of life for one to see the Kingdom
of Heaven, to see Jesus Christ who is the Kingdom of Heaven.
Wherever our Lord and Savior is, that is the Kingdom of Heaven.
If He dwells in your hearts today, as we mentioned in our Bible
study just a little bit ago, if He is in your heart, if He
has come to your heart, If He has taken up dwelling in
your heart, then you see the Kingdom of God right now. Turn to 1 Timothy chapter 1 if
you would. We began a series of messages
expounding from Scriptures the Word of God. I was led by the
Lord to look at this book of 1 Timothy. As I mentioned in
my opening message, I'm not sure how the Lord will lead us through
this. There may be times where we look
at one verse. There may be times where we look
at one word. There may be times where we look at several verses.
There may be times where I skip through to another one. It depends
on how the Lord speaks to me as I look through and I figure
out, God, what would you have me speak of next week? What would
you lay on my heart to bring before your people? Father, you
tell me to bring comfort to your children. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, he says to his preachers. What can I bring before your
people that would bring comfort in a
world of chaos, a world that is destined to burn because of
the curse of sin? There's only one thing that comforts
the child of God, Christ and Him crucified. Many try to inflict the law of
God as a measurement of one's salvation. They'll say,
see what I do now? I didn't used to do this, I used
to do this over here. I've turned from those ways and
now I'm this. I no longer commit this sin or
that sin. I know, I realize that I still
sin, yeah. They'll continue, they'll say
this, I'm not completely righteous. But I am way more righteous than
I was once before. This is not just an outward declaration
that people make outwardly to those around them. It's an inwardly
declaration that we make to ourselves if we're not careful. I hesitate for a moment because
I want that to sink in. When I preach a message, Sometimes it's difficult for
me and I get emotional because I'm preaching to myself. I know what it's like to feel
like, you know, I'm not that kind of guy anymore. I know what
that's like because I do it. If we're not careful, folks,
when we begin to look into ourselves and into our mirrors, we will
see a deceiving picture. This is why God's preachers point
you to Christ and Christ alone. Because everything else will
point us to ourselves. It doesn't matter what it is. because of the sin that is still
in our flesh. This is why we come to the table
of remembrance. To remember that it was Christ our Lord who went
to the cross and put away our sins. You see the flesh is weak. If you just take your eye off
of Christ for one second, and I don't know about you folks,
I do it a lot more than one second. It doesn't take but a Twinkle
of an eye for me to say, turn around, and not even think about
Christ. Well, some of the church in Ephesus
had started doing that very thing. They had turned from the doctrine
of Christ and Him crucified, and were now looking into their
heritage. See, I'm a Jew. You can see where
all my name goes down through this. I'm a distant relative
to Abraham. That's my proof that I'm a child
of God. And it's not only were they claiming
this to those around them, they were looking in their mirrors
and they were thinking that themselves. They were looking at what they
thought was a light inside of themselves. Have you read Mike
Lovelace's article about light and dark that we have in the
back for you? They were really believing that the light they
saw within the mirror was the light of God, and that that was
what was making them saved. That was what made them saved.
See what I do now? See the rituals that I can do
now? See how it is? I'm a child of
God. See, I was born through this lineage. I'm a child of
God. That's what Ephesus was doing. Grace was no longer their focus. Fables and old wives' tales and
things that had no value had come into their conversation. I told you when I came into this
position, I made it very clear before anyone said I. I am not a counselor. I'm a sinner. I'm not going to stand before
you and try to act like I know what it is that you should do.
God help us to look into His Word and see what we should do,
and I'll look in it with you. But I'm not a counselor. But I can share with you what
my God has done for me. That's what I do. I preach about my Savior. And just as I had for almost
19 years sat here in these pews and loved to hear about what
Gene Harmon's Savior did for him, because I could see how
my Savior had done the same for me, I pray the Lord will give
you the ability to see what the Lord has done for you. Old wives tales and things that
had no value in the building of faith had become topics for
the discussion. You see, you allow leaven to
creep in. I'm not just talking about leaven
in the church, I'm talking about leaven in your life. You allow that to creep in in
any little spot and it'll start to grow. We must always be aware
of that. Turn from such things, our Lord
tells us. Turn to Him and Him alone. Turn to Christ and Him crucified. Are you with me in 1 Timothy?
Look at verse 4. Paul had just given instructions
to Timothy that he would stay in Ephesus and that He might
charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Don't go out
and teach these other things, because they are of no value. Teach Christ and Him crucified.
That's what Paul says. I wish to know nothing of you,
save Christ and Him crucified. And then he goes on and he confirms
what he's saying there. Neither give heed to fables and
endless genealogies. which minister questions rather
than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do." Notice that
these fables and genealogies that they lead to questioning,
arguments. Isn't it interesting how things
of this world can lead to an argument? Now, OK, I don't mean
a heated argument. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm not talking about two people butting heads like this. But
they may not agree completely on one thing. And it might lead
to, well, what does that mean? Well, I don't know. Well, it
means this. Well, that doesn't have anything to do with scripture.
You see what I'm saying, how it can fit its way in, how it can
squeeze its way in? The things of this world can
be manipulated by man. They can be manipulated by opinions.
As among the Jews, there were some who brought Judaism into
Christianity. Also among the Gentiles, there
were some who brought paganism into Christianity. And Paul is
warning Timothy on this very thing. He says, take heed of
these things, watch against them, or they will be corrupting and
ruining of the religion among you. Why? Because they minister questions
rather than building up. That's what edifying means. It
means to be built up. I don't want to talk to you about
certain things that we don't know for sure that aren't clearly
spoken of in the Scriptures. That clearly point us to our
Savior. Because it doesn't build us up
in our faith in our Lord. Here's what builds us up in our
faith in our Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Talking
about Him. That which ministers questions
is not edifying. That which gives occasion for
a doubtful dispute pulls down the church rather than building
it up. For reason, everything else that ministers questions
rather than godly edifying should be disclaimed or disregarded,
such as fables, or endless genealogies, or many other topics outside
of the gospel of Christ and Him crucified. Topics that can become
a trial for those who believe. For they involve us in unsure
difficulties, and they tend only to shake the foundation of Christians'
hope and to fill one's mind with questions and doubts and fears.
Godly edifying, godly building up is what every minister sent
of God should aim to be in every one of their messages. Our desire
should be that Christians may be improving in godliness and
growing up to be greater in the likeness and to be blessed of
God. Our Lord declares that He came to do His Father's will.
He tells us, Be ye holy, for I am holy. But observe further. Godly edifying must be in faith. You see, the Gospel is found
on one thing. He builds His church on faith.
It says, Whosoever believeth on Me. That's what He says in
His Word. It's not whosoever does this or does that, but whosoever
believeth on Me. That's faith. That's what we're
to build each other up with. Those are His words and it is
by faith that we come to God. It is by faith that we are kept
of God. It is by faith that we are built
up and it must be in the same way and by the same principle
of faith that we must look to to be edified. In Hebrews 11,
6 it reads, but without faith it is impossible to please him,
for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and he is
the rewarder of them that diligently seek him. In our last Friday
night Bible study, our text was from Galatians chapter 3, verse
11, where it says, but that no man is justified by the law in
the sight of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith. Matthew Henry wrote this. He
says, we as ministers should avoid, as much as may be, that
which will bring about disputes, and would do well to insist on
the great and practical points of religion about which there
can be no disputes. For even disputes about great
and necessary truths draw off the mind from the main design
of Christianity. And it eats out the vials of
religion, which consist in practice and obedience as well as in faith,
that we may not hold the truth in unrighteousness, but we may
keep the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience." End of
quote. In our text, what we just read,
Paul's instructions are very clear. There's no question. They are not open for possible
argument. He says, look again, verse 4,
godly edifying, which is in faith. He's telling Timothy not to mix
in with these other things that can easily bring up arguments,
for they are not godly edifying. Godly edifying is the building
of one's trust in God. The more we believe, the stronger
our faith is. The stronger our faith gets,
the more we trust in Him. Abraham. Abraham believed God. God had made a promise to him
and he believed that he would keep that promise. He didn't
just believe that he would keep it, he believed that he could
keep it. But his faith was not always
strong, was it? You know the story, don't you? They got to
be up in age a little bit. Oh, maybe God's not going to
keep his promise to me. Maybe I should do this instead. He wasn't always strong. The
result of his raving was a child called Ishmael, was it not? Abraham, the very one who God
gave faith. He gave him the faith to go to
that mountain to sacrifice his son. Could you imagine either
of us doing that? I can't imagine myself doing
it, but I do know this, that if the Lord gave me faith to
do so, I could do it. Because He is strong enough to
do it, to give me that faith. This very One who God gave faith
to offer up the promised Son as a sacrifice, even He wavered
in weakness. Turn over to Galatians chapter
3 if you would please. I know I don't need to tell you
this, If you're a child of God, you know this as well as anybody. But if you never heard these
words before, I can tell you folks, by the Word of God, the
flesh is weak. Everything about this body that
I have is weak. I have no confidence in my flesh. God builds up our faith. He builds
up our faith, our belief. He builds up our trust, and He
does it by the preaching of His Gospel. When we continually hear
how God became a man, when we continually hear over
and over again about how God became flesh and walked this
earth, We see that this One called Jesus who says He shall save
His people will save His people because God is truth and can
be nothing else. We see that and we hear that
and we put more and more of our confidence in it over and over
and over again. Do you ever stop to think why
Abraham had to be so old before he had his son that was promised
to him? Some may say, well, so that God could prove to him His
promise was good. I would say to you that Abraham
had to learn that God's promises were good, and it took quite
a while for that to happen. It's taken quite a while for
John to learn these things. Taking a little while for Peter
to learn these things too, isn't it? We're looking into how Peter
is going about, how the Lord is going about teaching him in
our Bible studies on Sunday morning. When we continually hear how
God became a man, we see the power in that man. We see the
authority in that man as the creator of all things. We come
to know that everything is ruled by Him, not just this, not just
that, and maybe some of that, but all things are ruled by Him. and our faith in Him grows. When
we continually hear these truths of His love for a people, when
we see in Scripture how it talks about Him loving us before the
world was ever made, we start to consider, like we did the
other day in one of our messages, we start to consider that very
point. Well, that means that everything that's happened is
because He loves us, right? If He's loved us before the time
was, it has to be that way. Am I right about that? Yeah.
You see how faith can grow? We hear about that over and over
again. Our faith begins to, well, what
have I got to worry about? Everything that's happening is
for my good. Everything that's going on, the
whole creation of the world, the bringing up of America, United
States of America, the whole thing of this becoming a country
for you and I to live in, was for us! For God's people! Our faith grows. See how it builds
up the faith, talking about who the Lord Jesus is? Talking about what you should
be doing with your marriage, or your relationship, or your
work, or anything else, that's not going to build you up in
the faith. Now, I'm not trying to put that
stuff down. Yeah, we probably should address things as families
and stuff. But that's not what's building
us up in faith. What I come to church for, for
the last 20 years, is to hear about my Savior. To hear about what He's done
for me to build my faith up in Him. When we continually hear these
truths, We hear about His perfect obedience to the Father's will. Our faith is in Him and what
He has done. We see what our Lord has done
for us because of His love for us. He became flesh. He put the
glory that He had once in heaven aside and walked this earth. But not just that. What builds my faith up is knowing
that He went to the cross and paid that debt for me. We continually hear about His
sacrifice, the very cost that He had paid. My faith grows in
Him. When we continually hear about
the result of His sacrifice, I'm not going to get this result
looking in the mirror. No, when I see the results of
my Lord and Savior and what He's done for me, I see the white
robes that He has given me to wear. I have assurance. My assurance is not in me, but
it's in the white robes that He has given me to wear, His
robes. His robes of perfect righteousness. When we continually hear about
His place right now, sitting on His throne, ruling over everything,
making intercession for us. When we stumble in that little
pit, I'm not talking about the big pit of hell, I'm talking
about the pit of sin. And don't try to tell me that
you don't. when we stumble in that pit,
when we take our eyes off of Christ and begin to sink in the
sea of sin that comes around us every day, the temptations
that fill our eyes with the twinkling of the world. I need to hear about the Savior
who sits on His throne and reaches down and grabs John by the arm
and says, I will not let you go. and lifts me up out of that pit
to where I'm looking at the one who's pulling me up. I'm looking
at Him as He has a hold of my arm and pulls me up out of the
sin that I live in in this world. My faith is built up and trust
in Him is increased when I look to Him, when I look to what He
has done, what He has accomplished, and where He is now. And my encouragement
to you and all who have ears is this. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. My prayer is that God may be
merciful and that you, you who hear this gospel message, that
you may be one of His chosen. That you might be one of His
blood-bought children one who was given to Christ before the
world was created, one for whom God became a man. And by walking
perfectly in the flesh, He established a righteousness that would be
imputed to all, all, not some, not maybe, not might, but to
all for whom the Father hath given Him. That that righteousness would
be imputed to all for whom He would die for. You see, Christ
came to save sinners, and my question to you this morning
is, are you a sinner? The righteous don't need a Savior,
do they? But I tell you also this, beware,
sinner. Beware, for men have been ordained
before time, sent, predestined, who will come and try to seduce
the people of God with works of the flesh. just as they did with the Galatians,
the Judaizers, the Gentiles with their paganism. Our God allows men and has ordained
this very thing to come into the church, to come into the
group, to come into the called ones. And it is our responsibility
to watch out for that. In the book of Jude, our Lord
says in verses 3, Beloved, when I gave a diligence to you to
write unto you... He inspired Jude to write this.
Beloved, when I gave a diligence to write unto you of the common
salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort
you that you should earnestly contend for works? No. For the faith which was once
delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept
in unawares, who were before old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness
and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. I
will therefore put you in remembrance. Though ye once knew this, how
that the LORD, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt,
he afterward destroyed them that believed not. Are you with me
in Galatians chapter 3, verses 1, 2, and 3? O foolish Galatians, who have
bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you? This only would I have learned
of you. Receive you the Spirit by the works of the law, or by
the hearing of what? What is it that builds up our
faith? That's what the disciples and
the apostles were telling everyone about. I said this once a moment
ago. Paul said, I wish to know nothing
of you. Save Christ and Him crucified.
I don't care about all this other stuff that you might want to
bring into your religious gatherings. I want to know if Christ and
Him crucified, that's the only thing important. That's what
builds up our faith. Received ye the Spirit by the
works of the law? Is that how the Spirit worked
in you? Or was it by hearing of faith? Are you so foolish,
having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect in the flesh?"
Okay, so there was a time when you were talking about the faith,
but now, all of a sudden, you're starting to talk about this other
stuff again. Well, what did the Lord save you with? He saved
you with the faith. By the declaration of faith in
Him, whosoever believeth on Me shall have everlasting life. In Romans 10, verse 17, so then
faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. When
we trust in the things of Christ, folks, when we believe in our
hearts the things of Christ, the promises that He made, we
give God the glory. Believing in the Lord and that
He is Lord gives Him the glory. You're driving down the road,
and you're hitting every single red light. Okay, Lord. You must be protecting
me from something here today. Think about that. Think about
that. Are you not giving Him the glory in that very thought? You're calling Him Lord. He even
rules over the red lights. You thought computers did it,
huh? When we believe, when our faith is in Christ Jesus the Lord,
and we believe the promises that He makes, that He has made, we
give Him all the glory. When we believe that He alone
has sanctified His people, has set us apart from the world. With His own blood, we glorify
Him. When we believe His words as
He has stated on that cross, it is finished. We glorify God. Turn over to the 6th chapter
of Galatians if you would please. I heard a message yesterday.
I was waiting for Kathy's doctor to finish his examination with
her, and I was listening to Todd Knight preach a message. It's
called, The Believer's Rule of Life. Man, I highly recommend you go
home today and listen to that message. Pull it up on YouTube.
Put in the search engine there, Todd Nyritt, and scroll down.
It's down a few ways. You've got to go through some
of his most recent ones. But I cannot recommend a message
more touching to your hearts than this very message, the believer's
rule of life. And I don't want to go through
it word by word. But he begins by telling us how
the world around us think that the rule of life is Law of God. Thou shalt do this. Thou shalt
do that. The Ten Commandments. We post
them up. I remember when I was a kid, they had that up in our
church when I was a kid. The Ten Commandments right on the
wall. And that was the rule of life right there. We have this
up here so you can see it. So you can be reminded of it
daily. And he went about showing how
the Scriptures tell us no. The Law is just our schoolmaster.
It brings us to know what true salvation is. True salvation
is faith in Christ. The edifying of our souls is
building up in our faith in Christ. There is one rule that true believers
live by. And it is written right here
in Galatians for our learning. Are you with me? Galatians chapter
6, look at verses 15 and 16. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything. That means you can get yourself
circumcised, you can walk this way, you can do that, you can
go to the Lord's table, you can get baptized, you can do whatever
you want, but it avails nothing. Okay, you don't want to get circumcised?
You don't want to do all that stuff? Well that avails nothing
either. Nor uncircumcision. But a new
creature. And as many as walk according
to this rule, As many as walk according to
this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of
God." Well, what is the rule? If you're in Christ and Christ
is dwelling in you, if you are of the ones called spiritual
Israel, if you are a Jew inwardly, not outwardly, well then circumcision
or uncircumcision mean nothing. If you're one of Israel, one
of God's chosen people, one of the sons of Jacob, the sons of
Abraham, or daughters, look at verse 14. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's your
rule. And as many walk according to
this rule. Glory in the cross of Christ. Glory in God alone. The people of God, we walk by
faith, not by sight. And we glory in the cross of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our faith is in Him and what
He has done. It is in who He is. The Son of
the Living God, as Peter said. We are blessed because the Father
hath revealed this through the preaching of His Gospel. Our
faith is in why He came. He came to lay down His life.
He says, I lay down my life and I take it up again. Our faith is in who He came for.
He says, I came for my sheep. I have other sheep that are not
part of this fold and I must go to them. Our faith is in what He accomplished.
When our Lord said, it is finished, salvation was done. Our faith is in where He is right
now, sitting on His throne, ruling over everything. Everything. Everything about what I know
now belongs to the Lord, because He's Lord of everything. He rules
it all. He rules me. My faith is resting. I'm not
looking for anything to do anymore. I don't have to. The Lord has
shined it in my heart. My faith is resting in the promises
of God. I ask you this morning, where
is your faith and what is it resting in? Is it resting in
our Savior? Or is there something you have
to do? Put it away, folks. Turn away
from the things that you think you might have to do. and turn
to our Lord and Savior who's done it all for us. Amen.