Scoffing at the Truth, Part 3

And if you have your Bible turn with me to Luke chapter 16 Luke chapter 16 verses 14 to 18 tell us why people scoff at the truth of God's Holy Word Let me read to you the passage we're studying because we're going to conclude it today Luke 16 verse number 14 now the Pharisees who were lovers of money were listening to all these things and They were scoffing at him He said to them you are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men But God knows your hearts For that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God the law and the prophets were proclaimed until John since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached and Everyone is forcing his way into it But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and he who marries one who was divorced from a husband commits adultery At first glance.

It's an assortment of thoughts that Christ somehow just spews out of his mouth Leaving to us the the the wonderful opportunity of trying to put them all together But in all reality they there is a certain flow that that the Lord has in mind as he speaks the truths from his word He is speaking it because the Pharisees were scoffers of our Lord. They mocked him They derided him they looked at him as if What he had to say meant nothing And we tend to think that that's the way the Pharisees were but we don't necessarily do that But whenever you listen to God and don't submit to God You scoff at God and There are many people in the church today who who come to church to listen, but they don't submit to what God says and When they don't submit to what he says they in essence are saying that we know you are Truth and we know that you speak the truth, but we don't have to submit to the truth and in essence they scoff at all that God says and And the Pharisees were the were the highest Scoffers because they didn't believe that what Jesus said was true They didn't believe that he was the God of truth and Yet there is so much blessing in listening and Submitting On Wednesday night.

We talked about the book of Proverbs the eighth chapter verse 32 When God said now listen those sons listen to me For blessed are they who keep my ways? Heed instruction to be wise and do not neglect it Blessed is the man who listens to me watching daily at my gates waiting at my doorposts For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the Lord The Pharisees did not find favor from the Lord They weren't watching daily at the gates of God waiting to hear what he had to say and Therefore they forfeited the blessing of God How many people will be in church today and forfeit the blessing of God because they will not heed What they hear The Bible goes on to say in the 16th chapter of Proverbs these words Verse number 20 he who gives attention to the word shall find Good That that's just such a great verse He who gives attention to the word He who listens and pays attention to what he hears and obeys what he hears is Going to be the one who finds good it goes on to say and blessed is he who trusts in the Lord it says in The book of Proverbs The 28th chapter the 9th verse He who turns away his ear from listening to the law even his prayer is an abomination Can you imagine Hearing the law of God and turning your ear from it and saying, you know, I just not gonna do that The Bible says that even your prayer is an abomination to God And you see the Pharisees that they they were the ones who thought their prayers honored God That's why they prayed so publicly so loudly so everybody could hear what they had to say they wanted the approval of man and Yet their prayer life was an abomination to God because they had turned their ear away from listening to the law of God So Christ would come and he would speak to them.

He would rebuke them for their unwillingness to submit For their scoffing at the truth and they would they would stiffen their neck and they they would harden their heart and they would become more Rebellious over time and the book of Proverbs speaks to that as well. You think that they would know this I mean, it's all Old Testament stuff You think that they would be well-versed in what the Bible says But you'll notice that most Jews are not well-versed in what the Bible says.

They're well-versed in what the rabbi says But they're not well-versed in what the Bible says. There's a big difference there Yet they pride themselves on their biblical understanding and biblical knowledge but in reality The Bible would say in Proverbs 29 verse number one a man who hardens his neck after much reproof Will suddenly be broken beyond a remedy Broken beyond remedy They'll be irreparable They can't be fixed because they have stiffened their neck toward the truth of God's Holy Word And we told you before that that is the history of the nation of Israel The Bible says it very clearly in in 2nd Chronicles 36 Which is the the last book in the Hebrew Bible When it says these words in verse 11 Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and he reigned 11 years in Jerusalem And he did evil in the sight of the Lord his God He did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet who spoke for the Lord In other words, Jeremiah would come and speak for the Lord But Zedekiah said you know what?

I don't have to pay attention to that. I don't care about that And he also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God but he stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel Furthermore all the officials of the priests and the people were very unfaithful Following all the abominations of the nations and they defiled the house of the Lord which he had sanctified in Jerusalem in other words Israel would rather follow culture Than the truth of God's Holy Word They would rather do what society tells them instead of what Scripture says That was the history of Israel and is today Verse 15 and the Lord the God of their father sent word to them again and again by messengers his messengers Because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place but They continually mocked the messengers of God despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against his people until fulfillment of Proverbs 29 1 there was no remedy That's sad That was Israel you would think that the Pharisees Would know the history of their nation You would think they would understand the book of Proverbs The blessing and listening to the Lord we see they did not believe that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh They didn't believe that Jesus was their Messiah.

They believed that Jesus was from Satan Because he would eat with sinners and he would eat with tax gatherers and they were too holy to do things like that But Jesus he would associate with the riffraff of society. He had to be from below and not from above So when he would open his mouth and speak they would scoff at him they would mock him and they would cause the nation of Israel to follow their leadership and to scoff and to mock the words of Christ So Christ takes this opportunity as The Pharisees once again mock his words To tell us the characteristics of those who scoff at the truth.

We've listed them for you We've given you six of them. We'll give you the seventh this morning and then conclude them for you Let me review them for you Just in case you were on vacation you were sick or you just decided to be carnal one Sunday not show up I don't know but here's the deal.

It says very clearly now the Pharisees who were lovers of money We're listening to all these things they were preoccupied principle number one with the material in the temporal they loved money the false teachers loved money and They were so preoccupied with that which really doesn't make any difference at all But that's what motivated them the material and the temporal Peter would tell us this and in 2nd Peter chapter 2 Verse number 2 about false teachers many will follow their sexuality and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned and In their greed, they will exploit you with false words in their greed They they do it because it's gonna benefit them and then he goes on to say in verse number 14 These false teachers have eyes full of adultery that never ceased from sin enticing unstable souls Having a heart trained in greed in other words Their heart is trained to get more to gain more because it's so greedy There are cursed children verse 15 forsaking the right way They have gone astray having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor who loved the wages of unrighteousness These Pharisees were preoccupied with the material and the temporal And then Christ said not only are they lovers of money these people who are listening to them They were scoffing at him they profaned the eternal the biblical and the scriptural They profaned the words of God They scoffed him Christ has said, you know, you can't be a lover of money and a lover of God You can only do one you can't serve two masters and they mocked at that sure you can we love God we love money you can do both of those things and they mocked the words of Jesus and Jesus said very simply you must love that which is truth and they did not So they are preoccupied with the temporal the material they profane that which was biblical and eternal Scriptural and then number three they pretended to be spiritual through ritual and the ceremonial The Bible says these words You are those Who justify yourselves?

They made themselves in their mind right or righteous By all of their works by all of their rituals by all of their ceremonies and so they would use those Rituals their loud prayers their their phylacteries and and the long tassels and all the things that they did and going through all the the the the emotions that they go through to prove to others that they were righteous and That somehow God would approve of their self Justification that somehow it would gain approval with God and God says no you justify yourselves you Everything is by your own achievement but people in my kingdom arrived because of Divine accomplishment and it's all about you and the people of my kingdom see it's all about me And therefore they pursue Man's approval.

He says they justify themselves in the sight of God You see they pursued man's approval this was a motivation for them they had to be accepted by others They had to be approved by others. They had to be affirmed by others. They had to have the applause of others They had to have public recognition for all of their Self-justification it made them feel good inside it made them feel good about what they did Look how many people follow us look how many people call us rabbi Teacher they love the places of honor.

They love the accolades They love the the titles that people give them they love to be called father and teacher and rabbi They just wanted to be approved by man. That was their pursuit That's the characteristic of those who scoff at the truth those who are false teachers And then number five they portray the the hypocritical and the superficial which is really evil Christ says You justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts For that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God Or they portrayed everything that was Superficial it wasn't real at the heart.

It was evil and Christ says what you do is detestable before me You know would it be that we would understand that everything that we try to do to earn God's favor is detestable Before him he detests it it smells.

It's a stench in the nostrils of God Because our unholiness can't gain the approval of the one who is holy We must call out to him cry out to him beg for his mercy and he who is merciful Bestows that mercy upon us and then they pervert the gospel They pervert the gospel The law and the prophets were proclaimed until John since then the gospel of the kingdom of God is preached and in other words Everything that was promised in the Old Testament, and it wasn't called the Old Testament because there was only one Testament It was the Old Testament.

It was the law and the prophets There was no quote New Testament So everything in the law and the prophets pointed to the promise of the arrival of the Messiah and that was all preached until John because John was that bridge between the the old and the new and John was the one who was the last Old Testament prophet But also the first New Testament prophet because he preached the kingdom of God He preached the fulfillment of all the promises that had been given in the Old Testament and so up till that point the law and the prophets had been preached the promise about the arrival of the Messiah had been Clearly preached by the prophets of old now John the Baptist that last Old Testament Prophet has now become the bridge between that which is old and that which is new It says now the gospel of the kingdom is preached because the Messiah is the king The king is here and the king is offering his kingdom So they missed all that It's so surprising that that people who pride themselves on biblical knowledge were just plain ignorant about the Old Testament and Everything that was portrayed and just let me give you an example of those things that were portrayed We've given them to you before but I think they're always good for review because way back in Genesis 3 15 There was a promised seed and we know that the book of Galatians tells us that that seed was the Messiah We know from Genesis 22 that there was a promised substitute someone who would die in the place of the people and We know from what the Bible says in 2nd with these 521 that Christ was that substitute We know for Genesis chapter 28 that there was a staircase in Jacob's dream that would help him understand the only way to heaven and from John chapter 1 verse number 51 We know that Jesus is that staircase the Messiah was that staircase?

We know from Genesis 49 verse number 10 that the scepter will not depart from Judah until Shiloh comes Shiloh meaning the one to whom it belongs and so we know from the book of Revelation that Shiloh is that promised Messiah Jesus Christ our Lord We know that the Bible says in numbers 24 verses 17 and 19 that there would come a star That would be the Messiah and every Jew knew That's why there's a star on the flag of Israel Symbolizing the arrival of the Messiah who would be a son of David and that this star would come and be the Messiah And we know from Revelation 22 verse number 16 that Christ is that bright and morning star?

We know from Deuteronomy 18 verses 15 to 18 that there was a promise seer a promised prophet that would come who is greater than Moses and we know through the Gospels that the Bible tells us in John 1 45 that Jesus is that great seer that great prophet We know from Psalm 89 that there was a promise coming to the son of David Who would be the Messiah who would sit on the throne of his father in Matthew chapter 1? We know that Jesus is the son of David We know them Psalm 118 verse number 22 that the Messiah would be the stone that the builders rejected Peter tells us that Christ is that stone the builders rejected We know from Isaiah chapter 4 and Isaiah chapter 11 that there would be a sprout or shoot that would stem From the branch of from the root of Jesse who would be the Messiah We know again from the book of Revelation that Jesus Christ is that branch that shoot that would come from the stem of?

Jesse we know from Isaiah 41 verse number 14 that the promised Messiah was called the Savior of the people We also know the Bible says in Matthew 1 21 that Jesus is that Savior we know from Isaiah 40 verse number 17 He's called the separated one the Holy One the sanctified one We know from book of Acts chapter 3 verse number 14 that Jesus is that sanctified separated Holy One?

We know from Isaiah 49 he in Isaiah 52 and Isaiah 53 that he would be the suffering Servant that would come we also know that Philippians 2 tells us that he was that suffering servant of the Lord Isaiah 53 says that he would be a sinless Savior in first Peter 1 verse number 18 Christ fulfills that prophecy by being that sinless spotted lamb and Ezekiel 34 Zechariah 13 Psalm 23 the Messiah was called the Shepherd of Israel We know that John 10 Christ says that he is that good Shepherd in Deuter and Daniel 2 verse number 44.

We know the Messiah is called the sovereign King We know that he's sovereign by Luke 1 verses 32 to 35 and Revelation 17 verse number 14 in Daniel 7 verse number 13 he's called the Son of Man all throughout the Gospels the title Christ gave for himself was the Son of Man in Malachi 4 verse number 2. He's called the Son of Righteousness They asked you in the Son of Righteousness who arise with healing in his wings Zacharias prophecy in Luke 1 tells us that Jesus the Messiah is that Son of Righteousness and Isaiah chapter 9 verse number 6.

He is called El Gabor the Son of God and Jesus is that Son of God That's just a sample of what the Old Testament taught we can read it and see very clearly that Jesus fulfilled fulfills all of that There there's no doubt in our mind that Jesus is that promised seed that promised Shiloh that promised Savior that promised sinless one Separated one sanctified one son of David son of righteousness. He is that one? That's who he is no doubt about it but they missed all that and everything in the Old Testament prophesied and Promised that this is what the Messiah would be Jesus comes and says I Am that Messiah John the Baptist that bridge would bridge the gap between that which is old and new and say the king is here He's offering his kingdom and they would not accept it And so Jesus said these words he said and everyone is Forcing his way into That kingdom Wow How is it people and so we left off two weeks ago Could be forcing their way into that kingdom.

I Thought it was really easy to get saved. Really you thought that who told you that? Well, you just got to believe in Jesus You got to believe that that that Jesus died for your sins. You just got to give your life to Jesus. It's so easy. Really Jesus says that people are forcing their way into the kingdom Why would you have to force your way into a kingdom?

That's freely offered Because To get into the kingdom. We've already seen it Luke 9 23. You must deny yourself Take up your cross and follow me Luke 14 You must hate your father hate your mother hate your brother. Hate your sister. Hate. Yeah, even your own life Oh, you cannot be my disciple. You must be willing to give up all your possessions Luke 14 33 Oh, you cannot be my disciple You see when you go into the kingdom of God you are saying I am done with me I'm done with my aspirations my ambitions my dreams my desires and God I am yours to do whatever you want to do with I'm yours and People are forcing their way in because you know, God never saves anybody without human volition God is sovereign He rules over all But man chooses to follow God and that choice is a very difficult choice Because he realizes he must give everything up for the master of the world and follow him without any reservation and that's why Christ says in Luke 13 that you must strive to enter strive to enter Agonized to get into the kingdom of God why because many will get to the gate Realize the cost and not get in Because they don't want to pay the price to follow Christ and there was a great price to pay and Christ says that there are many who are forcing their way in there are many who want to be a part of this kingdom There are many who want to renounce themselves who want to repent of their sin They want to give their lives to the king of that kingdom, but you Pharisees you don't want to do that You want to hold on to your money?

You want to hold on to your lifestyle? You want to hold on to the way you live your lives and you don't want to renounce what it is You hold on to so dearly to give it all up for the sake of the kingdom. You don't do that Therefore you're not gonna get in Because you're on when to submit to everything that I say you see one of the things about Christianity is that it's it's a it's it's a life that's characterized by self-denial It's a life that's characterized by submission It's like that's characterized by surrender It's a life that's that's characterized by a willingness to do whatever God says no matter what it costs me Because I love him so they listen and submit versus listening and scoffing and the Pharisees scoffed at the truth Because they perverted the gospel They made the gospel something you earned They made the gospel a set of rules and regulations that allowed them to be accepted by God They brought God down to their level God lifts his character above the people.

He is a holy God He demands a holy people. We can't be what he wants us to be. So we beg for mercy We throw ourselves on him and he in his marvelous grace saves us and makes us what he wants us to be But the Pharisees believed that they could earn their way to God that they could they could gain God's approval and they would pervert everything that the gospel said in order to appease man The gospel is being perverted all throughout evangelicalism today in America and around the world Telling people one thing in reality not giving them the gospel in all of its purity and holiness So people face the demands of the gospel and they face the requirements that God himself gives and they realize that what God Requires they can't do and they must beg for mercy and forgiveness and God grants it He grants it to them But the Pharisees they're just not there.

That's not what they're gonna do. They're too arrogant. They're too prideful. They're too self-sufficient That they love the approval of man, they love the the applause of man, they love their money They love what their religion did for them. It was gaining them approval. It was gaining them What they thought was entrance into glory. That's why when you get that whole thing about rich man the rich man in hell They don't get that Because riches was a blessing from God and if God blessed you you were rich if you were rich you were going to heaven And Jesus says the rich man's in hell the poor guy's in heaven.

He's in Abraham's bosom And they didn't get that they didn't get it they didn't want to get it Because that would mean when Christ says if any man come after me is I'm going to sell all that he has He cannot be my disciple They weren't about to do that And lastly number seven and we have a few minutes left.

See I knew we'd finish today God is so good, isn't he? Number seven they Perpetuated listen the sinful and disguised it as truthful They perpetuated the sinful and Disguised it as truthful They wanted you to believe That what they taught you was true When in reality it just gave them an opportunity to sin all the more Listen to what Jesus says But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away Then for one stroke of a letter of the law to fail now see they said that Jesus broke the law and Jesus came to fulfill the law Remember everything that the Old Testament pointed to he was the fulfillment of And so he embodied the law In fact in Matthew chapter 5 he said I didn't come to abolish the law.

I came to fulfill the law everything that was pictured in the Old Testament everything that was a Foreshadowing of things to come is now in reality Before you it's truth incarnate. It's all right here He fulfilled the Old Testament law And he came and lived in accordance with that law and So Jesus is affirming the fact that he believes in every aspect of the law. In fact, it's easier for the whole universe to go out of existence then for one stroke of a letter to fail He affirms verbal inspiration.

He affirms the validity of the law of God Now we know that the heaven and earth are going to pass away You can read about that in second Peter 3 verse number 10.

You can read about in the book of Revelation We know that because the prophets of old talked about the disintegration of this present world and universe. We know that But what he's trying to do is trying to show you the magnitude of something that for all practical purposes is not going to happen until God ordains it To that which is so small, but so significant one stroke of a pen He What he does is he he validates Everything that the law says because they would say well this man look at him He performs miracles on the Sabbath.

He breaks the law. He said I didn't break the law I fulfilled the law because mercy is the higher part of the law He would go back to the Old Testament to quote all those verses that deal with the mercy being shown to people on the Sabbath day We see they would redefine the law, okay, and they would perpetuate the sinful but they would disguise it as truthful So they would make all these laws about the Sabbath. They say you can't do this and you can't go here and you can't be this because that is true in their minds But in our reality all it did would perpetuate that which was sinful and that's why Christ gives the illustration he gives he says Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery and he who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery Why does he say that?

Because this was the law they violated the most See the Pharisees they would marry divorce remarry divorce remarry divorce because they would misinterpret the Mosaic law Deuteronomy 24 verses 1 to 4 to prove that you can divorce your wife for any cause And rabbi Hillel who was a chief rabbi during the time of the Pharisees They they believed that what rabbi Hillel taught them was the truth Because it was convenient for them And so they believe that you can divorce your wife for any cause and any cause would mean if she burned a meal you can Divorce her if she went outside in the streets and she twirled around you saw her knees.

She's indecent you can divorce her And they would come up with all these different reasons Because Deuteronomy 24 says that you could divorce your wife for some kind of indecency and they made that stick for them And so what that meant for them is that they could marry somebody have her for a while no longer approve of her write her a bill of divorcement and marry somebody else But the law of Deuteronomy 24 says that if you do that and she goes and marries somebody else you have made her an adulterer because you divorced her without biblical grounds and Therefore she marries somebody else.

She becomes an adulterer and the person she marries becomes an adulterer and The whole law of Deuteronomy 24 is an expression that says look the more you divorce the more you proliferate adultery in the nation and God says that's an abomination to me now God in his kindness and his grace Allowed divorce for certain causes right and that particular cause was immorality unrepentant immorality Matthew 5 Matthew 19 Because the penalty for immorality was what?

death Old Testament law said if you are caught with another woman or another man, okay And you're married death. That was the law so God in his grace allowed Death not to occur but allowed divorce to take place and That's why Christ would have reiterated in Matthew 5 and Matthew chapter 19 But you see in the mind of the Pharisees they lived their lives Perpetuating sinful acts Disguising it as Truthful acts They said, you know, you can divorce your wife for any cause that's what the Bible tells and you know what we can do that So we did we divorce this one.

We married that one got tired of her. She committed some kind of indecency We divorced her we married somebody else and they just did that because they were in reality adulterers That's why Christ said in Matthew 5 you have heard that it was said by the ages of old But I'm telling you this is what the truth is because the ages of old the rabbis of old had given them a way around the law of God that they could perpetuate their sinful acts And disguise them as truthful acts and convince the people that they were right and Christ doesn't know you're wrong You're dead wrong You cannot do that because the law of God is clear and you have misinterpreted and Misappropriated the law of God and therefore you have violated everything that God intended But they disguised it as being truthful This is so important Because there are people today who this is the battle of the church The battle that you and I face is a battle for truth every single day That is the greatest battle you ever face is the battle for the truth And that's why God is called the God of truth Jesus is called John 14 6 the truth Holy Spirit John 14 is called the Holy Spirit of truth, right?

God's Word is called the Word of Truth John 17 17 We know that Johnny 32 says once you know the truth the truth will set you free We know that first 73 says that the church is a pillar and foundation of the truth Everything is about the truth and there's a great war today on the truth And the greatest battle we face in our family and in our church The place where the most intimate relationships take place is the battle for the truth that is the ultimate battle and That's why Jesus warned about false teaching That's why Paul said in Acts 20 to the Ephesian elders.

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in from within and lead many astray Savage wolves will rise up from within the congregation there in Ephesus and lead people astray Don't think for one moment that Jesus isn't in I mean that Satan isn't in the church of Jesus Christ He is and he's trying to distract people away from the truth. He's trying to distort the truth he's gonna do all he can to discredit the truth get you to doubt the truth and to denounce the truth and Our battle is for the truth We must stand squarely and firmly and strongly on the truth of Almighty God That's why we've said on on Wednesday nights the last two weeks that as a as a as a faith-driven father I must defend the truth I'm a defender of the truth and You know who I'm a I'm a defender of the truth against I'm a defender against a pretender I'm a defender against the defector That's the biggest battle you face Because in the church there are many defectors there are many pretenders and Someone has to stand on the truth Peter says in 2nd Peter chapter 1 these words He says false prophets also arose among the people just as there will be also 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 the sensuality because of them the way of the truth will be maligned Peter says they're coming They're coming.

They're coming By the time you get to the book of Jude Jude says they're already here They're here 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 turn the grace of our God into Licentiousness and deny our only master and Lord Jesus Christ He says we're all ready Here they've crept in unnoticed And you know how you know them they deny Christ as master and Christ as Lord They're the ones who say, you know, you can be saved But not take Jesus as Lord and master.

Those are false teachers They've crept in unnoticed You can just got to believe in Jesus. He's your Savior. You're okay You can submit to him sometime down the road when things are a little bit better off for you when things can Be a little bit more sound for you Then you can you could submit to Jesus as master and Lord and what they do is they give destructive heresies Such as licentiousness that is living a life with no law They've made grace a disgrace Saying you can live any way you want. Jesus has forgiven you of your sins.

It's okay. Don't worry about it It's all covered under the blood. It's the grace of Jesus But there's no requirement to submit to his lordship to see if his master and king and They crept in unnoticed and the churches are full of these kind of people today And so we find ourselves in a battle to contend For the faith that was once for all delivered to the Saints folks. We're in a war We need to contend fervently passionately We need to contend faithfully never giving up we need to contend fully Factually that is Contending with the truth having the facts in order knowing what Christ has said how we have said it We need to be workmen who are approved by God not ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth We need to contend fearlessly and Fearfully Fearlessly because we fear no man, but fearfully because we fear only God who can kill body and soul in hell and That's the way we should be Jesus confronts the Pharisees Who scoff at the truth?

Who make fun of all that he says and he's the God of truth and so we confronts them He confronts them factually Fully fervently faithfully fearlessly He also is the one who confronts them forbearingly because he does it with great patience great patience our Lord has with these men as He walks him through all of their heresy as he walks him through all of their hypocrisy He says Luke 12 verse 1 beware of the leaven of the Pharisees Beware of the evil influence of those people who come in and take you away from the truth of God's Holy Word folks This is our biggest war.

It's the war on truth and We must be committed to the truth standing strong in the truth not wavering in the truth in our families That's our biggest battle What does God's Word say and how do I govern my family by the facts of God's Holy Word and say thus? Say it the Lord thus we do Because you want to honor the Lord Church is the same way thus saith the Lord thus we do we follow what God's Word says Folks there are many people who scoff at the truth We've given you seven characteristics of how it is and why it is they scoff at the truth We need to be the kind of church that submits to the truth Without question that we might honor our God and follow him faithfully.

Let's pray father We thank you for your word the truth of it the opportunity you've given to us to study your word We are truly a blessed people to be a part of your word in your kingdom To be able to examine your word daily And I pray that anybody here today who doesn't know you as Lord and Savior that today would be the day of their salvation They would give their life to Christ and follow you with all of their heart because they are committed to serving the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Thus we pray in Jesus name.

Amen