The Mystery of Godliness (1 Tim 3:14-4:5)

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Prayer of Repentance and Adoration

Preaching of God’s Word (1 Tim 3:14-4:5)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please turn it to 1 Timothy 3:14-4:5.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve spent some time talking about elders and deacons within the local church. Paul’s reasoning for this is quite simple, he’s trying to remind Timothy of what the proper way for a church to function is; and part of the problem in Ephesus is the elders and deacons already in the church aren’t qualified to serve in those positions, so Paul emphasizes the need to choose biblically-qualified people for those roles.

We worked verse-by-verse through seven verses that were focused on the qualifications for elders, whom we commonly refer to as pastors today; and then we worked verse-by-verse through six verses focused on the qualifications for deacons. And I emphasized that while the roles share many similar qualifications, there are some that differ because of the purpose of the roles themselves—elders lead the church and deacons serve the church, which means that elders have certain qualifications that deacons simply don’t have—like being able to teach and not being a recent convert.

When we worked through the deacon qualifications, Paul says a phrase that I mentioned might be a little confusing to understand, but I insisted that we not spend a ton of time last week studying that phrase because Paul was going to write a little bit more about it in this week’s section. The phrase comes from 1 Timothy 3:9, “They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.” We briefly spoke about it, but I didn’t give many details about it. This week, we’ll talk about it at length.

But first, let’s read 1 Timothy 3:14-4:5.

1 Timothy 3:14–4:5 ESV

14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. 16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory. 1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

As we study this passage together, we’re going to look at the text in two parts: (1) The Mystery of Godliness (3:14-16) and (2) The Rejection of the Mystery (4:1-5). I know we’re sort of straddling between two chapters, but let me remind you that the chapter divisions aren’t inspired—they’re there for our benefit and sometimes they don’t quite line up where the text divisions are and this is one of those cases. In the first section of the text, we learn about Paul’s purpose in writing about elders, deacons, and prohibitions within Christian worship before telling us what he calls the mystery of Godliness. In the second section, Paul warns that there will be some who seemingly have accepted the truth, who actually didn’t. This evening, we’re going to discuss what exactly this mystery is that Paul refers to and we’ll look at some of the reasons why some people choose to reject the mystery in favor of other ideas.

Prayer for Illumination

The Mystery of Godliness (3:14-16)

Our text starts with Paul explaining why exactly he’s writing the things that he’s writing to Timothy.

You have to consider the fact that Timothy knew Paul very well and everything that Paul is writing to Timothy in his letters were probably already told to Timothy prior to this point.

Most scholars state that Timothy met Paul when he was a late teenager into his early 20s and of course, we know that 1 Timothy was written after Timothy first met Paul in the book of Acts—many estimates place the authorship about 16 years after their initial meeting.

While we don’t think that Timothy traveled with Paul this entire time, it’s clear that their relationship was one of mentorship—Paul mentored Timothy over the 16ish years between their initial meeting and Timothy pastoring the Ephesian people.

I think that in 16 years, Paul probably had told him how churches were supposed to function and how elders and deacons ought to be selected—especially since Timothy was a co-author of some of the New Testament letters with Paul. Timothy is listed as a co-author for 2 Corinthians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, and Philemon.

All that Paul is reminding Timothy of are things that Timothy probably already knows, but there’s something to be said about the reminder that Paul gives Timothy and I’ll explain a possible reason for Paul to have written this in a few minutes,

He writes in vv. 14-15, “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”

Paul intended to come and speak to Timothy directly, but remember, this is the first century and travel wasn’t as easy as it is now—it’s not as simple as jumping in your car and driving to the next location.

Depending on where Paul was, it could take days or even weeks for him to get to Timothy, which is precisely the reason why Paul writes this letter—what he’s saying is this, “just in case it takes me longer than usual for me to get there, here’s a letter.”

And in this letter, his focus is on “how one ought to behave in the household of God.”

Again, what do we do with false teachers? You remove them.

What should we look for in elders who lead?

What do we look for in deacons who serve?

Paul writes all this so that Timothy has these instructions in writing, readily available for him.

Now, Paul calls the church three different things that emphasize the importance of Paul’s instructions to Timothy. He calls the church the household of God, the church of the living God, and a pillar and buttress of the truth. Each of these ideas have significance and they really highlight the importance of the church.

First, the church is God’s household—and Paul doesn’t mean this in a sentimental way. When someone repents of their sins and believes in Jesus, they are adopted as fellow-heirs of Jesus Christ. They become brothers and sisters in Christ. God is the Father, believers are brothers and sisters.

Second, the household of God is the church of the living God—this gives us a reason for proper conduct within the church of God. Why should the church be organized in this way—why should false teaching be removed? Why should the leaders (the elders) be biblically qualified? Why should the deacons (the servants) be biblically qualified? Because the household of God isn’t about us, it’s all about God who is a living God—He is alive.

Maybe it would help to look at this a different way—believers are called the temple of the living God. What was and is the purpose of the temple? For God to dwell amongst His people.

Why should the church learn how they ought to behave? Because God dwells amongst His people and when people are in the presence of God, there is a proper way to act and to behave.

Third, we’re told that the church is a pillar and buttress of the truth. Now, some churches have taken this idea and ran it the wrong direction where they would make the claim that their church has just as much authority and accuracy as the Bible does, but that isn’t Paul’s point.

The idea at hand isn’t to exalt the institutional church, but rather to call the members of the local church to active proclamation and witness of the truth.

Or in other words, it is through the church when the church is acting properly as an entity that is filled with people in the presence of God, that the truth is proclaimed and supported and strengthened.

George Knight, the whole purpose of Paul’s statement here is “To remind the church that it is a structure called to uphold the truth of Christianity is also to remind it that it is a household called to manifest that truth in its conduct and to conform to it . . . in summary, Timothy and the church will conduct their lives appropriately if they remember that they are the home built and owned by God and indwelt by him as the living one, and also remember that they are called on to undergird and hold aloft God’s truth in word and deed.” (George Knight, The Pastoral Epistles: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992) 181-182)

So, let’s return to the question that I mentioned earlier, why did Paul write this letter?

Because Timothy was a young pastor in an established church that was critical of Timothy because of his age and supposed lack of life experience.

Timothy was pastoring a church that was already disobedient to Scripture, which is why Paul spent the first part of the letter confronting false teaching, improper worship, and the need of biblically qualified elders and deacons.

Why did Paul write this letter? Because the church itself was contentious and was refusing to listen, so Paul might be hoping that by getting a letter directly from an apostle confronting the church, that the church would actually listen, repent, and obey.

Thomas Lea and Hayne Griffin write this, “[Paul’s] writing was not due to his previous forgetfulness to mention these words to Timothy. Nor was Timothy so incompetent that Paul jotted off this note to prevent him from acting carelessly. The letter could serve as a confirmation of advice already given to Timothy on Paul’s departure earlier from Ephesus. It would buttress Timothy’s authority before a testy congregation. A critic of Timothy in Ephesus could argue that Timothy had misunderstood what Paul had directed him to do. [But] no one could easily argue with a written word from the apostle.” (Thomas D. Lea and Hayne P. Griffin, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992) 122)

Now, having ended v. 15 with an emphasis on this idea of truth, Paul then takes v. 16 to tell us what exactly the truth is, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

What is this truth that we’re all confessing if we’re genuine believers? It’s what Paul calls the “mystery of godliness.”

And let me remind you that despite our modern understanding of the word mystery, we aren’t talking about something that isn’t understood or beyond our understanding.

Last week, I mentioned that the cartoon Scooby Doo actually utilizes the definition of mystery that we’re looking for in this case—in Scooby Doo, in almost every episode, this mystery team of teenage kids and their dog investigate something unusual happening—and they go through the whole episode checking things out and trying to figure out what exactly is happening until eventually they reveal the culprit by taking his mask and costume off at the end of the episode.

What they do by revealing the culprit is literally what a mystery means—a mystery is something that formerly wasn’t known that has now been made known. In the case of Scooby Doo, it’s whoever the villain is.

In the case of 1 Timothy 3, Paul tells us what this is—what was formerly not known but is now known, “He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”

What Paul refers to as this mystery of godliness is seen in the life of Jesus Christ and he writes it in poem-form or what we might even consider to be an early hymn.

When Jesus was born, He was manifested in the flesh.

When Jesus was resurrected, He was vindicated by the Spirit.

“Seen by angels” was utilized in the New testament to speak of Jesus’ post-resurrection status.

Proclaimed among the nations and believed on in the world refer to the proclamation of the Gospel, which Jesus commanded.

And this poem or hymn ends with the fact that Jesus was taken up in glory.

Now, of course, this isn’t exhaustive of all Christian doctrine—it doesn’t mention creation and it doesn’t mention the Old Testament whatsoever, it also doesn’t mentioned Jesus’ eventual return, but it is an abbreviated Gospel proclamation.

And really, this is probably about the bare minimum that can be said about Jesus concerning the Gospel for you to get the point across.

Jesus was born of a virgin, He lived a perfect, sinless life, He died, was buried, and was resurrected, He reigns at the right hand of God, He’s proclaimed to all people, and He will return.

That is the mystery that Paul is referring to—it’s the Gospel.

The Gospel was once hidden but is now revealed.

This is why, throughout the Old Testament, the Gospel is seen only in pieces—we see the promised Messiah mentioned in Genesis 3 and periodically, we see reminders of this truth throughout the TaNaKh, but it isn’t until Matthew that we see the Gospel revealed in its entirety.

And it is the truth of the Gospel that is confessed in the household of God, the church of the living God, which is a pillar and buttress of truth; it is the Gospel that is the truth that is to be proclaimed and supported by the church—not politics, not philosophy, not psychology, or any other sort of worldview. It’s all about Jesus and the Gospel.

Now, here’s the thing, in the next five verses, which starts the next chapter, we learn something that might seem a bit obvious, but it’s worded in an unusual way. What Paul states in in the next five verses is that not everyone will believe this mystery and instead, they’d rather believe lies about God and the Law of God than the Gospel itself. Keep this in mind as we read the next five verses—1 Timothy 4:1-5.

The Rejection of the Mystery (4:1-5)

1 Timothy 4:1–5 ESV

1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.

Paul starts this chapter with a few details that are worth exploring: (1) he tells us that this is a statement made by the Holy Spirit, (2) he reminds us that what he’s about to say will happen in “later times” and (3) he tells us that some will “depart from the faith.”

First, he tells us that this is a statement made by the Holy Spirit—that might seem like a unimportant statement, but Paul thinks it’s important enough to point out that he isn’t making this up, this isn’t his own opinion or his own thought—this is something that the Holy Spirit has said.

Second, he reminds us that what he’s about to say will happen in “later times.”—now, don’t confuse the idea of later times with last times or last days. Last days refer to the end times in particular; later times just refer to a later date from the time of Paul’s writing.

What Paul says it that the Holy Spirit has said that in the future some will “depart from the faith.” And we really need to discuss this because as a Reformed Baptist church, we believe in the perseverance of the saints, that anyone who truly believes in Jesus, won’t depart from the faith.

So, let me start with why we believe that genuine believers are secure in their faith and then we’ll narrow into what Paul means in v. 1.

Our official position as a church is this: “Since salvation is based only on the grace of God and not on the merit or work of the individual, everyone who truly accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior is eternally secure in his salvation and is kept by God’s power.”

This concept of being eternally secure is mentioned throughout Scripture:

Jesus says in John 6:37-40 “37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will never cast out. 38 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 “Now this is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. 40 “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.””

He also says in John 10:27-30 “27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; 28 and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish—ever; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. 29 “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. 30 “I and the Father are one.””

Paul says in Romans 8:38-39 “38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Peter writes about believers “being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1 Pet 1:5.

There are other passages as well, but those are the most common ones.

Now, you might hear all this and ask, “what about those who claim to believe but still live a sinful, unrepentant lifestyle or who eventually deny Jesus?”

1 John actually answers two of those questions: 1 John 3:6 tells us that a true Christian won’t live in an unrepentant lifestyle—they’ll still struggle with sin, but they won’t purposefully choose to keep sinning.

1 John 2:19 tells us that those who depart were never really believers to begin with. They might have been religious people and they might have “put on a good show” but they were never born again Christians who were redeemed.

You can also look at it a different way, Jesus gives promises to those who genuinely believe:

2 Cor 5:17 “17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” A believer is made new in Jesus—how can someone be made new and then revert to what’s old?

1 Pet 1:18-19 “18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your futile conduct inherited from your forefathers, 19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.” A believer is redeemed or bought by Jesus—how can someone be redeemed or bought by Jesus and then sold back into sin and bondage?

Rom 5:1 “1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” A believer is justified—how can a believer be declared righteous only for God to go back on His Word and “un-declare” what He had declared?

Or even if you just consider John 3:16 “16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” A believer is promised eternal life from the moment of their salvation—if you could lose your salvation, then God couldn’t promise you eternal life until after determining if you genuinely believed after this earthly life; and yet, He does.

The key is knowing that true, genuine salvation isn’t the same as walking the aisle at church or praying the sinner’s prayer; and I would argue that churches who emphasized these sorts of things did a disservice to both believers and unbelievers:

Because there are believers who think that all it takes for someone to be saved is to pray a canned prayer or walk an aisle

And there are unbelievers who think that they’re believers simply because they prayed a canned prayer or walked an aisle.

Salvation comes by repentance of sin, belief in Jesus, and actually following Him—and only those who do this are genuine believers.

Again, you might have another question, what about passages of Scripture that seem to imply that you can lose your salvation like 1 Timothy 4, Hebrews 6, and Hebrews 10?”

Let me suggest that it’s a misunderstanding of what those texts are actually speaking of—there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of what the idea of apostasy is—it is assumed that apostasy is when a genuine believer rejects the faith, but in all the examples of apostasy in Scripture, if you’re reading the text carefully, you’ll notice that the apostate was never a believer in the first place.

The apostates were those who claimed to believe or professed that they were saved, but they weren’t really genuine believers. As Isaiah said, “These people come near to [God] with their mouth and honor [Him] with their lips, but their hearts are far from [Him] (Isa 29:13).

They aren’t actual believers, they just think they are for the time being—a good illustration of this is the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13:24-30. There’s a field in which there is wheat and false wheat (tares or weeds). At first, the difference between the two plants was undetectable, but as time went on the tares are detected. The modern-day church is the same way—there are genuine believers alongside those who pretend—who enjoy the sermons, like the music, and love the fellowship but have never actually repented of their sins and accepted Christ by faith. They look the same, but only God can see their heart.

Genuine believers don’t lose their salvation because genuine believers don’t depart. Now, you might have one last push back, you might think that the statement in 1 Timothy 4 refers to genuine faith. Paul says, “in later times some will depart from the faith.”

But remember, the wording doesn’t imply that they’re true believers; all the wording implies is that they adhere to the teachings of the faith—at least, for a moment. They professed to believe, but they didn’t actually believe.

Why do you think that is the case? Why do you think they abandoned what they claimed they believe? There are all sorts of different reasons that we could come up with (we might say sin, we might say they got bored, or any number of other reasons), but Paul tells us why people will leave the church in Ephesus in the last part of v. 1 into v. 3, “by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.”

Why are these people abandoning the faith they claimed they believe? It’s actually rather simple—they’re choosing to follow the false teachers that Paul had already condemned rather than follow the Gospel—the mystery of godliness.

In this case, there are multiple false teachings at play including the forbidding of marriage and abstinence from food, but note where all of these false teachings are coming from.

We see that they’re coming from “deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, [and] through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.”

Now, you might wonder, “who would choose to follow demons,” but that’s precisely what most false religious beliefs are (personally, I can’t look at an image of most false gods and think they aren’t demons (I mean, just look at an image of vishnu or shiva and you’ll understand what I mean).

Not to mention the fact that there are Christians in the US that have integrated eastern mysticism and occult ideology in with their understanding of God—where do you think all that comes from?

When speaking of those whose consciences are seared, he’s literally talking about false teachers who have lied and sinned so much that they are so calloused towards the false teachings that they don’t care that they’re hurting other people—just look at people like Jessie Duplantis or Copeland and how they fleece the flock of God.

Now, I wish we had a little more time to discuss the false teachings that they taught, but I do want us to spend a few minutes talking about vv. 4-5 before ending with application.

As a rebuke of their false teachings, Paul says, “everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

There are a lot of misunderstandings about these two verses, so let me just say, anytime there is confusion, you have to think the passage through logically and with other passages of Scripture in mind.

The false teachers were condemning marriage—is marriage something that ought to be condemned? No! Absolutely not, marriage is a gift of God.

The false teachers were condemning the eating of certain foods—more than likely, this might refer to the Old Testament laws concerning what constituted as kosher. The Israelites weren’t allowed to eat certain foods, but the book of Acts makes it clear that Jesus had fulfilled the Law and those sorts of laws weren’t applicable in the same way, thus, anything given to you as food ought to be seen as good.

Of course, there needs to be some common sense in this—Robert Yarbrough, “'Nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving’ assumes participation in marriage and foods in keeping with God’s commands and human prudence. The statement does not sanction someone using illegal drugs (after they thank God) on the grounds that the Bible says ‘Nothing is to be rejected.’ It does not legitimize extramarital sex (or pornography) by someone who reasons that (1) they are married, and (2) they have thanked God.” (Robert Yarbrough, The Letters to Timothy and Titus, Pillar New Testament Commentary, (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2018), 232)

When food and marriage is how God is intended it to be, Paul says that it shouldn’t be rejected if it’s received with thanksgiving—despite what false teachers say.

The last verse concludes this section by reiterating the argument at hand., “for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

The Gospel is something that was once hidden but has now been revealed and this Gospel is what the family of God confess, what the church proclaims and defends; and it is precisely what demons, deceitful spirits, false teachers, and unbelievers reject.

This brings us in our last few minutes to our application and for our application this evening, we’re going to take the whole passage in one.

Application

In the first section we see Paul tie this passage in with the previous by explaining that the reason for him writing any of this is so that people would know how they ought to behave within the church. And really, the reasoning is quite simple—the reasoning is that the church is God’s household and the church is of the living God, and the church is the primary organization set apart to not just proclaim the Gospel, but to defend the Gospel. In the second section of the passage, we see that not everyone who hears the Gospel will accept the Gospel and there will even be those who claim to believe the Gospel who don’t actually believe.

There are three ideas that form our application this evening: (1) You, as a believer, ought to act biblically within the local church because of the Gospel, (2) you are required to proclaim and defend the Gospel, and (3) you shouldn’t be surprised when people who claim to believe don’t actually believe. So, let’s break that down:

First, you ought to act biblically within the local church because of the Gospel—it’s become clear that in many churches in the United States, there are typically two ways of looking at how the church should be: (1) either the church exists to entertain or (2) the church exists to be focused on man rather than God. Both of those ideas are wrong, but I’m not going to focus entirely on way they’re wrong. Instead, I’m going to focus on what happens when the church does things that it isn’t supposed to.

If a church thinks it exists to entertain than the people within the church and around the church view it as nothing more than just a place to be entertained.

People come because they enjoy the music or the light show or to ted talk or whatever new thing the church is offering that week, which means that when they stop enjoying the music or the light show or the ted talk or whatever new thing the church is offering, they’ll leave—it creates a consumer mindset.

Thus, people church hop and they don’t commit to any one church—they just go to various churches and when they get bored they go to another church and so on and so on.

If a church thinks it exists for man rather than God, they tend to worship man rather than God. This mindset tends to lend itself to the entertainment mindset, but it extends further than that.

When people within a church thinks the church exists just for them—this is when in-fighting begins to happen. Some get angry because the carpet isn’t the color that they like, others get upset because a picture was moved in the hallway.

Thus, people think that the whole purpose of the church is for them to get their way rather than to worship God so they claw their way to sit on committees and be in charge of various things so that when decisions need made, they can voice their opinions.

And when they stop getting their way, they eventually throw a fit or leave.

But the Bible teaches us precisely what the church exists for—in fact, Paul gives us a brief statement about it in v. 15—the church is the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.

Or put in a more modern vernacular: the church exists because the family of God gathers together in an organized group that exists for God with the primary responsibility of proclaiming and defending the truth—the Gospel.

And because the Gospel is so important, how we function as a church, what we do as a body of believers, who leads, who serves, who acts on behalf of the church—all these things matter. Because the Gospel matters.

So, church isn’t about you being entertained because it’s not really about you at all, it’s all about Jesus and the proclamation of His Gospel. When we think that church is all about entertainment or about ourselves, we subvert the truth and corrode the foundation that the church is supposed to sit on.

Our church needs to act, react, and function biblically in all matters because the Gospel is that important.

Second, you are required to proclaim and defend the Gospel—now I’m not going to spend a lot of time here other than to pose a simple question and give you an answer to it. If you are required to proclaim the Gospel and defend it, which it’s clear that v. 15 seems to say this. How do you go about doing this?

The reality is that you can’t proclaim and you can’t defend what you don’t know.

Paul gives just a brief synopsis of the Gospel in v. 16, but remember, I said that this isn’t a comprehensive statement of all the truth in Scripture—this is literally the bare minimum.

When you read this, how well do you know it? If I were to ask you to expound on it a bit—to explain what it means that Jesus was manifested in the flesh or vindicated or proclaimed or believed on or taken into glory, would you be able to explain it?

Would you be able to explain it to someone who has absolutely no idea what you’re talking about—maybe they’ve never heard the Gospel before or maybe they’re a child who has questions.

The reality is that you can’t proclaim and defend what you don’t know—thus, to get to the point where you can, you need start with bolstering your own knowledge of the truth.

Read Scripture, study the Bible, listen to proper teaching and preaching—don’t be content with an hour-long service on Sunday, devote yourself to the truths of Scripture.

Only then can you really proclaim the truth and defend the Gospel.

You need to know the Gospel so that you can defend it and proclaim it.

And lastly, you shouldn’t be surprised when professing Christians leave—I know we hate to think like this, but let me remind you that Jesus says that the way is narrow and few find it. Logically, what that means is even though the US claims about a 40-45% rate of belief in Christianity, that rate is really inflated because it includes several millions of people who profess to believe when they really don’t.

We all know people who profess to believe and then they leave the church and eventually they just don’t go to any church. Eventually, it gets to the point to when people ask about their faith, they don’t really profess that they believe in Jesus.

Instead they’ll say that they’re agnostic or atheistic or they grew up Christian, but they aren’t really anything anymore.

Occasionally, you’ll hear people say that they’re spiritual but not necessarily a Christian or they believe but they also believe that there’s value and worth in other beliefs.

When this happens, genuine believers rightfully get concerned and worried and occasionally, they’re really surprised, but the reality is that the Bible says “in later times some will depart.” The question is, what should we do about it?

The answer is two-fold—when someone leaves, weep, mourn, and pray; and start treating them like they’re an unbeliever.

What that means is this—if someone leaves our church and they don’t connect with a healthy Bible-believing church, we ought to mourn and weep and cry and be upset that they left; and we need to start praying for them to come to Jesus.

It also means, that if they have left their professed faith, that you ought to treat them how the Bible tells you to treat unbelievers—don’t shun them, but don’t necessarily spend every single minute with them. Rather, still love them, still help them when you can, and continuously point them to Jesus (evangelize them.)

Don’t be surprised when those who professed to believe leave—instead, pray for them and keep pointing them to Jesus.

What we learn from 1 Timothy 3:14-4:5 is that there is a mystery called the Gospel—it was once hidden but is now revealed and it is such an important truth that we as a church need to behave like the church is taught to in Scripture, and you as an individual Christian need to learn and stand firm on the Gospel so that you can proclaim it and defend it. We also learn that most people won’t accept the truth of the Gospel—we shouldn’t be surprised by this, we just need to keep praying for them and pointing them to Jesus.

Pastoral Prayer

Prayer Request

This is this week’s prayer requests:

The Bubb Family — About a week and a half ago, their son, Hunter took his life at home. Please be in prayer for the family. Our connection to the Bubb family is through Alice and Neil Miller, who have emphasized a ministry of presence with the family—they’ve been there to offer their support and help, so please pray for the Millers as well.

Sean Herbst — Addiction

Pray for Alexus (Tom and Raenelle’s great niece) — Alexus is being sent to Pittsburgh next month to determine if she is a candidate for brain surgery that could potentially help her. Be in prayer through all this.

Caleb Miller — Medical Issues

Reagan N. — Diagnosed with a tumor of the brain. Pray for doctors to have wisdom as they look at next steps.

Alan Wisor — Medical Issues

Pray for the church’s building fund

Pray for Andrew and Meagan Minnick and their family. They just finished moving from Greenville, South Carolina to Edmonton, Canada so that Andrew could teach at a Christian university as a missionary. Please pray for them as they adjust to life in Canada.