Episode Transcript
Book of 2 Kings, chapter 17.
How's that?
I said the word Bible book.
It reminded me of a dear lady who speaks mostly Japanese, but she is the widow of a friend of mine.
And I was able through Brother Luke and his mom to get a copy of a Japanese Bible for her.
And I think she was probably a Shinto or Buddhist.
I don't know what her background was religion-wise, but I gave her that book one day, and I don't speak any Japanese.
She speaks very little English, so to try to witness to her was impossible for me.
And I thought, well, this is the best thing I know to do, is give her that.
So she called me a few weeks later, and she said, I got your Bible book.
Thank you.
That's what she called it a Bible book.
So I sure hope she read some of it.
Well, we're in 2 Kings, chapter 17, and we'll begin verse 18 today as the new part of our study.
Last week we learned about how the children of Israel sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord.
And although they had the choice to sin, they did not have the right to sin.
And I hope you're able to take that truth away with you.
It changes your perspective about your choices.
You may have a choice, but you don't always have a right.
And you never have a right to sin.
And having provoked the Lord to anger, let's see what happened next in verse 18.
We're in 2 Kings, chapter 17, if you just tuned in.
Verse 18, therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight.
There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
Let's take that apart and look at the first few words.
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel.
Now that's no surprise here.
They had, as we learned in the prior verses, they had provoked the Lord to anger.
And so his response was to be angry with them.
That is the natural response.
Why would we be surprised that God would be angry with sin?
And as is always the case, God had already told the children of Israel many years before that what it would take to provoke him.
Now you'd want to know that, wouldn't you?
What it would take to provoke God.
In fact, we do that on a daily basis, and I'll hit an example or two here in just a moment.
But God said in Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verse 20, Deuteronomy 31, verse 20, if you don't know how to spell Deuteronomy, just abbreviate, D-E-U-T.
And it says, for when I shall have brought them into the land which I swear unto their fathers, that floweth with milk and honey, and they shall have eaten and filled themselves and waxen fat, then they will turn to other gods and serve them and provoke me and break my covenant.
So God tells the children of Israel in Deuteronomy, now remember that took place before they went into the Promised Land while Moses was still alive, God told them, you want to provoke me, this is how you do it.
And this is when you'll do it.
You'll do it when everything is wonderful, when you're fat and happy, in other words.
Then you'll turn to other gods.
Now, I didn't go into this word provoke too much during our last study, so let's do it here today.
The word translated as provoke in the Old Testament is also translated as the word despise, despise.
Now if you had asked the average Israelite in the days we're reading about, do you despise God?
Well, they probably would have answered, why no, I don't despise God, I don't hate God.
And it may surprise you what it takes to despise or to provoke God.
We got a glimpse of it there in Deuteronomy 31.
But here are a couple of passages from Numbers chapter 14 that teach us a little bit more about what it takes to provoke God, because you want to know that.
Verse 11, Numbers 14 verse 11, And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me?
And how long will it be ere they believe me?
For all the signs which I have showed among them.
Now the two words I emphasized right there were provoke and believe, because they are opposites.
Further down in that same chapter in Numbers 14, just write verse 23, it says about these children of Israel, Surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it.
So there's a reason that a particular group, in fact most of the children of Israel, certainly all of them that were above 20 years of age except for Caleb and Joshua, just rattling your memory cage a little bit there, those above 20 years of age except for those two would not go into the Promised Land.
And so God said they'll not see the land because they provoked me.
So taking those two passages from Numbers, we learn that the way to provoke God is unbelief.
That's how you provoke God.
It's not that you do this little thing or this little thing here, or you forgot to do something righteous.
It's unbelief.
That's what provokes God.
And unbelief shows itself when a person sells himself to do evil in the sight of the Lord.
That's why the children of Israel did that.
They sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, and that was from unbelief.
They go together hand in hand.
So those evil acts are natural outgrowths of selling oneself to do evil.
I've got a pesky crepe myrtle tree.
Now those are beautiful trees unless the builder messed up and planted one in your garden this far from your foundation.
They're not acceptable there.
He should have planted a dwarf, but he didn't.
And one of the natural outgrowths of planting that tree is that the roots, the very large roots, try to get in under your foundation.
They like to wrap around your plumbing lines and all of that and cause problems.
And you wouldn't expect anything less from the crepe myrtle than to try to extend its boundaries and grow and grow, which it does.
And that's what you would expect from someone who sells himself to do evil, somebody who is an unbeliever.
Don't think, don't be disappointed at what unbelievers do.
If you say, I know somebody who's not saved, you won't believe what this person does.
Probably won't.
But don't be too surprised at what an unbeliever does.
Now Christian, before you think, you may be thinking, all right, well, have I provoked God?
Have I provoked God?
Before you get wrapped around the axle about that and start doubting, remember that provoking God has its root in unbelief.
And that's the starting point.
So if you're a believer and you sin, the root of your sin is not unbelief.
You're not an unbeliever.
You're a believer.
And so what happens with a believer when a believer sins is that we temporarily yield to the flesh.
Now the flesh wants to do what the flesh wants to do, doesn't it?
That's the best way I know to describe it.
The flesh wants to do what's easiest, what feels good, what doesn't cost us anything, what makes us feel better or look better or sound better.
And the flesh has no concern about spiritual things.
They are contrary.
The spirit and the flesh are contrary to each other.
So when a believer sins, that is a temporary yielding to the desires of the flesh rather than the Spirit of God in you.
Now the believer yielding to the Spirit of God is going to please God.
And that's what that sanctification is that we are engaged in in this natural life, in this body we have choices.
Yield to the flesh, yield to the spirit.
The more I yield to the spirit, the more I'm being sanctified.
Now that's kind of a basic truth, but it always helps to go over that from time to time.
And so for the believer when you sin, then God chastens you.
God does not pour His wrath out upon you.
Don't forget that.
Sometimes people struggle with the security of their salvation.
And the security of your salvation doesn't rest in whether you have yielded to the flesh today or yesterday or any other time.
It's whether you're in unbelief or not.
If you're in unbelief, you're not saved and you're not going to be saved until you have put your trust where Jesus put your sin.
The Christ of Calvary, it's the gospel.
Now let's look at a New Testament passage that comments on that Numbers passage I just read you.
And this helps us understand what was behind Israel's provocation of God, Israel's provoking of God in our text.
And it's a lengthy passage so write it down and then listen.
Hebrews chapter three, Hebrews chapter three.
And I'll read verses 15 through 19.
While it is said today, if you will hear His voice, harden not your hearts as in the provocation.
Now that's the noun form of the verb provoke.
For some when they had heard did provoke, how be it not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
But with whom was he grieved 40 years?
Was it not with them that had sinned whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?
And here's the question.
And to whom swear he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not.
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
That's who couldn't enter into God's rest.
And that New Testament word translated provoke or provocation is from the Greek language rather than the Hebrew and it has to do with rebellion.
And rebellion is rooted in hatred.
When somebody despises God, they're a rebel.
And that Hebrews passage shows us a couple things.
Number one, they all heard.
They said some heard and they provoked God.
They were in unbelief, but not all.
Because others heard and they believed that gospel message that's been preached since Genesis and certainly to them through the prophets.
But the second thing we learned from that Hebrews passage is that the ones who provoked God were the ones in unbelief.
And those in unbelief did not enter into his rest.
Unbelief provokes God.
So let's get that in our hearts.
Unbelief is what provokes God.
And an unbeliever is one who despises God, one who rebels against God.
Even though such a person would claim, I don't hate God, I don't despise him.
I'm not rebelling against him.
As we learned in the Deuteronomy chapter 31 text that I read you, God told Israel what it would take to provoke him.
Now some liberals may say, well, he's an angry, mean, threatening God.
But actually it's quite merciful and loving for God to tell us what will provoke him.
Because anyone who believes in God, even if they're not saved, which is the case with many, they'll say, I believe in a God that there is a God, and okay, well, you're correct, but so does the devil believe that, and he trembles.
But even those people would say, no, I don't want to make God mad at me.
It's just that they don't understand what really does provoke God.
It's their unbelief.
They've already done it.
Jesus said, he that believeth not is condemned when?
Yeah, already.
Not one of these days in the future.
Already, you don't have to do anything else to earn your condemnation.
You're condemned in your sin as an unbeliever.
But can you imagine if God said, now listen, you people don't want to provoke me, and had Moses said, well, Lord, we don't.
What provokes you?
And God said, well, you'll just have to find that out the hard way.
Just don't do it.
Just figure it out.
That wouldn't be merciful and loving.
That would produce fear in his people, because we wouldn't know whether to step to the left, right, or be still.
But God said very clearly, here's what provokes me.
Don't do it.
One of my colleagues, and yes, this is about provocation.
One of my colleagues raises chickens and turkeys, and he's got a three-year-old boy who loves to help his daddy on the farm.
And those animals are his pets, which creates a problem when it comes time for dinner.
But last week, this little boy walked over to one of those turkeys, and they're almost as tall as he is, blue slate turkeys.
And his daddy said, son, don't get in that turkey's face.
He'll bite you.
And sure enough, being a typical little boy, he put his face near the turkeys.
He's wanting to give him a kiss.
And that turkey latched on to that little boy's upper lip for about three seconds, and then he let go.
And little Lucas jumped back, and he was surprised, and he said, daddy, that turkey's kiss hurt.
He didn't realize he'd been bitten by a defensive turkey.
Now, if that little boy had known he was going to get bitten on the lip by that turkey, if he would have believed what his dad said, then he'd have never done it.
His dad was quite merciful.
He didn't stand back and say, see what happens if he goes over and puts his face up next to that turkey.
He didn't want his son to be bitten.
He told him, don't get in his face.
Essentially, that will provoke the turkey who would otherwise have left him alone.
And yes, he's okay, but he's a little wiser now.
Three-year-old got some wisdom that day, didn't he?
And you know a turkey is fairly predictable, as are most animals.
The key is, if you don't mess with them, they won't mess with you.
That's usually the truth.
I know accidents happen, strange things happen.
You know, according to an online source, venomous snake bites, venomous snakes bite people 7,000 to 8,000 times a year.
That's how many venomous snake bites there are in the United States.
And 85% of the bites are where?
To the hands, fingers.
You know why?
Now, people are, if you're this tall, that would take an awfully long snake to be able to reach all the way up and bite your hand if you were just minding your own business.
But this is what happens.
People pick up the snakes, 57% of those bites, of all bites, are from snake handlers.
And I know it's impressive to go to Sweetwater, Texas and watch the rattlesnake round up.
I used to do that when I was a boy.
And every once in a while, one of those handlers was bitten.
He was messing with a snake that was perfectly content, staying in his hole out in the countryside, catching rats and being left alone.
People get bitten on the hand because they provoke the snake.
And the reaction is predictable.
Now, man is a little bit different.
If only our threshold for being provoked were always the same, then we might get along a little bit better if we were more like a snake.
But we're not.
Ours is more complicated.
Some days, we become angry a little easier than other days.
Some days, we seem to be in a great mood and people wonder, well, what's wrong with him?
He's usually an old codger.
I had a supervisor one time who was an alcoholic and he came to work drunk.
This is a long time ago.
No, you don't know him and he's passed away now, so I'd never name his name.
But he came to work drunk and in uniform.
But boy, he was a stickler for us wearing our hats, our uniform hats when we were outside of a vehicle or outside of a car.
If you didn't have your hat on, you were going to hear it from this particular supervisor.
Imagine that.
He wouldn't have been angry if one of his subordinates showed up to work drunk, but that drunk subordinate better have his hat on.
Now, see, that doesn't make any sense, does it?
But that's a man.
We don't have.
.
.
we can't tell somebody truthfully, here's what provokes me.
Here's what triggers me.
We may say we can, but it always changes.
Aren't you glad God doesn't do that?
I do it because I have a bad day and then I end up having to apologize.
This right here, this area between my nose and my chin, has gotten me in more trouble than anything I've ever done with my hands or feet.
I promise you.
You can just take my word for it.
And you leave yourself having to apologize.
God is always the same.
He's always the same.
So what he told the children of Israel hundreds of years before what we're reading here was the same then it is in the time we're reading about as it is now.
He didn't change the standard.
And I'm so thankful that that's the case.
And although God is long suffering, you may say, well, Brother Andy, I've read things in the Bible where somebody just did wrong over and over again and God let it continue and other people did it and he punished them right then.
God's long suffering.
Don't think for a moment that because he allows a person to sin that he's okay with it.
He's still angry with sin.
The Bible said he's angry with the wicked.
How often?
Every day.
We learned that last week, didn't we?
He's never okay with sin even though he permits man to continue to choose sin.
Now, the Bible tells me what sin is, tells you to, by the way.
So I won't be surprised by some new rule that pops up or some secret interpretation because there's not one.
And if you ever hear that there is one, you can dismiss it if it's not in the Bible.
And if it's in the Bible, it's not new, is it?
It's been there for thousands of years.
The Ten Commandments, for example, are quite clear.
And the fact that they were once posted in schoolhouses and in courthouses across the land tell us that they were so simple that even the common people, the children, could read them and understand them.
So when you teach your little boy or girl not to steal, they understand thou shalt not steal.
You may not say thou shalt not steal.
You say don't take something that's not yours.
If it's not yours, don't touch it.
Boy, that'd save us a lot of trouble right there, wouldn't it?
Yeah, I might not even have a job if people always just touch what was theirs.
But America sold itself to do evil a long time ago and provoked God.
And the wicked, the unbelieving people, and it's not just leaders, it's people who voters too, have led this nation to its certain demise, and it's going to happen sooner than later.
In my opinion, I don't try to predict what's going to happen when.
I just know what God's word says.
It said that the love, iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall wax cold.
And iniquity is certainly abounding.
Well, what action did God take when Israel provoked him to anger?
Let's look back in our text in verse 18.
Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight.
Now let's look at that for a moment.
That might intrigue you.
Because we learn last week or maybe the week before that God sees everything.
So you might say, if he sees everything, how could he remove something out of his sight?
What does that mean?
And as we usually do, let us begin with the meanings of some of these words in our text and try to learn from it.
The word removed also means to turn away or turn aside or to take away.
There are other phrases it's translated into.
The word out is also the word from.
He said he'll remove them out of his sight.
And then his sight, the two words his sight are also translated as his presence.
Now that doesn't solve the puzzle for us, but knowing the meanings of this word or these words will give us a running start.
So now let's look at the context in which these words were written.
That is the surrounding verses, what was happening during this time.
Where were the people about whom these verses were written?
Well, they were in Samaria.
And Samaria refers to two locations.
One is the general location of Israel.
The ten tribes, the northern kingdom was sometimes called Samaria in the Bible, just like it was called Ephraim in our text in Hosea.
And then Samaria was also the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel when it was divided.
So these people were in Samaria.
And God's observation of these people took place not all over his creation, but in a small geographical area on this earth.
You might say God was looking at Samaria and the people there rather than looking at Egypt or Jordan or China or India or some other country.
So the stage was very small.
And for the purpose of this passage, the presence of God was the specific location where these events took place.
Here's a good way to look at it.
God sees the big picture that is everything, but he also sees the fine details as well.
Here's a good example for you.
Probably all of us learned at some point in school how to use a microscope.
And when I took biology in school, we learned how to use a microscope.
We learned about all the parts and the phrase that stuck with me was the higher magnification equals lower resolution and vice versa was true.
And if we put probably the reason I like a microscope is I knew we were going to get to see something gross underneath it.
You know, little boys like to see.
We're kind of strange that way.
But we would take, I knew I was going to like biology because I got to see cross-sections of animal tissue.
Now that's right up a little boy's alley.
And the girls had to get over the ewe and the gross and all that or they couldn't pass biology.
So we'd take a piece of animal tissue and put it on a slide and mash it down there and put it under the microscope.
And when we did that, we could see things that weren't visible to the naked eye.
And if, but we could see the whole piece of tissue.
Now guess what happened when we increased the magnification of that microscope?
We no longer saw the whole piece of tissue.
We saw a real small part of it that we couldn't see before it was magnified.
So yes, we had the entire piece of tissue in front of us.
But when we really cranked down on that magnification, we magnified it.
Then we saw smaller pieces of that tissue.
And it was amazing the things that are in there that you can't see with the naked eye.
And depending on the strength of the microscope, you can see everything.
But these were school microscopes and they didn't spend a whole lot of money on them in those days.
But I want you to imagine that.
Now take God who, like we were, could see the entire thing that we were looking at.
But we could also see a very small part if we magnified the microscope.
Take God who not only saw the entire nation of Israel, but Samaria as well.
It's like the microscope was magnified to Samaria, to that small location within that small country over all the earth, over all the universe, over his entire creation.
And so God's looking at this microscope just because we're trying to imagine what this must be like.
It's hard to imagine God seeing everything and then just seeing only Samaria and removing something out of his sight.
So we're having to use a human example to try to understand it.
So imagine God looking at the microscope.
He's magnified it and he's looking right at Samaria.
Now if I were looking, if I had magnified a specific spot on that animal tissue, and I took that slide while it was highly magnified and I moved it just a little to the left, guess what just went out of my sight?
What I was looking at.
Now I'm looking at some other part of that animal tissue.
So for God to remove Israel, the children of Israel, those tribes that we're reading about, out of his sight, he just moves the slide over a little bit and puts them over here.
It doesn't mean he can't find them.
It doesn't mean they disappeared from him.
But he has removed them from his presence and his presence in this context is Samaria, Israel, the very small part of the world that he's honed in on, that he's focused in on.
And perhaps that shows you how God who sees all could remove the children of Israel from out of his sight.
Now we know that because God is omnipresent, that means he's everywhere all at once.
He's omniscient.
That means he knows everything all at once.
Past, present, future, nothing ever is, God never learns anything.
He already knows it.
Because of those attributes of God, it's impossible for him to remove them to a place where he cannot find them or see them.
He could, however, move them to a place that was far away from the place where they were present, where they were in his presence in Samaria.
And this is clarified a little bit more for us in the next few words of our verse.
Let's look back at verse 18.
It said, and remove them out of his sight.
And then you see a full colon there after the word sight.
And what that means is the words come after that are an amplification or a description of what he means by remove them out of his sight.
There was none left but the tribe of Judah only.
So again, God looking in this little microscope at this little place called Samaria, he moves all of the tribes away from there, except for Judah, the tribe of Judah.
Now in this case, he's either referring to Judah and Benjamin, which comprise the nation of Judah or Judah the tribe only, but that's what he's done.
He's moved everybody but Judah.
None left but the tribe of Judah only.
And that's the only tribe left in the land which the Lord God gave his people when he brought them out of the wilderness.
And the rest of the people were scattered, as in taken to Assyria or possibly other countries as well.
And this is how I believe God removed them from his sight.
Well, why Judah?
Why would he leave Judah?
What was special about Judah versus Ephraim or Dan or Naphtali or any of those other tribes?
One, Judah was the tribe from which the Lord Jesus would come.
Hebrews 7, 14, little a says, for it is evident that our Lord came out of Judah.
And it's quite apparent that the time we're reading about under King Hosea is the same approximate time as we're reading about in the book of Hosea.
Now there are two different people.
Hosea is this evil king.
Hosea is God's prophet.
And with that in mind, I want you to listen to how Scripture verifies Scripture for us.
Remember, God said in our text that he removed Israel, the nation of Israel, minus Judah, from out of his sight, but he left Judah in the land.
I'm going to read Hosea chapter 1 verses 6 through 7.
Hosea 1 verses 6 through 7.
And this is referring to the children who were born by the wife of the prophet Hosea.
It said, and she conceived again and bear a daughter.
And God said unto him, Call her name, Loru HaMa, for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away.
That's when he removed them out of his sight.
But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
Isn't that neat how what we're reading here and what we see in Hosea, they're talking about the same time period.
In fact, I just want to encourage people who are here, people who are online and the ones who aren't here, although they can't hear me right now, to be faithful to attend or to listen to all of the teaching that you get here.
Not because we're special.
But when you hear something like this, when you see dimensions of the Bible that you hadn't seen before and you watch the Bible verify the Bible, you see the harmony.
It's just amazing.
And we've seen the harmony not only with 1 Kings 17 and Hosea, but also with Proverbs, where some of the same things that the pastor is teaching and as he said before, we don't communicate with each other about our notes and say, hey, here's my notes, here's your notes.
We don't do that.
But so often we end up teaching on the same truths.
That's because we're studying from the same Bible.
Doesn't matter where you are, whether you're in Proverbs, 1 Kings or Hosea.
But it's just amazing.
And if you hit and miss and you're here sometime, you're there sometime, or you say, I don't want to listen to it today.
I'm going to check Facebook pictures of my grandkids or whatever.
Listen, there's a time for all that.
But if that's what you do, you're missing out on so many of these wonderful truths in the Bible.
Now, verse 19, also Judah kept not the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel, which they made.
And when we read verse 18, perhaps you thought, well, God left Judah in place because they were not provoking him.
Oh, that's not true.
They were provoking him.
In fact, going back to Hosea, now we haven't gotten to this passage in Hosea yet in our study with the pastor on Sunday mornings.
But this is chapter 12, verses 1 through 2.
And it's speaking of the 10 tribes of Israel when it refers to Ephraim.
So you could just put Israel there.
It's the same thing.
He from feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind.
He daily increaseeth lies and desolation.
And they do make a covenant with the Assyrians.
Now, who did the Israel go to in our study?
Where were they taking captive?
Assyria.
It's the same time.
And oil is carried into Egypt.
Listen to this.
The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah and will punish Jacob according to his ways, according to his doings, will he recompense him?
So God is telling us there in Hosea, Judah's not out of the woods.
Israel is being scattered.
But Judah's not out of the woods.
They did badly.
Israel, Ephraim, did worse.
It's not that any of them were shining pupils.
Back in Hosea 1, verse 7, which I read to you a minute ago, God said he would show mercy on Israel and save them.
He would show, or excuse me, on Judah and save them.
But the fact that they were, that they needed to be saved means they were not doing right.
They were sinners.
And the fact that God showed mercy on them meant they had judgment coming.
And it says there in verse 19, But walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
Now, that's not the answer to pleasing God, is it?
In fact, it is the path to provoking God.
Judah had the law and the prophets in the writings, just like Israel did.
So they knew what God's commandments were.
But rather than obeying those commandments, they said, as we see in our text, it said they walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.
Not which God made, but which they made.
And rather than obeying God's commandments, they said, Well, let's see what our brothers and sisters in the northern kingdom are doing.
We'll just do like they do.
We'll just follow along there.
Friends, that is a poor way to live out your lives, seeing what others are doing, and then doing what others are doing.
What if we did that as a church?
If a person came to us from the fourth Baptist church, wherever that might be, and said, Brother Andy, I've been listening to your Sunday school lessons, and I think you ought to start off telling a joke before every lesson, like Brother so-and-so does at our old church.
Or why don't you read a scripture and then let people stand up and give their opinions about it like they do over here at the biggest church in town?
And is now on the joke, that's a real thing.
I had a long time ago a pastor who began every message with a joke, and it was usually a blonde joke, which offended visitors.
I thought, how do you go up there with this?
And the first thing out of your mouth is a joke that might offend somebody, and then expect for people to return their minds to God's word as you begin to teach it.
But if somebody made those suggestions to me as humbly but as firmly as I could, I would tell them that none of those things they're asking me to do are in the Bible.
They're not in there.
In fact, if you ever came up and said, Brother Andy, I want to know why we don't do this around here, why we don't do that.
You better go ahead and find it in the Bible first before you bring it to me.
Because if it's not in there, that's what I'm going to tell you.
Well, it's not in the Bible.
It doesn't mean everything that we do in here is spelled out specifically in the Bible.
The Bible doesn't say you have to have carpet in your church.
It doesn't say you don't have to have carpet.
We just do.
But so many things are brought into churches that aren't in the Bible.
They have nothing to do with being taught God's word.
In God's word, you have the teacher and you have the one being taught, or the ones being taught.
You have the preacher, you have the ones to whom he is preaching.
Do you know what I'm going to do here in just a little bit?
I'm going to stop teaching.
I'm going to go right down there.
I'm going to be taught.
I love it.
I can teach or I can be taught.
In fact, I always want to be taught.
I don't always have to teach.
There may come a day when I'm not able to teach, but I can always be taught.
2 Timothy 4, verses 2 through 3.
This would be for that person who says, why don't you let people stand up and give their opinions?
2 Timothy 4, 2 through 3.
Paul said, preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctoring, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine.
But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
And from that verse we can learn an awful lot.
But one thing in support of our text is that the preacher is the one doing the preaching.
And with long suffering and sound doctrine, he is supposed to reprove, rebuke, and exhort the ones who are being taught.
And the only way he can be sure that he's doing that is to teach what the Bible says, that is what God's commandments are, rather than doing like Judah and saying, well, what are teachers at other churches doing?
From the Timothy verses we also learn that there are people who are being taught who will not endure sound doctrine.
In our church when that's happened, those people just leave.
We don't have to ask them to leave.
They leave.
They leave because as the Bible says, they will not endure sound doctrine.
Now I'm not saying somebody hasn't left because of a personality conflict.
That happens sometimes.
But in general, when a person comes into a church where the Bible is taught, if they don't endure sound doctrine, they won't stay.
They'll say, well, this isn't what I signed up for.
This isn't what I expected out of church.
And by God's grace, there's nowhere in this building to hide from sound doctrine.
And the ones who don't endure sound doctrine will go somewhere else.
And they'll find a place where sound doctrine is not taught, something that they can endure.
And those people will find teachers who teach what they want to hear.
Maybe they let them stand up and give their opinions on things, rather than what they need to hear.
Some of the very large churches have hordes of teachers just like that.
In fact, most of the teachers and preachers that are in pulpits across the world have no business being up there.
They fill their time in their Sunday school classes or in their messages with things other than study of the Bible, the jokes and the rituals and all these practices.
But because those churches are very large with thousands of people in attendance, what they do is often a model for what other churches do.
And we'll talk more about that and how Judah aired greatly in doing what their brethren said to do rather than what God said to do.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank You for the enduring sound doctrine of Your Word and pray that at this church we would never be prideful.
We would never think that we're the only ones teaching it or preaching it.
But to the contrary, Lord, that You would give us the grace to continue and that our sister churches would not fall prey to this either, to this temptation to please the crowd and to do as other churches are doing.
But we'd all model our practice, our preaching, our lives, after what Your Word says, and just stay with that.
And we'll do it in Jesus' name and by Your help.
Amen.
