Book of 1 Timothy - Ch. 1, vv. 3-4

Well about two Sundays ago, we began a new study in 1st Timothy So we'll pick right back up where we left off.

If you want to turn to 1st Timothy chapter 1 we covered the salutation last week the opening couple of verses and now we see

Kind of where Paul is going with this and what a large part of his intention was behind writing

Timothy in the first place So I'll just go ahead and open with the first couple of verses going into verse 3

He says Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ Which is our hope unto

Timothy my own son in the faith grace mercy and peace from God our

Father and Jesus Christ our Lord and then right after this introduction without any hesitation at all

Paul jumps immediately into The primary purpose of leaving Timothy in Ephesus in the first place, which was essentially so that Paul could continue his mission work without the concern without the worry of The vulnerable

Christians that were in Ephesus at that time the next verse verse 3 He says as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when

I went to Macedonia That thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies

Which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. So do so we see first that Timothy was left in Ephesus and he was exhorted to stay there for certain purposes now in church tradition

This Ephesus would end up being Timothy's church home the place that he just kind of parked for the rest of his life

He would become the first bishop or pastor of this church before he was martyred a little bit later in his life

But this so this is kind of the beginning of this Paul is going off to Macedonia He wants

Timothy to abide in Ephesus anyway for certain purposes. But what was the reason why did

Paul care so much for Timothy to stay back Well for starters, we find an interesting

Dynamic in the all three of the pastoral epistles There are certain epistles of Paul where he is talking about heresies that are plaguing the early church and he will give

Instruction on how to refute it how to how to rebuke it but specifically how to refute it basically providing

Ammunition if you will for the early church on how to Fend off things like early forms of Gnosticism and things of that sort

But in the pastoral epistles, we see a slightly different dynamic where Paul will mention the heresies at hand

But it's not so much a go out and offensively refute these things but rather almost recognize that they're there and ignore them

For the most part ignore them to a degree and so we see this interesting

Dynamic again in these three epistles Titus and the in the two Timothy's with regard to how to deal with heresy

And we don't really find it in other places Colossians by the way is a good example where we see

Paul giving specific instructions on how to deal With the Gnostics of the first couple of centuries, but here in first Timothy and in Titus as well

Like I mentioned a second ago we see that rather than Outright refuting what's happening, which happens to come back to these kind of pharisaic

Judaism type heresies that crop up They're for the large part to be ignored and we see kind of why the reason is as we go through Some of these things now,

I take it that it's not necessarily that Paul is making light of the heresies that were

Going to be cropping up a lot in Ephesus the same was true in Crete for Titus It's not that he was making light of it and saying they're not dangerous because they were dangerous

You know again, we're talking about Really bad Judaizing really bad legalism really bad, you know

Try as Paul puts it in Titus those of the circumcision Trying to come in and subvert whole houses and adding works to justification and things like that So it's not that these weren't dangerous

They absolutely were but what would happen is they would often kind of branch out into these really bizarre

Directions that were literally just time wasters. And so what Paul is doing is

He's pointing out to Timothy Look, a lot of this is just noise a lot of this will waste your time if you are out there

Trying to spend your time as pastor as the leader of the flock And again, this is very reminiscent of what we saw in Titus as well

If you go out there and you are trying to just offensively refute all of these types of things

It'll eat up all of your time because there is no end to what these people are talking about And what are they talking about?

You see in verse 4 fables That's that's the Greek term.

We literally get the word myth from so we're talking about myths. We're talking about legends He mentions genealogies as well

And so Paul in As we'll see when we get to verse 6, he literally calls this kind of stuff vain or fruitless

It does not bear fruit. And so that by definition is a waste of time There there were certain attacks on early

Christianity that were fruitful because you had these really bizarre people

Coming in and trying to basically over spiritualize everything to the point that Jesus wasn't actually a physical man

And it was all kind of a facade to accomplish, you know These really nice beautiful things but of course that totally undermined

Jesus's sacrifice on the cross and all these types of things So there were certain heresies that were that were fruitful to refute

But in cases like this when it comes to genealogies in fables, there's no end to any of it

It's literally just a waste of time. It's fruitless So these are the kinds of false teachers that Timothy is now going to be dealing with as he kind of plants his feet in Ephesus so to speak and again, like I mentioned

According to church tradition that is where he would stay for the remainder of his ministry Now if you want to turn to Matthew chapter 7 for a second,

I just want to show y 'all a prophecy of Jesus As he discusses in his ministry

What was to be expected? Down the road as the church began to grow as the church began to dawn

You had these young elders these newly appointed leaders these pastors all across these young newly planted churches

What is it that they would be facing Jesus prophesies about what they would be facing and gives of course in doing so fair warning

Of what was to come? Now, this is a very well -known passage. We all know it but it's worth reading in this context.

So Matthew chapter 7 Look at verse 15 he says beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing

But inwardly they are ravening wolves. You shall know them by their fruits

Do men gathered grapes of thorns or pigs of thistles? even so every good tree bringeth forth a good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit a

Good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire

Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them now amazingly this very prophecy of Jesus was kind of restated by the

Apostle Paul again in Acts in The specific context of the church at Ephesus.

That's the church. Timothy is at right now So keep keeping in mind what Jesus just said turn over to Acts chapter 20 and So so Jesus kind of generally prophesies about false teachers coming in sheep's clothing.

So they're in disguise They can sneak in easily Especially if you think about the fact these are all young believers

That Timothy and Titus and these guys are ministering to they're young they're young believers. They're new in the faith

They don't yet have the discernment which will come through sanctification and through growth, but they don't have it yet so these ravening wolves

Wearing the sheep's clothing are sneaking in somewhat easily and of course, we know at the Church Church of Galatia They went in there and they did all kinds of damage

They were trying to do all kinds of damage on the island of Crete. That's what Titus was there Therefore they were trying to do all kinds of damage here at the

Church of Ephesus. That's what Timothy is there for so We know that this is happening.

Jesus prophesies about it broadly, but we go to Acts chapter 20 and We see a scene here right before the

Apostle Paul leaves Ephesus for the last time he's never going back He spent years with them.

He ministered to them. He prepared them. There were elders appointed This is before I believe

I mean we can we can kind of infer with the context we have here that this was right before Timothy was left in Ephesus for Paul to move on to do other mission work and so we go to Acts chapter 20 look in verse 28 and Keeping in mind everything

Jesus just said in Matthew 7 listen to what what Paul is now saying as he is it's his final

Talk with the elders of Ephesus right before he leaves and never sees them again He would write to them, but he wouldn't see them in person again

He says take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the

Holy Ghost hath made you overseers To feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood

For I know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock

Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them

Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every night and day with tears

So the Apostle Paul was letting the elders know Listen, this is something

Jesus said was coming I am telling you it is coming right here to this local church And it's going to affect you the wolves will not spare a single sheep

If you are keeping watch if you aren't prepared for this if you aren't ready for this battle It's going to be bad.

And so Paul gives this very explicit Warning and exhortation to be mindful to be watchful to prepare the flock or to protect the flock and prepare them

Because you're the overseers that the Holy Spirit himself has appointed for this work. And so Paul even before leaving

Timothy in Ephesus was able to Going back to Jesus's prophecy.

He says you will know them by their fruit So the Apostle Paul in his time in Ephesus about three years

He was able to kind of ascertain the fruit of these What we now know as false teachers, so he was able to see their fruit they may have been wearing the sheep's clothing, but the

Apostle Paul in his wisdom and his Just his authority in his experience as an

Apostle He was able to see the kind of fruit these people bore these false teachers that Timothy now has to deal with And he goes into detail for Timothy's sake as to what that fruit was and what was it it was fables

It was genealogies as we'll see in a minute disputes about the law. These were the kinds of rotten fruits that these

False teachers were bearing that they were bringing forth You will know them by their fruit as Jesus said and a corrupt tree

Cannot bring forth good fruit and a good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit and we're talking about habitual

Lifestyle What their aspirations are what their goals are what are they trying to accomplish they are trying to accomplish self -glorification at the expense of everybody else in some cases to serve the

God of their own bellies as Paul tells us in Philippians and so a tree that is bearing that kind of fruit

Cannot bear good fruit. So it's not like you're kind of giving them a chance. Maybe they'll grow out of it That's sort of thing.

That is not how you deal with these matters. And so Paul tells

Timothy what's going on He tells them the kind of fruit they bear and as we will see this will become a common theme throughout this epistle false teachers with a specific goal in mind and with specific techniques

To get them there. And in this case, we see it right off the bat as soon as we open up the letter they are

Disputing about these things that have no end just the infinite highway of genealogies and myths and I mean imagine

Interpreting something that doesn't have any historical basis something that doesn't have any textual basis. It's quite literally a myth in Paul's words

There there's there's no end to it there couldn't be an end to it if you spend your time trying to interpret all of that It will it will distract everybody from what is good true and beautiful and that is what

Timothy is being warned about at this point So Paul tells him all of this, but of course he also tells

Timothy what he is supposed to do about it What kind of actions is he supposed to take as this newly appointed pastor or at least right around the corner?

appointed pastor of Ephesus now To bring this to the present day a little bit because all of this as we said in our introduction to this epistle

Just like Titus it's as practical as it gets and we'll see this with it with regard to just day -to -day living virtuous living

Certain instructions that that Paul gives for the church to exhibit in our day -to -day lives

But right alongside that there's also the reality that we face the exact same enemies today as Timothy was facing in his time the spirit behind all of the types of heresies that you can just look at and Survey throughout history the spirits that were behind those are still with us

And so they may crop up in different forms slight different slightly different variations

But the root is exactly the same and so since we face these same enemies

Will do well as we go throughout this epistle to pay close attention To how Paul sets this up and what instructions he gives on how to deal with it

Now in verse 3 kind of again honing in on these two verses here verses 3 & 4

We see Paul give the basis for his urgency to Timothy there in our introduction we talked about the urgent Just way that Paul approached these epistles the the pastoral epistles

It was near the end of his life. His time was short. There's an urgency behind them and We kind of see the basis for it right here in first Timothy, which also is worth noting

This is the first of the three epistles. He wrote the first three pastoral epistles that he wrote Titus was next and So right out of the gate straight on to Timothy.

What does he say that they teach no other doctrine? So this was Paul's great concern that there would be some that would be

Changing the doctrines that he had set in the years. He was there now. This is kind of I mean this will shake you up a little bit because Imagine being at a church

The Apostle Paul himself was there. He he helped plant the church. He helped appoint the elders that were there

He was there ministering them to them for three years And yet that did not stop his concern for as soon as he was gone

There would be some trying to teach other doctrine now if it could be really easy for any minister of any church to Freak out about that reality because it's a true and genuine reality

It is a possibility for every local church dad has talked about this so many times throughout my life of how rare it is to see a church under really solid leadership to last more than a couple generations if you get there now you can look and There are a couple of exceptions

The one in Dallas was was one example First Baptist of Dallas the Metropolitan Tabernacle was would have fit that bill as well because you had really solid ministers leading up to Spurgeon and then

But as soon as Spurgeon passed away, they weren't able to it wasn't the same even his own son

Had to step out of the ministry He was his successor Thomas Spurgeon was and it didn't last long because he didn't have what his dad had in it

Nothing like there's nothing wrong with that either. I mean there was nothing wrong with Thomas Spurgeon His dad was a specimen when it came to Ministerial endeavor.

I mean it was just absolutely crazy Well, everyone expected for that to just fall on Thomas's shoulders and he couldn't he couldn't deal with it

And I understand why so he had to step out and then they filled the the pastorate with a couple other people

It didn't take long before it moved a different direction And that was really sad Martin Lloyd -Jones is another example.

So the guy that preceded him was Jay Campbell Morgan So he was awesome.

And then you have Martin Lloyd -Jones. He had a couple of generations there, but aside from those three I Off the top of my head can't think of very many other great examples.

Yeah, dad. You have a couple more Yeah, I was not thinking the same thing we don't yet know they don't have a

Successor in place yet, so we don't know what will happen there It'll be really interesting to see because that was a first -generation

Church MacArthur came in there was a relatively new church And it grew to what it was under his pastor.

And so that was just one generation. We'll see if it can last two With regard to the solid Bible teaching they had and so there aren't very many examples the point that the reason

I say that is Because it is a genuine concern that Paul himself had that as soon as he was out of there

There would be some that come in and try to teach some other doctrine any kind of other doctrine

And this was very concerning to him And so he's telling Timothy wanting the Church of Ephesus to last more than a single generation with regard to solid biblical foundations

Ensured that they teach no other doctrine Now what's really interesting about this phrase?

Literally the whole phrase that they teach no other doctrine. That's a number of English words there that entire phrase is a single

Greek word Underneath it and it's probably a word there are a number of words that we find only in Paul's epistles in the

New Testament and We don't really even see the words pop up in any other

Extra biblical documents around the time of the first century Sometimes we'll see them used later, but there are a few words in the

New Testament that as far as we know The Apostle Paul coined the term And there are a number of really interesting examples.

We'll look at in fact We'll actually see another one a little bit later into this chapter But right here we see it and I can't pronounce it

It's it's a massive word But it's probably one that Paul coined and it's a compound word where he basically takes

The the Greek term for teacher and he combines it with the word heteros the

Greek term heteros, which is where we Get words like heterodoxy from so basically

What Paul is saying here is he's talking about anyone that teaches heresy when he says

When he says that they teach no other doctrine, that's all one word and he's saying Anyone that is teaching heresy that they teach anyone that teaches anything that's in conflict with God's revealed truth

Make sure that doesn't happen. And so that's what he's talking about here Now there are obviously endless forms of heresy as you look throughout church history again

You see it crop crop up in Gnosticism and asceticism and you have different forms of Gnosticism, too

So you have like all of these sub points of different streams that that would take but then you also had the

Jews and they were Coming in trying to say things like you had to be circumcised to be saved and you had to bring in the law to be

Saved and all of these types of things so you had Judaism Judaizers. You had them over here. So very

Jewish False teachings and heresies and then you had very Gentile pagan esque heresies over here and so Which heresies are we talking about what exactly is the

Apostle concerned about in this context the Church of Colossae It was more Gentile pagan stuff here in this moment

It has more to do with the Jews and what they are bringing about so Again, there's all of these forms of heresy all of them attack specific areas of God's Word What type of heresy were these people employing and that's what he elaborates on in verse 4 neither give heed to fables

Endless genealogies and what is the result of those things? They minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith.

And so First when he says not to give heed to fables These are literally legends.

They're they're man -made stories. They're they're fables And like I mentioned earlier the

Greek term is where we get the word myth from So from Paul's perspective, look, there's no basis to any of this it's it's

There's no end to it because there's no substance to it there It doesn't contribute to anything real and so I kind of alluded to it earlier

But just imagine the amount of time that a person or in perhaps this case a group of people can waste trying to interpret legends

That have no historical basis to them there might not even be and I mentioned a second ago no textual basis to it so like we can we can look at stuff like Beowulf and The Iliad and the

Odyssey and things like that and you know Kind of can get some flickers of interesting points of history from them if anything just from the writing style and the context in which they were given and things like that, but They might still be legend

Well in these cases, we might literally be talking about things that don't even have that you don't even have

Beowulf Type, you know history behind it. It's literally just made up stuff

These are the kinds of fables that Paul was concerned about and so a massive amount of wasting time

That's what these false teachers were doing now. Timothy was not to occupy himself That's what he means by you know take heed not to get into this kind of stuff.

Don't occupy yourself don't occupy your time with the genealogies or the fables because They were totally useless you couldn't even really debate them because of how useless they were

Emily you have a thought back there Sure Yeah, sure well heresy so again

There's a bunch of different kinds of heresies, but heresy in its general form is anything that is contradictory to the teachings of Scripture So it can be it can arrive in the form of what appears to be an authoritative teacher

So and by the way this word that Paul coined Hetero de dos

Caleo, I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right, but it's the word teacher combined with the word heteros

Which mean which is where we get like heterodoxy from or heresy And so it's a person that steps into an authoritative position like as a teacher and then teaches

That which is in conflict with God's Word. So that's heresy and it's just most general kind of simplistic

Definition it can manifest itself in a number of ways So you can look at the Mormons and you can say they are teaching heresy

You can look at the Jehovah's Witnesses, and it's still heresy, but a different form you can look at Judaism as a religion and say that is heresy, but in a different form it's anything that takes away from the the deity of Jesus and the teachings of Scripture Just kind of broadly speaking and so that's what heresy is

So if you're a heretic biblically defined you are one of those teachers. You're a person that steps into that role and are trying to Teach these things spread them out and get as many people to believe them as possible

And as he says to Titus subverting whole houses while you're doing that so that would be a heretic

Biblically defined teaching heresy Kind of biblically defined now. Here's the the kicker

Emily is that any given person? could say Unheretical thing so I could get up and just out of out of ignorance perhaps say something or word something in a certain way

That could be heretical because it's inconsistent with scriptural teachings

And so you have well -meaning teachers all around the world today that may be behind a pulpit

With a genuine faith toward Christ and that are trying their best but in ignorance

Accidentally teach something heretical so you have that dynamic too that doesn't make the person a heretic

Because he's number one. He's not doing it intentionally and number two. It's not the norm like it's not his habit

It's not what he's trying to accomplish But it could still be heretical and that's more accidental so you have legitimate heretics, and you have heresy and Sometimes that there's some crossover with really well -meaning people that just accidentally

Trip up over some of these things you have a thought Robert You eventually have the blind leading the blind sure so sometimes there's the well -meaning who are

Blind leading the blind, but other times you've got a Satan or a devil or a blind shepherd

He's like yeah, I'm gonna see how many of the flock I can lead astray right

There's the accidental blind leading the blind, and then there's the intentional you know master

Mastermind absolutely so there could be like a nefarious nature behind it, and that's and that's the kind of people We're dealing with here, but to Roberts point even if it's a well -meaning person

And but this is why it's so important that we have a singular Objective standard that being scripture to use is our soul infallible rule of faith what we go back to what all teachers are held accountable to so in that case

Robert it can still be a well -meaning blind person leading people into the ditch and Even though they may not be a damnable heretic again with that nefarious

Intention behind it like what Jude talks about that the for them is reserved the blackness of darkness forever

It may not be that kind of person they may even be a genuine Christian But they will still be held to the same standard as every other minister

And if they if they fail, maybe it's just indeligent Bible study who knows what could happen there

I mean one of the things that you said is You you may end up as the least in the kingdom sure you're still there right for all of your shortcomings

That is absolutely right And James speaks of this at the very beginning of James He says my brethren be not many masters or teachers those in an authoritative teaching position knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation and so You want to be careful with that you even if you're well -meaning you don't want to be blind to Roberts point in the sense of being ignorant of the scriptures because you're not maybe a diligent student of God's Word maybe you love the

Idea of just being in that position, so you just jump into it But you're not prepared for it, and that can be pretty messy pretty fast, so Hopefully that was helpful

Emily Thanks, Robert for your thoughts there. That was very helpful Absolutely and that is pervasive in certainly in the

American Church, which is and it's a bit It's also a big Southern Baptist thing, but Essentially yes the more programs the better, but the problem is the more programs require more teachers

And so you know you could Robert could walk in the door First and foremost you have to be a good teacher and then you have to be a good student and then you have to be a good On a

Sunday morning at Park Meadows if we're in this context of Southern Baptist structure

Robert you seem really zealous you want to pick up a class You know you could start next week if you want mate

You know we could give you some trainings if you need it But we believe in you and and what's funny is Robert very well could be in a position where he could do that But it would still be unwise on the church on the part of the church

They do it all the time because I mean you don't know the people yet You don't know where they're coming from you don't know what they're

You know that their worldview is There's always a dire need for volunteers

That's right, and so in Katie's point once again that may be an example of well -meaning people like sure

I'll help the church out. I mean I want to be a servant of the Lord. I want to be a servant of The church so I'll step into that teaching role

And they're not in the slightest bit prepared and they may teach something or get everyone's thoughts

And it just derails and it turns bad quick Knows the demons he knows and that's and he has matched his word to the to what is necessary to combat

Satan and what he teaches it. That's why we need consistency in what we teach absolutely and Obviously here we believe strongly in that no class

Should be filled with a teacher unless that teacher is apt to teach the person is apt to teach and has the biblical foundation

To do it Correctly so to your point Mimi when you don't have that approach You can go to a church and be hearing what just totally different in some cases contradictory teachings and it leads to confusion which totally puts water on The fire that any new believer has going into that and that's the devil's game plan ash.

Sorry you had a thought This is very When I first Was looking at this verse and thinking about what you said about the

Word he uses where we get man, yeah Just thinking about how this could be possibly a really good verse to contrast

The way that you Handle scripture versus what was common in the rest of the world at that time with the mythology and stuff like that you could have

It was like their their religions were based on made -up stories So what's the harm in made -up stories or taking something that's not meant to be?

You know an allegory of an allegory or whatever just I? Feel like this could be a good verse that shows the contrast

Versus what was common with the Greeks and Romans at that time These aren't just stories, and it's still a problem today.

We'll say you know the Genesis is you know? Whatever what do they say?

It's a myth you mean like it's you know there's a there's a spiritual message behind it, but it's not literal

The creation didn't really happen that way But we can we can take things from it

And it seems like what he's saying is when you do that there's no end to the possible meanings

Versus reading you know what you have Literal historical you know well in this your that is a great point ash because You know you do see dangers in over spiritualizing things

Going after like pagan Right so it's not just totally out of character for the

Jews in this context to be like yeah, we're gonna treat these You said that they actually were reading

Genealogies that are in the Old Testament, but making Yes, patient that was just way out out of this world crazy

And we see it again right here, and it's like if you're gonna if you're gonna Read scripture in that way you can't take whatever you want from it.

It doesn't have it loses its actual You know intent yeah, and we'll see

Paul later on emphasizing with Tific with Timothy especially The importance of essentially clinging to the scripture with Titus he says hold fast the faithful word

So that is again you cling to the subjective standard it will protect you from the endless

Goings on of these people and he's gonna say the same thing in different words to Timothy in both epistles

But another thing to remember is you know ash mentioned like the Greek myths and things like that We know that pagan culture was built upon myths and legends and stories and things like that But the

Jews had their own version of it to the intertestamental literature that we have what you might call the Apocrypha A lot of those things are really bizarre

You know they had their own myths and legends that they had and so just because these were Jews doesn't mean they

Had less weird mythology essentially You think that was them kind of succumbing to the culture around them or do you think it's just well

You have some people talk about the fact that Jews at this time definitely had a Hellenistic Bent even the religious ones because of the culture

But even the ones that were careful to stay set apart from the pagan culture

They again still had their own history up to this point

That in many cases were built upon by all intents and purposes myths and legends and things of that sort

The Apostles they come in from Babylon with Kabbalah stuff, with Talmud stuff, with phony stuff

Right, and they're like yeah, do you want to pick Ashtoreth and Baal and Molech? We can make that work.

Like do you want to merge it with you know an extra fencing around the law? No like they've been deep they've been a pendulum swinging since the death of Moses and Joshua like Just read how

God judges through the time that Jesus goes. They're all like pendulums swinging.

Absolutely, and your point is even from the earliest phases after the Exodus, you know, two generations later you have the idol worship starting and You know you have that 400 years of darkness when the voice of God stopped.

Malachi writes the prophecy and then God was not speaking through the prophets for four centuries and during that time

It just it just all bubbled into any host of different things to Robert's point there,

Phariseeism being one of them. That was the birth of the Pharisees was the end of Malachi and those 400 years of darkness before John the

Baptist comes on the scene. So you had a lot for these false teachers to work with and that goes back to the main point that Paul is trying to make here, which is

Don't heed these things. Don't don't Occupy yourself with these things because It'll totally sap you of your energy

It'll sap you of your time and you won't be able to actually grow the flock like you've been called to do and so Anyway, we'll continue this next week.

We're out of time now, but obviously Fables and then the genealogies which we haven't talked about a lot just yet goes hand -in -hand with it

And it is another example of them, you know using Ashton alluded to it a second ago

We talked about this in Titus But they could use even legitimate Jewish genealogies to waste their time with and we'll talk more about why next week as we kind of progress through it

And move on into verse 5 and beyond so we will end there today There's we have like 90 seconds if anyone has any other thoughts.

Yeah, go ahead Colin Yes, please do Absolutely And the answer is a ton more than we could list and so there's a principle

There's absolutely a principle here and it's important especially for zealous Christians. So think about it you have

Christians step into the Into the field ready for battle ready for the spiritual battles at play ready for the culture war ready to bring

America back to You know biblical foundation Well, the devil is far more aware of who the big players are and what they can and can't do than we are and so what he will do is

He will take it He will exploit the zeal by just giving us a platter of targets to hit things to focus on debates to have and Enemy, you know

Perceived enemies that we need to be putting all of our focus on and things of that sort and that's not even including

Just the general attention grabbers that all of culture has from You know technology to to just the instant gratification kind of culture that we live in So you insert a zealous Christian into that you have all of these online mechanisms that make it really easy to interact with those that are trying to make a mockery of God's Word that we want to protect and hold fast to ourselves and If we're not careful that can eat up all of our time.

And so It's a good thought to end on and that is you see in Paul a distinction between useless debates and fruitful debates

Obviously in Athens. He was able to discern that it was a time to be

Debating a little bit and he did so great Greatly, and he was able to do so and hold, you know

What's the term I'm looking for? Basically hold the fort down Philosophically even against all that Athens had to bring forward to him at that time so we know there's a time where we can stand up and Defend the consistency and the harmony of the

Word of God in the end just plant the seeds It doesn't guarantee success quote -unquote But we plant the seeds because God God calls us to do that and the

Holy Spirit takes over from there But then there are other times and this is one example of it as well Where it is not fruitful there will not be any fruit to come from it

And so that principle applies to every Christian across the board Timothy was in a particular context but for every

Christian we all have the potential to fall into those traps and To spend too much time on things that won't bear any fruit in you know, ultimately

And I will say this I couldn't sit up here and tell each and every one of you which would be fruitful and which wouldn't the

Lord you know calls Certain people with certain gifts to particular battles that he doesn't call others to fight and so You know that the

Holy Spirit needs to lead there and the only way that you can feel crystal clear about where he's leading you Is by spending time in his word letting his word inform your conscience

Spending time with the Lord in prayer and at that point you can feel really good about the battles that you feel like yes

It's time to go in it's time to you know Defend the faith here and that is something that needs to be avoided in some cases at all costs

Which is kind of what's going on here and that's interesting. So Absolutely, Colin. We need to take that principle and make some application

Ourselves and ensure that we're not wasting the very valuable time. The Lord has us With or has given us because we need to be using that zeal to bear fruit which is what ultimately expands his kingdom on earth and and Can can change and reform culture as well while we're doing it but if the devil can convince us to use all that energy on on Endless debate on genealogies and fables and things like that.

Then there you go. It's we use it up So great thoughts everybody. Thank you all for your input today.

We'll pick it right back up here next week Heavenly Father. Thank you so much for this wonderful day for bringing us together and giving us the opportunity

To open up the pages of Scripture and to be edified by them and to Make application in our own lives from them even while recognizing the very real

Context that they were given in the the very real battles that Timothy as a man in History had to face we can learn about him.

We can learn about what he faced we can be thankful for men like him and The grace of you giving us men like Paul and Timothy in church history to To give us the scriptures themselves, but also to show us what godly character looks like in action

So we thank you for that. But at the same time the principles underneath them are Transcendent they they can be applied to every generation of believers and disciples of your son

And we thank you for that and we ask that you give us the guidance in the wisdom and the discernment for applying them

Appropriately be with us for the remainder of our services today We thank you so much for the fellowship that we're about to have and we ask all these things in your name.