Good morning. It's good to see
everybody. Before Eric comes and gives us
our scripture reading, let me make a couple of announcements.
Wednesday evening, Jessica Clark had her surgery. I told you what
we knew at that time. Since then, she is doing so,
so well. And by that, I mean she's ahead
of schedule. I'm sure she's still in a lot of pain. She's still
very, very weak. We've got a long way to go. So
thankful that the Lord's healing and strengthening hand has been
on her so far. Earnestly pray He continue to
do that. Also, we are going to try to
staff our nursery again for those of you ladies who feel comfortable
in doing that. If you would see Abby Floyd about
that, we're going to make up a schedule for that. I think
things are easing up a little bit. We might feel safe to be
able to do that again, and I'm strongly in favor of that. I
think one of the best things we can do for our mommies, these
little ones, if we could give her an hour's break to just not
have that care of that little one on her and worship. It's
an important time. She'd be fed at this time, and
to take care of that little one is an enormous burden. Do that
for them. You feel safe doing it. Please
see Abby after the service, and we'll see if we can't get that
arranged, all right? All right, Eric, you come read
for us, if you would. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Timothy chapter
4. Pastors ask we read the first
nine verses of 1 Timothy 4. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith.
giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking
lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot
iron, forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats
which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of
them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of
God is good, and nothing to be refused if it be received with
thanksgiving. For it is sanctified by the word
of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance
of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ,
nourished up in the word of faith and a good doctrine whereunto
thou hast attained. but refuse profane and old wives'
fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily
exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto
all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of
that which is to come. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation. We'll end our reading there.
Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father in heaven, we thank you for this day. We
thank you for the privilege of gathering together as a people. We're thankful for this place
you've given us to gather together. Lord, thankful that you brought
us here. Lord, that you've caused us to
be in this place this morning. Lord, we thank you for our pastor. Lord, bless him. Lord, take that
which you've laid upon his heart, that which he's studied and prepared,
and Lord, bless him in speaking to us here this morning. Lord, loose his tongue, enable
him to declare the truth of thy word. Lord, cause us not to hear,
Lord, the words of a man, but Lord, would you be pleased to
speak through your servant here this morning? And Lord, give
us ears to hear and heart to receive thy word, faith to believe,
rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, for those of our number
who are in a time of trouble and difficulty, Lord, we pray your hand of mercy
upon them. Lord, thy grace, thy comfort. Lord, that you would strengthen
your people. Bless your people. Lord, hedge us about, protect
and keep us. Lord, there's so many we know
of and so many that we do not know of. Lord, Thou knowest all
things. Be with Your people. Lord, we
pray for our young ones. Lord, that You would bless them
to know Thee. Lord, that You would protect
and keep them. Lord, in this world in which
we live, Lord, chiefly, that you would reveal unto them the
Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, bless them to know the
Savior. Lord, for our community, Lord, this area, Lord, this country,
this world, that your gospel would continue to go forth in
power. Again, we thank you for your
many blessings, and Lord, Forgive us for the many things we take
for granted. Lord, bless us with your presence
here this morning. Set aside the thoughts and cares
of this world. Lord, so many things that Lord,
catch our eyes and catch our minds. Lord, let us see Christ. In his name we pray and give
thee thanks. This is my father's world And
to my listening ears All nature sings and round me rings The
music of the spheres This is my father's world I rest me in
the thought Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas His hands the
wonders brought This is my father's word The birds their carols raise
The morning light, the lily white Declare their Maker's praise
This is my Father's world He shines in all that's fair In
the rustling grass I hear Him pass He speaks to me everywhere
This is my Father's world Oh, let me ne'er forget That though
the wrong seems oft so strong God is the ruler yet This is
my Father's world, the battle is not done. Jesus who died shall
be satisfied, and earth and heaven be one. Open your Bibles with me again,
if you would, to 1 Timothy 4. I like how often the Spirit gives
some indication to me that I'm on the right track with the right
message for this hour. Brady had no idea what I was
planning on preaching this morning, and he just sung, Oh, let me
ne'er forget. Oh, let me ne'er forget. The
title of my message this morning is A Needed Reminder. A Needed
Reminder. I don't know if I could preach
a message that's more vital and more applicable to our day at
this point in human history. Right from the very first time
I read our text this morning, I saw the message. The Lord has
made the message obvious to me. And now I pray that he might
enable me to preach it in the right attitude. in the right
spirit, a needed reminder. I took my title from verse six.
Paul writes, if thou put the brethren 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, where unto
thou hast attained. Now, I very strongly want to
be a good and faithful servant of the Lord. I want to be a steward
who's found faithful almost more than anything. faithful preaching
God's word. And I very strongly want to be
a good pastor to you. I pray every day that the Lord
make me a good pastor to you, a good and faithful pastor. I
want to be faithful. I want to be found faithful,
preaching Christ to you over and over and over again. I want
to be found constantly reminding all of us, me and you both, to
look to Christ, to trust Christ and to rest in him alone. And
I fully intend to keep doing just that, keep repeating myself
from different passages of Scripture as long as the Lord will allow
me to do it. And if the Lord will enable me
to do it, Paul says, I'll be a good minister of Jesus Christ.
And that's my desire. Look at 2 Peter chapter 1. Peter
says this same thing. And if you look up in your concordance
this afternoon about being reminded and brought into remembrance,
you'll see how often Scripture talks about this. We won't read
them all, but I want to read this one to you. 1 Peter 1, verse
12. Wherefore, I will not be negligent
to put you always in remembrance of these things, though you know
them. Peter says, even though you know them, I'm not going
to be negligent. I'll be constantly, constantly reminding you of these
things and be established in the present truth. Yeah, I think
it's meat as long as I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up, putting
you in remembrance. I'm going to put you into in
remembrance by saying the same thing over and over and over
again. I know you know them now, but I want to remind you so you
don't forget. And you know, the clearest example
in scripture I could think of is when the Lord instituted the
Lord's table. He had the wine and the bread and he said, this
do in remembrance of me in remembrance of me. What? I could forget the
Lord's sacrifice as my substitute? What? I could forget the blood
of Christ's sacrifice that cleanses me from all sin, that gives me
the forgiveness of my sin? What? You mean to tell me that
I could somehow forget that I was made righteous in Christ, because
He was made sin for me, and then He suffered and died for my sin,
to put that sin away. You mean I could forget Him?
I could forget salvation and such a sacrifice as that? Yes,
we could. Yes, we could easily, easily
we can forget because of our flesh. So we need to be constantly
reminded. That's what a faithful pastor
does. Wednesday night after the service, Earl Wooten and I were
talking. He gave me this illustration. Earl said, every once in a while,
a man might like to have his property surveyed so he knows
right where the lines are, especially if you've got a bad neighbor.
And Earl said, it's good for us to constantly see where the
line is so that we know we're not deceived into trusting something
else, but to see where the line is. So I know whether or not
I'm trusting Christ alone, because it's so easy to stray, begin
to trust something about this flesh. And I told Earl, the Lord
willing, that's exactly what I'm going to preach Sunday morning.
You see, we do have a bad neighbor, don't we? We've got this old
man, we've got the flesh that's living in us, and that neighbor's
a bad neighbor. He's constantly trying to earn
salvation. He's constantly trying to get
us to trust in something that we do. He's constantly trying
to bring us back into captivity to the law. It might just be
such a little thing you think it's no big deal, but he's constantly
trying to get us to trust in something that we do or that
we don't do. And good preaching constantly reminds us where the
line is, so that we're reminded. Don't stray across this line.
You trust Christ. You rest in Christ. You look
to Christ alone. And that's what I pray the Lord
will enable us to do this morning. If you look back at the beginning
of this chapter, 1 Timothy chapter 4, we especially need to be warned
about these things at this particular time. Verse 1. Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly. that in the latter times, some
should depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their
conscience seared with a hot iron. Now, all of scripture is
God breathed. All of scripture is given or
was written under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. But you know,
this is the only time this phrase is used in scripture. The spirit
speaketh expressly. That's the only time it's used
in scripture. Speaking of these latter times and those departing
from the faith, and that ought to get our attention, the Holy
Spirit expressly testifies that in the last times, some should
depart from the faith. Now you know that the last times,
what the last times are. The last times are all the time
from when Christ ascended until he returns. And it could be,
many people think this, we don't know, but it could be that we're
in the latter days of the last days. It could be in the last
of them. I don't know. I don't know when the Lord will
return, but I do know this. What the Spirit spoke of expressly
is certainly happening in our day, isn't it? Certainly happening.
The Spirit says some will depart from the faith. Now when He says
that, don't be overly concerned. No one who has true faith in
Christ, if God's given you true faith in Christ, you'll never
leave Christ. What he's talking about here
is those that depart from the faith, they'll leave the doctrines
of grace. Now, you can't leave Christ if
you trust Christ. If you have faith in Christ,
you can't leave, but if you just believe the doctrine, you can
say you believe him for a while, then you might say you don't
believe him, you believe something else. That's what the Spirit's
talking about here. See, no one who has been given
saving faith, faith that God gives, can ever leave it. You
can't lose it. Genuine faith, can never quit,
can never quit. Faith is a gift of God, and the
gift and calling of God are without repentance. God will never take
those things back. And besides that, our Savior,
the great shepherd of the sheep, he'll never let his sheep leave
him, never. Oh, the sheep will wander, won't
they? But he, the great shepherd of the sheep, will constantly,
constantly bring them back. He'll constantly remind them
where the line is and constantly bring them back to him if we
belong to him. And this is comforting, too.
The Spirit here says expressly, some, some will depart from the
faith. Bob, not all. Not all, thank
God, not all. No, God's gonna keep His own,
but some. Some will depart from the faith. And those who depart,
what they're departing from is they're leaving a mere profession
of faith. They never had true heart faith.
This was just a profession. But for a while, They claim to
believe sovereign, electing, saving, calling, keeping grace.
They claim for a while to believe salvation by faith without works. But for whatever reason, something
happened that made them leave that and go to a religion where
the flesh plays some part in salvation, some part in righteousness,
some part in a relationship with God. And I tell you what happened. What the Spirit is talking about
here is they were seduced. They were seduced away from the
simplicity of Christ by a false prophet. That false prophet lies
on God and doesn't feel bad about it. Doesn't feel bad about it.
He thinks he's telling the truth. There's no conscience bothering
him whatsoever lying on God. Because his conscience has been
seared. It's just like a nerve that's
been seared. Can't feel anything anymore.
Jan and I went to the pain clinic a few weeks ago, one of the things
they told us, one of our options is we'll just go in there and
kill that nerve and then you just won't feel it anymore. I
don't know if I want that. Maybe if that nerve's firing
up, maybe I ought to be knowing something. I don't know if that's
the best thing or not, but they can do that. They sear that nerve
so it doesn't feel anything anymore. That's the conscience of these
fellas. Their conscience has been seared. They can't feel
anything anymore. They just don't not bother telling
these lies on God. seducing people away from Christ
to believe someone is going to send them to hell. Because their
conscience is dead. Conscience is dead. Oh, more
than anything, I want to be thankful to point you to Christ, not seduce
you away from Christ. And they just can't feel anything
because God let them go. And people who follow them, the
spirit here says, are seduced. The message of self-righteousness
appeals to the flesh, even a believer who's known and trusted Christ
a long time. We've got that bad neighbor in
us, the flesh. The religion of self-righteousness appeals to
the oldest, strongest believer. And these people, those who've
made a profession of faith, it's false, but it draws them away.
It draws them after the flesh. It's just like a man seduces
a woman. He does that by putting his best foot forward and hiding
his evil false. That's what these false prophets
are doing. They preach a message that appeals to the flesh. They're
putting out something that appeals to the flesh, but they hide the
evil fault of their ministry. The evil fault of their ministry
is twofold. Number one, their message doesn't
save at damns. And number two, that false prophet's
in it for his profit, for his belly, not for the good of others,
not for the glory of God. And these seducers and these
false prophets, now you be warned now, they're not going to be
easy to spot. They're not going to be easy
to identify because they come wrapped in religion. They use
good religious words like righteousness, sanctification. They use words
like grace, mercy, forgiveness, love, election. They use the
name of God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Jehovah. And they suddenly
lead people away from faith in Christ and lead people to the
flesh. works of the flesh by using great,
big, deep, religious, doctrinal sounding words that appeal to
the flesh. And they even use scripture to
do it. They come wrapped in scripture.
That's why they're so hard to spot. Now they twist the scriptures. They take the scriptures out
of context, but they come wrapped in the scriptures. And I tell
you the way that you can tell they're twisting the scriptures.
I don't care who it is, at what time it is, anybody that uses
the scripture that leads you to do something other than trust
Christ alone is twisting the scriptures. They're seducing
you away from Christ. I'm telling you. I'm telling
you that's so. If they twist the scriptures
and give you something, something to do in your flesh, they twisted
the scripture. They take a scripture. Here's
another way you can tell they're twisting the scripture. They
take a scripture, they take a verse and pull it out and quote it
out of context. And you can tell it's out of
context because it contradicts other scriptures. Now they just,
they just want you to ignore, ignore the man behind the curtain,
you know, ignore the fact that these contradicting other scriptures,
we don't want to talk about them because that doesn't suit my
self righteous purpose. Where did they just want to talk about
this one verse that they've taken out out of context. And we need
to be warned about this now. Paul gives us a couple of examples
here in our text, and it's not an exhaustive list, but it shows
us a pattern that these seducers use to lead us away from Christ
alone. Now, I want to look at some of
these examples. I want us to survey the property
this morning, each of us. Now, survey the property, survey
your heart here, and let's clearly see where the line is so we know
if we're trusting Christ alone or not. Number one, I think I've
got four of these. Number one is this, these seducers
They make righteousness something other than a vital living union
with Christ. Verse three says, forbidding
to marry. Now they forbid people to marry
because they say it's more holy. They say you are more holy if
you do not enjoy marriage relationship. Now that's their tradition. It's
a long standing tradition in the Catholic church and in other
places, you know, monks and things, they don't be married. It's a
long standing tradition. But you don't find that in the
Word of God. They say, oh, if you're not married, you can focus
on a relationship with God because you don't have to spend so much
time focusing on a relationship with your spouse. And they say,
oh, they sound so religious. I'm married to God. I'm not married
to my wife or my husband. I'm married to God. Now, to the
flesh, that sounds real holy, very religious, very devout,
doesn't it? Oh, they're willing to give this
up for God. But you know, it's a lie. It's a lie. It's the opposite
of what God says. What did God say when Adam was
alone in the garden? God said, it's not good that
the man be alone. I'll make a hell make point. It's better for him
to be married. That's what God said. God gave
marriage for our good, for our individual good. God gave marriage
for the good of our children. God gave marriage for the good
of society. Society's just better, you know,
when people are married. I've worked with a lot of men.
Men are better off being married to a wife. They're just better
off, you know. But look at 1 Corinthians chapter
7. I want to show you this scripture here that they take and they
twist. I'll show you just one example of what I'm talking about
here. They come wrapped in scripture now, but they twist it. Marriage is given for our good.
1 Corinthians 7, verse 6. But I speak this by permission and
not of commandment. For I would that all men were
even as myself, unmarried, but every man hath his proper gift
of God, one after this manner and another after that. I say,
therefore, to the unmarried and widows, it's good for them if
they abide even as I, single, unmarried. But if they cannot
contain, let them marry. For it's better to marry than
to burn." Now Paul said not that it is better that everybody be
unmarried. He said it would be better if
we could be like Paul. But we're all not Paul. We all
don't have that personality. As much as Paul traveled, as
much as he was given to the ministry, it's probably best he wasn't
married. He wouldn't have been a very good husband maybe. I don't know.
But Paul said everybody didn't have this gift. He said some
people have a gift of God after this manner, one after another. Everybody doesn't have that gift.
Most people desire to be married. And it's good for us, it's better
for us to marry than to suffer with this desire to be married
that goes unfulfilled. Marriage is good, it's okay.
Be happy to enjoy your marriage. God says it's good for us. And
these seducers, now they could be preachers, they could be people
in the congregation, but what they're doing is they're doing
anything they can do to lead us away from Christ and just
add something for the flesh to do. Something that sounds so
religious and so pious. And usually what they're doing
is they're adding something that's easy for them to do, or easy
for them to hide. One or the other, isn't it? And
the danger in what these seducers do, in this example here, they're
trying to get us to trust something other than Christ our bridegroom
alone, alone. Now you remember this, you know
this, But let me remind you, salvation is union with Christ. It's not in any unions here on
this earth or relationships on this earth. Salvation, righteousness,
justification, every spiritual blessing is union with Christ,
our bridegroom. Salvation is being clothed in
the righteousness of Christ, our bridegroom. That righteousness
that he gives us and we don't add one bit of our sinful works
to it. If we do, we march. Salvation
is being clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Salvation is being
dressed in that perfect, glorious wedding garment of Christ's righteousness
that the bridegroom gives us. Salvation is wholly, only in
looking to and following the Lord Jesus Christ and serving
Him. And none of salvation, none of it, zero, none, zilch, None. I wish I had a thesaurus to come
up with enough words to drive this point home. None of salvation
involves our flesh doing anything. Anything. Not getting married
so that we'll be more righteous and we'll be more devout. All
that is is outright self-righteousness. Righteousness that comes from
anything that we do or anything that we don't do with these bodies
is damning self-righteousness. True righteousness is receiving
the righteousness of Christ by faith alone. And we say faith
alone, this is what we mean. Faith, trusting Christ without
any of our works added to Him. Now let's draw that line. Let's
examine ourselves now and be sure we're not trusting in anything
about this flesh, but we're trusting Christ alone. You who hear me
preach often, you know that how much I love to talk about this
subject of marriage. It's such a beautiful picture
of Christ. I love to preach Christ for marriage. And let me give you a couple
thoughts here on marriage. Salvation and righteousness is
a relationship with God. It's not a relationship on this
earth. It's a relationship with God. We're saved by the blood
of Christ, not by human blood or human descent. Jan and I had
children. We couldn't save them. They couldn't
be saved by our blood. All they were by our blood was
made sinners in need of a savior. That's the only thing we had
to pass on to them. We can't be saved by human descent because
our parents or our spouse is a believer. But now listen, that
does not mean that these earthly relationships are unimportant
and we shouldn't care about them and shouldn't seek to have them
and shouldn't seek to take care of them. You know, it could be,
you know, God's a God of means. It could be the Lord will use
these earthly relationships to make somebody seek Christ. And
now what Paul told us in one place, the unbelieving spouse,
they're not gonna be saved by the believing spouse, but they
could be led to seek Christ when they see the behavior of the
believing spouse. Our children will not be saved
because they have believing parents. They will not. But you know,
the Lord could use those parents. to teach that child the Holy
Scriptures, which is able to make them wise unto salvation. The Lord used Timothy's mother
and grandmother to do that. Maybe he'll do that for ours.
Maybe. Isn't that our prayer? And here's
another reason to enjoy a good marriage. Enjoy. If you have
a good marriage, enjoy it. Enjoy it. A good marriage is
a picture of Christ in the home. What a great blessing it is to
have a home where there's a marriage, where the husband does his dead
level best to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave
himself for it. Where he looks to sacrifice of
himself for her good, for her benefit, to lift her up. And
when he does that, you know what's going to happen? That's going
to make the wife want to live in loving submission to her husband
because she trusts him. She knows he's got her best interest
at heart. The husband, he doesn't want
to keep his wife down. He wants to lift her up. And that makes
her want to live in loving submission to a man like that. Now that's
a blessing. That home is blessed. That's
a blessing believers can enjoy. And I want all of us to have
marriages like that. I want us to see primarily how
this is a picture of Christ and salvation in Him, how He saves
His bride, makes her holy and spotless. But I also want us
to enjoy, to have marriages like that and enjoy marriages like
that. That's a blessing. And the only reason somebody
would say, don't you get married, don't you enjoy that blessing,
is they don't see Christ. And they want to establish their
own righteousness. And I tell you how serious this
is. That's how serious this is. The Holy Spirit calls this the
doctrine of devils. It's not just some doctrine of
man that's, yeah, I mean, it's a little wrong, but it's okay.
It's the doctrine of devils. It's the opposite of the doctrine
of God. All right, number two, these
seducers, they make salvation something that we put in ourselves
instead of a nature that God puts in us in the new birth.
Verse three, first Timothy chapter four. forbidding to marry and
commanding to abstain from means which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the
truth. For every creature of God is good and nothing to be
refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it's sanctified
by the word of God in prayer. Now, salvation is not what goes
into the body to be used by the body and nourish the flesh and
then go off into the sewer. This flesh is dead and dying
and you can't put any stock in it. Don't put any, I mean, put
no stock, take care of it. God gave you a body, the mind
take care of it. Great American said that, but you know, don't
put any stock in it. It's going to fail. Physically
and spiritually, it's going to fail. Salvation doesn't have
anything to do with this flesh. Salvation is a new birth where
God causes a new man, a new nature to be born in his people. And
that new man is righteous and he'll never fail. He'll live
forever. He has eternal life. And that new birth, that man
born in the new birth, that spirit, that nature born in the new birth
is wholly unaffected by what we put in this body. You know
why? That new man is spirit, not flesh.
He can't be affected by what we put in the flesh. He's spirit.
The new birth comes when we're fed the word of God. That's the
seed God uses to give life and the new birth. And that's the
children's bread. That's the word he uses to feed
that new man, to feed his people. And making salvation dependent
on whether or not we eat meat to idols, and that's the meat
that Paul's talking about here, or whether we eat a meat that
somebody, you know, some of those old Jews would consider it unclean.
To make salvation dependent on that makes faith of no effect. No effect. If you do that, you
just add this one little thing that you have to do in order
to be saved, then you're required, Paul said, to keep the whole
law because you just made salvation dependent on works, not grace,
works, not faith. You just made salvation dependent
on what you do instead of Christ obeying the law for us and putting
our sin away by his sacrifice. And this thing about meats, meats
being offered to idol, you can't eat this meat, you can't eat
this one. that might not make a whole lot of sense to us in
our day, a better example in our day would be drinking alcohol.
Now, whenever we talk about this, I always want to say this, you
be very, very careful with alcohol. You know, be careful with something
that you put in your body that changes your personality, that
changes your mind, makes you make bad choices, you know. But
listen. It's fine in moderation, in moderation. If you can't do it in moderation,
stay away from it completely. But if, you know, it's fine in
moderation, that's what scripture says. So it has to be so, has
to be so. Paul told Timothy, drink a little
wine for your stomach's sake. Well, then it has to be okay.
This, you know, this thing of the, the preaching against alcohol
came in the temperance movement. You know, all these women would
come to the service and their husband was laying on drunk and
Preachers start preaching against it, trying to get their husbands
to come with them. That's where all that came from. That's tradition
of man, not scripture. But it sounds so religious. It
sounds so pious, doesn't it? To say, oh, lions never touch
these lips. Well, I'll tell you why that
sounds so pious, so devout. It sounds that way to the flesh. You know, it's something that
somebody says that makes salvation or righteousness or a better
standing with God depending on something we do in this flesh,
depending on something as silly as denying yourself the pleasure
of eating bacon or drinking wine, which make glad the heart of
man. You know what that does? It glorifies the flesh. And that's
what appeals to the flesh. That's why it sounds so pious.
It sounds that way to the flesh. It glorifies the flesh. It does
not glorify Christ. And we need to remember this.
Now, this is an ironclad rule. Sin's not in things. Sin's not
in things. Sin is in our flesh. I don't
care what you do, what you don't do. You got a problem with sin
because we are sin. That's what our flesh is. That's
what our nature is. We are sin. And not eating something or not
drinking something is not going to add to that. You know, God
made animals to be eaten. He says here that that's why
he made animals, to be eaten. You give thanks and you eat them.
And anything else is false piety that glorifies the flesh and
doesn't glorify God. Now, I mean, I think we ought
to be kind to animals, but we're going to slaughter
them and eat their meat. That's what God made them for. You know,
to the PETA folks and those, I'm sorry, but God made them
for the good of the body of man. And who better to enjoy, now
we're talking to believers here, those who know where the line
is, those who are trusting Christ. Who better to enjoy God's creation? Who better to enjoy steak or
fried chicken or seafood than one of God's children? God made
it all for you. Now you enjoy it. Give thanks.
Give thanks and enjoy it. Don't make it a religious issue.
Don't make anything of the flesh a religious issue. And making
an issue of these things, what we eat, what we don't eat, that's
the doctrine of devils. I'll tell you another thing.
It's unloving to our weaker brother. It's not pious. It's not devout.
It's not religious. It's unloving to our weaker brother.
You know, just flouting your freedom or putting this bondage
on him. You know, if you have a brother
here that feels like he ought not drink alcohol, don't drink
in front of him. Just don't do it. If you've got
another brother that thinks, oh, you're free to drink alcohol,
don't put that bondage on until you can't. If you drink that,
you're not saved. Don't do that. That's just mean. What'd our
Lord say? By this shall all men know that
you're my disciples, if you have love one to another. So do what
you think is best. Do what suits your conscience.
Do what suits your lifestyle. Not in order to be more righteous
and not in order to make God happier with you. Just do what
you think is best and keep it to yourself. And don't put your
standards on others and say, you got to follow my standards
or you're not saved. That's self-righteousness. Here's
another hard ironclad rule to live by. Do whatever you can
to make you and your thoughts not the issue. so that Christ
is always the issue. Do that and you'll be faithful.
You'll be faithful. Now let's draw that line. Let's
survey this now. Let's draw this line and let's examine ourselves. Are we trusting in something
like that? Are we trusting in something that we do or that
we don't do? Or are we trusting Christ alone? Now I know you
know the answer, what the answer ought to be, but I'm going to
remind you. To be a faithful servant, I'm going to remind
you. Right here's the third thing. the seducers. They make salvation
changing our fleshly habits, not heart worship. Verse eight,
they make worship all the flesh and they're not dealing with
the heart. Verse eight, first Timothy four. For bodily exercise profiteth
little and godliness is profitable unto all things, having the promise
of the life that now is and that which is to come. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. See, these seducers, they make
salvation. They make that to be the religious
motions of religion. Kneeling, standing, you know,
I'm glad we don't do that. The problem I got in my back
right now, buddy, I'd be grunting and groaning, trying to kneel
and stand and just like, oh, you know, that's not, that's
not worship. You know, worship is not these
fleshly motions, making the sign of the cross or waving your arms
in the air or run up and down the, the aisle, roll around the
floor acting like you're in some trance or acting like you're
speaking in tongues. And I know that doesn't really
apply to anybody here. That doesn't seem to be the thing
anybody here is really interested in. But it also includes this,
acting like you're more moral, that you're cut from a higher
claw than the rest of the population. No, we're not now. No, we're
not. No, we're not. See, those things. impress the flesh. You know,
we want to have those things, you know, that separate us, make
us look better than everybody else, because those things impress
the flesh, but not you listen to me. Are you listening? They
don't impress God. You know what impresses God?
His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in faith in Him. That's what
impresses God. God looks on the heart, not on
the outward countenance, and we should too. And you know that,
you know that we should not be judging somebody's salvation
by what they do or what they don't do, how they act in the
service or something, you know. You know that, but we need to
be reminded. Paul says here, the bodily motions
of religion profit little. They profit none. They profit
none. So don't exercise yourself in
that. Don't put a lot of effort into showing, making all this
religious show, you know, on earth, but rather exercise yourself
in true godliness and true godliness. We've seen it earlier in our
study here in first Timothy is simply trusting Christ alone.
It's looking to Christ and believing that Christ, his righteousness,
his obedience, his blood, his sacrifice is all it takes to
save me. See, Christ is enough. So I don't
have to add my sinful works. I don't have to add all these
motions of religion to make myself look more righteous. God's worshipped
in the spirit. He's worshipped from the heart.
Now don't put that on yourself. And certainly don't put that
on somebody else. Don't put that burden on them.
Now let's draw that line. Let's draw that line. strongly
believe the most important thing we do every week is public worship.
I mean, I think we ought to be here, you know, just to hear
God speak as often as we can. But now don't make it a requirement
for salvation. Don't make it a requirement.
Now let's draw that line. Let's survey the property now.
Let's examine ourselves, know where the line is, and let's
be sure of this, that we're trusting Christ alone, not anything about
this, the motions of this flesh. And here's the last one, number
four. These seducers, they make salvation trusting their words,
not the promise of God found in his word. Verse seven, but
refuse profane and old wise fables and exercise thyself rather under
godliness. Now here, these seducers, they
make salvation trusting their words and their ideas. They take
something that's found in the word of God and they make it
their idea. And then they say, you've got
to follow this in order to be saved. They say things like this. I'll just give you a few examples.
Everybody here has met people like this. They say, oh, the
Lord's name is Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. Well,
you know that I'm not going to worry about work. I'm not going
to worry about going out and earning a paycheck because I
trust the Lord to provide. And I got to get a job. You know,
they're making me get a job. I'll tell you what I'm going
to do when I go on the job. I'm going to take my Bible and I'm going to read my
Bible and I'm going to spend time praying rather than working
because that's more reading my Bible and praying is more important
than work I'm doing down there at the factory. Now, I know that
sounds very religious, doesn't it? It sounds so pious. I'm trusting
the Lord to provide. But it's wrong. It's wrong. See, that's a twist of scripture.
What does the rest of scripture say? God says, You go to work
and you do a great job. You be the best employee you
can possibly be. And this is what else God says,
if a man won't work, don't let him eat. No, you work. Now you trust the Lord to provide,
but you go out and work. You do your best. And when you're
on the job, you serve your boss like you're serving the Lord
Jesus himself. Because you are. You are. You work hard. When you're on
the job, you do the company's business and you do it to the
best of your ability. And when you go home, read your
Bible and pray on your own time, on your own time. You know, those
fellows that want to read their Bible and pray at work, then
they want to go off and they want to spend all evening, you
know, golfing and doing all their activities, you know. Well, give
up them things. Give up them things. Read your Bible and pray. Seek the Lord. Anything else
is laziness. that's wrapped in religion, it's
the doctrine of devils. Then some say, well, I'm not
going to pay my taxes. I'm not going to be obedient
to the government of this country. I'm a citizen of the heavenly
country. I'm not a citizen of this country. Now that sounds
so pious, doesn't it? Have my head in the clouds and
say, I'm a citizen of the heavenly country. But you know what? That's
contrary to what the Lord tells us to do, isn't it? The apostle
Paul devoted a whole chapter in the book of Romans, Romans
13, the book of justification by faith. Isn't that the theme
of that book? Justification by faith without works. In that
book, the apostle devoted an entire chapter to say this, be
obedient to governmental authority. Be obedient. Pay your taxes. The Lord Jesus paid taxes to
Rome. Now, I don't know if that particular
tax he paid, you know, he sent Peter to get the money out of
the fish's mouth to go pay his tax. I don't know whether that
tax was unfair or not. I know most people thought it
was unfair, and the Lord paid it anyway. The Lord paid it anyway,
didn't he? Be a good citizen. That's the
best thing for a believer to do, be a good citizen. Then there's
folks like this, you've met them. They say the Lord's name is Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord that heals. So, you know, I'm not going to
take medicine. I'm not going to take advantages
of the advances in modern medicine and things, you know, the things
we had to do to keep us healthy today, because the Lord will
heal me. The Lord will heal me. The Lord
is my shield. He's going to protect me from all these diseases out
there in the world. Now, I know that sounds real
pious. I know it sounds so trusting of the Lord, doesn't it? But
all that is is glorifying self. It's glorifying the flesh. That's
all it is. Now certainly the Lord is our
shield. Scripture says that, doesn't it? He's our shield and
buckler. But now when David writes that,
this is what he's saying. The Lord will protect us from
every spiritual danger. Not one spiritual danger will
ever harm your soul if you trust Christ. Not one ever, because
the Lord is our shield. Now, the Lord's able to protect
us from physical harm. He's able to heal us of every
disease, but He didn't promise to do that. No. How many believers
have died? The Lord didn't heal them, did
He? No. Well, He healed them, but
He didn't heal their bodies. See, this thing about the Lord's
going to protect me, Lord, that's got to do with the flesh. They're
making a religion flesh, not spirit. So it's false faith to
say, I'm going to trust the Lord to do something He didn't promise
to do. That's an old wise fable. That's
exactly what that is. That's man's made up thoughts,
an old wise fable. It's not the word of God. Now
take your medicine, whatever you've got, blood pressure, you've
got diabetes, you've got all the aches, and I was talking
pains. Tom Harding told me, we were
talking recently, and he said, you know, when we were young,
man, we talked about our families. We talked about raising our families and
raising our children and going out to work and providing for
our family. He said, now we're getting old. We're talking about
our aches and pains. What do you take for this? What do you take for that?
What doctor do you see for this? Take your medicine, whatever
it is. Take your medicine. Wash your hands. If you've got
a communicable disease, stay home. Stay away from people.
Use the sins God gave you. Use just the means and the sins
God gave you while you trust in the providence of the Lord.
You do these things, but don't trust in yourself to do them.
You trust in the Lord. Both are true, aren't they? See,
God is a God of means. Seek treatment that the Lord
has provided. How do you know that's not the
shield God provided? A surgery or a medicine or something,
you know? Now, if the Lord is going to
heal us, more than likely he's going to use means to do it.
I thought of this example recently, back when Gary Holback was so
sick and with COVID, he was just, we didn't even know if he'd live.
Now, wouldn't we have been pretty? If we'd just gone to Gary, they're
laying in ICU. They say, now Gary, you get up,
you get out of here, you go home and you just trust the Lord to
heal you. Wouldn't that be pretty? No, no. Gary, if you stay in
this ICU, you don't trust the Lord. You don't know the Lord.
That's putting bondage on somebody. That's an old wise fable. That's
an old wise fable. Now just refuse that junk. That's what Paul says here. You
refuse it. It's profane. It's profane. It's worse than using a four-letter
word. It's profane. It's an old wise fable. And don't
you put up with it for one minute, because it's the doctrine of
Bethel's. All right. Now let me close with this. I talk about these things that
we need to be reminded of. I talk about these things that
sound good to the flesh. Unless our conscience is seared,
all of us thought, Oh, I could see me falling for that. I could
see where that sounds good to the flesh. Well, I want to close
with a word of comfort for you. I want to remind you, you know
this, but I want to remind you this. Who and what our comfort
and our assurance is. See, we have to be constantly
reminded because we forget so easily, don't we? But the Lord
never forgets. Never. There's a song we've heard. I've been singing it to myself
all week. Roll back the curtain of memory
now and then. Show me where you brought me
from, where I could have been. Remember, I'm human, and humans
forget. So remind me, remind me, dear
Lord, and He will. He will. If you're His, He will,
and He's gonna do it through the preaching, the faithful preaching
of His word. Now look at Isaiah chapter 49,
and I'll quit. Isaiah chapter 49. See, the Lord knoweth our frame.
He remembereth that we're dust. He remembers that far better
than we do. How often we act like we're going to live forever.
You know, we forget we're dust. No, the Lord remembers that we're
dust and he will never forget. We'll forget from time to time,
but he will never, ever forget how much we need him. He'll be
our shield. He'll be our foundation. He'll
be our, he'll be our defense. Our comfort is we'll forget,
but God never will. Isaiah 49, you got it? Verse
13. Sing, O heavens, and be joyful,
O earth, and break into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath
comforted his people, and he will have mercy on his afflicted. But Zion said, it don't feel
like it. Zion's forgotten it. Zion said,
the Lord hath forsaken me. God's promised he'll never leave
me. He'll comfort me, he'll have mercy on me. But Zion said, This
is believers. God's people said this. The Lord
hath forsaken me and the Lord hath forgotten me. That's our
problem. We start thinking God's like
us. That's always a problem. God says this. Can a woman forget
her sucking child? That she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget. Yet will I not forget thee. I've graven thee upon the palms
of my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me." Those scars in our Savior's body, that's all he needs as
he sits on the right hand of the Father to plead for his people. Those scars are the evidence
of his sacrifice for his people. And those scars are constant
reminders of his people. He can't forget. He won't forget. That's our God. Let's be reminded. Let's survey the property now.
Find out where the line is and be reminded. He's not going to
forget. He's faithful. Look to him. Call out to him. Begging for mercy. He said, I'll
be merciful to my people. Do you need mercy? Call out to
him. He said, I have. I have comforted my people. You're
brokenhearted. You're crushed. You're worried. You're in turmoil and storms
of this life. Call out to him for comfort.
Look to him. Depend upon him and him alone
in every arm of the flesh. Is that a good reminder? I hope
that was clear. It's too long, but I hope that
was clear. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, we thank
you for this needed reminder. Oh, how we thank you that you've
not left us to our own devices, our own thoughts, our own ways,
but that you've showed us your way. The Lord Jesus Christ, the
way, the truth, and the life. Father, how thankful we are for
your gospel that gives life, that calls out and saves your
people. How thankful we are for your gospel that feeds your sheep,
that comforts, that instructs, that exhorts us. How thankful
we are for this constant reminder to trust Christ alone. He is
our all and in all. Father, I pray that you'd cause
us to do that this morning and in all the days of our lives,
to be reminded to look to Christ and trust him alone. Father,
it's in his precious name that we pray and ask that you bless
your word to your glory and to the hearts of your people. Amen.