Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

As we’ve mentioned already, the book of 1 Timothy is all about order in the church.

It sets forth many of the “House Rules” for the form and function of the local church.

In the text that we have just read together, Paul gets right to work giving direction to his young protege Timothy, regarding the work that laid ahead of him in the church at Ephesus.

We don’t know exactly when the church at Ephesus was founded.

We do know, that Paul’s missionary partners, a couple named Priscilla and Aquila were involved in it’s infancy when Paul dropped them off there during a brief stop on his way to Antioch (c.A.D.52) during his second missionary journey , and very likely were the ones who actually planted the church.

(Acts 18:18-22) When Paul returned to Ephesus, he found a small nucleus of people and he began a nearly three year long ministry in Ephesus preaching in the Jewish synagogue and the the School of Tyrannus.

(Acts 19:8-10) Paul’s ministry in Ephesus was strong and many people came to Christ.

So many in fact, that it shut down the idol crafting industry.

(Acts 19) During that time in Ephesus, the Ephesian church became a strong and powerful church.

So much so that Ephesus became the command center and home base for Paul’s evangelism into Asia Minor.

In Paul’s last meeting with the Elders at the Ephesian church, he gave them a chilling warning.

Paul’s first letter to Timothy is written only about five years later and trouble had already come to the church at Ephesus.

Those “savage wolves” Paul had warned them about had, in fact, crept in and started to propagate their false teachings.

So, Paul’s first instruction to Timothy was to defend against these false teachers.

There is nothing that will do more harm to a church than a false teacher gaining a foot hold in it.

They can do much damage to the Kingdom of God and even lead souls away from Christ and into Hell.

The church must be on constant guard against false teaching and must correct false teachers when they arrive.

But, how is a church able to spot a false teacher?

What should we be on guard against so we do not succumb to false teaching?

Those questions are answered for us in our text this morning?

There are five things that a false teacher does in a church and knowing them will help us to guard against them even here at Heritage Winchester.

1.) False teachers profess a different doctrine.

(v.3)

The Ephesian church was in great trouble because of the false teaching.

They needed Timothy’s gospel leadership badly.

The situation was dire, false teaching set loose in a church is a very serious matter and can’t be ignored.

It must be handled swiftly and decisively.

Timothy, it seems, may have felt that he was not up to the task that Paul had given him.

It may even be the case that Timothy wanted to join Paul in Macedonia until Paul was able to return to Ephesus to handle the problem himself.

But notice, Paul says “This is why I urged you” We could even say “This is why I begged you” to stay in Ephesus.

The problem couldn't wait, it had to be dealt with immediately.

“Little lions become big lions and big lions always kill.”

The lion was set loose in the church and needed to be stopped before it could do anymore harm.

Now, notice Paul’s language here in the second part of vs.3 he says “that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine.”

Charge- Military term.

To pass commands down through the ranks.

Not namby pamby “ok guys, you really need to stop.

But “STOP!!!!!!!!!!”

Timothy was to command these false teachers to stop and if they refused he was to give orders to the church body to handle them by putting them out.

Paul’s instruction to Timothy tells us the Ephesian elders had not listened to Paul’s warning about false teachers and they hadn’t insisted on maintaining gospel purity and had allowed God’s word to be corrupted.

Timothy was to command/charge these teachers and leaders to preach no other doctrine than the doctrine given to them by Paul which was the Word of God.

We do not have the right to add to or take away from the pure doctrine found in the Bible.

Nor do we have the right to invent new teachings or interpretations of God’s Word.

We don’t get to “improve upon”, “correct”, change or alter the clear teaching of scripture.

We are to stand upon God’s Word as our ultimate authority for faith and practice and call out those who would dare pervert the truth of scripture.

2.) False teachers devote themselves to endless speculation and controversy.

(v.4)

Look at Pauls description of the false teaching at Ephesus:

Fables and endless genealogies- We might say “legends and fanciful stories manufactured by men.”

Fables refers to all forms of false and fictional doctrines.

These exist today, our world is filled with many false ideas about God and the Lord Jesus.

Mormons, JW’s, the new age movement etc are all filled with myths and fables regarding Jesus.

These are doctrines of men, speculation, fables, fictional stories and outright falsehoods.

Exactly what myths were being taught or how exactly these false teachers in Ephesus were using genealogies is not clearly explained to us in scripture.

Whatever form it took, it was contrary to the truth.

We can gather that it had elements of Judaism in it.

The Jewish people in this day put a lot of comfort and stock in their lineages.

They seemed to think that the godliness of their forefathers somehow carried them extra favor with God.

The more godly forefathers they had in their family history, the more prestigious they felt before God and in the eyes of others.

Notice Paul says “endless genealogies”- apparently they were spending inordinate amount of time structuring and discussing their ancestors and how that meant they were something special before God.

Perhaps these false teachers were spending time in the church:

Stressing family heritage of Christ, causing people to depend upon their family history instead of trusting in Christ.

Spending time collecting genealogies, than they were spending edifying and building up the church through the teaching of scripture.

Concentrating on questions and theories rather than building each other up through encouraging godly behavior.

Listen, when I say this, to rely on anything other than the Jesus of the Bible is to believe in another gospel that will only lead to destruction.

The only thing that can save your soul from Hell is to place your faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.

You cant depend on someone else's faith, family history or even the fact you're an American it has to be your faith in Christ alone.

“Being born in America does not make you a Christian any more than being born in a garage makes you a car.”-

Billy Graham

When we spend our time on made up doctrines of men and speculation eternity in heaven will pass us by.

False teachers profess a different doctrine.

(v.3)