Romans: Sin, Judgment, and Gospel Foundations: Prepared Hearts

The Essence of Biblical Godliness

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: New Testament Studies

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2012-04-08

Synopsis: John Weaver preaches on the true nature of biblical godliness, arguing that it is not external religious activity, vocabulary, or emotionalism, but rather a transformation of the mind that leads to Christlike thinking and acting. Using 1 Timothy 4:7-8 as his text, he explains that godliness must be exercised and added to faith, and that it consists of learning to think as God thinks so that we may act as He acts. The sermon emphasizes that duty flows from doctrine, and that believers must renew their minds through Scripture to be conformed to the image of Christ.

[John Weaver] I want to preach a message that I believe is absolutely fundamental, and yet at the same time, so needed and necessary, and yet so unknown. So 1 Timothy 4, look if you would please at verses 7 and 8. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7, the Word of God says, but refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." The title of the message today is The Essence of Biblical Godliness. Every true child of God desires to live a godly life. Now, the word godly has many synonyms in Scripture.

[John Weaver] You will read the words devout, holy, pious, righteous, sanctified. All of those words relate to godliness. And you will find these words used over and over in Scripture. But then you have to ask yourself, what exactly is godliness? Or let me ask it like this, how do you know whether or not you are a godly person? So you have to understand the essence of godliness. That is what it's made of or what it consists of, what it consists.

[John Weaver] So let me try to answer these questions. And first of all, I want to give it to you negatively. I want to tell you what godliness is not. Okay, first of all, godliness is not vocabulary. That is, it's not knowing the lingo. It's not using the right words. There are plenty of people that can talk like a Christian and talk like they're godly, but they're simply not a Christian, nor are they godly.

[John Weaver] In Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 2, God had told Jeremiah to go through the streets of Jerusalem and see if there were any that follow him, and here's what he said in verse 2, and though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely. In other words, they might say, yes, I love the Lord, or yes, the Lord liveth, or yes, he's the one true of the living God. But he said, surely they swear falsely. So just because someone knows the language and knows the lingo and can talk the talk does not mean that he is a Christian, nor does it mean that he's godly.

[John Weaver] In fact, if you will stop and think, some of the most wicked, some of the most vile and heinous crimes that has ever been committed have been committed under the guise of religion and even using biblical terms. Think about the Inquisition, where many of the martyrs were not only burned at the stake, but murdered in various ways as well. So, just simply because one has the vocabulary does not mean that he's a Christian, nor does it mean that he's godly.

[John Weaver] Secondly, listen carefully, godliness does not consist of doing things, especially religious things. Now listen, church going, witnessing, praying, counting beads, and countless other acts does not make one godly.

[John Weaver] Now it is true that godly people attend to the preaching of the Word of God. It is true that godly people read the Scriptures. It is true that godly people pray. It is true that godly people share their faith. It is true that godly people do a lot of good things, but they do not do those things in order to be godly. They do those things because they are godly. If you try to tell me that doing religious things makes an individual godly, Wow.

[John Weaver] Look at the Roman Catholics that count beads. Look at the Muslims that pray three and four and five and seven times a day. Look at all the Hindu and Buddhist monks that do all these other things. If you say that doing religious things makes someone godly, then you have to admit then, obviously, that even the pagans are godly. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23? Listen carefully. He said, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in my name and in my name cast out devils and in my name done many wonderful works?

[John Weaver] And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Now, if you're preaching in his name, if you're casting out devils in his name, and if you're doing many wonderful works in his name, you're doing religious deeds. But he said, I'll say unto them, I never knew you. So doing good things. Does not make someone godly. Do you realize the average church today, the average church? Is so programmed.

[John Weaver] That if the Holy Spirit of God was taken out of the world tomorrow, most churches would go right on as usual. Because they have their programs, they have their things. Pastor McCurry just sent me a link that I looked at momentarily, and it was what some churches were doing for Easter. And how they were continually trying to outdo each other with all these programs and all these things. I just read where one church in Albany put out 1,500 eggs. What in the world has an egg got to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

[John Weaver] And let me mention something to you. I hope you understand that one Sunday a year does not commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible says He was raised, when? On the first day of the week. Every Sunday is a fresh commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not once a year. So, doing good deeds is certainly not anything that has to do with godliness. The Bible says, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.

[John Weaver] Thirdly, godliness is not acting pious and holy. You'll find many people that try to exalt themselves. They elevate themselves on every hand. There are a multitude of people that are willing to tell you how good and how godly they are. Listen to this. It is poor English, but it is great theology. If you have to tell me how godly you are, you ain't. The Bible says in Proverbs 27 verse 2, let another man praise thee and not thine own lips, a stranger and not thine own lips. Let another man praise thee. Don't do it yourself.

[John Weaver] You remember that passage in Luke chapter 18 verses 10 through 12 there where the publican And the Pharisee both went to the temple to pray. Our Lord said, two men went up to the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. Listen to what he said, God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, for I fast twice in a week.

[John Weaver] I give tithes of all that I possess. Wow. What was he doing, exalting himself? What did the old publican do? He smote himself on the breast, would not even lift his eyes toward heaven, and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And our Lord said, verily, that man, the publican, went down justified rather than the other who was acting so pious and so holy. I thank thee. that I'm not as other men are.

[John Weaver] I do this and I do that. The Word of God says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 5, Perverse disputings of men are corrupt minds and destined to the truth, supposing that gain is godliness. from such withdrawal thyself.

[John Weaver] Now, I realize that reference may refer to that which is monetary, but I believe it has other applications as well, because you see a lot of preachers sometimes boasting, well, I've got 500 in church. How many do you have? You've heard me say this before, and I mean it from the depth of my heart, I'd rather have 50 people that really and truly want the Word of God and are willing to live and obey the Word of God, then I have had a church of 5,000 who could care less whether they had the Word of God or not.

[John Weaver] So godliness is not acting pious and holy. There are some who would be more holy than God himself if they could. for they thought they could. And brother, when you try to be more holy than God, you are in trouble. Fourthly, godliness is not ritualism. It's not ceremonialism. It's not churchism. Most. Most churches today have fallen into the same exact trap that Israel did of old. You know what came first in ancient Israel?

[John Weaver] The temple and its rituals. They were so concentrating on the temple and its rituals that they overlooked the God of the temple. I do want you to look at Amos chapter 5, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Look at Amos chapter 5. I want you to see this one because it is so important. Look in Amos chapter 5 and let's begin reading there with verse 21. Look what God says. Amos 5 verse 21, God says.

[John Weaver] I hate, I despise your feast days and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vows. But let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as streams." Notice, if you would, he says in verse 21, I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. You have to stop and ask yourself, did not God ordain those solemn feast days? Yes. Did not God ordain those offerings? Yes. Did not God ordain the music? Yes. Did not God ordain the sacrifices? Yes. And now God says, I hate them. I despise them.

[John Weaver] I will not have them. Why? Because it was pure ritual. It was pure ceremony. You see, what most professing Christians do today, I said this a long time ago, especially in reference to Southern Baptists, because I was raised a Southern Baptist, and I observed this even as a child. Most Southern Baptists run into church 15 minutes late with a quarter in one hand and a quarterly in the other hand.

[John Weaver] And when I say that, I mean this. Most Baptists, not just Southern Baptists, most Methodists, most Presbyterians, when they come to church, they sit down, they sing, they give a little offering, they hear a sermon, and they go out and they think that they have worshipped God. When all they've done is gone through a little ritual or a little ceremony. There's been no real contemplation or acknowledgement of God in their mind. And what they've done is they have substituted the real, true worship of God for a ceremony or for a ritual. You know, in the book of Hosea, the Word of God says, Israel hath forgotten her maker and buildeth temples. That's America. America has forgotten her maker and builds church buildings.

[John Weaver] Do you realize that traditions? Ritualisms, ceremonialism, churchism. Has taken over. A real genuine worship service. I'm going to tell you something, folks. If we really and truly got to worshiping God. If we ever got in with him, we really wouldn't care what time we got out. I preached at a little Baptist church in South Georgia. And of course, most of you know, I tend to preach more than 15 or 20 minutes. And what this church did on Sunday morning, they sang Until 15 to 12. And they just left me 15 minutes to preach, they thought.

[John Weaver] And they were telling telling me publicly there, oh, how much they love to sing. So I preach that morning. But I didn't get out of there until about 1 or 115. That night, I came back to preach again. And I told him that morning, I said, you know, I enjoy singing like anybody else. I enjoy music. But I said, I believe the word of God has priority and I always preach at least twice as long as you sing. That night, they sang 15 minutes and quit. They really enjoyed singing, didn't they? Yeah, sure.

[John Weaver] Godliness is not ritualism, it's not ceremonialism, it's not churchism. Fifthly, godliness is not traditionalism. If you were to look at Matthew 15 and Mark chapter 7, you would see how little our Lord thought of traditions.

[John Weaver] Now, there is nothing wrong with a tradition as long as it's biblical. Or I could say, secondly, there's nothing wrong with the tradition as long as you understand that it's your tradition and it's not binding on someone else. But you get to the average church. And here's what you get. Well, we've always done it like this. What? This is the way we've been taught. Well, just because you've always done it like that, just because you've been taught like that does not mean that it's right.

[John Weaver] I will show you how steeped most churches are in traditionalism. I have a pastor friend who is at a little Southern Baptist church. And he was trying to teach them and trying to instruct them, and it came Christmas season. And he was trying to slowly but surely teach him a little bit about some of the paganism that's involved in Christmas, and he made it known that he did not want a Christmas tree in the sanctuary or in the auditorium.

[John Weaver] Well, I was not there, but one of my men was there that night. He went over on Wednesday night thinking they were going to have a prayer meeting, and it turned out to be a business meeting. And one of the men stood up and said, the pastor does not want a Christmas tree in the auditorium. And one woman stood up and she said. This is our church.

[John Weaver] We've always done it like this. I don't care what the pastor thinks and what the pastor says, we're going to do it. Within a few weeks, the pastor had resigned and gone on. Would I have left? Sure, I would have left. You know what the woman just said? We don't care what the Word of God teaches. We don't even care the pastor's concern. We're going to do what we want to do. We've always done it like this, and we're going to keep on doing it like this.

[John Weaver] I tell people I can go to the average church and split it right down the middle with one sermon. All I've got to do is preach against tradition. When I start preaching against Santa Claus and Easter Bunny and a whole lot of other things, Halloween included, man, they're going to be part left and right because more people are concerned more of their traditions than they are of the Word of God.

[John Weaver] Sixthly, godliness is not feelings and it's not emotionalism. I want you to understand something, folks. Feelings come and go. Unhappily, most people live on feelings instead of principles. Years ago, Alice and I were. In a little town and I'd heard. That the pastor was resigning. And at that time I had a Bible Institute and I was teaching young men to preach and I was always looking for preaching opportunities for the young men. And so I stopped in to talk to the pastor. And see if what I heard was true, and so I asked him. Are you resigning? Well, he said. I did resign.

[John Weaver] But I rescinded my resignation. I said, oh. He said, yeah, he said, I feel that the Lord wants me here and I feel like we're going to have a good work here and I feel there's a lot to do, etc. And I said, well, good. I said, I was just checking because I have these young men. If they can ever help you, you let me know. And I walked out, got in the car and Alice said, well, is he leaving? I said, yeah, he'll be gone two weeks. And he was. Do you know how I knew he was going to be gone in two weeks? I feel, I feel, I feel.

[John Weaver] There was never this is the Lord's will. This is the Lord's word. This is where the Lord wants me. I feel, I feel, I feel. And when your feelings change, you change if you're living by your feelings. Feelings come and go. Principles do not. Godliness is not feelings. Please understand that. With my arm, my shoulder, my neck hurting, I don't feel too good. But that doesn't matter. Feelings have no bearing upon true godliness and true holiness. Now, if none of these things are godliness, what is godliness? I want you to look back to 1 Timothy chapter 4, if you would please. 1 Timothy chapter 4. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 7. Look what the Word of God says. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7. God says, but refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. First of all, godliness is something that must be worked at. Look what he said. Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. Do you know what the word exercise is? The Greek word is gymnazo.

[John Weaver] It is where we get our English word gymnasium in gymnastics. Literally, he's saying, gymnasticize thyself unto godliness. I enjoy watching gymnastics. I really do. And I'll tell you why. I enjoy watching anybody that has any flexibility and at least can bend over and tie their shoes. The older you get, the more you appreciate some of those things. But, you know, none of those gymnasts walk out on the floor and say, well, I think I'm going to do a little run and do a double black flip and a side spin.

[John Weaver] And no, no, no, no. They don't start out just doing that. They stretch, they exercise, they're trained, they work at it. And when you and I look at those gymnastic competitions, we see how good those kids are. And the next thing you know, we've totally forgotten the four and five years of daily working and stretching that they reach to get to that. If I were to mention the name Hank Aaron, when you think of Hank Aaron, you think of somebody who was born with a baseball bat in one hand and a ball glove in the other hand, but that's not true. Hank Aaron may have had, you know, some excellent skills, but he worked at being good at baseball.

[John Weaver] Years ago, we had a concert pianist come to our church in Jessup. And that man sat down at the piano. And for about an hour and a half, without any sheet music, without anything in front of him, he played. It looked as if the music was just flowing out of his fingers. And I never will forget after he got through playing, I went up and I said to him. I would give anything to be able to play the piano like that. He said, really?

[John Weaver] I practice eight hours a day, six days a week. All of a sudden, I didn't want to be a concert pianist any longer. Was he good? He was great. But the reason he was great was because he worked at being great. When we hear names like John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Hus, we think, man, oh man, those were godly men. They had character. They had integrity. They had conviction. Yeah, they did. But you know what? They didn't always have it.

[John Weaver] They weren't born with it. They worked at being godly. Look what he said in verse 7. But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise, gymnasticize thyself rather unto godliness. Let me point something out. You will never exercise yourself unto godliness. until you learn to refuse profane and old wives fables. You know what an old wife fable is or a profane fable? It's something that you hear all your life. It's just not true.

[John Weaver] For instance, I remember when I was a young man, I heard that if a pregnant woman listened to beautiful music, her child would be born musically inclined. I tell everybody, My mother must have listened to a dying buzzard moan or something. I can't sing, and I have nothing as far as music is concerned. You know, we've got these shortcuts. If you want prayer, you raise your hand. You can raise your hand all day long.

[John Weaver] That's not going to make you godly. Well, if you want to dedicate yourself to the Lord, you come up here and kneel at this old-fashioned altar. First of all, it's not an old-fashioned altar. Secondly, kneeling there is not going to make you godly. We think that we can go forward in some church service, kneel for two or three minutes, get up, and we're changed individuals. That's not necessarily so.

[John Weaver] Godliness is something that must be worked at. Secondly, I want you to note that godliness is something that must be added to our faith. What? Turn in your Bibles to 2nd Peter, chapter one, 2nd Peter, chapter one. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse three. 2nd Peter, chapter one, verse three. The Scripture says, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.

[John Weaver] Now watch verse 4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and besides this, giving all diligence, watch now, add to your faith. So you're already saved now, but here's something that has to be added. Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue you add knowledge, and to knowledge you add temperance, and to temperance you add patience, and to patience you add what? Godliness. And to godliness you add brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness you add charity. He said, for if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Note, if you would, godliness is something that must be added to our faith. Now, I want you to understand it is indeed the work of Jesus Christ that makes us righteous. We do not make ourselves righteous in any sense of the word.

[John Weaver] We do not work our way into heaven. We do not earn or merit salvation. Yet those who have been made righteous in Jesus Christ will seek to demonstrate evidence and manifest that righteousness by cultivating godliness. It is inevitable. You remember Ephesians 2 and verse 10. Listen to this. For we are His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God is for ordained that we should walk therein. Listen to this one, Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13. Paul wrote, Wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed in my presence only, not in my presence only, but much more in my absence, listen, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who worketh in you, both the will and to do His good pleasure. What did he say? God worked it in, you work it out. God put it in there, you make the application. The Word of God says, in Isaiah 26 and verse 12, Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou hast wrought all of our works in us.

[John Weaver] Let me tell you something, folks. Here it is, bottom line, cut and dried. Any good thing in you, any godly thing in you, any holy thing in you, any righteous thing in you, it's only there by the grace of God. For if God didn't put it in you, it would not be there, period. Now. If I were to ask you. Who was the most holy or the most godly man that ever lived?

[John Weaver] Undoubtedly, you would answer the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is true. Jesus Christ was not only God, Jesus Christ was also man. He's perfect God and he's perfect man. He is the God man. He was sent as a servant to the father. So let's ask. What was it that made our Lord as the perfect man, holy and godly? I want to bring this down to what I'm going to call an irreducible minimum. I'm going to show you two things, and I want you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter five very quickly. John chapter five. And I want you to see if you can pick out these two things as I read just a few verses. I've got a lot down, but I'm not going to read them all. Notice, if you would, John chapter five, look in verse 17. Now, I want you to try to pick up what our Lord is saying. John 5, verse 17. But Jesus answered them, My father worketh hitherto and I work. Now skip down to verse 19.

[John Weaver] Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what things He seeth the Father do, for what things soever He doeth, He also doeth the Son likewise." Skip down to verse 36. He said,"...but I have greater witness than that of John. For the works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me." Wow! Look, if you would please, in verse 43, he said, I'm coming in my father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him would you receive? Look in John 6 and verse 39, John 6 and verse 39. Our Lord says, and this is the father's will who has sent me that of all which he had given me, I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day. Now note, and this is the father's will who have sent me." Now turn over to John 8 and look at verse 29.

[John Weaver] John 8 verse 29. This is one of my favorite verses. I could give you quote after quote on these, but look in John 8 verse 29. Our Lord said,"...and he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him." So let me ask you after reading those two. Or those several passages. Did you pick up on what our Lord was saying? Did you pick up on the essence of what he said? He always did what the father wanted him to do. He only acted as the father acted. Here is the essence of godliness. If I were to ask you, Why was our Lord Jesus Christ obedient unto death?

[John Weaver] Why did our Lord fulfill the law of God perfectly and completely and totally? Here's the answer. Because our Lord thought. As the father would have him to think. And because he thought the way the father thought he acted the way the father would have him to act.

[John Weaver] Now, listen carefully, thinking and acting go together. Christ had a biblical mindset, he had a biblical attitude, and therefore his conduct and his actions were biblical and right. What did He say in John 18 verse 29? And He that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone. Now listen to what He said. For I do always those things that please Him. He thought like the Father. He acted like the Father. Now, turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 and look if you would please at verse 29. Romans 8. Verse 29.

[John Weaver] Let me ask you a question. What is God's will for your life?

[John Weaver] Now, I'm not asking right now, should you take another job? Should you move to Georgia? Should you move to Tennessee? Should you marry? Should you not marry? I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about generally speaking, what is God's will for every child of God? Indiscriminately. Here it is. Look in Romans 8, if you would please, and verse 29. The Bible says this. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. God's will for every child of God is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to stop and think. The word image in the Greek is the word icon. The word icon literally means a likeness. A resemblance, a profile, a representation.

[John Weaver] Now, let's look at it like this. Verse 29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image or to the likeness or to the profile or to the representation of his son. In other words, listen carefully. We're to be little Christ's. Not in the sense that we're saviors or Messiah, but that we have learned to think like Christ thought so that we can act the way Christ acted. Here is the Word. Go back to verse 29 again. For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed. And by the way, the word conformed there, con-with, with-formed, formed with, it literally means to be jointly formed together with. So, as we learn to think like Jesus Christ and act like Jesus Christ, we are jointly formed together with Him.

[John Weaver] in doing those things that the Father would have done. Why? Because thinking and acting go together. Now listen carefully. You cannot act rightly until you think rightly. You cannot act biblically until you think biblically.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and look at verse 58. I want to show you something that is vitally important. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Watch this carefully. In verse 58, the Apostle Paul makes this statement. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Now look at that. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable. Now let me ask you, why did the Apostle Paul Say that right where he did in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Let me tell you what verse 58 is. Verse 58 is the application of everything that he's taught in 1 Corinthians 15. What did he teach in 1 Corinthians 15?

[John Weaver] He taught the bodily resurrection of the dead, not only of Christ, but of every believer. Are you listening? What is to keep us faithful? What is to keep us steadfast, unmovable? I have never had NBC, CBS. Or any television network. Or any magazine or any newspaper come to me and say, Pastor Weaver, You're doing a wonderful job. You're teaching the truth, and you're sharing the Word of God, and we'd like to do an article on you and promote your work. I've never had a studio say that to me, and I got news for you.

[John Weaver] No real Bible preacher ever has. Now, they will promote those who are not teaching the truth. They'll promote those who are teaching politically political correctness and the New World Orderism, but they're not going to teach anybody and promote anybody who's teaching the truth of God. Now watch carefully. So I never get patted on the back. What is to keep me faithful? What is to keep you faithful?

[John Weaver] I know that there's a resurrection. And I know that God is not unfaithful to forget our work and our labor of love, according to Scripture. And I know that ultimately. My reward will be based upon his mercy and his grace, and that's sufficient.

[John Weaver] Now, here is the point I'm trying to make. When you get the first Corinthians 15 and verse 58, that is duty. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord." That is duty. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 57 is doctrine. Your duty is always based upon doctrine. Are you listening? If you do not know doctrine, how in the world will you ever know your duty? If you do not know doctrine, if you can't think right, then you cannot act right. If you cannot think biblically, then you cannot act biblically. It's that simple.

[John Weaver] What is our problem by nature? Let me tell you what our problem by nature is. Listen carefully. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, where God said, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts. God is not going to condescend to think like us.

[John Weaver] Then he would be ungodly. and unholy. No, what we must do is we must humble ourselves and learn to think as he thinks. Because his thoughts are far above our thoughts. His ways are far above our ways.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to turn to Ephesians 4. And let me show you two passages. Ephesians 4. And let's begin reading there with verse 17. Ephesians 4, verse 17. Paul is talking and he's telling these Ephesian Christians how not to act. Watch carefully. Ephesians 4, verse 17. How not to act. Verse 17. He says, This I say therefore and testify unto the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling

[John Weaver] have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness." He says, don't act like the ungodly. Don't act like the unsaved.

[John Weaver] Now, let's begin with verse 24. Verse 20. Look at verse 20. But you have not so learned Christ. Whoa, stop right there. But you have not so, what? Learned Christ. Christ must be learned. Watch. But you have not so learned Christ, if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. Look. That you put off concerning the former conversation or conduct, the old man which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to note what he said. After he tells us that we're not to walk the way the ungodly walked, then he said you have to learn Christ. And the way to learn Christ is that you put off the old man and you put on the new man. What is the old man? It's your old habits, your old way of thinking, your old way of doing things, your old conduct. What is the new man? The new man is that which is regulated and controlled by the Word of God. It's the biblical man. So we have to put off and we have to put on. Well, how do we put off and put on? I can pull off this vest. I just reach up and pull it off. And if I want to coat on, I reach over and get the coat and I put it on. It's that simple. Well, it's really that simple when it comes to spirituality and godliness. We have to put off our old way of thinking and we have to learn a new way of thinking.

[John Weaver] That's why I said, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. How do we put on by renewing our minds?

[John Weaver] Now, the word renew is an interesting word. It's on a on a O in the Greek. He said, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds. The Greek word is on on a and it literally means to renew, to renovate and to reform. Let me give you an illustration. Suppose that I. Was a real estate agent, I'm not, but suppose I was and you came to me and you told me. I'm a handyman, I'm a fixer upper.

[John Weaver] And I'd like to have 20 or 30 acres outside of town with an old house on it that I can fix it up. I say, you know, I think I've just got the right piece of property for you. Come on, let's go look at it. And I take you outside of town and here's about 25 acres. Grass needs cutting. Here's this old house sitting on it. It's kind of slipped off its foundation a little bit.

[John Weaver] The porch is falling in, the windows are broken, the roof is caved in and the inside is terrible. And I said, you know, I can let you have this old house and this 25 acres for forty thousand bucks. And you look at me and you say, sir. I told you I was a handyman and a fixer upper, not a miracle worker. I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole. I said, OK. And so I get to thinking, you know, I like this place.

[John Weaver] I could fix this up. So I buy it. And I get Joe and Henry, Warren Luke to come over. They redo the foundation. They fix the porch. They fix the roof. They put new windows. They re-gut it and redo it inside out. They cut all the grass. They plant flowers. I mean, they have it in A number one shape. And after three months, I bring you back out there and I said, let me show you this place that you didn't like before.

[John Weaver] And you look at it and you say, wow. Wow. I never dreamed this place could look like this. Did you say it was $40,000? Yeah, that was before. Now let's ask $100,000. Why all of a sudden are you interested the second time when you weren't interested in the first time? Because everything had been renovated. It was renewed. In other words, listen carefully, it was totally different from what it was previously. Are you listening?

[John Weaver] You know what godliness is? It's being someone totally different. Then you were previously and you get to be renewed and you get to be reformed. By the renewing of your mind, that is by submitting your mind to the Word of God and learning to think as he thought.

[John Weaver] Now let me quote some scriptures. I want you to listen carefully. Romans 12 two. And be not conformed to this world. Don't be pressed in the mold of the world. Be not conformed to this world, but be you transformed. How? By the renewing of your mind. 1 Peter 4 and verse 1, For as much as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same mind. And then Philippians 2 and verse 5 says, Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus. I want you to turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. I want you to see this 2nd Corinthians chapter 10. And I want to begin reading there. At verse 3, 2nd Corinthians 10 verse 3. Here we go. 2nd Corinthians 10 verse 3, the Apostle Paul said, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Watch verse 4.

[John Weaver] He says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal or fleshly, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now when the Apostle Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, he is not denigrating weaponry, an AR-15 or a Glock or a bow and arrow or a spear. All he is saying is those kind of weapons are not sufficient for the warfare that he's talking about. So he says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

[John Weaver] Do you know what a stronghold is? A stronghold is your place of defense. So if someone came through that door with a shotgun like we just read about in the church in South Carolina, If someone came through that door with a shotgun blazing away, I'm going to jump down behind this pulpit. You say, that's not much. It's better than what you got. You see what I'm saying? If I jump down behind this pulpit, what is this pulpit now? It's my stronghold. It's my place of defense.

[John Weaver] Now, look back at verse four. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. You don't know where man's stronghold is. Here it is. Verse five, casting down imaginations and every high thing or every high thought that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now, here's my question. How many thoughts?

[John Weaver] As a Christian, are you allowed that are unbiblical? Not one. Every thought is to be brought in subjection into captivity to Jesus Christ. So in other words, to renovate and reform and renew our thinking, we have to submit our mind to the Word of God and learn to think the way God thinks. That is, we're to take a biblical attitude and a biblical mindset. What is an attitude? An attitude is a mindset, it's a frame of reference, it's a way of thinking that influences and affects behavior. You remember the Scripture says, as a man thinking at his heart, so is he. So we should, as Christians, have biblical attitudes.

[John Weaver] Let me just show you. Let me mention a couple of words. Don't tell me what is forming in your mind. I will probably know. But here's the word I'm just going to call the word. Abortion. Now, when I said the word abortion, I would guarantee you that most of you, if not all of you immediately thought of murder. Because that's what it is, and as Christians, You and I are not going to engage in it. We're not going to support it. We're not going to endorse it. Why? Because we believe. That it's murder. And we're just not going to do it. If I mentioned the word sodomy. I know what enters your mind, I hope. The thought of depravity, wickedness, violence, Even to some extent, reprobation and death penalty enter into your mind because that's the biblical. Mindset.

[John Weaver] I want you to see. That our actions are determined by what we think and what we believe and what we understand. The reason you're not robbing banks. The reason you're not defrauding individuals. The reason you're not con men is because your theology and your doctrine is thou shalt not steal. And I realize there's multiple forms of theft. But our conduct, our actions are based upon our doctrine and the way we think and the way we believe. That's why I keep saying you cannot act rightly unless you believe rightly.

[John Weaver] Now, I've picked some of these very easy, simple subjects. I mean, I know you're not going to go to an abortion clinic. I know you're not going to support sodomy. I know you're not going out and rob a bank or try to con someone. I understand that. But let me mention a few other words. Let me mention a few other words and just see what your mindset is.

[John Weaver] Suppose I use the word education. Education. Do you realize there's a biblical doctrine of education? And I'll give you a hint. It ain't public education. Bad grammar, good theology, it ain't government schooling. Not according to the Bible. Do you understand the biblical doctrine about education? Here's another word. Money. Ah. What do you think about money? What does the word of God teach about money? How about this one? Civil government. What does the word of God teach about government? Here's another word, family.

[John Weaver] How about this term, husband wife relationships? What do you think? Is there a biblical role for the wife, a biblical role for the husband? Yeah. What about this one? Child discipline. How about this one? Justice. Worship. History. There are so many areas, there are so many subjects.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to listen to me. The Apostle Paul said, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God.

[John Weaver] Here's the truth of that. Only individuals who have renewed minds will present their bodies a living sacrifice. If we do not renew our minds, we will never serve him. In Daniel 3 and verse 28, after Nebuchadnezzar had pulled the three Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace, then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants that trusted him and have changed the king's word and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god except their own god. Why were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego willing to go to the fiery furnace? Because they had a biblical attitude and a biblical mindset about God, and they refused idolatry, and they yielded their bodies to the furnace rather than to sin against God.

[John Weaver] As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. You know what the Bible says. Listen carefully. Wherefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance, but as He who hath called you is holy. So be ye holy in all manner of conversation, for it is written, Be ye holy, for I am holy." We will never be holy people until we learn to think biblically. We will never be godly people till we learn to think biblically.

[John Weaver] Let me very hurriedly make a couple of applications. The first one is this. An ignorant man will never be a holy man. An ignorant man will never be a godly man. And when I say an ignorant man, I'm not talking about someone who doesn't have a college degree. Listen, you can have five college degrees behind your name and still be ignorant. I'm talking about a man who's ignorant of the word of God.

[John Weaver] How can you obey that which you do not know? How can you act rightly if you do not believe rightly? The Bible says in 2 Peter 3 and verse 18, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The little word and, kai, k-a-i in the Greek, is often translated another way in our Bibles. It is translated as the word even, and you could read 2 Peter 3 verse 18, but grow in grace even in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So you're not growing in grace unless you're growing in knowledge. One last passage.

[John Weaver] I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 5. And look at verses 44 and 45. I want you to watch this, Matthew 5, verses 44 and 45. The more we learn to think like our heavenly father, the more godly, the more holy our actions will become. And Matthew 5 and verse 44, look what the word of God says. But I say to you, our Lord is speaking.

[John Weaver] Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, pray for them which in spitefully use you and persecute you. Why? That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven.

[John Weaver] Now, let me just stop there. If I were to take the time to read all of Matthew chapter five. you will find that our Lord is straightening out the misinterpretation of the law of God by the Pharisees. Over and over, He said, you've heard it said of them of old time, but I say unto you. You've heard it said of them of old time, but I say unto you. What is our Lord doing? He's saying, I'm telling you what the Word of God really teaches. Why?

[John Weaver] So that you can apply it and obey it. That you may be the children of your Father. Our children. Usually think the way we think. They act the way we act. And our Lord says if you want to be the children of your heavenly father. You better learn to think. As he thinks. So that you can act. The way he acts. Godliness is nothing less than learning to think. And act. like our Heavenly Father and like His Son, Jesus Christ.

[John Weaver] So the question is, are you godly? Are you growing in godliness? Are you increasing in knowledge? Lord, we ask you to make us godly, to make us holy, to teach us to think and to act like our Heavenly Father, to submit our minds to the Word of God and enable us to grow in grace even in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Give us grace to serve Thee acceptably in reverence and godly fear.

[John Weaver] In Thy name we pray, Amen. This program was produced by Dominion Ministry. For more information about Pastor Weaver's sermons, You may contact Dominion Ministry by mail at 7400 Abercorn, that's A-B-E-R-C-O-R-N Street, Suite 705, PMB 175, Savannah, Georgia, 31406. Or give us a call at 912-925-0995.

[John Weaver] You can also visit our website at www.dominionministry.com

The Essence of Biblical Godliness

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	71412025370
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans: Sin, Judgment, and Gospel Foundations: Prepared Hearts
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-04-08
Dictation Name
Book	Book 136: Romans: Sin, Judgment, and Gospel Foundations - Volume 1 — Chapter 12
Source Timed Segments	93

Formatted Transcript

Introduction: The Need to Understand Godliness

Weaver introduces the topic by reading 1 Timothy 4:7-8 and stating that while every true child of God desires to live a godly life, many do not understand what godliness actually is.

I want to preach a message that I believe is absolutely fundamental, and yet at the same time, so needed and necessary, and yet so unknown. So 1 Timothy 4, look if you would please at verses 7 and 8. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7, the Word of God says,

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 4:7-8

"But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

The title of the message today is The Essence of Biblical Godliness. Every true child of God desires to live a godly life. Now, the word godly has many synonyms in Scripture. You will read the words devout, holy, pious, righteous, sanctified. All of those words relate to godliness. And you will find these words used over and over in Scripture. But then you have to ask yourself, what exactly is godliness? Or let me ask it like this, how do you know whether or not you are a godly person? So you have to understand the essence of godliness. That is what it's made of or what it consists of, what it consists.

What Godliness Is Not

Weaver lists six things that godliness is not: vocabulary, doing religious things, acting pious and holy, ritualism, traditionalism, and feelings/emotionalism.

So let me try to answer these questions. And first of all, I want to give it to you negatively. I want to tell you what godliness is not. Okay, first of all, godliness is not vocabulary. That is, it's not knowing the lingo. It's not using the right words. There are plenty of people that can talk like a Christian and talk like they're godly, but they're simply not a Christian, nor are they godly.

In Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 2, God had told Jeremiah to go through the streets of Jerusalem and see if there were any that follow him, and here's what he said in verse 2,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:2

"And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely."

In other words, they might say, yes, I love the Lord, or yes, the Lord liveth, or yes, he's the one true of the living God. But he said, surely they swear falsely. So just because someone knows the language and knows the lingo and can talk the talk does not mean that he is a Christian, nor does it mean that he's godly. In fact, if you will stop and think, some of the most wicked, some of the most vile and heinous crimes that have ever been committed have been committed under the guise of religion and even using biblical terms. Think about the Inquisition, where many of the martyrs were not only burned at the stake, but murdered in various ways as well. So, just simply because one has the vocabulary does not mean that he's a Christian, nor does it mean that he's godly.

Secondly, listen carefully, godliness does not consist of doing things, especially religious things. Now listen, church going, witnessing, praying, counting beads, and countless other acts does not make one godly. Now it is true that godly people attend to the preaching of the Word of God. It is true that godly people read the Scriptures. It is true that godly people pray. It is true that godly people share their faith. It is true that godly people do a lot of good things, but they do not do those things in order to be godly. They do those things because they are godly. If you try to tell me that doing religious things makes an individual godly, wow.

Look at the Roman Catholics that count beads. Look at the Muslims that pray three and four and five and seven times a day. Look at all the Hindu and Buddhist monks that do all these other things. If you say that doing religious things makes someone godly, then you have to admit then, obviously, that even the pagans are godly. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23? Listen carefully. He said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works?"

And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Now, if you're preaching in his name, if you're casting out devils in his name, and if you're doing many wonderful works in his name, you're doing religious deeds. But he said, I'll say unto them, I never knew you. So doing good things does not make someone godly. Do you realize the average church today, the average church, is so programmed. That if the Holy Spirit of God was taken out of the world tomorrow, most churches would go right on as usual. Because they have their programs, they have their things. Pastor McCurry just sent me a link that I looked at momentarily, and it was what some churches were doing for Easter. And how they were continually trying to outdo each other with all these programs and all these things. I just read where one church in Albany put out 1,500 eggs. What in the world has an egg got to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

And let me mention something to you. I hope you understand that one Sunday a year does not commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible says He was raised, when? On the first day of the week. Every Sunday is a fresh commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not once a year. So, doing good deeds is certainly not anything that has to do with godliness. The Bible says, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

Thirdly, godliness is not acting pious and holy. You'll find many people that try to exalt themselves. They elevate themselves on every hand. There are a multitude of people that are willing to tell you how good and how godly they are. Listen to this. It is poor English, but it is great theology. If you have to tell me how godly you are, you ain't. The Bible says in Proverbs 27 verse 2, "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own lips; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Let another man praise thee. Don't do it yourself.

You remember that passage in Luke chapter 18 verses 10 through 12 there where the publican and the Pharisee both went to the temple to pray. Our Lord said, "Two men went up to the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself." Listen to what he said, "God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, for I fast twice in a week." "I give tithes of all that I possess." Wow. What was he doing, exalting himself? What did the old publican do? He smote himself on the breast, would not even lift his eyes toward heaven, and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." And our Lord said, "Verily, that man, the publican, went down justified rather than the other who was acting so pious and so holy. I thank thee that I'm not as other men are."

"I do this and I do that." The Word of God says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 5,

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 6:5

"Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself."

Now, I realize that reference may refer to that which is monetary, but I believe it has other applications as well, because you see a lot of preachers sometimes boasting, well, I've got 500 in church. How many do you have? You've heard me say this before, and I mean it from the depth of my heart, I'd rather have 50 people that really and truly want the Word of God and are willing to live and obey the Word of God, than I had a church of 5,000 who could care less whether they had the Word of God or not.

So godliness is not acting pious and holy. There are some who would be more holy than God himself if they could, for they thought they could. And brother, when you try to be more holy than God, you are in trouble. Fourthly, godliness is not ritualism. It's not ceremonialism. It's not churchism. Most churches today have fallen into the same exact trap that Israel did of old. You know what came first in ancient Israel?

The temple and its rituals. They were so concentrating on the temple and its rituals that they overlooked the God of the temple. I do want you to look at Amos chapter 5, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Look at Amos chapter 5. I want you to see this one because it is so important. Look in Amos chapter 5 and let's begin reading there with verse 21. Look what God says. Amos 5 verse 21, God says.

"I hate, I despise your feast days and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vows. But let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream." Notice, if you would, he says in verse 21, "I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies." You have to stop and ask yourself, did not God ordain those solemn feast days? Yes. Did not God ordain those offerings? Yes. Did not God ordain the music? Yes. Did not God ordain the sacrifices? Yes. And now God says, I hate them. I despise them.

I will not have them. Why? Because it was pure ritual. It was pure ceremony. You see, what most professing Christians do today, I said this a long time ago, especially in reference to Southern Baptists, because I was raised a Southern Baptist, and I observed this even as a child. Most Southern Baptists run into church 15 minutes late with a quarter in one hand and a quarterly in the other hand. And when I say that, I mean this. Most Baptists, not just Southern Baptists, most Methodists, most Presbyterians, when they come to church, they sit down, they sing, they give a little offering, they hear a sermon, and they go out and they think that they have worshipped God. When all they've done is gone through a little ritual or a little ceremony. There's been no real contemplation or acknowledgement of God in their mind. And what they've done is they have substituted the real, true worship of God for a ceremony or for a ritual. You know, in the book of Hosea, the Word of God says, "Israel hath forgotten her maker and buildeth temples." That's America. America has forgotten her maker and builds church buildings.

Do you realize that traditions, ritualisms, ceremonialism, churchism, has taken over a real genuine worship service? I'm going to tell you something, folks. If we really and truly got to worshiping God, if we ever got in with him, we really wouldn't care what time we got out. I preached at a little Baptist church in South Georgia. And of course, most of you know, I tend to preach more than 15 or 20 minutes. And what this church did on Sunday morning, they sang until 15 to 12. And they just left me 15 minutes to preach, they thought.

And they were telling me publicly there, oh, how much they love to sing. So I preach that morning. But I didn't get out of there until about 1 or 1:15. That night, I came back to preach again. And I told them that morning, I said, you know, I enjoy singing like anybody else. I enjoy music. But I said, I believe the word of God has priority and I always preach at least twice as long as you sing. That night, they sang 15 minutes and quit. They really enjoyed singing, didn't they? Yeah, sure.

Godliness is not ritualism, it's not ceremonialism, it's not churchism. Fifthly, godliness is not traditionalism. If you were to look at Matthew 15 and Mark chapter 7, you would see how little our Lord thought of traditions. Now, there is nothing wrong with a tradition as long as it's biblical. Or I could say, secondly, there's nothing wrong with the tradition as long as you understand that it's your tradition and it's not binding on someone else. But you get to the average church. And here's what you get. Well, we've always done it like this. What? This is the way we've been taught. Well, just because you've always done it like that, just because you've been taught like that does not mean that it's right.

I will show you how steeped most churches are in traditionalism. I have a pastor friend who is at a little Southern Baptist church. And he was trying to teach them and trying to instruct them, and it came Christmas season. And he was trying to slowly but surely teach them a little bit about some of the paganism that's involved in Christmas, and he made it known that he did not want a Christmas tree in the sanctuary or in the auditorium. Well, I was not there, but one of my men was there that night. He went over on Wednesday night thinking they were going to have a prayer meeting, and it turned out to be a business meeting. And one of the men stood up and said, the pastor does not want a Christmas tree in the auditorium. And one woman stood up and she said, "This is our church."

"We've always done it like this. I don't care what the pastor thinks and what the pastor says, we're going to do it." Within a few weeks, the pastor had resigned and gone on. Would I have left? Sure, I would have left. You know what the woman just said? We don't care what the Word of God teaches. We don't even care the pastor's concern. We're going to do what we want to do. We've always done it like this, and we're going to keep on doing it like this.

I tell people I can go to the average church and split it right down the middle with one sermon. All I've got to do is preach against tradition. When I start preaching against Santa Claus and Easter Bunny and a whole lot of other things, Halloween included, man, they're going to be part left and right because more people are concerned more of their traditions than they are of the Word of God. Sixthly, godliness is not feelings and it's not emotionalism. I want you to understand something, folks. Feelings come and go. Unhappily, most people live on feelings instead of principles. Years ago, Alice and I were in a little town and I'd heard that the pastor was resigning. And at that time I had a Bible Institute and I was teaching young men to preach and I was always looking for preaching opportunities for the young men. And so I stopped in to talk to the pastor and see if what I heard was true, and so I asked him, "Are you resigning?" Well, he said, "I did resign."

"But I rescinded my resignation." I said, "Oh." He said, "Yeah," he said, "I feel that the Lord wants me here and I feel like we're going to have a good work here and I feel there's a lot to do, etc." And I said, "Well, good. I said, I was just checking because I have these young men. If they can ever help you, you let me know." And I walked out, got in the car and Alice said, "Well, is he leaving?" I said, "Yeah, he'll be gone two weeks." And he was. Do you know how I knew he was going to be gone in two weeks? I feel, I feel, I feel.

There was never this is the Lord's will. This is the Lord's word. This is where the Lord wants me. I feel, I feel, I feel. And when your feelings change, you change if you're living by your feelings. Feelings come and go. Principles do not. Godliness is not feelings. Please understand that. With my arm, my shoulder, my neck hurting, I don't feel too good. But that doesn't matter. Feelings have no bearing upon true godliness and true holiness. Now, if none of these things are godliness, what is godliness? I want you to look back to 1 Timothy chapter 4, if you would please. 1 Timothy chapter 4. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 7. Look what the Word of God says. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7. God says, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness." First of all, godliness is something that must be worked at. Look what he said. Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. Do you know what the word exercise is? The Greek word is gymnazo.

Godliness Must Be Worked At

Using the Greek word gymnazo, Weaver explains that godliness requires exercise and discipline, just like physical training, and that believers must refuse profane fables to pursue it.

It is where we get our English word gymnasium and gymnastics. Literally, he's saying, gymnasticize thyself unto godliness. I enjoy watching gymnastics. I really do. And I'll tell you why. I enjoy watching anybody that has any flexibility and at least can bend over and tie their shoes. The older you get, the more you appreciate some of those things. But, you know, none of those gymnasts walk out on the floor and say, well, I think I'm going to do a little run and do a double back flip and a side spin.

And no, no, no, no. They don't start out just doing that. They stretch, they exercise, they're trained, they work at it. And when you and I look at those gymnastic competitions, we see how good those kids are. And the next thing you know, we've totally forgotten the four and five years of daily working and stretching that they reach to get to that. If I were to mention the name Hank Aaron, when you think of Hank Aaron, you think of somebody who was born with a baseball bat in one hand and a ball glove in the other hand, but that's not true. Hank Aaron may have had, you know, some excellent skills, but he worked at being good at baseball.

Years ago, we had a concert pianist come to our church in Jessup. And that man sat down at the piano. And for about an hour and a half, without any sheet music, without anything in front of him, he played. It looked as if the music was just flowing out of his fingers. And I never will forget after he got through playing, I went up and I said to him, "I would give anything to be able to play the piano like that." He said, "Really?" "I practice eight hours a day, six days a week." All of a sudden, I didn't want to be a concert pianist any longer. Was he good? He was great. But the reason he was great was because he worked at being great. When we hear names like John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Hus, we think, man, oh man, those were godly men. They had character. They had integrity. They had conviction. Yeah, they did. But you know what? They didn't always have it.

They weren't born with it. They worked at being godly. Look what he said in verse 7. "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise, gymnasticize thyself rather unto godliness." Let me point something out. You will never exercise yourself unto godliness until you learn to refuse profane and old wives' fables. You know what an old wife fable is or a profane fable? It's something that you hear all your life. It's just not true.

For instance, I remember when I was a young man, I heard that if a pregnant woman listened to beautiful music, her child would be born musically inclined. I tell everybody, my mother must have listened to a dying buzzard moan or something. I can't sing, and I have nothing as far as music is concerned. You know, we've got these shortcuts. If you want prayer, you raise your hand. You can raise your hand all day long. That's not going to make you godly. Well, if you want to dedicate yourself to the Lord, you come up here and kneel at this old-fashioned altar. First of all, it's not an old-fashioned altar. Secondly, kneeling there is not going to make you godly. We think that we can go forward in some church service, kneel for two or three minutes, get up, and we're changed individuals. That's not necessarily so.

Godliness is something that must be worked at. Secondly, I want you to note that godliness is something that must be added to our faith. What? Turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter, chapter one, 2 Peter, chapter one. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse three. 2 Peter, chapter one, verse three. The Scripture says, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."

Godliness Must Be Added to Faith

From 2 Peter 1:3-8, Weaver shows that godliness is something added to faith through diligence, and that while salvation is by grace, believers must cultivate godliness as evidence of their righteousness in Christ.

Now watch verse 4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and besides this, giving all diligence, watch now, add to your faith." So you're already saved now, but here's something that has to be added. Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue you add knowledge, and to knowledge you add temperance, and to temperance you add patience, and to patience you add what? Godliness. And to godliness you add brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness you add charity. He said, "For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Note, if you would, godliness is something that must be added to our faith. Now, I want you to understand it is indeed the work of Jesus Christ that makes us righteous. We do not make ourselves righteous in any sense of the word.

We do not work our way into heaven. We do not earn or merit salvation. Yet those who have been made righteous in Jesus Christ will seek to demonstrate evidence and manifest that righteousness by cultivating godliness. It is inevitable. You remember Ephesians 2 and verse 10. Listen to this. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk therein." Listen to this one, Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13. Paul wrote, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." What did he say? God worked it in, you work it out. God put it in there, you make the application. The Word of God says, in Isaiah 26 and verse 12, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us."

Let me tell you something, folks. Here it is, bottom line, cut and dried. Any good thing in you, any godly thing in you, any holy thing in you, any righteous thing in you, it's only there by the grace of God. For if God didn't put it in you, it would not be there, period. Now, if I were to ask you, who was the most holy or the most godly man that ever lived?

The Essence of Godliness: Thinking and Acting Like the Father

Weaver examines the life of Christ, showing that Jesus always did what pleased the Father because He thought as the Father thought. Godliness is learning to think biblically so that we act biblically.

Undoubtedly, you would answer the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is true. Jesus Christ was not only God, Jesus Christ was also man. He's perfect God and he's perfect man. He is the God-man. He was sent as a servant to the Father. So let's ask. What was it that made our Lord as the perfect man, holy and godly? I want to bring this down to what I'm going to call an irreducible minimum. I'm going to show you two things, and I want you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter five very quickly. John chapter five. And I want you to see if you can pick out these two things as I read just a few verses. I've got a lot down, but I'm not going to read them all. Notice, if you would, John chapter five, look in verse 17. Now, I want you to try to pick up what our Lord is saying. John 5, verse 17. "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Now skip down to verse 19.

Scripture Reading — John 5:17, 19, 36, 43

"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." Skip down to verse 36. He said, "But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." Wow! Look, if you would please, in verse 43, he said, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." Look in John 6 and verse 39, John 6 and verse 39. Our Lord says, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Now note, "and this is the Father's will which hath sent me." Now turn over to John 8 and look at verse 29.

Scripture Reading — John 6:39

John 8 verse 29. This is one of my favorite verses. I could give you quote after quote on these, but look in John 8 verse 29. Our Lord said, "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." So let me ask you after reading those several passages. Did you pick up on what our Lord was saying? Did you pick up on the essence of what he said? He always did what the Father wanted him to do. He only acted as the Father acted. Here is the essence of godliness. If I were to ask you, why was our Lord Jesus Christ obedient unto death?

Why did our Lord fulfill the law of God perfectly and completely and totally? Here's the answer. Because our Lord thought as the Father would have him to think. And because he thought the way the Father thought, he acted the way the Father would have him to act.

Now, listen carefully, thinking and acting go together. Christ had a biblical mindset, he had a biblical attitude, and therefore his conduct and his actions were biblical and right. What did He say in John 8 verse 29? "And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone." Now listen to what He said. "For I do always those things that please him." He thought like the Father. He acted like the Father. Now, turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 and look if you would please at verse 29. Romans 8, verse 29.

Let me ask you a question. What is God's will for your life?

Conformed to the Image of Christ Through Mind Renewal

From Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 4:17-24, Weaver teaches that God's will is for believers to be conformed to Christ's image by putting off the old man and renewing the mind through Scripture.

Now, I'm not asking right now, should you take another job? Should you move to Georgia? Should you move to Tennessee? Should you marry? Should you not marry? I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about generally speaking, what is God's will for every child of God? Indiscriminately. Here it is. Look in Romans 8, if you would please, and verse 29. The Bible says this. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." God's will for every child of God is that we might be conformed to the image of his Son.

Now, I want you to stop and think. The word image in the Greek is the word icon. The word icon literally means a likeness, a resemblance, a profile, a representation. Now, let's look at it like this. Verse 29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image" or to the likeness or to the profile or to the representation "of his Son." In other words, listen carefully. We're to be little Christs. Not in the sense that we're saviors or Messiah, but that we have learned to think like Christ thought so that we can act the way Christ acted. Here is the Word. Go back to verse 29 again. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed." And by the way, the word conformed there, con-with, with-formed, formed with, it literally means to be jointly formed together with. So, as we learn to think like Jesus Christ and act like Jesus Christ, we are jointly formed together with Him.

in doing those things that the Father would have done. Why? Because thinking and acting go together. Now listen carefully. You cannot act rightly until you think rightly. You cannot act biblically until you think biblically.

Now, I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and look at verse 58. I want to show you something that is vitally important. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Watch this carefully. In verse 58, the Apostle Paul makes this statement. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." Now look at that. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable." Now let me ask you, why did the Apostle Paul say that right where he did in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58? Let me tell you what verse 58 is. Verse 58 is the application of everything that he's taught in 1 Corinthians 15. What did he teach in 1 Corinthians 15?

He taught the bodily resurrection of the dead, not only of Christ, but of every believer. Are you listening? What is to keep us faithful? What is to keep us steadfast, unmovable? I have never had NBC, CBS, or any television network, or any magazine or any newspaper come to me and say, "Pastor Weaver, you're doing a wonderful job. You're teaching the truth, and you're sharing the Word of God, and we'd like to do an article on you and promote your work." I've never had a studio say that to me, and I got news for you. No real Bible preacher ever has. Now, they will promote those who are not teaching the truth. They'll promote those who are teaching political correctness and the New World Orderism, but they're not going to teach anybody and promote anybody who's teaching the truth of God. Now watch carefully. So I never get patted on the back. What is to keep me faithful? What is to keep you faithful?

I know that there's a resurrection. And I know that God is not unfaithful to forget our work and our labor of love, according to Scripture. And I know that ultimately my reward will be based upon his mercy and his grace, and that's sufficient. Now, here is the point I'm trying to make. When you get to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58, that is duty. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." That is duty. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 57 is doctrine. Your duty is always based upon doctrine. Are you listening? If you do not know doctrine, how in the world will you ever know your duty? If you do not know doctrine, if you can't think right, then you cannot act right. If you cannot think biblically, then you cannot act biblically. It's that simple.

What is our problem by nature? Let me tell you what our problem by nature is. Listen carefully. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, where God said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." God is not going to condescend to think like us.

Then he would be ungodly and unholy. No, what we must do is we must humble ourselves and learn to think as he thinks. Because his thoughts are far above our thoughts. His ways are far above our ways.

Now, I want you to turn to Ephesians 4. And let me show you two passages. Ephesians 4. And let's begin reading there with verse 17. Ephesians 4, verse 17. Paul is talking and he's telling these Ephesian Christians how not to act. Watch carefully. Ephesians 4, verse 17. How not to act. Verse 17. He says, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling

have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." He says, don't act like the ungodly. Don't act like the unsaved. Now, let's begin with verse 20. Look at verse 20. "But ye have not so learned Christ." Whoa, stop right there. "But ye have not so," what? "Learned Christ." Christ must be learned. Watch. "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."

Now, I want you to note what he said. After he tells us that we're not to walk the way the ungodly walked, then he said you have to learn Christ. And the way to learn Christ is that you put off the old man and you put on the new man. What is the old man? It's your old habits, your old way of thinking, your old way of doing things, your old conduct. What is the new man? The new man is that which is regulated and controlled by the Word of God. It's the biblical man. So we have to put off and we have to put on. Well, how do we put off and put on? I can pull off this vest. I just reach up and pull it off. And if I want a coat on, I reach over and get the coat and I put it on. It's that simple. Well, it's really that simple when it comes to spirituality and godliness. We have to put off our old way of thinking and we have to learn a new way of thinking.

That's why I said, "and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." How do we put on? By renewing our minds. Now, the word renew is an interesting word. It's ananeoo in the Greek. He said, "and be renewed in the spirit of your minds." The Greek word is ananeoo and it literally means to renew, to renovate and to reform. Let me give you an illustration. Suppose that I was a real estate agent, I'm not, but suppose I was and you came to me and you told me, "I'm a handyman, I'm a fixer-upper."

"And I'd like to have 20 or 30 acres outside of town with an old house on it that I can fix it up." I say, "You know, I think I've just got the right piece of property for you. Come on, let's go look at it." And I take you outside of town and here's about 25 acres. Grass needs cutting. Here's this old house sitting on it. It's kind of slipped off its foundation a little bit. The porch is falling in, the windows are broken, the roof is caved in and the inside is terrible. And I said, "You know, I can let you have this old house and this 25 acres for forty thousand bucks." And you look at me and you say, "Sir, I told you I was a handyman and a fixer-upper, not a miracle worker. I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole." I said, "OK." And so I get to thinking, you know, I like this place.

I could fix this up. So I buy it. And I get Joe and Henry, Warren Luke to come over. They redo the foundation. They fix the porch. They fix the roof. They put new windows. They re-gut it and redo it inside out. They cut all the grass. They plant flowers. I mean, they have it in A number one shape. And after three months, I bring you back out there and I said, "Let me show you this place that you didn't like before."

And you look at it and you say, "Wow. Wow. I never dreamed this place could look like this. Did you say it was $40,000?" "Yeah, that was before. Now let's ask $100,000." Why all of a sudden are you interested the second time when you weren't interested in the first time? Because everything had been renovated. It was renewed. In other words, listen carefully, it was totally different from what it was previously. Are you listening?

You know what godliness is? It's being someone totally different than you were previously and you get to be renewed and you get to be reformed by the renewing of your mind, that is by submitting your mind to the Word of God and learning to think as he thought.

Bringing Every Thought Captive to Christ

Using 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Weaver argues that spiritual warfare involves pulling down strongholds of unbiblical thinking and bringing every thought into obedience to Christ.

Now let me quote some scriptures. I want you to listen carefully. Romans 12:2,

Scripture Reading — Romans 12:2

"And be not conformed to this world."

Don't be pressed in the mold of the world.

Scripture Reading — Romans 12:2

"Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed"

how?

Scripture Reading — Romans 12:2

"by the renewing of your mind."

1 Peter 4 and verse 1, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind." And then Philippians 2 and verse 5 says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I want you to see this, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And I want to begin reading there at verse 3, 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3. Here we go. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3, the Apostle Paul said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." Watch verse 4.

He says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal" or fleshly, "but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Now when the Apostle Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, he is not denigrating weaponry, an AR-15 or a Glock or a bow and arrow or a spear. All he is saying is those kind of weapons are not sufficient for the warfare that he's talking about. So he says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Do you know what a stronghold is? A stronghold is your place of defense. So if someone came through that door with a shotgun like we just read about in the church in South Carolina, if someone came through that door with a shotgun blazing away, I'm going to jump down behind this pulpit. You say, that's not much. It's better than what you got. You see what I'm saying? If I jump down behind this pulpit, what is this pulpit now? It's my stronghold. It's my place of defense.

Now, look back at verse four. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." You don't know where man's stronghold is. Here it is. Verse five, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing" or every high thought "that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Now, here's my question. How many thoughts? As a Christian, are you allowed that are unbiblical? Not one. Every thought is to be brought in subjection into captivity to Jesus Christ. So in other words, to renovate and reform and renew our thinking, we have to submit our mind to the Word of God and learn to think the way God thinks. That is, we're to take a biblical attitude and a biblical mindset. What is an attitude? An attitude is a mindset, it's a frame of reference, it's a way of thinking that influences and affects behavior. You remember the Scripture says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." So we should, as Christians, have biblical attitudes.

Biblical Mindset Determines Biblical Action

Weaver illustrates that our actions on issues like abortion, sodomy, education, and money are determined by our doctrine. Only renewed minds will present their bodies as living sacrifices.

Let me just show you. Let me mention a couple of words. Don't tell me what is forming in your mind. I will probably know. But here's the word I'm just going to call the word: abortion. Now, when I said the word abortion, I would guarantee you that most of you, if not all of you immediately thought of murder. Because that's what it is, and as Christians, you and I are not going to engage in it. We're not going to support it. We're not going to endorse it. Why? Because we believe that it's murder. And we're just not going to do it. If I mentioned the word sodomy, I know what enters your mind, I hope. The thought of depravity, wickedness, violence, even to some extent, reprobation and death penalty enter into your mind because that's the biblical mindset.

I want you to see that our actions are determined by what we think and what we believe and what we understand. The reason you're not robbing banks. The reason you're not defrauding individuals. The reason you're not con men is because your theology and your doctrine is "Thou shalt not steal." And I realize there's multiple forms of theft. But our conduct, our actions are based upon our doctrine and the way we think and the way we believe. That's why I keep saying you cannot act rightly unless you believe rightly.

Now, I've picked some of these very easy, simple subjects. I mean, I know you're not going to go to an abortion clinic. I know you're not going to support sodomy. I know you're not going out and rob a bank or try to con someone. I understand that. But let me mention a few other words. Let me mention a few other words and just see what your mindset is.

Suppose I use the word education. Education. Do you realize there's a biblical doctrine of education? And I'll give you a hint. It ain't public education. Bad grammar, good theology, it ain't government schooling. Not according to the Bible. Do you understand the biblical doctrine about education? Here's another word. Money. Ah. What do you think about money? What does the word of God teach about money? How about this one? Civil government. What does the word of God teach about government? Here's another word, family.

How about this term, husband-wife relationships? What do you think? Is there a biblical role for the wife, a biblical role for the husband? Yeah. What about this one? Child discipline. How about this one? Justice. Worship. History. There are so many areas, there are so many subjects.

Now, I want you to listen to me. The Apostle Paul said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." Here's the truth of that. Only individuals who have renewed minds will present their bodies a living sacrifice. If we do not renew our minds, we will never serve him. In Daniel 3 and verse 28, after Nebuchadnezzar had pulled the three Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace, then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God." Why were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego willing to go to the fiery furnace? Because they had a biblical attitude and a biblical mindset about God, and they refused idolatry, and they yielded their bodies to the furnace rather than to sin against God.

"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." You know what the Bible says. Listen carefully. "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." We will never be holy people until we learn to think biblically. We will never be godly people till we learn to think biblically.

Applications: Ignorance Hinders Holiness; Grow in Knowledge

Weaver concludes that an ignorant man cannot be holy, and that believers must grow in grace and knowledge of Christ to become godly, learning to think and act like their Heavenly Father.

Let me very hurriedly make a couple of applications. The first one is this. An ignorant man will never be a holy man. An ignorant man will never be a godly man. And when I say an ignorant man, I'm not talking about someone who doesn't have a college degree. Listen, you can have five college degrees behind your name and still be ignorant. I'm talking about a man who's ignorant of the word of God.

How can you obey that which you do not know? How can you act rightly if you do not believe rightly? The Bible says in 2 Peter 3 and verse 18, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The little word "and," kai, k-a-i in the Greek, is often translated another way in our Bibles. It is translated as the word "even," and you could read 2 Peter 3 verse 18, "But grow in grace, even in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." So you're not growing in grace unless you're growing in knowledge. One last passage. I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 5. And look at verses 44 and 45. I want you to watch this, Matthew 5, verses 44 and 45. The more we learn to think like our heavenly Father, the more godly, the more holy our actions will become. And Matthew 5 and verse 44, look what the word of God says. "But I say to you," our Lord is speaking.

"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven." Now, let me just stop there. If I were to take the time to read all of Matthew chapter five, you will find that our Lord is straightening out the misinterpretation of the law of God by the Pharisees. Over and over, He said, "You've heard it said of them of old time, but I say unto you. You've heard it said of them of old time, but I say unto you." What is our Lord doing? He's saying, I'm telling you what the Word of God really teaches. Why?

So that you can apply it and obey it. "That ye may be the children of your Father." Our children usually think the way we think. They act the way we act. And our Lord says if you want to be the children of your heavenly Father, you better learn to think as He thinks so that you can act the way He acts. Godliness is nothing less than learning to think and act like our Heavenly Father and like His Son, Jesus Christ.

So the question is, are you godly? Are you growing in godliness? Are you increasing in knowledge? Lord, we ask you to make us godly, to make us holy, to teach us to think and to act like our Heavenly Father, to submit our minds to the Word of God and enable us to grow in grace even in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Give us grace to serve Thee acceptably in reverence and godly fear.

Study Guide

Major Themes

The True Nature of Godliness

Summary: Godliness is not external religious behavior but an internal transformation of the mind that results in Christlike thinking and acting.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'godliness is nothing less than learning to think and act like our Heavenly Father and like His Son, Jesus Christ.'

The Necessity of Mind Renewal

Summary: Believers must renew their minds through Scripture to be transformed and to prove God's will, as duty flows from doctrine.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'You cannot act rightly until you think rightly. You cannot act biblically until you think biblically.'

Godliness Requires Diligent Exercise

Summary: Godliness is not automatic; it must be worked at through discipline and the refusal of false teachings.

Evidence: Weaver explains the Greek word gymnazo, saying, 'gymnasticize thyself unto godliness.'

Conformity to Christ as God's Will

Summary: God's ultimate will for every believer is to be conformed to the image of His Son, which involves joint formation with Christ in thinking and acting.

Evidence: Weaver cites Romans 8:29, 'For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.'

The Danger of Religious Externalism

Summary: Many substitute rituals, traditions, and emotional experiences for true godliness, but these do not make one godly.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Most churches today have fallen into the same exact trap that Israel did of old... they overlooked the God of the temple.'

The Role of Knowledge in Holiness

Summary: Ignorance of God's Word prevents holiness; believers must grow in knowledge to grow in grace.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'An ignorant man will never be a holy man... I'm talking about a man who's ignorant of the word of God.'

Key Arguments

Godliness is not external religious activity

Summary: Doing religious deeds like church attendance, praying, or witnessing does not make one godly; pagans also perform religious acts.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'If you say that doing religious things makes someone godly, then you have to admit then, obviously, that even the pagans are godly.'

Godliness is exercised, not automatic

Summary: The Greek word for 'exercise' in 1 Timothy 4:7 implies rigorous training, showing that godliness requires intentional effort.

Evidence: Weaver explains, 'They stretch, they exercise, they're trained, they work at it... they worked at being godly.'

Godliness is added to faith through diligence

Summary: 2 Peter 1:5-7 lists godliness as something added to faith, indicating it is a cultivated virtue, not an instantaneous gift.

Evidence: Weaver reads, 'add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance... and to patience godliness.'

Christ's godliness stemmed from thinking like the Father

Summary: Jesus always did what pleased the Father because He thought as the Father thought, demonstrating that godliness begins in the mind.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'Because our Lord thought as the Father would have him to think. And because he thought the way the Father thought, he acted the way the Father would have him to act.'

Duty is based on doctrine

Summary: 1 Corinthians 15:58 (duty) follows 1 Corinthians 15:1-57 (doctrine), showing that right action depends on right belief.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'Your duty is always based upon doctrine. If you do not know doctrine, how in the world will you ever know your duty?'

Mind renewal is essential for transformation

Summary: Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23 teach that believers are transformed by renewing their minds, putting off old thinking and putting on biblical thinking.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'We have to put off our old way of thinking and we have to learn a new way of thinking.'

Every thought must be brought captive to Christ

Summary: 2 Corinthians 10:5 commands believers to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, leaving no room for unbiblical thinking.

Evidence: Weaver asks, 'How many thoughts? As a Christian, are you allowed that are unbiblical? Not one.'

Ignorance of Scripture prevents godliness

Summary: Without knowledge of God's Word, one cannot obey it; thus, growth in grace is tied to growth in knowledge.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'How can you obey that which you do not know? How can you act rightly if you do not believe rightly?'

Scripture References

1 Timothy 4:7-8

Context: Weaver's primary text, commanding believers to exercise themselves unto godliness because it is profitable for all things.

Jeremiah 5:2

Context: Used to show that using religious language does not make one godly; people can swear falsely while saying 'the Lord liveth.'

Matthew 7:21-23

Context: Jesus' warning that many who do religious works in His name will be rejected because He never knew them, proving deeds alone do not equal godliness.

Proverbs 27:2

Context: Cited to argue that godly people do not praise themselves; true godliness is not self-promoting.

Luke 18:10-12

Context: The parable of the Pharisee and the publican, illustrating that acting pious and holy does not justify a person before God.

1 Timothy 6:5

Context: Warns against those who suppose gain is godliness, applied by Weaver to those who boast in church numbers or external success.

Amos 5:21-24

Context: God's rejection of Israel's feasts and offerings because they had become empty ritual, used to warn against ceremonialism.

2 Peter 1:3-8

Context: Shows that godliness is something added to faith through diligence, part of a chain of virtues leading to fruitfulness.

Ephesians 2:10

Context: Believers are created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, indicating that works flow from salvation, not to earn it.

Philippians 2:12-13

Context: Commands believers to work out their salvation because God works in them, illustrating the cooperation in godliness.

Isaiah 26:12

Context: God ordains peace and works all our works in us, emphasizing that any good in us is by God's grace.

John 5:17, 19, 36, 43

Context: Jesus' statements that He does nothing of Himself but only what He sees the Father do, demonstrating His dependence and conformity to the Father.

John 6:39

Context: Jesus came to do the Father's will, showing His submission and the source of His godly actions.

John 8:29

Context: Jesus always does what pleases the Father, the key verse Weaver uses to define the essence of godliness.

Romans 8:29

Context: God predestined believers to be conformed to the image of His Son, which is the goal of godliness.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Context: The duty to be steadfast is based on the doctrine of resurrection in the preceding verses, illustrating that duty flows from doctrine.

Isaiah 55:8-9

Context: God's thoughts and ways are higher than man's, so believers must humble themselves to think as He thinks.

Ephesians 4:17-24

Context: Believers are to put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of their mind, putting on the new man created in righteousness.

Romans 12:2

Context: Transformation comes by the renewing of the mind, not by conforming to the world.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Context: Spiritual warfare involves casting down imaginations and bringing every thought captive to Christ, the battle for the mind.

Historical References

The Inquisition

Context: Weaver mentions the Inquisition as an example of wicked crimes committed under the guise of religion and biblical terms.

John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Hus

Context: Cited as examples of godly men who had character and conviction but worked at being godly; they were not born with it.

Hank Aaron

Context: Used as an illustration that even those with natural talent must work hard to excel, paralleling the effort needed for godliness.

Important Quotes

If you have to tell me how godly you are, you ain't.

Significance: Succinctly captures the argument that true godliness is not self-promoting or boastful.

You cannot act rightly until you think rightly. You cannot act biblically until you think biblically.

Significance: The central thesis of the sermon, linking mind renewal to godly behavior.

An ignorant man will never be a holy man. An ignorant man will never be a godly man.

Significance: Highlights the necessity of biblical knowledge for godliness.

Godliness is nothing less than learning to think and act like our Heavenly Father and like His Son, Jesus Christ.

Significance: The concluding definition of godliness that summarizes the entire sermon.

I do always those things that please him.

Significance: Jesus' own words from John 8:29, used as the model for godly living.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Significance: Proverbial truth cited to reinforce that inner thoughts determine outward character.

We will never be holy people until we learn to think biblically. We will never be godly people till we learn to think biblically.

Significance: Reiterates the foundational premise that holiness and godliness are products of biblical thinking.

Discussion Questions

What are some common substitutes for true godliness that you see in churches today, and how can we guard against them?

Context: Weaver listed vocabulary, religious deeds, pious acting, ritualism, traditionalism, and emotionalism as false substitutes.

How does the Greek word gymnazo (exercise) change your understanding of what it means to pursue godliness?

Context: Weaver explained that godliness requires rigorous training and discipline, like an athlete.

In what practical ways can we 'add to our faith' godliness, as described in 2 Peter 1:5-7?

Context: Weaver emphasized that godliness is something cultivated through diligence, not automatically possessed.

How did Jesus demonstrate that thinking like the Father leads to acting like the Father, and how can we imitate that?

Context: Weaver used John 5 and 8 to show Jesus' total dependence on and conformity to the Father's will.

What does it mean to be 'conformed to the image of His Son' (Romans 8:29), and how does mind renewal contribute to that?

Context: Weaver taught that God's will is for us to be jointly formed with Christ in thinking and acting.

Why is it impossible to act biblically without thinking biblically? Can you give examples from your own life?

Context: Weaver argued that duty is based on doctrine, and right action requires right belief.

What are some 'strongholds' of unbiblical thinking that Christians need to tear down, according to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5?

Context: Weaver mentioned areas like education, money, government, and family where believers may hold unbiblical views.

How can we practically 'grow in grace, even in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter 3:18)?

Context: Weaver concluded that ignorance hinders holiness, so believers must continually increase in biblical knowledge.

Applications

Examine your definition of godliness

Summary: Evaluate whether you have substituted external religious activities, vocabulary, or feelings for true godliness, which is internal transformation.

Evidence: Weaver said, 'If you try to tell me that doing religious things makes an individual godly, wow.'

Discipline yourself for godliness

Summary: Intentionally work at godliness through spiritual disciplines, just as an athlete trains, refusing false teachings and worldly fables.

Evidence: Weaver exhorted, 'Exercise thyself rather unto godliness... gymnasticize thyself unto godliness.'

Add godliness to your faith

Summary: Pursue godliness as part of the chain of virtues in 2 Peter 1, understanding that it is cultivated through diligence and cooperation with God's work in you.

Evidence: Weaver said, 'God worked it in, you work it out. God put it in there, you make the application.'

Renew your mind through Scripture

Summary: Put off old, unbiblical ways of thinking and put on the new man by saturating your mind with God's Word, allowing it to renovate your thoughts.

Evidence: Weaver stated, 'We have to put off our old way of thinking and we have to learn a new way of thinking.'

Bring every thought captive to Christ

Summary: Identify and tear down unbiblical thought patterns in every area of life—education, money, government, family—and submit them to Christ's lordship.

Evidence: Weaver asked, 'How many thoughts? As a Christian, are you allowed that are unbiblical? Not one.'

Grow in knowledge to grow in grace

Summary: Commit to increasing your knowledge of Scripture, recognizing that ignorance of God's Word hinders holiness and godliness.

Evidence: Weaver said, 'An ignorant man will never be a holy man... How can you obey that which you do not know?'

Model your life after Christ's example

Summary: Learn to think as Christ thought by studying His life and teachings, so that your actions increasingly please the Father.

Evidence: Weaver concluded, 'Godliness is nothing less than learning to think and act like our Heavenly Father and like His Son, Jesus Christ.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T22:33:08Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T14:02:00Z

Clean Transcript

The Essence of Biblical Godliness

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

I want to preach a message that I believe is absolutely fundamental, and yet at the same time, so needed and necessary, and yet so unknown. So 1 Timothy 4, look if you would please at verses 7 and 8. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7, the Word of God says, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." The title of the message today is The Essence of Biblical Godliness. Every true child of God desires to live a godly life. Now, the word godly has many synonyms in Scripture.
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You will read the words devout, holy, pious, righteous, sanctified. All of those words relate to godliness. And you will find these words used over and over in Scripture. But then you have to ask yourself, what exactly is godliness? Or let me ask it like this, how do you know whether or not you are a godly person? So you have to understand the essence of godliness. That is what it's made of or what it consists of, what it consists.
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So let me try to answer these questions. And first of all, I want to give it to you negatively. I want to tell you what godliness is not. Okay, first of all, godliness is not vocabulary. That is, it's not knowing the lingo. It's not using the right words. There are plenty of people that can talk like a Christian and talk like they're godly, but they're simply not a Christian, nor are they godly.
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In Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 2, God had told Jeremiah to go through the streets of Jerusalem and see if there were any that follow him, and here's what he said in verse 2, "And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely." In other words, they might say, yes, I love the Lord, or yes, the Lord liveth, or yes, he's the one true of the living God. But he said, surely they swear falsely. So just because someone knows the language and knows the lingo and can talk the talk does not mean that he is a Christian, nor does it mean that he's godly.
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In fact, if you will stop and think, some of the most wicked, some of the most vile and heinous crimes that have ever been committed have been committed under the guise of religion and even using biblical terms. Think about the Inquisition, where many of the martyrs were not only burned at the stake, but murdered in various ways as well. So, just simply because one has the vocabulary does not mean that he's a Christian, nor does it mean that he's godly.
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Secondly, listen carefully, godliness does not consist of doing things, especially religious things. Now listen, church going, witnessing, praying, counting beads, and countless other acts does not make one godly.
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Now it is true that godly people attend to the preaching of the Word of God. It is true that godly people read the Scriptures. It is true that godly people pray. It is true that godly people share their faith. It is true that godly people do a lot of good things, but they do not do those things in order to be godly. They do those things because they are godly. If you try to tell me that doing religious things makes an individual godly, wow.
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Look at the Roman Catholics that count beads. Look at the Muslims that pray three and four and five and seven times a day. Look at all the Hindu and Buddhist monks that do all these other things. If you say that doing religious things makes someone godly, then you have to admit then, obviously, that even the pagans are godly. You know what our Lord said in Matthew 7, verses 21 through 23? Listen carefully. He said, "Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name and in thy name cast out devils and in thy name done many wonderful works?"
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And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Now, if you're preaching in his name, if you're casting out devils in his name, and if you're doing many wonderful works in his name, you're doing religious deeds. But he said, I'll say unto them, I never knew you. So doing good things does not make someone godly. Do you realize the average church today, the average church, is so programmed.
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That if the Holy Spirit of God was taken out of the world tomorrow, most churches would go right on as usual. Because they have their programs, they have their things. Pastor McCurry just sent me a link that I looked at momentarily, and it was what some churches were doing for Easter. And how they were continually trying to outdo each other with all these programs and all these things. I just read where one church in Albany put out 1,500 eggs. What in the world has an egg got to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ?
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And let me mention something to you. I hope you understand that one Sunday a year does not commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Bible says He was raised, when? On the first day of the week. Every Sunday is a fresh commemoration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Not once a year. So, doing good deeds is certainly not anything that has to do with godliness. The Bible says, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
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Thirdly, godliness is not acting pious and holy. You'll find many people that try to exalt themselves. They elevate themselves on every hand. There are a multitude of people that are willing to tell you how good and how godly they are. Listen to this. It is poor English, but it is great theology. If you have to tell me how godly you are, you ain't. The Bible says in Proverbs 27 verse 2, "Let another man praise thee, and not thine own lips; a stranger, and not thine own lips." Let another man praise thee. Don't do it yourself.
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You remember that passage in Luke chapter 18 verses 10 through 12 there where the publican and the Pharisee both went to the temple to pray. Our Lord said, "Two men went up to the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself." Listen to what he said, "God, I thank thee that I'm not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, for I fast twice in a week."
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"I give tithes of all that I possess." Wow. What was he doing, exalting himself? What did the old publican do? He smote himself on the breast, would not even lift his eyes toward heaven, and said, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner." And our Lord said, "Verily, that man, the publican, went down justified rather than the other who was acting so pious and so holy. I thank thee that I'm not as other men are."
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"I do this and I do that." The Word of God says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 5, "Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself."
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Now, I realize that reference may refer to that which is monetary, but I believe it has other applications as well, because you see a lot of preachers sometimes boasting, well, I've got 500 in church. How many do you have? You've heard me say this before, and I mean it from the depth of my heart, I'd rather have 50 people that really and truly want the Word of God and are willing to live and obey the Word of God, than I had a church of 5,000 who could care less whether they had the Word of God or not.
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So godliness is not acting pious and holy. There are some who would be more holy than God himself if they could, for they thought they could. And brother, when you try to be more holy than God, you are in trouble. Fourthly, godliness is not ritualism. It's not ceremonialism. It's not churchism. Most churches today have fallen into the same exact trap that Israel did of old. You know what came first in ancient Israel?
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The temple and its rituals. They were so concentrating on the temple and its rituals that they overlooked the God of the temple. I do want you to look at Amos chapter 5, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos. Look at Amos chapter 5. I want you to see this one because it is so important. Look in Amos chapter 5 and let's begin reading there with verse 21. Look what God says. Amos 5 verse 21, God says.
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"I hate, I despise your feast days and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies. Though you offer me burnt offerings and your meat offerings, I will not accept them. Neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs, for I will not hear the melody of thy vows. But let judgment run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream." Notice, if you would, he says in verse 21, "I hate, I despise your feast days. I will not smell in your solemn assemblies." You have to stop and ask yourself, did not God ordain those solemn feast days? Yes. Did not God ordain those offerings? Yes. Did not God ordain the music? Yes. Did not God ordain the sacrifices? Yes. And now God says, I hate them. I despise them.
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I will not have them. Why? Because it was pure ritual. It was pure ceremony. You see, what most professing Christians do today, I said this a long time ago, especially in reference to Southern Baptists, because I was raised a Southern Baptist, and I observed this even as a child. Most Southern Baptists run into church 15 minutes late with a quarter in one hand and a quarterly in the other hand.
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And when I say that, I mean this. Most Baptists, not just Southern Baptists, most Methodists, most Presbyterians, when they come to church, they sit down, they sing, they give a little offering, they hear a sermon, and they go out and they think that they have worshipped God. When all they've done is gone through a little ritual or a little ceremony. There's been no real contemplation or acknowledgement of God in their mind. And what they've done is they have substituted the real, true worship of God for a ceremony or for a ritual. You know, in the book of Hosea, the Word of God says, "Israel hath forgotten her maker and buildeth temples." That's America. America has forgotten her maker and builds church buildings.
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Do you realize that traditions, ritualisms, ceremonialism, churchism, has taken over a real genuine worship service? I'm going to tell you something, folks. If we really and truly got to worshiping God, if we ever got in with him, we really wouldn't care what time we got out. I preached at a little Baptist church in South Georgia. And of course, most of you know, I tend to preach more than 15 or 20 minutes. And what this church did on Sunday morning, they sang until 15 to 12. And they just left me 15 minutes to preach, they thought.
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And they were telling me publicly there, oh, how much they love to sing. So I preach that morning. But I didn't get out of there until about 1 or 1:15. That night, I came back to preach again. And I told them that morning, I said, you know, I enjoy singing like anybody else. I enjoy music. But I said, I believe the word of God has priority and I always preach at least twice as long as you sing. That night, they sang 15 minutes and quit. They really enjoyed singing, didn't they? Yeah, sure.
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Godliness is not ritualism, it's not ceremonialism, it's not churchism. Fifthly, godliness is not traditionalism. If you were to look at Matthew 15 and Mark chapter 7, you would see how little our Lord thought of traditions.
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Now, there is nothing wrong with a tradition as long as it's biblical. Or I could say, secondly, there's nothing wrong with the tradition as long as you understand that it's your tradition and it's not binding on someone else. But you get to the average church. And here's what you get. Well, we've always done it like this. What? This is the way we've been taught. Well, just because you've always done it like that, just because you've been taught like that does not mean that it's right.
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I will show you how steeped most churches are in traditionalism. I have a pastor friend who is at a little Southern Baptist church. And he was trying to teach them and trying to instruct them, and it came Christmas season. And he was trying to slowly but surely teach them a little bit about some of the paganism that's involved in Christmas, and he made it known that he did not want a Christmas tree in the sanctuary or in the auditorium.
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Well, I was not there, but one of my men was there that night. He went over on Wednesday night thinking they were going to have a prayer meeting, and it turned out to be a business meeting. And one of the men stood up and said, the pastor does not want a Christmas tree in the auditorium. And one woman stood up and she said, "This is our church."
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"We've always done it like this. I don't care what the pastor thinks and what the pastor says, we're going to do it." Within a few weeks, the pastor had resigned and gone on. Would I have left? Sure, I would have left. You know what the woman just said? We don't care what the Word of God teaches. We don't even care the pastor's concern. We're going to do what we want to do. We've always done it like this, and we're going to keep on doing it like this.
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I tell people I can go to the average church and split it right down the middle with one sermon. All I've got to do is preach against tradition. When I start preaching against Santa Claus and Easter Bunny and a whole lot of other things, Halloween included, man, they're going to be part left and right because more people are concerned more of their traditions than they are of the Word of God.
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Sixthly, godliness is not feelings and it's not emotionalism. I want you to understand something, folks. Feelings come and go. Unhappily, most people live on feelings instead of principles. Years ago, Alice and I were in a little town and I'd heard that the pastor was resigning. And at that time I had a Bible Institute and I was teaching young men to preach and I was always looking for preaching opportunities for the young men. And so I stopped in to talk to the pastor and see if what I heard was true, and so I asked him, "Are you resigning?" Well, he said, "I did resign."
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"But I rescinded my resignation." I said, "Oh." He said, "Yeah," he said, "I feel that the Lord wants me here and I feel like we're going to have a good work here and I feel there's a lot to do, etc." And I said, "Well, good. I said, I was just checking because I have these young men. If they can ever help you, you let me know." And I walked out, got in the car and Alice said, "Well, is he leaving?" I said, "Yeah, he'll be gone two weeks." And he was. Do you know how I knew he was going to be gone in two weeks? I feel, I feel, I feel.
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There was never this is the Lord's will. This is the Lord's word. This is where the Lord wants me. I feel, I feel, I feel. And when your feelings change, you change if you're living by your feelings. Feelings come and go. Principles do not. Godliness is not feelings. Please understand that. With my arm, my shoulder, my neck hurting, I don't feel too good. But that doesn't matter. Feelings have no bearing upon true godliness and true holiness. Now, if none of these things are godliness, what is godliness? I want you to look back to 1 Timothy chapter 4, if you would please. 1 Timothy chapter 4. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse 7. Look what the Word of God says. 1 Timothy 4, verse 7. God says, "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness." First of all, godliness is something that must be worked at. Look what he said. Exercise thyself rather unto godliness. Do you know what the word exercise is? The Greek word is gymnazo.
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It is where we get our English word gymnasium and gymnastics. Literally, he's saying, gymnasticize thyself unto godliness. I enjoy watching gymnastics. I really do. And I'll tell you why. I enjoy watching anybody that has any flexibility and at least can bend over and tie their shoes. The older you get, the more you appreciate some of those things. But, you know, none of those gymnasts walk out on the floor and say, well, I think I'm going to do a little run and do a double back flip and a side spin.
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And no, no, no, no. They don't start out just doing that. They stretch, they exercise, they're trained, they work at it. And when you and I look at those gymnastic competitions, we see how good those kids are. And the next thing you know, we've totally forgotten the four and five years of daily working and stretching that they reach to get to that. If I were to mention the name Hank Aaron, when you think of Hank Aaron, you think of somebody who was born with a baseball bat in one hand and a ball glove in the other hand, but that's not true. Hank Aaron may have had, you know, some excellent skills, but he worked at being good at baseball.
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Years ago, we had a concert pianist come to our church in Jessup. And that man sat down at the piano. And for about an hour and a half, without any sheet music, without anything in front of him, he played. It looked as if the music was just flowing out of his fingers. And I never will forget after he got through playing, I went up and I said to him, "I would give anything to be able to play the piano like that." He said, "Really?"
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"I practice eight hours a day, six days a week." All of a sudden, I didn't want to be a concert pianist any longer. Was he good? He was great. But the reason he was great was because he worked at being great. When we hear names like John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Hus, we think, man, oh man, those were godly men. They had character. They had integrity. They had conviction. Yeah, they did. But you know what? They didn't always have it.
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They weren't born with it. They worked at being godly. Look what he said in verse 7. "But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise, gymnasticize thyself rather unto godliness." Let me point something out. You will never exercise yourself unto godliness until you learn to refuse profane and old wives' fables. You know what an old wife fable is or a profane fable? It's something that you hear all your life. It's just not true.
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For instance, I remember when I was a young man, I heard that if a pregnant woman listened to beautiful music, her child would be born musically inclined. I tell everybody, my mother must have listened to a dying buzzard moan or something. I can't sing, and I have nothing as far as music is concerned. You know, we've got these shortcuts. If you want prayer, you raise your hand. You can raise your hand all day long.
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That's not going to make you godly. Well, if you want to dedicate yourself to the Lord, you come up here and kneel at this old-fashioned altar. First of all, it's not an old-fashioned altar. Secondly, kneeling there is not going to make you godly. We think that we can go forward in some church service, kneel for two or three minutes, get up, and we're changed individuals. That's not necessarily so.
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Godliness is something that must be worked at. Secondly, I want you to note that godliness is something that must be added to our faith. What? Turn in your Bibles to 2 Peter, chapter one, 2 Peter, chapter one. And look, if you would please, beginning there with verse three. 2 Peter, chapter one, verse three. The Scripture says, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue."
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Now watch verse 4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and besides this, giving all diligence, watch now, add to your faith." So you're already saved now, but here's something that has to be added. Add to your faith virtue, and to virtue you add knowledge, and to knowledge you add temperance, and to temperance you add patience, and to patience you add what? Godliness. And to godliness you add brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness you add charity. He said, "For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." Note, if you would, godliness is something that must be added to our faith. Now, I want you to understand it is indeed the work of Jesus Christ that makes us righteous. We do not make ourselves righteous in any sense of the word.
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We do not work our way into heaven. We do not earn or merit salvation. Yet those who have been made righteous in Jesus Christ will seek to demonstrate evidence and manifest that righteousness by cultivating godliness. It is inevitable. You remember Ephesians 2 and verse 10. Listen to this. "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk therein." Listen to this one, Philippians 2, verses 12 and 13. Paul wrote, "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." What did he say? God worked it in, you work it out. God put it in there, you make the application. The Word of God says, in Isaiah 26 and verse 12, "Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us."
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Let me tell you something, folks. Here it is, bottom line, cut and dried. Any good thing in you, any godly thing in you, any holy thing in you, any righteous thing in you, it's only there by the grace of God. For if God didn't put it in you, it would not be there, period. Now, if I were to ask you, who was the most holy or the most godly man that ever lived?
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Undoubtedly, you would answer the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is true. Jesus Christ was not only God, Jesus Christ was also man. He's perfect God and he's perfect man. He is the God-man. He was sent as a servant to the Father. So let's ask. What was it that made our Lord as the perfect man, holy and godly? I want to bring this down to what I'm going to call an irreducible minimum. I'm going to show you two things, and I want you to turn in your Bibles to John chapter five very quickly. John chapter five. And I want you to see if you can pick out these two things as I read just a few verses. I've got a lot down, but I'm not going to read them all. Notice, if you would, John chapter five, look in verse 17. Now, I want you to try to pick up what our Lord is saying. John 5, verse 17. "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." Now skip down to verse 19.
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"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." Skip down to verse 36. He said, "But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." Wow! Look, if you would please, in verse 43, he said, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." Look in John 6 and verse 39, John 6 and verse 39. Our Lord says, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Now note, "and this is the Father's will which hath sent me." Now turn over to John 8 and look at verse 29.
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John 8 verse 29. This is one of my favorite verses. I could give you quote after quote on these, but look in John 8 verse 29. Our Lord said, "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." So let me ask you after reading those several passages. Did you pick up on what our Lord was saying? Did you pick up on the essence of what he said? He always did what the Father wanted him to do. He only acted as the Father acted. Here is the essence of godliness. If I were to ask you, why was our Lord Jesus Christ obedient unto death?
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Why did our Lord fulfill the law of God perfectly and completely and totally? Here's the answer. Because our Lord thought as the Father would have him to think. And because he thought the way the Father thought, he acted the way the Father would have him to act.
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Now, listen carefully, thinking and acting go together. Christ had a biblical mindset, he had a biblical attitude, and therefore his conduct and his actions were biblical and right. What did He say in John 8 verse 29? "And he that sent me is with me. The Father hath not left me alone." Now listen to what He said. "For I do always those things that please him." He thought like the Father. He acted like the Father. Now, turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 8 and look if you would please at verse 29. Romans 8, verse 29.
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Let me ask you a question. What is God's will for your life?
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Now, I'm not asking right now, should you take another job? Should you move to Georgia? Should you move to Tennessee? Should you marry? Should you not marry? I'm not talking about that right now. I'm talking about generally speaking, what is God's will for every child of God? Indiscriminately. Here it is. Look in Romans 8, if you would please, and verse 29. The Bible says this. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren." God's will for every child of God is that we might be conformed to the image of his Son.
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Now, I want you to stop and think. The word image in the Greek is the word icon. The word icon literally means a likeness, a resemblance, a profile, a representation.
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Now, let's look at it like this. Verse 29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image" or to the likeness or to the profile or to the representation "of his Son." In other words, listen carefully. We're to be little Christs. Not in the sense that we're saviors or Messiah, but that we have learned to think like Christ thought so that we can act the way Christ acted. Here is the Word. Go back to verse 29 again. "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed." And by the way, the word conformed there, con-with, with-formed, formed with, it literally means to be jointly formed together with. So, as we learn to think like Jesus Christ and act like Jesus Christ, we are jointly formed together with Him.
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in doing those things that the Father would have done. Why? Because thinking and acting go together. Now listen carefully. You cannot act rightly until you think rightly. You cannot act biblically until you think biblically.
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Now, I want you to turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 15 and look at verse 58. I want to show you something that is vitally important. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58. Watch this carefully. In verse 58, the Apostle Paul makes this statement. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." Now look at that. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable." Now let me ask you, why did the Apostle Paul say that right where he did in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 58? Let me tell you what verse 58 is. Verse 58 is the application of everything that he's taught in 1 Corinthians 15. What did he teach in 1 Corinthians 15?
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He taught the bodily resurrection of the dead, not only of Christ, but of every believer. Are you listening? What is to keep us faithful? What is to keep us steadfast, unmovable? I have never had NBC, CBS, or any television network, or any magazine or any newspaper come to me and say, "Pastor Weaver, you're doing a wonderful job. You're teaching the truth, and you're sharing the Word of God, and we'd like to do an article on you and promote your work." I've never had a studio say that to me, and I got news for you.
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No real Bible preacher ever has. Now, they will promote those who are not teaching the truth. They'll promote those who are teaching political correctness and the New World Orderism, but they're not going to teach anybody and promote anybody who's teaching the truth of God. Now watch carefully. So I never get patted on the back. What is to keep me faithful? What is to keep you faithful?
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I know that there's a resurrection. And I know that God is not unfaithful to forget our work and our labor of love, according to Scripture. And I know that ultimately my reward will be based upon his mercy and his grace, and that's sufficient.
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Now, here is the point I'm trying to make. When you get to 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 58, that is duty. "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord." That is duty. 1 Corinthians 15, 1 through 57 is doctrine. Your duty is always based upon doctrine. Are you listening? If you do not know doctrine, how in the world will you ever know your duty? If you do not know doctrine, if you can't think right, then you cannot act right. If you cannot think biblically, then you cannot act biblically. It's that simple.
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What is our problem by nature? Let me tell you what our problem by nature is. Listen carefully. Isaiah 55, verses 8 and 9, where God said, "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." God is not going to condescend to think like us.
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Then he would be ungodly and unholy. No, what we must do is we must humble ourselves and learn to think as he thinks. Because his thoughts are far above our thoughts. His ways are far above our ways.
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Now, I want you to turn to Ephesians 4. And let me show you two passages. Ephesians 4. And let's begin reading there with verse 17. Ephesians 4, verse 17. Paul is talking and he's telling these Ephesian Christians how not to act. Watch carefully. Ephesians 4, verse 17. How not to act. Verse 17. He says, "This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling
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have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness." He says, don't act like the ungodly. Don't act like the unsaved.
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Now, let's begin with verse 20. Look at verse 20. "But ye have not so learned Christ." Whoa, stop right there. "But ye have not so," what? "Learned Christ." Christ must be learned. Watch. "But ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness."
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Now, I want you to note what he said. After he tells us that we're not to walk the way the ungodly walked, then he said you have to learn Christ. And the way to learn Christ is that you put off the old man and you put on the new man. What is the old man? It's your old habits, your old way of thinking, your old way of doing things, your old conduct. What is the new man? The new man is that which is regulated and controlled by the Word of God. It's the biblical man. So we have to put off and we have to put on. Well, how do we put off and put on? I can pull off this vest. I just reach up and pull it off. And if I want a coat on, I reach over and get the coat and I put it on. It's that simple. Well, it's really that simple when it comes to spirituality and godliness. We have to put off our old way of thinking and we have to learn a new way of thinking.
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That's why I said, "and be renewed in the spirit of your mind." How do we put on? By renewing our minds.
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Now, the word renew is an interesting word. It's ananeoo in the Greek. He said, "and be renewed in the spirit of your minds." The Greek word is ananeoo and it literally means to renew, to renovate and to reform. Let me give you an illustration. Suppose that I was a real estate agent, I'm not, but suppose I was and you came to me and you told me, "I'm a handyman, I'm a fixer-upper."
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"And I'd like to have 20 or 30 acres outside of town with an old house on it that I can fix it up." I say, "You know, I think I've just got the right piece of property for you. Come on, let's go look at it." And I take you outside of town and here's about 25 acres. Grass needs cutting. Here's this old house sitting on it. It's kind of slipped off its foundation a little bit.
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The porch is falling in, the windows are broken, the roof is caved in and the inside is terrible. And I said, "You know, I can let you have this old house and this 25 acres for forty thousand bucks." And you look at me and you say, "Sir, I told you I was a handyman and a fixer-upper, not a miracle worker. I wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole." I said, "OK." And so I get to thinking, you know, I like this place.
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I could fix this up. So I buy it. And I get Joe and Henry, Warren Luke to come over. They redo the foundation. They fix the porch. They fix the roof. They put new windows. They re-gut it and redo it inside out. They cut all the grass. They plant flowers. I mean, they have it in A number one shape. And after three months, I bring you back out there and I said, "Let me show you this place that you didn't like before."
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And you look at it and you say, "Wow. Wow. I never dreamed this place could look like this. Did you say it was $40,000?" "Yeah, that was before. Now let's ask $100,000." Why all of a sudden are you interested the second time when you weren't interested in the first time? Because everything had been renovated. It was renewed. In other words, listen carefully, it was totally different from what it was previously. Are you listening?
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You know what godliness is? It's being someone totally different than you were previously and you get to be renewed and you get to be reformed by the renewing of your mind, that is by submitting your mind to the Word of God and learning to think as he thought.
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Now let me quote some scriptures. I want you to listen carefully. Romans 12:2, "And be not conformed to this world." Don't be pressed in the mold of the world. "Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed" how? "by the renewing of your mind." 1 Peter 4 and verse 1, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind." And then Philippians 2 and verse 5 says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I want you to see this, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And I want to begin reading there at verse 3, 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3. Here we go. 2 Corinthians 10 verse 3, the Apostle Paul said, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh." Watch verse 4.
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He says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal" or fleshly, "but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." Now when the Apostle Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, he is not denigrating weaponry, an AR-15 or a Glock or a bow and arrow or a spear. All he is saying is those kind of weapons are not sufficient for the warfare that he's talking about. So he says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds."
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Do you know what a stronghold is? A stronghold is your place of defense. So if someone came through that door with a shotgun like we just read about in the church in South Carolina, if someone came through that door with a shotgun blazing away, I'm going to jump down behind this pulpit. You say, that's not much. It's better than what you got. You see what I'm saying? If I jump down behind this pulpit, what is this pulpit now? It's my stronghold. It's my place of defense.
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Now, look back at verse four. "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." You don't know where man's stronghold is. Here it is. Verse five, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing" or every high thought "that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Now, here's my question. How many thoughts?
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As a Christian, are you allowed that are unbiblical? Not one. Every thought is to be brought in subjection into captivity to Jesus Christ. So in other words, to renovate and reform and renew our thinking, we have to submit our mind to the Word of God and learn to think the way God thinks. That is, we're to take a biblical attitude and a biblical mindset. What is an attitude? An attitude is a mindset, it's a frame of reference, it's a way of thinking that influences and affects behavior. You remember the Scripture says, "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." So we should, as Christians, have biblical attitudes.
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Let me just show you. Let me mention a couple of words. Don't tell me what is forming in your mind. I will probably know. But here's the word I'm just going to call the word: abortion. Now, when I said the word abortion, I would guarantee you that most of you, if not all of you immediately thought of murder. Because that's what it is, and as Christians, you and I are not going to engage in it. We're not going to support it. We're not going to endorse it. Why? Because we believe that it's murder. And we're just not going to do it. If I mentioned the word sodomy, I know what enters your mind, I hope. The thought of depravity, wickedness, violence, even to some extent, reprobation and death penalty enter into your mind because that's the biblical mindset.
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I want you to see that our actions are determined by what we think and what we believe and what we understand. The reason you're not robbing banks. The reason you're not defrauding individuals. The reason you're not con men is because your theology and your doctrine is "Thou shalt not steal." And I realize there's multiple forms of theft. But our conduct, our actions are based upon our doctrine and the way we think and the way we believe. That's why I keep saying you cannot act rightly unless you believe rightly.
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Now, I've picked some of these very easy, simple subjects. I mean, I know you're not going to go to an abortion clinic. I know you're not going to support sodomy. I know you're not going out and rob a bank or try to con someone. I understand that. But let me mention a few other words. Let me mention a few other words and just see what your mindset is.
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Suppose I use the word education. Education. Do you realize there's a biblical doctrine of education? And I'll give you a hint. It ain't public education. Bad grammar, good theology, it ain't government schooling. Not according to the Bible. Do you understand the biblical doctrine about education? Here's another word. Money. Ah. What do you think about money? What does the word of God teach about money? How about this one? Civil government. What does the word of God teach about government? Here's another word, family.
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How about this term, husband-wife relationships? What do you think? Is there a biblical role for the wife, a biblical role for the husband? Yeah. What about this one? Child discipline. How about this one? Justice. Worship. History. There are so many areas, there are so many subjects.
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Now, I want you to listen to me. The Apostle Paul said, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
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Here's the truth of that. Only individuals who have renewed minds will present their bodies a living sacrifice. If we do not renew our minds, we will never serve him. In Daniel 3 and verse 28, after Nebuchadnezzar had pulled the three Hebrew children out of the fiery furnace, then Nebuchadnezzar spake and said, "Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God." Why were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego willing to go to the fiery furnace? Because they had a biblical attitude and a biblical mindset about God, and they refused idolatry, and they yielded their bodies to the furnace rather than to sin against God.
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"As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." You know what the Bible says. Listen carefully. "Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." We will never be holy people until we learn to think biblically. We will never be godly people till we learn to think biblically.
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Let me very hurriedly make a couple of applications. The first one is this. An ignorant man will never be a holy man. An ignorant man will never be a godly man. And when I say an ignorant man, I'm not talking about someone who doesn't have a college degree. Listen, you can have five college degrees behind your name and still be ignorant. I'm talking about a man who's ignorant of the word of God.
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How can you obey that which you do not know? How can you act rightly if you do not believe rightly? The Bible says in 2 Peter 3 and verse 18, "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." The little word "and," kai, k-a-i in the Greek, is often translated another way in our Bibles. It is translated as the word "even," and you could read 2 Peter 3 verse 18, "But grow in grace, even in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." So you're not growing in grace unless you're growing in knowledge. One last passage.
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I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 5. And look at verses 44 and 45. I want you to watch this, Matthew 5, verses 44 and 45. The more we learn to think like our heavenly Father, the more godly, the more holy our actions will become. And Matthew 5 and verse 44, look what the word of God says. "But I say to you," our Lord is speaking.
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"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."
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Now, let me just stop there. If I were to take the time to read all of Matthew chapter five, you will find that our Lord is straightening out the misinterpretation of the law of God by the Pharisees. Over and over, He said, "You've heard it said of them of old time, but I say unto you. You've heard it said of them of old time, but I say unto you." What is our Lord doing? He's saying, I'm telling you what the Word of God really teaches. Why?
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So that you can apply it and obey it. "That ye may be the children of your Father." Our children usually think the way we think. They act the way we act. And our Lord says if you want to be the children of your heavenly Father, you better learn to think as He thinks so that you can act the way He acts. Godliness is nothing less than learning to think and act like our Heavenly Father and like His Son, Jesus Christ.
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So the question is, are you godly? Are you growing in godliness? Are you increasing in knowledge? Lord, we ask you to make us godly, to make us holy, to teach us to think and to act like our Heavenly Father, to submit our minds to the Word of God and enable us to grow in grace even in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Give us grace to serve Thee acceptably in reverence and godly fear.
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In Thy name we pray, Amen. This program was produced by Dominion Ministry. For more information about Pastor Weaver's sermons, you may contact Dominion Ministry by mail at 7400 Abercorn, that's A-B-E-R-C-O-R-N Street, Suite 705, PMB 175, Savannah, Georgia, 31406. Or give us a call at 912-925-0995.
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You can also visit our website at www.dominionministry.com
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T22:33:08Z

The Essence of Biblical Godliness

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

John Weaver preaches on the true nature of biblical godliness, arguing that it is not external religious activity, vocabulary, or emotionalism, but rather a transformation of the mind that leads to Christlike thinking and acting. Using 1 Timothy 4:7-8 as his text, he explains that godliness must be exercised and added to faith, and that it consists of learning to think as God thinks so that we may act as He acts. The sermon emphasizes that duty flows from doctrine, and that believers must renew their minds through Scripture to be conformed to the image of Christ.

Introduction: The Need to Understand Godliness

Weaver introduces the topic by reading 1 Timothy 4:7-8 and stating that while every true child of God desires to live a godly life, many do not understand what godliness actually is.

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 4:7-8

"But refuse profane and old wives' fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

What Godliness Is Not

Weaver lists six things that godliness is not: vocabulary, doing religious things, acting pious and holy, ritualism, traditionalism, and feelings/emotionalism.

In Jeremiah chapter 5 and verse 2, God had told Jeremiah to go through the streets of Jerusalem and see if there were any that follow him, and here's what he said in verse 2,

Scripture Reading — Jeremiah 5:2

"And though they say the Lord liveth, surely they swear falsely."

"I do this and I do that." The Word of God says in 1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 5,

Scripture Reading — 1 Timothy 6:5

"Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself."

Godliness Must Be Worked At

Using the Greek word gymnazo, Weaver explains that godliness requires exercise and discipline, just like physical training, and that believers must refuse profane fables to pursue it.

Godliness Must Be Added to Faith

The Essence of Godliness: Thinking and Acting Like the Father

Scripture Reading — John 5:17, 19, 36, 43

"Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." Skip down to verse 36. He said, "But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me." Wow! Look, if you would please, in verse 43, he said, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive." Look in John 6 and verse 39, John 6 and verse 39. Our Lord says, "And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day." Now note, "and this is the Father's will which hath sent me." Now turn over to John 8 and look at verse 29.

Scripture Reading — John 6:39

John 8 verse 29. This is one of my favorite verses. I could give you quote after quote on these, but look in John 8 verse 29. Our Lord said, "And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." So let me ask you after reading those several passages. Did you pick up on what our Lord was saying? Did you pick up on the essence of what he said? He always did what the Father wanted him to do. He only acted as the Father acted. Here is the essence of godliness. If I were to ask you, why was our Lord Jesus Christ obedient unto death?

Let me ask you a question. What is God's will for your life?

Conformed to the Image of Christ Through Mind Renewal

From Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 4:17-24, Weaver teaches that God's will is for believers to be conformed to Christ's image by putting off the old man and renewing the mind through Scripture.

Then he would be ungodly and unholy. No, what we must do is we must humble ourselves and learn to think as he thinks. Because his thoughts are far above our thoughts. His ways are far above our ways.

Bringing Every Thought Captive to Christ

Using 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Weaver argues that spiritual warfare involves pulling down strongholds of unbiblical thinking and bringing every thought into obedience to Christ.

Now let me quote some scriptures. I want you to listen carefully. Romans 12:2,

Scripture Reading — Romans 12:2

"And be not conformed to this world."

Don't be pressed in the mold of the world.

Scripture Reading — Romans 12:2

"Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed"

how?

Scripture Reading — Romans 12:2

"by the renewing of your mind."

Biblical Mindset Determines Biblical Action

Weaver illustrates that our actions on issues like abortion, sodomy, education, and money are determined by our doctrine. Only renewed minds will present their bodies as living sacrifices.

Applications: Ignorance Hinders Holiness; Grow in Knowledge

Weaver concludes that an ignorant man cannot be holy, and that believers must grow in grace and knowledge of Christ to become godly, learning to think and act like their Heavenly Father.

The Essence of Biblical Godliness

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	71412025370
Subject	New Testament Studies
Course	Romans: Sin, Judgment, and Gospel Foundations: Prepared Hearts
Genre	Sermon
Date	2012-04-08
Dictation Name
Book	Book 136: Romans: Sin, Judgment, and Gospel Foundations - Volume 1 — Chapter 12
Source Timed Segments	93

Lecture Guide

Outline

Introduction: The Need to Understand Godliness: Weaver introduces the topic by reading 1 Timothy 4:7-8 and stating that while every true child of God desires to live a godly life, many do not understand what godliness actually is.
What Godliness Is Not: Weaver lists six things that godliness is not: vocabulary, doing religious things, acting pious and holy, ritualism, traditionalism, and feelings/emotionalism.
Godliness Must Be Worked At: Using the Greek word gymnazo, Weaver explains that godliness requires exercise and discipline, just like physical training, and that believers must refuse profane fables to pursue it.
Godliness Must Be Added to Faith: From 2 Peter 1:3-8, Weaver shows that godliness is something added to faith through diligence, and that while salvation is by grace, believers must cultivate godliness as evidence of their righteousness in Christ.
The Essence of Godliness: Thinking and Acting Like the Father: Weaver examines the life of Christ, showing that Jesus always did what pleased the Father because He thought as the Father thought. Godliness is learning to think biblically so that we act biblically.
Conformed to the Image of Christ Through Mind Renewal: From Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 4:17-24, Weaver teaches that God's will is for believers to be conformed to Christ's image by putting off the old man and renewing the mind through Scripture.
Bringing Every Thought Captive to Christ: Using 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, Weaver argues that spiritual warfare involves pulling down strongholds of unbiblical thinking and bringing every thought into obedience to Christ.
Biblical Mindset Determines Biblical Action: Weaver illustrates that our actions on issues like abortion, sodomy, education, and money are determined by our doctrine. Only renewed minds will present their bodies as living sacrifices.
Applications: Ignorance Hinders Holiness; Grow in Knowledge: Weaver concludes that an ignorant man cannot be holy, and that believers must grow in grace and knowledge of Christ to become godly, learning to think and act like their Heavenly Father.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Godliness is not external religious activity

Doing religious deeds like church attendance, praying, or witnessing does not make one godly; pagans also perform religious acts.

Weaver says, 'If you say that doing religious things makes someone godly, then you have to admit then, obviously, that even the pagans are godly.'

Godliness is exercised, not automatic

The Greek word for 'exercise' in 1 Timothy 4:7 implies rigorous training, showing that godliness requires intentional effort.

Weaver explains, 'They stretch, they exercise, they're trained, they work at it... they worked at being godly.'

Godliness is added to faith through diligence

2 Peter 1:5-7 lists godliness as something added to faith, indicating it is a cultivated virtue, not an instantaneous gift.

Weaver reads, 'add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance... and to patience godliness.'

Christ's godliness stemmed from thinking like the Father

Jesus always did what pleased the Father because He thought as the Father thought, demonstrating that godliness begins in the mind.

Weaver says, 'Because our Lord thought as the Father would have him to think. And because he thought the way the Father thought, he acted the way the Father would have him to act.'

Duty is based on doctrine

1 Corinthians 15:58 (duty) follows 1 Corinthians 15:1-57 (doctrine), showing that right action depends on right belief.

Weaver states, 'Your duty is always based upon doctrine. If you do not know doctrine, how in the world will you ever know your duty?'

Mind renewal is essential for transformation

Romans 12:2 and Ephesians 4:23 teach that believers are transformed by renewing their minds, putting off old thinking and putting on biblical thinking.

Weaver says, 'We have to put off our old way of thinking and we have to learn a new way of thinking.'

Every thought must be brought captive to Christ

2 Corinthians 10:5 commands believers to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, leaving no room for unbiblical thinking.

Weaver asks, 'How many thoughts? As a Christian, are you allowed that are unbiblical? Not one.'

Ignorance of Scripture prevents godliness

Without knowledge of God's Word, one cannot obey it; thus, growth in grace is tied to growth in knowledge.

Weaver says, 'How can you obey that which you do not know? How can you act rightly if you do not believe rightly?'

Scripture References

1 Timothy 4:7-8: Weaver's primary text, commanding believers to exercise themselves unto godliness because it is profitable for all things.
Jeremiah 5:2: Used to show that using religious language does not make one godly; people can swear falsely while saying 'the Lord liveth.'
Matthew 7:21-23: Jesus' warning that many who do religious works in His name will be rejected because He never knew them, proving deeds alone do not equal godliness.
Proverbs 27:2: Cited to argue that godly people do not praise themselves; true godliness is not self-promoting.
Luke 18:10-12: The parable of the Pharisee and the publican, illustrating that acting pious and holy does not justify a person before God.
1 Timothy 6:5: Warns against those who suppose gain is godliness, applied by Weaver to those who boast in church numbers or external success.
Amos 5:21-24: God's rejection of Israel's feasts and offerings because they had become empty ritual, used to warn against ceremonialism.
2 Peter 1:3-8: Shows that godliness is something added to faith through diligence, part of a chain of virtues leading to fruitfulness.
Ephesians 2:10: Believers are created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, indicating that works flow from salvation, not to earn it.
Philippians 2:12-13: Commands believers to work out their salvation because God works in them, illustrating the cooperation in godliness.
Isaiah 26:12: God ordains peace and works all our works in us, emphasizing that any good in us is by God's grace.
John 5:17, 19, 36, 43: Jesus' statements that He does nothing of Himself but only what He sees the Father do, demonstrating His dependence and conformity to the Father.
John 6:39: Jesus came to do the Father's will, showing His submission and the source of His godly actions.
John 8:29: Jesus always does what pleases the Father, the key verse Weaver uses to define the essence of godliness.
Romans 8:29: God predestined believers to be conformed to the image of His Son, which is the goal of godliness.
1 Corinthians 15:58: The duty to be steadfast is based on the doctrine of resurrection in the preceding verses, illustrating that duty flows from doctrine.
Isaiah 55:8-9: God's thoughts and ways are higher than man's, so believers must humble themselves to think as He thinks.
Ephesians 4:17-24: Believers are to put off the old man and be renewed in the spirit of their mind, putting on the new man created in righteousness.
Romans 12:2: Transformation comes by the renewing of the mind, not by conforming to the world.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5: Spiritual warfare involves casting down imaginations and bringing every thought captive to Christ, the battle for the mind.

Historical References

The Inquisition: Weaver mentions the Inquisition as an example of wicked crimes committed under the guise of religion and biblical terms.
John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Hus: Cited as examples of godly men who had character and conviction but worked at being godly; they were not born with it.
Hank Aaron: Used as an illustration that even those with natural talent must work hard to excel, paralleling the effort needed for godliness.

Important Quotes

If you have to tell me how godly you are, you ain't.

Succinctly captures the argument that true godliness is not self-promoting or boastful.

You cannot act rightly until you think rightly. You cannot act biblically until you think biblically.

The central thesis of the sermon, linking mind renewal to godly behavior.

An ignorant man will never be a holy man. An ignorant man will never be a godly man.

Highlights the necessity of biblical knowledge for godliness.

Godliness is nothing less than learning to think and act like our Heavenly Father and like His Son, Jesus Christ.

The concluding definition of godliness that summarizes the entire sermon.

I do always those things that please him.

Jesus' own words from John 8:29, used as the model for godly living.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Proverbial truth cited to reinforce that inner thoughts determine outward character.

We will never be holy people until we learn to think biblically. We will never be godly people till we learn to think biblically.

Reiterates the foundational premise that holiness and godliness are products of biblical thinking.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

What are some common substitutes for true godliness that you see in churches today, and how can we guard against them?

[Context]

Weaver listed vocabulary, religious deeds, pious acting, ritualism, traditionalism, and emotionalism as false substitutes.

[Question]

How does the Greek word gymnazo (exercise) change your understanding of what it means to pursue godliness?

[Context]

Weaver explained that godliness requires rigorous training and discipline, like an athlete.

[Question]

In what practical ways can we 'add to our faith' godliness, as described in 2 Peter 1:5-7?

[Context]

Weaver emphasized that godliness is something cultivated through diligence, not automatically possessed.

[Question]

How did Jesus demonstrate that thinking like the Father leads to acting like the Father, and how can we imitate that?

[Context]

Weaver used John 5 and 8 to show Jesus' total dependence on and conformity to the Father's will.

[Question]

What does it mean to be 'conformed to the image of His Son' (Romans 8:29), and how does mind renewal contribute to that?

[Context]

Weaver taught that God's will is for us to be jointly formed with Christ in thinking and acting.

[Question]

Why is it impossible to act biblically without thinking biblically? Can you give examples from your own life?

[Context]

Weaver argued that duty is based on doctrine, and right action requires right belief.

[Question]

What are some 'strongholds' of unbiblical thinking that Christians need to tear down, according to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5?

[Context]

Weaver mentioned areas like education, money, government, and family where believers may hold unbiblical views.

[Question]

How can we practically 'grow in grace, even in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ' (2 Peter 3:18)?

[Context]

Weaver concluded that ignorance hinders holiness, so believers must continually increase in biblical knowledge.

Applications

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