Now you can open your Bibles
to 1 Timothy chapter 4. Continuing our studies through
1 Timothy chapter 4, we do well to carry on the thought that
we began this morning. Because when we consider the
wonders and the mysteries and the glories and the excellencies
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior that we looked
into this morning, In light of the passage before us, it's unbelievable
to me. It's unbelievable to me that
anyone who has ever been in the midst of this type of preaching
or been taken up with this glorious gospel, it's unbelievable to
me that they could ever leave it. But by the grace of God, we will
too. Paul said in Hebrews 6, He said,
it's a wonder that anyone who has been enlightened and tasted
the heavenly gift and been a partaker of the Holy Ghost or participated
in these services and tasted the good word of God and the
world and things to come, seeing these marvelous revelations of
Christ, it's a wonder that they would leave the gospel and fall
for any other gospel and go into or be taken up with anything
else. But it happens. And this is what
he's saying here in verse 1 of chapter 4. He says, The Spirit
speaketh expressly, for that is the Holy Spirit of God that
speaks very plainly, very clearly, that in the latter times, and
I believe that's today, and I've made much to do in the last few
years of this being the latter times because I strongly believe
it is, the signs of the times. Our Lord Himself said, You may
discern the signs of the time very clearly, just like a sailor
does the sky before he sets sail, or what determines bad or good
weather in the sky. And I believe very strongly that
we're in the latter times. Now, how long it will be before
our Lord comes, no man knows. But I believe he's barely at
the door. And the Holy Spirit speaks very clearly, very plainly.
that in the latter times, today, that's today, some shall depart
from the faith. Some shall depart from the faith.
Christ said it would be many. He didn't just say some, he said
it would be many. Many will say unto me, many will
follow their pernicious way. Some shall depart from the faith
and they will give heed, it says, to seducing spirits. Now that's
creatures. Seducing spirits or preachers,
and these men, though they're very clearly corrupt and evil
and wicked and greedy men, yet people follow them left and right,
don't they? It's unbelievable. But he said
in another place, we'll see it later on, that they heap to themselves,
these teachers, having itching ears. And it says here, they
give heed to these seducing preachers and doctrines of devils, doctrines
of devils. Or they preach that which is
totally, completely contrary to the Word of God, even blasphemous
and sacrilegious. And you hear it going on today,
that what preaching, what they call preaching is absolutely
blasphemous. and sacrilegious sacrilegious. It's a mockery. It makes a mockery
of God. It's no wonder Christianity,
so to speak, is a laughingstock of our generation. Made a mockery. Scoffers and mockers are in our
day, aren't they? Where's the promises coming? All right, now he says, some
shall depart from the faith. What is this faith? What is this
departure from the faith? What is the faith? Well, we constantly
try to define or clearly preach what the faith is, because unless
a man believes this way, he doesn't have saving faith, justifying
faith. There's a verse of Scripture
in Hebrews, Hebrews 11, verse 6, that you need to memorize.
Hebrews 11, verse 6, says that he that cometh to God must believe
that he is. And that he's a reward of them
that diligently seek him. But the first part of that is,
he that cometh to God. And people the world over in
religion, that's what they're at least feigning to do. Come
to God. You know, we're going to worship
God, you know. If anybody's going to come to
God, you're going to come worship God. You're going to come before
the presence of this holy God. You're going to have to believe
he's God. And I don't believe, I don't
see how you can worship anybody but God as God. Do you? But he that cometh to
God must believe he is. He is what? He is God. That seems like the simplest
of statements, doesn't it? But our world is our general
fact. The fact that God is God. God is God in the truest sense
of the word. Creator. What does God mean? Creator. The essence of all life. The beginning of all life. The
Creator. Now you can just stop and think about that for a minute. I know orthodox religion, like
in fundamental religion, believes in creation as opposed to evolution. Or do they? Because if God is
Creator, what does that make us? creature. Now, since when did any creature
ever have any say or any sway or have any authority over its
creator? And then what he brought Jeremiah
to the conclusion of there, and it was chapter 18. Jeremiah's
second little trip, going down to the potter's house. I'm going
to teach you who God is. You see that lump of clay on
that wheel there? That's you. I mean a lifeless,
useless ball of dirt. Dust thou art, and to dust thou
shalt return, a lump of clay. See that? That's you. See that
potter there? He's going to do with it what
he wills, what he pleases. He's going to make it what he
wants to. That's God. That's me. Cannot I do with my
own what I will? Are not you as the clay in the
hands of the potter? The word creator clearly defines
God, doesn't it? Creator. But he that cometh to
God must believe that he is. And this is the departure. This
is the first place they depart in believing that God is absolute
as Creator. He is absolute, sovereign, holy,
ruler, controller, sustainer of all things. And they refuse
to believe and departed from the truth that everything that
rise or wriggles, as Barnard would say, Everything that writhes
or wriggles is in the hands of this sovereign God and under
his control. And the scripture says none can
stay his hand or say unto him, you've got no right to do that.
You can't stay your claim. And that he does as he pleases,
with whom he pleases, how he pleases, when he pleases, what
he pleases, where he pleases, when he pleases, as he pleases,
according to the good pleasure of his own pleasing and will. And that everything he does is
right, is just, it's true, it's eternal, it's immutable, it's
unchangeable. You can't stop it, you can't change it. It's
there forever. That he's absolutely independent
of and in need of no thing and no one at any time, in any shape,
form, or fashion, he's totally independent of his creatures.
And they are totally dependent upon him. That's God. That's God, very simply put.
But that is God, and this is the departure that man has made,
is departing from believing that God. You remember when Elijah
went up on that mountain and confronted those prophets of
Baal and all the people? What was his question to them?
A very simple question. It needs to be asked of our generation. How long are you going to halt
between two opinions? How long is this going to go on? Everybody's
claiming to believe in God. Everybody's got the name of God
on their lips and on their bumper stickers and on bathroom walls. And God, God, everybody's talking
about God, aren't they? And Jesus this and Jesus that.
And Elijah said, and we need another Elijah today. And we
have some. They're asking the same question. How long are you
going to halt between two opinions? And if God, then you better worship
him. But if he's not, and worship that bale, that idol you've made
up. And he proved later, didn't he,
that he was God? And the people, they saw, oh
good Lord, he's God, he's God, didn't they? But no, today there's
a total departure from that faith, believing that God is. Do we
take that for granted? We'd be right in the midst of
it, Terry, if it wasn't for the the revelation of God himself
to us. God didn't take us to the potter's
house one day. We'd be right smack dab in the
middle of religion today and thinking ourselves to be wise
when we're fools, thinking ourselves to be worshiping God when we're
worshiping an idol. Some of you were there, weren't
you? And this is the faith, the faith in an absolute, holy, sovereign
God that men and women have departed from, and now men and women believe
in a powerless, pathetic, lovesick, as Pharaoh would say, wheelchair
God. You know, quadriplegic, has no
hands but you're, no feet but you. A God which they can control.
Total departure from the faith. And here's another way that,
another part of the faith, of the faith that they have departed
from. Men have departed from believing
in a sovereign, vicarious, or that means substitutionary, effectual
person and work of Jesus Christ. Men have departed from believing
in the sovereign, vicarious, and effectual person and work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Scripture says, The
Scripture says he's both Lord of the dead and the living. Scripture
says he's Lord over heaven and earth. Scripture says that God
made him Lord. Well, how long are we going to
halt, are men going to halt between two opinions? Who makes who Lord?
Do we make him Lord, or did God already do it? How long are we
going to halt between two opinions? Scripture says God made this
same Jesus Lord. Scripture says he's head of his
church, no mere mortal man's head, Christ's head. Scripture
says he's the testator of the eternal covenant of grace, that
he came to do a job, he came to save a people, that's what
his name means, Jesus, Savior. That he did just that, he came
to save a people, he got the job done. And after having accomplished
his work, mission accomplished, the work finished, he went back
to glory, sat down on the throne where he's seated right now,
expectantly waiting on all things to be put under his feet and
all of his people to be brought to him in saving faith. But belief in such a one and
such a work as that is totally departed from him. The Jesus
being preached today and the so-called Gospels being preached
today is not even You don't even hear the same term. Do you? Men
have departed from that in favor of their own self-righteousness, their own man-centered gospel,
another Jesus who is impotent, powerless, and a pathetic failure. He tried the best he could do,
and now it's up to you. And you know, it takes subtle
forms. It's departure from the faith. It takes subtle forms. And I'm
not going to go into this thing of apostasy. We could very obviously
spend a great deal of time on talking about how people apostatize
or leave the gospel and fall out of love with the gospel and
the things that precipitate that. But I'm not going to. That's
not the context here. falling away from this faith
in favor of another. And some, and I've seen this
and I've heard this and it's going on today, that even some
we know and have had a great deal of confidence in, namely
preachers, depart from the preaching of an absolute dogmatic gospel,
the gospel of God's sovereign grace. I'm talking about doctrine. I'm talking about doctrine. I'll
say it without the least hesitancy. I'll say it unabashedly, dogmatically,
that unless you preach the gospel of God's sovereign grace, I'm
talking about Tula. For short Calvinism, you're not
preaching the gospel. If you believe anything else,
it's another gospel. I say that. I can say that. Along with such
great men as Knox and Calvin Bunyan and others. But I know
men who have departed from this in very subtle ways. Did you
read the article? Read it with me. Let's read it
together in case you didn't read it this morning. Spurgeon had
a very short statement here on the grand old doctrines of the
gospel. He said, Alas, the grand old doctrines of the gospel are
despoiled. That is, men have spoiled them.
Do you notice nowadays how all the great truths are being spirited
away or explained or preached away? And people—I hear it in
the preaching of some men that I used to have confidence in.
Men who use—they use the words, but they mock the ear because
they reject the sense. They hand us nuts, we crack them
and find that the worm of modern thought has eaten out the kernel.
And right here is the point. Doctrine of the Atonement. In
most cases, this is the chief object of the psalm. Compare
it now. It's always the case when a man
begins to hedge on the gospel, when a man begins to depart from
the clear preaching of the gospel of God's sovereign grace, effectual,
vicarious, successful, sovereign redemption in Christ, that it
always begins at the atonement. it always begins at the atonement.
And they begin to dabble intellectually with what it could mean who Christ
died for. And I've seen it, and I've heard
it, and I've witnessed it. And the only reason that men
could do such a thing is for the sake of winning a crowd.
Because they're not getting a big enough hearing, and they want
a pair of the edges, Take away the offense of the cross. You
see, the atonement is the offense of the cross. A distinctive or
discriminating grace, discriminating salvation, sovereign grace, that
he has mercy on whom he will and is gracious to whom he will
and sent Christ to die for whom he would, that is the offense
of the cross. Men don't like that. See, they
think that every man everywhere deserves a chance. Salvation is not by chance, is
it? Salvation is on purpose. It's on purpose. Always has been,
always will be. And the atonement, if you read
my article, the atonement began in the beginning with a definite,
distinctive, particular atonement for particular people. Even so,
it's the same with the redemption that's in Christ. Right? If you
don't have a particular atonement, you don't have an atonement.
I heard one preacher, and he made this statement, and I'll
go on. And this is so troubling, so it's caused many of us that
have heard this to weep. A man that began preaching the
gospel very clearly, very distinctly, the gospel that I preach, the
gospel that you know and believe. very dogmatically very clearly
began preaching the gospel. And he was a talented man a gifted
young man. And at one time he was the assistant
pastor of 13th Street Baptist Church. Very recently. Very recently
he made this statement to Brother Bill Clark. Brother Bill Clark
was that group that this man pastors has supported Brother
Bill over the years, and Brother Bill was visiting with him recently.
And the man, while riding down the street with him in the automobile,
turned to Brother Bill and said very plainly, he said, Brother
Bill, I want it to go on record that I no longer believe in particular
redemption. I think that makes you shudder
like it did me when I first heard it. and others. And others begin that way by,
like Spurgeon said, paring it off, dabbling with it. I wrote
a long letter to a man, a young man, a preacher who used to preach
the gospel. And in it I said to him, I said,
you know this intellectual dabbling or trying to philosophize or
theologize the gospel, various points and ramifications and
this and that and the other of the various points of the gospel.
Theological changes. You know, a man starts out this
way and he can grow, he changes his position. You can change your position,
Brother Hittman. I mean, you're either on the rock of Christ
or you're not, right? And I said to him in that letter,
I said, theological changes are nothing more than being blown
aside with every wind of That's all it is. But this happens. Many of the
sons depart from the faith. And as I've said, and I believe
it so, I believe the time is now that judgment has begun at
the house of God, even in the pulpit. And then look down at
our text again. It says, and they shall give
heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. What's the
doctrines of devils? Let's go back to the man, the
one that started it, the devil himself. Genesis chapter 3. Go back there with me. Genesis
chapter 3. To know what the doctrine of the devils is, you have to
go back to the devil who first gave it. The doctrine of the
devil. The first thing in this doctrine of the devil, the first
point is that devilish doctrine questions
the Word of God. That's the first thing. It puts
a big question mark on the Word of God. You see, all authority, all truth
is based upon the Word of God. Everything we believe, all truth,
all authority, everything we say, everything I want to come
out of my mouth, I want it to be based upon the Word of God.
I was talking to Brother Donnie on the phone. He said, you know,
I made a statement from the pulpit and a man called my hand on it
and he said, I've been studying it for hours on end now. Because
I don't want to say anything that's false. And if it's wrong,
he said, I'm going to get up and tell everybody I was wrong.
But I said, no, Donnie, you were right. And we looked at it together. But I don't want to say anything
that's not true of this word. Well, these false preachers are
doing exactly the opposite, John. They want to keep you away from
it under the pretense of preaching it to make a few veiled references to it and close
it and begin on their long tirade, you know, and you're impressed
with them. And you forgot all about the Word of God. Well,
the first thing they do is question the Word of God. But all of our
authority and all truth is based upon the Word of God. If you
question one part of this, if you question one part of it,
throw the whole thing away. Right? I mean, you question,
you refuse to believe any part of it, you throw it all away.
Throw it all away. Look at verse one of Genesis
three. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field. Which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman. Yea. Hath God said. Did God say you shall not eat
of every tree of the garden. What is your translation say
Eve. What is your Bible say. Does it say. He. Jacob have I loved and Esau have
I hated? Is that what it says? Well, mine says, love less. That's what mine says. Did God
say that? No way. God didn't say that,
did he? Hath God said? And you know, even the most conservative
denomination in religion today, that's Southern Baptist denomination,
even they're arguing today over the inerrancy of and inspiration
of God's holy word. They're split over it. There
was a time years ago, you know, some of the greatest church historian,
and he'll tell you that some of the greatest preachers ever
started out in the Southern Baptist. Some of the greatest ever. I
have a book of systematic theology. I'm sitting here wracking my
brain thinking of the man's name, but it's tremendous. What? Boyce. Yeah, J.P. Boyce, one of the
greatest. It's what we used as a textbook.
alongside with the Bible in the preacher school. He founded Southern
Baptist Seminary in Louisville, I believe it was. Well, they're
split over this thing, whether or not it's God's Word or not,
whether or not all of it's inspired and all of it's inerrant. In
other words, what they're asking is, did God write the Bible or
not? Now if God wrote part of it and
man wrote the other part, which part is which? Who knows? Throw
it away. Forget this. Did God say that? And they put
a question mark. Did God say that or was it the
bigoted and biased opinion of an old confirmed bachelor named
Paul who didn't like women? Did God say that in 1 Timothy
2 that we looked at recently? 1 Timothy 2? Or is that just a bigoted response
of a confirmed bachelor? Now, my wife doesn't like that
translation, so we believe, my wife wants to preach, so we believe
that Paul was just an old, confirmed, bigoted bachelor. That's not
inspired there. Well, Eve answered him and said,
well, yes, God said that, and you know, he began to put a little
doubt in her mind about the inerrancy and inspiration of God's Word.
A little doubt in her mind. Yes, God said, we may eat of
the freedom. And she added to it, didn't she? She began to
try to defend it. She said, well, you know what
it says in the Bible? God help those who help themselves. Now,
where did you say that? I'm getting ahead of myself. But the serpent said, and he
finally just flat out came out and denied it. Verse 4, the serpent
said, you're not going to die. Now, he may have said that. But
that's not what it means. Isn't that what's happening today?
Isn't that where it all starts? Huh? God said it, but he didn't
mean it that way. I know it says God is holy, but
he loves everybody without exception. I know it says man is dead, but
you've got to help God out, you know. I know it says man is wicked,
but God loves you and God needs you. I know it says Christ is
the only Savior, but you've got to accept Him. I know it says
Christ is the only mediator, but you better let me pray for
you anyway. I know it says He's Lord over you, Lord over you,
but you've got to kiss the foot of the Pope. Free will of man,
Satan got into that. You have your rights. Who does
God think He is? You have your rights. That's the doctrine of the devil.
That's where it began. That's where it had its beginning
and it continues this day. And we read it over there in
2 Corinthians 11, how Satan's ministers have transformed themselves
into ministers of righteousness, but to say exactly the same thing. All right, turn back to the text.
Look at verse 2. Oh boy. Doctrines of devils. And verse 2 says they speak lies
and hypocrisy. Out-and-out hypocrites and liars
on God. They can stand and they can do
it with absolutely a straight face, even tears in their eyes.
Jimmy Swack said, boy, he's good and he should have gone to Hollywood.
Stand in front of thousands and tell a bald-faced lie on God
Almighty and convince everybody. God told me this morning. Oh,
he did, didn't he? Calling on men and women to do
what they themselves do not. Hypocrites of the worst sort.
They're out. Well, you know what they are out doing. Hypocrites. But stand up in front of and
make the biggest show of religion. It says here that they have their
consciences seared with a hot iron. See that? A man that can
lie on God and rob from poor widows and steal their social
security checks, he doesn't have a conscience, does he? He doesn't have a conscience.
That man doesn't have a conscience. His conscience has been seared,
the lust of fame and fortune that runs hot through his veins,
and he doesn't give a thought about what it does to the people
that he preaches to. connives and schemes again, doesn't
give it no conscience. Now here are some of the specific
religious heresies and hypocrisies that go on today. Now he begins
to list them here in verse three. Look at it. Forbidding to marry.
Forbidding to marry. Now, you know what this is basically
speaking of, what denomination, call it that, what heresy or
sect Roman Catholicism forbids marriage or advocates celibacy
among its religious leaders. Yet, and you see it in the paper all
the time, the priests are either homosexual or they're fathering
scores of illegitimate children, right and left. You know, God
never forbade anybody from being married. Never. God's the one that instituted
it. He said, marriage is honorable
and all, and be it undefiled, didn't He? God never forbade
His priests from being married, nor made it a requirement of
service, not even in the Nazarites. You know, I hesitated when I
first wrote that down, believing it, and I thought, well, wait
a minute, I'd better look that up and make sure. And Samson was
a Nazarite. He was married. And you know,
I keep picking on this. Well, it needs to be brought
to the forefront, this Roman Catholicism. They use the Apostle
Peter as their, they say that he's their first pope, don't
they? That he was the first head of
the church. He was that rock upon which the
church, the Romish church was founded, and that he was basically
the first pope. No, no, he wouldn't qualify.
No, he couldn't. No, Peter couldn't. He wouldn't even apply. I mean,
he wouldn't even qualify. Moses? Who's this one? This is Moses. He'd make a good
pope. No, he's married. And married
to an Ethiopian woman. Well, my, my. And here's another
thing. They command to abstain from
meats. Look at it. Verse 3. Command
to abstain from meats. Well, let's pick on Peter again.
Turn over to Acts, Chapter 10. Acts, Chapter 10. You know, Peter
was caught up in this error, too, at first. Acts, Chapter
10. We'll use Peter as an example,
since he's the rock, they say. Acts chapter ten, let's read
it here, beginning with verse nine. Acts ten, verse nine, Now
on the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew nigh unto
the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray about the sixth
hour, and he became very hungry, and he would have eaten. But
while they made ready the food, that is, fix and supper, he fell
into a trance, or a dream, and saw heaven open in a certain
vessel. like a sheep descending unto
him, as it had been a great sheep, knit at four corners, let down
to the earth, wherein were all manner of four-footed beasts
of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, fowls of the air. And
there came a voice to him, saying, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord,
for I have never eaten anything this common or unclean. And the
voice," this was God, Speaking unto him again the second time,
What God hath cleansed that call not thou common? And he said
it happened three times in case Peter thought he was dreaming. Three times. Now Peter, along
with other Jews, held that they were forbidden to eat certain
meats, such as pork. But God said, Peter, Peter, Get up, kill a pig, and
have a ham sandwich right now. Peter, go have a barbecue and
invite your friends, your Jewish friends. Oh, Lord, I can't do
that. You know, porks never touch my
lips. Like some say today, porks never
touch my lips. Besides, Lord, it's Friday. What
if he'd have said that? He could have. It's Friday. Where'd that come from? Somebody
tell me where that came from? Friday. You have to eat fish
on Friday, you see. Well, look back at the text again.
Chapter four, verse three. Look at it. Well, in this latter
day, this false gospel and so forth will preach that you have
to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with
thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. Didn't Paul
say that whatever is set before you, eat it, ask no questions
for conscience sake? Eat it. Eat it with thanksgiving.
It's all going to go out in the draft anyway. Even Christ himself
said, he turned on those bunch of Jews and he said, you listen
to me. I've got something to tell you. There's nothing going
into this mouth that can defile a man. because it goes out in the ground,
passes through. But it's what starts on the inside
and comes out of the mouth that defiles the man. I said, you
go and learn what that means. God won't have your sacrifices,
your two-bit abstinence, your will worship. God will have mercy. God will be worshiped in spirit
and in truth. Now, he says, don't you call anything common that
God has cleansed, God has blessed. Verse 4, every creature of God
is good. Nothing to be refused. If it be received with thanksgiving,
he is sanctified by the word of God in prayer. There's nothing,
Paul said, unclean of itself, Romans 14, 14. He said, I'm persuaded
by the Lord Jesus Christ, there's nothing unclean of itself, nothing. And I've made this statement
before, and I hope I've never been misconstrued, but you take
a bottle of whiskey. Back in the days of the Civil
War, when a man was laying on a table, and he was about to
have his leg cut off with an old rusty saw, but he was mighty
thankful for Jack Daniels, or whatever it was, old granddad,
or whatever it was back then. They couldn't put him under a
local anesthesia, because that was it. That was it. You know
all that's rubbish, don't you? And no sin in a bottle or a box.
I wish that's all sin was. I could do away with it. I could
be done with sin, couldn't you? All you have to do is abstain.
Touch not, taste not, handle not, holy. That's not it. That's not it. Kingdom of heaven
is not in meat and drink, Christ said, but in righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And God is a spirit, and they
that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. All
right, look at verse six, and he says, if you put the brethren,
he's talking to a young man like me, talking to a young Timothy,
a young preacher, he said, if you put the brethren in remembrance
of these things, now y'all know all these things already, and
I've said them, and other preachers have said them, but I'm going
to keep reminding you, lest this, you be subtly drawn away by,
or seduced by preachers here and there, or sects of people,
sects of people. that live admirable lives, you
know, that people think so highly of. Self-righteousness is very
subtle. And he says, if you keep reminding
the people of these things, you'll be a faithful minister unto the
people. Keep reminding them. Keep them
in remembrance of these things. Thou shalt be a good minister
of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of
good doctrine. good doctrine, give them good
doctrine. Don't dare fail to give them
good doctrine, whereunto you have attained, or what you've
learned, what you've heard. Verse seven, no, but refuse profane
and old wives' fables. Refuse profane, or that is, godless,
man-centered, old, superstitious wives' fables. And everybody
in here could give me one, but you heard particularly you old
folks like Henry, Charles, give us some real old fables that
you've heard down through the years, you know, that people
say, well, that's the gospel truth. You know what the Bible
says. You know what the Bible says, don't you? God helps those
that help themselves. No, no, no, it doesn't say that
in the Bible anywhere. Show me. Scripture, please. Well, you know what the Bible
says, and I quoted it this morning, cleanliness is next to godliness.
No, no, it doesn't say that anywhere in the Bible. Nowhere in the
Bible does it say that. Well, you know what the Bible says,
you must accept him as your Lord and Savior. No, no, no, it does
not say that in the Bible anywhere. It doesn't say that. Well, you
know what the Bible says, you can't do that. No, where does
it say that? Show me. Show me where it says
that. old wives. That's where it started. You know, your grandmother, she
misquoted, she perverted the Bible so bad, you know, misquoted
it. And, and she made it say what
she wanted to say. And she taught her son and his
sons about her son. And then finally, it's held down
through the generations of Bible. Right? Nobody bothers to look
it up. Paul says you refuse to believe these things, you get
your Bible and search them. Search it to see if these things
are so. Refuse them. And rather, exercise ourselves
unto godliness, he said. Refuse profane and old wise fables
and exercise ourselves unto godliness. Unto godliness. That is, Christ-like.
If you follow Christ, whatever he said, whatever he was, the
faith of Christ, looking to, believing in, following after
the Lord Jesus Christ, following Him, believing in Him, trusting
Him. And like John Calvin, I love this statement, I've made it
ten times, that whatever makes for right living is found in
the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did he say about
it? What can I do? What can I not
do? Well, what did Christ say about
it? He dealt with it, didn't He? He dealt with it, at least
the principles there and everything he said. And that's what we're
to follow. What is the faith? Well, what
did Christ say about it? What does he say about Christ?
And that's godliness. What am I to do? How am I to
be? How am I to speak? How am I to walk? How am I to
talk? How am I to be? Where am I to go? What am I not
to do? Where am I not to go? Where did Christ go? What did
he do? What did he not do? Isn't that a good rule? Sure
it is. That's godliness. That's Christ-likeness.
Exercise I feel walking is good exercise. I say, well, I'll tell
you, you walk with him. That's the best exercise you
can have. That's the exercise of faith. You just walk like
those people in Holy War when Emmanuel came into town, you
know, they got into his footsteps. They admired his walk so much
they wanted to walk just like him. Step where he stepped. That's good exercise. You walk
with him. Walk with Christ. Verse eighty says, but bodily
exercise profiteth little, that is, religious outward ceremonies,
abstinence, will-worship, and all that, you know, all this
religious jargon and beliefs and all that. It profits very
little, very little. It profits very little and only
temporarily. But godliness, Christlikeness, is profitable unto all things.
Faith in Christ, emulation of Christ, is profitable in all
things. It has this promise. The life that now is, this promise
of Christ said, I give unto them life, life more abundant. That is life here. Walking with
Christ, emulating Christ now, you'll have abundant life. Good
life. Persecution, but life. You'll really enjoy this life
more. walking with him, having that
promise of life that now is, and it'd be good for you now,
and having promise of that life which is to come, eternal life,
eternal life. Now, he said, now, and this is
one of those faithful sayings, verse 9, one of those three or
four faithful sayings in the Scripture, and this is one of
them. He said, now, this is a faithful saying, and it's worthy of all
acceptation. It's faithful. everything he
said, Paul said, and he says, true. And you refuse these old
profane wives' fables and all this that's going on today, and
don't be seduced by spirits and so forth, and take heed to their
doctrines of devils and all of their will worship and abstinences
and all that. He said, I fear. He said, I fear
for you. I'm jealous over you with a godly
jealousy. I fear for you that as Satan beguiled Eve through
subtlety, so should your minds and your hearts be beguiled or
tricked. And you should fall away from
the simplicity that's just following Christ. What'd He say? What'd
Christ say? Who is Christ? What'd He do?
Jesus Christ is all the religion we need. Right? He's all we need to look like
Him. walk like him, talk like him, do like him. But more than
that, that's not salvation. That's the result of it. We just
need to trust Him. Just trust Him. All right, stand
with me and I'll dismiss this in prayer. Our Lord, we thank You for opening
our eyes to the truth and not leaving us to our own understanding,
which is no understanding. We thank you for not leaving
us to the wolves, us weak sheep, leaving us to the wolves of this
world, and Satan, who is the wolf clothing and sheep's clothing,
and all of his ministers. Lord, we thank you for not leaving
us to them, leaving us as easy prey. We would be. We're not
any smarter than anybody else out there in the world. We follow
after these charlatans. And Lord, we thank you for revealing
the gospel to us, and we ask that you would ever make it clearer
to us. Keep us, keep us believing, trusting, looking to Christ and
Him alone. It's in His name we pray, and I ask this thing. Amen.