All right, so we're gonna start a new book, First Timothy, and I was thinking about, you know,
what book could we start, could we work through? I really want to get through some more of the
church epistles that Paul wrote to the church, but I actually want to be physically at church
when we go through those church epistles, and I like the idea of Paul because many times the
reason Paul wrote epistles and letters is because it's far away, and so I, you know, I like the idea
of Paul of being far away and he's writing here in this scenario to Timothy, and I'm kind of far
away, I'm in Sydney, I'm unable to be there on the Sunshine Coast, so I like that parallel.
And I thought it'd be good, you know, we've gone through a few Old Testament books, we've gone
through the Psalms as well, and I thought it'd be good to get back onto the New Testament.
And the other reason I chose First Timothy is First Timothy, Second Timothy, and Titus are the
books that I read the most, okay? I probably read through those, they're not very big books,
I probably read through those books, you know, maybe five times or six times a year, I don't
really know, I don't really keep track exactly how many times I read it. The reason I read them so
much is because these are letters written to pastors, and so within these books we have the
instruction given to a pastor, and I feel like I need to remind myself from time to time, what are
my responsibilities, you know? I might have personal expectations of what a pastor should do,
you know, the world might have expectations of what pastors are like, you know, the church might
have expectations of what the pastor is supposed to do, but the book of the Bible that actually
tells us what the job of the pastor is, is clearly laid out for us in First Timothy, Second Timothy,
and Titus. And so I was just doing myself my own personal study once again, reading through these
books, meditating on what I was reading, and then I thought, well, you know what, I'll just double
up here, and I'll take my personal study and create sermons out of this, and I know it's going
to be a blessing to the church in a way, because it's the word of God. And so, you know, one good
way you can use the books of First and Second Timothy and Titus is basically to judge me,
judge how I'm performing as a pastor, you know, to observe other pastors, judge other pastors,
judge pastors according to the word of God, of course, and see how they're doing, you know,
one day you might find yourself not at New Life Baptist Church, you might find yourself not under
Pastor Kevin Sepulveda, under some other man, you're looking for some other church, you've moved
for whatever reason, your life has changed, you know, and it'd be good to know exactly the kind
of characteristics, you know, you'd be wanting from a good pastor. And so I hope I can, you know,
I can measure up to what we're reading here. And I want to start there in verse number five,
First Timothy chapter one, verse number five, it says, now the end of the commandment is charity
out of a pure heart. The title for the sermon this evening is the end of the commandment,
the end of the commandment. We'll go soon and see what that exactly means. Okay, let's get back there
in verse number one. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God,
our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope unto Timothy, my own son in the faith,
grace, mercy, and peace from God, our father and Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, when Paul says that
Timothy is his own son in the faith, many believe that Paul was able to preach the gospel unto
Timothy and won him over to the Lord, because many times in the Bible you look at, you know,
being able to beget people by preaching the gospel as it were, that's your spiritual child,
if you preach someone the gospel and they believe, and that could be the case. I'm not saying that's
not the case, but one thing that we also observe, I think it's in Second Timothy where it mentions
Timothy's mother and grandmother, Lois, who were great in the faith. And so it's, you know,
I would assume, you know, Timothy was saved just through growing up in a Christian home,
you know, his mother, his grandma being influential in his salvation. And so if that's
the case, then it's more likely that by referring to Timothy as his own son in the faith, it might
be that Paul basically became the mentor for Timothy. He trained Timothy into the ministry,
you know, made him more mature, you know, ordained him into the ministry as a pastor and sent him
out. You know, when we read many of the books like the Acts and many of the Epistles, Timothy
is constantly working together with Paul. And so it looks like Paul was definitely that mentor,
and that might be the why he's referring to him as his own son in the faith, not faith that saved
him, but the faith, the faithfulness, of course, to continue in the work of the Lord. But I want
you to notice the three things that Paul is bringing here, and this gets mentioned many
times in the Epistles of Paul, but what is he sending from God to Timothy? He says in verse
number two, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. So
God the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ, is sending these three attributes to Timothy, grace,
mercy, and peace. And again, grace is unmerited favor. We know that we've been saved by grace.
It's a free gift. And so, you know, when we consider a pastor, yes, we here ought to be a mature
Christian serving the Lord, but you need to remember that pastors are not infallible. They
make mistakes. You know, pastors are just man, you know, and I'm just a man, of course, and,
you know, we're not perfect. You know, we're not the Lord God, and it's good to set a pastor as
your example, but, you know, even a pastor needs the grace of God. Even the pastor needs unmerited
favor because we're not perfect. We need the Lord to, you know, shine his face upon a pastor. And
then it says mercy, and mercy, of course, is compassion and forgiveness, all right, because,
again, pastors make mistakes. And so if God was just going to destroy pastors, as soon as they
make an error, there wouldn't be many pastors in this world. There wouldn't be any pastors in this
world. And so even pastors need the grace of God, the, sorry, the mercy of God, the compassion,
when they do wrong. And then he mentions peace. And, of course, what's the opposite of peace?
War, okay. And the reason this is brought up is because pastors are basically at the front line
of a spiritual warfare, okay. There's constant, you know, it's a warfare that is sometimes
unseen. Sometimes it is seen. You might see different difficulties that pastors are fighting
through, but then many times it could just be spiritual attacks. And if you drop down to verse
number 18, in the same chapter, we'll drop down to verse number 18, it says, this charge I commit
unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before thee, that thou by them might
just war a good warfare, okay. So the pastor's role, and again, you know, when we look at all
these things, we need to understand, yeah, this is for a pastor, but all believers can learn from
this, you know. We're all soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ. We've all been commanded to put on
the armor of God so we can combat the devil, right, combat spiritual wickedness in high places.
And so you can see that definitely a pastor is involved in warfare, okay. And from time to time,
he needs peace. From time to time, it just can't be war, constant war, every single day,
you know, hour after hour, day after day, it will just wear out the man. And sometimes you do need
a break, sometimes you do need a bit of peace, you know, even when great, you know, in the great wars
of the world, even in World War II, let's say, you know, it's not like there was war constantly,
you know, for a soldier every single day. No, he'd fight a battle, they would, you know,
have victory or they would retreat. At some point, they would have some peace, you know,
relax, you know, recover from the, you know, potential wounds. And then when the new mission
came into place, he would go and fight that next battle. You know, it's not this just constant war,
you know, day after day, because it would just wear out the man. And so it's important that a
pastor also receives times of peace as well that comes from the Lord God. Verse number three,
it says, 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. So Paul is saying, look, the reason
I've made you the pastor there in Ephesus is primarily the first thing that came to his mind,
I'm in Macedonia, I've got to send you to Ephesus and pastor that church, because there are some
that are teaching other doctrines. Okay. So what we learn here is it is a pastor's responsibility
to ensure that false doctrine is not taught in the church, okay, is not taught in the church. Now,
obviously, while I've been away here in Sydney, many of the men have been preaching in my stead.
And am I going to pretend and say, every single sermon, every single sentence that you said,
I was in 100% agreement with it? Of course not. Okay, that that would be unusual. Okay.
Do I personally believe that every single time I've preached every verse I've used,
every sentence I said, you know, all of you have just, you know, agreed 100% with what I said,
and I've never made a mistake? Of course not. Again, that's not realistic. Okay.
When we talk about false doctrine, you know, we're talking about not just
where we might have a different opinion on the application of a verse or the understanding that
might not be very clear. Obviously, when we talk about a false prophet, or people teaching false
doctrines, we're talking about things that are major issues, right? Things that might even be
damnable heresies, teaching some other Jesus, teaching some other gospel, you know, introducing
some new spirit into the church, which is not the Holy Spirit. And of course, our church also has
a statement of faith, and we have some key doctrines that we believe in. And so we make
it very clear, very public as to what our church believes. And if somebody is going to be off base,
completely off base on some of these things and push and promote their false doctrine,
we don't want them in our church. And so it's the pastor's responsibility to make sure that,
you know, we don't go completely off base, you know, allowing other people to teach other
doctrines. Now, other doctrines doesn't have to be just false doctrine. Sometimes it could be a new
preacher. And I've been able to relate to this, you know, there's been a time, believe it or not,
that I was a new preacher, right? At Victory Baptist Church, I think I was the first church
I got the opportunity to preach at. And it can be tempting to someone that's new or young in the
faith, to try to preach something very, you know, different. They kind of want to stand out, right?
They don't want to just preach another sermon that anyone else can preach. They kind of want
to make up a name for themselves, a mark for themselves. And they'll come up with some, you
know, some strange, which might not be damnable heresies, but just something because they want
to stand out and be different, okay? Yeah, you know, that's not good. You know, if you're going
to be a new preacher, stand up behind the pulpit. Let me encourage you, just keep it basic. You know,
just preach the same truths that you already know. What's going to make a difference to other people
is your personality, is your study, okay? If we're all studying the scriptures,
we might preach the same doctrine, but we're going to approach it in different ways.
We're going to focus on different aspects of that doctrine because we're all different.
So what makes the preaching different is not, I'm going to find something new and special
and show everyone how wonderful I am. No, just preach the same things that everyone has been
preaching. We need to hear repetition, okay? Make sure you get it right. Make sure you're preaching
God's word truly, and don't just regurgitate someone else's sermon. Do your own personal
study and make sure you're presenting that from, you know, the view that you personally have. You
know, there's nothing wrong with that. So, you know, young preachers, new preachers need to
be careful not to think they've got to, you know, preach some fancy doctrine. The other thing that
I think about here that they teach no other doctrine would be people that think, well,
you know what? Yeah, okay, I've read the Bible, but I don't really want to teach the Bible because
doctrine just means teaching, right? Instead of going to the Bible for teaching, how about we just
read some philosophy books? What if we read about the wisdom of man and, oh, you know,
I'll make it sound like it's been, it's my own wisdom and I'll preach the philosophies of man
and I'll throw some Bible verses here and there just so it sounds like I developed it from the
Bible. And of course that would be preaching other doctrine, you know, preaching from another,
you know, from another book, preaching from other ideas, you know. The same thing would be like,
you know, being the kind of preacher that just, you know, you read all the commentaries of men,
commentaries of the Bible and say, well, I'm going to build a sermon based on these
commentaries that I read. Okay, but you've now removed yourself one step, remove yourself from
the word of God. And so we need to make sure that the preaching of God's word in our church,
you know, comes from the word of God. It comes from the Bible and that we don't allow people
to preach other doctrine. Let's keep going. Verse number four, neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies. Okay, so this is other things people preach. Instead of preaching the Bible,
they preach fables. What's a fable? A fable is a short tale to teach a moral lesson,
but it's a story not grounded in fact. That's crazy to me. Why would you preach a fable?
Why would you preach about a story that is not true? You know, we have the word of God. We've
got so many stories. We've got commandments. We've got stories. We've got poetry. We've got
prophecies. We've got so many angles that God, we've got the Psalm, which is a song book. You
know, God has given us so many different ways to read his Bible and to teach from his word.
Everything that we need in life is already contained in God's word. Why should somebody
go to fables? But notice this, this is why it's so important for Paul to send Timothy to Ephesus.
Now, when you read the book of Ephesians, it's a very mature church, you know? So obviously,
at some point, you know, in their church life, they were going a bit wrong. They had people
coming in that were false prophets, and they would rather preach about stories and fables
than, or, and what else? And endless genealogies. Okay, it says there in verse number four,
neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions
rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do. So what is the purpose of preaching? That we
may edify, you know, edify one another, right? Godly edifying, which is in faith. The purpose
of preaching is not to minister questions. Okay, what does that mean? Preaching or to answer
questions, right? If you've had, I'm not sure what the Bible says about that, and you hear some
preaching on that topic, you hear some preaching on that doctrine, it ought to answer the questions.
If you walk away from a, from a sermon, you're like, man, I had questions, but now I've got
so many more questions than that man is not being fueled by the Spirit of God. Okay, that man is
unable to really take God's Word and preach it and establish people in the Word. You know,
ministering questions is not a good thing. Okay, it's not a good thing. You should be answering
questions when you preach God's Word. Now, when it says there, you know, about in verse number four,
endless genealogies, what I tend to think about is, of course, in this day and age, where many Baptist
churches and other churches in general will often talk about the Jews being special people.
Say, well, why are the Jews so special? Do they believe in Jesus? Oh, no. Do they believe the Bible?
Well, no, they've got other books that they follow. You know, is God happy with them today?
No, they're not. God's not happy with. When they die, do they go to heaven? No, they don't. No,
they don't know what, but they're special. Say, why are they special? Because of the genealogy,
apparently. Their genealogy goes all the way, they say, all the way to the children of Israel and
unto Abraham. No, that's not what a Jew is today. A Jew today is someone that believes the false
religion of Judaism. It's got nothing to do with genealogy. Okay, we have no idea. We have no
records that these people's genealogy goes all the way back to Abraham. Okay, it's endless
genealogies. It's pointless, you know, to say these people are special because of the endless
genealogy is contrary to God's Word. Okay, we have Matthew 3, 9. I'll just read it to you. It says,
and think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you,
that God is able of these stones to rise up children unto Abraham. It doesn't matter if
you're a physical child of Abraham, God can take the stones that you walk on, that you trample on,
and he can create children of Abraham from those stones. Your genealogy is not important. You know,
we should not be wasting our time, you know, thinking that our genealogies makes us right
with God or special before God's eyes. That is ridiculous. You know, something else that was
introduced to me recently, just in conversation, and I don't know if you've ever heard of this
before, but the ideology of nationalism, nationalism, okay, and I'm just going to quickly
read to you what nationalism is from Wikipedia. Okay, so it says here that nationalism holds
that each nation should govern itself, I agree, free from outside interference. Hey, I agree
that a nation is a natural and ideal basis for a polity and that the nation is the only
rightful source of political power. Yep, I think so, you know, good. Then it continues saying it
further aims to build now this is what makes it very different. Okay, it further aims to build
and maintain a single national identity. Again, I've got a problem with that so far, based on so
what's the single national identity based on, based on shared social characteristics of culture,
ethnicity, ethnicity, ethnicity, geographic location, language, politics, or the government,
religion, traditions, and belief in a shared singular history, and to promote national unity
or solidarity. Okay, so the idea of nationalism is that our nation should be made up of people with
all these characteristics, right? We have the same culture, we're from the same geographic location,
we have the same language. I think we should have the same language. I think people coming to
Australia should definitely learn English, okay? Politics, but this is religion. Hold on, what's
the religion of Australia? So it's a Christian nation, but hold on, when we look at the Christian
nation religion of Australia, is that a religion that saves the soul? Don't remember that a
Christian nation doesn't necessarily mean that the people are saved. A Christian nation are people
that identify, they take the name of Jesus Christ, and they take the principle of the
Bible, and they think, well, we ought to live by this. But if you're going to hold that nationalism
perspective, then how are you ever going to send missionaries or evangelists to a foreign field,
say like China, and say, well, China's religion is Buddhism. Well, then if you're a nationalist,
you're going to have no desire to win those people over to the Lord, because you're trying to keep
that national identity, okay? And then again, one of those key things is ethnicity. I think,
ethnicity, how do you make a nation, like, is it based on how you look? Is it based on the
shade of your skin? Is it based on the color of your eyes? Is it based on your height?
What's it based on? Because if we look at all our DNA, it's going to be a crazy mix of people
all over the world. I've done my DNA results. Yes, I have a lot of South American, but then I've
got some crazy things like, well, it's not too crazy, I guess, when you think about Spanish or
even Italian, but then I've got some Finnish, Finland. I've got descendants all the way from
Finland, apparently, right? And then I've got some Middle Eastern descent, you know, ancestors,
and I've got some Asian ancestors. I'm all over the place. Where would I belong in this idea?
And again, it's that thought of endless genealogies. Let's create a people, let's create
a nation based on our ethnicity. Well, that's crazy. It's impossible, actually, unless you're
basing it on someone's color of skin, how they look, that becomes close to racism, though,
if you're going to think these are my people, because of the way they look, that's pretty crazy.
Now, the Bible tells us in Acts 1726, and have made of one blood, all nations of men,
for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and have determined the times before appointed,
and the bounds of their habitation. You know what we all are, doesn't matter what we look like,
we're all one blood. You know, our ancestor goes all the way back to Noah,
okay, before the flood. And then, you know, as Noah's ancestors, you know, go all the way back
to Adam and Eve, we're all of one blood, okay, mother, sorry, Eve is the mother of all living,
we have the same mom. And then you're gonna say, well, let's differentiate our ethnicity,
we're from the same mom, Eve, the mother of all living. Okay, so again, this endless genealogy
is just nonsense, you know, we should understand that, yes, God has created different nations,
different languages, it's all beautiful, it serves a purpose, it helps protect mankind from,
you know, doing the same mistakes that they did in the Tower of Babel. But at the end of the day,
to separate people based on on their ethnicity, or their genealogy is just unbiblical. And you know,
this makes this is very easy for me. Like, I don't really identify as Chilean. And I don't really
identify as Australian. Okay, because I've shared this before, in Australia, I'm Chilean.
That's okay. You know, and then if I go to Chile, though, I'm not Chilean. In Chile,
they call me the Australian. Okay, so what am I doesn't matter? Look, apparently, I'm Australian
and Chilean, but neither country wants me. Those people don't want me, brethren. So I guess I'm a
reject. No, I'm not really a reject, because the world is not our home. Okay, the Bible tells us in
Ephesians 2 19. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizen with
the saints and of the household of God. Right? I'm a fellow citizen with who the saints with
the believers. Hey, I want to be part of that nation where everybody in that nation is saved.
They're all saints. They've been sanctified. They're all children of God. I'm going to see
them for eternity. Yeah, that's the nation that I belong to. Okay. And, and then it keeps going
by saying, verse number 20, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So what's my ethnicity? It's it's the one that
Jesus and the apostles and prophets and all the saints are part of, okay, that's that spiritual
identity, spiritual Israel, that we all belong to, you know, the Jew, which is one inwardly,
not one that is outwardly. So, you know, being obsessed about your background, your ethnicity,
your genealogy, it's a waste of time is not biblical is not profitable. Okay, God does not
want you caught up with all these things. Okay. Let's keep going there in first Timothy, chapter
five. Now the end of the commandments. So this is what I call the title for the sermon tonight. Now
the end of the commandments. And that's it says commandments singular. Okay, now this is
referencing basically the law, the law of Moses. Okay. Now we know the law of Moses contains many
laws. But you know how many times in the Bible we just call it the law. Okay. And we know also
the Old Testament contains a lot of commandments. The Bible contains many commandments. Okay. But
many times you can just wrap up all those commandments under the commandments. Okay.
And just, yeah, I'll give you just a quick example of this in Second Chronicles 14, verse four,
it says, and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to do the law singular,
and the commandments singular. So you notice that law and commandment basically are talking about
the same thing. Okay. Using that in that single sense. Now when we look at back at verse number
five there, now the end of the commandment is. So the Bible says the purpose for all the commandments,
all of the laws that God has given us, what is the purpose of all that? Now the end of the
commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfamed. So there
are three key things that the law, the commandments that we find in the Bible are to produce in our
lives. Okay. So the first thing that we see there is the pure heart. Okay. So this is a good way to
measure whether you're actually maturing in the Lord, whether you're actually profiting. Okay.
It's not just information. It's not just learning doctrines, but is this coming out in your life?
Okay. Are you somebody that you can say, I have a pure heart. You say, no, my heart's desperately
wicked. Yeah, that's true. Okay. That's true. But when we're in the spirit, when we're walking in
the ways of the Lord, we are told we have this pure heart. This is supposed to be the end results
of all the instruction that God has given us. And of course a pure heart is where your intentions
are without corruption. Right. You act out of your, out of best interest. You act out of love.
You know, you desire to do that, which is right. Right. You don't come to church because you're
trying to spy out the liberties of others or cause conflict or cause problems. You have good
intentions. Right. That's what a pure heart would represent. But you know what? A pure heart is not
the only thing that you ought to have. Cause the next thing that's mentioned there is, and of a
good conscience of a good conscience. And if you guys know me, you know, this is a big thing for
me. Okay. The cure, the pure conscience or the pure good conscience or the, you know, a clear
conscience before God. And of course a good conscience would be someone without feelings of
guilt or regrets. Okay. And I, I want to have a clear conscience because I want to make sure
that when I run church, when I operate the house of the Lord, that I don't look back in the future
and have like these great guilts that I really messed it up and did that, which is wrong. Okay.
Now, let me help you understand the pure heart and the good conscience a little bit together
here. Let's say, for example, we're at church and someone leaves there. They forget, they forget
their phone, right? They leave it in the church building. And I have a pure heart and say, you
know, I'm a brother so-and-so he forgot his phone. I'm going to, I'm not going to leave it here in
case it goes missing and it gets stolen or something. I'm going to take it. I'll take it home.
Okay. To keep it safe. And when I see that church or message them, so they know that the phone is
here, I can drop it off. Okay. So that would be your pure heart. You've got good intentions there,
but let's say, you know, you're not careful with that phone, right? Me in a household with 11 kids,
I leave the phone somewhere where my little one can reach it. He grabs the phone,
smash it on the floor. Well, you know what? I had good intentions, but I can't now have a good
conscience because now I'm going to feel guilt. Man, I should have, why did I leave that phone
there? Why when I know when I have little kids that will smash these things, why did I do that?
I should have put it somewhere safe. And so the idea of a good conscience is more about being
careful, right? People talk about how I have good intentions. I mean, well, I mean, well,
but if you keep stuffing up, you don't have the good conscience. Okay. It's not just good
intentions. All right. It's being careful with how you conduct yourself, right? About offending
other people or doing that, which is wrong. Okay. Good conscience. You know, good intentions is not
enough. All right. We need to make sure we're careful with one another. The third thing that
is brought up there is faith unfeigned, right? Faith unfeigned. And so we need to make sure
that our faith is not fake. Now this is not talking about the faith of salvation because
we know that Timothy is already saved, of course, but we can be fake in our faithfulness. You know,
we can come to church and pretend we're right with God and we're great Christians and we just
love the Lord and we just love the Bible. We can put that show on, but many times it can just be
faith unfeigned. Okay. It's not really true. You're not really a strong Christian. You don't
really have, you know, you're not very faithful to the house of God. You're not very faithful to
the Lord. You're not very faithful to the soul winning. You're not really faithful to the word
of God. And you know what? The end of the commandment, the end result of all the teaching,
all the preaching that we learn from God ought to be that we develop this pure heart. We develop a
good conscience and that our faith is unfeigned, that it's true faith, that we're truly faithful
toward the Lord. Let's keep going. Verse number six, from which some having swerved. So there
are people that don't have these qualities about them, right? Some having swerved have turned aside
unto vain, jaggling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understand neither what they say
nor where of they affirm. Okay. So what is vain? You know, when I read this vain jaggling,
I think of this. Jangle, jangle, jangle, vain. Say, Pastor Kevin, why are you doing this?
No reason. It's vain. It's pointless. There's no point in my jangling of the keys right now.
Okay. So as mature Christians, as we grow, we need to make sure that we don't turn toward vain
jangling. Okay. Because vain jangling is the opposite of the pure heart. It's the opposite
of the good conscience. It's the opposite of the faith unfeigned that we're trying to work toward,
and say, what is vain jangling? Well, you know, it's when someone comes up to you and says,
man, do you think Adam had a belly button?
I say, well, who cares? It's not important. Yeah, but we need to know, don't we?
I mean, can you just stop the vain jangling? This is just a waste of time.
All right. That's vain jangling, right? You say, well, what if Adam and Eve didn't sin,
right? Because, you know, it doesn't matter what if they didn't sin. They did sin.
We deal with reality. They did sin. They offended God. They were kicked out of the garden.
The earth has been cursed. We're born of a sin nature. It doesn't matter what if they didn't sin.
But if they didn't sin, then they would have had kids, and no one would die, and then we'd
overpopulate on this earth. Is that why God created this planet? So we can populate the
vain jangling. Like, who cares? It's pointless, right? You know, what about musical instruments
in the New Testament? Have you realized that people played musical instruments in the Old
Testament, but we never have anyone recorded in the New Testament playing musical instruments?
Who cares? What's the point? Maybe we shouldn't have musical instruments in the church. Maybe
just show up to the acro-belisian. This doesn't help anyone. This is pointless discussions.
Vain jangling! People come up with these things, say hey, you're jangling, please.
Stop talking about that, right? What if this coronavirus is the mark of the beast?
It's not the mark of the beast. Yeah, but what if it is? You know, the patent of
the coronavirus is 0-6060... I don't know, whatever. You know,
you guys know. You're conspiracy theorists. You guys don't know what I'm talking about.
It's not the mark of the beast! Yeah, but, you know, this could be it.
You know, this could be step number one, it's not the masterpiece because the masterpiece requires
worship of the antichrist and worship of the devil and it's in your right hand in your forehead.
All right. But people love to the love the vain jangling and look, let us not be a church like
that. Please don't be like that. You know, let's make sure that our Bible study is serious, right?
That we don't entertain nonsense. Now I'm not saying that if someone asked some of these
questions, look, they might be legitimately concerned and they want some answers. I'm not
saying like just because someone says something kind of silly, you know, just shut them down
straight away. No, we shouldn't nicely guide that person into the truth, right? But we don't want to
keep on topics and waste our time with nonsense. Say, but we're talking about the Bible. Yeah,
but it's vain jangling. It's a waste of our time. Okay. So let's be careful about that,
that distraction that might develop in church. Verse number eight, but we know that the law is
good. Is that what it says? Yeah. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.
Okay. So the laws of God, the commandment, the end results, all of these instructions that we have
in the Bible, you know, it's, it's for good. There's good purpose for it. If a man use it
lawfully. Verse number nine, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man. Okay.
So if you are able to be 100% righteous, you never sin. You never make a mistake.
The laws of God, the commandments. Okay. They're not for you say, why aren't they for me?
Because you can't do wrong if you're righteous. Okay. Now let me help you understand this,
please keep your finger there and go to Romans chapter six, go to Romans chapter six
and verse number 12. Romans chapter six and verse number 12.
You know, some people just don't understand this idea of not being under the law, right?
They think, well, we can just do whatever we want. God has changed his mind in the old Testament to
the new Testament. We're not under the law, brother, you know, and we can just do whatever
we want. Well, it's, we're not under the law if we are righteous. Okay. Because the righteous cannot
break the law, but if we're not righteous and we break God's laws, we sin against the Lord.
Then we are, we are under the law in that sense. Okay. Now, again, this is something that I've
taught extensively in our church, but people still seemingly sometimes get confused about
all this stuff. Okay. So Romans chapter six, verse number 12. Now, the other thing I will say just
for the rest of the sermon, keep your finger in Romans as well, because there are a few parallels
that I want to look back in both Romans and first Timothy chapter one. But Romans 6 12, it says,
let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey in it the luster of.
So should we try to strive and overcome sin in our lives? Absolutely. Verse number 13,
neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. So our bodies should be instruments of righteousness for God. You say, well, isn't
everybody that's saved automatically going to do righteous acts? Well, no. This is why there's
instruction to do that which is righteous. Meaning that even though we are saved, we can do unrighteous
things. We can of course still sin and you will still sin. Okay. But our goal as safe people ought
to be to do the works of righteousness. Look at verse number 14. For sin shall not have dominion
over you for ye are not under the law, but under grace. Okay. Ye are not under the law,
but under grace. And again, some people think that that means all the Old Testament's done away with.
You know, I remember when I was there, it was soon after I left high school and I learned for the
first time in the Bible, like that tattoos were wrong. Now my dad never wanted me to get a tattoo.
I never sought to get one because I knew it was wrong because it was against my dad. And I meant
to be obedient to my dad, but I never thought that I was actually recorded for us in the Bible,
not to make cuttings of yourselves, not to make marks upon your body in that sense. And I went to
my friend that had tattoos. I said, man, look at the Bible says, and I wasn't saying this to
criticize him and make him feel bad. I just thought maybe he, like me, did not know this
was something that was in the Bible. And I showed it to him. He read it and he goes, yeah, but no,
brother, we're not under the law. We've been made free. I think, hold on. So if God says, don't do
this in the, in the Bible, and now that we're saved by grace, that means that we can disobey
the Lord now, because we're not under the law. And if we do disobey, we're not really disobeying
because we're not under that law. Is that what you're saying? So if I commit murder,
I'm under, I'm not in the law, I'm under grace, I'm saved, I commit murder. Therefore,
there are no consequences for that which I've done. It's not wrong to do that, which is sinful,
apparently, in the eyes of God. Of course, that would be an extreme view. But listen,
there are Christians that believe this. Literally believe, you can basically do contrary to what
God's word says, and God is fine with it because you're not under the law. And I think this is what
Christ, Christ's freedom is not freedom from the power of sin, but the freedom is to do sin.
There are people that truly believe this. Okay, let's keep going. Verse number 15. It says,
what then? Shall we sin? Or my friend would say, yes, because we're not under the law.
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? God forbid! Of course
not! We shouldn't be just like, okay, we're not under the law, let's just go ahead and sin as much
as we want. God forbid! Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness?
But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart
that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being then made free from sin,
ye became the servants of righteousness. Now this is the most important part, okay. When you got
saved, you've now become a servant to righteousness. God has given you power over sin. You can do
righteous acts. Your righteous acts as a Christian are no longer filthy rags. The filthy rag
righteousness are for those that are not saved and trying to work their way to heaven, trying to
please God by the good works. But when you are saved, your righteousness are not filthy rags,
okay. It's righteousness, okay. It pleases the Lord. Verse 19, I speak after the manner of men
because of the infirmity of your flesh. Hold on. So even though I'm a work of righteousness,
the Bible tells me there's an infirmity, there's a sickness in my flesh. What does this mean? It
says, for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto
iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. So it's saying
here that even though we are saved, we can choose between using our members, using our bodies for
that which is iniquity, for that which is sinful or wrong, but rather what God wants us to do now
that we are saved is use our bodies for righteousness. So this is not saying that you
become sinless and perfectly righteous when you're saved, not that once you are saved,
you ought to be striving for righteousness, understanding that God has given you victory
over the temptations and the powers that come with sin. Now let's go back there to 1 Timothy
please chapter 1 and verse number 9. I didn't read the whole verse. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse
number 9, it says the rest of it, but for the lawless and disobedient. So the law are for the
lawless and disobedient. So if you disobey, you do something contrary to God's law,
okay, you break God's commandment, then you are under the law, okay, you deserve to be punished
by the laws of God, okay, by his justice, okay, whether that's going to be by the hand of God,
or if you commit something like murder, you're going to be brought before the magistrate and
thrown into prison or whatever, okay, righteously you ought to be put to death yourself, but hey,
you know, in Australia, you're going to get thrown in the book at you and thrown into jail,
there's going to be consequences to your sin is what this is basically teaching, okay.
Let's keep going, it says 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 of mankind, for menstealers, for liars, menstealers are kidnappers,
for liars, for pejured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound
doctrine, so notice that if you do that which is wrong, you are under the law, because that
which you do is wrong is in the flesh, and you are going to suffer the consequences of the wrong
that you do, right, if you go rob a bank, you can't say before the judge, but judge, I'm a safe
person, I'm the law, you know, I'm not under the law, okay, I'm under righteousness, no, you're
still going to be correct, you're still going to have to, you know, cop a fine and get thrown into
prison or whatever it happens, okay, because when you disobey, you are under law, but that
disobedience is in the flesh, it's in the old man, the righteousness of God is in the new man, it's
in the spirit, that new man never sins, even when this body sins, the new man remains untainted,
sinless, this is why it's once saved, always saved, this is why it's eternal life, because the new man,
the resurrected man, the resurrected spirit that's within you will live forever, this flesh will die,
okay, this flesh will rot away, for the moment you die and close your eyes, your soul and spirit,
if you're saved, will be with God for all eternity without the filthiness of the flesh, without the
infirmity of the flesh. Now, there is a passage here that I want us to look at in verse number 10,
it says, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, I think we need to look
at this, because some people do not understand what this means, and I can understand, it can be
a little bit challenging, but notice whoremongers are mentioned first, so in the Bible, a whoremonger
is basically a male, a male fornicator, right, he's got all kinds of sexual perversions, right,
that's a whoremonger, that's about a man, and then you've got the whore, okay, and that refers to
the woman, okay, so when we look at, again, verse number 10, if we kind of consider it, we've in the
same bracket there, it says for whoremongers, speaking about men who are, you know, sexual,
you know, deviants or whatever, and then it says for them that defile themselves with mankind,
so there's another group of people here that defile themselves, their bodies, with mankind,
okay, so this would be the women, you know, you might even maybe consider things like prostitution,
you know, someone defiles themselves with mankind, fornicators, prostitutes, they would fall under
this category, all right, and I think when we look at this list, it makes sense, okay, but I just
want to get you to keep your finger there, and please go to 1st Corinthians 6, please,
go to 1st Corinthians chapter 6, and while you're turning to 1st Corinthians chapter 6,
I just want to show you how this word defile, defiling yourself, how it ties in with sexual
sinful acts, okay, because the first time the Bible uses the word defile or defilement
is about fornication, it says in Genesis 34 verse 2, and when Shechem, the son of Hamel,
the Hebrew, prince of the country, saw her, and took her, and lay with her, and defiled her,
okay, so if you have committed fornication, you don't keep yourself pure for your wedding day,
you have been defiled according to the Bible, okay, so again, when you look at 1st Timothy
chapter 1, it says for them that defile themselves with mankind, it's obviously they're doing sexual
acts with mankind, okay, now let's go to 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 9,
because some people will take 1st Corinthians 6 verse 9 and say that homosexuals can be saved,
no, according to the Bible, homosexuals are reprobates, they cannot be saved, not because
they've done some filthy sin, which is obviously filthy and disgusting, but the reason they cannot
be saved is because they hate God, their haters are God, they don't want to retain God in their
knowledge, and they cannot believe the gospel, okay, they cannot believe it, they cannot place
their faith in the gospel, because anybody that believes the gospel is saved, okay, they'll
reprobate the homosexual cannot believe, okay, God has given them over to a reprobate mind,
the Bible says, all right, but people look at 1st Corinthians chapter 6 and verse number 9,
and it says know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminates,
then it says this, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, okay, so people say well that
abusers of themselves with mankind, that's the homosexual, but the Bible does not say homosexual,
in fact the word for in the Bible is sodomites, okay, or dogs, if you want to call them dogs,
the Bible calls them dogs as well, okay, this does not say that these are sodomites here,
because then it keeps going, verse number 10, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God, then it says in verse number 11,
and such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in
the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the spirit of our God, okay, and such were some of you,
so this list of all these people that did bad things and sinful things, the Bible says to the
church, you know, and such were some of you, some of you have also done these sins, and they say,
well see the abusers of themselves with mankind, verse number nine, is a homosexual, therefore
there were homosexuals in the Corinthian church that got saved, that's not what the Bible says
though, the Bible, and I know your modern Bible translations will put homosexuals in there,
that's why they're deceived, okay, but that's just, that's just man, that's not what the Bible
teaches, the Bible lists these people as abusers of themselves with mankind, okay, now what is abuse?
How can you possibly abuse yourself with mankind? Well in 1 Corinthians 6 18, maybe you can look at
that, just drop down a little bit further, 1 Corinthians 6 18, it says, flee fornication,
every sin that a man doeth is without the body, but here that commit of fornication sinneth against
his own body, if you've committed fornication, you've sinned against yourself, you've abused
yourself, so the abuser of mankind is someone that has committed fornication, okay, and when you
compare that with what we saw in 1 Timothy chapter one, you know, it's about basically a woman that
has committed fornication with mankind, okay, this is not about homosexuals, and I did need to cover
that, because again a lot of people resist and reject the reprobate doctrine, you know, we live
in a day and age where people think well let's just allow homosexuals in our church, let's allow
them to serve in the church and be song leaders and ordain them into the ministry, love is love,
it's happening in our church as well, no these people do not belong in the church because they're
haters of God, they cannot believe the gospel, okay, he said but I know a homosexual that burns
in lust and he says he believes, no he doesn't believe, okay, he doesn't believe, okay, if he
believed he would never have gotten to that point where he's defied himself so disgustingly, okay,
okay, back to 1 Timothy chapter one please, verse number 11, 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 11,
according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust, I love that,
I love that God has taken the glory, it's a beautiful word, the glorious gospel,
he's taken the gospel of salvation and given it to Paul and he's entrusted it, right, to my trust,
you know God has given us the gospel, he has entrusted each one of us with the gospel,
my question to you is how well are you taking care of the gospel that God has given you,
okay, now we trusted God through the gospel, someone presented to us the glorious gospel
and we've believed in the Lord, we've trusted upon him, well now that you've trusted on the Lord,
now God trusts you to take that same glorious gospel and spread it to people that need to hear
it, how well brethren are you dealing with the gospel that God has given you, he's entrusted,
God trusts you that you're going to be productive and effective with the glorious gospel, please be
a soul winner, I know you can't all get out and knock doors but please use the opportunities you
have for your family and your friends, you know your lost loved ones that you care about to give
these people, love them enough to give them the gospel, love God enough to give them the gospel,
he sacrificed his son for people to know what Christ has done for them, verse number 12,
and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who have enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
putting me into ministry, I love this as well, okay, so Paul has been put into full-time ministry,
he's been appointed an apostle and you know I've taken on the full-time ministry of a pastor,
okay, but I want you to notice how is it that someone gets into full-time ministry,
I'm not talking about the qualification of a pastor right now, okay, that's all important,
we're going to look at that later on, but you notice that before he got put into ministry,
it says, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who have enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
why did God enable Paul to do a great work? Because he counted Paul faithful, faithful,
okay, if you want to get into full-time ministry one day, the first thing you need to do
is be counted faithful, okay, be faithful with what you have right now, be faithful with your
family, be faithful with your church, be faithful with the glorious gospel, okay, be faithful in
the church that you serve, for the works that you do, be faithful in your Bible reading,
be faithful in your prayer life, when God sees that faithfulness and you're at that point where
you've been counted faithful, God will then enable you, okay, it's not by the efforts of man, you
know, you can't take on these officers in full-time positions and just think I'll get
through it by my charm and by my strength, by my whatever, by my strength of man, no,
God has to enable that person, something has to happen, a switch needs to take place, I've shared
it many times with people in our church and I don't know if you guys have believed me, but
you know, when I got ordained, after I got ordained and I opened the Bible and I started
to prepare sermons, the Bible was much more open to me than it's been before, okay, I'm not saying
it wasn't open to me before, I learned a lot, I could develop a lot, but after I got ordained
and I knew I'm now a pastor, I'm in a position of authority, something changed in my mind,
something changed in my heart, okay, a greater wisdom, a greater awareness of God's word,
say what is that, it's the enabling of the Holy Ghost, it's the enabling of God, we need it because
we're just men, we need it, okay, and so you can see the steps that take place and I'm going to
quickly read to you from Luke 16 verse 10 which says, he that is faithful in that which is least
is faithful also in much and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If you want to
be counted faithful and you want God to give you much and much responsibilities and get into full
time ministry, you must be first faithful in that which is least, the little things that you have to
do, be faithful in that and then God will give you more. Verse number 11, if therefore you have not
been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust? The true riches and if you
have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
You know, praise God I was given my own church to pastor over, but I first had to be faithful in the
churches that were of other men, other pastors, other men that have given me responsibilities and
brethren every time I was given a, I mean I'm just trying to be honest again, not boasting,
but every time I was given some responsibility in my church, I'd give it my best shot. I'd do the
best I possibly could, right? Sunday school every week with the children, right? Serving as a deacon,
cutting the grass, even cleaning the toilets, you know, yes even cleaning the toilets. I did it and
you know what, those toilets sometimes were filthy. You know what, I said no God this is this is your
house, this is your business, you've given me a ministry, this is disgusting, I feel like gagging,
I feel like throwing up, why couldn't they get in, why did they have to do it all the,
you know, I won't get into too many details here, but you know what, give me faithful and say this
is horrible Lord, I wish someone else was doing it, but I'm going to do it Lord because I want
to be counter faithful and when God sees that faithfulness, then he'll put you into that
position. He'll enable you and allow you to get into that full-time ministry, okay. So this is
not something we ought to rush in, it ought to be a patient job, it may require many years, you know,
where you are counter faithful by the Lord, by the church and then put into a prominent position.
Let's keep going, 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse number 13. Who was before a blasphemer? Now so Paul's
speaking about himself, right, that he's been a counter-worthy, taken on this position as an
apostle and then he talked about himself. Who was before a blasphemer? He used to be a blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief
and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundance with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. When
we read the story of Paul, which we begin knowing him as soul in the Bible, he's a very wicked man,
he's persecuting God's people, God's church, Christ church I should say and sometimes, you know,
in the past, you know, when I started to understand the reprobate doctrine,
I used to wonder, man, Paul must have been pretty close to being a reprobate. I mean he's doing acts
where, you know, if you just saw him and he's persecuting God's people, hunting down, trying
to destroy churches, you know, we would naturally think this man must be a reprobate. He's so wicked,
he's definitely a hater of God, okay, but notice what Paul says, that he did these things
ignorantly, right, verse number 13, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Now can you please,
you should have a finger in Acts, so please go to Acts chapter 1 and verse number 28. Acts chapter
1 verse number 28. So, you know, Paul was pretty wicked. Paul did, he was very sinful, right,
but he wasn't close to being a reprobate and I'll show you why because Romans 1, and I already kind
of talked about this, but Romans 1 28 says, again, talking about the reprobate, the person that
cannot believe, okay, like a homosexual, the person that hates God, it says in Romans 1 28,
and even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient. So how did they become a reprobate? Well, they
first did not want to retain God in their knowledge. Now this is not like Paul. Paul did
want to retain God in his knowledge, okay. I'm going to quickly read to you from Acts chapter 9
verse number 1. This is when Paul starts to prepare himself to persecute the people of God,
but it says in Acts chapter 9 verse number 1, it says, and Saul, which is Paul of course,
yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord went unto the
high priest. So who's the high priest? He's the guy that's serving in the temple of God, right,
and desired of him letters to Damascus, to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way,
whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. So he wants to stop
what he believes is a new cult, something that is contrary to God's word, contrary to the Old
Testament scriptures. He thinks, his ignorance, right, his ignorance, but you can see that he
actually loves the Lord. He goes to the temple, he goes to the high priest and says, look, I want
to do a work for God. I want to hunt down these people that are teaching false things. That's what
he thinks, okay. He's doing it ignorantly. Verse number 3, and as he journeyed, he came
near Damascus, and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven, and he fell to
the earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Of course,
these are the words of Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse number 5, and he said, Who art thou,
Lord? Does this guy sound like, does Paul sound like someone that doesn't want to retain the Lord
or the God in his mind? No, he does. He realized this is the Lord, okay. This is God. And he says,
how am I persecuting you, Lord? Right? And he says here, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is
hard for thee to kick against the pricks. I want you to notice how Paul responds here. Okay, verse
number 6, and he trembling and astonished said, Lord. So instead of going, hey, you're Jesus,
the one I'm trying to persecute. No, you know, you're a devil or you're something. He says,
he goes, Lord, what will thou have me to do? So you can see his heart is in the right place.
He wants to serve the Lord. He wants to serve God. And now he's found out, Jesus is God. Jesus is the
Lord. So Lord, what do you want me to do? What, what will they have me to do? And the Lord said
unto him, Arise and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And then
later on, he gets saved. He believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul wasn't close to being a
reprobate. You know, he retained God in his knowledge. He loved the Lord. He wanted to
serve God. He wanted to make amends for all the wrong he's done here. Okay. But the point being is
he was pretty wicked. And I think what I'm trying to say to us today is people can be pretty wicked.
People can do some very horrible things, even attempt to slaughter God's people potentially.
Okay. And I don't want you to just jump on the bandwagon and call this person a reprobate.
Okay. Christ came to save sinners and we're all sinners. And some people are exceedingly sinners,
right? They're wicked people, but we shouldn't just conclude, therefore, this person must be
reprobate. I'm not going to give him the gospel. Paul is the example of someone who is extremely
wicked, right? That can still believe in Christ and be saved. But again, he did all his wickedness
ignorantly. Okay. He wasn't really trying to hurt the Lord God. He did not hate the Lord. Okay.
Back in 1 Timothy 1 verse 15. No, that's not what I'm up to. Sorry. Let me just find my place there.
Verse number 13. Oh no, I've read that. Okay. Verse number 15. Sorry.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now this is important. Okay. So Paul is definitely
saved. He's an apostle of God. He's studying churches, winning solos, right? But he says,
of whom I am chief. This is present tense. He's not saying I was the chief of sinners
because I persecuted God's people. That was in the past, but now I'm saved and I'm just
wonderful and righteous. No. He says of whom I am chief. He says right now, I'm still a sinner.
And from his perspective, I'm still the chief of sinners. I'm still a horrible person. I don't
deserve this wonderful grace that God has given me. And I want you to go back to Romans chapter
seven. Now go to Romans seven verse number 22. So I want to tie a lot of this stuff together
that we're looking at here, Romans seven 22. And, uh, you know, we've, we've my preaching.
I'm probably going to go a lot over time. Many times I might go over time again today. Okay.
But Hey, we've only got two services a week. Praise God. Right. And I miss preaching to you
guys. So if I preach a little bit too much, Reverend, please forgive me. Okay. Forgive me.
Romans seven 22. Again, Romans is an epistle from Paul. I want you to see what he writes in
Romans seven 22. He says, for I delights in the law of God after the inward man, the new man,
the inward man, the spirit delights in the law of God. It's righteous. It loves God's law verse
23, but I see another law in my members. There's another law in his body and his flesh warring
against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my
members. So this is going on right now. Oh, wretched man that I am present tense. He's
writes in the Bible. He's been moved by the Holy ghost to, to pen these words for the Roman church.
And even as he's been moved by the Holy ghost, he says, oh, wretched man that I am. He still
realizes he's got the sinful flesh, right? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Verse 25. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the
law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. What is he saying? He says the new man,
the righteous man, the inward man, the mind that he's renewed at the spirit of God serves the law
of God. It's righteous, but this flesh is contrary. This flesh serves the law of sin. This flesh
continues to sin. The point being salvation was never stop sinning and thou shall be saved.
Salvation was never repent from your sins and thou shall be saved. Salvation was never clean
up your life and thou shall be saved. Salvation has always been by faith, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And even after you've believed and you're born again,
and now you have the inward man, which is after the righteousness of the Lord, which loves the
law of God, you still have the filthy flesh, a wretched man that I am, present tense, chief of
sinner, present tense. We continue to sin. You know, whether someone continues to sin of salvation
is not a measure of whether that person is saved or not. Sinless perfection is impossible in the
flesh, but the new man never sins. Okay. I want that to be very clear for us. Let's go back to
1 Timothy please, verse 16. 1 Timothy 16. He then says, howbeit for this cause I obtain mercy.
He says, God was merciful to me, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering
for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting. Once again,
how is it that you get saved? Repenting from your sins? Is that how you get life everlasting?
No. You know, overcome, cleaning up your life? No. Okay. Which should hereafter believe on him
to life everlasting. Believing, trusting in the finished work of Christ is what gives you
everlasting life. But Paul is an example of Christ's long suffering. You know what,
people can be very wicked, but even those very wicked people, so long as they're not reprobate,
okay, Christ still died for them. They still need to hear the gospel. Okay. And we can't
automatically think this person is just far too far gone. He's never going to believe. If we felt
that way, then we would have, if we had the opportunity to preach to Paul, we would never
have given him the gospel. Paul is an example of God's long suffering. And so if someone's listening
to the service tonight and you're not saved and you say, I'm too far gone. I've committed too many
sins. God does not, cannot forgive me. You know what, that's, well, I'm glad you feel that way.
I'm glad you feel that you're a sinner, but understand that there's a pattern in God's word.
Paul is a great example for you to understand that you cannot out sin the grace of God.
That Christ has paid for all of your sins on the cross and simply by believing on what
Christ has done for you without works, okay, is your way of life everlasting. Verse number 17,
now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, the honor and glory forever
and ever. Amen. Beautiful words. Some people believe verse number 17 is about Jesus Christ.
And in the past, I thought it was about Jesus Christ as well, because we call Jesus Christ,
the King of Kings. And, you know, in our church, something that we've been hearing about, you know,
over the past years is about the doctrine of oneness. And the doctrine of oneness basically
it teaches that Christ is not just the Son of God, but He's the Father as well. And we know that no
man has seen the Father. And, you know, we look at this verse, and of course, Jesus Christ is God,
but He's not God the Father. Okay, so they'll take this verse, verse number 17, which says,
now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible. They say, see, Jesus cannot be seen.
And no man has seen the Father. Therefore, Jesus is God the Father. Well, you can see why oneness
would look at the scriptures like this, okay? But which element of the Godhead is invisible?
Which person of the Godhead, I should say, is invisible? We know that Christ came, manifested
Himself in anybody 2,000 years ago. We know that even after His resurrection, when He comes back
to this earth, all eyes are going to see Him, okay? So it's not talking about Christ here.
Of course, we've not seen the Holy Spirit, you could say that. But this is actually referencing
God the Father. And let me just prove that to you. You should be in Romans still. Go to Romans 16
and verse number 27. Romans 16, verse number 27. Romans 16, 27 says, to God only wise, be glory
through Jesus Christ forever. So notice when it says, to God only wise, it's not referencing
Christ here, even though Christ is God, okay? But it's not God the Father. It says, to God only wise,
be glory through Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, so this God only wise is referencing God the Father.
So when we go back to 1 Timothy chapter 17, it says, now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible,
the only wise God. We know that's a title that is given to God the Father. And so it's God the
Father that is invisible, which again lines up perfectly with the Bible, because no man has seen
the Father. All right, verse number 17, verse number 18, sorry. This charge I commit unto Thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest
good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith,
have made shipwrecked. Okay, so a pastor and believers, we ought to be people holding faith,
good conscience, we already spoke about that, because others that don't do this are going to
shipwreck their faith. They're going to become unfaithful. Now the people that are going to be
brought up here are two men who are false prophets. This is in verse number 20, of whom is Hymenaeus
and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. All right,
Hymenaeus and Alexander, these are two false prophets that the Apostle Paul has dealt with.
Now just very quickly, let me just tell you a little bit about these two men. Can you please
go to 2 Timothy chapter 2? Okay, you're in 1 Timothy, go to 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse
number 16. Let me just prove to you that these were false prophets, that these are not saved
people, that shipwrecked their faith, though that can happen to saved people. This is about false
prophets. Okay, 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 16 says, but shun profane and vain babblings,
for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker,
of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection
is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. So Hymenaeus here is teaching grave false
doctrine, right, teaching that the resurrection has already taken place. All right, so you can
see these aren't just basic little mistakes, and little misunderstandings, and little conflicts.
We know that Paul had conflict with Barnabas, but they were both saved men, and they both went
their separate ways, keeping, you know, continually serving the Lord. Okay, they had a personal
disagreement. All right, this guy, it's a major doctrinal issue. Okay, Hymenaeus was a false
prophet. Now please go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. The other person that's
mentioned is Alexander. Okay, let's have a look at what Alexander was like. First, 2 Timothy chapter
4 verse 14. 2 Timothy 4 14 says, Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him
according to his works, of whom be thou where also, for he have greatly withstood our words.
Why is he a false prophet? Okay, number one, he did much evil. That's okay. Well, Christians can
do evil one to another. Okay, but he greatly withstood our words. So these are the words of
Paul. Paul is speaking, and preaching, and teaching the words of God. We have a man withstanding
against God's word. He wants to preach his false teaching. He wants to preach his fables,
his endless genealogies. Okay, and fighting against the truth of God's word. Again, Alexander
here is a clear false prophet. Okay, but how did it end? It said, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,
whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. I want you to remember
that. Okay, these people have been delivered unto Satan. You say, how were they delivered
unto Satan? One more passage and then we'll end. Okay, near the end now. Let's go to 1st Corinthians
5 please. 1st Corinthians 5. 1st Corinthians 5 verse 3. 1st Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
number 3. 1st Corinthians 5 deals with church discipline. Kicking people out of, you know what
church discipline is? Taking that person saying, get out of the church. You're not allowed to be
here. You're not allowed to fellowship in God's place because you're leavened. That's going to
leaven the whole lump. You're going to corrupt the entire church if you stay here and you need
to go. You're not allowed in God's house. That is what church discipline is. Church discipline is
not crossing someone's name off a church member list. Okay, church discipline is kicking someone
out of the church and somebody was in major sin here in the Corinthian church. Now this time this
is not a false prophet. This is a believer, okay, who has done a great sin which is fornication.
It says in 1st Corinthians 5 free, for I verily as absent in the body but present in spirit
have judged already as though I were present concerning him that have so done this deed
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ when he are gathered together
and my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, look at this, to deliver such and one
unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord
Jesus. All right, so what is going on here? When you kick someone out of church, you follow
1st Corinthians 5 and someone's done some major sins like fornication, like drunkenness, etc.,
okay, the extortioner, etc., you're delivering that person unto Satan. You're saying, God,
we're removing him from the protection of God's house from your protection and we're delivering
that person unto Satan. Satan's going to be able to attack that person, okay, in a serious way.
You say, is that to destroy him? Well, look, if he ends up being destroyed, notice that his spirit
will still be saved on the day of the Lord Jesus if he's a safe person, okay, but ideally when he's
kicked out of church, he realizes I'm in a bad spiritual state, I'm being attacked by the devil,
I need to get back into the house of God, I need to go say sorry, I need to go sort things out,
I need forgiveness and get myself plugged back into church. That's the whole purpose of being
kicked out of church, okay, for them to realize they have sinned and to fix that about themselves,
apologize and get back into church, but the delivery unto Satan is basically synonymous
with kicking them out of church. In this case, Hymenaeus and Alexander, they will operate in
the church that Paul was there, he ended up having to kick these people out of church.
You see, sometimes when we conduct church discipline, sometimes you are going to kick out
a believer, a fellow believer, okay, and the purpose behind that is that they would get back
into church, get back right with God, but then sometimes church discipline, you'll actually end
up kicking out devils, basically, okay, kicking out the Tez, kicking out false prophets potentially,
okay, and again, Satan will use that opportunity to destroy them, okay, to persecute those people
and so that is the whole purpose of church discipline and I want you to notice that sometimes
we can do it, we may not necessarily know, is this person a believer, is he truly saved or is he
a false prophet, is he someone that really came to our church just to cause harm, we don't know,
but the process, the practice is the same. All right guys, that's first Timothy chapter one,
I hope that was interesting, I know I went a bit over time, forgive me and let's just go to a word
of prayer, heavenly thank you.