Tackling Ten Timeless Truths, Part 6

You've got your Bible, Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13, and I'm gonna preach this sermon differently than I preached the first service.

In fact, not totally different, but completely different almost, okay? So I'm gonna begin this way. As you turn to Hebrews chapter 13, we're gonna look at verse number nine today.

I'm gonna begin this way. Years ago, when our church first started, we had a man in our church who was a dear friend of mine who was involved in our recording ministry.

And from day one, when we met in a park, we began recording all of our sermons because when the church began, we wanted to be on the radio and the Lord had opened the opportunity for us to be on the radio just one hour a day. And that was at four o'clock in the morning. But that's all we got, but we took it. And so we had to record everything that we preached. And of course, he was there to record it on that Sunday we first started in 1994.

And of course, Don Davis, who still works in our sound ministry is with us today. Still here after 28 years. Wow, Don, what a commitment, you're a great man. But he worked with Don. And so we went from the park to a school. And we were at a school for about a year. And then we moved to a church in Glendora. Church is no longer there. They sold the church and built houses there. That's unfortunate, but we went there and this man still was involved in our recording. The unfortunate thing about it is so many times because we use different equipment at different times, sometimes the recording didn't take.

So I had to come back on Monday and re-preach Sunday sermon, or come back on Thursday and re-preach Wednesday night sermon, okay? That happened quite a few times, probably 13 or 14 times, less than 20, but more than 10. And of course, this man would come and he lived close to the church. He would come in and record the message and he'd hear the message again. And after a period of time, we came to realize that this man had begun to adopt a different belief than the church. Now remember, he went through our membership class.

He was a member. He had signed our doctrinal statement and all that kind of stuff. But word got back to me that he was beginning to learn and believe something different about the Christ. And so we came to realize that he no longer believed in the deity of Christ, that Christ was God in the flesh. So I sat him down and began to talk with him about these things. And as we sat down, we talked about them and I said, who are you listening to? Who are you talking to? Well, he was taking Jehovah's Witnesses and bringing them into his house and talking with them about what it is they believed.

He did this on a regular basis. And the more he did it, the more he realized he didn't believe that Jesus was God in the flesh. And so as I was talking to him in my office one day and going through scripture with him, I said, you proved to me that Jesus isn't God. Go ahead, try it. So we tried. I kept saying, wrong verse, can't do that. Wrong again, wrong again. And so I began to explain to him the deity of Christ and how the Bible so eloquently and so clearly presents that Jesus is God in the flesh, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, from Genesis to Revelation.

We spent hours talking about the deity of Christ. And he just would not believe. So I said to him, listen, I'm just gonna give you one more verse, and that's John 8, 24. Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Unless you believe that Jesus is the God who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, and that's in chapter three, you will die in your sins. That's all I have for you. Because if you don't repent from what you believe about Jesus Christ, you will spend eternity in hell. He said, okay.

He left my office, and less than a year later, he was dead. He never turned his life around. But he got caught up listening to the wrong kinds of people. Did he lose his salvation? No, he didn't lose his salvation. He never truly was born again to believe with, to begin with. And that's why he was so easily duped and led astray. 2 Corinthians 4 tells us that Satan blinds our minds so that we don't believe in the deity of Christ, that we won't believe that Jesus is actually God in the flesh. Because once you believe that Jesus is God, okay, you can begin to understand that the work on the cross was sufficient for your saving grace.

And so it's unfortunate that that took place. But over the years, as elders, we've had to deal with people in the church who have listened to others outside the church that have led them astray. We've even had to discipline elders in our church who began to believe different things other than what the Bible actually taught about the identity and the ministry of Christ himself. And that was unfortunate and is unfortunate. But we are supremely concerned about what people believe about the gospel, what they believe about Christ.

And so we want to keep our ear close to the ground to hear what's being taught in Sunday school classes, what's being taught at home Bible studies, what's being taught with our young people, our college students, because we want to know that truth is being taught. Why is that so important? Because in Hebrews chapter 13, verse number nine, the writer of Hebrews gives us the sixth principle, the sixth timeless truth that we need to tackle as well as to treasure. And that is in verse number nine, which reads this way, do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who are so occupied were not benefited.

The sixth truth is that you need to refuse to listen to wrong teaching. Refuse to listen to wrong teaching. The writer of Hebrews is writing to Hebrew people. They're Jews, right? Jews are big on dietary laws. They're big on ceremonial laws. They're big on rituals, okay? So much so that they were external trappings that they believed would draw them closer to God. They didn't, but that's what they believed. So the writer of Hebrews is going to say to them, listen, I know what you believed before you gave your life to Christ.

Don't go back in that direction. Don't listen to those various kinds of teachings and strange teachings that will take you back to a place that will not be a benefit to you spiritually, but you need to be enriched and nourished by the words of God's grace. Very important statement, because the church today in America is being tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. And that's unfortunate. Preachers are mainly at fault for that. And I'm a preacher, so I can say that, because we sometimes don't do what we've been called to do, to preach the word in season and out of season.

But more about that in a moment. It's imperative that we understand that to pick up on varied kinds of teachings is dangerous. I mean, most churches are filled with babes. Babes. You know, when you get your grandkids or your kids together and they're really small, all right, and they're crawling on the ground, right? When they come across an object, they get it, they pick it up, and the first thing they do is put it where?

In their mouth. No matter what it is, no matter where it is, no matter where it's been, they're gonna pick it up and put it in their mouth. That's the way most Christians are in the church. They're crawling around, listening to all kinds of teaching and trying to put it in their mouth, thinking that it's going to help them, but in reality, it's going to hurt them, because it's not sound doctrine. It's not the truth of the word of the living God. So the writer of Hebrews says, listen, I know about your rituals and your ceremonies and your dietary laws.

Put those things aside. Never put aside the moral law, right? Because the moral law is the eternal word of God that sustains forever, but the ceremonial laws or ritualistic laws, those dietary laws that you're engaged in are not gonna help you in your walk with the Lord. They're only gonna drag you down. So he says, don't be carried away. Don't be removed, removed by them. Don't be caught in a trap, because if you are, it's not going to benefit you, because it hasn't benefited anyone else ever. And yet so many times the church finds itself trying to feed off of things that do not benefit them.

So the writer of Hebrews says, refuse to listen to wrong teaching. Now the writer of Hebrews did not have to battle social media, right? That was not a thing back in those days. Today, you can listen to anybody, anywhere, at any time, right? Everybody's got a podcast. Everybody's got a YouTube channel. Everybody's got this going on. So all you gotta do is tune in and listen, but you gotta make sure you listen to the right people. So many times people say, wow, you know, he was just so good. He always talked about Jesus.

Well, if he talks about Buddha and Mohammed, you're not going to listen to him. So certainly he's going to talk about Jesus, because if he listens, if he talks about Buddha, you're not going to listen to him. If he talks about Mohammed, you're going to tune him out. But he said it so enthusiastically. He said it with such conviction. Yeah, but did he say what was true, what was right, what was pure? What was holy? There are a lot of charlatans out there, a lot of people out there that don't teach the truth.

And the unfortunate thing is that there are many Christians who fall prey to that kind of teaching. Satan loves to destroy your testimony. Satan wants to divide the church. Satan wants to destroy the people in the church. You know, so many times we think that when we leave here, we're going to go out and fight Satan. No, no, no. Satan's here. He's in the church. You think he's out there someplace? Well, yeah. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. Listen, that has nothing to do with Satan.

That's just you. Be careful about your lust for the flesh, your pride of life, right? Your lust of the eyes. No, we can fall prey to all kinds of sin, and Satan doesn't even have to tempt us, because we are so prone to falling into sin. But in the church, inside the church is where Satan loves to exist. He loves to be in the church so he can divide the church, sow dissension in the church, get false teachers that arise within the church. Paul says in Acts chapter 20. He is looking to destroy from the inside out.

He wants to destroy from the outside in, but he can't. Right? He couldn't destroy from the outside in. Just look at what COVID did.

COVID did nothing to destroy the church. But yet, if you can work on the inside and get false teachers to arise from the inside, he can destroy the church. All you gotta do is read the book of Revelation, Revelation two and three, and see what Satan did to the church in Ephesus. When Paul said these words to those in Ephesus in Acts chapter 20, he said, verse 28, 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.

So he's challenging the Ephesian elders. You need to shepherd the church of God. You need to protect the church, because Christ shed his blood for the church. He says, verse 29, I know, not I think, or this is a possibility, or this might happen somewhere down the road, so watch out. No, he says, I know. Very emphatic. 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, be on the alert. Remembering that night and day for a period of three years, I did not cease to admonish each one of them, or each one with tears. And now I commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you inheritance among all those who are sanctified. I have one protection, not only one, it's the word of his grace. Nothing else I can do for you. I've been here for three years. I'm on my way out. And when I leave, mark it down, savage wolves will arise from among your own selves.

They don't say savage wolves are gonna come from the outside. They're gonna rise from the inside. So the only thing I can do is commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you inheritance among all those who believe. Because your only protection, your only defense against false teaching is the truth of the word of God. That's it. You need to master it. Paul said to those in Galatia, church at Galatia, oh church, what has happened to you? Who has bewitched you?

Who has come in among you? Who has turned you aside? That has got you to believe another gospel. You had begun in the spirit, but now you're trying to be perfected in the flesh. How is it you began so good and now things are so bad? What happened to you guys? That was the church of Galatia, church of Ephesus. It's not around today because of false teaching came from within and destroyed the church. Paul says in Romans 16, verse 17, the church at Rome, he says, now I urge you brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned and turn away from them.

For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ, but of their own appetites. And by their smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting. Be careful, watch out. People are there. They're gonna cause dissensions among you. They're gonna deceive you and lead you astray. Be very, very careful. And then Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, false prophets are deceitful workers disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. In other words, Satan is a master of deception, a master of disguise. Go all the way back to the book of Genesis, the third chapter.

He deceived Adam and Eve. He told a lie. They believed a lie. Thus sinned into the world. Satan is a master of deception. He always disguises himself as an angel of light. In his emissaries, they disguise themselves as angels of light. They look good on the outside. They smell good on the outside. But on the inside, as Christ would say, they're as rotten as dead man's bones. Remember in Matthew chapter seven, when Christ was ending the Sermon on the Mount, he talked about false teachers, beware of false teachers that are among you, right?

They look like sheep on the outside, but inside they're wolves, savage wolves. And who's he talking about? He's talking about Pharisees, scribes, Sadducees. He's talking about the religious establishment of his day in Jerusalem. These are the guys you gotta watch out for. You don't have to watch out for the homosexual or the adulterer or the drunkard. You know they're sinners. You gotta watch out for those who disguise themselves, who are false teachers, who get you to believe that what they're saying is right.

Church of Colossae, second chapter, verse number eight, Paul says the same thing. John gets in on it, the first John four, verse number one, it says test the spirits.

So John gets in on it as well. Peter, second Peter chapter two, he gets in on the conversation about false teaching.

And Jude, yep, same with Jude, Jude that verse three, beloved I, 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 is once for all handed down to the saints. Why? 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.

Jude says I wanna write to you about our salvation because it's so great. But, but there are certain men that have crept in unnoticed. Men have turned the grace of God into licentiousness who deny our Lord and Savior. That is, they tell you that you can go ahead and sin, it's okay because God's grace will cover that. It's okay, live as you want to live. And yet he says they've crept in unnoticed but they're here. Jesus warned that Matthew and the Gospels, they're coming. Paul warned when I leave they will arise within.

Peter, John, Jude all said they're coming until Jude finally says, guess what? They're already here. They've crept in and you don't even know they're among you. Wow. That's amazing. Think about that. And so the writer of Hebrews says you gotta refuse to listen to wrong teaching. You can't be listening to those who because of their dietary rituals or because of their ceremonial acts or because of their holy days or because of their clothes and wearing those kinds of garments is gonna make you any better in Christ's eyes or even commend you to God.

In fact, 1 Corinthians 8, Paul says, listen, no matter what you eat, you're never gonna please God by what you eat. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 8 because God doesn't care about what you eat. He said, oh, Pastor, how can you say that? Because the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. It's about righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God's internal. And what defiles a man comes from within the man, not from what the man takes from the outside and puts in the man, right?

That's why Christ told Peter in Acts chapter 10, don't call anything unclean that I've already labeled clean, meaning that Cornelius was gonna be the first Gentile who was born again in the book of Acts and great things were gonna happen in the Gentile world because of the work of Christ on Calvary's cross.

So important. So the writer of Hebrews says, I wanna warn you about something. You gotta refuse to listen to wrong kinds of teaching. The church needs to be discerning. And the only way you can learn to discern between what is good and what is evil, what is right and what is wrong is to know the truth of the living God. That's it. So Paul in his epistle to the church at Thessalonica gives the clarion call for discernment in the church. When he says these words in 1 Thessalonians chapter five, verse number 19 or verse number 20, do not despise prophetic utterances.

Do not despise prophetic utterances. Remember we told you last week and the week before that, Proverbs 13, 13 says what? Don't despise the word of God or you will be in debt to it. Don't disregard what God says.

Don't despise what God says. Don't turn a deaf ear to what God says or you'll be in debt to that. In other words, you'll suffer the consequences of those who live in disobedience to the word of God. And then we took you to Proverbs chapter 16 last week to show you that he listens to the word will be rewarded. Proverbs 23, 23 says, buy truth, never sell it. Do all you can to obtain truth because truth is the only thing that matters. And now Paul comes in 1 Thessalonians 5 and says, do not despise, do not disregard, do not look down upon prophetic utterances.

In other words, he's not telling them not to look down upon prophecy or people predicting the future. That's not what he's saying. Prophetic utterances is the reiteration of biblical truth. So those who prophesy biblically, who give to you the truth of God, do not despise the prophetic utterances given to you by those who give you the truth of God's word. Don't despise it. He says instead, examine everything. Good words. Doi gemadzo, which means to scrutinize, to test, it's a process by which you take something through a grid to prove whether or not it's authentic and genuine.

This is what you gotta do. Make sure that you don't despise prophetic utterances, that you listen to them, but you examine everything, everything that is spoken. I would expect that every one of you would examine everything that I say every Sunday. Just don't say, well, Pastor Lance said it must be true. Don't do that. That's the wrong attitude to have. Examine it, reread it. That's why when we preach the word, we take you from verse to verse to verse to verse, why? Because the Bible interprets the Bible.

So if Paul said it, Peter's gonna say it, Peter said it, Jude's gonna say it, Jude said it, John's gonna say it, why? Because Jesus said it. It's all over the place. So the Bible proves the Bible. So it's imperative that we examine every prophetic utterance and then you cling to that which is good and you abstain from every form of evil. That's a verse that my mom and dad used to always quote to me when I was a kid growing up. Hey, abstain from every form of evil. And that's true, you should do that, right?

But that's not what the verse says. The verse says, abstain from everything that's evil about what you just examined about the prophetic utterance that's not true. That make sense? That's what it means. So you don't despise prophetic utterances. First Thessalonians five, verse number 20.

But then you examine everything that's been spoken. Hold fast to that which is good. Cling to that which is right. Hold on to that which is true. But abstain, shun, get rid of everything that's evil that was spoken. That's discernment. That's what the discerning spirit does. Same word used in First Thessalonians chapter four where it says we are to abstain from sexual immorality.

We don't dabble in sexual immorality. No, we abstain from it. You turn away from it, you shun it, okay? First Peter chapter two, verse number 11.

Abstain from fleshly lusts which war against your soul, right? In other words, stay away from those things. Well, same is true with those who teach evil things, things that are unprofitable. Cling to that which is good. Don't cling to that which is entertaining, but cling to that which is good, which is true, which is accurate, but abstain from every form of evil that's taught you. So Paul says the same thing the writer of Hebrews says, by refusing to listen to wrong guidance and teaching. The call for discernment in the church is huge.

For the most part, the church is undiscerning. Why is that? How does that happen? One author says it this way. Tragically, there are many in the contemporary church who also lack spiritual discernment. Such people are far better at staying in tune with cultural trends than they are at appreciating and understanding biblical doctrine. In some cases, whole churches have shifted their focus from the clear teachings of scripture to the felt needs of sinners. They wanna make the church service comfortable and non-confrontational.

As a result, the message they champion are theologically weak, and the people they serve are doctrinally naive. Those churches are defenseless against error. So true. Most people in the church are not equipped to defend against error. Paul says in Ephesians 4, God has given gifted men to the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Those are gifted men that God has given to the church. There are spiritual gifts that every one of you has. But God gives gifted men to the church so that the church will be equipped, the church will be mature, the church will grow up through the preaching and teaching of the word of God.

So that people are not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, being deceived by spirits that will come along and move them astray. So Paul says, listen, examine everything. Why? Because for the most part, people are taught by men who all they want to do is be contemporarily relevant, who want to be in style, who want to be cool with the things they say, who want to tell good stories that get you to laugh or sad stories that get you to cry, play on your emotions. They dim the lights in their service, have smoke that comes out in their service because it's all about the mood that they can create, thinking that it can manipulate you into believing what they're saying.

All that you need to refuse, you need to turn away from. This author goes on to say there are six reasons for the disturbing lack of discernment that characterizes the contemporary church. Number one, he says, the recent trend among many evangelicals to minimize the importance of doctrine.

Those in this camp argue that biblical clarity is both divisive and unloving. To them, it puts up walls, lacks humility, and hinders unity. The reality, however, is that the church has suffered severe consequences for abandoning its commitment to sound doctrine. So true. Number two, he says, the church has become less objective in its outlook, substituting unconditional truth for moral relativism and postmodern subjectivity.

Instead of seeing truth in terms of black and white, many Christians treat it as a gray area. But the Bible is clearly antithetical. It makes absolute distinction between right and wrong, truth and error. Number three, part of its contemporary evangelistic strategy, the church has abandoned its commitment to the power of Scripture and become preoccupied with its image.

In order to reach the culture, it has become just like the culture. If you go to church and your church is just like your culture, you're not in church. You're in the culture. That'd be different, right? Uniquely and distinctly different than the culture. Goes on to say, number four, in consequence of the previous point, the church's current lack of discernment stems from a failure to properly study and interpret the Scriptures. That's true. Number five, he says, is a general abandonment of church discipline in evangelical circles.

When God's people fail to confront sin and heresy, wickedness within the body goes unchecked. The congregation inevitably accumulates more and more unregenerate members. Unbelievers who feel comfortable because their sin issues are never addressed. Even grievous immorality and major ethical lapses are sometimes overlooked, ignored under a false pretense of love. But a church cannot effectively promote discernment if it happily condones sin or primarily consists of unsaved sinners. After all, the congregation that thinks incorrectly about holiness shows that it also thinks incorrectly about truth.

So very true. And lastly, he says, the church's lack of discernment is the rampant void of spiritual maturity within its ranks. Those who are those with a superficial understanding of Scripture, a weak grasp of sound doctrine and an efficient view of God cannot be discerning. Why is it our children don't discern between good and evil and right and wrong? Because they're not spiritually mature. As they begin to grow in their walk with the Lord, their senses are fine-tuned to hear error. You need to be able to listen for error and know it when it arrives and know to cling to that which is good and abstain from every form of evil.

Listen, if everybody in the church was this way, it would be so magnificent. That's why we teach you doctrine. I mentioned during our anathema time. Why do we teach you doctrine every quarter? Because we want you to know what the Bible says about anthropology, what the Bible says about theology, what the Bible says about homardiology, pneumatology, ecclesiology, eschatology, right?

We want you to know those things. Why? Because you need to be fed truth, fine doctrine that helps you understand the truth between good and error. Unless we teach you those things, you're not going to learn them. I can't teach you every doctrine from the pulpit, but we can teach you what we believe and teach it on a consistent basis so you can grow in your understanding of the gospel and the God you serve. That is so important. That's why the greatest study you can ever embark on is the attributes of God, right?

Just studying the attributes of God, knowing your God, who he is, how he functions, all those things just expound your understanding of the beauty and nature of the living God. And so it's important that we understand these things. So the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 13, verse number nine, do not be carried away, do not be removed by varied and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were so occupied were not benefited.

They do you no good. But if you're nourished in the words of grace, if you're strengthened by those words, that's what you need. That's why Paul said to the Ephesian elders, I commend you to God and the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance. It's the word that saves. It's the word that sanctifies them. Christ has sanctified them in truth. My word is truth. It's the word that satisfies, Job said it, Job chapter 23, right? When he said, I treasure your words more than my necessary food.

Why? Because he knew the only thing that could satisfy him amidst all of his pain, amidst all of his turmoil, amidst all of the abuse he was receiving was what? Truth. That's all that matters. That's the only thing that could satisfy the man. His wife couldn't satisfy him, she was nowhere to be found. His friends couldn't satisfy him, that's for sure. They couldn't say anything good. His health was in shambles. He had lost his children, he had lost everything. So how does a man find satisfaction when his life is totally torn apart?

The only place you can find satisfaction in the truths of God's holy word. See, that's where it is. But if you don't know the truth, you can't delight in the truth and move toward that truth. So Paul says, I commend you to God in the word of His grace which is able to build you up. It's God's word that does that. And we need to come to grips with that. I have in my presence here since the year 2001, my welcome mat. It's kind of old now and grungy. See, not as clean as it used to be because I keep stepping on it.

But I had this underneath my pew. Had it here since a man gave it to me when I preached on 1 Thessalonians 2 verse number 13 where the church of Thessalonica put out the welcome mat for the word of the living God. It's my constant reminder that when I open the word of God, I must welcome everything that God says.

And so I keep it here underneath my pew as a constant reminder. Never do I sit down, stand up, or walk around the front without knowing that it's there. Because as your pastor, if I don't put a welcome mat out to the word of the Lord, why would you, right? And so Paul commended the church of Thessalonica because they welcomed what was said. They received it with joy and became imitators of Paul in silence. And they realized that God's word was everything because he welcomed it in. And Paul says, the reason you welcome it in is because it does a work in you who believe.

And there's been a mighty work done in your lives because you believe. But so many times, we don't wanna welcome the word. Right, Hebrews says these words, Hebrews chapter 19, I'm sorry, Proverbs chapter 19, forgive me. Verse number 27. Cease listening, my son, to discipline. Cease listening, my son, to discipline. And you will stray from the words of knowledge. What a powerful verse. Now, they're all powerful, right? But they're powerful for this occasion. Do you know what happens when you stop listening to discipline?

You stray from the words of knowledge. Why is it people in the church stray away from the truth? Why? Because they will not listen to the words of discipline. The words of discipline only come from the truth of God's word. What does God's word say, right? And so when you tell them what God's word says, they are the words of discipline, they're the words of training, they're the words of development, they're the words of instruction. And if you refuse to listen to those words, guess what? You will eventually stray away from the words of knowledge.

Why? Because you become accustomed to not doing what God's word says. And when you become accustomed to not obeying what God's word says, it's easier to disobey the next time, and then the next time, and then the next time, and then you got it the next time. What happens? Stop listening to discipline, my son. And you will certainly stray away from the words of knowledge. If I could tell you how many times over the 28 years that we've been together that we've warned people of that, they just don't care.

And we tell them, it will affect you down the road. You will stray from the words of knowledge. We're not prophets, we're not claiming to be prophets or son of prophets. We're just quoting to you what God says in His word.

It's going to happen because you refuse to listen to the words of discipline. You will stray from the words of knowledge. It happens. It always does. Why? Proverbs 13, 13, if you despise the word of God, you'll be in debt to the word of God. Israel is that way. Israel is so important to learn from. Everything in the world is about Israel. I've said that for 28 years, I'm gonna say it for the next 28 if God gives me that long. Everything is about Israel. Always has been, always will be, okay? And God speaks to Israel in the book of Jeremiah.

He says these words, Jeremiah 5, verse number 30, an appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land. The prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule on their own authority and my people love it so. In other words, the prophets don't speak the truth, they just prophesy falsely. And the priests, they don't follow my authority, they follow their own authority. And because they do, the people just love it. They eat it up. They eat it up. So the Lord says this in chapter six, verse number 10, behold, the word of the Lord has become a reproach to them.

They have no delight in it. Do you ever met someone who no longer delights in the word of the Lord? You ever met someone who when they hear the word of God, it becomes reproach to them? Why is it? Simply because they have not refused to listen to wrong teaching. They listen to prophets who prophesy falsely. They've listened to priests who work under their own authority and they love it so. Paul said in 2 Timothy 4, Timothy preached the word in season and out of season. We prove, we rebuke, we exhort with all our own suffering and patience.

Why? Because the time is coming where they will not endure sound doctrine anymore. They don't want that. You know, God's word doesn't tickle your ears. God's word boxes your ears. Ever had your ears boxed? Pow! Not a good feeling. That's God's word. If your ears are being tickled, that's not God's word. Because God's word confronts sin and deals with it so that you're convicted and changed. So God says this to Israel.

Thus says the Lord, stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient past, the way they used to be, where the good way is and walk in it and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, we will not walk in it. When you refuse to listen to the words of discipline, you will walk away from the words of knowledge. So I said, I watched men over you, a mission to warn you of impending judgment, saying, listen to the sound of the trumpet. But they said, we will not listen.

Therefore hear, O nations, and know a congregation was among them. Hear, O earth, behold, I am bringing disaster on this people. The fruit of their plans, because they have not listened to my words. And as for my law, they have rejected it also. He who despises the word will be in debt to the word. He who ceases to listen to discipline will stray away from the words of knowledge. And God says, come this way, walk the ancient paths.

Listen to what I have to say. We will not. I'll give you a watchman. He'll warn you, he'll blow the trumpet. To let you know of impending judgment, we will not listen.

Really? Okay, I will bring disaster among you. In Israel, yep, for 70 years, they went off into Babylonian captivity, simply because they did not refuse to listen to wrong teaching. They delighted in listening to false teachers. And they delighted in listening to priests who functioned under their own authority instead of God's authority. It cost them dearly. I don't want that for me. I don't want that for you. I don't want that for any believer. I want us to understand the beauty of God's holy word and the prize that we possess in holding it in our hearts, hiding it in our hearts, handling it correctly so others will hear and believe and know this is the way, walking in it.

Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for the greatness of your truth. Our prayer, Lord, is that every one of us, every single one of us would truly long to listen to you only. There are so many people out there that are talking and saying things that just aren't true. We need to be discerning. The only way that happens is to be completely commended and committed to the word of your grace, that we can be built up in the faith and know the truth of the living God.

As we leave this place today, help us to live for you until you come again as you most surely will. In Jesus' name, amen.