Following Christ As A Saint & Sinner - Karlos Limtiaco - Session 7 - The Necessity of God's Word

Lord, we thank you for this morning and gathering us here together as your people. We pray, Lord, that You would tune our hearts towards you. You are A great God, we thank you for your kindness and your love, your mercy. That has been poured out abundantly.

We thank you Lord, that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of Christ. no life, no death. Nothing, we cannot even separate ourselves from your love. You have binded yourself to us, Lord, in the new covenant, Lord, through the blood of your Son.

It hinges upon nothing that we have done but simply upon our faith in you, and by grace you have given to us faith, for it is by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves. And so Lord, we claim no credit whatsoever for anything. The only thing we bring to you is our sin. And Lord, you respond with the Savior with mercy and grace.

Help us, Lord, to understand more fully that you are gentle and lowly of heart. That Lord, your love towards us is beyond measure. And that Lord, we are secure in the beloved. We are secure in Christ.

And Lord, as we wrap our hearts and our minds around, discipleship, not only as disciples but as those who would seek to build others up in the most holy faith, we pray, Lord, that You would equip and train and encourage and motivate us, Lord, that You would, use us as your unworthy servants to accomplish good. In the church, Lord, that lost people would come to faith and that they would be built up. use us, Lord. Whatever burdens we bring to the table, Lord, we lay those at your feet and we entrust them to You, our great High Priest.

Thank you that you're praying for us unceasingly, Lord. that you will raise us up on the last day. We thank You, Lord, for the hope that we have. Bless us, Lord, as we work our way through the material.

In Jesus' name. Amen. OK, so we are continuing on following Christ as saint and sinner, just quickly review. we started off with the great commission, the reminder that, making disciples is not an option, it's actually a command.

it went to the apostles and then through the apostles they are called to tell, those who would follow Christ, to obey all things, and that includes obeying the great commission. and then we move towards the need or the necessity of an exalted view of Christ. You want to have and maintain an exalted view of Christ, and you want to, minister that to others, then we've got, out of the overflow of this high view of God, humility that should come upon us. And so the need to cultivate humility in the life of the disciple, and that can be applied in various ways, but humility is important.

And then from there we looked at the need for a magnificent view of Christ Himself, and then beyond that, the necessity of genuine conversion. And then after that, we covered the necessity of gospel grounding. That was the topic for last week. There's just a few things I want to go over, to wrap Loose Ends up.

and, and you don't have the notes necessarily, so just kinda hold on and listen. suffering is useful, hold on, let me. The, the topic, the, the, there were many things that were said, but I'm, I'm at one of the points where I said the gospel communicates a theology of suffering that is often difficult to embrace. That's one reason to be gospel-centered, right?

Because the gospel does communicate a theology of suffering that is often difficult to embrace, and so we covered some subpoints underneath that. I'm not gonna go over all of those subpoints, but one thing that I did say is that, suffering is useful to accomplish God's purposes. We see that like in the example of Job, think about how many saints have been encouraged through Job's example and he suffered. we see that suffering is useful to accomplish God's purposes with the example of Joseph.

You all meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. that verse in, Genesis 50:20. the sufferings of Jesus accomplished great good. OK, so again, suffering is useful.

We've got the martyrdom of Stephen. The church, spread like wildfire on the other side of Stephen's death. What a tragedy. What suffering.

And yet, it produced great gospel. Growth. And so it's true even in our own lives and in the lives of disciples that God will use suffering to accomplish great good. We never want to lose sight of that.

Responding to suffering in a gospel manner results in witnessing opportunity. Again, Stephen's martyrdom is the great example. That was a premier witnessing opportunity. What the apostle Paul, who, was referred to as Saul at the time, what he observed.

had a huge impact on his heart, on his life, and so again, when you see the saints of God responding to suffering in a gospel manner, it, it, it causes people to, to want, want you to give to them a reason for the hope that you have, like what makes you click. suffering is temporary. We don't want to lose sight of that., it, it, it, it, it may, it may come to an end sometime in this life or it may not come to an end until we die. Either way, suffering, scripture calls it momentary light affliction.

So we've got to keep that eternal perspective. We've got to help disciples to keep that eternal perspective, and there's gonna come a day of rejoicing that is absolutely guaranteed. It may not come in this world, though, while you're suffering, you can rejoice in Christ, but the ultimate joy will be experienced in eternity, and then that dovetails with the fact that suffering ultimately gives way to eternal reward. another point that we made, the gospel serves as the basis for humility that must mark the believer's life.

You look at Christ Himself, he is the gospel, right? What he did and who he is, is good news, and you look at his own example, what Scripture says, have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ who, though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as being to be grasped, but he emptied Himself. He took on the form of a bond servant, so like he humbled Himself. He's the ultimate example of humility, and those we disciple, we want to call them as well to humility, and we link humility to the gospel.

In the gospel we have the premier example of humility. In Christ is humility observed and defined and understood. You wanna understand humility, Behold Christ, and He is the example of humility. also, the gospel lays the foundation for forgiveness that must be embraced by one who has been sinned against.

The disciples going to get sinned against, right? It's inevitable. It will happen. and so when they get sinned against, the million dollar question is, is how do you respond to being sinned against?

Well, in gospel mode, be kind, tender-hearted, forgiving, just as God in Christ Jesus has forgiven you, OK, just one verse, that well, it is, it, it is, it is, it, it is, and. I remember years ago when I was writing a thesis to work on a master's degree, the, the thesis was the priority of the gospel for the sin against spouse, and I remember asking people, people, so what are you writing about? And I told them the title, Priority of the Gospel for the Sin Against spouse, and they're like, OK, and so as we began to talk it, I, almost everyone, or at least a good number of people responded with a sense of What does that mean, what does that mean in this example, in adultery or if the spouse is, struggles with, with intense anger like, and, and I wouldn't really give the answer.

I would just say, well, what do you think is the gospel linked to that?

And, and, and people in their own mind they're like, That they understand the scandal of it, right? It's counterintuitive, but when you stop to think about the gospel and, and the priority of this gos gospel for when being severely sinned against, like I get the example of Stephen as an example, Christ as an example, the ultimate example, how, how do they respond to severely sinned against? Father, forgive them. They move towards the sinner in love and mercy and compassion.

It's just, it's, it's ridiculous. And in this world, no way. Are you kidding me? In this world, the oppressed, they want to rise up and hold their fist against the face of the so-called perceived oppressor.

Uh-huh. Well, where's the gospel and all of that thinking? It is void, right? And, and we're gonna get into this a little bit today, but like there's a danger that we want to warn disciples of and, and the danger is the danger of a false teaching.

And, and, and there's all kinds of false teaching going on in the world, not just from a purely secular standpoint, that's, that's pretty blatant and obvious, but like within the church, within professing Christendom, there is, there is damnable teaching that is taking place and it ought to be enough to arouse us, right? We gotta be careful that we don't, become guilty of sinful anger, but we, we should be stirred when we stop to think about some of the stuff that is being taught and the effect, negative effect it has.

The non-gospel sensitive, non-gospel centered way of thinking that is happening in the church. it's, I remember I was counseling someone, this was a number of years ago and, and this person that I was counseling said that their counselor said that it's, it's, it's, it's Christians, conservative Christians who are a problem.

This was a Christian counselor. that's enough to get you all stirred up. Like, are you kidding me? People that believe in the authority and the sufficiency of the word of God, the gospel who are ministering from that angle, who are seeking to build, the people they're discipling or counseling up to the most holy faith as revealed to us through special revelation, like we are part of the problem.

I don't think so, and I think what happens in many instances, they set up the straw mans to knock us down and to make us say things that we're not saying. That, and, and, and so there's people in seminaries being duped into thinking that like where we stand is, is, is harmful and Herb, anyway, I'm going off on a bit of a sidebands tirade here. I do get worked up though. I confess that and it's like, man, Lord, help me.

I, I, I get angry. an example is I there was a very well-known pastor in this local area who I was listening to him. just one, and, and this was, this was, during the early stages of COVID and then the riots and stuff like that, and I was listening to this pastor, he's got like probably 10,000 if not more people in his church and I was listening to this pastor and, and one of the things that he said, he, he said the reason why God cho chose Israel as a special people is because among all of the nations, they were the most holy.

I about lost my salvation right there on the spot.

are you, are you kidding me? That's, that, that's a, a modified version, a lightened version of my response. I just like, because I start to think, here's this pastor saying stuff like that and he's got like 10,000+ people he's ministering to and that's what he's telling them? They don't know about it.

That, that, that's enough, the apostle Paul to the Galatians, if anyone should preach a gospel other than the one which we presented to you, let him be anathema. Now, we, we wanna, we don't want to be guilty of arrogance or pride, but at the same time, there is a place for being upset about a false gospel that is going out there, so I, I deviate, but that's part of today's lesson. Let me, let me backtrack here. That's why we need the gospel, right, because it serves as, as a foundation for humility.

I need to come back to the gospel and remember, compassion and mercy and grace, but at the same time, we stand firm for the truth. We contend for the faith once for all, delivered to the saints. And if someone wants to rise up and speak forth heresy and, and, and, and the thing is, is I, I think, you got your disciples who are struggling, that's one thing, but when you got leaders in the church who are preaching heresy, now that is enough to get us upset. We should feel something when we get fired up, right?

the gospel lays the foundation for forgiveness. I said that. the gospel lays the foundation for submission that God's people are called to embrace. Now think about the gospel.

OK. The beauty of submission inside of the context of the gospel. Submission is a beautiful thing. The world wouldn't say so.

They don't like the idea of submission. Right, and even when it means submitting to difficult things, submitting to even being oppressed. But you look at Christ as the ultimate example of submission. He submitted to the will of the Father.

Yes, it was agreed upon in eternity passed and the eternal decree of Almighty God that he would die on it, but there, there was, there was a sense in which there was this agreement, I will do it. the, the, the father's desire, the scripture says that please the father to crush his son, and, and, and the son willingly did it. The scripture says who for the joy set before him endured the cross. And so he goes to the cross, happy to go to the cross because he knew what was on the other side of the cross redemption, salvation, relationship.

And so it pleasured Almighty God, the Son submitted to the plan of the Father to come into this world to do what he did and to be crucified in our place. That's what he did. Submission is beautiful. Right, and, and, and you, and you teach your disciples that.

You teach your children that submission is beautiful. When you submit to the earthly authorities God has placed over you, that is beautiful. That is biblical, right? Now, you don't submit to those that call you to sin.

That's a whole other category, right? But you do submit, to your parents, you submit to your church leaders, the elders or whatever, you submit to governing authorities, you submit to the Lord. That is what it boils down to, submission to the Lord, but people rise up and I We gotta, we gotta let the scripture speak for itself when it calls us to submission and also, the gospel itself paints that picture of the beauty of submission., what Christ did. Without his willingness to submit, where in the world would we be?

So, and so the gospel lays the foundation for submission and, and, and Milton touched upon this last week too. I just, the gospel is counterintuitive because it's counterintuitive, you got to beat it into the heads of people just like that quote from Martin Luther, right? You got to beat it into the, we got beat it into our own skulls, like I, I, I, I drift away, like in my mind, maybe I, I, I, I, I can maintain pretty decent, gospel. But like, but, but I betray that by my actions at times, like every single time I sin.

I'm acting contrary to the gospel and I need it to be beaten into me because it's counterintuitive. in my fallen nature, I would just veer off. Right, but praise the Lord that we got the Spirit and he keeps us, right? where would we be apart from God and His goodness and kindness and just like his commitment to us, and so that's gospel truth that we keep giving to people, right?

There is no way, no way that you will ever be separated from the love of Christ. If that could happen, then the gospel is not true, then God is not true, God is. It is impossible. You will, you will never be any more loved than you are right now, nor any less.

Jesus says that the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Think about that. As the Father has loved Christ. We, we, we, we don't even fully comprehend it, but when we stop to think about it, we know it's good.

We know it's intense. We know it's beyond measure. It's unimaginable. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.

And again, the apostle Paul says, what shall separate us? Nothing. The blood of Jesus Christ is more than sufficient and so you give this to your disciples, you give this to the people you counsel, you constantly beat them over the head with the gospel because it is the power and so let's move forward. The necessity of watching out for danger and I feel like in some ways I've already covered this.

There's that first quote I already referred to it, so I'm gonna skip it. Various quotes. OK, a cult. is a religious movement that claims to be a Christian group but that deviates significantly from or outright denies the teachings of Scripture and the historic creeds on crucial points.

These groups develop their doctrine through a combination of scripture twisting and extrabiblical revelation. Again, there's a danger. There's, there's various dangers. We're going to look at the three main dangers, but one of those dangers is false teaching.

We need to be on guard. that's, that's a quote from MacArthur. Another one from our friend John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church, tolerance toward people is a good and biblical virtue, but tolerance toward false teaching is sin. So that helps me to feel better about me getting upset, right?

All right, thanks, brother John, because, I, I do get upset. The devil would gladly give a Bible to every man and promote obedience to its commands if in exchange we would surrender to him the gospel. That's a quote from Paul Washer. We can, a person can be good, moral, upright.

And then the devil doesn't fret that. But once you start preaching gospel truth, that's a different situation. to the devil, the gospel is damnable. Do you guys have the notes?

OK, good, good. next quote from AW Pink, he says the nature of Christ's salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day evangelist. he announces a savior from hell rather than a Savior from sin, and that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the lake of fire, who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness. Right?

Our own carnality, our own flesh is something to be on guard against. There's a danger inherent in our own fleshliness that the disciple needs to be warned against. Right? any church which puts in the place of justification by faith in Christ, another method of salvation is a harlot church, says Charles Heen Spurgeon, and he's right.

He's right. Lord, help us to never deviate from, from gospel centrality, from gospel grounding. Spurgeon also says it's remarkable, a remarkable fact that all the heresies which have arisen in the Christian church have had a decided tendency to dishonor God and to flatter men. We should never be interested in flattering men.

We should be most interested in Christ being exalted. Right, forbid it that I would boast in anything save the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is our only boast, and we who are believers, if that is, if, if, if Christ is exalted, then we are happy, right? That is what gives pleasure and joy to us, because we're born again, we New creatures, there's something in us that, that, that appeals to us, the exaltation of God.

You, you, you can, you can put me down. You can slam me down. You can call me a vile, wretched, depraved sinner, a stench of the nostrils of a holy God. You can call me all of that.

And guess what? That is true and more. But, but, but don't take away from me my boast in Christ. Do not, do not take that away from me, right?

And, and that's, and that resonates with us, that totally resonates with us. We boast, we brag, in the Lord Jesus Christ, he alone is worthy, to him alone be glory, right? And then we've got Josh McDowell saying, and he's a great apologist. I would say much.

Of religious heresy is the result of a misunderstanding of the basic nature of God. And once we have a proper understanding of God, then usually most of the areas of our life coincide with who God is and what He desires for each one of us, and that is true. I just submit to you this, God, that as we do discipleship, it would, it would serve the disciple well that we help them to be on guard against danger. Yeah, we're gospel-centric for sure, but while we're holding forth the gospel and helping them to understand biblical, theological truth, we're also at the same time wanting them to understand.

There are dangers to beware of, OK? And I, and, and the flesh, the world, and the devil are three significant dangers that are referred to in the scripture. Let's start with the flesh. OK.

Our own flesh, the old man, he rears his ugly head. And I think this is what Paul is referring to in Romans chapter 7, when he describes his own personal battle with his own flesh, right? And Romans chapter 7 where Paul says, the things I do, I don't want to do, what I don't want to do, I do. he says, wretched man that I am, miserable man, who will rescue me from this body of death?

And then he goes on, praise be to God through Jesus Christ my Lord. And then in Romans 8:1, there is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But Paul there in chapter 7, he's describing that there is this battle that he has with his own flesh. OK, and you look at all of the great saints throughout the ages, starting with, the apostles and moving forward, they, they all would testify to the fact that they've struggled at times.

Paul's an example. Peter, remember in Galatians, Peter, like he deviates from the gospel because of the fear of man. His sin was the fear of man. man stands up and says boo and Paul gets a little scared and it's like, OK, let's add a little legalism just to make you guys happy.

and then Paul says, I had to rebuke him to his face. So, so, Peter, upon this rock I will build my church and they get you, yeah, the great apostle Peter himself, and then, and, and just saints throughout the ages and there's only one who is good. Right, that the, the, the, the, the, was it the rich young man, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life, why do you call me good? There's only one who is good and there is only one, and it's Christ, not me, not you.

think about the epistles again. What, the, the flesh is an enemy. There's a danger in the flesh to be on guard against and think of the epistles. They were basically written to believers battling with indwelling sin.

Right? Paul writes to the Ephesians, gives them gospel. Then on the other side, he says, now, now, walk in a manner worthy, and, he gives instruction to the different categories of people and it's all instruction to put on Christ and to put off the old man. Colossians, same thing, so on and so forth.

Why in the world would believers be exhorted regarding their own sin if there isn't such a thing as indwelling sin? And I submit this to you because there would be those who would argue for this doctrine called sinless perfectionism that we can get to the point where we're no longer going to willingly sin. Well, No, there's gonna be struggles until the day we are glorified. And, and, and, and people, believers, they get knocked off, right?

They fall off, they, they, they, they, they, they fall off the, the wagon because they, they're led to think in, in this idea of semblance perfectionism. I can get to the point where I'm just, I'm not sinning. Well, we know what First John tells us regarding that. If anyone says I have no sin, he lies and the truth is not in him.

Right, the whole thing about the first chapter of First John is that as believers, right, as we walk in the light, the light exposes darkness, we confess sin and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to purify us from all unrighteousness, and then he goes on in chapter two, little children, I'm, I'm writing these things to you. So that you will not sin, but if anyone does sin, which he knows that the likelihood is, is that the children of God will struggle with sin, he wants to remind them we have an advocate.

So Jesus is out there at the right hand of the Father praying for us constantly so that even if we do sin, he's defending us. He is our defense.

Not just our deliverer, our defense. So, and then, Again, just to, to wrap this point up, disciples of Jesus will at times struggle with the remnants of indwelling sin and should be encouraged and instructed in the gospel response to such struggles. So you've got someone you're discipling, maybe someone you're counseling or whatever, and they're struggling with their sin. There's no need for us to get caught by surprise, but there is every need for us to, to express and to communicate absolute confidence in God's ability.

To forgive and to deliver. you just constantly beat them with gospel hope. Gospel hope. I have a lot of hope for you.

I'm very confident in God's ability to help you. You are not even close to being beyond reach. I know that it's hard. I know that you're struggling.

I know that you're discouraged, but what? Let me help you. Take your eyes off you. Take your eyes off your situation.

Take your eyes off your own failures and put your eyes on Christ. Like we can all do that. We can all help people to fix their gaze on Him in whom we have hope. There is power in him to help.

And that's what we do, right? With confidence and people can tell if in your heart, like it's gonna overflow as you're ministering truth to people. They can tell if you're really believing what you're saying, it, it's important that we believe. We believe with 100% confidence in who Christ is and what he's done, that he's got the power to help anyone we minister to, to be delivered, to be free, to be forgiven.

We have to be fully convinced, fully convinced. Now, are you convinced? Are you absolutely confident? not to say that you don't ever struggle or whatever, but generally speaking, like, do, are you, are you absolutely convinced Christ came, lived perfectly, died on the cross, laid to rest, raised up, right, appeared, ascended, right hand of the Father, coming again someday, and that he is willing to save to the utmost.

He came for the unrighteous, not for the righteous, right, seeking to save the lost, to help, heal the sick, like. And so when you're armed with that gospel and you minister that hope to people, there, there, hope, Bible says it's an anchor to the soul. It anchors the soul so that the ship doesn't get too far afield, right? anyway, so we, we got the, the enemy of the flesh, a danger to look out for.

Another danger is the world, the world. And there's all kinds of passages here that reference the world. 1 Corinthians 1:20-21. Where is the wise man?

Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? So there's this thing called the wisdom of the world, and the word of God is referring to the world's wisdom as being foolish.

For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe, and, and that foolish message preached, right? The foolishness of the message preached, that's the gospel. therein is the wisdom of God. 1 Corinthians 2:12, now we've received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit to us from God.

So there's a contrast, right? There's a contrast. We gotta be wary of the so-called wisdom that is offered to us from the world because it is, it, it's a contrast, it's an opposition. It's the antithesis of the wisdom of God.

So we wanna help disciples to know you got to reject the wisdom of the world. The, the world will seek to baptize you into its mold. Right? Be careful what you're listening to.

Be careful what you're watching. Be careful the music that you allow to come into your minds. Be careful of that because it's going to unravel you. It's an attack.

Right, let's, let's, let's go on with this. Ephesians 2:12, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world. You used to walk according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sense of disobedience. There's a sense in which this world is under the influence of the evil one.

Colossians 2:88 says, see to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the traditions of men, according to the elementary principles of the world rather than according to Christ. There is a dichotomy between the world's wisdom and God's wisdom in Christ through the scriptures. We help disciples to understand we must allow our thoughts to be shaped by God through His word. Like Martin Luther, here I stand.

This is the authority and we're gonna hit this topic next week, the topic of the necessity of scripture, so I'm jumping ahead a little bit, but the scripture and submission to it and understanding it is paramount, and, and so that's why disciples need to hear good solid expositional preaching from the word of God where the word is taught within its context. That's critical. That's very important. There's, there's so many places out there and, and I've listened to sermons like this, just curio, I want to listen to what people are listening to, and you, you listen to these sermons by these people that, these preachers that people love and it's like they, they, they, they pull a Bible verse from wherever and then they give it to you and then they start telling their stories.

Are you kidding me? As if you've got something to offer. No, you don't. You have nothing to offer, so you got to give to people this, the word of God.

Do your due diligence to try to understand it, break it open, read through it, study it, as best as you can, and then when you come to the people of God, you're giving them the, the scripture. Right? You feed them the word. So we continue.

1 Timothy 4:10, Demos, having loved this present world, see, there's a danger in the love of the world, right? Having loved this present world has deserted me. There's a desertion on the part of Demas that the apostle Paul is, is, is bringing to Timothy's attention. James 1:27.

Listen to this. We often think of the first two categories, but not the third when we unpack verse 27. This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God. Our God and Father to visit the orphans and the widows in their distress and it's so easy to stop there, but there's another, there, there's, he, he, he goes, he says more than that.

Right? He says, and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Lord, please help us, give us sensitivity that we understand how the world would stain us and, and, and cleanse us from that and help us to be separate from the world and, and, and to shine as light, to be as salt on the, in the earth. Right, Help us, Lord, help me.

And James says, You adulteresses. He's talking about spiritual adultery. That's like, that's a harsh way of des describing the people he's writing to. You are adulteresses.

Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility to God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. And, and, and, and some of the emotion I have about this, I, I've, I've got to be careful because I've got it in my, I've got worldly influence in me. With that being said, I see young people growing up in the church, and they seem to be captivated by the world.

Lord, help our young people to be done with lesser things. Rise up, O man of God. Be done with lesser things. Lord, help us.

1 Peter 1:4, for by these he has granted to us precious magnificent promises in order that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. OK, and, and I can go on. I, I just wanna, we gotta help those that we disciple to be wary of the world, to be on guard. The, the world is dangerous.

Not until Christ comes and establishes right his new world order. Not the worldly new world order, but when he establishes his eternal reign on the face of earth, we're in the eternal state. Yeah, everything in this world will be friendly to us, but that day hasn't come yet. I'm gonna move down to the devil.

OK, because the devil and the world, it, it dovetails together, but we are told in 1 Peter 5:8, and those that we disciples are being told, be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your, your adversary, the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. There is a devil. He is alive and well, yeah, he's got chains attached to him because the Lord God, he can only do what God allows him to do, but nevertheless, he is a real foe, and he's roaming about like a roaring lion.

He would seek to devour souls. Disciple, be on guard, be on the alert, and we as discipllers help him to recognize. When it seems as if the world and, and, and, and the devil and the flesh are rising up to do danger to his soul. Ephesians 4:26 talks about, do not give the devil an opportunity in connection, to sinful anger.

Ephesians 6:11 says, Put on the full armor of God that you might stand against the schemes of the devil. First Timothy 3:7, right, in reference to spiritual leadership, he must have a good reputation with those outside the church so that he may not fall into reproach, and the snare of the devil. The devil has his snares. He would seek to entrap.

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil. Implied that the devil is there to do damage, but resist him. He will flee from you.

And, and what's great about this verse, you don't have to tell someone, you need to say to the devil, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. No, you just resist, stand firm, he will flee. That's what the scripture says. Revelation 2:10, do not fear what you are about to suffer.

Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation 10 days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life again, speaking of the fact that the devil attacks. I always like to reference First John where John talks about the fathers in the faith. Well, he starts with the children in the faith, fathers in the faith, and he goes to the strong young men and he says to the strong young men, you are strong because the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.

So Satan's on the prowl. He's on the attack. He will seek to attack children in the faith, but if those children are on guard, on the alert, if they are aware and they through the word of God are able to fight the attack of the devil, that's going to be God's instrument to cause them to become strong young men. So then, the devil is useful to God's eternal purposes in our life.

God will use him and his efforts, contrary to his wishes to accomplish his purpose in our life to help us to become strong young men in the faith. Right? Think about the devil attacking Joe. You considered my righteous servant, Joe.

But God declared him righteous, in whom is no guile. No, no, like. So God gave the devil permission to go after Job. And we know the story of all of the different, he got attacked big time.

And so there is an enemy called the devil. The devil's attack on Adam and Eve, attacking the character of God, attacking the trustworthy of God, attacking his reliability, attacking his goodness, attacking his kindness. The devil went on the attack with Eve. Doubt, deny, devalue, distort the word of God.

Right, all of that. And guess what, he had his way with her. On the human side of the equation as we read the account, she, she, she ate, she gave to, to her husband, he ate and, and, and death came into this world. So the devil is on the attack.

He attacked the Lord Jesus Christ. So why would the disciple think that he is immune from satanic attack? So as we do discipleship, we help people to realize, be on guard. You got the, you, you, you've got the flesh, you've got the world, you've got the devil, right?

You gotta be on guard. yeah, there's additional passages here, the, the, the one that really comes to my mind is the apostle Paul when he gathered the Ephesian elders together in Acts chapter 2029. He loved the Ephesian church. He spent a few years amongst the Ephesians pouring into them.

And so, he's passing through again. He gathers the elders together, has a meeting with them, gives them this just beautiful speech, talks about how he poured his life into them, and, and, and, and, and they were witnesses. They saw how he behaved while he was with them, but listen to what he says. I know that after my departure, savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock, like, like Paul knew.

There would be wolves that would come in, false teachers, false shepherds, false pastors. They would come in. Hebrews 13:9 says, Don't be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods through which those who were thus occupied were not benefited, touched upon the fact that there's legalists that will come in and, subvert grace and get you to focus on being spiritual through the things you do, through the foods you eat, rather than, by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone.

Galatians 1:6 Paul says, I'm amazed you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel, which is really not another, only there are some who are disturbing you and they want to distort the gospel of Christ.

And so you can look at those passages on your own. I'm gonna try to what, I'm gonna have to just finish it up next week. Yeah, I'd rather do that. But again guys, we gotta, Lord help us, right?

Help, help me, help us as the church. To be what God calls us to be. To overcome sin in us and to be holy. And then to not allow ourselves to be pressed into the, into the world.

One, and you guys, you guys can check me on this. maybe I'm wrong, but one of the things that like I'll, I'll talk to believers and, and, and I might get myself in trouble for saying this, but when I came, when I came to faith in Christ, one of the first, I had a, a a a stack of records. Well, no, talk about, the modern AC DC, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Wasp. Just, just bad stuff.

I, I don't know where I got the idea from. Maybe it was just the spirit in me. I was a new creature in Christ made alive and just, transformed by the power of the gospel. The first thing I did when I returned home from the conference, I took all those records, I chucked them in the trash can.

Why? Because God by the spirit in me helped me to realize intuitively, and, and I think based upon the teaching of His word, that's garbage. Paul to the Philippians says, whatever things are true, noble, right, excellent, praiseworthy, think on, on these things, right? And so like it's an it amazes me that you've got people in the church, so-called Christians, and, and, and, and I see, they'll post on Facebook, yeah, I went to Guns N Roses.

AC AC DC. Or whatever. It was funny because we, we were having this conversation. I'm gonna end with this, yeah, you can go, bro, but just everyone else give me like one more minute.

But no, no, it was funny because we're having this conversation. I love this, this is so funny having this conversation and, and Milton, he was identifying with me. He's like, Yeah man, when the Lord finally got a hold of me. I, I just had to get rid of Barry Manilow.

And he was dead serious. He says, I just heard those lyrics in a different way when the Lord just seemed to flip the switch for me. I got rid of it. I'm, I'm not telling you, oh, you gotta go get rid of your Barry Manilow or, your Beach Boys or whatever.

It's just something that we should at least think about. Are we letting the world press us into its mold? Are we letting ourselves be, like, Lord, help us, help me, like just help me. I need help.

Pray for me. Pray for me. Like I feel like on some level, I am in bondage to the things that the Lord has set me free, and I need to live as if I have been set free by the Lord Jesus Christ. there would be some who would say that's part of the church today.

We have lost our, our, our sense of, the, the passion for holiness, being set apart, being different, unlike the world. Anyway, as you're doing discipleship, these are things you need to address in helping a person to grow, to be grounded. We'll deal with heresies next week, like particular heresies, cause there's danger in the heresies that are out there. Let us pray.

I'll get you out of here, Lord, thank you for the patience of these folks in this class. Bless us as we transition to the, to the Sunday morning worship service. Be with Milton as he preaches to us. Let us sing praise to you, Lord, from our hearts, filled with joy because of Christ, and it's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen.