Let's look back at verse number eight, if we would.
The Bible reads,
Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses,
so do these also resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith,
but they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifest unto all men,
as theirs also was.
But thou has fully known my doctrine,
manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering,
charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions,
which came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
What persecutions I endured!
But out of them all the Lord delivered me.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
Now I wanted to focus on this passage very greatly
and look at verse 10 where it says,
But thou has fully known my doctrine.
The title of my sermon tonight is fully known.
What does it mean to be fully known?
We see an interesting list here that Paul gives us.
I think this list is a great list to know a great pastor,
a great preacher, a great evangelist.
He's saying this is a list of things that you can tell
who's a good pastor and who's not a good pastor.
We, you know, I preach some sermons
like testing the spirits and trying the spirits,
preaching against, you know, the false prophets
and ways to discern who they are.
But I want to focus this sermon more on
what it is to be a good pastor,
what it is to be a righteous pastor,
what it is to be fully known according to this passage.
So the first point there was his doctrine.
You know, today, when it comes to 1 and 2 Timothy,
when it comes to these books of the Bible,
churches today are terrified to read these entire passages.
They would avoid these like the plague.
Now there might be a few verses here
that are really popular that they'll turn to
that they'll quote from,
but they would be terrified to read every single excerpt
of 1 Timothy, of 2 Timothy.
There's portions of that passage
they don't want to touch with a 10 foot pole.
I'm talking about even Baptist churches,
let alone the ones outside of the Baptist church.
I mean, they would never read the King James Bible
in 1 and 2 Timothy.
There's so many things condemning all the stuff that they do.
And it says today, you know, the pastors,
the evangelists, the Bible teachers today,
they're afraid of people fully knowing who they are.
They're afraid of people fully knowing what they believe.
They're afraid of people actually knowing
what it is that they think.
What the Bible teaches, what they know.
They're afraid of it.
But in 1 Timothy 4, the Bible said,
let no man despise thy youth,
but be thou an example of the believers
and word and conversation and charity and spirit
and faith and purity,
till I come and give attendance
to reading the exhortation of doctrine.
The point of a good pastor is to be an example.
He's not to just hide who he is,
hide what he knows,
hide all the things that he's doing.
No, he's supposed to be an example
by teaching people what he knows,
by showing them the truth,
by leading by example.
They can know from his lifestyle,
all kinds of different things.
So what is it that they're so afraid
to tell people these days?
I mean, Baptist churches even today,
they're so afraid to admit that birth control is a sin.
They're so afraid to get up from the pulpit
and preach against birth control.
Preach against these sins that, you know,
birth control causes silent abortions in many cases.
If you look up just the statistics on birth control,
women are three times more likely
to get cervical cancer if they take birth control.
I mean, especially over a period of four or five years.
I mean, they're just basically trying
to poison their body without even knowing.
They might as well call it the kill pill
because it's killing babies in the womb though.
That's what the birth control does.
It's not preventing pregnancy,
it's preventing birth by doing what?
By hardening the lining of the uterus in a woman,
causing it to where an implanted egg
of seven or five days can't implant to the wall
and so it's flushed out and killed.
That life that was conceived in the womb
is just flushed out by birth control.
But you know, I went to a Baptist church
where you went on their website
and you look at their doctrinal statement.
They said, birth control is a sin.
All forms of birth control are ungodly.
We preach against it.
But you know what?
You never heard it in the pulpit.
And people in the pew are just filling themselves up
with all kinds of birth control
and all kinds of pills,
but they won't get up and make people know what they know.
They won't be fully known to the congregation.
They're too afraid to just preach what they even believe.
They'll admit they believe that.
But they will get up and preach it.
They're too afraid.
They're too afraid to let people know
what they think about the homosexuals,
about what they think about the sodomites.
They're too afraid to preach what the Bible says.
They're too afraid to preach what the Bible says
about soul women.
I mean, I've talked to pastors.
They never preach on soul winning.
They never talk about it or say to do it
or give any kind of exhortation,
but you talk to us like,
yeah, we should be going soul winning
and the Bible commands it
and every time I read the Bible,
I feel convicted that I should go out there
and reach the loss.
It's like, why aren't you preaching it?
They're afraid.
They don't want to let people know what they know.
They don't want to preach the Bible sometimes.
They don't want to preach against the sinful lifestyle.
They think that drugs are wrong.
They think that watching the TV and the smut is wrong.
They think all these things are wrong.
They don't do them.
But you know what?
They're afraid to let their example be shown.
They're afraid of letting their light be shown.
They don't want to be fully known.
They're hiding.
Bible says, if thou doest well,
shalt thou not be accepted.
I mean, the Bible makes it clear,
if you do the right thing,
aren't you going to be accepted?
I mean, if you get up and you preach the Bible,
the truth, aren't you going to be accepted?
Well, maybe not by the sinful guy
that gets offended and leaves,
but won't you be accepted of God?
Aren't we supposed to study to show ourselves
approved unto God,
a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth?
Amen.
The Bible says in Matthew chapter 10,
go to Deuteronomy 32, if you would.
Matthew chapter 10, this is Jesus.
He said, fear them not therefore,
for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed,
and hideth that shall not be known.
What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light,
and what ye hear in the ear,
that preach ye upon the housetops.
Jesus Christ wants the truth to go forth.
He doesn't want it to be hid.
He doesn't want you to hide it and not talk about it
and not ever go over it.
No, he wants the whole Bible to be preached.
Isn't it so convenient that 2 Timothy says,
all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
but they won't read the whole book to the congregation.
They won't get up and preach all the things
that 1 Timothy preached.
Isn't that ironic?
But they'll get up and quote it.
They'll get up and say it,
but then they won't preach it to the congregation.
It's a joke.
When you look at the first point,
he said, that was fully known my doctrine.
A good preacher, a good pastor, a good evangelist,
you'll know his doctrine.
He's not trying to hide what he believes.
He's not trying to cover it up.
He's not trying to slow roll you,
and well, once they come to the church for a while,
and once they come to the Mormon temple,
and once they get married,
and once they give us, you know,
no, they're gonna give you all up front.
They're gonna say, hey, this is what we believe,
right on the door, right on, you know,
the name of their church even.
I mean, today there's so many churches,
they're just named like the street and then church.
Like we're just Bell Church.
Bell Street Church.
Oh, we're just, you know, 35th church.
That doesn't even mean anything.
When you think about the people in the Bible,
the Bible says it would give a long list of names,
and it said they were expressed by their name.
Meaning what?
Meaning their name,
what that name represented was that type of person.
It's who they were, like Peter is a rock.
Your name means something.
Jesus Christ's name means something.
The names in the Bible mean something.
Why is our church called Faithful Word Baptist Church?
Because it means something.
We're not trying to hide what we believe,
or hide who we are.
We're not just trying to say,
oh, we're Bell Street Church.
Oh, we're just this church over around the corner.
We're just the church over there.
No, we're a Baptist church,
and Faithful Word comes straight from the Bible.
We're teaching what we believe, what we're gonna do.
We're gonna preach the Word faithfully.
That's what we're gonna do.
Look at Deuteronomy 32, verse one.
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak,
and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
My doctrine shall drop as the rain.
My speech shall distill as the dew,
as the small rain upon the tender herb,
and as the showers upon the grass.
Now, the Bible uses the word doctrine a lot of times,
but the God right here is saying
that his doctrine will drop as rain,
meaning it's pleasant,
meaning it's something to be desired,
meaning it's something that's beneficial,
something that's gonna cause things to grow.
And sometimes I think the word doctrine,
it confuses people what it means.
But I think the best way to explain it
is just what the dictionary says.
The dictionary says a doctrine is a belief
or set of beliefs held and taught by a church,
political party, or another group.
Basically, you could just use the word belief
to get a good understanding of what a doctrine is.
What is your doctrine on salvation?
It's what you believe about salvation.
What's your doctrine on the church?
It's what you believe about the church.
What is your doctrine on repentance?
It's what you believe about repentance.
That's what a doctrine is.
So if someone's not giving you doctrine,
they're not telling you what they believe.
They're hiding it.
They're not making it known.
They're covering it up.
2 Timothy 3, I already quoted this for you.
Go to, wait a second, Revelation chapter 2, if you would.
We'll go back to the end of your Bible,
Revelation chapter 2.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness.
All the Bible is gonna help you form the beliefs
that you should have, should form all the viewpoints
that you have should come from the Bible.
And we should use all of the Bible to form those beliefs.
That's why we should go to the Bible to figure out,
hey, what do I believe?
I just believe what the Bible says, all scripture.
2 Timothy 4, it says, preach the word,
be instant in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
Preachers are supposed to preach doctrine.
It's a command from God that the preacher would get up
and preach doctrine.
But you know, the people today, the pastors of today,
the churches today, they're afraid to tell you
what they believe.
They're afraid to get really dogmatic.
They're afraid to stand on anything.
They're just real wishy-washy.
They just wanna tell people what they wanna hear.
You ask somebody, hey, I think money's
the most important thing in the Bible.
They're like, yep.
Another guy says, well, I think baptism's
the most important thing in the Bible, right?
Yep.
Somebody goes, I think repentance is the most important
thing in the Bible, right?
Yep.
They'll just say yes to whatever you tell them.
They're just trying to say whatever you want to hear.
They're just, oh, what does everybody say?
What does everybody, oh, I'm just gonna say that.
And that's why you hear all this double speak.
You hear them sometimes contradict themselves.
They're basically just saying everything
and then whatever sticks, they'll stick to.
But only as the people stick to.
As they change, he'll change with them.
He'll just keep changing his doctrine
just to kind of go along with whoever believes it the most.
Whatever majority thinks.
Whatever majority opinion is.
Says in 1 Timothy 4, till I come give attendance
to readings, exhortation to doctrine.
We as a congregation, we should be hearing doctrine.
We should want to hear doctrine.
When you come to church, your expectation
should be hearing what they believe about the Bible,
what they know about the Bible.
Says, take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine.
Continue in them, for in doing this,
thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
Now we don't want to take that out of context.
I don't think he's necessarily talking about
salvation to go to heaven there.
I think he's just talking about
salvation to destruction from the flesh,
salvation from all the sins that are keeping you in bondage.
He's saying, look, if you continue in the doctrine,
if you're teaching this to other people,
you're gonna save them not only from hell,
but from all the sins in their life.
You're gonna save that unborn child
from that wicked birth control.
You're gonna save people from ruining their lives
with drugs and alcohol and perversion and filth.
That's what you're gonna do.
You're gonna save people if you continue in the doctrine.
Why are all these churches filled with people
that are living such lascivious, wicked lives?
Because they're not preaching doctrine.
That's why.
They don't want to preach what they believe.
They don't want to preach what the Bible says.
Look at Revelation 2, verse 14.
But I have a few things against thee,
because thou hast there them
that hold the doctrine of Balaam,
who taught Balaam to cast a stumbling block
before the children of Israel,
to eat things sacrificed unto idols,
and to commit fornication.
Now the word doctrine in and of itself
is not necessarily good or bad.
It just means belief.
So a belief can be good.
A belief can be bad.
We see in this example,
there was a doctrine of Balaam, which was a bad doctrine.
It was a false doctrine.
It explained to us that sacrificing unto idols
was committing fornication.
We see these are wicked things.
So a doctrine just means a belief.
And we should get all our beliefs from the Bible,
not from man, not from the church, not from traditions.
Go to Proverbs chapter five, if you would.
Now when I was going to a non-denominational church,
we would try these things called life groups.
It's where you'd go to someone's house,
and you'd all sit around,
and you'd all open the Bible,
and everybody has a psalm,
and everybody has a doctrine,
everybody has an opinion.
Let me tell you what the Bible says.
Well, my version says this.
And the leader, one of the leaders that was at this time,
he was like a pastor of pastors.
So he was like one of the highest people in this church.
I mean, talking about thousands of people in this church.
This is a church that taught other pastors.
This guy is like teaching hundreds of other pastors.
I mean, this guy's high up.
And it was weird, people asking questions
about what he believed,
and kind of what his thoughts were on certain doctrines.
And he said, look, I'll just be real straightforward
with you, which is an oxymoron.
He says, you can't tie me down on anything I believe.
You know, you can't label me.
You can't label me as like being a pre-tribber.
You can't label me as being a scientist.
You can't label me in these things.
I'm real complex.
I kind of just believe a lot of different things.
He's being real vague.
He said, look, you can't label me what I believe.
You can't pin me down.
You can't understand exactly where I'm coming from.
That's a good sign of a false teacher,
someone that doesn't want to let you know
what he really believes.
He doesn't want to take a stand on what the Bible says.
That's fake.
There's nothing wrong with the label, easy believism.
It helps people understand what we believe.
I'm easy believism.
All you have to do is believe on Jesus Christ.
It's easy, and you're saved.
The Bible says, you know, people get really offended
by this term replacement theology.
There's a lot of people that throw a lot of mud
at that term, they throw a lot of straw man arguments
at that term, and they say, oh, you can't believe
in replacement theology.
I do, label me.
It helps you understand where I'm coming from.
It's a doctrine that we can, you know, get understanding.
The label of Baptist, I'm not afraid to be called Baptist.
You know, I grew up in a non-denomination church.
It's garbage, it's fake.
They don't want to be known by who they are.
They're just vague.
They don't want to really be fully known.
They want to just kind of, you know,
stand there, be in the shifting sands.
You can't really tell what they're doing.
Hey, what do you believe?
Well, we're non-denominational.
We just kind of make it up as we go.
I mean, that should be next to their philosophy.
You know, I'm not afraid to be called a Christian,
a post-tripper, a fundamentalist.
These are good labels.
We should want to be labeled.
We should want to be known what we believe.
I'm not trying to hide it.
I'm not afraid of those labels.
I'm not afraid of somebody understanding
that Baptist is the best denomination,
is the denomination that actually believes
what the Bible says,
that actually believes that baptism's after salvation.
There's good things to be called the Baptists.
Good labels to have.
They call them Christians.
What, trying to persecute them?
Say, no, you're trying to be like Christ.
Yeah, that's right.
I want to be like Christ.
I'm not, but I'm trying to be.
That's a good term.
I want to be called a Christian.
I don't want to be,
well, you're not really being Christian.
I don't want to lose that title.
I don't want to lose that label.
I want to be fully known.
Look at Proverbs five verse six.
Lest thou should ponder the path of life,
her ways are movable,
that thou canst not know them.
The Bible likens a whore as someone that's movable,
someone that you can't know what they're really about.
You can't pin them down.
You can't figure out who they are.
Why?
That's what these false prophets are like.
They're like whores.
You can't figure out who they are.
You can't figure out what they're doing.
They just want to provide a service.
You give them money,
they'll give you what they want.
They're just a whore.
They get up and preach whatever you want to hear.
Hey, what do you want to hear?
Just as long as you tithe,
just as long as you're giving money to offering plate,
just as long as you're filling the seat.
You know, why would you call your Baptist church?
Why would you call your church at all?
Bell street church.
Why?
Because they just want you to come and sit in the chair.
That's it.
They want you to know where it's at
just so you get in the chair.
That's all they care about.
They don't want to tell you what they believe.
They just want to get you in there and get your money.
That's why they label it the,
oh, we're this, you know, street church.
Everybody knows faith, Lord Baptist church.
I don't have to tell them the address.
They can look it up.
They can find it if they want to hear it,
but they know, hey, they're going to preach the Bible.
Hey, they're Baptist.
Hey, they're going to believe the things that Baptists do.
They're probably fundamental.
Go to, what if we had named faith, Lord Baptist church
by a street?
What if it was called Southern Baptist church?
Cause it was on Southern street.
I mean, that'd be really confusing, wouldn't it?
I mean, you're like, well, we go to Southern Baptist church.
Oh, you're part of the SBC?
No, we're independent.
Why do you call it Southern Baptist church?
Well, that's their street name.
I mean, how stupid would that be?
Go to Matthew chapter 23 of the book.
The Bible says in Proverbs 24, 21,
my son, fear thou the Lord and the King
and meddle not with them that are given to change.
When you read the Bible and you get the truth of the Bible,
you're not going to need to change.
I'm not going to change on salvation.
I'm not going to change on the nature of God.
I'm not going to change on the King James Bible.
I'm not going to change on the fundamentals of the faith.
And we shouldn't meddle with those that are willing to
change.
And if I'm not going to change,
why don't I just preach from the house tops?
Why don't I put it on something called a doctrinal statement
say, this is what I believe because it's not going to change
because it's fundamental because it's just obvious.
It's the truth.
It's what the Bible teaches.
But those that are afraid to put out a doctrinal statement,
those that are afraid to tell you what they believe,
it's because they don't really believe anything.
They're just a whore.
They just want your money.
And they'll just tell you whatever you want to hear.
Matthew 23, we'll go to my second point.
Second point on that list,
he says that I was fully known my doctrine,
manner of life was the second point.
Matthew 23, look at verse three.
All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe
that observe and do, but do not ye after their works
for they say and do not.
Go to verse 25.
Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites for you may clean the outside of the cup
and of the platter,
but within they are full of extortion and excess.
What does manner of life mean?
It means your behavior.
It means your lifestyle.
It means how you act.
We see that the Pharisees,
they might've preached good things at times.
They might've said the right things,
but they say and do not.
They're not actually living the life.
They're not actually being the example.
We see a good preacher, a good evangelist.
He's not just going to say the right things.
He's going to do the right things.
He's going to follow what he preaches.
He's going to practice what he preaches.
We see a lot of times I see these guys,
they'll get up and they'll preach on soul winning.
They'll preach on certain things like that.
And they don't go soul winning at all.
They'll get up and they'll say,
hey, we need to go reach the loss.
We need to go talk to people.
We need to give them the gospel.
Hey, when'd you do that?
Uh, you know, like last year or two years ago.
I mean, they say it, but they do not.
People will get up and preach the Bible
and then they'll just be a hypocrite at home.
They'll be a hypocrite even in public.
They'll be ripping on TVs and movies,
but they'll go watch it at home.
They'll go watch it in private.
They'll go pull it up on their smartphone.
They'll go be doing it.
They'll just be a hypocrite.
They'll rip on soul winning
and never go out and touch the soul.
They'll preach on smoking and drinking
and all these things.
While they're 400 pounds behind the pulpit.
Won't preach on gluttony.
Go to first Timothy three, if you will.
I'll read for you verse seven.
It says, moreover, he must have a good reporter
than what you're without, lest he fall into reproach
and the snare of the devil.
The pastor is supposed to have a good report.
Lest he fall into reproach.
It's a reproach when the pastor gets up and is preaching
and then he falls into what he's preaching.
He's just a complete hypocrite.
He's just a fraud.
He's just a phony.
That's why the Bible says they're supposed
to live above approach.
They're supposed to be blameless.
The pastors aren't supposed to just be an obvious sin.
And so they can't get up and preach against it.
Cause if I'm in just obvious sin as a pastor,
I'm just not going to preach it.
I mean, I don't want to get up and seem like a hypocrite.
And that's what we see a lot of these pastors.
They're probably in sin themselves.
They're backslidden.
That's why they don't want to preach the Bible.
That's why they want to get with boldness
and make the word known.
They don't want to be fully known
because then they'll shed light on their darkness.
It'll shed light on their sin.
Matthew five says, be therefore perfect
as your father, which in heaven is perfect.
We should try to be perfect.
That's why it says a Bishop must be blameless.
The husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, good behavior,
given hospitality, apt to teach.
I don't think I've ever heard a sermon
on first Timothy chapter three,
except from a faith-aware Baptist church.
I've never heard it.
They're never preaching on the qualifications of a Bishop.
And many times, if you get up,
especially outside of a Baptist church,
if you get outside of a Baptist church,
none of these guys ever fit
all the qualifications of a pastor.
Never.
I mean, they're always lacking in some area.
I wonder why they don't preach on it.
Why?
Because they're just exposed that they're a fraud,
that they're a phony,
that their manner of life is not consistent with the Bible.
Look at first Timothy chapter three, 10.
And let these also first be proved.
Then let them use the office of a deacon
being found blameless.
The deacons and the pastors are supposed to be blameless
according to the qualifications
of first Timothy chapter three, also in Titus.
But we see many times they're not.
That's why they avoid these books like the plague.
That's why they have to get a modern perversion
that twists all the verses and says something different,
even if someone were to come up to them
and ask them about it.
Go to chapter two, first Timothy chapter two.
So our manner of life should be,
the manner of life should be consistent for a pastor.
He should not only preach the doctrine,
he should also follow the doctrine.
He should be an example.
The third point was in that list was a purpose.
He says, you've known my purpose.
What does that mean?
Look at chapter two, verse seven.
Where unto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle,
I speak the truth in Christ and lie not,
a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
We see Paul knew some of his purposes.
He says, look, I'm supposed to be a preacher,
I'm supposed to be an apostle,
I'm supposed to be a teacher of the Gentiles.
Go to second Timothy chapter one.
Second Timothy chapter one.
I'll read for you from verse Corinthians two.
This is what Paul said,
for I am determined not to know anything among you,
save Jesus Christ and him crucified.
What was his purpose?
To go preach the gospel, to go get people saved,
to evangelize the world.
He said in verse Corinthians 1 17,
for Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach the gospel, not with the wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
He said, hey, my purpose isn't to baptize.
He knew his purpose was to preach the gospel,
to go out and fulfill the great commission,
to be an evangelist.
People sometimes, you don't know what their purpose is.
Why are you being a pastor?
Why are you being an evangelist?
What is your purpose?
What is the goal of your office?
The opposite of a pastor is to feed the sheep,
is to feed the flock.
That's what he said unto Peter.
Look at 2 Timothy 1 verse 10.
But is now made manifest by the appearing
of our Savior Jesus Christ,
who the abolished death and has brought life
and immortality to life through the gospel.
Where into I am appointed a preacher and an apostle
and a teacher of the Gentiles.
So what was Paul purpose?
He's telling him over and over, hey, I'm a preacher.
Hey, I'm an apostle.
Hey, I'm a teacher.
I'm not supposed to baptize,
but I'm supposed to preach the gospel to you.
That's my purpose.
That's my mission.
That's my goal.
That's what I'm gonna do.
What's the goal of an evangelist?
Is he supposed to go pastor?
No, he's supposed to go out and preach the gospel.
He's supposed to get those people saved.
What's the purpose of a deacon?
Is he supposed to lord over the people in the church?
No, he's supposed to serve.
The purpose of a deacon is to serve.
What's the purpose of a pastor?
It's to be the shepherd, to lead the flock,
to guard over the flock,
to warn against the wolves coming in,
to preach the word, to be instant in season out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
We ought to know the purpose
of the offices that God gave us.
And those people should know them too,
and say, hey, this is my purpose.
This is my point.
This is why I'm here.
This is what I'm supposed to do.
He's supposed to be letting you know those things.
Go to Isaiah chapter one through eight.
Romans chapter eight, verse 28, the Bible says,
And we know that all things work together for good
to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to his purpose.
You know, not only should the pastors and the evangelists
and all those people know their purpose,
we should know our purpose too.
What's the purpose of a saved believer?
To go out and preach the gospel.
It's not for us to be the pastor.
It's not for us to be the deacon, to be all these things.
No, we should just be faithful soul winners,
faithful followers of the man of God,
faithful stewards of the house of God,
coming into church, supporting the man of God.
That's what our role is.
That's what our purpose is.
That's what we're supposed to be doing.
Don't be focused on all the stuff that you could be doing.
Be focused on the purpose that God's given you,
the purpose of your life.
Maybe to be a husband, maybe to be a wife,
maybe to be a brother, maybe to be a child,
maybe to be a grandparent.
It doesn't matter.
Get your purpose from God's word and fulfill that purpose.
Isaiah chapter one, verse 10.
Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom.
Give ear under the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.
To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices under,
saith the Lord?
I am full of the burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of fed beasts,
and I delight not in the blood of bullocks
or of lambs or of hegos.
When you come to appear before me,
who hath required this at your hand to shred my courts?
Bring no more vain oblations.
Incense is an abomination unto me.
The new moons and Sabbaths, the calling of assemblies,
I cannot away with.
It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
We can go on and on.
They're just constantly doing those things
that he commanded, but they don't have it right.
They don't have the faith in the Lord.
They're not doing the first works.
We see that so many churches a day,
they don't understand their purpose
is to be a light of the gospel,
to go out and preach the gospel.
They're doing all these works.
They're doing all these things,
and God's like, this is an abomination.
All your stupid choir practices and your Sunday school
and all these extra activities
and all your outreach programs
and all of your get-togethers,
I can't even withstand it
because you're not preaching the gospel.
You're not fulfilling your purpose.
You're not fulfilling your first gospel.
You're not fulfilling the first works.
Preaching the gospel.
John chapter 21, the Bible says,
So when they have died, Jesus saith to Simon Peter,
Simon son of Jonas,
Lovest thou me more than these?
He saith unto them, Yea, Lord,
thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto them, Feed my lambs.
Peter was being called out by God.
He's saying, look, you're not feeding the sheep.
There is a lot of pastors today
that are not fulfilling their purpose of feeding the sheep.
The pastor should be fully known.
It shouldn't be a mystery to figure out what he believes.
It shouldn't be hard to know.
Everything he believes from the Bible should be known.
He should be preaching.
Which makes me think of the word purpose.
Makes me think of this book called
The Purpose Driven Church by a guy named Rick Warren.
Now this guy is just one of the most wicked false prophets
I can ever think of.
And you know what?
I think about the false prophets of the Bible.
He fits in perfect.
Prophets like this,
Eliaphas the Temanite,
Bildad the Shuhite,
Zophar the Nimathite,
Elihu.
These guys are coming up preaching false doctrine.
And guess what?
They're mixing a lot of truth with error.
Now those guys might have been saved.
I mean, you could interpret that a little bit differently.
But these guys, when God comes up to Job,
he says, what they spoke about me is wrong.
They weren't speaking that was just right
which Job had spoken.
They were preaching false things.
When you examine people like Balaam,
who is definitely not saved,
this guy was mixing a lot of good statements
and truth in with lies.
You'd read certain statements.
He's saying there's only one God.
I'm only gonna speak what he says.
Those are true statements.
Those are good things.
When you see Satan come to Jesus in the wilderness,
what does he do?
He uses scripture.
I mean, is there anything wrong with scripture?
We know that every word of God is pure.
What is he doing?
He's twisting it.
He's reverting it.
He's changing the context.
He's not really preaching the word of God.
He's tricking you.
He's deceiving you by saying right things,
by mixing truth with lies,
by turning it into false deceits.
That's what we see these false prophets of the day are.
I don't think the most satanic false prophets
are the ones that are just making
the most outrageous statements.
No, Satan's transforms himself into an angel of light.
He's a deceiver.
He's trying to trick you.
So the God of this world is blinded
the eyes or the minds of them would believe not.
Satan's a deceiver.
He's subtle.
He's not trying to come in and just blow up the place.
No, he's trying to get in there
and try to trick you and deceive you.
So I listened to Rick Warren.
He had this like 22 minute gospel presentation
or salvation message.
So I'm listening to this thing.
I think giving him the benefit of the doubt,
I listened to the whole thing.
You could say he tried to quote one verse.
I mean, 22 minutes of video,
trying to tell you how to get saved,
he maybe quoted one verse.
Here's some statements that he said.
Sin, well, the definition of sin is missing the mark.
Now I think that's false, that's wrong.
That's a terrible way to describe sin.
Missing the mark?
I mean, what if I said I want to get 100 people saved today
and I got 99, so I missed the mark.
Is that a sin?
That's ridiculous.
Missing the mark is not a sin.
Sin is a transgression of the law.
It's when you go against God's word,
when you violate one of his commandments, that's a sin.
And that's what the Bible says when we're sinners,
we didn't just, oops, I accidentally didn't do perfect.
No, it's when you transgress God's commandment,
when you make void his law,
when you go against and despise him, rebellion,
that's what a sin is.
I hate that stupid phrase, all sin is missing the mark.
That is not what the Bible teaches.
He said, God's not interested in religion.
He wants a relationship.
I mean, this guy is just every cliche.
He says, no matter what you've done,
God is not mad at you, God is mad about you.
I mean, he's just pulling from Joyce Meyer.
I mean, he said, no matter what you've done,
no matter how many children you've afforded and killed
and you're a sodomite, reprobate,
you know, lying with beasts and murderer,
oh, God's not mad at you.
What a wicked God he believes in.
My God's holy and righteous in the truth.
He hates the wicked every single day.
He hates all transgression.
He can't even let one lie into heaven.
That's my God.
He said, you don't get that better life by being religious.
He keeps trying to introduce this idea of being saved
as just a better life.
He says, he confuses all kinds of things.
This guy's definitely not Satan.
I mean, it's not even a question.
It's not even maybe.
He says that when Jesus Christ died on the cross,
he said it is finished separating BC from AD.
I'm sorry, Rick Warren.
That's not what separated BC from AD.
It's Jesus Christ's birth.
It's not when he died on the cross.
He doesn't even understand that.
He says Easter is when we separate BC from AD.
I mean, just, I don't even know why he believes that.
Such a weird doctrine.
He says, he tries to quote John 1.12,
a verse that a lot of people use out slowly.
I love this verse.
I'll give you a little bit more before I get there.
He says, how do you begin a relationship with Christ
if you believe in him, you're halfway there.
He says, by believing in Jesus,
you're halfway to salvation.
He says, 90% of Americans believe in Jesus.
I'm like, where does he get that statistic?
I mean, I got so many.
I definitely don't run into this 90%.
I must be running to all the 10%, Rick Warren.
But he says, no, the second half is you gotta receive him.
You gotta believe in him and you gotta receive him.
So he says, I'm gonna quote John 1.12.
He doesn't say that.
He says, the Bible said,
to those who he gave the right to become the children of God
to those who believe and receive.
It was like an incoherent rambling.
I tried to look it up.
There's not even a modern Bible version that says that.
I mean, the closest modern Bible version
is the World English Bible.
To those who he gave the right to become the children of God
to those who believe and receive.
I mean, it didn't even make any sense when he said it.
He says, to quote it up, he says,
you have to believe in him, you have to receive him.
That's how you get across the bridge.
He says, there's a bridge to salvation.
You gotta not only believe, you gotta receive.
How do you do that?
He says, you have to want to change.
You have to want to repent,
meaning you have to turn from meaninglessness to purpose.
He always wants to interject that word purpose
because that's all his marketing material.
Every book he writes has the word purpose in it.
He says, you gotta switch to Jesus' plan.
You gotta turn from your self-centeredness
and want to follow him, meaning invite him into your heart.
Now he's just preaching a thinly-veiled word, salvation.
So then he gives a prayer for salvation at the end.
This thing is so ridiculous.
I mean, I couldn't even believe it.
Here's his start to his prayer for salvation.
He says, if you're done hearing me preach for 20 minutes,
the most incoherent rambling of an idiot,
then pray with me for salvation.
Here's his start for a prayer for salvation.
Dear God, I don't understand at all.
What?
That's how you start a prayer for salvation?
Well, I don't understand at all, but I'm gonna pray.
Okay, here's the rest of his prayer.
But I realize something is missing in my life,
and I know that the good life isn't good enough.
I want to live the better life.
I don't need a religion,
but I do need a relationship with you.
So as much as I know how, Jesus Christ,
I want to open my life to you and get to know you.
I want to say yes to you.
And then he just randomly bursts into this statement.
He just says, I don't care if you're Catholic, Buddhist,
Baptist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim.
We're not talking about religion here.
We're talking about having a relationship.
So I open myself to you and humbly ask you
to forgive all my sins, the things I've done wrong.
I ask you to come into my life
and make yourself real to me.
And I want to learn to love and trust you.
And I want to live a life of purpose.
I pray this in your name, amen.
Now, anybody that believes that he's saved
is not saved themselves.
The Bible says that salvation is the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Oh, all three points he admitted from his stupid prayer
that won't save anybody.
He's trying to say, oh, I got to want to live a better life.
And I got to want to follow his commandments.
And I got to want to commit my life to him.
I guess it doesn't matter what religion you are.
You can be a Hindu and be saved according to him.
Just have a relationship with Jesus.
You don't even have to understand it.
You just have to ask or be open or make yourself real to me.
That just sounds like waiting for a demon to come
and show you some kind of false doctrine.
The Bible says, but evil men and seducers
who act worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
This guy's a deceived idiot loser.
He's a false prophet.
Don't tell me Rick Warren's saved.
Don't tell me Rick Warren's a good pastor.
Don't tell me Rick Warren's preaching the gospel.
He's a false prophet.
I've heard people say he's the best pastor in America.
He's the best prophet.
I mean, he boasts of himself of teaching 22,000 plus pastors.
He says over the course of all of his seminars
and all of the things he's had people come together,
22,000 plus pastors, he's corrupting
and perverting this nation and preaching lies
and preaching just what people want to hear.
You know, mixed throughout this whole stupid idiot video,
he says things that are right.
I mean, he'll say stuff like,
well, we gotta believe the Bible
and God only respects what the Bible says.
You know, Jesus is God and Jesus is the savior
and Jesus is my God and I only believe what the Bible says
and we need a savior and we all deserve help.
Those are all right things.
You can't judge a false prophet
by the fact that he never says anything right.
You'll never understand a false prophet.
False prophets come to you with truth and lie mixed in
and they teach you some kind of perverted doctrine.
Even if they were saved.
Maybe the guys that were talking to Job were saved
but they got so mixed up, they're preaching a bunch of lies.
They made shipwreck the faith.
They needed to be taught the Bible again.
They were like babes in Christ.
They were supposing that gain was godliness.
If you understand what they were saying,
they're constantly saying, hey, those that live good lives,
those that live the better life,
they're the ones that are saved.
They're the ones that have a relationship with God.
Those that don't, they're wicked, they're evil
because God's obviously punishing the wicked.
They're saying, Job, you must be in some wicked sin.
Look at your lifestyle, buddy.
That's what Rick Warren wants to say.
He wants to say, oh, you're not living the better life.
You must not be saved.
You need to get a relationship with Jesus.
Then you'll live the better life.
What a false teaching, false prophet.
That's not what God says.
That's not what the Bible says.
In 2 Timothy 4, the Bible says,
for the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lusts shall they heap
to themselves teachers having itching ears
and they shall turn away their ears from the truth
and shall be turned unto fables.
We see, he just wants to preach what he wants to hear.
He's just gonna say all manner of things
and whatever sticks he's gonna stick to and say,
I mean, he said all kinds of weird stuff.
Like I'm for gay marriage.
I'm against gay marriage.
I love the homos.
No, I'm against the homos.
I mean, he just says whatever, whatever the mood feels.
And you know, it's okay for a pastor to change his mind,
but it's not okay for him to just say whatever he wants
and just make it blanket statements that are contradictory.
It's one thing to say, I used to believe this way.
Now I've changed my mind.
This is what the Bible actually teaches
and to correct himself.
That's biblical, that's right.
We see Peter even made mistakes.
Peter had to be corrected, right?
Go to Proverbs chapter three.
So my third point is we should know our purpose.
What is our purpose?
Our purpose is to preach the gospel.
The pastor's purpose is to preach the gospel,
to feed the sheep, to be the shepherd over the people.
We see Rick Warren doesn't know his purpose.
He's trying to go out there and evangelize
and give all his false prophet, you know,
teachings to all these other pastors.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible doesn't teach for the pastor
to go try and pastor a bunch of pastors.
No, you're supposed to pastor the local church.
You're supposed to raise up those people
that don't know the Bible.
You're not supposed to try and make yourself a pope,
make yourself a pope to all the world.
And that's what he does.
You read his book, it's from like Baptist,
and Methodist, and Catholic.
They're all praising the stupid, false prophet loser.
Proverbs three, verse five, it says,
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not on thine understanding,
and all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths.
And Paul's list of things, he said,
man are by purpose faith.
We see the man of God is gonna have faith.
He's gonna do the things that the Bible says,
even when it's difficult, even when it's hard,
even when people don't understand.
He's gonna say, hey, the Bible says we should go out
and preach the gospel to every creature.
Why don't we hold a soul winning marathon?
You know, a few years ago,
faith-borne Baptist church didn't hold
soul winning marathons across this country.
But our pastor, knowing the Bible,
wanting to go out and fulfill the great commission,
goes on a leap of faith, follows what the Bible says,
and has soul winning marathons, and look what's taken off.
We see the gospel's being preached across this whole nation,
being preached across this world.
Why?
Because he has faith in God's word,
not faith in himself, not faith in his own ideas.
Hey, maybe we should, you know, dress really cool.
Maybe we should bring in cooler music.
Maybe we should, you know, change the lighting.
Maybe we should do all these things
that man thinks up for church.
No, he's doing what God said to do for a church,
what God said to do for the Bible.
Go to Luke chapter nine, if you will.
Bible says, cry loud, spare not,
lift up thy voice like a trumpet,
and show my people their transgressions,
and the house of Jacob their sins.
We see a lot of pastors today,
they're afraid to preach the word.
They don't have faith that they can preach
the whole counsel of God, and God would build their church.
They're too afraid of people leaving,
getting up and walking out of the service,
that they're too afraid to preach God's word.
They don't have faith in his word.
They're just too afraid to preach it.
The Bible says that we should cry loud and spare not.
What does that mean?
It means you know what you're gonna say
is gonna offend somebody.
You know that it's gonna be attacking their sin,
and you preach it anyways because it's the word of God.
You have faith in God's word.
Mark chapter 16 says, and he said to them,
go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every preacher.
We should rely on God's methods for soul winning.
God's methods for getting people saved.
What does man wanna do?
He wants to have the altar call.
He wants to get them and just preach at the church,
preach at the same, and try and get them to come down
and rededicate their lives,
not even understanding the gospel.
You know, one of the churches I went to,
they had multiple men stand in front of the altar,
every single service for five and 10 minutes,
waiting for someone to come down and get saved.
They never got saved, ever.
But if they just walked across the street
and knocked on the door of the person
right across the street, they would have gotten saved.
Hey, we're not supposed to wait
to preach the gospel to someone.
We're supposed to go to preach the gospel to someone.
We're supposed to have faith in God's word.
That's how you're gonna get people saved.
The man wants to do his own way.
Look at Luke 9, verse five.
And whosoever will now receive you,
when you go out of that city,
shake off the very dust from your feet
for a testimony against them.
And they departed and went through the towns,
preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
They were doing what God commanded them to do,
having faith in his word.
That's the good way to preach the gospel.
And even when they won't receive you,
just shake off the dust and move on.
They're not gonna come to you.
Many of the people that you go to won't even wanna listen.
We gotta do it God's way.
Go to 1 Corinthians 1, if you will.
It says, but without faith, it is impossible to please him.
The good faith, having soul-winning marathons,
having mission strips, the right way,
according to God's word.
Not going to build a house,
going to build God's house by preaching the gospel.
Not supporting all the missionaries.
They wanna get everybody all stirred up and say,
reach deep into your pockets, give $500, give $1,000,
give $10,000 to this missionary
who might get one person saved,
maybe from their parents who got them saved,
not from the actual missionary.
Not from the missionary who got out
and preached in the gospel.
They wanna have the building fund.
They wanna get you to have faith in their building fund.
God's gonna provide us a building.
I believe it.
I'm trusting in this street over here and this building.
God's gonna deliver this building to us.
We need to pray and have faith.
Why don't we pray for people to get saved?
Why don't we pray for more men to stand up
to wanna go out and start churches?
Why don't we pray for more missionaries,
actual real missionaries,
that wanna go out and preach the gospel?
There's a dearth in the land of missionaries.
Why don't we have faith for that instead of the stupid stuff?
1 Corinthians 1, the Bible says,
I thank my God always on your behalf
for the grace of God which is given you by Christ Jesus,
that in everything you're enriched in Him,
in all utterance and in all knowledge,
even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.
Now when you're moving into the latter points
of what Paul was saying,
he said, you know, manner of life, purpose, faith.
Then he says long suffering.
Now he says charity and patience.
All three of these words are very similar in their meaning.
But I think there's a little bit of subtle difference
that we can pick up.
What does it mean to be long suffering?
I think if we just break that word apart,
we see suffering, which means what?
Tolerating something that you don't like
or you think that's wrong.
What does long mean?
Being doing it for a very long time.
So the difference to me between patience and long suffering
is patience is just giving people time,
giving people, you know, enduring with them.
Long suffering is more focusing on the fact
that it's actually suffering
or it's something that is causing, you know,
some kind of, some discomfort
or something you don't think is right,
something that you're allowing to exist just for a time.
You don't have to necessarily be patient
with someone just doing something wrong.
You know, a lot of times I'm patient with my children.
Doesn't mean they're doing something wrong,
but to be long suffering would be,
hey, they are doing something wrong,
but I'm still being patient with them.
We see it as an increased level of patience.
And with the Corinthian church,
Paul was long suffering with them.
They were getting a lot of things wrong in 1 Corinthians.
They were getting a lot of things wrong in this church,
but he's long suffering with them.
What?
He's putting up with all their grievances.
He's trying to, you know, still teach them the word of God.
He's still trying to be a blessing unto them.
He's still trying to teach them.
He wants to go and visit them,
even though he knows they're doing things wrong,
even though he knows they're screwing up.
Think about people that get saved
and live a very sinful and wicked life
and they come into the church.
Maybe they're still got some things wrong.
It's long suffering for the pastor
to put up with those grievances
to try and teach them the Bible,
to try and guide them in the right way,
to try and get them over that hump,
being patient with their ignorance of the Bible
in many cases.
I mean, many times people that have their heart right,
they're saying just through ignorance.
Go to chapter nine of 1 Corinthians.
We see also, he said, charity.
Charity is putting others above yourself.
It's training others.
It's teaching others.
It's trying to lift others up.
What should the pastor be doing?
He's trying to train and pour his life
and his soul into other people.
In 1 Corinthians nine, verse 22, it says,
so the weak became I as weak,
but I might have gained the weak.
I made all things to all men
that I might by all means save some.
That's long suffering.
That's charity.
Deciding, hey, I'm just gonna be weak with this guy.
I'm gonna be weak with this brother.
He might be ignorant of a lot of things in the Bible,
but I'm just gonna be weak with him.
I'm gonna help train him.
I'm gonna help teach him the Bible.
That's a good pastor.
Not one that's holier than thou
that's gonna cast them aside
or just go grab a beer with them
and not actually really help them,
not actually teach them the word.
Go and live sinful lives with them.
Say, hey, it's okay to drink.
Hey, it's okay to watch radar movies.
Hey, it's okay to do all these wicked sins,
live in fornication.
It's not a big deal.
We live in a grace, buddy.
That's not long suffering and charity
because you don't really care about the person.
You're gonna let them get destroyed
by the sin in their life.
We see the person that's long suffering and has charity.
He's gonna with patience, endure their grievances
and teach them the Bible.
He's gonna be long suffering towards them.
He's not gonna just cast them aside
and he's also not gonna just allow them
to live in their wicked life,
but he'll be very long suffering to them.
Go to John chapter seven.
I'm trying to hurry through these notes.
It says in Philippians two,
let nothing be done through strife or vainglory,
but in lowliness of mind,
let each esteem other better than themselves.
The pastor is putting the flock before his own ambitions,
before his own desires, before his own comforts.
He's sacrificing himself for the flock.
He's giving his life for the flock.
He's doing all kinds of things for other people.
He's esteeming them better.
He's trying to pour into them.
That's a good pastor.
That's a good preacher.
That's a good evangelist.
He's not worried about getting all this vainglory
and recognition and having, oh, I trained 22,000 pastors.
No, he wants to send out the next generation.
He wants, he's focused on the people in the pew,
not the people outside the pew.
We see that he's also patient.
What does that mean?
Kind of the same things, training people,
growing in the Lord, new believers.
Growing the church God's way, not Rick Warren's way.
Being patient by following God's commandment,
knowing that God will build the church.
Saying, I don't need a gimmick.
I don't need to just, you know,
test the waters and see what everybody likes
and try to just build a church.
I don't need to name my church the street
just to make sure people know where I'm at
to try and come in.
John chapter seven, verse six, it says,
then Jesus said unto them,
my time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.
One thing I think about a good pastor, a good preacher,
he doesn't go out to start a church when he's not ready.
Meaning what?
He hasn't met the qualifications of a pastor.
He's not absent yet and trying to go out
and just start his own church and his house and say,
well, I just forsake first Timothy chapter three.
I don't care what it says.
I bet he'd be real nervous to get up
and preach first Timothy three from the Bible.
Why?
He doesn't fulfill the qualifications of a bishop.
But he's pretending to be a bishop.
He's pretending to be sent by God.
He's pretending to have a church.
You know, we see the man of God, he's gonna be patient.
He's gonna know, hey, the office of a bishop,
the office of a deacon, the office of an evangelist,
I'm gonna be patient and wait until I can do that office.
I'm gonna follow God's word.
I'm gonna see God's word more important than me.
We see even Paul.
Paul didn't just immediately become an evangelist,
an apostle.
No, he was at the church.
And then when the church laid hands on him,
he went out with Barnabas to go out and be an evangelist.
Why?
He was patient to know the word of God.
He was patient to fulfill what he needed to do,
to learn, to grow, to be ready according to God's word.
He wasn't gonna go out his own wisdom.
He was gonna have the patience
to wait and do it by God's way.
Doing it by God's way is always gonna get the job done.
We see a lot of times people even in battles,
they have to be patient.
They couldn't just rush into the battle.
They had to do what God said.
Wait until you hear the noise in the mulberry trees.
Wait until you go around Jericho seven times.
What if they just rushed into Jericho?
They would have failed.
But when they were patient and they did it God's way,
they got the victory without any effort.
I mean, God did the fighting for them, right?
That's what we need to do.
Good pastors are gonna be patient.
They're gonna wait on the Lord.
I'm not saying they should be slow to preach the gospel.
They shouldn't have zeal.
They shouldn't be excited.
I'm just saying they're gonna follow what God said
and more than their own, you know, desires.
They're gonna let their desires be lined up with God's word.
They're gonna have patience according to God's word.
We see in the last part,
he said that there was persecutions and afflictions.
Go to Acts chapter 13.
It's really interesting what he had said.
He said, what came to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra.
Now it's interesting what Paul went through in these cities.
Look at Acts chapter 13, verse 13.
Now when Paul and his company lose from Paphos,
they came to Perga, Pamphylia.
And John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.
But when they departed from Perga,
they came to Antioch and Cittia
and went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and sat down.
Skip down to just verse 50 for time's sake.
So we see he went to Antioch
and then Paul preaches this really long sermon.
He preaches against them.
He's rebuking them.
And in verse 50 it says,
but the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women
and the chief men of the city
and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas
and expelled them out of their coasts.
But they shook off the dust of their feet against them
and came to Iconium.
So doing what Christ said,
they're just shaking off the dust of their feet
and moving on.
Now they're going to Iconium.
So they've been kicked out of this city,
but then it gets worse.
Look at chapter 14, look at verse two.
So they're in Iconium and it says,
but the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles
and made their minds evil-affected against the brethren.
Look at verse five.
And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles
and also the Jews with their rulers
to use them despitefully and to stone them,
then they were aware of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe.
So not only are they getting kicked out,
now they're being threatened to be killed.
They're being threatened to be stoned.
They're like, we're going to abuse you.
We're going to kill you.
We're going to do things.
And they flee.
Then look at verse 19.
Now they've gone to Lystra
and there came together Jews from Antioch and Iconium.
So now they're getting followed.
Who persuaded the people and having stoned Paul,
drew him out of the city, supposing he had been dead.
So first he's kicked out of the city.
Then he's threatened.
Then he's stoned to death.
I mean, he's stoned to sleep, but they think he's dead.
They just think that he's been killed, but he really hadn't.
I mean, what kind of persecutions and afflictions?
We see when you preach the word of God,
when you're a faithful witness, when you're fully known,
people are going to get upset.
People are going to want to kill you even.
We see that the man of God has enemies.
We see these false prophets, these false teachers.
They don't have any enemies.
The whole world loves them.
The whole world wants to put them on his pedestal.
The world wants to give them all kinds of accolades.
What does the world want to do to the real man of God?
He wants to stone them.
He wants to shut them up.
He wants to chase them out of the city.
He wants to threaten them.
He even is going to try and kill them in many ways.
We see that they had fully known who Paul was.
They knew through all of his doctrine,
from his manner of life, his purpose, his faith,
his charity, his patience, his persecutions, afflictions.
We know that he's a man of God through all these things.
How can you know the man of God?
You can know him through this list.
It says, even a child is known by his doings,
whether his work be pure or whether it be right.
You can be known by how you live your life.
You can be known by your actions.
The Bible says in 2 Timothy 3,
but continue thou in the things that thou hast learned
and hast been assured of,
knowing of whom thou hast learned them.
We need to understand what we believe,
who we believed it from.
What doctrine am I being taught from who?
We need to see, hey, this guy lines up
with what 2 Timothy 3 is saying.
He's got a good purpose.
He's teaching me doctrine.
He's living the life.
He has the faith.
He's even being persecuted for the word of God.
This is the guy that I want to believe what he's believing
because I know whom I believed it.
He's the one that's teaching me.
And I'm gonna stick to it
because he's following what the Bible says.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Father, for your word.
Thank you that there's pastors still in this world
that can be fully known.
I pray that we would always search the scriptures
and that we would test the pastors
and we try to find those that are faithful to your word
to follow and to respect and to lift up
and to continue doing good works with them
and to believe the things that they teach us
and we can be assured of those things
knowing of whom we've learned them.
I just thank you so much for this church
and everyone in this room.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.