Guarding Against False Teaching

Take your Bibles tonight to the book of 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy, we started last week on a series through the book of 1 Timothy. And like anybody, you know, dealing with people can get a little frustrating. And sometimes you need some encouragement. And we find here that Paul is encouraging Timothy to complete the task.

And to complete those things. And so if you look here tonight, let's look here in 1 Timothy chapter 1. We'll pick up in verse 4. It says, The law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

According to the glorious gospel, according to the gospel, which was committed to my trust. Let's pray.

things. They're not separate ends to chase, but there needs to be that balance, Lord, as you displayed the reality of what those truly mean. And Lord, help us to see that tonight, Lord, as we begin looking here in some things that crowd out doctrine.

Lord, things that can distract from the focus and what we ought to be focused upon. And Lord, we pray just have your hand upon the message, upon all the things everyone here tonight, Lord, that we might not just hear words, but Lord, we might contemplate and think and to really consider what your word says.

And Lord, not just for learning, but Lord, for application of our lives. And Lord, we just ask it all in your precious name. Amen. You know, as we saw here, Paul wrote to Timothy directly to encourage him to stay put.

You know, the Lord puts his places to stay put. You know, we have lived in a culture that people are pretty mobile. And it seems like every time, especially in America today, any time any little thing happens, people like to change churches, people like to do different things.

But you know what? One of the things that we ought to be based upon and be founded upon is sound doctrine. And you'll find that sound doctrine is what people ought to look for.

And problem is, as we're going to see here, is oftentimes people get deviated by things that are contrary to sound doctrine. Most people are, when they get upset or they're doing something, they're doing something contrary to doctrine.

Of what God has said, and it's an opinion or something that they've been influenced by. But we're going to look here tonight about what crowds out doctrine. Because you know what?

There's a lot of things that gets crowded out and people don't want to pay attention to what's being taught in the scripture. You know, we're going to look through that tonight. But Timothy is directed to stay and to finish.

You know, you think about the investment Paul had made at Ephesus. I mean, he had that second missionary journey. And he established, he spent three years there teaching.

And trying to get this work through. And the Jews and Gentiles alike were presented with the truth about Jesus Christ. Now, Timothy was there dealing with a continued struggle over doctrine.

You know, I want you to understand, the struggle with keeping doctrine right is not a new thing. From the very beginning, the devil understands one thing. If you get people off a little bit, you can take them off a long ways.

We understand that very simply in life. But the question we're going to look at here tonight with this of what crowds out sound doctrine, we're going to look and think about what were these men actually teaching?

And what was being produced in the church at Ephesus? That Paul wants Timothy to deal with. Because when we look here tonight, when we look back to the book of Ephesians, the letter Paul wrote to them, He talks about the struggle between the Jews and the Gentiles regarding salvation.

I mean, I want you to understand, that's a struggle that was there. Because you had Jews that said, oh no, we're God's chosen people. Which they are as a people, but not as the people of the redeemed.

In other words, there's a difference and distinction there that's important to recognize doctrinally. Because Paul tells them, in Christ, everybody's a new creature.

You're changed, you're transformed. And there's no difference. He talks about, in Ephesians, breaking down the middle wall, partition between. He talks about breaking down what separated Jews and Gentiles.

He said, in Christ, that's no longer the distinguisher. He doesn't negate what God is doing with the Jewish people. He says, hey, in Christ, everything's different. He said, things changed when Christ came, not just to do everything right in the law.

It says he came to fulfill the law. Christ is the picture and the fulfillment of the law. All the sacrifices, everything there were centered on Jesus. And when we understand that, it's important.

Because when we know here, the need was for unity in doctrine. But what was taught by Jesus was for everyone, Jews and Gentiles alike, to walk worthy, united by the one that saved them.

Not according to their own understanding of truth. Now you think about how Paul dealt with some of those things. Because Ephesians really deals with the application of law and grace.

You know, law is something that people misuse today. You know, people like to take the law of the Old Testament, which is good. Paul tells us the law is good if a man use it lawfully.

In other words, to use it appropriately. Now think about this practically. Think about our society. Sometimes laws get used wrongly. Even in our society.

People will take and twist and distort something to do something that was never intended to do. You know what? People do the same thing with God's law. They take it, they twist it, they distort it to try to make it what they want out of it.

So Paul's dealing with that. That relationship, that change to the law. The difference between the Judaizers and the libertarian thoughts. Because you had two ends of it.

The law is of no importance to me. Or the law is everything. And Paul says, hey guys, it's neither of those. The law has a purpose.

Because it helps us understand who we are. Do you realize without the law, you don't realize you're a sinner? And we're going to see Paul emphasizes that point here tonight.

And so what does doctrine drown out? Because notice here, look at verse 4. Notice what he says here. He tells them up here in verse 3. He ends that they teach no other doctrine.

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith so do.

The first thing is fables and endless genealogies. Now I know nobody ever chases things contrary, you know, trying to chase little nuances of scripture, you know, that people get caught up in.

You know? You know? Speculations with no end. You know what? There's a lot of wasted energy on speculation. You know, I remember when I was in Bible school, we used to call it snack shop theology.

You know, because you get out of class and somebody's got a great idea, man, and you go down there and you hash it out and you leave and you don't have any smarter than you were before you came in. You could argue about it all year and never get to an end of it.

But I want you to understand it means without end and no fruit. In other words, it doesn't produce something profitable. Now, I want you to understand what he's talking about here because Paul forbids giving heed to fables and endless genealogies that minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is a faith.

Now I want you to understand the two words we need to look at here is endless and questions. Think about that for endless questions is really what he's talking about because people get caught up in talking about things that really are not relevant to the situation.

We're going to look at that because some things are pretty relevant. Doctrine covers a lot of area, but sometimes people can chase things to a point that it's endless. They never come to a conclusion.

The one thing about doctrine, doctrine will bring you to a conclusion. When you study the scripture, it will bring you to a conclusion based upon the word of God.

It's not just endless, but notice the word heed that he gives there. The word here means to fix one's attention on, to devote oneself to, not just casually talking about.

I mean, sometimes, you know, there's fun to talk about different things in the Bible sometimes. Well, what do you think about this? It's kind of, you know, it's a little obscure sometimes or something. And it's like, but when we boil it down, does it really bring out something important or come to an end?

You know, there's different dynamics there, but to take heed means to fix one's attention. You know, one thing I've learned that sometimes people get fixed on things. You know, one of the things going around society today that people get fixated on is silly stuff like, is the earth flat?

David's shaking his head back there. I mean, and you can try to reason with them from scripture and, oh no, they got, it says this, so therefore, you know, that reinforces what I've already put into it.

And what they're doing is they want endless question. You know, there's certain things I've learned over the years. I won't argue with people on certain things. I mean, there's topics that people get into that chase, and I look at it this way.

If you really want to do something, go smack your head on the brick wall outside, because at least you'll have a mark when you're done. Because some people, you can argue till you pass out, and it will be unproductive. You will have nothing but wasted time.

You need to identify. That's what Paul's talking about here. And it's not just a dynamic, but notice he says, don't give heed to Jewish fables.

You know, refuse them. He talks about this in Titus. In Titus, in 1 Timothy chapter 4, he goes on, we'll talk about later when we get there, but give attendance to reading, to exhortation, and to doctrine.

So in other words, what he's telling him is you need to guard your focus. In other words, these questions and these endless dynamics will suck all the air out of a room. And people miss what's important.

You know, there's a lot of people spend a lot of time arguing over foolish stuff, and it's like, through the whole thing, nobody talks about the fact that there's people that are sinful people that need a Savior.

Or how is this going to encourage me when I walk through the challenges of life? You know, that is sound doctrine. It's for edifying, for building up, encouraging, and making, and being able to make focused decisions based upon the Word of God.

And so the charge was to Timothy to guard his focus. And he needs to guard this in others and also model it in himself. You know, redirecting the church at Ephesus from speculation to godly edifying, which is in faith.

You know, chapter 4 kind of starts summing all this up when we get there. We'll find this dynamic. But you know, the question needs to be answered here, I think is important. What's a fable? What's he talking about here?

Because a fable is basically a myth. It's an invented story dressed as truth. You know, now fables can teach truth.

But you know what? You don't build a whole dynamic of theology off a fable. You know? Now I remember years ago, we were down at the university talking to students, and they got on this book about the great spaghetti monster.

I don't know if anybody remembers some of that dynamic. And, you know, the spaghetti monster. What are you laughing about, David? I mean, people get some foolish stuff. But this idea of fables here, it's an origin in the prop.

You know, think such things as this. You know, the Jews had a whole teaching about the origin and propagation of angels. You know, and that's really what they argued about in Colossae in chapter 2 in verse 18.

They're arguing about angels. And Paul says, what are you arguing about something that doesn't matter to you? God tells us there are angels, and there's ministering angels that stayed with Christ, and there's condemned angels that turned away from Christ.

And there's a spiritual battle happening. But I want you to understand, he says, arguing about all the foolishness of those things is silly. We need to understand, we need to look at what God says and focus on the right things.

The same warning runs through all three of his letters to his preachers. The first and second Timothy cover it. Titus talks about this same thing. It talks about refuse, profane, and old wives' tales.

You know, wives' fables there later in chapter 4. And be turned unto fables. He warns them, not giving heed to Jewish fables. Now, Jewish fables puts a label on this that he's dealing with.

What we need to remember that doesn't get often talked about is historically we know, even in the time of Jesus, the Jews had created and written dynamics of stories and accounts and traditions about how things came about.

You know, I mean, they included everything. There were basically, a lot of it was mystical teachings. You know, they had a lot of mystics in the days of Jesus that were Jewish.

When we understand what he's talking about, he's talking about these people who take things outside of what the scripture says and incorporate occultic practices into it.

Now, you say, preacher, how do you know they had occultic practices? Look through all, we just got done going through the kings. What was Israel's constant struggle? Putting occultic, devilish practices and trying to blend it to synchronize it with Jewish law.

They tried to make it something that it was not. They would blend it and it would become something contrary to the things of God. Now, some of my news things I'm on and stuff get kind of interesting because a guy posted a quip this week about a preacher, quote unquote.

I'll leave it pretty loose because what I'm about to say will tell you that he's not much of a preacher. He was talking about they shouldn't have destroyed the idol of Ashtaroth in the temple because, you know, women needed a voice.

And I'm like going, the guy posted and he goes, you guys don't even want to believe what came out of this guy's mouth. It's like, and he's standing in a pulpit speaking lunacy.

I wouldn't even call it heresy. It's lunacy about God. But this is what Paul's talking about. It's this kind of craziness that comes about.

Now, these fables were later even woven into Christian teachings in the Middle Ages and the Enlightenment period. Because we're going to talk about that coming up of how much of this stuff, Jewish mysticism is still alive and well today it's been rebadged.

We have an entire group of people in Lincoln, we'll put it that way. I don't even want to call it a church, that worship saints. You know where they get that?

Jewish mysticism. What they did, oh, this must be good, you know. That was a Jew that wrote it, so we must need to incorporate this. This is what Paul's talking about here.

You know, let me give you a good example. How many have seen the tree of life symbol? It's got a bunch of different circles and all the little connectors. You know where that's from?

Jewish fables. Jewish mysticism. What did they do? They pulled it out of Jewish mysticism and put it into what was supposed to be Christian belief.

What did they do? They turned, they were synchronistic. Well, if somebody worshipped it and they were connected with God, then we must make it okay. That's what Paul's talking about here, people arguing over and getting distracted by instead of focusing upon truth.

Because I want you to see, he talks about endless genealogies. Speculation sprung out of the lineage records, you know. Think about it. Turn to Titus chapter 3 for a moment.

Titus chapter 3. Notice what verse 9 tells you. He tells Titus, he says, But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain.

You know, that tells us something. You know, most people that want to argue, I find just when it comes to this type of dynamic, they just want to prove their point to get their score.

It's really not about finding or seeking truth. It's about, look how much smarter I am, how much more enlightened I am than somebody else. But I want you to understand, nobody is more enlightened than the Word of God.

That is our foundation, you know. And we're going to see here what Paul talks about, because he talks about godly edifying which is in faith.

Notice back in our text there, he says, Rather than edifying which is in faith, so do. He says we ought to be built up in the faith. Faith, speculation ministers questions.

It only breeds more talk. In other words, we need to weigh teaching by what it builds, not how clever it sounds. You know, there's a lot of people get caught up in clever sounding theology today.

You know why they get caught up in it? Because they're not grounded in the Word of God. They don't know what God said about the topic. So they're confused. They're easily drawn away.

And Timothy was here. Now notice here, let's look down here at verse 5. He says, Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith unfamed.

You know what? He's given us a charge here, an aim, a direction, and some tests to attach to people trying to teach doctrine. He says you ought to test the motive, you ought to test the conscience, and you ought to test the sincerity, the truthfulness of it.

And we need to understand because notice what he says here. It's charity, love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and a faith unfamed.

You know, that's the end of it. In other words, that's the conclusion, means the goal. The target, the charge that it aims at, the charge of verse 3 isn't against love, it's for it.

And he talks about here, he talks about a pure heart. You know? Having your heart right with God. You know, oftentimes people who are proud about, well, look how much I know or what I have.

You know, I remember years ago being in a discussion with a Catholic priest and he sent over all his degrees. I mean, it was about, in the email, it was probably about six, seven lines.

And he wanted to argue about salvation because somebody over here in one of the neighborhoods got track. You know what? I skipped all the different stuff that he wanted to point to and I said, let's get back to the scripture if we want to talk about it.

Because, you know, the reality is this. The curls in the pigtail don't make the pork any tastier. You can have a lot of degrees and it doesn't mean you're any smarter. I've met a lot of highly educated people that couldn't get themselves out of a wet paper bag.

And I've met some old farmers that probably were more knowledgeable than the guy that had all the degrees. It had nothing to do with them. It had to do with how they thought and how they processed the information they had around them.

And that's what Paul is talking to Timothy about here. A pure heart, though, that's an inward cleansing. You know, I want you to understand that you can't teach and display what God wants if your heart's not right first.

Your heart needs to be right with God before everything else. It's essential. A good conscience. Nothing hidden or excused.

You know, have you ever thought about what's included in the conscience and how the Bible talks about it? The conscience has a lot. God put a conscience in you.

Nobody is void of a conscience. You know why? Because our conscience tells us right and wrong. Have you ever noticed that a totally lost person can say, I know that's not wrong.

I know it's not right for you to do that. Now, I want you to understand that a conscience can be twisted by what's put into it. But we have an innate dynamic of right and wrong.

You know, you think about what the Bible tells us, you know. Paul talks about having a pure conscience, having a purged conscience, having a seared conscience, having an evil conscience.

You know, I want you to understand, but the view here, he says you ought to have a good conscience. That means proper thinking and proper processing.

In other words, when you know what God says that it's wrong, it ought to affect you when you do it. As a believer, you ought to have a conviction. Your conscience ought to convict you when you do something you ought not to do.

Now, I want you to understand, the problem isn't that you feel convicted. It's what you do with that conviction that makes a difference. Because you know what? You can be convicted of something and choose to continue to walk through it.

You know what happens? Your conscience can get seared and twisted. You know, you hear all about, in the news all the time, people, and you say, how could somebody do that? You know, you have a murder trial going on where a mom purposely killed her children.

You know, most moms I talk to, they're like, how could a mom do that? You know what? In order to get to that point, you've already passed a lot of conscience saying, this is wrong.

It's seared, it's cold, because of what's been put in and what's been allowed. I want you to understand, this is what Paul's talking about.

Then he talks about a faith unfeigned. In other words, you know, unfeigned here is not just about being sincere, but it's not pretend. You know what the problem is? Oftentimes we pretend to follow God.

We know the right answers. We know what's expected. We can do all the right things at the right times. But a faith unfeigned is one that isn't pretend it's real.

A faith that's had some testing. You know, faith is easy when life's going good. Faith is shown when things aren't good. When challenges hit, when things disturb your life, that's the moment you have to make a decision.

What direction am I going? That's what Paul's talking about to Timothy. And I want you to understand, he's telling him a test here. That teaching aim, a love from a clean heart.

Or is it from something else? As the aim can be lost, doctrine turns to just jangling, vain jangling, empty discussions. You know, doctrine isn't there just for us to know us.

They're for us to apply. And to become productive in our life. But notice what he says about this in verse 6. Notice what he tells here.

From which some have swerved, having turned aside unto vain jangling. Now, what he's talking about here is a gradual change of direction or intentional change.

You know, when you swerve, it's intentional. You know, we were traveling the other day and there was a piece of tire in the middle of the highway. You know what you do? You swerve around it. Why do you swerve?

Is it by accident? Or is it intentional? Swerving is an intentional action. And this is important because why did they swerve?

Because swerving can sometimes be very small. Yet each turn has intention. No one sets out. I don't think anybody that gets saved and begins looking at the scripture says, I want to one day be a false teacher.

But you know what? If you have the wrong inputs, you get the wrong outputs. Paul is dealing with this. And when we understand that small deviations, because it involves direction, swerved, it's more than missing a mark.

It's a deviation or distraction from the truth. You know? A deliberate change of direction to get around something in the way. You know what?

I find a lot of times people change their doctrine. They swerve their doctrine because they come across something that makes them feel uncomfortable. Well, that's not politically correct if I say that. What do they do?

Oh, let's modify just a little bit. Let's soften that up just a little bit. What are they doing? They're swerving to avoid dealing with the issue.

And oftentimes when they don't want to deal with the issue, you know what the problem is? They know what the issue is and their conscience has already talked to them and they don't like what their conscience is telling them. So if they look a different direction, maybe their conscience will change.

It'll quit being affected so bad. You know, what these men steer around is the aim of verse 5. Love out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith.

You know, rather than submit to the goal, they veer off to avoid it. Because an unfeigned faith is part of what they abandon. Paul tells them that that same swerving is erring concerning the faith.

1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 21, that's how he concludes the book. It says they err concerning the faith.

That's the reason we need to keep focused. And because there's a direction and then there's a drift. The avoiding is gradual. Each swerve is one deliberate course change to get around a hard truth.

Yet the small angle begins to widen with distance. No one means to leave the road, but steering around the aim of verse 5, one obstacle at a time, they depart from the truth in degrees and accumulates with them getting on a totally different road.

You say, how can a preacher that preached the truth suddenly get way over here? You know what? They swerved little by little by little until they don't even realize where they've gone.

But notice the destination. Vain jangling. Empty talk. Words without profit. The end of speculation is not deeper truth, but just noise.

Vain babbling is what he says in chapter 6 of 1 Timothy. He talks about vain talkers in Titus chapter 1. Emptiness.

You know, they swerve at Ephesus. A quick dynamic. I mean, they think about myths and genealogy. Speculation over edification. You know?

We're going to look here in just a minute. The law is misused. Would-be teachers of the law. Other forms surface later. He talks about science falsely so-called.

He talks about issues with the resurrection. In 2 Timothy chapter 2. You know? And notice, look at verse 7 as we walk through here.

He says, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Desiring to be teachers of the law, but they don't know what they affirm.

Let me put it to you this way. This is confidence without comprehension. Confidence without comprehension. You know, we notice that quite a bit when you talk to people. When you talk to somebody, when you start talking about technical things, it's really quick to find out whether they have comprehension of the subject or not.

Because some people have absolutely, they talk good, but they have no idea what they're really talking about. But if somebody knows the topic, they understand how it goes together.

But they desire to be teachers, but they have no comprehension. That would be like somebody saying, I want to go to school to teach people how to do such and such.

And then when you get to school, say, teacher, I need to be up there teaching. What would everybody in the class look at them? I don't want to listen to you. But you know what? Sometimes smooth talkers will draw the class away from what's supposed to be taught.

That's what Paul's talking about here. They desire to be teachers, but their appetite for those things outrun the grasp of the truth. Confidence without comprehension.

They affirm strongly what they do not understand. Look over to 2 Timothy chapter 3 for a moment. Look down in verse 7. It says, ever learning and never able to come to the what?

Knowledge of the truth. You know? I think we definitely live in a world where we have a lot of people with a lot of knowledge, but they don't have any understanding of that knowledge.

You know, they missed it. They've never come to an understanding of the truth, a knowledge of the truth. What is that we can rest upon? You know, this swerving that Paul talks about is not just ancient history.

We're going to look a little later in chapter 4. We're going to talk about how occultic practices keep reentering church. And are impacting our society today.

Let's just use another common thing. Dolly Parton died. She was such a good godly woman. When somebody says that, it tells me they are void of understanding.

She was a woman who did a lot of good things. But by her own admission, she hopes she gets reincarnated. She goes, oh, you can't say she wasn't a Christian. I want you to understand by her own admission, she doesn't believe the gospel.

The simple truth is this. I don't care how you want to sugarcoat it. If you don't believe the gospel, if you've never trusted Christ as Savior, you're still on your way to hell. I don't celebrate that that's probably where she is.

It ought to make us sad. But when you start finding out all the things, the mysticism associated. You know, you had another celebrity started burning a candle with St. Dolly on it.

And posted it on their social media feed. What burning candles for the dead is, that's occultic mysticism. This is how much this stuff comes in. The modern forms. I mean, you think about the word faith movement.

You know, contemplative emptying of yourself. You know what that, that's old Jewish fable stuff. Where people will sit and repeat one word.

Just say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus all over again. It's like, Jesus never tells you to pray like that. You know what that is? That's vain janglings. That's emptiness that Paul's talking about.

It sounds religious, but it goes no place. Better move on or I'll get distracted. We'll cover that a little later in chapter four. I'm getting ahead of myself. Don't think I'm avoiding it.

It's coming. We'll talk about it in some more detail. But I want you to understand the point here is important because the doctrine that doesn't produce love has been handled wrongfully.

But love is never the reason to abandon doctrine. You'll hear a lot about, oh, don't you love people? Yeah, I love them enough to tell them the truth. Now, that'd be like saying, don't tell your kids not to touch the hot stove.

You look at them and say, you are nuts. Why would people generally say you're nuts? Because it's dangerous. It's going to hurt them. You know what telling the truth is? It's helping people avoid what's going to hurt them.

Telling the people about the gospel of Jesus Christ is helping them solve a problem that they need solved. Look at verse eight here. Because Paul now ties it into the law.

He says, if we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully, the lawful use of the law, in other words, the appropriate use. The problem at Ephesus was not the law itself, but its misuse.

Think about this. Paul is defending the law. But he says the law has its purpose. The law is never intended to save anybody.

You can find Romans 7 verse 12 for me quick. Romans 7 verse 12. Read that for me. Think about that. He tells him in the book of Romans, talking directly with this of the law and the interaction, he talks about the law is holy and the commandment holy.

It's just and good. If it's used properly, lawfully means according to its purpose. A good thing used wrongly does harm.

The question is never, you know, is the law still good for us today? Have you ever noticed people frame the question? The real question, am I using it for what God designed it to do?

Is it being used appropriately? That's what Paul's telling them. He says, is it being used properly for that? Because the law's work is to expose and restrain sin, not to justify or make you righteous.

Paul tells us in Romans 3, he says, by the law is what? The knowledge of sin. The rightful use of the law is to realize that we've fallen short of the glory of God.

That we need a Savior. That's the use of the law. Law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless. Look at verse 9. Knowing this, that the law is not made for the righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.

Disobedient. Now, it's interesting here as Paul walks through this, is he's basically working through in a different manner the Ten Commandments.

Talking about God's honor, ungodliness, sinners, unholy, profane. Talking about parents, murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers. That's the Fifth Commandment.

Man-slayers, that's the Sixth Commandment. Talking about purity, you know, whoremongers, them that defile themselves with mankind. You know, that includes the Seventh Commandment.

Men-stealers, that's the Eighth Commandment. We find about liars, perjured persons, that's the Ninth Commandment. It's not a random abuse of sinners.

It's a deliberate walk through the commandments, showing exactly who the law is made for and what it's for. Because the law identifies where we have fallen short.

Why we are sinners and why God's judgment is just. We understand the list here is not exhausted, but notice what he says in verse 10.

He goes through the whole list here. He says this, and he says, And there be any other thing that is what? Contrary to what? Sound doctrine. In other words, Paul says, Hey guys, don't take this as the exhaustive list.

Because you know, we have a tent. Well, the preacher didn't mention that one. My Sunday school teacher didn't mention that, so that must be okay. People ever do that? I think a lot of places they do, in the way we act.

I mean, I'd be just as guilty as anybody else. It wasn't stated expressly, so therefore we're not careful. That's the way we begin thinking instead of looking at it, is how does it apply as a whole?

How does it apply to our lives? Because notice what Paul tells them here. He says, According to the glory of gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

You know, he tells them here, the gospel is a deposit entrusted, not a message that he just invented. You can just pull this out of the hat.

Oh, this sounds good, and this sounds good. We'll just do this. We don't have Paul's gospel. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ.

All the same gospel. There's only one way. When Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father but by me. That includes Jews and Gentiles alike. If you don't understand that, if you're not a Jew, you fall into the Gentiles.

Some things need clarifying. Okay, it was said. Pretty simple measurement. When we understand that the measure of sound doctrine is the gospel itself, the law rightly used, drives a man to the truth of needing a Savior.

And he says it was committed to his trust, a deposit, not a message invented. The same charge later closes the letter in chapter 6, Just keep that which is committed to thy trust.

And everybody says, I've been given it, and I've given it, and shared it with you. That's the purpose. One of the purposes of God's people gathering. Hold to account the things and the pure doctrine of what God has said.

People say, I can worship God, and I can do all the things. I can be a good Christian without being in church. You know what? They haven't read the book. What they've done, they've swerved around a few things.

They've changed direction. Apostle here, Apostle Paul guards a trust, and that trust, the gospel is the standard. Everything else needs to serve.

It's all centered and focused around the gospel. You know, the law diagnosis, the gospel gives the cure.

The rightful use of the law is to perform a diagnosis. In the last, since the first year, I've seen more doctors than I care to see. They make a diagnosis.

But the one problem they all have, none of them have a cure. They got processes and procedures. They have all sorts of things. But you know what? They can slow things down, but they can't cure.

A lot of people try to solve their sin problem the same way doctors try to cure cancer. Well, this will make you feel better, so go home and do this. Or you do this, and this will make you feel better.

And you come back to therapy and pay me some more money, and we'll give you some more drugs. Or we'll do this. You know what I'm saying? It's a vicious circle. What cures the ailment of a soul of an individual is the gospel.

It makes them a new creature in Christ. There. Preacher's out of time. Be back next week as we talk about Timothy and the sound doctrine and what Paul has been entrusted with.

Heavenly Father,