1st Timothy 1:1-11
Vern Peterman · Jul 17, 2011
1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926240508035

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, we're starting into the text of 1st Timothy here, and so it's 1st Timothy 1 through 11. This fellow Paul begins his letter to Timothy in a way that's partly typical and partly not typical. And I think that's one of the things we're going to find going through 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus. There's going to be some things you say, okay, that sounds like Paul. And then there's going to be some things where you go, hmm, That doesn't quite sound like what he usually says.

Why? So we'll be kind of noticing that as we go through the books. We give examples here on the top half of page one of kind of how the introduction goes. And this thing we look at here is according to the commandment of God our Savior. Let's say, well, that's a little unusual. How many commandments are there?

Yeah, you know, 10, 613, you know, and a few more. Yeah. Hey, can we have more volume here? Yeah. Jesus, I am testing, testing. Hello? Okay, well, let's see if that works. I'll try to speak up then. And just as soon as I do that, I'll turn the volume up. And then they'll be really blasted out of their seats. Okay. All right. They just did it. All right. Good deal. Yeah, anytime you can't hear something, you know, say something. Hopefully I can hear.

So here's the pattern, and what you see as you look down some of the other books that we listed, 2 Corinthians 1.1, Galatians 1.1, on down to 2 Timothy 1.1, this commandment idea in the introduction seems to be a little rare.

So, what's this commandment of God and why just one? Which commandment is he talking about? Is this the one about Absolutely not eating an apple with a worm in it. What's the deal? Yeah. What's interesting is, and we're going to get into that, that's an issue that we'll be hitting as we go through our study.

This particular one says Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment, so it sounds like his apostleship is according to the commandment. And what I'd like to suggest is we take a look, here's Titus 1, 1-3. Of course the book we'll be studying But Paul, in writing that, expands enough so that I think we get an insight into what does he mean by commandment when he writes to Timothy. And it's interesting that he only used this introduction with a commandment with the first letter to Timothy and the one letter that we have to Titus. So here's Titus 1, 1 through 3.

Is Paul a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ? For the faith of those chosen of God and the knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ago, but at the proper time manifested even his word in the proclamation with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God our Savior.

What does that tell you about the commandment? It has to do with what? Yeah, it has to do with, in other words, the commandment isn't, Paul, you better do something or quit doing that, or it isn't something like that. It has to do with the assignment of his apostleship.

And that's the insight we get from Titus 1.1.2.3. It has to do with the assignment of his apostleship. And let's think about that a minute.

Were the apostles apostles because God or Christ, kind of described the job and said, do I have any volunteers? Ever had anything you volunteered for and you thought, oh, what was I thinking? Yeah. So here, interesting. Do you think apostleship was something you signed up for? Is it volunteerism? I think it was delegation. Isn't that interesting? The Lord says you're going to do this, but it wasn't something where, hey, I think I'd like to do that. That sounds kind of cool. No, the Lord said I need somebody to do this and you're the guys. Real interesting. But I've got another question.

Here's Paul the apostle of grace. What's he doing operating under a commandment? Have we got a fundamental violation here? How can Paul operate under a commandment from God and be the apostle of grace? Yeah? It's God that's giving him the command. Okay. Yeah? Is that something that has to do with what you said a couple of weeks ago about principle? That's the way it works. Okay. That's the way it works.

One of the things we've been trying to underscore here is we use this word principle, and it has two primary definitions as we use it. And one is principle as a fundamental truth, and secondly, principle as the way things work. Occasionally, it's both of those.

When God said, OK, Paul, you're going to be my apostle to the Gentiles, And by the way, you're going to teach them what grace is. And God gave the command. I've got a question. Do we have obligations under grace? Yes, we in fact do. And here's the strange thing, and we'll continue to look at this. It's possible we have an obligation under grace or have obligations under grace that the law never dreamed of.

As a Christian, I might be free to do something, but I will refrain from doing it. Why? Because of God's grace. But there might be instances where I refrain from doing something even though I'm free to do it because of the fact that I don't want to stumble my brother. And the law doesn't particularly put that out there. So under grace I might have even an obligation the law never dreamed of. Here is this amazing, you could call it a pendulum swing, only it doesn't swing back and forth. Here's this guy that's as legal as they get. As a matter of fact, if somebody isn't legal, kill them. Right?

And so here he goes way over to the other side, and there's grace all the way. Grace is the reigning principle. This is from a guy that wanted to see all the Christians killed. Here's something else, and we're going to look at it as kind of the last slide in the main service, so I'm giving you a sneak peek. We've talked about kind of the prosecutor's trio, motive, means, and opportunity.

That under grace, that's the difference. It's not that there aren't obligations under grace, but what's the motive? Are you doing something in order to be blessed? Are you doing something under grace so that you don't get stoned? Because you are blessed, because you are forgiven, because you already have every spiritual blessing. And so, under grace, the difference is not that you don't have any obligations, the difference is what's the motive, and then the next thing is the means.

We have the means that is the empowering, the energizing, and the enabling to carry out everything that God asks us to do. God does not ask you to do anything that He has not already provided for. God doesn't say, you know, about 80% of what I ask you to do, I'll provide for, but the other 20, that's yours. He doesn't do that, does He? Everything He asks for us to do is all provided for.

The means is there. That is not the case with the Jews under law, right? And finally, the opportunity. Is the opportunity I'm not going to have to study rocks real close? Or is the opportunity that God's prepared every good work that I should walk in it. That I get to be used of God. That I get to be an instrument of grace. Is that the opportunity? Rather than dodging rocks. Right? Okay. Let's take a look here. Aside from a nice greeting, I'm looking at the question at the bottom of the page.

Aside from the nice greeting, why does Paul wish Timothy grace, mercy, and peace? And by the way, what's the difference between those? Are they all just synonyms and he just throws them out there because it sounds nice? What's grace, what's mercy, and what's peace? Why does he offer those out there? Yeah, mercy is not getting what we deserve, right? And grace is getting far beyond what we deserve, right? Mercy, you could say, is a withholding of judgment deserved, and grace is far beyond any question of judgment. One of the illustrations that I've used is, okay, so you pull into the parking lot at Holly Hills at 60 miles an hour. I don't recommend it, but let's just give the example, okay?

You pull in there and all the neighbors are hearing, screech, squeal! I say, Peterman again. And so you pull into the parking lot and the policeman follows you in and he says, You know, I'm going to let you off with a warning, which would be amazing. I'm going to let you off with a warning and not give you a ticket. Just don't do that again. And he drives off.

OK, that's mercy. Grace is where the policeman gives you the ticket and you show up at court and the judge pronounces you guilty and he pays the ticket and says, what are you doing for dinner? No, excuse me, the policeman pays the ticket. And says, what are you doing for dinner?

So grace is getting far beyond what we deserve. Mercy is not getting what we deserve, but this isn't something taken away from us. It is judgment that we don't get. Right? So grace and mercy. And how about peace? Why is that thrown in there? Is that just sort of, you got three words? Why is that of any importance? If we don't have peace with God, what's the problem? We've got an equity problem with God. We've got sin in the way. This peace is peace with God. And then as a consequence, peace with one another. The complete satisfaction of God's character.

Let's ask this, was it gracious when Christ died on the cross? Was it merciful when Christ died on the cross? It was for us, but it was absolutely according to God's justice and holiness and character that Christ died on the cross. forgetting nothing. And so it was a complete satisfaction of God's character, including His holiness and justice for Christ to die on the cross.

The result to us is grace and mercy. But what did Christ receive from the Father on that day that He was crucified? What happened? What was the Father's view of Christ when He was on the cross taking our sins. Turned away. Horror. Wrath. Because Christ took upon Himself our sins. So it is right. That is an absolute satisfaction of God's holy and just character. We are the recipients of that in the form of grace and mercy. When Paul writes a greeting in his letters, he typically mentions God, sometimes the Father, and Jesus Christ.

Why not the Holy Spirit? Isn't that interesting? Does it seem like the Holy Spirit ought to be taking a protest sign? That's probably the part of him that recognizes Let's have some interesting questions here. Is this inspired writing that we're reading here? It's inspired by the Holy Spirit. Isn't it interesting? The Holy Spirit would inspire writing that in all the introductions leaves the Holy Spirit out of the picture.

But he's mentioned later. Now that's interesting. Ah, here's an interesting thing. You said the focus is to be on Christ. Let's start off with Ephesians chapter 1. Blessed be the Holy Spirit who gave us every spiritual blessing. What does it say? Blessed be the God and Father. And the word is good wording. So the Father gets credit for all of our blessings. And what is one of the ministries of the Holy Spirit? What's the Holy Spirit going to do? This comes out of the Gospel of John. Who's the Holy Spirit going to point to?

Christ. So in fact what you see here, there is no mention of the Holy Spirit in these introductions. In this case it's typical in that regard. And yet what you see is that the Father and Christ are the ones that get the mention and get the direction. The Father, because He is the one to be credited with all of our blessings, our blessings are where? In Christ. So when we look at it, it kind of makes sense. And I would tend to think that the Holy Spirit does not feel shorted because of these introductions. As a matter of fact, the Holy Spirit inspired them. Isn't that interesting? Yes, bud.

The word comforter, helper in some translations, comes out in the Gospel of John. You've got 14, 15, and 16 are kind of the passages where Jesus is talking to the disciples, frankly, just before he goes to the Garden of Gethsemane and has his prayer time there. The idea of a comforter is someone who comes alongside.

That's the, yeah, this is the one who comes alongside or is called alongside. And I think that's something for us to look at. There are some aspects of Christendom that like to present God as way, way up there, just infinitely distant. And with a holiness that I could just, it would just make me wilt. But this idea of a comforter, one who's called alongside, is not like that, is that? But one who is with us. So does that answer your question there? Yeah. The paraclete is the Greek transliteration, I guess you'd call it. Okay? Let's take a look on the second page there.

So here's 1 Timothy 1, 3, and 4. As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines of another kind, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration, oikonomia, of God which is by faith. So the first question and bullet we have there, are the instructions to Timothy all negative? If not all, where is the positive turn? Thoughts on that? They're not supposed to teach strange doctrines. They're not supposed to pay attention to myths and genealogies. Is there anything good in this passage?

Anything positive? that enables you to further the administration of God, which is by... Ah, the administration of God. What's God administering? What's God administering? Is He just shuffling papers? Has God got a really big in-basket and He's just kind of shuffling papers? Oh, paid, you know, boom, putting a stamp. What's God administering? It's interesting. He's administering everything. Whatever we study in this class some months back, God works all things together for good, right?

So God is not up there distant, just kind of looking down, kind of seeing, I wonder what's going to happen to those folks. He's not playing games. He's not doing like I used to do with the ants. You know, where I'd take two anthills and I'd take the ants out of one and dump them on the other to see what happened. God's not doing that to us.

But instead, all the things that are going on, He is using to conform us to the image of His Son. God is managing things toward a particular end. Ephesians 1.10, He is managing things to the end that everything is summed up in Christ, including us.

Okay, then the other thing you'd have to ask with this, should we make any speculations about anything in the Bible or anything that is not directly addressed in the Bible? He says there's a problem here with speculations. Should we not speculate about anything? Should we make a rule against speculating?

Yeah? The advocacy is in two different roles. And the advocacy of the Son, He is our advocate regarding our position before the Lord. The advocacy of the Holy Spirit, He is our advocate as our our representative in prayer. He brings before the Lord actually what we ought to pray. He corrects our prayers, if you will.

Okay? Okay, this question. Should we make any speculations about anything in the Bible? Or should we make a rule that no, no, no, no speculating. As a matter of fact, if you speculate, we'll throw stones at you. Yeah? What? I think the goal is to I mean, if you stand on sound doctrine, that's the goal.

So it may be within scripture, or it may even be extra-biblical, as long as it builds upon that particular doctrinal truth. So we represent truth as truth, right? And that's absolute. The problem as I see it here is that the speculations are being presented as truth rather than speculations. There may be a place for us to speculate as long as we categorize it as that.

Yeah. Yeah, and that's speculation that's not based on solid doctrinal truth, right? Yeah, this would be, hey, you know, but the problem is, instead of saying the Lord's going to come on this particular date, and saying, you know, I think so, I'm not sure. Instead of doing that, it's, it's a, you know, he's definitely coming on this date. That's, that's not calling speculation what it is.

Yeah, Pat, you had your hand up. In this comment, it seems to be like the speculation centers around the myth and genealogy that on the facts or knowledge or information that you get from those two sources, your speculation is not based on sound facts. That's right. In other words, these are kind of categories of speculation, things that aren't well-founded. But that kind of thing in your head is speculation.

Sure, and as long as we call it that. I could say this is possible, or based on this and this, I think this is a feasible thing. The difficulty comes where we take that speculation and call that truth, because that's a fact. And when will always be speculation, right? Yeah.

You know, I once saw a listing over time of all the different dates that people had projected. And it had over 200 different dates when Christ was coming back. And you know how we had Y2K a little over a decade ago? You know there was Y1K? And people were going crazy and standing on top of mountaintops and white sheets. Yeah, the same insanity happened a thousand years earlier, and he didn't come back then either, you know, so it was speculation. Yeah?

Yeah, it is possible for people to go beyond what is actually clear and certain. And there has always been a tendency for people to grab on to what is current or right around the corner and to say that's it. Any of you ever heard of the Franciscans, a Catholic group? Do you know that around the year 1200, they were saying that the Pope was the Antichrist? Figure that one out. Yeah, there have been for centuries all sorts of strange speculations related to prophecy.

It's like it's the favorite hobby of many people. It just needs to be well-founded. Let's look at the next one. Does this mean that Christians avoid studying about the Greek myths or studying their family's genealogies? Have you been studying your family's genealogy? Shame on you! Right? Is that what he means? And that's exactly what who was doing?

Who was depending on their heritage for their salvation? The Jews would go around and, you know, at the middle part of the temple, right next to where they're doing the sacrifices, right on the north side of that building is where they kept the records for all the genealogies. And up until right before the Romans wrecked it all, you could go in there and you could check out all these things. But you'd sometimes come to something and here's the end of the record. So just to make sure that you have the information, even though there's no record, what do you do?

You speculate. Right? Oh, I wonder if this connects to this. I wonder if this guy had this. I wonder if I'm related to this fellow. Right? Yes. And the reality is there's nothing wrong with studying the Greek myths. There's nothing wrong with studying your family's genealogy. as long as you're not looking at that for some great spiritual advantage or insight.

Yeah, they'll go beyond that. And by the way, the Mormons, they have this immersion thing and so they have to make sure like if a gal has really long hair, both of mine are long. They have to make sure that if a gal has long hair that they get all the hairs underneath, or else baptizing for the dead people won't work. So, you know, it takes some extra work.

So, about why might Paul have sent Timothy to deal with these false teachers even though he had spent three years in Ephesus teaching and there were elders in place. Remember Acts 20, he meets with the elders from Ephesus. And says, I spent three years with you and I'll probably never see your face again. But he spent time talking with them. Why does he have to go send Timothy in there now after having all, here's the elders there.

He spent time there. Yeah. Okay. Let's think about this, and I will categorize this as speculation, but I think there is at least some possibility or value in it. When Paul met with the elders, he said, be alert and be on guard. Why? From among yourselves. men will come, right? So it's possible even some of the elders were going off track. And because the certain men may well have even been nameable, identifiable men that were causing a problem. That could well be. So Paul gave that warning. That could have been in fact what was taking place. Yes?

Well, also, Jesus was king of Paul. So if you're only one remover, So if you teach Timothy, and Timothy can teach these other people, then you have more assurance. What if a few guys come in and they said, hey, Paul said this. Paul said this, and Timothy says, I was said here by Paul, and Paul didn't say that.

That's one good way to snuff it. And to have those certain men be stopped. So that could very well explain what's going on. Again, we don't know exactly if that's the case, but it seems to fit the facts. And we'll leave it at that. This is certainly what's happening, but possibly what's happening.

What does it mean to further the administration of God, which is by faith? God is administering things. Yes. Do we have just faith, or does faith have a particular content? Yeah, faith has to have an object. In other words, faith has not just faith in faith. Faith is in some sort of a blind leap. Yeah, we have this expression, people of faith. Well, guess what? At least as Scripture lays it out, faith is specifically in what God has revealed. Right? That is where confidence is to be.

God is administering things on earth, in our lives, but not just with the church just sort of wandering around and, well, I hope this turns out okay. I haven't got the foggiest idea what God's doing. Instead, as God is administering, He has laid out for us what is the faith, what we are to have confidence in, right? So we're not at a loss for what God's doing.

We know what God's doing. And as a matter of fact, are you just being sort of conformed to something by all the things that God works together vaguely in some fashion? What's the conformity that you're being directed to? Right, to the image of Christ. So in fact, we know what process God is carrying out. We know what God's doing and God has revealed So our faith and confidence is not in something vague, but rather in something very specific. And as God is administering things, we know what direction He's taking things. But myths and genealogies will skew people's understanding.

You see that? Skew people's understanding, and people lock in, as happened recently with Harold Camping. people will lock in and they'll lock in on a speculation and then have this massive disappointment and the whole world is somewhere between sneering and laughing. By the way, I know a fellow who has, who's, how do I put it, Harold Camping's nephew is living with this friend of mine. It's kind of difficult to get the fellow settled down. He's got all sorts of strange, crazy ideas.

And why? It's because he's locked in as truth on things that are mere speculation. So what Paul's having Timothy do here is not just some sort of religious exercise. There is real, practical, spiritual value in what he's sending him to do. Here is 1 Timothy 1.5-7.

And it reads like this, The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith. For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion. And by the way, that means speech that doesn't go anywhere, rather than instruction that has a goal. wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. So the question is, is the goal of Paul and Timothy's instructions a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith?

Is that what that first verse is saying there? Verse 5. and they're maturing, being conformed and transformed in the process, and they're learning as they go. So, this is the whole goal here, to be more like Christ. From a pure heart and conscience. You're on the target there. Is the goal of the instruction a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith? Is that what the verse says? The goal is love from these things. So all these three things that he puts together there, the goal is love that comes from that.

By the way, what eternal value is there in having love come from these things? How long does love last? Love never falls off. You know, 1 Corinthians 13, a lot of the translations will be, love never fails. And that sounds like love always succeeds. But the word actually means that love never falls off. Love goes on forever.

The relationship that you will have with the Lord and with others there in the heavenly places doesn't go on for 10,000 years and then the Lord says, whoop! Stop the music! Love ends here, I'm sorry, we're done. It goes on forever. Yeah, always was and always is. Love is eternal, is the other way to put it. It's the flip side. Love never falls off. Love is eternal.

And the source of it is these things, a pure heart, good conscience, and sincere faith. The goal of our instruction is love. Alright, now, do these things come about by understanding and keeping the law? Is that how you get a pure heart and a good conscience and sincere faith?

What? No? You mean if I get all 613 laws down and I memorize them and just rattle them off, that doesn't get you there? What's wrong here? Concentrating on the wrong subject. Very good point. Why is it wrong? Why is the law not going to get you there? First of all, we're dead to the law. What are the three things that we died to since we were on the cross with Christ?

The law is one. What else? We've got two more. The world, yes. Galatians 6 and Colossians 2. Good. And what's the third? The flesh or the sin nature, Romans 6. So you died to the law, you died to the world, you died to the sin nature when you died there with Christ on the cross.

So back to our question here. So the law isn't going to help us with these things. We died to it. We died in relationship to it. Probably most of Christendom does not understand that we died in relationship to the law. Most of Christendom doesn't understand the full scope of what took place when Christ died on the cross. You're probably doing pretty good if you get an answer out of a Christian that Christ died for my sins. And that's usually where it ends.

Nancy and I do counseling. not just the people here, but we actually counsel people in different places, even as far as Uganda. But we were sitting down with some people from outside of Holly Hills, and we started talking about these things, and I asked, have you ever heard about this? No. Never heard about this stuff, right? And they were telling the truth. Okay, third bullet. Does it matter whether one is truly an expert teacher of the law? Is that what this passage is saying? You've got to really get good at the law. Paul was probably as good as they come during that time, right?

A student of Gamaliel. By the way, the Jews had various writings about Gamaliel outside of the Bible, even though he shows up a couple of places. Gamaliel was asked because it was required of Pharisees that they get married. And he's saying, hey, you're getting a little bit old. How come you're not married?

And he says, it's because I'm so in love with the law. And when he died, the expression that the rabbis wrote about is, when Gamaliel died, the law died. Boy, just so in love with the law. So here's Paul, his student. Paul taught under Gamaliel, right? Yeah, this guy, he knew it all. He was the best of the best. But he didn't go around teaching it. So, is the law useless?

Should we aim for that at Holly Hills Bible Church? Is that better than not understanding? Should we understand the law or not understand it? What do you think? Do I have people for not, or people for yes we should? to understand what it is and what it can't do.

It's an interesting thing. The law is something, it is good to understand about law. In fact, here we are going through this series, Law and Grace. Lesson 27 today. But is that intended to make us experts in the law? No. It's we understand law because when we understand law, that helps us understand grace. And grace is the reigning principle that we live under now, right? So that's one very good reason for understanding law. But we don't do that by becoming myopic experts on the law itself. This is ultimately the point. It's knowing Him. It's knowing Him. Let's look at 1 Timothy 1, 8-11. We know that the law is good.

If one uses it lawfully, how about that? The law is good if you use it lawfully. Realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious. for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers, and immoral men, and homosexuals, and kidnappers, and liars, and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to what happens in Congress, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

So, should we speak badly about the Law of Moses? I love Moses, that's stupid. That's really dumb. God really goofed when he gave Israelite to that, right? No, actually, Paul says the law is holy and righteous and good. Doesn't he? Let's take a look at Exodus 20, 1-17. I'm assuming we'll have some time. Probably running out of it, but let's try it.

And God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before you. You shall not make yourself any carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven or above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands to those who love me and keep my commandments. You shall not take up the name of the Lord your God in vain, and the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all of your work. But on the seventh day of the Sabbath of the Lord your God, in all you shall do no work, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant. nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

Does any of this relate to what we just read here in 1 Timothy? It gives you rules to live by. Let's take a look at some of the things that he listed here. Lawless and rebellious. It's to prevent that. A person that's lawless and rebellious, here's a bunch of laws. And you want to rebel against it? You're going to study rocks real close. Until you can't. Then, let's look at the next one. For ungodly and sinners. Yeah? In other words, establishing, here are our standards, we don't go against this. How about those who murder fathers and mothers? Does that sound contrary to honor your father and mother?

And here's an interesting insight. We think thou shalt not steal and we tend to think things The Jews looked at that and they interpreted that as against kidnapping. Isn't that interesting? That's how the Jews interpreted thou shalt not steal, is they interpreted it as against kidnapping. So what do you see here in Paul's list? Kidnappers. Interesting. So he goes on, there are other things that seem to lie outside of those particular verses we looked at, but some correspondence there.

Even this is immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, of course the liars and perjurers would fit in the list that we just read there, shall not bear false witness. So, can the law be used unlawfully? What does that look like? In other words, if you look at it, what are the ways I could use the law and go wrong?

Follow the letter, not the spirit. And that was one of the things that we are looking at here in the Sermon on the Mount, is following the letter, but not the spirit. And you also looked at another one, legalism. How is legalism different from following the law? Pardon? Making up your own laws, yeah, legalism is in part making up your own laws, and sometimes it can also be figuring out how to exclude certain ones.

Yes? It's also controlling people. It can be an instrument of control and manipulation, invalid control and manipulation, and that happens. Anything else? Okay, yeah, in other words, it is looking for the law to bless me. That could be a problem. It's depending on the law to get you what you need. Ah, depending on the law to get you what you need. So we start looking at this, and you can take the law and get really messed up. Yes? Also, if you are sick, just measure how good you're doing. Yeah, how am I doing? Yeah, whee!

Yeah. Here's the other thing is people pick and choose. I think I'll teach a passage on tithing and I'll just whoop people over the head with that passage on tithing, and when I'm done, I'll ignore the verses right immediately before that that say don't go to Red Lobster. Because you can't eat that food, right? Yes. Yes, kosher. Oh, that's outrageous. Yeah, people can pick and choose.

Here they brought this woman supposedly caught in adultery. And we don't know exactly what Christ wrote on the ground. We could speculate. We don't know what Christ wrote on the ground, but here's one problem. The law says bring the man and the woman. So what have the Jews done? They brought just the woman. And they were not following the law.

Right? And when you don't follow that law, what's the penalty for adultery? Stoning. And? And? The penalty for adulterous stoning and for false accusation when you don't follow the law, what's the penalty? Stoning. So let he who is without sin cast the first stone, right? Are you going to hit yourself on the head? I don't know. Yes, there we go.

I think the greatest thing about legalism is the fact that it takes you away from your focus on God and through faith. It says you can only please God through faith. And so your faith stops being directed toward God, but it starts being directed toward yourself. Yes. Yes. And you lose all perspective of who God is. He's the one that's in charge.

Is the person who is focusing on the law being transformed? No. Absolutely not. The person who is focusing on the law and following the rules and getting all those things down is not putting their focus on the Lord. They are absolutely not being transformed. And that is the sharp distinction that 2 Corinthians 3 makes. Because right before that he's talking about having this veil. We all with unveiled faith.

Not the law. So you cannot follow the law and be transformed. It doesn't happen. It happens when we behold the Lord Jesus Christ under the principle of grace. That's when the Holy Spirit transforms us through His Word. And we're out of time. Okay? Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you as we look at this introductory passage here in 1 Timothy. We thank you for the things that you're teaching us. We thank you for what you've revealed here. And we thank you for these precious, gracious insights that you've laid out in front of us. And we pray that you would indeed use these words here to draw us to behold your Son. We would be transformed. according to your will. We pray in Jesus name, Amen.