Living Waters of Grace 12.18.25

This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis

Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland

County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he

continues teaching through God's Word.

And those are the three things that I think about even today.

Well, I know who I believe. I believe the author of the true

Word of God. I believe what's in here.

Not some of it. All of it, all of it.

No one can tell me. Well, some of these things

aren't necessarily true because they're not for today.

No, no, no, you can't tell me that all of this is God's word.

And if it's all God's Word, then it's all truth that.

Sure is a simple way to look at the Bible.

If the Bible is the word of God, then it's all truth.

It's as simple as that. Today, Pastor Lewis shows us

that some within the church are approaching the Word of God like

it's the local Chinese buffet. I'll take a little of this and a

little of that, but I don't want any of that.

The Bible isn't meant to be approached like a buffet.

You must take the entirety of the Word of God into your very

person. It is all meant for your good.

Now here's Pastor Lewis in the Book of First Timothy, chapter

one with today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.

So we aren't saved because we do good things, say, because we

believe in him who is good. And then is the last I'm just

going to mention here is this prosperity gospel.

Prosperity gospel teaches that we are saved to be rich, you're

saved to be happy, you're saved to be healthy and whole, that if

we give our lives to Jesus, then we will live a blessed,

prosperous and happy life. But in order to do that, you got

to give, you got to plant some seeds.

You know, you got to give, you know, you have to, you have to

give to the church and then you can receive these, these things

that Jesus can offer once we give to him first.

Well, Jesus already died for us. There's really nothing we can do

for him, right? He already died for us.

It's all done. It's finished.

He said it on the cross, it's finished.

So we know that that's not a a true gospel.

So we have to be careful of some of the doctrines that can make

their way into the church. But Paul said that these

doctrines, these doctrines, these other doctrines, these

fables, which are basically just myths, they're untrue.

You know, these things along with endless genealogies.

And what he means here is that there are people who are

actually trying to achieve righteousness through their

lineage based on who they're related to.

You know, this is my lineage. And you heard the Pharisees do

it. We're of Abraham, we're

Abraham's seed. Jesus said before Abraham was I

am, so it has nothing to do with who I'm related to.

My mother could be saved. If I'm living like the devil,

I'm sorry, but I'm not going to be saved unless I repent and

trust in Jesus Christ for my salvation.

We all got to have that relationship with Him, not just

because we're related to somebody who does.

And they were trusted in some of these genealogies.

And these things weren't doing nothing but causing disputes and

speculations. But Paul said these things don't

edify. You see, they can't change our

lives. These new doctrines can't change

our lives. Or we can make you feel good for

a while because they do address your flesh.

They go right to your flesh. But it does nothing for the

spirit man. So the spirit man doesn't grow.

We don't become more mature in the Lord listening to strange

doctrines. The only thing that causes us to

grow is the word of truth, the gospel of truth.

Jesus said sanctify them by your truth, not by these other

gospels. Sanctify them by your truth.

Your word is truth. So we're sanctified by the truth

of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So then we go on to verse 5 and

it says now the purpose of the commandment is love.

So Paul says, look, that other gospel were dumped, other things

that they're teaching those false teachings.

It's not doing anything but bringing speculation, disputes,

causing us to go into more sin, causing people to go into more

sin. It's not doing anything for our

hearts. It's not changing us.

It doesn't do anything for us. But the purpose of the

commandment, that means the true doctrine is love.

The gospel is a love message. It's a love message for God.

So love the world He gave his only begotten Son.

Romans 5 and 8 says that he demonstrates his love toward us

and that why we were yet sinners.

He died for us. The gospel is a love message.

It gives us a love message. It gives us love.

Jesus say, you'll know them, you'll know them by their love

for one another, You'll know that they are my disciples by

the way that they love one another.

Now the purpose of the commandment is love, and it's

love from a pure heart, which means that a love, a heart

that's untainted, a heart that's uncorrupted by worldliness.

So it's a pure heart. And we know that it's the pure

that sees God, right? I mean, when we look at the

beatitudes, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see

God, they shall see God, the pure in heart.

So it's love out of a pure heart.

It's also love from a good conscience.

You see, the Word of God, the gospel doesn't give, it doesn't

teach condemnation, it doesn't teach judgment and condemnation

and all those kind of things. You don't feel condemned.

Paul said There is therefore no condemnation to them who walk

not after the flesh but after the Spirit.

There is no condemnation. We don't have to feel condemned

when we read the gospel. The law makes us feel condemned

or when people make you feel like you don't measure up, that

causes condemnation. And Paul says here it's it's

it's love with a good conscience.

Our conscience is clear. If I do wrong, I repent and I'm

back in fellowship with God. I don't have to carry around

condemnation and feel like I've fallen out of love with God

because I did something wrong. God said there's nothing that

can separate us from his love. And then it says here and from a

sincere faith, the sincere faith, not a hypocritical faith,

not someone living double lives, not someone acting like they're

keeping the law and putting all this bondage on other people to

keep it and they can't do it themselves.

That's a hypocritical law. That's a hypocritical gospel.

That's not what this love is coming from.

It's a sincere gospel. We sincerely love the Lord.

We are sincere before Him, even when we repent.

Lord, I blew it. I messed up, please forgive me.

I desire to do the right thing, but sometimes I don't.

Lord, please forgive me. That's a sincere heart.

A sincere heart. And then he goes on to verse 5,

it says from which some having strayed meaning from the sincere

faith or the word of God, some having strayed, they they've

turned away from it and having turned aside to idle talk, idle

talk, vain talk, empty talk. It doesn't go anywhere.

It's circular, it's speculation. Majoring on the minors is

basically what that is. It's idle talk, verse 7 says,

designed to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what

they say nor the things which they affirm.

They don't even understand what they truly believe in.

They don't understand exactly what they're standing on.

They don't have a real good understanding of it, and it

can't. If, if it's not truth, then it's

always changing. Then it's always changing.

So you don't really know what you're standing on.

You don't really know what you're standing on.

When I was, when we were, when we were younger, when we first

got saved, our mentor used to tell us, he said, look, you need

to know three things. You need to know three things

about your salvation. First of all, you need to know

who you believe. Secondly, you need to know what

you believe. And thirdly, you need to know

why you believe it. And those are the three things

that I think about even today. Well, I know who I believe.

I believe the author of the true Word of God.

I believe what's in here. Not some of it, all of it, all

of it. No one can tell me.

Well, some of these things aren't necessarily true because

they're not for today. No, no, no, you can't tell me

that all of this is God's word. And if it's all God's Word, then

it's all truth. It's all truth.

So that's who I believe. What do I believe?

I believe that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God.

I believe he came and he died for my sins and your sins.

I believe that he was buried, and I believe that on the third

day he arose. And I believe that we have

eternal life in Him. For those who believe on him,

that's what I believe. And they say, well, why do you

believe it? Because God said it.

For me, it's very simple. I believe because God said I'll

have to give a dissertation while I believe it.

God said it. Now we hear people say God said

it, I believe it. That settles it.

I used to say that too. I don't say that no more because

it doesn't matter whether I believe it or not.

It's still true. So the word, so it should be.

God said it, and that settles it.

There's nothing in between my believing it or not, my

believing it or not believing it.

Doesn't make it any less true or any more true.

And we need to understand that as a community, as a society,

people think that because they don't believe something that

they read in the word of God, then it's not necessarily true

because it doesn't make sense to them.

Sorry. Just because it doesn't make

sense to you doesn't mean it's not true.

It's true anyway. 2 + 2 equal 4. If I have 4 beads sitting up

here, I don't care what you do with it.

If I put these two over here together with this two over here

and put them together, I'm going to have 4 beads.

Whether I believe it's true or not.

It's 4B sitting on my table. God's word is true whether we

believe it or not. So that's why I believe it,

because God said it. So then he goes on here and he

says in verse 8. So apparently what we learn is

that this problem that they had with bringing with the strange

doctrines, it had to do something with the law.

They were misinterpreting the law or misusing the law.

And we know that Judaizers were coming into different places and

that's what they were doing. They were misusing the law.

Judaizers were saying, yeah, it's Jesus Christ.

Plus, OK, you know, you have to believe in Jesus Christ, but

then you also have to get circumcised.

You can believe in Jesus Christ, but you also have to keep the

law of Moses. OK, That's Jesus Christ plus.

There is no Jesus Christ plus. It's Jesus Christ.

We're saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ

alone. That's it.

There is no Jesus plus. But they must have thought that

there was a Jesus plus, so Paul says.

But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully.

When the law is used the correct way for what it's intended for,

the law is good. In evangelism, people who

understand the law and are able to share the law in a way where

people understand there's that balance between law and grace.

The law is good. The law is good.

The purpose of the law, and this is what we're going into now,

the purpose of the law is to point out our sin.

That's what the law is for. It was to point out our sin.

How do I know that? Well, let's look at a couple of

verses that tells us that. How about we do that?

Let's go to Galatians first. Now let's go to Romans.

Go to Romans first. We'll do it in order.

Go to Romans first. Romans chapter 3, right around

Romans 3 · chapter mention

the beginning of Romans, Romans chapter 3 verse 19 says, Now we

Romans 3:19

know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under

the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may

become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the

law, no flesh will be justified in His sight.

For by the law is the knowledge of sin, for by law is the

knowledge of sin. The law simply points out our

sins. And then let's go to go to

Galatians. Let's go over to Galatians and

go to chapter 3 in Galatians, and I'm going to start right

here, verse 21. It says for if there had been a

law given which could have given life by righteousness, for if

there had been a law given which could have given life, OK, truly

righteousness would have been by the law.

But the Scripture has confirmed all under sin, that the promise

by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law,

kept for the faith which would come afterward be revealed.

Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we

might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are

no longer under the tutor. So it came to point out our sin.

It was not a remedy or a cure for our sins.

So the law is like a thermometer.

Laws like a thermometer. A thermometer can tell you

you're sick, but it can't cure you.

It tells you you're sick, but it doesn't cure you.

A laws like that tells you just how sick we are, but there's no

cure in the law itself. So let's let's go on.

We know that the law cannot empower us to change.

The law cannot be on the inside of us.

The law is on the outside. It's the new covenant where God

said, I'm going to put my law in your heart and I'm going to put

it on your minds and your sins. I will remember no more.

And that's because the law giver is now in each and every one of

you and me. The law giver is in US.

So all we do is submit to the Spirit that's in US, and that's

how we walk in obedience to the Lord when we submit to the

Spirit that's in US. So then we go on here in verse 9

where it says now knowing this, that the law is not made for a

righteous person but for the lawless.

OK, So what I'm going to do now, I'm going to mention these

violations and these first six violations that I mentioned are

all going to fall under the 1st four of the 10 commandments.

It's very interesting how Paul did this.

He says here the law is for the lawless and the insubordinate.

That means the disobedient or the rebellious is for the

ungodly and for sinners and for the unholy and profane.

OK, that's who the law. Those six, you look at those six

things and they fall under the 1st 410 commandments.

It's very interesting. Thou should have no other God

before me. Thou should have no graven

images. Thou should not take the Lord's

name in vain. Thou should remember the Sabbath

and keep it holy. All those things fall under

these, these things that Paul just mentioned.

So now we're going to go to the next 8, which are going to fall

under the next. This might be complicated, might

fall out of the next 5 of 610 commandments because he doesn't

mention covetous here, which would have been the 10th

command. We don't mention that one, but

he does mention the first, that next five of the 10 commandments

and I'll go through them. But he says here it says for

murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, that means you know

your patricides and your matricides, people who kill

their fathers and their mothers. You know the 10 commandments

tells us that what, that we have to honor our fathers and our

mothers. And then it says for manslayers,

10 commandments said thou shalt not commit murder.

So it falls under that. And for fornication and

sodomites to commandments, they should not commit adultery.

But these fall under sexual immorality.

These fall under sexual immorality.

But I also want to point out to you that since we're on the

subject, I want to point out to you that he separated

fornicators and sodomites, or in some versions it may read

homosexuals. In some versions.

He took the time to point that out because I believe He's

letting us low. He's letting us know that being

a homosexual is no less of a sin or no more of a sin than being a

fornicator. Having sex outside of marriage

with a woman is no less of a sin than two men having sex.

It's all sinful to the Lord. It's abominable to the Lord.

OK, but I also want to point this out because somebody might

be thinking, but wait a minute. What if the two men are married?

What if the two women are married?

Is it still a sin? I have a resounding yes, it's

still a sin. God does not acknowledge

homosexual marriages, a man to man.

God does not acknowledge that marriage.

He does not acknowledge the marriage of two women.

God does not acknowledge that. How do you know Lewis?

Well, because back in Genesis when God was talking to Adam and

Eve and He was talking about their marriage, he said for this

reason, this is back in chapter 2, verse 24.

You can check it out. He said for this reason shall a

man leave his father and his mother and be joined to his

wife? Under no circumstances is a wife

ever identified as a man. A wife is a woman, and then if

you go to Matthew chapter 19, verse 5, Jesus said the exact

Matthew 19:5

same thing. For this reason shall a man be

joined together with his wife. For this reason he leaves his

father and his mother, and he's joined together with his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

That's the institution of marriage.

And I'm sorry, but the one who created the institution has the

right to call what it is, in my opinion.

I can't go into your house and I tell you what the rules of your

house is going to be. You ain't going for that, nor

can we do it with the institution of marriage.

So let's go on. So then he says for kidnappers,

some people believe that the Bible doesn't talk about

slavery. For slavery.

The Bible was doesn't doesn't mention anything about that.

Well, here's one place that it does because it's kidnappers.

He's talking about men, Steelers, men stealers, men who

actually steal other men or women and force them into

slavery. That's what this is talking

about. And then he says for liars and

for perjurers, I mean, all liars.

And we know that all liars have their place in the lake of fire.

But what's interesting, I looked up now, you know, the penalty

for perjury is a pretty severe penalty.

I mean, it's a, it's a third degree felony here in

Pennsylvania. It's a pretty severe penalty,

and the penalty, the punishment for it is like $15,000 in fines

and up to seven years prison time.

That's pretty severe. But that is nothing compared to

what a unrepentant, unbelieving liar or perjurer is going to

have to face when they face eternity in the lake of fire.

It says for if a perjurus and if there is any other thing that is

contrary to sound doctrine, well, maybe somebody is sitting

here and thinking, well, I don't do none of those things.

Just because it doesn't list, it doesn't mean this is an

unexhausted list. OK, this is not everything, but

he said he captures it at the bottom when he says in any other

thing that is not contrary to sound doctrine.

OK, so we're all lawbreakers, We've all broken the law.

We all need the grace of Jesus Christ.

We all need the love of Jesus Christ, and we all need the

mercy of Jesus Christ. And thank God it's there.

Amen. Thank God it's there.

So to teach this, to try to teach this, if somebody tries to

teach the law and use it as a way to keep you in bondage or

use it as a way to control you or ever try to get you to think

that the law is your way to righteousness or right standing

with God, or that the law is the way to salvation, that is misuse

of the law. That is misuse of the law.

The law is there to point it out.

This is sin. God's grace and His love and

faith in Him is the way to salvation.

Believing on Him, that's the way to salvation.

It got to be balanced. Amen.

And then of course, verse 11 says, according to the glorious

gospel of the blessed God, that's the balance which was

committed to my trust. I just want to close with this.

Romans 10/4 says for Christ is the end of the law for

righteousness for everyone or to everyone who believes.

People try to use doctrine to do whatever it is that they wanted

to do. They try to use it to control

you. They try to use it to condemn.

They try to use it to try to get you to think that you have to

complete a bunch of do's and don'ts in order to be righteous

or in order to be saved. But the Lord has come.

Lord Jesus Christ has come for our salvation.

He's already paid the penalty for it.

He's already paid the penalty. And as I said before, we now

have the Spirit of God living on the inside of us that all we

have to do is yield to it, to Him.

And He is the one that empowers us to live holy.

He empowers us to change our lives.

He empowers us to understand when we have violated the law of

God and we repent and we turn from it and God is there with

his arms open, just like we are with our children when they

violate or one of our rules or they violate something in the

household. We don't kick them out forever.

We don't look at them haughty, but we invite them back when

they say, mom, dad, I'm sorry. And they come and give you that

hug around your waist. You melt.

You melt and we serve a God who loves For us to acknowledge that

we're in agreement with Him that we have sinned, but He also love

it when we come back to Him and we admit that we're wrong and we

repent and we are able to restore.

He restores. Our fellowship with Him isn't

awesome. What a plan.

What a plan. Thank you for tuning in to

Living Waters of Grace with Pastor Lewis Harold.

We're currently in the books of First and Second Timothy.

Some of the things included in these New Testament letters from

Paul are that the young and newly established Pastor Timothy

was being encouraged to hold fast to what was true.

He was challenged to confront and address the false teachers

that were rising up. He was also reminded to accept

his calling to the ministry with gratefulness and to address the

happenings going on in the Ephesian church.

Paul was imparting his experience and knowledge to the

next generation. Timothy was receptive to

learning and gleaning what he could from Paul's wisdom.

This is how it should be in ministry across multiple

generations. Those who have lived a little

more life should be open to sharing their successes and also

things they've learned along the way.

That we're not a wind. The younger generations coming

up can learn and appreciate much from those ahead of them, and

perhaps avoid some of the same pitfalls that their mentors work

through mentoring. It's a beautiful relationship

when the hearts are in the right place to learn and grow.

We trust that you're in a community where this is

happening. Older ones providing advice and

wisdom, and each side learning and growing from one another.

This certainly was the case for Paul and Timothy as they were

comrades for the sake of the gospel.

For more information on where this teaching came from, go to

calvarychapelonline.com. There you can also learn about

our service times to join us in person.

This has been living waters of grace.