Truth in an Obscure Culture

1st Timothy chapter 4. Now the

Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from foods which

God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

For every creature of God is good and nothing is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the

Word of God and prayer. If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ.

Nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

But reject profane and old wives fables and exercise yourself toward godliness.

For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things.

Having promise of the life that is now is in that of that which is to come.

This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance. For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach.

Because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

These things command and teach. Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Till I come, give attention to reading, to extortation, to doctrine.

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by the prophecy of the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

Meditate on these things, give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

Take heed to yourselves and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

May God add his blessing to the reading of his word, with all God's people said. Thank you.

Thank you, Mark. Okay, don't close your Bibles, keep them open to First Timothy.

I apologize to the handful of you that already heard this message about six months ago at the conference at Agape Baptist Church.

I preached a sermon called The Truth in an Obscure Culture. And I never preach the same sermon twice at the same church.

I preached it there, I didn't preach it here. So I figured

I'd give a little time, and you know, I was away, I didn't want to prepare a sermon, so I already had this one ready.

So I hope you'll forgive me for that, and also for those who have heard this already.

But, you know, there's always differences, so it won't be exactly the same. A few things.

We live in a time where truth is, you know, truth means one thing to you, something different to someone else.

Those of you who watch the, this is just the perfect example, those of you who watch the presidential debate,

I mean, they're saying the same thing. One guy had his truth, and he's accusing one guy of something, and then this guy has his truth, and he's saying the exact opposite, and it's like they're from different planets.

They have different definitions of words, different truths. One guy says this is true, the other guy says no, that's not true, and some of you are thinking, yeah, but I know which one's right.

Okay, but from a Christian perspective, look at 1 Timothy chapter 4.

Paul is giving a truth here, and he's also giving a prophecy because he says the

Spirit expressly says, okay, 1 Timothy 4 .1, he says the Spirit expressly says, right, this is a prophecy.

The Holy Spirit gave this word to Paul, and he's preached it, he's writing it in scripture, this is the word of God.

So what's the message? The Spirit expressly says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.

And Paul talks about this in his epistles, and he talks about this time where there's going to be a great falling away from faith, and that's because there's a great falling away from truth.

So this prophecy, I believe, and this is always the nature of prophecy, there's a contemporary fulfillment, and then there's a full and final fulfillment.

So there was a great apostasy in the first century. So everything Paul's writing about to Timothy was true for that time period, but there's also going to be a time in Paul's future, maybe even the days we're living in right now, where there is going to be this great falling away.

People will depart from the faith. You see that in verse 1? Does that describe the age that we're living in?

I think the older you are, the more you see it, how you remember just even 40 years ago, there were so many more

Christians, and now just kind of people that were following Jesus 30 years ago, 20 years, now they're no longer following Jesus.

So I believe we may, in fact, be in this time. Now flip over to 2

Timothy chapter 4, but we're going to be talking about the truth, and how more and more people are turning away from it, and that may sound discouraging, but it's just an encouragement to you to stick with the truth.

Because we can know the truth. We have the truth. The truth is in Christ.

He is the way, the truth, and the life, and the truth is here in God's word. So this is the title of the message,

The Truth in an Obscure Culture. Because again, out there, you go out in Leverett and ask random people in town, you know, what's the truth?

And they're going to give you different answers, and no one's going to agree. But the people of God should be able to agree.

So we're going to read from 2 Timothy 4 in just a moment. But what does this mean, the truth in an obscure culture?

You now have people saying things like, you need to speak your truth.

It's not just people like next door. It's high -ranking officials, government leaders, thought leaders, college professors.

They say things like, you need to speak your truth. Who's heard this?

Has everyone heard this? You know what I'm talking about. And the implication there is the truth cannot be known.

You can have your truth, I can have my truth, and they're different truths. Well, how is that possible? Well, this is the postmodern age that we live in where there is no such thing as absolute truth.

That's what they say. So nothing is actually true. We just have our own thoughts and ideas.

And of course, you know that statement, if there's no such thing as absolute truth, that's self -defeating, because even that statement wouldn't be what?

It wouldn't be true. So make of that what you will. Here's how the dictionary defines truth.

It says, the body of real things, events, and facts.

And I thought that's a fair enough definition, but I like the second definition. A judgment proposition or idea that is true or is accepted as true.

In other words, if you can get enough people to affirm something as true, then it becomes true for them, at least, if not true for most people.

So that's the definition that got my attention. Truth, these days, is whatever most people think.

It's the accepted viewpoint. Or as people say today, it's the narrative.

Whatever the majority is saying, the people in power are saying, that's what is true.

Is that my definition for truth? It's not my definition for truth. My definition for truth is

God's definition for truth. So let's read about it. 2 Timothy 4, 1 -4.

Paul, speaking to Timothy, says, I charge you, therefore, before God and the

Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.

Timothy, he says, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season.

Convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching.

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires.

Because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

You can see why I chose this passage. We're talking about the truth. So the time will come, verse 3, where people, and he's talking about people in the church, professing

Christians, they don't want doctrine. They want to go to church and they want teachers who will tell them what they want to hear, is what he's saying.

They don't want doctrine. You know, our church has what? A doctrinal statement.

You know where you can find the doctrinal statement? The church website and the constitution. It's not hard to find.

Why? Because we teach things and we want you to know what you believe and what we believe.

But this is not what these people want. They don't endure sound doctrine. They have desires.

They have itching ears. They want people that will just tell them what they want to hear. And in the process,

Paul tells Timothy, they will turn their ears away from the truth. Like, stop telling me about Jesus.

At least stop telling me about the biblical Jesus. You know, give me the Jesus that accepts everybody and everything.

Tell me about the God who's just love and has no wrath. Tell me what I want to hear.

Verse 4, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables.

I mean, whether or not we're living in the last days, I mean, the last 2 ,000 years, this age is called the last days.

Whether or not Jesus and his return is right around the corner, this does describe what we're going through.

Do you see it? Because I see it. So, Paul warns the day is coming, and I think the day has certainly come, where people, even

Christians, they're just not interested in the truth.

This is what Paul says to his protege, Timothy. He's telling him that even back then, this is the way it was.

Now, the Greek word translated fables, they're going to be turned aside to what? They don't want to hear the truth.

They want to hear what? Fables. What are some of the fables that are being taught in churches today?

I'm asking you. You tell me. God is love.

It's a Bible verse, but how they define that and how they mean that, it's

God is love to the exclusion of everything else that he is, right? Be good, and you'll go to heaven if there is such a place.

Yeah, I mean, you guys, everyone's going to heaven. Unless you're like a serial killer or something.

Everybody's saved. Everyone's fine. I mean, this is the myth of universalism, the fable of universalism.

Everyone's going to heaven. I mean, I think of the prosperity gospel. You know, God just wants you healthy and rich.

And if you just do this, this, and give me your money, then God will make you healthy and rich. I mean, that's a fable.

You know, the wokeness, this has come into the church, basically turning churches into a platform for social activism.

I mean, that's a fable. It's not biblical. Feminism, I mean, that's one that probably needs a whole sermon all to its own.

But I mean, there's all sorts of myths, things that come in from the outside, from the culture, and they find their way into the church.

And that's now what the pastor is, is preaching. But they'll start to buy into the narrative. Whatever the majority is saying, that's what the truth is.

That's what people are buying into then. It's what they're buying into now. So the truth is out there.

It's in here, actually. And we just need to, number one, find it. Number two, believe it. And then number three, apply it to our lives.

So we're talking about the truth in an obscure culture. So here are some of the points that I want to look at.

The foundation of Christian doctrine and ethics. The Christian faith in areas of resistance.

The Bible versus science. Why it is important not to reconsider the

Reformation and the Protestant confessions of faith. And then number four, or number five, churches that are reconsidering their doctrines in wake of the latest societal changes.

So I'll spend just a few minutes on each point. But as Christians, where do we go for truth?

Where do you go for truth? The Bible, right? Now, you should hear the truth from the pulpit.

But that's not always the case, and men are fallible. But as long as a preacher is preaching from the

Bible and accurately handling the word of God, yes, you get the truth from God's word and from God's word rightly handled.

But this is not where most people go for truth these days. Most people today would say, you really find truth where?

I think most people today would say science is really where you find truth. Is that a safe statement?

Is that a fair statement? I think a lot of people would say that. You find the truth in science.

Now, is that true? I mean, it's true to a degree. You can find some truth in science.

But, I mean, this is kind of the elephant in the room as far as science goes, and the science that most of us were taught, what's being taught in the school.

So you've got the Big Bang and evolution. These are kind of the two myths, if you will, the two fables that are being taught in the schools, and they're being taught to Christian children.

When we send our children to the school, this is what they hear. That really, and the big message, big picture is that there really is no

God. It all just kind of happened by accident. You're just a cosmic mistake.

I mean, you're just this little blip on a little planet, which our galaxy is a little blip in light of the universe.

I mean, if that's really how you thought of yourself, I mean, what difference does any of this make?

And besides, if you're just an evolved chimpanzee, then you're no different than a dog, really.

I mean, you're just an animal. Isn't this what kids are taught? And then we're surprised when they act like animals because, after all, they're taught.

You are basically little more than an animal. Now, is this true?

What does the Bible say? See, we have to combat these lies. We have to combat these myths with what

Scripture says. Let's go back to Genesis 1. We'll see what the Bible says, and people have a very clear choice of which one they're going to believe.

Now, some people will try to find some middle ground. They say, well, I don't believe in evolution, but they say,

I believe in theistic evolution. Maybe God used evolution. Well, I'm not going to spend the time to turn there and show you all the verses, but in Genesis 1 and 2, what do you see?

They produced after what? Each animal, each species produced after what? Their own kind.

And God keeps repeating this again and again, which totally eliminates evolution as a possibility from God's perspective, which is true.

Genesis 1, what does it say in verse 1? In the beginning, who? God created the heavens and the earth.

Do you believe that? You all agree that's the truth of Scripture, right? Do you believe that?

Okay, so we know what the truth is. We know where to find it. We say we believe it.

Not all of you said you believed it, but we'll let that slide. How do you apply that to your life now?

Okay, God created all things. How do you apply that to your life? Here's how you apply it.

Your life should be lived to the glory of God. And here's the reality. At least half of the people in here are not living your life to the glory of God because you have your mind so focused on yourself, so focused on what you want to do, you're not living to the glory of God.

We're living to the glory of God one hour on Sunday, if that. Once a month, maybe, if I've got time.

That's not living to the glory of God, is it? See, this is why people don't want the truth.

They don't want this truth. See, pastor, tell me the truth that God loves me and everything. Like Mark says, everything's going to be okay.

So, evolution is a lie. The Big Bang is a lie. And, you know, I said half of the congregation.

Maybe 80 % of you are. Maybe 80 % isn't. I don't know the percentage, but here's what

I know. Christian churches today, this is not the way it's supposed to be, folks. If every person, how many people do we have in this church on any given

Sunday? Half the congregation. Half the congregation isn't here.

And it was like that last week, and it's going to be like that next week. And it'll be like that the week after that.

And that's not just for Morris Corner Church. It's for the churches in Coleraine. It's for the churches in Greenfield.

It's for the churches all over the place. You know, the most common thing

I hear from pastors, they say, Why bother studying for a message all week?

Why do that when people aren't even going to show up? I went to a church two weeks ago, and this pastor,

I'll just tell you this. If I was a church, just an average guy, an average

Christian looking for a church, I'd probably go to his church, to be honest with you. I'd go to this guy's church.

So I went to this guy's church. I'd go to Morris Corner, okay? Other than Morris Corner, I'd go to his church.

But I went to a Sunday evening service. You know how many people were there? Three. And all the people were from here.

Nobody from his church showed up. Nobody. The only three people at his church were people from Morris Corner.

And then one guy came in late, and then some people came in halfway through. What is that?

What is that? Showing up halfway through his sermon? No respect for what he does.

You know, you show up halfway through someone's sermon. Here's what you're saying to the pastor.

I have no respect for you. I have no respect for what you're saying. I'm just here to maybe check off the box.

Maybe I'll see you in a month. But you know what he does?

He keeps preaching the gospel week in, week out. Because even if the majority, whatever the numbers are, whatever the percentages are, maybe

I was too harsh on the percentages. But the reality is, you know, most people, they don't care.

They just don't care. Isn't this what Paul is saying to Timothy? The time will come when people will depart from the faith.

Maybe they keep their foot in the door just enough, but they don't really care. How many people in churches believe in evolution?

I've got to move off the science thing. How many people in churches believe in evolution? You know, if you believe in it, there's micro evolution, and then there's macro evolution.

Micro evolution is true. So God created some sort of dog, and the dogs evolved to where now you have

German shepherds and poodles. That's proof the evolutionary process has gone wrong.

It does go wrong. If anyone has a poodle, I'm sorry. That's not a point of doctrine.

I can admit that. Okay. But micro evolution is true.

There are changes within the species. But macro evolution, that monkeys turn into men, if you believe in evolution, you don't believe the

Bible. That's all there is to it. You believe in the Bible. Now, maybe there was a Big Bang when

God created all things. But if you believe in the Big Bang, the version they're preaching in the schools, and they are preaching it, what's the difference?

They're getting up there. There's a guy in front of the class talking like I'm talking to you. What's the difference? They're preaching godlessness.

And if you believe that stuff, you don't really believe the Bible. That's the bottom line. So most people, the point is, are turning to science today.

Is science true? Remember 2020? Who remembers 2020? Did the scientists lie to us?

Now, I admit some of the things, they probably thought some of those things were true. And then they said, and they turned out, that's the nature of science.

You're testing things. You don't always know, and you find out later. But they were lying to us to a large degree.

And if you say they're not, then I don't know what to tell you. Oh, scientists don't lie.

Yes, they do, because they're human beings. Let God be true in every man. What? A liar.

So, oh, you really find the truth in science. No, you don't. You find a bunch of liars who are scientists.

And I could go on and on about that. But the point is, you get the idea. The scripture is the only thing that doesn't change.

Right? It's the only thing that you can really depend on. Nobody has ever disproven

God's word. This is why I'm saying we need to live to the glory of God. We need to believe everything in God's word.

And sometimes we don't always follow through. But we need to strive and struggle to believe and search the scriptures and find the truth and apply them to our lives.

But so many are not doing that. Why is it important to not reconsider?

So, moving away from science, why is it important to not reconsider the Reformation? Now, some of you don't consider yourselves

Protestants. And that's fine. Some of you do. That's a bigger debate.

But here's the thing. The Catholic Church basically ruled Europe for a thousand years.

If you lived in Europe, you were under the thumb of the Roman Catholic Church. They had a lot of truth. They still have a lot of truth within the

Roman Catholic Church. But it was all covered over by tradition. And they had the gospel.

But then they added works to the gospel and sacraments to the gospel. So the truth was there.

It was just obscured. And then you add this little thing called the

Protestant Reformation, which we all hear about in school. But it really did change the

Western world. Today, America basically was founded as a

Protestant nation, or at least a nation of Protestants.

And here's the thing about the Reformation. Out of the Reformation came these great truths.

This is a summary of Scripture, okay? Out of the Reformation came what is called the five solas.

Sola Scriptura, Sola Fide, Sola Gradia, Sola Christo, and Sola Dei La Gloria.

And here's what it means. Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.

So basically you have the Catholic Church ruling Europe, and then this one monk named

Martin Luther, he challenged the authorities, right? Because the majority of people in Europe were saying, this is the truth.

The Pope was saying, this is the truth, Catholicism. And this one monk said, you know,

I don't think that's quite true. And he protested. He gained a following, and this led to split after split.

And now we have the Protestant denominations, which is kind of a whole other issue today. But out of the

Reformation came these noble truths. Sola Scriptura. Do you believe that the

Bible alone is your authority? I believe that. I don't know if this makes me a

Protestant. Fine, but Sola Scriptura. The Scripture alone is our authority.

Because, again, where else can you turn? Really, where else can you turn? The Scripture alone is our authority.

You look at Jesus, He's always appealing to Scripture. What about the traditions? Jesus didn't think very highly of most of their traditions, did

He? And many of their traditions nullified God's Word. So Sola Scriptura, Scripture alone.

Sola Fide, faith alone. This is how we summarize the Gospel, that the Gospel is what?

Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15.

If you want a definition for the Gospel, you find it most clearly brought out here.

1 Corinthians 15. 1

Corinthians 15, starting in verse 1. Paul says, Moreover, brethren,

I declare to you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you received, and which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that Word which

I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you, first of all, that which

I also received, and here's the definition for the Gospel, that Christ died for our sins according to the

Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the

Scriptures. This is the Gospel. The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.

How is a person saved? By doing good works? Through social activism?

The social Gospel, as they call it? Is that how you're saved? You're saved by looking to Christ.

Christ alone. Isn't this what came out of the Reformation? Faith alone in Christ. No works.

Works do not save us. Works is simply the evidence. We're trusting in Jesus alone.

Faith alone in Him. It's all by grace. Works do not play into our salvation.

Christ alone. He is the only way. That's what the sermon two weeks ago was about. The exclusivity of Christ. You have to believe in Jesus to be saved, and then it's all to the glory of God alone.

The reason why I'm bringing this up, because there's a lot of people rethinking the Protestant Reformation. There's a movement today.

It's called the Charismatic Movement. I'll get a little pushback on this, I'm sure, but here's what the

Charismatic Movement is doing. They're calling for unity. Unity in revival.

Revival is basically if you can just get more people together on board, then that's revival.

The more people equals revival, which isn't necessarily true. What they want, though, is unity.

And you know what they're working towards? Unity with the Roman Catholic Church. And there's already high profile.

I can show you the videos, show you the statements. Basically, you have high -profile, charismatic leaders that are seeking unity with Rome.

And you have some of the most famous evangelical leaders today,

Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, all those types. They think the Pope is amazing. They want unity with the

Catholic Church. Why is that important? This is the spirit of the age, because if you haven't noticed, the

Catholic Church totally buys into all the stuff, right, that's out there.

There's a mass that was held in New York City preparing for the pride celebration.

There's a pride parade, and the local cathedral there took part, and they held an inclusion mass.

So the Catholic Church and the Pope, they're just totally buying into the world system. And if you can just get all the

Protestants and the evangelicals to get friendly with Rome and bring everybody together, guess what?

You've just corrupted Bible -believing churches. So that's what's happening, and that's why there's this move away from doctrine, move away from the good things that came out of the

Protestant Reformation. You know what I say to all of it? I say to hell with all of it, because that's where it's going.

You abandon the gospel of Jesus Christ, that is the road to what?

Perdition. This is what Paul said to Timothy. What would happen? He said, many will depart from the faith.

And a lot of these people, they went on claiming to be Christians. The Judaizers claimed to be Christians.

The Pharisees and Sadducees claimed to worship the true God of Israel. Did they really believe?

No. Jesus said, no, you're children of the devil. So, you know, the truth matters, and the truth is hard.

I realize this. This is not what most people want to hear, but we need to cling to the gospel.

We need to cling to making sure I'm living my life to the glory of God.

We need to cling to the truth, because you're just being bombarded with falsehoods, left and right, from the culture.

I've totally gone off my outline here. But here's the thing.

If you're really seeking truth, we know where to find it. It's in God's word.

The Greek word translated doctrine simply means teaching or instruction.

I want to read the Bible every day. I realize that not everyone can do that.

Not everyone does do that. I want to read the Bible every day. I want to be in church every week.

I need the instruction as much as you do, because the temptation for my flesh is to do what

I want to do. And you get into those patterns and those habits, and all of a sudden, you're doing what you want, and it's hard to get back into what

God wants. So we need to kind of stay on that straight and narrow.

And we need the instruction from God's word, because you're not going to hear it anywhere else. You'll hear it if you read the

Bible. You'll get it there. Maybe you'll get it from a pulpit. Maybe not. You're not getting it from the world, are you?

You're not. If people avoid

Bible doctrine, I'll just end on this point, because we're talking about the truth in an obscure culture.

The truth is it's Bible doctrine. If you think that word is too boring, you know, doctrine, that bores me or whatever, call it whatever you want.

Truth, instruction, it's from God's word. Here's why we need it. Because we're being conformed.

We have a choice. Turn to Romans 12. This is the last passage we'll turn to. We have a choice.

We're either going to be conformed to the image of Christ, or we're going to be conformed to this world.

And I do read the Bible. I mean, if there's a day that passes where I don't read it, it's rare.

But I can sense this. I'm involved in Christian ministry nearly every day doing something, and I feel the tug in the other direction.

It's hard to resist everything that's out there, because I don't want to have to fight with people all the time.

So I feel the drift sometimes. So if I feel it,

I figure most of you are feeling it. So here are the two options. Romans 12, starting in verse 1,

Paul says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, what?

A living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

Is my life, is my body a living sacrifice? You know what happened with the

Old Testament sacrifices? They died. The lamb, whatever animal was, they died.

They lost their lives. Are you a Christian this morning?

Do you believe? Okay. Let's start at step number one. Here's the truth. Romans 12.

Do you believe Romans 12 is true? Okay. So we saw the truth, we believe it's true. It's the application that always kind of gets us, isn't it?

The animals would lose their lives. So here's the application. As a follower of Christ, I need to lose my life.

I need to die. I need to die daily. I need to sacrifice all the things that I want to do in the flesh, the passions, the desires, all of that.

I need to give it up. I need to die to self. And then what's left, the spiritual man.

I need to offer that to God as a living sacrifice. That means today,

Lord, whatever you want me to do today, I'm going to do it. What if it's hard?

Why I really need to make sure I do it. Am I living? Are you living your life as a living sacrifice?

Holy and acceptable to God. Here's the thing. If we don't have the doctrine, we don't even know what to do.

Okay. It starts with opening the Bible, finding the truth. Number two, believing the truth.

Those two things are pretty simple. Okay. That's pretty simple. But again, a lot of people, they're not in church.

Okay. Going back to that. They're not in church. They're not reading their Bible. They don't know what to do. That's why they're so off base.

When you ask them something about scripture, you hear their opinions about the world and about life.

They're so far off base because they just don't know. They're not getting the instruction. But if you just open the word, hear the preach, get the instruction, you believe it.

It's the application, though, that really matters. That's where the rubber meets the road. We need to live a life to the glory of God.

We need to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice. So let me challenge you with this.

Whatever God brings across your path later today, be aware of it.

Tomorrow, say, Lord, what would you have me to do? If you're paying attention, you'll see those moments.

You'll know what God wants you to do. And then it's just a matter of whether or not you're going to obey him. If you do and you do it consistently, that's how you live your life to the glory of God.

Let's pray. And Father, I thank you so much that your grace is sufficient that even though we have failed, even though I have failed, don't always do what you ask me to do.

Don't always say what you would have me to say. Lord, I thank you that through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, there is forgiveness.

That a person could have lived their life for 60 years all for themselves. In one moment, they can be forgiven if they turn to Christ.

But Lord, help us to redeem the time. Help us to live a life in service to you.

Lord, we only have one life to live. Help us to make the most of it. In Jesus' name, amen.