Amen I'm gonna read again and
2nd Thessalonians chapter 3 verse 6 through verse 11 And then we'll
go back and do some recap and try to make some further progress
in our study Now we command you brethren in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ that you withdraw yourself from every brother that
walketh disorderly and not after the tradition which he received
of us and for yourselves know how you ought to follow us for
we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat
any man's bread for nothing, but wrought with labor and travail
night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you.
Not because we have not power or authority is the proper term,
but to make ourselves an example unto you to follow us. for even
when we were with you this we commanded you that if any would
not work neither should he eat for we hear that there are some
which walk among you disorderly working not at all but are busy
bodies here is the commandment for the third time verse 12 now
them that are such we command and exhort by the Lord Jesus
that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. In your
outline, the gospel demands walking uprightly. That's what we have.
Verse six is where this command comes. The gospel demands walking
uprightly. So we're going to work our way
through these verses again. The proposition that we considered
last time is that chaos leads to more chaos. You guys see that
in your outline? in verse 6 that is the underlying
assumption that chaos leads to more chaos and we began to explore
that proposition last week and one of the things that we said
as inherent in the outline is that disorder is contrary to
the character of God. So something is happening when
a person or a people group or a family or a church or a society
starts to function in a disorderly fashion. Something is going on
when we are in disarray, when we are out of kilter, when we
are functioning out of order. It was for this reason that Paul
apprehended this matter before he closed out 2 Thessalonians
by saying, now we command you, brethren. You will find that
word command given in verse 6, then again in verse 10, and also
again in verse 12, which means the matter of disorder in the
mind of the apostle was not some small matter. Paul did not, he
did not take the idea of coming unraveled as something that is
acceptable in the Christian church. You know, as we mature and as
we get older, there are some things in our life that should
line up. They should come into succinct priority with what is
most important in our life. I think I can recall what Paul
said in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, where he gave the analogy
of a child. He said, when I was a child,
I thought as a child. When you're a child, categories
don't matter that much to you. In fact, you can conflate categories. You can merge ideas. You can
intermingle thoughts when you are a child because you don't
really care about consequences. But as you mature, you realize
that categories are very important for structure, for order, for
design, and for success. So I'll say it as I think I said
it last week. To the degree that you and I
are plagued with problems in our life, if we were to unravel
the cause of the problem, it would be a form of chaos that
got ahold of us and created a level of confusion that twisted our
priorities and we found ourselves doing things contrary to the
will of God. Chaos is at the root of all disorder
and all confusion and all wrongdoing. Chaos. If we were to go back
and look at some of the very difficult challenges and trials
we had in our life where we made radical decisions that ended
up blowing up in our face, we could go behind that particular
decision and we would find that it was rooted in a chaotic interpretation
or view of the thing. It did not have a sense of clarity
or purpose. We weren't aware of the real
scope and design of the thing. One of the areas in which I say
this is most volatile is in the context of marriage. You guys
who were part of the marriage class, you remember how we opened
up our marriage series. I said, 90% of people who get
married wing it when they get married. Haven't I said that
before? They wing it. And I didn't get one person that
argued with me. I didn't get one person in that
class. We had about 60 couples, maybe more than that in two groups
of classes. And not one couple said, not
me, pastor. When I got married, I was very
clear on what I was doing. I had studied it. I had analyzed
it. I had worked it through. My theology
was straight. My psychology was straight. My economics was straight. I
had a proper understanding of what it means to be married.
So when I went in, I went in with my eyes wide open. I never
heard anyone say that. One of the most volatile institutions
in the world, which is marriage, is entered into, sometimes rooted
in a chaos. And if the proposition is true,
Chaos will produce more chaos. That's what happened after you
got married. It actually began to be more
difficult and more troublesome because the foundation was flawed.
More difficult and more troublesome because the foundation is flawed.
And this is true of relationships as well. When people ostensibly
come together and they meet each other, rather than establishing
a solid foundation for the relationship, they start building an infrastructure
and a building as if they got a solid foundation. And while
they're building this infrastructure or this structure, they are feeling
pretty good about their apparent success until they have an earthquake. And once the earthquake comes
and shakes up that foundation, that structure starts to shake
and the flaws appear. They go, whoa, I didn't know
all that. Well, that's what you was supposed
to lay the foundation for. So you wouldn't come across all
these things after you across the threshold. And it's the same
thing in the church as well. Paul is apprehending this, and
this is very important because he wants us to understand that
if we don't apprehend principles of chaos and principles of disorder,
it will only lead to more disorder, more chaos. We talked about the
principle of evolution and its flawed presupposition. Did we
talk about that? Evolution will tell you that
we are going from bad to better. that we are evolving on an upward
scale and that our species, particularly mankind, is slated to become
superhuman over another 10 billion years from now. Because the process
has been so long, as you know. Hundreds of billions of years
have gone by in the process of evolution. It's been so slow
that you can't actually detect the evolutionary process under
the microscope. But trust us, that is the case.
The reality is, is evolution is clearly seen to be a degenerative
process, that it is a consequence of inner struggle that devolves
and destroys species, eats up species just to survive because
the wages of sin is what? And if we don't understand that
principle, it will apply in any institution. In any institution,
the law of reciprocity, as we said, can apply and what we would
want to build up, we can find ourselves tearing down. Isn't
that Romans 7? The good that I would, I do not. The evil that
I would not, I find myself doing. So then I discover if I hang
out long enough that there's a law that has entered into the
equation that I wasn't aware of that is actually deconstructing
the whole objective. That's called the law of sin
and death, working in my members to keep me from doing what I
want to do. But that was because I did not
anticipate or recognize the chaos principle, the chaos principle
that's inherent in my makeup. And if I don't apprehend that
chaos principle, then I'll continue to still deteriorate. This is
the mystery of iniquity that works in the human race. Why
we don't achieve what we say we want to achieve. Am I making
some sense? So chaos will produce more chaos. Disorder is contrary
to the character of God. And we began to look at the verses
that scripture enunciates for the local church to understand
that chaos is not something that's acceptable. Disorder, confusion,
disarray is not acceptable in the gospel church. Go with me
again in your Bible, 1 Corinthians 14. I'm going to run through
these verses a couple more, and then we're going to move into
our next proposition. And I just want to make sure
these are home first Corinthians chapter 14 for our newer people
One of the things that I am always conscious of and you guys might
get weary with me for being so repetitive But what I am extremely
conscious of is that in the 21st century at our present time People
are so biblically illiterate that it is extremely important
to go over important points again and again and again You'll have
one new person in the Bible study who has never, um, heard these
things. And for them, this is a revelation. And so it's important to go over
things again and again, for clarity's sake. It's Proverbs 6, 23, by
the way, reproof of instructions are the way of life. The same
way we teach our children and we are resolved to tell them
a thousand times until it's inculcated in the framework of their thinking.
So God does with us too, because we are slow. First Corinthians
chapter 14, verse 33. I'll start at 33. This has to
do with the gifts of the spirit. We talked about it last week
in verse 32. Just for the record, no gift that is given to any
Christian has the ability to take that Christian and control
that Christian in a way in which they are out of order, chaotic,
or under the control of that gift without their own volition. There's no spiritual gift given
to the christian of which the christian doesn't have control
over that gift For a christian to say I can't help myself is
for a christian to be out of control For a christian to be
out of control is for him to be antithetical to the character
and nature of god god created us in his image and in his likeness
and the last thing he wants his christian people to be Functioning
is out of control the world's out of control but not God's
people. And the Spirit of God is not
given to you so that you can be out of control, but rather
in control. One of the fruit of the Spirit
is self-control. It's one of the evidences that
God has reigned in your fallen nature, that mad, maniacal principle
that would destroy the whole world if it weren't for the grace
of God restraining you so that you and I can be civil and can
demonstrate the image of God. So here in the local church,
when you have people standing up, as it were, speaking the
word of God prophesying as you have in a lot of churches and
they just do it out of order chaotically without any discipline
structure prerequisite any foundation what Paul says in verse 32 is
the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets you guys
got that subject to the prophet the gift spiritual gifts of the
prophet their capacity to interpret to expound to articulate and
then to proclaim scripture is subject to them. They must be
subject themselves and that gift is subject to them. They don't
get to just act a fool. Verse 33, for God is not the
author of confusion. You see that, right? When you
read your Bible, especially in the King James and you read words
like for, these are clauses between sentences, that's called a purpose
clause. For clauses are purpose clauses.
Therefore clauses are conclusive clauses. Four clauses are purpose
clauses, and they are generally purpose clauses to clarify the
previous proposition. The previous proposition is none
of God's servants function in a chaotic way because God is
not the author of confusion. You guys got that? This is what
we call an exegetical in theology. The previous verse is explained
by the next verse. No prophet prophesies out of
order because God is not a god of disorder. Does that make some
sense? So it goes on to say, for God
is not the author of confusion, but of what? And if we take that
term peace, we understand that that is a central fruit of the
spirit. It is a central characteristic of the kingdom of God. The kingdom
of God is what? Righteousness, peace, and joy
in the Holy Ghost. So at the center of the life
of the Christian, Christian man, Christian woman, Christian couple,
Christian church is the officer called peace. At the center of
the life of the Christian man, Christian woman, Christian family,
Christian church is an officer. He's a police officer in the
spirit realm called what? Peace. He is called the peace
officer. Let the peace officer of God
rule in your hearts. by the Holy Ghost. That's Colossians
chapter three and four. You guys know that, right? Let
the peace of God rule, let him empire, let him referee, let
him govern, let him determine. And so everything that you and
I do, if we are collaborating on a thing or we are deliberating
a matter, if we are trying to determine which way to go, whatever
conclusion we draw, it must be laid out on a foundation of peace. If we are walking in the spirit,
If it's a consequence of turmoil and conflict and antagonism,
even hostility and antipathy, then we know the spirit of God
is not in his fully fleshly. Are you guys with me? It's fully
carnal. It has no spiritual qualities
to it at all. And these are not the patterns
that the Christians should walk in. And certainly the local church
should not be hallmarked by conflict and hostility as a as a primary
principle. He's not the author of confusion,
but a piece as in all the churches of the saints. This is what I
said last week, not some gospel churches, all gospel churches
are churches of order, discipline, structure, clarity. And then he goes into the, um,
the whole issue of, of women's roles in the church, because
in Corinth, they were doing like our present day feminist egalitarians
do basically destroying the distinction between the man and the woman.
saying we can be just like the man without distinction. You're
asking for confusion when you do that. You know that, right?
When, when the woman wants to be just like the man and the
man wants to be just like the woman, you're asking for nothing
but confusion. You guys know that, right? And
so the Lord says, no, not, not, not my, not my church and not
my church. And so this is very important
to see this. And then we saw it also in second Timothy, as
well. And we looked at Jeremiah chapter
3 verses 20 through 28 where Jeremiah had the vision of the
whole earth being void and without form. You guys remember that?
That's an image that was picked up from the Genesis narrative
of which Jeremiah had been warning the people of Israel, do not
abandon Jehovah for idols. If you abandon Jehovah for idols,
you will destroy yourself. See, that's that devolution process
that takes place when you leave the true and the living God and
you embrace the idols, the secular idols of this world system. The
secular idols of this world system are deconstruction principles.
They're designed to come inside of you and blow up everything
and destroy it. They look good initially, but
ultimately when they get on the inside, they will blow a thing
up and totally demolish it. It's a fascinating thing. Can
I help you for a minute? Can I talk to us as a pastor
tonight? You want to buy a house. We need a house. But a house
can blow up a marriage. We want to buy a car. We need
a car. But a car can blow up a marriage.
We want to buy, you know, insurance for the family or we want to
buy this or that because we need certain things. If those things
are acquired on a flawed foundation, they are like time capsules that
get on the inside of the family. They sit there in an apparently
benign way and then ultimately they explode and they blow up
everything because they became an idol. They became an idol. And so it's so very important.
God told Israel through Jeremiah, you guys look just like what
happened when I created the earth, but did not bring cosmology to
it. You know, the term cosmology
is the term from which our sisters get makeup, right? You guys know
that, right? And what God did when he created the heavens and
the earth was he ordered it and he dressed it and he beautified
it. And this is what we call the
cosmos. so that when you see the universe, the universe is
not chaotic when you interpret it through the prism of biblical
truth. It is actually beautiful. What
you and I don't understand about it has to do with its transcendent
nature because God didn't make the universe for you and me.
He made it for himself. So when God says he looked upon
everything that he made and he said it was what? Very good. Well, he didn't expect for you
to understand all that that was about him God's infinite And
so he saw in this expanding universe of billions and billions and
hundreds and billions of galaxies What Job said in the book of
Job the Spirit of God garnished the heavens? He garnished them. He put makeup on he he the cosmos
became structured and ordered and beautiful And then he created
man as the pinnacle of that creation. And we should have been able
to handle that job, but we couldn't. You guys remember why we couldn't,
right? Because we turned things upside down on his head and started
talking to snakes instead of talking to God. Remember that?
See how the chaos came in? We actually started talking to
snakes. Here we had the opportunity to talk to infinite, glorious,
immutable, impeccable, unchangeable God, had a direct line to God.
and ended up talking to snakes. You know something got turned
upside down, right? And ever since then, we've been in a chaotic
state. The devolutionary process has
been working. Galatians chapter 5. Before you
go to Galatians 5, go with me in your Bible to Proverbs 25.
I want to show you a verse that I've quoted for years, but I
want this one to get inside your spirit as well. This will help
you. These couple of studies that we're doing are very practical,
but they are essential to your edification as well. Because
I think that as Christians, if you've been a child of God long
enough now, you have learned that you can't fake God out. You try to, but you just can't
fake him out. By the time you get there, he's
been there. He left a sign telling you he's
been there and he moved on to the next project. mean he saw
you way down the line. But you know, it can be years
before we unravel the deceitfulness of our own heart and come to
submit to the fact that God is omniscient. It can be years.
And in the longevity of not submitting to that fact, we can actually
really hurt ourselves. And so Proverbs chapter 25, verse
28 says this, are you there? He that hath no rule over his
own spirit. Do you see that? It's like a
city that is broken down and without walls. He that hath no
control over his own spirit. I just had to do it. It's like
a city that is broken down without walls. Now you understand the
metaphor of a fenced city, a walled city. The fundamental purpose
of a walled city is for protection. It establishes borders and boundaries,
limitations and a wall in order for those who are given access
to come in, having access to come in only through a passageway
by which they have access in. They are then secure on the inside
and the wall is there to keep people who are not qualified
are accessible on the outside. It is a division between those
who are welcome and those who are not. And when we operate
out of a principle of an unwalled city, we are leaving ourselves
vulnerable. We are leaving ourselves open.
We are leaving ourselves susceptible. We are leaving ourselves exposed
to trouble. Are you hearing me? We are making
ourselves vulnerable, open, susceptible, exposed to trouble when we don't
have those necessary restraints in our spirit. He that hath no
rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down. That's
why, you know, we get into trouble and we wonder what happened.
No control. No control. Now go with me back
to 1 Timothy, Galatians first, Galatians chapter 5. And we'll
make some advancement tonight. I wanted to make sure that we
understood the importance of that principle for which the
apostle now is going to develop some instructions as to what
the church should do with the person or persons who believe
that they can meander in the kingdom of God, roam around in
the kingdom, which is what we're going to talk about, how they
roam around in the kingdom aimlessly, listlessly, without purpose.
And the apostle will teach us that that cannot occur. In Galatians
chapter 5, I just want you to see it as an attribute of the
Spirit of God, this concept of control. Galatians chapter 5,
I'm going to read verse 22 and 23. But the fruit of the Spirit
is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness,
I'm sorry, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there's no law.
Where's the word self-control? Temperance. Do you see that?
Against such, there's no law. Temperance, temperance, the outcome
of meekness, the consequence of faith and goodness and gentleness,
longsuffering, peace, joy, love. These are noble attributes that
are to be manifested in the life of the mature believer. When
those things are absent, we are dealing with, as I said last
week, the Greek term for disorder. And you know, this here's a,
This here is a medical term, too, in the realm of psychology
and psychiatry. You know that, right? The word
is a-tactos. It's in your outline. And the root word is tactic. It is a military term for setting
up strategies by which a military Assaults its enemies with the
objective of success that when you go to war and you wage war
against the thing You don't just go at it haphazardly. You don't
just rush into battle you tactfully Strategically prepare to deal
with your adversary. It is the same way in the realm
of the spirit It is not possible to win this battle without being
tack full And we have in our what is called our contemporary
vernacular. And I said this before, when
a person is out of order, we call him what? Tacky. Tacky. When you dress out of order,
when you are disheveled, when you are just dressing in a disorderly
way, we call you tacky. Tacky. And the idea means that
you aren't being careful or thoughtful or methodical. about it. And
that's the word that's in our text. We'll get back there in
a moment, but temperance and self-control is what Paul says
is important. First Thessalonians chapter five.
Now we're in second Thessalonians, but first Thessalonians is where
Paul first was minded to raise this issue up. First Thessalonians
chapter four. First, I'm going to use chapter
four. I want you to see how he speaks to this in first Thessalonians. And then before he closes out
the second epistle, He addresses it again, which, as I said last
week, means this. There were persons in the congregation
who did not get with the business of walking in order, submitting
to authority, being governed by rules. They thought they were
free radicals in the body politic of Christ. Anybody know what
a free radical is in medical terms? Know what a free radical
is? Free radical is the cause of cancer in the body. Free radicals
are the causes of cancer in the body. When they gather together
in multitudes under oxygenation, when they're oxygenized, over-oxygenized,
they actually create cancer in the body. If they're not killed,
they build. This is why often when people
have cancer, if the doctor goes in and cuts them open, that cancer
spreads like I don't know what because the air gets in. These
free radicals, they're in all of our bodies. You know, I have
tons of cancer cells, free radicals that would love to get all through
your body, eat you up. You know that, right? But your
good blood cells are fighting off these free radicals until
the free radicals become more than the good blood cells. And
then we go into a cancerous state. You guys understand that the
metaphor is the same. If we don't purge the body of
these free radicals, contain them at least, they will have
the tendency to bring about a cancerous condition in the church. You see the metaphor, don't you?
So the apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 11, we would that your
love increase more and more, verse 10, verse 11, and that
you study to be what? Study to be quiet. And so the
apostle is actually that word study. There is actually the
Greek term Be diligent pursue with diligence the concept of
quietness Pursue with diligence the concept of quietness. Isn't
that an interesting thing? Here we we're actually talking
about how to adorn the gospel. Really, that's what we're talking
about. What does the man or the woman who has been made the object
of God's free and sovereign grace, who has been placed in Christ,
who has been called by Christ, regenerated by Christ, sealed
by Christ, placed in the body of Christ, purposed by Christ,
what is that man or woman to do with this glorious salvation
that is theirs irrevocably? They are to adorn that gospel
by a life of purpose. Did you guys get that? I'm going
to say it one more time. A true, an informed Christian,
an informed Bible-based Christian does not live a tacky life because
this glorious redemption that he has now been made a part of,
having deposited into his life the third person of the blessed
triune God, it has called him to a life of purpose, structure,
a life of business. He does not get to run around
idle. No member of the body of Christ
is idle. And so people who are freelancing
running around idle are either woefully uninformed or as we
are going to see in our text, they are willfully neglecting
the call to industry. Our text tells us in verse 11
and that you are to study to be quiet. Do you see that? That's
powerful, isn't it? Some of us have to be taught
how to be quiet. This is true. Our mamas and daddies
were so careless with us. They thought it was cute for
us to be loud and clamorous all our days. We were making noise
in the grocery store. We were making noise in the doctor's
office. We were making noise on the bus. We were making noise
at the park. We were making noise at the theater. And God knows
we were making noise in the church. There was no place that was sacred
for us. We thought we were the center of attraction. Can I get
one witness? And the problem are parents who don't discipline
their children. Well, you know, he does that
because he has ADHD. OK. What happened long ago before
that diagnosis of ADHD? I don't know, Pastor. What was
it? Well, it was a board of education that went on the back side of
their mind, and it ran that ADHD out real quick. Didn't it run
it out real quick? OK. Listen to it. And that you
study to be quiet and do your own business. Do you see that?
We're gonna get into that here in a little bit more. This is
interesting. I want you to understand the antithesis. The antithesis
to a disorderly life is quietness and one's own business. Can you imagine that? God saved
you by His grace and He gave you a business. He gave you a
business. He actually employed you in his
business and there are things for you to do now Remember you
didn't have nothing to do you were just running around lazy
loafing about in your spirit and in your mind But once God
saved you he gave you a part of his company For you to do
your listen to the word own business. Now. All we need to do is learn
what that is That's what we're gonna do Contextually, the Apostle
Paul was talking about people who were freeloading in terms
of not working physically and acquiring income by which they
could eat their own bread. So he says in verse 11 and 12,
and then we'll see it over in our text. Study to be quiet,
do your own business, work with your own hands as we commanded
you, that you may walk, what's the word? Toward them that are
without. See, this is about a testimony
to the unbeliever. See it? Toward them that are
without and that you may have lack of what? So that by our
industry, in our obedience to Christ, comprehensive obedience,
that's what you'll see in your outline under the next point,
the commendable character and comprehensive conduct of what
it means to adorn the gospel. If you and I get in line with
the will of God, Proverbs 3, 5, what God promises is that
we will be productive believers in a way that we will be fruitful
enough to be a blessing to others. That's his promise to us. The
believer who gets inside of the will of God and starts walking
according to God's will, will be fruitful enough to be productive
in the lives of other people, beneficial to other people. You
and I won't be takers, we'll be givers. It is more blessed
to what? Give than to receive. But the
underlying premise of giving is that you have already what?
Received. You're not a taker, you're a giver. Every Christian
ought to want to bear so much fruit that they just can't wait
to give stuff away Every Christian ought to want to be just like
that and that's what God is calling us to it glorifies him There's
a world out there that is ravished by sin by darkness by error by
lies by damnation by by Satan on its way to hell and it has
needs and of which only the believer can meet those needs. But if
we're not busy about our father's business, then we won't be there
to meet those needs. That's really what's in view
here, that we might walk honestly toward them that are without,
that you may lack nothing. Go with me now in your Bible
to 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, and then we'll make our way back
to our text and start dealing with some of the verses that
are in front of us as we close out tonight. Verse 14 again,
now we exhort you brethren, warn them that are, see the word unruly?
There it is. Comfort the feeble-minded, support
the weak, be patient toward all. So you see how the Apostle Paul
is concerned about this issue? How it bothers him that there
are elements in that local body politic that are not productive. He says, watch those guys and
warn them because They were, there were people going about,
go with me into the second chapter, uh, second Timothy three. There
were people that were actually going about to share with you
this, this play in the Greek term, busy bodies. That's over
in verse, um, 12. Now them, them that are set. No, I'm sorry. Verse 11. Let's
see. No, the busy body verse Verse
11, for we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly,
working not at all, but are, see the phrase, busybodies. See
that? Busybodies. So what Paul is saying
is this, if a person is a busybody, we're getting ready to talk about
what that actually means. If a person is a busybody, either
they don't have work of their own to do, or they have neglected the work
that was theirs to do in order to get in somebody else's stuff. Are you there with me? So here's
the attitude that the believer must have in particularly in
the first century where the class status of most of God's elect
in the first century and for probably a thousand years and
maybe even more until the industrial age became universal was you
had your elite, your upper echelon wealthy, and then you had in
some societies a reasonably solid middle class. But the upper echelon
wealthy and the solid middle class had nothing to do with
the lower class. You're extremely poor people.
And you see this in many countries today are they are they in their
caste system, they are separated from your middle class and your
upper class by a status system that says they are in extreme
cases, untouchable are people that are not worth associating
with and mingling. Well, the vast majority of the
people that come to Christ are from that lower class. the caste
system, the rejects, the poor people, the dissolute, the folks
that are broken, difficult in their struggles economically
and different things of that nature. Those are the ones, the
poor have the gospel preached to them. Now, what happens when
the gospel is preached in power is that there is a process of
renewal that takes place in the mind and in the heart. The heart
is renewed, the mind is renewed, and no longer does the poor sinner
wallow in his poverty, sticking out his cup, begging. He's asking
God to give him gifts so that he can be productive in society
and begin to make his way up the rung of the ladder in productivity
and usefulness. Am I making some sense? And God
gets honor out of a society of believers, no matter what level
of the caste system they're on, where they start to become industrious,
productive and fruitful by the Spirit of God. God opens doors.
Can God open doors? God can start businesses, little
companies. I actually love using India as
a model because India is one of the most poverty stricken
countries in the world. It is just absolutely desolate. and
dissolute in so many ways and get down at the lowest levels,
Bangladesh and different countries where the poverty is so extensive. You see these little groups of
people starting businesses, little businesses, working in the marketplace,
making, and I see this in Mexico too, in different third world
countries where they make these little trinkets out of nothing,
wood and leather and different stones, indigenous material in
the culture, right? And these are beautiful artifacts,
aren't they? Watch this now. Come on now,
tell the truth. If you ever have gone to any
of these countries and seen the industry of these poor people,
it humbled you because of the skill set required to make these
things. It humbled you because you and
I know that we have been raised up in a culture that says don't
even think of acquiring those kinds of skill sets until you
got out of high school. You didn't graduated from college.
You didn't got your degree in some pre-packaged, you know,
job description that our culture says is what will make you successful.
Now I'm thinking, I'll just tell you while I'm talking to you,
I'm thinking that whoever drew that plan up, drew it up in order
to make sure the vast majority of us fail. Whoever drew the
plan up that the American dream is go to high school, go to college,
get a degree in this business, that business, whatever the contemporary
successful business model was for the modern world and the
postmodern world as we're in it, The vast majority of people
aren't even mentally gifted for some of those jobs. And so what
that does is it sets up so many people for failure because they're
told that failure and success is predicated upon a B.A. or
B.S. or Ph.D. or a Master's or what
have you. And a lot of job categories that don't, aren't even relevant
today. With the shake-up of our economy, there are a lot of jobs
today that aren't even relevant. And these people got Master's.
Am I making some sense? and they know that they are back
at square one right now. They're still idiots. Cause I
mean, you know, you can be, you can be an educated fool. I want
you to know that you can be an absolute educated moron. I mean, just moronic. Like you,
you can't even take care of yourself. I'm telling you, there are people
with degrees that can't take care of themselves. They don't
know what to do if they don't get somebody to give them a cubicle
with a computer and something to do. They got their degree
up on the wall and now they can do computer programs. But if
you take them out of that sphere and out of that realm, they're
going to die right on the street in front of you. That's not going
to happen to my hispanic brother my latino brother in their indigenous
countries My african brothers because i i've seen i've seen
my poor brothers and sisters take stuff out of out of the
dirt and just create wonders All they want to do is have a
rate of exchange by which they take that hard work that they
put into that art form Give it to you so they can have a few
dollars so they can feed their babies And god calls that an
honest day's work He calls it an honest day's work. And can't
regeneration by the Holy Ghost bring a man and woman to that
point? So, you know, we actually got problems in our culture where
you got all these people who are professing to be Christian
who don't have the ability to get up off of there and go to
work. Problem, huh? All right, let
me let me keep going. Is that when we hit a wall right
there? Let's see here. In our outline,
what the Apostle Paul wants us to understand is that God has
called us to commendable character. So I'm going to share with you
a few verses on that. Commendable character. This is
what this is all about. Developing the kind of character
that causes people to want to be interested in what you believe
and who your God is. Colossians chapter 2. Go with
me in your Bible. Colossians chapter 3. It's Colossians chapter
3. Now, let me start at Colossians
2. I see what I'm doing. I see why I'm in Colossians 2.
Let's start at Colossians 2. I'm going to start at verse 5
and go through 7, and then I'll go into Colossians 3. Paul is
talking to the church at Colossians, and he's commending them. This
is what it is, commendable character. This is one of the churches that
actually got it right when it came to the gospel, even though
they wrote Paul and said, Paul, we've got Gnostics in our church
telling us that Jesus is not God, but that he's someone of
a litany of gods and a chain of gods and aeon Chain of God's
and he had to straighten it out. So we read over in verse 5 for
though I'd be absent in the flesh This is Paul speaking yet. Am
I with you in spirit now notice what he says join and beholding
your what? Join and beholding your order.
That's the first thing that washes and the steadfastness of your
what in Christ So he says there are two things that are manifested
in the Church of Colossi order and That's our term for a military
rank. Establish everybody in position.
And when we are talking about order in the military sense,
what we are talking about is subordination to our superiors. And see, this is part of the
deconstruction process, too, that we have to be careful about
when it comes to a sort of democratic society that buys into an egalitarianism
that says we are all equal without distinction. I know some of you
probably didn't get that, but just get the CD and do your own
grammar search and you might pick it up. But let me say this.
It does not bode well for the Christian to always argue his
rights or to always argue equality. It doesn't bode well for the
Christian to do that because the his rights are equality thing
has to be based upon order and structure that God sets up. Do
you remember the day, mamas and daddy, like me, when your child
actually walked into the house with this strange twisted notion
that they had a right, watch this now, a right to argue everything
with you. You remember when they came in
the house with that notion that they could just argue every assumption,
every tradition, every value. And they just debated you back
and forth. I mean, everything was an argument.
Remember that? You know they were possessed
by a devil, right? You know they were possessed by a devil. What
had happened was they went to the secular school system and
they had piped into them humanism and humanism at later foundation
for them to destroy what we call hierarchical principles, change
of commands, the word submission, which give people pimples today.
Submission causes you to break out in rashes. Subordination
causes you to have hives and get sick. And yeah, listen, This
even goes on in our so-called Christian church, where the idea
of submission is just antithetical. And when I see that in a professing
Christian, you know what I know? They don't know the Bible. We're
going to have a profound message this Sunday on what the purpose
of the Word of God is. Full exposure is the title of
the message the word of god and what it's designed to do hebrews
4 12 the word of god is alive and sharp and quicker than and
quick and and is uh sharper than any two-edged sword and is able
to pierce through pierce through pierce through pierce through
the dividing of the soul and the spirit the marrow and bone
is the discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart
and no body can hide from god's word we're going to talk about
how the word of God exposes all this folly that people erect
as arguments against God. When God says, if you wanna be
blessed, learn to submit. Where there is no submission,
there is no blessing. And that really is the problem
with our culture. A lot of times people throw up arguments and
our kids will, when they get educated in college, they'll
throw up these inane arguments whereby they thought they had
become more intelligent than you. And really what it is, is
not wanting to submit. There's a principle of antagonism
in our nature where we don't want to submit to anything and
anyone and even God. And in the church, when that
happens, we are in trouble. So Paul says, I thank God for
the order and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. As you
have therefore received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in
him, rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith
as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Listen
to what he says in verse 7, verse 8. Beware lest any man spoil
you. See that little term, spoil you?
That means plunder you. Plunder you. What do you mean,
pastor? Well, you are like that walled
city that we described in Proverbs 25, 28. The person that has no rule over
his own spirit is like a city without walls, all broken down.
But the person that has discipline, that has discernment, that has
knowledge, that has the spirit of God, is like a city that's
walled up, protected from the enemy. What Paul says is, be
careful that the enemy does not enter in and plunder all the
resources of biblical truth that God has given you to protect
you in this warfare. The goal of the enemy is to come
in and to take away biblical truth from your mind. So he leaves
you destitute and you don't have the kind of testimony that God
is calling you to. And so the apostle Paul says
here in verse eight, beware lest any men spoil you through. What's
the word? Uh huh. See, that's what our
kids get in college. They get philosophy. They get
philosophy. and the fundamental meaning of
philosophy here is love for human wisdom. Love for human wisdom. Philosophy in itself is love
for wisdom, but the Bible was very clear that there are two
wisdoms. In 1 Corinthians 1, the wisdom of God and the wisdom
of the world. 1 Corinthians 2, the wisdom of
God and the wisdom of the world. And when our kids go to college,
what they learn And what I learned is the wisdom of the world. They
don't teach you the wisdom of God. Only God can teach you that
through his word. And when you are taught the wisdom
of God through the word and you learn the wisdom of the world
through the school system, you realize that these are two theses
that oppose each other, right? These are two systems. I, you
know, I have young college students always writing me pastor. I'm
having a hard time getting through my philosophy class or through
my physics class or through my medical class because my profs
are always inserting their own ideas and trying to strip me
of my Christian values. It's a real warfare for our children.
in college around those. What do I do? They say. And I
say, well, you have to stand on biblical principles. You have
to hear their theses, their underlying assumptions for what they believe
are true. But you have to get back on the side of a biblical
worldview and say that's wrong according to the scriptures.
You have to understand their arguments. You have to understand
their views. You have to understand their
illogic. But you don't have to embrace
it as your worldview. You still have to get an A in
the class. Am I making some sense? You still
have to get an A in the class for you to say, I understand
evolution to be this. And it starts with the big bang
and it ends with utopia. I understand the underlying premise
for that. And thus it works this way. But
now if you ask me the next question, Now don't ask me the next question,
because I'm going to have to tell you, I don't agree with
it. See, so if they don't ask me
the basic follow up question, do you agree with it? Profs will
do that to you. They will challenge whether or
not you embrace it as a worldview to own it. And they'll threaten
to fail you in the class if you don't. Well, you got to stand
for Christ. Do you hear what I'm saying? You got to stand
for, you just got to stand for Christ. And so it's a battle
for our children. So pray for them because it's
not easy for them. And some of them get won over
to that philosophy. They get won over to it. And
next thing you know, they're throwing God out the window.
Some of our kids have come home and don't believe in God. Can
you believe that? Don't believe in God. No, I don't believe in
that stuff no more. No, I'm smarter than that. I'm
smarter than that. I believe something came from
nothing. I believe something entered into
the universe absolutely out of nothing. It just appeared and
then that thing that came into existence out of nothing was
intelligent enough to evolve into this complex system we call
the universe. Watch it. All by itself. I am smart. Okay Even though there is nothing
in the universe that underscores our supports that hypotheses
everything in this universe that we can see empirically is Created
by something it has an antecedent cause right So so they have just
bought a pure doctrine of faith and don't even know it they were
made stupider by the class than before and They don't realize
that the whole premise upon which evolution is based is flawed
at the start Now this is where teaching our children how to
think is important to you guys believe that that's why you got
to watch out for all of that old goofy TV you get caught up
in because TV is designed to have you thinking in terms of
conflicts and It allows you to live in a pluralistic relativistic
society where conflict is undetectable, being conflicted in your ideas
that is contradicting yourself and not knowing you're contradicting
yourself. That's bad. But contradicting yourself and
knowing that you're contradicting yourself and don't care that
you're contradicting yourself is even worse. That's what we
call pluralism. And that's self-destructive.
It will destroy you. if you buy into that type of
hypotheses. So Paul says, beware lest any
men spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit and the traditions
of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. And I'm simply asserting to you,
ladies and gentlemen, that before we devolve into a chaotic state
on a sociological level or a psychological and emotional level, We devolve
in a chaotic state on a philosophical level. It is a philosophy that
integrates itself into our thinking that gives us and furnishes us
with tools in order to advance our self-destruction. So what
Paul says is he commends the character of the believer who
walks in order, walks in harmony, walks in unity, walks in a principle
of submission of government, This is why when you read your
Bible in the New Testament, you will find that the apostle will
set in the New Testament epistles this sort of this dichotomy of
principle. In the first half of the epistle,
he deals with theology. In the second half of the epistle,
he deals with practice. We call this in theology the
indicative imperative principle, the gospel, and then the response
to the gospel. In the first half of the epistles,
he will talk about who you and I are in Christ. And so we have
this rich, profound body of theology underscoring the person and work
of Jesus Christ. And then he gives us what is
called the Therefore Clause. It's the bridge between what
we are and what we do. And once we are told what we
are, then we are told what we do. Husbands, love your wives.
Wives, submit to your husband. Children, obey your parents in
the Lord. All of you be subject to one another, be subject to
authorities, be subject to governments, and thus adorn the gospel of
God. Am I making some sense? And that's
the tenor of every epistle. The challenge for the early church,
and it is for our church today, is not so much can we get a hearing
of the gospel. That was never the case. The
challenge was whether or not people who call themselves people
of faith could live in a dark world, walking in the light,
governing themselves in an orderly fashion so that they could demonstrate
that they are a holy people set apart by the grace of God. I
have to say that again, because I know we missed that. The challenge
of the people of God is not our ability to be talkative and vocalizing
what we believe. That's not the challenge. I was
listening to a couple of philosophers today, and one of them was a
noted and touted agnostic and maybe even an atheist. And he
was talking with another theistic philosopher about the need to
be able to integrate atheistic philosophy with theistic philosophy.
And and what he was saying was there's a history in the Christian
church where The Christian church has been able to demonstrate
not by mere proclamation of the word, but by an ethic of life
that allowed them to become salt and light wherever they were,
which opened the door for propositional truth to be explored and considered. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? In other words, can I get to the 21st century if I'm over
your head right now? Your Christian testimony is going to mean nothing. If as you are sitting in that
office, going through the interview with that potential employee,
he steps out of the room and you steal one of his pens and
he's got a camera on you because, you know, there are cameras everywhere.
Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? Because the notoriety,
the public testimony of the average Christian today is that his ethics
and his morals are filled with chaos. That Christians are thieves
and Christians are frauds and Christians are ripoffs and Christians
don't have any kind of moral ethical integrity whatsoever.
That's the way the world sees us. And it's true. That's why church means nothing.
to the unconverted. They may come if they want to,
you know, dance and play or hear a sermon or something, but it
means nothing to them when they see the individual atomized Christian
in the workplace operating out of low life principles that are
contrary to the gospel. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? It means nothing to them. We have completely destroyed
the testimony of the gospel. And this is something that has
to be recovered. See, Paul was worried about that. He was worried
about this profoundly magnificent message of redemption, free to
all in the hands of men and women who would not adorn it with a
life committed to the glory of God. He was worried about that.
So this is why we're dealing with what are called correctives
in our Epistles look over in chapter three. I'm going to read
in chapter three Verse nine and ten. Let me start at verse Seven
and go through a verse eight through ten of chapter three
show you what I'm talking about But now you also put off all
these things chapter three anger wrath malice blasphemy Here's
one of our contemporaries in our present Christian Church
people think they're cool with this filthy communication out
of your mouth See, Paul was like a fly on the wall, wasn't he?
That brother was in jail. He heard all this going on in
the church. Lie not one to another, seeing
that you have put off the old man with his what and have put
on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created. See what verse 10 says. Listen, if you
are being renewed in knowledge, your conversation is going to
change. Look at verse 12. Put on therefore
as the elect of God, holy and beloved. Here are the things
that will characterize a mature believer. Bows of mercy, kindness,
humbleness of mind. See that one? Some of us need
to circle that one, humbleness of mind, because that's where
our trouble lies. We think that we are more than
we are. That's a problematic element
right there in the American Christian church, by the way. Romans chapter
12 says let every man Think soberly as he ought to let him not think
above that which is written of him You know, what's written
of you and me? with sinners with depraved minds
and depraved hearts and And that we are prone to evil and wickedness.
And that without the Spirit of God, we can't think one right
thought. And that if we were ever to think a thought and do
a thought, it's God working in us the will and the do of His
good pleasure. If you have a half an hour in your life where you
did the right thing, you better praise God, because that was
the grace of God that did it. That's called thinking soberly.
The idea that somehow you naturally, out of a predisposition that
is rooted in your genes, has the ability to carry yourself
in such a noble status that rises above your average fellow. You're
smarter than your average fellow. You're more bright than your
average fellow. I'm not as bad as other men. Well, that's pharisaical.
You know, that's Luke chapter 10. I'm not as bad as other men. No, you're not. You're worse. You just don't know it. You just
don't know it. You're worse. It's only got grace
of God keeping you there. So here's what Paul says. Walk
in humbleness of mind. The humbleness of mind is thinking
in a preferable way, knowing that you don't deserve what you
get in terms of the goodness of God and being ready to prefer
others above yourself. Meekness, long suffering, forbearing
one another, forgiving one another. If any man of a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. See what he's
saying? Verse 15. Here it is. That's
the verse we were talking about earlier. And let the peace officer
of God rule in your hearts to the which also you are called
in one body and be thankful. Hey, I can tell you something.
If you want to know how to walk in the spirit on a, an empirical,
subjective, personal level, ask God to come near you in your
walk so that whenever you are making decisions and that decision
is wrong, The the spirit of God snatches that peace officer away
and causes you to start trembling with anxiety Ask God to do that
because immediately you will know that you are contemplating
departing from the will of God Immediately immediately you will
know this ain't right. I don't know. I don't know but
this ain't right now I don't feel no peace about this now
be careful because you can harden your heart and you can have a
false peace and Now, this is part of the reprobation that
goes on in our society, too. There's a bunch of professing
Christians that are sociopaths. You can harden your heart in
something that's contrary to God's will, and you can call
it peace. You know that, right? Deuteronomy chapter 29, he says
it. Those who say, I will have peace,
even though they add drunkenness to thirst. I'm just going to
have peace. I'm going to do this thing because I want to do this
thing, and I'm going to have peace. Those people have crossed
the line, and they have disregarded. the spirit of God that convicts
us. That's a dangerous place to be. You do know that, right?
Very, very dangerous place to be. But a lot of people are drawn
there. Let me see here. How am I going
to deal with this? OK, let me let me let me say
this. This is important before we wrap this up. Go back to our
text. I'll do this. Go back to our text. Let's make
some advancements. Let's look at what Paul says is essential
to do when we are dealing with people who just refuse to walk
in order. Instructors, time to look at
that. I wanna make sure that we take this up. This is where
we left off last time, and I wanna take this up now so that we can
deal with the questions that are about to come on this. Paul
said, with such a person, avoid. He says, with people like this,
withdraw yourself. from them. Leave off. We left off last time with that.
That's where I want to start at. That's, uh, that's, uh, let's
see here. Verse six. No, no, no, no, no.
Yeah. Verse six. Now we command you, brethren,
in the name of the Lord Jesus, that you withdraw yourself from
every brother that walketh disorderly and not after the traditions
that they received of us." Do you see that? We command you
that you withdraw yourself. Now, we began to talk about that
in our Q&A last week. Why is it important, Christian?
When you come into contact with a person or persons who have
failed to line themselves up in rank under the word of God
and set themselves in subjection to obedience to the scriptures.
Why is it important that you in the verb form therefore to
withdraw is in what we call a reflexive verb form. And it means for you
to take yourself out of the way of that person's conduct. is
for you to remove yourself. And the idea is that you are
endangering yourself while you stay in the path of a person
who walks contrary to order and structure. So why would Paul
say that the remedy for these kinds of people is not you talking
to them over and over and over again, but withdrawing yourself
from them? What's that about? What's that
about? What is he getting at when he
says, The thing that's going to penetrate, if anything's going
to penetrate, is when the people of God avoid, leave off with,
separate themselves from that kind of conduct. What are we
trying to impress upon that person's mind? We're letting them know
by our disassociation with them that what they are doing is egregious. It is so intolerable, intolerable,
that I am not willing to associate with you in a normal setting
because to do so is to, in some sense, condone what you're doing.
Are you guys hearing me? When people fail to walk in order,
fail to keep themselves in the Lord's... And this is really
what's going on. Here's how this works. If you
want to know that, uh, that which God has so clearly called you
and I to in terms of his business. Remember what Jesus said? I must
be about my father's. What do you know? When God calls
you by his grace, he has business for you to do. Do you know it
would be ludicrous for any believing Christian to come to any other
believing Christian and say, you know, I'm just I ain't got
nothing to do. Yeah, I'm just I'm just hanging
out. What should I be doing? That's
a ludicrous mindset. It means that Christian has been
avoiding the scriptures. Am I telling the truth? They
have been totally avoiding the word of God. So let me establish
this picture for some of you. This is going to bless some of
you. It's going to wake some of you up too. You are not in
the Lord's business if you are a man and you aren't praying. That's part of God's business.
Praying. Are you praying? That takes time.
You make prayer a part of your life every day, five minutes
in the morning. You got that? And five minutes
at night. You know what praying is going
to do if you pray five minutes in the morning, five minutes
at night? Praying is going to engage your mind on spiritual
things. That's going to open your understanding
up on practical things. That's going to give you insight
into things on a daily basis. That's going to open doors for
you to enter in, to be productive. Prayer It's going to also give
you confidence with God because in talking with your heavenly
father, communing with your heavenly father, what it does is bolster
faith. That's what prayer does. Prayer
will bolster faith. It will open the door for you
to start thinking in a larger periphery with a greater clarity
on things that right now seem mundane and unnecessary. Now
watch this. Your mind was made by God to
see things and interpret things and respond to things as part
of daily life. But if you're not talking with
God, the prism through which you are interpreting things will
be so narrow and so flawed and so obscured. You won't see anything
in an everyday life by which you can bring glory to God. I
remember talking to us about this in the Friday study maybe
a half a year ago, right before we left our old building to come
over here. And I said, I want you saints
to start thinking in terms of the glory of God invading your
life every day and what I meant by that brother Willie was this
if I am sensitive to God and he is the living God and he governs
the universe and he walks and functions among human beings
saved and unsaved I should be able to see the glory of God
in a thing several times a day I should be able to see the glory
of God in a thing several times a day. And if I see the glory
of God in a thing, in a child, in an act, in a place, in a business,
in an event, in a sound, in music, in something every day, several
times a day is going to prompt worship on my part. And prompting
worship on my part is going to open my mind even further to
being able to see things in a proper light by which now I might be
able to actually penetrate that thing and do some redemptive
good for myself or for somebody else. See, this is called having
the mind of Christ. the mind of Christ. But if my
mind is not being renewed in this exercise, I am wasting lots
of days in the mundanity of life and not seeing the glory of God.
I'm not seeing opportunities to witness to that atheist or
agnostic or that troubled sister or that troubled brother because
I'm locked into this dark, obscure prism that is basically selfish
and narrow. Am I making some sense? That's
a lot of business going on in the context of prayer. All right.
Let's take five minutes to pray. Then let's take five minutes
to read. Oh, Lord. Five minutes to read. Pastor,
I ain't got time to read my Bible. Well, you better take five minutes
to pray. Five minutes to read your Bible.
Five minutes in the morning. Five minutes at night. Do you
understand what's going to happen if you open that book? We're
going to talk about it on Sunday. Do you know? Do you know what happens
when you open the Bible and you are deliberate to read? for five
minutes. Do you know what God promises
he will do? He will commune with you in the
scriptures. He will commune with you. He will open your understanding
the biblical truth. He ain't promising you going
to like everything you read. In fact, if you weigh out a kilter,
if you're out of alignment, you're not going to like what you read,
but it's going to bless you anyway. It's going to bless you anyway,
because the word of God is designed to reprove us, to correct us,
to instruct us. It's designed for reproof correction
instruction and training and righteousness So we're gonna
hear things in the scriptures when we read them. That's gonna
go. Oh, man. I didn't know that. Oh Man Lord, I'm so glad you
brought that back to my mind This is why David says oh how
love I thy law it is my meditation all the day long wherewith all
shall a young man cleanse his heart by taking heed to thy word
and With my whole heart have I sought you. Oh, let me not
wonder from your commandments. Your law and your statues are
my daily delight. They are the thing that brings
clarity to my mind, David says. Take not the word of truth utterly
out of my mouth. How shall I answer them that reproach me if I don't
have the word of God? So David was talking about the
utility of scripture in his own life on a daily basis. That's
probably one of the reasons why we are so ineffectual in our
life. because there's not this reciprocating
relationship between us and the scriptures in order to deal with
life. Am I telling the truth? That's
probably so we're probably too carnal. I'm just saying it like
it is. You're probably just trying to
come. So pray, man, read. And then and then the other thing
is worship. Don't just come to church. Worship. Worship, expose, your heart to
God. You got that? Expose your heart to God and
worship. That's what worship is. The hour
is coming when they that worship me will worship me in spirit
and in truth. For such the father seeketh to
worship. And so if a man is praying, if
a man is reading, if a man is worshiping, that man is going
to be busy, isn't he? Here's another one. If he is
fellowshipping. This is hard, too. This is why
you got so many Lone Ranger Christians. You know, you know how frequently
you run across that Christian justice. I would fellowship,
but all the Christians I know are all jacked up. You meet those
people. I don't like because Christians
are so jacked up. Who are you fooling? Who are you fooling? You are
the one jacked up. Did you hear me? You are the
one jacked up. Not just the Christians. You
are. If you get your heart right,
fellowship will actually create industry for us. You know what
happens in fellowship? You get to hear stories in fellowship. You get to hear testimonies in
fellowship. You get to hear troubles in fellowship. You get to hear issues in fellowship.
You get to hear people talk about their life in fellowship. You
get to hear triumphs. You get to hear failures. You
get a periphery in the kingdom of God when you fellowship with
people, when you do it right. And then you are now increased
in your business for the Lord. to either help that person by
assisting or interceding in prayer or directing their attention
to somebody. Now, all of a sudden, we're getting more busy, aren't
we? See what I'm getting at? Now we're more busy. Now it ain't
all about us. So praying and reading and worshiping
and fellowshipping, and of course, what you and I are doing is studying,
studying, studying. Those are just a few things.
And then when we take this little list here and then we break it
down into the more specific categories, are you a husband? Well, I can
add another 50 things to that. Are you a wife? I can add another
50 things to that. Are you a student? Are you an
employer? Are you an employee? I can add more things to that.
Now, all of a sudden, do you know what's going on? You are
now furnished with God's business. in this world so that you are
no longer walking as a busybody in other people's business. The
only reason you are in other people's business is because
you aren't doing your own business, which God has called you to.
And here's what Paul said, study to be quiet. That means keep your mouth shut. about other people's business. We ought to be able to, now if
I was in the country, I could get away with this. See this
one here, what I'm about to say now, I shouldn't say it, but
I'm getting ready to shut it down. I'll open the floor for
questions. I shouldn't say, if I was in the South, in the country, I
could get away with this. We ought to be free to shoot
anybody that has the audacity to want to talk about somebody
else in the church. Hey, hey, he just, he just said
somebody to just pull him on out and shoot him and send him
on the glory right away. Boom. We'll see you when we get
there. Boom. We'll see you when we get
there. That's a bad church. Well, they gossiping. You haven't,
you heard how many shots was going on in that church. The Apostle Paul says avoid them
withdraw yourself from them And he says in verse 14 and if
any man obey not our word by this epistle Note that man and
have no company with him that he may be what's the word? Yeah
At work in the first century. I don't think it works now. I
Don't think shame works today. I just don't think it works.
We are so hardened It really takes the grace of God to understand
the virtue of shame. Yet count him not as an enemy,
but admonish him as a what? That's right. He's heterodoxical,
but he is not a heretic yet. Heterodoxical meaning he is practicing
wrong, which ultimately will lead to bad theology. Bad practice will lead to bad. I've met people like that. I've
met people who started off with sound theology and they were
living right, but the devil got a hold of them and they started
going down a wrong course and it was heterodoxical. Their practice
was alien to the scriptures. It was contrary. Listen, it was
contrary to the character, nature of the church on a sociological
level. They became now, they became now hostile toward the
body because they wanted to do something that was contrary to
the word of God. And then they began to build a theology to
justify it. So we go from heterodoxy to heresy. What Paul said is their conduct,
their conduct does not become the conduct of a productive,
industrious Christian, but we're not going to call them a heretic
yet. We're going to separate ourselves
from them, tell them we don't have time for that and that shunning
ought to cause them to be ashamed. But if it doesn't shame them
and their heart gets hardened, they will find a system of theology
that will make you unsaved and them saved. You know what I'm
saying. Any questions before we shut
this down? We got some questions. Any questions to deal with tonight?
One, two, three. No questions? You guys OK? Let's
stand up and pray.