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[0:00] If you have your Bible, turn to 1 Timothy 4, verses 1-5 will be our text this morning as we continue to go verse by verse through this book.

[0:28] The Bible is in the pews that you may use. If you don't have a Bible, please take that Bible home with you today as a gift from our church to you in our hopes that you'll continue to be reading the Word of God.

[0:43] 1 Timothy 4, again verses 1-5, if you would stand with me as we honor the reading of God's Word together. Now, the Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage, and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

[1:21] For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the Word of God and prayer.

[1:33] May God add a blessing to the reading of His Word. Would you please be seated? About a year ago, Danny's brother and his wife visited us from Washington State, and we like to play board games when they come to visit.

[1:54] And the last time they came to visit, we played this game where someone is a double agent. They act like they're a part of the group, but their true objective is to sabotage the game.

[2:09] And as the game goes along, there are opportunities to catch that person acting as a double agent by analyzing and questioning the moves and the decisions that they either chose to make or not to make.

[2:26] And I was convinced that Danny's brother was not the double agent. His wife knew that he wasn't telling the truth, but I thought she was the bad guy, and I thought I knew him better than her.

[2:45] They hadn't been married for that long. Come to find out, he was the double agent, and I realized that not only was I wrong, but I was not as good of a detective as I led myself to believe.

[3:08] And Danny's brother is a much better liar than I ever thought that he would be. Our culture is drawn to games and movies and shows like that where there's a double agent, where someone is acting as an imposter.

[3:27] Sometimes we figure it out before the reveal. Sometimes we don't. And when we don't, we are shocked both by our inability to see the clues and surprised by how truthful some people can seem to be when they are telling lies.

[3:47] On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples that one of them would betray him. One of them was an imposter, a double agent.

[3:58] Being God, Jesus knew who it was. He always knew who it was. But his disciples had no idea. We read about that in John 13, 21 through 27.

[4:11] After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and he testified, Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me. The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke.

[4:22] One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus' side. So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, Lord, who is it?

[4:37] Jesus answered, It is he whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it. And so when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.

[4:48] Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. And Jesus said to him, What you are going to do, do quickly. A couple of things about Judas here are important for us to understand.

[5:03] First, Judas loved money. John 12 records Judas' objections to Lazarus' sister Mary anointing Jesus' feet with an expensive ointment.

[5:18] In John 12, 4 through 6, we read that Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples, he who was about to betray him, said, Why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor?

[5:31] And he said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used it to help himself to what was put into it.

[5:42] Judas heard Jesus say that you cannot love God and money. But at some point, he made his choice.

[5:54] Matthew 26, 13 through 15 tells us that Judas was paid 30 pieces of silver to betray Jesus, which he did by leading soldiers of the chief priests and the Pharisees to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he knew Jesus would be.

[6:10] And once he was there, Judas identified Jesus by kissing him and calling him Rabbi, maintaining his duplicity to the very end.

[6:21] Now, the second important thing we need to understand about Judas is that after Jesus handed him the morsel, Satan entered into him.

[6:33] Judas was a willing participant. His love for money led him to despise the Lord, and he was empowered to do what he did by the devil himself.

[6:46] Jesus' story teaches us to guard against small, gradual, subtle sins that gain strength in our lives and open the door for more deadly influences.

[7:00] His story also reminds us that appearances can be deceiving, that those who claim to follow the truth, know the truth, and serve the truth aren't always who they appear to be.

[7:13] 1 Timothy is a letter written by the Apostle Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to Timothy, a young pastor who was serving as the pastor of the church in Ephesus.

[7:27] Paul founded the church in Ephesus. This church was a labor of his love and service to the Lord. Prior to his writing this letter, Paul was arrested for preaching the gospel, and as a Roman citizen, he had the right to appeal his case to Caesar in Rome.

[7:47] And on his way to doing that, he stopped and he met with the Ephesian elders in Miletus. He believed that this would be the last time that he would ever see them this side of heaven.

[8:03] And so he gave them some encouragement, some instructions, and a warning, which is recorded in Acts 20, 28 through 30.

[8:15] Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood. I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, and from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.

[8:41] Unfortunately, this warning went unheeded. Some did not pay careful attention to themselves, and as a result, they made shipwreck of the faith they professed to possess.

[8:55] And Paul talks about that to Timothy in chapter 1, verses 3 through 7. As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the stewardship that is from God that is by faith.

[9:15] The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussions desiring to be teachers of the law without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

[9:34] In verses 18 through 20, Paul continues to urge Timothy to wage the good warfare, to not tolerate or turn a blind eye to the wolves trying to feast on the Lord's sheep in the church.

[9:48] He says again, The deception of men like Himeneas and Alexander, though it was subtle, became destructive.

[10:18] Like a small chip in a car windshield, when it first happens, it's a nuisance. But it's so small, you can see good enough to not fix it, and after a while you just kind of ignore it.

[10:32] You adjust your vision to see around it, but before long that chip becomes a large crack that not only obscures your vision as the driver, but the passenger.

[10:43] The church in Ephesus had cracks that needed fixing. It was in disorder. In chapters 2 through 3, Paul gives Timothy instruction in how to put the church back into order.

[10:59] In chapter 3 verses 14 through 16, Paul reminds Timothy that the church is God's household, as we saw last week, that it is a pillar and buttress of the truth. The truth, the true church, stands on the truth of the gospel, the truth of God's word, and it upholds it like pillars.

[11:17] In verse 16, Paul shares the truth of greatest concern that the church must uphold, and that truth concerns the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

[11:28] Because in our age, in these later times, this is the truth of God that Satan most assaults. And in our text today, Paul exposes who is truly behind the efforts to deceive and create disorder in the church.

[11:46] And he teaches us how to use God's word to combat them as we fight the good fight, upholding the truth and exposing lies disguised as the truth.

[11:58] And so the main idea for this morning's sermon is that the church upholds the truth by detecting and refuting lies disguised as the truth.

[12:10] The church upholds the truth by detecting and refuting lies disguised as the truth. Why does this matter? Well, as a Christian, this matters a lot.

[12:22] Since creation, the earth has been the battleground between God and Satan. God calls his people created in his image to respond to his word and to believe the truth, while Satan conspires against him and seeks to lure people to exchange the truth of God for a lie.

[12:45] Both the Old Testament and New Testament contain repeated warnings about false teachers. In fact, Philemon is the only book in the New Testament that doesn't contain some kind of warning against false teachers or false teachings.

[13:00] And so you must be on the alert against deceptions in our church and also potentially deceptions within your own self. 1 Peter 5.8, Peter describes Satan like a lion seeking someone to devour.

[13:18] James 1.13-15 talks about temptation acting as a lure to lead you away from safety and into sin, which brings destruction and death. You must know the truth to uphold the truth and to use the truth to detect and refute lies that bring dishonor to yourself, dishonor to God's house, and worst of all, dishonor to God himself.

[13:47] If you're an unbeliever this morning, this matters greatly to you as well. Jesus compared the truth of the gospel to seed that was spread on different soils.

[14:01] Satan does not want you to hear this message. He wants you to reject it. He's waiting to snatch the truth up before it can take root in your heart, in your life.

[14:12] He wants to destroy you. He wants you to share his fate. His desire is to keep you imprisoned in sin by denying the truth and exchanging it for a lie.

[14:27] We've prayed for you. And I hope that today God is gracious to save you and free you from sin and death and save you from its eternal consequences and give you life.

[14:44] The church, as we've seen and as we've heard, is a pillar and buttress of the truth. It must uphold the truth, and it does so in part by detecting and refuting lies disguised as the truth.

[15:01] How does the church detect and refute lies disguised as the truth? Well, we see in the beginning of verse 1 through verse 2 that we use the truth to detect the source of lies disguised as the truth.

[15:17] We use the truth to detect the source of lies disguised as the truth. Again, in the beginning of verse 1, Paul says, Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith.

[15:31] When someone departs from the faith, they commit apostasy. An apostate is someone like Judas.

[15:42] They are people whom Jesus compared to seed that fell on the rocky soil. In Matthew 13, 20 through 21, Jesus says, As for what was sown on rocky ground, it is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while.

[16:00] And when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. An apostate is not someone who is struggling with faith, but someone who willfully abandons the biblical faith they once professed.

[16:18] Unfortunately, we see this frequently, and it's heartbreaking when it happens. There have been Christian musicians that I've listened to who seemed to be the real deal, but at some point they abandoned the faith they once professed.

[16:40] And though it's heartbreaking and shocking, it shouldn't surprise us. Because God told us, the Spirit has expressly said to us in his word that he's inspired, that some will depart from the faith, especially in the later times.

[17:07] And friends, we are living in the later times. The Bible describes the later times as the period between Jesus' first and second coming.

[17:18] 1 John 2, 18, the apostle says, Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have come.

[17:31] Therefore, we know that it is the last hour. In Matthew 24, Jesus' disciples asked him about the signs that will precede his second coming, which bring an end to these later times.

[17:43] In verses 3 through 14, he says to them, As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us when these things will be, and what will be the sign of your coming, and the end of the age, this age that we are living in.

[17:58] And Jesus answered them, See that no one leads you astray, for many will come in my name, saying, I am the Christ. And they will lead many astray.

[18:09] And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.

[18:20] For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains. They will deliver you up to tribulation, and put you to death.

[18:36] And you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. And then many will fall away, and betray one another, and hate one another.

[18:47] And many false prophets will arise, and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

[19:00] And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

[19:12] In Matthew 7, 21 through 23, Jesus talked about the day when he returns, which will bring about the end of these later times. There he says, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

[19:30] On that day, many will say to me, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?

[19:44] And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. Jesus said that many false prophets, false Christs, will come in later times, and they will lead many astray.

[20:08] They will think they know Jesus, but the Jesus they think they know will truly be a false image, an idol of him, a fabrication of their own imaginations.

[20:22] A Jesus who doesn't condemn sin. A Jesus who doesn't require anyone to take up the cross to follow him. They think they know Jesus, they think they serve Jesus, but they don't.

[20:34] And they will hear him say, Depart from me. I never knew you. Bottom line, the revelation of Scripture shows apostasy is predictable, and it is inevitable.

[20:51] We may be shocked by who commits it, but we shouldn't be surprised. There will always be those who make a temporary response to the gospel, but have no genuine faith in God.

[21:06] As John said in 1 John 2, 19, speaking of those who committed the act of apostasy, they went out from us, but they were never of us.

[21:18] For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might be plain that they are all not of us. In the rest of verse 1, Paul explained the source of their apostasy.

[21:33] He says, By devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. This isn't teaching about demons, but teaching done by them, and it comes, in verse 2, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared.

[21:50] The Greek word translated as seared is a medical term referring to cauterization. In the spiritual sense, these people's consciences have been desensitized to the truth, and they feel no guilt for leading people astray from the truth.

[22:04] In fact, some of them believe that their efforts to do this are done in service to God. John 16, 1 through 4, Jesus said, I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away, to keep you from committing apostasy.

[22:23] They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God, and they will do these things because they have not known the Father nor me, but I have said these things to you that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told them to you.

[22:43] Satan has often been depicted in our culture as a horrific, red-skinned, pointy-tailed, horned monster.

[22:55] But the Bible says, in 1 Corinthians 11, 13 through 14, for such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ, and no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as what?

[23:10] An angel of light. Light in the Bible is symbolic of knowledge or truth. This is the way Satan and the angels who fell with him disguise themselves.

[23:24] The history of demonic seduction in the disguise of messengers of light goes back to Satan's first successful temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden.

[23:38] And with the question, did God actually say, that's the bait, and then the lie, you will not surely die, you will be like God?

[23:52] Now that my doctorate is over, I've become fascinated. I have a lot more time to read other things, and I've become fascinated with ancient megalithic structures that go back to the times before and after the flood.

[24:12] And many of those structures found on both sides of the world depict a snake-like being, a giver of knowledge.

[24:29] When I shared about my story, or about my trip to India, I showed you pictures of all the false gods they worship who are surrounded by snakes.

[24:41] To them, snakes symbolize power, fertility, and protection. Same with the religion of the ancient Egyptians. In ancient Greece, snakes often symbolized healing, renewal, and wisdom.

[24:54] I'm not going to go much further down that rabbit hole if you want to get coffee sometime. We can talk about megaliths and all of those different things. But if you pay attention, you see the influence of Satan everywhere, across, all of time.

[25:13] Jesus described Satan as the father of lies. He is the father of lies who knows the truth of God's word.

[25:26] When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he twisted God's word in an attempt to lure Jesus, the Son of God, into worshiping him.

[25:37] And friends, Satan's playbook hasn't changed. He twists the truth. He sprinkles in just enough truth and subtle ways to deceive people into exchanging the truth of God for a lie.

[25:49] So Satan and the angels who fell with him are the source of lies disguised as the truth and they spread their deception through people whose consciences are seared.

[26:01] So how do you detect them? Well, again, by upholding the truth. To uphold the truth, though, you must know the truth. Again, Jesus said that he is the embodiment of truth in John 14, 6.

[26:13] Jesus said that he came to testify to the truth in John 18, 37 through 38. Jesus said that those who follow him will be set free by the truth in John 8, 32. Jesus said that the Father seeks those who worship him in spirit and in truth in John 4, 23 through 24.

[26:32] Jesus prayed that those who follow him would be sanctified in the truth in John 17, 17 through 19. So to know Jesus is to know the truth.

[26:45] To know Jesus is to have the truth and to know his command for his church to uphold the truth. The better you know the truth, the source of truth, the better you will detect lies disguised as the truth.

[27:02] Now I understand Bible study can be hard, but it's worth it because the consequences of ignoring it, denying it, or rejecting it are fatal.

[27:19] Again, Jesus in Matthew 7, 24 through 27, he's concluding his sermon on the mount, says, Everyone then who hears these words of mine recorded in his word and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

[27:47] And again, the rock is God's word. Verse 26, And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell and great was the fall of it.

[28:07] You know, in the church, no one is going to stand up in here and say, I want you all to know that my conscience is seared and I'm here amongst you to spread lies.

[28:21] And so we must know the truth. so that we can use it to detect lies disguised as the truth. And we do that by asking ourselves questions.

[28:34] Does what they say match what I read in the Bible? And Jesus said that we would be able to detect false teachers by their fruit. And so we ask ourselves, does this person practice what they preach?

[28:52] do they teach what God's word says? Does their life, does their teaching match what I read in God's word? The better you know the truth, you can use the truth and upholding the truth to detect the source of lies disguised as the truth.

[29:10] Now secondly, we see in verses 3 through 5 that we use the truth to refute the substance of lies disguised as the truth. We use the truth to refute the substance of lies disguised as the truth.

[29:23] Verse 3, Paul's talking about these people who are being used by Satan to spread deception. And he says of them what they're doing in this case in Ephesus, they are forbidding marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

[29:41] Now here, we might have expected Paul to follow his comments about demonic teachings with examples like denying the Trinity or denying the deity of Jesus or some kind of idol worship.

[29:54] But Satan is subtle and he seeks to gain a foothold on territory that is more easily conceded to him. In Ephesus, false teachers in the church were demanding that people abstain from marriage and from certain foods.

[30:13] And again, we see how deceptive Satan is because there is a kernel of truth in these teachings. The Bible does commend those who are called to singleness.

[30:27] It also commends fasting from food at certain times for certain reasons with the right motivations. And so, the deception comes in seeing these things that can be good things as being essential things that are necessary for salvation that everyone must do in order to be saved.

[30:48] The belief that you have to work for your salvation is a hallmark both of the religions of the animistic primitive tribes and the sophisticated major religions of the world that good works, that keeping rituals, that practicing self-denial are necessary for salvation.

[31:10] William Barclay said, this was an ever-recurring heresy in the church. In every generation, men arose who tried to be stricter than God. Before the fall, before Satan's temptation and Adam and Eve's sin, God created people to work and to find joy and fulfillment in it as the pinnacle of His creation.

[31:35] And as a result of the fall, we know that work is hard, but most of us still find in ourselves this God-given need, a desire to work.

[31:49] And I think a result of our sin nature is that that desire to work has produced within us a view that believes that we need to do more work to receive salvation.

[32:01] And so, we are tempted to add to God's Word, to make works an essential part of our salvation. And this was a consistent problem in the early church.

[32:15] Paul dealt with it in Colossians 2, 20-23. He says, if with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why as if you were still alive in the world do you submit to regulations?

[32:27] Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings. These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

[32:49] And then in verses 4-5 in 1 Timothy chapter 4, Paul says, for everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the Word of God and prayer.

[33:03] And so, what he's saying here is that God created marriage, and marriage symbolizes ultimately Jesus' relationship with his church, and Paul's saying that God created food, and he created these things intending them for our good.

[33:23] Now, saying grace before you eat a Big Mac doesn't make it holy. It's not going to automatically take all the calories out and, you know, be like eating lettuce or something like that.

[33:39] What he's saying, though, is that saying grace, praying like this, does put us in the proper mindset, to put our food in the true perspective as God's good creation.

[33:55] And we should be honestly doing this all the time with everything. Brian Chappell said, the Christian life is not meant to be lived in the negative, but in the positive. As Jesus showed us by example, we are to be saying grace every minute of our lives.

[34:11] This gives glory to God. But the point here is to pay attention to how subtle these lies can be.

[34:23] In Matthew 16, Jesus has had another round with the Pharisees talking and pointing out their lies and their deception, and he gets in the boat with the disciples after he's fed the thousands and he has this interaction with them in Matthew 16, 11 through 12.

[34:44] He asks them for, or he says, to beware the leaven of the Pharisees. And, you know, the disciples here, as they often do, they don't, they're missing the point. And so they're thinking, oh, he's mad because we didn't bring bread or something like that.

[34:57] And so Jesus tells them, how is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Then they understood that he did not tell them to be aware of the leaven of the bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

[35:12] And again, just because it's so subtle. And it seems right. Yeah, it seems good. You know, look how much we can see somebody working like that. Look how devoted they are to the Lord.

[35:24] I'm not doing that. I'm not as saved as they are. And Jesus is saying here, don't entertain those thoughts. It's subtle and it creeps its way in.

[35:35] And before you know it, you're wrapped into this whole completely different gospel that is not the truth. You've exchanged the truth of God for a lie. So beware of these subtle things, these subtle ways that Satan is at work to lead us astray from the truth.

[35:52] And so friends, this is why we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day. And you've heard me say that before and you may have wondered why do we need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day, especially if you're saved.

[36:05] You need to preach the gospel to yourself every day because every day you are under assault from Satan and from this world and from lies.

[36:18] And you have to remind yourself that the truth is found in Jesus Christ. You have to remind yourself and fill yourself with his word so that you will be guarded against the lies that Satan tries to use.

[36:32] He can't take away your salvation if you're truly saved, but he will try to do all that he can to make you think that you don't really have it. And to focus on yourself instead of spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.

[36:43] We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day so that we're ready to preach the gospel to other people every day. That they would know the truth as we refute the lies that Satan spreads.

[36:58] And as we seek to be used of the Lord to share the truth, that people would know the truth and be saved by the truth. We need to preach the gospel to ourselves every day because even you can be reading the Bible regularly, praying all the time, but then these thoughts come in, oh, I'm not doing as well as that person.

[37:17] Maybe I need to do this or I need to do that. And before you know it, you're caught up in a bunch of stuff that's a waste of time. So we must preach the gospel to ourselves every day.

[37:33] How do we adjust to what we've heard? In God's word today, trust in the truth, God has revealed and used it to expose lies, just as I've shared. Trust in the truth, God has revealed and used it to expose lies.

[37:46] We are to be actively engaged in this battle, friends. God has not called us to sit on the sidelines. He has called us to engage this world with the truth.

[37:58] He's called us to go and make disciples. He has given us the truth and he's given it to us and his expectation to us as his church is that we will go, that we will not only guard this truth, but that we will use it to expose lies that people would know the truth and our hopes that they would be set free and the knowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior.

[38:21] If you're here this morning, I hope that you've heard the true gospel, that we are all sinners. We have all sinned. We have all fallen short of the glory of God.

[38:33] None of us measure up to his righteous standard. That person who lives secluded in some faraway place off by themselves and all they do is pray and meditate or whatever, like some monk or something like that, they're just as sinful as everybody else and they're just as need of Jesus as their Savior because none of us is good.

[38:52] None of us is good enough to measure up to the righteous, holy, perfect standard of God. And so God in his grace and his love sent his son, Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, to live the sinless life that we couldn't live, to die on the cross for the sins that we've committed and who rose again, defeating all the enemies that we could never defeat, that by faith in him we are clothed in his righteousness.

[39:17] We are declared righteous before God. We have salvation. We have forgiveness. We have eternal life. We have the truth. And there's nothing you can do to work for that.

[39:30] There's nothing you could do to earn that. It's all a result of his grace. You realize you're a sinner and you don't measure up and you turn to Jesus as the solution.

[39:41] You ask God to forgive you and he will. And he'll give you eternal life. And that's the gospel. And I pray and I hope that if you haven't believed it, that you believe it today.

[39:52] And I pray that if you have believed it, you'll continually preach that truth to yourself every day in these later times until that time comes when Jesus returns. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the instruction of your word.

[40:10] We thank you for the truth that you have given to us. Lord, we thank you for this truth that exposes lies, this truth, Lord, that protects us from sin, this truth, Lord, that makes us more like Jesus when we know it, when we practice it and obey it.

[40:34] Lord, you've entrusted your church with your word, with your gospel. And Lord, that's an amazing thing to be trusted with.

[40:46] God, I pray that as your church here that, Lord, we would know your word, that we would know it well, that we would be able to detect lies that Satan spreads and seeks to spread in our church.

[41:02] church. And that, Lord, we would know your truth so well that we could refute it. Speaking the truth in love, seeing through those lies and through that deception, Lord, and in our own lives, God, that we would be mindful of the subtle ways that Satan tries to deceive us.

[41:21] And so, Lord, I pray that we would be people of your word, that we would be students of your word, that we would practice what your word says, not because it's necessary for us to be saved, but because we are saved and we have something better than this world could ever give to us.

[41:36] And so, Lord, we pray that we would be a light. We pray that we would go and make disciples. Lord, we pray that you would be pleased with what you see happening in our church as we uphold it, your truth, and as we share it.

[41:52] Boldly and courageously speaking the truth in love, that you would be pleased, and we pray that more would be saved. And we ask this in Jesus' name.

[42:03]  Amen.