[00:00:09] Welcome to Gracious Words.
[00:00:11] Gracious Words is taken from the weekly women's Bible study taught by Cheryl Brodersen at Calvary Chapel, Costa Mesa, California.
[00:00:19] He was the pastor of the church at Ephesus.
[00:00:37] Occult and pagan practices were rampant there, but many heard the gospel and were saved.
[00:00:43] Paul wrote to exhort Timothy to lead, teach, and correct these new believers in the way of Jesus.
[00:00:48] Now here is part two of Cheryl's message titled, The Authority of Leaders.
[00:01:19] It's about Jesus. I want you to bring them back to Jesus.
[00:01:24] I want you to put them on the path of Jesus.
[00:01:28] You know what? We're in a hot air balloon that's been pierced and we're going down.
[00:01:34] And we need Jesus. We need Jesus.
[00:01:39] And so Paul says, I want you to bring these people back to Jesus.
[00:01:45] It's important to remember that these people came straight out of the occult and paganism.
[00:01:50] And there were still residual ways and concepts and ideas that needed to be corrected.
[00:01:58] Timothy was not just to let these people do whatever felt natural.
[00:02:04] He was to lead them in the ways that were supernatural.
[00:02:11] And so he had to bring them back to the way of Jesus.
[00:02:15] Now, some people were telling fables.
[00:02:17] They were making up stories about Jesus to make Jesus more attractive.
[00:02:23] Yes, they were making up stories about I was healed yesterday when they really weren't.
[00:02:27] That's what the apocrypha is.
[00:02:30] It was made up stories about Jesus.
[00:02:33] They were claiming to hear things from apostles and people and getting new understandings that they didn't have.
[00:02:41] When I was in junior high and it was the hippie time, I've told you this story before,
[00:02:46] but they took us to Palm Springs, dropped us off, and they said, witness.
[00:02:51] Now, the only experience I had had with witnesses, witnesses, those are people that are witnessing,
[00:03:01] is when they would tell their testimony.
[00:03:04] I'm 12 years old.
[00:03:05] I was raised by Chuck and Kay Smith.
[00:03:08] They wouldn't even let me sin, even if I wanted to.
[00:03:12] It couldn't have happened.
[00:03:13] I didn't have that kind of atmosphere.
[00:03:16] So, yeah, I'd give you testimony.
[00:03:18] So, I walked up to a group of hippies.
[00:03:21] They were all on the ground, and I just walked up to them, and I said, you guys need Jesus.
[00:03:26] And they're like, what do you know about life?
[00:03:29] I'm like, a lot.
[00:03:30] You know, you don't even want to know where I've been.
[00:03:34] It's dark.
[00:03:36] It's bad.
[00:03:37] Ugly.
[00:03:38] But then I met Jesus.
[00:03:40] And they're like, what'd you do?
[00:03:42] Like, pot?
[00:03:44] Because I was thinking, I've carried my mom's pots from place to place.
[00:03:48] I couldn't totally lie, you know.
[00:03:51] Wasn't allowed in my environment.
[00:03:53] So, they're like, okay, what is a roach clip?
[00:03:56] I said, a roach clip?
[00:03:59] I said, it's the bug that bites you when you smoke too much pot.
[00:04:04] Bill Welsh, who's now the pastor in Huntington Beach, he overheard me giving my pseudo testimony.
[00:04:10] And he came up, and he said he had good news for a modern man.
[00:04:13] He said, Cheryl, I've got a scripture for you for a moment.
[00:04:15] He says, if my lie helps somebody to come to Jesus, then should I lie and embellish my life?
[00:04:21] And I'm like, and then, no way.
[00:04:25] God forbid.
[00:04:27] He goes, Cheryl, read this out loud.
[00:04:29] I'm like, oh, oh.
[00:04:36] Tell the truth.
[00:04:38] Just tell them how good Jesus is.
[00:04:40] You don't need to make up a story.
[00:04:41] They were making up stories.
[00:04:47] Because they thought that would lead people to Jesus.
[00:04:50] Others were delving into genealogies.
[00:04:53] This has to do with speculative teachings or assumptions about the Old Testament.
[00:04:58] This testament.
[00:05:00] It's when you get into the Nephilim.
[00:05:02] Oh, I remember a time when everybody was into the Nephilim.
[00:05:06] Not only were they, you're like, who are the Nephilim?
[00:05:09] You don't need to know.
[00:05:10] But these are, okay, they were the giants, you know, that when the sons of God intermarried with the daughters of man.
[00:05:18] We don't really know what that means.
[00:05:20] But there's all this speculation that maybe these were the ancient Zeus and Aphrodite and Artemis, all these different deities.
[00:05:30] There were others that were saying, no, there's still Nephilim around us.
[00:05:34] This is in the 70s.
[00:05:35] Like, there's still Nephilim.
[00:05:37] I think you're a Nephilim.
[00:05:38] How do you know if you're not a Nephilim?
[00:05:40] I mean, but this kind of stuff was going on in Paul's time.
[00:05:43] He said, get them out of all this speculation.
[00:05:46] We've got the gospel.
[00:05:48] We, you know, as Moses said to the people of God, the things, the secret things belong to the Lord.
[00:05:56] There's a lot of things in the Bible we're not going to understand, okay?
[00:05:59] Like Nephilim.
[00:06:01] A lot of secret things belong to the Lord.
[00:06:03] But the things that have been revealed to us, like the gospel, this is ours.
[00:06:10] And this we can pass on to our kids.
[00:06:13] Get out of this speculation.
[00:06:15] So Paul was telling Timothy, charge them.
[00:06:18] Stop them from speculating and making up stories.
[00:06:22] The purpose for charging these people is to prevent disputes, comparisons and divisions and fights.
[00:06:31] To prevent strain from the faith.
[00:06:33] To prevent worthless talk.
[00:06:37] Oh, we can get so easily preoccupied and involved with meaningless trivialities that don't amount to anything.
[00:06:46] We are too easily drawn away from the way of Jesus to the little tantalizing fruit that's all around us.
[00:06:56] We just are, aren't we?
[00:06:58] You know, Margaret, thank you very much.
[00:07:01] She'll say to me when I'm getting off, squirrel.
[00:07:06] If you've ever seen the movie Up, you know what that means.
[00:07:10] In fact, if you say to my dog, if you walk in my house and you say to Barnabas, if he's bothering somebody who's coming in the door, I say, squirrel.
[00:07:19] And his legs move too fast for him.
[00:07:21] He's got to get out the door and find that squirrel.
[00:07:24] And he starts patrolling the walls of my backyard.
[00:07:28] Well, they say a lot of dogs are like their owners.
[00:07:32] And I can be like, squirrel.
[00:07:36] And I have to be brought back to the way of Jesus.
[00:07:38] This isn't just for you.
[00:07:40] This is for me.
[00:07:42] I need to remember to keep Jesus the main thing, the main purpose.
[00:07:48] This is why I do what I do.
[00:07:52] Jesus.
[00:07:53] This is the power of what I do.
[00:07:56] Jesus.
[00:07:57] This is the authority.
[00:07:59] What I do.
[00:08:00] Jesus.
[00:08:01] Keep Jesus at the center.
[00:08:05] Timothy is to charge them because of love.
[00:08:09] Because you love these people.
[00:08:13] Because you don't want them to miss out on the love that is theirs through Christ Jesus.
[00:08:19] Now, the purpose of the commandment is love.
[00:08:22] Out of a pure heart.
[00:08:24] From a good conscience.
[00:08:26] From sincere faith.
[00:08:28] The motives are pure.
[00:08:32] We're not doing this again for the sake of power.
[00:08:35] The sake of authority.
[00:08:36] But out of love.
[00:08:38] Out of pure motives.
[00:08:41] Out of sincere faith.
[00:08:43] Because I really do believe that Jesus is the best way.
[00:08:47] Because I know what happens when someone gets out of alignment with Jesus.
[00:08:51] And how often they can get one degree will lead to a whole different destination.
[00:09:00] These people want to be teachers of the law.
[00:09:03] Some of these that are straying.
[00:09:05] They want to be authorities in the church.
[00:09:08] They want to be authorities over others.
[00:09:10] But they're doing it out of the wrong motives.
[00:09:12] They don't even understand the relationship of the law.
[00:09:18] Of the commandment.
[00:09:20] That even the Mosaic law is all about love.
[00:09:26] You see, there are two extremes when it comes to the Mosaic law.
[00:09:31] And we still use those two extremes.
[00:09:35] And one extreme is to say, oh, it's old covenant.
[00:09:39] It doesn't apply anymore.
[00:09:42] I remember talking to somebody.
[00:09:43] And they said, I want to have a reconciliation.
[00:09:46] I want a relationship with you.
[00:09:48] And they called it biblical reconciliation.
[00:09:51] I said, that's easy.
[00:09:52] We can do this.
[00:09:54] I just don't want you to lie anymore.
[00:09:57] Or slander.
[00:09:59] And you know what they said to me?
[00:10:01] Old Testament.
[00:10:02] Old Testament.
[00:10:04] We're allowed to lie in the New Testament.
[00:10:07] I said, no, we're not.
[00:10:09] Paul says,
[00:10:11] do not lie one to another,
[00:10:13] seeing that we have put off the old man and his deeds.
[00:10:17] And he goes, where?
[00:10:21] He really felt, this person really feels,
[00:10:23] that by lying, it's kind of like the fables.
[00:10:26] By lying, he gets people to Jesus.
[00:10:31] The opposite of what Paul was saying.
[00:10:34] That's one extreme.
[00:10:35] The old covenant, we're under the new covenant,
[00:10:38] or it doesn't have any hold or application for the believer
[00:10:41] because we are under grace and not the law.
[00:10:44] Or some people say, oh, the law is bad.
[00:10:47] Bad.
[00:10:48] It's mean.
[00:10:50] It just kills you.
[00:10:52] And all it does is show us how far away from God we were
[00:10:59] and our need of Jesus.
[00:11:03] Yes and no.
[00:11:05] The other extreme is to try to be righteous before God by the law.
[00:11:10] God, I have been good this week.
[00:11:12] No lying, no adultery, no fornication, no, you know, so let me in.
[00:11:18] I deserve it.
[00:11:19] I've been so good.
[00:11:20] Or to put our faith in the law.
[00:11:22] If I'm just obedient, if I'm just good enough,
[00:11:26] then I will be right with God.
[00:11:29] If I worship on the Sabbath and not on a Sunday like all those sinners,
[00:11:34] then I'll be right with God.
[00:11:36] Or to try to practice the rituals, the dietary laws,
[00:11:40] and festivals prescribed by the law.
[00:11:42] You know what that leads to?
[00:11:44] It's to conceit, doesn't it?
[00:11:46] And I think I'm better than anybody else.
[00:11:48] And I begin to then judge everybody by the law.
[00:11:52] Both extremes are wrong.
[00:11:55] So what is our relationship to the law?
[00:11:59] Well, if you look at Matthew chapter 5, verses 17 through 19,
[00:12:03] famously called the Sermon on the Mount,
[00:12:06] you realize that Jesus upheld the law and even intensified the law
[00:12:12] by taking it to the very heart,
[00:12:16] the very heart of what it means.
[00:12:20] That the law is not just to govern our actions,
[00:12:25] but our attitudes.
[00:12:29] Do not think that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets,
[00:12:34] Matthew 5, 17 through 19.
[00:12:36] I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill.
[00:12:39] For assuredly, I say to you,
[00:12:42] till heaven and earth pass away,
[00:12:43] one jot or tittle will by no means pass away from the law,
[00:12:48] till all is fulfilled.
[00:12:51] Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments
[00:12:56] and teaches men to do so
[00:12:59] shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
[00:13:03] But whoever does and teaches them,
[00:13:05] he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
[00:13:09] What is Jesus saying?
[00:13:12] Is he saying we're still under the law,
[00:13:14] that the law is the ultimate authority on our lives?
[00:13:17] Well, Jesus was accused of breaking the law.
[00:13:23] Remember?
[00:13:24] Because he healed on the Sabbath.
[00:13:28] You read in Luke chapter 6 that when Jesus went in the synagogue,
[00:13:34] these men had set him up.
[00:13:35] They put a man in the synagogue with a withered hand
[00:13:38] because they knew that Jesus could not resist healing that man
[00:13:44] with a withered arm.
[00:13:45] And we're told that Jesus looked at the Pharisees
[00:13:48] and the scribes and the lawgivers with anger.
[00:13:57] And he asked them,
[00:13:59] is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil,
[00:14:05] to save life or to kill life?
[00:14:09] And they didn't answer him.
[00:14:10] Then he looked at the man with the withered hand
[00:14:13] and he said, stretch it out.
[00:14:14] And he did.
[00:14:15] And it was whole.
[00:14:16] And then those people who looked to the law to save them,
[00:14:20] went out and they began to plot against Jesus to kill him.
[00:14:27] You see, the problem is they did not understand the spirit
[00:14:33] or purpose of the law.
[00:14:38] And that's what we do.
[00:14:39] We either dismiss it altogether.
[00:14:44] Or we become very rigid and try to live up to it.
[00:14:48] Sometimes even adding like the Pharisees command to the law,
[00:14:54] like your dresses have to be below your knees at all times.
[00:14:58] We add so many crazy laws to the law, don't we?
[00:15:01] But Paul writes to Timothy and says in verse 8 of chapter 1,
[00:15:08] the law is good.
[00:15:10] It's beneficial if one uses it lawfully.
[00:15:16] In other words, the law is good if we understand it
[00:15:21] and use it as it was meant.
[00:15:24] You see, the law is spiritual.
[00:15:31] And what the law was meant to do was to give life,
[00:15:39] to preserve life, to help with life.
[00:15:46] And that's why Jesus said the spirit of the law is to save
[00:15:52] no matter what day of the week it is.
[00:15:55] The spirit of the law is to do good and to heal no matter when it is.
[00:16:01] In fact, at one point he goes back to the law
[00:16:03] and said if someone's ox falls into the ditch,
[00:16:07] is it lawful on the Sabbath to get that ox out of the ditch?
[00:16:11] Yes.
[00:16:12] In fact, if you did not help a neighbor's ox
[00:16:16] but walked right past it, that was an infraction of the law.
[00:16:20] The law was given to help men,
[00:16:25] to get men on the way of Yahweh
[00:16:29] and keep them in the way of Yahweh
[00:16:31] so they could be preserved,
[00:16:33] so they could have the best life on earth experience,
[00:16:39] to keep away from sin.
[00:16:41] The law is a manual given for our good,
[00:16:46] but it's a manual.
[00:16:50] There are some things with a manual that work
[00:16:52] and some things that don't.
[00:16:53] I bought a sewing machine on eBay,
[00:16:56] but it didn't come with the manual.
[00:16:58] And that sewing machine was no good to me without the manual.
[00:17:01] I didn't even know how to thread it.
[00:17:03] Have you ever mis-threaded your sewing machine?
[00:17:07] Do you know what it does?
[00:17:08] It creates all these bumps.
[00:17:09] You have the ugliest seam you have ever, ever seen in your life.
[00:17:14] And I needed to know how do I thread this machine properly.
[00:17:19] Do you know what I had to do?
[00:17:20] I had to send away for a manual.
[00:17:22] I had to go on eBay again.
[00:17:24] And it's like, no wonder the sewing machine was cheap
[00:17:27] because the manual was almost as much as the machine.
[00:17:30] Actually, I was able to download it on another site for free.
[00:17:34] But I downloaded the manual so I could just know how to thread.
[00:17:39] It tells me where to oil my machine.
[00:17:41] It tells me how to get the best use out of this sewing machine
[00:17:45] so I can preserve it, so I can keep sewing a straight seam,
[00:17:48] so I can have productivity with this machine.
[00:17:52] It's all about bringing out the best of my sewing machine.
[00:17:59] Being able to have quilts that do not have oil spots
[00:18:08] or fall apart because the bobbin wasn't catching that,
[00:18:14] whatever you call it.
[00:18:18] Some of you actually sew more than I do and know the names.
[00:18:21] I don't know the names.
[00:18:22] I just know the bobbin goes down, it catches, and it makes a seam.
[00:18:26] In the same way, a manual tells you what to do,
[00:18:31] what not to do to preserve the life of your car.
[00:18:34] My car manual tells me what to do when certain icons light up on my dashboard.
[00:18:40] Now, Brian thinks we're not under the law,
[00:18:42] so he likes to ignore those icons on the dashboard because he's free from the lot,
[00:18:47] but he has a misunderstanding of the purpose of the manual.
[00:18:51] Not me.
[00:18:52] I'm always referring to my car manual.
[00:18:57] One day, I got in my car,
[00:19:00] and the back windshield wiper was going back and forth, right?
[00:19:03] There was no rain.
[00:19:04] And I was pressing every button possible to stop that thing,
[00:19:08] and it seemed to go faster.
[00:19:09] And then it would stop for a while.
[00:19:11] I'd think, oh, God, thank you.
[00:19:13] I pushed the right button, and then all of a sudden,
[00:19:17] and then, you know, I press another button.
[00:19:20] Wait 20 seconds.
[00:19:23] I just think I had it handled.
[00:19:25] Like, I know what to do.
[00:19:30] You know?
[00:19:32] I had to go to the manual.
[00:19:33] I had to look up back windshield wiper.
[00:19:37] How to turn off.
[00:19:40] And I finally got it.
[00:19:41] And then three weeks later, it happened again, and guess what?
[00:19:44] I had forgotten.
[00:19:46] Totally forgotten how to turn off that back wiper.
[00:19:49] I had to go to the manual again.
[00:19:50] You know what?
[00:19:51] I keep that manual in the glove compartment of my car
[00:19:53] because I never know when I'm going to need it.
[00:19:56] I don't even know how to open the engine of my,
[00:19:59] like, the hood of my car.
[00:20:01] I don't know.
[00:20:02] I just like my car because it's pretty.
[00:20:04] I don't know how to open the hood,
[00:20:06] but my manual tells me how to open the hood.
[00:20:10] I have to consult the manual.
[00:20:12] I have to go back to the manual over and over again.
[00:20:16] Now, my car is almost paid off.
[00:20:20] Almost paid off.
[00:20:21] When I pay it off,
[00:20:22] do you think I can chuck the manual off
[00:20:27] and out the window because it's paid in full?
[00:20:30] You think I don't need that manual anymore
[00:20:31] just because it's paid off?
[00:20:33] Oh, no.
[00:20:34] I'm going to need that manual even more
[00:20:36] because by that time, it will be six years old, my car,
[00:20:39] and it will be lighting icons like Christmas trees.
[00:20:44] But on the other hand,
[00:20:46] the manual itself cannot save or preserve my car.
[00:20:50] If I don't follow the manual,
[00:20:51] it's not going to do any good for my car at all.
[00:20:54] You know, just having a manual in the glove compartment
[00:20:57] doesn't mean I drive better.
[00:20:59] Doesn't mean that, you know,
[00:21:01] I automatically pull in for oil changes when it needs it.
[00:21:05] Nope.
[00:21:06] It's a manual.
[00:21:07] It's up to me.
[00:21:10] It has to do with my relationship to the manual
[00:21:14] because if I ignore what it says
[00:21:17] and just think I can do better off
[00:21:20] and I can interpret those little icons any way I want,
[00:21:24] no, that little thing that looks like an airplane
[00:21:26] is telling me I'm doing such a good job driving.
[00:21:30] I just think of those as encouragements.
[00:21:33] Keep going, Cheryl, without oil.
[00:21:35] The manual tells me how to use my car properly,
[00:21:41] how to help it last,
[00:21:43] and how to get the best drive out of it
[00:21:45] so that I can make it to every destination
[00:21:50] that I intended.
[00:21:52] So the law is a manual for shalom
[00:21:54] or to stay in the way of Yahweh.
[00:21:57] It's how to live in the way of the Lord
[00:22:01] as the Lord intended it.
[00:22:04] That's the law.
[00:22:05] What is our relationship as Christians to the law?
[00:22:08] It's a manual.
[00:22:10] But let me say this.
[00:22:11] We don't have that same model of car.
[00:22:15] Okay?
[00:22:16] So some things work for our model of car.
[00:22:21] We've got what's called the New Kingdom car, right?
[00:22:25] And in the New Kingdom car, we can eat bacon.
[00:22:29] But in the Old Kingdom car,
[00:22:32] which was for Israel and their nationality,
[00:22:35] they could not eat bacon.
[00:22:38] So you've got to know what things apply
[00:22:41] to the etzel
[00:22:43] and what things apply to the osmobile.
[00:22:47] You've got to know the difference
[00:22:49] and use it as a manual.
[00:22:53] There's certain things that do not apply
[00:22:55] because Jesus is our sacrifice.
[00:22:59] So we have automatics
[00:23:01] and not manual gears.
[00:23:03] We don't use a crank to start up our cars.
[00:23:07] There's a difference
[00:23:08] because of what Jesus has done.
[00:23:11] We're in the new model.
[00:23:15] But the Ten Commandments
[00:23:17] and much of the law
[00:23:18] and the spirit of the law,
[00:23:20] we're still driving a car,
[00:23:22] still applies.
[00:23:23] Does that make sense?
[00:23:25] Okay, because I can't see your faces
[00:23:27] because I'm wearing contacts
[00:23:28] and it only lets me read
[00:23:29] but not see far away.
[00:23:30] Sorry.
[00:23:31] Even Brian's blurry on Sundays.
[00:23:32] It's like, but he looks younger,
[00:23:34] so it's okay.
[00:23:39] That's why I think God lets your eyes
[00:23:41] like get bad when you get older.
[00:23:42] I'm wearing, like I said, contact lenses
[00:23:44] because we still look really good to each other.
[00:23:48] The law is meant to correct.
[00:23:51] The lawless, the one without any standards.
[00:23:54] The insubordinate, the one doing their own thing.
[00:23:57] The ungodly, the one who needs to know the way of God.
[00:24:00] Sinners, to know what they are doing wrong.
[00:24:03] The unholy, that they might learn the way of holiness.
[00:24:06] The profane, that they might know
[00:24:08] the way of righteousness and holiness.
[00:24:11] Murderers of mothers and fathers,
[00:24:13] that they might know the way of blessing,
[00:24:14] of love and family.
[00:24:17] That's why the law says,
[00:24:19] children, obey your parents.
[00:24:21] For this is pleasing to the Lord
[00:24:24] and leads to long life.
[00:24:29] Timothy's task in Ephesus was not an easy one.
[00:24:32] The church had drifted.
[00:24:34] People were making up stories,
[00:24:36] believing false teachings,
[00:24:38] and were being drawn away from the truth.
[00:24:40] Timothy's mission was to bring the church
[00:24:43] back into alignment
[00:24:44] and make Jesus the center.
[00:24:46] He had to take a stand
[00:24:48] and show them they couldn't keep doing
[00:24:50] whatever they felt was natural or right.
[00:24:52] He had to use His authority
[00:24:54] and lead them with love
[00:24:56] by the power of the Holy Spirit
[00:24:58] into the way of Jesus.
[00:25:00] We hope you have been blessed
[00:25:02] by today's Bible study.
[00:25:03] For more information about
[00:25:05] the Gracious Words radio program
[00:25:06] and the teaching ministry
[00:25:08] of Cheryl Broderson,
[00:25:09] please visit our website
[00:25:10] at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:13] Coming up next time
[00:25:14] on the Gracious Words program,
[00:25:15] we'll look further
[00:25:16] at authority and leadership
[00:25:18] as we continue our series,
[00:25:20] Letters to Lead, Live, and Love By,
[00:25:22] in the first epistle to Timothy
[00:25:24] with Cheryl Broderson.
[00:25:26] We do hope you make plans
[00:25:27] to join us.
[00:25:28] Again, for more information,
[00:25:30] please visit our website
[00:25:31] at graciouswords.com.
[00:25:52] This program is sponsored by
[00:25:54] Calvary Chapel,
[00:25:55] Costa Mesa, California.
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