Ironworks | Men of Truth

what a good morning it's great man it's nice to get together with you guys this is the last of the ironworks until summer's over so this is kind of our grand finale for now uh but we'll get back together of course in september and roll along we just find that summer is difficult for everybody to kind of get enough time to do everything that we need to do and and so uh so it'll be good but i wanted to i'm all tangled up here hold on there we go all right good uh but um i wanted to kind of have a fun day getting into some breakfast and some time here but i also have a word and i'm going to try not to keep it make it as long so i've been going kind of long lately on a lot of things but our last iron works was long and our last prophecy was tediously really long and so i'm turning a new leaf today um you're like yeah right um but uh uh but i want to share something that it's been something that's been somewhat of a theme and it's weird because i haven't purposefully done this i think it's the lord saying i've got something for athe creek maybe it's not for everybody i think it is but i uh but i i know for sure the lord is kind of saying brett this is something that's on my heart for athy creekers and um and it's it's been permeating almost every study that i've been doing and and if you know we go verse by verse chapter my chapter book my book through the bible so it's funny how these things just keep popping up even though it's it's right in the midst of our study but um today uh you know uh i i've really put the the idea of of um being men of truth that's kind of the theme if we're gonna call this ironworks uh something we're gonna call this one men of truth uh truth is such a key today uh what is truth you know uh even uh that question was asked by pontius pilate as jesus was standing right in front of him that ironic the jesus who said i am the way the truth and the life there's the truth standing right in front of him but he couldn't tell he couldn't see he had a sense but he didn't go with what he knew was right um what is truth man we're we're in a day where truth is rare uh i want to uh dive into a whole book of the bible i'm going to read with you today a whole book of the bible we're going to tackle an entire book i'm going to not skip a word uh are you guys ready you said it's going to be short um yup the whole book why don't you turn to second john with me right now second john right up if you start with the book of revelation at the very end and go backwards you got jude and then third john and second john so you're getting there if you're close to the end second john does the world recognize truth even as i mentioned pontius pilate having jesus who's the way the truth and life standing right in front of his face and saying what is truth um does the world recognize truth are we better today recognizing truth than we were two years ago five ten years ago like it's amazing how truth is so relative today in our world relativism has permeated our mindset on everything and and you know we thought things were nuts ten years ago um that was nothing like i can't even believe what's right hitting us right in the face and people saying this is truth and um and you know it it's starting to permeate every bit of our culture every bit of our society um and there's the world views and the politics and all that stuff you know it's it's just kind of everywhere you look i i'm finding it hard to believe anything anywhere anytime from anyone except for the bible that's what i'm finding i'm not trying to say you know i'm closed-minded or but i kind of am i'm not trying to say that i think i alone have a monopoly on the truth because i don't but the bible does you know and if you're reading the news and watching that that bastion of total truth facebook or instagram or man you know most people get their news from facebook and instagram and twitter did you know that that's where most people get their news which is the most scary thing i've ever thought of especially when you realize um that there's soviet union level censorship going on and a whole group of people are being silenced guys like me and bible teachers and and others you know there's politicians and what have you too but but man when you're only getting a filtered one side of the story kind of thing and the narrative the narrative man you know if you if you uh look at some narratives you know the city of portland is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and there's nothing to see here you know it's hard for me to watch the thing that happened on january 6th on our capitol there in washington dc and have have people call that um you know some you know massive act of terrorism that some people went into the capitol building and walked around and they stayed between the stanchions uh did you see the footage that they walked in they were going where the tourists were supposed to walk and they walked they were looking around there was a couple people that were wacko of course and there was there was some people that i don't even know what their intentions were to be there there was obviously bad actors in that group but but there were tens and of thousands of people just just there protesting but but it's funny you say well brett doesn't know what they're doing well portland you know what i saw in the capitol um you know where they act like it's some the worst event that ever happened in the united states that would have been a good night in portland for the last hundred day like last year and a half i mean you know um have you like if you ever want to do just a fun field trip just drive around portland because i know a lot of you guys never even go there you're like yeah that's a whole nother country uh i'm not going up into that land but it's a wasteland and it's it's amazing like it's quite a field trip uh to see the syringes just laying everywhere like literally it's not hard to find piles of hundreds of syringes laying over here next to all these camps and and you know stuff and uh it's it's just kind of really really sad to see you know some groups saying this is wonderful everything's great and and people are believing it meanwhile you know our culture is saying um you know caitlyn jenner is running for governor of california and she is going to do this and she is going to do that and and if you're politically correct of course you call her caitlin and you call her her but when i say no i remember bruce jenner who was a he and i ate the wheaties man when i was a kid bruce was on the cover of the weedy box because he was a decathlon stud it was awesome we liked bruce well he's erased now and and it's actually a she and you're supposed to call bruce a she even though we know on every level biologically we know scientifically that everybody who's calling a she is actually what do we do with that as men today do you just acquiesce and say man i don't want to make any waves you know so i'm going to say she's running for the governor of california but as men of truth is that really is that really integrity oh brett i'm just being kind and loving that's that's what the the churches that have embraced things like you know the transgenderism and lgbtq and and even black lives matter and and anti-fun like it's amazing what people are approving of and trying to be into these days one of the local churches that i would have sent people to uh in fact i have i've told people yeah man if you live up in that area go to that church it's great but i couldn't believe it when this whole episode started really you know getting heated they posted on their front of their webpage the book white fragility is a good reading now don't get me wrong racism is one of the most evil things in the history of our country and it still exists and it should not of course that's truth and when you read the bible racism is something that the bible never condones and of course we as christians we are you know we're to love one another and it doesn't matter who you are we're going to love but but this whole narrative out there uh there's people just buying you know you know if you're supporting black lives matter do you also know you're you know just you're trying to destruct the nuclear family in the western civilization that's what black lives matter stands for marxism even the foundings of black lives matter like these are things that that the churches either the pastor is just not doing his homework and he's like oh yeah yeah we we like black people so yeah critical race theory white privilege and uh you know all that of course of course but they haven't done their homework be careful what you sign on to and say yeah yeah yeah i'm on board there's a lot of things i'm not on board with and things that a lot of christians and churches oh yeah this is awesome i've i start feeling i gotta admit brothers man i feel like the the the stingy old man these days like i'm the guy saying no no no no because everything's wacko there's so much that's wacko meanwhile we have the bible that gives us all kinds of wonderful things about racism and things we can learn about what not to do and things we should stop doing things that are called sin and evil of course the bible gives you and me everything we need to know about racism it's all right here we we can deal with it and if if people do what the bible says racism will be a thing of the past if we did what the bible says but man says no no no we know more than the bible we have more truth and so don't call bruce bruce call her now i i have to say you know some guys have we've talked about this among my my buddies you know philosophizing should you call him caitlyn because he legally changed his name that is his name if you want to call him caitlyn some of us are going yeah fine but i i can't with integrity as a bible-believing person and also a guy who loves and believes the science as well uh i can't say that he is a she because that's not true and even though you might be deemed as caring and loving i think whenever you speak things that are not true that's deceptive and lying it's not integrity and it goes across the board you know israel it's amazing uh to see what's happening in israel right now and the narratives that you're seeing depend on if you listen to you know or watch cnn or fox news or or jerusalem post or times of israel or like who are you listening to palestinian you know times or al jazeera like i i actually read all and look at all those news agencies um but most of it's a joke but man it depends on who you talk to the narrative the oppressive jews are firing their high-tech missiles and and flying you know their their fighter jets over those poor people in the little gaza strip and they're bombing the daylights and they'll show the bombed buildings and the and the the palestinians carrying the bodies down the streets and those jews killing like that's all the narrative but it's amazing like if you want to know about the arab-israeli conflict what is true well the truth is one group wants to totally kill and annihilate the entire other group the other group wants to just simply live peaceably in that region of the world that's that's the way it is one group islamic jihad and hamas the hamas that's firing at this point well over 2 000 missiles across the border from gaza into israel more than 2 000 rockets i should say um being fired in there in the last three days and uh and the jews are trying to defend themselves um i saw the cartoon political cartoon where you know it shows uh gaza and a rocket firing over into israel another picture the next one rocket firing from hamas into israel and then couple more shoot and then the final one it shows israel shooting a rocket one rocket over to gaza and then it shows the news anchor the you know the israelis have violently attacked you know uh gaza like that that's not even that funny because that's exactly what the news people do um i've been there i've spent you know over a year of my life in israel uh with all my israel trips when you put them all together uh that's a lot of time over there and i and i know i've been to ascalon uh i don't take my tour group down there because that's where the rockets fly but um but there's there's people in homes that that have you know they have to go into their bunkers in fif you got 15 seconds when those fi those rockets are fired and when the sirens go on your family has 15 seconds to get in into one of those bunkers and um and meanwhile the world says you know you israelis what is that what does the biden administration say you guys need to be balanced measured measured in your what that's ridiculous that's not true um what's true is if we had bombs hitting washington dc whoever did that we would level like we did with uh you know iraq and ir and afghanistan and uh you know things we've just done because you know 9 11 we went in on a rampage and and i'm not arguing whether we should or shouldn't have done any of that i'm just saying um guess what uh we are total hypocrites when we say israel measured if we had our children and wives being blown up in our homes that's what hamas targets as people the israelis are targeting weapons stashes and you know hamas and you know islamic jihad people in in the gaza strip it's amazing what is relativism and we've just kind of all learned to be polite men sitting around oh yeah yeah i'm sure that you know and people if somebody says something about israel or about you know whatever abortion or or about gay and lesbian issues or black lives matter we largely have men just kind of learn to be kind of don't make waves don't say anything don't be don't be hostile or don't man don't say anything true because you might lose your job man the early church would have known nothing of this where we've become uh you know just people who kind of have become pacifists when it comes to truth the early church you know these these guys were men that said we will not deny jesus christ just say caesar is lord have you ever read fox's book of martyr martyrs hundreds of christian men and women of faith who would not say caesar is lord when rome said no you can't say jesus is the lord caesar is lord but the church was so set on saying jesus is the truth and we will never deny the truth and so read fox's book of martyrs the torturous deaths of christians that said we will not deny our faith in christ um what would they say about us today a bunch of ninnies oh can't say bruce jenner you can't call him a hurry because that might hurt someone's feelings but it's we got to speak that which is true well see that's why i've got you here with me in the the book of second john john's famous you know because he was the the disciple that jesus loved uh he was probably you might even argue the closest disciple to jesus and john was known for um in his older years especially for one major theme does anybody get guess what and and it's not truth i'm going to give you that right now what's the major theme that john the apostle kind of goes down swinging with this issue what was it love love love love that's what john's thing was read first john you know beloved let us love one another love love love in fact history tells us this isn't in the bible but but uh uh you know church tradition talks about how john when he was in his 90s after being exiled on patmos when he when he was able to come back he would travel you know to the churches and he would walk in and he would stand in front and can you imagine like you're a young kid you're realizing that's john the apostle who knew jesus like by this time the church has grown and and scattering all over the world by the time john's 90 years old and and these young guys going john the apostles speaking and here's what he would do he would get but he'd say little children love one another and then he would go and sit down that was his whole sermon you're like bro you should take a note from that sermon length uh that'd be great um but john was known for his love but if you could say his secondary theme which i think is so interesting was that of truth it wasn't just love see love without truth i call that sloppy agape it's just love without truth gets wacko have you heard somebody say i remember who was at one of these country musicians when asked about gay marriage i forget uh who it was but um but she said she said you know i just people i just believe people should love everybody should have the right to love anyone who loves someone la and and she was applauded as a open-minded loving person because she said man two people ought to be able to love one another um that's the dumbest thing i ever heard what do you mean brett that's horrible you should say that let me ask you this is it okay for a 57 year old man to love a nine-year-old girl well brett like a dad lev well of course yeah that's not what we're talking about here we're talking about erotic sexual sensual love is that okay to to to of course not that guy goes to prison and he should for the rest of his life because that's just evil you know and it's so funny those lines are being blurred in our culture i told you back in 1997 i've got tape recordings to reprove it back remember we had cassette athy creek cassette tapes we'd pass them around um i had boxes full now now my whole life's work is on a little thumb drive but um it used to be boxes um but but uh back in 1997 i read an article and people left our church when i said this uh uh um not unusual to me but um but i i read an article from the american psychological association from their journal how they they made this study that said older men having sex with young boys is not detrimental to the development of the young boy and they were they were arguing for um pedophilia and they were saying it's going to be normalized and and um and then by the way i even told this to the congregation when i read that to them people were aghast and some people even got them that doesn't there's no way they said that in the american psychological journal and and i'm like it's right here and um and they left the church and mad well uh later they did retract that article and and say this was just a study by this group and they were distancing themselves because they they got a lot of heat for that but it was in fact a test balloon back in 1996 of coming attractions and i've been saying for years you know that idea of love if it's love you know and and you know so so things like uh pedophilia and you know michael jackson was part of the normalizing of this oh we just it's just the bed and it's just a love we're being and everybody's like oh michael jackson you know beat it and everybody's all excited and happy and wacko wacko jacko that's what he's called by people who knew you see brett that's hateful no it's loving but it's also true you see that what true has to also be loving what what is loving also has to be true and this is where ii john comes in john in first john talks all about love love level of love which is so important but you also have to have love and truth i want to just break this down and then we'll uh we'll wrap it up uh it says here in john 2 john verse one it says the elder john's pushing 100 by the time he writes this by the way almost 100 years old in those days that was a big deal the elder to the elect lady and her children whom i love in the truth and not only i but also all they that have known the truth for the truth's sake which dwelleth in us and shall be with us forever grace be with you mercy and peace from god the father and from the lord jesus christ the son of the father in truth and love now by the way if you doubt me that john was into truth we he talked a lot about love but did you know in the gospel of john john employs the word truth 23 times 23 times in the gospel of john he says the word truth talking about the truth nine times he says the word truth in first john five times he says the word truth in second john which is only you know this tiny little chapter of 13 verses and then in third john five times as well john is all about truth and i got to say that that's important because he hung around with jesus who was the way the truth and the life john knew about truth because he'd spent time with jesus and he knew about love because he spent time with jesus so the the second letter here of john is dealing with this balance of truth and love so right out of the gate verse one he's known the truth verse two for the truth's sake verse three in truth and love this is what this is about truth truth now real quick who's this lady that he's talking to uh the the truth is we don't know you know he says here uh uh the elder select the lady and her children whom i love in the truth and so scholars have debated for centuries who is the lady some some people believe it's a real lady um it's an interesting thing maybe it's a lady that was in the church who had lots of children and he was writing to her um the the word you know here is this um um ekkletose which is an interesting feminine proper name maybe but it's not used a lot so we don't really know what this greek word is and so that's the confusion who the woman is some people say it was a literal woman and he's writing to her others say no it's the church you know the church is referred to as a bride of christ it's like a woman you know um and um and some even argue if you're catholic i've heard this argument that it's the elect lady uh the queen of heaven uh mary mother mother of jesus uh they say um uh and some you could actually make an argument uh that mary might have been the one he was addressing um not because uh you're a catholic but because because past uh possibly you know john if you recall lived with mary after jesus uh died uh and um there's some links there that you can make but be that as a mate probably most scholars believe he's speaking of the children of the church of jesus christ even if that's not for sure we know because the the this letter of second john made it in the canon of scripture so it's for all the all of us it is for the church we know that for sure who's this lady not totally sure but be that as it may this made the scriptures and it's here for us to read but the first few verses here verses one through three if you're taking notes i want to break this chapter this book i should say into three three categories category number one what we write it down we must know the truth that's number one you and i must know the truth if you don't know the truth you're sunk and in fact this whole thing that we're talking about is a waste of time if you don't know the truth and that's what it says here in verse 1 but also all they that have known the truth now one thing you're going to get when you read ii john you're going to see that john sort of speaks of truth like it's a person because it is right we have known the truth we've known jesus christ the truth the way the truth and the life you'll see sort of this word truth it almost inter-interposed for jesus you could just say i'm writing to all these people who uh who i love in the truth but also all they that have known the truth that have known jesus really for the truth's sake that's why he writes this letter and and then he nails it down with just saying grace be with you mercy peace from our lord jesus christ the son of the father in truth and in love what a balance those two things balance together if you have truth you can become really stingy and grouchy but if you have truth and love you've got the balance if you only have love you have that sloppy agape i was talking about so the the balanced man the man of truth also is going to be a man of love don't forget that this is something we all have to be careful about what what what's your proclivity if you say you know as the as the water flows the gravitational pull in your life are you more of a truth person or a love person and and uh and and you might actually want to ask somebody who knows you really well because i've noticed we're not always great at our own assessment i'm miss i'm loving and your wife's like no no you're not um uh maybe ask your wife am i more of a truth guy or more of a love guy and if she says you know i kind of see a balance in both congratulations you win because that's what the man of god is he's a man of truth but he's also a man of love and and man this is the thing i wrestle with because we live in a day where truth is so rare i feel like for me to preach truth a lot of people think i'm this hostile guy who's got angry issues or whatever nope i'm just trying to speak the truth but i'm also doing my best to do it in love that's my week i naturally flow to the truth and i don't flow to the love part the whole squishy wishy love thing is hard for me uh the best thing that ever happened to me is chronovirus and social distancing uh no hugging uh you know sorry can't talk to you get to get uh i like ten feet uh no like like loving is not uh doesn't come naturally for me but it's something that i know jesus was so i endeavor to be loving and we all should but i love it says um the first thing here that john nails down is we must know the truth the word of truth in this exact form you know mentioned here in john uh it's it's it's so important love by the way in 2nd john is mentioned four times so truth is kind of the bigger theme in ii john but god is always love and god is always truth do you know that um he never departs one or parts one from the other he doesn't do that you know god is truth john 14 6 jesus said i am the way of the truth and life but god is also love first john if you if you see you know here back in the next page behind here first john chapter 4 verse 16 tells us you know that god is not just truth but he's also love it says we know and have known and believe the love that god hath to us god is love he that dwelleth in love dwelt also in god and god in him so god is truth god is love they both are the same linked together um so so that's the key the first thing you and i must do is know the truth i hope you know jesus christ personally or didn't he die two thousand years ago yeah but he rose from the grave and he lives and he wants to the bible says use like your heart your soul the inner part of you to be a place where he his spirit dwells but you're a sinner and you need to be saved and the gospel message is if you accept what jesus did for you on the cross that he died for your sins it says you'll be saved you'll be forgiven for your sins and christ will live in you and dwell in you and you'll have a personal relationship with jesus christ you've got to start with that without that the rest of everything i'm going to say is a waste of time i hope you know that very important well number one we must know the truth john makes that point to begin with but then we see in verse 4 it goes on ii john i rejoice greatly that i found of thy children walking in truth as we have received a commandment from the father and now i beseech thee lady not as though i wrote a new commandment unto thee but that which we have from the beginning that we love one another and this is love that we walk after his commandments this is the commandment that as ye have heard from the beginning you should walk in it this is where john is is making that argument yeah we're we're supposed to be loving we're supposed to love one another of course but he's also saying we're also supposed to keep the commandments there's a balance here so if point number one is we must know the truth point number two we must walk in the truth recently i did an iron works where we talked about our walk steady progress walking with the lord how's your walk with lord are you sprinting and then dying with your walk with the lord or are you just walking steady that's what we need today is men who have a walk and they walk from the day they're saved to the day they die and it's not you know fickle or flighty or up and down it's just a steady walk that's what john's arguing for men who walk in the truth men who walk in love by the way men who love god and are walking in truth please god that's that's something that we know the bible teaches remember enoch who walked with god and pleased god but this is the the walk that we're supposed to have um you know by the way when it says that notice how uh it says verse 4 i rejoice greatly that i found of thy children walking in the truth john the one of these you know elders of the church said oh i just rejoice seeing your the children walking in truth look at jo third john jump ahead to third john chapter uh there's only one chapter but verse four he says in in third john verse four i have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth the bible teaches us that there's you know no greater joy for john and you could also believe because this is the inspired word of god god rejoices when his children walk in truth you fathers know what this is like too you you kind of hear john you're saying oh i rejoice from my children walk in truth but you dads know when your kids are walking in truth ah man your heart is good you know that's the best thing when your kids are but if your kids are not walking in truth man you grieve and it's it's like the most brutal thing it's a funny thing when you when you're a father and you have kids something that happens that you don't expect is you start to care less about yourself and you care more about your kids you know before your kids came it's like what am i doing what are my career how much money do i have am i a hard-working man and blah blah blah and you think about it but then you get your kids you're like wait i just want my kids forget my life i already ruined that but my kids i want my kids to do well i want them to walk in truth you know and there's something about having kids that makes you start to understand maybe the heart of the father in heaven because i believe it grieves the father in heaven when you and i are not walking in truth when we're walking in lies and accepting lies and hanging around with people that are into lies and embracing lies and and listening to this world i think that grieves the father the lord wants us to walk in truth and in love so the first thing we need to do is is know uh we must know the truth but number two we must walk in the truth and then the last part of this verses seven through eleven um uh the third section we must abide in the truth that's the third and final point we must abide in the truth number one we must know the truth verses one through three number two we must walk in the truth verses four through six number number three we must abide what does the word abide mean uh in truth abide means to just hang in there chill out get settled lock down abide just not to be moveable not to be shakeable you and i have to abide in truth and i'm telling you brothers we're living in a day where that's becoming harder and harder if you're saying i'm going to sit on truth you're going to have these pulls in your life and they're going to come from every single direction where you're going to be challenged to move off of the truth if the truth is the seat that you're on and you're locked down there man your kids schools are going to pull and what your kids are asking dad what do i do today is gay and lesbian day and so what we're going to do is we're going to be silent everybody's supposed to be silent at school do you realize how manipulative that that whole thing is what do they call that day silent day or whatever i forget what it is but basically if you go to school and if you're not silent you're saying i hate gay people like that's what they say which is ridiculous um i i actually i know there's people in the world that hate gay people i've never met anybody who actually hates gay people um the church people that i know we we actually say man aren't we thankful the lord loves all of us we're all sinners we've all fallen short of the glory of god man there's no one righteous so no none of us are better or worse than anybody we're all sinners and men we we love people that are struggling and wrestling with sin because that's just who we are i don't know people hate gay people but it's funny that's the narrative that's the lie getting off the truth and so if your child goes to school saying well what do i do am i supposed to be silent because then are we sort of living a lie because we don't agree that homosexuality is a wonderful lifestyle the bible teaches that it's actually sinful see you hate no don't say that we didn't say we hate we're just saying there's a bible called certain things sin but your kid now is suddenly in this hard thing if they start talking at school like a normal person they're a hater see you're as a dad you're gonna have to what do you tell your kid uh yeah go and just be silent and and sort of live the lie so nobody thinks you're a hater they don't make sure nobody calls you a homophobe even though that's not true uh is that what you're gonna do dad or you're gonna tell him no go and talk it up at school and and say say whatever you want to say because you don't believe in that and blah blah blah and and then suddenly everybody is mean to your kid and your teachers are oh boy this could you know what are you going to do dad see there's all kinds of polls on men today whether your dad or not dad pulling you off the the the seat of truth i could go in a million directions with this one the world is just constantly pulling on you as a christian man to get you off the truth seat and this last final point is to abide this is what he says let's read it it says in verse seven because uh pardon me wrong wind blew my page um uh it says here verse verse 7 because wait where am i oh there it is sorry for for many deceivers are entered into the world what's what's happened deceivers do you sense that to see are there deceivers of the world like i read that and almost laugh wow boy that's an understatement there's more than a many there's millions of deceivers for millions but this is the word so i'm going to read it for many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not that jesus christ has come in the flesh this is a deceiver and an antichrist by the way john was dealing with a group called the gnostics who believed that jesus didn't come in the flesh that he was simply a spirit and that when he ate food he just put food up to his mouth and then set it down but never actually when he walked in the sand he never really left footprints there's this whole crazy gnosticism that's largely what john was dealing with but it hasn't really changed all that much from what you and i are dealing with today where people are denying jesus christ that he came in the flesh and it says this is a deceiver and an antichrist john's the same guy that wrote about the antichrist in the book of revelation but he's saying there's the spirit of antichrist on on a bunch of people by the way guys i believe the spirit that we're seeing in the world today that's untrue and deceiving we could talk about coronavirus we could talk about lgbtq and antiphon and black lives matter and and israel and and um you know vaccines or like we can talk about whatever you want to talk about and where is truth many deceivers have come and and there are people that want to pull us off but how do you know the people that are denying that jesus is the christ that jesus came in the flesh that should be a good hint that those people are not leading you to the good stuff by the way i'm just going to say it the same people in our culture here in america that are saying you know things like israel doesn't really have a right to exist as a nation or there needs to be a two-state solution those are the same people that are talking about pro-abortion they're the same people that are talking about you know they're the same people that have kind of an attitude of what makes some of our more uh troubled cities like portland portland if you notice people that don't embrace jesus christ are the same people that have cities like portland um the people that don't believe in jesus christ are like the gaza strip where there's total destruction and chaos you go to other places in the world you see beauty and it's so funny how um i i got a little a b compare and contrast you know you go to like oklahoma city and when i was in oklahoma city uh i remember feeling strange because i'd pull up to a gas station and the guy would come out hey what church do you go to praise the lord what denomination are you uh just like everybody in oklahoma city it's the it's not the bible belt it's the belt buckle right there in oklahoma city it's like man it's like you could walk downstairs praise the lord yeah praise the lord nothing you know it's like it's such a you go to portland man and you're you're in enemy territory man people that believe in and love jesus christ and you walk downtown you don't you don't find that group i'm just saying if you start taking a a solid look at people who believe in the truth jesus and people who do not what's the end result what are we seeing in the world from those groups it's kind of funny because you see anti-israel you see pro portland san francisco chicago these cities that are in total peril it's it's a strange thing that i'm seeing right you're being political no i'm i'm talking about there's people who believe jesus came in the flesh died on the cross for our sins and there's people who do not and there's a massive gap between those two people groups so let's wrap this up since the alarm just went off there many deceivers entered into the world confess not that jesus cometh this is the deceiver and antichrist look verse verse 8 look to yourselves that we lose not those things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward whosoever transgresses transgress this is this and abideth not in the doctrine of christ hath not god wait did you just hear that if you're not walking in truth what does that mean it says look to yourselves and this is what i'm wanting us to do today brothers look to yourself that we lose not the things which we have wrought but we have received a full reward whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine of christ hath not god he that abideth in the doctrine of christ he has both the father and the son if there become any unto you and bring not this doctrine the teaching of christ receive him not into your house neither bid him god's speed for he that biddeth him god speed is a partaker of his evil deeds wow this is a this is radical man this is basically saying stop playing the game you and i as men in in our current modern day have been pressured into sort of acquiescing and not making waves and people who reject jesus and people who say things that are totally untrue and contrary to the word of god remember lo i come in the volume of the book it is written of who jesus the whole book is about jesus anything that's contrary to this book is against jesus and and you and i as men we we've been sort of sucked in by just the gravitational pull of secularism you know uh sinful uh world views and politics and policies and attitudes and and the problem is a lot of men are just kind of acquiescing these days but men of truth according to john here now again love but also truth it's pretty radical what john just said verse 10 if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine the doctrine of jesus receive him not into your house neither bring him god's speed if you bid him godspeed you're a partaker of his evil deeds see this this this is important because you know verses 7 through 11 we must abide in the truth there's there's a there's three things that he says within this section of scripture first the danger of going back and we see that in verse seven you know don't be deceived and sucked in you know don't lose verse eight the things which we have wrought in other words the things that you don't lose ground um if you're in a military battle you're either going to gain ground you're going to lose ground so john starts us saying on this this whole point we must abide in the truth don't lose ground remain at least where you are stand firm you know the danger of going back but then he also interestingly says the danger of going ahead do you see that he says there in in the second part of verse 9 he that abideth in the doctrine of christ he hath both the father and son if you're getting outside or ahead of the doctrine of christ that's what i see church is doing by the way oh yeah we believe in jesus yeah yeah yeah yeah but we also believe in critical race theory and and white fragility and black lives matter and and stuff that is kind of contrary to the bible again i got to say it again not the racism part do you understand that those things that i just mentioned um if you know the origins and the people that are pushing these things it it really has less to do with the race like i feel like it's it's dealing it's doing the real problems of racism it's doing a disservice hugely to the real problems of racism because the things these people arguing really have very little to do with racism and it's really tragic and and and the church it's not it's not that they're losing ground necessarily but it's like they're trying to get ahead of what the bible says we're more enlightened than john was we're more enlightened today we know more about you know the genes and homosexuals and and dna and we know more now and they're getting ahead of what the bible says and that's what john warns he says don't fall back but don't get ahead but then he also uh the the third third one is don't walk with don't hang out with don't be partakers with them that's what they say if they come and hang out with you don't don't bid them godspeed in our day we don't say godspeed anymore but you know hey man go for it knock yourself out do what you want that's not my business just go on like we don't we don't bid people godspeed that are against god well brett what are you trying to say i'm just saying that you and i as men we need to be not willing to live the lies that the that our culture is pushing on us we need to be living the truth we need to be men that are all about jesus the way the truth and the life wouldn't it be something if the greekers we in this city that we live in this area that we live would be great if we had just i mean we got a lot of guys here this morning wouldn't it be great if all of us just said it's all about us walking in truth but also in love you show me a man that's just just into the truth uh he he's a little prickly like a cactus you show me a man that's all about love oh he's like a mushroom and i just want to kind of squish him but you show me a man that's truth and love that's that's a mighty man that's a powerful man who's standing on the truth of the word of god with the love of jesus christ and and you'll see problems start to fall the issues with kids and the education in our school system and and what's going on in portland if we have truth and love perfectly balanced as men we're going to start seeing these wacko things be seen for what they are but until men are willing to stand up i think we're just gonna con i see that our society has just fallen hook line and sinker for everything that they're pushing right now unless there's men like you and like me they're gonna say we're gonna be biblical we're gonna follow god's word we're gonna be men of love and kindness but also of truth that's the balance and and here's what i want you to pray about this summer as we're going through summer because these have been weird days lock lockdown coronavirus all this stuff these have been this has been a weird year but i i want to challenge you uh to do this to stay sharp stay sharp you know uh that's been our theme you know uh proverbs 27 17 uh that we stay sharp and how do we do that as iron sharpens iron um it's an interesting thing that they they talk about and by the way in bible times they did it that way we we have different ways of sharpening uh but they did use iron to sharpen iron in biblical times the philistines actually you can read about it but um but all that to say you and i we need to keep sharpening each other and stay sharp we need to sharpen the countenance of our friends our brothers in the church and i want to encourage you to encourage each other we need to start encouraging each other i think just very very clearly saying man let's stand on the truth like encourage your brother maybe if you see a brother starting to acquiesce and say you know bruce jenner she's running for you know maybe if he's pulled your brother if you know he's a christian pull them aside so you know as a christian we're men of truth and should we speak the truth like call lovingly call him out lovingly and say shouldn't we stand on truth and what is really true because that's what jesus did that's what john told us to do let's not let's abide in the truth like ii john and and come alongside of each other and encourage each other it might go deeper than that if a man in our church is loving if he was just a jerk and he got fired he probably deserved it but if he got fired for speaking truth i hope that there's a hundred men in our church that will hire that guy once he gets fired for working in intel and saying i'm i cannot call that man a woman because that's not true you're fired because that's what they'll do at intel um and then then then i hope that our brothers will come alongside each other and stand with each other in the truth i think these days we're living you might think i'm crazy but i think the days we're living we could see real persecution in the near future i really do believe that um and that's why i want us to lovingly come alongside of each other and and man if somebody gets worked over uh i feel bad you know that bakery couple up in uh gresham uh what was that place called um sweet cakes um they got worked over man uh horribly so and they got fined this activist judge what was 135 thousand dollars shut them down the whole thing because they they said they they had baked cake for gay people before it's just that this particular cake was going to be offensive to what they believed and so they said we we really can't do that and they stood on the truth and they got worked over and and i don't know you know like um you know i know a lot of us tried to help and we all chipped in and stuff but i think the church we got to kind of stand with each other in the early church when they got into persecution man they huddled up and helped each other and and made sure that nobody was going down i think the days are coming brothers where you and i might have to think differently and not be so isolated and think how can we be a part of god's church and because of truth truth and love it's going to cost some of us and we're going to go through some difficult times i i see that around the horizon i hope not pray pray that it doesn't happen but at the same time if it does usually where you find persecution in the church you find solid brothers that are men of truth and men of love so bring it on if the lord wants that to happen uh i say bring it on and and but but i think you and i need to ready ourselves to be men of truth men of love don't acquiesce don't equivocate or waffle in things that are true or false or whatever stand on the truth make sure by the way you're standing on biblical truth if you think i'm saying yeah brett preach it q anon that's not what i'm saying i'm not saying republican or democrat or conservative or liberal i'm not saying that i'm saying biblical we're we got to stand so you know what's funny guys in this room we all have different opinions about a lot of things that's true but one thing that we cannot mess around with is biblical truth so forget some of this other stuff if you want to be a q anon person or a progressive liberal that's up to you guys but my advice is to say let's make sure and if i'm going to die on the battlefield i'm not going to die on the battlefield of immunization i know that some of you feel strongly about that i'm not going to die in that battlefield there's plenty of other battlefields that i'm going to die on and i'm going to die on the battlefields that are in the bible jesus is god in the flesh who came and died on the cross for the sins of the world and anybody who confesses with their mouth and believes in heart the lord jesus they're going to be saved i'm going to die on that battlefield i'm going to die on the battlefield that we're to love one another we shouldn't be hating anyone we should love everyone and and like the lord says concerning racism there's neither jew nor greek male nor female like in in god's economy we're brothers and sisters in christ the end that's what we are uh that's biblical truth forget all the other stuff um i'm going to stand and die on that battlefield so be careful choose your battles biblically that's important i think this is kind of an introduction to with lord stirring here at athene creek and and maybe further studies maybe prayer about it but would you pray about this with me over the summer uh let's let's be in prayer let's stand on the word in jesus name lord how we're so thankful for biblical truth lord your your word has never disappointed us you've never been proven wrong or inaccurate or incorrect in any way shape or form and lord our goal is to be men of truth men of love help us with this lord i pray that you'd show us where we've been a little stingy on things that are not even really true help us to as men know how to have that perfect balance of love as well lord and just bless my brothers give them boldness in these days i pray that their boldness would also be sort of covered in in love and kindness lord just protect our homes our families this church your people we just want to give you glory and honor in jesus name amen amen

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 6,738

Rating: 4.858407 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: 8b9tTlxq2mk

Length: 53min 12sec (3192 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021