Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to 2 Timothy chapter 3, and reading
from our text, verse 5. Having a form of godliness, but
denying the power thereof, from such turn away. 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse
5. Apostle Paul giving Timothy,
and through him to the whole Church of God, God is giving
direction, direction concerning a form of godliness that does
not have the power, and from those that have that form, the
command from such turn away. In the beginning of the Word
of God, we have a record of the almighty power of God in creation. How that the Lord spake and it
was done. The world that we know, the world
that we see around us, the wonderful world formed by the hand of God,
formed by the Word of God. And dear friends, let us not
escape that the power of God in creation was put forth with
the Word. Because especially in Gospel
days, we are commanded to preach the Word and the blessings of
salvation come to us through the Word of God. So we are reminded
right at the start that God puts forth his power, his power that
made the things that we can see and handle through his word. Then we have in Romans chapter
9, a record that the apostle goes back to what happened in
Exodus with the children of Israel coming out of Egypt. God had
brought them into Egypt, He built them up into a mighty nation,
and then He was going to bring them out. And we read in verse
17 of Romans 9, For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for
this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my
power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. This is put in the context of
the Apostle teaching the sovereignty of God. Therefore hath he mercy
on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth. God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Pharaoh said, who is the Lord
that I should fear him or that I should obey him? And nine times
he resisted the Lord, or 10 times we would say, resisted the Lord,
defied Him. The marvellous signs in Egypt
that were wrought, great miracles that were done throughout the
land of Egypt. And each one, Pharaoh looked
on them as soon as their plagues were taken away, as soon as the
things that God brought were taken away. hardened his heart,
would not let the children of God go out of Egypt, and so God
brought another sign, another mighty power. And the Apostle
here says the reason why this, not that just that might be known
by Pharaoh, but that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. So right at the formation of
the children of Israel, the nation of the children of Israel, is
known the mighty power of God and over nations of the earth.
May we never forget that. Our rulers, our king, those in
authority over us, the president of Russia, those in Ukraine,
those in China, they all are very powerful men. but the Lord
is over them. He has more power than the nations
of the earth. They are counted as but the drop
of a bucket. And we think of even the case
with Nebuchadnezzar when the Lord dealt with him. He was looking
at all his kingdom and he said, all these things have been made
by my power and by my might. And he gloried in all that he
had God all of his riches, and the Lord just struck him down,
took away his reasoning, his mind went, and he was driven
from men and had his being in the fields with the beasts of
the earth. And then God, in his time, in
his way, restored not only his health and strength, but restored
the kingdom to him, that it wasn't taken from him during that time.
And even a mighty king like that, God showed his power over him. Nebuchadnezzar, he acknowledges
that power, that God had that power, and he gave glory to God
for that power. Then we have with the children
of Israel in the days of Ahab, when they had gone away from
the true and living God and were serving Baal, an idol god, a
figment of their imagination. no God at all. And after three
years of famine, God called through Elijah the children of Israel
together to make a trial on Mount Carmel as to who the true and
living God was. Was it Baal or was it the God
of Israel? And they were willing to put
their God to that trial. And so two altars were made and
those of Baal had their maid first, and the idea was that
the God that answered their petitions, that fire would be kindled under
the altar, the God that answered by fire, that he was the true
and living God. And so the Baal worshippers,
they cried and cried unto their God, but no fire came, no power,
no answer, Elijah, he began to mock them. He said, maybe your
God is on a journey. Maybe he's asleep and needs to
be awake. But you know, they were worshipping
nothing. It was a figment of their imagination.
There was no God. He couldn't hear, he couldn't
see, he couldn't know. He was just an idol. And then the altar of the Lord
was raised up, and Elijah prayed, and the Lord answered with fire
from heaven. It must have been a fearful sight
for fire to come down from heaven like a lightning strike, and
completely consume not only the burnt offering, the wood and
the beast upon it, but the stones and the dust that was about the
trench. And they poured water over it,
and it licked up, that water as well. And the children of
Israel, they saw that, they said, the Lord, he is God, he is God. And what had changed them was
to see this great demonstration of the power of God right before
them. Now you might say, well, what
has that to do with me gathering together a people or a religion
or worshipping in these our days? What about the context before
us and having a people that denied power in worship, in godliness,
and be able to discern that and to move away from them? Is it possible? Of course, our
text tells us it is, but we have a most vivid illustration is
given by the Lord himself and he's speaking of that last day
in Luke 13 and verse 26. And he says of those that shall
come, come to the Lord and they shall begin to say, we have eaten
and drunk in thy presence, that is in thy house, thou hast taught
in our streets. And he shall say, I tell you,
I know you not whence ye are. depart from me, all ye workers
of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the
prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out. And what a solemn thing to have
those that would say that the Lord has even taught in their
streets that they have been called by His name. They had a form
of godliness, but God didn't know anything about it. It was
not something that came from the Lord at all. And so that
is a real concern for us and ties in with this real warning
that Paul has to Timothy of those that have a form of godliness,
a form that will never ever save, it will never bring to heaven,
but they deny the power thereof, from such turn away. So in order
to properly understand this word, let us look firstly at what is
meant here by a form, a form of godliness. And then secondly,
The power of godliness. And then lastly, the charge to
us when we discern that the power is being denied. We dress as for attending the
means of grace and we come and we worship. We have hymns and
we have reading and prayer and we preach a sermon and there
is a form there. And in a lot of ways, the form
is good. It is right that we should have
order. God is a God of order. And in
the sanctuary, the form of our worship should reflect the importance
in the Word of God, especially preaching the Word, but also
singing and praise and prayer. These things all should have
an order. So there is not a confusion. God is not the author of confusion. He is the author of order, and
that order then can often be seen. It is seen as a structure
for worship, and the world can see it. The world can understand
that. And you think of the many different
assemblies today, or many people that would say that they worship
a god, whether Christianity or whether some other god. There
are temples in this land. There's all sorts that the world
outwardly could look upon and say, these people, they profess
to be worshipping a god. and there's a looking upon them,
and there's a form, how they dress, how they act, how they
walk, the things they allow, the things they do not allow.
These are a form of godliness, a religious profession. In Christ's day, there were those
of the scribes and the Pharisees that, for a pretence, they made
long prayers, they loved greetings in the marketplaces, They wore
long flowing robes. They went about as a very religious
man. And it seemed that they were
a very, very godly people. They had this outward form. And we should always be able
to discern what the difference is between just a form, which
could just be man-made, or it could be even patterned off the
things of God, and yet nothing in it is of any more than just
a form. The hymn writer says, rounds
of dead service, forms and ways. A form of godliness, a religion
that can be seen and followed and played out, as it were, with
God having no input of it whatsoever, just an outward carrying on of
religious duties, or, as is put elsewhere in the Word, having
a name to live and yet be dead. In the churches of the Revelation,
the seven churches, that was what was charged against some
of those churches. They were dead churches. They
had a name that they were a church, even a good name, and yet they
were dead. We could have a form as in confessions. We have the various confessions
of the Church of God. The 1689 Baptist Confession, Many of our churches would adhere
to that, and many say they do, but don't follow actually the
teachings of it. But it is a form, and it is a
form of doctrine, a form of statement of truths, articles of faith,
these all come under a form of godliness that we can just shelter
under and say, We're gospel standard Baptists, and we believe in the
gospel standard articles of faith, and we believe in having the
authorized versions of the Bible, and all of these things right
in their proper place, but we ought to remember that they can
be only a form, and nothing more than that, and many can be just
really satisfied with just the form. So maybe think of this
when we have before us a form of godliness, just be aware of
what we are thinking of there is an outward form and that we
need something more than that. So I want to look then secondly
and not the form, but the power of godliness. The power of godliness. I want to begin with our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ. In Romans chapter 1 and verse
4, we read concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, in verse 3, concerning
his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of
David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of
God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the
resurrection from the dead. So we have, you might say, the
form or the Lord coming. And many, they just saw Him as
Jesus of Nazareth, just as a mere man. But He was not a mere man. He was God manifest in the flesh. And His many miracles, they bore
witness of Him, that these mighty works, healing the sick and raising
the dead, They showed the witness of heaven that the power of God
was with him. He had power that the winds and
the waves, even they, obeyed him. And again, it was with a
word. How often it was with a word. And he's declared to be the son
of God with power. That is, by a word, God declaring,
this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. But the great
declaration is the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. He
hath given assurance unto all men in that He hath raised Him
from the dead. The power and might that brought
the eternal Son of God from the dead, the first one that ever,
and the only one that ever raised Himself by His own power And
God, great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. The
Lord said, I have power to lay down my life. I have power to
take it again. But then we read that it is God
that raised him from the dead. But our Lord is God. Is God a
man in one person? It's a great mystery. But that
power, the empty tomb, the empty tomb is Really the central thing,
the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blood shed at Calvary
that put away the sins of his people for whom he died, that
was accepted. The wrath of God was expended
against them. He took away their sins, nailing
them to his cross and then rose again to show that those sins
were put away, the sacrifice accepted. So the very central
aspect of our faith is in the power of God raising up our Lord
from the dead. Then when our Lord was to commission
the disciples to go forth and preach the Word, we read at the
end of The Gospel according to Luke, Luke chapter 24, and we
read there in verse 49, Behold, I send thee promise of my Father
upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be
endued with power from on high. He said, I will pray the Father,
he will give you another comforter, which shall abide with you forever."
And until Pentecost, until those 10 days after the Lord rose from
the dead, or 50 days after He had died, that equates to the
time of the children of Israel, the Passover, right through until
they came to Sinai. That is when the Holy Spirit
was given, and evidence, that the Lord had risen from the dead,
ascended up into heaven, and prayed the Father that He would
send forth the Holy Spirit, which is the power of God. And there
was to be no preaching without that power. It must be with the
power of the Holy Ghost. And they were to tarry for that,
they were to wait for that. Now this is why we read of the
Thessalonians, in the first chapter of Thessalonians, the Apostle
says in verse 4, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God. How do we know our election of
God? How do we know that we amongst
that number, sovereignly loved and chosen in Christ before the
foundation of the world, as being the elect of God, those for whom
Christ died upon the cross, laid down his life and rose again.
How do we know that? He says, for our gospel came
not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy
Ghost, and in much assurance, as you know what manner of men
we were among you for your sake. They were poor men, they were
weak men. They were not mended, and the apostle was very clear
of this. It was not with great wisdom of words that he came
forth, but lest the gospel should have none effect. They were relying
on the power of God, attending the power of the words that were
spoken, words spoken by poor sinners, spoken by men, preached
by men. Our commission is preach the
word, and as that word is preached, Then it comes in power. God accompanies
that word with authority and power in the hearts of those
that hear it. And the apostle says, this is
an evidence of your being elected. This is God's witness from heaven. That is not just a form. It's not just going over a motion
of a Bible study or just applying to the intellect. Preaching is
to the heart, and it is God's way to please God through the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And for that
salvation to be effectual, it must come in power. We acknowledge
the need of the power of God to accompany the word that we
speak. If it is going to be effectual,
if it is going to be a true evidence that we are elect of God. So our Lord then, he said to them
to wait for that power, and that power was given in the day of
Pentecost. And it was very clear that That
power was put forth there because as Peter preached, there was
3,000 that were pricked in their hearts, convicted of their crucifying
the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were brought to believe
in him, to trust in him, to be saved, to be baptized. And Paul,
when he writes to the Ephesians, he tells them that power, that
had been put forth in them, and indeed those at Pentecost as
well, and it was the same power that brought the Lord from the
dead. In Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 19, or if we go back to
verse 18, then He is desiring for them that they might have
a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him that
is Christ Jesus, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the
riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the
exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according
to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right
hand in heavenly places. far above all principality, and
power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. And
hath put all things under his feet, gave him to be the head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." So in that passage, the apostle
not only highlights the power of God in raising Christ and
bringing him to that position of power and authority in heaven,
but also says that that same power is needed to convert, to
make a believer. We are dead in trespasses and
sins. We have no spiritual life. We
have no power or might at all. We read that when we were yet
without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly,
and it needs the almighty power of God to quicken a soul into
divine life. There is no conversion without
the power of God. It is not just a change of mind,
it is not just the effect of reasoning and arguing, though
it is right for the Lord's servants, as the Apostle Paul did, to reason
from the scriptures, to explain the scriptures, to preach the
scriptures, but he was adamant that it was not his word, only
it must be in power, it must be the Lord applying that word
to the heart, changing the heart, renewing the will and turning
the feet to Zion's hill. So the new birth, a conversion,
he must be born again, is wrought by the power of God, and we set
forth that power of godliness in that way, that without that
power there is no conversion. But then there is the power of
godliness, a power that is needed against spiritual enemies. Staying in Ephesians, if we We
return to chapter 6, then we read this. We need to put on
the whole armour of God in verse 12. For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. Now, a godliness, the power of
godliness, is vital because we have powerful enemies, we have
mighty enemies. Religion, true religion, true
godliness, we're not just dealing even with men. We're not dealing
with something that is weak and not powerful and not mighty.
We are dealing with great spiritual mighty powers. The world, Satan,
men, Our own wicked, evil heart are powers that are far too much
for ever a poor man and his own mind and will to do. The city
that is divided against itself will never stand and we need
that power without us to save us because inwardly, inwardly
we love sin, we love Satan, we're in league with Satan and death
and hell. If there is the power of godliness,
then we must also recognize that we need that power of godliness
because there are such powerful enemies without us and around
us. The power of godliness is vital
against these spiritual enemies. The power of godliness also is
vital in delivering from sin. And really that is the context
where we are here. But first I'll turn you to Peter
in chapter 1 verse 3. And we read there, 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. Divine power hath been given
to a believer, and it is so that they might live a life of godliness
and holiness. And without holiness no man can
see the Lord. Now, in the context of our text,
we read of the last days, days that we are in, days that there
shall be those that have a form of godliness, but deny the power
thereof. And what is the picture that
is pictured to us, but a picture really of great worldliness,
sensualness, everything opposite than God. Those that, like we
read of in Luke, depart from me, I never knew you, ye that
work iniquity. They had the form of godliness
alongside a life of wickedness and ungodliness. They had almost
said, well, God's rules are too strict. We want heaven. We want to be godly. We want
to be a spiritual people. But we find that these laws and
this standard of holiness is too high for us. So we just bring
it down to what our own nature likes. And so because there was
that denial of godliness, there's no, or power of godliness is
no mastery over any sin at all. And I thought as I was meditating
upon this, why this is a real encouragement for a child of
God, because it is the Lord's people that know the power of
their sins. They struggle with besetting
sins, sins of thought and mind and deed, those slips and falls,
and they of all people really register and know their sinnership. And we can be tempted to think,
well, we're a Christian. We should use our own willpower
to overcome these corruptions. We should be able to change our
life and reform our life and get things a bit better. But
we fail so much, so miserably. But the power of godliness is
the Lord doing this for us. In 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just, not only to forgive us
our sins, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is
His power and might put forth to cleanse those sins that we've
confessed. Those sins we might think, If
I confess them now, I'm likely to fall again and again. And we will, without the power
of God put forth. And so what a reminder this morning.
You and I are to live godly and upright lives. We need not imagined
power, we need the true, real power of God. The Lord to answer
our prayers and answer our cries and come in for us. and deliver
us from the power and dominion of sin, to put forth his hand
and save us from it. Some of us can know those times
when we've been wonderfully preserved from outwardly falling. The Lord
used providences, he's used his word dropped in, he's given us
a spirit of, dear Joseph, how can I sin and do this great evil
and fled from it? And sometimes we fear the opportunity
and the temptation within, meeting together, we should surely fall.
But by the Lord's grace and mercy to be kept in that way, we need
that power to deliver us from sin, from its working. And without that power, then
there is a going on, walking, in those sins. It is not in man,
however much enlightened he is himself, to keep himself and
to keep alive his soul, but it is carried on by the power of
God. Dear soul, don't be discouraged. Be encouraged in the Lord. He
is able to do exceeding far above all that we can ask or think,
and any poor soul There's labouring under temptations and sins. The
Lord has that, but He's glorified in when we acknowledge the power
of godliness and acknowledge we need the Lord to come in for
us. The Lord doesn't think less of
us because we haven't got power to deal with it ourselves. He
knows that. But we need to not deny The power,
we need to acknowledge that we do need the power. We needed
it at the beginning in conversion. We need it along the way to deliver
us from our sins and to live holy and godly lives. And we
need it to keep us as well. It's that power that keeps the
people of God. If we go back to Peter's epistles,
his first epistle this time, And chapter 1 and verse 5, we
have a people that are to go to inheritance. It is incorruptible
and undefiled and fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for
you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. The keeping of the people
of God is not by their own endeavours, not by their own mind, but by
the power of God, and he uses it through faith, and faith coming
through hearing, and hearing by the word of God. If the Lord
gives faith, and it is the gift of God to give faith, and that
is joined with the word, We read of those that the word did not
profit them, being not mixed with faith in them that heard
it. But where the Lord gives faith, and we read the word or
have it preached to us, and that word then comes with authority,
it directs us what to do, what not to do, it is a bar to all
that is evil and wrong, and it is a lamp to that which is right. And it is in that way that God
keeps his people. despise the power or think it
is not power because it comes through faith in the word of
God. It is a blessed thing to have
our ear open to the word. Thou shalt have a word, hear
a word behind thee saying this is the way, walking in it when
you turn to the right hand, when you turn to the left. It is the
Lord directing his people and it is the power of God that does
this. You know, sometimes we don't
discern the power, do we? We look at the lights in the
chapel here, and we know it is the power that makes the lights
come on. You take away the power and the
lights go out. But sometimes we don't realize
what great thing that power is. I remember years ago in Melbourne,
we were having a church meeting in the vestry of the chapel,
and it was a very windy day. And there had some high tensile
power lines outside the chapel. I think 450,000 volts going through those lines. And a tree fell on them. And
the explosive power, the bang, the light, the flames that came
up from those wires, Without that touching them, you've got
no idea of that power. We could just see it by the lights
coming on in the vestry in the chapel. But when you short-circuited
it out, you've got such a demonstration of that power that was behind
it. And so we have the Word of God,
we have it preached, we have directions. It has an effect
on our lives and what we do and what we don't do. But we are
to discern the power and effect that affects us who hear, and
maybe others who hear and has no effect, has no power, no mind. When the apostles preached, some
believed the words spoken, some believed not. And the difference
was, as we read earlier with the Thessalonians, it made known
their election. As many as were ordained unto
eternal life, believed, and it was the power that brought them
to believe. Well then, it is also the power
of God that glorifies God. We come to the, near the end
of our Bibles, to the Epistle of Jude. We have there, Jude
is just the one chapter, verse 25 at the end. To the only wise God, our Saviour,
be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. And so where we acknowledge
the power of God, then we are giving the glory and honour to
God in our assemblies. We profess, though we meet and
we meet for worship, we need His power. We need His presence. We need the power in all the
ways that we've spoken of this morning. And then, of course,
is the power at the very last. When you and I die, when our
tongue lies silent in the grave, when we return to the dust of
that great day, when the Lord shall return with power and great
glory, and the dead in Christ shall be raised first, We which
are alive shall be changed and caught up with the Lord in the
air, so shall we be ever with the Lord. The power that shall
bring that when he comes with the trumpet and with authority
and quickens the dead and raises the dead. What a reminder. We need that same power as we
assemble, as we have a form of godliness, As we gather together
for worship, as we look for salvation in the new birth, in keeping,
in holiness, in our lives, we need power along every step of
the way. We need that which comes from
God and leads to God and will result at the last, the Lord
raising our bodies and bringing us to be forever with the Lord. So that is, just to breathe,
and you may think of many other ways that the power of godliness
is expressed and set forth in the Word, and how vital it is
for true godliness, the real faith, the real evidence of being
a child of God, saving faith, needs power, not just a figment
of imagination, Not just rounds of dead service and forms and
ways. So what then of our last point? A charge to us when we discern
that the power is denied. Having a form of godliness but
denying the power thereof from such turn away. Denying the power
thereof. just happy with just going through
the motions of worship. But it can be put forth too and
reflected in some of the doctrines of the Church. If the Church
is teaching, well, we are not really so fallen, we can just
exercise our own faith. Or the Armenian teaching, it
is just a matter of the will. And we can exhort people that
this hour, this very moment, you accept Christ, you believe
on him, and you are saved. And what they're saying is that
the power of conversion is in your time, in your way, your
ability, you can do it, you don't need to wait for God. The word
says that he that believeth shall not make haste. And there is
a, waiting upon the Lord and waiting in the footsteps of the
flock for that power. The children of Israel, they
could have waited and waited at the borders of the Red Sea,
but they needed the power of God to bring them through it.
They could see all the powers of God in Egypt and nothing would
release them except when the blood was shed. and then they
were, after the Passover, set free. And so a people that sets
aside the power of God, oh yes, they may sing the hymns, the
power in the blood, sing it as lustily as they like, but when
you view their lives, maybe reflecting what is in this chapter, that
they are lovers of their own selves, covetous, boast, proud,
blasphemous, Disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural
affection, and it goes on and on. Those that are led with various
lusts, they can quite easily set a religious profession along
with a worthy life. There's no separation, no difference,
because they say it doesn't need the power or We can't change
it. We're not looking for a power
that changes the heart, renews the will, and turns the feet
to Zion still. We're quite happy with having
a religion that sits in the world. The children of Israel, they
said to Pharaoh, we cannot sacrifice the abomination of the Egyptians
in their presence. We must separate. We must come
out of this country. We must serve the Lord. Come
out from among them. is separate, touch not the unclean
thing and I will receive you." The power is evidence in a people
acknowledging it, waiting upon the Lord for it, giving the Lord
the honour and the glory for it, using the means, yes, but
acknowledging all to be of God. The Apostle Paul gives a list
of all the things that he did and he says, yet not I, the grace
of God that was with me. His saving, His help, and His
thorn in the flesh, my grace is sufficient for thee. It was
in the power of God, not in Him. And so when there is a discerning,
that we come amongst an assembly, and they're not interested in
God's work, they're not waiting for it, they're not looking for
it, they do not need power. They can just exercise their
will. But without that power, there
won't be holiness. There won't be separation from
the world. There won't be a deliverance
from sin. Only the precious blood of Christ
can do that. Yes, natural flesh can go a long
way. But it will never deliver from
Satan. It will never deliver from our
old nature. Our Lord spoke of the parable
of the sower, and where the word was sown and the seed fell, except
it fell on that good ground, it never brought forth fruit.
And we are told, except we are in Christ Jesus, except we have
that power, then when temptations come, when the world comes, when
Satan bids, then we will never stand. The fire shall try every
man's work, of what sort it is. And that which is not by the
power of God will be burnt up. And there'll be many that go
back, walk no more with the Lord, or solemnly continue in just
the form of godliness until beyond the grave. And as we have read,
to stand before the Lord and the Lord says, I never knew you.
And however much they might profess that they were taught by him
and called by his name, He had nothing to do with them. No power
had been put forth in their life. No change had been evidenced.
No glory to God had been shown forth. So when that is discerned,
when we discern that there is not the power of God, the fruits
and effects of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit of God,
are not in that assembly, are not in that people, and they
don't even acknowledge it. They don't even acknowledge their
need of it. How very different that is than
a poor sinner saying, oh, I feel my sins day by day. I so need
the Lord's power. I cry to Him for help to get
through a day and to be able to mortify the deeds of the body
and acknowledging the power. They need it. They feel the need
of it. And blessed be God, there are
those times in their lives where you have really conspicuously
felt it. And it has been put forth, especially
at the first conversion, but right the way, along the way.
So there is a very definite direction, a command what to do when we
come across those that we discern that though they have a form
of godliness, don't be deceived by that, but they deny the power. from such turn away. You might
say, doesn't it say from such, try and convince them, try and
convert them, try and show them where they never know you turn
away from them. That is what the direction of
the Holy Spirit here is, from such turn away. If you and I
in such an assembly, among such a people, do not continue in
it, turn away from that people. May the Lord bless us with the
power of God that bring us salvation. Amen.