 This morning is discern and depart discern and depart and this is the third part the third step if you will in this passage of Scripture from 1st Timothy chapter 6 verses 3 through 5 where the Bible says if anyone teaches otherwise Does not consent to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which accords with godliness He is proud knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy strife Reviling evil suspicions useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth Who suppose that godliness is a means of gain and from such withdraw yourself So in this beginning here in this conclusion that Paul is setting up in this letter to Timothy Paul is concerned once again with false teaching and Paul is concerned that the Christians in Ephesus Through this teaching through this instruction Would persevere to the end and be saved such that they would recognize and discern false teaching false teachers and the Damning destructive effects of that teaching in the life and that they would discern that and depart from it would have nothing to Do with it they would be warned and then in that warning would protect themselves in the word of God We cry out to God for help in that for this reason Paul warns Timothy in the church at Ephesus and down through the ages the church at large in our church today Warns us of the error of false teaching and instructs us to depart from it discern and depart now Despite what many things today. This is the consistent teaching of the Bible throughout scripture from Genesis to Revelation There is the ungoing bell that tolls Discern false teaching and avoid it for the sake of your soul Do not be deceived by the attacks of the enemy. Don't be deceived by false doctrine Don't be led astray by false teachers. You will be led astray to your own destruction Heed the warnings of scripture to for the benefit of your own soul. This is throughout the Bible God hates God hates most people aren't used to thinking about God hating anything God hates false teaching God hates false teachers God hates error. This is because error heresy in the church false teaching leads to apostasy people making shipwreck of their souls it leads to ungodliness it leads to false religion it leads to false Worship and Lord created us God created us to be Worshippers of his he's serious about his worship Truth here is important and we see in scripture some of the most most scathing rebukes against false teaching Anywhere and we see that from the pages of scripture and consider for a moment the example of Jesus Christ himself In the New Testament in the words of Jesus Christ. We see scathing rebukes blistering rebukes against false teachers against error against heresy against Apostasy against false religious leaders against false worship think of one chapter alone in scripture Matthew 23 Matthew 23 false teachers are called blind guides. They were called apostates. They're called vipers They're called these are the words of Jesus Christ. They are serpents. They are snakes. They are hypocrites They are sons of their father the devil Their sons of hell Jesus says and they travel around the world to make others twice as much sons of hell as they are They're not entering in and they're blocking the door from others who want to enter in he calls them blind guides calls them fools calls them filthy Whitewashed tombs murderers serpents With the result from the words of Christ that these men are to be avoided there to be avoided because souls are at stake This is not a this is not a game that we're entering into here If you somehow view your Christian life is just a going through the motions a weekend and week out sort of a Ritual that you participate in you listen your soul is at stake and you're a fool to believe that this is no game There is a heaven and despite what a lot of heretical teachers say there is a hell and hell is real and there's a judgment awaiting There's a judgment that hangs over the head of the lost There is the real truth not fiction that people can be deceived. They can be deceived by their own wicked heart They can certainly be just be deceived by false teachers and error in the worldly philosophy that seeks to destroy people's souls They can be deceived so this is not a game This is serious business and these errors these heresies are to be discerned and they're to be avoided So imagine for a moment if Christ said that in Matthew 23 in the New Testament Imagine for a moment how Jesus Christ might address a false teacher today. Would it be any different? No, wouldn't be any different at all. It's still the same war that we're fighting, right? Still the same battle that we're fighting many more heresies and errors today many more false teachers today and Jesus Christ His words to them would be the same If there wouldn't be anything that would change about that They produce sons of hell and we must stand opposed to that. He wouldn't address them any differently He uses these words because false teachers and false teaching needs to be categorically rejected Denounced souls are at stake and false teachers will lead many a way to their eternal destruction Many today in our politically correct society Don't realize the havoc that is wrought by false teaching and error how many people are swept away by false teaching and error We're out witnessing on a regular basis. We see it and then One time after another one person after another one door after another one conversation after another those that are deceived by error by heretics by false teachers that again are leading people away to their own damnation and We need to do the important work of warning them from the Bible Christ warned them against false teachers in the same thing that we same time that we preach the truth of God We must also stand and preach against error that rises up against the knowledge of God We have the responsibility to do both. That's all not always politically correct But it's biblically correct We don't need to concern ourselves with being politically correct as much as we need to concern ourselves with being biblically correct So in our text we began in verse 3 first step that we went through was to discern the content of the false teacher's error We looked at verse 3 at the content of their heresy Discerning the content of what they are teaching. Is it truth from the Bible or is it error? Is it biblical or is it unbiblical and we examined there the first three tests from verse 3? That we could look at to determine that first the substance of what they're saying are there are they wholesome words? The words from the word of God are they wholesome? Second we consider the source the the words of our Lord Jesus Christ Are they the words that God has revealed in Scripture and third the standard and the standard of the teaching is that? This is the doctrine which accords with godliness the doctrine that accords with ungodliness is the doctrine of a false teacher Truth will produce holy living along those lines We are commanded Compelled in Scripture to live a godly life to be holy living and many would say why? When the Lord saves you listen, we're all saved by grace And so why the the concern why all the effort while the striving in the toiling to live a godly life a holy life? We just need to do the best we can you know besides listen if we're gonna live more holy and gonna overcome sin It's gonna be God that does it in us anyway. So why all the effort? Brian Chappell Chappell answers this question this way why be concerned about godliness since we are saved by grace? Because say the scriptures when the filth of my sin was sweeping me in my helplessness to eternal death God came calling he covered himself in the muck of this world to rescue me Embraced me despite my filth and now he wants me out of the mud God saved us out of the mud How can we who are saved by Christ live any other way? How can we continue to live in it? It's a question of Paul and Romans He goes on to say such grace should make us so in love with God that we cannot stand in our lives What resoils us and offends him? He says ours is an intolerant grace Listen your love for Christ your great fullness to Christ for Dragging you out of the muck of your own sin dragging you out of the the filth of your own life and saving your wretched soul The glory of that the blessing of that the reality of that should Compel you with all your heart soul mind and strength to live for him who saved you who cleansed you who pardoned you You rightly deserve to pay for your sin in hell for all eternity and God spared you that By giving his own son who died on Calvary's cross shed his blood for you a wretched sinner Well, that should compel us. Should it not think about just an in basic basic terms and an illustration of that Someone gave his life Let's say you were walking in traffic and someone came and pushed you out of the way and was run over by the Truck and saved your life. Are you gonna be grateful for that or? Immediately are you just gonna go back to yeah, thanks a lot, you know honor with your regular life That's gonna have an impact on you, isn't it? What if the mother of that guy who saved you? What if the mother came and said listen just if you would it says a as a out of thankfulness to my son He gave his life. That was my son and he died Would you just remember him on his birthday each year when his birthday rolled around? Are you just gonna be I've got so much to do today. Look, I'm just not gonna be able to make it No, he saved you. You'd remember think about it. Just logically We should give our lives because our love and our thankfulness to God in Christ compels us, but it's not just our love for him The love of God in Christ toward us should compel us to live wholeheartedly for him, right? the fact that God Gave everything including his own son to save sinners like you and I That that love should compel us to serve him to love him to Wretched sin out of our lives and to live more wholeheartedly for him But that's not all the grace of God in Christ Jesus our Lord is not simply an intolerant grace It is an efficacious grace. It's a working grace. It's a grace that teaches us to deny ungodliness and to live righteously in this present age It is a working grace as we work out our own salvation with fear and trembling It's the grace of God at work in us to do and to will according to his good pleasure It's his grace at work to separate us from sin to Sanctify us to purify us to help us to live the Christian life a primary concern and Desire on the part of the Christian should be to adorn the doctrine of our God with godliness With a holy life We should adorn the gospel with credibility With evidence of the power of God in the gospel to transform a life Again, this is not this is not a matter of semantics. It's not a matter of opinion This is not a matter of just sort of going through the motions here. There is miraculous power In the gospel that will transform a hard-hearted Sinner stuck in his own ways can't do anything but sin Rejoices in his sin rebels in his sin makes provision for a sin Will change the desires of that wretched sinner into a God exalting Christ honoring trophy of grace and We must give evidence Demonstration of that power in the gospel that you are saved to live your life before a lost and dying world to give Testimony of that power. This is not mere semantics here This is not just a an empty tale of fiction that we participate in each week There is power to change life and where to be testimonies of that power were to give evidence of that power when your life listen when your life demonstrates no freedom from sin When your life demonstrates no Fervency for God when your life gives no evidence of your Slavery to righteousness when your life gives no evidence of a new creation your life gives no evidence of having been transformed Then you say by your life that the gospel makes no difference You say by your life that the gospel has no power By your life you deny the word of God by your life you make God a liar The gospel is the power of God to salvation To be ungodly is to deny the word of God. It is to reject the gospel It is to reject the power of God into salvation our zeal our Fervor for godliness our obedience to Christ your Fervency in the Christian life demonstrates that you're a new creation It demonstrates that you have a desire for his name your devotion to him your love for him Your devotion to his cause your devotion to the kingdom And that's why the Bible can say that salvation is not by works But at the same time the Bible can say that he who obeys me. It's he who loves me, right? Our love for him compels us and it's also his love for us that should compel us So it is the doctrine it is the doctrine which accords with godliness and we're to live a godly life For those reasons now once we've discerned the content according to those three categories the substance the source and the standard Once we've discerned the content of false teaching our text here in verse 4 moves on then to discerning the character of the false teacher We're given knowledge here of the character of the false teacher We've discerned the content now. We're discerning the character of the false teacher verse 4. He is proud knowing nothing But is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words from which come envy Strife reviling evil suspicions useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds destitute of the truth Who suppose that godliness is a means of gain? I want to point out here first from verse 4 that this is verse 4 in keeping with what Paul just taught in verse 3 in Verse 3 teaching in the positive the doctrine of God It's the wholesome words that leads to godliness that lead to godly life healthy living vital Vibrant Christian life, okay, but here in verse 4 described in the negative It is the false teaching the error the heresy here that leads to the opposite It accords itself with ungodliness with a wicked character These false teachers have abandoned the truth and so they've abandoned holy living They've abandoned godliness false teaching has its fruit and you'll know them by their fruits as the Bible says and so here in verse 4 We're gonna see that that fruit the fruit of false teaching We're gonna see that fruit in the character of the false teacher now Paul says if a man doesn't teach this doctrine the doctrine Which accords with godliness that first he is proud interesting here in verse 4 the prevailing Character trait of the false teacher it is that he's proud The pride the prevailing character tree to the false character trait of the false teacher It's from a Greek word that means puffed up with smoke. They're full of hot air All right one way to think about it. They're full of hot air puffed up with smoke. It's a Empty vaporous pride it just puffed up for no good reason, but they're puffed up They have an inflated sense of their own self-importance and inflated sense of their own understanding their own doctrine their own thinking their own desires their own will Imagine that for a moment this pride a false teacher Has to by default put their words Their understanding their belief their doctrine they have to put that above the Bible Above God's not it is the the height of ignorance the height of pride the height of arrogance It is foolish pride put your own words Your own understanding over the Bible now you may say to yourself well I've talked to some people before it seems like a really really nice guy. He's just teaching error really nice guy, but just teaching error listen Lord has given us his word today with all the resources that we have you can get to the word of God within a matter of Seconds on your computer people have multiple copies in their home if I don't avail myself to Understand the truth of God's word no matter how nice. I am or no matter well intended I am if I haven't taken the time to learn to this Such that then I place my own opinions my own belief my own understanding above this That is the height of pride the height of arrogance and it is stupid These are the words of God the word of God and so you that's why let not many of you become teachers because you'll face a stricter judgment This is the word of God. It's often it may not be the words their understanding that they place over the Bible They might do that with their lives Might do that in the way that they live. There are many many examples of this. Let me give you an example false teacher says to himself a Very common Characteristic of false teachers in the Bible is that they're given to covetousness Jeremiah says from the least of them to the greatest of them. They are all given to Covetousness right so they want their covetous right false teachers covetous. So they say to themselves I want to be rich off this deal. You know, I want to be rich. I want to have my own private plane You know, I want to have a mansion in LA. I want the fancy car I'm gonna get rich off this deal. So they may say that subconsciously, right? Whatever the case may be They're gonna be rich so what they do then is they then twist scripture in order to justify their desire to be rich Justify their desire to hang the million-dollar chandelier in the lobby of the church You know justify have all the trapping all that, you know rich They just want wealth and it's in their pride that they do it, but they twist the scripture to justify themselves and their desire to be rich. It's a Twisting of the Bible to justify their sin and it happens all the time doesn't it all of a sudden? The Bible now becomes a springboard for explaining their false doctrine their heresy often wondered and how do you preach that? Knowing that there are those in the slums in India the slums in Brazil if you've seen some of the the Poverty around the world. How do you preach health? Wealth prosperity. How do you preach that? Getting rich doctrine to those who are in utter almost unimaginable poverty. It is a Doctrine of Demons And will lead people to their destruction they invent a theology that God wants them rich and they justify themselves with a twisting of their theology Often evangelized to false teachers. I know many of you have as well They have no problem adding changing turning around deleting things from the Bible in order to Justify their twisted theology They're twisted approach to the word of God. I've often asked them before why don't you just use his words? Listen if you're gonna preach the Bible, why don't you use his words instead of making up these things on your own? It is great great pride Peter calls them in second Peter Calls their words great swelling words of emptiness Paul calls them vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind Now to a lesser degree So we understand this to a lesser degree Christians can be caught up in the same error very same error a Think of the many that change their theology of tithing Because it gives them opportunity not to tithe Not to give they adjust their theology because they want to be justified in disobedience Think about the many that change their theology of divorce to give them an open door out of a bad marriage To give them an opportunity to sidestep the clear commands of Scripture. I remember once I'm getting caught I've gotten actually Few times had calls like this got a call from a lady in a bad marriage She having trouble in her marriage and wanted to get out wanted to divorce and basically within of you know Short time of talking to her realized that she was shopping counsel She was gonna call pastor after pastor after pastor until she found that pastor that would justify her in her decision to divorce them It wasn't asking honest to ask for requests for counsel And she eventually found somebody who did just that and she divorced her husband unbiblically I might add in sin so Twisting theology to try to justify sin twisting theology to try to all in pride all in pride Just not submitting yourself to simply what the Word of God says there's great blessing great blessing in that if you Will just have the idea that the thought that listen if God words if God's word says it that Settles it. I'm just going to obey it and you live for the Lord There's great blessing in that just obey the Lord Oftentimes because of this pride something that should be very clear Becomes contorted because of this pride something that should be very simple Become something that is disputed and we see this Frequently of this error doing this is representative of those for example who? Don't evangelize and so they take something that's very simple very clear in scripture Share the gospel with every creature. You can't get more clear than that It's a command every Christian and yet they take that doctrine from scripture Twist it and contort it and dispute it into something that is no longer clear and simple in order to justify themselves in their lack of Evangelism they'll say listen not everybody is gifted Not everybody has that give not everybody is comfortable talking to people Not everybody has ever you know there's a difference between the word evangelist and witness in scripture and so Right it's just it takes something. It's very simple and now it's a dispute over words take something It's very simple listen if you're standing next to a lost person What's the godly thing to do? Give them the gospel. They need it. They need the Lord right as a godly thing It's a doctrine that accords with godliness just give them the gospel It's just very simple and yet twisted and contorted and making it to something that is not so Simple meanwhile in all of this scriptures very clear very clear all right They start off proud. He is proud next knowing nothing. It is amazing to me But true that pride and ignorance always go together Pride and ignorance proud knowing nothing and first Timothy 1 Paul says of them they desire to be teachers and yet they don't understand what they're teaching don't understand what they affirm They know nothing pride and ignorance professing to become wise the Bible says they become what? Fools they become fools for all of their blustering all of their supposed scholarship for some of them all of their Degrees through years and years of seminary one PhD after another. They are fools And knowing nothing just proud knowing nothing That's why we've experienced this we've seen this right That's why a brand new baby Christian fresh out of the oven with just some Bible being in a good healthy church for a few months can Be more able to harmonize and relate the word of God to the Christian life than some seminary trained PhDs can They just see it. They have the spirit of God in them. They've been in a good church They have more understanding of it than the heretic who's been to seminary has PhD They know nothing at pride and that ignorance go together if you in your pride Take a step outside of the truth of God's word You're now in ignorant land The truth of God's word there is wisdom in God's word. There is foolishness and everything else As soon as you depart the word of God, you're into knowing nothing That goes with anything. You need to be in the word of God know the word of God. There's wisdom in the word of God this pride That lends itself now to ignorance Then demonstrates itself in being obsessed verse four. He is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words Not the word of God mind you, but he's obsessed with his own self-interest His own controversies his own arguments over words now They may be words from the Bible But he's pulling them out of scripture to dispute them to cause controversy to cause arguments and disputes the word obsessed There's very interesting that word means to be sick Very interesting here, and I want you to see this comparison Contrast from verse three in verse three We have the wholesome words and we talked about that the being healthy words of our Lord Jesus Christ and Then here in verse four you have sick the being sick words being obsessed being sick with error False teaching heresy error is like a spreading cancer. It's 11 Within you Listen, it's 11 within you. It's also 11 within the church. That's why it has to be cut out that heresy that error becomes a Sickly influence just in the same way that if you invest yourself in the being healthy wholesome words of God You're gonna be spiritually healthy. You're gonna be nourished. The Lord is gonna sanctify you and Grow you and mature you and build your faith just being healthy, right? but as soon as you abandon that you're left with now being sick and error and heresy and worldly reasoning and philosophy and psychology and all that kind of Nonsense is gonna lead to just spiritual sickness spiritual disease a spreading cancer He'd hear that it's forsaken the word of God has become sick and he's become sick with two things The first is disputes the second is arguments over words disputes means debates controversy argument he poses controversial questions and positions over useless things With the intent of getting someone embroiled over this nonsense embroiled over garbage majoring in the miners, right? I think Adam had a belly button. No doubt. I didn't have a belly button. I think he didn't have a belly button. I Mean come on. It's majoring in the miners disputes over things that don't Mean anything just embroiled and this is he's got this he's sick with those kinds of debates and controversies and arguments The next is arguments over words. These are in the TDNT. It's word battles. Just gets into word battles Is it evangelists different than witness? Okay, they're different of the same listen get out and witness get on evangelize The same intent there from scripture. He's arguing over minor issues What they are not obsessed over is studying knowing and then applying and obeying God's word You can get so embroiled In majoring on the miners the rest of your Christian life is falling apart if you're a Christian at all Right, just falling apart around you, but you're getting that every fine point that you can get to is it good to study theology? Amen, it is but you can take something that God means for good and you can corrupt it And that's what's going on here Now put these three things together in his pride the false feature is self-willed Thinks he knows best right so in his pride and now because he has forsaken God's truth In accord with his own desires his own idea of truth. He is really he's ignorant He knows nothing in his prideful ignorance now He gets embroiled in a sick preoccupation with disputes with controversy with arguments over words And we've known guys like this right you've ever talked to like this It is an exercise in futility an exercise in frustration to talk to some of these guys Proud knowing nothing just simply interested in disputes and arguments over words Not grounded in the Word of God. It just leads to meaningless preoccupations now There's a point of application here for us and again If you'll permit me to make an argument from the greater to the lesser here It doesn't have to rise to this level to be a problem There is a level here at which the Christian can sink to or the Christian can find himself in hot water over In other words you become so consumed with a particular point of doctrine that it begins to impact your Christian life and Rather than cause good for you it begins to become harmful take for example the brand-new fresh out of the oven Calvinist Right and maybe a Calvinist in the Armenian church that he's been going to for years You can become so preoccupied with that one doctrine the rest of your Spiritual life is going down the tubes and yet you know every fine point of Calvinism and you're arguing with every single person You can come across to argue with to find people to argue with over that doctrine. Is that healthy for you? No, is it good to study Calvinism? Amen Is it good to spot heresy and battle against heresy? Amen, but don't get yourself so consumed that it becomes harmful to you I think of the person that comes across a new like a system of theology guys that are studying Dispensational theology or covenant theology you can become so Connected so consumed by that point of theology that your marriage is falling apart You're not witnessing you're no longer loving your brother a group You're just consumed with arguing about covenant theology or dispensational theology and that consumes your Christian life. Is that healthy? No No, is it good to study theology? Amen. It's good to study theology Is it good to understand some of those things are those blessings to understand things from the word of God? Yes, they are but you know what else can happen you can think of yourself You know you come across this new nugget of theology and you think to yourself Wow, the Holy Spirit revealed that to me and didn't reveal it any of you guys, right? So I'm gonna go around preaching espousing and then propagating that because I am so smart so Prideful and you can become embroiled in ignorance knowing nothing because now as a result of your pride as a result of your Being consumed with this that you end up calling causing strife and divisions and reviling and Right bad fruit. So you got to be careful the Christian can sink into this kind of thing They can become they can take that which is good and corrupt it That's what we in our flesh do take something that's given by God is a great blessing a great gift To his people and we can corrupt it and make it something that is harmful So an example is you study and you stop thinking about your marriage you study and you neglect your kids You study and you stop evangelizing you study you get knowledge and what does knowledge do in scripture knowledge? Puffs up you get proud you get divisive and the all these things. This is easy to do You can do this in your evangelism can't you with with lost people who need the Lord you can approach a person With a haughty attitude beating them over the head and shoulders with all that you know When they need the Lord they need to be saved They need to have the word of God pierce their heart become convicted over sin such that they can see Christ And they can see the glories of the gospel and the Lord can save them and you're too busy espousing your theological knowledge Now the old axiom there's an old axiom and it's axiomatic because it's true that they don't care How much you know until they know how much you care? It's axiomatic because it's true You can do that in your evangelism You get too big for your britches It's pride it is pride pride pride pride poor contempt on your pride Humble yourself humble yourself and make sure that you're in the word of God doing what the word of God would have you do By the way, this points to and I want to make this point just as a result of this This points to another reason this issue of pride boasting points to another reason Why the armenian idea of salvation is erroneous is false is unbiblical Salvation is of the Lord entirely of the Lord It's not by your work not by your decision not by your knowledge not by your good work Not by anything that you do that saves you and so the armenian would say you've got to make a choice You got to make a choice to ask Jesus into your heart. You got to make a choice to receive christ Let me ask you you make that choice You decide to pray to receive christ to ask him to be your personal lord and savior You decide to walk that isle ask Jesus into your heart and be saved you decide Well, why didn't so and so decide? They didn't decide So does that make you smarter than them? And you know christian instantly knows that's that's not right. I know it didn't make me Does it make you more righteous than they are? And a person's oh no, it doesn't make me more righteous more holy than they are. Why doesn't it? Why doesn't it make you smarter? Why doesn't it make you more righteous? You've decided they didn't you made the smart choice They made the dumb choice. You did the righteous thing. They've obviously done the unrighteous thing So it makes you smarter makes you more righteous It gives you something about which you can boast, right? That is a prideful. It's a prideful theology. It's a man-centered theology. It's not the gospel of the bible God saves salvation is entirely of him and that truth should humble the christian My salvation is entirely of god because god in his grace and in his mercy Intervened in my love of sin and saved my wretched soul God saves right Doesn't give any reason for us anywhere in scripture about which anything that we can boast about We have nothing that we can boast about no room whatsoever in us for pride If you're trusting in some decision you made if you're trusting in some choice Trusting in something you did you need to turn to christ and be saved Don't put your trust there your trust belongs in jesus christ alone for salvation Right, but now further describing their character We're looking at discerning the character the false teacher back in first Timothy chapter six verse five now Further describing their character the bible goes on to say that they are men of corrupt minds Men of corrupt minds in verse five. This is just another way of saying totally depraved Their mind their thinking is depraved. They are lost They don't understand the things of god first Corinthians chapter two verse 14 says The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of god For they are foolishness to him Nor can he it's not that nor won't he It could be nor won't he but nor can he's unable? He cannot get it Because the bible says they are spiritually discerned the natural man there is a lost person Totally depraved sin or dead in their sins and trespasses Listen to this description of the corrupt mind from Ephesians chapter four verse 17 Their paul says this i say therefore Intestify in the lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind Their minds are just futile their thoughts are futile their intentions are just everything is just an exercise in futility That you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind having their Understanding darkened being alienated from the life of god because of the ignorance that is in them Because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling Have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness is interesting there how this ignorance of the word of god Leads to sin You don't know the word of god at least the ungodliness you know the word of god You have the spirit of god in you through the word of god leads to godliness Here this not this ignorance their understanding is darkened leads to lewdness uncleanness greediness Right so their men have corrupt minds goes on to say in verse five that they are destitute of the truth Destitute now we think of destitute as just being totally absent of It's a state or a condition that we're in we have no truth destitute of the truth means no truth But it's interesting this word in the greek actually means An ongoing it's a verb here. It means to rob or to steal There's something that is being stolen away Drifting away being pulled away from them. And what is that here? It's the truth It's passive here, which means that there's this progressive or gradual Taking away of the truth from them. They're not doing it themselves. It's being done to them I think about that for a moment. If it's being done to them. Who's that being done by? Lord of the word of god is being pulled away from them And the lord is not giving them any longer to revelation god's truth wholesome words are going to lead to godliness He is turning them over to a debased mind and they are becoming gradually over time more and more destitute of the truth They have less and less revelation. Listen, it gets to a point This leads to apostasy It leads to apostasy. We said last week we made the comment that Oftentimes this drift toward hell Does it happen in a one argument or one conversation? Happens by small degrees over time This is saying basically the same thing that you abandon god's truth. You reject it You don't consent with wholesome words the words of our lord jesus christ You start becoming destitute. You start losing your grasp on the truth Slowly and slowly and slowly over time until the point you reach a point of no return Until you've had the most revelation that god is going to give you And then and you've rejected that and now you're lost eternally with no hope The lord says that my spirit will not always strive with man If you come week after week after week, you're gonna hold that sin hold that sin hold that sin hold that sin and not repent of it They'll come a point where god will say have at it And he will turn you over to it. It's the the judgment if you will of abandonment He's gonna say have at it my spirit will not always try with man They'll come a point you reject god's word reject god's word reject his offer of grace in christ And you reject and you reject and reject and it'll come a point where god's gonna say That's it You're gonna get the maximum amount of revelation that the lord intends for you to have and at that point you are done Here they reject the truth reject the truth reject the truth and they reach a point where they are irretrievable And i want to give you an example of that go to hebrus chapter 6 hebrus chapter 6 The state at which they arrive is irreversible You cannot come back from it that happens often by small degrees over time But you eventually find yourself in a position where you are lost forever with no hope Your opportunity To have turned at god's reproof and embraced christ by faith will have passed His spirit will not always try with man in hebrus chapter 6. This is what it says here beginning in verse 4 This is frightening Frightening if you find yourself slipping away from christ slipping away from god. Does it mean you're losing your salvation? No means you're never saved to begin with this is a very real. This is not fictitious in the book of hebrus This is not theoretical. It's not just something that it was laid there simply only to you know cause you to Is a reality here. There's a reality. This is warning for christians These were written to people who profess christ hebrus chapter 6 verse 4 For it is impossible For those who were once enlightened And have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the holy spirit And have tasted the good word of god and the powers of the age to come If they fall away it is impossible to renew them again to repentance Since they crucify again for themselves the son of god and put him to an open shame Impossible you reach a point of no return now listen someone might listen to that and say well He's talking about christians there and we know from the bible that you can't lose your salvation These are those that profess the name of christ They think of themselves as christians They've heard the word of god and then they depart they prove themselves never to have been christians at all James says they went out from us because they were not of us if they had been of us They would have continued with us, but because they went out they made manifest. They were never of us as john Impossible for those who were once enlightened enlightened there is given the truth of god given the truth of the word of god They've had their minds enlightened to the truth of the gospel the truth of what the bible says They've heard that they have opportunity to understand it in the way that they can understand it And it says and have tasted the heavenly gift they come to a church like this And they see the fellowship the love of the brother they get invited to fellowship They get brothers and sisters talking to them about their soul caring for them Maybe they meet a need or two. They're loving on them right. They're tasting of this heavenly gift They are In our love feast so to speak Reaping the benefits of that love feast that we have together they get a plate of food that comes across there Their table right they're in our love feast. They're getting some of those benefits They have tasted of the heavenly gift. They have partakers become partakers of the holy spirit in the sense that Come into a biblical church where the holy spirit is at work And they see the effects of the holy spirit. They see people Radically transformed at this point in time. They were a wicked godless center mean spirited guy You wouldn't want to spend two minutes with and now they are loving trophies of god's grace that you can't wait to get over For fellowship, you know, they see the work of the holy spirit lives transformed people loving one another They see a taste of glory, you know, and they in that sense and even coming into the church They are Protected if you will being within the body of christ with some overspill of god's grace to genuine christians They've become partakers in a sense of what the holy spirit is doing And then it says If they fall away then And what that's talking about there Is you know, you say I understand what's going on here. I understand what the word of god says I've heard the gospel I believe Jesus christ I know what god intends I know what they're saying. I know this is true. I see the work of the spirit. You know what I just I want my life I want my sin. I want to do things my way Got my own agenda. Listen this passage would apply to you And we've known if you've been around this church for any length of time We've known those that have made just that decision And at that point what the scripture says is that that state is irreversible It is impossible To renew them again to repentance since they crucified for themselves again the son of god and put into an open shame Your opportunity if you're not careful your opportunity will pass and it will forever pass And you'll find yourself one day in hell It just destitute of the truth just gradual You know the in amos god speaks of a famine in Among his people of his word not a famine of food of bread, but a famine of god's word If you reject and dishonor His word with your life or with your rejection with your rebellion with your sin you continue to do that Eventually god will give you over to a famine of his word And you'll be without it. It will be taken away from you and you'll become destitute of the truth But this goes on to say here the men of corrupt minds are destitute of the truth But that their covetousness says in verse 5 they suppose that godliness is a means of gain here the word godliness Is almost sarcastic. It's a twisting. It's the godliness that they perceive in their own minds Right, they've sort of twisted it twisted understanding of it. It's like simon magus in acts 8 Simon at magus saw the work of the holy spirit and he saw it as a power that he wanted And it's a power that he wanted because he could get rich off of it, you know So he wanted to buy that power from them. So he perceived a godliness Twisted understanding of godliness and he wanted to buy that he saw that as a means of great gain And Jeremiah says again from the least of them to the greatest of them They're all given over to covetousness and we see that routinely in many ways Certainly right that includes wealth. We got those guys that will do this because they see it as a way to get rich But there's also covetousness in many other ways. You see covetousness for numbers A church that I went to false teacher false gospel false church And he would stand up there and say, you know, I've been called of god to lead a large church So everything that they were about was about getting numbers because he wanted to lead a large church It's covetousness That is covetousness pride In numbers in results covetousness All of that could be that issue with covetousness could be summed up by its motive There are motives, uh, and they are greedy to satisfy their own motive for what they're doing Maybe a motive for wealth. Maybe a motive for numbers Maybe a motive for dishonest gain in some way. Maybe a motive for fame You know, maybe a motive for, you know, getting on la preachers next next, you know series Whatever it's maybe motive But it's the motive that displays or that exposes their covetousness Here you get a glimpse of their character now This influence the influence of this kind of character must be cut off from among god's people This is 11. It spreads like gain green and it can be devastating to the church So they must be put out. They must be avoided and that's where we get the end of Verse five the third point on your note. We discern the content. We've discerned their character now Let's discern the consequences quickly in verse four and in verse five. We see these Consequences of their false teaching. We see that false teaching produces fruit. We'll know them by their fruit So what does false teaching produce? First it produces envy Envy It's in verse four. He's proud knowing nothing. He's obsessed with disputes. He has character there arguments over words From which from that character or out of that character which arrives Envy reviling evil suspicions useless wranglings of men these consequences Envy is a jealousy despising this the the success of others despising the contentment of others Hating that that envy leads to strife James says what are the what is the source of the quarrels and conflicts among you? It's because you want envy and you don't have so it creates strife You want you cannot obtain and so you fight in quarrel that strife leads to reviling Reviling here is abusive language. This is the word in greek that we derive our word blasphemy from so in a sense You know using that word you're sort of blaspheming another person. You're reviling them Carries the sense also of slander for evil suspicions this word Carries the sense of something arising in your understanding and working itself into your mind It's it comes from a preposition a word that's sort of rising words coming up from under it's to perceive something Behind plain sight that is characterized here is evil or bad So someone walks through the front door of the church and says hey, good morning, brother. So good to see you You think yourself What do you mean by that? All right, that's evil suspicion. You know you meant something bad by that I don't know what it is, but let me do the bottom of that evil suspicion. It's the right. It's described as evil Poor wicked bad vicious degenerate evil conjectures figments of your depraved imagination But lastly in verse five useless wranglings of men All this leads to just constant friction constant irritation just useless wranglings All of these envy strife reviling evil suspicions useless wranglings associated with and used in the bible to describe Unregenerate man lost person Describes a lost person and all of this if it if it is allowed to continue in the church Will undermine subvert our peace our unity it will destroy the church and we've seen that We see that in other churches too, don't we? You know you look at the fruit of teaching. What is that fruit produced? I you know, I love I love this church And we've had many visitors that have come They wow, you know how loving the people are How biblically astute the people are out, you know, they just want to be faithful. They love preaching You know we had conferences and somebody like our brother Mike Avendroff We love very much would come and he was blessed, you know by being here like we are we're blessed by being here And I often say I often say listen that doesn't happen by accident It's the grace of God In the people of God that gives them a love for the word of God And it's out of the word of God being wholesome words that godliness comes that love comes that faithfulness of the Lord comes It doesn't happen by accident it is by God's grace through his word that all that all glory to God that that takes place But I know I have been a part of churches so-called and I know many of you have too Where you see the fruit of that teaching and it's not love it is strife In envy and reviling and evil suspicion These things don't happen by accident They happen and we see the means of God at work here through the word of God To produce a church that we love and we feel very blessed to have amen And we've got a long way to go. I don't want to puff you up We got a lot we need to work on a lot. We need to obey the Lord and we need to you know Fervently live for him. We got a lot to learn a lot of maturing to do But we're blessed by what God has done here So that all listen, it's got to be cut out if it's evil It's going to lead to more evil if it's bad doctrine, it's going to lead to bad living It's got to be cut out. And so last point on your notes is point four Dissern then and depart Dissern the content Dissern the character of these false teachers Dissern the consequences of that teaching and then depart separate from it now in some of your translations of your esv Or your nasb doesn't have that last phrase in there from such withdraw yourself The new king james uses a different set of manuscripts for the translation. So it was in there Let me tell you though that that from your from from them withdraw yourself. Is that a biblical teaching? Yes, there's nothing here unbiblical. It doesn't affect meaning at all Um, this is the biblical doctrine of separation And if this happens, you're to separate from them. Ernest Pickering said this Few are anxious to plunge themselves into the teeth of a howling storm Right and yet to lift the banner of god's truth Is to bring down upon one's head all the raging storms of hell All god's people who are faithful say amen For this reason those who would hold strongly and uncompromisingly to the whole revealed truth of god Have ever found themselves a despised company and a pilgrim people God has continually exhorted his people to walk in purity And holy separation and to keep themselves Unspotted from the world and we generally look at scripture With respect to separation along three different lines. You have separation from the world We've heard speak often of separation of church and state But there's also separation of false teaching separation from apostasy or error God hates false teaching which is false religion leads to idolatry leads to false worship So god hates it. We're to separate from it now quickly. We see that example throughout scripture in exodus With the people of israel in egypt the people in israel would have been just as happy To stay there in egypt set up an altar to god right up next to all the other altars of all these false gods And just stay right there and worship god. What does god do? God separates them from egypt Into a separate place because he wants a people who are separated to himself He needs a separate people and a separate place where to be separate from error We remember the story. We've often looked at the story of um, ahab and jahashaphat and the prophet mikeah, right? Ahab wants to go to war. He solicits his buddy jahashaphat. jahashaphat says Okay, i'll go to war with you. But why don't we ask a word of the lord first? Is there a prophet around? We can ask Forget malam. He wants to get mikeah. So mikeah comes in prophesies Don't do it. So what does ahab do? He rejects the word of god and he does it But what is jahashaphat? Otherwise a godly man What does jahashaphat do? He goes along with him. This is second chronicles 18 19 in your bibles. You can look at this story You don't have time to turn there this morning jahashaphat goes along with him and it's like wow What should jahashaphat should have done? He heard the word of mikeah and he should have gotten out of there. I'm not going into battle with that guy So now there's a consequence that if you keep going chapter 19 chapter 20 chapter 21 in second chronicles jahashaphat pays a price for that um Real quickly like fast I just can't resist second chronicles Hurry second chronicles Look at chapter 19 verse 1. I'm just going to go ahead and start reading then jahashaphat The king of judo returned safely to his house in jerusalem Jehu the son of hennon. This is after the battle ahab is killed. Here's jahashaphat Jehu the son of hennon ike the seer went out to meet him and said to king jahashaphat Should you help the wicked and love those who hate the lord? That's what he was doing Ahab you didn't hear ahab say I hate the lord He hated mikeah to hate the prophets of the lord is the hate lord But they have hated the lord hated lord by his actions We have people who've gone out of here who hate the lord by their actions We're to separate from them because they are enemies of the cross. They are enemies of god They hate god by the way that they do things by the way that they live their lives By the way that they attack a biblical church. They're god haters. Are we to love them? Are we to spend time with them? No, should you help the wicked and love those who hate the lord? Therefore he says to jahashaphat otherwise a godly man here he says Therefore the wrath of the lord is upon you Nevertheless good things are found in you So the wrath of god was over jahashaphat because of this decision not to separate from ahab Did jahashaphat learn his lesson in this? No, he did not look at chapter 21 Let's see here in the right place 20 This is where he Attaches himself to ahaziah Look at the verse 35 chapter 20 verse 35 After this jahashaphat king of juda allied himself with ahaziah king of israel who acted very wickedly And he allied himself with him to make ships to go to tarshish He didn't learn his lesson. He continued to ally himself with the wicked We're to separate ourselves We're to separate ourselves We have many examples of this many examples of this in the new testament through unrepentant sin in matthew 18 church discipline We're to separate ourselves from those who are unrepentant sinners who we're to treat as tax collectors and heathens We're simply to detach ourselves from them romans chapter 16 verse 17 Bible says now i urge you brethren note those who cause divisions and offenses Contrary to the doctrine which you've learned and avoid them. It's interesting there. It's kind of it doesn't restrict the doctrine It's the doctrine which you've learned and it's any doctrine that would cause divisions and offenses If a person With their doctrine is causing divisions and offenses. Something is wrong Withdraw yourself from them We're not to keep company with it. We're not to okay. Well, it's this doctrine not this doctrine Okay, so let him go in the church because it's not that no it's whatever Doctrine that you are using to cause division disruption offenses in the church Stop that and if that person won't stop then avoid them It says that 2nd john verses 9 through 11 2nd crinthians chapter 6 come out from among them and be separate ch. Spurgeon during the downgrade controversy said this He said at any rate cost what it may To separate ourselves from those who separate themselves from the truth of god is not alone our liberty But our duty sometimes that duty is very difficult very hard very challenging to obey We must do that. The lord has given us that instruction. It's in for our for our good There are many many many voices that clamor to reject this biblical teaching because god is love God is love and so it leads us to ecumenicalism ecumenism Everybody just goes along to get along We sacrifice truth for the sake of a false sham piece. We're not to do that We're not to tolerate error Not to tolerate bad company. It will have its effect. Robert lightener said this the longer error is condoned The easier it becomes to compromise the truth Somehow a conditioning process goes on an unhealthy toleration of false doctrine Usually leads to accommodation to it to one degree or another When that which is false is left unchecked unexposed or unopposed It gradually appears to be less and less objectionable to more and more people It loses its true character and looks more and more like merely a weak and watered-down form of the truth A less desirable option than the truth to be sure But not the falsehood that it really is and when it was once thought to be That's what happens in our flesh. We have to base all of this on the word of god to avoid that from happening You know the christian life. Let me leave you this The christian life the teaching of this first time in chapter six this passage It really reminds me a lot of just by application of neomaya at the wall building the wall Neomaya Building this wall had to build a wall you have the wall of your christian life You're building right the house that is set upon a rock You're building this house over the course of your christian life And you want to build it on the rock because when the storm comes you want your house to stand You know neomaya is at the wall, and he's got god's people there his co laborers there at the wall building the wall It's not enough for them to stand at the wall with a trowel in their hand Right putting on mortar and shoring up the wall. What else do they need in their hand? A sword they've got a trowel in one hand neomaya and a sword in the other for the christian life You need a trowel in one hand building your wall Building your house erecting it on the bedrock of god's words such that it does not fall Your trust faith in christ your faith in god such that your house in that day will stand But in order to do that effectively you need a sword in the other because there are enemies that will come along and seek to Destroy the work that you're doing That will seek to undermine you in the work that will seek to distract you from the work Listen come out here and plant these daisies. Don't worry about that house You need a trowel in one hand and you need a sword in the other And that's the teaching of scripture while you are hard at work building the wall You need to be hard at work fighting off the enemies of your wall While you're at work growing in the lord You need to be hard at work battling against sin battling against error battling against worldly influence battling against the enemy It takes both a trowel and a sword amen Amen, let's pray father in heaven. Thank you for this teaching god Thank you for this the reminder that it's so powerful so profound and god help us We have the sword of the spirit in our hands. Praise be to god. Thank you lord for your word And as we seek to live the christian life build our christian life lord We we want to stand before you one day lord having our lives represented by precious stones not by wood hay and stubble And so as we live this christian life god help us To wield the sword of the spirit to defend ourselves against the wiles of the wicked one And lord strengthen us by your spirit to live the christian life and defend off the enemies of our soul And I pray god that you protect my brothers and sisters here Protect them from that onslaught of the enemy Preserve them god hold them keep them in christ guard their hearts and minds in christ jesus And strengthen us for the battle and lord We want to persevere to the end and be saved for your glory god for your worship And for the good of our own eternal soul Thank you lord for this teaching. Thank you for your word Thank you for your spirit which strengthens us and thank you for christ. We love you lord in jesus name. Amen