We started to look at these words last week, and I want to take some time to be careful as I rehearsed for you last week a list of many of the New Testament books that warn us that false teachers are to be prevalent in the church age, even as we had read for us earlier, Peter chapter 2, that this is not new. There was false teachers in Israel, so there are false teachers in this age, and many of the false teachers are not out there. The competing religious, false religious views, but they come from inside the church. As I cited last week in Acts 20, he had to warn the Ephesian elders that from within their own congregation would come these types of teachers who would seek to destroy and devour the sheep. Here, that we read earlier from 2 Peter, false prophets arose among the people, and I mean in Israel, just as there were also false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, and even denying the master who bought them. The word master, obviously, Applying to Christ himself, the word master there, the Greek word is where we get our English word despot. Christ is Lord. He is Lord of all things, of heaven and earth. He made them. I was reading this morning in Psalm 24, the earth is the Lord's and all it contains, the world and all those who dwell in it, for he has founded it upon the seas and established upon the rivers. And then the Psalm ends with the question, who is the King of glory, the Lord of hosts? He is the King of glory, the Lord of hosts, the Lord Almighty, the King of glory. And this is Christ. And it's very important that we take seriously false teachers because one, the Lordship of Christ. The church does not have any freedom to speak where Christ has not spoken, nor is the church free not to speak where Christ has spoken. And this is really seen in both the, sometimes the liberal end of the church and the ultra fundamentalist side of the church. They both have something in common. They don't take the Bible seriously enough. The liberals discount the Bible, that's a bunch of myths, stories, it's not really inspired, look at all the contradictions, you know the routine. But on the other extreme end of the spectrum, there are those who don't take the Bible seriously by adding all sorts of things to the Bible. The Bible hasn't said enough. And so we apply the wisdom of man, especially with laws. that God has not, laws and commandments that God has not asked. You remember what Paul will say, for example, to the Colossians in chapter two, where he warns them not to be taken captive by philosophy and empty deception or according to the traditions of men. And he ends the chapter with these matters which have, to be sure, an appearance of wisdom and self-made religion. and self-abasement, and serve the treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence." What is he referring to? Well, in verse 21, it says, there's no longer to submit yourself to these decrees of men. Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. And in accordance with the commandments and teaching of men, these are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion. But they're no real help. And so we want to take the Word of God seriously as the Word of God. We don't want to diminish it by subtraction, nor do we want to diminish it by addition. The Word and the Word of God. And so Timothy in this last chapter is summing up so much, and this will be the third time in the book he's brought up false teachers. You know in the first chapter, again in chapter four, prophetically about teachers that would come, and now these who are already there. And in this chapter he's going to describe a variety of things beyond this. He's going to talk about the false teachers in the verses we have. He's going to talk about the relationship of godliness and wealth in verses 6 through 10. He's going to exhort Timothy to live an active life until Christ returns. We're not sitting and waiting for the return of Christ. Christianity is not to be viewed as a bunch of monks and nuns or people just hiding out, kind of counting the days. We are to be active, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, you know, to be steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. He's going to have another statement of a charge to those who are rich, and a final appeal to Timothy. But he, as he closes, he focuses first and foremost on these false teachers. And he describes them, and first of all, by way of emphasizing who they are, he identifies them as false teachers. And then he's going to spend some time describing their impact and the fruit. But in verse three, as we saw last week, if anyone advocates a different doctrine, if anyone, if, as I said, is what's called a first class condition, meaning it's not a question like, if someone happens to come along, like if it happens to rain today, we're not sure if it will or it won't, that would be a second or third class condition. This is a first class, meaning if, as in, since it's true. If anyone, and there are some, who advocated different doctrine, the word different doctrine has to do with the... is a compound of two Greek words which have to do with the heterodox. They are people who come to provide a different doctrine, a different doctrine than what was supposed to be given to us. They're teaching something other. And they're doing so in such a way as by advocating, promoting, advancing, these words that are different. Well, that different means different how? What is the standard? Well, he gives it to us that two descriptives, they do not agree, agree with the sound words and he describes them as the words, those words of Jesus Christ. And then he talks about the standard of the words being conforming to godliness. They advocate something that's a doctrine that does not agree with sound words. And the word agree is kind of an interesting word. It's not the word you might expect. It means coming alongside, coming towards. They don't come towards and embrace the sound doctrine or these healthy words. They talk around a lot of things. There's a good, I remember hearing someone once say, the best lies are 90% true. The best lies are 90% true. Because you want your lie to be believable. If I was to tell you a lie this morning that says, I'm faster than a speeding bullet, and I can outrun a locomotive, and I can jump higher than tall buildings. This was the beginning of Superman TV show when I was a kid. If I told you I could do all that, well, you would know in a minute that, or it wouldn't take you a minute, you'd know immediately that I was lying to you. I'm not faster than a speeding bullet. I'm not even, I'm about the pace of a cat. I have the reflexes of a cat, just happens to be a dead cat. So you have to make your lie believable, and so you shroud it in things that are true, and that makes the part that's not true sound so plausible. And these words that they don't come towards, they don't embrace, are these sound words. And the word for sound words is where we get a word for hygiene. They're healthy words. The word of God is alive. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. Hebrews 4, 2 Timothy 3 talks about All Scripture is inspired of God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness that the man of God might be thoroughly equipped. The Scripture is God-breathed, and it is divinely empowered. to do something. In 2 Timothy 3.15, just the verse before that, Paul says, you know, to Timothy that, you know, remember the words of scripture that those who taught you, his mom and grandma, that are able to give you the wisdom that leads unto eternal life. There's words that lead to life and there's words that lead to death. There's words that lead you to truth and there's words that sound true that lead you from the truth. And it's sometimes really hard to know, as I said last week, the liar doesn't come up and say to you, hello, I'm a liar, and what I'm about to tell you will destroy you. Probably not gonna be all that successful. But in 2 Thessalonians, We're told of the one who is the lawless one who will come according to the activity of Satan himself. In verse 10, or verse 9, activity of Satan with all power, signs, and false wonders, and with all deceptions of wickedness of those who perish because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. For this reason, God will send them a deluding influence so they will believe what is false in order that they may be judged, those who did not believe the truth but took pleasure in wickedness. So this lawless one comes in the activity of Satan with power, signs, and false wonders. And think about that, powers, miracles, and signs, and wonders. There is a supernatural activity that's attached to those particular false teachers or teacher that Paul is describing, but there seems to be a power there. There's certainly something of wonder, but they are false. So if you, The world is full and Christianity is full of people who say like they have the gift of healing. I've met some of them, talked with some of them, and they're thoroughly persuaded they can heal. Last time I think I brought them up, I remember there was a professor at a very renowned seminary who believed he had the gift of healing short legs. You know, many of us are, both legs aren't exactly the same length. And so, you know, you're not really level-headed. And, you know, you can tell I'm a level-headed man because I drill out of both sides of my mouth. And, but they had, but in some people that one leg is off enough that it creates problems in their lower back and their hip region and can be very uncomfortable. And he, without any hesitation says, I have the gift of healing short legs. and he thought he had actually done this. Now, first of all, I'm not really sure that that's listed amongst the signs of healing in the New Testament, but you know, there's, something was happening. And so how do you know whether somebody's giving a ministry of God or a ministry of the devil? What is, if a miracle has happened, I'm able to perform a miracle right here somehow, some miraculous way, how are you able to discern is that of God or of the activity of Satan? Something actually has happened. Gabriel, visiting for the second Sunday, let's say he showed up with an affliction, say something visible, some skin disease, and I heal him, boom. And you all can see it, whatever rash is gone, you see it. How are you able to discern whether that's of God or of the activity of the devil? Something happened. It was a power that was exhibited. It was a wonder, but it's a false wonder. How do you know that? Well, it would seem to me, again, it comes back to, does it bring you back to the words of healthy, sound doctrine? Does it attract you to me? Well, then it's taken you away from the sound doctrine. To my ministry, where you're willing to give thousands and thousands of dollars, because look at this guy. Or does it draw you to the simplicity of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? And that can be subtle. Some of you know I've been accused of trying to play golf. I'm thankful that in all the 30 years I've played golf, there's never been enough evidence in a court of law to convict me of being a golfer, because I'm just not any good at it. But I know a lot about it. And I know, and I've been working in this simulator where they can track my, some of the stuff they can do now in tracking your golf swing. And so I can have immediate feedback on exactly the angle of my swing plane. Is it coming from the inside to out or the outside? And they can measure this to like, you know, the smallest numbers. And exactly at impact is my club head a little open or a little closed or a lot open or a lot closed. And it only takes one degree of your club head face to be slightly open or closed to the plane of your swing to cause the ball to go hard right or hard left, just one degree. Again, that's why I say the best lies are 90% true. And the false teacher will always try to woo you away from Christ. And one of the ways he will woo you is to get you to focus on something else. For example, a really good way and a powerful way of doing that is to get you to focus on things you've done. Rather than to focus on the sufficiency of Christ and confident that he has done everything necessary to save you, he gets you to focus on something else. Like, was I sincere enough when I prayed? Did I pray? Did I walk the aisle? Did I sign the card? Did I do this? Did I do that? Or did I stop doing this? Did I stop doing that? But where's the focus? Isn't it unnecessarily evil in and of itself, but it's just off enough that your eye no longer looks exclusively to Christ. As the writer of Hebrews tells us, you know, consider Christ, focus on Christ. The illustration I've used way too often maybe with some of you is like, again, and in fact, I used this very recently, if I remember correctly, you come into my office, Pastor, I'm not really sure if I'm saved or not. I think I am, I know I prayed, I've been baptized, but I'm really struggling with this. And so we talk for a while, and so then I finally said, well, let's pray. Let's just, don't worry about the past. Right now, let's ask Jesus into your hearts. So we get down on our knees, we pray. Boom, great. And then I pick up your Bible, and remember he's telling you this, pick up your Bible, I write in the front of the Bible, on this day, in March 9th, 2025, I ask Jesus into my heart. And then I say to you these words, something along the side, now every time you doubt, I want you to open up your Bible and look at what you wrote here. What did this do to you? I took your eye off of Jesus, and put your eye on what you did. See how subtle that can be? Rather than pointing you to the sound words of the doctrine that Jesus is the most perfect, wonderful Savior who has done everything necessary. He has removed every last hurdle. His grace is sufficient for you. I get you to look at something you do. False teacher. The second reason why this is important is because heaven and hell is in the balance. And to cushion that a little bit, you know, when you die and you breathe your last, there's not a theological exam that you pass. It's like an anteroom. You don't get to heaven. You go to an anteroom. You're handed a little blue book, and you're asked to write out sound doctrine. Maybe we should do that. But no, the issue is, do you believe Christ? And some will have a profound and deep and rich faith, partially because of opportunities they've had to study and to reflect and that, and others will have a very simple faith. But it's Christ and Christ alone that is my hope. And when asked, why should I allow you into my heaven? The answer is simply Christ, what He's done to save a sinful man or woman such as me. My hope is Christ. I have no other. Or as the great hymn, our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and His righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. And so these false teachers are, in fact, evidence of wanting to keep you from a sound doctrine, healthy doctrine. Secondly, because the sound doctrine is measured by the words of Jesus Christ. And you say, well, wait a minute, Pastor, the Bible's full of things, such as 1 Timothy, where Jesus isn't doing the one that's talking. Well, I'm gonna say, yes, it is in this sense. The Old Testament was telling us all about who Christ is. Remember, Jesus will say in Luke 24 that Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms spoke of me. John 5, he turns to the Pharisees, search the scriptures, because Moses wrote of me, right? But also we know that Jesus is described as, John 1, the word of God. He is the spoken word. And we know that in John chapter 14 and John chapter 16 in the upper room, Jesus says, I'm gonna send another, the Holy Spirit, and he's gonna disclose to you all things that you might know and understand the things of me and what I've told you. And the Apostle Paul will say things. like this in Acts chapter 20 when he's speaking to the Ephesian elders, for I do not consider my life account as any account as dear to myself so that I may finish the course in ministry which I received from the Lord to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God. I've received something from the Lord and that determines exactly what I testify. He'll later say to the Corinthians, when I was among you, I only knew Christ and Him crucified. But he will also speak this way when he talks about in the, again to the Corinthians, chapter 11, verse 23, for I received from the Lord, which I also delivered to you. Remember, Paul spends about three years with Christ before he really begins his ministry. And while the Old Testament spoke prophetically in types and shadows and prophecies of Christ, the Gospels give us that record of Christ, and the New Testament is really nothing more than the expounding and explaining both the Old Testament in its looking to Christ, the meaning of the life of Christ, It's not adding to it in the sense of Jesus didn't say enough, didn't do enough. It's simply explaining and expounding upon that which has already been given. That's why Jude can say the faith has once and for all been delivered to us. We don't have two teachers in the church, if you will. There is the primary teacher, Jesus, and then there's this other teacher, Paul. No, Paul wasn't the first Christian. He wasn't establishing a second religion. He wasn't adding to what Christ had said as what he had to say was deficient. All scripture is inspired and profitable by God. Paul is simply explaining what he has received. He is passing that on. And under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, as we confess each Lord's Day, we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life. who with the Father, Son, as we worship and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. This very spirit of Christ is that which has enabled the prophets and the apostles to give us the word. And so a full and faithful teacher is bringing you back to the word of God. And as I said last week, this is one reason why here we've tried so much to emphasize the history of the church. because it's not the word of God as Dougie gets to decide, right? I'm gonna tell you something that no one else has told you, right? Whenever you hear a teacher or you read a book, the secrets of the prayer life, all right? No one else has ever known these things. Here are the secrets if you have these things. Christianity is public, it's historic, it's objective, it's real, It's verifiable. And when the teacher or the author has given you something that's never been spoken before, pretty good clue that this is not right. I remember when I first started seminary, I said to an older brother who was about to end his seminary career, I said, what happens if I turn in a paper on, I've been asked to write a paper on a particular passage, and I come up with an insight that no one else has ever seen? In 2,000 years, no one has seen this. And my older friend said to me, you're probably wrong. What Bible verse has not been totally covered and devoured by the body of believers in 2,000 years who haven't written? It's not to say that all who went before us were right in everything they wrote. But in 2,000 years, we've got, you know, a pretty good handle. It's not that we might have deeper appreciation for something. It's not that we might not drill down deeper into the same words. But it's not finding new novel ideas that have never come along. I've been at this long enough to know that almost every modern heresy and false doctrine that's put forward has already been addressed somewhere along the line. Whether so-called new perspective of Paul or federal visionism or something, they've all been addressed. A prevalent misguided teaching right now was called the eternal subordination of Christ. that from all eternity the son was subordinate to the father. You know, that was declared a heresy and dealt with sufficiently in the early church. It's not true. Just because some modern dolt is writing about it with new words doesn't make it less false. So ultimately, these false teachers will have these things to say that want to move you just a degree off from focusing completely upon Christ, and who He is, and what He has said, and what He's accomplished. And they may do it in dramatic ways, or they may do it in these really small ways that just get your eyes off Him enough to yourself, to something you've done, something you've experienced. How do you know I'm a Christian? Well, Jesus showed up in my room in the middle of the night, and the room was all on fire, and my body was on fire, I felt like my blood was on fire, and I know I'm a Christian, Whatever, no, no, you may be a Christian, but not because of that. That's an evidence of nothing. I remember when I was reading Jonathan Edwards' Religious Affections, and I commend you to read it. It's a hard book to read. I don't agree with everything in there, but it's three sections. The first section is, what is a religious affection? The second is 12 signs that are not evidences of a religious affection. And then 12 signs that are, and that's where I probably disagree with him the most, because some of them I think, well, I have issue with, and you can talk to me later if you want to know more about that, but the 12 signs that he said are not an evidence of a religious affection or evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of an individual, that are not. Almost every one of them is what I was told as a young evangelical, this is. And I don't remember all 12 off the top of my head, but one of them was that many Bible verses are coming to your head. This is clearly an evidence of the work of the Spirit. No, it's not. It's an evidence that you're thinking of a lot of Bible verses. But that may or may not be the work of the Spirit. It could be. but just as much could not be. The end is the end of any ministry, the end of any sermon, the end of any book, is you have a greater exalted view of God and Christ Jesus. I wish I had that kind of feedback on a regular basis. I don't say that so that you will now falsely give that to me. Oh, pastor wants this. But one time I had a lady come to me and a lady who didn't necessarily always agree with me. And she said, but she said to me, she was very sincere. She said to me, you know, pastor, I've been going to church a long time and a lot of pastors give me a high view of the Bible, which was good. Very good. But she says, you give me a high view of God. Well, that high view of God better be tied to a high view of the Bible, but that's a good mark of a teacher. You walk away more enthralled with God, more enthralled with the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done. And one of the evidences of that is as he ends verse three, the doctrine conforming to godliness. Why did Jesus come into the world? To save sinners. What does that mean? We throw these words around and they become so much kind of a jargon that we sometimes don't really remember what they are. When I was a kid, STP was important. If you were into cars, you wanted STP. And we had little stickers, STP, on the back window. What is STP? Specially treated petroleum. But see, nobody knows that anymore because there's no STP. We kind of do that with our Christian lingo. But when we come to understand the doctrines of life and the words of Christ, the sound words that come from Christ, they should produce in us godliness, because Jesus came to save us from our sin. How? One, from the penalty of our sin, right? That's maybe the first and most important. He took upon himself the wrath of God for your particular sins. Not sins kind of generally like what you have. He took your sins upon himself and the sins of every individual who would ever believe upon him. He took the wrath of God for those particular sins upon himself. So he saved you from your sin. But he didn't save you from the consequences or the penalty of your sin so that you could continue to go on and sin. So I'm a liar. I believe in Jesus. The penalty of my lying has been taken care of. So, this kind of the argument that Paul has to confront in Romans 5, end of Romans 5 and beginning of 6, shall we sin now all the more? Since grace has covered it, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds. Well, all my sins of lying have been covered, so now I guess I can lie with impunity, right? Survey says, eh. Wrong answer. And a teacher who tells you that somehow the wonderful, sufficient grace of Christ has delivered you from all of your sins in a manner which allows you to continue to robustly sin in the same manner you were before is probably a false teacher. Because the words of life bring life. I know I use this, I don't remember, it was last week or the week before or something, but recently, you remember John 666. Always remember that Bible address, because how can you not remember 666, right? Isn't that a great, in John chapter six, Verse 66, many of his disciples would walk with him no more. You just got done teaching about, if you wanna have eternal life, you gotta eat my flesh and drink my blood. And a lot of his learners, a lot of his disciples had been following him, said, nah, this is a bridge too far, we're not eating that flesh, we're not drinking that blood. John 6, 66, many of his disciples walked with him no more. He turns to the 12 and says, are you gonna leave me too? And Peter says on behalf of them, where would we go? For you alone have the words of life. And we believe on Jesus Christ, we have eternal life. And I've said countlessly, eternal life should not be thought of in terms of a length of life. It includes that. What I'm saying is not a denial of that, but sometimes we think eternal life means I'm gonna live forever. True, but the eternal life is a quality of life. It's a quality of life that you did not have prior to coming to Christ. And it says like in Ephesians 4 verse 17, for this I say and affirm together with the Lord. That you walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk in the futility of mind, having been darkened in their understanding and excluded from the life of God. Because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart, they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality. For the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. And isn't that interesting? Verse 19 of Ephesians 4 sounds a lot like the balance of 1 Timothy 6, but we'll get back to that on another Sunday. But notice that they are excluded from the life of God. What you now have is the life of God. As Paul says earlier in Ephesians 2, that you were dead in your trespasses and sins. And I love talking about that. Dead. Dead does not mean weak. It does not mean sick. It does not mean infirmed. Dead means dead. I had the privilege of being in a place where cadavers were. It was a medical research place and someone I knew invited me to come and she was showing me these dead bodies, these cadavers they used for teaching young doctors or wannabe doctors and nurses. And you know, you could poke it with a needle scalpels, you could yell at it, you could beat on it, you could do whatever you want. And those cadavers didn't move. It was really strange. You'd think if you poked a cadaver, it would move. No, you say, pastor, of course it's not gonna move. Why? Because it's dead. Everyone born into this world has physical, or what the Bible says, bios life. but we're all born spiritually zoe, spiritual life, we're all born spiritually dead. It's like pregnant, you either are or you are not, there's no halfway, right? You're either dead or you were alive. And Paul says, you are dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging the desires of flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even in that we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. Isn't that the meaning of baptism? Romans 6, we've been buried with him into his death and we have been raised in the newness of life. Here Paul says, you were dead, but God made you alive together with Christ. Now the false teacher will come along and say, might even affirm all that, but then say, as I said earlier, but you know what that means is I'm gonna give you a bunch of rules that the Bible doesn't give you. Now do these things. Do these things. The definition of sin is any transgression of or lack of conformity to the law of God, right? That's the definition of sin. Any transgression of or lack of conformity to the law of God. We'll turn that around in apostasy. What is righteousness? What are good works? Anything that conforms to the law of God, period. Not the law of God and the law of men. Not the law of God and some custom. Not the law of God and some very practical, helpful principles. When we stand before the judgment seat, we will not give an account for all what we've done according to the law of God and what man has come up with. Does that make sense? And these false teachers will use their stealth, as Peter tells us in 2 Peter, as we read, they come in secretly and secretly impose their truth. They're not coming with the banner. I'm a false teacher. They're coming in and all they have to do is get one degree off, one degree off, so you are no longer focusing on Christ. And then they either deny your need to live a life or they substitute the life for a life that Christ has not defined for. He's not described, he's not commanded for us to do. But they sound so good as we read from Colossians 2. They sound so good. It seems so wise. He goes on to say in verse four, He is conceited. He is conceited. This is the main verb of the sentence. The sentence is quite a long sentence. It begins in verse three and goes to the end of five. In the Greek text, it's all one long sentence. It is in your English Bible, at least the New American Standard. The main verb is this false teacher is conceited and understands nothing. The word for understanding there is a unique word. It's usually a different word, but here it's where we get our English word epistemology. What's epistemology? It's the study of knowledge. This man is puffed up, conceited. He thinks he knows what he needs to know. I'm the smartest guy in the room. while yet having no epistemology, no real understanding, no real grasp of the things of God. He goes on to describe him as having a morbid, a morbid interest in, morbid interest in controversial questions and disputes about words. And you'll see these false teachers will often put all their emphasis on one or two or three words. Sometimes the lack of a word. For example, some will come and say, well, the Trinity is not a biblical doctrine because the word Trinity does not appear in the Bible. They are sometimes accused of being biblicist or biblicism. What's biblicism? Bible good, biblicism bad. The ism is the part that makes it bad. It's like human. Human good, humanism, bad. To be pragmatic, good. Pragmatism, bad. The ism, that suffix, changes the meaning. of a word, a good word, it makes it into a worldview where you have to think about things from a particular perspective. So now humanism, where man is the measure of all things, right? Be humans, okay, but humanism, now man's the measure of all things. Biblicism is not, we're gonna stand on the Bible and quote the Bible, that's good, but the Bible becomes so wooden. So words like Trinity, because it's not in the Bible, can't be true. The fact that Jesus has the same nature as the Father can't be true, because the homostasis isn't in the Bible. And they'll come, and they'll come with this view that there's no covenant in the garden, because in Genesis 1, 2, and 3, the word covenant doesn't appear. That's one way these people will hang up on words. Another way in which they'll do this, they try to cram into the meaning all sorts of meaning that's not there in the word. Again, there's a Greek word for this. Some of you know the word for expository preaching, to exposit, to exegete, to take out, exit, the back of the room, there's a little sign, exit, there's one over here, exit, to move. You go out, right? You wanna bring out of the text the meaning. There's another word, exegetic, exegetic, exegetic. Exegetic is putting into the meaning all sorts of things that aren't there. Like I read earlier, you were dead in your trespasses. Well, dead means that you're all spiritually dead, but inside you there's a little donut hole of life where you're still able to do something. Now you've, that's eisegetic, you've read into the word dead something that's not there, like those cadavers. There was nothing in those cadavers that was alive, they were dead. And we're spiritual cadavers apart from Christ. Does that make sense? And so what these false teachers come and they'll make, they're conceited. They don't understand anything, and they have this morbid, sick interest in controversial questions and disputes about words. They want to quibble over everything. And they want to either ignore words because of biblicism, or they want to read into words because of their eisegesis. And the fruit of that is envy, strife, abuseful language, and evil suspicions. I remember being so much caught up in that at one point, was in seminary, and we had this man speaking in chapel. I believe he was a missionary, if I remember my story correctly. He was a missionary of some land, and he was calm, and he was speaking in chapel about his ministry and all this, and all I could do was sit there and go, hmm, these are great stories, but where are you on the doctrine of dot, dot, dot? Where are you on, hmm, And that's the kind of fruit that comes from these false teachers, where you're suspicious of everyone. We're the only true church. And you're really lucky to have Chris and me as elders, because we're the only true elders, right? Aren't we the only two in all the city? Everyone else is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. The church of Christ is large and vast and huge, and they're not all exactly like us. We don't have to be suspicious of everyone. When I was in college, I went to a school that would practice three, separation, stage three separation. I don't think that's the right word anymore. But stage one is I separate myself from you because you're a false teacher, all right? That's stage one. Stage two is Jared is a friend of mine, and because I have this relationship with this false teacher, not only do you separate from me, but stage two is you separate yourself from Jared, who has no relationship with the false teacher, but because he has a friendship with me, you can't have a friendship with him. Well, then stage three is, this is actually taught. Kenny, who's a friend of Jared, may not even know me and doesn't know the false teacher, but because Kenny knows Jared and Jared knows me and I know the false teacher, you can't hang out with Kenny. Didn't know that Kenny, did you? That's why no one talks to you. Because I know a false teacher. There's Christians who actually teach this sort of thing and act this sort of way where everyone's under suspicion. Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be careful and that distinctions in our theology don't matter. They do. If you know me, you know what they do. But at the end of the day, we want to pull people to focus on Christ. that He is this most wonderful, good, gracious Savior who saves people in spite of everything that we do, either prior to coming to Christ or after Christ, His grace is sufficient. Go back and read 2 Corinthians 12. Paul says, I'd rather boast in my weakness I rather boast in my persecutions. The grace of Christ is so sufficient, it's able to make me strong, and it's perfected in my weakness. Verse five, and there's constant friction between men. These false teachers produce a friction between us and them. So there's this abusive language, there's these disputes, there's this evil suspicion. And there's always a friction, there's always an us-them perspective, rather than Christ. Some of you know Pastor Noah Bailey. Shout out to Noah, you can text him later. Noah Bailey's a Presbyterian, a Reformed Presbyterian. And when I'm with him, I feel the closest kindred spirit Doesn't mean he and I don't have good discussions on places where he's wrong. Of course, if he were here, he would chuckle and say, yeah, you're wrong. But there's a sweet spirit of fellowship because this is a brother in the Lord. And the good, healthy teaching produces that love of the brethren, the love of the body of Christ. It's not downplaying or ignoring distinctions that are there. They're real. But a brother is a brother. A redeemed soul is a redeemed soul. And the degree that our heart and our love and our affection, our focus is Christ and Christ alone. Embrace that. Well, there's more to say. He's not done with them yet. We'll get to that next week. But godliness, because they talk about godliness as a means of gain, we'll look at that. And you see that on TV a lot, don't you? Some of the televangelism. But we'll get to that next week, Lord willing. But what a wonderful thing. There's this warning. We have a wonderful Savior. Remember, as Paul says back in chapter one, in verse 15, it's a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the words of life. And Lord, we'd ask that you would all the more grant us the ears to hear the words of life. Grant us the grace to be like the Bereans, to discern truth from error. Help us to understand that it does matter how you are approached and worshiped. And may we pursue those things, but may we also cling not to what we have done, but to what Christ has done to save us. and to embrace Him as a sufficient Savior, not only for ourselves, but for all who will call upon Him. And may we walk together, encouraging one another all the more until Christ comes, whose name we pray. Amen.