[0:00] Okay, well, good morning, Bible Baptist Church. Let's get into the Scriptures now. Let's find 1 Timothy this morning.
[0:11] ! Let's go to 1 Timothy. Chapter number 2 is the first reference we'll get to eventually here. We've been doing a little bit of a study on teaching, on the importance of teaching, that it is by no means inferior to preaching, yet it's different, yet they're very much connected.
[0:38] Eventually, maybe in the next week, this will kind of morph into looking at our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and just the different methods that he implemented in his teaching.
[0:51] And many would call him the greatest teacher ever, and I wouldn't argue with that at all. And so we'll study some things that eventually we'll get to it, that he used or just ways he taught men to understand things that are otherwise probably over their heads.
[1:09] So we were looking at some things God uses to teach, and it started with pastors and teachers, that office, that's an easy one. I also mentioned parents, that's an easy one.
[1:21] Parents generally are your life's greatest teachers, or most, the first, whatever, 15, 20 years of your life is greatly influenced by your parents. And then there's other adults and other family and other just society things that do form your mind in the way you think, and you receive information.
[1:40] But as far as biblically goes, pastors and parents, those are very popular and very easy to understand. We mentioned last time together the Holy Spirit of God is a teacher using the words of God and teaching man the truth of God through the Bible.
[1:56] And it's so important to be in the Bible, to be around the Bible, to be exposed to the Bible. If you're not, you're just going to be feeding on something else. You're always feeding on something.
[2:06] And you just cannot go through life just being a complete blank and not absorbing information. You're built for that. The human mind is hungry, just like the eyes of man are never satisfied.
[2:20] His mind is always absorbing. And until the day you die. And so you need the Bible going in. And the Lord shows us that His Spirit is sent, and He'll guide us into all truth, and He'll use the Scriptures to teach us, and to train us, and to lead us, and also give us direction in this world.
[2:38] If God is speaking to your heart and trying to guide you into something, He can use His Word to do that. So I want to take now this Sunday and do a little study here on another means of what God uses to teach.
[2:52] It's another teacher, and that is it's you. It's believers. God uses believers to teach and to train other believers. And I want to show you this in a few places. I said 1 Timothy. I was wrong.
[3:03] I meant 2 Timothy. I'm sorry. Find 2 Timothy chapter 2. And notice verses 1 and 2. Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
[3:28] So from Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others also, there's four generations that are being taught and trained in the things of God.
[3:38] And he's using faithful men. It's a duty of faithful men that have been taught in the Word to train others also or to disciple them. And that could be in a formal setting of a classroom or a one-on-one at a Starbucks, or that could be, and maybe even more often than that, than sitting down and instructing with words, maybe more often it's just by deed, just by your testimony, just by your faithfulness, and in your Christian example, you're teaching and training other men also.
[4:10] Take a look at Philippians chapter 4. Back to your left a little bit. Philippians chapter 4. Speaking of God using you to be a teacher, to be an example and train others up.
[4:26] Philippians chapter 4. And verse 9. Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with you.
[4:49] Philippians chapter 5. So Paul left an example, and he taught. And then he says, now it's your turn. You do exactly the way I did. And that's going to be believers teaching and training other believers.
[5:03] Come to your right back to Titus chapter 2. It's a passage we looked at a few weeks ago when we were discussing the elder and the younger, when it had to do with submission. Look at Titus chapter 2.
[5:14] Titus chapter 2. And here it's the, again, the elder or the aged that are to teach and be examples to the younger.
[5:29] In verse number 1. But speak thou the things which become sound doctrine, that the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.
[5:40] The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness. Not false accusers, but given to much wine, or not given to much wine. I better get that clear.
[5:51] Teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.
[6:07] Young men likewise, exhort to be sober minded. And he goes on to discuss him being an example. In verse 7. In all things, showing thyself, a pattern of good works.
[6:20] So the aged are to teach the younger. Or you could even say, in Timothy's case, he's a younger man compared to some. He's an example of the believers. And he's more mature spiritually.
[6:32] Therefore, the more mature spiritually, teach the younger spiritually. It would never be the pastor's job to go house to house, and to insert himself into all the personal family matters that show up inside of a church.
[6:47] However, the fellowship of believers, a local church family, and brothers and sisters in Christ, they can accomplish a lot as we edify one another.
[6:59] And this is God's way. He brought this church together. He brings local churches. He brings people in, some old, some young, different varieties of spiritual levels. And the younger need to have these examples to look to.
[7:12] And one man couldn't possibly accomplish everything in every single person's life. Not to mention, the man likely would have a family of his own and duties of his own to tend to.
[7:23] So, and specifically, I want to get back into Titus 2. There's some situations. The aged women are to train up the young women. It certainly wouldn't be meet or suitable for the pastor to be going to the young wives while they're home with their children and training them on how to train up children.
[7:41] That's just ridiculous. But an aged woman sure could make a visit and could sit down with them and get to know them and get to guide them into these things and be a spiritual leader to them.
[7:54] And so there's things that just make sense. God set it up this way. I don't believe it would necessarily be the pastor's job to take every single young man under his wing. It may sound okay in a church that's smaller, but you get a larger church, you get 200 people, you don't have time to do all that.
[8:10] And so it falls on the believers to do that, to nurture and admonish other believers. I believe God set up a church like a large family of brothers and sisters. And the bigger you see them on TV, the reality shows, the large families, the older siblings are always taking care of the younger ones and helping them out.
[8:28] Mom and dad can't do everything all the time. And that's just the way this is built and set up. And so the younger believers need to grow and they need examples to look up to.
[8:39] And God always uses the elder believers to instruct them. Now, when a young Christian attends a service, a church service, this is how I believe you personally can be a teacher to them, can fill this role.
[8:53] When a young believer comes into this place and sits down in these pews, number one, you should always be in your place. They should always look around and see you at that, maybe not in the identical pew, but they should see your face.
[9:06] If they come here and see you one week and then come here and don't see you another week, what are you teaching them? You say, well, I didn't sign up to be a teacher. Too bad. That's the way it is.
[9:18] You are teaching them. You're either teaching them that this is not important to me and other things are, or I will be here by the grace of God because this is a priority in my life.
[9:29] You teach that. You project that, if that's the case. They should always see you in your place to the best of your ability. You're teaching them faithfulness.
[9:42] You're teaching that this assembly on Sundays and Wednesdays, this is a priority to you, and you belong here, and you're all in. And some people, you could say that.
[9:52] I could say that of you, that this is a priority in your life. You put the Lord first. And if a young believer comes in here and they see that, they're going to know quickly those that do and those that don't because your testimony declares it.
[10:06] Something else they should see, they should see you sing. Now, when in the world, for those of you who maybe got saved later in life, did you ever imagine that you would be standing in a hall with a group of people singing, like putting your voice, projecting it out into the open space, when outside of a church service do you sing in a place?
[10:28] For most of us, never. I certainly don't go down in a street corner and sing. I certainly don't walk through a department store and just start singing or just park myself on a bench and sing out loud with a group.
[10:42] I don't do that. You don't do that. But we come here and we do. And we do it for a purpose. And you know the purpose and what it all is about. But let's just consider if a new believer comes in here and sees you not singing.
[10:56] Sees you looking at your phone while the rest of us are singing. What does that tell them? What does that teach them? This isn't a big deal to you. You're not really interested. It doesn't do much for you, this part of the service.
[11:08] So I'm just going to kind of ignore it and I'll just amuse myself until this is over. That's what you're projecting. That's what you're teaching. I want you to think on these things because God has this unit set up.
[11:21] He has you be part of it and you have a role in it. We all have a role in it. And you say, but I don't want to have a role in it. Too bad. This is what God does. This is what brought you in here to give you a part.
[11:34] And so you should be in your place. You should be participating in the service. They should see the Bible open in your lap. Right now to Titus chapter 2. If a new Christian came in here looking for a place to sit, they should be like, excuse me, excuse me.
[11:49] And I don't want to bump your Bible. Not, I don't want to bump your cell phone. The Word of God. That shows, that shows this is important to me. And I carry this into church and I sit down and open it up and I look at it and I follow and I read it because this is God's holy words.
[12:08] Where would I be without the words of God? I'd be lost on my way to hell if not there already or I'd be in a mess. A complete mess. A self-absorbed, proud, pile of garbage.
[12:24] So we open up the Bible here. And let's just, I'm just saying a visitor or a young believer, a newborn in Christ, where are they going to get the examples to follow? They're going to come to church.
[12:36] Some of them come here and they get saved or they come here and they want to know what's going on. They don't even have a Bible. They walk in here all the time without Bibles. But they should see you with a Bible. They shouldn't see you with your hands empty and be like, oh, see, they should think, oh, all these people here have a Bible in their hands.
[12:57] Why don't I? And somebody says, do you need a Bible? I guess so. Why do they get that idea? Because of you. Because you taught them that. They observe that in you.
[13:08] They should see a Bible in your lap. They should hear you say amen when the truth is proclaimed and it hits your ears and it hits your heart and you say, oh, I don't want anybody to hear me.
[13:23] No, they should hear you. It's the truth. A young believer should be trained up by mature, aged Christians how to respond to truth when they hear it, how to acknowledge the truth and agree with the truth.
[13:39] and I can't tell you how far that goes in a young believer's heart to be in a room with not just somebody up front yapping but to be in a congregation of people that are in agreeance with the yapping.
[13:53] It's going to make them realize this is right. This is all right. This is truth and I need it. It's going to go a long way. So don't clam up when you come to church.
[14:06] Teach, train by doing it yourself. It's an example. It's your testimony. They should see you respond to altar calls when the response is necessary.
[14:20] Don't fake it. Don't go because someone else goes. But if the Lord pricks your heart and you know how that goes, I trust everybody in here knows what that means and knows how that happens in church when the Lord pricks your heart, you should be quick to respond and when you do, I'm telling you, you're training, you're teaching other people, you teach your kids, you can teach your spouse.
[14:44] You don't think about it that way, do you? But it's real. You show them, hey, I'm not too proud to walk that aisle and bend my knee and talk to the Lord. I'm not too proud to, I don't care who's watching me.
[14:56] I don't care who sees me. I care about what the Lord thinks. Right now, in this moment, I care what the Lord thinks about my heart more than anybody else in the room. You are training this church and surely you're training another generation of believers when you respond.
[15:14] I think that new believers and young Christians should see you fellowshipping in this place before service and after service. I think they should see that, that these people, they love each other.
[15:27] They come together and want to talk to each other. They want to spend time together. They don't want to leave. They don't want to part instead of being the first one out the door and out on the street before the final amen.
[15:40] What kind of message does that send? They're not that interested. There's other places they want to be. Look, I know how life goes. I know things come up. I know how schedules can be.
[15:51] I get that. But as a means of teaching, God using you to teach another generation, whether it's your own children or whether it's somebody that sits in a pew behind you or in front of you, you are training them of what you think.
[16:06] You're impressing them. And you're projecting things whether you care to think about this or not. You are. And God will use you, every one of you, to impress and to train and to help another believer.
[16:20] That's how they learn the value and the importance of a local church. By observing it, by being inside of its walls and seeing how it functions and operates.
[16:34] And so, you have a duty and you have a part. Now let's, let me draw a comparison here and see what you think of this. Let's imagine that you work at a department store like Target.
[16:49] And so, your job there at Target is to train new employees. So, that's, you've got new employees every week coming in and it's your job to train them in their first couple hours, couple days, whatever it will be.
[17:02] Shouldn't you be on time? I mean, shouldn't you be there before they are there? If you're looking for them to train them, would you feel like a bit of a hypocrite if you show up 15 minutes late and they say, hey, I thought we start at 9?
[17:16] Yeah, well, I'm here, aren't I? What do you want? Lucky I even made it. Look, I promise I'm never going to be crushing people for their Wednesday night attendance when traffic, you can't predict it, you can't control it, and sometimes it's just a rush to get here.
[17:36] I love it when somebody runs in here in their work clothes, I love it when I see the one brother pull in here in his work truck and his wife meets him in the parking lot, gives him a bite.
[17:48] That guy said, I'm not coming home, I'm going straight to church. That stuff's good stuff, that's a blessing to me, I understand that, but showing up late to service, like every time, what are you telling, wait a minute, showing up late to work, what are you telling the employees that you're training?
[18:07] You can show up late, it doesn't matter, it's not, it's not that important to be here on time, why, you know, they can be here when they want to be here, I'll come when I want to come. Is that what it would be if you worked at Target and were training?
[18:21] What if you're on your phone the whole time you're training them, just like, yeah, just put that over there, da, da, da, da, da, uh-huh, whatever, not even paying attention, just more absorbed in something else than what you're supposed to be doing, your job.
[18:34] What about if you're training employees at Target and you ignore all the other coworkers and you don't introduce the new person to them, you just walk right past them, don't even look at them, don't even say good morning, don't even say hi, you're training them to be the same way.
[18:52] What if you talk bad about them? Good morning, yeah, but you know what? And then you fill them in on the real side of the story. You're training them to be that way.
[19:04] Surely we wouldn't do that to a new believer that comes into the church services here and comes and tries to learn some things from God. We wouldn't teach them to show up late. We wouldn't teach them not to bring their Bible.
[19:15] We wouldn't teach them to talk about each other behind their backs and things like that, right? It wouldn't work at Target. It surely doesn't work in a local church. If you're going to teach somebody to take pride in their job, you would show them a good work ethic.
[19:33] You would show them how to do things right. You would show them that you love this job and you want them to love it as much as you do. And you would show them that you've been here for a while and that you're in this position because you're a good worker and you know the place like the back of your hand and you'll do anything for this place.
[19:49] That's the kind of person that trains others, that gets in that position. You act like you want to be there. And if you want to be here, Christian, then act like it and live like it and project it to everybody that comes in this door.
[20:10] Let everybody see that you love this place and you want to be here. If not, you're projecting something. You're showing it. every time you come in and you're teaching.
[20:25] And teaching is so important whether you signed on for it or not. God uses faithful, mature believers to instruct others. But I'll have to caution you on this.
[20:37] Find Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Just because somebody's saved for a long time or seemingly matured in the faith, it doesn't automatically mean that they can lead in the right way.
[20:57] Ideally, yes. And it should be. It very much should be. But if a believer gets messed up on something or something gets in their heart and takes them away from the Lord, then just because they're saved for whatever amount of years doesn't automatically put them as the prime candidate for training someone else.
[21:14] And I want to show you what I mean. Look at Hebrews 5. And this is a heavy chapter of doctrinal things of Melchizedek which you can't even continue with.
[21:28] He starts it, but he says, you know what, I can't even talk anymore about this. And there's a reason. Verse 11 says, Of whom we have many things to say and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.
[21:40] For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again, not the first time, but again, going back through the course, one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God and are become such as need of milk and not of strong meat.
[22:00] For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness for he is a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
[22:14] This is a rebuke. And it's kind of an unexpected rebuke to show up right there at the end of the chapter. But the expectation for spiritual maturity is evident. He's expecting them to be able to hear this and to be able to receive this heavy doctrine.
[22:30] But he says, Sorry, you can't. And the truth is, you should be able to and you should be a teacher of these things, but you're not in the word of God. You should be at this level already and you're not.
[22:44] You should be a teacher of the Bible truth. This book is something that you're supposed to be skillful in. And he rebukes them because sadly, you need somebody to keep teaching you the same things over and over.
[22:59] Come back to Romans chapter 2. It's something in a similar vein that shows not every elder or what would appear to be mature believer is the right one to be the teacher or instructor.
[23:21] And I don't mean for this to come across as a rebuke, just as a statement. It's in the scripture. It shows that we should be in this position, but it doesn't mean we always are. So Romans chapter 2, and he's dealing with some Jews here trying to address something that they have all the information and know all the truth, but they're not living it.
[23:44] Now watch this. Verse 17 says, Behold, thou art called a Jew and restest in the law and makest thy boast of God and knowest his will and approvest the things that are more excellent, being instructed out of the law and art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, which hast a form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
[24:11] So that's the individual here. They are confident in their knowledge of the word of God. And verse number 21, Thou therefore, which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself?
[24:27] Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that is of course idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?
[24:38] Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law, dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you as it is written.
[24:48] It goes on. The point here is knowing all the info, being confident in your experience, having all the answers, does not mean you're worth following. Because if you're not living it, and you're not teaching it the right way, it doesn't matter what you say.
[25:05] You know, we say your walk talks louder than your talk talks. The Bible says that in Proverbs 6, a naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth, he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers.
[25:23] It's not his mouth, it's his actions that are teaching, teaching, teaching. And so, having confidence in your knowledge doesn't necessarily mean that you're the guy or the teacher. In this case, you could be a woman that raised your kids.
[25:39] It doesn't mean you're going to train this other young woman to raise hers right if something got in there and it's wrong. Now, come to Colossians 3. We're almost finished. We're going to quit a little early today. Colossians 3.
[25:52] And I want to show one more category that the Bible is explicit on about teaching how you and I, believers, teach one another. And we've already kind of mentioned singing in church just as one of several categories, but look how this one gets a little more specific here.
[26:15] Colossians 3, verse 16. The Bible says, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
[26:38] If the word of Christ, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, if the word of Christ is dwelling in us, it will have an effect on our music.
[26:49] In a few ways, I'd say we won't desire to exalt the flesh. We won't desire to exalt any form of worldliness. We would put that down because the word of Christ dwells in us and it's teaching us some things and admonishing us and there's things we will not do in our song services and our music.
[27:11] Something else, if it dwells in us, we will be concerned with it being right and with our music being true, not being catchy or soothing or flashy.
[27:24] We're going to be more concerned with the truth ministering to our hearts rather than whether it sounds current or whether this is what they want or anybody wants.
[27:38] We're interested in what's right if the word of Christ is dwelling in us. But then here's the point here. The music and the song service in the local church or even just music in your life period, it's a time of teaching.
[27:54] Here in this congregation when we pull out a hymnal and the piano plays and we lift our voices, it's a time of praising and giving thanks and whatever the particular song we might sing, however it's guiding, sometimes it's just admonishing us and edifying us in truth that what a friend we have in Jesus and to take all of our cares to Him in prayer and that can admonish us by singing that truth, that Bible truth.
[28:24] But in any way, if it's right, then God's people are edified and God's people are strengthened by reinforcing Bible truths through song.
[28:37] I know a lot of people say this is all about conditioning your heart for the message. I don't know. I mean, yes, it can do that, but that's not like we have to sing right now or we're not ready for preaching.
[28:48] If I tell you what I think, I think praying gets your heart conditioned for preaching far quicker than singing. If we spent ten minutes on our knees before the preaching, I think we'd all be a little bit more tuned in spiritually than just getting up and singing two songs.
[29:04] That's my take. But nevertheless, singing has a place and it's a right thing and it's of the Lord. Children in church learn how to glorify God through their voices, with their voices.
[29:17] They learn how to worship God in spirit and truth when they're in a congregation that sings when the word of Christ is dwelling richly in us in all wisdom. We teach each other things that you probably wouldn't even consider.
[29:31] When you teach your kids to sing and to put Jesus Christ in that song, that gets embedded in their mind and it filters into their heart over time.
[29:43] I'm singing about Jesus. There's no one else like Jesus. Why would we trade a kid to just sing nursery rhymes? Those things just drop off after they get a certain age.
[29:57] They mean nothing. They teach nothing. They're just cute little things to rhyme and to distract or get in their mind.
[30:09] But when you start teaching them about Jesus, when we train each other, when we sing, when we bring in young believers and they get out a hymnal and they have no idea what this thing is. They never touched it before in their life.
[30:21] But all these people are alive with joy and they're singing these words to this tune. It's teaching. Man, it's teaching. And it's admonishing.
[30:33] And it's biblical. God's people get strengthened. They're not taught that we need to dance to have fun, that we need to have a beat, that it needs to be pumping and that things need to be shaken, that there needs to be some sensual attraction of lights and of attractive people up here.
[30:58] Because that's what's being taught out there. Go look at the top 20 or just find 100 artists that are popular today and look how many of them are ugly.
[31:11] Just check it out. They're not. The majority of them are beautiful or handsome. They're studs. They have great looks because that's what the world wants to see.
[31:24] That's what they want to put up in front of them. That's what they want to worship. That's what they want to be. You come into church, we're not going to fill this with a bunch of scantily dressed women or, I don't know, I have to watch what I say, guys that look something like they're or accepted amongst the world.
[31:47] I want to see that. You know that our worship, our worship that we try to keep in spirit and in truth is the complete opposite of what's called the contemporary Christian movement that it, so many Christians, I don't know why they can't see it, I guess they just don't want to see it.
[32:06] But there's very little spiritual content to it and it's very heavy on carnality,! on fleshliness or sounding worldly. I don't know why they don't see it.
[32:17] It's easy to see. Once you see it, you can't unsee it. And so in this area of music in the local church, the Bible says that it teaches. We teach in Psalms.
[32:29] We teach in hymns and spiritual songs. We admonish one another. One another. And so we're talking about teaching here and I'd say it goes far beyond the pulpit.
[32:41] It goes far beyond just opening the Word of God and expounding the Scriptures. It extends into the way we conduct ourselves on a daily basis. And when it comes down to this local assembly, it extends into the way we present ourselves, into the way we worship the Lord in the presence of one another.
[33:00] And the whole time we're training other believers. You are training other believers behind you, in front of you, beside you. Whether you think about that or not, it's happening.
[33:12] they're picking things up and it's molding what they think a local church is and the Christian life is. And they say that the pew never gets higher than the pulpit.
[33:25] And I'd say along that line that a new believer in the pew never is going to get higher than the pew that they're surrounded with. If they want to grow, there's a brother that was here last weekend.
[33:37] He was saved in a church and it was a Baptist church and he got saved, he got on fire for the Lord, he got in the Word of God, he started growing and before long, he's looking around like, this is all there is here?
[33:50] He wants more and it's not there. He wanted to get fed and they weren't feeding him, they weren't giving him the Bible and he was, you know, he gets saved and tithes and that's about it. Saved, baptized, tithe.
[34:02] And so he was, he's like, I need more and he wanted to grow. So the pew, the man in the pew couldn't get any higher than anybody around him and he ended up doing a Bible study, a Bible school and then starting his own church and they're about a year into it now over in San Luis Obispo.
[34:21] So, teaching is the topic here and the takeaway this morning is that you are the teacher and you don't think you are and you don't want to be maybe, but you are and let God use you so be faithful and be righteous in it and you don't have to try to impress others.
[34:38] You just have to be faithful to the Lord and let that example shine and let the others see that your light is shining. So let's dismiss with that. Father, thank you for this study this morning.
[34:49] May it bear fruit in our lives. May we take serious our role and our obedience and our faithfulness to you in this place and may you use us as lights to train others and to shine to others and may they grow by our examples.
[35:02] I pray you'll use us, each one in here, to be an example of righteousness in the lives of others. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.