First Timothy lesson 2 end
1 Timothy · Courtney Hemenway · Mar 24, 2024
1 Timothy, No. 06
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261934375491

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

All right, we are on lesson two of the first Timothy study. We got through, I think, six questions. Well, let me, I always like to grab the right mouse here. I want to get back and read this section. 1 Timothy 1, and we're going through verses 3 and 4, but I like to go through the first 4. We'll just go through that, and we're studying on this verses 3 and 4, but just for context, I'll read starting in verse 1.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. As I urge you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus, so you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrine, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation, rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. So again, as we saw just the beginning about how Paul just is giving Timothy, his true child in faith, these instructions. And again, the first few questions were about, one, why are you staying on there? He may have wanted to go with Paul. and be with him, but Paul urges them to stay there and continue to address the issues that were at the church at Ephesus at the time.

And we got to where these certain men were not to teach strange doctrines. So we went through that, that it wasn't like we're going to talk about it, we're going to discuss it, we're going to, you know, think about it. It says, don't let these men teach other doctrines other than what Paul had instructed them to do. And we had not even to pay attention to it, that was the last one, in that you weren't even supposed to pay attention, which means don't even give a direction, like a rudder on a ship or anything that directs you. Don't even direct your thought or your attention to these people. Don't even give them any time of the day to have them teach you about things that are different than what Paul had instructed them. So now we get into kind of Besides the certain doctrines, he says about nor pay attention to myths and endless genealogies.

So what are these myths or fables? What were they teaching? Is this Aesop's fables? What were they teaching? Or what are myths? We can go through that. What are myths or fables? Come on, chickens. Well, not God's Word, so anything that is not in alignment with what Paul was teaching. Yeah. It basically is, again, the same thing as what they were teaching certain doctrines that were not directly what Paul had taught them. So now he's even saying these myths or fables, it's not only just a different doctrine, it's these myths, these things which, of course, if I have to figure out what is a myth, what the word means, where do you go?

Miriam Webster to begin with, but then I will get to Zodiatis and the Greek on it. Miriam Webster for myth, a popular belief or tradition that has grown up around something or someone, or an unfounded or false notion. So again, kind of what he's warning about, an unfounded or false notion, a popular belief or tradition that's grown up around someone. So these are just things that they kind of think about, and it's not directly related to what Paul taught. It's what somebody else said, and then that became somebody, and this and that. And so it's an unfounded or false notion.

The one for fable, because I looked at both myths and fables. Fable, a fictitious narrative or statement such as a legendary story of supernatural happenings, a narration intended to enforce a useful truth, or falsehood lie. So, again, I think that's more relevant to what Paul's telling him, is don't let them get off on these lies, these stories, these things that are not grounded in what Paul taught them. And he's saying, again, back to the question six, don't even pay attention, don't even turn your eyes to them, don't even give them the time of day.

I was struck by how many of our holidays, our religious holidays, did they spend. Yeah. Well, not a myth, but what do you think of now with Easter if you're a bunny and ate the eggs, you know? And so, for us as believers, and what This weekend this coming weekend means versus most people Easter Bunny and chocolates, you know So it's deviated. This is where it's deviated somewhere I don't I don't even know where that started where you know when there was some I Read something recently actually on it. It was like some king in the medieval period, like with bunnies, and it was some weird thing.

It was like a single guy, something that was all about it, and it just caught up, it stuck, I guess. See, and that's, I remember, is your mic on? It should be, yeah. Okay, all right. You know, this is the other thing, what we started. Remember when we started in the beginning of this, about even starting a small doctrine. Think of that.

If that was one guy who started it, hundreds of years, a thousand years later, that is still going on and mutated into this huge thing. The warning, remember, at the beginning, don't even give them the time of day. Don't start this because if it starts, it's apt to expand and grow and take a huge amount off. Like we said, the Catholic Church and popes and different things, it started now. Millions upon millions of people are because of that deviation that started somewhere. And so that's why in his instructions here, it said, don't even pay attention, don't start it, because look what can happen.

And I think it's also the rest of it. easter eggs and all this stuff because it was whatever I saw it was in contradiction to when people say it's like oh all this look at all this pagan stuff and christian you know holidays and it the the whole graphic was about how it's not actually pagan it's some christians said like whether they're practicing or not just bring in all these weird traditions and it just goes on but it's Yeah, but again, all of them are like that.

It's like, once you start, it starts off the rail. Yeah. And then it goes as far as it, you know, it goes. Yeah. So, um, yeah, probably the most famous one is a Christmas tree. A Christmas tree. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Was that, but that was that wasn't that a, uh, a Christian guy who just like decorated, I don't know, what was it? I don't know the story, but I think it was part of Middle Ages Germanic tribes. Yeah, it was. They worshipped a tree or something.

Oh, is that? See, I thought it was just something, it was a decoration that they had or something, but then it got... what turned out to be Santa Claus, a guy named Saint Nick. Yeah. Okay. So Saint Nick turned into a guy and read out that big beard and flies around with a flying reindeer. Yeah. Myth or fable? You know, untrue, unfounded, you know, what was that? A popular belief or tradition that's grown up around something or someone. Yeah. You know. So again, the myths or fables. So that's Merriam-Webster.

So Zodiatis says it is, in the words of Muthos, it means commonly rendered as a tale or fable. This is the word that's in the First Timothy passage about myths, the Greek word for it. Commonly rendered as a tale or a fable, that which is fabricated by the mind in contrast to reality. I thought that was pretty interesting. It was fabricated by the mind in contrast to reality.

It is a word from which mythology is derived. In the New Testament, however, the word myth does not have the meaning of being a vehicle of some lofty truth as in the earlier use of the word, mostly used in the New Testament denoting a fable full of falsehoods and pretenses. So again, he also goes on actually, "...the result of sophistry, cunning fables for the purpose of deceiving others.

In 1st Timothy 1.4 and 2nd Timothy 4.4, the use of the word is equally contemptuous. Although logos and muthos begin together with the thought intelligence or mind, they part ranks since the first ends in the kingdom of light and truth, the second in the kingdom of darkness and lies." When Don and I first met each other, we were young Christians. I think we were in it maybe one time or two times where we went to a movie with a bunch of Christian single people. We went to see Oh God.

With George Burns? George Burns. Highly spiritual, yes. And John Denver. So we'd go back to somebody's house afterwards. The whole conversation was trying to put a spiritual tag. I said, so you're telling me that God the Father is a little Jewish guy that tells jokes? Drinks and smokes a cigar, yeah. Let's see, it's first Californians, what? Yikes.

Yeah. But again, it's the anything that's not of the word. For us, what's in scripture, anything that's outside of scripture is something that is that one which is fabricated by the mind in contrast to reality or in contrast to scripture. That's really the fabrication. And we see that. I also see it, too, in that maybe it's not 100% on the fabrication or that, but think how many denominations we have now and what's gone off.

A charismatic one, Catholicism, Reformed. There are still believers in there, I'm sure, but they've been sidetracked by something that is not what Paul taught. And so they've gone off, and it's millions and millions of people. Again, several believers in there, but they're just not able to grow because of the limitations that they have on the deviation or myth that they followed that wasn't what Paul taught.

And it just expands and grows. And that's why, again, remember the beginning of this, I urge you, don't even pay attention to it. Don't let it get started. It's because we see we're the end of a lot of these things. We're 100 years, 1,000 years, and people have been pulled off. Millions of people have been pulled off by it. So again, there was a very wise counsel for Paul to be able to say that. Let's see here. I'll get back here.

It's explained as meaning traditional supplements to the law, allegorical interpretations, Jewish stories and miracles, rabbinical fabrications, whether in history or doctrine. false doctrines generally, etc. It is to be observed that Mutho fables are called Jewish in Titus 1.14 and in 1st Timothy 4.7 they are described as profane and characteristic of old wives. So old wives tales. And so I said the additional question, with these definitions for myths or fables, does it make sense for the strong recommendation by Paul not to pay attention to these certain men who teach these things? Does it apply today?

Absolutely. Absolutely. That if we let these things fester, I think it's kind of in the chosen thing, where some of the things in the new popular chosen. Really close, really close, but then there are these deviations within there. Just enough, but it's a little deviation here. Well, if you get started on that deviation, where does it lead? And it sounds real good, it looks real good. Popular, we have several people who've looked at it, and it's great. But there are little things in there that are not according to scripture. What does that start? And that's the warning that I think Paul is saying, don't let those things get started. Don't let it begin to, oh, that was really cool. And now we're over here and not what Paul taught.

So, yeah. I was thinking too, like when I became a believer was at a Presbyterian and the whole thought was that when you die, you go to heaven, you know, as a place rather than a person. It took so many years. I guess I take that two ways. Heaven is a place, but the key is we're in Christ. There is a heaven. That's where we all reside, but our life is in Christ and will be. So, I mean, I don't take as much offense to that as that there is a heaven. And I think that's what we look forward to. But what we look forward to is being in a place where Christ is. and we get to see him face-to-face.

How about the whole idea of St. Peter standing at the gate doing a value check before you get in or not? You know, there's so many cartoons and different things that were, you know, about St. Peter. He's there checking, you know, and how you sneak by him or how you got by him or whatever.

And it's like, there's no St. Peter waiting, you know? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's another fable. But people will kind of take that and go, yeah, you know. And especially, I think, in Catholicism, maybe more than anything, where there would be St. Peter is waiting for you at the gate to greet you. What gate? And where is it? And why is he waiting at the gate?

The other thing I think there's lots of misunderstanding about is that there's two things. One, out-of-body experiences. And two, it's not so prevalent anymore because I think it's been debunked, but if you are around charismatic people, the stories that you'll hear about healings and limbs growing back and all kinds of stuff, and usually it takes place in Africa or someplace where you can't check. and or experience emotional based phenomenon that are deemed to be real. Yeah, I think God still heals people. I think he does. But the thought of being slain in the spirit and all these things, those are, again, things that were, where do you see that?

The other is with charismatic, which we have some friends who are, not seriously, but I don't know how to say that. But it is, if you're talking in a heavenly language, You know, if that's the case, if that is, you have to have interpreters. In Corinthians, it clearly says if you're speaking in tongues, you have to have an interpreter. And we've been in a couple where there have been people speaking in tongues and it's like, okay, who's going to interpret that?

There isn't a soul that's interpreting that because it's gibberish. And so, again, these are the things that the deviation starts, because in Corinthians, he'd rather do that than speak a thousand, do in love, what is it? I'd rather do that than speak a thousand words in tongues. And besides, that's misinterpreted anyway. It's a known language. So they were talking in Greek or Hebrew or Aramaic or something, and other people interpreted that. It wasn't a heavenly language, which was gibberish.

So again, they're wrong to begin with. But then, even if they do, they have to have an interpreter there, which they never do. But again, that's another one of those deviations that comes off today in the charismatic movement that is totally, you know, not biblical, and yet there's whole groups that follow that. Don't pay attention to it.

And how easy is it for, especially deviation there, is if you ask for an interpreter, any old person could be like, I got it. Cool. Great. Yeah. Oh, I interpreted it differently. I said the Boncos were going to win. Right. That's very, I mean, you're opening the door for all kinds of, but whatever they do, they do. I mean, and, and, you know, even they should have one without Who is it? Who's interpreting? And again, it's a known language and all this. It's totally been deviated from. And again, it's one of those things where we have to avoid that. Don't get it started. All right, so what are endless genealogies? Nor pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God by faith. So what are genealogies?

I think it's a website, right? Yeah, he was he was warning about don't go on that website. That's right. Yeah, that's okay Some guy was chiseling these things out on a stone stone tablet. Yeah So what are genealogies What would it be? Well, it's where you came from it's your lineage and You can get and I think that one of the things that you said Courtney is pretty spot-on Don't get started There's a lot of things that fall in that category of don't get started. Genealogies are one of them. find ourselves in conversations with unbelievers that have, or even believers that are caught up in where they came from and who they think they are.

But that's not the point of Paul's teaching. You've got a new history. Your genealogy is not your identity. Although it feels like it should be. In all practical purposes, I'm son of Cully. That's who I am, and there's a history there, but that doesn't define me any longer as a believer.

I think, yeah, that's the important part, which we'll get to. Do you have something to read? The biggest thing, I think, is because the Jews, if you think about the Jews at this time, what was their whole basis of their lives? The people. Abraham on. Which tribe are you from? You know, were you on the messianic line? Where were you?

They were very, very, very concerned about their lineage, their genealogy. So, you know, to buy those genealogy registers probably used to foster the religious and national pride of the Jews, basically against the Gentiles. That we came from Abraham and here's, you know, we are of God's people. And so their genealogy was very important to them.

So. And how important is that today? Well, and again, you know, I get into a lot more of this. I touched a little bit on it. The word endless is apparent in Paris, meaning a limit or terminus. The alpha prefix making the word mean without limit or terminus. So endless. So forever.

Um, it basically is, is And you go back to try and find out how far back you went and where you came from. And again, that's the very question that I have or was getting to is, is that important to a believer in that time or now? Genealogy, where he came from, who your dad was, who your family was, does that matter? No, because you've got a different dad now. You have a different history now. Now, what is your genealogy?

It's Christ himself. Christ himself. Through the identification truths, remember you've been co-crucified, death, burial, resurrection into a new life in Christ. Our new head, our new, as JD was saying, son of Cully, we are now son of Christ, or actually co-life with Christ.

That's our genealogy now. We don't have to go back, one, to Christ. That's it. That's our genealogy now. Doesn't matter who I am. Hemingway. Doesn't matter how many Hemingways there were or anything like that. It means nothing now. Maybe in the world it may mean something if you're a Rockefeller or a life, eternal life, it means nothing. It means nothing.

And yet, you know, we put so much emphasis on that. You know, like I said, if you're a Rockefeller, a Bezos, whatever, you know, one of those guys, oh yeah, or you know somebody, or you know them, or that family, or you know, that means nothing in relationship to an eternal life in Christ.

The only genealogy we have now is Christ. That's our history. That's our entire genealogy is Christ now, because we've been placed into, baptized into his life. That's it. So our history is his history. We have an eternal history going back to before any of us were created. Once we believe, we now have his history. He's known us since before we were created. So again, our genealogy means it's a very short topic. Christ, that's it. So he's warning him to get away from all this other stuff about genealogy. That is now not important anymore. He's giving him this instruction. That's not important.

I have to always put it in the time, the reference time. Just think again what I said, all the Jews' genealogy was key. Totally where you came from, which tribe you were from, and all this. Now Paul calls and telling Timothy to tell them, that means nothing. How do you think they accepted that? Your whole existence was based on your genealogy. Now Paul says, eh, that's nothing. So I had to put it in the context. This wasn't just a little thing for him to tell Timothy. Timothy, genealogy means nothing and let them know that. So that to me is just, when you put it in that context, we take it like genealogy, okay, we can get rid of Hemingway and we'll go on. These guys, it was their life. In the synagogue, in all the places where they went, that was important.

Did you read Zobeates? Were you going to do that? Go ahead, I think I may have. It's just interesting, it says, these Jews were turning the entire historical substance into mere myth, claiming that whether something occurred or not was not important, but what one felt about it was important, thus resorting to subjectivism without objective reality. And you know, our neighborhood, all those Hasidic Jews, why couldn't you say that describes it perfectly?

I think it does. No, and this again is the fabrication, the myths, the fables, but then again the genealogy, they kind of go together a little bit. The strong tradition, I think is the definition I had, was the strong traditions that they had, well that goes into the genealogies. So these myths and genealogies, it's the traditions. Well, you're from the tribe of Benjamin. You're from the tribe of Levi. You're the tribe of, and that means if you're Levi, you're what, in the priestly, and you're in the temple, and you're doing this. But if you're from Benjamin, you're not.

So again, put it into perspective. Again, we take it lightly. Don't even listen to genealogies. That just kicked them right in the knees, you know, and said, give up all that you've done for your entire life and just forget about it. So take that in perspective with Paul's counsel to Timothy. We take it as not a big deal, okay. Hemingway means nothing, you know, but to them, this was a huge thing.

I do think that this is not only past, but future, because the Jews were always looking for the Messiah to come. They didn't categorize him as a suffering servant. But today, there's lots of people within the Christian community that actually write books about future genealogies. There's a guy that actually lives in Denver, I think, that wrote a book called The Reign of the Servant Kings, and the genealogy has to do with how well Christians serve the Lord while they're here, so that when the millennial kingdom comes, that they will be administrators with the Lord Jesus. But if they didn't serve him here, then they're gonna be in outer darkness for a thousand years. A guy actually wrote that, a theologian. Or this thousand generation thing, that they get invested in endless prophecies about what's coming. To me, it's pretty simple. The book of Revelation is really pretty simple. It says, this is the end. Well, I was just thinking about the result of all of this is speculation. What's the opposite of speculation?

Sure. And I think that endless generations has to do with the influence of Mormonism into Christianity, because their whole system is built on reincarnation and different levels of holiness and becoming a God eventually. Right. Right. Which, you know, again, when you think about, you know, ranking in here, we're under grace. There's nothing that we can do to put us in a better position. We're under grace. There's nothing when, you know, in Ephesians 1, 3, where we've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies.

So how can I get more? If I try a little harder, I can get more than all. How does that work? You can't. Again, taking something and running with it. Stay away from it. Let me get to this last one so Miles can start next week. Question 9. We are told to turn away from such teachings. So, in verse 4... So, if we pay attention to myths, fables, or genealogies, what happens? According to this verse.

Totally distracted from the truth. Totally distracted. We're giving off to mere speculation, it says. Mere speculations. Again, off from the truth. I'm speculating. I think that really means this. I think we're going to inherit all the earth. I think we're going to be second level king in the millennial kingdom. I think mere speculation. So which gives rise to mere speculation. So what does that mean?

It turns us away from the true doctrine as taught by Paul and gives rise to our own interpretation of God's word. So it's what's true versus what we think it says. What's interesting about that is that there's People that you read that are reliable, serious expositors of the Word of God, the fact that they are readers on a continual basis of the Word of God keeps their focus straight. Where if you're a sometime reader, or your whole exposure to God's Word is what you hear on Sunday, you'll start to speculate about all kinds of stuff rather than sticking with the Word. And I think even before God's Word, in Paul's case, is laid out, there's enough of it there that he can say, look, you stay with what the Lord has revealed to me that I've revealed to you, and it'll keep you on track. Where if you're kind of ignorant about what God's Word says, or you take somebody else's opinion about it, and you're taught by an opinion person rather than the Spirit of God through the Word, then who knows what you're going to come up with.

I think a lot of times what drives it is I think this, and I'm going to go to Scripture to prove it. And I'll twist and contort and do whatever I can to get to what I wanted in Scripture. And that's where I think a lot of the twisting and speculation and other stuff comes from.

Because I wanted to say this, I could take this verse out of context and put it with this one out of context, and it's true. It's true. Because I say it's true. Well, and I know that there's a lot of historical context to what Paul was saying. And obviously, we're reading in Timothy. But in our day right now, we're told to consider a lot of things. Consider it, like maybe this, maybe that. Why are we told to turn away? Don't even get started. Right back to what you said there earlier today. Don't get yourself started on that.

I can't, I can't tell you how many times I've heard a preacher introduce something as like, well, this could be the case about this passage. And then from that point on and all their teaching, this is most certainly the case, you know, it's like, as soon as you go off a little bit and you just make it. Consider with me, Miles, just consider for a few minutes.

Yeah. Red flags flying. Yeah. Yeah. Very hard to it. It's hard to turn away from. all the considerations that we're told to bear out and think through. But yet, here Paul is, you know. Yeah. Zodiatis in the word speculation, a word used by the Greeks to indicate philosophical inquiry. In the New Testament, it indicates an exchange of words rather than a true search.

Such was the strife between the disciples of John and Jews, John 3.25, debates and arguments, 2 Timothy 2.23, general disputing, 1 Timothy 6.4 and Titus 3.9. An evil connotation is attributed to these, indicative of a lack of faith.

So, a couple questions I just want to end with. If we listen to Paul's teaching that is aggressively turned away from Miss Fable's doctrines that are not true doctrines as taught by Paul, what happens from this verse? If you turn away from it, what happens? I think we don't walk by faith. Well, I'm getting to that part, but what does it say in the verse? What does it do if we turn away? Speculation, rather than... No, if we turn away, read the verse.

Well, I say if we do do what Paul says, what does it say will happen? the administration of God. We further the administration of God. So, by turning away, we further the administration of God. So, the flip side is we don't turn away, we're not furthering the administration of God. So, you know, the key is that if we turn away, we will further God's administration or His life here, through Christ. That's what is done if we turn away. We don't, the flip side is we get off and we don't further the administration of God.

So a strong warning there, but I also said, and how is that accomplished according to verse four? Faith. Faith, yeah, which is by faith. You got to trust in God's Word. You have to believe Him and in His Word. Don't take speculation. Don't take myths, fables, genealogies. Trust His Word. Go to His Word. Use His Word. Don't contort His Word.

Again, starting with, as I was saying, a lot of people, what they do, I got an idea, and I'm going to try and prove it with Scripture. Go to Scripture first, and then see what happens. Don't go in with, I want to prove this, and try and contort Scripture. So, but ultimately it's faith that furthers the administration of God. Faith in God's word furthers the administration of God's work here. Any other thoughts? All right, Miles, I think you're up for next week and I'm late. So you're up next week? Yeah, sounds good. I'll plan on that. All righty, sounds good. Let's close. Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you again for this warning that you have for us in 1 Timothy.

Again, don't even get started on missed fables, things that are not in Scripture, that are not true according to what Paul says is true about us in Christ. And all the The truths that show us that we have a life in Christ, we live under an operating system of grace that you pour out your blessings upon us. In fact, you have said you have blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly right now, not later, not at a time when we've done certain things. It is now.

And again, just prepare our hearts that we don't get deceived or off by these myths, fables that are prevalent today. And again, just that we stay true to your word so we can further your body here by adhering to your word truthfully and not being deviated or started on these things that are not according to your word. So we just pray for that, that we are sensitive to the truth of your word, and we just pray for the Holy Spirit convicting us and convincing us of the truths of your word. So, by the way, just thank you again for this time where we can open up your word and study it, and we just, again, pray for the remainder of this day that we honor and glorify you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.