Beacon Sunday Service: November 10th, 2024

Can you remain standing? I'd like to begin with the reading of God's Word. We're going to be reading what should be now a very familiar passage for you. But today we are including verse 4. Alright, so that's a treat. Here we go. This is a reading of God's Word. Paul, a slave of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the full knowledge of the truth, which is according to godliness, in the hope of eternal life, which the God who cannot lie promised from all eternity. But at the proper time manifested his word in preaching with which I was entrusted according to the commandment of God, our Savior to Titus, my genuine child, according to our common faith, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus, our Savior.

Let us pray together. Father, we ask that this morning that your word would go forth clearly, that it would not be our opinion or the pastor's preparation or anything that prevails, but really that your truth would be proclaimed loudly, and then that truth would leave an indelible impression on our hearts. Cause us to respond in a way that is fitting for the proclamation of your truth and help us to really magnify the person of Jesus in how we live our lives. And so, Lord, would you speak for your children, for your servants, your slaves, your co-laborers are listening. So we pray for your help to engage well in the hearing of your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Please be seated. So during my time in seminary, uh that was a while back.

Um I took a class in Christian education. It was a required class. And one of the group projects that we had for the class was to research different churches' education ministries. And so there were four of us in this class. Uh there was a four of us in this group for the class, and then we had to present a case study on a church that was not uh a church that we were at. And we were then to conduct our just interviews and write a report on how the education of that church was run. So we decided to do a case study on an up and coming church that people were talking about in our area. And uh that was 2007. And that church was still pretty new, and it had been in existence for about five months.

And in those five months, the church had grown to about 200 people. So that's a pretty fast growth. Becky joined me for a Sunday service there, and it was like a week after we got married. So one week after we got married, she went with this seminary student as a wife to this case study. Uh, but it was a couple of weeks before Easter Sunday. And one of the outreach events for that Easter had this tagline. Come to church, win a car. And they were raffling a car that every new person who visited on Easter Sunday would be eligible to win. And the sermon didn't have much substance, and it involved a lot of yelling and a lot of efforts at trying to pump up the congregation. One, so our group, we interviewed the pastor a few weeks after that visit, and he told us about how the church got started.

And this is what he said, and I have the notes from what he said. So he's he wrote, or he said, I'm hoping to reach the unchurched and the younger generation with a not so traditional church setting. So he wanted to church, uh, the he wanted the church to reach like the marginalized, and he proudly told us about how he even decided to open up the communion table to everyone who came into the church, but especially members of the homosexual community. And he, this is 2007, and he there's more churches that are doing that now, but he was beaming with pride, and he asked us, Did you see that row of lesbian teens sitting in the front taking communion? Isn't the gospel a beautiful thing? And he told us that his preaching focus was always for the purpose of inspiring people to be better and truer versions of themselves.

And he told us multiple times that he refused to preach on sin. And the philosophy for their education department was to make Sunday school uh an experience and a super fun experience for the children. The children had a carnival game each time on Sunday, and the youth group, they often watched inspirational movies during the worship service, and their Bible study was a discussion on those movies. And I felt both on that Sunday service and the subsequent interview, very bothered by what I saw and what I heard. And now, if you have a friend or a family member who was at a church like that, how would you feel? What would be going on in your head? Would you be troubled and try to pull them out?

Or would you feel like, well, as long as they're hearing the gospel, isn't that okay? Can't we all just agree to disagree? Don't make a big deal of it. Is that what you would feel? On that note, what messages should be coming from the pulpit at churches? Is it like to each his own? Is the preaching even important? If it is important, how important is it? What makes a good sermon? What is what is a gospel-centered sermon? And then another question to ask is is God pleased by all the messages that come from all the churches that bear the name of Jesus? How should a person feel when he walks out of a church's worship service? There are many churches today that say we shouldn't preach any imperatives because that's legalistic and it makes people feel judged and condemned.

Now I assume that we do have friends and family members and co-workers at all sorts of churches, but would you be able to articulate the reasons a person should stay or the reasons a person should leave a church? Would you be able to articulate the importance of doctrine? It is important to think through what the non-negotiables are when it comes to preaching and teaching at church. Would you guys agree? And I'm speaking more about the content about what is taught and not so much about the giftedness of the preacher. So the preaching, it is important.

And all these questions I threw out are questions that I'd like for us to actually think through and process through today and next week. Okay, so today and next week, we're gonna be spending time unpacking the end of the introduction to Titus as we look at verses three and four. And just by way of a quick recap, over the past five weeks, this has been our scripture reading. This has been where we've been launching off of. And the opening of the epistle to Titus, it's very dense, very complicated, very wordy. It's one of the densest, most complicated, and the wordiest of all the New Testament epistles. A period doesn't even appear in the original language until the word Savior. So it's one really long run-on sentence.

And there are several important and fundamental doctrines that we covered in the first five weeks over the last five weeks. And thus far, we've walked through all the doctrinal points of this lengthy introduction somewhat topically, and I've underlined the points that we covered there for you on the slides. Okay, so that's what we covered when we're going through verses one and two. And I'm hoping that the slow and thorough trek through these verses has been a beneficial one for you. And now we've arrived at verse three. Okay, so I'm gonna make it a little easier for you to see. Here's a reading of verse three, and hence uh why I introduced a sermon the way I did. But at the proper time manifested his word in preaching, with which I, Paul, was entrusted according to the commandment of God, our Savior.

So here's the outline for today's sermon and next week's sermon. The word proper there is italicized because it doesn't appear in the original language. So all the English translations are translated slightly differently. But in context, we see that there is a proper time for the manifestation or the appearing of his word. Okay, a lot took place before the word of God was manifested, and there was an appointed time where God the Father would send God the Son physically into the world, and that's what it says there at the beginning of the verse. So we'll look at the pathway to this manifesting. Alright, I like alliteration because it helps us to remember, but the pathway to the word and the setting up of the stage for the appearing of Jesus Christ.

And that's gonna be the bulk of today. Secondly, we're gonna be looking at the priority of the preaching of the word. First of all, what is the word? What is meant by the word? Is it the gospel? Is it just preaching Jesus? Because in John 1:1, in the beginning was a word, and words was with God and Word was God, and it's mentioning, it's implying Jesus. Is the Word of God the Old Testament? Because to the early apostles, it was the Old Testament. Right? The early church, that was their Bible. Is it only the New Testament? Or is it both? Does it include the preaching of imperatives? You shall not. You shall. Right. And Paul, the slave of God says that he's entrusted with the task of preaching.

You guys see that in the verse? In fact, it was commanded of him by God his master and by God his Savior. So what exactly did Paul preach? Come to church when a car. God has a wonderful plan for your life. Come to the church where everybody knows your name. It's like cheers, right? You belong here. And those are a lot of taglines in today's churches, and there's nothing explicitly wrong with that except the car one. Okay. There's a preaching that every slave of God and every messenger and preacher has been entrusted with. And if God is entrusting all of his preachers according to his commandments with the preaching of his word, it's important to discern what that is. So we're going to look at that as a second point next week.

Thirdly, after we look at the proper time and what the the importance of the preaching of the word, we're going to be looking at the parceling of the word. Okay, parcel means packaging, right? Paul was entrusted with the passing along of the preaching of the word. This is actually the purpose of the letter to Titus. And we're going to see that in the letter that Paul is passing on the baton of this stewardship of the word to this young pastor Titus. And then Titus, you're going to actually see in the letter is to pass it on to the elders. So the word is to be parceled, packaged, propagated, and passed on by all who similarly entrusted to preach. So what does that mean for us? What does that mean for a person like me who's been called into vocational ministry?

What am I supposed to preach? What does that mean for you who sit under a pastor's preaching on a Sunday? It is absolutely right for you to have expectations of sermons that you hear from the pulpit. You have every right according to the scriptures to demand that the preacher preach God's word.

So that's a lot to there's a lot to cover in that first point, the pathway to the word. So we're going to finish our sermon today with only the first point. We'll continue with the second and thirds next week. And so this is going to be the outline over the next two weeks. The pathway to the word, preaching of the word, and the parceling of the word. Okay. So what are the significance events that took place between God's entrance into time and Jesus' entrance into the world? So we're going to take a look at this beginning. We're going to start, the starting point of the pathway to the uh to all of this is God, the great I am. Okay, He is God the Creator. And one of the things that we learned that He created is time.

God created time. And so we're going to look at Genesis 1 and then verse 1 and 5. Verse 1 reads, In the beginning, God created. And then there's a bunch of stuff that's created in verse 5, he says, and God called the light, day, and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and then there was morning, one day. And so we learned last week, God existed, and he exists outside of time. And the opening verse of Genesis here, we see God's creation of time. And from our vantage point, that's where we start. We can't start before that. Many of the general details of the creation account, I'm sure you're all familiar with. And every single day that God creates something, that account reads, and God saw that it was good.

Nod your heads if you you've read that before yet. Okay, God saw that it was good. On the sixth day, God created man, and he deemed this particular and special creation of man and woman as not just good, but as very good. Okay, that I'm sure you're also familiar with. Now, sometime before the creation of the material world, after the creating of the heavens and the earth, something very significant happened that's only slightly touched upon in the biblical account. So a lot of this can happen outside of time, but something significant happened. The angels were created, and all the angels were created to serve God and to minister to man. Hebrews 1 14. So the angels were created, not in God's image, but they were created by God to serve his purposes, but specifically to minister to man.

That's why the angels are created. That's Hebrews 1 14. But at some point in the heavens, there was a cosmic rebellion led by Satan. Satan became proud and he desired glory for himself. Satan fell, and with his fall was the origin of sin and deception. And he became the father of all lies. He introduced sin into the cosmos, and this is a very important starting point into the pathway to the word. Ezekiel 28, 11 to 19, Isaiah 14, 12 to 19, they touch upon Satan's origin and the root of that rebellion. And they're the only two sections of all of the Bible that describe Satan and his fall after the creation of the universe and before the temptation of Adam and Eve. So we're going to look at those two verses or sections briefly.

Ezekiel 28, verse 17, your heart was lofty because of your beauty. You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground.

Isaiah 14, 12 to 13. Oh, how you have fallen from heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn. You have been cut down to the earth, you who have weakened the nations. You said in your heart, I will ascend to heaven. I will raise my throne above the stars of God, and I will sit on the mount of assembly in the recesses of the north. And both passages continue, but I just give you a small little excerpt because this is not the focus. But Satan, a created angel, the angel of all angels, became very puffed up in his pride.

He became the murderer of all murderers and the liar of all liars. Murder and deception are Satan's core values. He's extremely good at murder.

And from the time of his fall, Satan has been on a mission to oppose God, to overturn all that God has created, and to mar his glory. Satan has become the arch enemy of God. He became the arch hater of God. He became the father of all false religions and all deception. And since that time, his desire has primarily to bit just to steal, kill, and destroy John 10 10. That's all in the Bible. And the very first recorded targets in the scriptures of his murderous and deceptive ways were the image and glory bearers of God, Adam and Eve. So in context, we know that God had given Adam and Eve one prohibition and one prohibition only in the Garden of Eden. God prohibited Adam from eating from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Yahweh God commanded the man, Genesis 2, 16, saying, From any tree of the garden you may surely eat, but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it. For in the day that you eat from it, can you read it with me? You will surely die. And when God speaks, he speaks absolute truth, we learned last week. You will die. And this was the only prohibition, like I said, that God left to Adam and Eve. You can eat anything. Just don't eat that. Eat from that one tree, and you will surely die. So Satan, he disguises himself as actually a harmless serpent. Now we're all like, ew, snake, right? But he's a harmless serpent. And he comes in and says the exact opposite. He distorts the truth, causes man to question and doubt God, and then he propagates false religion in order to get Adam and Eve to rebel and then to be executed because he's a murderer and a father of lies.

Genesis 3, 4. And the serpent said to the woman, you guys read this. Oh, you surely will not die. Opposite words. You know the story, right? It reads, For God knows that in the day you eat from it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. You guys know what happens. You're suffering because of what happened. Adam, the representative head of all man, he fell, his descendants were plunged into ruin, they were cursed, all creation was cursed, death was introduced into the world. You guys understand sin and evil, right? Adam's descendants are now children who belong to their father, the devil, the father of lies, the father of all false religion that seeks to take away glory from God, that causes man to seek glory for himself.

And here we see false religion now first manifested in humanity. Verse 7, the eyes of both of them were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. Have you guys read this before at some point in your Bible reading? I mean, whenever you start a new Bible reading plan, you start at the beginning and then you get here. And this is still fun, right? By the time you get to Leviticus, you're like, whoa! But you've all read this, and you might have glossed over this passage. But there's something very significant here. Man cannot handle the great discomfort of guilt and shame. So man seeks to cover those things up by any means necessary.

Shame and guilt for God's image bearers are unbearable things. Does that make sense? Shame and guilt are unbearable things for God's image bearers. Being left in guilt and shame is holistic torture to anyone bearing the image of God. No other creature has guilt. No other animal has shame. No other animal wears clothes unless a person puts clothes on it, right? What do Adam and Eve do? First thing they notice we have sinned, there's guilt, there's shame. So they work out a solution. They seek a means to cover themselves. And here's a very important thing. False religion always seeks to remove the discomfort of guilt and shame through human effort.

That's the primary goal of false religion. To turn God's image-bearers away from God toward themselves. And the goal of false religion is and has always been to you have you work hard to rid your life of guilt and of shame. And to do what you can to avoid the consequence and the punishment of sin. That is, that's the aim of false religion. You figure it out so that you won't have guilt, you won't have shame, and that you won't get in trouble. The words, sow fig leaves together. I never, my guess is you haven't looked at that as like an important thing. But that's the first reflexive action recorded in the scripture after the fall. Adam and Eve hurry to cover their guilt and shame. But as you guys know, the story continues, all is not lost.

Shortly after this fall, God promises that sin will be crushed, that it will be defeated and permanently undone, and this is called the proto-Euangelion, the very first mention of the good news of Jesus Christ in verse 15. I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Verse 21 continues. Then Yahweh God made garments of skin for Adam and Eve, and he clothed them. In verse 21, we get a glimpse of true religion in action. And then we encounter the very first recorded death in all the Bible. And it's a death by execution. But it's not the death of Adam and Eve. An animal or animals, plural, are executed, and Adam and Eve are temporarily covered and clothed.

Hopefully you see this. Their guilt and their shame are temporarily covered. The biblical account is silent, but my money would be on two innocent lambs being killed in Adam and Eve's stead. That's my guess. My guess is that lambs were slain because they have wool too, right? They were slain to foreshadow the lamb who would be slain for the sins of the world. And in my sanctified imagination, I am also guessing that Adam and Eve had to physically witness the slaying with their own eyes. Imagine that. Adam and Eve had to be present to watch these innocent lambs be slaughtered and blood spilled for them. This slaying of life would be intended as a lesson that they would pass on to all their kids.

That true religion will require death and payment for sin. So in Genesis 3, we see the launching of two parallel roads in the pathway to the word. Okay, remember the point is pathway to the word. There are two parallel roads. False religion, it puts man at the center, places the removal of sin, guilt, and shame on man. True religion keeps God at the center, and true religion trusts in a gracious God to remove sin, guilt, and shame. So the rest of human history unfolds through a struggle between false religion and true religion. Okay, and I'm gonna build a running chart for you. False religion is of Satan. All religions of the world, all other religions of the world are false. Again, the gospel of Jesus Christ is a very exclusive gospel.

John 14, 6, Acts 4 12. False religion is of Satan. True religion is of God. False religion promises salvation by man's works. True religion, salvation is by grace through faith. Did you guys realize that Christianity is the only faith where God does all the work? Yeah. Okay. False religion, salvation comes through human achievement. You can reach nirvana. You can be elevated in this Hindu system. True religion, salvation comes only through divine accomplishment. God has to do it. God has to promise it. God alone can make good. False religion, true religion. Nodretz, if you understand the distinction. Yes. Okay. The Genesis, the Genesis narrative continues. What happens to Adam and Eve? They get kicked out of the garden.

Genesis 4, I'm not going to go through all 50 chapters. Alright, just so relax. But Genesis 4, these parallel roads on this pathway get played out in the lives of their two of their sons, Cain and Abel. You guys know the story? Okay. Imagine with me. What kind of stories would Adam and Eve pass under their children? There's no other society. So all truth comes from mom and dad. Okay. So what kind of stories would be passed down from Adam and Eve? Probably stories of the beauty and the perfection of the Garden of Eden, how Adam felt when he woke up and then there was a woman, right? You like how it felt when the animals were just walking around at peace. And perhaps Adam and Eve also would share a shameful recounting of the fall.

And they would tell of both the loin coverings that they made and of the animal skins. Probably they would share with their children what they felt, what went through their minds when they first witnessed the death of two creatures. They've never seen death before.

That without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. You can track along this with this, right? So far. Genesis 4, Cain and Abel. They come before God to worship. Let's read the account. It happened in the course of time that Cain brought an offering to Yahweh of the fruit of the ground. Abel on his part also brought the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. Yahweh had regard for Abel and for his offering, but for Cain and for his offering, he had no regard. So Cain became very angry. I would think demonically angry, and his countenance fell.

In pride and disobedience, and likely under satanic deception, because who's the father of all lies and the father of murder? Satan. Cain offers the work of his hands. And for Cain and for his offering, what does it say? God has no regard. In faith and in obedience, Abel offers the fat portions, knowing that God would and could be pleased only through this act of faith and obedience. Abel knew that there's nothing that I can bring to satisfy God's justice outside of a reminder of his helplessness to God. God, you have to do this. How can a man be made righteous before God? Job asks that. That's the first book, the oldest book of the Bible. How can a man be made righteous before God? It's always been by faith and faith alone.

And we learned this as early as Genesis chapter 4. Abel's was a better sacrifice. Cain's sacrifice was an act of arrogance, while Abel's sacrifice was one of disobedience. Here's Hebrews 11:4, that is like a commentary on what happened in the history of faith. Okay? By faith, Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain, though he was approved through which he was approved as being what? How can a man be made righteous before God? He was made righteous. God approving his gifts, and through faith, not acts of service. Though he is dead physically, he still speaks. So what happened with Abel after this? You guys know the story? Cain murdered him. You see the devil at work. The devil isn't just a liar, he's a murderer.

False religion, which is of the devil, always desires to kill true religion. False religion hates true religion. The darkness hates the light. The deceived, the deceived, they hate what? Truth. Have you met people who can't stand to hear truth about themselves? Oh, for sure. I'm like that. It's like if my wife says something, and then I have to like compose myself, right? Because my pride got offended. I've referred to John 8.44 multiple times in the past few weeks in speaking of the devil, but I'm going to actually take a look at that with us together today. In context, Jesus is calling the Pharisees sons of the devil. And the Pharisees, who are they? They were men who thought themselves to be righteous before God.

But Jesus offends them literally beyond belief. Okay? John 8 44, you are of your father. Whoo. Imagine saying that to like a pastor. You belong to the devil, right? You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from when? The beginning. Our vantage point, creation of time. He does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. And whenever Satan speaks, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. So John, Jesus is saying he's a murderer, he's a liar. Murdering and lying are in his nature. He's the author of false religion, which is one of deception and murder. As false religion always seeks to extinguish true religion.

So whether we like to believe it or not, every person that has ever lived on this earth, every person that exists now is either a child of Satan, one who engages in false religion, or he is a child of God who engages in true religion. More people fall into this, right? Many enter the broad and the wide.

False religion, or every person has been restored to God's purposes and has the Lord Jesus Christ as his purpose. He has been created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and he delights in that purpose. False religion, true religion. A person can be law-abiding, law-propagating, and religious, and still be a child of the devil. Agree or disagree.

You could be a religious, devout person and still be devil spawn. One can be moral, one could be generous and still be a propagator and a follower of false religion. If anything, the morally upright is harder to win over to Christ. Because in their mind, their pride deceives them into thinking that they're better than everybody else. So we're walking through the pathway to the word, and we've gotten to Genesis 4. There's 47 more chapters again. Genesis 5. It does continue with a juxtaposition of false religion and true religion. If you look it up, you see two lists of people. God's line, world's line. And the forking off of two families is Genesis chapter 5. And simply put, the rest of the pathway to the Old Testament is a narrative of this cosmic spiritual battle that's played out on the earth.

So I want to add some more things here. Continuing on with this chart, I've added children of the servant woman, and those who are bound to the law. This is talking to the Pharisees and the Judaizers. And then children of the free woman. These are people who believe in the promise to Abraham. There's descriptions of the children of the flesh, and then children of promise. Later in Genesis, God makes a promise to Abraham that through the child from his old loins, through the womb of this 90-year-old old woman, Sarah, that the whole world would be blessed. And that's a ridiculous, that's a ridiculous promise. Right? If you have a hundred-year-old man and a 90-year-old woman, there ain't no way that they can have a kid.

Sarah waits 13 years from the time she's 77. 13 years. Nothing's happened. God has promised. How come he ain't doing nothing? He said we would have a child. And through that child, the whole world will be blessed. And so after becoming impatient for 13 years of this unfulfilled promise, what does she do? She convinces Abraham to take her servant Hagar and to produce a child through her. This was the logical thought. God helps those who help themselves. That's an unbiblical quote, by the way. You don't ever say that. That's a fleshly thought. And Ishmael, the son of the servant woman, is born as a result of man's desire to fix the problem to work out a solution. Isaac later, 13 years later, is born according to a promise that God would do the work.

Impossible things have happened. A 90-year-old woman gave birth to a child. But the descendants of ethnic Ishmael, the descendants of ethnic Isaac, are still at war. You guys know this, right? They're still at war. Later in Genesis, God would choose the nation of Israel to be the bearers of true true religion and the means through which the Messiah would come. The rest of the books of Moses, the Pentateuch, continues to illustrate the defining marks of true religion. This is what true religion looks like. And most of it points to man needs a Savior. The marks of true religion is this.

So this pathway to true religion is written down through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Most people will quote this, but I'm going to quote verse one of chapter two, so that and I'm sure you'll see why. No prophecy was ever made by the will of man. But men, being moved by the Holy Spirit, spoke from God. But false prophets also arose among the people. Just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. So the passage teaches, men who were moved by the Holy Spirit, their representatives of the servants or the and servants of the true religion. They wrote down the scriptures and they spoke from God. But Satan, you can see is actively at work again through false religion.

And destructive heresies are how are they introduced? This is a heresy. This is a heresy. This is gonna plunge you into hell. Believe this and die. No, secretly, believably. Remember, Satan presents himself as a beautiful angel of light. He doesn't come at you like a monster. Destructive heresies, which appear mostly true, are secretly introduced. False prophets, representatives, and servants of false religion, they arose from where? What's the word? Among. They arose from among the people, from within the people. So what do we learn from the history of all of human history and from the scriptures? That the goats are always among the sheep. The goats are always among the sheep. The goats often say, How dare you judge me and want to kill the sheep?

You guys follow.

One of the things that I'm very proud of is that I have a list now. This is 24 years as a pastor. I have a list of people who hate my guts. But that list, I don't hate any of them. But they hate my guts because I said something or I made a decision that embarrassed them, that offended their pride. False prophets will always be liked by everybody. Hebrews 11, 37, 38. The true religious people. Servants of true religion, they were stoned. They were sawn into, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, mistreated. These are men of whom the world was not worthy, wandering in desolate places and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.

This should be us. Who were the prophets of Israel killed by? The prophets of Israel were killed by, and they were executed by the people of Israel. Who was Jesus killed by? Not the Romans. I mean, they played a part, but he was put to trial and put to death on request of the Jews. Representative of false religion hide among representatives of true religion. And representatives of false religion always masquerade in religiosity and legalism. You can get to God by obeying the law of God. Or the purpose of your life is to make you happy. God exists to grant all your wishes so that they come true. Galatians chapter 4, and I'm going to read just that part about the free woman, servant woman. Tell me, you who want to be under law.

So this is the pendulum swings the other way. These are legalists. People who are legalists are trying to sway the church back into Judaism. Okay. Tell me, you who want to be under law. Do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the servant woman and one by the free woman. But the son by the servant woman had been born according to the flesh through Hagar, while the son by the free woman, and then according to the promise, verse 28, and you brothers, in accordance with Isaac, are children of promise. But as at that time, he who was born according to the flesh was persecuting him who is born according to the Spirit, so it is now also. The Pharisees succeeded in getting Jesus tried and put to death.

You see in the New Testament many accounts of Judaizers strongly opposing Christians. You're going to see that in the book of Titus as well. False religion hates true religion. False religion opposes true religion. False religion seeks the death of true religion. And this is happening today. Here in America, the greatest opposition to the Bible is not from non-believers. It's so ironic and sad. The greatest attack on the scriptures today is not coming from those who don't believe the scriptures. Well, duh. The greatest attack, the greatest opposition to genuine Christian faith today comes from those who profess to be Christian. And that's so confusing to people. It confuses non-Christians. When Christians are so divided.

And there are biblically illiterate people who say crazy things in the name of Christ. There are false prophets and false sheep everywhere around us. That's spiritual reality. There are false prophets pointing many toward the paths of destruction, and many doing so in the name of Jesus. And the Bible tells you to beware. Matthew 7, 13 to 15. Enter through the narrow gate. Okay. For the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction. False religion. There are how many? Many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow, and the way he is constricted that leads to life, there are very few who find it. Beware of the false prophets. That juxtaposition of that passage. Beware of the false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

So here's an important question. Would you be able to recognize a false prophet if you saw one or heard one? Not the obvious ones. A false prophet who is obviously a false prophet is a bad false prophet. You can't always believe what you see on the outside of a person. Because after all, what are they dressed like? They're dressed like sheep. Okay. Now the application that I want to leave you with is not for you to go on a witch hunt or catalog through all the pastors that you've had in your life. Hmm. False. Oh, true. He's nice. True. That's not the application here. The call is to be aware and alert. And to grow in awareness and alertness, and to help others to grow in awareness or alertness because eternity is at stake.

So here's that running chart again. I've added the widely gated broad way to this list. False religion. Widely gated broad way. Man's at the center, man can earn his salvation. Okay. And this is how Jesus describes false religion in Matthew 7. True religion, in contrast, is described as a narrowly gated, constricted way. And the bulk of next week's sermon, I'm going to spend unpacking Matthew 7 from where this is from. Because what's interesting is the people on the false religious side. They cry out, Lord, Lord. Did we not prophesy in your name? And in the name of Jesus, cast out demons. Did we not in your name perform many miracles? Jesus does not say, No, you didn't. He says, I never knew you.

Depart from me, evildoers. So workers of false religion can cast out demons, perform many miracles, and preach doctrine. So that's a very disconcerting thought. So, in sum, okay. What is the pathway to the word? It's the battle of false religion against true religion, being played out all the way until the coming of Jesus. And things change when Jesus comes. Okay? And this sermon's going to continue next week with points two and three, but I'll leave you with one application. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, Ephesians chapter 6 says. Okay, there's a spiritual battle going on, and then there is a battle for your soul that's taking place in and around you. Amen. And a lot of times it tries to just lull you to death.

There is a spiritual battle going around you. Satan is hard at work. First Peter says he is like a roaring lion prowling around looking for what? Someone to kill. Because he's a murderer. He's a liar. And as a murdering liar, he's going to try to bait you. You can't fight this battle in the flesh. You can't try to work hard against Satan. You will lose. That's why charismatic groups where they try to teach you how to fight Satan. It's stupid. The book of Jude, 2 Peter, talk about it. These men tell Satan to do this or that. And they get destroyed. So we're not called to fight Satan. We're called to just get behind the breastplate of righteousness. And when Satan shoots the arrows, we have the shield of faith.

And we have the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So that's how we fight our battle. You can't fight the battle in the flesh. You need the illumination of the word. The battle is a spiritual one, so you must pray. So here's an application that I want you guys to really think about. If you haven't been immersed in the word, and if you haven't been spending time in prayer, I absolutely guarantee you that you're spiritually malnourished, that your judgment is clouded and danger is lurking nearby. So if you don't read, and I'm not just talking about skimming. Like really dive into the word. If you're not doing that, if you're not praying, not just lip service, but really praying and asking the Lord.

You're malnourished. And malnourished people are cranky people. Malnourished people can't function straight. Malnourished people have clouded judgments, and then you're easy prey. A drifting away from the faith, an apostasy, it always starts with the neglect of the word and prayer. Always. False religion always starts with unbelief and neglect. Well, actually, it doesn't start there, but that is a symptom of false religion. And if you're not in the word, and if you're not in prayer, you're going to desire pleasure and comfort above God. A sign that you are longing for God is your desire to spend time in the Word and in prayer. A sign that you're not of God is your desire to put pleasure and comfort, success, and status above that.

But you will do just enough. Check off enough boxes so that people won't judge you. So that's not a good sign. Now I want to close with a reading of a very telling and a very good wrap-up of today's sermon. 2 Timothy 3 12, it reads, indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. What's the second letter, second word of that verse? All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, but evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. Most false prophets don't know their false prophets because they are deceived. And they pass on the deception. Most servants of Satan have no idea that they're serving Satan. And that's a very sobering thought.

But he says to Timothy, but you continue in the things you've learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you've learned them. And that from childhood you've known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

All scripture is God breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work. I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who's a judge living in the dead. And by the peering in his kingdom, preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with great patience and teaching, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves false or teachers in accordance to their own desires. They will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.

We're surrounded by people who want their ears tickled. Our job is not to fight fire with fire, it's just to keep speaking truth. Because his sheep will hear his voice. Amen. May our religion be true, even if, and especially when we're attacked. May our true religion be so infectious that it causes others to seek true religion. May our true religion equip others in true religion. And we're going to continue this next week. But I want to wrap up with that church that I visited for my case study back in 2007. Eight months later, the pastor was caught in a scandal. He is still a pastor. Today, changed the name of the church. Wife and the pastor are going around saying, now we are like God's living sermon of the power of grace.

A tree will be known by what? Its fruit. And we're going to look into that when we're looking at qualifications of elders in a couple weeks. Right? Your life is your resume. But too often in today's churches, you hire off of talent. You hire off of PhDs and resumes. And we place people too quickly in positions of power, and we're shocked when they fall. When the resume really should have been their character.

Father, I pray that you would build your church in a way that is pleasing to you, that we don't cut any corners, that every member in this church will grow to be biblically literate, to be zealous for your kingdom, to live holy lives, that we would adorn and cosmeo the gospel of Jesus Christ by our lives, by her behavior, by our attitude. Protect this church and use it according to your purposes and for your glory.