¶ Introduction and Acknowledgment of Fathers
Good morning. Good morning. Take your Bibles, if you will, and open them to 1 Timothy. Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers who are present with us. We're going to be picking up in the end of chapter three and headed into chapter four this morning in our text. Let's begin with a word of prayer.
Our gracious Father in Heaven, as we take this day to consider fathers and the benefit and the blessing that they are, we are reminded that we have a perfect Father who is in Heaven that shows the fathers that we have, both how to live and how to teach and how to guide and how to correct and instruct those who come after them. but who also lovingly cares for us. Lord, we thank you for your Son who came and died on the cross for our sins that we might have the hope of eternal life.
We pray that we might live in such a way as to walk in the light as you were in the light, stand approved before you when the day of judgment comes that we might live in your house. All this we pray and ask in Jesus' name, amen.
¶ Understanding the Mystery of Godliness
Paul writes to Timothy, he says, these things I write to you though I hope to come to you shortly. But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.
When Paul writes this, he's writing about the mystery. Paul uses the term quite often. We've discussed it even recently. This idea of that which had not been revealed but now has.
Remember growing up occasionally on uh television, they would have the... uh magician secrets revealed type show where where the magician would perform the magic trick and then they would show you how it actually was done how you it looked entirely like that person had been sawing in three pieces lo and behold they weren't and how it worked Did the magic trick have the same impression on you after you knew how it was done as before? Not at all. Why? because you could see it with perfect clarity.
You knew how it was done. Now, turn over to uh Peter for just a moment for a little bit of color concerning this. Go to 2 Peter chapter 1. In 2 Peter chapter 1 we read in verse 16 Peter writing to the early church, he says, For he received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to him from the most excellent glory, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.
And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns. the morning star rises in your hearts, knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of men, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by... the Holy Spirit.
Peter, as he's writing to them about prophecy, about Jesus, about the miraculous confirmation of who Jesus was by the voice that spoke from heaven, and they were eyewitnesses to it. It says you need to realize that if you build your faith, your hope, your trust, and your life on the prophecies of the Word of God... then you're not building in on the word of men. because men didn't deliver the prophecies of the Old Testament. God did by the work of the Holy Spirit through men.
And so they spoke not of their own will, not of their own interpretation, not of their own thoughts concerning what was coming. If they had written down their thoughts about what was coming, they would have been as wrong as the people in the first century were about what was coming. m But they didn't write their thoughts. They wrote God's words about what was coming. If you look over... oh In 1 Peter chapter 1.
Peter writes, beginning in verse 8, writing to many Christians who, at that present point in time, had never met Jesus in person. They didn't walk the streets of Judea and Galilee with Him in AD 30 or 31 or 32 or 33. They weren't present at his baptism and they weren't present at the Mount of Transfiguration. They didn't eat of the bread that he gave and the fish that he gave to the multitudes. They had never met Jesus in person.
And Peter writes, verse 8, whom having not seen, speaking of Christ, you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory. receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Of this salvation, now I want you to note what he's about to say and what topic he's discussing. Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired
and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you." Notice the discussion and the very specific application of this discussion is concerning the salvation that came by Christ and specifically the grace that came by Christ. What is it that John wrote in John chapter 1 concerning Christ? Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. And the prophets, as they prophesied, inquired and searched carefully to understand these things.
Verse 11, searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. As you look down the specific application, Peter has said they searched out the salvation that they prophesied about trying to understand it. They searched out the grace that was involved in the salvation trying to understand it.
They searched out the time of the situation that they were prophesying about to try and understand it. And they searched out the sufferings of Christ and the glory that would come trying to understand it. And notice what he says. When he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow, to them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things
which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into." Peter says, when you understand that the Old Testament prophets who made those prophecies which were assured of, which were certain, which were guaranteed by God, which had been fulfilled without fail, they didn't understand them.
They studied them, they searched out what they meant, they tried to understand them, and all they knew was that it wasn't going to happen in their time. That they were prophesying about something that was going to come. And now Peter says, you've lived through it. You've received the end of the prophecies that were made. Now what is that that Peter's talking about? Salvation, the grace, the suffering, the glory. It's the mystery that Paul's talking about in 1 Timothy.
That same context is the context in which Paul says without controversy. There's no argument about this, Paul writes. No one, no one argues about this, that great is the mystery of godliness.
¶ The Manifestation of God in Christ
He's not saying that there's some great mystery on how someone becomes godly before Christ and before God and that if you know some strange mystical, magical knowledge, then you'll suddenly know how to become holy and godly. That's not what he means. As a matter of fact, he's saying it's without controversy. that great is the mystery the formerly unrevealed now revealed godliness. What is that? It's the salvation Peter was writing about.
When a person goes from being lost to being saved by the blood of Christ, in whose image are they now? after having been saved by the blood of Christ. Christ. They look like Christ. They are in the image of Christ. They have the godliness of Christ. They have the justification and sanctification of Christ. And Paul says, it's no, it's not, there's no argument that great, magnificent is the mystery of godliness. That the prophets desired to look into it. That the angels desired to understand it.
How was God gonna do this? He prophesied he was gonna do it. He declared he was gonna do it. He said he was gonna do it for the Jews and for the Gentiles. but they didn't know how. And yet, Paul's going to line out, line by line, in a poetic form, exactly how God did it. So notice what we read. God was manifested in the flesh, number one. How was God going to do this?
How was God going to fulfill the prophets and the prophecies of the Old Testament in bringing about the salvation, the grace, the suffering, and the glory that had been spoken about by the Old Testament prophets and that they did not understand and neither did the angels? Paul says it began, number one, with Christ coming in the flesh. Without that, none of it mattered. Without that, none of it was possible. John chapter 1 and verse 1, in the beginning was the Word.
And the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was the life. light of men. in Christ who came in the flesh, who died in the flesh, God in His fullness was represented and manifested. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit. Question. which individual in all human history could stand before God on the day of judgment justified by their own actions.
Jesus Christ and Him alone. He came in the flesh, he was justified in the Spirit. No fault, no flaw, no point of condemnation, sinlessly perfect. Hebrews chapter 4 tells us about that. Hebrews chapter 4 verses 14 through 16. And so Paul says he was, God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels. Now, wouldn't that be just a little bit strange to say that God was seen by angels? Don't angels see God all the time? Aha! Yes, in heaven angels see God all the time.
But remember what Peter said, that the prophecies of what God was doing and how that salvation was going to come, even angels desired to look into, how was God going to do this? And then the angels come and they see Jesus not in heaven, but on earth in the flesh. What happened when the demons, those of the legion that had indwelled the man there by the Sea of Galilee, there at Gennesaret, what happened when they recognized who Jesus was?
Did they deny that he was the Christ, the Messiah, that he was God? No. What did they say? They acknowledged who he was, and then they said, have you come? to destroy us or to condemn us before our time. They knew who he was, but they had never before seen him in the flesh, rather in the spirit. So he was seen by angels. But then consider, he preached among the Gentiles. Wait a minute, I thought Jesus only went to the Jews. What are the occasions in which Jesus went to the Gentiles?
All right, the Samaritan woman wouldn't necessarily have been considered a Gentile, she would have been considered a Samaritan. I think it's the Gentiles. When did Jesus go to the Gentiles? What are the specific examples we have of the Gentiles and Jesus interacting? All right, number one, the centurion whose servant was ill unto death. And Jesus said, I will come to your house. And the man says, I'm not worthy for you to come to my house. But I am a man who has authority.
And when I speak, it's done. If you will but say the words, then... My servant will be healed. And Jesus said for his servant to be healed, the very same hour his servant was healed. And the text tells us that Jesus observed he had not seen so great faith, not in all Israel, because this man was not an Israelite. He was a centurion. He was a Roman. Who else? There's an occasion where Jesus gets away from the crowds with his disciples into Tyre.
And as he is there in Tyre, a woman comes to him whose daughter is dying, is sick and dying. the Syrophoenician woman. She's from Tyre and Sidon. She's a Syrophoenician. She's a Gentile. and she comes pleading with him to heal her daughter. And Jesus says it's not fitting that the food from the table be taken from the children and cast to the dogs. What did she reply? Even the dogs get to eat from the crumbs that the children drop from the table.
Unless you're in my house, then the children aren't allowed to drop any food for the dog to eat. That's right, because I do it instead. in the last week of Jesus' life. Gentiles come searching for Jesus in Jerusalem and they inquire of Philip where he is. Now we don't have the whole interaction, but we know that there were Gentiles searching for Jesus. So all throughout the text, we have examples of Jesus preaching to the Gentiles.
By the way, the man who was there at Gennesaret, who was possessed by those demons, the people who were in the city, had those servants who were keeping their what? that the demons went into. Swine. Did Jews keep swine? No. There's a city of Gentiles. And this man who's there, no indication he's a Jew. He's there outside of a Gentile city. No indication he's a Jew.
And yet Jesus, when Jesus leaves and the man wants to go with him, tells him rather to go back to his own house and to declare these things to his own people. Jesus through him goes to the Gentiles. All of these are examples. Did somebody have a question? Most of them, yes. It would have been a mix around the Sea of Galilee.
depended on the side nearest Palestine and Jerusalem and the region of Galilee was primarily Jewish, but the side on the other side had populations of Gentiles, and so it would have been a mix around the Sea of Galilee. So, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world. Jesus said, except you believe that I am He, you shall die in your sins. Believed on in the world, received up in glory.
If they had believed on Jesus and Jesus had gone to the cross and then gone to the grave and stayed there, would He have accomplished the salvation that had been spoken of by the prophets? No. See, the last piece can't be left off because the last piece was prophesied. The last piece was important too. It was even seen in the figure. Jesus connected it to Jonah. The Jews asked for a sign and He said, I give you no sign but the sign of Jonah. He also spoke concerning the temple.
He said, three days I shall destroy this temple and rebuild it again. And they thought he was talking about the physical structure of the temple. He wasn't. He was talking about his death, his burial, and his resurrection. Paul says, I want you to understand, Timothy, how you ought to behave in the church, which is the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth that God has brought salvation to every person under heaven through Christ and Him alone.
And that without the fulfillment of prophecy, without the fulfillment of the things that have been spoken of beforehand, without the fulfillment of the mystery that the prophets desired to look into, the angels desired to look into, and none of them understood. Without that, there'd be no salvation.
¶ The Role of the Church in Upholding Truth
So who has to uphold and defend the truth of the gospel message? The church does. In order to accomplish that work, The church needs elders and deacons serving faithfully, meeting the qualifications for the work. Turn to Ephesians chapter 4.
This is not without precedence in Paul's other writings in Ephesians chapter 4. m And he himself, speaking of Christ, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, this is verse 11 of Ephesians 4, some evangelists, some pastors, that's elders, and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.
till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by trickery of men, incunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ."
from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Paul says that the work of the apostles in the first century, the prophets in the first century, the evangelists in the first century, the elders or pastors in the first century, and the teachers in the first century.
was all woven together to produce a strong, mature, healthy, growing church. Now which of those five groups, which of those five groups have work that's been fully completed already? The Apostles? and the prophets. Their work's done. What was their work? All right?
The apostles were to not only declare the word and to confirm it through the miracles that they did, but also laid hands on individuals so that they could both preach the word and confirm it, because it was past word of mouth to people. So they needed, as opposed to a written down uh copy of it like we have, they needed some sort of confirmation that the word being preached was correct.
And the Apostles' work was not only to deliver the truth to the first century church, to convert people, but also to give them the ability to perform miracles to confirm the word as they preached it. What was the work of prophets? Well, let me ask you this, what was the work of the Old Testament prophets? to speak God's word. Short and simple. They were the, what the word prophet actually means, they were the mouthpiece of God.
So the prophets in the first century were those who declared God's word by inspiration and they declared the very words of God to the first century church. But then, They reached a point when they didn't need that anymore. Why was there a point reached where they didn't need the miraculous anymore? Is it because there were no more sick people? No. Okay. We still got those.
So if there was a point at which the miraculous ceased, it wasn't because the purpose of the miraculous was to heal sick people. All right? There was a, essentially a large enough base of believers and written down, confirmed words from the Holy Spirit. They didn't need the confirmation anymore. All they needed were the letters.
They didn't need... someone to come along and verbally tell them about the life of Jesus and perform a miracle to confirm their words, they could just open up the letter from Matthew or the letter from John and read whether or not the person was speaking the truth.
Luke writes at the beginning of both the book of Luke and the book of Acts that he was an individual who had perfect knowledge, inspired knowledge, to know what things that the early church were saying about Jesus were correct and that he compiled that knowledge into the book of Luke and into the book of Acts. So they reached a point where they had the letters, they didn't need the miracles. But what about the Word of God?
I didn't they still need the miraculous inspired Word of God to be spoken by prophets? Jude writes in verse 3 of the book of Jude, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning the common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude is writing to them saying, you need to stand up for the message that has already been given to you.
You need to stand up and defend and stand firm on the truth that has already been given. Paul writes in Galatians chapter one, Verse 6, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another, but there are some who would trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
But even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed, as we said before. So now I say again. If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be a curse. So what should we think about the supposed gospel that was delivered in the 1700s A.D. to Joseph uh Smith? we should think that Joseph Smith is accursed.
What about the gospel declared by the Catholic Church as revealed in the 600 A.D.s? accursed. Why? Because it doesn't agree with what's already here. They didn't need the prophets to continue prophesying the revelation directly from God because they said in the authority of the apostles that if they teach you anything we didn't already teach you, they're liars. So there was nothing new to be received. There's still nothing new to be received.
A man came into the congregation where the director of the school of preaching where Eddie and I attended was at one time. Walked in on Sunday morning right before Bible class, introduced himself to the preacher. He told Wesley, I've been told by the Holy Spirit to come here and deliver a message to you this morning. And Wesley said, okay. Well, we're about to start Bible class. We can talk afterwards. So, had Bible class.
As Wesley was standing at the back, the man came up to him and said, I was told by the Holy Spirit to come here this morning and deliver a message to you this morning. And Wesley said, that's okay. I already know it. He's like, what do mean? The Holy Spirit told me to come here and deliver a message to you. It's okay. You don't need to. I already know it. He's like, you can't possibly know it. He told me to come here this morning and deliver a message to you. And he said, no, I already know it.
He said, you don't understand. And he quoted the text and said, if you're here to deliver something that's from the Holy Spirit, I already know it, I don't need you to deliver it because it's already right here. And if it's something that's not already right here, then I would have to ask you, are you sure it was the Holy Spirit who told you to come here this morning? because if it's not already right here, the voice you heard in your head wasn't the Holy Spirit.
You see, we're not waiting for any modern-day revelations. And anyone who claims to have a modern-day revelation has no authority to declare something different than what we've already received. And if they declare only what we've already received... It's not a modern day revelation. It's what we've already had for 2,000 years.
Paul is writing to Timothy to reiterate that the work of elders and deacons in the church is to assure and guarantee that there will be no departures from the message which has already been delivered. Do not miss this. If there is an eldership anywhere on the top side of God's green earth that declares that the church should be doing something other than what is already in the text. they should be removed. and if they won't repent they should be withdrawn from. because they are false teachers.
of the same category and quality as Joseph Smith who claimed to receive a revelation from an angel in a dark room in the 1700s. Their job is to stand firm on the message that has already been revealed. Not to change it. Not to update it. Not to make it on parity with modern times and modern knowledge. but to hold fast to the Word which has already been revealed as the pillar and the ground of the truth. So we know a number of times where portions of it were assembled.
We've ah got records of early copies that were like by 150 AD that contained much of the New Testament. The Old Testament and New Testament wasn't combined in a single... compilation shall we say, because bear in mind up until the printing press you were dealing with, you may have assembled a whole lot of scrolls, but you were still dealing with scrolls by and large. right, so the technology for a single bound volume didn't come until the 14th century.
But up until that point already by the 3rd century AD you had all of the books assembled and There was discussion among many as to whether or not this book should be included or this book should be included or is this one right or is this one not right. But as early as 150 AD, you have a compilation of the New Testament with all of the books that we now have.
¶ Warnings Against Departing from the Faith
Yeah. All right. So chapter four, I told you we'd get into chapter four. Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith. Why is it that Paul was talking about the church as the pillar and the ground of the truth? He says because the Holy Spirit has been clear that there are those who claim to be Christians who will depart from the faith.
When you walk down this hallway and you turn the corner and you stand there at the water fountain and you look at the chart that shows where a bunch of different churches that we know of in Western culture originated and started and what year they started. That chart's there for reason.
It's there to remind you that that's what the Holy Spirit already said was going to happen, that there would be individuals who would depart from the faith and draw away people after themselves instead of remaining faithful to Christ. Matter of fact, where is Timothy when Paul writes this letter?
Ephesus, what eldership did Paul meet with the last time that he saw them while he was on the earth and tell them that even from among their own eldership there would be those who would arise and seek to draw away people after themselves? Ephesus. Paul's telling Timothy to continue warning the elders and the church that there will be false teachers who depart from Christ.
And we as a church and the church collectively across the globe must always be diligent to remember that the Holy Spirit was not ambiguous on this topic at all. He guaranteed us that there would be people who would depart from Christ and teach their own doctrine instead of his. So it shouldn't surprise us. It also should not cause us to join hands with them and say, we'll all just agree to disagree. No, we'll agree to either agree with God or we'll disagree about disagreeing.
Because at the end of the day, there's only one truth, and there's only one pillar and ground to the truth, and there's only one church that belongs to Jesus Christ. It's the one that does the will of his Father. And if we don't, we're not of that number. And if we won't uphold the truth that God delivered, we're not of that number. So we must be certain that when we measure ourselves against this... that if we don't match, it's us that better change. Because this never will.
Thank you for your attention.