House Rules for God's Church (1 Timothy 3:15)

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Good morning, everyone. Good to see each one. Let's find our places and We're going to begin our study this morning

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Welcome to Kootenai Community Church adult Sunday school good to see you all This morning we're going to begin a study through Paul's letter to Timothy his first letter first Timothy And there is an outline page that is around here someplace

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So if you don't have one maybe raise your hand I have a volunteer over here to pass things out, and there's some on the seats here in different different places, but grab a hold of that and we'll be going through that this morning and starting a study through first Timothy What we're calling.

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I'm calling house rules for God's church as You'll see and so before we do and before we just get into some introductory issues this morning in this little letter

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Let's commit our time to our Lord and ask his blessing on our time And then on our study

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Father thank you for this opportunity that we have we know it is by your grace that you have gathered us together here, and we know that your word is

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Truth and we know that we are dependent on you to be our teacher through your spirit and so we would just ask your blessing on our time in your word this morning and Open our hearts and minds to To learn and to grow to apply what we learn and we just thank you for this opportunity in Jesus mighty name

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Amen well this morning as I said, we're just going to begin a study through first Timothy and with some introduction this morning a little bit of background at first and Then we're going to talk about the purpose of the letter pretty obvious I always enjoy it when a when a writer tells you right in the letter itself

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What its purpose is that makes it easy? You don't have to consult all the commentaries and theologians and things and waste a lot of time finding out what they think you just go

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Right to the source, and he does tell us that and then we're going to spend a little time talking about the first two verses

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Which is the greeting of Paul to? Timothy well

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Paul probably wrote this around the year 63 or 64 ad Around 30 years after the ascension of our

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Lord And so that just sort of places it in the first century a little bit for us Paul would have been in his mid to late 60s when he wrote this letter to the younger preacher

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Timothy Paul had been imprisoned in Rome Which is recorded in the last chapter of Acts and then after his release he revisited some of the churches

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That he had ministered in which included the church at Ephesus which is going to be the focus of Timothy's ministry he then traveled to Macedonia and Left Timothy behind at Ephesus to deal with some of the issues in that church including dealing with false teachers heresies and things like that He then wrote this letter from Macedonia back to Timothy to encourage him in a very difficult

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Ministry situation, it's not known exactly when the church at Ephesus began but we do know that according to Luke's account in Acts chapter 18

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Paul was there with Priscilla and Aquila as he was Traveling back to Antioch during his second missionary journey after spending time in Antioch Paul returned to Ephesus to minister for two for more than two years and in Luke's account in Acts 19

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Luke helps us understand something of Paul's ministry there in Acts 19 one it says and it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus later on in the chapter it says and he entered the synagogue and For three months spoke boldly

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Reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief

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Speaking evil of the way before the congregation. He withdrew from them and took the disciples with him reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus this continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the

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Lord both Jews and Greeks Ephesus was the capital of the most important And the most important city in the

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Roman province of Asia It was a critical hub of commerce and so on and also religious activity temple of Artemis was there

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Well, that was a great issue for those people and Paul had ministered effectively in Ephesus and later when he was returning to Jerusalem for Pentecost from Macedonia.

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He didn't have time to visit Ephesus personally So he called to the elders of the church to meet him at Miletus near the coast

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This brief meeting it was very personal It was very emotional and it was also an opportunity for Paul to warn them with these words

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This is Acts 20. I know that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will see my face again

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Therefore I testify to you this day That I am innocent of the blood of all for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the

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Holy Spirit has made you overseers To care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood.

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I Know that after my departure fierce wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own

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Selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them

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And when he had said these things he knelt down and prayed with them all and there was much weeping on the part of all

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They embraced Paul and kissed him being Sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken that they would not see his face again

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And they accompanied him to the ship Paul had made a tremendous Investment in the church at Ephesus and probably multiple smaller house churches

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We say that church at Ephesus, but that's probably the situation there it was an investment of time an investment of teaching an

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Investment in developing the spiritual leadership that was there and as you can tell from these comments here a very personal investment in the lives of these men and Later on when he writes this letter to this young pastor

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Timothy to tell him to remain at Ephesus as Paul went on to Greece to minister

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He's very concerned And he should have been Paul's words to the elders of Ephesus that day were not simply a warning they were prophetic

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Vic vicious wolves did come into the church with their false teaching some of the congregation had

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Defected from the faith and were in in stayed in the church Teaching twisted things as Paul said and we know that decades later toward the end of the first century

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The aging Apostle John on the Isle of Patmos received that great message

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We call the revelation of Jesus Christ and in that is a warning to various churches from Jesus Christ himself one of those churches was the church at Ephesus this very congregation and Revelation chapter 2 as he addresses the church at Ephesus our

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Lord commends them for some positive things But then issues this very solemn warning.

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I Have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first Remember therefore from where you have fallen

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Repent and do the works you did at first if not I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent

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It's Revelation 2 1 through 7. So Ephesus was a critical ministry and Paul writes this letter to Timothy It's a letter of encouragement.

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It's a letter of instruction, but it's also a letter of warning Though that's just a very basic background.

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What about the purpose of the letter? This is point to when you're outlined Roman numeral to the purpose

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And again, I always like it when the writer just tells you what the purpose is and Paul does this in 1st

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Timothy 3 Verses 14 and 15. It's right there. He says I hope to come to you soon

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But I am writing these things to you so that when you see that so that that's a

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Cues you that there's a purpose statement coming if I delay you may know how one ought to behave in the household

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Of God, which is the church of the Living God a pillar and buttress of the truth we're going to go through that passage in a little more detail when we get there, but for our purposes this morning and the

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Title of the the study here. I'm simply just calling it house rules for God's Church because this is what this is about These three letters 1st

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Timothy 2nd Timothy and Titus are commonly called the pastoral letters or pastoral epistles It's that's kind of true.

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But really the first one is really the main one That's this pastoral 2nd Timothy as you know is really primarily a very personal letter that Paul writes

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When he knows he's about to be executed for his faith But his purpose in writing this letter is so that Timothy will have a set of house rules house rules for God's Church so it's a real tragedy of our time one of them that so many of the the the contemporary books and References you can go find that tell people how to do church or how to plant churches and how to how to Minister within the churches so many of them basically disregard the pastoral letters the very letters that are written to the church

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To tell the church how to do church. That's a it's a strange irony of our day But just one of them within the broader church itself

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Well, Timothy was Paul's protege his apprentice his ministerial disciple

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So to speak and Timothy being considerably younger and less experienced than Paul was being left in Ephesus In a very very tough ministry assignment two of the three pastoral epistles written to Timothy of course the third to Titus who

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Paul was going to leave on the island of Crete to do very much the same thing and in his letter to Titus He tells him that I want you to set things straight in the churches on the on the island of Crete And so both of these younger men had a very very difficult

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Ministry assignment to do if We were to compile a list of Paul's instructions for Timothy from first Timothy and second

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Timothy and you can find these lists and commentaries or you can just go through and and make your own we would see that By Paul's admonitions and by his warnings and by his instructions to Timothy and to Titus Spiritual warfare is never fought on only one front ever

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Just about the time you think you have one Spiritual issue dealt with over here another one pops up over here

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And when that one is through over here another one pops up over here I've heard it described as playing whack -a -mole, you know trying to find out and I think but whack -a -mole

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What does it have nine more nine deals? I think or so, but this is more like playing whack -a -mole with maybe a hundred right because every time

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Fad or a false teaching sort of sweeps through the church and then after a while it gets dealt with you think okay there

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We took care of that one. There's another one over here another one over there spiritual warfare is Is never fought on only one front the enemy is too

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Smart to just approach the church and to attack the church on just one front

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But if you just survey what Paul told Timothy in his first letter alone

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It's as if Paul says to Timothy Timothy Here's what I want you to do in Ephesus Confront and correct false teachers calling them to repentance a sincere faith and a good conscience

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Fight hard for the truth guarding your own spiritual life Pray for the lost no matter who they are and lead the men of the church to do the same in unity and holiness

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Exhort the women of the church to fulfill their God -ordained role of submission to their husbands Working in their homes to raise up godly children setting an example in their homes of faith love and holiness

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Carefully and prayerfully select spiritual leaders for the church based on their godliness giftedness and good reputations

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Actively and aggressively discern and expose spiritual error and those who attempt to teach it within the flock of God Always be feeding yourself on the sound words of Scripture Staying far away from myths false doctrines and the philosophies of men

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Work hard in your ministry always keeping your hopes set on the life to come with Christ Continuously discipline yourself for the purpose of spiritual growth in godliness

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Boldly and lovingly command and teach God's Word to his people Model the fruit of the

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Spirit so that all can follow you Concerning the Word of God faithfully read it explain it and apply it publicly to the people

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Keep growing in Christ likeness in your own personal life Confront the sins of your people, but with gentleness and grace

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Lead your people to give special care for the widows in the congregation Carefully select leaders in the church who demonstrate spiritual maturity and faithfulness

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Take care of yourself physically so you are strong to serve Christ Teach your people to be faithful and hard workers in the church and in their outside employment

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Honor faithful pastors who rule well, and especially who work hard at preaching and teaching the

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Word Apply the Word of God in the church without partiality Live your life content with what

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God provides and flee the love of money Instead pursue righteousness godliness faith love steadfastness gentleness

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Fight for the faith against its enemies Keep all of God's commandments charge the rich in your congregation to be generous and to be rich in good works

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Guard the Word of God that has been entrusted to you as a sacred trust

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All of that to this young preacher in Paul's first letter After Paul was in prison for the final time in Rome and as he awaited execution

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He knew it was the end of his earthly life He penned his last words to the church and he sent that letter to Timothy We call it second

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Timothy very personal very personal letter to the same young preacher He continues to exhort and encourage

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Timothy by telling him to Fan the flame fan into flame the gift of God which is in him so he can be useful to the

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Lord Don't ever be timid fearful or ashamed of the testimony of Christ, but suffer in the strength and power of God follow

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Paul's own pattern of preaching and teaching sound words and guard the truth that has been placed in your care and Take that truth and teach it to faithful men who will also pass it down to faithful men

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So the next generation will hear the gospel Suffer as a good soldier of Christ Keep a single focus on the

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Lord of the church Jesus Christ and don't be distracted by the things of the world

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Lead the flock of God with authority Work hard to accurately interpret teach and apply the scriptures

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Here's one we can apply avoid useless people who talk about useless things And this is 2 ,000 years before the internet we'll get there we'll talk about that Flee youthful lusts pursue righteousness faith love and peace

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Don't get caught up in foolish and ignorant controversies that just breed quarrels and I have in quotes here because this was first done

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Five years ago in an election year especially in an election year Don't be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone able to teach patient correcting your opponents with gentleness

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Be ready to face the dangerous times that God That will come with a deep understanding of God's Word know that the scripture is

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God breathed and profitable to equip you for all tasks preach the word and preach it when it's popular to do it and Especially preach it when it's not popular and use it to reprove rebuke and exhort people

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Endure hardship and do the work of an evangelist All of that for a young Timid pastor to be equipped to minister in a land far far away 2 ,000 years ago, but all of that Applicable for us right here right now in North Idaho in 2021

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So as we study through this first letter to Timothy, we must keep in mind Paul's purpose

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Which is the Lord's purpose and the reason he wrote this letter So that you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the

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Church of the Living God So we're calling this series house rules for God's Church So there we have the background and there we have the purpose now

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Let's look together at point three on your outline the greeting the greeting of Paul Paul opens up this letter to Timothy Very typical of how he writes a letter and how people would write in that day first to identify themselves at the very beginning of the letter as opposed to Signing it at the end.

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He says Paul an Apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our

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Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope to Timothy my true child in the faith grace mercy and peace from God the

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Father and Christ Jesus our Lord Paul of course an apostle of Jesus Christ at this stage of his ministry.

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Paul was a veteran missionary as as mentioned the occasion of this letter was that Paul was away from Ephesus he's in Macedonia and he writes back to Timothy who is at Ephesus to encourage him to challenge him to to make sure he understands what his marching orders are for his ministry there and Paul would regularly begin his letters by identifying himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ Does this in Romans 1st

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Corinthians 2nd Corinthians Galatians Ephesians and so on in many of these letters? He was dealing with false teachers who had come into these congregations with their false doctrines he had been accused of being a false teacher himself and he also needed the full weight of this apostolic authority to deal with these issues and What he's about to tell

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Timothy has the full weight and authority of Jesus Christ himself

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Paul was not a self -appointed Apostle, okay. Paul was a true apostle with full

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Apostolic authority and he met all of the qualifications He had personally witnessed the risen

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Christ Christ revealed himself to him. He had spent a lot of time being trained by Jesus himself

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Before he even began his ministry. He was personally commissioned to his apostolic office and his work by Christ himself

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That calling was verified by the marks of a true apostle as Paul says miraculous signs that were truly signs pointing to him for who he truly was signs which

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Validated the man and his message which was what they were for. So Paul was a true apostle with true

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Apostolic authority Unlike those today who claim to be Apostles which there aren't any because none of them are qualified according to the biblical qualifications

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Commonly in the groups such as the NAR New Apostolic Reformation These are all fake.

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They're all phony. They're all charlatans They're all con artists and they are all liars

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They are fake Apostles and it doesn't matter if they all get together in a conference and and Go up on a stage and have some kind of ceremony and lay hands on each other and declare themselves to be

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Apostles, there are no more Apostles They they they think they can do that to con the church and it is an absolute

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Travesty and they need to be called out for who they are and what they are Paul bolsters his authority by saying and he just tells us how he got to be an apostle by Command of God our

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Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope Paul did not even

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Delegate himself. He didn't wake up one day and say, you know what? I think I'm going to be an apostle He was an apostle by command of God.

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Okay. Yes Peter Prop having prophecies

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I would Yeah, if they're false, yes, they are

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Yeah to do to declare yourself a a current -day Apostle now remember the usage of the word has a little broader

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Semantic range then then just the technical use of an apostle could be a one who was sent with a message and If someone is just sent with the message as we all are then in that sense

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There is an apostolic ministry Okay, so you have to sort of look at it and distinguish between the two but these are people who are claiming to be

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Apostles they're not by biblical definition Okay, and so Paul was made by a command of God our

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Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope to the Members of the

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Trinity he mentions and of course the agent of that was the Holy Spirit So Paul not only has a the command of God our

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Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope the Holy Spirit is there Ministering that to him.

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So he has a triune calling in a triune ministry because we have a triune God so later in the letter

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Paul will tell Timothy to command the church and So the authority that Paul has as an apostle is then

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Transferred to Timothy Timothy is an a not an apostle, but he has apostolic authority

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Based on Paul's commands to him Timothy would read this letter himself because it's written to him and so he would have his marching orders

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But this letter would also be read to the rest of the church This was Paul's intention if you look at the very end of first Timothy Paul ends this

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Letter with a little phrase grace be with you Now the English we have one form for both plural and singular right you unless you're from,

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Texas Then you got a really functional word called y 'all but grace be with you. That is plural

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So clearly this was intended to be communicated and read to the churches to the congregations

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Even though it is a personal letter to Timothy even second Timothy at the end of that letter The Lord be with your spirit grace be with you and that's plural

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Intended to go out to all of the congregations that he's ministering in and even at the end of Titus He it says grace be with you all they can't miss that one because it actually has the word all their grace be with you

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All so even though these are personal letters written to these young apostolic

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You can use the old word call them a legate or a delegate Because they're not really sent there to pastor full -time.

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They're sent there to be an apostolic representative But these letters are designed to be read to the congregations that they are ministering in Timothy came from a mixed

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Marriage mixed parentage his mother Eunice was Jewish and a believer, but his father was a pagan Greek So if he was going to try to minister apart from Paul, he's going to have to have some kind of certification, right?

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And so can you imagine if you're a young pastor, you're not Paul You're not an apostle But he has sent you into these churches to try to Straighten things out part of which is going to be dealing with false teachers false teachers.

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Don't like to let go very Easily of their ministries even when they're confronted. I don't know if you've noticed that they they they just they're tenacious

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And even if they're removed from a ministry oftentimes, they'll just go next door and set up another ministry

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They just can't get away from trying to influence God's people. They would have definitely challenged

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Timothy He would have been able then with this letter to walk in and say hi I'm here to straighten out your church and they would have

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Definitely reacted against that and he would have said and I have a letter here from the Apostle Paul Directed to me and telling me what exactly

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I'm supposed to do here That would be his sort of his bona fides in these congregations. It would have had apostolic authority for him to do what

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Paul told him to do there and I can just imagine Timothy going in and saying hi guys.

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I'm here to straighten out your church and when he met resistance He's saying I have this letter here You probably don't have one of these do you but I have one and That's what

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I would do. He wouldn't do that. Of course because he was more gracious but wouldn't it be nice to have a letter from the

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Apostle Paul that told you exactly what he wanted you to do and It had apostolic authority.

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Wouldn't that be wonderful? Here it is folks right here, right?

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You have apostolic authority When you share the gospel with people you have the exact same authority that Paul communicated to Timothy and we have it right here.

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And so we need to use it just like Timothy would Well, God is the source of Paul's apostolic authority and he is also the source of our salvation interesting

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God our Savior that's an interesting phrase there and of Jesus Christ our hope

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This designation goes way back in the Old Testament Deuteronomy 32 Psalm 24 25 27 and 42 and elsewhere

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And the one I really like is Jonah, you know Jonah the the much maligned by critics and historians

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You know often kind of caricatured and made a little bit of a cartoon for for the children's ministry

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You know Jonah in the whale and yet Jonah in that letter says this Salvation belongs to the

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Lord. That's a statement of absolute sovereignty of God in salvation and it's throughout scripture and clear into the

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New Testament Luke 147 in her great song of praise when she was Rejoicing that she was pregnant with Messiah Mary sang my spirit rejoices in God my

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Savior tells you a little something about her spirituality. She understood she needed a Savior which

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We won't deal with here, but there's an awful lot of Catholic doctrine that this affects, right? And but she was praising

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God and she knew the source of salvation that it was from God and That salvation is realized through the person and work of Jesus Christ Who is our hope

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Paul says so if your hope for salvation is in Jesus Christ? Not the

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Christ of the cults not the Jesus of people's imaginations, but the Jesus revealed in Scripture You have real hope if not, you have no hope whatsoever

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For salvation so in the very first verse Paul establishes his apostolic authority

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It's passed down to Timothy. He he then proceeds to Certify Timothy.

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It was going to be real important for him to have this the certification of Timothy in in verse 2 and in your outline

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The part of the greeting there under Roman numeral 3 this is be the certification of Timothy Timothy would have been

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By himself in all going to all of these churches He needed to have that that validation from the

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Apostle Paul So he says to Timothy my true child in the faith

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Grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our

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Lord Timothy might not have been led to Christ by Paul personally. There's some Disagreement, it's not a real critical thing.

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I think he probably did lead him to Christ This is why he was able to use this terminology my true child in the faith

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We knew that Timothy was exposed to Scripture the Old Testament as a child Paul tells us this and second

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Timothy, you know He had the sacred scriptures able to make you wise unto salvation That would have been the Old Testament that he would have had growing up in first Thessalonians 3 and in Philippians 2

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Paul speaks of Timothy as his Coworker and in first Corinthians 4 16 and 17.

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He says to the Corinthians Paul says I urge you then be imitators of me

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That is why I sent you Timothy my beloved child in the Lord To remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach them everywhere in every church

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So Ephesus is not Timothy's first ministerial rodeo

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Years before Paul had turned him loose in Corinth now imagine Corinth How'd you like to be set loose there to minister to the churches?

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They had some serious problems he sent him there to be his ambassador and as he says an

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Example of my own ministry and he certainly needed then what he needed at Ephesus He needed apostolic authority because he was going to butt heads with some false teachers there as well

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But along with the authority he also needed what every one of us needs to accomplish anything The Lord calls us to he needs the triple blessing and Paul then issues this short concise beautiful statement

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Grace mercy and peace from God the Father and Jesus Christ Jesus our

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Lord The common Greek greeting of the day haraine just means greetings

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Okay, well Paul transformed that greeting into a word chorus grace and Then he added the

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Hebrew greeting shalom translated into Greek the word for peace a rain a and so Those two are a very common part of his greeting when he writes a church grace to you and peace.

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He would often say Only in first and second Timothy does he add the word mercy very interesting

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This is the only place that occurs again in just in these two letters This word mercy carries with it the idea of God's special care for a person in need or God's help

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For the helpless it occurs all through Scripture The Old Testament equivalent of that word is the word has said

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Use many times in the Psalms to speak of God coming to help in a time of need

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Timothy needed this blessing and so do we he was going to have a tough time in Ephesus Often coming to the end of himself so Paul being the

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Theological guy that he was in his greetings and also in his prayers for Christian uses this little formula because he knows that Salvation has its source in God and the grace of God which comes to us through Jesus Christ Who died as our substitute on the cross so we would receive

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God's mercy and the result is peace with God It's reminiscent of course of Romans 5 chapter chapter 5 verse 1 where Paul after he just develops the tremendous doctrine of justification by faith

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He says therefore since we have been justified by faith We have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ You will never have and know the peace of God until you have peace with God.

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It's an absolute prerequisite You can try to find peace in all different kinds of things in life

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Whatever you and you will never find true peace until you have peace with God because peace is a fruit of the

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Spirit of God And he only gives true peace to those who have peace with him through Jesus Christ So Timothy would have to rest in this very difficult situation in the grace and in the mercy and in the peace of God to carry out his ministry in Ephesus and So do we?

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so there's an introduction to first Timothy and A little bit just on the first two verses.

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Do you have any questions or comments about what we've seen here? Got done a little early.

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So you have more time for questions Or comments

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Disagreements. Oh Is that a disagreement Dave? Oh, okay. Yeah Yeah, the the tone of that introduction is

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Who's in charge here? Timothy needed to know Paul is giving you commands Timothy.

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This is not optional He doesn't get to go to Ephesus and hang out, you know and enjoy himself. He's he's being commissioned

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He's going there Paul is exercising his apostolic authority first and foremost over Timothy through the

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Lordship of Jesus Christ who is the Lord of the church and Then he he he delegates that authority to to Timothy in order to accomplish his ministry

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So yeah, Lord the Lordship of Christ. He's the Lord of the church and he

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Ministers he mediates that Lordship through his word by his spirit. Okay.

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This is why churches that don't have a Teaching preaching ministry. They don't have the Word of God. They don't have the

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Lordship of Christ in that church That's how he ministers. He mediates his Lordship through the preaching and teaching of his word in the church.

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So I Thought you're gonna disagree. Oh, you're gonna disagree. Oh Yeah acts

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Did somebody say acts 9 He mentions it in Galatians Other references, yeah

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Personally commissioned personally witnessed the risen Christ And of course today people would say oh, yes

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Jesus came to me and I spoke with him or he showed up so that might be their way of saying

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Well, he actually commissioned me My simple answer if somebody says Jesus came and talked to me.

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I just simply say no he didn't They're gonna say yes, he did. I'm gonna say no he didn't.

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Yes, he did. No, he didn't is it and probably they're gonna get to a place where they're gonna say because they know you cannot evaluate a personal private

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Encounter and they're just gonna say well you just proved that you didn't talk didn't come to me and I'm gonna say no No, the burden of proof is on you.

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I don't have to disprove something. It didn't happen burden of proof is on you to prove that Jesus came and spoke with you or appeared to you or whatever might be apart from scripture and You know, hey,

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I want to be a fair guy here. Let me what does voice sound like did he have a high voice? Or is it more low or was it maybe had a deep voice like James Earl Jones, you know

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Or maybe really deep voice like Barry White, maybe you know what and they can't tell you that Did he speak in Hebrew Aramaic or maybe

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Greek and if the Greek was it was it ancient Attic Greek, you know Or was it more into the Koine period?

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Well, they will say to you. Well, it wasn't really a language. It was just I had an impression. Okay, what's an impression?

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so you're just That kind of thing when it gets accepted in those circles it becomes sort of a circular verification kind of thing because it also becomes unfortunately sort of a spiritual status symbol and You know, do you want to be the only person in your church that Jesus hasn't spoken to you personally that type of thing?

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That's that's this is what you get into When you abandon scripture for other things and there's lots of other things out there

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That you can listen to lots of voices lots of voices out there remember in the garden

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They just had one voice to listen to his voice of God And when Satan slithered in the garden all of a sudden there was another voice, right?

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We have thousands of voices and they're not They come to you through all of the different ways that we have them.

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So we have a tough task right now I mean it really is and Timothy had a tough time in Ephesus and a lot of challenges

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But I think I think right now we probably have as great a challenge at least We also have more of the resources available to us than in any history of the church

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And one New Testament scholar would describe it as an embarrassment of riches and we do So we should take advantage of what we have and use it for for for the edification of the church and for God's glory

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Right any other thoughts you might have? Yeah, that's true.

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I think he probably did he slithered in Yeah, and the thing is, you know, I also here's the theory.

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I can't prove from the text I think he had a smile on his snaky little lips And probably a

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British accent. No, no, he didn't have British accent Did a stained -glass voice?

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How's that? Did God say right? He asked the first question ever asked just asking

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Just an innocent question, right? And then what did he do? He simply added one word and he perverted the

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Word of God So but yeah Sure, yeah,

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I think number one we have to be very patient with those folks. I Think I think there's a difference between You know actually the statement

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Jesus told me now if they take you right to Scripture and say and he tells me right here.

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I wouldn't Wouldn't want to arm -wrestle with him about that. Of course. I wouldn't say well then you should say it this way

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I think we need to be careful how we say it Jim weigh in on this. Where's Jim? He's And you see good because God doesn't whisper right

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What would you say Jim Well, I mean how would you help that person maybe see the distinction or how would we maybe see the distinction between I Think the problem comes and help me out

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How do you evaluate it? How do you test it? We're told to test all things Hold fast to that which is good.

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And that is singular because he's talking about the Word of God abstain from every form of evil so The problem comes with with I think how do you how does that person evaluate it?

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personally, I don't pay a lot of attention to my Feelings about things

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I I don't disregard them But I don't I'm very careful not to you know assign something to them that it really shouldn't be there.

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So that makes sense Yeah, I think one of the little one little one little tells and a lot of it has to do with the time and place in church history,

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I mean We're in a we're in a place in church history where there's an awful lot of that going on And so then you we we need to respond to the time that we're in and oftentimes those times require you to very

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Clearly pointedly draw the church back to the Word of God and maybe at another point in time

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There would not be that issue but in the church today the big broad Whatever you want to call the the broader

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Christendom. This is a huge issue and what it does if you stop and think about it

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Here's a little test. Does it move you into Scripture or does it move you away from Scripture? That's a test

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That's a tell if it tends to Move you away from the Word of God and independence on something.

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It's very subjective That would that would be something you would you would want to warn people against I think so Okay, anything else?

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Are you talking about? revelation from God Equivalent to as he moved the prophets to speak

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There you go it the word itself is used in a range of ways in Scripture and one of them is for direct

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Revelation from God through a Person who we would call them a prophet they're called prophets of Scripture But also there's a broader use of it where it's simply the communicating of God's Word and and to be able to teach or preach the

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Word of God and so if you're talking about new revelation apart from Scripture absolutely not

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Scripture is a closed canon as we say Jude said that it's the once -for -all delivered to the

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Saints Word and It's it's no longer Being added to by God so we have a closed canon

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But then what we have is The canon that we have the word that we have we are to proclaim it so that is our form of prophetic ministry

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But it really is doesn't qualify as prophecy as Scripture defines prophets go back and look at the

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Old Testament Leviticus 13 18 and so on and see what the penalties are for false prophets back then if you would apply them now

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There'd be some real bloodshed in many in many churches because the standard has not changed for prophecy

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And by the way the penalty for false prophets has not changed either We don't personally stone people to death, but folks the wages of sin is still death

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God is the agent of judgment in this and false prophets Everywhere you have in the

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Bible you have something reference to false teaching or false prophets You also have a statement of their judgment or their end it sometimes says just look in the context and you'll and you'll find it

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Okay Well I think he

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I think he can the problem comes in how do we evaluate it And how do I tell if that prompting is?

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Something other is really God, or is it something emotional in me maybe?

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Whatever it might be that the problem is you don't have an objective Test of it with Scripture you have an objective word of God right you know you have that it's it's not left up to Subjective revelation to figure out what that is

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Test all things hold fast to that which is good abstain from every form of evil and And again,

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I think the warning that we see in Scripture are especially applicable to our time I mean we tend to see ourselves as a little more of a sophisticated

47:08

People you know but remember it What Scripture says about the end times there will be lying wonders?

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I mean there will be I believe true visual that looked like a true miracle, but they will be lying signs and wonders and so we just have to be very careful, and I think the safest place is to Make sure that we are grounded in Scripture and that our source is the

47:35

Word of God Jim Yeah, God gets blamed and as you well know in those circles where people have extra biblical revelation

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You know who else is going to get blamed You because well you didn't get your miracle because you don't have enough faith.

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You didn't do this. You don't do that Yeah, the it's such a big deal. It's such a big deal. It's such a big deal Tragedy people are just blamed for things that shouldn't have happened in the first place or that couldn't have happened

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And if they would have stuck with Scripture, they would have been able to just eliminate it as a possibility altogether, so anything else we're

50:04

Great good discussion next week house rule number one no faults doctrine

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Let's pray father. Thank you for our time in your word this morning, and thank you for The clarity that we have as we search your word by your spirit

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We just thank you for that, and we thank you that we are able to gather here together We know it is all of it by your grace that you accomplish these things

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And now father if we prepare our hearts to worship you we we just ask your grace and mercy and peace for those who would lead us this morning who would

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Lead us in worship, and who would preach your word. We just pray that you would

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Bring that word to each one of our hearts and help us to be eager to hear and quick to obey what we learned today