It talks about creeping into
houses and leading captive. It's not talking about kidnapping.
This is creeping in by coming into the door all nice and polite
and just wanting to talk. You know, you've probably all
experienced that. I don't know, the younger people
won't have because, maybe, because nowadays it's
less and less advisable to just go up and knock on somebody's
door of their house. in this day and age. But it doesn't
stop all of them. But you know how they creep in
houses. They've crept in my house before.
Ricky's smiling over there. And a long time ago, and it won't
happen again, Lord willing, But we just want to talk, we're not
selling anything. We just want to sit and talk
with you. And they're so pleasant and polite. And maybe some of
you haven't experienced that, but they'll come to your door
and they'll creep into your house. And it's not always that, they
do it, they creep into households, not necessarily at your front
door, but anywhere. But they'll send women usually
to do it. If they send men, they'll be
girly men. They'll look like women with
short hair so that women are not intimidated. They're not afraid to let them
in the house. Prove me wrong about that, by the way, every
time. They creep into your house, if
not physically, as I said, then into the household by tricking
the woman, just like Satan did. They lead captive and that's
silly women. There's no word in the original
for silly. It's the word woman. It's a specific
word for woman that they've translated silly women. It means little
woman and it's a. It is a derogatory term for for
women. Because of the type of woman
this is talking about. But they creep into your house
or your household. And Satan. attack the woman, and they do
too. They have the same tactic as
Satan that sends them. They may not necessarily even
consciously do it that way, but Satan's the one that sent them,
and he tells them what to do. But this does not mean in any
way whatsoever that women are dumber than men. I think more
than anything, it means that women are nicer If you can picture
somebody coming to my door with their little white shirt and
tie or their long dress with a bonnet on their head or something
or whatever they do. Now, if you can picture Vicki answering
the door, and she would be, well, she wouldn't answer the door
because I've absolutely forbidden our front door to be open to
anybody that we don't know. And she still wants to do it.
She can't keep herself from doing it. But she would say, I'm sorry,
I'm sorry, my husband doesn't like me opening the door, you
know. And then if you can picture me
answering the door if somebody came to my house looking like
that. And by the way, I'm not mad at
Vicki for being nice. You know how she is and you know
kind of how I am. about things like that. It's
just the way it is, isn't it? I mean, they know that. They
know that. But picture me in the same situation
and my point is made. That's why they do it the way
they do it. They lead you captive. It's not kidnapping. It's a captivity
of the heart. That's what the scripture language
is about that type of thing. They are captives of Satan themselves. Satan sends them to ensnare others. It's that simple if you think
people Deceived like this are not captives Go try to get one
of them out of it And then being laden with sins
is what makes them vulnerable people are guilty about their
sin and It's why they get religious. It's why the ones that come to
your door got religious. And that's why they're gonna
be able to get you religious unless you know Christ. What
they do works. That's why they still do it.
Not as much as they used to because it's a good way to get shot these
days. But, and people are less and less tolerant of that type
of thing with their front door. but they play upon your guilt.
The devil knows that you're laden with sins. And so what's he gonna
do? He plays upon it. He promises
peace where there is no peace. He's gonna promise eternal life
as a reward for religious belief and religious activity, religious
involvement. People crave it, they lust after
it, hence the next praise. In the garden, there was no sexual
lust involved in the seduction of Eve. It wasn't about that,
and it's still not, the fall of man. It wasn't about that. It's 1 John 2.16, for all that
is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life. It's not of the father, but it's
of the world. It's of the prince of the power
of this world. And this includes, of course,
everything that man craves by nature. The one thing you don't
crave by nature is fellowship with God. You've got no use for
it. And so they don't come with that. They come with the other things
you crave, appeasement for your guilt, Way to do something to
please God But not the God of the Bible
because he can't be pleased by your doing So it includes all
the things that they play upon and clearly by the numbers and
the enthusiasm of religion man does crave a way to appease and
gain the favor of God without bowing to his son and They do
crave that. They crave being able to get
involved in their church, it's the way they would normally put
it, and think that that's a ticket to heaven when they die. But
they're not gonna bow to Christ, not the Lord Jesus Christ. And
Satan and his followers have just what they want. That's what
that verse is talking about. Now, verse seven. Now they're ever learning and
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. So you see here
that what I'm saying, it sounds like in verse six, that it's
some kind of a violent physical kidnapping thing. Well, it's
talking about what goes into your mind. What goes into your heart is
talking about the knowledge of the truth and how that cannot
be attained by what they do. And those that they do it to.
Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the
truth. Many of them use a Bible, at
least a little bit. They're always teaching something.
They've got pamphlets, and if you go listen to one of them,
he'll be teaching something. Some even get the chalkboard
out, you know, and draw diagrams and things. I've seen that. They
write a lot of books. They get degrees from colleges
and seminaries. I've told you before that I had
a man tell me one time, my preacher's so smart, I can't even understand
him most of the time. Situation it is ever learning
always learning some of its real complicated some religions have
all kinds of Complicated things you have to say and do and achieve But do you know what the key
word in this verse 7 is here The key word ever learning and
never able You can't do it. You're not gonna
be able to do it. Why doesn't it just say ever
learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth? That
would be just as clear, and it would say exactly the same thing,
except it wouldn't point out our utter inability to know God
without a work of his grace. It says able, and notice that
it says the knowledge of the truth. That's pretty clear, isn't
it? I mean, it goes out of its way
to say that. That's not the normal way you would say that. The knowledge of the truth. One thing is needful and you
can't have it. No man can come to Him except
the Father which sent Him Performs a miracle of grace in your heart
and takes you from where you are and brings you to Christ First Corinthians 2 14 the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God For they
are foolishness unto him you see how that's our text ever
learning but never able Because the natural man does not get
it. I the things of the spirit of
God, their foolishness unto him. There's two reasons, always remember,
there's two reasons given. He doesn't have any interest
in it, but also he doesn't have the ability, neither can he know
them because they are spiritually discerned. Sinners by nature
are devoid of spirituality. They have no spirit, no live
spirit. They have no understanding of
spiritual things because they are not, they're carnal. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh. You must be born of the
spirit in order to understand that which is spiritual. Thank God for this church. Thank God for giving us his gospel. Thank God for a place to sit
and hear. And also thank God that you're
able to learn of him and find rest unto yourself. Blessed are you because to you
it is given. Verse eight. Now Jannes and Jambres
withstood Moses and like that, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate
concerning the faith. Those that oppose the gospel
are like the magicians that when Moses came before Pharaoh, sent
by God, and the Lord told him to throw his staff down on the
ground, it became a serpent. These magicians came forth and
they did a magic trick that imitated what Moses did by the power of
God. And then God caused the snake that Moses' staff turned
into to eat the snakes. That's kind of a clear indication
of who's in charge in that scenario. The snake that came of Moses'
staff, it ate him. It sat there and ate him. And
they still refused to bow to God. You can't know the truth. Even
when you see it with your very eyes, you can't know it. You're
not gonna get it. How more clearly can God say,
I'm God? And you're not gonna get it though.
You're not gonna get it. Not without a miracle of grace.
How did Janice and Jambres withstand Moses? Well, by presuming to
have the same authority and ability as God's servant, but with a
counterfeit. Same way they operate now. This
is the same way all false preachers operate The snakes may have been
very similar the the the fact that they turned And he didn't
have an object it appeared that they became snakes. It was all
an imitation and To those who don't know God The false gospel
looks a lot like the real one False preachers operate just
like these two magicians. God didn't call them, God didn't
send them, but they presume to speak for God. And what they
present is a counterfeit. And the word resist there. So do these also resist the truth that means to set oneself
against, to oppose. In other words, it's not like
King Agrippa resisted the truth, didn't he? Paul preached to Agrippa,
he said, almost, you've almost persuaded me. And he may have
been mocking him, I'm sure he probably was when he said that.
You've almost persuaded me to be a Christian. He said, in a
convenient time, I'll call for you. And he resisted the truth. This means you're diametrically
opposed to the truth. You set yourself against the
truth. You remember what it says there
about how Pontius Pilate and the Pharisees, the Sadducees,
the rulers of the Jews, they all set themselves against God
and against his Christ. That's what this word is picturing. Just absolutely against. They've crossed the line, right?
or didn't cross the line, however you want to put it. When Moses
drew that line, who's on the Lord's side? You're on the other
side of the line. That's what that is. Resist. The proud and audacity of man
to set himself against God Almighty. You remember when they were trying
to decide what to do with the disciples and that one man said, if there's nothing to this, it'll
go away. But if there is, you really want
to fight against God? That's a good question, isn't
it? That's a good question. So verse nine, but they shall
proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto
all men, as theirs was also, as whose? As Janice and Jambres. It's a little bit humiliating
when your snakes get swallowed up by the Lord's power and a
miracle. of God, that's pretty embarrassing. That's pretty well exposes the
fact that you're a fraud. And that's what God's gonna do
to everybody that opposes him. He's gonna shut you down. It puts them out of business.
A couple of different ways now God'll put you out of business.
He'll either save you, or the other way is that word in verse
eight that we didn't talk about yet. Look at the last part of
verse eight, reprobate concerning the faith. That's the other way
he puts you out of business. Reprobation. You're just cut off. It's just
not gonna be any, we're gonna see that in our message tonight,
Lord willing, that I'm pretty sure it's in
the message tonight, how the God cut off Eli's family. And he said, there's not going
to be any sacrifice for them. Don't even bother offering sacrifice
on their behalf. They're done. That's a problem. That's a problem. And this verse
annihilates the idea that this is some sort of competition between
the truth and error. It's not. There's no competition
between those who preach the gospel and those who preach a
false gospel. They will proceed no further. Is that just a prediction? No,
that's God saying, I'm gonna shut him down. Does that remind
you of a verse? They will proceed no further.
Look with me at Job chapter 38. Job 38.1, listen to the way God
speaks to a proud man. And Job had said
some pretty boastful things, even though he said that which
was right concerning the person of God, concerning who God is.
And yet by his own confession, he said, I've spoken about things
I know nothing about. I'm gonna lay my hand on my mouth
now. I'm gonna shut up now. But listen to the way the Lord
answered him in Job 38 one. Then the Lord answered Job out
of the whirlwind and said, who is this that darkeneth counsel
by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a
man for I will demand of thee and answer thou me. Where was thou when I laid the
foundations of the earth? Declare if thou hast understanding.
Who hath laid the measures thereof if thou knowest? Or who hath
stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof
when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted
for joy? Or who shut up the sea with doors
when it break forth as if it had issued out of the womb? And
when I made the cloud, the garment thereof, and thick darkness a
swaddling band for it, and break up for it my decreed place, and
set bars and doors, and said, hitherto shalt thou come, but
no further, and here shall thy proud ways be stayed." Where
were you, Job, when God did all that? And that's a picture of
the fact that God, when he says hitherto and no further, that's
it. And that's what we're talking
about right here. He's done with you, he's done with you. When
he shuts the door, you can't open it, And when he opens it,
you can't shut it. When will God put a false preacher
or a false church out of business? The answer to that question is
very important. When will he put them out of business? When
he's done with them. Not when he gets sick and tired
of them, He's not sitting there fuming and saying, oh man, you
know, this is terrible. I'm going to have to put an end
to this someday like we might do. He's using them. They're doing exactly what he
wants them to do. He raised them up and he's going to put them
down when he gets good and ready. When he gets done with them,
that's when he'll put them out of business. God used Judas. He used Judas. Think about Judas's role in things
and what the result was. God used Pharaoh. He said, remember
what he said to Pharaoh? For this same purpose have I
raised, it was God's purpose that Pharaoh was on the throne
and did what he did. For the same purpose have I raised
thee up. God used Pharaoh, God's using
the Pope right now. I kind of hope that I'm around
to see something happen there like happened
to Pharaoh. But it doesn't matter if I'm
around to see it or not. It's between them and God, isn't
it? It's between him and God. The
son of man must be, and what's the language of our text? Opposed,
withstood, resisted, and betrayed. He must be, he will be, but woe
unto those who betray him. Woe unto them. Enjoy the crowds now. Enjoy the
adulations of men. Enjoy your rich lifestyle now. There's a reckoning coming. It's clearly foretold. Now look
at verse 10. Back in 1 Timothy. Chapter three. But thou hast
fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering,
love, patience. Now, listen, we won't look at
all of these things mentioned in this verse this morning, but
Paul shows here the contrast between the false and the true.
And it's a stark contrast. Nobody bragging on the flesh.
Paul is the same one that wrote, we rejoice in Christ Jesus when
we read this morning and have how much confidence in the flesh?
None. We have no confidence in the
flesh. He's not bragging on his flesh
here. He's just showing the difference that God makes. It's that simple. There's a difference that God
puts between his people and the rest of this world. And he's
showing the contract. What an amazing contract. He's
talking about their doctrine, right? Never able to come to
a knowledge of the truth. Their doctrine's not true. What
they preach is not true. But you've known my doctrine.
Paul owns it. It's my doctrine. And we have
to do that, don't we? We have to do that. I know this
doctrine by God's grace. What's your doctrine? And if
you show me some stuff that man wrote, you need to go back and
start over. I don't wanna see that. I'm not
interested in that. And I've been shown that before.
What's your belief? What do you believe? What's your
gospel? What do you preach? And it's
the words of men. However accurate, it doesn't
matter. We don't preach the words of
men. Paul said, my gospel is not after
man. I wasn't taught it by man, but
by the power of God. And here not to brag on himself,
he said, you know my doctrine. You know my doctrine. That's
interesting too, isn't it? He said this, he calls it my
doctrine several times. In 2 Timothy 2.8, he said, remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the
dead according to my gospel. Now we know it's the gospel of
God. He said that also many times, the gospel of Christ. Our gospel
though, by God's grace. And you have a gospel too. It's the gospel by which we were
saved. We can call it my gospel in that
sense, because how are you going to confess the gospel if you
don't have a gospel? You've got to confess. What is
your confession of faith? Well, it's the gospel. It's what
God did for me, not what I did for God. And we don't stand up
and give bragamores about how, you know, we used to be really
bad, but now I made a decision for Jesus and everything's great. No, my confession of faith is
what God did for me. By his grace now, by his grace,
that's just the way it is. It's the gospel by which we were
saved, it's the gospel by which we live. It's not a past, salvation
is not a past event. It's the gospel by which we live
every hour. Adorn the doctrine the Lord teaches
us. Wear it all the time. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Every day, every hour, all through
life, it is the way. We are those of this way by the
grace of God. It's the gospel that we preach. And in that sense, we say my
gospel, my gospel. It's not like any other gospel.
My doctrine is the truth of Christ, not a set of doctrines devised
by men to explain what God said. I don't need anybody to explain
to me what God said. I just want somebody to tell
me what God said. And that's clear in the scripture
now. The scriptures are not of any
private interpretation. And the word there, the key word
is not private. The key word there is interpretation.
If private interpretation ain't gonna cut it, then public interpretation
ain't gonna cut it either. It's the key word there is interpretation. You don't interpret the scriptures,
you declare them. You set forth Christ as he's
revealed in the word of God. You don't devise your beliefs
based on the word of God and then preach that. There's a difference. There are men who do that. They
call themselves Calvinists. They call themselves, you know,
that they preach the doctrines of grace. There are no doctrines
of grace. There's Christ. There's the doctrine
You know what that is? That book right there. You look at where it says the
doctrine of Christ in this book and look what it's referring
to. It's referring to this book every time. Not a confession
of faith devised by men. How are you or anybody else gonna
explain what God said? Do you realize how foolish that
is? When you have to explain somebody, it's because they didn't
express themselves clearly. Let me ask you this. If God didn't
express himself clearly, what would you be able to do about
it? But I believe he did. I think
the gospel is pretty clear because the word of God says it is. We
use great plainness of speech. God's got to reveal it to you
because you're not gonna get it. If the gospel is this simple,
God is God, you're not gonna get it unless
God explains it to you. But is that complicated? God
is God, is that complicated? No, it's not, but nobody knows
it. Am I right? Nobody knows that. And you're not gonna know it.
until God does a miracle of grace in your heart. There's one Bible, there's one
doctrine, and it's my doctrine, my God's
grace. According to my doctrine, God
is God. And that's what most people will
never know. God is God. He does as he pleases
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth.
The inhabitants of this earth aren't too crazy about that.
They don't like God doing what he pleases with them, but he
does what he pleases with them. He saves whom he pleases, he
damns whom he pleases. According to my doctrine, man
is completely, and very important here, helplessly sinful. He's not as sinful as he could
be. The Lord restrains the wrath of man that doesn't praise him,
that he is pleased to restrain. That doesn't make you better.
That doesn't mean you resisted it. It means God said you can
come this far and no further, just like we read a minute ago.
That's all it means. If God took his hand away, you'd
go further. Every one of us would. All the
way to absolute self-destruction and eternal shame and disgrace. completely and helplessly. What
man is condemns him before God, and what he does just makes it
worse. According to my doctrine, God
elected a people before the foundation of the world. He chose them. That word elect, it's not a big
word. It just means he picked them. He picked them out. And he did it before the foundation
of the world, before they had done any good or evil, before
they were ever born or had done any good or evil. God said, I
love Jacob and I hate Esau. He calls them his elect, his
chosen ones, his sheep. He loves them with an everlasting
love and his purpose to save them and make them just like
his son. That's what predestination is.
God's election is love. It's the love of God. It just,
it is. That's just, it's not like, it
doesn't involve the love of God. God's election is not, I pick
this one. It's, I love you. I love you. You just got elected. You just got picked out. Purpose to save and predestination
is to make them just like his son. What's our destination?
We're gonna be just like Christ That's what glorification is
and it's to be like him and with him And that's what we're predestinated
to by God According to my doctrine, election,
salvation, all blessings and glory are a person. Christ Jesus is the elect of
God in whom all sinners whom God loves are chosen. Election's
a person. God's love is a person. Herein is love. God sent his son and he is our
sin offering. He's the savior. Salvation's
a priority. He's the savior. He doesn't just
give life to dead sinners, but he is the life that he gives.
He is life. Salvation is God's son. All spiritual
blessings in heavenly places are in Christ Jesus. That means
he himself is the embodiment of them. To be in the blessing
of God is to be in Christ. And there's no blessing apart
from him. Blessings are not events that
take place. You're either blessed of God
or you're not blessed of God. You say, well, you know, this
was a, something good happened, what a blessing. Something bad
happened, well, you know, not a blessing. If you're blessed of God, it's
a blessing. I don't care what it is. He is the one who blesses and
he himself is the blessing. He himself is the glory of God.
God's glory can only be seen in the face of Jesus Christ.
When you've seen him, you've seen God's glory. The gospel
of Christ is the means whereby God saves his elect. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God and
the salvation to everyone that believeth. Faith in Christ is
the gift Christ in us Ephesians look at Ephesians 3 with me we're
17 Ephesians 3 17 And this is Paul praying for
The blessing of the Lord on these people He said in verse 14. I bow my knees unto the Father
And here's what for, verse 16, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by
his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your
hearts by faith. That's your strength. That's
your inner strength, is Christ dwelling in your heart. How?
By faith. By faith, that you, being rooted
and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know
the love of Christ. which passeth knowledge that
you might be filled with all the fullness of God. You see
that inside, in your heart, Christ in you. This gift of faith is
given as the gospel is preached and God opens the sinner's heart
to receive him. That's what happened to Lydia.
And Paul summed up his message this way. We all know this. Famously,
he summed up his message this way in 1 Corinthians 1.23. We
preach Christ crucified. He said, you know my doctrine.
You don't have to wonder what I'm gonna preach on, do you?
When you come here. You don't have to wonder. You
might be thinking, well, what text is he gonna preach from?
But you don't have to wonder what it's gonna be about. There
is nothing else to preach. There is no message that matters.
But Christ crucified him and what he did. And Paul says to Timothy here
in our text, you know that, you know before I come, that's what
I'm gonna say. And that's how you can tell who's
speaking for God and who's not. him and what he did. What God did was not done in
a corner. And it's not told in mysterious
terms. It wasn't hidden when he accomplished
it. And it's not hidden by flowery
words or the inventions and embellishments or ambiguous religious rhetoric
of men. The logic of men does not apply. Seeing we have such hope, we
use great plainness of speech." Look at Colossians 4, two through
four. Paul, and here's what we're talking
about now. He said, you know my doctrine, you know it. That's what he said to Agrippa.
You know that what I'm saying is right. You believe the prophet? I know you do. Colossians 2.2,
that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and
in all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement
of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Oh, it
is mysterious. Chris, look, you're gonna have
to take that back. No, look at verse four. And this I say, wait, I think I wrote this down wrong.
The word I'm looking for is not in the next verse. But this I
say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words, for
though I be absent in the flesh, yet I am always with you in the
spirit, joying and beholding your order and the steadfastness
of your faith in Christ. The word I'm looking for, I think
I wrote down the wrong, is it chapter three maybe? Yep. The scripture I'm looking for
is where Paul said, pray for me that I might speak boldly
as I ought to speak and make benefit, which is it? Chapter four. Okay. And you know what's really sad?
That's what I have in my notes for chapter four. It just gets worse. Okay, continue
in prayer and watch in the same with thanksgiving with all praying
also for us that God would open unto us a door of utterance to
speak the mystery of Christ. It's just like where I read in
the wrong place. It's a mystery. It's hidden to
natural man. but how do we present it? For
which I also in bonds that I may make it manifest. That means
open. It means to make known by teaching,
to expose, to view, to recognize clearly. That's what we do. You know my doctrine. You know
my doctrine. Look at first Corinthians two,
one through five. 1 Corinthians 2. And so this is
what I want to stop on today, is him saying, you know my doctrine,
you've known my doctrine in comparison to what the false preachers preach. You've known my doctrine, the
doctrine of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2. And our brethren,
when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. What's
wrong with excellent speech? What's wrong with that? It doesn't
matter. It's not helpful. It's got to
be plain. It's not a matter of it being
pleasant to your ear. It's a matter of you hearing
it and understanding it. And then if you ever fall in
love with Christ, it'll be real pleasant to your ear. Declaring
unto you what? The test of what God said. What
God said. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. You've
known my doctrine. It's a person. and I was with
you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, it doesn't
matter about me. It's not about me being strong
or able or talented. My speech and my preaching was
not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men. I don't want you to believe because
I'm convincing I want you to believe because God has mercy
on you and reveals the truth in your
heart. The gospel is convincing, I believe,
but it's not just a question of being convinced by logic.
It's a question of knowing God is God. It's a question of knowing
who Christ is and therefore knowing what he did. If you know who
he is, you're gonna know that what happened on Calvary was
effectual. It was powerful. It was victorious. And so it's that simple. It doesn't
take logic to convince you that God is God. It takes faith that
God gives. Though the gospel is logical. If you ever don't understand
something that I say from the pulpit, then shame on me. One thing is needful, and therefore,
one thing is needful to preach, is by the preaching of Christ
and what he did, that sinners are saved. It's by the preaching of Christ
and what he did that sinners are encouraged and comforted. The Lord said, comfort my people.
That only happens one way. By which rest unto our souls
is achieved. There's only one way that happens.
God forbid that I should glory in my heart in this pulpit Saving
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ