Beacon Sunday Service: February 9, 2025

If you guys can stand up again, let me read just our passage for today. It's Titus 2, 3 to 5. We're gonna be on this for two weeks. But I want to read the whole context for today. It's chapter 2, verses 3 to 5. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may instruct the young women in sensibility to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands. And this is where we're gonna be focusing on, so that the word of God will not be slandered. Can we pray together? Father, we're very thankful that you call us together.

Um we are so excited, Lord, to give you the worship that you are due. And we pray that as we spend time hearing your scriptures, I pray that you would minister to our hearts, feed our souls, undo the damage caused by sin, and cause us to grow in the likeness of your son, that our church would grow as a beautiful radiant bride for your glory and honor. And we pray that you would wash us through the just the daily regeneration that is made possible through your word. So we ask for your help this uh morning. We ask that you would grant us much grace to hear well and pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take a seat. Uh my son Maddie is a car lover, and he always has been. He loves playing with cars, drawing cars, and he loves long road trips because he can stare and study uh cars on the road.

And if you can guess what his favorite Disney movie is, I'll give you a penny. It's cars, okay. And he has a second favorite movie. Can you guess what that is? Cars too. Okay. So he loves cars, and he's loved most all toys that have wheels since around the time he could crawl. A little over a year ago, he was gifted a remote control car, and he was super excited, and he was ecstatic when he first got it. So he drove it around everywhere inside of grandma's house. And then after a little while, he wanted to take it into the backyard of grandma's house because in the back, there's a lot of open space, a brick pathway, some cool, uneven pavement, and a grassy area where he could go off-roading with the car.

But we told him not to take it into the backyard and then just play with it indoors. Because in addition, to all of those cool topographical features, there was a swimming pool in the back. And we had to explain to him that electronics and water don't go well together. And we didn't want him to lose the car on the same day that he got it. So this wasn't to restrict him. This was not to inhibit him. This was actually for his long-term enjoyment of the car. After all, the very purpose of the gift of the remote control car was for his pleasure. It was for his delight and enjoyment, and the admonition was for the purpose of preserving that enjoyment. It was for the preservation of that delight.

And the prohibitions that we gave him were both to guard the gift and to guard his enjoyment. After all, grandma and grandpa got the car for him so that he would enjoy it. Now, our Maddie was very frustrated by this prohibition. He felt very oppressed and restricted. He didn't quite understand why we're telling him not to take the car out back. He felt that we were being unreasonable. And in his mind, he probably kept thinking to himself, what's the big deal? What's the harm in it? So he kept at it. And then with every ounce of confidence that a child could muster, he insisted that he was already excellent at controlling the car, and then he would promise he wouldn't drive it near the pool at all.

And eventually, I think grandma or someone felt bad, so they let him out with the car and just told him uh to stay near the pavement away from the pool. And he happily went out, happily drove the remote control car around for about 10 minutes. And about 10 minutes into his uninhibited freedom, Maddie lost control of the car and it zoomed right into the pool. And being a battery-operated toy, it was irreparably damaged. And our little Maddie's heart was busted. He was so sad. His enjoyment of the car hadn't even lasted an hour. Now, Grandma wanted to replace it immediately, but we said no. He needed to learn to heed the advice of his parents, even if if our council made no logical sense to him.

Even if he felt oppressed and restricted by our rules for him, we needed him to understand that he did not know better. We needed him to learn that he could trust us. So please don't call the police on us for being restricting, right? After all, not a single one of our rules for him was for his harm, but our rules for him are always for his good. A few months later, Maddie received a gift card to Target. So we took him there, and guess what he purchased with his money? A remote control car. So he excitedly played with it, drove it around inside grandma's house, but soon enough, he was itching to take it to the backyard. This time he didn't ask, because he knew what we would say. So he quietly snuck it out.

And can you guess what happened? Zoom! Right into the pool, went remote control car number two. Same ending. Same logic that got him there. What's the big deal? What's the harm in it? I've got control. I know better. Please do not tell me what I can and cannot do. I've got this. What's the harm in it? What is the harm in it? This kind of logic is not uncommon to man. It's always been common to man. And it's been of one of Satan's favorite weapons of deception from the very beginning. The devil, the father of all lies, loves to use the what's the harm in it argument to ensnare, deceive, and destroy. So let's take a look at what happened in the Garden of Eden. Then the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise.

So she took from its fruit and she ate. And she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Familiar passage, right? Eve probably thought, what's the harm in it? Why would God make the fruit so pretty and so appealing to the eyes if he didn't want us to enjoy it? Besides, doesn't God want us to have wisdom? God loves us. We are his joy.

So guess what she did? She took it, she gave something to her husband. What's the harm in it? Unfortunately for all of us, we have been painfully and harmfully living the answer to that seemingly harmless question from that point on, right? So God had told them that if they ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that they would surely die. You guys see those words there. Satan, the father of all lies, he lied to the woman, and what did he say? He said the very opposite, the exact opposite. And the serpent said to the woman, Genesis 3:4, you surely will not die. So since that seemingly harmless act of disobedience, corruption and death have ruled the earth. And all mankind has been given over to the ruler of the power of the air.

All flesh from that point on would walk according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. So usually, the what's the harm in it is asked as a rhetorical question. But I'm gonna answer this. So here is the harm in disobedience. Man would be destined for wrath. Man would surely die. How many times? Twice. Man from that point on would be hardwired to think that God's holiness isn't all that holy. God's hatred towards sin is not all that fierce.

And that God actually doesn't mean what he says. That's the damage that's been done. Okay. So what's the harm in it? Whatever God would say, man would challenge. Whatever God would say, man would rebel. And Ephesians chapter 2, verse 3 says, Now, because of that, man is a child of wrath. And man would be a suppressor of all truth. And that is in you, and that is in me. Romans 1:18 and 19. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them. So what was the harm in it? A lot. For many, a lot, eternally. And this is the condition of natural man.

A natural man is a rebel to the truths of God. Natural man is suspicious of the statutes of God. Natural man is hostile to the word of God. Man doesn't not know the word.

So sometimes he feigns ignorance to the word. And then eventually he twists and then slanders the word. And natural man then believes in the lies, and then he starts calling evil good and good evil. Do you see the progression? That's what happens to man. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Isaiah 5.20. So natural man is a slanderer of the word of God. And the scriptures contain example after example of natural man's knee jerk hostility to God's word. Why is this? Natural man in absolute folly hates God to the very core.

Do you guys follow this? So Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is more deceitful than all else, is desperately sick. Who can know it? Some translations actually say who can cure it. Proverbs 28, 26. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will escape. So man's heart, it's corrupted beyond cure, it cannot be trusted. Amen.

Now, what happens when a group of fools gets together and they become their own echo chamber? What happens when a bunch of fools get together and get each other all riled up? Laws are made to celebrate and protect evil. Pledges are made to assassinate kings. Psalm 26, Psalm 64. Vows are made to kill the prophets and the apostles of God. Acts 23. Mobs are formed to even crucify who? The Son of God Himself, Matthew 26, Mark 14. Today, where are the arrogant masses flocked to in our generation? I would say media for one, education system first a second. I can't trust educational institutions. I can't trust the masses or the mobs. What history usually tells us is that typically masses and mobs are usually on the wrong side of God.

That's what history tells us. Right? But I can't trust history either. Because history is written by man.

Because I am diseased. One of the silliest and most foolish pieces of counsel you can ever receive is just follow your heart. Or go with what feels right. Have you guys heard that before? That is the stupidest thing. Because the Bible says the very opposite. Proverbs 3:5. Trust in Yahweh with all your heart. Don't lead on your own understanding. Amen. We walk by faith, not by sight. So our natural condition is very bleak. In and of ourselves, we self-corrupt and eventually self-destruct. And the longer you live, the more you realize that that's to be true, right? So this is the human condition. Hopefully you can see it from the back. Let me summarize. One, all mankind has been corrupted with sin nature.

Romans 5 12. Two, cursed man is inclined to trust in himself and in humanity and to distrust God. Jeremiah 17, 5. Third, here's also another thing of the human condition. Satan, the God of this age, rules the world and blinds mankind to all truth and reality. That's 2 Corinthians 4 4, Ephesians 2 2. Truth is made available, but man rejects it because he loves falsehood. John 3 19. Have you guys ever tried to convince someone of something that's so obvious? But they're absolutely committed to their greed or their idolatry. It's really difficult because logic doesn't work, right? Five, man cannot save himself. God has to intervene. And that's Galatians 2.21 and 3.21. Easier to follow. So this is man's fallen reality.

Right? Man is preconditioned to reject and slander the word of God. Satan's desire is for the slandering of the word of God. His obsession is the slandering of the word of God. And the only way to undo this and to be freed from all of this is rebirth in Christ. Amen. So, and the church, big C church, is a body of those who have been born again in Christ. Okay, that's a universal church. But unfortunately, slandering the word of God is still taking place in the church. Why? First, it's because the residual effects of the fallen nature are in still in the process of being put to death in all the believers, right? Secondly, it's also because there are many false prophets and non-Christians preaching on the pulpits, sitting in the pews of the churches.

Little see. Right? And the Bible says that that's gonna happen. So it shouldn't be a surprise. So all of this to say we're looking at Titus chapter 2. Okay? Paul's instructions to Christian women. Now you might be thinking this, okay? This is a weird way to introduce a topic of women in the church. And the reason we're looking at the depravity of the human condition and man-slandering of the word of God, it's because it's mentioned in the text today. Okay. What happens when the women in the church aren't living like the women of the church, the word of God is slandered. Sound doctrine and God's will were to be proclaimed through and throughout the church, but if Christian women push against that doctrine, God's word is slandered.

It reads, I'm gonna just read verse four, so that they may instruct the younger women in sensibility to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be slandered. So just the wording of this passage today. I mean, you guys are all pretty like biblically like literate, but if I just read this on the pulpit of some large church, people would be very close to being triggered just from the text, right? Or at the very least, feeling like a little uneasy. Uh-oh. Pastor Peter's doing like a sermon on women. He's gonna get in trouble. There's a little uneasiness that grows. We live in a time where wording like this is seen as oppressive, as outdated, or even anti-women, even to many in the churches, right?

That's our generation. The subject of women's roles has been a very sensitive one over many years. When God's exhortations to men are proclaimed, we usually get like a hearty amen from the men and the women of the church, right? And general agreement takes place that those things are good. Nobody looks at an instruction for a man and goes, like, oh, preaching that like men need to be selfless and sacrificial is rarely ever met with pushback. Last or two weeks ago when I preached on the men, nobody was like, How dare you tell us to be Christ like? No, nobody came up to me and did that.

Men sometimes can get discouraged, but they're usually not in disagreement. Right? But when we get to the parallel passages for women to be selfless and submissive, there's often like a knee-jerk objection to what's being taught as oppressive, backward, and some people even say abusive. Have you guys kind of heard language like that before? So before we get into God's expectations for the women of the church, I felt like it was very important to address what is meant by the slandering of the word of God. So that when we're looking at the call for women, we all as saints of God trust fully that God knows what he is doing, and that his ways are best. So we're not zooming with electrical toys into like our spiritual swimming pools.

You guys follow? Okay? So every piece of instruction given to us in the scriptures is for the good of his people. Amen. Okay? So if we understand correctly the trustworthiness of God, the sufficiency of the word of God, and if we're trained in how to correctly interpret in passages, apply passages like this, God is honored, and all that is blessed and good in our lives is preserved and protected. And I wanted to spend today discussing how we're to think and discern biblically while living in a world that's corrupted by sin and ruled by Satan. Okay? So hopefully our thoughts get hedged in, and then the beauty of the design of the body of Christ is more appreciated. So here's the outline for the remainder of the sermon.

First, we're gonna look at what is the slandering of the word. Okay, what is that? Is that a big deal? Like, why is God so upset with this? But what is that? Two, what did the slandering of the word look like in the scriptures? And we're gonna just look at one primary example. Third, what does the slandering of the word look like today? And then for next week, we're gonna look at the passage. How does the word shape our understanding of God's design for women? Because our thinking cannot be like the world's. Amen. If we're regenerated, if we're saved, our thinking has to also be regenerated and saved. Okay. So what is the slandering of the word of God? So, how does one slander the word of God?

The Greek word there is the word blasphemati. Repeat after me, blasphemati. It's a it's a mouthful, blasphemati. Okay, it looks similar to what you would know, like blasphemati. So many other translators, they don't seem to know how to agree on like how this word's supposed to be translated. And usually when the translators can't come up with like a uniform way of translating a word, you know that that word is very rich in the original language. Okay? Oftentimes the richness of the word is difficult to capture in just one word. So I'm gonna paraphrase blasphemati in my own words. Okay, so I'm gonna understand blasphemati as an accurately representing someone we dare not misrepresent. Are you guys following that working definition?

Inaccurately representing someone we dare not misrepresent. So God is holy, holy, holy. He is to be presented as holy. We dare not represent his holiness inaccurately. Amen. So Moses was disciplined for his slandering of the word of God. Do you guys know who Moses is? Y'all do, right? So Moses was a very faithful, humble, sacrificial man. He actually calls himself the humblest man in the world. But he probably was. That's why he could say it. So Moses is a humble, faithful servant, and very few people had to ever bear the burdens of sinners that the way Moses had to for how many years? Forty years. Do you know why? Despite giving up himself selflessly for four decades, he was not allowed to enter the promised land of Canaan.

Because he slandered the word of God. Simply because he did not accurately represent God in the way God had desired to be represented. So it's Numbers 20. The people were complaining about water. Okay. And God told Moses simply to speak to the rock. You guys see the picture? People are complaining, which brought us to die of thirst in the wilderness. And God, in his patience, tells Moses, speak to the rock. But Moses probably is super frustrated with the people.

The text tells us that he spoke to the people and he struck the rod twice with his rod. Have you guys read this story before? It can be kind of confusing if you just look at it. But God called that a lack of belief. Do you see this in the text? Moses had acted faithlessly, slandered God's word, did not accurately represent God as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel. Dude, God is sensitive. Might be a human reaction. Slandering a person by definition is misrepresenting a person. Make sense? Sometimes slandering a person, it's pretty damaging and destructive. Sometimes it's of minimal consequence, especially if you do it behind their back. Okay. But the act of slandering God, blasphemati, is always cosmic treason.

So inaccurately representing someone we dare not misrepresent. So God is actually the only person that could be or should be associated with the word blasphemati. So that's serious stuff. So what is slandering the word of God? It is misrepresenting God's word either in speech, in deed, or in posture. You guys follow? Slandering the word of God is misrepresenting the word of God either in speech, in action, or in the posture of the heart. Okay, so I'm gonna explain. Misrepresenting God through speaking what is false is blasphemati. Okay? Saying something about God that's not true is blasphemati. Misrepresenting the Holy Spirit who is in you as a Christian by performing a deed that the third person of the Trinity would never perform is blasphemati.

Not living submissively to the direct commands of God in Scripture is also blasphemati because it's misrepresenting God. What's communicated is God is not God. He is not Lord. He doesn't deserve full obedience. And you're kind of indirectly painting a picture of God who is tolerant of sin. So it's pretty serious stuff, right? So God's word has always been meant to be taken seriously. Amen. So what's the harm in disobeying a lot? Eternally. So in the wilderness, God provided bread for the Israelites. You guys know this, right? He get He provided bread for the Israelites supernaturally, and he told them to gather how many days? Six days. So he says, six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none.

Now it happened on the seventh day that some of the people slandered the word of God. They went out to gather, but they had none. Okay? So this was a prohibition. Complicated, not complicated. Easy to follow, not easy to follow. Well, duh, right? It's super easy to follow. Like, don't work and gather on the seventh day. But human beings were experts at rationalizing and justifying disobedience. Okay? So their line of reasoning might go something like this. What's the harm in it? God gave us this bread. It would be good to have some extra in case we have stretches of the wilderness where God withholds it. Wasn't God's plan to prosper his people? Wasn't he going to give us power, wealth, renown, and an inheritance in a land flowing with milk and honey?

What's the harm in this little piece of bread? Gathering this little piece of bread. What's the big deal? Why would omnipotent God be so stingy with bread? Well, we gotta be prepared. God helps those who help themselves. It's his plan to bless. Let me help God. And the people probably could quote Yahweh to back up some of these thoughts to justify their disobedience. You guys tracking along? This happens all the time. Does Satan misuse the scriptures? Yes. Do you not think that he can't pit one Bible verse against another in the minds of people to get them to justify their disobedience? In one of the, that's one of his oldest and favorite shrinks, tricks since the dawn of time. Okay. So looking at this passage.

Yes, Israel would be God's people. They would, he would be their God. He could have provided them with enough bread where they would all get diabetes. He could have provided enough bread where they never would have to gather again. He could have given them food that never rotted, right? The point was not in the bread.

And that's not my interpretation. That's what he actually says in Deuteronomy. Okay? You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you in the wilderness these 40 years. Why? To humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. Now, do you think he didn't know what was in their hearts? No, he wanted them to see what was in their hearts. That's why he tested him, right? Verse 3, and he humbled you, and he let you be hungry, and he fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh. Your clothing did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell for how many years?

Forty years. Thus you shall know in your heart that Yahweh your God was training you up, just as a man trains his son. The word discipline has a negative feel in our generation, but it's not a negative, it's a neutral word. Okay.

And they never once mentioned, hey. What's wrong with our clothes? What's wrong with our sandals? How come we're out here without any chariots or weapons, but no one's hurting us? Yahweh had protected them. He had supernaturally preserved them. Were there people alive to see God wipe out the entire army of Pharaoh? Yeah. Okay. So for 40 years, think about this with me, none of their clothes wore out. I don't have clothes from when I was six. They're all gone. No one's handed, I've handed them down to nobody. Okay. No matter what brand, name, jacket you have on, it does not last 40 years. Especially if you wear it all day, every day. Think about this, right? Their clothes didn't wear out. The swelling of the feet there in verse 4 is to be understood at the wearing out of their sandals.

For 40 years, their sandals didn't wear out either. How many? How long? 40 years. No matter how high quality your Air Jordans are, or your like uh Prada, Italian leather, fine leather shoes, they don't last 40 years. Especially if you're wearing them all day, every day as hiking shoes. Right? Enemy armies, too. They could not harm the people of God. God actually, when they tried to attack, like the Amalekites, he declared that he would obliterate them, that he would wipe them out. He made anyone who attacked Israel his own personal sworn enemy. That's who God was. He could have given them food, but he wanted them to learn to trust him every day. So the Old Testament is account after account of Israel's refusal to listen to God's word.

Neighboring tribal groups and countries dictated their values way more than God's word did. And this is not to be the case.

Right? We're not that different. The world speaks more into our day-to-day decisions than God does. Anyway, at the beginning of the very, like right in the book of Joshua in the beginning, right before they become a geopolitical nation, you see God giving very specific instructions again. Okay, I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but I want to pay your attention to uh point your attention to a few things. First, do you guys see the words in yellow? The charge to be strong and courageous. It's given three times. What is Joshua told to be strong and courageous in? He is gonna fight, he is gonna win, but God is telling him to be strong and courageous in keeping the law of God in accurately and diligently communicating the commandments of God to hold in high esteem the word of God.

You guys see this? The word, God's law, was to be Joshua's primary obsession. It wasn't to train his men for battle, it wasn't to get his spearsmen very disciplined. It was the word of God was supposed to be his primary obsession. He's supposed to talk about the word of God 24-7. He's supposed to meditate on the word of God 24-7, and he was to be bold and courageous in leading the people also to do so. Sometimes when we read this verse, be strong and courageous, we have to understand that that's the context. God's word was to be central to God's special people. No other nation had a God like this who would love them enough to give them guidelines and rules. I don't give rules to other people's kids, right?

I give rules to my kids, not out of suppression, but out of love. I'm not gonna go up to your kid and put them on timeout. Okay, but God adopts this group and treats them as his children. So they're supposed to trust and obey. And in verse 7, what does it say? Do not turn aside from it to the right or to the left. Trust and obey. Don't turn from it, either to the left or to the right. And God is serious about this. But if you look at the Old Testament, they failed to do this again and again. And what's the result? They lost their land, they lost their power, they lost their temple, they went into exile, they were enslaved because they turned to the right and they turned to the left. And they followed the customs and the cultures of the nations around them.

Turning aside to the left and to the right. There was harm in it. Amen. And that was the Old Testament. The importance placed on keeping God's word, though contrary to some popular belief, did not change with the arrival of Jesus. Let me repeat this. The importance placed on the keeping of God's word did not change with the arrival of Jesus. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But it was made possible by the arrival of Jesus. Amen? So not turning from the commands of God was how the regenerated believer was to demonstrate his love for his Savior, John 14, 15. Do you guys see this? If you love Jesus, obey his commands. And that's not any of the apostles saying this.

This is Jesus Himself. Obedience to God's word is how one proves himself and to all the world that he is indeed a child of God. That's 1 John 2, 3 to 5. John's epistle says that if a person says, okay, I know God, but he has no desire to obey, he's what? He's a liar. Do you need any help interpreting this passage? No. A person is saved through faith alone, by grace alone and Christ alone. But the evidence of one's salvation is demonstrated in a person's passion to see God's word held in high esteem and his desire to submit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's how you know you're a child of God. If God says it, I believe it. If God says it, I will apply it. If God says it, I will trust that it's for good or for my good.

Even if I don't quite understand it. Even if it goes against how I feel or just the anxiety that is in there. Even if everything in my flesh and my instincts push against it, I will trust and obey because there's no other way to be wet. Happy in Jesus. Do you think if Maddie fully trusted us that he would have still driven the car in the backyard into the water? No. He's learning to trust us. Right. One of the challenges that we have in churchity today is that the word of God has become less and less central to the church. Interpretations of the Bible have become more and more subjective. Right? Whatever, oh, whatever it means for you. Bible study has become, did you, which verse did you like?

It's so strange. The word of God has always been meant to be objective, verifiable, and measurable. Amen. So the word of God, again, always meant to be objective. There is an interpretation that God desires us for us to have, verifiable and measurable. If someone, so today, if someone says, Well, the Bible says, you know what happens? Eyes roll, mouths scoff. And a person is often immediately discredited and dismissed as like a self-righteous pharisaical legalist. So it's almost like you can't say, well, the Bible says you can't say that in church. Now, very rarely will a person in the church outright say that the Bible is not God's inerrant word and the standard by which believers are to live.

Most people in the church would at the very least be superstitiously scared to say something like that, right? Most people would not dare challenge the authority of the Bible because of the social consequences. If someone were to come in here and be like, the Bible is a fictional work, would he last long in this church? No. Everybody would be, so yeah, why? Why would everybody would be on him? So no one socially would even dare to say that unless they've already left the church. And now they want reasons to dismiss Christianity completely out of his life. Now, a person in the church might not attack the Bible outright, but his attitude and posture toward the contents of the word will be very telling.

Okay. A person can be very involved in the church, serve regularly, be a pastor, even, look very passionate, and still live in slanderous, blasphemati of the word of God. So this too is nothing new. And this slandering generally comes in three forms from people in the pews. Hopefully you guys can see this. Okay. The first form of this comes from what I would call the quietly rebellious slanderer. Do you guys see that? Quietly rebellious slanderer. The person says to himself, because they're never gonna say this out loud, I agree, but I don't care to apply. This person hears the word of God, doesn't disagree with it, he mentally acknowledges it as truth, he verbally professes it as good. He nods his head during sermon, not just in falling asleep, but like they're like, oh yeah, that's a good point.

He judges other people by it, but he has no intention of applying it. He justifies this posture by reassuring himself that a person is saved by faith and not by works. There's never wrestling or struggling. It's external agreement mixed with internal apathy. I call that a hypocrite. Okay? So Ephesians 5 5 is there on the top. Such a person will read, for this you know with certainty that no one sexually immoral or impure or greedy who is in idolatry has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. So this is a passage I'm just gonna use as an example. The quietly rebellious slanderer says, Oh, yeah, for sure. No sexually immoral person has an inheritance in the kingdom of God. Amen. But at the same time, he refuses to turn away areas from areas of private sexual sin.

He doesn't think anything about watching pornography. When he'll come to church after he watched porn with his praise face on, giving glory to God. He crosses all kinds of lines when he is dating. Thinks nothing of it. After all, he's saved through faith alone, by grace alone, and the atoning work of Christ alone. Unbeknownst to that person, he's turned the understanding that Jesus changes everything to Jesus' excuses everything. And that's a person with a quietly rebellious posture before the Word of God. I agree that that's what the Bible says, but I don't care. Second kind of slanderer is what I would call the cowardly or smug or lazy slanderer. Okay, you're like, well, those are all different things.

It's the same heart. Okay. He is squirrely. He's a coward because he hides behind arguments or the idea that Christians shouldn't be dogmatic about anything. This person sometimes sounds very smart, very open-minded, very deliberate, very studious, and he likes to operate in the gray. He likes to always kind of be above everybody and just analyze everything. Hmm, since there are so many ways to interpret a passage, it's impossible to, it's impossibly difficult to land on a decisive conclusion on any text. So he'll read Ephesians 5:5, and you know what he thinks? You know, you can't know with certainty. That's what he thinks. Well, what exactly is greed? Well, I've read on it. It's associated with cultic temple temple worship of Artemis in Ephesus.

The city's residents worshipped Artemis through rituals, sacrifices, and festivals. Thousands of prostitutes were employed at the temple to draw people in Ephesus to generate revenue and promote worship of this false goddess. So that's what Paul is saying in the context. Paul is simply addressing an extreme of idolatry and prophet. It doesn't apply to our present-day situation here. And then since there are so many ways to look at a text, let's not make any legalistic applications until we have more information. You know people like this. Lots of words, lots of arguments to avoid actually looking to apply the text into his life.

Right? It's a cop-out. Because I'm not sure that that's what God is saying, I don't have to apply. Third, kind of slanderer, outright rejects what's plainly written in the text. He is hostile or defiant toward what is written in the Bible, but he still claims to have a relationship with God. Do you guys know people like this? These are the folks who soon start calling evil good and good evil. This person is a lot bolder. He rejects the Bible, but claims a knowledge of God. He rejects the church that teaches the Bible, but claims he has experience of God. So I don't know if you can read that, but I saw this morning, this morning, this morning on an Instagram of a friend of mine from college, and she's long left the organized church.

But she claims to love Jesus. She simply hates the hypocrisy of the church. Purity culture teaching had such a stronghold on us youth group kids in the 90s. Our pastor had this thing called the duading stick that was five feet long. If two opposite sex people were closer than the stick, they would punish and shame you. Now you'll find posts like this from all kinds of people who claim a special relationship with Jesus. This is not a surprise, is it? No. They will hide behind abuses that have taken place in the church. Almost as if, since they've had a bad experience at church, and again, that is totally subjective. There's always two sides to the story. Okay? There are many people who say, like, oh, they hurt me, but then they're the ones always doing the hurting.

There are people like that. But they somehow believe that the experience that they had excuses them from not submitting to the Bible. You know people like all three. There are little bits like this in all of us. But we need to take God at his word. Amen. We need to acknowledge it, all of it as truth. We need to meditate on it, submit to it, and to be eager to obey. Walk with me here through a little bit of logic. If the Bible is indeed God's word, does my opinion about it matter? No. Who are you, oh man, to talk back to God? Shall what is made? Say to him who made it? Shall the clay say to the potter? Why did you make me like this? If God's word really is the Bible, and the Bible is God's word, does it matter how we feel?

No. My opinion doesn't matter. How I feel about a Bible verse doesn't matter. Biblically illiterate people have always fallen prey to false prophets. But that's why we all need to do a deep dive into the scriptures to interpret every passage of scripture correctly.

How many? Just one. Every Bible verse has one true interpretation. It's God's. Make sense. All other interpretations, all opinions, they fall short, ultimately don't matter. He desires for us to seek him and to know him through every verse of the scriptures to grow in knowledge of him. But the fun thing is that true biblical literacy, the more we get to know the word of God, it always produces humility in a person, terror in a person, and unfathomable love in a person. Humility, terror, love. When the word of God is saturating a person, he is humble. He is always terrified of God only. And he is so Christ-like in his love. So churches that are abusive, like genuinely abusive, they're biblically illiterate.

They're like the Pharisees who search the scriptures, you know, to see because they think in the scriptures you have eternal life, but they don't come to Christ. We can't let our biases, experiences, and our preferences dictate how we interpret the scripture, lest we run the risk of slandering the scripture. So we have to allow scripture to interpret scripture. And it has to be what grows us. Amen. Not some gimmick, not some crazy, like awesome community group, not like a praise band. All of those things are fine. But what has to grow a church and equip a church has to be his word. And I'll close with this quote from Pastor Chuck Swindle. I didn't know that he was over 90. This man's over 90, he's still preaching.

Okay.

Truth isn't determined by popular vote. When you stand on God's unchanging word, you're building on an unshakable foundation, even if you stand alone. True strength comes from unwavering commitments to biblical truth, not from following the crowd. Amen. Next week we're going to be looking at our good God's expectation and demand for Christian women. And I'm hoping that our understanding of womanhood, it comes from the Bible and not the media, or not my education or not what that church says, that it's biblical. Let's grow to trust God in his plans and in his instructions for what's best. Amen. Let's pray together.

Father, would you protect our minds? Guard our hearts so that our minds would be sharp and our hearts would be softened and fertile. And I pray that you would just bear fruit in this church as we surrender and as we resist less and less and just allow your word to really sanctify this people. Lord, would you draw other people unto yourself and equip us, Lord, each and every one of us to be an accurate handler of not just the image of God, but also the word and the truths of God. So we pray for your help this week to feed deeply off of just all the things that we've learned together. In Jesus' name we pray.