Lake Martin Presbyterian ChurchMay 3, 2026 Podcast

Join our special guest, Rev. Jared Collins with Trinity Presbyterian in Opelika, AL for this week’s message from 1 Timothy 4:16, "Good Church". Explore Scripture, hear thoughtful teaching, and be encouraged in your walk with Christ. For more information and resources, visit lakemartinpca.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. We're glad you're listening. Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located near Lake Martin, Alabama. Each week we share the preaching ministry of our church and pray it encourages you in your walk with Christ. Here's this week's message.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

Good morning, welcome to worship. It's our delight to gather each Lord's Day to worship our Triune God together, and we're delighted this morning to welcome Jared Collins with us from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Opelika, where he's an associate pastor, and he's coming and preaching and uh which afforded me the ability to help Nylon and Baby George this week with the arrival of our newest son. So we're thankful to you for being here this morning. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Please be seated. It is such a great blessing to be back worshiping with you all. I believe the last time I was here, uh you guys were Lake Martin Mission Church. So we rejoice that you guys are Lake Martin Presbyterian Church. Uh I was hoping to uh bring my family with me again this time. Um I was telling William on the way in that uh we had invited some friends over for supper for Sunday evening, and uh they showed up on Saturday evening, and so we had a great time last night. Uh we were up late and uh had just a wonderful time of fellowship with them. And uh needless to say, my children were very tired and uh not ready to get up and ride with me this morning to come here. But uh, I do want to invite you to turn in your copy of God's word to 1 Timothy chapter 4. 1 Timothy chapter 4, and we're gonna be looking at verses 1 through 16, so the whole chapter this morning. Just by way of context before I read the text, in the previous passage at the end of chapter 3, Paul summarizes the good conduct of the church, and he uses three metaphors, and then he concludes by showing that the church's proper function is all contingent on its faithfulness to the confessional truth of the gospel. You can see that there in verse 16, this confession of faith that the early church was probably using at the time. So now he returns to giving instruction to Timothy as the pastor of this church in Ephesus. So here are some of the examples of what it looks like for the church to fulfill its role. All right, that's what we have in chapter four, these examples of a faithful, good church. So let me read for us 1 Timothy chapter 4. I'll read the whole chapter. Hear now God's word. Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and the 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. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Jesus Christ, being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe. Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when you when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. And keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. This is the word of the Lord, and thanks be to God. Let's go to the Lord now in prayer as we begin. Oh Lord, be gracious to us. Give us ears to hear, give us minds to understand, and give us hearts to receive the truth of your word. In the name of Christ Jesus we pray. Amen. Well, as I mentioned at the end of chapter three, Paul gives us three metaphors to describe the proper conduct of the Church of the Living God. So he says that we are conducting ourselves as the house or the household of God. So living by the structural rules of a house, the family rules of a house that he has put in place. We are also to function as a pillar of truth, working alongside other pillars or other churches to hold up the truth of the gospel and to put it in a place of prominence. And then lastly, as a church, we are to labor as a buttress or a bulwark of truth. So we are to protect that foundation on which the church stands. But none of this can happen unless we firmly hold to the truth of the gospel that we confess, which is the very source of our godliness. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that makes us godly. So then we get to chapter four, our text this morning, and it's like a rubric for the church, and it helps us to see if we are staying on track, if we are accomplishing our goal and our purpose as a church. Are we living according to the truth that we confess? Does our life match our doctrine? The instruction in this passage is more specifically directed to Timothy as the pastor of the church. However, it also has an immediate application to the congregation as well. So you can hold up this text then, alongside the life of your church, and you can ask, are we matching up? If the church is fulfilling her role, then there should be some clear evidence, there should be some clear fruit. So what are the practical signs that the church is being faithful? Well, in verse 6, Paul says to Timothy, if you put these things, this instruction, before the brothers and sisters, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. The flip side is for those who receive, the ones who are receiving the message. So, brothers and sisters, if we receive these things, then by God's grace, Lake Martin Presbyterian Church will be a good church of Christ Jesus. So in this passage, there are at least three signs of a good church. The first sign is that a good church rejects false teaching. So look at verses one and two. So the Holy Spirit, the helper sent from Christ, has revealed that some will depart from the faith. The doctrine that we confess will be rejected. And it says that the later times. So the later times refers to this period of time between the first and second comings of Christ, and we are in the later times now. One of the key challenges that we face is that people appear to be Christians. They're part of the church, maybe your own children or your grandchildren, but then they depart from the faith, and this really should not surprise us at all. But it's not as if these people who depart from the faith just become neutral or indifferent to the faith. When they depart from the faith, they are devoting themselves to deceitful spirits, to the teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. So there is a spiritual aspect in that the false doctrine is truly demonic. False teaching is demonic. But then there's the human aspect in that liars with seared consciences are promoting that false doctrine. I distinctly remember back when I was in seminary, I went to RTS in Charlotte, and for one of our classes, uh, we had to go to these different churches that represented different traditions, theological convictions. And I went to this one church, it's a beautiful building, you know, with a high domed ceiling, uh, stained glass windows, all of that. But that was about the only good thing about this church. You see, the pastor preached from the Gospel of Luke on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. And he argued that the greatest sin that we can commit is the oppression of others. He said nothing about sin in relation to God. He even recognized that Jesus was actually teaching that salvation comes through faith, but then he concluded his sermon by saying, We have to prove Jesus wrong. This is a quote. We have to prove Jesus was wrong. We have to prove that we don't need Jesus' death on the cross. We have to prove we don't need the resurrection. We have to prove that with love all things are possible. With love we can change our own hearts, change our own minds, and change the world. I was in complete shock. I'm still in shock as I read that uh right now. I was just in utter disbelief. He was saying that Jesus was wrong and that we don't need him. The gospel as taught in the scriptures is wrong and we can actually just save ourselves. Well, how can a guy continue to preach that type of heresy from a pulpit? Well, as Paul tells us, this man was a liar with a seared conscience doing the work of demons. The people sitting in the pews of this so-called church were devoting themselves to these lies. Now, in this example, the lie is a bit obvious, right? It confronts you, it's straightforward. He literally said Jesus was wrong. But one thing that we must be extremely careful about is the false teaching that's much more subtle. We must be on high alert for the false teaching that we easily become comfortable with. The false teaching that sneaks into the church through the back door, and next thing we know, we're living with it. Right? It's there among us. There are two examples in our text of false teaching that Paul provides. Talks about the forbidding of marriage and the forbidding of certain foods. Now, with just about every sin, there is an opposite extreme to it. So, on the one hand, you have licentiousness. On the other hand, you have legalism. It's either the indulging in the sinful desires of the flesh or indulging in the sinful desires of self-righteousness. On one hand, you have the abstinence of food. The other hand, you have gluttony, you have the forbidding of marriage, and then on the other hand, you have all forms of sexual immorality. Well, Paul gives us specific examples of false teaching regarding the prohibitions. But we should really understand these sins categorically. Understand that there can be many varieties of false teaching in regards to these things. So he gives us two categories of false teaching, one regarding marriage. Now it's really not surprising that people would distort marriage. We see it all the time in our society today. But take, for instance, what Jesus said in Mark 12, 25. He says, For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. Okay? Well, then he taught us to pray, saying, Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. So therefore, if there's no marriage in heaven, then there should be no marriage on earth, right? Now, obviously, to reach this conclusion, you have to ignore all the other stuff that Jesus said about marriage. But that's true with every false teaching, with every heresy. Every heresy has an element of truth to it, which is what makes it so convincing and so enticing. As one theologian once said, every heresy is one aspect of the truth pushed to the exclusion of all others. So in our current context, we can certainly see the destruction that comes with a false teaching on marriage. Our society places less and less value on marriage and instead promotes the so-called sexual freedom. And even Christians fall for this lie. In 2005, Liguner Ministries released the latest version of the State of Theology survey. Maybe you've seen that. I encourage you to look into that and see the various results. So they surveyed U.S. adults that are affiliated with a church. So you can break down the statistics based on evangelicals, Catholics, or just everybody included. And of all U.S. adults who are affiliated with the church, all right, the statement 25. It says, sex outside of traditional marriage is a sin. So then you can look at the results and see the percentage of people who agree with that statement and the percentage who disagree with that statement. Now it probably doesn't surprise you that of the people who responded to the survey, only 52% agree that it is a sin. While the other 48 either disagree and then a small percentage that are unsure. This is people affiliated with the church. They have no clue the biblical ethics regarding marriage and sexuality. Then we have more examples of the acceptance of unbiblical grounds for divorce that continues to wreak havoc on the church. Then you have influential figures in Christian circles that continue to promote the idea that, and I quote, same-sex attraction is a sinless temptation and only a sin if you act on it. All of these things are examples of demonic teaching. Teaching that is believed even within our own churches. The second example he gives is regarding food. So there were two big issues of that day concerning food. The first was whether Christians were required to abide by the kosher laws of the old covenant. The second had to do with the ethics of Christians eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols. Both of these are thoroughly addressed elsewhere in the New Testament, but Paul goes ahead with a brief response by saying, essentially, eat the food. God created it to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. God declared all foods clean. Food is a gift from God that is to be enjoyed and received with thanksgiving. Restricting food for self-righteousness is a sin. Gluttony, the excessive indulging and abuse of food, is also a sin. And as Paul says in Colossians 2.23, these restrictions have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. Well, he concludes in verse 4 of our passage by addressing both of the false teachings on food and marriage, when he says, 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. So a good church rejects false teaching, even the false teaching that's subtle, the false teaching that sneaks into the life of the church. A good church will reject that false teaching. Secondly, he says, is that a good church trains for godliness. We see this in verses six through ten. Let me read that again for us. If you put these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus. Being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. Have nothing to do with irreverent silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness. For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance. For to this end we toil and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially, or that is, of those who believe. So Timothy will be a good servant of Christ Jesus if he puts all these things, the content of this letter, before the church. You will be a good church if you receive all these instructions. Says that Timothy will be a good servant being trained in the words of the faith and of the good doctrine that you have followed. In this verse, the word translated as trained carries the idea of nurturing or raising up of a child. Pastors like Timothy are to be nurtured in the words of the faith and the good doctrine. This year I joined our Presbytery Examinations Committee. I had the privilege of examining your pastor in the doctrine before his ordination. And with complete honesty, this is absolutely genuine. I can say that Jin that William was one of the strongest candidates that has come through our presbytery since I've been here. He was trained extremely well for ministry. He told me to tell you all that. No, I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Pastors are to train in the word and doctrine and the church is to receive the words of the faith and the good doctrine. So good doctrine must be one of the highest priorities of the local church. We must not let ourselves become distracted with irreverent and silly. Myths. This certainly includes the heresy that he mentioned previously, but it can also deal with more trivial or worthless matters that draw us away from the gospel truth. Now, the internet and YouTube can be a very valuable tool. In fact, I know of at least a dozen, that's not an exaggeration, at least a dozen people who were saved after listening to a sermon on YouTube and they heard the gospel for the first time, and I praise God for that. But the reality is that there is a cesspool the size of an ocean, and it's filled with so-called Christian content that is intentionally divisive and irreverent. It's increasingly destructive in local churches. I see this all the time, especially among young men that are being led astray by all these false teachings. Because these people online they've figured out that they can make a lot of money if they pump out content that is edgy, offensive, slanderous, all under the guise of being Christian. They make minor things the main things, and they use folly to promote their false wisdom. Have nothing to do with these things, Paul says. Rather, train yourself for godliness. Train in godliness as if you were training for a marathon. Work hard with diligence every day to grow in godliness. That's what he tells us to do. We are to repent of our sin. Meditate on God's word, pray without ceasing, immerse yourself in the words of the faith, in the good doctrine, and by God's grace and through the working of his Holy Spirit, you will grow in godliness. And here we get the trustworthy saying that is deserving of full acceptance. Verse 8. Exercising and staying in good shape certainly has value for your health, for this life. But one day you wake up, you go to get out of bed, and you let out that involuntary groan. This happened to me when I turned 30, and it's all been downhill since then. Then your skin starts to sag, your joints will have to be replaced, you lose your hair, you lose your mind, and eventually to dust you shall return. This body may waste away, but your soul will last forever. Your godliness has great value both in this life and in the life to come. So your godliness now has eternal significance. So train for godliness. Then in verse 10, for to this end we toil and strive. Because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior for all people, especially, or that is, of those who believe. So if our hope is set on the living God, then right now we should be striving to live in a way that lines up with the life that is to come in glory. A good church rejects false teaching. A good church trains for godliness. And lastly, a good church sticks to the basics. What are some of the basic responsibilities that you should stick to in the life of the church? First, you must fulfill your role. For Timothy, his role is to command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct and love and faith and purity. Under the authority of Christ, a pastor is to command what Christ commands, and to teach what Christ teaches in his word. This is what we call the ministerial and declarative authority or power of the church. The church is not to literally twist your arm or to literally whip you into shape, but the word of God will do that to you spiritually. And the pastors are responsible for commanding and teaching the things of Scripture. Deacons must serve in faithfulness. Elders must lead with grace. If you're single, use your singleness for the glory of God. Parents must disciple their children. Children must obey their parents in the Lord. Whatever your role may be, fulfill the role that God has called you to. So that's the second basic that we have to stick to. Devote yourself to the word. Verse 13, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. There are a lot of really good things that a church can do in the community. Everyone has an opinion of what you should be doing or how your time should be spent, but our most important work as the body of Christ is the ministry of the Word of God. This must be your unquestionable priority. The ministry of the word is God's chosen means both to sanctify his people and to draw his people to himself. There is power in the word. So we must read the word, preach the word, and teach the word of God. Fulfill your role, devote yourself to the word. And the third basic responsibility that we must stick to is to use the spiritual gifts. Verses 14 and 15, he says, Do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by the prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. See, Timothy was gifted for being a pastor. And so he was ordained by the elders according to the clear call of the Holy Spirit. But not every spiritual gift is directly tied to serving as an officer of the church. There are many ways that the Lord has gifted his people. And we should think of a spiritual gift as anything that the Spirit uses to build up the body of Christ. Spiritual gifts are often closely tied to natural ability, personality. So put your gifts to work for the good of the church. Spiritual gifts are not special powers that you have to unlock or you have to harness. They're not so rigid that you can only ever do that one thing for the church for the rest of your life. And he may gift people certain ways during certain times for certain tasks. Maybe you're unsure of how the Lord has gifted you, and that's okay. If you immerse yourself in the life of this church, then after a while it will start to be clear. Well, a good church rejects false teaching. A good church trains in godliness, and a good church sticks to the basics. But things can go sour very quickly if we don't keep a close watch on our life and on our doctrine. Verse 16 keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. It is certainly the case that when a pastor strays from the truth, the congregation will almost certainly follow. And I've personally seen this several times. Once quite recently, even in our own presbytery. And hear me when I say this. Not a single person in this room is exempt from becoming just like those who are described in verse one, who depart from the faith and devote themselves to false teaching. So keep a close watch on yourself. At times we might say, yes, we are holding up the truth like a pillar, but are we starting to lean just a little bit? Yes, we are protecting the truth, but are there weak points in our fortification? We have to constantly be watching, we have to be careful, we must persist by constantly keeping watch on our own lives as individuals and as a community of believers. And we must keep watch on the teaching of the church, and we must receive all good doctrine with humility. And only by the grace of God will He preserve us until the end, and you will be a faithful and good church. Will you pray with me? Lord Jesus, keep us in your name and preserve us until the end. Oh Lord, continue to bless this church and give them the discernment they need to reject false teaching. Grant them grace that they may train in godliness. For we know that our holiness comes only from you. Lord, give them perseverance, that they may fulfill their calling and remain faithful to your word. We ask these things in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord, the only King and Head of His church. Amen. Brothers and sisters, will you please stand with me and sing our closing hymn as on page six of your bulletin?

SPEAKER_02 35:01

Thank you for listening to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. If this message encouraged you, please consider sharing it with someone else. To learn more about our church, including worship times and upcoming events, visit LakemartinPCA.com. We'd love to have you join us.