PAUL’S WARNING TO CHRISTIANS

WARNING #1: ABOUT BEING A GOOD SOLDIER 3-7

To be a good soldier, you must love the army. Robert E. Lee, Conversation with Gen. Longstreet US-Confederate general (1807 - 1870)

As a Soldier in the U.S. Army, you're tasked with upholding the Constitution and protecting America's freedoms. But it's not always work — Soldiers have free time just like everyone else to spend with friends and family, or take part in sports or hobbies. Soldiers continually strengthen themselves mentally and physically through Ongoing Training. And most important — Soldiers live the Seven Core Army Values every day. Goarmy.com

A Soldier's day is anything but average

Army Soldiers are constantly encouraged to grow.

A.    NOT SIMPLE 3 

B.     NOT DISTRACTED 4a

C.     NOT DOUBLEMINDED 4b

D.    NOT A QUITER 3

E.     NOT A WIMP 1

Christine Ortiz
Counterintelligence Agent

"I joined the Army because I wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself," says Christine.

Goarmy.com

(PHILIPPIANS 4:13) I CAN DO ALL THINGS THROUGH CHRIST WHICH STRENGTHENETH ME.

WARNING #2:  ABOUT THE DUTY OF SUFFERING 8-13

A.    SUFFERING DOES NOT BIND GOD’S WORD

(GALATIANS 6:9) AND LET US NOT BE WEARY IN WELL DOING: FOR IN DUE SEASON WE SHALL REAP, IF WE FAINT NOT.

B.     FORGET YOURSELF VS 11-13

(PHILIPPIANS 4:19) BUT MY GOD SHALL SUPPLY ALL YOUR NEED ACCORDING TO HIS RICHES IN GLORY BY CHRIST JESUS.

WARNING #3:  ABOUT SHAKY DOCTRINES 14-18

A.    STRIVE NOT WITH UNPROFITABLE WORDS 14; 23-24

We need to stick by the Old Paths!

1. Stick With The Savior

(John 6:67) "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?"  Many have left Him today - they may still be in church, but they have left Him. They may still sing - teach - pray - but are far from Him.

(Mat 15:8) "This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me."

2. Stick With The Scriptures

It is to be our rule, authority in faith and practice…nothing is to take precedence over it in our lives and decisions. It is the Truth. It tells us that we need to be saved, it tells us how to be saved, and it gives us the assurance of our salvation! 2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: Stay with the Book! Don't replace it with anything or anyone!

3.  Stick with the local church.

Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

All that we do for God is to be done in and through the local church. The local church is the only organization commissioned to take the Gospel to the world. No other organization has God's authority. I don't know about you, but I have decided to stay! I didn't just make that decision this morning.  Regardless of what may happen, I am going to stay! What about you?

B.     STUDY FOR GOD’S APPROVAL 15

“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me.” Isaiah 29:13

C.     SHUN UNGODLINESS VS 16-18

Wow! Paul would not have gotten along with modern preachers at all!  Did he just call the names of these men?  Did he just call out their errors?

Hymenaeus is mentioned in I Tim. 1:20

The specific error of these men was that they denied that there would be any bodily resurrection. They treated all Scriptural references to such a state, as figurative or metaphorical. They spiritualized it absolutely, and held that the resurrection was a thing of the past. No resurrection was possible, so they taught, except from ignorance to knowledge, from sin to righteousness. There would be no day when the dead would hear the voice of Christ and come forth out of the grave. The Christian, knowing that Christ was raised from the dead, looked forward to the day when his body should be raised in the likeness of Christ's resurrection. But this faith was utterly denied by the teaching of Hymeneus and Philetus.

This teaching of theirs, Paul tells us, had overthrown the faith of some. It would also overthrow Christian faith altogether, for if the dead are not raised, neither is Christ risen from the dead, and "ye are yet in your sins" (1 Cor 15:17).

The denial of the resurrection of the body, whether o mankind generally or of Christ, is the overthrow of the faith. It leaves nothing to cling to, no living Christ, who saves and leads and comforts His people. The apostle proceeds to say that teaching of this kind "eats as doth a gangrene," and that it increases unto more ungodliness. As a canker or gangrene eats away the flesh, so does such teaching eat away Christian faith. Paul is careful to say, more than once, that the teaching which denies that there will be a resurrection of the dead leads inevitably to "ungodliness" and to "iniquity."

Hymenaeus and Philetus may have believed in a form of Gnosticism (refers to religious belief systems generally united in the teaching that humans are divine souls trapped in a material world created by an imperfect god, this being is frequently identified with the Abrahamic God, and is contrasted with a superior entity)

Matt 7:15 Beware of FALSE PROPHETS, which come to you in SHEEP'S CLOTHING, BUT INWARDLY THEY ARE RAVENING WOLVES.

2 Pet 2:1 But there were FALSE PROPHETS ALSO AMONG THE PEOPLE, even as there shall be FALSE TEACHERS AMONG YOU, who PRIVILY SHALL BRING IN DAMNABLE HERESIES, even DENYING THE LORD THAT BOUGHT them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

WARNING #4: ABOUT CHRIST-LIKE SEPARATION19-26

A.    DEPART FROM INIQUITY 19

People come in to eat at Chick-fil a to eat and I can tell what they do for a living by the smell!  Pizza man, oil workers mechanics, trash men.  They smell like what they are around.  

B.     PREPARE FOR GOD’S WORK 20-21

(1 CHRONICLES 28:10) TAKE HEED NOW; FOR THE LORD HATH CHOSEN THEE TO BUILD AN HOUSE FOR THE SANCTUARY: BE STRONG, AND DO IT. This verse is a challenge from King David to his son Solomon. David knew the work would be great and he sought to encourage and challenge his son to accomplish something great for God.

C.     FLEE LUST; FOLLOW RIGHTEOUSNESS 22

CLOSING: VS. 26