September 6, 2009
Morning Service

I Tim. 1:1-11

 

1.      We have just finished the first letter to the Thessalonians.  On Paul’s second missionary journey.  While at Troas, this happened to him;  

Act 16:8-10  Then passing by Mysia, they came down into Troas.  (9)  And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A certain man of Macedonia stood, begging him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us!  (10)  And after he saw the vision, we immediately tried to go into Macedonia, gathering that the Lord had called us in order to preach the gospel to them.

2.      While in Macedonia Paul visited Philippi, Thyatira, Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica.  These places were all filled with idol worship. 

3.      After being able to establish a congregation of believers, Paul later writes back to them, the letter of I Thessalonians.  In this letter the Apostle says this;  1Th 3:1-2  Therefore when we could no longer endure, we were pleased to be left at Athens alone.  (2)  And we sent Timothy, our brother and minister of God, and our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you concerning your faith,

What is it that Timothy knew concerning the faith that would establish, and comfort these believers?  We can get a very good idea of this by reading the letters that the Apostle wrote to this young Evangelist.  Let’s see what Paul told Timothy in the letters that he wrote to him.

 

About Timothy:

Nearly all that can now be known of Timothy is to be learned from the New Testament. He was a native of either Derbe or Lystra, but it is not certainly known which Act_16:1. Paul found him there on his visit to those places, and does not appear to have been acquainted with him before. His mother, whose name was Eunice, was a Jewess, and was pious, as was also his grandmother, Lois 2Ti_1:3. His father was a Greek, but was evidently not unfriendly to the Jewish religion, because Timothy had been carefully trained in the Scriptures 2Ti_3:15.

 

It would seem, also, that he was a youth of uncommon hope and promise, and that there had been some special indications that he would rise to distinction as a religious man, and would exert an extended influence in favor of religion 1Ti_1:18.

 

Act 16:1-4  And he came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple named Timothy was there, the son of a woman who was a Jewess and who believed. But his father was a Greek.  (2)  He was well reported of by the brothers at Lystra and Iconium.  (3)  Paul wanted him to go with him, and taking him he circumcised him, because of the Jews who were in those places; for they all knew that his father was a Greek.  (4)  And as they passed through the cities, they delivered to them the commandments to keep, the ones that were ordained by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem.

 

 

We begin by PAUL’S PAST CHARGE TO TIMOTHY:

1Ti 1:1-11  Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the command of God our Savior, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,  (2)  to Timothy, my own son in the faith. Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.  (3)  Even as I begged you to remain at Ephesus, when I was going to Macedonia, that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine,  (4)  nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies (which provide doubts rather than the nurture of God in faith). 

• Timothy is to warn those that would teach another gospel, or doctrine.   We saw how important it is to all speak the same thing.  Gal 1:8-9  But even if we or an angel from Heaven preach a gospel to you beside what we preached to you, let him be accursed.  (9)  As we said before, and now I say again, If anyone preaches a gospel to you beside what you have received, let him be accursed.
• 1Co 1:10  But I exhort you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

 

 

 

Now Paul tells Timothy it’s not in fables, or endless genealogies;

(5)  But the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned, 

• Jesus said concerning love;  Joh 13:34  I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. As I have loved you, you should also love one another.
• Jam 2:8  Howbeit if ye fulfil the royal law, according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well:
• 1Pe 1:22  Seeing ye have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unfeigned love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently:
• 1Co 13:1-8  If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.  (2)  And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  (3)  And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.  (4)  Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,  (5)  doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;  (6)  rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;  (7)  beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  (8)  Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.   1Co 13:13  But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

(6)  from which some, having swerved, have turned aside to foolish talking,  (7)  desiring to be teachers of the law, neither understanding what they say nor that which they affirm.  (8)  But we know that the law is good if a man uses it lawfully,  (9)  knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous one, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,  (10)  for fornicators, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and anything else that is contrary to sound doctrine, 

• These teachers of the law were not rightly dividing the Word, and placing love as the most important aspect of the gospel.  They were trying to force all the Jewish laws on the people, and Paul is telling Timothy, “you correct this.”
• But Paul says the law is good, if a man uses it lawfully.  Then lists the things that we ourselves should not be doing.  We should not be lawless and disobedient, nor ungodly and nor practicing sin, nor unholy or profane, nor murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, nor manslayers,  (10)  nor fornicators, nor homosexuals, nor slave-traders, nor liars, nor perjurers, and anything else that is contrary to sound doctrine;

 

(11)  according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.

• Remembering what the Apostle said in the glorious gospel;  a little later in this letter Paul says,        “2Ti 3:15-17  And that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.  (16)  Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness.  (17)  That the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

 

SO WE CAN SEE BY THE BEGINNING OF THIS LETTER THAT TIMOTHY IS TO WARN THOSE WHO WOULD PREACH ANOTHER DOCTRINE, OR GOSPEL.

 

WE CAN SEE THAT THE LAW IS GOOD, IF USED PROPERLY, AND THAT ALL THE THINGS THAT PERTAIN TO UNGODLINESS, AND SIN IN THE LAW, APPLY TO US TODAY.

 

WE CAN SEE THAT FABLES, AND GENEOLOGIES ARE NOT PART OF THIS GLORIOUS GOSPEL, BUT LOVE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT.  IF WE LOVE THE WAY WE SHOULD NONE OF THESE OTHER THINGS WILL BE FOUND IN OUR DAILY WALK. 

 

THEN WE WILL BE TRYING TO KEEP THE UNITY OF THIS GLORIOUS GOSPEL THAT THE APOSTLE PAUL IS TEACHING.

 

LOVE ONE ANOTHER, BY THIS ALL MEN WILL KNOW YOU ARE MY DISCIPLES.