Guard the Word & Pass It On

Transcript

GR 1780
10/26/2014
Guard the Word and Pass it on
I Timothy 6:20-21
Gil Rugh

We are going to go to the closing verses of I Timothy chapter 6. Paul concludes this letter to Timothy and he concludes it in a rather we might say an abrupt way for a letter written to someone as close to him as Timothy was. The theme of this letter has been a serious theme. It was found in chapter 3, verse 15: “I write so you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.” And the persistent emphasis through this letter was on the danger on the error that was infiltrating into the church. It had gotten hold even among some of the teachers in the church and Timothy and the church are reminded of the importance of standing for the truth.

Just let me remind you of these various chapters. In chapter 1 he began by talking about the false teachers, their doctrine in exhorting Timothy to stand against it. By the time you come to verse 3 of chapter 1 he is right into the subject: “You must authoritatively instruct, command certain men not to teach strange doctrines.” Down in verse 18 he reminds him to “Fight the good fight” and he closed the chapter by giving some concrete illustrations of two men who had wandered from faithfulness to the truth and made a shipwreck in regard to their faith.

In chapter 2 he emphasized the importance of prayer in the ministry of the church and also gave instructions regarding the roles of men and women. You come to chapter 3, he gave instructions regarding leadership in the church and the ministry of elders and deacons, particularly emphasizing the qualifications that must be present in these men.
In chapter 4 he again warns about the danger of false teaching and he exhorts Timothy to be faithful with the truth. In chapter 5 he gave instructions regarding different groups within the church, particularly widows and elders and dealing with them. And in chapter 6 we are back to warning Timothy and the church about the danger of false teachers, the importance of being faithful.

This has been a forceful letter. It is written to Timothy but as we will see again as we close this letter it is intended for the church at Ephesus. It is instructions for Timothy in the leadership he is to provide in dealing with the issues there but important for the church to understand. This is the instruction from God through the Apostle Paul.
It is a forceful letter. I counted 42 imperatives in this letter. Now that is my count so you may count and get a little different number but I counted 42 imperatives. An imperative is a command, 38 of these are found in the last three chapters, chapters 4, 5 and 6.

A reminder, obedience is essential for the health and safety of the church. There are certain things we must do, that must be done. These things must be handled God’s way. As we saw in the theme verse of chapter 3, verse 15, the church is the household of God. It is not mine. It is not yours. We are not free to come up with our own ideas. He is giving clear instruction on what is to be done in the church, what is acceptable in teaching, what is not, how it is to be led and so on.

Look at some of these commands in chapter 4, verse 7. We will just pick up with chapter 4 since that is where most of the commands here. In verse 7 you have two commands, “have nothing to do (there’s the command) have nothing to do, reject worldly fables fit only for old women.” In other words they are the kinds of fairy tales grandmothers would tell their young grandchildren. That is how he puts this false teaching.

The second command: “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” I gave an example earlier in that book that was being reviewed and the man said with all this theological error, it would be good for Christians to read this and discuss it. You see what Paul commands Timothy and the church. Have nothing to do with this kind of teaching. It contains error, things contrary to the Word of God. “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”
Verse 11: “Prescribe,” giving a command here, prescribe, teach, these are the two things you must do. That word ‘prescribe’ again, our word, ‘authoritatively’ teach, command and teach these things.
Down in verse 12: “Let no one look down on your youthfulness.” That is a command. “Let no one look down.” We have a series of words here but it is one compound word in Greek, a command. Show yourself, demonstrate yourself to be an example of godliness.

Verse 13: “Give attention” and what do you give attention to, reading, exhortation, teaching, to the Word of God to reading it. In other words since everybody didn’t have their copy, part of what the church did when it would be together like the church at Ephesus, here’s this letter written to Timothy and the church, have it read to them. Exhort them from it; teach them. You must give attention to these things.

Verse 14: “Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you.” Don’t neglect your spiritual gift. A command given.
Down in verse 16: “Pay close attention, persevere,” two commands there. Pay close attention to yourself and your teaching. Persevere in these things. This is essential for God carrying out His work of salvation both for you, Timothy, and those who hear you. There are serious matters at stake. We sing about God providing His Son as the Savior. I mean we’ve got to stay with God’s program. These are serious matters. We don’t have leeway here. Pay attention to yourself, to your teaching. Persevere in these things.

Down in chapter 5, verse 7: “Prescribe these things;” again the word to ‘command’ them. Authoritatively require them.
Over in chapter 6, verse 11: “Flee,” and you have this series of commands we talked about. Flee, pursue in verse 11. Verse 12, “Fight,” take hold of. All of these given as commands. There are things that we flee from. There are things that we pursue after. We are ready to do battle. One of the things criticized of the fundamentalist. They want to fight over doctrine. We don’t want to fight over doctrine but we have to because the devil keeps trying to infiltrate the church with error. So you fight the good fight of faith. You take hold of eternal life to which you were called.
Verse 17: “Instruct,” here’s our command again, authoritatively teach, command and there again the carrying out of the Word of God.

We come down to verse 20 where we are. We have two verses we haven’t looked at and the command here is ‘to guard,’ guard. “O, Timothy guard what has been entrusted to you avoiding worldly and empty chatter, the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge which some have professed and gone astray from the faith. Peace be with you.” And a number of writers have noted how abruptly this letter closes. I mean there are no closing greetings, no final benediction; no word of a greeting from friends with him. To the very end of the letter it is all about business. We are talking about God’s family, the church that Christ died to redeem. He purchased it with His own blood as Acts chapter 20 tells us. So it is only the letter to the Galatians that ends with this kind of abruptness and we are familiar with the letter to the Galatians which is perhaps Paul’s most serious letter in the way he handles things.
Just a reminder, we get the idea that church, you know, we can be more open and we can… this is serious business. This is God’s work. It must be done in His way.

This final sentence here in verse 20 and 21 really summarized the letter in a very concise way. It starts out: “O, Timothy.” You can feel something of the emotion in that, that solemnness. “O, Timothy,” not just Timothy but “O, Timothy.” This is the first time he has mentioned him by name since chapter 1 where he did it twice in verse 2 and verse 18 of chapter 1. Then the command: “Guard what has been entrusted to you And the command is the word ‘guard’ there. And the literal if we just took it as the Greek text has it, the deposit, guard. A word that gives the emphasis of the imperative, the deposit you must guard. It’s something to be protected, to be defended; to be guarded. It’s the deposit. That word ‘deposit’ like we do. You deposit your money in the bank for safe keeping. A deposit was something put there for safe keeping. It was entrusted to the care of someone else. You put your money in the bank you want to know is it protected by government insurance in case the bank fails, those kinds of things we have today. We want to deposit things precious to us. We may have a safety deposit box, a safety deposit box, why? You are going to deposit, put things in there that are of such value you want them protected, guarded. They are there for safe keeping.

What has been entrusted to Timothy, what he is guard, the deposit given to him is the truth of God. The church is the pillar and support of the truth. What has Paul been unfolding for Timothy? How the church should conduct themselves as the pillar and support of the truth. This truth has been placed in your care, Timothy. It would include the Gospel, but the Gospel in its completeness. How God’s people who have responded in faith to the Gospel, whose purity must be maintained. But that’s not all there is. I mean we just reviewed what’s in the various chapters. There’s instruction here regarding leadership for the church, the character of responsibility of elders and the deacons, other areas. This is God’s Word. It has been communicated to you. That becomes something that is placed with you for safe keeping. That’s why there has been so many strong commands given here in this letter.

Turn over to the 2nd letter of Paul to Timothy, II Timothy. Look at verse 13: “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me.” Verse 14: “Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you.” Those sound words, the truth of almighty God. What is more important than the living God has spoken, has revealed Himself, has given us the truth concerning His Son, salvation as provided and found only in Him, His death on the cross, His resurrection, the life now that is to be lived as those who have been redeemed by God’s grace, experienced the power of God’s salvation, those in whom all things have passed away and new things have come as Paul wrote in II Corinthians chapter 5. “Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the treasure which has been entrusted to you” which is the good deposit which has been entrusted to you. As recipients of God’s Word we have been given a responsibility to this truth.

While you are in II Timothy go down into chapter 2, verse 2: “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach other also.” So we don’t just take this truth and store it up some place. It is a treasure to us. It is something deposited to us, we protect it and we pass it on as we received it. We are not looking to men to come up with their great ideas.

The book I was referring to you earlier today, the man claimed to be a center-set church and we’ve got all these cute expressions, boundary-set, center-set and we just center on the essentials. What does God say we are to do? You take the truth that has been taught to you and you pass it on. Oh, we just pick out the things that we think are important here, Lord. That’s what we focus on. I am God’s editor? I decide what the living God said and… well we won’t make an issue of that. We won’t teach that. We won’t bother with that. That is not important. I have narrowed it down. You know we can put three or four pages and the rest of this you can take or leave. I mean how do people get away with this? How did the evangelical church find it’s something we ought to be dabbling in? You take the things that you have heard, Paul to Timothy, from Timothy to faithful men. Down here we are 2000 years later, what? Studying the truth of the Word of God because people were faithful with it, defended it, opposed error, died for it, passed it on so that we might have it today to know the truth of God’s salvation and how we are to function and conduct ourselves as God’s people.

Come back to chapter 1 of I Timothy, chapter 1, verse 18: “This command I entrust to you, Timothy and you fight the good fight.” They like to criticize the fundamentalists. They are always fighting over doctrine. Well, because they were told to do that. You try to infiltrate this church with error, there is going to be a fight. We will not allow it to happen. That’s what Timothy is to do. “You must command certain men not to teach different doctrines.” You want to come here and teach there is not a literal hell? We are going to fight against you; that there is no hell. Everybody is going to be saved and whether you believe what the Bible teaches about marriage and we stand for the Word of God. We are intolerant of error. “Fight the good fight.”

Turn back to I Thessalonians. That is just in front of Timothy, I and II Thessalonians, a letter to the church at Thessalonica. We are over in Greece here. We are going to I Thessalonians. Ephesus was in Asia Minor and we have seen the map how you cross over to Greece and you have the church at Thessalonica and look what Paul tells them in chapter 2 of his first letter. Verse 3: “For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Gospel so we speak. Not as pleasing men but God who examines our heart.” We have to be faithful with the truth, the truth of the Gospel, the truth of God’s Word. Verse 5: “We didn’t come to you with flattering speech” and so on. We weren’t looking for glory from men but we came with the truth and it was presented to them at the end of verse 2 of this chapter, “Amid much opposition.” The battle goes on.

II Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7 and we will get here in our study of II Corinthians sometime next year. II Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7: “We have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves.” God has entrusted the treasure of His Word, the truth concerning salvation in Christ and all that goes with that to us. What does that mean? Verse 8: “We are afflicted in every way, not crushed, perplexed, not despairing, persecuted, not forsaken, struck down; not destroyed.” We have the idea the church ought to be some kind of popular event and some of these books as you read them they say “when you are doing church the right way people will want to come, people will be telling other people to come” and it’s like it’s going to be some kind of just enjoyable. Not what Paul said he was experiencing. We have the treasure of the truth of God and in this context what? Affliction, persecution, suffering, that’s just part of it. Why, because the devil is relentlessly opposed to God’s truth.

Come back to I Timothy chapter 6: “O, Timothy guard what has been entrusted to you. O, Timothy, the deposit must be guarded.” The deposit must be guarded. It’s been deposited with you for you to protect it, to defend it and proclaim it; that’s the positive, guard it; the negative, “avoiding worldly and empty chatter,” worldly and empty chatter. There are certain things that have to be avoided, worldly thinking. This isn’t just things that don’t have anything to do with the Word of God. The concern has been throughout this letter, men teaching things they shouldn’t be teaching regarding the Word of God, adding and taking away from the truth of God, altering the truth concerning the resurrection in a literal bodily resurrection; misusing the Mosaic Law and bringing it in as part of God’s plan for believers and so on. That’s the kind of worldly, empty chatter that we are talking about. You are to be avoiding it, turning away from it. I mean this idea that men can teach all kinds of error but because they may include some things that are true with it we should, you know, be charitable and encourage Christians to read it and talk about it. Paul’s instruction to Timothy is you don’t have anything to do with it. You don’t invite the devil to come in and sit down and have a discussion. You are opening the door to confusion. How many times over the years I have had people come to me and say, “I have been reading this and it seems to make some sense.” My first reaction is “What are you reading that stuff for?” “Why do you open yourself up to that?” And if you do, you underestimate the effectiveness of the devil in confusing, deluding and deceiving.

“Avoiding worldly and empty chatter.” Worldly chatter. That would fit what we saw back in chapter 4, verse 7: “Have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women.” Again, that is not a slam on old women. It is the point. Worldly fables are the kind of things grandmothers tell their grandchildren. That is fine. Tell them about Cinderella. Tell them about Alice in Wonderland. That’s you know, Paul is just showing that this is just foolishness. You ought not to have anything to do with this in the church and when you mix the truth of God with error you corrupt it and it becomes a fable. It becomes a fairytale. You have nothing to do with it. That is teaching that undermines the truth that God has revealed, changes it; empty chatter.

Back in chapter 6, verse 20: “Avoid empty chatter,” empty arguments; arguments that don’t really have any content, any true Biblical content. Over in II Timothy chapter 2, verse 16: “Avoid worldly, empty chatter. It will lead to further ungodliness” and you note the danger. “Their talk will spread like gangrene.” It is the danger of error. It’s like saying, “A little bit of gangrene.” My grandfather lost both of his legs to gangrene. It started with a little spot and it grew. Back in those days it was harder to contain even. You just don’t say, “Well, it’s just a little bit, it doesn’t matter. I just have that little.” So you have a little bit of cancer. That’s all right, don’t worry about it. It’s a little bit. That’s his point. This talk will spread. That’s the danger to be scholarly. You are to be open to other things. You know, you just don’t write these men off. They may have something we could learn from them. Now it’s true, it’s got a lot of unbiblical teaching in it but let’s be charitable. They say some correct things. That’s not Biblical. Now it’s acceptable in the scholarly world because scholars are supposed to be open to all kinds of ideas. Biblical Christians are not to be and that’s why so much of the corruption that comes into the church comes in through the scholarly institutions. It’s true, we are closed. We have set boundaries. We stand for truth. We are intolerant of error. That’s what I think he is telling Timothy here and if you tolerate it, it will spread. That’s why I see the danger, that’s why I talk to you about this. You know, it comes in, different views. They say you can do it. We will just focus on things that we think are central. You just can’t let error in. It will spread like gangrene.
Here’s an example, a couple of men, verse 17, Hymenaeus and Philetus. They have strayed from the truth. How did they get here? They start to entertain the thought, exposing themselves to this teaching and now they are denying the resurrection and you know what happens? They upset the faith of some.

Come back to I Timothy chapter 6, verse 20. “You guard what has been deposited with you. You avoid worldly, empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge;” the opposing arguments. These false teachers oppose the revealed truth of God. Now they sometimes do it subtlety, sometime they do it overtly. Like these teachers, you read the example I gave you. A man would say, “Well no, I believe in the resurrection of Christ and I am a Christian who is trusting in Christ” and you mix this truth and error and it seems like you have knowledge. It’s selling books to Christians. And the point that even a seminary built on belief on the Word of God is saying, “Well you know, it’s something worth reading. There is some benefits in this.” You avoid opposing arguments, the antithesis. We just carry this Greek word over into English, the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge. They claim to have knowledge. These people claim to be helping the church, helping us to really reach our culture in our world and they seem to be effective because they have multiplied thousands coming to their services but the cost of what they are doing is great. “Avoid the opposing arguments, those things that oppose what God has revealed.” They claim to have knowledge. Their claims are false.

Back in the early part of chapter 6, look at verse 3, I Timothy 6:3: “If anyone advocates a different doctrine, does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Jesus Christ with the doctrine conforming to godliness he is conceited, understands nothing.” He has an interest in controversial questions, disputes about words, that just produces envy, strife and so on, constant friction. Being men of depraved mind, deprived of truth and so on. What is going on? You know Christians study this stuff. They go out and act like it makes no difference. We have people who have spent years here, moved on to other churches, maybe they moved away from the city, whatever, they end up going to churches like this. Oh well, I think they are good people here. They disagree on some things. I wouldn’t agree with everything but I enjoy it, I enjoy their music, I enjoy the openness. It is, there is excitement going on. You know, God is pretty narrow. He says, I want you to enjoy My truth. I want you to be excited about My truth, not this other stuff.

Come over to Titus chapter 1, Titus chapter 1. He is talking about elders, an elder, verse 9: “Must be holding fast the faithful Word which is in accordance with the teaching so that he will be able to both exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict for there are many rebellious men, empty talkers, deceivers, especially those of the circumcision. They must be silenced because they are upsetting whole families, teaching things they should not teach for the sake of sordid gain.” How is it? You know, church after church in the New Testament already was being infiltrated in this way. And somehow Christians weren’t ready to step up and oppose that teaching.

Turn over to II John, all the way back almost to the book of Revelation. The 2nd Epistle of John, a little one chapter letter, 13 verses as we have it. We are going to II John verse 10: “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching do not receive him into your house. Do not give him a greeting. The one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.” You do nothing to help him on. You do nothing to encourage him. You say, “You think your way is the only way. I think God’s way is the only way.” That doesn’t mean that I cannot be mistaken in my understanding of a passage but I am offended by those who just set the Word of God aside and come up with all these great ideas for what the church is to be and to do and they can deny basic doctrines of the Word. You believe some of these men in the emerging church believe that substitutionary death of Christ is a doctrine that can be classified as divine child abuse. God would be abusing His Son as He made Him die for someone else. How does this stuff become somewhat tolerable? Well, they are evangelicals. I think in their hearts they mean well and they are doing some good work. What happens to the church when they begin to give credit to false teachers as though doing good work? You see what John says. They would be viewed as intolerant. “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching do not have him in your house.” What are you doing dabbling around with a false teacher?

Come back to I Timothy chapter 6, a word of warning here. “Which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith.” They have wandered from the faith. They have missed the mark regarding the faith. They have lost their way. They are off track. You will note here “some within the church have gone astray from the faith.” They thought they came to better knowledge. They have gained insights and knowledge; that you just didn’t get from the correct understanding what Paul taught, what God had revealed; these who have outgrown the simplicity of God’s truth. “Some have gone astray.” This is used over in II Timothy chapter 2, verse 18 of Hymenaeus and Philetus. “They have gone astray from the truth saying the resurrection has already taken place. They have upset the faith of some.” You see what happens with these false teachers? Hymenaeus and Philetus went astray but they influenced some others and their faith was upset. Just like Paul said, “It spreads like gangrene” in verse 17. You don’t let error be taught and get ahold in the church because it will spread. Some have gone astray. That is why the letter to Timothy to the church at Ephesus is so stern and already this is going on. The devil doesn’t sit back and say, “Well, you know, the Gospel has been preached there. People have gotten saved, now they are studying the Word of God. I guess we will have to let them alone.” No, we will bring in teachers that will be exceptional communicators. They will have personalities that will draw people to them. They will be men of extraordinary wisdom. Some of these men I see them and say, “Boy, they are entrepreneurs. I mean they have the same characteristics as men building these multi-billion dollar companies that we admire. The problem is they doing it with the church and the truth. We have to be faithful. “Some have gone astray from the faith.” It’s relentless. It’s relentless.

Many years ago S. Lewis Johnson was a professor at Dallas Seminary. Some of you may remember S. Lewis Johnson was here and spoke. I remember him saying, “Every church; every school goes liberal.” You know it’s that relentless tide. When you stop battling against error and faithfully teaching the truth you know it’s like swimming upstream. As soon as you stop swimming upstream you are going downstream and you know sometimes we get tired of going against the current we just decide to go with the flow. And besides, look what is happening in these other churches so it can’t be all bad. It doesn’t have to be all bad. Only some of it has to be error.

We get the idea. You know what the devil did when he wanted to tempt Christ, the audacity of the devil. Remember the temptation in Matthew 4? Christ quotes Scripture to the devil. What did the devil do? Oh, I better run away. No, he is quoting Scripture. He quoted Scripture right back. “But you know, the Scripture also says…” You know we underestimate so the devil doesn’t know Scripture. He knows it very well. He has it all memorized. I’m sure with the brilliance of his mind from the first verse of Genesis to the last verse of Revelation. He is the god, small ‘g’ of this world. Look at all the religious systems going on in the world with their diversity. You think the battle is over?

It’s like we have in I Timothy. “Some have professed and gone astray from the faith.” The church that Paul established, the church that he spent ministering the Word day and night with tears warning them. In Acts chapter 20 he had a special meeting with the elders, “I’m telling you that after my departure men will arise from among your own selves and teach strange doctrines. You be on guard.” What happened, lackadaisical, careless, indifferent. And so now Timothy has to come as Paul’s representative.

It ends with the statement: “Grace be with you.” “Grace be with you.” I like to say it is an abrupt ending. You read the ending of all of Paul’s letters. Only Galatians is going to end so suddenly. No greeting from this person or that person, no other comments. “Grace be with you.” And if God’s grace, His unmerited favor, His strengthening and you know something to note here, a reminder; this is not just a letter for Timothy, it is a letter for the church. That word ‘you’ is plural. In English you know, we just have you and the context determines. I can say, “You are an encouragement to me,” and I am addressing you as a congregation. I say, “You,” and that’s a plural, encompassing you. Or I could talk with you afterwards and I could say, “I thank you for your encouragement.” And that would be to you individually. We don’t have a singular and plural ‘you’ but in Greek you have a singular and plural form. You and you-uns or something like that if we were going to make a plural of you. It’s plural here.

“Grace be with you.” He’s addressed “O, Timothy, guard what has been entrusted with you” and so on; but “Grace be with you,” a reminder of what I have been saying to Timothy is not for Timothy, just Timothy alone. It is for the church to here. You can be sure, Timothy, what? To take this letter and put it into practice to read it to the church at Ephesus to exhort them with it, to teach them, to correct it. That’s why what we do. We just went through Timothy. What’s the purpose? Are we going to remember it? Will we put it into practice? That becomes the key. You know when the pressure comes and other things happen and we begin to wander and drift. Come back and say, “Remember what the Word of God says. This is what the Scripture says. This is what God said about His family.” This is how we function. Could there be any greater privilege than to be part of God’s family, to be entrusted with God’s Word? We are the church of Jesus Christ in this place. We are talking about it in the morning, Sunday morning. We will talk about it next Sunday. We have been entrusted with God’s Word to give it on, to pass it on, to teach it in its purity, to share the salvation found in Christ with the lost. To teach this Word, to defend it against error, to point out error, to point out those like Hymenaeus, Alexander, Philetus, men who would corrupt the truth and try to promote error. God’s people should be warned that we be faithful God continues to work in us with His truth to nourish us, nurture us, enabling us to function in a way that pleases Him, brings honor to Him and enables us to prepare for the time when we shall stand and give an account to Him who is the head of the church and our Lord and Savior.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your truth. Lord as believers it’s easy for us to become casual with Your Word. We are so blessed to have multiplied copies of it in our homes, to be able to read it any at time, to study it, to be taught it and Lord with the passing of time we can begin to lose that fascination, that passion, that appreciation that You, the living God, have spoken. We have Your Words preserved and recorded for us. We are to believe it. We are to commit our lives to it. And we as a church are to be a center of this truth, a pillar and support of the truth, proclaiming it in its purity and defending it from all error. May we take these truths and live by them as we serve You faithfully from week to week we pray in Christ’s name, amen.