2 Timothy: Directives For Christian Leaders

In this episode, we take a closer look at 2 Timothy 2:14–19, where Paul gives Timothy four essential directives for Christian leaders. We'll examine each directive and consider how these instructions continue to shape faithful leadership and Christian living today.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Colleville Grace Chapel Podcast, where we value the expository preaching and teaching of the Word of God for the purpose of life transformation. I would encourage you to get your Bible and to turn to 2 Timothy Chapter 2. We're still in 2 Timothy Chapter 2. Second Timothy chapter 2, we we will pick up in verse number 14 in just a moment. Every musician, every musician in an orchestra, is highly trained and talented. They could play anything with their instruments. However, they also recognize that as a member of an orchestra they're playing in a symphony, that they can't just play whatever they want to play, whenever they want to play it. They were given sheep music and they're given directives from a conductor. Can you imagine a musician in an orchestra playing in a symphony, just disregarding the sheep music, disregarding the directives given from the conductor and just playing whatever they wanted to play, whenever they wanted to play it? It would not take very long for that musician to be rejected from the orchestra. Well, similarly, we as Christians have been given sheep music. We've been given the scripture. We too have a conductor whose name is Jesus Christ. And we must follow his directives. As Christians, we don't have the luxury, nor are we afforded the opportunity just to teach whatever we want to teach, whatever we feel like teaching, or live however we want to live, and completely disregard the scripture and completely disregard the directives from our conductor, Jesus Christ. And so we as Christians must follow the directives given to us. With that thought in mind, let's look at the text. It is 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 14 through 19, a reading from the English Standard Version. And the Bible reads, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hamenaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some, but God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Amen. And that is a reading of God's word. Paul told Timothy, or Paul informed Timothy, to give directives to the Christian leaders of the church in Ephesus. From that, we can learn that Christians are given directives. What are the directives given to Christians? There are four directives given to Christians in this text. First directive given to Christians is to cut it out. Listen to this. In 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 14, remind them of these things and charge them before God not to quarrel about words which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. So Paul instructed Timothy to give directives to the Christians, particularly his leaders there and the church at Ephesus. And the first directive that he gave them was to cut it out. In other words, do not get engaged in a war of words. Do not engage in debates or arguments over senseless matters. Cut it out. Listen, man, they they spilled much ek debating this topic. How many angels can fill a single space since angels are immaterial beings? They went back and forth over this for a long period of time. They engaged in senseless arguments. I mean, it is kind of an interesting thought. How many angels can fill this space right here? How many angels can fill up this room? How many angels can fill up this sanctuary since they are immaterial creations? We don't know. Nor should we care. That's a senseless argument. If God wanted us to know, he would have put it in the word. To engage in a debate and an argument over that is to eventually lead away from the scripture and into speculation or worse philosophy as the authority when scripture is the authority of the church. And what's really senseless about that argument is this when you think about the scholastic monks, they primarily operated during the second century. And in the second century, you had a mass influx of pagan Greek philosophy into the church. So rather than defending Christian doctrine and pushing back against pagan Greek philosophy, they're arguing and they're concerned over how many angels can be in a room. How about a more modern example? You realize there are churches today that are having trouble dividing, having divisions in their church over what heaven is going to be like. Based on someone's supposed dreams and visions about their supposed trip to heaven. To believe in someone's so-called vision about their so-called trip to heaven is speculation. They're not the authority. I don't care how real it may have seemed to them. You realize in a hospital or near death experience or something like that, your brain can do all kinds of things. Am I calling them liars? No, I'm just saying they're not scripture. So therefore, I don't put a lot of stock in anybody's so-called trip to heaven. The one person that I really would have liked to hear about would have been the apostle Paul, and he wasn't even allowed to tell us. You ought to read that in 1 Corinthians. What John did see, he wrote for us. And let me say something to you. It is normal and natural for a Christian to think about heaven. It is normal and natural for a Christian to go, man, I wonder what heaven's like. I can't wait to be there, and so on. It is abnormal to fight about it. What God wanted us to know about heaven is in the word of God. So when somebody comes to you about I had this experience and I had this dream and had this vision, just yeah, that's really nice. But don't put any stock in it, it doesn't matter because what God wanted us to know is in his word. Amen. Okay, I should be done being offensive for this point. What are we getting at? Well, Christians are directed to cut it out. Quit arguing and debating things that don't matter. What matters, God has given to us in his word. See, the scripture tells us that to get involved in senseless arguments and debates can only serve to stir up drama. Which is what you see happen in churches. 1 Timothy chapter 6, verses 4 through 5. It reads, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy. But you need to go back and read 1 Timothy 6, you know, to have it as context, but we're not talking about engaging in senseless arguments. Paul had already dealt with this at the church at Ephesus in 1 Timothy. He's having to do it again in 2 Timothy. And he makes it very clear that people who engage in this kind of thing, they have an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words which produce envy, dissension, slander, even suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. In other words, when the church engages in the senseless arguments and debates, then all it really does is serve to stir up drama. So cut it out. What Paul is encouraging Timothy to tell his church. Another reason, it doesn't do any good and it can only lead to destruction. Think about what the text said in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 14. It reads, remind them of these things and charge them before God. Not to quarrel about words which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. Do not get engaged in senseless arguments. Instead, we as Christians, we as a church, should be focused on three things. Number one, preach the text as it is, not as you want it to be, not as you want it to say, as it stands in the Word of God. The scripture tells us that very clearly in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verse 13. It says, Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of scripture, to exhortation, to teaching. Teaching what? The scripture. Not your opinion, not debates, not arguments, not personal visions and revelations. The scripture is what we preach and teach. The second thing that church should be focused on is defending the faith. The scripture tells us this in Jude chapter 1 and verse 3. It reads, Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write, appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. The church is charged with the responsibility to defend the faith. So we preach and teach the text, the Bible, the scripture, we defend the faith, and we make disciples. That's the third focus, Matthew chapter 28, verses 18 through 20. Jesus came and said to them, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I'm with you always to the end of the age. Yes, that's it. That's the focus of church. Everything else are add-ons. This is what we do. We preach and teach the word of God, we defend the faith, and we make disciples. Now, the way that we can accomplish that can have various different arms and tentacles to it, absolutely. It can be more than just coming to church on Sunday morning. I get that, but this is the focus of what we do. And so the first directive given to Christians is simply cut it out. Stay focused on what matters. Everything else is speculation. What God wants us to know, He clearly revealed in His scripture. Amen. The second directive given to Christians is to cut it straight. The first one cut it out, the second one is to cut it straight. Listen to this text. It is 2 Timothy 2, verse 15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth. And so, if you're following the thought, the apostle Paul told Timothy to instruct his people there in Ephesus to cut it out. Don't get engaged in senseless arguments and debates. It's not going to accomplish anything where it's spiritual good. And one of the best ways to avoid getting caught up in the senseless arguments and debates is to cut it straight. Meaning rightly handle the word of truth, which is the word of God, the scripture, the Bible. By the way, the phrase rightly handling in the English Standard Version, rightly handling in the original language meant cut it straight. Cut it straight. What does that mean? It means rightly interpret and apply the biblical passage. Each passage can only have one intended meaning, but it can have multiple applications depending on the circumstance. When you write a letter, well, we don't even write letters anymore, do we? Um when you send a text to someone, you send an email or a text to someone, you have an intended meaning, don't you? It's not left open to interpretation, is it? If it is, you're a poor communicator. Like when you send a text to someone, it should be direct, and this is what you mean. Right? Even if you use um sarcasm or irony, so you say one thing, but you mean the opposite, it still has an intended meaning, and people can pick up on the sarcasm and the irony, right? Well, that's used in the scripture. I mean, the the prophets are a great example. They use sarcasm, they use irony to get their point across, but you can see it. You you can you can you can feel it and see it dripping off the pages of scripture, like you know they're using sarcasm, but they're getting across their point. Okay, so to rightly handle the scripture, you have to correctly interpret the passage and apply it to the context that you're in. In order to do that, you have to cut it straight. And by the way, that requires work. Again, the text in 2 Timothy 2.15, it says, do your best. Some translations will say diligently or so on. Like, in other words, work hard. You need to be a worker, not ashamed, but rightly handling the word of God. A worker, it requires work and diligence to correctly interpret the scripture. Now, the the main things are the plain things, like what everything that we need to know regarding, you know, sin, salvation, um, God's glory, power, and so on. Those things are clearly stated in scripture. But but still requires work. What you don't do is flip open the Bible with your eyes closed, kind of do this, and then read a scripture and go, and then come up with your own meaning. The great illustration about that is, and it's not me, preachers have been saying this uh for a long time. It's like if you open up the Bible and you plop it down on your desk here and you do this number, and you say, Okay, Judas went and hanged himself. You close it, you do it again, you read, go and do likewise. Probably, probably not the best approach to Bible study, because how you how you how you how you interpret that? How you gonna apply that to your life? Does that make sense? No, no, no. You you you have to you have it's it would be like me grabbing your phone and just kind of scrolling through and picking out a random text and reading it with no backstory, no context, or anything. I would be left going, what what is that? But if I scroll up and read, you know, the previous 10 or 15 texts or whatever, I'd get a pretty good idea of what's going on. So it is with the scripture. Please realize chapter numbers, verse numbers, that did not enter the text until the 1500s. By a guy, I believe his name was Stefanos. Um, he he was he was Calvin's uh printer in Geneva. And I actually I thought he I think he did a pretty good job at breaking the text. Um, and it helped it's helpful for us. So, because the the Protestant reformers preached expository sermons, like I do, verse by verse through books of the Bible, so it's easier for everybody to have a reference point. But if you're not careful, you'll read just like verse number three and think it stands alone. It doesn't stand alone, it's connected to a larger letter, and so you have to read the whole thought. Okay, so it that requires some work, but it can be done, especially with the leading of the Holy Spirit in your life, and so rightly divide the word of God, cut it straight. Cutting it straight's important. Um, what if a farmer did not plant straight rows? Have you ever driven um down the road, look over here and see a combine weaving like this? No, of course not. And if they and if they did, if that's how they cut the rows in their field, they would limit the harvest, they would limit the amount of crops that field can produce. That's why crops are laid out a certain way. Not to mention those big, you know, the big machines they have. They they're not designed to do this, they're designed to go straight. Right? Um, all right, think about a floor installer. Let's let's say you're putting carpet in your house and you've got a guy who's cutting the carpet like this, right? And then it goes to roll it out, and then all of a sudden you've got a space like this, the carpet doesn't go all the way to the baseboard. Not to mention you're gonna have phrase all at the end of your carpet. You would not be very happy about that, would you? You would be on the phone demanding they come out and fix it at their cost, would you not? Or what about a surgeon? You think a surgeon is gonna pick up a scapel and just start cutting like this? No, they cut very straight lines and then pull you apart. That's important. You want people who can cut it straight? How much more should we be precise when it comes to interpreting the word of God that He has given us? We don't just pick it up and start doing this. We learn to cut it straight. If God gave us His word, it is our responsibility to make sure we understand it and apply it in everyday life. That's right. Why? Why is that important? Well, just a couple of things based on the text. Number one, cutting it straight allows us to be approved by God. That word approved in the original language means um tested and found genuine. Yeah, so you can tell um a true Christian from a false Christian by their desire, their hunger to know the word of God. And they've got a pretty good handle on the text. They know it. This is what the scripture tells us in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 15 do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does um who has no need to be ashamed, but rightly handling the word of God. One who is approved. The second reason why you want to cut the scripture straight is this you want to go from information to transformation. You want to go from information to transformation. God did not give us his word. God did not preserve his word just so we could have information. He gave us his word so we could experience transformation. We can be conformed to the image of Christ. We can live holy lives. And that only comes from rightly cutting the word of God, rightly interpreting the scripture and applying it to our context. When I think about this, James chapter 1, verses 22 through 25 come to mind. Says, be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away at once, forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets, but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. In other words, it's more than just reading, it's more than just hearing, it's actually applying it in your life and living it out. And that's the point. God went to great lengths to preserve his word for us, not for information, but for transformation. It is designed to change you. And so the second directive given to Christians is to cut it straight. The third directive given to Christians is to cut it off. Cut it out, cut it straight, cut it off. Listen to this. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 16 through 18. But avoid irreverent babble. For it will lead people into more and more ungodliness, and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hamanaeus and Philetus, who have swerved from the truth, saying that the resurrection has already happened, and they are upsetting the faith of some. So he goes back and he says, This, listen, avoid irreverent babble. Because if you continue to engage in irreverent babble, senseless arguments and debates, you are going to cross the line into heresy. And when you cross that line into heresy, you are in trouble. And your church is in trouble. Cut it off. In other words, Paul was encouraging Timothy that as soon as he recognized that there were debates and there were arguments and there were conversations being had in the church that were heretical in nature, the pastor had to step in and say, stop and cut it off. And if people are continuing to follow heresy, then they are to be disciplined in the church, in other words, and cut off from the fellowship. Because if not, that teaching is like gangrene. Do you know what gangrene is? It's nasty, is what it is. Right? It's an infection in the in your in your body, in the flesh, and it rots your flesh, and it stinks. You can smell it. And the flesh turns like this funky green color and purplish black. You can see it. It's dyed, it's literally rotting and killing the flesh. You know what the cure is? Amputation. Cut it off. Because if not, it will continue to spread throughout the whole body. And the apostle Paul told Timothy, this is what you have to do to protect the body of Christ, the church. When there is heretical teaching in the church, if you don't cut it off, it is going to spread like gangrene and it is going to rot the church. So it's extremely important. What do we do then? How do we go about this? How do we cut it off? Here's some suggestions that I think the word of God bears out for us. Number one, test all teaching according to the scripture. Not what you've always been taught, not what you've always heard, not what happens to be popular at the moment. What does the Bible say? First John chapter 4, verse number one reads, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world. I have a question. How do you test a spirit? You test it according to the scripture. Notice the connection. Don't believe every spirit, because they're not all from God. Test the spirits because many false prophets have gone out into the world. What are we talking about? A false teacher has gone out into the world claiming to say something by the Holy Spirit, whether or not how you know is the scripture. It reads, Let two or three prophets speak and let the others weigh what is said. Okay, so 1 Corinthians 14, Paul tells the church at court, hey, this is the basic order of service for your church. This is how it works. You let two or three prophets speak. Yeah, you can't have two or three of us standing up here trying to preach a sermon. That would not do any good. But whoever is speaking, what they're saying should be weighed. How do you weigh it? The scripture. There's no other way. It's not like the words come out of my mouth and you can catch them and go put them on a scale. We're not talking about weighing, we're talking about truthfulness. The only way to know is to weigh it, to judge it according to the word of God. And so test every teaching according to the scripture. The second thing is don't tolerate false teaching. Don't tolerate it. And if you have, repent from it. Listen to this in Revelation chapter 2, verses 14 through 16. It reads, But I have a few things against you. By the way, in Revelation 2, this is a letter from Jesus to the church. Can you imagine getting this in your inbox one morning? But I have a few things against you. You have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food, sacrifice to idols, and practice sexual immorality. So also you have some who hold the teaching of the decolations. Therefore, repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth. Whoa. Hey, if you keep if you keep reading in Revelation 2, you go to the next letter, which was to Thyatira, and there Jesus puts the smack down on them. He says, You have people in that church who tolerate that woman Jezebel and her teaching about sexual immorality and so on. And he says, and if you don't do something about it, I'm gonna come and I'm gonna throw her and everyone who follows her into a sickbed. In other words, you cannot tolerate false teaching in a church, it must be dealt with. And so, you, me, whenever we are listening to preachers or we're driving down the road and we're listening to podcasts and whatever. When you come across someone who's a false teacher, stop listening to them. Stop. You might say, Well, well, they got that one sermon that's good. It doesn't matter, the rest of them are garbage. Quit listening to him because if not, it's gonna be like gangrene. It is gonna spread through your body, it will cause problems. So stop listening to them. Some of you are like, who are they? Well, pretty much any prosperity preacher just quit. Here's a third one. Reject false teachers. Not only do you stop listening to them, reject them, reject their teachings. Listen to this Romans chapter 16 and verse 17. Paul writes at the church at Rome. He writes, I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have been taught, avoid them. Just reject them, avoid them. John uses stronger language. 2 John chapter 1, verses 9 through 11. Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, let me stop right here. Everyone who goes on ahead, that's strange language, but it meant this. Anyone who goes beyond the bounds of scripture. In other words, God has given us his word. And when you go beyond that, you move beyond scripture, you're in trouble. He says, Listen, everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting. For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked ways. Isn't that wild? We don't like to think in these terms in the American church because we're taught you gotta love everybody, man. Just love them. Just just love them. Just hug them and bless their hearts. But the word of God says avoid them. Don't even greet them. Certainly don't invite them to your house. Well, guess what? That means more than invite them over for dinner. You can have your podcast in your house. Don't even invite them into your house. The best thing that you can do is turn off Christian television. And find some good preaching. If you don't like this one, there's a thousand other good ones. I know it's strange for me to say that. Turn off Christian television. Well, I guess it depends on what Christian television you're watching. But most of it is not good. It's false teaching. It's entertainment driven. It does nothing to build up a local church. In fact, it drains the local church. Because people sit around going, how come my church ain't like that? Well, because we don't have five million dollars in the account, that's why. They do. Because people are gullible when they give them money hand over fist because they think they're gonna get it tied, it's been anointed by some stupid crisco. You can go pray for somebody and get healed. You can sprinkle holy water on people and they'll get healed. It came out of the tap in the bathroom. Ridiculous. I got a lot I want to say that's really helping me right now. You have no idea how much the Holy Spirit say is shut your mouth. So we're just gonna move on. I think the point is clear. Reject false teachers and their teachers. I can't say to any. And that's what the Bible says. Because if not, it's gang green. It is going to spread, it's going to rot. And it will cause death and stitch in your life. The third directive given to Christian leaders is to cut it off. And the fourth and final directive given to Christians is to count on Christ. Let's get to the positive. Count on Christ. Listen to this. 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse number 19 reads, But God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. So Paul ended this section here, 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 14 through 19. He ended that section by directing Timothy, Timothy, to count on Christ. You see, even though false teachers and false teaching abound, the firm foundation of God stands. The word foundation in that text was a word that alluded to the massive bedrock stones that buildings in those days were built on as the foundation. And they would put a seal on that foundation stone, and it would have identifying markers such as who the builder was, um, what the building's purpose was, and so on.

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It identified the building. And so Paul clearly intended to communicate that the church is built on the firm foundation of Jesus Christ, and his people are sealed by the Holy Spirit. And the Lord gives us our purpose and our identity, what we are to be doing, what the design of the church is. Well, it's not that's not too abnormal, right? Like that custom has survived to this day. Um, churches, for example, whenever churches will build a building or family life center or gym or something like that, typically at one of the cornerstones, they'll have some type of engraving on that on that building that lets everybody know hey, who who built this building? You know, when was it built? What's the purpose of this building dedicated to God, or so on? Like that's not abnormal. We do that even to this day. And they certainly did it back then in the first century. And so, what this tells us to do is to count on Christ. Let me show you why this is important. Christian leaders must count on Christ. First, the church is built on the foundation of Jesus Christ. He is that foundation, he is the cornerstone. And Ephesians chapter 2, verses 19 through 22, it reads, So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, and whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. So the church is built on the foundation, the cornerstone of Christ. Secondly, here's encouraging false teaching will never destroy the church. The church. Matthew chapter 16 to verse 18 tells us, and I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And certainly Peter was not, um, I'm sorry, uh, Jesus was not saying that Peter was the first pope. That had nothing to do with it. What he was saying was that upon the confession that Christ is Lord, that's the rock. Upon this rock, upon that confession, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's right. So it doesn't matter what type of false teaching comes out of the pits of hell, it will not destroy the true church. Never. In fact, it will only make us better. All the great controversies throughout church history, what it made the church do is define this doctrine and craft some of the great creeds that we still go by to this very day. And so, even in our day and time, there could be false teachers with false teaching, and over time we catch it, we listen to it, we discern, and then it makes us clearly define what we believe. And so it would never destroy the church. Here's a third point. Think about this. True Christians will not ultimately be deceived by false teaching. It doesn't mean that they won't kind of get caught up in a little bit, but but if they're a true child of God, the Holy Spirit is going to convict them and bring them back. This is what the text teaches in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 13 through 14. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of salvation, and believed in him, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory. So just as in a building, in 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 19, it said that they would um of the of the foundation, there is a seal, right? Well, as as the church, we're built on the foundation and we too have a seal. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit. We're sealed with the Holy Spirit, and he's not gonna let a true child of God, a person who is truly repented of their sin and placed their faith in Jesus Christ, he is not gonna let a true child of God go down the path of a false teaching following a false teacher. The Holy Spirit will convict him and bring him back to the house of the Lord. And lastly, true Christians will live in holiness. Did you catch the text in 2 Timothy chapter 2 and verse number 19? It talks about the firm foundation and it bears a seal, and the seal has two parts to it. Listen, the Lord knows those who are his, right? That's what I've been teaching. We're built on the foundation. The Lord knows who are his, he puts a seal on us, he's not gonna let us follow false teaching forever, he's gonna bring conviction and correction to us. And then listen to this. Here's the second part let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Huh. You can tell a true child of God because they have a hunger and a passion for the word, they're sealed by the Holy Spirit, they won't follow false teaching, and they live in holiness. They depart from iniquity. In Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. Let me listen. Let me stop right here. About we'll depart from iniquity. Do you remember earlier he mentioned two names? Paul called people by name Homenaeus and Philetus. He said they're teaching false doctrine. Well, Homenaeus was mentioned in 1 Timothy. He was already called out for teaching false teachings. But apparently he stayed in the area in Ephesus, and he recruited a guy named Philetus to help him. And the Apostle Paul even named their false teaching. It was an early form of Gnosticism. They were teaching people that the resurrection had happened already. And so by that teaching, what they did is they denied a physical resurrection and they denied the bodily return of Christ. Okay? They did not believe that we would have a physical resurrection, and therefore they did not believe that Jesus Christ was like going to literally physically return to this earth again. They denied that. So along with that teaching comes something called antinomianism. Antinomianism means no law. And so, in other words, they said, look, there's no such thing as a physical resurrection. It doesn't matter. It's just only spiritual resurrection. That's what matters. Our bodies are evil and wicked, so no good things in the body. So you can live however you want to live in the body, it doesn't matter. You just got to say the prayer, man. You just got to get saved. Just walk the aisle and say the prayer, and you're saved. It doesn't really matter how you live. That's anti nominism. Both of those are heretical. Paul called it out. And this is why he ended the section the way that he did. He said, Look, if you're a child of God, you're on the found the firm foundation of Christ, you're sealed by the Holy Spirit. And you won't depart from iniquity. You will live in holiness. Now, notice I'm saying you will live in holiness. I'm not saying you live in legalism. See, if we were legalistic, then I would have a list of rules saying this is what a Christian does and doesn't do. And then that list would be something that I could go by, regardless if you can, because I'm the one who made up the list. Right? That's how it works. If you've ever been to a legalistic church, you know what I'm saying is true. Now, I'm not talking about legalism, I'm talking about holiness. I can't put a list of that. Alright? Instead of saying you can't wear this or that, the scripture says be modest. You know what I mean? I'm gonna get in trouble for saying this, but it's it's too good not to say at this point, okay? So I'm gonna say in advance, forgive me. Kelly and I were invited to go eat one Sunday with the couple. And they no longer go to this church, their jobs moved and relocated, and so on. But we went to go eat. And we were we actually went to the couple's mom. She was older, she's very, she was much older. And we're sitting around and she asked me the question, she says, You pastor that church? And I said, Yes. And she said, But I was like, Well, I mean, yeah, for the most part, she goes, Good. Because she said, these days, I can't tell if I'm in KFC or a church, because all I see is breasts and thighs. I about choked on my chicken to have you realize what we're eating, by the way. I thought about that over the years, and I thought, you know what? She ain't wrong. Now, rather than me walking around saying you have to have certain links, isn't it better to go but the scripture says is hey, be modest. Pay attention. Women, if you've never been told men are visual. If you haven't learned that by now, bless your heart. Right? Like now, now, guys, control your eyes. The message goes both ways. Right? God, men, listen to me. God gave you this cool little thing called a neck. Watch this. You see something, you go, you look the other direction. But women, you shouldn't be hanging it out. Okay. So hopefully I'm getting my point across in a very photographic manner. But I think you're following my point. I'm not I'm not being legalistic. I am talking about holiness. Think about how we live, how we dress, how we act. We are children of the most high God. We should act accordingly. Now, when we say depart from iniquity and wickedness, think about this. Titus chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who were zealous for good works. Man, that ties it all together, right? Look, guys, Jesus Christ appeared in the nation to us, he's coming again. There is a literal, physical, bodily return of Jesus Christ at some point, and he's purifying us. He's in the process of purifying us. We're in the process of being conformed to the image of Christ. We are walking in holiness, and we should walk in holiness greater next year than we did this year. You know what I mean? Like we're constantly growing. No one expects perfection. We're not perfect, but we should be progressing in grace and knowledge and understanding and holiness and so on with God. And so you want to make sure that you count on Christ. He can help you live godly in this present age. He empowers you by the Holy Spirit to live godly in this present age. It can be done and it shall be done by God's people. Amen. And amen. You may stand to your feet with me this morning. That was the fourth directive that was given to Christians, and that was to count on Christ. It's time to bring this message to a close. I had four directives. The Apostle Paul gave four directives. They were, we should cut it out. Don't get involved in senseless arguments. We should cut it straight, meaning we should rightly interpret and apply the Word of God to our lives. The third directive is to cut it off. When you bump up against someone who's teaching false doctrine, they've crossed the line from senseless arguments to heresy, you've got to cut them off. And then the fourth directive is to count on Christ. In other words, don't fear false doctrine. If you're a child of God, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit, and He's not going to let you ultimately be deceived. Like you may listen once or twice, but pay attention to that little that little check in your spirit going, something's not right. Something's not right. You pay attention to that, you need to quit listening. If you are not a Christian or a child of God, this message may have been a little strange to you. One thing I can say is if the Holy Spirit is dealing with you, I can't explain it, preacher, but I feel like the Holy Spirit has just prompted me to come to faith in Christ, and you need to respond to that. You see, you were born a sinner. You were born a sinner. You're not a sinner because you sin. You sin because you're a sinner. You are a child of the devil, you follow the prince of the power of the air. You are rebellion against God and his law and his word. However, the Holy Spirit must be dealing with you, and he's being gracious to you, and he's calling you to repentance and to salvation. And if that is a nudge that you're feeling right now, then I challenge you just to repent, right where you are, repent of your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Well, Christ came to this earth. He was born of a virgin, he lived a sinless life, he'd never committed one sin in thought, action, or speech. And yet he willingly gave his body to be beaten and to be whipped and to be nailed to the cross, not for anything that he did, but for everything that you do. He bore the wrath of God, the wrath of God that should be poured out upon you as a sinner and a rebel against him. Instead, it was poured out upon Christ. When Christ died, they took him off the tomb, off the great cross, and they put him in the tomb. And on the third day, he rose from the dead. He's alive forevermore. He's seated at the right hand of the Father, and one day he's coming back. And to place your faith in him is very similar to what it means to trust in that chair. You walked in this morning. You didn't ask proof for the chair's existence. You didn't ask proof that the chair could actually hold up your body weight. You just sat down. So it is to trust in Christ. You don't need proof. You trust. The resurrection is the proof. He rose from the dead. And when you place your faith in him, the scripture according to Romans 6 tells us it's as if we died with him, but we were also raised to new life with him. You're a new creation. You have been freed from the bondage of sin and death, and you are a child of the Most High God. That's what it means to repent and to place your faith in Christ. Romans 10, 9 and 10 is a pretty good start. Says that you must believe in your heart this message. What I just said to you, the gospel. Confess that Jesus is Lord and you will be saved. And you'll know what's genuine because you'll want to know his word and you'll walk in holiness. If you are a Christian, hopefully this message challenged you to think about how you and what's happening in your life. Hopefully, it's evaluating the people that you are listening to. Avoid senseless arguments, but at the same time, defend the faith. Study the Word of God and let the Holy Spirit lead you. Thank you for listening to the Carvalho Grace Chapel podcast. Make sure that you like, share, follow us on socials. I'm Dr. Jason Murphy, proclaiming grace, transforming culture.