Beware of Appearances

If you have your Bible, Luke chapter 20. Luke chapter 20, we're going to look at the last three verses of this chapter And then we'll embark on chapter 21 And there's only 24 chapters in the book of Luke and by the time we're done we would have spent probably Ten years in Luke's gospel, but that's okay because there's no hurry here Beware of appearances that's the title for today's lesson Luke chapter 20 verse number 45 and while all the people were listening He said to the disciples beware the scribes who like to walk around in long robes and love respectful greetings in the marketplaces and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets Who devour widows houses and for appearances sake offer long prayers These will receive greater Condemnation These words are brief The length of them is given in Matthew's account in in Matthew chapter 23 In a Matthew's account there is a lot longer version of all that Jesus says, but they are extremely harsh words False teachers have always been around and Will continue to be around until Jesus comes again Moses encountered them in Egypt Jeremiah encountered them in Judah Ezekiel faced them all throughout his ministry During the tribulation period there'll be many false Christs and false apostles who will arise There has always been Satan's attempt to draw people away from the truth that people will believe a lie That's why over in the book of Acts the 20th chapter the Apostle Paul said these words He says in verse 25 and now behold I know that all of you among whom I went about preaching the kingdom will see my face no more Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers To shepherd the church of God which he purchased with his own blood.

I know that after my departure Savage wolves will come in among you not sparing the flock and from among your own selves Men will arise speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after them therefore beyond the alerts The Apostle Paul would start the church in Ephesus and after three years of ministry he knew that after his departure false teachers Would arise from within The church he understood that So he warned the Ephesian elders About what was about to happen over in the book of 2nd Corinthians 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 it says these words 2nd Corinthians 11 verse number 13 down through verse number 15 for Such men are false Apostles deceitful workers disguising themselves as Apostles of Christ and 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 shall be according to their deeds Satan is the great counterfeit he camouflages himself in such a way that it gets the people to believe that he is the truth over in 1st Timothy chapter 4 verse number 1 Paul said these words to Timothy But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron Seducing spirits are going to come lead people away Peter would say in 2nd Peter 2 verse number 1 But false prophets also arose among the people just as there will also be false teachers among you Who will secretly introduce destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them bringing swift?

destruction upon themselves and Many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned and then over in Jude Jude says these words in Jude 3 and 4 He says beloved while I was making every effort to write to you about our common salvation I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith Which was once for all delivered to the Saints for certain persons have crept in unnoticed Those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation ungodly persons who turned the grace of our God into Licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ He gives us the character of false teachers They are ungodly and the remarkable thing about that is that they present themselves as godly But they are really ungodly because their character and their conduct run hand in hand They they turn the grace of God into Licentiousness in other words, in other words, they look at the grace of God as the opportunity for them to sin without penalty and then they have forgotten that Ultimately, they are denying Their master they are turning their backs on The Lord you see we forget that Titus 1 tells us that the grace of God teaches you to deny Ungodly lusts and worldly pleasures God's grace teaches you that If God's grace is not teaching you that that you are progressing spiritually you have no understanding of the grace of God God's grace does not allow you to continue into sin without penalty.

No God's grace teaches you to walk away from sin realizing how harmful it is to your soul and God has Given us his grace to teach us to instruct us in the way that we should go over in 1st John chapter 2 John says this Verse 18 children. It is the last hour and just as you heard that antichrist is coming Even now many antichrists have arisen from this we know that this is the last hour Verse 22 who is the liar, but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ the Messiah This is the Antichrist the one who denies the Father and the Son There are many warnings all throughout the scripture about the rise of false teachers Those who will creep in and those who will rise from within the church to lead people astray That's why our Lord gave the warning about the wheat and the tares that would grow together to the end of the age Because there will be so many Unbelievers mixed in with the believers that you can't even begin to tell them apart because they look so much alike But at the end of the age They will be separated and God will do what he needs to do the emissaries of the gospel are most formidable When they are religious And that's what Jesus faced this day on Wednesday of Passion week as you recall he had spent this day Communicating the truth the gospel as we've gone through Luke chapter 20.

We understand that he's presenting the truth of the gospel at the same time He gave three parables Luke records one All three parables indicting the religious establishment of Israel they gathered themselves together because they were in and among the crowd that was following Christ there in the temple court and They rallied themselves to come up with three questions. One was political one was theological and one was spiritual Thinking that if they could trap him they would be able to discredit him The Herodians came after him the Pharisees the Sadducees of scribes.

They all came after him They would all regroup come back with another question and Christ would always answer them in a way that would help them understand how much an error they were and the crowd would listen as he responded and Then when they had no more questions to ask Jesus responds by asking them a question He has one Question to ask in only one remember last week of the ministry of Christ Everything he says is the most important thing to say Because it's the last thing he says So everything he says on the temple courts that day with his men are the things you need to grasp You need to get you need to hold on to because these are the last words that Jesus gives to his disciples to those in the temple court that they would understand the essence of his nature and character and why he came to this earth to begin with So he asked one question life's most important question He takes them back to Psalm 110 verse number one and asked him the question whose son is the Messiah He gets them to understand What they had missed And they responded by saying well the Messiah's son David is is the son of David is is the Messiah.

We understand who that is. It's David's son And yet Christ would take them to Psalm 110 verse number one quote the Psalm to show where David's calls his son Lord in the present tense making his son the Messiah already in existence before he's even born speaking to the eternal nature of the Sun And he completely silences them Because he would use their Old Testament scripture Which is the truth?

to expose their lies and the Bible tells us That in Mark chapter 12 the people enjoyed listening to Jesus They enjoyed listening to him. He had stifled the religious leaders At that point toward the end of the day. They were still anticipating Jesus to set up his kingdom They had hailed him as a son of David. They see him as their Messiah The religious leaders did not see him as that but the people did They anticipated kingdom living they Anticipated the overthrow of Rome. So at the end of Wednesday They are still anticipating the fact that Jesus will set up his kingdom.

He will still rule. That's why they enjoy Listening to all he's going to say but by Friday everything changes and No longer do they see him as their their Messiah and They will yell crucify him crucify But on this day, they still enjoyed listening to him And I forgot to tell you that that the last week in in Mark's account. The same phrase is used of Herod when speaking of John the Baptist The Bible says that that Herod loved to listen to John the Baptist he was perplexed by John John had called him out because of his immorality and John had publicly humiliated Herod His wife wanted John dead But John never backed down He called it just like it is But even Herod was perplexed by John and loved to listen to him The people on this day were still loving Loving to listen to the Lord Jesus Christ And so he is going to address his disciples He is going to address the crowd He's going to talk to them about something that's absolutely essential this is his last message If you're a pastor of a church What's your last message to the church?

What's your last message, what's the thing that you want to have your people understand the most? Is it salvation? Nope Because Jesus doesn't address that issue Is it the power of the resurrection? Nope Jesus doesn't address that issue Is it the second coming of the Messiah?

Nope, doesn't address that issue Jesus Knows the most important topic to address is False prophets And that's what he talks about If you read Matthew's account in Matthew 23, it's a long Dissertation it is powerful it is penetrating it is Disturbing to those who are listening to it Because he calls them out. In fact, this is what Jesus does in his last sermon It's a mess. It's a message of condemnation Toward false leaders and false teachers and false prophets And that's because the nation had been led astray by these scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees and Herodians these people in leadership there in Israel.

They'd all been led astray And so he had to once again Take them back to understand what was happening to them and So he condemns them that would not go over well today It would not go over well today because we live in a day where we we we accept tolerance But we don't accept dogmatism a Number of years ago. There was a there was a trend that would arise on the the evangelical circuit It was called the the emergent church movement It's it's sort of on the downward spin now, but a few years ago it began to rise and and began to gain popular our popularity among among the churches It's sort of a postmodern relativism And it does three things Number one it rejects it rejects Doctrinal certainty it rejects scriptural clarity and it rejects gospel exclusivity The three things about the emergent church movement is that it rejects those three things three things that we hold dear We hold the gospel as exclusive Because there's only one way to heaven and it's through Jesus Christ our Lord We look at scripture as as very clear very concise very pointed They would say it's up for discussion We look at at at doctrine as Something that you are to hold dear and and understand they would say it was up for debate And so the big word in the in the emergent church movement was the word about conversation we need to have a Conversation with the Muslims.

We need to have a conversation with with the Mormons We need to have a conversation with people of a different persuasion Let's look at the things that we agree on and let's talk about those things the things that we don't agree on We won't address those issues, but the things that we agree on let's let's talk about that.

It's all about having a discussion a conversation Condemnation is not a part of that it's sort of like a a Neo-liberalism, it's it's it's the same old liberalism But it's dressed up in a new suit or better yet. It's dressed up in a pair of jeans or better yet It's dressed up in a flowered shirt That's how it's dressed up. It's dressed up just a little differently than the way it used to be but it's the same liberalism that's always attacked the church Jesus would not agree with any of that Because Jesus was extremely dogmatic extremely exclusive He would preach the clarity of Scripture He would talk about the fact that that if you are an error, you're wrong In fact, this isn't the first time he does it if you go back with me to Luke chapter 11 for a moment Go back to Luke 11.

That was a number of years ago. I know but Luke 11. Let me jog your memory It says in verse number 37 now when he had spoken the Pharisee asked him to have lunch with him and he went in and reclined at the table and When the Pharisee saw it, he was surprised that he had not first ceremony ceremonially washed before the meal Now no, he knows That he has violated the Pharisees Ceremonial law he knows that He understands that And he purposely did that He purposely put him at he at not at ease but at odds with him But Jesus never said to him, you know, let's discuss your ceremonies No Jesus said you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and of the platter But the inside of you you are full of robbery and wickedness You foolish ones did not he who made the outside make the inside also?

But give that which is within as charity and then all things are clean for you But woe to you Pharisees For you pay tithe of mint and rue and every kind of garden herb and yet disregard justice and the love of God But these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others Woe to you Pharisees for you love the front seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces Woe to you for you are like concealed tombs and the people who walk over them are unaware of it That was Jesus's lunch dialogue it was one-sided and So it says in verse 45 that one of the lawyers said to him and apply teacher when you say this you insult us, too Jesus you hurt our feelings You shouldn't say stuff so so so harshly You shouldn't say things so dogmatically You should be a little easier on us.

You should be open to open to discussion open for conversation Open to to what we think is right So Jesus responds to him woe to you lawyers as well For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear Well, you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers Woe to you for you build the tombs of the prophets and it was your fathers who killed them Consequently you are witnesses and approved the deeds of your fathers because it was they who killed them and you build their tombs for this reason also the wisdom of God said I will send to them prophets and apostles and some of them they will kill and Some they will persecute in order that the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world may be charged against this Generation for the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar in the house of God Yes, I tell you it shall be charged against this generation Woe to you lawyers for you have taken away the key of knowledge You did not enter in yourselves and those who are entering in you hindered and when he left there The scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question him closely on many subjects plotting against him to catch him in something he might say He wasn't interesting that they they thought well of him He was interested that they know the truth about the hypocrisy of their lives that they were false teachers They had led the people astray And now listen to the next verse verse 12 under these circumstances after so many Thousands of the multitude gathered together that they were stepping on one another You see the people listened and understood what Jesus was doing He was attacking the falsehood of the religious system He was condemning not conversing with the false teachers He came out and spoke against what they believed He wasn't interested in hearing what their side of the story was because he knew their side of the story he just wanted them to understand the real story and so he spoke the truth and then he says He began saying to his disciples first of all beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed and a hidden that will not be known This was a pattern in the ministry of Christ.

Beware. Beware Beware, it's all over the place and the church today needs to be a lot more discerning than it is We need to be awake. We need to realize that there are our false teachers and and false religious systems even within the evangelical name That are leading people astray And we need to be able to speak up and speak out against those things Speaking the truth as Christ himself would speak the truth so Christ comes and and pronounces Condemnation doesn't want a dialogue about doctrine because he knows the truth and Therefore he wants people to know the truth.

This is the way Jesus did it. It was a blistering brutal Condemnation there was no dialogue. It was confrontation. It was Condemnation but not without compassion as we will see because within the framework of his ministry and message There was always compassion as he spoke to people But he wanted him to understand the truth and so that's what he did Three things you need to see number one the danger number one the description and number three the destiny of those Who are dangerous?

first of all the danger And while all the people were listening he said to the disciples Now Matthew adds Pharisees Scribes It's important Because he's going to address his disciples remember no more questions to ask the questions are over Jesus asks the ultimate question They're silent They have no response That's why I love what it says over in in Luke chapter 22 verse number 66 and when it was day the council of elders and the people assembled both chief priests and scribes and they lay they led him away To the council chamber saying if you are the Christ tell us But he said to them if I tell you you will not believe and if I ask a question You will not answer because they can't They can't and so the questions are over By the religious establishment Christ has asked his one question the only one that matters They did not answer in the crowd that enjoyed listening to him He turns to them because in there are his disciples.

He's going to address them So that everybody else can hear He's going to address his disciples so that all can hear the Pharisees and the scribes that are still there still among the crowd They're going to hear exactly what he says, just like they heard what he said when he gave the three parables He knows they're going to listen And so he's going to speak And so therefore he says Beware Here's the caution Be alert beware of the scribes What scribes The scribes were Pharisees not all Pharisees were scribes, but all scribes Were Pharisees they were the treasurers of the law They were the caretakers of the law.

They were the interpreters of the law and The law of God was mixed and mingled with the the oral traditions of man Making them in their mind both the law of God and they would be the ones who interpreted that law And so Christ gives a warning about these lawyers these scribes these ones who are in charge of all that takes place Because they were If you want to sell property had to go through the scribes If you were involved in conflict resolution had to go through the scribes Everything went through the scribes.

They were in charge And he gives a warning Beware of those leaders in charge for they themselves Are not agents of God They're agents of the evil one They're not ones who love God and want to serve God and honor God therefore look out for your best interest They are Against God they are a threat why? Well number one.

They are not godly although they Think they are They presume to be godly They they offer no spiritual wisdom They are agents of Satan sent to fight against the purposes of God and the Lord knows that that's why for three years He has spoken out against the leaven of the Pharisees The evil influence of the religious establishment how it's leading the people away from God That's why over in Matthew 23 Which is the the long version of Luke's account? Christ says woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites Because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from men and you do not enter in yourselves Nor do you allow those who are entering to go in woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites Because you devour widows houses even while for a pretense you make long prayers Therefore you shall receive greater condemnation Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte and when he becomes one you make him twice as much a son of hell as Yourselves.

He calls them blind guttons blind men blind Pharisees Whoa, whoa, whoa cursed cursed cursed. Are you Pharisees? He curses the religious establishment He curses the people who are the highest up in Israel He speaks out against everybody who is a Religionist he speaks out against them. He curses them. He condemns them And so now he says beware beware beware of the scribes Wow, how can we beware them? They're involved in everything we do Every every every transaction and and everything that we want to accomplish in our country.

They're involved in to some degree What do we do about that how how can we get away from that they're always there they are And that's why Christ goes on and describes them by giving this description He calls them hypocrites They do not know God. They they present themselves as ones who who know God, but they don't know God This in all reality is the same thing that the psalmist said way back in Psalm 1 As the psalmist would set the tone for all the Psalms When the psalmist said this how blessed is a man who does not walk in the council of the wicked nor stand in the path of sinners nor sit in the seat of the scoffers scoffers In other words, it begins with the warning the blessed man is the man who doesn't do these things the blessed man is the is the one who doesn't hang around the scoffers and the sinners and stroll with them and and sit with Them and and and walk with them and associate with them.

That's the blessed man His delight is in the law of the Lord and in that law He meditates day and night and because he's in that law. He loves that law He doesn't want to be around those who oppose that law So Christ comes along and says beware of those who are the scoffers who are the sinners? Doesn't say beware of the prostitutes or beware of the of the thieves or or be aware of the tax gatherers the sinners He says beware of the of the religious people That's where your spiritual detriment lies It lies with those who are pretenders those who who mask themselves as as true But a reality they are false They are the most dangerous people Especially when they're in charge of your religious system Beware, he gives the danger and then he gives the description.

He calls him in Matthew 23 hypocrites spiritual phonies They're frauds And then he says Who like to walk around in long robes They love the long robes Now that's based on a numbers chapter 15 verses 38 to 40 where they would have these tassels on their robes And they were designed listen to remind them of the Word of God But what they would do is that they would link them these tassels So as to Pretend to be more devoted and committed to the Word of God Christ in Matthew's account had tassels on the end of his garment but they would they would lengthen their their tassels because they wanted people to to see them as Being more spiritual if they if they would have had a Facebook in those days They would have taken their picture with their with their long robes on hanging on down with the tassels in there and another Pharisee would would push like and say oh you look so so devoted don't you and you'd write that.

Oh, yes Thank you for your comments. That's how they respond They would just love to see how spiritual they were and everybody recognized how spiritual they were That's why they they lengthen their tassels on their robes They wanted everybody to see them as more devoted to God than they were. It was all about pretending They were the pretenders They had no relationship with with the Living God They lengthen their robes their tassels on their robes to bring attention to themselves You see listen Christ always always Speaks against those who bring attention to themselves Always why because Christianity is about what self-denial not self promotion And so Christ always spoke against self-promotion You'll see this in our discussion later on in Luke's gospel about what takes place about how the Disciples were once again arguing about who was the greatest in the kingdom of God.

It was in their minds about self-promotion and Christ had to rebuke him in in that instance as well. He's always got to bring them back. It's about humility It's about self-denial. It's about submission. It's it's about putting yourself aside John the Baptist. He must increase I must decrease He must increase I must decrease but in today's day and age It's all about the increase of me who can see me who can view me who likes me. That's what it's about And Jesus condemns that because they're long tassels would just draw attention and the people would walk down Wow, those are some long that man must really be devoted to the Lord.

Look how long those tassels are Oh be careful. You don't step on it because you're so long You know and they would just do it for pretending purposes and he says this he says and they love the respectful greetings in the marketplaces What respectful greetings are those? Well, if you go back to Matthew 23, he tells us what they are it says verse 5 but they do all their deeds to be noticed by men for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of the garments and They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called by men rabbi But do not be called rabbi for one is your teacher and you all brothers and do not call anyone on earth your father For one is your father he who is in heaven and do not be called leaders for one is your leader That is Christ, but the greatest among you shall be your servant They love to be called leader Teacher excellent one rabbi father Oh Father, they love the respectful greetings in the marketplace They love to have those those those accolades when people would call out to them.

Oh father And Christ says don't let anyone call you father Because that would mean that that person was the source of your spiritual sustenance and None of them are only God in heaven is That source he is your leader.

He is your rabbi. He is your teacher So he condemns everything they did and the things that they wanted people to say about them Now if you're you're you're a scribe and you're sitting there and you have your robe on with these long tassels And you're sitting there in in the in the audience You know and you're trying to get people to not not step on your tassels and you know There they are and then you know, they've already called you rabbi or or teacher or leader And then he says this he says this he says and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at Banquets in in the in the synagogues.

They they had seats up in front And so they would they would walk up of course with their with their long tassels and Like a train behind them and they would walk up in a synagogue and they would take their place their seat of honor In the synagogue, so everyone would see them as quote the teacher It's one reason we don't have seats up here for those of us who speak in the church We sit down the pew Everybody else see I'm not trying to elevate anybody about it above anyone else But they love the elevation.

They love to be recognized and Christ condemns that So these guys are in the audience They're hearing what Jesus is saying and and they know that's exactly what they do and at the banquets They want the chief seats. They want the best of all seats Because it's all about Recognition. It's all about promotion member de atreves in in 3rd. John 9 He seeks the preeminence He seeks the preeminence He wants to be known He wants to be known see Christ condemns those who want to be known Because in all reality he is to be known Through you he is to be seen through you sir.

We wish to see Jesus. It's about seeing Jesus Nothing else no one else But in their minds it was about all about them they were the leaders they were the important people They were the ones who had to be seen so they would Lengthen their tassels to to pretend that they were more devoted to the law of God than anybody else was They respond only to father or rabbi or or leader. You couldn't call them by their name Call them by a significant title then they would respond because that would give them the proper recognition And then they would take their places of honor in the synagogue and at banquets so that when they came in last Everyone would see them when they arrived And then he talks about how they devour widows houses it says Who devour widows houses and for appearance sake offer long prayers?

How would they devour widows houses well if I was a widow and and and I was on my own I would have to go to a scribe to a lawyer to be able to get resolution to my to my property and they would be the caretakers of the property and They would embezzle funds and they would they would cheat these women out of what was rightfully theirs and they would abuse them They would devour the word devour is a word that means to to eat up and to spit out they did Destroyed them They would pray on the week They would go after the week and take their money and take their property and that they would have it for themselves So they could become rich.

It was all about being lovers of money not lovers of God They loved themselves so much They would do anything they could to rid themselves of weak people so that they could become more and more powerful And they would offer long Extended prayers not because they were committing with their father but because they wanted everybody to know how spiritual they were and they would just pray on and on and on and on somehow getting People to believe and to bind the fact that they were more spiritual than anyone else and Christ condemns all that Matthew's account goes in a great length Discussing all that happens and Luke's accounts very brief, but the point is well taken He describes all the things that they do.

That's why they're so dangerous Because nothing is real It's phony it's a fraud it's a fake You want people who are real Who are open humble? true authentic and They were anything but that This is this here is their destiny. These will receive greater Condemnation The greatest condemnation is reserved for those who are pretenders The greatest condemnation is reserved for those who are the most moral most religious Those who are the most ostentatious in their presentation of their religion They will receive a greater Condemnation Why?

Because they led people down a path of destruction They led them down the broad road They leave them down the narrow road. They let them down the broad road. The broad road says heaven Remember doesn't say hell it says heaven go this way Anybody can be on this road no matter what you believe you can all be in heaven together and it leads them down the broad road of destruction and Therefore their condemnation will be greater because they would have trampled under the blood of Christ and They would have made a mockery of the death of Christ a greater condemnation But in amidst all that condemnation, I want you to notice something go back with me to Matthew 23 for a second After Christ condemns him Look at verse 37 of Matthew 23 Oh Jerusalem Jerusalem Who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her?

How often I wanted to gather your children together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and You were unwilling Behold your house is being left to you desolate For I say to you from now on you shall not see me until you say blessed is he Who comes in the name of the Lord? See the compassion of our Lord He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked He does not He he needs to condemn them With the dialogue that is that is pointed To help them understand the error of their way But it's not without the compassion of our God who laments over them in the city itself for The direction they're going away from God not toward God I Say all that to go to conclude with this You know we live in a day and age We're more than ever before We need to stand strong on the truth I'm convinced in my own mind If you're not a contender for the truth you're a pretender of the truth If you're not a contender for the truth you are a pretender of the truth When Jude wrote you need to contend earnestly for the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints as A believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

There should be a deep-seated passion for the truth To live the truth to speak the truth show the truth to communicate that truth and if we're going to be contenders and let me direct this to our to our fathers today because We need to be men who teach our children.

We need to be contenders of the faith. We need to contend faithfully faithfully day in day out who can find a faithful man Need to be the kind of guys who are faithful in contending for the truth And not only do we contend faithfully we contend Fervently fervently There's a passion about our contending for the truth that the battle today is for the truth that is our battle and we need to see ourselves not just as as ambassadors Representing the kingdom but soldiers fighting for the truth that explains the kingdom We are soldiers for the Lord Jesus Christ engaged in conflict and That conflict is over the truth and Satan is looking for us to discard the truth to doubt the truth To discredit the truth to misrepresent the truth and we have to be the ones who contend for the truth We have to do it faithfully.

We have to do it fervently. We have to do it factually factually That is we are to do it in such a way that we are to as as Secondly 215 says we need to show ourselves an approved workman Study show yourself an approved workman.

Who's not ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth Rodney dividing that word making sure that people understand it. So we give it to them factually and Because it is so fervent It is such a passion for our lives people realize that we will live and die for this truth If we're to be contenders for that faith and Christ was a contender faithfully he was a contender Fervently he was a contender Factually we are to be a contender fully that is everything every aspect of this book all 66 books The whole thing not just certain aspects we contend for and the other part we just say kind of lay aside That's that that's just not that important.

Listen, if it's the doctrine of Christ It's about about what the the truth of the Word of God is we need to contend for it fully And not only that We need to contend for it Fearlessly Fearlessly that as we fear no man, we fear no man whether wherever you work Always contend for the truth fearlessly never be afraid to lose your job Never allow your job to take precedence over your integrity and your character God will honor those who honor him When it comes time to contend for the truth do it fearlessly on the flip side of that do it fearfully Fearfully in the fear of God you do it in the fear of God only You fear him you shake uncontrollably under the authority of his word.

Isaiah 66 verse number two You understand that it's the God of heaven. You serve the God of heaven you honor So you do it you live in the fear of God all day long as the book of proverbs says Isaiah as isaiah 8 13 says it's the Lord God who is holy. He should be your fear. He shall be your dread So you do it fearfully You do it fearlessly Because you do it fully and factually You do it fervently You do it faithfully That's six, right You should always do it forbearingly with great patience Paul said preach the word in season and out of season Right and you're in a struck with great patience.

Why? Because they're not always going to get it first time around And Jesus would forbear All the time Always saying the same thing getting it out there getting it out there because he knew He knew he had to keep giving it to them Keep giving it to them and even at the very end, even though they would not listen Even though we they refused to hear what he said.

He knew that he had a responsibility To impart the truth And that's what he did And with that forbearance comes Comes compassion comes sensitivity Comes the desire to make sure people know the truth And that's the way we should be because we live in a world where there are so many Antichrists, oh, there's going to come a day where there is going to be one main antichrist But there is an are many antichrists in the world today people that are against the christ And just because they're a part of a church that doesn't mean much anymore What means much is that they are part of the true church of god How do you know they're they're a part of the true church?

They believe in what the word of god says concerning the way of salvation They believe what the word god says about the identity of the king and the messiah of israel who he is And first john gives us the tests on those kind of things So as I close as fathers May it be a contender for the truth That's the kind of men we need Men who do not back down from the truth of god's holy word Who speak forth that truth with great tenacity?

because They live for that truth The word of god is called the word of truth God is called the god of truth Spirit is called the spirit of truth and christ is the truth. It's all about The truth Jesus presented the truth His last sermon Was one of condemnation not without compassion But one of condemnation against people who would lead others astray May we take note And learn our lesson well, let's pray father We thank you for today the chance we have to be in your word and study it together May we be the kind of people that adhere to the truth of god's holy word living for the glory Of your kingdom we pray in jesus name amen