Let's take our Bibles. We're going to go to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter number 1. It is my goal, and I laugh because I don't know if we're going to be able to get through the whole chapter. But I want to go through this chapter. I taught this as an opening class on Tuesday in my pastoral epistles class. And I thought, that's some really good stuff for a Sunday night. Just so you know the way that I prepare, usually Sunday mornings are the time for in-depth series on questions that people have. Some of the series you can look forward to this year we're doing a full series on lust as it's described in the scripture. How that is being handled and addressed today versus how it's supposed to be handled and addressed biblically. We're going to talk about dispensationalism. which is something that seems to be a sticking point now. And it's really a sticking point because of the October 7th massacre. Israel was invaded and there were horrific crimes that were committed. And then she as a nation defended herself. And I'm sure many of you have seen the turn that has happened specifically. I don't want this to be a political discussion, but you should just note it. Specifically on the young right. the younger Republican voters are now coming out and they are against supporting Israel, they're very America first, these types of things. But there's reasons that people are using with big voices and big audiences that are just wrong. For example, what I've been telling you about the Schofield Bible and dispensationalism I mean Tucker Carlson is talking about these things. And he doesn't really know. He does not know what he's talking about when it comes to dispensationalism. That's not a new thing that happened with C.I. Schofield. As a matter of fact it wasn't a new thing to John Darby which a lot of people will push back to. That was quoted in some of the early church fathers. You're talking the early 300's and 200's. But most importantly it's taught in our Bibles. There are dispensations in which God deals with man according to standards that He sets up. We need to know what those dispensations are, why dispensational theology is correct, and how it affects how we look at Scripture. So Sunday mornings are kind of an opportunity for that. And then Sunday nights I like to go verse by verse through Scripture because it's more of a, it's not a casual service so to speak, but it's an opportunity to do that with people who have a lot of Bible knowledge already packed in. And I wanted to do this because I think it's real important, the first letter in Pastoral Epistles that is addressed here is pretty pointed to Timothy. Not to anything that Timothy was doing, it was not a shame on Timothy our, but there were things that were happening in Ephesus that were directly impacting her ability to minister well to the body of Christ. Jesus said it. I'm going to leave, and people are going to come in. And they're going to pick you apart. They're going to devour you. You need to be aware of these things. You need to stick to what I say. And that is important to remember. The Holy Spirit helps you in that. Somebody commented recently and said, this channel doesn't talk anything about the Holy Spirit. Well, you haven't listened to our content. You have a thousand videos to watch, so get busy, I guess. We talk about the Holy Spirit all the time. And specifically, the Holy Spirit indwells every believer according to the 1 Corinthians chapter 2 model to illuminate. to shed light on things that are dark. And I'm not talking about things that are wicked and evil. I'm talking about things that we're just not sure. Where do we go with this? We're supposed to trust God through the Holy Spirit, He'll illuminate a path for us. And we know from what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit, He's only gonna speak about Christ. He's gonna reveal things that illuminate more and more about Jesus. So we as believers can correctly conclude that as we walk in our spirit, there will not be anything that we do that is contrary to what Christ taught. Yet that's what was happening in the early church. A lot of commentators conclude, rightfully so, and you'll see this, that Timothy was serving in Ephesus. What do we know about Ephesus? One of the strongest churches. They knew A equals A, B equals B, there was no confusion, but Do we have anything about that church that helps us understand some of their shortcomings? They left their first love. Jesus said that about them when he wrote, they're the first church that's addressed. And Jesus says, you're doing everything right. You're spotting the error, you're teaching correct doctrine, you're exposing those who are liars, all that stuff. But when it comes down to where can you improve, Ephesus, You don't love the gospel. I believe that's what that first love is. A lot of commentators conclude that first love is Jesus. I think you could say that, but I think that's synonymous with the gospel message, because as a believer, you grow and you begin to recognize how good you have it because of the gospel message. And we also know from things that are said in 1 and 2 Timothy, that there were problems with people, specifically believers, apostatizing. Believers falling away from the truth. Now that's a sticky, sticky subject. A lot of people conclude incorrectly that apostatizing is an evidence that you never truly believed. There's nothing in the scripture to indicate that being the truth. As a matter of fact, there is more evidence in Hebrews 6 and in Hebrews 10, those passages that are used about apostasy, to show that the severity of apostasy is because they are eternally secured. and how much damage a believer can do who falls away from the faith in two aspects. Number one, in their representation in the world. We are in the world right now, we are not of the world. So we live in the world, we operate in the world, we have relationships here in the world. We have interactions with people that are both good and bad and neutral, but we are not of the world. We do not live and breathe the world's pattern. We have a different thing to do, and that is as a member of the body of Christ. We're supposed to edify, uplift one another, add to the body of Christ, walk in our new nature, all these different things. The other thing that that does, a carnal Christian who walks away from the faith, falls away from the faith, apostatizes, is a bad testimony on behalf of the world, But what I think is worse, and I'll tell you why I think this next thing is worse, they disrupt any growth in the body of Christ. Let me tell you why that's worse. And this is, again, Jesseology. This is what I've seen. When you are not living after the pattern of the world, we already know the world is against anything that has to do with God, right? Jesus told us that. They kept my sayings, meaning keeping to harm, they're gonna keep what you say. They persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. So that's always there. And why I think it's worse as a believer to apostatize, to walk away from the faith, is because all of the younger believers, and they could be believers who are younger physically, they're young people, or people who are new to the faith, they get swept up and carried away, and their likelihood, their ability to reach other people stops. And that's how you kill a movement. If everybody who believes one thing dies at once, that doesn't carry on. That message doesn't carry on. Now I believe the Bible shows that there's always a remnant. There's always a few that God uses who remain faithful. He gives them what they need because they are faithful and they go out and do that work. We see that today. We have no idea who, as far as the Jewish population is concerned, could be a part of that 144,000 that the scripture says will be great evangelists. Angels will work in concert with them. That's something else. That's crazy. But God has that all prepared. He's told us. I think it's kind of foolish to try and find who those people are. Let's just give the gospel to everybody and let God take care of what He's going to take care of. But it's worse as a believer to apostatize because of what it does to the body of Christ. We're going to kind of peek here. We're going to take a little peek at the end of this chapter. Look at verse 20. We're in chapter one, 1 Timothy chapter one in verse 20 says this, of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. Wow. I don't know if I ever want to have contact with somebody whose name is Hymenaeus. I haven't met anybody yet. You know, there's some weird names nowadays. It'd be kind of weird if you ran across somebody and they said, hey, my name, my name is Jesse. How are you doing? Oh, I'm good. What's your name? Hymenaeus. You're here to shipwreck the faith, brother? No, I'm just kidding. But it's interesting that this is mentioned because I think in context here you're going to see these are likely two brothers in Christ who fell away from the faith and it was so damaging that it caused others to stumble. I think that's the worst of all. when your behavior enables somebody else to lawlessness. And the scripture talks about this. We do not use our faith, Romans 14. We do not use things as a stumbling block to others. This is why I'm anti-legalism. The Bible's against that. You don't follow me as I lead, you follow me as I follow Christ. I'm just a way to get there. And we all are lined up by the scripture. A lot of legalist ministries in the 60s and 70s and 80s fell like that. I'll never forget reading some of the atrocities that were happening in Baptist churches when it came to young people and youth ministers. It was criminal. How does that happen? People follow men. Men like power. You give a man an opportunity to lead and have absolute authority, they will abuse it. Because that is the opposite of what we're supposed to do as pastors. I'm here by the grace of God, so are you. You know what that does for us? It keeps you humble. The spirit of meekness, we should possess that. We should lead with that. We should not lead with, I've heard pastors, I've seen pastors stand on their pulpits like little children and scream out, I'm the man of God here. That's not how you lead. You're the Lord's servant. You gotta find a different way to communicate that message. I laugh when I hear that, but then you see the camera pan out and there's hundreds of people there. And you got kids bouncing on mama's knee listening to that. Remember, we were reacting to a video that's gonna come out on Friday. And the camera panned to the audience and there's these older people there that look like they're just disinterested in what's being said, but then the younger people are glued on this false doctrine that's coming out of the pulpit. And my heart breaks when I see that. Because a lot of these kids, the kind of doctrine that they're hearing, they're just going to walk away from the faith because they'll never be good enough to these teachers' standards. They'll always fall short. That's why we need Christ. But this is Ephesus, and Ephesus is getting some instruction here from Timothy. What is unique about 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus? And you could say Philemon. They're all written to an individual. All of the other books are written to a congregation of believers in cities. I think that's important to note because it's gonna show you that these standards are really standards for everybody. It would be a foolish conclusion to say, well, I'm not a pastor, so 1 Timothy is not for me. Well, no, all scripture is profitable. Okay, you actually get that in 2 Timothy. That's where that verse is. You cut that out, you're gonna have problems. And folks, this is happening. There are people that wanna cut books out of the Bible because it doesn't mix with their theology. Can I just say, If the Bible is not mixing with your theology, it's probably your theology that's wrong, right? We shouldn't be taking books out or casting books in certain light to make it, oh, well, this is not what was really meant. This is happening with the book of James. People don't like that James has faith without works is dead. They can't reconcile that. They don't understand the context in which James is speaking. So they just write the whole book off. You know what you do when you write off James? You eliminate the opportunity for people to be a hearer and a doer. Because I know a lot of people that know the Bible and they don't do anything with what they know. You don't know any different unless the Bible tells you. Be a hearer and a doer. And that is the Christian life. People want to cut out the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, from the correct lens, is one of the most encouraging books in the New Testament. Yes, it has some strong statements in Hebrews 6, even stronger in Hebrews 10. But they're strong because of the truth that's taught through the rest of the book. Hello, you cut the whole thing off, you're going to miss out. How about we let God's Word be God's Word and every man a liar? And I'm gonna measure every man by what the word of God says. Timothy actually got a personal letter here. He got two and Titus got another one. And Paul used some pretty direct language. A quote from Titus is, and you know all those in Crete are liars. Can you imagine if for just some reason Tampa was the city? It was not Titus, it was the first book of Tampa. You know all those Tampa guys are liars. That's a pretty strong statement. Obviously, there needed to be information there for how to approach that culture. You don't see some of that individualized strength in other books. I think there's a reason for it, because these books are primarily supposed to be used for how we use the Word of God, how we teach, what examples we set. Let's pick it up in verse one. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope, You can kind of gloss over these greetings and you miss a lot there. Paul's putting all of the responsibility of his ministry on the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not say Paul of the tribe of whatever tribe he was from, I think it was Benjamin. And then, you know, I had all these years of expertise, here's my PhD, the PhD, all that stuff. HD, 4K, all that, no. He says, I'm writing to you on commandment of the Lord Jesus. This is why we believe the scripture is inspired. As you read Paul's handwriting here, you're reading the mind and thoughts of God for us. Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith." So there is kind of like a family hierarchy. That is, when you lead somebody to Christ, they're not your child in the faith, but in a sense, you now have a responsibility as an elder figure in their life. That's why we ought not play games with the way we live our Christian life, right? Well, they'll figure it out. They'll understand. They won't. That's why Hymenaeus and Alexander are written here. Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, this is why a lot of people conclude that Timothy is in Ephesus, that Ephesus is the one that received this letter and gave it to him, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. That's why the title of my message is What's a Pastor to Do? Trent thought it was a joke. He laughed at, you know how you can like on iPhone, you can like respond with a ha ha. And then he asked later today at like three o'clock, is that really your sermon title? I'm like, yeah, that's the sermon title. He's like, oh, I didn't know. But really, from the attitude of Timothy here and from pastors today, what are you supposed to do? What is the goal of a pastor? Is it just to get up and teach three messages a week? Do some counseling here and there and learn and grow more about the Bible? Or is it to be active in the things that are coming in? to the church, it's to be active. It's not a position to just sit around and do nothing and collect ministry money. You're supposed to be doing something. And the first thing, verse three, that is told here, if you're taking notes, I would take notes, don't teach any other doctrine. Now this tells you two things. Number one, false doctrine was being taught, and number two, there was already sound doctrine given. If everything was a free-for-all, we're all trying to figure it out in Christ, then Paul would have no reason to give that command. Why did he give that command? Because he did lay down truth. And he, by word of mouth, was hearing there's other things that are going on. Probably, and this would be a good study for you that are disciplined students, meaning you'll be able to understand when you spot false doctrine. A good study is a study into Gnosticism. It's in everything that we have today. How many of you noticed in the last, I want to say, probably 30 years of entertainment specifically, the hero in most movies has changed from someone who is ideally a candidate to be a hero, who has good character traits, it's now changed to someone who is just a villain. This happened in a cinematic study and the world recognizes this with a main character in The Sopranos, Tony Soprano. That was somebody that was, I mean, HBO was breaking all types of barriers and standards by having that show on the air. Soprano was casted as somebody who would be A villain in all other senses, but you kind of looked at him from a sense that was like, well, it's not his fault. And well, he's just flawed in this way. And the conclusion you come away with is, hey, my evil can be used for good. That's the message of the devil. And all of that is in our media today. And it's kind of permeated. And this Gnostic idea is all things that are material are bad. And people take that conclusion and they say, who's the creator of the physical universe? Well, they say God, obviously. So they say, well, God is bad. He created these things. So then on the opposite of that, the spirit, the metaphysical, the things that you can't see, that's all good. And this is why people pursue crystal worship. This is why people pursue Christ consciousness. This is why people pursue new ageism, which you just call it ageism. It's not new at all. It's been around forever. Because people think that the metaphysical, the things that we can't see and understand, that's where true purity is. And it's in everything. It was in the church at Ephesus. It was when John wrote, and he said, anybody who denies Jesus does not have the Father. What's the strength of that statement? I and my Father are one. You can't pick one over the other. He is God or he is not God, period. That's what John was teaching. Why was he teaching that? Because there was other teaching going around that, oh, well, all the physical things are bad, so Jesus didn't have a real body. He was a phantom. You can read this stuff. There's a great article on Britannica that I would strongly advise you, with wisdom and discernment, to read that shows you early church Gnosticism. It was going on. People were denying the reality of Christ. They were saying that Jesus took on a spirit called the Christ, that it was there at his baptism, and that it left him at the cross. That's a major religion today, and Mormonism adopts parts of those things. How do you get there? There is competing doctrine out there. And that's the first thing that Timothy is told. Do not, look at what he says, that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do. In about an hour and a half here, we're gonna do our first show with BibleLine. The whole goal of BibleLine is not just for people to ask questions. And I sit there and go, oh, what a good question. Let's just ponder the great universe together. We'll never know an answer. The idea is to give people something which builds them up, and I think that's an answer. I believe that's an answer. I live from that position. Is it wrong to research genealogies? No. There are genealogies in the scripture for us to see proof of the lineage of Christ. Where does it become an error when all of your research has no conclusions? When everything that you're studying doesn't lead to an answer. This is why I'm irritated with reform doctrine. They don't give me answers for clear things. Here's the answer, here's the catch all. The sovereignty of God. I understand the sovereignty of God. And I completely am in line with it. He can do whatever he wants to do. He's also told me what he's gonna do. Well then why does your theology make what God said incorrect? I never get an answer. A lot of people just say, well, you're not educated enough, to which I say, whatever education you're offering, I don't want it. If there's something that's gonna make God contradictory, we should not approach that. This is why I'm kind of amazed with that guy, Wes Huff. He can explain the gospel so well. The absolute satisfaction of God's justice, that God does not look at the sinner and go, Jesus died in our place. He took the full wrath of God. But also, on the same token, the full availability of mercy. I am not getting what I deserve, amen? And that's because of Christ, who satisfied my spot. That's what makes the resurrection the power, that he came back. You have a man like that who can explain the gospel clearly, but then he concludes that God has chosen before the foundation of the world who's going to be saved and who's going to be lost. Which is not what the scripture teaches. No matter how much Greek and Hebrew you study, that is contradictory to, I want all men to be saved. You can't say that and then also restrict somebody from being able to believe. There'd be somebody who has an excuse. Or you're just gonna have this weird twisted interpretation that people are gonna be happy to be in hell because it's God's will. I don't, I'm sorry, I don't understand that and I think I don't understand it, not because I don't have enough education, but because it doesn't make sense with what's revealed in the scripture. And these people exist. Teach no other doctrine. Don't teach fables, endless genealogies which only produce more questions. rather godly edifying, building up somebody to be more like Christ. Edifying which is in faith, so do. The reason why so do is there is because that's the instruction. Don't teach any other doctrine, teach what you already know and build people up, do that. Now the end of the commandment is what? Love. I think a good measure of the church is the love that is demonstrated by people. I think that's a good measuring stick. I don't particularly like the idea that there are churches out there that are so large that you get lost after you've lost the title of new visitor. There's a few churches in my experience who I would call, I'm not going to say megachurches because that always has a negative connotation, but large churches that take the time necessary to make contacts with people and get them into groups and all of that. And all of those churches that come to mind are first clear on the gospel. But I think if a ministry is just functioning to bring in funds to keep it going, to take on debt, to continue serving in these different roles and responsibilities, and people are not being ministered to, that becomes a problem. And I don't think that's solely the job of the pastor. We actually have a description of what a pastor is supposed to do. He is supposed to tend to the word of God and pray. That's exactly what he's supposed to do. That's the creation of deacons. We need to do this, we need deacons to handle these physical aspects. We have more light that's revealed through Peter to care for the flock, not taking constraint, not for filthy lucre, ready mind, all those different things, which I believe informs how the work is supposed to be done. But it all culminates and equals to, you know, all these different equations, divisions, all that, what's the result? Love. Jesus taught that in John 13. It is said here in 1 Timothy chapter one. Peter mentions it in 2 Timothy chapter two. Add to your faith. What's the last one? Brotherly love. Look at what it says. Out of a pure heart. A pure heart is not one that is defiled by jealousy or greed or sin. And a good conscience. How do you get a bad conscience? You lie. You look at somebody and say, yeah, it's all good, brother, but on the inside, you're against them. Take the time that is necessary to hash those issues out. That's why Matthew 18 is there. If someone has offended you, you're not gonna know unless they tell you, right? And if you've received an offense, you need to communicate that. There is nothing worse than being a mind reader in ministry. It's not fun, right? You gotta look at people and be like, They got something against me, I don't know. And then you're like walking on eggshells. Nobody has time for that. And it doesn't lead to anything productive. You communicate these things, things come out, and it's gonna be good. It will come out to the end if you put Christ first. It will come out to the end well. Look at verse six. Excuse me, the rest of that verse. And of a good conscience and of faith, unfeigned, unrestricted, you have an opportunity to do all that the Lord is asking you to do. Because you're not a double man. You're not walking in your sinful life here, and then walking in your spiritual life at only different parts. From which some, having swerved, that's a very aggressive word, means to change direction suddenly, having turned aside unto vain jangling. It's funny, how many of y'all have cats? I will pray for you. No, I'm just kidding. Think about the way you play with cats. You got a little thing that you jangle there. My dog, who is the size and has the appearance of a cat, but is a dog, if I were to do that to my dog, she'd be like, what are we doing here? What are we doing? I know I'm 13 years old, but what are we doing, you know? Cats love that. And it's a distraction. To us, it's like we're just, you know, jangling things. There's no benefit to it. I see a very similar description to what he's about to say next, that people, they were doing right, they're in Ephesus, they're in probably one of the strongest churches of their time. They're doing the right thing and then here comes all these Gnostic ideas and things that are contrary to the doctrine they were established. They change directions and they're just rattling things in the wind. They're not doing anything that actually matters. Look at what this says here. Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm. That's probably the worst thing you can hear as a wannabe teacher. How do we say that in modern English? You don't know what you're talking about. Who is writing this here? Paul. Did Paul know what he was talking about when it came to the law? Yeah, he spent a majority of his time, we see it in the book of Acts, going into synagogues, showing them how Christ is prophesied through the law. So he's not taking a prideful position here in that conclusion. He's saying, some of these people in the body of Christ have gone so off course, Timothy, you need to know this, that they're teaching about things they don't even know. They don't even know what is being said. Now that makes sense if you consider that there's non-Jews who are coming to faith in Christ now talking about things that they were not raised in. Go read Deuteronomy 6. Teach your children when they're standing up and sitting down. The Jewish person knows the law. Yet you have a non-Jewish person coming in and trying to teach it for their own benefit. You ever heard somebody, you see this with young people, you ever heard somebody talking, they're saying words, but it's just not going anywhere? It's very, the word is cringy, you're kinda like, I just wanna, shh, just, I love you so much, I want you to stop, just no more, you know? And that happens, because people are talking about things they don't even know. That's why, and this is why it's hard for me when I see these large, podcasters and streamers who are getting millions of views, probably tens of millions in impressions, talking about things they don't know. There were so many people that sent me that whole Tucker Carlson thing on the Schofield Bible, and I'm going, I don't even need to react to this. Anybody who knows what the Bible actually says knows this guy does not know what he's talking about. And the guy that was on there, I'm listening to him, and Trent sent it to me, and I'm like, what do we do with this? Where do we start? And so we just concluded we're going to continue to teach the truth. Because the Holy Spirit's behind that. That stuff? Vain jangling. And what's dangerous is more people get behind it. And young people are being completely deceived. They just don't know. What I said earlier about the whole lack of support for Israel? That's a movement that was already happening on the left. right? The left wants to send money to everybody except Israel. But when it comes to the right now, people are putting Israel in a negative light. Conservatives, how does that happen? You have people informing their opinions, talking about things they ought not know. That's why when pastors get up and speak in the pulpit, they need to know what's going on politically in the world. I am not supposed to just put my head in the sand and say, that's not for me. That does affect you. That comes into your life. And now you've got political people trying to tell you things biblically. I need to know what they're saying and tell you what God's word says so that we can discern between what is good and what is evil. Now he goes into a very interesting statement here in verse 8. And I've heard people use this correctly, and I've heard a lot of people use it incorrectly. We're running out of time, but I want to get through at least this next verse and a half. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. Whoa. What does that mean? It can mean one of two things. The thing it probably means here is that the law is good when you use it correctly because you're held by the standard of the law in society. There is no teaching that is in the New Testament that says once you put your trust in Christ, you can commit all the sin you want. That's not what it means when it says we're free from the law. Let me ask you a question. When Cain slayed his brother, was it wrong? Yes, well there was no law. How then was that wrong? Because it was something that was understood and taught by God, and He set the standard. So murder is wrong in every case. That's why I think what this is talking about is, it's good to do things lawfully. And there's gonna be times where you have to make a decision, I'm gonna do what God says, even if it means I break the law in the place where I live, and you need to be ready for those consequences. The apostles were. They were beaten for their faith. All of them were martyred for their faith, violently. John died of old age, but he was burned in a vat of oil before that. Now look at what this says here in verse nine. This is kind of where I want to land the plane, so to speak. So we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully. I think that's a direct comparison to what is said in verse seven. These people don't know what they're talking about, so they're misusing the law. Do you have an example of that? Yes, Galatians. Oh yeah, you're saved by faith in Christ, but you stay saved by getting circumcised. Paul says, great, you got circumcised. Go do all the rest of them. And he actually concludes a man who has to keep the whole law is cursed. Why? Because he can't keep it. Verse nine, knowing this, now knowing this is very important. They already had what he's about to say. They had already received this. He's reminding them. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man. but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, for manslayers, whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for men's dealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." That's the purpose of the law. In what way? To condemn those people as those things. That's the purpose of the law. according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. And I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. Boy, there's so much to unpack here. But what I want you to see here is at the beginning there of verse nine. Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person. What does he mean? What he means by this is the law is not in operation to have an obedience by the person who is saved to stay saved. The purpose of the law, specifically, the purpose of the law is to expose you as a sinner. So now you, in Christ, the law has no penalty over you. The job has already been done. You're a sinner, you qualified, you put your trust in Jesus Christ, his payment satisfied the requirements of the law. And you should look in Romans 7 on your own time, Romans 7 verses 1 through 6. It gives you the example of a man and woman in marriage. If they go outside of the marriage sexually with another person, they're considered an adulterer. The marriage is not dissolved until the death of one. The man dies, the woman is now free to remarry. What does that mean? Why does Paul say that? We are now dead to the law. Why? Because Christ paid the thing that penalized us as sinners. So now we get to the conclusion. What's the conclusion? The law is not for the saved person to stay saved. We don't do things that the law says to be saved. The law is good in that it shows us what is wrong. And it's funny here, well it's not funny, it's interesting here, that all the things that Paul describes, he puts himself in the category of someone who was those things. This is why I think in Romans 7, the last part of Romans 7, Paul's not talking about himself before he was saved. That's the position he was in right now. You can still do all those things. You'd be wrong, and you're wrong because God says they're wrong through the law, But you are no longer under the penalty, which is death, separation, and hell. It's not made for the righteous man. You're found in Christ. And what's the ultimate thing here? Shame on you when you take that grace and abuse it. And some people get so mad at the carnal Christian, and I understand it, but they get so mad that they go into false doctrine and they say, well, they were never really saved. No, you don't have the authority to say that. If God says I'm justified from all things, I'm justified from all things. But there's nothing that gives me the right in that justification to go do all things. That is carnality and that's wrong. Because of how good we've got it. I've seen so many people trip and get injured over that verse nine. There are people that say, well brother Jesse, you need to stop beating the sheep. You're making me feel bad when you teach the Word of God that way. Why? It's probably because you're a sinner, and you're sinning, and you're saying, God, what you call righteous is actually sin, and what you call sin is actually good. So you're in conflict with what God says. I am not up here berating people, making you feel bad. The conviction of the Holy Spirit does that already. But I'm also not up here weaponizing the law for you to do right. People ask me all the time, what does it look like to walk in the Spirit? You submit. You do what the Bible says to do. The Christian life is about fruit bearing. And anybody that teaches otherwise, I've heard people, well, just repeat the gospel to yourself. So by their conclusion, when I sin, it's because I'm not repeating the gospel enough. There are some people that go insane over that. Because nothing changes. Why? You're supposed to get up, go out, do things. Put legs on your prayer, so to speak. If I sit in my office all day and say, Lord, I'm praying for Sunday, I can't wait. I'm looking forward to teaching the word of God. And then 10.30 comes in and I'm still on my rear end in my office. And I'm just praying for God to use me. How can God use me? If I get up and get in the pulpit with a message that's prepared. There's so much confusion out there about this verse. It's important to understand why it's there. There were people that were coming into Ephesus and stealing people's joy away by making them obedient to different aspects of the law and removing Christ from all of it. And people hyper fixate on the other end. They say, well, all you got to fixate is on Christ and you don't have to do anything. You don't have to go to church. You don't have to pray. You don't have to, anytime someone corrects you, you just, that's, you're making me, that's backloading the gospel, all that. It's a very small group, but they're very loud. And it just completely removes people from accountability. It doesn't lead to anything except vain jangling. There's some people out there, they got a lot of things to jangle all the time. Look at the rest of this here. We read verses 11 through 13, which shows you Paul's thankfulness, how the Lord Jesus Christ enabled him to do anything of value. Verse 14, the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. He's writing this as a saved man. He knows he still has problems. And he knows that Timothy is gonna have problems. But you change those problems by doing what's right and avoiding that which is wrong. It's basic obedience disobedience. And there's just consequences. But those consequences are never a loss of salvation. This would be the perfect place to include that, would it not? It's not there and there's a reason for it. We'll read the rest of this, we won't go into a detailed summary. But he says in verse 16, Boy, Paul saw why he was here, so people would trust Christ. Now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. A lot of people want to say, well that's where the chapter should have ended and then it picked up into chapter two. No, I think that Paul wrote this because he was overcome by the truth of how good Jesus is. That's why he said that. He concludes that thought in that way. He changes course. This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. That's not us, you know, just being a knitting club here. You are in a fight, folks, and you need to war well. That's why I love studying the Civil War. You hear these stories of these men who, I mean, they went out with no reinforcements, nothing. They fought for what they thought was right. Of course, there's all types of things that cause that illustration to fall apart, but we see that with men of war, and we recognize men who go to great sacrifices, risking their entire life to protect the idea of American freedom, of which we get to enjoy that idea. What would be greater to fight for than the gospel of Jesus Christ? War well. And remember, as Paul said in Ephesians, we're not fighting against flesh and blood. Your battle is not physically with others. Spiritual wickedness in high places. How do you defend on that? You put on the armor of God. That requires you to put something on. That's not you sitting in your room going, Lord, work through me. I better get ready for church. Lord, work through me! You're not doing anything. It's doing something with your Christian life. Specifically, yielding. Look what he says here in verse 19. We read verse 20 already. Then you got our examples there. That's how serious apostasy is. Does Satan have power over the believer's soul? No. We are found in Christ, temple of the Holy Ghost, you see that in 1 Corinthians 3, 1 Corinthians 6. What is the destructive power of Satan? He can take away your life. That can be something that is gone. Paul said this, he prayed this, he didn't pray it. He has shown this twice now. What was the other example? 1 Corinthians chapter 5, the man who was in that sexual perversion that made the Gentiles blush, what did he say? If he's not willing to get right, get him out of the church. He is of no value. That's the sad thing. You take all that opportunity and ability and you just waste it. For what? Sin, of which Christ died. That's a shame. And that's what a pastor's supposed to do. Expose lead, teach correctly, and fight well. And we're all supposed to do that together. He's not gonna get to heaven and be like, well, Lord, I was gonna fight well, but I thought that was Jesse's job. We're supposed to encourage each other to do that together, amen? You can close your Bibles. I hope you're praying for the show. We're breaking a little early tonight because we've got a lot of moving parts. Ashley's going to be our screener tonight. Be praying for her. And then Trent and David. I'm going to be doing all that work, and then of course I'll be hosting the show. But we're very excited. Tune in, make sure that you tune in. And if you want to call, that's fine. I'm expecting it to be a little dead, because there's football going on at 8 o'clock, and we're not a huge channel. But you guys call in, Ashley will take your call, and even if we just have a good time on there, that's fine too. I've got some other things prepared if we don't have a lot of callers but we're making a 20-week commitment here and then we'll take six weeks off so just be in prayer for that as always and I greatly appreciate your support but how can you know that you have eternal life you put your trust in Jesus Christ allow me to illustrate that for you this hand represents you and me everybody in the whole world this block of sin represents sin put this on top of my hand because the bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God God loves us He hates our sin, it separates us from Him. In order to get to heaven, you have to be perfect without any sin, but we all fall short. That's why we're called sinners, that's what that word means, to miss the mark. The wages of sin is death, eternal separation from God in a literal fire-burning hell. God loves us, He's provided a way for this to be paid, and it is not by any good thing that you can do. All of our righteousnesses, as the prophet Isaiah concludes, are filthy rags. All your works, all your promises, all the things that you could offer are not a valid payment for sin. We need a savior. We need someone to stand in our place and pay for our sins. This hand represents Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man. And what Jesus did is he did step in our place. He who knew no sin has given us the righteousness of God. What other definition of grace can you get than that? See, the wrath of God is fully satisfied. Jesus became sin for us. He died on the cross, was buried, and rose again three days later. God's wrath is satisfied. And now there's an opportunity for us, who have the wages of sin upon us, to be brought out of that by the work that Jesus did being put to our account. For God so loved the world, that's you and me. That he gave his only begotten son, that's Jesus. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And that transaction, according to the Bible, not my theology, according to the Bible is you're justified from all things. Of which the law could not justify you. The law demanded, rightfully so, perfection. We needed someone who was perfect to take our place, and that's what Jesus did. And he didn't stay in the grave. Up from the grave he arose. And he's coming back to gather his church, and you can be a part of that. How? You join Calvary here? That would be a good thing. Doesn't save you. You donate all your money? Also a good thing. Not gonna save you. You need to be found in the body of Christ. How does that happen? You put your trust in Him, and you're saved. Let's go to the Lord in prayer, shall we? Heads bowed, eyes are closed, nobody's looking around. If you're here tonight, say, Pastor, that makes sense. I just put my trust in Jesus Christ. Would you pray for me? I know I'm going to heaven. I just put my faith in Jesus tonight. I would certainly like to pray for you. Would you just raise your hand and let me know? Raising your hand doesn't save you, it just communicates that you trusted Christ tonight, and I'd like to pray for you. I know all of you here tonight, and I'm thankful for the ability that I have to serve alongside you. I really would encourage you to study that chapter. We didn't get a chance to do it the justice that I'd like, but it's very informative. That whole book is just good, very good. Primarily the takeaway is I want you to know and understand we need to teach sound doctrine. Father, thank you for our study tonight. We have a special prayer request tonight, Lord, for this show. That it would go well, all the technology would work, and that whatever problems did come up, you'd give us the strength to deal with them. We pray for those who might be calling in tonight with questions. May they get answers. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.