Book of 1 Timothy - Ch. 1, Vs. 1-5 (03/17/2002)

Paul’s Apostolic Authority in 1 Timothy 1:1-2

It's unlike any other book that Paul ever wrote. Maybe you've come to the conclusion they were all about the same, but this isn't. His introduction to this pastoral epistle is a little bit different. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of 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 Christ Jesus.

Did you ever wonder why Paul, the great man Paul, was able to do what he did, Virg? Did you ever wonder about that? Huh? Did you ever wonder why Paul could do what he did? Well, he gives us a little insight here.

David, did you ever think about Paul standing in front of the angry crowd and not being hurt? His faith was very, very strong, but that still doesn't explain how he could not be hurt. I know he was stoned and so forth, but they didn't really hurt him.

Well, let's look at that protection. Why? In the first verse, he tells us, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by commandment. Paul was commanded to be an apostle. Paul asserts his apostleship to Timothy, and he has certainly done so before in Ephesians.

He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus, by the will of God. Well, you couldn't get much better than that if you are by the will of God. What's the difference between the will of God and the commandment of God, Bill?

Yes, there is. I'm sorry to say, but there is. David?

God told us to do it, but now we're in a place where all we want to do is know. So I believe all we want to do is learn from the experience. On the human side, the commandment gives us the opportunity to want to do what we will.

The Will of God and the Commandments of God

All right.

The difference between commandment and the will of God. The will of God and the commandments of God are the same, but not exactly. The two words are not synonymous. All the commandments, which you find in the Bible, reveal the will of God.

This would include much more than the ten commandments. For example, we are told that it is the will of God that we pray. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

But that's not a direct commandment. There are many things which are the will of God, and they are expressed in his commandments. However, I do not think that we have revealed to us all the will of God.

Do you? Maybe you didn't hear me. We do not know all of the will of God. We know some of his commandments. He commanded Paul to be an apostle. Remember, however, that we have revealed to us enough of the will of God for salvation.

No, we won't. Well, he has revealed the will of God to know that man is not saved by obedience, not by the commandments. This is important to reiterate that there are so many today who say that the law is essential for salvation.

Now, we don't hear that much, but it's because we don't go around the crowd that believes that. In verse 8 of this chapter, Paul writes,. But you know that the law is good. If a man use it lawfully, how are we to use the law?

First, we have to see that the law is good. Wherefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. It is the very fact that the law is good and demands absolute goodness from man, in whom there is no good thing, that the sinner cannot obey it.

Paul says, Why was the law given if it's not for salvation, David? I hope I tell you some things before then. Well, that's true. The will of God, and to show that in order for a sinner to be saved, it's necessary to find a way other than obedience to the law.

To understand this is to use the law lawfully. That's exactly right. Well, that's true. A hundred percent. But we don't need to relegate all the law over, well, I can't keep it anyhow. We don't need to do that.

But we do need to be in obedience unto Christ. The glory of the gospel is that God had a way that he might be just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. In Acts, Paul preached, Bill, why couldn't they be justified by the law of Moses?

There's some morality in the word of God. People do the law.

David touched on that this morning. Man couldn't keep it. The law wasn't given to us but to reveal that God is holy, and that you and I are not holy. He is holy. I can't begin to describe that word. Jesus, the Christ, was holy.

The way that God saves us is the way of the cross, the way of the Lord Jesus. I am the way. He says the truth and the life. The law is not the way. Jesus Christ is the way, not the law. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians that he was an apostle by the will of God, that was true.

But when he wrote to this young preacher, Timothy, he says, I am an apostle by the commandment of God. Paul was made to be an apostle. It's not just because he's in the will of God today that he is an apostle.

There was a time when he commanded Paul to be an apostle. I think Paul might have been rather reluctant to become an apostle. I'm sure he could have offered excuses as Moses did. He hadn't been with the Lord as the other eleven apostles.

They'd all seen him. They'd all been with him. He never knew him in the days of his flesh. He knew him only as the glorified Christ. He said he was unworthy to be an apostle. But the Lord Jesus had said, I command you.

And he cannot take it back. That's the reason Paul could walk in to a synagogue or go before an angry crowd in Athens, you remember, or a group of rotten, corrupt sinners in Corinth, and boldly declare the gospel.

He was a soldier under orders. An apostle by the commandment. Not the commission, but by commandment. No one laid hands on Paul to make him an apostle. But the Lord Jesus personally gave him the authority.

No man has ever been treated as Paul was. Verse 3. And I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. There was a problem arising in the church.

No Other Doctrine and the Apostles’ Doctrine

That thou mightest teach some that they teach no other doctrine. In other words, they were teaching no different. That they teach no different doctrine. Paul wrote to the Galatians that there was no other gospel.

The Judaizers there were preaching another gospel. But Paul says, there is no other. No matter what they tell you, there is no other doctrine. No other gospel. There's only one. And there's only one doctrine.

The word doctrine refers to the teaching of the church. What should be the teaching of the local church? Should be what was from the very beginning. Following the day of Pentecost, it's recorded that they continued in the apostles' doctrine.

Do you remember in Acts? This is one of the four things which characterizes that church. Now let's look at the fingerprints of the church. Number 1. They taught the apostles' doctrine. Number 2. They had fellowship with each other.

Number 3. They prayed for each other. 4. The breaking of bread or the Lord's Supper. These are the four fingerprints of a church. A church is not a true church of Christ if its doctrine is not the apostles' doctrine.

Just that simple. I think this church is fully a church of Christ. However, we must hold to the apostles' doctrine, the basic truths of our faith, the scriptures, the integrity and inerrancy of the word of God, and they taught the deity of Christ.

Paul had been accused of not teaching that Christ was divine, that he was deity. If the teaching of the church is not right, it is not a church. It does not matter how many deacons they have, how many elders or pastors, song leaders or choirs, how many Sunday schools they have.

If the doctrine is not there, it is not a church. The world is full of not churches. The doctrine must be that of the apostles. It has been given to us. It was written down, and we have it. 4. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is of faith.

Fables, Endless Genealogies, and Gnosticism

So do. Endless genealogies. I wonder what that could mean. Greg, where are you? There you are. What do you think that means? Well, this could refer to the false teachers, that the church is just a continuation of Judaism, that it is just one genealogy following another, and not a matter of God dealing with man in different dispensations.

Such teaching leads to great confusion, as the positions of Israel and the church and God in their program. Also, the Greeks were teaching, at that time, what was known as demurrage. And this teaching became part of the first heresy, which is in the church, which was Gnosticism.

Bill, what is Gnosticism? Well, see if I can help you. They taught that there were many, many immunizations from God. God was the divine center. The original created a being. And that being created another being.

And that one created another and another and another. And they had to fit Jesus in some place. They wanted to fit Jesus in about where he was, but there had been many, many before him. What religion does that remind you of?

Well, let me make sure I understand this. If I said agnostic, then I would believe that there was either one God or another God. If I said Gnostic, then I would believe Gnostic. I would think specifically of a wide range of ways to God, all of which make him Jesus Christ in the whole way, maybe even in the first place, but just one point.

And if I believe in God, then according to Gnosticism, I would believe not only that there was a God, but there was only one God. Yes.

They believed Gnosticism, that you come back as another human being. If you were good, a better person. If you were bad, a worse person. Until finally, you would come back and be so perfect that you could become a God.

I don't know why people believe that. Yes, but they may not believe exactly what Mormons do. If you go to the church of the Jehovah Witness, they believe a little bit different. There is no church other than the Apostles' Doctrine, which ministers questions rather than godly edification, which is in faith.

In other words, Paul tells Timothy that all of these types of false teaching won't build you up in the faith. They may build you up, but not in the faith. I think we can observe today in the liberal churches the fruit of the many, many years of unbelief.

It has produced a hard core of almost heartless individuals who absolutely lack faith. They have rejected the word of God, and the results we see in their churches are unbelievable. Not to them, but they don't know the truth.

Charity, Faith, and a Good Conscience in the Church

Verse 5,. And the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of good conscience, and of faith unfeigned. Charity, or love, out of a pure heart. Verge, do you have a pure heart? No problem about it.

He tells Timothy that what is taught in the churches should produce love out of a pure heart. A pure heart is in contrast to our old nature. Pure versus corrupted. It means a person who has been made righteous in Christ and can now manifest the fruit of the Spirit, which includes love.

There are three things that should be manifest in the church. The first is faith. If we do not show faith, if we do not have faith, we will not show it. But if you have faith, it will show. Faith in God and in his word.

The second is love. Love is not something you simply mouth all of the time. That's not love. Love is an active concern for others, which means you won't gossip about them, or in any way bring harm to them.

Love is not something you just talk about. It is something that must be made manifest. You cannot manifest it unless it's in you. Faith should be lived out in the life of the church. And love should be lived out.

You do not need an organization and church officers. If faith and love are lacking, you have nothing more than a lodge. Glorified lodge. Little G. A religious club, or some sort. But if faith and love are manifest, the form of government is not so important.

It will come, but it will come right. The third thing that should be manifest in the life of the church is a good conscience. Here it gets personal. When you lie down at night, do you feel bad about something you said or done during the day?

Did you ever do that? I say, did you ever do that? Remember, I can't see you. You have to answer. Many sensitive Christians are like that. It is good to have a sensitive conscience. Many consciences have been seared with a hot iron.

That is, they're insensitive to right or wrong. Charlie, you know anybody like that? But these three wonderful graces, love, a good conscience, and faith, are the things Paul says should be manifest by believers in the local church.

I want to stop here. I think we have that. Some to a greater degree than others. But I found it very easy this morning, for the most part. I told David after the service that what he had preached was tremendous.

I hope you agree with that. I hope you see that, that he was trying to get over to us. Because it was straight out of the book and presented in a masterful way. Is there anything from anybody?

Urge to dismiss us, please. Father, I thank you for leading the church the way you have led us to be. And all the way to all of us to be now that we've come. When you were in bed at night, Lord, if you have offended someone, Lord, I thank you right now for what you've done.

I'm sorry that I'm talking. I'm definitely concentrating on loving one another, Lord. I thank you for that. As Christians, we can have a fellowship with one another. I thank you for that. You contain the blessings of the church, Lord.

You're full of the wisdom, Lord. I'm sure we got you. Lord, I thank you for the brother that gave me strength and knowledge, Lord, to survive the curse of being a shepherd, Lord, to give him the strength to keep me safe.

Lord, I thank you for brother Olin and Father Peter and so forth, to keep me safe, Lord, and to step up and do more like you, Lord. I thank you.