The Advocates of Unhealthy Teaching

Transcript

GR 1280
9/19/2004
The Advocates of Unhealthy Teaching
1 Timothy 6:3-5
Gil Rugh


We’re going to resume our study of I Timothy 6 together today. I was noting it’s been two months exactly. We broke off our study of I Timothy two months ago and a number of things intervened. A number of men have been here and ministered the Word, we’ve looked into some other subjects, but now we’re ready to return to our study of I Timothy 6 and move through the last chapter of this crucial letter.

Let me just remind you of the setting of I Timothy and perhaps you’ve joined us in recent weeks and so have not been part of the study. The Apostle Paul founded the church at Ephesus on his third missionary journey. That’s recorded in Acts 19. Paul spent more time in the city of Ephesus than is recorded in any other place in the book of Acts. In Acts 20:31 he wrote to the Ephesians, night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears. Paul poured his life and soul into the Ephesians. Day and night with all of his energy, all of his strength, all of his emotions, night and day with tears he ministered God’s truth to them.

Then in the book of Acts there is recorded Paul’s imprisonment at Rome, and during that imprisonment at Rome he took the time to write a letter to the church that had been established at Ephesus. And that’s what we have in our New Testament as the letter to the Ephesians. After his release from that imprisonment in Rome he traveled and for some of that he had Timothy as his traveling companion. And Paul and Timothy stopped at Ephesus together. And during that time it became clear that there were serious problems that had developed in the church at Ephesus. The church had been infiltrated by false teachers and thus false teaching. And while Paul could not stay long, he left Timothy there to deal with issues in the church that needed to be corrected. Then he wrote a letter back to Timothy, while Timothy was at Ephesus, to clarify some of the matters that had to be dealt with. This would do two things—1) it would focus Timothy’s attention on those things that he needs to deal with; 2) it would provide apostolic authority for Timothy, making corrections in the church, because he would have the letter from Paul the Apostle, the founder of the church, giving instructions for conduct in the church.

There would be another letter written to the church at Ephesus. Some thirty years after this letter, the letter to Timothy at Ephesus, Jesus Christ will personally send a letter to the church at Ephesus. And that’s recorded in Revelation 2. And there we find that much of what was instructed to that church was carried out, but there were areas where they failed to be faithful, and matters still needing attention.

In I Timothy 1 Paul made very clear as he began the letter that Timothy had been left at Ephesus for the prime purpose of putting a stop to false teaching. False teaching corrupts everything in the church. So after very short introductions in the first two verses of chapter 1, Paul immediately addresses the problems in the church at Ephesus. As I urged you, he says in verse 3, upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus. So when I went on to Greece, I had you remain in Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines, nor to pay attention to myths, endless genealogies. They give rise to speculation, they don’t further the work of God which is by faith. The goal of our instruction is to develop godly people.

But verse 6 says, 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 what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. You have false teachers characterized by errors and who know nothing about the subjects they are teaching, leading people astray. Any wonder the church at Ephesus is in trouble?

In chapter 1 verse 20 Paul made reference to two of these false teachers that he personally dealt with before he left Ephesus—Hymenaeus and Alexander. They are not the only false teachers, because he says, among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan so they’ll be taught not to blaspheme. And that’s the characteristic of false teachers—they blaspheme, they speak against Christ and they bring division among believers. So in chapter 1 verses 3-7 Paul focuses intensely on the subject of these false teachers. He returns to that subject when you come to chapter 4 verses 1-3. For the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. Now Paul reminds Timothy and the church at Ephesus through this letter that it’s not just the false teachers, but it’s the spirit forces that are behind the false teachers. These false teachers are motivated by deceitful spirits, they get their teaching from demons who work in their hearts and minds to bring this error and false teaching.

So in effect, false teachers in the church become demonic spokesmen. Now keep in mind as Paul warns about these false teachers, he’s talking about what is going on in the church that he established, the church where he stayed three years day and night, teaching them the Word of God, the church where he said I did not fail to teach you the whole counsel of God. And now false teachers, teaching contrary doctrines to what Paul taught, have infiltrated the church, and they accept it as teachers. This is a serious matter that is having a grave impact on the church.

When you come to chapter 6 Paul returns for the third time to the subject of these false teachers. It’s behind everything he’s talking about. In chapter 3 verse 15 Paul says that the church is the household of God, it’s the church of the living God. The church is the pillar and support of the truth. For when false teachers as agents of demons are attacking the truth of God; they are attacking the very heart of the church. They’re attempting to destroy the very purpose that God has brought the church into existence. The church is to be a center of truth, a center from which the truth of God goes out to bring the gospel of salvation to the lost; a place where the people of God are nurtured and nourished by the truth to grow in respect to their salvation. And the church at Ephesus is experiencing a major frontal assault on the truth, not from outside, but from inside. Some teachers that they had come to respect; to submit to and obey.

In chapter 6 the end of verse 2 there are two commands given—teach and preach these principles. And teach and preach these principles, these things, these principles or these things refer to what he has talked about up to this point. He said basically the same thing back in chapter 4 verse 11, prescribe or command and teach these things. It is very important that Timothy’s ongoing ministry be a ministry of teaching and preaching the truth that Christ has given through His apostles and prophets. Timothy is not at Ephesus to find out how to have a more successful ministry, how to get more people in the church, how to have the church have a better image in the community of the city of Ephesus. These commands given are simple, they are commands given in the present tense. You keep on teaching and you keep on preaching these things. In his second letter to Timothy he’ll tell them, you do it when it’s popular, you do when it’s unpopular, in season and out of season. Your responsibility is to be a communicator of truth. Teach and preach these principles, the truth that you are being entrusted with.

Now you’ll note verse 3 begins, if anyone advocates a different doctrine. So now Paul is going to focus attention on those who are teaching contrary to what he has instructed Timothy to teach. I want you to note something here before we go further. It’s become common in evangelical circles, and you’ve heard me talk about it again and again and again and again. And now we’re going to talk about it again. To say that we narrow it down to the essentials, the 3, 4, 5 things you must believe to be considered an evangelical Christian. Well you note the command to Timothy, present tense, you keep on teaching and keep on preaching these things. What has Paul talked about? He has talked about the Gospel, he has talked about Jesus Christ, the Savior. In chapter 2 verse 5, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. But you also note in the last part of chapter 2 he’s talked about the role of men and women, he’s talked about the work of God in creating a woman and creating a man. He’s talked about the responsibility and character of overseers and deacons, he’s talked about responsibility of the church to different groups—widows and so on. This is what Timothy is to keep on preaching and keep on teaching. It’s all the truth that God has revealed, and praise God He has narrowed it down to the essentials. And we are to preach and teach as Paul put it in Acts 20 in talking to the leaders of the church at Ephesus, I’ve taught you the whole counsel of God. You know what the essentials are? They begin with the first verse of Genesis and end with the last verse of Revelation.
Those are the essentials. Don’t you think we ought to narrow this down to what really matters? Now just stop and think about that. Almighty God has spoken and our response is, you know a lot of what He said is not really relevant; a lot of what He really says doesn’t matter. Let’s narrow it down to what’s important. Not a serious issue?

Paul tells Timothy, you teach and preach these principles, and if any advocates a
different teaching Different to what? Well just the three or four essentials that
we’ve decided on. Well I just know what Paul has written to Timothy and I find out there are a lot of things that people don’t think are essential today. And I think it would be better and less controversial if the church stayed out of it. Subtle ways even we as believers begin to develop our thinking that it’s all right to imply that God has said some things that we don’t need to pay attention to. What would you think if the Bible recorded that Moses came down from the mountain where God spoke with him, gave him His Word and Moses said to the people, well I’ve been up there 40 days and 40 nights. We covered a lot of things, most of it really isn’t that important. Let me just tell you the three things that I’ve narrowed it down to. You’d expect Moses to be cooked to ashes on the spot, wouldn’t you? You’d say, what audacity. I mean, what do we think that God has said all this, but you know about 98-99% of it is really not essential. It’s just important you believe these 2, 3, 4 things. And then the other things you can believe as you want. No. If anyone advocates a different doctrine, if anyone; and this is put in Greek, you have different ways to give your conditions. We do it with inflection and some construction. But in Greek it’s called a first class condition. This simply means it assumes the reality of what he is saying. And this is not a condition of doubt. A condition of doubt would be, if you come to my house this afternoon I’ll give you a sandwich. There’s doubt all over that. You may not come to my house, and if you do you probably won’t get a sandwich. So that would be doubtful that it’s going to happen. But if I say to you, if you had breakfast this morning, you’re probably looking forward to lunch about now. Well that assumes a reality that most of you had breakfast this morning. This condition assumes the reality. If anyone advocates a different doctrine, and they are. And they’re doing it in the church of the living God at Ephesus. Here is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth, and there are teachers in that church advocating a doctrine that is contrary and opposed to the truth that God has revealed. What a terrible situation. And this church isn’t even 20 years old, and we have this kind of situation going on.

If anyone advocates a different doctrine. The word doctrine is just the word teaching. Different doctrine is one word in Greek, a compound word. It is the word heteros. We use it in English of something of a different kind. We talk about heterosexual. This word for different or another means another of a different kind, a different kind of person. A heterosexual is a person of a different sex, another kind, male versus female. So here when we talk about a different doctrine, and the Greek word doctrine is just the Greek word teaching, sometimes it’s translated teach, sometimes it’s translated doctrine. It’s the same word, didactile. We have it in English didactic teaching. So here’s a person, anyone, who is advocating a different kind of doctrine, a teaching that is opposed to the teaching they’d received. It contrasts with the word teach. It would have helped in our English Bible if they had used the same word. At the end of verse 2, teach these principles. If anyone advocates a different teaching - a contrast on the kinds of teaching. It’s the same basic word translated teach at the end of verse 2 and doctrine in verse 3. You just put the word different or another in the front of the word teaching. Timothy, you teach; keep on teaching these things. And if anyone is advocating a different teaching. So it’s not merely a variation in the teaching, this is a different kind of teaching. This is teaching that is contrary to revealed truth. In what areas? Well, what do they preach and teach? Well, what he’s writing to him—the truth of God that has been revealed. So I don’t have to narrow down and say, well this teaching is right but he teaches error here, but that’s not one of the major areas. No, any teacher teaching contrary to revealed truth.

If anyone advocates a different teaching; and does not agree with sound words. The word translated agree means to come to something or go to something, that it comes to be in agreement with it because you’ve come to be identified with it. If anyone does not agree with sound words. And that word sound is the word healthy. We get the English word hygiene from it. It’s carried over into English, anglicized it a little bit, but we’ve just brought the Greek word over. It means to be healthy, be sound in what is used of physical health, sound in your physical health, complete. Anyone who does not agree with sound words, healthy words, healthy teaching is the context, when he talks about healthy words here. The teaching that produces health, it brings salvation to the diseased, sin-sick soul so they can be made new in Christ. It’s the truth that is the nourishment so that as newborn babes as we long for the pure milk of the Word and grow with respect to our salvation, as I Peter 2:2 says. This is the healthy truth. Healthy words, they bring health, spiritual well-being to the life of a believer.

In the pastoral epistles Paul is concerned for the spiritual health of believers.
Back in chapter 1 verse 10 he talked about false teachers and explained how they misuse the law. I want you to note, these are not false teachers, don’t come into the church and say, I want you to know I deny the Word of God. What they do is come in and say, I want to clarify the Word of God for you. In chapter 1 it’s those who came and wanted to misuse the Mosaic Law, they wanted to come and say, it’s wonderful what God has done in your life, but you cannot be a complete Christian. You cannot be all God wants you to be and grow as God wants you to grow and enter into the fullness of His salvation until you understand the purpose of the Mosaic Law in your life and how necessary it is.
Pretty soon people view that and say, well they seem sincere, they seem humble, what they’re saying seems to make some sense. And perhaps I’ve misunderstood the Word. And there is confusion generated. Well down in verse 10, we’ll just pick up what Paul lumps together. Whatever else is contrary to sound teaching. That word sound is our word healthy. Whatever is contrary to healthy teaching. There is healthy teaching and there is other kind of teaching. And what is promoted by these false teachers is a sick kind of teaching, as we’ll see in a moment.

Turn over to II Timothy 1. In II Timothy Paul’s burden is the same as it was in I Timothy. II Timothy 1:13, his concern for Timothy, retain the standard of healthy words, sound words, healthy words. Timothy, you hold onto that, don’t alter your ministry. Healthy words which you’ve received or heard from me. It’s the truth communicated by God through the apostles. Look over in Titus 1. Same burden as Paul writes as a young man to Titus who is in Crete. Titus 1:9, concerning elders, they are to be men holding fast to faithful words, which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in healthy teaching, sound doctrine, healthy teaching, and refute those who contradict. You have to hold onto the truth, so that the truth is the substance of your ministry, and that is healthy, that produces a spiritual health in a child of God. Titus 1:13, this testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely, so that they may be healthy in the faith. Their faith in Christ and in the faith that they believe and hold to. These have spiritual health then. Titus 2:1, but as for you, speak the things which are fitting for healthy teaching, sound doctrine, healthy teaching. Verse 2, older men are to be temperate, dignified, sound in faith, healthy in faith. Constant repeated emphasis on the importance of spiritual health in the life of a believer. And that is inseparably joined to healthy teaching. We’ve dissipated the focus of the church, the spiritual well-being with a lot of trivial, incidental things. Without the purity of biblical truth there is no health. You know what happens when one of your children begins to get sick, and then they don’t want to eat. And you say, you need to eat something. What happens when a person gets so sick they quit eating? Well now their condition deteriorates rapidly. You know what happens spiritually? People get into sin in their life; they allow the devil to get a foothold. What thing happens next? They have less of an appetite for the Word, they have reasons why they don’t want to be where the Word of God is being taught. And so they take in less of the Word, and things deteriorate spiritually for them. The devil helps it out, sends them to churches where doctrines of demons are promoted. The Word of God is corrupted with the ideas of men and that does not nourish the soul of the child of God. So they get weaker and don’t understand why, and what is the problem?

Back up to II Timothy 4. Paul solemnly charges Timothy in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus to preach the Word of God. Verse 2, preach the Word. Be ready in season and out of season, when people want to hear it and when they don’t, when it’s popular and when it’s not, when it seems to be working and when it doesn’t seem to be working. Why? Verse 3, for the time will come when they will not endure healthy teaching. Here’s what Paul is talking about here, he’s talking about the church of Jesus Christ, those who profess to belong to the living God. Unbelievers in the world have never had any interest or time for the Word of God. It’s going to get to be in the church, they don’t want to hear healthy teaching. They want to have their ears tickled so they’ll accumulate for themselves teachers in accord with their own desire. Doesn’t mean they’re going to stop going to church, but they don’t want to hear biblical truth when they go. They want to hear things that will help me in my life, or things that will make me a better parent, that will make me a better worker to make me more successful. And so now we take polls. Why? To find out what people want when they get to church. As though we could then work a compromise, so that we could mix what people want with the Word of God and now we’ll have the kind of ministry that’s effective. Only the demons could come up with such an idea, and what they do is destroy the power of the Word. It ought to be obvious to us. We have cults who will come to your door and they’ll use the Bible and Bible verses. But they have taken the power, as Paul will say in the pastoral epistles, they have a form of godliness but they deny the power. Because when you mix the truth with error, you destroy its effectiveness. So people can quote you verses and then tell you your salvation is by faith plus your works. All the verses have been nullified. The preaching of the cross has been made void because it has been mixed with the wisdom of men, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians in I Corinthians 1. But isn’t it sad there will come a day when that’s the kind of teaching the church wants, and they will not put up with other kind of teaching. Look across the country. Where is booming church growth? What has become the characteristic of so-called evangelical churches? Pop psychology and self-help sermons rule the day under the guise of reaching out to seekers and the lost. As God said through the prophets, the prophets prophesy falsely and my people love to have it so.

And Paul says to Timothy, there’ll come a time when they won’t put up with healthy teaching; they want to have their ears tickled. They like that mixture. So Paul is concerned that there be an emphasis on healthy teaching. Your kids may like candy bars and hot fudge sundaes every day. You know it’s not good for them; it’s not what they have to have to produce growth. Even if they throw a tantrum and say they want it, it still won’t produce growth, and you ought to take care of that problem. We have Christians throwing tantrums, it’s not what they want, I’m going to go get what I want. Well the judgment of God comes when He gives people what they want, remember it is always ruinous to turn away from truth.

Come back to I Timothy 6. This is a serious matter. If anyone advocates a different doctrine, verse 3, and does not agree with healthy words. Those healthy words are those of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is the truth that has been communicated from Him, either directly or through His apostles and prophets. So this is the problem. They don’t agree with healthy words, those that come from our Lord Jesus Christ. So you see in advocating a different kind of doctrine, they are rejecting the truth that Christ has given to His body, the church, to take hold of teaching that is contrary and opposed to the truth of Christ, and thus to Christ Himself. Remember when Christ walked this earth, He made clear, when the people rejected the Word that His Father had given Him, they rejected His Father. So they will not agree with the words of Christ. This ought to be terribly disturbing. Paul is writing this to a church that he poured three years of his life into, that he wrote an inspired letter to. There is absolutely no excuse for them to be confused, that now they ought to be welcoming teachers who don’t agree with what Jesus Christ has to say, who are replacing the words of Christ with their own ideas. They don’t agree with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. That expression in the pastoral epistles, our Lord Jesus Christ, full title, and it’s used to convey His authority, something of the majesty of His person. You understand who they don’t agree with. I mean, the sovereign creator of all things, they don’t agree with Christ. And we allow for this kind of foolishness.
Instead of going to the Word of God and finding out what God said about the subject, we’ll say, look, that’s not something we have to divide over. We don’t have to have conflict in our church over that. We agree on the basics, let’s keep focus there. In other words, a lot of what God said through His Son is not that relevant or important. And it’s all right if you want to reject that, as long as you don’t reject what I have decided is important. How arrogant can you get? They don’t agree with the words of our Lord Jesus Christ or with the doctrine conforming to godliness.

Paul told the Galatians that he didn’t get his message from man, he wasn’t taught it by man. I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ, Galatians 1:11-12. That’s where the whole Word of God came from. Remember, holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. Peter wrote in the last chapter of his last letter, II Peter 3, that those who twist the teachings of Paul do so to their own destruction. It’s not our right to disagree with God on anything. The church has narrowed more and more what it will stand for. The church used to take a stand on sexual and moral issues for the people of God, used to take a stand on the role of men and women, used to take a stand on the issue of creation by the sovereign God according to the revelation of Genesis—6 days. Now all these things are supposedly negotiable. So we allow teaching to go on in the evangelical church that opposes what Christ has said and imply that’s not one of the essentials. This is to say that Christ has said a lot of things that don’t matter. Too bad God wasn’t intelligent enough, He could have narrowed this book down to about a page- and-a-half. Does it sound blasphemous to your ears to say that 98.5% of what God said is not really that important?

They don’t agree with sound words nor the doctrine conforming to godliness, the teaching conforming to godliness. You know what the truth does? It transforms a life and makes you new. II Corinthians 5:17, if any man be in Christ he is a new creature, new creation. The old things have passed away, behold new things have come. So you hear the power of God’s truth in the gospel and it transforms your life and you are made new, you partake of the divine nature, you are now the child of God. You become a new man. Paul wrote to the Ephesians a little earlier than he wrote this letter to Timothy. In Ephesians 4:24 concerning the new man that we are in Christ he said, this new man is in the likeness of God and has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. I mean you cannot disassociate godliness from truth, and yet in the evangelical world today we have discussions and debates going on this. Does the Word of God have to make you new and change your life and your lifestyle? Well, no, as long as you assent to these three or four things you’re a child of God and if nothing changes, you’re still a child of God. How does that ever get a hearing in the church? Well, we don’t want to be narrow, we don’t want to be unloving, we don’t want to be unkind. We have to be loving, we have to be kind. We have to be faithful to truth. God never calls us to abandon truth in the name of love, anymore than He calls us to abandon love in the name of truth. But the new man is created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. This is the doctrine that conforms to godliness; it produces godliness in the life. It brings new life to the child of God, washes and cleanses the lost person, makes him a child of God, cleanses and washes him from his sin. What is that Word of God now doing in a life? II Corinthians 3:18, as we are beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. In other words, this book is revealing the glory of our Lord. We are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. So as we are beholding in the truth of God the glory of our Lord, the Spirit of God is make us more like Him. The message of truth conforms to godliness, the corruption of truth the opposite—ungodliness. And he’s going to develop this in a moment.

Look at Titus 1:1, Paul a bondservant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the faith of those chosen of God. Now note this, and the knowledge of the truth which is according to godliness. That’s the only kind of true truth there is, the truth from God is according to godliness. That’s what it produces in a life, that’s what it demands of a life in Christ—godliness. Why should we be having these debates and discussions in theological seminaries that are called evangelical, in churches, does your life have to be changed if you’re saved? Does godliness have to be the characteristic of your life if you belong to God? What’s the discussion? But the devil has a way of getting his foot in the door and we think, well look, it’s not something we have to divide over. And so we set aside truth. What happens? We set aside truth, now we have the diseased body and a corrupted message. It’s only going to get worse.

Come back to I Timothy 6, if you’re not there. Concerning this person, if anyone does this he is conceited and understands nothing. So there’s the basic statement. He is conceited and understands nothing. Who is? Anyone who teaches a contrary doctrine, who doesn’t agree with sound words, healthy teaching. Anyone. Well this person has been in the church a long time, this person has respected credentials, this person has been a professor at an evangelical school and knows the original languages; this person has been a pastor. If anyone teaches doctrine contrary, doesn’t agree with sound words, he is conceited and understands nothing. He is conceited, he is puffed up. Word means to be puffed up, blown up with smoke. He is conceited. In chapter 3 verse 6 he says an elder couldn’t be a new convert because he shouldn’t become conceited. Same word. And thus fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. You become conceited you think more of your opinions, your ideas. What is it? I mean for a teacher to stand up and disagree with God. For me to stand up and say, well this is what the Bible says about creation, but our studies today in science have shown it wouldn’t be possible for the world to be created in six days. Besides, the world can’t be just several thousand years old; it has to be several billion years old. So you understand that Genesis is presented in mythological language, and if you understand the genre for creation literature of early days, you understand this isn’t to be taken at face value. Well then you find all through the Old Testament and New Testament it is taken at face value. And yet somehow we admire the scholarship of this person, and we follow the course of what? The world.

Ever notice, what one of the leaders of evangelicalism of a past generation said, find out where the world is and you’ll find out where the church will be in coming years. Isn’t amazing how many of the church’s positions we’ve become enlightened on. So now we can move over to where the world is and we’re more like the world than ever.
But the Word of God has not changed; it’s the unchanging Word of God that is a reflection of the unchanging God. Any wonder then, a teacher that disagrees with the Word of God is called conceited? How can I ever humbly say to God, Lord, I respect you, you created everything, I know you are sovereign over everything, but I humbly disagree with you on this point. Is it possible for me to ever humbly disagree with God? To disagree with God is the greatest act of arrogance that could characterize a person, is it not? I may come to God and tell Him, God, I don’t understand. Enlighten my understanding, help me to understand this. But for me to disagree with God; there is no way for me to humbly disagree with God. These teachers are conceited.

And you’ll note how this spreads. You say I’d never do that, but here now we have somebody promoting doctrine that is contrary to the Word of God in the church, and they seem to be humble people with a good heart. And they’ve been so helpful in so many ways. I don’t think we have to deal with them so harshly and abruptly. I think Paul was out of line when he put Hymenaeus and Alexander out, they were good men and they’ve been in this church for years and done a lot of good things. I think they were sincere in their heart even if they had some misunderstanding. Now you know I have joined a false teacher in their conceit. The false teacher is conceited in promoting the doctrine contrary to what Christ said, and now I have become conceited in saying we shouldn’t do what God says we should do in dealing with them. And so you see how the sin spreads, because while they may be wrong, I don’t think it’s loving to do that. Which is what? Me lifting myself up in conceit and arrogance, telling God what He said to do ought not to be done. So you see how it begins to spread. I’ve shared with you, a number of years ago that I spoke with a pastor of a very large evangelical church that many of you would be aware of. And he was talking to me about false teachers that he had in his church, well-known evangelicals promoting doctrine that this pastor knew was wrong. Know what he said? Gil, they’re good men, I don’t have the heart to deal with them. We can understand that humanly, but that wasn’t an act of humility, that wasn’t a statement of being humble. That was an act of arrogance, to say that I am unwilling to do what God said. These are good men. In other words, I think my evaluation of them supercedes God’s.

Furthermore, God said do this, but I just don’t want to do it. What do you think of your two-year-old, who plants his feet and says, no? Is he doing that humbly? Oh look at my sweet two-year-old humbly disagreeing with me. What makes you think you can do that with God? I mean, well now you have the false teacher, now you have the people over here that think they’re so humble and understanding and loving and kind because they don’t want to deal with them and have become arrogant like the false teacher. And now the church’s problems are multiplied.

Many commentators like the New English Bible’s translation of this. He’s a pompous ignoramus is the translation they preferred and many commentators thought that got to the spirit of this precisely. He understands nothing, he’s a pompous ignoramus, he’s conceited, but he doesn’t know a thing. He thinks he’s so knowledgeable and has such great insights, and he doesn’t understand anything. Remember back in chapter 1 verse 6, some men straying from these things, from the truth, have turned aside to fruitless discussion. Verse 7, 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 assertion. They don’t know a thing about the subject, but they’re talking away with all confidence.

You know what they do have? They have a morbid interest, back in chapter 6, in controversial questions. A morbid interest. Now there’s a contrast here you don’t pick up in English. Remember we talked about healthy doctrine in verse 3? The word translated morbid is the Greek word for being sick. So if you go to a lexicon you find the definition sick. An unhealthy interest, metaphorically. A sickly interest. He has a morbid, a sickly, rather than being interested in the healthy truth, he has a sickly interest in controversial questions. Won’t produce health, it will further the disease that infects the body. A morbid interest, a sick or unhealthy craving. Paul warns about these men again in II Timothy 2:14; remind them of these things. Solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words, which is useless and leads to the ruin of the hearers. You see where this sickness is going? Paul says he has a morbid, a sickly interest in controversial questions and disputes about words. Remind the believers, remind the church not to wrangle about words which is useless and it leads to the ruin. You see the sickness is going to get worse until it brings about the destruction. But you labor to present yourselves approved to God. Just stay with the pure truth, you work on properly handling the truth.

We’re not talking about, oh well then we ought to be careful about becoming too interested in the fine points of the Word of God. We must be very interested. How are you going to understand it? People say, well I just want the general idea. What do you mean, you just want the general idea? Yeah, God created everything, I believe that. That’s not all God said about it. He said He created everything in this way, in this order. Well, I don’t want to get into the details. In other words, I’m not interested in truth. You be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a man who knows how to handle the Word of God. But avoid worldly and empty chatter. What happens? It leads to further ungodliness. What does the truth do? It’s according to godliness. What does the teaching of false teachers do? It leads to further ungodliness. So the ungodliness now develops more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Gangrene is disastrous. Oh my toe is turning color. Well maybe in the next month or two I’ll go to the doctor. No, you don’t do that. Why? Gangrene spreads and it will soon take the leg, and it will soon take the life. It will spread. You know it is so hard, isn’t it, to stay with the truth, and you keep beating on the truth. False doctrine comes in and it seems like it sweeps through like wildfire. Paul labors and toils and pours his life into a church. He leaves and false doctrine comes in and takes hold, undoes the ministry of truth overnight, so to speak. We need to be careful. In II Timothy 3:7 Paul referred to those who are always learning and never come to the knowledge of the truth. They are in the realm of empty error.

Come back to I Timothy 6 and we can wrap this up. You see what happens, the conceited, they understand nothing; they have a sickly interest in controversial questions and disputes about words. They want to argue. This isn’t the desire to come to understand the Word more clearly, more accurately, more fully. This is just liking to debate about the Word. There are some people who just like to argue about theology. These false teachers are like that and they draw you in because they get a debate. The cults come to your door and they want to talk about scripture. Oh we like scripture, too, we like to talk about scripture. Can we come back and have a Bible study with you? We want to hear your ideas. No, you can’t come back and have a Bible study with me. You want to know my ideas? Just sit down and I’ll tell them to you right now. Here it is. They want to draw you in, and you know the danger. You think well I can hear this, that’ll be fine. I’ve shared with you, many years ago I was in a doctoral program in a theological institution and they had a mixture of error and truth. I went into the dean finally and said, I can’t stand the program, I’m going to be withdrawing. Oh, why? We love having you here. Because I’m afraid if I stay I’ll come out like you. You know, what am I? Oh I’m strong, that won’t affect me, I won’t be affected. No, I’ll come out O.K. We have to deal with false teaching. There is a certain amount of examining it to be clear on what’s false, that’s the responsibility of a teacher. But I don’t want to sit and listen to that stuff. I put that into my mind, pretty soon I begin to think, yeah, that makes sense. Maybe there is something to that, and on it goes. Where does it go? It leads to ruin for those who are involved.

Here’s what happens. From this kind of teaching, a morbid, sickly interest in these things. Out of that comes disputes about words out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicion and constant friction. Any wonder the church is now in trouble? Look at the results of this. You have envy, strife, abusive language. It’s the word blasphemy. When abusive language is directed toward God, it’s blasphemy and speaking against God. But it infects the whole thing. It’s against God, it’s against God’s people; it creates turmoil. Evil suspicions. Note how sometimes that gets ahold, even among God’s people. Constant friction. Sounds like a description of many evangelical churches. The truth does not divide in that way, truth divides the believer from an unbeliever. But false teaching divides among believers now, creates confusion, brings disease and sickness to the body of Christ. And instead of having godliness and the beauty of the character of Christ characterizing us, we have envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions, constant friction; or the works of the flesh, and not of the Spirit.

And this goes on among men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth. Depraved mind. These are two perfect tense verbs—depraved and deprived. The perfect tense, remember, something happened in the past, it continues. It denotes their settled state. These false teachers are settled in a state of depravity with regard to their mind. They understand nothing of biblical truth. How do they get into the church? Men of depraved mind. They know a lot about the truth, they don’t know the God of truth. So they have no true understanding of truth. Anytime someone is taking a clear passage of scripture and distorting it, red lights ought to be going off all over the place. None of us have perfect knowledge of all the Word of God, obviously. But there are people who are blunt, they take the Word of God and explain it away. And there ought to be red lights going off and flashing bells and STOP. I can read, that’s why I encourage you to bring your Bibles and open up. If I start saying well you know it says if anyone advocates a different doctrine, but that doesn’t mean people who advocate a different doctrine. You have to understand, we’re not concerned about dividing the body over doctrinal minutia, and on and on and I begin to explain away. You ought to be saying, stop, something is wrong. That’s now what it says, he’s explaining away what it says, changing what it says. And say, well he’s been here a long time, if that’s what he wants to believe, that’s all right. We wouldn’t divide over that. Yes, we would. We won’t divide over anything that’s not between the first verse in Genesis and the last verse in Revelation. You can drive any color car you want, buy any kind of house, do your landscaping, get your hair cut. But if it’s between the first verse of Genesis and the last verse of Revelation, that’s truth. Doesn’t mean we understand it perfectly, doesn’t mean there’s not room for disagreement, not room for challenging one another to deeper study and more consistent study to understand it better or to correct a misunderstanding. But it does mean the line between those of depraved minds deprived of the truth, and those who belong to God is clear. And the church has opened the door to all kinds under the guise of being generous and loving and not wanting to be narrow and think our view is the only view.

They are deprived of the truth, they don’t have the truth. We say, wait a minute, in chapter 1 these teachers were using the Mosaic Law. They had the truth. Yes, but they had no understanding of the truth. They can quote verses, maybe more verses than you can, but they don’t know the truth. They are in ignorance; they are deprived of the truth. How in the world can men become teachers in an evangelical church who are deprived of the truth and controlled by a depraved mind?

They suppose godliness is a means of gain. Present it as a way to get ahead, a way to make money. This is not the only thing that drives false teachers. Paul is going to use that as a transition to address Christians and their money. But it is one of the prime motivations of false teachers; that’s what they get. One of the richest empires in the world is Roman Catholicism. Who else can pay hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits and they continue to go forward, build and buy. I mean religion is a means of gain; false teachers are in it for the money. And that reminds me, I have a vial of holy water and if you send $10 I’ll send it to you. What is it? Health and wealth preaching; positive thinking. I mean, always draw for themselves.

We have to wrap it up. Go to II Corinthians 11. These are serious matters. We have never had to deal with false doctrine in any kind of prominent way in our church that hasn’t caused division and conflict. In some believers the personal issue, the emotional issue clouds everything. We had our battle over the issue of biblical sanctification, and does it take the finding of secular psychology weighted to the scripture to deal with it. I was dumbfounded at the numbers of people who walked. Romans 6 settles it. That’s simplistic, Romans 6 settles it. Well there is more that we’ve understood today. We have all truth is God’s truth and we have to have truth that is found by secular science in psychology and bring it to the revealed truth of the Bible. Your Word is truth, Romans 6 settles it. It should be clear. But I mention that because it’s a bygone thing and was a public all-church thing, we have to be prepared, we have to deal with truth. Not personalities, not emotions, truth--#1. Look, it happened in the church at Corinth. II Corinthians 11:13, in the church at Corinth the same thing had happened. Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising that his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. That’s how they get in—by being disguised. It’s a satanic disguise. And you know what happens with the believers? Look at verse 4 of the same chapter, if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. You know the Corinthians had more trouble with Paul than they did with false teachers. Paul had to constantly be defending himself and his message and his ministry to the Corinthians. But they bear beautifully with these messengers of the devil. Isn’t that a sad testimony for a church, the church at Corinth? You bear beautifully the teaching that is contrary to what God has revealed. These satanic angels of light get a hearing. This ought not to be.

So do we want to be intolerant? Well you know, people want Just answer
yes or no. Well yes and no. We are tolerant of a lot of things; we are not tolerant of any corrupting of this Book. Well see you’re an intolerant people. No, you can come and you can wear a suit or not wear a suit, you can wear a tie or not wear a tie, you can wear slacks or you can wear a dress, you can dye your hair blonde or dye it red or dye it pink.
I don’t care, we’re tolerant. You can walk to church, ride your bike to church, drive your car to church. We’re tolerant. You can’t change the Book. We are intolerant. And aren’t you glad? This is the message of life, it’s by believing the truth that God provided His Son that we are born again and become children of God. That you are cleansed, you are forgiven, you are made new; you are rescued from hell and put on the road to heaven. I’m glad that the message is not to be corrupted. It brings growth and development to me as a new baby in Christ, as I’m nurtured on the pure milk of the Word. I grow with respect to my salvation. I don’t want it corrupted. So it is the love and kindness and grace that we stand for truth. And the church is to be the center for truth.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your Word. Thank you for your patience and love, and thank you for calling us to Christ. Lord, we would take these warnings to heart, we would learn from them. None of us are perfect, none of us are perfect in our understanding of your Word, but all of us are responsible for a faithful handling of the Word. We are responsible to be diligent to show ourselves as workmen that you approve, handling accurately your Word. Lord, may we indeed be intolerant of any who would in any way in any place corrupt your truth. And may we be faithful to that truth so many might come to the wonder of your salvation. So we all might grow to manifest more of your beauty, that godliness might be the characteristic of our lives. We pray in Christ’s name, amen.