The Heart and Fountain of Heresy (1 Timothy 6:3-10)

Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 6. We are quickly coming to an end of this book, in fact we will finish this study next week and then we will fix our attention on the little town of Bethlehem for Christmas, and then we will stay in those shepherds’ fields and begin a winter study on the book of Ruth. That is where we are headed in the weeks and months to come, but for the last several months we have journeyed slowly through this inspired letter of Scripture called 1 Timothy. A letter, that I once again remind you, was penned in response to a blatant attack on gospel truth. And shockingly, we have discovered, that this costly assault originated from within the church family. So often are we not quick to blame the world around us for such hatred towards the truth, but the Bible soberly and frequently reminds us that our greatest danger to our faith is usually ourselves. Paul understood this, in fact, Paul foresaw this tragic event unfolding in the book of Acts. Listen to the message he gave to the elders in Ephesus prior to this situation… Acts 20:28-30… “Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.”Church family, we must humbly understand, that we are all in danger of drifting away from the truth of the gospel and embracing the lies of Satan, the lies of the world, and the lies of this culture in which we live. Like the old hymn “Come thou Fount” proclaims so well… “Prone to wander Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love, here’s my heart Lord O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” Listen, if the elders Ephesus, if their hearts could fall from truth, then so easily can we.

As Paul is winding down this letter to Timothy and the troubled church there at Ephesus, he returns one last time to his purpose in writing and gives his final counsel regarding these false teachers and the heresy they proclaimed as truth. As I reed through our text this morning, I hope you notice the apostle’s choice of words, because I believe he intentionally seeks to draw his reader’s attention to their own hearts. Paul specifically utilizes heart language in this passage so that we can examine our own and guard ourselves from the dangers of entertaining heretical lies. Lies that are so prevalent in our culture and in many churches. Lies that on the surface may sound good, spiritual, and religious, but nonetheless, they are lies that will rob us of God’s blessing. Read along with me 1 Timothy 6:3-10.

Notice with me three divisions that seem arise from our text today…

1) The unwholesome and Christless nature of heresy (v. 3).

In verse three, Paul speaks as a skilled physician diagnosing a sick patient. Notice, how the apostle carefully details the characteristics of the false teacher’s illness. He specifically points out three overlapping symptoms that every diseased and heretical teacher retains. First, notice they advocate a different doctrine. A different doctrine is any teaching that contradicts God’s clear revelation in Scripture. This obviously can take make different forms: Their teaching may deny the existence of the triune God or deny a certain aspect of His nature or one of His holy attributes. It may contradict the personhood or work of Christ as revealed in the Bible. Such false teachers may deny the virgin birth of Jesus, His perfect righteousness, His sinlessness, His substitutionary death on the cross, His resurrection from the grave, or future return. They may deny the exclusivity of the gospel message, that Jesus Christ is the only way to inherit eternal life in heaven. Heretical teachers also teach errors concerning the nature, Person, and work of the Holy Spirit or they may deny the authenticity, inspiration, authority, sufficiency, and inerrancy of Scripture. There are countless ways false teachers may proclaim a different doctrine.

Oh church family, to spot such diseased men and women who proclaim such heretical doctrine, we must stay well grounded in Scripture. Only those who know and treasure the Word of God will be able to rightly identify false teachers, those who often plague our television channels, our social media websites, and radio stations. Listen, this world is full of men and women who call themselves pastors, yet they preach and teach a different doctrine, a different gospel, that has various aspects not grounded in the Word of God. Please understand, little differences in doctrine greatly matter. I meet people who get involved in churches that outright deny certain doctrines that have been clearly revealed in Scripture. Such churches are often trendy, emotionally driven, and seemingly exciting. But folks, their message is not the same. 90% the same is 100% different. We must not deviate one degree from the truth that is clearly revealed in the sacred text of Scripture. For you see, the diseased false teachers of this world will always twist, deny, or add to the Word of God.

Notice also the second symptom of the heretical teacher found in verse three. We are told that their message does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ. The word “sound” in the original Greek language, means healthy. It’s the word hoogiano, from which we get the English word hygiene from. Please know that false teachers promote a message that is not wholesome or beneficial to the soul of man. Because…Like sin, false teaching may feel right, it may somewhat encourage you, but it will eventually prove itself as being unhealthy in nature. Paul further explains, these sound words by saying they originate from Christ Himself and make Christ the center of all things. We can see this Christ centeredness because Jesus is spoken of here, not as “our Lord Jesus,” but as “our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is the Messiah, He is the One to whom all the Old Testament prophets predicted, to whom the gospels revealed, and whom the epistles explained. The Bible is all about King Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah. Listen, sound teaching that you can trust always focuses on the sinless, perfectly righteous Son of God, who bled and died to atone for the sins of those who believe in Him. It focuses on His death and resurrection as our only hope for salvation. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of all sound theology. It glorifies Him, exalts Him, and pleases Him. Therefore, every sermon that is worthy of our attention clearly points us to His cross. To Christ crucified and Christ glorified. The heretical teachers in Ephesus, and the ones who are so prevalent today, will center on man, they will redefine sin, excuse it, or overlook it. They will exalt the experience of the Holy Spirit over the cross of Calvary. They will focus on many spiritual things, but they will not center on Jesus, the Holy One who lived, bled, and died so that we may be forgiven and made right with God. They will ultimately belittle Him and the wisdom of the cross as they exalt themselves and the foolish wisdom of man. Listen, they will not center their message on Christ, because Christ is not the center of their lives!

Lastly, under this first point, notice the third symptom of false teachers is their rejection of the doctrine leading to godliness. Listen, Heresy has no power, whatsoever, to produce genuine and lasting godliness. None! You see the ultimate test of any teaching is whether it produces godliness or not. Godliness meaning piety, reverence, or likeness to God is what all good, sound, and Christ centered teaching should naturally produce. Listen, truth faithfully produces godliness, it makes us more and more like Christ, where other doctrines only yield worldliness. That’s the major difference between the two.

Church, we should not be surprised by the countless false teachers in our world and in the church. As the modern Christian culture continues to foster a Christianity that ignores the vital spiritual disciplines of the faith, it will inevitably produce a great harvest of heretical teachers. And unless we are grounded in the scripture, we will be completely unable to discern the truth from that which is almost true. Spurgeon said it so well, as he often did, “Discernment is not a matter of simply telling the difference between right and wrong; rather its telling the difference between right and almost right.” Brothers and sisters, as we go about our daily business, we are constantly bombarded with the lies of Satan and the lies of our culture. Many of these lies are close to the whole “truth”, but they are nonetheless still false beliefs that fail to produce lasting peace and eternal joy. Oh, how important it is for us to be people of the Word, to be disciplined in studying Scripture, to be involved in Bible studies and live in fellowship with other believers who can keep us from the unwholesome and Christless doctrines that plague our world.

2) The self-centered and destructive life of a heretic (vs. 4-5).

Since heresy fails to produce godliness, we are left pondering the question, what does it produce? Though I answered that questions already with the word worldliness, notice how Paul answers that question in verse four and five. He wrote, “he is conceited and understands nothing.” The fruit of heresy is pride, for it faithfully produces a conceited attitude. The word conceited implies being puffed up like a cloud of smoke. It also carries a meaning of being blinded, like driving through a thick New England fog. Worldly people are prideful people, they are self-centered, arrogant, confident in themselves and in their own wisdom, and are often narcissistic. They simply can’t see beyond themselves, because they place themselves at the center of their lives. Everything revolves around them. Please take note that heresy is not so much an intellectual issue rooted in the brain as it is a moral problem established in the heart. The conceited person is completely self-absorbed, and that pride leads to countless other issues. In fact, in the Greek text, its abundantly clear that all the character flaws that follow this first description, result from the fact that the false teacher is conceited, full of pride. You see, it’s because he is conceited that understands nothing, has morbid interests, struggles with envy, and acts divisive. All those destructive things flow from the prideful heart of a worldly man. C.S. Lewis, in His book Mere Christianity warns of the danger of pride with these words, he wrote, “It was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the completely anti-God state of mind.” From such an evil mind flow countless lies and innumerable troubles…

Notice the downward devastating progression of these things. He says the prideful person thinks he knows something when in reality he understands nothing. Pride always leads to ignorance. You see, all his so-called intelligence and great insight amount to mere foolishness to God. As Paul said in Romans 1:22… “Claiming to be wise, they became fools.” They have no spiritual understanding or spiritual insight because in rejecting sound doctrine that centers on Christ, they have exchanged the pure truth of God for lie. They are completely blind and deaf to truth. Unable to see or comprehend it.

Yet the spiral continues… Pride produces ignorance and from such foolishness naturally flows a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words. The words morbid interest implies being sick or infected with disease. Its figurative in nature and suggests that the one who embraces false teaching are troubled and tormented in their minds. This sickness naturally contrasts with the wholesome and healthy nature of the words of Christ mentioned in verse three. You see, the false teacher’s conceit and the pride of the ones who follow their teaching, lead them away from that which will only bring life and healing, and toward that which only will bring spiritual sickness and death.

Therefore, these false teachers and their students strongly desire to engage in word wars with others. We can see this so clearly in our culture right now, can we not? News is no longer news, instead, its just people yelling at each other and engaging in word wars, but sadly such emotion is not limited to the world. You see there are many Christians, who rather than submit to the Holy Word of God, choose to debate and quibble over theological terminology and theories that ultimately rob Christ of His glory, and the Word of its authority. And sadly we see this happening more and more today.

Well obviously, such a strong desire to debate spirals downward to other disastrous actions, notice the ones Paul lists: out of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, and constant friction between men. Wow… think of this, since heresy fails to produce godliness, it naturally fails to produce unity. Instead, the fruit of false teaching always lead to division. These word battles innately harvest chaos and confusion within the family of God. Paul specifically names envy: the inward discontentment of the heart that longs for something more. That often leads to strife which manifests itself in abusive language. All of those things lead to constant friction where others are always rubbing them the wrong way. Again, unity is impossible to grow where there is an absence of truth. Instead, heretical teachers spread a poisonous and liberal theology that places man at the center, and when that happens division and sin flow forth.

What a tragic downward spiral to follow. It should again remind us of how vital it is for each of us to cling to the truth of God’s pure and holy Word. And notice if you will, how the apostle Paul concludes this list: he described such teachers and their followers as men with a deprived mind and deprived of the truth. You see, even though such deceptive theology flows ultimately from Satan and His demons, there is a powerful internal source as well. Paul labels it here as the depraved or unregenerate mind. In biblical language the mind and the heart are one in the same. It’s the inner man that thinks, that feels, and responds. And Paul reminds us here that false teaching flows from the fountain of an unsaved and self-deceived heart. A heart that is unable to understand the very things of God. In 1 Corinthians 2:14, the apostle described such men with these words… “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” Since they do not share the mind of Christ, false teachers can only produce errors or at best half-truths that eventually lead others down the same devastating spiral that we just considered. Listen, I know it can be unpopular to question a person’s salvation. We are obviously not God, and not the judge, but when people cling to false doctrine, I think Scripture calls us to treat them as unbelievers, who desperately need the truth in which they are deprived, they need to be evangelized and loved. They need desperately to hear the gospel of Christ’s love for them, and how He must be the center of all things. O how desperate they are for truth, For Abundant life, real hope, everlasting peace, unending joy, and true love can only be discovered when man is humbled, and Christ is exalted. They are only experienced when Jesus receives the worship and honor that He deserves. Oh, how I hope you can see the disastrous and desperately sick nature of a self-centered prideful heart. A self-centered heart that is possessed by heretical false teachers and their followers will certainly only lead to division and disorder. Well, there is one final division I want you to see this morning, notice…

3) The greedy and lustful heart that is always attached to heresy (vs. 5-10).

At the end of verse 5, the apostle adds an interesting note regarding false teachers. He concludes they, “suppose that godliness is a means of gain.” With these words, Paul gives us insight to the motivation of their heart, right? They believe that their godliness (a word Paul is using sarcastically here to describe their false piety), will lead them to financial gain. In other words, they peddle false teaching because their heart wants to be wealthy. These men, who were elders in Ephesus turned their training and position as teaching elders into a business for their own personal gain. Their hearts are filled with greed and they longed for materialistic gain. If you remember in the qualifications that Paul for an elder in chapter 3:3, he specifically said, that elders must be free from the love of money. These men were simply unqualified to serve. Sadly, there are many false teachers today that are making millions of dollars a year. These men and women need to be avoided like the plague that they truly are. Well known pastors who have embraced the health wealth, and prosperity gospel like Kenneth Copeland, Joel Olsteen, Bill Johnson, Steven Furtick, T. D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, Paula White, Joseph Prince, and Pat Robinson, avoid them. Their hearts are full of greed and they teach poisonous lies cloaked in Christian language. They believe their ministry is a means of great gain, and that God shows His love and favor most clearly by blessing people with wealth and health. That message is radically unbiblical, for if such things were the marks of successful ministry and a healthy walk with God then why was Jesus homeless, why did He have to suffer and die? You see Christ doesn’t fit into their theology because its man centered. Such a pathetic form of godliness, according to Paul, is no gain at all.

Now picking up on the two words godliness and gain, Paul shifts our attention to the gain or blessing of true godliness. He write in verse 6, “But godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment.” True godliness does not give financial gain. No, it in itself is gain when accompanied with contentment. The word contentment literally means “self-sufficiency.” It was used originally by the stoic philosophers to describe a person who was unmoved by outside circumstances. They were satisfied with what they had been given by God. Paul is saying true godliness is not a means of financial gain, but is a source of spiritual gain. Oh, how important it is to understand wealth from a biblical perspective. You see, the pursuit of material riches is always empty and futile. The Bible is clear on this principle, it declares: “He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves abundance with its income. This too is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 5:10).Vanity meaning that will add no value to your life whatsoever. Its a worthless pursuit! And the very reason why money will certainly fail to satisfy your heart, is because you were not created to find pleasure and peace from it.

This is why Paul points us to the blessing of contentment, because in Christ we have everything we should ever want or desire. This why Paul could write what he did in Philippians 4:11-13… “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Listen, contentment is a means of great gain because its satisfaction is not based on the gifts, but the Giver. Therefore we can say that contentment is so much self-sufficiency as the stoic believed, but it Christ-sufficiency. Everything we need is found in Him!

To stress this point, Paul gives two reasons why we should be content in verses 7-8 where he reminds us that material gain is irrelevant, and greed is irrational. Notice in verse 7, the apostle reminds his readers that we bring nothing into this world and that we will depart with nothing as well. This verse should remind us of Job who famously said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21). Job went from lifestyles of the rich and famous to living in the city dump. Some could argue that he lost it all, but that would be untrue, for He never lost His God. Even in extreme poverty, He had everything, because he had God and therefore was content in worshiping the name of the Lord.

The second reason Paul gives is verse 8, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” For Christians, God’s “divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who has called us by His glory and goodness” (2 Peter 1:3). If we have been given food for our stomachs and covering or clothing to dress us, then we still have everything we need to live a godly life for Christ alone. Now, with these two reasons, Paul is not advocating a lifestyle of poverty, but is instead, drawing a definite line between possessions and contentment. He is saying that one’s possessions and wealth have nothing to do their contentment. For some reason, we like to believe that if we just had a little bit more, our hearts would be satisfied. But folks, your heart will never be satisfied outside of Jesus Christ! It will always long for more.

And that greedy and lustful desire that flows from a self-centered prideful heart, Paul says, will also reap a harvest of great destruction. Notice our last two verses 9 and 10… the apostle wrote, “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare… Greed always tempts one to take evil action. You see greed is a trap, a snare that captures us in our selfishness and won’t let go until we are completely consumed with what which we desire the most. At such a time, every person you encounter will become either a roadblock or an expressway to that desire. You will either avoid people, or use them, but you will never serve them or love them. That’s why Paul adds that this snare will cause them to plunge into ruin and destruction. In other words, you will foolishly allow greed to rob you of everything. You see these self-centered desires faithfully lead to the opposite of true happiness, and this is because they have nothing to do with Christ, who alone is the source of true joy. Instead, of experiencing grace upon grace, greedy people plunge, meaning they sink to the bottom, they literally drown themselves in their own selfishness, into ruin and destruction.

The word destruction in Scripture almost always refers to the eternal ruin of the soul. Paul is stressing that hell alone awaits such people who are consumed with the selfish desire for more. That’s why in verse 10 he concludes… “For the love of money is a root of sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Notice Paul is clear and does not say money itself is the root of all kinds of evil, rather he says it is love, love that is misplaced outside of Christ, and thus this misplaced love may bring forth countless forms of evil into a person’s life. Such selfish craving, such unsatisfiable desire for more causes many to wander away from the truth and be pierced with many griefs. And the ultimate grief that awaits them is the eternal destruction of their soul in hell.

Oh, the evil dangers that lie deep in every one of our hearts are real. Our self-seeking loves for money, relationships, power, pleasure, comfort, influence, control, and recognition will destroy our lives and the lives of those we love. Please understand: If something outside of Christ captures your heart’s greatest affection, you will inevitably wander into chaos, despair, and ruin. The Bible reminds us of that often, because our hearts quickly forget it. 2 Corinthians 5:15 reads... “He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.” If you want to avoid all the trouble, all the hardship, and all the suffering that comes with loving the wrong things, let this verse settle in your heart and mind. The Bible tells us that there is another way. By God’s grace: Christ Jesus, who was born of a virgin in Bethlehem and lived the only sinless life, pointing us to God and teaching us the way of godliness… He bled and died for your sin. He was the lamb of God who takes away the sins of man by sacrificially dying in our place. As we have seen from our text today, our selfish, self-seeking, self-glorifying hearts have plagued our lives with trouble upon trouble, suffering upon suffering, and everyone of us deserve nothing but the worst form of death. We deserve the cross, we deserve to die and spend eternity in hell for all the sin we have committed, for all the chaos that our sin has caused in His creation. Oh, but by amazing grace, God offers us a new life, a life that is not centered on self, but is focused on Christ alone. That’s what 2 Corinthians promises us. A life that we can live for Him, forgiven, redeemed by His blood, graced with a righteousness that is not our own, for our own righteousness is nothing but filthy rags before His perfect holiness. Let’s face it, even at our absolute best, there are still remnants of selfishness behind almost everything we say and do. But God the Father justly dealt with all our selfishness, all our sinful self-serving thoughts, every sinful choice you have made, and will make. All that evil was laid upon His holy shoulders at Calvary, and God the Father poured His righteous anger upon His own Son, till our sin debt was completely paid in full. At such a time, Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross. But in three days, just as He had promised, Christ Jesus gloriously arose from the dead and shortly after that He ascended into heaven where He currently lives to pray for you, that you would live for Him. Right now, he is praying that He would be the center of your life. That your greatest passion in His world would be to obey His commands and glorify His name in your home, with your family, in your workplace, in your schools, within your circle of friends, when you are in the grocery store, running errands, in traffic, wherever you may go. And as we place Him first in our lives, He promises us His favor, His mercy, and His grace. Oh, I pray you will respond to His prayers with great faith today and live for Him!

Our text today,Paul has vividly painted a picture for us of the chaos that ensues when our hearts love the wrong things and when we embrace false doctrines. We must remember the truth that we were created to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all your soul, all your mind, and with all your strength. Its only when Christ is in His rightful place in our hearts that we experience true love, true hope, true peace, and true contentment. For when Christ is not in the right place, everything else will certainly fall out of place in time.

Pray with me….