0:00 Welcome once again to Words of Life. We are studying through the Bible, trying to understand the essential message of each book. In this series, we started from Genesis, 0:21 and now we have reached Paul's first letter to Timothy. The three letters that Paul wrote to Timothy and one to Titus are primarily written for God's servants in churches. Those who are elders of churches, 0:44 those who are pastors or teachers in churches, and it's good for all who are serving as leaders in churches to read these letters frequently. 1:06 Revelation chapter 2 and chapter 3 are also good passages for people to read frequently. The subject of 1 Timothy, we could say, is the church and its shepherd. 1:27 Paul had a great burden before he died. He knew his approach, then a death was approaching to share all that he had learned with the next generation. 1:48 And we see here that this letter, we find him expressing that burden. He is concerned that Timothy should ensure that people don't teach strange doctrines. Chapter 1, verse 3. 2:15 That's very important in our day and age. There are lots and lots and lots of strange doctrines going on in Christendom today. And we have to make sure that Christians are not led astray by these strange doctrines. 2:40 And the other thing which you find Paul telling Timothy frequently here, is to be very careful about his speech and conversation. Don't get into all types of arguments and foolish discussions. 3:08 These are very important exhortations for those who preach God's Word. to proclaim his word. Because we cannot expect God to use our mouth to proclaim his word if we use our mouth at other times for gossip and backbiring. 3:38 In chapter 1, the primary burden is good doctrine and a clear conscience. He warns Timothy not to get involved in any argument with people. 4:02 And not to forget what the goal of all our preaching is it's very important when you play a football game to know where the goal is. Do you know 4:22 when you preach the word? What is the goal that you should be aiming for? Many Christians don't. Here is a very good verse. Verse 5 The goal of all our preaching is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 4:43 Think of those things individually. The ultimate goal is love. So we deal with people who have been redeemed 5:04 from the race of Adam and they still have a flesh which is full of corruption which has got hatred and all its children in it in that flesh. 5:25 And we have to redeem them from that to the place where their heart is filled only with love. So the purpose of all our preaching is to get everyone in our church to love God with all their hearts. and to love one another. 5:50 If we accomplish this then we have attained our goal. But this love must come from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6:14 Let's look at faith first of all. Without faith it is impossible to please God. So our ultimate goal is this love. But we have to prepare the hearts first of all by getting them to have faith in God. and that is 6:38 to know God as a loving father to have absolutely no doubt about the love of God that God that God loves covers them and cares for them all the time. 7:01 And that every command God has given is out of love. If you don't believe that you don't have faith. and that God will provide all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. 7:21 Faith and a good conscience means every sin confessed cleansed confessed and cleansed and a pure heart is a heart which is God placed in it only for God. 7:43 No place for money or relatives or job or house or anything. Only God. So this is the ground sincere faith a good conscience and a pure heart 8:04 on this ground we have to have the fruit of love to grow and this is the goal of all our teaching. When you listen to a lot of preaching today do you feel that that is 8:24 leading you to this goal? not at all most of today's preaching is just makes you feel nice just assures you that you are a very important person gives you a pep 8:45 talk to overcome discouragement just temporarily they know very well you will come back discouraged again next week no permanent cure and then teaches you how to have a better 9:06 house and a better car and a better job it is so different from the goal of the apostles all knew that people in the last days will drift away from the truth thank God 9:26 for men like that who had this burden to communicate this truth keep this in mind whenever you hear any preaching and if you are a preacher make this your goal it is like 9:47 a football game if the goal is at one end you may be a first class player kicking the ball somewhere else you get nothing you may be a first class preacher but you are preaching something else that is useless a second class 10:12 preacher who scores the goal is better than you the important thing is to reach this goal I am amazed that so many believers just are so ignorant of scripture that they don't even consider when they hear preaching whether it's 10:31 leading them to this goal it says here in verse 6 some men straying from this type of goal have turned aside to fruitless discussion arguments 10:54 to fruitless discussions and arguments they want to be great teachers it says but they don't understand anything they talk they talk about the law some people many Christians 11:14 and some Christians anyway even today make much of the law and the commandments they try to control Christians behavior with a lot of rules and regulations but that is not God's way 11:35 God's way is to make us holy through the Holy Spirit not with rules and regulations rules and regulations is like holding a pig with a chain so that it doesn't get dirty but God's way 11:55 is to change our nature so that we become like a cat that hates dirt so it says here in verse 9 the law is not made for a righteous man that's like saying you don't need to put a chain on a cat to prevent it from jumping 12:13 into the dirty water no it doesn't need a law it will automatically stay away from dirty water but a pig needs a chain so it says here the law is made for those who are lawless 12:33 and rebellious etc verse 10 immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and all those who are against sound teaching sound teaching means teaching 12:54 which is hygienic and healthy that is the teaching of the gospel of God it says in verse 11 so a person who has really responded to the working of the Holy Spirit in his heart doesn't need the law and then Paul 13:17 speaks about himself he says God has strengthened me to serve him even though I was the chief of sinners earlier verse 15 and he says I am still I still think of myself as the chief of sinners meaning that 13:39 he never forgot what a terrible sinner he had been in past days as he has come closer to God he has recognized more and more sin in himself that's the mark of anyone who comes close to God he sees sin in himself what do people 14:01 see who are far away from God they see sin in other people what do people see who are close to God they see sin in themselves you know which category you are in Paul was close to God and he saw sin in himself and he sees 14:23 the tremendous mercy of God in forgiving him so that he could be an example to others so he speaks to Timothy calling him my son in verse 18 he says do you remember the prophecies that people made concerning you see those 14:47 early Christians lived so much in the power of the Holy Spirit that when they were waiting on God sometimes God would speak for the prophecy now today that has been so abused that people have gone to two extremes 15:07 one who don't believe in it at all and others who think that every single thought that comes into their mind is a prophecy and 99% are in that category perhaps 15:28 about 1% who know today how to prophesy in the way New Testament speaks about it but here were people who prophesied concerning Timothy's ministry and he says those prophecies are like weapons with which you 15:48 can fight a good fight and use them but along with them that promise alone is not enough don't think just because somebody made a prophecy it will be fulfilled in your life if you wanted to be 16:08 fulfilled you must keep faith and a good conscience and he says if you reject a good conscience then you will make shipwreck of your faith many people have made shipwreck of their faith because they have not kept a good 16:22 conscience and then we read here about two people who he names them Hymenaeus and Alexander who were not emphasizing the necessity of a good conscience and so they made shipwreck of their faith they began to teach all types 16:42 of strange doctrines is it right to name people who are teaching something wrong some people have got a wrong understanding here they say we love one another we should not mention any names 17:02 but the Holy Spirit doesn't agree with you the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to name people who are leading others is straight by their wrong teaching he named Demas in 2nd Timothy because Demas had gone following the world 17:23 this Alexander is named again in Timothy as someone who did Paul a great deal of harm and not only that Paul says I delivered them over to Satan to Satan apostles 17:43 had an authority to hand people over to Satan those are not empty words when Paul delivered them over to Satan they actually got into Satan's hands and then in chapter 2 Paul says I urge all of you 18:04 to pray and give thanks for all men and especially for kings and those in authority so that we can lead a quiet life in godliness and dignity we must have an attitude of 18:24 thanksgiving for everybody around us you believe the bible says that thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men we are not only to give thanks for all things it says we are to give thanks 18:45 for all men we may not agree with them but God is sovereign even our enemies we are to give thanks because God is using them for some purpose in our life for kings and when Paul wrote 19:05 that to Timothy the emperor of Rome was the most wicked emperor called Nero do we pray for those who are in authority even if they are evil most of the rulers of the world they are not believers 19:25 99.9% of them are not believers they are ungodly people but we are to pray for them because Jesus Christ has got all authority in heaven and earth and we are the representatives of Christ 19:45 on earth who are here to pray and control affairs in this world what do we pray we pray that the circumstances will be such that make it easy for the spread of the gospel it's the 20:08 responsibility of the church to pray for the country it is placed in for peace in that country God God wants all men to be saved it says in verse 4 we see one very interesting thing in verse 5 that after 20:31 Jesus went up to heaven he is the mediator between God and man verse 5 he is still called the man Christ Jesus even though he is God he is forever called the man Christ 20:51 Jesus so he has not given up his humanity when he went to heaven and then he goes on to speak about women and their ministry verse 9 onwards he says particularly he says women must be very 21:11 careful about the way they dress men don't have that temptation and there is no exhortation in the Bible of how men should dress but women particularly are told to dress with proper clothing modestly 21:34 and discreetly all sisters should take this to heart they must dress modestly and discreetly and not with braided 21:55 hair or gold or pearls or costly or costly garments very very few sisters obey these commands we don't force people to do it so I would not force anybody in a church 22:15 not to wear gold or pearls certainly I would compel them to dress modestly if they are going to dress him modestly and provoke others to be tempted why would we not force 22:36 them to remove their gold or costly garments because they don't tempt others and that must be their personal choice to live in simplicity and dress simply and 22:57 if they are forced to do it becomes a dead work which has no value before God God's word is clear that women should not have fancy hairdos and all this type of jewelry don't 23:21 follow the example of those who disobey these scriptures women should adorn themselves with good works it says and receive instruction in humility and there are two things a woman is not permitted to do to teach 23:43 men in the church and that means a woman cannot be an apostle or a prophet or a pastor or a teacher she can 24:03 be an evangelist outside to other unbelievers she can prophesy 1 corinthians 11 says that when it says in 1 corinthians 14 she's not allowed to speak it's referring to this teaching prophesying 24:24 is sharing something for people's edification and encouragement teaching is an authoritative job and a woman must not have authority or a man she can teach children she can teach other women reason for 24:46 this is first of all Adam was first created he was not created as a helper for Eve but he was created as a helper for him and secondly Eve was the one who was deceived not Adam and therefore that's the second reason why 25:06 she should not be a teacher but she can have many other ministries and one very important ministry is mentioned here of being a mother to children in verse 15 so that she can bring up those children in the fear of God which is a 25:23 very important ministry a man can't have that man cannot bear children women are very important in the church so if we follow the balanced teaching here we can 25:44 be protected from much confusion may God help us to follow amen welcome welcome once again to words of life in our study through the bible we have reached one timothy and we are now 26:04 going to turn to chapter 3 in chapter 3 in chapter 3 we read about the qualifications for elders and deacons if all Christians had followed these 26:24 standards we would have had a much higher standard in the church today no one must have responsibility in the church who does not have these qualifications first of all 26:49 it says his testimony must be one which other people cannot reproach chapter 3 verse 2 and then he lists a number of things and number 27:09 one is his relationship with his wife he must be the husband of one wife he doesn't have to be a perfect husband but he must be a good husband but certainly 27:29 only of one wife see in those days and even today there are many heathen who married two wives or three wives they can be converted born again and go to heaven but they can't be elders 27:52 in a church because they got more than one wife but they can't be elders and if a person 28:13 divorces his wife and marries another he's also got two wives one the old one and now the new one he cannot be an elder in a church he cannot be a pastor he cannot be a prophet and yet 28:33 and yet we see and yet we see all over the world today so many people who are divorced and our leaders and our leaders and churches shall I tell you why we live in a day when Christians have thrown the Bible into the trash can 28:51 not literally oh we treat this book with great respect we don't care for what's written inside if we did care we would never allow 29:12 a divorced man to be a preacher or a leader or in any church and a preacher would not marry a divorced person but we say oh he's so gifted gift is not more important 29:33 than obedience to God's word he must be a hospitable man whose house is open to God's people he must be able to teach and verse 3 last part he must be free from the love of money how many pastors 29:55 do you find today who are free from the love of money so few 5% perhaps 95% love money they are disqualified from God's work immediately next 30:17 they must be able to bring up their children in a good way many Christian workers their children are wayward and rebellious and a disgrace to the Lord's name such people 30:37 are not fit to be leaders they can be believers in a church but never elders or leaders there's a reason for that if he can't take care of 3 or 4 children at home how is he going to take care of 50 people or 100 people in a church 30:54 verse 5 so that teaches us that the home is a training ground for ministry in the church I am a physical father at home and a spiritual father in the church and if I can't 31:16 bring up 3 or 4 children at home in the fear of God I will never be able to bring 100 people in the fear of God in the church an elder must not be a new convert because he will get puffed up and fall away and fall into pride 31:35 just like the devil fell and the people mentioned as deacons deacon is a Greek word which just means servants that's all we need servants in the church and I prefer to call them servants and not deacons deacons 31:57 why should we call them deacons that's a Greek word translated servants so in the church we need servants and this is referring to many practical aspects of ministry in a large church 32:21 we need someone to take care of the finances someone to take care of maybe a building or conference arrangements etc. so many things or helping the widows and many things like that these are all servants 32:42 with various ministries of practical areas and they also must have a good testimony they must not be gossipers that's the meaning here when it says they should not be double-tongued they should not be liars 33:04 they must not be eager to make money and they must know the truth of the faith they must have a clear conscience and they must be tested before they are given any responsibility and women can also have a ministry 33:29 who are servants who are servants like if you read Romans 16 Paul had a number of servants in his team Jesus had in Luke chapter 8 we read they must also be very careful they are not gossips but faithful in all things 33:53 and these servants must be husbands also of one wife a divorced person cannot be a treasurer of a church he cannot be given any responsibility he can be a part of the church but he cannot be given any responsibility 34:13 I don't think we will ever see a day when the whole church of Jesus Christ will come back to these standards it will not happen but a remnant will be there in the last days who hold these standards and then further on 34:37 he speaks about the great mystery of godliness in verse 16 the great mystery of godliness is that Christ came in our flesh and lived a holy life and lived a holy life and lived a holy life he was pure in his spirit and this is an amazing thing 35:00 because nobody had ever walked in this flesh and lived in purity of spirit so the great mystery so the big mystery is how did Jesus do it if we can understand how he did it then we can do it he emptied himself of all self-confidence 35:21 and depended on the holy spirit moment by moment that is how he lived this life and he says he says but chapter 4 verse 1 the holy spirit says people will go to seek all types of other ways of living holy life 35:41 in the last days instead of seeing how Jesus lived they will teach all types of other doctrines but because they will be deceived by deceitful spirits by people who don't have a good conscience 36:01 and they will teach verse 3 that in order to be holy you must not get married sex is bad even in marriage so if you want to be holy you must not get married there are groups today that teach that 36:22 if you want to serve God you should not be married if you want to be a leader in a church there are some major denominations in Christianity that teach that that is one of the doctrines of demons mentioned here says in verse 1 36:43 this is a doctrine of a demon and the second thing they say is that if you want to be holy there are certain foods you should not eat be vegetarian then you can be holy or fast a lot 37:03 don't eat food much then you will be holy it's not true we don't become holy by fasting fasting is a good thing but it's the Holy Spirit who makes us holy and it's not by avoiding certain foods that we become holy 37:24 he says all food is good we can eat it if we pray over it and then he warns Timothy particularly not to listen to worldly fables verse 7 which are only fit for old women it's amazing 37:45 it's amazing how so many of God's people they are led astray by all types of gossip and stories nowadays and so he tells him to pursue godliness and don't let anyone 38:05 look down on your youth he says in verse 12 but be an example verse 12 see false teachers teach certain things verses 1, 2, 3, 4 but true teachers verse 12 are an example in his speech 38:38 in verse 12 conduct, love, faith and purity not only in his character he also exercises spiritual gifts he says in verse 14 to Timothy don't neglect 38:58 this spiritual gift that you have which you got through a prophetic utterance when people laid hands on you the elders laid hands on you so we see there that they laid hands on Timothy and prophesied and he got a spiritual gift 39:17 there so he tells Timothy pay close attention to these things and give yourself completely to it so that your progress will be evident to everybody and in chapter 5 he is talking about 39:39 various matters concerning the church how to take care of widows and concerning elders in the church what should your attitude be to young sisters pure attitude verse 2 towards the older sisters 40:03 as mothers treat the younger brothers as your own brothers verse 1 and treat the older men as fathers never rebuke an older man but appeal to him 40:23 as a father and further down he speaks about helping widows this is a big ministry in the early church there were many widows in the early church partly because so many Christians were being martyred for the faith so the church 40:49 took responsibility to take care of the financial needs of these widows but he says if there is a brother there who's got his own mother as a widow then verse 8 he should take care of his mother it's an amazing verse 41:10 verse 8 if you don't take care of your own family you're worse than an unbeliever this verse teaches us how important it is for us to take financial responsibility for our own family and then it speaks about 41:32 elders in the church how we must respect and honor those who are elders in a church and part of this respect is to provide for them financially if they are devoting themselves full time 41:53 to the ministry of the church the laborer is worthy of his hire it says in verse 18 and he quotes in the old testament an ox that is treading threshing the corn you should not shut its mouth 42:13 let it be so any elder in any church who is full time devoting himself to the ministry of the church is the responsibility of the church to take care of his financial needs of the church 42:35 of course he should not be expecting that from the church because that is not befitting a servant of God he must trust God and trust God to move people to supply his need but the church 42:58 must recognize its responsibility to support such people financially and another way in which we respect and honor elders is that we don't receive an accusation against any of them verse 19 unless there are two or three witnesses 43:13 and there is also a possibility that some elders may sin and they won't listen to you when you correct them Timothy was had a responsibility for the elders in Ephesus so he says 43:35 if any of those elders sin and they don't listen to you you correct them and they still won't listen to you then verse 20 you must publicly rebuke them and expose them in the church this must not be done secretly and privately 43:54 the backslidden elders in Revelation 2 and 3 were publicly exposed by the Lord an elder is to be greatly respected when he does his job well but if he is in sin 44:18 he must be publicly exposed other believers don't get so much honor in the church and when they sin they can be privately dealt with but an elder he gets much honor in the church 44:38 if he sins he must be publicly exposed because to whom more is given more is required because that's the way that other people will be afraid of committing sin and so he says in verse 22 don't suddenly lay hands and set apart elders 44:57 before they are ready for that because thereby you may share responsibility for the sins of other people and then he says here and then he says here that we see here that Timothy 45:18 had also a thorn in the flesh like Paul it was a stomach ailment that troubled him continuously all the time he was having this stomach problem very frequently 45:38 sick those of us who have had stomach problems know how painful and difficult that can be and if you have it frequently I'm sure you've sought God for healing in prayer Timothy sought for healing 45:59 he went to Paul Paul must have laid hands on him numerous times Timothy was not healed so what do we learn sickness is not like sin sin we can be delivered 46:23 from 100% in every case that is God's will but in sickness God sometimes does not remove it we see that in Paul's case we see that in Timothy's case so don't be deceived in that area we must pray for healing 46:45 but if God doesn't give it we accept it then in chapter 6 he talks about he talks about how servants should serve their masters in faithfulness don't take advantage of a master just because he's a believer and then he talks 47:07 about money again he says be careful that you don't pursue after money I see Timothy verse 10 the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil as a man of God verse 11 you must run away from it even Timothy needed an exhortation 47:27 to run away from the love of money how much more you and I need it to run away from the love of money run away verse 9 from wanting to get rich if God makes you rich without your wanting to get that's okay but if you become rich 47:52 by wanting to get rich you will fall into all types of snares and foolish and harmful desires which will plunge men into ruin and destruction verse 9 and you will wander away from the faith and you will pierce yourself verse 10 48:10 with many sorrows what terrible fate awaits those who run after money let God determine how much to give you let him draw the circle of your finances and be content 48:32 with whatever God gives you because verse 6 godliness is no use if it does not accompanied with contentment only when it is accompanied with contentment it has great gain so Paul tells Timothy 48:53 you are a man of God run away from these things if you want to run after something don't run after money verse 11 run after righteousness godliness faith love perseverance and gentleness and those who are running after these things 49:11 don't have time to run after money does that mean they will starve a godly man will never starve his children will never starve because God is faithful to honor those who honor him so he says fight the good fight 49:32 of faith against all these temptations and remember and remember Jesus' confession before Pontius Pilate verse 13 what did Jesus confess in John 18 36 my kingdom my kingdom is not 49:52 of this world you confess the same thing my kingdom is not of this world so I don't run after all these things and if there are rich believers in your church Paul says Timothy verse 17 tell them not to be proud tell them 50:14 not to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches but to trust God who gives everything richly for us look at Paul crying out finally oh Timothy he says in verse 20 God all these things 50:35 that have been entrusted to you again a closing exhortation avoid all worldly conversation don't get into arguments people have gone astray grace be with you 50:56 these are exhortations we really need avoid foolish conversation avoid running after money if you want to be God's mouth peace be faithful with your mouth and be faithful with money 51:16 and then you can be God's mouth peace God bless you Then we'll have a little bit of a break.
