Vain Jangling Versus Wholesome Words

From god our father and Jesus Christ, our lord. Now, I’ve not noticed this personally myself but one preacher accurately pointed out that mercy in the pastoral epistles, mercy is included in the greeting whereas in the church epistles, it is excluded. Maybe that’s because the pastors need more mercy from the lord than everybody else. I don’t know. It seems like a good good reason to me, but so we go down to verse number three, the Bible says, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some, notice this, mightest charge some, that they teach no other doctrine.

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned. There’s that word again, see that? From which, that is from charity, from a good conscience, and from faith unfeigned, some having swerved, have turned aside unto vain jangling.

Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. Would you pause a minute and pray with me as we get into the message? Our lord, we come to you now and we want to just humble ourselves and ask you to help us, lord, to understand and as we look at the scriptures at these various places in first and second Timothy and Titus.

Father, guide our study. We pray. Help me as I try and help your people. Help your people’s hearts to be open to the scripture. Help us lord to take your word with soberness. Lord, and to recognize the things that are described here over and over. Lord, that we might be better equipped to serve you and so lord, help us and be our teacher tonight before we ask in Jesus name, amen.

You know, it’s very proper in that pastoral epistle that brother Paul is going to give give some practical may maybe we might say ecclesiastical advice that is the related to the church to the pastor of the church here, Timothy and he does this on a number of fronts. He does it regarding widows. He does it regarding regarding leadership. He does it regarding bishops and deacons. He does it in a in a number of different ways but one of the things he covers is this idea of vain jangling.

I’ll get to that in a minute exactly what we’re talking about there but it’s it’s synonymous with this jangling is is noise. Is noise. And sometimes in these passages of scripture, we’ll see the word babblings or we’ll see this verse number four, we’ll see the word fable. And we’re we’re talking about basically the same thing when and he repeats this. It’s in chapter one, it’s in chapter four, it’s in chapter six, it’s in second Timothy chapter two, and it’s in Titus, in a number of verses. In other words, Paul thought it’s so important that he address these these noise makers and warn the church about these kinds of doctrines, teachings, these kinds of theories that apparently were prevalent that that apparently existed and the truth is that these kinds of things are not are not they didn’t go away in the time of Paul. They exist in our day as well. They absolutely exist.

Now, you might think as you read this that we’re talking about just overt false doctrine and we’re not and you’ll see you’ll see that in just a minute. We’re not necessarily talking about someone who, you know, denies salvation by grace or or wants to add some sort of work to the gospel or wants to deny that Jesus is very god or you know, or something like that. You might think that that’s what we’re talking about but we’re we’re we’re really not.

We might, now some of these doctrines and things that we’ll see might end up in that place, but they don’t don’t necessarily start in that place. And so, so starting in chapter one verse number three, he says, as I as I besought thee still to abide abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia that thou mightest teach some that they mightest charge some rather that they teach no other doctrine. So, apparently, there are people in the church who have a tendency to to swerve.

Okay? They have a tendency to swerve and Paul is telling Timothy to charge them not to do that, not to do that. Verse four, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith, so do. So, this idea of jangling, jangling is just to talk excessively or noisily. It’s it’s the sound. You know, even when you say jingle, you think of, you think of noise, right? That’s it’s kind of a onomatopoeia like that, right? Where you hear the noise as you say it. Jangling, this idea of just talking, this chatter, and of course, we see the word babble later, babblings And this guy, notice this this number four. Now, now, just a second before we get any further, let me tell you this, is that the the actual doctrine that is being peddled or is being taught that Paul is warning Timothy against is not actually spelled out. That’s interesting, isn’t it? In other words, it’s not that, it’s not a particular doctrine. Now, there’s characteristics we’ll see but not one particular doctrine and I’m glad for that because if it hadn’t been that one doctrine, it would not have provided, I don’t think it would have provided nearly the benefit to all of us regarding all doctrine that might fit this description.

This kind of kind of doctrine. It says this, neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. Now, as we go forward and we look at these other passages, I want you to note a contrast. I want you to note a contrast. These, you have these fables and endless genealogies, these theories, these doctrines, these these ideas that are being peddled and those notice what it says in verse number four, it it says, they minister questions. What does that mean? Minister, it just it just simply means minister just means to give, really. That’s all it means. It minister questions. In other words, these doctrines that that we’re talking about here and and I admit, I’m gonna have a hard time kinda nailing exactly what doctrine we’re talking about because some doctrines fit this more than others And so, we’re gonna define them toward the end more by what they do rather than what they are. Does that make sense?

And because it’s good, and I’ll try to give you a couple of examples of these kinds of doctrines, but here’s a characteristic of these kinds of doctrines that the lord says, we need to watch out for and and and to Timothy, he says, watch out for them. Is is a doctrine that doesn’t answer questions but produce questions. Do you see that? It’s a doctrine that does that does that provides questions. It gives us questions.

It raises questions rather than answering questions and this is not the only time we’ll see this. It ministers questions. So, that’s a that’s an important point because oftentimes, whenever false doctrine winds its way into churches, it often comes in the form of a question.

I wanna tell you something, not all questions are sincere questions and not all questions are worthy to be heard and you’ll see what I’m saying in a minute but this kind of this kind of theory or doctrine or idea that’s peddled, that’s taught is one that is not not edifying anybody. And notice what it says at the end of verse four, it says, rather, so that’s the contrast, rather than godly edifying which is in faith.

So, says, these doctrines don’t edify, they don’t, there’s no godly edifying, there’s no faith building, that’s what the word edify means, there’s no building, there’s actually raising questions. You see that that contrast that difference. You see, biblical truth, biblical truth ought not raise questions in us, it ought to give us answers and direction. Biblical truth should not should not cause doubts and make us wonder and and wear down our faith because we wonder is this true? Is that true? Is what they’re saying accurate or is that accurate? Is this is this real or is this real?

Those things actually add questions and that actually diminishes and undermines our faith. See, that’s why it says, in contrast, we need to we need to concentrate on biblical truth that is edifying in a godly way and that builds our faith. And that’s what the scriptures will do for us. That’s what the scriptures will do for us. It will it will have a godly effect. Now, looking at verse five and verse six, notice, now the end of the commandment, I’m I’m going to come back to this and toward the end but I but I want you to just note it. Now, the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfain. Now, I want you to note the word in this this chapter chapter one verse five, the word commandment because we’re talking in that in that word about the law, okay? The law of god. In Romans often referred to as the commandment, okay? Verse six.

From which, from which, now, so verse five is the godly edifying. That is the good word of god. It’s going to answer questions, provide certainty, provide assurance, and help, and build up faith but in verse six, these people have turned aside. Notice they’ve left. They’ve left that and turn and turn to vain jangling. That is noise, useless noise, talking about doctrines that make no difference, that are vain and eventually become corrosive.

And he says, here’s here’s where the next step, desiring to be teachers of the law, these are these people who peddle these, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. So, I want you to see this that this this doctrine in verse number seven is, remember I said in verse five, the commandment refers to the law? Here you have. Here’s what these people are teaching. What they’re doing is they’re taking the law of god and they’re using it to teach a false doctrine.

He says, desiring to be teachers of the law. You see that? So, if we might if we might apply this, so these doc, here’s how these doctrines come. First of all, they start, they come in the form of questionings, questions, right? Who... Questions which are which are are posed in a way that appears sincere, but they’re not sincere. And again, not all questions are are the same.

The heart and the motive behind the question matters a lot, okay? But so it comes in the form of a question and it also comes in the form of a Bible question.

Notice it says, they desire to be teachers of the law. I thought they were asking questions But they’re now they’re teaching. That’s not a question. You know what that is? That’s instruction. That’s doctrine. But it says, they desire to be teachers of what? The law. So, what are they using to pedal and push their theories and their doctrines and their ideas? They’re using the Bible. One of the worst things you can do or...

Alright, let me let me make that a little bit relative. A very harmful thing that we can do is be so naive to think that because someone is using a Bible they’re telling the truth, that is not true. Almost every false teacher that has ever existed associated with Christianity uses the Bible, Okay? So we need to be circumcised, we need to be wary, we need to have just a little bit of sin, a healthy cynicism, right?

And don’t think, well, he preaches it straight out of the Bible. Well, the devil does too. He quotes straight out of the Bible. I’ve heard that so many times. He quotes straight out of the Bible. Yeah, the devil does too. In fact, I can prove that to you. Matthew chapter four in the temptation of Christ, he said, for it is written, The devil said that. Before he took the scripture and tried to get Jesus to sin using it.

Verse seven, desiring to be teachers of the law. So, okay, let me let me stop here a second. In first Timothy, we’ll see this this phrase, if a man desire the office of a bishop. In first Peter, we see this, be not many masters. Right? There’s a warning there. In other words, rushing to teach others is something that ought that should not be done. We should do it with with sobriety and gravity. It shouldn’t be something we rush into and the moment you see somebody who’s just longing to teach other people, you just stand by.

That’s dangerous. If there was somebody, there is, there’s not. I’m making this up primarily from other people who have told me because I have I have a pastor friend and he said that a guy showed up at his church and started coming for a little while, and before you know it, this guy was approaching the pastor saying, I wanna teach Sunday school.

And he wanted to teach Sunday school on the topic of the end times. Now, to anybody who’s a little bit cynically cynical or skeptical, I’m I’m looking at your faces. I I I know among us, most those most of you who are a little bit cynical and all of you are kind of smirking right now. Okay, a guy shows up, nobody knows really who he is, he has no rapport, he has no trust with anybody, and he asserts himself, he desires to be a teacher of the Bible and he has an agenda.

That’s warning, that’s this right here, right? What he wanted, he wanted people to listen, but you know where the source of that agenda comes from? That desire? Pride. So pride is the first thing and I’ll show you that in a minute, but the second thing is this, verse number seven, so they wanna teach the law that is they wanna teach the Bible but it says, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. So, they have all these things they wanna say and they think that they’re hot stuff and they know what they’re talking about but they actually don’t. They’re ignorant and they’re ignorant of their ignorance.

You see this? And then from verse eight, Paul goes on and describe why they’re wrong because they’re using the law wrongly. Okay, we’ll talk about that later. Now, if you would go to chapter four, first Timothy four, We’ll see this again.

Verse number one, now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. Now in verse one, that’s pretty serious, seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. But notice how it’s described in verse two and three. It says this, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, verse three, notice what they say, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats, that is food.

I know some people have misunderstood the word meats to refer to like steak, meats in in the Bible, in our Bible just means food. Commanding to abstain from meats which god hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth and and so you can you can totally imagine seeing how these people especially in the first century, they had the law, right? And so, the commandment, the you know, these people are desire desirous to be teachers of the law and so now, they’re coming along and they’re saying, hey, you know what? You don’t need to get married. Marriage is not, that’s not a good thing.

You know what? There’s just like the law says, there’s certain things you shouldn’t eat, right? Certain things you should’ve you shouldn’t eat because the law says it. You know what they’re doing? They’re using the Bible to teach something that is not scriptural. Okay, you hear what I just said? They’re using the Bible to teach something that is not scriptural. How can that be? Yet, it is. It is it is totally understandable how someone would use the Old Testament law to teach us that there’s certain foods we shouldn’t eat.

Now, here’s what want you to see. Brother Andrew, I’m put you on the spot and I know you’ll be ready. I didn’t prepare him ahead so. So, if I were to say, brother Andrew, marriage is not a good thing. Really? It’s if you really want to serve god, the Bible, you know, marriage is not a good thing. What would your answer be? Like a biblical answer. Thank you.

Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled but whoremongers and adulterers god will judge. You know what that? I’d say, that’s a clear verse of scripture in Hebrews. Just easy, right? Okay, Sam, if I were to say to you there’s certain foods we shouldn’t eat, God forbids us from eating.

Acts chapter 10. Well, well, that’s here but also in Acts, what you’re kinda hinting at is Acts chapter 10. Rise, Peter, kill, and eat, right? Where where Peter, god said, eat whatever. Speaking to a Jew. Now, why did I bring that up? Was that not easy? In other words there were people in this time who were teaching those particular things. Now why they were teaching it doesn’t matter, but they were teaching these two particular things. But here’s what I want you to see about, here’s what I want you to understand about these doctrines, these theories that are peddled by these false teachers is this, they are very often easily contradicted by the plain words of Scripture. I’m not talking about deep doctrinal studies, I’m talking about one verse completely obliterates the doctrine, Just like we just did in those two examples.

One verse completely obliterates the doctrine and yet they continue to hold the doctrine and pedal it as if it’s true. You see what I’m saying? And I’ll give you a very good example of this. Is is in the is anything related to the deity of Christ, anything related to who Jesus Christ is, People try to come and pedal it. Maybe give you a different one. Some time ago I taught on the topic of conscious eternal torment, which is the doctrine, the biblical doctrine, that when a person dies, they go to hell and are tormented, right?

Consciously, they don’t sleep and eventually disappear or are annihilated. Now, there are absolutely people and I covered all that and you can look look on the church website, you can find it. I I I covered all that from the scripture and how and and what the Bible says on that subject because there are absolutely people that deny that anybody actually goes to hell, that they suffer torment in hellfire.

And you think, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. I mean obviously there’s people like the rich man and obviously you have all that, know you can go to these different verses, but I wanna tell you something. That’s one of the characteristics of these doctrines is that they are peddled and yet they are so easily contradicted. That’s one of the characteristics of these doctrines. Now, You see these doctrines like in the examples that we gave here, they overturn clear truths of Scripture by using vague and questionable doctrines that do not provide any certainty.

In other words, conscious eternal torment, that question or question of the deity of Christ, those it’d be like this, for instance, if Jesus is God, then when he prays in the garden, how can he be praying to himself?

Right? You know what that is? That is not an answer, that is a question. And that is a question with a motive behind it. That’s a question with a motive behind it. And that’s the way these these doctrines provide these these questions to us. In other words, we might say that biblical certainty in these doctrines is traded for uncertainty. Now, notice back in chapter four verse number two, it says this, verse three rather forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which god hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. Now, down in verse number seven, but refuse profane, that means unholy, and old wives fables. That’s the second time we’ve seen the word fable, right? And it says, exercise thyself rather unto godliness.

These fables, fables, fictitious stories, and myths. Now, there’s a there’s a stark contrast between Bible doctrine which is provable, which is demonstrable, which is firm, which is certain, that’s that’s what the scripture is. That it’s not supposed to be mysterious. It’s supposed to be plain, right? And that is all traded by these who peddle these theories and ideas. That is all traded for these kinds of fables. That is theories and ideas that cannot be proven.

We might say, conspiracies, religious and theological conspiracies. Now, me tell you something. Be careful. Every one of us has some, especially those of us who like to engage in these kinds of discussions with doctrine and things, we have to be careful because there’s a lot of things that are peddled as truths that are actually just unprovable and unproven fables, right? And you look at social media and you see it not only in the theological realm, but you see it in the political realm, you see it, you see it in the social media, a lot of the things that these figures on social media, some of you know who they are, a lot of the things they’re pushing, they have no proof for what they say. They have no evidence for what they say. What they do is they ask questions and then they hide behind, I’m just asking questions, I’m just asking questions. No, you’re not. You’re pushing a doctrine.

You’re pushing a doctrine. They don’t provide answers only questions. Look at chapter six. Verse number three, chapter six verse three. The Bible says this, if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, don’t you love that word? That’s the that’s probably the best word to describe the biblical truth in scripture that I’ve been trying, I’m I’ve been reaching for this whole time to contrast these fables, these myths, these unprovable, these the unprovable ideas, these these questions that give no certainty but uncertainty is what you have here on the other side is you have the wholesome words of the lord Jesus.

Notice that, if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice notice the emphasis on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, a clear and unambiguous standard of truth. And to the doctrine which is according to godliness. Verse four, notice this, he is, what does it say? Proud. Did I say that a minute ago, right? When we were in chapter one? Where is the source of this kind of doctrinal peddling? I want to teach. I want to teach. Here it is. Right here. He is proud.

And and I said, there’s two sides. There’s pride and there’s what’s the other one? Ignorance. What does it say? Knowing nothing. But doting, I love that. Doting, to act or talk foolishly, stupidly, irrationally, babbling, jangling, same words. Doting about, what’s the next word? Questions.

Fables, is this true? I heard, they say. No scripture, no firmness, no certainty, only questions. Donating about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness, from such withdraw thyself.

I you to note in verse four the pride. This is the worst kind of pride. This is pride mixed with ignorance. Pride mixed with ignorance. These folks that push these kinds of things think that they are keyed in to something that few other people know. Everybody else has it wrong. Nobody has thought about this idea that that that I’m peddling now and I want to teach your people about it and I want to inform them because I I alone, nobody says this, but I alone have discovered this doctrine and and I and my group know exactly what the Bible says on this and we want other people to know about it and we want you to give us your people so that we can instruct your people about these things.

Nobody else in the world has ever come across this idea. No one has ever grappled or wrestled with this to determine or judged it whether it’s true or false. No, I am the first.

That’s ridiculous. There’s no new thing under the sun. That is itself pride. If you think, if a person thinks that absolutely no one before them and their group came upon this doctrine that they have newly discovered they are in error. They are in error.

Now, let me give you an example of this. There is an idea that’s being passed around among Independent Baptists. They call it the New Independent Baptist. The New Independent Baptist. How many of you have ever heard this, the New Independent Baptist? Here’s what it’s characterized by.

A really hard... Well, it depends on what version of New Independent Baptist. Okay, let me let me phrase that because there’s at least like two different kinds. But the one I’m referring to. They’re really hard on the King James Bible.

And they’re really not on on repentance. And so these groups and I’m just gonna... I wanna bring it to your attention because this kind of thing fits into all the things we’ve seen here. There are actually people that are under the name Independent Baptist, like they have the same label as our church, know, whatever. Independent Baptist is not denomination, but we’re grouped together by at least the label anyway.

And this group does not believe that repentance of sin of any kind plays any part in a person coming to Christ. Okay? That’s what they they don’t believe repentance plays any part. In other words, they say if you teach that repentance has any part of salvation, it’s related at all, then you are actually teaching that a works salvation. Alright, that’s the argument. Now you might, as you think about this, you might...

Verses of scripture might come to your mind immediately that think, that’s, well, it’s obviously about salvation, you know, like repentance toward god and faith toward our lord Jesus Christ or repent. Repent and be converted. Jacks chapter three and I mean, you could go on and on and on, there’s all kinds of verses, and is this not what I was talking about when I asked brother Andrew about marriage and asked Sam about the food, right? In other words, it’s obvious, it’s right there, it’s clear, it’s certain.

But what we’ve done is say, started to change the definition of repentance and really repentance is not repentance about sin, okay, but it’s really about faith. So you’re repenting of unbelief, but then I thought repentance wasn’t wasn’t a part of it. So you’re telling me I do repent of one thing but not of another thing? Anyway, the point is is that the scriptures absolutely do teach us repentance and faith are both part of our receiving of receiving Christ.

They’re both in there. Like it or not, you might not understand it fully. I admit. I don’t understand it entirely but repentance and our attitude toward our sin is matters. Okay? It matters. It’s like our faith in Christ, okay. And yet people are pushing this. People are pushing this as a doctrine that, you know how they’re doing their evangelism.

They’re counting, they’re counting heads, how many did you save, and I’m not joking, literally, how many did you save is their words, I’ve seen it with my own eyes. How many did you save? And they’re counting beans because they’re running people through prayers and declaring that they got saved. That’s what’s happening. And it’s all based upon repentance is not a question, confrontation regarding sin is not a question. Now you think, well I mean, does it really matter? Oh yes, it matters if you’re one of those poor souls who’s been deceived that God is not concerned at all with their sin.

Now listen, what I’m not doing is I’m not splitting hairs here. Some of the people that push these kinds of ideas and others like them, I’ll give you another example of this, is some quirky views regarding the King James Bible.

Some quirky views regarding the King James Bible. There’s a few groups that talk about the King James Bible in ways that it’s itself not scriptural, beyond the scripture, but they are zealous. They are zealous to talk about it and teach it to others.

Here’s my point. Is these doctrines swirl around in the church in churches and we need to be we need to be wise. I I I’m I’m running out of time here but I wanna make sure that that I cover the rest of the verses and get to the end. Okay. So, let’s look at second Timothy chapter two. Second Timothy chapter two.

Look at if you would at verse number verse number 14. The Bible says this, of these things put them in remembrance charging them before God, before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit. That’s that jangling out of babbling I was telling you about. But to the subverting of the hearers. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness and their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is Hymenius and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection has passed already and overthrow the faith of some. You see, these foolish doctrines and this jangling, what started as arguing over silly questions and raising questions that are useless out of ignorance is now moving into actual false doctrine.

These things are not innocent. They will grow. They will verse 16, they will produce ungodliness. What seemed to be innocent theories and questions actually turn into overt false doctrine and with that comes actual moral corruption.

It overthrows the faith of some as you see in verse number 18. That’s the trap. The trap is that things that supposedly start as questions are not just questions. They’re not innocent questions. That’s just the foot in the door. That’s just the wedge to get in. Now look at Titus chapter one.

Titus chapter one Verse 14, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. You see the effect? They turn from the truth. Notice their Jewish fables, these myths, these theories that can’t be proven. Nobody knows if they’re true or false, they’re uncertain but maybe they’re true, maybe they’re not but they’re Jewish. In other words, there’s a religious flavor to them which attracts and draws those who like to talk about these things. Look at chapter three verse number nine.

But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law, again, religious scriptural questions for they are unprofitable and vain. Okay, so we’ve seen all the different places in the pastoral epistles where Paul repeatedly warned Timothy and Titus about these silly, ignorant, false doctrines that people push. And you you might ask yourself, well, how am I supposed to know what doctrines are like that and which aren’t? And that’s that’s because we haven’t covered. I gave you a few examples, but that was just an examples.

So, how are you supposed to identify them? Well, go back to first Timothy chapter one. In verse number five and I’ll say this, just like Jesus said regarding false prophets, you shall know them by their fruits. I’ll say this, you shall know false doctrine by its fruit. Now, here’s how I know that. Verse number five of chapter one of first Timothy. Now, the end of the commandment, that’s the law, the word of god. Now, the end of the commandment is charity, that’s love, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.

So, if you and I, we teach and believe and know the word of god in in the the the wholesome, right? We’re gonna go back to that word. Wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, they get that build our faith and give us certainty, the effect and the goal and the the aim, the result or product of those things will be charity, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

You see that? So, you can you can know these doctrines by their fruits. What do they produce? Now, I’m not going to go back all over these these verses again but if you want to write down the list, here’s how you here’s how you recognize these doctrines. They raise questions instead of answer questions.

These doctrines are mixed with pride. First Timothy six four. These doctrines produce envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, which are accusations and suspicions, and perverse disputings. Now be careful, if a doctrine comes up in a church and you say why are you talking about this? I mean, our church, our little church, what are we gonna have? Because Paul says that to Timothy, he warns him about the church.

If doctrines start to come up in the church and the effect, the product of those doctrines is strife and anger and suspicion and argument, it is not of god. You don’t even have to know the doctrine. You just have to know the fruit. You might not even have the, you might not even never heard of doctrine. You might have just heard like bits and pieces and never studied out fully but one thing you can do is with your eyeballs observe its product and if the product is not love, a good conscience, and sincere faith, if it’s not edification and certainty, it’s not of god.

These doctrines also cause people to actually air from the faith. In other words, some people get distracted with it and before you know it, they’re gone from the truth.

They’re gone from the truth. In fact, you see this in some of the social media I mentioned a minute ago, some of these people who are just asking questions, just asking questions, and before, you know, what they once were one thing and they’re moving into another thing. I’ll give you an example, the example of this, Tucker Carlson, I really wonder if Tucker Carlson is headed toward being a Muslim.

I really do. And he’s supposed to be an Episcopalian. He’s just asking questions. Not only that, but the fruit of these kinds of doctrines is ungodliness. So listen, brother, sister, listen, we have a secret weapon when we hear about these things, whether it’s this King James thing or the repentance question or different questions about the end times or various other things that come up, hot button issues that all of a sudden it’s all the rage, know, or we’re talking about this, did you hear about that? Listen, what does it produce?

Because the word of God, verse five chapter one, the word of God, the end of the commandment is charity, good conscience, and unfeigned faith. Is it producing good fruit? Because good fruit comes of a good tree, evil fruit comes of the evil tree, right? That’s a biblical principle. And so we come to our response, Again, we won’t look at all the verses that we’ve already read. What is the biblical response to these kinds of doctrines? Now, for those of you who are who are into that, like brother Jim, brother Jim likes to talk about stuff, right? Brother Jim studies and he likes to talk about that. Sam’s another one, likes to talk about that. Andrew and brother David, you know, you guys like, you know, you guys are that that type of person and there are others of you might be like that too and I just not have interacted as much but but listen, for those of you that are into that, I want to tell you something. There’s a warning here.

Not every question, not every doctrine deserves our attention. And the moment that we start to perceive ill fruit, our our little beacons ought to start beaconing. Here’s the response we’re supposed to give. You think, and this is why we have to believe the word of God, here’s why we have to believe the word of God. Because we want to debate the question, right? We wanna grapple with it and prove them wrong.

Here’s what God says to do about these Jovane janglings, these babblings, these dotings. In first Timothy one four and Titus one fourteen, he says, do not listen. Well, that’s not debating. He says, take no heed. That means don’t listen. In first Timothy four seven, he says, refuse old wives, wives fables. Reject them out of hand. Well, how would I, how will I know if I should listen if I don’t listen? That’s the whole trap.

He says, reject them, refuse them. First Timothy six five, he says, withdraw thyself. You see somebody that’s messing around in these things and peddling this stuff? Withdrawal. Don’t spend time with them. Get some distance. Second Timothy two fourteen tells us further to strive not. In other words, one of the worst things that we can do is argue with them, strive not.

Second Timothy two fifteen, another response we should give is whenever the people are peddling these kinds of doctrines is to give diligence in our own study of the word.

In other words, it’s not about studying the false doctrine, it’s about studying the true. That’s what second Timothy two fifteen, that word study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman needeth not to be ashamed, that squished between two verses, verse 14 and verse 16, that are talking about these kinds of vain jangling, did you know that? Right in the middle, False doctrine, study to show thyself, false doctrine.

In each case that we’ve looked at in first and second Timothy, the fables and the Bible is contrasted with good doctrine, edifying doctrine, and faithful doctrine that comes from wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. And lastly, the Lord tells us when we’re aware of these kinds of doctrines, he says to shun them, to avoid them. In other words, do not engage because don’t don’t forget, you don’t have all the answers and a lot of these doctrines are devilish.

If you think the devil doesn’t have isn’t smarter than you to develop a doctrine you don’t have an answer for, you are wrong and I’ll tell you that because I’ve lived it.

I’ll tell you, I’ll be I’ll be personal with you, know I’ve been preaching a long time but I’ll be personal with you. When I was in Bible College, I was I came across a doctrine, it was it was it was it was all millennialism. Alright, this idea that the millennium is is not the millennium, the one thousand year reign of Christ. Anyway, it was from Ezekiel. It was a quote out of a verse in Ezekiel.

And this person quoted Ezekiel, I forgot, I don’t even know how I came across this quote or where it was or any of the context, but he came across this quote in Ezekiel and he just he gave an explanation for it that was amillennial.

And I heard it and I didn’t have an answer. I didn’t have an answer. Now, have an answer now, but at the time, it really troubled me. I mean, to be honest with you, it really troubled me because I didn’t know better. Like I hadn’t I hadn’t learned that.

And so listen, Satan knows how to get doctrine in your mind that has been developed that is that you don’t understand and you and I don’t know how to answer. So, this I, you we have to be careful of our own pride in thinking that we can just we we have all the answers, we’ll be able to figure it out. We might not. We might not but we do have the power and the word of God to look at the fruit and to know the plain teachings of scripture in a positive sense.

And we can examine that fruit and what the scripture plainly teaches and not be looking for that secret knowledge that I and only I have discovered. The lord says, shun them, avoid them, don’t even engage.

And so we don’t know, we don’t know when these things will show up at our church. In church life from time to time these issues come up. And it never is something that you’ve heard of or been prepared for and it’s some new thing that comes up, some new idea that somebody’s pushing and somebody gets distracted with it or whatever. I wanna tell you something, all of the men in particular, all the men, not just men, but in particular all the men in our church ought to be to be paying attention, right? Just like you would, you know, in your home, ought to be people who are paying attention to spiritual things and who are aware of this kind of stuff and know how to respond to it, know how to recognize it and to know that, at least know that the scriptural truths related to it in a positive sense.

Let’s pray together.