whole list of people, he loves every one of them. And they love him, you can tell. I think there's an advantage to being single. You do? Well, the Bible says it, I guess.

Well, we'll have divorce court after the class. I've often thought of it, yeah, there is an advantage of being single, I'm just not one of those strong ones. One of the advantages is that you have even more time to give, because you're 7 months in. Although, you know, I've just found it interesting that being married to as the Lord uses the experiences you have, you know, raising a family, being a husband, whatever, that all of those serve to be, I don't want to use the word lessons, but He uses all of that for us to grow.

And whatever, I mean what we're going to find out in the next lesson is wherever He has And it comes down to two basic elements. You're fed and you got flows. So be content. And he's going to say the reason is because what did you show up here with when you came on the planet? Nada. So when you leave, what are you going to take with you? Nada. So, okay. We'll pick up next week with question three. Let's close.

Father, how thankful we are for your son, the Lord Jesus, and your servant, Paul, and by your showing him what to write to us about how how the believer functions and operates in an environment of the world that's controlled by sin. We do live by grace. We do live by that you love us and you gave us your word. We can settle down on that and rest in that in spite of the circumstances. And we thank you so much for that and we pray in your son's name. Amen.