House Rule #18 Teach and Live Healthy Doctrine (1 Timothy 6:2c-10) | Adult Sunday School

Kootenai Church

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:22

I have an extra one, actually they're my son's, no are you kidding

00:40

I wish, it's the same thing How about now yep there we go good morning everyone good to see you all we're glad that you're here for those of you that are brand -new to North Idaho and you're wondering about springtime that was last week just letting you know and U -Haul has a whole bunch of trailers stacked up out there but no never mind we are going to continue our study this morning in first Timothy back into chapter 6 this morning and let's begin our time by committing our study to our

11:19

Lord and ask his blessing on it this morning our father we know that we are here by your grace and we are here to worship and praise our great

11:32

God and Savior Jesus Christ we thank you for the grace that was given to us through him that we might know you and worship you and as we study your word father this morning we know that we are dependent on your spirit to guide us and teach us we pray you would do that this morning that you would accomplish every divine purpose that you have for us and we will always praise you in Jesus name amen well this morning we're going to look at first Timothy chapter 2 this morning and we're going to start where we left off last time with that little statement that ends verse 2 in our study this morning we're calling house rule number 18 teach and live healthy doctrine teach and live both of those things are really important as we have seen all the way through our study every time

12:26

Paul mentions confronting false teachers or accomplishing something there in Ephesus he seems to just stop and say and Timothy you need to take care of your own life as well so that's there for a purpose both those things teach and live healthy doctrine and we're calling it healthy doctrine as we're going to see because Paul is very concerned about Timothy and the churches at Ephesus being taught healthy or sound doctrine most of the expositors for centuries probably when they come to this passage deal with it in some sense having to do with health or medicine or something like that because of the word that we're going to be looking at in our study this morning and I thought well

13:08

I'm not going to try to be any different especially since we have at least a two -plus year background in public health so there's a very very fertile garden out there of terms and terminology and so we're not going to try to mask the truth here this morning we are going to be we will and so boy it'd be silly not to take advantage of this knowledge base that's here in our study this morning so we're going to call it teach and live healthy doctrine this morning in this section of his letter

13:44

Paul is bringing the letter to Timothy to a close and he's also once again expressing his concern for the churches at Ephesus that they have sound teaching in those churches and we saw multiple times already through our study one of the big issues there is the presence of false teachers in those congregations and Paul had it's no surprise to Paul or Timothy because Paul had prophesied that back in Acts chapter 20 when he met with the elders of Ephesus so he just comes back to it again and again and again and in this passage this morning we're going to be looking at chapter 6 verse 2 the very end there through verse 10 he does the very same thing warning and describing false teachers so that Timothy can correct that issue in the church at Ephesus and it's his final statement concerning false teachers and they're teaching what

14:44

Paul calls different doctrine and he makes a summary statement in that passage back that we looked at and began with this very thing back in chapter 1 where he says

14:58

I urged you when I was going to Macedonia remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine and so this is a big portion of what

15:12

Timothy has to do as far as his ministry in Ephesus he's going to keep coming back to this in fact and later on in chapter 4 verse 1 and 2 as we saw he sort of does a spiritual

15:25

MRI to tell you what's going on behind the scenes with these false teachers and they're the demonic activity that is going on under the behind the scenes so to speak these people are motivated by demons who are teaching false doctrine deceitful spirits and teachings of demons and it's done through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared so it's a very serious issue in Ephesus and Paul is urging

15:59

Timothy to deal with that and he ends verse verse 2 by saying teach and urge these things again we talked about it last time some would say well that applies to what came before and some would say well no this starts this section but it really doesn't matter he wants him to teach and urge everything in the letter so we're just going to start at this time teach and urge these things there's two command force verbs there he wants them to teach these things and he uses that very familiar word to urge it sometimes translated para kaleo to call alongside remember we studied that word a little bit we saw that it means to to call somebody alongside to speak to them to accomplish something and it could take a variety of have just depends on the purpose how it's translated and we saw in verse 3 again

16:57

Paul says I urged you when I was going to Macedonia that's chapter 1 verse 3 chapter 1 8 verse 18 this charge

17:06

I entrust to you Timothy my child in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you that by them you may wage the good warfare chapter 3 verse 14 really the theme verse of the letter

17:19

I am writing these things he said and for 15 practice these things immerse yourself in them chapter 5 verse 7 command these things as well chapter 5 verse 21 in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of the elect angels

17:38

I charge you to keep these rules without prejudging and in our verse here teach and urge these things later on in 613

17:49

I charge you in the presence of God keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach and later on in that same chapter chapter 17 as for the rich in this present age charge them not to be haughty so Paul is really interested in Timothy's style of teaching right he charges him so he can charge other people this is not an option this these are commands that Timothy must obey and have you noticed

18:19

Paul's style Paul is not interested in negotiating the truth but preaching and teaching it

18:26

Paul is not about sitting down with false teachers so that we can find some kind of a consensus he's not interested in consensus he's about teaching and urging he does not want

18:38

Timothy to have a conversation to find consensus with false teachers he wants confrontation and correction this is the cure for what ails the church in in Ephesus and for the church today false teachers are dangerous to the spiritual health of the church and Paul is exhorting

19:01

Timothy to confront the false teachers of Ephesus and stop the spread of their spiritual disease when the spiritual lives of the sheep are in danger the shepherd has to confront the danger and correct it so that brings us to Roman numeral one on your outline there false teachers communicate spiritual disease okay so you may want to put on your white lab coat and your you can put on some latex gloves if you want to I'm not going to wear any but this is all going to be about medicine about communicable diseases about public health okay and I know that you're you're well well schooled in all of this both the clinical aspects and also the epidemiology the spread of diseases and false teachers communicate spiritual disease in verse 3

19:53

Paul says if anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our

20:03

Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness now stop right there this is an extended conditional sentence starts with if conditional sentence you know it has if and then a then a condition and then a fulfillment of that well this is a kind of conditional sentence that you can tell by the way it's put together that the author believes that it's true okay so Paul is not questioning whether or not there are false teachers in Ephesus and neither is

20:32

Timothy they know that and you can tell that by the way this is structured here in other words

20:38

Paul is not wondering whether or not Timothy needs to go and find some there they're there they're teaching false doctrine he knows that and he wants

20:47

Timothy to deal with them and it doesn't matter who they are male female whoever anyone you know certain persons doesn't really matter who they are so the first thing we see a their teaching is unorthodox or heterodox basically that is the word it's different it's different doctrine in other words it's not true it's not in line with historic apostolic teaching and you might think of it as it's contaminated okay it's defiled teaching oftentimes of course false teachers are going to use biblical terms right you hear them all the time they use biblical words biblical terms and they give all the appearance of being

21:33

Orthodox teachers but they don't use biblical definitions and if you don't define terms and words the way

21:40

God defines them you're going to wind up with a different doctrine a different teaching so their teaching is unorthodox heterodox is the word and be their teaching is unhealthy it is unsound does not agree with the sound words of our

22:00

Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness this word here on with the sound words of our

22:09

Lord Jesus Christ is a word we're going to focus in on because that's the word that is used repeatedly to talk about sound teaching sound doctrine in Scripture it's the word who gee

22:19

I know okay who gee I know and it's easier for me to say the

22:25

English transliteration of it when we transliterate words you just bring them across into another language pretty much unchanged and that is the word hygiene in our language it's the word hygiene and Paul is concerned that the teaching be sound or healthy and on the second page there of your outline on page 27 there's just a brief word study

22:48

I thought we'd spend a minute or two and go through this oftentimes these words that we look at occur hundreds of times in the

22:57

New Testament or Old Testament and sometimes thousands of times you know and they don't lend themselves really well to to doing a classroom word study and so I kind of debated about this one but it only occurs twelve times and as I looked at it

23:10

I thought well it'd be be easier for me and maybe better to just sort of show you what's going on here with this word rather than just talk about it but on page 27 and just we'll just do a little brief word study here there's the word at the top who gee

23:25

I know and from one Greek dictionary it says to be sound in good health okay so it's used to speak of physical health of people and then metaphorically of one whose

23:40

Christian opinions are free from an admixture of error they are true incorrupt or incorrupt doctrine and then even the

23:50

English translation of the word hygiene the definition from the Cambridge English Dictionary the practice or principles of keeping yourself and your environment clean in order to maintain health and prevent disease of course so you can see that the meaning of the word particularly in the with the issue of personal physical health is just moved right over into our language it occurs 12 times in the

24:16

New Testament and it's very interesting here eight of those are found in Paul's pastoral letters so if we just do a real brief survey starting in Luke chapter 5 verse 31 and it's real interesting there three times in Luke's gospel he uses this word well

24:32

Paul told us in Colossians 414 that Luke is the beloved physician so it shouldn't surprise us at all that this physician focuses in on these health or medical type issues in fact

24:45

Luke is the only gospel writer who records Jesus statements about physicians okay in Luke 423 he quotes

24:53

Jesus words physician heal yourself okay Luke does that and then in Luke 531 here's this word that occurs and these are all from the legacy standard

25:06

Bible and Jesus answered that and said to them it is not those who are well who need a physician but those who are sick okay and then

25:15

Luke 710 when those who had been sent returned to the house they found the slave in good health you remember that's a story about the the the the

25:26

Roman soldier he had a slave he loved the slave but it says the slave was sick and at the point of death and he sent people to ask

25:36

Jesus to heal him so you don't even need to come to our house just just please heal him and he did and so for the second time here we see this word used as a state of physical wellness as opposed to being sick or ill they found the slave in good health

25:51

Luke 1527 the familiar parable of the prodigal son you remember the one of the brother was upset that the father was throwing a big party and a barbecue for his son who had wasted the the father's money and and almost wasted his own life and he said to him your brother has come and your father has killed a fatted calf because he has received him back safe and sound and so all three of those occurrences there are that same word and it's translated well good health and sound because it has to do with physical health personal health and then down at the bottom there another usage of it in third

26:33

John that little letter John says and this is the salutation in that letter the elder to the beloved

26:40

Gaius whom I love in truth beloved I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health just as your soul prospers now that one states it in a way that you know he's not talking about spiritual health because he mentions that last so he's talking about his physical well -being there so of the dozen times that occurs in the

27:02

New Testament four times it's used to speak of physical health but now look how Paul uses it in the pastoral letters these are the other eight times it occurs in 1st

27:12

Timothy 1 10 we saw that contrary to sound teaching in our verse here does not agree with sound words 2nd

27:21

Timothy standard of sound words 2nd Timothy 4 3 endures sound doctrine again

27:27

Titus sound doctrine sound in the faith and then there's two occurrences in those first two verses in chapter 2 speak the things which are proper for sound doctrine sound in faith so eight times

27:42

Paul is using this metaphorically to speak of teaching or doctrine or even a person who needs to be sound or healthy in their faith so as we're going to see this is how

27:53

Paul uses it through this letter as he talks about and exhorts Timothy to make sure that in these churches there is no different doctrine that it is sound doctrine and that it is the the false teachers who aren't teaching sound doctrine are confronted so they're teaching unorthodox heterodox their teaching is unhealthy or unsound and they're teaching

28:19

C is ungodly what's really really critical about this little statement here it's easy to just kind of run over it does not agree with the sound words of our

28:32

Lord Jesus Christ can't tell you how important that is for Paul's understanding of the nature of Scripture and the nature of what what he is communicating to Timothy we saw this back up in 518 for the

28:46

Scripture says and he quotes both an Old Testament statement that's recorded in Scripture but he also he also quotes

28:54

Jesus own words and he calls it Scripture okay it's very important to understanding the doctrine of of the the nature of the

29:02

Word of God and then also the nature of what Jesus said okay but he says does not agree with the sound words of our

29:12

Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness so very important here false teachers communicate spiritual disease it is unorthodox it's different than what apostolic teaching was it is unhealthy it is unsound and it is ungodly it's not from Christ it's not from God Jesus Christ is not the source of their teaching even though they often will credit him they'll talk about him they'll use his name they'll use the name of the

29:45

Holy Spirit and so on but you have to look carefully at how they're defining it and compare that with what is revealed in Scripture how does

29:54

Paul define sound doctrine the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness and what he's doing here he's telling you what they look like and what they sound like on the outside okay kind of like what physicians call signs you know there's there's symptoms and then there's signs there's symptoms that the patient tells him about and then there's the signs that the doctor can look at and determine okay what he's just told you here is something that you can see from the outside in in what we're gonna see next here in Roman numeral two we might think of this as an

30:34

MRI okay a spiritual MRI because false teachers have a spiritual heart condition you can't really see what's going on unless you use some kind of a technique to see well the

30:46

Scriptures reveals what's going on so in the first part of verse 4 it says these people he gives a diagnosis he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words false teachers communicate their spiritual disease and Roman numeral two false teachers have a spiritual heart condition he's showing you what's going on on the inside here where does this come from first thing a they are puffed up with conceit puffed up with conceit okay puffed up with conceit might call that spiritual edema okay we keep our medical terminology here they're puffed up with conceit they propagate false teaching false doctrines and maybe they get a following you know they get a crowd because what do they do they appeal to the flesh when they teach and preach okay and that's very attractive people like to hear stuff that appeals to their flesh you know did you know that God wants you to be wealthy you know and the guy sitting out there he's going wow praise

31:54

Alleluia because that's what I want you know and they get a big following like that well sure and then that just puffs them up they might get a big ministry and there's a lot of money involved and they get you know pretty soon there they're just seen all over the world well they're puffed up with pride that's where that comes from and not only that they understand nothing

32:16

Paul says what an amazing combination of terminology here they're puffed up because they think they're doing something really great but actually they understand nothing so many false teachers they come across as knowledgeable they might have advanced degrees they publish papers they write books they write books that sell well you know you can list some books that sold by the millions some of them some of the best -selling books of all time and when it when you compare them to Scripture they're nothing but spiritual roadkill okay but they're really popular and the fact of the matter is though the people that wrote them understand nothing nothing spiritually helpful okay they do have a following they get a big following and they're treated like celebrities sometimes they're the go -to people for certain issues you know but the fact is they know nothing but here's a real real critical part of this issue they're not only puffed up with conceit they don't they don't know anything helpful spiritually they are addicted to conflict they are addicted to conflict he has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words they are addicted to conflict this is a kind of a fascinating statement here by Paul ESV an unhealthy craving other translations if you have a new

33:42

American standard a sick craving for controversial questions and disputes

33:47

Christian Standard Bible unhealthy interest in disputes and arguments

33:53

New King James obsessed with disputes and arguments Legacy Bible a morbid interest you get the picture it's it's like an addiction they they have to have arguments about words and and very often if they can engage a

34:10

Christian in arguments they somehow feel like they have been somehow confirmed certified you know like they've done a really good spiritual deed but really what they have what they've done they've just simply given the

34:23

Christian look into their spiritual lives and what they're really like they're swollen with conceit they understand nothing they are addicted to conflict and they do infect others with their false teaching they always infect others they just can't go away and keep it to themselves false teachers cause spiritual toxicity in others this is

34:44

Roman numeral three they cause spiritual toxicity in others so the rest of verse four and the first part of 5a what does it produce which produce envy dissension slander evil suspicions and constant friction okay you might consider this the lab report okay the lab report comes back and oh what do we have here will we have envy dissension slander evil suspicions and constant friction okay envy this is where it is always used in a negative sense in scripture jealousy of another success and it always has to do with the depreciation of another person's worth envy of his excellence and what's interesting it's often associated with murder often associated with murder

35:33

Cain murdered Abel because God accepted Abel sacrifice and not Cain's right in Romans chapter 1 verse 29 which is the the outworking of Paul's understanding of what happens when people reject

35:47

God and right after he mentions the reprobate mind after that descent down into apostasy it says these people are full of envy murder strife deceit maliciousness dissension and there's envy and murder right next to each other and of course you remember from the

36:07

Gospels a unbelieving godless pagan Roman Emperor Roman governor named

36:15

Pontius Pilate right interrogated Jesus because the Jews wanted him dead and this is coming from the mouth of a man who is spiritually blind spiritually deaf spiritually dead as a post right he says this he it says that he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up okay he had more spiritual insight as to what was going on the entire

36:41

Jewish community who wanted Jesus dead but he knew that they only want him dead because they're envious of him so envy is is often associated with murder and then dissension arguing wrangling strife and then slander we looked at this word

36:58

I think a week or so ago the word blasphemy to speak falsely about God or people to defame another person's character okay and then evil suspicions evil surmising sometimes it's called very literally literally evil underthinking they want to undermine people with evil thinking and then constant friction okay some of you ladies are saying yeah my husband had that last summer we're working out in the garden too much not what we're talking about here that's constant friction but this is something different okay useless disputing constant rank wranglings people who always have to be in conflict always want to argue about things and the problem is they're not arguing to find out what the

37:44

Bible says it's clear it's right in front of them they want to argue it away right they want to get rid of the

37:49

Scripture so they're trying to argue out of what the Bible actually says so this is the lab report the people that teach false doctrine produce these things in other people in people who listen to them this is what's commonly called in a vice list in Scripture we've talked about how when the

38:09

Bible talks about someone who is righteous then it gives you something so that you can objectively determine that you can verify that right it does the same thing with unregenerate people as well it talks about somebody who is unsaved unregenerate a false teacher a false prophet and then it tells you what that looks like how does that work its way out on the outside Paul does this in Galatians chapter 5 verses 19 through 21 and he's describing the works of the flesh the works of the flesh and of course he's in that passage he's comparing that with the fruit of the spirit okay here's listen to this vice list now the works of the flesh are evident okay you can see them sexual immorality impurity sensuality idolatry sorcery enmity strife drunkenness orgies and things like these

38:58

I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God and this is typical of how

39:08

Paul teaches he uses these vice lists this week as I was thinking about this

39:14

I I I thought well this is kind of what he does in in Romans you know at the end of that section on the the descent into apostasy by these people that's a vice list

39:25

I thought well I'm gonna jot it down I made a big mistake I got too small a piece of paper out and and I had to write really fine now these are not my words these are not some denominational statement you know it's not like a doctrinal statement to attack a certain group of people these are

39:42

God's own words just taken right out of Scripture this is the way Scripture describes people who have descended down into homosexuality this is from Romans 118 and following unrighteous without excuse dishonoring to God ungrateful to God futile in thought dark foolish hearts fools idolatrous believing lies abandoned by God unnatural in behavior dishonorable shameless acts judge for error doing wrong abandoned by God and then he focuses down and mentions that they have a reprobate mind okay and then he he just takes you through what that looks like he says they are filled with unrighteousness evil covetousness malice envy murder strife there's envy and murder right next to each other deceit maliciousness gossips slanderers haters of God insolent haughty boastful invent evil disobedient foolish faithless hearth heartless and ruthless okay that's just all from Romans chapter 1 a vice list of what it means when

40:51

God has abandoned you to your sin and false teachers cause this kind of thing as they spread their lies and other people are led into the same kinds of sins that they are involved in this is obvious this is the thing that and Paul says here in Galatians they are these works of the flesh are evident it's the evident outworking of false teachers and you can see this all around you you can see this is this is characteristic of the world we live in right now right

41:22

I mean I you could watch ten minutes of your average news program and make a list like that right well that brings us to Roman numeral for false teachers and their victims have no spiritual immunity no spiritual immunity and this is verse 5 they cause these things they produce these things and it says among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth imagining that godliness is a means of gain these are people who are not saved they do not have new life in Christ the

42:04

Holy Spirit is not with them they have no power to resist these temptations they are vulnerable to a myriad of spiritual infectious diseases like a case of AIDS which destroys the immune system or some kinds of poisons will do that or radiation sickness will do that if your immune system is destroyed the person is left vulnerable to a wide range of infectious infectious agents and so Paul says this is their problem they are depraved in mind that's a there that means this word depraved to destroy to corrupt rot decay spoil and again from Romans 128 reprobate mind is what he's talking about here this is person who's because of their rejection of God God has abandoned them to their sin also translated as a debased mind there is no renewing of their mind like in Romans chapter 12

43:04

Romans 12 Paul implements the he's talked 11 chapters about being saved and when he gets to Romans 12 he begins to apply that and to encourage

43:13

Christians to to live out their salvation and he talks about by the renewing of your mind that's only possible by the work of the

43:21

Holy Spirit and if there's no regeneration it's absolutely impossible all they can do is fake being

43:28

Christians being believers that's where cults come from that's where false teaching comes from because they are depraved in mind the mind is so critical as we all know in Scripture but also in every other area of life and be they are deprived of the truth depraved and deprived what a combination salvation is by the work of the

43:51

Holy Spirit through the instrument of the gospel word and spirit always working together

43:56

Paul said in Romans 116 that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation right and even

44:05

Jesus speaks about the the the combination of spirit and truth in John 4 23 the in his conversation with the woman at the well you know she tried to make an issue out of a location you know well you

44:19

Jews your your worship isn't really legitimate you worship in Jerusalem we worship on Mount Gerizim right because the

44:26

Samaritans thought that was the true place of worship and Jesus brought her back to reality by saying locations not the issue okay the issue is those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth and there you have the

44:41

Holy Spirit and truth the Word of God are right next to each other so so without the

44:49

Spirit of God they don't have the truth right there's there's no way so they are depraved in mind they are deprived of the truth and they imagine that godliness will make them money right this this is where this comes from you see this all the time they are susceptible to what in Scripture is called the lust of the eye and it's just a carnal response to wanting to make money off of what should just simply be their ministry but they don't do that they think that being godly and I think

45:23

Paul is using godly here in a sarcastic sense he knows they're not really godly but they think this godliness that they have is going to make them money and it just comes from their imagination comes from their own fleshly carnal response

45:39

Jude describes apostates as people who cause divisions he says they're worldly people devoid of the

45:47

Spirit they're divisive like we've seen dissensions and divisions and all that and they're devoid of the

45:54

Spirit okay same thing that Paul is talking about they have no spiritual immunity from sin and all of its outworkings because they don't have the

46:05

Spirit of God the Spirit of God ministers through the word to produce sanctification in the believer as we know this goes back to the upper room and Jesus great words at his prayer to his father he said sanctify them in the truth your word is truth and we know that sanctification is done by the power of the

46:25

Holy Spirit spirit and word always working together and this whole issue of thinking that that godliness will make them money

46:34

Paul just expands on it in this next section in this next section Roman numeral five there in your notes false teachers and their followers are destroyed by their disease this is where it always ends sin is self -destructive and this pursuit of money for the sake of pretending to be godly and and using that to make money is on display here

47:01

Paul says verse 6 now whether there is great gain in godliness with contentment so you understand how

47:10

Paul understands godliness it is it is with contentment this other kind of godliness where they're just trying to make money off of it and cheat people and use them for their own purposes is not true godliness and he tells us why in verse 7 for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world but if we have food and clothing with this we will be content but those who desire to be rich fall into temptation into a snare into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction and verse 10 maybe the one of the top 10 most mistranslated verses or miss quoted verses in scripture for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs verse 10 is really just an explanatory statement of verse 9 and notice the word desire to be rich harmful desires and then in verse 10 the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils these people are are not really godly people that's a they're not godly because they don't have godly contentment basically

48:34

Paul here he's he's teaching on the absolute sovereignty of God why because where do we get what we have where do we get what we eat all of our material things are gifts from God and if people aren't content with that in a sense they're denying

48:46

God's sovereignty and Lordship over their lives and it's not godly and be they don't have contentment true godliness has contentment it's an emphasis again on the sovereignty of God what do they have they have desire they have lust they have a love of money craving these things and it's not the money that's the problem okay money is just a tool as we know it's the lust for it so we could say the the locus of infection is not money it's not dollars it's right where it always is in the heart of that individual and the ultimate end is self -destruction self -destruction they suffer spiritual death okay this is always how it ends up with unregenerate people it can only end up that way and so what we have here is a diagnosis of the false teachers what's going on behind the scenes what's going on internally how that works its way out in their their lives and how it impacts other people false teachers communicate their spiritual disease okay and the ones that have very popular ministries you know that they're worldwide

50:00

I guess maybe we could call them super spreaders right right how to get that in there someplace false teachers have a spiritual heart condition it's not the environment it's not their upbringing it's it's right here where God puts the the the locus of infection it's the sinful unregenerate heart that produces these things and they also cause spiritual toxicity and others and none of them the false teachers or their victims have any spiritual immunity why they're devoid of the spirit and that they do not have the

50:36

Word of God the truth in their lives and the ultimate end of it is their spiritual death okay pretty sad pretty sad picture do you have any thoughts or questions about what we've seen in this passage yes sure yeah look at the background of the

51:22

Ephesian churches the Apostle Paul had planted him he had been there for month after month after month after month he had written them the letter to the

51:32

Ephesians what I think is probably the greatest doctrinal treatise ever written including his letter to Romans but I think

51:38

Ephesians is arguably I mean look what they had look at the revelation that they had and he was barely down down the road and and it began to get corrupted and that's what's gone on all through history too as well yeah well

52:29

I I don't know that they would agree with you and say they know their false teachers they don't have any spiritual insight how can they they don't have the spirit you know why doesn't

52:41

Satan give up on his quest to destroy the church he's spiritually blind and so yes and and I've wondered the same thing

52:50

I mean I have read statements by people and it reads like a really sound doctrinal statement they would say the

52:56

Bible teaches this this this this this and you're just going down a checklist like a systematic theology and they're absolutely correct and they state it and word it very very well come down to the bottom he says and I don't believe one bit of it they're spiritually blind like Paul said they're they're devoid of the spirit and they're deprived of the truth without the spirit you don't have the truth you can have a long list of things that you teach and believe this is classical liberalism historically right

53:25

I mean they know these are smart people really smart many of them they're just brilliant and yet something's missing there and what's missing is the work of the

53:35

Spirit the sanctifying work of the Spirit who will sanctify them in the truth just like Jesus said they have it has to be together you can have truth and no spirit and you wind up with what you just described but they it always works together so other than that I don't

53:53

I don't know how to explain it I kind of agree like how in the world can you have this revelation and yet basically deny it and deny its power you know the power to save you and the power to sanctify you it's beyond beyond me as well so any other thoughts you might have yes

54:11

Steve yeah personally

54:49

I think it always comes back to the gospel it comes back to the gospel and you always have to be kind of have that question in your mind you know

54:59

Paul said I know no man according to the flesh he didn't recognize whether they were Jews or Gentiles he wanted to know about their spiritual life and and and I think that's where it is you know these examples you know we all can think of someone who's who's not only said this is what

55:16

I believe they've taught it maybe taught it for decades maybe a tenured professor for years and then all sudden they go bye -bye

55:24

I'm out of here and they apostatize the only thing you can you have to bring that back to they never believe the gospel that's all the only explanation

55:33

I think there is you can't say well it was your education it was this or somebody was mean to you or you know you didn't find a nice church where they were that's got nothing to do with it it's it comes down to whether they're saved or lost in my opinion

55:50

I think that's I mean you have to come back down to it every time and this is why the gospel is so important in churches yeah

55:57

Angelica yeah it's a good point yeah it comes from you us it's in there and so yeah and really it does come back down every time that's good lesson for all of us right to continuously say why we're exhorted in Scripture test yourselves whenever we have communion we stop and say okay what's my spiritual state right now if I'm a believer what's my spiritual condition but also you know are you saved here today you know are you a believer and we know that that the way things have gone for the last 40 50 years and of course it's been in the whole history of the church but there's a lot of people out there that are that have been misled in so many different ways that you know if you believe

57:08

Scripture is the Word of God if you believe the things that says you are in a very small minority right now and it's probably always been true but we always say you know it's always worse than it used to be but you know that's kind of the way it is and I just think we just need to keep coming back to the gospel every time okay anything else that you might have any questions or comments well speaking of that what's the cure what is the cure for the spiritual disease and it of course is the gospel of Jesus Christ so if in our study this morning if it's been an act accurate diagnosis of your spiritual condition the only hope for healing you have is in Jesus Christ he's called the great physician and you need to trust in him today you need to acknowledge your sin before God make a rational decision to turn from it because it'll lead to your spiritual death eternally put your faith in Jesus Christ trust him as your

58:04

Lord and Savior and look forward to the eternal life that he will give to you and along the way to the spiritual the spiritual growth that the

58:16

Spirit of God and the Word of God will work in your life trust him today believe on the

58:23

Lord Jesus Christ okay amen let's pray our

58:32

Father we thank you for your word this morning we know that these sometimes are difficult passages to look at it's it's difficult it's heartbreaking to see but we also know father that the grace you gave to us through Jesus Christ you make available to others as well and so we just thank you for that grace and we encourage any who might sense their need for salvation to trust

58:59

Christ as their Lord and Savior today and then look forward to the eternal life that he will give the forgiveness and cleansing of sin we just thank you for our time in your word this morning in Jesus mighty name man oh thank you very much

59:17

I was told to remind you all and of course I forgot no