1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:04,000 We've been going through a letter in the New Testament 2 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:07,600 called the Book of First Timothy, and we're now starting 3 00:00:07,600 --> 00:00:09,600 chapter 4. If you got a bulletin as you 4 00:00:09,600 --> 00:00:12,040 walked in, you'll see one word it says trustworthy. 5 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:17,560 And that is the whole focus of this study is to look at how the 6 00:00:17,560 --> 00:00:21,440 Bible describes this whole operation of church, from the 7 00:00:21,440 --> 00:00:24,080 way that we gather to the way that we rise up and, and, and 8 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:26,280 lead and serve one another there. 9 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:29,960 There's instructions on all of that in this letter from Paul, 10 00:00:30,040 --> 00:00:32,600 all to a young pastor named Timothy. 11 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,760 And today we're going to start a new chapter and kind of 12 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:40,080 introduce a new theme. And before we do that, I'll just 13 00:00:40,080 --> 00:00:42,640 remind you for those of you who were here early enough to hear 14 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:44,200 the first song, no shame if you weren't. 15 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:48,080 But we sang one of the great hymns and all of the of the 16 00:00:48,080 --> 00:00:52,200 Christian hymns. It is Come Thou Fount, and I 17 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,200 think that hymn has one of the greatest confessional lyrics 18 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,920 that we ever sing. It's very subtle, it's very 19 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:01,360 simple. But every time I sing it, I 20 00:01:01,360 --> 00:01:05,560 think, Lord, I needed once again to be reminded of the way that 21 00:01:05,560 --> 00:01:09,200 my heart can so easily drift from you. 22 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:12,600 And so for those of you who sang it, we sang along, as we said, 23 00:01:12,600 --> 00:01:18,120 prone to wander. Lord, I feel it prone to leave 24 00:01:18,120 --> 00:01:21,400 the God I love. And then of course, the the song 25 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:23,840 is a a moment of worship where he says, Lord, take my heart and 26 00:01:23,840 --> 00:01:28,000 seal it by your chords of love. Now, if you were singing that 27 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:33,160 song, how many of you felt that specific moment as we were 28 00:01:33,160 --> 00:01:38,240 worshiping as a, a, a point of, let's say, conviction where you, 29 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:40,360 you realize once again, that's me. 30 00:01:40,360 --> 00:01:42,680 I, I can love the Lord on Sunday morning. 31 00:01:42,680 --> 00:01:45,920 I can read the the word and on my devotional time and I can be 32 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:48,720 so committed in my heart and my mind and my soul to follow. 33 00:01:48,960 --> 00:01:52,160 And then what happens? Well, life happens and I start 34 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:55,760 to just kind of wander. I start to drift in my mind and 35 00:01:55,760 --> 00:01:59,000 my purpose and my mission and my goals are, are no longer just 36 00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:02,000 loving God and loving people. They go towards all of the other 37 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:03,600 things that the world has to offer. 38 00:02:04,400 --> 00:02:07,440 And I think that is why that is such a powerful song because it 39 00:02:07,440 --> 00:02:12,320 it just acknowledges this human instinct to drift away from God. 40 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:16,600 And I bring all of that up and it's worth singing corporately 41 00:02:17,040 --> 00:02:22,360 because what we find from the very first letters to the church 42 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:26,440 throughout the centuries until now, that that is not just an 43 00:02:26,440 --> 00:02:32,040 individual temptation that actually happens as churches 44 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:36,400 that are sown in faith, hope, and love, they, they, they grow 45 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:38,360 up and they mature and they start getting blessed and 46 00:02:38,360 --> 00:02:39,840 provided for. And what happens? 47 00:02:40,440 --> 00:02:44,040 A church that starts with the love of God can so easily wander 48 00:02:44,040 --> 00:02:47,200 and drift to all of these other things that we've been 49 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:49,560 addressing throughout the whole Trustworthy series. 50 00:02:50,240 --> 00:02:52,920 Leadership can go awry. Serving can go awry. 51 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:56,160 The gathering of the church can become about things that are not 52 00:02:56,160 --> 00:02:58,240 just getting into the word and honoring God. 53 00:02:58,960 --> 00:03:02,280 And either if you haven't felt it on an individual level, I'm 54 00:03:02,280 --> 00:03:04,680 sure that if you've been around church long enough, you have 55 00:03:04,680 --> 00:03:10,720 seen the mission drift. And today Paul is going to write 56 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:16,160 Timothy to give him a vision of how that happens and an answer 57 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,280 as to how to fight the good fight of faith against it. 58 00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:23,000 So this is the theme that we're going to introduce in this new 59 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:28,440 chapter in our study through Timothy, starting in verse one, 60 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:34,400 Paul writing to Timothy, says now the spirit expressly says 61 00:03:34,640 --> 00:03:39,800 that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving 62 00:03:39,800 --> 00:03:44,960 heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. 63 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,480 So there's your headline of the chapter. 64 00:03:47,600 --> 00:03:53,040 Some in later times as what is sown in in faith, hope and love. 65 00:03:53,360 --> 00:03:56,920 As time goes on, some are going to drift away and we'll talk 66 00:03:56,920 --> 00:03:59,320 about what he mentions, what that drifting is look is going 67 00:03:59,320 --> 00:04:01,120 to look like. We'll address a couple of 68 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:03,080 things. Paul says it's going to happen 69 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:05,280 in the later times or the latter times. 70 00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:08,520 Now some of you might read that and get an excitement that today 71 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:11,200 we're going to talk about the end times in Christ's return, 72 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:13,080 and we can do that. But we're not going to do that 73 00:04:13,080 --> 00:04:16,519 for very long because the majority of the New Testament, 74 00:04:16,519 --> 00:04:19,320 when they talk about the latter times or the end, they're 75 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:23,680 talking about the age of the church that exists from Genesis 76 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,840 to the coming of Christ. Was this culmination of all of 77 00:04:26,840 --> 00:04:30,240 the prophecies of God pointing to the coming one and Christ 78 00:04:30,240 --> 00:04:34,000 comes on the scene and from Christ ascending on high to the 79 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:38,000 right home of the Father until he returns is this last chapter 80 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:40,480 of human history called the latter times. 81 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:43,200 And I'm excited for Christ's return. 82 00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:46,640 I think there's some really good reason to keep that on the 83 00:04:46,640 --> 00:04:49,080 forefront of our mind. And I think that there's also 84 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:53,800 some bad reasons that sometimes the, the, the focus on end times 85 00:04:53,800 --> 00:04:57,400 can become too predominant. And so I'll say 2 bad reasons 86 00:04:57,400 --> 00:05:00,600 and two good reasons because that'll segue us into what Paul 87 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:03,160 is getting at. I think the two bad reasons to 88 00:05:03,160 --> 00:05:11,000 overly focus and, and, and hyper focus even on end times is 1. 89 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:13,400 Some people treat it like an early retirement plan. 90 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:16,880 It's like, man, if I could find out the day and the time and the 91 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:20,240 month and the year and I could just kind of count backwards and 92 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:24,400 reverse engineer the calendar, I would know exactly how to really 93 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:27,280 get the most out of earth. And I could, you know, have fun 94 00:05:27,280 --> 00:05:29,720 and, and quit my job and take out a bunch of credit card debt 95 00:05:29,720 --> 00:05:31,680 and, and then Christ will come back and I won't have to don't 96 00:05:31,680 --> 00:05:34,800 worry about anything. That's a bad reason to care 97 00:05:34,800 --> 00:05:38,600 about the return of Christ. I think the other bad reason 98 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:42,200 that sometimes comes up is just we, we travel through the ups 99 00:05:42,200 --> 00:05:43,600 and downs and the hardships of life. 100 00:05:43,960 --> 00:05:47,720 Sometimes life can be so overwhelming, your personal life 101 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:50,200 or when you think about the state of the world, you can look 102 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:53,800 at all the news and wars of rumors of war or pandemics. 103 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:55,560 You can just think, can Christ come back? 104 00:05:55,560 --> 00:05:58,040 Because this is so overwhelming. I just want it all to end. 105 00:05:58,640 --> 00:06:02,760 I, I, I think that's also a bad reason that you're just so, you 106 00:06:02,760 --> 00:06:04,960 know, taking in water in life, that you just think, I just want 107 00:06:04,960 --> 00:06:07,640 all this to end. The, the Lord said, we're going 108 00:06:07,640 --> 00:06:10,080 to have trial, we're going to have tribulation, but take 109 00:06:10,080 --> 00:06:14,440 heart, be of good courage, keep enduring because he's overcome. 110 00:06:14,520 --> 00:06:17,480 So if you're feeling overwhelmed, I hope the Lord 111 00:06:17,480 --> 00:06:19,520 comes back and, and puts all of this into order. 112 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:22,560 But if he doesn't keep enduring until you meet him face to face. 113 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:27,560 And so now we have some really good reasons to consider latter 114 00:06:27,560 --> 00:06:30,160 times the the final chapter of human history. 115 00:06:30,640 --> 00:06:34,880 One of them is just to remember at all times that time is short, 116 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:40,360 that your brief window in human history is not very long. 117 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:43,640 And there is a brief window between his ascension and his 118 00:06:43,640 --> 00:06:45,520 return. Christ is going to come back in 119 00:06:45,520 --> 00:06:48,080 a twinkling of an eye. And Jesus says, I'm going to 120 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:50,640 work while it's day because there's a night coming where no 121 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:53,440 one can work. So let us consider the times 122 00:06:53,440 --> 00:06:55,840 that we live in. And when you see the chaos of 123 00:06:55,840 --> 00:06:59,320 the world and you consider all of the the trouble of evil 124 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:03,640 prevailing, preach the gospel with confidence that there is a 125 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:06,240 a great harvest that will take place before the return. 126 00:07:06,400 --> 00:07:07,680 And, and we want to be a part of that. 127 00:07:07,680 --> 00:07:11,480 So it's good to think in those. And then the other good reason 128 00:07:11,480 --> 00:07:16,360 is what we're getting at today. Paul is saying that things tend 129 00:07:16,360 --> 00:07:19,160 to, as they go on, drift from the mission. 130 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:22,760 So be aware that in later times and latter times at the church, 131 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:26,000 in Ephesus, at our church, and at the end of human history, 132 00:07:26,120 --> 00:07:30,360 there will be a drifting away that is often called an apostasy 133 00:07:30,520 --> 00:07:35,360 where those who had faith lose faith, the those who trusted God 134 00:07:35,360 --> 00:07:37,440 stop trusting in God and they turn to other things. 135 00:07:37,680 --> 00:07:40,120 And, and Paul is saying, be watchful of that. 136 00:07:40,600 --> 00:07:43,120 And that's the one we're going to focus on because I think that 137 00:07:43,120 --> 00:07:47,080 we should be extra mindful of, of just the reality. 138 00:07:47,080 --> 00:07:49,080 Like we said, there is a prone to drift. 139 00:07:49,280 --> 00:07:53,200 There is a prone to to walk by faith and then kind of feel like 140 00:07:53,200 --> 00:07:55,640 you've had enough faith in your life and then just kind of walk 141 00:07:55,640 --> 00:08:00,400 by other things that are not the, the godly life that he has 142 00:08:00,400 --> 00:08:02,440 for you. And so Paul is going to say 143 00:08:02,440 --> 00:08:05,960 here's what to look out for. As he says there's latter times 144 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:09,480 and that there in there's some will depart from the faith. 145 00:08:09,520 --> 00:08:12,880 And in the next 3 verses we're going to see what a departure of 146 00:08:12,880 --> 00:08:16,760 the faith looks like. So again, verse 1 giving heed to 147 00:08:16,760 --> 00:08:19,960 deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons. 148 00:08:20,720 --> 00:08:25,480 And then verse 2 says speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their 149 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:28,160 own conscience seared with a hot iron. 150 00:08:29,040 --> 00:08:32,640 And then verse 3 says forbidding to marry and commanding to 151 00:08:32,640 --> 00:08:36,480 abstain from foods which God created to be received with 152 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:39,679 Thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. 153 00:08:39,679 --> 00:08:44,840 So in those three verses we saw three what you could call the 154 00:08:44,840 --> 00:08:48,120 unholy Trinity of an untrustworthy church. 155 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:51,480 You have bad doctrine, he says, doctrine of demons and deceiving 156 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:53,200 spirits. You have bad teachers, 157 00:08:53,640 --> 00:08:56,960 hypocrites who are lying, and then you have bad fruits. 158 00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:00,400 So if you, if you come to this, you know, falling away and 159 00:09:00,400 --> 00:09:02,760 you're a part of it, you're going to be known because the 160 00:09:02,760 --> 00:09:06,600 fruit of your life is things that are not actually intended 161 00:09:06,600 --> 00:09:08,400 by God's grace for you to live in. 162 00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:10,200 And so we're going to look at those things. 163 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,680 We're going to look at what it, what happens when there's bad 164 00:09:13,680 --> 00:09:17,040 doctrine, bad teachers and bad fruit and how to spot it and how 165 00:09:17,040 --> 00:09:22,040 to avoid it so that we don't drift from the purity of faith. 166 00:09:22,680 --> 00:09:25,760 And so we'll end with some good news for all the bad to be 167 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:27,160 balanced out with some good news. 168 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:30,400 But first we already read it. Let's look at the bad doctrine. 169 00:09:30,520 --> 00:09:34,400 This is a theme of this letter. The the the trustworthy church 170 00:09:34,600 --> 00:09:41,240 has got to fight the good fight of faith against bad teaching or 171 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:44,760 people use the word of God and and don't point people towards 172 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:46,680 God, but to all of these other things. 173 00:09:47,200 --> 00:09:51,920 And Paul is going to say bad doctrine is actually akin to 174 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:55,000 demonic deception. That's how serious he's taking 175 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:57,200 this. And So what is what is that? 176 00:09:57,240 --> 00:09:59,720 What is what is bad doctrine or bad teaching? 177 00:09:59,720 --> 00:10:03,040 Bad Sunday pulpit preaching? How can you look at that and 178 00:10:03,040 --> 00:10:05,760 say, wow, that that is actually so deceiving. 179 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:09,080 There's so much deception from behind that pulpit that it's 180 00:10:09,080 --> 00:10:12,400 demonic. Well, what I don't think it is 181 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:15,640 based off what we're about to read from the teachers lives and 182 00:10:15,640 --> 00:10:18,040 the fruit. I don't think this is just and 183 00:10:18,040 --> 00:10:21,920 be careful that Halloween just takes over and there's just evil 184 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:25,160 everywhere and and everyone leaves church and goes by Ouija 185 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:27,680 boards and tarot cards. I mean, that's what we think of 186 00:10:27,680 --> 00:10:30,480 when we think of kind of the demonic evil of the world. 187 00:10:30,680 --> 00:10:33,960 But read it again. He's talking about doctrine. 188 00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:36,240 He's talking about the way they're teaching using God word 189 00:10:36,480 --> 00:10:39,520 and manipulating it. And so we can't cover every 190 00:10:39,520 --> 00:10:43,520 single way that someone could deceive a flock of people that 191 00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:47,560 are trying to know the Lord. But we can find from the very 192 00:10:47,560 --> 00:10:53,440 beginning some themes that are used by deception and evil 193 00:10:53,440 --> 00:10:56,720 spirits that manipulate God's word. 194 00:10:56,720 --> 00:11:00,160 And so for this we appeal to the creation as Paul has done 195 00:11:00,160 --> 00:11:02,680 throughout this letter. Let's look at how things were in 196 00:11:02,680 --> 00:11:07,480 the very beginning and see what what patterns form from the 197 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:09,920 first pattern. And so Genesis chapter 3, 198 00:11:11,040 --> 00:11:14,560 Genesis chapter 3 verse one, it says now the serpent was more 199 00:11:14,760 --> 00:11:18,960 cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had 200 00:11:18,960 --> 00:11:20,880 made. I I like what the King James 201 00:11:20,880 --> 00:11:22,640 Version says for the word cunning. 202 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:24,600 It actually says he's more crafty. 203 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,000 He's more deceiving. Genesis 3 is describing the 204 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,640 paradise that God had made the the good world for man and woman 205 00:11:33,640 --> 00:11:36,720 to to live in and have dominion over and to multiply and be 206 00:11:36,720 --> 00:11:38,720 fruitful in and to walk with God. 207 00:11:39,560 --> 00:11:44,480 He's describing the deceit that enters in and the deceit is pure 208 00:11:44,480 --> 00:11:45,920 evil. He's describing this 209 00:11:45,920 --> 00:11:48,520 manifestation of Satan in a serpent. 210 00:11:48,960 --> 00:11:51,640 It says that he's more crafty than any beast of the field. 211 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:57,000 And he said to the woman, has God indeed said, you shall not 212 00:11:57,040 --> 00:12:01,400 eat of every tree of the garden? So we want to look at the 213 00:12:01,400 --> 00:12:04,760 pattern of deception and here is the root that everything grows 214 00:12:04,760 --> 00:12:08,040 from. It is the undermining of God's 215 00:12:08,040 --> 00:12:12,640 word when we're looking for teachers and and hypocrites and 216 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:15,360 people that are falling away from the faith and bringing in 217 00:12:15,400 --> 00:12:17,720 other doctrine that would be considered demonic. 218 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:21,400 What what you can look for in the initial deception is this 219 00:12:21,400 --> 00:12:25,560 one simple question. Did God really say it? 220 00:12:26,200 --> 00:12:29,440 Does the Word really say what the Word says? 221 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:33,240 And then of course, Eve is going to try to give an answer to what 222 00:12:33,240 --> 00:12:36,480 God actually said. And then you're going to find 223 00:12:36,480 --> 00:12:40,200 another part of the pattern in the serpent's respond, verses 224 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,000 four and five. And it says, then the serpent 225 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,360 said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that 226 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:50,640 in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will 227 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:55,080 be like God, knowing good and evil. 228 00:12:55,680 --> 00:12:57,960 So we have an undermining of the word of God. 229 00:12:57,960 --> 00:13:00,400 And then we have a redefining of the word of God. 230 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:04,400 And when you combine those two, you will find that the main 231 00:13:04,400 --> 00:13:09,800 tenants of deception and demonic doctrine, when when people come 232 00:13:09,800 --> 00:13:11,720 and they use the word of God or they question the word of God 233 00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,520 and they say, well, is that really what it means? 234 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,920 Is that really what it says? So we have all sorts of versions 235 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:22,640 of did God really say in our day and age. 236 00:13:22,760 --> 00:13:25,520 So you may have encountered some of them yourself. 237 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,280 I think there are some that that seem to dominate the cultural 238 00:13:29,280 --> 00:13:33,600 conversations of our day. Did God really say that His word 239 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:37,480 would endure forever? Is is the word of God actually 240 00:13:37,480 --> 00:13:40,880 truth or is it really just kind of a moral guide book that we 241 00:13:40,880 --> 00:13:44,880 can use as one of the great books of all of the religious 242 00:13:44,880 --> 00:13:47,680 library? That's a common question that 243 00:13:47,680 --> 00:13:52,800 people will ask to undermine the faithfulness of the word of God. 244 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:56,520 And in undermining, they will then redefine by saying it's 245 00:13:56,600 --> 00:13:59,240 simply one of the, the books in the collection. 246 00:13:59,720 --> 00:14:02,200 And so you undermined the, the power of Scripture, the 247 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:05,440 authority of God's word. And when you undermine that, you 248 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:09,560 can begin to undermine all sorts of other things about how God 249 00:14:09,560 --> 00:14:15,600 designed church, family, city. The one of the, the classic ones 250 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:19,120 that we continually run up against and our modern culture 251 00:14:19,400 --> 00:14:22,920 is did God really say? And then there's all sorts of 252 00:14:22,920 --> 00:14:26,600 questions about marriage and man and woman and the gift of sex 253 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:28,280 that is to be enjoyed between them. 254 00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:31,920 And be mindful of this. It's a question that will come 255 00:14:31,920 --> 00:14:34,920 up in the heat of the moment. Did God really say that we need 256 00:14:34,920 --> 00:14:36,640 to be married? Can't we just be in love? 257 00:14:36,920 --> 00:14:40,120 Does God really need a piece of paper for us to enjoy the gift 258 00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:42,120 that he's given us? There's all sorts of ways that 259 00:14:42,120 --> 00:14:46,560 the word will be undermined and redefined for someone to gain 260 00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,440 what they're actually looking for apart from God's will. 261 00:14:50,440 --> 00:14:53,840 Here's a popular one. Did God really say that Jesus is 262 00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:57,360 the only way to salvation? Is that what Jesus meant when he 263 00:14:57,360 --> 00:15:01,080 said I'm the way, the truth and the life, and that no one comes 264 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,600 to the Father except by me? Surely Jesus wouldn't be so 265 00:15:04,600 --> 00:15:07,440 exclusive and narrow minded. He's such a good teacher. 266 00:15:07,560 --> 00:15:11,160 He's such an awesome person. Surely he's open to all of the 267 00:15:11,160 --> 00:15:16,520 other ways that God has revealed himself through the history of 268 00:15:16,520 --> 00:15:19,320 religion. He's a way, but not the way. 269 00:15:19,960 --> 00:15:22,640 And then maybe for the sake of where Paul is going with his 270 00:15:22,640 --> 00:15:26,280 encouragement for Timothy, maybe you've wrestled with this. 271 00:15:26,280 --> 00:15:29,440 Maybe you've come from a religious background that 272 00:15:29,440 --> 00:15:32,200 actually put this on your shoulders and you need to be set 273 00:15:32,200 --> 00:15:34,000 free from this by the power of the gospel. 274 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:38,920 Did God really say you are saved by grace and not by works? 275 00:15:38,920 --> 00:15:41,640 Surely there must be something you're supposed to do. 276 00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:45,480 Surely there must be something that after you receive the gift 277 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:48,640 of God, you should be doing to actually become more holy and 278 00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:50,880 more spiritual. And here's all the rules and 279 00:15:50,880 --> 00:15:53,440 here's all the regulations and here's all the secret knowledge 280 00:15:53,440 --> 00:15:55,600 to become more holy and more spiritual. 281 00:15:56,080 --> 00:15:59,520 And that has been a did God really say moment from the 282 00:15:59,520 --> 00:16:01,320 beginning of the gospel until now? 283 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:05,400 And you have so many religions that that use the name of Jesus 284 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:10,160 and pursue the the power of God with all sorts of works of man, 285 00:16:10,480 --> 00:16:13,800 temple work and mission work. And how many people you've 286 00:16:13,800 --> 00:16:17,040 witnessed to and how often you go to church and what you wear 287 00:16:17,040 --> 00:16:20,080 at church and the scriptures you memorize and the scripture you 288 00:16:20,080 --> 00:16:22,160 use. And all of these rules are added 289 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,400 to the gospel. Did God really say grace alone? 290 00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:29,800 And that is in fact, what Paul is dealing with so often as he 291 00:16:29,800 --> 00:16:35,080 writes the New Testament, that grace is the power to save and 292 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,160 that works are something God has prepared for us to walk in 293 00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,640 beforehand. So we start with bad doctrine, 294 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:45,680 and with bad doctrine you're going to find bad teachers, he 295 00:16:45,680 --> 00:16:49,440 says in verse 2. Speaking lies in hypocrisy, 296 00:16:49,720 --> 00:16:54,200 having their own conscience seared with a hot iron. 297 00:16:56,600 --> 00:16:59,680 So one of the the signs, of course, this is not, you know, a 298 00:16:59,720 --> 00:17:02,960 perfect example of a perfect teacher. 299 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:06,440 But remember, as we were looking for good signs of leadership, 300 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,280 Paul is telling to Timothy, qualify your leaders. 301 00:17:09,480 --> 00:17:11,599 They must be blameless, above reproach. 302 00:17:12,040 --> 00:17:14,480 They must be respectable. In other words, they're not 303 00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,480 living a double life. They're not preaching a message 304 00:17:17,599 --> 00:17:19,839 that they themselves are not able to live. 305 00:17:20,240 --> 00:17:23,760 And now you want to find the qualification of a bad teacher, 306 00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:28,400 Hypocrites and liars. They're they're, they're pushing 307 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:33,640 laws and regulations and burdens on the people that they 308 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:37,720 themselves cannot lift. Later they'll, they'll see some 309 00:17:37,720 --> 00:17:39,960 of the teaching in in this church that Paul is warming 310 00:17:39,960 --> 00:17:42,600 Timothy against. They say not to Mary. 311 00:17:42,800 --> 00:17:44,720 They say there's certain food that you can't eat. 312 00:17:45,040 --> 00:17:46,960 Well, are they married while they're preaching? 313 00:17:46,960 --> 00:17:49,440 That some of them presumably are. 314 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,840 Are they able to perfectly align themselves to the dietary laws 315 00:17:53,840 --> 00:17:57,280 that they're preaching? It says in James chapter 3. 316 00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,680 If you have bitter envy and self seeking in your hearts, do not 317 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:05,000 boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend 318 00:18:05,000 --> 00:18:08,440 from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. 319 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:14,720 For where envy and self seeking exist, confusion and every evil 320 00:18:14,720 --> 00:18:18,080 thing are there. And so one of the reasons that 321 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:21,640 we study this, the goal is that none of us would drift from the 322 00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:23,280 faith. All of us would cling to the 323 00:18:23,280 --> 00:18:26,720 simple gospel, but also that you would be able to not be 324 00:18:26,720 --> 00:18:29,680 deceived. Part of this theme is there's 325 00:18:29,680 --> 00:18:32,480 deception that is put on the people what to look out for. 326 00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:37,440 Well, James says that where envy and self seeking exist, there's 327 00:18:37,440 --> 00:18:40,280 where your evil is. And sadly, that is one of the 328 00:18:40,280 --> 00:18:43,560 clear marks of people who speak lies and hypocrisy is that 329 00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:45,560 they're self seeking. They're they're building 330 00:18:45,560 --> 00:18:48,280 disciples unto themselves. They're building a church brand 331 00:18:48,280 --> 00:18:51,520 for their name and their face. And so we look out for self 332 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:54,920 seeking and envious leaders. I like this quote. 333 00:18:54,920 --> 00:18:59,160 It says the cure for hypocrisy is the gospel of grace. 334 00:18:59,760 --> 00:19:03,200 The preacher who proclaims the need for grace will no doubt 335 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:05,840 preach a message that matches his own life. 336 00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:10,280 The preacher who preaches a message of grace will no doubt 337 00:19:10,280 --> 00:19:12,600 preach a message that matches his own life. 338 00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:16,520 Amen. I can preach your need for grace 339 00:19:16,520 --> 00:19:18,560 because I can match that in my own life. 340 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:21,960 And I will say for all of you who have listened to the 341 00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:24,880 trustworthy series that we've gone through and and said, man, 342 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:26,560 I want to have a trustworthy home. 343 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:28,080 I want to have a trustworthy marriage. 344 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:30,480 I want to raise kids that trust me as I disciple them. 345 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:34,040 Preach the gospel of grace and you won't be a hypocrite. 346 00:19:34,760 --> 00:19:38,240 Preach the gospel of regulations and rules and all of the burdens 347 00:19:38,240 --> 00:19:41,560 that you can put on people to be more religious and more perfect 348 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:44,240 in the eyes of God. And you yourself will be found 349 00:19:44,240 --> 00:19:46,440 as a liar. And your your kids or your 350 00:19:46,440 --> 00:19:49,680 husband or the people who know you best will lose respect not 351 00:19:49,680 --> 00:19:52,360 only for you, but for the message that you're proclaiming. 352 00:19:52,360 --> 00:19:57,440 And then it says that they have their conscience seared with a 353 00:19:57,440 --> 00:20:01,480 hot iron. I think it's a good moment just 354 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:04,760 to consider the gift of the conscience that God has given 355 00:20:04,960 --> 00:20:07,240 all of us. It says the law is written on 356 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:09,720 our heart when we hear the word of God. 357 00:20:09,720 --> 00:20:12,400 If if you're hearing with ears to hear, it gets planted in your 358 00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:14,800 heart and then you leave here and there will be times where 359 00:20:14,800 --> 00:20:18,320 the Holy Spirit just calls to your mind, puts a burden on your 360 00:20:18,320 --> 00:20:21,720 heart of truth that should guide your life away from wrong and 361 00:20:21,720 --> 00:20:25,680 towards evil or towards good. It says the consciousness, that 362 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,640 internal moral compass shaped by God's Word to discern right. 363 00:20:29,720 --> 00:20:34,080 From wrong and for for this whole picture of the compass, I 364 00:20:34,080 --> 00:20:38,280 can actually just direct you all to a time and our our our great 365 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,480 history as a country when Disney actually made good movies. 366 00:20:42,240 --> 00:20:46,080 Sadly, that day is now over. But there was a day way back in 367 00:20:46,080 --> 00:20:49,280 the 40s when Disney made a movie called Pinocchio. 368 00:20:49,640 --> 00:20:52,240 And if you haven't seen it and you're interested in what the 369 00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:56,000 best picture I've ever seen of the conscience is, consider a 370 00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,160 little cricket that lived on Pinocchio's shoulder and his 371 00:20:59,160 --> 00:21:02,640 name was Jiminy and he was the the he was a parable of sorts. 372 00:21:02,640 --> 00:21:04,680 He was analogy of what the conscience does. 373 00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:08,040 The conscience urges obedience to the truth. 374 00:21:08,640 --> 00:21:11,480 And so if you watch the movie, you'll see Jiminy tell tell 375 00:21:11,480 --> 00:21:13,080 Pinocchio, hey, you got to go to school. 376 00:21:13,080 --> 00:21:15,600 Just like Geppetto said, you go to school. 377 00:21:15,680 --> 00:21:17,320 That's the truth. That's the commandment. 378 00:21:17,360 --> 00:21:19,680 He says do it. He's urging towards the truth 379 00:21:20,200 --> 00:21:21,880 and the conscious warns against sin. 380 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:24,800 And so you'll remember as as he's tempted to go to Pleasure 381 00:21:24,800 --> 00:21:27,720 Island, this little puppet named Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket says 382 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,320 no riches and and and fame are deceiving. 383 00:21:30,320 --> 00:21:32,600 Don't go. He warns against sin. 384 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:34,360 He warns against the deception of sin. 385 00:21:34,600 --> 00:21:38,440 And then finally, the great benefit of the conscience. 386 00:21:38,760 --> 00:21:41,600 And it's so important that we allow this to be something that 387 00:21:41,600 --> 00:21:43,760 we respond to, lest we get seared. 388 00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:47,920 We turn it off it. It encourages repentance. 389 00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:52,080 And so at some point, Pinocchio has drifted so far from his 390 00:21:52,080 --> 00:21:54,040 original purpose that he becomes a donkey. 391 00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:56,520 And that's a reminder that that's what sin does to you. 392 00:21:56,560 --> 00:21:58,760 It makes you a donkey. There's another word for that, 393 00:21:58,760 --> 00:22:03,920 but we won't say it in church. And, and, and, and then as 394 00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:06,640 conscious comes and he says you got to go back to Geppetto. 395 00:22:06,840 --> 00:22:10,240 He will know what to do. And so some of you need to hear 396 00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:11,800 your conscience speak to you right now. 397 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:14,360 If you've drifted from the faith and you hear a message called 398 00:22:14,360 --> 00:22:16,840 prone to wander, you say prone to wander, I'm wandering right 399 00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:18,480 now. Your conscience is telling you 400 00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:21,240 go back to the Lord. He knows what to do. 401 00:22:21,440 --> 00:22:23,960 He knows how to make beauty from the ashes and the mess you've 402 00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,280 made of your life. And here's the danger. 403 00:22:26,360 --> 00:22:31,400 And this is a great segue back to the the view of a bad 404 00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:33,360 teacher. The bad teacher has seared his 405 00:22:33,360 --> 00:22:36,120 conscience. The bad teacher has been, has 406 00:22:36,120 --> 00:22:38,440 been motivated by the Holy Spirit to preach truth and he 407 00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:40,800 turned it off. He's been motivated by the Holy 408 00:22:40,800 --> 00:22:43,360 Spirit to warn against sin and he actually promotes sin. 409 00:22:43,800 --> 00:22:47,120 He's been but the conscience, the Holy Spirit has said, go 410 00:22:47,120 --> 00:22:48,960 back to God. What you're doing is wrong and 411 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:52,480 God can fix it. And if you say no enough to the 412 00:22:52,480 --> 00:22:55,880 Holy Spirit and this, this internal guy that God has given 413 00:22:55,880 --> 00:22:58,480 us in our conscience, you can actually sear it. 414 00:22:59,120 --> 00:23:01,840 You can turn it off like the nerve endings of a, of a hand 415 00:23:01,840 --> 00:23:04,520 that has been overworked and it's no longer got nerves. 416 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:05,880 You can't feel what you're touching. 417 00:23:06,280 --> 00:23:08,120 That's a beautiful picture of a seared conscious. 418 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:11,680 You can no longer feel the damage and the effects of the 419 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:16,480 lives that you're destroying. The conscience is seared. 420 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:18,440 And so again, we hear this message. 421 00:23:18,560 --> 00:23:20,920 Don't drift. And also be on the lookout. 422 00:23:21,400 --> 00:23:24,760 Be on the lookout for a teacher or a leader or a person bearing 423 00:23:24,760 --> 00:23:28,880 the name of God who is unable to show remorse and never repents. 424 00:23:29,480 --> 00:23:33,160 Repentance is how we keep the conscience in our life alive to 425 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:36,880 keep telling us things. And then finally we have bad 426 00:23:36,880 --> 00:23:39,280 fruit. You get bad doctrine, you're 427 00:23:39,280 --> 00:23:42,520 going to have bad teachers. And the result of that is a tree 428 00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:45,720 is known by its fruit. And what's coming off the tree 429 00:23:46,080 --> 00:23:50,120 of this, this apostasy that is happening as this church drifts 430 00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:53,000 away and people have lost the faith, it says here's what 431 00:23:53,000 --> 00:23:55,640 they're teaching. They're teaching, forbidding, 432 00:23:55,800 --> 00:23:59,840 forbidding those to marry and commanding to abstain from foods 433 00:23:59,840 --> 00:24:03,800 which God created to be received with Thanksgiving by those who 434 00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:06,680 believe and those who know the truth. 435 00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:10,600 There's 2 examples that are happening in Ephesus. 436 00:24:10,680 --> 00:24:14,200 Common battles for Paul to be fighting against as he preaches 437 00:24:14,200 --> 00:24:17,040 the gospel of grace. And he fights against one word 438 00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:20,880 that encapsulates all versions of don't marry and don't eat 439 00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:23,440 certain food. And that is the word legalism. 440 00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:27,000 It's good for us to hear it once again to be aware of it. 441 00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:29,880 Just because you're disciplined and strict doesn't mean you're 442 00:24:29,880 --> 00:24:33,400 legalistic. But if you lose love, you often 443 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:36,240 replace it with legalism. And here's what it what the 444 00:24:36,240 --> 00:24:39,400 definition is. Legalism is a strict adherence 445 00:24:39,400 --> 00:24:44,800 to laws, rules, or traditions as means of earning righteousness 446 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:51,080 before God at the expense of grace, faith, and love. 447 00:24:51,440 --> 00:24:54,520 And the two examples he gives are both kind of in the same 448 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,600 heart. This idea potentially happening 449 00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:00,840 in Ephesus comes maybe from this Gnostic teaching that the 450 00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:04,320 physical world is evil and to truly be spiritual you have to 451 00:25:04,320 --> 00:25:07,800 neglect the flesh at all costs. And so marriage leads to one of 452 00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:11,000 the great pleasures of sex. So don't even get married, just 453 00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:13,600 abstain from the whole thing. And the more celibate you are, 454 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,520 the more spiritual you are. Well, what have we already said? 455 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:19,320 That is an undermining of God's word. 456 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:23,160 God's word says that for this reason that man and woman should 457 00:25:23,160 --> 00:25:25,320 be joined together to create one flesh. 458 00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,440 That from the very beginning he made the man and woman to become 459 00:25:29,640 --> 00:25:33,400 fruitful and multiply and have this version of the family 460 00:25:33,400 --> 00:25:36,400 represent the the Kingdom of God in their little circle. 461 00:25:36,720 --> 00:25:40,560 It's good to be married and you can take anything out of 462 00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:42,520 context. Paul once wrote to another 463 00:25:42,520 --> 00:25:45,000 church that those that are single have the gift of 464 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:47,120 singleness and, and someone might have heard that and said, 465 00:25:47,120 --> 00:25:51,080 OK, no one can ever marry well. Legalism can take good things. 466 00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:52,800 That may be a conviction for you. 467 00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:56,480 Some of you may never watch TV in your house and some of you, 468 00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,880 you, you may, you may have a, a strict regiment for when you 469 00:25:59,880 --> 00:26:02,440 wake up and what day you rest on and how often you read the 470 00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:04,040 Bible. And, and all those things are 471 00:26:04,040 --> 00:26:07,400 fine until they become the standard by which everyone must 472 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:09,000 live. And if anyone doesn't do what 473 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:10,320 you're doing, they're less holy than you. 474 00:26:10,320 --> 00:26:12,640 That's legalism. So some of these people were 475 00:26:12,640 --> 00:26:15,160 doing it with marriage. Other people were doing it by 476 00:26:15,160 --> 00:26:18,080 abstaining from food. Again, if it's a Gnostic 477 00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,200 teaching physical bad food feeds the flesh. 478 00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:24,400 We can see a good practice of this is sometimes we'll we'll 479 00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,680 take some time to pray and fast to seek the Lord and just quiet 480 00:26:27,680 --> 00:26:30,240 our flesh. But in no way can this ever be a 481 00:26:30,240 --> 00:26:33,200 burden that is placed on people that if they're not doing it, 482 00:26:33,200 --> 00:26:35,720 they're less spiritual. It might have been a Jewish 483 00:26:35,720 --> 00:26:38,640 influence to take dietary laws and say, if you really want to 484 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,200 be spiritual, if you really want to be righteous, this is what 485 00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,760 you have to eat. And we have to be mindful of all 486 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,440 the different ways that legalism can creep in, good things that 487 00:26:48,440 --> 00:26:52,160 become standards for everyone and a bar of righteousness. 488 00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:57,000 Paul says that is bad discipleship and bad fruit. 489 00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:01,240 I do find it funny in our culture how so many people have 490 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:04,720 fallen away from the faith, stopped going to church and even 491 00:27:04,920 --> 00:27:07,880 stopped believing in God and they've chosen to never marry 492 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:10,640 again, never have a family and, and, and become vegan. 493 00:27:10,720 --> 00:27:13,800 And I think that that here it is right here, we've got a a 494 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:15,600 version of it happening in the real world. 495 00:27:15,880 --> 00:27:17,320 But that's not what Paul's talking about. 496 00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,160 As we as we come to the good news, I want to point out what 497 00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:26,000 Paul isn't talking about when we hear falling away of the faith 498 00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:28,920 great apostasy in the end times. There's going to be, you know, 499 00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,440 those who are faithful that are that are now faithless. 500 00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,720 And if you're like me, my mind sometimes goes to a picture of 501 00:27:35,720 --> 00:27:39,640 that person being a a militant atheist. 502 00:27:40,240 --> 00:27:43,040 They they've rejected God on every account. 503 00:27:43,040 --> 00:27:45,680 They are are strict Darwinian evolution. 504 00:27:45,760 --> 00:27:48,480 There's an explanation for everything apart from God and 505 00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:50,640 faithless means you have no faith at all. 506 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,440 And there's a version of that, but that's not what Paul is 507 00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:56,880 describing. What Paul is describing is 508 00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:01,480 people that are pursuing God in all of the wrong ways. 509 00:28:01,920 --> 00:28:04,720 They're still at the gathering. They're still sitting under 510 00:28:04,720 --> 00:28:07,160 teaching. They're still considering how to 511 00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:10,040 live out the, the teaching and the, and the doctrine. 512 00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:14,000 They're, they're spiritual. Remember they, there's, there's 513 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,960 a spirit of, of deceiving spirits. 514 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:19,200 They're spiritual. They just don't have the Holy 515 00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:22,160 Spirit. It says that they're doctrinal, 516 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:24,400 they just don't have sound doctrine. 517 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,800 It says that they're making sacrifices, but instead of 518 00:28:29,800 --> 00:28:32,760 picking up their cross and making sacrifices for the Lord 519 00:28:32,760 --> 00:28:35,800 and for each other, they're picking up the law and they're 520 00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:38,080 making sacrifices to impress God. 521 00:28:38,840 --> 00:28:42,880 And so the real warning is not a message to the outside world of 522 00:28:42,880 --> 00:28:45,760 the dangers of falling away. The real warning is for the 523 00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:51,720 gathering to be so careful that you don't drift from faith, hope 524 00:28:51,920 --> 00:28:56,440 and love and the gospel of grace in everything that we do. 525 00:28:57,360 --> 00:29:01,280 And that is where we will find the good news in all of this. 526 00:29:02,160 --> 00:29:06,640 In verse 4 it says for every creature of God is good and 527 00:29:06,640 --> 00:29:09,440 nothing is to be refused, that it is received with 528 00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:14,080 Thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God 529 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:17,320 and prayer. Paul says there is such a simple 530 00:29:17,560 --> 00:29:21,120 and easy solution to the great apostasy. 531 00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:25,360 Receive what God has given you with Thanksgiving. 532 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:29,320 Let it be cleansed by the word and prayer. 533 00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:31,760 And I, I love the picture of this. 534 00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:34,840 We'll look at the details very briefly, but the picture is so 535 00:29:34,840 --> 00:29:38,480 often when a church drifts, it doesn't drift into, you know, a 536 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:40,560 sloppy faith. It doesn't drift into just never 537 00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:42,400 going to church. It it doesn't become less 538 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:44,320 religious, it becomes more religious. 539 00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:47,840 There's more programs, There's more heavy-handed preaching. 540 00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:50,800 There's more burdens, not less. And what Paul is going to 541 00:29:50,800 --> 00:29:53,520 restore the vision of a trustworthy church is by saying 542 00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:59,560 the gospel is so simple. God has cleansed by the power of 543 00:29:59,560 --> 00:30:03,880 his Word everything he's given you already, and the picture is 544 00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:08,120 now food again. He says he is sanctified food by 545 00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:11,160 the Word, literally by the Word. Jesus says, don't you know it's 546 00:30:11,160 --> 00:30:13,440 not what goes into you that defiles you, but comes out of 547 00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:16,280 you? Jesus was cleansing the vision 548 00:30:16,280 --> 00:30:20,280 of the dietary laws. And then by the word in Acts 549 00:30:20,280 --> 00:30:23,320 chapter 10, Peter gets a vision of all of these unclean animals 550 00:30:23,480 --> 00:30:26,880 and the Lord says eat them as a picture that the middle wall of 551 00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,160 separation between the Jewish people and the Gentiles. 552 00:30:29,320 --> 00:30:31,040 It's gone and you guys can eat together. 553 00:30:31,040 --> 00:30:35,200 And Peter says I can't. And the word of God says don't 554 00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:38,040 call something unclean that I have made clean. 555 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:40,000 It's finished. You can eat. 556 00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:47,160 The word of God has cleansed the food and then he says now pray. 557 00:30:47,160 --> 00:30:49,680 So there gives you a little insight into why we pray. 558 00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:51,840 It's like thank you Lord, we can eat whatever we want. 559 00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,400 It comes from you. We're going to pray so simple 560 00:30:55,320 --> 00:30:59,600 and the the way that we see it so simply for the removal of 561 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:04,720 dietary restrictions is the same way we see our lives presented 562 00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:07,480 before God. There is a simple offering that 563 00:31:07,480 --> 00:31:11,320 all of us are required to make. We don't have to offer our 564 00:31:11,320 --> 00:31:15,080 amazing celibacy or abstinence. We don't have to offer all of 565 00:31:15,080 --> 00:31:17,880 the ways that we've become monks and we go out to the desert and 566 00:31:17,880 --> 00:31:21,720 pray for 50 hours. All of those offerings are not 567 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:25,640 the way that we now have a blessed relationship with God. 568 00:31:25,960 --> 00:31:31,520 Paul says give Thanksgiving, the word and prayer. 569 00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,280 The animals are cleansed by the word. 570 00:31:34,840 --> 00:31:37,560 The people are cleansed by the Word. 571 00:31:38,360 --> 00:31:41,240 What do we need? We need the word of God to come 572 00:31:41,240 --> 00:31:44,960 into our lives to transfer us from the Kingdom of darkness to 573 00:31:44,960 --> 00:31:47,560 the Kingdom of light. And now we just receive 574 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:51,800 everything that we have. God, we thank you for this 575 00:31:51,800 --> 00:31:54,560 little church family. We thank you for the families 576 00:31:54,560 --> 00:31:56,440 you've made us husbands, wives and children. 577 00:31:56,720 --> 00:31:58,480 Thank you for the gift of salvation. 578 00:31:58,480 --> 00:32:01,120 Thank you for the money that gets passed out in baskets. 579 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:02,560 Thank you for the mission fields. 580 00:32:02,560 --> 00:32:04,000 We just thank you and we thank you. 581 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,120 We thank you, and then we come. We say Lord now continue to 582 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:11,000 cleanse us by the washing of the Word. 583 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:15,560 So here's the simple message. Be on the lookout in your own 584 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:20,120 life or in the gatherings that God plants you in to sit under 585 00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:26,640 teaching for complex and complicated heavy-handed 586 00:32:27,200 --> 00:32:30,840 messages of what you need to do to finally be made right with 587 00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:37,920 God, and instead live under the gospel of God's grace. 588 00:32:38,400 --> 00:32:44,640 That by His Word the promise of salvation is freely given, that 589 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:48,200 you can receive the free gift of salvation when the invitation is 590 00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,920 made by the Word. All have sinned, fallen short of 591 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:54,400 the glory of God, but He so loved you that he sent his Son, 592 00:32:54,520 --> 00:32:58,520 that whoever believes confesses on him with their Word will not 593 00:32:58,520 --> 00:32:59,520 perish. You're clean. 594 00:33:00,560 --> 00:33:03,360 There's nothing you need to add. Walk in the good works that He's 595 00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:07,120 prepared for you and give Him thanks with your life. 596 00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,720 Watch out for the complicated. Live in the simple. 597 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:12,560 Amen.