back to index2018-10-28 Be Sober in the Gospel Part 2
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 16, I'll be reading 00:00:10.960 |
I think I have maybe about three more messages including today, maybe. 00:00:19.320 |
And then we're going to take a short break from the teaching and then we're going to 00:00:22.040 |
be jumping most likely into the book of Hebrews. 00:00:26.200 |
So those of you who are A students and you want to get ahead and study, we're most likely 00:00:37.880 |
Alright, verse 17, "Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions 00:00:43.940 |
and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them. 00:00:48.880 |
For such men are slaves not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites and by their smooth 00:00:53.760 |
and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. 00:00:57.520 |
For the report of your obedience has reached to all, therefore I am rejoicing over you. 00:01:02.480 |
But I want you to be wise in what is good, innocent in what is evil. 00:01:05.880 |
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. 00:01:11.920 |
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for such a great privilege that we have to be able 00:01:22.280 |
Help us, Lord, not to take for granted the access that we have to this throne of grace. 00:01:27.340 |
Help us, Lord God, to be good stewards of everything that you've given. 00:01:31.040 |
I pray for your mercies this morning, that your word would penetrate our hearts, our 00:01:36.800 |
minds, and ultimately move our lives, Lord God, that we may become more and more like 00:01:43.140 |
So anoint this time in your Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. 00:01:48.280 |
I know some of you guys are Dodger fans, and I was up at a retreat so I couldn't watch 00:01:54.080 |
And even though I don't normally follow Dodgers during the regular season, I hurt for you. 00:02:00.360 |
And my only encouragement is put your hope in Jesus, okay? 00:02:04.440 |
So some of you guys who didn't watch, you don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm 00:02:07.760 |
sure it was a big heartache yesterday for those of you guys who were watching. 00:02:11.800 |
You know, if you have small children, you probably, I mean, if they're of age, you probably 00:02:17.280 |
have the kids play at least pony ball or some kind of sports when they're young. 00:02:22.560 |
When they're at that young age, there is no real criteria for them to join a team, because 00:02:27.400 |
the goal of those teams is to kind of get their feet wet, see if they have some athleticism, 00:02:33.600 |
So even if they don't like it, even if they have no athleticism whatsoever, when you're 00:02:38.400 |
three, four, five, six years old, it's just, you just send them in, you take pictures, 00:02:43.920 |
And then, so they don't have a tryout, they just kind of try different positions. 00:02:48.640 |
But as they get older, the purpose of this team changes. 00:02:52.540 |
So somewhere around puberty, maybe around 11, 12, 13, it starts to get a little bit 00:03:00.360 |
So you see the good kids being separated into different teams, and then they start to play 00:03:07.840 |
By the time they're in high school, their sole purpose is to win. 00:03:12.080 |
So if you're not good, you're not on the team. 00:03:14.100 |
And even if you make the team, if you're not the top maybe, you know, nine, 10 players, 00:03:20.600 |
You're the guy that they use to warm up for the guys who are going to compete, right? 00:03:25.760 |
Depending on what the purpose of the team is, the membership of that team changes. 00:03:30.560 |
So in a competitive team, for the purpose of winning, you're going to have very strict 00:03:35.440 |
You're going to have people who are going to come in, who's going to add to the goal 00:03:39.940 |
Now if you are talking about a neighborhood, a community, they don't have strict membership. 00:03:48.240 |
You can't discriminate who comes in and who comes out. 00:03:50.680 |
I mean, again, we live in a great country where those kind of laws exist, and so you 00:03:55.200 |
can't discriminate based upon age or sex or, you know, religion or anything like that, 00:04:00.800 |
because the purpose of that community is to have anybody welcome. 00:04:11.420 |
So some people may look at it as a community, and the fact that we have even membership 00:04:16.400 |
maybe bother you because why should we put any kind of borders? 00:04:21.720 |
The idea of having any kind of borders in the church maybe sounds unchristian to you 00:04:26.440 |
because your mentality is this is a community like our neighborhood. 00:04:30.880 |
And then you have the other extreme where it's kind of competitive sports team where 00:04:37.800 |
We want the green berets, people who are elite and there's no tolerance for anybody who can't 00:04:43.200 |
do their part, and then they usually get weeded out. 00:04:46.020 |
So you have a church filled with people who only are doing this, and there's no tolerance 00:04:58.980 |
The Bible describes the church as a community of people gathered for a specific purpose. 00:05:08.580 |
It is both a community where God gathers together both the weak and the strong from various 00:05:13.480 |
backgrounds, where we practice grace, accept the strong and the weak, encourage those who 00:05:19.200 |
are weak-hearted, but for the specific purpose of being a light into this world. 00:05:26.640 |
It is not just a community of people who gather together where we just accept one another 00:05:33.600 |
There's a specific task that God has called us to. 00:05:37.520 |
And that's what Paul was trying to say to the Roman church after 15 chapters of preaching 00:05:44.760 |
He's exhorting them to protect this gospel, to make sure that in the church that you do 00:05:49.960 |
not allow these wolves to come in and destroy what God's trying to build. 00:05:55.120 |
So last week we looked at Paul telling them to watch, to be sober. 00:06:01.200 |
Watch to make sure that you don't allow these false teachers to come into the church. 00:06:05.400 |
So this week we're going to be looking at the second part where he says, "Once you recognize 00:06:11.960 |
And then third, make sure that you are discerning. 00:06:16.120 |
So the second part, when he says to separate, the idea of separating or not to be around 00:06:23.480 |
them or the exact words that he uses, to turn away, it almost sounds unchristian. 00:06:30.920 |
If you've grown up in a context where all you've heard was, "God is gracious no matter 00:06:35.680 |
what you do," and that's exclusively the only thing that you heard, it seems unchristian 00:06:44.160 |
We would be patient and tolerant of everything and everyone. 00:06:48.960 |
But again, the community of the body of Christ is also a body of Christ, the army of God, 00:07:00.840 |
So therefore, Paul says, "Once you've identified them, make sure that you draw lines and you 00:07:06.520 |
don't allow them to penetrate into the church." 00:07:12.240 |
Many people think that if we preach the Bible too much or if we get too deep into theology, 00:07:22.240 |
So let's not talk about what theology we believe. 00:07:28.080 |
Don't talk about baptism, don't talk about various outside things. 00:07:31.120 |
Just talk about the essential of the gospel, which basically is, "Jesus loves you and died 00:07:36.440 |
And as long as we talk about that, the church wouldn't be united. 00:07:41.780 |
But the problem with that is that that will also unite the non-Christians. 00:07:47.080 |
Because I've never met a non-Christian who is offended by a gospel that teaches that 00:07:54.520 |
I've never met a Christian who said, "You know what? 00:08:00.080 |
If we take what unites us to the lowest common denominator, where even the non-Christians 00:08:04.960 |
can walk in, we lose the identity of what it means to be a Christian. 00:08:11.720 |
The more we pay attention to Scripture, the more unity I find. 00:08:16.940 |
Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4, 11-14, he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, 00:08:22.000 |
some as evangelists, and some as pastors, and some as teachers, for the equipping of 00:08:25.720 |
the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. 00:08:28.820 |
You notice how he highlights apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, but he 00:08:35.140 |
doesn't talk about the gift of administration. 00:08:38.460 |
He doesn't talk about the gift of hospitality. 00:08:42.300 |
There's a unifying factor of all of these offices. 00:08:49.860 |
Every single one of these offices, their primary task was to teach the Word of God. 00:08:56.500 |
The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, to teach the Word of God, the 00:09:02.580 |
church may be equipped for the building up of the body of Christ, until what? 00:09:08.860 |
He doesn't say, "Stay away from too deep teaching of the Word of God, or else we're 00:09:14.260 |
He says the way that we get united is to pay attention to what he says in his Word. 00:09:21.960 |
And of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature 00:09:28.140 |
As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves carried about 00:09:33.860 |
by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of man, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. 00:09:40.460 |
He says these men who are going to come in to pervert the gospel, they're going to cause 00:09:45.460 |
So he says watch for them, and then he says to break away from them. 00:09:50.300 |
Because not only will they divide the church, they will cause hindrances to the gospel of 00:09:57.220 |
The word hindrance literally means, is scandalon, where we get the word scandal. 00:10:06.620 |
If you allow these false teachers to come in, and you're not paying attention, you're 00:10:10.700 |
not sober, you can easily be swayed back and forth by every wind of doctrine that comes 00:10:17.420 |
That's why he says, God says in Exodus 34, 12, "Watch yourself that you make no covenant 00:10:24.140 |
with the inhabitants of the land into which you are going, or it will become a snare or 00:10:32.180 |
He says if you marry a Canaanite woman, she's also going to bring with her the gods that 00:10:39.420 |
And then once she comes in, and you allow that idol to come into the camp of Israel, 00:10:45.620 |
that family is going to end up corrupting the other families, and eventually it's going 00:10:54.540 |
Once you identify these false teaching, make sure, he says, to turn away from them. 00:11:03.380 |
And even if you belong to a Bible teaching church, why do we need to stay sober? 00:11:10.020 |
You know, I was raised in a Presbyterian home. 00:11:18.180 |
I went to a conservative Bible teaching, Biola, Talbot. 00:11:23.220 |
I got discipled by Navigator-style discipleship. 00:11:27.720 |
And then I, you know, who was also charismatic, and then I became, I went to a Baptist church, 00:11:38.620 |
But in the midst of all of this, in the past 30-some years that I've been a Christian, 00:11:43.660 |
I've seen so many movements come in and go out. 00:11:48.380 |
And every wind of doctrine that comes in, there is some truth to it, but there's also 00:11:53.660 |
Just in the time that I've been a Christian, I got saved in 1983 at the tail end of the 00:11:58.120 |
Jesus movement, and that Jesus movement primarily was one way. 00:12:03.160 |
There's only one way, Jesus Christ, and then these hippies that the traditional churches 00:12:10.100 |
And that's when the dress code started changing, you know, and they started to become a bit 00:12:14.080 |
more casual to win the hippies to the church. 00:12:17.040 |
And the primary message of that time was, "One saved always saved." 00:12:21.600 |
And there was bumper stickers that would say, "Christians are not perfect, just forgiven." 00:12:28.260 |
The tail end of that movement, it created this fuzziness in the church where there wasn't 00:12:33.460 |
any guidelines, there wasn't any discipleship. 00:12:36.500 |
Everybody was claiming assurance of salvation while living in sin, and then the holiness 00:12:44.140 |
This happened at the, maybe in the mid-80s to tail end of the 80s. 00:12:48.460 |
And at the end of that, at the end of that movement came the charismatic movement. 00:12:54.340 |
The charismatic movement came because this holiness movement felt dry. 00:12:59.780 |
You know, everybody was being disciplined and reading the Bible and doing all this, 00:13:05.380 |
And so when the charismatic movement came in, all of a sudden the worship began to change. 00:13:09.740 |
So I remember early on as a Christian, you know, I would lead praises with one guitar, 00:13:14.980 |
and at that time it was considered contemporary. 00:13:18.140 |
One guitar, because prior to that it was piano, it was pipe organs, and it had to be very 00:13:24.300 |
And all of a sudden we started leading praise with guitars, and then all of a sudden even 00:13:28.580 |
the Presbyterian churches started to have a praise team. 00:13:32.140 |
You know, guitar, electric band, the drums, and all this. 00:13:34.420 |
This all came in as a result of the charismatic movement. 00:13:37.380 |
And now, you know, most churches usually have praise teams like what we see here. 00:13:42.780 |
Well, at the end of the charismatic movement, people were saying, "Well, it's charismatic, 00:13:50.260 |
And so they were starting to, people got tired of it, and then young people were starting 00:13:56.000 |
And so there was this panic, if this continues, that we're going to lose a young generation, 00:14:01.020 |
next generation we're not going to have any Christians. 00:14:02.660 |
And all of a sudden this seeker-friendly movement came in. 00:14:05.900 |
And the seeker-friendly movement was, let's get these young people back to church. 00:14:10.740 |
So they started running the adult service like they would Sunday school. 00:14:14.980 |
They would have programs, they would have skits, and they would have big shows up in 00:14:18.340 |
the front to attract the adults to come, and it attracted a lot of people. 00:14:22.500 |
Prior to the seeker-friendly movement, a mega church would have been a church maybe 5,000 00:14:30.060 |
There weren't churches that had 10,000, 20,000, 40,000 people, not in the United States. 00:14:34.400 |
All of a sudden the seeker-friendly churches started gathering people, and the mega churches, 00:14:38.260 |
10,000, 20,000, 30,000 churches started popping up, which to this day they exist. 00:14:43.540 |
Well at the tail end of the seeker-friendly movement, people got tired of the superficialness, 00:14:48.180 |
where this is all happening up on the stage, we need some meat. 00:14:55.420 |
And this probably happened maybe in the early 2000, 2003, 2004. 00:15:01.020 |
And all of a sudden Bible-teaching churches started to grow, and our churches was one 00:15:09.340 |
So they were coming to church wanting to have discipleship, the teaching of God's Word. 00:15:15.680 |
And then at the tail end of that, people were like, you know, church discipline, it's about 00:15:22.960 |
And then the Gospel Center movement swept in. 00:15:32.420 |
So I've seen these movements just in the short time that I've been a Christian, back and 00:15:37.540 |
Now in every one of these movements, there is truth. 00:15:42.040 |
Because they see an error and they're trying to fix it. 00:15:44.740 |
But the problem with that is whenever this thing swings, it has a tendency to swing all 00:15:50.060 |
And it goes back and forth and back and forth. 00:15:53.700 |
Now the danger of following the trends of the waves that come back and forth, back and 00:16:00.020 |
forth, eventually, if you follow the trend, the trend may, and oftentimes does, lead you 00:16:08.500 |
If your spiritual life is dependent upon the majority of people's opinions, you will always 00:16:15.740 |
be dependent upon whatever movement comes into town. 00:16:19.860 |
And that's why he says to pay attention to the Word of God. 00:16:30.740 |
That's why he says to pay very close attention. 00:16:33.180 |
You know, I mentioned to you years ago that I spent about a year sitting down with two 00:16:39.140 |
missionaries to UCI, two young men who were in their mid-20s, and full-time devoted to 00:16:46.060 |
share the gospel from the local church, Witness Lees. 00:16:52.300 |
And so I sat down with them, spent months, every Wednesday, sitting down talking with 00:16:56.500 |
them, and I remember sitting down in the beginning, and I said, "Oh, you guys are from the Witness 00:17:02.140 |
And they said, "Oh, don't call us Witness Lee. 00:17:06.060 |
And I said, "Well, don't you guys study from Witness Lee?" 00:17:13.900 |
Well when you studied this Bible, do you use Bible study material?" 00:17:21.220 |
"So this Bible study material, who wrote it?" 00:17:25.900 |
"So do you use any other Bible study material other than Witness Lee?" 00:17:33.940 |
So basically everything you're being taught is being taught through Witness Lee's Bible 00:17:38.780 |
And he's like, "Well, yeah, but we're studying the Bible." 00:17:44.660 |
Now here's the danger in all of that, and we can get into that same trap. 00:17:48.700 |
We can get to the Bible through people and through theology and through books and never 00:17:57.480 |
And there's a danger in that, because when that man falls, you fall with him. 00:18:02.580 |
If your primary confidence is in a system, if it's in a man, if it's in your camp, when 00:18:14.380 |
That's why he gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, so that you may be 00:18:23.420 |
Not by our denomination, not by our tradition, not by the masses, not by whatever wind of 00:18:28.220 |
doctrine may be popular at the time that we are in, but by the solid and unchanging Word 00:18:37.900 |
I know so many people who are so versed in theology, but know nothing about the passage 00:18:43.700 |
Even when people quote theology to me, and I fully agree, my first question is, "How 00:18:49.940 |
What passages led you to do that, to believe that?" 00:18:53.260 |
And if they can't defend their theology, it is not valid. 00:18:56.740 |
I don't care how many high theologians you quote, because you didn't get there. 00:19:02.940 |
Somebody put you on a boat and took you there. 00:19:18.780 |
In order for us to recognize right and wrong doctrine, we have to be men and women in the 00:19:25.500 |
That's why he says to watch, be sober, and then when you recognize that, to separate. 00:19:28.620 |
Titus 3, 9-11, "But avoid foolish controversy, genealogy, strife, disputes about the law, 00:19:38.580 |
Consider first and second warning, knowing that such a man is perverted and is sinning, 00:19:46.420 |
He said the reason why these people are coming in and doing these things is because they 00:19:56.820 |
But they are men who are enslaved to their own appetites. 00:19:59.100 |
Romans 6, 18, "For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Jesus Christ, but of their own 00:20:06.660 |
Paul makes it very clear in Romans chapter 6 and Romans chapter 7, the distinction between 00:20:11.300 |
a Christian and a non-Christian is that a Christian has been delivered from slave to 00:20:17.300 |
sin and he's become a slave to righteousness. 00:20:22.100 |
So he's not describing a Christian who has some difference of opinions. 00:20:27.180 |
He's describing a person whose appetite has never changed. 00:20:33.340 |
That's exactly how Jonathan Edwards describes a Christian and a non-Christian. 00:20:38.780 |
Because a Christian, when he meets Christ, his appetite changes. 00:20:45.440 |
We see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ and all of a sudden we want him rather than 00:20:51.460 |
See, a false teacher says he is led by his own appetite. 00:20:56.060 |
In Philippians 3, 18-19, "For many walk of whom I often told you and now tell you even 00:21:01.140 |
weeping that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose 00:21:06.460 |
God is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly 00:21:14.020 |
A non-Christian is an individual where his appetite has never changed. 00:21:19.540 |
All that has changed is he added God to whatever they were pursuing before they met Christ 00:21:25.500 |
and so their frustration is, "How come God is not helping me with my life?" 00:21:33.960 |
He still wants to be somebody in this fallen world and he's never let go of the pursuit 00:21:45.180 |
So therefore, even in his teaching, he is willing to teach false doctrine for the purpose 00:21:52.180 |
Now, his appetite is not just talking about food. 00:21:58.060 |
His primary reason is because he wants to satisfy his flesh, whether that is money, 00:22:03.780 |
whether that is comfort, whether that's glory, or whether it is food. 00:22:07.740 |
Whatever it may be, he is a man who is led by his flesh. 00:22:13.140 |
A Christian may be struggling and at times being tempted by the appetite that he had 00:22:18.660 |
before he met Christ, but fundamentally, Jonathan Edwards writes religious affection because 00:22:25.780 |
people were questioning the revival, that this was or was not really from God. 00:22:31.220 |
So he writes this book, Religious Affection, and at the core of what he says is, a true 00:22:36.700 |
Christian is one where his affections have been changed for Christ. 00:22:43.060 |
He saw who he is and he saw what he has done and then now he's attracted to that more 00:22:48.980 |
He said, "These men who come in, they're preaching the false doctrine. 00:22:57.820 |
He says, "These people come in and they use flattery." 00:23:00.820 |
And the word for flattery is eulogia, where we get the word eulogy. 00:23:06.580 |
Typically, when you hear a eulogy, you never hear something negative in a eulogy. 00:23:12.740 |
And the word eulogia literally means good speech. 00:23:17.300 |
So when you go to a funeral, it may not be a lie, but they highlight the best part of 00:23:41.740 |
Whatever it may be, in a eulogy, you only hear what is good. 00:23:46.900 |
And that's what Paul uses here to describe a false teacher, that he comes in his whole 00:24:05.900 |
Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and instruction." 00:24:14.860 |
There are some circles where the word "rebuke," you get a knee-jerk reaction. 00:24:20.820 |
People are having a hard time as it is with life. 00:24:23.780 |
You don't want to come to church and get rebuked. 00:24:25.780 |
See, if you're building a community like a neighborhood where everyone is accepted, and 00:24:32.060 |
that's your sole purpose, then the word "rebuke" shouldn't fit. 00:24:39.100 |
But he says, "You rebuke, reprove, exhort with great patience and instruction." 00:24:47.260 |
If your life, if all it is, is sitting around watching Netflix, you don't want anybody uppity. 00:25:00.460 |
But if you're in a competition to win something, like the way Paul describes our Christian 00:25:05.260 |
life, like if you're in a World Series, you know, you're in game seven, and your outfielder 00:25:09.940 |
is standing in the wrong spot, and the coach sees that and says nothing, that's a bad coach. 00:25:16.680 |
And if the fellow teammates watches him, and he's not paying attention, he's fraternizing 00:25:21.560 |
with the stand, and they're about to hit, and he's not even paying attention, and nobody 00:25:25.340 |
says anything to that guy, that's a bad team, depending on what the community is for. 00:25:33.300 |
So if you're building a community where everybody just kind of gets along, and there is no purpose 00:25:36.720 |
behind it other than just having an easy life, then yes, the word "rebuke" doesn't fit Christianity. 00:25:43.100 |
But if the church is what he says it is, the temple of God, it is the army of God, the 00:25:46.660 |
body of Christ, it is a community for the purpose of carrying out his great commission. 00:25:57.600 |
He says, "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting 00:26:01.300 |
to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their 00:26:08.340 |
Their ears tickled, meaning they have an itch in their ear that they can't reach, and the 00:26:13.620 |
guy with the eulogy comes, and basically he gives good word, right? 00:26:19.580 |
So every week they come, and they scratch your ears, "Oh, that felt good." 00:26:24.740 |
And that's how sermons and teachings are evaluated. 00:26:47.020 |
He says, "There's going to come a time when people are not pursuing Christ, so if they're 00:26:51.260 |
not in the context of this marathon, they don't want a cheerleader, they don't want 00:26:56.100 |
a coach, they just want somebody to kind of stay calm so that I can continue to do my 00:27:00.700 |
But Paul, or the author of Hebrews in chapter 4.12, describes the Word of God as living 00:27:07.460 |
and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. 00:27:12.380 |
You ever see somebody scratch their ears with a double-edged sword? 00:27:24.380 |
We think he's crazy, because you don't scratch your ear with a sharp object. 00:27:29.300 |
But that's how the Bible describes the Word of God. 00:27:31.100 |
You ever see somebody scratch their ears with a hammer? 00:27:34.180 |
Because that's another way the Bible describes it. 00:27:40.740 |
Because that's the way the Bible describes it. 00:27:45.100 |
He says, "So an individual who's coming to scratch your ear is not preaching the Word, 00:27:51.780 |
because the Word of God is sharper than any double-edged sword. 00:27:55.460 |
It is able to divide between soul and spirit and bone and marrow, and it judges the thoughts 00:28:05.140 |
Compare what he says here about this false prophet coming scratching your ear versus 00:28:13.100 |
When he begins to preach the Word of God, he says, "You crucified that Messiah that we've 00:28:28.660 |
We're going to be standing before this judge. 00:28:32.180 |
So, after Paul's preaching the truth, they were cut to the heart, and they say, "What 00:28:43.140 |
When he preaches the Word of God, he immediately divides the believers and the unbelievers. 00:28:48.220 |
They hear his Word, and those who believe, they are divided. 00:28:52.420 |
They judge the thoughts and intentions of their heart, and then when they receive the 00:28:56.100 |
truth, they either repent or they pick up their rocks and want to stone him, because 00:29:02.020 |
he's bringing the hammer, he's bringing the fire, he's bringing the sword. 00:29:08.140 |
And that's exactly how the Bible describes God's Word. 00:29:11.780 |
So next time you see somebody, his primary desire is to give good word, you know. 00:29:18.180 |
And I'm not saying that the Word of God can't be encouraging. 00:29:20.980 |
I'm not saying that the only time, you know, when the Bible is open is to rebuke you, there 00:29:28.060 |
But see, a eulogy is only good words, only encouragement. 00:29:33.420 |
He says to watch out for them, because they're going to be flattering. 00:29:35.620 |
In other words, they're going to be using their flattery, and they're going to always 00:29:39.140 |
kind of keep you calm, keep you encouraged, and keep the status quo, all for the purpose 00:29:44.300 |
of feeding their own appetite and their own ego. 00:29:48.820 |
But if you are running in this race, you want the truth. 00:30:07.380 |
I remember when, you know, we had our first child, you know, and, you know, like you take 00:30:12.700 |
Lamaze class, and they teach you to do breathing exercises and stuff. 00:30:18.500 |
You know, when you're actually in the heat of the moment, and your wife is pushing, and 00:30:22.860 |
all of that goes out the window, because, mainly because, you don't want to get killed, 00:30:28.940 |
So if you, your wife is in intense pain, and you're like, "Listen, pay attention, breathe." 00:30:36.420 |
It just doesn't seem like the right time to calm her down, you know? 00:30:41.340 |
So you learn all that, and it's beneficial, because they kind of guide you through. 00:30:45.620 |
And I remember when Esther was giving birth, she pushed over two hours and maybe 20 minutes. 00:30:52.020 |
And I remember just thinking, like, "Every woman does this?" 00:30:56.980 |
And she was so exhausted, and I couldn't tell her to do more. 00:31:00.180 |
In fact, I wanted to tell the doctors, like, "This can't be normal," right? 00:31:04.780 |
And then, everybody got fatigued, Esther was just kind of passed out, and then I went to 00:31:09.140 |
the nurse and said, "Hey, she's been pushing for two hours and 15 minutes, is this normal?" 00:31:12.740 |
And she's like, "Oh, shoot, our goal is two hours," so they weren't paying attention, 00:31:18.980 |
And all of a sudden, this new nurse comes into the room, and Esther just passed out 00:31:25.980 |
She comes in, the first thing she says, "Esther!" 00:31:31.700 |
And I remember thinking, "Where did this lady come from? 00:31:35.660 |
And she started barking at her, you know, and said, "Pay attention!" 00:31:44.980 |
And she's barking at her, and Esther perks up, and she started pushing the whole time, 00:31:47.980 |
I'm on the side, I'm like, "Man, this lady's mean. 00:31:56.100 |
And she kind of let her through it, and eventually, she ended up pushing the baby out, and the 00:31:59.180 |
whole time, I was thinking, like, "Man, who hired this lady?" 00:32:05.540 |
After the delivery was done, you know, everybody took, and we had the baby all washed up, and 00:32:09.940 |
then we're, like, calm in the room, I came in, and I asked Esther, I said, "Esther, man, 00:32:15.180 |
And then she said, "Oh, my God, I couldn't have done it if she didn't, she wasn't there." 00:32:21.420 |
And she told me her yelling at her gave her the strength to push. 00:32:27.080 |
And then later on, I found out it's very strategic. 00:32:37.700 |
They find the toughest lady during that time to get in the room and not to be nice, to 00:32:46.780 |
get the attention, and so that, because they need the energy to push through, because they're 00:32:55.380 |
If you are relaxing and watching TV, and you just want to coast along, you don't want to 00:33:07.420 |
But if you're in the race, in the middle of a competition, you're exhausted and tired, 00:33:12.220 |
the Word of God says it's a hammer, it's like a double-edged sword, it cuts through. 00:33:17.280 |
It judges the thoughts and intentions of our heart, it gives us that boost to be able to 00:33:21.420 |
See, the false prophet comes in, and all he is teaching you is peace. 00:33:27.020 |
He's giving you good word, scratching your ear, and it's not for your benefit. 00:33:33.940 |
It says it is effective on hearts that are unsuspecting or not alert. 00:33:37.800 |
The word there for unsuspecting is akakos, and basically it just means without bad. 00:33:44.020 |
So, I mean, literally, the word doesn't mean that, I mean, it doesn't seem that bad, right? 00:33:52.420 |
His false teaching, scratching ears, for his own appetite, he can easily win over those 00:34:02.140 |
What he is describing is an individual who is neither committed to good or bad. 00:34:13.900 |
He's a guy or girl who is easily tossed back and forth in whatever trend that comes into 00:34:19.500 |
So, if it's a charismatic movement, I'm a charismatic. 00:34:23.540 |
If it is the theology movement, I'm theology. 00:34:25.780 |
If it is the seeker-friendly, I'm seeker-friendly. 00:34:30.280 |
He's being tossed around back and forth, and in any group of people, you have some people 00:34:35.420 |
who are leading, trying to shepherd the church into the right direction toward God, and then 00:34:39.700 |
you may have some people who are just constantly negative and always dividing, and they tend 00:34:47.900 |
He's talking about a large group of people in the middle who are easily influenced back 00:34:52.580 |
and forth because they're not paying attention. 00:34:56.860 |
And whoever speaks the strongest, whoever is the most charismatic, whoever seems to 00:35:01.700 |
have the most influence, whoever is the most articulate, those are the people that we give 00:35:08.180 |
He's talking about those people who are simple-minded, who are like children tossed back and forth. 00:35:15.000 |
And so 1 Corinthians 15, 29 says, "Do not be deceived. 00:35:25.720 |
That's why he says, "Do not be unequally yoked." 00:35:30.020 |
And let me make this very clear, and the Scripture is not ambiguous about this. 00:35:33.460 |
A Christian and a non-Christian cannot be married. 00:35:38.100 |
Just the idea that a Christian would even entertain that already means that that person 00:35:44.100 |
has no idea what it means to be a Christian, or he's not a Christian at all. 00:35:50.040 |
Because a Christian isn't somebody who comes to church on Sunday. 00:35:54.700 |
A Christian's value has completely been transformed. 00:35:59.100 |
The way you raise your children, what you do with your money, what you do on the weekend, 00:36:04.500 |
how you value people, where you live, it affects everything that we do. 00:36:08.740 |
So how do you get unequally yoked with somebody where the Bible describes his whole intention 00:36:13.980 |
is to satisfy his own appetite, who serves a different master, and then to be tied with 00:36:19.580 |
It is not possible, unless you're not a real Christian. 00:36:27.960 |
And that's why he says the church must be a place, a gathering first and foremost, of 00:36:34.820 |
We welcome everybody into the church, but the church that God sees as church are believers 00:36:43.760 |
He says they come in and said, "Identify them." 00:36:48.420 |
He says, "If you see that these people are here for the purpose of destroying the church, 00:36:52.620 |
to put a snare," he said, "separate from them." 00:36:59.380 |
For the report of your obedience has reached to all, therefore I am rejoicing over you, 00:37:02.980 |
but I want you to be wise in what is good, and innocent in what is evil." 00:37:09.580 |
From time to time, I hear this ridiculous opinion from some, and even sometimes from 00:37:14.900 |
pastors, that it's okay to indulge in semi-pornographic material because you want to know what the 00:37:25.880 |
You want to experience being drunk because you want to know that this is what the world 00:37:29.640 |
struggles with, and it's okay for you to indulge in it a little bit because it benefits you 00:37:35.160 |
being a good witness so that you can know what they're struggling with. 00:37:48.060 |
It is directly contradictory to what Jesus says in Matthew 10, 16, "Behold, I send you 00:37:52.660 |
out as sheep in the midst of the wolves, so be shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves." 00:37:58.220 |
When it comes to evil, he says, "Be innocent." 00:38:00.140 |
He doesn't say dabble in it, touch it, view it, participate in it so that you can know. 00:38:08.500 |
Be shrewd like serpents, but be innocent when it comes to evil." 00:38:13.940 |
Many people live their lives being innocent like serpents and shrewd like doves. 00:38:29.740 |
His final encouragement to them in Romans 16, 20, "The God of peace will soon crush 00:38:38.500 |
Now is Paul talking about how if you continue to endure and do these things that you're 00:38:43.900 |
going to be delivered from the persecution of the Romans? 00:38:47.860 |
Because as you know, as we talked about, I think it was last week, that chapter 16 is 00:38:54.300 |
the list of probably the first martyrs of the Roman church where the persecution happens. 00:39:00.100 |
The intense persecution happens around 64, 65 AD because Nero was blaming the Christians 00:39:08.380 |
And so all the movies and pictures you see of Christians being dragged into the Colosseum, 00:39:15.180 |
Apostle Paul and everybody connected with him. 00:39:16.860 |
So this list of believers in chapter 16 was most likely the first martyrs of the Roman 00:39:23.180 |
Then what does Paul mean when he says that Satan's head is going to be crushed under 00:39:31.580 |
It's directly connected to the promise that God made to mankind in Genesis chapter 3. 00:39:37.380 |
He says that the seed of the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. 00:39:41.820 |
He wasn't talking about living a comfortable life. 00:39:45.540 |
He wasn't talking about a life devoid of any persecution or difficulty. 00:39:51.260 |
He was talking about the ultimate victory that Christ was going to fulfill on the cross. 00:39:57.060 |
And what you and I have a taste of because we know him now, but the ultimate victory 00:40:01.780 |
is going to come when Christ comes and he crushes Satan's head permanently. 00:40:07.580 |
Because the recipients of this letter, humanly speaking, got tortured. 00:40:18.700 |
Their life was miserable because they met Christ. 00:40:22.140 |
But their eternity was in glory because Christ crushed the head of Satan. 00:40:30.380 |
If we live our life thinking that our life and our hope is in this world, the younger 00:40:40.980 |
And a lot of times, especially where we live, we celebrate youth. 00:40:47.140 |
We spend billions of dollars trying to be younger. 00:40:51.820 |
But if our paradigm has shifted, if we are living biblically and pursuing the things 00:41:21.140 |
He is talking about glory that is coming with the coming of Christ. 00:41:30.660 |
If your paradigm is if you suffer now, tomorrow there is payoff. 00:41:35.740 |
Tomorrow when the payoff doesn't come, you leave. 00:41:39.740 |
If I put in the hard work, if I sacrifice, if I am disciplined, then tomorrow, maybe 00:41:44.060 |
next year, maybe next decade, but when the payoff doesn't come, if that's what payoff 00:41:48.820 |
is for you, and then you get disappointed, and then you get frustrated, and then after 00:41:53.860 |
a while your faith begins to erode, and then eventually you leave. 00:41:59.060 |
But the hope of the cross is not in this world. 00:42:02.860 |
While we are in this world, the Bible says we will suffer. 00:42:08.700 |
We have wolves that are constantly trying to divide us, devour us. 00:42:15.100 |
We have our enemy who is prowling around like a hungry lion seeking someone to devour, and 00:42:21.820 |
And anyone who wants to run toward Christ, they become a greater target. 00:42:26.260 |
And I've heard so many times young Christians who really start to devote their lives to 00:42:30.380 |
Christ and all of a sudden they begin to have financial problems. 00:42:34.660 |
They start having problems with their workers. 00:42:43.860 |
But the hope that we have in Christ, the promise that he gives, soon Satan's head will be crushed. 00:42:50.300 |
He's talking about the eternal state of these Christians. 00:42:54.180 |
No matter how hard and difficult life gets here in our struggle, our hope is our death. 00:43:04.780 |
Not only, not for ten years, not for sixty years, not for seventy years, but for eternity. 00:43:13.660 |
That's the distinction between a Christian and a non-Christian. 00:43:20.740 |
The hope and the promise that we have in Hebrews 10.36-39. 00:43:25.260 |
For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive 00:43:32.420 |
For yet in a very little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. 00:43:38.980 |
But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure 00:43:45.500 |
But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to 00:43:57.580 |
Again, as our worship team leads us, let's take some time to come before the Lord in 00:44:06.340 |
I believe, help my unbelief, strengthen us, help us to be sober, help us not to simply 00:44:13.820 |
want our ears tickled, but want the truth, even if it cuts at times, that we will be 00:44:18.660 |
men and women that are firmly planted in his Word. 00:44:24.620 |
Let's take some time to pray as our worship team leads us.