1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,780 Now let's open the Word of God together to 1 Timothy chapter 4 in our study of this brief 2 00:00:07,780 --> 00:00:13,760 epistle from Paul to the pastor of the church at Ephesus. 3 00:00:13,760 --> 00:00:24,820 I'm going to begin reading in verse 1, but the Spirit explicitly says that in later times, 4 00:00:24,820 --> 00:00:30,360 one will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines 5 00:00:30,360 --> 00:00:37,960 of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding 6 00:00:37,960 --> 00:00:39,440 iron. 7 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:46,860 Men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully 8 00:00:46,860 --> 00:00:51,200 shared in by those who believe and know the truth. 9 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:56,560 For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received 10 00:00:56,560 --> 00:01:05,040 with gratitude, for it is sanctified by means of the Word of God and prayer. 11 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:10,480 Christians are Christians because we believe something. 12 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:19,080 We've committed our lives to a set of beliefs that we might call the faith. 13 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:26,080 We trust those tenets to be true and powerful and to bring us into a living relationship 14 00:01:26,080 --> 00:01:29,500 with the eternal God. 15 00:01:29,500 --> 00:01:35,420 These truths are able to give us significance in this life and beyond that to provide an 16 00:01:35,420 --> 00:01:39,380 assurance of eternal life. 17 00:01:39,380 --> 00:01:41,880 We are Christians because we believe something. 18 00:01:41,880 --> 00:01:51,100 As a matter of fact, everybody believes something, some idea, some notion. 19 00:01:51,100 --> 00:01:56,120 That idea, that notion becomes the foundation for life. 20 00:01:56,120 --> 00:02:00,180 That's even true of an atheist. 21 00:02:00,180 --> 00:02:10,920 What we have come to believe by the grace of God is called in Timothy a sublime mystery. 22 00:02:10,920 --> 00:02:21,780 Verse 16, by common confession, great is the mystery that those who are godly embrace. 23 00:02:21,780 --> 00:02:28,020 It is a mystery in the sense that what we believe has been disclosed to us by God. 24 00:02:28,020 --> 00:02:32,660 It is not something that we have concocted. 25 00:02:32,660 --> 00:02:39,180 What we have come to believe has not been handed down by human derivation. 26 00:02:39,180 --> 00:02:47,000 What we believe has been revealed to us by God himself. 27 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:49,920 It is the mystery. 28 00:02:49,920 --> 00:02:55,100 It is the faith in Jesus Christ. 29 00:02:55,100 --> 00:03:01,860 The same spirit who led us to understand and embrace the faith of Christ, now in the text 30 00:03:01,860 --> 00:03:10,640 that we read warns us that some will abandon this faith. 31 00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:19,020 In later times, says the Spirit, an apostasy will occur. 32 00:03:19,020 --> 00:03:26,260 It's foreshadowing reached all the way back to the day of Paul. 33 00:03:26,260 --> 00:03:32,140 I believe that we are living in those times that was predicted by the Spirit here, the 34 00:03:32,140 --> 00:03:43,980 later times of this age, or as Paul calls it in 2 Timothy 3, 1, the last days. 35 00:03:43,980 --> 00:03:49,900 By the way, I heard recently that 80% of Americans believe that the world will end by the year 36 00:03:49,900 --> 00:04:01,460 2000, and 90% of Democrats think it's already ended. 37 00:04:01,460 --> 00:04:07,380 We can bask in the warmth and light of our faith, but we had better be serious about 38 00:04:07,380 --> 00:04:11,140 what the Spirit of God has predicted. 39 00:04:11,140 --> 00:04:19,380 This is a solemn realization that we are in a hostile environment in this world and faced 40 00:04:19,380 --> 00:04:21,820 with danger. 41 00:04:21,820 --> 00:04:27,900 There's an old Malaysian proverb that says, just because the river is quiet, don't think 42 00:04:27,900 --> 00:04:32,340 the crocodiles have left. 43 00:04:32,340 --> 00:04:36,540 When we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we know that it's true, but let us not think 44 00:04:36,540 --> 00:04:38,900 that the war is over at that point. 45 00:04:38,900 --> 00:04:41,980 In certain respects, it's only begun. 46 00:04:41,980 --> 00:04:49,300 The danger we face in the world, as explained to Timothy in our text, is the danger of the 47 00:04:49,300 --> 00:04:56,220 influence of false ideas, false teaching. 48 00:04:56,220 --> 00:05:02,100 Paul makes it clear that the source of false ideas is spiritual. 49 00:05:02,100 --> 00:05:12,100 False thinking, mistaken worldviews, fraudulent religious and philosophical movements are 50 00:05:12,100 --> 00:05:17,220 not merely the result of innocent mistakes. 51 00:05:17,220 --> 00:05:19,900 Seldom do these originate with human error. 52 00:05:19,900 --> 00:05:24,500 Rather, they come from a spiritual source. 53 00:05:24,500 --> 00:05:32,420 Paul says that false ideas are generated by satanic agents. 54 00:05:32,420 --> 00:05:40,000 He calls them here spirits and demons. 55 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:41,500 These are real creatures. 56 00:05:41,500 --> 00:05:45,980 They are not mythological. 57 00:05:45,980 --> 00:05:51,180 Spirits or demons are supernatural beings who are in service of the devil. 58 00:05:51,180 --> 00:05:55,500 They are fallen angels. 59 00:05:55,500 --> 00:06:02,820 And in his service, their aim is to dishonor God by destroying humanity made in the image 60 00:06:02,820 --> 00:06:13,500 of God, and in doing so to thwart God's plan as if it were possible to do so. 61 00:06:13,500 --> 00:06:18,780 In fact, they are deceived, thinking they will succeed. 62 00:06:18,780 --> 00:06:29,180 False ideas are a part of a conscious strategy on the part of God's spiritual enemies. 63 00:06:29,180 --> 00:06:33,980 And these false ideas generated by demons are intended to deceive. 64 00:06:33,980 --> 00:06:45,380 He speaks here of deceitful spirits and the doctrines that come from demons. 65 00:06:45,380 --> 00:06:49,180 They are intended to deceive mankind. 66 00:06:49,180 --> 00:06:55,440 Demons specialize in deception, for they are like their father, the devil, who is the father 67 00:06:55,440 --> 00:06:59,060 of liars. 68 00:06:59,060 --> 00:07:06,460 William Shakespeare said the devil can quote scripture for his purpose, and indeed he can 69 00:07:06,460 --> 00:07:16,540 quote scripture and mix with it his lies in order to deceive those who are innocent. 70 00:07:16,540 --> 00:07:20,140 Eve would be an example of this, of course. 71 00:07:20,140 --> 00:07:28,860 Satan pretended to offer Eve the opportunity to have her consciousness raised to a higher 72 00:07:28,860 --> 00:07:34,260 level, to use the New Age kind of terminology. 73 00:07:34,260 --> 00:07:38,740 He said, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. 74 00:07:38,740 --> 00:07:42,060 Eve, your consciousness can be raised. 75 00:07:42,060 --> 00:07:45,220 But he was lying. 76 00:07:45,220 --> 00:07:48,620 He was deceiving her, and she bought it. 77 00:07:48,620 --> 00:07:51,380 And we are all part of the result of that. 78 00:07:51,380 --> 00:07:54,940 We are sinners. 79 00:07:54,940 --> 00:08:01,340 Demons produce false ideas that seduce the thoughts and the thinking of people, turning 80 00:08:01,340 --> 00:08:06,700 them away from the truth and from God. 81 00:08:06,700 --> 00:08:11,540 Now the means of false ideas is sinister. 82 00:08:11,540 --> 00:08:19,400 After all, if a demon were to appear in a physical form and try to deceive someone, 83 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:21,180 it would be a frightening experience. 84 00:08:21,180 --> 00:08:22,180 No, no. 85 00:08:22,180 --> 00:08:25,660 There are much more clever and evil than that. 86 00:08:25,660 --> 00:08:32,140 Their means is sinister because what they do is to use human beings. 87 00:08:32,140 --> 00:08:37,100 Their false ideas are promulgated by humans. 88 00:08:37,100 --> 00:08:45,700 Spirits rarely work openly, as in the occult, but much more commonly orchestrate behind 89 00:08:45,700 --> 00:08:54,780 the scenes an example of how a human can be used in such a means was given to us last 90 00:08:54,780 --> 00:09:01,740 week by the elder candidate who told about his college professor, a man who had at one 91 00:09:01,740 --> 00:09:09,100 time been in the ministry, the Christian ministry, but who renounced his faith and who made it 92 00:09:09,100 --> 00:09:15,300 his quiet goal to undermine the faith of every freshman that came into his university class. 93 00:09:15,300 --> 00:09:25,780 That's why I say that the means of false ideas is sinister. 94 00:09:25,780 --> 00:09:32,540 For it is humans that are used by the spirits to deceive other humans. 95 00:09:32,540 --> 00:09:38,420 And these humans are described here by Paul with some pretty strong language. 96 00:09:38,420 --> 00:09:44,300 He says they appear to be genuine, but they're wearing a mask. 97 00:09:44,300 --> 00:09:54,500 They appear to be open-minded, broad-minded, but they have a predetermined agenda, he says. 98 00:09:54,500 --> 00:09:58,660 He uses the word hypocrisy to describe them. 99 00:09:58,660 --> 00:10:04,620 He says by means of the hypocrisy of liars. 100 00:10:04,620 --> 00:10:11,500 The word hypocrisy means to pretend, to play a part, to play act. 101 00:10:11,500 --> 00:10:19,260 In other words, he says that these false teachers are not really sincere, and the hypocrisy 102 00:10:19,260 --> 00:10:27,780 of their lives leaves them open to even further demonic manipulation and influence. 103 00:10:27,780 --> 00:10:32,260 He calls them outright liars. 104 00:10:32,260 --> 00:10:38,220 People who speak what they know is not the truth, even though they may be learned and 105 00:10:38,220 --> 00:10:49,980 pious, yet they cover up their ignorance by their words. 106 00:10:49,980 --> 00:10:57,620 Their spiritual end is kept hidden, their immoral activities in the background while 107 00:10:57,620 --> 00:11:03,900 they portray something else and they're lying. 108 00:11:03,900 --> 00:11:14,580 Paul has said sin has many tools, but a lie is the handle that fits them all. 109 00:11:14,580 --> 00:11:20,900 And then the apostle describes these hypocritical liars as those who are seared in their own 110 00:11:20,900 --> 00:11:23,220 conscience as with a branding iron. 111 00:11:23,220 --> 00:11:28,940 In that day, sometimes criminals were branded. 112 00:11:28,940 --> 00:11:35,180 A hot iron was applied to the forehead, searing a mark there so that all would know that that 113 00:11:35,180 --> 00:11:38,220 person was a criminal. 114 00:11:38,220 --> 00:11:43,140 Sometimes I think it wasn't a bad idea. 115 00:11:43,140 --> 00:11:51,340 And he says that regarding these false teachers that their conscience has been branded. 116 00:11:51,340 --> 00:11:54,300 That is, their conscience has been cauterized. 117 00:11:54,300 --> 00:12:01,020 They no longer even feel guilty for the hypocrisy of their lying. 118 00:12:01,020 --> 00:12:07,140 William Hendrickson says, by constantly arguing with conscience, stifling its warnings and 119 00:12:07,140 --> 00:12:14,580 muffling its bell, they at last have reached the point where conscience no longer bothers 120 00:12:14,580 --> 00:12:18,920 them. 121 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:26,700 So false teaching is sinister because it comes very often in attractive wrappings, often 122 00:12:26,700 --> 00:12:38,380 delivered by very nice, articulate, intelligent people used of the devil. 123 00:12:38,380 --> 00:12:42,500 The example that he gives us of false ideas here is suggestive. 124 00:12:42,500 --> 00:12:45,140 Paul doesn't explain what all false thinking is. 125 00:12:45,140 --> 00:12:51,020 The whole epistle couldn't contain that kind of information, but he writes in a representative 126 00:12:51,020 --> 00:12:59,700 way here about false ideas put forth by demonic deception. 127 00:12:59,700 --> 00:13:07,240 Basically we can summarize what he says in verse 3 by saying that false teaching is the 128 00:13:07,240 --> 00:13:14,780 idea that human works can curry the favor of God. 129 00:13:14,780 --> 00:13:21,740 The practice that he censures here is false asceticism. 130 00:13:21,740 --> 00:13:28,460 The idea that one can deny himself and in doing so have a spiritual gain. 131 00:13:28,460 --> 00:13:34,460 That you deny the flesh and by denying the flesh you somehow improve your spirit or your 132 00:13:34,460 --> 00:13:35,780 standing with God. 133 00:13:35,780 --> 00:13:43,620 He says these people, at least that he has in mind right here, forbid marriage and advocate 134 00:13:43,620 --> 00:13:49,460 abstaining from certain foods. 135 00:13:49,460 --> 00:13:52,700 D. Edmund Hebert elaborates, 136 00:13:52,700 --> 00:13:59,540 Abstinence from marriage is regarded by them as a means to higher sanctity, thus placing 137 00:13:59,540 --> 00:14:05,220 the celibate life on a higher spiritual level than the married life. 138 00:14:05,220 --> 00:14:10,700 The practice of abstaining from certain foods, and perhaps all foods at certain seasons, 139 00:14:10,700 --> 00:14:17,460 is esteemed meritorious and a special virtue. 140 00:14:17,460 --> 00:14:23,380 You don't have to think too long to understand what's being said here about holding up the 141 00:14:23,380 --> 00:14:31,420 celibate life as being a special spiritual experience, or advocating the abstaining from 142 00:14:31,420 --> 00:14:38,860 foods in certain seasons like Lent, and thinking that in doing so one somehow gains merit with 143 00:14:38,860 --> 00:14:45,060 God, that that incurs or curries his favor. 144 00:14:45,060 --> 00:14:53,780 Actually what Paul is attacking here is the seed of what later became known as Gnosticism. 145 00:14:53,780 --> 00:14:58,800 It was a dualistic teaching that said that whatever is spiritual is good and anything 146 00:14:58,800 --> 00:15:01,780 material is evil. 147 00:15:01,780 --> 00:15:08,580 It blossomed to full life in the second century and was a great heresy that invaded the church. 148 00:15:08,580 --> 00:15:19,020 John also saw this coming and in 1 John sends out strong warning signals about it. 149 00:15:19,020 --> 00:15:22,820 But there's a principle behind what Paul is saying here. 150 00:15:22,820 --> 00:15:30,180 The principle that he is assuming is this, anything that promotes the works of the flesh 151 00:15:30,180 --> 00:15:41,460 as a means of gaining spiritual virtue is false, it's false. 152 00:15:41,460 --> 00:15:48,260 William Hendrickson writes, whenever human reason is exalted above Christian faith, whenever 153 00:15:48,260 --> 00:15:56,100 this thesis that sin is real and is in its essence rebellion against God is rejected, 154 00:15:56,100 --> 00:16:03,780 for whenever man's ability to save himself is proclaimed, the ghost of Gnosticism stalks 155 00:16:03,780 --> 00:16:07,300 again. 156 00:16:07,300 --> 00:16:15,180 The example of false teaching that Paul pulls out for us to look at from his day is the 157 00:16:15,180 --> 00:16:24,080 idea that there is some addition to the salvation that is by grace through faith. 158 00:16:24,080 --> 00:16:29,140 But that's not enough, that you need something more than that, be it abstaining from marriage 159 00:16:29,140 --> 00:16:34,260 or from eating certain foods. 160 00:16:34,260 --> 00:16:39,380 That the relationship that we have with God is grace plus works of some sort. 161 00:16:39,380 --> 00:16:46,800 And Paul says that is to be rejected. 162 00:16:46,800 --> 00:16:48,620 What is the answer to this sort of false teaching? 163 00:16:48,620 --> 00:16:54,700 Well Paul is very specific about it, verses 3 to 5. 164 00:16:54,700 --> 00:17:02,500 False ideas come in many packages, not just the one that I've described to you. 165 00:17:02,500 --> 00:17:07,020 I see one in the Twin Cities today, I saw the church page yesterday in the St. Paul 166 00:17:07,020 --> 00:17:13,940 paper and there is a church in our area that is talking about a new phenomenon known in 167 00:17:13,940 --> 00:17:17,840 some charismatic circles as holy laughter. 168 00:17:17,840 --> 00:17:23,540 Maybe you've heard of it, maybe you haven't, if you haven't, no need to investigate. 169 00:17:23,540 --> 00:17:28,340 I happened to run into it last fall when I was in Lakeland, Florida visiting my nephew 170 00:17:28,340 --> 00:17:33,660 and niece and saw it on television in the church where it started in that part of the 171 00:17:33,660 --> 00:17:34,660 whole country. 172 00:17:34,660 --> 00:17:40,460 It originated in Australia, then went to Toronto and now is starting to branch out in all parts 173 00:17:40,460 --> 00:17:43,780 of the North American continent. 174 00:17:43,780 --> 00:17:47,940 The idea is that if you are filled with the Holy Spirit you will laugh with hysterical, 175 00:17:47,940 --> 00:17:50,620 uncontrollable laughter. 176 00:17:50,620 --> 00:17:56,980 I watched this on television as the pastor of this church was preaching to his congregation 177 00:17:56,980 --> 00:18:01,620 that was supposedly filled with the Holy Spirit and all of them were laughing and mocking, 178 00:18:01,620 --> 00:18:06,700 excuse me laughing at him, which came across as mocking. 179 00:18:06,700 --> 00:18:13,220 I was quite curious that he wasn't laughing. 180 00:18:13,220 --> 00:18:15,780 He was being filled with the Holy Spirit as signified by laughing. 181 00:18:15,780 --> 00:18:17,620 Why wasn't he hysterical with laughter? 182 00:18:17,620 --> 00:18:19,440 He wasn't. 183 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:24,380 He was trying to preach something, but as he was preaching and talking about Jesus Christ 184 00:18:24,380 --> 00:18:27,580 the whole congregation was laughing at him. 185 00:18:27,580 --> 00:18:34,980 And I'll tell you there was no witness in my spirit that that was of the Spirit of God. 186 00:18:34,980 --> 00:18:38,660 Indeed it seemed very demonic to me. 187 00:18:38,660 --> 00:18:43,820 False teaching comes in many different kinds of packages, but there is one scalpel that 188 00:18:43,820 --> 00:18:48,940 opens them all and exposes their fallacies. 189 00:18:48,940 --> 00:18:54,860 And that scalpel, that knife is the Word of God, the truth of God. 190 00:18:54,860 --> 00:18:58,220 Now packages of false teaching come with many wrappings. 191 00:18:58,220 --> 00:19:01,840 They can be religious movements like I've just described to you. 192 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:11,380 They can be philosophical ideas that buzz around the university campuses for example. 193 00:19:11,380 --> 00:19:16,900 False teaching can come in the package of music. 194 00:19:16,900 --> 00:19:21,220 And by the way, not just rock music. 195 00:19:21,220 --> 00:19:26,660 You listen to some of the country western stuff that's out there and it's just false 196 00:19:26,660 --> 00:19:34,500 ideas, false ideas penetrating people's thinking through the medium of music. 197 00:19:34,500 --> 00:19:42,540 Talk shows on television where every unclean and dirty thing eventually appears. 198 00:19:42,540 --> 00:19:50,380 The false ideas that are portrayed in audiences clap as these people spout false thinking. 199 00:19:50,380 --> 00:19:58,940 The entertainment media, fictional books that are written, intellectual and politically 200 00:19:58,940 --> 00:20:05,340 correct materials, the teaching in some school classrooms. 201 00:20:05,340 --> 00:20:10,380 I mean false ideas come in many packages. 202 00:20:10,380 --> 00:20:13,100 There are many vehicles that deliver false teaching. 203 00:20:13,100 --> 00:20:15,740 So let's not just think that it's got to be in a church. 204 00:20:15,740 --> 00:20:19,580 It's pervasive in our culture. 205 00:20:19,580 --> 00:20:24,620 Now the best protection against the threat that all of us face of false teaching is what 206 00:20:24,620 --> 00:20:29,420 he describes here as to believe and know the truth. 207 00:20:29,420 --> 00:20:36,740 You see the facts of God will always divulge the fantasies of the devil. 208 00:20:36,740 --> 00:20:42,380 He can concoct his lies and package them any way he wants to, but the truth of God which 209 00:20:42,380 --> 00:20:47,740 we believe and know will always expose the lies of the devil. 210 00:20:47,740 --> 00:20:57,420 Now Paul brings forth some truth to expose the lie that he's dealing with. 211 00:20:57,420 --> 00:21:02,700 Begins in the middle of verse 3 where he says regarding these foods and marriage I think, 212 00:21:02,700 --> 00:21:08,580 he's saying which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the 213 00:21:08,580 --> 00:21:09,580 truth. 214 00:21:09,580 --> 00:21:15,820 Everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude 215 00:21:15,820 --> 00:21:21,060 for it is sanctified by the means of the word of God and prayer. 216 00:21:21,060 --> 00:21:26,340 We can reduce what Paul is saying here to a very simple syllogism. 217 00:21:26,340 --> 00:21:32,700 God is the creator of food and marriage. 218 00:21:32,700 --> 00:21:34,820 God is good. 219 00:21:34,820 --> 00:21:42,100 Therefore, food and marriage are good and to be enjoyed with a right attitude. 220 00:21:42,100 --> 00:21:45,340 And that attitude is gratitude. 221 00:21:45,340 --> 00:21:55,420 Not asceticism, not overindulgence, but self-control and gratitude. 222 00:21:55,420 --> 00:21:59,460 He says that these gifts of God are sanctified by the word of God. 223 00:21:59,460 --> 00:22:04,140 That is God has spoken, he has said regarding marriage this is his plan. 224 00:22:04,140 --> 00:22:07,500 He says it is good. 225 00:22:07,500 --> 00:22:13,180 It's not good the man be alone, it's good they be married, husband and wife. 226 00:22:13,180 --> 00:22:18,820 He created the earth with this bounty, he said it is good. 227 00:22:18,820 --> 00:22:22,940 That's God's declaration, that's God's truth and yet these false teachers are saying 228 00:22:22,940 --> 00:22:26,940 whatever's material is bad. 229 00:22:26,940 --> 00:22:32,520 So you see how the word of God just lacerates that false teaching? 230 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:41,460 What these people were teaching is a patent lie. 231 00:22:41,460 --> 00:22:45,700 Certainly the threat of false ideas is sobering to me. 232 00:22:45,700 --> 00:22:48,460 There's a very serious warning in this text. 233 00:22:48,460 --> 00:22:54,140 A prediction that is clearly revealed to us by the Holy Spirit when and how we're not 234 00:22:54,140 --> 00:23:05,220 told, but the Holy Spirit explicitly, clearly states that in the later times there would 235 00:23:05,220 --> 00:23:07,260 be an apostasy. 236 00:23:07,260 --> 00:23:13,660 He says some will identify with the faith and then will pay attention, that is they 237 00:23:13,660 --> 00:23:19,200 will give assent to false ideas. 238 00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:24,540 They will devote themselves to those ideas and he says they will fall away. 239 00:23:24,540 --> 00:23:30,700 In other words they will withdraw from the faith, they will go away from the faith, they 240 00:23:30,700 --> 00:23:32,700 will apostatize. 241 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:36,300 Now who is he writing to? 242 00:23:36,300 --> 00:23:37,980 Timothy. 243 00:23:37,980 --> 00:23:40,460 Timothy is the pastor of what church? 244 00:23:40,460 --> 00:23:42,100 Ephesus. 245 00:23:42,100 --> 00:23:45,940 Go back with me to the book of Acts for a moment to the twentieth chapter and notice 246 00:23:45,940 --> 00:23:59,640 what Paul had said years before to the leaders at the church at Ephesus. 247 00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:03,860 He calls for the elders of that church to come to meet him at a certain place. 248 00:24:03,860 --> 00:24:07,780 They were going to have a retreat together. 249 00:24:07,780 --> 00:24:13,980 He wanted to speak to them privately and he lays out his heart to them and for them and 250 00:24:13,980 --> 00:24:22,660 then he says in verse 28 as he begins to bring his retreat message to a close, be on guard 251 00:24:22,660 --> 00:24:32,660 for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers 252 00:24:32,660 --> 00:24:37,820 to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood. 253 00:24:37,820 --> 00:24:43,940 Notice what he says, I know that after my departure, when this retreat is over and I'm 254 00:24:43,940 --> 00:24:51,420 gone, savage wolves will come in among you. 255 00:24:51,420 --> 00:24:54,460 The leadership not sparing the flock. 256 00:24:54,460 --> 00:25:05,460 Now notice this, from among your own selves, he is suggesting that some of the people who 257 00:25:05,460 --> 00:25:11,540 went on the retreat, some of the elders of that very church, he says, from among your 258 00:25:11,540 --> 00:25:22,740 own selves men will arise speaking distorted twisted things to draw away disciples after 259 00:25:22,740 --> 00:25:27,220 them to drag them away after them. 260 00:25:27,220 --> 00:25:30,620 Doesn't that sobering to you? 261 00:25:30,620 --> 00:25:34,020 That's sobering to me. 262 00:25:34,020 --> 00:25:42,020 That there can be even among us people who will ultimately become apostate. 263 00:25:42,020 --> 00:25:47,100 Now this brings a problem to mind. 264 00:25:47,100 --> 00:25:53,380 When Paul says that there would be people identifying with the faith who would fall 265 00:25:53,380 --> 00:26:03,300 away, is he saying that there were persons who were truly saved by the faith and who 266 00:26:03,300 --> 00:26:08,820 because they fell away have lost their salvation? 267 00:26:08,820 --> 00:26:14,260 Or is he saying that these were people who were superficially going along with the truth 268 00:26:14,260 --> 00:26:21,660 until they became apostate, revealing that they were never genuinely saved? 269 00:26:21,660 --> 00:26:27,560 Well to answer that we have to go to other teaching of the word of God. 270 00:26:27,560 --> 00:26:33,160 First of all we know that the scripture clearly, and I mean without doubt, the scripture clearly 271 00:26:33,160 --> 00:26:38,940 attests to the security of the genuine believer. 272 00:26:38,940 --> 00:26:44,620 And that security also means that the one who believes will keep on believing. 273 00:26:44,620 --> 00:26:49,460 Now it may be that he will go through periods of question, even doubt. 274 00:26:49,460 --> 00:26:54,900 He may go through periods when his life is not faithful to God, but the genuine believer 275 00:26:54,900 --> 00:26:59,780 will persevere in his faith. 276 00:26:59,780 --> 00:27:03,620 He is secure. 277 00:27:03,620 --> 00:27:08,220 The scripture also clearly asserts that among the true believers there are those that are 278 00:27:08,220 --> 00:27:11,580 not genuine. 279 00:27:11,580 --> 00:27:16,500 Jesus told about the parable of the tares and the wheat. 280 00:27:16,500 --> 00:27:18,420 They're planted together. 281 00:27:18,420 --> 00:27:23,260 The farmer came and plowed his, or planted his wheat. 282 00:27:23,260 --> 00:27:27,360 The devil came along and planted the tares. 283 00:27:27,360 --> 00:27:28,500 So they're together. 284 00:27:28,500 --> 00:27:31,620 And they look alike. 285 00:27:31,620 --> 00:27:34,760 They look the same outwardly. 286 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:39,860 But ultimately the fruit is different and therefore they're revealed. 287 00:27:39,860 --> 00:27:47,020 And thirdly the scripture clearly affirms that false ideas come against the church, 288 00:27:47,020 --> 00:27:51,080 but serve a positive outcome. 289 00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:57,140 So that those who are genuine in their faith may be tested and approved. 290 00:27:57,140 --> 00:28:09,300 For example, let's just take the time to look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11. 291 00:28:09,300 --> 00:28:12,220 I like what Paul says in verse 18 of this chapter. 292 00:28:12,220 --> 00:28:18,260 For in the first place he says, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions 293 00:28:18,260 --> 00:28:21,140 exist among you. 294 00:28:21,140 --> 00:28:28,020 That's why we know that this church was the first Baptist church of Corinth. 295 00:28:28,020 --> 00:28:31,940 Now I say that because that's my background. 296 00:28:31,940 --> 00:28:34,660 And he says, in part I believe it. 297 00:28:34,660 --> 00:28:35,660 Smart man. 298 00:28:35,660 --> 00:28:38,660 Didn't believe everything. 299 00:28:38,660 --> 00:28:40,100 Then there was verse 19. 300 00:28:40,100 --> 00:28:43,820 For there must also be factions among you. 301 00:28:43,820 --> 00:28:47,780 There must be factions among you, he says. 302 00:28:47,780 --> 00:28:54,740 In order that those who are approved may have become evident among you. 303 00:28:54,740 --> 00:29:02,740 In other words, God allows false teaching to wash over the church every now and then. 304 00:29:02,740 --> 00:29:04,740 He allows that. 305 00:29:04,740 --> 00:29:11,100 Because in so doing, the false believers, those who are superficial in their faith, 306 00:29:11,100 --> 00:29:20,060 are swept away so that those who are approved remain. 307 00:29:20,060 --> 00:29:25,220 So what we're saying is that no genuine believer can become an apostate. 308 00:29:25,220 --> 00:29:28,460 The grace of God keeps him. 309 00:29:28,460 --> 00:29:33,900 But within the church there are those who do not genuinely believe, who are just going 310 00:29:33,900 --> 00:29:43,820 along with it, and they are susceptible to become apostates. 311 00:29:43,820 --> 00:29:52,260 They can be taken in by false teaching, like we've described here, and be swept away. 312 00:29:52,260 --> 00:29:58,620 And God allows that so that the true believers can remain and be approved. 313 00:29:58,620 --> 00:30:04,540 So even this sobering threat, the possibility of apostates from within the professing church, 314 00:30:04,540 --> 00:30:10,660 even this sobering threat has a positive outcome for the Church of Jesus Christ. 315 00:30:10,660 --> 00:30:14,700 I want to close quickly with four steps that I think are important in the light of the 316 00:30:14,700 --> 00:30:17,700 danger that we face in false teaching. 317 00:30:17,700 --> 00:30:21,780 The clock on the pulpit says ten minutes till nine, so I'm going to go by that one rather 318 00:30:21,780 --> 00:30:27,740 than the one on my wrist. 319 00:30:27,740 --> 00:30:33,500 Step number one, be absolutely sure of the genuineness of your faith. 320 00:30:33,500 --> 00:30:38,900 Be absolutely sure of the genuineness of your faith. 321 00:30:38,900 --> 00:30:43,420 Examine yourself, whether you be in the faith. 322 00:30:43,420 --> 00:30:51,140 Look hard at what you truly believe and what difference, what difference it makes in the 323 00:30:51,140 --> 00:31:02,180 choices that you make, the friends that you cherish, the lifestyle that you follow. 324 00:31:02,180 --> 00:31:07,340 Don't ever settle for a false assurance that can't be backed up by the evidence of God 325 00:31:07,340 --> 00:31:13,020 in your life. 326 00:31:13,020 --> 00:31:21,420 Jesus John 3.19 tells us that it is a changed life that loves with the love of God, that 327 00:31:21,420 --> 00:31:25,620 assures our hearts before God. 328 00:31:25,620 --> 00:31:29,860 I understand that we gain assurance of our salvation from what the Word of God says, 329 00:31:29,860 --> 00:31:34,140 but we also have to realize that our hearts are assured when there's a change that's 330 00:31:34,140 --> 00:31:38,260 evident to ourselves. 331 00:31:38,260 --> 00:31:43,620 The basis for our faith is the Word of God, but the proof of our faith is in the changed 332 00:31:43,620 --> 00:31:44,620 life. 333 00:31:44,620 --> 00:31:49,260 And my friend, if the changed life isn't there, you better do some deep searching. 334 00:31:49,260 --> 00:31:51,060 That's true of all of us. 335 00:31:51,060 --> 00:31:52,660 I'm talking to me as well as to you. 336 00:31:52,660 --> 00:31:57,020 We need to be absolutely sure of the genuineness of our faith. 337 00:31:57,020 --> 00:32:04,000 Secondly, be extensively familiar with the truth of your Bible. 338 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:10,900 Be committed to study it, to grasp its realities, to believe its revelation. 339 00:32:10,900 --> 00:32:19,220 And in doing so, be confident of its trustworthiness, its reliability. 340 00:32:19,220 --> 00:32:25,460 Settle in your mind once and for all that God has spoken and that what He has said in 341 00:32:25,460 --> 00:32:32,400 His Word is final, it is inerrant, and it is authoritative. 342 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:37,460 And whatever else you may hear or whatever evidence you may have out there that seems 343 00:32:37,460 --> 00:32:44,740 to contradict that, settle in your heart that the Bible is the final authority, not experience, 344 00:32:44,740 --> 00:32:52,180 not what other people say, but what God has said. 345 00:32:52,180 --> 00:32:58,060 Number three, be wholeheartedly willing to examine the content of your thinking. 346 00:32:58,060 --> 00:33:03,980 The psalmist said, search me, O God, and know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and 347 00:33:03,980 --> 00:33:07,780 see if there be any wicked way in me. 348 00:33:07,780 --> 00:33:11,220 That is a way that leads to pain. 349 00:33:11,220 --> 00:33:12,560 See if there be that in me. 350 00:33:12,560 --> 00:33:16,260 And lead me, he says, in the way everlasting. 351 00:33:16,260 --> 00:33:24,940 It's amazing, isn't it, how willing we seem to be to take the word of a college professor 352 00:33:24,940 --> 00:33:34,620 or a best-selling author or some religious guru without even asking where he's coming 353 00:33:34,620 --> 00:33:41,620 from, what his underlying biases are. 354 00:33:41,620 --> 00:33:50,180 Isn't amazing how much time we give to listening to things like music, the lyrics of which 355 00:33:50,180 --> 00:33:57,860 often pump false ideas into our brains and we never test that. 356 00:33:57,860 --> 00:34:01,860 So be wholeheartedly willing to examine the content of your thinking. 357 00:34:01,860 --> 00:34:07,420 Dr. Evan O'Neill Kane was a pioneer in the medical profession. 358 00:34:07,420 --> 00:34:13,820 He was chief of surgery at New York City's Kane Summit Hospital. 359 00:34:13,820 --> 00:34:20,380 During his 37 years of experience, Dr. Kane had seen too many deaths and disabilities 360 00:34:20,380 --> 00:34:23,780 caused by general anesthesia. 361 00:34:23,780 --> 00:34:28,660 So it was his studied opinion that the most major operations could and should be done 362 00:34:28,660 --> 00:34:30,620 with a safer local anesthesia. 363 00:34:30,620 --> 00:34:35,580 His only problem was he couldn't find any volunteers. 364 00:34:35,580 --> 00:34:40,340 Until one day someone finally stepped forward to put his theory to the test. 365 00:34:40,340 --> 00:34:46,660 In 37 years, Dr. Kane had conducted nearly 4,000 appendectomies, all fairly routine, 366 00:34:46,660 --> 00:34:48,740 but this one would be different. 367 00:34:48,740 --> 00:34:54,180 The patient would remain awake through the entire operation. 368 00:34:54,180 --> 00:34:58,060 Before surgery, the patient was prepped and wheeled into the operating room where local 369 00:34:58,060 --> 00:35:00,060 anesthesia was administered. 370 00:35:00,060 --> 00:35:05,460 Dr. Kane began the operation and carefully cut through the surface tissues, clamping 371 00:35:05,460 --> 00:35:09,100 off blood vessels in route to the appendix. 372 00:35:09,100 --> 00:35:16,860 Using the organ, the 60-year-old surgeon adroitly pulled it up and performed the surgery. 373 00:35:16,860 --> 00:35:22,740 The operation concluded successfully with the patient experiencing only minor discomfort. 374 00:35:22,740 --> 00:35:27,260 In fact, the patient recovered with such remarkable speed that just two days after his surgery 375 00:35:27,260 --> 00:35:29,660 he was released from the hospital. 376 00:35:29,660 --> 00:35:33,100 Dr. Kane's test was a brilliant success. 377 00:35:33,100 --> 00:35:39,900 The risks of general anesthesia could be avoided by using local anesthesia instead. 378 00:35:39,900 --> 00:35:45,500 This milestone surgery was performed on February 15, 1921. 379 00:35:45,500 --> 00:35:48,300 And you might want to note this final interesting fact. 380 00:35:48,300 --> 00:35:53,600 Dr. Evan O'Neill Kane and the patient who volunteered for the experimental procedure 381 00:35:53,600 --> 00:35:55,660 had a great deal in common. 382 00:35:55,660 --> 00:36:01,060 They were the same man. 383 00:36:01,060 --> 00:36:08,460 What I'm saying to you is that we need to do some surgery on our thinking. 384 00:36:08,460 --> 00:36:15,120 As painful as we think it may be, we need to look into our minds and discover why we 385 00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:22,980 think what we do and do surgery where it is needed. 386 00:36:22,980 --> 00:36:28,380 And finally, in order to be prepared for the danger that's out there, we need to be completely 387 00:36:28,380 --> 00:36:34,800 devoted to the Lord Jesus Christ and His work in the world. 388 00:36:34,800 --> 00:36:40,360 We want to stay on course and not get sidetracked like those unfortunate people mentioned in 389 00:36:40,360 --> 00:36:44,540 chapter 1, Hymenaeus and Alexander. 390 00:36:44,540 --> 00:36:49,460 They had made shipwreck concerning their faith because they were not completely devoted to 391 00:36:49,460 --> 00:36:52,780 the Lord Jesus Christ and His work. 392 00:36:52,780 --> 00:36:55,100 Let us be so. 393 00:36:55,100 --> 00:37:02,700 Let us look unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. 394 00:37:02,700 --> 00:37:12,020 Someone has said, he who walks close to Christ leaves no room for anything else to come between. 395 00:37:12,020 --> 00:37:15,460 We live in a world that is dangerous. 396 00:37:15,460 --> 00:37:21,340 It is dangerous because of the false ideas that are epidemic. 397 00:37:21,340 --> 00:37:25,820 But let us show loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ in the face of them. 398 00:37:25,820 --> 00:37:31,660 A few years ago there was what was called the Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco. 399 00:37:31,660 --> 00:37:36,180 A large religious service was part of that exposition and many people were gathered to 400 00:37:36,180 --> 00:37:41,860 hear a minister who was delivering a main address. 401 00:37:41,860 --> 00:37:49,220 It soon became clear that although he was a gifted speaker, he began to direct his eloquence 402 00:37:49,220 --> 00:37:56,940 against the power of the blood of Jesus Christ to redeem sinners. 403 00:37:56,940 --> 00:38:08,120 The story goes that when the influential minister had stopped speaking, a timid elderly lady 404 00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:18,080 stood up in the midst of the crowd and began to sing softly a hymn written by William Cooper. 405 00:38:18,080 --> 00:38:30,040 The words went like this, There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, 406 00:38:30,040 --> 00:38:38,820 and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. 407 00:38:38,820 --> 00:38:44,600 On the second verse about a hundred people stood and joined her. 408 00:38:44,600 --> 00:38:49,340 And they sang together those words. 409 00:38:49,340 --> 00:38:54,740 And by the time they reached the fourth verse, over a thousand people in that congregation 410 00:38:54,740 --> 00:39:01,820 stood to sing, Dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all 411 00:39:01,820 --> 00:39:09,140 the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. 412 00:39:09,140 --> 00:39:15,420 Let us show the same kind of devotion to Jesus Christ that that dear lady showed. 413 00:39:15,420 --> 00:39:19,900 And when we hear that false teaching, let us not only reject it for ourselves, but let 414 00:39:19,900 --> 00:39:31,540 us confront it and be loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ in this world filled with false teaching 415 00:39:31,540 --> 00:39:35,420 that come from the devil. 416 00:39:35,420 --> 00:39:37,420 Let's pray. 417 00:39:37,420 --> 00:39:41,620 Father, we thank you for the truth of your word. 418 00:39:41,620 --> 00:39:48,540 We thank you for its instruction, for its blessed truths, for its warnings as well. 419 00:39:48,540 --> 00:39:54,260 I want to pray this morning for every one of us gathered here. 420 00:39:54,260 --> 00:40:02,060 And the first prayer I offer, Father, is that if there be one of us that has a false sense 421 00:40:02,060 --> 00:40:07,140 of assurance regarding our salvation. 422 00:40:07,140 --> 00:40:08,860 If somehow we have missed it. 423 00:40:08,860 --> 00:40:21,060 If there be some way we have believed in a false gospel that mixes works with the grace 424 00:40:21,060 --> 00:40:24,180 of God. 425 00:40:24,180 --> 00:40:32,460 We will see today the error and turn to the message of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ 426 00:40:32,460 --> 00:40:36,860 shed for our sins. 427 00:40:36,860 --> 00:40:44,260 May your children here be filled with great assurance regarding the finished work of Christ 428 00:40:44,260 --> 00:40:49,980 and the security that belong to all who are yours. 429 00:40:49,980 --> 00:40:57,340 And we pray that you will make us faithful disciples in a world that is filled with false 430 00:40:57,340 --> 00:41:02,900 ideas and which will only get worse as time goes on. 431 00:41:02,900 --> 00:41:08,380 And may we stay on course in Jesus' name, amen.