God’s Word Is Central In His Church

Transcript

GR1766
5/11/2014
God’s Word is Central in His Church
I Timothy 3:14-16
Gil Rugh

Well we are going to look into Timothy. We are in I Timothy chapter 3. We come to the heart of the letter and for verse 15 which is a key verse here along with verse 16 we looked at this to begin our study of I Timothy because it focused our attention on what this book would be about.

Verse 14, let me read it to you, I Timothy 3:14 – “I am writing these things to you hoping to come to you before long but in case I am delayed I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God which is the church of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. By common confession great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” The church is God’s family, the pillar and support of the truth.

Paul started in chapter 1, verse 3 addressing Timothy: “I urge you upon my departure from Macedonia to remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines.”

Verse 5: “The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, sincere faith.” That emphasis on the truth so Paul as he writes to Timothy anticipates the opportunity to come and visit with Timothy in the ministry there at Ephesus and to help him but he realizes that may not come about, but whether it does or doesn’t, it is important that the church at Ephesus address these certain issues. As we started in chapter 1, number one – you have to put a stop to the teaching that is contrary to the truth that God has revealed. So Timothy, that has to be dealt with immediately. That can’t wait because error has a way of spreading and error spreads quickly and once it gets hold in a congregation it is very difficult to deal with so Timothy had to deal with that. “In case I am delayed I am writing so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God.” And we have talked much about this. The household of God, he has used this same word translated household. It means house or household already several times in this context and in chapter 3, verse 4: “The elder must be one who manages his own household, (same word), well.” And in verse 5: “If he doesn’t know how to manage his own household how will he take care of the church of God?” Same for deacons down in verse 12: “Good managers of their children and of their household.” So it is clear what he is talking about. In those previous references we just looked at he was talking about their own family.

Now we are dealing with God’s family and here are instructions regarding how the family must conduct itself. Number one – there is no allowance for error, the teaching of doctrine contrary to the truth that has been revealed by God. There is no room for diversity here. God’s truth is God’s truth and those teaching contrary doctrines must be silenced. Then there are other things to be dealt with and he is going to come back to this to focus on God’s plan of providing redemption for a lost world. He talked about that in the first part of chapter 2 and that Christ, verse 6 “gave Himself as a ransom for all,” and he will give a summary of that in verse 16 in a moment and then some instruction on proper conduct for woman and for men and in God’s family, the church, the men are to provide the leadership and the instruction in the truth of the Word of God.

There is to be the proper structure. There are certain ones that God appoints to provide leadership for the family, elders and then serving with them in various areas of responsibilities were deacons and there are certain qualifications set down. These are not difficult matters. You wonder how we end up with such diversity and confusion in the church and in churches. It seems pretty simple. God set it out here and here is the way He intends His family to be ordered and to conduct itself.

Now that summary in verses 14 to 16 brings the whole heart of the matter. These details are important because of what the church is. It is the family of God. We have to conduct ourselves. That word “to conduct” carries a broad connotation. The whole of life and character is included in this concept. What not only we are to do but we are to be and we noted some of the character qualifications for leadership, the way that we are to be focused. Godliness is to characterize us. He talked about that with the women; he talks about it with the men. We’ve been saved to manifest the beauty of God’s work and God’s character in our lives.

Come back to the letter to the Ephesians. Remember, Timothy is at Ephesus. That is the same church that the letter to the Ephesians is written. You see so much repetition on these themes throughout the New Testament, in the Old Testament, the expectation of godly conduct characterizing God’s people. In the Old Testament He said to Israel, what? You shall be holy for I am holy. That is repeated by Peter for us in the New Testament in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God.” We see that repeatedly, God’s work of salvation is a gift of His grace. “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we should walk in them.” This is the sovereign plan of God. In His grace He has brought His salvation to us. He has made us new in Christ. We are His workmanship. We were created in Christ Jesus for good works and how often do we talk about this. So many churches get the order reversed. They think it’s by good works that you get to be in Christ Jesus. No, you have to be created, made new in Christ Jesus but God’s intention when you are is, now you conduct yourself in a way that would manifest His character. God prepared these works beforehand so that we should walk in them. There is a repeated emphasis in Ephesians on the walk of the believer.

Up in verse 1 the chapter started out, Ephesians 2:1 – “You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked.” Now we are to walk differently. We are to walk in those works that are pleasing to God; that would be characteristic of the children of God, a walk that is characterized by holiness, by righteousness, by the fruit of the Spirit being produced in us.

Over in chapter 4 and you are aware the first three chapters of Ephesians as often the case emphasize doctrine, teaching. That is followed up by here is some of the application of this teaching in your behavior. So chapter 4 opens up: “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” Walk worthy. That walk is the conduct of our lives and it picks up, that word walk because what? One step after another becomes the pattern of our lives, the course of our lives. Walk in the manner worthy of the calling we have from God and that involves humility and gentleness and patience, tolerance in love and on it goes.

Down in verse 17, the contrast: “This I say and affirm together with the Lord that you walk no longer as the Gentiles walk in the futility, the emptiness of their mind being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God.” They’re calloused. They are hardened in heart. They are given over to sensuality, greed, but you did not learn Christ in this way. “You lay aside the old man. You put on the new man,” in verse 24. Verse 1 of chapter 5 “Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us.” So we are imitators of God. What did God the Son do? He loved us and sacrificed Himself for us. We are to manifest that. Down in verse 8: “You formerly were darkness now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Down in verse 15: “Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise men.” Verse 18: “We are to be filled with the Spirit living under His control that He will produce His fruit, the fruit of the Spirit as they are laid out in Galatians 5.

We come down to verse 32 and he will talk about the great mystery relating to Christ and the church and we are going to come to great is the mystery of godliness in I Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. This is not new. Psalm 86:11, we won’t go back there for time but the Psalmist David says, “I will walk in Your truth.” So this is not new. This is the expectation that those who belong to God will manifest it in their character.

Come over to I John, I John chapter 3. We are talking about the household of God, God’s family and John addresses it in his first epistle. The contrast, we will pick it up with verse 4 of I John 3: “Everyone who practices sin, practices lawlessness.” Sin is lawlessness, sin is living in rebellion against God and His will. “You know that He appeared (Christ) in order that to take away sins. In Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins. No one who sins has seen Him or knows Him;” that idea of the pattern of your life, the walk of your life. If we claim to know God but live a life pattern of sin we are just indicating that we don’t know Him.

Verse 7: “Little children make sure no one deceives you.” Here’s some false teaching that circulates. “The one who practices righteousness is righteous.” Note it doesn’t say, “The one who practices righteousness becomes righteous.” The one who practices righteousness is righteous. The practice of righteous is our daily life, the practice of righteousness is simply a reflection of the righteousness we now have as new creatures in Christ. So we are to manifest our righteousness by living righteously just as He is righteous. Remember, we are to be imitators of God. The one who practices sin is of the devil. Verse 9: “No one who is born of God practices sin because His seed (God’s seed) abides in him.” We saw in our earlier study today, we are partakers of the divine nature. That change has taken place in that heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. Now we have been made new within and thus we live new.

It’s like being born into the human family, the human race. There are certain things you do. Human beings do it, it is characteristic of being human. We don’t swing from trees like apes no matter what people say. We don’t live under water like fish. We do things that are characteristic of humans.

Don’t say you are a child of God and manifest the character of the devil. That is what he is saying. Jesus addresses this in John’s Gospel chapter 8: “You are of your father the devil. You always do his will,” to the religious people of His day. So here, we belong to God. We are to be, it doesn’t mean the Christian never sins but the walk, the pattern of a life of one who truly knows the Lord is different. You can’t live in sin. That is what he says here. He can’t, verse 9, “because His seed abides in him.” That work of God in making us new, partakers of His nature. I can’t do it anymore than I can go and live under water in the ocean like a fish. I have been made new in Christ. I can’t live like I was a child of the devil. “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious.” You say, “Well you are exercising judgment.” No, God has and He has told us how to discern the genuine and the false. We don’t have to believe every profession. Well, you can’t judge me. You can’t see my heart, no, but God can and He says what the evidence is that we can see and thus respond to. “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious. Anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother,” and on he goes drawing these comparisons.

Come back to I Timothy, chapter 3, verse 15: “I write so you will know how one ought to conduct himself in the household of God,” the family of God. God’s family, that’s what we are, God’s children, all partakers of the divine nature, all of us who are believers in Jesus Christ. We can have people in a physical church setting who are not believers, of course. That is obvious. We have talked about this in Hebrews quite a bit but genuine believers manifest God’s character. So we want to please God. The family of God is the church of the living God. Some people think well I don’t have to go to church. I have a Bible. I can do it at home. There may be physical reasons a person is not able to get out to the fellowship of believers but the normal pattern established by God is His family likes to get together and furthermore He says, “Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together. I have made you part of My family” and He just didn’t make one as we often talk about, the universal church. We are thankful for the universal church comprised of every believer everywhere but God has chosen to break that down into individual units that we can fellowship in. I have a relationship with believers in other countries but I can’t enjoy fellowship with them in ministry and the service of the Lord day by day as I can here nor can they with us. How gracious God is to establish local churches as manifestations. We are not all there is to the universal church but God has brought together everything that is necessary for this particular church to function as He would have us and other churches as well.

It is the church of the living God. We have been through this. It belongs to God. It doesn’t belong to me and it doesn’t belong to the elders. We can say “that is my church” in the sense it is the church I belong to. It’s not my church in the sense I own it and can do with it what I want. No, I have a responsibility to fulfill in the church as every individual believer does. The elders have the responsibility of leaders in the church. That doesn’t make them the bosses of the church but it does delegate responsibility to them under the head of the church who is Christ as Paul wrote to the Ephesians. He’s been given as head over all things to the church referring to Christ. So a simple pattern set down.

It is the pillar and support of the truth. This is why Paul started out in chapter 1. If the church loses its focus on the truth and being a center of the giving forth of the truth it just becomes an organization. Religious but it becomes more of a problem than a help. It’s not well at least they go to a church. What does that mean? Is that a church that believes in the God of the Bible, that believes the truth that God has revealed, that submits itself to that truth and commits itself to the proclamation of that truth? You know, we have a lot of similarities. I am sure the false teachers at Ephesus that Timothy had to silence had a lot of similarities. How did they get into that church? How did they get accepted as teachers in that church? Obviously there were quite a few things you would say yes, that we would agree on that but there were things they were teaching that could not be tolerated.

So recognizing what the truth is. He is going to unfold the content of that truth in verse 16 but let me just share some things. I haven’t shared them with you for a while. The constant battle in the church is to maintain the focus on the truth. We keep going through the cycles and the cycles are the same. You know, it’s sort of like the fashions of the day. Greg says to me, “Well you know, one thing about it when you get old you don’t care. You are just satisfied to wear the same old thing.” There is an element of truth to that. When I was younger I thought, “I can’t wear that, it’s out of date. Now I only look. If it doesn’t have a hole in it, it’s in date. That means I may be wearing it today. I don’t care if anybody else is wearing it. You know but the church goes through those fashion cycles.

The problem is when it takes the focus off of the truth we begin to trivialize the church and the truth gets lost and it just becomes a religious organization. We sprinkle in some evangelical things. We still have a doctrinal statement that says we believe the truth but we are really all about other things.

You know denominations come and go. We’ve got new kinds of denominations today. They don’t want to call them denominations. They call them networks. You are familiar with some of the more popular, the Willow Creek Association of churches. If you get on their web site they will tell you all the churches in this area, if you want to get one for Lincoln that belongs to the Willow Creek Association. So if you move to Lincoln you can go to a church like you will like. It’s not really doctrinal based or you can have a purpose driven church or we’ve got the elevate church. We’ve got the Acts 29 churches. We’ve got all these churches now.

You know we have things that will help you be a growing church so you want to be part of our group. This battle has gone on and on and on. Some of it is silliness. Here’s an article from the Wall Street Journal. I don’t have the date on it. It has been a few years ago and we have this in Lincoln too. This is not a denomination. “For the first time in 10 years Mary Wilkinson went to church one Sunday in January. She sat at a back pew at St. Frances Episcopal Church in Stanford, CT flipping through a prayer book and listening intently to the priest’s sermon. What drew Mrs. Wilkinson back into the fold was a new monthly program the church introduced, Holy Communion for Pets. As part of the service the 59 year old retired portfolio manager carried her 17 year old tiger cat to the altar, waited in line behind three panting dogs to receive the host and had a special benediction performed for her cat, Purr Box Jr. With pews hard to fill a small number of otherwise traditional clergy are welcoming animals into the flock. Some are creating pet friendly worship services while others have started making house calls for sick animals.” Don’t call. I mean you know it is silly when you read this and laugh, the goofiness. The church becomes so trivial. Now these are unbelieving churches but none the less All Saints Church in Fort Lauderdale, FL has doubled attendance at its Sunday evening service since it began last summer to invite pets once a month. I wonder, would we have more people on Sunday night if we say, “you can bring your dog?” I am not even going there but I am just throwing it out. The effort is part of a larger movement among houses of worship to attract worshipper by offering amenities considered important to modern lives. In recent years churches and synagogues have added everything from in-house Starbucks Cafes, sports clubs, special worship services for special groups. Such churches as Manhattan’s Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine have long held annual services to bless everything from rabbits to elephants. The Catholics have long revered St. Frances as the protector of animals.

I mean, when you stop and think, yes they’ve got all that. We will make a saint for this. That will help people be happy about that and that’s a whole article, that’s three columns. I just read you a couple of sentences out of it.

Let me read you something. This is not new, the battle. “People had acquired a craving for effect, a desire for speedy results which made everything else subordinate to that end. The Gospel is not attractive enough for people nowadays. Ministers must bait their trap with something else. The old fashioned topics are seldom heard.” That was written in 1846. You know we think, well you know, back in those days. Back in those days the true church battled the same thing. They won’t want to hear the old truths. We want something more interesting, more exciting.

Here is what one person wrote. “Be it therefore the inflexible purpose of every Christian, every church and every body of churches to cling with a grasp that will not be relaxed to the truth; the truth alone, to the whole truth, to the truth in doctrine, in worship, in practice. We can afford to be branded with old fogey-ism. We may well say especially to those who are near the commencement of their course, “cling to the truths, pure and simple; to the truths and not to mere feelings, impressions, sentiments, to the truths not to tampering with falsehood, to the truths in its heaven-born, to the truth. It is from God. He knows best what we should believe, what we should do, to the truth. It is sure to bring rich blessings of its Author.” That was written by a man named Murphy in 1888. The battle still goes on.

This is what Paul had, a battle. What did he tell Timothy to do? The first thing you do in Ephesus there. You put a stop to error being taught in the church. This is not new. The devil is happy to fill the churches for us. He’s got a lot of people he will bring in. All you have to do is tone down the truth because one thing the devil will not stand for is truth. He’s a liar. He’s been a liar from the beginning. He’s the father of lies. He’s the source of the doctrine of demons. We get the idea, look, we’ve done all this. People are coming in, wonderful.

Here is an article that is a dozen or so years old. The trends which he thinks threaten the health and vitality of Christianity and Christ’s church, “enthrallment with entertainment. You know what we do with babies to keep them from getting bored and irritable? We entertain them. We make sounds and faces. We shake rattles. We bounce them up and down. With a baby no particular form of entertainment has an effect for very long. We have to keep moving, changing to keep them entertained. Increasingly that is what is happening with adults as well as we spend endless hours with our mindless entertainment. Our entertainments are no longer temporary diversions that refresh and enrich our lives. They have become the real business of life.” Enthrallment entertainment and I am not reading consecutively, “enthrallment entertainment also has a negative impact on the life of the church. Some come to church not to worship but to be entertained. We need to grow up to assume responsibility, to devote ourselves to accomplishing things for God in church and in all of life.”

And then the well-known article by Charles Haddon Spurgeon who died in 1892. “Feeding the Sheep or Amusing the Goats.” “An evil is in the professed camp of the Lord so gross in its impudence that the most short-sighted can hardly fail to notice it. During the past few years it has developed at an abnormal rate even for evil. The devil has seldom done a more clever thing than hinting to the church that part of her mission is to provide entertainment for the people with a view to winning them.” We thought this was a new idea. He died in l892. I don’t have the date on this article but it is not new. He says this is a growing thing in the church. “From speaking out as the Puritans did the church has gradually toned down her testimony then winked at and excused the frivolities of the day. Then she tolerated them in her borders. Now she has adopted them under the plea of reaching the masses.”

I have a book that has been promoted among evangelicals. The title of is, “Entertainment Evangelism.” A pastor of a church of 1000’s wrote the book so churches could learn how to use entertainment to do evangelism. The devil, you know, doesn’t have to be innovative. He can just recycle the old stuff again and again and it keeps working with every generation.

He goes on, “My first contention is that providing amusement for the people is nowhere spoken of in the Scriptures as a function of the church.” And again, I am not reading consecutively. “And he gave some apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry.” Where do the entertainers come in? The Holy Spirit is silent about them. Were the prophets persecuted because they amused the people or because they refused? Providing amusement is indirect antagonism to the teaching and life of Christ and all His apostles. What was the attitude of the church to the world? You are the salt, not the sugar-candy. Short and sharp was the utterance. “Let the dead bury their dead.” It was in awful earnestness. Had Christ introduced more of the bright and pleasant elements into His mission He would have been more popular when they went back because of the searching nature of His teaching. I do not hear Him say, “Run after these people, Peter. Tell them we will have a different style of service tomorrow, something short and attractive with little preaching. We will have a pleasant evening for the people. Tell them they will be sure to enjoy it. Be quick Peter we must get the people somehow. In vain will the epistles be searched to find any trace of the Gospel of amusement. After Peter and John were locked up for preaching the church had a prayer meeting but they did not pray, “Lord, grant unto Your servants that by a wise and discriminating use of innocent recreation we may show these people how happy we are.” They continued preaching Christ. “Lord, clear the church of all the rotten rubbish the devil has imposed on her and bring us back to apostolic methods.” I like it that he gets right to the heart of the matter, “clean out the rotten rubbish of the church.”

All this to say, these battles are not new. What is being addressed in our New Testament epistle here by Paul to Timothy are the same things we are battling today. You know we think because they can fill churches, I have shared with you numerous times. A long time ago I took some studies at a seminary which involved visiting growing churches and I remember being told and I’ve repeated it to you many times, it’s the principles being used for church growth today. I asked the man who was promoting them and you know, we had a good relationship in the sense of being able to talk about these things and we were having something to drink together after visiting a church. I said, “What about the theology?” He said, “Gil, that’s the beautiful thing. These principles work whatever your theology.” What has happened to the church which is to be the pillar and support of the truth? I said, “Peter that is the problem.” We can build huge churches without the Holy Spirit. We can build huge churches without the Word of God. Churches whatever their theology, whatever their beliefs or unbeliefs or disbeliefs, implement these things and you will grow. Little did I know at that stage it would become the rage in the evangelical world.

Back to I Timothy chapter 3: “By common confession;” by common confession he means this is something all believers agree on. If you are a believer you have to agree to this. If you don’t agree to this you are not a believer. This is the heart of the truth of the Gospel. “Great is the mystery of godliness.” That word for great, a Greek word megas. We talk about things that are mega, big. That’s a mega church. Mystery of godliness is great. In the context of the New Testament here he is talking about something that is sublime, this is wondrous, that is of overwhelming importance and the truth that is only known through the revelation of God, that’s the mystery, things that had been hidden that God chose not to make known in their fullness and God’s provision of godliness so we can be His children, partaking of the character of the God who becomes our Spiritual father. What is it? And you have this, what some call a hymn and these lines. He who was revealed in the flesh, revealed in the flesh, manifested in the flesh. Does anybody not know what He is talking about? Of course we know. He is talking about the incarnation.

I will read you some verses. We won’t go there to save the time but Hebrews chapter 9 verse 26: “Now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested.” That’s our word translated revealed here, revealed, manifested. “To put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. He who was manifested in the flesh.” He didn’t begin to exist when He was born into flesh but He was revealed and made known. “In the beginning was the Word and Word was with God, the Word was God and the Word became flesh,” John 1 says. So the consummation of the ages, the climax of all that God had promised in providing His salvation. He was manifested, revealed in the flesh.

I Peter chapter 1, verse 20: “He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but has appeared (has been manifested, has been revealed) in these last days for the sake of you who through Him are believers in God.” I John 3:5 “He appeared (He was revealed, He was manifested) in order to take away sins.” I John 3:8 “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil;” that emphasis on the coming to earth. “In Him all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form. How Hebrews opened up: “In these last days He has spoken to us in one who is a Son. He’s the radiance of His glory, the express image of His very nature.” That’s the truth we are talking about. The Son of God has become a man, is manifested in the flesh. He became a human being. He was vindicated in the Spirit. I take it the reference here is to His resurrection. Now what He is doing here is just going over the highlights of the Gospel. The resurrection, so crucial as Paul talked about in I Corinthians 15 to the demonstration of the finality. That word vindicated is the basic word righteousness. His righteousness was shown in the Spirit. I take it the contrast is with the flesh. We have our Bibles capitalizing Spirit as these things were originally written in the Greek they were not capitalized so you know, some of these become decisions to be made. I think the contrast here “with the flesh” would indicate you are talking about in the realm of Spirit in contrast to flesh but of course the Holy Spirit was involved in that. I was raised from the dead by the power of the Spirit so you know, you can incorporate both but what the focus is of here is of His resurrection and His glorified state; that the declaration of His righteousness not that He had to acquire righteousness for Himself because He had no sin. We have seen this in the study of Hebrews but it is the seal of God on the work of redemption and the perfection provided for fallen man by the perfect sacrifice of the Son of God. “He was vindicated in the Spirit. He was seen by angels.” So you see the process here. He came in the flesh. He was resurrected, has a declaration in God’s stamp of approval. His vindication in a sense showing that He is the righteous one that He has accomplished what is necessary for fallen man to be forgiven by a Holy God. He was seen by angels after that.

Well let’s see. Go back to Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 and we will just pick up in the middle of this sentence. We referred to the end of this chapter when I said He was given as head over all things to the church and then verse 20: “Which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come.” There is exaltation before all the angels, the one who is better than the angels, superior to the angels as Hebrews chapter 1 started out.

Turn over to Colossians. Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, chapter 2, verse 15. In the context here, verse 13, you go all the way back, this unfolds. Verse 9 which I referred to. “All the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority.” Verse 13: “You were dead in your transgressions. He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having cancelled out the certificate of debt, nailed it to the cross,” like Pilate did, declaring He is being crucified because He is claiming to be king of the Jews, that was the offense that justified a Roman crucifixion here but the truth of it is it was our sins, nailed to His cross. Why is He on the cross? “Because He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross.” He is paying the penalty for your sin and my sin is the point.

Verse 15: “When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.” I take it as He progressed back to the presence of the Father He is seen by angels. Now remember, this is the opportunity for angels to look into things they have never experienced, redemption, a redemption never provided for angels. We saw this in Hebrews chapter 2. Christ did not become an angel but He became a man so He could provide redemption for fallen humanity and the demonstration to the angelic world that God has provided the salvation that cancels out the power of the devil and renders him powerless and assures his ultimate defeat. So He was seen by angels.

Come back to verse 16. And then you have, it’s like you go back again and walk through the process. We started out with Him being in the flesh, revealed in the flesh. Then He was vindicated in the Spirit with His resurrection, seen by angels as He ascended to the glory of God’s presence. Now we will go back. He’s proclaimed among the nations. We are back to what is going on regarding this work. He was preached among the nations. Not just the Jews but the nations, Jews included but beyond the Jews. The proclamation of that secured redemption. He was believed on in the world, the response to the preaching of Christ. The church at Ephesus is the manifestation of that. They have believed the message concerning Christ that has been proclaimed. He was taken up in glory. Takes us through the process again, the ascension in Acts chapter 1, that final ascending into the presence of the Father.

So this is the heart of the Gospel truth, the death and resurrection of Christ, full payment for sin. The message that must be proclaimed that brings salvation. We are doing it on behalf of the Lord of glory, the One enthroned in glory at the right hand of the Father. This is the mystery of godliness. This is the heart of the message the church preaches. This is not the only thing there is to the truth but this is at the heart of the truth. This is where we begin because this is what brings us into God’s family and now the instructions for God’s family can be taken in and understood and we have a heart to obey. You know our desires have been changed.

My theology professor in seminary said, “When God saved you He saved your ‘wanter’ so now you want to do things different. You want to please Him. You have different desires. That does not mean we are never tempted with sin, that we are never lured by desires. That’s why the Scripture is constantly telling us and reminding us but the glorious thing is I no longer have to serve the devil. I no longer have to serve the flesh. I no longer have to be enthralled and drawn in with the enticements of the world. I have been set free and now I am free to serve the One who loved me and died for me and that’s what I want to do. And you, what it’s like as a believer even when you fail, what? There is frustration because you don’t want to displease Him. When you do something you know you shouldn’t do, you lose your temper and you get disgusted with yourself. There is no excuse for me to do that. You say, “Why would I do that?” You know you don’t have to. You have been made new. That’s the point.

The church is here to proclaim this truth. I didn’t read to you but included in this one article saying entertainment has drawn the church away from its mission. The next thing he said is the submission to psychology. We have replaced the preaching of God’s truth and the provision of God in Christ to deal with sin with psychologizing. Churches have their whole counseling program and what? What are we saying about the salvation provided in Christ and the power of the Gospel that set you free? Well, that’s not good for all sins. That’s not good for all problems. We don’t want to call them sins so we call them problems. Well what do you mean, problems? We are coming to this in Hebrews on morality in our next study, the sin outside of marriage. Well it’s, he can’t help it you know, he has a sexual addiction and someone else has a drinking addiction, someone else has a lying addiction, someone has anger problems so we have to go to anger management. Is there any end to it? The world will go through all kind of contortions. They are trying to figure out why would a person do what they did? We have to examine them and find out so we can what? Correct the heart that is deceitful and desperately wicked above all things and the church jumps in. Who’s left to proclaim the truth that truly sets a person free? It’s beautiful.

The devil says if you will buy into my program I will fill your church multiple times and you will be successful. Oh well, we’ll even be telling other churches how to adopt our program. The devil is a great franchiser but we are called to be the pillar and support of the truth. We are to be giving out that truth. The world says, “Oh no, we have moved beyond that. Science has demonstrated this and the studies of psychology and psychiatry have demonstrated that. On one overrules God. They are in ignorance. They are in darkness. They are groping around. We are not surprised. We were once like them. The tragedy of it is the church buys into this and subtlety the focus gets moved away from the seriousness of the truth of God and people begin to desire.

I want to take you to one verse and we will use it to close. Back in Jeremiah, chapter 5, verse 30: “An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?” I am sad to say this has happened to much of the evangelical world. Again I am not saying we are the only true church being faithful. I am saying this cycle goes on among God’s people. This is God speaking, “an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it!” What a tragic thing and what will be the end of it?

We need to be constantly reminded we are the church of the living God. We are not the only church, not the only church in this city. Praise God for that but we are the church that God has established here and our responsibility is to be a truth center. Whatever else happens when people come here we want to be sure they will hear what? The truth. Well, I hope you are not going to say anything too harsh about this or that. You know, I leave it in God’s hands. God it’s by Your sovereign purpose they have responded to an invitation to come. We pray that Your truth will be presented in a way that is pleasing to You and You will use it for the accomplishing of Your purposes. We need to be praying for that and we desire the unbeliever to come. To come with us to hear the truth, to hear it from us personally. We’d love to have you come to our church. We have great music. The goal of our music is to present the truth in song. The goal of the message is the same so that we might honor our God whose family we are privileged to belong to.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for the riches of Your Word. We are blessed beyond measure. Thank You that You are the God who is sovereign over all. Lord even as we hear the rain and we see the changes in the weather, what a mighty God we serve. But the greatest demonstration of power is the power of Your salvation that changes a sinful soul, that cleanses the sinful heart and mind, that power that makes a person new. Thank You for bringing us together as Your family in this place. Thank You for the privilege we have to grow together. Bless us as we leave, go to our homes. Use us in the days of this week to faithfully serve You in all we do, we pray in Christ’s name, amen.