Be On Your Guard

Praise the Lord. Good to see you all on this wonderful first day of March. We’re already in March in 2026 by the grace of God. God’s God has been a refuge and strength for all of us and upheld us thus far. I’m going to ask you to open your Bibles with me this morning. We’re going to look into the word of God. We’re going to look at one verse this morning. So, we’re going to we’re going to go to the New Testament. and open your Bibles to the New Testament, the book of 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 3. 1 Timothy, chapter 1, verse 3. I’m going to read it here in a second. I trust that you’re all there. As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer. Let me read that again. As I urged you when I went to Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you can command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer. to fully understand this verse. And and and for all of you who have turned to this verse this morning, keep your finger on this verse because we’re going to keep coming back to this verse for for the entirety of our our word today. We have to look at the background of this first Timothy. Timothy understand first and second Timothy are considered pastoral epistles. Why are they called pastoral epistles? because it is written by Paul to a pastor and the name of that pastor is Timothy. He is the pastor or he is the shepherd at Ephesus. And then when Paul is writing this letter to Timothy, Paul is coming into that last half of his life. Paul wanted to convey some things to Timothy. He planted this church at Ephesus. Paul did and he wanted to make sure that before he left this earth, before his ministry was done, that this church was in good hands. So if you want to know the purpose of the letter of Timothy, you can go to 1 Timothy 3:14. I’m going to read it really quick for you. 1 Timothy chapter 3 verse4 tells you the purpose of this whole letter. Although I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you these instructions so that if I am delayed, you will know how people ought to conduct themselves in God’s household, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth. So what is the purpose of the church from that verse? What is the purpose of the church? It is the pillar and foundation of truth. See the the a foundation these are these are structural terms right the foundation and pillars are components of a building. This wonderful building that we’re sitting in has a foundation. It has pillars. We don’t see the pillars but they’re in the wall. Those are the loadbearing structure of this building. See, you can have the greatest walls. You can have the greatest kitchen, like a marble top kitchen. You can have the greatest light fixtures, but if your foundation and your pillars are not solid, it doesn’t matter. I hope you understand what I’m saying. If your foundation and your pillars are not stable, that structure is going to have a lot of problems. We have a family friend that lives out in Texas and they bought a beautiful home in Texas. Beautiful home on the outside, beautiful home on the inside, but within a year or so, they started to notice some problems with the house. They were noticing cracks on the wall. And then come to find out that the house is just slowly sinking in the sand. that sandy soil that Texas has. The house was not put firmly on pillars. The house’s foundation was not put firmly enough, not put stable enough, and that was affecting the stability of the home. Everything inside the house was starting to look chaotic. There were cracks on the wall. The roof was not uh was starting to show leaks. all because the foundation and the pillars were not solid. Paul loves using these type of examples. Paul loves to use the building comparison in his letters. I heard a lot of you say your memory verses today from Ephesians and Galatians. And I know that’s where you’re doing a lot of your study for JBQ and TBQ. So the verses I’m going to read today should be very familiar to you. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 19. Listen to this building illustration. You are no longer strangers. You are no longer for foreigners, but now you are fellow citizens with God’s people and you are members of his household. Listen to the next part. You are built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone and in him the whole building comes together. See the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Not the apostles and the prophets of today. The apostles and the prophets of the scriptures of the word of God. The old testament and the new testament. And Jesus is the chief cornerstone. So let’s let’s come back to our first verse that we read in 1 Timothy 1:3. What why is that verse so relevant to us today? Stay in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrine. This is very important and relevant to us today because no matter how strong a foundation is, you’re going to get the storm of false teaching, you’re going to get the storm, the rainstorm of lies, false doctrine is going to hit. See, every building faces a storm. You all live in homes and there are rainstorms that come and when you notice that first drip of water in the ceiling, you’ll see a little water spot on your ceiling from a rainstorm. What do you have to do? You have to go in fix it. What happens if you don’t fix it? If you have a leaky roof, what happens if you don’t fix it? It gets worse. The next rain comes, it gets even worse. What happens when stuff gets wet? It gets moldy. What happens when things get moldy? People get sick. See, the storm of lie and false doctrine will hit the foundation and pillars of every church. That’s a guarantee. False teaching is a part of the battle of the church from the beginning of time. Every generation fe faces this battle, this storm of false doctrine because wherever God puts foundation of pillar, the the foundation and the pillars of truth, the devil is always there trying to undermine it with lies. So it’s very important that as the local church we have to keep an eye out for false teaching. We have to evaluate every message that we hear. You are hearing me right now. I hope the words I’m saying to you are not coming through one ear and out the other ear and you are just saying a lazy amen. You have to listen to what is being spoken. Every man of God that comes on this stage, you have to listen carefully on what you are hearing. Because if you let false doctrine in, if you don’t maintain, if you don’t inspect, if you don’t evaluate the house of God, you can imagine the mold. You could imagine the chaos. You could imagine the instability that can happen to the foundation, to the local church. I want you to notice when we read this verse in 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse three that’s verse three of a letter how quickly Paul switches to this topic verse one and two is a greeting I greet you all Timothy my beloved son oh now I’m telling you stay in Ephesus and tell people don’t be speaking false doctrine Paul is reminding Timothy, there is a priority. There’s a crucial component above everything else in the church. Doctrine, true teaching is a crucial component of every church to function in a healthy manner. Only when the the pillar and the foundation is good can the rest of the church come together. And if you want to know what the rest of the church is, just read the rest of Timothy. If you read first Timothy, God has given the local church a structure, a blueprint. There are pastors, there are elders, there are deacons. Deacons is just a fancy way of saying, you know, uh people that are heading up different essentially departments. There are deacons in every church. There are elders in every church. There’s the role of the man and there’s the role of the woman in every church. There is a way to handle finances in the church. That’s all covered in Timothy. We have to understand as a local church that we cannot we don’t have the freedom to operate however we want to. The church does not move by our own preference. The local church is structured as the household. That’s what we read in Ephesians. It is the household of God that follows a set of teachings and follows the true doctrine. Doctrine just simply means teaching. So when I when you hear me say doctrine, it just means teaching. So what is the difference? What is the difference between false teaching and true teaching? And I’m going to oversimplify it for you. Many people when we hear the word doctrine, our mind just gets frozen because it seems like it’s a very complicated word that we should have a theology degree for. And the truth is it’s not. Doctrine is not a complicated word. Any belief or teaching that agrees with the word of God is true teaching. If there is a teaching that goes against or contradicts the word of God, the Bible that you are holding in your hand, if there is a teaching that goes against it, it is a false teaching. It’s that simple. We are not as a church, we are not called to reinvent new teachings. We are not here to introduce new doctrine. We are not here to change messages based on the culture. Change messages on what makes you comfortable. Change messages based on what culture says. See, many churches like to focus their doctrine around topics like material blessing, positive motivational thinking, and healing because that’s what people want to hear. You could take 10 churches down the road and I guarantee you the message will revolve around usually wealth, health, how to be blessed. People want to hear that. People want to hear that everyone is accepted, everyone is loved, all viewpoints are true. Churches are now teaching truth is whatever you feel in your heart. So if you feel one thing and you feel one thing, well that’s all good. That’s truth. Everyone’s truth is a little different. Most churches these days will not preach about sin. Most churches these days don’t preach about hell. Most churches these days don’t preach about repentance. Most churches these days don’t preach about the second coming. Listen to what Paul says to Timothy. Second Timothy chapter 4:3. 2 Timothy 4:3. The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desire, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. There’s a time coming, and I think we’re already there. There’s a time coming when people don’t want to hear teaching what the Bible says. They want to hear what they want to hear because their ears are itching. See, you can bend the truth of this word, of this Bible that you carry. You can bend it whatever way you want. And I guarantee you, you will find a 100 preachers, 100 pastors, and 100 churches that will teach it to you exactly how you want to hear it. How many seminary educated pastors are out there teaching false doctrine? There is no lack of seminary educated preachers, but there is a huge lack of people that will stand for the word of God in the wholeness of the word of God in the truth of the word of God. These days, instead of preaching the simple pure word of God, many people are busy preaching man-made concepts. Pastors are using the stage, preachers are using the stage as a time of their own evangelism, method evangelism projects instead of the truth in God’s word. So what happens to you? Because I know all of you are saying, well, we’re we don’t preach on the stage. Why does that affect us? Because you who are listening to the word of God, all of you sitting in these chairs are singing and praising and saying, “I love Jesus.” But you don’t know the Jesus that you’re confessing your love about. All of you, you believe that God is love. But you only understand God’s love based on how much he’s providing for you materially, how much he is healing you, how much he is giving you wealth and success. That is your understanding of God’s love. In churches today, knowing and and loving God is not rooted in studying. It is not rooted in teaching. It is rooted in emotional response. How many people they can come to the altar at the front for a few moments? Where do you actually hear actual teaching and studying of the word of God? Modern preachers, modern pastors, they don’t like the word theology. They don’t like the word doctrine. They think it is enough to love to just love God without studying his word. This is why we as a church, we started a Bible study. This is why we have a Bible study. For those of you who don’t know, we have a Bible study every Wednesday. That’s why we take time on Friday meetings, on Saturday meetings, Sunday services to preach and teach the word of the Lord. See in Ephesians coming back to Ephesians for all of you who are keeping track Paul continues to tell the church at Ephesus, you have to grow in the knowledge. Ephesians 4:14, you have to come to the complete and full knowledge of Jesus. You have to come to a level of maturity. You cannot be a child anymore. Why is that? The next verse says, “Because if you are a child, if you are not coming to maturity in understanding the word of God, every wave that comes through, you are going to be tossed about by every wave, every trickery of man, every deceitful scheming, every cunning and craftiness. You’re just going to get tossed around.” That’s why Psalm 1 in the first Psalm we we see blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stands in the path of the sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but what what is his delight in his delight is in the law of the Lord. See, as as Christians, as true Christians, we need to learn to love theology. We need to learn to love doctrine and sound teaching. We need to learn to delight in reading the word of God. When we look at this first letter to Timothy, Paul is reminding a young pastor, a young man in Timothy to guide and shepherd this church, by the way, the church of Ephesus. Timothy is the pastor to the church of Ephesus. And Paul is telling him, no matter how much society changes, no matter how much culture changes, there’s a way you have to guide the church. It’s because the world is going to put pressure on the church. The world will tell the church how the church needs to act, how the church needs to express itself. Let me tell you one thing. as someone who preaches here on on your stage, as someone who listens to messages, the the messages that we preach, the word of God that we share does not change based on culture. It does not change based on my audience. I’m speaking to majority an Indian crowd here, but if the crowd in front of me was African-American, the message would be the same. If the crowd in front of me is all white, European, it’d be the same. If I’m speaking in front of a Hispanic crowd, the message is the same. The gospel is the same. The word of God is the same. The word of God does not change based on the economy. The word of God doesn’t change because someone else is the president or based on who the president is. The word of God does not change. The word of God does not automatically change. now that I have a church building project. Doctrines do not change based on the condition because Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. And his word is forever settled in heaven. So when we preach from this stage, when we talk from this stage, everything we say is coming with the full truth. Not half truth, not some of the truth, but the whole truth. Paul the apostle is speaking to Timothy and we’re going to come back to our verse. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse three. I want you to stay in Ephesus so that you can command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer. Let’s sit at that that phrase for a second. Stay in Ephesus. Why is Paul making such a big deal to Timothy to stay in Ephesus? See, the Ephesus church, the Ephesian church had a problem. They had a false teaching problem. And now Timothy’s job was difficult. Timothy had to get an established church back on track. That’s hard to do. An established church back on track. It’s easy to start a new church. It’s easy to start brand new. But a church that’s already established, this young Timothy, Paul is telling him, you’re going to stay right there in Ephesus and you’re going to get this church back where it needs to be. Remember who Timothy is. You all have studied on Timothy. We all know the popular verses on Timothy. All indications are that Timothy when he was pastoring the church of Ephesus, he was a young man, probably in his late 20s, early 30s. He grew up in an intercultural house. His father was Greek and his mother was Jewish. Timothy also had frequent health issues. If you read 1 Timothy 5:23, Paul says, “I know you’ve got some stomach issues. You’ve got frequent illnesses that you’re dealing with.” So Timothy wasn’t necessarily a picture of health either. He was dealing with his own personal issues. And if you read first and second Timothy, every indication is that Timothy was shy. Timothy was introverted. Timothy was timid. Paul is constantly reminding him, Timothy, oh son, be bold. Timothy, be faithful. Be courageous. Be diligent. Don’t look and don’t let anyone look down on you because you’re young. I could imagine in the church of Ephesus, there were deacons, elders who were older to Timothy. Timothy who’s serving as the pastor, there were probably older people there. And Timothy had this fear, no one’s going to take me seriously when I talk. No one’s going to take me seriously. So Paul says to him, “Stay there in Ephesus because false teaching is creeping into the church. Water is creeping into the building. You’re going to stay there. You’re going to fix it. You’re going to inspect it. You’re going to maintain it.” Because a church that gets pulled away from the foundation is now going to start crumbling. A church that pulls away from the pillars of truth is going to fall apart. See, it is normal human nature for us when things are chaotic around us, when things are not steady, we want to run, right? How many of you have felt that you just want to quit? I know you want to quit. I’ve wanted to quit. I cannot tell you how many churches I’ve walked into and I see the chaos. I see the messages. I see everything. I’m like, “God, what am I doing here?” I guarantee you, Timothy was looking at the church of Ephesus and saying, “What am I doing here? I want to get out. I want to leave this church. There’s false teachers coming in and I’m just a young person here. What am I doing? I have better opportunities to go somewhere and start my own church. Go somewhere and do something more. Paul, Timothy as a pastor must have given some indication to Paul that Timothy that he was going to run, that he was going to quit. See, let me tell you something. When there is chaos in the church, especially for pastors, they feel they want to cut and run. When issues happen in a church, when there’s chaos in a church, who is the first person to blame? The pastor. Pastors are human. They are not some superhuman elite being. They are human just like you. They shepherd you. They look after you. They feel pressure. They feel stress. When you see your pastors on Sunday, they’re all nicely packaged in a suit and tie. Inside, they’re they’re stressed. You don’t see that all the time. Few years ago, I had a personal conversation, a very candid conversation with a pastor uh here in the states. He’d been pastoring the same church, still pastoring the same church now for nearly 35, 40 years. And we were just having a a good dialogue and he was telling me to this day, even after 40 years of ministry, he is very much affected by what happens in his church. He he still loses sleep at night. He still wakes up in the middle of the night in tears because of the chaos that happens in his church. If that is the the the stance of an experienced pastor, you could imagine Timothy who’s a young person. Why is Paul so adamantly telling Timothy, stay in Ephesus, fix this church? Yes, false teaching has come in. But why is so Paul so adamant about that? That’s his first line in his letter. To understand that, you have to understand the church of Ephesus. If you want to know about the church of Ephesus, you can go to Acts chapter 18. Acts 18, Acts 19. How Paul started this church. Paul had to preach. By the way, Ephesus, you look on a map, it is a port city is a very pagan city. Every type of god, every type of philosophy comes from this city. Paul preached every day. If you read in Acts, he is having in the lecture hall in like think of a college lecture hall, this huge auditorium. Paul is having discussions every day with people with educated people about Jesus. And then there are miracles happening. Paul is with his handkerchief. When Paul puts his handkerchief on someone, they’re getting healed. Demons are getting cast out. There are extraordinary miracles happening. And within two years of Paul’s ministry, there is a vibrant church in Ephesus. In fact, it says there all the Jews and the Greeks because of Paul’s preaching, all the Jews and the Greeks heard the word of God. And this church of Ephesus is growing leaps and bounds. There were people, there were idol makers and magicians who lost business because of Paul. Imagine that. Your preaching, your ministry is so strong, it’s putting people out of business. Let me tell you something. When you talk the truth, when you preach the truth, when you live the truth, there are people that are going to be very unhappy. You are going to put people out of business. You are going to put sin out of business. It took Paul three years to establish this church in Ephesus. And there was a lot of tears. There was a lot of labor, a lot of hard work. He didn’t jump from one city to the next city. Paul stayed in Ephesus for three years and poured his sweat into that church. He raised leaders. He raised elders. He raised deacons. And then just as he’s about to leave Ephesus, he gives a warning. And that warning is in Acts chap 20. Turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 20 verse 29 and 31. This is the warning to the church of Ephesus. Paul is about to leave on on a missionary journey or I believe he’s going back to Jerusalem and he’s giving this warning to the the pastors and the deacons there at Ephesus. I know that after I leave savage wolves will come in among you and they will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will rise up and distort the truth in order in order to draw away the disciples after them. So what? Be on your guard. Remember for three years that I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears. Why was Paul so passionate to Timothy, telling him to stay in Ephesus? This is the price that Paul had to pay for this church. three years of ministry day and night in tears and hard work to establish this church. But he’s saying, “I know that when I leave, there’s going to be savage wolves. There’s going to be false teachers. There’s going to be destructive influencers. There’s going to be people with selfish motive that’s going to come in and they’re going to twist the Bible. twist the word of God, twist everything that you’ve learned and pull you away from Christ. You know what the scary part of that verse is? Acts 20 29. They will come in among you and they will come from your own number. That should scare every one of you. There were pastors and preachers and teachers and believers that once they knew the truth but because of greed, because of selfish motivation, they drifted from the truth, but they still have influence in the community. They still come on the pulpit and preach. These individuals are dangerous because they are people that you break bread with. They are people that smile at you. They may be your friends. But they’re looking to actively harm the church, the health of the flock, all because of what? Some greed, some immorality, and power. So Paul is telling the church at Ephesus, listen, I know it’s going to happen. It’s not if. It’s going to happen. And this is why, dear church, it’s so important. The role of our pastors, the role of our elders, the role of our deacons, our teachers, our Sunday school teachers. This is why a it’s a big deal that when if you take on mantles of titles of positions understand you are not a pastor just for the sake of a title. You’re not an elder for the sake of being an elder. You are not a teacher for the sake of being a teacher. You have a responsibility. Paul says, “I’m leaving this church of Ephesus in your care and I’m going to Jerusalem. Just be on your guard.” Within five years, false teaching came into the church of Ephesus within five years. And then these false teachers started distorting the faith. They started changing what Paul had preached. changing the gospel. See, let me tell you, false teaching is not something that’s new. From the beginning of time, the devil’s tactic, his playbook is deception. Specifically with the children of God, it is about doubt. See, John 8:44, the devil is described as what? the father of lies. And from the beginning, his oldest playbook trick is lies. See, in Genesis chapter 3, Satan introduced doubt to Eve. You know, did God really say that? He didn’t come out and say, “God didn’t say that.” He said, “Did God say that?” It’s a question. Think about it. Did God say that? Have you noticed that false doctrine many times starts when people start asking unwanted questions? People start asking questions to cater to happiness. Did God really say that? Doesn’t God want me to be happy? Doesn’t God want me to be successful? See, a false view of God can make you very happy. When you are getting away with sin, it will make you very happy. God is not sitting here to cater to our convenience or our happiness. In the Old Testament, he was God Almighty. He was Elohim. He was El Shadai. He was the provider. He was Jehovah Gyra. He was Jehovah Nissi. He is my shepherd. He is my healer. He is the almighty God. He is the Lord of hosts. That’s the Old Testament. You come to the New Testament. He is the vine. He is the good shepherd. And even up until Revelation, he is the alpha and omega. You have to have the right view of God. You have to study the word to know who God is. If your knowledge of God is that God is only the provider, it is healing. It is material blessing. He is gyra and he is rafa. That your your view of God is incomplete. That’s why we have the old testament and the new testament. We have to study the old and the new because you see the character of God throughout the entire Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, you see the character of God. False teaching is not always obvious. It looks real and true from the outside, but many times it is disguised. And Satan is the master of disguise. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse14. Open your Bible. 2 Corinthians chap 11 verse14. For Satan himself transforms into an angel of light. So it’s not a great thing then if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness whose end will be according to their works. Listen to this. Satan disguises himself into an angel of light by introducing false teaching. He makes it sound really good, convenient, it’s trending, it’s cultural, and it makes it really hard to tell apart the lie from the truth. And Satan, by the way, as you read in this verse, Satan has his own ministers. Satan has his own preachers. They’re called ministers of righteousness and they preach the same thing. You don’t know the lie from the truth. But for you to know the lie, you have to know the entire truth. If you don’t know the entire truth, how are you going to pick out the lie? Let’s get that picture up on the screen here. There’s got to be a picture on the screen. There’s fruit A, fruit B, fruit C, fruit D. Two of these fruits are poisonous. Who can tell me which one is the poisonous ones? Between fruit A and fruit B, which one is the poisonous one? B is the poisonous. Any anything else? A. Some people say A, some people we can’t even agree on that. Some people say A is the real, some say B is real. The truth is A is the poisonous one. This is called holly berry. This is cranberry. We’ve all eaten cranberries before. That’s B. Holly berry looks just like cranberry. If you put it in your mouth, five berries can cause a stomach infection. Can cause your heart rhythm to change. Okay, that’s the difference. But it looks very similar, very, very real. Let’s look at C and D. So, which one’s the real one? Which one’s poison? Which one’s real? C or D? C is the poison. Good. Uh D is the real one. Okay, that’s correct. So C is a berry. It’s called the nightshade berry. Five berries will kill a child. You just eat five of those and you’re dead. D is the basic blueberry that you’ve all, I’m sure, eaten before. Do you see how close these things are? Do you see that? If you’re not familiar with what a cranberry looks like, that the holly berry looks very good. If you’re not familiar with what the blueberry looks like, this berry looks very appealing. It’s very easy to fall into deception. How do you know? Most of you are fairly confident in telling me that you know that’s the blueberry is D. How do you know that? Because you’ve what? You’ve eaten a blueberry. You’ve handled a blueberry. You’ve touched it with your hands. You’ve examined it. They look so appetizing. I tell you, A and B or A and C, they’re those the poison ones. They look really good, though, right? Most of you are hungry. We’re getting to lunchtime. They look very good. They will end you up in the emergency room. See, I as a young boy, I remember playing in my my cousin’s front yard in Chicago, and they have a tree in their front yard, and every fall, this tree would produce the most beautiful looking berries. Looks like little cherries. They’re bright red, similar to the one you see in fruit A. And as a six and sevenyear-old, I remember I would reach into this tree and I would just grab these berries and squeeze them between my fingers and they would squish in your fingers and produce like a juice and it looked so good. And I remember one time that I grabbed one of those berries and I was going to pop it into my mouth and there was an adult right there that grabbed it from my hand and said, “Oh no, you can’t put that in your mouth. Those are poison berries. Those are poisonous. It will make you very sick. Some things look so good from the outside. But the appearance is deceptive. See, I wasn’t mature enough to know what was good and what was bad. That’s why God puts pastors, he puts elders, he puts deacons, he puts teachers. He gives you your parents to protect you from what you don’t know. And as as pastors and as leaders and as deacons and as teachers, we all need to be very careful what we teach. I’m going to tell you that again. Everyone that’s listening to me here, everyone that teaches children, every parent, we have to be very careful what comes out of our mouth. We have to be very careful who we allow to teach our children. We have to be very careful who we allow to preach in the church. We have to be very careful who gets time on this pulpit. If we allow false teachers up here because that’s what your itching ears want to hear, then there’s no point of having a pastor. The function of a pastor doesn’t exist. Then the the term pastor means shepherd. The shepherd is not going to open the gate and tell the the the wolf, the savage wolf, just come in. Their job is the gatekeeper. There are so many preachers, theologies, books of teachings out there. If someone comes on this stage and preaches something that is not biblical, it is now the job of the pastor to correct it. Sunday school teachers, Bible study teachers, deacons, you must be able to recognize and prevent false teaching from creeping into the church. Otherwise, there’s no point in holding that position. This was Paul’s instruction to Timothy. stay in Ephesus and command those who teach false doctrine to stop. In other words, Paul is telling Timothy, “This is not something you deal lightly with. You don’t deal lightly with false teachers. You don’t deal lightly with error in the church. We have to deal with it immediately and firmly. It’s not an optional thing. This is not something that you can say something if you want to. You don’t have to. This is not something like that. When there is false teaching in the church, we have to speak out. And I’m sure for Timothy that was very hard because he is very shy. He’s very timid personality. See, part of the thing, part of the reason commanding people is so hard these days. You all hold jobs and are in school and things. If you’re a boss or a supervisor even for or and or you have a boss or supervisor, you know how hard it is to tell people what to do. You know how hard it is to command people. Society has this thing now, let them live. Let them live. Just leave them alone. If they want to talk like that, let them talk like that. That’s what society tells you. Why are you bothering them? Why are you commanding them to stop? As pastors, as teachers, as elders, as deacons, we have the responsibility to impart the truth of the gospel to everyone who is sitting here listening, young and old. As parents, grandparents, you have the responsibility to impart the truth of the gospel to your children or your grandchildren tomorrow. If your child comes home from school, which I guarantee in school they are taught a word called tolerance. Every kid knows what the word tolerance means. Your child comes to you and says, “Dad, mom, it’s okay. Let them believe what they want. That’s what they want to believe.” But you know it is against the word. you know that it there’s no way. It is an absolute against the word of God. What are you going to say? You’re going to be, you know, if you open your mouth, people will look at you and say, “Oh, he’s a bigot. He’s narrow-minded. He’s intolerant.” Kids are taught these days to be tolerant, to accept everything. Accept everything as the truth. As a parent, you are in an uncomfortable position. But if you don’t speak out, you’re going to lead your child astray. You have been given these children as a gift. Your job is to steward over them, to guide them, even if it’s uncomfortable. Many times the Christianity that we see today is not willing to take the time to correct, is not willing to take the time to rebuke false doctrine because we’re so scared of offending people. We’re so scared. I don’t want you to feel bad. But Paul is telling Timothy, you’re going to command them to stop because in the Bible as a believer, we have a zero tolerance policy toward false doctrine. So listen to what he said. Paul said, command certain people, this is verse three again, command certain people not to teach false doctrine. He didn’t say compromise with them. Figure it out. I don’t want to lose them as members in the church. Right? These are influential people preaching on the stage. Don’t lose them as members. God has instructed us to stand and speak out and that’s very hard to do. It’s very uncomfortable to do. Moses was very uncomfortable in front of Pharaoh. Elijah was very uncomfortable in front of King Ahab. Jeremiah was very uncomfortable speaking to people about the prophetic word of God. And these people wanted to kill him. As a child of God, you’re going to have moments in your life that you have to speak out because it is obviously false. It is false teaching. It is false doctrine. If you don’t speak out, you’re going to lead people astray. This is what Hebrews says. The writer of Hebrews chapter 13:17 says, “Pray for your leaders. Pray for your pastors because they watch out for your soul. They have to give an account. Anyone that holds any leadership position in the church, you will have to give an account for the people that you lead. We have to prevent the savage wolf from coming in to the church, the water from leaking in to the church because Satan is out there disguised as an angel of light looking to deceive the church. I’m going to say a few more things and I’m going to close. False teachers don’t wear a name tag. They don’t say on here false teacher. That’s not how that works. They disguise themselves as apostles of Christ. And anyone can fall prey. It doesn’t matter if you are a young person or an older person or new in the faith or been in the faith for 30 years. If you listen from if you listen to messages from this pulpit and simply what I told you before, if you say amen without thinking about what you are saying amen to, you can fall to deception. It’s so funny. I I as a translator up here translating wonderful messages from men of God, I can tell you that I’ve heard amens from the crowd for things that I’m like, what are you saying amen to? We have to be very careful what we are saying amen to. What we are agreeing with. Just because it’s labeled Christian doesn’t mean it’s okay. Just because it’s in a Christian bookstore doesn’t mean you should read it. I’m telling you as the Sunday school director here for two years how hard it is to find doctrinal books to teach children. I don’t I cannot tell you how many hours it takes to find books that are doctrally sound. There are so many Christian books by Christian authors and they have the worst theologies. They have false teachings all mixed in in there. Be careful what music you are listening to. Be careful what YouTube sermons you are listening to. Be careful what podcast you’re listening to. Is it aligning with scripture? Remember my berry illustration? If I brought a bag of those berries in here for you and I mixed it with regular blueberries and cranberries, would you be able to tell the difference? You have to examine each one individually because you don’t want to eat a poison berry. That’s how you need to be with the words that are coming from the pulpit. Study the word. When you hear a message, compare it with the word of God. Don’t take my word for it. Don’t take anyone’s word for it. That’s how you know. That’s how you can find false teaching. Some of you are thinking here and I know Mali very well because I am one. Malis have this habit. I have been a Christian for 30 years. Who are you telling me that I don’t? I know how to spot false doctrine. I’ve been going to Sunday school since I was a kid. I know what is written in the Bible. I listen to sermons every Sunday. But even older, mature believers can be deceived. Listen to this verse from Matthew. These are the words of Jesus. Matthew 24:24. Matthew 24:24, false Christs and false prophets will appear, and they will show great signs and wonders, and if it were possible, they will deceive the very elect, or sometimes say they will deceive God’s chosen ones. That’s how deceptive it is. Let me take it a step further. We’re in Galatians for our Bible study. Galatians 3:1 Paul is telling the Galatian church, Galatians 3:1, “Oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, who has spiritually deceived you that you don’t obey the truth? Jesus was clearly portrayed to you as crucified, but now you are deceived. If it happened to them, it can happen to you. It can happen to me.” So, let us be a church that is on guard. Let’s bow our heads this morning. Every head, close your Bibles, bow your heads. The message I’m giving I gave you this morning is not your typical Sunday feel-good message. Over the last few months, I have been prompted again and again by the Holy Spirit to give this word to this church. And I’m going to tell you, I only started at the introduction today. I have woken up in the middle of the night with this word on my heart. I’ve woken up in a cold sweat in the morning thinking about this word. The church is the pillar and the foundation of truth. The local church is constantly under attack. The devil wants the foundation of the church to be unstable because he knows all it takes is one crack in the foundation and the church will go into chaos. This is what Timothy was facing. False doctrine in Ephesus. So Paul told Timothy, you’re going to stay there and you’re going to command people to stop teaching false doctrine. Why does that matter to us on this Sunday morning? Because I just want to tell you that God never gives up on his church. Even in the midst of chaos, even when there’s a crack in the foundation, even when there’s water pouring in, God will give his church another chance. Paul could have easily said, “I give up. I’m done. There’s there’s false teachers. There are elders that are teaching false things. There are pastors teaching false things. I’m done. I quit. Let me start a new church. But by the grace of God, Timothy was in the church and he commanded Timothy to stay and get things in order. God does not give up on his church like we give up. The only thing that God expects from us is the humbleness to correct ourselves. This is why I love this verse that we read from Timothy. Timothy, stay, abide, remain. It’s so easy to walk away. Don’t give up because God is not finished with his work for the church of Ephesus. Listen, let me tell you something, dear brothers and sisters. The work of the church is not about filling the chairs. It’s nice to fill the chairs. It’s a that’s every pastor’s joy is to fill the chairs. But I would rather have a small church with people that follow the whole truth than a a huge church of people that are doing whatever they want in a church. The God that started a good work in Paul in Ephesus continued that good work in Timothy to maintain the church of Ephesus. And we see later on in the Bible that Ephesus listened that Timothy’s work, Timothy staying there, actually did good work for that church. Revelation 2:3, Jesus is giving his testimony, his letter to the church of Ephesus, and he’s telling the church of Ephesus in Revelation, I know your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people. You have tested those who claimed to be apostles and found them not to be. You have persevered. You see in Revelation, the same church that had false doctrine, now in the book of Revelation, the spirit is applauding them for being true to doctrine. They endured hardship. They persevered. Even though they were getting weary, they stood true to the word of God. Between the letter to Timothy and Revelation, the church of Ephesus got it right. They listened to what Timothy had to say. Dear Bethl church, you and I both know that God is moving this church in a new way. I I feel it every day when when I come into this church, God is doing something new in this church. God is moving this church into a new season. Whatever happened in the past, whatever the past was is the past. But God is paving a new way in the wilderness for this church. So let us be a church. Let us be a pillar of God’s truth as a faithful church. Let us bow our heads and pray. Father God, we thank you Lord for this word you have given us this morning. We thank you for your Holy Spirit. We thank you that you have given us the Old Testament and New Testament to study who you are, the character of who God is. You are almighty God, but you are the alpha and the omega. And you have given us this church, this fellowship, this community of believers together to praise and honor your name. We thank you, Lord. As we go from here, as we depart from here, let your Holy Spirit guide us. Lord, help us to be aware of false teaching, false doctrine that is around us. Lord, help our ears to be open to your word. In your name we pray. Amen.