Purity of Doctrine & Devotion

Let's turn to Luke chapter 18. We're going to read a section from Luke 18 in a moment.

But this is, I think, what, part three of lesson number one?

So we're moving a little slower than I had thought. I want to speed things up. I always say that and then it doesn't happen.

But yeah, this is third part of lesson number one. And we ended in section

A talking about the supremacy of the word of God. So I believe now we're at number or letter

B be the sufficiency of the work of God. Is that correct? Okay.

So the sufficiency of the work of God says when we speak of the work of God in this lesson, we are focusing specifically on the work of salvation, false teachers and errant movements are marked by a wrong understanding of the gospel.

They attempt to add some form of human effort to that which is scripture or to that which scripture teaches is entirely a work of God.

So that's the focus, the work of God in salvation and salvation.

This is the first thing you had to fill in. The biblical gospel asserts that sinners are justified before God on the basis of what?

Grace. Okay. Grace alone. So let's look at Luke 18.

It gives the scripture reference Luke 18. We'll just start reading in verse nine,

Luke 18, starting in verse nine. And he spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.

Sorry. So already you're seeing a problem that there's some people, they don't believe that they're saved or justified by God's grace.

No, they're trusting in their own goodness, right? They're trusting in their own work. So this is the parable

Jesus gave two men went up to the temple to pray one, a Pharisee and the other, a tax collector.

And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus within himself, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust adulterers, or even as this tax collector,

I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but he beat his breast saying,

God be merciful to me, a sinner. And I tell you this man, that is the tax collector went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

And he who humbles himself will be exalted. So the prayer of the Pharisee, he's,

I guess he's praying to God, but he's praying to God, Lord, look at how amazing that I am.

You know, I am amazing. I am wonderful. Uh, sounds like some, uh, preachers today.

I am incredible, you know, um, but his trust was in himself and he was not justified before God because he's trusting in his own goodness instead of God's goodness.

So the tax collector as wretched as he was and the Pharisee didn't measure up either.

So the tax collector, he appeals to God and his grace and he was justified.

So salvation is by grace alone in the book.

It says salvation is the gift of God received through faith apart from works based solely on the finished work of Christ.

So in response to those who tried to add self -righteousness or works to the gospel of grace, the apostle

Paul issued this stern rebuke. Do you have this listed? Galatians one six through eight. All right.

What did Paul say? He said, I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another.

Only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be what occurs.

So you already see that there are different gospels out there. Now, really there's only one gospel in the sense that there's one true gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ, but there's all sorts of other gospels, false gospels that people preach.

So the issue with the Galatians was the Judaizers were the false teachers he's referring to.

And they were teaching that. Yes, you need to believe in Jesus. I mean, all these groups will say that, but you need more.

You need to follow the law of Moses. In particular, you need to be circumcised in order to be saved.

Well, what is that? You're adding works. You're adding circumcision to the gospel. Can anyone think of a modern day example?

There's nobody teaching that today. Well, somewhere in the world there is, I'm sure, but that's not a very common thing.

What's a common, um, modern example of somebody adding something to the gospel.

Can anyone think of something? Yeah. Yeah.

Well, that's where I was going. So I'll come back to that in a moment. Meg, I was just thinking, you know,

I see a lot of things that say kindness, like how people should just be kind to one another.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. And I do feel like that's kind of the main message coming from some ministries that Christianity is all about being nice.

I like this quote from Votibachum. He said, churches are following the 11th commandment.

Thou shalt be nice. So, so they're following the 11th commandment, but they don't believe the other 10.

So I thought that was a great, uh, quote. Obviously we should all be kind and we should be nice to people, you know, generally speaking.

Well, there is a couple of times where Jesus, you could say, wasn't nice to the Pharisees or Paul wasn't nice to the false prophet bar

Jesus when he called him the son of the devil. But, you know, these are sort of rare examples, generally speaking, that's true, but that you don't add that to the gospel back in 2020,

I think I mentioned this last week, uh, during the, like the height of the social justice movement, people were saying that in order to have the full gospel, you need to have social justice.

So yes, you need to preach Christ, but you also need to be marching in the streets, calling for, you know, all these, whatever laws to be passed.

And so it's, it's faith plus social justice. And Mark mentioned a good example. I've been,

I put out this video about the four major cults eight months ago, whenever it was.

So Mormon seventh day of Venice, Jehovah's witnesses and Christian science.

And in the comment section, I, you know, I I've been getting hammered by the seventh day of Venice.

Now, naturally, if, if somebody says, Hey, this group is a cult, like the people in that group are going to object.

Like I get it. Uh, but some of them told me that because I go to church on Sunday, I'm not saved.

I am lost because I don't go to church on Saturday to me.

I mean, how is that not adding law keeping to the gospel that you're saved by faith in Jesus.

Plus you need to keep the Sabbath and that's a whole other issue, but, um, yeah, all sorts of different groups add things to the gospel and Paul says, let them be accursed.

Let them be anathema. Now he said that to those who are teaching it, the saints in Galatia who got mixed up, he was, he was really concerned, but he's not saying that to them.

He's talking to the false teachers or saying that about the false teachers. All right.

Any other comments before we move on? And it can be a subtle thing sometimes, but we have to be on guard in act 16, uh, 30 through 31.

When the Philippian jailer, this isn't some of the things in my book or not in your book.

So I don't think this part is in there at 1630 through 31. When the Philippian jailer asked, what must

I do to be saved? Paul's response was very simple. What did he say? All right, let me give you a list of 10 different things you need to do.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. Uh, this is the simplicity of the gospel.

So once a person believes in Christ, they are saved. Now that's not the end of the story because we are to grow in grace and there's all sorts of things

Christians or things Christians are called to do, but for salvation, it's only faith in Christ. Okay.

In his letter to the Romans, another example, Paul reiterated the idea that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Romans three 28 in chapter four, he presented Abraham as an example of being justified by faith.

And then in chapter five, he reiterated that because we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ. And that's Romans five one. Okay. In the book, it says, consider some of Paul's other statements about God's grace in salvation.

Romans 11, six, who wants to get a few volunteers to read these Romans 11, six, who wants to read that Stacey?

If it is by grace, it is no longer of the basis of works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace.

Okay, good. It has to be, if it's by grace works cannot be involved in it at all.

Because if you're working for something, then you're earning it, right?

Your paycheck is not an example of your employer's grace. You earned it, right?

So if work is involved at all, it cannot be grace. Ephesians two, eight and nine, who wants to read that Andrew or my grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. Okay. And because of that, nobody can brag.

Well, I'm better than this person. You know, you don't want to be like the Pharisee. Oh God, I thank you that I'm so much better than all these other people.

And you're like, wow, you know that this is a guy who doesn't get it. Philippians, Philippians three, eight, nine.

Do we have a volunteer for that? Okay. Uh, Linda, okay.

That's pretty clear. And then the last verse Titus three, four through seven. But when the kindness of God, our savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us not on the basis of deeds, which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the

Holy spirit whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our savior.

So that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

And then it says throughout his ministry, Paul emphasized the truth of the gospel because he recognized the vital importance of what was at stake.

So what's at stake. What's at stake. People's souls are at stake.

If you're believing a false gospel, people's souls are at stake. I realized the majority of people might not see that or agree with that or recognize the importance of that.

I think people in Bible believing churches do. Uh, but getting the gospel wrong. If you get that wrong,

I mean, what else? Nothing else really matters at that point. You need that right? Okay.

So the discussion question, given the importance of the gospel, how would you explain it to someone?

What verses would you include in presenting the good news that sinners can be saved through faith in Christ?

How would you explain it to somebody? Well, here's how it's explained sometimes, you know, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

That's how a gospel presentation is often started out. Uh, is that true?

Can you say to people in general, God loves you, right? God so loved the world. Um, does

God have a wonderful plan for your life? He has a plan, you know, we're not getting into predestination or anything, but yeah,

I don't think we can, uh, I don't think we can quibble with that too much. God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

My fear though, is what people hear what the sinner hears when they hear that and say, well, if God loves me and he has this great plan, then

I'm good to go no matter what. I think that's what people hear. So instead of starting out with the good news, you know, this by now, instead of starting out with the good news, you start out with what the bad news people need to recognize, uh, well, they need to recognize their need.

So start with the bad news. And this is where I think the Romans road is a generally effective way.

You start out Romans three 23 for all have sinned and have come short of the glory of God. Romans six 23 for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life and Christ Jesus, our

Lord. So you kind of start out with the problem and then you go into the solution. Any other comments on that?

How, how do you approach the situation? My thought is if, if you don't know the

Romans road and you don't have them memorize the verses or quite know how on the track rack right out here in the foyer, the

Romans road track, and there are other, many other tracks. And, uh,

I know Marcus always uses tracks with him and, uh, and it just happens that he'll run into someone and, uh, talk to them for a short time and give them a track.

Yeah. If you can explain it yourself, I think that's, that's good. That might be better, but you can memorize the

Romans road. And then you get in that situation and people freeze. You know, I realize it, it doesn't flow unless you do it a lot.

So give someone a track. Also, another thing you can just take your phone and Hey, here's a sermon on the gospel click, you know, send it to somebody.

I mean, I don't know. There's a million different ways you can do it, I suppose, but we do want to communicate the gospel and it has to be more than God loves you.

Here's one of the gospels I hear out there. God loves you. So you're already saved.

You just need to recognize it. You just need to embrace what

God has done and it's already finished. And God loves everyone's a child of God.

And I'm hearing that more and more these days. And sometimes it can come out wrong, but sometimes

I really think people are saying that, yeah, everybody's saved. Everybody's a child of God. So you just need to recognize that, which is a what universalism, which we've talked about a lot.

Okay. So if there's no other points of discussion about that, then we'll move on.

All right, moving on to numbers or letter C, I keep saying number, but, uh, the letter a, the supremacy of the word of God, be the sufficiency of the work of God.

And then C let's see here. Did I just lose it?

Where is it? Yeah. See the sanctity of the worship of God. Okay. So the true church worships the triune

God, father, son, and Holy spirit in both purity of devotion and purity of doctrine.

Okay. So devotion and doctrine. Conversely, it says false teachers either distort the truth about God or introduce competitors to the pure worship that he alone deserves.

As Jesus told the woman at the well, you have this right? John four 23, an hour is coming.

And now is when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for such people, the father seeks to be his worshipers.

So in this verse, we see that the worship of God requires is pure.

The worship he requires is pure, both in spirit, that is devotion and truth doctrine.

So let's consider these two facets of acceptable worship in more detail.

So number one, purity of devotion, undefiled worship is reserved for God alone.

And it removes what removes distractions and it rejects competitors.

So now we need to start thinking about what are some of the distractions that can, maybe you're in a church and the truth, they understand who

God is. They preach the true gospel, but there can be distractions that would draw you away.

And then there's others. This is maybe a more serious concern, but there are some who bring in competitors or there are competitors for the worship of God.

So the old Testament is replete with mandates regarding the exclusive and undistracted worship that God is rightly do.

So this is not in your book, but you can make a note. According to Isaiah 42, eight, the

Lord God is a what God jealous God who does not share his glory with any other.

God is a jealous God. Now the word jealous today usually is seen as a kind of a negative thing.

You don't want to be jealous, but God is described as being jealous. Well, there's no problem here because God who is worthy of worship or the same worship or any worship that God is worthy of, like who is on that level of God, nobody.

The second of the 10 commandments condemns those who worship idols, including those who would create a graven image for the purpose of worship.

Exodus 20 verse four. So everyone, most everyone is familiar with the second commandment.

Thou shall not make unto thee any graven images. And he says, you shall not bow down to them, nor serve them.

Okay. Do we have any graven images in this? Do we have any statues in this church? You know, there's a whole other debate about two dimensional images, but we'll just stick to graven images right now.

Um, no, there's, there's no graven images in this church and has there ever been?

Hopefully not. Will there ever be? Hopefully not. But you understand there are churches that you walk in and yeah, there's graven images everywhere and people are bowing to them and serving them.

Yes. Um, I was just going to ask, um, when, I mean, obviously we have the cross there.

We're not bowing to that image, but when we have things like that in the household, um,

I guess I can just think of when we were visiting, um, dad at the, uh, at St.

Vincent's, there was a cross with Christ on the cross above the, um, clock.

And I thought, well, what's wrong with that? Number one, Christ is on that image.

Yeah. But I wonder like, how far does this Exodus 24, no graven images, we're not necessarily bowing to that, but it's there.

Like how far does that go? Yeah. I mean, that's a good question that not everyone agrees on.

Uh, clearly if there's a graven image, a statue of Mary and you're bowing down to it, that's clearly wrong.

Now they'll say, well, we don't worship it. We're venerating the image. I mean, come on, that's clearly wrong.

Uh, let's say somebody has the statue in their house or in the back. I don't know.

What's an example of a, well, just take the cross for an example. If you had a cross and you're kissing it and you think this is a good luck charm and you're bowing to the,

I mean, that I think is a problem. Most Christians probably don't do that. Although that would be a danger.

So I'm certain about graven images, bowing down to them, people that have, you know, a 3d image of Jesus in their house.

I don't like it, but if they're not bowing down to it, I would not accuse them of idolatry.

I would, I would discourage that. I would strongly discourage that. Uh, then you get to like the

TV show or any movie that depicts Jesus. You know, some people say,

Hey, that's a second commandment violation. Cause that actor is not Jesus. And you're depicting Jesus or any picture on the wall.

That's supposedly Jesus, right? I don't like it, but I guess I'm not, I'm not willing to accuse someone of idolatry unless they actually have a graven image and they're bowing down to it.

We just need to, cause everyone, here's the problem with saying, okay, here's the line. That's the line.

Well, then people can get as close to the line as possible. And that's just the way people are.

So I, I, anything that has a whiff of that, I try to avoid and I would discourage. So that's, that's my answer.

One interesting old Testament account, the book says involves the reforms made by King Hezekiah second

Kings 18 verse four says he removed the high places and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the

Asherah or the Asherah poles. He also broke in pieces, the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days, the sons of Israel burned incense to it.

And it was called Nashuatan. Okay. So here's an example where Moses actually was told by God to make this, this image of the brazen serpent.

And we know from the gospel of John chapter three, the serpent represents Christ on the cross.

So the serpent is lifted up just as the son of man will be lifted up. But what happened with the Israelites, you know, over time, over the centuries, they started worshiping that like it was, uh,

I mean, they wouldn't have said it's God. They did do that with the golden calf, right? They bowed to the golden calf.

This is, these are your gods, or this is your God that delivered you from Egypt. Oh, they might not have said that the brazen serpent was, was

God himself, but they were showing what veneration towards it.

Right. And Hezekiah thought this was the big problem. So any object that you're serving and the cross could be that if someone was bowing to the cross, kissing the cross, viewing it as a good luck charm, no, get, get rid of the thing.

Cause then it's a stumbling block. So they actually destroyed the brazen serpent that Moses made because it had become like an idol to them.

In the new Testament, all forms of idolatry are condemned. Paul told the

Corinthians to quote, flee from idolatry. First Corinthians 10, 14, while commanding the

Thessalonians, because they turned to God from idols to serve a living and true

God. First Thessalonians one nine. So it says the apostle John warned his readers turned from idols.

Okay. Are there any idols today? Cause I'm, you know, always try to make application because if they, okay, yes, they did this few thousand years ago, that was bad.

Well, that's great that we read that and recognize that. But what really matters for us today is are people doing that now?

Right. And again, the churches that have graven images, but what about maybe evangelical churches,

Bible believing churches? I don't think idolatry is a big problem as far as graven images, but like we always point out, anything you put above the

Lord in your life is, is like an idol. So all these passages, all these passages, the worship of God requires a worship that is pure, true worship, loves him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Thus it is not distracted or diminished by any hint of idolatry.

Okay. Here's something else you had that you needed to fill in purity of doctrine says undefiled worship requires an accurate view of what who

God is. Okay. Cause if you know who God is, then you'll know who God isn't or what

God isn't to reject or distort the truth about who God is, is as he has revealed himself in his word is to worship the wrong

God or to reject or distort the truth about who God is as he has revealed himself in his word is to worship the wrong

God. All right. Now it says various heretical groups deny the deity of Christ.

Thus they're rejecting the Trinity. Okay. So this is, this is one major issue when you deny the

Trinity, it's always connected to denying the divinity of Christ. And this is something that who, who does this, who denies the divinity of Christ?

Yeah, this is typically the cults. So the Jehovah's witnesses and the Mormons, some seventh day

Adventists, not all, but some of them deny the Trinity and Christian science has a totally wrong view or would deny.

Really? They deny the Trinity. So the issue is always Jesus. It's not usually the Holy spirit that they're denying his divinity.

It's always about Jesus. So if you're not worshiping Jesus as the true God, you have a different God because for the

Christian, we can say our God is who? Yeah. And he has, he,

God has revealed himself in Christ. Jesus was God. The father calls him

God and Hebrews one, eight and nine, John one, one in the beginning was the word

Jesus Christ. And he was both with God and he was what he was

God. Verse 14, he took on flesh. He came and dwelt among us. So this is one of those things where we say,

Jesus is the only way of salvation. Oh, I don't believe that. I think there's other paths.

Well, what's this other path? If Jesus is the only true God, this other path is a competitor, right?

So that's the thing. There's some people who openly blatantly deny the gospel, but if you deny that Jesus is the only way of salvation, you are denying the only true

God. Cause you think there's some other, some other path. Okay. First John two, verse 22, you have this, who is the liar or a liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the

Christ. This is what? Yeah. This is the antichrist.

The one who denies the father and the son. So if you deny anything about Jesus, whether it's his humanity, which hardly anyone does today, but certainly the main way people do it.

If you deny the divinity of Christ, the false teachers who did that, they were anti Christ.

Now, were they preaching Christ? Did they say, Hey, I'm anti Christ. I'm against Christ.

Did they say that? No, of course not. But they're giving an imitation, right?

They're, they're preaching the gospel, but it's a false gospel, right? Like I always tell you, nobody ever comes in and says,

Hey, how you doing? I'm a false prophet. Thanks for letting me into your church and let me lie to you and lead you away from the truth.

Nobody's ever done that in the history of the world. There is a situation locally where there's a guy, he's going around teaching another

Christ, a different gospel. He really does teach that you're already saved.

You just need to recognize that. And I talked to a local pastor. I'm like this guy, people need to be aware of him and we need to not allow him into churches.

And he said, no, we need to, we need to embrace him and welcome him into the churches because he's not anti Christ.

Cause I quoted this verse from John. He said, well, he's not anti Christ. He's not, he, he says he loves

Jesus. I'm like, how can you not, how can you not see this? But yeah, the false teachers never come out and say,

I hate Jesus. We're against Jesus. Let's lead people away from Jesus. They, they use cunning words to try to trick people with their false gospel.

Okay. First John four, two and three by this, you know that the spirit of God or this by this, you know, the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of anti Christ of which you have heard that is coming and is now already in the world.

Now I can see where people, you know, maybe the uninformed person might get tricked on this because Hey, they're confessing

Jesus, right? Yeah. But implied in this is you're confessing the true Jesus, his true nature, you know, his person, his work.

Cause even the false teachers John was dealing with again, they use the name Jesus. John adds that the true church is one that embraces the

Lord Jesus as the son of God, which what does son of God mean? See, if you've been paying attention as we go through Matthew, what does son of God mean?

What are we saying by that? What does the scripture mean? When it says he's the son of God, it means he is what he is.

He is God that he's of the same nature as the father. These same themes are repeated in other places throughout

John's writings. The truth that Jesus is the Messiah, the truth that he became fully human in his incarnation and the truth that he is

God's son. And then it lists versus John one, one, which talk about Christ deity, which we referenced.

Uh, and then John one 17 Christ Messiah ship says for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ, the

Messiah. So to deny the deity, humanity, or Messiah ship of the

Lord Jesus constitutes a serious error, which is why John so strongly condemned the false teachers who distorted the truth about Christ.

Okay. So for discussion review, John four 23.

So that's the verse about worshiping and spirit and truth. Correct? Um, what can you do to make sure that your worship is characterized by both purity of devotion, spirit, and purity of doctrine, truth.

What are some potential obstacles to that kind of God honoring worship?

So what are some obstacles? What are some potential competitors, any ideas, fear of man?

All right. The fear of man causes you to just cave in. If somebody comes to you and Hey, this is true.

You believe that, right? Or they just, they want you to go along with whatever they're saying or doing fear of man will cause you to collapse.

And just, yes, you disagree with whatever, and you just go along with whatever. Um, I think one of the ways that, well, it's an obstacle purity of devotion.

I think we need to eliminate distractions. I think that was mentioned in here page or two earlier, eliminate distractions.

There's a lot of well -meaning Christians. And I know how this is. And I've told you this, you know, when

I'm up front, if I'm preaching right now, I'm teaching, I have to be paying attention. Otherwise bad things will happen.

Right. But you know, when you're sitting in the pew and when we're singing, it's easy to allow your mind to wander.

And I suspect that when I'm preaching your mind wanders sometimes I'd like to think that that doesn't happen, but I'm realistic, right?

So you can be well -meaning and I'm here and I want to worship God, but you know, our attention span, yeah, our mind wanders.

So that's, that's one potential danger. And that's why I encourage taking notes, whatever you have to do to pay attention, you know, fight that battle and try to pay attention.

Um, not in court. This is my personal opinion, I guess, but I think

I have the spirit of God on this, uh, do not incorporate worldly music into the worship service, mainly secular music or music that is of a secular nature.

Uh, that is a way to corrupt the pure worship of God. There was a church in the area.

They, they, they moved in, they went from zero as a church plant. And within a year, they are running like 150 people.

And I'm thinking, how on earth, how do you even do that around here? When churches are struggling to maintain membership, how does a church plant go from zero to 150 in a year?

So I went on their live stream and the first 20 minutes of their worship service, they're just playing sixties rock and roll,

Steppenwolf, you know, the doors, uh, you know, and just purely, they weren't even changing the words.

And then they had a screen in back of the band, but you know, that like sixties psychedelic kind of, yeah, people would smoke marijuana and take

LSD and they would watch these, these, uh, films or whatever you want to call it.

That's what was going on for the first half of the worship worship service, totally secular music.

And yeah. And I'm okay. Now it's starting to make sense because that's what the people of the world want.

They want to be entertained. So if you offer a rock and roll show with free food, people are going to show up.

So to me, that is just polluting. I'm more offended at that.

I think than a church that has some graven image. I mean, maybe not, maybe I'm going too far with that, but to me, it's, it's, it's on that level of, this is a problem.

Any other ideas? Um, this at the movies trend that's within, uh, evangelical churches where instead of hearing a sermon from, you know, the word of God, opening the scripture, teaching from the scripture, they're doing a movie review.

Hey, let's this morning, we're going to be talking about the Barbie movie and how that, and, well, this really happened.

A lot of churches were doing this and they would justify it by, well, there's this theme where, you know,

Barbie is being oppressed or there's a woman in the Bible who is oppressed once. And it's just like that.

It's foolishness really, but you're bringing the world into the worship service.

I mean, at best, it's a distraction at worst. You're polluting the pure worship of the

Lord. So, and I could go on and on about that as you can imagine any, you have a hand up.

What do you think about those types of materials existing in society? If it points people to the

Bible, like having an allegorical story or something outside of the church, outside of the church,

I don't have as big of an issue with it. Um, I think there are stories like there's people that really love

Lord of the Rings and Chronicles of Narnia. I don't know. I think I read one of those books long time ago.

I don't really have a problem with that, but I wouldn't teach a Sunday school class on the

Lord of the Rings. I mean, I don't know. I think people can, even with some of the churches that do the worldly stuff,

I think people can take a step in the right direction. If you're going from atheism to that, it could be a step in the right direction.

Hopefully they'll mature and move beyond that. But yeah, I'm mainly talking about the stuff that's happening on Sunday morning, but I think,

I think God can use all sorts of different things to lead people to him.

So number three, applying these principles to church history. We have five minutes left.

As we've seen in this lesson, the true church is like a building established on the foundation of Jesus Christ and defined by its commitment to several core doctrinal pillars.

So it's number one, the supremacy of the word of God. So scripture alone is our authority.

Number two, the sufficiency of the work of God. We're saved by grace alone through faith apart from works and three, the sanctity of the worship of God.

We are called to worship God and purity of devotion and purity of doctrine.

And then it says, if we extend the building metaphor to the whole of church history, we might picture the centuries after the apostolic age as the superstructure of the church, which rests on the foundation of Christ and continues to be defined by the pillars of biblical orthodoxy.

So those three pillars, the doctrinal pillars discussed in this lesson provide a helpful grid for evaluating church history through a biblical lens.

And we will reference them again in future lessons. So on the next page, do you have this, an overview of church history?

It's like a picture of a building. Okay. I don't know if we're going to have time to get into that. I want to spend a few moments, but there's one last discussion question.

So it says the chart on the next page, which I guess we'll cover next time. The chart on the next page provides an illustration of this idea for some people learning church history with a chart like this is easier than an extended timeline.

So here's the question for discussion. How can Christians today practically apply the three doctrinal pillars highlighted in this lesson?

What can you do to put the authority of scripture, the accuracy of the gospel and the authenticity of worship into practice in your life?

So this is the application. It's what we always try to end on. So how can you do that?

Any ideas, the three pillars, again, the supremacy of the word of God, the sufficiency of the work of God, the sanctity of the worship of God.

Okay. I'll just go back as always. Yeah. Always go back to scripture or the first I like to quote first Thessalonians five 21 says, test all things and hold fast to that, which is good.

Say pastor. Well, not all things. No. Yeah. I'll test everything.

Test all things over and against the word of God. So to me, I've, I do this all the time.

It doesn't matter if I'm driving in my car, listening to the radio. I think, well, that's not, that's not biblical.

It's probably annoying for some people. I'm sure you see something on TV or in a movie.

Well, that's not right. That's not script. You know, and I'm thinking in my mind, okay, John 14 verse. And you know, you don't want to take it overboard where like, if you're in a personal discussion and they say something wrong, you're just like jump all over the person.

Like we don't want to do that, but we do need to test everything over and against the word of God.

Because if we don't, I call that having the mind of Christ. I mean, Paul uses that phrase in first Corinthians, I believe, but we need to have that mind to where we recognize not only false doctrine, but bad practice.

It's just, it's like a guardrail. It'll keep us on the, on the straight and narrow.

Otherwise we're going to go off a cliff. If we, if we're not thinking that way, any other ideas, Stacy? I was just thinking, as you were talking too, is when people try to maybe quote some, maybe,

I don't know, quoting scripture, or they're trying to impart upon you a practice that they say is biblically based, and you're not aware of that.

I think the first thing to do is to go back to the Bible and try to figure out where is that? Where are they basing that out of rather than, even if it's a person of authority, rather than just accepting that as a truth, apply it against the word, you know, dig back into the

Bible and see if it really is, because maybe it's not. They're the ones led astray. Yeah.

Good. And that can happen, not just with the world trying to lead us astray. Sometimes churches and Christians and ministers can try to place burdens on people that aren't really scriptural.

And that in and of itself can be a different type of danger, but it, it is a problem.

So we test what all things, right? All right. We will begin lesson number two next week.