good deeds and serving orphans
and widows, but religious in the sense that many think that
what they do in life can find merit and favor with God. Many
in our culture today who even claim the idea of God's grace
being the only effectual reality of salvation, God's merciful
love and His work, many of them still struggle with the idea
that it is all of grace and that there's not something that the
creature must encroach upon God's righteousness and to obtain something
from him. Beloved, it is all just by the
mercies of God and his power that we sit here today with understanding
of this. For it is just as easy for God
to have let us fall by the way of culture. and by the way of
tradition, and by the way of history, that when we see large
movements of what some would call gospel-powered movements,
oftentimes, beloved, it's not gospel, it's garbage. Usually
by the time the population is on board with a particular Christian
thought, it's already tainted. It's already changed. It's out
of sorts of orthodoxy. And that's what's happening in
Ephesus. That's what's happening. Being Christian is something
that's either really traumatic, horrifying, hostile, or it's
something that's very hip and happening and encouraging. Imagine
the days of the apostles. We think there's hustle and bustle
today in the context of Christendom. Beloved, there'll never be the
hustle and bustle of the day of the first apostles and the last
apostles. See, we often try to recreate
that experience, but we're supposed to look upon that experience
through the history of the Bible. And then from that experience
and from that, those essays and from those letters and from that
history, we are to peer into the face of God himself, to see
him, to know his truth, that God is truth. He's not the God
that tells truth. He is truth. He tells of himself. Christ is the truth. Even when
we learn from Paul and from John and from James, we are learning
from God. And no man living today, nor
shall ever live, can ever hold that authority. Because the apostles
alone were sent by Christ and they wrote and that is the end
of it. So now the authority of Christ
Himself rests in the pages and the pen of the apostles and the
elders of God's people, the overseer servants of God's congregations. are the ones who then yield the
responsibility and the authority to continue to oversee the adherence
to the commands of Christ for His people. To oversee the work
of evangelism through the people of Christ. And beloved, I could
sit here today and talk about just the very fact of how we've
set this room up not being biblical. But what a waste of time. What we are and whose we are
must be biblical. What we do as we grow and understand
more of what God has called us to will become more biblical. And when we see things that are
just silly, we'll lay them aside. We'll put away childish things
and we'll move on to that which is enriching and edifying and
glorifying. so that we might be more at peace
in our heart and among each other. Paul says to young Timothy here,
let's look at verses three through six again. First Timothy, let's just read
through the first seven verses again. Paul, an apostle of Christ
Jesus, by the command of God, our Savior, and of Christ Jesus,
our hope, to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy,
and peace from God the Father and from Christ Jesus, our Lord. Young brother Timothy, as I urged
you, when I was going to Macedonia, remain in Ephesus so that you
may command certain persons not to teach anything different in
their teaching, nor to devote themselves to nonsense, history,
tradition, mysteries, mysticism, and everything else. genealogies,
law writing, arguments, divisions, and other such foolishness which
promote speculation. What is a speculation? I think
this is the way it goes. I'm not quite sure. It's an assumption. It's a not certainty. Those promote
speculations rather than promoting the stewardship from God that
is by faith. The aim of our command is love
that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere
faith. Certain persons shall be unnamed
by swerving from these three things have wandered away into
worthless, empty dialogue. They really want to be teachers
of truth. They want to be teachers of the law of God and His grace. and his work without understanding
either what they are saying or the things about which they are
confidently asserting true. All right, now I put my little
translated emphasis on these things and I put my commentary
in there as well so that I didn't have to go back and preach the
last two weeks so we could just be caught up. That's where we
are. I've had someone this week message
me and say, It seems like your preaching in Timothy is a little
hard. It seems to come from a negative standing. Of course it does. Of course it does. Other than
Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, what occasion was there that
wasn't in the middle of all kinds of garbage? So if the preaching
of a letter doesn't carry the same timbre, the same essence
of its intention, then it's false teaching. I want to say that
again. If an elder teaches Paul's writing
to Timothy, or to Galatia, or to Rome, or to Colossae, and
it does not carry with it the same purpose, and tone, and sound
in which it was written, then it's false teaching. That's what
twisting of scripture does. It takes a sentence or six out
of an entire letter and it boils it out into philosophical ideologies
and expresses it in a way that sounds biblical because, of course,
the text came from Bible. That doesn't make something biblical
just because we use a Bible text. And then everything starts to
unwind. How do we know something is unbiblical?
Because it unwinds the fabric of the unity of the gospel of
grace. in practice or thought, in idea. Now, well, that's what
truth does, it divides. Now, you're the divider when
we insist on expressing things that we think about outside the
context of God's strict commands. I want to say that, and I'm talking
to us, Grace Truth Church, because we are troubled in our society
just like Timothy was troubled in his society. See, this letter
is written to give peace to Timothy so that the task he has been
commanded to do by Christ, by his apostle, thus by Christ,
is one of peace and one of patience and one of great encouragement.
and one that will establish the promises of God for God's people
without anything that Timothy has to offer. Timothy had no
skill whatsoever in debate or theological discussion or the
ability to lead or manage conflict. He had everything he needed.
And we see that over in these letters, right? For all Scripture
is breathed out by God and is profitable and useful for teaching,
for the instruction of righteousness, for rebuke, for correction, for
maintaining unity. So that the man of God, the elder
of God, the overseer of God will be and is successful in everything
he touches and says. Now wouldn't you like that to
be your reality? that everything you do is successful. As a pastor, Jesse and I were
talking about this week, sometimes I feel like I just, I've never
done anything right. And if you don't believe, if
I don't believe myself, I can just ask some people. They'll
tell you what you're not doing right. But the cool thing is,
and I say cool because that's the generation I come from, the
cool thing is, is that God's word alone prescribes that which
I should be doing, and when I follow it, despite what the culture
thinks, I'm successful. I'm not successful because your
joy is full. I'm not successful because your
doctrine is pure. I'm not successful because everybody's
getting along. I'm not successful because everybody
has everything they need. I'm successful when I proclaim
God's word according to its commands. And that when I, along with the
other elder brothers of this church, hold all of us accountable
to do, listen, to do what is told to us to do in the Bible. That's what it means to be the
church of Christ. We follow the commands of the Bible. Now I can hear the legalism claims
running over the interwebs already. Turn the channel. There's thousands
of options for heresy. Just go find the one you like.
I don't care. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. You know, like the peanut guy.
Remember I said last week? If you don't like what I'm saying,
eat someplace else. I'm going to stick to the word
of God as it's written, not as it's traditionally understood.
And beloved, that means that I have had to eat crow a million
times over. That means I have had to change
my understanding of things and my ideas about things, and not
only doctrine and how it needs to be understood and taught,
but also in practice, how it should be applied and commanded
to God's people. And there's some things that never change.
The temperament, not the temper, but the temperament that I must
have as an elder must not be one of burden, because I have
the ability in my flesh and the prowess, if you will, in my stature
along with my ability to be an orator in the context of persuasion
to manage you exactly how I want you to be. What does that mean? I can make you feel what I want
you to feel because I'm bold in my ability to communicate
and I can stomp my feet and slam my hand. I mean, that just seems
like power, doesn't it? Isn't that what it does? That's
what it does. That's not God. That's stupid. You see? That's not what Paul
wrote to Timothy, told Timothy to do. No one in the flesh but
Jesus himself, the Christ, has the authority or the responsibility
to turn tables over in God's house. Any man but Jesus who
desires to turn over tables is a wicked sinner in that desire. Any man who desires to uproot
someone's reputation is the devil himself whispering in the ears
of others. Any man who refuses the peaceable
solitude of God's tender shepherding through the word is an abomination
to the nose of God Almighty. See, even saying that that way,
whoa, wow, I mean, you know what? I can't manipulate you like that.
You don't take my word for it just because it's bold. Take God at his word. Mercy,
mercy, mercy. A friend of mine's daughter,
a friend of Robin and I, and she was a friend too, but years
and years ago when Katie was an infant, became pregnant. Just out of
the blue, you know. And that young girl was brought
before the church to get ahead of the garbage, of the wicked
souls of so-called Christians who would love to tear her apart.
What creature tears things apart? A wolf. And that's what Paul's
writing about now, as an illustration here. And this young girl stood
before a church, and her father on her behalf,
told her sin, and then the church embraced her and loved her and
held her. And it was told that if anyone
had a problem with reconciliation, the door swung the other direction.
You see, it's mercy. Mercy. Oh, Lord, why do we have
to have, historically, in higher criticism, the Yohanan Kama?
Why do we have to have that problem there with John 7 and 8 where
it's not necessarily apostolic? But it did happen. Jesus did
say, if you're innocent of all sin, throw the rock. Do you know
we're not to call another man out in his sin if we have any
sin in our lives? We're not to meddle in the lives
of other people when they're sinning unless they come to us
and confess that sin that we might have an opportunity to
restore them to joy and to peace and to mercy. What is the answer
for sin? The mercy of God. The love of
God is the answer for our sin, the answer for our heresy, the
answer for our problems, the answer for our lack of joy. The
love of God and His mercy toward us, His people. is the only answer
at all ever. But beloved, the wolves and the
snakes and the God bless America brothers have disturbed that
by not listening to the scripture. Lord have mercy on me. How many
times this week I have not listened to the scripture? And some of
you are thinking, he's talking about me, I'm talking about me.
I'm not pointing my preacher, I'm talking about me. Patience. Be an example of patience and
long-suffering. This is the nature of God Almighty. This is the exposure of His self-revelation
through His Son, Jesus Christ. And yeah, we can argue, it's
for His self-love and self-glory. Okay, then an entire millennia
or two millennia of writing and instruction on how we are to
live in the like manner, though We don't think that's necessary. I want you to teach these people
not to teach different doctrine, Paul says. And that the aim,
verse 5 is where I'm going to be today, the aim of our charge
is love that proceeds from a pure heart, that comes
from a good conscience, that is birthed through a sincere
faith. This is practical theology, beloved. This is practical theology. This
is understanding God in application. That's what this letter was written
for. It's not a theological treatise, though it contains it. It was
written because Timothy stressed out, and about to be more stressed
out. He was about to have to deal
with all this stuff. He was about to, and I think,
and I don't know, but I imagine that maybe throughout all this
stuff that here is Timothy, and he's thinking, okay, I got some
missionary things I need to do in other places, and when Paul
was going to Macedonia, he and Paul were talking, and Timothy's
like, you know what, I think I'm gonna come with you. And Paul said, no, you're gonna
go back to Ephesus. Because your job's not done there. There needs
to be more elders there before you tear out. And there's some
things that you need to charge people with and to charge them
with love. And that's what he's saying there.
He's saying, charge them not to think this way and to teach
this way, but charge them to love one another. Now see, and
I played around the idea of charge the last week, but the word literally
means command them with authority. Demand of them to stop thinking
and teaching differently and demand of them that they love
one another. Because if they stop this nonsense, that is love.
All right, now there's the whole sermon. That's the whole argument
that Paul has made for Timothy here is the whole instruction.
Beloved, why are we so scared of the gospel? As a culture, why are we so scared
of the gospel? Why are we scared of God's patience? Why are we
scared of God's love? Why are we scared of God's grace?
Yet we hold it as the effectual means of our salvation. But yet
we don't think that it's effectual for our marriages, and effectual
for our relationships, and effectual for our conflicts, and effectual
for false teaching. If God is sovereign and He is
loved, then all the things that He does for His people brings
together for good. I told a sister this week in
the church, I said, you know, it'd be great if God would just give us a pamphlet
in the mail, a little four-page, you know, tri-fold, or quadfold,
and it says, my ultimate plan in these circumstances. And he
lays it out in picture form, little subcaptions and stuff.
Pretty simple for a guy like me. I love charts and pictures. This is how I'm gonna work this
horror and this damage and this destruction for your joy and
my glory. And here, don't worry about it,
and it's all gonna flow down to this amazing little star of
glory at the end of the back page. But he doesn't do that, does
he? No, he does even better. He authoritatively puts his foot
down and says, I am God and there is no other. And all that I've
ordained shall come to pass and no one can stop me. And everything
I've ordained is for your good. Trust me in that. If I can create
the world and separate light from darkness, I can separate
light in the life of men from the darkness. And I can bring
you to myself and I promise you I will be just and righteous
in doing so. And I will show you the way. of my promise. Stand there. Be still and know
that I am God." So he has written us a pamphlet, 66 of them. But I want the easy, I want the
cheat sheet. James, you broke your foot because
I'm going to do this in your life. Now, it doesn't work like
that. James, you've been sick eight months out of the last
12 I've been sick. This is the first week since
March that I have not had pain. The first week that I have been
able to just freely go about town without worry of how close
I was to my house. For those of you who don't know
what diverticulitis is, and then a gastro infection. It's the
first week, and it may be the last one. You see what I mean? You don't know. But I'll tell
you this, whether we are ill or whether we are well, God's
promises stand. Whether we have a job or we don't
have a job, whether our relationship is sound or our relationships
are in a mess, God is sovereign and His promises stand. His word
here, teaching the elders of the Church of Ephesus, because
He taught Timothy to teach other elders, and now as an elder,
I have to read this, and this is where I get my instruction.
And this is where you get to read and know that what I'm doing
is actually here. And then also, I get to teach
you what the scripture teaches about what elders should be doing
so that you may know the difference between the role of the elder and the
role of the sheep. And I always find it strange,
you know, I'm a bride, but I'm a husband. I'm a sheep, but I'm
a shepherd. I'm the body, but I'm a head.
You see, the word husband means head, andros. That's what it
means. It's just a strange dichotomy.
And it goes back to the picture of the Old Testament where all
these shadows just pointed to the truth. So all our relationships,
everything that we do in the context of Christian living as
the church, no matter what conflict comes our way, we've been given
the peaceable, simple instructions, the commands of what love demands. And love demands certain actions.
Do you know that it is a sin to ostracize somebody out of
your life that has not been formally and publicly removed from the
body of Christ through church discipline. People who leave our congregation
are in sin, no matter their calls. And when you get upset with your
neighbor, and you go, I'm not speaking to them, I'm not coming
back to church because of that person, blah, blah, blah, that's sinful. until oversight according
to the commands of Christ has been given to the assembly about
these matters clearly shown in the Bible. We don't have to talk
about it and philosophize about it and have meetings about it.
The Bible tells us clearly how to handle it. We handle it and
we're patient in it. But when we ostracize other people, we
are calling ourselves God. Because we are saying, I am righteous
enough to say who is reprobate. Now if that isn't demonic speak,
I don't know what is. So I want you to see the charge
here is to command love. Verse 5. The reason that heresies
exist, beloved, is because love does not. You understand that? The reason
that heresies happen and divisions happen and false teachers happen
is because the people who aren't willing to lay down their ideas
are not loving anybody but themselves and their ideas. But they say,
oh, I'm loving the Lord. No, you're not. You are not loving
the Lord if you are not sacrificially loving your neighbor. Because
your soul of feels that you have for some divine entity that you've
created in your own mind. Because the true Bible, the true
God of the Scripture expresses Himself in His law, in His word, in His promises, in His work
of redemption. God is grace. He doesn't have
it. He is it. God is love. He doesn't have
love. He's not got a bag of love and a bag of hate. He is love. He is righteousness. See, we've
made Christianity a mainline cult by ignoring the teaching
of Scripture, by thinking that we're in love with the Lord when
we're hateful, hating, and doing things that aren't our responsibility.
false teaching and divided opinions, difference of thoughts, strong
desire for one's own way. That's what heresy means. A strong
opinion, a difference of thought, a divided opinion, wanting one's
own way. That's a heresy. One's own thinking
about something. That's what heresy means. Don't
go to Webster. Use the context. Use the context of scripture.
So teaching is both what is truth concerning information about
what is truth, and it's also the application of what is truth.
So God is truth. Thus, revelation is God himself
in word and in deed, who God is and what he's done. This is
revelation. And God is truth, evidenced by
His love. The revelation of God is evidenced
by His love. Thus, love is our response. Now,
we've gone through 1 John. We've gone through the Gospel
of John. We've gone through Ephesians. We know this stuff. This is review,
beloved. This is Gospel preaching. This
is Christ-centered truth. And love is a command, a strict
command. Love. These things I tell you
to command not to be taught or thought. And how do we command? We teach. Brother, don't say
these things. Brother, don't do these things.
Brother, the Bible says no. The Bible says yes. And I'm going to say to you that
those who hear the voice of their shepherd, no. That what I'm saying
is true. And every cult in the world has
that same claim. The difference maker is. Let's
tear out first Timothy and hold it and don't use anything else,
can we prove what I just said? Absolutely. Don't take my word
for it. Look at the context, let the
spirit of God teach you. Love is a command, a strict command.
What's the command here? Don't teach these things. Don't
think these things. Don't talk about these things.
Don't interact with these things. Hold fast. And this command,
this charge is a strong and authoritative teaching that is held by Timothy. And who is Timothy? He's an overseer
of the church. So here Paul is telling the elders
of the church that they have the responsibility to command
the church in the context of what is good and bad according
to Paul's writing, according to the prophets, according to
the whole of scripture. Now see, some people have heard
me say that through the years. Oh, see there, look at there, you're
lording over people. No, lording over people is extra biblical.
Lording over people is not patient. Lording over people is when the
pastors begin to make it difficult for folks because they're not
doing what is required fast enough. That's lording over people. Or they're asking to do what's
not required. And it all boils down to stewardship.
See verse four? All these divisions, all this
unlovingness, all this stuff that's rooted in a lack of love,
it promotes speculations rather than promoting the stewardship
from God that is by faith. What is this stewardship? The
elders of the church have the authority to tell the church
how it ought to fix, do, and live. according to the apostles
teaching. And anyone who doesn't obey that
is to be ostracized. Not just from this building,
but from our lives. You understand that? If you're
my fishing buddy, and we hang out every day of the week, and
you reject the authority of Christ, and you have been expelled from
my spiritual life, then the only time that we're going to get
together is when you want to repent and be restored to Christ
and His people, you see. And the aim of that is love.
Why? Because we're stewards. Stewardship,
the stewardship of God, given by God, which is of faith, the
stewardship from God. God has given the word to this
church. God has given the elders to his church. God has given
the deacons. And we're going to start talking
about deacons in the next few months. We've got to have some
deacons. To his church, God has given
Christ to his church. And God has given his church
to Christ. We are not our own. We've been bought with a price.
So everything that God has given us, we are stewards of. We don't
get to determine how we manage those things, for God has already
sent us the 66 pamphlets, or more particularly, the New Testament
letters, on how we are to steward what God has given us. We are
not our own. This is not our church. This
is Christ's body. One small part of it. And the
only way that God is glorified in Christ's body when we assemble
is that the truth is understood and taught and held to, and that
when divisions of any kind are encroached, that we approach
them according to the gospel, according to the prescription
of the New Testament, not according to tradition and human philosophy. Stewardship is administration
or oversight of what is not ours. We are not our own. Part of our
vision as a church and part of our prayer from the very beginning,
almost, you know, we're in our 11th year, is that we would see a gospel
influence amongst God's people, amongst the sheep of Christ and
the communities around us, not just this congregation. Why?
Because that's myopic. Yes, I would love to be to the
place where we could see a lot of people, a lot more people,
but beloved, we can't hardly take care of one another. And
the world's answer is administrating things not according to Scripture.
So if we're going to administrate the body of Christ according
to scripture, we have to institute that which God has promised.
We have to train more elders and we have to train deacons
to serve and do the work of the ministry and to take care of
the needs of the church because each one of us could probably
have one other family that we can be close with all the time.
And then we could probably have another family that we might
could pay attention to, but when we start getting into three,
especially some of our families, some of our families are churches
in and of themselves, I mean, when we start branching out,
we are watering our ministry down terribly, so we have to
be intentional about that. Part of our vision is also to
plant churches and to be partnering in gospel ministry with other
churches in the area that hold to the truth, that believe the
truth, as fits the occasion. And we
should not forget that the elders are sent to the communities of
faith. the communities of saints, not just a particular congregation.
Though those particular congregations all must have elders, those elders
must also work together amongst other congregations. Beloved,
this has always been part of what we wanted to see. And the
last two years have been very difficult, not only for our own
spiritual family, but for many. Believe it or not, there are
small pockets of sovereign grace believers around the communities.
who have no shepherds, and have no pastors, and have no one to
help steward their lives. We need to continue to pray for
sound gatherings that have no spiritual stewards. And we need
to remember and be very mindful of God's purposes for the church,
so that we might work together, not just for our own benefit,
but for the benefit of others and other people who we have
yet to even meet in the faith, some who have yet to have been
called to faith. One thing that Paul will tell
Timothy, as we'll see in the months to come, is he says, do
the work of an evangelist. Do the work of an evangelist.
So together, we are stewards of one another, we are stewards
of the gospel, we are stewards of the word of God, and we are
stewards in our commitment to serve one another, and when we
do that, we are actually serving the Lord. So the aim of all this
interaction, all that being said, the aim of all of this, in the
commands, in the charge, is love. The charge is, love, don't do
this. Because when you do this, you're
not loving. You see that? If we don't see that, I can't go
forward. You might say, well, I don't
really agree with that. That's what Paul's saying. I mean, we might
not agree with it, but we can't deny that's what he's saying.
The reason that we're charging them to stop doing this is love,
because we want them to love one another. If I slap you all
when you come in the door, let me show you some tough love.
I mean, you know, all you snoozing out there, that's what's going
on. That's not love. If you tell me you're hungry
and what does Jesus say? And they give you a rock, snake. What is that? Sarcasm. That's
not love. Meme culture is not love. It's
mockery. The aim of all this interaction,
this command is love. No other motive and all other
motives are not of God. All other motives are not of
God, period. The replacement of other teachings is to love
one another in submission to the truth. I know what happens
is sometimes we see the false teacher and they very well could
be a wolf intentionally coming in to start their own church. That happens. We'll see that,
right? And I think maybe the two that
Paul names out of the hundreds or dozens or so that are involved,
of course, but the ones that are involved, those, some, Paul
doesn't want to bring reproach upon them because he knows that
God will restore them to the truth. And then to not take that
testimony of restoration as a loving and awesome celebration of rejoicing,
but to then take it a step further. But now that we've cleared that
up, we've got to deal with who you were yesterday. That's demonic. Faith is not knowing what we
weren't. in any particular historical
position or theological position because, beloved, the Galatians
were lining up for circumcision because they feared judgment. And Paul was very passionately
opposed to not calling them brethren. And the reason that we've come
to that place in our world, in our culture, is because educate
it. And that's a bad way to say it.
People who are ignorant of the Word of God in the context of
a proper ecclesiology, in other words, who the church is and
how we ought to operate, have decided to take upon themselves
the role of God Himself to make judgment against the hearts of
men based on what their assumptions are, based on inferences that
they have concluded through a lot of pretexts outside the context
of Scripture. And it is not love. and the yeah buts will resound. I think yeah buts are the take
a number for church discipline, you know? So love then, to love
one another is the replacement of these other teachings, of
these other ideologies, and it puts down all offenses and removes
all barriers to unity. Love is brought about by what? There are some things here. Sincere
faith. Knowing what God has revealed in His Word and resting in what
God has taught us through His Scripture. This includes all
that God says about Himself as a triune being and that all that
God charges or commands for His people to do in the New Testament. Faith rests and desires to seek
out God's Word in life as truth. Knowing facts as true is not
faith. And resting in truth without
its application of love is heresy. Love, not learning, is the motif
here. Paul charges love, not learning. He said, you need to learn Christ,
who displays His glory and His love for His people, and live
accordingly, and you'll learn together by learning the love
of Christ and living it out, according to the Scripture. See,
I'm not talking about extra-biblical and superfluous things. I'm talking
about what is revealed to us in the Bible. God charges love
over learning, because without the first, there is no genuine
act. There's no genuine life of faith, the book of James.
Faith without works is no faith at all. It's dead. It's worthless.
It's a dead corpse sitting at the table. It's hiring the janitor,
putting a mop in his hand, and he's decaying. He's going to
become part of the mess on the floor rather than cleaning it
up. So the command is to love. How? We go back to the other
way now, by adhering to the truth. Because the antithesis of don't
teach error is to believe in the truth, right? believe in
the truth. So when we are insistent upon
a particular doctrinal position, we better make sure that it is,
in a paramount way, that it is a clear and simply contextual
expression that must be taught to the church. That's why I speak
very little about a lot of my philosophical theology. Because
I've got some ideas. Some of you have told me some
of your ideas. If I got up here and told everybody, the World
Wide Web would Put an H on your head. Heretic. And by doing so,
hate you. And thus, disobey Christ himself.
Well, they're not real Christians. Jesus commands us to love our
enemies, too. And if we really loved the gospel, we'd be more
concerned about preaching the truth, that God, through the
hearing of the truth, would convert His sheep to the truth, than
we would be fighting over what's not true. It's just a little
bit of first grade logic. So we adhere to the truth and
we put away the error. We bear witness of Christ in
truth and in deed. The first being necessary for
love to be true. Then all preaching and all teaching
flows from love. For it is the central message
that we know of God and His Word. It is the very essence of Him
who gives life. Christ laid down His life. Therefore,
God is love. Therefore, He first loved us.
Therefore, love is the fulfillment of righteousness. Therefore,
love is the glory of the good report of God. And I mean, I
could give you, there's probably eight scripture references that
I just alluded to there. 1 Corinthians 13 showing us very
clearly. We went through that in John's
Gospel. I mean, in 1 John. Remember,
we went there. Love is patient and kind and does not insist
upon its own way. It does not keep a record of
wrongs. Beloved, if God has wiped away
the record of sin in the blood of Jesus Christ, the death of
Christ, when somebody talks about the blood, it means somebody's
died. They didn't prick his finger, they killed him. Then who are
we to hold a record of wrongs? Record of falsehoods. Paul wants
the church to be at love with one another. And most importantly,
he wants these heretics to be at love with Christ. And to be
in unity with the body. But two of them refuse it. So
church discipline expels them. Then they're named. Once it's
all said and done. And why does he name them? He
tells us, and we'll get into this, that God may what? Restore them. What does that
restoration look like? They come back and say, you're
right, I'm sorry. I love you and I believe the
truth and I won't teach this stuff anymore. We take their
word for it. Because unless we're God, we
don't know the hearts of men. sincere faith, love, a pure heart.
What is that? A pure heart is from which love
flows. A pure heart is a heart that
has no sin, a heart that is not wicked, a heart that does not
seek its own way. A pure heart is a love, is a loving heart.
A pure heart is the center. Now, what is a heart? You know,
okay, let's get Plato and all the others out there. Maybe we
can get into some Kant and some others. And we can talk about
the existential ideas of what heart and conscience and soul,
blah, blah, blah. The Bible doesn't go there. The
Bible just expresses it as the center of the essence of a person,
the way you think. There you are. Jesus says it,
right? In fact, I think therefore I
am. This is the essence of who we
are. What we think about comes out
of our mouth. What we contemplate is who we
are. We're known by what we love. Look at your Facebook profiles
and your Twitter profiles and your playlists. And you can look and you can
see seasons, right? Oh, this is back when I was really into
punk. This is back when I was into classical. Celtic. You know, there's a whole, you
know, you just keep going. I was into jazz, and I was into
fusion, and I was into this. It's your playlist. They change
and they flow, but you can tell, you can remember where you were. Look at old pictures, the way
we used to style our hair. See, I stood with this style
about 19, and I've stayed with it. And when I'm 90, if the Lord
lets me live, I'll have the same old hairstyle. There's any up
there? You know, you just sort of stick.
But all the years before, I mean, oh my goodness. Big bell-bottom
corduroys and the big collars that touch the belt. My mama
dressed me like that. I was fly. You can look back
at these seasons of life and see where you've come because
of the expression of who you are. Beloved, we're going to
go through seasons of certain things. And when people come
into our lives and they begin to impart other ideas, even other
truths that aren't necessarily accurate, we're going to change
some things. We're going to change the way
we think. And then all of a sudden we're going to be known for what we think and what
we say. That's why it is so important for Christians to be quiet. Especially
in talking to other people about other people. That is wicked.
And I'm going to be hitting that hard in the next six years. Because I think that that is
one of the worst things that's ever happened in the people,
in the Church of Jesus Christ, is that people are talking too
much about other people. And don't call it concern, burden,
prayers. It's murder. Oh, brother so-and-so, you need
to pray for him. He told me yesterday he worshipped
the devil. And then a month later, God wipes
that away and then everybody's looking at him like, is he still
in the children's ministry? You know? Shouldn't have said
nothing. Oh, so-and-so told me to pray
because he's got a problem, you know? That's not prayer. That's gossip. Enough of that. A pure heart. A pure heart. Some will consider their actions
to introduce new teaching or deeper ideas loving, but it's
not. It's not pure. It is not love. Insistence is
not love. Thus it is not pure. A pure heart
is a heart that knows love. How do you say that? Because
that's what John says that faith does. It knows God and God is
love. What's the quintessential reality
of faith? What does it point to? What does it rest upon? Which
does it look? The love of God in Christ Jesus.
So if you know nothing else about God and His sovereignty or His
creation or anything else, you know nothing else about the essence
of His judicial arguments. You've never read Paul, but you've
read John's narrative. You might not even understand
Judaism whatsoever, but there's one thing that you know if you've
been born again, and that is the love of God in Jesus Christ.
And God loves His people through His Son, and His love is revealed
in the death of Jesus on their behalf. This is the central message
that we know of God and His Word. This is the message that we have
heard from Him that was from the beginning, that in Him is
no darkness. In Him is light. So a pure heart knows this love.
And a pure heart knows that he can't make himself pure. Because
some people will hear me say, no, he's preaching law now, we've
got to do something. Well, you do have to do something.
That's not preaching law, it's preaching love. Because God has
loved us, we first love us. If you say you love God but hate
your brother, you're a liar. About what? That you love God.
Why? Because the only way, the only
way, there's only one way to love God and that is to love
others. There's only one way to serve
God, and that is to serve people. That's why so many pastors and
congregations and so many aloof little cult circles, they're
all about themselves. They're all about themselves
and their mantras and their doctrines and their glory. And they only
attract people who agree with their stances. But they never,
ever, ever, ever have true love. I said some. time years before,
and I meant this in an illustrative way, that it appears sometimes
that the cults do better than loving than the church. Now they're
not. They're not loving at all because
they don't have the truth, but yet in their actions they appear
that way. So we have the true love of God.
By all means, we should display it better than the cults, than
the unbelievers of the world, than the religious zealots. For
if we do not have it, we're not even allowed to fellowship until
we repent of the idea that we don't need to. A pure heart. No man can make himself pure.
Thus Christ imputed His own goodness and His own purity and His own
righteousness to our account. So our pure heart and seeking
after purity in love for one another is our love for God because
of His love for us. The imputation or the counting
to our credit. If you went and wrote a check
for $783,000 out of your checking account today and you made it
out to David. He would thank you for it. But
if you didn't have that money, it's going to be sore problems
if he buys a mansion with it, or a new set of tires, or whatever.
Some really nice tires. And it's about to bounce, and
he's about to lose everything he's got. But somebody else in the
church has that kind of money, and they just say, you know what?
Take it out of my account. Put it in there. It's not that.
It's not even close to that, but that's what imputation is
like. You take all of this value, all of this worth, all of this
righteousness, all of this goodness, this divine essence, and you
credit it to the creature who deserves it not because of the
love of God alone. God, grace to His people. That's the good news. That's
the gospel. There's no other message under the sun except
Christ and Him crucified. And why is this effectual? Why was it even accomplished?
Because of God's love for His people. Yes, and God's love for
Himself, but these things aren't separate. A pure heart. We can't become
pure. So we understand righteousness and purity and love because of
what God has shown us by faith. How from His love toward us,
We now have a pure heart. That is grace and love to His
elect in His death by His Spirit to bring us to the knowledge
of His glory, His revelation. And then this other thing, this
love, this pure heart, a good conscience, sincere faith, this
good conscience. You know, we have a lot of conversations about
good conscience. This is the command. Love one another out
of a good conscience, out of a pure heart, out of a sincere
faith, out of the gospel. This is the
same as having a pure heart. Good conscience, pure heart,
same thing. Same stand, same work of God. The commands are
not burdensome. What are the commands? To love
your brothers. To lay down your life as Jesus
laid down His. The same as a pure heart is that
one's thoughts and guilt are clear, are clean. Our sins have
been wiped away. We have a good conscience. First,
that the truth of Christ permeates the essence of our lives by faith,
which is given to us by God. Second, that we know and comprehend
with all the saints. You see, I'm quoting some of
the scriptures, but this is Ephesians 1 and 2. We comprehend with all
the saints the power, the depth, the breadth, the height, the
awesomeness of God's love and the power of God's cleansing
forgiveness. A pure heart is a good conscience
and vice versa. One is not had without the other.
We're forgiven by the love of God, the death of Jesus Christ,
and we're settled in our hearts by the love of God, which is
the life of Jesus Christ. As God grants us faith to rest
in his promises and in his provision and in the teaching of his word
through the apostles and the commands of Christ, which are
not burdensome for his people. So we see, remember in Hebrews,
I'll read Hebrews six in a few minutes and Hebrews 10. A good conscience knows that
one's actions and then one's teachings are at peace with God. according to the scripture, not
according to what one feels, but according to what God has
promised. A good conscience knows when it is loving and knows when
it is insistent upon its own way. Why? Because it has received
the love of God and understands it. Hebrews 6, 19 and 20. So we have this shore. It's one
of my favorite passages that John didn't write. A shore and
steady anchor of the soul. A hope that enters into the inner
place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone as a forerunner
on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. In Hebrews 10, then he adds,
verse 17, I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds
no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer
any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, listen to
these words. since we have confidence to enter into the holy places
by the blood of Jesus, by the death of Jesus, by the new and
living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that
is, through his flesh. And since we have a great priest
over the house of God, us, let us draw near with a true heart
in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us
hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he
who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir
one another up toward love and good works, not neglecting to
assemble together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one
another and all the more as you see the day of Christ drawing
near. A sincere faith is a faith that
does not act as an actor, but a faith that lives in truth according
to the hope of Christ. A sincere faith lives out if
it's to be effective. We see Peter writing that, right?
If we're to be effective in the faith, we do these things. Don't
conflate your rebirth and your eternal destiny with your practical
living out the faith. Because a lot of Christians are
never taught this because all they want to do is sit still
and hear about the fact that they're going to heaven by themselves. But the sheep who get a taste
of the Word of God, who learn and grow by the Spirit, begin
to understand the necessity of God's provision in the church. A sincere faith does not permit
false teaching. See, some people have probably
already accused me of placating to false teaching. No. A sincere
faith does not permit false teaching, in word or deed. Because if we
hold to the truth and someone else is different, we don't permit
that. Love doesn't say, it's okay.
Love says, I command you to not say that again. Love says, I
command you to not do that again, because you teaching and doing
these things is not love. I command you by the authority
of Christ to love one another. You see that? Why is that so
difficult? It's not. It's not difficult
by faith. It's impossible otherwise. Because
no matter how well we may get it today, we may have some fellowship
after service, you know, we're gonna eat together, some of us,
and everything, and we'll be good, and we'll love one another,
and it'll all be good, but tomorrow, go down the drain. So who is
the faithful brother? It's Jesus. Who is the faithful
lover? It's Jesus. Who is the true husband?
It's Jesus. Who is the one who truly lays
down His life? Jesus. That's why our salvation is dependent upon
His righteousness to our account, not our getting it right. But
because He has saved us, therefore we are to strive for these things
and a sincere faith does not permit falsehood, does not permit
error and does not permit heresy. It does not permit the heresy
of unlovingness either. So we are to follow the prescription
found in the Word of God in dealing with these things. A sincere
faith rests on the one true God and His powerful promises to
His people. A sincere faith is bold, but boldness in Christ
is humble and gentle. It's humble and gentle in proclamation
because God's Word is what changes a person's understanding, not
our tenacity, not our personal consequences. not even church
discipline, to the end of it, which is reconciliation. Sincere faith is gentle in proclamation.
It does not endorse other teachings or engage in vain philosophies
or attempt to go deeper in a hidden knowledge. Also, a sincere faith
rests in the understanding of love as its constant action. I want to say that again. Sincere
faith rests in the understanding of love as its constant action. Solidae gloria, you know, the
historical phrase for the glory of God only. Sometimes we forget that the
way that God is glorified in us is our love for one another,
even in our teaching, even in a correction, even in our rebuke. And love is always patient and
gentle and kind and seeking restoration. And love is never exercised in
fear. John would say that, right? Perfect
love casts away fear. So if we're fearful that if we
don't do something a certain way to establish some type of
purity in the church, and we do it in contrast to that which
is taught to us because we're fearful, then it's not of God,
therefore it is not of love, and of course it's not of faith. And it's deceptive faith. It's
deceptive faith to ignore the whole counsel of God's glory.
It's a deceptive faith to say, I am saved and I trust in the
sovereignty of God and my redemption through His justice and His mercy
and His grace, but I will not submit to the teaching of that
instruction because I don't like the guy who's telling it to me.
I've been working with my cats for a while now and I still can't
get them to quote scripture. But when they can, I'm bringing
one up here. Million hits. The preaching cat. Love, therefore. We're stewardships of love. We're
stewards of love. We have stewardship of love,
stewards of peace, stewards of hope, stewards of glory, stewards
of truth. It's all or none. Period. Love, therefore. Love comes from these three things
in the assembly. And it motivates all of our interaction
according to the gospel. Our love for others, not just
our love for God, for our love for God is our love for others
in word and in deed. And elders, see, according to
this teaching, are commanded to oversee these things. And
those who listen and obey will be unified and rejoiced. And
those who forsake God's command will suffer the outcome of despair.
Not death, not eternal damnation. of despair, joylessness, fear, frustration,
anger, bitterness, malice, and the like. Disobeying God's commands
is swerving from the truth of pure hearts, good consciences,
and sincere faith and love. And all sin comes from self-interest
and pride and self-glory. the desire to be right, the desire
to know more, a longing for one's own way, even in the name of
Christ. But only those who hear and heed
the scripture will have fellowship in the family of faith. The family
of faith is local. I'll talk about this next week
a little more, but listen to this. The family of faith is local,
and the family of faith is visible. And that's the only thing the
Bible teaches about the family of faith, the assembly of faith.
local and visible. That means that the elders of
the local communities have the call and responsibility of maintaining
the unity of the peace alone. Nobody else has the responsibility
in overseeing the church or bringing discipline to the church. That's
it. I don't like that. I'm sorry.
There are thousands of other places and people for you to
associate with that'll let you have your way. Go ye there. And
I hate to sound like that, but that's sort of the sentiment
of Paul when people refuse. What happens in 1 Corinthians?
Well, this guy would refuse his incestuous, to lay down his incestuous
relationships with his stepmother. And he's been told, he's been
warned, he's been told, and the elders are like, I don't know what to
do. And what does Paul tell them? Take the brother before the church
and kick him out so that God will teach him not to blaspheme.
God will teach him not to love himself so that his soul would
be saved. And there's a whole other sermon
in that. But those who hear and heed the scripture will have
fellowship in the unity of faith and the family of faith. The family
of faith is local and visible according to scripture and oversight
of the flock is to be loving, sincere, and patient, which is
to be biblical. Thus, gospel love is the root
of God's salvation. It is His glory revealed to His
people. And we are stewards, one to another, of God's grace
and God's love and God's peace. We all have peace and are given
faith to love and faith to know and faith to rest in God's salvation
and in God's commandments and His promises We know that through His love
we are being reconciled by faith. The gospel, the command to do
what is right and to teach what is right, after all, is not teaching,
doing. So let us do all things out of
love. because God has given his son for us in his love and nothing
can separate the love of God from his people. Remember that
as we take the Lord's table today. Let's pray. We thank you, Lord, for this
opportunity to worship. I thank you, Father, for the
clarity of what you've written and the simplicity of what you've
instructed. But Lord, it is impossible that
in our flesh we could rightly divide this without your power. And so Lord, where I have erred,
where I have misunderstood, correct me, teach me, guide me that I
may not guide your people into falsehood, but Father, that we
may be unified in the truth. But Lord, one thing is for certain,
there is a means and a method to the promises that you have
given your people in living in this life after the rebirth.
And so, Lord, help us to grow, to understand it, and to live
it out, and to not worry about the glory that comes from others,
but, Father, to be reminded of the glory that comes from You,
who is Jesus Christ, Your Son. That in the face of Christ, through
the writing of the pages of Scripture, we can see the fullness of all
that You are, and all that You have ever been, and all that
You ever will be, knowing that everything that is glorious about
you has been shown at the cross. And everything that you've ever
accomplished in creative history, Father, has pointed us to that,
to that moment, to that person, to that perfect sacrifice who
is not just the lamb that takes away our sins, but the high priest
who has finished interceding for us forevermore. But Father, who is drawing us
and drawing others who belong to you to the truth of this glorious,
good, loving grace. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.