Clarity is the Key — 1 Timothy 1

0:00 Good morning. Thank you for the car wash today. That was so nice of you to have a chapel car wash, and we had it all the way from our house in Michigan. Oh, you brought it with you, Chris. I don't think so, but I can I can see your point because we hit the Westlake line and it was bone dry?

0:30 And so we come up Crocker Bassett, it wasn't bone dry after that. It was really amazing, really amazing. Okay, so let me tell you about my optometrist situation. Optometrist situation. So I thought I had a tumor in my brain because I couldn't see, I'm so smooth about this.

1:00 Nothing radical about me at all. Nothing overboard, you know. I've got

1:05 a tumor part, I can't see the sign. What's off? What's the sign say?

1:12 You know, that kind of thing. So instead of going to the neurologist and getting a CAT scan on the old noggin, I went to an optometrist. And just, you know, the easy fix. That's what you gotta do. You gotta go to the e...

1:28 You know, the simplest fix first. And so I did. I went to an optometrist, and I I had the Hubble the Hubble glasses on, and she took me into the hallway. It was a lady optometrist, and took me into the hallway and she says... It had a door with a window in it, and she goes, you see that street sign?

1:54 I'm going, yeah? Then she went, it's... I said, I can re... Look at that. She started laughing.

2:24 And the passage I'd like us to look at is first Timothy. First Timothy chapter one. And I'm gonna go through gonna go through this 20 verses as I speak, as talk about it. So exegete, hopefully. And when you look at this passage, it is an interesting thing.

2:56 Timothy, his son in the faith, Paul's son in the faith writes he writes Timothy, then he writes to Titus, then he writes to Timothy again, second Timothy, which was his last epistle. So this is towards the end of his life. Second Timothy is definitely the last thing he ever writes, and it was the end of his life. He died probably around '68, something like that. This is written around sixty four AD.

3:30 He died about '68, something to that effect, before the temple, was ransacked, before Titus took over in Jerusalem, etcetera, before the temple was destroyed. And so this is around sixty four AD, and he writes to him, and these are... These... Those three epistles are called... Commonly called pastoral epistles or shepherding epistles.

3:58 I like that word better. Shepherding epistles where he is gonna advise his son in the faith regarding how to set up elders, etcetera, and the the church and deacons, and that's chapter three. But in chapter one, he is going to he is going to sound four notes, n o t e s, four notes, like like a note. Okay. Can anybody guess?

4:31 This is my benefit of my seven years of piano. What is that? Middle c. Middle c. Alright.

4:59 And that we we really need to listen to. We need to be carefully listening to it. We need to notice it. We need to perceive it. We need to understand what he has to say.

5:11 Okay, okay, okay, okay. We drove over three hours to get here. Okay? Please don't let your mind wander. Please, no sleeping.

5:28 Okay? I I... And so one guy fell asleep. He was... I think I shared this with you.

5:33 One guy fell asleep. He was sitting right here in a pew, and he was tucked like this. It wasn't it wasn't like that. It wasn't that. It wasn't the I weirdness, you know.

5:46 It wasn't that at all. He was... He needed a blanket, you know. He was tucked in like this, leaning against the pew, nobody else in the pew, he was just like this. It was unbelievable.

5:58 I was loud, I clapped. Didn't move a muscle. This guy was out cold. It was amazing to me. It was amazing.

6:10 So in the back, they wanted me to go in the back and shake hands. I hate doing that because people lie to you. I don't wanna make people liars.

6:17 That was really good. That was really good. He came

6:20 up and said, that was really good. And I said, man, I'm glad I could minister to you. In my mind, I said, you ever have insomnia, get the tape. It'll put you out again. And, so we drove a long time.

6:37 So we wanna hear these notes. We wanna hear these four notes that Paul is is really giving to his son in the faith and to us and to us and to really listen to what the word of god has to say to us and really hear it. So what are these notes? Okay. Good question.

7:28 He sounds a note of warfare. Wow. He sounds a note of worship. I love this. Verses one and two.

7:36 He says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God, our savior. And it's so powerful. This is so, man, it's so packed. And the Lord Jesus Christ who is our hope. Who is our hope.

7:56 Unto Timothy my own son in the faith, grace, mercy and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ our Lord. So it's a worship because of the revelation of God. God has revealed himself to us. Man, I feel so far away. I do.

8:17 I feel so far away from you guys. Okay. So he sounds a note of of worship because of the revelation that he has revealed to us. And he has shown us, and if you think I'm moving close to you, you're right. I'm moving close to you because I always felt that it was really weird being so far so far.

8:43 Save electricity. Oh, the zoom is the problem? Oh, we're cool? We're alright? Okay.

8:55 Technology. I love technology. Okay. So he sounds he sounds a note because of the revelation of god. Look at look how he reveals himself in verse 17.

9:09 Will you park your eyes on verse 17 here? And it's... This is... You know, one of the things one of the things that's a real problem, a real problem with us in in this situation is we will not believe, well we'll believe it's for her or it's for him, but we don't believe it's for us. Me personally.

9:34 But notice what he is telling us in verse 17. He says, now unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. No wonder Satan wants to attack the veracity or the truthfulness of the Bible, and he does. He's doing it even this very moment.

10:04 He's doing it this very moment. I had a I had a friend of mine who was saying, yeah, I have a high view of scripture, but did not really have a high view of scripture. He he held to ancient near eastern ancient near eastern dogma, if you please, more than the scripture itself. And he was a professor of mine. So I I looked at that, and I said to myself, man, this is bad news.

10:33 This is bad news. Impinge the word of God. In other words, go after the word of God. It's not not inerrant. It's not, inspired, that kind of thing.

10:48 And we have no hope if that's true. We got nothing if that's true. You've got nothing if that's true. And it isn't true. Oh my word, it isn't true.

11:02 Notice what he says. God has revealed himself to us unto the king eternal, immortal, no death with him, invisible, the only wise God be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. In Exodus three fourteen, you remember the movie, what was it? 10 Commandments, right?

11:27 Is that right? Ben Hur. No, 10 Commandments. 10 Commandments. Not Ben Hur or Ben Him.

11:38 Okay. But but do you remember when when Moses... If you saw the movie, it's pretty good. Cecil B did a great job. Okay.

11:49 So he... Who's that guy that played Moses? Charlton Heston. He's tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro, and he looks in yonder, and he sees this bush that's not being burning but not being consumed. He goes over to it, take your...

12:09 He hears a voice, take your sandals off. You're on holy ground. And God speaks to him. And he says to him, I am that I am. And thou shalt say unto the children of Israel.

12:22 This is Exodus three fourteen. Thou shalt say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. Well, you know what that word I am in Hebrew means? The self existent one who reveals himself. God has revealed himself and how has he revealed himself in this precious book unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise god.

12:51 There is no other wise god. There is no other wise god. And this is who he is and so because of this revelation of god, we worship him. We, our hearts sing. Well, it's not, it's not the body posture that's it.

13:10 It's the heart, the heart. We go, yes. I've got a god who loves me, who has revealed himself to me, who cares about me, who has done everything for me that I could never do for myself. How great are you? How fantastic are you?

13:31 And maybe in the private moments of your life, when you're by yourself and you're you're reading the word of God and you're you're by your lonesome and you're just going, yes. Nobody can see you but god can and he delights in that worship. He he wants that worship and so it's it's a we we he sounds a note of worship because of the revelation and then notice verse one B, that's the last half of this. It says, the lord Jesus Christ who is our hope. There is no other hope but him.

14:10 Now, you know, I got a cellphone. I got Apple. It's not the latest and greatest but it's an Apple and I got all these news apps. What a drag. I'm...

14:24 You know, I was thinking of a... Come... Well, there's a lot of stuff I was thinking of coming over here, but one of them was get rid of the news the news apps. Just get rid of them. I don't want to even think about it.

14:45 How will you ever know what's happening in the world? You know? Oh, man. Get off of that stuff because there's no hope in that. There is no hope.

14:57 And the older I get, and it's getting there, and I am getting older, And I look at this and I say to myself, how much more time? How much more time you got, Chris? And where is the hope? And all those years that I've lived, 70. I reached 70.

15:22 Can you believe this? I know. It's like... I I was telling Barb, I said, can you... Do you believe you're...

15:30 Barb is younger than me, but not by much. And I'm thinking to myself, we've been married... We'll be married forty nine years in October. And I'm thinking to myself, it goes by like a heartbeat. Boom boom.

15:45 And then next thing you know, you're 70 If you make it that long, you know, etcetera and you think to yourself, wow. It's just going by. Where's the hope? The only hope is Jesus Christ. Hope is not in Islam or Buddhism or Confucius or Taoism or any of those isms.

16:09 It is in the person of Jesus Christ. Barb, you got that book. You just hold that book up. No. That book that...

16:23 Yeah. Look at this. Look at that book. It's... What is it called, Barb?

16:27 Person of Person of interest. It's a guy who is a cold case guy, cold case detective, and he just... Extra biblical stuff. He didn't even look at the Bible. Is Jesus real?

16:41 Did he do what he said he did? That's the whole book. It's defensible. That's what I love about this. It's absolutely defensible.

16:51 Jesus is real. Jesus is real. And you can take that to the bank, you know. I mean, the devil wants us to think, well, no, it's not. It's just you make it up.

17:01 You're some religious type person and this kind of stuff. No, Jesus is real and he died on the cross and he shed his blood to wash away your sins and my sins and then three days later, rose again physically and you can take that to the bank. I triple dug. Oh, wait a second. Forget triple dug.

17:20 I quadruple dog dare you to disprove the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Oh, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. Okay, where's your proof? Because I can show you proof using the laws of evidence that Jesus did rise again from the dead.

18:04 Then, the subjective result, peace. And you'll never find these reversed. You'll never find them mixed up. So, it's he has it here, grace, mercy, and peace. A lot of times, it's grace and peace.

18:22 You never see him reversed. The objective truth is the grace of god. It's there. It's for our believing and then be... When we trust him and we continually trust him every day of our lives, taking him at his word, we get that peace that passes all understanding.

18:44 That's the subjective result. Wow. Hope. Nobody gives you this. No, no religious system, no other guru or whatever can give you what Jesus gives you.

19:02 Nobody. Wow. Thank you lord for saving my soul. Thank you, Lord, for making me whole. Thank you, Lord, for giving to me thy great salvation so rich and free.

19:31 Wow. This is fantastic. This is this is fantastic. And then the call of God. He looks and says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God, our savior.

19:44 I just wanna tell you something. Okay? So if you know Jesus as your personal savior, first of all, he's calling everybody to come to him. Everybody on this planet, come to me. Come on to me all you that are lab...

20:01 That labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. He's calling everybody. Everybody. And then not just the the righteous. He calls sinners.

20:11 He calls me. Praise god for that and then not only when I respond to that call, he gives me a ministry to do. Did you know that? He gives every one of us a ministry to do and it's and it's not predicated. It's not based on your education.

20:31 Do I, you know, am I... Did I go to bible college or did I take some course or something? No. No. It's God given, and it's a ministry that only you can perform.

20:46 It's true. It's the call of God on your life. And let me tell you something. You can you can shun that call and not do what you wanna do. And that's why a lot of Christians are frustrated.

21:01 Not the only reason why they get frustrated, but this one of the reasons why is because they're not doing what they should be doing. They're not doing what they should be doing. So you think, well, I'll go this path and it feels good for a little bit. All of a sudden, I feel empty. I had two guys who wanna come to the Ezekiel Project School of Evangelism, and I talked to this guy.

21:23 He's... They're both from Philly. And this guy, he's talking to me, and he says, hey. I don't wanna waste my life. I don't wanna waste my life.

21:37 He was 23, gonna be on... Gonna be 24 very soon. He said, I don't wanna waste my life. And you can. You can waste your life even doing something great.

21:50 God has a call on your life. Do it. Do it. Find it out. He'll show you.

22:16 Look at verses three and four. I besought you to abide still at Ephesus when I went unto Macedonia that that you might charge some that they teach no other doctrine. That they teach no other doctrine, neither giving heed to fables or myths and endless genealogies which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith so do. There's a lot of guys out there who who put this, you know, they'll teach something. They'll teach something and then you walk away with a question about who God is and a question about who the...

23:03 What the scriptures are saying. And he's warning us against that. So it... A couple of things on this. It behooves us...

23:12 I love that word. Doesn't it sound like a vacuum cleaner? And, you know, it be... It really... I don't know how else to say.

23:18 What do I say? Be... It's To our advantage. It's what? To our advantage.

23:23 It's to our advantage. Behoove? Okay. It it behooves us. It's to our advantage really to know what the word of god has to say.

23:38 You've gotta know what the word of god has to say so you can listen to and when you do listen to something and error comes in, you know that it is error. And he's warning us of it. So don't don't sit here all pretty. You got the you got the Westlake cuties right here and and back there. I mean, you you got them all.

23:59 I mean, Westlake is a target rich environment for single guys. And you look at this and you say to yourself, man, yeah, man, you cannot sit here and say to yourself, I don't have the time. You got as much time as anybody else got, and you don't... I don't have the resources. Hogwash.

24:28 I mean, I'm not doing hogwash every night. You know, I'm taking a shower, using dial, you know. But it's just hogwash. And then you you you have the ability. So you might say to yourself, well, I went to school and I know how to read, but it's just I'm gonna leave the theological stuff to the real brainiacs.

24:51 That's a mistake. That's a huge mistake. And you gray tops and aspiring gray tops, and you know tops, like me tops. You know? Study to show yourself approved unto God.

25:11 You know, I I recent... I I just I just say this. Okay? I'll just I'll just say this. I recently enrolled in a master's program at Grand Grand Rapids Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan in biblical exegesis with Greek emphasis.

25:29 Am I crazy? Yes. I am insane. But you know JC who's pushing me on this, he already has one of those things, you know, with Hebrew and Greek emphasis. And now he's in a THM program, and I'm thinking to myself, I went to Moody's Insta Bible Tune.

25:49 And and I I did that forty two years ago, and I I paid my paid my dues academically. What's the deal? He says, dad, it helps your synapse connect in your brain. In other words, the potential of not getting Alzheimer's is better when you're studying a foreign language. That's true.

26:16 That is true. So I'm studying Greek and, you know, alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon. And I'm going, okay. What's next? Theta.

26:29 Theta, eta. Yeah. Theta, eight. Kevin.. His synapse are doing well.

26:39 His synapse are doing very good. This is the thing that you gotta keep keep going. Keep going and you great times. I'm retired. No, you're not.

26:53 Sorry. You're not. Not from the lord and not from studying his word and not from obedience to what he would have you to do, maybe from that job you had, but not from studying him. And also, please, please, don't don't say that you you moms out there and now your kids are older and they're grown up and... No.

27:19 No. Dig in. Dig into it. Be students of the word. Know what the word of god has to say.

27:28 Spend a little bit of money on Lagos. Spend a lot of money on Lagos because it cost, you know, but you can do this. Do this. Study to show yourself approved unto god. Workman that need not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth and you think to yourself, okay, you know, why do you do this?

27:50 You do this so you can understand other what the doctrine is, what the Bible has to teach, and that you would when somebody comes in and gives another doctrine, you know what is wrong. Because you have the benchmark of the word of god and you know if somebody comes in and says that Jesus isn't God, well, I'm telling you right now, it's right here. That he is God. And it shows that from biblically speaking, absolutely unequivocally, It's really something. I'm in the open air at Wayne State University, and I'm preaching and the guy comes up and he goes, it's really weird.

28:30 It's really a weird scene. He comes up and he goes, hey, man. Show me one verse in the New Testament that Jesus is god. Are you serial? I mean, this is like unbelievable.

28:48 I said, show me, he says, show me one verse that Jesus is God. And I I, my bible was in my bag and it was over there. And I'd have to go get it, dig it out, pull and show them. I I so I said, is there anybody here that has a bible? Anybody here?

29:06 This is on campus at Wayne State University. And this black girl, beautiful black girl came up and she, I have a bible. It was a Schofield reference bible just like mine. And I'm going, this is of God. And so I looked at this and I just, I showed them a whole bunch of verses.

29:28 You know, it's really funny when people do objections, they just... They hear the answer to it, one ear out the other. My mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts. How about this one? Well, how about what I just said?

29:45 You know, how about that one? I mean, we we need to know it. It's a warning against false teaching. And H. A.

29:54 Ironside, who is a a preacher died in 1951, I don't know how old he was. He wasn't young. So he was the pastor at Moody Memorial Church in Chicago, and he traveled all over Ironside. You can get his commentary, full full commentary on this stuff. Anyway, he said this, Harry Ironside, loose doctrine produces loose living.

30:28 If you don't know what you're doing and you don't know what the word of God has to say, your life will reflect that. Can't help it. And notice what he says here. He says here, now the end of the commandment, verse five, is love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience. Oh, man.

30:46 There you go. I like that. I like that good conscience part. Pure heart, good conscience, and faith unfeigned from which some have swerved and turned aside under vain janglings or empty chatter. They just...

31:06 They don't even know what they're talking. They're talking through their toupee. Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor what that about which they affirm. They have no clue of what they're talking about but they're making it strong dogmatic statements. But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully.

31:33 So how does a man use a law lawfully? Good question. Knowing this that the law is not made for the righteous man. In fact, we see in other passages of scripture that the law condemns man. It does not make a man righteous.

31:49 What the law's purpose was, I live by the 10 commandments. No. No. You die by the 10 commandments. And those 10 commandments are the representative of the 613 commandments God gave Moses on Sinai.

32:07 So you die by them and they show you that you fall short, that you're never even gonna make it. It's over. And you need a savior and that savior is Jesus Christ who is our hope because we are already condemned. We're condemned already. And so what does the law do?

32:30 It it it tells us and what is the law for? For the... Not for the righteous but for the lawless, disobedience, for the ungodly, sinful, unholy, profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mother, for manslayers, for fornicators. Oh, man. For them that defile themselves with mankind, that's homosexuality.

32:53 That is homosexuality and bestiality. And then for kidnappers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine. So we're cooked. Everyone of us are cooked. All of us have sinned and come short of the glory of god.

33:15 The lord tells us this, the only one that can wash away my sin is Jesus Christ And he died on the cross and shed his blood to wash away my sins. And then three days later rose again physically from the dead, from the dead. Here's the deal. Christianity is never never about a lifestyle. It's about a person.

33:42 And that person is Jesus. You take Jesus out of the equation, you've got zero. It's not philosophy that I espouse to and if I live a Christian philosophy, then everything will be hunky dory. No, it won't. Because a person must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved.

34:02 In order to have their sins expunged or washed away. And this is the thing that is so important for us to understand. We must understand this and this is it. So he's telling us you're gonna live this. You're gonna live the sinful lifestyle if you're a sinner.

34:25 And the Bible is telling us the Bible is telling us that we're sinful. Do you know that in the list of sins in some sections of the New Testament, it lists sins, you know? You know, that beastiality, homosexuality, we go, yeah, bad news, bad news, bad news, that, bad news, that. You know what else one? Disobedient to parents.

34:50 In the Old Testament, you could take your kid and have him stoned to death. Uh-oh. I tell you, this is this is serious business with god. God will not tolerate sin and he will not let somebody into his heaven. He will not...

35:11 He's already told us this. He will not allow anybody into his heaven that is not made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. It's the only way. You know, the only way. Well, that's your way.

35:27 Well, if it's his way, then it's mine. But it's his way. It's not my way, it's his way. He said, I am the way. There's only one way to heaven.

35:42 One way to heaven, and that's through the Lord Jesus Christ. And we must trust him as our savior. And so he sends he sends... He sounds that note of worship and warning, And not only this, but he sounds a note of witness. Look at verse 12.

35:58 I and... Would you you get this? Okay. Okay. Okay.

36:01 Okay. Okay. Okay. This is not on some alarm, is it? Man, if you're lying to me.

36:18 Tom Webb's. Okay. Now what you see here is cars passing. Right? And Barb and I, we noticed how beautiful this neighborhood is.

36:30 Right? I lived in New York, actually, Jersey, the most densely populated state in the union, and worked on the streets of New York like crazy for a long time. And did meeting after meeting. Some crowds were so huge. It was unbelievable in terms of preaching the gospel.

36:51 Was fantastic. But did you notice when you drive out of here today and you go down the street and you're passing people, just understand one thing. Without Jesus Christ, they're gonna spend eternity in the lake of fire. It doesn't matter where they live, And it doesn't matter what their education is. And it doesn't matter their gender.

37:22 And it doesn't matter their deep rooted genealogies. It doesn't matter. Without Jesus Christ, according to the word of God, they're gone. If they die without Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they will spend eternity in the lake of fire. So when you read what Paul is gonna say in verse 12, I thank my God, and what an honor and privilege this is.

38:32 I mean, he was there when Stephen was stoned to death. Held the coats, and he didn't stop there. And on his way to Damascus with writs of arrestment to get more people into prison and to have them killed, god intervenes. He said, I did it ignorantly because I did it ignorantly. He said this, who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly and the grace of our lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

39:13 This is a faithful saying and worthy of your acceptance, of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Every assembly has a crisis. Every assembly has a crisis, and the crisis is this. What do we do with the people around us that are lost? How do we get to them?

39:54 How do we get to them with this incredible message? One of the beautiful things is, you know, if you have a neighbor and you invite them to come to the chapel or if you have a a friend or a family member and you're constantly talking to them about the greatest thing that ever ever was. What could be more important than telling somebody on how to gain heaven and escape hell? What could be more important than that? And I like the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, second oldest rescue mission in The United States, New York Rescue Mission, formerly called the McAuley Water Street Mission, now the New York Rescue Mission, oldest.

40:48 Pacific Guard Mission, second oldest. You know what their motto is? I love this. Everlastingly at it. Everlastingly at it.

41:03 In other words, Paul reflects this finding me faithful. He hath enabled me finding me faithful. Do what you can do and it does not matter who you are. If you know Jesus as your savior, give it. Give it.

41:27 Sometimes with stammering lips, sometimes you just don't know what to say. And... But man, do what you can do. Do what you can do. Because this is a faithful saying.

41:41 This is this is so true and so it's a it is a note of witness and and then it's a he's a separated separated witness. We see that in verse 12, following me faithful. I had a friend of mine, this guy... This... Did you know that in New Jersey, it was the head...

42:01 The capital, really, of all industry, life insurance, all all the different insurance. Newark being one of them. Newark, New Jersey being one of them. And my friend Ed, who's with the Lord now, was asked to be the commissioner of all of the insurance industry nationwide. They have a commissioner and he...

42:27 They asked him to be the commissioner. You know what he said to him? He said, I'm turning you down, and I appreciate you doing this, but I'm... I am a preacher of the gospel, and I sell insurance. I do that just to keep ketchup on the table.

42:46 That's all. But my main job is to tell people about Christ. Wow. How prestigious that would have been. How fantastic.

42:58 Right? He didn't even think of it that way. He was thinking from an eternal perspective, not from a temporary perspective. My friend Ed Gray is with the Lord now, but he led so many people to Christ. It was unbelievable.

43:14 Bible study after bible study after bible study, evangelistic bible studies, and talked to people and led people to Christ. And you go, man, that is that is fantastic. Finding me faithful and hath enabled me. He has enabled you to do what you should be doing, what I should be doing, what Calvary Bible Chapel from where I come from and from Westlake Bible Fellowship Church Tabernacle. You know, I mean, this is this is what we should be doing and we should be about about that business.

43:52 We should be doing that and then also, you know, it's a it's a witness. It it talks about being sinful. He's a sinful man. So, god takes us who are sinners and transforms us and makes us not superior to the lost. No.

44:11 We're one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread. Simple as that. Somebody told you about Christ. Somebody had clammy hands and cotton in the mouth and sweating and armpits were kind of wet and they were like real nervous and they're going, oh, I don't know if they're going to reject me and all that but oh, here it goes. Here it goes.

44:36 Here's what happened. Somebody did that for you. Praise god for that. Amen? I mean, this is incredible.

44:44 Somebody cared enough to risk their relationship with you to tell you how you can have a home in heaven by simply trusting in Jesus Christ. Wow. Wow. Finding you faithful. God doesn't look at ability.

45:03 He looks at availability. And he looks at faith ability. He looks at you constantly doing it. Not a one time shot. That's great but let it be a whole bunch of one time shots.

45:20 Let it be a whole bunch of times. Get used to it. I get, I guarantee this, you'll get better at it. You'll get better at talking to people about Christ as you do it. No questions about that.

45:37 And it's a witness of the saving Messiah. Nevertheless, for this cause I obtain mercy. Verse 16, In me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long suffering for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life. This guy was so self righteous, it was unbelievable prior to coming to Christ. And he had to realize one thing, that he could not save himself and that Jesus is that Messiah promised years ago over 300 prophecies regarding the promised Messiah.

46:20 The promised anointed one, the Christ anointed one. And he trusted him. Not his righteousness, not his church or temple going, not any... Not memorization of the Old Testament, which he probably did. He said, I was a Pharisee of the Pharisees.

46:40 You want to match how good you are to Paul? Not going to make it. How about this one? Match yourself to Jesus. Match yourself to god, the father.

46:53 It's over. It is over. You have no leg on. No, you can't stand on this one. He is the one.

47:34 And I want you to know, if you're listening to the TV and all that kind of stuff and you don't see there's a war going on, man, where are you at? What are you thinking? What is going on in your brain? What are you taking in? And then also the the idea of compromise.

47:55 Well, it's a normal thing. It is not normal. It is not normal. Abortion is not normal. Transgenderism is not normal.

48:04 Homosexuality is a decision people make. It's not genetic. It is not according to the word of God. It's not, but it's being sold this way. I remember when I I did a thing on homosexuality and I read a book.

48:24 Gloria Steinem was the editor. And they... A whole bunch of people. And I felt filthy after I read the book. But they laid out a plan of...

48:38 They they actually said this, that we will lose some battles, but we will win the war, and we will make gay lesbians a race issue. They actually said it. We will make it a race issue. When was that book printed? 1972.

49:09 It's by design. Do you think that this is wholesome and godly? Think again. It's diametrically opposed to the word of God. Actually, let's put it this way.

49:21 The word of God is diametrically opposed to that. Does he love the sinner? Absolutely. Does he hate the sin? Without a doubt.

49:34 We need to understand that we are in a war. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Jesus Christ. So said Paul to the Corinthians in chapter 10. Second Corinthians 10, four and five. We need to do this.

50:07 We need to war a good warfare. And this is what he's telling us here. And then he says, holding faith and a good conscience and that some who have put away concerning faith have been made a shipwreck. It's used two times this word. And the first time it's used is when he talks about in Corinthians, he talks about he was in a shipwreck.

50:30 The actual shipwreck day and night in the deep. Same word. And now he's talking... Was talking about physical. Now he's talking about the spiritual shipwreck.

50:42 A spiritual shipwreck. I had a friend of mine and he is he is really a great guy. And he he in New York City, he came to New York and started All Nations Bible Baptist Church in Queens, New York. His name is Paul McCartle. Paul, when he got saved at the age of 14, he grew grew up a little bit.

51:12 Then he went to college, then he went to Union Theological Seminary. That's one of the most liberal places on the planet. One of the most liberal seminaries in the world. Unbelievable. Right?

51:29 Paul had a crisis of faith and he repented of that, changed... You know what he did? He went back to a seminary that taught the word of God, the inerrant word of God. He went back and went all the way through it again. And then because of that, solid teaching, re reeducation, if you please, on his life, he started All Nations Bible Baptist Church.

52:00 We did... He asked us if he could borrow one of our evangelists in the open air. And I said, sure. Absolutely. So my friend George worked with him one half day a week.

52:14 This is in New York City though, it's a very target rich environment. Half day a week, subway evangelism, kids meetings, those guys. Just a half day, one day. Half of the people at All Nations Bible Baptist Church, half of the congregation were direct results of people getting saved on the street. Half.

52:40 That's growth. It's not transfer stuff. I don't like this assembly, so I'm coming to this assembly. And I don't like that assembly, so I'm coming to this. No.

52:49 No. These guys were born again. They got saved on the streets, and then they went to that place. I mean, that's that's amazing to me. All because a guy was faithful.

53:04 Clarity is the key. We need to see it clearly. We don't want to have spiritual myopia. I don't even know what that means but that sounds really impressive, doesn't it? And we don't want to have that.

53:22 We want to have where we can see clearly what the real issues are. Paul lays it out for us. He lays it out for the Westlake cuties. He lays it out for the Westlake geezers. He lays it out for all of, he lays it out for the middle section who think they got all the time in the world.

53:48 And they don't. He lays it out for us. We need to listen to those notes. Father, we just ask you that you would help us with this. Help us to understand what your word has to say.

54:02 Help us to be faithful and not only understanding it but having a disposition to obedience to it after we've rightly divided the word of truth and help us to really do what you would have us to do. Help us to see the world the way you see it, and help us to give the one you gave for us rose again physically from the dead. We worship him. All glorious lord. We ask you lord that you administer to and through us and to and through this assembly that people would come to Christ.

54:47 We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks.