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The time crazy. I heard the following up in 2018.
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No, Umm.
386 minutes, one hour to follow up, to follow up on your computer and we don't have anything.
I love you. I don't remember the chicken.
And I'm falling into everything.
00:05:09
Let's read a verse in Luke's Gospel before we pray.
24.
Luke, 2445.
Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures.
Our God and our Father, we thank Thee for this privilege of being together like this and the occasion that Thou hast given to us to be under the sound of Thy precious word. We feel our need of being instructed and built up in the most holy faith and before we had opened the Scriptures. Our God, we know it's proper that we would look up our and look to Thee.
Lift up our hearts and ask Thee for help and understanding the Scriptures. And we think of the disciples of old and the upper room there, and how the doubt is open their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures and our God. We have the indwelling presence of the Spirit of God who can take of the things of Christ and show them unto us. But we feel our need of our understanding being opened, and we ask thee that Thou would open our hearts and our understanding that we might understand the Scriptures today.
And the things that will be before us, that it may have its power and weight in its proper place in our lives.
And the practical applications too that we need, we just pray that thou administer to us as we have need. So we commit this meeting to the Anastai help and we ask it in the name and for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
I'd like to suggest we read First Timothy 4.
First Timothy, chapter 4.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with Thanksgiving, Them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with Thanksgiving.
For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine. Were unto thou hast attained, but refused profane and old wives fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things.
Having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe these things command and teach. Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of the believers in Word and conversation and charity.
And spirit, and faith, and purity till I come. Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. Meditate upon these things. Give thyself holy to them, that thy profiting may appear to all. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine. Continue in them.
For in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.
00:10:02
Timothy was given a charge in this epistle to.
Uh, help maintain the order in the House of God. And in first chapter is the charge. But when you come to the second chapter, we have, uh, priesthood in the House of God and the proper ordering of priests. And then in the third chapter, you have office in the House of God and the proper ordering for those who are in that administrative responsibility. But when you come to the 4th chapter, we have the exercise of gifts in the House of God.
And these are three spheres that are found in, uh, the House of God, priesthood, gift in office only the order as it falls in this epistle is priesthood office and gift. Chapters five and six would bring before us a fellowship in the House of God and the proper conduct and manner in which we are to engage in fellowship and many expectations that follow there. But this chapter, as I've said, is really the exercise of gift in the House of God.
And umm, since we all have a gift, perhaps not all, for the ministering of the Word of God.
But nevertheless, we all have a gift so that this chapter surely has some application for each one of us. And there's an order of things here that I think is beautiful. We could maybe look at this morning for our help and need. And that is in the 1St 6 verses He brings before us the need for understanding of the times in which we live, the need for understanding of the times. And then in verse six you have the need for.
Sound doctrine being sound in the faith.
Then verses 7 and eight, it brings in another thought and that is the need for exercise to be godly, that the things that we teach would have, uh, power and weight. And then of course, what follows out of that in verses 9 and 10 is, uh, reproach, suffering, persecution. We live godly and, and minister the truth faithfully. We can expect that there would be that which would follow. And then in the latter chapter he tells him to take care of his testimony. That is Timothy, that is Timothy.
And.
Timothy's responsibility, as you notice, because he says in verse 12, let no man, he's making it Timothy's responsibility that he takes care of that in the way in which he conducts himself. And then when the latter verses, he encourages him to use his gift.
And take advantage of every opportunity to exercise as gift.
And then lastly in the last verse, the need to not forget for self judgment.
When ministering the Word of God, we have to be very careful to pass judgment on ourselves that we keep ourselves in that low place because the enemy especially liked to to malign and take one out of the path. Failure in some way and so self judgment is in the last verse.
In the two epistles to Timothy, and particularly when you come to the second epistle, he stresses, does he not the need for sound teaching or sound doctrine as the basis for order? Because if there is going to be godly order in the House of God, it's got to be based on sound doctrine. The early believers that in Acts 2 it says they continued steadfastly and then it gives a list, but the first thing is the apostles doctrine because it was the basis for everything else.
It was the basis for fellowship, it was the basis for breaking of bread and it was the basis for prayer.
And I think the order that you point out is very important to see here because understanding of the times never gives us license to water down the truth or set aside sound doctrine. Brethren, it is proper to have discernment of the times. And there are. We're facing things collectively and as families and individually today that perhaps the people of God have never passed through before. And we need to present the truth in a way that.
Is in Connect in regard to discernment of the times.
But Timothy is told over and over and over in these two epistles.
To maintain sound teaching, you don't water down the truth or bring in something else because of the times. And so this is what is referred to in Timothy as the faith. More often in Timothy, when he speaks about faith or the faith, it's the truth of God. It's the deposit of truth, not so much confident, the confidence that we have in God. Faith is used in that way too, of course, but in Timothy it's more in connection with the deposit of truth or the faith.
00:15:13
And those who teach the truth, brethren, we need to be exercised.
That we seek by grace to pass along the truth of God in the same purity in which we ourselves have received it and been taught by past generations.
And in the second epistle, where you have the last days described in no uncertain terms.
Timothy is told to pass on the truth, to continue in it himself, and to pass it on with the same clarity and purity in which he had received it from the apostle to faithful men who were to pass it on with the same clarity and purity in which they had received it from Timothy and others. So we need to have discernment of the times, brethren, but we need an exercising gift. We need to go back to the foundation.
And never compromise the principles of God.
Paul speaks here of the beginning of the great apostasy in the Christian profession.
He says in the latter times some shall depart or could read apostatize from the faith. But we turn over to 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2. You'll see that you'll see the culmination of it in the man of sin after the church is gone. And it's not a pretty picture. And so the departure and the apostrophe that was that has come into the Christian profession had begun.
And is gathering speed at all times. And when we speak of apostasy, you know what that is?
That's the abandoning of the faith. That is one that has been once professed. And really an apostate is one who has been only a mere professor and has gone along among Christians with no life and no real life, no faith in God and in the Lord Jesus, and then abandons what they have made a profession of and have departed into some air. So a true believer cannot apostatize but.
As you read from Second Peter that it's possible for a believer to be swept along with the current of apostasy while he's not an apostate himself.
Maybe I should just read that for to you because, uh, that's important. That's in second Peter chapter 3.
Second Peter chapter 3 and verse 17.
2nd last verse of the Epistle. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing that you know these things before, beware lest ye also being LED away. And then it should read LED away along with the error of unprincipled men or wicked men, and fall from your own steadfastness. And so he's not warning them that they might fall into apostasy, because Peter does take this up too in his epistle, but that they might get LED away along with the current of it.
And when that happens, a true believer can give up principles, he can give up practices and let go of a lot of things, though he'll never let go of his inner and foundational faith in the Lord Jesus as Savior. And so we don't want to be affected by the current of apostasy that's all around us today. And I just mentioned also in connection with Jim's comment about faith here, you'll notice that it has the article, the before the word faith. And as a general rule, when it's the faith.
It's referring to the positive truth that has been given to the church, as he's mentioned. But when it's just the word faith by itself, it's usually the inward energy of the soul's confidence in God that we would have faith in the Lord to trust him and so on. And so when he's talking about departure from the faith here, it's about giving up the truth that has been once delivered to the Saints.
That's in Jude, isn't it? And it's relevant to what we're Speaking of because Jude writes about the appalling days of giving up of the truth, and days no doubt very parallel to the days in which we find ourselves. And at the beginning of his epistle, he exhorts the Saints. He says, Brethren, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me that I write unto you and exhort you that ye earnestly contend.
Notice this again what Bruce said, the faith once delivered to the Saints and that little expression once delivered to the Saints is very, very important because in the last days God doesn't give fresh revelation. Now brethren, we can always have fresh enjoyment of the of the truth of God and fresh, fresh enjoyment of the Scriptures. Ought to every time we open this book, we ought to have a fresh enjoyment. And maybe we say, well, we never saw that before. We never saw something in that light before.
00:20:30
But that's not what we're talking about. We don't look for fresh revelation. Jude wasn't telling the brethren to look for something fresh. He was telling them to hold faster, earnestly contend for that which had already been given the faith once delivered to the Saints. And brethren, we have the revealed mind of God. We have the truth of God in our hands this this morning. And we're not to look for some new twist on things or some new revelation at the end of the dispensation.
No, we are to earnestly contend or to hold fast for that which has been given to us. And Paul certainly felt this burden when he wrote these epistles to Timothy. Even in the first epistle, Paul evidently saw the seeds coming in of the subverting of the souls of the Saints and the undermining of the truth of God. And hasn't the enemy been busy ever since? The truth of God has been given to undermine the truth of God in one way or another.
And what do you find when men give up the truth? They often, as Paul speaks of here in these opening verses, they often turn to things that are even against nature, forbidding to marry, to abstain from meat. These things are against nature. And don't you often find that that it's not just a giving up of the truth, but it's a turning to things that are not even according to God's order in nature? Well, we need to be very careful, brethren, that we don't let these things come in.
And that, by the grace of God, we seek with the resources we have to go on in the faith once delivered to the Saints.
In Proverbs the 30th chapter we have that 2 examples of how the word of God, the truth of God, the faith is undermined. Turn to Proverbs 30 and look at verse five. It says every word of God is pure. He is a shield under them to put their trust in him as thou not on to his words, lest he reprove thee, and now be found a liar. And uh also in uh.
Revelation.
The last chapter, the 22nd chapter, and the uh.
18th Verse. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book. If any man shall add on to these things, God shall add on to him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book. So there are those two ways in which Satan works to undermine the truth, either by adding to it or by taking away from it.
And you get that in the, uh.
Umm, Hebrews 10 too, don't you, that we are not of them that draw back. That's One Direction which we can do is to to draw back from the light of the truth that has been given. And then in second John you have we are not those who go forward and go beyond.
At second John verse 8 or so.
See, drawing back is the idea of going back to Judaism, and that would be giving up Christian ground and practice and understanding. At the end of Hebrews 10. We are not of them that draw back.
And then but in second John chapter 2 John verse, I think around 8 there there's the idea of going forward. And that's that's an idea of mysticism, getting into mystical ideas that are beyond the revelation that God has given. One is turning away from the revelation that God has given and going backwards. The other is going beyond the revelation.
And these are two dangers that are continually, uh, put before us and as a warning in Scripture. So it goes along with what you're saying there, Brother Robert.
You have to get it in Darby's translation. So I'm sorry that in in second John.
00:25:03
Verse 9. Thank you. Second John 9.
Now when we read of seducing spirits and so on, it may give us the idea that it sounds a little spooky. Uh, could that be around today? I believe so. There are seducing spirits and that are at work and like to get a hold of men's minds so that they get a hobby horse, a certain pet doctrine, and they push it and push it to the point where it gets away from the the truth of God altogether. And if the person is self willed.
You will force it on the Saints and pretty soon we have a new creeds and doctrines that that come in and don't think it doesn't happen today. I was reading one time with I think it was Mr. Kelly on his heterodox of FERFE Raven and he said definitely he believed that a seducing spirit had got a hold of that man's mind and it can get a Suzuki spirit can get a hold of our minds too. Brother, we are not beyond.
This kind of an attack from the enemy. Now, of course, he's talking about those who are apostasizing. Who are.
Who are sitting ducks for the spirit seducing spirits to introduce these ideas?
But we as true believers can, uh, be subject to it as well if we are not careful and come up with some pretty wild interpretations of, uh, of, of Scripture. And that's one of the reasons why we need our brethren.
You know, Christianity does not portray the idea of being a one man band.
You need your brethren and I need my brethren because we help adjust one another and our thoughts and our impressions that we get from Scripture. And this is a great immunity to evil to have such an opportunity to have a Bible reading where if I put forth something, I'm sure somebody would say, now, Bruce, wait a minute. And there's adjustment in the clerical order that's in the church today and has been for hundreds of years. When a man stands at the front and he's the Bishop and or the the minister, there's really not that recourse.
And, uh, there is a, the danger of getting into doctrines that are off the, uh, the foundation of scripture. So be thankful for the Bible readings. And by the way, he does speak of Bible readings in verse 13.
And he's telling him to make use of those occasions because they.
They are very viable opportunity to communicate the truth. You see when he says give attendance to reading, he's not talking about make sure that you read your read books of ministry or take up with the habit of reading at home. It's talking about public reading out of the scriptures followed by exhortation and teaching, which is the nuts and bolts of a Bible reading.
To speak of the mind, because as someone has said, the mind becomes the plaything of the devil if we leave it open for that. And in Mr. Darby's translation in this first verse, he says giving their mind to deceiving spirits. And we never want to leave our mind open so that Satan can come in and fill it with that which is not according to the truth of God. Last weekend in Kentucky, we took up Colossians chapter 3.
And you lose the thrust in the King James. But if you notice your margin and Mr. Darby's translation in the second verse.
Of Colossians chapter 3. It's really set your mind on things above and so we need to set our mind on things above and I thought it was very good what some brought out about what are those things that are above. We have to know what those things are just be able to set our minds on them. In the first verse it tells us to seek them, then to set our minds on them. And brethren, we need to store up our minds with the word of God. We need to read it personally.
We need it in the assembly, as Brother Bruce has brought out, which is really the subject of this end of this chapter. We need to have the truth of God fill our minds. If you fill a glass with water, there's no room for air. If you fill a cup with wheat, there's no room for chaff. And what is it that's going to preserve us in these days when the enemy is so busy to bring in that which may even seem at first like the truth, but is mixed with poison and that which is not true, how are we going to detect it?
How are we going to set it aside by studying up on all that and filling our minds with all those false doctrines and teachings? No, what's going to preserve us is to be simple concerning evil, wise concerning that which is good. I'm not saying there aren't times when maybe we need to have some idea of what some teaching is in our contact with somebody, our dealings with another, but I believe basically the way we're preserved is.
00:30:06
To fill up our minds with the truth so there's room for nothing else.
There's a little hint given in, in umm, first Timothy 119 in connection with, uh, how we can keep ourselves. It says in verse 19, holding faith in a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck. And so faith perhaps in this context is loyalty to Christ and being occupied with Christ and having a good conscience. And so there may be, uh, those things that, uh, come in the seducing spirits, as you say, the, uh, things that would naturally appeal to the flesh that would go beyond what?
The revelation of Scripture is, and we need to be careful, we need to have that which is loyal to Christ and have affection for Christ and hold that dearly to our hearts. And if it's going to glorify Christ, then it's going to be something that the word of God, uh, presents. And then a good conscience. If we walk in disobedience, plain disobedience to the plain teaching of the word of God and we walk in a bad conscience, we leave ourselves open to those things that might come in.
That would allow us to act further in the flesh and so.
He begins in this chapter with this admonition that the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith. And so we live in times where the flesh is permitted to act. We do not judge ourselves as we ought to judge. Isn't that the truth? We really do allow things in our lives that we ought not to allow. And so God is telling us, I believe, that the consequence may be.
That there are some things that may come in that we will believe. And I just would refer to John chapter 8. It says there, uh, it presents the source of all liars, uh, of all lies and all untruth. It's really Satan himself. And so, umm, verse, umm 43 John 88We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth. (3 John 8) and verse 43. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father, the devil and the lust of your father will you will do.
He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own.
For he is a liar, and the father of it. And so the Lord told the truth. I am the Way, the truth, and the light. But the enemy of our souls wants us to believe anything but the truth. And so He's working diligently that we might not.
Walk in a loyal way with a heart's affection for Christ, and that we might allow our consciences to be grieved and not walking in purity.
Notice, uh, it says here doctrines of devils who should be demons. You know that there's only one devil, many demons. One devil should be translated demons here. I'm sure you all know that. But anyway, it's doctrines plural. Isn't that interesting? Look at the contrast in verse 6 where it says and of good doctrine singular and down at 16. Uh, take you to thyself until the doctrine singular.
You know, when the enemy introduces things, it's usually a multiplicity and it's complex, often and confusing because the enemy would like to, uh, throw dust in the air. And it's in that context that he can work and introduce, uh, his heirs and his lies. But when it comes to the truth of God, it's mentioned in singular here, and it's because the truth of God is 1 harmonious whole. It all fits together and it works together.
Another thought too, with regard to the doctrines in plural. It just shows you that.
Bad doctrines don't run alone, they have bedfellows, and when a person gets off on one doctrine, you will very often be off on another one. And uh, it's like making a puzzle, you know, you put the pieces in a puzzle together, you come to one piece, it looks like it could fit, so you kind of force it, but it's not the right piece for the place, but you get it in there. Well, what's going to happen is later in the puzzle you're going to have another piece that doesn't fit somewhere. Then you're going to have to put it in the wrong place. And that's the way it works very often.
Another thing too now, just so we keep going here in the chapter because we only have one Bible reading I noticed.
And that is in verses 2 Through 5, you'll see that there is umm.
A cloak to this bad doctrine of supergodliness and a high order of, uh, of sanctity attached to it. But it's only a cloak. And very often the enemy will work in that way to present his evil doctrines. It'll often be connected in those who will profess some high order of sanctity that's, uh, beyond even what God would call his people too. And be careful because behind it is usually.
00:35:09
The venom of the enemy to introduce those false doctrines.
One of the things we might want to consider too is that this seems to be the extreme case. It doesn't take much spiritual, uh, understanding to be able to, to see that when what he's describing here as a doctrine of devils seducing spirits and so forth, that there is a broad in the Christian Church, a more subtle, uh, uh, uh, force than that. And, uh, we know that the biggest grown churches in, in the country right now are the, uh, charismatic movements. They number in 20,000 people and they have all kinds of different, uh, uh, uh, people that have these great.
Mega churches and they're preaching is what you might say a gospel of prosperity.
That God doesn't want you to be sick and God wants you to be financially secure and so forth. And so they more or less change that, uh, little verse where all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer no ills and be financially fit for life. But it doesn't say that all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So there is indeed, uh, in Christendom, if you, if you have Christian friends, you'll find people that are taken in by these things.
Uh, it's the devil uses the world, the flesh.
And the devil, the flesh is ever with us, and it is never improved. And he later on says, in this same chapter over here, he says.
An example of the believers in Word, conversation and charity and spirit and faith and purity. That's some goal that is set before us now. You know, I remember years ago, I mean 50 some years ago, when some of the older brother were here, Brother Kohler and the different ones, you know, if they could be brought back in the assemblies today, they would be shocked. I'll tell you, be now an example and, and and word and then it the old things I used to hear Brother Cola say.
You know, his brother and he says the, the world gets our passion from Paris and Paris gets it from hell. And, you know, there's a tendency of bringing the world in. Satan will do that. He would, uh, allow the flesh to come in and say, oh, I wanna look like the world. I wanna be popular and so forth. So dress is a very important thing and, and, and, and, and God's people. And when he says here, and they also, uh, says here until I come give attendance and reading and so really.
What we need, we need the word of God to come in and to, uh, clarify and to describe for us what is godliness. And I think if there's any lack of, of, uh, in, in the Christian Church today, not only in the, in the gather Saints, but in the other denominations, and it's, it's basically a gospel of prosperity that they're preaching. And, uh, if the sad thing, you know, not only do we see.
The modernist comes in like the National Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches. They're denying the validity of the word of God. They're denying some of the most vital important doctrines in Scripture. We can we can see that, but but here and and Christian circles, even in fundamental believers and we find the world is coming in and one form or another.
We're supposed to move along. As Bruce said, we only have this one reading in the next section. Then we have the need for godliness or piety. And Timothy is told in verse six to lay these things out or put the brethren in remembrance of these things. And if he did so, he'd be a good minister because brethren, we need to be reminded over and over and over again of these things. So again, when Peter wrote to the Saints in his second epistle, again with days of giving up.
2nd Epistles always denote days of ruin and weakness. He said that he would not be negligent to put them in remembrance of these things, though they knew them and were established in the present truth. And if the apostles in their day felt the need of bringing these things before the Saints time and again, how much more in the day in which we live, educators say there are three hours to learning. Review, review, review. And that's true when it comes to the things of God.
But he's going to take up, as Bruce said here, the subject of godliness and the exercise of godliness. Now what you might say, what is this? Well, I suppose there are different thoughts, but it's really energy of faith in the things of God. Because if you and I are going to stand firm in the days in which we live and go on, not only individually but collectively, in these days where the enemy is busy to undermine the truth of God.
00:40:27
It does take energy of faith. It takes purpose of heart. More than just desire. You know, the slugger desires and has nothing. But Daniel had purpose of heart. He was motivated and the truth of God had got down into his heart, and it motivated him to stand in the days in which we live, which he lived. And so Timothy is told in this chapter to exercise himself unto godliness. Now there are young people here who perhaps get up a little early twice a week.
And they go to the gym or they take out membership so that they can workout an exercise.
And this chapter is not condemning that. In fact, it tells us bodily exercise profits for a little time.
Bodily exercise is good, and we want to take care of what God has given us physically. We're to be faithful stewards of it. No man yet hateth his flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ, the Church, and so on. But the point he's making here is there's something that's more important than bodily exercise, which is good for time, for this life, but there's something of eternal weight and value, and that's godly exercise. Now, standing for the truth or living for Christ is not easy.
It takes energy of faith. It takes exercise. You get up a little early to go to the gym and workout. That takes discipline. You perhaps dispense with a little sleep you'd like like to have had. There's a little expense in taking out a membership. There's energy has to be put forth. It takes real discipline and sacrifice. And brethren, if we're going to go on in the truth of God, especially in the days in which we live.
And not give heed to seducing spirits, not be swept along with the tide of apostasy. It's got to take more than desire. You know, after this meeting, we could desire to go up to the dining room and have have lunch. But we might sit here till this afternoon with a desire and never have lunch. No, it takes energy, physical energy to get up off these chairs and motivation to walk up that hill and to partake of what will be provided. And sometimes I hear someone say, well, so and so has a nice desire.
Brethren, it's nice to have a desire, but if you and I are going to stand in the days in which we live, it's going to take more than desire. It's going to take exercising ourselves unto godliness.
Just say a couple of comments with regard to verse six that that leads into the practical godliness that is needed. It's interesting to see in this sixth verse that he insists upon the need for Timothy to be sound in doctrine.
And he tells them how it's gonna, how that would be accomplished. And that is where unto thou hast attained. And that word attained should read, where unto thou hast fully followed up.
Whereunto thou hast fully followed up the point here in this sixth verse is the need to be sound and doctrine. So you see a moral order here, I think in the 1St 5 verses. There's that need to have an understanding of the times in which we're called to live. And then secondly, I need to be sound in doctrine. And he's talking here about how Timothy would be a good minister of Jesus Christ and as putting it before his brethren. But notice here it should be.
Look at the word noticed, nourished. Rather, it's something that is not just that he's learned, but it's something that has nourished his soul. He's taken it in, has become part of him. Because we're not to learn the truth just so we can teach it to others. We've bypassed something. If that's the case, it's good to learn the truth. I say this to the younger brother in particular. It's good to learn the truth, but you don't learn the truth just so you can sit in the meeting and tell others what it is that might be a result.
We learn the truth to get nursed in our souls 1St that it becomes part of us and we are built up spiritually as far as our spiritual constitution is concerned.
And then he'll speak a little later about how that we can, uh, exercise our gift in occasions when the Saints are together for the reading of the Scriptures and so on. But, uh, notice if we are going to be established in the truth, we're going to be sound and doctrine. It's going to take fully following up on the various subjects of Scripture.
00:45:00
You see what I mean? That last word attained in verse six. To fully follow up this takes personal study and diligence. Digging into written ministry that we've been given would be a good way, although Timothy didn't have that in his day. But nevertheless, we need to follow up on the subject so that we understand it somewhat and have it clear in our souls and something we've enjoyed as well before we seek to present it to others.
If it's going to have power, it must have power first with us before it will have power with others.
The danger in a day of ruin is that there are ones who may want to speak, and that's good, I suppose, in itself, but they haven't fully followed up on the subject and they say things that are not accurate and could mislead the things. No, there's no shortcut to ministering the Word of God. You know, we can't just think that while we're of a certain age, we should minister now. No, it takes this private, quiet study in the presence of the Lord fully following up on subjects.
So that when you do present them to your brethren, they have some order and some semblance and they are according to sound doctrine. So I just want to encourage the younger brother, do your homework, pay attention to doctrine. And there's a time coming when the Lord is going to use you if he leaves us here. And when you do open your mouth and you minister the word of God and amongst the Saints that you've got something to say and it's something that's accurate. That's something that's according to the truth. It's something that will build up the things because as we get things get weaker, then the tendency today is to have speaking. We have no lack of speaking in meetings often times I've noticed.
But is there substance there? And it's because we haven't been diligent in fully following up. So let me just insist upon this now, that we all take time to be alone with the Lord in our daily readings and so on, so that we learn the truth. And it's something that takes time.
Not an overnight thing. There's no shortcuts in in the things of God as far as being a good minister of Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus. It should read. Is that right, Jim? Yes. And then in that way, in the seventh verse in the, the thrust is a little stronger in Mr. Darby's translation. It's not just to refuse, but to avoid.
Uh, the pro profane and, and why, uh, fables and so on to avoid them. You know, the illustrations been used of the teller at the bank. She doesn't learn what counterfeit money is by handling counterfeit money. Well, just a little bit now and then. Well, no, she'd lose her job. No, she's to avoid it. She handles that which is real. And then when something that's counterfeit is handed to her, she immediately recognizes it. Why? Because she's familiar with counterfeit bills.
No, because she's familiar with the real currency, the true currency. And brethren, I, I believe this is important. I've known more than one young person who felt that they needed in counteracting that which they were hearing from their Christian friends at school that was false and so on. They felt they needed to delve in, in some depth to some of the false teachings that are afoot in Christendom today. And I, it has LED them away.
They became so tangled in their mind and confused in their souls.
That it LED them away from the truth. And so it's like the teller at the bank. She loses her job because she dabbles in just a little bit of, of the counterfeit currency. No, we want to be sound in the truth and then other things will follow. I want to say this too about your comments that Paul also said to Timothy, I think in the second epistle, thou hast fully known my doctrine and manner of life. Now, if I had been writing that or considering that.
I probably would have reversed the order, put manner of life or piety first and then doctrine. And isn't that the way we often do it in our minds? We say, well, isn't a godly life important? Yes, and he takes that up. Godly exercise is important and piety, practical piety is very important. But what is practical piety a result of? It's a result of having taken in and digested and made our own.
Sound teaching, not taking it in mentally, that's going to lead to legality, that's going to lead to outward moral conformity without the heart being engaged. And things might look very good on the outside, but what is really going to lead to godly exercise and practical piety is when I'm nourished by the truth myself. I've enjoyed it, made it my own. Then unconsciously, unconsciously, it's going to affect my manner of life. But Paul never put the manner of life over the doctrine.
00:50:09
No, and I know many true believers and their manner of life is impeccable, puts me to shame. But the question is, are things resting on sound doctrine? And when Paul gives a list in these epistles of things, sound doctrine always heads the list. Just one more example. He speaks of the importance of the inspired word. And all Scripture is is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. And what's the first thing it's profitable for? For doctrine because again, that's the basis for correction and instruction and righteousness.
And the other things that are listed. And so I believe, especially in the day in which we live, brethren, we cannot stress this enough. It is the foundation laid by the apostles who were inspired to write the epistles, and we need to build everything on that.
In Vancouver, where we come from, is the largest seaport in, uh, Western Canada, uh.
There is of course a lot of coming into these huge ships that come across from Asia and, uh, the last mile or so of the, uh, the journey into the port where they harbor, uh, the captains of the ship are not allowed to, to drive their ships. They have to have the harbor master send a, a, a man out in a boat that he gets on and takes over and guides the ship into the port. Why? Because he knows the harbor better than the man that's been, uh, captaining the ship across the sea.
And they asked the man one time, well, how do you know where all the rocks are and everything and how where to guide it in? He brings in so many 100 feet and then he wrote so many 100 yards and so many brings it in. He says, well, I don't. He said, I just know that I'm supposed to go this many 100 yards and if this many then I turn. And isn't it just like what it should be for us? We don't need to be schooled in all the bad doctrines that are out there if we understand the truth and we are sound in the faith when those things that come forth that don't jive with the truth that we know.
Will immediately identify that it's not right. And that's what Brother Jim has been saying. And so you don't need to learn all the bad doctrines, you just need to learn the truth. But that's our problem, brethren. Are we fully following up on these things?
Says in Romans chapter 14 in verse 17, For the Kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. And so there is that inward work in our souls, isn't there, as we read the word of God and what the enemy desires in his deceit is that there would be an outward show. So you have the forbidding to marry and abstaining from meats, and then the bodily exercise all these outward things.
But God desires a work in the inward man that there might be conformity to Christ, that there might be fruit for himself. And so the enemy would desire to have all these things go on an outward show. And it's a particular danger in the day that we live in an outward show, just going on in a form, but not knowing why we're doing what we're doing. Isn't it lovely that we can just read the Word of God together and just understand the truth of God and understand some of these doctrines? And if we don't know.
Some of the teaching of Scripture and what the Spirit of God is trying to bring before us, why we have helps, as you say, the written ministry.
And others that do understand and do desire to walk in the truth with a good conscience and we can go and ask and to be taught. But then the enemy here. I just point this out old Prof we need to refuse or avoid profane and old wives fables. Now a fable is a very very good story. It sounds like the truth. It may even have some elements of the truth. It sounds real good, but it's not the truth and we need the word of God to ferret out those things. We need to have the.
Purity of the word of God. I'll just point out one other scripture in Luke's gospel chapter 4 and how, uh, if we are occupied with Christ and the words of the Lord Jesus himself as well as the apostles doctrine, we need both. It says in Luke's chapter 4 and verse 32 That they were astonished at his doctrine for his word was with power. And so we'll find that there is power with the word of God and with the words of the Lord Jesus. There's power, there's the, the Spirit of God can take that word.
And apply it to our hearts and consciences, that we might have our affection stirred for Christ, and that there might be that work, that enjoyment of Christ in the soul. But the outward thing, the fable, is going to give some glory to man, something that isn't of Christ.
00:55:06
Just need to reiterate that the Lord Jesus said I am the truth.
And as our hearts are occupied with Him, we will understand what truth is and it will be become a part of us. All truth will glorify Him. All truth will lead us to our affections, to to desire Him more, and to to think of truth as a cache of knowledge. We're going in the wrong way. We have to think of truth as who Christ is and its application to us is as we walk in and enjoy Christ.
Then it will become real to us and real to those around also.
Well, I was thinking too, of when John wrote to the Saints. Timothy was a young man when Paul wrote to him. And when John wrote, he commended the young men because they were strong. And they weren't strong because they went down to the gym and worked out twice a week. They were. And they weren't strong simply because they read the word of God either. But they were strong because the Word of God was abiding in them. And as brother Danny said, it's the truth as we have in Jesus, because all truth glorifies, brings glory to Christ.
Makes nothing of ourselves and glorifies Christ. I was thinking of the story that used to be told when we were young when Bruce was talking.
About talking a little earlier about a young man who came to, I believe it was Mr. Darby one time and he asked how he could study the word of God.
And Mr. Darby discerned in this young man that he simply wanted to study the Word of God to get a good knowledge so he could put it out. And Mr. Darby detecting this in this young man, he said, study well these words. The flesh profiteth nothing. And that's what the truth does when we get into the Word and we take in the truth as it is in Jesus. And it's important to see Christ in every line of this book. But when we take it in that way and it becomes part of us, then we're like the young men that John commended.
They, they, they had strength. There was power. But maybe there's some older ones here. And I was thinking of Caleb. Caleb, you know, he saw the inheritance. He was there when the grapes of Eshkol were plucked down. And though he never went in to take possession of it for 40 years, it got into his heart. And when he went finally, I think at 85 years of age, went in to take possession, he said, I'm as strong this day as when I came out. And so there was strength, there was power there. And I believe there's a spiritual principle that we can learn that wherever we are in our Christian life.
The power and strength to withstand the Wiles of the devil and to stand for the truth in our day, whether we're young or old, is to have taken the truth of God into our hearts and made it part of us. That's where the power really lies. The young man that came to Jan Darby I remember reading over, hearing of and he asked him about. He was impressed with Darby's knowledge of the word and so on. I guess he had been ministering it anyway. He asked him how he could have a good grasp of the word.
Darby said, Well, I would like to have the word have a good grasp of me.
You know, there is the intellectual understanding of Scripture, but there is the moral side of it that should have a grasp of Maine and change our lives. And so you can see in this chapter how that there's the fully following up in these things and umm, but then that leads into what we've already spoken out of practical godliness. And the result of that will lead to is what you get in verse 10, reproach. If you live in the truth and walk in the truth and propound the truth, it's unavoidable that there's going to be some sort of reproach.
And, uh, labor, uh, uh, suffer reproach and so on. That's mentioned in verse 10.
You see the order here too, it's exemplified in Ezra because Ezra set his heart to seek the law of the Lord his God and then to do it and then to teach statutes and judgments in Israel. And that's the order, isn't it? He sought it, He did it, and then he taught it says even of the Lord Jesus is the perfect example of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, so that when they tried to take him in his words, why they couldn't.
Because what he said and what he did perfectly corresponded as that fine flower denoted in the meal offering in the Old Testament. And so we find in the last part of this chapter then Timothy is to teach these things and he's to give attendance to reading. And I just want to echo what you said earlier, Bruce, and that is the one needs to give attendance to reading here verse 13 till I come give attendance to reading. Exhortation doctrine. It's in connection with neglect, not the gift that is in the.
01:00:10
This is public reading of the Word of God. You know, in the early church there were probably very few who could read.
Certainly nobody with a Masters or a PhD. And so they were dependent on those who could read and minister the word of God. And Timothy was raised up as a special instrument to minister the truth of God. He'd taken it in. He'd enjoyed it himself. He was walking in it and he'd been given a gift. And that gift, I believe, was the gift to teach and he was to neglect it. Timothy, as we know from other scriptures, was reticent, perhaps a little shy. He needed to stir it up and be exercised.
To use it, but I would like to just make this very practical comment to all our hearts and that is that we need to avail ourselves of public reading and ministry of the word of God. Maybe there's some of us here and we come from tiny little assemblies and we have a meeting scheduled for ministry of the Word some week night or Sunday night. And we say, you know, there doesn't seem to be a lot of gift. And we come and we read a portion and we don't get a whole lot out of it. You know, one of the great sins of Israel in the wilderness.
Was that they despised the simple manner that God gave them. And I believe one of the things we need to be very careful of, brethren, is that we don't despise the simple manner that God gives us in the local assembly. The word of God hasn't changed. The Lord is there, the Spirit of God is there to the word of the Lord is the same. And can't he feed our souls, perhaps in ever so feeble a way, and give us what's needed when we come together and read a portion with exercise.
And if you come with an exercise to get something, I believe the Spirit of God can meet your need in a very simple way. And then we need times like this, too, when we're together, special times when the Word of God can be before us. We're thankful that we have these opportunities. I've been in Egypt this summer. And you know, when they get the Bible out to read it, they close the shutters, they close the door, we're asked to keep our voice down. We don't sing.
Because there's real fear now, brethren, we've got the doors open wide this morning. We're not afraid of somebody coming in here.
And busting down the door and arresting or shooting us because we're having the word of God before us in the presence of the Lord. No, we have this liberty now. Are we availing ourselves of it? Are we taking advantage of these times? And we need ministry in the assembly if we're going to be balanced Christians. Not that the Bible needs balance. It's the only balanced book there is. But it's we who need the balance.
So there's a lot of verses of the chapter. He's encouraging him to use his gift.
And he says the opportunity is ready made for you in these public readings of the scripture. As we were saying that they didn't have a, they're printing presses in those days. They don't have a copy of all the word of God. Someone may have had a few pages of this or that it was handwritten and they would come and those who could read, who were literate could read it out to the rest who couldn't under, uh, couldn't read. And then there's opportunity for exhortation and doctrine to follow. So it was a ready made opportunity for Timothy to.
Take advantage of this and what he says in verse 14 is very good for us and especially for those who are older in the room.
And that is, he tells him not to neglect the neglect the gift. He recognized that he had some ability in this way. And he said that not only that, that the older brethren, the which he calls the presbytery, could be translated the elderhood.
Had laid on hands with regard to him. What he's saying is, Timothy, you have a gift.
And it's been prophesied that you, ha uh, would be used of the Lord and your older brethren are behind you. They've laid hands on you in a figurative sense. They have given you the fellowship and support and said, we're behind you. Timothy, he says with this kind of encouragement, go forward and umm, occupy yourself with these things. And so I would just like to say to the older brethren here, if you see younger ones who are learning the truth and their lives are in order with regard to godliness and they have some gift to minister the word.
Get behind them and encourage them in their gift that they will be helpful and profitable in the assembly in the years to come if the Lord leads us here. You know this idea of trying to, uh, sit shotgun in the meeting and to hold down the younger brother who is not God's word. Here we have older brethren encouraging a younger brother who has the gift for it. Mind you, you don't want to encourage someone who may want to speak but doesn't hasn't fully followed up in these things and he doesn't have much substance.
01:05:06
But having these things in order, you can see why the elder hood would want to encourage one like this to exercise his gift. And that's a good work for an older brother to do, to encourage ones. Don't flatter them. Sometimes younger brother can get occupied with what they have and they can fall flat on their face. And we would have to be responsible with regard to that. I don't mean that, I mean godly encouragement. Now verse 15, it says meditate on these things. That's one of the poorest part translated parts of the whole epistle.
It's not the idea of.
Meditation here, which would be the idea of taking in quiet, taking in of the truth. It's the putting out it's output that's before us. He it should be translated. Occupy yourself with these things that is to be fully occupied in distributing the truth and exercising your gift and attending these readings and being helpful. And so it's not intake here, it's output that he's encouraging him in.
That may bring us Bruce really to that scripture where it says that study the shows I self approved unto God a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth because it says here in this verse 15, give thyself wholly to them. It's actually time involved. How much time do we spend studying the word of God? If the word of God, our joy, our delight, our food, our drink, it should be. I was talking with my stepson the other day and uh, he was quoting me a scripture and he said confessing your faults 1 to another.
And he said that that's, that's what we should do are are false. I said, well, I think that word was more than just false, you know, And he, he said, well, now, and we, we paid it about it for a while, you know, I said, well, Bobby, I think that the word basically also includes sin. But anyhow, I went home that night. That's just before we came down here and I looked the word up and that's what we have to spend time looking at word. I'll look the word up and it occurs. I remember because I just looked it up, uh, the other day.
20-3 Times Now it's translated offensive trespasses fall as translated sin four times. So my, my, my, my stepson was insisting that this word only meant false. It didn't have anything to do with sin. I said, well, Bobby, I, I haven't I, I, I just told him what I recollected. But now that I looked it up, I'll contact him when I get back and I'll tell him. He said, Bobby, this worked for 323 times and it's translated thin your, your sins and their iniquities. All I remember no more and so forth.
I said, if that's not false, so other words, I mean the, the, the responsibility is upon each one of us. And I don't believe it's just for, uh, a minister or the brother who may be labor. And I think every one of us should be meditate, give ourselves wholly unto them. We should want to know what the word of God teaches. It should be our food, our drink, our delight. It should throw our hearts that they're studying to know what God is trying to tell us in his word.
There's a warning here to Timothy, I think would be good at the end of the before the meeting ends to notice. And that is that for Timothy or any who minister the word, there needs to be a proper progression. It's interesting, Mr. Darby, when it speaks about profiting, it's really progression here. You know, there needs to be. The Saints need to see a growth and a progression in those who minister the truth. And then he was to take heed to his own ministry.
Because in doing so, interesting statement here, he would both save himself and those that he ministered to.
And I, I believe there are those who ministered the word, have ministered the word to us and they did it well, but they didn't take heed to their own ministry. And many of the things that they ministered on, they didn't take heed to themselves. And not only did it lead them from the past, but sad to say, it took followers with them. You know, those who Satan is always busy to try to trip up those in a place of leadership and influence amongst the people of God, whether it's in the local assembly or on a wider sphere, because he.
Realizes in doing so, not only do they miss the path, but they usually take others with them. And so it's a warning to any who minister to the word, the word minister the word, to take heed to their own ministry, what they minister. So that in doing so, there would be blessing not only for those they minister to, but for themselves as well. And the saving of thyself here is the saving of from what we have in the first few verses.
01:10:06
That movement that's afoot in the Christian testimony away from the truth. So sound doctrine will save us and saving here is in the, in the aspect of a practical deliverance from, uh, these errors and things that have come in. Just to build a little, just a couple of words on Acts chapter 16, just to build on what you were saying earlier about Timothy as a young man and verse two, Acts 16 and verse two, he was Timothy was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium.
Him would Paul have to go forth with him? And so there was a manner of life, there was a godliness, there was a walk with the Lord privately first, and then he could be of use to the Lord and to the Lord's people.
An Israelite who had a vineyard and had an eaten of it was not to go out to battle, you know, and two things happen in battle. You're out there to save yourself, but you're out there also to save others. And so if he hadn't taken in that vineyard, he only planted it, it hadn't really nourished him, then he was going to die in battle and he wouldn't be able to save himself and he wouldn't be able to save anyone else either.
We sing 22 in the appendix.
Your presence is uh.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh, period.
Let me.
Umm.
Also saving 288.
#288.
Oh my God, today is all over the evening and there's a boy and seven nights I'm at the end of the day and it's like getting close, powerful and drinking. It's a lot of.
The difference so I'm.
01:15:58
How many increased rates and.
Umm, I don't know what are the problems with the mile? I'm going to miles away.
Gravity and.
France.
We got a little all of our community and stuff arriving. Uh-huh. And.