Three chapter one. Sorry. Verse three. First Timothy chapter one verse three. We inch went through the introduction last Sunday night.

First Timothy one, and we'll begin reading in verse three this evening down through verse seven. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus now this is Paul talking to Timothy who he left in Ephesus as we mentioned last week to lead the church as the pastor there. He says, I as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went to Macedonia, that thou 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, from which some having swerved have turned aside into vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.

So Paul was under the impression, and I assume correctly, that there were false teachers in the church at Ephesus or that would be visiting or in the area, and that there was a good deal of discourse going on by the leadership of the church that was not entirely healthy for the church. And Paul sent Timothy or left Timothy there in order to direct and refocus the teaching and ministry of the church so that they didn't get off on some distracting tangent or into some completely false teaching that destroyed the gospel message that Paul had had spoken to them. So this was vitally important. This was, as Paul begins his letter, the most important thing that Timothy charged them that they teach no other doctrine. So his instruction to Timothy in these verses, we see concerning false teaching and fruitless debate of which there is still a great abundance of in the modern church.

Paul charged Timothy to deal swiftly and decisively with the false teaching Paul here depicts in the opening paragraphs of his letter. So first, we see Paul's command. Paul's command. What is it? His command is stop them, whoever them is, whoever that is coming into the church, and is preaching something other than the true doctrine of Jesus Christ.

Stop them from teaching. It is your responsibility as the pastor of the church to stop them, to charge them that they stop this teaching of false doctrine. If the doctrine of the church goes askew, then what what purpose is the church? The church is found the church is founded upon doctrine. There may be other things and ministries that the church does.

There may be buildings and and all this kind of thing that that are important to the church. But if the doctrine goes askew, then all of the other is for naught. And sadly, the doctrine has gone askew in many churches and many denominations over the centuries. And Paul did not want that to happen in Ephesus, and so one of the first things he tells Timothy, get this you know, make sure to deal with this problem because it is a very, very important one. A matter of fact, so important that to the churches of Galatia, Paul wrote this, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another, but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. That means be set aside for judgment. Okay? It is a very strong very strong word. It's like, well, you know, just just don't let him do this or, you know, be nice to him.

But no. He he uses a very strong term. If someone is preaching another gospel, which is really isn't another gospel because there really is only what? There's really only one gospel, one true gospel, only one way to heaven. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and life.

No man comes to the father but by me by me. Only way to get to heaven through Christ is through faith. Not by works, lest any man should boast. So there is no other true gospel. There is only there is only one.

And when you add something to the gospel, it is no longer the gospel. Like if you add cyanide to water, it's no longer water. It's what? It's poison. Right.

So, well, it's just got a tiny bit of cyanide in it. You know, no big deal. You know, it's mostly water. I wouldn't drink it if I were you. If you take doctrine, if you take the gospel of Jesus Christ and you add works to it, it's still it's no longer the what?

It's no longer gospel. If you add the works of the the church to it, if you add other other means, other beliefs, other worshiping angels in the book of Colossi, Paul deals with it. If you add these things to it, then then the gospel is no longer the gospel because the gospel is for by grace are ye saved through faith. Period. And so down through the centuries, man has tried to make that which is simple more complex.

Man has tried to take the gospel and use it to gain power over other people. Yes, you have to go you have to believe in Christ, but you have to go through me to get to Christ. You have to confess to a priest. You have to pray to Mary. You have to to whatever.

And there is only one mediator between God and man, the man who? The man the man Christ Jesus. And so Paul says in here in Galatians how did we get back to there? Paul said here in Galatians that they need to have nothing to do with someone that is teaching another another gospel than the one that he has taught to them. True gospel.

That might come in the form either of a new doctrine which was clearly not from God and contrary to the doctrine of our Lord Jesus, or it can come as a matter of interpretations of scripture which are not true to the meaning of scripture. So the first one, we suffer from a lot today that add to the Bible. At the in the last chapter of the last book, God pronounces a curse on all those who take away from scripture or what? Add to scripture. Okay?

And, there has been a lot of that down through the years that have added to. Jesus in his day said said that you have taken the commandments of God and replaced them with the teachings of who? Of man. Those teachings were codified after Jesus' day in a book called the Talmud that the Jews follow largely today even more than they follow the actual scriptures. And the teachings of man have superseded the commandments of God.

The LDS, what's that stand for? Church of Latter Day Saints or they used to be called the Mormons, but do they have their own books? Yes. Did they add to the scripture? Yes.

Has it led them in the right way? No. It has not. No. It has not.

Should not add to the scriptures. No. New doctrine. Jehovah's Witness have new doctrine. Matter of fact, they I have a copy of one of their Bibles.

They've changed specifically changed certain verses in order to fit their doctrine. Doesn't fit the Greek from which it was translated, but in order to fit their doctrine, they have perverted the word of God. Islam. The tenants of Islam, the those who believe in it and follow it, they say they believe in the Old Testament, but they also believe in the writings of who? Muhammad.

Yeah. Muhammad. And whose really do they follow? Muhammad, the Koran. We can go on.

The people that live that have owned half of downtown, the Scientologist, follow the writings of a man named L. Ron Hubbard, a wonderful fiction writer. That's exactly what he was who decided to build a religion around his fiction. You can go to a store and find his science fiction books that he wrote before he became the leader of Scientology. Christian Science, Gnosticism, not agnosticism, which is that you can't know God, but Gnosticism, which means to know is a cult, a group that of false teachers that James was dealing with in the book of James and Paul to some extent as well in their day.

This is nothing new. It has been a problem from the beginning. So thus, Paul instructs Timothy, don't let others bring in some other doctrine. Stick with the teachings of the gospel and the word and the word of God. In some cases, denominations have incorrectly interpreted scripture.

It isn't that they added the scripture, they just interpret it incorrectly for whatever reason it may be. That salvation is by works and not just by grace. They interpret repentance to mean penance. Those two words don't mean the same thing. Repentance means a change of mind.

Penance means making yourself suffer to try to appease God. We don't have to make ourselves suffer to get God's forgiveness. Christ suffered on the cross for that. God doesn't want our suffering. God wants our obedience.

God wants our faith. He wants our service, not to us to punish ourselves. Purgatory. I don't think that's in scripture at all really, so I don't see how that can be a misinterpretation. Maybe of Luke 16.

The social gospel of liberalism that by healing the ills of society, we will reach a collective salvation. That is actually the social gospel is strewn throughout many denominations today. And the idea is not personal salvation salvation where you receive Christ as savior through repentance and faith, but that the world needs to be healed. And so we're going to to heal the world. The only way the world can be healed is through the conversion of lost sinners to Jesus Christ.

You must be born again. You wanna heal the world? Let Christ heal you from sin and save your soul. And then you can be a light in the darkness to bring others to Jesus Christ. These are things that Paul wanted Timothy to watch out for.

New doctrines, new scriptures, so to speak, new false prophets, and misinterpretations of scripture. How do you how do you keep from misinterpreting scripture? You you interpret scripture with scripture. Okay? That's how you keep from misinterpreting it.

First, you read the context and then you compare scripture with scripture. And if a scripture says something that doesn't sound like the rest of scripture, then you need to study the rest of scripture and see how that actually fits and what that is actually what that is actually teaching. And so it is vitally important. And thus, Paul commanded Timothy, you need to charge them to teach no other doctrine. Neither number second part of the command, verse four, neither give heed to what?

To fables and endless genealogies which minister or provoke questions rather than godly edifying which is in faith. So, he says this here in first in Titus one thirteen and fourteen, wherefore rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Here we have a mention of the commandments of men that Jesus was dealing with in in his day and also Jewish fables and genealogy. So what does he mean? Well, is very likely leveled particularly at Jews who were masters yet filling the gaps in the scriptural narrative with fanciful tales concerning those contained in genealogies, obscuring and sometimes completely distorting the true meaning and purpose of scripture.

If you sit down and you talk with a rabbi or one training to be a rabbi like I did in Downtown Jerusalem when I was there. I sat down with a young man and I asked him questions about the Messiah. And so he began to give me answers. Guess what? None of his answers came from where?

From the word of God. And I'm not just talking about the New Testament. I'm talking about the the Old Testament. What did he start telling me? Well, he referred to this rabbi, and he referred to that rabbi, and this rabbi, and that rabbi.

And all that he told me was extra biblical stuff that some rabbi had conjectured. Well, maybe this and then that led to this and well then, you know, it's Messiah can be this, this, this, or this, and we really don't know and and all this. And the rabbis were very good at quoting each other and building their own religion on top of what? On top of on top of the Bible. The book of Enoch is one such fanciful tale that has been circulating very recently that people have gotten into.

It's a story about all these angelic beings. And, you know, the Bible doesn't tell us really a whole lot about angels. So some guy wrote a book, called himself Enoch, and started making all these stories about angels. But none of it is true. It didn't come from where?

From who? It didn't come from God. It's fanciful tales that do not agree with the rest of of scripture. In the Catholic or in some Catholic Bibles, I do believe, there are several books that are added to the word of God that were ruled out two thousand years ago or so as not being equal with scripture, as not being inspired. A couple of those, one's called Bell and the Dragon, another one's Susanna.

They're additions to the book of Daniel that the Jews added to the book. And Baal and the dragon, Daniel slays a dragon. And so you didn't read that in your Bible, did you? It's a really cool tale how how he slew the dragon and but but it's just a fanciful it's a fanciful tale, and there's there's tons of those. They capitalize on the mention of somebody in a genealogy or the mention of somebody in a biblical narrative.

And then they ask the question, well, I wonder what happened during this time that the Bible doesn't say. So then what do they do? Well, they fill in the gap. So you gotta be careful of that. TV show shows and movies about the Bible are very good at that.

And you have to remember, if you watch one of those, you're probably not getting what the bible says. You're getting what some Hollywood director has decided to fill in in order to tickle our fancy to get us to watch it to make it more entertaining. Back a few years ago, there was a book called the prayer of Jabez. Has anybody has seen or read the book, The Prayer of Jabez? It was really popular in some church circles.

Jabez is a fellow that just mentioned briefly in a genealogy in the Old Testament who prayed a prayer and God answered his prayer. And it became a whole fad. There a book was written about it. How that you can get you can be wealthy, and you will have no no cares in the world financially if you just learn the prayer of Jabez and and what that means. And, of course, a lot of people got caught up in that as well.

So what is Paul's warning here to Timothy? Be careful of building sermons and doctrine upon unstable found upon the unstable foundation of conjecture, what you think might be. Stick with what you know to be. Yeah. That was I was gonna say yes, but to be was better, Joel.

Alright. Though tempting at times, this is not our place to add to the scriptural narrative that which we conjure up in our heads. From time to time, it makes sense when you're reading the scripture or teaching to say, well, you know, it might be that this happened or that happened, but the important part of that word is it what? It might be. And so we must be careful to be clear when we're and not build our sermon on the might be part.

And I've heard that several times. Well, it might be. And then based on the might be, you build five more steps off of the might be. And so the Bible's here and we end up way over here on something that doesn't wasn't taught at all in that passage. But, hey, it sounds good, but it's built on conjecture.

Number two, be careful not to depart from the exegesis of scripture for the ear tickling practice of storytelling packaging packaged as bible teaching. Any of that going on in churches today? Many churches, I've been told I haven't been in a lot of other churches recently, but I've been told by many that they don't even bother to bring a Bible. Sometimes the Bible isn't even even referenced. What are you teaching then?

What are you preaching then? Stories. Good sounding stories. Cool parables, but not the parables from scripture, but worldly parables and conjecture. Stories make good illustrations.

How do I know that? Because Christ used stories. But stories and platitudes should not replace the meat of the word as the main course of church doctrine. If so, then we are in trouble because we are ungrounding ourselves. We are we are getting off the foundation onto what?

Rather than on the rock, we're now on the what? Sand. And if you live in Florida, you know about the cracks that you have in your house if there's part of it that didn't have a sure foundation. And don't get caught up in debates over things we do not have answers to. Often people ask me questions about why do you think?

Why do you think this what do you think Joseph or Mary or or pick Daniel, know, that it doesn't tell us in the Bible? Well, I don't know. Do you? No, I don't. So I can conjecture, well, maybe he did this, maybe he did that, or maybe this happened, maybe that happened.

The fact is if God didn't tell me, I don't know. And so we must be careful not to get caught up too much in the in debating over the things that the Bible doesn't the Bible doesn't tell us. The fact is we can debate, go back and forth all day. We don't have a what? An answer.

Nobody wins the debate, so it doesn't go anywhere. So Paul's command. First, no no other doctrine. Two, don't get caught up in the fanciful tales, the endless genealogies, conjecture. Stay founded on the doctrine of the word of God.

And now Paul's purpose. Paul's purp what is the purpose of such a command? The purpose of such a command is that we will grow. Grow in the what? In the word of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the word of God.

Now, the end of the commandment, the purpose is charity out of a pure heart. What's the word charity mean? Love. Love. The love of God.

God wants us to know his love. God wants us to be filled with his love. God wants us to share his love. God wants us to act upon the love of Jesus Christ. He wants us to be like Jesus.

God is what? God is love. True love, not not the stuff you see on the TV set. True love, unselfish, sacrificial. Let's read the verse again.

I stopped mid mid first in there. Now in the end of the commandment is love out of a pure heart, out of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned, from which some have swerved having turned aside into vain jangling. So what is Paul's purpose in this command? He wants us to grow in our love for Christ and one another. And that love comes forth out of the heart of someone that has been truly born again by the preaching of the the gospel of Jesus Christ upon the sure foundation and being taught the true doctrines of scripture.

He mentions a purified heart, one who has been purified in their heart. Their their heart has been changed. We talked about that in Sunday school. God has given us a new what? A new nature, a divine nature.

Our our desires have radically changed when we came to know Jesus Christ as savior. In first Peter one twenty two, it says, seeing you purified your souls and obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. Not out of false motives, not in hypocrisy, but just out of a pure heart, out of sincere love and desire that is produced in us by the spirit and the word of and the word of God. Number two, a clean conscience.

Holy and blameless before God. Hold your place. If you wanna turn with me, I'm gonna turn to first Corinthians chapter six. First Corinthians chapter six, Paul explains what happened when the Corinthians came to Christ. Now the people in Corinth, many of them were Gentiles.

They were not Jews. They grew up in a pagan society worshiping idols and involving themselves participating in all kinds of debauchery that went along with worshiping idols. Man created idols and gods that were like himself to allow him to feel good about about indulging the lust of the flesh. And so that's what the Corinthians did until they came to know who, until they came to know Christ. And Christ changed them.

He gave them a new nature. He purified their heart, and he gave them a clean conscience, and he made them what it says here. Look, if you would, in first Corinthians six and verse nine. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor feminine, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.

And such were some of you. Paul said some of you were many of you were defined by these descriptors. This is who you were. But things have changed. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, set aside, cleansed in Christ.

But ye are justified. You've been declared righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. And Paul goes on to speak to the Corinthians. Now that this is true of you, you have been cleansed from a filthy life and conscience by Jesus Christ. Now live it.

Don't go back to that way of living. You have been freed from that. Christ has saved your soul and cleansed your heart. So now be ye holy, God says, for I am what? For I am holy.

And that's what the grace and the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches us. It purifies our heart. It cleans our conscience. It teaches us to be blameless and holy before the Lord. When we fail, it teaches us to confess our sins to the Lord and then trust God to help us to do better.

And true salvation by the gospel produces faith, genuine faith, growing faith, faith unfeigned, it says here, in the life of a child of God. What did the Lord say in Habakkuk? The just shall live by what? Faith. What does it say in Romans 10?

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the what? By the word of God. And so Paul says to him that you make sure that no other doctrine you stick to the word of God. You get away from don't get caught up in the the endless genealogies and the fanciful. You stick with true doctrine and the word of God.

Why? Because that produces faith. That produces a purified heart, a clean conscience to everyone who hears it, and that produces genuine love, the genuine love of Christ, results that others can see. Stick with the truth and don't get distracted. Stand up and take a stand for what's right.

It may be unpopular, but you have to do it because there's a lot riding on it. All directed by love for God and others. We love him because he first loved us. If you love me, keep my commandments. A new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have loved one to another. And then I accidentally copied that verse again. Alright. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another. So don't get distracted, Timothy, and make sure people are getting sound doctrine.

Because as he says back here in verse six, from which some having swerved, turned away, have turned aside into vain jangling. Fruitless discussion. K? Fruitless discussion. Some that it's empty, it it produces what?

Nothing. Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. In other words, from which many in the church have strayed, turned aside unto idle talk that is fruitless discussion or debate which did not edify the flock. Out of a desire to be recognized as profound teachers and enlightened theologians. Do we have a lack of enlightened theologians today?

No. We do not. We have a myriad of enlightened theologians. Some of them have some profitable things to read. Many of them have nothing profitable to read or to learn from.

There are many self declared theologians who have discovered things that nobody else has discovered before they came along. And if you will just follow them, then then you will be okay. It tells us in first Corinthians chapter eight. I like this. It's one of my I don't know.

It's a favorite passage. It's not maybe a good but it's it is useful. Paul writes in first Corinthians eight. Now as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity or love edifieth.

If any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any man love, the same is known of him. So you want to find somebody to follow? Follow somebody that demonstrates the love of what? Christ.

Not somebody who spouts off all the time and says, I know better than everybody else and follow me. I'm special. I'm not special. Anybody can do what I'm doing. All you have to do is read this, have the Holy Spirit to help you to study it and to teach it for what it says.

But you gotta watch out for those that think they know everything because Paul says, if they think they know anything, really they know what? They know nothing. So James chapter three. In James chapter three, James deals with the same kind of attitude and and stuff that was going on in the church. He says in James three one, my brethren, be not many masters knowing that ye shall receive the greater condemnation.

He moves down to verse 13, and there he writes, who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? What what kind of person is wise that you should follow? He goes on to say, let him show out of a good conversation or a good, moral lifestyle, conduct, his works with meekness of wisdom. Not pride, but meekness. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against their truth.

This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated or approached, full of mercy, good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisy. So Paul tells Timothy, don't you be don't you be that person. You be this person.

You be the person that is wise, that is meek, and sticks with the word of God. You be that person that's easy to approach and willing to learn. And be careful not to be caught up in these other people who often come across as very eloquent and charismatic and very knowledgeable. Be careful not to be caught up in all of that because it's it's easy to and many people are. From vain janglings to false doctrines.

I I like to teach on eschatology. I did it in Sunday school some a while back. I it's been through revelation. End times is an important doctrine. Jesus said to his disciples, someday I'm coming again.

That is important. But there's a lot the Bible doesn't say about eschatology. And sometimes it seems that's all people want to talk about is, well, what if this and what if that and maybe this is a sign of that and maybe that's a sign of this. And we get our eyes off of what's happening today because we're only caught up in what might happen tomorrow. I know what's going to happen.

I know Christ is coming back. I know he is preparing a place for me. I know that I am prepared in that Jesus Christ is my savior, and I have been sealed by his spirit. And I know that I need to reach others with the gospel because that day may be tomorrow. But beyond that, we need to be a bit careful with how caught up we get in all of the conjecture particularly.

You know, the beast, the antichrist. Maybe he's this guy. Maybe he's maybe he was Ronald Reagan. You ever counted the the number of letters in his name? Ronald Wilson Reagan.

Count them. Six six six. Maybe he's gonna rise from the dead and be the antichrist. I don't know. But, you know, all kinds of crazy stuff.

You know, well, it must be this guy. It must be that guy. When God wants us to know, we'll know. But I tend to believe that the rapture's gonna happen and I'm gonna be in heaven when I find out. So best not to get too caught up in all of that.

Watch out for those self proclaimed theologians. There's plenty of them in history by the name of Augustine, Origen, Thomas Aquinas, saint this, saint that. I'm not sure if any of those guys were really saved. Dig into their doctrine too far and you start seeing they're mixing a whole lot of Greek philosophy in with biblical teaching. There were turn of the century the last century, 19 hundreds.

A couple of well known German teachers named Karl Barth and the other guy's name was Bultmann. I can't remember his first name. Their doctrine just got all into bible seminaries in The US. Everything was spiritual. Jesus didn't really rise from the dead.

He just rose in the spirit but not his body. Christ wasn't really born of a virgin. The his father was actually a German soldier. All this kind of stuff that just denied the reality of the scripture and replaced it with some spiritualized shadow meaning that is clearly not what it meant. Back when I was a kid, there was a preacher named Norman Vincent Peale.

Anybody know who Norman Vincent Peale is? I won't ask, but how many of you get guideposts? Don't raise your hand. Okay? There are some good stories in guideposts.

But know this, Guidepost is produced by the organization run by Norman Vincent Peale. He was the father of positive thinking. Just think positively and it will happen. No. Positive thinking is not biblical.

Prayer is. They're not the same thing. That positive thinking turned into declaring. Say positive things and you will mold the world with your words. No.

Just because God has the power to create with his words doesn't mean I have the power because I am not God. Praise the Lord. I have the privilege of speaking with the God of heaven whose words can change everything. I have the privilege of sharing the word of God, which words can change everything. But the power is not in my words, it's in whose word?

It's in it's in his word. The get rich quick teaching of today, that everything will just go good if you'll follow these principles. And one of the principles is not repent and be born again, which is the main principle. But even if you are repent and are born again through faith in Christ, God never promises to make you rich. God never promises to make life easy.

He does not make that promise. He just promises to hear and answer your prayers, to never leave you nor forsake you, to always be there with his hand upon you. To answer your prayers, he does not promise it will be easy because as the sparks fly upward from the fire, so man meets with trouble in this life because of what? Because of sin. One day, that'll be solved.

That day is not today. And it doesn't matter whether it's Joel Osteen or Paula White or a Creflo Dollar or Benny Hinn or you put in the person. The prosperity gospel is not the gospel. Christ didn't come to make you rich in earthly goods. He came to make you rich in heavenly goods.

Thus, lay up for yourselves treasures where? In heaven and not upon not upon earth. Even sometimes good preachers and bible teachers can get caught up in debates that are that are fruitless. I remember when I was in college, there was a preacher by the name of m r d han. He wrote several books.

And you're probably familiar with the name John McArthur who passed away just a few weeks ago. M r dhan wrote a book. I think it was called the chemistry of the blood. And in that, because m r dhan was a doctor, he postulated that there was something chemically different with the blood of Jesus Christ. McArthur took didn't agree with that.

And he countered with there was nothing particularly special about the blood of Christ. It was just that he shed his blood, that he was spiritually without sin. So they got into a big debate. And it did more harm than what? Than good.

Because it got focused on splitting of hairs rather than trusting in who? Than trusting in than trusting in Jesus. So even good people, and both of these men I consider good people, can get caught up in fruitless what? In fruitless discussions that lead nowhere good. Calvinism versus Arminianism.

Probably both Christian men. Both of them got things wrong. Just stick with what? The Bible. Don't spend all your time debating Calvinism or Arminianism.

Just teach what? Just teach the Bible. And there is always somebody who thinks that he or she is the smartest person in the room. And as Paul says, do not know what they are talking about, but sadly can convince a lot of people that they do. What is Paul's advice to Timothy?

Nip it in the bud. Don't let it grow. Don't let them gain a following. Speak the truth. Teach the truth.

Don't get caught up in the fruitless discussions and genealogies and fanciful tales. Just preach the word of God and point people to the truth in a way from the false doctrine and the false teachers. And if you do, the church will grow in faith and in love and in knowledge that pleases the Lord. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the word of God that you have given to us.

Lord, thank you for the clarity of it. Lord, sometimes we get caught up in the few places here or there that we don't quite understand. Lord, help us to focus on that which we do understand and applying that to our lives. And Lord, I pray that you would give us clarity and wisdom as a church and as pastor to rightly divide the word of truth, that those who come in these doors would hear the word of God, and that it would do its marvelous work in their heart, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.