Good morning and Happy New Year’ Eve. Here within a short week of each other we have two Holidays that both require and receive an “Eve.” New Years of course gets and eve because you need it to properly celebrate New Years Day. If you think about it, since the day starts at exactly midnight, to celebrate its arrival you’ll have to technically start celebrating by at least 11:59 tonight. Which by the way, I’ll never see. It must be the whole getting older thing, but staying up late just doesn’t have the appeal it used to. If I stay up really late then I have to sleep later the next day to rest up. The problem with that is that I’m a productive morning person. Meaning, I am much more productive in the early morning hours than any other time of day. So, if I stay up really late, I’m awake for hours that I’m not very productive and it costs me the early morning hours where I am productive. Not sure how we got off on this rabbit trail, it’s probably the 2nd cup of coffee.
Marge and I have fun plans tonight to celebrate the great year of 2018 as well as the coming of 2019. We are going to Sundance Square in downtown Fort Worth for a nice dinner and then a walk over to the beautiful Bass Hall for a Frank Sinatra concert. The guy impersonates Sinatra and performs on broadway, should be a hoot. We both love Sinatra so how can you go wrong?
It’s hard to believe that’s it’s the last day of 2018. We welcomed 2018 in while living in Maui and serving at Lahaina Baptist church. What new blessings, adventures and challenges 2018 has presented. What a joy to look back and see how God’s hand continues to guide our steps. Life can be rough at times, I’m so thankful to God that He cares for His children the way He does. I cannot imagine walking this journey without the peace, love, grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father. How exciting to ponder what God has in store for us in 2019!
Speaking of exciting, we once again have the privilege of shifting gears and starting a new book in the Word of God. We finished up 2 Thessalonians on Friday so today we’ll be looking at the first chapter of 1 Timothy. It’s definitely a shift in gears. 1 Timothy starts out 3 books in a row that all fit together regarding their purpose. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus are together known as the “Pastoral Epistles” or the “Pastor Letters.” They are all three written by Paul and as you may have deduced they were written to the men in the titles. The two Timothy books were written to Timothy and Titus to Titus.
Paul and Timothy had a strong bond in the Lord and Paul mentions Timothy in many of the 13 books that he wrote in the N.T. Paul had the privilege of presenting the gospel to Timothy in his youth and seeing him come to a saving faith in the Lord. This created a loving father-son relationship between the two that continued throughout their ministry work together. In fact, here in 1 Timothy, Paul addresses Timothy as “My true child in the Faith.” (1 Tim 1:2) A beautiful, loving bond indeed.
The Pastoral Epistles are special in that they deal with the doctrine, conduct and leadership of the church. I guess you could kind of say that these are the instruction manuals for the local church. You know, God thought of everything, covered everything and addressed everything in His Word. Even today we can easily access these three books to see exactly how God wants us to operate His local church. In all three letters Paul deals mainly with 2 factors: the creed or doctrine of the church and the conduct of the church. The doctrine deals with the how the church operates within and the conduct deals more with how the church deals with and serves the outside world.
The topic of church doctrine is all important and it’s how Paul starts out 1 Timothy, not just stating pure doctrine but also addressing false doctrine. You see at it’s core a church is nothing more than it’s doctrine. You show me the doctrine of a church and I can tell you what they believe. Paul is crystal clear in declaring the doctrine of God’s church:
“ The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Tim 1:15
But Paul spends most of chapter 1 dealing not with the true doctrine but with those that are teaching a different doctrine. You see, you can be absolutely certain of one thing, satan will ensure that wherever the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, He will move someone to pervert it. Satan will raise someone to teach it just a little bit different. In our world today, it’s a world of small differences. A world of inches. Things are changed little by little before our eyes. Look at life in the 50's compared to life today. How did all these societal changes happen? Little by little, day by day. If you are not extremely knowledgeable and stable in your beliefs, you can be led astray easily. It’s like the old saying, “if you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything.” As Paul starts out the chapter, we see that as he moved onto Macedonia, he specifically left Timothy behind for this purpose:
“so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.” 1 Tim 1:3-4
First and foremost, Paul addresses the need for a pure and true doctrine. The goodness of God’s Word is that it is truth and truth does not change. I heard a saying a while back, “the great thing about the truth is that no matter how many times you tell it, it never changes.” I love that, and there is no truer statement concerning God’s Word and the doctrine of the church. The creed of the church in 54AD that we’re reading about today, is the identical creed that the church of 2018 should be desperately clinging to. That Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was born of a virgin, came as a man to this Earth to die on a Cross and be raised from the dead, to save all people from the eternal death of their sin. God's Word is truth and the truth doesn’t change.
If you’re part of a local church do you know specifically what your church’s doctrine is? You should be able to easily find it either online or in the church office. If you’re not 100% sure, I challenge you today to go to any length to find out. A church’s doctrine should be based only on the Gospel of Jesus Christ that is clearly presented in the Holy Word of God. You see, the only pure truth on this planet is the Word of God. Every man and every woman is a sinner and will therefore fall at some point. Since all organizations are ran by men and women, they will all falter at some point as well. Where can you truly put your trust? In the Word of God. Therefore that should be the sole basis for the doctrine of the church of God.
I’ve heard it said that “religion is man-made” and it’s so true. The Word of God is crystal clear and all we need do is study it and execute it. But as sinners it cannot be done perfectly. As sinners encounter the Word of God and change it and alter it to better meet their needs, the result is man-made religion.
I’m thankful that God so carefully and intentionally gave us not one but three of the Pastoral Epistles to kindly inform us of the proper plan for His dear and beloved church. All we need do is rely upon the Word of God and ensure that its truth is executed.
I pray that you are a member of a local body of believers and that you are active in that body, utilizing the gifts God has given you to serve others. I also pray that this body of believers is based on one thing and one thing alone, the teaching and preaching of the truth of God’s Word. If the Word of God is not being preached in its entirety at your church, I encourage you to find a church where it is. Paul starts out his letter to Timothy warning him of false teachings and that same warning rings true for us today, false teachings are all around us.
You know, you can do something today to battle false teaching. You can do something right where you are to protect yourself and those around you. You can spend time daily in the Word of God. You see, if I spend time each day studying Icelandic history, in short time I will become very knowledgeable on the topic. If someone tries to present a false history of Iceland to me, I will be able to spot it immediately and repudiate it. I will have prepared myself against the falsehood. It’s no different with God’s Word. Prepare yourself against the false teachings of the world by spending valuable time in God’s Word.
God bless and Happy New Year!
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