SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: The psalmist says, God is our refuge and strength.
SPEAKER_01: He's a very present help in trouble.
SPEAKER_01: It's a description of your God that you are here to worship today.
SPEAKER_01: It's his character, it's his attributes.
SPEAKER_01: This is who he is.
SPEAKER_01: He is present, and he is a very present help.
SPEAKER_01: He is a refuge and his strength.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we will not fear.
SPEAKER_01: Even though the earth gives way.
SPEAKER_01: We will not fear, even though something extraordinary happens, like the mountains being moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't it wonderful to have that kind of a God?
SPEAKER_01: Good reminder for us this morning as we gather together in light of the virus that is consuming our attention.
SPEAKER_01: And since it's consuming our attention, it would probably be a good idea to give all of you some insights and some direction as to how we as a church staff and leadership are thinking regarding this, especially as our gathering together.
SPEAKER_01: First, we want you to know that we are evaluating new information as it becomes available.
SPEAKER_01: We are staying in tune with the North Dakota Department of Health and our local uh health department and government.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're constantly monitoring the situation.
SPEAKER_01: But as of now, as of this moment, we are going to continue our regular gatherings until further notice.
SPEAKER_01: But as we as we gather together, we just ask you to use some common sense.
SPEAKER_01: You've probably heard all of these things multiple times already.
SPEAKER_01: Wash your hands.
SPEAKER_01: We have some uh hand sanitizer around, so make use of that.
SPEAKER_01: We just ask you to use wisdom.
SPEAKER_01: If you're sick, please stay home.
SPEAKER_01: That's an okay thing to do.
SPEAKER_01: If your kids are sick, keep them home.
SPEAKER_01: That's okay.
SPEAKER_01: Uh as you as you come and you gather and you worship and you fellowship and greet one another.
SPEAKER_01: Wave.
SPEAKER_01: You you use an elbow bump or a fist bump.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I learned a new one this week, a toe tap.
SPEAKER_01: I hadn't heard that one before.
SPEAKER_01: Um we would encourage you to not shake hands for a while and not to give hugs or any other types of greetings that bring you into close contact.
SPEAKER_01: And uh we get it.
SPEAKER_01: It it feels a little stifling to some.
SPEAKER_01: Uh to the to introverts, it might be an encouragement and a wonderful thing, but we just want you to realize that is, at this present time, it's a way to show love to your neighbor.
SPEAKER_01: You know, somebody else might have a fear or an uncertainty, and you you might just be able to love them in a unique way by doing that.
SPEAKER_01: So we're going to keep monitoring the situation.
SPEAKER_01: We'll make appropriate adjustments as necessary.
SPEAKER_01: And when we do that, uh, we'll do our best to keep you informed.
SPEAKER_01: And as always, if you have a question or anything that you need to ask, feel free to call us up, call the office, and we'll do our best to answer that question.
SPEAKER_01: I wanted to leave you on that note with this from Martin Luther.
SPEAKER_01: Martin Luther wrote a letter to Dr.
SPEAKER_01: John Hess.
SPEAKER_01: And in the years and centuries since that point, it's been given a title.
SPEAKER_01: That letter has been given a title.
SPEAKER_01: And it's been entitled this Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague.
SPEAKER_01: Whether one may flee from a deadly plague.
SPEAKER_01: And Luther himself endured uh plagues multiple times during his lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: So he's writing to Dr.
SPEAKER_01: John Hess.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what he wrote.
SPEAKER_01: I shall ask God mercifully to protect us.
SPEAKER_01: Then I shall fumigate.
SPEAKER_01: That's what he wrote.
SPEAKER_01: I shall help purify the air, administer medicine, and take it.
SPEAKER_01: I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed, in order to not become contaminated and thus perhaps inflict and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.
SPEAKER_01: If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me.
SPEAKER_01: And I have done what he has expected of me, and I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.
SPEAKER_01: If my neighbor needs me, however, I shall not avoid place or person, but will go freely.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this is such a God-fearing faith, because it is neither brash nor foolhardy, and does not tempt God.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: I think that's an appropriate word from Martin Luther.
SPEAKER_01: I'd like you to take your Bible or your device if you have one and make your way to the book of 1 Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we are going to make our way back to Matthew eventually.
SPEAKER_01: But in reality, this is an extension of what we have been looking at in Matthew.
SPEAKER_01: So we spent three weeks in Matthew chapter 6, the end of Matthew chapter 6, considering anxiety and worry and the Lord's commands to not do that.
SPEAKER_01: And this is really an extension of that in 1 Timothy chapter 1.
SPEAKER_01: And I would like to direct your attention to verses 3 through 5, but I'd like to read all the way through verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: So 1 Timothy chapter 1, beginning in verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: This is the Apostle Paul writing to his protege Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: He says, 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, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations, rather than stewardship from God that is by faith.
SPEAKER_01: The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and a sincere faith.
SPEAKER_01: Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You know, I think it is an element of sovereign grace that we were challenged to not worry and to not be anxious several weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01: Before any of the current concerns about the coronavirus really blew up and spread everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: But I want you to know that even the last two weeks were an extension of those lessons.
SPEAKER_01: The base problem of sinful worry and anxiety, Jesus told us in Matthew 6, is little faith, small faith.
SPEAKER_01: Greater faith, he told us, leads to greater trust.
SPEAKER_01: And just as coffee will displace the air in your cup in the morning or afternoon, so too greater trust pushes out anxiety and worry.
SPEAKER_01: The path out of the pit of worry and the swamp of anxiety is through trust.
SPEAKER_01: And transformational trust begins with doctrine, with the teaching of God's revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Jesus showed us that in Matthew 6.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Do not be anxious.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, rest in doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: What did he do?
SPEAKER_01: He told us, look at the doctrine of creation.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the birds.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the birds that flitter around.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, they survived our winter.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God provided for them.
SPEAKER_01: He said, look at the wildflowers.
SPEAKER_01: Think about how they toil and they spin and yet they don't do anything.
SPEAKER_01: They just grow right where they are.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said, look at creation, and you will find what it means to trust.
SPEAKER_01: We found that worry and anxiety began in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve chose to reject the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: They believed the teaching of that slithering serpent over God's word.
SPEAKER_01: They chose the dogma of the deceiver over the doctrine of the Creator.
SPEAKER_01: Sadly, Adam and Eve's sons have done the same thing ever since, haven't they?
SPEAKER_01: That includes you and me, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: But God doesn't leave us without hope.
SPEAKER_01: He never does.
SPEAKER_01: He gives us a path to follow, to trust.
SPEAKER_01: Now, our path is not the yellow brick road that Dorothy followed in the Wizard of Oz.
SPEAKER_01: Our path out of worry and towards trust is in the revelation of God.
SPEAKER_01: We see the theology that God has placed in our world, in the creation that He's given us.
SPEAKER_01: And then we hear and we read and we study the revelation of the mind of God and Scripture, and that truth begins to transform our minds.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Revelation chapter 12 teaches us, and we're going to look more at that next week.
SPEAKER_01: Those transformed minds by the word of God must then give direction to our hearts.
SPEAKER_01: And properly directed hearts, properly instructed hearts point our affections to God and to his word.
SPEAKER_01: You see, when doctrine aligns our minds and our heart and our affections so that we give proper instruction to our wills that make decisions, then life can be lived in trust rather than in anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Consider the coronavirus fears.
SPEAKER_01: What reactions have you had in the last week?
SPEAKER_01: Just think about yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Don't think about your neighbor, think about yourself, not your spouse, yourself.
SPEAKER_01: What reactions have been inside of you?
SPEAKER_01: And ask yourself this question.
SPEAKER_01: As you have faced those reactions, are you then running to the Word of God to hear what He says to you, to remind yourself of what is true, and then reminding your heart again and again and again to trust Him?
SPEAKER_01: Or are you rushing to listen to the latest hype so that your heart can be stirred up to anxiety?
SPEAKER_01: Which is it?
SPEAKER_01: My friends, continual, regular immersion in the Word of God is foundational to battling worry.
SPEAKER_01: It's foundational to all of life.
SPEAKER_01: That's why our focus here at faith is declaring the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's where we begin.
SPEAKER_01: That's our focus.
SPEAKER_01: Now some might object, saying, you know, that's too narrow of a mindset for me.
SPEAKER_01: Some might say that focusing on the scriptures alone might lead us to fundamentalism or to legalism, even, to elevating knowledge and obedience over love.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Anton led us in looking at the church at Ephesus in Revelation, so that we might see that our doctrine must never be to the exclusion of our love.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the church at Ephesus had some of the greatest pastor teachers in the history of the church.
SPEAKER_01: They had the apostle John as their pastor for a long time.
SPEAKER_01: Nevertheless, that church departed from their first love.
SPEAKER_01: We must not pursue doctrine to the exclusion of love.
SPEAKER_01: If our doctrine is pure, but we have no love, what does the apostle say we are?
SPEAKER_01: A noisy gong.
SPEAKER_01: You're just a bunch of noise.
SPEAKER_01: You want another picture?
SPEAKER_01: We are like the Pharisees that Jesus chastised.
SPEAKER_01: Pharisees driven by worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: And then Jeremy reminded us of the other extreme.
SPEAKER_01: We must not elevate our affections over our doctrine, because that leads us to compromise with the world.
SPEAKER_01: As disciples who are committed to the word of God, we cannot allow the heart and its affections to overrule the mind filled with the truth of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because when the heart affected by the world dominates the mind, compromise results.
SPEAKER_01: And compromise does not lead to obeying the greatest commandments.
SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_01: When he was asked, Lord, what's the greatest commandment in the law?
SPEAKER_01: What did he say?
SPEAKER_01: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
SPEAKER_01: And the second is like it love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, compromise doesn't lead to that kind of love.
SPEAKER_01: Doctrine and love go together.
SPEAKER_01: Doctrine and love function together.
SPEAKER_01: And when doctrine and love function together, they produce the peace of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Colossians chapter 3, verses 14, 15, maybe even 16 tell us.
SPEAKER_01: It tells us that the peace of God is to rule in our hearts and that our love is to extend upward to God and outward to one another.
SPEAKER_01: And that happens, he says, when the word of Christ dwells in you richly.
SPEAKER_01: He says the word of God needs to take residence inside of you, in every part of your being, so that it impacts every part of your house that you live in.
SPEAKER_01: And when that word of Christ dwells in you richly, guess what happens?
SPEAKER_01: The peace of God begins to rule.
SPEAKER_01: That's the key to overcoming worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: The scriptures must have their home in us, rule over us, filling our hearts and our minds.
SPEAKER_01: Someone might say, though, I'm tired of doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: I've heard the statement, you know, I I know all of this.
SPEAKER_01: I grew up in church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't need to keep hearing all of this.
SPEAKER_01: Somebody might say, I don't feel like I need to hear all of this doctrine and Bible stuff.
SPEAKER_01: Can I address that for a moment?
SPEAKER_01: First, if if your problem is doctrine, get over it.
SPEAKER_01: Let it go.
SPEAKER_01: Get over it.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I'm serious.
SPEAKER_01: If you have a problem with doctrine, then you don't understand how vital doctrine is to your life.
SPEAKER_01: But even more, you don't understand what doctrine is.
SPEAKER_01: Doctrine is your lifeblood as a Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has a doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody has doctrine to which they hold.
SPEAKER_01: The only question is whether or not it's right doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: In and of itself, doctrine is simply a word that means teaching.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it means, it's teaching.
SPEAKER_01: That's all doctrine is.
SPEAKER_01: So when Paul tells Timothy, charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, it's different teaching.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is, is teaching.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the word means.
SPEAKER_01: And in the context of our Bibles, it's teaching, the revelation of God is found in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: So if you don't want doctrine, then you don't want Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't want to hear doctrine, then you don't want to hear God speak to you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I know that's not really what you want because you're here today.
SPEAKER_01: So don't get all wrapped up about over the word doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Now sometimes we we gather all that the Bible says about a particular subject, like creation or the Trinity or the study of mankind.
SPEAKER_01: And then we take all that scripture says and we compile it together in that subject area and we call that doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we do that.
SPEAKER_01: But doctrine is merely teaching what God has already revealed.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it is.
SPEAKER_01: What's referred to in verse 7 where he says, desiring to be teachers of the law, that word teachers, we could translate that.
SPEAKER_01: It'd be very odd, but we could translate it.
SPEAKER_01: Doctrinalizing.
SPEAKER_01: Those who desire to doctrinalize the law, who desire to teach.
SPEAKER_01: That's all it means.
SPEAKER_01: It's found in verse 10.
SPEAKER_01: Sound or healthy doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: It's just what God expects us to teach.
SPEAKER_01: So don't say that you don't want doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Don't say that you don't like doctrine or that you don't want a church that doesn't focus on doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Because what you're really saying is, I don't want the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to hear what God says.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be taught the word of the living God.
SPEAKER_01: And again, I know that's not what you mean, but sometimes we say things that we don't really understand what we're saying.
SPEAKER_01: Put it another way.
SPEAKER_01: If you sincerely desire to overcome worry and anxiety in your life, then you need doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not want to be driven mad by every virus and plague that assaults mankind, then you need the teaching of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: If you sincerely desire to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind, and all of your strength, then you need doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: If you desire to love your neighbor as yourself, then you need doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: It is the lifeblood of a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And you need it because God has ordained doctrine, the teaching of his word, as the means by which he makes you more like Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Thessalonica.
SPEAKER_01: And he wrote, We thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it really is the word of God, which is at work in you, believers.
SPEAKER_01: What is at work in you?
SPEAKER_01: The word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Doctrine is at work in you.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians chapter 1, verse 28, contains the marching orders for the leaders of every church.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care what church it is.
SPEAKER_01: Contains the marching orders for every church, for the leaders of every church.
SPEAKER_01: And it tells us there that it is the obligation, the duty, the expectation of God that elders and pastors, even the elders and pastors of our church, of Faith Evangelical Free Church, that we work to present everyone under our care mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Someday the Lord Jesus is going to receive all believers, and he's going to look to the elders and the pastors of every church, and he's saying, Did you work to prepare them to be mature for me?
SPEAKER_01: That's why we have that as a goal in our in our vision statement.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we declare the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Why do we do it?
SPEAKER_01: We're doing it to bring to maturity everyone who's under our care.
SPEAKER_01: It's our duty one day to present all of you as mature disciples to the Lord Himself and His particular means of moving us to maturity is guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Teaching.
SPEAKER_01: What then must we do at our church?
SPEAKER_01: If that is the goal that we have and the means that God accomplishes, that goal is to teach, then what must we do?
SPEAKER_01: Listen to all of Colossians 1.28.
SPEAKER_01: Apostle Paul said, Him that is Christ, the Lord Jesus, him we proclaim.
SPEAKER_01: Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching, doctrinalizing everyone with all wisdom that we might present everyone mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Him we proclaim.
SPEAKER_01: Something will be proclaimed in every church, even if you're just hearing a five minute sermonette.
SPEAKER_01: Something will be taught.
SPEAKER_01: And if a church teaches, they're going to be teaching some kind of doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: And there are only two kinds of proclamation, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_01: That was made clear to Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: Right teaching and there's different teaching.
SPEAKER_01: There's right doctrine and wrong doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Timothy served the church at Ephesus, and the Apostle Paul sent him some instructions.
SPEAKER_01: I urge you, charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: The Apostle Paul's writing here as if he knows there are certain people in the church at Ephesus teaching a different doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Timothy is to go to those people and charge them not to teach the different doctrine, right?
SPEAKER_01: Right doctrine then leads to faith and love that comes from a pure heart.
SPEAKER_01: A different doctrine leads to speculation that does not have a proper object or a proper goal.
SPEAKER_01: Speculation does not lead to love.
SPEAKER_01: Shared perspectives that are not in line with the word of God do not lead to love.
SPEAKER_01: When right doctrine is adhered to by the mind, and the mind then instructs the heart to trust, and when the heart and the mind are ruled by the rightly divided word of God, the result is increased faith and greater trust lived out in love for God and others.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you, just an illustration of this.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know if your pastors and elders love you?
SPEAKER_01: Some might say, well, they take care of me, they come to visit me in the hospital, or they check up on me to make sure I'm doing okay, or they pray for me.
SPEAKER_01: We might say all kinds of different practical elements.
SPEAKER_01: But all of those are subjective things that makes us feel good, feel like we're loved.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know in an objective way if your pastors and elders are working to present you mature to Christ the Great Shepherd?
SPEAKER_01: How do you know?
SPEAKER_01: I would submit to you there's only one objective way to know if your pastors and elders love you.
SPEAKER_01: You know they love you if they insist on and declare right teaching, right doctrine that has as its intended goal a love for God and others that flows like a stream from the spring of a purified heart, a clear conscience through obedience to his will in a non-hypocritical faith.
SPEAKER_01: You know pastors and elders are seeking to lead the church well if they insist on right doctrine, if they insist on the accurate expression of the word of God as the means by which God matures us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the only objective standard that we have.
SPEAKER_01: Look over at chapter 3 of 1 Timothy.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: 1 Timothy 3, verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: I hope to come to you soon, Paul says.
SPEAKER_01: There's a standard of order, a pattern of functioning that must be found in any true church.
SPEAKER_01: There must be a standard and a pattern because the church doesn't belong to the people.
SPEAKER_01: It's not your church.
SPEAKER_01: It's not my church.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the elders' church.
SPEAKER_01: The church belongs to the living God.
SPEAKER_01: And he has established it as a pillar and a buttress of the truth.
SPEAKER_01: What's that mean?
SPEAKER_01: Well, those are construction terms or engineering terms.
SPEAKER_01: Generally speaking, a pillar would hold up a roof.
SPEAKER_01: And a buttress would support a wall, often something built at an angle to support a wall.
SPEAKER_01: Both of those elements are engineering elements that function to hold up an object of great importance.
SPEAKER_01: Not much more important than truth, is there?
SPEAKER_01: Not much more important than God's truth.
SPEAKER_01: And God determined that his church would be ordered in such a way as to be the standard of truth in his world.
SPEAKER_01: Let me put it in a different way.
SPEAKER_01: Let's put it negatively.
SPEAKER_01: Try to understand it in a different way.
SPEAKER_01: A church is failing in its purpose if it does not order itself around God's truth.
SPEAKER_01: It's failing, absolutely failing if it teaches another doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: A church is failing at its purpose if it doesn't promote right behavior.
SPEAKER_01: What's the proper behavior, we might ask?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that goes all the way back to chapter one.
SPEAKER_01: Right behavior is right doctrine that leads to right love.
SPEAKER_01: Verses three and four.
SPEAKER_01: We see here that wrong doctrine leads to a misdirected devotion.
SPEAKER_01: I urged you.
SPEAKER_01: Charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship.
SPEAKER_01: The stewardship is definitive there.
SPEAKER_01: The stewardship that is from God, that is through faith.
SPEAKER_01: If we are to be a church with a proper love for God, loving the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, if we're to be a church that has a proper love for God that is expressed then outwardly in loving our neighbors, what must we teach?
SPEAKER_01: Humanistic theology?
SPEAKER_01: Moralism?
SPEAKER_01: Psychotherapy?
SPEAKER_01: Current fads and culture?
SPEAKER_01: What about a combination of some of those ideologies?
SPEAKER_01: Should we proclaim those and teach those?
SPEAKER_01: If we teach or even encourage a different doctrine than what is found in the pages of Scripture, we are leading you away from Christ, not toward him.
SPEAKER_01: We would not be seeking to present you mature in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that the stewardship here is in opposition to speculations.
SPEAKER_01: Speculation is full of uncertainty.
SPEAKER_01: It's full of human wondering and emotion and self-focus.
SPEAKER_01: It's an educated guess.
SPEAKER_01: A speculation is something that we don't know for sure.
SPEAKER_01: But a stewardship, on the other hand, is an ordered, revealed truth from the mind of God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: It's structured teaching that's laid out for God's children to know, to understand, to trust, and to follow.
SPEAKER_01: But it's the nature of Satan to convince people to accept and then follow and pursue false doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: False teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And he's so good at it that he even draws disciples away from genuine doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: That's true.
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that what he did with Eve in the very beginning?
SPEAKER_01: A perfect human being.
SPEAKER_01: Without sin, able to think more clearly and more objectively than any other human being in history besides her husband.
SPEAKER_01: And what does she do?
SPEAKER_01: She's drawn away, Adam was too.
SPEAKER_01: They were drawn away from what they knew to be true to what was twisted.
SPEAKER_01: Satan promotes twisted things.
SPEAKER_01: God promotes orderly truth, proper doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: Now, 1 Timothy chapter 1 was a directive to Timothy at Ephesus to correct twisted teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Satan had invaded the church with twisted teaching.
SPEAKER_01: That's frightening if you think about it.
SPEAKER_01: Never assume that twisted satanic teaching isn't in the church.
SPEAKER_01: Never make that assumption.
SPEAKER_01: If it made it into Ephesus, it can make it into this church or any other church.
SPEAKER_01: But the purpose of the church is to be a pillar and a buttress of the truth, not your truth, not my truth, not Satan's version of the truth, but God's truth.
SPEAKER_01: And God has given us his truth in his revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, we must pay careful attention so that our devotion is not to some kind of speculative theories, but to Christ in his word.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Titus was told that an elder, in Titus chapter 1, verse 9, an elder must hold firmly to the trustworthy word as taught.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: So that he may be able to give instruction, he may be able to doctrinalize in healthy, sound doctrine, and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
SPEAKER_01: An elder's job, in part, is to ensure that the church remains a pillar and a buttress of the truth.
SPEAKER_01: But wrong teaching, different teaching, leads us not to Christ, but to some other misguided, misdirected devotion.
SPEAKER_01: However, right doctrine upholds the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Not only does it uphold the truth, it begins to change who we are because it's the teaching of Christ in his word.
SPEAKER_01: It begins to direct the mind, it begins to renew the mind and direct the mind as to how to think, what to think.
SPEAKER_01: The mind then begins to impact the heart, and the word of God purifies the heart, it cleanses our consciences, and it produces in us a faith and a trust in Christ that is genuine.
SPEAKER_01: That's verse 5.
SPEAKER_01: The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds like a mature Christian, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: Right doctrine that begins to impact our minds, that fills our minds so that it begins to change who we are from the inside out.
SPEAKER_01: Truth and teaching from the Word of God that begins to purify the heart, to make it cleanly, to cleanse it from impurities, that begins to make sure that the conscience is focused on Christ and not driven by guilt, and that then motivates our trust in Christ, that uplifts our faith.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't that sound like a mature Christian to you?
SPEAKER_01: Takes us all the way back to Matthew, to Matthew 5, 6 and 7.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus told us that our righteousness must exceed, it must be greater than must go beyond the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what he told us.
SPEAKER_01: Those Pharisees held to a doctrine without proper love for God.
SPEAKER_01: Because they didn't have a proper love for God, they didn't have a proper love for others.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus called them a particular term.
SPEAKER_01: He said, when you have doctrine that you hold to and you believe this and you say this, but you live out something different, you are a hypocrite.
SPEAKER_01: Interestingly, here in 1 Timothy 1, verse 5, at the very end of the verse where it talks about a sincere faith, that word sincere is literally non-hypocritical.
SPEAKER_01: Non-hypocritical.
SPEAKER_01: A pursuit of right doctrine that commands the mind, that purifies the heart, that cleanses the conscience, and leads to trust is what Jesus has been telling us all along in the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_01: And the byproduct of that greater faith, of that surer trust in Christ, is that it begins to displace worry and anxiety with the truth of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now there is an element of obedience and application that has to take place in each disciple.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Philippians chapter 2, verse 12 emphasizes.
SPEAKER_01: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
SPEAKER_01: And that is then balanced by, for God is at work within you.
SPEAKER_01: How does God work in us so that we might work out our salvation?
SPEAKER_01: How does God mature us?
SPEAKER_01: Does he do that by telling us to share our own struggles and weaknesses and experiences?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: The only thing he tells us to share with one another is confess your sins to one another.
SPEAKER_01: That may bring us encouragement if we share our weaknesses and our struggles.
SPEAKER_01: But that is not how God matures us.
SPEAKER_01: God matures us through his word, through his truth, through his teaching, through doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why right doctrine leads us to pure devotion.
SPEAKER_01: The aim of our charge is love.
SPEAKER_01: Where does that love come from?
SPEAKER_01: A pure heart.
SPEAKER_01: There are generally three complaints that I hear about doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: The first is that it's boring.
SPEAKER_01: The second is that it's not needed.
SPEAKER_01: And the third is that it leads to legalism.
SPEAKER_01: If you object in some way to the term doctrine, it's likely going to fall into one of those three categories.
SPEAKER_01: If you first, if you find doctrine boring, that's either the fault of the teacher, the one teaching, or it's your own blindness to the beauty and glory of the one whose doctrine it is.
SPEAKER_01: If you believe that doctrine isn't needed, it's the second category, that we, you know, maybe maybe we just need love.
SPEAKER_01: Or that we need to empathize more, or maybe we need more service.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you think you know enough already.
SPEAKER_01: If you think somehow that doctrine isn't needed, then you're going to have to cut out a chunk of your Bible and throw it away.
SPEAKER_01: Because most of 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and other passages of scripture are all about the need for doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: For example, 2 Timothy chapter 4, Timothy is given a charge.
SPEAKER_01: I charge you, Paul says, in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in his kingdom, proclaim, preach the word.
SPEAKER_01: Be ready, in season and out of season.
SPEAKER_01: Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and doctrine, teaching.
SPEAKER_01: How does Timothy fulfill the charge to him?
SPEAKER_01: How does Timothy fulfill behaving properly in the household of God, which is the church of the living God?
SPEAKER_01: How does he do that?
SPEAKER_01: By proclaiming the word in many different ways, by reproving, rebuking, exhorting, by having patience.
SPEAKER_01: But he does that through instruction, through teaching the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: So if you find then that doctrine is something we should resist, because you've seen it lead to legalism, I want to tell you I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_01: I'm truly sorry that you've experienced that.
SPEAKER_01: I understand.
SPEAKER_01: Because I grew up in a Christian tradition that emphasized doctrine for the sake of knowledge and obedience.
SPEAKER_01: The end product of that was desired from my instruction, from doctrine given to me was knowledge of the Bible first and then proper obedience second.
SPEAKER_01: And that still exists in many Christian circles today.
SPEAKER_01: Sadly, it often produces cold, Bible-smart people who can quote verses to you all day long, but who've never experienced the impact of that knowledge in their souls.
SPEAKER_01: So does that mean then that we ditch doctrine?
SPEAKER_01: Do we dispense with our exposition of scripture in place of feel-good stories that skip the mind to target the heart?
SPEAKER_01: No, we can't do that.
SPEAKER_01: Because that would ignore the express command of Scripture from God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: That would promote worry and anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: It would not lead to loving God and loving others properly.
SPEAKER_01: No, the solution is still in the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: The solution is right doctrine, it is right teaching.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't change.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's the word of God that renews the mind.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word of God that is at work in us.
SPEAKER_01: It's the word of God that molds us into the image of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: We can't jettison the word of the living God because of our experience.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot demolish the pillars and the buttresses so that the truth is scattered in the rubble and mixed in with the trash of the world.
SPEAKER_01: No, the solution is pursuing right doctrine with the right goal.
SPEAKER_01: We must emphasize again and again and again the truth of God, but the biblical goal is not obedience.
SPEAKER_01: The biblical goal is love.
SPEAKER_01: What does the Apostle Paul say?
SPEAKER_01: The goal, the aim of our charge is love.
SPEAKER_01: What is the great commandment?
SPEAKER_01: Love Yahweh your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
SPEAKER_01: The goal is not obedience, although God does expect it of his children.
SPEAKER_01: What parent does not expect obedience, right?
SPEAKER_01: The goal is not Bible knowledge by itself, even though it's necessary.
SPEAKER_01: The goal is love.
SPEAKER_01: That's the goal.
SPEAKER_01: Our teaching and our preaching, our Bible studies, our Sunday school classes, our life groups, they're all structured and must be structured so that we issue out the word of God so that we love.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of a viral pandemic, what must we do?
SPEAKER_01: We must remind ourselves of doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: We must remind ourselves of what is true so that we might love God more and express our love for Him in love for others.
SPEAKER_01: How does that tie into Matthew 6 and worry?
SPEAKER_01: Well, hopefully you've gotten hints of it along the way.
SPEAKER_01: I think what really brings everything together is what John tells us in 1 John chapter 4, beginning in verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: He says, So we have come to know.
SPEAKER_01: We've arrived at a place where we have knowledge, we have understanding, and that understanding and knowledge has led us to believe the love that God has for us.
SPEAKER_01: God is love, he says.
SPEAKER_01: And whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
SPEAKER_01: And then verse later, verse 18, he says, There is no fear in love.
SPEAKER_01: Perfect love casts out all fear.
SPEAKER_01: Want you to listen to this.
SPEAKER_01: Proper love for God and proper love for others is driven by proper knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: And when you have proper love for God and proper love for others that is driven by proper knowledge, that leads to no fear.
SPEAKER_01: No fear means no anxiety and no worry.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue Scripture to know God.
SPEAKER_01: Know God so that you might love Him.
SPEAKER_01: Love Him so that you might have no fear.
SPEAKER_01: Have no fear to release you from fear and anxiety and worry.
SPEAKER_01: We expound the teaching of Scripture so that we might love Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we should.
SPEAKER_01: We should know more and more, always growing in our knowledge of him who is the truth.
SPEAKER_01: But the goal is love.
SPEAKER_01: You know, the New Testament often describes right doctrine as healthy teaching or sound teaching.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we find in verse 10, chapter 1, whatever else is contrary to healthy or sound doctrine as opposed to being sick.
SPEAKER_01: Sick or unhealthy doctrine leads people astray.
SPEAKER_01: They wander away from soundness.
SPEAKER_01: Talking with one of our doctors this morning, who was expressing to me all the quote-unquote medicines out there that people pursue and buy into that really don't lead you anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: They don't lead to health.
SPEAKER_01: Let's be a church that pursues knowing God while not neglecting the goal.
SPEAKER_01: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_01: Looks like this.
SPEAKER_01: Know your God so that you will love him more.
SPEAKER_01: How do you get to love your spouse more?
SPEAKER_01: How do you get to love your children more?
SPEAKER_01: How do you get to love your boyfriend or your girlfriend more?
SPEAKER_01: Well, you get to know them.
SPEAKER_01: You pursue them in understanding and in knowledge.
SPEAKER_01: Know your God.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue knowing him so that you will love him more.
SPEAKER_01: Don't just pursue knowing him so that you can quote a bunch of Bible verses to somebody.
SPEAKER_01: Pursue him to love him and love him more so that your love for him will spread out to loving others and love God and others rightly so that your faith and your trust in him will increase.
SPEAKER_01: And when that increases, it will displace the anxiety and the worry in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you this question.
SPEAKER_01: What evidence is there in your life of devoted love for God?
SPEAKER_01: What evidence is there of your life of devoted service to others?
SPEAKER_01: Now we have to then say, well, what counts?
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: But ask yourself, do you have a life of love?
SPEAKER_01: Do you live a life of love for God that issues out in love for others?
SPEAKER_01: How do we evaluate that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, there's all kinds of ways.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the first and greatest evidence of your love as a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The first and greatest evidence of your love as a disciple of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Do you desire to know God more?
SPEAKER_01: Do you love doctrine, do you love teaching in the sense of knowing God through his word so that you might love him more?
SPEAKER_01: The goal of our instruction is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.
SPEAKER_01: That starts with a desire to know your father more.
SPEAKER_01: Not to just have more info stored in your head, but to know him in relationship by discovering more about him.
SPEAKER_01: Can we spend a few seconds doing that?
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look.
SPEAKER_01: Look how how just First Timothy here appla uh discusses and talks about God.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: He's our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: Spend some time pondering what that means.
SPEAKER_01: He is our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: The same thing is mentioned in chapter 2, verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Also in verse 1, He is our hope.
SPEAKER_01: Christ, Jesus, our hope.
SPEAKER_01: He is our hope.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2, He is our Father.
SPEAKER_01: He is our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11, He is glorious.
SPEAKER_01: He is blessed.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 14, He is gracious.
SPEAKER_01: He is loving.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, He is merciful.
SPEAKER_01: He is patient.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 17, one of the greatest verses in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: He is the king of ages.
SPEAKER_01: He is immortal.
SPEAKER_01: He is invisible.
SPEAKER_01: He is the only God, and He is worthy of all honor.
SPEAKER_01: How could you not love Him?
SPEAKER_01: How could you not want to know Him more?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 5, He is our mediator.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord Jesus stands before the Father to mediate, to argue on your behalf.
SPEAKER_01: How could you not want to know Him more?
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 2, verse 6, He is our ransom.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 3, verse 15, He is He's living.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 16, full of doctrine.
SPEAKER_01: He is manifested, He is displayed in the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He took on flesh, He was justified by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He was seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up into glory.
SPEAKER_01: We can go on and on and on.
SPEAKER_01: That's just in three chapters, and the whole long list of what your God is like.
SPEAKER_01: How could you not want to know him more and to know what those character qualities are like so that you might love him more?
SPEAKER_01: And the byproduct of that being, you will love others and so trust him more.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Worry and anxiety get pushed out.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, behold your God.
SPEAKER_01: This is doctrine that has as its goal love.
SPEAKER_01: As you hear and understand more doctrine, it ought to lead you to love him more and more so that you love others in obedience to him.
SPEAKER_01: And like that coffee going into your cup, love motivated by doctrine leaves no room for fear.
SPEAKER_01: No room for fear means greater trust, greater ability to have faith that grows.
SPEAKER_01: Greater trust means life without anxiety.
SPEAKER_01: Trust without anxiety means we can love God and our neighbors fully.
SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus say?
SPEAKER_01: By this will all men know that you are my disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Not by your obedience, not by how many Bible verses you can quote and throw out at people, but by your love.
SPEAKER_01: The goal of our doctrine is love.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pursue that together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we confess to you that so often we just get all twisted out of shape.
SPEAKER_01: May you purify our hearts so that we might have a clear conscience before you.
SPEAKER_01: May you purify our hearts so that we might hear your word clearly.
SPEAKER_01: Use your word to renew our minds.
SPEAKER_01: With your word, we pray with the psalmist that you would create in us a clean heart, a new heart that longs to love you more and to know you more.
SPEAKER_01: Make us your people who are never tired to hear more about you, but long for it day by day, moment by moment.
SPEAKER_01: Change us into people who pursue you out of pure love.
SPEAKER_01: We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the King of all ages, immortal, invisible, and worthy of all honor.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.