1st Timothy Series - Chosen, Called, and Charged

 

Chosen, Called, and Charged - Part 1

1 Tim. 1:3-7

There have been many heretical doctrines introduced into churches throughout the centuries. Paul heard about and saw the practices of the gnostic doctrines based on knowledge, myths, genealogies, and ascetic practices. So Paul urges Timothy to stay in Ephesus as a pastor and deal with the practices of false teachings. Let’s begin with the first portion of the text, “As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work—which is by faith.”

Paul knew that the enemy of God wouldn’t stop with the physical persecution of the church, he would attack the church from within as well to try and stop the advancing of the work of God. Jesus had warned the disciples to “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them…Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’. (Matt.7:15-16,21-23)

Paul had discipled Timothy like a son, he had taught Timothy the scriptures and the teachings of Jesus. He knew the call of God on Timothy’s life. (1 Tim.1:2; 2 Tim. 1:5-7, 3:14-15) Now Timothy was being placed as the pastor of the church in Ephesus by Paul to contend for the truth of God’s Word. Earlier during Paul's third missionary journey through Asia minor, Paul had sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus on his final time through Asia minor as he headed to Jerusalem then Rome. (Acts 20:27-31) In this meeting as well as other times, Paul had warned the elders of false teachers and false prophets, “I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” (Acts 20:29-31)

Paul gives Timothy the same admonition to warn those in the church to cease in their teachings of the errant doctrines of gnosticism (the teaching that the spirit is good and matter is evil). For they were leading astray the believers into believing the demonic doctrine that Jesus’ spirit only came on him after his baptism and left the body (matter) before the crucifiction (Cerinthianism). Or the teaching that salvation was to escape the body by the special knowledge of Gnosticism, which denied the Christ’s work of salvation in grace through faith (Eph.2:8-9)

There were others who speculated and conjectured from their understandings of Old Testament genealogies and assimilated myths into biblical teaching. All of these fallacious teaching were not building up the church but: dividing it with controversy and speculation on the teaching of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus Instead of unity in the Spirit, they were argumentative, which lead to conceit and pridefulness, and the ascetic practices of self-denial and harshly treating the body into purity for salvation. “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!? These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.” (Col.2:21-22)

Application - In 1,950 years since the writings of the New Testament, we are seeing the warnings of the Apostle Paul to the church even more prevalent in the churches today. Instead of the unity of the Holy Spirit through the truth of God’s word alone, we are seeing more spiritual schisms and demonic doctrines of sexual immorality and cultural inclusion that God’s Word never taught nor would ever allow in Christ’s body the church. Like the Old Testament times, we are seeing the principalities of the spiritual world reintroduced by different names but the same gods that proliferated Israel and that caused them to sin and deny the God who had created them is alive today. 

The scripture is crystal clear, our salvation is through the atoning work of the cross. Jesus died as the Lamb of God for the sins of all mankind. And this salvation is only through our Lord Jesus Christ, he said “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) 

Now Paul had seen the calling on young Timothy and he poured his time and life into him. God had chosen Timothy. “Being chosen means you have been given a godly burden and a special and tremendous responsibility”. In our church world today, we treat being chosen as winning a prize or a privileged spot on a church staff. But for those who know God and have been chosen by Him for the work of God, we know the awesome responsibility and burden we have for those God has given us to care for. Whether you are a pastor, teacher, parent, elder, or leader in the body of Christ, we are accountable to God for those we are given charge over. The twelve Apostles and Apostle Paul knew this, so did all those before us who as Hebrews call “a great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1). Let us be faithful to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in teaching and preaching only the Word of God, “For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” “And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:17, 2:4-5) We are saved by grace through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)

Last, Paul is reassuring the true purpose and goal of Jesus was to do the will of the Father, and in this is the command to love one another as Christ loved. (John 15)

Let’s look at the last portion of our text, “The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.”

Paul knew his time was coming to its finality. He knew the command to love, and taught it wonderfully to the Corinithians and to the other churches (1 Cor. 13). Paul reminded Timothy that God’s love is their goal, as Jesus stated the two verses that summed up the totality of the law and the prophets, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matt. 22:37-40)

Paul alludes to the origin of love in a believer, it “comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” This was what Paul wanted Timothy to teach and live. But the false teachers were spreading false teachings that led some of the believers to meaningless talk and false doctrines, and arguments that did harm to the body of Christ. The false teachers and prophets distorted, misappropriated, and manipulated the Old Testament teachings, much like Satan did when he tempted Jesus. In their false confidence in the misaligning of Old Testament scripture to the New Testament church, they were confirming to Paul that they didn’t know the law or the prophets, and thus they hadn’t been called or chosen by God.

 Paul had been schooled by one of the most knowledgeable teachers of the law (Gamaliel)(Acts 5:34) and he had the greatest teacher (Jesus)(Gal.1:11-12) teaching him through the Holy Spirit on theology (the teaching on God), and revealing himself (Christ) and the Holy Spirit. “I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.”

So Timothy was charged by Paul to teach and preach the Word of God, “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it,  and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,  so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work…Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. (2 Tim.3:14;18, 4:2)

Paul’s teaching seemed hard to understand even to the Apostle Peter yet he affirmed their divine authority, “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, spotless and blameless, and regard the patience of our Lord to be salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. (2 Peter 3:14-16)

Application - We are to be like our Lord Jesus in loving others, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) As we live in this world, we are to love as Christ loves, and as Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 13. Christ’s love is what distinguishes us from the world. 

The world has its fallacious version of love, built on the teachings and carnal feelings of man. And the false teachers, preachers, and others have been pandering it to the needs and hearts of the world. Real love is always connected to God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, For God is love. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:7-11)

Here is the rub, we need to be as wise and serpents but as harmless as doves, in other words we need to be able to discern the real from the false. In our actions, let us be wise yet innocent when it comes to loving as the world does and teaches. For we have the Holy Spirit living in us to guide and discern the truth from the false. We are not to be like those who quote the Bible yet do not live it. Jesus called this hypocrisy, and he wasn’t acceptable to this lifestyle. So let us live according to the Holy Spirit, “I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not “mine,” but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.” “Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” (Gal.2:20, 5:25 MSG.) Let the world see the love of Christ in us, not just in our words. This is our calling, what we were chosen to do, and we are charged by God as well.

I’m again including the ABC’s of salvation (JD Farag). Please, Jesus, God the Son, came to this world to save all who would believe and trust in him. He desires to reveal himself to you, He is the Light that overcomes the darkness of this lawless world. He hears your prayers, and all authority in heaven and earth have been given to him. He will answer you if you will truly believe. If you haven’t asked him to be your Lord and Savior, today could be that day.

 First, A - Admit that you are a sinner. This is where that godly sorrow leads to genuine repentance for sinning against a righteous God and there is a change of heart, we change our mind and God changes our hearts and regenerates us from the inside out. Romans 3:10 - As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one." Romans 3:23 - For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (We are all born sinners which is why we must be born spiritually in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven). Romans 6:23 - For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The bad news is that the wages of sin is death, in other words our sin means that we have been given a death sentence, we have the death penalty hanging over our heads, that's the bad news. But here's the good news: The good news is that the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 2:8-9 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith —and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. Second,

 B - Believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died for your sins, was buried, and that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is trusting with all of your heart that Jesus Christ is who he said he was. Romans 10:9-10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Third, 

C - Call upon the name of the Lord. Every single person who ever lived since Adam will bend their knee and confess with their mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, the Lord of lords and the King of kings. Romans 14:11 - For it is written: "As I live, says the Lord, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God." Don't wait until later — do this now. Romans 10:13 - For "whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." "O God, I am a sinner. I'm sorry for my sin. I want to turn from my sin. I believe Jesus Christ is Your Son; I believe that He died on the cross for my sin and that He was buried and You raised Him to life. I have decided to place my faith in Jesus Christ as my Savior, trusting only in His shed blood as sufficient to save my soul and to take me to heaven. Thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving me. Amen."

Please share this with someone this week, the Lord knows that we and they need it.

If you would like other lessons, please go to http://pmdinhisservice.blogspot.com 

Until next week, In His Service Mike Davis