By What Authority

 

 

 

^"6 from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, ⁷ desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. ⁸ But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, ⁹ knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, ¹⁰ for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, ¹¹ according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust."

I Timothy 1:6-11

 

Good Morning my beloved,

 

Welcome to worship this Lord's Day!

We welcome all of our beloved brothers and sisters, from all around the world, who have been lead to join us today. We are glad to have you here!

 

 

I am sure that you are aware, at least I hope that you are, that what I am not about to tell you, is not some sort of secret, some new revelation, that I have discovered in the Word of God. First, I would therefore caution you that much of modern Christendom has been reduced to formulae. Consequently, as such, most churches today, are composed of people who seem to feel good about themselves, confident that they are doing all that is required of them by God. I am compelled to caution you that salvation is by faith; and the one who is saved will be transformed by the Spirit of God living within him or her.

 

The dictionary defines the word "transformation," as "make a thorough or dramatic change in the form, appearance, or character of." I am further compelled, by the calling of which I have been ordained, for the purposes and plans of God, to expose a serious problem among the professed people of God.

 

Jesus, in John 13:34-35 said "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

 

And, in I John chapter 4, verses 7-8, the Spirit of God prompted the Apostle John to write, " Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love."  If the mark, therefore, of the one born from above is love for the brotherhood of believers, how is it that we know so little about one another and spend so little time with one another in the Body of Christ?

 

If it is love that characterizes the child of God, how is it that so many church boards imagine that they show love for the Savior by despising the ones whom He has called, and sent to serve as shepherd to them? If those who are so loved by God, in turn love the people of God, how is it that so many of the leaders use the pulpit as a stepping stone, in order to obtain a better position, in their denomination or as a means to simply grab a "higher" position of power? Now, I want to clear something up here, before we move forward. I have also known those, whose hearts desire was to adhere to the calling, which God ordained them, and might I also add, were quite good at it, were forced from preaching, and a position in the administration of their denomination. 

I have to say, this is a very serious flaw in the logic presented by the modern churches of today. I remind you that the love of which Jesus spoke and of which the Apostle Paul wrote , is love that flows from choice. The love of Christ is not emotion, it is choice; it is from the will of a believer. This love entails denial of self and self-sacrifice for the benefit of others. I believe, that pastors, according the written Word of God, to produce a congregation that demonstrates what God requires—love toward Him and toward those who are His. 

 

Those that are seeking followers after themselves, often boast of how many people attend their services; godly teachers will rejoice in those who seek Christ and walk in His ways. While those who have strayed from their calling can only see the numbers of those looking to them as experts; godly teachers look intently into the hearts of those to whom they minister in order to see the image of Christ reproduced in them. A true teacher will endeavor to himself, follow Christ, seeks with passion, to build a congregation marked by such love. I believe that such a congregation is apparent whenever anyone, outside the church comes into their presence. The people love God and they love one another. They seek to honor God and treat one another with kindness and respect. The Apostle Paul reminds us that this love arises from three sources: a pure heart; a good conscience; and a sincere faith. Love requires a pure heart that is reflected and illuminated in the life of one who has truly been washed by the Spirit of regeneration.

 

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Father, I am truly thankful in my heart, that what I have received from You is the truth. I am thankful for the godly men and women, who influenced my life by their teaching, and by example through their living and gave me the truth. because I needed to hear it, even when it wasn't what I wanted to hear. I am especially thankful for godly men who have written, by the inspiration of Your Spirit the words that have filled my mind and heart with truth. 

 

Lord, I am also thankful for those who continue to stand alongside me in this ministry, which has touched the lives of so many around the world, by Your sovereign grace alone, were brought to salvation. I am grateful for the overwhelming joy, that it brings to my heart, Lord, Thank You.

Father, I am thankful for these wonderful people You have given me to shepherd, for their faithfulness and obedience to Your Word, and in whom Your truth has been upheld. Lord, I pray that You will give Your people across this nation, and around the world, ears to hear the truth, discern it and to come to the realization, that any defection from the truth, any error in its subtleties that would lead them astray, far from Your Kingdom.

I pray all of this in Christ's name

Amen

Today's Message: By What Authority

In John chapter 8, verses 43-45, Jesus said "Why do you not understand what I am saying? It is because you cannot hear My word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. But because I speak the truth, you do not believe Me."

 

Even in the days when our Lord walked the earth, and long before, there have always been the so called people of God, who did not want to hear the truth. I am deeply sadden to say, that today, little has changed. And because of this, the church has had to fight, throughout every age, that what God sets as the truth, Satan will endeavor to sow in it, his lies! 

 

In the Gospel of Matthew, in the great Olivet Discourse, Jesus warned us "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect."

In I John 2 "Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour."  

 

Beloved, these false teachers are in contrast to those who are appointed by God. These false teachers have dirty, unclean hearts, hearts that have not been cleansed by the Gospel. These self-appointed leaders know the language of Zion, but they do not have the Spirit in their hearts. They know the words of the songs of God's people, however, they cannot sing its melodies. They no longer have a guilty conscience, it has been overtaken by the impurity of their hearts. 

 

Open with me your Bibles to the Book of I Timothy chapter 1. As we continue our journey through this portion of the Word of God, we come to the verses, few are being taught in the church today. Many pastors today, in order that they may not teach passages that would potentially offend, go against the current cultural standards of being politically correct, that might be displeasing to the members of the congregation, and to maintain generous giving by those who are in attendance, have chosen to tickle the ears of the hearer.

 

And, I believe, that you cannot anticipate that people will live by the truth, according to the Word of God, when they have been lead astray, through less than honorable teachers, and therefore, not know what the truth is. 

 

I would like to encourage you to now follow along with me as I read to from our text, I Timothy 1:6-11, to set the text in our minds. 

 

 ^"from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm.  But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for fornicators, for sodomites, for kidnappers, for liars, for perjurers, and if there is any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust."

 

What I believe is so truly tragic, is those who swerve, those who are lead astray from biblical teaching, is because this teaching seems so agreeable with what they would like to presume to be true. However, the error which they have embraced, carries with it the distinct aroma of eternal death. 

 

Beloved, today, there are more opportunities to hear the preaching of the Word than ever before in the history of the world. How is it, that the people who have access to so many godly biblical messages, people who have access to more churches, people who have access to more Bibles than at any time in history, seem to have plunged so deeply, so avidly into error? 

 

I would like to state, that I believe this has begun with the effort to silence any history of the faith in public schools. This had lead to widespread ignorance and an even overt hostility toward righteousness, and the Word of God. Again, we witness a virtual death of family Bible reading and parental instruction in the home. The family today, seldom, it at all, spends time worshiping together. Pastors are preoccupied with administrative tasks and duties rather than the ministry of the Gospel. They seem to spend more time in community, related to the cultural events of the day and that means less time counseling, teaching and preaching the Gospel. Finally, there is an absence of true biblical doctrinal preaching in the churches today.

 

As we dig more deeply into this passage today, uncovering the treasure chests of truth, it is my prayer is that God will touch all of us, speak into our hearts, transform us, creating in us, the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. 

 

Before we begin, I want to let you know, that the fact of the death of Jesus Christ on that cross, truly demonstrates to us and further proves to us, that God Loves the sinner. In fact, God Loves the sinner so much, that He was willing to allow His Only Begotten Son to die the worst of deaths upon that cross, as payment in full for our in. While it is true that one can search the depths of God’s Love on the cross of Calvary, I believe that it is true that God’s Love, goes much farther, so much deeper, than just that. His Love extends to the Resurrection, the ascension, and the present ministry of His Son. His Love reaches everywhere, at every time, in any circumstance, and His Love will continue to be explored throughout all of eternity. 

 

For me to even attempt to speak on the enormous depths and magnitude of God’s Love, causes me to see my inadequacies and unworthiness, and all of you who are listening to me. God’s Love is the Greatest! For God is the Greatest! Because, "God Is Love!"

 

And, I'd also like you know, that no matter what you have done, regardless of how far you have strayed from truth, God loves You and He will accept you into His loving and awaiting arms. I want to be very clear on that. That said, I also would like you to know, He does not intend to leave you as He found you, He desires for you to become a"new creation in Christ!" That means the ways of your past have been laid aside, and that will mean different things for each of you.

 

In verses 6-7, Paul writes "from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm." 

 

Many pastors approach this topics contained in our passage today, from typically one to two views. The first, go to the many verses of Scripture that condemn immorality, in any and all forms. They hammer away at the congregation with verse after verse, essentially "beating them over the head with the Bible."

 

While others who will go to those same verses and then try to argue that these verses, are no longer relevant, no longer apply in today's culture, or simply that other pastors have horribly misinterpreted these same verses. 

 

I believe that both of these ways for Christians to approach to the subject, are neither effective, furthermore, end up with an argument! It divides us against them and both of them hoping that the arguer, will validate which ever side they happen to stand on the argument. Today, I want to take a different approach than either of those.  I believe that all of you, at least impart, know what the Scriptures say, and if I happen to be talking about then you know where I stand on the Scripture…

 

I want us to look at how we as Christians should deal with reality of this topic in our culture today. And, as many of you know, I do not speak from the wisdom of men, but from the Word of God. For as long as I can remember, the church’s position in dealing with the sin, is that sin is wrong, sin is against the teachings of God, and without repentance, and a contrite heart, anyone who commits sin will burn in hell for eternity.  While this is true, I do not believe this probably the best approach in transforming the life a sinner. Furthermore, I believe that all this approach has accomplished in the church, is it has led believers to hate and condemn those who practice any form of immorality, many while continuing to commit many of the same acts in secret, which they publicly condemn. The other thing that occurs, is that those who are shamed, rarely return to the church, therefore, have little chance of being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

I believe that the biggest reason that neither of these approaches have worked, is because though Scripture reveals the sinfulness of sexual immorality, and it condemnation of it. Scripture was not intended to be used by us as a tool of judgment! But rather Scripture has always been intended by God to be used as a tool of love! And, I believe that in order to do that effectively, is to ensure that everything we teach is in sync with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is the message that the Apostle Paul was giving Timothy to preach and teach. It was not Paul's opinion, or the opinion of any man, but was given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, from the mouth of God.

I would to very clearly state with the utmost confidence, anything outside of the of the Gospel is to be regarded as false doctrine!

The world would say that it is just people wanting to live their own lives and be left alone, but that is the lie the Enemy wants you to believe! There is nothing about this world’s agenda that desires to be left alone, if it were, there would not be so many searching for love.. at the risk of sounding a bit cliché, in all the wrong places! This is the agenda of Satan, the deceiver, which is to contaminate all of humanity with his evil acts, sinful desire and prideful actions! He wants to pervert the Gospel of Jesus Christ in any way he can… When it comes to the subject of sexual immorality, we find him coming from it from both sides of the issue! 

There are churches, and therefore, believers, that are teaching that the love of God will accept any lifestyle, and therefore, if God created them this way then we must love and accept them as they are. The biblical truth is God hates sin, and I will share with you a number of verses, in both the Old and New Testaments, to substantiate this.

The first verse is found in Psalm 5:4, "For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
No evil dwells with You."

And verse 5 "The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity."

Turn with me to Psalm 11:5, "The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates."

 Let's look at Proverbs 8:13, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way
And the perverted mouth, I hate."

Proverbs 13:5, "A righteous man hates falsehood, But a wicked man acts disgustingly and shamefully."

Ephesians 5:3-5 says " But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God."

James 4:4 teaches us "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

In I John 2:6 tells us "the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked." 

And in I Peter 1:14-16, Peter tells us "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior;  because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy."

Now I could give you many more verses, validating this, but I pray that you are beginning to understand the point Scripture is making. You cannot continue living in the same sin in which you formerly lived before salvation through Christ. In Christ, we are not fee to live and to do what we want, we are only free from the sin from living in the sin of our past. To claim they we can continue to live in the ways in which we once did, is a perversion of God’s grace and love! 

Let me be clear here, that does not, that as a believer, we will never again sin, because we all sin daily! In some aspect. What is does mean, however, is that we must continually make an effort to live holy, and godly lives, denying ourselves the fleshly desires that once condemned us to hell. That doesn't mean we will not be tempted, that we will not fall short. However, when we do, we confess to Him our sin, seek His forgiveness with a broken and contrite heart, because we have sinned against a holy and righteous God. Therefore, we make every effort to avoid falling back into temptation, but cutting out our lives, all that which causes us to be tempted.

The other side of that, is the churches like Westboro Baptist church who show up at funerals, carrying signs, that focus on the judgement of God's wrath. This is, I believe, a perverted look at the wrath of God! This is how one who does not know how to deal with the issue of sin, therefore, they react out of ignorance.

Salvation, not only changes our future, it is to also change our present. Romans 6:14 teaches us that "For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

I John 1:6-10 tells us that "If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us."

Our salvation, releases us from the penalty of sin, I believe we can all agree on that. However, when the grace of God appears in our lives, in breaks the power of sin in our lives. That means there is a saying no, to the former sin in our lives.

Let's look at Titus chapter two, verses 11- 14, "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." 

There are a number of churches who teach that God is sitting around, watching and ready to squash us like a bug when we sin! I believe, that this is nothing less than a perversion of God’s Sovereignty! 

In the first two verses of today's text, the Apostle Paul is instructing Timothy, who is a leader in the church,  not teach or allow false doctrine to be taught. However, I believe what we also see here, is that is Paul teaching Timothy to not dwell in public opinion or the societal pressures, which stand to pervert his knowledge of God’s Word!

I believe that we can see that in verse 4, "nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith."

Society will always seek to deviate from the Word of God! There will always be those who will have a different perspective to present to us, to justify their sinfulness. This has been the reality since the beginning of creation. Adam and Eve sinned against God, then blamed God. Adam justified his actions because of the woman. Cain killed Abel because he was jealous, he justified his actions with his feelings. 

The world in which we live, relies on and acts on feelings, rather than the Word of God! Our feelings will always mislead us, we must learn to focus on and trust in God’s word! We cannot afford to allow ourselves to fall prey to that type of attitude. Otherwise we are as doomed as the unregenerate world.

Nor can we teach any false doctrine, swaying from the truths in the Gospel. We cannot allow the culture to influence our teaching with their created myths, endless points of connection or empty arguments, against what God's Word teaches! All believers must remain true to the teaching of the Gospel! We also know that believers must avoid allowing the culture to influence our teachings.

The Apostle Paul gives us a plan on how to implement the principle he has laid out for us, which, I might add, that I do not see this plan being implemented today by the church, especially when it comes to sins such as sexual immorality.

Let's look at verse 5, "But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith." In other words, our teaching is to be done in love. Because we know that it is God’s love that brought about the grace and forgiveness that is the Gospel! God is a loving God, Who sent His Son to save the sinner, because He would rather deliver us from sin, than condemn us to eternal hell. His judgement and wrath, is the last resort! If that weren't the case, you and I wouldn't be saved today! He would have simply judged and executed his wrath, when we repeatedly chose to sin! Jesus Christ saved us from the consequences of our sin.

Listen, as I read to you Romans 5:6-8, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

I John 3:16 tells us that "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us;.."  

John 3:16-19 says "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil." 

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him." 

Again, Titus 2:14 teaches us that "who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds." 

I Corinthians 6:17-20 says "But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body." 

You can just imagine what the unregenerate world thinks, as they're looking at the church! Our lives are to be transformed by His saving grace! The love of God must always be at the forefront of our teaching! The goal of our teaching is to reveal the love of God because we know, first hand, that is what the Gospel of Jesus does… it tells us of God loves us and desires us be part of Him. I have to ask myself, do some of these Christians who go around yelling at people about the judgement and wrath of God, believe that they are acting in love? Because if I was an unbeliever, and this was the example of a redeemed sinner, demonstrating the love of God, I wouldn't want it! Thankfully, through God's Word, I know the God of the Bible, and not the God of those who go around acting like that!

How did Jesus Himself deal with the sinner? The ones He yelled at and condemned were the so called righteous of God! Let's look at Luke 15:2 "Both the Pharisees and the scribes began to grumble, saying, "This man receives sinners and eats with them." He received sinners.

In John chapter 7, verse 14 Jesus said "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself."

If this the way in which Jesus conducted Himself, are we not to follow Him in our teaching?  If He only spoke what was given to Him by the Authority of God, are we not to do the same in like manner? Who has given any of us. as the church, an authority higher than which God gave Him? Or have some of us become like the Pharisees and Scribes?

In John 8:47 Jesus says "He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God."

In Matthew 23 to the religious leaders "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." By nature, we are all the enemies of God, and we all deserve His wrath.

What people need to hear is preaching with the Authoritative power and presence of God. We have to get ourselves and our cleverness out of the way, so the Word of God can speak! The word "authority," is the Greek word "epitag," it has the idea of commanding, it is a command. We are, therefore, to communicate God's projection, by His Authority, not self projection, by the authority of our own! Therefore our preaching is to speaking, exhorting and reproving with all authority and not allowing anyone to get around what we have have said, not be able to to rationalize, justify, evade, or elude it. However, there must also be living the Word of God in our own lives, or it's none effective, is it? It's nothing more than empty words by the self-righteous, rather than the righteousness of God. When Jesus preached in Matthew chapter 7, the people were amazed. Because the Scribes had opinions, Jesus had Authority.

I am compelled to remind some of you, that apart from the Authority of God, apart from the Scripture, we have no authority at all! What the church must understand, is the love of God is focused on reconciliation and salvation, the goal is to bring the lost to Christ for redemption, not judgment and condemnation! That has to be our motivation.. to show the love of Christ, to teach the love of Christ, to share the love of Christ we must present it with a pure heart! When we share the message of the Gospel, it has to come from love, not our thoughts or personal opinions. The church needs to see that.

This means a heart that has been seared and cleansed by the burning fire of the Holy Spirit! When profess Christ as Savior through confession of sin and a repentant heart, the Holy Spirit comes into our spirit and purges us of our sin, then begins the process of purifying our hearts. The Holy Spirit, with consuming fire, literally begins to burn away the sin in our lives.

The other side of that is the church who condones and celebrates immorality. That's just not biblical teaching either! We cannot just say that God loves you, and leave it at that. We have to teach what the Gospel says, the way the Gospel says it. We do not get to pick and choose. That's heresy! That is a dishonor to God and the Word of God. We must stick to the truth, however, we are to do it with love. Is that not what set us apart, that which separates good from evil in our hearts? It's not just about not having sin in our lives when we teach or share the Gospel, it is also about projecting the holiness of Christ, the immense love of God through our own lives! That's how we bring the lost, unregenerate man to Christ for salvation and redemption, by the way we ourselves  live out the truth, by our example.

I Peter 2:11-12 teaches us "Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation."

 Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 2, "And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,  in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us"

We are the way were are because God, in His mercy took pit on us, in our fallen condition, not because of anything we did to deserve it. God saved us! Therefore, we must remember, the unregenerate are the way they are, because they have not yet been saved. I believe that we must look upon them not with hate, not with speech unbecoming a believer, but with pity, mercy, kindness and gentleness, remembering our own former condition and salvation. We must always be in prayer for them, without ceasing. Bearing in mind, apart from God's grace, we were once one of them.

In Closing..

Beloved,  we are to speak the gospel. Speak the truth in love. Yes, we need to confront error, however, we need to do it with the intention of gaining a brother. Our motivation should be not to win an argument, but to win the lost for Christ. That's how we win. Sometime that means that we fall on our sword for issues that we realize are not that important. It may mean that you lay down your agenda for the good of a brother/sister, or of the church. Not that we are not to align our teaching with the culture, becoming people-pleasers, forsaking truth, but that we are to be peacemakers, loving the errant back to or some, for the first time to the great treasure of Jesus Christ. We may have authority, lest we be reminded, that we are also all under authority. And, we do not always have to exert it initially.

Yes, there is a day of judgement coming upon those who reject truth,  however, those of us who have come to know the truth, must be mindful of the ways in which we share it! And, that is the same way we ourselves were shown by Christ Himself, with love! According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which we have been entrusted, to the glory of God.

May it be so..

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

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