Three, Paul had been describing
very wicked men that have a form of godliness but deny the power
thereof. And then he went down and started
talking about how men resist the truth. And they can't go
no farther than James and James Brayes did. They were wicked
men, but God let them go so far, but He saved His people anyway. And then He talked about how
He was persecuted at all the times. You can go through the
book of Acts and find out how much He was really, really persecuted. And then I'm going to pick up
in verse 12. And he says, yea, and all that
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. When God's people suffer, Paul
suffered for preaching the gospel, especially for preaching the
gospel to the Gentiles. The Jews thought the Gentiles
were the worst kind of people, thought they were dogs. You remember
when our Lord met the woman of Samaria at the well and she said,
you're a Jew, how can you have any dealings with me who am a
Samaritan? Jews don't have nothing to do
with us. And that's what Paul's talking about, that I suffer
greatly afflictions and persecutions because of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And he says here, all that will
live godly in Christ Jesus, and that word godly means devoted,
devoted, those that are devoted to Christ, committed to Christ,
they'll suffer persecution. And there's really no exceptions.
Now as long as you don't cross anybody up when they bring up
their religion and you try to tell them what you believe and
how you believe it and why you believe it, you'll get along
fine. But the minute they find out
that you believe in the free grace of God, believe in the
electing grace of God, believe in God's right to save whom He
will, when He will, and save them by one person, the Lord
Jesus Christ, that the only righteousness they are is His righteousness,
And you talking about tearing people's playhouse down, that
tears people's playhouse down. It tore my playhouse down, and
it'll tear people's playhouse down. And folks don't like it,
they don't like it at all. The devil, the world, and especially,
especially, unsaved religionists, and there's a multitude of them,
believe me. They hate the gospel of free
grace. They really, really do. They
hate the truth of justification by faith alone. And here's the
thing, if you make anything, anything, if you make even faith
a condition on God accepting you, if you make repentance a
condition on God accepting you, then you've missed Christ altogether.
And that's what they can't understand. You see, faith believes what
Christ did. Our faith does not make what
he did effectual. What he did is effectual, and
faith believes that. And repentance is something that
you do from the moment you start, you never stop doing it. You
never stop doing it. But they just despise justification
by faith alone. There was a real, real famous
preacher one time, He hated Calvinism, what they call Calvinism. And
we all know what that is. But anyway, he despised it. He hated the grace of God and
he was a soul winner and all that. He wrote a book. He wrote
a book. And the title of that book was,
Predestinated to Hell? No. Nobody would be predestinated
to hell. And that's so he took something
that nobody preaches and build him a straw man and start tearing
it down. You see, whenever you read the
Bible, you've got to deal with the Bible and be honest with
it. And if you're honest with the Bible, you're confronted
with things that if you deal honestly with it and look at
it and face it head on, it will do something to you that nothing
else in this world will. But that's why he says that they
receive not the love of the truth. They cannot come to a knowledge
of the truth. They can't come to the saving
faith of Christ. And when you go about I remember
recently, a young fellow had on a t-shirt that says, God is. And I asked him, I walked up
to him, I said, boy, that t-shirt, I like that. But what is God?
You say God is, what is He? What is He? He didn't know how
to answer. And he was the youth leader at
a great big out at Central Baptist Church out here on 127 out there. He was the youth leader there.
And I asked him, I said, what, you don't know who God is? Well,
what is he? And I started telling him, I
said, well, if I tell you one thing he is, first and foremost,
he's just. I had to tell him what God is.
But you see, and then from then on, when he sees me in the gym
or something, he just goes the other direction. You start telling
me, you know what God is. Well, God, this is the God of
the Bible. And oh my, you know why they
don't want the free grace of God? It's because they're going
about to establish their own righteousness. I'm fixed up,
I preached the other day on, you've made a covenant with death,
you've made an agreement with hell, and they ain't gonna come
near us. And I tell you, they hate the gospel, going about
to establish the righteousness of their own, by their works,
by their merits, by their obedience, by their church attendance. by
their experience. And they're opposed. They don't
want anything to do with the righteousness of Christ. Bruce Crabtree's dad, you can
ask him this, his father had been a free will Baptist preacher
for years, then he quit. He quit. And of course, you all
know Bruce. He'd go down, he'd help his daddy
and take care of his dad. He'd go down there and stay for
a week or two at a time and take care of his father. do all kinds
of things for his daddy. When his daddy got on his deathbed,
and he had been preaching the gospel to him and his sisters
had been telling them what salvation was. And when his dad was on
his deathbed, he says, dad, now listen, I want you to understand
that if you face God, you've got all the way you can face
him is in Christ alone and his righteousness alone. And you
can't have nothing to do with it. You know what his father
told him before he died? He said, I'd be afraid to face
God with just that righteousness. I believe I gotta have some of
my own to go with it. And Bruce just wilted. Just wilted. Just wilted. It makes me wilt
to think about it. But you know how many people
are like that? They like that. They don't want the righteousness
of Christ. And when you preach and believe the free gifts of
God, the righteousness of Christ, and know you ain't got no righteousness
of your own, but He is, I tell you what, you preach it and believe
it, and then you tell folks about it, they'll tell you, the only
way you can escape persecution is just not tell the truth. That's all that you can do. And
all believers are not gonna be martyrs. You know, our Lord says,
in the world you're gonna have tribulation, but be of good cheer,
I've overcome the world. If the world, if you love the
world, the world would really love you. I mean, the buildings
would be packed out. The parking lot, we'd have to
double it. We'd have to build a bigger baptistry. And we'd have to do all kinds
of things if the world loves its own. But since you're not of the world,
they don't love you. They didn't love me, they hated
me, and they ain't gonna love you, and they're gonna hate you
when they find out what you believe. And I tell you, our believers,
not very many believers, are gonna ever be martyrs. But I
tell you what, when folks find out a true knowledge of grace,
and you have that you have, and a zeal for the person of Christ,
and the blessed work of Christ, As manifested, I tell you what,
folks will get upset with you. They get upset with you. And
ungodly men. And you know how they do it?
They'll slander you. They'll murmur about you. They'll
talk about your methods you use. And trials are gonna come. They're
gonna come. They're gonna come. It's just,
it's just, it's just, it's happened. It happens and it will happen
again. And that's, you know, there's no reason to be surprised
about it. Then look down in verse eight, excuse me, verse 13. And
then, but evil men, oh, everybody that suffers in Christ, they're
gonna suffer like Paul suffered for the gospel. But evil men,
they're not gonna suffer. They're not gonna suffer for
Christ. They're not gonna believe the gospel. But evil men as seducers. Everybody knows what a seducer
is. They use words and motions and titles and do all kinds of
things to entice you away. And evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And these
evil men here are not talking about people out in the world.
That's not what he's talking about. He's talking about religious
people. These folks that he mentioned
in verse 2 all the way down through verse five, that's what he's
talking about. And them women that they slipped
in and got them into false doctrine. And I tell you, these are wicked
men in general, and they have a form of godliness. Now let
me tell you something. You know, John says that, you
know, people always keep waiting for an Antichrist to come. He
says the Antichrist is already in the world. He says it's already
in the world. Many Antichrists are in the world.
And here's the thing about it. You know how wicked a person is that would
not believe in the sovereignty of God? Do you know how wicked
a man is who believes in his free will over God's will? That he has the right to choose,
he's got the power to choose. Do you know how wicked a person
is that believes that? Do you know how wicked a person
is who trusts their own righteousness and not the righteousness of
Christ? You know how, you know what, when Paul said, I count
everything but done, that I may win Christ, and I may know Christ,
and I may be found in Christ. These fellas don't even mention
Christ. And I tell you what, you know,
the thing that they ought to be ashamed of is what they're
proud of, free will. They put it out there in big
bold letters, free will. And they honestly believed, my
neighbor down home, when we were down at the farm, my neighbor
joined a Camelot church, and he says, Bruce, he said, if you
don't endure and you don't live right, you'll end up being lost. Then another fellow told him,
he happened to work on his barn, said, that's impossibility if
Christ died for you. If you're trusting in what you
do, yes, you're gonna be lost again. But if Christ died for
you, you're not going to be lost again. Can you imagine somebody
living under the bondage that you might fall and sin enough
that you won't be, that Christ's blood is not sufficient for you?
Christ's righteousness is not sufficient for you? His power
is not sufficient to keep you? Oh my. And they've got a form
of godliness. They're in the pulpit and they're
in the pew. And you know what they're called, these evil men,
these seducers? That that evil men and seducer
means they're imposters. That's what that word means,
imposter. Imposter. Evil men are imposters. That's
what they are, having a form of godliness. And they are intent
on seducing and deceiving others to follow them and their doctrine
and gospel of works. I want you to look at two places
with me. Look over in Matthew 24. I want you to look with me
in Matthew 24. I want you to see a couple of
things with me. You know, and I shouldn't be
as harsh as I am because God had mercy on me and saved me
from it. But nobody's going to know that they're false unless
you get an opportunity to tell them. Get an opportunity to tell
them. You know what bothers me more
than anything? You know, when your children
go to a place that they know, they know they're not preaching
the gospel. They know that they're going there because they're in
the same social and economic place you are. You want to be
with people that's educated like you, makes the kind of money
you make, and are socially acceptable as you are. And so they go there,
and then they know that they're wrong to do it. But they say,
well, that's what we got to do. That's how we get our business.
That's how we get on in the world. And I'll tell you, as you know,
my children, they sit at the table with Henry Mahan countless
times, Scott Richardson countless times, Bruce Montgomery countless
times, Don Faulkner countless times. men, faithful men of the gospel. And what condemnation is it gonna
be? And I tell you, they're on the
pew and on the pulpit, and they wanted to see, but look what
it said here in Matthew 24 in verse 11. And many false prophets shall
rise And shall deceive many. Oh, he didn't say just a few,
he said many, many of them. Then look what he says down in
verse 24. For there shall arise false Christs. They're saying Christ's over
here, Christ's over there. And false prophets. and shall show great signs and
wonders." Now what kind of signs and wonders do they show? They
look out and they have thousands of people and they talk about
how much money they make and how much How much power they've
got, and how much glory they've got, and how many souls they've
won. And look at all, I've got 15,000
people right here that I'm preaching to. I've got 25,000. Oh, they're
just going on about it. And that's a sign and a wonder
to them. In so much that if possible, they shall deceive the very elect. But ain't you glad it said if
it was possible? And I'm going to show you something
else. Look over in 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter
11. This is interesting over here.
It's interesting to me. I hope it's interesting to you. Look what he says here. Look in verse 10. 2 Corinthians
11. As the truth of Christ is in
me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
Boasting about what Christ has accomplished in the truth that
I'm preaching. Wherefore, because I love you
not, God knows, knows that I love you. But what I do, that I will
do, that I may cut off occasion for them which desire that wherein
they may glory, they may be found even as we are. They may glory
in themselves. Listen to what he says, for if
they glory in their own selves, he said, for such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ, and no marvel for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore, it is of no great
thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, whose end is according to their works." Oh
my, false apostles, false prophets. And I tell you, that's where
we're at. In these last days, they're hucksters, hucksters,
hucksters. They take the truth and they throw it up and down.
And I tell you, God sends us a strong delusion to believe
a lie. But let me say this, it's not because error is stronger
than truth, or because Satan is more powerful than God Almighty,
but you know what the problem is? The natural man, the natural
man, he'll embrace everything but the gospel, everything but
Christ. He wants the easy, comfortable
way of salvation. He's a natural man, and anything
that agrees with his nature, and his way of being saved, he'll
embrace it, he'll embrace it. And that's why our Lord said,
you know, said, I know that you, let me show you another, and
I gotta show you another about these evil men. Look in John
chapter five. I'm sorry, I hope I'm not holding
you too long. But look here in John chapter
five. In verse 42, this is what our Lord's talking about. Natural men inclined to embrace
error and embrace that which agrees with their carnal nature.
Look what he said here in verse 42, John 5, 42. But I know you,
I know you, that's what our Lord's talking. I know you that you
have not the love of God in you. I know you don't. I'm coming
in my Father's name, and you won't receive me. If another
shall come in his own name, oh boy, we thank the world of you,
you'll receive him. How can you believe, which receive
honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from
God only? How can you do that? How can
you do that? That don't seek honor from God?
Oh, and it says they are deceiving. You know why they're deceiving?
Because they're deceived. And our Lord told us, he said,
let no man deceive you. Don't let nobody deceive you.
All right, then verse 14. But he said, all these wicked
men, they're gonna go on and on and on. They're not gonna
get any better. They're just gonna get worse and worse and worse. Gonna
get worse and worse. But he said, Timothy, This is
what you gotta do. This is what we do. But continue thou, let everybody
do what they're gonna do, but continue thou in the things which
thou hast learned, and be assured of, knowing of whom thou hast
learned. Now, oh, he said, oh, false doctrine's
gonna just, oh, it's gonna abound. Enemies of Christ are gonna rise
up in religious circles. But he said, I tell you what
you do, Timothy, You continue just in the things that you've
learned. You've learned some things, Timothy. You've learned,
and where did you learn them at? God tells us that you've
learned them. Where'd you learn them? He learned
them from men preaching the gospel to him. He learned them from
Paul. He learned them from the men that he was around as a young
man. And he says you know that you've
learned them, being assured of knowing of whom you've learned
them. And I tell you what, He said, here, I said, you do the
opposite of what these fellas do. You've learned and you've
been convinced. That's what that's assured of,
convinced. Knowing, convinced is what he's
talking about. How are you convinced? By the
Word of God. By the Word of God. You know,
the Word of God. You know how God saves His people?
Saves them by His Word. Saves him by his word. It's the
word, it's the word being born again, not of corruptible seed,
but incorruptible by the word of God that lives, lives and
abides forever. That's why it happens. Faith
comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And I see says,
now Timothy, you've learned and you've been convinced by the
word of God. You know where you received these things. You didn't
receive them of men. Oh, no. I don't know, but the
gospel that God has taught you is this God has, is this author. God's the author of the gospel
that's taught, that you know about. And I tell you what, we
are not going to stand up and defend anything or teach anything
indiscriminately. All we hear, we only know what's
according to the scriptures. And that's one thing that I,
I'm a firm believer in it. Boy, whatever the Bible says,
we're gonna believe it. My mother-in-law, bless her heart,
she wasn't, she got to the sixth grade, I think, and she said
this, she said, I don't have a, I said, I don't hardly know
anything about the Bible. Don't know little about it, but
I believe every word of it. You don't have to know a lot
about it to believe it if you know it's God that's author of
it. God's the author of the gospel. God's the author of his own word.
And I tell you what, he says, Timothy, you know you learned
these things. You learned them. And you know
who you learned them from and you know how you learned them.
God taught them to you. Grace came to you. The power
of God done this. The word of God come in power
and done this for you. And I'll tell you what, we're
only gonna defend that which is according to the Scriptures.
You've learned, you've been convinced. And then look what he says now,
verse 15. Well, I'll tell you, Paul loved
Timothy and Timothy loved Paul. And he was constantly warning
Timothy about things that was going on. And he says, you know,
that from a child, from a child, thou hast known the Holy Scriptures.
Now one thing the Jewish people did, and God told Abraham this,
He said, you know, told Abraham, I know Abraham will teach his
children. And the Jews were very, very
strict about teaching their children. They put scriptures up in their
home, and they were very strict to teach them, and all they had
was their Old Testament. And you know, he said, they was
very, very strict about teaching. And they're still strict about
teaching. The Jews are still strict about
teaching their children from what they call the Talmud, the
Old Testament scriptures. But he says, from your childhood,
you've been taught the scriptures. Now, I'll tell you what, he says,
his mother, Lois, She had faith. His grandmother Eunice, she had
faith. So he had a mother and a grandmother
who said, I'm going to teach this, I'm going to teach my son,
I'm going to teach my grandson, I'm going to teach them from
the Old Testament scriptures about Christ. I'm gonna teach
them, I'm gonna go to the Old Testament and I'm gonna show
them that this is talking about Christ. That's talking about
Christ. This is mentioning Christ. When you talk about the Passover,
Christ is the lamb that's gonna come. And no doubt they talked
and talked and talked and talked about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because ain't that what it says? That from a child I has known
the Holy Scriptures. The Holy Scriptures. And he said
in written, and I know this is what they told him, which are
able to make thee wise unto salvation. Where's salvation at? Through
faith, which is in Christ Jesus. They said, Timothy, law ain't
gonna help you. Ceremonies ain't gonna help you.
The priesthood's not gonna help you. But I tell you what, these
scriptures right here tell us about our Savior. They tell us
about our Messiah. They tell us about what he's
going to do when he gets here, who he's going to do it for.
And oh my, and they began to teach him. They began to teach
him. And I tell you, without the scriptures, men are fools.
I mean, they don't have no understanding of spiritual things. But the
Scriptures, the Scriptures, the Scriptures are able to make men
wise, and knowing how in the world that God saves the sinner. And you know why they do? Because
they testify of Christ. Our Lord Himself said, He told
a bunch of Jews one time, He said, you search the Scriptures,
and you should search the Scriptures. Because I'm telling you something,
the Scriptures, they testify of me. When you search them,
look for me. When you search them, see what
they're going to say about me. When you want to read Moses,
Moses wrote about me. Moses wrote about me. Huh? Oh
my. The scriptures, and I tell you
what, That's why the Holy Spirit uses the Word of God to convince
men of sin. Only God can convince a man of
sin. Only God can the Holy Spirit
reveal a Christ-blessed person in Christ-blessed work. Only
the Holy Spirit can beget life in a soul and give faith to a
soul. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
by the Word of God. By His own will begat He us. Begat he us. You know when they
said, so and so begat, so and so begat, so and so? Well, if
you get begotten of God, if you're one of those begotten of God,
you know how it's done? By his whole will, begat he us
with what? The word of truth. That's what it means to be born
again. Oh my. Wisdom, wisdom of salvation
has nothing to do with the law and rituals and ceremonies. But
to true wisdom found in the Scriptures, found in God Almighty and in
Christ, is salvation is the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ that
comes from the Scriptures and the Scriptures alone. That's
why our Lord, you know, when he was with disciples, he taught
them from Moses, the law, and the prophets, the things concerning
himself, and opened their understanding. All right, let's look at verse
16. And so he's talking about this
faith and knowing the scriptures and able to make you wise under
salvation, which is in Christ. All scripture, all scriptures,
all scripture from Genesis 1 to Revelations 22, 21, all scripture
is given by inspiration of God. You know what that means? Old
Testament, New Testament. That means it's verbally inspired
of God also. That means it's God-breathed. It's God-breathed. You know,
the scriptures, they even commend divine authority. I mean, you know, either you
believe them or you don't believe them. And I love, you know, when
the prophets stood up, when they ever had anything to say, they'd
say, thus saith the Lord. When Moses was getting ready
to go down to Egypt, he said, God met him in that burning bush.
And then after that, God met him at the backside of the desert,
and God began to teach him. He said, now Moses, you've been
40 years in the desert, tending sheep. Now it's time to go down
to Egypt. I want you to go down and save
my people, deliver my people. And Moses was getting ready to
walk off, and he said, Lord, who in the world am I gonna tell
them to send me? They don't know anything about
you. They don't see your glory. They don't see your majesty.
They don't know what it is to stand before a burning bush and
God to speak out of that burning bush and it not consumed. God said, when you go down there,
you just say, I am. That I am. He said, let my people
go. I am. And I am, and I always
am. Oh, to say, thus saith the Lord.
And God used a lot of men, a lot of men to write his word. And
these men boldly wrote what the mouth of God spoke. They wasn't
mechanically used of God. God took their minds and everywhere,
you know, you go through the scriptures and people have, you
can see different personalities and different styles of how things
were written in the scriptures. And I tell you what, and I tell
you, God, they come right out of the mouth of God himself.
Holy prophets spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And
who, if you intend to profit from the Scriptures, first of
all, the thing you got to establish is, is this the Word of God? Did God Himself, if He had anything
to say, is this what He would say? Is this what He would say? Would He ever do anything else?
He said He magnified His Word above His own name. Above His
own name. And I tell you what, You gotta
lay down the sure and settled point that the scriptures are
not the words, they're not the doctrines, they're not the writings
of men, but God breathed them, God verbally inspired them. And
then look what it says, they're profitable. The scriptures are
profitable. Oh, how profitable the Bible
is. Oh, how profitable it is. It's profitable, oh my. You can't
get nothing but profit out of it. But first of all, it's profitable
for doctrine. And the word doctrine just means
teaching, teaching. That's what doctrine means, teaching.
And when you talk about doctrine of God, it's always singular.
And I tell you, you know, doctrine, we talk about teaching about
what God says, what he says about man, how he says redemption's
accomplished, about eternal life. And all subjects, everything
concerning our lives, in every, every hour. Then he says, look
what else, it's for reproof too. Oh, if you got an error, God
will reprove you. If you're going after heresy,
God will reprove you. If you're listening to false
teaching, God will reprove you. All these things concerning the
gospel, reproof them, reproof them. And then look what else
he says, for correction. Now, I don't know about you,
but I need correcting. My attitude, you know, you heard
people say, well, he needs an attitude adjustment. Well, if
your attitude gets out of whack, God will sure enough straighten
it out. He'll let you know what your attitude is. And corrections
of attitude, corrections of spirit, how you are spiritually, how
you are towards other people, And I'll tell you, correction
in the practice of believers, now they're to practice the things
they're to do in this world. And then look what it says, instruction
in righteousness. Oh my, to instruct us in what
righteousness is, which is the righteousness of God in Christ,
where it comes from, it comes from God given to us in Christ. And then what does this righteousness
produce? It produces obedience and love
and submission to Christ and trust Him alone. That's what
it does. And then look what he says here.
That the man of God, and this word man here doesn't mean just
like a preacher, but man, a generic term in the sense it's talking
about mankind. That the man of God may be perfect,
truly furnished unto all good works. And when you look in the
margin, it says perfectly furnished. Furnished. Everybody knows what
furnished is. Furniture here, furniture there.
He said, God furnish you in your heart, in your mind, in your
soul. Furnish you. Furnish you. with this gospel,
with this truth, and the things that you've learned about, that
you may grow in grace, may grow in knowledge, may be well, well
taught and equipped for anything that God calls you to go through,
for his glory, for his glory. Lord, we thank you. Oh, I bless
you. Lord, this word is your word. It's not the words of a man.
And Lord, if you're pleased to bless this word to the heart,
to the mind, to the understanding. Lord, it's your word, do with
it as it seemeth good in your sight. You send the arrow to
where you want it to go, will it to go. But oh God, help us
to continue in the scriptures, knowing that you taught them
to us. that our gospel came to us, not just in words, oh, but
it come to us in power, come to us in the Holy Ghost, and
it brought assurance, assurance that this is what God says, that
this is God's word, that this salvation is God's work, the
salvations of the Lord. Lord, thank you for teaching
us these precious things. and enable us always, always
to lift our hearts and souls up to you. Never, never trust
ourselves in any way. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus, my Jesus. He's the Savior of my soul. He's the Savior of my soul. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Jesus, He's the Savior of my
soul. He's the Savior of my soul.