"Timothy's Charge to the False Teachers", The Aim is Love May 5, 2024

First Baptist Church Leominster

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and we'll read it together. Having been led by the

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Spirit of God to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the

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Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we do now solemnly make this covenant with each other as one body in Christ.

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We will walk together in brotherly love. We will exercise a

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Christian care and watchfulness over each other. We'll faithfully admonish and help one another as the need may be.

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We will be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation without delay.

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If any stray from the path of truth, we will endeavor to restore them in the spirit of meekness.

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We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together or neglect to pray for ourselves and for others.

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We will seek to educate our children in the scriptures. We will seek to win our kindred and acquaintances to Christ and to holiness.

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As stewards of the Lord, we will aid in the support of a faithful evangelical ministry among us and in efforts to preach the gospel to the whole human family.

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We will live circumspectly in the world, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, and according to our ability and opportunities, we'll do good to all men.

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We will endeavor, as long as we live, to glorify him who hath called us out of the darkness into his marvelous light.

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Amen. This church has read that church covenant for since the 19th century, slightly worded differently, but it's in the early documents of this church.

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Been reading it for, you know, close to 200 years. Let's pray, and this reading is a convert's first prayer.

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And as always, I try and adjust it for our purposes, making it applicable to ourselves.

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Let's pray. Our Father, we could never have sought our happiness in thy love unless thou hadst first loved us.

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Thy spirit has encouraged us by grace to seek thee, has made known to us thy reconciliation in Jesus, and has taught us to believe it, has helped us to take thee for our

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God in portion. May you grant us to grow in the knowledge and experience of thy love, and walk in it in all the way to our glory.

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Blessed forever be thy fatherly affection, which chose us to be one of thy children by faith in Jesus.

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Jesus, we thank thee for giving us the desire to live as such. In Jesus, our brother, we have our new birth, every restraining power, every renewing grace.

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It is by thy spirit we call thee father, that we believe in thee and love thee.

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May you strengthen us inwardly for every purpose of our Christian life. Let the spirit continually reveal to us our interest in Christ, and open to us the riches of thy love in him.

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May he abide in us that we may know our union with Jesus, and enter into constant fellowship with him.

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And by thy spirit may we daily live to thee, rejoice in thy love, and find it the same to us as to thy son, and become rooted and grounded in it as a house on rock.

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We know but little. May you increase our knowledge of thy love in Jesus.

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Keep us pressing forward for clearer discoveries of it, so that we may find its eternal fullness.

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May you magnify your love to us according to its greatness, and not according to what we deserve, or according to our prayers.

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And whatever increase thou give us, let it draw out greater love from us unto thee, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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The Lord's Supper is not for everybody, but rather for disciples of Jesus Christ, those who know him and follow him.

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If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Lord, as savior, have shown forth your faith in baptism, we invite you to eat and drink with us as his disciple.

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Let's first pray for the bread. We thank you, our father, for this bread, which so beautifully portrays

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Jesus Christ to us, and the spiritual life, the eternal life that you give us in him.

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He is the true bread sent down by you, our God, unto us. As we hold this bread in our hands, and as we ingest it, we are confessing our faith afresh in Jesus alone for the life that comes from you.

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Bless this food to us, our God, for we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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I'll serve a new members. Thank you, guys.

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Well, it was after supper that the Lord took the bread first and he said to his disciples, take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you.

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Do this in remembrance of me. Amen.

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We thank you, father, for the blood of Jesus Christ shed so long ago upon the cross, and its effectual ability, our

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God, to cleanse us of our sin even today. And we thank you, our

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God, that as we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, confess our sins, that you are a faithful God and a just God to forgive us of our sins for Jesus' sake.

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We pray, our God, as we hold up this cup and drink it, that we do so,

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Lord, in celebration of what Jesus accomplished for us upon his cross, but also mindful, our

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God, of the great suffering and the great torment he experienced as he bore our sins in his death.

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And so bless this cup of communion with us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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And we, of course, have grape juice in the center of the tray, and wine in the purple cups around the perimeter, depending on your conviction.

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Well, in the same manner, Jesus also took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me, amen.

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And if you're a disciple of Jesus Christ, you ate and drank in faith, confessing your sins, you may be filled with a sense of gratefulness and love to God, your sins are forgiven you, amen.

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Pastor Jason's gonna preach for us, so let's pray. Thank you, Father, for your word that's about to be opened to us.

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Fill Jason with your Holy Spirit, our God, and help him to speak. Give him the ability to speak clearly, our

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God, strengthen his voice, and give us ears to hear, and a responsive heart, our

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God, to your glorious word that is set before us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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Thank you, Matt. One of the hallmarks of biblical

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Christianity is love. Love is the defining and primary characteristic of biblical

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Christianity, because the Lord, our God, is a God of love.

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The nature of the Lord God is love. The essence of the

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Lord God is love. The very being of the Lord God is love.

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A .W. Tozer wrote, from God's other known attributes, we may learn much about his love.

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We can know, for instance, that because God is self -existent, his love had no beginning.

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Because he is eternal, his love can have no end. Because he is infinite, it has no limit.

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Because he is holy, it is the quintessence of all spotless purity. Because he is immense, his love is an incomprehensibly vast, bottomless, shoreless sea before which we kneel in joyful silence, and from which the loftiest eloquence retreats confused and abashed.

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In other words, no matter how hard we try to put into words, we cannot even begin to fathom the love of God.

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Our ability to fully fathom the infinite depth of the love of God is far beyond our finite grasp.

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John Brine, in 1743, wrote, no tongue can fully express the infinitude of God's love, or any mind comprehend it.

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It passeth knowledge. The most extensive ideas that a finite mind can frame about divine love are infinitely below its true nature.

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The heaven is not so far above the earth as the goodness of God is beyond the most rare.

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It is not so far above the ocean as the waves conceptions which we are able to form of it. It is an ocean which swells higher than all the mountains of opposition, in such as are the objects of it.

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It is the fountain from which flows all necessary good to all those who are interested in it.

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No tongue can fully express, and no mind can fully comprehend the deep, deep love of God.

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I think the hymn, The Love of God, does an exceptional job of expressing this incomprehensibly vast and infinite love.

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Could we with ink the ocean fill and were the skies of parchment made, were every stock on earth a quill and every one a scribe by trade.

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To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.

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One of the best ways to contemplate God's love is to consider the gospel.

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The most excellent and supreme manifestation of love was the Lord God sending his son into the world to be the propitiation of our sins.

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1 John 4, 9, in this, the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.

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In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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The Lord God put Jesus Christ forward as the propitiation, as the appeasement, as the satisfaction for sin.

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Propitiation refers to Jesus Christ taking upon himself the full wrath of God in our place for our sins as the spotless lamb of God, the divinely appointed substitute.

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The wrath that we rightly deserved and earned by our sin and unrighteousness, the

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Lord Jesus Christ received on our behalf. This is the greatest manifestation of love.

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God the father sending God the son into the world to live and to die as an atonement for sin so that through his life and his death, we might live forever through him.

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Beloved, our God is a God of love. And because God is love, we must reflect his character in our lives.

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We must mirror his character in our lives. 1

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John 4, 7, beloved, let us love one another for love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows

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God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

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The children of God must reflect the love of God. Those who have been chosen by God, those who have been born of God and those who know

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God must love one another for love is from God.

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He is the origin of love. He is the source of love. He is the giver of love.

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The only reason we love 1 John 4, 19 is because he first loved us.

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Beloved, love must be the hallmark of your life. It must be the defining and primary characteristic of your life.

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Your love for God and your love for others must be evident. Likewise, this must also be the defining and primary characteristic of the church.

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The church is to love God and love others. By this,

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John 13, 35, all people will know that we are his disciples if we have love for one another.

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This morning, we continue our study of 1 Timothy. By way of reminder, the apostle

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Paul was on his way to Macedonia and he urged Timothy to remain in Ephesus.

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The church at Ephesus was in disarray. It was a mess. Fierce wolves had infiltrated the church, speaking twisted things in an effort to lead the disciples astray.

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Thus, Timothy was commissioned by Paul to remain in Ephesus and to set things in order.

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1 Timothy 3, 14, Paul writes, I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living

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God, a pillar and buttress of the truth. At this time, certain persons were misbehaving in the household of God by teaching a different doctrine.

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A different doctrine is any doctrine or teaching that deviates from the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples.

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It is any doctrine or teaching that does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness. But not only were these certain persons teaching a different doctrine, they had also devoted themselves to myths and endless genealogies.

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This resulted in many problems within the church. These things promoted speculation rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

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In other words, all of these things drew people away from the truth of the Lord God, the gospel message, and the central teaching of the scriptures.

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These things produced all sorts of disputes and controversies, drawing people away from essential doctrinal matters and leading them into vain and empty discussions.

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So instead of advancing the kingdom of God through the proclamation of the gospel that Jesus Christ is

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Lord, these certain persons quarreled and fought about insignificant and unimportant matters.

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In contrast to these certain persons and their different doctrine and their devotion to myths, endless genealogies and speculation,

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Paul reminds Timothy of the true aim of their charge. Verse five.

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And then he warns Timothy about what will happen to those who depart from this aim. Verse six.

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Paul then revealed the motivation behind the actions of the false teachers. Verse seven. And lastly, he revealed the reason for their error and shortcoming, which was a misunderstanding of the law of God.

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Verses eight to 11. Please turn with me to the book of 1 Timothy.

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Our text this morning is 1 Timothy 1, verse five.

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I'm gonna start in verse three. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith.

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The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

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In contrast to the certain persons in Ephesus who taught different doctrine and promoted speculation,

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Paul reminds Timothy of the true aim of ministry. Verse five.

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The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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Beloved, the aim of our charge is love. The goal of our instruction is love.

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The goal of our command is love. The purpose of the commandment is love.

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The end of the commandment is love. The commandment to love is of the utmost importance.

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It is the first and greatest commandment. If you were to take the entire law of God and boil it all down, you would be left with love.

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Love is the pinnacle and summary of all the other commandments. In Matthew 22, the

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Pharisees sought to entrap the Lord Jesus Christ. They hoped to catch him in his words so that they might have reason to accuse him and arrest him.

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One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Matthew 22, 36.

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Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law? And he said to him, you shall love the

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Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.

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And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

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In the book of Romans, Paul echoed these words. Romans 13, eight. Oh, no one anything except to love each other for the one who loves has fulfilled the law.

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For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not covet.

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And any other commandment are summed up in this word. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

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Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.

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And to the church in Galatia, Paul wrote, Galatians 5, 16. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word.

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You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Indeed, love is the defining mark of a

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Christian. You cannot please the Lord God without keeping the command to love.

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This concept is seen all throughout the scriptures. All of the law and the prophets rest upon the command to love.

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Every other commandment is summed up in this one word. Love. Love for the

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Lord God and love for others fulfills the law. And this is to be the aim of the church.

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In ministry and in service to one another, our goal, our purpose, our aim is love.

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Love for the Lord God and love for others comes from three sources.

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1 Timothy 1, 5. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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Love comes from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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Firstly, love comes from a pure heart. According to the scriptures, the heart of man refers to the essence of our entire personality.

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It is the hub of our entire personality. The heart of man is the seat of emotion, the seat of thought, will, intellect and motive.

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It reveals the true nature, feelings and inclinations of man. It exposes and reveals the unmasked reality of who a man truly is.

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Thus, a pure heart is a heart that has been cleansed of sin.

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The Greek term translated as pure means to be clean or free from contamination.

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It carries with it the idea of being unsoiled and unblemished, without spot and without impurity.

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The term was often used to describe metal that had been refined by fire. Intense heat removes the dross and impurity, leaving nothing but the purest of metal.

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In this sense, pure means unmixed, unalloyed or unadulterated.

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The term pure heart primarily expresses this idea. It refers to a heart that is unmixed with impurity.

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It refers to a heart that is undivided in its devotion. It refers to being single -minded or wholly committed to one thing.

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And that one thing is the Lord God. In the last chapter of 1

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Chronicles, King David prayed for the people of Israel and for his son Solomon, that they might both possess a pure heart.

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1 Chronicles 29, 17. I know my God that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.

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In the uprightness of my heart, I have freely offered all of these things. And now

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I have seen your people who are present here offering freely and joyously to you.

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Oh Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, our fathers, keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts towards you.

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Grant to Solomon, my son, a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies and your statutes, performing all, and that he may build the palace for which

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I have made provision. King David prayed for Solomon and the people of Israel, that their hearts would be entirely and thoroughly devoted to the

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Lord God. He prayed that the Lord God would grant them a whole heart, a single -minded heart, an undivided heart, a heart that would keep

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God's commandments, testimonies and statutes. Well, how does a heart become pure?

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The Lord God makes it pure. The Lord God positionally and practically purifies our hearts.

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Positionally, a heart becomes pure when it receives the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord God cleanses our hearts through our rebirth, through our being made new, through our regeneration.

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Titus 3, 4, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the

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Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

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The Lord God draws sinners to Himself through His Spirit. He takes the cold, dead heart of stone and He replaces it with a heart of flesh.

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The Lord God breathes new life into it, which enables man to live spiritually and to respond freely to the truth of the gospel.

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Ezekiel 36, I will sprinkle clean water on you and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness.

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And from all your idols, I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit

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I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

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I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

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Once our hearts are positionally pure, then the Lord God expects us to keep them pure by putting to death the deeds of the flesh through the power of the

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Spirit. This is the practical side of a pure heart. Romans 6, 11, you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

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Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies to make you obey its lusts. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.

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For sin will have no dominion over you since you are not under law, but under grace.

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1 John 1, 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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In Ephesians 5, 25, husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

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Beloved, the heart is cleansed through the daily washing of the word of God by hearing, by reading, by studying, by memorizing and meditating upon the word of God.

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The heart is cleansed through the daily confession of sin, through our admission, contrition and repentance, turning away from our sin and turning towards the

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Lord God. The heart is cleansed through our daily fight and battle against sin and unrighteousness.

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In our lives, we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God.

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We must put to death the deeds of the flesh. We must kill our sin. We must mortify our sin.

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Otherwise, our sin will kill and mortify us. The goal of the

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Christian life is for our practice to mirror our position. Our daily conduct must mirror our doctrine.

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Our daily actions must mirror our knowledge. Our thoughts, our words, our deeds must be consistent with our creed.

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Our behavior and our beliefs must be inseparable. Before the

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Lord God, we are holy. Before the Lord God, we are clean. Thus, in our lives, we must also strive to live holy and clean lives.

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A pure heart is one that has been cleansed through the washing of regeneration. It strives to walk in obedience to the

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Lord God by putting sin to death and living to righteousness. This is the first source of our love.

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Love issues from a pure heart, a heart that has been made new by the

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Lord God. Secondly, love comes from a good conscience.

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Well, what is a conscience? Webster's Dictionary defines conscience as the sense of the moral goodness and blameworthiness of one's own conduct, intentions, or character, together with a feeling of obligation to do right or be good.

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In other words, it carries with it the idea of knowing oneself. The conscience is our inner sense of right and wrong.

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The conscience is man's soul reflecting upon itself. All men have an intuitive, built -in sense of right and wrong that activates their guilt and activates their shame.

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The conscience is the work of God's law written upon the heart of man.

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It is an independent witness within that examines and passes judgment on one's conduct.

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It is the God -created self -judging faculty of man. The conscience is like an inner judge who accuses and condemns us when we have done wrong or approves and commends us when we have done right.

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It either affirms right attitudes and actions or it condemns wrong attitudes and wrong actions.

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Romans 2 .14, we see this clearly. For when the Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves.

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Even though they do not have the law, they show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse.

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All men instinctively know the Lord God's standard of right and wrong because the

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Lord God has made it evident in them. When we violate God's standards, the conscience accuses us of wrongdoing.

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It produces in us guilt, shame, doubt, remorse, and despair.

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But when we obey God's standard, the conscience does not accuse or condemn us, but it affirms our actions.

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Again, Tozer remarked, conscience singles you out as though nobody else existed.

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God has given us a faithful witness inside of our own being. It is able to single a man out and reveal his loneliness, the loneliness of a single soul in the universe going on to meet an angry

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God. That's the terror of the conscience. Conscience never deals with theories.

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Conscience always deals with right and wrong and the relation of the individual to that which is right or wrong.

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Remember, the conscience is always on God's side. It judges conduct in light of the moral law and as the scripture says, excuses or accuses.

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Love issues from a good conscience. If you have a good conscience or a clear conscience, it will tell you that all is well between you and the

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Lord God. If you have an evil conscience, it will remind you that all is not well because there is sin in your life.

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In question 40 of the Baptist Catechism, a good conscience is named as one of the benefits of justification, adoption and sanctification.

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The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption and sanctification are assurance of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the

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Holy Ghost, increase of grace and preservation therein to the end.

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Romans 5, one and two says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

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Verse five, and hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the

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Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Those who have been justified, pronounced not guilty by the

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Lord God, those who have been adopted, their legal status has changed from a stranger to a son.

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And those who are sanctified, set apart by the Lord God and transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his beloved son have peace of conscience as a benefit.

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Thomas Watson in his body of divinity wrote, oh, then how sweet is the peace of conscience.

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It is a bulwark against the enemy. It shall keep you as in a garrison. You may throw down the gauntlet and bid defiance to enemies.

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It is the golden pot and manna. It is the first fruits of paradise. Oh, therefore labor for this blessed peace.

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This blessed peace is the second source of our love. Love comes from a pure heart and it comes from a good conscience.

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Thirdly, love comes from a sincere faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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Well, what is a sincere faith? What is faith? Faith is made up of three things.

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Knowledge, belief, and trust. In order to place your faith in something, there needs to be a knowledge of something.

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To become a Christian and place your faith in Jesus Christ, certain facts about the

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Lord God, the gospel, and specifically about the Lord Jesus Christ must be known.

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Romans 10, 14 says, how then will they call on him in whom they have never believed? And how are they to believe in him on whom they have never heard?

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And how are they to hear without someone preaching? Knowing certain facts about the

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Lord God, the gospel, and Christ Jesus must be known. But knowing these facts alone will not result in salvation.

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The knowledge that the Lord God seeks from us is not merely an academic knowledge of him. God's desire is not that you know certain facts about him.

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Knowing facts about the Lord God is not the same thing as knowing the Lord God. You can have a correct theology and still not know the

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Lord God. You can know certain facts about the Lord God, certain facts about the gospel, certain facts about Jesus Christ, and still be lost in spiritual darkness.

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The Puritan Stephen Charnock remarked, a man may be theologically knowing and spiritually ignorant at the same time.

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So in addition to knowledge, something else is needed. And that something else is belief.

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Not only must you know the facts, but you must also believe in them. You must agree with them.

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You must acknowledge their validity and truthfulness. Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it is impossible to please him.

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For whoever would draw near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

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Once you know the facts, once you believe the facts, then you must place your trust in those facts.

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You must place your trust in the message of the gospel. You must place your trust in the person and work of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. This means that you will transfer your trust and reliance from yourself for your salvation to the

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Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. To respond in faith is to say,

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Lord, I give up. I can no longer depend upon myself for salvation. I will not depend upon my own works or my own merit any longer.

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No matter how hard I try, I cannot follow your law. I cannot follow your will.

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I cannot make myself righteous before you. I'm a sinner. I am destitute.

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I am spiritually bankrupt. So I put all my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

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I will trust in his finished work alone. For only Christ can give me a righteous standing before the

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Lord God. John MacArthur defined faith as the confident, continuous confession of total dependence on and trust in Jesus Christ for the necessary requirements to enter

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God's kingdom. Faith is much more than merely an intellectual knowledge of certain truths.

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It is knowing, it is believing and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.

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Faith results in a yielding, submission and absolute surrender to the

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Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is based on grace alone through faith alone in Christ Jesus alone that the righteousness of God comes to repentant sinners.

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In other words, faith is the exact opposite of self -effort. Faith is the exact opposite of self -reliance.

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It is the exact opposite of dependence upon ourselves. Thus, a sincere faith is an authentic faith.

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It is an earnest, genuine and true recognition of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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The term sincere literally means not being pretend. It means that you're not just playing a part.

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It means you're not just acting the part. It means that your faith is real. It is without deceit, it is without hypocrisy.

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Hypocrisy refers to someone who is insincere, someone who hides behind a mask, hides behind a pretense, disguising their thoughts and feelings to mislead others.

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A hypocrite is a phony. A hypocrite is not real, not genuine, but a pretender. It is someone who is play acting, someone who gives the impression of having certain purposes or motives while in reality having entirely different ones.

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The term sincere addresses what is happening on the inside, just below our words and our actions.

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It moves past the outward appearance of things and directly addresses and reveals the heart.

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An insincere faith, a hypocritical faith, plays to the audience. It ignores or forgets that the

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Lord God sees our actual thoughts and the true intentions of our hearts. You may be able to publicly display an outward show of faith that looks good and genuine to everyone around you, but the

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Lord God can see right through you. An insincere and hypocritical faith reveals a heart that is directed not towards the

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Lord God, but toward self. An insincere faith is self -pleasing and self -serving.

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On the other hand, a sincere faith, a genuine faith, is directed towards the Lord God, and it results in loving

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God and loving others because you wanna please the Lord God out of gratitude and thankfulness for all that he is and for all that he has done.

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A sincere faith is a genuine faith. It is a faith without hypocrisy.

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The aim of Paul and Timothy was love, agape love. The love of God is agape love.

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The love of God is a love that gives. It is selfless. It is sacrificial. It is volitional and determined.

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It sees the highest good for another and seeks to deliver that good no matter the cost.

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Paul and Timothy sought to deliver that good by preaching sound doctrine.

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Certain persons at Ephesus needed to be confronted because they were teaching a different doctrine.

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The goal, instruction, purpose, and aim of Paul and Timothy was love, and there is nothing more loving than proclaiming sound doctrine.

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There is nothing more loving than gently correcting those in error with the truth of God.

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There's nothing more pleasing to the Lord God and beneficial to mankind than the proclamation of the truth of the scriptures.

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Beloved, our love for others is to be agape. It is to be giving. It is to be selfless.

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It is to be sacrificial. It is to recognize the greatest need of another and deliver the highest good for another no matter the personal cost.

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And what is the greatest need of man? What does a man need more than anything else? Man's greatest need is to hear the truth of the gospel and to be reconciled to the

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Lord God. This is the truth that each of us is to proclaim in love.

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2 Corinthians 5 .20, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

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Agape love, our aim, our goal, our instruction, our purpose does not mean that we are superficial in our affirmation, encouragement and service to others.

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But what it means is that we will do everything possible to help people be reconciled to the

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Lord God through genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus in love, we implore, we beg, we pray, we beseech our fellow man to be reconciled to the

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Lord God through the proclamation of the word which exposes false doctrine.

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And this love originates from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

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In other words, biblical love stems from having a right relationship with the

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Lord God. It stems from knowing the Lord God, wanting to please the Lord God, wanting to glorify the

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Lord God. The aim of the certain persons at Ephesus was not love because their hearts were not pure, but impure.

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Their consciences were not good, but evil and condemning. Their faith was not sincere, but insincere and hypocritical.

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Paul further exposed these false teachers in the latter chapters of 1 Timothy, 1

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Timothy 6, one through five. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

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Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

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He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicion, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

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These teachers at Ephesus were puffed up, they were conceited, and they were without understanding.

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These men craved controversy and quarrels, and the fruit of their ministry was envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicion, and constant friction.

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These teachers were depraved in their minds and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness was a means to great gain.

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Their goal was not love, but gain, financial gain.

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Their hearts were divided, their consciences were seared, and their faith hypocritical.

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Beloved, the only doctrine that is sound and pleasing to the Lord God is doctrine that instructs how to love the

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Lord God and how to love others. Sound doctrine and love go hand in hand.

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You cannot have one without the other. Today, in an attempt to be relevant, there are some churches who tolerate all sorts of error and foolishness.

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Their love is without doctrine. It is empty, it is undiscerning.

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There are other churches that cherish truth over and above everything else. Their doctrine is without love, and their message is nothing more than a loud and noisy gong.

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Philip Graham Ryken remarked, if we are not great lovers, then there is something wrong with our love or our doctrine or both.

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Beloved, sound doctrine, love for the Lord God and love for others are inseparable.

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You cannot please the Lord God without sound doctrine, nor can you please the Lord God without love.

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Therefore, make sure that your heart is pure. Make sure that your conscience is good.

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Make sure that your faith is sincere. These three things will produce in you a great love for God and a great love for others.

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Beloved, this is to be your aim, a love for the Lord God and a love for others, and that issues from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith.

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If you swerve from these things, there will be trouble, which we'll cover next time in verses six to 11.

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Let's pray. Our Father, we recognize that you are love.

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You define love. Love does not define you. And we thank you for your love for us.

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Lord, there is nothing worthy in us, and yet you set your love upon us. We thank you for the

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Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice. And Lord, we pray that in love, we would not only devote our lives to you entirely, but also to other people.

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We pray that we would have a sacrificial and selfless love towards one another, that we would serve one another, not looking for praise or anything in return, but we do it because you are love, and we want to reflect that in our lives.

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So Lord, help us look around for opportunities. Help us to look at others, relationships, friends, family, coworkers, neighbors.

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Help us, Lord, demonstrate that love by sharing the truth of God with them. Help us to lovingly expose error and point people to the truth of your word.

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Lord, this isn't an easy thing to do. No one likes confrontation.

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But Lord, we are called to proclaim your truth. We are your ambassadors. And so Lord, help us to accomplish this in the power of your spirit.