Our Father's Goodness and Graces to Us — Paul Washer

I have to agree with Randall that it was a wonderful time today and sitting there and have such appreciation for your pastor and then heard your pastor speak so much about the good doctor and my ears have heard of him, but now my eyes have beheld him and had many, many questions that I wanted to ask him.

I was not disappointed, although not all my questions were answered. I guess it will take time for that. Just have such a great need. I have such a great need of. I just love being around men who have forgotten more about God than I'll probably ever know, and they have been in my life such a great blessing.

We are all so feeble and we are all so weak and there is so little that we do know. We are in such need of grace, always in need of great, great grace. Well, this morning, the beginning, we started out in Romans 116.

The Gospel, the New Covenant, and the True Church

We spoke about something that I call the gospel reductionism, which we've reduced the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ down to four spiritual laws or five things God wants you to know with a prayer at the end.

And if someone goes through all those evangelical hoops, we declare them to be saved when in fact most of them are not. And then. In the morning service afterwards, spoke out of Jeremiah and the new covenant and the great things that God would do, has done and is doing through the Messiah who died and rose again for the church, the great change that is brought about by the spirit of God in the life of every true believer, we went on to define the church as something more than a brick building with a finely manicured lawn.

That most of what is called the church today, in fact, is not the church at all. The church is made up of people who are truly born again by the spirit of God, who have embraced the gospel and are embraced by it.

First Timothy 4: A Word for Every Believer

Now, this evening, I want to go to a passage that actually last night I taught on this, but I feel like I rather need to to do it again. And I want us to go to First Timothy, chapter four, and I'm going to read the entire chapter.

Now, some of you, upon hearing this, will think that I'm preaching to ministers. Some of you will think, well, I'm preaching to men or those in authority, whether it's in the church or in their home. But in fact, I'm preaching to absolutely everyone here, men, women, children, the oldest, the youngest, the most mature, the most immature.

It's an admonition for these times, for these times. Let's read the chapter in its entirety, First Timothy, chapter four. But the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience, as with a branding iron.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Preserve in these things, for as you do, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, I come before you in the name of your son.

Prayer, Salvation, and God's Faithfulness

How many times, father, have I done this? Come before you. In that name, and it never fails to bring me right into your presence where angels fear to tread. What a great name. What a great name. Oh, I worship his name.

Worthy of all glory and honor. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all worthy is the Lamb. What a powerful work of salvation you have done, O God.

What could not be achieved by men or armies of men or countless priests, you have done with your own right hand. Your son, Jesus Christ, I ask you to help us. You have been our helper in times past. And not one of all the good words that you have spoken has ever failed.

We come to you, Lord, not in our own virtue and not our own merit, but pointing to Christ seated at your right hand. And we ask good things for your people. Truth. The power of the Holy Spirit. Not in words of eloquence or human wisdom, father, just how long has it been, O God?

How many times have I prayed? How many times have I sought you and called upon your name? Never once. Never once. Never once since I met your son, have you closed the door. Oh, God, I am reminded of your faithfulness.

You are a good God and you are mighty to save. And it is a pleasure for one day in your courts is better than thousands elsewhere. I love you, Lord, and I lift my voice to worship thee. Take joy, my king, in what you hear.

May it be a sweet, sweet sound. Thank you so much for everything you've done, father. Thank you so much. Jesus name. Amen. It is good to have a father. It is so good to have a father, a father like ours.

God's Strength Through Weak Servants

Maybe we should just stop this thing and pray or something. It is so good. You know, before we get started, God has done so much in my life. I've had the opportunity to preach so many places around the world and see so many evidences of his good grace to me.

But I could assure you that it would only take an hour or two of being with me to know that I would be a tremendous disappointment to you. I want young men to know something that's so important. When I I used to when I was younger, it seems like a long time ago.

I'm not that old, but I have a lot of miles. I used to look at men that were preaching and I would think, oh, you know, they've reached some spiritual level in their life. And because of that spiritual level that they have reached, therefore, God uses them in a mighty way.

No, that's not what it is at all. Now, we are called to be faithful in what we can be faithful in. But there's no such thing as a great man of God, there are only pitiful, tiny, weak, faithless men of a great and a merciful God.

And it is not unto us to grow in power or wisdom or all these things as much as it is to be empty that he might fill us, that he might use us. He is such a good God. And all these years I have been such a rather dull and stumbling servant.

Take heart in that. God, as I said this morning, is known to choose the runt of the litter. I told someone a long time ago, the only thing I ever qualified for was getting saved and then qualified for being called.

Not because of talent or character or courage, but being called because, brother, not many of you called were noble or wise, but God chooses the base, the weak, the things that are not to confound the things that are.

He is such a good God. And if you truly walk with him at the end of your years, you will not boast in human strength or elegance, but you will lean on your staff, broken and weak, and raise your hands to the one who saved you by his own virtue and merit.

Spiritual Warfare Begins with Truth

What we have before us, 1st Timothy chapter 4. And I want to address some issues here that are very, very important and they're just burning in my heart. And first of all, starting in verse one, he says, but the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.

Now, the latter times did not begin with some strange outpouring of the Holy Spirit in America this last century. The latter times began with the death, resurrection and ascension of the Messiah. And to have heresy and false teaching and deceitful spirits and doctrines of demon is not something new to our generation, but it is something that has plagued the church ever since there's been a church.

There has always been spiritual warfare. But today I noticed something quite unusual in the false teaching and false ideas of men who ought to be proclaiming the word of God. We have turned this idea of spiritual warfare into a mystic affair, something on the level of Hollywood.

People talking about the devil did this and the devil did this and the need for deliverance here and deliverance there and and all these things, but notice deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. Deceit has to do with lying.

Doctrine has to do with the twisting of truth when it is doctrine of demons. You do not have to be watching movies or things of horror stories. You do not have to be watching these TV evangelists do all their nonsense in their supposed casting out demons and so on and so forth.

You don't have to worry about your refrigerator becoming demon possessed. What you have to worry about is this. There is a devil and his chief armament in destroying life is the lie, lying, false teaching, false doctrine and not just false teaching and false doctrine, but also simply ignorance.

Wherever there is ignorance of God's law, ignorance of God's truth, there is a door opened up for lies. For lies, we live in this so-called postmodern age, we live bombarded by lying. Bombarded by half truths and falsehoods and every manner of thing, and that is the one thing that you need to understand as a Christian, the battle in the Christian life begins in the mind.

With the knowledge of truth and knowing truth, being able to establish your life, your thought life, your daily activity, your responses in relationship to be able to base everything that you are and everything that you do upon what you know about God and God's will.

But. Today in America, especially America, there is a rampant ignorance. Of simply. The attributes of God. There is a horrid ignorance of the will of God, the activity of God, how God works in the life of a man.

And most of the noise and the clutter and the glitter and all that we see today in modern day so-called church is a weak substitute for the one thing we most desperately need, which is true doctrine to build our lives upon truth so that we will not be carried away by every wind and every lie.

That is our great need. And now when we talk about truth, let me say this. It's not just truth with regard to things such as the Trinity. Even though that is absolutely important, it is not just truth with regard to things such as soteriology or the doctrine of salvation, it is truth with regard to every aspect of our life, because the Bible, the Scriptures speak to everything in the human life.

But we don't believe that anymore. The Bible speaks about how you're to maintain relationships. What type of relationship you're supposed to have. The Bible speaks about what you're to watch, what you're to hear.

The Bible speaks about how you're supposed to sit and stand. The Bible speaks about what clothes you're supposed to wear. One of the things I most respect about the Puritans, even though I do not agree with the Puritans in absolutely everything, they had a passionate desire to submit every aspect of their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ through the written word, through obedience to the written word.

We take so much for granted. Looking at most Christians, you would have to say that at least 85 to 90 percent of their life was simply doing what's right in their own eyes. Are determining how they should walk, how they should talk, how they should dress, how they should have relationships and so on and so forth, just by looking at other Christians who are as ignorant as they are.

How does the devil most work in this world? Through the ignorance. Of God's people, through the ignorance of God's people. What does the scripture say? My people perish. For a lack of knowledge. Where there is no vision.

The people perish. Now, I know that that text is often used by pastors who have just gone into a building program. You know, they'll they'll get in this building program or they get this new idea about the direction the church ought to go in and they say where there is no vision, the people perish.

That's not what that text means at all. What it's basically saying is where there is no revelation of God's law, where there is no revelation of God's will, where there is no knowledge of who God is and what he requires of the the people perish.

They perish. Now, we find something here very, very important, Paul warns Timothy and all of us through this letter that we will constantly be having to deal with deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons that will plague the church throughout all of her years and will fight in war against the believer through all of his or hers.

Paul tells us this will be a great problem, a battle of the mind, a battle of knowledge, a battle between light and dark truth and lies. But he doesn't leave Timothy there and he doesn't leave us there either.

He not only speaks of the problem, but the Apostle Paul speaks of the solution. And I'm going to submit to you today that the reason why we're all in such a state that we're in. Often weak and limping and worldly and broken, and that sometimes there's not a sound part upon us from our head to our toe, it's because we have not listened.

The congregation nor the leadership of congregations, we have not listened to the admonition of Paul to Timothy, what are we supposed to do when we see. All this spiritual warfare, all this calamity, how can we stand against these gates of hell?

Constant Nourishment in the Word of God

Well, let's look. After he tells us about this, he describes. How Timothy should be, we go to verse six, he says, in pointing out these things to the brethren, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus.

Now he's going to describe him constantly nourished on the words of faith and of the sound doctrine which you have been following. Now, let's just stop here right now. Would you describe your life? As constantly nourished on the words of the faith, is that how you would describe your life?

Now, I'm not just talking to the preacher, the pastor, the evangelist, the person in the ministry. I'm not just talking about the head of the household. I'm talking about everyone who identifies themselves with the person of Christ and his salvation.

Would you identify yourself, describe yourself as someone who was literally nourished, constantly nourished on the words of the faith? Would you say that? Most would have to say no. Paul is telling Timothy, Timothy, there is going to be an onslaught of warfare.

This is a difficult thing. The Christian life is a difficult uphill battle fighting all the way. Timothy, here's the first thing you've got to put in mind. You must be constantly nourished by the words of the faith.

I read a statistic years ago that said the average minister in America spends less than 15 minutes a day in the word of God. Now, what does that mean for the rest of the congregation? Some of you will have to admit you haven't been in the word of God in a long time.

Some of you may have to admit that the only time you're ever in the word of God is Sunday and Wednesday. And yet, in order to live this Christian life, we must be people who are constantly nourished in the words of faith, the words of the faith.

Now, I want you to think about something for a moment. Let's say that all of us decide that we have a lot to do in the month of May. So it's the last days of April and we decide that we just have a lot to do and we don't have time to eat.

We simply don't have time to eat all the month of May. So this is what we're going to do the first and second and third day of May. We're going to eat 24 hours a day for three days. That's all we're going to do.

We're just going to eat and eat and eat and eat and eat so that we do not have to eat the rest of the month so that we can give ourselves to the labors and the tasks that we must accomplish. Now, you don't have to be a doctor or scientist to know something that is not going to work.

Even if you eat three days in a row, 24 hours a day by about, I don't know, nine o 'clock the fourth day, you're going to be hungry again. Why? Because that's not the way it works. You don't eat for three days so that you don't have to eat the rest of the month.

You don't drink a whole bunch of water like a camel for three days so that you don't have to drink water the rest of the month. You realize that you must eat every day and not just once a day, periodically through the day, and you must drink water every day, not just once a day, but periodically through the entire day.

You must be constantly nourishing yourself or you will not be healthy. You will not grow. Constantly nourishing yourself. Do you do that? Do you do that? We have a world filled of ministers who, as the Japanese man who came over to this country once said, when I look at a Buddhist priest in my own country and I see his life of meditation and the study of his holy books and how he contemplates and how he strives and disciplines his life for spirituality, I think, holy man.

When I come to the United States and see an evangelical pastor, I think businessman, administrator. You see, what we have done, starting with the minister, is we have turned in our mantle of the prophet and put on a business jacket.

And so many churches today are run by administrators, movers and shakers and planners and strategists and little boys with laptop computers, but not men who constantly nourish themselves in the word of God and constantly dwell in the presence of God in prayer and that filters down through the entire congregation.

The word of God is the only thing we have. You cannot lead your family, sir, you cannot do it apart from being constantly nourished on the words of the faith, you cannot. You cannot be godly, you cannot be an instrument of God, you cannot grow.

It is an absolute essential, but it is the very thing that we do not do or. We recognize that we do not do it, and so we get all psyched up about what we're going to do and we end up saying, well, today I'm going to study 37 chapters today, I'm going to pray for hours, you totally wear yourself out and then don't do it again for several weeks, you're anemic and weak and do not understand the ways of God.

And in some ways there's not a there's not a healthy part of you from your head to your toe. So many Christians struggle and suffer in so many areas of their life. Because of ignorance of God's word, direct disobedience to God's will, and it seems as though they're not even aware of it.

The word of God is all we have. It's all we have. And how can we stand in such a defiled culture? How can we stand with so many wrong ideas and wrong thoughts bombarding us all the time? It is only by constantly nourishing ourselves, being nourished.

In the word of God. And the sound doctrine. Which we have been following. My dear friend. I could stop right now and simply ask you, what kind of relationship do you have with the word of God? What kind of relationship?

Last week, I was at a conference preaching and I had many, many interviews with several young men. And they all came in, many of them brand new converts, some of them converts, two years, three years, and every one of them, bless their heart, they want to change the world.

They've got they've got ideas of ministry and they want to do this and they want to do that and they want to do so many things. And I look at them and I just say, stop. You don't even know God, you're saved, yes, but you're a novice.

First Timothy, chapter three. And not a new convert, you don't know the word, how long do you tarry every day in the scripture? Is it a half an hour? Is it an hour? Is it two? Is it three? Is it four?

How many hours a day do you tarry in prayer? Do you really know him? Have you been schooled in his presence? Everyone wants to jump into the ministry because everyone wants to do something. The problem is it's not about doing something, it's about being something conformed to the image of Christ and someone who lives in the presence of God.

Yes, like I said, we've traded in the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. For 10 steps to have your best life now, we are a spiritual people, we live based on truth, and if our lives are not governed by that truth, we cannot stand.

And if you are not a man or a woman or a young believer who has recognized the importance of literally being saturated in the word of God, reading this thing from Genesis to Revelation, pondering it, meditating on it, memorizing it, you cannot stand, you cannot.

Now, so first of all, he says what? To be able to stand in these evil times, we should be constantly nourished, constantly nourished on the words of the faith. The Bible should literally be connected to your hand.

Like the warrior who swung the sword with such strength and so long that it stuck to his hand, so the word of God ought to be stuck to your hand and all of you young people out there with your MP3s and your CDs and your all these other things that you have.

Bless God, take advantage of it when you can't be reading the word. And you've got to go somewhere, put that MP3 thing in your head and get you the scriptures and just listen to scripture, listen to scripture, listen, not Christian music a little bit.

If it's older than 100 years, you can listen to it. But if you really want to grow the scripture, the scripture, I'm on a plane, I've been studying the word. I know, OK, I'm going to get off the plane.

They just say, unfasten your seatbelts. Everybody jumps up really quick so that they can stand there for half an hour and not move. I get my MP3 player out. My wife showed me how to use it. Stick it in my ears.

Book of James. I go through the entire book of James before anyone gets off that plane. Taking every moment of our life, designing it for what? For this one thing that we most desperately need, and that is the knowledge of God through the word of God.

Rejecting Worldly Fables and Guarding the Mind

So he says, Timothy, here's what you do. You be constantly nourished, constantly. And then he goes on and he says something else for seven. He says, but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women.

Have nothing to do with worldly fables, I want you to know that this world is full of worldly fables. There are so many worldly fables governing almost everyone's lives and worldly fables that have also terribly influenced even the dedicated believer.

Our mindsets have been so engulfed by what we think is right, but we've never proved it with the Scripture and we do not know enough Scripture in order to determine what a worldly fable is so as to even reject it.

So let me tell you about one of the most important things, if you're going to think about Godly living in a godly thought life. First of all, before you can bring in the word of God and begin to train your mind in the things of God, you've got to have nothing to do with the things that contaminate your mind.

You read the Scripture for three hours and then turn on the television set and see one image. One sensual, extravagant image, and you can pretty much count on the fact you're going to know your three hours.

You see, one of the things that you've got to realize, if if in its content, if I have a jar that is halfway filled with raw sewage and it stays there, it doesn't matter how much clean water I pump in, all the clean water that gets pumped in is going to turn dirty and filthy that you cannot drink it.

So many people are studying Scripture, but they have not learned, first of all, mortification of sin and the need to separate from everything that is a worldly fable and that contaminates the heart and the mind and the spirit.

We've got to learn that we are living behind enemy lines. This is a fallen, wicked place. Someone says to me, Brother Paul, let's go to the mall. No. Why? I can't. Why? I want to preach with the power of God on my life.

I don't go to places like that. Because unless I'm going to stick my head in a bucket, I'm going to be bombarded with something. Yes, I live in a real world. Yes, I have to get out. But everything I can avoid, I must avoid.

It is one thing to live in this world. And have to fight against everything that's in it, it's another thing to pump it into your home, to pump it into your head. Several years ago, I was really struggling with something, struggling with depression, and Leonard Ravenhill sent me a track.

And I don't agree with everything in the track, but there was one thing that it said, and it was this, others can, you cannot. And what it was basically saying is if you want God on your life, if you want to be an instrument of God, if you want to see his power and his blessing, then what many other people think they can do, even Christians, you cannot do.

You must separate yourself as much as possible from everything in your life that's going to grieve the Holy Spirit. You must, if you're right, I offend thee, pluck it out. If your right hand offend thee, cut it off.

Reject worldly fables, reject them. So many people are trying to battle sins when they ought to be running from them. Avoiding them. So many young people battling with youthful lust when it never says to battle with youthful lust, it says to run from it.

Run from it. Young men will come to me quite often and say, Brother Paul, I'm really struggling in my thought life. Well, tell me where your eyes are going and I'll tell you about your thought. So it is not just nourishing our lives on the word of God.

We've got as much as we can to reject everything that is a lie, everything that's a lie. This world is a world of media. It's a world of entertainment. We are constantly being bombarded by things that are not true.

And don't think for a moment that you're immune to it. You are not. And so set up a wall against it, avoid it, run from it, take a survey of your life and determine the things that are not of God and cut them out, determine the things, those open doors where things are entering in that corrupt you and make you vile and cause you not to be clean.

Cut them off with an exaggeration. If you have to cut them off, even though you have to go to an extreme, do whatever you have to do to avoid worldly fables because they're fit for nothing. Except to destroy your life, you have no idea and neither do I how influenced you are by your culture.

Many of you, your marriages struggle unbelievably. Because your whole idea of what it's supposed to be like to be married to a woman is based on what you've seen from Hollywood. And not based upon Scripture, your whole idea of love, your whole idea of companionship.

Many of you raise your children according to what neighbors do, there's very little difference between you and a worldly family. Let's just admit it. There's healing, if we will, if I were to hand out a paper right now and say, OK, give each one of you a paper, we're going to take a test, which might be good after preaching.

OK, here's the first test, show me the major passages in Scripture and explain them to me that deal with how a husband is supposed to live before the Lord in regard to his wife. Now, tell me what a father is supposed to do and how he's supposed to train his children in godly discipline, the admonition of the Lord, according to Scripture.

According to Scripture, write out for me with verses, please, what the Bible says about what should enter into your mind through your eyes and what should not enter in. Write out for me for a moment what the Bible says about when an elder.

A man of age, a woman of age comes into your presence, young person, what are you supposed to do? Write out for me what the Bible says about clothing, write out for me what the Bible says about how you're supposed to spend your money or your retirement.

Most people wanting to go south or north or somewhere east or west, collect seashells or something. Put her around on a golf course. What does the Bible say about retirement? It says this, that if you're working and you're employed, you're the Lord's freeman.

But if you can free yourself, if you're no longer employed, you're the Lord's bondman and you're supposed to serve him. I mean, begin to think if you were to take your life and break it down in compartments, how much of those compartments are actually governed by what God has said in his word?

Almost nothing. We live according to what's right in our own eyes and we become contaminated with the very things that God tells us to avoid because we don't know what we're supposed to avoid. And it all comes back to this.

My people perish for a lack of knowledge. Now, look what it says in verse seven. He says, on the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Look at this. What is he saying? This is so very important.

Discipline for Godliness

Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness. Most of us in our ideas of growth and spirituality have been so affected by Keswick teaching. Now, you probably don't even know what that is, but we have been so affected by Keswick teaching.

It's this teaching of, well, just let go and let God, if you're going to change, God's going to do it. That is not New Testament teaching. The New Testament teaches that it is God who is working in you and he's going to accomplish what he is working in you.

And that same God who is working in you to accomplish what he wants to accomplish also commands you to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. To discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.

Now, here we're coming to the main treasure of this. And what is that? How do we stem the tide of all this spiritual warfare, all this ungodliness, all this horrible battle that the Christian is in? How do we do it?

What is the one key? Discipline yourself for godliness. You don't need to know 10 steps how to do this or that. You don't need six ways to fix your marriage. Your one problem is this lack of godliness.

Because the godly man, the godly woman, the godly youth will overcome and will stand on that day of trial, what is the greatest need in our life? Well, what did Christ say? What did God say in the book of Romans?

He actually predestined us. He predetermined it's his greatest good for us to be conformed to the image of Christ. Why are we here on this earth to be conformed to the image of Christ and sanctification?

Another way of saying that to be godly. And the greatest need in the minister's life, the greatest need in the father's life, the greatest need in the mother's life, in the layman's life, in the deacon's life is godliness.

And he tells Timothy in the midst of this terrible warfare, here's what you must do. Arrange everything in your life for one great purpose. To be godly. Do you do that? Is your entire life, your schedule and everything else, is it organized around one thing to become more godly?

If you only knew the impact of those words, do you realize what I'm saying? Your chest should cave in. Oh, this world is so bad. We say this world is so difficult. This world is no friend to the Christian.

The devil is on the prowl. This and that and everything else. The world gets more wicked every day. The Bible tells us, don't worry about that. The Bible says you concentrate on one thing, discipline, structure your entire life for the purpose of becoming more godly.

For the purpose of becoming more and more like Christ Jesus, that's your task. I really like what God has done to a lot of our seminaries. And I've sent so many young men to seminaries that some of these seminaries ought to be paying me a commission.

Really. But even the men who are leaders of those seminaries realize that a seminary itself has inherent weaknesses. A seminary is basically designed and about the only thing it really can do. Is to give you the tools necessary to do proper hermeneutics, to do proper study of Scripture, to know about church history and the things you need to know, to know where you're at, the things you need to know in order to properly interpret Scripture, the best of seminaries, that's about the best they can do.

And that's a good thing. But I want you to look at something in church life. Would you say that everything ordered around church life has as its great purpose, making the members godly? Would you say that fathers and mothers, by and large, when they're raising their children, their main purpose is to make them godly?