First Timothy lesson 32 finish
1 Timothy · Mike Doyle · Nov 16, 2025
1 Timothy, No. 92
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261941333432

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

Okay, this is First Timothy class. We are in Lesson 32, which covers First Timothy 6, 3 through 5. So, very interesting verses. I'll read them and then we'll get back to where we left off last week. If anyone advocates a different doctrine and does not agree with sound words those of our Lord Jesus Christ and with the doctrine conforming to godliness. He is conceited, understands nothing, but he has a morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words out of which arise every strife abusive language, evil suspicions, and constant friction between men of depraved mind and deprived of the truth who support or suppose that godliness is a means of gain." Pretty condemning verses, don't you think? So, my question is, Only five questions in this lesson, but the focus has come down to the question five, what are the four things that show departure from sound doctrine?

And what I ask you to do is to say what they were and explain them. So I think we left off, we looked at the first one last week, Four things were pride or conceit. I don't know if I told you this, but conceit means to raise a smoke or to wrap up in a mist. Metaphorically, it's a clouded, stupor state of mind which result in pride.

So one of the things, I think one of the questions we have to answer for ourselves is, is conceitedness consistent with someone who teaches false doctrine? So when verse four talks about a purveyor of false doctrine, and it starts to delineate personality characteristics about that person. And the first one is, in my version, it says he is conceited. And I guess my question to you is, do you find that to be true? And along with that question, what if you have the right doctrine and you're conceited?

So the point is, look at the emphasis that Paul puts on sound doctrine, settling down on what is really true from God's Word. And the other thing that you have to look at here is a verb tense. It's a perfect tense, which means it's The action happened in the past, but it divides into the future. So when pride is involved, the person became proud at some point and continues to be proud. What do you think about that? Maybe ask it this way.

Can we equate the teachers of false doctrine to be prideful people. Well, I think so, because fundamentally, I think, fundamentally accepting the Word of God requires humility. Yeah, it does. Because you're not standing on your own two feet, you're resting on Him and His authority. When you begin to hold to other doctrines, it's by nature pride, because you're exalting some other truth above the Lord, right? Yeah. I think that's right. I think that the study of God's Word requires that you're submissive to it. You let it teach you. You're not trying to stick in there something that doesn't belong there.

And I do think if there is one huge drawback to a seminary, this is it. Because those guys come out of there thinking they're the wizards of smart, you know, and they're prideful about it. And they don't submit, they come up with theological ideas and they start to spread them, and they're not factual, biblically factual. So, I don't think, though, that you can say, well, that guy's proud, his doctrine must be terrible.

That's not, you have to study the doctrine and compare it with God's Word. Anyway, that's not the only thing that's amazing about this verse. The second issue is that one's understanding is nothing. The alternative to truth is not neutrality, but it's nothingness. Now, granted, when error comes in, usually it's alongside of some truth. So there's some truth here and the error gets stuck to it.

As an example, the prevailing principle under which a believer lives is grace. But if someone comes along and says, oh yeah, grace is fine, but there's just a little bit of law here that we need to attach to it so we can reach a goal that we want. The discernment about legalism that way is really really important and this word nothing means not one single thing so it isn't uh... well you get to be seventy percent right and thirty percent wrong and what's the goal here according to this verse these verses the goal is godliness So there can't be, because it is godliness, there can't be variations of godliness. There's only one God.

And He functions a certain way. And He is a certain way. So you can't say that, you know, God is a Catholic and sometimes He's a Protestant and sometimes He's something else. Or like, I don't know, I remember after 9-11 that President Bush had a prayer meeting at the Catholic Cathedral in New York, and he had Catholics, all the Protestant denominations, Muslims, everybody in there praying. You think God was listening to that? You think God thought, oh, that's a good idea, George? I don't think so.

In the context of what we've been talking about with the masters and slaves, one of the comments I found said, here the significance of the clause may be that the false teachers demoralized slaves, suggesting to slaves who were converts, or possible converts, that the profession of Christianity involved an improvement in social position and worldly prospects.

Now there's a false doctrine. If you're a slave and you become a Christian, that your lot in life is going to improve. No, not necessarily. Make it more difficult. Could be. It could be more difficult, but you're a slave because that's where the Lord puts you. And you have a ministry as a slave. If you're a master, that's where the Lord puts you, and you have a ministry as a master.

There's a, there's a, go ahead. Let me say something. There's a, there's a, one of the tenants, and I'm not promoting Alcoholics Anonymous, but they have a very interesting tenant. It's called the Relocation Cure. That I lived in Denver and I was an alcoholic and things are really bad, so I'm gonna move to Memphis. And things will be better in Memphis. No, they won't. Or a better example is this.

I'm so tired of the world, so I'm going to go into a monastery. You know what the problem with that is? The sin nature goes in there with you. And all these other guys that are in there trying to be holy, they all have sin natures too. They just are manifested different. What do you think about that? I can see you pondering. Here's the problem.

The false teachers, I think, pretty soon found that their style of godliness is lucrative. Here's a good example. You know, when John and I were talking about the man that the Lord healed at Bethesda Pool, that was on his bed for 38 years. What the story doesn't tell you and what we don't know from looking at God's Word, but from history, we find out that sometimes being an invalid was highly profitable. It was a profession, especially in a society where you had masters and slaves. You didn't have a middle class like we have. And so when the Lord goes up to this man, he asks him, Do you want to be healed?

And we think, well, that's a dumb question. Sure he does. No, maybe not. This is pretty good here. I live pretty well. I have to come to this pool every day in my bed and somebody has to carry me, but financially I'm doing okay. Well, it's the same thing with false teachers. If they are false doctrine sells, it only means they embrace it more. It does sell, because when we talk about false doctrine, at the root of it we're talking about the difference between grace and more favor with God.

See, I think that's the key. And people will pay to hear that message. Oh yeah, that's the key. And if you're really, really slick like John MacArthur, you can make that law sound almost like grace. Yeah, you just call it grace to you. Yeah, sure. You call it something, but you teach something else. And so, I mean, I have a friend in California who used to be in MacArthur's church and was good friends with him. He said to me last week, he said, I sat in his office and we talked about these things and he would never really answer me. MacArthur's pretty slick.

He took a salary from his church, which was modest, but he had all these other deals going with publishing and all that, and now his family are fighting over his estate. which is worth millions of dollars. But boy, is he a high-profile, up on a pedestal with so many Christians. The thing about him was that if you listen to him, he was a really good teacher, his presentation. But if you listen to what he said, It raised questions in your mind, you know.

And Master's Seminary, which he started, really is pretty much designed to teach you the MacArthur Doctrine, and to teach you how to put down anybody that's against it. We hear, like, Wayne Anderson's brother in Kansas, they hired a guy to be their pastor, who was a MacArthur, they call them MacArthurites, and he would not tolerate any other discussion other than John MacArthur. I was listening to my brother share a podcast, a reformed pastor who was talking about how he turned away from dispensationalism because it was so legal. I kind of scratched my head, but where, you know? And then it comes out, well, he went to Master's Seminary. Well, that, yeah, that explains it all. They go under the brand of dispensationalism, but they're very, very legal.

I can remember when I first ran into MacArthur, when Miles Stanford was alive, Holly Hills was a contributor to IFCA, Independent Fundamental Churches of America, which was dispensational, and they followed John MacArthur's dictates because he was the largest contributor to that organization, and claimed to be dispensational, but he wasn't.

What my buddy went into MacArthur to talk about was R.C. Sproul. He said, boy, I've been reading R.C. Sproul. He said, the guy, give me a break with his doctrine. And MacArthur's answer was, he's a great man. Look at all the people that got saved through him.

Really? Okay. So anyway, I find it interesting that if you go down a false doctrine road, you do close your mind to... and that's one of the things that we have to be careful of around here. What does God's Word say? We've got to stick with it. Even if it doesn't fit my lifestyle, I've got to stick with it. So, we've discussed these...

One of these four things he's conceded, the Greek word means to wrap in a mist, to raise smoke. His understanding is zero. Don't you find how misunderstood the word grace is? Ask one of these reformed people or somebody who's legal or somebody who aspires to some form of legalism to explain to you what grace is, and they can't. They cannot do it. The third one is he finds himself occupied with questions and disputes.

So what you find, I think, is like a lot of the guys that have come out of Dallas Seminary, Donna and I have been talking about this, You know, if you go to a secular college and you go to a PhD program, you have to write a thesis. And the thesis has to be original. It has to be some subject or a part of some subject that has never been written about before. So it takes a long time for these guys to come up with a thesis, because they can't just repeat what somebody else said.

So how do you do that? How do you come up with something original? You sit around a coffee shop, a cafeteria with the other PhD candidates, and you say, well, what about this? Oh, you can't talk to that because so-and-so read that. Well, what about this?

So what do you do if that principle goes forward into a seminary to get a PhD, which has the same, you have to write about something original, what do you come up with? hyper-dispensationalism, or, you know, like Bach and Blazing, both those guys, you know, they collaborated on, and that was their doctoral thesis, which is ultra-dispensationalism, which turns out to be, guess what?

Legal. Legal. So, and there are, I think there are, from just a personality standpoint, people who just love to question and dispute. You know, people like that? You know, if you say it's black, they're going to say it's white, so here we go. You know, it's like talking to Courtney. Actually, people that like to question things, I don't have a problem with it.

He talks about his son-in-law who majored in philosophy. He says that he doesn't care what side of an argument you take, he's always going to be on the other side. And he can argue the other side just as well as he can argue your side. The Greeks called that sophistry. Argue for the sake of arguing. And that is a lot of what goes on in seminaries.

Actually, exactly what you were saying, and maybe you were listening last year, the Chafer Conference, Andy Woods, I think Morgan Arnold asked him that exact question. Is that a problem? Is that why every PhD has to come up with something new? And Andy Woods kind of thought about it, and Andy Woods answered and he said, Yeah, I think that's a real big problem. He's a PhD, and he's the president of Chambers Seminary. But he recognizes that. Yeah, that's a huge problem when you think about it. That's why I got to thinking, we have the infamous 75 questions.

If you get those answered, you get a PhD. Because they They're like that. I mean, if you've ever looked at them, they're very comprehensive. And you have to not only back up your answer, that logically it makes sense, biblical sense, but what are the verses that back it up? So you spend a lot of time, you know, And then you've got to sit down with the existing elders and explain your position.

That's fun. I sat down with Hal Molloy and Vern. You know how much fun that was? Not a lot. So I want to do, okay, last one is, is that it's impossible to forsake the truth without eventually embracing error. So if you look back at the verse, of which arise envy, strife, abusive language, and evil suspicions.

So if you have all that kind of thing going on, if you have it going on in the church, you're probably going to have a split. Because you're going to have the A team over here and the B team over here, and then another group in the middle that wants a little bit of A and a little bit of B. But the deal is, what do you do about it? Let's say you find yourself in that kind of an environment. Maybe you're reading a book by a theologian that you thought really knew what he was talking about, and you think, boy, the more I read, the less I think this guy knows what he's talking about.

What do you do about that? Interesting, if you look at Weiss' translation of this verse, he says, he is a beclouded and stupid state of mind which condition is caused by pride, not doing any concentrated or reflective thinking in even one instance. That's interesting, I don't know how he puts it. But what's the old disease is called, I've made up my mind, don't confuse me with the facts. So.

And you'll find too, just to sort of lock this up, argumentative people love to argue, even if it's a small truth or a half-truth. So let's say you are confronted with somebody like that, what would you do about it? Well, you could just not talk to them anymore. But seriously, what would you do? Let's say that you have a good friend and you have lunch with them and now they have a new doctrine, new to them, new to you, and it doesn't sound right to you.

What do you do? The first thing I think you do is you find out, you take their doctrine and see if it lines up with the Word of God. That's the first thing you do. And not that it's your responsibility to set them straight, but you have a responsibility to keep your own mind straight, your own doctrine straight.

And then if you find that in the next time you talk with them, that really what they're all about is they start to fit this pattern, that they like friction, that they like disputes, that they... But then you find the cool thing about this, and that's the very last phrase of verse 5.

It says, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. What does that mean? What does it mean that godliness is a means of gain? Televangelist? Let's take the idea of financial gain out of it. So it's not financial, he's not talking financial gain. It's the pride, it's the direct... everybody's attention to you. Now you're a godly man, so we're going to follow you. It's that sort of game, I think. How about this concept?

I have somewhat of an understanding about grace, but if I really want to be holy, I really want to be godly, I've got to find out what the rules are. How do you come up... We always are asking, how do I do this? The natural man wants the signs along the road that says, do this first, if you go a mile, do this second, do this third, do this fourth. I mean, anything outside of the Word of God that has to do with improvement has a set of rules. You know, you want to be a leader. Well, you start with this one, and you get that one, and it's a set of rules. And so at the end of the day, if I got all the rules mastered, I have gain. I have achieved what I'm after. It's the same way in Christianity. You become a Christian, you think... I remember when I was first a Christian, I thought, well, what do Christians do? I didn't care about what they believed.

I wanted to know what they did. So I watched them. for a couple of years after I was saved. Of course, I was watching mostly guys that were in young life, which is probably not the best place to look. But they were all doers, and they were all reformers. I didn't know from reform from nothing back then. But they were all about earthly blessings meant that they were walking better. And that if they did this, God would reward them.

You know, that kind of stuff. I didn't have an understanding about how grace worked, although I know I was saved by grace. I did understand that part. But it's so easy for us to adopt biblical principles that are designed for you to show up at the end of the day and say, God, thank you. I did everything you said.

What's the problem with that? Nothing? No problem with that at all? It's worthless. It's worthless? Why? Why is it worthless? Huh? Legal. Why is legality worthless? It makes me the source of it. That's it. That's the focus. Go ahead. That's a really important point. You understand how legalism works. If you do A, B, C, and D because you think that's what God wants you to do at the end of doing D, You can turn to God and say, you're in debt to me. And God's not in debt to anybody. You see that? You owe me.

You know, we remember when we did a grace class, how, I remember a colleague's interesting point. He said, if you work 40 hours a week, you put your boss in a debt situation. He has agreed to pay you. because he's not going to pay you out of the goodness of his heart. He's going to pay you because you did 40 hours.

Christianity, from a legal standpoint, is the same mentality. If I walk a certain way, do certain things, follow the Hasidic Jews in my neighborhood, that at some point, they think that they're going to go to God and collect. That's what they think, you know. It's like the if-then of the Old Testament. That's exactly right. Which is totally different than Christ. Well, when we were studying Romans 11, that's the one thing you find in that chapter, that for a Jew to enter into the kingdom, what was the one thing he had to have to get into the kingdom? You had to have God's righteousness. God's righteousness.

And God said to him, if you believe me about that, I'll give it to you for free. They said, no, we like the rules better. And so 620 plus rules, they work, work, work, work, and at the end of the day, what do they have? The Lord says, yeah, you're righteous in yourself. Good, good. So are everybody else in hell.

I mean, that's the great thing about the Lord is that he always offers the reward for free. And the reason that you function the way you function is because the gift was free. It causes you to live godly, to be godly, to live a godly life. And then he indwells the believer with the Holy Spirit for what purpose? To carry out the godly life in you.

You know? And Miles is right. Focus is everything. If it's on you and how you're doing or how you're not doing, the focus is wrong. You know? When you think about the fact that the Father's purpose is to glorify the Son, right? That's what He wants to do. Not glorify you. He wants to glorify the Son.

So I would recommend that the next time you get in a debate with a legalist, just take them to these verses and say, now which one of us is conceited, understands nothing, has morbid interest in controversial Ask him that question. I'm going to watch that. He's going to say you. Sure. Because Mervin could see that he's got your problem. Yeah, that's not my problem.

You know, there's several things on this, too. You know, we got into this before. A couple of different things. You know, this is about false doctrine and bad motives. Paul also, the weird part, and I can't find it. I was trying to find it. I think it's in Corinthians where he says, you know, there's people spreading the gospel, but they have wrong motives. And Paul says, that's okay. They're spreading it, they have the wrong motive. But that was true doctrine. This is now different. This is false doctrine.

And if we go back to 1 Timothy 1, that's where this whole thing started, where he says, avoid them like the plague. And when you get in these, and you have to avoid these people, and it's more of a pattern. If somebody comes up, but somebody who constantly comes up before you with these. And that was back in Titus, the same warning that Titus, I think, brought this up before.

But avoid foolish controversy, genialities, and strife, and disputes about the law, for they are unprofitable and worthless. Reject the factitious man after the first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, being self-condemned. I don't think you're supposed to get in these continuous arguments.

If they're just in for the argument, you know, it kind of, in my family, we used to call it fight for fun. You just, you know, get into disputes just because. Fighting for fun is not cool. No, it isn't. It's driving your nuts, like my family is. But it's, you know, fight for fun, and that's the kind of guy, and I think that's the warning here. Somebody who is just not interested in discovering the facts, He's conceited, he wants gain, he wants the prestige, all this.

And if we get down to it, not that I hate to jump ahead, but after all this in verse 11, but flee from these things you may have got. Flee from them. So I don't think we're supposed to get into these continuous doctrinal knockdown fights or, you know, just continue. If somebody's continually just picking, picking, picking, picking, picking, avoid them a lot to play. You've brought up a question. So if I'm not supposed to do that, what am I supposed to do? I think, above all, love them.

Something more basic than that. What's the one thing that, as a believer, should be my goal? What should it be? What's that? To draw them to the truth and to the Lord. No, I mean you. What's the one thing you should be focused on? Walking the Spirit. Okay. Learn about Christ. That's it. The whole reason you exist is to know Christ. That's what the Word of God is all about. There is this... Imagine the God of the universe says, here's what I want from you, my creatures. I want you to know me. You know, what was the big complaint in the Old Testament that God had against the Jews?

You didn't know my ways. Well, I can't know a person's ways unless I know them. I can read all the books in the world about them, but until I hang out with them, I don't know their ways. And that was his complaint. You're so interested and being religious that you forgot about me.

And the Lord Jesus in a lot of places in the Gospels said, I'm standing right in front of you and you don't know who I am? I'm the one that all of those pages talk about. And so the believer is not to be self-occupied with, it's like Miles Stanford used to say, if spiritual growth is your goal, you haven't figured it out yet.

You understand what he's saying? It's not about spiritual growth, it's about the Lord Jesus himself. Beholding Him. And that's... how do I say this? Early on in Christianity, that doesn't sound like a viable goal. Or a possible goal. But it is. It is THE goal. From that intimacy with Christ comes godliness, because you become like Him. You're conformed to His image. Oh, He is God, isn't He? Yeah, He sure is.

Okay, we're done. Unless somebody has a rebuttal. So, next week we'll jump into the next lesson, which is a little long, but not too bad. Did you send it out yet? You haven't sent out 33 yet, have you? Yeah, I did. Maybe I didn't send it to you. Can I send it out? You have it? It's over there, isn't it? Before I close, I want to make sure. I sent out 32, and the next lesson is 33. Do we have that? Everybody got one of those? Okay, I'll resend it. Less than 33. Less than 33. Okay, thank you. If you don't have it, it's only 12 questions.

I'll resend it out today. Let's close. Father, we thank you for your grace. We thank you for your Son, the Lord Jesus, who is our very life. We desire to grow in the knowledge and grace and intimacy of Him and we recognize that it is something that you begin and carry on in our lives and we're open to just dependency and trusting you to do exactly that. We pray in the Lord Jesus' name. Amen.