Seven Questions

When your faith gets challenged, we need to ask lots of questions

When I was coming of age back when the dinosaurs were roaming the earth, music was changing.

My parents had listened to the be-bop of the 50’s and 60’s and that was kind of fun as a kid.

“Yakety-Yak” by the Coasters seemed to be a crowd favorite.

FM radio was in it’s infancy.

I was working with my dad outside and I had my radio on.

Dad told me to turn the dial - we had dials then - to 94Q in Atlanta.

One of the first songs I heard there was “Conquistador” by Procol Harum and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.

That’s the day my mama and daddy’s music died for me - I was hooked.

And so were lots of people.

Churches that sang nothing but Baptist Hymnal hymns were introducing these folks called the Gaithers, and music in the church started to change.

Contemporary Christian Music was born - it was Jesus with a beat.

Artists would travel from church to church, working for nothing but a love offering - whatever the congregation would pay and they’d put on a concert.

At Davis Chapel Baptist Church, we had one of those concerts.

They guy sang during our Sunday morning service.

It was around 1981, because he adapted Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” into a Christian song.

I remember this day vividly because of what the preacher did.

This guy had pipes - he hit the highest highs and dug into the lowest lows.

We were all spell bound.

And when he finished, the church erupted into thunderous applause.

Everyone - young and old were moved.

But especially the young people, the song resonated with us.

The gentleman set down and the Pastor took the pulpit.

And his first words were a rebuke, “Jesus is not a bridge over troubled water, He’s a boat in the troubled water.”

It felt like he had punched me in the gut.

What difference did the imagery make, I wondered.

Whether He’s a bridge pulling me out of the storm or whether He’s a boat riding me through the storm?

Who cares?

Isn’t the point that I am in a mess and my only rescue is Jesus?

I had to ask lots of questions that day.

And really, not just that day, but lots of days.

It starts at some point during your teenage years.

Some times you make peace in your twenties - some people never make peace with it at all.

It’s your mom and dad - you start to question what they’ve taught you.

You start to question what you’ve been taught to believe.

Just because mom and dad said, “Because I said so...”

That’s a great answer when you are 10 and want to do something ridiculous.

It’s not the best answer when you are 18 and you are forming the beliefs that will govern your life pretty much from now on.

You find high school science challenging.

So many things are spoken with such authority in the classroom that you wonder how you can possibly reconcile those things with the Bible.

You look around yourself and see other people doing the very things your mom and dad said were wrong, and they don’t really look that wrong.

And the people doing them don’t look miserable.

In fact, they often look quite happy and probably are.

So you ask questions - and I say - good for you.

All of us, in fact I don’t think I’m pushing it too much to say that every one of us has gone through this self same process.

In my day, we called it “finding ourselves.”

Today we hear other words - a real popular one right now is deconstructing.

And while the process is real for everyone, it’s not the same.

Some folks simply toss mom and dad’s faith into the trash.

“Times have changed and we need to change with it!” is the battle cry.

That’s rather immature though.

A better strategy is to ask questions - ask lots of questions - of other people - of yourself.

What do mom and dad believe - or if they aren’t believers - what do modern Christians believe?

What do I need to hold on to?

What deserves to be discarded?

What is, not only core to the faith but will be core to my existence?

What will make me who I want to be?

And if I find myself on the side of faith, what do I need to hold onto to be who God wants me to be?

A wise person will learn what to discard and what to hold on to.

Our text this morning is 1 Timothy 3:14 - 4:5 so go ahead and open you Bibles there (New Testament - find the 5 “T”s - it’s the 3rd one)

You know Paul has sent Timothy to the church in Ephesus because some people in that church had lost their minds.

They took mom and dad’s beliefs, and with little thought, tossed it out for a new and improved version.

A more liberated - a more modern version of the faith.

This new way didn’t define right and wrong the way mom and dad did.

Fighting was OK as long as you were on the right side of history.

Marriage was not a good thing.

Having babies was not a good thing - a woman had just as much a right to be un-pregnant as a man.

People were encouraged to love the one your with.

And being rich was a valid career goal.

In this section of Paul’s letter, he answers seven questions.

Questions this church should have asked itself as their beliefs were being assaulted by the society they lived in every day.

We’re going to read it all at once so we can get the flow - but then we’ll tear it apart bit by bit.

1 Timothy 3:14-4:5 “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. 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. 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, 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. For 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.”

Why is Paul writing to Timothy?

1 Timothy 3:14-15 “I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know ...

He’s writing so that Timothy can know something.

Now, can anyone “know” something about the faith?

I mean, doesn’t the word faith indicate that you can’t know - but it has to be accepted on faith?

Let me ask you a question.

Back in the late 80’s, my in-laws and we bought property on Lake Sinclair.

Why did we buy that property?

It was on the Lake.

But what do we know about the lake?

It is a Georgia Power lake meaning Georgia Power built a dam to impound water so they could use the water to help generate electricity.

Will that dam always be there?

I hope it will - and I’m sure there are some kinds of legal guarantees for whatever period of time.

But you know what I’ve noticed over the last 2 years - legal guarantees are kind of sketchy.

The 1st amendment to the U.S. Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law…abridging…the right of the people peaceably to assemble...”

But for months the government told you you could not go to a ball game - and you didn’t.

1st amendment, “Congress shall make no law—prohibiting the free exercise [of religion],” and yet, from March 15 until July 7 of 2020 we did not meet at the request of our government - and some people in some places are still having troubles getting back.

What is the point?

You can only know what you know and every bit of knowledge you have is based on certain presuppositions - things you simply believe to be true.

I believe the Sinclair Dam will be there for many years to come, so we bought property.

I believe that you’ll stop for red lights and stop signs, so I drive down the street at the speed limit - more or less.

I believe when I get on the airplane in October, it will safely land so I can go to Ben’s wedding in New Hampshire.

So when you deal with your faith, don’t apply different principles to it than you do other things.

Can I know things about the faith?

Yes, I can know them just like I know anything else.

What does Timothy need to know?

1 Timothy 3:15 “...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.”

This is the thesis statement for this letter.

Paul wants Timothy to know how people are supposed to behave in church.

We’ve talked about practical things before today and we’ll talk about more practical things - well, today and later.

But why is it so important to know how to behave in church?

It’s because the Church gathered, is the Church of the living God.

The creator God.

The one God to whom every knee will one day bow.

The one God who will one day judge all people by a perfectly just standard.

The one God who made a way through Jesus so that when that day of judgment comes, whoever will believe can stand before God unashamed and unafraid.

The one God who - if the James Webb Space Telescope can see through the clutter of billions of years of starlight to the very beginning of the universe, the scientists will be so disappointed.

Because in the beginning there was nothing - until this God, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, this God living today and forever created everything there is from nothing.

How can I know that?

Prove to me He didn’t.

George Washington said, “It is impossible to govern the world without God. It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the Providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits and humbly implore his protection and favor.”

The church is the pillar and buttress - a buttress is a foundation.

The church is the foundation and walls that holds the truth up for the world to be able to operate best.

The truth is the gospel - ours to proclaim and protect.

Without the Church constantly, faithfully, consistently holding fast to the truth so the world can see, the world will become - well, look around yourselves.

What you see on the news and on social media and on the streets of any city, that is what Godlessness looks like.

That’s where we can end up if we don’t ask questions of our teachers.

Paul is going to answer five questions that would be excellent questions for you to ask when your faith is challenged.

What is really happening here?

1 Timothy 4:1 “Now the Spirit expressly says [expressly means plainly, specifically, not inferred, you don’t have to figure it out]

...that in later times [you know because we’ve studied that the later times started when Jesus ascended into heaven - Paul time is a ‘later time’ just as ours is]

...that in later times some will depart from the faith.

Stop right there - perception is not reality although people act like it.

Television advertising’s goal is to change our perception of reality.

You might have wanted a Ford F-150 all of your life, but they want to convince you that a RAM 1500 is a better choice.

You might have used Gain detergent all of your life - but Tide pods - they are the bomb.

But is that true?

If all you watched were T.V. ads, you would think that white people are in the minority and that there are as many gay and lesbian relationships as there are straight relationships.

You hear in media and podcasts, that a lot of famous people are deconstructing their faith - lots and lots of them.

But is that true?

How many really?

What is reality?

The church at Ephesus was in an uproar because some...

Not all - but some of the people were departing from the faith.

Were they falling from the faith?

No, I suspect they were like a young man I baptized years ago.

He made quite the testimony.

I baptized him and he was at church every time the doors opened - then one day he wasn’t.

I bumped into him and asked him where he’d been and he was truthful with me.

“Preacher, I gave God 6 months to fix my life and He didn’t. I won’t be coming back.”

He fell from the faith - but it wasn’t a faith he ever really had.

He didn’t commit to Jesus - He was putting the Lord to the test.

When every one around you is telling you everyone is doing this - stop and ask the question - “Are they?”

Is it really everyone?

Or is it some?

Who are you listening to?

1 Timothy 4:1-2 “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, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,”

This is a part of the message I find problematic to say - not because it’s hard to believe or that I don’t believe it because I do - but because in our world it sounds so archaic.

People who teach doctrine contrary to Christian doctrine are following deceitful spirits and demons.

What rational person believes in spirits and demons?

But I do.

One of the commentators said, “A person ‘never stands isolated; if he is not influenced by the Holy Spirit… he at once falls under the powers of the deceitful spirit.”

There is no moral neutral - there is no innocuous.

It really is black and white - and yes, some of the teaching sounds so good.

But remember something the Bible teaches: 2 Corinthians 11:14-15

2 Corinthians 11:14–15 ESV

And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.

The preacher can be all smiles and as fashionable as all young people today.

The music can be spectacular and the lyrics stirring.

You can walk away feeling warm and fuzzy and good - but who are these people and what is making you feel that way?

I heard a motivational speaker once.

He was a para-Olympian - lost his legs in the service.

He was an incredibly gifted speaker.

We were almost ready to stand up and shout during his speech.

He was phenomenal - but what was his message?

Make up your mind and try harder.

If trying hard was the answer, I’d be a president at AT&T about now and many of you would be multi-millionaires.

Which brings us to the next question to ask yourself.

What are they teaching?

1 Timothy 4:2-3 “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.”

Without going into a lot of detail, what Paul is saying with the phrase “insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared” is that the teachers know better but they don’t care.

You know I’ve made comments before about politicians who get on television and lie - you know its a lie and they know its a lie - but they say it is truth anyway.

So much of the Covid response - Dr. Fauci on masks at the beginning of Covid.

He admitted he lied about masks - but he said it was a noble lie - he was trying to help the situation.

And turns out now the lie he admitted to telling was actually based on truth that he later said was a lie.

And that’s documented - not my opinion.

The people at Ephesus were teaching that you should not get married and that you should refrain from eating certain foods.

We’re not sure what foods - it could be they were reverting back to Jewish dietary laws - or it could be they were preaching veganism or vegetarianism.

We don’t know - we just know they were saying don’t get married and don’t eat certain things.

Before we simply accept what someone says because they are a Pastor or a Professor - we need to ask and be very specific?

What are they teaching?

Paul has been very specific.

They are teaching that you not get married.

They are teaching specific dietary restrictions.

Once you have thought through what you’ve heard and have a definite list of things there is another question to ask but first, let’s say this about that.

It might be you sit down to make a list of what the person said and you can’t - because they didn’t say anything.

I’ve listened to two very popular preachers that I can’t for the life of me take notes from their messages.

They both tell great stories - but the stories don’t seem to have much of a point except to make you feel some kind of way.

So that’s an answer all its own - but if you can take notes, the next question to ask is

What does God say about it in the scripture?

Ya’ll remember poor Austin having to preach that text about women?

The reason Paul had to say 1 Timothy 2:15 “Yet she will be saved through childbearing—if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control,” is because of what the demonic teachers were teaching.

They were telling folks they should not get married.

But what does God say in the scripture?

The Bible repeatedly says that a man and woman should marry and they should have lots of babies.

Because that’s how God designed our best life to be lived.

Listen, listen - there are pastors in churches teaching a gospel contrary to God’s gospel right now.

They teach that marriage is good for anyone because love is love and God is love and enlightened people understand that.

But the Bible doesn’t teach that - the Bible teaches God created them male and female and said, “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth...”

That doesn’t leave room for options - God says this is the best way that will give us contentment and peace.

As for food - God said, “Genesis 1:29

Genesis 1:29 ESV

And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.

And then in Genesis 9:3

Genesis 9:3 ESV

Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.

Now that you’ve looked around to see how what is being said compares to what is.

And now you know who these teachers are

And you know what they were teaching

And you know what the Bible says about their teaching.

You get to ask the final question.

What do we do with it?

1 Timothy 4:4-5 “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected...

So if God said it and God gave it and what you are being taught is contrary to God’s teaching, then you reject the contrary teaching.

But notice, Paul includes a big “If” - if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.”

If here means - if you believe.

If you have committed yourself to following Christ as the Truth - knowing - as best as you can know anything - that Jesus is our Savior and Lord.

You might have noticed that we skipped 1 Timothy 3:16 “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.”

These words aren’t original with Paul.

They are one of the earliest hymns on record.

Paul says we confess this - confess is a compound word in Greek that literally translated is they speak.

This is what we speak.

Jesus came in the flesh.

He lived a perfect life - vindicated by the Spirit - confirmed to us to be the Savior by the Holy Spirit.

Seen by angels - Mark 4:11 says angels ministered to Jesus.

Proclaimed among the nations.

Believed on in the world.

Taken up in glory - He ascended into heaven and one day He will come again.

If - the big if - listen - if you are convinced this confession is true.

And you’ve committed your life to following Jesus - then your life just got much simpler - really.

Because our marching orders are to receive what the Lord has given us with thanksgiving.

To live our lives in gratitude to Him - caring enough learn what He says and try to do it as best we can.

To pray to Him.

And then simply, go live.

Really, that’s it.

Follow Jesus to the best of your ability - and He will direct your path.