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