Read together. Starting in verse one. Now the spirit expressly says
that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting
themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through
the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared. who forbid
marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to
be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know
the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is
to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is
made holy, set apart by the word of God and prayer. If you put
these things before the brothers, you will be a good servant of
Christ Jesus, being trained in the words of the faith and of
the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do
with irreverent, silly myths. Rather, train yourself for godliness.
For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of
value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life
and also for the life to come. The saying is trustworthy and
deserving of full acceptance. For to this end, we toil and
strive, because we have our hopes set on the living God, who is
the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe. Command
and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your
youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct,
in love, in faith, in purity. Until I come, devote yourself
to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching. Do not neglect the gift you have
which is given you by the prophecy when the council of elders laid
their hands on you. Practice these things, immerse
yourself in them so that all may see your progress. Keep a
close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this
for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers. This is one of these areas of
Timothy that begins to become controversial with the pundits. And so we're going to take it
slowly. We're going to work through it
over the next few months. It'll take, you know, six to
eight weeks to get through this chapter effectively. And of course, Brother
Trey is going to be continuing in Ephesians in weeks to come.
And so we're just going to take our time. We're not in a hurry.
The hearing of Scripture is sufficient, as we've already learned, as
we've learned and will continue to learn, and the teaching of
Scripture is sufficient. Sometimes, as Paul tells Timothy
to do, we are to not just hear it, but to pause to teach it
and then apply and instruct in it. And that is what I'm going
to do today by dealing with the idea that what God has made is
good. What God has made is good. Now
think about that for a second where Paul is talking to this
young elder about the problem people in the church of Ephesus. These people who in today's conversations
will be called heretics, wolves, dogs, pigs, snakes, and any other
kind of vile, goats, you think of any other negative animal.
you know, gnats, mosquitoes. And yet, the way he handles this
in Christ-like manner is done in a way in which the people
who would be called these things are open for correction and reconciliation. And more importantly, to keep
the church at peace and in order, doing that which the church is
supposed to do. I don't know what type of training
you all have had through the years. Maybe you've been trained
to sew or to cook or to write or to sing. Maybe you have training
in law enforcement or combat or something of that nature,
but you know the training takes over. As a parent, we're constantly
in training, and after a while, we get used to it. We don't even
know that we're following through the actions of certain things.
And I remember when Grace was a very young child, and she had
severe asthma, I mean, deathly asthma. It was one of those,
do not go to the hospital, for she will die if she goes to the
ER. Come straight to us. Don't take an asthmatic like
her into an open cesspool of bacteria. And she would cough,
and her capillaries would break. And she would cough up blood.
And then she would be sometimes not consciously aware that she
was having the attack, because the oxygen in her brain would
be reduced to such a degree, she'd just be going through the
motions of coughing and blood and coughing and vomiting and
blood. And it was just a horrible thing. First time we experienced
it, it was like trauma. This pulmonologist taught us,
trained us how to deal with it, what to do. You just hold her,
you put the thing over the mask, you just talk, and you just do,
you know, it was like an exorcism, but we didn't care. A young guy
who was part of the situation in Columbine was staying with
us that week, one week in Virginia, and he was sitting on the sofa
and talking to us. It was about 10 o'clock at night, and we heard
the, you know, that's that bark. Uh-oh. So we go to the room,
we take Grace, we bring her to the living room, and she's gasping.
So we put the mask on her and start the treatments, and she's
not having anything to do with that. She begins to fight, so
we just hold her down. She fights, she vomits blood,
and Robin and I are just chilling, and this is going on, and we
don't think anything about this young man who's 26 years old
looking at this exorcism of this child, and we're just cool as
beans, y'all. Blood on the floor, blood on
the walls, and we get through, and she's asleep, all is well,
and we're cleaning up, and we get through. And when we're all
said and done, we look, and this kid is as pale as a piece of
paper. He goes, that was the most ungodly thing I've ever
seen in my life. But y'all were so calm. I can't believe it.
Because we were trained. We knew what to do. We knew how
to respond. We knew that it was OK that we just followed the
discipline rules. We followed the, you know, and
he was right, 9-1-1, 9-1-1. No, 9-1-1 is death. It's OK. Just be calm, you know. It's
OK. You follow the discipline, the
outcome is guaranteed. And that's what we do here. That's
what we're doing here this morning. We're learning to follow the
discipline, not of just learning rightly the teaching and making
sure that our theological chops are growing and that our spiritual
things are taking place in the sense of our understanding of
the truth, but also in the reality that that is part of application
to us. secondary matter that is of equal
importance, which is to live as Christians. To live with the
mind of Christ in what we do in the world, and how we relate
to other drivers, and how we deal with the knuckleheads at
the drive-through, and how we handle our neighbors, and how
we reconcile problems, and how we speak and think in our own
minds about the context of certain things that bother us. Our politics. The issues of economy, religion,
and every other interaction that we have. You realize we're living
a life of daily, every second of our lives, we are interacting
in this world. The whole sum of our person is
how we relate to what we experience for the glory of God as Christians. Now the culture has then taken
that reality, that idea, as we'll see this morning, and just changed
it. Because everybody likes to be
in control of other things, and if we're out of control, we like
to press ourselves into a place of being in control, and beloved,
when we think we're in control is the first indication that
we're not. And so we're not in control this
morning of anything except that we are going to be submitting
to the discipline of the Lord and His teaching and love for
us by listening and by learning and by living accordingly. Here,
Paul is dealing with these false teachers And if you notice, he
hasn't really talked about it. I've said this before, but I
want to say it very plainly and clearly. Paul does not talk about
the error. Why? Because he doesn't want
to expose the church to the brouhaha. It's none of their business. If I tell you that it's four
o'clock in the afternoon and that it is Friday and it's January
the 1st, 2023, you're going to go, he's crazy. Why? Because it doesn't matter.
But if I insist upon these things and I continue to give you all
the problems and what you're focusing on is how, I mean, you're
going to know that this is not right because the truth is set.
You have watches and clocks and phones and everything. We don't
have to set our clocks back anymore. You know those clocks at the
house that are still run on batteries that are the same time year round?
Or do they just tick and they never go? You're not going to be upset
by things that are false when you know what is true. You're
not going to be toppled over error if I try to feed you mud
pie and tell you that it's chocolate. You know that it's not chocolate
just by looking at it. You're not stupid. God's people are
not stupid. We act that way sometimes. But
we have the Spirit of God. We have the power of Christ.
We have the Word of God given to us through revelation and
illumination so we are not walking around as these dumb sheep. We're
walking around as wise sheep, are we? And so Paul says that
what he really wants to show that is upsetting the church
of Ephesus is not this erroneous theological idea, but that these
erroneous theological ideas are imposing a behavioral change
on the people of Ephesus. That they're beginning to become
burdened on how they ought to think and relate to one another.
They're not thinking about the discipline of doing what God
has told them to do without exception in relating to one another, but
they're being told to relate to other people in a different
way based on some doctrinal differences. To the point where they're being
told, don't eat certain foods, don't drink certain drinks, don't
wear certain clothes, don't think certain thoughts. And there is
a way in which the scripture does teach us those things, right?
There are things in the Bible in principle and theological
application that do teach us things that we should and should
not do. And these are prudent, wise, and must be listened to
and heeded to and followed. Why? Because it is an act of
worship that we hear and do the Word of God. It is not about
our justification before God. It is not about our redemption.
It is not about us accepting or doing anything to prove our
regeneration and all this other stuff. It is just the fact that
we are recipients of grace. Therefore, we understand the
words of Christ in simplicity. But there will always be people
wanting to change you. And they will tell you that It's
bad for you to sit in certain things or say certain things. And it may be the truth, but
when it comes to the people of Christ, when we're submitting
to what the scripture teaches, and then there has to be a caveat
or a justified argument that's external that says, well, you
don't have to obey God here because of this, this, this. It's nonsense. Not only is it nonsense, that's
a nice way of me saying it's pure evil. It's purely demonic. These are not my ideas nor my
vocabulary. This is what Paul calls it. This
is what James calls it. This is what Jesus calls it.
And so what God has made is good. There were some people who were
forbidding marriage. And when you think about marriage in the New
Testament and when it's referred to, it's always the picture of
Christ. And more importantly, you need to understand that marriage
in its construction is about physical intimacy in the marriage
bed. as a way of experiencing and
celebrating the physical, spiritual, and divine intimacy of Christ
and His church. And I'll tell you something,
beloved, we have messed that up in the world. We've messed that
up in the church. I've been writing about that just personally in
my journals over the last few months, and it has blown my mind
just how toxic and poisoned my own viewpoints
of marriage have been, even with the foundation that I have about
how it reflects the gospel. It's still tainted. So these people are like, you
can't eat certain things, give up the flesh, that's what makes
you holy, like the people of Galatia were told, you know,
cut away the flesh, that's what makes you truly spiritual. Don't
do that, don't do this, don't, and so don't get married. Don't
engage in intimacy. Don't do this. And then don't
eat these things. So Paul's instruction is very
simple. What does he say? Look at verses four and five.
We're gonna focus on these two verses. I was gonna preach through
the end of verse 10, but I'm thinking, that's not gonna happen.
Four and five, focusing on the application of what this teaches. He said, these false teachers
have started to burden you in the church on forbidding marriages,
abstaining from foods, changing the way they relate to other
people. See, doesn't that change the way you relate to other people?
Because when have you ever had a spiritual conviction in the
local church that actually was personal, private, and nobody
else's business? It doesn't happen. It doesn't happen. Because if
it did, we wouldn't know about them. Because people like to
flaunt their spiritual convictions. Would you like some of this?
Oh no, I just, I like to honor the Lord. Would you like to? No, no, no,
no. We've grown in our spirit. We don't partake in that. You see, that's not the voice
of, and I'm not talking about things that are obviously sin.
I'm talking about things that now have been burdened. on our
consciences. We relate to each other differently.
So then when we, someone who was our best friend, who was
our brother or sister in Christ, who we love and we've been walking
together and we have intimacy, we've gone through hell and high
water. We've gone through good and bad. We've gone through death
and life. We've helped raise each other's
children. Oh, you eat edamame. You wear baseball caps. I mean, silly stuff. You read fiction. And I mean, these are extreme
examples, but that's what's going on in Corinth, I mean in Ephesus.
It sounds like Corinth, doesn't it? So now all of a sudden, these
relationships that were extremely intimate, because of an undue
burden of a false teacher imposing an obligation or a condition
on fellowship, boom! I can't really hang out with
him anymore. I don't want to hurt his feelings,
so I'm just not going to say anything. I don't know what to do. Now I see this
spiritual leader of mine, this mentor of mine, this brother
of mine, this sister of mine, and I just can't relate to them
anymore. Something's different. I can't do it. Why? Because they
eat edamame. Because they're married, and
I just don't think they should be telling people to get married.
Or they're doing this, or they're doing that, or they're engaged,
or they have too much liberty. What was the theological foundation
of this? We don't know. And there's a reason. It is not
prudent to know. That's why there are volumes
on polemics, volumes on apologetics, volumes on false doctrine that
are a thousand times larger than the Bible. And so Paul's response is, this
is ridiculous. These people are liars. And they're
insincere and they think they're sincere, they're deceived. They
have given in to the teaching of demons. What is the teaching
of demons? To add to, to discredit, to disfigure,
to frustrate Christ and his word. To lay burdens, fears, penalties
on his people that the scripture would not lay. The doctrine of demons is when
someone calls into question that which is absolutely sure. Did
God really say, is faith alone really faith alone? Do you really
even have to have faith? See, that's a new one for me.
I've been getting that the last six to eight months. Depends on what you mean. Well,
thank God I have this letter because later it tells Timothy,
an elder, so then also instructing me, have nothing to do with these
little silly things. When we have solidarity and the
foundation of simple teaching of the Bible, we don't even have
to debate it. It's not beneficial. We can say,
the Bible says this, moving right along. And that's gonna be the
sentiment when I teach that in a few weeks, moving right along.
No, no, remember those commercials? What's the answer, where's the
back, no. No other answer but no. We're not talking about it. So you get your behavior right
and submit to the Scripture by the command of God Almighty.
That sounds more authoritative when you say it like that, right?
Than by the authority of the Lamb of God who died. For some
reason that seems soft, but it's so powerful. Because it's a picture of grace
rather than a picture of rule. Until you get that in subjection
and yourself in subjection, there's nothing more to say. It happens every day. Paul says, there are things that
people are telling you to do differently, to not to receive,
to not to engage, to not to enjoy, that God created to be received
with thanksgiving, by those who believe and know the truth. Now
think about that for just a moment. Is that you? Do you believe and
know the truth? Yes, you do, beloved. It's not
a trick question. The very idea that there are
people who would impose upon any of us that we may not know
the truth according to their standard is a very bad problem. We are to have nothing to do
with those types of people. Greet them in the mall, it's
good to see you, praying for you. But we're not to relate
to those types of people. We're not to relate to them because
they're dangerous. They're more dangerous than people who refuse
to believe the gospel, who have no spiritual life whatsoever,
and who live a life of debauchery in front of us and our children.
These people who are spiritual on the outside, but suspicious
on the inside or more dangerous than atheists. We are to have nothing more to
do with them until they change their behavior and come back
and seek to be restored with a changed mind to the intimacy
of grace alone. That's why I waited a year to
preach out of this letter. Everything created by God is
good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving
for it has been set apart, made holy for the use and the praise
and the worth and the name of God by the word of God and with
prayer. So there are three specific things
we want to look at here. God creating things for our joy. And we are to receive them with
thanksgiving because these things have been made holy by the Word
and by prayer. It's pretty simple. Well, let's
expound upon it for a few minutes. Why? Because I think we gloss
over this, and I don't want to assume that everybody is walking
in the same step. as I am, because there are some
things that I would look at in my lifetime that I have abstained
from and looked down at people for. And that's hard for me because
I never really thought I looked down at them, but I did. Even
when we condescend in the context of inability or weakness, it's
looking down by definition. Oh, God bless his soul, he can't
help himself. That's a log in my eye, by the
way. Not a speck. In Romans chapter 8, Genesis
chapter 3. Let's go to Genesis chapter 3
first. You don't have to read it. You
know what it says. It talks about that which God has made. I mean,
the fall. And that what God had made then
is distorted, right? So God created all things and
several times in Genesis 1 and 2 it says God had made these
things and it was good. It was good. It was good. It
was good. It was good. It was good. It was good. He
created man. It was good. Oh, it was not good. What was not good? That man was
alone. What's the picture of? Man can't
be alone and stand in righteousness. That's all that marriage means. That's all that it means. So
out of Adam's wounds come that woman, out of man, who is part
of him. Out of his sleeping, out of his
dying, if you will, in a metaphorical sense, comes the one from him
that is of him, that is part of him, and together they are
the one. This is Christ and his church through the death of Christ. We are one with him. He is our
husband and draws head. We are his bride. We are one
flesh. And out of our one flesh, out
of Christ's flesh comes life. And it is good. And then these
two together then as picture of Christ and the church are
left to themselves with the promises of eternal life. And there's
no other option for them but failure. God did not make Eve believe
the lie. He did not make either of the
first couple sin. but it is God's design and decree
that they would. Because in God's infinite wisdom,
He created everything as it is for the purpose of showing everything
as it is, even in the greatest of tabernacles, the presence
of walking in the cool of the day with God the Son Himself.
the creator of the cosmos, being told all of this is yours. You
are the king and queen of the universe and you will never die. Just don't touch these two trees.
Don't eat from these two trees. Without the true head, our husband,
we pick the lie. only God can take chaos and turn
it good. That's the point of creation.
That's the point of Adam and Eve. And that's the point of
the fall. It is the gospel of grace, which is sovereign and
free. And there is no other point to
which we should take home and teach our children or our grandchildren
or their children about it. All that's in view here. And then what has happened with
what God has called good, we ruined. And we've been in the
business of ruining good since the beginning. And God has been
in the business of showing His goodness and sovereignty and
salvation since the beginning. And that's the context in which
we end up and land in verse 10, by the way, which we're not going
to get to for several weeks, where Christ is the Savior, God who
is the Savior of all people, especially those who believe. In Romans 8, Paul begins to talk
to these Christians who are truly measuring themselves by the spiritual
foundations of their Jewish brothers and sisters, saying, there's
no way that we can be on equal standing with you all for thousands
of years who have followed the law of God and known the truth.
And now we come along and yesterday I was worshiping Artemis and
today I'm following Christ. This is not good. And Paul says,
it's good. Because when they are left to
themselves without divine grace, even with the oracles of God,
they take to themselves the power to stand in the righteousness
of God and then blame Him for it. That's Romans 9, 10. In Romans 8, Paul uses Genesis
1 and 2 and the effects of Genesis 3 to say, for the creation was
subjected to uselessness. to futility, not willingly, but
because of Him who subjected it, the Creator, in hope that
the creation itself will be set free, think about that, from
its bondage to corruption, and obtain the freedom of the glory
of the children of God. See, we share our head's glory,
because we are one body. I don't have a beautiful left
hand, that defines me, you see. Nothing beautiful about me except
I belong to Christ. And even creation will be set
free from its bondage. For we know that the whole creation
has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until
now. It's a picture. So everything that God has made
for us, everything that God has promised to us is good. At the end of Romans 8, Paul
expressly gives some just, I don't know, I don't even want to say
bedrock, it's deeper than that, it's a core of our hope and joy
and that, I read it last week, we are unable to be separated
from the love of God because Christ is and has come and has
been raised. So nothing can separate us from
God's love. Nothing can separate us from
God's goodness. Nothing should be separating
us from God's people. Nothing should be establishing
any type of separation or discord whatsoever with things that God
has promised are good for us. For our joy is full because we
are in Christ and Christ is all in all. I was thinking about this, this
week and last week, and I thought to myself, you know, how much
time I spend lamenting that which I have lost or do not have. The
very definition of discontent, to the point where now I'm discerning
if I'm malcontent in my own heart against myself. Don't go there. Rather than enjoying the blessings
of God's promises today, it's easy for us to say what we wish
we had, shoulda, coulda, woulda done different, wish we could
have today. Look what we did have. But we
have it all right now. God is not a God of withholding. God is not a father who, when
his children cry for bread, give them a snake and go, let's see
if they can eat that. These are the jokes that Jesus
told. They were extremely pointed. Daddy, I'm hungry, more please,
and give him a rock. Stupid kid. That's not our father. So what are these things that
Paul's talking about? Here's an easy answer, holistic answer. If we can thank God for it and
rejoice in the blessing of it, it's free for us to have. So next time I go fill up at
the pump, I'm going to go in there and say, I thank God for this gas and
the dinosaurs who made it. I'm not going to pay for it today.
I get me a free ministry, Smith Correctional down here. If we can thank God for it, we
can understand the place of things. We can understand their purpose. But there are things that we
can do. There are things that we can partake in that can be
evil, right? Let's not mistake it. Let's not let someone accuse
me of, you know, licensure to sin. Well, Tippins is handing
out sin cards. That's nonsense. Nobody's doing
that. Galatians 5, now the works of
the flesh are evident. What does Paul say to these people?
The works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality. Well, I don't
engage in that. Yes, you have. I don't care how
old you are, how long you've been here, how young you are. We all have. Even if it is listening or seeing,
we've done it. Thinking, we've done it. Impurity. Sensuality. Idolatry. Sorcery. That little phrase right there,
that little word right there, I was a closet magician when I was
in elementary school. Sorcery. If I was really a sorcerer, it
wouldn't be sponge balls and ace of spades. I'd be pulling
out gold nuggets. Enmity, strife, jealousy, fits
of rage, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,
orgies, and things like these. Then he goes, I warn you, as
I've warned you before, that those who practice these things
will not inherit the kingdom of God. And we're not going there. I just want to hang that out
on a limb, on the ledge. We know what is good and what
is not. We know what is profitable and
what is not. We know the attitudes of our
flesh. And when we justify them and say that what we are doing
justifies or that there's a circumstance in which justifies our sinfulness,
even if it is righteous, we are lying. Love believes all things. And
when we don't, we're lying. And somebody has argued with
me, I had a mentor argue with me back in, that was 2005, when
I said something from the pulpit and a week or so later, this
guy comes and we're talking and he says, you know, I want to
challenge you on this, because what I said was, when we put
on our socks, we can worship. And I really believed that. And
at the time, it was a very difficult time for our household. And I didn't want to put on my
socks. I didn't want to go anywhere. I didn't want to do anything.
I just wanted to fall into the abyss, disappear. You ever been
there? And so I'm putting on my socks, and
I'm thinking, can I worship God doing this? Yes, I can. I can thank him for the sock.
I mean, believe it or not, there are people in the world who would
love to have a pack of socks. You send them money, gold, jewelry,
toys, and they're like, oh crap, my feet are cold, I'm dying.
Socks, praise the Lord. First world problems, folks.
These socks don't match my shoes. That's okay. Let's just not forget
other people would take either. So whatever you do, Galatians
tells us what we shouldn't do, but 1 Corinthians chapter 10
verse 31 teaches us some things that we should do. So whether
you eat or whether you drink, whatever you do, do it all for
the glory of God. Do it all to reveal the nature and the person
and the perfection and the essence and the name. That's what it
means to see someone's glory, is to see all that he is. And
if you remember when I was teaching through John chapter 1, I used
the example of just like being naked. You see it's for everything we
are. Exposed, a revelation of God to His people. He has exposed
Himself as He has decided to expose Himself. That is God's
glory. We see Him. And so we can see Him in everything,
in everything we do, in everything we strive to do. Paul tells the
same thing to the church of Colossae. He says in chapter 3, verse 17
of Colossians, he says, and whatever you do in word or in deed, do
everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to
God the Father through Him. And what have we done? In our
culture, we've made all these things, little teensy, tiny buttons
that we push. Well, let's say the blessing.
I'm not saying it's bad to do so. I'm just saying this is the
only place in the world that we really do that. It's the only
culture that has this pause and repeat commercial that we call
a prayer. It's just, we're not praying.
most of the time. Kemp's, Belk, Amazon. You know where the offering plate
comes from? Pagan sacrifices. You know where the podium comes
from? I'm not even going to tell you. I mean,
everything we do has a source. Nothing's new under the sun. Just because a pagan or a devil
worshiper, like I said, I don't think they're as dangerous as
self-righteous people. We have the liberty to celebrate
things. We have the liberty, and even
though we might not do them in the corporate worship, because
we understand the conscience, and we understand that there
is greater things that we should focus on rather than the cultural
aspects of Christ. There's nothing wrong with celebrating
the advent of the Lord in any way you choose. There's something
extremely wrong with thinking that we have to observe the festivals
of Israel. and thinking that they're more
spiritual than Easter, that holds the name of a goddess of fertility, Esther. Does it
matter? No, it doesn't matter. And it's
long been time for us as Christians, as people who understand the
grace of God, to put our foot down softly and say, I'm not
having anything to do with these conversations. If you want to
discuss them so that you may grow, that's fine. But if you
want to discuss these so you can load up against me, I'm through
with you. And many of us have been there,
haven't we? I know for home educators, we get some knuckleheads in some
of those groups. And you're going in there, I
just decided about teaching my children. And then you're like,
I'm going to hell. And they're all going to hell,
because we're doing it wrong. We're not using the right curriculum.
We bought a book that was from Barnes and Noble and not Lifeway.
You bought a book from Lifeway, you're going to hell. I mean,
you know, there's no winning. You mean your children don't
read Greek? God's glory. Neither did John. He didn't write
it very well either. The Word of God sets things apart,
not us. The Word of God, not culture.
The Word of God sets things apart. The Word of God sets us apart.
What does Romans 10 tell us? Faith comes through hearing. Hearing comes through the speech
of Christ. The teachings of Christ. The
supernatural hearing, like everything in John's gospel, leads up to
one thing. leads up to the purpose of the
writing in and of itself is that as the writer tells us, these
things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Son
of God and by believing you may have eternal life in his name.
What is written? John chapter 1, the Word became
flesh and tabernacled among us and has shown us the fullness
of who God is. He is the God who sits at the right hand of
God. John chapter 2, the calling, the miracles, John chapter 3,
the teacher of all Israel with everything and all understanding
of the doctrines and theologies of the precepts of God from the
days of the garden from Moses and beyond and yet he had to
be told you must be born anew by the Spirit. In John chapter
4, and it goes on and on and on, Jesus is rejected by his
own people as chapter 1 said that he would be His own people
of the flesh, but He came to those who are in discord, who
are trying to find their own way, who are doing things and
living according to the flesh. Of course, you do not have one
husband. You've had five, and the man you live with now is
not your husband. That's why you're hiding and getting your
water way out here in the middle of nowhere. You don't even want
to be seen in town, and it is a picture of what God does in
the salvation of His people by the Spirit. that Nicodemus is
born by the Spirit and sees and understands, and the woman at Sychar sees
and understands, and the cripple at Bethesda, and then the blind
man, and everybody else in between. There's always an excuse as to
why these things are taking place, and the Scripture teaches us
that they took place that God the Son may be glorified in them.
The feeding of the masses, of the multitudes, that Jesus may
call himself the bread of life. And everybody there, every single
person there goes, this is odd, I'm going home now. And only because they'd forsaken
everything else, Jesus turns to the 12th word about Shaul.
You have the words of eternal life, to whom shall we go? They
didn't understand them, but they knew that Jesus was their only
hope. John chapter 7, John chapter
8, we see it over and over and over and over again. It's the
picture of God giving life. 1 Thessalonians 5, you all know
this verse. I've seen it cross-stitched into a thousand things. Stenciled
and calligraphied. Give thanks in all circumstances,
right? This is the will of God in Christ
Jesus for you. The Word of God establishes our
thankfulness. The Word of God establishes our
joy. Ephesians 5.20 says the same thing, doesn't it? Give
thanks, giving thanks in everything and for always and for everything
to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. But
look at this for a second. Everything created by God is
good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanks.
If we can thank God for it, We can receive it. For it is made
holy, it is set apart by the word of God in prayer. So Paul's
already said those who believe and know the truth can receive
these things and ought not to be told how they ought to relate
to the world around them by people who don't know what they're talking
about. They ought not to be taught how they ought to deal with divisions
and problems and relationships by people who don't know what
they're talking about. And how do we know who knows and who
doesn't know what they're talking about? By the way they apply
the Bible. Not the doctrinal perfection
of how they explain the theology, but it's how they apply it. And those who don't believe that
will then begin to apply what I just said against me and you. Have nothing else to do with
them. Everything that we have in Christ
is good. And it is made holy by the word
of God. In other words, we can study
the scripture and then by reading the scripture, by reading the
scripture in its fullness, reading Timothy. I read a lot of prophets
this week. It was good stuff. And then hard. And then I got
lost and I had to start over because I was daydreaming for
like eight minutes. I was listening to. Joel, I'm going, oh, I'm
lost, let me back up. And listen to it, and then God
teaches me, and then I can see, wow, this isn't a precept for
me. Why am I living in this burden?
Why am I walking in this place? Why am I imposing this nonsense
on people who I call my friends? This is good. Thank you, God,
for this good thing. And even the restrictions are
good, aren't they? There's things that we shouldn't
be engaging in. But it's set apart by the Word
of God. The Word of God is where we go to get wisdom. But it's not
just that. It's not just studying the Bible.
Because reading the Bible is not anything in and of itself
if the Spirit of God isn't leading us then to do things with it. The Spirit of God hasn't taught
us anything if we aren't doing something with it. Because believe it or not, even
when we read fiction, we cosplay. And for the brothers in the room,
we watch YouTube, that's our fiction, tactical defense stuff,
and then we buy all that crap and we cosplay in the yard. It's
still make-believe. It's make-believe, but we like
it. But yet, we're not even doing the make-believe of the Bible. We'll impose life-changing things
in our thoughts, our words, our actions, our interactions, pop
culture references, funny things, humorous things, good things,
entertaining things, and we can build an entire community and
an entire intimacy and an entire relationship around those things
that the world has shown us. Songs and literature and film
and art in every sense and form. Fashion. I love clothes. I love
to see interesting clothes. Some of them I would not be caught
dead in, nor would I even want to waste a match to set them
on fire, but I still appreciate the art. But yeah, when it comes to the
Bible, we're often just sitting there going, well, I know this
now. And so what's the first step of application? Look at
that word of God. Prayer. Paul's first instruction
was to charge, as an elder, to charge these people to hush,
to be quiet, and to fall in line with the disciplines of the faith
and their behavior. And then he says, I entrust you,
Timothy, to charge the people of God to pray. What does prayer do? Prayer does
a lot of stuff. Prayer sets us apart in application. It sets our will to His. I think there are five or six
things. Think about these. Sets our will to His. In other words,
Lord, Your will be done, not mine. Remember, I haven't said
it a lot lately, but I need to get back into this practice in
my own self, my own mind, my own countenance, turn my thoughts
to prayers, pray rather than ponder. It's a good, wise thing to do. Because when I pray, I'm dependent
upon God to change my mind and to keep me focused on His. We
sandblast our entire living room just because we think the color
needs to be changed and then we've got dirt everywhere. Incline your ear and hear the
words of the wise and apply your heart to my knowledge, for it
will be, listen, pleasant if you keep them within you, if
all of them are ready on your lips, that your trust may be
in the Lord. I've made them known to you today,
even to you. Prayer sets apart our minds to
His wisdom. Prayer, as Paul teaches several
times over, sets apart our heart to His what? To His Son, to His
love, to Christ. It sets apart our affections.
Ephesians 6, starting in verse 18, says, praying at all times
in the Spirit. What is Paul saying? We ought to be praying at all
times in the Spirit. See, this is right after the instruction of
all this relationship thing. Relationship to bosses and masters
and slaves and employees. and leaders, and then the familial relationships
in the context of the local church and submission between husband
and wife mutually. And then children and parents
and then as unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Just a big picture of
wisdom of putting our heart more in tune with Christ. And then
Paul's remedy is through all of this, all this instruction
I've given you, you need to pray in the Spirit at all times and
supplicate. Pray for other people. To that end, then, keep alert
with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,
petitioning the Father for the saints, asking and repeating
and inquiring. And not only for the saints,
but Paul says, also for me, what does Paul ask for prayer in Ephesians
6? He says that words may be given me in opening my mouth
boldly to proclaim the gospel and its mystery, for which I
am a messenger of God in chains, that I may declare it boldly,
that I may know how I ought to speak. When's the last time we
prayed for how we ought to open our mouths? Sunday morning for
me. Prayer sets us apart in our affections,
and prayer sets us apart in our needs, knowing that He is sovereign
in our needs. His providence supplies all things,
as James would instruct the church In the dispersion, He'd say,
listen, don't make plans as if you've got it all together and
you're going to go do it. Say, I'm making plans and do well
to do so, but if the Lord wills, because God can stop any good
plan. So prayer sets apart our needs
to Him. And then not ultimately, and
not even the most important, but finally, I just left this
for last because it popped into my head last, but prayer sets
us apart in practice on our mission toward heaven, toward eternity,
toward glory. If we're going to do everything,
eat and drink, say word and deed for the glory of God, if we're
going to do all these things and receive that which is good
and know that which is good, we seek the wisdom of God, we
pray. It's one thing to read and learn, but it's another thing
to apply and pray. Father, now I see. What does
learning without prayer and application do? It puffs up. It brings conceit
and arrogance. I mean, Paul talks about this
later in this letter and in the next one. He talks about it passionately,
almost aggressively he talks about it. Paul's point is preaching. Paul knows firsthand what arrogant
knowledge does and what being puffed up is all about. You talk
about zeal. How in the name of God and of
the Lord of hosts do we kill His people and malign them and
slander them and murder them? That's what religious zealots
do. They are not doing the Lord's
work. They're not learning the Bible. What is our mission? Is he serving
others to consider the needs of others more important than
the needs of ourselves? Isn't that hard? Sometimes we
even find the needs of others as it satisfies our needs. Isn't
that a double edged miss? But praise God that our righteousness
is Jesus Christ, who did not put his own glory ahead of us.
He did not put his own glory against the call and the mission
that he'd been given. He came to give eternal life through
his own body and through his own blood. And so our mission
toward glory is a life that we live now in Christ Jesus, saved
forevermore, and that we live together in that journey as we
also share the gospel of grace to the world around us, to everyone
that God gives us opportunity to do, whether we are pumping
gas or whether we, and I say that a lot because I talk to
people every time I'm pumping gas. Every single... I can't help myself. I don't
know why, but when they're standing there, staring off into space,
and you're three feet away, it just seems odd to not speak. It's just odd to me. As if they're
not standing there, and I can smell their cologne or their
perfume. Or see the ladybug in their hair. Man, you got a ladybug,
or a lovebug in your hair. Two of them. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Are you sorry? You
didn't put it there. to speak. And then in those opportunities,
small talk always centers around the price of gas, the politics
involved behind it, or the weather. And there's always a way of having
some positive opportunity to speak truth. It just comes natural
when we're disciplined to do it. It's not what you should
do. It's what I do. But if I'm in a crowd, I'm gonna
hide. 400 people, I'm like, oh my gosh,
I'm going to shoot my way out of here. I'm never going to make it. I'm
never going to survive. Don't touch me. Don't look at me. Stop talking. You know,
just differences. Evangelism is not this contrived
thing that we must go and press in to pursue. It's something
that we do through prayer. Father, not only today do you
order my steps and that I may serve your people and serve the
community in which I live with humility that may that your name
may be praised, but also, Father, as the opportunity comes, may
I share the hope of Christ. It's the simplest thing, yet
it's the hardest thing that we can do is to pray for that, because
it's easy to share the complaints of the world and the sins and
the problems of the world and our own proclivities and all
these other burdens and things that God has given us to be free
in our conscience to deal with, and share them as if they matter
in the kingdom of grace. As if there's some extra currency
rolling around that we're going to carry with us into heaven
and say, oh yeah, you might have grace in your pocket, but guess
what I've got? I've got all my politics. I've got all my health
and nutrition. It's worth some value, but it's
not ultimate. Because one day, it don't matter
how healthy you are, you're going to die. Disease and injury and
decay is going to find us. Most of us are going to be wearing
glasses in ten years. It doesn't matter. Our joy is
complete and full and the perfect work of Christ and everything
that God has given us is to be received with thanksgiving because
it is set apart by the word and we know it because of the word
and by prayer that we learn how to live it and apply it accordingly.
In that sense, we know that we are doing what we are called
to do today because the word of God instructs us to do so.
And we don't have to pray, God, should I be in church today?
Is it your will I'm in fellowship today? No, it is always the will
of God that you're in fellowship. It is the will of God that you
are in with the body. It is the will of God that we
pray. It is the will of God that we live a life of peace. Everything
else, we have to work out together through the scripture and through
prayer. That being said, let us pray as we take the Lord's
table and sing praises to His name. We thank you, Father, for
this Just the comfort that You give us in Your Word and the
peace that comes. The instruction that You've shown
us, as simple as it may be. Everything you've given us is
good. We ought to praise you for it, Lord. We could have said
that and moved along to something else, but Lord, that's often
part of our problem, as you've made me aware, is that we move
too quickly into something else and we forget about the good
of the simple things. To expound upon the simple things.
We don't need to go through so many things that we forget the
very one thing that we need to work on. So, Father, help us
to work as if we are as we are, not if. Help us to
work as we are. Instruments of your glory and
the work of your hands. Recipients of your grace and
love. And to receive the teaching of
your word without disdain and frustration, but Lord with comfort.
We thank you Lord for calling us to pray, help us to pray for
one another. When we think of each other Lord help us to pray
rather than just worry and lament and ponder. Let us pray and then
praise you for what you do when we look out the window of life
and see all the things that you have caused to bloom and to harvest.
Not in the way that we think they should be but Father in
your perfect wisdom and we praise you for that. And when we cannot
pray as you teach in your scripture, Lord, your spirit will pray for
us so that the will that you have discerned for our good is
going to come to pass in our lives. And teach us contentment. Teach us love, teach us sacrifice. as we continue to learn that
all these things are Christ. And in Him, we are yours. Amen.