TEACH NO OTHER DOCTRINE!

Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 3, 2024 under 2024 |

Bethany Bible Church Sermon Message from November 3, 2024 from 1 Timothy 1:1-11

Theme: The church is to teach no other doctrine than the gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).

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Sometime around the year 60 A.D., the apostle Paul spoke some words to a group of Ephesian pastors on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea.

His ministry in the city of Ephesus had been a very hard and eventful one. A couple of years before this time, his preaching of the gospel had caused a riot in the city and he nearly lost his life. But God had used him to establish several local churches in the area, and he had appointed pastors for those churches. He knew that those pastors wouldn’t see him again on this side of heaven. And so, he asked them to gather together in a coastal town called Miletus. He wanted very much to speak some important farewell words to them before departing by ship.

Many of the things he told them reflected his deep love for them and for the churches that they served. He reminded them of how committed he had been to teaching them all the things that God had wanted them to know, and how he was ready to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ in regions beyond—even though he believed it may cost him his life. And one of the things that he told them was what we find in Acts 20:28-31. It was a very sobering warning to those pastors. He said;

“Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God which He purchased with His own blood. For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28-31.)

Just think of the importance of those words. He affirmed to these pastors the great value of the believers who were under their care; telling them that those saints had been purchased by God at the immeasurable price of the blood of His own Son on the cross. The faith of those saints in Jesus was a very precious thing. And yet, that faith was in danger of being distorted and perverted by false teachers—all to the harm of God’s redeemed people. Those believers were God’s beloved flock, but they were in danger of being consumed by wolves. And so, Paul strongly urged these pastors to shepherd God’s flock and protect the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus by which they had been saved.

And now—this morning—we begin a brand new study of a letter that Paul wrote to a pastor who had been commissioned to serve those churches in Ephesus. This pastor’s name was Timothy. And this is how Paul began that letter, in 1 Timothy 1:1-11;

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,

To Timothy, a true son in the faith:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust (1 Timothy 1:1-11).

And dear brothers and sisters in Christ; I don’t think that there have been very many times in church history when the warning that Paul gave to those early Ephesians pastors—and that he specifically reinforced to Timothy—has been more needed than it is today.

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When I felt that the Lord began to lay it on my heart to take our church through a study of this letter, I initially had my doubts. After all, it’s a letter that was written to a pastor. It’s one of the three pastoral letters of the New Testament—1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus. And I wondered if it would have been better for me to just do an intensely personal study of this letter for my own growth. Why would all of you need to hear from a letter to a pastor?

But at least three things have changed my mind about that. First, at the end of the letter—in 1 Timothy 6:20—Paul wrote, “O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust …” That thing that had been entrusted to Timothy was the pure message of the gospel of God’s saving grace through faith in the cross of Jesus Christ—the message that a sinner is made 100% righteous in the sight of God by faith in Jesus alone. And that thing that had been committed to Timothy has also been committed—not only to me—but also to this whole church family. It’s a sacred trust from God—the message that saves souls and transforms lives. And we, as a Bible-believing church family,must be wholeheartedly committed to guarding it in our time!

A second thing that convinced me that we need to study this letter together is that it isn’t just about how a pastor should conduct himself in the light of that gospel. It’s also about how the whole church should conduct itself in the light of that sacred trust. In writing all these instructions to Timothy, Paul made that very clear. In 1 Timothy 3:14-16, Paul told him;

These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:

God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory (3:14-16).

Those words in verse 16 describe the content of the good news of the gospel. They constitute the message of ‘the truth’. And the church of Jesus Christ has been placed by God on this earth to be ‘the pillar and ground of the truth’ to a lost world—that is, the pillar that holds the truth of the gospel up high for the world to see, and the ground that puts it into action on street level. It’s a marvelous thing to be “the church of the living God” on earth. And this letter tells us how to conduct ourselves as the church—so that the message of the truth that God has entrusted to us can impact the world in the way that God desires.

And a third thing that convinces me that we must study this letter—a very serious reason indeed!—is because of the danger the church is under today of allowing that precious message of the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to become compromised, and distorted, and—in some cases—altogether abandoned. Paul told Timothy very clearly about that danger in this letter. In 4:1-3, he wrote to Timothy and said;

Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (4:1-3).

I don’t have any doubts, dear brothers and sisters, that we’re living in such a time today. Do you? Perhaps these truly are the ‘latter times’. And Paul told Timothy that, if he instructed his brothers and sisters in Christ about these things, he’d be “a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine” that he carefully followed. And we also need that instruction.

So; I hope you agree with me that this is a letter for us to pay attention to in the times in which we’re living today. And these opening words set the tone for us. In them, we’re reminded that the church is to teach no other doctrine than the gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This church family has got to be committed to that message—and committed to it today more than ever!

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So then; let’s walk our way through these beginning words step-by-step. In them, we find a command given to Timothy to make sure that no other doctrine is taught in the church than the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith in the cross of Jesus. And first, I ask you to notice …

1. THE AFFECTION BEHIND THE COMMAND.

You see; Paul didn’t give this command in a harsh and dictatorial way. He gave it in an affectionate and loving way—because the gospel is an affectionate and loving message. He introduced the letter by writing:

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,

To Timothy, a true son in the faith:

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord (vv. 1-2).

Notice three things. First, notice how Paul introduced himself—that is, as an apostle of Jesus. An ‘apostle’ was someone who was officially sent by the resurrected Lord Jesus to be His specially-appointed messenger. Timothy, of course, already knew that Paul was an apostle. But Paul stressed it to him in order to emphasize the authority with which he gave the command that he was about to give. But notice who gave Paul that authority; and who it was that ordered him to be an apostle. It was “God our Savior”. Jesus, of course, is called our Savior; but He came to save us because the Father sent Him. The Father is the one who initiated our salvation. And it was also “the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope” who made Paul an apostle. We look forward to being transformed into the glory of the Lord Jesus when He returns for us—the very glory that He died on the cross to secure for us. His coming is our “blessed hope”. And so, this command from Paul comes to us by the authority of the Father who is our Savior, and His Son who is our hope. It comes in the context of goodwill—the highest goodwill that there could ever be—the goodwill of the Triune God who saves us and gives us hope!

Second, notice to whom the letter was sent. It was sent “To Timothy, a true son in the faith”. Paul was not Timothy’s biological father. According to Acts 16:1, Timothy’s father was a Greek man. But Paul loved him like a son. In 2 Timothy 1:2, Paul called him “a beloved son”. And in 2 Timothy 3:10-11, Paul said that Timothy had “carefully followed” his “doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, affections …” In other words, Paul was Timothy’s beloved mentor and example. It may even be that Paul had led Timothy to faith in Jesus personally. And so, this command comes from a truly beloved spiritual father to a truly beloved spiritual son.

And third, notice the blessing with which this command comes. Paul wishes Timothy “Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord”. ’Grace’ is the unmerited favor of God to someone who is undeserving of it—and all by means of the sacrifice of Jesus for us. And that’s the only way any of us can be saved—by God’s grace. Grace must come first. Then comes ‘mercy’; which is when God does not give us what we truly do deserve—that is, His just judgment upon our sin. He has shown us mercy in that His Son Jesus took all our punishment upon Himself in our place. And then, our experience of it all is ‘peace’—that is, a relationship with God in which there is no longer any hostility or enmity between Himself and us. That’s really a picture of the gospel.

So; this command that Timothy received came with the highest affection and love—both from Paul and from God. And with that in mind, let’s then consider …

2. THE CONTENT OF THE COMMAND.

In verses 3-4, Paul wrote, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.” This very much reflects the urgent warning that Paul gave to that group of Ephesian pastors on the shores of Melitus.

Notice first that he said that Timothy needed to authoritatively charge some not to teach some other doctrine than the gospel of salvation by faith in Jesus. Apparently, some were doing so! As this passage goes on to show us, some were trying to teach the Ephesian Christians that they needed to be brought under the rules and regulations of the Judaistic laws and observances—as if by keeping the ceremonies and rituals and dietary commandments that God gave to the Jewish people, they could be made righteous in God’s sight. It may be that they were teaching the people that they were only ‘partially’ saved by faith in Jesus, but needed to complete that salvation by conforming to the law. And that’s utterly contrary to the gospel message. These false teachers were telling people, “Be good through obedience to the law; and then you can be righteous.” But the gospel teaches us, “You’ve already been declared righteous by grace through faith in Jesus; so now live like what you are.”

We must always protect that precious gospel message from those who make their way into a church in order to teach some ‘other doctrine’. As Paul wrote near the end of this letter;

If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself (1 Timothy 6:3-5).

Not only did those false teachers need to be charged not to teach contrary doctrines, but Timothy also needed to teach the saints not to give heed to ‘fables and endless genealogies.’ The people of God in that day were listening to those who were creating alternative ‘philosophies’ and imagining ‘visions’ and ‘prophecies’ for themselves; and they were thus getting themselves wrapped up in searching through their genealogies for spiritual blessings and spiritual curses from the past. In 2 Timothy 4:3-4, he wrote and told Timothy to faithfully preach the word;

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables (2 Timothy 4:3-4).

These things benefit no one. In fact, worse than that, they actually cause churches to split up, and create fights and pointless debates between believers, and make the people of God divide from one another. As Paul said, Timothy must put a stop to them because they “cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.” That’s why you and I—dear brothers and sisters—must make sure that we allow ‘no other doctrine’ to take root in our church family than the message of the gospel.

Now; someone might think that Paul was being harsh and intolerant. After all, wouldn’t it be a much more loving approach to welcome all ideas to the table? Well; notice next …

3. THE REASON FOR THE COMMAND.

Paul went on to say, in verses 5-7, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.” When the people of God are misled, and when they turn from the truth and get all enamored with phony doctrines and disputes—when people who do not believe the gospel are allowed to teach their own viewpoints in the household of faith, or to make powerful affirmations about spiritual things they don’t understand and aren’t qualified to make assertions about—it causes terrible harm to the church family and destroys its witness to the world. It would be a horribly unloving thing to simply stand by and let that happen. In another passage, Paul was dealing with how the Corinthian believers were flirting with false doctrines; and he wrote;

… I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:2-3).

I’ll never forget something I once heard from the theologian J.I. Packer. He said, “Good theology is important; because bad theology hurts people.” It’s utterly ‘unloving’ to one’s fellow human being to allow falsehood to spread—and especially to harm one’s brothers and sisters in Christ. Instead, Paul said that the purpose of the commandment is love. Genuine love!

Now; that ‘love’ isn’t a reckless, undiscerning, ‘anything goes’ kind of love. As someone once said, we mustn’t engage in ‘sloppy agape’. Paul is speaking of a specific kind of love—a love that must come from a heart that is made pure by the saving grace of the Lord Jesus, and from a conscience that is made good and right by the instruction of the word of God, and from a sincere faith that is without pretense. Whenever someone turns from the kind of love that’s qualified in those ways, they end up turning aside to useless and harmful debates. In the long run, it’s truly ‘loving’ to keep that from happening in the church. Insisting that no other doctrine but the gospel be taught is truly the most loving thing to do to a church … and to the world.

If we truly want the church to be ‘loving’, then we must make sure that we carefully observe Paul’s command to Timothy, and teach no other doctrine than the gospel of God’s grace through faith in Jesus. Good doctrine is the true foundation for genuine love.

Now; consider what Paul tells us about …

4. THE THEOLOGY SUPPORTING THE COMMAND.

Paul told Timothy something that he assumed Timothy knew. In verse 8, he wrote, “But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully …” And that’s important to stress. The law—which some of the false teachers were trying to bring people back under for salvation—is itself a good thing. It was given by God. It reveals His holy standards. It defines the righteous path our feet will take as we are led by the indwelling Holy Spirit and live in God’s favor through faith in His Son Jesus.

But the law itself is not the pathway to God’s favor! And if anyone teaches that the law is the pathway to God’s favor, then they’re misusing God’s law. Far from bringing us under God’s favor, the law reveals to us what sinners we are—and how much we need God’s saving grace, mercy, and peace. In verses 9-10, Paul went on to say, “knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine …”

Look that list over. It describes the conduct of those who live in defiant rebellion against the Ten Commandments. It describes the kinds of conduct that the law condemns. And this shows us the whole purpose of the law. It’s not to make us righteous by our works, but rather to identify us as sinners that need to be made righteous by faith in Jesus.

The Bible tells us about a group of Christians who had fallen under the influence of some false teachers and who were believing that they could be made righteous by God’s law. Paul wrote a whole letter to them—the letter to the Galatians. In in Galatians 3:19-25, he said;

What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:19-25).

The right use of the law, then, is that which shows us that we need a Savior. And once we’ve come to the Savior and placed our faith in what Jesus did on the cross for us—that is, once we believe the gospel and are made righteous by God’s grace—then the law has done its job. As Paul put it in Romans 10:4;

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (Romans 10:4).

Paul’s command to Timothy was to make sure that the church teaches no other doctrine than the gospel of grace through faith in Jesus—the very grace that the law reveals that we so desperately need. We must embrace that command too.

And that leads us to one more thing; and that’s …

5. THE STANDARD GIVEN FOR THE COMMAND.

In verse 11, Paul wrote, “… according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.” The best way to understand this is to see verses 6-10 as parentheses. If you look at verse 5 and then jump immediately to verse 11, you get a good sense of what Paul was saying: “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith … according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.”

That ‘glorious gospel’—the message that a man or woman is made 100% righteous in God’s sight by faith alone in the cross of Jesus—was not a message that Paul himself had created. It was given to him authoritatively—and it was his solemn duty before God to proclaim it. In Galatians 1:11-12, he wrote;

But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:11-12).

In fact, Paul went so far as to issue forth a serious warning to the Galatian church;

But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed (vv. 8-9).

That’s the standard by which obedience to this command is obeyed. We’re to preach and teach no other gospel than that gospel that was authoritatively given to the apostles—revealed by Jesus Christ—written down once for all time in the Scriptures—made clear to the world through the faithful preaching of the Bible. We’re to proclaim no other doctrine than that!

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Now, brothers and sisters; let me end with a personal word to you.

It’s been my privilege to be your pastor for over three decades now. I’m grateful to God that He has allowed me to serve this church all these years. I hope by God’s grace to serve it for many more. But I also know—and you know—that unless the Lord Jesus returns soon, the time will come when I’ll no longer be able to be your pastor. The job will have to be given to someone else.

And I ask you to make a commitment. I ask you to make sure you will never allow anyone to step into that role except he is a man of God who will faithfully do what the apostle Paul was telling Timothy to do. I urge you to be the kind of church that insists on that kind of a pastor—without compromise.

Before God, I plead with you and solemnly charge you as your pastor—make sure that, when I’m gone, this church always remains a church that teaches no other doctrine than the gospel of grace through faith in Jesus Christ! Then, you can be sure that God will bless it and use it in this world.

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