1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse number 1, it begins by saying,
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly.
The title for the sermon tonight is basically that.
The Spirit speaketh expressly.
Of course, this is referring to the Holy Spirit of God.
And the word expressly is basically saying
that this is something the Holy Spirit is very open about.
You know, the Holy Spirit wants us to be aware
of what we're about to learn in this chapter.
He's speaking, He's open about it. This is not hidden.
What is it that He's speaking about expressively?
Let's keep going there in verse number 1.
That in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils.
And so, yeah, when we think about the latter times,
yeah, we often think about the end times
and, you know, yes, it can apply to the end,
it does apply to the end times.
But one thing that I just want to quickly read to you,
probably a lot of you aware of this already,
but Hebrew chapter 1 verse 1 says,
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners,
spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,
have in these last days spoken unto us by His Son,
whom He have appointed heir of all things,
by whom also He made the worlds.
And so notice that verse number 2 then in Hebrews 1, 2,
it says, have in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.
So when did the Lord Jesus Christ,
when did the Son of God come into this world?
Well, 2,000 years ago.
So it's been the latter times,
it's been the last days since the time of Christ, okay?
And so, yes, when we look at 1 Timothy chapter 4,
we can definitely apply it to the end times
and future events to come,
but let's not lose sight that it's about here right now,
okay?
Even from 2,000 years ago,
this is a true thing to learn about, okay?
So it says in the latter times,
some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to the spiritual and spirits
and doctrines of the devils.
Now, I do believe this is teaching about,
not, yes, about false brethren,
people that might creep into our church
and aren't really saved,
and we might think for a period of time,
they are saved.
Yes, definitely apply it to them.
But this also applies to basically reprobates,
people that have rejected God
and God has rejected them,
they cannot be saved.
And I'll show you some parallel passages
and just prove to you
that this can also apply to reprobates, okay?
Now, if someone departs from the faith,
what does that look like?
What does that mean?
You know, if you can keep your finger there,
and please go to 1 John chapter 2,
go to 1 John chapter 2 and verse number 18,
1 John chapter 2 and verse number 18,
because we don't want to just say,
hey, if someone just leaves our church,
they just don't like our church
for whatever reason, they leave our church.
We don't want to say that this person
is following after the doctrines of devils
and seducing spirits
that we just saw there in verse number 1.
You know, even just a regular person,
we've had people just pop into our church by accident,
thinking that we're going to find some other church there
and they've walked out.
You know, it doesn't mean there's some evil reprobates,
things like that, okay?
But, you know, if you look at 1 John chapter 2, verse 18,
it says, little children, it is the last time,
so that's the same, right?
The latter times, the last days, it is the last time.
And as you have heard that antichrist shall come,
so we know that antichrist
is the beast of the book of Revelation,
but then it says this,
even now are there many antichrists,
whereby we know that it is the last time.
So what does the word antichrist mean?
It means those that are against Christ,
or those that are putting themselves in place of Christ
as the beast will attempt to do.
He will both be against Christ
and put himself in the place of Christ.
But look at verse number 19,
they went out from us, but they were not of us.
So notice that, there are those that were of us,
they were maybe part of our churches,
part of our ministry, part of our work,
but they were not of us,
meaning they weren't even saved to begin with.
For if they had been of us,
they would know they have continued with us,
but they went out that they might be made manifest,
that they were not all of us,
that they were not all of us.
And so it breaks my heart to think that in my church,
there are gonna be people that come in
that we fellowship with,
that we think they're brothers and sisters in the Lord,
and they'll actually depart the faith,
they'll seek the doctrines of the devil's seduction spirits,
and that'll just prove that they were never of us,
they were never saved to begin with.
And the closest example,
we really haven't really had too much of this player
in our church, but the closest example was,
you know, there was a man in his family
attending our church for maybe a month or two,
and then he left our church
and went to the Roman Catholic Church, okay?
And he basically, you know, for a period of time,
I thought this man was saved,
and I would talk to him about the gospel of salvation,
he claimed to have believed that exactly how we said it,
and then he's gone off to the Roman Catholic Church,
thinking, well, that's really the true church of God,
that's where you're going to get the real doctrine.
The same man now doesn't believe that Jesus Christ is God,
you know, he doesn't believe in the deity of Jesus Christ,
and that just proves that he was not of us,
he departed from the faith,
he's gone into a completely different religion,
and now doesn't even know if Jesus is God.
And so, you know, you're going to say,
Pastor Kevin, is that guy a reprobate?
I don't know, okay?
I don't know, I guess, you know, he could be,
you know, he could be, but I don't really know.
But there's something that I just want you to notice
once again there in verse number two,
sorry, in verse number 19, 1 John 2.19,
at the end of it, it says that they might be made manifest
that they were not all of us, okay?
So these people end up manifesting themselves
to not be a brother in the Lord,
they manifest themselves to potentially be a reprobate,
false brethren, false prophets.
This is not something that we need to be overly,
you know, like a hunting for as a church.
Like we don't have to, you know,
if someone walks into our church,
we don't have to be thinking immediately,
like, you know, is this guy some reprobate, right?
Is this guy a false brother in the Lord, right?
It's not something that we need to just be
on this like lookout for, you know,
and just be hunting for that person,
trying to find all the unusual characteristics
and red flags, and right now if red flags pop up,
yeah, that's something to be mindful about.
But the point is these people
end up manifesting themselves, they reveal themselves.
And I'm going to quickly read to you,
actually, if you can turn there,
I'll get you to turn there, turn to Matthew chapter 13,
turn to Matthew chapter 13 and verse number 20,
Matthew 13 and verse number 20.
I just want to show you in this passage that,
you know, people that, you know,
may leave our church for different various reasons,
are not necessarily people
that have departed from the faith, okay?
And so we're going to be looking just quickly here
at the parable of the sower.
And I've really proven to you that
the only one that wasn't saved was the first one,
the first illustration of the parable.
But the following are people that actually got saved.
They're actually are brothers in the Lord.
And it says in Matthew 13 verse 20,
it says, by he that received the seed into stony places,
the same is he that heareth the word,
and unknown with joy receiveth it.
Yet hath not root in himself, but dearer for a while,
for when tribulation or persecution ariseth
because of the word, by and by he is offended.
And it's just somebody that gets offended by the faith.
He gets offended by, you know,
trying to live a Christian life, a Godly life,
because his tribulation, persecution has come his way,
and he's not been able to, he's not mature enough,
he's not been able to deal with it.
You know, being a Christian,
living for the Lord's going to bring persecution.
And, you know, we should be striving to mature
and understand this as part of life,
and understand that we need to make changes in our life
to serve our Lord Jesus Christ, change our mindset.
People that are just not doing that in their life,
they're not maturing,
and when the persecution and tribulation comes,
they might leave the church,
they might even so-called look like
they're leaving the faith,
but really, it just got too hard for them, okay?
It doesn't mean they're not brothers.
Of course, this example here,
this person is a brother in the Lord, right?
He's received the word of God.
Look at verse number 22.
He also that receiveth seed among the thorns is he,
that heareth the word, and the care of this world,
and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word,
and he becometh unfruitful.
And so you have other groups of Christians
that get saved that are our brothers,
and they might be in our church,
they might be in our church for a while,
but then there's too much care about the world,
there's too many problems
that maybe they seek after the deceitfulness of riches.
They realize, man, you know,
I'm better off just making money,
and they just leave the church
because they're just seeking after that.
It doesn't mean they're reprobates
or, you know, they're false brethren.
It's just that, you know, again,
you know, for them, they just saw the world,
and they just thought, you know what,
I want a piece of this world,
and unfortunately, it comes at the expense
of serving our Lord God.
And so once again, we don't want to just go on this hunt
just because some people might have done something unusual.
They might be seeking worldly pleasures,
or they might just be offended
because of troubles and persecution and tribulations.
We shouldn't just jump down this person's throat
and just think of them as some wicked false brother
or reprobate, okay?
Because you're there in Matthew 13,
drop down to verse number 24.
Verse number 24, there's another parable
that Jesus Christ says.
There's a reason why we shouldn't just go hunting
for the reprobate, you know,
just hunting for the false brother, right?
Just looking at our whole church and just thinking,
boy, there must be a reprobate,
there must be a false brother here somewhere in our church.
There could be, there could be, you know,
but, you know, we shouldn't be out on this hunt
because in verse number 24, Matthew 13, 24,
it says, another parable put he forth unto them saying,
the kingdom of heaven is like and unto a man
that sowed good seed in his field,
but while men slept, his enemy came
and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
So we may have tares in our church amongst the wheat, okay?
May you say, well, Pastor Kevin,
let's get rid of those tares if we have some.
Well, let's keep going, verse number 26,
and when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruits,
then appeared the tares also.
So they manifest themselves, right?
Verse number 27, so the servants of the household
who came and said unto him,
sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field?
From whence then hath a tares?
He said unto them, an enemy have done this.
The servants said unto him,
will thou then that we go and gather them up?
Should we go and hunt for these reprobates?
Should we go on the hunt for these false brethren
and pull them out, verse number 29?
And he said, nay, lest while ye gather up the tares,
ye root up also the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest,
and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers,
gather ye together first the tares,
and bind them in bundles to burn them,
but gather the wheat into my barn.
And so notice that, and of course,
look, the primary application of this passage
is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
So amongst this world, there's those that are the wheats,
the true saved of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and then there are those tares,
the ones that claim the name of Christ,
but are not truly for him.
They're anti-Christ as it were,
they're against the Lord,
or they have other things in place of the Lord.
And so the Lord's very careful here,
he gives an illustration here,
we shouldn't just go on this hunt to tear out the tares
because you might accidentally root up the wheats.
And I can understand that, right?
If as a church, we're just trying to hunt
for the false brother,
you might accidentally tear out
a real brother in the Lord, right?
Because in your mind,
he's just got too many characteristics
that make up a false brother,
and really he just might be far from the Lord,
really he just might be an unusual fellow,
really he might just be struggling with sins of the past,
the sins of the flesh that he hasn't really overcome.
And so we don't wanna just go on this hunt
and try to figure out who's Rebbe,
who's a false brother in the Lord.
Please go to Matthew 26 and verse number 20,
Matthew chapter 26 and verse number 20.
My point is these people,
if they exist in our church,
they're going to reveal themselves,
they're going to manifest themselves at a time, okay?
And when they reveal themselves,
that's a time to get them out of the church, okay?
So Matthew 26, verse number 20,
Matthew 26, verse number 20,
Matthew 26, 20 says,
and when the even was come,
he sat down with the 12,
this is Jesus Christ with his disciples,
verse number 21,
and as they did eat,
he said, verily I say unto you,
that one of you shall betray me.
And they were exceedingly sorrowful,
and began every one of them to say unto him,
Lord, is it I?
They're all saying to themselves,
Lord, is it me?
Am I the one that's going to betray you?
You know that they will look amongst themselves,
they go, look, there's no one here.
We know of course,
Judas Iscariot will be the betrayer,
but nobody even thought it'd be Judas, okay?
Verse number 23,
and he answered and said,
he that dippeth his hand with me in the dish,
the same shall betray me.
The son of man goeth as it is written of him,
but woe unto that man
by whom the son of man is betrayed,
it had been good for that man
if he had not been born.
So it's good if Judas was never born,
why? Because he's reprobate,
you know, he's going to die
and burn in the lowest hell
for betraying Jesus Christ.
Verse number 25,
then Judas which betrayed him
answered and said, Master, is it I?
He said unto him, thou hast said.
Okay?
So we have a story here
that, you know, this is another reason
why we don't go around
just trying to figure out
who's the reprobate in our church.
Not only will it hurt
the brethren in our church,
you know, you might pluck out
the brethren by mistake.
But secondly, you know,
these people hide themselves
and they just, they look like
any other brother, okay?
They look like anyone else,
you know, until the ears stick out,
the wolf's ears
and the teeth of the wolf stick out
from the lamb.
We're not going to know, okay?
And you might say, well,
you know, we should do something
about it, Pastor Kevin,
because we could be negligent.
If there is a false brother in our church,
there is a reprobate in our church,
he could cause us harm.
Well, then, you know,
then Jesus was negligent.
Was he negligent?
No, he had three years
with his 12 disciples.
One of them never believed in him.
One of them was of the devil.
One of them was a reprobate.
And yet he was able
to continue his ministry
for three years,
having this guy in the midst of him
until he revealed himself
to be the betrayer.
Of course, Jesus Christ knew
because he's the Lord God.
The point is, brethren,
that, you know,
we're not always going to know.
It's not our job
to go around hunting
and figuring out who's the false brother.
You know, I hope there is none.
I hope right now in our church,
there is no false brethren in our church.
I hope we're all truly saved.
But hey, it can be
that we have a Judas Iscariot in the midst.
And in light of that truth,
you need to be careful
with how you conduct
yourself in the church.
You need to be careful
with your families.
You know, parents,
be careful with your children.
Don't leave them unsupervised.
You don't know
what kind of wicked person
might come alongside them
and do whatever they might like.
You know, be careful
about how much you allow people
to enter into your personal life
because you don't know
what they're going to take
and use against you potentially
or or share secrets to other people
and and, you know,
gossip about you and tear you down.
You know, you've got to be mindful.
Now, I hope once again,
our church is full of brothers
and sisters in the Lord.
We are commanded to love one another.
But just be careful
because there might be a Judas Iscariot
in our midst.
We don't know.
It's not our job
to hunt that person,
but they'll reveal themselves
in that time
if we have somebody like that.
All right.
Back to First Timothy chapter four
and verse number two.
Okay, so what is the Holy Spirit
speaking and speaking expressively about
people that depart from the faith,
people that infiltrate good churches
and at the end of the day,
they bring in their strange doctrines,
their seducing spirits,
doctrines of devils
and they reveal themselves.
You'll find your New Testament's
full of this teaching.
Be careful of the kind of preachers.
Be careful of the kind of people
that you're amongst.
Okay, because there might very well
be someone that is false.
Verse number two
about these false brethren.
It says speaking lies in hypocrisy.
Having their conscience
seared with a hot iron.
And that's talking about a reprobate.
Having their conscience seared,
meaning they don't have a conscience.
You know, it's basically
the psychopath once again, right?
The psychopath has no empathy.
Their conscience is seared.
You know, we even understand this
in the scientific realm
of mental studies.
The psychopath is the person
that has their conscience seared, right?
They don't have the same kind of
emotional and natural affections
toward their fellow man.
Now, I just want to prove to you
that this is talking about reprobates, right?
Because I'm going to quickly read to you
from Romans 2.14.
Romans 2.14 says,
And when the Gentiles,
which have not the law,
so here we're talking about just
regular, unsaved people, okay,
which have not the law,
but, sorry, do by nature
the things containing the law,
these having not the law,
are a law unto themselves,
which show the work of the Lord
written in their hearts,
their conscience
also bearing witness.
You see, the Lord God has put his laws
in the hearts of everybody.
Whether you're with the law,
whether you have the Bible with you
or you're without the law,
whether you're somebody that,
in that time, that did not know of Christ,
people knew the laws of God in their hearts
and their own conscience
bore witness of this truth, okay?
There are just some things
people know is wrong.
People in general know murder is wrong.
People in general know that theft is wrong.
They don't have to read it in the Bible.
There are certain truths,
certain laws of God
that it's in the heart of men.
And again, everybody's hearts,
whether you're saved or unsaved,
will bear witness
that those laws in our heart are true.
All right?
And then, when we look at the reprobate,
what happens to their reprobate?
What happens to his conscience?
It's seared, right?
It no longer bears witness of the laws of God.
This is why they're full of unrighteousness,
why they're full of wickedness.
And this is why they just love
to just enter into a church
and see how they can defile the church,
how they can hurt the church,
and just be careful.
Be careful. We don't know.
We don't know if we have one in our midst.
Can you please go to 2 Timothy 3?
Go to 2 Timothy 3, verse number 7.
I know we're going through 1 Timothy,
but go to 2 Timothy 3, verse number 7,
because Paul teaches Timothy about this again
in his second epistle to Timothy.
In 2 Timothy 3, verse number 7,
2 Timothy 3, verse number 7 says,
Ever learning, and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth.
Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses,
so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds
reprobate concerning the faith.
But look at verse number 9.
But they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifest
unto all men as theirs also was.
Notice once again,
these people will manifest themselves.
One day they're going to sleep up.
One day they're going to do something so horrific
that they're clearly going to be seen as a reprobate.
Reprobate concerning the faith,
never coming to the knowledge of the truth.
Many of these people were never saved.
They don't understand the Lord God.
They hate the Lord.
They hate the people of God.
Hey, these people will reveal themselves one day.
Okay, but again,
their folly will be manifest to all men.
It'll be so obvious
that these people are reprobates,
haters of God, haters of good churches
that are trying to serve the Lord God.
Once again, we don't have to go on a hunt
for this person, okay?
We just allow themselves to manifest themselves,
by remembering, protect yourselves,
protect your families,
love the brethren,
but be careful about the people that,
you know, little children,
be careful of, you know, dads, husbands,
you know, careful with your wives,
you know, don't leave your wives alone
with some man in the church,
you know, just be careful.
If you can also have a look at
2 Timothy chapter 3,
you're there already,
but look at verse number 1.
I'll just show you how this is a parallel passage
because it says there in verse number 1,
this also know that in the last days,
perilous times shall come.
So again, the last days,
the last times, the latter times,
again and again and again.
So these people have not come
to the knowledge of the truth, right?
They're seeking the truth,
they're trying to find the truth,
but they're unable to come to that knowledge.
All right, let's go back to
1 Timothy chapter 4, verse number 3.
1 Timothy 4, 3.
Now we're going to have a list of some
strange doctrines,
doctrines of devils, the Bible calls it,
okay, that certain churches
and some people are going to teach,
that people will find seducing, right?
Verse number 3,
forbidding to marry.
Now, if you've been in my church for some time,
you know how much I preach about marriage,
how much I preach about family, right?
Get married.
If you're single, please, you know,
go to the Lord in prayer,
ask him to find you somebody,
you know, in due time,
the Lord will bring someone into your life
and, you know, please get married, okay?
I don't want to be teaching you,
hey, don't get married,
forbidding to get married.
This is, you know, the teachings of the devils,
doctrines of devils,
and commanding to abstain from meats.
If I teach, hey, don't eat certain foods,
all right, if I come here
trying to teach some vegetarian diets,
hey, church, we got to be vegetarians,
don't eat me, right?
Adam and Eve, they were vegetarian,
we got to be like that,
that's God's initial creation,
that's what we should be striving for,
stop eating meats.
If I'm doing that, brethren,
I'm teaching doctrines of devils.
That should be a red flag, all right,
that it's a false brother in the Lord.
It says, which God, about meats,
which God have created to be received
with thanksgiving of them,
which believe and know the truth.
So if you believe and know the truth,
whatever you get served on the plate,
I don't care if it's organic or not organic, okay?
I don't care if it's a nice fried chicken
or if it's a cane toad,
do you guys eat cane toads up there?
I don't know.
Whatever it is, brethren,
you receive it with thanksgiving,
say thank you God
for this meal that I'm about to eat.
I don't think you can eat cane toads,
they're poison, aren't they?
But yeah.
Look, when you think about this,
when you think about churches and people
that teach not to marry,
forbidding to marry,
the first church that I think about
is of course the Roman Catholic Church.
And I looked up Wikipedia,
I didn't do too much research,
Wikipedia is a very basic level of research, right?
But Wikipedia article on clerical celibacy, right?
I'll just read to you an article here.
It says celibacy for religious and monastics,
that's monks and sisters and nuns,
and for bishops,
remember we looked at the qualifications of a bishop
just yesterday, last week, sorry,
is upheld by the Catholic Church
and the traditions of both Eastern Orthodoxy
and Oriental Orthodoxy.
Bishops must be unmarried men or widowers.
A married man cannot become a bishop.
Bishops must be unmarried.
And so look, it's not just the Roman Catholic Church,
even your Buddhist monks, right?
There's a few Buddhist monks
that I see in my local area here,
then the Fairfield area.
And yeah, even when it comes to Buddhist monks,
they're not allowed to be married.
They're not allowed to be married men.
And yet, if we just look back
at 1 Timothy 3, verse number two,
1 Timothy 3, verse number two,
it says a bishop then must be blameless,
the husband of one wife, right?
The bishop must be the husband of one wife,
says the Bible.
The Roman Catholic says,
no, the bishop must not be married, okay?
So what do we learn about the Roman Catholic Church?
Seducing spirits, doctrines of devils, okay?
You're not gonna get the truth in the Roman Catholic.
I don't care how big that church is.
I don't care how rich that church is.
It's full of doctrines of devils.
And look, those priests and those bishops,
a bunch of them are just homosexual pedophiles anyway, okay?
They don't wanna get married.
They wanna seek little children.
So please stay away from those kinds of churches.
Let's keep going, verse number four,
1 Timothy 4, four.
For every creature of God is good
and nothing to be refused
if it were received with thanksgiving.
For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
So if someone offers you a meal,
you get down seat, brethren,
just don't refuse it either.
Thank God that you've got a meal, right?
Make sure you remember to pray.
Thank God before you've had the meal.
Sanctify the meal by the word of God and prayer.
Please, God, please bless this food to our bodies.
Please bless the hands that made it.
Thank you for your provisions.
We need to get in the habit
of just thanking God every time
we're about to partake of a meal, all right?
Now, can you keep your finger then?
Go to 1 Corinthians 10.
Go to 1 Corinthians 10, verse number 25.
1 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse number 25.
And you know what, when it comes to eating,
whatever it is that is being offered,
the one that I find Christians struggle with the most
is food or meats that are offered unto idols.
And people often ask the question,
should I eat food that is offered unto idols?
And the answer is both yes and no, okay?
It boils down to conscience, a conscience level, okay?
But it doesn't boil down to your own personal conscience.
It boils down to the conscience of others
that may be watching you, witnessing you, eating that food, okay?
So let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number 25.
1 Corinthians 10, 25 basically reinforces
what we read there in 1 Timothy 4, which says,
whatsoever is sold in the shambles or the markets,
they eat.
So whatever sold, just eat it.
Asking no question for conscience sake.
Don't ask, has this food been offered to an idol?
Just buy it and eat it and shut up, all right?
That's what it's saying there, right?
Verse number 26,
for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
It all belongs to God.
At the end of the day, brethren, it all belongs to God.
Even food that's been offered unto idol,
you know, it belongs to God.
The fullness of the earth is the Lord's, right?
Verse number 27,
if any of them that believe not bid you to a feast.
So if you're invited to a party of someone
that is a non-believer, you know, this might be,
you might be invited to a wedding, you know, a wedding,
and you might have the reception and some food,
and the people might not be saved,
but you know them, they might be family.
So you go to support, you know,
I think you should go to weddings
because there's not many people getting married these days.
But anyway, you know, you go to something like that
and you'd be disposed to go.
Whatsoever is set before you eat,
asking no question for conscience sake.
Once again, just eat it.
Someone offers you food, even if it's a non-believer,
just eat of it.
Verse number 28,
but if any man say unto you,
this is offered in sacrifice unto idols,
eat not for his sake that showed it,
and for conscience sake,
for the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.
Okay, so if you come and you're about to eat,
sit down for a meal, someone offers you some food
and says, you know what, we're offering this food.
Let's just pray right now unto Allah
or let's just pray right now to name your false God.
Okay, and he starts praying.
You know what, at that point,
that's when you refuse the food
that's been offered unto an idol.
Okay, you refuse it.
Why, for who, who do you refuse it?
It says, eat not for his sake that showed it.
So the person that came to offer you food, right,
don't eat it for his sake.
Okay, meaning that if you eat of it,
he's gonna think that, you know,
you're not sound on your beliefs,
that you don't really care about the Lord
and you're just willing to participate
of celebrations that belong to some other God.
And so, you know, if we're dealing with unbelievers,
who should be striving to win them to the Lord,
he might be thinking that he's winning you to his God.
Okay, so that's the point where you would refuse
something that's been offered unto an idol
when what you're about to partake of
is clearly in worship of that false God.
Verse number 29.
Conscience, I say, not by knowing,
this is not for you,
but you could actually eat of it.
You know, you could actually eat of it
because, you know, the fullness,
what did it say again?
The earth is the Lord's and the fullness of it.
You could eat of it.
It's not gonna do anything to you, okay?
Conscience, I'd say, not by knowing,
not your conscience, but of the other.
For why is my liberty judge of another man's conscience?
So once again, for the man that's offered you the food,
you don't wanna participate
of something offered unto idols,
so they know that, hey, no,
I'm serving my Lord God, not your gods.
Number two, there might be other Christians
that are observing you, okay?
And they see you eating food
that's been clearly offered unto idols
and it could cause their conscience to become,
you know, corrupted or something like that, okay?
And so that's basically the answer.
You know, people often ask the question,
can we eat food offered unto idols?
Yes, you can.
Just eat of it, shut up, don't talk about it.
Just, you know, don't even think
about what it's been offered to.
You know, there was a time
when I was going soloing in Punchbowl for a long time.
A lot of Muslims,
just constantly Muslim after Muslim after Muslim.
They would always be very nice
and they'd offer us food.
If I go with my kids,
I'd give them drinks and lollies and chips
and who knows what, once I went
and the man offered me some barbecue chicken
because it's about lunchtime.
You know what?
I didn't ask him, hey, did you offer this to Allah?
Okay, I just took it.
Thanks, you know, ate of it.
Appreciate it and moved on, all right?
Was it offered unto Allah?
Maybe, I don't know.
But I'm not gonna ask the question, all right?
I'm not gonna give him the satisfaction
that I wanna know
whether it's been offered to a false god or not.
And so it doesn't bother my conscience, but yeah,
you know, if it's clearly something that's been,
you know, praised to some false god,
then we should refuse eating foods
that have been offered unto idols.
Back to 1 Timothy, please, chapter four, verse number six.
1 Timothy chapter four, verse number six.
It says, if thou put the brethren
in remembrance of these things.
So if I, brethren, if I keep teaching you,
hey, you know, get married and I teach you,
hey, just eat anything that's been offered to you.
If I do these things,
thou shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
Yes, being a good minister of Jesus Christ
is not that difficult, right?
Get married, eat whatever you want, okay?
Woo-hoo, good minister.
Okay, so we see some of the instructions here
for a pastor, right?
So these are things I should be teaching the church
because there are so many false religions,
so many corrupt people that teach otherwise.
But that's what it says here.
Thou shall be a good minister of Jesus Christ,
nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine
whereunto thou hast attained, all right?
So it's easy to fall under the category
of a good minister here.
But then what about these other churches
that tell you not to get married
or they tell you not to eat off certain foods, okay?
So instead of them being made up of good ministers,
what do they have?
They've got evil ministers, right?
The Roman Catholic Church has evil ministers.
The Orthodox Church has evil ministers.
Buddhism is made up of evil ministers.
The Jews, they've got their evil ministers, right?
They don't eat their pork, right?
They're telling you to refuse certain foods.
They teach you to refuse certain foods.
They're evil ministers.
Islam, they've got similar dietary requirements like Jews.
Hey, they're also evil ministers.
The sensei Adventists,
I can't remember what their restrictions are,
but they try to get people to basically be vegetarian
or just to eat the clean meats,
basically follow the Old Testament dietary laws, okay?
Well, the sensei Adventists are made up
of evil ministers.
And even the Mormons are made up of evil ministers
because they say, don't drink tea or coffee, okay?
So people are trying to stop you from eating, all right?
Or telling you not to get married.
Hey, those churches, those religions
are made up of evil ministers.
It's not hard to be a good minister.
I mean, this is something very easy to teach.
And so it's amazing how far they get
from the word of God,
these religions and these people.
The other thing I want you to notice in verse number six
is nourished up in the words of faith
and of good doctrine.
It's interesting how it uses these words
because we know that, you know,
when it comes to the words of faith, good doctrine,
Bible teaching, this is basically spiritual food
for the brethren, okay?
And so I also, you know,
not only are we learning a kind of lesson here,
we're also learning a spiritual lesson here
that we need to feed ourselves the word of God.
Matthew 4, the words of Christ, it says,
and he answered and said,
it is written, man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God, okay?
So every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God.
We ought to feed ourselves every word,
every verse, every chapter,
every book is for your spiritual food.
So what else can we learn from this?
If there are ministers teaching,
false religions teaching, don't eat of certain foods.
And now we learn a spiritual lesson to this.
And if someone's saying to you,
don't eat of certain books of the Bible,
don't eat of certain chapters, what are they also?
They're also evil ministers.
They're also teaching doctrines of devils.
And yes, we even have these people in Baptist style,
Baptist or Baptistic style churches.
Well, they'll say to you,
well, that book of the Bible is not for you.
That passage, that's for the Jews.
That are the book of revelation, that's not for you.
That's for the tribulation saints,
the book of revelation, okay?
What are they doing?
They're forbidding you from eating, as it were,
the words of God, all the words of God,
and saying, that's not for you, don't eat of that.
That's for other people to eat of, not for you.
Well, then again, if you have that kind of preacher
behind the pulpit, you're consuming doctrines of devils.
Again, once again, you're taking heed
to seducing spirits.
It's so sad when you see that kind of teaching
take place in a Baptist church.
Let's keep going, verse number seven.
But refuse profane and owed wives fables,
and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
Now, I preached on godliness on Sunday.
There was a lot, actually, in 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy
about godliness, but I tried not to cover it too much
in the sermon, because we can learn
a little bit more here.
But basically, you have a choice, what I'm saying here.
You can either go for the profane and owed wives fables,
or you can go after godliness.
And of course, we ought to be striving after godliness.
Meaning, we should refuse profane and owed wives fables.
Fables, what is fable again?
Fables are a made up story, it's not true, okay?
Even if you go back to 1 Timothy chapter one,
if you look at it again, 1 Timothy chapter one,
verse number four, it says,
"'Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies.'"
Okay, it's mentioned twice in this one book.
You know, I think fables are attractive.
That's what I think, okay?
You know, this is where we get, owed wives fables,
this terminology that we still use today.
Let me just give you some examples of owed wives fables
that people tend to think about.
You know, something that often happens,
because, you know, we've had the 11 kids,
so we've heard this a lot.
We've heard it over and over again
by so many different ladies.
They'll say something like, when my wife is pregnant,
they'll say, well, if the baby's heart rate
is under 140 beats per minute, it's a boy.
You know what?
That's fake, that's fake news, okay?
So many ladies talk about that though, okay?
They'll say, if you have extra weight at the front,
it means you have a girl.
But if you put weight around your hips and your bottom,
it means it's a boy.
Fake news, owed wives fables, okay?
It's not true.
If a woman is carrying low, it's a boy.
And if she's carrying high, it's a girl.
Ode wives fables, not true, okay?
I'm sure some of you have heard these as well, okay?
Because they're very common, they still exist today.
What about this one?
Wait an hour after eating before swimming.
Fake, okay?
There's no damage done if you go swimming
after you've had a meal.
Spicy foods can cause ulcers.
Fake news, brethren.
Eating carrots will improve your eyesight.
Fake, okay?
Fake news, these are owed wives fables.
Now you shouldn't eat your carrots, children,
if you're gonna turn around to your parents.
No, eat your carrots, they're good for you, okay?
But it's not going to improve your eyesight.
If you go outside with wet hair, you'll catch a cold.
Have you heard that one?
If you go outside with wet hair, you'll catch a cold.
Ode wives fables, not true, okay?
I just went looking online for some owed wives fables
that I've heard myself,
and it's funny how they're all fake, okay?
The people, they love the fables.
They love these made-up stories
rather than seeking godliness.
You see, it's one or the other.
Instead of getting caught up
with all this nonsense and rubbish, fables,
hey, seek after godliness, seek after godliness.
You know, sometimes you hear in churches,
people bring up the Book of Enoch.
Hey, that's an old wives fable, it's a fable.
It's not a book of the Bible.
It's not inspired by the Holy Ghost, it's made up.
You know, if Enoch truly wrote a book,
it would be utterly destroyed by now, okay?
You can barely get copies of the Bible
in the times of Christ, they don't exist, okay?
Copies of books, you know, we have just recent copies
after copies of, probably we have recent translations
that make up our King James Bible.
Going back all the way to Enoch trying to find his book,
it's gone, it's destroyed.
Even if you found that book, as soon as you touch it,
it'll be disintegrated, okay?
There is no book of Enoch, okay?
And people come up, there's another fables,
other fables that people love to read about,
and then they try to understand the Bible
with the lens of the Book of Enoch.
But then we have, in our modern day,
we have, as I said, there's a lot of fables
in our mainstream media, a lot of lies,
a lot of things that are untrue,
but then people turn to the alternative media
and it's full of fables as well, full of fables as well.
You know, just, I don't know what I was doing.
I went through something, I found, I think it was YouTube.
I'm pretty sure it was a YouTube video, just by accident.
I was just going through a few things and it popped up,
and it was about the moon.
You know, some new moon theories, right?
And I clicked on it and I was saying
that the moon is hollow.
You know, I don't know if it's a flat earth thing
or not, I don't know.
But I was saying the moon is hollow
and actually it's an ancient spaceship from long ago.
And you know, what's the mystery behind the moon?
What, you know, we only,
we don't see the dark side of the moon, you know?
There might be all cities and construction going on
on that side of it, who knows?
Fables, people just make up nonsense and they love it.
They love this nonsense.
There's a guy, many of you guys are aware of,
his name is Bill McGregor, Bill McGregor.
He's in Canada, he's a preacher in Canada,
the son of a pastor.
I think he was a pastor himself and he failed,
he got divorced and got remarried
and he's still trying to be a pastor today.
All right, I mean, he's disqualified.
This guy is full of fables, old life fables.
The reason I'm bringing him up
is because I preached at his church three years ago
in Toronto, Canada.
I was invited to preach there,
I preached two sermons at his church.
At the time, I didn't know.
At the time, I thought he was a brother in the Lord.
Hey, these people eventually they manifest themselves,
right?
They manifest, they reveal themselves for their foolishness.
You know, Bill McGregor teaches that the COVID vaccine
is the mark of the beast.
Wow!
You know, he's teaching that Donald Trump's son-in-law
is the Antichrist.
Can't remember the guy's name, some Jewish guy.
He's teaching that new Jerusalem, heavily Jerusalem,
the city of God is currently being constructed,
I believe in Saturn is what he said.
Or it might be some other planet.
He says, in Saturn, God is creating new Jerusalem
right now.
And most recently, he predicted that New York
was going to be nuked.
The city of New York, he made a false prophecy,
a false prediction.
He said that New York city was going to be nuked.
Like, you know, nuclear bombs, you know,
what was it, a month ago?
I can't remember when it happened, right?
Or when he said it was gonna happen.
It never happened, Brevin.
That's right, on the anniversary of September 11,
it was meant to happen.
Hasn't happened.
We're now near the end of October.
Has not yet happened.
You know that Bill McGregor is full of fables.
He's a false prophet.
You know, he's a reprobate.
Yes, that's what he is, okay?
Because he's ever learning,
never coming to the knowledge of the truth.
And so, as I said, these people eventually,
they just reveal themselves for their wickedness.
Let's keep going, verse number eight.
First Timothy chapter four, verse number eight.
For bodily exercise, profit of little,
but godliness is profitable unto all things.
So, hey, don't forget the sermon on Sunday.
Godliness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life that now is,
and of that which is to come, okay?
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all expectation.
Working toward godliness is something that is worthy
for all of you to accept.
This is not just something for pastors,
not just for people that take on full-time ministries
in the local church.
It's for all of us.
We should all accept this truth
that godliness is profitable unto all things.
In what sense?
Well, verse number eight, let's look at it again.
For bodily exercise, profit of little, okay?
Is this saying it's wrong
to go and exercise this physical body?
No, okay?
There is profit in exercising this body.
You'll be healthier.
You'll be able to do more for the Lord
in this physical body.
You might even increase how much you can live
by taking care of this body.
But you don't want to become obsessed about that
because the profit of it is little
in comparison to godliness, okay?
So what is it comparing?
Because it said godliness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life that now is.
So it's profitable for now,
this life that you're living in right now,
and it's profitable of that which is to come.
It's godliness is also profitable for eternity, all right?
So if you can only choose between one of the two,
do I work on bodily exercise
or do I work toward godliness?
You're better off, if you can only choose
between one or two,
you're better off working on the godliness
because it's profitable now
and it's profitable for the future,
whereas bodily exercise is only profitable now, okay?
On the surface, it's not gonna, you know,
when you get to heaven,
God's not going to turn around and say,
hey, you know, how much did you lift?
And here's your reward.
You know, here's your reward
for lifting 100 kilograms or whatever, right?
God's, you're not gonna be rewarded for that
in eternity.
Everybody profits you on this earth, okay?
But again, what we do on this earth,
it's just little in comparison to eternity.
So please, you know, if the people, you know,
that go to the gym and work out
and take care of your body,
please remind yourself, yes, it's fine,
but it's only gonna profit me little.
I need to make sure that I work toward godliness.
That's truly what God is going to be pleased about.
Verse number 10.
For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach
because we trust in the living God
who is the savior of all men,
especially of those that believe.
And so we already saw that if you live for godliness,
that you're going to suffer persecution.
Basically, it's teaching us the same thing once again,
for we both labor, we work toward this godliness
and we suffer reproach
when we do live in accordance to God's way.
You know, the world does not love godliness.
They don't love you like you live in after God's will.
But what we get taught here in verse number 10
is that Jesus Christ or God is the savior of all men,
once again, and especially of those that believe.
You know, for those of us that believe in Jesus Christ,
he's our savior, absolutely, right?
But he's the savior of all men.
You know, Christ has come to die for all men.
And that includes people that are going
to celebrate Halloween this weekend.
I believe it's this weekend.
And you guys have a ministry,
a soul winning ministry on Halloween, okay?
Please remind yourself,
even though you might see wickedness,
you might see people dressed up like devils and witches
and the works of darkness.
You know what?
Christ still came to die for these people
and they deserve to hear the gospel,
hear the gospel from God's people.
Let's keep going.
Verse number 11, these things command and teach.
So that, you know, I'm getting the instruction
from Paul here.
As a pastor, what am I supposed to do?
You know, command you and teach you of these things.
Verse number 12, let no man despise thy youth.
This is quite interesting.
Timothy is young, but he's also an elder, right?
In order to be a pastor, you had to be an elder as well.
And so, you know, we think about, you know,
I've heard people say, you know,
you shouldn't become a pastor until you're well into age,
like until you're like 40 or 50, you know,
you've lived a long time and people look at you
and say, yes, you're an elderly person.
No, no, no, no, no.
Okay, remember elder basically just means
he's mature in the faith, okay?
And yes, that he's lived his life to some extent.
Okay, he might be in his 20s.
Ideally, I reckon the 30s is ideal.
You know, Jesus Christ studied ministry when he was 30.
I think that's a good pattern to follow.
We don't have like a command,
you've got to be 30 to get into full-time ministry,
but I think it's a good pattern to follow, right?
So yeah, you know, that person would still
be considered young by the majority
of the population of this world.
Don't let people despise you because you're young
if you're serving the Lord,
but be thou an example of the believers in word,
in conversation, in charity, in spirit,
in faith, in purity.
You know, I hope that I can be that example for you.
I hope you guys see in me, you know,
qualities of a matured Christian.
I hope you see qualities in my words that I speak,
in my lifestyle, in my charity, my care for the brethren,
my spirit, my faith, my purity.
I hope I've got these things on show enough
that you guys can look at me and say, you know what?
That pastor Kevin, here's a good example.
Here's a good example of the believers, okay?
So I'm never going to replace Jesus Christ.
I'm still gonna make mistakes.
I don't want to replace Jesus Christ.
Amen, that's a heavy burden, amen?
You know what?
Our eyes ought to be on Jesus Christ,
but it's wonderful when God has given us faithful men,
faithful, you know, ladies, faithful families
that we can look at and say, hey,
this is a good example of a believer.
This is a good example of a safe family
serving the Lord.
It encourages me to try to live after
that godliness as well.
And I hope, you know, I mean,
I can't really be a judge of that myself,
but I hope you guys can look at that
and determine whether I'm sort of up to that level
where, you know, I'm this example of the believers.
Verse number 13, till I come,
give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
So here we learn of other responsibilities
that are required by the pastor.
And again, sometimes these things are not seen.
Generally speaking, again, the works of the pastor
is usually seen when he just preaches behind a pulpit,
when he gets to church
and serves the brethren in that capacity.
But you notice that pastors are to give attendance
to reading.
Now, we should all be given attendance to reading.
I mean, we should all be reading the Bible.
Pastors shouldn't get to a point where,
all right, I've read, you know, the Bible five times
and now I'm ready to be a pastor
and now I don't have to read it anymore
and I can put it down.
Pastors should continue to give their time
to just reading God's word, to exhortation.
This is to build up the brethren, right?
I want to preach sermons where,
yeah, you gain some knowledge,
but at the same time,
you're encouraged to live godly, you know,
that I build you up in knowledge,
but also in a zeal to serve the Lord with your life.
I hope that's the case.
You know, when people ring me
and they're downcast and stressed and worried,
my hope is that I've edified you.
I hope that I've exhorted you, I've built you up, right?
To continue serving God for another day.
Again, that's a job of a pastor.
And then it says to doctrine, to teaching, right?
To doctrine.
And so again, this ties in with the,
not just the reading of God's word,
but the study of God's word.
Putting a sermon together
should not be a 10 minute preparation time.
Putting a sermon together
shouldn't just be me listening
to some other preacher online,
just parroting what other preachers are saying.
You know, the doctrine should be study.
You know, when I preach,
I hope you guys see that I put the study in, right?
I mean, I'm not saying
that I'm the best preacher in the world,
but I hope you realize that I try to dig in deep.
You know, I do the best I can
to bring out the words of God for you.
And that's because I've done the study.
I've done the study,
not just for myself,
but for the brethren.
I wanna feed you God's word once again,
you know, where to eat,
the spiritual food,
all the words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at verse number 14.
Neglect not the gifts that is in thee.
So there is a gift within every pastor, okay?
It says, which was given thee by prophecy
with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
So when a man has been ordained into a position,
we know the process of the laying of the hands upon him.
At that time, the person receives a gift.
And you know,
it doesn't expand necessarily what that gift is.
But I do believe by just looking
at the surrounding passages,
that gift is the better ability
to understand God's word and to teach God's word.
And again, I do believe when I was ordained,
I received that gift.
I didn't start speaking in tongues.
I didn't start having visions.
But after I got ordained,
you know, and I've shared it with you before,
but once I got ordained,
I decided to read my Bible again,
you know, getting ready for sermons,
getting ready to go to Sunshine Coast.
And for some reason,
the Bible was just so much more open to me.
I just understood it much more.
It's like I had read the Bible maybe 10 more times
just over the last week or so, right?
And it just became so much more obvious to me.
And I, you know, I just say, that's the gift.
That must be the gift that's been referred to
in this passage.
Now, what does the word presbytery mean there?
Because, you know, the Presbyterian Church
will take that word presbytery,
and that's why they named their church that way.
The presbytery is basically the religious leaders
that make up the church.
You know, some churches might have multiple pastors
or pastors and deacons, for example.
And so that, you know, the leaders in the church,
they make up that presbytery.
And yeah, you know,
there are different ways to ordain somebody.
You know, some people think, well,
in order for you to be truly ordained,
you must have several men who have laid their hands on you
and sent you out.
Well, yeah, that would be the presbytery situation.
So Timothy was ordained by multiple elders,
multiple pastors, okay?
But if you just keep your finger there
and go to Titus chapter one,
Titus chapter one, verse number five.
Titus chapter one and verse number five.
I was ordained by one man.
Titus chapter one, verse number five.
I'll just show you this.
And I love the comparison, right?
Timothy ordained by many men.
And then you've got Titus chapter one, verse number five.
For this cause left I thee in Crete
that thou should have said in order
the things that are wanting to ordain elders
in every city as I had appointed thee.
So in Titus, we actually have Titus being ordained
by one man, by Paul, okay?
And then Titus is the only guy left in Crete
to ordain elders.
So the next elder he ordains
is just gonna be one guy, Titus,
ordaining the next pastor, okay?
So by looking at Titus and looking at Timothy,
you know, it basically shows us
that there are two ways to be ordained.
Yes, if you've got multiple leaders in your church,
yeah, let all the leaders
ordain that man and send him out.
We have some examples of that in the book of Acts.
Hey, but if all you have is the one pastor
and he's sending that person out to be a pastor
inside a church, hey, that's also good as well, okay?
It was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for Titus,
it was good enough for the man
that Titus will ordain next.
So there's a one by one by one.
So, you know, again,
because there are people that just say, you know,
that you've got to have multiple elders
to have a real ordination, not so.
Titus is the example of that.
Both forms are accepted.
Verse number 15, 1 Timothy 4.15.
"'Meditate upon these things,
"'give thyself wholly to them,
"'that thy profiting may appear to all.'"
Again, this is two pastors, okay?
"'A pastor should meditate on the words of God,
"'giving due diligence, studying, growing,
"'giving himself wholly to them.'"
You know, it was a wonderful thing
when I was able to, you know,
just commit myself completely to the work of God.
"'And then thy profiting may appear to all.'"
So you should see within me,
you should see within whatever pastor you have,
a maturity that I'm growing,
that I'm personally learning,
that I'm getting better.
I'm teaching better sermons, right?
I'm more, I don't know,
I've just got more experience as time goes on.
And, you know, if you see that in me,
if you see a level of maturity,
if you see more knowledge,
well, that shows you that I am giving myself wholly
to the work of God.
You know, my sermons in 2021 should be better
than my sermons in 2017.
They should be, all right?
Now, you know, you can go back
and listen to those early sermons if you really want to,
but it'd be even better
if you listen to the sermons today
that we have this year,
because I've had those four years to develop
and to personally profit from in my personal growth.
Verse number 16, take heed unto thyself.
So, you know, listen to yourself.
This is why sometimes we will get up
to preach behind the pulpit
and then say, you know,
I'm really preaching this to myself.
Yeah, that can happen, right?
As I'm putting sermons together,
sometimes I just am preaching to myself.
Take heed unto yourself, thyself.
Look after yourself, all right?
And unto the doctrine, continuing them,
then notice this, for in doing this,
thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
You know, pastors should be focused
on their own personal growth,
not just on the personal growth of others.
You know, pastors should be looking after their families,
their wives, their children,
not just thinking about the wives
and the children of other members, all right?
If a pastor takes care of himself
or the things that God has given him,
the church, his own personal study,
it's going to profit everybody.
You know, there are so many pastors
that have concerned themselves,
overly concerned themselves with the families of the church
and you know, they're out counseling,
they're spending hours and hours
with people of the church
and then their marriage is full of heart,
their children leave the church,
they don't care about God.
I mean, it's happened so many times, brethren,
over and over and over again.
And I would look at these examples of pastors
before I became a pastor and say, you know,
boy, I don't want that to happen to me.
You know, I had to get to the point
where I said, you know what, no,
I'm putting my family first, okay?
And if my ministry is causing problems to my family,
then I'm going to look after my family first.
If I've got myself together, my family,
our spiritual growth moving forward,
then that's going to benefit the rest of the church.
You know, if I allow my marriage to fall apart,
if I allow my children to basically
not care about church and go into the world,
it's going to cause damage to the church, isn't it?
People are going to go, hey, this is the guy
that's supposed to be the example of the believers
and look how his life has fallen apart, right?
And that'll cause heartbreak.
And you know, there wouldn't be that level of respect
that you would normally see in a past.
And so it's so important that,
and you know, I would say this even for yourself,
brethren, you know,
we can sometimes be overly concerned for the brethren
that we have in church and we should be,
we should look after them,
but not at the expense of your own spiritual life,
not at the expense of your own marriage
and your own children, you know, and your own property.
And the more you profit, the more you grow in the Lord,
you'll be a greater blessing to those around you.