Fighting "Negative World"

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2nd Timothy 2 1st of December in the Year of our Lord 2024 - A.M.

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standing. Open your Bibles or look at the handout. 1st 2nd
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Timothy chapter 2. 2nd
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Timothy chapter 2 verse 1. You therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.
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You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
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No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier and also if anyone competes in athletics he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.
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The hard -working farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what
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I say and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.
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Remember that Jesus Christ the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel for which
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I suffered trouble as an evildoer even to the point of chains but the
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Word of God is not chained therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.
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This is a faithful saying for if we died with him we shall also live with him.
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If we endure we shall also reign with him. If we deny him he also will deny us.
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If we are faithless he remains faithful. He cannot deny himself.
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Remind them of these things charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers.
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Be diligent to present yourself approved to God a worker who does not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth but shun profane and idle babblings for they will increase to more ungodliness and their message will spread like cancer.
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Himenaeus and Philetus are of this sort who have strayed concerning the truth saying that the resurrection is already passed and they overthrow the faith of some.
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Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands having this seal the
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Lord those who are his and let everyone who names the name of the
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Lord depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay.
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Some for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter he will be a vessel for honor sanctified and useful for the master prepared for every good work.
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Flee also youthful lusts but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the name of the
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Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes knowing that they generate strife.
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And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all able to teach patient and humility correcting those who are in opposition.
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If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will.
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You may be seated. If anybody doesn't have the handout please raise your hand so we can make sure that we get one to you.
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Great we can get one there. All right so for review let me just remind you that we have the handout has at the top of it the chiastic structure of 2nd
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Timothy as Pastor Philip Kaiser has put it on his outline of 2nd Timothy. I think it's helpful and we've looked at the first several verses the through page 4 of the handout is review.
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There's a couple of things I want to make sure to emphasize. First we look at verses 1 through 7 of this book and we're reminded of the importance of being strong in the faith and being careful to hold on to the word that was delivered to the
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Apostles and we're reminded also of the need to take heed of the public teaching ministry of the church to organize the teaching of the scriptures and so there's this need to listen carefully that applies now to this preaching.
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There's a need to capture it so listening carefully trying to store it up in your hearts being able to take notes to be able to have recordings to be able to deal with things in a way where you're engaging with the thing and actually trying to capture it in your understanding.
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The ability to retransmit that information there's a value not only when you teach do you teach other people but there's also a value in that when you teach you further help to strengthen your own understanding and your own memory of things and then there is this need to repeat that to do that over and over again.
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We're given the analogy of the soldier, the athlete, the farmer. Remember the soldier is one who is supposed to endure and to be able to focus on the work that he's been assigned.
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The athlete is an example to remind us of the need to play according to the rules so what has been revealed in the scriptures what has been given to us as the means to be able to play the game to win the game.
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The farmer is supposed to be concerned with the idea of getting the reward and so being able to look forward to the harvest and the joy of that and so we meditate on the things that have been revealed here as we think about our work in terms of advancing the kingdom.
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Then in verses 8 through 10 where is a call to suffer for Christ and for the gospel and for the sake of seeing the elect come to the knowledge of God and we're reminded of the fact that even when there is persecution even when preachers are in chains the
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Word of God is not in chains. It goes forth and so then we're reminded of the faithful saying the faithful saying for if we died with him we also shall live with him if we endure we shall also reign with him if we deny him he also will deny us if we are faithless he remains faithful he cannot deny himself and so this reminds us of justification and everlasting life and resurrection it reminds us of the perseverance of the
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Saints because of the preserving work of God to sanctify and how we reign with Christ even in this life that he who knows the truth is set free and is able to govern himself we are reminded of the dangers of unbelief and apostasy leading to damnation we are reminded of Christ's integrity as a judge and we are reminded of the fact that Christ will not deny himself and will not deny those who are united to him.
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Verses 14 through 15 teach us of the importance of remembering the teaching that was just emphasized and being careful and diligent as workmen to present ourselves as those that do not need to be ashamed how do you avoid being ashamed as a workman what does the workman do the workman is building building what he's seeking to build up the souls of men and to build up the temple of God by some means does he build with hay and stubble and with wood or does he build with gold and precious stones how do you know the difference a discerning taste between these things there's a use of the
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Word of God and not only the Word of God but using the Word of God well rightly dividing the
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Word of God and knowing which thing to put where and so that work of using the
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Word of God interpreting it rightly and using it rightly that is the kind of workmanship that need not bring shame in contrast to that verse 16 reminds us to shun profane and idle babblings remember profane is the opposite of holy it's unholy to be profane is to be common right so there's this idea of we should have holy words and we shouldn't have idle babblings we should have which are useless right idleness is uselessness and what should we do we should be speaking useful words profitable words which will be revealed to us in chapter 3 of 2nd
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Timothy the profitable words the words that are profitable for doctrine for rebuke for correction for training are the words of scripture so we have the idle words and we have the profane words and we're to avoid both we are instead to use holy words and useful words and we find that the idle and unholy words are not just dangerous and that they prevent good work but also what do they do they tend to the increase of ungodliness for they will increase to more ungodliness they yield a fruit and that fruit that harvest is not a joyful harvest page 4 verse 17 and their message will spread like cancer the word in the
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Greek is really the root word for gangrene so spreading like gangrene now the word was used in in Hippocrates's writings in terms of medicine that's the this is used one time here in the scriptures and the external usage that you find as you know the
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Hippocratic Oath you find that the writings of Hippocrates he talks about medical terms a lot so you have
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Greek writings for him so a lot of times when you have a word that's used one time in scripture you go into looking at writings in the same language elsewhere to try to get a sense of how it's used more broadly in this word is used for basically any disease that is consuming and spreading and so you think about gangrene consuming and spreading it it destroys the body you think about cancer it it destroys the body by replacing it with unhealthy growth so their message will spread like gangrene like cancer hymenaeus felitis are of this sort who have strayed concerning the truth saying that the resurrection is already passed and they overthrow the faith of some so this useless and unholy speech left unopposed will spread like cancer a gangrene deadly diseases to destroy the body and so there is a duty of public teachers to oppose false teaching the example that's given here is the denial of the resurrection remember
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Paul here names names he named hymenaeus and felitis and this naming of names is meant to make aware source and then the naming of the error is meant to point to the problem the danger so the poisoners and the poison have strayed concerning the truth saying that the resurrection is already passed and they overthrow the faith of some now there are lots of texts in the scripture about the resurrection but I wanted to give to you 1st
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Corinthians 15 verses 12 to 28 I think this is the single strongest passage for us to be able to show not only is it the case that the resurrection had not occurred when
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Paul was writing but also that it hasn't happened even now I guess one of the common responses of what are called full preterists who say that all the prophecies of scripture have already passed is to say resurrection has already occurred and there's no future resurrection and so there's this denial of something that's this future there
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Paul spends a lot of time fighting that error but 1st Corinthians 15 12 28 really helps us to understand this in terms of thinking about that from our perspective right now and being able to demonstrate that this has not happened yet Peter 15 verse 12 now if Christ is preached that he has been raised from the dead how does some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead so any general denial of the resurrection of the dead is something that Paul plainly opposes verse 13 but if there is no resurrection of the dead then
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Christ is not risen he says if it's the case that there's not going to be a general resurrection if there's not going to be a resurrection of the dead then if that's true in the universal sense then it's also true in a particular sense of Christ verse 14 and if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty so in other words that the delivery of the gospel by the apostles the apostolic deposit would be false because the apostolic deposit includes the teaching that Christ was resurrected and so if you deny that Christ is resurrected you're denying the apostolic teaching you're denying the gospel to deny the gospel to deny the resurrection in general is to deny the particular resurrection of Christ and therefore to deny the gospel in other words if you want to go tonight at the resurrection do it someplace other than the church and if Christ is not risen then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty verse 15 yes and we have found false witnesses of God because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ whom he did not raise up if in fact the dead do not rise for if the dead do not rise then
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Christ is not risen and if Christ is not risen your faith is futile you're still in your sins then also those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished if in this life only we have hope in Christ we have all men the most pitiable so this is the general argument against the idea that there is no resurrection he's showing this is not compatible with the rest of Christianity you're forced to deny
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Christianity if you deny the resurrection verse 20 but now
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Christ is risen from the dead and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep for since by man came death by man also came the resurrection of the dead for as in Adam all die even so in Christ all shall be made alive so this is a teaching of the general resurrection not just of the elect but also the reprobate but each one in his own order
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Christ the firstfruits afterward those who are in Christ at his coming then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom to the father when he puts an end to all rule and all authority and power for he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that will be destroyed is death love it do we see other enemies yet undestroyed in the earth do we see sin and evil rulers do we see the doctrines of demons deceiving many do we see heresy and schism and all manner of harms brought to the church are the enemies of Christ still raging in the earth has he put all of them under his foot in a way where they are subdued and subjected are they under the foot of the church as Psalm 47 says will happen have they all been conquered well in principle they've been conquered legally there's a victory it's occurred but we are still in process of the subjection we are still in process of seeing the enemies of Christ subdued and he must reign till he has put all enemies under his feet when he comes back for the resurrection he ends this current reign and hands the keys hands the authority hands the rule back to the father until this victory has occurred he reigns he's put all enemies under his feet the last enemy that will be destroyed is death you do not need to be deceived that there has already been the general resurrection the struggle with sin and the doctrines of demons and with the world is still strong the last enemy that will be destroyed is death the general resurrection comes at the end of that conquering and subduing
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Christ has not yet returned for the general resurrection do not be deceived verse 27 for he's put all things under his feet but when he says all things are put under him it is evident that he who put all things under him is accepted
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God the Father is not subjected to Christ now when all things are made subject to him then the
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Son himself will also be subject to him who put all things under him that God may be all in all and we have the
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Father who is in essence the same as the Son and the same as the Holy Spirit there's an equality of essence between the members of the
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Trinity and there's an equality of power but there's a voluntary subjection of the
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Son to the Father and of the Spirit to the Father and the Son and so this voluntary subjection for the distinction of roles between the members of the
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Trinity by covenant is what is spoken of there so these things help us to know we are in a time where there is there has not yet been the general resurrection and we await it now to the new portions chapter 2 verse 19 look at page 5 of the handout nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands having this seal right so even in the face of false teachers even in the face of men who cause households to apostatize the solid foundation of God stands what is the foundation of God we're taught plainly at many points that Christ is the foundation he is the chief cornerstone of the foundation how is it that he is both the foundation and the chief cornerstone of the foundation well he individually the
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God -man is the chief cornerstone and he by union with his prophets and apostles gives his word to them and so the
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Word of Christ which is Christ is the foundation of the church the
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Word of God is the foundation nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands having this seal the
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Lord knows those who are his the doctrine of election unconditional election and reprobation makes us know that God isn't fooled he doesn't forget he doesn't allow any of his to be lost all of the father gave to the son he does not lose the
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Lord knows those who are his we also have this doctrine and let everyone who names the name of the
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Lord depart from iniquity this is the call of the visible church to righteousness to holiness some people put these things and they say the doctrine of God's sovereignty in election and the doctrine of personal responsibility these things cannot be reconciled beloved that is foolishness it is silliness it is ignorance it is an immaturity of thought the idea that human responsibility depends upon some sort of freedom from the decrees of God is nowhere found in the scriptures the basis of human responsibility is not the ability to do otherwise than God has decreed the basis of human responsibility is not freedom from divine control the basis of human responsibility is plainly laid out for us in the book of Romans and elsewhere the basis of human responsibility is first there's a judge think about this the word responsible what does it mean it means that you can be called to give a response what does it mean to be accountable you can be called to give an account what does it mean to be answerable you can be called to give an answer responsibility depends logically upon there being a judge secondly to be responsible requires a standard by which to be judged now thankfully in the
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Christian religion we have a basis for responsibility that basis is God's a judge he's the judge there's no judge above him and he's given a law so God is the judge and his law is the standard and furthermore men's inexcusability is made obvious in their own self -condemnation first of all from general revelation with all fallen men they have beliefs where they take the attributes of God and apply them to things that are not
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God they take eternality and apply it to the universe or infinitude and apply it to something like the universe or some other spirit something that is not
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God they take the attributes of God and apply it to a self contradictory mess and their internal contradictions show their own beliefs to be false and so they are liars to themselves believing absurdities and additionally all men violate their own consciences they value one thing and then choose something else later that's the thing they said was less valuable they speak against the thing and then speak not against the thing but in favor of it they speak against the thing and then do the thing they spoke against one day they choose a thing and the next day they choose the contrary without any rational basis and so their own actions and their own minds condemn them yesterday you said this was good now you say it's bad and so there is a self -condemnation so there's no ability to make an excuse no logically coherent ability to do so every man can be silenced
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God can show everybody to be a joke responsibility is not based upon freedom from the decree of God responsibility is based upon God's role as judge and his laws place as the standard beloved we should be assured by the fact that God chooses his people he knows those who are his he does not lose them and you should make your calling an election sure how can you be sure of your election how can you be sure that you have been effectually called beloved you must know the gospel well you must study it well and you must know that the scriptures do teach that gospel you must be sure that you understand what it is that has been spoken by the mouth of God as a good news and you must see if that's what you actually believe do you understand what's been written and do you believe it to be true there are excellent works that have been done by teachers now dead men the
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Holy Spirit worked well in and organized the understanding of the gospel in ways that are very helpful to study putting scripture by scripture comparing spiritual things with spiritual things and setting them side by side to help us to be able to see these things we have copies of these books
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I'd be happy to give them to any of you who want to study them to be assured of your salvation and to know that you understand and believe the gospel first is atonement by Gordon Clark it's a fantastic book that goes through the elements of the doctrine of the atonement next one is justification by faith alone by Charles Hodge which is a magnificent job of laying out that Protestant doctrine that biblical doctrine the other one is everlasting righteousness by Horatius Bonner who does a magnificent job of showing you the scripture basis for assurance of salvation depending on where you are whether you need to understand the doctrine of the atonement or understand and really see defended the doctrine justification by faith alone or whether your assurance is what you're struggling with I would point you to one of these books and I'd be happy to talk to you further beloved if you want to have strength to obey and to make advances you must understand and believe the gospel and you must be assured of your salvation that joy and that gratitude will give you strength to endure strength to be able to compete according to the rules of the game and it will give you hope that you can look forward to the harvest you'd be a workman who need not be ashamed now for the
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Christian who is trying to grow in applying the law of God and departing from iniquity I think
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I would like to encourage you to go and study the larger catechism on the law those sections on the
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Ten Commandments do such a magnificent job of laying out and organizing the principles of the law under the categories of how to love
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God how to love neighbor and then how to deal with it inside of the categories of the law inside their pastor
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Thomas Watson now dead a Puritan one of the Westminster Assembly wrote a great book called the
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Ten Commandments it's also available as an audiobook you're trying to figure out how to be able to put off sins and to be able to put on good works and you need help we have been seeking to make mature our counseling ministry as a church and so I'd encourage you to come and talk to me or to talk to a deacon
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Schaefer and we can try to arrange for you help but there's some great works that would help you to understand the method of counseling that we apply
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Jay Adams books on counseling I have them listed down there for you happy to give you copies of them if you understand how to do that or how to be helpful in terms of learning to grow and being a part of that counseling ministry and additionally
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I have some videos they'd be happy to give to any of you from the larger catechism study that have done where there's a running through the law so these things to study the law of God is how you know how to put off iniquity the evangelical church sadly in this day is held captive to a doctrine called antinomian ism antinomian ism is a rejection of an opposition to anti the namas the law to hatred of the law of God as an opposition to it and this idea that the law of God is what teaches us first of all what sin even is the law of God shows us what sin is apart from the law you have no knowledge of sin by the knowledge by the knowledge of the law is the knowledge of sin so the first use of the law is to show us our need of salvation in addition to that the law of God helps you to restrain sin it helps others to restrain sin it's a chain that binds and prevents outbreaks of wickedness people mock this as cultural
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Christianity cultural Christianity is a great blessing to the Saints it binds people to not sin out of a desire to get social approval which prevents all kinds of wickedness and thirdly the law of God is a lamp under the feet of the people of God and shows them the way that they should go the preaching of the law is necessary for the strength of the church and for the strength of the preaching of the gospel both must be taught we must teach law the commandments of God and we must teach gospel the good news the the indicative statements about who
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God is and what he has done these things are necessary and they must be dealt with and gone into it and more and more deeply page 6 verse 20 but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay some for honor and some for dishonor therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter he will be a vessel for honor sanctified and useful for the master prepared for every good work now the great house is being talked about here is the household of God household of God the visible church is a place where there's household administrators the officers of the church are given a duty to be stewards of the household and they're to run things according to the will of the master not their own will the great house are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay some for honor and some for dishonor now this idea of the ones that are for honor and the other ones that are for dishonor is this you could say okay the ones for honor these useful
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Christians and the ones for dishonor are they useless Christians are we talking about useful
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Christians versus reprobates wolves goats that have gotten in but it shouldn't be here or that by means of external uses have gotten in through lawful means but they themselves have been hypocrites whichever the the point is it's certainly the group for dishonor certainly at least includes the reprobate and false teachers verse 21 therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the ladder he will be a vessel for honor sanctified and useful for the master prepared for every good work the ladder cleanse so what listed we just have we had vessels of honor and vessels dishonor if you cleanse yourself from the ladder cleanse yourself of the vessels for dishonor what is that that is avoiding keeping company with fools that is avoiding taking in the doctrines and meditating upon the doctrines of false teachers the latter here are the wicked men that subvert the faith we're to put off bad messengers and bad influences and put on good messengers and influences that helps you to be a vessel of honor sanctified and useful for the master ready for every good work right therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the ladder he will be a vessel for honor sanctified and useful for the master prepared for every good work cleansing yourself from vessels of dishonor is how you become useful many people are prevented from becoming mature and useful because they keep company with fools because they don't have church discipline because they will not denounce false doctrine any preacher that wants to see his congregation filled with vessels of honor accomplishing useful work must is commanded is obligated to help the congregation to put off vessels of dishonor bad messengers bad influences verse 22 flee also youthful lusts that pursue righteousness faith love peace with those who call the name of the
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Lord out of a pure heart but avoid foolish and ignorant disputes knowing that they generate strife so youthful lusts that are to be fleed we find
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John talks about the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of life I think that these are great categories to think about the youthful lusts when we're young we tend to look around at what we can see and to be enthralled by it we are captured by the idea of wealth and physical beauty and human power we make men idols we look at men and say they can do all things we think
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I would be happy if only I had a beautiful woman or if I had this property or if I had that or that honor this praise of men and so we make these things into our gods we chase after them and we put service to God below those things as a priority and even make the service of God into a means to get those things as opposed to those blessings being fruits or secondary things that come as blessings for the pursuit first of all the kingdom of God and his righteousness flee youthful lusts but pursue righteousness faith love peace with those who call in the name of the
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Lord out of a pure heart these youthful lusts cause us to despise righteousness because righteousness seems so much to hinder our ability to chase after our lusts righteousness is applying the law of God it's right choices it's doing what we're commanded to do that includes things like steering clear of the harlot's house well if you have the lust for forbidden women then steering clear of the adulterous is or the harlot's house seems totally contrary to how you might chase after your
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God faith we should pursue faith you want to pursue righteousness you must pursue a deep knowledge of the law of God because when you pursue righteousness you run into all sorts of difficult cases where you have to figure out what's right and what's wrong here you have to study the law you have to study the exceptions to the law you find the case laws you look at the hard cases you look at when you have to choose one thing over another you study the law and it helps you to know and as you study the law it grows your faith and the faith is this as you understand and believe the
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Word of God faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God external means of the preaching or reading of the word pounds your eyes or pounds your ears but it's the
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Spirit of God working inwardly to illuminate the mind that causes you to actually grow in faith faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
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Word of God and so we must apply the ordinary means we must read and study and listen we must grapple with and reason we must consider and seek to organize the information we must compare spiritual things with spiritual things one of those spiritual things were supposed to compare we're supposed to compare the words that come from the
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Spirit of God with the words that come from the Spirit of God we put them side by side and we think about them and we think how can these both be true the places that we do not understand how to reconcile we are sometimes afraid to look into because we worry what if it's not really true what if Christianity actually is a contradictory mess beloved never be afraid that God got it wrong never be afraid that his word got it wrong never be afraid to look into those places where you think the scriptures contradict themselves because when you chase them down your faith will be deepened you will see more clearly and it will cause you to have a stronger more mature faith than you ever had before looking into those places that you are afraid to look at in the
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Word of God are the best places if there's a passage you're afraid of that's a calling to go wrestle with it we must pursue faith we're to pursue love not the love of all things
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God hates the wicked God hates wickedness we're not to love all things what are we to love what love are we to pursue we are to pursue the love of God and the love of neighbor we apply the law and the pursuit of God we apply the law in the pursuit of the good of our neighbor we are to pursue peace with those who call the name with those who call upon the
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Lord out of a pure heart there are many who call upon the Lord out of an impure heart here's the trouble there's also many who call upon the
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Lord out of a pure heart and so just calling upon the name of the
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Lord is not enough for you to determine who you're supposed to be at peace with we don't want to say peace peace when there is no peace we don't want to say
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Union when there ought to be division no what we need to do is to have a way of determining and so I and I would suggest you do not have the power to read the hearts of men so how can you figure out who is calling on the
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Lord out of a pure heart well you can't infallibly God does infallibly but what you do is you judge the words and the actions of men and by that you have evidence to evaluate the hearts of men you can't judge my heart well
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I can judge the evidence no different judgment change the evidence so repentance is 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 now we pursue peace with those who call the name of the
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Lord out of a pure heart by working through disputes you have to argue about stuff to come to peace that's how you come to peace but foolish and ignorant disputes are to be avoided disputes are foolish when they are contrary to the
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Word of God and ignorant when they are on something else people who have not knowledge or have foolishness opposed to the wisdom of God we are supposed to resolve things going back to the words of truth and so these disputes when there is ultimately a rejection of the
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Word of God is the authority to resolve the dispute there's a rejection of the standard of judgment avoid foolish and ignorant disputes knowing that they generate strife so in other words sometimes there's a duty to fight to bring about peace and sometimes there's a duty to not waste the time fighting now the problem is the only way you can figure that out is by having initial confrontations and fights and so you have to go through a process of much discussion you go through the
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Matthew 18 process depending at the level of publicity you start at the level of publicity that the conflict starts at and you go through that process and you'd be willing to go through that process and the biblical system even has a method for appeal so there might be two public processes and so you have this idea of there being much discussion but not infinite verse 24 and a servant of the
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Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all able to teach patient and humility correcting those who are in opposition if God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth and that they may come to their senses and escape the stare of the devil having been taken captive by him to do his will quarreling is a abusive sort of fighting or a fruitless sort of fighting having disputes that are worthless some people are quarrelsome some people like to fight the fighting to fight can be fun but it's exhausting it's energy -consuming and so fighting is something that must be limited to where there is a need to fight and so the servant of the
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Lord must be gentle to all that doesn't mean no strength is ever used it's a controlled strength this idea that the servant of the
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Lord must be careful to apply the appropriate level of strength to the appropriate person how sharp the rebuke how public the fight how intense the engagement all of these things are choices of power and it's the duty of the servant of the
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Lord to be gentle to all to be controlled in the usage of strength toward everybody using that strength appropriately to be too strong in some cases is to take the broken reed or the bruised reed and harm it in other cases to be too weak is to coddle wolves while they eat the sheep and so it is important to decide which is necessary where competence to teach is necessary because this fighting is a fighting with words this fighting is a fighting with doctrine this fighting is a fighting with argumentation if you're not able to communicate clearly what is the truth in an organized and concise manner then these fights are going to be strife inducing waste fests a competence to teach to be able to organize the information display it plainly a patience in going through conflict this endurance a willingness to suffer and to go through process that's long to be able to deal with this correction must be done in humility to those who are in opposition the danger is some people that are willing to correct like to correct sometimes too much and this liking to correct can be a desire to tell people to do what are their preferences as opposed to what their duties are this correcting can be done in a way where the will of the human can be viewed as the authority as opposed to the will of God being the authority correction must be done in humility towards those who are in opposition because there must be a recognition that the authority of the word and not the authority of the will of the pastor is the basis for repentance and submission this is to be done with a humble attitude knowing that you don't have the power as a pastor to bring people to repentance even when you're right the one who has the power to bring to repentance is
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God it is the work of the Holy Spirit to bring about repentance and so one way of being proud and arrogant is to impose your own will another way is to think that you can always win and cause the person to agree and that thinking you can always win can sometimes reach out into a lashing out uncontrolled or it can turn into this unnecessary proud continuation of things because you think if only
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I could try a little longer if I can just keep talking maybe this time maybe this time maybe this time maybe this time that can be arrogance too and so humble service looks like submitting to the law of God teaching what
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God has commanded seeking to lay things out plainly clearly in an organized manner from the scriptures correcting humility those who are in opposition this involves relying upon God to grant repentance in the hopes that the person who is opposed may come to know the truth this requires prayer if you're humbly trying to engage you pray for God to grant the victory right you do your best to teach you do you do your best to engage you do your best to argue you prepare the horse for battle and then you look to God to grant the victory and so you ask the
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Lord to cause the opposition to know the truth to come to their senses they might escape the snare of the devil what a false doctrine has grabbed their heart whatever false doctrine has enslaved them pray that God would free them cause them to come to their senses to know the truth they might escape being held captive to the devil's will comments questions objections from the voting members and those with speaking rights let's pray father we ask that you would bless the teaching of your word that you would cause us to understand it and to believe it well
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I pray that you would gift the officers here with these qualities that you would help us to not quarrel but be gentle to all
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I ask that you would bless the officers to be able to teach and to be patient that you would bless the officers to be able to humbly correct those who are in opposition
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I pray that you would help us to see the blessing of repentance come upon opposition a knowledge of the truth coming to senses and escaping of the snare of the devil