Good morning Verse By Verse, my name is Don Starnes and I serve as one of the elders here at VBVF.

The title of today's sermon is, Remember your first love. Careful now, that is not an invitation to reminisce. In the context of today’s message, our first love is Jesus.

  We have spent the first 3 chapters in this epistle to Timothy listening to Paul encourage and instruct, mostly instruct. In a book of 6 chapters, just now at the end of chapter 3 Paul discloses the purpose of the book. Paul writes  Ch 3:14-15 14 I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, 15 if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God

Paul has a message for Timothy and the church that he hoped to hand deliver or send if necessary. Either way, hand delivered by Paul or sent by Paul, the message is important and urgent enough to be written down in Paul’s handwriting for future reference, as well as authenticating it’s value by being penned by an apostle. Since much of his written work became scripture, future reference takes on a whole new meaning when a letter was written by Paul. The letter is about dealing with false teachers and how Christians should behave. Some of the instruction is directed at Timothy, but much of it is directed at the church body under Timothy’s charge. It speaks to the qualifications of leaders, and those qualifications are to be goals for our spiritual maturity. 

Paul left Timothy in Ephesus as the spiritual leader of the church there. He has encouraged him and directed him, but mostly directed him in this letter. Let’s take a moment to recap some of what Paul has shared so far. 

 In chapter 1 v 3-7 Paul told Timothy 3 As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, 4 nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship[a] from God that is by faith. 5 The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, 7 desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

He was telling Timothy, teach what Christ has taught you through me Paul, who received it from Jesus and I gave it to you, now teach as the spirit of God leads you, that way and only that way is how it’s done properly. Paul says to Timothy that the aim of our charge is love, and with love flowing from a pure heart we teach truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The aim of false teachers can be many things, but adding to or subtracting from the truth as they do makes it no longer the truth. The point here is that truth is led by the spirit of God and untruth might be spirit led but it is not led by the spirit of God. More to come on that in chapter 4. Therefore, one of the primary jobs of church leadership is to make absolutely sure that the messages being taught 

and preached in the church of their charge is led by the spirit of God. In other words, teach the bible as God wrote it.

In ch 1 v 18-19 paul writes to Timothy 18 This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith (truth) and a good conscience. Ch 4 v 14 Paul writes, do not neglect the gift you have, which was given you by prophecy when the council of elders laid their hands on you

It does not tell us who spoke the prophecy or what the prophecy contained, but it involved spiritual gifts and laying on of hands by the elders of the church. Paul is telling Timothy that he is strongest in his gifts so be sure to work in them, he will need them to fight the good fight and stand against the false teaching that is there and sure to continue to come. 

Paul is charging Timothy to stand strong and to not tolerate false teaching in any form, and he is telling him that this will not be easy. That charge goes for every church that has ever been and those that are not even born yet. Truth is binary, it is or it is not truth. The old saying 99% truth and 1% lie is 100% lie is true in God’s pure world. 1% lie is the deceiver's world, and he will always disguise lies with the seasoning of truth. He will push untruths through a false teacher, and his untruths will be sweet to the ear for he only speaks what the flesh wants to hear. Since it will never announce itself as false and always disguise itself as truth, church leadership needs to be on alert for false teaching at all times, and that is what Timothy is dealing with. Paul is encouraging and directing Timothy to use his gifts to stand strong for the truth and stand firmly against what is false. At best, false teaching is an illness and will weaken a church that takes it in. 

Then Paul moves on to instructing the body in chapter 2

In ch 2:1-4 Paul writes, First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

Here the men are charged with praying for ALL people, and all leaders, not just our own believing brethren. God wants all nations to come to faith, hence the “all people” in the charge. Let’s look at this just as written using the word Kings, if a king comes to faith how is that valuable to the gospel effort. Obviously if a king comes to faith, heaven rejoices just as it would when anyone comes to faith. However, kings do not have to come to saving faith or even have to “identify” as a Christian to have a huge impact on Christianity. In verse 2 Paul said to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life”, can you live that peaceful and quiet life in a place under Christian persecution? Just acknowledging christianity to the extent that it can’t be persecuted in his kingdom is a huge advantage for spreading the gospel. The fact that we do not agree with a leader has nothing to do with the fact that we should pray for the drawing work of the Holy Spirit to be at work in their lives, because of the impact it could have for that particular leaders life, and the far-reaching impact it could have on those under that leader’s care. The call here is that we are called to pray for the lost, from bottom to top, all of them, everywhere. 

In ch 2:8-10 8 Paul writes, I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling; 9 likewise also that women should adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly attire, 10 but with what is proper for women who profess godliness—with good works. 

Robin did a great job of illustrating last week that although Paul gives gender specific instructions, neither gender is excluded just because they are not mentioned. That appears again here by charging men again to pray without anger, not because their prayers are more effective but because they are more prone to struggling with anger and discord than women are, James 1:19-20 19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Conversely, women are more prone to… how to say this, over adorn oneself with physical beauty than men are. Both commands apply to both men and women, and adorning ourselves with good works most certainly applies to us both.

Then Paul spent most of chapter 3 teaching on the requirements of elders and deacons. It is important for each of us to ask ourselves the question of the requirements mentioned for these two leadership positions in the church, which ones do not apply to me since I do not have such a position. As Paul taught in Ch3 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil. 

8 Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well.

Though these qualifications are for leaders, how are we to take these directions? Do they have anything to do with us or are they merely for leaders? If the New Testament was written by the Apostles which were the hand picked prophets of the church age, the ones that Jesus chose to write the New Testament. And if there were no new covenant writings for the apostles who wrote these books to work from, where did they get the information they wrote???? Of course, the Holy Spirit, which is 1/3 of the GodHead, therefore God wrote this letter and every word of the bible through those He chose to write through. Therefore, we MUST assume that excluding a few of the qualifications we just read, they also apply to those of us that make up the church…..right? Obviously this does not apply equally to all, for example, how can a new believer be held to the same standard as a mature believer. That’s easy, he can’t, but he is not exempt from working on this as a goal, which is how we become mature believers. There are 25ish qualifications in ch 3, and all but 5 apply to the body as well as leaders. Yep, only 5 of 25 do not apply. That’s 20%, therefore 80% of them do apply. So what does not apply to the body

Able to teach

He must not be a recent convert 

He must be well thought of by outsiders 

They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience 

And let them also be tested first  

So if only 20% do not apply to the body, what is the difference in leader’s and the body’s instructions? 1 key word but a VERY keyword. The episkopos..elders, and the diakanos…deacons MUST meet these QUALIFICATIONS. Every believer “should be” striving to elevate to that level of spiritual maturity but they are not held to an accountability level of MUST. Obviously that would not work, you MUST be spiritually mature BEFORE regeneration. So the difference is that leaders are held accountable for being far more spiritually mature before serving than a new believer. As if to say, opposite ends of the spiritually mature scale. We would not assign someone the role of elder, and then tell them that they need to start trying to qualify for the position. We assign them the position because they already qualify for it. However Paul states in verse 15 that the purpose of this letter is so we will know how to act in the household of God. We are members of God’s household and as the master of the house God gets to set the standards. The use of the word “ought'' states that these are God’s directions for us. You could exchange the word ought with must, or render it as necessary, but it is stronger than should. I should tie my shoes before I come to church but I do not have to, however, if I am an Olympic sprinter about to step into the starting blocks for a gold medal race, I must, it is necessary that I tie my shoes. That is what this has been all about, these chapters and all of God’s word are full of instructions, not suggestions. We are all at different places in our walk to be more Christ like, and the key word here is walk. Walking gives us the sense of movement or progression, what a walk is not is stationary. We journey with God and each other, and journeys do not keep the same address, there is always movement. As members of God’s household we are to continually strive to be better members of our family. Earlier I said that the elders are   but the body is not expected to be able to teach, and that’s very true…ish. As we live out our spiritual lives with each other, we are showing others how to or how not to live out this walk. Watch a parent ingest their teeth when their child says something inappropriate at church….I have no idea where they heard that. We are always learning from each other, therefore we might not be required to teach God’s word, but the testimony of our life is always on display and teaching those around us. 

Paul goes on in verse 15, that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth, The church of the living God, the ecclesia, the gathering of all believers, the brethren in Christ, the bride of Christ, Jesus’ possession. In the Old Testament God dwelt on earth in the tabernacle and the temple, now in the church age God dwells in the heart of every believer. We are the church, God’s possession, but not just “a” god’s possession, we belong to “the '' Living God. The living God, those are stinging words to idolaters, it says that their gods are not living, and they are not. They are creations of the human mind, birds, beasts, graven images made of sticks, clays or metals, things that can be put on a shelf or be carried in a pocket. That is not our creator, “the'' Living God. We the church are the pillar and buttress that support the gospel of Jesus the Christ. The imagery here is of the church supporting, or holding up the gospel for the whole world to see, as well as, we the church support and protect the gospel from the attacks of false teachers. God’s greatest gift to us is the work of the cross. With no hope whatsoever of becoming righteous on our own, God credits us with righteousness, a righteousness not of our own but of Christ. The word gospel means good news, and that is what we are the pillar and buttress of, the good news of Jesus Christ. We must always put that above all else. 

In verse 16 Paul writes, 16 Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: 

He was manifested in the flesh,

vindicated by the Spirit,

seen by angels,

proclaimed among the nations,

believed on in the world,

taken up in glory. 

Yes, great indeed, and we confess together, we agree, we share the same testimony of Christ crucified, we confess that what was mystery no longer is. Mystery speaks of things unknown in the Old Testament age that have now been revealed. Messiah was spoken of and pointed to in much of the OT. God left heaven and entered this world through a virgin, walked this earth for some 30 years, loved us so much that he gave his perfect life as payment for the sinners death we all owe, He then rose from death defeating it forever. It was not until then that the mystery was no longer a mystery. We do not have a big G Godliness, we have a little “G” godliness credited to us that belongs to Jesus. Jesus is righteous, and we belong to Jesus, therefore, in the Father’s eyes we are seen as righteous because Jesus is. Paul then goes into the steps of the revealed mystery  

He was manifested in the flesh, 

This speaks of the incarnation, the revelation of the

invisible God to man. The anointed one came and walked 

among mankind.

Vindicated by the Spirit,

Vindicated, also means justified, found to be righteous. 

Only the pure could defeat death and Jesus did just that.

Seen by angels, The angels of heaven rejoiced at the 

resurrection of Christ, and the angels at the empty tomb 

are just a couple of examples of angles seeing the risen 

Jesus.

Proclaimed among the nations, the new covenant was 

no longer just a covenant with the Israelites, the gospel message was sent out to and preached in all nations. 

Believed on in the world, The gospel was spread to the nations and has been effective, it has been believed on in the gentile world.  

Taken up in glory. When Jesus’ work here was finished, he did not merely return to heaven because the task was done. He ascended back in glory to the throne room of heaven. Jesus ascending back to heaven in glory, and being exalted by the Father shows that He was well pleased with the work of the Son. 

As we move in to chapter 4 Paul seems to warn Timothy of challenging times to come in the future, but is he really speaking of the distant future

4 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, 2 through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer

The spirit expressly says, expressly could be exchanged with explicitly, undeniably or unquestionably. The spirit might have spoken this directly to Paul, or it could have been a prophecy delivered to Paul by another believer, it does not make anything clear except that this message came directly from the Holy Spirit. You have to wonder what did Timothy think later times meant, 5, 10, 20 years? I suspect that he was not thinking 2000 years and counting, but later times does refer to the times that include Timothy’s tenure on earth. These later times, last times, what every translation uses refers to the time from the pouring out of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost until Jesus’ return for His bride. Speaking later times to Timothy meant now, next month, anytime and to always be prepared. There will always be these challenges that Paul is describing in the church. They started at the beginning of the church age and have not subsided yet.   

For chapter 4 your bible might have this passage titled, Some will depart the faith, The great apostasy, Warnings against false teachers etc. Paul has warned Timothy about False teachers in this book already and now he will get specific and what Paul describes is not pretty. It is important that we start by having a clear understanding of what departing, falling away, or apostatizing is NOT. When a believer comes to true saving faith he is indwelt by God, specifically the Holy Spirit, and what is indwelt by God can not be indwelt by anything else, specifically evil. A believer can be influenced by bad people or even bad spirits, but not indwelt. As stated earlier, when a believer comes to faith they become a possession of Christ and that cannot be undone, but you don’t have to take my work for it. Jesus says in John 6:39 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. The Father gave you to Jesus, so believers are a possession of Christ and that does not change, ever. I can’t explain WHY He would not be willing to lose me…..when I consider what Jesus is and what I am, or better said, what I am not, I can think of many reasons that would make me question Jesus’ statement, but if Jesus says that He will lose nothing, that’s good enough for me. So, this falling away does not describe a true believer that is no longer walking with God, no longer going to church, has significant sin in their life or anything else you can think of or wonder about that has slipped from Jesus‘ grasp. Jesus said nothing will be lost because it is the will of God that nothing be lost. Apostasy means to turn away from or denounce a prior religious belief or commitment. Only a person that was not of true saving faith can do such a thing. The world we live in today gives us great illustration to see this in the context of 2023. Hypothetically, you find yourself in a single engine aircraft cockpit with a friend who says to you, would you like to go flying? You might say, I didn’t know you were a pilot. If the answer comes back, well I identify as a pilot, are you going flying with that person? You can’t identify your way into being a capable pilot, and though “we '' use the phrase my identity is in Christ, can you identify your way into being a true believer. Churches have many people in them that “identify” as believers, yet they have not come to saving faith yet, some may never will. 

There will be churches led by non believers, who are leading non believers. That leader can tell the congregation just about anything they want because the congregants do not know any better, but they do love the ear tickling they are receiving. Minimally these leaders will give themselves over willingly or unwillingly to deceitful spirits. This could also be rendered as imposters or deceiver spirits, and some will just purely follow the teaching of demons. These leaders are false and are not teaching love from a pure heart like Paul said earlier is the way Godly teachers are to handle God’s flock. It says that these false teachings will travel through liars whose consciences are seared. These leaders will not be reachable by the Spirit and will feel no remorse for the false messages they propagate.  Like a seared brand on a cow's hip, these men are hardened and will never be the same or ashamed of what they teach. Teaching to abstain from marriage or dietary restrictions is just another way false teachers add to or subtract from the true message of the gospel. These examples are telling us to abstain from gifts that God has given us, and all that God has “given” us is good. The new covenant does not have any dietary restrictions and therefore placing any on a flock is false and not of God. God only gives what is good for us, so we are to give thanks to God from a humble heart for what we receive, be it food, a spouse, child, job, house, health etc. That does not always mean that what is given will be fun, but it will be good and for good reason. We could chase down all sorts of false teachings that are going on right now in churches, like name it claim it, the prosperity gospel of if you give you will receive, and so on, but the most important thing for us to focus on is that we know the truth. If we know the truth, we should recognize falsehoods when we are exposed to it. If we recognize false teaching we should respond to that revelation by calling it out, or leaving it there and seeking proper teaching.

So, how do we do that? We go back to what we discussed earlier, we submit to Jesus as Lord of our lives and strive for an ever increasing level of spiritual maturity. We do the things that God asks us to do and we do not do the things that the Spirit pushes us away from. We strive for an ever growing level of spiritual maturity, and put forth a life that is valuable and encouraging to our believing family of brothers and sisters in Christ.

So how did Timothy do, did he guide the church at Ephesus well enough to avoid false teachers?

Paul left Timothy in Ephesus around year 64, let’s go to the book of Revelation to get a glimpse of the Church in AD 96ish some 30+ years after Timothy took over. 

 Revelation 2 1-7 I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not, and found them to be false. 3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  

Jesus is commending them for not being tolerant of false teachers, seemingly not tolerant at all. In fact, he uses strong language when He says that the church at Ephesus hates the Nicolaitions, a group that Jesus says he hates also. The Nicolaitions were a sect of false believers that had a very loose interpretation of grace, in fact, it was bad enough that Jesus says He hated them. However, Jesus has something against the church at Ephesus, they have forgotten their first love. The first love of a believer is Jesus, nothing is higher on the list than Jesus. However, this church had slid into a lazy pious group that knows the word, and will not tolerate anyone who does not handle God’s word as He intended it. It was a temporal approach, and not a heart felt “spirit led” spiritual maturity with Jesus at the center of it. That is the title of this sermon, Remember your first love. It all starts and ends with Jesus at the center!

So what do we take from this today. 2 timothy 3:16-17 says 16 All Scripture is [a]inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for [b]training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. So if God instructs us to pray for all of the lost, we should. If he instructs us to be above reproach, that’s the goal. If He says to not be a drunkard, not double tongued, or greedy, then that’s the goal. Trust that the instructions from God’s word are not merely suggestions, but instructions that will lead us away from things that will bring pain to our lives if we allow them to continue to hang around. If you are a mature believer, offer yourself as a discipler for someone that needs it, if you need to be discipled, seek it. All that God has shared with us in His word is for our own spiritual growth, and is therefore good. Our goal is to never forget our first love, and to strive to be a reflection of Him!