1 Timothy, of course, just an introduction to the book of 1 Timothy quickly is this is Paul writing to his son in the faith.
This is the one that he won to Christ. This is the one that he basically is teaching and training his young protege in the ministry.
He's an older preacher and he's training and teaching this younger man. He's writing this to him.
And it says in verse number 1,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.
Now quickly let me just tell you what it is to be an apostle. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
This is an important point because often today you'll have people try to declare themselves an apostle, won't they?
I've driven by some of these churches. It'll be like a Pentecostal church.
And it'll say, you know, apostle, you know, Ruth, so and so, apostle Jennifer and all these different apostles and so forth.
I've had people tell me they were an apostle and it's just simply not true.
There is no apostle living today and I'll prove to you that in the Bible.
In 1 Corinthians 15, it talks about Jesus Christ rising again from the dead.
And then it describes the fact that he was seen of various witnesses.
And those special witnesses are basically what consists of the apostles.
Those men who Jesus Christ basically ordained while he was on this earth.
If you remember, verse 12, we just went over this on Sunday.
In the book of Luke, he took the 12 and if you remember, he gave them power against unclean spirits.
He gave them power to perform miracles and he basically sent them out to preach.
Then later, he ordained 70. So it wasn't just the 12 apostles, later there was 70 that he sent out.
Look what it says in 1 Corinthians 15 though.
It says in verse number 4, and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.
And that he was seen of Cephas, that's Peter, then of the 12.
After that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep.
After that he was seen of James, and watch this, then of all the apostles.
And then watch what he says.
And last of all, did you get that?
And last of all, he was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time, for I am the least of the apostles.
And I am not need to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.
So it's clear here, Paul was the final apostle.
He was like one born out of due time.
The reason is because of the fact that he did not see Jesus Christ until after Jesus had already ascended to heaven.
He was seen of all the apostles.
He ascended up to heaven, but he appeared to Paul after that, if you remember, on the road to Damascus.
And basically, that was the last person that saw him.
I mean, this is many, many decades later.
And the next time anyone sees him is when every eye shall see him.
The Bible says in Revelation 1, 7, Behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him.
And they also which pierced him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, Amen.
And so an apostle was someone who was also an eyewitness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Look at Acts chapter 1 also.
Same thing is taught in Acts chapter 1.
I don't want to spend too much time on this, but it's an important point.
Acts chapter 1 says in verse number 21, this is when they're replacing Judas Iscariot to be one of the twelve apostles.
And it says here, Wherefore of these men which accompanied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
beginning from the baptism of John unto that same day that he was taken up from us,
must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection.
And they appointed two, Joseph called Parsabas, who was surnamed Justus and Matthias.
Jump down to verse 26 for sake of time.
It says, And they gave forth their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias.
And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
In order to be an apostle, and see Barnabas was an apostle, and he was not one of those original twelve.
He was one of the later group.
But, they all were with Jesus Christ physically on this earth, and they were eyewitnesses of his death, his burial, and his resurrection.
Paul was like one born out of due time. He was the last apostle.
He was the late comer.
And he was an apostle because he saw Jesus Christ.
No one else has seen Jesus Christ as living today.
People try to tell you, I've seen Jesus.
Who's ever heard somebody tell you that?
They saw Jesus.
I always ask them the same thing.
What did he look like?
Did he have long hair?
Oh yeah, well it wasn't Jesus then.
Because the Bible says it's a shame for a man to have long hair.
And so that right there just tells me they're lying.
Because they saw this long haired, queer looking sissy guy.
And they didn't see Christ.
They saw a figment of their own imagination or they're a liar.
But there is no such thing as an apostle as living today.
There were the apostles back then who were eyewitnesses of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Back to 1 Timothy.
We have a more sure word of prophecy.
We have the word of God that we can take to the bank.
And so we haven't physically seen Jesus Christ.
I haven't physically seen Jesus Christ.
We will see him one day, of course.
But that day has not yet come.
But in 1 Timothy chapter 1 he said,
Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,
unto Timothy my own son in the faith.
Already dealt with that.
That refers to the fact that he won him to Christ.
He's begotten him in the Lord, which is a term that's used throughout the Bible.
As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia,
that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Now it's interesting, both in 1 Timothy and also in the book of Titus,
which is another one of the so-called pastoral epistles where he's writing to a young preacher,
writing to a young pastor.
The first thing he tells Titus is to stay in Crete.
Here he's telling Timothy to stay at Ephesus.
And I think there's a tendency sometimes for people to want to move around and jump around all the time.
And especially among young pastors and so forth,
it seems like the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.
You know, you want to just move here and move there.
Have you ever known people who go through life and they're just wandering
and it doesn't seem like they can ever settle down on anything?
They can never settle into a church, they can never settle into a job,
they can never settle into a marriage.
They're wandering out like Cain, you know, he's just wandering around.
He's a vagabond his whole life.
We ought to try to be established and grounded and settled.
You see, Timothy could do more for God and Titus could do more for God
if they would just park it and stay at Ephesus. Why not?
Aren't there enough souls to win in Ephesus?
Weren't there enough souls to win for Titus in Crete?
He said, you're not done in Crete, Titus, until there's a church in every city.
He said, when you've ordained elders in every city, then you're done.
And of course, that's not going to happen.
You know, but he was working to do what God called him to do in that area.
You see, if you can't do it here, you won't do it there.
People who move to get away from their problems,
usually their problems just come with them.
You know, you've got to just get plugged in somewhere.
I mean, if you're in a great church, if you're in the will of God, just stay there.
And if you're not where you want to be, then get where you want to be and then stay there.
Because bouncing around is something that's not good for your spiritual life,
especially as a pastor, because he's talking to a young preacher.
You know, how would you like it if I just picked up and left tomorrow?
Come on, right? You wouldn't like that?
How would you like it if I'm just gone?
Oh, I just feel like God's calling me somewhere else, you know, to this other church.
I'm going to pass you this other church. See ya.
And how many pastors I've known in the last few years, literally,
that have quit their church and they didn't even have a replacement lined up.
They just left them.
Just, I'm leaving in three months, find somebody.
You know, a year later, two years later, they don't have anybody.
They can't find anybody.
They just leave them like sheep having no shepherd to go to some other greener pastor,
to go start some other church, or go pastor some other church.
Or maybe they'd be the president of a Bible college.
I'd rather be the pastor of a church than the president of a Bible college,
because there's no Bible college in the whole Bible.
The only college in the Bible had a woman preacher named Holda.
But hold on a second.
A biblical doctrine says,
he that desireth the office of a bishop desireth the good work.
Not the guy who's already a bishop and he desires the office of faculty.
President.
Now you can call me what you want, but that's not biblical at all.
You can't show me the Bible.
President.
You can't show me board of directors.
You can't show me professor.
You can't, except professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.
You can't show me all these different things that people strive to be.
Why don't you just strive to be what the Bible has for you?
A bishop or a deacon?
That's what the God talks about.
I thought we were all about two offices, the bishop and the deacon.
But yet people will say,
I'm moving on to a greater thing from being a pastor to go be in some Bible college somewhere.
And there's nothing greater than the local church.
You're not going to find anything better than this.
I'm not saying this is the best church in the world.
I think it is, but that's why I'm here, otherwise I'd be somewhere else.
But I mean, whatever church you go to,
that's where God's working, the local church.
And today we have all our new fabled methods.
Why don't we just get back to the basics?
Shut up, read your Bible, pray, go soul winning,
and stay in church and just stick with the basics that God told you to do.
You know, we've got to get all this complicated stuff, some new ministry.
We need to just stick with what we're doing.
Knock doors daily in the temple and in every house.
They cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
And we don't need to go somewhere else.
Let's just do it right here, right here in Ephesus, right here in Crete, whatever.
But I think it's just interesting that in both books, that's the first thing He says.
Timothy, stay in Ephesus.
I besought thee.
That means I begged you.
Stay here.
That means He wanted to leave.
But He had to beseech him to stay there.
Same thing with Titus in Crete.
Why stay in Ephesus?
He said, you know, I need you there.
He said that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Verse 4,
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies which minister questions
rather than godly edifying which is in faith.
So you say, what does it mean by the fables?
Let me give you some examples of fables.
First of all, elsewhere in the Bible, you may say Jewish fables.
You remember that?
Let me tell you the biggest thing that I think is mentioned here, the Apocryphal books.
Because they were around back in this time.
I mean, they already existed.
They were written around the time of the end of the Old Testament
and throughout the period between the two Testaments,
these phony, baloney, imposter counterfeit books known as the Apocrypha today,
I'm talking about Judith, Hobbit.
You know, I mean, you might as well read the Hobbit if you never read the Hobbit.
You know what I mean?
It's probably more interesting.
And they're both satanic.
But, you know, you've got, you've got,
you've got, Tobit, Judith, Ecclesiasticus,
the Song of the Three Holy Children.
All these books are Jewish fables.
These are not Scripture.
They're not God's Word.
And we ought to avoid them.
We ought to, you know, not give heed to them.
Don't listen to things outside the Word of God.
You know, it seems like everybody's got some extra biblical book
that they're going to use to teach you what the Bible really says.
Instead of just thinking with the Bible and the Holy Ghost.
Hey, let's just teach no other doctrine.
No other doctrine than what?
No other doctrine than what the Bible teaches.
He's saying you don't need these Jewish fables, these stories,
and then he gets on to endless genealogies.
Now, turn if you would to Titus, chapter 3.
Just look over a few pages to the right in your Bible.
Titus, chapter number 3.
We'll find a similar teaching here.
He says in verse number 9,
But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions
and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain.
So here's some things that we should try to avoid.
Stupid questions, right?
Have you ever heard somebody say,
well, the only stupid question is the one you don't ask.
That's not biblical.
All he said, there are some stupid questions out there,
and you just avoid them.
Now, does that say answer stupid questions?
No, it says avoid foolish questions.
And avoid what?
Genealogies.
We'll get to that in a second.
And contentions.
What are contentions?
Arguments.
He's saying avoid getting in arguments and debates with people.
Why?
Because it's vain.
It's a waste of time.
It's unprofitable.
It's not going to accomplish anything.
He says avoid contentions and strivings about the law,
for they are unprofitable and vain.
A man that isn't heretic,
after the first and second admonition, reject.
So he's saying, look, if somebody's a heretic
and wants to bring up all this weird stuff
and genealogies and fables
and wants to argue with you about the Bible,
and you admonish them once,
you basically say, no, this is what the Bible says,
right here, in black and white.
Oh, but wait a minute.
And then you admonish them the second time.
Nope, it says right here, the city of the Lord.
And then that doesn't work out.
Then it's time to just, all right, see you later.
This should be your soul winning mantra right here.
That's right.
I mean, if you're going to be an effective story,
you must have this verse memorized.
A man that isn't heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject.
Because what will happen is you'll be tempted,
especially if you know the Bible really well,
you know you can just eat these people's lunch.
You know you can chew them up and spit them out,
but what's that going to accomplish?
Nothing.
You know, when you get to somebody
and they just want to argue with you,
and literally I've had people try to argue with me,
I tell them once.
You know, let's say the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses,
Pentecostals, whatever they are.
I'll show them once, and they just disregard what I just showed them.
Now, if they're learning, I'll keep showing.
But if they just blow it off,
what about this, you know?
I'll show them a second time.
They blow it off, I just say, all right, see you later.
I've had them literally try to follow me down the street.
Wait a minute, I'm not going to talk to you.
You know, I want to keep talking.
We've never had somebody try to follow you.
And it's just the devil is trying to waste your time.
Because there's somebody down the street
who wants to hear the gospel.
And you're in an argument.
And let me explain this to you.
Winning an argument will not get anyone saved.
Because let me tell you something.
I've won a lot of arguments, and they didn't get saved.
I mean, I've even had them to the point where they don't even admit,
like, I don't know what to say.
I mean, yeah, I don't know what to say.
It doesn't mean that they're going to believe the truth.
They may still just walk away and say,
I mean, I've proven it all false and said,
so, you know, do you believe this, or do you still Jehovah's Witness?
Yeah, I'm just going to stick with my church.
After you show it to them.
Winning an argument is not the answer.
You've got to have somebody who's receptive to the gospel.
They have to want to hear it.
And if you show it to them and they blow it off,
you show them a second time,
guess what they're going to do the third time?
Same thing.
You know what I mean?
If you show them once, show them twice, it's a pattern.
And so you don't want to spend time arguing with people.
People are always challenging me to a debate.
And I say no.
Because it's unprofitable in debate.
This is what I hate about debates.
You ever watch a debate?
Here's what I don't like about debates.
One person's always right and one person's always wrong, right?
Pretty simple.
Because there's truth in this world.
And there can only be one way that's right.
And that means the other one's wrong.
So whenever you see a debate on two things,
one's right and one's wrong.
So basically you spend half the time listening to the truth
and half the time listening to a lie.
And that's confusion.
And it doesn't get you anywhere, and I'm bored for half of it.
I'd rather just find the guy who's preaching the truth
and just listen to him for a while.
Instead of just listening to the falsehood all the time.
And debating is something that's easy to get sucked into
that can just be a big time waster
and it actually can breed a lot of confusion.
And it doesn't really edify anybody.
He says it's not profitable, it's vain, it's a waste of time.
What about genealogies?
Go back to 1 Timothy 1.
In Titus chapter 3, he just said avoid genealogies, period.
He didn't mention anything about endless genealogies, did he?
He just said avoid genealogies.
Would somebody tell that to the latter day Satan worshippers?
Avoid genealogies?
And they don't avoid them, I mean they're obsessed with it.
It's a big part of their religion.
And let me tell you something.
Genealogies, the reason he said endless genealogies,
I've studied my genealogy just as a hobby.
Nothing to do with religion, just for fun.
I travel a lot around the country,
so I was trying to look at some of the historical sites of my family,
see where they grew up, looking for their tombstones.
It's fun to find that stuff 150 years later.
But the reason it's endless
is because when you go back in your genealogy,
think about this.
You've got two parents, right?
How many grandparents do you have?
Okay, and how many great-grandparents?
Okay, so when you go back about 10 generations,
you have over a thousand direct ancestors, okay?
If you went back 20 generations, you have like a million,
but see, you wouldn't really have a million.
Because guess what?
It starts to come back together again when you go back that far.
Because, for example, my 11th great-grandmother in Switzerland
is also, that means there's 11 greats,
like great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great,
you know, with 11 greats.
My 11th great-grandmother is also my 10th great-grandmother.
Now, no, they're not from West Virginia or anything like that.
They married, basically, they married,
there were like six cousins once removed got married.
And because they were once removed,
they shared that common ancestor one generation different.
You know, and if you're from West Virginia,
your family too looks more like a tumbleweed.
But anyway, no, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, the point is that it's an endless pursuit
because at first you're like,
oh yeah, I'm getting this figured out.
You go back a few generations
and you've got literally just hundreds of people.
And then you can go down.
You can start working your way back down.
Pretty soon the entire earth is in your family tree.
I mean, there's no end to it.
There literally is no end.
You can't find all your ancestors.
There are literally thousands and tens of thousands,
depending on how much intermarrying you find
as you go back.
And obviously people who are eighth cousins getting married,
they don't even know it.
Obviously they don't know it.
So it's nothing weird or anything like that.
So it's just really distant relatives getting married.
And especially when you go back to when there was less travel
and people are just living in a town,
obviously they're going to intermarry.
And I'm not talking about, you know,
third cousins or brothers and sisters perhaps,
but they're going to marry their third cousin
and that's going to be completely normal.
I mean, that's all they've got.
That's all that's living there.
So genealogies are an endless pursuit.
They do not edify anyone.
They don't help anyone.
And let me ask something.
If God intended us to go search out our genealogy,
why would he put a verse in the Bible that says,
avoid genealogies?
Can somebody explain that to me?
I didn't think so.
Okay, so it says right here,
avoid genealogies, he says,
which minister questions rather than godly edifying
which is in faith, so do.
Now the end of the commandment is charity
out of a pure heart and of a good conscience
and of faith unfeigned.
Unfeigned means it's not fake.
It means it's real.
Feigning something is when you're pretending.
It says, and of faith unfeigned,
from which some having swerved
have turned aside into vain jangling.
Now the word jangling, basically, you know,
this is the only place that's used in the whole Bible.
Now to me, I think of like jangling my keys around, right?
Basically, it's like a sounding glass or a tinkling cymbal.
It's just a bunch of noise.
It's just like he said in 1 Corinthians 13,
though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels
and have not charity,
I'm become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.
Well, notice what he said here.
Now the end of the commandment, verse 5, is what?
Charity.
See how that goes with 1 Corinthians 13?
It's charity out of a pure heart
and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned
from which some having swerved
have turned aside into vain jangling.
Basically, just blathering, worthless, unprofitable,
because remember I said these things are unprofitable and vain,
just blathering, blabbering mouth.
He said, desiring to be teachers of the law,
understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.
Now this is what we need to be careful of.
We don't want someone teaching who doesn't understand the Bible.
Now, who is it that understands the Bible?
Why is he tying in charity?
How does this all come together?
I think Hebrews 5 brings it together.
You don't have to turn there, but he says,
but when for the time you ought to be teachers,
you have need that one teach you again,
which be the first principles of the oracles of God Christ
and have become such have had need of milk
and not of strong meat.
He said, for everyone that useth milk
is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
But strong meat belonging to them that are of full age,
even those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The one who ought to be teaching is the doer of the word.
Did you get that?
Because it's those who by reason of use
have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
This guy right here, he doesn't have charity out of a peer.
He doesn't care about anybody else.
That's what charity means,
caring about and loving someone else, not just yourself.
It's loving your neighbor as yourself.
It's going out and knocking doors and winning somebody to Christ
because you love them, because you want them saved,
not just sitting around and jangling all day,
blathering about a bunch of obscure Bible arguments
and genealogies and questions about the law,
strivings, debate.
You just want to blather and you think,
oh, no, we're just very intellectual.
We're just going really deep at this Bible.
No, it's not deep. It's just jangling.
You see, if you want to get some really deep Bible preaching,
you want to listen to a real teacher of the law,
listen to somebody who's using it.
Listen to somebody who cares and is out doing the work,
winning souls to Christ, reaching people,
getting people saved, giving the gospel.
Get with somebody who can actually teach you something
because they're a doer of the word, not a hearer only,
deceiving their own self.
He said when you don't have charity,
when you don't care about other people,
when you are just basically more interested in arguing with people
and all this jangling, he said,
you don't know what you're talking about.
And how many so-called intellectuals have you heard
who don't know what they're talking about at all?
You listen to them and they don't know what they're talking about.
Cemeteries or seminaries are filled with them.
They don't know what they're talking about.
Just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
And by the way, he said if you're speaking in an unknown tongue,
you're the same thing.
He said it's like a barbarian.
It's like bladder. It's blabber.
He said I'd rather speak five words with my understanding
than 10,000 words in an unknown tongue.
Everybody wants to blabber in some foreign language.
They want to go back to the Greek.
It's funny, the same people who want to go back to the Greek and Hebrew,
you can ask them like, hey, what do you think about Revelation 11?
I'll have to look that up.
Some guy wants to give a seminar on Revelation
and he's like, what happens in chapter 11 again?
But he can tell you the Greek and Hebrew.
It's unbelievable.
We don't even want to learn the Bible.
Because you know what?
You're not going to use the Greek and Hebrew out soloing or preaching.
You can go jangle with it somewhere in some office somewhere.
But this is the one that I use, the King James Bible.
And this is the one that I know.
And this is the one I preach.
And this is the one that I know about because I use it.
Have you ever noticed that the parts of the Bible you know the most
are the ones you use?
Have you noticed that?
Stuff that I have memorized, if I go soloing and use it,
you don't even have to try to memorize John 3.16.
You don't have to try to memorize Romans 3.23 because you're using it.
Stuff that I preach all the time.
I don't even have to worry about trying to retain it
because I preach it all the time.
I use it to teach people and to edify them and build them up.
And so there are plenty of these teachers of the law
who understand neither what they say nor whereof they affirm.
Now it gets into verse 8.
In verse 8 he says,
But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.
You know the Bible is great if it's being used properly
but the Bible can be misused.
The Bible can be twisted.
The Bible can be taken out of context.
And the Bible can be abused by people who don't know the Bible.
And that's why we need a revival in America of preachers who know the Bible.
And a lot of you young guys want to preach someday
if you pass for someday, don't you?
You need to learn the Bible.
Read it. Read it. Read it. Read it.
Again and again and again and again.
You can't read it too much.
If you just read it once or twice, not good enough.
Not even close. You've got a long way to go, partner.
You need to keep reading.
And you need to memorize and get it in your heart
and meditate upon it day and night.
Don't be a novice who doesn't know what he's talking about.
Learn the Bible.
Know what it says.
Because you don't want to get up and preach
and then all of a sudden, oh, whoops.
What I preached was completely wrong.
Then you're leading people astray.
And then a lot of the false teaching gets repeated and repeated and repeated.
Many preachers, they just want to regurgitate what somebody else preached.
And then basically lies just get multiplied.
And false teaching just gets multiplied.
But if we're getting it from the source, we can stop that chain right there.
And go ahead and answer that.
I can wait.
But he said, we know that the law is good if a man used it lawfully,
knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient,
for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane,
for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for manslayers, for whoremongers,
for them that defile themselves with mankind,
for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
Now let's talk about the permit.
The law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient.
Does that mean, oh, I'm righteous, so I don't need to abide by God's laws?
That's not what it means.
The more unrighteous and wicked you are, the more rules you're going to have to have.
I mean, think about it.
If my children are acting up and dreaming up bizarre new ways to get into trouble,
then I'm going to have to keep coming up with more rules for my children.
You know, that's where we're at in America today.
We live in a very wicked society, and the more wicked we get,
have you noticed the more rules there are?
Have you noticed that?
It's funny, my wife was looking at the news today,
and she had an article in front of her,
and the article was called,
New Laws About Eating, Drinking, Smoking, Texting,
and it just went through the states and listed like 30-some new laws
about what you can eat, what you can drink, what you can text.
And it's just, because I think God looks down and sees our wickedness and our idolatry
and our heathenism, basically he's allowing us to go into bondage,
and that's what's happening in America today.
We have so many laws that we don't need.
It's funny how God could just govern with these laws right here.
Wouldn't it be great if the judges walked into the courtroom and it was this?
That's it.
But if you were to find the laws even of the city of Tempe alone,
it would probably fill up this whole room.
If you were to take the laws of the federal government of the United States of America,
I mean, they'll pass one law and it's like 2,000 pages.
Seriously, they'll pass an 1,100-page bill, 500-page law.
Nobody even knows all the laws
because we live in a society of people who are wicked and lawless and disobedient,
and so now we have the government has become our mom and dad.
They're going to nanny us and parent us and coddle us,
and pretty soon we're all going to have a little ankle bracelet on
so that they can know where we're at at all times and watch us all the time.
And I'm not condoning it because I believe in freedom.
I'm against all of it.
The Bible says that the government, according to Romans 13,
is for the punishment of evildoers.
It's not to nanny you and coddle you and take care of you.
God ordained human government to punish evildoers.
The word evil means to harm someone else.
That's the government's job, to punish the evil,
not to run your life and tell you when to smoke and when to text
and what drugs to take and all this stuff that they do
where they want to coddle you from the cradle to the grave.
And everybody today is mad
because they're losing their unemployment benefits
because they want to keep getting paid to do nothing, you know,
because there's just no jobs out there.
There's just no work.
There's work out there, you know what I mean?
I know people who find jobs and talk to Justin.
He's found about ten jobs lately.
And you know why?
Because he goes out all day looking for a job.
That's why he found a job so fast so many times.
The point is that we want the government,
and you know what, I'm not saying that there aren't some people who can't find a job.
I know times are tough.
I understand that times are tough.
I believe it.
But that doesn't mean that the government
has to just take over our lives and pay it.
And let me explain it to you.
The one that's paying your bills is your boss.
It's true.
The one who's paying the bills is the one who makes the decisions.
Have you ever noticed that?
Money always has strings attached.
When somebody gives you money,
they have a certain say-so in your life.
You know, if the government's going to give you health care,
you know the new health care reform, the Obamacare?
Well, today, it just kicked in.
I saw this in the news, that if you go to a tanning booth,
which I think is stupid anyway,
because if you go to a tanning booth now,
starting today or tomorrow,
10% tax on top of all the other local and regular taxes,
there's a brand new 10% tax on tanning
that goes directly to the federal government.
It was part of Obamacare.
It just kicks in today.
It's going to be slowly incremented until like 2013,
all the different parts of Obamacare.
But you say, well, who cares?
What kind of a vain person goes and lays in a tanning bed?
I don't go to these things, and my family will never go to one.
I'm not going to have a raised hand who goes to one.
But the point is, they're basically saying,
and this is what they said,
well, we think that it has health risks to be in a tanning booth.
Therefore, you have to pay the government
as part of the health care plan.
Now, hold on a second.
Do you see where this could carry over into any area of your life
that they think is not healthy,
whether it's what you eat, what you drink,
the lifestyle that you lead,
and they can just tax you and take more and more and more?
You say, what is the answer?
How can we have freedom again in America?
What do we need to do?
And I long for freedom in this country.
What do we do to get freedom again?
We've got to be righteous in order to be free.
Because where the spirit of the Lord is, there's liberty.
When you kicked out the Lord, you just kicked out liberty.
When you kick God out of school, you kick freedom out.
Because the only one who brings real freedom and liberty is Jesus Christ.
Every other ruler in this world,
every other leader is power hungry,
wants to take over the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Bible is what teaches liberty,
what teaches leaders and kings how to rule righteously
and not to abuse the people,
how to do things right and so forth,
the right way to have a government.
And because we've become more heathen and more wicked,
that's where freedom is.
That's why I'm not in this group of libertarians
that's all atheist and pro-homosexual and anti-God.
Their libertarian utopia will never exist.
Because when you have a bunch of perversion and homosexuality
and adultery and just rampant divorce
and marriage means nothing,
and when you have children growing up
and they're receiving contraceptives in elementary school,
you can't have freedom like that.
This will never happen.
Because God will bring you into bondage.
God will make sure that you go into slavery,
just like He always put His people into slavery
as soon as they got wicked.
And when they got on their knees and cried out to God,
then He liberated them from their oppressors.
And as soon as they went into idolatry,
Moabites or Philistines or their own rulers
began to oppress them and enslave them.
Same thing today.
There's nothing new under the sun.
The law, the lawless and disobedient
find themselves in a place with a lot of rules.
Think about being in prison.
You know what I mean?
You don't have freedom.
And pretty soon our whole country's going to become
one big prison, literally,
because of the fact that we're so wicked today.
And we need preachers to get up and thunder it
and scream about it and vomit them out
until people can get on their knees and get right with God.
That's the only way we're going to have freedom.
And so, yes, I love freedom.
Yes, I want liberty and justice and I want small government.
But you know what?
It's not some kind of a political movement
as much as it's a movement among churches that we need.
Because if we get right with God, we get the freedom.
God bless us.
And until then, we're under a curse from God.
But He lists all these different sins that are wrong.
He talks about unholy, profane,
murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers.
That's pretty bad.
Manslayers, whoremongers.
We preached about that on Sunday night.
Then the defile themselves of mankind, men-stealers, liars.
Men-stealers is kidnappers, by the way.
And boy, isn't that on the rampage today.
The CPS is what that verse is about.
For men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons.
And if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God
which was committed to my trust,
and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord.
And by the way, that's who our Lord is, Christ Jesus.
And in order to be saved,
you have to believe I'm the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
And there's only one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all.
And that's who that's talking about.
Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me
for that He counted me faithful, putting me into the mystery.
Now, what's great about verse 12
is that when God puts you into the ministry,
He enables you, doesn't He?
Now, He's committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation,
according to 2 Corinthians 5.
It said, He who knew no sin, Jesus Christ,
became sin for us,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
And then He said that He committed to us
the ministry of reconciliation.
Therefore we beseech you in Christ's day,
according to unsaved people,
be ye reconciled to God.
We have this ministry of going out
and reconciling people to God,
getting people saved,
therefore being justified by faith.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And we have that ministry, and guess what?
When God gives us that ministry,
He also enables us.
He gives us the ability.
So when we go out and give the gospel to somebody,
God will enable us.
You know, if we study to show ourselves the fruit
and we learn the Bible,
you see, I mean, I don't think I could ever do that.
How many people thought
that they could never get somebody saved?
But they're doing it today.
Because God has enabled them.
Others have said I'll never be able to preach.
I can never see myself getting up and preaching a sermon.
And yet God gives the ability to preach.
You should have heard the way I used to preach.
I mean, I...
My wife either told me one time
that she wasn't sure anybody would come hear me preach.
I was never a pastor.
And I don't blame her,
because I wasn't a very good preacher.
You know, I didn't have a natural ability.
Now, I've known some people
who just got up and preached and just natural ability.
And praise God for that, too.
But, you know, I never had just a natural ability
to get up and speak.
It's very difficult for me.
It took a long time to learn how to stand in front of people
and preach and speak.
And it literally took hundreds and hundreds of sermons.
But you know what?
Through the years,
Jesus Christ has enabled me
to be able to make His Word clear,
which is really the goal of preaching,
not to impress or to wow people,
to be the silver-tongued orator
and get a standing ovation.
The goal is to preach it plain.
Preach it clear.
People get it. They understand.
And by the way, to preach filled with the Spirit of God,
to the power of God is upon you and upon the listener.
That's what it's about.
And you know what?
Through the years, Jesus Christ has enabled me.
You know, He can enable you, too.
If you would yield yourself and say,
you know what, I want to serve God with my life,
whatever it is,
and you know what?
It starts out on soul winning.
That's where you preach your first sermon.
Get out there soul winning.
Start out as a silent partner.
You know, if you're shy about it,
just start out as a silent partner.
Come along.
Pray.
Pray that people will be saved.
Watch. Learn.
And watch as Jesus Christ will eventually enable you.
Pretty soon you'll be given the Gospel boldly.
Pray for boldness.
Pray that utterance will be given unto you.
Use God's Word.
That's where the power is.
You might be stammering, stuttering,
but Jesus Christ will enable you.
Whatever job He has for you in your life, He'll enable you.
You say, I don't know.
You know, I'm nervous about having children
or raising children.
God will, if He gives you children,
He'll enable you to raise your children.
You know, you've got to do the work.
You've got to read your Bible.
You've got to be in church and do the right things.
But He can enable you to do the tasks
that He has for you in your life, whatever it is.
Soul winning, preaching, raising your children,
whatever it is.
He said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord
who has enabled me
for the economy faithful putting me into the ministry
who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor
and injurious.
Injurious means harmful toward others.
Think of the word injury.
But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief
and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant
with faith and love which is in praise of Jesus.
Let me tell you something.
There are others who do many wicked things like that
who do it not ignorantly but knowingly
and they don't get any mercy from Jesus Christ.
It's true.
He said, I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
But there are many according to Romans 1.
We don't have to spend...
Let's flip over there quickly.
We'll take a look at it.
Also an epistle of Paul.
Of course, all scriptures give by inspiration of God.
But if we go back to Romans 1,
you'll see what the Bible says here.
There's a key phrase in verse 18 that I want to show you.
It says in verse 18, it says,
for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.
Who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
You see, there are many people when they know God...
Look at verse 21.
Because when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God.
You see that?
They knew the truth.
They knew God.
They knew the truth.
Now they didn't get saved.
They didn't believe it.
They didn't believe on Christ.
But they knew.
They didn't do it ignorantly like Paul did.
They knew the truth.
He said they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful,
but became vain in their imaginations.
And what was the result?
Their foolish heart was darkened.
Now, when it says was darkened there,
who's the one doing the darkening?
It's not them.
It's not them darkening themselves.
And it's not that everyone doesn't have a chance,
because God's not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
But those who know the truth and understand the truth
and reject it and reject it and reject it
and reject it and reject it,
eventually God will basically just say,
you know what?
I'm through with you.
Like He did with Pharaoh,
where he began to harden Pharaoh's heart.
First, Pharaoh hardened his own heart.
Who is the Lord?
You know, and just kept hardening his heart.
Pretty soon it got to the point where God hardened his heart.
I'll read this for you from John chapter 12,
just to really drive the point home.
Let's see.
I thought it was in John chapter 12.
Who knows the scripture I'm looking for?
Oh, here it is.
I'm sorry.
John 12, 39, it says this,
Therefore they could not believe,
because then Isaiah said again,
He had blinded their eyes and hardened their heart,
that they should not see with their eyes,
nor understand with their heart,
and be converted, and I should heal them.
He hardened their heart.
He blinded their eyes.
God did not, and this isn't Calvinism.
Calvinism is garbage.
Amen.
This is people who heard the gospel
and they rejected it.
I mean, look at the Pharisees.
They saw the miracles.
Think about the Pharisees.
They heard him preach.
They saw the miracles.
They heard it and saw it and heard it and saw it,
and finally Jesus just said to them,
You know what?
How should you escape the damnation of hell?
He said, You know what?
They can't believe.
It's too late for them.
They can't believe because God's already hardened their heart
and blinded their eyes.
But they had their chance.
Well, see, you've got to be careful
because people get to a point where it gets too late for them.
Where God hardens their heart.
Like Pharaoh.
I mean, Pharaoh, everybody else could see
that the whole of Egypt was destroyed,
but he just kept hardening his heart.
You know, and that's how people get.
God gets to a point where he's sick of it,
and it says in Romans 1 that he gives them up,
and he gives them over to a reprobate mind.
He rejects them, and he's through with them.
That's why the Bible says,
Seek the Lord while he may be found.
That's why it says now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation.
Because God calls and he calls and he calls and he calls,
and finally he gets tired of calling.
And finally it's too late, and the heart is hardened,
and it's too late.
Too late.
But go to 1 Timothy 1.
We'll finish up here a bit.
See, Paul received mercy because,
yes, he did blaspheme Jesus.
He did.
But when he blasphemed Jesus,
I mean, he thought that he was doing the right thing
because he was following Paul's religion of Judaism.
He was deceived.
He was a Pharisee.
He was one of the Pharisees,
but he had not gotten to the point
of the other Pharisees.
He was ignorant.
He didn't get it.
He obtained mercy because he did it ignorantly in unbelief.
And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant
with faith and love which sent Christ Jesus.
Now, look, I'm not trying to downplay
the wicked sin of Paul
because Paul was a very sinful man
in the sense that he was arresting Christians,
he was persecuting Christians,
he was blaspheming God.
I'm not downplaying that.
But he did it ignorantly in unbelief
is what I'm trying to say.
Now, another man from the Old Testament,
remember Manasseh?
He was a very wicked man,
committed murder, witchcraft.
I mean, he's a very wicked king,
but he got saved eventually.
He got saved.
But see, others got to a point
where they understood the Gospel,
they comprehended it.
They were enlightened, as the Bible calls it.
And, you know, we could go all over the Bible.
I don't want to spend the whole night.
But Hebrews chapter 6,
it's impossible for those who were once enlightened.
And have tasted of the heavenly gift
and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost
and have tasted the good word of God
and the power of the world to come.
He said,
If they shall fall away,
to renew them again to repentance,
seeing they crucify themselves
the Son of God afresh
and put him to an open shame.
For the earth which drinketh in the rain,
which cometh oft upon him,
and bringeth forth herbs,
meat for them by whom it is dressed,
receiveth blessing from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briars
is rejected
and is nigh unto cursing.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you
and things that accompany salvation,
though we thus speak.
He said in Hebrews 6
that some people get to a point
where they can taste it.
I mean, they're right there.
You know, they understand the Gospel.
They know they need to be saved.
They get it.
They know it.
And they reject it.
You know, and once they've rejected it
for the last time,
God closes the door.
And he said,
It's impossible.
That verse has nothing to do with losing yourself.
You can't lose yourself.
It's eternal life.
It's everlasting life.
There can come a point
where people lose their opportunity to get saved.
Look at Revelation 22.
He said,
You tamper with my word.
You take out words.
You put words in.
Your part is removed from the Book of Life.
Your part is removed from the Holy City.
That place that could have been yours in heaven,
that part in the Book of Life
where your name would have been is gone.
And you are without hope.
You are lost.
You are past feeling.
You are reprobated.
You're undone.
And so, thank God, Paul,
even though he was wicked,
Manasseh, even though he was very wicked,
he got to a point, though,
where he was confronted with the truth.
Of course, he saw the vision on the road to Damascus.
Then, three days later,
he had the Gospel preached unto him by Ananias.
He called upon the name of the Lord.
Then he was baptized.
When he was confronted with the truth,
at least he received it.
You know, and we knock the doors
of some pretty wicked people sometimes.
But they've just never gotten the Gospel.
They've never really comprehended the Gospel.
They'll comprehend it and they'll get saved.
But some people,
they've already had their chance, unfortunately.
But you know, most people haven't.
So we need to go out and get them the Gospel
and preach it to every creature
because we don't know who that is all the time.
But he says in verse number 15,
this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation
that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners.
You know, he didn't come for the righteous.
He came to save sinners
because everybody's a sinner.
And he could save a very wicked person.
He said that Jesus Christ came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am a chief.
How be it?
For this cause I obtain mercy
that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering
for a pattern to them
which should hereafter
believe on him to life everlasting.
He's saying, look,
me getting saved is actually a pattern to others
because I was so bad,
because I was so blasphemous
and injurious
because I was a persecutor.
He said it's an example
basically to show other people
who've maybe been pretty bad,
who've maybe committed murder
or adultery
or one of these really bad sins.
He said it's a pattern to show them
that if they believe on him,
they will also receive life everlasting.
Do you see that?
He said, how be it?
For this cause I obtain mercy
that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all longsuffering.
Look at the longsuffering with Paul.
I mean, he put up with Paul,
he put up with Paul,
he put up with Paul
and still forgave him.
How many people think about it
who've done so many wicked and rotten things
and still they ended up getting saved?
Right?
And even people who've gotten saved
and then done a lot of rotten and wicked things
after they got saved.
God's a longsuffering God.
You know, we think,
oh man, God's so,
there's so much wrath and judgment.
But you know what?
That's only because
when it gets so bad,
he has to be like that.
I mean, he's generally pretty longsuffering
because he lets us get away with a lot
before he really clouds up and rains.
And then he finally clouds up and rains
and we're like, oh God, dude,
it's not fair.
But look how far we've pushed him
when it gets to that point.
Look how far we've pushed him
whenever he had to flood the whole world
in Genesis chapter 6.
So the whole world was just full of violence
and to where every thought of man
was just only evil continually,
I mean, that's when he finally had it.
And I think God's getting pretty sick of us right now.
I don't mean us in this church,
but I mean as a nation, as a generation.
I think he's sick of it.
I think he looks down,
he puts up with it and he puts up with it
and he puts up with it,
the blasphemy, the wickedness,
the perversion, the false religion,
all the abortion.
I think he just puts up with it,
but eventually he just explodes.
It's true.
It's like he's just winding up
and one day it's just...
And then that's when everybody all of a sudden,
oh man, I'm sorry.
But you see, God is a long-suffering God.
He's a long-suffering God.
He puts up with a lot.
You wonder like,
why hasn't God judged America?
Why hasn't he judged San Francisco?
He's just a long-suffering God.
But that does not mean judgment's not coming
because it is coming.
It's going to come for sure.
But guess what?
It's those that believe on him to life.
Does that say go to church to life everlasting?
Get baptized to life everlasting.
Repent of your sins to life everlasting.
Make a commitment to Christ to life everlasting.
Isn't a believe on him to life everlasting?
Isn't it I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ
for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first and also the great.
Isn't it also I'm the resurrection and the life,
he that believeth in me,
though he were dead,
yet shall he live,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die?
That's the gospel.
Life everlasting,
everlasting life,
that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but have eternal life.
That's how you get everlasting life.
Faith.
Not works.
Not turn from your sins.
Not live a good life.
Not I've been baptized.
Not I'm going to commit my life over to Christ.
Nope, it's belief.
Belief.
That's it.
It's so consistent.
I mean, almost every chapter of the business of Paul,
you'll see it.
Almost every chapter of the book of John,
you'll see it.
All throughout the book of Acts,
you'll see it.
My favorite verse in the book of Acts on salvation
is Acts chapter 10.
To him give all the prophets witness
that whosoever believeth in him,
that's my favorite verse I'm quoting wrong.
To him give all the prophets witness
that through his name,
whosoever believeth in him
shall receive remission of sins.
Hey, it's all about faith for salvation.
There it is again.
Verse 17,
Now unto the king eternal,
immortal, invisible,
the only wise God,
be honor and glory forever and ever.
Amen.
This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
that thou by them mightest be a lovable fuzzball.
Is that what it says?
That thou by them mightest have a group hug?
That thou by them mightest share?
It says that thou by them mightest war a good war friend.
Let me tell you something.
If you're going to be like Timothy,
if you're going to be a preacher,
you better know how to fight.
That's what's wrong today.
People are afraid to fight.
The Bible says in Jeremiah chapter 51,
I believe,
that's off the top of my head.
It's either 50 or 51.
He said that the people of the nation had become like women.
He said they were foreborn to fight.
Now, nobody expects women to be fighters,
at least I hope not.
You know, there were always those girls at school,
you know, they were like getting in fights all the time.
But, you know, he said in Jeremiah,
you know, they've become like women.
And you know what?
We don't need women preachers, by the way.
The passage will be the husband of one wife,
not the wife of one husband.
And so we need a man behind the pulpit.
The Bible says,
let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
I'm quoting the Bible now.
Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection,
but I suffer not a woman to teach,
nor do you serve authority over the man,
but to be in silence.
For Adam was first formed, then Eve,
and Adam was not deceived,
but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
Remember the church at Thyatira?
Remember what their problem was in Revelation chapter 2?
When he said,
unto the angel of the church at Thyatira,
write, These things saith the Son of God,
who hath his eyes lightened to a flame of fire,
and his feet are like fine brass.
He said, I know thy works, and charity,
and service, and faith,
and thy charity and thy works,
and last to be more than the first.
Now, notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee,
because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach.
Now, remember he said before,
I suffer not a woman to teach?
He said the problem at Thyatira was
they suffered that woman Jezebel,
which calleth herself a prophetess,
which is like a preacher, to teach.
And what was she teaching?
To teach them to commit fornication
and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.
You know, she was a very wicked person.
And I say that every female preacher is a wicked person.
She's probably a fornicator, too.
She's wicked as hell.
False prophets, they also have their eyes full of adultery,
and they can't cease from sin.
That's what 2 Peter 2 says about false prophets.
It says they defile the flesh as Sodom and Gomorrah.
That's what it said in 2 Peter 2 in the book of Jude.
And so we don't need women preachers,
and we don't need preachers who are male in gender,
but they act like a woman,
and then they won't fight anybody.
They're scared of everything.
It's okay for women to be more timid and so forth.
They're not going to have the strength of a man.
They're the weaker vessel and so forth.
We don't expect them to just be some kind of a brawling Betty or something.
That's not what we're saying.
But what we are saying is that men need to be willing to fight.
Now, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.
I'm not a brawler, and you shouldn't be a brawler.
You should avoid, you know, physically fighting with people
at all, you know, not at all costs,
but, you know, as much as is possible,
as much as I think you can live at peace with all men.
But you got them.
It's a spiritual fight, though.
Paul said I fought a good fight.
He said we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities and powers.
I'm saying we do wrestle against principalities and powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
It's a fight.
And if you're a little pansy, you don't belong in the fight,
then get out of the fight.
Get out of the pulpit is what I'm saying.
Or get out of any position of leadership.
You shouldn't be a deacon either if you don't know how to fight.
You know, you need to just sit down and shut up,
you know, like in silence with the women.
Just play the woman, you know,
if you're going to be afraid to stand up for anything.
We don't need you as a leader.
Leaders have to be willing to fight
because there's a constant pressure to change.
I know this from experience.
There's a constant pressure to do wrong,
to change, to compromise, to let down the sails,
to let sin creep in, to let the wrong music in,
to let the wrong Bible version in,
to let fornication and things just go rampant
and everybody look the other way.
No, I'll fight it.
And if somebody wants to bring in the wrong Bible version,
get ready for a fight.
If somebody wants to bring in this contemporary, touchy-feely,
sissified little music, get ready to fight.
And I'm not telling you to put up your dukes.
I'm saying I'll get behind this pulpit and scream and holler
and yell and kick and stomp and scream
and we will keep this place right.
Fight Baptist is where we, FBC,
Fight Baptist Church is where you go.
Anyway, it says that, you know,
use this preaching according to the prophecies
we put up before on thee that thou by them
minus war a good warfare,
holding faith and a good conscience,
which some, having put away concerning faith,
have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Notice Paul names the names.
He's not afraid to name the names.
Today, people don't want to name anybody.
They'll just use really vague terms and, you know,
woman preachers, okay, Joyce Meyer.
There's a name for you.
I can't think of any other ones.
This lesbian pastor of the United Methodist Church in Tempe.
You know, I don't know what her name is.
If I had it, I'd read it up to you right now.
You know, we need to get back to some name naming.
Alexander, Hymenaeus, Phygelus, Hermogenes,
all these different names.
Diotrophes.
The men of God in the New Testament,
Paul, John, and their epistles,
they named the false teachers of their day.
They warned of the Billy Grahams and the Joel Osteens
and the T.D. Jakes and the Kenneth Copelands
and the Rick Warrens,
and they didn't go to Rick Warren to learn tips
on how to build their church either.
They called him out and said,
you know what, he's a blasphemous false teacher, Rick Warren,
with all his AIDS-infected homos,
parades across the platform of his church,
who held the so-called...
I mean, what Bible was he holding for Obama?
You know, the only reason I thought
it might have been the King James.
Here's my theory about this.
It's because remember how Obama,
whenever he was going to swear,
he kind of, like, stumbled and messed up?
So what I was thinking was,
maybe when he got around the Bible,
like, let's say you're Obama here.
Like, maybe when he got around the Bible,
he was like, ah, ah, ah, ah.
You know, like, it was like
whenever the demons got faced with Jesus.
Remember when the demons were...
And he got up to Jesus, and it was like, oh, man.
They're, like, falling on their face.
What have we to do with thee?
You know, basically that whatever
Supreme Court Justice guy was named.
Nobody knows.
You know, he gives him the oath or whatever,
and, you know, whatever that Bible is,
it must have been the King J.B. or something,
because he's like, ah, ah, ah.
And he had to do it again or something
in some secret session.
With the new King James.
See, that's what they don't tell you on the news.
You know, where they tell you that he had to redo the oath.
Who knows what I'm talking about,
where he had to redo the oath.
He had to do it.
He had to swear in the second time.
Because he fumbled it, and they're like,
we don't know if it's really legal,
so they wanted to do it again.
So this time, they got the new King James.
You know, and then it was like,
I brought, it felt great, you know.
I brought Hussein Obama, you know, and so on.
So I buried Satoro, you know.
So anyway, he went through that.
But I like how he named the names.
I don't know what that would do with naming the names,
but, buried Satoro.
But anyway, he says,
Whom I have delivered unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme.
What does it mean that he delivered them to Satan?
Let's hurry up here,
but let's go to 1 Corinthians 5.
I think we can get a little bit of light on that.
Because why would Paul be delivering someone to Satan?
Isn't that a little odd?
He said, I've delivered them unto Satan,
that they may learn not to blaspheme.
These phony preachers.
These blasphemous preachers.
Hymenaeus and Alexander.
And by the way, we don't need blasphemous preachers.
Let me tell you about some blasphemous preachers.
Preachers who say things like,
Oh my God.
You know what?
Why would you quit taking God's name in vain?
Because that's his name, God.
That's one of his names.
That's what the Bible says.
He said, I was not known unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
by my name of Jehovah.
He said, I was known unto them by the name of God Almighty.
And so don't go around saying,
Oh my God. Oh my gosh.
And all this stuff.
Throwing God's name around.
Other blasphemous preachers.
You want to know the biggest thing
I think about blasphemy among preachers?
And this also can go back to the fables.
There's a really famous book.
This is actually the most,
I would say it's probably the most famous, poetic, epic book
that's ever been written in the English language.
It's considered one of the great masterpieces
of the English language called Paradise Lost by John Milton.
From a long time ago.
These fables are very blasphemous
because they basically add to God's work.
Because in this book Paradise Lost by John Milton
it just goes on and on,
conversations between the Father and the Son.
Basically God the Father and God the Son,
Jesus Christ, are up in heaven in this book.
And this book's been around since hundreds of years ago.
It is one of the most famous works of literature
in the English language.
And it's basically God the Father and God the Son
having this conversation.
But is it words from the Bible?
No, and the Bible says,
Add thou not unto his words,
lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar.
And a preacher that I heard not long ago,
a few years ago, Jack Scott,
had a famous sermon called For Christ's Sake.
Now last time I heard it,
I thought that was something that people say on the job
and they want to cuss.
Oh, for Christ's sake.
Isn't that a cuss word?
But he had this sermon called For Christ's Sake.
And in this sermon, the whole sermon's a conversation
between the Father and the Son.
And in this conversation, the Father is saying,
Oh, I hate them.
Send them all to hell.
And Jesus is saying, No, no, Father.
Let me step in here.
Hey, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
It wasn't some argument up in heaven.
But when you start making stuff up,
instead of preaching the Bible,
you start making stuff up.
You say blasphemous things like that.
God just hates everybody.
He wants to damn them all to hell.
And then Jesus, you know, He steps in
and then they're going back and forth
and then they have to cut a deal and so forth.
You know what? I'm sorry.
I'm sorry. It's blasphemy.
And somebody who's going to get up and pass through a church
should know the Bible well enough to know
that there's plenty in this book to preach
without making stuff up and saying,
Oh, the Father said this.
And then this is what came out of this conversation
in this sermon between the Father and the Son.
If they'll just say they're sorry, they'll be saved.
That was the final answer.
They have to just say they're...
They just have to be sorry.
They just have to say they're sorry.
Wrong answer.
You can be sorry like Judas Iscariot
and go and stake and hang yourself like he did.
That's not going to get you to heaven.
Judas was sorry.
That's right.
Judas repented of the sins.
He felt bad about it.
I mean, he turned, didn't he?
He said, Oh, man, I've betrayed the innocent blood.
I'm so sorry.
He went to hell.
It's not being sorry that saves you.
Esau was sorry.
He cried and whined and what was up?
Look, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved.
Amen.
That's right.
And then no mention in this blasphemous interchange
of they just have to believe on Jesus Christ.
They just have to trust Jesus Christ by faith.
They just have to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.
They just have to call upon the name of the Lord
and they'll be saved.
No, it's just, they just have to be sorry.
It's garbage.
Amen.
And you know, it's blasphemy.
That guy needs to be turned over to Satan to learn.
And you know what?
If anybody doesn't like me preaching something bad
about Jack Scott, just get out of here.
You know, I don't care.
I'm sick of it.
I'll preach it.
I'll name the names.
He makes Alexander and Hymenaeus look like a great guy
because he gets up and that guy gets up
and twists the Bible and perverts it
and says the most disgusting things.
I can't even say them from the pulpit.
He gets into a verse in the Bible and says,
oh, if you look this up in the Hebrew,
it's talking about, you know, what goes on
between a man and his wife.
I mean, he's talking about the bedroom.
He's bringing all this really smutty stuff in
and saying when you take the Lord's Supper,
you know, hey, the Lord suffers the broken body
of Jesus Christ, the blood that He shed for our sins.
He said, this is my body which is broken for you.
It has nothing to do with your bedroom, Jack Scott.
You sick freak.
That's right.
Just had to get that off my chest.
But anyway, 1 Corinthians 5, it says in verse number,
I don't know if people are going to like that.
You know what?
I don't care.
I'm sick of it.
If I didn't preach everything that people didn't like,
my sermons would last like two minutes.
And then it's not worth for you to drive all the way
from Apache Junction or wherever you guys live,
East Mesa, East Gilbert, you know.
If you're going to drive all the way out here,
you need a sermon that lasts an hour.
And you know, that's 57 and a half minutes
of things that make people mad
because it's all straight out of the Bible.
Hey, you know what?
Yeah, well, what do you want to do?
Just preach the Bible.
If I get up and scream about Alexander,
nobody's even going to know what I'm talking about.
Look, I don't care what you say.
Hymenaeus is a false teacher.
You know what I mean?
Nobody's going to care.
The example is there.
Point out the false teachers that are blaspheming Christ today.
You know, we don't have to preach against Hymenaeus.
He's been dead for a couple thousand years.
But we can preach against all the other little Hymenaises
that are out there.
And so he says in 1 Corinthians 5,
I just want to explain this and then we'll go,
but I just want to explain what he meant
by giving them over to Satan.
There was a man in this church.
He was committing fornication.
And he was committing, verse 1,
such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles
that one should have his father's wife.
And ye are puffed up and have not rather mourned
that he that had done this deed
might be taken away from among you.
Let's jump down to verse 4.
He says, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
when ye are gathered together in my spirit
with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ
to deliver such an one unto Satan.
Isn't that the same thing he said over in 1 Timothy 1?
To deliver such an one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.
Your glory is not good.
So basically what we have here is,
here's a guy who's just committing
disgusting fornication
with his father's wife,
basically his stepmother.
I mean, it's commonly reported.
Everybody knows about it.
And nobody's saying a word.
And he's basically saying, you know what?
You need to get together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
and deliver such an one unto Satan
for the destruction of the flesh
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
Basically, asking, you know, throw it.
First of all, he says, just so that you understand this,
at the end in verse 13, he says,
But them that are without God judge it,
therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
So he was supposed to be thrown out of the church, number one.
He was supposed to be thrown out,
and then basically their prayer was,
basically, that this guy would hit rock bottom.
You know, that this guy would basically,
that whatever it took, you know, whatever destruction his flesh,
if he needed to get in a car wreck or lose his job,
basically just praying for God to punish the guy.
That's what they're praying.
And a lot of times, Satan will be the one
who just loves to just mess with anybody,
even if it's according to God's will.
I mean, look at Job.
So basically, he's someone who wants to destroy
and to harm and to hurt and so forth.
So basically what they're saying is,
just basically pray that this guy
will be destroyed, will hit rock bottom,
will be punished because this guy wasn't saved, okay?
He's saying that the Spirit may be saved.
He said it'd be better for this guy
to really learn a hard lesson
and really hit rock bottom
so that hopefully he'll get saved.
You know, and eventually this particular guy,
according to 2 Corinthians, eventually he did get saved.
But the point is that delivering such a one onto Satan
is just referring to the fact that
sometimes bad things happening to people
is what gets their attention.
You know, Alexander and Hymenaeus,
I don't know exactly what their deal was.
Something blasphemous.
But they needed to hit rock bottom.
Something bad needed to happen to them
in order to get their attention.
And, you know, don't let something bad
have to happen to you before God gets your attention.
You know, in 1 Corinthians 5,
it's talking about unsaved people.
Probably the same thing in 1 Timothy 1.
Same thing.
But even as Christians, you know,
we go through chastisement.
But you know what?
We ought to just obey God,
do what's right even when times are good,
and not may God have to cloud up the rain on us.
Let's fire our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, please just let these things
sink down into our ears, dear God.
Help us to learn what the Bible has
out of 1 Timothy, dear God, in the coming weeks.
Help 1 Timothy 1, dear God,
to just sink in, dear God.
Help us to read it, study it further,
and to learn the truth and apply it to our lives.
Help us be doers of the word.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.