1Timothy 1:3-11 | Exposing Error

Introduction

Sometimes in life, we think we’re on the right path, only to find out we have drifted off of it. Over a decade ago, I was driving a bus full of kids back from Six Flags—exhausted and longing for sleep, I realized after driving for a couple of hours that put in the right address with the wrong zip code in the GPS! What should have been a quick trip turned into a long night.

Well, far worse than traveling delirious in the wrong direction in the middle of the night is embracing and teaching false doctrine… And that’s exactly what we see happening in the Ephesian church, which is the occasion for the letter of 1Timothy.

The entire letter is Paul sounding the alarm that the wrong address has been inputed into the GPS. The Ship is Off Course! as we discussed last week… And he gives instructions to Timothy on how to get the church back on track in accordance with God and His priorities rather than the world’s and more specifically these false teachers in their church.

This morning, we are going to see that the God of love is not only unafraid to confront error in our lives, but actively seeks to confront error in our lives precisely because He loves us... and He calls us to courageously and graciously do the same in one another’s lives and in the world.

PRAYER:

Father, we ask as we prepare to receive Your Word, that You would confront any and all error that we have entertained this week. Lies that we have believed. Sin that we have grown comfortable with or complacent about. Relationships that are compromised. Not only convict us, help us to see the urgency of the situation. Grant repentance and produce within all of us a deeper passion for you and your glory. Help us be a people that not only receive correction, help us to graciously extend that correction toward one another in a spirit of love. Do this and more, in Jesus name, Amen.

Context

As we prepare to read the text, let’s remember a few things. Paul the Apostle, wrote the letter we know as 1Timothy. He wrote it to a disciple of his named Timothy who was sent to Ephesus to instruct the churches on Paul’s behalf. Very quickly, we see that the church has gotten off track and we will see this throughout the letter. And though the letter was written to Timothy, it was also written with the church in mind. At the end of the letter, "Grace be with you” is (plural). Meaning, though he was instructing Timothy, he wanted the church and her leaders to receive instruction from it as well. That being said, Paul jumps right into business starting in verse 3.

READ: 1Timothy 1:3-11

Have you ever noticed how easy it is to get sidetracked from the main thing? Maybe this has never happened to you, but I have been arguing with someone and at some point in the conversation I can’t even remember what we were originally arguing about...

We either focus too heavily on defending ourself and our position OR we try to get out of the conflict as quickly as possible by any means necessary At some point, we veered off track… When we were supposed to be caring for and seeking understanding from the person, instead we are tearing down walls of trust and intimacy.

What about getting sidetracked when it comes to our relationship with Jesus? Isn’t so easy to get sidetracked/consumed with secondary and tertiary matters while neglecting what’s most important? Like, defending and proclaiming the gospel. Like, walking in love and holiness.

We even can struggle with getting sidetracked when it comes to spiritual disciplines. We tend to either feel proud of ourselves when we stick to the plan or feel discouraged and ashamed when we fall off track—rather than turning to Jesus, the one the disciplines are meant to help us know and enjoy more deeply, we turn inward, we turn to demonic lies.

What about doctrinally? That’s what was happening with the Ephesian congregation. At times they would underemphasize the importance of doctrine… and at other times they overemphasized the wrong things… And still other times, they downright rejected the plain teaching of the faith.

Today in America, the trend is inclusivism, pluralism and post modernism… Which is where being tolerant and celebrating all lifestyles, rejecting objective truth, and accepting all religions is seen as compassion, whereas disagreeing with others, standing on objective truth, and holding to exclusive claims are seen as hate… Even if you are right… And even if you are honestly and humbly sharing those views.

Paul’s concern for the Ephesian church is that she has veered off course… She has become sickly with false teachers and doctrines. She has become infected with a conglomeration of jewish and pagan doctrines that has led her to accepting and teaching false doctrines and accepting sinful lifestyles. The concern is so great, as we have seen, that Paul jumps right into exposing this error.

Again, we have entitled the sermon series: Grace, Truth and Godliness: The Church’s Antidote to Error. So with that in mind, let’s consider one of the deliveries to such an antidote, which is The Call to Lovingly Expose Error

1. We are Called to Lovingly Expose Error

1 Timothy 1:3-7

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.

People often do not associate confrontation with love… In our culture, Love is Love… Love is about accepting others… It certainly is not telling people to be quiet… And yet, the aim of Timothy and the Ephesian’s charge is a love that includes shutting down false teachers…

These teachers were not outright teaching heresy but their focus was on anything and everything but Christ, the truth of the gospel, and the pursuit of holiness. Rather they were fixated with conspiracy theories, speculations controversy at the expense of faith, love and biblical faithfulness.

Paul doesn’t address the specifics of these false teachers other than to mention endless genealogies. It reminds me of people who get more excited about studying rabbinic tradition than they do the scriptures…

Or people who are more into speculating about the age of the earth or whether God created more humans like Adam and Eve, or studying the original languages of the Scriptures…

And yet, they are not walking in nor growing in holiness. They have not read through the Bible in their own language. And they can’t even recite the books of the Bible in order much less communicate their emphasis or claim on their life…

Beloved, anything that takes our eyes off of what God emphasizes, even good things, will play a role in us and our church veering off track. Whether thats us falling into the ditch of majoring on the minor or minoring on the major… May it not be so in us individually and may it not be so in Sovereign Grace Church.

Makes me think about the idea of telling your child to go and clean their room. A little while later you approach your child only to find the room is not only messy but it’s even more messy than when you first told them to clean up. You ask the child why they haven’t obeyed you. To which he or she responds with… Oh! Don’t worry. I have been working really hard at what you told me to do. The first thing I did was I sat down at my computer and I researched all the cleaning theories I could get my hands on. Then I researched the top ten room cleaners in the world. From their I researched rooms that were similar to mine and even found an AI website that allowed me to input all the things in my room. Don’t worry, I might get to physically cleaning the room tomorrow.

Whatcha think? Of course the most appropriate response to this would be, “Are you kidding me? All the time you spent on the computer you could have been doing what I told you.”

And as humorous as that analogy is, the reality is, the Ephesian teachers and congregation were worse. At least the child was focusing on all things room cleaning, the Ephesians church were focusing on myths, speculations and genealogies…

And because Paul loves the Ephesian church, he commissions Timothy to confront them.

And by implication, the hard truth of the matter is, if we do not ever confront one another… We do not love one another. Since none of us is perfect, we all need correction at various times in our lives…

Matthew 18 says, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.’

Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.”

Loving people involves exposing error in their lives…

In Craig Hamilton’s book Wisdom in Leadership, he writes, “Imagine if you were in the hospital and the doctor wouldn’t tell you whether you’re getting better or not because she didn’t want to make you sad. There’s nothing kind about that. You need to know. OR Imagine if you were training to be an Olympic swimmer and your coach never told you how fast you swam and whether it was faster than last time. Although there’s something kind and noble about not wanting to hurt your feelings or make you upset, it’s not actually kind, is it? Not telling you that you’re not swimming faster or better or withholding your diagnosis isn’t kind—it’s cruel.

There may come a time where you need to confront the leaders of this church… Not just because God tells you to… But because you love Christ and His church. And if you stick around long enough with the desire to glorify Jesus and love His people, you will no doubt have an opportunity to lovingly confront someone in the church.

God is not calling us to be fake… to avoid being honest about our concerns… To think/speak poorly of one another… to walk in bitterness… That is what Satan’s tactics are…

If we are going to be a loving church, we have be honest with one another and at times confront each other in all humility, love and truth. And when we are faithful to lean into and pursue community confrontation becomes more digestable because we are convinced that the person delivering the word cares about us, and more importantly loves Jesus. The reality is, where there is little healthy confrontation, there is little depth in relationship… Which brings us to an important ingredient to the church’s antidote to error, which is TRUTH.

2. We are Called to Lovingly Expose Error with TRUTH

We are not just called to confront error however we want… with whatever information we want. We are to go lovingly to expose error with truth. We are to be truth seekers and truth speakers. Not cowardly concealing truth… Or acting as if truth doesn’t matter or isn’t real.

Jesus is the way the TRUTH and the life.

In verses 8-10 Paul unpacks the TRUTH about the LAW because the the ephesian congregation and her leaders needed a refresher...

1 Timothy 1:8-10

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,

Here we see that we judge the legitimacy of biblical doctrine NOT only by the content of the teaching but also by the conduct of the teachers life and the conduct encouraged or discouraged by the teachers.

These teachers who, according to Paul, did not know what they were talking about were apparently teaching either that the LAW was bad, the LAW didn’t matter any more, AND/OR that Christians were bound by certain LAWS that was fulfilled in Christ. They also missed the whole point of the LAW.

Biblically, the LAW serves at least three purposes, none of which was to make sinners righteous before God.

The LAW teaches us about the character and will of God

The LAW exposes sin

The LAW restrains sin

Notice the first thing Paul says… 8 Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, 

In other words, the LAW is not bad when taught and applied rightly… Which seems obvious since the LAW came from God. But when confronting error, often the most obvious truths need to be reestablished.

And here Paul tells Timothy that the LAW would not and is not needed for the righteous but rather for the unrighteous, in order to teach them about the holiness of God, His requirements and what sin is…

What’s interesting is how Paul lists several groupings of sins that in their entirety encompass the 10 commandments. And if any of these represents you and your lifestyle… Paul tells us the LAW is especially for you. In order to expose sin and call you to flee from it to Jesus.

It can said that Paul is teaching that the LAW’s primary function is to be the front porch to the good news… Said another way, the LAW is not our ANTIDOTE or CURE. The LAW reveals the diagnosis of our condemnation before a holy God apart from Jesus…

When I lived down on the coast, I was asked to share Jesus to a basketball gym full of public school students. I was given 7 minutes to do it, which was not ideal, given that they spent the previous 30-45 minutes playing. But the 7 minutes wasn’t the main issue. I told the person who asked me to speak that if I were allowed to speak I would share the FULL gospel, which includes judgement and eternal condemnation for all who are not in Christ. The guy was like, “Oh… Well, you only have 7 minutes.” And my thought was, “That’s not my fault.” But I followed his comment up with telling him, “If you are asking me to share the good news, they need to know the bad news. How can they cry out for the cure, if they don’t believe they are sick?” He reluctantly let me speak.

In America, it is politically incorrect to tell people that Jesus is the only way and that eternal judgment awaits all who do not accept His terms of surrender.

It’s not even politically correct to discuss politics or any religion… And this is primarily due to the fact that we have grown soft and can’t handle disagreements or confrontation. But I would argue, this is a tactic of Satan to silence the gospel.

If we truly love people we will speak truth. We will not avoid the hard topics…

Obviously there are some, who crave or at least seek out opportunities to confront people. Don’t do that.

The Holy Spirit is the one who transforms hearts and you being a jerk doesn’t help him out any.

But for the rest in here, God is calling you out to be men and women of courageous. Lovingly speaking the hard truth that people are condemned, headed for hell. This is not you judging people. This is God’s word declaring their condemnation and their need for a savior.

This is particularly hard down south because most everyone believes themselves to be good with God because they go to church or they went to church at some point. God knows my heart is a common refrain.

It is our job to communicate the TRUTH… Which is that God does know our hearts, and the Bible says they are desparately wicked. Furthermore, aint no amount of church attendance going to get us in to heaven… No one can come to the FATHER but by Jesus Christ…

Jesus said in Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

People who prophesied and even cast out demons will be cast into the eternal fire.… And people think that because they gave money to the poor or to the church that they are getting in. Think again.

And in our day, Jesus’ comments would be considered unloving. Yet it is His love that compels such honesty.

A major way we love the people in our lives is to help them see their false sense of security so they will cry out to Jesus.

Atheist, Penn Jillette once said, “I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me alone and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?“I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.” Dang… If an atheist can come to that conclusion, why have we settled for less? Maybe we have a love problem. We don’t really love people. Because if we love people, we will lovingly confront them with truth…

Furthermore, if we love God we will want others to confront us with truth when needed.…

Like the teachers of Ephesus, there are going to be times where we needed to be confronted in love. These teachers needed to silenced because in all of their confident assertions, they were leading people away from Christ in the name of Christ.

Additionally, one of the ways we can sniff out a false teacher is not only by evaluating it against the gospel and all of Scripture… We can sniff out a false teacher by their conduct. Of course the most deceptive false teacher is a moral person. But in Ephesus, the false teachers didn’t even pass the moral sniff test. Which is why later when Paul gives the foundational requirements for leaders in the church, they primarily deal with the character…

God is not going to establish his church with leaders who simply are dynamic or have a piece of paper from a seminary… He doesn’t need a person’s resume or personality to accomplish his will. A.W. Tozer said it well: “The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still” Just because the Bible is being talked about, doesn’t mean it is being rightly taught… It doesn’t mean that God is being glorified… It doesn’t mean that what God emphasizes is what is being emphasized… When Jesus was tempted in the dessert, Satan quoted Scripture with each temptation.

We must be like the Bereans who “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.”

So when it comes to the LAW, we must make sure that how we view it is consistent with the Scriptures.

The LAW is not the CURE. Parents… we cannot bring lasting change in our children’s lives through developing the best rules. We can certainly protect them. But let us be careful NOT to inadvertently teach our children that salvation is found in the LAW.

It is the diagnosis NOT the CURE. And we must courageously and lovingly warn the people in our lives if God’s will and glory are a priority. Let’s turn now to one more ingredient to the church’s antidote to error: GRACE.

And by grace I mean “scandalous kindness underserved.”

3. We are Called to Lovingly Expose Error with TRUTH & GRACE

Now, after Paul lists out various sinful actions he wraps it all up with the statement and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine,

So Paul IS concerned with doctrine… Paul doesn’t say doctrine is not important… It is sound doctrine that Paul is concerned with, whereas the teachers in Ephesus anything BUT sound doctrine.

Look with me at verse 11

1 Timothy 1:11

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

These false teachers either lost their way or they never knew the way AND were leading people astray…

Jesus said in John 5 to some religious leaders, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life”. One pastor comments, “They loved the Scriptures that point to Jesus, but didn’t love and depend on Jesus. They missed the entire point! I have met too many people who love their Bibles yet have no genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. They don’t really know him. They don’t really love him. They don’t really worship him. Instead, they worship their Bibles. They are not growing up into maturity because they are not growing up into Christ.

Brothers and sisters… May this not be so with us… God is not calling us to a life of self deprecating misery.

God exposes our sin NOT to prove that we are worthless. He exposes our sin to show us that apart from Him we are hopeless… AND to lead us to a place where we declare in all sincerity thankfulness and faith that “HE is WORTHY!”

When we read the bible and listen to its teaching, God intends to draw us near to and be conformed into the likeness of Jesus. And this is all of grace. Thus, followers of Jesus are fundamentally a Christ-exalting, grace-empowered, gospel-centered people.

As a family of churches, Sovereign Grace has seven shared values. And one of those values is Gospel Centeredness. If you go to the denominations website under this value it reads, “We believe that the gospel—the good news of God’s saving activity in Jesus Christ—is the pinnacle of His redemptive acts (Ephesians 1:9–12), the center of the Bible’s story (Luke 24:44–47), and the essential message for our faith, life, and witness (1 Corinthians 15:3–11). Because of this, we are committed to the expository preaching of the gospel, singing the gospel, praying the gospel, and building our churches upon the gospel (2 Timothy 4:2; Colossians 3:16; Matthew 16:18). Our ultimate hope in all that we do is not our plans and labors, but the perfect life, substitutionary death, victorious resurrection, and glorious ascension of Jesus Christ.”

And that is the emphasis of 1Timothy and ALL of Scripture…

The problem with the Ephesian leaders is that they no longer were impressed with the gospel… They had moved on. But any seasoned Christian knows we do not graduate from the gospel for the glory of the blessed God.

From the very beginning of the Bible we read the first reference to this gospel in Genesis 3:15, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

And that message will be echoed all throughout the Scriptures…

Therefore, we do not graduate from the gospel but rather go deeper in our understanding and appreciation of it.

I love what Milton Vincent says in his book The Gospel Primer, “God did not give us His gospel just so we could embrace it and be converted. Actually, He offers it to us every day as a gift that keeps on giving to us everything we need for life and godliness. The wise believer learns this truth early and becomes proficient in extracting available benefits from the gospel each day. We extract these benefits by being absorbed in the gospel, speaking it to ourselves when necessary, and by daring to reckon it true in all we do.”

There is no sound doctrine without the gospel. The gospel confronts and calls us out of sin, into a loving transforming relationship with our crucified and risen savior.

If there is anything in our lives or study that is more important and more exciting to us than our savior and His good news, we have either drifted or our eyes have never been opened to the majesty of God and His holiness and the SCANDAL of His love for sinners...

Brother’s and sisters, we need to give people more than the TRUTH that they are sinners and headed for hell. They need to hear the GOOD NEWS of the gospel. That God loves sinners and has made a way from them to be saved from the destruction that they have invited into their life through rebellion against God. And that way is Jesus Christ who stepped out of heaven, took on human flesh, lived a sinless life, suffered a criminals death absorbing the wrath of God toward sinners, rose from the grace conquering Satan, sin and death and now sits at the right hand of the Father beckoning sinners to turn from sin and treasure Him above all.

And this glorious news is not just the lost, but for Christians… And not only other Christians… We need to regularly speak the gospel to our own souls… We need to be reminded that our identity and hope is not in ourself.… We need to be reminded of the horror and deception of sin… We need to be reminded that we are clothed not in our own righteousness but in Christ’s. And we need to be reminded of the lengths to which Christ went to express His love for us…

And by doing so, we will be motivated to pursue Christ, deny ourselves, see and flee sin and love others by lovingly exposing error with truth and grace.

Amen.

Let me conclude with one more quote from Milton Vincent ,

I have found that when I am absorbed in the gospel, everything else I am supposed to be toward God and others seems to flow out of me more naturally and passionately. Doing right is not always easy, but it is never more easy than when one is breathing deeply the atmosphere of the gospel.

PRAYER:

Father, we thank you that you are not like the doctor who withholds the bad news out of fear of hurting our feelings. But rather you speak the truth in love to us. And not only do you tell us the truth, that we are condemned before you, you declare and provide the cure. May we never get over your love and salvation. Take us into greater depths of knowing and loving you and boldly declaring the gospel message that crushes and recreates a new man for all who repent and treasure Christ above all.

COMMUNION:

Brothers and sisters, just as 1Timothy 1:3-11 teaches that God confronts error in our lives precisely because He loves us, this meal signifies the ultimate act of God's loving confrontation: sending Christ to expose and atone for our sin.

This bread and cup are not merely symbols; they are tangible expressions of the gospel of the glory of the blessed God.

The Ephesian church was sidetracked by "myths and endless genealogies," neglecting what was most important.

As we partake, let us not be sidetracked by anything that takes our eyes off what God emphasizes, even "good things" that can veer us off track. Instead, let us fix our gaze on Christ.

Communion is a moment to speak the gospel to our own souls. It reminds us that there is "no sound doctrine without the gospel," and it is the gospel that "confronts and calls us out of sin, into a loving transforming relationship with our crucified and risen savior".

So, as we eat this bread and drink this cup, let us allow the profound truth of Christ's sacrifice and the scandal of God's love for sinners to anchor us and fill us. May this meal strengthen our resolve to pursue Christ, deny ourselves, and lovingly expose error with truth and grace in our lives and in the lives of those around us, all motivated by the finished work of our Savior.

As you take of the bread, remember that it represents Christ’s body broken for you. And as you take of the juice, it represents His blood shed for the forgiveness of sins, past present and future NOT giving you a free pass to sin but rather freeing you to enjoy fellowship with and live for Him.

If you would like to know more about following Jesus… Instead of taking of the Lord’s supper or communion, ask God right where you are to cause you to be born again. To open your eyes to see His worth and to see the worthlessness of a life apart from Jesus. If you’d like, seek me after during communion or after the service. I would love to connect, pray with, and answer any of your questions.