Thank you, Paul and music team. I'm going to
ask you to open your Bible with me to 1st Timothy
as we begin a study of a book that tells us how
to do church. Have you ever had a close friend,
a relationship that was so dear to you that that
person seemed like a part of your family, perhaps
even more precious than your own brother or sister?
Perhaps even more precious than your parent.
I've had a few of those relationships in my life.
I remember a family that we became close to in
our ministry in Kentucky and still today, out
of all the people, the hundreds of people in
that church, they're the ones that we stay in
closest contact with. We see them each time we
go back. He happens now to be a state legislator
in Kentucky and is serving the Lord as a teacher
in a school system in northern Kentucky, but
a legislator as well. And whenever we get together,
well, you know, we just let our hair down. We
have a good time. Because we're close. We're
like family. Our kids, when they were all small,
they thought they were really cousins to each
other. Those kinds of relationships are precious.
And that's how Paul felt about Timothy, whom
he calls my true child in the faith. My true
child in the faith. Elsewhere, he refers to Timothy
as my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.
He says he served with me like a child serving
his father. Paul apparently had led this young
man to Christ on his first missionary journey
as he went to the city of Lystra where Timothy
was reared. At that time, Timothy was probably
a teenager. He may have been as old as 18 or
19. Some think he was even younger than that.
Then just a few years later, three or four years
later, Timothy had grown so much in the Lord
that the Apostle asked him to become a part of
his traveling missionary team. What an honor
was Timothy's. They traveled together. They ate
together, worked together, taught together. So
much so that the apostle says of him to the Philippians,
I have no one else of kindred spirit. Have you
ever seen Anne of Avonlea? She was always looking
for someone of kindred spirit. And she found
a few. That's the way that Paul felt about this
young man, Timothy. Such relationships are treasures
in life. And if you don't have many of those,
I want to encourage you to work at it. Really
work at having those kinds of close relationships.
After Paul's release from his first confinement
in a Roman prison, it seems that he traveled
again for several years. This is not recorded
in the book of Acts, but early historians of
the church tell us about Paul's travels after
his first imprisonment. Then later he was imprisoned
again, you recall, and ultimately martyred in
Rome. In that interim period between the two
imprisonments, Paul did a good deal of traveling,
and on one of his journeys he went through Ephesus,
where he had spent years of his life, where he
had led many people to Christ and baptized them.
He went back to Ephesus, and with him on that
occasion was Timothy. Apparently, because of
some problems that had arisen in the church,
Paul left Timothy behind. He said, Timothy, I
want you to stay here while I go on. He went
on to the area of Macedonia, and there he penned
a letter back to Timothy, and that's what we're
studying together. I invite you to open your
Bible and follow along as I begin reading in
verse 1. 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 in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As I urged you upon my departure from Macedonia,
remain on at Ephesus. In order 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. But the goal of our instruction is
love from a pure heart and a good conscience
and a sincere faith. 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. But we know that the law is good
if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that
law is not made for a righteous man, 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 or
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. Now, as we think
about the book of 1 Timothy, we need to understand
that this book is written to a pastor. That doesn't
mean that its content is only relevant for pastors.
It's relevant for all of us. But it does mean
that he's going to talk about a pastor's responsibility
and the role of various people in the church.
I think we have a key verse for the book of Timothy
in chapter 3. Where in verse 14 he says I am
writing these things to you Hoping to come to
you before long, but in case I'm delayed I Write
so that you may know how one ought to conduct
himself In the household of God which is the
Church of the Living God So he is writing back
to Timothy who is now probably in his mid -30s
possibly as old as 40, and we all know how young
40 is. He is writing to this young man to tell
him how he is to do church, what it means to
have church, what a church is about, what are
some of the orders for the church. And so I've
arranged an outline of the book along that theme,
and if you have your outline in your folder you
can turn to it. Chapter 1, Paul explains that
If we're going to do church, if we're going to
be a church, if we're going to act like a church,
then in the first place we have to stay on course
with the message. We're going to talk about that
today and next week, possibly the week after
that. He goes on in chapter 2 then to say, if
we're going to do church, we must arrange order
in its ministry. It's a certain order for things.
Third, he says, if we're going to do church,
we have to maintain standards for those who are
leaders. In chapter four, he tells us that if
we're going to do church, we must guard against
the enemies who will attack us. And then in the
last two chapters, he says, if we're really going
to do church, if we're going to be a church,
then we have to resolve conflicts among the members
of the church. Now, amid the contemporary confusion
that exists today about what it means to be a
church, we need to take a fresh look at what
God has to say about it. To be a church, in the
first place, a congregation must stay on course
with God's message, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, someone says, well, that's obvious, isn't
it? Well, you would think it would be obvious
that to be a church one must stay on course with
God's message. But it's not as obvious to everyone
as we might think. For the sake of cultural relevance,
there are those who are willing to compromise
the message of Jesus Christ. In order to have
intellectual acceptance by some, There are churches
that are willing to change the message of Jesus
Christ. For the sake of being active in popular
social causes, there are so -called churches
that are willing to corrupt the gospel of Jesus
Christ. So do not think that this first statement
is as obvious as it may seem to you. That in
order for a congregation to truly be a church,
it must stay on course with God's message. Forsaking
that message or diluting it or confusing it forfeits
the claim of a group of people to be a church
in a biblical sense. So what I'm suggesting this
morning is that while there are lots of people
meeting even in our area under the name of church,
in a biblical sense they are a church only if
they have God's message proclaimed in their ministry.
That is why I'm saying that in order to be a
church, in order to do church, a congregation
must stay on course with God's message. That's
what Paul writes about in chapter 1. He warns
several times about going astray or turning aside
as he puts it in verse 6. There are some men,
he says, who have missed the mark. They have
gone astray in their message. The result of that
is that they have turned aside to fruitless discussion.
I'm especially aware of that verb turned aside
today because it's a medical term meaning to
dislocate. And I have a back that is dislocated
this morning. You may see that I am walking and
standing tenderly because of dislocation. Well,
it can happen to your body. It can happen to
your church as well. It can happen to your message.
You see, and what was happening in the church
at Ephesus apparently was a temptation to turn
aside from the gospel message. There were some
who had already strayed off course and had become
dislocated. They had twisted away from that message.
Paul warns about that. Now, to stay on course,
what we need to do is to use God's navigation
chart. If I can use that sort of a picture for
you. God has a navigation chart which He outlines
for us in this paragraph that we have read. And
on this chart He tells us with regards to our
message there is a port that we're heading toward.
There is a destination. He says there are perils
that we have to be aware of on this chart. so
that we stay clear of the peril. And he says
that there is plotting that needs to be done.
So let's think of it in those terms. The port
of our course is changed lives. That's the goal.
That's the destination that our preaching, our
instruction needs to have. That's where we're
headed with our ministry. It is the transformed
lives of all those who believe that is our goal.
In other words, the port of our course or the
goal we're headed for is not political activism.
It is not social causes. It is not cultural renewal,
nor is it national recovery. Not that any of
these things are bad in themselves. They may
even be a part of a byproduct. of what we do.
But the point is that our goal, our port, is
individual lives that are transformed by the
power of God. How can a church know if it's on
track? The answer is, check the lives of its
people. You don't necessarily look at its size.
You don't look at the annual budget. Its buildings
can fool you. It may have a wonderful reputation.
The only real way to know if a church is on course
is to see the lives of its people. That's the
goal that we seek in our message. really reduces
this to one word. When in verse 5 He says, the
goal of our instruction is love. Love, the greatest
of all Christian graces. Jesus said, by this
shall all men know you are My disciples if you
have what? Hello? Love for one another. Right.
He says, the Apostle Paul says, Now there abides
faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these
is what? Love. It's the greatest of all. So Paul
seems to pick out that word and he summarizes
transformed living in love. I think that's fair
enough. Because when one loves, there is a willingness
to seek the welfare of others, even enemies,
at personal sacrifice for the glory of God. That's
what love is. He says this love needs to come
from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and
sincere faith. Eugene Peterson has written a
paraphrase of the New Testament. If you don't
have it, you need to get it. It's called The
Message. If you enjoy the Living Bible, for example,
a paraphrase of the Bible, you'll even more enjoy
Eugene Peterson's The Message. Someone told me
recently that he was in a unique place to write
a paraphrase of the Bible because in the last
20 years he's not even read an English translation
of the Bible. All he's been reading is the Greek
and the Hebrew. Well, it takes a very special
person to do that sort of thing and because of
his acquaintance with the original languages
as well as his unique ability as a writer. Eugene
Peterson has written this paraphrase and he says
regarding this verse, this is how he puts it.
The whole point of what we're urging is simply
love. Love uncontaminated by self -interest and
counterfeit faith. A life open to God. That's
what we're talking about. The port of the course
that we're on, the goal of this course is changed
lives. You see, it's not enough for us to be
hearers of the Word. We must be transformed doers
of the Word. The measurement of a church is not
how much its people know about the Bible's content.
It is how much the congregation applies. in its
life. That tells you whether a church is on course.
It is not adequate merely to study the Bible
and to know its facts as important as that is.
Those facts must be allowed to transform us.
How does that happen? By welcoming God's truth
into our hearts. not merely taking it into our
heads, but allowing it to sink into the deepest
part of us. And they're choosing to yield to
what it says, to fashion our lives accordingly.
We were at the State Fair a few weeks ago and
went to the, what's it called, Heritage Square,
and back in there was a blacksmith shop. Can
we get back there? We happened to be there at
the time when the blacksmith was doing his work,
putting his iron into the forge, heating it up,
getting it nice and hot, and then putting it
on the anvil and pounding it. I don't think I'm
going to do that move again. Pounding that anvil.
And what happened? Well, that metal was conformed
to it. You see, that's what needs to happen when
we come to church. to a service. That's what
needs to happen when we open our Bibles to read
it. That's what needs to happen in our cell groups,
in our small churches, that our lives become
warm to it so that our lives then can be shaped
after the Word of God transformed to it. One
of our strategies adopted as a church is to teach
God's Word for life change. Our concern is for
more than content. It must go beyond that to
change in all of us who are hearers. And so we
cannot be content in our Sunday school classes,
in our small churches, in ourselves, in our Bible
studies, wherever in our ministry unless we are
seeing changed lives. Merely dumping the content
of the Bible into people's minds produces arrogant
airheads. It creates critical spirits of self
-absorbed people who are lazy and uncommitted.
It is insufficient, and when it happens it means
that a church is off course. For when a church
is on course, it will reach the goal of love.
changed lives, conformed to the life of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So my point is that we know we
are on course when we see changed lives, and
that's the port toward which we as a church have
chosen to head. Secondly, the peril of our course
is identified in this text as strange doctrines.
He says these we must avoid. These are doctrines
which are different. than those that harmonize
with the message of Christ. Here Paul is concerned
about false teaching from what were called Judaizers.
People who were committed to the Old Testament
law and sought to mix that law with the grace
of God. There also may have been some Gnostics
among them, but primarily it was Judaizers and
so they were misusing the law. Now Paul says
the law has a good purpose. It has a lawful use,
and what's its use? To expose sin. It shows where
we're short of God's glory. It reveals in us
the dark spots. The law's purpose is to expose
the sinfulness of sin. The law defines sin. Sin
has always existed even before the law of Moses,
but when God gave that law, when God gave the
Ten Commandments, it defined sin so that it could
be seen and understood. These people were saying
that somehow there is hope in the law. That is
that by keeping the Ten Commandments, And believing
in Jesus Christ, one could be saved. Paul says,
bad message, strange doctrine. We don't become
saved by keeping the law. The law tells us we
need a savior. Its purpose is then fulfilled.
These people were confused about that. You see,
our hope is not in ourselves. It's not in the
law. Our hope is in Jesus Christ. So there's
a warning here about false doctrines which sidetrack
from God's kingdom and God's purpose. He says
in verse 4, these things do not further the administration
of God. That is God's purpose. God's carrying
out His purpose. Strange doctrines never do that.
Well, you say we don't have Judaizers around
anymore. Well, perhaps not by that name, but...
We do have false doctrines that the Church must
be aware of. The Church, and I'm using that term
in the broadest sense, is today being told that
we should adopt what I'm terming populist theology.
Theology that is fashioned and formed by populist
movements in our nation, in our culture. The
gay movement is having an effect on the theology
of some so -called churches, as is the pro -abortion
movement, as is feminism. And what he is telling
us here is that we are to be sure that the message
stays pure. We're to stay on course and not give
heed to false doctrines, strange doctrines. that
come from populist theology. And then there is
prosperity theology. We must be aware of that
teaching that says somehow if we are faithful
to God and sacrifice for God and do all the things
we should, we're going to be healthy, wealthy,
and wise. That is a theology that is somewhat
declining, I think, today in the church, but
it's out there. You hear it on television. You
get mailings from people who teach this strange
doctrine. They're off course. There is a psychologized
theology. The gospel of self -help, the gospel
of the higher power, which mixes together the
feeble Attempts of man to help himself and the
gospel of Jesus Christ. Strange doctrines. How
are we to recognize these doctrines by testing
them against the Word of God? We're not to believe
everything we read or hear as though it's the
truth. The great American axiom is, does it work?
If it does, it must be okay. The Bible's axiom
is, is it true? If it's true, it's okay and it'll
work. We are so pragmatic in America. We look
for what works and if some teaching comes along
that seems to help the human condition, there
is a tendency to absorb it and adopt it and bring
it into the Word of God. We are not to compromise
in any sense the power of the simple gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ to transform lives. If
you're interested in this sort of thinking, these
notions, I would encourage you to get a hold
of a book entitled No God but God by Oz Guinness
and John Seal, who are the editors of it, which
exposes some of the strange doctrines in the
church today. So as we think about God's navigation
chart, He's given us the port. He said in journey
we are to avoid the peril of strange doctrines
which will wreck us. We have to navigate around
them in order to stay on course. And finally
He says the plotting of our course is by sound
teaching. Navigators have checkpoints on their
charts. At these points, they use various means
to find out where they are. Sometimes there are
visual sightings. This was especially common
before we had modern technology. Submarines had
to come to the surface and use the stars, or
perhaps if they thought they were close to some
body of land. They would check their chart and
see if the land was where they thought it should
be by visual sightings, by the stars. Today we
have satellites so that airplanes and ships and
submarines under the sea can nearly instantly
tell exactly where they are within a few feet
on the globe. So they can plot their course by
these measurements. How do we plot our course
so that we don't stray? The apostle says it is
by sound teaching. He says in verse 10, whatever
else is contrary to sound teaching. You see,
sound teaching exposes us when we have gone astray.
Sound teaching gives us assurance that we're
on track or it warns us that we have strayed.
Sound teaching helps us to know where we are.
Sound teaching from the Bible condemns sin. It
doesn't redefine it. It doesn't excuse sin. It
doesn't say you were just born that way, you
can't help it. Sound teaching confronts sin and
condemns it. It calls for repentance, not recovery.
Sound teaching also glorifies God, not man. It
points to God as Savior, not to man as his own
Savior. It honors God. It's not egocentric with
its theories and its therapies. Sound teaching
also stimulates to life change, not merely to
religious knowledge. Today in America there are
pulpits that apologetically give sermonettes
for Christianettes, who give out social commentaries
on the issues of the day, who provide humorous
monologues that entertain and tickle the ears
of the hearers. And some of those churches are
filling up. The only problem is the lack of sound
teaching will lead those churches to shipwreck.
Because it is only the sound teaching of the
gospel of Jesus Christ as he mentions in verse
11. The gospel of the blessed God that will keep
us on course. So we need constant sound teaching
for the plotting of our course so that we eventually
get to our goal. How are we to do church? We're
to do church by staying on course with God's
message. How do we do that? But we do that by
remembering that our goal is changed lives. That's
our port. That there are perils of strange doctrines
that are out there that will lead us astray.
We must be alert to those. We stay on course
by constantly checking ourselves against the
sound teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We as a church need to stay on course. But we
do that by each of us individually staying on
course. And so the question that I want to close
with is this. Are you on track spiritually? Have
you in the first place had a saving, genuinely
saving experience with Jesus Christ? Do you know
beyond the shadow of a doubt that He is your
Lord and Savior? And should you drop dead today?
Or you'd be involved in a terrible accident like
those 132 people on the airplane the other day.
You would at that instant of death go to be with
the Lord. I hope you have that assurance. If
not, will you trust the Lord Jesus? Genuinely
and truly? Are you allowing His Word to change
your life? Is your life hot enough spiritually
that it will conform itself? to the teaching
of the Word of God? Are you checking yourself
to be sure you're on course? These are important
questions for us as we track ourselves spiritually.
As we begin a new fall of ministry with excitement
and opportunities, I hope it's a time for all
of us just to stop and reflect for a moment and
say, Lord, am I Who and what and where I ought
to be and if not then Let's say Lord get me on
course Let's pray together Father you are so
good to us. You are gracious and kind and loving
and Today as we pause at the end of this message
It's a time for us to reflect individually on
whether we, personally, are on track spiritually
or if somehow we have been twisted and turned
aside and gone astray. There may be some of us
who are near rocks who have broken up because
we've shipwrecked. Thank you that you are willing
to give us a new beginning. that you are willing
to point us in the right direction, that you
are willing to be on board with us and be our
captain to steer our ship. I pray that right
now you might truly be the captain and lord of
each of our lives. Is he the lord of your life,
my friend? Before I finish praying, if he is
not, will you just lift your hand and say, Pastor,
today I am by the lifted hand saying, Jesus Christ.
will now be the Lord of my life. I've not been
listening to Him. I've gone astray. I've not
been on course. But I today, at this moment,
am making Jesus Christ the Lord of my life. Yielding
myself to Him. Would you lift your hand just
for a moment? Yes. Someone else? Father, I thank
you that you have spoken to this heart and I
pray that whatever the issues are, by your grace,
you would move into that life and bring about
that redirection that is so needed today. We
thank you that in your grace, your amazing grace,
you minister to us where we are. And I pray that
for those of us who can honestly say we believe
we're on course, I pray that we today will be
allowing you to change our lives by your word,
by the work of your spirit. Would you stand together
with me please with head bowed, eyes closed,
as we sing this chorus expressing our yieldedness
to the Lord. I surrender.