Sunday Morning Service 8:30AM-

All right, good morning. I'm glad you all are here. I'm glad you can make it out on this wet morning. I would invite you to stand with us. We'll pray and we'll get started.

Father, we thank you for the day. Thank you for another opportunity, Lord, to be in your presence. Spend some time in your word. Lord, we thank you for the rain. And Lord God, we ask your blessing upon this time. We ask that you'd help us to sit everything else aside and enter into your throne room this morning. And just give you praise, all honor and glory due to you, Lord, because you are worthy of it all.

We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen.

Praise the Lord. You guys can go ahead and have a seat if you like.

God, as we sing this next song, I just want to say thank you for the blood that you willingly poured out for us on the cross, Lord.

Lord, in your word, Lord, way back in Genesis, going back to the story of Cain and Abel, Lord, when that first blood was spilled. Lord God, it spoke of judgment, Lord God. It spoke of justice and judgment, Lord. But Lord, when you went to the cross, Lord, your blood spoke a better word, Lord. It spoke of forgiveness and redemption, Lord. Yes, Lord God, as we sing this song this morning, Lord, we just praise you and we thank you for the blood.

Tonight, the precious blood of Christ speaks a better word, speaks a better word, history.

God, we thank you for your blood. Lord, we just thank you for what you've done for us, Lord, on the cross. Lord, that you've given us new life. Lord, God, you've taken us out of the miry clay. And you've placed us on a firm foundation, Lord. And God, we just praise you and we thank you. Christ is my firm foundation. In which I stand, when everything around me is shaken.

Urban, he's never so out. I want to worship you, Lord. I want to pour our hearts out to you.

And just lavish praise upon you. Because you're worthy of all of our praise.

Lord Jesus, nobody else could have done what you've done. Nobody else could have come close.

Lord God, you are just worthy of it all.

Lord God, you are King of kings and Lord of lords. God, we praise you.

We humbly surrender our hearts to you this morning. Let's pass. As Pastor Ryan comes, I just ask that you would just bless him, Lord. Overflow him with your Holy Spirit. I want to give us soft and receptive hearts to hear it. We love you, Lord, and we praise you in your precious and holy name. All God's people said, amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.

Good morning. If you could begin to locate your seat. Grab a bulletin. We'll get ready to go over some announcements.

Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you have joined us this morning. Handful of things to take note of. There's one change on the list on the left-hand side of your bulletin. There will be no ladies' study tomorrow with it being Memorial Day. So enjoy some time with friends and family. So no ladies' study tomorrow. Over in the middle section, just a reminder that the Rizzios are going to be starting a home fellowship every Thursday evening starting June the 5th.

So all the info is right there. We have a leadership conference coming up in Wellington on June the 7th at Grace Calvary Fellowship. It's the one that they put on there every year. It'll be from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free conference. So go over there and check that out. Should be a good time of hearing God's word together. And then Calvary of Emporia will be hosting their annual Bible prophecy conference June 12th through the 14th, the very next weekend.

Again, a free conference. You'll just have to provide your own lodging. So go check that out. There should be a poster hanging out there somewhere with some of the info on that. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 85. Psalm 85.

Looking at the new American standards so that hopefully we all sound the same. If you need a copy, there should be one in a row around you. And as you're turning to Psalm 85. If you're listening to the Bible, you're going to be hearing God's word. If you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's word.

I will read the odd verses. If you will follow along with Pastor Jared and the even verses. Psalm 85 for the choir director, a psalm of the sons of Korah. Oh, Lord, you showed favor to your land. You restored the captivity of Jacob. You forgave the iniquity of your people. You covered all their sin. Selah. You withdrew all your fury. You turned away your burning.

Anger. Restore us, O God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease. Will you be angry with us forever? Will you prolong your anger to all generations? Will you not yourself revive us again that your people may rejoice in you? Show us your loving kindness, O Lord, and grant us your salvation. I will hear what God the Lord will say, for he will speak peace to his people, to his godly ones.

But let them. She will be now, no doubt, even on thetir. Hurry, you men of fire, to the mystery of coming. Oh, Lord, you showed favor to the gods, and God's glory is heard. Jesus of Nazareth, God of glory has come into the world. And he has the power to guide you, and to show faith, to strengthen you, to give you the order. But let him not turn back to folly.

Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, that glory may dwell in our land. Loving kindness and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. will make his footsteps into a way and father we do praise you for your salvation lord that you give to us and god i do pray that you would give us ears to hear your voice this morning father

that you would give us discernment that you would give us wisdom or that you would give us that sensitivity to the moving of your holy spirit and so father i pray that as we spend time in your word this morning that you would draw us near to you in jesus name amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your bibles to the book of first timothy chapter four first timothy chapter four well in following with our theme of faithfulness as we come to chapter four the theme of the entire chapter is going to be the theme of faithful to stand faithful to stand and there will be three things over the next two or three weeks that we look at he's going to tell timothy that he needs to be faithful to stand in the midst of apostasy

he's going to tell timothy that he needs to be faithful to stand for the truth and he's going to tell timothy that he needs to be faithful to stand in his ministry this morning we will look at the first of those faithful to stand in the midst of apostasy and so we pick up in chapter four verse one and this is what it says but the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which god has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth for everything created

by god is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is sanctified by means of the hypocrisy of liars and by means of the hypocrisy of liars and by means of the hypocrisy of the word of god in prayer as i was preparing for this message i told my wife the other day i said you know sometimes i just wish i could only give the happy messages the the the messages about love and peace and restoration but that wouldn't make me a very good shepherd because that's not what jesus did jesus didn't just give the the happy messages sometimes he had to give messages of warning and that's what paul gives here to timothy as he begins to give a message of warning

as a matter of fact as we as we look at these first five verses it's going to break down into three sections he's going to give him the warning he's going to show him what is false and then he is going to give him the solution to keep from falling into the false and of course he starts off with the warning but the spirit explicitly says now as as paul puts that out there uh some of your translations may say the spirit expressly says but the idea is that there is a distinct explicit and express warning that is given by the holy spirit in other words we understand that that what paul is about to say is a clear warning not just from his own experience but a clear warning that has been impressed upon him by the holy spirit of course the question

comes up was this some sort of direct revelation that he had been given by the holy spirit i tend to think no i tend to think this is just something that that the holy spirit had been warning about for a very long time as a matter of fact if you look at all of the body of the new testament you'll find that this warning of the false comes out often throughout the new testament if we were to go back to the gospels we would find that in mark chapter 13 that's just one specific spot in mark chapter 13 verse 22 when jesus was giving what we call the all of that discourse he told them that that many false christs many false messiahs would come in his name that that they would seek to lead away if possible even the elect and so

jesus warned that that there would be those that would come in after him that would that would try to to lead people away that there would be false messiahs i even thought about the fact that many of the kingdom parables that jesus gave had the indication that there would be mixed in with the real church there would be the false that would always try to pull away well if you looked at acts chapter 20 when paul is giving his final uh message to the ephesian elders he told them that that after he left that that men imposters would come in after him and that they would seek to lead them away with false doctrine with false teaching and then of course if we were to jump all the way forward to the book of second

peter we would find that the entire book of second peter is a warning of false teachers second peter chapter three in particular gives a distinct warning about this and and then if we were to go even farther than that and we were to go into the book of jude we would find that jude says hey i started to write to you about our common faith but i felt it necessary to warn you about the false teachers that have arisen first and second and third john were all written to combat the false teaching of gnosticism of the time you see the spirit explicitly says this warning because the spirit explicitly knew that any time that the truth comes in a counterfeit would want to come

alongside of it so he says the spirit explicitly says and what does he say some that in later times some will fall into the false teaching of gnosticism of the time and so he says the spirit will fall away from the faith some will fall away from the faith he gives this distinct time period he calls it the later times and a lot of times we look at that and we think about the last days only we sometimes forget that the last days doesn't just speak of the few years before the tribulation or even during the tribulation time we've actually been living in the last days since jesus was read was ascended into heaven we've been living in the last days since then so when we think

about the last days we realize that that in the later days some will fall away from the faith i do find it kind of interesting though that as time marches on i don't know that more false teachers have arisen but their avenue to deliver their false teaching has gotten a little bit more convenient because there's a lot more technology while there's a lot more technology to spread the true gospel there's also a lot more technology to spread the false he says in later times some will fall away from the faith the word fall away can also be translated apostasy it literally means the departure so what are they departing from well the first question that came up in my

own mind and in several commentators minds and it's interesting because when i was discussing this with my wife she brought the exact same question up so maybe you have the same question as well that if some will fall away from the faith does that mean you can lose your salvation does that mean there could come a point where you can lose your salvation and you can lose your salvation well i have two answers for you on this that may or may not answer the question for you number one it could mean that that either you can lose your salvation or that you were never saved or that you were never saved to begin with you only made a proclamation a declaration of faith

and you have fallen away from your declaration of faith or it could be that one could consciously walk away from their faith to pursue the false either one i think is a good question i think it could be true the thing that i don't think is true is that i don't think there can come a point where you wake up one day and say oh my gosh i just lost my salvation because i believe that once you're born again it's really hard to become unborn again but i do have questions for people that have walked away i've shared with you over and over again the story of the friend of mine that i used to do ministry with and i can't tell you where he is in his faith now it seems as

though he has walked away it seems as though he has fallen away from the faith some of those things will never know the one thing i will tell you and it's the same solution i'll give you at the very end if you stay as close to jesus as you possibly can you'll never have to worry about that but he does say he gives this warning he says the spirit expressly says that in the later times some will fall away some will depart some will apostatize and what will they apostatize from the faith the faith i appreciated the way the new living translated worded this because they refer to it as the true faith and i like that because that's the only way to do it the idea the idea is that they have walked away they have apostatized from they have

departed from the the true faith guzik in his commentary said this it's not that they've lost the ability to have faith but they have lost the content of true christian faith because that's what happens and if timothy was to stand in the midst of a generation of people who could potentially fall away from the faith apostatize depart from the faith then he would have to hold on to the true faith with both hands and that's the way it is for us right now these warnings are given to us in scripture for us to pay attention to and these warnings are given to us in scripture to remind us that it is by the grace of god that i continue in my walk and that it is by holding on to the true faith that i don't end up falling into the false doctrine

well after he gives the warning the second thing that he does is he begins to talk about the false he begins to talk about the false like for you to take note of the middle of verse one he says paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron he has four descriptions either of the person that falls away the one who is leading away or the things that they are being led into and so i like to take these individually as he begins to teach us about the false the first thing he says that they will fall into is deceitful spirits they will pay attention to deceitful spirits let me read some other translations of that for you seductive spirits

deceptive spirits spirits that lead into error i think the thing that i would really like for you to zone in on is that you're not going to fall into the false you're not going to fall into the deceitful spirits that lead into error i think the thing that i would really like for you to zone in on there is the word deceptive deceptive because listen when the enemy comes after us he doesn't come after us with a bold-faced lie we would pick that up immediately right like like you would pick up on that immediately if it was just some out there crazy thing you're like i see exactly what he's doing here i'm picking up on it right no he comes in very deceptively he will mix a little bit

of truth with a little bit of lie to create a giant deception and that's what we need to do have to pay attention to is we have to pay attention to the deceptive things because that's exactly what the spirits will do they will be deceptive in our life they will be spirits that lead into error remember we talked about this a few weeks ago we talked about the fact that that when i worked construction uh we were putting a ridge cap on something and we we didn't pay attention for about the first six feet or so and pretty soon the ridge cap is starting to do this because a little bit of error in a short amount of time won't harm you but a little bit of error over a long distance of time means that you're now putting the ridge cap on the ground right

and that's what happens to us is this deception slowly surely in small ways begins to lead us astray and as it begins to lead us astray pretty soon we find ourselves going what have i been doing all this time i think i've fallen into some deception that if we never recognize it then we will fall away from the faith you know where the first deception began to happen is when we were putting a ridge cap on something and we were putting a ridge cap on something and we were putting a ridge cap on something and we were putting a ridge cap on something come in genesis chapter 3 do you remember the very first thing that satan said to eve did god really say you know why he said that because he wanted to create doubt because if he can create

doubt he can creep in with deception and that's what the enemy does with us is is he begins to deceive us he he starts with a little seed of doubt in our mind he starts with a little seed of temptation in our mind he starts with a little seed of something in our mind and he starts with mind and as he starts in that small way he begins to create the deception and pretty soon we either are deceived by the sins of our flesh or we are deceived by a false teaching or we are deceived by our doubts and pretty soon we've given into we have paid attention to deceitful spirits not to give away the ending but that's why you better know what god's word has to say that's why you'd better really be in god's word for yourself because if you're not in god's word

for yourself you'll believe anything anyone will tell you you know how i know because i get on the internet and i see what people do and people will believe anything that they tell them i always like to follow the words of abraham lincoln in this remember the words of abraham lincoln don't believe everything you read on the internet so so first of all this is deceitful spirits number two is doctrine of demons doctrine of demons i love this again i'm stealing this from david guzik he said demons have theology degrees demons have and listen as somebody who has talked to people that have spent time at a seminary i can tell you right now demons have theology degrees and sometimes demons are the ones giving theology degrees because i have seen

people come out of a seminary and they're like i don't know what i'm doing i don't know what i'm doing now there's some very good ones out there i don't want you to misinterpret what i'm saying there's some fantastic seminaries that are producing faithful men of god that are giving out the truth of the word of god that are that are foundational in the building of the church today in the in the spreading of the gospel today so i don't i don't want you to misinterpret me and say don't ever go to a seminary we can't throw the baby out with the bath water but there are a good number of them that are producing atheists or they're producing liberal theologians or they are producing men who don't believe

that the bible is the inerrant word of god i know that because there's surveys that go out about it all the time and they do not believe that the bible is the inerrant word of god therefore it is a doctrine of demons and this is a dangerous thing for us to pay attention to because the enemy loves to creep into doctrine you know one of the greatest things he loves to do when he creeps into doctrine is to get you to pay attention to doctrine not jesus ryan that's impossible no it's not i watch it happen every single day where pretty soon somebody finds this pet doctrine that they really like and no longer do they pay attention to jesus jesus is lost in the whole thing

the point of jesus is lost in the entire thing and they are no longer a disciple of jesus christ they are a disciple of a doctrine and they are leading more men astray by being a disciple of a doctrine as opposed to a disciple of christ than the demons could have ever hoped for because of the doctrine of demons you know what the very first doctrine of the demons was i hate to keep going back to genesis chapter 3 but it's almost like the book of beginnings is pretty foundational to our faith you know what the very first doctrine of the demons was well what did what did uh satan tell eve in the garden you know god knows that in the day you eat of that you will not surely die

you will be go and say it with me like god knowing good from evil the ultimate doctrine of demons is that you can be like god in other words you can be your own god knowing good from evil and even greater than that determining good and evil do you know we have a world full of today theologians who want to be like god and are determining what is good and evil i hear it all the time you know i know this is what we taught for a lot of years but this is actually what it means we've been misinterpreting it for the past two thousand years and now we've come to a greater understanding of what this actually means and we've come to a greater understanding of what this actually means i know that sounds funny i hear it all the time

and it's fascinating that that people would believe that the doctrine of demons well the next thing he tells us about them and i love this because paul just calls people out he calls them hypocrites and liars by means of verse two hypocrisy of liars again i kind of prefer the living translation on this by means of those who are hypocrites and liars giving out these doctrines of demons who is giving out these deceptive spirits those who are hypocrites liars you see i have found that those who put out the worst of the theology know it's not right they know it's not good but they've given themselves over to it because it's what's made them popular therefore they become hypocrites you know why because what they teach

you they don't live by themselves what they teach you they don't live by themselves what they teach you they don't live by in any other way of their life and it's an unfortunate thing i've read it before it's one of his famous quotes i have no idea who it came from but i think it's a fantastic quote it says one of the greatest cause for atheism in the world is christians who proclaim jesus with their lips and they go out the door and deny them by their lifestyle that's what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable and yet those oftentimes are the ones who are trying to give out theology the hypocrites and the liars and then he describes them one last way he says their consciences

have been seared with a branding iron their consciences have been seared with the branding iron there's there's two different ways that you can look at this i think two different ways that we should look at this the first is that and i learned this for the first time as i was studying that that there was an ancient practice in ancient rome where they would they would take a branding iron and if you were convicted, if you were a convicted criminal, you would have a brand placed on your forehead by a branding iron so that everybody knew that guy is a convicted criminal. It was an identifying mark of a criminal in ancient Rome so that everybody knew. And it's interesting that Paul uses that

wording because that's the wording he uses there, that they have been seared as with a branding iron, only not on their forehead, but on their conscience. Because you see, on the inside of them is the brand that they don't belong to God. Their brand is that they belong to the evil one because they are liars like the devil. They are seductive like the devil, and they have the doctrine of the devil. That's why Paul gives this warning. He says, the Spirit explicitly says

that in later times, men will fall away from the faith. They will be seared, branded as with a hot iron. But you see, there's another connotation that goes along with that, isn't there? Because the other connotation that goes along with that is that their consciences have been seared as with a hot iron, and they can no longer feel. They can no longer feel because that skin has been

deadened. That skin has been deadened. I once read the story of Tony Dungy's son. If you don't know who Tony Dungy is, Tony Dungy was an NFL football coach. He was a former NFL football coach. He was a former NFL football coach. He's now an NFL analyst, but he's also a fantastic believer in Jesus Christ, a very strong believer in Jesus Christ, and his son has an issue. The problem that his son has is that

his son can't feel pain. The nerve endings don't allow him to feel pain, and so they had to keep a really close eye on him, especially when he was growing up because he could get injured and have no idea. He could put his hand on a hot stove, and he would never feel it because he doesn't have those nerve endings in order to feel the pain. And so he said, we always had to keep an eye out because we don't want to feel the pain. And so he said, we always had to keep an eye out because we

because nothing alerted him to the fact that what he was doing was dangerous, and that could potentially lead to further injury because it could lead to infection and all of these other kinds of things. You see, that's the idea of what happens to one who continually gives themselves over to the false, one who continually gives themselves over to the false things of the world. You see, the Holy Spirit, especially for us as believers, begins to do a convicting work in our hearts, right? If you've claimed to be a believer, then, then the Holy Spirit is going to do that work, and he's going to convict you, and it's going to hurt. The first time that you sin in that particular area,

it hurts because you go, ooh, that wasn't very good. That caused me pain. Then if you go back and do it again, it's amazing because it'll start to develop a little bit of a callous on you. It'll start to develop some callouses over top of your heart to where you can't feel that anymore. And the second time, the conviction is just a little bit less strong. It hurts just a little

bit less badly. And pretty soon, it's like you don't even feel it anymore. And you can just go through the motions and live your life and sin and do all the things that you want to, because now there's no conviction because your conscience has been seared with a hot iron. Listen, it's a dangerous place for a believer to get to when you are no longer convicted by the sins of the world, when you are no longer convicted by the things that you see around you, when you are no longer convicted by the things that you see around you, when you are no longer convicted by the things that you see taking place on TV, when you are no longer bothered by the sins of the world. If you're in that place, can I tell you, it's time for you to allow the work of

the Holy Spirit to do a real work on your heart. Again, I follow college basketball. I'll never forget. I can't remember who the player was, but he played for KU. And it was the year that they ended up coming in second. And it was during the tournament and they were about to play Oregon. And he said, I knew Oregon was a really fast team and they ran really fast. So I had to make sure and

shave down the calluses on my feet so nothing would keep me from running fast. And I thought, isn't that a perfect picture of the way that we should be as believers in Jesus Christ? I knew that the job was big, so I had to make sure that the calluses were dealt with so that nothing would keep me from performing the way that I needed to. He says, conscience is seared as with a hot iron. And I got to tell you, that gives me real concern for the people that put out

the false doctrine. Because it's one thing when your conscience is seared and sin no longer bothers you when it takes place in your life, but it's a whole other place when your conscience is so seared that not only are you okay with sin in your own life, but you're okay with promoting that sin in the lives of others. That's why Jesus said that stumbling will happen, but woe to the man who causes one of these little ones to stumble. It would be better if a millstone had been hung around in the bottom of the sea. Well, as I was thinking through this, I started looking up. It's fascinating

because you go, okay, I want to make sure that if this is the warning, that I give out warnings of things that are going on in the world. So I started doing some Google searches, and I started searching for like, okay, cult leaders of the most recent time. I'll tell you what, if you want to do a fascinating Google search, Google search cult leaders of current time. I didn't realize how many there were that were some of these newer people within the last like two years. I mean,

I knew there's lots of crazy people. You know, I'm thinking of all of the people from like the 60s and the 70s, the Jim Joneses and all those kinds of people. But I was fascinated with all the ones that are current. And so I was like, okay, that's too much. I'm overloaded with information. So I looked up cults. Well, again, way too much information. And my Instagram must have known

that because it sent me this thing that was like the top six most dangerous cults you need to pay attention to. I sent it to myself. I may put that out at some point in time as we go through this. But I was like, still too inundating. And I don't want to necessarily, I don't want to turn this into some Walter Martin course where I take you through all of the different cults. And so I was

like, okay, Lord, how can I expose the false and yet not overwhelm and turn this into some sort of a college class? And so I was praying about it and I was thinking about it. And the Lord said, don't reinvent the wheel, Ryan, go with what the Bible says. And I was like, that's a good call

characteristics of something that is false. Three things. Number one, it will follow the lust of the flesh. It will follow the lust of the flesh. You need to pay attention to any sort of Bible teaching that tells you that sinful indulgence is okay. That, that God is going to change his mind about what he has always called sin for the current generation. Because after all,

we never really understood what that Greek word meant. Anyway, do you, do you know, that there is a place where Paul, especially, I think it's in first Corinthians where he talks about homosexuality and they have now, there's an entire sect of the church that has now said, well, you realize that that, that word doesn't actually speak about homosexuality. It speaks of pedophilia and we've misinterpreted it all of these years. And we don't really know what that word means anymore. And so, so God's not upset with homosexuality. He doesn't like,

he doesn't like pedophilia. And you, and I went, what? So, so I've got, I know. I don't, I don't speak Greek. I don't know how to read all of the Greek. All I can do is word studies, right? So I'm a little limited on that. However, one of my former college kids from, from up in Johnson County, he is the man now, right? He actually writes theological works. So, so I, I came across this and so I sent it to him. I said, okay, you know, the Greek, I mean,

he can read the Greek new Testament to you. So, you know, the Greek, you know, that kind of stuff. Explain this to me. He sent me back like a book, right? Not an actual book, but what he messaged me back. I was like, right. As I'm scrolling through it, let me summarize it for you. That's not true. Okay. Like the word means both. It's, it carries with it. The idea of both of those things. But again,

a false teaching is going to tell you that the lust of the flesh is okay. That God's a, he wants you to be happy. He wants, he wants you to enjoy your life. He's not some provincial God who wants to prevent you from joy and keep you from the real love of your life. And you need to be aware of that because that's exactly what God wants you to do. That's exactly what false teaching is going to do. It's going to teach you that you can indulge

the sin of the flesh and still be okay with God. And so we have to be aware of that. And you know, sometimes who the greatest proponent of theology that says you can indulge the sinful flesh is you, right? That's my own theology in my life. Sometimes that's okay. It doesn't really matter. Jesus wants me to be happy. No, he doesn't. He wants you to be holy. That's what the Bible says.

So number one, the number one characteristic of a false doctrine is it will help you indulge the lust of the flesh number two the lust of the eyes the lust of the eyes you know what we call the lust of the eyes covetousness you know what the bible calls covetousness idolatry let me give you an example of a false teaching that allows you to fulfill the lust of the eyes positive confession name it and claim it prosperity gospel you can have your best life now right because that's that's what that's what the world says well if god really loves you then he's going to give you everything that you want if god really loves you then he's going to bless you and the best way that he's going to bless you is with finances god loves you and if

he loves you and you just have enough faith he's going to give you all of the things that your heart could desire listen i would like to tell you something about the gospel i'm going to tell you to introduce you to job and paul and jesus all of the apostles basically most everyone god used in the bible some of those some of the people that god used in the bible were very wealthy people but most of them were not most of them had everything taken from them because of their desire to serve god but too many times the false teaching in the world says the lust of the eyes is what you should have in your life that god wants you to have in your life that god wants you to have in your life that god wants you to have

wants you to be able to have all of the things because after all once again god wants you to be happy number three and this is the last one the pride of life the pride of life now i have found that most false teachings that fall into the pride of life will will do three things for us this is sort of subheadings i didn't put them up there so you just have to listen close okay first of all it will put yourself first somehow the pride of you will be will be right up there pride because you know so much pride because you're so good at it it will put you first and that's what that sort of theology will do for you the second thing that a theology that will promote the pride of life will do is it will always put a leader above jesus it'll always

put a leader above jesus i'll never forget going to some friends of ours house when i was about 14 15 maybe 16 years old and these people were so excited about the church that they were going to but they were the most excited about the church leader that that was that was leading this movement that they were a part of it so so they invited my mom and dad we stayed with them and they invited my mom and dad to go to like a little potluck of their small group with this leader in it and and all of us kids stayed home because we didn't want to go do that and and i will never forget driving driving home the next day and my parents having a conversation about this because they were like

you know whose name was never brought up at that entire thing jesus you know whose name was brought up over and over again at that entire thing the leader and everybody just talked about how great this leader was and listen you have to pay attention to that because sometimes the leader will become the cult of personality this is what i get concerned about in so many churches today in some of these satellite campus churches today is that pretty soon it turns into a cult of personality because all of a sudden that person is so important because they're going to be that they have to be the one that's on the tv screen of all of these different churches all over the

region and it's like wait a second no one person should ever be that important no one person should ever be in that kind of a place where where you can't have a local pastor do that work you need to have the the satellite pastor do the job and the local pastor will do the menial tasks of caring for the sheep that's a dangerous place to be because because pretty soon it turns into a cult of personality i'm not saying that there's not some fantastic teachers that do that some fantastic men of the church that do that but i'm not saying that there's not some fantastic teachers that do that that are doing that i'm saying it's a dangerous place to be because it turns into the pride of

that particular teacher and then the last thing that the pride of life through theology will do is it will make you put knowledge first it'll make you put knowledge first anytime somebody comes to me and says i've been studying this for the last three years and i've just come across this theology and i think it's finally right i go listen if you've been studying for the last three years and you're not just more convinced of how amazing jesus is then i don't want to know what you're studying because it's probably some ism that's gonna ultimately taint who jesus is and it's ultimately going to take us away from from the foundation of jesus and it's going to cause us problems so we have to pay attention to these things because

false doctrine will always puff up my knowledge it will make me feel so smart it'll make me because i've discovered this new thing nobody else has ever found before and so if you want to identify the characteristics of the deceitful spirits doctrines of demons that are going to make you feel so smart it will make you feel so smart it will make you feel so smart it will make you feel so smart the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life see wasn't that easier than me going through every single thing that you need to be careful about now you can identify them for yourself well paul goes on to give an example that was going on in timothy's own local area

of a false doctrine notice what he says men verse three who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which god has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth one of these false teachings was going on in the in ephesus where timothy was ministering and was an issue that was taking place throughout the culture at that point in time that was called asceticism it's a fun word that simply means the ultimate or the extreme denial of the bodily desires the extreme denial of the bodily desires it will later go on to be called gnosticism because gnosticism says anything material is evil only the spiritual is good and so he gives two

examples here he says when you give into the doctrine of demons and the deceitful spirits the hypocrisy of liars those seared with a branding iron it's kind of like men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from certain foods you see the movement at that point in time was to say that if you really want to be spiritual some of us have achieved this higher knowledge and this higher knowledge is going to be the most important thing in our lives and it's going to be the most important thing in our lives and it's going to be the most important thing in our lives that we've said is that you can't bother yourself with the menial things of this earth first of all like marriage because that only distracts you and if you really want to be spiritual

you will you will not get married you will just keep yourself fully towards god you know the problem with that always is you can forbid yourself from marriage but you know what you still have in your mind lust that's just the problem and so rather than dealing with the flesh the way that god has intended you fall into all kinds of other sin it's kind of interesting that this particular type of asceticism is what he what he mentioned because because my first two thoughts of this were priesthood and catholicism and then also priesthood amongst um amongst islam and i think even buddhism and and some of the other ones their priesthood is not allowed to marry and it's kind of interesting because a lot of problems would be

solved in a lot of those church movements particularly the catholic church if priests were allowed to marry because it's nowhere in scripture all paul said we're not allowed to marry if you can do this it would be a good thing but most can't i'm not saying that the gift of singleness isn't for some people because it is but it's not for very many people as a matter of fact how do we keep propagating the race which is what god called us to do if everybody forbids themselves from marriage and so the second thing though is the advocating of abstinence from certain foods again dietary laws were another one of the things that they wanted to continue to carry on forgetting that

jesus said the dietary laws were no longer necessary uh peter said the dietary laws were no longer necessary and paul said that the dietary laws were no longer necessary i'm not sure what mary had to say on it but that's a completely different story sorry it's a bad joke about peter paul and mary um i knew you all would get it i appreciated that so but the advocating of certain of abstaining from certain foods what's the problem with those things it puts all of the focus on work and it puts all of the focus on food and it puts all of the focus on food and it puts all of the focus on works and all of the focus on spiritual pride see that's that's the problem with

asceticism people say we're we wouldn't be amazing to be a monk just go live somewhere away and and and and take a vow of poverty and and take a vow of celibacy and take a vow of silence listen you've got me till the silence thing right i like to talk and i would i was always the kid that could not do that my entire family could not take a vow of silence and i was always the kid that could not do that my entire family could not take a vow of silence we would screw that thing up within about the first 48 seconds but we think that somehow that's going to make us better but the problem is those things never actually change our heart those things never actually change our

desires they only change the way that we act on the outside and so he gives this example of asceticism and shows that this is what's going on there this is an example of the doctrine of demons and the deceitful spirits that are taking place but the last thing that he does in verses four and five is he gives us the solution notice what he says for everything created by god is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is sanctified by means of the word of god and prayer i simply titled what he did there is resetting a biblical focus resetting a biblical focus because that's what he has them do in this particular area the specific example that he gives him he says the best thing you can do is reset your biblical

focus notice notice again when he says everything created by god is good well what's the bible say well when it comes to when it comes to foods we know that that god before there was ever a law given said all of the green herbs of the field are ours all of the all of the vegetation is ours and then after the flood still pre-law he told us that all of the all of the animals are good for eating so we know that before there was ever a law given we were given all foods to eat dietary laws were given to the jews to not only protect them in the wilderness to teach them discernment but also to separate them from the rest of the cultures around them but then when jesus came he he said that all things were good to eat that all things were good

for us and then peter said the same thing when jesus let the thing down to him he says don't call unclean that which i've called clean and then of course we've got the same thing with paul so he reset the biblical balance of what they needed all things given to us are good is because they've been given to us by god he says and they need to be sanctified by the word of god and by prayer i have people ask me this sometimes especially when i worked in the uh in the secular workforce and i would sit and pray for my meal and they would say well you can pray for ours too because most people didn't mind that but inevitably at some point in time somebody that was newer around me would say why do christians pray before they eat and i'd say well

because the bible says that we sanctify everything through the word of god and through prayer and so we pray before we eat because in the early church sometimes they may they may know that food may have either been presented to an idol or not and so just to blanketly cover it they presented it to god to know that it would be sanctified for them and then their consciences were dealt with and they say oh well that's the truth then theyFP might queremos la verdad será que lo tenemos que that kind of makes sense. I'm like, yeah, the guy that made my McDonald's cheeseburger, he could be praying to his God while he's making it right now. And so I pray to my God. And then

not only is it sanctified spiritually, but it's sanctified physically too. That's how we make America healthy again. And so, and so he says, all things are good if they are sanctified by means of the word of God and prayer, but he resets a biblical focus. He brings them back. Well, this is what the Bible says about it. And that got me to thinking, how do we reset the biblical

focus in our own life? How do we make sure that we don't fall into the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life and all of that teaching? Well, as we close out, I want to go to one last place in scripture. Go over to the, go over to the gospel of John. I want you to go to John chapter 10. I want you to look at verses one through five. I was reading this in my devotions

the other day, and it really just stuck out to me. I love this section because I love Jesus' as the good shepherd. It's fascinating because I also spoke at a funeral on Friday and I spoke out of the 23rd Psalm. And so the, the thought of the good shepherd was on my mind. And so yesterday morning, as I was doing my devotions and I read this, that, that thought of the good shepherd

just kept rolling through my mind. And this is what it says. John chapter 10 verses one through five. It says, truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way. He's a thief and a robber, but he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice.

He calls his own sheep by name and he leads them out. And when he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. A stranger, they simply will not follow, but will flee from him because they do not know the voice of strangers. Now, now I love this and I love this for, for two reasons. How do we keep a biblical focus in our minds? How do we not stray into the false,

but keep ourselves focused on the true faith? How do we stand in the true faith? Well, the only way I know to do that is to keep listening for the shepherd, to keep paying attention to what the shepherd has to say. And I love this because it tells us two things about the shepherd. Number one, it tells us that the shepherd knows you by name. The shepherd knows

you by name. And that's the only way I know to do that. And I love this because it tells us two things about the shepherd. Number one, it tells us that the shepherd knows you by name. The shepherd knows you by name. And that's the only way I know to do that. And I love this because it tells us two things He knows who you really are. You know what a name is. And in the, in the Hebrew culture,

it was a whole lot more than just what your parents found in a book because they pulled out the book of the top 25 names of this generation. And, and they, so they chose a name because it sounded good and it was going to work with your last name and all those kinds of things. Now, the Hebrew culture, a name was your character. A name was the nature of who you were. And so he says, I, I know them

by name. I know them by character. I know them by nature. In other words, I, I know them by name. them intimately because because I know all of my sheep by their name it's just not it's not just that he knows that I'm Ryan but that's my name he was there when my parents named me but he knows my character because he knit me together so the first thing that we know about the Shepherd is he he knows you and he knows

you really well but the second thing that we learned about the Shepherd is that once you hear his voice that's the voice you want to follow once you hear his voice that's that's the one that you keep wanting to follow because anything else will sound like a stranger and anything else will sound different to you and listen here's what you have to know when you start to hear the voice of a stranger run the problem is sometimes we hear the voice of a stranger and we go well what else does he have to say right and that's a bad thing listen if it doesn't sound like Jesus run from it this is one of the things I've learned in my life like like I appreciate that even though I deal with all the physical things of not being 22 anymore I'd rather be my age now

you because I've learned some things about Jesus and one of the things that I've learned about Jesus is I've started to understand what his voice sounds like I've started to understand what it sounds like when when it's him and and not something else and I've also started to identify what the sound with the voice of a stranger sounds like is the voice of a stranger is always gonna have a little bit of fear in it it's always gonna have a little temptation in it so we can have a little anxiety in it but the voice of Jesus is always gonna have calm it's always gonna have peace it's all we can have holiness in it so if you want to make sure that you are biblically reset constantly so that you don't fall into the false but you are

always falling into what's true that you are standing on the true faith is you need to get to know what the voice of Jesus sounds like the only way I know for you to get to know what the voice of Jesus sounds like is for you to get into His Word and start hearing what his voice sounds like I remember a young lady coming to my Bible study a lot of years ago she would be at aAllah theater lot of years ago now and i loved what she had to say it's actually luke shaffer's sister i pointed because he sang right over there a few weeks ago um she said you know the more i get into the bible the more i think that's not who i thought jesus was and i'm really glad about that that's always

stuck out to me because because there are just points in time in your life where you read and and you really soak in what god's word has to say and you're like you know i didn't think that's how jesus was and that's really good because i had a wrong view of jesus but if you really want that biblical reset you got to be in what his word has to say because that'll teach you what his voice sounds like so that you can always know how to follow the voice of your shepherd amen let's all stand i think one thing i failed to announce is that there is a little fundraiser breakfast in between the services for the kids that are going to camp so go drop a few dollars

in eat a little breakfast down there and uh help some kids go to camp but other than that let's pray father we come before you and lord i thank you that you have blessed us with your word or that you bless us with warnings lord warnings not so that we will be fearful sheep who don't know where to go but warnings so that we will focus more closely on the voice of the shepherd and not the voice of the strangers you and so lord for every person that's in here this morning for every person that's watching online i pray that you would give them ears to hear what your spirit has to say lord over and over again you said that throughout your word especially the book of revelation he who has ears to hear let

him hear what the spirit is saying let him hear what the shepherd is saying and so lord we pray for those ears to hear and god that we would run from the false that would we would run to jesus father we thank you and we praise you in jesus name amen be blessed god we just thank you for who you are thank you that you thank you that you are alive today because you are alive because you have conquered sin and death for god we have hope for a new life but we thank you we praise you and as we leave here today we may your holy spirit continue to minister to us give us discernment lord in this world today father we love you we praise you in jesus name amen guys have a wonderful week don't forget to head down to the other end of the hall

and get some breakfast