What is this? I printed it off. It must be for today. Oh, listen, the guy that handles the 501c3 for Isaac in Uganda, Dave, he says he's the one that set the whole thing up based on Isaac's magnanimous performance for so many years. He set up the 501c3 and he said, I am present. He's been doing it now, Dave, for like five years. I'm president, board member, treasurer, secretary, and accountant, all of which one person cannot do well. At least, not this one person. So only the bare minimum gets done to keep it all legal, as I understand it. If you know someone who can take the complete duties of treasurer, then I would gladly put them in the loop to do that. If not, no worries. I won't quit until Jesus comes back or the IRS decides to throw me in jail for not paying taxes. Donations that are logically tax-exempt. So anyway, and he's making a joke there. But of course he is Asking that anybody wants to take the donations or I'm sorry the the handle the job as treasurer He would be very grateful I don't have time for it personally and I wish I did because I take it today But if anybody wants to take over that it's not complicated because Dave like he said he's been doing everything for years but if it's something you have an hour or so a week or whatever to handled that uh... particular thing i will put you in contact with him and he would be grateful No, Isaac is in Uganda. He's the indigenous missionary in Uganda. What's the currency then? It gets converted to what's called UGX. So you've got to know that. Well, yeah, but that it's sent in U.S. dollars, and so what all they do is after they've logged it, then they send it over, and so it's not a huge thing. But anyway, okay, so let's go ahead. Heavenly Father, we're very grateful to you for the chance to open up today and to open your Word, get into 1 Timothy 2, and to just share in this wonderful Word that you have given us. And we certainly pray for Mike and Sergio. Both of them are kind of down and out right now, but you'll get them through that and back up and running in no time. And there are other people in the church that have All kinds of problems, Lord. We've got people with vertigo. We've got people with cancer. We've got just people all over. And those that are watching right now are probably saying, You know, I just wish that I could get through this, but Lord, we just pray for all of these people to get through their afflictions and to just come out better on the other side. But we do know we have these things, according to your will sometimes, to teach us lessons and to keep us on the straight and narrow. So we thank you even for the discipline that we learned from being sick. And when we get better, it's always so nice. So we pray for that, Lord. But just thank you for being with us. We pray that the class will be handled properly. And if any of the doctrine here is not correct, that you would open our eyes to it. so that we would never teach something incorrect in your precious word. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. because 2 Timothy is way back here. This fell out last week. Why don't I do this? I'm going to just read the last paragraph leading up to 2, 1. And let's go. What you heard from me keep as a pattern of sound teaching with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you. Guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. You know that everyone in the province of Asia has deserted me, including Bygelis and Hermogenes. May the Lord show mercy to the households of Oniferous, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day. you know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus. 2-1. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So, just really close there, buddy. Okay, 2-1. Paul now redirects his focus and attention on His son, Timothy, calls him his son again. He has been speaking of those who were faithless, especially Phygelus and Hermogenes of verse 115 that Jim just read, and of Onesiphorus, who remained faithful, yes, who remained faithful, as is recorded in verses 116 and 118. I hate when my eyes get off a line and then I can't find where I was. He is also referring to himself as noted in verses 1, 11, and 12. Now in his redirect to Timothy, he says, you therefore. He's asking Timothy to consider what he has said and to learn from it. Oh, by the way, did you know that Rick is not here today? You got a message too? Okay, so he's just not serious about Bible class apparently. He's somewhere else. He's somewhere else. In essence, I know, this is a paraphrase Charlie Garrett here, I know whom I have believed and who will keep what I have committed until that day. I know who has been unfaithful and who will suffer loss because of it. And I know who has shown faithlessness to me during my own trials and who has presented himself strong in the Lord. Understanding these things, my son, Speaking to Timothy, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. So, that's just my paraphrase of what Paul is conveying in this verse and the past couple verses. There is a well that one can draw from, which will keep a believer strong and faithful. That well is the grace that is in Jesus Christ. There's no other place that you can go to find your strength in the Lord. You have to go through Jesus Christ. People that are trying to find their strength in the law, they want to reinsert precepts from the law of Moses, are not going to find strengthen the Lord, okay? All of that is done. All of that is behind us, and we saw that in typology hundreds of times throughout Joshua and Judges. We saw it Malachi, the way that he spoke to the people and telling, look, somebody's coming that's going to redo everything. He's going to bring about something that is completely different and be prepared, okay? That is Jesus. And then all the way through the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus is speaking to Israel under the law, and he's showing them the standard that God expects of them. It's not just rote following of the law, but it's the heart that's behind it. All of that's being seen in the presentation of Jesus' life as the Messiah. As I've said before, people that take the words of Jesus that are spoken to Israel under the law and then they apply them to their doctrine in the church are making a fundamental error in their walk with the Lord because he's telling them this is what you have to do at this time in Israel to be right with the Lord. I have come to give you something different." He even told them that explicitly when he said, take my yoke upon you and learn from me because my yoke is easy, my burden is easy, and my yoke is light. He's telling them that right now you are under a yoke. It's called the Law of Moses. A yoke is something that pulls you down or drags you down and you have to drag something behind you with it. You're like an ox is pulling this huge burden behind you and it's going to wear you out. That's why donkeys and oxes could pull so much and then they'd have to take a break. Well, the Law of Moses is something you can only pull so far and then you just can't do it anymore. Jesus came to take that yoke off of them. People are constantly putting that yoke back on themselves, constantly. It is something that we feel is necessary, that we have to do something to be right with God, and you know the classic example which I bring up from week to week is tithing. Okay, churches continuously preach tithing as if it's something that you're required to do in a church and that if you don't do it, you're not a good Christian. When the only place that tithing is mentioned as a precept is in the Law of Moses. And what are you doing? You're taking a precept from the Law of Moses and you're shoving it right back on top of people and you're saying that God's grace is sufficient except. Okay? Or they may say, well, you shouldn't be eating pork, or whatever precept that they want to pull out of the Old Testament and shove people under it. And you are not going to find it anywhere except the grace that is in Christ Jesus. That is a well that's springing up, and he's saying, come to me. Be free from these things. If you want to give to a church, give to a church. If you want to give everything you have to a church, give everything you have to a church. If you don't, nobody's making you do that or nobody should be making you do it. But when they take those precepts and they set them on top of you, they are burdening you with something that should not burden you. And quite often it's done intentionally. Quite often it's done out of ignorance. You know, most pastors, if you tell them, why do you preach tithing? They'll say, well, that's because I'm supposed to. They don't even know because they don't take the time to pick up the Bible, the Word, and to read it. And so, if they would just pick up the Word and find out what God is doing in the stream of human existence, they would find out that everything is coming to a head in the person of Jesus Christ. And that burden that is on you because of the past sins of Adam and the people under the law, all of that's removed in Christ. And now you can live in freedom from those things. But people don't want that. Some people don't want it because they lose control over their congregation, And some people don't want it because they think I have to do something to make God happy with me. And it's, I'm a part of what he has done. I'm going to earn my salvation. There's no earning your salvation. It is a gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast. So, there you go. This is what Paul is telling them, all right? As an external source, Paul's words right here, we can turn to 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9 and see how the Lord provides that well to those who need it. It says there, And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Paul had his own afflictions, his own weaknesses, and he understood that, and he trusted in the grace of Christ in order to be strong before God. Okay? Somebody just came in and I don't know who that was. Anyway, so it's the grace of God that is going to carry you through these things. It is not you. All right? It's not the law of Moses that's going to carry you through these things. Jesus Christ is the author perfecter of our faith. Some versions use the word finisher. Either way, He is the one that gave us our faith. He is the one that is going to finish our faith, and it's talking about our faith in Him, okay? It's not our faith in ourselves. It's not our faith in a pastor. It's not our faith in a congregation. It's not our faith in anything except Jesus. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. He is the one that we direct our eyes to. And we say, Lord, I know that everything I've done in my life, everything is insufficient to please God. But because of what you have done, I am right with God. I believe that gospel message, I accept it, and that is it. That's all that God wants from you, is your faith. There's nothing else you can give him, so why would you try? He owns the cattle on a thousand hills. And as well, which is filled by that external source, and which can then be drawn on in times of need, we can turn to the book of Ephesians. I'll take you to chapter 6 there. And let's see what we have here. Ephesians 6 is what we're looking for. And I'm going to take you to verse 10, where it says, Finally, my brethren, be strong, in your works. It doesn't say that. Be strong in the Lord and be in the power of His might. It's His strength that makes us strong. It's not our works. Everything we do is insufficient, okay? If it was fine for us to do it, then every path on this planet would be able to reach back to God. It wouldn't matter if you're in Islam. It wouldn't matter if you're in Buddhism. It wouldn't matter if you're in Confucianism or if you were an atheist. As long as you did good things enough, God would accept you. And that's what Islam teaches. Islam actually, you know, people say, well, you got to be a Muslim to go to heaven. Islam doesn't teach that. Islam teaches that anybody can go to heaven, but when you get there, whether you're a Muslim or not, you have balances. And if your balances are heavy enough, then you get to go into heaven. If they're not enough, then you don't get to go into heaven. And that's the way that Islam works, okay? Now, being a Muslim gives you more favor with the balances because you can go explode yourself in a shopping mall and you can, you know, get 72 virgins and have your balances weigh like this. But that is the precept, and it's about you. It ultimately comes back to you, and that's not what God is looking for. He's not looking for you to do anything. He's looking for you except to believe in Jesus Christ. He did the work. He united with human flesh. You know, if you think about it, these people that are stuck under the law of Moses, I'm talking about people that call themselves Christians and are constantly reinserting the law. Think of it now. God. We believe that Jesus is God. If you don't believe that, you've got a serious problem with your theology anyway. But God united with human flesh, okay? Everything in Genesis 1 was given to us for a reason. Fruits reproduce after Their own kind, yes. Fish reproduce after fish. Dogs reproduce and become dogs. You don't see those things changing. Dogs do not become dats, okay, mixing with a cat. That doesn't happen. Dogs mix with dogs and you get more dogs, okay. Human beings mix and they become human beings again. There's nothing else, okay. So we have this pattern that's set in the beginning of the Bible for a reason. All right, so if Mary is a human being and she has a child, what is that child? And if God has a son, this is the begotten of God, then what is that child? Therefore he is fully God and fully man. We were told that on the first page of the Bible so that when he came we wouldn't make the error that this is not God incarnate. Okay? If we believe that, which is what the Bible teaches, then we're saying that God came down. He united with human flesh. He placed himself under the law that he gave to Moses. He lived that life perfectly, he never violated the law, and then he died on the cross in order to pay for our sin debt, according to the law of Moses. So even his death was in fulfillment of the law. He did that. And then somebody says, well, I understand that Jesus died for my sins, but I still have to do the law of Moses. That's saying that it's a denial of the deity of Jesus Christ. It's saying that God did not do this, but if God did do it, then obviously it's sufficient. Everybody see the logic? Okay, so it is fully sufficient, but that tells you that you cannot come through works, whether it's Islam, whether it's Confucianism, whether it's Buddhism or any of these other religions, because God has explained himself and what he expects in the person of Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father except through me. He makes everything else, every other religious expression, including the law of Moses, ineffective, or obsolete in the case of the Law of Moses, or null and void. The attempts to reach God in another way cannot happen because He is the one that has revealed the Father through the Law of Moses, meaning His fulfillment of it. That's why it says in Colossians 2.14 that the Law was nailed to the cross. Like I say, week after week. Nobody went up to the cross of Jesus and took a copy of the law and tacked it on there. They're saying that he is the embodiment of the law of Moses. He fulfilled it, and when he died, he annulled it, as it says in Hebrews 10, verse 9. Also 7, 18, and 8, 13. Go look those up. He annulled it. He set it aside. It is obsolete, okay? In doing those things, and you put the law back on somebody, either on yourself or on a congregation, you are making them fall from grace. That's the whole point of what God is telling us in these words, is that it is what Christ has done. My brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. It's not our works that do it. The Lord provides the strength, the might, but the believer must be willing to access that strength and apply it when needed. That is seen in the book of Philippians. In chapter 4 he says this, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Okay, that's not speaking about being able to go out and run a marathon and beat the fastest guy on the field. That's not what it's speaking of. It's speaking of prevailing over all things that would come against you. Okay, your relationship with God. If you put Christ first, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We can't all get rich. We can't all, you know, go to tropical shores to have a vacation unless you live in Sarasota, Florida, then you just go down the road, right? But there are things that we just cannot do because that's not what Paul is speaking about. But people, once again, take that verse, they rip it out of the Bible, and they start claiming things that don't belong to them. There's a context of what Paul is saying there, but I can do all things. I am sustained in my walk with the Lord, in my future salvation, in my hope. Everything about what I do, I can do them through Christ Jesus. that this external grace must be worked out by us is then clearly demonstrated by Paul's words of 1 Corinthians 15. Okay, so I'm going to take you there, and he says in 1 Corinthians 15, and in verse 10, whoops, I gotta 15 is an 8, so I don't know why he turned to 8, but okay. 1 Corinthians 15, and he says, But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Okay, so if you're going to do things for the Lord, You need to trust in the grace of God. You need to rest in the grace of God, and He will give you the strength to do those things. Your laboring in the Lord is something that you need to do if you want to be obedient to the Word of God. You're not going to lose your salvation if you don't do anything for the Lord. that's, you know, you're saved by faith. So if you have to do something or not do something in order to remain saved, then it was never of grace. It doesn't matter here. This is your salvation, right? This is it right here. That's the moment you believed in Jesus Christ and you've got all of your life here. This guy dies right here. This guy dies right here. Steve dies when he's 327 because he's on social security, right? It doesn't matter. If you have to do something along this line in order to keep being saved, then it was never of grace through faith, ever, because it was dependent on you to keep it. It was not of grace. It was of you. Salvation is eternal. What you do with your salvation is something that lasts, okay? It is something that you receive rewards for. as according to 1 Corinthians 3 and 2 Corinthians 5. That's the Bema Seat of Christ. That's where you will be judged for what you do in this life, okay? But your salvation is not up to you. It was up to Christ, and it still is up to Christ, and that's why they use the term in Christ. It's because you're in Christ. You are no longer a part of this world in God's eyes. You are no longer under the devil's authority. 1 John 3 verse 8 there, okay? The reason that the Son of God was manifest is that he might destroy the works of the devil. If you believe in the work of Christ, then you have gone from ownership or the federal head of the devil in Adam to Christ. You are now a new creature in Christ. It was 2 Corinthians what that you had said with the Bema Seat? Bema Seat. 2 Corinthians 5, 9, and 10 I believe. And 1 Corinthians 3, just go from 9 to 11 and you'll get it. Yep. So there you go. So there you go. Just as rain which falls from the sky rests on the good and on the bad, which all by itself is a form of grace. I mean, my neighbor might be the biggest dirtball in the world, or I might be, and he might be a great guy, but one of us is not right with the Lord, right? and yet it rains on both of us. We're getting grace. I was hoping for grace yesterday and it didn't happen. It rained about an 18th of a second at the house. It's been a while since we got rain and we desperately need it, but he will provide it in its due season, so we just keep waiting. But just as rain falls from the sky and rests on the good and bad, The grace of Christ is granted to those who have called on him. We don't deserve it. Not a person on this planet deserves God sending his son into the world, but God sent his son into the world. And so the grace was offered. The faith is there, available. All we have to do is trust it, right? By faith, through grace, you were saved, and that not of yourselves. And if you do exercise the faith, He is the author of your faith, He is the finisher of it, He will carry you through. That is what the Bible tells us. That is the good news of Jesus Christ. But some will never make use of the rain and store it up for crops and the like. They just let the rain fall on the house, go into the ground, and it's gone. That's why if you go downtown, especially on like Orange Avenue and Osprey Avenue, you'll see these houses there. There's still a couple of them there that were built back in the late 1800s or the early 1900s, and they've got this big section on the house. And it looks like the rest of the house, but if you look at it, it's not a room. And you think, what is that? It's this giant thing of water that they would collect on top of the house. You know what the houses I'm talking about? Okay, there's a couple of them and I'll show you. Right, if you go down orange, maybe right between Bay of Vista and where it's probably somewhere around Alta Vista to Bay of Vista, maybe a little further south, you'll see them. One of them got torn down a year ago, but there were several matching houses, and if you're going south, it would be on the left-hand side. And there are other ones downtown, but those are ones that I know specifically. They had these big things that would collect the water, kind of like a V, so it would all drop in there, and then they would have water, and they could use it for things, you know, and they'd also have pressure. doesn't take a lot of height to have pressure where you turn on a faucet and you've got strong pressure just by opening what's up there. So, I mean, it doesn't take a lot. We think of pressure in our pipes and, you know, you turn it on and that had to come from all the way out at the big Bob building area out of Sarasota County and you know if they've got a pump a variable speed pump that is always running and it ramps up when there's a high demand and it slows down when there's a low demand but it's always keeping the water pressure the same in your house and you turn on your water and you say I got water well you don't have to worry about that if you got a big storage thing so The point of that is that if you are storing up your water, you can use it productively afterwards, okay? People that are saved are saved, but they may not have a lot of water stored up to do things that they should be doing, okay? But some will never make use of the rain and store it up for crops and the like. Others will, and they will thus have a well which to draw from. In like manner, the grace leads to labor for the wise, okay? I was, yes, two days ago, was it? Yes, yesterday, okay? I already have long days. I'm up at 3.30, seven days a week. I go to bed about eight, but I work until six o'clock, seven days a week, okay? I don't take days off. So I have long days and they're very full normally, but some days I have a little free time. it may be an hour or two here or it may be whatever and I actually thought because I want to get this project done I may start getting up at 2 30 every day and adding in an hour of this project but anyway I thought you know what I'm now 60 I don't have many years left okay and well I'm just saying you know I mean it's not just your mom's laughing because she's like 800 years old and she's like oh my gosh No, I'm just saying that I don't have many years of productivity left. I may live to be 150, but there's not going to be any productivity in me. But there's a project that I want to do. It's a project for the Lord. And I thought, I might as well get it started now. And so I started yesterday and I continued on today. And I figure if I work at it every day, I will be able to get it done in eight years. Okay. And by then I'm going to be you know, my brain isn't going to be working the way it is now, which isn't very good right now. So anyway, so I'm going to spend as much time as I can doing this particular project. It's not anything that I need to be telling you about until it's done. And when it's done, then you'll say, oh, That's nice, and that'll be that. But that is because I want to use my time effectively. And if I have free time, what am I gonna do with it? I'm gonna waste it. I'm not going to be productive in what I'm doing. And so I would like to be able to keep my, and this is something I was so excited about yesterday, I actually didn't do a couple of the things I should have done. So I had to get them done this morning, and I didn't want to because I was back into my project. And like I say, if I work on it every day for the next eight years, I think I'll be able to have it finished. So, let's see here. Yeah, so the grace leads to labor for the wise. I'm resting in the grace of Christ to get this done. Now that doesn't mean I'm not going to get run over tomorrow and die. That doesn't mean that I'm not going to, you know, be unable to do these. I may go blind and I can't do the project that I want to do, okay? We don't know. We have no idea. But as long as we're here and we're physically and mentally able to do the things that we want to do, Do them, because you're not going to get time back. That's why the Bible says, redeem the time. You're not getting your time back, and if you're just frittering it away, it's gone. That's the end of your chance to do anything productive for the Lord. So you got the well up there, make sure it doesn't have any leaks in it so it's not empty when you need it, and then start working. Okay? This is what Paul is saying to Timothy. life application. You have been bestowed the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. If I'm talking about people that have received Jesus, they believe the gospel message. To apply it to your life and to use it in good times and in bad you should pursue those works. You should pursue your salvation through those works, is what I should say. No evangelist, pastor, or missionary has received more or less time than you. although it may have been received in a different way than you. The guys that are out there working and doing things for the Lord have the same amount of time as you do. And that's why I say, if I can get myself, and it'll take some effort, but if I can condition myself to get up at 2.30 instead of 3.30 every day, then I will have an extra hour to do this to not interrupt my other duties throughout the day. It means I'll get an extra hour of sleep less every day, and I can see Hedeko saying, I don't want him to do that, because then I'm always grumpy at the end of the day. But we'll see. We'll see. If I can make the adjustment, I'll do that. If not, then it'll take me eight years and five months to do. Whatever. The grace of Jesus Christ is open and available to all. to strengthen us and to allow us to then be strong in Him. Let each of us endeavor to use what is available to us now so that in the ages to come our rewards, as he just read from 1 Corinthians 5, he read it to himself, but he read it, our rewards will stand as a testimony to our faithfulness in using that which we have been given. It's your choice what you do with your life. Nobody's going to, you know, and that's not true in the ultimate sense because if you go to jail, somebody's going to tell you what you have to do, right? If you have a job, they're going to tell you what you have to do. But in the general sense of your life in America, people don't tell you what you have to do with your life. You just go out and you do it. You fritter away your time or you go to baseball games and you collect baseball statistics in your head or you, you know, go sailing every Sunday. Nobody cares what you do and nobody's there telling you, you know, I order you to go sailing every Sunday. Nobody does that. Okay, what you do with your time is up to you. If you are not being productive with it for the Lord, you know what? We have eternity ahead of us. Eternity is longer than 50 years, just so you know that. Eternity is longer than 50 years. And so whatever you do now that you waste, just think. of the amount of waste that has continued on for eternity, because you're not getting the rewards you could get, all right? Just because Jim asked, we'll just go there just so you know I'm not making these things up. Are you in 1 Corinthians? I was. Okay. I get that. Go to 2 Corinthians 5, and I'll go to 1 Corinthians 3. That way we can just bang these out. 1 Corinthians 3 says, I'll just start in verse 9, for we are God's fellow workers, You are God's field. You are God's building. According to the grace, once again, of God, which was given to me as a wise master builder, he's saying I was wise. God offered me grace. I received that grace. He said in Acts that he could have, you know, declined to do these things. God gave him the will to walk away from the vision that he saw, but he didn't. As a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take how he builds on it. take heed on how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus." That's the foundation. Our faith is laid in Jesus Christ. That's it. There's nothing else. That is the foundation of our faith, okay? which, you know, the Pope is not doing well. I did read a report just a few minutes ago that he's getting a little better, but he's about to die, okay? I don't care if he's the Pope or not. He is not right with the Lord. He is not trusted in the foundation. He's put his faith in Mary and in images of saints, and he prays to idols. He is not right with the Lord. He is not right with the foundation. Any work he does is not being built on Jesus Christ, and that guy is either not saved, or he's not getting a single reward for what he's done, because he has not proclaimed Jesus Christ at all, whether people like to hear that or not. So he's at the end of his life, and I posted at least three times on his Twitter account in the past couple days, you better get right with Jesus. You're just about to punch your ticket, and you need to be right with Jesus. And of course, they're not going to heed and tell him, you know, you need Jesus, but that's what he should be doing right now. Anyway, So if anyone builds on this foundation, Jesus, my faith in Jesus, with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, three of them can be refined, three of them will be burnt up, okay? Each one's work will become clear for the day, meaning your day of judgment, the Bema Seat of Christ will declare it. because it will be revealed by fire. The Lord, he's going to look at all of us, eyes of fire or however you want to consider it, and he's going to burn away all the things that were useless, pointless in our life. It's all going to be burned away. And anything that is of value, he goes on, he says, because it will be revealed by fire. And the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is. What sort of work have you been doing for the Lord? The foundation. What sort of work? If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, you'll receive a reward. You've done something for Christ. You, you know, told people about Jesus. You invited people to church. You helped the church with money or with cookies or whatever. Okay, if you did it in faith of Christ, the foundation, you will receive your reward. That's what he's saying right there. And the fire will test each one's work. If anyone's work which is built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned, meaning you frittered your life away, he will suffer loss. But, here it is, he himself will be saved, yet as through fire. You will not lose your salvation even if you don't do a single thing for the Lord. You know, one of the most maddening teachings in the world is that true salvation leads naturally to works. That is one of the stupidest teachings on the planet. There are people out there that were saved. We'll say somebody walked up to him in Papua New Guinea and he said, do you know that a guy died for your sins named Jesus? He's fully God and fully man. Yeah, I believe that. Thank you for telling me that. Then he goes, I can't believe it. And he says, now you are saved and he leaves. He doesn't know what to do about it. He has no idea and so he never does a work. He has no capability of doing work because he has no Bible to tell him what works will give him a reward, okay? Saying that good works stem naturally from saving faith is not true. It's a damaging theology because people spend the rest of their lives pulling on their faces and saying, I wonder what work I did that will get God to be happy with me, as if that is required for your salvation. It's not. It's just something that you do. It's something that you do because you have a heart for the Lord. That guy in Papua New Guinea, he never heard of what to do for the Lord. He had no idea. He believed, he was saved, and his life went on. No works. And if you don't believe that is true, that good works do not stem naturally from saving faith, go read 2 Peter, start in verse 1, go down to verse 9, and see what happens when you don't do what the book says. Okay? Not going to lose your salvation, but you're going to have no works at all. Zero. Okay? So don't believe people that tell you that, that you have to do something in order to make God happy after you're saved. He was happy that you believed what He did to save you in Jesus. Okay? That's why He incarnated with humanity, was so that He could lead us back to Himself. All right? He didn't make it hard. He just asked us to believe. Okay. So having said that, The grace of Jesus Christ is open and available to all to strengthen us and to allow us to then be strong in Him. Let each of us endeavor to use what is available to us now so that in the ages to come, remember I said eternity is longer than 50 years. It's way longer. Okay? Our rewards will stand as a testimony to our faithfulness in using that which we have been given. Do you have two Corinthians? I have it right here. Okay, go ahead. Okay, I'll back it up to six. Therefore, we are always confident and know that as long as we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. We live by faith, not by sight. We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. That's for sure. So, we make it our goal to please Him whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. What was that? That's 2 Corinthians 5, 6 through 9 you read, right? Yeah, I did. 6 through 9. 9 through 10 is that. Oh, 9 and 10. Okay, 6 through 10. So anyway, that's just, you know, go to 1 Corinthians 3, mark it in your Bible. 2 Corinthians 5, mark it in your Bible. And remember, so that when somebody comes to you and tells you something dumb, like, you know, your good works stem naturally from saving faith, you can say, well, where is that in the Bible? Okay? And all of a sudden, when pastors and preachers teach that kind of nonsense, he, once again, just like, you know, telling them you can lose your salvation, he has control over you. Because now he can say, well, you know, your works aren't sufficient. Okay? And all of a sudden, he is the one that manages your salvation for you. That's not his job. Your job is to live out your salvation, to work out your salvation in trembling and fear before the Lord. Not for him. Okay? That is not the pastor's job, is to live out your faith for you and live out your salvation for you. And if you're in a church where they are telling you that, you should leave that church. They're telling you something that is not true. Your good works do not stem naturally from saving faith, but you are saved and you should want to have a well of water right there that you can access and you can then use to water the crops of your salvation. Telling people about Jesus. You know, like I said, going to church and listening to people talk about the Bible in its proper context. And what are some of the other things you can do? You can, you know, give money to the church if you have it. If you don't, don't worry about that. You can, like I said, bake cookies, right? I mean, what does it say? You know, this is for the pastor. It doesn't matter. It's what Paul is telling Galatians 6. And it says here, let him who has taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches, okay? So you make cookies, give him some cookies when you come in on Sunday. But if you're giving them to the church, the pastor has access to them, doesn't he? So that doesn't mean you have to go butter up to the pastor and give him, here, this is for you. You know, it's like the student giving the teacher the apple. I'm gonna get a better grade because I get, that's not necessary. If you bring something in for the whole church to eat, then you're giving it to the pastor if he doesn't eat it is probably because he's like me I don't eat on Sundays because I don't want to burp in people's faces so I never eat on Sundays that's that's just the way it is and then when I get home I'm too busy doing all the other things that I have to do I don't have time to eat so she'll give me something and I'll end up spilling it all over the place and I'm like get frustrated but anyway One time, I'll tell you what happened. She put two hot dogs in one bun. I didn't know they were in there. One of them slipped out. I had mustard all over me. I was like, oh. And I'm trying to get my work done and I'm sitting here for 10 minutes cleaning myself up and not blaming her. It was just what happened. I didn't know there were two hot dogs in there. So anyway, what? Double-barreled. Yeah, it was double-barreled and one of them just came sliding. Wow. You know, it's better not to eat when you're busy working. Anyway, but like I said, sharing all things with him who teaches, great. If he's teaching a class, then share it with the class. Okay, just use sense about things. Tutu. Yes. Just a quick backup with your project that you're keeping under your hat. Well, I'm not keeping it under my hat. The Lord will give you time to do that. I don't think you should be torturing yourself. I am so excited that I've already got time set aside in my mind. It's just that it's got to be available. So I've decided, you know, I usually spend three to four hours a day answering emails. I'm just not going to answer any more emails ever again. That'd be great. How much time does the 7-Eleven take? Oh, an hour and a half a day. I'm talking them all and 7-Eleven. I'm not giving that up. I'm sorry. You know what? If things don't get... I won't say it. I'll say something to you privately, but if things don't go well... It's best that I keep those part-time jobs, definitely. It just is because, you know, anyway, so, but yeah, it does take time. And it also, one thing about doing that, I used to have five jobs and I've kind of whittled them down over the past six years. Two of them I lost because the businesses went out of, out of business, but one of the things about doing them all is it keeps up my girlish figure. And that's important, right? Because if I don't do that work, I'm going to tell you what, I'm going to be home and I'm not going to be doing any exercise. So it's probably better that I keep them anyway, but I'll tell you why I don't want to give them up when we don't have people listening online. Okay, so 2-2. Okay, 2-2. Let's go. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others. Okay. And the things you have heard from me among many witnesses commit these two faithful men who will be able to teach others also. Yours says likewise, right? No. Okay, well anyway, also. Let's see here. 2-2. Paul just told Timothy to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Okay? Be strong in the grace. Okay? He's given you the grace. Now be strong in it. Go out and do the things that you should be doing. I've been instructing you all these years. You're a pastor now. Go out and do these things. and the Word is recorded so that we have that same instruction for every pastor that is willing to pay attention on the planet. If they're not willing to pay attention, then they're not going to be strong in the Lord, because that's what these epistles—you know, I show you this. I show people this from time to time, and it's a good thing to be reminded. This is right here. I've got to get back to here. We're going to go to the Book of Romans, and then we're going to—let me take that out so I don't increase what I want to show you. Right here. This is it. This is the letters to the church. Out of this giant book, this is all that we have to instruct the church. That's it. You can read this. If you're a human being that can read, which most people are in this world, you can read this in probably two hours or less, right here. You probably read it, okay? I would say that most people on this planet that call themselves Christians have never read these books. And I'm absolutely certain it will take no longer than three hours. You get an audio Bible, and I'm sure it's not that long, and you listen to an audio Bible faster than you read. Okay? So, I'm sorry, you read faster than you listen to an audio Bible. So, this right here is everything that has been instructed for Church Age Doctrine. from the hand of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, to the Gentile church, until the Gentile church is taken. That's it. And most people have never read it. And I guarantee you this, that there are many, many people that are in the pulpit right now. that have never read this completely. They've gone to it, they've referenced it for a sermon on Sunday, maybe, or maybe they just printed off their sermon from online, and then they'll give the sermon, and then they'll be out there golfing again, right? Whatever. But most people have never read these simple, if you're not reading this at least twice a year, you are not going to remember what is in here. And then you cannot do what we just talked about, having your rewards saved up because of life in Christ. you're not gonna be able to do that. Just like the guy in Papua New Guinea that never got the Bible, if your Bible is sitting here like this on your shelf, The only thing it's doing is nothing. It's getting older, maybe. It's starting to dry out, but it's not doing anything for you. It's doing nothing. This word is what you need to have to direct your life, and most people never take the time to simply pick it up and say, I want to know what the Lord God expects of me, okay? That's a crying shame. When you say that I believe in the God who came into human existence to give his life to pay for my sins, I'm not willing to simply read what he expects of me. That's a crime, okay? We talk about crimes against humanity, the Holocaust, and all this kind of stuff. This is a crime against God to not know this Word. Okay, Paul just told Timothy to be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Now, in order that this will continue on beyond Timothy, he gives the admonition of this verse. and the things that you have heard," that's Paul's words, and the things that you have heard, are certainly all of the teachings that have come to Timothy's ears throughout many travels, in numerous congregations, in private talks, and in open forums. Timothy walked around with Paul. They went all over the area of the Middle East. They went, you know, Macedonia. They went to Greece. They were all over the areas of Asia, down into Turkey, which is kind of part of Asia, some of it. Okay. Then they went, I even traveled, I don't know if Timothy traveled to Jerusalem. I can't remember that. See, you know, if you don't read the Bible, you're going to forget these things. And I just read the book of Acts. Okay. But there's a lot of information. You got to keep packing it in. All right. But you, He learned all of these things, and he's got to remember all of these things that he learned from Paul, okay? Because at the time, they did not have a Bible. They didn't have anything. Paul is writing the Bible to Timothy. Thankfully, by the Lord's obvious intervention, all of these letters were saved. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit through Paul, and now we have them. So we don't need to remember the things. You know what? I've got to do a lesson today. I need to go brush up on what to tell the congregation about this or about this. Or maybe you're in a church and you say, did the pastor tell me right today? Well, how are you going to know? How are you going to know that that guy is telling you the truth unless you know where to go to check what he said? You don't. It's impossible. You cannot know it unless you are familiar with this book enough to say, I'm going to go check out what he said, okay? So, you are at the mercy of that guy. Hence, Jonestown, all right? If that's what you want, keep following blindly behind people. What's another one? David Koresh, Waco, Texas, right? These people died believing in a person, what he said, and they weren't even telling anything biblical. They're just making stuff up. But he's a pastor, or he's an authority. He knows, okay? People have lost their lives because of not reading the manual. Okay, so, Congregations Private Talks Open Forums. Paul had been a faithful herald of God's Word to the people he encountered, and Timothy had been with him for a great amount of time. He wanted Timothy to remember all of what had been entrusted to him. And you know, one thing about Timothy that was something we don't have, unless we can make mental images, Timothy had interaction with Paul. And one thing we do much more than when we read normally is we remember interactions with other people. There are times when we will even misremember things, but we normally remember. You know, I remember talking to my friend back in 11th grade about this exact same thing. We just remember because there was an interaction. When we're reading the Bible, that doesn't always happen because a lot of it is just instruction, and we're not getting any interaction. We're just getting knowledge coming in. So Timothy had that until the Bible was written. We don't need that type of interaction because the Bible is written. We have the written word, okay? But, like I said, you're not able to form the same type of complex structures in your brain that Timothy had because you don't have the interaction with Paul, and therefore you are going to forget very quickly this word unless you read this word. Okay? That's how it is. I know that because I read this word two or three or four times a year and I don't remember everything that is in it. I'm forgetting it constantly because there's so much in this word. Here's a good example of that. I've been telling you about the Bible Bites that Maya has been doing on the Jonah series. We've got to be on the last Bible Bite next time, because we got to almost a conclusion with the one that I watched yesterday. And I remember sitting there yesterday thinking, I can't believe what was in the book of Jonah. I can't, and I'm the one that went in there and did the study. I didn't read anybody else's stuff. I just did my commentary, and I'm like, I can't believe what was in the book. All of this wonder and this information about Jesus is right there, and so I can't wait to finish this. So she'll get it out eventually. She's been putting them out once a week, and I could go back and watch that myself, but I don't have time to sit down and watch an hour-long sermon. and I don't have time to go back and read all of my eight or nine sermons, however many there were on the book of Jonah. I don't have time for that. So I'm enjoying her two-minute cuts out of this every day. When I turn on the TV, there's Maya. First thing that comes up every day. And Hedekoah will listen because she's always cooking something yummy. And then I'm sitting there watching the Bible bite before I pull up something else that she can watch while we eat dinner, okay? Because that's the only time we have together during the day. the only time is when we are having dinner together. The rest of the time I'm working and, you know, she's just trying to keep the dogs quiet so they don't bother me and that's her job lately. Yeah, I know. How do you do that? Anyway, so, but I've been so enjoying relearning the Book of Jonah, which I typed. I got that information. It came out of my interaction with the Lord. I typed it. I did the sermon and I don't remember it. That was only a few years ago. Right. Okay. That shows you you're going to forget. What? Maya does a great job. Oh, she does a great job. Oh, man. I just, you know, the only problem I have, I can give her a like, but I can't give comments because on my TV, I can't give comments. So, she gets no comments from me and I hate to do that, but Give her one now. Well, yeah, but it's not on her thing. So anyway, you're right though. But just great little things or little clips that just keep you informed until the next one comes out. Another thing is one of my friends Great, great guy. He is a associate pastor in Texas, and he's been here a few times. You'd know him if you saw him. And he has taken some of the books that I've done, and he's re-preached them to his congregation. And not really preached, it's more in a Bible study forum, but he did the Book of Esther. And when he was, this is no kidding, he was doing the Book of Esther based on my notes and anything else that he pulled up, and he started talking about things, and I said, I didn't know that was in Esther. I had no idea. I had no idea. I wish that I included that in my sermons. And then I went back to my sermons to compare, and it's in my sermons! I'm like, I had completely forgotten that information. There's so much about this word that we cannot remember it all, so if you are not reading this word, you are forgetting this word. Okay, there's no doubt about it. There's no way around that. So read the Bible. Don't trust people in churches. Don't listen to what they say without checking. You know, it says give your pastor double honor. Great, do it. Honor them and respect them until you find out they're wrong, and then leave, okay? But or try to correct them first, you know, if that is your position. But, you know, a lot of people just, they want to keep going down the same path. I'm going to teach tithing because that's what I was told to teach. Well, the Bible doesn't teach it. You're teaching incorrectly, and there's a point where you have to say, I need to find a different church, okay? I wouldn't do that easily, though. I would give people grace because everybody is failing in some way. Now, there are a million things that I do not know about the Bible, and I may mispreach on something. somebody asked me a question about something I said in the Song of Songs sermons this past week, and I thought, let me go check, and I checked, and the way I worded it was exactly correct, okay, and had I not worded it that way, I would have had to have made a correction that said, you know, I said something during the sermon that was misinterpreted, but it was because of me. It was my fault. But it's not, because the way that I worded it in the sermon is, you know, I made a comparison, not a typological analysis. So it was a little different, and I'm glad I did that, because I would, as a matter of fact, I did. It was Monday morning. It was sermon typing day, and I never check emails, but I saw a question about the Song of Solomon. I thought, I just want to get this done, because it'll be on my mind all day if I don't look at it. And then I said, well, I'll answer it later, and then I was so excited or whatever the word is when you just want to get it. I stopped and I answered that thing in the morning. Never check emails on Monday morning, Charlie. Don't do it because you got a sermon to type, but I did. So, anyway, we're worried. Paul had been a faithful herald of God's Word to the people he encountered, and Timothy had been with him for a great amount of that time. He wanted Timothy to remember all of what he had entrusted to him. He wanted to remember everything. Don't forget Timothy. And these things were, as it says, among many witnesses. Paul's words, among many witnesses. Paul had spoken before Jew. He had spoken before Gentile. He'd spoken in the synagogue. He had spoken in house churches. He talked to people in marketplaces. He actually talked to people on ships. He talked to high-ranking people like kings. He talked to low-ranking people, people just right out on the street. He talked to smart people like in the Agora in Acts chapter 17. He spoke to them on their level. He cited Greek philosophers, Euripides and Amenones and all these other big names. Yeah, I was going to make another Greek name, but I couldn't think of one. Anyway, so all of these people. He spoke to everybody. It didn't matter what their station was in life, it didn't matter how smart they were, how, you know, I don't want to say dumb, but unintelligent they were. He spoke to everybody, okay? Timothy saw this. He saw that you interact with different people differently, but you always give them the same gospel. You always give them the same hope of salvation. It doesn't matter what color they are. It doesn't matter how rich they are. It doesn't matter. Those things don't matter. What matters is you give them the same gospel message that everybody gets, okay? Don't say to one person one thing and another another person. Jesus Christ died for your sins. You're a sinner. Jesus Christ was buried with your sins, okay? Jesus Christ rose on the third day according to Scripture. And because he did those things, you can be saved if you believe. That message needs to be given to everybody. Just the same. He spoke to kings and he spoke to jailers. Whenever Timothy was with him, he was a witness, as were these others. They all witnessed it. Paul is among many witnesses. He never shunned to tell the full scope of the gospel of Jesus Christ, ever, okay? So Paul implored Timothy, him, to remember these things and to remember that they were spoken openly and to all. He said it to everybody. Remember what he did in Galatians chapter 2. Peter is there. He's among the Gentiles. He's fellowshipping with them. He's eating with them. And as soon as the Jews show up, Peter withdraws. And he's like, well, I don't want to be associated with the Gentiles because if I do that, then they might think that I'm not a good law-absorbing Jew. But he's not absorbing the law because he's having pork dinner with the Gentiles. But he pulls back and Paul calls him out right in front of everybody. I brought this up in the church either last Thursday or on Sunday, is that that is the job of a person that knows the Bible, is to correct the doctrine of people that are pulling back and not teaching it properly. You are to openly call those people out and say, what you are doing is not correct. And that's why I go to the Pope. You know, I don't care if he's the pope, it doesn't matter who he is. I post right there. He's never going to read that, but the people around him will hopefully see that and say, you know what, he might be right. And I cite usually one verse or maybe not, sometimes I just say something, but today I said Hebrews 12, 2, right there. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, because if we don't do that, we got our eyes on something else. The guy is always, remember when this same pope, the one that's alive right now, remember what he did with Pachamama from South America? He brought the South American tribes with their gods up to the Vatican, and they had a prayer circle with their gods right in the Vatican, praying to non-gods, little statues. Pachamama is the thing's name. He did that right in front of the whole world. Okay, somebody needs to call him out. It doesn't matter if he's a pope, which he's not anyway, but that is a false teaching and he is leading people completely astray. He is a completely apostate human being, just like Jim Jones. There's really no difference between the two. You know, here's another thing that they're doing right now. Right now, the Catholic Church, I saw it today, is now suing the government because the government took away their funding for illegal immigrants. They're suing them. That is where they're getting all of that money, all of that money that's been coming in, that has been paying the sex crimes against the people in their churches, six billion dollars. They have been fined for, only in America, not the whole world, just in America, they have been fined six billion dollars for crimes against little children, okay? Only in America. Where do you think that money is coming from? It's coming from the illegal money that they're getting from the government. And they're paying this off, and they're continuing on doing these things to little children all over America, and twice on Sunday. And now they're suing to get that money back, because they can't afford to pay these legal fees, because the tap has been cut off. Everything about that is just terrible. I don't mean to get excited, but that is just, that is so contrary to the message of Jesus that I cannot believe it. I cannot believe, that has nothing to do with telling people, Jesus died for your sins. You need Jesus. Okay, this is what's going on in the world right now. Okay, so, remember these things, remember they were spoken to all openly, okay, just like Paul did to Peter. It is the gospel of salvation for all people. It doesn't matter what country you're in. It doesn't matter what time of the day you wake up. All that matters is that you have received the gospel or you have not. That's it, okay, for all circumstances. It was this precious message that Paul repeats again and again and again in his writings, and the doctrine which accompanied it, which he now instructs Timothy, because Timothy is a pastor who will be teaching people, he wants him He says, commit these to faithful men. That's Paul's words. Commit these. All these things that you have seen all around the world in the presence of many witnesses, commit to faithful men. In other words, you are a pastor. You're going to be bringing in more pastors. You're going to be bringing in more deacons. Commit what I have told you to them so that they don't turn into the Catholic Church, so that they don't turn into the Presbyterian Church USA that only you have to ordain people that teach homosexuality. They will no longer allow you into that church as a leader unless you acknowledge that homosexual teachings are appropriate. Okay? Totally contrary to the Word of God. 100% contrary to the Word of God, and now you must make that affirmation before you can be ordained in the PCUSA. Okay? That's why Paul said, instruct these things, because if you're not instructing them, they are going to fall away very quickly. All right, and it's what we see. I read it to you last week. I might as well read it to you, or I think I mentioned it to you. I don't think I read it to you, but here we go. We're gonna see within less than a lifetime, Paul is telling him right now, Ephesus, okay? And then what do we do here? We go to Revelation chapter, I think it's two, it might be three. Let me, oh, I'm in Peter. You gotta be in Revelation to be in the right book, okay? Revelation, and it says here, Revelation two, verse one, here it is. This is Paul writing to Timothy, the pastor of Ephesus. Instruct these things right now to faithful men. In other words, instruct them to the people that are going to lead this church, because if you don't, they're gonna fall away. Within less than one life, one life, because this was written just shortly after Paul's death, at the time that John was a very old man. So within one span of life, here's what it says. To the angel of the church of Ephesus. This is Ephesus that is being warned. Right, these things says, he who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands, I know your works, your labor, your patience, that you cannot bear those who are evil. Good job. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars. Good job. And you have persevered and have had patience and labored for my name's sake and have not become weary. Good job. Okay, those are things that you'd be complimented. Nevertheless, verse 4, nevertheless, I have this against you, that you have left your first love. They're out there doing all these good things like churches do all over the world, but they had forgotten Jesus, the author and perfecter of their faith. They had forgotten the foundation. They're doing things in the name of the Lord, but they have no love for the Lord. And you see that in churches all the time. What good is going to church and doing a lot of good stuff if it's not based on the foundation? within one man's lifetime. The warning had not been heeded and they had gone from a gospel-centered church to a works-centered church without Jesus Christ. He says, repent. That's it, or I'm going to come and I'm going to take away your rewards. All right? So. And you're talking to the church. He's talking to the church. He's talking to the collective church in Revelation. He's not talking to individuals. He's talking to the collective church. All of you, the church, leaders, people in there, get right. Okay? So, commit these to faithful men. Timothy is asked to entrust these instructions not just to believers in general, but to faithful men. There are believers who are unfaithful. There are actually people out there that are believers and they are not faithful. If you don't believe that, you know, sometimes go hire a Christian and you say, well, I'm a Christian. This is a Christian company. And next thing you know, he's ripping you off. Okay, that does happen. So you gotta watch it. Okay, there are believers who are unfaithful. It doesn't mean they're not believers. It doesn't, they just struggle with stealing. They struggle with addictions and whatever. That is possible. Okay, there are believers who are not competent in the ministry. They're out there. Okay, there are people that have a great heart for the Lord. They're in the ministry and they're not really good at it. Okay, they're not capable of handling the stress. As I say, and I say this at least once every couple months, is that the average in America every single week, not every year, not every month, every week, the average number of pastors that leave the pulpit is 600. in a single week. That's average. Week to week around America, 600 people say, I am done with this job. They're incompetent, or they're burned out, or they have been ineffective in pursuing the job as a pastor in one way or another. It doesn't matter, you know, some people are doing a great job and they just can't handle it. They are not able to handle 600 every single week. It is a tough job. It is a tireless or tiring job. Okay? It is something that wears people out and you have to be willing to say, I am going to work through this. All right? You have to put up with a million people that have all the problems in the world and they want to put it on you. They want to tell you all their problems all day and twice on Saturday. Okay? And that happens. And one of the toughest parts about this job is you cannot go and repeat what you've heard. So he'd go see me talking with somebody on the phone and they'll be taking up my our only free hour of the day. They'll be calling on the phone and I'll be yep yep yep and when I get off I can't tell her what we just talked about. Can't do it, okay? That's kind of tough to do, but that's the way that it is with a pastor. And so 600 people every week are done. And that's why there are seminaries all over America is because we need to get new people into the pastorate constantly. And they're going to go out and they're going to be the biggest pastors in the world. And they're going to have 5,000 member churches and they're going to be living in luxury. That usually doesn't happen. And the people that are in those churches are in there usually, not always, but usually because they're giving an easy message that doesn't teach what the Bible says. It's not all of them. There are some that are very, very successful. Chuck Swindoll. I love to bring him up. Great speaker. I think he probably had a huge church. I think it was in Texas. It was in Texas. But, you know, he just retired at 90 years old. But he was, he, you listen to his messages and you know you're getting a straight message. You know, I don't know the person personally and I haven't heard all of his messages, so he might have had some that were wrong. But, you know, I just remember turning on the radio and there's Chuck and he's got this great analogy to something I never would have thought of. Anyway, so. Let's see here. There are believers who are not competent in the ministry. There are believers who are otherwise morally unqualified because of lingering sin, and so on. We brought this up with somebody a couple weeks ago on Sunday, is that there's a guy that was recently baptized, and the day that he was baptized, they ordained him. Well, that's contrary to what the Bible says because it says that, you know, don't put hands on people hastily and don't do it because of, you know, don't put somebody in the ministry early because they can fall into the same trap as the devil. All of a sudden, pride steps in, look at me, I'm already ordained, and you know, you gotta be careful who you ordain, all right? That should not happen. You have to evaluate people very carefully. Yeah, I've told this before, but now this is kind of the same thought. I was at the Korean church. I was at Temple Baptist Church for years, and then I went to the Korean church, and I taught there for six years, probably five or six years. I don't know. And so it's funny. We're watching a Korean series right now, and I'm slowly remembering Korean. You lose things very quickly, languages really quickly. If you're not in all the time, you know, I remember one time we were in Japan. Hideko had just come back after being in years for you in the US for years and somebody, I wanted her to translate something and she was like, you could see she was frustrated because you have to get your mind reworked into a language. So we're watching this Korean thing now, and I'm starting to remember the honorifics and all the structures of the sentence that I used to just take for granted. Okay, so I'm in that church. I wanted to be ordained. They didn't ordain me the way they promised, and it was because of something silly. Okay, I think I told you. Did I tell you? Yeah, okay. And so what did I do? I went to my brother's church, and I said, listen, this is what happened. And he said, that's silly. He said, come to this congregation, and we will evaluate you for a year. And if you meet the standards, we will ordain you. I already had the education, I already had all the qualifications, but that guy did the right thing. He said, we will evaluate you for a year, okay? I could have gone in there and told them all the doctrine I had. They would have been, oh my, because my doctrine didn't change in that year. But they wanted to make sure I was who I said I was. They wanted to make sure that I was doing what I claimed to be doing. That was a really smart move on his part because once it was the case, then they went to the vote with the congregation. Congregation voted. They agreed. They, you know, had the meeting. I went in and I got evaluated and they said, okay, he's ready. They ordained me and that was it, onward from there. But that was the right thing to do. Where was I now? So, there are people who are morally unqualified because of lingering sin. He wanted to make sure I didn't have that. Something going on in my life that we can evaluate this guy, okay? And so on. There are all kinds of reasons why somebody should not be ordained. These things may be taught to them for instruction, but not as a means of making them instructors. And there's a difference. You can sit in church and learn all day long, but you may not be the guy that should be instructing in the church, okay? And that's even people that know. Like I said, at the seminary I went to, Southern Evangelical Seminary, there were people in there that were great, great instructors but they were not grounded in their faith. Just because you know something does not mean that it is instilled in you. And so I know I've told you, and maybe I've told the classes, I had one teacher, he was so smart that he was too smart for being a Protestant. And so he went, it's called going over the Tiber, and he went and he became a Catholic because the Catholics think more than the Protestants. Okay, he's just left Everything that has been built on over the past 400 years from the reason why they got away from the Catholic Church is because it wasn't handling the Bible properly. So he had all of this knowledge and this instruction, but he didn't have an understanding of the grace of God in Christ. My works are what are going to get me to heaven. that was too bad. It was just a real shame to see that. But just because somebody's a professor in a seminary doesn't mean that he's got a heart for the Lord, just like Ephesians, I'm sorry, Revelation chapter 2 verse 1, the letter to Ephesus. They had all of the things they were doing were right, they just didn't have a heart for the Lord. Okay, so these things may be taught to them for instruction, but not as a means of making them instructors. Paul is speaking specifically to Timothy about furthering the church in a leadership capacity. That's why these are called the pastoral epistles. 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus are written as pastoral epistles. They are to instruct pastors on how to handle their duties before the church, okay? If they are not properly taught, and they should be taught to everybody in the church, because the people in the church have to evaluate who is the next pastor, who is going to be the deacon. Is this guy qualified? If they don't know that, then what good are they doing in the church? They're just coming in and having fun with other people on Sunday morning and going home. They are a part of that body that is going to be responsible to the next guy, even if he's not qualified. So, this is all the more evident with his final words of this verse, which say, who will be able to teach others. Okay, just because you have knowledge in your head doesn't mean you're able to teach others. Now, I think I probably told you this one too, but it's good to be reminded things. One of the saddest examples of a person that should not have been a preacher that I ever saw in my life, I was this big, and every year we went up to Massachusetts okay and we'd be with our family up there and they had this little church on a hill literally little church on the hill it's right there center of town you know you go to all these old towns that don't even have anybody that believes anything anymore but you can see right in the middle of the town every town you drive through what is the one thing that's right in the middle of town a church and a lot of them aren't even church anymore they become like beauty salons and stuff but that was the first thing those people did was build a church for the community, and then they built their houses. So here's this little church, the oldest building in this smallest township of Massachusetts. 50 people year-round. Okay, smallest one. It's out in the middle of nowhere. It was, up until a couple years ago, one of the last RFD deliveries in America. Rural Free Delivery. That means that they're so far out, they don't have any contact with the world except post offices, okay? And so it's driven up like it's a courtesy, rural free delivery. So this guy, every year they had to get a preacher come in during the warm weather. I don't know if you remember this guy or maybe you weren't there this year, but they hired a guy in. He had a stutter that was so bad. It was so terrible that, forgive me for saying it, but the people would laugh You couldn't help it. His face would get contorted, and he couldn't get out ten words without, and it would take like an hour and a half to get through a ten-minute sermon. It was terrible. As much as he had a heart for wanting to preach, he was never to be a preacher. He should have known that the Lord did not want him to preach, because I'm telling you what, he, it was, it was so hard in that congregation. They were so nice to him. They treated him well, but they couldn't invite him back again. They didn't get any instruction. You didn't understand. At the end of an hour and a half sermon, you had no idea what he talked about because there was so much stuttering involved. I was so sad for that guy and I was only this big. You know, most kids that age are like throwing eggs at the guy. I felt terrible for that guy. Terrible! Anyway, so they're just people that are not meant to do certain things, okay? He was one of them. I feel bad even saying that, because he wanted to do it, but what he had in his heart was not what the Lord had called him to do, okay? Maybe he should just be a Bible scholar sitting in a room all by himself. I mean... You know, when I was a kid, the parsonage was next to the church. Parsonage next to the church. And my dad worked seven days every special event, always, he wasn't there, because there was something going on. Or a homeless person would come to the Parsonage, and so he was never there. Two examples up north, when I'm there in the summer, You leave church, the minister goes and hides, and the other is they don't meet with the congregation. They don't have time. You go to a circle. I don't know if that's what they're teaching these days. I think it's just they know that they can get out. I know, interact with people, and that's why, I'll tell you this, what he just said, because I don't know if that microphone is working yet. Sergio's working on it so that they can hear, but his father was a preacher, and he preached, he worked seven days a week, and he would always interact with people, and he said, you know, you don't see that in churches, and so, and I understand that. It's kind of like, There are a lot of churches where you will never meet the pastor. You go to some of these big ones and they actually have security guards around them. And so there's no interaction at all with the pastor. But one thing that I do here, I must leave at the end of the church service. I have to get out. Today, I have to leave. Sunday, I have to leave. And the reason why is because I've got all the work from this to make sure it gets online. And so I have a lot of work to do. And so I have to leave right after the church service. But I always am here early, always, at least one or two hours early for Bible study and for church. In case somebody comes by, I will be here, okay? Now on Thursdays, I lock the door because I'm in back usually cleaning. I, you know, I got to clean the bathrooms. I got to do all that kind of stuff. But if somebody bangs on the door, I'll come and get it, right? But on Sunday, you know, I'm here. I leave probably at seven o'clock on Sunday. I go to Publix and I'm here by 740. I would rather people didn't come until 8 30 because I've got to get everything set up and it takes a full hour for me to you got to get the communion ready and all that kind of stuff but from there I tell people that are coming to visit if you want come early and I'll spend all the time I can with you I've got two hours free with you and so I try to make that available One thing I don't do for everybody because I don't know everybody's birthday, but if I know somebody's birthday or if I know their anniversary, I don't care if they live in Ireland. I don't care if they live in Japan. These people attend online and they're a part of the congregation. If I know their birthday, I send them a birthday note that day. If I know their anniversary, I'll send them a happy anniversary. I do that because I care about these people that don't even have churches in their hometowns, okay? But, you know, you can't really interact with people, and if they email me, I always answer their emails. It may not be for a day or two, especially if they email on Monday morning, but I always try to answer emails, okay? So, and I understand that. That's important because some people just don't care. They let the congregation take care of them and they just don't spend a lot, and I've seen that personally, where you don't, okay, we got to finish, I got three more minutes. So, like being a plumber or an architect, this is about who will be able to teach others, like being a plumber or an architect, Teaching is a skill. It can be naturally acquired, which some people are actually born teachers. I mean, it's just unbelievable. Or it can be cultivated over time by some, okay? One thing that I say, and I say it all the time, is you never learn as much. You will never in your life learn as much until you become a teacher and once you start teaching you start remembering because people put you on the spot and you think I don't want that to happen again and so you go out and you learn what they asked you and next time you're not gonna not know that because it's embarrassing you don't have an answer for somebody and you're like you know, you're frozen up. So it can be naturally acquired. It's a little more difficult, but you can do it. There are others who will never make good teachers or preachers. Paul is asking Timothy to be observant and to be aware of those who would make good teachers, okay? It is implied that he is then to be aware of those who would not make good teachers as well. The Word of God is to be handled carefully, not sloppily or by those who are unqualified to teach it. That is what Paul is telling them. I'm just evaluating this, okay? I'm just telling you what Paul is saying, so it's not me being old judgmental Charlie. Paul is saying these things. This is the intent behind Paul's words in this particular verse. Life application, we're right on time. Let us remember the admonition to Timothy in this verse. He's given us words that are black and white, all right? The paper is white, the words are black. We're to learn from them, okay? It says churches are entitled to select their teachers and preachers. If you're in a denomination, you may not get that entitlement. They just send you something and you're stuck with them. So, you should be the one to say, I accept this person because this person is properly qualified, but they are not qualified as a whole to ordain them as such. Only proven leaders who are already in possession of the necessary qualifications, and you don't know those qualifications unless you compare them with the word, should be behind the ordination and training processes necessary to raise up qualified leaders in such matters. Okay, that is the way it is. And if you do not know the Word of God, then you cannot make those decisions. And if the congregation sits there and trusts in everything the pastor says, then they are not qualified to select people to be their preachers. Because what are they going to do? He speaks great! And that's going to be their main judgment. He gives us great sermons. Doesn't matter if they're correct. It doesn't matter if they're in accord with the Bible. This guy is a great orator. I'm going to that church. Or we're going to select him for this church. That's a bad way to handle your eternal destiny. Heavenly Father. Thank you for the chance to come into your presence and to just share in your word. We pray for the folks that aren't here today. We've got a couple that are slouching and a couple that are sick and a couple that are not feeling well, but we pray for them and the people online, anybody out there that has difficulties or trials or troubles, and Lord, you know all of us do from time to time. Be with your people, Lord. Help them through them and give them the understanding that if they're in your word, their lives will go so much better. They will have the priorities set straight, and then they can just reach out to you with their hearts, and you're there to comfort and refresh them. We thank you that this is true. We know it is. We thank you that Jesus came and gave up his life so that we could have this fellowship with you once again. Thank you, and we praise you in his name. Amen. Praise the Lord. Mike is back home. Hey, Mike is home. His hand is okay, or is he struggling? Well, he's got his healing time.