First Timothy lesson 30 cont.
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · Oct 5, 2025
1 Timothy, No. 86
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926194124513

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

So, we are in 1 Timothy, version 30, and the verses that we've been covering are chapter 5, verses 23, 4, and 5. 23 says, no longer drink water exclusively, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments. 24 says, and the sins of some men. are quite evident, going before them to judgment. For others, their sins follow after them." 25, likewise, the good works of some are clearly evident, and those there are otherwise cannot be hidden. So, you know, we're going through Timothy, and Paul has given Timothy instructions on on what it takes to be an elder in the atheism church early. There isn't any prescription, so Paul has to write the book.

And we talked a little bit last week about question number one, is Paul telling Timothy not to drink too much water and substitute wine, and why? Obviously Timothy was a physically sickly guy and kind of timid. And if he was alive today, he'd probably be taking holistic supplements. Kidding. It's interesting that Timothy wasn't commanded to abstain from water. He was bidden not to drink too much.

If you back up a little bit in the verses before, you find that Paul has talked about men that have found their way into the church at Ephesus who were ascetic, which they were preaching abstinence about marriage and other things, and I'm sure the abstinence of alcohol. Not that God is promoting the drinking of alcohol, but wine was the used for medication sometimes. So we answer the question, is this verse a little startling? And the answer was, if it belongs here, it can be explained only as a continuation of the thought in verse 22, to the effect that Timothy could keep himself pure by not giving aid and comfort to a or in caroling his own health by adopting rules of abstinence. Sometimes we think, what's the craze today? Exempla for losing weight? Olympic. Olympic? Olympic. Olympic.

So, I mean, it's weird what humans do to, or just try to stay healthy or I mean right now if you're a person who has been advised by a doctor to take one Tylenol every four hours for joint pain and then you can take 2,000 milligrams a day and it won't harm you. But along comes the government and says oh no you can't do that because you'll be autistic or something or your kids will be messed up. So anyway.

Question three, does this Greek word for wine mean that the wine does not contain alcohol? What do you think? I think it does. Yeah, because there are those that say, no, wine wasn't fermented. Well, I don't know how you make wine without it being fermented. Don's brother has a winery, and it isn't in the barrels very long before it starts to build an alcoholic content.

The word here for wine is O-I-N-O-S, O-N-I-O. It's a Greek word. As everywhere else, it means wine fermented, incapable of intoxication. Okay? And not a sweet syrup made of boiling down grape juice, a style by certain modern reformers, unfermented wine. Mount David was one of those guys that's brought It was an unfermented wine.

I don't think it was. I mean, think about it. I mean, anybody can drink grape juice, but if Timothy had kind of an upset stomach or a grumbly stomach, a little bit of alcohol would help him. It just would, you know. So, question four. Why does Paul want him to drink a little wine? It's real simple. Why does he want him to do it? Because he is instructing him. It's the prescription. Bless you. It's the prescription. That's what he's telling him.

My friend Brian White, he was here, I don't know, a couple of years ago. But maybe we were in Georgia visiting him. And we went out to dinner and we ate too much and have a cup of, not stomachaches, but like I did eat too much. And so he said, well, here, give a shot of this.

And they were charcoal pills. That's what they are, they're charcoal. And so we took them. And within 45 minutes, all that seething was gone. So, guess what we have in our cabinet now? Charcoal. So, what are you always telling Paul and Timothy? It's okay. What's the principle here? Maybe that's the man. What's the principle? Is alcohol bad or good?

A little bit is okay. A little bit is okay. In moderation. Yeah. And so, there are a lot of things that in our life that if you excel in them, they're not good. That can be sinful. But there are a lot of things also that you can do that are helpful to you and helpful.

So wine was used as a remedy in those days. I wrote that some exposes concur in the above interpretation of the matter. We must remember that wine was one of the chief remedial agents for those times in which the science of medicine worked in its infancy among Greek physicians. We must remind ourselves that Paul is speaking of wine as a medicine and not as a beverage.

Okay. I'm not recommending you all go out and buy a bottle of wine and keep it in your cup with it. My recommendation, I've heard, is that you must try to, indeed, drink a little bit of wine supplementary with the water, but it treats water with one of the alcohols or bacteria.

Yeah. you know whether you diluted it with water or didn't. What does your brother say the content of what line? I think it varies but usually you know I think it's under 20 percent. Yeah it's under 20 percent. and even diluted as it does for the purpose that alcohol would do.

Yeah. So all of this 45 proof and stuff, that's way out there. For wine it is. Oh yeah. You know. I don't know how long you'd have to keep wine in the barrels to get them to 45, do you? I don't know if it would go that high. I don't even know if it would go that high. Oh, I was thinking about some of the cheap resources. So, something that's relevant to you today, what would you say that there are, say that there are prescriptions for today about eating and drinking? You have prescriptions about how much eating? Somebody looked at first version of 1031.

Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all things for the glory of God. Okay. So, is something as simple as eating and drinking, how does that glorify God? What do you think? Does it glorify God? So I know, I know how you do it. You say grace before your meals, right? I mean, think about that thought, that post-Eucharistic thought. How, whatever you do, whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God? How does eating a hamburger glorify God? I'm the only idiot who thinks up questions like that. Because we're created beings, and he stands for us, or he's even been a spot guy. Yeah, that's right. And it's an automatic thing. Yeah. Donna.

Well, I think if you're there in the first Corinthians, all things are lawful underneath, but all things are not expedient. Okay, so that's the part we didn't read, but that's the part that makes sense. You know, Paul in 1 Corinthians there, and Chester McCauley has a bunch of tapes on grace. And one of the things that he goes through, which I think is really helpful, what do you do under grace? How do you know that I'm not overdoing it, so to speak? Well, there's the answer.

And he gave a couple of really good examples. He said he had a neighbor one time that he overdid it with gardening. And this guy would come home from work with a suit on, and he wouldn't even take his suit off. He'd go out in the garden and start digging. So the thing is, what controls you? Is it gardening? Is it eating? Is it drinking? Is it whatever it is, you know? It's a gift of God. Everything is a gift of God. And it's to be utilized in glorifying Him. But you know how dissemination works.

It wants it for itself. So to do it in excess. I wouldn't say that's the end. I just need to be aware. Definitely. I've seen hundreds that start the next year's trip the day after. I need to see some quick. Sure. They start all over and they're all your friends. Let me give you another example. Are you a Bronco fan?

Oh, that makes it okay. So, I mean, there are people that, Christians that will miss church because the time goes around early, you know. But it can be a trick. That's the one thing when I, I met the Lord at 35. And I had Broncos season tickets with a bunch of guys and they were great tickets. They were on the 40 yard line right off the field, the old stadium. And I became a Christian, I think it was on a Friday in December and the Broncos were in the playoffs for the first time. So I went to the playoff game, I think against Pittsburgh.

But after I walked out of that game I thought, I've got to give up these tickets. because they control me too much. One guy in our group owned a ticket so I said don't find somebody else to take my ticket next year. He said why? I said well I'm probably going to be in church next Monday. He didn't understand that.

It isn't that you can't enjoy something like that but it's very interesting because there are little things that control your life. rather than the Lord controlling your life. And He'll make it. I'm convinced He will make an issue about those to you. And you'll turn them over to Him and let Him drive the bus, so to speak. Which is fine. That's what you want, you know.

So, verse 24. The sins of some men are quite evident. going before them to judgment. For others, their sins follow them." So let's see if we can't explain the phrase that says, the sins of some men are quite evident, going before them to judgment. What does that mean?

Sounds weird, doesn't it? A couple of things I found. One, Vincent says, and some other Aishwaryas that are said in the authorized version, that it's wrong in translating the Greek word as pro deviae, open beforehand. The pro is not temporal in its significance, but merely strengthens the devio.

The meaning is openly manifested to all eyes. some men, their sins are open to all eyes to see. And so that's understanding number one. The second part of it is going before to judgment. How do I explain this? It'd be like a person who committed a visual sin, the same sin, or like sin, over and over again.

What happens here is that you can look at that person and recognize that If they're not a believer, they're headed to judgment and no sins will be waiting for them when they get there. They're like a herald that goes before them in their life. You know, John the Baptist was a herald. What was his job? He was to say, you know, I'm not the one, but I'm the one that's paving the path for the one to follow me. He's the herald. He goes before. Well, in this case, he uses the word sin. to go before judgment. In other words, if a person doesn't become a believer, the sins for Stephen, they're already there waiting for him when he goes to judgment. Whereas a believer, talk about a believer. How about your sample? How can you use your sample? God should know your believers. Does the Lord have a lockbox of your sins in Him?

And boy, when you get there, you're going to get it. How does that work? By dying for Him, what happens? Yeah, see, sins have a consequence. They have a penalty. I commit a sin, there's a consequence. The very first thing, God warned Adam, when you do this, you're going to die. In other words, you're going to be separated from me. All sins have a consequence, and it's death. So the Lord Jesus comes, goes on the cross, and part of what he did was he took care of the debt. He took care of the consequences of your sin, so that they don't precede you. You see that? In other words, He died alone to pay the penalty for your sin.

Every single one of them. The sins of the whole world. And not just like the Reformers say, the sins of those who are sick. No, it's got to be the whole world. You know why? Because the sin issue is an issue before God, and He can't have sin floating around for some and not for others. That's where you can say, Well, God's done with you, how come I'm not? Yeah, you could say that, you know.

And so the penalty for your sins doesn't go before you because it's already been handled. Now, the other part of that is what we know as identification, which we're going to talk about over the next few weeks in the main service. that when the Lord Jesus died on the cross for sin, you were included in that. So when he separated himself from the whole thing of sin, you were separated with him. So your sins aren't going to follow you because they've already been taken care of and they're not going to go before you.

Do you see that? In other words, and I'm not discounting how sin can work on your conscience. But the point is that Romans 6 is very clear. Your sins are gone, and the source of those sins, the sin nature, you've been separated from. It's still there, but you're separated from it.

It's important to know that and to believe it, because if you're still thinking about your sins, then you're not thinking about the glory of the Lord. If you're thinking about from a law standpoint, I've got to do this and I've got to do that, you're still thinking about yourself and not the Lord Jesus. You see that? So He makes us free from sin so that we can glorify Him. I think that's why relations is so important. The world would tell you otherwise, through merit, through Or guilt. So the sins of some men are quite evident going before them to judgment.

Like I have friends in my life that have never become a Christian. They're going to face what they've done and I know they are and I know what it is. You know? And my conversation with them is when they'll listen, which they don't very often, but about salvation is that your sins won't be waiting for you when you die. The consequences. So, that's it. You know, for someone who's like that, it's hard because they I came out of Catholicism and I have a lot of buddies that are my age now that are trying to make up for the life they lived in their 20s and 30s.

I think to make a distinction there though too, that the condemnation is because you don't believe. Yes. It's not the sins. It's not the sins because you don't believe there's, and the Lord Jesus is the remedy. Yeah, that's the big thing. It's always been the same. It was true with the Jewish nation. It was true with Adam. If he'd have believed God, guess what? He wouldn't have sinned. Judgment here is not specifically the judgment of men or the final judgment of God. or the sentence of Ecclesiastes court, but it's used kind of indefinitely.

Let me put it this way. If I'm not a believer and I'm sinning, I don't know, maybe half the time I don't even know, but that baggage that I'm carrying with me, it will carry with me into eternity if I'm not a believer. So in the sense that They're going before me. Does that make sense? Or not? You're all looking at me like, what the heck is he talking about? Yeah, I explained it. Okay.

Here's the further reason for avoiding hasty ordination. Remember what five classes ago we talked about? for ordaining people as elders and there's this incredible list of the qualifications for an elder which are very, very strict. And so I think what he's doing here is he's referring back to that to say that don't be too hasty about ordaining people just because they're wanting to be an elder or they're campaigning to be an elder. Is that where it said, don't bring hands on E-170?

Yeah, that's what he means. You know, spend some time with them, kind of know what it's about, what they're about, and not that, you know, not that you're supposed to do a forensic investigation of every thought in their mind, because they're sinners like we are.

When you go through that process, you not only look for the sins, but you also look for the good that has a way of revealing itself also. Does the person really have a good heart? Is he a servant? Does he care about the people that he potentially can serve? So the point being here, one of the writers said, let's see if you can pick up on what he's saying. No judicial utterance is necessary to condemn them of their sin. You don't have to tell them. They know. If I have a bad temper, you don't have to tell me I have one. I know I got one.

So what do you think the words follow after me? We talked about that in the last phrase that says for others their sins follow them. What does that mean? That's a good point. Do you have to keep concessing for them to go away? I think they can listen.

Listening might make things more obvious, but even those that are not obvious are not listening. So, Paul was mentioning that connection, which I was going to show. Whether people know him or not will still be judged. And in the same way, it could be whether someone knows them or not. So, that you have to, the things that are strong and kind of beneficial to you and following after are ones that are not known in the end by everyone around you.

There's no way she is going to show up if we don't show up. Yeah, yeah. And if she doesn't show up, God will, because we have all been judged for it. Yeah. And things that could be, you can do them in secret until it's not really accomplishing anything. But God does. He sees them. Yeah. So, that's a good point. Because when you come right down to it, Paul puts sin in one interesting category.

He says, whatever's not a faith is sin. So everybody is God. I know. The point is that there isn't any doubt in any, especially a Christian's mind, that they're going to commit sin at some point. Thought word indeed. I mean, stuff that comes into your mind, you can't control it from coming in there. It's what you do with it once it gets there. Let me ask this question. Do you think the beam of judgment is going to be about your sinfulness? In other words, some of us are going to be up there longer than others because the list is longer. It's not about your sinfulness. The Bema Judgment is a place of rewards.

So you're going to know that I missed opportunities along the way to glorify God. And not a fake, yeah, I contribute to the fire. But at the same time, he's going to say, well, you remember this time that I did this to you and you said, no, I don't remember that. I'm rewarding you for that.

So that when the Bema Judgment is over, The believers' sins are permanently wiped away. You won't even remember them. But you'll be rewarded. And everybody that shows up at the beam of judgment gets rewarded. If you were going to get rewarded, you're not going to be there. So what's the reward?

The Lord Himself. That's right. We cast our crowns before Him. revelation metaphors. I can't imagine spending eternity doing this. I'll be busy doing something else. So I mean like ruling and reigning in the millennial kingdom and that kind of stuff.

So the point being is that particular sins, especially repetitious sins, are to be observed in people that are may be a candidate for being ordained. And what happens with sin is that they go before you and they also follow you. If you judge yourself and you confess your sin, they're gone. You don't have to worry about them. But it's not your compassion. It's your believing in the things for what Christ did for man that man can't do for himself. Ah, that's a good point.

Yeah, one of the big problems that the Pharisees had with the Lord Jesus is that he said he could forgive sin. And they knew if someone said that they could forgive sin, they probably would. claiming to be God. And because, you know, nothing good comes out of Nazareth, how could it possibly, how could Jesus, who came from Nazareth, be forgiving sin? Well, he forgives sin because he is God, you know.

And so, forgiveness isn't, you know, like calling your child aside and scolding them and saying, don't do it again. That's not what forgiveness is. Forgiveness is Especially for a Christian, the sin that you'll commit this afternoon has already been paid for.

It's done. Now, it affects you, and the awareness of sinfulness is not designed to beat you up, but it's designed for us to grow and understand what God has done about sin, and by faith, to trust Him. You're gone. And to thank you is more or less enough. Yeah, confession, that word just needs to say the same thing. So does God say I'm a dirty, rotten sinner and I ought to clean up my act?

No. But I'm a son, you know, and maybe you have been not acting like a son. Let's fix that. OK. All right. Got about five minutes. So any other comments about that? That's kind of an interesting verse. Yeah, you can study that for a lifetime. But you know what? How do I say this?

I think that the Lord would have us never to think about sin. Because there's things that I do which makes me self-focused. And He doesn't want me engaged in the enterprise that I should. be always watching how I'm doing. He wants me to behold the glory of His Son, the Lord Jesus, and be taken up with Him. And if that's going on, then I'm not thinking about me.

Yeah. So, you've got a pretty extenuating signs out of your mind. No, you don't. No, you don't. I look at it more is that you've just got to let God do what He wants to do. You know, the Spirit of God wants to reveal Christ to you through His Word. Gee, you say, well, I'm not much of a student. Ask Him. He'll get you in there. And you'll start to see in there that it isn't a whole book of do's and don'ts. It's a whole book about the manifestation of the glory of Christ Himself. And that's the one who you begin to live involved with and for. What is it to do? I'm not thinking about me and how I'm doing, don't have to anymore. That's why looking at these past world hassles, you could get real legal. Oh boy. And not see the order that's given to man. Now I have one minute.

Now, Jerrod wrote here, verse 25, the deeds of our otherwise. Are those deeds that are not good, or good deeds that are not evident? Well, I wrote down that otherwise are not evil works in contrast to good ones, but works that are not openly evident or plainly seen, as the word H-O-S-A-U-T-O-S, which likewise indicates. which introduces the antithesis to what has gone before in verse 24. This argues, then, take your time. Good works and sins will manifest themselves if you don't rush.

Okay. Sin and good works have a self-revealing character about them. See that? That's kind of cool because they do. They do. That's cool. That took care of the question. All right, next week we'll jump into 31. And 31, there's a change in focus from 31 that's a little different, just to give you.

We start with, we're going into Chapter 6, and we'll just do the first two verses. First one, all who are under the yoke as slaves are regarded, are to regard their own masters as worthy of all honor so that the name of God and the doctrine will not be spoken against. So what he does is he switches the, what if you happen to be a slave or a master? How do you function? Okay.

So to Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you that you have so completely taken care of the issue between you and us that we can afford to rest in your provision and walk in your spirit. And we thank you for that and we pray in your son's name. Amen.