Beyond Speculation—The Gospel That Saves & Sanctifies

We’ll turn our Bibles to 1 Timothy 1 and we will read from verses 3 till 11. 1 Timothy 1, verses 3 till 11. Verse 3 onwards. “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, not to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.”

“The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. Now, we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully. Understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever is contrary to sound doctrine,

in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.” Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this time. We thank you, Lord, for your word. We pray that you would speak to us from your word and give us grace that we may submit to the teaching of your word and we pray Lord that you bless us with your grace in Jesus Christ and we pray. Amen.

The title of the sermon is Beyond Speculation—The Gospel That Saves and Sanctifies. The one main argument that I’ll be arguing from this passage is that only the gospel of God’s glory, the true message of the blessed God, rather than speculations, produce the Spirit-wrought love that Christ desires for His church. Therefore, we must prioritize safeguarding the sound gospel-centered doctrine above all else.

The basic outline of the sermon is that first we’ll talk about the charge, the second thing is the aim, and then finally the true use of the law in the light of the gospel. Now some men in the Ephesian church were drifting away. They were engrossed in myths and endless genealogies and they wanted to be recognized as the teachers of the law, but no one had appointed them as teachers of the law. And Paul explicitly states that they did not understand what they were talking about. And Paul charges Timothy to silence the Ephesian self-appointed or self-wannabe teachers because their speculative law misunderstanding teaching has abandoned the gospel of God’s glory and with it the Spirit-wrought love that is the true goal of all sound doctrine, they

have also abandoned that goal. So the church should grow more and more in the fruit of the Spirit. Instead, it has lost its focus and become a center of speculative discussions. So firstly the charge. Verse 3, Paul begins, “As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus.” He says, “As I urged you.” That is not a new instruction if you observe there. Paul had already given Timothy this charge in person, now he writes it down so Timothy will be steadfast in it.

And this shows that the pastoral ministry often involves more standing firm on establishing, sorry, or on established truths than discovering new ones. So Timothy’s assignment as an apostolic is to charge certain persons “not to teach any different doctrine.” So the word different means other. And the word behind different doctrine literally means teaching that deviates from a fixed standard. If you look at 1 Timothy 6, verse 3, Paul says there that “if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness.” So Paul here defines what this different doctrine is.

Paul defines different doctrine as that which departs from the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are in opposition to the sound words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And also this different doctrine is against godliness or it opposes godliness. So this other or different doctrine contradicts Jesus’ own teachings, teaching as preserved in the apostolic tradition. These teachings directly contradict the Lord’s teachings. So by the middle of the first century, the church already had an agreed body of apostolic teaching, which became the standard. So sound doctrine did not develop slowly over centuries of church councils.

It was given, entrusted, and they are recognizable body of teaching and it could be departed from. So to teach different doctrine means to teach that does not agree with the apostolic standard. So what did this false teaching look like? What was the content of the false teaching? In verse 4, Paul names two aspects there.

Myths and endless genealogies. We do not exactly know what they are, but the contents of this different doctrine, for example, if you look at the word endless there, it means that unrestrained. The word endless can also mean limitless or unrestrained. William Mounce says, “One can picture the teachings of the opponents going on and on, not saying anything true or of any significance, and never coming to a conclusion, always creating more and more myths and quibbling.” So these myths and genealogies can also mean endless myths that are derived from genealogies. So Mounce also says that many scholars compare myths and genealogies to Jewish allegories of creation and misinterpretations of the Old Testament patriarchs and their family as those found in the book of Jubilees.

Book of Jubilees is one of the apocryphal books. So, and one scholar by the name of Bernard suggests that they could have derived something from Essene Judaism as a source of this heresy. Essenes were an ancient Jewish sect that lived during the Second Temple period or during that intertestamental period. In their writings, they speculated about the Moses law, Hebrew history, and the impurity of matter leading to something like monastic rituals and denial of physical resurrection and other topics. So probably these people were driven by these kind of teachings. And so Paul also writes to Titus in Titus 1:14. And he writes to Titus to charge his recipients not to give themselves to Jewish myths.

So Paul may have penned Titus also at the same time. So this Jewish myths or fables came into prominence during the so-called silent years or the intertestamental times by the Jewish rabbis. And these were fictitious stories, speculative stories. And whatever the nature and source of these myths and genealogies, we know that they do not derive from a true understanding of Scripture or it did not base upon the apostolic teaching. So these myths, fables do not unite God’s people around the truth. Instead, they divert their attention from the stewardship from God that is by faith, as Paul mentions here. So these myths and genealogies are the ancient equivalent of endless debates about matters that scratch our curiosity but never come to a conclusion, but never draws to Christ.

So what does this kind of teaching produce? Look at the second part of verse 4. It says, “that which promotes speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.” So the word translated stewardship here means God’s administration or the plan or his plan, his ordered arrangement for saving a people through the promised seed ultimately fulfilled in Christ Jesus. These speculations which are against apostolic teachings are against God’s redemptive plan. That’s the point here. They are against God’s redemptive plan. You cannot fill your mind with endless human speculations and still fix your eyes on God’s great plan and work in and through our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Here is a redemptive historical thread. Read. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11 we see that God works everything according to the counsel of his will. That is he’s speaking about his eternal decrees. God has the triune God has decreed in the eternity past of all that he is going to do in creation and providence and also in salvation. So out of those eternal decrees that God made, which were among the Trinity, came the first promise in the garden in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15. And then the calling of Abraham, the giving of the law, the rise and fall of Israel’s kings and the words of the prophets.

And God has been unfolding one plan centered on his And the Church’s task in every generation is not to invent new revelation or chase new speculation, but to steward the one gospel already given and trusted once for all to the saints, as Jude says in verse 3.

God’s work, His gospel, and already revealed scriptures should become the seedbed of our life and conversations in the life of the church. Not speculations, not gossips, not slander, not your personal hurts, not controversies, nor dissatisfactions. These things will not build you or move you towards the goal that Paul has here. What should be the seedbed of our conversations? The gospel, the finished work of Lord Jesus Christ. God’s great redemptive plan, his work.

So that’s the charge. And secondly, the aim. What’s the aim? Look at verses 5 to 7. Love from a gospel-cleansed, gospel-transformed heart. Verse 5 gives us a target, the goal that Paul is aiming at. “The aim of a charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” This is the goal not only for Timothy’s charge to the false teachers, but in a real sense, the goal of his whole letter. Indeed, it’s the goal of all true doctrine and also of the life of the church.

Timothy is not simply being told to win an argument here or to protect a system of correct ideas. Paul wants Timothy to protect the flock. But he also wants the false teachers to be corrected so that they would also produce love in their so that they would also become the recipients of God’s grace and also produce love in their hearts of his from these errant teachers. His job is clear.

Job is very clear here that he should steer away or clear away obstacles. What are the obstacles? Speculations and discussions about them. Sound teaching of God’s word will lead to something. The giving oneself to what has already been revealed, entrusted and will lead to something that is love.

Real, active, self-giving love for God and neighbors. This love must grow in the congregation. He’s not talking about an individual. Paul is addressing these things so that the Timothy’s focus would be on these things that the love would spring from the life of the congregation. If the right doctrine is not helping you to grow in these aspects, then the problem is not with the teaching, but with you. It means that you are not submitting to the teaching and seeking the Spirit’s help to grow in these aspects which the Spirit is intending to bring in you and in the life of the church.

There is a purpose. There is a purpose for the existence of the church. There is a purpose for the church in this world and that is firstly to safeguard the gospel and the doctrine that has been entrusted to the church and also from that we will also show forth that love. You know, Paul uses here the noun form of love, not the verb form of love. Does it make any difference?

Yes. He’s not just speaking about the act of love. He’s not just asking you to love. That is definitely assumed here, but why did he use the noun form here? Love in a believer’s life is a reality rooted in God and in the work of Christ that transforms us when we receive the gospel and progressively marks our lives as we live in the light of the gospel. So that love is the mark of our, should be the mark of church’s existence. The church’s existence is not just the correct understanding of the gospel or correct theological standards, but also the love, the love, the reality of love, reality of our lives rooted in God and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And Paul then names the three sources of this love. And each one is worth noticing carefully because none of them is something we manufacture by our own effort. Firstly, he says, he talks about a pure heart. He says love from a pure heart. See, Christ gave himself to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession.

writes in Titus chapter 2 verse 14, “that he may purify for himself a people.” Purify for himself a people, a pure people. A pure heart is not the achievement of the discipline. It is a result of Christ’s saving work. It is the gift of the crucified and risen Christ and which is applied by his Spirit. And we believers must preserve the purity and grow in it by yielding to the word of God regularly and seeking the Spirit of God’s help and power for transformation.

As we yield to the control of the Spirit of God daily, and Paul said elsewhere in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7 verse 1, “let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” So now the Spirit of God indwells us, and as we yield to him daily and as sanctified by his word, and from that purified heart, his love, that love which is pleasing to God is radiated. Is radiated. So we are not the source of our love.

We are not the source of that love. We don’t muster up strength to show love to others. The only thing that we need to constantly do is be grounded, rooted in Christ’s work. In his glorious gospel. Where we see our worthlessness. Where we see Christ’s finished work.

And the work that he can, things that he can accomplish through that work. Radically transform us, right? And then the, the second source of this love is a good conscience. Paul says there is no, now, no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Again, this is a, this is pointing us to the gospel. Every believer should always be rooted and be grounded in the gospel, in the work of Christ, because there alone we don’t have condemnation, and there alone at the cross we keep repenting, therefore we are free from bad conscience. A good conscience is not the product of never having sinned. It is the fruit of knowing that Christ’s sacrifice has answered our guilt so that

we are free from the accusing voice of a bad conscience. A good conscience is preserved when we keep repenting, when we keep looking to the cross, when we base our entire existence on the finished work of Lord. And the third source of love is a sincere faith.

This is simple, unfeigned trust in what God has done in Christ Jesus, again, not in what we can construct through some speculation. It is an opposite posture of the false teachers here. We’re building elaborate theories instead of resting in the already revealed gospel, in the already revealed teachings of God’s word. A sincere faith is a gift from God and is only strengthened by being rooted in the work of Christ Jesus and by being rooted in the apostolic teachings, teachings, by yielding to the teachings of God’s Word unreservedly.

All of these things, a pure heart, a clean conscience or a good conscience, and a sincere faith are the fruit of our union with Christ Jesus. We can keep having that pure heart or the good conscience or sincere faith only by our union with Christ Jesus, which is worked out in us by the Spirit of God through the gospel. Then Paul tells us in verse 6 that certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion.

Notice what they have turned to. They have turned to, what does these speculations lead to? Where did these speculations lead to? To vain discussions, or senseless chatter. In other words, the kind of talk that is mere speculation, instead of being rooted in the apostolic doctrine, pursuing the God of the Bible and growing in love and holiness, they progressively deviated from this path to pursue something vain.

Look at verse 7. It says that desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions. So who are these teachers of the law? Not these teachers of the law, generally, who are the teachers of the law in the Bible? The teachers of the law in the Bible were highly regarded in Jewish society.

They taught the law. Luke mentioned them in Luke chapter 5 verse 17 that one of those days as he was teaching, as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and the teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and from Jerusalem.

Then prior to Paul’s conversion, he was trained under Gamaliel. Paul was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. He mentions that in Acts chapter 22 verse 3. But who is Gamaliel? So how does Luke describe Gamaliel? Acts chapter 5 verse 34 says, “But a Pharisee in the council named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law held in honor by all the people.” Right? These were established, trained in the law, and they were the teachers of the law. And people like Paul graduated from their schools, right? But these men at Ephesus were fancying to be the teachers of the law. These men at Ephesus were wannabe teachers of the law.

They were not graduated from any school of law or Jewish schools. No, these guys were appointed teachers in Ephesus. These men were not simply mistaken on a minor point, but the major point. They had missed the whole point of what God’s word is for. They wanted the honor of being recognized as law teachers without possessing real understanding. Confident, but confidently wrong.

Remember, these false teachers were using the scriptures to make speculations. Remember, false teachers always use the Bible to promote unbiblical teachings, to promote error. Be careful whom you’re listening to on YouTube or online. Be careful whom you’re listening to. False teachers have a charisma. They can draw people away.

They can draw people after them. They have a charisma. They have a confidence. But they do not have the truth that can save people. Finally, the true use of the law. Verses 8 to 11. Paul now defends the law itself against misunderstanding. Someone might think that because of false teachers, because they were misusing the law, Paul is against the law. And he quickly corrects that impression. Look at verse 8.

“We know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.” Paul, like Jesus before him, has a thorough understanding, has a thoroughly high view of the Old Testament. The problem was never with the law. It was how these men handled the law. Paul begins this verse with the phrase, “Now we know.” He says, now we know. He’s including Timothy also.

Paul, Timothy and other faithful believers agreed that the law is good. They knew that the law is good. And they have a high view of the Old Testament. And in the second epistle to Timothy, he says that all scriptures is inspired by God, which is talking about the Old Testament scriptures. Just because the law is good does not justify this wannabe law teachers in basing their myths on it. You cannot use the law or the word and can say whatever you want. That does not function that way. The law has specific functions and limitations, and we must all them we must respect that. When this is recognized, the law is used lawfully. What then is the law—lawful use of the law? In the following verses 9 and 10, Paul says that the law is not laid down for the just

but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and sinners for the unholy and profane for those who murderers and sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. So what does basically law do? Law reveals what sin is. Law reveals what God expects from us.

We wouldn't know that lie is a sin until God told us in his law. We don't know that sexual immorality, sleeping with other people outside of marriage or even before marriage, is wrong until the word tells us. We wouldn't know that homosexuality is sinful until the Lord told us.

Man who is sinful can be carried away by his own passions because they are sinful, right? So the lawless and the disobedient are those who live as if there is no law or who make justification for their sinful actions. The ungodly and sinners do not fear God. The unholy are those whose behavior is inappropriate before a holy God.

And the profane are those who desecrate the established norms or the ways of God or the ways to approach God and live for God. And those who strike their fathers and mothers. It is concerning our relationship with our parents. The law commands us to honor our parents. Anyone who strikes a parent should be stoned to death. Law says that. And murderers and sexually immoral adulterers and fornicators and homosexuals are all against the law. The law tells that these are wrong. The enslavers, in other words kidnappers, is a violation of the law. Paul states that in Exodus chapter 21 and the liars and the perjurers all of these things violate God’s commandments, God’s holy standards.

So the law shows that all these acts mentioned in verses 9 and 10 are violations. They are sinful in the sight of a holy God. We cannot tolerate those things. With those things in our lives we cannot approach God. We cannot become holy. And we cannot rid of themselves or rid from them by ourselves. And Paul shows the law functioning exactly as it was designed to.

It functions as a mirror that exposes our sin. The law shows who we are. Law shows what’s there in our hearts. Law shows what is the transgression, what is a trespass, what is violating God’s standards. And these behaviors, as mentioned in verses 9 and 10, and then towards the end in verse 10, he says that whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine. So now Paul adds the sound doctrine which was entrusted to Paul and the other apostles, he adds it to the law. He says that the law and whatever is contrary to the sound doctrine, he is giving the sound doctrine which was entrusted to the apostles, the equal status of the law.

Both are from God, both are inspired from— And these behaviors mentioned here fall short of the true purpose and transformative power of the gospel deposit, which was given once for all to the church. So what is the lawful use of the law? Is it using it, is using as per author’s intention? To use the law lawfully then is to read it as it was meant to be read. Our use of the law should be in line with the giver of the law. Paul said to Galatians in chapter 3 verse 24, “So the law was a guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.” And if you read Galatians chapter 3, you know all the preceding verses over there, we understand that there are promises made in the law and these promises are about Christ.

The law functions in a way that it points to the to the person and the work of Christ. The law functions as a mirror that exposes a sin, our sin, and it functions as a guardian that restrains sin until Christ came in order that we may be justified by faith in Christ.

So law was never given for us to be justified or to be made right. That’s not the purpose of the law. The law was given so that it exposes our sin. And then as it promises Christ, it leads to the Christ, to the person and the work of Christ. The law leads us to the person and the work of Christ.

of the law. Look at verse 9. The law is not laid down for the just. What is just? Who is just in Paul’s theology? Who is just? The just in Paul’s vocabulary are those who have been declared righteous through faith in Christ Jesus. Romans 3:24–26.

This does not mean believers have no use—it means the law was never given to become righteous. No one is ever declared righteous by keeping the law because no one could ever fully keep the law perfectly. And it is not the ground on which a believer standing before God rests. Even the Old Testament saints were justified by faith and faith alone, not by keeping the law.

And Romans chapter 3 verse 20, Paul says that no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law. Rather, through the law, we become conscious of our sin. The scripture is very clear. The law has a pedagogical or instructional purpose even today. It instructs us.

Romans chapter 15 verse 4 and 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11. The moral law continues to bind believers and unbelievers alike as a revealed will of God. And it remains the rule of life for the Christian showing us how to love God and our neighbors.

The law was never given to justify us or make us right before God. And this is the redemptive historical shape of the whole Bible. God gave the law at Sinai after the fall and after the promise made to Abraham, not as a rival way of salvation, but as a tutor, exposing sin and driving sinners to look for a Savior. Galatians chapter 3 verses 19 and 24, Romans chapter 5 verse 20.

Every sacrifice, every priest, every command in the old covenant pointed forward to one who would keep the law perfectly and bear its curse for those who could not. Christ has come now as the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Romans chapter 10 verse 4.

So the law’s good purpose is to expose sin, restrain evil, reveal God’s will, condemn a sinner. It shows that we cannot live up to the standard. We will fail. So there were sacrifices in place. That’s why there was a sacrificial system in the Old Testament, Old Covenant, which was only a type of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ.

So the law’s purpose is to lead us to Christ. No one could ever please God. All have sinned. And we could never by any means measure up to God’s holy standards and achieve any merit. All humans all the time fall short, fell short of God’s glorious standards. We all are condemned before God but there was only one man, the God eternal who stepped down into this world, took upon himself for human nature and was born of a virgin. Jesus Christ. He alone pleased God. He went to the cross in the place of sinners. He could, who could, these sinners could never please God.

He bore their curse, our curse. He suffered under God’s holy wrath against our sins. He suffered the curse. He died. He shed his blood for the atonement of our sins. He rose again from the dead for our justification. And through His finished work, we are now made righteous before God. And we can, by His grace, walk in the newness of life.

Jesus, our Lord, the High Priest, is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high. He is saving us, sanctifying us, building His church. He will one day make everything beautiful. Those who base their life or who are rooted in this work of Christ Jesus are purified.

They have good conscience, they have sincere faith and from that springs true love and godliness. That is why Paul closes the way he does all of this, the law’s good purpose. This exposure of sin, the restraint of evil, stands in according to verse 11, stands in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which Paul had been entrusted.

The law was never the final word. It always meant to serve and to point toward the gospel of Christ’s glory. In Christ, the law’s righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled. His condemning power is finished. And by our union with Christ, we are saved, sanctified, and glorified. And the Spirit enables us to live out the summary of the law. Love God and our neighbors. The Spirit shapes the life of the church through the entire Scriptures, both the Old and the New Testament.

You can refer to Romans chapter 8, verse 4, Romans chapter 13, verse 8 to 10, Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 33, Hebrews chapter 8, verse 10. In conclusion, Ephesus and all the churches face two main errors. Legalism, moralistic legalism, which distorts the law and divorces it from the person and the work of Christ Jesus.

And doctrinal drift into things like myths which are divorced from the scripture. Both fail because they abandoned the gospel, the true source of love, unity and holiness and replace it with human arguments and ignorance. So protecting the gospel of the glory of the blessed God is a non-negotiable work of the church. And it's the role of every pastor and every faithful member of the church. As it alone fosters the qualities Christ died to create in his church, making it essential for his people to be grounded in it and to guard it diligently.

So what must we do? Test every teaching that you receive or you give, including your own teaching, by its fruit. Does it produce love from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith? Or does it produce controversy, speculation, or pride? Use God's law lawfully.

Preach and apply it as a mirror that exposes sin and drives sinners, yourself included, to Christ, never as a self-sufficient system of merit or a field for speculation. If you are an elder or preparing to be one, take up Paul's charge personally.

Actively identify and lovingly correct false or speculative teaching in your church which is not rooted in the gospel or apostolic doctrine, rather than passively hoping it resolves by itself. And return continually to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God as an ongoing wellspring of your pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith, not merely as a truth that you once believed or in order to be saved. We believe in the gospel each and every day. We live by the gospel each and every day. Measure spiritual maturity by love, not by theological novelty or newness or speculative mastery. Guard against prizing intellectual interest over gospel-rooted holiness in yourself and in those whom you disciple.