Deal with False Teachers, Pt. 1

There is a swirling mass of moral filth and theological detritus that seems to follow men wherever they go, like Pig-Pen's famous cloud of dust that went with him wherever he walked. Men are by nature limited and by sin-nature, broken, miserable and morally bankrupt under the Fall. All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and out of this populous of putrescence can we really expect a saving doctrine, a saving methodology, a Savior to arise? As one future president might say, "Come on man!" Yet men within the church are susceptible to the notion of another Gospel other than the one handed down to them by the Prophets and Apostles, enchanted by false teachers and fleshly approaches to that which belongs only to God by right of revelation of provision of redemption. This Gospel, that extended-hand of grace, mercy and peace which God thrust towards us sinners to lift us out of the "miry clay" must remain front and center if we are to know Christ and make Him known. This is why at the outset of Paul's letter to the young pastor, Timothy, he encourages him to nip bad doctrine in the bud by dealing with false teachers who obscure saving truth, but damning lies. What is this truth and how might we remain steadfast in it? This is the content of Paul's epistles to dear friend and fellow minister, Timothy.

We begin this morning with a familiar but essential salutation from Paul to Timothy, establishing in just a few words the authority of the Words "grace, mercy and peace." It is essential because it accurately and sufficiently introduces the doctrine that undergirds the entirety of the epistles and even more summarizes the heart of the Gospel given to Paul and T