A Final Indictment Against Apostasy. 1 Timothy 6:3-10
House Rules: 1 Timothy • Sermon • Submitted
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Introduction:
Introduction:
We are nearing the end of our study through the book of 1 Timothy. After today, Im planning for their to only be two more sermons until we have finished this pastoral epistle to Timothy which lays out for us God’s “House Rules”. Then we will begin a two year journey through the Gospel of Luke.
As we come to the end of our study, Paul is circling back to a subject he has dealt with twice already in this letter: False teaching.
The presence of false teaching always leads to apostasy.
Apostasy- A public denial of a previously held religious belief and a distancing from the community that holds to it.
Ian W. K. Koiter, “Apostasy,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Concise Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021).
The essence of apostasy is changing sides from that of the crucified to that of the crucifier.
John Stott
The false teaching that was swirling around the church of Ephesus seems to have been a strange blend of Gnosticism and Asceticism.
Gnostics taught that salvation came through secret knowledge and spiritual enlightenment.
Paul addressed in 1:4 when he said:
4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.
Ascetics were those who refrained from any forms of fun or pleasure for religious reasons.
There also seems to have been some who were seeking to use God’s name for monetary gain. They were the first “religious hucksters”. Paul addressed them in 1:19-20 & 4:2.
19 having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck, 20 of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
Our text this morning is Paul’s final indictment of these apostates in Ephesus as he analyses and responds to their behavior.
1.) The behavior of an apostate. (v.3-5)
1.) The behavior of an apostate. (v.3-5)
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?
That is exactly what Paul is doing here with Timothy he is examining the fruit of the apostates who were causing harm to the Lord’s church in Ephesus.
A.) Their teaching. (v.3)
3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,
“Teaches otherwise”- To teach contrary to standard instruction, to give divergent and divisive instruction. (BDAG) Other but different. (WSNTDICT) That which is different from what should be taught. A different doctrine. (Louw-Nida)
These false teachers in Ephesus were teaching heterodoxy instead of orthodoxy. They were teaching things that were in opposition to the teachings of Christ and were not in line with “wholesome or sound” words.
Their teaching was minimizing the work of Christ and his teaching about himself as the center of all of the scriptures and godliness.
The false teachers in Ephesus were pushing Christ out to the margins of their teaching and placing man centered works and myths at the center.
Any religious teaching that doesn't have Christ and the gospel at the center is to be rejected as outside of biblical orthodoxy.
Biblical Christianity focuses on the Lord Jesus Christ as the fulfillment of all of God’s promises through his atoning death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. It lifts up Jesus as the perfect Lamb of God come to take away the sins of the world. It lifts him up as the only Redeemer and Savior. It exalts him as our only hope in life and death!
Application: Any teaching that doesn't do that is to be rejected as heresy, called out and abandoned.
Apostates put man at the center of everything and not the Lord Jesus Christ.
B.) Their Character. (v.4)
Their are two ways in which Paul describes the character of an apostate in vs.4.
1.) They’re Prideful
1 Timothy 6:4 (NKJV)
4 he is proud, knowing nothing,...
They think they are so wise but in actuality they know nothing. They possess zero spiritual understanding because they have rejected sound doctrine and pushed out Christ in order to embrace their own sinfulness.
One translation (NEB) uses the phrase “pompous ignoramus.”
2.) They have an unhealthy desire for controversy. (v.4b)
1 Timothy 6:4 (NKJV)
4 ...but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words,...
Obsessed- To be sick or delirious. It’s being used metaphorically to mean they have an unhealthy or morbid desire for disputing and arguing.
Craving controversy is a sign that someone is spiritually sick. They are oppositional to everything having to do with sound Biblical teaching. Even to the point of rejecting the plain meaning of a text.
They refuse to be dissuaded or informed against what they embrace and they enjoy their defiance against God’s word.
C.) Their corruption. (v.4c-5)
1 Timothy 6:4–5 (NKJV)
4 ...from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, 5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.
Not only will they corrupt a congregation but their embrace of false teaching corrupts them personally as well. (v.5b)
Ultimately, Paul says they see “godliness” as a means of gaining financial wealth. They turn ministry into a profession and commercialize faith.
The fleece has become more important than the flock! Fleecing the flock is now a measure of professional competence.
R. Kent Hughes and Bryan Chapell, 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus: To Guard the Deposit, Preaching the Word (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 147.
Application: Paul authoritatively commands that Bible believing christians are to withdraw or move away from these apostates. We must not sit under, associate, or have anything to do with the person who is an apostate false teacher. The church is not the place for professional fleecers nor for the doctrine of human effort and works.
2.) The proper response to apostate behavior. (v.6-10)
2.) The proper response to apostate behavior. (v.6-10)
After condemning those who would use their “godliness” for gain, Paul now says in v.6 that godliness is gain, but, only when it is coupled with contentment.
A.) True Contentment
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
The gain he is speaking isn't monetary but spiritual. Contentment has nothing to do with financial standing. Contentment and godliness go hand in hand with each other.
For we can only be truly content, when we find our sufficiency in Christ alone. When he is at the center of everything in our life, we truly have need of nothing other than him.
11 Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12 I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. 13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Godliness and contentment only come when a person truly posses Christ.
8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
Paul tells Timothy that anything God gives us above our basic needs is to enjoyed as a gift from God with thanks and praise to him for giving it.
Real contentment and material prosperity have nothing to do with each other. To have a relationship with God, true godliness is all of the gain that a Christian needs.
B.) Greed is loss.
The opposite of true contentment is greed and lust for the things we do not have.
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
Greed and the lust for more has a way of pushing us in directions that we should never go. Often we sacrifice genuine godliness on the altar of riches and wind up spiritually destitute.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Greed and the constant desire for more than God has given us is a trap.
This is what happened to these elders in Ephesus who were at one time spiritual leaders but now had embraced apostasy. Their greed left them with their hearts pierced with sorrow, because they rejected Christ.
The apostate isn't someone to be praised and followed, they are a tragic example of what happens when Christ is removed from his proper place.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Friend, the Lord Jesus is all that we need. If we keep him at the center of all that we do and say, we have gained everything we could ever need. Real genuine contentment only comes from Christ. To reject him is to wind up in utter misery and, misery loves company. An apostate always desires to take others with them. So we must reject and turn away from them.