WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.680 --> 00:00:04.200 I'm going to read the text in just a moment. 2 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:10.800 I'll read what we read last week, beginning in verse one, but I'll read through verse 11. 3 00:00:10.800 --> 00:00:17.800 And this morning we'll be focusing on verses 3 to 11. 4 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:24.440 But before I read, let me remind you what we were looking at last week. 5 00:00:24.440 --> 00:00:33.640 The first chapter of 1 Timothy begins with the salutation, which we looked at last week. 6 00:00:33.640 --> 00:00:45.060 And then in verses 3 to 11, which we're considering this morning, it's a warning against false teachers and their misuse of the law. 7 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:54.140 And in verses 12 to 17, Paul gives testimony concerning God's abundant and rich grace. 8 00:00:54.140 --> 00:01:01.020 And then in 18 to 20, Paul's charge to Timothy to fight the good fight. 9 00:01:01.020 --> 00:01:21.340 So we looked at the purpose of the book, and we read last week as one of the markers, one of several key verses in the book which explains the heart and purpose of the book, is chapter 3 and verse 15. 10 00:01:21.340 --> 00:01:32.960 "You will know how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth." 11 00:01:32.960 --> 00:01:54.340 So the book is about Paul's instruction to Timothy regarding the church at Ephesus, in order to preserve the integrity of the gospel, establish sound doctrine, qualify leadership, and order the conduct of the household of God, the people of God. 12 00:01:54.340 --> 00:01:59.400 So this book is about how a church is to be organized. 13 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:01.380 It is more than that, much more. 14 00:02:01.380 --> 00:02:09.220 It is about how we are to conduct ourselves before God, the very purpose of the church. 15 00:02:09.220 --> 00:02:21.200 And as we see today, this book is about what makes a church healthy or what makes a church sick. 16 00:02:21.200 --> 00:02:24.000 Why do churches get sick and die? 17 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:34.140 Some churches get sick and die because they dwindle and go away. 18 00:02:34.140 --> 00:02:36.340 That might not be the worst. 19 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:52.240 Some churches flourish and become a completely dead church, like the churches in the book of Revelation when God says, "I will remove my candlestick from that church." 20 00:02:52.240 --> 00:02:59.000 The church still functions, people gather there, maybe lots of people, and yet it is a dead church. 21 00:02:59.000 --> 00:03:06.600 It is a church that God does not recognize because it is not a true church of God any longer. 22 00:03:06.600 --> 00:03:13.340 That's a problem that we don't want to see ever happen to Mayflower Hills Baptist Church. 23 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:17.080 We want to know what it means to have a healthy church. 24 00:03:17.080 --> 00:03:21.360 We're going to explore that this morning as we look at verses 3 through 11. 25 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:34.140 So let me begin by reading this portion of scripture beginning in verse one, and then we'll ask God to bless the study this morning. 26 00:03:34.140 --> 00:04:00.320 This is God's holy inerrant word: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 27 00:04:00.320 --> 00:04:21.960 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. 28 00:04:21.960 --> 00:04:28.940 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 29 00:04:28.940 --> 00:04:44.360 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, 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. 30 00:04:44.360 --> 00:05:24.840 But we know that the Law is good, if one uses 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 or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted." 31 00:05:24.840 --> 00:05:35.780 Father, we thank you so much for the glorious gospel that you entrusted to the Apostle Paul, and which has come to us so richly by the power of your Holy Spirit. 32 00:05:35.780 --> 00:05:41.220 Thank you, Father, for this passage of scripture and its clear instruction. 33 00:05:41.220 --> 00:05:45.260 Help us, Father, to be plain in speaking today. 34 00:05:45.260 --> 00:06:01.260 I pray, Father, that you would bless me so that I would not stray in any way from the truth, but Lord, that we'd be able to explain this passage clearly according to the truth that it represents. 35 00:06:01.260 --> 00:06:05.280 I ask, Father, for your special mercies in this way. 36 00:06:05.280 --> 00:06:07.760 Bless each one who hears your word today. 37 00:06:07.760 --> 00:06:12.820 May each of us be edified and built up in the faith. 38 00:06:12.820 --> 00:06:16.060 Where we need to be convicted, Father, convict us. 39 00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:25.360 And Lord, by the grace that comes through the power of your Holy Spirit, let us repent and turn to you. 40 00:06:25.360 --> 00:06:27.940 Help us, Father, in all the areas we need. 41 00:06:27.940 --> 00:06:32.060 We ask your grace and blessing in Christ's name. 42 00:06:32.060 --> 00:06:37.560 Amen. 43 00:06:37.560 --> 00:06:55.360 As verse three gives us some background, following Paul's release from his first Roman imprisonment, Timothy and Paul traveled together to Ephesus. 44 00:06:55.360 --> 00:07:07.140 And they found the church that Paul had established and taught years earlier in real trouble. 45 00:07:07.140 --> 00:07:16.500 There were false teachers, almost certainly these people held leadership positions in the church. 46 00:07:16.500 --> 00:07:24.460 And they were causing confusion and error and problems in the church. 47 00:07:24.460 --> 00:07:44.980 Before Paul left Ephesus, he excommunicated two of these, it tells us a little later in this chapter, Hymenaeus and Alexander, but he had to press on to Macedonia and the problem hadn't been completely corrected. 48 00:07:44.980 --> 00:07:48.980 So he left Timothy there at Ephesus. 49 00:07:48.980 --> 00:07:53.000 Timothy was to help shepherd this church. 50 00:07:53.000 --> 00:08:04.700 Timothy was to do exactly what it says in verse three, that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. 51 00:08:04.700 --> 00:08:06.480 That was his purpose. 52 00:08:06.480 --> 00:08:15.420 And following that up from Macedonia, Paul writes this letter back to Timothy, which gives Timothy the authority in the church. 53 00:08:15.420 --> 00:08:42.180 This is a letter that would have been read in the church, it's addressed specifically to Timothy, but it certainly would have been read in the church, and it gives Timothy the blueprint for taking the type of action so that this church's sickness is corrected and that they are moved toward true health in Jesus Christ. 54 00:08:42.180 --> 00:08:46.660 So we're going to explore this a little bit. 55 00:08:46.660 --> 00:08:58.000 In verse three it says that Timothy was to remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. 56 00:08:58.000 --> 00:09:06.700 So the problem that was going on in Ephesus is that there were heretics in the church leading the church astray. 57 00:09:06.700 --> 00:09:18.760 The people in the church were being distracted by strange doctrines, by myths, the focus on Old Testament or various genealogies. 58 00:09:18.760 --> 00:09:58.180 Genealogies was important in Judaism in the first century, because they had just returned from Babylon some hundreds of years earlier, and because of the destruction of the temple and because of some of the things that happened, some of the records were not as clear, and so establishing which tribe you belonged to became a very important thing in the Jewish circles just prior to the coming of Jesus Christ. 59 00:09:58.180 --> 00:10:08.700 And it was very important in Israel because the family you came from, if you could prove your heritage, then you had property. 60 00:10:08.700 --> 00:10:12.780 Your property was connected with your her itage. 61 00:10:12.780 --> 00:10:16.260 And so it was a very important thing and then you had status. 62 00:10:16.260 --> 00:10:21.973 If you came from certain tribes and certain heritages, you had more sta tus than others. 63 00:10:21.973 --> 00:11:11.540 A nd you'd think that it would have ended with the coming of Christ, but some of these Jewish traditions, some of the incredibly fanciful stories that was part of Jewish literature, the Midrash of Judaism, you read some of these things and it is incredibly fanciful, just like myths, and that's what they used to create doctrine. 64 00:11:11.540 --> 00:11:14.040 They would go back to these stories. 65 00:11:14.040 --> 00:11:27.960 And so you have some of these people coming from a tradition similar to that carrying powerful influence in the church at Ephesus, and they were leading them astray. 66 00:11:27.960 --> 00:11:45.800 They were teaching them about the law as if they understood it, and they did so very confidently, but they were very wrong in what they taught, they didn't understand at all. 67 00:11:45.800 --> 00:11:52.640 Paul calls that in verse one, not to teach strange doctrines. 68 00:11:52.640 --> 00:12:07.060 That's an interesting word, because that phrase "strange doctrines" translates what is really a single word in Greek. 69 00:12:07.060 --> 00:12:14.620 It's a word that Paul put together two words and formed one word out of it to coin a new word. 70 00:12:14.620 --> 00:12:25.320 And the word in Greek is heterodidaskalein which means false teaching. 71 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:33.460 You know what orthodox is, and what heterodox is. 72 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:39.180 Orthodox means basically the root of the word orthodox means having a right opinion. 73 00:12:39.180 --> 00:12:48.720 If you go to the orthodontist, you get your teeth straightened. 74 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:56.100 Orthodox means a straight or right opinion, a right thinking. 75 00:12:56.100 --> 00:12:59.560 Heterodox is its opposite. 76 00:12:59.560 --> 00:13:03.160 Heteros means other, other of a different kind. 77 00:13:03.160 --> 00:13:09.740 So they were bringing in teaching that was different from the established teaching in the church. 78 00:13:09.740 --> 00:13:24.920 Paul had established there was an established teaching that had already been taught at the church at Ephesus and throughout the New Testament church that was the standard. 79 00:13:24.920 --> 00:13:39.740 And that teaching was the God-given instruction that the Lord had given to the apostles. 80 00:13:39.740 --> 00:13:51.860 God by the power of his Holy Spirit had given true teaching to the early church and they were departing from it. 81 00:13:51.860 --> 00:13:54.840 They were not following it. 82 00:13:54.840 --> 00:14:05.040 The true teaching of the church in the Bible, the Bible calls it like in the book of Acts and places in the New Testament when it says "the faith". 83 00:14:05.040 --> 00:14:12.080 When you read "the faith", what do you think "the faith" means? 84 00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:25.320 When it's used like that, "the faith", it quite often means the content of the teaching of the church, the content of the true teaching of the church. 85 00:14:25.320 --> 00:14:27.780 That's what we are to believe. 86 00:14:27.780 --> 00:14:38.560 The content of what we're to believe is called "the faith". 87 00:14:38.560 --> 00:14:48.060 "Acts 14:22, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith." 88 00:14:48.060 --> 00:14:53.720 The idea is to persevere in this doctrinal understanding. 89 00:14:53.720 --> 00:14:58.680 Some churches were being strengthened in the faith and were increasing in number daily. 90 00:14:58.680 --> 00:15:06.880 It doesn't mean that they're growing in their belief. 91 00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:14.760 Christian faith is very different than what the world thinks of as faith. 92 00:15:14.760 --> 00:15:27.420 It is not at all like that silly children's Christmas movie Polar Express. 93 00:15:27.420 --> 00:15:31.140 "Just believe." 94 00:15:31.140 --> 00:15:36.200 It's a pretty dark movie, I was talking about that with someone this week. 95 00:15:36.200 --> 00:15:38.360 It's a kind of a strange movie. 96 00:15:38.360 --> 00:15:42.780 But anyway, the point of the movie is just believe. 97 00:15:42.780 --> 00:15:44.300 Now what do you believe? 98 00:15:44.300 --> 00:15:47.520 Well, probably Santa Claus, but even that's not clear in the movie. 99 00:15:47.520 --> 00:15:50.960 The thing is, if you believe, then you're going to be good. 100 00:15:50.960 --> 00:15:52.000 You've got to have faith. 101 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:55.490 Whatever your faith is in, it's good, just have faith. 102 00:15:55.490 --> 00:15:58.580 That's not Christianity at all. 103 00:15:58.580 --> 00:16:00.040 Not at all. 104 00:16:00.040 --> 00:16:02.780 The Christian faith has content. 105 00:16:02.780 --> 00:16:06.760 There's something that you believe, there's a person that you believe. 106 00:16:06.760 --> 00:16:18.500 And the content of the Christian faith is the teaching of the church, it is the gospel message and the truth of God's word. 107 00:16:18.500 --> 00:16:29.480 And believing the gospel message and the truth of God's word, if you believe the word of God, then you're putting your trust in God as well, you believe God. 108 00:16:29.480 --> 00:16:42.940 And so you can't just have faith, your faith has to be vested in truth for it to be any good at all. 109 00:16:42.940 --> 00:16:45.660 A lot of people hate doctrinal teaching. 110 00:16:45.660 --> 00:16:49.400 They don't want you to teach doctrine. 111 00:16:49.400 --> 00:16:58.480 They think that doctrine means that you're going to be rigid or inflexible, and maybe somewhat true. 112 00:16:58.480 --> 00:17:01.920 They think that doctrine is impractical. 113 00:17:01.920 --> 00:17:05.530 And almost all of them think that doctrine is really boring. 114 00:17:05.530 --> 00:17:17.780 But what they're looking for instead of doctrine is a religious experience of some kind, or a feeling of spiritual fervor. 115 00:17:17.780 --> 00:17:22.680 And spiritual fervor is great, it's a good thing. 116 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:30.700 But it's pointless if it's not a result of God's truth. 117 00:17:30.700 --> 00:17:33.500 God's truth is the foundation. 118 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:44.680 We have to be stirred up, our emotions should be stirred up by our encounter with the Lord through his word. 119 00:17:44.680 --> 00:18:00.760 But just having our emotions stirred up, which isn't hard to do, I can tell stories that affect our emotions and not touch on the word of God. 120 00:18:00.760 --> 00:18:15.640 One preacher told a story about a couple in his church who had just moved into a new house, and the house had a fireplace, and they decided to try it out. 121 00:18:15.640 --> 00:18:21.700 Unfortunately, the fireplace was actually set up for gas logs that hadn't been installed. 122 00:18:21.700 --> 00:18:31.240 They decided to try out the fireplace, so they built a nice fire in the fireplace, which had a wood floor, there were no bricks under there. 123 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:37.480 So what happened is that the fire built up, it burned through the floor, and it fell into the basement. 124 00:18:37.480 --> 00:18:43.480 Not a lot of point, and a lot of fervor without a foundation. 125 00:18:43.480 --> 00:18:45.940 You have to have substance. 126 00:18:45.940 --> 00:18:50.560 If there is substance, it's quite a different thing. 127 00:18:50.560 --> 00:18:54.200 So people don't like doctrinal teaching. 128 00:18:54.200 --> 00:19:00.420 I'm here to convince you that it is absolutely necessary for the health of a church. 129 00:19:00.420 --> 00:19:02.360 What is doctrine, by the way? 130 00:19:02.360 --> 00:19:04.400 What is it? 131 00:19:04.400 --> 00:19:09.500 Doctrine is the teaching of the word of God made clear. 132 00:19:09.500 --> 00:19:11.780 That's all it is. 133 00:19:11.780 --> 00:19:17.940 Doctrine is the teaching of God's word made clear. 134 00:19:17.940 --> 00:19:25.580 And you find it by comparing one scripture with another, by taking the scripture in its context. 135 00:19:25.580 --> 00:19:36.040 There are many ways to find doctrinal truth in God's word, but there is solid teaching that is consistent throughout the word of God. 136 00:19:36.040 --> 00:19:39.800 We call that doctrine. 137 00:19:39.800 --> 00:19:51.620 What you have in verse three is that men have come into the church who are teaching false doctrine. 138 00:19:51.620 --> 00:20:00.060 False teaching is a spiritual disease that arises within a church. 139 00:20:00.060 --> 00:20:05.340 It can cause all kinds of havoc in a church. 140 00:20:05.340 --> 00:20:12.640 It causes the church to become diseased spiritually, and move away from God. 141 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:22.800 Look at verse ten. 142 00:20:22.800 --> 00:20:50.400 At the end of this section where Paul is saying the true purpose of the law is for the lawless, not for people who are living according to faith, but according to the lawless, and he gives this long list of the immoral men and the kidnappers and liars and perjurers. 143 00:20:50.400 --> 00:20:59.800 And whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. 144 00:20:59.800 --> 00:21:02.320 Whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. 145 00:21:02.320 --> 00:21:04.320 These people are living their life that way. 146 00:21:04.320 --> 00:21:08.760 I wanted to focus on that phrase "sound doctrine". 147 00:21:08.760 --> 00:21:15.120 Because of that word "sound". 148 00:21:15.120 --> 00:21:16.760 I want us to think about it. 149 00:21:16.760 --> 00:21:19.940 What does the word "sound" mean? 150 00:21:19.940 --> 00:21:25.860 If you're talking about truth or logic, for example, what is a sound argument in logic? 151 00:21:25.860 --> 00:21:39.360 Well, in logic, you can have a valid argument where the argument flows logically, it's perfectly logical, and it not be sound. 152 00:21:39.360 --> 00:21:50.200 You take the premises of the argument, and if they are true, then what follows is true, because the logic is perfect. 153 00:21:50.200 --> 00:21:53.800 But the premises might be false. 154 00:21:53.800 --> 00:21:58.520 In which case, the whole thing is false. 155 00:21:58.520 --> 00:22:06.420 A sound argument in logic is an argument that flows logically and the premises are true. 156 00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:08.840 It's all true. 157 00:22:08.840 --> 00:22:13.960 And so it's interesting, this word sound, because we also use sound in a different way. 158 00:22:13.960 --> 00:22:16.980 We talk about a sound body. 159 00:22:16.980 --> 00:22:19.460 What does a sound body mean? 160 00:22:19.460 --> 00:22:21.540 It means that you're healthy. 161 00:22:21.540 --> 00:22:23.200 You've got good health. 162 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:31.560 Everything is working right and in its proper place and you have good health. 163 00:22:31.560 --> 00:23:09.980 And so that was what's interesting to me is that this word, when you're talking about sound teaching, sound doctrine, the Greek word used here is hugiainō That's the participle, it's a little harder to say than the root word which is hugiēs That word is where we get our word hygiene. 164 00:23:09.980 --> 00:23:13.660 And it literally means being healthy. 165 00:23:13.660 --> 00:23:19.780 Healthy, wholesome teaching. 166 00:23:19.780 --> 00:23:40.920 So his point is that sin is a form of spiritual sickness, and it arises often because of a false understanding of God's word. 167 00:23:40.920 --> 00:23:48.200 If you have a false understanding of God's word, you've got a real problem. 168 00:23:48.200 --> 00:24:23.020 To underscore this so that you know this is a major point in this book, Paul at the very end of the book in chapter six verse three, he says this, if anyone advocates a different doctrine, and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the doctrine conforming to godliness. 169 00:24:23.020 --> 00:24:26.620 It's the same idea, same word. 170 00:24:26.620 --> 00:24:33.320 The sound doctrines, teachings, sound words. 171 00:24:33.320 --> 00:24:35.080 What is he talking about? 172 00:24:35.080 --> 00:24:39.220 He's saying, you want to know what makes a church healthy? 173 00:24:39.220 --> 00:24:43.280 Right teaching makes the church healthy. 174 00:24:43.280 --> 00:24:46.480 It makes a whole church, it makes a church healthy. 175 00:24:46.480 --> 00:24:54.840 It doesn't necessarily make every individual in the church healthy, unfortunately, but it does make a church healthy. 176 00:24:54.840 --> 00:24:56.320 It's foundational. 177 00:24:56.320 --> 00:24:58.560 It's good food for the soul. 178 00:24:58.560 --> 00:25:04.280 Doctrinal teaching feeds our souls. 179 00:25:04.280 --> 00:25:07.840 A correct understanding of God's word feeds our souls. 180 00:25:07.840 --> 00:25:29.880 And when a heretic comes into the church, Jesus called them wolves in sheep's clothing. 181 00:25:29.880 --> 00:25:31.900 The church has many problems. 182 00:25:31.900 --> 00:25:49.180 You have outsiders who oppose the church, like the vocal atheists who teach atheism and attack the church in various ways, or people who persecute the church from the outside, to make it difficult for the church worldwide. 183 00:25:49.180 --> 00:26:00.240 But the real danger in the church is when someone comes inside the church and acts as if they're one of you, and then they have a different agenda. 184 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:03.940 They teach an alien doctrine. 185 00:26:03.940 --> 00:26:07.640 That's the real danger of a church. 186 00:26:07.640 --> 00:26:10.040 That's the serious problem. 187 00:26:10.040 --> 00:26:23.040 That's the problem that this church faced. 188 00:26:23.040 --> 00:26:29.080 Martin Luther said that false teachers devour the dead. 189 00:26:29.080 --> 00:26:32.640 What he meant was like an unbeliever in a church. 190 00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:38.960 You have people in every church, there are people who are believers and some generally who are not believers. 191 00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:47.800 And when they get caught up in false teaching, it's like it closes the door of hope to them. 192 00:26:47.800 --> 00:26:52.140 It seals them in that state until they die. 193 00:26:52.140 --> 00:27:10.040 And so he called that devouring the dead, teaching deceitfully, flattering, pleasing doctrines that cause a person to trust themselves and their own efforts, for example, rather than trust the righteousness of God. 194 00:27:10.040 --> 00:27:13.860 So you have that kind of problems that we face in the church today. 195 00:27:13.860 --> 00:27:30.780 Legalism comes into the church, and it teaches you to do all these rules and things, and if you obey this and do this and don't do that, then you can be sanctified and you're good before God. 196 00:27:30.780 --> 00:27:48.180 And then there are those who do the opposite, and say God loves you with a great love and you don't have to worry about anything, you can believe pretty much anything you want, just make sure you get along. 197 00:27:48.180 --> 00:27:50.420 And if you get along, you're all good. 198 00:27:50.420 --> 00:27:59.120 That's the way a lot of liberal teaching goes today. 199 00:27:59.120 --> 00:28:07.460 So the purpose of sound teaching is for us to become healthy in Jesus Christ. 200 00:28:07.460 --> 00:28:14.800 These teachers were teaching myths, I'd like to go into the myths, but I clearly don't have time. 201 00:28:14.800 --> 00:28:18.720 Some of the things that they taught, you can get a lot of those today. 202 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:37.520 There's all sorts of strange teaching from Old Testament passages and New Testament passages that people twist and add to, they have novel doctrines, it's really interesting, you find a novel teaching and that can attract a lot of people. 203 00:28:37.520 --> 00:28:42.060 Get caught up in all kinds of details with all kinds of controversies. 204 00:28:42.060 --> 00:28:49.220 And all those things, all that discussion, all that talk makes these people look like they know something. 205 00:28:49.220 --> 00:28:54.000 They stand out, people look up to them. 206 00:28:54.000 --> 00:28:56.720 And that's what it's about. 207 00:28:56.720 --> 00:29:02.820 It's about their own pride and winning an audience and all those things. 208 00:29:02.820 --> 00:29:06.520 You can find plenty of those online today. 209 00:29:06.520 --> 00:29:11.260 And the goal is gaining their audience. 210 00:29:11.260 --> 00:29:17.580 What is the goal of Paul's teaching? 211 00:29:17.580 --> 00:29:22.860 What is the goal of Paul's ministry? 212 00:29:22.860 --> 00:29:29.320 We read that in verse five. 213 00:29:29.320 --> 00:29:45.340 "The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." 214 00:29:45.340 --> 00:29:52.380 What does healthy doctrine produce in a church? 215 00:29:52.380 --> 00:30:00.400 It causes the people in the church to love with a true Christian love. 216 00:30:00.400 --> 00:30:03.360 A love like Christ's love. 217 00:30:03.360 --> 00:30:05.620 A love that is sacrificial and not selfish. 218 00:30:05.620 --> 00:30:24.400 A true doctrine feeds the soul, and when we respond to that doctrine in faith, and don't reject it, then it works in our heart, it changes us. 219 00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:29.700 It produces a genuine love that flows from the inside out. 220 00:30:29.700 --> 00:30:30.648 How does it flow? 221 00:30:30.648 --> 00:30:32.600 It has three sources. 222 00:30:32.600 --> 00:30:38.413 Godly love, Christ-like love, flows out of the heart of a person out of a pure heart. 223 00:30:38.413 --> 00:30:43.620 You know the heart in scripture represents the inner person. 224 00:30:43.620 --> 00:30:55.520 We think of a beating heart, but in the New Testament the idea of the heart is the center of a person, the inner person, your thinking and feeling self. 225 00:30:55.520 --> 00:30:58.420 The center of your spiritual life. 226 00:30:58.420 --> 00:31:09.160 It has to do with your thinking and your reason and your motives and your feelings and your attitudes, all of that is your core. 227 00:31:09.160 --> 00:31:11.170 But it's not just your heart. 228 00:31:11.170 --> 00:31:15.760 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. 229 00:31:15.760 --> 00:31:19.740 It doesn't just flow naturally from a person's heart. 230 00:31:19.740 --> 00:31:22.920 It flows from a pure heart. 231 00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:25.900 From a cleansed heart. 232 00:31:25.900 --> 00:31:42.380 It flows from a heart that has been washed by regeneration, by the Holy Spirit through regeneration. 233 00:31:42.380 --> 00:31:51.520 You've been given new life, you've been given a new heart. 234 00:31:51.520 --> 00:31:59.520 The pure heart is marked by your devotion to the Lord. 235 00:31:59.520 --> 00:32:09.220 And because it's been cleansed, a pure heart seeks to please and serve other people, just like Christ did sacrificially. 236 00:32:09.220 --> 00:32:12.980 You love God and you serve other people. 237 00:32:12.980 --> 00:32:20.880 That's the active Christian love. 238 00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:23.820 And you can't produce it yourself. 239 00:32:23.820 --> 00:32:32.300 You can't say, I see these defects in my heart, but I'm going to turn over a new leaf, I'm going to fix this problem that I have. 240 00:32:32.300 --> 00:32:35.500 I'm just going to do it by sheer willpower. 241 00:32:35.500 --> 00:32:46.960 No matter what you do to your heart in that way, it's going to be your effort through your sinful imperfections. 242 00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:51.940 And it can never work. 243 00:32:51.940 --> 00:32:58.080 No, a pure heart must come from God himself. 244 00:32:58.080 --> 00:33:15.200 Remember David's sin with Bathsheba, and his prayer in Psalm 51, when he repented, he turns to the Lord and he says, create in me a pure heart, O God. 245 00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:18.620 Create in me a pure heart. 246 00:33:18.620 --> 00:33:27.820 The word create in that passage, bara is the very same word that you find in Genesis 1:1, God created. 247 00:33:27.820 --> 00:33:33.980 It's the work of God to create a pure heart to cleanse you. 248 00:33:33.980 --> 00:33:40.380 It's the work that comes to us through the work and ministry of Jesus Christ. 249 00:33:40.380 --> 00:33:51.460 A pure heart can't be fashioned or patched together by our existing human traits, because our own sinful nature would keep it impure. 250 00:33:51.460 --> 00:34:05.720 It has to be miraculous, a brand new creation that only God can do, and he works that work out of nothing, just like he created creation out of nothing, he creates a pure heart in us. 251 00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:12.800 And it has pure motives. 252 00:34:12.800 --> 00:34:29.940 The proof of a healthy doctrine is that this kind of love is linked to the doctrinal teaching that we're receiving. 253 00:34:29.940 --> 00:34:42.880 If in the church you have teaching, that teaching should lead us to love God more, and to love each other more, and to serve each other more. 254 00:34:42.880 --> 00:34:58.020 That's why I have to say, when the truth is taught, it doesn't necessarily have that reaction with every individual, because it can be rejected. 255 00:34:58.020 --> 00:35:06.140 But the truth in a church with God's people generally has that effect of leading us more and more into love. 256 00:35:06.140 --> 00:35:18.020 For example, the five sermons I just did on prayer, that was very simple teaching. 257 00:35:18.020 --> 00:35:18.960 It was doctrinal teaching. 258 00:35:18.960 --> 00:35:24.260 It was God's word and the doctrine that God has to say about prayer. 259 00:35:24.260 --> 00:35:27.900 It was just a little bit of it. 260 00:35:27.900 --> 00:35:29.220 Is it received? 261 00:35:29.220 --> 00:35:31.440 How is it received? 262 00:35:31.440 --> 00:35:36.060 Does it encourage us to love the Lord more and pray more? 263 00:35:36.060 --> 00:35:38.880 Or did we get it at all? 264 00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:42.180 You see, we respond to it in faith. 265 00:35:42.180 --> 00:35:49.440 The Holy Spirit stirs our heart with the truth, and we respond to it, and it affects us in some way. 266 00:35:49.440 --> 00:36:01.720 We can, if we have a problem with any doctrinal teaching, no matter what it is, it convicts us, we have a choice to make. 267 00:36:01.720 --> 00:36:03.900 That's the second part of this. 268 00:36:03.900 --> 00:36:07.520 A good conscience which is our moral compass. 269 00:36:07.520 --> 00:36:15.000 If you hear the word of God and the word of God stirs your conscience, you have a guilty conscience. 270 00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:18.060 You don't have a good conscience. 271 00:36:18.060 --> 00:36:29.600 Your conscience is not perfect, it stirs you up and you feel uncomfortable. 272 00:36:29.600 --> 00:36:32.140 One of two things is going to happen. 273 00:36:32.140 --> 00:36:44.940 You're either going to see your need to turn from that pattern of thinking or that sin and come back to Christ where you find peace and love and every good thing. 274 00:36:44.940 --> 00:36:48.000 Or you'll reject that truth. 275 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:58.300 You will dig down deeper and you'll have that uncomfortable feeling you'll have a bad conscience and that bad conscience does exactly the opposite. 276 00:36:58.300 --> 00:37:09.080 If you have a bad conscience and you do not repent that means it's going to put up a petition a wall between you and everybody else between you and God. 277 00:37:09.080 --> 00:37:10.640 And so you have a choice to make. 278 00:37:10.640 --> 00:37:17.040 Are you going to follow the Lord in this truth? 279 00:37:17.040 --> 00:37:32.770 Are you going to reject it and go your own selfish prideful way which will lead to guilt feelings and when you get around people that make you feel guilty you don't like that you tend to avoid those people. 280 00:37:32.770 --> 00:37:38.940 You see it causes the opposite to happen that causes the division. 281 00:37:38.940 --> 00:37:41.280 The conscience is a moral compass. 282 00:37:41.280 --> 00:37:43.880 What happens when you continue in that? 283 00:37:43.880 --> 00:37:51.420 Well you become exactly like Paul's description of these heretics who are teaching strange doctrine. 284 00:37:51.420 --> 00:37:54.440 Their conscience is seared. 285 00:37:54.440 --> 00:37:56.280 It's another kind of medical term. 286 00:37:56.280 --> 00:38:09.660 The idea of being burned and the scar tissue builds up and you can't feel anything at all any longer. 287 00:38:09.660 --> 00:38:34.820 A right conscience, a good conscience where you have been made right with the Lord, we sin all the time but we come to the Lord in repentance and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and so we have a clean conscience. 288 00:38:34.820 --> 00:38:38.500 And we feel right before the Lord. 289 00:38:38.500 --> 00:38:39.820 That's joy. 290 00:38:39.820 --> 00:38:42.200 There's a lot of joy in that. 291 00:38:42.200 --> 00:38:47.780 And from a sincere faith that means you're not hypocritical. 292 00:38:47.780 --> 00:38:59.840 You're not pretending but a true trust in God. 293 00:38:59.840 --> 00:39:05.470 If you truly trust in the Lord then that removes your selfishness. 294 00:39:05.470 --> 00:39:14.000 A hypocrite can't love anybody more than he loves himself. 295 00:39:14.000 --> 00:39:32.060 So the hypocrite is primarily concerned with putting on a show and displaying something wonderful so that people think well of him and what he is really worrying about and thinking about is what people think of him. 296 00:39:32.060 --> 00:39:43.680 But Christianity requires a selflessness and that can only be fueled by genuine trust in God and in his word. 297 00:39:43.680 --> 00:39:56.740 We hear the word of God the doctrine we're instructed by it we put our trust in God in the word of God and that leads to a right relationship with God. 298 00:39:56.740 --> 00:40:02.660 It leads to these three things that Paul says this is what good teaching produces. 299 00:40:02.660 --> 00:40:12.720 Good teaching, the fruit of good teaching is a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith. 300 00:40:12.720 --> 00:40:15.700 These men strayed from that. 301 00:40:15.700 --> 00:40:39.260 They wanted to become teachers of the law and so they insisted and taught things that Paul says that they taught as if they had great authority these things that they didn't understand at all. 302 00:40:39.260 --> 00:40:42.200 They're absolutely confident in their preaching. 303 00:40:42.200 --> 00:40:45.000 Their preaching isn't timid. 304 00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:46.600 They're extremely confident. 305 00:40:46.600 --> 00:40:54.640 They are telling people in such a way that people naturally believe them. 306 00:40:54.640 --> 00:41:06.020 But they don't have a clue of what the meaning of what they're about. 307 00:41:06.020 --> 00:41:18.560 I think I'm going to stop because I'm not sure I'm doing a good enough job with what I've got but we've got a section to come to about the purpose of the law. 308 00:41:18.560 --> 00:41:25.520 So I think I'm going to take the purpose of the law and we'll look at that next week. 309 00:41:25.520 --> 00:41:40.000 The purpose of the law is to expose our sinful heart just to summarize this we'll look at it next week. 310 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:49.480 But it's not made for the righteous, the person who is living by faith according to the word of God he doesn't have to worry about the law. 311 00:41:49.480 --> 00:42:00.000 But it exposes people who are sinful, the profane, the murderers, the immoral men and homosexuals those who kidnap. 312 00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:08.860 We'll look at this section next week and we'll seek God's blessing in understanding this better next week. 313 00:42:08.860 --> 00:42:16.740 It'll give me time to deal with that more thoroughly. 314 00:42:16.740 --> 00:42:24.240 Let me pray for us and we'll close the service in prayer. 315 00:42:24.240 --> 00:42:29.160 Father we thank you again for this beautiful passage. 316 00:42:29.160 --> 00:42:40.740 It truly is beautiful Father whatever this sermon however my failure is to communicate this Lord I sense a lot of opposition spiritually. 317 00:42:40.740 --> 00:42:51.780 Whatever my failure is to communicate this today I thank you Father for the purity of your holy word and this excellent teaching. 318 00:42:51.780 --> 00:43:02.620 I thank you Father that you have given us a wonderful pattern for our church and instruction that is so vital. 319 00:43:02.620 --> 00:43:11.980 Father it's important for us to know that true doctrine, true teaching of God's word leads to spiritual health. 320 00:43:11.980 --> 00:43:17.400 It leads to us to be corrected in the inner man. 321 00:43:17.400 --> 00:43:26.340 Father every one of us needs to ask ourselves with the things that we are hearing is it making a difference? 322 00:43:26.340 --> 00:43:31.800 Are we walking what we talk about? 323 00:43:31.800 --> 00:43:33.740 Are we walking our talk? 324 00:43:33.740 --> 00:43:44.230 Are we living out the life that you would have us live that you've clearly taught us in your word is it making that kind of a difference? 325 00:43:44.230 --> 00:43:54.940 And Father I pray that you help us to put ourselves on guard against false teaching it's so much of it around us. 326 00:43:54.940 --> 00:44:17.820 It fills our pulpits, it's taught in seminaries and Bible colleges and sometimes people take those important sheepskins that they have received and that becomes a tool of deceit to pass them off as true shepherds in a church. 327 00:44:17.820 --> 00:44:21.540 Father guard us against such things. 328 00:44:21.540 --> 00:44:25.880 When error comes into the church it leads to spiritual sickness. 329 00:44:25.880 --> 00:44:28.500 Keep us in your holy truth. 330 00:44:28.500 --> 00:44:42.260 Help us Father to read your word to be like the Bereans to question the teaching to understand it to come to a true understanding of what you teach. 331 00:44:42.260 --> 00:44:57.120 And Father may none of us fall into the pattern of these heretics who seek glory and who lead people into a terrible sinful state. 332 00:44:57.120 --> 00:45:08.380 Help us Lord help us to love your teaching to love your word and to be changed through it. 333 00:45:08.380 --> 00:45:10.380 We ask your great blessing. 334 00:45:10.380 --> 00:45:13.640 We need the power of your spirit to change us. 335 00:45:13.640 --> 00:45:20.080 We ask your great blessing to the glory of our Savior the Lord Jesus. 336 00:45:20.080 --> 00:45:22.080 Amen.