1 Timothy 1:3-7 | 27th September 2026

you to keep in your mind and that is a

word

doctrine.

I want you to keep the word doctrine in

your mind because I believe that word

doctrine is the key word for us this

morning.

Now when you hear the word doctrine, do

you think exciting?

Probably not. I think you probably think

boring. Now, there's some weirdos

amongst us who probably hear the word

doctrine and they do get excited.

But that's probably not most of us. Most

of us don't hear the word doctrine and

get excited. We hear the word doctrine

and we think that doctrine that that's

for the elites.

Doctrine that's for the professionals.

Doctrine that's for the scholars. That's

for the pastors. That's for the

missionaries. doctrine isn't for me. We

think

we say stuff like this. You know what?

I'm just a practical person. I'm a doer.

I'm not a doctrine person. So, I'll

leave the doctrine up to the

professionals and you just leave the

doing up to me.

No, doctrine is absolutely for you

because your practice

without the foundation of doctrine, it's

useless.

You need to have good solid foundation,

good sound doctrine because if you don't

have good sound doctrine, your practices

mean nothing.

your practices, if they're not built on

the solid foundation of good doctrine,

they're worthless.

It's just you doing activity.

You need doctrine. And if you don't have

doctrine, your faith is going to be

dead.

And this church, do you know what this

church needs? We need doctrine. And if

we don't have doctrine, our church is

going to be dead.

There are many churches who have

tradition and what they're leaning on is

the tradition of the past, the tra

tradition of past saints from before.

And they think that they have security

on the basis of that tradition. But a

lot of that tradition was based on solid

foundation of doctrine. And what people

did was they carried on the tradition

and yet they lost the doctrine. Which

means all the traditions ended up being

empty.

No, what we need in order to be alive

Christians. And what do we need in order

to be a church that is alive is

doctrine.

And this is why Paul writes to Timothy

in the way that he wrote. This is why he

wrote with such an authority as an

apostle. I am an apostle who is writing

with the authority of God the father who

is our savior. I'm writing with the

authority of of Christ who is our hope

and of Christ who is our Lord. And I'm

writing telling you this doctrine is

really important.

And this is what he says in the first

verses we have to Timothy in verse

three. Listen to what he says.

As I urged you when I was going to

Macedonia, remain at Ephesus

so that here's the purpose. So that you

may charge certain persons

not to teach any different doctrine,

nor to devote themselves to myths and

endless genealogies which promote

speculations rather than stewardship

from God that is by faith.

Did you hear the key word? Did you hear

what he's saying to Timothy? He's giving

Timothy his job. I left you there and

here is your job that you may charge

certain persons not to teach a different

doctrine. And that's our key word

doctrine.

Paul is saying that that doctrine it is

really important. What does doctrine

mean? Well, doctrine is teaching.

Doctrine is the belief system that we

hold as Christians.

So if you have doctrine, if you have

teaching, it is that true and sound

doctrine that is the gospel itself.

And Paul, as we look at this word, just

follow me for a second. This word

doctrine and teaching go right

throughout the letter. Paul is obsessed

with this word.

We see it in chapter 1:3. Different

doctrine.

teach them not to observe this different

doctrine. We also see it if you look at

chapter 1 verse 10. Chapter 1 verse 10,

he's listing out these sins that are not

to be committed. And he says this, the

sexually immoral men who practice

homosexuality, enslavers, liars,

perjurers, and whatever else is contrary

to sound doctrine.

Run away from the sins. teach against

those that are contrary to sound

doctrine.

In chapter 1 verse three or in chapter

3:2, sorry, he talks about elders and

what are they elders meant to be able to

do.

Therefore, an overseer must be must be

above reproach. The husband of one wife,

soberminded, self-controlled,

respectable, hospitable, able to teach.

What is he to be able to teach? Sound

doctrine.

In chapter 4:6, turn to chapter 4 6. It

says this, "If you put these things

before the brothers, you will be a good

servant of Christ Jesus, being trained

in the words of faith and of good

doctrine that you have followed." Good

doctrine is important.

In chapter 4:13, he says this, "Until I

come, devote yourself to the public

reading of of scripture, to exhortation,

and to teaching, the teaching of good

doctrine." In chapter 4:1 16, he says

this, "Keep a close watch on yourself

and on the teaching. Persist in this,

for by so doing, you will save yourself

and your hearers." teaching doctrine is

important.

He says in chapter 5 17, "Let the elders

who rule well be considered worthy of

double honor, especially those who labor

in preaching and teaching." That

teaching is the teaching of sound

doctrine.

And then in chapter 6:3 it says this. If

anyone teaches a different doctrine

and does not agree with sound words of

our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching

that accords with godliness, he is

puffed up with conceit and understands

nothing.

If he teaches a different doctrine,

guess what he understands?

Nothing.

Do you see how doctrine is important?

Good, sound doctrine is important. It's

important for you. It's important for

me. It's important for our church.

And so as you look at 1 Timothy chapter

1:3,

he says, "I've urged,

as I've urged you when I was going to

Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you

may charge certain persons not to teach

any different doctrine." Timothy, here's

your job. He lays out Timothy's job.

Here's the job. I left you there in

Ephesus so that you would make sure that

there is no different useless doctrine.

Ephesus was a place where Paul visited

as he was a missionary and we hear of

the establishment of the church in

Ephesus in Acts chapter 18 19 and 20.

Acts 18 · chapter mention

And when Paul went to Ephesus, Paul had

a three-year ministry in Ephesus. And

what Paul did was he turned the town

upside down. He preached wherever he

went. He went to the synagogues and he

preached the gospel of the Lord Jesus

Christ to them. When they kicked him

out, he went to the hall of Tyrannis and

he debated with all the elites and the

scholars of the day and he preached the

gospel of Jesus Christ to to them. And

there were those who were idol

worshiping in Ephesus, their their their

their god Artemis.

And they would they would design all

these idols for all their idol worship.

And the idol makers notice something. As

Paul preaches the gospel and as people

are changed, guess what? We lose money.

So Paul was bankrupting all these idol

makers in Ephesus. Were they happy about

that? No, they were not happy about

that. So what they did in Ephesus is,

and you and you'll read this in in Acts

Acts 18 · chapter mention

chapter 18, 19, and 20. What they did is

they started a riot

against Paul and against his teaching.

And Paul sees the riot and Paul actually

wants to go in right in the middle. His

friends, they hold him back.

But Paul was devoted to sound doctrine.

And then just before he left Ephesus,

as he was going to leave Ephesus, Paul

in Acts chapter 20, he gives this

Acts 20 · chapter mention

amazing speech to the elders. And he

says that he gives this speech with

tears because when he was with them for

three years, he had tears in his eyes

leaving them. And he gave this

instruction to the elders

at Ephesus, the ones whom Timothy left

them with. He gave this instruction. You

can just listen to it. It says in Acts

20 25, here was Paul's instruction to

the elders with tears. He says this,

"And now, behold,

I know that none of you will see my face

again.

Therefore, I testify that to this day I

am innocent of the blood of all.

For I did not shrink back from declaring

the whole council of God."

Pay careful attention to yourselves, you

at Ephesus, and to all the flock. He's

writing to the elders, in which the Holy

Spirit has made you overseers

to care for the church of God, which he

obtained with his own blood.

I know that after my departure from

Ephesus, Paul says, fierce wolves will

come in among you, not sparing the

flock, and from among your own selves

will arise men speaking twisted things

to draw away disciples after them.

Therefore,

be alert,

remembering that for three years I did

not cease night and day to admonish

everyone with tears.

Paul is saying, I was with you and night

and day I worked hard preaching the

doctrine, the good news of the gospel.

And my final words are this to you. Be

careful of false teachers. Be careful of

bad doctrine. And five years later,

Paul writes to Timothy and says,

"Timothy, I left you there to be careful

that these false teachers who are now in

the church like Paul said they would be,

that they would not teach false

doctrine." Timothy, that's your job.

defend, protect the bride of Christ.

So he calls on him to do this.

That's his job.

And what I want to say to you as a

church is that's also my job.

That's the elders of this church. It is

our job as elders and pastors. It is my

job. It is Steve's job. It is John's

job. It is Brendan's job as elders and

pastors in this church to ensure that

different doctrine is not taught.

To ensure that you are growing in good

doctrine

because good doctrine leads to good

practice.

Bad doctrine leads to bad practice.

The reason we want you to hear good

teaching is so that you live it out in

your lives. If you turn again

to uh 1 Timothy chapter 6

1 Timothy 6:3

verse 3, it talks specifically about

this what this different doctrine was.

It says this

1 Timothy 6:3,

1 Timothy 6:3

"If anyone teaches a different doctrine

and does that does not accord with the

sound words of the our Lord Jesus Christ

and the teaching that accords with

godliness, he is puffed up with conceit

and understands nothing." What is this

different doctrine according to these

verses? The different doctrine according

to these verses is verses that does is

is doctrine that does not agree with the

sound teaching of Jesus

and does not line up with godliness.

Different doctrine is this. It doesn't

focus on the truth of Jesus's teaching

and it doesn't lead to good practice,

godliness.

That's the call on us as elders, as

pastors as we seek to lead this church

that would lead this church in such a

way that the gospel of Jesus Christ

remains central

and that we as God's people le seek to

respond to that gospel of Jesus Christ

by practicing godliness.

This is why we chose to do what we're

doing now on Friday nights. I preach the

sermon on Sunday mornings.

And our goal and our hope isn't that we

just walk away and hear doctrine.

Our goal in Friday nights is now to

start asking questions on the sermon

that I've just preached. And those

questions are application questions.

They're not information questions.

What does this mean and that mean?

Hopefully I'm explaining some of that

information on Sunday morning. But

they're application questions in this

way. We've heard the doctrine. Now, what

difference does that make? How am I

going to live it out? I would hate our

church to ever be a church that only

hears the word but doesn't do it.

May that never be us.

That we would just hear on Sunday

morning, that we'd laugh, that we'd pat

each other on the back, and that we'd

walk out and do nothing about it.

That's bad doctrine.

Because good doctrine says, "Here's the

truth, and now live it out." That's the

call for us. And that's what Timothy is

called to do. Teach good doctrine, sound

doctrine, because bad doctrine leads to

bad practice. Look at verse four.

nor to devote themselves to myths and

endless genealogies which promote

speculations rather than the stewardship

from God that is by faith.

Don't teach different doctrine because

different doctrine leads to different

practice.

The bad doctrine led them to focus on

myths and endless genealogies.

Myths are the fairy tales. And there's

there's five times in the New Testament

that it talks about myths. And whenever

it talks about myths, it's always

negative. It's never positive.

God's people aren't meant to be focusing

on fairy tales and myths, which are

probably the myths that come from the

they would take the law. Yes, they would

teach the law, but they would also add

their own stories onto the law and

create myths and stories that would be

attached to the main characters like

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And they

would add all these myths in the name of

being deeper.

Let's get deeper than what the word

says.

No, you get deeper into what the word

says, not by making new discoveries, but

actually finding out what the words

itself on the page mean. Not by you

adding your own stories to it. And that

was their problem. And they were also

focusing on these endless genealogies.

And if you think about genealogies,

genealogies, they're actually good.

The book of Genesis could almost be

called a book of genealogies.

a a a a book of of of family trees that

you have right the way throughout the

the book of Genesis.

This is the family line of Abraham. This

is the family line of Jacob. This is the

family line. And it will constantly tell

us break off in the book of Genesis and

tell us these are the descendants of

these are the descendants of these are

the descendants of. What was the purpose

of those genealogies? Well, the purpose

of those genealogies, one was practical

in that it it it moved the story line on

really fast. So, it was a way you could

you can say all these people years and

years and years and years and years and

then get on to a new character and start

the story. So it it the genealogy served

a practical function in the narrative

but they also served the most important

function and it was this

to point us forward to the one who would

crush the head of the serpent.

All of these genealogies point and lead

to Jesus.

That is why Matthew begins by saying the

genealogy of Jesus Christ.

We think why did Matthew start that way?

Because he wanted to show the great

family tree and he went from Abraham. He

traced the line and he went to David and

he traced the line. He went to the

people of the exile and he traced the

line and he finally gets to this guy

Joseph. and Joseph had a son and they

called him Jesus.

Genealogies, they're glorious. But what

people were doing in the genealogies is

they were taking these names that they

knew nothing about really and making up

stories, extra stories with the names.

What were they doing? Trying to go

deeper.

You can't go deeper if you don't have

any extra words. You can only go deeper

with the words that you have.

So this was different. doctrine which

led to different practices which then

led to what does he say at the end of

verse four speculations rather than

stewardship. Stewardship is managing

organizing the truth that we have in the

faith that has been passed on through

the word of God. So that when I preach

and when I teach and whenever you have

the Bible, what you're doing is you're

holding it out and you're stewarding it.

It's like when you're stewarding money,

what are you doing? you're you're

preciously taking care of where it goes

and how you put it. And so we have the

word of God. What we're to do with the

word of God is hold it preciously and

and steward it really well.

But what these false teachers are doing

and what Paul is seeking to tell Timothy

here, listen, here's your job. Steward

it so that you stay away from

speculations.

Brothers and sisters,

not only do I have a job,

but you have a job, too. By implication,

he's been talking about Timothy's job as

a pastor and an elder, which essentially

means, okay, well, well, that's my job

to do that,

to make sure that I rebuke different

doctrine. But what's your job? Your job

is to avoid different doctrine.

Your job is to avoid speculations.

Your job is to avoid trying to just you

yourself make up stories and go deeper.

Avoid speculations and focus upon the

truth. Where are speculations that we

might have nowadays?

One of the easy places to go for

speculations is this. The end times. If

you want speculations, go on YouTube and

start looking up the end times. Please

don't. But if you want speculations, you

can do that. And you will see many,

many, many speculations, many, many,

many ideas.

Who's the antichrist? Well, it was

Hitler,

Stalin,

Putin, Trump. Who's the antichrist?

EVERYBODY HAS AN IDEA. WHAT IS THAT?

It's speculations. It's not truth.

Or the mark of the beast.

Every single new technology is what? The

mark of the beast. It's not truth. It's

speculation.

The Bible didn't tell us that this chip

or that chip or or the latest thing that

Apple is making is going to be the mark.

The Bible doesn't tell us that.

Or when people think of dates, this is

when Jesus is coming back again. Here's

the date. It's not truth. It's

speculation because nobody knows the day

or the hour. And unfortunately, what

ends up happening then is we avoid the

book of Revelation because there's so

much speculation attached to it. And we

shouldn't avoid the book. But when we

read it, we don't read it looking for

deeper speculations and deeper meanings.

We read it knowing that our King Jesus

is coming back again and we are going to

see him face to face and I'm going to

focus in on what the word tells me

rather than speculating what I think it

tells me.

And that keeps us on the path of sound

doctrine. So I am called to teach sound

doctrine and rebuke different doctrine.

But you're also called to embrace sound

doctrine and avoid different doctrine.

Be careful.

Be careful of what Christian books you

read.

Be careful of what you listen to or or

watch on YouTube or Spotify. Be careful.

False teachers were around back then and

they're also around now. Watch out for

different doctrine.

That's Timothy's job.

That's my job. That's your job.

But what's the goal of the job?

Why does Paul say this? What's what's

his aim? What's his purpose? Why is he

saying this? Because as we say, sound

doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, doctrine.

Doesn't it sound cold? Let's keep

focused on our doctrine. Some of you

love it. you're like geeking out right

now and you like it, but but but to some

of us it sounds very strict and cold and

rules and all of that kind of stuff.

But notice what the aim is.

The aim in Paul saying this is love and

truth.

Look at what he says in verse five. The

aim of our charge, what was that charge?

Rebuke those who teach different

doctrine. The aim of our charge is love

that issues from a pure heart and a good

conscience and a sincere faith. What's

the goal of his charge?

To be careful of doctrine. The aim of

it, the goal of it, the purpose of it is

love.

He's saying it because he he loves the

church.

He's saying it because he loves Timothy.

In love, Timothy is going to need to

step into conflict. That's what love

does. It doesn't avoid conflict. It

actually steps into conflict and seeks

to create peace.

This is what parents do all the time.

When children are fighting together,

your children are fighting. What

happens? What do you need to do in love?

Love doesn't step back from the

conflict. What does love do? Love steps

into the conflict

and rebukes and corrects and stops. And

when he does that, what happens? Peace.

When you step back, there's no peace.

There's conflict.

But in love, we step in and we rebuke.

So Paul is saying these things from

love.

And that love is fueled comes from a

pure heart, a good conscience, and

sincere faith. Paul the apostle is

saying, "I I'm giving this command

instruction

in love from a pure heart." His heart

has been renewed, regenerated.

His heart of stone has been created into

a heart of flesh. It is a pure heart. He

is a good conscience. We talked about

the conscience the last number of weeks.

The false teachers in chapter 4:2 we

will see they teach out of a seared

conscience a numb conscience. They don't

have a right perspective on what is

right or what is wrong according to God.

But Paul when he is teaching out of love

he teaches from a good conscience

that has been renewed and cleansed by

the blood of the lamb. And he teaches

from a sincere

and genuine faith.

I'm speaking these things not to speak

for cold doctrine's sake.

I'm speaking these in love

with sincere faith, a good conscience

and a pure heart.

The goal, the purpose of my instruction,

it is love. And the second goal and

purpose of instruction for keeping with

good and sound doctrine is truth.

He wants truth. He wants to give the

instruction because of love. But he also

wants to give the instruction because of

truth. Verse six, certain persons by

swerving from these

have wandered away into vain discussion,

desiring to be teachers of the law

without understanding without

understanding either what they are

saying or the things about which they

make confident assertions.

Notice the words that Paul is using

certain persons by swerving from these

things. What are they swerving from?

What are they turning away from? They're

turning away from love. They're turning

away from a pure heart. They're turning

away from a good conscience. They're

turning away from sincere faith, which

means they're actively

swerving, turning away from truth.

I was driving near Mahm Point a number

of months ago. And as I was driving near

Mahm Point a number of months ago, I was

on on this road and there was another

kind of single road beside and I noticed

on the other side there was this this

woman driving and she started what

seemed to me to reach down to the floor

on the passenger seat on the other side.

And as her head went down and as she

went to reach down, guess what the car

did? The car started to move over and

now I see like the top of her head as

she's leaning down and she's driving at

me.

So, here I am sitting there in the lane

and I don't think I can move. I'm

thinking about turning, but I don't

think I can move.

So, I'm sitting there. Maybe there was I

I'd like to say there was a quick

prayer, but there probably wasn't. I'll

say it cuz I'm a pastor. Maybe there was

a quick prayer, but there probably

wasn't.

She keeps driving and then suddenly she

puts her head up. She sees me and last

minute she turns.

She swerves.

Usually when you swerve in a car, what

do you do? You turn away from danger,

don't you? That's why you swerve. These

false teachers, do you know what they're

doing? They see truth. They're hitting

truth headon. And do you know what they

do? They actively swerve away from the

truth.

That's a seared conscience. When you

know what is true, you have the truth

right in front of you, and you

intentionally swerve and turn away from

it.

False teachers, they're dangerous. But

false teachers, they're they're quite

hard to spot. They're it's quite hard to

see false teachers. And and here's why.

Because false teachers when they teach,

look at verse six and seven, actually

verse seven. False teachers when they

teach, they teach with desire. Do you

see that in verse 7? Desiring to be

teachers of the law. When false teachers

they teach, they teach with a desire.

Oh, it kind of looks like that guy wants

to be doing what he's doing. So, it's

attractive when someone teaches with a

desire. False teachers are hard to spot

because they teach with desire.

And then secondly, they're also hard to

spot because sometimes when they teach,

they actually teach with truth. Now,

they're not teaching the truth, but they

do teach with truth. Look what it says

in verse 7. Desiring to be teachers of

the law. So, what would happen is they

would get the law, the first five books

of the Bible. They would get the

genealogies which we know are the truth

but they wouldn't teach the truth of the

genealogies. They would teach with the

genealogies with the truth. So you kind

of look at this false teacher and you

say, "Well, he has desire. Looks like

he's liking what he's doing. He has the

Bible. He has truth.

It looks like he likes what he's doing

and he has truth. So his desire to

teach, he teaches with the truth and

they're also hard to spot because they

teach with confidence. The end of verse

seven, they make confident assertions.

False teachers are hard to see because

they have a desire to teach.

They teach with the truth. They don't

teach the truth.

And when they teach, they teach with

confidence.

So then you're kind of like, how do we

spot these guys then?

Well, in the middle of verse 7, it says

this. They teach

without understanding

of what they're saying.

So when you are looking at teaching,

you're not primarily looking for desire.

You're not primarily looking for just do

they hold the Bible in their hand.

You're not primarily looking for

confidence. What you're looking for is

understanding.

Does this guy understand what he is

saying?

Is it true and right doctrine? Is he

teaching with understanding?

I was watching this teacher.

He's a an American preacher teacher. I

won't say his name because I don't want

you to look him up and I know you will.

um he was teaching in this state and he

was teaching a passage in Luke and I'm

not even going to say the passage

because you're going to try and look

that up too. But when he was teaching

the passage,

he got to the passage, he was confident,

he had a desire to teach. He even held

the Bible when he was teaching.

But when he taught, do you know what he

taught from in Luke? He taught from one

of the headings.

Let me show you what I mean by the

headings. So in your Bible in first

Timothy, it will say one of the headings

in italics will be greeting. That's the

first heading. The second heading in my

Bible anyway is warning against false

teachers. The third is Christ Jesus came

to save sinners. The fourth is pray for

all people. That's in italics.

Do you know what those headings are not?

They're not scripture.

They're not inspired scripture. They're

not the inspired word of God.

And yet this guy taught a sermon on one

of those titles that people added in

afterwards. He taught on one of the

titles. He opened up the book of the

Bible and saw the only words that Paul

didn't write and that Luke didn't write

and he taught from those.

He taught without understanding.

That's how you spot the false teacher.

You see, does he have understanding? Is

he teaching with understanding?

But guess what your job is? The only way

you are going to understand that he is

teaching without understanding is if you

actually understand yourself.

Now it's back on you, Shane. I just want

to come in and sit down and listen to

you. you do all the study. I I just

don't want to do any of the work.

If you do that, you'll be fooled by

false and different doctrine.

We as a church, your job

is to avoid different doctrine and to

cling on to good doctrine. My job as a

teacher is to come and teach good

doctrine to you. And you are to respond

to that good doctrine with godliness,

with practice,

so that we hear the word and we don't

walk away from it. We actually do what

the word says.

So brothers and sisters,

are you going to love doctrine

or are you just going to leave that up

to the professionals, the missionaries,

the pastors, the whatever?

No, you should love good doctrine.

So what might that look like?

Well, on Sunday mornings,

do whatever you can to listen to the

doctrine in the best way that you can.

Some people the best way for them to

listen is to take notes. If that's the

best way, you do that. So you hear sound

doctrine. Some people get distracted by

taking notes and the best way for them

is just to listen. So you do that. Some

of us have children climbing all over us

and I barely get one word in.

Well, maybe you could listen afterwards.

as well as listening now

because in your presence and being here,

you're teaching your family something.

You might not hear every word, but you

might hear some word, but if you're

going to take doctrine seriously and be

taught, well, maybe you need to go back

and listen. Oh, well, I was in crash

that Sunday. Maybe you need to go back

and listen.

What way can you grow in sound doctrine

in the studies that we have? take those

studies seriously that you can grow

yourself in sound doctrine.

We have Monster Bible College on our

back doors

with with lecturers coming in and and

teaching us good and sound doctrine.

Why not learn sound doctrine so that you

can have understanding?

Brothers and sisters, this is our job.

And the sound doctrine is this

that Jesus Christ, he came into this

world. He was perfect and without

blemish

and he was crushed on the cross for our

sins. He was buried and on the third day

he rose again. He ascended into the

right hand of the father and he is

interceding for us even now. And the

promise is that he is coming back again

to judge the living and the dead. And

one day we will see him face to face and

reign with him for eternity. That, my

friends, is good doctrine. And that is

what we are to love. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for the good news of

the gospel and I pray that we would be

people of the word who love doctrine and

live love to practice it in godliness in

our lives.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's

stand and sing

as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's

supper.