Okay, so we're up to 1 Timothy 4 now, our Sunday evening Bible study service.
Two weeks ago we did the second half of 1 Timothy 3, we split it into two because we
really went into those qualifications in the first part.
We looked specifically in the second part of 1 Timothy chapter 3 at the deacon and the
word basically meaning servant or messenger or runner, how they need to be of good character,
not honest, respectable, not living it up, not greedy.
We saw the first deacons of the New Testament church in Acts chapter 6 and how they and
future deacons are basically, the role of them is to take some of the day-to-day burden
off the leadership and obviously it's a size issue, isn't it?
As a church gets busier and bigger, it would get to the point where it might need deacons
or at least a deacon to start with.
There it was the 12 apostles and it was a big church, wasn't it?
But now it's a pastor, the result of a deacon just being more done for God, that's what
the goal is of one.
We looked at the wives of those in the ministry, not just deacons, it applies to all in the
ministry and being honourable, not slandering people, sober-minded, faithful in all things,
not just in some things faithful in all things, how the deacons like the pastors are to have
their houses in order.
And by the way, the deacons were to be men as well, which was pretty clear, wasn't it?
And the pastor, the elder, the bishop, whatever you want to call him, was clearly a man as
well, right?
And already that writes off a load of churches with their female pastors, vicars, whatever
else, completely unbiblical, it just shows they can't understand the Bible, right?
We saw how it's an honour, okay, to be a deacon is an honour because someone, well, you know,
you're a servant, you're a messenger, you're a runner, you're doing all these kind of just
day-to-day things.
Yeah, great.
Great because you work for God, right?
You're serving God.
It's an honour and it increases their boldness.
And if you think about some of the deacons, maybe some of you are aware of or maybe met
or at least heard preach, there's some pretty bold men of God, aren't they, right?
And then the chapter finished with highlighting what the church is meant to be, okay, and
we saw it's a pillar and ground of the truth.
That's what it should be.
That's what real church is.
The pillar and ground that upholds the truth.
It doesn't skirt around and skate around and kind of hide in the shadows in case they
offend someone.
No, it's the pillar and ground of the truth, right?
And then it was followed by a great statement about the Son of God.
And we just look at verse 14 to 16 just to finish that chapter and go into the chapter
we're in where it says in 1 Timothy 3 and verse 14,
These things write I unto thee, hoping to come unto thee shortly.
But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou ought'st to behave thyself in the
house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.
And without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto
the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
And then we go into the chapter we're in 1 Timothy 4 now with verse 1, which reads now
the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having
their consciences seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain
from meats which God had created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and
know the truth.
And I'd like to pray before we continue with this chapter.
Thank you for your word.
Thank you for this great chapter of the Bible, a chapter of the Bible here, which just gives
us so many just interesting truths from the word of God and gives some explanation to
some things that maybe many churches don't teach anymore and just all the many truths
that are in this chapter.
Help me to preach them all just boldly and accurately, Lord.
Fill me with your spirit, please.
Just help everyone here to just really listen to what your word's saying, Lord.
Help me to just expand it clearly as well, apply it to what we deal with in this church
in an accurate way as well.
In Jesus' name, pray all this.
Amen.
Okay, what does it mean, the Spirit speaketh expressly?
What does that mean?
It means in direct terms, basically, plainly, that this subject is a continual theme in
the Bible, the subject we're about to look at.
And here, for me, it's just spelled out very clearly.
Okay, this is just a clear spelling out of it.
Other times, it's not.
Other times, it's a bit more sort of, you know, you're unsure, okay, that must be what
it's talking about.
Other times, you're thinking, well, what's the application here?
It's just clear as day, okay.
He said that in the latter times.
Another way to say that would be in the modern day, nowadays, okay.
Are these type of people that it's talking about that we're about to look into only in
the latter times?
No.
There have been reprobates since Cain, okay.
We see clearly Cain is a reprobate and we see him referred to as one in the Book of
Jude as well.
However, this is a particular kind of reprobate that we're looking at here.
This kind isn't necessarily teaching open, damnable heresy about salvation or the nature
of God or something, the things that we look out for.
They've given heed to it, don't get me wrong, okay.
They'll believe all sorts of quirky, weird, bizarre stuff.
They likely believe all those things, but this kind instead speaks hypocritical lies.
So it's not that they're just openly out there just preaching false doctrine.
Instead, they're speaking hypocritical lies.
They come out with extra biblical stuff we see here like attacking marriage, special
new food restrictions, just weird stuff to hamper, to hamstring the brethren, okay.
They create their own new standards, they weaken the brethren, they slander the brethren,
but maybe it's not the obvious salvation stuff is the point here.
Look at 1 Timothy 4 verse 1, it says, Now the Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of
devils.
So the Spirit here, yes, the Bible is holy men are God's speakers, they were moved by
the Holy Ghost, okay, it's the Holy Spirit speaking to you in the Word of God, is showing
us some clear, plain truths about these people.
What does it mean to depart from the faith?
This isn't someone that's saved, that's given up on God, okay.
We've looked at that, once you're saved, you're saved, okay.
That's why it's called being saved, you are saved, okay.
This is someone going away from the faith, so they're going the other direction instead
of putting their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they've given heed to seducing spirits and
doctrines of devils, okay.
So they've had an opportunity, they've had a chance, they could have come to faith and
they've gone the opposite direction, okay.
They've departed, they've left and gone that way, okay.
They've gone the opposite way.
They're changing the truth of God into a lie, basically.
They resist the truth, their men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith.
These are people that have rejected the Gospel of the truth, they've rejected it in one way
or another, it's not necessarily that someone's come and breached them, but they've rejected
that innate knowledge of God and gone the other way, they've departed, they've gone
the opposite way.
They depart from the truth and give heed to the seducing spirits and doctrines of devils
instead.
For me, this is another verse that does make me lean towards all of these children of Belial,
sons of Belial, reprobates, false prophets being indwelt.
I believe they're indwelt by familiar spirits, okay.
I believe like when we're saved, we're indwelt by the Holy Spirit, I believe with these types
of people, once they're given over to a reprobate mind, I believe they're indwelt.
One of the reasons, for example, and you don't have to turn it, we've gone through these
verses a lot, we've done them in memory and I've preached through them all many times.
Ephesians 6-12 says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood.
Now how do you explain that with all the sons of Belial and the reprobates around?
How do you explain that with all these wicked, just absolute God-hating sons of Belial, all
these different flavors of sodomites, everything else, attacking men of God, attacking the
church, et cetera, because they're indwelt.
What we're really wrestling with is the devils controlling them, is what I believe.
Ephesians 6-12 says, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.
And when you deal with these people, and I've had quite a bit of experience now in ministry
over the last, kind of coming up to a few years soon, of dealing with these people,
there's so much spiritual wickedness going on as well.
It's not just are these persons a problem, you start to see how it works and it's coordinated
with other sorts of, with these types of people, obviously, we all, you know, we had a big
experience of it with a big group of people, and the only way to explain it is it's spiritual.
Okay?
It's spiritual.
Now, don't get me wrong, these people are wicked people, right?
Okay?
They're given over to a reprobate mind.
However, I believe that they're controlled by basically, for want of a better word, devils,
right?
That's why, look, they're so full of iniquity, they're so easily used.
So they're just iniquities just used in many different ways.
And the trait of these people is hypocritical lies.
That's what we've just seen here, right?
He said speaking lies in hypocrisy, having a conscience seared with a hot iron.
And I believe that the point with that verse is that due to the seared conscience, they're
able to speak such lies in hypocrisy.
So it's because, look, that's not, it's not normal.
It's not normal to be able to speak such hypocritical lies, okay?
You have to have a, well, look, some people can speak some hypocritical lies, but the
level that I've seen these people go to, you have to have a seared conscience, okay?
You don't have a conscience to be able to do what these people try and do to people.
Now, these are clearly reprobates he's talking about here.
Their conscience is seared.
Romans 1.28 says, and even as God did not like to retain, sorry, even as they did not
like to retain God and their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those
things which are not convenient.
Their mind's given over, in other words, it's seared like as with a hot iron.
And I've talked about this before when you look into sort of the study of psychology
and these people are way out to lunch on so many things, but when it comes to, when they're
studying psychopathy, what they seem to have found is that there's a different action where
it's almost like part of their brain doesn't seem to, it doesn't seem to light up, doesn't
seem to act like behaviors other peoples do when they do brain scans on these types of
people.
They seem to basically like their conscience has been seared and that's the psychopath
and it's not the doo doo doo doo go look there are some of those, right?
But there are many types of psychopaths in the world, okay?
I mean some estimates is sort of as much as sort of like between one and five percent
the population stuff.
I mean there's a lot of these people around, right?
The reason that a sodomite is able to do such filthy, disgusting things by normal people's
standards is because their conscience is seared, okay?
This is, this is the explanation for people doing the most freaky weird stuff that normal
people would just be so repulsed by.
However much the world's trying to change that now to, oh yeah, they're just born that
way.
That's not what, that's not what a bub says, that's not true, is it?
The reason that a serial killer is able to do such just vile, horrible things, and by
the way most of the time they're sodomites as well, is because their conscience is seared.
Their conscience is gone, they don't have a conscience anymore.
But these aren't the only types of reprobates.
The reason that the church infiltrator, the false prophet, the covetous corporate psychopath,
yeah, is able to stab backs all the way to the top is because their conscience is seared.
You've got to have a seared conscience to do that stuff, right?
How do you behave like that, like so many of these people do?
And obviously they justify themselves, and what goes hand in hand with it is a heady
high-mindedness, the lovers of themselves, the pride and everything else.
So somehow, like I've said before, they have to have that to be able to even function on
a day-to-day, to even live with themselves, right?
Just to behave like that, you've got to be puffed up, otherwise if you really accept
to what you are, I mean, what on earth is that, right?
But particularly here he's talking about the religious infiltrators, both false prophets
behind pulpits and false brethren in churches.
And look, there are many flavours, okay, there are many flavours.
We had the ridiculous ones previously, okay, they were just like an obvious flavour, okay.
But they're not all so obvious, they're not all walking around so boastful, so coveted,
so openly.
Some, look, it can take a lot longer for the better actors to be exposed.
Our pastor calls them sleeper cell reprobates, you've probably heard me use that term a bit.
I find that amusing, because he's like, you could be like, with these people in church
for years, and then suddenly it's like someone's just pressed the button, they're like,
I must destroy church, must slander, must do this, and he's like, what on earth, where
did that come from?
Because you look at these people thinking they were pretty normal people, right.
But I believe that perhaps it's that they can act for so long, but then eventually it
all comes crashing down.
So they could keep up and act for a couple of years for whatever it is, depending on
how good an actor, how close people are able to get to them and to their personal lives
and everything else, then eventually it's like they can't really keep that up.
Eventually it's like, look, you can act for so long, but the lies start to catch up with
them.
The lack of growth, the inability to discipline in the long term, they find it very hard to
just stick out that, you know, three to five, week in, week out and everything else, and
trying to just live normally, like trying to live like we are, trying to look like we
are and everything else, but it doesn't add up.
They will often, for me, eventually you start to see the cracks, it doesn't really make
sense.
You're in a Bible preaching church, you're seeing people grow in all these areas, but
you're not, or maybe you're going the other way.
It doesn't add up.
And due to their seared consciences, they're able to speak outright lies in hypocrisy.
They have to have seared consciences to speak such outright lies.
Another word that can be used for this is projecting.
This is sort of a, you know, a psychology term, I don't like to go too far into that
kind of, you know, like people like to pretend like they're experts, right, I know it all
now because I've like read something online, yeah, but a word which I think is a good word
that probably many people know about is the word projection.
They have no qualms in projecting their own wickedness onto others, and many people have
probably experienced people like this in the world, right, in their own, in maybe your
own lives and stuff, get people who are just so wicked but they project it onto others,
always accusing everyone else of their own stuff, their own wickedness.
It's crazy, and that's speaking lies in hypocrisy, isn't it?
It's hypocritical lies, you're just telling lies about someone else, that they're something
that you clearly are.
It's bizarre, right?
And I think sometimes this is a defence mechanism, that they're basically so scared of being
exposed that they just project onto the people that are wiser then.
So when the mask slips, when it cracks, when someone sees through them and you start to
see then it's like, right, you're everything that I am, and I think they persuade themselves
because they seem to get so angry and sort of just, the vitriol starts pouring out.
And then I think what the idea maybe is it becomes for the person, for the onlooking,
it's like, well you're a, you know, fill in the blank psycho babble, yeah, and then the
other one's, well you are, and it's like just discredits, I don't even know who to believe,
what's going on here, you know, everyone's calling them, you know, the other person,
you know, the same thing.
And what it does, it discredits the person that they think might potentially be blowing
a whistle on them, if that makes sense, right?
Again, this goes on and you get it in the corporate world and things like this a lot,
the corporate psychopath who's just accusing everyone else to doing what they're doing, right?
Well, you have to have a pretty warped mind to just make up lies about people that deep
down you know apply to you.
You've got to have a pretty seared conscious through that, right, because that is pretty
wicked isn't it?
To make up lies just to accuse people of stuff that you clearly are.
But these people are everywhere.
Think of the previous online attacks that many great passers have received, the old
textbook YouTube video, you know, and that was a common one, wasn't it?
The popular, and that still goes on, you know, I don't know if many people pay much attention
and stuff, but there's a lot of that around, okay?
So they'll suddenly come out with, right, pastor, you fill in the blank, is this, is
that, is this, is that, and they'll take like a little thing, a little half truth, turn
it into a lie, and it's just hypocritical lies.
I'll tell you why it's hypocritical lies, because what are the false acts, what are
they always being called?
Shall I tell you what they're always being called?
Narcissists and false prophets.
Isn't that what they're always being called?
Narcissists and false prophets buy a load of narcissistic false prophets who are sitting
in the background, calling everyone this, that, this, that, they so need the attention,
so need the people to listen to them, why don't they just go away?
The irony seems lost on these clowns, because it's absolutely, it's ironic, isn't it?
Who sit behind their phones and their laptops, desperate for attention, trying to pull people
out of church by calling the leader a false prophet or a narcissist.
I mean, you can't make it up.
Verse 3 says, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron, and here's the thing, let me just explain to you something, because some people,
yeah, but maybe they're just like really grieved, and maybe they've got like a genuine
grievance, these types of people, right?
Because people get conned by this, they get tricked by this, yeah?
Let me tell you how normal people deal with normal grievances, and in fact, with even
severe grievances, okay, and I consider myself fairly normal, okay, now, look, I'm sure
I'm quirky in some ways or other, okay?
Some of you might be sitting there going, you ain't that normal, brother, really, okay?
Okay, but I do consider myself normal, right?
And let me tell you how I deal with grievances, and my family deal.
We went to an evangelical church, because we're talking about these church types, the
ones that just try and slander a church they're previously at, yeah?
We went to an evangelical church.
When we left, yeah, and we left for good reason, okay?
I sat down with the pastor, and I explained why we were leaving.
Face-to-face, explained to him, Bible versions and soul-winning being the big reasons, okay?
I was like, look, you're using the NIV, I can't deal with this anymore, I was newly
saved, it took a year for me to eventually be convicted, I can't sit here listening to
a lot of false Bible perversions, I'm sitting there with my King James, and they're saying
something completely different, you know?
I'm like, I can't deal with this, there's no soul-winning either, what's going on?
Sat down, explained it to him, left on good terms, moved on.
The guy was still sending his happy anniversary messages up until they do the last anniversary
so he might have given up on the last one, I think he's been watching me preach.
Okay, so we moved on, right?
We got in effect, soon after, or a little while after, however long after, we got in
effect kicked out of a Baptist church for listening to Pastor Anderson, okay?
That's basically what it was, but for believing in replacement theology.
I did have an argument with the pastor face-to-face, he approached me, we had an argument, we left
and moved on.
Now let me tell you something about both of these before I continue.
We moved on, yeah?
We left the Evangelical church, okay, and I didn't start contacting, in fact I had people
because I still lived in the area, even came to my Tybox class, I didn't start going, you
need to leave there, you need to get out, we just moved on.
Because that's what you do, that's, look, it's standard, right?
And I had some genuine grievances, genuine grievances, okay?
We left, well I got basically kicked out for an unbiblical reason, and I had a load of
people's numbers and everything else from that church, and I never spoke to them again
and we moved on, it's their choice.
And then we went with others, here in this room, some of which are still in this room,
to Bethel Baptist Church, what of a den of iniquity that was?
When they started preaching repent of your sins we confronted the pastor.
We went up to him openly and spoke to him about what he was preaching, he said he'd
look at it, he didn't look at it, a few weeks later we gave him a couple more chances, we
left, and guess what we did?
We moved on.
We left, and if people wanted to stay there, that was their choice, they didn't, they didn't.
Okay, we moved on, we went somewhere else, we went to another questionable church for
a year, again with another family from this church.
They stopped singing.
Now it was a hard situation, there weren't really any other churches that claimed to
believe the Gospel pretty much, they stopped singing with the Covid thing.
I emailed him, explained why I think that that was the wrong decision, in a polite way,
he replied, he didn't really answer any of my scripture points, but just basically disagreed
with me.
I eventually explained why we were leaving, eventually, politely, I still received their
emails from there, which I find quite amusing, okay, and the place is a pretty bad church,
however, we moved on.
We could have contacted people from the church and told them, it's not our business, we moved
on.
We went to another church in Brighton, okay, you go, why do you go to a church in Brighton,
we were really scraping the barrel now, right?
Okay, when he preached damnable heresy, I went to the church, I spoke to him, I asked
him if he stood by what he preached that night, I quoted what he said, I said, do you stand
by that?
He said yes, basically, and I left, and guess what I did?
I moved on.
I left and I moved on.
What I didn't do was obsess at home about any of these people.
I didn't stalk them, okay, I didn't stalk them, I never listened to their preaching
again, I didn't find various manipulative guile-filled ways to influence the church
members there without saying quite enough to get marked, yeah, because that's not what
normal people do, do they?
What I'm trying to explain to you is that if it looks like a duck, and it quacks like
a duck, you've got two options, roast or fried, and don't start bringing me that grilled
stuff because it dries it out, alright, you've got, that's what it comes down to, doesn't
it?
And it's pretty obvious, to most people, you see that and you're like, okay, it looks
like a duck, man, it sure as hell ain't quacking like, it's quacking like a duck every day,
okay?
So what do you do?
You block, you remove, you get them out of your life, don't you?
Because I don't want to be around these sorts of ducks, they're noisy and they're annoying.
And here's some advice, just on this, to any potential church division causes in the future
and I'm not saying, you know, that we do have those, but if we ever did, or if any of them
watch this in the future, if you want people to take you seriously, don't act like a crazed
projecting psychopath, just a thought.
If you want people to wonder, well I wonder, don't act like a crazed projecting psychopath
because people just go, okay, normal people should just go, okay, thank you, thank you
for basically qualifying those people, thank you.
Some advice for everyone here isn't one, when it's crystal clear that someone is, just move
on, yeah?
And don't be surprised, marvel not, brethren, right?
First Corinthians 5.13 says, but them that are without, God judges, therefore put away
from among yourselves that wicked person.
And nowadays in the online world there's a few ways you have to put them away from among
yourself, right?
Now these particular ones in 1 Timothy 4 not only speak lies in hypocrisy but are also
teaching, encouraging weird stuff.
Verse 3 says, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created
to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.
So they've got some weird teachings on marriage, okay?
And those types are out there, obviously, obviously there are the Catholic priests but
that's hardly Christianity, is it, okay?
So we're not looking at the Catholic priests going, because some people go, let's talk
about Catholicism, they're not even Christian, okay, they're just a joke, right?
But obviously they do teach that sort of stuff, they teach their homosexual priests not to
marry, thank God, you know, poor woman, okay?
But however, they have that type, there are those that try to claim, you know, that there's
no need for an official marriage.
You've seen these types of people out there, and these people that claim to believe the
Bible and then will try and persuade you, oh no, no, but, you know, you don't need to
actually have a marriage, you don't need a marriage license, you don't need any of that,
you know, and then they come out with all these other weird sorts of beliefs and everything
else.
And of course, you know, there's the holy diet types, you mustn't eat pork is a common
one, isn't it, okay?
If you're eating pork you're wicked, you know, they question your salvation and all this
stuff.
It's always funny because they usually can't remember the rest of the restricted animals,
so they usually just focus on pork because most of them can't even remember what, I can't
remember, split the hoof, divide the hoof, pork, don't eat pork, you're wicked if you
eat pork, right?
Because pork's tasty, okay?
So, you know, that's the obvious one, isn't it?
But what does God send in New Testament about diets and things like that, about what you
should and shouldn't eat?
He said, for every creature of God it's good, and nothing to be refused if it be received
with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
So those unclean animals are cleaned by the word of God.
Verses like this, for example, but also by prayer, okay?
Look, there's a lesson there and something, don't miss that here, okay?
Give thanks and pray for your food.
And many people will forget to do that, but it's a good time to check in with God anyway,
isn't it?
Most people here probably eat three times a day, some of us like to push for five or
six times, you know, because I like to get close to God, right?
I'm kidding, okay?
Five.
Okay, but look, when you eat, yeah, when you eat, when you have your food, give thanks
to God, right?
And look, you don't have to do a 10-minute prayer because the food gets cold, yeah?
Maybe spend, you know, that time praying other times, suitable times, right?
It doesn't have to be a public prayer.
You get people that go too far with this, you know?
I've talked about this before, we've had clowns, you go out for a meal and suddenly it's like,
right, everyone, let's pray.
And then it's like, oh, thank you, the God of Abraham, and when you had Isaac and you
told him and you're just like, man, I just want to eat my food, you know?
And then it's like, amen, and at the end of that, okay?
You don't have to do that.
It's not to be seen of men, okay?
However, however, look, we should give thanks to our food.
Why?
Because it's sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
Okay?
You clean your food.
It's no longer unclean if you're praying for it and you're giving thanks for it, right?
Okay?
Good reminder there, sanctify your food, pray for your food.
He said in verse six,
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister
of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou
hast attained.
What were these things?
Well, he's just been speaking about false prophet types, for one, okay?
And look, this is a witch hunt Baptist church, okay?
Some people get a bit confused by this and just saying, oh, man, you know, you don't
want to go there.
They used to think everyone's a false prophet.
We don't.
But it's a constant theme in the Bible, okay?
It's constant.
And here the pastor is told that if he reminds the church about it, that he's a good minister,
full of faith and good doctrine, which, by the way, is something he has attained.
So look, we are told to constantly remind, and look, we're just doing a Bible study,
right?
Okay, I chose Timothy.
I thought it was a practical book and sure enough, chapter one, we're talking about false
prophets.
Chapter four, we're talking about false prophets.
And in fact, chapter two, we're talking about the false prophets that end up doing what
they're commanded not to do and being women speaking in the church, preaching and the
rest of it.
Okay?
And it's just a theme in the Bible.
Okay?
You can't get away from it.
You can't escape it, can you?
Okay?
We come up against them in Romans.
We came up against them in first Corinthians.
We're just coming up against wicked people all the time.
The Bible constantly tells us about wicked people, okay?
It's not witch hunt Baptist church.
However, look, we just need to preach what the Bible tells us to preach.
He said, if you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister
of Jesus.
I want to be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
I know you lot.
I hope everyone else wants to be as well.
Know it shall be the words of faith and of good doctrine.
And he said, whereunto thou has attained.
And having attained it, having achieved that good doctrine, kind of goes hand in hand with
a well-known verse, 2 Timothy 2.15, which says, study to show thyself approved unto
God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Okay?
So it's work, isn't it?
We need to study and work so that we're not ashamed and we're able to rightly divide the
word of truth.
That good doctrine, those words of faith is something to be attained.
Okay?
And I say that because it takes work to do that, probably not just to repeat what you've
heard.
Okay?
Because a lot of people can repeat preaching, but to know where to go, to know what it says,
to study the Bible, to be able to actually go there yourself, to be able to actually
think of what the verse says yourself, not because someone's told you.
That takes work.
But when you do that, when you do that, look, you're nourished up in the words of faith
through good doctrine.
That's a lot stronger than someone who just repeats.
I remember when I first started preaching, when we first started this church, I can't
remember who it was saying to me, you know, you could, if you wanted, just like, just
download, I think it was a pastor, just repeat his sermons.
Being serious.
It was like, why don't you just do that?
It's like, they were like, just, you know, probably, I can't remember who it was.
And it's no offence if it was someone here, okay, hopefully you've moved on from that.
But probably a fan boy going, I just want to hear him preach, not you, you know, and
it's like, look, we don't want to hear the Bible, right?
Don't get me wrong, he's a great preacher, great pastor, great knowledge, great wisdom,
but you need to preach what you believe, right?
This is not really the same conviction, is it?
And I've heard people do that before, just copy something that they've heard.
It's not the same, is it?
It's not the same as really believing what the word of God says.
It takes, and that takes work, doesn't it?
But particularly here, what he's talking about, not just the false prophets, it's the
food, because he said, for every creature of God is good, in verse four, and nothing
to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving.
Then in verse six, he uses the word play of being nourished up, notice that, nourished
up in the word, instead, basically, and goes on to say, then in verse seven, but refuse
profane and old wives fables and exercise thyself rather unto godliness.
So for me, he's kind of focusing on that point, especially, what a profane and old wives
fables.
Now, profane is unholy, unsecular, but also secular, it's like non-godly, basically, yeah?
I believe that the context here is likely to do with food, diet, health, okay?
All that stuff that people get so hung up on, people get really hung up on that stuff.
And look, you can understand it, because food, diet, health, all that stuff, it is a big
part of our lives, isn't it?
And we did have a lot of that in the past, didn't we?
People trying to push and promote the latest diet fad, yeah, pushing it around the church
telling people how they should eat, what they should do, what they shouldn't, you know,
just couldn't stop talking about their latest fad, their latest cure-all and why it's the
only way and everything else.
At one point, if I remember in the past, over half the church were doing some sort of keto
or Atkins diet, weren't they?
If I remember right.
And of course, trying to push it on everyone else as well, okay?
And it was kind of like a little leavening, it just starts leavening, everyone is like,
All carbs are wicked, every carbohydrate is wicked, we're just going to eat meat.
You're going to be healthy for a long time like that, right?
Okay, and you're going to, if anyone's sitting here going, wait a second, I need to prove this to you,
you can talk to me afterwards about that, okay?
But what did he say?
He said to focus on godliness instead, okay?
And we've just seen that if you're praying and giving thanks, your food's sanctified anyway.
Now, we are talking about food, so let's just make this clear.
He's talking about food.
So I wouldn't go, okay, well, as long as you pray, as long as you pray for your sort of,
you know, chemical soup, sweets and stuff, you could just live off that.
I'll just live off light, Haribo.
Live off Haribo as long as I pray and, you know, it's sanctified by the word of God.
Well, it's not food.
The vast majority of that isn't food.
But if you're eating food, you're eating real food.
Look, for me, like, if you eat real stuff, it's genuine, it's wholesome food and everything else,
you don't have to say, oh, I'll cut out this carb and I better balance that one,
I'll get it on the scales and work out how much of it is carbohydrate and fat and all.
God doesn't call us to do that, does he?
See, healthy food, eat balanced food and don't, like, spend your whole life
trying to obsess over special diets.
Focus on the godliness.
He said, for bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things,
having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
Now, he didn't say that bodily exercise is pointless, did he?
It does profit a little, doesn't it?
Said it profiteth little.
As opposed to being told to refuse profane and old wives fables, and for me,
a lot of that is the diet fables, because there's a lot of diet fables around.
Look, they go in cycles.
They change every 10 years.
Give it another 10 years, they'll be telling you to eat 100% carbs.
Honestly, you look back at yesterday, you see all these different diets,
everything, a lot of it is old wives fables.
Okay, however, bodily exercise does profit, and I think for many,
some regular exercise is likely a lot healthier than stressing over which foods
you should and shouldn't have at what time.
Honestly, I was listening now, this is kind of one of those someone told you stats, yeah?
But this is a guy just going to me,
oh, yeah, I was reading that basically just the regular exercise
with a terrible diet, you're still likely to live just from the regular exercise.
It was X amount of years longer than anyone else.
Now, I know these studies, take that with a pinch of salt, all right?
However, I kind of get what the guy was saying, you know,
because people who just regularly exercise are generally much healthier
than people that don't do any exercise,
but they're obsessing every day about what they should or shouldn't eat,
because it's healthy to exercise, right?
What were the first man and women, the gardeners?
Yeah, they were working, they had a manual job, they were doing stuff.
You know, that's what we're really made for, aren't we?
What were all those people doing in Jesus Christ's time?
Walking everywhere.
And now we're so, we live this, such a stationary lifestyle,
we don't do anything, and then we're just kind of balancing
and trying to work out what I can eat and what I can't eat and everything else.
It's like, do some exercise, just do some exercise.
You'll probably be a lot healthier in many ways.
I mean, it's not just the fact, we're not talking about,
I'm not talking about like, you know, you're going to get a belt size off.
That's not really the point, is it?
The point is, is just to be healthy.
And there's many ways that exercise makes you healthy, right?
It is profitable, OK?
It's little, it's profitable, though.
But godliness is what's of real profit, though, isn't it?
So, look, don't focus too much on the exercise
and then don't focus on the godliness,
because the godliness is what is of real profit.
It benefits both this life and eternity, is what I believe he's saying here.
OK, godliness is going to benefit you here.
It's going to benefit you in eternity because you're going to earn
a load of extra rewards for heaven as well, right?
If you can live a godly life, if you can...
And I'm not talking about, oh, well, he's so godly because he,
you know, he doesn't swear or something.
That's not what we're talking about.
It's all about doing the things of God.
And what's the number one thing of God going out and soul winning?
What's another thing of God going to church and supporting
and being an encouragement to the brethren?
Yeah, what's another thing of God?
Another thing of God is praying to God, is being in the word of God,
reading the word of God, doing those things,
and then also getting rid of the sin out of your life as well
and trying to live for God and do things to God and focus on God
and saying thy will, not my will be done.
And that is profit belong to all things.
Yeah, how many Christians are more focused on their bodily exercise than godliness?
There's a lot, right?
So there are those that focus just on the food,
the old wives fables a lot of the time.
And then there are those that focus on the bodily exercise,
but not on the godliness.
And that's pretty popular right now, isn't it?
Because a lot of people have realised, actually, if I don't eat anything,
in fact, sorry, if I don't care anything about what I eat,
if I, like I said, you could probably eat a right load of junk
as long as you go down the gym, maybe, especially if you probably,
you know, hit a few steroids and something as well,
and you just go down there and do some bicep curls, some other stuff,
you know, you can look really good, right?
Bodily exercise.
I mean, it's loosely termed,
because a lot of times it's lifting something up and down,
but it is exercise, right?
And there are people that obsess over that stuff.
But what a waste of time, right?
What a waste of their life.
Now, look, you want to be fit and healthy, nothing wrong with that,
but you need to focus on the godliness first, right?
And I was saying this to just someone earlier,
I was saying that ultimately so many people will just put so much effort
into how they look and not into their godliness.
But I think if they have the discipline to do that,
maybe they have the ability to have the discipline for godliness.
It does take discipline, doesn't it?
But swap that weightlifting routine, that whatever it is,
maybe for some it's a running routine, whatever it is,
swap that for the godliness, make sure that that stuff is your routine,
that's what you're doing first.
Then if you can add that stuff afterwards,
if you can add the body exercise, great, you know, be healthy as well.
He said, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation,
for therefore we both labour and suffer reproach
because we trust in the living God,
who is the saviour of all men, especially of those that believe.
If you trust in the living God, okay,
you're going to labour for him and you're going to suffer reproach for him.
Okay, that goes without saying, if you trust in the living God,
okay, that means you're going to labour
and it means you're going to suffer reproach.
And look, that could be rough sometimes.
For many here who have probably had some reproach here and there
and you're going to get it, and it can be tough,
sometimes they'll say things that will hurt you,
you know, they'll say things to try and make people think bad of you,
and we talked about this obviously just earlier in the sermon,
and sometimes it can feel a bit like, what on earth, you know,
and it's frustrating.
And the flesh just wants to kind of just grab people
and start doing horrible things, you know,
and you just say, why do I have to put up with this sort of stuff?
Why do I have to put up with this reproach
and the stuff that goes with it?
Especially when it's from enemies of God, okay,
because these devils can be really nasty, can't they?
Just horrible, speaking lies in hypocrisy,
having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
I mean, they'll do all sorts, they'll say all sorts,
they'll behave in all ways, and it can be nasty, can't it?
And you can be like, what on earth, you know?
How on earth does someone,
and especially when it's like the sleeper cell situation,
it's just like, what on earth?
I'll turn to Matthew 5, but you know what, it's worth it.
It really is worth it.
You're serving God, you're labouring for God.
For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach
because we trust in the living God, who is the saviour of all men,
especially of those that believe.
Matthew 5 and verse 10 tells us that it don't really matter
because you know what, you're doing well because of it.
Matthew 5, 10 says,
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are ye where men shall revile you and persecute you,
and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake,
not for your own sake, for my sake.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
When we're getting persecuted, rejoice.
When you're getting persecuted, rejoice.
When they slander you, be exceeding glad.
Be glad.
Let's go, great, great, I'm getting slandered, great.
Thank you because you're validating what we're doing here.
Thank you.
Because you know what,
they're not slandering all the other churches,
all the false churches out there.
No one really cares.
And when they're slandering us and when they're slandering you,
when they're trying to pull you out of church in various ways,
thank you, thank you because you're validating us.
You're showing that what we're doing is worth it.
You're showing that us moving us out there was a good move
because we're going to make some pretty big waves here.
Thank you.
Thank you for the timing when you attack us.
Thank you.
You're showing what we're doing is right.
And you know what you're also doing,
you're racking up rewards for us.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Keep it coming.
Keep digging a deeper depth for your eternity.
And at the same time, you're basically digging yourself down.
But what you're digging out of there
is all these rewards for us.
You know, brilliant, thank you.
You go lower down.
You can go to a lower depth of hell
for attacking God's people
and you can give us the rewards in heaven.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, praise God.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad
for great is your reward in heaven.
True to type, right?
These people.
He said in verse nine,
back where we are in 1 Timothy chapter four,
this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation.
For therefore we both labour and suffer approach
because we trust in the living God,
who is the saviour of all men,
especially those that believe.
That's why you suffer approach.
Who is the saviour of only the special elect?
Is that what it said?
No, of all men.
All men.
But if you want to be saved,
then you need to repent of your sins.
Is that what it said?
Follow the commandments, turn away from sin.
No, believe.
He's the saviour of all men,
especially those that believe.
Because that's how you get saved.
You put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Those specially, specifically those that believe.
But look, he died for everyone.
There's no limited atonement.
That's a life in a pit of hell.
He died for everyone, especially those that believe.
He said, these six commanded teach,
verse 11,
Let no man despise thy youth,
but be thou an example of the believers
in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit,
in faith, in purity.
Let me tell you something.
Age isn't measured in physical age, okay?
When it comes to the things of God,
when it comes to church life and all those things,
it's in spiritual maturity.
Okay, and look,
there could be old people that are babes in Christ,
and there could be young people that are spiritually mature.
It's not just about the amount of time saved.
Some people get confused by this.
Oh man, they've been saved for like X amount of years.
They must be more spiritually mature.
You could be saved 20 years and still be a spiritual baby.
Okay, because you have to grow.
And it's not just by reading.
It's not just being a hearer of the word.
It's by being a doer too.
And people grow by living for God.
The more you live the Christian life,
the more you're in church, you're reading the word,
you're going out soul winning.
You're trying to live for God.
That's when you grow.
And the rest of it, you can, look,
there are people that are at the same level,
they got saved however many years ago,
and there are people that get saved
and literally just jump straight into it.
And they mature quick.
And Timothy here is clearly a doer, isn't he?
And he was told to be an example.
So he's a young man.
We could say that no man despises our youth,
but be an example of the believers.
And we should all want to be an example too, shouldn't we?
Okay, so this isn't just about the pastor of a church.
This is everyone here.
Everyone here, if you consider yourself
to either be a mature Christian
or on your way to being a mature Christian,
and you should want to be on your way
to being a mature Christian,
then you should want to be an example to others
because an example is such a great thing
and it's obviously being a good example.
He said to be an example in word.
For me, that's how he talks.
That's how he talks, how he speaks.
Now, just to make that clear,
I don't believe Timothy was walking around
trying to say everything in scripture.
I don't think Timothy was walking around.
People go, oh, nothing wrong with talking
like the Apostle Paul.
Yeah, the Apostle Paul was writing.
Okay, he was writing letters.
Okay, now look, don't get me wrong,
because I say wrong,
sometimes we'll have Baptist banter, won't we?
And we'll maybe say the odd verse or something else,
and we'll talk, look, and we talk the Bible,
and we love the Bible, don't we?
We love the word of God.
But what we're not trying to do is basically exalt ourselves
by showing how many verses we've memorized
or how we only speak in biblical language.
Yeah, look, hopefully, look,
people here are just regular people, right?
That's how we should be.
Now, Timothy here, in word, how he talks,
for me, look, no, he's not slandering.
He's not talking profanities.
He's not taking the name of the Lord in vain.
He's not talking in a way that he shouldn't, right?
And he's just basically,
hopefully the way he talks is the way he is,
and he's just like a good, godly man, right?
He said in conversation, you're going into that same thing.
Well, no, that's his behavior.
Conversation is your behavior, the way you act.
So again, he's an example in his behavior, okay?
He's not coming into church and then leaving
and getting in fights on the street on the way out
and everything else.
Everything he does should just be within reason.
This guy doesn't walk on water.
He's not the Lord Jesus Christ.
However, he should be an example to others, right?
And we should all want to be examples to others
in a good way as well.
He said in charity as well.
Now, that's his love for others.
And just to make it clear, that's real love.
Because I've been to many churches,
they've jumped on this one, and you walk in the church
and there's a big fake smile and, oh, God bless you.
We're praying for you.
We really love you.
I've had people say,
so you claim to be Bible-believing Baptist.
You know, we really love you guys.
And you're like, why are you telling me so much?
You don't really seem to,
because you're preaching false doctrine.
I don't really seem to,
because you're too busy trying to knock me down
for trying to go soul-winning.
Or something else like that.
What's real love?
Real love is just a care.
It's a selfless giving, isn't it?
One way is soul-winning.
It's not just soul-winning,
but one way is soul-winning.
Yeah, if you're an example in charity,
you've got to be out soul-winning, right?
And I have no time for pastors
that don't go out and preach the gospel.
They're not soul-winning.
Why are they not,
when they're meant to be an example in charity?
Is there anything more charitable
than going out and preaching the gospel
and getting people saved?
Yeah, probably around this city,
around this nation.
Well, most of the false churches,
even if they weren't, right?
Around, like, what are they doing?
Are they going out and preaching gospel to the lost?
No.
Oh no, no, we'll get them all in.
We'll get them all in and preach them a false gospel.
They're not an example,
but it's not just obviously that.
Look, charity is as well,
we should be charitable to each other, shouldn't we?
We should love each other.
We should want to help each other.
We should want to do things for each other.
We should be willing to give to each other as well.
Especially those of the household of faith
is how we should be.
In spirit.
And that's his disposition,
the spirit in which he does things.
So in the spirit of kindness,
in the spirit of charity,
in the spirit of these things,
not just kind of, you know,
just some mean-spirited guy,
just walking around,
lording it over everyone,
being mean to everyone,
talking down to everyone, et cetera.
He should be an example in spirit,
should be doing things in the right spirit.
In faith, how much faith does he have?
Look, there are pastors
that will flip-flop on all sorts, won't they?
Flip-flop on all sorts of doctrines
that don't really have the faith in the word of God,
that will hear the word of God,
but then someone's gone back to the Greek.
Oh, that's not an example of faith, is it?
My faith is in the King James Bible.
Yeah, I believe every word of this book is pure and true.
And that's what I believe.
Okay, and the Greek ain't,
look, I know that this is a 100% accurate translation
of the Greek.
I don't need someone who doesn't speak Greek
telling me what it should say.
Yeah, I have faith in the word of God.
That's how we should all have, shouldn't we?
We should just be strong in our faith,
faith in the doctrine,
faith in the things of God,
not shaken by every wind of doctrine.
And then it said impurity.
And look, he shouldn't be full of sin, right?
He shouldn't just be full of all sorts of sin
and back in the closet at home
that he's doing all these wicked things
when he's out of here and back home and everything else.
No, he should just be an example in purity.
And you know what?
We need lots of Timothy's around this church, don't we?
This isn't just the pastor.
We need a load of Timothy's.
We need people,
because the more people that are living right
and behaving right and trying to do the things of God
and got their sights set on the right things,
what an example it is to others.
And then what a great culture we generate in the church.
It's so easy for new people to come in
to get right quickly.
But if everyone's acting in a different way
and behaving in weird ways and other funny ways
and believing different things and doing,
like most churches around,
where they've all got a different weird,
you know, strange belief,
it's so hard for new people to really understand, right?
It's how much time are they going to get,
especially when they're preaching 20 minute sermonettes.
But look, if we're all a good example,
all a clear example,
like what a strong churches can become, right?
It's not just for the pastor.
He said, till I come,
give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
These are things to give attention to.
Okay, he needs to be reading.
I said this before,
that's why there's a reason, for example,
to get a deacon in,
because they can get to a point with a busy place,
a busy church,
where the pastor doesn't even have time
to do the things of God.
He doesn't have time now to read the Bible.
And look, that's one of the most important things.
I mean, he's got to start his day
with the word of God, doesn't he?
And he should be finishing his day
with the word of God as well,
because it's so important to be reading the word.
He should be giving attendance,
till I come give attendance to reading, to exhortation.
Okay, and I believe that's to the church.
So he should be reading,
but he should be giving exhortation,
encouragement to the church.
That's important, isn't it?
Sometimes we can lose that as preachers sometimes.
Sometimes you're like, oh man,
I just like this sin going on.
I need to smash that sin.
Then you preach another sin,
and you preach your false prophets.
And it can get a bit like, oh, this is rough.
People can start to,
what's he going to preach on this time?
Whereas sometimes we just need a bit of encouragement,
don't we?
Sometimes it's nice to come out of church sometime,
but what you don't want to do is do the opposite
and just pat people on the back every week.
Okay, because then you've got a church full of wickedness
and full of sin.
So it's to get the level right.
Preach the word, be instant, in season and out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine.
I know it's two negatives there to reprove and rebuke.
Well, I think they're positives, but I'm a preacher, okay?
You might think they're negatives,
reprove, rebuke, exhort.
But there is a need for encouragement as well, isn't there?
And he said to doctrine,
and he needs to be teaching doctrine,
and doctrine's not a dirty word.
And like I said, then there's people that go too far.
The other way, that's all they ever teach is doctrine.
They don't talk about any sin or anything like that.
But however, there is a place for doctrine,
and we need to teach doctrine.
And one of the reasons, by the way,
is that if you're just a Sunday morning churchgoer,
you're missing out on a lot of doctrine, okay?
Because we study the Bible,
and I preach through so much stuff
that comes up in the Bible.
So much doctrine in the book of Genesis, for example.
So much doctrine in the book of Matthew
we did on a Wednesday night.
So much doctrine in the word of God,
especially in our midweek Bible studies.
Look, it's a place to be on a Wednesday night.
And what you should really be doing
is finding a way around,
look, do you think God wants you here or not
on a Wednesday night?
Do you think God wants you having the full plate?
Look, I'll tell you what.
He doesn't want you on an Atkins diet.
He wants you on the meat, the veg,
and he wants you on the dessert.
And you know what?
You need to come free to thrive for that, okay?
You need to.
Look, if you're missing those Wednesday nights,
you're, oh, well, I watch it at home.
It ain't the same.
Anyone think it's the same watching it at home?
It's not the same.
It's so different when you're in the house of God,
listening to the word of God,
the Holy Spirit's amongst you.
You're there, you have to pay attention
because I'm looking at the whites of your eyes.
You even have to cover up when you're yawning.
On YouTube, you're not doing that.
And look, look, it's important
because there's so much you're missing
if you're just a Sunday morning churchgoer.
There's so much you're missing
because there's so much doctrine
and so much that we need to know as well.
And a lot of time I'm going to hit a topical song
on a Sunday morning
because I'm doing the Bible studies on other nights, right?
He said, till I come, give attendance to reading,
to exhortation, to doctrine.
It's important.
And you might go, yeah, but I don't like the titles,
not so exciting.
1 Timothy 4, Genesis, well, 19 is quite exciting.
If you know your Bible, Genesis 19, okay?
That's a Wednesday night to be here, right?
But the reality of it is,
is that those sermons have so much in them
because we're just preaching what the Bible's giving us,
right?
And it's important to do, I believe,
I love those Bible studies.
He said, neglect not the gift that is in thee
which was given thee by prophecy
with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
What's the gift?
Well, he's an ordained minister, a pastor.
He had hands laid on him, okay?
Perhaps the gift is prophecy, I don't know.
Maybe the ability to preach, you know,
is in one of those spiritual gifts
or is it something imparted to him by the preaching maybe?
I'm unsure.
I'd be interested in what you think after this.
He said, neglect not the gift that is in thee
which was given thee by prophecy.
Is it the prophecy that was given thee that's the gift
or is it that having, you know,
when he had hands laid on and was preached to,
he received, was imparted some knowledge maybe.
The presbytery, by the way, a group of leaders.
So the leadership in the church that he was sent out
from laid hands on him to ordain him.
And that's what we do here, by the way,
and you know, when I was ordained as an evangelist,
I had hands laid on me by our pastor.
But it's a gift to be an ordained man of God as well.
Another way of looking at it.
To be able to serve God, it's tough, yeah,
but it's an honour.
It really is, it's a privilege.
I think sometimes you might listen to preacher think,
oh man, like, you know, maybe he doesn't enjoy it.
Look, it's great, okay?
Yeah, it's tough.
Yeah, like, you know, there's some hard parts of the job.
It can be hard work.
But you know what?
It really is a gift.
And I hope people here won't be put off
by sometimes you might see some stuff,
see some weird stuff, the slanders,
see maybe you're looking a bit fatigued
and stuff like that.
Look, don't be put off because it is an honour, okay?
It really is.
And it's a great thing to do.
And if it's something that you feel,
yeah, yeah, I'd like,
I desire the office of a bishop or something similar,
don't be put off.
I believe that's a gift as well.
He said in verse 15,
meditate upon these things,
give thyself wholly to them
that thy profiting may appear to all.
We meditate upon things, by the way,
not on nothing.
Because if you go,
oh, meditation isn't that bad.
Yeah, it is when you just open your mind
to apparently nothing,
which is usually wicked spirits and everything else, yeah?
No, we meditate upon these things, okay?
Specifically, it's a word of God, right?
And when it comes to ministry,
you've got to give yourself wholly to it as well.
So if people, look, we want to plant churches, okay?
I mean, I'm not going to,
I'm not going to, you know,
kind of pretend we don't.
We want to, yeah?
But we want to plant churches in the right place.
You know, where we believe
that God calls us to plant churches.
And whether that's here or abroad,
we want to do that, right?
But if you want to be in a ministry,
you've got to give yourself wholly
to the things of the ministry, okay?
It's not like a part-time little thing that you can do.
Look, a lot of the time you'll be doing it part,
you'll be doing it voluntary, okay?
And it's like a full-time job.
And then you might go to part-time
and it's like even more than a full-time job.
It's like sort of you're doing overtime as well, okay?
And that's just the reality of it.
In full-time ministers,
they're a lot of the time doing very long hours.
It's a long job.
They're giving themselves wholly to it.
You're in it night and day.
The spiritual battle is alive night and day.
However, if you give yourself wholly to it,
your profiting may appear to you.
You will profit and you can impart that to others, okay?
But it's something that you need to give yourself to.
It's not like an easy option.
I think some people, the reality of it is
you can't understand a ministry until you're in a ministry,
but I'm not trying to say it's bad.
It's a great job.
It really is hard to,
I didn't understand it until I got into the ministry.
But if you give yourself wholly to it,
man, it can make a difference.
You know, it does.
And that's what you've got to.
He said,
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 this isn't salvation.
It's about preserving himself and his church.
It's done by being careful,
not getting puffed up in ministry.
He's saying, take heed unto thyself, yeah?
You just make sure that you don't start, you know,
getting all full of yourself.
You don't start doing this, doing that.
And unto the doctrine.
You need to take heed to the doctrine
and continue in them, for when you do that,
you're going to save, look,
you're going to basically preserve yourself in this job.
You're going to help yourself through this job.
Save yourself from the attacks and the wickedness
and everything else.
You start going off into weird grounds of weird doctrine
because you start getting puffed up and thinking,
oh, I've got something really new for them here.
No one's ever preached it ever.
Wow.
You know, this is going to make me sound great.
Yeah?
Look, the truth is you're going to get,
you're going to get taken down.
Look, people are looking for anything on you, right?
Look, you need to take heed unto thyself
and unto the doctrine and continue in them.
For doing this, thou shalt both save thyself
and in thee thee.
Look, you guys ain't benefiting.
If I start getting all puffed up and thinking,
right, man, I'm going to come out with this new,
funky doctrine that's just a load of nonsense.
I start preaching wild and wacky stuff like that.
Some of those clowns, you know,
that claim to be, you know, NIFB pastors,
which weren't, who am I thinking?
What's that clown?
Manly Perry, people like this.
The people in this church are just suffering, right?
They're not profiting.
They're not getting saved in terms of saved from,
from the negative spiritual life.
Look, these people are just, just what a mess.
What a shame, because doctrine is so important.
He said, thou shalt both save thyself
and them that hear thee.
First Corinthians 10, 12 says,
wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed
lest he fall.
And it's a good reminder for anyone here that,
that it just, I would say, look,
you can apply so much of this to just your life.
Obviously here it's talking about church leadership,
but just how about dads?
How about dads at home?
Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine.
Don't start, don't get puffed up at home thinking,
yeah, man, well, I've got a better way of teaching this.
I've got a new way in there.
I need them to look to me and not to,
look, they should look to you.
You're the head, you're the spiritual head of the household.
But however, make sure that what you're teaching at home
is accurate, right?
Make sure it's clear, it's sound doctrine, okay?
Take heed unto yourself and unto the doctrine, okay?
For in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself.
You're going to preserve yourself and them that hear thee.
And look, he, Timothy here,
he needs to stick to the word of God.
He needs to stick to the clear doctrines,
not skimp on the teaching, change this,
gloss over, for example, the qualifications.
Timothy's like, well, I want to send someone out.
I don't really have someone qualified.
Well, you know, so what if they're not married?
So what if they haven't got any children?
Don't skimp on that stuff.
We saw what happened before in this nation
with one of probably the only so-called like-minded church.
It was a den of vipers because they skimped
because the leader wasn't even qualified.
Don't skimp on these things, don't gloss over these things.
Stick to the clear doctrines of the Bible.
One of those is that if a man
desired the office of a bishop,
one of those that he must have faithful children, plural.
They're clear doctrines of the Bible.
And when you do things God's way, you can make it
and therefore so will your church,
or at least those that want to hear you in your church, right?
And it's so important and it all comes back to the doctrine
of why we will always be a church
which always preaches from the word of God.
It ain't going to be a springboard verse
and then a sermon where there's no more Bible.
I ain't going to be quoting Spurgeon
and other damnable heretics
and other so-called worldly thinkers,
you know, the world's minds and quoting all this stuff
and forget the word of God.
It all comes from the word of God.
And when we do it from the word of God,
we know we can compare it, can't we?
And when you're like, hopefully, the Bereans
and you're searching the scriptures daily,
you probably do it quite quickly
where you actually preach out of the Bible
and preach the word of God.
And you're not going, what was that Bible verse?
You kind of quoted a little bit of it and blah.
It's here, it's all here.
That's what we're going to preach.
I will continue to preach.
And that is a great chapter though.
There's a lot on, I know that that's a scattergun chapter.
You go away going, man, I can't even remember what it is.
A bit about this, a bit about that.
But hopefully, everyone got at least something out of that
that could apply to them, especially,
or at least that would most apply to them.
On that, we're going to finish in a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you for your word.
Thank you for a great chapter of the Bible.
Lord, 1 Timothy 4, there's so much in there.
So many sermons you could preach out of there, Lord.
And we thank you that your word's so clear
about so many things, Lord.
And one of those is just that there are a lot
of wicked people, Lord.
There's a lot of wicked people attacking churches,
attacking men and women of God.
Help us to just be wise to these people, Lord.
Help us to respond in the right way, Lord,
and just do what you want us to do,
and that's just to reject them.
And help us also to just be firm
in the doctrines of the Bible, Lord,
to be firm in them.
And I want to just follow in the doctrines
and not in all sorts of strange ways
that people try and teach and preach out there.
Help us get home safe and sound tonight,
and I hope us to all return on Wednesday night
for another Daniel House.
Jesus' name, pray all this.
Amen.