Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

A House Divided Pt.2

Next week it will be twenty-eight years that we moved back here to Virginia from California. And as we're talking on this particular area of strife, in those twenty-eight years that we've been here we've experienced a couple of major problems in the fellowship and this spirit that we were talking about manifested itself in numerous ways among us. God is faithful; faithful to establish His Word and His will and many that were involved in this were innocents because the Scripture says that "there will be those who through good words and fair speeches deceive the simple." Some were innocents that were hurt, others were malicious that were wolves and self-willed, and heretics, and many of these that we look back upon. And some have been able to recover themselves and we're so thankful to God for that. Others are still moving in an area that will be eternally destructive to them if there isn't repentance and reconciliation to Father. A house divided cannot stand. And that's why we've so diligently sought for that unity and actually, that's our role.

Turn over to Ephesians for just a second and let's remind ourselves of one thing as we continue with our study for this particular evening of what the role is that overseers, especially in ministry, are supposed to afford the body of Christ, and the protection that is supposed to be brought. In Ephesians chapter 4, verse one the Scripture says, "I Paul, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love: Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." And so we see that His admonition to each one of us as members of the body is that we have a job, we have a vocation and we're to do it in humility; and our job is to see that unity remains in our hearts. Now that's your job, to see that it remains in your heart. Unity to remain in your heart, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. He's talking to individuals and He says move in lowliness and in meekness with longsuffering forbearing in love, and this is your role. And then He goes on and He says, there is just one body and one God, and as He goes down through verses six and seven we see then that He also has given gifts unto men and to the Church. It says in verse 11, He gave the five fold ministry gifts, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for a specific reason. And the Scripture tells us that it's to bring perfecting, or wholeness, or maturity is another particular way that we can look at that, to the saints. To mature them to do this work of the ministry, and part of that work of the ministry is what we just talked about, the edifying of one another through a humble spirit and the pursuit of unity. He says it here in this phrase, the edifying of the body of Christ. And we'll see that as we go on in the study tonight, our job is to edify not to devour one another, not to destroy one another, not to defame one another, not to abuse or use one another, but our job is to build up one another, or as we're going to see, to prefer one another.

The greatest among us is the one that can prefer others better than themselves. And there's a number here that operate in that spirit and it's such a blessing to see it. And others that are needing to grow in those areas, and some that have not realized yet that that's what's expected of them and to perform in any other role is unacceptable. But the ministry gifts are placed to see to it that this is being done, that nobody is getting abused or used, and that the Body in fact is being built up and strengthened and conformed to the image of Jesus. And then as we all know, we've spent a lot of time in this passage in years past, these ministry gifts function and these requirements are the standards that are held, "...until we all come to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, [or maturation] unto the measure of the stature of the of the fullness of Christ: that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried along with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ."

And so we begin to see our responsibility and to see how we relate to one another, and we're responsible, then, to just constantly speak the truth. Now where we left off this morning, you remember, we were saying that one of the main problems that all of us deal with is this: we believe that our perception is the truth and yet we have only one source that guides us and that's the Word of God. And so we have to be very amendable to it, and we have to realize that it's not the knowledge of the Word but it's the proper application of the Word that is so important. It's amazing how many people that can recite the Word have trouble applying it, especially when it works hardship on themselves. They can apply it to others, able to require of others an obedience to the Word, able to pass judgments and bring insight and speak into lives of others, but not able to see their own hearts. And if your light be darkness, how great is that darkness?

In other words, if you think you've seen, and if you think you're in the truth and yet you're in error, the deception and the power of it, because of this self righteousness causes you to be an easy prey for the prince of darkness, you're in his arena and so there's no hope for you. You're believing a lie. You're worshipping the god of self and your only hope, of course, is the light of the gospel, the grace of the Spirit of God, the love of other brothers and sisters that will speak to us truth, that will be long suffering, that will not compromise for us. And I think that's something beloved that we may be on the verge of taking for granted here, that we need to step back and be so thankful that we have people here that will love us and tell us the truth, amen? I mean, people that will not spare for your crying. You ought to thank God for it. The wounds of a friend. And those are the things that are going to save us in this hour of the spirit of lawlessness and this darkness that's around us. And we that are children of light have that opportunity to walk and move in that unity that the Word of God requires here. And so my role as an overseer here in over-seeing all of your lives is to make sure that unity is kept at all cost because that's one of my number one jobs. My number one job is to perfect you to edify one another. That's what I'm supposed to do. Now in that process of 28 years it's manifested in many different ways and in this process of 28 years we've been able to train up a number of young men, and they're not young any more. Sorry Richard, but to train up these young men. Steve's getting younger all the time, right? See him carrying that baby around - reminds me of me 30 years ago.

And you know as we're looking at what God is doing in our lives - and that's what God's called me to do, now 28 years ago we walked into that roll. I was 26 years old. That's scary. When we moved up here - we're going to have our 25th anniversary at this property on Palm Sunday. It will be 25 years. When we came up to this property in the middle of conflict, and strife, and battle and people questioning whether or not I was hearing from God, and convinced that I was insane to leave that 5 acres in Herndon and to come up here into this wilderness where the buffalo roamed. And all of the residual problems of getting involved in a school because "that's going to take away from the church, and it's going to rob the church of finances, and it's going to rob us of time and energy." And that church was every typical church. We had a youth group where the teenagers went to public school and were no different than those in public school, a limited commitment and understanding of the Word of God like the generation before them. And as the Spirit of God spoke to us and gave us the understanding that if we're going to leave a godly generation it's going to have to be putting into people's lives every day not on Sundays and Wednesdays. And so we made that move with great opposition of the leadership. The majority of the deacons were not real crazy about this particular move and it was a very difficult thing. We were in a congregational form of government, everything of any great consequence had to be voted on. And we moved this direction. At that time, moving to this property, I was 28 years old, I was Star's age. And in trying to lead this flock that God had placed us over, quite a bit smaller then. I still have a picture of our first Wednesday night service up here. It reminded me, when I looked back and saw Jesse Hodge seated back here about where Tony is tonight, and that 's about where she was sitting 28 years ago. We have this picture, and the piano was down here, and we had these metal chairs that were in a semi-circle. The building was limited there and it stopped at that wall where the indention is. And Wednesday night service - we had a pretty good Wednesday night crowd actually by those standards of those days, and I think I saw that we had - I think on Wednesday night we had 18 people that were here on Wednesday night in that particular picture. I can even remember what we were teaching on. I remember looking at myself with my Fu Manchu mustache and my polyester leisure suit on. And dealing with a spirit of contention and strife, and asking Father, "What do you want us to do? How can we best represent you? Father, if I've heard your voice, if this is the wisdom of God that we're moving in then how would you have me to represent it?" And at that moment, and in following it on other occasions God spoke and told me that what He wanted me to do was not compromise the standard of unity of vision. Don't compromise it, keep it clear, stay on the course, but don't battle with carnal weapons. My natural tendency is to be a fighter. I don't know if you knew that or not, but it's kind of, it's natural. And for me to not use all of the weapons at my disposal is very unnatural. And God spoke at that time, and I'm trying to talk tonight a little bit to show you how to get out of strife, how to stay out of strife, and begin to rest in the presence of God and realize that all of your problems don't have to be solved today.

What accelerates strife is a lack of long-suffering and patience and confidence that God's going to bring truth and justice. "And so we're going to have to watch our for it, and we're going to get it done in our method, in our timing, to our liking." And the ability to rely on God and so I asked Him, you know, "Father, how are we going to do this in holding up my particular role of Ephesians 4, and yet being able to see how many people we can save in this process. How can we keep the mortality rate down?" Now, you can't stop people from doing what they're going to do. You can't stop people from killing themselves and we'll see in Timothy in just a moment that that's what happens when you get in strife. The Bible makes it very clear that they come into a position to where they're destroying themselves. Satan takes them captive, the Scripture says, at his own will. Isn't that a scary place to be, where any time the devil wants he can take you man, because of the environment you're operating in. You're operating in his arena of darkness. You're trying to manipulate things, you're whining, crying, intimidating, making threats, whatever it might be. Spinning false doctrine, turning a few little half-truths, whatever it is, to get your way, and you are absolutely satanic prey. You're right there for his taking any time he wants you. And yet you think everything is okay because judgment hasn't fallen, and in fact, "I've been doing this all my life and I'm still alive." I have one thing to say about that, God's merciful, isn't He?

Now how do we approach this thing? Well, let's look over at Philippians for just a second. And in Philippians Paul speaks toward the spirit that we're to operate in. Remember in Proverbs 10:12 this morning we talked about the fact that love covers? Love is the solution to the conflicts that you're involved in right now. Love, preferring others better than yourself. Love, realizing that because you've been loved freely, you are obligated to return that love to those that are around you. If you are a Christian, if you've received the love of God to the point of regeneration to where you are a new creature, you are commanded, demanded to love others as you've been loved unconditionally. And if you don't forgive, what does the Bible say? You can't be forgiven. When you've been forgiven the $20,000,000 and yet you go take your neighbor by the throat and throw them into prison for $20, do you think God's going to forgive you, when He's already forgiven you the $20,000,000? We've read that parable, haven't we? The Lord is going to hear about it, He's going to be angry, and you're going to be thrown in jail until you've paid the last penny, and you can't pay your debt. I think maybe we ought to be a little more forgiving.

Now that doesn't mean we tolerate everybody's nonsense, and everybody around us can be lawless and do their thing and we say, "we love you." No, we're not talking about that. There are standards that have to be met in this community, in your house. "As for me and my house we're serving God." The people don't even have to be believers Paul said in Corinthians. If you're an unbeliever and you're pleased to dwell by these standards I'll let you stay in the house. You don't have to be a Christian. I'll stay married to you, you don't have to be a Christian, but you will live by these standards, and if you're pleased to stay in that environment you can stay, but the standards won't be compromised. And I'm not going to fight with you; I'm not going to strive with you. The Bible tells me what to do. We are not going to stay here and cause more and more conflict, and more and more turmoil, and more and more reproach on the name of Jesus. I am obligated to put you away. In the sense of children who are causing strife and confusion and sin in the Old Testament what happened? They took them to the gates and did what? Killed them. You see God has a solution for strife. But now a lot of us get rock happy. And that's because we haven't fulfilled the other great principle of loving your neighbor, taking the beam out, all of these things necessary to make determinations as to where this person is that we're in conflict with. And that's what's hard, and that's why we can't get in a hurry, and that's why people have even asked me, they say, "why don't you cut that tree down?" And some of you are saying, "amen brother, praise God." And I want to tell you something you're the tree they were talking about. And I said, "let's dung around it one more year."

I am - of every - I'm the slowest guy to act. You hear me teach over all these years, and to bring these non-compromising principles, and some of you seem to think that means that I'm harsh, and man, I'm just ready to cut everybody off. And if you really knew, if you knew what goes on behind the scenes you would find out that I'm the slowest one of all. And I don't know what your perception is of the leadership and the pastors and the deacons, but I want to tell you something, I am the slowest one of all. Pick whomever you want, I'm the slowest one of all. You want to know why? Who knows why? I'm going to answer. It all stops right here. None of these other pastors are going to answer what goes on in this fellowship. None of the deacons are going to answer for what goes on in this fellowship. I'm the man. And because of that, I'm very slow to respond in cutting down any trees. I'm also very slow to try to replant what the Lord has plucked up. I'm not moved by human empathy either. When I know that God has moved and plucked someone up out of our midst and brought judgment and all of a sudden they're crying and they have three kids and they have got this and that I'm also slow to do that, because if God's plucked them up then He's the one that's going to have to deal in judgment with them.

Now we're going to talk about how to handle these things, and I'm going to try to talk about the domestic and the ecclesiastical, the church here, and show you how these principles work hand in hand. The one thing I do want to let you know is this: we saw very clearly in the Scriptures that when that final judgment comes it will come suddenly and there's no remedy. That's a fearful thing. It's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God and be found wanting. It's a fearful thing to have any of those things that He said. "Six things does the Lord hate, seven are the abomination." The lust of the flesh that's spoken of in Galatians; it says, "And those that do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Oh beloved, that ought to cause us to be sober and to constantly examine our hearts. And in both of those lists we find this don't we? In the Proverbs list of the things that God hates, and the works of the flesh of Galatians. This striving spirit, this conflict, this always having to have our way and in the process either slander or deprive, to tear down when we're supposed to be building up, the spirit of exaltation.

The apostle says in the second chapter of Philippians that it's important for each of us to "Let nothing [verse three] be done through strife and vainglory." We see another part of strife, don't we? Vainglory. You know, we just - it's about me getting what I want, and being perceived in a certain light. Vainglory, strife. Or vainglory, "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves." Now, stop for just a second, and you've probably done this, but I'd like you to do it right now as an exercise. Just stop for just a moment and to the best of your ability internalize and ask yourself how you see yourself. "How do I see myself, really?" Now tragically a lot of us aren't able to do that because we don't get quiet enough really before God to ever hear. Most of us that are so selfish, our prayer time is also selfish and we're always praying about what we want God to give us or how we want Him to change somebody else. "Lord, it's me again and I'm really starting to question my faith and Your power Lord, because, you know, if You're God You could change them. Why can't you change them God? Lord, you can't make them bow their knee? What's wrong God, can't you open their eyes to see how great I am? You know, the problem is Lord, they're ignorant. Give them a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge, that they could come up to the level of my perception and understand my position." You wouldn't pray those kinds of prayers, but you do. How about just getting before God and letting Him reveal your heart? And to get quiet enough, and honest enough, by the revelation of the Word of God to see if possibly - now, I know it seems impossible to you, but let me just, possibly, maybe just a chance that you think of yourself more highly than you ought to think. How many of you think that could be a possibility? Could it be a possibility? How many of you even thought about it once? Anybody think about it once, let me see. At least once in your life. How many of you would say that there's an outside chance that's a possibility? Let me see your hands. Okay. The rest of you don't think it is, huh? Well, how could we know? Very simple. Look what it says. As the apostle speaks to us the real issue is this: are we moving in a lowliness of mind, or humility, to where we're esteeming others better than ourselves? That begins to answer it right there. Do you esteem others better than yourself? I don't mean you sit back and say, "Oh man, they're smarter than I am, and more talented than I am." I was going to say better looking, but that's not possible. And all of these things, and that's not what it's talking about. Esteeming others better than yourself is putting them before yourself, being more concerned about them getting what they deserve rather than you getting what you deserve.

We're dealing in one of these marital conflicts that I made mention to you the other day, and in that meeting one of the deacons was present, and the deacon made a comment along these lines. He said, "well you know, it's interesting, the different marriages and pressures and problems, and these different things that are faced." And he made a comment about Janet and my marriage, and he said, "you know, not everybody has that good of a relationship or that good of a marriage." I don't remember exactly how it was stated. And I told him, I said, "well you know, our marriage isn't that good, our marriage isn't as good as it looks." And he was a little bit surprised. And I said, "no, I'm not saying that what you're seeing isn't real, what I'm telling you is it's that way because my wife is a better wife than I am a husband." Esteeming others better than yourself. The reason there's not strife in my marriage is because my wife is a better wife than I am a husband. "Well bummer, man." How many of you wives right now say, "I'll tell you one thing, I'm not being a better wife than my husband is a husband, bless God. This thing is going equal, down the middle, I'm getting what I deserve." And if you have that kind of attitude you got what you deserve, you married him.

Now this doesn't happen by accident. There's a spirit that's imbibed. I want to tell you something my wife's the way she is because of her mother and her mother's mother. And it's gone to my daughter. And it will be found in her daughters. Can you thank God for the holy seed? But I want to tell you something, your children and your grandchildren are going to be what you are, and they're going to be just as selfish as you are and just as manipulative as you are and just as non-forgiving and compromising as you are because you reap what you sow. And what we're talking about here beloved is not just the immediate conflict that some of you find yourselves in, but what spirit are you bringing into the next generation. How are you showing them to live? Now I'm not as bad a husband as you might think, but my wife definitely is a better wife than I am a husband. How - the spiritual maturity of being able to serve. The greatest is the servant of all. We were at one of the races the other day, a while back. It was kind of humorous. I may have even made reference to this one time before, I think I did. And we were up somewhere working up on the cars doing something, I can't remember exactly what it was, and you looked down across the parking lot. Now Janet's been real ill these last eight or nine months battling some other stuff that is kind of new. Pretty soon we're going to have covered the whole medical spectrum, but this one was new and something that's still going on that she's battling in her body. All of a sudden super low blood pressure. I took her blood pressure one day and it was really ridiculous. And at one time she had high blood pressure, so they put her on a small dosage just to bring it down a little bit and now it was low. And I told her, I said, "look stop taking those pills, man, high blood pressure is better than no blood pressure." Now I'm not a doctor but I know that. And for her to get up in the morning is a chore, just to get out of bed. I want to tell you something. She doesn't just get out of bed in the morning. If the grand babies are there she gets out of the bed, before she eats, before she does anything else, those babies are taken care of, they're fed, everybody else is taken care of. We sit there - I look down, and it was humorous. She's coming across the parking lot with these boxes, bags, and she's kind of coming up through there like, you know, carrying everybody else's food. She went down there - she was concerned. Everybody had to get something to eat, man, and you know, I didn't - I wasn't taken up with whether Greg and Star and Jason, and anybody else ate, but here she is. She looked like a pack mule coming across the parking lot. The greatest among us.

"I'm so tired, I'm so weak. Would somebody run and get this for me, and would somebody do that for me, and please help me." Never, never. Now what is that? It's the fruit of the spirit, it's the character of Christ likeness. She can't help herself, she has to serve other people. Well what's that all about? Well, verse four, "Look not every man on his own thing, but every man also on the things of others." You know, over the years I've watched Janet, and through the years of our real popularity here in this area - well, as many of you know, we were - could have made the decision to have gone national or international with the ministry. At that particular time you'd be surprised how many times Janet was asked to come speak at women's meetings because see the whole thing was you have this preacher and his wife, and the wife is there and she's going to preach and teach and do all her stuff. And some were genuinely called, and others it was a fad of team teaching and everything, and there was no call on the life of these individuals they were just doing it because it was the fad. And I even had people ask me, they said, "well why is it that your wife doesn't minister, or doesn't want to minister?" And I thought, "dude you don't have a clue what ministry is." The fact that she doesn't get up here and parrot somebody else's teaching tape has nothing to do with ministry. Ministry is esteeming others better than yourselves and looking to others, not vaunting yourself, wanting equal pulpit rights. All of these nonsensical co-pastorates of husbands and wives out there; that's a very unique thing in the Scripture. I only know of one biblical case of Aquila and Priscilla. And we understand then that what we're looking for is real fruit of service and humbling of ourselves. And look at the next verse, "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." Man that's tough. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." That's Jesus, that 's Jesus esteeming others. In the passages we read to you this morning where Jesus was speaking of the greatest, He said who's the greatest, the one who sits down at the table and is served or the one doing the serving? And He answered and said, "it's obvious, the greatest one is the one who's being served." He said, "but I've come to be the servant." You know, He didn't say that person wasn't the greatest. He didn't say we're all equal. He said , "in the world, and in the natural there are these different areas of honor, and authority, and power, but He said, I have willfully chosen this role to represent the kingdom of God, and I've come to wash your feet, and I've come to die on a cross for you. Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus."

Well, I don't know about you, but that doesn't come natural to me. I sent something down Friday, it was terrible. I don't know who had gone and done it. Janet I'm sure made sure that it was done, but I don't know who actually went and gathered this thing up. It was cold, wind chill, we were outside, it was freezing and we got caught up in something and they brought us some lunch and we couldn't - we didn't get right to it we were viewing some, and having to work on something else, and we finally got down to eat and these - the french fries became weapons. You could have used them like in a crossbow. The chicken, whatever those things were, were just about like they'd come out of the freezer. And so I'm sitting there and I asked Janet, I said, "is there some way we can heat these up?" Well sure there was, there's a lot of ways we could have done it, we could have started the engine and thrown them up on the manifold. Somebody went to the trouble of getting these things, and gathering them, and then you don't respond when it first shows up, and then wonder why it's cold. "Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus."

You look down at verses 14 and 15, and it says, "Do all things without murmurings and disputings." There's a good admonition. How many of you know what murmuring brings when we read the Old Testament? You're dying in the wilderness, man. !@#$$%^& What did you say? Nothing. Just always, just an undertow, just always disgruntled, nothing can be quite good enough. That murmuring, and second guessing and thinking of ourselves more highly. Then the disputings of wanting to have somebody answer to you why. And we're dealing with that in our generation today. We talked about that before. Why? Why? Because I told you, that's why. And that little two and a half foot midget says, "well who do you think you are?" Well, I'm going to show you. And this lack of respect for authority and order! God's order! God's order - husband, wife, children, God's order. Governors, magistrates, the society as it's established, God's order. Within the church, the eldership, the ministry of the deacons, the different gifts then that function within the order. And for anyone within that designated order, the revealed order, to stand up and say, "answer to me, I'm asking you, now you tell me why." They owe you nothing. You're not resisting the power you're resisting who? God. You're putting yourself above the order, God was wrong. That's basically all we're saying. Why don't you do that the next time you get in dispute with somebody that's in authority over you. Say, "I just want to tell you something, God's wrong." You're acting like that, just let the words come out of your mouth it's in your heart. "God's wrong and I will not submit to His will, and I'm establishing a new truth, mine." Just say that next time because that's what's going on. Now Paul says here in this situation with the Philippians, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure [verse 13] Do all things without murmuring and disputing; That ye may be blameless and harmless." You see what He wants? We should be safe in here. We should be safe in this community, you shouldn't get hurt in here. "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation." It's perverse out there. It's dog eat dog out there, but it shouldn't be that way in here. Can you say amen to that? It ought to be safe. You ought to be able to understand that you're loved and that we're required to love, and that we have the safety of overseers, and a standard that's clear and without compromise, and that we can run to this and be safe and receive our representation by the truth of God's majesty. If we don't believe that we're going to take things into our own hands and we're going to find ourselves in conflict with the Word of God, in conflict with designated authority, parents, husbands, overseers in the fellowship. And to resist the power is to resist God. And when you see that, beloved, it will begin to cause you to back off and begin to rest in God's sovereignty.

I talked to you earlier, and we're going to stop with this I guess, for this evening, about what I was learning there 28 years ago and how to fight for the truth. Now we are to fight for the truth, we're not pacifists in the kingdom of God, we're given weapons, and we're told how to fight. We're to fight the good fight of faith, we understand that. We're to contend for the faith, and so there are stands that are to be made for the truth, but He's talking about the spirit that it's done in, and the motive behind it, and the method.

So, he tells us in Titus, (turn over to Titus for just a second) how we're to perceive our role. In the doctrine of the Blessed Hope in Titus 2 he comes down through the blessed hope and he's talking about a people who are to be pure and undefiled from the world. Those that are experiencing the grace of God that teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. And so we look for the Blessed Hope, the return of the Lord, and He says, "contend for these things. [verse 15] These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee." Now he's talking to Titus who's overseeing the church and he's saying don't allow this ungodly behavior. Bring the reproof, the rebuke, the instruction, and don't let anybody despise you. Well how can you keep somebody from despising you? You can't change their heart, their perception. He's saying don't get off course, and don't give them a cause, and then he's saying don't tolerate it. "Put them in mind [verse 1] to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work. To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men. For we ourselves also [used to be fools, disobedient, deceived, serving all of the different lusts and pleasures. We also used to live in malice, and envy, and were hateful, and hated one another.] But after that the kindness and love of God our savior toward men appeared to us, into our hearts, we were changed, we became a new creation. We were justified, [verse 7] by His grace and made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So listen to this saying of mine [verse 8] and affirm it constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. Avoid foolish questions, genealogies." Now here's what that whole genealogy thing was about. It was getting position, trying to trace back and say, "I have position, I deserve this status because of who I'm related to. I'm a descendant of Abraham, a descendant of Moses, a descendant of Aaron," you know, whatever. People were jockeying for position, wanting to be recognized, wanting to be served and Paul is speaking toward this spirit. And he said, don't allow all this nonsense to go on, it's going to create contention and striving and it's unprofitable and vain. "And a man that's a heretic [now let's see what a heretic is here. We seem to think that heretics, heretical statements are in and of themselves doctrinal and it's not just the bad doctrine. The word heretic talks about self-will being what's behind the confusion and the strife, and that that self-will, that inability to say, "I'm wrong," the inability to change the course is causing division. That's a heretic. Someone who's self- will is bringing division and after having been confronted with the truth and saying, "here's where you're wrong, here's the consequence of the way you're acting; you need to change," and they don't, look what the Scripture says] after the first and second admonition reject them. Knowing that he that is such is subverted [that word means overthrown, already conquered by the devil] being condemned of, [say it] himself." Now - reject, it means to avoid, shun, refuse to have fellowship with. Now, it can be done in different degrees and I'm not going to get into that because that's not what I'm teaching here right now. We know there can be an absolute, just "you're dead." We know there can be a shaming, but I'm not going to treat you as an enemy, I'm going to treat you as a brother, and I'll talk to you for the sake of putting you on the right course, but I'm not going to seek you out for fellowship and communion because right now the fact is you're under discipline. That's another way that it affects itself. But the one thing we know is that it's not just left alone. And it's important for us to understand. Man, I almost missed. How can you miss something that big? I almost missed my mouth [taking a drink of water]. And so we see how important this aspect of unity and harmony in the body is, and in the household.

"Well wait a minute now. You're saying I'm a heretic and I say I'm not. That's just your opinion." What did we read in Ephesians? Is that just my opinion? If I'm wise enough, especially - even beyond that, just make it me as an individual, is it just my opinion? But let's go another step, let's get the multitude of counselors, of other called men and placed gifts, and let's get the counsel of another counsel of those who were looked and sought out from among you who were servants in their hearts before they were made deacons. They were doing the job before they got it, and let's seek the counsel of all of those and make it together and then let's come up with a judgment. Is it just our opinion and your opinion? "Well, you have your opinion I have mine." No, we're speaking the truth and you're a heretic. "Doesn't seem fair to me. That doesn't sound right." If that's how you perceive it then everything we're talking about that causes strife is at work within you right now. And that's what we have to look at. "Yeah, but wait a minute man, if we go from the particular approach then man, I'm going to be taken advantage of and you guys are going to be telling me what to do." No. No. You have recourse don't you? What is it, what's your recourse? Go away. But if you recognize that your overseers love you and are called of God, if you know those that are laboring among you and are over you in the Lord then that's how it works. If you believe your husband loves you, then that's how it works. If you believe your parents love you, then that's how it works. And so we understand then that this desire to move outside of order and to come in and inflict our will and have to have things seen the way we see them is this very spirit that we're speaking of. And it's heretical because it flies in the face of God's order and that's the real issue.

That's what makes it so bad. And so when you get the statements like I shared with you a while back of an individual here that was spoken to concerning a relationship between he and his wife and he was told, "look just stop trying to tell your wife what to do." And this person's response was, "I'm being given non-biblical advice, I'm the head of my house." I want to tell you something: the fact that you're husband does not give you the right to bring false doctrine to your home. It does not allow you to go contrary to the biblical principles of spending all of your time trying to clean somebody else's act up with a log in your own eye. And to be given admonition to deal with yourself first doesn't take away what God designates as your given responsibility if you're administering it according to the one major requirement, and that's what was lacking in this instance, the ability to lay the life down. Because it was all about self. I'm not being seen as this. I'm not being treated this way. I'm not whatever it is. And it so reeked of self, and yet unable to see it, and then a judgment being made against the counsel that was given. It's a prime example of heresy, but when you're deceived you don't know it. So what protection do we have then? Now here I am, I'm in a conflict, what's my recourse? I go to get counsel. All my counselors say, "you're missing it." "Can't be, I heard from God." "Can't be, doesn't seem fair, I have rights." Hmmm. Let's go back to what we saw in the first part of Philippians. Go back to Philippians real quickly. I know we're running out of time for this evening. Chapter 2, verse 3. Vainglory, how about being lowly in your own mind and how about getting you out of the picture and esteeming others. Let's talk about everybody else and not you. Let's not talk about how this is causing you a little bit of, you know, I think, and me, and mine, and I, and this. Oh beloved, all it is-is a lack of faith; a lack of belief that God wants each of you to be perfected in your role, husband, wife, children; brothers and sisters, how we relate to one another. Sure we're going to have to deal with all of these temptations of vainglory, and I'm not being recognized and I'm not appreciated, and all of these things; and we'll feel all of those self-pity things periodically. But it's so vital. And we'll end with I Timothy for this evening. That you see the need to due to die to self in this, and to begin to trust God to work it out for His glory and to stop trying to force things into your time-frame. Once we begin to move into that realm of humility God can than exalt us. The ability to walk in faith and trust. In the 6th chapter of - let's just quit for tonight.

Father, we thank You for the Word of God and as we look at the subtleness of this spirit, that it's not always overt, it's not always easily identified, it can so many times look righteous and seem to be truth and justice and that seems fair when you don't look at all of the facts, when it's presented with their twists and the other truths are not heard. And then through good words and fair speeches the simple are deceived. Who are the simple? The ones who don't hear both sides of the matter. And then once you have heard both sides we have to go to the revelation of truth and see that it's properly applied. Whenever there's conflict we have to have confidence that someone's going to rule, even the world goes to court and some guy makes a judgment and they abide by it. "Well, I don't agree with what he did." Well of course, one of the two is going to go out of there not agreeing. And you don't have confidence that people that love you and are pursing this role of servant and preferring others when they bring judgments concerning your situation are really concerned about you because it didn't go your way? They didn't see it the way you saw it so they must be wrong. Humble yourself, esteem others. In the restoration process beloved, if it's ourselves as overseers or you resolving conflicts in your own home, oh beloved, in the spirit of meekness lest you be tempted. You're going to be under it. Do unto others then as you'd have them do to you. We're not looking to destroy people.

Be careful, the apostle says, when you bite and devour lest you be consumed. Oh dear Lord, to have that blood on your hands when called to be gentle, and there's to be peace and safety and you devour and turn your children into people that are carnivorous because they watch your methodology. Wouldn't you love to have your children some day say, "you know, my dad, my mom had the mind of Christ. They humbled themselves, they took on the role of servant and maturely represented their Lord." Make it real in our hearts, Father, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord. As Gary plays for us and we recognize the temptation in each of our lives how do you deal with it? Choose to humble yourself, choose. Say right now, "I am going to look for opportunities to make myself smaller and others greater. I'm going to look for an opportunity to give when I would normally take. Next time the opportunity arises I'm not going to be too busy about myself to serve somebody else. Next time there's that tension I'm going to realize that other people can have bad days not just me, and I'm going to overlook it. I'm going to just stand and not be quick to anger. I'm going to make sure that my anger is righteous indignation, I'm not going to respond to this thing with limited information and out of emotion. I'm going to stand back and if I become angry it's going to be "orge" it's going to be calculated. It's going to be an anger based upon righteous judgment and I'll decree it factually and it will be done. I talked to you about us being slow. We are slow, but when we decide, when we're calculated and sure it's sure. And that's why then in some people's eyes it seems to be so hard. "They're so hard they just won't compromise." No, there is no compromise when the judgment is made because it's righteous, and it's been given many, many times to repent. Does that mean they can never be restored? Of course it doesn't. Of course you look for the prodigal to return and you're waiting their to see their hearts brought back to life. But now there's a judgment, and there's a recompense, and there's a price. Motive, method, humility, esteeming others, serving others, letting God do the exalting. And then, as Ephesians 4 said, we've endeavored to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace. As we sing this chorus tonight, just thank Him for the brothers and sisters you have here that love you tonight, and assume the love that they have and rest in it. And delight in the wounds of a friend and thank God for order that's been set up in our midst that will speak to us unity and peace. "Lord you are." And so we ought to love one another. Sing it again. Oh how patient You are with us, Lord. You're long suffering. Oh, hallelujah! Just tell Him how much you love Him tonight. Just take a moment and tell Him how much you love Him. We're so thankful, Lord, for the free gift; we're so grateful for Your mercy and Your longsuffering, Your gentleness to us, Lord. We haven't received what we deserved, we've received grace and mercy and we thank You for it. We deserve hell, there's not a good thing in us, but You've bought us and You've made us righteous with Your righteousness and You've caused us to be accepted in the beloved and we're so thankful. Hallelujah! We joy in the finished work; we delight in the power of the blood of Jesus Christ that will cause each of us to be conformed to Your image. It's not our job, it's the blood that's at work and we thank You for it. And so we'll not minimize the blood by taking it into our own hands and making it happen according to our will. But we believe that You're working and willing in us to do the good pleasure of God, and for that we're thankful. In Jesus name, Amen. Turn to somebody next to you and say, "humble yourself." Amen! Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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