[Music] down but the spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of Demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron men who forbid marriage and Advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth for everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude for it is Sanctified by means of the word of God
In Prayer in pointing out these things to the Brethren you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus constantly nourished on the words of the faith and of the sound Doctrine which you have been following but have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women on the other hand discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness for bodily discipline is only a little profit but godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come it is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance for
it is for this we labor and strive because we have fixed Our Hope on the Living God who is the savior of all men especially of Believers prescribe and teach these things let no one look down on your youthfulness but rather in speech conduct love Faith and Purity show yourself an example of those who believe until I come give attention to the public reading of scripture to exhortation and teaching do not neglect the spiritual gift within you which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with a laying on of Hands by the presbyter take pains
with these things be absorbed in them so that your progress will be evident to all pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching persevere in these things for as you do this you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you [Music] we are moving into a time in which the gospel and those who preach it are in ever increasing Scandal not only to the world but also to many who associate themselves with Christ and the church but what I want you to see is this is not a strange thing that
has come upon us it is commonplace throughout church history we need to recognize that and we need to live accordingly Paul writes for the word of the Cross is Moria foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God there we see the Great Divide between two peoples those who follow Christ and those who do not again Paul says for indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified to Jews a scandalon a stumbling block but to Gentiles again Moria foolishness
but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God in the annals of tacitus in the first century the gospel of the Cross is described as a pricious and harmful Superstition in the letters of plyy the younger in the first century it is referred to as supers a perverse and extravagant Superstition in sutus in the second century in the life of Nero supersti no malif a new and evil Superstition in the 3D Century in minus Felix in his dialogue of Octavius pigment males opinion a sick
invention a sick delusion also van dein superstitio a Vain and demented Superstition and finally in his writings omnis Rel the destruction of all true religion that is the way the world saw the cross and saw those who proclaimed it the Contemporary stain for the gospel is not Progressive it is regressive it is not a new form of Christianity it is simply an ancient heresy and what was what must we do as preaches not just merely what should we think what should we be how can we avoid the scandal of the Gospel today we cannot avoid
the scandle we must embrace it and we must not compromise we must not compromise not one Doctrine dealing with the blood of Christ must be compromised we have no choice but to Bear the Scandal bear the opposition and go through it drawing upon the strength of heaven and though no one else smiles when we look horizontally when we look be front in front of us or behind us or beside us we see no smile we look to Heaven because that's the only smile we desire the smile of Christ we have no choice but to Bear
it and go through it preaching the gospel and believing that the gospel is the power of God for salvation to all who believe the Jew first and also the Greek the Ancient Man and the modern one the Gospel of Jesus Christ we've now moved into a Time in the West my brethren when it is very possible that we are going to experience the solemn and terrible privilege of first century persecution but if we hold our course if we refuse to compromise we may also experience the first Century power of the Cross and the power of
the Holy Spirit you say well I don't know I don't know if I'll be able to Bear it I know you will be able to Bear it if you belong to him he is faithful no matter what we have to endure in the coming decades we should not fear if we stay with him if we honor him if we do not break let's go forward procla claim the gospel and then stand to one side and admire as the Gospel of Jesus Christ defends itself and proves its power but the gospel we preach must not be
adorned with eloquence it not must not be adorned with your intellect the raw gospel the real gospel the gospel of the cross the gospel of blood the gospel of viar is suffering if we will Proclaim it we will see the glory of God but remember this to the degree that you trust in the arm of the flesh you will see less of this power of which I speak and the more you abandoned all these carnal trappings of modern evangelicalism the more you will behold the power of God a preacher standing alone defying the world with
a message of Love Christ came to save Sinners among whom I am chief if the church is weak it's not the fault of politicians the church is weak where Christ's ministers are weak and I say that to you as a man looking in the mirror I do not have to run to politicians to find the problem I do not have to run to universities Academia to find the problem the problem are the Ministers of Christ that have dressed themselves in the armor of Saul and laid aside the smooth stones of the gospel and because of
that they can slay no Giants conniving pragmatic always looking for a strategy and a method and a new way the spirit is saying present tense over and over and over that in the latter time some will fall away from the faith some will fall away so do not Tremble When there's even a mention of a possibility of persecution know this the true church has always been in a battle it has always been under attack always always always in our day of irrationality the Dethrone M of logic and the law of non-contradiction people can declare themselves
to be Christian even Evangelical even reformed while denying some of the very fundamental doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ this is the culture we live in the positive late 19th century atheist would be ashamed of our culture culture our culture is like those in Hosea that contend with the priest our culture is like the Harlot of Proverbs she eats forbidden fruit and she wipes her mouth and then she brazenly says I've done nothing wrong how are you going to deal with that as a minister of Christ what kind of power does your eloquence have
to change the heart of people like this and all your strategies and gimmicks and parties and parades what can they do against something like this you need to understand the heart of man is like Jericho it is tightly shut up no one comes out and no one goes in and so is this culture and you are not going to be able to carry out the work of Christ you are not going to be able to advance the cause of the Gospel with your silly little toys we must take up the weapons of our Warfare and
they are few but they are Mighty unto Gods what are they the proclamation of the word of God The Fearless bold proclamation of the word of God what else intercessory prayer where are the conferences on intercessory prayer on men who hold the night watch men who stand in the Gap men who wear themselves out holding on to the horns of the altar men who wrestle with God for their own souls for The Souls of their people and for The Souls of a Nation where are they if you're not a man of prayer all your theology
they're just marbles of little boys prayer what else godliness Holiness separateness young man said I would I would give anything for the Lord to use me then make yourself usable throw yourself into the scriptures until when they cut your veins you bleed the Bible throw yourself on your knees spend more time with God and then discover in the scriptures all the things that God hates and avoid them like the plague and discover all the things that God loves and embrace them to your bosom the weapons of our Warfare are these things and the man of
God has no need of anything else and you listen to me any Doctrine any principle any law any teaching that is placed beside the gospel are given more infes than the gospel no matter how harmless it may be in itself immediately turns in to a doctrine of d demons Paul was a steward of the Gospel he was a guardian of the gospel and you know what he was doing if you read his Epistles carefully he was not only preaching the gospel he was constantly constantly constantly giving it the preeminence and teaching the church about the
preeminence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that of all things it stands first because without it all things fall apart there are many good things there are many good ethics there are many good principles there are many good laws even in the scriptures but if your conversation is consumed by something other than the gospel then you are not understanding scripture you are not understanding the heart of Paul you are not understanding the very mind of God the gospel is not just a Doctrine added on to other doctors it's not just one among many it is
the greatest manifestation of the attributes the person of God that has ever been given or will ever be given if you right now were standing in the place of Isaiah in Isaiah 6 if you were very beholding the very face of God upon the throne you could not understand him unless you also understand the gospel because it is there he is revealed the greatest of all questions the harmony of the attributes of God in the contrivance and accomplishment of our Redemption because it is in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that the Divine dilemma is solved
that the problem of every Theologian philosopher and thinker is finally answered how can God be a just God and show Mercy to wicked men you see Earth's problem is how can God judge Heaven's problem is altogether different how can God save pardon wicked men and still maintain his righteousness and the answer is in the gospel where God becomes a man and goes to a tree and bears the sin of his people and with that sin the curse and with that curse all the holy hatred all the righteous judgment of God is poured down upon the
head of God's son and he absorbs it he satisfies justice so it no longer has a demand against God's people and God can be just and the justifier of wicked men never put anything above the Gospel of Jesus Christ listen to me kings men listen to me you Ministers of Christ we are like Abraham's servant who was sent to fetch a Bride died for his son that's us and so we go into the hedges and the highways and we call to her we bid her come and she comes tender and Afraid and then it is
our stewardship and ours alone this does not belong to princes or politicians it's our stewardship to now lead her through the Wilderness to her spouse that's why we live men of Christ that's why we exist for her and every time we see a doubt in her eyes we take one more Jewel of the gospel and we place it in her hand and we say he is worth it and every time she becomes afraid going through this terrible Wilderness with all its monsters and she wants to turn back we pull out another Jewel of the gospel
and we lay it in her hand and we say it's worth it and every time every time some handsome young man passes by going in the opposite direction we catch her gaze and we turn her back and we place another Jewel of the Gospel in her hand and we say no no no he is worth it and every time Bandits appear we show no mercy we draw our swords and we slay them and we do that until the day that he appears and she sees him and her face is all a glow because her garments
she turns back and looks at us and then she runs and she falls straight into his arms and we're the King's Men and we say my work is done my work is [Music] done [Music] [Music] [Music]
