2 Timothy 2.16-19 The Solid Foundation

We'll begin by, I'm going to take you back to the 18th century, the 1700s, when King Louis XIV of France had a pain in his leg.

And that pain was likely from a fungal infection, but that pain in his leg ended in corrupt, it corrupted his blood.

It led to a corruption of his blood, which led to the spread of gangrene in his leg. And that gangrene eroded away his leg and eat it away at his leg into a putrid, black, decomposing flesh.

And it was a gruesome infection that slowly consumed him. And it resulted in an agonizing death from septic shock due to blood poisoning. His blood was corrupted.

And because his blood was corrupted, the corruption spread through him and led to his destruction. And in 2 Timothy 2, we see that the corruption of truth erodes like gangrene.

We're going to be looking at verses 16 to 19, but I'll start by reading in verse 1. You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses.

Commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.

And also, if anyone competes in athletics, he's not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.

Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel, for which I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even to the point of chains.

But the word of God is not chained. Therefore, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This is a faithful saying. If we died with him, we shall also live with him. If we endure, we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will deny us.

If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness, and their message will spread like cancer.

may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may may divine testimony. We thank you for the means of grace and promise in your word for the communicating of grace to the hearers through the means of grace. We thank you for this church. We thank you for this Lord's Day. We thank you for all that you give us. We pray that you would illumine your word to us and help us to grow in our understanding of truth, that you would make it effectual to us.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Now in verses 16 to 19, that will be our text this morning, I want to draw your attention to something in those texts, namely that the church is to beware of corruption of truth and to rest secure on Christ, the solid foundation.

So we will see the instability of corruption and we'll also see the stability of truth or the stability of true doctrine. But first of all, the instability of corruption. We see in verses 16 to 19 forms of corruption, the results of corruption, and then some examples of corruption. So first of all, the forms of corruption. It says, but shun profane and idle babbling. So first of all, to understand this is a summary summarizing for us, um, corruption. And it says to shun what is characterized as being profane. It's characterizing it as being idle. Now what is profane means it's outside the sphere of godliness. So it's unholy. It's describing what's going on here as being godless, as being unholy, profane and idle babblings or useless wranglings, or in an old English translation that I like says, vain janglings. And it's saying it's profane. It's, it's unholy. Shun profane and idle babblings.

And those who are peddling this error, what they are doing is, it's not that they, they reject God's word. It's not that they reject truth. They don't say, I'm bringing you untruth. I'm bringing you corruption. But they take truth. And then they have a spin on it to introduce error. So they may take text of scripture, but they'll, remember from last week, they'll torture the text to make it say something that it didn't intend to say. And it comes down to the authorial intent. So is the meaning of the text of scripture up for grabs? Is the meaning of the intent of scripture for whoever reads it, however they want it to say, or for Hymenaeus and Philetus to spin it, however they want to spin it.

When we think of authorial intent, think of, again, if let's say you're leaving and you had somebody who would be helping out in your absence and they were going to help out, they were going to be in charge of your home or perhaps your children or perhaps your spouse or your bride. So you write a letter giving, giving instructions of how your household is to be run in your absence. And you're gone. And the person which is to help out looks at that letter and they think, I don't really like how it's done.

I'm going to, I'm going to do it my own way. I'm going to use the words on the, on the letter, but I'm going to kind of twist them around a bit, or I'm going to torture them so that the letter says, what it doesn't say so that I can have my own way with this. Well, what if, what if your directions in the letter were for how to taking care of your, your wife, your bride and your, your children, and you come back and you find out that they, they twisted the words in your letter. So to enable them to have their own way in your absence, well, you wouldn't be very happy when you get back. In fact, you're probably snarling inside your head right now. And the church is described as the bride of Christ. The church is the house of God and believers are described or adopted in the family of God as God's children. And Christ has given explicit directions in scripture of how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, the church of the living God. And these errorists, those who spread error, not aorist, not the verbal aspect, but errorists, they spread error. They twist truth to make it say what is not the author's intent. So maybe you can twist the words so you can have your own way with it, but what's the author's intent? What's Christ's intent in what is being said?

Well, the error is not the author's intent. The error is profane and idle babblings. And we're told to shun, to shun, not just the error itself, but the unrepentant false teachers who are peddling this error because they don't stop when they're confronted. And in Titus 3.10, it says, reject the divisive man after the first and second admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned. It says to shun, to avoid, not to follow after it, not to leave the stability of truth and follow after this error. Because once you've left the safety of the harbor, the number of waves of error are infinite and they never stop. So shun, profane, and idle babblings, the forms of corruption. And then we see the result. If the church does not shun, profane, and idle babblings, what does it result in? The results of corruption, it says, for they will increase to more ungodliness and their message will spread like cancer. Depending on what your translation, your version of scripture is, it might have a different word there and their message will spread like cancer. New Kings James Version has cancer. We'll come back to that.

But they will increase to more ungodliness. It says, for they will increase to more ungodliness. The word for gives the purpose. It gives the reason. The reason. And then, so why? Why is the church to shun profane and idle babblings? What is the reason? As they dishonor God and they produce harm. They lead to further ungodliness. Now Aquinas on, in his commentary on this text, he says, ungodliness is a doctrine against the faith. And if you remember from Ephesians, right doctrine leads to right conduct.

And so also, bad doctrine leads to bad conduct. And 2 Timothy 3.13 says, but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. So their message may be appealing on face value for whatever reason that might be. Maybe they, maybe they came in onto a stage on a zip line and there's fog machines and light shows and lasers and it's appealing. Or maybe because of their personality, there's something appealing about it. Or they're, you know, they're, they're very charismatic about these terminologies that are, these terms that are very important, like the inerrancy of scripture. But what's underneath that face value. So their, their message while appealing at face value, there's something about it that's profane. There's something about it that's godless.

It's gangrenous. It's destructive and it's infectious. So how does this happen? Um, I'm sure King Louis the 14th, it's not that he wanted to have gangrene. It's not that he went out and sought, how, how do I have gangrene in my body? How do I poison my blood? How do I corrupt my blood? So how does this happen? How does the church get infected with the spread of gangrenous error? It's because heretics aren't, heretics are nice people. If they were miserable and cranky people, they wouldn't have a following. People want, want to listen to them. It's not that, you know, those who are godly are nice and those who are heretics are cranky. It doesn't work that way.

Heretics are nice people, but being a nice person isn't the requirement for being an elder in the church, for example. They're nice people. They typically have magnetic personalities to, to draw people to hear their messages. And they also say a lot of true and useful things, which is what makes it difficult. It's not like a heretic or a false teacher is spewing nothing but error, nothing but corruption. They do say a lot of true things. They do see, say a lot of useful things, but then they smuggle error into it. And it's usually very subtle. And we'll notice in the example that's given how subtle, how subtle it is. But their, their error that they do smuggle into their message, endanger and erode. And their error spreads like a silent disease that if not removed, then it will spread and it will eat away at the person. Now I mentioned that it says, and their message will spread like cancer. And I said that another translation might have a different word there.

The Greek word that it's translated here into cancer is gangrena. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound like anything? Essentially that Greek word, a Greek word can have, can gloss into multiple meanings, but the Greek word, it essentially means an infection or, um, or, uh, an inflammation that will spread. And if not removed, then it will be disastrous. So yes, that's, that's also cancer.

Yes, that's, that's gangrene. So some translate as gangrene, which would be the more literal translation, but also how cancer brings the, the, the image, imagery to mind as well. And with, gangrena with gangrene with cancer, you can't stop it by addressing the symptom. If you have cancer, you can't just put a bandaid on and you've removed the cause of the infection. If you have gangrene, you can't put a bandaid on a black leg and it's going to get better. You can't address the symptom.

So you can't address, you can't stop the spread of error by addressing merely the symptom of it. You must remove the destructive source that causes the harmful disease to spread, remove the infection from where it originates. And that's the imagery that he's using here for error.

Error will lead astray and it's, you can't just wait for, okay, I identify that as error and stop that. It's the source, the agenda, the thinking that comes behind why that error is being spread or the one who is trying to spread at the source. Their message, their ideology, their agenda is like gangrene.

It's like cancer. If not removed, it will spread and it will cause harm and it will destroy and it ruins. So the forms of corruption, profane and idle babblings, the result of corruption, ungodliness, and it'll spread like gangrene or cancer. And then we're given examples of corruption.

And this is very interesting because it shows how subtle the error can be. It mentions names, Hymenaeus and Philetus. Their names are forever recorded in God's word.

Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort who have strayed concerning the truth. So it's summarized by saying that what they're teaching, what they have done is they have strayed from truth. They've strayed from the safety of the harbor to the winds of doctrine, to the winds of error, erroneous doctrine. But these names, who are these people? Well, Hymenaeus, we've heard it before.

Back in 1 Timothy 1.10, he was put out of the church. And excommunication, when somebody is in error, whether that be an immoral lifestyle or whether it be a heretical doctrine, they're confronted, they don't repent. Eventually, they need to be removed from the church, such as the source of gangrenous infection. And that's what happened to Hymenaeus in 1 Timothy 1.20. He was removed from the church, but in 2 Timothy, which isn't the same day, in 2 Timothy, further on down the time, he's still doing harm. He still needs to be mentioned. And then we have Philetus in 2 Timothy 1.15.

And this you know that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Philegius and Hermogenes. Sorry, I got the wrong text there. So these are named, their names are provided as those whom are spreading error. And that's the sober reality of excommunication and the significance of it. That when somebody is excommunicated, they've decided against counsel and against being pointed out their sin to not repent and to continue in the spreading of either spreading of their error or in a immoral lifestyle. The sober reality of excommunication is that it's not just from a club.

It's not just from a little society and that they can go to another club and start a membership there. But the visible church, when excommunication occurs from the visible church, it's a statement to all the churches that this person's profession is not credible. And that's a pretty sober reality.

So whereas baptism is the right of entrance into the church, baptism is the church's affirmation that their profession is credible. Excommunication is the church's affirmation that that profession they made is not credible. And that everyone is to beware of this person for whatever the reason may be.

So the church has a firm that Hymenaeus is not credible. He was put out of the church, but he's still, he's still doing harm. Maybe he went down the road. Maybe he joined a mega church. Maybe he joined a seeker sensitive church and came in on zip lines. I don't know I'm making this all up, but the point is, is that what he's doing isn't according to the order of God's word.

You may know how you want to conduct yourself. He's doing it in a different way, outside of the order, outside of the qualifications as prescribed in God's word with Christ as the head gives so that the church may be proper stewards of that which belongs to Christ, his bride, his, the body of Christ, the children of God. And seeker sensitive churches today are, I can't stress enough how much they are to be avoided as such. They're, they, they do away with the gospel. They do away with God's order of how the church is to be run. And they bring in all sorts of, of error. And it's, it's when things are not done according to God's word, according to his qualifications, um, then error spreads. And I think, I think the, the, the ecumenical movement would have embraced Hymenaeus and Philetus. Um, the word ecumenical is a good thing. That's another thing where it's like, I, oh, that's a good term, but then it's redefined in a different way. But the ecumenical movement was trying to see as many people as possible that we can unite together. So anything that may divide, we'll get away with that. We'll do away with that. As long as you can say, I love Jesus, then you're within this movement. And Hymenaeus and Philetus probably would have said that, which is why it's, it spreads because they say things that sound right. They say things that are true. They say things that are useful, but then they redefine or they spin it a different way.

They torture the texts to say something that it didn't intend to say. They stifle the true worship of God and therefore the communicating of grace to the due use of the means of grace. They stifle the means of grace. And I want us to really stress that point of why it's so important. It's because of what actually happens in a true church. So let's say you have, you have a hobby or a pastime that you like to do, whether it's LARPing or let's say music, you really like music, you really like playing instruments. So you find other people who also like to play instruments. And on a Thursday afternoon, you get together and you play instruments together and it's, it cheers you up. And so you start a society and you, um, you make a list of, of, um, of guidelines of how that society is to, to gather as a club. And when you gather and you play music together, you make a wonderful sound and, um, and it cheers you up, that's good. Or whether it's LARPing and you do that and that's good, but that's not what church is. Church isn't a group of like-minded people who have something in common, who get together to focus on that. There is something much more significant that occurs in church. The means of grace, God promises through his words, that through the means of grace. So where there is a true church, the, the pure preaching of the word, the due administration of the sacraments and the faithful exercise of church discipline, there is a true church. And when there's a true church, the means of grace, which is the preaching of the word, the hearing of the word, um, the, the sacraments, the singing of the word and the sacraments and, and in praying of the word, something actually happens beyond what the people do.

We have a promise in the word of God that God communicates grace through these means to the hearers or to those who are observing the sacraments, who are partaking of the sacraments.

God communicates grace, the divine imparting of faith to the hearers. Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God. We have communion with Christ through these things. There is much more that goes on beyond what our, what our senses detect or what we as creatures, as people, as humans are capable of doing. That when we do this, according to God's word, God blesses his people. God communicates grace by his spirit, illuminating the word to us through it. So there's something much more going on than just a club of people with something in common. Essentially that's what a seeker sensitive churches. They're trying to just have a club based on something in common, but they're stifling the means of grace. They're stifling God, communicating grace to his people who need to be fed, who need to be nourished by the means in which he does so. So Hymenaeus and Philetus, they're mentioned as examples of error. What did they teach? They taught that the erection had already passed. That seems awfully subtle, doesn't it? Now we could probably think of ways to dismiss it. Well, that's not that big of a deal.

It's not the gospel. They're not, they're not saying that Jesus isn't Lord. They're not saying that Jesus is not the son of God. They're not, whatever it might be. And you could find ways to try to dismiss it.

Well, that's eschatology. That's last things. Good men of God disagree on, on, at, at times. When the resurrection comes, then they'll, they'll know. It's subtle, but it's extremely important. And it's, they're mentioned in God's word for every church of every age to be warned that the example of corruption of the error, which they were spreading. So notice that they don't deny the resurrection. They don't deny Jesus. They don't deny the resurrection, but they redefine it. They redefine it in a way other than what scripture says. So what are the implications of redefining doctrine? Well, let's use this example as a little bit of a short, brief case study. What are the implications of Hymenaeus and Philetus redefining the resurrection? First of all, it would mean there's no future judgment. If, if the resurrection has passed, that means we are post resurrection, which means we're post judgment. So there is no more judgment. So do whatever you want and there will be no retribution. There will be no judgment. There will be no justice because retribution has passed. Therefore there's no sin. So do everything you want, do anything you want, be hedonistic.

It's not sin. There's no judgment. And as you see, it increases in ungodliness. Or, or as well, another implication of their redefining of the doctrine is that means the persecuted church is not vindicated. Throughout the ages, the world organized against God has persecuted the church. And if the resurrection has passed and judgment has passed, then the church is not vindicated. Revelation 6, 10 gives us an image of that, of how the church, the persecuted, the martyrs say, how long until they will be, the church will be vindicated, the saints will be vindicated. But if that has passed, the wicked have not been punished. And the church is still persecuted and all is not made right. Actually flip over to 2 Thessalonians. It's a, it's a quick jump back. 2 Thessalonians 1, 6 to 9.

Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation, those who trouble you and to give you who are troubled rest with us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels and flaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. And then down in 2 verse 1. Now brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, this has not yet occurred. To teach that it has occurred, it gives the persecuted church no hope of everything being made right. A future of, a future vindication. It means all is not brought into perfect subjection under Christ. And then another implication of redefining this doctrine this way is that it means that there's no future resurrection hope of glory.

What it's saying is that this is as good as it gets. Especially for the church, where there's still persecution. The church hasn't been vindicated. We're still persecution. There's still sin. We're still affected by sin.

We still have remaining corruption. But this is as good as it gets. So, welcome to paradise. It's still broken. There's no future hope of glory. And the consequent result of their redefining of the resurrection of having passed is that they subvert the faith of some. And this causes division and it causes shipwreck. They stray from truth. They stray from safety. They subvert the foundation of the faith. The instability of corruption. And despite the reality of corruption, the church is to rest secure on Christ, the solid foundation. So, next we'll see the stability of true doctrine. The instability of corruption. The stability of truth or of true doctrine.

So, we see the form of stability. It says, nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands having this seal. So, the stability of the foundation of true doctrine focuses on the object and ground of faith. Of a believer's faith. Now, this kind of gives us an image that other parts of scripture give us more pieces to understand this imagery. But the church is described essentially as a building. Not the building that we are in as a church, but as a spiritual building.

In 1 Timothy 3.15, it says, the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. A pillar or a buttress would support a ground. You can picture this pillar that's holding something up. It's supporting something. And the church is as a pillar that upholds truth. But a pillar is only as secure as the foundation that it's on. So, we're starting to see this picture, a spiritual reality that the church, the people of God together, that they support the truth as a pillar does. And that it is on a foundation. Ephesians 2.19, it says, fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, household again, imagery of this building, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. So, this image we have is the truth being supported and upheld by a pillar. This pillar is the church. The church is stable on the foundation of the apostolic teaching of Christ. Christ's teaching passed on to the apostles and inscripturated in God's word. So, we see this picture. And then in 1 Corinthians 3, it tells us, it says, you as in the church, it says, the church is God's building and the foundation is Jesus Christ.

And then in Matthew 7.25, it says, for it was founded on the rock. Jesus is the sure foundation of the church as the pillar that upholds the truth to the world.

So, nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands. And we know from other parts of scripture that it will stand and that even the gates of hell will not prevail against it. Christ will build his church. The solid foundation of God stands and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

It says, nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands. So, the solid foundation, it says, having this seal. And then what follows is the seal and there's two parts to it. And there's a lot more going on than what meets the eye. But next we see, so with this seal, the assurance of stability.

Scripture assures us of stability. The foundation of truth. It says, the Lord knows who it is. This is the seal part one. Okay. Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands having this seal, seal part one, seal part two. So, we'll break it up into two parts. Seal part one is predestination.

A predestination is a word that we see in Romans 8. But to understand better the context of what it's getting at, if you see in your Bibles in 2 Timothy 2 verse 19, nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands having this seal. And then you notice there's a quotation. It's quoting something.

Verse 19 is quoting something from the Old Testament. It doesn't say, Moses said, but it's quoting something. And we have, you probably have in your Bible, a little footnote, not footnote, will say, go to number 16 for where this quote is coming from, where he's quoting. So, it's directing you back to Numbers 16. And in Numbers 16, we have the prototype of usurpation, which is being quoted in our text in verse 19, which is quite interesting. Now, what happens in Numbers 16 is that Korah and company decide that it's not right that Moses and Aaron are the leaders and that they take too much upon themselves. And they want to assert themselves as leaders. I'll give you the reference. I decided we'll maybe not read it just for the sake of time, but Numbers 16, 1 to 5, 21 to 23, and 31 to 25 specifically. So, with Korah's rebellion, they wanted to assert themselves as leaders and not, it wasn't fair, it wasn't right that Moses and Aaron were. So, Moses said, well, we will see who God has appointed as leaders. And you can read the details for yourself. But then, essentially, they separate. They separate from Korah's rebellion and those who are the Lord's and following Moses and Aaron. And the Lord causes the earth to open up and swallow Korah and his family, their families, and closed up after them and fire consumed those who were on their side and following after them.

So, there's, it's the prototype of usurpation against those whom were God's leaders. They were destroyed, but there's a, there's a separating from them. Notice that, especially in verse 21, there's a separating from them. They're consumed and the Lord knows who are his.

That's what this text is quoting. That's what it's getting at. Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having the seal, the Lord knows who are his. Despite usurpation, the Lord knows who are his.

So, with Korah and company, they wanted to be where God had not put them. So, also, with Hymenaeus and Philetus, they wanted to be where God had not put them. And schismatics in the church, in Timothy's day, in our day, they're wanting to be where God has not put them. They're self-imposed, an emulation of eldership or of leadership. And such people are no different from Korah or Korah's rebellion.

So, why do they do it? Well, they're addicted to themselves. They're seeking a platform for an audience. They're grandstanding or their, their pride playing to the, to the grandstand. But even in the face of usurpation and the, the prototype of usurpation with Korah and company and that rebellion, imagine being in it and just how stressful it would be. But even in situations like that, the Lord knows who are his. Even in the face of usurpation of church leadership today, the Lord knows who are his. And Matthew Poole, Puritan, his commentary, the annotators write, sealed and confirmed in their state by the eternal decree and counsel of God, who hath foreknown his elect, both as to their number and perseverance. But God hath from eternity known who are his, and therefore such as truly are so must be kept through faith by his power to salvation.

It is not possible that these should be totally and finally deceived. Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So, this solid foundation is having this seal. The Lord knows who are his. And the gift of faith, Ephesians 2, 8 tells us that faith is God's gift to us. It's by grace you have been saved through faith. It's not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God. We who did not seek after God, God, are unmerited favor. By God's grace, he gave us, he granted us grace. And the God's gifts, you know, God's gifts, we need to see them as who God is. And the faith of the elect is immovable. 1 Peter 1, 5 says, kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Romans 8, 30, moreover whom he predestined, these he also called. Whom he called, these he also justified. And whom he justified, these he also glorified. Sometimes we struggle with this because we don't know who the elect are, but we don't need to know God's mind. God can be God. We don't have to know God's mind for us to be, you know, to be faithful to, to our duty. John 10, 28 says, and I will give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

Neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. So we're starting to see the stability of the solid foundation of God, which does stand because the Lord knows who are his. And despite usurpation, whether that be Korah and company, or whether that be Hymenaeus and Philetus, or whether that be in 2026, despite whatever usurpation may be trying to spread error or to take over a church, the Lord knows who are his.

And then we see the result of the, of stability. So there's the seal part one and part two. This is the seal part two. The result of stability is fruit, the fruit of faith. And that's separation.

Remember back the rebellion of Korah. They wanted to put themselves where God had not put them. Usurpation over, um, God ordained leadership. And what occurred was there was separation.

Those who were God's, those were his separated from this rebellion against God, from this usurpation against God. And separation, it might be reminding you of another word that we see in scripture of sanctification. Sanctification is to be separate, to be set apart. Sanctification occurs at conversion where we are separated from the world, from the kingdom of darkness, transferred into the kingdom of light. But then sanctification continues the process of our sanctification, of mortifying, of the mortification of, of sin. But seal number two, separation, then says everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. And we have this image in our heads of the Korah rebellion, where those, the Lord knows who are his, those who are the Lord's, separate themselves from those who are usurping, those who are rebelling against, against God. So everyone who names the name of the Lord, a distinction is being made here. Everyone who names, or the name of Christ, everyone who names the name of Christ. Those who profess Christ. And in Romans 10, 10 says, all who call on the name of the Lord, those who believe, those who believe in their heart and confess with their mouth. Everyone who names the name of the Lord, everyone who names the name of Christ, that is everyone who receives Christ for salvation. Christ being the Messiah, the one who is prophesied in the Old Testament, the one who would save God's people. And the call to worship, you, if you remember, there was that, the, the understanding of the wilderness wandering, and God saving his people in a wilderness wandering. And it's imagery, when we read it, you just see redemption from sin. But just as he redeemed his people from bondage in

Egypt, and led them through the wilderness wandering, safely through the Jordan River, into the promised land of rest. So also, in the spiritual reality of God's work of redemption, he leads, he redeems his people out of bondage of sin and, and slavery, and leads them through this wilderness wandering, a pilgrimage in this life, through the Jordan River, death, safely into the land of promise that is in, and into glory. And those who, everyone who names the name of the Lord, it's speaking about faith, believing. And faith is not only to know the truth of Jesus as the Messiah, but to assent to it, to agree that this is true, and to trust in it personally. So receiving Jesus, naming the name of Christ, it's not just saying, I believe in Jesus, it's receiving all that Jesus has done for his people. It's receiving Jesus as my only righteousness, that I cannot bring perfect, personal, exact, entire, perpetual obedience of God's law before a holy and just God. And that is what is required. And only Jesus has accomplished that. So we can only come before God in Jesus by receiving Jesus as our mediator.

And receiving his righteousness instead of mine, receiving his merits, receiving his benefits, and his mediation. So everyone who professes Christ, those who are regenerated and reoriented, do not adhere to sin. Ephesians 2 gives us a good description that according to our nature, the way in which we are born, in our sin, we follow after the course of this world, after the prince of the power of the air. And God, the spirit of God quickens, quickens us and regenerates us and dislodges us and uproots us from that course of the world, transfers us out of the kingdom of darkness and of this world into the kingdom of light, the kingdom of Christ, and relocates us and reorients us after Christ. And that's what we see with the imagery of Numbers 16, 21 to 23, of separating themselves, being separate from the rebellion, and departing from the rebellion. Everyone who names the name of the Lord, depart from iniquity. Now in Romans 8, 1, it says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, depart from iniquity, but according to the spirit. And what we see in Romans 8, 1, we can see that there is therefore now no condemnation. It's not, for those who profess Christ, who receive Christ, we're not standing in the court of law before God anymore.

There is therefore now no condemnation, not because we're still in the court of law, but there's no condemnation, but because we no longer stand as it were in the court of law, being those who have transgressed God's law, though we have, and though we still have remaining corruption. But Christ has paid the penalty for our sin, and instead of being under the law, being in Christ, and under the covenant of grace, we're adopted as children of God. So instead of standing before a judge in the court of law, we stand before God as his children, as our heavenly father. Therefore there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit.

The distinguishing marks of being on the sure foundation, our sure foundation isn't departing from iniquity. The fruit of the distinguishing marks of being on the sure foundation, of being in Christ, is departing from iniquity. And while we are not made perfect in holiness yet in this life, there is a change of mind about sin.

The Baptist Catechism, question 92, says that repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. I don't want to get ahead of myself yet because this is the concluding uses, but being on the sure foundation doesn't mean we're perfect yet. Because remember, Hymenaeus was wrong.

Philetus was wrong. The resurrection hasn't passed. This isn't a state of glory. We're in a state of grace. The world is still cursed. Things have not been made right. We still have remaining corruption. We have not yet been made perfect. So some concluding uses. First of all, bad doctrine leads to bad conduct. A current day example of this would be antinomianism. Antinomianism is no law. To say that because we're saved, we're no longer under law, then law no longer means anything. We can't sin because we're not under law anymore. So again, be hedonistic if you want, because there's no law.

So this bad doctrine leads to ungodliness. It leads to licentiousness. And the problem with antinomianism is that it gets the gospel wrong. So you want good doctrine, right doctrine leads to right conduct. The gospel isn't that we are saved to sin, but that we are redeemed from the bondage of sin and separated and reoriented that now we can follow after Christ. And tolerance of error will lead to an intolerance of the truth. Or tolerance of the error is, those who spread error, tolerance of their profane agenda will lead to an intolerance of the truth. So if we tolerate error coming in, that error will spread and infect and corrupt and will lead to an intolerance of the truth.

So just like Hymenaeus and Philetus, the errorists of today, they say the right terms, but they redefine them. And that's what makes it so difficult is because you hear them say the words that you know are important to believe and to teach, but then they subtly redefine them in ways that aren't so obvious. But it's corruption, and it's unstable, and it strays, and it ruins.

Hymenaeus was previously confronted. He was unrepentant, and he was excommunicated, but he didn't go away. He was still a problem. Just because somebody is excommunicated doesn't mean they stop teaching. And this is helpful for us to know because Hymenaeus is mentioned in Scripture to alert us, to warn us that this happens.

That though confronted, though excommunicated, it doesn't go away. And their agenda doesn't go away. And their subtle error doesn't go away. He was still a problem.

Which again brings to mind the seriousness of excommunication, and that we should understand the seriousness of it. And most, a lot of churches today, probably because the ecumenical movement, the keys of the kingdom have been blurred a fair bit. But there's great seriousness to excommunication that that person has been identified for some reason as their profession not being credible. And how do we know, let's say you turn on the TV, and there's someone delivering a sermon. And they're saying a lot of good stuff. And they got a magnetic personality. And they got a big following. Or maybe on Facebook, they've got millions of followers. But how do we know if they're a peddler of the truth? Is it because they say that they're a Christian and they love Jesus? How do we know those whom are affirmed to be on the sure foundation?

Well, that's, that's, that's, when the church, when the churches, when the church affirms that a profession is credible, that's a statement to believers that we believe that what, what this person is saying is true, that they truly have been saved. And the pulpit is to be guarded. So when somebody gets in the pulpit, or when somebody's teaching, the church is saying, we believe this to be credible, credible. When that's not guarded, when there's not excommunication, when error isn't dealt, whether those who are unrepentant in their error are not cut out, then gangrene spreads.

And you don't necessarily know that when you turn on the TV, you don't know, has this person been qualified by a true church? Or have they been excommunicated from a church? So they've gone to a TV ministry or a deliverance ministry podcast or whatever they're doing. Has the church affirmed them to be credible? Has this come through the church as their affirmed, their affirmed work?

There is danger in following those who have departed from the church. Hymenaeus, Philetus, there's danger in following them. There's danger in following those who are self-imposed, self-imposed outside the qualifications of the church. There's danger because they are usurpers and peddlers of error and it directs us to Numbers 14, the prototype of usurpation, to give us a picture of their usurpation. There's great danger to separate from it. And one indication of it today is novel teaching. We have divine revelation and scripture in word. If someone comes and they say, I have this new gospel, I have this new teaching, I have this new perspective on justification, that's a big red flag that that is going to be straying from the faith once for all delivered to the saints.

Another concluding use, contrary to what Hymenaeus and Philetus would be trying to spread, we do have future resurrection hope. And perhaps you struggle in some way with assurance of resurrection hope grounded on Jesus Christ, the solid foundation for whatever reason. Maybe some, in some way in your life you have heard something or maybe in some way you doubt God's faithfulness.

But we do have future resurrection hope grounded on Jesus Christ, the solid foundation. I want to read a couple of things that help put this into perspective. These are historic documents over 300 years ago that were written in specifically articulated concisely and it just brings so much encouragement to believers of our resurrection hope. The first document is the Second London Confession of Faith in chapter 31, paragraph 1. It talks about believers at their death and what happens to believers at their death.

The souls of the righteous, being then made perfect in holiness, are received into paradise, where they are with Christ and behold the face of God in light and glory, waiting for the full redemption of their bodies.

As believers at their death, what about a resurrection? What happens to believers at the resurrection? The Baptist Catechism gives us an answer. It says, at the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment and made perfectly blessed both in soul and body and the full enjoyment of God to all eternity. In other words, this isn't as good as it gets. This isn't our resurrection hope. This isn't paradise.

The world is still cursed. The world is still broken. We still have remaining corruption, but this isn't our hope. Our hope is in resurrection glory where we will be made perfectly blessed.

So, let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. You might say, but I still have this awful remaining corruption, which you can see how it's all interconnected with their subtle error of resurrection having passed. Yes, we are not in a state of glory. We are in a state of grace, and believers still have remaining corruption. We're not made perfect yet. Being in a state of grace, the resurrection has not happened yet, which means this is not as good as it gets.

But in the state of glory, we will be perfected in holiness. There will be no more remaining corruption. We will no longer be able to sin. There will be no more sin.

So, even though you may have remaining sin, remaining corruption, if this truth that there will be no more sin in glory, if this comforts you, then take heart because the hypocrite loves their sin and does not want to part from it. The hypocrite refuses to part from their sin, whereas the believer is greatly comforted by the fact that in glory there will be no more sin. I will finally be rid of this remaining corruption. The believer grieves over their sin and yearns to be rid of it, whereas the hypocrite loves their sin secretly and refuses to part from it. Let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. Well, so what is iniquity? Iniquity is sin. What is sin? Sin is lawlessness.

The law of God, sin is any want of conformity or lack of, sin is any want of conformity or lack into the law of God. The law tells us what sin is. The law points out our sin, but the law doesn't give us the power to obey it. And that's an important thing to understand. If everyone who names the name of Christ is depart from sin, we don't look to the law to obey it, to depart from sin. We don't look to ourselves because the law doesn't provide the power to obey it. Only the gospel does. So in other words, look to Christ crucified. When we look to Christ crucified, that's where we find the power to obey the law because grace is communicated to us, not because of our own strength. Grace is communicated to us and our faith increased by hearing the gospel and the preaching of the word, by seeing the gospel and the administration of the sacraments and by prayerful communion with God. In other words, fixate on

Jesus Christ, our hope, who is the sure foundation. Let's pray.