In this sermon, the speaker focuses on the importance of teaching the word of God. They emphasize the need to distinguish between true and false teachers, apostles, and prophets. The speaker also highlights the significance of preaching the whole counsel of God, covering both practical and eternal issues. They stress that teaching should not just be theoretical, but also practical, guiding believers in their daily lives. The sermon concludes with the reminder that the success of preaching is not measured by how much people know, but by whether they live out the teachings and are equipped for good works.

Turn with me to the second letter to Timothy chapter 4, and we'll read verses 1 through 5. To Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. And we've been speaking about the church and about the ministries of the church, and tonight I want to speak about teachers. And it is very important to speak about this aspect, because this is the teachers, or teaching of the word, is something which is not popular any longer today, and in fact we'll read this in this passage. And it's important for us to recognize the difference between true and false teachers as much as it is necessary for us to recognize the difference between true and false apostles and true and false prophets. And so let's read from 2 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom. Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers. And they will turn their ears away from the truth and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. And as we've said before, this is a prophecy concerning the time in which we are living today. People have heaped unto themselves teachers, but in fact they are not true teachers. They are not teachers of the word, and what they teach has nothing to do with the teaching of the word of God. And in fact right now on TBN, this is their begging season. They do this a few times a year. And if ever you want to see false teaching, you can watch it during this week. I think it probably ends today. Teaching that has nothing to do with the word of God. And yet these men set themselves up as teachers. And of course people flock and people give millions and millions of dollars of money to this kind of stuff. And so he says the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Doctrine has to be endured. It's not always easy, and we're going to speak about that a little bit this evening. Teaching is not popular. Preaching is much more popular. Preaching is a lot more exciting. And that's in fact what fills the churches today is these short sermonettes, a 15-minute message on how to feel good about yourself or something to that effect. But solid teaching from the word is sometimes hard and sometimes has to be endured. And yet it is a very, very essential and very important part of our work and part of the work of the church in the New Testament. Jesus was primarily a teacher. We've said that Jesus had fulfilled each of those ministries. He was an apostle. He was a prophet. He was an evangelist. He was a pastor. He was a deacon. He washed the feet of the disciples. But he was more than anything, he was a teacher. They called him rabbi, meaning teacher or master. Master not in the sense of a boss, but a master in the sense of a teacher. In the old English-style schools, they would refer to the masters, and they are the teachers. And so Jesus was called a teacher. That was his function. That was the way in which he presented himself and the way he ministered. And so Jesus was a teacher. And not only did his own disciples recognize him as a teacher, but you remember that Nicodemus amongst others and the rich young ruler came and recognized him and called him teacher or rabbi, master. Paul was a teacher. Now Paul, we know, was an apostle. But before he became an apostle, he was a teacher. And in 1 Timothy 2, verse 7, and 2 Timothy 1, 11, in fact, while we're here in 2 Timothy 1 and verse 11, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. Those three aspects of his ministry. A preacher, obviously in the context of him preaching the gospel as an evangelist, but also an apostle and a teacher. And so when you look at Paul's writings, you don't see a prophet. You don't see an evangelist, but you see primarily a teacher. He was able to very carefully, step by step, point by point, deal with the teaching and with the doctrine of the word of God. And, of course, that's exactly what teaching is. We don't need to understand the Greek to understand what a teacher is. A teacher is someone who teaches. A preacher is different, as we said last week. Preaching is more exciting. It is more emotional. It is something which grabs people's attention, whereas teaching is a presentation of the truth and of the facts of the word of God. But as we'll see in a moment, it is not a dead lecturing. There's a difference between lecturing and teaching. And it's very easy to fall into the trap of becoming a lecturer, or a lecturer rather than a true teacher. Now, we spoke last week, and there was a question concerning the connection between pastors and teachers. Remember Ephesians 4.11, and this is a popular teaching in this area because of John MacArthur's influence, that it speaks about that he gave apostles, or prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. And the theory is that the way that that word, and, in the Greek is used there, it connects those two. So he's not saying apples, grapes, bananas, and peaches. It's not that kind of way that the word, and, is used there, but it uses, connects pastors and teachers in a way that it becomes one ministry. This is the theory. And so some people will refer to themselves as pastor-teachers. But in fact, when you look at the rest of the scriptures, and let's go to Romans chapter 12, and we're going to turn to many scriptures this evening. Romans chapter 12, and you remember that Romans 12 contains another list. There are three prominent lists of the ministries, and Romans 12 is one of those. And verse 6, Having then gifts differing according to the graces given to us, let us use them in prophecy. Let us prophesy in proportion to our faith, ministry, and so on. Verse 8, He exhorts exaltation. He gives with liberality. He leads with diligence. He shows mercy. Sorry, verse 7. I skipped verse 7. Or ministry, let us use it in our ministering. He who teaches in teaching. You can see he's not speaking about he who teaches and pastors, but he simply speaks about those who teach. Let them excel in their teaching. Drift refers to it on its own. It doesn't connect it in any way. The only place where it is connected is in Ephesians 4.11, if we go to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians 12, verse 28. God has appointed these in the church. First, apostles, second, prophets, third, teachers. After that, miracles, then gifts of healings. And again, you find there he's appointed teachers. He's not saying pastoring teachers or teaching pastors, but teachers. And so, referring to them on their own. In the church of Antioch, in I think it's Acts 13, where Paul came from, it says there were certain prophets and teachers in that church. And so, there are many, many scriptures that refer to teachers on their own, without connecting teachers with pastors. Now, remember we did say that one of the qualifications in the book of Timothy for an elder is that he should be able to teach. Obviously, if an elder is going to lead the church, one of the things he must be able to do is to teach the foundations and the fundamentals of the faith. But it doesn't mean that he is a teacher in the sense of which Jesus or Paul or other teachers would have been teachers. So, is there a connection? Yes, there is a connection. But it does not mean that all pastors teach. And it does not mean that all teachers pastor. If you go to 1 Timothy 5, this is an important scripture on the subject, 1 Timothy 5, and verse 17. Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. So, you can see he's speaking about elders who rule, then there are elders who rule well, and then there are those who labor in the word and in doctrine, in teaching. The word doctrine there is the same Greek word from which we get the word teaching. And so, there are elders who rule, elders who rule well, and elders who also teach. So, not all elders teach. Some elders then are pure shepherding or ruling elders. That's all they do. They are shepherds. That is their prime function. And then there are elders who would teach also. And then there are teachers who are not necessary elders, if I can confuse you even further. Alright, so let me just try and clarify that. So, there are elders who don't teach. There are teachers who are not elders. Now, that's a strange concept because some people assume that because a man is a teacher that he has to be a pastor or he has to be an elder. But that is not necessarily true, especially if he is a young man. And I've quoted my own experience that for many, many years until I was 50, I did not accept ordination as an elder in the church because I did not feel that I was an elder. I did not feel I wanted that burden. My responsibility was to teach the Word. I did not want to be encumbered with the responsibility of shepherding a church. And so there are elders, if the church is able to have elders, that are able to do the shepherding of the church so that some men are set free to do teaching and that's all they do, then that is quite permissible. And, in fact, in the New Testament, many of these teachers who traveled around could not be elders because they were traveling around. They were going from one place to the other and they were simply teaching. That was all they did. And so you get elders who don't teach. You get teachers who don't shepherd. But you also get elders who are teachers or teachers who are shepherds at the same time, the same role that I'm fulfilling here in this church right now of being an elder together with being a teacher, fulfilling both of those roles. That connection really comes together in the teaching and the elders' ministry. You don't find that connection between evangelists and elders because evangelists, and we'll speak about them next week, evangelists have not, their ministry is outside more than it is inside of the church. And so they don't have that same kind of responsibility. The same with apostles. Their ministry is out there and for a while an apostle may shepherd the local church while he brings it into maturity until he moves on, but he is never a permanent elder in a local church. And so I think that that deals with that question. All right. Now the importance of teaching because this is something which is being attacked today. People are saying, you know, teaching is not important as long as we can have good worship and we can have a wonderful experience in the church and just a little bit of a sermon for 10 minutes or 15 minutes to make us feel good. And in fact, I'm not sure, I don't think that this is the total reason for the lack of attendance at the evening service. I understand that there are other reasons also, but if we had to begin to only teach on a Sunday morning the way I teach here on a Sunday night, I'm sure that the attendance will drop even further. And so because teaching is not always exciting, it's not always stirring and sometimes we struggle to keep awake during the teaching. And so we say, well, is teaching that important? Well, let's go to Matthew chapter 28. And of course, this is a great commission that Jesus gives. This is one of his final instructions to the apostles and to the church. Matthew chapter 28 and verse 20 or verse 19. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the age. Teaching is part of the great commission. Now evangelists like this great commission because it says we've got to go out there and preach the gospel. Yeah, that is part of the job. But another important part of the job is to teach those people who have now been evangelized. And I don't blame evangelists for laying the emphasis on evangelism because that's their emphasis and that's necessary. But unless we feed those people that have been saved and come into the kingdom and unless we teach them and bring them to maturity, we've only done half of the job. And so teaching them to observe. 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 13. 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 13. Till I come, give attention to reading. And incidentally this part is very much ignored today. You don't hear much reading of the word of God in most churches today. And in fact you can watch some of the preachers on television and they will begin preaching without even reading a single, without quoting even a single verse. And they'll go through the whole sermon without even opening their Bible once. But Paul says give attention to reading. Now he's obviously not meaning reading comic books. He's obviously meaning reading the word of God. And he's meaning the public reading of the word of God. It's important that we read the word of God. And I think it's important that we read. It's good that we have the response of reading as we have it in the English department. And that in addition to that we read the scriptures before we preach. And speaking to those brothers who also teach the word, it's important that we read the scriptures because it's the scriptures that have the real power and the real authority. Because it is the undiluted milk of the word that is able to cause people to grow. And not so much our preaching. And so reading of the word of God is important. Give attention to reading. Where were we? Thirteen. To exhortation, which means to encourage or preaching. And to doctrine. These are the three important aspects of the work of a preacher or of a teacher. And obviously we understand that there is worship and there's prayer and there's other aspects to our coming together. But in terms of those who are in the ministry, these are three of the most important things that need to be present. Reading the scriptures, preaching or exhortation, and teaching the word of God. Verse 16. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine or to the teaching. Because in doing this you will save yourself and those who hear you. And so it is important that we teach. In Titus chapter 2. A couple of pages on. Titus chapter 2 verse 1. But as for you, speak the things which are proper for sound, doctrine or teaching. Now the word doctrine has really become a swear word today. Because we're living in a time when people are trying to break down the walls between denominations and between churches. And between truth and error. Because it's all preparation for this one world church. Which will have at the head the false prophet. Who will be part of the antichrist system. And so we're being conditioned right now to not be discriminating and to not have division. And the thing that brings division. The mantra which people are crying out today is doctrine divides. Doctrine divides. And it does divide. There is no doubt about it. That when we begin to get down to the solid teaching of the word of God. That brings division. Because people have different views on the word of God. And yet we need to understand that there is a good sense. Because division is not always bad. Also we are being conditioned. Remember this is something which is part of the agenda of the antichrist and of the devil right now. Is to condition Christians into believing that all forms of division is wrong. Now let me say to you that division is not necessarily wrong. Paul says it's necessary that there be division amongst you. That those who are proved may be proven or may be made manifest. There has to be division between truth and error. We cannot embrace Mormonism as an example. And say well this is what Christians are doing. The head of the seminary here right down the street here at Fuller has embraced it seems. Mormonism many evangelicals have embraced Mormons as being our brothers. But we cannot embrace those who do not hold to the sound doctrine of the word of God. And who reject the truth of the word of God. And there are many many serious issues. And people are saying but you know it's not that serious. As long as we all love Jesus that's all that matters. But the question is which Jesus do you believe? And the Jesus that many people are believing and preaching is not the Jesus that is taught here in the scriptures. It's the Jesus of their own manufacture and of their own imaginations and their own minds. And so it's important that we have and that we understand the word of God. And that we understand the God as he reveals himself to us in the word. Not the way that we like to think he is. Because the image that many of us have and many people have of God and of Jesus is very different to how he is portrayed for us in the scriptures. And so doctrine does divide. And I don't think that we need to be apologetic about that in the sense of feeling bad about that. Jesus says I am the way the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by me. There is only one way. Now today we are saying every way is going to lead to God. Jesus was the one who made the way narrow not me. He said there is only one way. And yet today we are saying no you know we will all get to heaven. All roads lead to Rome. Now doctrine yes doctrine divides. But we need to teach sound doctrine. And if that brings division as long as we are not preaching doctrine in order to bring division. You know some people will do that. Some people will argue about how many angels can fit on the head of a pin just for the sake of bringing division. Now if that is our spirit then that is the wrong spirit. But we need to be teaching the word without apology and without hesitation. And then 2 Timothy chapter 4 well we have looked at that scripture. I am not going to go back to that. That is where we started. Now in speaking about teaching let's go to John chapter 6. Gospel according to John chapter 6. I made reference earlier that teaching is not lecturing. The similarities seem very close. And unfortunately we have Greek forms of lecturing and of teaching. And this part came out of Alexandria in Egypt. And many who set themselves up as teachers today are simply lecturers of the word of God. And even if it is the word of God. It is not the same as biblical teaching. You see one of the areas in which it is easy to get into the ministry or easy to get into a church. Is if you can study the scriptures and many people do. And back in South Africa I worked a lot with professors of theology. Who did not know Jesus Christ. Who were not saved or born again but they knew the Bible back to front. And you can go to Bible school or seminary and you can learn the Bible. Or you can do a Bible course and you can learn the Bible. And you can stand up there and lecture these things. And not very far from us in downtown there is a woman who is doing exactly that. She does not know the first thing about Jesus or God or the truth of the word of God. But she has learned some things from the Bible and she writes a few things on the board. And she commands a substantial church, several thousand people. A massive budget of millions of dollars. But she does not know anything about what she is saying. She is like a parrot. You can teach a parrot to talk. The parrot does not have a clue what he is saying. In fact there are many who are teaching the word but they are not teaching life. They are simply teaching dead doctrine. And there is dead doctrine. Dead theology. And in Jesus speaking in John chapter 6 verse 63. Jesus says it is the spirit who gives life. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit. And they are life. They are spirit and they are life. A theologian who has studied the scriptures. And I am not against studying the scriptures. That is important that we do that. But who has simply studied the scriptures or a person who has studied the scriptures. And in a dead academic way. Who has simply reproduced the things that he has learnt from the scriptures or from the books. Cannot minister life. Because it is intellectual only. It is in the mind only. And Jesus says the words that I have spoken to you they are spirit. And they are life. And so a true teacher must impart not just the knowledge and the academic theology. But must impart life with the teaching that he presents. And that is not something that can come through study. But it is something that comes through the working of the Holy Spirit. In the lives of the hearers. Because of the anointing that is upon the preaching of the word. And so it seems. And in fact Peter says if we go down to verse 68. Simon Peter. You know everybody left Jesus because the message was too hard. And Jesus says are you also going to leave. And Simon says to him verse 68 Lord to whom shall we go. You have the words of eternal life. You have the words that give life. And so the words that we preach need to be giving life. And as I said it is easy when you are teaching. When your ministry is that of teaching. To fall into the trap of studying the scriptures in an academic way. And then presenting them in a lecture form. And there is no anointing upon the word of God. And there is no life to them. And they are not changing the lives of the hearers. But they are simply imparting knowledge. And we need to be careful of just imparting knowledge. Because Paul says knowledge puffs up. And that is very very dangerous. Because you see the problem we have also here. Is that because there are extremes in charismatic circles today. Where there is over emphasis on this emotional experience. There are a few people who have gone to the other extreme. And said you know we are not like those crazy people who do all those stupid things. And you know we are intellectual. We have a deep understanding and appreciation for the word of God. But in the process we get rid of everything that has to do with the spirit. And it just becomes the church just becomes a lecture hall. And it may as well just be a university or a school. And we are just imparting facts and imparting knowledge. Which is not changing the lives of those who hear the word of God. And we need to be careful of that. We need to be careful. And I think in this church the potential is that we could easily fall into that trap. Where we are simply just regurgitating and rehashing the truths and the facts of the word of God. And even though they are truths. And even though they are from the word of God. And they may be doctrinally correct. If they are not changing the lives of the hearers. Then we are wasting our time. And so teaching has to be life changing. 1 Timothy 1 1 Timothy 1 Verse 3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia. Remain in emphasis that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine. Nor give heed to fables or endless genealogies. Which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now there is a few big words there. But what he is saying is. He says don't teach anything else. This is what you need to teach. And he says don't give heed to fables. Now you remember that's one of the things that we began in 2 Timothy chapter 4. That they will heap themselves preachers. And they will give to themselves fables. Or they will begin to believe and preach fables. Fables is just stories. That's not reality. And you can listen to a lot of preaching today. It's stories. And they may be sanctified stories. In the sense of they may be good testimonies of what God did here. Or God did that. But at the end of the day they are still stories. They are not the word of God. Our instruction and our command is to preach the word of God. There is nothing wrong with using illustrations and examples. But at the same time the bulk of our message needs to be the preaching and the teaching of the word. But now also he says and endless genealogies. What is a genealogy? Family trees. Yeah. Family trees. And I think that he is not only referring to family trees. There is a principle here. And remember that the scripture has many genealogies. And so they go on. And you can start analyzing those sorts of things. That's the kind of thing he is talking about. When you begin to analyze and pull the scripture apart. And begin to analyze this word and that word. And this idea and that idea. And it's just an endless theological or academic exercise. He says be careful of that kind of thing. Because our purpose is not to dissect the word for the sake of being able to find this word and that person and that man. And how this one connects to that one. And how that this connects to that. But in fact our responsibility is to preach life and to teach life. But he says also which cause disputes. Rather than godly edification. And so our teaching must result in godly building up. Rather than disputes and arguments. Where did Adam. Sorry. Where did Cain get his wife from? And we'll argue about that. Did Adam have a navel? No we can you know. And I mean preachers will make a big thing of this. But it's of no edification. What difference does it make whether Adam had a navel or didn't have a navel? In fact it was here in the amazing United States of America. There is a church called the first church of Adam's navel. That's what the church built themselves on. Their belief that Adam had a navel. I mean. What difference does it make? Is that really of any substance? Is that going to build me up in my faith? If I know that Adam had or didn't have a navel. Or how many angels fit on the head of a pin. Or this theory or that theory. No Paul says. He says. Don't give heed to fables and endless genealogies. And I preached the genealogies. And I touched on that again this morning when we spoke about Doeg. The Edomite and the Amalekites. And there are other wonderful examples and lessons we can learn from the scriptures. But when we begin to get involved in theories that are really of no consequence. And that dispute the gender or cause disputes rather than the godly edification. Then we've overstepped the line. And overstepped the limit. All right. Let's talk about the contents of teaching. What should the teaching contain? And I think this is important. Because again we find people are teaching all sorts of stuff. What should the teaching contain? First of all it should teach to observe. Remember Matthew chapter 28. Teaching them to observe. And I've emphasized this before. I don't want to belabor that point. But it's important. Our responsibility is not to teach theory. It is to teach observation. Keeping. Doing. And that's an easy trap to fall into. And so we can teach the theory. And we can teach about the trinity. And we can teach about God's sovereignty. And we can teach about all of these things. But at the end of the day our responsibility is to teach people to observe. Everything that I have commanded you Jesus says. In other words to teach people to do rather than just to know. Now we need to know in order to do. Sometimes I think that we... Some people are very good at doing and they don't know too well. And so you can get into a motor car and you don't know how the transmission works. And how the starter works. And how the plugs work. And what the different parts of the motor car is. And you can drive it. But when something goes wrong you have a problem. It's a little bit helpful to be able to understand. Especially if you're going to drive a stick shift. To understand what the clutch does. And how the clutch works. And when you understand that then it's a little bit easier to get the thing to work. And so when it comes to the things of God it's good to know the theory. It's good to know the theology. We need to know that. But if that's not... You can study the motor car and you can understand how the whole thing fits together. And how the engine works. And the four cycles. And everything about the engine. But until you actually get into the thing and drive it. All of that knowledge is not a lot of good. And so we need to teach people to observe. In 2 Timothy chapter 3. And we're around about Timothy now. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine. For reproof. For correction. And for instruction in righteousness. So those are the important things. And it's important that in the life of the church. Over a period of time. And I try to do this in my own preaching. Is that we make sure that we are providing doctrine. That we are reproving. In other words correcting. When reproof is necessary. Or reproof is really stronger than correcting. Because the next word is correction. Reproof is really a strong form of correcting. Admonition in a sense. And for instruction in righteousness. Righteousness has to do with living the life. And then he says verse 17. That the man of God may be complete. Thoroughly equipped for every good work. So it's not just that we do these things. So that people know the doctrine. That they are reproved. That they are corrected. That they are instructed in righteousness. But the purpose of all of our teaching. Should be that people are equipped for good works. And so the measure of the teaching. And obviously it's not just up to the teacher. Because it's up to the Holy Spirit. And it's up to the individuals to respond to that teaching. But the measure is not in how much people know. And for me the success of preaching. Is not in whether at the end of my time here. Which whether that is soon or not. But at the end of my time here. The question for me is not going to be. Whether everybody knew the doctrines. But the question is whether people lived the life. Whether people did the things. Whether people were equipped for good work. I can't do the good work. I can't make you do the good work. But did I equip you with the things that you need to know. To do the good work that needs to be done. Alright. In 2 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 2. Just over the page. Preach the word. Teaching needs to contain the word of God. Don't teach fables. And when you see and hear a preacher. On the television or wherever. The question is not whether he's a good teacher. One of the questions you need to ask is. Is he teaching the word? It's easy to begin somewhere. And just to talk about this. And teach this idea and that idea. And to draw from this source and the other source. But the question is. Are we teaching the word? That is our responsibility. Paul says teach the word. Don't teach your own ideas. Don't teach your own theories. Don't teach the ideas of men. Don't teach the wisdom of man. Teach the word. That is our responsibility. And that is why we go through many, many scriptures. That's why our emphasis is the word. Many preachers are good at teaching from their experience. And it's interesting to listen to them. They'll tell you about. You know what happened over there. And when I was over there. And that happened. I was in that church. And that happened. You know. And I was preaching. And this. And you know. And all of these stories. All of that's interesting. But it's not the word. Our responsibility. And the responsibility. And the command and instruction to a teacher is to teach or to preach the word. And then of course. Jesus has to be the message. Has to be the center. Acts chapter 5 and verse 42. For those who are writing down. But you can. You go right through the book of Acts. And over and over and over. I didn't count. But it could be as many as 20 times. It says they preached Jesus. They preached Jesus. That he is the Christ. They preached Jesus. And the resurrection. But their message was Jesus. Their message was not the denomination. Their message was not my ministry. Their message was Jesus. That has to be the message. That has to be the purpose and the function. Of all of our preaching and teaching is to bring people closer to Jesus. More in love with Jesus. More into the image of Jesus. To make Jesus the focus and the center of their lives. And the focus and the center of our church. Now we're dealing with the church in the series. Which has now been going for some time. But at the end of the day. I trust that through all of this exercise. We will not only have a better understanding of how the church should function. And how the church should operate. But that at the end of the day. We'll come home with this message. That Jesus is the foundation. Jesus is the builder. He is the capstone. He is the all in all. And that without him we have no church. We can have all of the structure. We can have all of the ministries in operation. We can have everything in operation. But if Jesus is not in it. It's a waste of time. And so the question is. Is Jesus the focus? This is just another question you can ask. When you watch preachers. And I already made reference to the. I forget what they call this begging season. But you can listen to the telethon. Thank you. He watches it. But you can listen to the telethon. And what's the message? Give me money. The message is not Jesus. The message is not that you may be equipped for every good work. The message is. I need your money. That's clear. They're not ashamed of that. They have all sorts of reasons why they think that that is legitimate. But our message is to be Jesus. And it is to be the word. And then finally. 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 2. And this is very important. Because again when it comes to teaching. It's easy to teach on the theories and the theology. But our teaching needs to be practical. 1 Timothy chapter 6. And verse 2. Well verse 1. In other words he says if you work for a boss do a decent job. Verse 2. Now that's not teaching you find much today. About how to be a good employee. Or a good employer. But if you go through Paul's teaching you find that he speaks about. Our relationships in our workplace. He speaks about relationships between husbands and wives. And parents and children. Our relationship to money. Our relationship to material things. Our attitudes to things. He deals with practical things. And so our teaching is not just. The theory about God and about heaven and about all these wonderful things. Our teaching also needs to be practical. And it needs to deal with our day to day living. Now again we can go to the other extreme. Where our preaching is all about those things. And we're not preaching too much about God and about Jesus. But our teaching needs to include all of these things. It needs to be from the practical the mundane day to day issues. Of how we order our lives. How we run our finances. To the things that have to do with the greatness and the sovereignty. And the magnificence of God. And who he is. We have to preach the whole counsel. Paul says I have not failed to deliver to you the whole counsel of God. And the whole counsel of God is not just the practical issues. It is not just about eternal issues. It is about everything in between. Everything that Paul covered are the things that we need to cover. Everything that Jesus covered. And Jesus spoke about heaven. And he spoke about earth. He spoke about our relationship to money. He spoke about all of these things. And these are important issues that we need to cover. And they need to be covered in teaching. Alright. I'm going to conclude by saying that teaching. Something that I touched on earlier. Teaching is a gift. The teachers that we're speaking about here. Are not ones who have gone to seminary. And learned how to teach these things. Because you can learn these things. You can go to Bible school or whatever. And you can spend three years and get a piece of paper. And you can come out and you can preach. That's not hard. Some people think preaching is very hard. I'm going to tell you it's not very hard. You watch the politicians. They're all good preachers. You watch a second hand car salesman. He's also a good preacher. Maybe not preaching the right message. But he's preaching. But it's. What we're speaking about here is a gift. When he ascended on high. He gave gifts to men. And he gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors. And teachers. You go through each one of those lists. Romans chapter 12. And 1 Corinthians chapter 12. And you find that it is. That these are gifts that he gives to the church. These are not natural abilities. Our brother James is a school teacher. That does not. And he's a lovely brother. I love James. But the fact that he is a qualified school teacher. And that he teaches kids all day. Does not qualify him as a teacher in the word. That's a separate thing. Now God may use his natural abilities. For him to be a teacher. I'm not saying this way or that way. But we're not talking about a natural skill. Or a natural ability. We're speaking about a divine gift. How will we know that? Well, you'll know it when you see it. You'll recognize a true teacher when you see one. And when you apply these principles that we've shared with you this evening. Amen. Questions?