The Unconverted “Believer” (13): Only a Form of Godliness 05/09/2021

First Baptist Church Leominster

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into the Jewish synagogue and he stood up and began to preach that Jesus was the promised

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Messiah. He could assume that these Jews knew a lot of things about the one true

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God, about sin, the need of redemption, the coming Messiah, he preached Christ.

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But then he went out in the marketplace and they brought him up to Morris Hill and now he was preaching to a different crowd, the

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Gentiles, who were clueless about everything. And we're, this is the kind of world we're in today.

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You can't, you can't assume people know anything today. And so Paul really illustrates how we can present the gospel to a world of pagans.

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And we start at the creation and we talk about the end -time judgment and we talk about Jesus Christ, the

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Son of God, who will be the judge and the need to turn from sin and believe on him for salvation.

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And so Acts chapter 17. Acts 17.

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Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollyonia, they came to Thessalonica where there was a synagogue of the

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Jews. And Paul went in as it was his custom on the

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Sabbath day and he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead and saying, this

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Jesus whom I proclaim to you is Christ. And some of them were persuaded and joined

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Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.

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But the Jews were jealous and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd.

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And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, these men have turned the world upside down and have come here also.

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And Jason has received them and they are acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king,

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Jesus. And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things.

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When they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

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The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the

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Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica, and they received the word with all eagerness, examining the

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Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few

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Greek women of the high standing as well as men. But when the

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Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds.

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Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there.

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Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him, as soon as possible, they departed.

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Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him, as he saw that the city was full of idols.

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So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

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Some of the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him, and some said, what does this babbler wish to say?

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And others said, he seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching

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Jesus and the resurrection. And they took hold of him and brought him to the

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Acropologus, saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting, for you bring some strange things to our ears.

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We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean. Now all the

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Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

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So Paul, standing in the midst of the Acropologus, said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

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For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship,

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I found also an altar with this inscription, to the unknown

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God. What therefore you worship as unknown, this

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I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, being

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Lord over heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed everything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

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And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek

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God in the hope they might feel they were their way toward him and find him.

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Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for in him we live and move and have our being.

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As even some of your own poets have said, for we are indeed his offspring.

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Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by art and the imagination of man.

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The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.

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And of this he has given assistance to all by raising him from the dead.

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And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, we will hear you again about this.

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So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed, among whom were also

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Dioceses and Arpa Pagate, and a woman named

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Demarius, and others with them. Let's pray.

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Our Father in heaven, we are so thankful to be here today. We're thankful for your word,

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Lord. And as we ponder these words that we heard, we think about many things in our world today,

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Lord. People with great doubts, people angry, but we ask the

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Lord that you would help us. So we're thankful for this series of sermons to help us,

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Lord, help us to be sure that we belong to Jesus Christ.

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And so we come, Lord, giving great thanks to you, for you have blessed us as individuals, as families, certainly our church,

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Lord, in so many different ways. So we come before you, Lord, and ask that you would open our eyes and our hearts to Christ.

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Then we pray, Father, for our pastor as he brings the sermon. May we hear perhaps something new,

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Lord. Please help those that do not know

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Christ, that they might come to know him today. So we give thanks in Christ's name, amen.

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Well, let's turn in our Bibles to 2nd Timothy chapter 3, please. I have a stool up here now

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I'm gonna try and sit on. Sometimes after standing for an hour, my legs get kind of weak.

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I think I take a medication that lowers my potassium. I've read that maybe that's the problem.

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So Mary's been force -feeding me bananas on Sunday morning before I come to church, so I hope that this will be alleviated.

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If it's good enough for R .C. Sproul for so many years, I guess it's good enough for me. And you know the

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Lord Jesus himself, that's the way rabbis taught in the first century. They would come in, they would open the scriptures, read them, then they would sit down and teach.

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And so as awkward as I feel doing this, I'd feel more awkward falling down,

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I guess. All right, 2nd Peter 3. Among Paul's many epistles that he wrote that we have in our

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New Testament, three of them were addressed to two young men in the pastoral ministry, both

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Titus and Timothy. They served, of course, alongside the Apostle. They were young men. Until the time they were prepared to oversee their own ministry apart and away from the

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Apostle. By then they were so equipped he could send them out fully confident that they would be suitable men for the ministry.

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And so it was then as he was sending them out that Paul wrote the epistles of 1st and 2nd Timothy as well as Titus, and that's why they're called the pastoral epistles, to instruct them in how to serve the

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Church of God. Paul, of course, sent Titus to the island of Crete as an evangelist, no doubt to evangelize the island, but perhaps also to establish, better establish, churches that had already been in place.

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And then Paul sent Timothy to pastor the church at Ephesus, 1st and 2nd

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Timothy, instructing him on how to do that rightly. The church at Ephesus, a church that Paul himself had started sometime before.

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Paul had not only instructed these men on how to minister the Word of God to the Lord's people, but he also warned them of the challenges that were before them.

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And in 2nd Timothy, chapter 3, we read of the problem of nominal Christianity.

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Today's the 13th Lord's Day, we're given to this important subject. The problem of nominal

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Christianity that Timothy would encounter in his pastoral ministry there at the church at Ephesus, and it would be at a time that Paul describes here in the

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Scriptures as in the last days. Christians in name only were a significant problem in the church at Ephesus, as we'll see.

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Nominal Christianity has continued, of course, to be a significant ministerial problem in the churches of Jesus Christ throughout the last 2 ,000 plus years.

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Now we're going to read all of 2nd Timothy 3, but then we're going to give attention to the first five verses.

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But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come for men who will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self -control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away.

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For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

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Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth.

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Men of corrupt minds disapprove concerning the faith, but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also.

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But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long -suffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions

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I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and be deceived.

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But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the

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Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

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All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

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Now in the early verses of this chapter, verses 2 through 4, we read of a number of sins. It is a sin list and there are at least five places in the

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New Testament where sins are listed in this fashion. These include 1st

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Corinthians 6, Galatians 5, Ephesians 5, Revelation 22, and then here in 2nd

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Timothy chapter 3. A few of these lists highlight the sins of the fallen non -christian world, but in this list of 2nd

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Timothy 3, 2 through 4, the Holy Spirit has identified the sins of those who profess to be

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Christian. You may not think so when you first read them, but we'll consider the context.

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He's talking about nominal Christians. These are sins that characterize those who claim to be

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Christian, but by their practice of these sins they prove themselves to be Christian in name only.

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And so let's consider this pastoral problem of nominal

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Christianity and how the Word of God would have pastors and churches address it. So let's first consider ministering to churches through perilous times in the last days.

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Paul warned Timothy that he would be ministering the Word of God in the last days, which would be characterized as perilous times.

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Now we hear and read much about the last days in a lot of popular Christian literature and most people assume upon hearing that expression the last days refer to a time shortly before the second coming of Jesus Christ at the end of the age.

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And though this may be true in some places of the Scriptures, it's not true in every instance that this expression is used and it's not true here.

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The Bible presents this entire gospel age as the last days. That's very important.

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They are the days that God had long promised to his people when he set up his kingdom and enthroned the son of David, his own son, who would rule over the nations of the world.

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We're living in the last days. Paul set forth Timothy, you're going to be ministering in these last days,

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Timothy. Peter declared the onset of these last days on the day of Pentecost when

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God fulfilled his promise of sending the Holy Spirit upon his people. Peter preached, it shall come to pass in the last days, says

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God, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh, fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel.

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And then the epistle of Hebrews referenced the last days clearly referring to this gospel age in which

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God had spoken to his son Jesus Christ. The opening words of Hebrews, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds.

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And then Peter used a similar expression in his first epistle, not identical but synonymous.

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He wrote of these last times, 1st Peter 1, 18 and following, knowing that you are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish without spot he indeed was for ordained before the foundation of the world but must manifest in these last times for you.

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We are living in the days of fulfillment, the last days, who through him believe in God who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God.

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John Calvin who wrote a commentary on this passage in the pastoral epistles reasoned that the last days was a reference to this church age by simply pointing out that Timothy would be ministering in these last days.

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Can't be at the end of the age if Timothy was going to be ministering in these last days. Verse 5,

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Paul instructed Timothy to turn away from those professing Christians who were living in these sins.

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So here are Calvin's comments, from those turn away this exhortation sufficiently shows that Paul does not speak of a distant posterity, in other words just before the second coming of Christ, nor foretell what would happen many ages afterwards but that by pointing out present evils he applies to his own age what he had said about the last times and then

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Calvin reasoned for how could Timothy turn away from those who are not to arise till many centuries afterward and that's certainly true.

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So then from the very beginning of the gospel the church must have begun to be affected by such corruptions but the announcement that the in these last days there would be perilous times would have been unexpected by the

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Jewish people. The reason is that it was taught that in the last days after the establishment of the kingdom of God the promised son of David ruling there would be peace and security an absence of trouble and hostility.

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Again John Calvin wrote but under the last days he concludes the universal condition of the

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Christian Church nor does he compare his own age with ours. So Calvin was referring to the 16th century he wasn't talking about future times but on the contrary informs

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Timothy of what will be the future condition of the kingdom of Christ for many imagined some sort of condition that would be absolutely peaceful free from any annoyance.

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In short he means that there will not be even under the gospel such a state of perfection that all vices shall be banished virtues of every kind shall flourish and that therefore the pastors of the

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Christian Church will have quite as much to do with wicked and ungodly men as the prophets and godly priests had in ancient times.

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Hence it follows that there is no time for idleness or for repose. So here we glean from Paul's instruction to Timothy a very important aspect of the gospel ministry probably one that most

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Christians don't realize. To identify and address nominal

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Christians in the church and to protect the people of God from their ruinous influence that's what

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Paul was telling Timothy to do. Ministers have the responsibility to warn and alert the people of God to the dangers that are before them and not just out in the world but in the churches.

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John Owen wrote of this when he was addressing what he called perilous times that was the sermon that he gave and so justification of my present design and that is to warn the churches if God enabled me on to it

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I shall hear premise that it is the duty of the ministers of the gospel to foresee and take notice of the dangers which the churches are falling into and the

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Lord help us and all other ministers to be awakened to this part of their duty. You know how

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God sets forth in the parable of the watchman to warn men of approaching dangers and truly

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God has given us this law if we warn the churches of their approaching dangers we discharge our duty if we do not their blood will be required at our hands.

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The Spirit of God foresaw the negligence apt to grow upon us in this matter and therefore the scripture only proposed that the duty on the one hand and on the other requires the people's blood at the hands of the watchman if they perform not their duty it is the duty of ministers of the gospel to give warning of impending dangers.

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Now it's important to note that the perilous times in this context are not directly or direct reference to the difficulties that the

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Christians would face in the fallen world at large although they certainly would live within a hostile and dangerous world that's not

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Paul's focus and indeed there are many words of scripture that warn of the dangers that God's people would encounter in a hostile world but here

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Paul was warning of perilous times that Timothy would encounter in the church. Paul was writing of perilous times that would be encountered in the church of Jesus Christ and so this was like Peter who wrote but there were false prophets among the people talking about Old Testament times even as there will be false teachers among you who will secretly bring in destructive heresies even denying the

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Lord who bought them and bring on themselves swift destruction these are false teachers in the churches and many will follow their destructive ways these are

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Christians professing Christians following the teaching of false teachers because of whom the way of truth will be blaspheme and by covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words they're in it for the money and for a long time their judgment has been idle and their destruction does not slumber.

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Now we might just give a quick word of application for ourselves it's very clear to evangelical

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Christians everywhere that we're at the onset of very difficult times on the world scene.

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They're arresting pastors on Canada this week last week they arrested a man in England who stood up was reading from the scriptures on the street passages that denounced the sin of homosexuality they arrested him put him in jail reading the scriptures publicly there is a sense of ominous apprehension due to the degradation of our culture and the disintegration and disappearance of much blessing that our

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Lord has bestowed upon our nation in the past difficult days are ahead for Christians in this fallen world and we need to be informed and aware of how we may face the challenges before us but I can imagine that the

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Apostle Paul or the other Christian leaders of the first century could have said similar things about the political climate of their day.

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There was the loss of order and civility taking place in the Roman Empire in the middle of the first century the

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Caesars were eroding in character they were less statesmen and more tyrannical and more despotic demanding to be worshipped as God by the end of the first century there was increasing threat and danger of a hostile civil government against the

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Christian faith they would burst forth and organize in horrendous state persecution that would continue for several centuries.

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With regard to Timothy here in second Timothy three and what Timothy was facing the great concern before him was the well -being of true

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Christians and the church of which they were members. There were dangers and threats among and within the church itself that Timothy would need to address and correct and we would say the same danger and concern is before the churches of Jesus Christ today.

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The perilous days continue in these last days of this kingdom age there's a need to awaken and address churches to the reality that there are among them those who have but a form of godliness while they deny the power necessary to become godly in life.

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In short there's a great need to address this problem of nominal Christianity within the churches of Jesus Christ and frankly

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I don't hear people doing it. Everybody's talking about the hard world out there and there's a need for that.

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I don't hear a lot being said about the nominal Christianity in evangelical churches which

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I think is rampant. Now that Paul was speaking of nominal Christians here in churches and not of the of the world is quite clear.

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It's clear from his description of them in second Timothy three verse five. He wrote of them that they had a form of godliness but denying its power.

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This is at the list after the list of sins are identified. Among all of these sins they're committing they have a form of godliness.

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Matthew Henry wrote Timothy must not think it's strange if there were in the church bad men for the net of the gospel was to enclose both good fish and bad.

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Jesus Christ had foretold that there would come seducers and therefore we must not be offended at it nor think the worse of religion or the church for it.

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Even in gold ore there will be dross and a great deal of chaff among the wheat when it lies on the floor.

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Though gospel times were times of Reformation in many respects let him know that even in gospel times there would be perilous times.

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Not so much on account of persecution from without as on account of corruptions within.

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These would be difficult times wherein it would be difficult for a man to keep a good conscience. He does not say perilous time shall come for both

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Jews and Gentiles shall be combined to root out Christianity but perilous time shall come for such as have the form of godliness verse five and shall be corrupt and wicked and do a great deal of damage to the church.

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Then Henry said this two traitors within the garrison may do more hurt to it than two thousand besiegers without or outside.

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Perilous time shall come for men shall be wicked. So let's consider this matter.

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First these nominal Christians had but a form of godliness. These people have only a form of godliness.

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The word form conveys the idea of shape, fashion, or appearance.

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Appearance is a good synonym. As used elsewhere in Scripture Paul wrote to a church abstain from every form of evil and the newer translations or maybe it's the

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King James says avoid every appearance of evil. The word form could mean appearance.

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A similar use of the word is in the record of the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus at his baptism and the

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Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him and a voice came from heaven and said you are my beloved son in whom in you

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I am well pleased. In other words the Holy Spirit appeared like a dove descending from heaven landing upon Jesus and here in 2nd

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Timothy 3 .5 Paul was indicating that these people though characterized by the sins listed in verses 2 through 4 had the form or mere appearance that they were

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Christians. He's talking about nominal Christianity, Christians in name only and it was it was

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Timothy's responsibility to identify them and purify the church of their bad influence through their pernicious presence.

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Now again some may question the need or value of addressing the subject of our present series. We've entitled the unconverted believer but we see from the

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Apostles words to Timothy in preparing him to serve as the pastor of the church at Ephesus that one of his principal duties, one of his primary challenges would be to address and awaken nominal

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Christians to true salvation even while protecting and preserving the church from their detrimental influence.

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Is that not what he's telling Timothy? John Owen wrote there is a time when persons who claim the holy name and title of Christians are as bad if not worse in their lives than the world of pagans.

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And what makes time perilous for churches Owen wrote but where lies the peril of the times truly

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I don't think that all the world together can give so great a character of the world of which they call the

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Christian world at this day. He's talking about the corruption in the British Empire in the 17th century as is given here by the

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Apostle that is they live in the open practice of all the horrible lusts and yet continue a form of godliness that is continue a profession of the

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Christian religion. In other words the times are perilous because of the great danger and prevalence of nominal

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Christians in churches. It was the duty of Timothy, it was his calling to awaken people to true salvation to rescue them from the state of damnation in which they stood even while they thought themselves to have been saved.

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Paul had written of the same matter in his first epistle to Timothy, this is the second letter, after first exhorting

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Timothy to live godly while departing from sin and all its forms he instructed Timothy to make the effort to see that nominal

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Christians are genuinely converted. First Timothy, flee also youthful lusts, he's talking to a preacher here a pastor, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the

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Lord out of a pure heart but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes knowing that they generate strife and a servant of the

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Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all able to teach patient in humility correcting those who are in opposition.

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Why? Well for this conditional reason if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive but by him to do his will.

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They're professing Christians taken captive by the devil and they're doing his will even while they have a form of godliness.

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A false Christian may have a form of godliness he thinks and claims that he is a Christian and many in the church also think he is true

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Christian but he denies the power of God that accompanies those who are truly saved by the grace of God.

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His Christianity is largely a matter of externals visible traits he shows himself before others as though he were a

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Christian but when he's apart from Christians when he's alone or is when he's with those like him his true character comes to the surface but his outward appearance or form seems to serve him or mask the reality of his heart while in church.

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He is in reality as the scribes and Pharisees of whom Jesus declared woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish while inside they are full extortion and self -indulgence blind

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Pharisee first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish that the outside of them may be clean also woe to you scribes

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Pharisees hypocrites for you're like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear a form beautiful outwardly but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness and even so also outwardly appear righteous to men but inside your full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

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I cut out four pages of notes this morning out of this sermon in which

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I was going to show the Lord Jesus was doing exactly what Paul told Timothy to do he came into Israel and separated the wheat from the chaff and all those superficial people claiming they were you know citizens of the kingdom he said no no no you're not you only look like it you only have a form of righteousness but but you're ungodly and that's basically a major function of the gospel ministry that's what we're called to do but again

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I don't see the emphasis and so a

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Christian may have a form of godliness he's not a true Christian but a hypocrite whose spiritual true spiritual state is dead still and remain as long and unless God does a miraculous work of saving greats in his soul and so again to cite

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Calvin writing of false Christians and here he was hitting hard on the

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Roman Catholic system you know as the Protestants were coming out of Roman Catholicism and and Catholic you know

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Rome cleaned up its act in a great deal because Protestants were making such inroads because of the very clear hypocrisy of the leadership of the established church and Calvin he hit on it even in the present day this is this is early 1500s or mid 1500s even in the present day although the lewdness of the

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Popish clergy is such that it stinks in the nostrils of the whole world that's the direct approach still in spite of their wickedness they do not cease to arrogate proudly to themselves all the rights and titles of Saints accordingly when

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Paul says that hypocrites though they are chargeable with the grossest vices nevertheless deceive under a mask of piety this ought not to appear strange when we have examples before our eyes and indeed the world deserves to be deceived by those wicked scoundrels when it either despises or cannot endure true holiness and besides Paul enumerates those vices which are not visible at first sight which are even the ordinary attendants of pretended holiness is there a hypocrite who's not proud who's not a lover of himself who's not a despiser of others who's not fierce and cruel who's not treacherous but all these are concealed from the eyes of men to spend time in explaining every word would be superfluous for the words do not need exposition only let my readers observe that self -love which is put first may be regarded as a source from which all the vices that follow afterwards he who loves himself claims a superiority in everything despises all others is cruel indulges in covetousness treachery anger rebellion against parents neglect of what is good in such light as it was a design of Paul to brand false prophets with such marks that they might be seen and known by all it's our duty to open our eyes that we may say see those who are pointed out with the finger so again you know he's arguing that this is one of the primary responsibilities of the man of God in the church now of course we would certainly say that the same likes these people who have an appearance of form of Christianity but denying the power of may be found easily in Protestant as well as Roman Catholic Orthodox Anglican Lutheran Bible and Baptist independent churches the world over it's a problem now notice next at these nominal

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Christians had better form of godliness but denying its power this was at the heart of the problem they had a wrong view of what it was to be a

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Christian our evangelical world is plagued with nominal Christians in churches because the church has failed to show forth the need of the power of God to convert sinners to Christ churches have often reduced the concept of salvation merely to the forgiveness of sins we've already hit on this in different ways they do not teach salvation from sin but salvation in sins and this is a deficient and unbiblical view of salvation or the churches teach that sinners have the ability in and of themselves to convert themselves at any time they wish it's assumed that people are and people are told that they may be saved by their free will that is by a decision on their part in which there's no thought whatsoever for the need of God's power to make a saint out of a sinner fallen man desires even assists that he can be the determiner of his own destiny and that's the assumption of so much preaching coming to Christ for salvation assumed to be in the power of the creature that he can come anytime he chooses for he has a free will and that God will stand by passively until a sinner desires and then decides to become a

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Christian to be saved and so he's urged to come forward bow down pray a prayer and then he's assured that he's a

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Christian that God has forgiven and forgiven him of his sins and he's escaped the penalty of hell and he's now a citizen and heir of heaven he's told that all he needs to have his sins forgiven he really doesn't need any power divine power to do that if he just believes the right things about who

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Jesus is and what Jesus did on the cross for sinners doesn't take any power for that and then he's added to the church but true salvation is and must be demonstrated by new life in Christ Charles Spurgeon this is one of the hardest paragraphs

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I think I could possibly read before us Spurgeon wrote of the actual life of a person is the evidence of salvation not the mere profession or claim that he's a

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Christian a real change of life is the proof that salvation has been received by the sinner and so this is from the book the soul winner another proof of the conquest of a soul for Christ will be found in a real change of life if the man does not live differently from what he did before both at home and abroad his repentance needs to be repented of that's

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King James language from 2nd Corinthians 7 and his conversion is a fiction not only action and language but spirit and temper must be changed but says someone grace is often grafted on a crab stock

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I know it is but what is the fruit of the grafting the fruit will be like the graft not after the nature of the original stem but says another

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I have an awful temper and all of a sudden it overcomes me my anger is soon over and I feel very penitent though I cannot control myself

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I'm quite sure I'm a Christian not so fast Spurgeon wrote not so fast my friend or I may answer that I am quite as sure the other way what is the use of your soon cooling off if two or three moments you scald all around you if a man stabs me in a fury it will not heal my wound to see him grieving over his madness hasty temper must be conquered and the whole man must be renewed or conversion will be questionable we're not to hold up a modified holiness before our people and say if you will be alright if you reach that standard the scripture says he that commits sin is of the devil now we all commit sin he's quoting from from John's epistle and it's talking about somebody who's living in sin practicing sin that's what he's talking about we all sin anyone says he has no sin he's fooling himself making

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God a liar but this is talking about somebody who's living like the sins listed in 2nd

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Timothy 3 2 through 4 abiding under the power of any known sin is a mark of our being the servants of sin for his servants ye are to whom you obey idol or the boast of a man who harbors within himself the love of any transgression

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I'm a Christian but I'm still gonna live as a drunkard

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I'm a Christian but I'm still going to live you know as an adulterous latch no you're not a

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Christian you can be standing in a pulpit and preaching you're not a

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Christian he may feel what he likes and believe what he likes he's still in the gull of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity while a single sin rules his heart and life

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Jesus is Lord not the devil true regeneration in other words the new birth implants a hatred of all evil and where one sin is delighted in in other words lived in this is what controls your life orders your life now

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I'm not talking about habits that we can fall into that we can't break out of we struggle against and it may be prolonged but the very fact that you're fighting against it indicates that it's not your

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Lord is plaguing you not leading you about on a leash so to speak true regeneration plants a hatred of all evil and where one sin is delighted in the evidence is fatal to a sound hope a man need not take a dozen poisons to destroy his life one is quite sufficient so there must be harmony between the life and the profession a

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Christian professes to renounce sin and if he does not do so his very name is an imposture a drunken man came up to Roland Hill one day said

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I'm one of your converts mr. Hill I dare say you are replied that shrewd and sensible preacher but you're none of the

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Lord's or you would not be drunk and to this practical test we must bring all our work it takes power

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God's power to become a Christian salvation is more than just the forgiveness of sins in fact the

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Bible of course teaches that becoming a Christian is a spiritual resurrection the

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Word of God sets for salvation involving a far greater matter than just believing as important as that is it's likened on to a spiritual resurrection the

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Son of God must perform or the sinner will remain dead and his trespasses and sins Jesus taught most assuredly

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I tell you the hour is coming and now is he's not talking about a future physical resurrection he's talking about present spiritual resurrection the hour is coming and now is when the dead spiritually dead will hear the voice of the

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Son of God and those here who will live that's spiritual resurrection for as the father is life in himself so he's granted the son to have life in himself has given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the son of man he was not speaking of our future physical resurrection here he does so in the next verse and following here you speaking of a spiritual resurrection that he performs when he converts a dead sinner into a living

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Christian Paul had written to the

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Church of Ephesus on another occasion we won't take the time to read that whole passage because of the time but he was prayed that the

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Christians at the church at Ephesus that the Lord would open their eyes to see that they didn't find

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Jesus on their own but rather the power of God was operative upon them and in them when they were sinners and he caused them to be raised from the dead onto life salvation is a spiritual resurrection and then secondly becoming a

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Christian bottom page 7 is likened on to God creating life Paul declared to the

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Christians in the church at Corinth their coming to salvation was the same kind of power that God employed when in Genesis chapter 1 when he created the heavens of the earth and he made the

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Sun and said let there be light Paul says since we have this ministry as we receive mercy we don't lose heart but we've renounced the hidden things of shame in other words we don't we don't twist the

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Word of God in order to get people to make professions not walking and crafting us or handling the Word of God deceitfully telling them half -truths but rather by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God but even if our gospel is veiled people don't see it they don't understand it but even if it is veiled why is that it's veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the

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God of this age as the devil has blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel the glory of Christ shine upon them who is the image of God should shine on them and then

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Paul says we don't preach ourselves we preach Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your monservants for Christ's sake verse 6 for it is the

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God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness Genesis 1 who has shown in our heart same act of creation to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Satan blinds the eyes of the unbelievers and the

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Lord turns on the light removing the blindness and they see the gospel they see their sin they see salvation and they embrace it they become saved salvation is a new creation not just the forgiveness of sins as critically important as that is and then thirdly becoming a

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Christian is God causing one to experience a new birth into a new life very common metaphor

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John chapter three Jesus told the teacher of Israel most assuredly

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I say to you you must be born again that's the new birth in it or you're not even going to see the kingdom of God and then

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Peter wrote of being born again not by corruptible seed you know human seed but rather by the seed of the

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Word of God the Word of God is powerful and blessed of the Lord and the Word of God is sown in the heart when we hear it and we see it

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God gives us the understanding of it it takes root in our heart and all of a sudden spiritual life springs forth it's a it is this in this new birth we're born again by the

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Word of God certainly we're justified before God through faith alone but salvation entails much more than believing alone it can only occur when

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God's great power is put forward and so will not be as those in 2nd

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Timothy 3 verse 5 denying the power of God in salvation because that will only result in you having just a form an appearance of Christianity not the real thing well how do you deal with nominal

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Christians who fail or refuse to repent of sin and be converted Paul tells Timothy what to do how is he to deal with false professors of Christ when they were discovered and they refuse to repent of their sin now obviously if they're concerned and their desire should be patient you you do everything you can but when they become belligerent you know and and reject you whatnot what are you what's

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Timothy supposed to do how do you deal with them who had a form of godliness but deny its power they're hardened in their sin from such people turn away is the instruction that Paul gives to Timothy what does this mean from such people turn away

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Timothy as the pastor this church was to turn himself and his church away from accepting and treating these nominal

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Christians as if they were true Christians turn away from them don't coddle them don't bolster their delusions only those who are truly converted should be admitted to the church family who have been regenerated by the grace of God who have manifest new life in Christ John Gill a

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Reformed Baptist who pastored Spurgeon's Church a hundred years before there in London explained the meaning of these words from such turn away have no fellowship with them depart from their communion withdraw from them come out from among them he's not talking about unbelievers in the world he's talking about unconverted people in the church the church has to identify them now this is not instruction for churches to forbid church attendance of anyone we do not do that unless they're disrupted to the worship of God we welcome and desire all would come under the hearing of the

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Word of God and clearly unbelievers attended churches in the first century but we're not to declare people to be

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Christians and welcome them formally into the church family unless and until they give evidence of new life in Christ how else can a church of Jesus Christ experience and enjoy true fellowship with the

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Lord and with one another unless the church is comprised of true believers only it cannot happen

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Paul reason in 2nd Corinthians 6 do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers he wasn't saying separate from unbelievers in the world he's talking about in the churches he made that clear in 1st

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Corinthians 5 for what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness there's no common ground there these people who only have a form of godliness but deny the power the other characterized by these sins in 2nd

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Timothy 3 4 through 5 and they're not fighting against those sins they're living in them there's no common ground with true

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Christians in the church there's no fellowship what accordance what agreement is there

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Christ and Belial the devil or what part has a believer with an unbeliever there's no common ground there as far as fellowship communion what agreement as the temple of God with idols you are the temple of the

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Living God he's writing to the church at Corinth you as a church are the temple of the Living God as God has said

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I will dwell in them walk among them I will be their God they shall be my people therefore what are you supposed to do come out from among them you're not saying come out of the world but come out and be separate says the

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Lord do not touch what is unclean I'll receive you and I'll be a father to you you should be my sons and daughters say as the

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Lord Almighty the Lord withholds his presence and power from the church that's filled with people who only have a form of godliness but who deny the power he won't manifest himself to them and so Paul gave

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Timothy instruction from such turn away and I believe this instruction strongly supports a historical understanding and commitment of Reform Baptist churches to maintain a regenerate church membership this is not the concern or consistent effort of Pato Baptist Church as those who say baptized children of believing parents that is not required of church membership as long as they profess to believe the right things they are regarded and treated as members that's in their confessions not just those who profess the true faith but also their children but Baptist churches have always held forth we only baptize disciples those who turn from sin and committed to follow

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Jesus baptized disciples in the name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit and only they are admitted to full communion in the local church nobody's perfect in doing that but this is our desire this is our goal this is our effort it's important for us to know and understand that for Timothy to turn away from these nominal

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Christians was not giving up on them or acting cruelly toward them not at all the very action that Timothy was to take respecting them could possibly result in their salvation by Timothy making it very clear to these ones that they had no part or place among the people of God God might awaken them to their rear real spiritual condition and then the

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Lord might use that to move them to seek true salvation on the other hand if Timothy failed to take action then these people might continue to presume they had salvation or continue to believe that salvation was a very little importance and of little difficulty to obtain these people might continue in their self -delusion that they are saved but by setting them apart and declaring to them that they are strangers to the saving grace of God Timothy was doing the best thing that could be done for their spiritual well -being and for the eternal benefit of their souls it's not unloving to tell a non -christian he's not a

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Christian although it might upset him offend him initially most of us

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I imagine many of us can testify the first time that somebody told us you're not a

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Christian been a year since Bob McDonald passed he was sitting in this church after World War two and a

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Navy friend came to visit him and and this this friend asked Bob are you born again

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Bob said my first reaction was anger and then after the after the fact he thought about you know

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I'm not you know initially when somebody confronts us and challenges that that's what comes out anger

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I could tell you stories and and that's why he says to Timothy all who who you know who live godly will suffer persecution you don't win friends you know and influence your enemies by telling them they're sinners and they're going to hell unless they return from their sin and come to Christ that that will get a reaction but that's just it's supposed to we're trying to rescue them you know from the pit and from themselves that's the issue to save them from themselves deliver yourself but this action of Timothy would also and I got to finish this in the next few minutes it would also be necessary and best for the church not just for the people the church to which the

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Apostle was sending Timothy to pastor Paul gave the same nature of instruction to the church at Corinth and this is in first Corinthians five it was putting up with a nominal

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Christian it's actually reported their sexual immorality among you and such sexual immorality is not even named among the

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Gentiles he was a member of the church that a man has his father's wife we won't go into detail and you're puffed up the church was proud they were so loving and merciful and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from among you this is what

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Paul told Timothy do to do in 2nd Timothy 3 for I indeed is absent in body but present in spirit have already judged as though I were present he who has done this deed in the name of our

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Lord Jesus Christ when you're gathered together it's the church not a pastor but the church along with my spirit apostolic authority it's the it's the will of God with the power of our

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Lord or the authority of the Lord Jesus to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh for what purpose that his spirit might be saved in the day of the

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Lord he had to be separated from his sin or he's going to be damned and so the

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Apostle declared this action of the gathered church was necessary and important and might result in this man coming to see the reality and gravity of his sin leading him to repentance we don't have time but if we did we could go to 2nd

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Corinthians Paul wrote them because apparently the man did repent and wanted to come back to the church but then the church wouldn't take him back and Paul rebuked them for their hardness of heart and refusal and failure to take him back but at this point the church thought it had been loving toward this man and not condemning him even of his scandalous sin they were actually being very unloved unloving to him by and enabling him to continue in his sin while he thought he had salvation but then the

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Apostle declared it wasn't only beneficial for the for the man himself but also beneficial for the local church to take this action verses 6 and following of 1st

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Corinthians 5 your glory your boasting is not good do you not know that a little leaven leavens a whole lump the whole church is going to be corrupt if you don't do something about this man therefore purge out therefore purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump since you are truly unleavened for indeed

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Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the feast not with the old leaven nor the leaven of malice and wickedness but the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and so Paul then instructed the church a current to practice turning away from all nominal

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Christians that is they they were not to extend church membership that is church fellowship to professing

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Christians who are characterized by unrepentant egregious sin and here he referenced an earlier letter that he had written them that's not in our

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Bibles because it wasn't inspired but they had misread it they misunderstood what he had told them 1st

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Corinthians 5 9 through 13 he wrote this I wrote to you in my epistle there was another letter before 1st

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Corinthians not to keep with sexually immoral people but then he says but you misunderstood me yet I certainly did not mean with the sexually immoral people of this world we don't separate from them we want to see them saved or with the covetous or extortioners our idolaters and then you would need to go out of the world and of course that's an impossibility

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I never advocated that but he did say this but now I've written to you not to keep company what he means by this is fellowship

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Christian fellowship with anyone named a brother who claims to be a Christian has the form of godliness who is sexually immoral covetous and idolater a reviler a drunkard or extortioner not even to eat with such a person in other words you're not to extend

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Christian fellowship to him or her what have I to do with judging those also who are outside the church nothing he said that's

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God's business do you not judge those who are inside you should but those who are outside God judges therefore put away from yourselves the evil person let the

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Lord deal with him as long as in the church apparently that wouldn't happen putting him out of the church he would begin to suffer the consequences of his sin which might lead to his salvation and so here

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Paul was setting forth the will of God for this church to exercise your discipline it was to remove any and all nominal

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Christians from its fellowship that is official membership this must be done for the purpose to awaken those excluded people that are not living as true

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Christians that they must repent of their sin and turn to the Lord but also it must be done in order to maintain the clarity and purity of the

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Christian testimony of that local church but it's a sad reality that many evangelical churches have such a low standard or bar for prospective church members that the salvation which the

01:05:52

Word of God set forth is not required full input for full inclusion of membership and fellowship in the local church there's an often a drive a motivation to grow a church numerically that just about anyone who claims to be a believer is accepted into membership and no desire or effort is made to assess the validity of his profession and consider the evidence of new life in Christ he's assumed to be a

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Christian simply because he claims to be one hence nominal Christianity and weak churches and just a little word of personal testimony our own church had gone through a period of its history in the mid 20th century in which the congregation had become comprised largely of nominal

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Christians I wasn't here but this is what I've been told able to determine from the testimony of those in this church before me when this church called pastor

01:06:51

Dewar to be the pastor in the mid -1980s there were apparently very few members of this church that gave evidence of biblical

01:07:00

Christianity in their faith and practice pastor Dewar's ministry was one of evangelizing the members of this church and by the time he retired in about 1996 many here could testify that the

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Lord had brought them to true life in Christ under his ministry he bore the heat of the day but when we arrived

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Mary and I in 1998 23 years ago there were still over 300 names on the church membership roll and there were quite a number of nominal

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Christians in church every week at least from what we were able to determine but the

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Lord used the teaching and the preaching the proclamation of the word to separate the wheat from the chaff it didn't take all that long frankly those who had no true life in Christ determined they wanted no part of me or this church in the direction we were going and from that day we have sought to baptize only those who show forth evidence of new life in Christ in their souls and we propose only them for church membership and as a result our church over the years has moved toward a body in which true spiritual and biblical life and fellowship may be experienced and enjoyed by us well

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I hear stories about what it was like in years past you wonder why there is so much difficulty because there was no common life among many now our church membership formally is about the same as our church attendance but what is most important is that there is a common life that we share the same

01:08:43

Lord that we love the same scriptures that we value and desire to learn to which we all long to be conformed and it's this is the kind of church that the

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Lord would have us be and remain we want to grow larger but not at the expense of compromise of soundness strength and stability we do not desire to be as the church at Sardis of which the

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Lord said you have but a few names even in Sardis who've not defiled their garments there were only a few

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Christians in that church they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy rather we desire to be say as the church at Smyrna which was anticipating persecution coming from the world these things says the first and last who had dead came to life

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I know your works tribulation poverty but you are really rich and I know the blasphemy of those who say they're

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Jews they're not but are a synagogue of Satan do not fear any of those things which you're about to suffer indeed the devil is about to throw some of you into prison that you may be tested it's for a benefit you say and you will have tribulation trouble ten days perhaps referring to ten periods of persecution of the

01:09:58

Roman Empire I don't know be faithful unto death and I will give you the crown of life may our

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Lord help us to be more like Smyrna than the church in Sardis may the

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Lord grant great mercy and grace as we face the future in which we may encounter perilous times in both the world and the church may enable us by his presence and power among us and within us to remain faithful and true to him before a world that desperately needs to believe and submit to him as the only

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Lord and Savior amen and one final word you may not have been aware of it but if and you know since we've been here 23 years ago and you've come to join this church and particularly if you've come to be baptized and join this church

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I was looking more at you than just a profession of faith in Christ I was looking for an evidence of saving grace coming from your soul and I wouldn't have baptized you unless I saw that you know now we're not infallible in our assessments obviously and that's been proved over the years but as God enables us we want to have a church comprised of Christians who don't just have a form of godliness but are godly and we don't deny the power of God but rather we experience the power of God to help us to become more like Christ and live for righteousness that's our desire that certainly is the goal of this ministry amen let's pray thank you father for your word and we pray our