- Good evening, it's good to see you this evening.
Would you turn with me to the book of 1 Timothy, please?
Book of 1 Timothy chapter one.
1 Timothy chapter one, please.
And as is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter,
beginning in verse one.
1 Timothy chapter one.
And in 1 Timothy chapter one, the Bible reads,
"Whole an apostle of Jesus Christ
"by the commandment of God our Savior
"and Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope.
"Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith,
"grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father
"and Jesus Christ our Lord.
"As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus
"when I went into Macedonia,
"that thou mightest charge some
"that they teach no other doctrine,
"neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies,
"which minister questions rather than godly edifying,
"which is in faith, so do.
"Now the end of the commandment is charity
"out of a pure heart and of a good conscience
"and of faith unfeigned,
"from which some, having swerved,
"have turned aside unto vain jangling,
"desiring to be teachers of the law,
"understanding neither what they say
"nor whereof they affirm.
"But we know that the law is good,
"if a man use it lawfully,
"knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man,
"but for the lawless and disobedient,
"for the ungodly and for sinners,
"for unholy and profane,
"for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
"for manslayers, for whoremongers,
"for them that defile themselves with mankind,
"for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons,
"and if there be any other thing that is contrary
"to sound doctrine.
"And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord,
"who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful,
"putting me into the ministry,
"who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious,
"but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly
"in unbelief and the grace of our Lord
"was exceeding abundant with faith and love
"which is in Christ Jesus.
"This is a faithful saying and worthy of all expectation
"that Christ Jesus came into the world
"to save sinners of whom I am chief.
"Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy
"that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth
"all longsuffering for a pattern to them
"which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
"Now unto the King, eternal, immortal, invisible,
"the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever.
"Amen.
"This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy,
"according to the prophecies which went before on thee,
"that thou by them mightest war a good warfare.
"Holding faith and a good conscience,
"which some having put away concerning faith
"have made shipwreck, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander,
"whom I have delivered unto Satan,
"that they may learn not to blaspheme."
Brother Joshua, would you pray for us?
- Father in heaven, come before you, Lord God,
and we just ask you to please fill our pastor
with your Holy Spirit of truth and power,
and let us have the ears to receive
what the Spirit has to say to the church this day.
We love you.
- All right, starting a new book.
It's always exciting.
And of course, it's 1 Timothy.
And I think that I was just, by reading that last scripture,
I thank you for reading that, Brother Eli.
And I think that I didn't copy down the last verse,
so I'm glad that I was paying attention
while you were reading also.
So I was like, yeah, I remember putting that in my notes.
So anyway, I'll make sure I cover that last verse there.
So just briefly, the book of 1 Timothy, of course,
is written by the apostle Paul to Timothy,
who's a young pastor.
And he's a half Greek, half Jew,
born to a Jewish mother named Eunice,
and a Greek father.
His grandmother's name is Lois.
It explains that later on.
And Timothy had a spiritual upbringing
and was taught the Bible by his grandmother and mother.
And some of the themes of 1 Timothy are sound doctrine,
how to behave in church, false teachers, of course,
apostasy, and, of course, the very important pastoral
or bishop, qualifications of a bishop, and deacons.
And, you know, again, church behavior is a lot of it,
and just how to, you know, the polity of the church
is some of it.
So lots of various different pieces of doctrine.
Of course, the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is discussed,
but a lot of great doctrine in here,
but it's known as one of the pastoral epistles.
So you've got 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus,
and Titus is also paired with that,
has the qualifications for the bishop there also,
and that is in chapter number 3, in 1 Timothy chapter 3.
You have the qualifications for the bishop,
but this book, number one, is clearly written
by the apostle Paul to a young pastor.
So one of the passages says, "Let no man despise thy youth."
So obviously Paul is telling him not to let other people
despise the fact that he's a young pastor,
and obviously, you know, someone that's 13 years old
can't be a pastor, 'cause their qualification is
that you are married, the husband of one wife,
and that you have faithful children.
So that means that you have more than one,
and they have to be able to be tested
that they are actually, you know,
able to be subject unto their parents.
So, and of course we'll get into qualifications
at a later time, but verse number one,
the Bible says Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the commandment of God, our savior,
and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope,
and in verse two it says, unto Timothy,
my own son in the faith, grace and mercy and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, you have Paul saying that he's an apostle
by commandment of God.
So, I mean, Paul, this is kind of how Paul opens up
every epistle except for the book of Hebrews.
My theory on the book of Hebrews is that
the Jews already hate him enough,
and so he just didn't want to say his name in that one
because people, they'd probably just drop the book
and spit on it as soon as they saw it or something.
That's just my theory,
'cause I believe that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews.
I think it's just without question,
but he doesn't really sign off on it necessarily.
He doesn't have this benediction where he just says,
Paul, an apostle, usually identifies himself.
He usually identifies himself as being commanded
to be an apostle by the Lord Jesus Christ.
So, but it's obvious from verse one,
he was commanded to be an apostle and Jesus is a savior.
So he just identifies himself at the end of his epistles.
He usually signs off and then says,
all these people say what's up.
All these people are saying hi
and treat this person well if they come visit your church.
He kind of just like, he has his little endings
of his epistles also.
So, but then he says in verse two again,
unto Timothy mine own son in the faith.
So Timothy is a convert of Paul.
He got Timothy saved.
So even though Timothy grew up in a home
where the Bible was taught to him,
he obviously was not saved as a child.
So unless he's just saying that he brought him up
in the ways of the Lord, but I don't think so.
I think he's a convert of the apostle Paul.
That's why he's saying he's my son in the faith.
So now, but does that mean that Timothy calls him father?
No, no, no. (laughs)
But spiritually speaking, as far as that goes,
I think it's okay to say he's his spiritual father
as far as he got him saved, okay?
But you don't want to take that too far
and call him Papa or the Pope or something, right?
So 'cause Jesus said, "Call no man on the earth father,"
like a spiritual father, but then of course,
it's the grace and mercy and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ.
So again, Paul, that's his personal convert
and he's trained him.
He's taught him everything and he's just trained him up.
It's his personal convert that he has trained up
in the ways of the Lord and taken him with him
on many journeys and he sent him to different places,
just like he sent Titus to different places.
He sent him to Crete to ordain other elders,
elders in every city.
And so, you know, it is for, you know,
the will of God is that for all men, you know,
as far as that are able to be pastors, that they could be.
You know, I believe that, you know,
if God has called a man to preach, you know,
as far as like they have the ability, they're married,
they have the children, they have the qualifications
that God's will is that they would be
if they are able to do the position.
So not of constraint, you know,
not because someone's forcing you to do that,
but, you know, by your own will that you would do that.
You know, Moses was reluctant, but he still did it, right?
And so, and you're like, well, Moses wasn't a pastor.
Well, I begged the differ on that.
I mean, that's literally what his job was
for like 40 years in the desert as a pastor to animals, okay?
And then he had like the biggest mega church
out of all pastors on the face of the planet.
So, I mean, his church was a mega church.
He had millions of people following him.
So, and he had a lot of problems
with his people wanting to do what he said.
But, you know, there's a lot of qualifications
that are expectant of a bishop,
and Timothy is getting told exactly what those things are.
But these things are not just written to Timothy, of course.
The whole Bible is written to us.
So, these things are written to us,
so you know what the qualifications of a bishop are.
They're written to pastors that,
hey, what do I have to do to become a pastor?
Well, you have to meet the qualifications
in chapter number three.
And there's other, I mean, there's other things
that he's saying.
There's other instructions.
It's not just those instructions.
And again, some of these things are subjective.
Some of the qualifications are subjective
and people are just like,
well, no, it has to be just exact.
And we'll get into that when I get into chapter three.
And I'll explain to you what I mean by that.
But I mean, there are some things
that are just not subjective at all.
Like the husband of one wife, having faithful children.
Like, you know, 'cause if you can't run your home,
how can you run the church of God?
If you can't figure out how to run a home,
then how can you run the house of God?
You just can't.
So that is a qualification that you have to be able to do.
So, and then, you know, paired with the book of Titus,
we get all the whole picture
of what a bishop is expected to do.
And Timothy's getting all the,
he's already gotten the training,
but you know, this is left over for us.
So we know today, God still expects the same things
from the men of God today that he expected 2,000 years ago
when he wrote these letters.
Now these are timeless qualifications.
It's not like, oh, well now women can be pastors
because they burned their bras in 1969
and decided that they don't need no man
to tell them what to do anymore.
That's not true.
The Bible still says that women are not supposed
to usurp authority over the man.
They're not supposed to teach men
in this biblical setting.
So, you know, and again, it's gonna talk about that too.
So, number two tonight, the charge to crush false doctrine
and false prophets is found in chapter number one.
So, look at verse three.
The Bible says, as I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus,
so Paul is telling him that.
Timothy was supposed to abide at Ephesus.
When I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some
that they teach no other doctrine.
So apparently there's some people that are teaching
some other doctrine, and Paul's like,
hey, you need to tell these certain people
not to teach other doctrine.
And so what is he doing?
He's telling him to tell them not to do it.
So these people that think that the pastor has no authority
to tell people what to do,
is that what the Bible says right there?
No, he says, hey, you need to tell these people
to not teach other doctrine.
Because, why?
Well, because it's confusing.
You know, you have to have unity in the church,
and for one message to be being said,
and if there's other people going around teaching
other things that the pastor's not teaching,
then that's a problem, you know?
So, pastoral authority is biblical,
and Paul's just giving us a little dose of it right here.
Now, Paul wasn't a pastor, Paul was an apostle,
and he's just lining out and telling Timothy,
this is what I want you to do with that church.
Paul started the church at Ephesus,
and he said, hey, you know, I'm telling you,
this is what you need to tell the some.
See how it says some?
Charge some that they teach no other doctrine.
Obviously, there was a problem
with some of those people doing that.
I remember when he left Ephesus,
he said that wolves would rise up, even those among you.
Well, let's actually turn over there.
Look at Acts chapter 20.
It's not in my notes, but Acts chapter 20,
it gives him the what for.
He's actually, you know,
just trying to give him some instruction before he leaves.
Let's see.
Let's just start in verse 22.
He's meeting with the Ephesian elders.
It says in verse 22,
"And now behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there,
save that the Holy Ghost witnesses in every city,
saying that bonds and afflictions abide me,
but none of these things move me,
neither count I myself dear unto myself,
so that I might finish my course with joy
and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus
to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
And now behold, I know that ye all,
that ye all among whom I have gone preaching
the kingdom of God shall see my face no more.
Wherefore, I take you to record this day
that I am pure from the blood of all men,
and have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God.
Take heed therefore unto yourselves
and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God,
which he hath purchased with his own blood.
For I know this, that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock.
So, I mean, why is he warning them?
Why is he saying don't teach other doctrine?
Because he knew that people were gonna rise up
at that church and start teaching false doctrine.
It says also of your own selves shall men arise
speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.
Therefore watch and remember that by the space
of three years I cease not to warn everyone
night and day with tears.
Do you think that it's a serious issue?
Yeah, when he left, he sent Timothy there
to make sure that the things that he was saying
were getting backed up.
And now, brethren, I commend you to God
and to the word of his grace,
which is able to build you up and to give you
an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.
I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel.
Yea, you yourselves know that these hands
have ministered unto my necessities
and to them which were with me.
I have showed you all things,
how that so laboring yacht to support the weak
and remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
how he said it's more blessed to give than to receive.
So I'll just stop there, but I mean,
so now you have the proof that Paul did care a lot
about them because he's saying,
hey, I charged some that they teach no other doctrine.
And he's giving him pastoral authority
to tell them what to do at this church.
Look at verse four.
Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies.
Well, how do people get hooks into people?
By giving heed, by telling fables
and stories that aren't true.
You know, things that are not in the Bible.
Hey, you know, what do people do in churches?
They like to say things that are not in the Bible.
They like to tell stories that aren't true.
You know, Jewish fables is what it says in other passages.
Giving heed to Jewish fables.
So, and then endless genealogies.
You know, the Jews love their little genealogies,
don't they?
I'm a priest from way back.
You know, here's my genealogy.
Which minister questions rather than godly edifying.
Because, you know, the Bible actually says
that we're done with genealogies now.
We don't really have to worry about those things.
Unless you're just interested in
where your family came from.
I mean, you know, you're not gonna trace your way back
to some Levite and decide,
and now you're a Levite or something.
'Cause that doesn't matter.
It says, which minister questions
rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do.
Now the end of the commandment is charity
out of a pure heart and of a good conscience
and of faith unfeigned.
What does that mean?
It's not, it's not fake.
Your faith is not a fake faith,
from which some have swerved,
having turned aside unto vain jangling.
So what they've swerved, what do you do when you're,
there's some dead animal on the road,
you don't want to hit it.
And it's all, it's all spread all over the highway.
I was just driving up to Seattle
and had to avoid some dead carcasses in the road.
And what did I do?
I swerved around them.
So, but what these people like to do
is they like to swerve around sound doctrine
and get you off to the side thinking about things
that are not in the Bible, things that don't matter,
get you into conversations that are avoiding sound doctrine
and get you focused on things that don't matter.
So, and so, and they have turned aside to vain jangling.
I was trying to think of something,
you know, people say, well, your keys are jangling.
You know, there's things, sometimes,
have you ever been just like, you'll hear a noise
and at first it doesn't bother you,
but after a while you're like, what is that annoying noise?
Like I used to ride in the paint striper a lot
and we always had to wear headphones
so that we could all communicate together.
So the two crew leaders in the back,
the driver in the front,
we're constantly communicating to each other
because tree branches on the side or cars coming up,
we have to constantly just guns off.
You know, you're spray painting the road
if you make a mistake or you're not looking
and a tree comes and hits you in the face
while you're striping, it's pretty crazy, right?
And that night, it's even worse.
But in that striper, if you left your turn signal on,
all you'd hear is tch.
If you're like striping for like 12 or 13 hours
and someone keeps leaving it off,
after a while, you know, after a while,
just working with anybody for long periods of time,
you'll just get annoyed over anything.
And if you're just sleep deprived
and you're working with people
and you just have talked too much to them or whatever,
you can just get annoyed and the sound of a blinker
is all it takes to set you over the edge, right?
And so, vain jangling.
I just was thinking about, what is a vain jangling?
Well, it's a noise that's distracting you
from what you should be doing.
And to me, it's that blinker and that striper.
Just turn that stupid blinker off.
And I'm like, okay, okay.
And like they would just not hear it
'cause they're concentrating on other stuff, right?
But that could be just anything.
Just any annoying noise is just something
to distract you from the truth,
distract you from what you should be paying attention to.
And that's what these false teachers like to do.
They like to take something,
some stupid doctrine that means nothing
or just a question that just stirs up strife,
that stirs up questions that have no real answer
or something that just doesn't really matter.
Can anybody think of something that would be
like something that would just be a,
something you bring up?
Any men in here have something that you think,
that's something dumb to bring up.
Yeah, the Nephilim doctrine, that is a good one.
Because, like, what difference does it make?
We're not even supposed to intrude into those things,
really, and then people, yeah, people,
there's just thousands of channels on YouTube
where you can go look at their thousands of hours
worth of things that are really only talked about
in a couple sentences in the whole Bible.
And then they'll leave Nephilim untranslated
because Nephilim just means giant, okay?
Yeah, Nephilim means giants.
So like in Genesis, when it says that,
it says they were giants, that's why it's plural.
So Nephilim, and they're like,
that's the alien, or the human hybrid, you know,
giants, and they're 450 foot tall,
and they, you know, when they die,
they're turned into the mountains,
or when they go to sleep, they turn into the mountains.
It's like, dude, come on, man.
That's crazy talk, all right?
So they're not 450 foot tall,
and then they'll look at a picture on the internet
where it's clearly photoshopped,
and guys are digging the bones up
of some 450 foot tall giant.
It's like, see, there they are right there.
It's like, bro, they have such good AI now
that you can make videos,
and it seems like they're really sane.
It's kind of hard when, well,
there's a video of Trump promoting Steadfast Baptist Church,
and it seems pretty real.
It's like, you know, Steadfast Baptist Church
is my favorite church,
and there's no church better than that one,
and you know, Pastor Shelley's my favorite.
You know, it's like, it seems pretty realistic.
I thought it was actually real.
No, I was kidding.
I mean, I just know he wouldn't say that,
but he'd be fired.
But yeah, there's other stuff like,
even just like the flat earth,
like people bringing up and just making that
their hobby horse and trying to get people
off to the side, you know.
So if you just find yourself being swerved away
from biblical doctrine, from Bible reading,
and it's just some doctrine that's taking you away
from the real stuff that means something in your life
that actually helps you to be a better Christian,
that helps to teach you edifying things,
and it's just some conspiracy theory,
like the world is, you know,
Jesus is in the North Pole, you know,
and hey, you should go up there.
Yeah, people mad at holidays, that's another good one.
And look, you know, if you don't wanna celebrate holidays,
the Bible says you don't have to celebrate holidays,
but some people just make it a hobby horse,
and it's like, you know, it's Satan Claus,
and it might be actually, but I'm just saying that like,
that might actually be true, okay?
But, but like, you know, celebrating Jesus' birthday,
and it doesn't matter what day of the year it is,
if you're just celebrating Christ,
then I don't see how that's bad.
But if you don't, if you do think it's bad,
then don't celebrate it, you know, it's just that simple.
And, you know, we do have individual soul liberty to,
and the Bible talks about that in Romans chapter 14.
So you don't want to eat meat?
Well, don't eat meat, but, you know,
don't try to preach your veganism to me, okay?
And once you start doing that,
it's doctrine of devils, right?
So, you know, we just,
and really does what kind of food you eat,
does that actually a super important doctrine?
Like, it isn't.
So, and that Satan's little fake season thing
that I preached about for a while,
and now I'm done forever, I think, hopefully,
with ever having to talk about it again.
But, that we're actually in a time period,
and we're all gas lit to death,
and we're actually, Jesus is about to come back.
The rapture's already happened,
but he's about to come destroy.
It's just, I don't even want to talk about it anymore.
But, that's crazy, and that's not stuff we should focus on.
The serpent seed theology, where Cain actually,
I think it's, yeah, Cain was a different seed or whatever,
and that Satan actually physically lie with Eve,
and that he has a demon seed somewhere on this earth
that actually is physically his children.
But that's, just like we are a spiritual seed of Christ,
Satan has a spiritual seed of his children.
It's not like physical children.
But that doctrine's been around for a long time.
But you get people tripping on that, even chemtrails,
like people will trip out on that kind of stuff too.
And it's just like, don't look up at the sky too long, OK?
So we just got to be careful not to swerve and turn aside
to vain jangling when someone's trying to draw you
into those things while they're doing what Paul is saying.
Hey, don't give heed to these things.
And as a pastor, it's my job to try
to help you to stop swerving off the road,
stop going to the gravel pit, stop getting into the ditch,
and get back on the right road.
And let's see, verse 7, "desiring to be teachers of the law,
understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm."
Because false teachers, even if they
do say that they follow the law--
I mean, you saw marching to Zion.
Do any of those rabbis know what
they were talking about whatsoever?
Were any of them saved?
No.
So these guys that just want to teach the law,
they want to teach work salvation,
they have no clue what they're talking about.
They desire to teach the law.
They desire to teach a work salvation or whatever,
and they don't even know what they're talking.
He's just saying they understand neither what they say
nor whereof they affirm.
They don't know what they're talking about.
But they're good at fooling people
just because people love to hear false doctrine.
People love to have their ears tickled
and they have itching ears.
Look at verse eight.
But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.
So, I mean, we have to understand like,
yes, we're not under the law.
We're under grace.
We are in the new covenant.
But is the law good?
Yeah, the law is still good.
It is still good if we use it lawfully.
Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man,
but for the lawless and disobedient
and for the ungodly and for sinners and for unholy
and profane for murderers of fathers
and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,
for whoremongers and for them that defile themselves
with mankind, for men-stealers, for liars and perjured persons
and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.
So you know we're still supposed to teach sound doctrine so if people are
still doing these things you know we're still supposed to preach
these things are wrong, they're wicked and so to say that we don't have to
preach about these things or we don't use these things in our
preaching that's just insanity. It says according to the glorious gospel
of the blessed God which was committed to my trust.
So Paul says it's good if it's used lawfully
and you know the Bible says that the law is good.
Romans chapter 3 verse 31, I won't have you turn there, but it says
do we make void the law through faith? So when we got saved do we just void out
the law? The law is no longer in effect at all.
It says God forbid. So we don't make void the law through faith.
He says God forbid, yea, we establish the law.
So as Christians, are we supposed to just break the law all the time?
No, we establish the law. We're the ones that should be showing people
that we do establish the laws. We don't just do whatever we want.
Oh, we're free in Christ, bro, so we can just do whatever we want.
No, that's not, because look, what standard do people put on us on the outside world?
They put a standard on us that actually, like, they think that we should walk on water.
They think we should be just as perfect as Jesus, which isn't possible.
But even if you say a cuss word, they act like you, I mean, they could say,
they could say some of the worst things that anybody's ever said in their life.
And if you say anything, even remotely, if you say, dang, they're just like,
oh, I thought you were a Christian, you know. So they hold you to a standard,
but because they're, because that's what they'll say. If you do anything
that they believe a Christian shouldn't do, they're going to say something right away.
So people expect Christians to be a cut above, don't they? People expect Christians to act in
a certain way because we established the law and they know what we believe about things.
They know we don't believe in abortion. They know we don't believe, you know,
they know we believe in the death penalty. They know we believe that homos are disgusting pigs.
They know that all they know all the things that we believe and that's why they don't like us
because men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil.
They want to stay away from the light. They're like cockroaches. You know when you turn on a
light the cockroach is scurry. They don't when we knock on their door and we're like hey you know
we're from a baptist church you're like you know a lot of people are just like like a vampire you
know exploding when the sunlight hits them or something which vampires aren't real kids but I'm
just saying that that's kind of what they're like though they just some people just do not want they
you know and and they might look like the nicest church lady that you've ever seen flowery dress
you know I just got home from church they have you know a bonnet on their head or whatever it's
like I just got back from church and it's like oh yeah well do you know if you died today that
you go to heaven of course I've been baptized good person it's like well you know the bible
says something a little different and then they close the door in your face you know they turn
ugly real quick don't they number three tonight Jesus Christ came to save sinners look at verse
12 it says and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for he hath counted me faithful
putting me into the ministry the apostle Paul is just sharing the blessing of being in the ministry
and the ministry is hard the ministry is tough sometimes but he thanks God that he's in it and
he probably wouldn't have it any other way and he's been through some hard days he's been through
some hard times but in the end being in the ministry is a blessing and you know the fact
that God counts you faithful to actually be in it is a blessing says who was before a blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and in unbelief
so let's go through this he was a blasphemer he was a persecutor we know those things are true
and injurious so he was hurting people wasn't he and he was a persecutor so he he actually
persecuted christians you know not everybody can say that they do that some people you know they
might not like christians but they're not actively knocking on doors and serving search warrants
kicking in doors torturing people going into the synagogues beating people up he was doing that
he definitely had napoleon you know napoleon disease or whatever where he's just a little guy
going around you know trying to just do the most he can or whatever napoleon syndrome is what i
call it but um and he was a blasphemer so he probably blasphemed christ you know obviously
didn't blaspheme the holy ghost but it says he did it ignorantly and in unbelief that's why he
obtained mercy so what does that tell you that there you there can come a point where god just
stops having mercy on someone who's a blasphemer you blaspheme the holy ghost you're you're toast
you have no forgiveness in this life or in the life to come so people really should be afraid to
do stuff like that you know a while back they had i mean it's been probably 10 years or more now but
they had this blasphemy challenge you know they kids have all these dumb challenges they do on
tiktok and social media well you better be careful what you what you ask for because they were doing
a blasphemy challenge where they were they were uploading they were asked to upload videos of them
blaspheming the holy ghost well guess what you do that and you're you have no life no you don't
have eternal life you have no chance to get saved after that god will blot your name out of the book
of life and some people say well no i mean god will still forgive you is that what jesus said
you know sometimes people just have a hard time just believing what the bible says if jesus said
it then you take it to the bank that it's true you don't mess around with stuff like that don't
it's not funny it's not some oh cute some cute thing that you did on the internet you know
sometimes you won't be forgiven for something that you do and that's one of the things that's what
jesus said so you know just not everything's just a big game not everything is funny and that's
definitely not funny and so paul said i obtained mercy because i did it ignorantly and unbelief
so because he's what persecuting the church it's not he wasn't just some normal hater he was a
stalker he was you know stalking christians and hurting them and persecuting he was the worst persecutor
of that time of the church i just preached about not too long ago look at verse 14 and the grace of
our lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in christ jesus this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all expectation that christ jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
i am chief see paul you know he was he started off pretty rough he started off you know he thought
he was you know he thought he was head and shoulders above the rest the opposite of king
saul king saul you know had a low had a low opinion of himself but then thought he was better than
everybody else but the apostle paul thought he was better than everybody else he's a pharisee of the
pharisees he grew up the feet of gamaliel highly educated and he had a huge amount of zeal but in
the wrong place and then he got saved and then he became you know super paul where he was just the
all-star you know the the all-star rock star of the christian movement so he completely changed
and became you know every everything he was as a bad guy he you know he did all that in spades
as a good guy so but he you know he was a it says he was the lord was exceeding abundant with faith
and love which is in christ jesus so you know god really had a lot of mercy on him but jesus
also said that he was going to have to know he was going to have to suffer uh he's going to know
what he would have to suffer because of the things he's done but you know he still says i'm chief
chief what he's chief of the sinners i remember one time when i was first got saved i was like
you know i kind of feel like the apostle paul like i'm the chief of sinners or something i was like
you know being stupid by saying that but the guy that i was talking to about he goes no you're not
he's like the bible says right there that paul is the chief of sinners and i was like okay yeah he
got me who do i think i am paul is the chief of sinners anyway luke chapter 19 verse 10 says
the son of man has come to seek and save that which was lost so jesus came in the world to
save sinners that's the whole purpose that he came in and when he came to meet paul paul got
all end up getting saved didn't he because that's his purpose and he chose paul for a special purpose
because he knew what paul was going to do he was going to turn the world upside down he was going
to bring a whole bunch of people with him but it wasn't easy i mean at one point all people forsook
paul everybody forsook him demis forsook him everybody was gone and you know it feels pretty
lonely when everybody forsakes you i'm sure but paul just kept trucking he kept doing what he was
supposed to do i mean he's even in a in a ship filled with convicts and roman soldiers that were
going to just kill everybody and and abandon the ship or whatever but paul kind of just took lead
even over the the centurions and all the people on the boat and just like got them through it so the
lord jesus helped him lead all those people to salvation to physical salvation and then they end
up you know getting to rome like they were supposed to but verse 16 how be it for this cause i obtain
mercy that in me first jesus christ might show forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them
which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life so paul was like a you know something of a
pattern so that people could say hey look if if if jesus can save paul of all people he can save
me because paul was really bad you know he really was he was an awful person before he got saved and
did a lot of wicked things and like truly if if jesus can transform paul's life then he can
transform a lot of wicked people's lives you know and paul was kind of like a false prophet in a way
that's why i think that it says that he obtained mercy and he wouldn't have if he wouldn't have
done it ignorantly in unbelief because the average jehovah's witness that shows up your door that's
been walking really slow for 30 years knocking every door in the town god's not going to have
mercy on that person because that person's been doing it not ignorantly in an unbelief
they've been doing it not ignorantly they know what they believe and they just go around trying
to get people to not believe that jesus rose from the dead bodily and these mormons they have a
doctrine called lying for the lord how do how do you not know that lying for the lord is a wicked
false doctrine and you know what it is is that they can waste your time like if you're tough
because like you know something i'm sure when you're a new christian and you're new soul winning
you'd be like oh you know i want to give you the gospel and we try to give the gospel to a mormon
because you're like oh they seem really nice but then they'll let you sit there and give the gospel
to them and then they'll wait until you're done and then they'll tell you that they don't really
believe that and then here let me tell you what i believe here's the book of mormon whoo you know
what anthony does when they do that he just rips it right in half and walks off i don't know if
that's the best way to go about it but pretty funny uh probably one less uh joseph smith perversion
going around but i mean they they have that doctor called lying for the lord it's actually
one of their practices they do to waste christians times and look they they have glossaries in the
back of their false bible versions to these jehovah's witnesses that tells them how to
battle with baptists when we because look they're not having a hard time with some of these other
these other christians but you know who they do have a hard time with they have a hard time with
baptists because they're getting over on me i'm sure they're not getting over on anybody in our
church they're not stumping anybody at our church they're not stumping baptists that know what
they're talking about not stumping saved people that know their bible they're stumping people
that are going to candy candy cane baptist or candy land you know community church yeah i was
trying to think of the community church yeah the fun center down the street or real life or destiny's
child you know whatever any whatever these what is the other one the romans there's a roman's i
don't know the names of these churches anyway but they're just they're not they're fooling those
types of people you know baptists are their number one converts that's what they like the mormons
love to brag about that the baptists are their number one converts yeah stupid baptists maybe
southern baptists maybe baptists that aren't saved baptists the repent of your sins baptists
because i think mormons believe in repenting of your sins too but not the the king james bible
believing salvation by faith alone baptist unless they just huh yeah i know me too but like look
that and the apostle paul he wasn't you know he was obviously not going as far as they go so i'm
just saying that like you know the bot because the bible says that when you're not supposed to
receive those types of people into your home when a mormon knocks on your door don't let them come
into your house don't let a jehovah's witness come into your house don't let any of the you
know because that's mainly what you're going to get everyone i've had a seventh day evidence come
to my house one time they're trying to sell some books to me or something that's it so they don't
even come to my house anymore i don't think they send letters in the mail ever since covid the
jehovah's witnesses send me a letter i'm like what is this you know but you know it's it's ridiculous
so let's see so paul says that he was the chief of all sinners and then let's see yeah so he was
set forth as an example basically to be a pattern for them that should believe on him to ever to
life everlasting so and he's a great he's a great picture you know chief of sinners converted is
probably a great story that went around like even people that didn't know paul to the face they heard
how this guy that used to come and torture everybody and he was hailing people you know at first they
didn't even believe him because he was so bad how that this person was converted and now preached
christ so it says in verse 17 now unto the king eternal immortal invisible the only wise god be
honor and glory forever and ever amen so and those are all you know obviously paul highly respects
the lord and you know those are great things to say about him and true things number four the charge
to the pastor to go to war look at verse 18 the bible says this charge i commit unto thee son
timothy according to the prophecies which went before on thee that thou by them mightest war
a good warfare so this is an interesting passage because it says you see how the prophecies is
spelled right there it's not like as in you'd say prophesying uh it's spelled in the way that
would be like someone had a prophecy about timothy uh being you know called being a pastor or whatever
that he is going to wage war in some way shape or form there's no recording of it but it says i
charged look look at the verse again it says this i charge this charge i commit unto thee son timothy
according to the prophecies which went before on thee so it seems like maybe i don't know it is
ordination or something because a lot of times you know the ordination sermon that is done for
pastors before they get ordained has probably been going on for a long time and you know obviously
there's no verse in the bible it says hey preach an ordination sermon but see how there was a
prophecy which went before on thee when i was ordained there was a sermon preached on me and
then hands were laid on me and a blessing on me from pastor Jimenez and it says that thou by them
mightest war a good warfare so he's specifically charging timothy to what go to war right that
because of whatever prophecy was preached that he would go to war now this is a time when the
apostles were still on the earth and they could still walk up and heal people or their shadow
could heal people or they could hand him a napkin and you know the things that people do on television
you know where they say here look at this napkin or touch the snapkin through the tv they didn't
have tvs back then but like it talks about that in the first you know in the days of the apostles
they could do stuff like that or if they fell under the shadow of peter they would be healed
stuff like that but that was just the first generation of apostles you know and you know
they didn't have pentacostals back there holding snakes and you know it wasn't like that but
paul got bit by a snake and it didn't hurt him so but you know you have pentacostals today like
you know in west virginia or wherever they're at down in the south and then they'll get bit
by a rattlesnake and have to get dragged out of the service or whatever but anyway i don't i don't
know that they ever like just the venom doesn't affect them or something unless they you know
pulled the venom glands out of it so but timothy is told to go to war paul is charging him to do
this so again it's a charge this is what i want you i'm telling you you have to do this
so you know again what he's saying is there's probably some preacher or prophet that put this
prophecy upon him because agabus was still around when paul was at in chapter 20 i think it was in
chapter 20 or maybe chapter 19 in acts where agabus has that prophecy and says hey the person
that wears this girdle is going to be bound and taken to jerusalem so there were still prophets
that were prophesying during this time so i mean i don't think it's some weird thing that
paul's saying this to him obviously and it says prophecies which went on which went before the
on the so um it probably went to came to pass and so you know it's not there's nothing wrong
with going to war either because we're called to war a good warfare we're supposed to be good
soldiers of jesus christ the bible says and you know i was listening to this sermon recently i
think i shared it in our group anybody listen to that sermon no these are bad bad followers oh
there's one what god bless you i see that hand back there is mrs harrington it's a good sermon
huh so in that sermon jack heil said that john r rice had a policy that if someone doesn't pick
a fight with him within three months that he would find someone to pick a fight with so you know
you're like well that's that's kind of mean to which jack heil has disagreed said he thought
that it should be every four months so i thought that was pretty funny nobody else laughs but uh
yeah so he's just saying that we you know if we're if he's charging tennessee to war a good
warfare then what he's what is he saying we need to go out and battle you know and who are we
battling with the forces of the darkness of this world you know and and these spiritual wickedness
in high places so like when we get chased out of apartment buildings you think that that's not
spiritual warfare yeah they might be physically trying to fight us they might be physically
taking our stuff down but we're battling with their spirit trying to to to get rid of the
holy spirit out of that place they're trying to drive us out of there so because obviously
there's people there that are going to get saved or we're going to get saved and basically depending
on how we battle in that place you know obviously we have to you know be wise as serpents and
harmless as doves but people will try to start fights with us follow us around they act just
like they did in the book of acts they act like demons you know probably because they are why is
it always these queers that are you know commissioned by the landlords it's it's it's bizarre but it
shouldn't be so bizarre because this is what they do you know and so when we go and we attack the
gates of hell then why should we not expect there to be some sort of resistance you think the devil
just likes us going and knocking on doors and getting people saved he doesn't like it and so
he's going to war against us until we get weary but the apostle paul said hey war of good warfare
fight the good fight of faith look at verse 19 holding faith and a good conscience which some
have put away concerning faith have made shipwreck so see how he uses that word some have put away
faith having made shipwreck so he's now he's talking about those other those bad people again
those infiltrators those false prophet type people but we're supposed to hold faith and a good
conscience but there's those other people that they put they put this stuff away they're not
going to do that they have concerning faith they've made shipwreck so that term shipwreck
is basically kind of when you lose your conscience and put away your faith and become like a ship
that's lost at sea who's actually been out to the sea in a ship before anybody some people okay
i've been like out to the ocean but i could still see the land i've never been like further than
that in hawaii i think it was the only place i had pneumonia but um i went i still went swimming
i was like i'm if i die because of this and at least i'll die have swimming with the turtles or
whatever so i did it but i wasn't supposed to i was supposed to be on bed rest but um yeah i mean
but when you're when you're like a ship lost at sea you know when you lose all your navigational
skills when you've lost you know you stop holding on to your faith you stop you know and it says
which some have put away concerning faith have made shipwreck when you put away your faith you
put away um you're you know it's like you lose your navigational skills when you stop living by
faith when you stop walking with the lord you're like a ship tossed to and fro you're like a ship
that's at sea that's lost and you've lost all your navigational skills and you know your your
ability to navigate your spiritual life has been lost also so you know then you get close to the
rocks or you run aground and you get shipwrecked so you know the this word shipwreck is used more
than once in the bible but you know the being shipwrecked by not by losing your your walking
by faith and enacting in faith you know you can you can get shipwrecked pretty quickly by losing
you know you don't you're not sounding you're not looking for the sand because look you run
aground and you're going to ship you're going to wreck your ship or if you get too close to the
rocks you're going to wreck your ship and you know if the lord's not navigating you anymore
and not helping you to to find your way you're going to be in trouble really fast and you know
you can get to where and this look this can happen to any christian this can happen to any pastor
and that's why it's just so important to listen to the captain of the ship of zion that's the lord
jesus christ right so the lord jesus christ and you know we got to listen to him we got to meditate
in his word we got to you know seek his face we got to pray and then we won't be lost at sea
and and even if we do get lost and we're not we're not sure where to go next at least we
have the great navigator that we can trust in to take us into the right place you know
he's going to get us into the safe harbor because look there's things that happen in our life and
we're just like we're kind of at a crossroads or we're kind of in a place where hey i'm not
really sure what i should do next but see if we trust in the lord and we walk in and we you know
we walk in his word and we want and we seek his face and we pray and we try to live our best life
as a christian that we can then god's not going to leave us or forsake us he's not going to leave us
just destitute out into the middle of the ocean just get we're letting the waves crash against us
he's not going to leave us against the rocks to get destroyed he's not going to let us run aground
and destroy our lives but when we build our life on sinking sand we forget about the lord what
always happened to people in the old testament when they'd forget about the lord he'd let them
get destroyed and he's got he'll let the the same thing happen to us you know and that's why it's
just so important that we just stick with the lord look at hebrews chapter six i haven't had
you turn to very many places i'm almost done hebrews chapter six see the lord jesus christ is the
great navigator and you know it's it's especially if you you you don't have sea legs it's really
important that you trust in him because i don't know i i don't think that uh i'm built for being
on ships and the navy i don't think they'd even accept me i think you have to be under a certain
height to be to be in the navy so definitely for submarines i think you have to be under a certain
height but hebrew 6 8 18 it says that by two immutable things in which it was impossible
for god to lie we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast and which entereth
into that within the veil so the bible likens him to an anchor of the soul we can count on him that
our soul is safe and that that that he's steadfast you know he's sure and steadfast we can always
count on him you know so like when you drop an anchor with a ship you know that you're not going
to you're not going to go anywhere and Hebrews chapter 2 while you're you're already in Hebrews
just look at chapter 2 verse 10 it says for it became him for whom are all things and by whom
are all things and bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect
through suffering so he's the captain of our salvation jesus is the captain you know so we
just follow him and you know he's going to lead us unto glory he's he's already done it for us
so you know we got to just remember who the captain is you know and the captain is the leader
okay i know in rankings in the army that there's higher than captain but in the bible the captain's
the the ranking guy hebrew chapter 13 hebrew chapter 13 and we'll go back to timothy and
then we'll be done hebrew chapter 13 verse 20 it says now the god of peace that brought again
from the dead our lord jesus that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is well
pleasing in his sight through jesus christ to whom be glory forever and ever see jesus
you know he's the one that brings us peace and that brought again from the dead he's the great
shepherd of the sheep and you know he is the one that makes us perfect in every good work
and you know as long as you know so he's the one that makes us perfect in every good work
to do his will working in that which is well pleasing in his sight and look you know that's
all he expects to do our best and you know keep him in our sights and he's going to navigate us
and help us and have us walk in the way he's going to answer our prayers he's going to
he's going to take care of us look at the back in first timothy chapter
one and verse number 20 so verse number 20 kind of goes with this like so he's telling timothy
to war good warfare and that some of these people have put away concerning faith have made
shipwreck of whom is hymenas and alexander whom i have delivered unto satan that they may learn
not to blaspheme so now he's just calling out people by name and people just really hate this
about churches like us that will call people out by name and but we've done it lots of times and
you know people still get mad about it but it's like well paul called people out by name and
sometimes it's it's good to call people out by name so that people know to avoid them and there's
nothing in the world wrong with it those guys's names are in the bible forever and ever and ever
so it must have been pretty bad and we we don't have to call everybody out by name
and sometimes it's good to not call people out by name even people there's been people that have
we've thrown out of our church and i didn't call them out by name and i've privately thrown people
out with the cameras off and things like that but you know sometimes people do have to get called
out and it's usually bad these bad preachers like this that they need to be called out the
john mccArthur needs to be called out his false teachings need to be called out and you know of
course billy graham but he was you know dead when i called him out so and then people attacked me
for that too but i'm just saying that like there are people in this world that are just they seem
like they love god but they don't really love him and paul's calling these guys out for a reason
and he said he delivered them unto satan that they may learn not to blaspheme so i don't know if this
is just for a short time maybe i don't know if these guys seems like that they made faith a
shipwreck but these are the types of people that paul doesn't want around the rest of the flock
and so why is he saying for timothy to go to war because sometimes you got to have you got to go
to war and sometimes you got to name people's names and people don't like that and people will
leave over stuff like that but like no matter how many times you show this type of stuff to
people in the bible they're like yeah but it's no yeah but it's no yeah but you got to do it
and so sometimes pastors got to get up and rip some face and and say someone's name and again
it's not always appropriate but sometimes it is and if it is then just like just you know grit
your teeth and close your eyes and it'll all be over soon okay and some people don't like it you
know people don't like you know it's like that blood to get spilt or whatever but you know that's
why men are the ones that fight so men fought in real battles and sometimes men do the fighting in
the spiritual battles too because you know it's a little gets a little squeamish or you know some
men don't like to fight either and that's that's okay but don't be antagonistic to men that do
need to fight so don't be the don't be a spiritual soy boy and you know cry when
pastors have to fight and sometimes they do and like you know if it's not our business then don't
get involved if it bothers you that much then turn off your social media if it's if it bothers you
that much you know look at something else play you know candy crush or something if you have to look
at your phone you know and look you know sometimes the Christian life gets ugly sometimes Christianity
gets ugly but don't let you know turn your eyes upon Jesus if it bothers you that much you just
can't handle it because look you think it's going to get any better at some other church it might
but doesn't mean it's the right church you know you can go you can go to you know Candy Crush
Baptist if you want but I guarantee you that this section is going to believe one thing this one's
going to believe another thing this one's going to believe another thing this one's going to believe
something else and then you know are your kids going to be allowed to be in the church with
everybody else probably not they're probably going to have to go to Sunday school and after a while
you're going to be like I don't know if I really want them in this Sunday school who's that weirdo
teaching my kids in the Sunday school I mean trust me after a while you're going to at first you'll
like it then you'll be like well yeah I was so sick of my kids having to be in in church with
everybody else it's like you're not going to feel that way very for very long then you're going to
be like I want my kids by me you know just because someone does a background check does that mean
that they're clean it doesn't mean that because you know eventually they have to get caught they
have to get caught first to get to get on the bad list so if they're not caught yet you know and
look people go looking for kids in places where they can get access to them it's just a fact
they're like well you're not convincing me well okay well i mean i i've been an old a new ife as
long as i've been an old ife and look there's a lot of things more that annoyed me about the old
ife than there does about the new ife and i realize that there's some ugliness going on right now
i'm sorry about that but it doesn't mean you have to participate there's no like there's no like new
ife form that you have to fill out right now it says i must participate thought i preached about
that on sunday and we don't have to participate so you're like well which one do i pick i gotta
pick a side no you don't who says that do you have to pick a side i mean i've actually had
someone literally text me and said i don't know which side to pick watch my sermon from sunday
that's what side you pick you can like people you can like both people i mean i just i don't get
that like who says you have to pick a side you don't have to pick a side so you can just love
them both and hope for the best and pray for the best situation to come out of it so anyway let's
pray lord we thank you so much for the book of first timothy we pray that you lord would bless
our church lord that you'd help lord be as a pastor to be a good pastor and and help me to
make right decisions and lead and guide me but also lord our people and i pray that you'd help us
to lord just not get squeamish over battles and and lord sometimes things get ugly and i pray that
you just help us to be able to have the stomach to continue to fight the battles and and lord
sometimes uh we have to see the battles and we don't want to see them but sometimes we have to
and it's just it's not always fun and sometimes things can get ugly and people just start get
turned off about things and i pray lord you just help us strengthen us help us be in our bibles
and be in prayer and be spiritual and help us to keep our eyes on the prize and the fact that you
came to seek and save that which is lost and that you came to save sinners lord help us to keep those
things in our heart and uh and uh lord i pray that you just bless us as we go our separate ways
tonight but bring us back here again on sunday morning sunday night pray these things in jesus
name amen all right i asked a high the top snake handling states and i don't think there's good
statistics on that but it listed like five other states besides west virginia okay it but it did
include west virginia and list but there was like there's you know there's other states but when my
dad worked for governor orchmore in the 70s for economic development and i can say this because
governor more is is dead now and the biography is already written but he used to say thank god for
mississippi because they'd always be like 50th in west virginia would be 49th in like economic
rankings anyway number three number three jesus paid it all