Well, let's look at verse one. And it says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandments of God, our savior and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope. Now, Paul refers to himself as an apostle in the New Testament. I believe that that word is used in two different ways. Now, there is controversy in some circles today as to whether or not there are apostles. And the answer, of course, is no. And yes, but you have to look at it properly in the context of the New Testament. First of all, there was the 12. Are there any like that today? Absolutely not. They are the sent ones. They are the apostles of Christ Jesus. And so they were directly called by Christ. and they were the conduit through which Christ would teach the church. They are the conduit of inerrant, infallible biblical knowledge with regard to the person and work of our Redeemer. Now, The word is also used in two other places. One is in Second Corinthians 8. The other one is Philippians 2. And let's just turn there for a second, because I think it's important to our understanding. In Second Corinthians chapter 8. In verse 23, as for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker among you. As for our brethren, these were the brethren that were going to be sent to Corinth because they are messengers of the churches, a glory to Christ. Now, here the word is literally they are apostles of the churches. This is also used in the book of Philippians. Now, here's what I want you to see. The apostles of Christ, Paul was the last to be called. We know that clearly from 1st Corinthians 15. They were directly called by the resurrected Christ and they were the conduit through which Christ would reveal his will, his truth. to the church. As a matter of fact, when we see those passages in John chapter 14, John chapter 16, where he talks about you will know the truth, he is specifically talking to the apostles and referring to the apostolic ministry. You and I are not inspired. We do not have inerrant infallible truth. The Holy Spirit does illuminate our minds so that we understand the Word of God. So there's the Apostle with a big A, as Sam Waldron would say. Then there is the Apostle with a little a. The Apostles, like the Apostle Paul, were sent out by Christ himself. The apostles are messengers of the churches, were sent out by the churches with the authority of the churches. And they did not receive revelation, but they took the revelation that was once and for all handed down to the saints, according to Jude, and they made that known to the world. Now, this is where we start to come to understand what a missionary is. The word missionary is the Latin translation of apostle. And so a missionary is a sent one, not in the way that the 12 were sent, but it is one. It is a man who has been studied and observed by the local church and its elders. a man that meets the qualifications of a minister of Christ and is sent out under the authority of those elders and that church to plant, to either proclaim a message or plant a church according to the doctrine of the church that sent them. Now, when you hear the word apostle, Most often when you see a study on the word apostle, what do you what do they talk about? In the Greek, you know, in the Greek, in the Roman Empire, in the Greek language. And that's appropriate. But you need to understand there was a term in Hebrew, the shaliach, and it literally meant a sent one. And during the time of even Jesus, The Sanhedrin, the larger synagogues would send out someone in the name of that synagogue or in the name of the Sanhedrin. And it was said by many rabbis, the one who listens, the one who hears this apostle is hearing from the one who sent him. And I think this is very important today because we have so many people who want to minister independently of the church, independently of a local church, independently of the authority of elders and the congregation. And we just see that's not biblical. I wanted to point that out now again. This whole idea that there are apostles today who receive revelation and are on par with the 12 and everything else is absolutely absurd, severely dangerous. But there but a sent one is one who has been sent out by the local church in order to carry out the ministry of that local church, possibly in another area. Now, something very important here, it says an apostle of Christ Jesus. He wants to make very, very clear. He could have said Jesus Christ. The word order is very important. He says Christ Jesus. He's emphasizing here that he has been sent out by this messianic figure that is found in the Old Testament. You know, it was an amazing thing. Absolutely. You can see why the Pharisees and Sadducees were just livid. were violent with regard to the person of Jesus of Nazareth. Now, to them, the Torah, the law, the prophets, the wisdom literature, it was everything. Even today, I remember I was in an airport a few years ago and there was an old rabbi there and he had a box with him, a very large box, about this big, about this tall, and it was all in leather and had a handle on it and it was engraved with vines and different things and grapes on it. I knew exactly what it was. It was a copy of the Torah. And I began to talk to him about it. And he said, you know what's in this box? And I said, well, I have a pretty good idea. And he said, how could you as a Gentile have an idea what's in this box? And I said, you have the Torah in that box. And he treated it like, well, not only did he boast that it was worth one hundred thousand dollars, but he also treated it as though it was the most precious thing to him. So imagine Jesus of Nazareth, he stands up and he tells these men who are zealous about one thing, the law, and he says, everything in the law and the prophets, every bit of it is all about me. The whole thing was written for me, about me. has its fulfillment in me. And so that's why Paul is, I think, using this word order, this messianic figure in the Old Testament. It's clouded to the modern day Jew. It's even clouded to some of the ancient Jews after the death and resurrection of Christ. But I want you to know that prior to the coming of Christ and afterwards, the idea of a suffering Messiah and all these things were commonly applied to the Messiah. And so Paul wants everyone to know he is sent out by this messianic figure who is the most important person, thing, idea in all of redemptive history. Now, he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment, Here, the word denotes an injunction or a decree. It's something that has great authority. So he's an apostle of Christ Jesus. But according to the commandment of God, according to the decree of God, if you go back into the servant songs, if you go back into several different passages throughout the Old Testament, God promises to be with the Messiah. He promises to protect Messiah. And he says to the Messiah, it's too small a thing for you to raise up the tribes of Jacob, of Israel. I'm going to I'm going to give you the nations. OK, and so that's what's going on here. God is fulfilling his promise to Jesus, the Messiah. And he's using Paul to do it, and Paul has gone out to carry out this purpose and promise that God has given to the Messiah. I think that's very, very important. We don't want to miss that because we always think, well, it's about, you know, redeeming the nations. And of course, God loves the nations and it is about redemption. But there's something greater going on here. It's all about his son. Never forget that it's all about his son. Now, here's something that I want to apply to us as ministers. This very, very important. And that is. The security of knowing that you have been called. The confidence in your calling, Paul says that he was an apostle according to the commandment of God. Now, even the Messiah, he comes through different challenges in his ministry, in the book of Isaiah, and he gets to the point where there's so much opposition that he is he is tempted. He does not succumb to the temptation, but the temptation is laid before him that he is labored in vain. He is toiled in emptiness. And those terms that are used are actually the same terms Isaiah uses to describe those who follow after idols. That idols are emptiness and their toil and their vanity and the Messiah is tempted to believe that that everything he's done is vanity. I want you to think about this. When you think of the man of faith, most of you probably think of Abraham, but the real man of faith is the Messiah. Now, I want you to think about something. He is told by God, it is too small a thing just to raise up the tribes of Jacob, the tribes of Israel. I am going to make you a light to the nations. I'm going to win the nations through you. When Christ died on Calvary, all he had to show for it was one thief. And so the Messiah, as he's battling in his ministry, according to Isaiah, he is clinging to the promises that God has given him. As a minister, you're going to come through times that are so tough, that are so very, very difficult, and that's when you have to fall back on the fact God has called me. He has called me. Now, look at this. He says an apostle of Christ Jesus. This genitive here is can be definition that if you want to know what kind of apostle he is, an apostle that has to do with Christ Jesus. But it's also possession. He belongs to Christ Jesus. So he has been raised up by God. for Christ Jesus, to serve Christ Jesus and to belong to Christ Jesus. Now, there is a sense, a real sense in which every one of us can say the same thing and not just the minister, because we are not Catholic. We do not make a secular, sacred divide among the people of God. If you're a minister, you ought to be able, let's say your name is is John. You ought to be able to say, John, a minister of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God. We ought to have that assurance, that security, and one of the ways in which that security comes to us, well, let's look at two different ways. One is subjective. And that's seen in 2nd Corinthians chapter 8, where Paul says that God had placed an earnestness in the heart of Titus to go to Corinth. Now, that's subjective. It was real, but we always have to make the difference between subjective and objective. So Titus felt a real earnestness, a desire to go to Corinth. And that is part of our assurance as ministers that there is something subjective that happened to us. We have a sense of a calling, but you know, that's incomplete in the New Testament. What else adds to that sense of security with regard to our calling? I'll tell you that the elders and congregation have examined our lives with fear and trembling. They've tested our character. They have found us faithful. And those elders laid their hands on us with fear and trembling. But you know what? That's not done today, is it? That's very rare. Men do not fear God because men do not know God, and therefore they're willing to send out anyone, ordain anyone. And that's just wrong. And know this, if you ordain lightly as a minister, then know this, it's going to come back because not only do you participate in the fruit of the one who has been sent out, you participate in their sin. You're responsible. I remember we have a long standing working with Conrad and Bewe and the other elders and men from Zambia and Africa. And I remember after working with him for maybe, I don't know, six, seven years, He got a hold of me one day, he said, we need to talk. And I said, OK. And so he said, Paul, he goes, there's a man that we put on the field. And I know these men. I know Conrad and those men. They take ordination extremely serious. As a matter of fact, I told them one time, I said, I don't think you guys would ordain me. They take ordination extremely seriously. And and he told me, we're going to pull a man off the field. I said, what? He goes, you know, that one man that we sent to a certain certain place and HeartCry has been working with us on that. I said, yes. They go, we're pulling him off the field. And he said, I hope that this does not in any way change your confidence in us. As men of God, as elders, and I said, actually, it increases my confidence in you. I know you will make the hard choice. I know you will not try to protect your reputation, your name or anything. You'll just do what's right. Do you see? How many churches in North America would do something like that? You see, brethren, all that's happening in the world today, we think what on earth is going on, never forget, judgment begins with the household of God. With the household of God. So he says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the commandment of God, our Savior. I want you to look at that. You know, this liberal, there's a liberal hatred, hatred for substitutionary atonement, for penal substitutionary atonement. They hate the doctrine. And it's almost like they portray it as a straw man, that God is this just cruel deity, this gigantic ego who wants to destroy the sinner. And Christ interposes on our behalf and saves us from God. And that is not the doctrine of penal substitution. The fact of the matter is God so loved the world that he sent his only son. God is our savior and he saves through his plan of redemption that centers around the person of Jesus Christ. Here's something that you need to understand. There's a real sense in which when Christ dies on the cross, he is saving us from the wrath of his father. But also know this, he's saving us from his own wrath. How many times, Psalms chapter two, Revelation 19, are we reminded of the wrath of the Messiah who comes against evil men? So it's not Jesus saving us against the wrath of the Father, it's Jesus saving us from the wrath of God, and he is God, you see. And so he wants to put a real emphasis on God, our Savior, But that salvation comes to those who hope in Christ Jesus, who hope in Christ. And this is one of the things that's very important when you're dealing in evangelism, when you're dealing with a soul who you may have a great deal of confidence that they're converted, but they really lack assurance. The one thing that you're looking for above everything else, is that all their hope is placed only in the person and work of Christ. That through the scriptures, the Holy Spirit has exhausted, extinguished any confidence they might have in self. I like to say it this way, a true believer can doubt their salvation. But a true believer will never doubt that all of their salvation, if they are saved, is in Christ alone. Now, men cannot appreciate God being Savior, nor can men find hope only in Jesus Christ unless the minister is preaching as he ought to be. When we go to Romans chapter 3, we can see from Romans 1 18 all the way to to 3 23. What is Paul doing? He's seeking to prove the condemnation of all men. That's what he's seeking to do, brethren. He is arranging absolutely phenomenal arguments to demonstrate to men that they have absolutely no hope except to turn to Jesus Christ. And if you're afraid to do that, you're not going to be well used in winning souls. because they must be utterly convinced that they have no hope but in Jesus Christ. Now he goes on in verse two to Timothy, my true child in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God, the father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. Now he says true child in the faith and the idea here, legitimate child. It could be a genuine child, a child of legitimate birth. Here's something that I really want you to consider. Never take for granted that a certain minister is actually converted. Never take it for granted. I want you to know that Big Eva The evangelical movement at large is inundated by lost ministers. Inundated. And that is our problem. And in the last year, we have seen, I have seen ministers that I even trusted that I no longer trust. Some I do not trust because I do not believe they're wise, they're mature. Others seem to have shown themselves to be unconverted. Never assume, no matter how great a preacher is as far as his proclamation and his eloquence, his speech. And so Paul is saying here to Timothy, my legitimate child in the faith, my true child. He has been with Timothy. He has studied Timothy's life. The fact that I've been speaking for such a long time on just one verse doesn't mean I'm a true minister of Christ. You know, it's that's why when we see it's it is doctrinal, it is important, but that's why we see in First Timothy chapter three and Titus one, that the great majority of those qualifications for ministry are qualifications of character, qualifications for character. And so we need to be very, very, very, very careful. Now, let me say something else that I've seen. We live in an age which God seems to be destroying. We live in an age of celebrity preachers. And we live in an age of young men who try to tie themselves to the coattail of an older, well-known minister and stand beside him. That's very dangerous. Now, I believe that the incubator of of men of God is the local church and under the guidance of elders. But remember something as a young minister, your association with mature and godly and useful ministers does not make you mature or godly or useful. We have a saying here. I was raised on a cattle. We raised cattle and quarter horses. You know, when someone would put something in front of you like you were a novice, you would say to them, look, this is not my first rodeo. I've been here before. Don't treat me as a novice. And the thing about it is you need to go out and win your own spurs. You have to become a man before God. Now, I rely, I have relied all my life on older godly ministers. I am surrounded today by godly men and there's no lone wolf Christianity. But at the same time, you know, you see a minister who's mightily used of God and you see a bunch of young men gather around him and then they begin to talk as though they were him. They're not him. And so don't, you know, be quick to put yourself under the care and the watchfulness of godly men. But don't try to gain your fame or your usefulness in the ministry by following them around. You need to go out, you need to do the ministry. You need to stand on your own. Now, I want to we're in first Timothy chapter one, but I want you to look over at chapter four real quick. And verse 16, because when he says, Timothy, my true child, we're going to get something of an idea of how serious this is. And again, do not make the assumption just off the bat. that someone's converted, even for your own life at times, you should test yourself. You should examine yourself. Look what he says in verse 16 of chapter four, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. You know, most ministers pay attention to their ministries. Because they think the size of their ministry somehow validates their spirituality. I want you to know, I have known men who have pastored 50 people all their life and they have forgotten more about God than I'll ever know. So he doesn't say pay close attention to the size of your ministry or what people write about you. This is pay a close attention to yourself. And to your teaching, persevere in these things. Continue. Brethren, I am old enough to tell you that since I was converted at the age of 21, I have seen a multitude of people very zealous fall away. Either fall away into total apostasy or fall away into the strangest sort of doctrines and not continue on with Christ, not continue on with grace. And we shouldn't go, yeah, yeah, I've seen it, too. No, it ought to be a warning to us. Every time I see sin in someone else, I want to reflect on me. Every time I see someone fall, I know you are in danger also, Mr. Washer, of falling. Take heed. Take care. Walk circumspectly. Walk with caution. A few years ago, it was all the rage to talk about passion, passion, passion, passion for God, passion for the gospel, passion for this, passion for that. And I remember hearing John Snyder from Behold Your God. He's a friend of mine. He was preaching and he said, passion, passion, passion. Everybody's talking about passion. Someone needs to be talking about caution. And that's true. Caution. Do not trust yourself. There was a man, a father, and his son walked up to him while he was in the presence of other men and said, Dad, I want to go over here and I'm going to go to so and so place with this girl. And the boy was only like 16, 15. And his father said, No, son, you're not. That's that's unwise to go to that setting alone like that, unchaperoned. No, you're not going to go. And the son said, OK, Dad, and walked away. The other men said, what's wrong with you? Don't you trust your son? And the man said, no, I don't trust my son. And they said, well, why don't you trust your son? He said, because I don't trust his father. Why would I trust him? You see, we're all too trusting of ourselves, I think. So he says, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching. Persevere. It's not how you begin. It's how you continue and how you end. So he says, pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching, persevere in these things. For as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you. He's not talking about salvation by works. But he is talking about the real possibility of being deceived. If we persevere in these things that he's going to set out for us, it gives us a strong confidence that we have truly been born again. If we depart from them, as I have seen people do. I knew a man who young man who constantly talked about grace and about salvation and about Christ alone. And one day he got he started going towards messianic, not messianic truth, because messianic truth is good truth. But he became so involved in that that he literally stopped. He started blowing a shofar on the Sabbath. He started doing all kinds of very, very strange things. Do you see? And so it's persevering in the gospel, in the gospel, in Christ. OK, so this is not we're not studying just so you can have an effective ministry. We're studying so that you can be saved. So that you can have confidence that you are saved. And believers ought to have a strong and glorious confidence. But there are so many out there that are deceived, even ministers. All right, let's go back. He says, grace, mercy and peace. Grace, mercy and peace. Now, commentary writers will tell you this is a salutation. And that's true. But that's not all it is. This is not, you know, how are you doing? Someone asks you, how are you doing? And before you can answer, they're gone. They didn't even stand around to hear the answer. So this is more than simply something that was done either in the Jewish world or the Roman world. And if it was done there, it takes on sincere and real meaning for those in Christ. So let's look at it for a moment. He says, grace, mercy and peace from God, the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. To say this in a superficial manner is to take the Lord's name in vain. So Paul wouldn't just be throwing this in because he's basically directing their attention, invoking the name of God, the Father and of Christ Jesus, our Lord. This is Paul's sincere desire and prayer for the people of God. That they would know grace, that they would understand grace. You know, I am known as kind of sometimes a very hard guy, hard preacher by people who just watch me on YouTube. One time someone came to our church and the elders had asked me to preach on three continuous Wednesdays, and these people came all three times. And when they finished, they walked up to our elder, one of our elders, and said, Has Brother Paul changed? Has he compromised? And the elder told me later, he goes, I knew exactly what they were going to say. But he went along with it and he said, well, what are you talking about? They said, well, we've been here for three Wednesdays now and all he has talked about is the unconditional love of God for his people. The grace of God, the mercy of God. And the elder answered back, he says, well, what you're seeing is not the YouTube version. You're seeing the real Paul Washer. There are times when we must preach with an edge on it, a blade. But I have discovered that my greatest need. Yes, you can talk to me about judgment and it will add a solemnity to my life. And it's necessary to talk about judgment. Paul does in second Corinthians chapter five and says it's a motivation in his life that we'll all stand before the judgment throne of Christ. But if you really want to get me devoted. If you really want to move me. To give myself more to God. Then talk to me about the love of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. We were sitting around the table after our meeting this morning and just, you know, I said to the guys, I said, guys, I said, you know, I've been working on these servant songs for a few months and I said, I could take one of those passages and let's say that from my 15th year to my 25th year, I did nothing but dedicate myself to the study of the Hebrew language. I said then I could take one of the servant songs, Isaiah 42, 49, the smallest. I could devote the next 80 years of my life to doing nothing but studying that song, and I would not exhaust it. I would not exhaust the beauty of Christ, the love of Christ, the grace of Christ, the mercy of Christ. And this is what we need to hope for, to pray for with regard to God's people. God's people, when they're bewildered, God's people, when they're scared, God's people, when they sin. Our hope, our wish, our desire, our our strong earnestness ought to be that the people of God would understand more of God's grace, his unmerited favor, more of his mercy, his pity, his pity toward us. All of us, the greatest deed of the greatest man. In the greatest moment of his life would only earn him hell. We need to understand mercy and from that grace and mercy flows peace. I do not want to give sinners peace. It's not my job. I want to be a troubler in Israel. I want to trouble the sinner so that the sinner runs to Christ and there finds grace and mercy. But when they find it, they treat it as precious because they know they need it because we've plowed the field with the law. We've plowed the field with what God says about fallen man. So let's go on. And he says now, oh, something I don't want to overlook here. Grace, mercy and peace from God, the Father and Christ Jesus, our Lord. If I only had that verse, if that's all I had, that's enough to prove the deity of Jesus Christ. You don't put God in a conjunctive relationship like this with with with no one else. You just see people don't understand there's a well, where's proof of his deity? It's everywhere. Christ is either. God, in the fullest sense of the term. Or what has been said about him and what he claimed for himself would make him the greatest blasphemer that ever walked this planet, this passage is blasphemous. If Jesus Christ is not fully God, could you imagine Paul saying grace and mercy and peace from God, the father and from me? Isn't it utterly foreign to hear something like grace, mercy and peace from God, the father and Gabriel? Or Michael? You see, it's it's it's everywhere. Just a simple statement like this is it's obvious this is not a man merely. This is not an angel merely. This is not a demigod, something between God and man. This person is God in the flesh. Now, he goes on. And I want to say something else, I want you to look that in verse one, God is our savior, the origin, we could say, the fountain of our salvation. But that salvation, if you look at verse one and verse two, comes to us only and always through the person of Jesus Christ. And that's why he must be our hope. We have no hope with God apart from Christ. Paul makes that abundantly clear, doesn't he? Passages like 2nd Corinthians 5, 21, the righteousness of God in him, in Christ. We can even go more. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 through 13. How many times does he use in Christ or its equivalent? At least 10 times. Do you see? Apart from Christ. You have no part with God. There is one mediator between God and man, and that's what primarily makes Christianity a scandal. If I would simply say, if I would just change the definite article to an indefinite article in my preaching, I would be on every talk show in America. Everyone would love me. If I said Jesus is my savior. and nothing else. If I said Jesus is a savior, the world would not have a problem with me at all. But when I say Jesus is the savior to the exclusion of all other so-called saviors, that's when you get in hot water. When I go from Jesus is right for me to Jesus is the only right for everyone. All right, let's go on to verse three. He says, As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. Now, I want to look at the impact here for a moment of an older minister upon a younger minister and how both of them need to understand things. First of all, as an older minister, especially if you're an elder over a young man who's been called into the ministry, be careful not only about what you teach, but how you direct them in the will of God. Be careful about the things that you urge them to do because it carries weight. And you do not want to be misleading with regard to the subjective will of God, of some young minister or someone in your flock. That's very important to understand. Paul says, I urge you. I'm urging you to do something, Timothy, there's going to be times when you as an older minister are going to urge a younger minister to do something. And you need to be very, very careful. because it carries weight. It's one of the reasons why the qualifications are so strict with regard to an elder in First Timothy three and Titus one, because you are going to have to make decisions that carry with it an element, a degree of authority. And you will be responsible on that great day with regard to how you direct someone. And for that reason, you need to be constantly renewing your mind and the will of God that you will know what the will of God is. Now, I prefer to set before people biblical principles, biblical parameters, pray with them, pray through. And I am very cautious to urge somebody to do something that has to do with subjective guidance. Now, if it's in the word of God, I urge you not to rob that bank. I feel confident in that. I urge you to separate from that unbeliever before you get entangled in a relationship. I'm very confident in that. But please understand, you have authority. Secondly, as a young minister, be discerning. But if you are with older men of notable character that are elder qualified and they urge you to do something. Even if it's in the realm of the subjective, if it's in the realm of inferences they've made from biblical principles, you need to take it to heart. Doesn't mean you'll do it. Okay. Doesn't mean that you'll do that if it's subjective, but take it to heart. Take it to heart. Listen. Listen. Humble yourself. Seek godly counsel. So I urge you upon my departure from Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. Now, we always hear about Timothy being young and that seems to be the case, but he was not a novice. He's able not only to proclaim the gospel, but he's able to defend it. and to defend it against many different types of aberrations or heresies. We have a mature person here. Paul would not have him in Ephesus to appoint elders or Titus to appoint elders. He wouldn't have had that if they themselves were not elder qualified. But here's what I want you to know. That even though Timothy was qualified for the ministry, he was still under the guidance and working with older men. And there's a reason why it says an elder is called an elder. It's not that an elder has to be old, but there's the idea of the wisdom that comes with age and experience and proven character. So he says, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men. Okay. Instruct them. Now, what's he instructing them about? I think this is very important. He says, instruct them not to teach strange doctrines. Now here, The word instruct is stronger than merely the English word instruct them. The word has the idea of instruct, but also enjoining, charging, commanding. Instruct them with authority. Now, you're either preaching the word of God or you're not. And if you're doing correct exposition of the text, you are preaching the word of God. And so you're not giving out heavenly suggestions. You're not saying this, that and this and then finishing by saying, but then again, what do I know? You are to be expounding the word of God and to the degree that you expound the word of God correctly, you are also required to admonish and charge and plead with men to obey. There are two very, very dangerous things that are oftentimes not looked at as dangerous. The first thing is it is dangerous to preach. Because if you preach and what you're preaching is not biblical, well, you've set yourself against God. But secondly, it's just as dangerous to listen to biblical preaching. If I'm listening to you preach and you're preaching heresy, I'm not bound by it. I can walk right out the door and not not listen to anything you've said. But if you're preaching the word of God. then and I hear it and you've made it clear and understandable and you've admonished me, then I'm responsible for what I hear. And this is not preached enough to the people. Now, in some cases, that's good because the minister is not expounding the scriptures and I'm glad he's not admonishing people to obey. But we need to preach the scriptures. That's our authority. It's not our position. But it's speaking and acting and counseling according to the word of God. And when we do that, we should charge people to obey. Now, within that charge, we also need to realize that we can charge someone, you must do the will of God. And in that will, there are many objective statements. God's sanctification is the will of God. Growing in holiness is the will of God. But there are also subjective elements to the will of God. And we have to be very patient and very cautious when we're dealing with people. I cannot say that God has told me that you need to go to the mission field. As a matter of fact, God wants to talk to you. He knows your mailbox. I can show you principles from scripture. I can help you discern certain thoughts you've had with the word of God. But I am not the Lord of your life. And so when we talk about the will of God, there's an objective element. You shall not steal. And there's a subjective element. You may need to be a missionary or you need to be a banker. All right. And that requires wisdom. Now, I want you to see something here. It is very clear that our teaching, our ministry is not only the promotion of truth, but it's also the defense of truth and the fighting against heresy. So look what he says. Remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. So there's the idea here of opening up the word of God and explaining to these men how they are wrong, but doing it with authority. And so if, you know, there is a biblical nice, N-I-C-E. He's a nice person. You can be a nice person biblically and you can be a nice person unbiblically. And I have seen so many ministers not stop false teaching, not stop false praxis or praxis or practice because they were nice and they really weren't nice. They were self-loving and self-preserving. When a parent never tells their child, no, because they want their child to like them. It's not because they love their child. It's because they love themselves and they want their child to love them. We need to be nice. We need to be kind. We need to be loving, compassionate, patient. We need to go to the extra mile, give the benefit of the doubt. But we need to tell the truth. And that is one of the greatest demonstrations of love, because you're saying, I am going to risk my relationship with you. I'm going to risk my reputation. I'm going to risk being slandered, hated, everything else, because I love you enough to tell you the truth. So sometimes we have to deal with false doctrine and guys, When you see that little snake crawl into your church, you better chop its head off before it becomes a big one. Now, let me just give you a little bit of a little bit of, you know, an old man telling you this is what I've seen so many times. So you've got a church and it seems to be growing, things to be going well. It seems to be a spirit of hope, encouragement, growth. And then a guy shows up. He immediately begins talking with you just about how much he loves your ministry and how much he loves the church and how much he'd like to get involved and everything else. He also becomes very, very friendly with the members. And he'll also be a flatterer. He'll say things to the members like, man, the pastor's great. Man, I love this church. Man, you guys are wonderful. And go on and on and on. And then one day he says this, man, I love this church and your pastor. He's amazing. It is a shame, though, that in this one area he's not getting it. and immediately a member. Well, what do you mean? And he'll usually do that not to the mature members, but to the immature members. Well, what do you mean he doesn't get it? Well, I tell you, no, I don't. Well, in this area. And as a matter of fact, we're going to have a meeting in my house on Tuesday, and we're going to go over some of these things in scripture. You're welcome to come. I've seen that happen so many times. And so you really need to watch. When I was about 27 years old and I'd had a church now for about a year and a half in Peru, two years maybe. And it was going really well. And one day these three men walked into the church. And I mean, they were physically large men, physically intimidating, intimidating personalities. And they walked in and they said, you know, we would like they looked at me and said, we'd like to see your father, the pastor. And I said, well, I am the pastor. And I saw the look on their face. And then they said, well, We're prophets and we're going to we need to speak a word to your church. And so I said, your prophets and they said, yes, I said, oh, wonderful. I said, we have never had prophets here before. I am so excited that you would come to our church and you could just see them just blow up. And they said, so when will we speak? I said, well, here's what we'll do. because obviously you know the Scriptures. You stay here for, I don't know, somewhere between six months to a year. I'm going to watch the fruit of your life and everything else and see just how godly you are, because of course you know Matthew 7. I can't just let you get up in the pulpit. And after a long period of time, when I judge your character, we'll see whether or not you can address the church. Now, I don't believe there are prophets today or anything like that, but I really wanted to play these men. I wanted them to see their foolishness. They were claiming to be prophets, yet claiming that I violate scripture by letting them into my pulpit, even though I don't know them. Now, they got very angry with me. They were very intimidating. I've had that several, several times. Things like that happen. And if you're afraid. Well, so was I. But you're either you're either watching over the sheep or you're not. And if you're not willing to put your life out there on the line, you're a hireling and you need to step down. Sometimes you have to stand up and say things now. Also, you will have young saints that will say things that are wrong and be very, very careful. Let's say you're in a group of five or six people and a young Christian says something that's just not right. Learn how to address that in a way that you will not put out a smoldering wick, that you will not break a piece of cane that's fragile. Be very loving, very kind. There's ways to address things. Again, sometimes you can't avoid offense, but always seek to be loving, seek to be kind, seek to cover a multitude of sins. Now, we must fight heresy. So are we clear on that? We must fight it. But I want you to look at something that's found in the book of Jude. And this is what people don't understand, especially today with all the Twitter Facebook, whatever wars, things going on. I want you to look at look at verse three in the book of Jude. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all handed down to the saints. Now, there's something here that is extremely important. Jude's whole ministry was not about contending for the faith. And you really now there are guys out there who are great apologists, and I don't want to take anything away from them. OK, there are some really good apologists, really good defenders of the faith. But I want you to notice something here in Jude chapter three. Jude's great desire What Jude was really all about was writing to them about our common salvation. That's what he loved doing. He loved talking about our common salvation. He loved talking about Christ, about the gospel, about growth and holiness. He loved talking about edifying things to build up the body. But basically what's going on here? But in this certain case, I need to now turn away from what I really want to do. And I need to deal with this problem. Do you see? So if if all you do is fight. There's something wrong. There's something really wrong, because even the best apologists who sometimes get in some big conflicts, the ones I've known that are truly biblical, they're the great majority of everything they do is positive gospel preaching. And even when they fight, you can sense the love in them trying to bring the people back to the gospel. Do you see that? So I'm not against in any way people who would defend the faith. But if that's that's all you do, I think there was a case I read that Martin Lloyd-Jones knew a man in the United States who was a powerful preacher, powerful, but in time just got involved in fighting about everything. And I think Martin Lloyd-Jones actually wrote him and tried to correspond with him and to warn him, and eventually his ministry dwindled down to nothing. It was just a small group of people who thought they were the only people left on the planet, basically. Be very careful about that. Very careful. Your primary ministry is to preach, to write, to talk about our common salvation. But when you see a wolf, when you see a strange doctrine, you've got to be faithful. This is the hard part of the ministry and you've got to deal with it. But when you deal with it, you deal with it in love. One thing that about I hate to keep going, well, I don't, but going back to the servant songs so much is you see that the Messiah, he didn't quarrel. He didn't get into these horrible fights and all these different things, he wasn't yelling at the top of his voice, he was resolute. He was a truth speaker. And that's the way that we have to be. Now, I can go on for a little bit longer. If you're tired, we can call this to an end. Should we keep going a little bit? OK. All right. So, brethren, look. I don't know how many more years I have left. I could have a minute, I could have 30 years. But the one thing that I'm most concerned about in my life right now is learning to love more. And not just in a pulpit. OK, that's everybody can be a flaming ball of love in the pulpit. But especially with the people closest to me. You know, it's easy to love someone 10,000 miles away because they're 10,000 miles away. But to love the people closest to you and for us, most of us, that would be our wives, our children. The people in our church who sometimes cause us some of the difficulties. is really learning to walk in love. Now, let's go on. Verse four, nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. Now, we could spend a couple hours going through what all the scholars think this is, but that's not the purpose of our study here. I just want to say a few things. We know from verse seven that what he's probably talking about is people having a wrong view of the law and a wrong view of the use of the law in the Christian life. So we know generally that's probably what's going on, because he says wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand. either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But here's what we do know. I wrote something down here. We do know that we are to stop any instruction in the church that comes from speculation and leads to speculation. That comes from a questionable, exegetical procedure and leads to just more speculation rather than coming from God's inspired word and advancing the redemptive plan of God. One of the good questions to ask yourself in your ministry are lost people being saved? And are those people Growing in conformity to Christ. And let's define conformity of Christ. In this way, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Are your people becoming that loving community? Are men loving their wives and serving them? Are wives respecting their husbands and serving them? Do you see? Is there greater? Is there this fruit? Do you have this incredibly high standard of doctrine so that now you have four people that are with you and you hate everybody? then probably you're involved in a speculative type of exegetical work, which just leads to more speculation. Now, don't get me wrong, we all know there's time for division and there's time for conflict. But is your teaching producing fruit? Not is your administrative ability producing fruit, not is your worship program led by You know, professional singers. And is that producing fruit? No. Is your preaching, is your life producing fruit, bringing people to Christ, causing people to grow and love and godliness and righteousness and joy? One of the words that I think is so important that is overlooked is the idea of good, which, you know, has moral overtones, but also is this idea of just healthy, healthy. Are people becoming biblically healthy? Not just not just discerning, although that is absolutely necessary. Not just knowledgeable, although that is absolutely necessary. If you don't have knowledge, you don't have discernment, you can't have anything else. But are they going and coming to the end of all that, which is Christ likeness? You see. And so we want to avoid speculation. And I want to tell you, I've lived long enough. to see so many outside influences brought into the church, outside doctrines, outside philosophies, whether they be from psychology or whether they be from some social structure. I've seen it all come, all wreak havoc and then all leave. Always consider the source. From what is this teaching coming? From where? From what source? From what fountain? You know, when someone tells me, well, you know, Freud said this and this and this. And I said, Freud hated Christianity. He hated the God of Christianity. He hated the word of Christianity. So why would I be concerned? Why would I bring that into the church with this social construct? Where did it come from? That's all I need to know that. Where did it come from? What's the root of it? Did it come from scripture? Being interpreted by godly, godly people who fear the Lord, or did it come from a group who is suggesting an alternative to Christianity and the biblical truth? Guys. Speculation. Speculation comes from politics, from social constructs, from psychology, but also from our own hearts and minds. Is this Paul Washer speaking? Or is this an accurate. Interpretation, exposition of the word of God. Consider the source. Consider the source. Where did it come from? And so you're going to bring that. So God's truth wasn't enough. You had to go to God's enemies to find truth and then to dress his bride in it. Oh, that's that doesn't work on any level. Does that work on any level? And so that's what I want to give a broad definition of this, because he says it gives rise to mere speculation. And, you know, speculation doesn't allow for certainty and where there's no certainty, you know what you have? Fights. Fights. Division. So he goes on and he says, rather than furthering the administration of God, which is by faith. Now, what we're talking about here is it's given rise to speculation, give rise to fights, divisions, everything else. All right. And that's what it does, this speculation. What doesn't it do? It doesn't advance the administration of God. It doesn't advance his redemptive plan. We talk about, you know, politics is a big issue right now, especially in America, and and yes, we can have opinions on things, but neither side advances God's redemptive plan. The gospel advances God's redemptive plan. The church advances God's redemptive plan. I only have a few years of life. All of us can say that I'm going to invest my life in that which advances God's redemptive plan. And what is that? The preaching of the gospel. Prayer, a godly life now. Advancing God's redemptive plan includes many things, but I'm just going to give you three. A display of his glory. A display of his glory. Is what I'm teaching and preaching, does it display his glory? Now, if I bring some philosophy from outside of scripture, outside of Christianity, and preach it in the church. How is it displaying God's glory when it has nothing to do with God? How does it advance? How does it display the glory of God? Now, if a young minister spends three years of his life studying Isaiah 53 and has a grasp on it like no one else and is proclaiming it with tears, is that going to advance the glory of God? Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. So the display of God's glory, the salvation of the lost. I don't get involved in Internet battles or Twitter battles or all these different things, because I always ask people, I said, how many people have gotten saved through what you've done? How many people have come to know Christ? through all your fights, all your wrangling, everything. How many people have come to know Christ? And that is so very important, brethren. It doesn't matter if the entire world becomes I don't know, becomes moral if the entire world starts living according to the Ten Commandments the best it can. If on every institution and every place the Ten Commandments are listed and people are trying to obey them, all it's going to do is increase judgment. Now, I love the Ten Commandments and I think they're the standard for God's righteousness, but they point us to the gospel. People need the gospel. People need Christ. And we're going to talk later about the law serves to chase someone to Christ. And once they're to Christ, the law is a great source of biblical, godly wisdom and righteousness. But just making a nation moral, politically sound, economically or anything else is not going to advance the kingdom. It is only the preaching of the gospel. Because if we make everybody happy on earth, they still got a problem in heaven. And that is with God. And so the salvation of the lost and then the sanctification and building up of the church. Here's a question he says about about false prophets, he says by their fruit, their fruits, you will know them. OK. By the fruit of a doctrine. You'll know it has has influences and philosophies over the last 2000 years that have been introduced into Christianity that have not come from the Bible. What has been the fruit of them? It's always been bad fruit. You can't point to one time in church history where something was brought in from outside scripture that it actually produced fruit. If you go to the first of the patriarchs, second century through the fifth century, and you look at how platonic philosophy, how how just the philosophies of the Roman Greek world, the desire to bring in stuff from the outside and bring it into the church, what what kind of destruction it brought, what kind of confusion, what kind of complexities so that no one could even understand the gospel in many ways. Now, I'm not taking anything away from the good that came out of the patristics, but we can learn from them. We see what happened with the higher criticism in Germany, the way of looking at literature. We see that now in its full-blown form, that what the author intended is not the point. The only thing that matters is what does it mean to me, which means nothing means anything anymore. You see, so we need to be very, very careful, very careful. Let's look at verse 5. But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart. and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Now, this word instruction goes back, of course, to verse three. It's instruction that's not only the transference of knowledge, but it is urging and encouraging and exhorting and calling people to not just gain the knowledge of it, but to be transformed by it. The goal of our preaching is love. In the last year, has the body of Christ become more loving one to another or more divided? Is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith? Why do we teach? Now, remember, what does heresy do? It comes from speculation. And it leads to what? Speculation, which leads to division. What does true biblical instruction lead to? Love. Greater love and greater love that comes forth from a sanctified heart. A cleansed heart, a pure heart. You have people growing in love because they're growing in holiness and growing in holiness. When you break it down to its most elemental meaning, it's growing to be like God. Separate and distinct from this world and its fallenness and more and more like the character, the attributes of God and a good conscience. A clean conscience, because one is not being afflicted by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit. You're walking according to the will of God and a sincere faith. So if I'm pastoring a church, what do I want to see? I want to see good doctrine that leads to what? People loving. And they're loving from a heart that has been purified by the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. They have a good conscience because they know God's commands and they're submitting to them. And they have a sincere faith that they're going to live this way because it is God's word and they believe it. You see that right there is the goal. That is the goal. Now, let's go to verse six. For some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussion. Now, these things is a reference to love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. That's no longer important to them. Now, think about it. One young man a year ago called me, he said, Before all this political stuff started happening, me and my friends would just get together and study the Bible and talk about Christ and read some of the old dudes and just glory in Christ. Now, all we do is get together and talk about politics. Social unrest. Do you see? Let me ask you a question. Would you say that the goal of your ministry was love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith? Is that what you're seeking to walk towards? Is that what you are seeking others to walk towards? Or is your ministry involved in something else? Prosperity, your best life now, what is it? They no longer held these things to be important. You know how I can tell what's important to you by just listening to you talk? It's all I have to do. Just listen to you talk. Now, I don't want to sound all, you know, I don't know what it'll sound like, but I just want to talk about Jesus. I just want to talk about what God did for us and I want to talk to other people about it. What do you talk about? What do you tweet about? What do you write about? What do you preach about? They were no longer concerned with love from a pure heart. No, no, no, no. Hey, what do you think about this? Where do you stand on this? Because where you stand on this determines whether or not you can be with me. They've thrown out the whole idea of, hey, are you loving from a pure heart? You growing in a good conscience, is your faith stronger? They no longer held these things to be important. They were unconcerned. Look at this. Unconcerned about cultivating love, unconcerned about cultivating a pure heart, unconcerned about cultivating a good conscience, unconcerned about a sincere faith in themselves or in others or in the men teaching heresy. You see, when I when I tried to stop those men teaching heresy, The goal should not be, oh, I slammed them. The goal should be, I want them to turn away from this foolishness and concentrate on right doctrine so that they grow in love, purity, a good conscience, sincere faith. You see, that's what I want. When the above, when the above is not the goal of your teaching, your teaching is nothing but fruitless discussion. OK, remember also something very important here, he says, for some men straying from these things have turned aside to fruitless discussion. A person does not simply turn aside to error. The first thing they do is turn away from the truth. And that's why you always have to have the truth in front of you, always in front of you. Always remembering. How many times in the Bible? Remember, remember. How many times do we hear, they forgot, they forgot, they forgot. Okay, we'll just do one more verse. It says, wanting to be teachers of the law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. Now, here's what I want you to look at. According to verse five, they didn't understand the gospel. So how on earth are they going to understand the law? You see, it is in the light of Christ, it's in the light of the gospel that we understand everything in Scripture. He's the great interpreter. Do you realize that? You see, we don't realize, I think, sometimes the importance of what happened in the post-resurrection appearances. Do you know what I believe Jesus was doing? I believe, and I think we see this as soon as we get in the Book of Acts. He was teaching them what the Old Testament really meant and how the Old Testament found its fulfillment in Him. Because they were convinced of it. You see, it's in the light of the gospel that we understand everything else. If I just had the law and I love the law, but if I just had the law, I wouldn't understand the law. It's only in the light of the gospel that I fully understand the purpose of the law. And that's why you grow in your knowledge of the gospel, you grow in your knowledge of everything else. Now, they did not understand the goal of the gospel. Therefore, they didn't understand the purpose of the law. And I just want to give you some general purposes about the law. First of all, the law reveals God's righteousness. You need to understand that it reveals God's righteousness. I mean, we just have to start with the first command and already we know I'm not righteous. There's not one law there that we haven't violated in some shape, form or fashion. How do you stand measured against the law? So it reveals God's righteousness, and of course, it exposes sin and condemns it. Look with me really quick at Romans chapter three. Verse 19 and 20. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law so that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God. What is the purpose of the law? To make us, to condemn us. To chase us to Christ. To destroy every hope we have in self and self-righteousness and to chase us to Christ. Go to Romans chapter 7, verse 9 and 10. Not only exposes sin and condemns it, but it turns the sinner away from self-hope. Look in 7, 9 and 10. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, Sin became alive and I died in this commandment, which was to result in life proved to result in death for me. Verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of of this death? The idea is the law. It puts an end to self-hope, and that is one of the reasons why men hate it. They hate it. Because the great end of all things is the idolatry of self. That's the great problem of man. But what else does the law do? The law points to Christ for justification, just run over to Galatians for a moment, 324. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith. That we may be justified by faith. It leads us to Christ, chases us to Christ. Now, one other thing about the law that I want to say that I think is totally neglected and it's a travesty and so many straw man arguments are put against this, that it just makes you almost nauseous. Go to Psalms 19. Seven. This is just one verse out of countless verses. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. I love the law of God. Why do I love the law of God? I mean, all of it. I really do. Now. I don't love the law of God as a means to justify me. If the law was the means to justify me, I would I would hate the law. The law would bring such burden upon me. The law would just condemn me. It would be as I'd be a bond slave. It would be a slave master. It would just oppress me if I had to measure up to the law. I would have an utterly a totally different relationship with the law than I have right now. But the law inflicted me. And drove me to Christ. And in Christ, I have my salvation in Christ alone, not ninety nine point nine nine percent Christ and point zero one percent Paul Washer in the law. No, 100 percent Christ. Even the faith I have, the repentance I have as a gift. Now justified in Christ, since there is now no condemnation because of Christ, what can I do? I can go back to the law. And now it's a friend. Full of wisdom. Full of revelation about the person of God, full of wisdom, full of wonderful commands. You know that many of even the property laws in the United States, come out of the law of God. But the moral law, the Ten Commandments, and then all throughout all the other laws that when interpreted in light of the gospel are such a blessing. Isn't it amazing that today, the moment we start talking about commands, even New Testament commands, people start using the word legalist. Be very careful using the word legalist or using the word antinomian. If someone is truly a legalist, they're lost. Do you know that? Because a legalist is one who hopes in the lost. You call somebody a legalist, you're saying you're unconverted. But also antinomian. Be careful of calling someone antinomian. Why? Because it's also if you're truly antinomian, you're lost. You're living without law. You're a rebel in the worst shape, form and fashion. So be very, very careful using that terminology. But there are people today who either they are unconverted or they have such a misunderstanding of grace or the purpose of the law that if you even begin to talk about commands, they start screaming legalism. It's absolutely unbelievable. Now, I was teaching one time in Europe and I mentioned the law and it was a secular group, but the same thing would have applied in. In many Christian circles, I'm afraid this guy got up. He was mad while I was giving the lecture. And he said, I'm sick and tired of all your what did he call them? Primitive Christian laws. You put these laws upon us to oppress us and to hold us down. And it just went on with oppression, oppression, oppression. So I asked him, which one of these laws oppress you? Is it the one who says you shall not take your neighbor's wife? Does that keep you from doing what you want to do? What about is it the law that says do not bear false witness against your neighbor that's oppressive to you, that's keeping you from doing what you want to do? What about the one that says you shall not murder, kill? That's oppressing you. And then I told him, I said, you need to be careful how you answer these, because people are going to be looking at you quite differently. You see, they're saying things that are just condemning themselves. What a lot of people will do, though, people who claim to love the law will go back in to the Old Testament and teach it in a very unbiblical way. as a means of justification, or they'll twist things and say that we're brought under these things in a certain way. And that is wrong. But as far as a gospel interpretation of the law of God, the law is beautiful. Because it guides me and gives me wisdom. It's there for my protection. For my safety. It's there so that by finding the law and following the law and walking in those deep paths of righteousness, that my life can be blessed in the sense of a good conscience, pure heart, love. We should love one another. Who doesn't believe that? But see, here's the problem. What is love? I wouldn't be able to tell you, really, if I didn't know the greatest expression of love, which is Christ, if I didn't have the commands that tell me this is love. This is the way you love Paul or first Corinthians 13. Love is. You see. And so. I hope this has been helpful and puts us on the right track with regard to preaching the gospel and wanting people, even our enemies, to grow in love, pure heart, sincere faith, good conscience.