“We Worship the God Who is Our Living Hope”
Welcome
Song of Praise “Lift High the Name of Jesus”
Call to Worship Heidelberg Catechism Q.1
Song of Praise “Good and Gracious King”
Confession of Faith Psalm 62:1,2; 5-7
Song of Praise “Build My Life”
Prayer of Adoration
Greet One Another
Ministry Spotlight Student Ministry
Prayer of Intercession
Giving of God’s Tithes and Our Offerings
Song of Preparation “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”
Scripture Reading 1 Timothy 4:1-16
Sermon “Teach Truth: Doctrine, Not Deception” Rev. Josh Gilman
Prayer of Commitment
Song of Response “In Christ in Alone”
Benediction
Sermon Notes
Acts 20:29-30
Apostasy: “The serious situation of becoming separated from the living God after a previous turning towards him, by falling away from the faith.” (I.W. Bauder)
”When God’s holy Word arises it is always its lot that Satan opposes it with all his might. At first, he rages against it with force and wicked power. If that promises no success, he attacks it with false tongues and erring spirits and teachers. What he is unable to crush by force he seeks to suppress by cunning and lies. This was his strategy at the beginning. When the Gospel first came into the world, he launched a mighty attack against it through Jews and Gentiles, shed much blood, and filled Christendom with martyrs. When this did not succeed, he raised false prophets and erring spirits and filled the world with heretics…. And we must be prepared for this, and by no means allow it to disturb us, for so it must be.” (Martin Luther)
1) The Dangers of Deception
John 8:44
2 Thessalonians 2:9
Revelation 13:14
“Hypocrisy is a deliberate pretense and a lie a deliberate falsehood.” (John Stott)
“From the beginning of church history some teachers… have argued that sex and hunger are themselves unclean appetites, that the body itself is a nasty encumbrance (if not actually vile), and that the only way to holiness is abstinence, the voluntary renunciation of sex and marriage, and, since eating cannot be given up altogether, then at least the renunciation of meat.” (John Stott)
“The only recompense we can make to God for his liberality is a testimony of our thanks.” (John Calvin)
2) The Security of Sound Doctrine
“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of the ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life.” (Theodore Roosevelt)
Matthew 25:21
Acts 16:1-4
Matthew 6:16-18
1 Corinthians 9:25
“Lord, send Your life throughout the entire church. Visit Your church; restore sound doctrine and holy, earnest living. Take away from professing Christians their love of frivolities, their attempts to meet the world on its own ground, and give back the old love of the doctrines of the Cross and Christ. May free grace and dying love again be the music that refreshes the church and makes her heart exceedingly glad.” (Charles Spurgeon)
“Reformation is a return to the sound doctrine of the Bible. Revival is the practice of that sound doctrine under the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Francis Schaeffer)
3) Christ, Our Living Hope
“The man whose Picture is this is one of a thousand; he can beget children, travel in birth with children, and nurse them himself when they are born. And whereas thou seest him with his eyes lift up to Heaven, the best of Books in his hand, and the Law of Truth writ on his lips, it is to shew thee that his work is to know and unfold dark things to sinners; even as also thou seest him stand as if he pleaded with men; and whereas thou seest the World as cast behind him, and that a Crown hangs over his head, that is to shew thee that slighting and despising the things that are present, for the love that he hath to his master’s service, he is sure in the world that comes next to have Glory for his reward.” (John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress)
“There are too many men who are ministers before they know how to be Christians.” (Richard Baxter)
1 Corinthians 11:1
Matthew 22:37-40
“My people’s greatest need is my personal holiness.” (Robert Murray M’Cheyne)
Deuteronomy 34:9
”If true religion is to beam upon us, our principle must be, that it is necessary to begin with heavenly teaching and that it is impossible for any man to obtain even the minutest portion of right and sound doctrine without being a disciple of Scripture.” (John Calvin)
“True zeal is connected with a holy life. It is remarkable how often the greatest zealots for God, the Church, and sound doctrine (as they regard it), have been unholy and even immoral in their lives.” (Charles Hodge)
“Now, said the Interpreter, I have shown thee this Picture first because the Man whose Picture this is, is the only man whom the Lord of the place whither thou art going, hath authorized to be thy guide in all difficult places thou mayest meet with in the way; wherefore take good heed to what I have shown thee, and bear well in thy mind what thou hast seen, lest in thy journey thou meet with some that pretend to lead thee right, but their way goes down to death.” (John Bunyan, Pilgrim’s Progress)