This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
You do witness betrayal. You do witness people who will
turn their backs on you. Everyone is not going to be in
favor of the way that we walk before the Lord.
Everyone's not going to be in favor of that.
And we have to be prepared for that and just know that we are
protected by Him. We are with Him, He's with us as
we go through these things, He is with us.
So he says yes, and all who will who desire to live godly in
Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
I think most people just want to live their lives.
I really do. For some people that means a
white picket fence, while for others it means chasing their
dreams, whatever they may be. But I don't think anyone ever
asks to live a life full of trouble and difficulty.
In Pastor Lewis's message today, he warns you that when you
choose to live for Jesus, you're going to experience difficulty.
The. Reward is worth it, but the
challenges are fierce. This life will be filled with
trouble, but heaven is waiting on the other side now.
Here's Pastor Lewis in the book of Romans Chapter 9 with today's
edition of Living Waters of Grace.
So Paul does love. In fact, he loves so much that
in Romans Chapter 9 Paul said of his brethren.
He said, I wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my
brethren, for my brethren. And then the 1st Thessalonians 2
and 8. He says we not only imparted the
gospel to you, but also our own lives because you became dear to
us. So Paul understood love, and he
definitely understood that it was necessary to have that agape
love that can only come through the Holy Spirit in order for him
to do what it is that God had called him to do.
And that's the same for us as well.
It's the mark of a Christian. That's why Jesus said that.
This is how you'll know that we're all Christians because we
have love one for another. When people come in this house,
I love the fact that people will say that, man, you know, you can
tell that they love each other and they should be able to say
that. They should be able to say that
and I know that I feel love when I come into this house.
I feel love. Thank God for that.
He goes on and he talks about the perseverance, you know,
being steadfast. Verse 11, he says the
persecutions, afflictions which happened to me at Antioch.
Paul was very clear about the fact that he did go through a
number of persecutions and sufferings that he did at
different places where he would preach the gospel.
When he went to Antioch, he taught the gospel there.
When he went into the synagogue's for a number of
people who believed. And as a result of that, the
unbelieving Jews, they wanted to stir up the people, stir up the
Gentiles that were there, and they ended up rising up in
persecution against Paul and his companions and they had to
leave. And they went into Iconium.
And when they went to Iconium, the very same thing.
He taught the Scriptures and Iconium, he taught the word of
God and he preached the gospel and there were many people who
heard the gospel and they listened and they became, and,
and they put their faith in Jesus Christ.
And as a result of putting their faith in Jesus Christ, they
began to gather together and, and, and, and, and have an
assembly themselves. Well, the people who lived there
who were not believers didn't like that either.
So they persecuted Paul and wanted to stone him and ran him
out of Iconium, Iconium. And then when Paul got the
Lystra, it was so bad that when Paul preached the gospel there
and I and Lystra, which is probably where Timothy heard the
gospel from Paul the first time, we understand that there was the
people from Antioch that got together with the people from
Iconium and all of them came down to Lystra and they began to
want to persecute Paul. That's how bad it was for Paul.
But in every situation, he continued to put his life on the
line to share the gospel because he believed that the one that he
believed in was able to keep him, was able to keep him, and
so he did what God called him to do.
It may be sometimes where it seems hairy or seems dangerous
for us to share the gospel or seem that it may cost us
something if we share the gospel.
But we have to believe that the one that we're serving is
greater than anyone else. And He's able to keep us.
He's able to protect us. He's able to deliver us from any
situation that we may run into as a result of being faithful to
him. So he gets to Lystra and there
he is stoned. So Paul witnessed that.
He witnessed being stoned in. And it's possibility, don't know
for sure because the Bible never really says so, but it's a
possibility that when he was there in Lystra and when they
stoned him and they thought he was dead, then they took him
outside of the city and their disciples gathered around him
and they suppose that he was dead, That it was a possibility
that maybe he was truly dead at that particular time.
And maybe we don't. Again, we don't know because the
Bible doesn't say that. But that could have been where
he actually had the experience of the 3rd heaven during that
particular time. He could have had that
experience at that particular time where he went into the 3rd
heaven and witnessed the things that he was not even able to
talk about, but he was stoned. He was thought to be dead.
But then he got up. And again, because of his
steadfastness or his perseverance, because of his
love and because of his faithfulness, Paul got up and
went right back into the same city that they had actually
stoned him and continued to do the work that God had called him
to do. What an example of
steadfastness. What an example of someone who's
just relentless to do what it is that God has called him to do.
Lord, give me that steadfastness.
Give me that relentlessness, that fearlessness in you,
Father, so that I can, under any circumstance, do your will.
And then in verse 12, Paul makes it clear to Timothy, I mean,
this is this is not something that you probably want to put on
your mirror or your refrigerator when you get up in the morning.
Verse 12, yes, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will
suffer persecution. That's probably not a good
motivation speech for those who you know or want to serve the
Lord. I mean, he you probably would
have thought that Paul or you know, will want to say something
a little bit more encouraging, but Paul was a straight shooter
and his attitude was I'm going to give you the truth because
you know what? Jesus Christ gave us the truth
when he talked about, you know, following him.
And if you go to the 10th chapter of Matthew just for a
2nd 10th chapter of Matthew, Jesus makes a very interesting
statement over here, Tim chapter over here in verse 16, He says,
behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves.
Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves, but
beware of men for they will deliver you up.
And this is his rallying speech to get them to be motivated to
go out and serve him. They're going to deliver you up
to councils. They're going to scourge you in
the synagogues. You will be brought before
governors and and kings for my name's sake.
He goes on and say you'll be delivered up, but don't worry
because we'll give you what to speak at that particular time
for it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak
for it is not you who will speak, but the spirit of your
father who speaks in you. And then in 21, he says, now
your brother will deliver you up to death or your father is going
to deliver his children up and children's going to rise up
against their parents. I mean, that's not what you
would call a real motivational speech, you know, to get someone
to serve you. But however, that is what
serving the Lord is about. You do witness portrayal.
You do witness people who will turn their backs on you.
Everyone is not going to be in favor of the way that we walk
before the Lord. Everyone's not going to be in
favor of that and we have to be prepared for that and just know
that we are protected by him. We are with him, He's with us as
we go through these things, He is with us.
So he says yes, and all who will, who desire to live godly
in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
But he also says, if you look at the verse before that, he says
and out of them all the Lord delivered me.
So even through all those things that Paul went through at the
bottom there at verse 11, he says out of them all the Lord
delivered me. So in spite of the fact that
we're going to suffer persecution, we serve the one
who was able and who will deliver us out of all of those
situations. And yeah, Paul came out of
almost every situation until the Lord was ready for him to come
home. And then in verse 13 we change
gears again and Paul says, but evil men and imposters will go
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
And that is the reason why everyone who will live godly
will suffer persecution because men are evil, men are wicked and
they are imposters and they will.
And those imposters mean that they are swindlers or sorcerers
or, or they are men under demonic influence.
And, and they are going to grow worse and worse, deceiving and
being deceived. I mean, that's what we're going
to have to deal with. So we're going to feel
persecution to some degree. We're going to feel it.
Now there are countries, as Clark has talked about several
times, there are countries where people are being killed,
beheaded almost every day, you know, for their faith, for their
faith, imprisoned for their faith.
I mean, they have to hide to do what we're doing right now.
They got to put themselves in underground to do the things
that we're doing right now that we can do freely.
There will come a time where we will be suffering persecution.
In fact, the attack is on right now, particularly against our
kids. There's an attack on kids,
parents. There's an attack on parents
because you, if you do not take on the world's view of the
LGBTQ, transgender and all those things, if you don't take on the
world view, there are people who are putting bills in place that
will give consequences to parents who will not back that
ungodly stance. Let me read something to you.
Just did a little research on that and this came out just
recently. This is back in November of this
year. There was a woman who put
together a bill, a delegate from out of Virginia, Elizabeth
Gunsman of Prince William County, and she intended parents
to face abuse charges for not affirming their LGBTQ child.
And her bill would expand. Her bill would actually expand
the state's definition of child abuse and neglect to include
listen to this, to include parents who do not affirm their
child's gender identity or sexual orientation.
Here's the chilling part. One of the most crucial moments
of the interview. They interviewed this woman.
It came when a man by the name of Minoc posed this question to
Guzman. What could be the penalties of
the investigation or what penalties what the investigation
includes? If a parent is not affirming of
their LGBTQ child, what could be the consequence?
This is what she said. Well, first we would have to
complete an investigation. It could be a felony, it could
be a misdemeanor. But we know that ACPS and I had
to look up what that was Child Protective Services.
I guess if a person put on a child protective service,
anything inquiry into anybody, it's on your record, regardless
of whether it's founded or not, it's on your record.
So a Child Protective Services could mean or could harm your
employment, it could harm their education because nowadays many
people do a CPS database search before offering employment.
So what is based what they're basically saying is this, if Big
Brother or this LGBTQ or the government, if they can't find a
way to charge conservative parents with a felony, at the
very least the government and its partners in the professions
that mean social work counselors, psychologists and
all people who work with kids, those advocates between kids and
parents will see to it that you never work again.
Note clearly the threat of using even Acps investigation to ruin
parents. So that is exactly the attitude
right now. They are Rooney.
They want to scare parents into capitulating or into being
resigned to just follow whatever it is that their kids are
saying. And that's why Paul's saying,
look, you've watched me, you have seen me, you have heard my
doctrine. Don't sway from those things.
And he's saying it to us. He's encouraging us.
Don't sway from the word of God. He who is in US is greater than
He that is in the world, right? He that is in you is greater
than He that is in the world. He that is in you is greater
than He that is in the world. He that is in you and in you is
greater than He that is in the world.
We don't have to fall to that. God will keep us.
He will keep us. And he goes on and he says, but
you must continue. Paul's encouraging him now, but
you must continue on the things that you have heard and things
that you have learned and been assured of knowing from whom you
have learned them, knowing what you've learned, Timothy.
And it wasn't just Paul that Timothy has learned the word of
God from. Timothy has learned the word of
God from Paul. He's learned it first of all
from his grandmother Lois, from his mother Eunice.
He's learned the word of God. He's learned it from Paul and
from seeing it in action with Paul and silence and being able
to see other believers as well. Verse 15.
And that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures which
are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which
is in Christ Jesus, the Holy Scriptures, or in other words,
the sacred writings, Timothy, you have known them from the
time that you were a child, and they're able to make you wise.
They're able to make you wise for salvation.
James. James chapter 1 in verse 2021
says simply this. Therefore, lay aside all
filthiness and overflow wickedness, and receive with
meekness the implanted word which is able to save your
souls. There's power in the Word of
God. Now also keep in mind that as
he's talking to Timothy, Timothy only had the Old Testament
scriptures. They only had the Old Testament.
They had the New Testament this time.
So when he's talking about the Word of God that is able to save
your souls, he's talking about Old Testament scriptures.
Well, we know from history that people have been saved by just
listening to Old Testament scriptures.
In the book of Acts chapter 8, Philip left a huge revival in
Samaria and was called by the Holy Spirit down to a lonely Rd.
going down from Jerusalem to Gaza where he found there a
eunuch, an Ethiopian eunuch. He gets up in the cart with this
Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the book of Isaiah that he
didn't even understand. Philip began to preach to him
right from the 53rd chapter of the book of Isaiah and preach
the gospel to this man and he got saved.
I also know another situation where the Old Testament was
preached and people got saved. Back in 1998, a pat, my late
pastor by the name of Reverend Archie Dennis Junior, he
preached A sermon from the book of Proverbs, chapter 6, and he
began to preach on the strange woman or the unvirtuous woman,
the adulterous woman. And as he's preaching this
sermon, the Lord opened the eyes of not only myself, but also my
wife's eyes, opened our eyes, and we both stood up in
repentance. After hearing a sermon preached
on the book of Proverbs, chapter 6, God used those scriptures to
open our eyes and to cause us to see that we were sinners in need
of a Savior. We put our trust in Jesus Christ
that day and we've never looked back.
And that was from the Old Testament Scriptures.
There is power not just in the New Testament, not just in the
Old Testament, but in the whole council of God.
In the whole council of God, all Scripture is given by
inspiration of God. That means all Scripture is God
breathed. It actually means all scriptures
God breathed. It's breathed out by God.
This is not just an ordinary book that some men got together
and wrote. This is a book that was breathed
out by God himself. That's why it's so powerful and
it is profitable for doctrine, for correction, for instruction
and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete and
thoroughly equipped for every good work.
What he is saying is that the Word of God, this powerful,
powerful book, and I'll never forget when I heard of a friend
of mine who was a pastor and his father is a pastor.
This man threw the Bible out on the table and asked the young
preacher. He said, does that contain the
word of God or is that the word of God?
And everyone who said that it contains the word of God was not
ordained. It was only those who said that
this is the word of God that was ordained.
And that's exactly what this is. This is the word of God.
So when people try to convince you or anyone else in your
circle that, well, this is just a book that's written by men,
this is just a book that's written by, we don't know if the
interpretations are right. We don't know if this is right.
If that's right, this is God breathed.
It's God breathed. I don't care who he used to to
pen the Bible. I don't care who he used to pen.
He used the donkey to speak to a prophet.
So I don't care who he uses to pen this Bible.
This Bible is God breathed. The Bible has been written over
1600 years by 40 different men, 40 different men, 66 books.
And none of these books contradict each other.
None of them. And if people try to come up and
say, well, wait a minute, this contradicts that.
It's not the book that's the problem.
It's the understanding of the person that's reading is the
problem. Everything in the Word of God
can be explained through Scripture.
Now, there's some things we don't know.
There's some things we don't know about the word of God, and
I'm fine with that. We'll know when we see him.
But the word of God there is no contradictions.
It's written over 3 languages in three different continents.
This word is powerful. There's been many of people who
have tried to get rid of the Bible over many years.
No one has ever been able to do it because this word is living.
This is a powerful word of God itself, and it's good for, for,
for, for doctrine. That means it's good for
teaching. Teaching the true gospel is good
for reproof. It's good for pointing out error
or being able to refute error. It's good for correction.
It's good for fixing the error and being able to get us back on
the right path. And it's also good for
instruction and righteousness. That means it's good for us to
keep it right, to keep our lives in order to help us to do that.
It's the Word of God that can do that.
I have such a love for the Word of God because it was the word
of God that I had to hold on to in so many situations in my
life. It was the word of God that
helped me. It was the Word of God that
comfort me. It was the Word of God that
convicts me and will correct me when I'm off.
It's the word of God that does it.
No one can come to me and give me anything logical that could
help me to change, but the Word of God did when I was in my sin.
It wasn't my mother, it wasn't my my father, it wasn't my
sister who convinced me to turn my life around.
It was the Word of God and the power that was with the Word of
God when it was preached. And even now, it's the Word of
God that keeps me in line and causes me to repent.
When the Spirit convicts me of things that I do that are off
and I do, there are times that I am off and the word of God is
there to help me with those things just like it's there for
you. The Word of God, it's powerful.
It's powerful and the man of God.
Paul talks about the man of God with a man of God.
You know, Timothy is the only one that he referred to as the
man of God in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, the man of
God was always referred to was just the prophets.
They called the prophets the man of God.
When the prophet came to town, all the man of God is here.
It was the prophets, but here twice in the book of first and
second Timothy, he refers to Timothy as a man of God.
Here in this scripture and also back in first Timothy chapter 6
verse 11 refers to as the man of God.
And the man of God is a messenger, someone who brings a
message of God. And thank God that Paul, man of
God, was a good example for Timothy during the time when
Timothy needed a good example. Timothy's own father was not a
believer. His mother and his grandmother
was a believer, but his father wasn't.
Paul became his spiritual father, a spiritual father.
And that's why it's important for us to be able to have
spiritual children in the faith. If we're walking with the Lord
as adults, we should have spiritual children in the faith,
people that we can pour into. Bible says that from a child
Timothy knew the Scriptures because he was given to her from
his own mother and his grandmother.
It is so important that if you have young children to expose
them now to the Scriptures. Expose them now to the
Scriptures. Give it to them as often as you
can, as much as you can. When they get old, those things
don't go anywhere. Regardless of what decisions
they make, the Scripture is there.
The truth is there, and trust me, they do.
They get old and they make their own decisions.
And you wonder sometime, did you hear anything that I said to you
when you were younger? Did you hear anything?
But without a doubt the scriptures are real and they are
true and they are good to help one to find salvation, able to
make one wise for salvation and can save souls.
It's the scriptures that can do that.
Thank you for tuning in to Living Waters of Grace with
Pastor Lewis Harrell. We're currently in the books of
First and Second Timothy. Some of the things included in
these New Testament letters from Paul are that the young and
newly established Pastor Timothy was being encouraged to hold
fast to what was true. He was challenged to confront
and address the false teachers that were rising up.
He was also reminded to accept his calling to the ministry with
gratefulness and to address the happenings going on in the
Ephesian church. Paul was imparting his
experience and knowledge to the next generation.
Timothy was receptive to learning and gleaning what he
could from Paul's wisdom. This is how it should be in
ministry across multiple generations.
Those who have lived a little more life should be open to
sharing their successes and also things they've learned along the
way. That we're not a win.
The younger generations coming up can learn and appreciate much
from those ahead of them, and perhaps avoid some of the same
pitfalls that their mentors work through mentoring.
It's a beautiful relationship when the hearts are in the right
place to learn and grow. You trust that you're in a
community where this is happening.
Older ones providing advice and wisdom, and each side learning
and growing from one another. This certainly was the case for
Paul and Timothy as they were comrades for the sake of the
gospel. For more information on where
this teaching came from, go to calvarychapelonline.com.
There you can also learn about our service times to join us in
person. This has been living waters of
grace.