A Biblical Pastor Part 1 (Tharptown Baptist Church) — Paul Washer

Well, it's a great privilege for me to be here again this morning with you. I went hog hunting to two weeks ago and I I grew this beard because I figured if I looked more like a hog, I could probably get closer to one.

The Spirit’s Warning About Apostasy

So don't be distressed. Some people say anything I could do to cover up this face of mine would be a blessing. Well, let's let's go to first Timothy, chapter four, verse one. But the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience.

As with a branding iron, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer pointing out these things to the brethren.

You will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, constantly nourished on the words of faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women.

On the other hand, disciple discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. For bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance for it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed our hope on the living God, who is the savior of all men, especially of believers prescribe and teach these things.

Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but rather in speech, conduct, love, faith and purity. Show yourself an example of those who believe until I come. Give attention to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation and teaching.

Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance, with the laying on of hands by the Presbytery. Take pains with these things, be absorbed in them so that your progress may be evident to all.

Play close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere in these things, for as you do, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. The first thing that we need to understand as we come to this text is that Paul is laying out for Timothy how the church should function, how we should act in the household of faith, the church of the living God.

The Inspiration and Sufficiency of Scripture

Now, something very, very important. When we go over to Second Timothy, we understand that all scripture is inspired. And that it is all that the man of God needs to direct the church, it's all that the leadership needs to direct the church, everything that has to do with Christianity, the Christian faith, practical living, everything is found in the scriptures.

Now, as Southern Baptists, we won a battle a few years ago with regard to the inspiration of scripture, that scripture is inspired. You have no idea probably. How many professors and leaders within our denomination years ago did not believe in the inspiration of scripture, how many seminaries that taught against the inspiration of scripture in the Southern Baptist Convention?

But we won that battle and most of those fellows are gone. We believe that the Bible is the inerrant, infallible, inspired word of God, but that's not enough. That's only half the battle. There is another portion of the battle that we must consider, and it is not simply the inspiration of scripture, but the sufficiency of scripture.

And what that means is we do not need secular anthropology, secular sociology, secular psychology. We do not need those disciplines in order to carry out Christ's mandate in and through the church. Now, let me say something a bit more personal.

We do not need my opinion and we do not need yours. We need what scripture says, one of the greatest maladies ever found among the people of God is found in the book of Judges and it's repeated. And what is that?

That everyone did what was right in their own eyes. But you see, you're not an authority, your grandfather and grandmother, your mother and father, they're not authorities either. Your heart is not an authority and even the history of this church is not an authority.

The scripture is the authority. No one has the right to get up in this pulpit with their own opinions. But they only have authority to the degree that they proclaim the word of God correctly and clearly.

At the same time, no one in the pew has a right to object to something that is clearly a biblical mandate. You see, we are bound to the word of God. We are bound to it. And your success in the eyes of heaven, maybe not the world, but in the eyes of heaven will depend on how much you submit to the word of God, to the word of God.

Apostasy as a Departure from Biblical Authority

Now, Paul comes to first Timothy, chapter four, and he is teaching young Timothy again what he should do and what ministers should do within the congregation of God's people. We're going to look at that.

First of all, he's going to talk in verse one. He's going to begin a teaching on apostasy. Do you know what apostasy is? It is a falling away from the faith. Faith. Now, here's what's dangerous about apostasy.

It never appears to be apostasy. Someone doesn't stand up in the congregation and says and say, I'm going to apostatize. I'm going to leave the Christian faith. They don't do that. What do they do? I'm Christian, but I have a different way of looking at things.

That is so common today, people who consider themselves Christian consider themselves even evangelical, that means not liberal Christians, but Christians who believe the gospel. They will say things that are complete departures from the faith, and yet they sell more books than any any other Christian minister.

Let me just share something with you. If anyone. Any evangelical leader, if an angel from heaven is cornered on a television program and is being interviewed and is asked this question, do you really believe that Jesus is the only way and that everyone who does not believe in Jesus is condemned?

Do you really believe that? If the minister answers this way, look. Who am I to judge? I just preach on the love of God. That's God's problem, not mine. Do you know that they just denied Christ? Do you realize that they have just denied Christ?

Because the scriptures are not fuzzy on this, they're not ambiguous. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, and no one comes to the father but by me. There is no other name. There is one God and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, that's apostasy.

But apostasy just doesn't have to happen when when someone denies that Christ is the only savior. There are a little ways to apostatize to run a church the way you think it ought to be run with no biblical basis is a form of apostasy.

To live little things in your life, to do what you want to do without consulting scripture, to see whether or not it's true. Those are little forms of apostasy and they may be just as deadly. Why? Because they don't look all that bad.

You see, as the people of God. We are required to get into this book and decide or learn what God has decided, someone came to me one time and they said, Brother Paul, you know, the Christian life is so complicated with so many decisions.

And I said, no, it's not. And they said, yes, it is. There's a lot of decisions. I said, no, there's not. They said, what do you mean? I said, the decisions have already all been made for you. The question is just this, are you going to obey?

God has decided how you're to think. To speak what you're to listen to, what you're to look at, how you're to dress, how you to walk, talk, everything else and how you're to run a church. So you don't have to figure all this out.

You see, we have a way of departing from authority, don't we? You know, little children, they'll figure out every way on earth to get out of a command and they are so clever when you ask them, why didn't you obey?

They will come up with some astounding arguments. They're just small reflections of of adults. Let me give you an example. You know, with all the politicians and all they're speaking, isn't it amazing, isn't it amazing that when politicians give answers, they don't quote the Constitution?

Do you know the Constitution just about handles every problem that we could get into as a as a people? I would really like to have a politician who, when asked a question, would say, well, the Constitution says this at this point and cite exactly where it's found, because the Constitution answers all the questions it defines us as a people.

But you never hear that anymore. So what? You've got a country that does everything it wants to do in its own eyes. It's the same way in Christianity. Well, I think we ought to do this. Yeah, but that's not the question.

The question is, show me the verse. Well, I like it this way, this whole thing really isn't based on your likes. What does God say now you would think that was kind of like a friend of mine always says a no brainer, but actually that's the biggest hurdle in the church today.

Well, I just don't want to do it that way. A friend of mine one time went in and to meet with a group of leaders in the church. And he pointed out to them something that was in the Bible directly, Baptist have always believed it, always practiced it, he said, this is what the Bible says, and the head deacon.

Said this, I know it's in the Bible, but they don't make it right and we're not doing it, you you just cannot believe what will come out of the mouth of some people who believe themselves to be conservative Bible believing Christians.

So see, that's the great battle. And one day when you get a pastor, that's going to be the great battle. He has to do what the Bible says. Now, if he tries to do something that's not found in scripture, that's a whole different thing.

But when pastors and leaders say this, we are going to follow the Bible, then that's a good thing. Church, let me just tell you something, as someone who's been been around, been kicked around, done my fair share kicking myself, let me just share with you something.

If you don't want to follow the Bible, please don't bring a preacher in here who does. You're just going to make his life miserable and he's going to make your life miserable. And in the end, you're going to kick him out.

If you don't want to follow the Bible, then bring you a preacher in here who doesn't want to follow the Bible. And there's a whole bunch of them. He'll go fishing with you and hunting with you, and he may even play golf.

He'll never talk to you about your sin. He'll never be worried about your soul. I mean, he'll turn this place into a party and you'll get a whole bunch of other people just like you to come. It'll be so much fun and Jesus will be ten thousand miles away, but you'll be having a good time.

So if you don't want to follow the Bible, please don't get a guy in here, especially a young guy who wants to follow the Bible, because you're just going to hurt him really bad. But if you really want to follow the Bible.

Then get you a man like is described by the Apostle Paul in these three pastoral letters, first Timothy, second Timothy and Titus. Now, let's look, he says, but the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith.

The Last Days and the Church’s Ongoing Battle

Now, latter times, let's be careful there. Don't think that latter times began in the 20th century or the 21st century. The latter times began at the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Joel prophesied that in the latter days God would pour out his spirit at the day of Pentecost.

Peter quoted from that and said, these are the latter days, these are the days of the Messiah and he reigns among his people. Even now, his kingdom has been established in the heart of his people. His will is being done in their heart.

So. So these are the latter days and we've been in the latter days for 2000 years and for 2000 years we can see that the spirit spoke the truth, there has always been apostasy. Don't think. That we have had such a turn of events in this country and that these are the worst times to be living in, they are absolutely not.

I could go down through history and show you times that would terrify you. I remember my mother one time sitting there in front of the television set several years ago, and I don't know what was going on in politics, but something horrible.

And she said, this is just this is the worst time ever. The you know, it's the end of the world. I said, mom. Let me ask you a question. It is the president calling tens of thousands of people to come to a huge coliseum, and is he taking off all his clothes and dressing himself in the skins of animals and putting claws between his fingers and is he hanging.

Young people on crosses and tying them to poles naked and then running out in the coliseum and biting them and eating them, she said, no, I said, then these aren't the worst times in history, mom. Horrible things have happened in history.

Right. So there has always been apostasy. Christianity has always been in the middle of a battle. It will always be that way. The unusual thing is what's happened here in our country. That's the unusual thing is that we have had so much peace and rest.

And what has it produced? Zealous, pure, biblical Christianity? No. The very opposite. So apostasy and persecution in difficult times never harms the church. But purifies her. So he says that apostasy will come and I want you to look at something, he says, they will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

Doctrinal Deception and the True Christ

It's all centers, at least at the beginning, on doctrine, what you believe. Whenever there is a time of apostasy, what has to happen first, what has to happen first is this. The truth has to be either denied or twisted.

So that's what I'm saying is when you look at how you're going to manage the church of God, you've got to see that you're on the road to the to apostasy. If you don't take this Bible, every page of it and try to obey it, if you try to twist some little doctrine so it doesn't say exactly what it really does say, it always deals in doctrine.

Now, there are a lot of churches and a lot of people who say, I don't want doctrine. I don't want to hear all that doctrine. And some people will say, I don't want none of that doctrine or that theology.

I just want Jesus. Well, which Jesus do you want? The Mormons have a Jesus, Jehovah Witnesses have a Jesus, the liberals have a Jesus, the politicians, all of them have a Jesus. So which Jesus do you want?

The only way to discern the real Jesus is through teaching what the Bible says about him and teaching what he has commanded, you see. And I can tell you something, the real Jesus, the real one, he'll mess your life up.

And you know what else? He'll mess your church up. He'll send everything in disarray. But he will purify a people for himself. And so one of the things that we see here is that the way in which the devil works in the church and outside of the church to bring apostasy, people falling away from true Christianity is by twisting truth or denying it.

And that's the way it was in the garden. Isn't that true? Did God really say that, Eve? Oh, I wouldn't pay attention to that. That's just a small thing. No sin is a small thing. No deviation from the will of God is a small thing.

She took a bite out of a fruit. It plunged the entire universe into moral decay and chaos. You take one of these truths of scripture regarding the church and you ignore it. This is what you're going to do.

You're on the path to moral decay in your church and eventually chaos. You see, doctrine is extremely important. Now, I want us to look at something else that's very important about what kind of man you need in a pulpit.

He's a man who teaches truth, who teaches doctrine, because what you need to understand is what is a false prophet. See, when you think of false prophets, you think of maybe some of these TV preachers.

Some of them are false prophets, not all of them. There are some good guys out there like Charles Stanley and other people, Adrian Rogers, who's gone on to be with the Lord, but is still preaching. I mean, there's some good preachers out there, but you have to admit the great majority of these guys are false prophets.

Now, but I want you to look at the false prophet in a different way, our educational system. You send your children. Eight hours a day to a school. Now, I understand here in Alabama it can be a little bit different.

There are a lot of Christians in the school system and I praise God for that. A lot of godly teachers. But when you look at the school system as a whole, what are they going to teach your children? Are they going to teach them the Bible?

Are they going to teach them that Jesus Christ is the only way? Are they going to teach them there is a sovereign, personal God who created the heavens and the earth? No. I have a dear friend, Votie, who has recently written a book about let Caesar teach your children and eventually you've got children of Caesar.

Let's look at the media for a moment. You want to talk about a false prophet? Just look at the media spews out lies and contradictions. So see what you need to see is that we just don't have false prophets visiting us from the Watchtower.

And handing out Watchtower magazines. We don't just have false prophets riding on bicycles with little nameplates saying they're elder so and so from the Mormon Church, we have false prophets every time we turn on the radio, every time we turn on the TV and every time we go into the educational system, we are bombarded by false prophets.

And you want to know something? We're not doing a whole lot to counter dick that, are we? For example, how many of your children could defend creationism when they go off to the university and they're basically told that anyone who believes that a personal God created this universe is an absolute idiot?

How many of your children could defend creation? Let me ask you, what are you teaching? I mean, is church just a fairyland where you come for about an hour, sing some songs that no one really thinks about when they sing, listen to a message that you forget about by the time you get to Cracker Barrel?

How can you defend moral absolutes? Can your children? Do they know why they believe Jesus is God incarnate? You see, the guy who comes here. Has to prepare you for battle, because whether you want battle or not, it is upon you, it is upon you.

You say, well, many of you who are older say, well, I just I believe what I believe. I believe in Jesus. That's good. But here's the problem. You were born into a completely different world than the world that exists today.

Even me, I'm 47. I remember my first grade teacher, second grade teacher, everybody in the public school telling me about Christ. I remember when there was right and wrongs and big paddles that hung on the wall with holes drilled in them so that when they spanked you, the air would be removed from the paddle, the distance between the paddle and you're behind.

So it would hurt a lot more. School was completely different, the world was completely different. When I was a little boy, Charlie Brown got on television at Christmas and he could actually say Christmas and they could talk about wise men.

Now there's a debate of whether or not the word should even be allowed to be used on the airwaves. You see, you just can't. You're not living in the same world. You're not. And so the man who comes here has to be concerned about teaching truth.

Real truth. To prepare you for what lies ahead. For what lies ahead now, and these are powerful things. Look at this deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. When I look at some of these TV preachers and see the way they're able to maneuver and justify their wickedness, I'm amazed I go, no one can be that smart, especially that guy.

How is it that he's able to talk this way, not get caught by this group, not get caught by this group and work his way right between the middle of them and come out a hero? It is that he is empowered and given wisdom by the devil himself.

It's the same way. How can there be so much deception in the media? No one could be able to figure all this stuff out on a human level and twist everything to make evil look good and good look evil unless there was some malignant power, supernatural, malignant power behind it.

And so we need to see here. That these are dangerous times. And we must be taught of scripture. We must be taught to defend what we believe now. He goes on deceitful of spirits, deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron.

Seared Consciences and Divine Judgment

We have reached dangerous times when men's consciences are seared. Seared. Now, if you just hold your place for a moment, jump over to Romans one, let me show you something in verses twenty six and twenty seven, it's talking about homosexuality and culture and society.

Then it goes on, verse twenty eight and verse twenty nine. It talks about verse twenty nine being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, their gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful inventors of evil and so on and so forth.

And we say this, these are all sins found in our culture. And because of this, God is going to judge us. OK, so we we say because of these sins in our culture, God is going to judge us. That's not what this passage is teaching.

It's not teaching that at all. It's reverse. What he's teaching is this. The fact. That these sins are now prevalent in the culture is evidence that God has already judged us. Now, what do I mean? Because the great sin here, here's the great sin.

Look in verse twenty one. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. Verse twenty three and exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man.

Verse twenty four. Therefore, God gave them over in the lust of their hearts to impurity. Our country is not going to be judged. It has been judged. And the evidence of divine judgment upon our country is all the sins that are mentioned here.

God has turned us over because although we knew God, we did not honor him as God or give thanks. You see that. And so you come to a time where men have a seared conscience and they can no longer even begin to think.

Say things like, well, there's no moral absolutes. Well, sir, you just contradicted yourself because you're saying there's absolutely no moral absolutes. You're making a moral absolute by saying there's no moral absolutes.

Well, there's no moral absolutes. Well, then when is it right to rape a woman? Well, it's never right to rape a woman, you just made a moral absolute that we could kill thousands of babies a day. And with the one swipe of a pen, the president elect can say that if an abortion fails, if the doctors aren't able to kill the baby and the baby comes out alive, then the doctor is to set the baby off to the side and let it die or throw it in a trash can and let it die.

That is a people seared in their own conscience. But Americans don't care about morality and conscience, do they? They care about their billful seared. You see, this is what we're dealing with. People who are seared in their own conscience.

Another dear friend of mine, Conrad and Bailey from Lusaka, Zambia, ever get a chance to hear him, you need to hear him. They call him the African Spurgeon and rightly so. And the greatest preachers alive today, he was saying in Africa, we no longer fear lions and elephants and crocodiles or beasts.

We don't fear beasts in Africa. We fear our fellow man, we run from men because men have become worse than beasts. The conscience seared. So you see, don't bring a guy in here who just wants to be everybody's friend, don't bring a guy in here who's just going to have some wonderful programs and prop up something that's not even alive.

You need truth, you need doctrine. You need practical principles of what it means to be godly. And to be a godly people in the midst of a perverse generation, that's what you need. Someone is going to hold you accountable.

And someone who's going to teach a true gospel to your children now. Goes on, verse three, men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods, which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is to be received with gratitude for is sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer.

Legalism, Christian Liberty, and Apostasy

Now, this is very interesting. He's going to talk about men falling away from the faith and no longer following Christ through the scriptures. So you would think that what he would do then is go and say, yeah, there's going to be men who are just going to live loosely.

They're just going to sin all the time. They're going to be very flagrant. They're not going to follow any commands, but he doesn't say that. He tells us something else that apostasy occurs in two forms and they're completely opposite and both of them are extremely dangerous.

Now, please listen to me here. This is very important. At times, apostasy manifests itself, a turning away from Christ manifests itself in just what the old preachers used to call loose living. Loose living, living in sin.

Drinking and carousing and cheating and lying and stealing and all those things that we shouldn't do. OK, that's one form in which apostasy manifests itself, but there's another form legalism when you start commanding God's people to do things or not do things that God never commanded.

Like don't marry. Or don't eat certain foods, matter of fact, I've got to respond to an email here recently, a young man who appears to have been converted, writing all these things about we need to go back and follow all the dietary laws of the Old Testament and we need to do this and do that.

And what's he doing? Oh, he's dedicated. He would die for Christ at this moment, but he's wrong. He's into what we call legalism. He thinks that we ought to do things that God doesn't command us to do.

And I want to tell you something to walk. I heard this from Conrad Murrell years ago. Wonderful old preacher. He said. Walking in the truth. Well, first of all, he said walking in falsehood is very easy.

You can go a thousand miles that way and be walking in falsehood. You can go a thousand miles that way and be walking in falsehood, he said, but to walk in the truth is like walking on the edge of a razor blade and you can fall off either side.

For example, God teaches and I'm going to say this because old preachers used to preach on this and no one does anymore. God talks about clothing in the Bible. He really does. I don't want to scare anybody, but he does.

He makes some very definite remarks about clothing the way we are to dress. Now, here's the problem. God says that we ought to dress decently, we should not dress in a manner that is sensual, that draws attention to our bodies or with luxury or extravagance, you know, earrings that look like they belong on the end of a fishing pole, they look like fishing lures, hair done, all kinds of wild and everything else.

All right. So he says that there are certain things that that we shouldn't do. Now, the problem is that's what he says, but then there's some that totally ignore anything about clothing and dress just like the world.

But then there are others who go to the other extreme and they all dress like a bunch of Puritans, they don't put on makeup, they don't ever wear any earrings, they never dress up nice, they just wear those long dresses that kind of look like blue sacks.

And always white tennis shoes, and so you see, you have two extremes, do you see what I'm saying? But here's the thing, you need a man who's going to teach not this extreme over here and never deal with the subject of people dressing sensually and extravagantly.

You don't need a man either that's going to come over here and put some legalistic form on you that the Bible doesn't put on you walking right in the middle, not of compromise, but walking in truth, walking in truth.

I'm sorry. I'm just so mischievous. I got to say this. I'll never forget that old radio preacher. I don't I don't know who it was. It may have been Vance Havner or one of those guys. Lady called up his radio program and she said, is it a sin for a woman to wear makeup?

And he said, ma 'am, it's a sin for some women not to wear makeup. He says it never hurts to put a little paint on an old barn. I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist it. Every time I tell that my wife looks at me like this in the front, I'll give you an example.

Let me use my wife for an example. She's not here, so I can do that. She just looks normal. You know, she decent, just but just normal, likes to wear earrings, and I give her a little leeway because she is Latin and, you know, they're kind of wild.

But she's just normal, and if you saw her, you would think you wouldn't think you just think normal, OK, there's there's a pretty lady. And we were we were in a country in Eastern Europe several years ago, and I had preached there several times and God had moved in a great way.

Well, my wife brought my wife with me one time and we walk in this church and I'll never forget this. This young woman walked up to me right in front of my wife and said, brother Paul, I am so I'm so bothered in my mind.

I thought, OK, what's the problem? She goes, you preach with power of God on your life. How can you be married to a woman like this? My wife had short hair and she had a little bit of makeup on. Some earrings, this lady was just tore apart and my wife is so wise because this girl was obviously you could see that she was she was a beautiful girl.

But she would just just look haggard, no joy, nothing. And my wife said something really, I guess the Lord just gave her wisdom, she said, let me ask you a question, do you have a picture of yourself before you became a Christian?

And the girl said, yes, I keep it as a memory of my bad life. Charles said, let me see it. And there in that picture was this beautiful girl smiling and try to look at it, she said, I liked you better as an unbeliever.

And the point my wife then made was this, look what your religion has done to you. You look haggard, tired, you have a critical spirit, you're angry at everybody because they don't look like you. Do you really think that's the love of Christ?

But then on the other hand, it's like, be careful, we live in a sensual age. And if you cause someone to stumble by the way you dress, it would be better that a millstone be hung around your neck and you were tossed into the sea.

So see, this is what we see here in Paul's teaching to Timothy. It's it's so balanced, isn't it? Because when he talks about apostasy, we're thinking that he's going to say there's a on the other side and says, but avoid legalism.

When some preacher begins to command you to do things that the Bible never commands. Let me give you one more example and then we'll move on. We're almost finished. The difference between a truth, a biblical truth and an inference and inference now is teaching my seven year old boy this the other day.

So put your brain caps on going to work on this. OK, if he can get it, you can get it. Here is the truth. God is one. There's one God. We all in agreement on that. Hopefully one God. Here's another biblical truth.

There are three persons referred to in the scriptures as God, God, the father, God, the son and God, the Holy Spirit. All right. Now, those are three truths. When we try to figure that out, though. And put those two things together, we have inferences that is our idea of how this works.

Now. We have to be very, very careful to live our lives based on truths. Now, I believe most certainly in the doctrine of the Trinity, but I can't explain to you fully all that that means. You see, and it's amazing, the people who committed heresy in the early church with regard to the Trinity were either people who denied it or people who tried to explain it.

So what I want you to see is if we have a truth of scripture over here and a truth of scripture over here, that is rock solid truth. When we try to bring the two together and figure it out exactly, that can be just our inference.

And we need to make sure that we're living based on truth and not on inferences. For example, a truth, I am to dress decently, I am to live modestly. That is a truth. But when I work that out in my own life, I need to be careful because I may have some prejudice and I may be living based on what I think all that means rather than just the truth itself.