Well, it's a great privilege for me to
be here again this morning with you.
I went hog hunting two weeks ago and
I grew this beard because I figured if
I looked more like a hog, I could
probably get closer to one.
So don't be distressed.
Some people say anything I could do to
cover up this face of mine would be
a blessing.
Well, let's let's go to First Timothy, chapter
four, verse
one.
But the spirit explicitly says that in latter
times some will fall away from the faith,
paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of
demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars
seared in their own conscience.
As with a branding iron, men who forbid
marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God
has created to be gratefully shared in by
those who believe and know the truth for
everything created by God is good and nothing
is to be rejected if it is received
with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means
of the word of God and prayer pointing
out these things to the brethren.
You will be a good servant of Christ
Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of faith
and of the sound doctrine which you have
been following, but have nothing to do with
worldly fables fit only for old women.
On the other hand, disciple discipline yourself for
the purpose of godliness, for bodily discipline is
only of little profit, but godliness is profitable
for all things since it holds promise for
the present life and also for the life
to come.
It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance
for it is for this we labor and
strive because we have fixed our hope on
the living God, who is the savior of
all men, especially of believers prescribe and teach
these things.
Let no one look down on your youthfulness,
but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and
purity.
Show yourself an example of those who believe
until I come.
Give attention to the public reading of scripture,
to exhortation and teaching.
Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you,
which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance,
with the laying on of hands by the
Presbytery.
Take pains with these things, be absorbed in
them so that your progress may be evident
to all.
Play close attention to yourself and to your
teaching, persevere in these things, for as you
do, you will ensure salvation both for yourself
and for those who hear you.
The first thing that we need to understand
as we come to this text is that
Paul is laying out for Timothy how the
church should function, how we should act in
the household of faith, the church of the
living God.
Now, something very, very important when we go
over to Second Timothy, we understand that all
scripture is inspired.
And that it is all that the man
of God needs to direct the church, it's
all that the leadership needs to direct the
church, everything that has to do with Christianity,
the Christian faith, practical living, everything is found
in the scriptures.
Now, as Southern Baptists, we won a battle
a few years ago with regard to the
inspiration of scripture, that scripture is inspired.
You have no idea probably how many professors
and leaders within our denomination years ago did
not believe in the inspiration of scripture, how
many seminaries that taught against the inspiration of
scripture in the Southern Baptist Convention.
But we won that battle and most of
those fellows are gone.
We believe that the Bible is the inerrant,
infallible, inspired word of God, but that's not
enough.
That's only half the battle.
There is another portion of the battle that
we must consider, and it is not simply
the inspiration of scripture, but the sufficiency of
scripture.
And what that means is we do not
need secular anthropology, secular sociology, secular psychology.
We do not need those disciplines in order
to carry out Christ's mandate in and through
the church.
Now, let me say something a bit more
personal.
We do not need my opinion and we
do not need yours.
We need what scripture says, one of the
greatest maladies ever found among the people of
God is found in the book of Judges
and it's repeated.
And what is that?
That everyone did what was right in their
own eyes.
But you see, you're not an authority, your
grandfather and grandmother, your mother and father, they're
not authorities either.
Your heart is not an authority, and even
the history of this church is not an
authority.
The scripture is the authority.
No one has the right to get up
in this pulpit with their own opinions.
But they only have authority to the degree
that they proclaim the word of God correctly
and clearly.
At the same time, no one in the
pew has a right to object to something
that is clearly a biblical mandate.
You see, we are bound to the word
of God.
We are bound to it.
And your success in the eyes of heaven,
maybe not the world, but in the eyes
of heaven will depend on how much you
submit to the word of God, to the
word of God.
Now, Paul comes to first Timothy, chapter four,
and he is teaching young Timothy again what
he should do and what ministers should do
within the congregation of God's people.
We're going to look at that.
First of all, he's going to talk in
verse one.
He's going to begin a teaching on apostasy.
Do you know what apostasy is?
It is a falling away from the faith.
Now, here's what's dangerous about apostasy, it never
appears to be apostasy, someone doesn't stand up
in the congregation and says and say, I'm
going to apostatize, I'm going to leave the
Christian faith.
They don't do that.
What do they do?
I'm Christian, but I have a different way
of looking at things.
That is so common today, people who consider
themselves Christian consider themselves even evangelical, that means
not liberal Christians, but Christians who believe the
gospel.
They will say things that are complete departures
from the faith, and yet they sell more
books than any any other Christian minister.
Let me just share something with you.
If anyone.
Any evangelical leader, if an angel from heaven
is cornered on a television program and is
being interviewed and is asked this question, do
you really believe that Jesus is the only
way?
And that everyone who does not believe in
Jesus is condemned, do you really believe that
if the minister answers this way, look, who
am I to judge?
I just preach on the love of God.
That's God's problem, not mine.
Do you know that they just denied Christ?
Do you realize that they have just denied
Christ?
Because the scriptures are not fuzzy on this,
they're not ambiguous, Jesus said, I am the
way, the truth and the life, and no
one comes to the father but by me.
There is no other name.
There is one God and one mediator also
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus,
that's apostasy.
But apostasy just doesn't have to happen when
when someone denies that Christ is the only
savior.
There are a little ways to apostatize to
run a church the way you think it
ought to be run with no biblical basis
is a form of apostasy.
To live little things in your life, to
do what you want to do without consulting
scripture, to see whether or not it's true.
Those are little forms of apostasy and they
may be just as deadly.
Why?
Because they don't look all that bad.
You see, as the people of God.
We are required to get into this book
and decide or learn what God has decided.
Someone came to me one time and they
said, Brother Paul, you know, the Christian life
is so complicated with so many decisions.
And I said, no, it's not.
And they said, yes, it is.
There's a lot of decisions.
I said, no, there's not.
They said, what do you mean?
I said, the decisions have already all been
made for you.
The question is just this.
Are you going to obey?
God has decided how you're to think.
To speak what you're to listen to, what
you're to look at, how you're to dress,
how you to walk, talk, everything else and
how you're to run a church.
So you don't have to figure all this
out.
You see, we have a way of departing
from authority, don't we?
You know, little children, they'll figure out every
way on earth to get out of a
command.
And they are so clever when you ask
them, why didn't you obey?
They will come up with some astounding arguments.
They're just small reflections of of adults.
Let me give you an example, you know,
with all the politicians and all their speaking,
isn't it amazing?
Isn't it amazing that when politicians give answers,
they don't quote the Constitution?
Do you know the Constitution just about handles
every problem that we could get into as
a as a people?
Well.
I would really like to have a politician
who, when asked a question, would say, well,
the Constitution says this at this point and
cite exactly where it's found, because the Constitution
answers all the question.
It defines us as a people, but you
never hear that anymore.
So what?
You've got a country that does everything it
wants to do in its own eyes.
It's the same way in Christianity.
Well, I think we ought to do this.
Yeah, but that's not the question.
The question is, show me the verse.
Well, I like it this way, this whole
thing really isn't based on your likes.
What does God say now you would think
that was kind of like a friend of
mine always says a no brainer, but actually
that's the biggest hurdle in the church today.
Well, I just don't want to do it
that way.
A friend of mine one time went in
and to meet with a group of leaders
in the church.
And he pointed out to them something that
was in the Bible directly.
Baptists have always believed it, always practiced it.
He said, this is what the Bible says.
And the head deacon.
Said this, I know it's in the Bible,
but they don't make it right and we're
not doing it, you just cannot believe what
will come out of the mouth of some
people who believe themselves to be conservative Bible
believing Christians.
So, see, that's the great battle.
And one day when you get a pastor,
that's going to be the great battle.
He has to do what the Bible says
now, if he tries to do something that's
not found in scripture, that's a whole different
thing.
But when pastors and leaders say this, we
are going to follow the Bible, then that's
a good thing.
Church, let me just tell you something, as
someone who's been been around, been kicked around,
done my fair share of kicking myself.
Let me just share with you something.
If you don't want to follow the Bible,
please don't bring a preacher in here who
does.
You're just going to make his life miserable
and he's going to make your life miserable.
And in the end, you're going to kick
him out.
Now, if you don't want to follow the
Bible, then bring you a preacher in here
who doesn't want to follow the Bible.
And there's a whole bunch of them.
He'll go fishing with you and hunting with
you, and he may even play golf.
He'll never talk to you about your sin.
He'll never be worried about your soul.
I mean, he'll turn this place into a
party and you'll get a whole bunch of
other people just like you to come.
It'll be so much fun and Jesus will
be 10,000 miles away, but you'll be
having a good time.
So if you don't want to follow the
Bible, please don't get a guy in here,
especially a young guy who wants to follow
the Bible, because you're just going to hurt
him really bad.
But if you really want to follow the
Bible.
Then get you a man like is described
by the Apostle Paul in these three pastoral
letters, first Timothy, second Timothy and Titus.
Now, let's look, he says, but the spirit
explicitly says that in latter times some will
fall away from the faith.
Now, latter times, let's be careful there.
Don't think that latter times began in the
20th century or the 21st century.
The latter times began at the death and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Joel prophesied that in the latter days, God
would pour out his spirit at the day
of Pentecost.
Peter quoted from that and said, these are
the latter days, these are the days of
the Messiah and he reigns among his people
even now, his kingdom has been established in
the heart of his people, his will is
being done in their heart.
So.
So these are the latter days and we've
been in the latter days for 2000 years
and for 2000 years we can see that
the spirit spoke the truth, there has always
been apostasy.
Don't think.
That we have had such a turn of
events in this country and that these are
the worst times to be living in, they
are absolutely not.
I could go down through history and show
you times that would terrify you.
I remember my mother one time sitting there
in front of the television set several years
ago, and I don't know what was going
on in politics, but something horrible.
And she said, this is just this is
the worst time ever.
The you know, it's the end of the
world.
I said, mom.
Let me ask you a question.
It is the president calling tens of thousands
of people to come to a huge coliseum,
and is he taking off all his clothes
and dressing himself in the skins of animals
and putting claws between his fingers and is
he hanging young people on crosses and tying
them to poles naked and then running out
in the coliseum and biting them and eating
them?
She said, no.
I said, then these aren't the worst times
in history, mom.
Horrible things have happened in history.
Right.
So there has always been apostasy.
Christianity has always been in the middle of
a battle.
It will always be that way.
The unusual thing is what's happened here in
our country.
That's the unusual thing is that we have
had so much peace and rest.
And what has it produced?
Zealous, pure biblical Christianity?
No.
The very opposite.
So apostasy and persecution in difficult times never
harms the church.
But purifies her.
So he says that apostasy will come and
I want you to look at something, he
says, they will fall away from the faith,
paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of
demons.
It's all centers, at least at the beginning,
on doctrine, what you believe.
Whenever there is a time of apostasy, what
has to happen first, what has to happen
first is this.
The truth has to be either denied or
twisted.
So that's what I'm saying is when you
look at how you're going to manage the
church of God, you've got to see that
you're on the road to the to apostasy.
If you don't take this Bible, every page
of it and try to obey it.
If you try to twist some little doctrine
so it doesn't say exactly what it really
does say, it always deals in doctrine.
Now, there are a lot of churches and
a lot of people who say, I don't
want doctrine.
I don't want to hear all that doctrine.
And some people will say, I don't want
none of that doctrine or that theology.
I just want Jesus.
Well, which Jesus do you want?
The Mormons have a Jesus, Jehovah's Witnesses have
a Jesus, the liberals have a Jesus, the
politicians, all of them have a Jesus.
So which Jesus do you want?
The only way to discern the real Jesus
is through teaching what the Bible says about
him and teaching what he has commanded, you
say.
And I can tell you something, the real
Jesus, the real one, he'll mess your life
up.
And you know what else he'll mess your
church up, he'll send everything in disarray, but
he will purify a people for himself.
And so one of the things that we
see here is that the way in which
the devil works in the church and outside
of the church to bring apostasy, people falling
away from true Christianity is by twisting truth
or denying it.
And that's the way it was in the
garden.
Isn't that true?
Did God really say that, Eve?
Oh, I wouldn't pay attention to that.
That's just a small thing.
No sin is a small thing.
No deviation from the will of God is
a small thing.
She took a bite out of a fruit.
It plunged the entire universe into moral decay
and chaos.
You take one of these truths of scripture
regarding the church and you ignore it.
This is what you're going to do.
You're on the path to moral decay in
your church and eventually chaos.
You see, doctrine is extremely important.
Now, I want us to look at something
else that's very important about what kind of
man you need in a pulpit.
He's a man who teaches truth, who teaches
doctrine, because what you need to understand is
what is a false prophet.
See, when you think of false prophets, you
think of maybe some of these TV preachers.
Some of them are false prophets, not all
of them.
There are some good guys out there like
Charles Stanley and other people, Adrian Rogers, who's
gone on to be with the Lord, but
is still preaching.
I mean, there's some good preachers out there,
but you have to admit the great majority
of these guys are false prophets.
Now, but I want you to look at
the false prophet in a different way, our
educational system.
You send your children eight hours a day
to a school.
Now, I understand here in Alabama it can
be a little bit different.
There are a lot of Christians in the
school system.
And I praise God for that.
A lot of godly teachers.
But when you look at the school system
as a whole, what are they going to
teach your children?
Are they going to teach them the Bible?
Are they going to teach them that Jesus
Christ is the only way?
Are they going to teach them there is
a sovereign, personal God who created the heavens
and the earth?
No, I have a dear friend, Votie Bachum,
who has recently written a book about let
Caesar teach your children.
And eventually you've got children of Caesar.
Let's look at the media for a moment.
You want to talk about a false prophet?
Just look at the media spews out lies
and contradictions.
So see what you need to see is
that we just don't have false prophets visiting
us from the Watchtower.
And handing out Watchtower magazines.
We don't just have false prophets riding on
bicycles with little nameplates saying they're elder so
and so from the Mormon Church, we have
false prophets every time we turn on the
radio, every time we turn on the TV
and every time we go into the educational
system, we are bombarded by false prophets.
And do you want to know something?
We're not doing a whole lot to counter
dick that, are we?
For example, how many of your children could
defend creationism when they go off to the
university and they're basically told that anyone who
believes that a personal God created this universe
is an absolute idiot?
How many of your children could defend creation?
Let me ask you, what are you teaching?
I mean, is church just a fairyland where
you come for about an hour, sing some
songs that no one really thinks about when
they sing, listen to a message that you
forget about by the time you get to
Cracker Barrel.
How can you defend moral absolutes?
Can your children?
Do they know why they believe Jesus is
God incarnate?
You see, the guy who comes here.
Has to prepare you for battle, because whether
you want battle or not, it is upon
you.
It is upon you.
You say, well, many of you who are
older say, well, I just I believe what
I believe.
I believe in Jesus.
That's good.
But here's the problem.
You were born into a completely different world
than the world that exists today.
Even me, I'm forty seven.
I remember my first grade teacher, second grade
teacher, everybody in the public school telling me
about Christ.
I remember when there was right and wrongs
and big paddles that hung on the wall
with holes drilled in them so that when
they spanked you, the air would be removed
from the paddle, the distance between the paddle
and your behind, so it would hurt a
lot more.
School was completely different, the world was completely
different when I was a little boy, Charlie
Brown got on television at Christmas and he
could actually say Christmas and they could talk
about wise men.
Now there's a debate of whether or not
the word should even be allowed to be
used on the airwaves.
You see, you just can't you're not living
in the same world, you're not.
And so the man who comes here has
to be concerned about teaching truth.
Real truth.
To prepare you for what lies ahead.
For what lies ahead now, and these are
powerful things, look at this deceitful spirits and
doctrines of demons.
When I look at some of these TV
preachers and see the way they're able to
maneuver and justify their wickedness, I'm amazed I
go, no one can be that smart, especially
that guy.
How is it that he's able to talk
this way, not get caught by this group,
not get caught by this group and work
his way right between the middle of them
and come out a hero?
It is that he is empowered and given
wisdom by the devil himself.
It's the same way.
How can there be so much deception in
the media?
No one could be able to figure all
this stuff out on a human level and
twist everything to make evil look good and
good look evil unless there was some malignant
power, supernatural malignant power behind it.
And so we need to see here.
That these are dangerous times.
And we must be taught of scripture.
We must be taught to defend what we
believe now he goes on deceitful of spirits,
deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means
of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their
own conscience as with a branding iron.
We have reached dangerous times when men's consciences
are seared.
Seared.
Now, if you just hold your place for
a moment, jump over to Romans one, let
me show you something in verses twenty six
and twenty seven, it's talking about homosexuality and
culture and society.
Then it goes on, verse twenty eight and
verse twenty nine.
It talks about verse twenty nine being filled
with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of
envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, their gossip, slanders,
haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of
evil and so on and so forth.
And we say this, these are all sins
found in our culture.
And because of this, God is going to
judge us.
OK, so we we say because of these
sins in our culture, God is going to
judge us.
That's not what this passage is teaching.
It's not teaching that at all.
It's reverse.
Reverse.
What he's teaching is this.
The fact.
That these sins are now prevalent in the
culture is evidence that God has already judged
us.
Now, what do I mean?
Because the great sin here, here's the great
sin.
Look in verse twenty one, for although they
knew God, they did not honor him as
God or give thanks.
Verse twenty three, and exchange the glory of
the incorruptible God for an image in the
form of corruptible man.
Verse twenty four.
Therefore, God gave them over in the lust
of their hearts to impurity.
Our country is not going to be judged.
It has been judged.
And the evidence of divine judgment upon our
country is all the sins that are mentioned
here.
God has turned us over because although we
knew God, we did not honor him as
God or give thanks.
You see that.
And so you come to a time where
men have a seared conscience and they can
no longer even begin to think.
Say things like, well, there's no moral absolutes.
Well, sir, you just contradicted yourself because you're
saying there's absolutely no moral absolutes.
You're making a moral absolute by saying there's
no moral absolutes.
Well, there's no moral absolutes.
Well, then when is it right to rape
a woman?
Well, it's never right to rape a woman,
you just made a moral absolute that we
could kill thousands of babies a day.
And with the one swipe of a pen,
the president elect can say that if an
abortion fails, if the doctors aren't able to
kill the baby and the baby comes out
alive, then the doctor is to set the
baby off to the side and let it
die or throw it in a trash can
and let it die.
That is a people seared in their own
conscience, but Americans don't care about morality and
conscience, do they?
They care about their billful seared.
You see, this is what we're dealing with.
People who are seared in their own conscience.
Another dear friend of mine, Conrad and Bailey
from Lusaka, Zambia, if we get a chance
to hear him, you need to hear him.
They call him the African Spurgeon, and rightly
so, one of the greatest preachers alive today.
He was saying in Africa, we no longer
fear lions and elephants and crocodiles or beasts.
We don't fear beasts in Africa.
We fear our fellow man.
And.
We run from men because men have become
worse than beasts, the conscience seared.
So you see, don't bring a guy in
here who just wants to be everybody's friend.
Don't bring a guy in here who's just
going to have some wonderful programs and prop
up something that's not even alive.
You need truth, you need doctrine.
You need practical principles of what it means
to be godly.
And to be a godly people in the
midst of a perverse generation, that's what you
need.
Someone is going to hold you accountable.
And someone who's going to teach a true
gospel to your children now.
Goes on, verse three, men who forbid marriage
and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has
created to be gratefully shared in by those
who believe and know the truth for everything
created by God is good and nothing is
to be rejected if it is to be
received with gratitude for is sanctified by means
of the word of God and prayer.
Now, this is very interesting.
He's going to talk about men falling away
from the faith and no longer following Christ
through the scriptures.
So you would think that what he would
do then is go and say, yeah, there's
going to be men who are just going
to live loosely.
They're just going to sin all the time.
They're going to be very flagrant.
They're not going to follow any commands.
But he doesn't say that.
He tells us something else that apostasy occurs
in two forms and they're completely opposite and
both of them are extremely dangerous.
Now, please listen to me here.
This is very important.
At times, apostasy manifests itself, a turning away
from Christ manifests itself in just what the
old preachers used to call loose living.
Loose living, living in sin.
Drinking and carousing and cheating and lying and
stealing and all those things that we shouldn't
do.
OK, that's one form in which apostasy manifests
itself, but there's another form.
Legalism, when you start commanding God's people to
do things or not do things that God
never commanded.
Like don't marry.
Or don't eat certain foods.
Matter of fact, I've got to respond to
an email here recently, a young man who
appears to have been converted, writing all these
things about we need to go back and
follow all the dietary laws of the Old
Testament and we need to do this and
do that.
And what's he doing?
Oh, he's dedicated.
He would die for Christ at this moment,
but he's wrong.
He's into what we call legalism.
He thinks that we ought to do things
that God doesn't command us to do.
And I want to tell you something to
walk.
I heard this from Conrad Murrell years ago.
Wonderful old preacher.
He said.
Walking in the truth.
Well, first of all, he said walking in
falsehood is very easy, you can go a
thousand miles that way and be walking in
falsehood, you can go a thousand miles that
way and be walking in falsehood, he said,
but to walk in the truth is like
walking on the edge of a razor blade.
And you can fall off either side.
For example.
God teaches, and I'm going to say this
because old preachers used to preach on this
and no one does anymore.
Um, God talks about clothing in the Bible.
He really does.
I don't want to scare anybody, but he
does.
He makes some very definite remarks about clothing
the way we are to dress.
Now, here's the problem.
God says that we ought to dress decently.
We should not dress in a manner that
is sensual, that draws attention to our bodies
or with luxury or extravagance, you know, earrings
that look like they belong on the end
of a fishing pole, they look like fishing
lures, hair done, all kinds of wild and
everything else.
All right, so he says that there are
certain things that that we shouldn't do.
Now, the problem is that's what he says,
but then there's some that totally ignore anything
about clothing and dress just like the world,
but then there are others who go to
the other extreme and they all dress like
a bunch of Puritans.
They don't put on makeup.
They don't ever wear any earrings.
They never dress up nice.
They just wear those long dresses that kind
of look like blue sacks.
And always white tennis shoes.
And so you see, you have two extremes,
do you see what I'm saying?
But here's the thing, you need a man
who's going to teach not this extreme over
here and never deal with the subject of
people dressing sensually and extravagantly.
You don't need a man either that's going
to come over here and put some legalistic
form on you that the Bible doesn't put
on you.
Walking right in the middle, not of compromise,
but walking in truth, walking in truth.
I'm sorry.
I'm just so mischievous.
I got to say this.
I'll never forget that old radio preacher.
I don't I don't know who it was.
May have been Vance Havner or one of
those guys.
Lady called up his radio program and she
said, is it a sin for a woman
to wear makeup?
And he said, ma'am, it's a sin
for some women not to wear makeup.
He says it never hurts to put a
little paint on an old barn.
I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist it.
Every time I tell that my wife looks
at me like this in the front, I'll
give you an example.
Let me use my wife for an example.
She's not here so I can do that.
She just looks normal.
You know, she decent, just but just normal,
likes to wear earrings, and I give her
a little leeway because she is Latin and,
you know, they're kind of wild.
But she's just normal, and if you saw
her, you would think you wouldn't think you
just think normal, OK, there's there's a pretty
lady.
And we were we were in a country
in Eastern Europe several years ago, and I
had preached there several times and God had
moved in a great way.
Well, my wife brought my wife with me
one time and we walk in this church
and I'll never forget this.
This young woman walked up to me right
in front of my wife and said, brother
Paul, I am so I'm so bothered in
my mind.
I thought, OK, what's the problem?
She goes, you preach with power of God
on your life.
How can you be married to a woman
like this?
My wife had short hair and she had
a little bit of makeup on.
And some earrings, this lady was just tore
apart, and my wife is so wise because
this girl was obviously you could see that
she was she was a beautiful girl, but
she would just just look haggard.
No joy, nothing.
Nothing.
And my wife said something really, I guess
the Lord just gave her wisdom, she said,
let me ask you a question, do you
have a picture of yourself before you became
a Christian?
And the girl said, yes, I keep it
as a memory of my bad life.
Charles said, let me see it.
And there in that picture was this beautiful
girl smiling and try to look at it,
she said, I liked you better as an
unbeliever.
And the point my wife then made was
this, look what your religion has done to
you.
You look haggard, tired, you have a critical
spirit, you're angry at everybody because they don't
look like you.
Do you really think that's the love of
Christ?
But then on the other hand.
It's like.
Be careful, we live in a sensual age.
And if you cause someone to stumble by
the way you dress, it would be better
that a millstone be hung around your neck
and you were tossed into the sea.
So see, this is what we see here
in Paul's teaching to Timothy.
It's it's so balanced, isn't it?
Because when he talks about apostasy, we're thinking
that he's going to say there's a whole
bunch of stuff you shouldn't do.
But he goes on the other side and
says, but avoid legalism.
When some preacher begins to command you to
do things that the Bible never commands.
Let me give you one more example and
then we'll move on.
We're almost finished.
The difference between a truth, a biblical truth
and an inference and inference.
Now, I was teaching my seven year old
boy this the other day.
So put your brain caps on going to
work on this.
OK, if he can get it, you can
get it.
Here is a truth, God is one, there's
one God, we all in agreement on that,
hopefully one God.
Here's another biblical truth.
There are three persons referred to in the
scriptures as God, God, the father, God, the
son and God, the Holy Spirit.
All right.
Now, those are three truths.
When we try to figure that out, though.
And put those two things together, we have
inferences that is our idea of how this
works.
Now.
We have to be very, very careful to
live our lives based on truths.
Now, I believe most certainly in the doctrine
of the Trinity, but I can't explain to
you fully all that that means.
You see, and it's amazing, the people who
committed heresy in the early church with regard
to the Trinity were either people who denied
it or people who tried to explain it.
So what I want you to see is
if we have a truth of scripture over
here and a truth of scripture over here,
that is rock solid truth.
When we try to bring the two together
and figure it out exactly, that can be
just our inference.
And we need to make sure that we're
living based on truth and not on inferences.
For example, a truth I am to dress
decently.
I am to live modestly.
That is a truth.
But when I work that out in my
own life, I need to be careful because
I may have some prejudice and I may
be living based on what I think all
that means rather than just the truth itself.
Do you see what you see what I'm
saying?
So we want a man in this pulpit
who's going to be honest, who says this,
this is what the Bible says and there's
no way around it.
And here's where we stand.
But on some things he's going to say,
this is what the Bible teaches.
And we're going to have some liberty of
conscience here because it's hard to work this
thing out.
Do you see?
Do you?
OK, let's go on.
Verse four, for everything created by God is
good and nothing is to be rejected if
it is received with gratitude, for it is
sanctified by means of the word of God
and prayer.
Now, we don't have a whole lot of
time to get into this part, but what
I want to say primarily is this.
I work with a lot of people.
Throughout the world, some of them that I
love dearly that I work with almost look
like Puritans.
They dress in a very plain fashion, they
don't sing even hymns, they just sing out
of the book of Psalms.
And very, very strict, love Jesus Christ much,
and I really appreciate them and a lot
of ways I would like to be like
them, more like them.
At the same time, a lot of times
I'll work with guys in inner city Chicago.
Who don't look anything like the people I
just described.
But there is something.
That both of them have, and that's what
draws me to them, and it is this
the truth of God's word, a passionate love
for Jesus Christ life.
So what we're looking for in a church
doctrine is not the end, it's not the
great goal are just living right with the
correct morality is not the great goal in
the church.
The great goal in the church is a
living, vibrant, submissive life.
The life of Jesus Christ, the life of
Christ.
Lived out.
In you.
I don't know, you know, I've known some
Christians that were just total or strict, everything
else, well, they call themselves Christians, but to
be honest with you, I think they're lost.
There was no joy, there was no life,
there was no laughter, there was there was
there was nothing of the beauty of Christ,
there was nothing of thankfulness, their life was
just a drudgery of carrying around a morality.
At the same time, I've known Christians that
were like bulls in a china shop.
I mean, they mess up just about everything.
They were wild cannons, they were all kinds
of things.
Sloppy of sorts, not, but they had a
passion for Christ.
Now, I don't want you to be one
as opposed to the other, I would rather
you just be biblical.
But I'll take a life.
Over a legalism any day, I will take
someone who can't stop speaking about Jesus.
And yet they're kind of messed up in
some things over a person who can say
everything right and look right, and yet there's
no passion to seek Christ, there's no passion
to know him or to love him or
to follow him or to honor him.
And so the goal here is the life
of Jesus Christ.
And not just within this congregation when it's
gathered here, but after that, within the home.
You can walk into some homes literally now,
I'm not getting mystical on you, but you
can walk into some homes and sense the
presence of Jesus Christ.
You ever walk into a church and just
a fellowship and just sense the presence of
Christ, you ever walked into a fellowship and
sense, man, Jesus is a million miles from
this place.
Do the same thing in a home.
So it's not just pulling off some religious
duty here once a week, showing Christ to
everybody.
It's in the home.
And primarily, gentlemen, that's our responsibility.
That's our responsibility.
That's a hard road to to walk in,
that's our responsibility.
That the life of Christ be overflowing into
our wives, into our children.
Into all our relationships, into all our relationships,
that's what we're looking for.
You know, I believe in evangelism very strongly.
People say, oh, you don't believe in evangelism.
Listen, I've preached on the streets and had
things thrown at me.
Don't tell me I don't believe in evangelism,
but I'll tell you this, a changed life
walking around.
In the normal goings and comings of their
daily activities, a person speaking much of Christ,
a people filled with Christ.
Christ.
Will do more than door to door evangelism.
To show the world that Christ is risen.
So it's the life of Christ.
All right, well, we're going to call this
to an end and be back here tomorrow
or tonight, be back here tonight and and
we're going to continue on and we're going
to start talking about a good minister's discipline.
What should you be looking for in the
secret life of a minister and what we
mean by secret life?
It's not some hidden life that he has.
It's a term that was used a lot
in older Christianity to refer to when no
one else is looking, what's this guy like
when no one else is looking?
What is this guy like?
All right, let's go the Lord in prayer.
Father, I come before you and pray that
you would use this word in the life
of your people.
In the life of your people, in Jesus
name, amen.