The Captivity of the Righteous Part 2 — Phil Beach Jr.

Father, thank You for Your presence here this morning. Thank You, Lord, that our hearts have been touched by Your grace and by Your mercy and by Your love. Thank You, Lord, that You have demonstrated so much longsuffering and patience and forbearance toward us.

Lord, we are so thankful this morning that we have been called into fellowship with You and Your Son and with the Holy Spirit. Lord, we ask this morning that in Your presence You would release the Holy Spirit in our hearts and in our minds, and You would release Your Word that is in your heart, and that You would enable each of us to hear in a very distinct way Your Word to us, to us as individuals and to Your church corporately.

We beg You, Father, to enable us to hear Your Word, to know Your heart. We beg You, Father, to take the scales from our eyes and soften our hearts, heal us from hardness and from callousness, Lord, and enable us, O God, to be soft clay in Your hands so that we might be able to experience being molded and conformed and the rough edges rubbed off and at times hammered off, Lord.

We just ask You, Father, to continue with Your patience and longsuffering until You see in us the likeness and image and glory and beauty and perfections that are inherent within Your only begotten Son, the King of Heaven, the Man of Man.

We praise You, Father, and just want to take these next few moments and dedicate them to You, Lord. Our only purpose in gathering together, Lord, is to glorify You and to hear Your Word, to hear Your voice, that we might be equipped, that we might be enabled to disperse and be the church and be the living stones through whom Your light and Your love and Your truth can permeate our world and permeate the darkness and that life might come forth.

O God, we pray to this end You would accomplish these purposes, Lord. We look to You, Father, in Jesus' name, Amen and Amen. Beloved, we've been talking about the captivity of the righteous and we're going to continue along those lines this morning.

The Captivity of the Righteous and the Need to Hear God

It's very important that we pray that God would open up our heart and enable us to hear His voice to us. So, we're going to look into some of the captivities, the things that have bound us, yet we are righteous in the Lord's eyes because of Christ.

Those who have children's church with your teachers, just go head up and I'd like to ask you if you would ask yourself a question now, okay? Ask yourself a question. How do I respond? Listen carefully.

How do I respond when I have to hear something that I don't like? Now, everybody listen carefully, all right? Listen carefully to your own heart and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit because what we're doing is we're going to begin to look in a systematic way at the captivity of the righteous.

The captivity of the righteous. That is, we're going to look at those things that the righteous are captive to. It's ironic but true because in Christ we're free and in Christ we're free from the penalty of our sins and in Christ we've been given the gift of eternal life and in Christ we are to be servants to God alone.

But the fact of the matter is, and this is the whole story of Christianity, this is actually the whole story of God's history with His children. He's continuously revealed Himself, beginning with Abraham, calling him out of a land where they served many gods and they served idols and it was God's passion and God's desire to make Himself known to Abraham as the true and living God.

You see, from all eternity, God's passion was to have a family. A family of sons and daughters. But the thing that would make this family distinct from all the families of the earth is that this family would be captive to Him alone.

Captive. Bound to Him. Devoted to Him. Finding in Him all their satisfaction. Finding in Him all of their peace. And it's been the history of God's dealings with His people from the very beginning. To reveal Himself to a people and then through processing, through trial, through difficulty, through tribulation, through testing, produce in them a heart that has been free from all of its captivity so that it is devoted to, addicted to God alone.

And that is what the heart of the Lord is in this hour that we live in. Men want to do something. Men want to be involved in something. But Father's heart is longing for a people who will forsake that.

Because in one moment, God can do anything that needs to be done. The great need of the hour now is not for you and I to do something, but it's for you and I to come before God and say, Father, I want my heart to be totally satisfied in You alone.

I want my affections to be so delivered from everything and anything so that You are the passion of my life. You are the passion of my life. You are the thing that I'm after. This is the need of the hour.

Christ’s Single-Minded Devotion to the Father’s Will

One man, Jesus Christ, came to earth and sought to put together... He didn't seek to put together any campaigns, any services, nothing. All He did was day by day by day awake. Isaiah 50, verse 4, The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned that I would know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.

He wakens me morning by morning. He wakens my ear to hear as the learned or as the disciple or as the pupil. One man came to this earth and he was interested in one thing. His Father's will. He wasn't enticed in Matthew 4 with what the devil offered him.

Power, influence, authority. Listen, he wasn't interested in the cheap methods that Satan offered him, hoping he would think that by these methods he can fulfill his call as Messiah. Because after all, he knew he was the Son of God.

After all, he knew that he was called by God to be the Savior of the world. And now all of a sudden, Satan's offering him all the kingdoms of the world. Just think, Jesus, I could put you in a place where everybody would know you.

I could put you in a place of authority and influence. I could put you in a place where the whole Roman Empire would take note and look at you. The words of our blessed Savior, Get behind me, Satan. Get behind me.

I seek Father's will alone. Now the question that we originally asked, what is your response when you have to hear something that you don't want to hear? The first captivity of the righteous, rebellious heart.

The Rebellious Heart as the First Captivity

What the Lord has to do through His grace and through His Word and through dealings in our life is He has to free us if we're going to experience freedom from the captivity. He has to free us from that tendency within us that all of us have that rebels against His Word to us.

Now you remember in Isaiah 50, we just read that was verse 4. This is where God wants to bring us. The Lord has given me the tongue of the learned. Now remember, out of the heart, the mouth speaks. In order to have the tongue of the learned or the tongue of the disciple, that is, in order for our words to truly be words of the disciples of Jesus, the followers of Jesus, God has to do something in our heart.

Because the words we speak reveal what's in the heart. The heart has to become the place where God's Word is unconditionally welcomed. The heart must become a place whereby the power of God's Spirit and the power of God's grace, the heart is freed from what it wants to hear so that it can hear God's Word.

I can remember as a police officer in Gulfport, Mississippi, I was working in an office where there were several other officers and we had a superior officer. And from time to time, there would arise certain details that everybody would like to be called to do, such as overseeing events, city events.

Anyone who was appointed to that knew they had an easy day. Free food all day. You know, David, the way it is in Mississippi. That's right. Be called to oversee the parades. I mean, or another one would be street parties.

Block parties. Oh my, if you were called to be a part of the block party just simply as a police presence, you had it made. All the food you can eat. Crazy music. Just, you know, you let your hair down.

You just have fun. However, the problem with being simply an officer under authority, Michael, is that we couldn't come to work one day and look and see, oh, they're having a block party in North Gulfport.

They're having a block party in Central Gulfport. They're having a block party on East. I mean, in the summer and spring, they have these things regularly in Gulfport. It's a different world down south.

You can't come in and knock on your supervisor's door and open up his office and say, hi, Sarge, how are you? Coming to work this morning, I just decided I was going to go to the North block party because they really have a good time.

And oh, Robert, my buddy, he's going to go to the South block party. No, that's not the way it happened. The way it actually happened was we came to work, we sat in our office, and we waited for our supervisor to come, Sergeant, Sergeant Johnson, and we prepare ourself for the worst.

Not all of us were going to be told that we were assigned to the block parties. And inevitably, one or two were assigned and the others were given details that in ourself, we would not have chosen. But even though I didn't necessarily want to do what I was told to do, I had to because I had a superior officer who had that authority to appoint, to determine what it was that I was going to do from day to day.

One of the captivities of the righteous is that we have a heart full of desire for God. Full of desire. And we're always hoping that God will speak to us in support of our desire. In confirmation of our desire.

And when He doesn't, we come to a crisis. And basically what the crisis is this. Are we going to ask God to give us the grace to submit to His Word? Or will we go about and do our own thing? That I should know how to speak a word in season to Him that is weary.

He wakeneth morning by morning. Part of the captivity of the righteous is that we awake morning by morning, but it is not to hear Him. He wakeneth me morning by morning. And He openeth my ear that I might hear.

John 5, verse 19, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do. For what thingsoever He doeth, these also does the Son likewise. This captivity of the righteous, a heart that is inclined to resist what God says when we don't want to hear it, is the root, listen carefully, is the root to many other problems in our life that become captivities.

So, we as the church end up with innumerable captivities, innumerable things that we are captive to, all stemming, all finding their roots in this rebellious heart. And so, Father wants to come to us and He wants to begin to exercise discipline in our life, child training in our life, in order to free us from this rebellious heart.

And listen, when we become free from this rebellion heart, many, many captivities lose their power in our life. We're going to look at some of the captivities that are currently in our lives that stem from, that are rooted in a rebellious heart, and then we're going to see how when God tackles this rebellious heart, and God conquers this old rebellious heart, and God brings this old rebellious heart through His grace, and through His purging, and through His fatherly discipline to the place where it is broken, where it has lost its strength to demand, where it bows in humility and contrition before a holy God and says, Father, Father, in Thee alone do I find joy.

In Thy will alone do I find satisfaction. Father, I delight to do Thy will. When Father can bring us to that place, many captivities suddenly lose their power. Listen, in a moment's time, in a moment's time, they become like wax is to a huge fire it melts.

How many want to know this life of being free from the captivities of our heart? Of course, we want to be free. Listen carefully. Out from this rebellious heart grows a word. Discontentment. Alright, now from this word, listen closely, from this word grows manner of octopus tentacles.

All of these things, as we fill them in, contribute to our captivity. Rooted in, we don't want to hear what God is saying. And brothers and sisters, I am not necessarily, although it includes this, I'm not necessarily referring to hearing God speak to you day by day.

I want you to go this way. I want you to go two blocks to the left and turn right and go to this house. There's a place to be led by the Spirit of God, but there's enough in here, brothers and sisters, that will keep us chewing on for a while.

We don't need these mystical revelations. There is enough written in here that if we would be free from a rebellious heart and simply come before God and say, Father, make what You have already said, the living law that I live by, that I die by.

Lord, if You make this word the authority in my life, not the letter, but the life of the word. Lord, if You will deliver my heart, listen, not from rebelling against the voice of Your Spirit when I'm driving down the road and You say, stop in this truck, stop.

There's a place for that. But brothers and sisters, God wants us to be free from rebellion against what is already written. I mean, the Bible says, be free from covetousness. Just that one statement. Do you realize that that one statement has the potential to release us from most of our captivity?

And so it's not a word that we need from God, but it's we need to say, Lord, make my heart to bow before Your word. Now, listen to this story. I want to tell you a story that I heard and it has to do with discontentment, which is the big, huge monster that grows in our life when the rebellious heart has not been dealt with by Father's disciplined hand.

Discontentment, Comparison, and the Search for Happiness

There was a man who lived on the West Coast and he moved to Arkansas many, many years ago. And he had bought a home with more property. And he only had this little push lawnmower. Eighteen inch. And he had about a third or a half an acre of property, whereas his house in the West was very, very small and he didn't have much property.

But he purposed in himself. He said, I'm not going to buy a rotting lawnmower. I'm simply going to mow the grass with what I've got. And so he purposed to do it. And he tells the story, it took him eight hours to do it.

But nevertheless, he did it. And he said that during his eight hours of mowing the grass, he had to drink several glasses of iced tea and he went and sat on his patio. Okay. He enjoyed it. Taking breaks.

His wife made a huge batch of iced tea. It was hot out there. And from time to time, he would go into his kitchen. And there he would lounge as well as his patio. Well, finally, after eight hours, he was done.

His iced tea was gone. So he decided to go one last time into the kitchen and fill his glass of iced tea. And he sat down and he felt so good. He just had such a feeling of accomplishment. He mowed the grass.

It looked so nice. The yard looked so pretty. He was there in his house enjoying the breeze. And lo and behold, he picked up a magazine. He began to flip through the pages. And he looked and he read a story about this family.

Who remodeled their kitchen. Now they had made it beautiful. They had built an island. In the pantry, they had it set up so that there was a revolving table operated by push button. And you push the button and the table inside the pantry would spin around and you can just take off what you need and put it there.

He said, my, that's really something. And then he flipped through a little bit more and he read another story. This was about a family who had redone their patio. And he got to looking at it. And he walked outside and he looked at his patio.

And yeah, it's true. He said, I've seen some firewood that looks better than my patio. All of a sudden, he looked at the magazine and it was called Home and Garden. And then he said, no, that wasn't really the title.

It was called Better Homes and Gardens. And then he said, better than who? Better than my kitchen. Better than my patio. And all of a sudden, he said in seven minutes, seven minutes, the tranquility and peace and enjoyment that he was experiencing, that he had experienced on his patio in the breeze and in his kitchen drinking the iced tea was completely destroyed in seven minutes.

Beloved, contentment is destroyed, listen carefully, by comparison. Contentment is destroyed by comparison. We live in a culture that is cultivating a deadly, deadly, deadly spiritual condition. And any of us who buy into it will spend all of our life in a state of constant search, constant highs and lows, and never find the rest and place of abiding in God that our Father intends us to know.

Out of this world of discontentment, there is springing everywhere we look. And it has come and it is in our lives. It's in our homes, it's in our families, it's in the church. And the Lord wants to identify these problems and rescue us so that we can find the true joy of our life, the true happiness of our life.

Out of this insatiable desire for something is springing this cry. Listen, listen, teenagers, there's a few of you here, listen carefully. Here's the cry. I want to be happy. I want to be happy. And we're looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

The church is looking for happiness in all the wrong places. The children in the church, the parents in the church are looking for happiness in all the wrong places. And therefore, we will never find true happiness.

Psalm 1 tells us the place of true happiness. Blessed or happy is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the sea of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season, and his leaves shall not wither. True happiness, true satisfaction, true blessedness is found in the man, in the woman who comes to God and says, God, You are all that I need.

The captivity of the righteous is that we have come to the source of life, but we have forsaken His life and we are seeking to drink in broken cisterns. We are looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

We're discontent with everything because we're comparing what we have with everyone else. But the truth of the matter is this, every single person in this auditorium right now, compared to third world nations, is wealthy and rich.

That's the truth. The truth of the matter is if any of you walked with the people that I walked in, walked with when I was in the Philippines, they would consider you to be wealthy kings. They would bow at your feet and say, Talk to me about what it's like to live in heaven on earth.

So it's all perspective. It's all relative. And that's the snare of comparison. Nowadays, people are saying, If I had money... Now see, remember, rebellious heart births discontentment. And now discontentment births, I need happiness.

I, listen, I need to feel good. So therefore, I've got to find it in something. And even young people are looking for it in companionship nowadays. If I only had someone that loved me. Girls are saying, as I continue to give this abstinence message to high school students, just did this Friday in Hackettstown High School right here.

There seems to be a continuous agreement among all the groups of students that I talk with. The major reason, there's no children here, the major reason why teenagers are becoming sexually active, particularly with the girls, is because they're looking for a hug.

They're looking for someone to love them. They want to feel significant. They are discontent with how they feel. So they're being told, if only I could find a guy who loves me, and if he'll love me, then I'll have sex with him, because I'll do anything to be loved.

I'll do anything to be loved. I'll do anything to be accepted. If it means doing some drugs, if it means stealing, if it means prostituting my body. Do you see how the philosophies of this world have crept into the church unawares, and it's seducing an entire generation of Christians?

God help those who are standing from the pulpit and using the Bible to strengthen these lies. Using the Bible to incite within the people of God a desire for earthly things, a desire for worldly things, a desire to be seen of men, a desire to have prominence and influence and power.

Let me tell you, God's people don't need any of that. They need the God of the universe in their life. One person wholly dedicated to God can do more than an ecumenical movement of 10 ,000 Christians.

We don't need influence with the world. We don't need what they offer. And so these philosophies have come in and they constitute the captivity of the righteous. The enemy knows. The enemy knows. And so one is saying, if I could find happiness, I'll look for it in sex.

Then another cry is, I would be happy if I had money. More money. Some Christians are continuously without stop looking for more money, more money. If I only had more money. If I only struck it rich. And then others are saying, if I only was prettier.

If I only was more handsome. Discontent with how they look. Brothers and sisters, why do you think all the magazines that you ever look at have what America, at least America, because it's all relative too.

You go to the jungles in Africa and women don't look like they do on the CoverGirl magazine because it's all cultural. It's all based on the generational or the cultural lie that Satan is trying to seduce that generation and in America, it's a fine looking guy.

A fine looking girl. And you look at these magazines and every single young person is struggling with this. Every single old person, usually without a deep grace of God working in their life, they're struggling with what?

I don't like the way I look. Why? Why? Why is there such struggle? Because we've been sold a good of lies. We've been told that happiness comes when you look like the CoverGirl. Happiness comes when you look sexy.

When you look handsome, happiness comes. Brothers and sisters, God's Word would stand in opposition to that and say, wrong! Happiness comes when you find your joy in God. And how can our children learn this if they see us as adults and parents struggling?

We have an awesome responsibility. And so they're crying out, I'll be happy if I have sex. I'll be happy if I have money. I'll be happy if I look better. Now, I'm not opposed to exercise and I'm not opposed to reasonable measures in order to keep oneself healthy based on scientific evidence.

But I would pretty much be able to say with a clear conscience that the majority of those who are striving in that area of health and beauty and exercise and pills and this and that are not doing it simply because they're trying to be faithful to God, but because they are miserably discontent with themselves and they're thinking that will make them feel better.

Oh, how God wants to try and test the heart of the righteous. Young person, older people, these things will lead us to dead ends. Broken cisterns that will not satisfy. Another cry that is coming forth in the land and that is this, I will be happy if I throw off all restraint, all rules, all boundaries.

Throwing Off Restraint and the Rebellious Spirit

A few weeks ago, my wife and I were in the car here at the parking lot and there were some kids on bikes riding and they saw their friends in the field in uniform. They were on a team. And they started having a discourse and I couldn't quite make what they were saying, but as the boys who were on the bike rode past, one of the young men with great hostility and great violence yelled out a profanity and said, this is why I'm not on a team because I don't want some coach telling me what to do.

I couldn't believe my ears. And as I heard that young man, the heavens were opened and I heard the voice of Father. And He said, Son, this is it. Many, many think that true happiness comes when they live a life free from boundaries, free from rules, free from all restraint.

And thus we have in the church today a terrible, dreadful, rebellious spirit. We have it in homes. Paul himself in 2 Timothy 3, in the last days, perilous times shall come. Let's read that very quickly.

Perilous times shall come. And see not if we read here a prophetic word that the Holy Spirit gave Paul that so identifies what's going on in the culture today. Just listen to this. You would think that Paul wrote this last week.

Know this also, that in the last days, perilous times shall come. Brothers and sisters, I pray the Holy Spirit will awaken and alert us to these things. Alert us to these dangers. Because this is the captivity of the righteous.

And accept our Father. Bring us into a place where we are being corrected by Him. We will fall prey to these things and they will keep us. They will keep us from His highest intention. Listen to this.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves. Undo love for self. Covetous. Boasters. That means to brag, to be inflated with one's own words about oneself. Proud. Blasphemers. Disobedient to parents. Unthankful.

Unholy. Without natural affection. Truce breakers. False accusers. Incontinent. No control. Fierce. Despisers of those who are good. Traitors. Heady. High-minded. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Listen to what God says. From such, turn away. May God instill within our hearts a cry from the Holy Spirit. Oh, God, turn my heart away from the things that have the potential to cause these kinds of things to live in my heart and to control me.

Turn my heart away. And so we see, beloved, that the captivity of the righteous is rooted in a rebellious heart. Now listen, we're not rebellious when we're doing what we like. Some Christians say, some Christians say, well, I'm not a rebellious person.

That's because nobody's ever crossed Your will. No one's ever crossed Your will. But let me tell you something, beloved. If Father is going to bring spiritual maturity in your life and my life, we're going to have to come to the place where we begin to hear our Father tell us things that we don't like to hear, and we're going to have to come to the crisis where we either submit to our Father and live or continue in our own way and reap the consequences.

And out of this rebellious heart, you see, the safeguard, what safeguards us, what protects us from this snare of discontentment is a continuous sensitivity to God. You see, we cannot be free from discontentment if we hear God say something to us in His Word and we simply push it aside.

Sound Doctrine and the Danger of Itching Ears

Now watch this. 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. The Holy Spirit addresses this. And you know, my heart goes out deeply. My heart goes out deeply to the generation that is now coming into adulthood.

And I tell you, our hearts should go out deeply for them. Some of us are old enough to know that things don't satisfy. Some of us are old enough to know that contentment comes in God alone. But our children, and soon our children's children, not too soon hopefully, they're going to be hurled into a world, beloved, do you see this?

Are you alerted by it? They're going to be hurled into a world that promotes everywhere they turn a rebellious heart resulting in discontentment which breeds all of these passions and all of these drives in order to be happy.

And if our children get entangled in that world, only a divine miracle of God will rescue them because that world is like the web of a spider and a helpless fly caught in the web of a spider can do nothing but struggle until it what?

Until it dies. And as God opens up our eyes to these things, you'll become a prayer warrior. You'll become a praying person. You'll find yourself day and night groaning and crying, oh God, rescue me from this lie.

Rescue me from this lie. The whole world lies in the power of the wicked one. Rescue me and rescue my children and rescue my brothers and sisters. Lord, rescue the church. You'll become a prayer warrior.

2 Timothy 4 I charge. That's a military term. Paul knew how to be gentle and walk and go with the flow and not exert himself and take the back seat. And he also knew the time to look and say, I charge you.

And now's the time. That's a military term. One that is given by a superior to a lesser ranking officer. I charge you. Therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom, preach the Word.

Now this is a charge given to young Timothy who had the responsibility of preserving the Word that Paul preached, that the apostles preached. Brothers and sisters, I want to admonish you as a brother in Christ.

I want to admonish you to get in and pray that God will give you a love for His Word and by the Holy Spirit and by the life, the ministry of life that is in you by the Holy Spirit, let God take this Word and let Him write it in your heart.

Let it become something that you live by. Preach the Word. The Word of Christ. The Word of God. Be instant, in season, and out of season. That means be ready at any time whether you feel like it or not.

Whether it's convenient or not. When God speaks, move out. Here we go. For the time will come. Brothers and sisters, we're living in that time right now. This is it. We're going to bring this to a close.

Listen, the time will come when they will not endure. The word endure there means to hold up under. To put up with. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. That word sound is a very interesting word.

It actually means healthy. Or that which promotes health. That which promotes healing. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts. Do you see what's happening here?

After their own rebellious heart. After their own desires. In other words, God says, this is what I want. They say, no, this is what I want, God. After their own rebellious heart. What will they do? What will they do?

Will they forsake Christianity? No. They'll just create one that does something. Look what it does. But after their own hearts shall heap to themselves teachers. Uh-oh. So here's the scenario we've got here.

We've got rebellious hearts who surround themselves with teachers. Having itching ears. That phrase means never satisfied. A rebellious heart is never satisfied because it is hurled into the realm of discontentment.

And therefore, is after money, after sex, after significance, after this. And what they do is they heap to themselves teachers who teach them how to get what they want. It teaches them how to get the desires of their heart.

They turn their ears away from hearing the truth. They gather around themselves teachers and according to their own desires. Brothers and sisters, I pray that every one of us would ask God to give us a prayer.

And here's what the prayer is. Father, forbid, forbid, Lord, that You will give me what I want. Forbid it, Father. No matter how much I cry, no matter how much I throw a fuss, no matter how much I get mad, Lord, forbid that You should give me what I want.

At the cost of my spiritual ruin. 1 Timothy 6, verse 6,. These who gather teachers around themselves are those of perverse disputings, men of corrupt minds, destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness.

From such, withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain. Godliness with contentment is great gain. The way to contentment is a heart healed of rebellion. A listening heart that says, yes, Father, Your will.

Yeah, I see what Your Word says. I know what everyone else is saying, but I see what Your Word says. Father, make my heart to say yes to Your Word. There's the secret of contentment and godliness. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.

And having food and raiment, let us therewith be content. How many of us would be content if all we had was food and clothing? Most of us would be angry. God, where's Your blessing? Where's Your blessing, God?

Lord, look at everyone else. Therewith be content. But they that will, or they that desire, they that are continuously desiring to be rich, fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction.

For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, while some coveted after have erred from the faith and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But You, O man of God, You, O woman of God, flee these things and You follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of eternal life. You see the contrast? Oh, thank God for His Word. Okay, beloved, this is part two. God willing, we're going to continue because what we're going to see next, we've seen just a little bit of the captivity.