WWUTT 657 If Anyone Teaches a Different Doctrine?

The Gospel Produces Godliness, but False Teaching Produces Depravity

When a person hears the gospel and they respond to it and they obey it, what is produced in their life is godliness. But a person who listens to a false gospel, what results is depravity when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty. Find videos and more at our website www .tt .com. Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes.

Thank you Becky. We continue with our study of 1 Timothy chapter 6 and I'm going to begin in that closing portion of verse 2 and go all the way through verse 10. The Apostle Paul writes, Teach and urge these things.

If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. And it's that verse there, verse 10, that is one of the most abused verses in the Bible, but we'll talk about that tomorrow.

Teach and Urge These Things in the Church

In the meantime, I want to come back to this statement at the conclusion of verse 2, which opened our reading today, teach and urge these things. Now the editors of the English Standard Version of the Bible, if that's the translation that you're reading from, they section this out into a completely different section right there at the conclusion of verse 2.

So this section is titled False Teachers and True Contentment, and it begins with the breaking up of verse 2 there, teach and urge these things. So does that mean that statement goes with the reading that we've read today rather than the reading that we read yesterday?

Yes and no. It's actually, it's kind of its own statement. It's an independent statement. As Paul is just drawing Timothy's attention to the things that he's been writing in the letter, and that all of it is relevant and necessary to the task that Paul has sent Timothy to do there in Ephesus.

He has said this periodically in the letter. We saw this in chapter 4, verse 11, command and teach these things. Everything that Paul said previously, everything that he said after that, all of it in the letter is what Timothy needs to consider in the leadership position that he's going to be in there in the Ephesian church.

So teach and urge these things, especially considering what we just read yesterday in chapter 6, verses 1 and 2. That's not been popular in any setting in 2000 years of the history of the church, not in first century Rome and certainly not in civil war era slavery in the United States of America, nor in the transatlantic slave trade, whether it's been in South America or in Great Britain or any of those other places.

When you read in the Bible, let all who are under a yoke of slavery regard their own masters as worthy of all honor. That's never been popular in any setting on planet earth to say that. But again, as we looked at some other passages from Paul writing to the Ephesians and to the Colossians and what Peter wrote, that we work first for the Lord before we work for any man.

And it doesn't even matter if the person that we're working for is verbally or physically abusive, yet we would still treat that person with dignity and respect, not reviling them in return. As Peter put it, because when our Lord Christ was reviled and you've not been reviled like Jesus has been reviled, correct?

When he was reviled, he did not revile back, but he entrusted himself to him who judges justly who is his father in heaven. Again, that has never been a popular portion of scripture to teach on for anybody.

And especially after writing that Paul says, teach and urge these things. Don't even leave that part out. It isn't popular, but it must be taught so that the name of God and the teaching may not be reviled as he said in verse one.

So teach and urge these things. And then we go on into some more things in verse three, which really comes all the way back to something that Paul said at the start of the letter. As I said at the beginning of this study, Paul bookends this letter with a call to rebuke false teachers.

And he also puts it in the middle of the letter, which we saw at the start of chapter four. So we have it in the dead center and we have it on the bookends at the start and at the conclusion of the letter.

Sound Words, False Doctrine, and the Gospel That Produces Godliness

So here we have Paul coming back to that again as we draw close to the conclusion of this letter. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, what was it Paul said to Timothy at the very beginning?

Don't let anyone teach any different doctrine, but only that which flows from the gospel of Jesus Christ. So now as Paul comes back to it again, he says, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, in other words, the gospel will produce godly living.

If somebody is obedient to the gospel, if they believe it and they respond to it and they obey it and they live it out, then what will be produced in their life is godliness. Godly living. If a person does not listen to the gospel or they listen to a false gospel, then what will result from that is not godliness.

It will actually be some kind of morality. Perhaps it might be something that reflects a Judeo Christian ethic, but it will not be godliness because it is not a result of of an adherence to the gospel.

It is not the outpouring of the gospel of Christ. So a person that does not agree with the sound words of the gospel and the teaching that produces godliness is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

It doesn't matter how loving or affectionate or considerate their message sounds. You know, I'll just give you an example of this. Oprah Winfrey. Okay, if you watch Oprah, you probably see all kinds of feel good stories on her talk show.

Is she even doing her talk show anymore? I don't, I don't even know. I know she does interviews occasionally that air on the O network because it always ends up being something absolutely crazy whenever she interviews somebody who claims to be a pastor.

But anyway, if you're watching Oprah's show, let's say it's still on the air. You know what I'm talking about. It's a cultural reference that's familiar. Anyway, if you are watching Oprah's show, you're going to you're going to experience a lot of feel good messages on there, but none of that produces godliness.

It might produce the warm fuzzies. It might make you want to treat people a little bit more kindly today. But again, there are people who do not believe in Christ who hear that same message on Oprah's show and that's what results in it.

But none of that is life saving. It might make people's lives a little bit more comfortable here in this world, but it's really just giving a person a comfortable seat on the way to hell. It doesn't produce anything long lasting and certainly nothing eternal.

In fact, it's just puffed up with conceit. I know that that's difficult to wrap our minds around sometimes because we want it whenever we see something nice or something that gives us the warm fuzzies.

There's no way that can be selfish and conceited and we want to think the best of people when it comes to those kinds of things. But when it comes down to it, if something is not done in faith, it's sin.

It always has the self in mind rather than someone else. That's in Romans 14 verse 23. If something is not done in faith, it is sinful. So if a person is doing something that is not to the praise and the glory and the honor of God, then what it is they are doing is sinful.

No matter what it looks like on the outside, it is self-righteousness. It is self-interest because that person believes that by this good thing that they are doing, they can have an inherent goodness in and of themselves.

And when they do sin and they do fall into temptation, they'll just point back to the good things that they've done before as an evidence of some sort of inherent goodness within their hearts. Yeah, I sin and make mistakes because nobody's perfect, but look at all these other good things that I have done.

So everybody is basically good deep down inside. That's going to be their appeal. The book of Proverbs says of them that every man thinks that he is right in his own eyes. We all believe or have believed at some point that because of these good things that I have done, God can't help but love me.

And on the day that I stand before God in judgment, he's going to welcome me into heaven because at least I wasn't Hitler. But we must know the truth of what scripture tells us that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And as it says in Isaiah 64, six, even our best deeds, the best thing that you can think that you've ever done in your life, even that is as a soiled garment before a holy and righteous God in his heaven.

There is, there, there is no social gospel or works based gospel apart from the true gospel of Jesus Christ salvation that is by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ on the cross and his resurrection from the grave.

That is the only way that a person is saved and it is by faith in Christ that a person's heart is washed and is made new to seek after God and desire him and then is able to lift up praises that are acceptable and pleasing to God.

Where previously before we had the Holy Spirit, we couldn't praise God, a person standing in church praising God with singing the same lyrics on the overhead who is not a believer and he's standing next to a person who is a Christian singing the same lyrics on the overhead, but they are a believer.

God is going to receive the praises only of the believer, but not of the unbeliever. Even though they were singing and saying the same things, only the person who is indwelt with the Holy Spirit of God is able to lift up acceptable offerings and praises to our Lord.

We are only made righteous by Christ. And if we have Christ, we're going to show in our actions the pursuit of godliness. As I've heard it prayed, Lord, please make me more into your image today than I was yesterday and tomorrow make me more into your image than I am today.

That's essentially godliness. That as we grow in godliness, we become more like Christ every day. That's sanctification. And though it may be such a slow and even arduous process that it's difficult to discern from day to day, certainly years down the road, you'll be looking back at who you are now and I hope at least you'll be able to see yourself as a more mature Christian when you're standing in that place, looking back at who you are now realizing, boy, there were so many things that I didn't know I wasn't doing.

I was so immature back then. The Lord is, has made me so much more mature now, and yet I still have so much farther to go. As long as we are in this life, we have more work to do, or let me, let me put it this way.

The spirit has more work to do on us in this process of sanctification, of making us holy, of growing us in godliness. And this only happens through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one who saves us and he's the one who grows us in this faith and in this salvation that we have.

So if anyone teaches a different doctrine that does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the teaching that accords with godliness, a teaching that produces godliness, well, he's puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

It doesn't matter how high minded he might sound, all of his knowledge ultimately amounts to nothing because it's not from the gospel, which saves and delivers a person into the kingdom of God. As Paul put it with the Colossians in Colossians chapter two, in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

The world's wisdom does nothing for a person, absolutely nothing. It is only the gospel of Christ that saves a person, that makes them from a citizen of this world that is going to be destroyed in the final judgment, to a citizen of the kingdom of God that endures forever.

Only belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ does that for a person. So we must preach the gospel and it's that preaching the gospel that also produces godliness and grows the faith of a person as they hear it and grow in their understanding of it.

Those who teach anything else are puffed up with conceit. It's only self interest. It's self righteous. They understand nothing. World's wisdom is nothing because it's going to perish with the rest of the world and has no eternal significance whatsoever.

Deprived of the Truth and Accursed for Preaching Another Gospel

Paul goes on to say he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

Now Timothy was sound in his doctrine and Paul is sending him to Ephesus where the church is starting to abandon sound doctrine and they are being overtaken by teachers who are not teaching the truth.

So the whole church ends up being deprived of the truth. If a person knows the true gospel, then what's going to be produced in their lives is godliness. You'll know that they are following the sound words of our Lord Christ when what you see in their lives is a Christ-like behavior.

But for those who abandon sound teaching, they become depraved in their thinking because they are deprived of the truth. Now when Paul wrote to the Galatians, it was a different approach to that letter.

Even though in Galatians chapter 1 verses 6 through 9, we see him addressing the same thing that he's saying with Timothy here in 1 Timothy 6, but in 1 Timothy it's a warning. He's saying, you know, be careful.

And again, Timothy's doctrine is sound. So he's saying be careful. The church is heading this direction if they continue to listen to those teachers who are teaching things that are contrary to the sound words of our Lord Christ.

The Galatians had already abandoned that and they had gone after a doctrine that was more of a works-based salvation, that we can gain righteousness and justification by our works. And here's what Paul said in Galatians 1, starting in verse 6, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed.

As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one that you received, let him be accursed. So with that address that Paul made to the Galatians, hear this again, as he says this to Timothy, 1 Timothy 6, verse 3, if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he's puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

Read also into that, he's accursed. He is accursed because he's teaching a different doctrine. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy. If he's not teaching the sound words of our Lord Christ, what's being produced is not godliness.

It's an unhealthy craving for controversy. It's causing division among people instead of unity, quarreling over words, producing envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicion, and constant friction among people, depraved in mind because they're not conforming their minds to Christ's mind, to the gospel of Christ, and they are deprived of the truth because the truth isn't being proclaimed.

So this person who is teaching a different gospel is accursed. Now that's not quite where the Ephesian church has gone yet, and it's certainly not Timothy because Timothy has sounded his doctrine. So Paul addresses this a different way with Timothy than he does with the Galatians, but it's the same concept.

The person who is teaching a different gospel is accursed. Just a couple of nights ago, NBC aired a live concert version of Jesus Christ Superstar, one of the most blasphemous depictions of Christ that there has ever been in modern storytelling.

And it is amazing the number of Christians that loved that production, starring John Legend playing the role of Jesus Christ, Alice Cooper played the role of Herod. I think that's really the only two names that I recognized out of that entire cast, and I did watch portions of it, but it is an absolutely blasphemous play.

Some of the things that are attributed to Christ in that play. I am running out of time to go into some of those specifics, but the most recent What video that I just posted yesterday, you can go to www .utt .com.

It's the video that's right there at the top of the page. You can watch that, and it'll give you kind of the Cliff's Notes versions of some of the problems with Jesus Christ Superstar. But the number of Christians that love that play and think that it is actually showing us something worthwhile and something godly about Christ.

No, Tim Rice, who is the lyricist of that play, says they did not consider Christ God when they wrote it, that he was just a normal man like anybody, and it was because he was martyred that he got famous.

That's the only reason why anybody even knows his name today, according to Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. It's an incredibly blasphemous production and portrayal, and you will not grow as a Christian thinking that you can learn something about Christ from things like that.

As a matter of fact, you will backslide. You will lose ground in your progress of faith if you think that you can apply that to your faith and learn something about Jesus somehow. You can apply that to your faith to learn about heretics.

You could certainly watch Jesus Christ Superstar in that light, but you learn nothing about the truth of Christ, for it is a completely different gospel that is portrayed in that musical, and those who have written it, if they do not repent, they are accursed.

The speculations that are presented in that particular play, it turns into controversy. Of course it does. It is a controversial play because it is not from the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's quarrels about words that produce envy, dissensions, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

That's what you get with a production that is just like that. Let us pray that we would continue to cling to the sound words of our Lord Christ so that we may continue to grow as His children as we walk this pilgrim way.

Our Lord God, we thank you for the salvation you have given us in Christ, and as we grow in sanctification, may we be more like Christ than we were yesterday, and may you make us more like Christ tomorrow than we are today.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast, or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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