 First Timothy, what we're going to be looking at is we're going to be looking at a letter that was written to a pastor and instructions that he's receiving from the Apostle Paul. And so I'll begin reading to you in First Timothy chapter one at verse one. I'll read to verse four. I'm going to give to you an introduction that's going to take some time to lay the foundation for you so that you'll understand the purpose of the book and all of that. And then we're going to move into practical application of some of the things that we'll be reading here in First Timothy. So let's begin reading in First Timothy chapter one at verse one. I'll read to verse four and we're only going to cover four verses today. And so we'll begin here by looking at First Timothy chapter one beginning at verse one reading to verse four, Paul and Apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope to Timothy, a true Son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. For those of you who are visiting here, perhaps this is your first time attending. Let me share a couple of things as I lay a foundation and then I'll explain how we do things in terms of the way I teach and all so that you'll be prepared for the study as we give it today. What we do normally is we lay a foundation. And what I want to do is I want to lay a foundation so that you know the direction of this particular book. And so in every Bible said I give to you, I give to you a foundation and then I try to build upon it and I do so in layers. And so here what we have is an introduction to a book that is called the First Epistle of Paul to a young pastor by the name of Timothy. And what I want to do is I want to highlight certain things once again as introductory comments. I'll give you some things concerning the purpose of the book, the time of its writing and all. But I'm doing that and giving this explanation because I'm aware of the conditions culturally that the church today is living in. And that's one of the reasons why I think Timothy is such an important book for us to look at together. You see today we live in an age when the message of the gospel or Bible teaching per se is regarded by many as simply being irrelevant, that it's not something that really applies to me today. How do you take some ancient words and how do you practically apply those things? And so for many people the gospel is irrelevant to real life. When you speak to them concerning the message of the gospel and all they'll say to you that it's a message, that's true, but it's one message among many similar messages. So that means in essence that they don't consider it to be interesting, they don't consider the message of the gospel exciting, it most certainly isn't important. And pastors are aware of this. Passers are very aware of the way people think today. And as a matter of fact many of the pastors have adjusted their entire style of ministry to accommodate the age that they're attempting to reach. And so what has happened is they have developed different teaching styles that basically are attempts to communicate to people and to relate to people so that the people will actually come back the next week because there are many people who don't listen more than five or ten minutes at a time and if they don't like what they're hearing within the first ten minutes they get up and they walk out. And we pastors know that I've been ministering for a long time. I taught my very first Bible study, first formal Bible study in September of 1973. I have been teaching this month forty-four years. So I have some experience in what I'm saying. And there was a time when people would actually come and listen to an entire Bible study. If they didn't agree they didn't come back. But that time is far gone. That doesn't happen anymore. Within the first five to ten minutes if somebody does not relate, does not connect they find it easy to get up and walk out, which is really unheard of when I first got saved. When I first got saved I went to a place called Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa. And Pastor Chuck Smith was the pastor of that church at that time and one of my cousins, his name was Ray, needed the Lord. So I invited him to come to church and so Ray, my sister Madeleine and I went to Calvary and we went early because you had to be early to get a seat. Because if you came late you'd be sitting in the aisle. You'd actually be sitting around the base of the platform. Some were even sitting on the platform. It was that crowded. It was a small church. It only sat about 300 people in it. But there were hundreds of kids. You'd have 500 kids coming to a church building that sat 300. So he went early and so I took my cousin Ray early and we got a seat there and as we were seated the worship happened and then Chuck, my pastor comes out to speak and as I'm seated there my cousin Ray whispers to me, I've got to go. I said, you don't know, no, no. We don't know. We're in the Bible study, Ray. He says, Dave, I have an appointment. I have to go. I said, Ray, no, we can't get up and I was three or four rows away from Pastor Chuck. Chuck goes right here. There I am and I'm talking like this and I said, no. He says, I've got to go. So I stand up and Ray stands up and my sister stands up and we have to thread our way between all these people who were seated on the aisles. Pastor Chuck looks at me, my first conversation with Chuck Smith. Young man, that's how Chuck would speak to you. Young man, if you knew that you weren't going to stay for the Bible study, why did you sit in that pew taking a place of somebody who's going to sit here to hear the word of God? He says it to me, my first conversation. I got my crazy cousin with me. It was his fault. You know what my cousin does? He puts the one way and let's just take you home, put you back in the institution. That was my first conversation. I spoke to Pastor Chuck years, years later. I said, Chuck, I remember you saying this is the first time you spoke to me and you asked me why I took the seat of somebody. And I said, and you just let me know in front of everybody. And he says, and you deserved it. I said, that's true. That's true. See, there was a time when you actually respected what was being said, even if you disagreed. That day is long gone. Within five to 10 minutes today, if someone doesn't like what they're here and they just get up and walk out and they don't care if they interrupt in the Bible, they don't care that is God's word. They don't care it's God's people. They don't care. They just get up and go. We understand that. Pastors understand that has happened so many times. It happens all the time. It's happened so many times you have to preach around that because that's the way the world is. I understand that. But pastors today are adjusting to the way people respond. And so they're changing their style of communication. And what has happened is some have become entertainers. And so what they do is they polish their presentation and they emphasize personality. And they're very careful to entertain those goats. They want the goats to remain. They're not feeding sheep. They're entertaining goats. And what they're trying to do is they're trying to keep them there so they can finish their sentence before the person gets up rudely and walks out. And what happens is they change their whole style of teaching so that they don't say things that discourage or offend. And I've said this many times. It's like this old song I heard when I was a kid, Home on the Range. And the church becomes like Home on the Range where never is heard a discouraging word. So they won't say anything to cause somebody to actually examine their own hearts to see whether or not they're right with God. So they have a group of people who show up because they want them there. But they're not being fed because they've changed the style of teaching to the degree that it becomes something that's more entertainment. Others have become great storytellers. They'll begin their message with a story and they have story after story after story. And the people come for the stories because it's exciting. Oh, you had this great adventure. And you did this and you learned that and you did. And oh, wow. And they like the stories. One story after another, after another, after another. But what that does is it produces a dull minded sheep who just wants to hear stories and not the word of God. Some have become like magicians. You remember those magicians who had the big top hat and they'd stick their hand in and pull a rabbit out of it? They'd do that to the Bible. They'll stick their hand in the Bible and pull something out. It's not even there. It's an illusion. But people think it's great. I remember somebody saying to me, oh, I was listening to so and so and he was saying this and that. And I didn't even know that it was in the Bible. And I said, that's because it's not. That's because it's not. That's because they gave you some kind of illusion to make you think that it is, but it's not at all. They're a magician. And then you have others who like to ride their hobby horse. It doesn't matter what that passage says. They're going to get back to what is the thing that intrigues them the most or causes them to think about it the most. It happens all the time. And people like the hobby horse. So you have entertainers. You have storytellers. You have magicians. The hobby horse rider and passers are aware of that. Passers are aware of that. Nobody, nobody starts a Bible study with the hope that people just get up and walk out. Nobody plants a church where they want people to not come back. And so what we do is we adjust and that's what has taken place in these days. But the bottom line is, is we know that the Bible is the word of God. And it's by his word that we want to live. And that's why we teach through books of the Bible. And that's what we're going to do today. We're going to begin a series in 1 Timothy. And I want you to know what the book is. And that means I give to you introductions. That means that give to you foundations. That gives to you information so that as you're going through Timothy and reading it on your own, you can say, oh, that's why this was written. No, I can see that. And that's where this introduction is actually leading. As you look at 1 Timothy, I'll give you a few things. A few facts about it. This book was written around the year 63 A.D. It was written from a place called Macedonia. You see that in verse three where Paul says, I urged you when I went into Macedonia. The letter was written from Macedonia. When you're looking at a map, you've got Greece. You have Northern Greece and it's connected to Southern Greece, the little isthmus that connects you to Southern Greece. Macedonia would be the Northern portion by what is called, was Yugoslavia. So that's the Northern region of Greece. It was written as a letter of encouragement and instruction to a young man by the name of Timothy who was the pastor of the church there in the city of Ephesus. When you look at Timothy, Timothy was a young man who had been wanted Jesus Christ through the ministry of the apostle Paul. As we've been going through the book of Acts, some of you have journeyed with me through Acts and when we got to chapter 16, we were introduced to this man, Timothy, and we saw how he was converted under Paul's ministry in the city of Lystra. We saw that he has a mother who was Jewish and a father who was a Gentile, who was Greek. And yet Paul had brought him to faith in Christ and that's why he would say in verse two that Timothy is what he called a true son in the faith. This man had been converted to faith in Christ through his ministry. As we read our Bible, we discovered that his grandmother's name was Lois, that his mother's name was Eunice. And according to 2 Timothy, chapter one, verse five, they had become believers in Christ. And it was Lois and Eunice that prepared Timothy to become a man of faith. Paul speaks about that in 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, when he says to Timothy, from childhood, you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. And so, one application we get right from the beginning is this. What had happened is grandmother and mother, Jewish's who had a love for the Old Testament had raised this young man who was a mix of Jewish and Gentile and brought him up in the faith of Israel and thus they gave to him the Old Testament and prepared his heart. And that's what Paul is referring to in 2 Timothy 3, 15, when he says the holy scriptures are able to make you wise, wise for salvation. In other words, the seed had been planted, the word of God had been planted in young Timothy's life and thus when he heard the gospel it connected, God used that, his faith was placed in Christ and he became a safe man and that's why Paul can call him my genuine son in the faith. Here's something for us as parents. You who have small children or even a younger teenage, young years or whatever. One of the things that I would encourage you to is pour into your children the word of God. Have times in God's word. When my children were small from the time, they were very small from the first, all through all four of them. Marie and I would pray with them, we would pray before meals, even when they were so small they didn't realize that we were praying. We'd have them in their little high chair there. I would take them by the wrist, I'd just hold them lightly on the wrist because they want to eat and I would say in a minute we're going to pray first to Jesus and we would pray and I'd say Jesus thank you for this food and I taught them to pray and to thank God for their meals from the time they were infants. As I got older, we would have home devotions. We had devotions with my kids five out of seven days out of the week, five out of seven nights. The only two nights they didn't have a devotion as they were growing up was Wednesday and Sunday night because I taught Wednesday and I taught Sunday. They would come to the Bible studies, all the Bible studies from the time they were small because I knew that the enemy was going to go after my children. I knew that he was going to destroy them. I knew that he was going to go after their life. I knew that. I knew that it's a war for children. It's a war for their souls. It's a war for their minds. I know they're going to go to a school that is not going to teach them what we're training them up in. I know that. And how are they going to be equipped to fight if I don't equip them? I didn't expect others to do that. I did it myself. And yes, when they got older they gave us a run for the money. I have to tell you. They were not saints. Some of you know my kids. You can say amen, I don't mind. They weren't saints. But you know what? They were secured through prayer. And I said, God, your word says, train up a child when he is young and when he is old he will not depart from it. In Jesus' name I'm going to keep pouring into my kids and pouring into my kids and pouring into my kids because one day it's going to come home. One day the word will find root in them and produce fruit. I trust you for this. And that's what we did. Listen, parent, teach your children. Don't expect the church to do that. Pour the word of God into them. Pray for them. And train them up in the ways of the Lord. The world will not do that. The world wants to destroy your children but God gave you the responsibility to raise them. And that's what happened with Timothy. That's how it worked with Timothy. From an early age, from infancy you knew the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise into salvation. That's how it works. That's how it works. And so that's what Paul is speaking about right now. You see, after he had gotten saved he became a traveling companion for the apostle Paul. Paul went on several missionary journeys. There are three recorded in the book of Acts and on Paul's second missionary journey he planted a church. He planted a church in Ephesus. You see that in Acts chapter 18. Now when you look at Ephesus in history, Ephesus was a huge city according to ancient standards and it was breathtaking. In its beauty, I've been to Ephesus on more than one occasion. And the ruins, just the ruins you can tell this was an amazing city. It was huge by ancient standards. It's located on the southwest coast of Turkey. It was a commercial center of what is called Asia Minor. During the Roman occupation of Ephesus the city swelled to over 250 up to 300,000 people. It was the second largest city in the Roman Empire as well as the world. It was known for its harbor, but it was also known for magic as well as the temple of Diana. And the temple of Diana when you look in ancient history was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. One source said it is estimated that the temple measured between 350 and 377 feet long by 175 to 180 feet wide. To relate its size to modern perspective, the layout of the temple was longer and wider than a standard size football field. The temple of Diana also called Artemis was considered the first Greek style temple to be made completely of marble. It was built with more than 100 marble columns standing 40 feet high and the entire project took over 120 years to complete. So if you're doing an addition, don't complain. Paul planted the church in Ephesus but he eventually left it in the hands of a young man named Timothy. Now to minister in such an opulent and decadent society was incredibly intimidating. And so for this reason, Paul wrote to encourage Timothy to remain strong and faithful. There are places that are like demonic strongholds. There are places that have an openness sometimes to the gospel. This area here that we're in has an openness to the gospel. It still does, thank God for it. But there are other places not that far from here that are strongholds of opposition. I ministered for a few years in Claremont and Claremont is a stronghold. It's got many, it's got higher education there. It's got a real strong anti-Christian feel to it. Some of you know what I'm talking about and it's kind of difficult to reach. But there are other places that it seems that they're just waiting. Come and tell us about the Lord we want to hear. Ephesus was a stronghold. It's like if you go into some of the parts of LA or you go to some places in San Diego or you go into San Francisco, they're strongholds. And you go in there and you try and plant a church and they call it a graveyard of churches because pastors go in and they plant a work and nobody wants to hear, nobody comes. Ephesus was a stronghold and it was intimidating. And yet Paul is telling this young pastor, stay there and do a work for the Lord in this mighty city called Ephesus. Now, as Paul is writing to this young man, he's giving him instructions. And these are the things we're gonna see as we go through 1st Timothy. He says, these are the things you're to do, Timothy, expose false teaching, develop qualified leaders, teach the word of God. He says, exercise your spiritual gift, become an example, fight the good fight of faith. He says, organize the church under qualified leaders. He also says, you're to refute error by teaching the truth, encourage godly conduct by being godly, protect the purity of the church by enacting church discipline on members who are in need of correction. These are the things you need to do, Timothy. And you'll see these things as we go through this letter to Timothy. When you're looking at it and you're studying it, there's a key word. And the key word that is used here is the word doctrine. The word doctrine literally means teaching. And Paul uses the word doctrine in this letter eight times, which tells us he's emphasizing something. So someone asked, why would doctrine be so important? Why can't we just believe what we wanna believe about God? After all, some say it's not about doctrine, it's about Jesus. But that kind of comment is actually reflective of what would be called the last days because the Bible says in the last days, people will no longer endure healthy doctrine. And so when you have people saying, well, it's not really teaching we need, we need to feel closer to God, it's just symptomatic of the fact that we're living in the days just preceding the return of Christ. Why is doctrine so important? Doctrine is important because it safeguards people. Eternal life and a lifestyle that brings glory to God rests on accurate teaching because what you believe is what you ultimately do. And what you believe and do is what makes up your influence. And when you are believing and doing things that are wrong, you influence others to wrong. So Paul is speaking to him about this because it's important. We'll see in 1st Timothy 4.16 how he says to Timothy, take heed to yourself and to the doctrine, continuing them for in doing this, you will save both yourself and those who hear you. And so this concern for safeguarding proper teaching is paramount to the apostle Paul. Again, in the book of Acts, when you get to Acts chapter 20, records Paul's last conversation that he had with the elders of the church of Ephesus. Paul knew that he would never see them again. And so in Acts 20, he's giving them final instructions. And he says in Acts 20 verses 27 through 30, and he's speaking to these elders. He says, I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will, the whole counsel of God. Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from their own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. They're gonna come and they're gonna invade your church is what he was telling them. They're gonna come and invade. They're gonna be outsiders who come in and they're gonna bring false teachings and begin to infect. But not only will there be people who come in from the outside, a great danger also is those who are on the inside using their influence. And it all comes because they're drawing disciples after themselves. So doctrine is important because it has consequences for now as well as for eternity. There's your introduction. Let's get in the study. Verse one, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. To Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God, our Father and the Lord, and Jesus Christ, our Lord. The way they wrote letters in the time of Paul is outlined right in front of us. It would begin, the letter would begin with the author of the letter. So he begins by saying Paul. The second thing you would see is the recipient of the letter, which is what you see when he says to Timothy. And the third thing you would see in their letter would be a blessing, grace, mercy and peace from God, our Father. And so this is the typical way that letters were written during that time. Notice how Paul describes himself. He identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He identifies himself like this in nine out of the 13 letters that he writes in the New Testament. He's an apostle. The word apostle literally speaks of one who's been sent out and has had designated authority. So he's speaking concerning himself as one who's been sent out by the Lord Jesus Christ with the authority of heaven. He's an apostle. But he's also an apostle by the commandment of God, meaning he didn't select himself. He's pointing out that God is the one who appointed him to that position. God chose him. God sent him on this mission. You see, we do not need to be looking to other people to appoint us. The appointing comes from the Lord himself. In John 15, 16, it says, you haven't chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain. So I am an apostle by the commandment of God. In Galatians 1, 1, Paul would say, Paul an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead. So he begins by saying my authority is through God. The commandment was from God for me to be this. But he also refers to God as our savior and Jesus as our hope. So when he says, God our savior, God our savior reflects Paul's rejection of Nero because Nero, Caesar Nero was referred to as the savior of the world. And so Paul is making it clear that Caesar's not the savior of the world, God is. In Isaiah 43, 11, it says, I even I am the Lord and beside me there is no savior. Isaiah 13, 4 says, I am the Lord, your God from the land of Egypt, you shall know no God but me for there is no savior beside me. So he's saying my commandment didn't come from Rome and Caesar is not my God. I do what God has called me to do. It's what he's saying because I received this commandment from the Lord. The world hasn't been given the responsibility of telling the church what we're to do. Our orders come from the Lord and we find those orders through God's word. Paul is making it very clear that that's how it works, that we take our orders from the Lord. You can call Caesar Nero the savior of the world if you'd like as a Roman citizen, Paul was saying, but we know the true savior and the true savior is God himself. And we follow God's directives, not yours, regardless of whether somebody thinks they can force us to do what they think is the right thing to do. We don't take our orders from the world. My friend Ron is pastor of Houston, Calvary. They were in the newspaper recently because he's become a center there for the hurricane situation and all there in the Houston area. And his church has become a center where many churches, many Calvary, especially churches have been sending teams to work and sending finances to help and all of that. And so recently there was an article written about Calvary Houston because somebody from the LGBT, quote unquote community was angry because they had come and wanted to serve with the church as the church was doing its work. And they said, I'm sorry, but this is for believers. The work that we're doing is coming out of our church and the members of our church and other Christians who were coming from around the nation. And so no, we're not gonna have LGBT serving here in the church given the impression that your believers, because in fact, your lifestyle disqualifies you from that. Now that's Bible, that's Bible. And so what do they do? They call them haters. And they start saying, oh, these people hate us and they're this, you know, but Ron stood firm. Why? Because no, we don't take our orders from the world. You know, listen, if you wanna go out and do a work, go do it. Listen, here we go. I shouldn't do this. I'm gonna do it. Here we go. You know, we see these people, these anti-fascists, they call them Antifa, right? And you see them marching, you see them hating and apparently the hurricanes that are coming is because of Trump. I read that. One of the Hollywood elites with an intellect that's equal to a stone was saying that. And so everything bad happens is because it's Trump and therefore the hurricanes really result of some judgment that's coming because of Donald Trump, which to me is really, it's really sad. It's really a sad way to think and it's so bad. But with that said, I don't see these people who are protesting. I don't see these people who are violent. I don't see these people who are doing the things that they're doing in such an angry way. I haven't seen them on any work in any food lines. I haven't seen them taking up collections and offerings and getting teams of Antifa people to go on to actually serve and help and clean out homes that are messed up. No, why? Because they're parasites. Because they take from what good people do and they only, they call us haters when in reality they're the haters. If they're so good, I'm gonna say it this way. If they're so good, why aren't you doing something good? Why aren't you out there helping? Why aren't you crying with those who are losing things? Why aren't you ministering to the children? Why aren't you taking what you are as a parasite? What you are as a parasite, you know, the Boy Scouts of America years ago was being infiltrated by homosexual scout leaders and I wrote a letter and wrote it to the editor and it was printed and I said, listen, I said the homosexual community has a tendency of taking something that has a tradition of doing good for many years and then they say you are excluding us from that. Why don't you start the gay atheists of America and see how many people come to yours? Why don't you do that? Why do you have to take something that has been so good for so many years and has done so many good things for so many kids? Why do you have to destroy that so your agenda is pressed? Listen, we shouldn't and we cannot put up with that garbage. The bottom line is is we have truth that comes from the gospel. We live for Jesus Christ and that's what we're supposed to do. That's called Christianity. That's Christianity. See, so our commandment comes from God. It doesn't come from man. I answer to a higher authority than some disgruntled individual who decides to get up and walk out on a church service. I answer to God himself and that's what Paul is saying. And we have to understand that. If you fear anyone, Jesus said fear God. Don't fear man, fear God. And that's what we're taught to do. That's Christianity 101. People don't understand that. And so I'll get off that horse and move into another, right? Jesus is our hope. Listen, he's our hope and he speaks of him in that way. He says by commandment of God, our Savior and Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope. Without Jesus, we have no hope. No hope for eternity. Why? Well, according to Ephesians, chapter two, verse 12, once again, Paul writing to this church that Timothy pastored. According to Ephesians two, verse 12, he said to them, at that time, you were without Christ. Being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the Covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, having no hope and without God. You see, when we receive Christ, we're given hope and we live in hope. And our hope is not in man and our hope does not originate in what the world offers us. Psalm 25, verse five, reads, guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior. My hope is in you all day long. So no matter what we may be going through, we go through it because of our hope. The word hope is translated, confident expectation. It isn't used in the Bible, the way that we use it in our common parlance. When we say hope today, it's like, I hope the Dodger stopped losing. That's hope. It's confident expectation. Jesus Christ is our hope. We hope in Him. We have a confident expectation. We are saved, Paul said to the Romans. We are saved in hope. And so we have a confidence in the Lord and all. And Jesus Christ is our hope. No matter what our circumstances may be, as we go through those things, God has a way of strengthening us as we go through, and why? Because we have hope. In Romans 15, 13, it says that God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. We also look forward in hope to the final results of living in hope. In Titus 2, 13, Paul said, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. In 1 John 3, 2, and 3, it says, beloved, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure. So he says in verse 2 to Timothy, my genuine son in the faith. Paul had no son of his own. But he loved and treated Timothy as if he were his own. And you gotta think for just a moment how Timothy reading this, how that would have registered with his heart. That Paul is saying, Timothy, you're my son. You're my son. I don't have any children. I didn't have any. But I have you. You're my son in the faith. Allow me to give a personal illustration of why that matters. Pastor Chuck was my pastor. Chuck Smith, pastor of Calvary Chapel Coastal Mesa was my pastor for a long time. I was at a pastor's conference on one occasion. I was seated next to him. My father had gone home to be with Jesus and I was seated next to Pastor Chuck and I said to him, you know, I said, Pastor, I said, Chuck, you know, God has been gracious to me. He gave me my father who I love with all of my heart, my physical dad. He gave me my father, but he also gave me you and you are my father and I love you like a son. I was in a pastor's conference a few years ago and just before Pastor Chuck went home to be with Jesus. As a matter of fact, I believe it was the last pastor's conference that we had with my pastor, Chuck and he was seated off to the right. He used to always be seated in the same place and it was one of the very last conferences and I was teaching at the pastor's conference. There were over 700 pastors there and as I was teaching, I was sharing about loyalty and ministry and Chuck was there and as I was teaching, I turned and I looked at him. I still remember looking at Chuck. He was only just a few feet away and I said, Chuck, I want you to know something. I want you to know that I am loyal to you. That you are my pastor and I will not bring shame to you. You are my pastor and I love you. It was a time I was teaching at a men's conference in Anaheim and we would have between seven and 10,000 men in this conference and I was teaching at this particular conference and there's a stage set up and then there's the backstage area. They had some seats lined up next to the stage and then they have other seats that are in a different area and a lot of the guys are in the different area and Pastor Chuck was seated by himself in this line of chairs, just a few steps from the stairs that would take you up to the platform and I was the next speaker and so I came and I sat next to Pastor Chuck and as I sat next to him, he was shoulder to shoulder with me and I just turned and I smiled at him and he looked at me and out of nowhere as I was seated there, Pastor Chuck leans back and puts his arm around my shoulder and then drew me to himself and just held on to me like father would hold a son and I have to tell you even to this day that makes me choke up. He was my father, my spiritual father and I loved him like a son loves a father and when Chuck told me how important I was to him I have a letter that he wrote me that I still have where he says that to me and I kept it, it's a memory. I understand what Timothy would feel when he read this letter from Pastor Paul who said my genuine son in the faith, my genuine son. That means something, it means a lot and it must have touched this young man's heart. You see, Paul loved him and spoke highly of him. When you read Philippians 2, you see in verses 19 through 22 how he said, I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you. I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare for everyone looks out for his own interest not those of Jesus Christ but you know that Timothy has proved himself because as a son with his father he has served with me in the work of the gospel and so Timothy had been converted to faith through the ministry of the apostle Paul he was a genuine believer and a son to him. Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord as I urged you when I went into Macedonia remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Now Timothy apparently was reluctant to stay in the city of Ephesus so Paul exhorts him to do so and he begins to give him orders that he's to carry out as the pastor of the church. Notice the first thing he says, charge some that they teach no other doctrine. When he says no other doctrine, charge them that they teach the same do not teach different doctrine, teach proper doctrine. So charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Charge some not to teach a different thing. Charge them not to deviate from the truth. Why? Because false teachers must be stopped from spreading error immediately. The New Testament knows nothing about allowing error to go unchallenged. Anything purporting to be Christian that changes the gospel is to be dealt with and quickly. And again, that's because error is never harmless. Error is destructive. Error destroys not just individuals, but families. In Titus 111, Paul said, there are many rebellious people mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. They must be silenced because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach and that for the sake of dishonest gain. You see, the Bible makes it very clear that truth exists and that truth matters. Why, well, one, God is the originator of truth. In Psalm 31.5, you have redeemed me, oh Lord, God of truth. God is the originator of truth and second Jesus is truth incarnate. He said, I am the way the truth and the life in John 14.6. A third thing is that the truth sets us free from Satan and bondage because he who sins is a slave to sin, Jesus said in John 8.32. And the gospel is truth revealed as well as communicated because Ephesians 1.13 reminds us, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. An interesting thing about all of that, a fifth thing is believers are those who have a love of the truth. Now, this is one of the ways for you as a believer to measure your maturity. And this helps you as an individual to know whether you're even saved. Do you have a love for the truth? Not an admiration of it, not a philosophic interest in it. Do you have a love for it? You see, in 1 Thessalonians 2 verse 9 and 10, Paul said, the coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power, signs and lying wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. It's an indicator that you're even saved if you love the truth. And this word of truth was given one time for all time. There is no need for future revelation. Jude verse three says it like this, beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. One time for all time. There are no new revelations. So one of the pastor's duties is that of identifying those who are corrupting the gospel and preaching error. That's one of the ways that a pastor actually cares for the sheep. That's one of the ways that he demonstrates his love. He protects them. And Romans 16, 17 and 18, it says I urge you brothers, watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you've learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the minds of naive people. And so there's a warning. Paul would do that. Paul would actually name names in 2 Timothy 2, 16 through 18. He said avoid godless chatter because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenias and Phyletes who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place. They destroy the faith of some. So he didn't avoid mentioning names by name. People by name. Listen, and I'll make this practical as I can today. Many Christians feel it is wrong to expose and confront error. Some feel it's un-Christian to do so because these people are doing such good things. That's because they don't believe that there is anything that is absolutely true. Somebody said it like this. It is not kindness at all, but the worst form of cruelty to suggest that what people believe doesn't really matter. It really doesn't matter much if they feel spiritual and do good. In fact, on the face of it, that claim is a blatant contradiction of the gospel message. Real righteousness simply cannot exist in isolation from belief in the truth. To make the case for any concept of practical good that subsists apart from sound doctrine, one quickly has to remove just about everything that is truly righteous from the definition of good. It doesn't take very long for that kind of thinking to undermine the foundations of Christianity itself. Listen, there are many today that are identifying themselves as Christians and they don't believe the Bible. There was a culture and media institute survey that surveyed 2,000 people and 87% said that they believe in God. 52% said they believe the Bible is God's word. Yet only 36% believed in living by the Bible and 15% said they lived by their own principles even when conflicting with God's. And 45% preferred combining God's teachings with their own beliefs. So that translates into picking and choosing passages that suit your particular belief. There was a TV preacher who was asked a question concerning Mormonism. And the question was, is Mormonism Christian? I saw this. I watched it when it took place. And when asked the question, is Mormonism Christian, this well-known TV preacher answered, it is. He said Mormons refer to Jesus as their savior and Jesus is my savior. So I would consider them to be part of the family of God. The secular interviewer corrected this well-known TV preacher. A secular interviewer corrected him. Some in this room think that Mormonism's Christian. Some of you do. Let me share with you some things. Let me be a preacher of hate for a moment, if I may. Mormonism is polytheistic. It denies original sin. It teaches that both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit have physical bodies. Mormonism teaches that Jesus was conceived through sexual intercourse between God the Father and Mary. Mormonism teaches that Jesus is the spirit brother of Lucifer, that Jesus was a polygamist, that Jesus traveled to the Americas during his three days in the tomb, that every Mormon male will one day become a God ruling over his own planet, accompanied by multiple wives, just as the God of this earth named Elohim was once a man has done here. That's Mormonism. That's Mormonism. And yet somebody's mad at me right now. That's Mormonism. It's error. It's error. And yet a pastor on TV, being interviewed, asked questions concerning this, doesn't know these things, and thus says, yeah, Mormons are my brother because he believes in Jesus. How would Paul respond to that? Well, in Galatians 1, 8, and 9, he said it like this, even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, then what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you, then what you have received, let him be accursed. That's how Paul would deal with it, because that's what scripture says. And so as a warning against false teachers, he says in verse four, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification, which is in faith. You see, these false teachers were teaching fables and superstitious myths, if you will, Jewish genealogies that would puff up the family. But God's word produces godly edification. It builds up a genuine faith in Jesus Christ, and that's what Paul wanted them to know. And again, that's what Paul told the elders of Ephesus. In Acts 20, verse 32, he said, brother, I commend you to God, to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. Listen, as a pastor of this church, I want to give to you once again, a guarantee that I've given in the past that I'm remaining firm in that is this, I will teach you the truth. When you come here, you will get a Bible study. I will teach you about Jesus Christ. I will not deviate, I will not compromise. I will tell you the truth, because it is the truth that sets you free. And that's something you'll get from here. That's what I'm gonna do. That's what I'm gonna do, because I really believe in accountability. My accountability is to the Lord. Yes, I realize that things that are said sometimes, the way I say them, doesn't come off in the way that I feel them. I know that I come off abruptly. I know that I come off strongly. But you know what? One of these days, when I stand before the Lord, I want to say to him, but I told him the best that I could. I told him the truth, the best that I could. And Father, if I wasn't tender, well, I've cried many a tear over that, but I will not lie to you. I love you guys. I am a pastor of this church, and I will not give you compromise. Amen.