Having a Solid Foundation

—Church building

Having a Solid Foundation

Intro: How do we structure a church? If we all use the same Bible why are Baptists, Presbyterians, Catholics, and Eastern Orthodox somewhat different in how they operate? Who can lead the church? What should the church be doing and what should we watch out for as we have people constantly coming in to the community. Why does it matter how, we as a local church, do things?

Since denominations were not necessarily around when Paul wrote his letters, we will suspend those answer for now, but we see Paul answering or instructing his protégé on how to answer the other questions.

Paul left Timothy at the church at Ephesus in modern-day Turkey as the lead pastor or elder and Paul wanted to give Timothy instructions and advice on how to lead the church. Ephesus was a large seaport city that was a commerce center, standing at the center of three major roads leading out of the region. This was one reason it was the capital of the Roman province. A lot of money and different people coming in and out of the city, which makes it a strategic place to have a successful Christian church in the 1st century. It was also the birthplace of the goddess Artemis and was home to the massive temple and all the idolatry that goes along with the pagan society. So think sort of like Salt Lake City and the main Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City.

Paul went through Ephesus in and 20 and stayed there for about three years in the Mid AD 50s Christianity was sort of there already. Some people knew about John the Baptist. But Paul really started the church and redirected the believers into a true understanding of Who Christ was and what he did on the Cross. Paul set about correcting the beliefs with Sound Doctrine. Paul moved on to different cities and founded other churches but about 10-12 years later Paul is now at the end of his life and he is still orchestrating his mission team and so he has left Timothy at Ephesus to lead this church.

Read Verses.

MP: Paul Instructs Timothy on how to build and lead the church at Ephesus. Paul gives him six building blocks to build the church. One of the most important aspects is to have a solid foundation and that is a sound doctrine that everything else is set on, especially as the entire reason is that God desires all to be saved and to come to knowledge of truth. This is what the church is to do under the great commission.

I.God Uses Sound Doctrine to Keep the Church Pure (1-11)

Explanation: After the fairly standard greeting in the letter, Paul jumps right into the matter at hand in verse 3. I left you there “so that you may instruct certain people not to teach false doctrines.” People who come from all different backgrounds want to infiltrate the church, to water down the message, to make things more palatable for people to understand or accept. They take a phrase that is pure like God is Love and think that excuses everything anyone else does, even though sins are clearly listed and we now that God is love but he is also a Holy love. And he cannot abide or accept anything less.

On the flipside, people get so caught up into the God is wrath aspect that they forget that love exists and want to burn down the entire forest to get rid of some weeds.

Paul tells Timothy that the way to combat this is to teach right doctrine. Of course, God is love, but there is a standard. We must teach the teachers or make sure the teachers are teaching the correct information. Not because we want people to stick to the script, but because we are dealing with people’s lives. People’s souls. This is the gravity of being a teacher and James says teachers would be judged more.

In verse 8, Paul says the law is good, provided one uses it legitimately. But we know the law is not meant for the righteous person. We have to rightly identify what is contrary to the sound teaching. Paul explains who the lawless people or the people who are going against correct doctrine in verse 9 Paul says “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.”

Illustration: How many of you like to drink muddy water? Of course not, we can see when it is dirty or smells bad. But what about if it is a little dirty? Most of us would probably not drink water that is even a little dirty unless we really had to like lost in the desert thirsty, but even then, it is a risk because it could make you sicker and you could dehydrate faster. No, the only way to enjoy water and be healthy is to have crystal clear water. The only way to get the water clean is to run it through the filter. What is the Filter? God’s word!

Application: The Bible is the blueprint for the construction and maintenance of our church.

A lot of organizations have core values, things that tell others, both people who are on the inside and people on the outside what drives the company. Our core values stem from the Bible.

The Bible provides Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy is the chain that links between all Christian churches.

There have been several stories and studies that find conservative or orthodox churches believe.

--What we believe about Who Jesus Christ is, if he was full humanity and deity; that he died on the cross and bodily rose from the grave on the third day.

--The inerrancy of Scripture. Do you believe that The Bible is the inspired word of God that has no mistakes in its original manuscripts?

How do you view scripture? Is it a code that you live your life by to or is more like a guideline? There are some good ideas, but some of it is too old to apply or it is a living document meant to change with the times. How you answer this question will drive us to construct not only our church but more importantly how we structure our lives. If you see the Bible as a code or law, you are much more likely to take everything seriously. And hopefully you do too. says “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Here are a few comments from a Washington post article.

“we found 93 percent of clergy members and 83 percent of worshipers from growing churches agreed with the statement “Jesus rose from the dead with a real flesh-and-blood body leaving behind an empty tomb.” compared with 67 percent of worshipers and 56 percent of clergy members from declining churches. Right around Easter this year, the president of Union Theological seminary stated that she rejects a literal bodily resurrection of Christ. They compare God the father’s ordering of the son’s death to cosmic child abuse. What Albert Mohler says about the seminary president’s beliefs can be applied to the declining churches as well as backsliding Christians, they all claim to be Christians while simultaneously rejecting every tenant of the historic Christian faith.

We must as Paul says in verse 11 that we guard the doctrine in accordance with the gospel of the Glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted. As a church and an individual, you and I have been entrusted to carry the message forward without changing the message.

I saw a short clip the other day that showed the dangers of how a message changes when it is transmitted from person to person. Motorcycle motions—transmitted down the line—at the end of the line t became a hand in the air dance move.

TS: Our seriousness of what we believe helps us with the why we believe. God’s word and the story it tells is not a collection of fairy tales, morality tales, or wisdom. The Bible tells us the true story about God who created everything and even though his creation as corrupted by sin, God loved his creation so much, he sent his only son to reconcile the world to himself. He also sent the third person of the Trinity to guide us to change our will so it matches with God’s so that we may be saved. And for this we as individuals and as a church can be thankful.

II. God Uses Sound Doctrine to Keep the Church Thankful (12-17)

In verse 12 Paul transitions quickly to who he is placing his thankfulness in and why he is thankful.

He says that Jesus judged him faithful appointing me to his service. Paul says I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. We read about Paul’s conversion in He was against Jesus. He hunted Christians down and killed them. If this were a movie, he was the bad guy. But at the right time, in spite of what Paul did, Jesus told him he was saved and Paul believed. In Jesus tells Ananias who was to cure Paul of his blindness “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.” God knew that Paul would be his chosen instrument to spread the Gospel. Paul is thankful that he moved form a life of hatred against Jesus to one of Love for Him and because of Him.

Illustration: what are places that make you happy? Disneyland is called the happiest place on earth. that is what they want you to remember as you stand in line around hundreds of other people and things. It is a fantasyland, it is princes come to life, and droids and stormtroopers come off the screen and into our world. it is a great getaway, but it is still people dressed up. The happiness is fleeting because you have to get on a plane or back in your car and go home.

But with God and the salvation provided by Christ we can have the true joy that God provides us and so our church should be the happiest place on earth because we are a body of believers

Application: The Sound Doctrine Points us to Jesus Christ and we can be thankful for His work.

His work is the salvation he proved on the cross that makes us worthy to be a chosen instrument of God for His purpose. Going back to the first point, Jesus’ blood purifies us. That is what the song means when we sing, we are washed by the blood of the Lamb.

The sound doctrine helps us understand that we are saved form our sins and our former selves, our old selves If we are converted and thankful for that conversion, then when we gather, we are now an entire body who are thankful.

When we are thankful, we act differently:

We deal with problems differently. Paul’s Christian life was full of problems. In Ephesus alone he was grabbed by a mob and put in prison. He may have been writing the letter to Timothy from prison but here he is giving advice to someone else.

We have friends who can help us through difficulty. : And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near”

The question is, are you thankful to God that you are now saved? Do people know you are thankful? Does God know you are thankful to Him? Does our church resonate happiness?

The reason for Paul’s thanksgiving was that Christ had shown confidence in his worth by putting him into ministry. As a pastor I feel thankful and awed that God entrusted me to help lead this church. As a church we should feel equally thankful that God is using this church to fulfill His will and bring people to Himself.

MOVETHIS SECTION UP BEFORE THE PRIOR PRAGRAPH.

TS: When we are thankful and joyful, it makes it easier to remain faithful no matter what we go through.

III. God Uses Sound Doctrine to Keep the Church Faithful (18-20)

(ESV): This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme

Explanation: Paul is encouraging Timothy to keep the faith. Ministry is not for the faint of heart. Paul says to wage the good warfare. The good fight is correcting the false teachers. To protect the accuracy of God’s word. It is not about just wanting to argue doctrine but to stand your ground when you know something is wrong and needs to correction. This isn’t is. Alon road to fix, but it also requires constant attention. New people will come in, with new ideas on how they did it at their old church o this is what we taught or the studies we used. Some of them will be good and some of them will be bad.

It seems like the two people Hymenaeus and Alexander have given up and possibly wanted to teach what they wanted, perhaps they did not want to submit the Paul or Timothy’s leadership or most likely, they did not want to fully place their faith in Jesus. One commentator explains “The purpose of handing them over to Satan was not merely punitive but chiefly corrective or formative in purpose. By excluding them from the fellowship of God’s people, Paul hoped that Satan’s affliction of the troublemakers would teach them not to insult the Lord by their words and deeds.” Paul realized that he could not fix them so he has to leave them to Satan and have them come back around if they are going to come back around.

Does this sound like some people you may have encountered in your lives and our church?

Illustration: have you ever went into a room, maybe your house or someone else’s house and you look at the pictures on the walls and you know they are crooked. Is it more annoying than if the picture is just complex off or turned almost sideways? Bad theology is like this. Sometimes someone’s theology is so bad that it is completely sideways and you can say, yep, that system is not biblical or they are taking things completely out of context. Other things are like the pictures that are off but you are pretty sure it is crooked but you really need a level to verify it. and sometimes, if you do have a level, you just say, well its close enough. But we can never just say, its close enough. We have to remain faithful to the message of God’s word.

APPLICATION: SOUND DOCTRINE keeps us faithful to God, to our church, and to each other

We can remain faithful to God by knowing what the right doctrine is and possibly Moore importantly identify the doctrine that sounds almost right. his keeps us out of cults and false religions and swallowing poison that is coated in sugar.

This poison affects the church. It seems sweet but it will kill you because you do not have a right view of who God is and that view lets things in that are detrimental to the church because someone gets a few more people to believe it or go along with it and soon it is like the weeds that cover my yard. they are everywhere and you have to do the hard work to remove them. And they choke the life out of the healthy plants. You have to protect the church from the poison of the world because the poison gets into others.

TS: When we are unfaithful to God we sin. But having sound doctrine keeps us close to God and helps us focus on Him.

Conclusion

Sound Doctrine is the cornerstone to the building of the church. Not because we make up or construct the doctrine, but because the doctrine means God’s word which talks about Jesus. Jesus is our Cornerstone. He is right and true and so if we construct our walls and our floors and everything else off of him, our church will also be as true and straight as possible.

When we have sound doctrine, we can identify bad doctrine that is either false or made up of half-truths.

When we have sound doctrine it helps us be thankful because the doctrine, we are talking about is the Good news that Jesus died for our sins to be our substitution for the punishment we would otherwise receive from God for our unfaithfulness.

Having sound doctrine keeps us faithful because God is faithful in his actions rescuing us from ourselves.

You may be asking well how do I get some of that sound doctrine? Read the Bible, come to church run everything you hear through the filter of God’s word.

This week, look at things through the biblical filter. check them out with the level. Dig deep. Ask hard questions of people you talk to about. God has given us his word, not to sit on the shelf, but to be used every day. He gave it out so we would have a standard and also that we would know Him. That we can have hope.

Spencer, Aída Besançon. 1 Timothy : A New Covenant Commentary. Cambridge: The Lutterworth Press, 2011. Accessed May 3, 2019. ProQuest Ebook Central.