Reading—Q&A
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No, that's right, It's all around.
Happy end, happy enough when I stayed on the floor to my sins away.
When did I fly to my?
OK, I see that Wednesday, Wednesday, the fall of my death away.
How do I transfer?
I will bring the joy anything, everything else.
Now as I lost.
The Earth.
No. Where are you from?
I don't want anything from.
When I pray God for children.
Every time you die in the back in the day.
When I can get the blah blah blah, it says Lord.
Hey, Cortana.
Pray and let pray joy me and grace.
I can hurt my eyes and I feel bad.
When did my fall my turn away?
As I mentioned this morning, we're going to, in these couple little Bible studies, consider Second Timothy chapter 2.
Verse 15 to the end, and I didn't ask ahead, but Tim Cell, would you be willing to read that portion for us? So Second Timothy chapter 2 from verse 15.
Yeah.
11/17/72 verse 15 tell you to show this office to prove them to God. The workmen that need not to be ashamed, greatly dividing the word truth, but stunned for pain and vain battling, so they will increase to more ungodliness and their words will eat never done the changer whom is the minus and elitist who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is passed already and overthrow the phase of some. Nevertheless the foundation of God's standard standards for having this deal.
00:05:09
The Lord knows them that are his, and let everyone that name the name of Christ apart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only best of the gold and silver, but also bullets in the purse, and some honor, and some to dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself from the he shall be a vessel, and honor sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work. We also use full thoughts to follow righteousness, to face charity, peace within that fall on the Lord out of a pure heart.
It wasn't unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender crisis and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men. Apartment to teach patients and meekness. Instructing those to impose themselves God for adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
That they may may recover themselves out of the scenario, but that will be taken captive by him as well. Thank you.
I suggested this portion for the these two times because I believe it corresponds with what we're taking up in connection with the building of the wall in Nehemiah. I mentioned this morning that in Nehemiah it's parallel to the days we live in. It's a day of ruin. It's a day of compromise. It's a day of weakness.
It's a day of small things and that when when you take up an Old Testament portion like that, you can always find some book or portion in the New Testament that corresponds with it. So that's why we need both. In the New Testament we have the doctrines and principles concerning Christianity, but in the Old Testament we have the illustrations and the types in the shadows. Someone has said, and rightly so, that the Old Testament is God's picture book that helps us to understand the instructions.
Of the New Testament and so as we go on in Nehemiah, we're going to find that there were there was not only Nehemiah, but there were his workmen. And some of those workmen had 100% approval from God. Some had a certain percentage, some didn't put themselves wholly to the work. And it's mentioned as we as you go down that third chapter of Nehemiah. So here we find where we began.
The apostle Paul is talking to Timothy, a young man, and he's speaking about a Workman and he said, says study to show thyself approved unto God a Workman. So you can see it corresponds to the workmen with physical work back in Nehemiah's day, a physical building of the wall. I believe here it's in connection with the work of God, the work of the Lord, the spiritual up building of the Church of God and our brethren, our fellow young people and so on.
So it's a spiritual work here in Timothy. But you see, you can see the parallel. So a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed. So here we find Paul is telling Timothy to study to be approved of God.
And young people, isn't that what we really want as Christians is God's approval, the Lord's approval. We'll talk about that in a in a moment. But when he says study to show thyself approved.
If you notice Mr. Darby's translation, he says strive diligently because Christianity is work. Christianity is not easy. Christianity takes diligence, it takes work. It's running a race, it's fighting a spiritual battle, all kinds of different pictures and analogies the New Testament uses. But God never encourages laziness.
In any aspect of our Christian life, Christianity takes diligence and watchfulness. Christianity takes hard work. If we're going to maintain our own spirituality and walk for the Lord personally, or if we're going to be a help to others, it's going to take a real diligence. So I thought we'd just go down a few of these verses, a few of them today and a few tomorrow. Anybody has a thought or help or question on what we take up? That would be very good. But study to show thyself approved, not to man, not to your fellow young person.
But approved to God, I believe that's what really counts in the end.
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So I believe the study here is more than just studying the Bible. It would include that. But again, when you look at another translation, it sort of has a broader thought. It's really being careful and diligent in every part of our Christian life. It's it's studying every aspect of life. Now we need to study the word of God too, but we also need to examine or study every aspect of our Christian life.
So that whether it's our diligence in reading the word of God and rightly dividing the word of truth, or it's our testimony to others, or it's what we save our Christian walk at school, at work, whatever, so that everything we do in the end has God's approval. That's why the apostle Paul said we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
You know, it's not wrong to want acceptance. We all want acceptance. But again, I ask the question, who's acceptance do we really want? Are we really seeking the Lord's acceptance and His approval?
So when it says rightly dividing the word of truth, what, to put it in simple language, it's keeping every aspect of the word of God in its proper context.
And unless you really get your Bible out and study it and go through it and get an outline of what each writer is presenting, you're not gonna rightly divide the word of truth. Let me give you a couple of examples of wrongly dividing the word of truth.
Well, let me say this first. I believe young people, that's why it's important to hold to what we often call dispensationalism or dispensational guidelines. I alluded to it this morning in our talk that.
God doesn't hasn't dealt with man on the earth the same way at every point in history. God has dealt with man in different ways, and he's not dealing with the church today the way he dealt with Israel in the Old Testament.
And if you wipe away dispensational guidelines, what you really say is that all Scripture in its strict application applies to the church today, and that is not true. And so all of a sudden you're wrongly taking Scripture that applies to Israel and you're applying it to the church. And you're saying that our blessings are earthly. No, Israel's blessings are earthly.
You're, we're, you're saying that we should be getting ready to usher in the Kingdom on earth. No, the Lord's man is going to come back and establish the Kingdom with Israel, but we're going to be already with the Lord. You're going to confuse the Lord's coming for us with the Lord's coming back with us to reign over the earth and to establish an earthly Kingdom and an earthly people for earthly blessings. So those are just a couple of examples of wrongly dividing the word of truth.
You need to keep the Word of God in its context. That's why Timothy was told to hold an outline of truth. Now, I know you can spend your whole lifetime studying the Word of God and you'll still only have an outline. But it's not hard to have some general idea what what Paul teaches, what James teaches Peter, what's the four gospels present in different aspects of the person of Christ. I think we took that up one year here.
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And then the Old Testament writers, just to have some outliner, some idea of what they teach that helps to keep things in its proper context. So Timothy here was to study and he so that he could rightly divide the word of truth. So when he presented John's ministry, which speaks of the family, he's not stressing the Church of God or Paul's ministry, which brings before us the Church of God, not stressing the family.
James gives us practical faith, Jude presents to us the last days, and so all these little outlines are are very helpful.
You know those 3 categories we're talking about, There's a first, I don't know where he is, Gentile and Church of God. That was always helpful for me to see that. I don't know where that verse is. So it's in First Corinthians chapter 10.
And verse 32, why don't you wait? You have about.
Gives none offense neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God. And that was very helpful to me to see that there's those 3 distinct categories that you're talking about.
Yes, so.
God. God just hasn't dealt with the Gentiles the same way he dealt with the Jews in the Old Testament. And there are still 3 categories on earth today. There's the Jews.
And God will take them up again. You know, the earth for an earth. These last names, there's the Gentiles. And today the gospel goes out both to Jew and Gentile. And so they keep both can be saved on the ground through the work of Calvary. But our Jew is saved or Gentiles saved. They become part of the of the Church of God. So we have to keep all these things in their proper context and rightly divide the the word of truth. When I speak, when I speak about him, he's taking up the Jew for earthly blessings.
It's nationally in the coming days. Jews can be saved individually today.
But God dealt with a nation in the Old Testament, the Jewish nation. He will again take up the Jewish nation collectively in the coming day. So all these things are very helpful. Again, don't confuse the rapture with the appearing. The Lord is coming to call us at any moment. That is coming back to appear in in this world. This is all part of rightly dividing the word of truth.
May maybe that could make a little application for my call. I have the guys working for me one day.
And one of them works with me quite often and spent a lot of time with them. So he knew what I was trying to get done. He knew where I wanted it done and how I wanted it done. And I I like getting it worked on and I like to have fun too. And the other guy that was working with me sometimes worked with me but didn't spend as much time with me, but neither that I like to have fun. And he knew that I wanted to get work done. So they both work hard and then at the wrong time, the one that didn't spend as much time with me. When did condone us on somebody else's property on the truck.
You don't want to be doing that.
So now I have to go to the landowner to take care of it. And that's what I'm talking about here. You have to people work on the that's approved and understanding where to do the right thing and at the right time. It's not that I didn't mind having fun. It's not that I don't mind even going to the truck, but not on somebody else's car.
So, uh, that's, that's the point here. And you don't want to go if someone asks you if, if you go even simpler than you were talking about, uh, uh, Israel and the church, we can go in some of our place. Someone wants to go hard to save and say, well, I know from the Bible.
But so it's the ten Command method and keep them and, and, uh, you can, you can close this final thought and that would be a horrible mistake. So, uh, the, the feel here is you want to have that relationship with God and what the Lord gave us and know what he wants to do. You know what his purposes are so that when you get in this situation, you know how to act and do the right thing. So you have a good conversation with the landowner instead of doing doughnuts on it.
Property so so that goes along with the net first because in contrast to what has just been said that he says in verse 16, but shun profane and vain valleys are empty babies.
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So if you want to be a Workman with for God's approval, you've got to know what, what, what that is. You've got to know you've got to have some principle like with with anybody that's got a business. When they hire somebody, they lay the ground rules. They tell them how the work is to be done, what they're to do and what's not to do. If you don't read your Bible, you're not going to know how to serve the Lord. You're not going to have good, good principles. And so good principles are sound doctrine lead to good practice.
But conversely, that doctrine leads to bad practice to ungodliness. And so we're to shun or to stay away from profane and vein badly. That is where to stay away from that which does not present sound, sound teaching. Now it's profane because it's it's wicked. If it's not the truth of God, you know, read Proverbs. It's it's good or it's bad, it's evil. It it, it's righteous or it's evil. If I can put it this way, it's black or it's white.
Which is false teaching always put self at the center. And then we we talk about vanity. Someone is vain, they're self-centered, they're egotistical. And you ever notice someone who tries to propagate false teaching? It always puts themselves or someone other than Christ at the at the center of it. And that's, that's a safeguard.
When someone presents something to you, does it exalt Christ? Is is it Christ centered or does it exalt man and and themselves? So Paul warned about false teachers who rise speaking perverse things to draw disciples. After who? After Christ? No, after themselves. You can look up that verse sometime. It's in Acts chapter 20.
And then what you find is.
It defiles others so that bad teach, bad teaching leads to bad practice in our lives, and bad practice will then defile others.
Features and false prophets that will come in among you. How will you know when you're listening to a false teacher, false prophet if you're not in the word yourself and and?
And, uh, we're expected to judge the message we hear.
In there in that was the characteristics of the Spirit of God that not only he will lead you to all truth, but if he will present Christ wanting. That's one of the safeguards that you're emphasizing as far as that is a an important characteristic of the Spirit of God, isn't it?
It really is the main function of the Spirit of God. The main function of the Spirit of God is to present and minister Christ to us according to to the need. Now it's true the Spirit of God has other functions. There is one time when the Spirit of God will occupy us with ourselves and that's in self judgment. When there's sin or failure in our lives, then the Spirit of God is going to impress that on our conscience so that we will judge it. But the main function of the Spirit of God.
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Is to present Christ. And if again, if something's presented and it simply exalts man and doesn't exalt Christ, then we have every reason to question whether it's really the truth of God. But I I think what Mark said is important. And let me just echo it again. You will never detect false, false teaching if you're not grounded in the word of God. That is the way we detect false teaching.
OK.
And, uh, first John chapter 2, verse 20 and 21, uh, provision is made for even the youngest believers. It doesn't have a good grasp of the word yet. Uh, first John chapter 2 verse 20. But he hasn't functioned from a holy one, uh.
A little bit of work eating with little children or 20 so he had a function from the Holy one and you know all things I have not written on you because you know not the truth, but because you know it and that no lie is also true. So there's both sides. God's sovereignty and man's responsibilities and God is going to the Spirit of God will kind of leave the red flag and something that won't quite sound right when you go and you dig into Scripture and you find out for yourself because it's not true but God has provided for even the youngest believers who.
To detect something that's false. But of course it's our responsibility to dig in and search it to see if the things excel.
So let's let's read a verse in First Corinthians 13 that sometimes that will seem contradictory to what Tim has said, but it's not. But I, I wanna read this because some have some have read the verse in first John and wondered, you know, all things now. Now let's go to 1St Corinthians 13 and verse 12.
For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then shall I know even as I have known. So here on one hand it says you have a notion from the Holy One that's the Spirit of God, and you know all things. Then we read in first Corinthians 13 that we only know in part this side of heaven. What, what, what, what is it? What is it a contradiction of? Of course not. So as I said earlier, we can spend our whole life getting an outline of Scripture and we'll still only know in part.
We're not gonna know it all until we get to heaven. But I believe what Tim said is important because when it says you know all things, it doesn't mean we know everything about Scripture. But it means that having that outline of truth and being in the word, when something is presented that's false, it doesn't have the ring of the truth. I'll, I'll give you an example. So we were going through some very serious difficulties in the assemblies here in North America some years ago.
And a lot of letters were written and so on. And I was concerned about my brethren in the Caribbean where I have the opportunity to spend a good deal of time. And I knew that they had received certain letters and, and so on and information. And I was concerned that they were going to be LED astray. But, you know, I needn't have been concerned because when I went down to the Caribbean and talked to the brethren, they said to me, they said, you know, we got some letters and some information from certain people in North America.
And we kind of scanned it and we, we realized it didn't have the ring of the truth of the shepherd's voice. And so we discarded the, the letters and we feel like we have, we're standing on the ground where we have always stood. Now, they didn't know about all the problems. They didn't need to know about all the difficulties. They certainly down there don't have a complete knowledge of all the Scripture, like none of us have a complete knowledge. But what was what was it? They were brethren that were grounded in the word of God, reading the word of God.
Listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus in the power of the Spirit. And they had an unction from the Holy One and they knew all things again, it's like the teller at the bank. They ha handle the good money and they know what it feels, what good money feels like. And when something counterfeited passed to them, then they they can detect it immediately. Not because they know the feel of all the folks money, but because they know the feel of the of the.
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The legitimate money.
So just one of the comments, this is a short meeting. Our time is really gone. But just to notice that there were these two men who were propagating false truth even back in the days of the apostle Paul. So Paul again had warned in Ephesians, I'm sorry to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, he had warned that from the very beginning there were going to be these people. And so today too, there are those who will try to teach, to give you teaching that is not according.
To the word of God, he denotes a special error. There here they were teaching that the resurrection was passed, and as a result it was overthrowing the faith of some. But there's many aspects of false teaching that have been propagated since then for the last 2000 years or so. And again, we need to be very, very careful and warned. And again, false teaching has a detriment to others.
I believe false doctrine is the most dangerous evil there is because it is often harder to detect, because it's usually cloaked with part of the truth. Like Satan at the beginning, when he came to Eve, he, he told part of the truth, but he mixed it with with error. And so those who teach false doctrine, they usually mix it with errors. Often they're quite learned men. They're often very intellectual and they can present things in a way.
That if you find hard to argue with, the other problem is by the time it is detective detected, often it has overthrown the faith of others. It has LED others away for away from the truth. So it's a very, very serious thing for someone to teach and propagate false doctrine amongst the people of God. And I believe God holds them very, very responsible.
Umm, just on that note, uh, what does the word son mean? Well, if we look at the beginning of verse 17, it says the word will leave itself a tanker. If you look at the Arby's translation, it says spread like gangrene. Uh, but someone's got gangrene in a, in an arm or a leg. The answer was always to cut it off, cut it right off. I think that will help understand what the word shunned.
Yeah, so, so morally evil. It usually just affects the.
Couple of people are a small circle that are involved but false teaching, false doctrine spreads and again it talks in scripture of those that subvert or undermine the souls of the same is very it's often very subtle. It gets at the very foundation and causes the face of many to some at least to to crumble. And again, it's very doesn't always hit the surface straight away.
You you have something eating at the surface of your house. You don't always notice that. Sometimes until it's almost, almost too late.