God’s plan for preaching, 1 Timothy 1:3-11

God’s Plan for Preaching

1 Timothy 1:3–11

1 Timothy 1:3–11 (ESV)

3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, 10 the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

Did you know that God has a plan & purpose for preaching?

3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

God has a purpose for preaching

1 Timothy 1:3-4

Paul had Timothy remain in Ephesus so that he would lead the church and its leaders to fulfill God’s purpose and plans. Timothy is to guard the gospel of Jesus by teaching what is right, and also to instruct others who are teaching to avoid subjects and messages that have no benefit to the hearer… and that ultimately draw people away from the truth.

It’s clear that some are teaching things that are not true or healthy… and that they are teaching things that are related to the law, but that are speculative rather than true.

The stories and the teachings are going nowhere… this is not uncommon today. People who are caught up with what might be… or who are always digging into the Word to see if they can figure something out that doesn’t have anything to do with the gospel itself… but are looking to make a name or situation or a place in the Bible be filled with meaning or substance that don’t lead to godliness or benefit anyone’s faith.

God’s purpose for preaching helps us to distinguish from what we should teach and what we should teach… and God’s goal of preaching helps us to judge if what is being said should be put before the church at all.

1 Timothy 1:5-9

5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. 8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient,

God’s goal for preaching is love, not the law

5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

The aim of the charge… the goal of the ministry of preaching and teaching, the purpose of Timothy and the other elders leadership in the church is love… not the law.

1:6-7 in Ephesus there were those who were mussing the law and teaching speculative theories and perspectives. The theories and speculations are coming from the teaching of the law. It’s not wrong to teach the law… as you can see in verse 8

1:8-9, the law is good when it is used rightly.

The church doesn’t build itself up in the law, it builds itself up in love.

Remember, Timothy is in Ephesus and Paul wrote another letter to the Ephesians… and we spent a good bit of last year walking through that letter to the church… in it Paul explains that God has gifted the church with pastors and teachers.. and that those pastors and teachers are charged with equipping the saints for the work of ministry…. Like the stewardship that Paul refers to here in 1 Timothy… and in that passage of Ephesians he speaks to the goal of. The church to build itself up in love.

Ephesians 4:15–16 (ESV) says, 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

The law cannot build you up… the law has a purpose, and when we teach the law we must make sure that we understand what it says, and that we use it the way God intended. The law is not what we build ourselves up in…

The law is not a source of comfort and hope.

8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 9 understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient

The law cannot provide comfort… though some might try and claim their security and standing before God is found in their genealogies…

Others may try to use the law to provide security and hope through how good they are keeping the law… but this is not the purpose of the law.

What does the law do?

The law is a source of conviction and correction

The law isn’t for the just or the righteous… it is for the lawless and disobedient. Why? Because it points out our failure to measure up… it reveals to us that we are sinners, and the law also reveals to us the holiness of God.

The law is reminder of God’s holiness

Our sin is sin because it is measured against God’s holiness. Why does God tell us to be holy? Because he is holy… Why does God give the law to us… because we are His and he has shown us how we are to live… because we are to be like Him.

Back to the Garden and his purpose of creating us in His image and giving us the stewardship of the garden as image bearers to creation and to one another. We are to be reflections of His image on the earth.

The law points us to Jesus

How does the law point us to Jesus?

Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary Romans: "God did not give the law as a way for us to attain status in his family. The law was given to show us the righteousness of God. It was given so that we can see the perfect righteousness of God and by comparison see ourselves, warts and all, and despair of our own righteousness. The law sends us rushing to the cross and running for grace.” (ligonier.com)

Romans 10:4 (ESV) says, 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.

The word end means goal… Jesus is the goal of the law. That by knowing what righteousness is, we would look outside of ourselves to the promise of God to redeem us from the condemnation of the law. Because we cannot make ourselves righteous by the law… which is why we cannot build ourselves up in the law.

The law shows us what perfect and righteous living looks like… it shows us what it takes to please God. And this makes us ready to see Jesus for who He is and to receive what He has done for us through the cross and the resurrection.

Jesus has fulfilled the law, and in fulfilling the law has made the way for us to be righteous… but not through the keeping of the law- instead through His perfection and by his taking of our sin and shame on the cross… our righteousness is given to us by faith. Exchanged.

God’s goal for preaching is the proclamation of the gospel that results in love

Timothy is to charge some to quit teaching things that don’t accomplish God’s purpose and plan.

Gospel preaching aims at the heart

I heard one time that you can preach a sermon that aims at those who should be there to hear it, or at those who are there to hear it.

John McArthur has said that soft preaching leads to hard hearts… and hard preaching leads to soft hearts. And many people have different opinions about what hard or soft preaching can be… but the Bible makes it clear that we are to aim at the heart with the goal of purity… and not just purity of behavior, but purity of affections. Affections means loves… The love that God grows in us flows from the purity of our love… The gospel aims for purity of love toward God, toward one another, and toward the world… and that requires aiming at our hearts, not just our minds, words, our actions; but aiming at our passions and our motivations.

Pure hearts love without agenda…

Gospel preaching shapes the conscience

It establishes us and grounds us in what is true… (not vain and endless speculations… we shouldn’t waste our time or other’s time in things that we cannot give clear chapter, verse, and hang it on the revelation of God and see how it fits with His purposes.

It establishes what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong… so that we are able to discern what fits with God’s character and His calling and what doesn’t.

The law reveals what is sin… and our preaching should never make sin acceptable or affirm what goes against God’s clear purposes and intentions.

Gospel preaching inspires and deepens our faith

This means it is Jesus centered… and that means preaching the law must lead us to Jesus and trusting in Him. On the other side of Christ His saving work we cannot go back to the law and try to make it about something else.. like they were doing in Ephesus,

This means that it is Spirit dependent and not on our strength and ability or determination. We want really practical doable applications to sermons…

The greatest application we give is trusting in God.

Depending and trusting is doing

This doesn’t mean that there are not actions of obedience for us to follow or put into practice… it means that those things we do flow from our trust, and are not how we are hoping to build ourselves up… instead our actions flow from the love we have through grace and faith.

The law doesn’t produce love, love for God grows and flows from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

This kind of love is know because of Jesus… like John writes in his 1st letter… we love because He first loved us.

1 Timothy 1:11 says that the law must be taught,

11 in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

God’s goal for preaching is love that results in His glory and our contentment.

The aim of our charge is love… and the goal of God’s love for us and our love for Him is that he would be honored and glorified in our lives and in the lives of others… The aim of what we preach is love that results the happiness of God… His pleasure in us… and He is pleased by Christ… and therefore pleased when we follow Christ and justified by faith and not by our works… and what pleases God is also where we find our home and our peace.

“God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.” - John Piper

The aim of our preaching is that we would find our satisfaction and our home or peace in God… and we cannot find satisfaction in our attempts at righteousness… instead we find our greatest satisfaction by relying and depending on Christ- we find our wholeness in the grace of God through our faith in Jesus…

If the aim of preaching is the love, not the law… are you listening to grow in your love? Are you striving to win God’s approval, or are you striving because you have His love and grace?

If the aim of preaching is clear, then we must do our part to hear with the end in mind… and we cannot look for vain and speculative teachings that would “tickle our ears”

We can find some corrective conviction even in evaluating the aim of our hearing…

And we can all commit to growing in purity of heart, sounds of conscience, and strengthening of faith… and to growing in love of God and one another.

And we can all do that because of Jesus…