All right, so I asked you to open
up to 1st Timothy.
And the reason I did that is because
we're going to go through Paul's first epistle
to Timothy.
Before I left, you remember we had three
weeks together and we were able to make
it through Titus.
Now, 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus are
known as the pastoral epistles.
That is the way they're frequently referred to.
And the reason for that is because, of
course, Titus, as we studied, and now Timothy,
as we will see, they were Paul's co
-workers and they were in the ministry with
him and they were serving as overseers of
the churches.
And so the letters that he wrote to
them had to do specifically with church matters.
And so for that reason, they're referred to
as the pastoral epistles.
As a matter of fact, in this epistle
here, 1st Timothy, chapter three, verse 15, Paul
says that I'm writing these things to you
so that you might know how to conduct
yourself in the house of God, which is
the church of the living God, the pillar
and the ground of the truth.
So these epistles will, as we saw with
Titus, so with 1st Timothy, they will deal
to a large extent with.
How church is to be and what the
leadership in the church is to be concerned
with and involved with.
And so there's there's some great stuff here
by way of instruction for the church.
And so with that brief introduction, let's just
jump right into the epistle.
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the
commandment of God, our Savior and the Lord
Jesus Christ, our hope to Timothy, a true
son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace
from God, our father and Jesus Christ, our
Lord.
So Paul addresses this epistle to Timothy.
He refers to him as a true son
in the faith.
Now, we first meet Timothy.
In the 16th chapter of the Acts of
the Apostles, remember when we were studying Titus,
I pointed out to you that ironically, Titus
is never mentioned in the book of Acts.
He's mentioned in several of Paul's epistles, as
we showed you, but he's never mentioned in
the book of Acts.
Well, Timothy is mentioned several times over in
the book of Acts, beginning in the 16th
chapter, there in verses one through three.
And let me read it to you.
It says, Then Paul came to Derbe and
Lystra and behold, a certain disciple was there
named Timothy, the son of a certain Jewish
woman who believed that his father was Greek.
He was well spoken of by the brethren
who were at Lystra and Iconium.
Paul wanted to have him go on with
him, and he took him and he circumcised
him because of the Jews who were in
that region, for they all knew that his
father was a Greek.
And so here's our first introduction to Timothy.
Now, Paul had this is his second visit
to the area of Derbe and Lystra.
He had gone there previously, and it's quite
possible that in his first visit, Timothy, even
probably as a teenager at that time, it's
possible that Timothy was converted under Paul's ministry
because Paul refers to him as a son
in the faith.
The implication is that Timothy came to Christ
through Paul's ministry.
And so it might have been that Paul
was actually able to lead the whole family
to the Lord.
But now he's come back again for another
visit.
Timothy's grown up a bit and Paul senses
in him the qualities that he wants to
invest in.
So he wants to take Timothy with him
on the road and he wants to groom
him.
He wants to disciple him.
And in many ways, Timothy would become Paul's
successor.
And that's what we find, especially in the
second epistle that we'll get to a bit
later, that Paul is really passing.
Ultimately, he's passing his ministry on to Timothy.
So we're introduced to him here in Acts
chapter 16.
But then Paul makes reference to Timothy in
several of his epistles in writing to the
Corinthians, chapter four, verse 17.
He says this to them.
He says, For this reason, I have sent
Timothy to you, who is my beloved and
faithful son and the Lord, who will remind
you of my ways in Christ as I
teach everywhere in every church.
So Timothy was somebody special to Paul.
You can see that.
And Paul had absolute confidence in Timothy that
he could send him somewhere.
And Timothy was going to be a proper
and accurate representation of the apostle.
Now, in writing to the Philippians, the second
chapter, verses 19 through 22, he says this
regarding Timothy.
He says, But I trust in the Lord
Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly that
I also may be encouraged when I know
your state, for I have no one like
minded who will sincerely care for your state,
for all seek their own, not the things
which are of Christ Jesus.
But, you know, his proven character that as
a son with his father, he served with
me in the gospel.
So here Paul really.
Opens up and shares his deepest feelings about
Timothy, actually, when he writes his second epistle
to Timothy, he says, Timothy, every time I
think about you, I get choked up.
I brings tears to my eyes just thinking
about you.
So Timothy was he was quite a young
man, as we can see here.
Paul says, I have no one like him.
He's unique.
He's extraordinary.
He he naturally he just has that inclination
toward the ministry and toward serving.
That's really what Timothy was much like Joshua
to Moses.
Timothy was to Paul.
Remember, Joshua was the servant of Moses.
That was his role.
And then, of course, he ultimately became the
successor of Moses.
And so Timothy was to Paul something like
what Joshua was to Moses.
Now, one more reference, I think, is important
to point out in Hebrews chapter 13, verse
twenty three, just a brief reference regarding Timothy.
But it says this.
Now, we don't know who actually wrote Hebrews.
There's some people that believe strongly that it
is the the work of Paul, the apostle.
There are others that are not so certain
about that.
They attribute it to somebody like Apollos, maybe
or or Barnabas.
But whoever it was, that's really not the
real important point.
But there's a reference to Timothy in Hebrews,
and this is what it says regarding him.
It says, know that our brother Timothy has
been set free.
So Timothy was a young man who suffered
for his faith.
He was a young man who, like his
mentor, Paul, was also in prison, but he
was set free.
And so, Paul, he says to him in
verse three, he says, as I urged you
when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus,
that you may charge some that they teach
no other doctrine.
So Paul left Ephesus and went into Macedonia
and.
He left Timothy there.
Now, we don't know how long Timothy was
there.
It's possible that Timothy was for a period
of time the pastor of the Church of
Ephesus.
Now, that's interesting to me because, of course,
we have the epistle to the Ephesians.
We have in the seven letters to the
churches from Jesus, we have a letter to
the Church of Ephesus there.
And it would seem that Timothy was perhaps.
Remember, Paul spent three and a half years
in Ephesus.
So Paul was, in a sense, sort of
the pastor.
He was he wasn't planning to be there
permanently.
But when he leaves, Timothy sort of steps
into that role.
Now, I don't think that Timothy remained there
permanently.
I think he probably ended up following Paul
again into different places.
As a matter of fact, I know he
did.
But for a period of time, he was
evidently overseeing the fellowship in Ephesus.
And so Paul says, now I left you
there so you can charge the people there
and to warn them about certain things.
Remember, Paul said something similar to Titus.
He said, for this reason, I left you
in Crete that you might set the things
in order that are lacking and that you
might ordain elders in every city.
So these young men were men that Paul
could could trust.
He had absolute confidence in them.
And so he leaves Timothy there in Ephesus
to make sure things are the way they
ought to be.
Now, of course, as Paul is leaving.
And I know that feeling because I've left
a couple of churches myself.
You want so desperately to make sure, at
least to the best of your ability, that
everything is going to keep going the way
it ought to go once you're gone.
But but it's it's a battle.
It's a struggle.
And even Paul recognized in in Acts, the
account in Acts, when he leaves Ephesus, he
gathers the elders together and he says, he
said, I know that after my departure, grievous
wolves are going to come in among you,
not sparing the flock.
And even from among yourselves, they're going to
rise up men seeking to draw others after
themselves.
Paul's.
Heart was broken over that, because when you've
labored and you've planted a work and you've
you've put forth all that effort to see
that things are right.
Oh, to think that it might just, you
know, go the wrong direction on you.
It's really it's a real burdensome thing.
But Paul has these men that he has
the confidence in, so he he's he's charging
them.
And now here, Timothy, to make sure everything
is in proper order, make sure people understand
what the church is all about so we
can see it perpetuated.
So he says that you charge some that
they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed
to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes
rather than godly edification, which is in the
faith.
So basically, initially says, first of all, charge
them that they teach no other doctrine.
They need to adhere faithfully to apostolic doctrine.
Secondly, don't let them get caught up in
fables.
Now, the word fable is the Greek word
from which we get our English word myth.
Mythos is the word.
So he says, don't let them give heed
to fables.
Now, there's some speculation among the commentators as
to just what kind of myths or fables
Paul would have been referring to.
And and a fair number of commentators sort
of go into talking about some of the
myths among the Greeks and and some of
the aberrant teaching that eventually became known as
Gnosticism.
And they sort of point to those things
as what Paul's referring to.
But I happen to disagree with that.
I think by the context, Paul is talking
more about fables and myths in a Jewish
sense rather than in a Greek sense, because
he goes on to talk about these particular
individuals who desire to be teachers of the
law.
So that would imply that there's there's a
Jewish element here.
And of course, as we've seen, as we've
studied acts, we've seen it in going through
Galatians and Titus.
Paul was constantly having to contend with these
Judaizers, with these these false teachers that were
coming in and trying to impose Judaism upon
the new Gentile converts.
And so the fables that he's referring to
here, I think, are fables that have a
Jewish origin to them.
So these kinds of fables were composed of
frivolous and unfounded stories which the Jews would
have regarded as of great importance.
Jewish literature is full of fanciful myths regarding
the rabbis, as well as fables concerning biblical
characters.
If you ever have the opportunity to read
through portions of the Talmud, for example, you'll
find that there's all kinds of wild stories
and they are obviously myths, they're fables.
But not just regarding the exploits of the
rabbis, you also find that, as I mentioned,
regarding biblical characters.
And so if you read Jewish literature at
all, you'll find that quite often there's all
kinds of references to Abraham and to Moses
and to David and different people about incidents
and things that we don't know anything about.
And you think, wow, I didn't know that
that happened in Abraham's life.
My goodness, I didn't know Moses did that.
I didn't know that David did those things,
too.
Well, he didn't.
They're myths, they're fables, they're they're things that,
you know, they're legends that just sort of
were added on to the story.
You can find a good example of this
in the apocryphal writings.
Now, the apocryphal writings are a bit easier
to get a hold of.
I'm not necessarily recommending that you get a
hold of them and read them.
You could if you wanted to.
But in the apocryphal, which is contained today
in the Old Testament of the Roman Catholic
versions of the Bible, you can you can
see an example of this kind of mythology
that Paul is talking about in the book
of Daniel.
Now we have the book of Daniel in
our Bible and in our Bible, the book
of Daniel has 12 chapters, right?
Well, in the Catholic Bible, the book of
Daniel has 14 chapters.
And the final chapter in the book of
Daniel is regarding a story that is called
Bell and the Dragon.
Now, Bell was, remember, Daniel's Babylonian name that
was given to him by Nebuchadnezzar was Belteshazzar.
And so they they've taken that Bell and
then there's this obviously mythical kind of story
about how Daniel outwitted a dragon.
And, you know, when you read it, you
immediately recognize that this is something clearly distinct
from what we've read up until this point.
It's obvious that the mythological aspect of it
really begins to to come out there.
So Paul said, don't let them give heed
to fables or to myths.
Now, in making this statement, Paul is indirectly,
but absolutely inferring that there is a total
and complete contrast between mythology and scripture.
Now, there are many people today who want
to insist that the Bible is full of
mythology.
And among the critics, what they have sought
to do is what they call to demythologize
the Bible.
They want to take the myths out of
it so we can get down to the
real core of it.
And then we can keep that and act
upon that.
And basically, in their opinion, all of the
miraculous aspects of the Bible, the supernatural references
and events, they refer to all of that
as mythology.
Now, C.S. Lewis, who was a great
scholar.
And who spent his entire life studying myths
and legends, he said this, he said, I
have spent my life.
In reading and studying myths and legends, and
I find no similarity whatsoever between myths and
legends and what is contained in the scripture.
No similarity whatsoever.
Now, here was a man who knew what
myth was.
He knew what legends were.
He wrote himself prolifically in a mythological fashion,
but he was absolutely adamant about the fact
that there was no similarity whatsoever between mythology
and scripture.
And it's so true.
And like I was saying, all you have
to do is read Bell in the Dragon
and you can see so clearly where scripture
left off and where mythology began.
So Paul says to Timothy, don't let them
get caught up.
In mythologies, don't let them get caught up
in fables.
Now, it wasn't a problem that was limited
to that particular era, because all throughout the
church's history, there have been these kinds of
things that have cropped up and people have
unfortunately bought into many myths and fables in
the church era.
I think of some of the myths and
fables that were floating about in the medieval
period.
A couple of examples.
Milk from the breast of the Virgin Mary
was stored and preserved by the church.
Or another example, there were pieces of the
cross of Jesus available through the church that
had power to cleanse from sin.
Now, these are myths, these are fables, these
are the kinds of things that Paul said
to Timothy, don't don't let the people buy
into this stuff.
Exhort them, admonish them not to give heed
to these kinds of things.
But, you know, it's not it's not even
relegated back to the medieval period alone, because
we still have these kinds of things with
us today.
I think of the myths and the fables
that have built up around the supposed appearance
of the Virgin Mary, say, in Fatima, Portugal
or Medjugorje in Croatia.
And and these are things that tens of
hundreds of thousands of people go after.
Or remember, what was it a couple of
years ago?
What was 2000?
Actually, it was the the year of Jubilee
where the the pope had informed people that
if they were to come and visit Rome
and pass through this particular door, that that
would guarantee the forgiveness of sins.
These are myths, they're fables, but people by
the droves buy into this stuff today.
But it's not limited to.
Roman Catholicism or Orthodoxy or one of those
various facets of the church, we find it
among the Charismatics and the Pentecostal groups.
The the fables about the growing legs.
And the miraculous dentistry that's going on in
some churches and, you know, the fact that
people are supposedly praying and as they're praying,
they're being sprinkled with gold dust.
And you might wonder, what is he talking
about the growing legs?
Well, I have had numerous people tell me
over the years that they went to a
healing service and lo and behold, they didn't
know it before, but they found out they
had one leg that was shorter than the
other.
And sure enough, they were healed.
They you know, they went through a procedure
where the the pastor, the elders, the whoever,
the visiting evangelist or prophet or apostle laid
hands on them.
And sure enough, their leg was extended.
Now, please, this is a fable.
Miraculous dentistry.
There are stories going all around the world
about people who were coming to worship services
and in certain charismatic circles, and they were
finding that as they were there, their fillings,
their amalgam fillings were being replaced with fillings
of pure gold.
And these stories were going all over the
place, all over the world, this phenomena was
supposedly happening.
And I can't tell you how many otherwise
intelligent Christians would say to me, have you
heard about what's going on, how the Lord
is giving people new fillings?
My question is, why not just heal the
tooth completely?
I mean, why a filling at all?
But I guess God wanted to bless them
with a little extra in case financially they
weren't doing too well, they could pull the
gold out of their teeth.
But this kind of stuff and then then
this idea not not too long ago, Britain
is a place where every crazy doctrine finds
acceptance.
And not too long ago and the British
aren't alone in that.
But not too long ago, they were talking
about this miraculous thing of people as they
were in prayer, gold dust was coming down
upon them.
And in one incident.
A person appeared to have gold dust on
them, they took a swipe of the supposed
gold dust and they went and they analyzed
it and they found that it was glitter.
Now, evidently, what happened is the person sprinkled
themselves with glitter in order to sort of
keep, you know, the myth going.
But the leader of the congregation, instead of
acknowledging that this was a hoax, he said,
well, it appears that they didn't have enough
faith for real gold.
So God just gave them glitter.
Now, these I mean, we're talking about this
is modern day stuff.
Now, you would think that, come on, does
anybody really believe this?
Yes.
Tens of thousands of people buy into this
stuff.
Somebody was asking me a question about Benny
Hinn the other day, I'll tell you, talk
about myths and fables.
The stuff this guy claims to have done
and all of, you know, this is all
mythology, but tens of thousands of people gather
to listen to this person.
You know, Christians in some way can be
the most gullible people in the world, but
we shouldn't be.
In many ways, we ought to be the
most skeptical, because, of course, we have the
scriptures and the scriptures tell us what's true
and what's right.
And if we took seriously the admonitions of
scripture, we wouldn't find ourselves being tossed to
and fro and torn and, you know, wavering
back and forth as to whether, well, is
this really of God?
You know, is God doing this?
I remember back when the whole Toronto thing
was going on and all that holy laughter
and people being so supposedly drunk in the
spirit.
And a lot of people were saying, well,
do you think this is the Lord?
No, it's not the Lord.
Absolutely not.
There's not any question about it.
You can't find anything remotely like it in
the pages of scripture anywhere.
It doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
It brings confusion to people.
No, it's in this category that Paul mentioned
here, and he said, urge them not to
give heed to fables.
And then he added endless genealogies.
Now, the endless genealogies, there's no absolute certainty
among commentators as to what Paul is referring
to here, but there are a couple of
possibilities.
And I think they're probably both highly probable,
actually, that some of these false teachers, the
Jews themselves were were really into genealogies.
And so that some of them would purport
to be a direct ancestor of some great
person.
Within the history of the nation, so they
might come forward purporting to be a direct
ancestor of Moses.
Or of Aaron or of one of the
prophets or one of the kings.
And they would have some sort of a
genealogical record to try to prove their ancestry.
There's also another possibility that the genealogy doesn't
necessarily necessarily refer to a genealogy in the
physical sense.
But the rabbis would often claim that their
theories could be traced back to Moses.
And although you could find a scriptural basis
for their theory, yet they would assure you
that through word of mouth, the tradition was
passed down.
And as a matter of fact, the what's
known as the oral law, the Mishnah, the
Jewish claim is that the Mishnah is the
the oral law that was actually passed down
to Moses or passed down from Moses.
So they would have some fake genealogy that
they would use to trace this particular statement
or this kind of doctrine back to Moses.
So Paul says to Timothy, he says, urge
them not to give heed to these kinds
of things, not to pay any attention to
these things.
Paul says this is a colossal waste of
time.
And as I said, it's happened over and
over again in the history of the church
that the church gets caught up in things
that are just nothing but an absolute waste
of time.
Back before the Reformation in there was a
period known as the scholastic period, and it
was during that time that the theologians would
gather together and literally.
Debate much like the rabbis did back in
the time of Jesus and since then, but
they would debate things like how many angels
could dance on the head of a pen.
They truly did debate those kinds of things.
Now, talk about a waste of time.
But that's exactly what it is, and there's
some.
Thing that a lot of times will grab
hold of of Christian people and get them
diverted from the main thing and off into
these kinds of disputes and arguments and discussions.
And he refers to it here, which caused
disputes rather than godly edification, which is in
the faith, these kinds of things there, there
it's it's useless chatter.
All they do is cause disputes and contentions
and arguments and nobody's built up, nobody's edified.
And there are there are things today.
Where people are getting caught up in useless
wranglings, speculating and theorizing about things that you
can't know anyway, because you're a finite person.
And God is infinite and beyond your finding
out, I had a friend the other day.
Pull me aside and tell me how bad
he felt for me that I don't have
a firm, systematic theology and that I don't
have a clear worldview.
And he was concerned that I was going
to really have a hard time meeting up
with atheists and meeting up with people of
different theological persuasions because I didn't have an
airtight theological system.
And I said, you know, you don't really
have to feel sorry for me, I'm OK.
You know, I've done all right.
I mean, I've you know, I've traveled a
bit and I've met a number of atheists
and people and, you know, I've done OK,
just taking the Bible and the scriptures I
know and, you know, I've done all right,
I'm OK.
But he just you know, he just couldn't
he just couldn't believe that I wasn't more
concerned to develop an airtight theology.
And, you know, frankly, I just told him
I don't have time for that.
And I don't think that that's what God
is primarily concerned with.
You know, Jesus didn't send the disciples out
to develop seminaries and theological schools where they
could sit around and argue and debate with
one another the finer points of theology.
Jesus said, go out into the world and
preach the gospel to everyone.
And it's not my airtight theological argument that
gets somebody saved.
Paul said, I wanted to know nothing among
you, the Corinthians, who were really steeped in
Greek philosophy and impressed so much by human
wisdom.
Paul said, I came to you wanting to
know nothing except Christ and him crucified.
And you know what I've discovered over the
years?
That God, as Paul said, he uses the
foolish things of the world to confound the
wise.
Now, that's not to say that we shouldn't
study.
That's not to say that we shouldn't educate
ourselves.
But, you know, at the end of the
day, it's not about my education.
It's not about my studying.
It's not about my ability to argue more
efficiently than somebody else.
It's about the spirit of God touching somebody's
heart.
And sometimes it's through the simplest of things.
Sometimes it's through just a word.
You know, this trip that we just had
that we have been talking about tonight, the
the event of Creation Fest lasted for three
days.
And I did a fair amount of teaching
at the Creation Fest and preaching as well
evangelistically.
And, you know, quite frankly, I'll be honest
with you.
It was one of those times when every
time I finished teaching, I wish I never
would have started.
I just felt like, you know, this is
something that a preacher goes through.
I don't know if you guys can relate
to it, maybe some area of your life
where you can identify.
But, you know, sometimes when you're teaching and
preaching, you just sense that God is with
you.
It's almost like you're you're unconscious and God
just takes over and you couldn't make a
mistake if you tried.
Then there are other times that are the
exact opposite of that, where you feel like
you can't think you can't speak.
You feel like you're an absolute idiot.
You you think you're killing everybody.
You're boring him to death and you're boring
yourself to death.
And you think I've got to shut up
as quick as I can before I do
any more damage.
And I'll tell you honestly, after every session
at the Creation Fest, I felt that way.
It was just one of those times, you
know, and that's the worst.
When you go to these event kind of
things, that's when you want to be your
best.
I'll never forget years ago, I went to
Hawaii and spoke at one of these big
events.
There were thousands of people there.
And, oh, you know, you're thinking if there
was ever a place not to blow it,
this is the place we don't want to
blow it.
But lo and behold, it was probably the
worst message I've ever given in my life.
Well, anyway, here's the amazing thing in all
of it.
So that's how I felt with the Creation
Fest thing.
The response is just been unbelievable, the emails
we got.
My friend called me from England the other
day.
He said he said, man, you can't believe
what's happened since the event.
He said people are coming.
And the message that you gave, it's so
impacted their lives.
And, you know, I'm thinking you're kidding.
You're joking.
How did that happen?
Well, guess how it happened.
That's what I'm talking about.
It's the Holy Spirit.
It's God.
This whole thing is about God.
And it's not about my ability to articulate,
it's not about my great wisdom and understanding
and those kinds of things.
At the end of the day, it's about
God and it's about his spirit.
And so that's why Paul said Timothy urged
them not to get caught up in this
useless chatter.
This vain, empty talk that doesn't do anything
for anybody, it just causes arguments and disputes.
And we don't want to do that, we
don't have time to do that.
You know, I said to my friend the
other day, I said, you know, frankly, I'm
just not interested.
I don't care.
You can be right if you want to
be right.
I don't care.
I'm not going to try to argue you
into my theological position.
This is what I believe.
If you don't agree with me, that's fine.
You don't have to agree with me.
I don't have time to debate and dispute
and sit around trying to figure out things
that we can't figure out because we are
finite human beings.
We're not God.
You see, Paul said it's all about edification.
Speaking things that are going to be building
people up, encouraging them, just the simple truths
of the word of God.
Now, in verse five, he says.
The purpose of the commandment.
Is love from a pure heart, from a
good conscience and from sincere faith, from which
some having strayed have turned aside to idle
talk.
Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding
neither what they say nor the things which
they affirm.
So you see, Paul, he sums it up
right here in verse five.
Now, the purpose of the commandment is love
from a pure heart.
That's what God is after.
Jesus didn't come into the world.
To redeem us.
So that we could become theologians, per se,
he came to redeem us so we could
know him personally and have a loving relationship
with him and we could love one another.
Now, the thing about theological dispute and argumentation,
you know, so much of it is conducted
in an atmosphere that is anything but loving.
I mean, I have seen and participated in
theological discussion that.
Has had the potential to go to fisticuffs.
That's certainly not what the Lord is wanting.
No, it's the purpose of the commandment is
love from a pure heart.
That's the sum of what the Lord is
looking for, that we would love him, that
we would love one another.
And, you know, as Paul would say to
the Corinthians, and it's so true, he said,
we know that knowledge puffs up.
But love builds up.
You see, that's what happens.
Knowledge tends to to create a prideful attitude.
And whenever I become prideful.
It's just it's such a sickening thing spiritually.
Whenever I think that I'm above my fellow
Christians, that those poor souls, they just don't
know the truth like I know it.
That's that's just nothing but arrogance.
And that's what does happen many times with
knowledge.
Few people can really handle knowledge because knowledge
inherently has that tendency to make one prideful.
Now, of course, God in his wisdom, he
knows how to keep us in check and
he can certainly humble us.
But but we have to be aware of
that.
And again, I'm not promoting ignorance.
I'm not saying that we shouldn't obtain knowledge.
But, you know, I found this.
We need to obtain the right knowledge.
And I have found that when you obtain
the right knowledge, which is biblical knowledge straight
from the scriptures without some biased opinion about
it, it does tend to keep you balanced.
It does tend to keep you in that
place of just simplicity and humility.
And I can say from my own experience
that the people that I know that have
gained knowledge and become lifted up with pride
as a result of it, they have not
most of the time, but in every case
that I'm aware of, they have gained their
knowledge from somewhere other than the scriptures.
There's an outside source or a number of
outside sources that they draw from and they
begin to take that information and then they
begin to interpret the scriptures through that outside
information and they become very prideful.
But when a person just sticks with the
scriptures and just allows the Holy Spirit to
minister the word into your life, there's a
tendency there toward humility because that's how God
works.
He keeps us humble.
And if we're getting prideful, it's probably because
we're not just taking the word as it
is, but we're receiving it through some sort
of a filter that's giving us a biased
view.
But this is what it's all about.
The purpose of the commandment is love from
a pure heart, from a good conscience and
from sincere faith.
So that's what the Lord is looking for.
And that's so simple, just loving one another,
just being right before God, having a pure
conscience and having faith that's genuine.
Oh, that's it's so simple, but it's so
beautiful.
It's so powerful.
It's so profound when you see it.
You know, having spent the time over in
Europe this summer, being with friends that I
haven't been with for a while and guys
who are younger and younger in the Lord
and younger in the ministry, I had the
opportunity to just observe them, to watch and
to listen.
And I must say that I was just
so blessed and so impressed and and at
times just thinking, amazing how profound the things
that they would say.
And it's just that that work of the
spirit in their lives.
My friend was telling me about my friend
Rafael in Mallorca, Spain, was telling me about
his discussions with a local Catholic priest.
And the Catholic priest is bought into a
very liberal perspective on the faith.
And so and a very educated, you know,
I think a Ph.D. and all of
that sort of thing.
And, you know, Rafael's he's as far from
a Ph.D. as you'd ever get.
But the wisdom and he would tell me
about the discussions they have in the in
the points that the guy would bring up
in the arguments, and then he would tell
me about how he responded, I would just
think that is amazing.
It's just the simplicity, but the but just
how powerful and how profound his answers and
actually what it ended up doing is just
completely silencing the priest.
He just said, you know, we shouldn't talk
anymore.
I can't.
You're confusing me with all that Bible stuff.
But, you know, that's what it's all about,
just the simple thing of loving each other,
of having a purity in our lives and
of having a genuine faith.
And so next time, as we continue on,
we'll look more specifically at.
What was happening with those who were desiring
to be teachers of the law, but as
Paul said, they did not understand what they
said or the things that they affirmed, so.