Biblical Intolerance

Transcript

GRM 1010
6/22/2008
Biblical Intolerance
II John 7-8
Gil Rugh


We continue the little epistle of II John in our studies together, so if you'd turn there in your Bibles. John wrote three letters—I, II and III John-- along with the book of John called the gospel of John and the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ. So he is a major New Testament writer used to pen much of the Word of God that now comprises our New Testament.

John would have penned these letters in the 90s A.D., so some sixty years after the crucifixion and resurrection and ascension of Christ. The Apostle Paul has been dead for going on thirty years by this time. John is really the last remaining of the apostles that were privileged to walk with Christ and minister with Him during His earthly ministry.

John writes out of a concern for what is taking place in the church that he is writing to. This is a broad based concern that permeates all three of his epistles and as we'll see, also becomes a major concern through some of the other New Testament writers as well. We have false teachers who have infiltrated themselves into the church of Jesus Christ and they are disseminating false doctrine. Some of those have pulled away from the fellowship of believers because they are teaching doctrine contrary to what the apostles taught and what we now have as our New Testament. But they have not stopped trying to influence and change the thinking of believers. And so John is writing out of that concern. Foundational for John is that believers recognize that they are called to function in a relationship of love with one another and in the context of the truth that God has given. So he has exhorted them to walk in the truth and to love one another. And those two concepts are inseparably joined together. You have been walking in truth, you have been demonstrating love for one another, he encourages them for their behavior thus far and wants to exhort them to continue.

Down in verse 6, this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. There is a circular pattern going on here. What does it mean to love someone? It means that you obey God's Word and thus function in your relationship with them according to God's Word. And you manifest the character of God in your relationships with them. And in manifesting the character of God in loving them you are obeying the truth. And so love and truth form this circle that you really don't break. You can never say, out of love I am willing to sacrifice the truth here. That never happens. Because once you sacrifice the truth you have sacrificed genuine love. And if you are really functioning in the truth you will be demonstrating love because love is obedience to the Word of God. And we love God and love the people of God when we are obedient to His Word. And when we are obedient to His Word we are demonstrating love, when we are demonstrating love we are being obedient to His Word. This is our walk, this is the pattern of our life, this is the realm in which we live. This is so crucial because we have false teachers now trying to divide believers, lure believers away from the truth. Part of what you do is you focus attention on personality. When we studied I Corinthians we saw this was an issue in the church at Corinth—the church was dividing around personalities. Often this happens with those who are beginning to teach doctrine contrary to the Word of God. People begin to divide around the ones they like. I like them, I think they are good people, I think he is a sincere individual, I think he really knows the Lord. All those things are secondary issues. You know what the issue is—is he teaching truth? If he's not teaching truth, then what I personally think about him is not the issue, the issue is the truth. The way the devil so often works successfully is he gets our eyes off the truth and onto a person, the personality of the person. I like them, I know them, I may not agree with them on these doctrines but they are good people, I know they love the Lord. And now we are set up for division.

So the church must be united in love but you understand it is love in the truth. And that's what John is concerned about for these believers and it is the ongoing issue for us as the church of Jesus Christ today.

What he's going to do picking up with verse 7, after having laid that foundation of love and truth, in verses 7-11 he is going to talk about those who are deceiving and attempting to deceive believers. And they are those who have been formally recognized as fellow Christians, perhaps recognized as teachers. Some of them as we saw in I John have left the fellowship of believers in this local church, but they continue to assert influence. John is going to say some very strong things. Interesting. In a little letter where love is one of the key emphases, John is going to say some very severe stern and harsh words. He's going to warn believers, this is a serious matter for you. If you allow yourself to be deceived by these false teachers, then you won't receive a full reward, the end of verse 8. My concern is that you may receive a full reward. And if you allow yourself to be deceived, verse 11, you become a participant in the evil deeds of that false teacher. Two issues here. False teachers will be held accountable for what they have taught. That's why James 3 says, don't many of you become teachers, for teachers will incur a stricter judgment, have harsher condemnation. But that never will be an excuse for a believer who has allowed himself to be deluded. So there is never an excuse for a teacher to be teaching false doctrine, nor is there ever an excuse that will be acceptable to God for a believer to allow himself to be deceived by false doctrine. We will never be able to shift our responsibility, well it's not my fault, Lord, they taught me wrongly. Didn't you have the truth? Did you examine what they taught in light of the truth? Yes, but they were such nice people. Did you examine it in light of the truth? Well, I'm not a student of the Word. Why not? God gave His Word, not for certain educated people, but He gave it for all of us as His children. So there is a great responsibility here.

Concerning the harsh comments here, John Stott, who pastored for many years in London and finally retired from public ministry a year or two ago when he was 88. His statement on this passage is, I think, a good reminder. If John's instructions still seem harsh, it is perhaps because his concern for the glory of the Son and the good of men's souls is greater than ours, and because the tolerance on which we pride ourselves is in reality an indifference to truth. And sometimes we try to put a veneer of “love” over our actions and our failure to stand firmly and unshakably for the truth. We want to pretend this because we love the people, when really we don't care enough about the truth. And what the bottom line is, we don't love them enough to stand firmly on the Word of God.

So John is ready to pick up in verse 7 with the conjunction. We have translated for, better translated because. Hati is the Greek conjunction here. Because many deceivers have gone out into the world. For gives you perhaps a similar idea. He's giving the reason why the instructions concerning walking in truth, verse 4. The end of verse 5, love one another. Verse 6, this is love that we walk according to His commandments. The commandment is you have to walk in it. Why? Because many deceivers have gone out into the world. We have to be careful. The church will begin to disintegrate because of the influence and impact of these deceivers. If you allow them to be successful in spreading their false doctrine and to begin to influence some of you, then you will begin to divide, and those cracks spread. And if you're not careful the church will end up being a ruin.

These deceivers. John had nothing nice to say about them. They are deceivers, they are those who want to lure believers to wander away from the truth. We get the English word planets from this Greek word, these wandering heavenly bodies. And they are trying to cause believers to wander away from the truth. And you know there aren't just a few of them—many deceivers have gone out into the world. Already. The last of the apostles hasn't died and he says there are many false teachers trying to deceive Christians. And they've gone out into the world. I think when John emphasizes they've gone out into the world, they have departed from the apostolic teaching, from the doctrine of apostles like John and others who have since gone to be with the Lord like Peter and Paul and so on.

Back up to I John 2:19, they went out from us, but they were not really of us. For if they had been of us they would have remained with us, but they went out so that it would be shown that they are not all of us. Their departure revealed their lack of commitment to truth, their departure from the truth. We'll say more about the doctrine that they were teaching that revealed where they were. John does not get into anything here about their personalities or how long they had been in the fellowship of believers, what they had done that might be good. The focal point is the error. You look for the fatal flaw, the error that is being promoted. You watch a program on TV where they are doing one of these solve a crime. Someone is being accused of murder and you get all these people testifying, I've known them a long time and they've been good people. As though if you don't murder someone every other day you wouldn't be capable? I mean, you get the idea, this is the only murder they ever did, but look at all the good they did. But isn't the real issue the one murder that they committed. Take the focus off that, that they murdered someone. That was just one day of their life, they are 51 years of age. Add up all the days, all the hours, all the minutes they've lived, thousands of minutes and in one minute they killed someone. Let's face it, that's not so bad. Well it's pretty bad.

So with these false teachers, the devil gets our eyes off what needs to be the center of our attention—truth. And these have departed from the truth, and thus they have separated themselves from the fellowship of believers committed to the truth and apostolic doctrine. But they don't go away, they continue to try to influence other believers to come with them. So many deceivers have gone out into the world.

The consistent ministry of truth is a constant refiner and will constantly, not only by the grace of God be drawing the elect to salvation and growth in their new life in Christ, but it will be constantly becoming offensive and driving out unbelievers who find themselves in disagreement with the truth and uncomfortable with the truth. What always gives these people credibility is they have worked their way into the fellowship of believers and have become recognized and appreciated to a certain extent by believers. And now it's hard to have to deal with them with the firmness that is required.

Back up to Acts 20. We need to review several passages. This is a consistent emphasis in the New Testament, we're not going to look at everything but remind you of a few rather familiar passages. Acts 20. Paul meets with the elders of the church at Ephesus, and note what he says in verse 29. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you. Here are teachers and people he describes their character as savage wolves. They'll come in among you. The church at Ephesus, we have the letter to the Ephesians. This is the danger you're going to face—savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. From among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them. From among your own selves men will arise. He's speaking to the elders of the church at Ephesus. This is the danger.

You know I think it's beneficial and helpful that we study the cults and what they believe and where they are in error. But you know divisions haven't impacted our church from the cults, doesn't come from outside—the Mormons, the Jehovah Witnesses or other religions, whether Hindu or Buddhist. It's good for us to know the error, but they are not the ones that pose the danger to our fellowship of believers, that's not where the division for us would come from. It would come from within, those who profess to be believers in Jesus Christ like we are, those who have been part of our fellowship, that we've appreciated in many ways but now they are teaching doctrine that is not in conformity with the Word of God. Now we decide, is it that major? Is it that significant? Is it worth dividing over? Now what is at stake? Truth. Does this individual and my affection for him overrule my love for God and His truth, because remember my love for God is tied to my keeping His commandments, my obeying His truth. Well, I'm just saying I don't think it's that serious a matter. We have to decide what is the truth. From among your own selves men will arise. That's the danger. They will have an appear to us, an attractiveness to us that will be disarming.

Come over to II Corinthians 11. And you can see the Corinthians were having an issue, some of them were not really pleased with the Apostle Paul. And false apostles and false teachers had infiltrated the church at Corinth and so now it becomes personalities. They said Paul wasn't much to look at, he wasn't a very effective speaker when you heard him. None of this has anything to do with what is the truth. You come to II Corinthians 11, Paul says his concern, he's betrothed them to Christ as a pure virgin. But verse 3, I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness. You see what the work of the devil is? Deception by craftiness. John was concerned about the many deceivers that were trying to have an impact on the church that he is writing to. I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully. The problem with the church at Corinth, we don't have to divide over this, we don't all have to cross our “t's” and dot our “i's” the same. I can see where you are coming from on that, that's okay. In other words, you bear that beautifully. That's not a commendation, that's a condemnation. There are certain things that believers are to be intolerant of, the church must be intolerant toward other doctrine. I realize the world hurls that at us as though it were a just criticism. They are intolerant. You are exactly right, we are intolerant of anything that is contrary to the Word of God, God's truth. So yes, this is an intolerant church. It's intolerant of anything that is not in conformity to the Word of God. Paul's condemnation of the Corinthians is that you bear false doctrine beautifully. That's not a demonstration of your love, it's a demonstration of your failure to love God and be obedient.

Down in I Corinthians 11:13, for such men are false apostle, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder. For even satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. You see the danger. Satan is a master of disguise and he send his servants out to look like believers, to act like believers and then to use their acceptance among believers to corrupt the body with false teaching. That's why the issue always has to be what is truth. Is it in conformity with the Word of God? They may be gracious, they may seem very nice, they may have done some nice things, you may have benefited from them in a variety of ways. If they start teaching contrary to the Word of God, they must be dealt with. The devil can gain inroads by being nice and we are all vulnerable to it. I'm not saying there is benefit in being not nice. Put it into context.

Come to II Peter 2:1, false prophets also arose where? Among the people. Talking about in Israel's history. Just as there will also be false teachers among you who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. How can you secretly introduce a destructive heresy among the people of God? You get them to take their eyes off the truth, on to personalities, on to other things, anything but truth. Then you begin to teach that which is not in conformity to truth. Even to the point of denying the master who bought them. That's where John is going to go in a moment. Not saying everything short of that would be all right. The destructive heresies have come in and they can even go that far. Can't go any further, once you've denied Christ how can you even have any influence or effectiveness among believers. But you see what happens. You get our foot in the door by saying this is not a major doctrine, this is not something we'll divide over, this is not something _____________. Pretty soon we've decided truth is not the standard for us, but certain portions of truth. You know what happens—once that door is cracked then it keeps getting pushed open wider and wider and wider. Pretty soon they are denying Jesus Christ. How did we get there? Look at our major denominations, where they've come to. And it happens among you.

Jude, another little one-chapter letter, verse 3, beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation. So my original intention was to write to you about the salvation that we have in Christ. I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all handed down to the saints. You have to stand up and go to battle for the truth that has been entrusted to us. Why? For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, certain persons have crept in unnoticed. I've called them sneaky creepers. How do they sneak in unnoticed? Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation. In spite of the fact they were able to infiltrate the church, be accepted as believers, they have never known Jesus Christ. They are those doomed to destruction. Ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ. How could they creep in unnoticed and be turning the grace of God into licentiousness and denying Jesus Christ? How can you teach that grace is licentiousness and deny Jesus Christ and not be noticed among believers? Yet Jude says they've crept in unnoticed and here's what they're doing. Somewhere, did believers get their eyes off truth? They may have been nice people, they may have helped you a lot, they might have done good things for you or your family. But the issue is truth. Jude says they crept in unnoticed, now their influence comes from the inside and the corruption has greater influence and impact.

Come back to II John 7. Just remind you, many deceivers have gone out into the world. The devil is flooding the place with these kinds of deceptive teachers. We have to be on guard. These are those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh, he goes on in verse 7. So John wants to focus on a particular error being taught, not the only error deceivers can teach, but it's the one threatening this local fellowship that he's writing to. They've denied that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. Later in history, down in the 2nd century we have what is known as gnosticism come to full bloom. Some of this teaching going on here, and some of the background in the New Testament writings, has some of those seeds of teaching. The teaching that you want to divide the spiritual from the physical, and the physical is bad. We get some of that in the church today. Paul writes about it in Timothy, a form of teaching that has come down to our day, that something is wrong with marriage so a monastic life would be a better life than a married life. So we get the idea that sex is bad, sex is dirty. And sometimes believers, and even believers who are married get the idea, we have to be more spiritual, don't have to have the sexual relationship. Nothing wrong with sex, sex is beautiful, God created sex. The marriage bed is undefiled, the writer of Hebrews tells us. But we begin to think of the physical because of the abuses that take place in the sexual realm that all sex is somehow defiling. And we're making that distinction, the physical is somehow dirty but the spiritual is a separate realm.

So there was teaching that, and it's not developed for us in the New Testament but we know it later developed even more fully in the 2nd century, that Jesus Christ was God, He came to earth but He didn't really have a true, human, physical body. The docetics. Gnosticism comes from the Greek work gnosis which means knowledge, they claim to have a greater superior knowledge than others had. The docetics comes from the Greek word that means to appear or to seem. The docetics said that Christ just seemed to have a true physical body but He didn't, because if He had a true physical body that would have been defiling for Him. So these teachers that John is writing about, they were not acknowledging that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, that He had a true, fleshly, physical body. Well, that's an attack on the Person of Christ. You have to believe in the Person of Christ and the work of Christ. The work of Christ has to do with His death on the cross and His resurrection, payment in full for the penalty for sin. The Person of Christ has to do with the fact He is God, He is man—two natures, one Person. Hard to understand. You can understand how the church would get influenced by this. A teacher comes and he's spent some time and been accepted in the church and now he begins to teach that we know that Jesus Christ was God and He came to secure our redemption. So think about it. Do you think that God would come and join His Person to humanity? I mean the Roman world was a corrupt world, defiled world, things we don't even like to talk about, point up how corrupt it was.

I mean, do you think our Savior would have taken to Himself that vile physical body like you experience and others experience? Pretty soon believers would say, I may not agree with that, but I think he has a good point, because stop and think about it. Do you understand the theoanthropic union of the God/Man—God without ceasing to be fully God also became fully human and yet He wasn't two different Persons, He was one Person. I don't. So pretty soon you say I don't think I agree with him but I think he does have a point we ought to consider. Now what seemed like, we wouldn't allow that in our church, pretty soon you think there may be room for discussion on this. Because quite frankly I don't understand how He could be completely human and completely divine and just be one Person. And besides I don't know any human flesh that hasn't been totally corrupted and I don't see how He could be born a true human being and .............. Pretty soon you say, look, we can disagree over this because at least we agree ........... Maybe if I think of it next week I'll read you an article about a seminary president who is promoting the idea today that as long as you agree that Jesus Christ is God you are saved, even if you disagree on the doctrine of justification and how you are saved. Which is just another form of the heresies that keep being recycled.

What I'm saying is if it's put in a nice enough context....... And I'm not saying everybody has to agree with me, I'm just saying I don't see how He could have been in true physical flesh, so I think He was God and He came and appeared as a man. But He didn't have true human flesh. Now you can disagree with me, that will be all right. I'm saying it like a false teacher would present it. Pretty soon you say, maybe this is something we could agree to disagree on. But you know what happens to false teaching. It's like the weeds in your yard, if you don't deal with them they spread. And that's what false teaching does—it spreads. And pretty soon its corruption infiltrates, and every time the door gets pressed open wider the truth is pushed back. And pretty soon you get to a point, we couldn't deal with it because it has so permeated our church. So you could go to some denominational churches today, try to teach what John Calvin taught or John Wesley taught and you couldn't have enough people to support you in that kind of teaching to keep the church doors open. This is how the error comes.

They don't acknowledge Jesus as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and antichrist. These are strong words. This is John the apostle of love, John who started out his letter by saying we have to walk in love and truth. And now he's saying those who teach this doctrine are deceivers and they're antichrists. Now that's getting pretty strong. These are people claiming to be believers, these are people that had, at least at one time, been part of the fellowship of this church. And now John is railing on them as deceivers, and not only deceivers but antichrists. I mean, this is not something that we can just agree to disagree on. There are those who are followers are Christ and there are those who are antichrist. And those teaching this doctrine are antichrists, they're deceivers. Well, John, I thought we were going to walk in love. You know they claim to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, they would agree with us that you have to believe in Christ. Now maybe I agree with you, John, they're not right on this, but don't you think you're going a little far in calling them deceivers and antichrists? Is that in love? Can you really in love say they are antichrists? Sure. How can you say that? They are disagreeing with the truth that Christ has presented. When you disagree with His Word, you disagree with Him; when you oppose His Word, you oppose Him. These are the deceivers, these are the antichrists. They don't acknowledge Christ as coming in the flesh. The deceivers, people who would attempt to lure people away from the truth by deception. These are not people coming with a totally different ........ That's why I said earlier, the cults were a totally different religious system. These are those that appear as believers among you, as false teachers.

They are antichrists. We're familiar with the word antichrist, John's readers were, too. Although the particular for antichrist only appears in the letters of John, found in three passages in I John. I John 2:18, children, it is the last hour and just as you heard that antichrist is coming. So they had been taught about a coming antichrist, they would refer to it as the eschatological antichrist, the christ of the last times. You have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists, plural, have appeared. So many deceivers and antichrists, many antichrists have appeared. They are opposed to Christ.

Look down in verse 22, who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. This is what John is talking about here, he's talking about teachers that have been accepted among believers as true believers. John is saying, let me point out there is an antichrist influencing you, there is a teacher who is a deceiver and an antichrist who is trying to get you to follow him. No lie is of the truth, the end of verse 21 says. Who is the liar, verse 22, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist. You see it's black and white. Sometimes we are accused of being too black and white. You have truth and you have everything else, and everything else is a lie, everything else is opposed to the truth. There is not a gray area, it's a half-truth. A half-truth is what? A lie, it's a whole untruth, it's a lie. But we mix it with some truth to make it appealing.

You know, we don't send our children off to grade school......... When I was a kid we walked to grade school, however far it was, and that's the way you did it. Now parents feel they have to walk their kids to school or go in a group. Why? You're afraid that someone might lure them away. What do you tell your children when they're young? You don't talk to strangers, you don't get into cars with anyone, no matter how nice they are, no matter what they say they're going to give you. Why? Because you're afraid they'll be deceived. How do people deceive? How would they deceive your children? They'd be very nice, they'll do nice things. Here, I have some candy for you, here are some things I want to give you, I'm going to help you find your dog or whatever is going on.

You know how deceivers come into the church? The same way. And they come in and then they begin to teach things that are not conforming to the Word of God. But we've been deceived and we overlook the error because we're sure they have good intentions, we're sure they are all right. And besides, this is not major. Now the truth is not the standard, my decision on what matters in the truth is what's major. All these ways the church gets deluded and the adult children of the living God become deceived by the deceiver and by the antichrist.

Over in I John 4:1, beloved do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. You have multiple antichrists, you have multiple deceivers, you have multiple false prophets. By this you know the Spirit of God, every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. That's one of the tests, it's not the only test. But in the context of the false teachers that are trying to influence the churches that John is writing to, here's what you have to look for. Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God, this is the spirit of the antichrist of which you have heard that it is coming and now is already in the world.

What you have is there is a coming Antichrist, that individual which all of these false teachers and antichrists have been a forerunner. He will come at the end time, but now there are multitudes of these false teachers attempting to deceive. They will culminate in one great defection in the end time, the Great Tribulation, with one great Antichrist. But you understand all of these are just in the same mold, just not on the same magnitude.

Back up to II Thessalonians 2. You'll see the same pattern—the word antichrist is not used here because it's only used in those references in I and II John. But this individual, the coming ultimate Antichrist, yet future, what we call the eschatological Antichrist, is called by various names in the Word of God . In II Thessalonians 2:3, let no one in any way deceive you. See the constant concern that believers will allow themselves to be deceived. For it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship so that when he takes his seat in the temple of God displaying himself as being God. So that's what is coming, the man of lawlessness. That's the same as when we refer to the coming Antichrist. But there is also a process going on now that lawlessness is already at work.

Come down to verse 7, for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. So we don't have to wait for lawlessness to come in its full manifestation with the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction. The mystery of lawlessness is already at work. But verse 8, then that lawless one will be revealed. We know he is yet future because he will come to an end when Christ will return in glory and destroy him personally. So you see you have a coming man of lawlessness, but you have the mystery of lawlessness already at work. It will culminate in that one individual. You have a coming Antichrist and you have many antichrists now, which are forerunners of that coming Antichrist. So the devil is at work and his work will culminate as we get to the end time in that last seven-year period that will culminate with the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.

Now this is the situation. Come back to II John and we will end here and we'll be picking up at this point. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. The danger is you've become, the end of verse 11, a participant in his evil deeds. What believer wants to have any association or involvement with an antichrist? But that's what happens in the church of Jesus Christ when believers allow themselves to be deluded by false teachers. And there'll be no excuses acceptable before God because He has given us His truth. And He has given us His Spirit so that we can know and understand His truth. So when I am deceived by error it's because I was willing to be deceived by error. What a terrible thing to happen in the church, that it joins with the work of antichrists, it submits itself, as Paul wrote to Timothy in I Timothy 4:1, to doctrines of demons. Well, I didn't know, they seemed all right. Don't go on what they seem like, go on what the truth is that's being taught.

You didn't tell your children as they walk off to grade school, don't get in the car with strangers unless they seem like nice people. Wouldn't work, would it? Because basically it's only “nice” people who will invite them to get into their car to lure them away. But they're not really nice. People who love God, love Jesus Christ and love the people of God are faithful to the Word of God. And we ought not to be open to anything but the truth. That's why I'm absolutely opposed to any idea, let's just focus on the essentials, let's decide and agree these are the essentials, we have to agree on these. The other things ............ I am not God's editor, and neither are you. God has given us the essentials, it is His Word. That doesn't mean we're not all growing, and if there is an area we disagree, a doctrine we disagree, we have to come back to the Word and hammer it out and determine what God has said. But God gave His Word to be understood, He gave His Spirit so that we as His people could understand it. He is our teacher, John said in I John 2.

What a treasure we have, the treasure of the Word of God in these earthen vessels, Paul wrote to the Corinthians. And it is a great blessing and it is a great responsibility. The church is called to be faithful to that truth.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your truth. What an awesome fact that you have spoken and you have had your words recorded so that we might have them in our possession, your Spirit who guided the writing of these words now indwells each of us as your children so that we might know, believe and understand this truth. May we not take lightly the responsibility that we have as your people. May we keep before our hearts and minds the fact that we are accountable and will give and account to you, the living God, for our faithfulness to the truth, for walking in love and truth. May individually and corporately as a church we be faithful. Lord, for any who may be here who sit under the ministry of truth that have never truly trusted the Savior, Lord, may the Spirit bring conviction to their hearts and minds, that they might truly believe the truth that Jesus Christ is the Savior and in Him there is life. We pray in His name, amen.