Justification - Where Does The Church Go From Here?

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I don't know what to expect this evening. This is the last time I'm preaching in three and a half weeks away from home, so I cannot guarantee the orthodoxy of almost anything that I have to say tonight.
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It's been a long time and and what the worst thing is, is I know what
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I know what was considered in the terminology, you know, where does the church go from here?
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but unfortunately that leaves me with a tremendous amount of leeway and freedom and If you want to rein in the guest preacher, you always make sure to give them a very specific topic especially the last night of preaching, but I did want to just mention some of the books that are just mentioned some of the ministry that was mine last
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See how long ago was this now? It was July 11th, whenever that was we had a debate on Long Island with a
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Catholic apologist. He's unusual for Catholic apologists. He's not a convert I don't know if many of you know much about the various Catholic apologists that are most popular today
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But a large portion of them are converts They're not Patrick Madrid who
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I debated Lifelong Catholic, Carl Keating, lifelong Catholic, but most of them that you see and hear on TV are converts and as a result
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They have interesting ways of representing their former faith. This this gentleman is not that way
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And as a result, it was more of a calm debate I think than the most of them end up being but we were debating the veneration of saints and angels and You might think well goodness that that would be a slam dunk, wouldn't it be and that was my biggest disadvantage.
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I Knew before the debate started I told everybody who would listen. I said this is gonna be a tough one because 98 % of the
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Protestants walking into that room have never heard a defense of the veneration of saints and angels and in fact, they don't know that such a defense exists and Hence as long as my opponent doesn't drool he's gonna have
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I'm gonna have two strikes against me right off the bat and I knew exactly where he was to go what he was gonna focus on I think he probably had a pretty good idea what
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I was gonna do the same as well And it went just exactly as I expected it to do I knew pretty much exactly what his opening statement was going to be and it really was
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I think for for a An evangelical who is not ground in the word.
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It would have been very challenging I know I had a number of friends who when they gave the oh, this is gonna be a slam -dunk type thing.
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I would switch into Catholic mode and I'd role -play and Sometime if you ever want to do something interesting
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I've done seminars where I'll for example witnessing to Mormons or witnessing Jehovah's Witnesses and one of the things we'll do is role -play
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And I'm nasty as as a heretic I really am and I always start with the pastor, by the way
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So just get if you ever think along those lines, I know I'm never coming back Terry will never have me But if I ever were to happen to do that You'd start first and then you'd be second so I just just keep that in mind and I'm I have
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I am undefeated absolutely undefeated just just But and that and calves just I mentioned that so I'll go into these things and One of the things
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I just there's a there's the reason by madness here one of the the things that I have to struggle with as An apologist as I try to seek to prepare people to defend the faith and give it an answer with hopes within them many
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Christians become Flustered when they encounter what sounds like a biblical argument and I I really think that that goes back to maybe a
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Fundamental lack of Of confidence in a person's grasp of what the
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Bible is all about but There is no theology so silly
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That you cannot if you try hard enough string verses together to make it sound like you have a case
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For example Mormonism I know you don't have a whole lot of Mormons out in this neck of the woods and When I give you a summary of what
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Mormons believe most people sit there and go How could anyone really believe that I mean
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You seriously telling me that they believe in a plurality of gods and a god the father is named
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Elohim and he's from a planet that circles a star named Kolob and he has a body of flesh and bones and thousands of wives and He has spirit children and his firstborn spirit child is
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Jesus another one of his spirit children is Lucifer and they have a council of the gods and they vote as to how they're gonna do things on this planet and We all live the spirit children before with God the
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Father in heaven and then we're put into a body here so we can progress and go through this and get Married in the temple and become gods ourselves and start this all up Someone can actually defend that as as biblical.
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Yeah, you better believe it I Teach a class at Golden Gate Seminary during the summer is that this is the first summer?
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I haven't done it for about four years. And when I do Mormonism, I always end by warning all the students
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I say look One of the dangers of presenting this in this fashion is that you're gonna sit here and go
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Well, I don't really have to prepare to deal with that group Now do I and so what I'll do is I'll slip into Mormon mode for about five minutes and just run them over like a freight train never heard anybody string those verses together like that before or ask those questions and The point
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I'm trying to make is Do not be flustered By the appearance of what sounds like a biblical defense for something that you know is completely wrong
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Because while you may not have heard of it before you may not have an answer ready at that particular point in time
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When you have the opportunity of going into the Word of God you will find that those passages are being grossly mishandled and grossly misused and over the years as I have studied all these false teachings one thing that has been a benefit to me is the fact that I have come to learn more and more of the consistency of The Word of God in the face of all kinds of of wild attacks against it and misuses of it
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I've come to learn that the truth is found in in the wholeness of the Word of God and that while a
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Heretic might be able to grab a verse here and grab a verse there and string something together It's when you allow the whole of God's Word to speak that those false teachings are are banished and are shown to be untrue and shown to be false and so don't be flustered
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I Remember the first time I ever heard a man named Jerry Maddox. He was the first man
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I ever debated Here is a man who was Who would fill in for John Gerstner when
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John Gerstner was out of town? He was a PhD candidate at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia a graduate
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MDiv graduate of Gordon Conwell former Reformed Baptist who became a Presbyterian ordained
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PCA minister who became a Roman Catholic and I remember the first time
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I heard him speak on this Theory that he has that that's the
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Ark of the Covenant in the Old Testament is paralleled in Mary in the New Testament and Man, the
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Bible talks about people who have persuasive words Persuasive speech and I listen to this guy rip through this presentation paralleling 2nd
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Samuel 6 With Luke 1 and 2 and saying this word is the same here and here and and the
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Shekinah glory and is the same thing as here and and the word Tabernacling amongst us the same thing is what talks about the
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Ark of the Covenant see Mary is the Ark of the New Covenant And she carried the New Covenant within her and she's the
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Ark and and so there's all these parallels I'm going whoa, that's incredible and Then I then
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I took the tape and I stuck in a tape player and I I would play a few things type it out I transcribed everything he said so now
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I had it written for him and then you open up your Bible program Okay, the word for this is this Hmm that that's not the word that's there
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That's interesting. Well, and then the parallel is over here and you look. Oh, wait a minute that oh, that's not the same word either and Oh, it sounded so good when it was fired at your rapid fire
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But then when you actually took the time to take it and put it on paper go to the text And of course, he's throwing stuff out from the septuagint and the
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Greek word Here is this and the Hebrew word is that and most of his followers just go Wow, isn't that great?
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But then when you actually sit down to text That's that's not what that no, no, you're wrong there
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No, that's that parallel doesn't exist either and by the time I got to the end of this entire presentation
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There is nothing of it left But oh how it sounds so very impressive. So don't don't be easily moved
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Don't jump to quick conclusions When you go to the Word of God, you find out that in point of fact
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God's truth is very very consistent Let's do that this evening turn with me to 1st Timothy chapter 3
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I'm actually going to take as my text a few verses here in 1st Timothy and then we'll move over to 2nd
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Timothy and tie some things together 1st Timothy chapter 3 If you may recall your context and I People always say well, you know, what can
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I really do to prepare myself to to know the Word of God better? One thing that I've found extremely useful and it is not difficult to do at all, but not a lot of people do
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I was challenged in high school by a high school teacher at a retreat to do this and I think it is an excellent
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Bible study tool and that is learn the outlines of at least the
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New Testament books What do I mean by that? Well when you're studying John, it's good to know that when you're
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Dealing with John chapter 12. This is the end of Jesus's public ministry right before the private ministry to disciples
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Which is in 13 through 16 Then you have the Lord's high priestly prayer in 17 and so on so forth knowing just that basic general outline of the books of the
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Bible helps you so much because so often a False teacher a
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Person who's trying to lead you astray will pull something out of a text that you go Wait a minute that that's not what that section is about That section is not about that particular subject
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So if you're saying it's about that you you need to have a pretty strong reason for making that kind of argument and assertion
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Here in 1st Timothy chapter 3 you may recall Paul is writing to Timothy and he is giving him
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Instructions concerning overseers and deacons and why is that important? Well, it establishes the context that Paul is referring to the local church.
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He's talking about the visible manifestation of the church It's very easy for people to talk about the church in the big universal sense
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But the New Testament normally talks about the church in the concrete. Here's how it's lived out in life sense
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And so here in 1st Timothy 3 he's been talking about the qualifications of elders and deacons and so on so forth and then verse 14
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I am writing these things to you hoping to come to you before long But in case
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I am delayed I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God Which is the church of the
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Living God the pillar and support of the truth By common confession great is the mystery of godliness
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He who was revealed in the flesh or if you take a variant reading there God was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit seen by angels proclaimed among the nations
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Believed on the world taken up in glory But the spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith paying attention deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means the
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Hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods
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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
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For is sanctified by means of the Word of God and prayer And so here in the in the middle of discussing how the local church is to be run
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Paul Mentions Timothy I want to come to you soon I hope to do so, but I'm writing to you so that you may know how
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The Church of God is to be ordered how a man is to behave in the Church of God How is he is to conduct himself in the household of God?
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Which is the church the Living God the pillar and the support of the truth? I'd like to start there because when we talk about where should the church go from here the first thing
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I think the church needs to do is to find out who she is Who she is there's all sorts of strange ideas about the church floating around out there and I will have to admit because of the nature of Mankind we tend to overreact against errors so that When we're pulling against error in this way, we tend to go too far that direction and if there is a
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Negative response to Roman Catholicism amongst evangelicals. It is that we see the exaltation of the church in Rome and so in Protestantism you have the de -emphasis of the church
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I Wrote recently wrote a book on Harold Camping's new teaching that the church has ceased to exist
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That there are no elders. There are no deacons. There is no baptism. There is no Lord's Supper There is no church any longer.
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The church has ceased to exist. That's what Harold camping of family radio is now teaching You may immediately ask so what are
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Christians to do? Well, you're to gather around your radio and listen to family radio because that's how
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God is now evangelized in the earth Isn't that convenient? the church has ceased to exist and so one of the ways that I needed to respond to Harold camping is to demonstrate what the
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Bible teaches about the church and unfortunately, there is amongst evangelicals so much of an attitude of of the church
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Existing to minister to me the church existing for my needs rather than being the body of Christ where where when
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I am Brought into union with Christ. I am placed within his body and it is my privilege my duty
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My calling to serve Christ and to serve his church Instead we have people today who go from church to church to church to church they're the church shoppers and they treat the church as if it is a a shoe store or a dress store or a clothing store and You go to the store that has the best prices or in this case you go to the store it has the best programs and the nicest seats and carpet and and music program and whatever it might be and the pastor who looks the best and dresses the best and Preaches the best as long as he doesn't really preach too long anyways and that's how you determine where you're gonna go and if any of that changes then you just go someplace else because The church is just there to serve me and that's the attitude amongst many evangelicals and it's not
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Hard to see then why Harold camping can convince people that actually the church has ceased to exist.
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You might as well just leave Gather with other believers around the radio and listen to family radio so on and so forth
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And so words like first Timothy 315 sounds strange to many people the church the pillar and support of the truth the pillar and foundation of the truth and We look around and go.
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Yeah Really? We look at the guy sitting next to us and go really
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Really? We look around at ourselves and we go. Well, we're small we're the we're the pillar and ground of the truth and So a lot of people just sort of push this out
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Oh, yes the universal church and yet Paul's talking about the church as it exists with elders and deacons in the local situation here
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Upon what basis do we change the context? Well, we can't I I Remember reading there's a series of books
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My opponent from a couple weeks ago is the editor of so far two volumes a third volumes coming out called surprised by truth which
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I've always found to be a very ironic title actually when you consider it, but surprised by truth is a story of converts and in the first volume most of the converts were former
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Protestants and and Most of them attacked sola scriptura and things like that but there was one particular person who was a former member of the
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Orthodox Presbyterian Church the OPC Church and She was talking about her conversion and she says
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I I remember the day I opened the Bible and I read first Timothy 3 15 and it said the church is a pillar and ground of the truth and I was amazed by this
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And I've often said I'm amazed that anyone could go the OPC and be amazed by this.
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I Don't understand that It's right there That's part of the biblical text.
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And so we need to understand what it's saying The church is the pillar and ground of the truth
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Unfortunately Rome uses that to make her into the truth. What does the pillar and a support do?
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Well, this building is built upon a foundation before they started putting anything up they had to work the ground and lay a
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Foundation and if you don't lay a good foundation, you're never gonna have a good building and There are pillars in these walls.
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You can see one there. You can see one over there and You can see that they then support what goes over our head that held holds that roof up there and I think we can all be very glad of the fact that there is a
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Pillar and a foundation in this building because that's what's keeping a whole bunch of stuff above us from landing on top of us
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But you see a pillar and a foundation hold something else up and that's what the church does
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She holds something else up. Well, what is that? She holds forth the truth to the world
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She doesn't become the definer of truth. She doesn't become Lord over the truth, but the truth has been
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Entrusted to us and we hold that truth up to the world In fact when you read about the church in the
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New Testament God has for some reason chosen to reveal his wisdom and his power through the church to the heavenly authorities
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That's an amazing thing We normally don't think of ourselves in that way. We don't think of the fact that Christ has been building his church and He's been faithful to that promise and yes from the world's perspective many many times
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That church has been very small and despised But you see we can't have
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Worldly standards in judging what God is doing in the church We have to have an eternal perspective and the very fact that we sit here on a continent far away from the events of the
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New Testament 2 ,000 years after the birth of Christ Look at the people in this room look at the diverse backgrounds
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The differences that exist amongst us and yet we sit here this evening Confessing that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead
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That's amazing Given what history has thrown at the faith and at the simple message of the gospel
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That we are here and that we gather together and have a common confession in The Lord Jesus Christ is amazing testimony to the fact that he has been faithful to his promises
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The church is the pillar and foundation of the truth She holds that truth up.
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She never lords over the truth She never stops listening to the truth Semper Reformanda always reforming always being conformed to that truth
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But it is God's will to show his truth to the world through the body of Christ that body that group of redeemed people
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That it is his intention That she be spotless and blameless in the day of the
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Lord What a glorious future awaits us, but a what a glorious present actually exists for us
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We dare not adopt the attitude of the world which despises what Christ is doing in his church And so where is the church need to go from here?
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Well, first of all, she needs to realize who she is The church the pillar and ground the truth
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Then we need to realize that God has committed his truth to us You notice by common confession great is the mystery of Godliness first Timothy 3 16
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And I mentioned just in passing. There's a textual variant there. You have it noted in your own Bibles He who is revealed in the flesh or as many manuscripts read
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God was manifest in the flesh and you might say How can there be such a major difference? Actually, the difference is extremely minor one of the books that was just mentioned to you
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The King James only controversy goes into great depth In discussing this particular passage.
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The difference is actually one of two small lines It is not a huge difference in the
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Greek language whatsoever But whichever way we read it God was manifest in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit seen by angels
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Proclaimed among the nations believed on the world taken up in glory This looks like it is a part of one of the ancient creeds or hymns of the church
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In fact the New American Standard sets it off in poetic form so that we can see that this was
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Possibly maybe a verse from a hymn that they would sing together Maybe a part of the the confession of faith of the early church and in any case
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God's truth has been delivered to us the little epistle of 2nd
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John has a neat promise that I like to especially share with those that are involved in in the
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The ministry of the word 2nd John 1 says the elder of the chosen lady and her children whom
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I love in truth and not only I but also All who know the truth for the sake of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever
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I know pastor Michael never admit it, but there are simply some days when the ministry You sort of look at it and you go
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Man this is tough and you sort of look around and you look at your church and you look at what
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God's doing and you just go man is The truth gonna it's the truth gonna remain
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It's God gonna be faithful and God's Word says. Yes. He will be The truth will abide with us forever.
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That's his promise. That's the scriptural promise Now we may live in a land where apostasy is rampant
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But God has never allowed his truth to disappear from his church
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That church may become very small and that church may be very much persecuted But the promise is
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God's truth will abide. It's not up to you and me and I'm so glad It's not up to us
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It doesn't matter what happens to me in the future. I Come to a grinding halt if anything happens to me know that God's work keeps on going whether we're around here or not
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It's a privilege to be used in his work, but any man who thinks he somehow is indispensable is a fool
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Because there is none who is indispensable God's truth abides will be with us forever and God has given us his truth about who
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Jesus Christ is. He was God manifests in the flesh The Spirit of God has vindicated that gospel message by making it come alive in all of our hearts these divine truths have always been with believers and will always be with believers and While we are called to agonize for them agonize am
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I to to? Contend for the faith once for all delivered to the Saints as Jude puts it
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We do not do that in desperation In the sense that oh, it's up to me.
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And if I don't succeed then the truth's gonna vanish from the earth. No We contend for it.
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We are passionate about it because we love that truth But we can never ever allow ourselves to think that that truth
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Depends for its existence upon me and my defense of it That's when people start bending the truth in the alleged service of the truth
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When we forget that it's God by his spirit who causes people to believe the truth when we think somehow
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It's up to us that's when we start grabbing for all the things outside of Scripture the unbiblical ways of trying to sort of trick people into believing the truth
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Or we look around us and we see that falsehood is thriving on every hand and We feel like we somehow need to to keep up We have to somehow produce numbers and so we start actually
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Compromising the truth thinking that we are serving the truth. No, we have to keep in our mind God's truth will always be true.
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No matter what any man says, let God be true and every man be found a liar God's truth doesn't change when somebody denies it
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All the Apostles experienced apostasy all around them Paul named names of people who once sat on the platform with him quote -unquote
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We're involved in the ministry people who have been entrusted with responsibilities
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He names their names because now they've gone out in the world They experienced it we will experience it as well
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God's truth does not change because people deny it People often ask me they'll still ask questions like oh, you know, you see these people
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I mean, you've seen former Baptists in almost every single group you minister to and I have
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Did you know it and if this isn't the case anymore? Things have slowed down thankfully, but when
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I first started studying Mormonism The figures were for every one
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Mormon who left the Mormon Church and became a Baptist 24
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Baptists became Mormons Back in the 80s the conversion rates were about 24 to 1
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They'd still be in double digits to 1 even to this day 24 to 1 on an average week 200 in that day during that period of time the average
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Southern Baptist Church had 274 members in an average week 273
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Southern Baptists became Mormons That's one church per week converting to Mormonism and People would say well you run into these people.
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I met I met graduates of Southern Baptist seminaries in the line going into the priesthood meeting in Salt Lake City and People say well, doesn't that doesn't that make you wonder
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And I go, um No Do you remember first Timothy four?
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Do you remember second Timothy three? We were told all about these things beforehand, but somehow we sort of think oh, that's not really about us.
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Yes it is The Apostles experienced it Well, doesn't it sadden your heart sure it saddens my heart, but it doesn't surprise me doesn't surprise me at all turn with me over to second
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Timothy and I Want to make sure to get these read before I? Get too far
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Where does the church go from here? well The church needs to realize who she is the church needs to realize that The truth has been committed to her and that God is going to be faithful to that truth.
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I Love second, Timothy. I just I just love this epistle partly because I I so love
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Paul's ministry and and I just Wonder at the things God did in his life and then to think here's his final letter.
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He knows this is going to be it And he's talking to someone he loves deeply and he knows is going to be facing all these difficulties
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What did he feel was most important? to say to Timothy in this context second
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Timothy chapter 3 But realize this in the last days difficult times will come for men will be lovers of self
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Lovers of money boastful arrogant revilers disobedient to parents ungrateful unholy Unloving irreconcilable malicious gossips without self -control brutal haters of good
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Treacherous reckless conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God Holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power avoids such men as these
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For among them are those who entered into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins led on by various impulses
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Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth Just as Janice and Yambas opposed
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Moses. So these men also opposed the truth men of depraved mind reject in regard to the faith
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But they will not make further progress for their folly will be obvious to all just as Yannis's and Yambas's folly was also all this
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Is talking about within what calls itself Christianity. It's really easy to read that first list and go
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Oh, yes that describes our our our world and an ungodly men and it does But he goes on to say these are men who are holding to a form of godliness we're always scandalized when when someone who claims to be a
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Christian is Exposed as being involved with sin nothing new to that Paul says this is happening in his day and he says, you know
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Things are getting more difficult and more difficult more difficult difficult times will come Timothy. I hate to tell you this
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I know I'm sending you my farewell letter and you're involved in leadership in the church and you're soon going to be deprived of my presence
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Timothy I am NOT going to deceive you difficult times are coming Verse 10 now you followed my teaching conduct purpose faith patience love perseverance persecutions and sufferings such as happened to be an
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Antioch at Iconium and Lystra What persecutions I endured and out of them all the Lord rescued me indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
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But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived.
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Oh my Nothing like giving Timothy and uplifting message as you go
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Timothy, you know what kind of life I've lived You know my conduct my purpose my faith my patience my love my perseverance and my
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Persecutions and my sufferings and Timothy you need to realize something. It wasn't just because I was an apostle of Christ Anyone who desires to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
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The world is not going to give you a free pass Now obvious that seems to indicate to us that to live a godly life is going to have external ramifications
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That's not something that's done in secret And when you live in a godly fashion, you will be persecuted and Timothy evil men and imposters.
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What's an imposter? Evil man, that's easy. We can put them outside the door of the church.
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Well, what's what's an imposter an Imposter is a fake an imposter someone acting like someone that they are not
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This is within the church This is within the external fellowship
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This is exactly what Paul warned the Ephesians elders with with great and tremendous tears.
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I Love that sound actually, isn't it? That means there's cool air flowing through those windows
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You can actually sort of stick them together. And if you're Anyways, I have the exact same blinds in my kitchen window and it's really easy to make them just sort of stick there if you
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Sort of know what it there you go just like that. That's how it works. All right We need that cool air coming through folks.
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I ain't gonna worry about that These are imposters he warned the Ephesian elders
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He said after I come men will arise from among you this the same message. He keeps giving it to leaders of the church
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This is what you're to expect But what did Paul do and Here's our third point
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What did Paul do for the Ephesian elders and for Timothy here in 2nd
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Timothy chapter 3? After he warns them after he warns the Ephesian elders and he tells them
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People are gonna rise. They're gonna teach perverse things. They're gonna they're not gonna spare the flock of God Their whole purpose their ravenous wolves
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Tough times are coming Ephesian elders Tough times are coming Timothy.
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They're gonna be imposters They're gonna be in the church and they're gonna proceed from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived and So what does
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Paul then do for both the Ephesian elders and for Timothy? This is where I've said many times.
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This is where we should find Paul telling the Ephesian elders and Timothy so Timothy just follow
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Peter and his successors in Rome and all will be well Timothy wait until 1830 when
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I re -established the church in upstate New York and follow Joseph Smith Wait until the late 1880s and you can have the
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Watchtower Society in Brooklyn Fill in whichever ultimate authority group you want.
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This is where their name should appear Because all those groups that tell us you need to have this infallible group over here this infallible leader here
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This infallible group of people here. You need to have this new revelation over there. This is where it should appear
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Because all those groups and say oh the Bible's not enough. The Bible's not up. The Bible's not enough Every cult and ISM is gonna tell you the
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Bible's not enough because if you think the Bible is enough then you don't need them And you don't need their teachings and their dogmas
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This is where it should be What does Paul do Verse 14 you however
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Continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood
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You have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation
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Through faith, which is in Christ Jesus All scripture is
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God breathed. They are new sauce Inspired is actually a rather weak latinized
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Translation of that we use that word inspired in a lot of different ways that don't really communicate anything
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We can use a term we can say Shakespeare's plays are inspired That's not what this means.
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All scripture is God breathed If you hold your hand in front of your mouth as you speak, you will feel breath coming forth
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You cannot speak without doing that. That's the very breath of speech and that's what scripture is all scripture is
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God breathed and Timothy it is profitable for everything you need to do as a man of God Timothy do you need to teach?
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Do you need to exhort and sound doctrine? Do you need to train in righteousness? Then go to that which is
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God breathed Timothy. Do you need to reprove? Do you need to correct? Oh, you're gonna need to reprove and correct
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Go only to that which is God breathed Timothy to be the man of God thoroughly equipped for every single good work.
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God has given you the way and It's found in that which is they are new sauce
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God breathed It's exactly we said the Ephesian elders
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He said now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up He doesn't commit him to some infallible interpreter to some group of priests to some magisterium even in the midst of the recognition that there's going to be false teaching out there he directs his
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Elders his leaders those godly men to the one source
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Which God has given to them that which is they are new sauce God breathed the scriptures
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So the third point is where do we go from here? We go back to the only place that we can go to the tremendous
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Gift of grace that has been entrusted to the church which gives us that truth which embodies that truth
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Which has been delivered to us The God -breathed scriptures and oh how the enemies the faith hate those
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God -breathed scriptures. Oh How the enemies the faith will do everything they possibly can
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To rob you of your confidence in the Word of God There are men who live there every single day with only one purpose in their life
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And that is to rob you of a sure word from God So there there are men like that.
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Yes, there are one want me to name one? So okay, if I name names from the pulpit Robert Funk Robert Funk, you know who
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Robert Funk is. How many of you know who Robert Funk is? Robert Funk is the head of Jesus seminar. Now, do you know who
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Robert Funk is ever heard of Jesus seminar? Jesus seminar a group of well
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They think they are the leading biblical scholars in the world Do you know what the name of their translation they're producing is the scholars version?
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The scholars version I have sections of the scholars version. They think they just released acts as I recall they're now hacking up Paul and These the folks who who published the
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Bible in three different colors remember or four different colors. You've got black. You've got gray you've got pink and you've got red and they all get together and They study a certain section for example, they started with the
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Gospels and They get together and they vote by the use of colored marbles as to whether the sayings of Jesus for example,
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G has ever said these things and You may know John got completely nixed.
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It's it's history and Oh, they also canonized the Gospel of Thomas by the way, there's now five
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Gospels. I'm not sure if you're aware of that The Gospel of Thomas has been added to the canon effectively it is in their translation and I Remember in 1989.
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I was on a radio program with Robert Funk the president the head of of the
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Jesus seminar He has since then written 21 Theses for a new
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Reformation Number six starts off. We need to give Jesus a demotion
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They're blasphemous Absolutely blasphemous the man's an atheist When you listen to what he says, he's actually an atheist.
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He hates the Christian God with a passion in 1989 they had just decided by throwing marbles and bags a very scholarly way of doing things that The Jesus never said he was coming back.
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So he's not Well, okay I'm glad we have these great scholars to tell us these things and and I ended up on a radio program with him and it was a secular program and he started off talking about how scholars have determined this that and everything and the other thing and Then I started responding by pointing out
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Well, actually scholars say this this and this and you have an interesting definition of who is and who is not a scholar
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He informed us that people like Leon Morris and FF Bruce are really not truly scholars.
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No one takes them seriously they're far too far to the right to be taken seriously today and and During one of the commercial breaks that I could see the guy in the control room gesturing and The guy goes what he did what call him back.
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So we come back on the air Hello Dr. Fung doctor, but we lost the connection.
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No, you didn't lose the connection. I hung up on you. Is it true? Dr. Funk that you told us all to go to hell.
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Yes. I did tell you to go to hell It's a good place to go click you can listen to the
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Conversation on our on our website in fact In fact, you can download it mp3 tonight if you'd like to have something really interesting to do before you go to bed tonight
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Robert Funk and his John Dominic Crossan and all these other individuals cranking out books left and right
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Filling our community colleges and universities as if this is the leading edge of biblical scholarship.
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And what's their one purpose? To rob you of a sure word from God.
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Oh if you still want to believe those things, that's all right, but You really can't seriously tell someone else.
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It's relevant to them the enemy wants to place within your mind the constant thought that you know,
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I Think it says this but Really not sure
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Can anyone really know? How often have I heard that Oh How many times have people come up to me and said, you know you say this and You sound like you know what you're talking about But this guy over here
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He says this and he sounds like he knows what he's talking about Then you've got that over there and you got that group over there.
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Can anyone real? People is anyways When we went to Northampton, we saw the church that you know
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I guess is the modern descendant of Jonathan Edwards's church, but We all knew that it's part of a denomination that has absolutely no gospel element left to it and people may wonder how could
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How could a church that once had a Jonathan Edwards standing in the pulpit?
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be not it doesn't preach anything it suggests a a
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Social gospel that has nothing to do with Biblical teaching at all today.
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How could that happen? at the root of every single dead denomination
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You will find that somewhere along the line the authority
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Certainty and power and character and nature of the Word of God was questioned
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And once it started It's like a cancer that eats at the bones
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It cannot be stopped and every one of those denominations somewhere in the history the first beginnings of decay
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Came when you could no longer confess that all scripture is God breathed
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Now Rarely started with someone just coming up and saying let's reject the
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Bible that never happens. It starts slowly insidiously
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By people the Bible identifies as impostors and false brethren crept in unawares
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To rob us of the freedom that we have in Christ Isn't it amazing the
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Bible tells us all about this long before it ever took place And it keeps happening to us over and over and over again
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Where does the church go from here? She needs to realize who she is The grandeur and the majesty of the truth that's been entrusted to her and where that truth is found
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Because without a sure word from God There can be no powerful preaching No man can stand before the people of God and say thus saith the
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Lord Here is the Word of God. Here is the message of the cross when in his own heart and mind
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He's going well, I don't know I'm not really sure anymore if this is truly
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God's Word Over and over again history shows us what happens in that situation
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So, where do we go? We remember who we are what's been given to us and Where it has been given to us
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That's the foundation the proclamation of the gospel that's the foundation of the proclamation of the fact that we serve a
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Risen and coming King not merely an ancient figure of history but a living
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Lord Who defeated death and Therefore we can face death
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Knowing him who conquered it and who said I am the resurrection and the life
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We can proclaim that message with authority and with power and we can trust that God will bring that message to life in The hearts and minds of his people.
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We don't have to be grasping for straws We don't have to grasp for the newest thing that comes down the line.
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I truly believe The main reason that so many churches that were once sold their proclamation have gotten off Trot off track and have gotten involved in all these worldly things is because there was a lack of Confidence in faith and allowing the
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Holy Spirit to minister life as he would do it Not as we as we are taught and so often in seminary
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We need to see this amount of growth and these number of people so on and so forth as if we can somehow put the
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Holy Spirit into a graph There is so much pressure put upon ministers to perform according to some kind of standard
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Let me tell you what standard you should hold your elders to and it's not going to be found on a graph or a bar chart someplace
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But the standard you should hold them to is for themselves Are they doing what elders are to do?
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Are they growing in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ? These folks are not
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CEOs and don't make them that The Bible says that they are to be involved in the prayer and Study of the
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Word of God. Are they growing in their knowledge of the Word of God and secondly? Are You as a people?
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growing in godliness If you don't experience
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Coming into this place and it doesn't happen every single time But if it never happens something's wrong you should experience times when you come into this place and it's like your elders were following you around all week and They know about your angry tongue and They know about the attitudes that you're harboring in your heart and they're calling you to repentance
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You feel like you've been skewered to your chair Well, they weren't following you around but the
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Spirit of God was and If they are teaching and preaching the whole counsel of God, there are going to be times when that Word of God Convicts you of your sin and calls you to repentance
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It's not their job to make you feel nice and warm and fuzzy every time you walk out that door and If you do they're not doing their job and neither are you the
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Word of God is living and powerful And sharp and it exposes us and if it's being preached from this pulpit you are going to experience a growth in godliness and If you can look back over time and you can see growth you can see sanctification
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You can see that you are more like Christ. That is a successful ministry the world says
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Oh, no, no, no, no, you need to measure by this. It's no don't you dare? Don't you dare? Try to judge what the
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Holy Spirit in his Sovereignty chooses to do in a local church
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If it is his will to grow those people in the grace and knowledge of Christ Don't question that that's what he's doing say well, but shouldn't we naturally see growth?
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Yeah, well, you're gonna see growth not just in godliness, but you're gonna see people come to know the Lord, but don't you dare?
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Try to say that a person somehow is not ministering the Word of God Unless there's somehow this number
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That's God's job And when we put pressure upon people, oh
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I can I know how to manipulate emotions I can get people to make decisions Any salesman knows how to do that you went through over the seven steps of the successful sale or something like that You did that while we were going around that one corner on two wheels, you know
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It's amazing how you remember things when you've seen your life flash right before your eyes it's a fascinating thing
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You know how to do it Don't ever do it You who preach don't ever use worldly methodologies to try to fake the
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Holy Spirit of God because you know what it gets you It gets you people who are in your church, but they haven't been changed yet.
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And they're their biggest pain. There is let me tell you something So don't do it
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Paul says to Timothy Timothy In the face of all the difficulties that are coming remember you are serving
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Christ in his church God has chosen to give his truth to that church and Timothy you find that truth in what is
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God -breathed and the scriptures that you know are able to lead you to salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus Timothy turned to them and to nothing else
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That is where we need to go from here. Let's pray together our
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Heavenly Father. We thank you for The gift of grace you've given to us in your word
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That you've preserved it for us and Lord that in a miraculous fashion you place within our hearts a passion for it a burning love of this
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Holy book We thank you for it. We thank you for its message the liberating gospel that has set us free
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Help us to remain focused upon the main things The important things and as the world seeks to distract us keep bringing us back