chapter 3, 2 Timothy chapter
3. Let's read verses 1 through 9,
verses 1 through 5. Our text begins here in verse
1 with this know also that in the last days perilous times
shall come. We've been in the last days since
the Lord Jesus Christ came. Hebrews 1.2 tells us God hath
in these last days spoken unto us by His Son. We've been in
the last days since the Son of God came. And here's why times
will be perilous. Verse 2. For men should be lovers
of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, having no self-control,
fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, it
means rash, bold, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the
power thereof. From such turn away. You might
say that since Adam plunged every man into spiritual death that
these descriptions we have here is what sinners have always been
like. Why is it worse in these last
days? Well, it's worse because in these
last days they do so having a form of godliness. A form of godliness. Verse 5 says, having a form of
godliness. What is godliness? What is godliness? Well, it's the worship and course
of life resulting from a God-wrought fear of the Lord in the heart. It's the result of an inward
reverence for God. Godliness. Godliness involves
the whole course of life. involving or resulting from the
holiness of heart. From holiness of heart. The result
of true spiritual religion within. That's what godliness is. A form is only without. It's
only in the outward. But godliness is within. Godliness
is from within, from a new heart. True godliness is spiritual.
It's spiritual, yet it is in a body. So it is in a form. And that form is needful and
that form is necessary. So we do reside in a body. So
if you have godliness, you're gonna have a form. But to have
the outward as a result of the inward, that's true godliness.
To have the outward as a result of the inward. But now, to have
the outward without the inward is to be dwelling in spiritual
death, is to be dead. In our day, almost everybody
has a form of godliness. You hardly ever run across somebody
that does not attend church somewhere. Most everybody attends church
services. And most everybody that do, outwardly
appear sincere. And they are sincere. I don't
doubt their sincerity at all. And they speak of fearing the
Lord. And they speak of the necessity
of godliness. Outwardly they appear righteous
before men. They will be baptized. They'll
join the church. They'll take the Lord's table.
They'll do wonderful works. Often times do works that outwardly
appear and really are just in themselves much better works
than believers do. In our day there's even a great
host. Now listen carefully to this.
There is a great host in our day who even have true doctrine. who profess to be believing the
doctrine of grace. At least they profess to believe
the doctrine of grace. The Lord said this, There shall
arise false Christs and false prophets, and shall show great
signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible, they shall
deceive the very elect. He said, Behold, I have told
you before, I've told you beforehand. Now, it means they're so subtle
that it's not easy to discern that their doctrine is a lie.
Now, when you hear the papist and you hear the Catholics, you
hear them, it's obvious, brethren, if you have spiritual discernment,
that what they're declaring is heresy. Obvious. Those who preach
universal atonement, just outward boldly preach that Christ died
for every man and it's up to you to make his blood effectual.
That's easily discernible. Those who preach free will works
religion saying that a dead sinner can work up his will and come
to God for life, that's obvious to discern if you have spiritual
discernment. It's easy to detect as it is
to detect Mormonism or Pentecostalism or any other form of idolatry.
But there have arisen many that appear to be preaching the doctrine
of grace. But in subtlety, in great subtlety,
they're really preaching universal atonement, free will works religion. These are those that Christ speaks
of when he says, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect.
That's a subtlety. if it's that subtle, that if
it were possible they'd deceive the very elect. Now all of these
have a form of godliness. All of these I'm talking about,
they all have a form of godliness. Wherever they are, whatever religion,
whether it's subtle or not, they all have a form of godliness.
But notice here now, it's not these definitions of godliness
that they deny. It's not godliness itself that
they deny. Those with a form of godliness,
they highly regard and put a great emphasis on godliness. Because
they believe holiness is in the form. They believe that godliness
is in the form. And so they put great emphasis
on maintaining outwardly a holy appearing life, a righteous life. They do. And they highly esteem
it among men. But it's not that that they deny. That's not what they deny, Don. It's not the outward form of
godliness. Here's what they deny. They deny
the power of godliness. The power of godliness. Verse
5 says, denying the power thereof. Many have applied this to Catholicism,
faithful men, and said that, you know, Catholicism denies...
they deny the people to have the scriptures. And they say
that you can't know God except for the infallible judgment of
the church or of the pope. And indeed, it applies to that.
That is untrue. That's false. That's false. Many apply it to immoral sins
and say it has to do with men that they profess with the mouth
that they know God and that they trust God and believe God, but
then in their lives they live a course of immoral sins and
outward immorality. And it does apply to that. Wherever
God's worked grace in the heart, there's going to be a change
of the course of a man's life. Grace does that. That's going
to be true. But what is the power of godliness? What is the power of godliness?
Turn to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1. Just a few pages to your right.
2 Peter chapter 1. Now look at this. Grace and peace
be multiplied unto you Through the knowledge of God and of Jesus
our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all
things that pertain to life, that is spiritual life, and all
things that pertain to godliness. Through the knowledge of Him,
that hath called us to glory, that's to spiritual life, and
virtue, that is to godliness, whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that's
in the world through lust. God, the triune God in Jesus
our Lord, by his divine power, gives his child all things that
pertain to spiritual life and to true godliness. The power
of godliness, brethren, is God. The power of godliness is the
triune God in the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. He is the
power of godliness. He, by His divine power, by His
divine power, He gives spiritual life because our first birth,
by our first birth, we were dead. We were totally dead and we could
not bring ourselves to life. Now, He gives us all things that
pertain to spiritual life. He quickens us. He makes us alive. He does that by His grace, by
His Spirit abiding in us and likewise, By the same token,
by His divine power, He gives us all things that pertain to
godliness, creating in us the image of God. People say godliness
is godlikeness. Where are you going to get a
godlikeness? The scripture says He creates us after His image. He does that. God does that.
He's the power that men deny. How does He do this? He cleanses
us within and gives us a new heart. The scriptures, he said,
I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. He said, from all your filthiness
and from all your idols will I cleanse you. And he says, a
new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within
you and I'll take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll
give you a heart of flesh. I'll give you a new heart. I'll
cleanse you. I'll make you clean from all your filthiness, from
all your idols. And when he does that, he teaches
us the mystery of godliness. You know what the mystery of
godliness is? It's the gospel. It's the gospel. Without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed all in the world, received up into glory.
God teaches us that Christ came in the flesh to save His elect.
He teaches us that that's God come in human flesh. And He gives
us faith to believe Him. He teaches us that He came to
bear our iniquities, to have our iniquities laid on Him, and
to bear the bruise caused by our sin, justly, to satisfy justice
before God. And He reveals this in our hearts
and He causes us to behold that He accomplished the work because
He's justified in the Spirit. He's been raised from the dead.
He's been raised up to glory. And it's Him that's going forth
and preaching unto us Gentiles. It's Him that's giving us faith
to believe on Him. These are the things He reveals
in our hearts whereby He creates in us faith and hope and love. And these are the principal parts
of godliness. That's what it is. So through
the knowledge of Christ, through Him giving us a knowledge of
Him, that's how He creates godliness within us. So it's His divine
power. It says there, by His divine
power, He affectionately calls us to glory. That is, to the
obtaining of the glory of Christ Jesus, to spiritual life, and
to virtue, which is godliness. And with godliness, He gives
us exceeding great and precious promises. Listen to what... We're
going to look at this scripture in a moment, but let me just
give it to you for now. 1 Timothy 4.8 says, Godliness
is profitable unto all things. having promise of the life that
now is and of that which is to come. When God creates in us
a new heart, He gives us promises, great, exceeding great and precious
promises that have to do with this life right now and with
eternal life to come. And all of these promises are
not yea and maybe and they might come to pass if you'll cooperate
and do your part. All of the promises of God are
yea and amen in Christ the Lord. And this is what he teaches us
in our heart. He makes us to see by his power,
he makes us to see he is the power. He is the power of godliness. So you see, it's by His power
alone that we escape the corruptions that are in the world through
lust. We don't do it by ourselves. We do it by Him. We do it by
Him. He makes us to be partakers of
the divine nature. He takes us out of this world
and He puts us in the Spirit. He takes us out of this world
and puts us in Christ. He takes us out of this world
and He forms us in Christ when He forms Christ in us. So that
now we're one in Him, united in Him, inseparably in Him. And
He makes us now to have, to be a partaker with Him, with Christ
who is the power of godliness. So it's the triune God in Jesus
Christ that men deny. that have a form. That's who
they deny. Everything relating to godliness
is from Christ. It's given to us out of His fullness
of which He is the author and the finisher. He's the one they
deny. He's the one they deny. God our
Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, is denied by those with a form
of godliness. Now, also turn to 1 Timothy 4.
1 Timothy 4. Also, this is important, it is
through the preaching of Christ crucified that he maintains our
inward godliness and nourishes up our inward man by his power. It's through the gospel. That's
why he just chose to do it that way. That's enough for me. He chose to do it that way. But
it's through the gospel that he does this. Look at 1 Timothy
4, 6. 1 Timothy 4, 6. Now, this was what got me looking
at this and so interested in this passage. He's talking to Timothy. He says,
If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be
a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up. Now, where is nourishment? Where's nourishment? Nourishment's
within. That's where nourishment is.
It's within. True godliness is within. A form
is without. It's on the outside. We're nourished
in godliness within. Alright? How so? Look at verse 6. In the words
of faith and of good doctrine. Nourished. Nourished up in the
words of faith and of good doctrine whereunto thou hast attained.
Speaking of Timothy, now we're nourished within by the words
of faith, by the gospel, by good doctrine in the declaration of
God's mighty works. We come in here and we come to
hear how God chose a people unto salvation by His grace. How He
elected a people unto salvation by grace. This is nourishing
food to a believer. It humbles us. It puts us where
we need to be spiritually so that we walk in godliness because
there's a godliness in our heart. We talk about predestination.
We talk about how that God predestinated us into the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto himself. We talk about how that God has
before ordained the good works that we shall walk in. When we
hear God's works, the work is taken out of our hands and put
in God's hand and that makes you cling tighter to God by His
power, by His power doing it. And then we talk about effectual
redemption, accomplished redemption. About how Christ did not come
and try to make his people accepted of God. He didn't come and try
to put away sins. He didn't come and try to fulfill
the law. He did it. He accomplished it. So that now
I know it's not my faith that makes his blood effectual. It's
his blood that makes his blood effectual. And so it humbles
us, it brings us down, it nourishes the inward man, it makes the
outward man die, and it makes the inward man renewed. We come
to hear about the effectual regeneration that God the Holy Spirit works
in His people. He doesn't take anything of that
dead man. He leaves the dead man where
he is, like he is, and doesn't do a thing to him. He comes in
Himself and creates a new man that was not there. The Spirit
of God enters in and there's life because He's life. He's
life. There's a new man because He's
the new man. There is a new man created in
righteousness and true holiness. But it's when Christ, our righteousness
and our holiness enters in. You know when He entered in the
temple, in that temple, they made that temple, it was just
a form. It was just a body sitting there. But what happened when
Christ, the Shekinah glory entered in? He sanctified the whole temple.
His presence did it. That's what God does when He
enters in. We talk about that. That takes away my bringing myself
to God by my free will. That takes away me giving myself
life. That takes away all of that.
It humbles me. This is the substance of godliness. We could talk about walking in
faith rather than in the works of the law. Because the righteousness
of God is continually revealed through this gospel from God
who's faithful to that faith that he gives in his child. So
that the just live by faith. We actually live by the faith
of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. He's
the one that's maintaining our faith. He's the one that's keeping
us walking in faith. He's the one feeding our faith.
He's the one keeping us in godliness. And so, that takes the work out
of our hands. It puts it all in His hands.
We're taught to forgive. We're taught to be gracious.
We're taught to love one another. And here's why. It's God, for
Christ's sake, has forgiven you. It's not to gain merit with God.
It's because God has forgiven us, not for our sake even. Christ's sake. For the sake of
Him. There wasn't even anything in
us that would make Him forgive us. It's all in His Son. That's
why He forgave us. Because of what His Son did.
So, by words of faith and good doctrine, God Himself, by the
same divine power that began this work, nourishes our inward
man. And when a sinner experiences
this power, our worship starts being a form and we begin to
trust Him who is the power. We begin to trust Him. And as
we hear of His power, through His gospel, He exercises His
power to grow us in faith and hope and love in godliness. And next, right here in 1 Timothy
4, He tells us what the opposite of this nourishment is. Look
at verse 7. But refuse profane and old wise
fables, and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. You see
how he's juxtaposing old wise fables and profane fables with
godliness? He just told us to exercise godliness
is to heed the words of faith and sound doctrine. And he said,
but refuse profane fables and wise tales. Rather than exercising
yourself in those, Exercise yourself in godliness, in words of faith,
in good doctrine, as opposed to profane fables. Verse 8 says,
For bodily exercise profiteth little and for a little while. You see, this is a form right
here. Coming in here, this is the form. We have to come in
here like this. It profits you a little just
being here. Even if you don't believe God,
even if He doesn't quicken your heart, you're going to be profited
a little by being here. Because you've heard, you'll
walk away with something, just naturally speaking, that you've
heard. And it'll profit you for a little while. Because it's
just, the form's just carnal. The form is just in the flesh.
It'll just profit you as long as the flesh exists. Mortification,
profane fables. What are they going to be teaching
you? They're going to be teaching you that godliness is bodily
exercise. That's what he says, refuse those. They're teaching you that true
godliness involves bodily exercise. In other words, mortification
of the body by abstinence. That's how you mortify the deeds
of the body. You abstain. They tell you, Now,
just carry that on further. That sounds good when you hear
it. If you abstain from things, that's how you're going to mortify
the flesh. Carry it on to the furthest points you can get it.
If I abstain from everything, I will be a hermit locked away
in a remote castle somewhere by myself with nobody else around.
Is that going to cut off the pollutions of my flesh? Is that
going to stop me from sinning whatsoever? Nothing whatsoever. Nothing. Nothing at all. Which
things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility
and neglecting of the body, but not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh. That's what Paul said in Colossians
2. If what you hear is not giving God all the glory and planting
you at the feet of Christ, which is where you're going to be in
eternal life to come, He says, Godliness is profitable not only
for this life, but in the life to come. In the life to come,
we're going to be planted at the feet of Christ, giving Him
all the glory and all the praise and all the honor for all the
work. Now, if what we're hearing in this life is not doing that,
and not bringing us to the feet of Christ, and pronouncing us
as nothing, it's not profitable in this life either. Any more
than it would be in the life to come. It's not profitable.
But verse 8 says, but godliness is profitable unto all things
having promise of life that now is and of that which is to come.
True godliness, inward godliness is profitable for our present
life and the life to come. Let me give you one scripture
on that. The Lord God is a sun and shield. The Lord will give
grace, that's for today, that's for this life, and glory, that's
for the one to come. Who gives it? The Lord will do
it. The Lord will do it. No good thing will He withhold
from them that walk uprightly. Men will go, well that means
I got to walk uprightly for Him to give me that. The reason you're
going to walk uprightly is because He first gave it to you. And
once He makes you to walk uprightly, He's going to continue to give
everything you need to keep you walking uprightly. He gives grace
and He gives glory. Alright, now go back to our text
just a moment. Here's my next question. How
then do they deny the power of godliness? It says they deny
the power of godliness. We've established that the power
of godliness is God our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that
He nourishes us up through the gospel, the power of God unto
salvation. Alright? But how do they deny
this power of God? How do they deny God and deny
His gospel? How do they do it? They do it
by their works. They do it by their works. Paul
said in Titus 1.16, they profess that they know God. They have
a form of godliness. But in works, they deny Him being
abominable, an abomination to God, and disobedient to God,
and unto every good work, reprobate. They're doing a lot of good works,
what appear to be good works, but unto every good work, they
reprobate. They have no judgment, no spiritual
judgment, no spiritual discernment. Most people take those works
and they say that by denying God and His gospel by their works,
it means what I said before, that they go out and they commit
lewd sins and live an immoral life. And that is applicable. Men do that. Men do that. They
come in the front door and they profess God and they go out the
back door kicking up the hills and say, I'm free now like a
kid let out of school to go play on the playground. I can do whatever
I want to do now. and they use the gospel as just
a license to go out and sin and say, I can do all I want. That's
God forbid, Paul said. That's not what we're preaching
at all. But these men are doing this with a form of godliness. That's what Paul is saying. They're
denying God by their form of godliness. It's all right here
in our text in 2 Timothy 3, in these descriptions. These things
listed right here I want you to see this now. These things
listed are toward three persons. They're either toward themselves,
those with a form of godliness, they're toward themselves, or
they're toward God, or they're toward others. Now here it is.
Toward themselves, verse 2 says, let me get back over there with
you. 2 Timothy 3, 2. It says, men shall be lovers
of their own selves. and that is because of their
form of godliness. They love themselves because
of their form of godliness. They don't esteem others better
than themselves because they're not the chief of sinners. They
don't love others because they haven't experienced the love
of God in their heart and they haven't been made to see their
nothingness. True godliness sees self as he is. True godliness
wrought by God says, I've heard of thee by the hearing of the
ear. when I had a form. But now my eye seeth thee. I see you by faith. Wherefore
I abhor myself in dust and ashes. I don't love myself anymore. Not in this sinful, self-righteous
way. I abhor my flesh now. I abhor
it. All these things are toward God
because of their form. Verse 2 says, Covetous. They're coverages of the glory
that belongs to God. That's what coverages of having
the glory for creating their form of godliness themselves. You hearing that? That's what
they're coverages. Coverages of having the glory for making
others take up a form of godliness. Rather than God getting all the
glory for doing it. Look at Galatians 6 real quick. Galatians 6.12. To your left there, just a little
bit. Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. Galatians. Galatians 6, verse
12. As many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh, in their form, they constrain you to be circumcised. They constrain you to do something.
Unbelief, those with a form of religion are forever trying to
get somebody else to do something. to do something, to pray, to
show up and build a house for somebody, to do all these things. And God said, Christ said, but
you won't lift a finger to do one of them yourself. He said,
there you are, you got all these people doing these things and
you're not doing anything. You don't even show up. Well
look, here's why they do it. Only lest they should suffer
persecution for the cross of Christ. For neither they themselves
who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised
that they may glory in your flesh. But what does true godliness
say? But God forbid that I should glory. God forbid that I should
glory. God forbid that I should covet
his glory. Save in the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. There's where I'll glory. Because
it's by Him that the world's crucified unto me and I unto
the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
avails anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creature being made
godly. That's what avails. By Him. And as many as walk according
to this rule. What rule are you under? I'm
under this rule right here. This is my rule of life. This
is my rule. It's a new creature. God's work
that matters. Alright, back in our text, he
says they're boasters, they're proud. Boasters and proud. Just listen. Just listen. Who's
getting the glory? Who's getting the glory? They're
boasting of their work. They're boasting and proud of
their form of godliness. This is how anti-Christ is described. Oh, anti-Christ is that boogeyman
that's coming. Here's how anti-Christ is described.
Listen to this now. He opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God or that is worshipped. So that
he, as God, sits in the temple of God, in the church house,
showing himself that he is God. You say, folks, you know, say,
well, folks in religion don't do that. They speak of election
and they say, God elected me because he foresaw some good
in me. They speak of redemption and they say, I made Christ's
blood effectual by my faith. They speak of regeneration, they
say, I took the first step and then I let God do the rest. True
godliness says, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto
thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. You
see what I'm saying? There's a difference here. Blasphemers,
verse 2 says, because they attribute their form to themselves, therefore
in all their words and works they blaspheme God. It's blasphemy,
every bit of it. Toward others, this is also toward
others. Look at verse 2. Disobedient
to parents. Parents here stand for anybody
and everybody that's in authority. You see, those who have a form
of godliness that came by their own power, They hate anybody
and everybody's office that represents the power and authority of God
because they will not have this man reign over them. And I mean
Christ. They will not have Christ reign.
They hate those in authority for that reason. But true godliness,
where the power of God has come and worked in the heart, true
godliness is subject unto the higher powers, for there's no
power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. And we've been made to see that
one who has that power is our head. Christ our head by whom
we believe and worship God. So there's a reverence for authority.
There's a love of authority. I know who's holding the strings.
My head is. My king. Verse 2 says they're
unthankful. They're unthankful toward God
because they're self-made men. Unthankful toward their ministers.
Why should they thank a preacher? They did it themselves. Their
thank you's sound like this. They do say, I thank you, but
it sounds like this. God, I thank thee that I'm not
as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as
this publican. But true godliness, Paul says,
gives thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? because He's made us meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. We've
got nothing to boast in whatsoever. Verse 2 says unholy, unholy. Now, they think their form of
godliness is holiness. You know holiness is in the heart.
Holiness is a work of God whereby Christ enters in and He sanctifies
us and becomes unto us sanctification. So that all our holiness, when
you're made holy, you stop looking at your holiness and boasting
in your holiness and you start looking at Christ, your holiness. That's who you start looking
to. That's a sure indication a man's truly been made holy.
But as long as I'm looking at me and my holiness and defending
my holiness and all that I've done and saying now it's by this
that I'm going to be accepted of God. I'm unholy. I'm unholy. And so all this form
of godliness without God having wrought this work in the heart,
it's unholy. It's unholy. It appears holy,
but it's unholy. All right, verse 3 says, without
natural affection. This means they don't even show
affection to those that they naturally should show affection
to. Why not? Why not? You remember the Pharisees? They would take their money or
whatever they had, And it was what they were to support their
parents. The parents had raised them,
taken care of them. Now the parents got old, they ought to be taking
care of the parents. But instead of taking care of their parents,
they were so holy, and so pious, and so what they call godly,
that they would say, it's Corbin. It's a gift for God. And therefore,
I can't give it to you, Mom. I can't give it to you, Dad.
That sounds so holy and so good. That's not having any natural
affection. They do the same toward their
unprofessing husbands, and unprofessing wives, and unprofessing siblings,
and unprofessing children, considering themselves holier than everybody
around them, saying, don't come near me anymore, I'm holier than
you are. The only place holiness is used,
other than the holy of holies, is the only place holiness is
used in comparison with another. And God said, and there are stench
in my nostrils. It's the only place holiness
is used as being more holy, more holy, more holy. Whenever God
calls you and creates life in you, you're holy. You grow in
that state of holiness, but you don't become more holy. You don't. You grow in grace, you grow in
the knowledge of Him. But you don't become more holy.
Just like when you become a born a child, you became a human being
and you grow in that state of manliness, but you don't become
more man. You grow and your faculties grow,
but you don't become more man. You're a man. And we're meet
to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light when he
sanctifies us. That's right. So we don't go
around saying I'm holier than you are. I'm better than you
are. True holiness is seeing yourself
worse and worse and worse and worse, not better and better
and better and better. He must increase, I must decrease. That's the growth of true holiness.
Alright, truce breakers, verse 3. I can't go through all these,
but this could apply toward God and men. I'm just trying to show
you that these works are works in the way they think towards
God. They're truce breakers in this
way. They call themselves promise
keepers. Remember when that was a big thing a few years ago?
Everybody's a promise keeper. But they're trying to come to
God in the law. They're trying to come to God
by covenant of works that they've done. That means they've got
to keep the promise to God. They've got to do every work
of the law in thought, word and deed and never have any sin whatsoever. So they break that truce. They
break it. They break that covenant. And
so, likewise, they do the same towards others because they don't
know what it is. They have no idea what it is
to know a God who's justified them and keeps His everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and sure by Him. When God makes
you to know the Word of God is true and does not fail and does
not change, His everlasting covenant's ordered and sure in all things
by Him, that makes a man want to keep his word. That makes
a man not want to break his word. Verse 3 says, false accusers.
This is what self-righteousness makes men to be. When men have
a form of godliness that they got themselves, it makes men
like Satan himself. They want to accuse the brethren. They want to uncover faults of
others. They want to make their own form
of godliness appear more godly, and so the way to do it is to
throw more dirt on the other man's form. These are the works whereby they
deny God. Always looking for somebody to
discipline. That's it. Always looking for
somebody to discipline. The Lord said, Quit looking at
the splinter that's in somebody else's eye and behold the log
you got in your own eye. This book don't tell me to be
looking at others and making sure others are not judging and
making sure others are doing what they're supposed to do and
discipline them if they don't. This book tells me judge myself,
condemn myself. And then I won't be condemned.
I won't be judged. But if I won't do it, be assured,
God's going to do it. He's going to chase in me that
I don't walk around some high hearty, hell bound, self righteous
formalist and ceremonialist. He's going to bring me to see
you are what you are by the grace of God. Come down off your high
horse halts. That's what he's going to do.
And it's going to be painful. Incontinence. They pretend to
be temperate, to be full of self-control. But the whole form of religion
is one big unlawful greedy orgy of vain self-righteous religion.
That's what every bit of it is. Giving themselves up to all lasciviousness
to work all uncleanness with greediness. How could something
that appears so clean and so holy and so pristine and these
beautiful buildings that men have labored and given sacrificially
to build and all of the works they've done, how could that
be lasciviousness? Because God didn't work it. Anything
done by this sinful flesh is sin. That's all it is. And also, when nobody's looking,
a man that claims to have all his self-control, it usually
over-indulges in what they claim to control. True godliness doesn't confide
in self. Our new master that keeps us
by his power is this. This is what we say. Sin shall
not have dominion over me because I'm not under law, I'm under
grace. The only reason sin won't have
dominion over me is the Spirit of Christ. reigning in me and
over me and for me. That's why. Verse 3. Fierce despisers
of those that are good. You take somebody and they appear
to be so humble and loving and just they do anything for you. And that's how they want you
to see them. That's how they want you to see them. But let
somebody that God has one of his children that are good by
the righteousness of Christ alone, that are good because God has
made them new and put them in Christ in whom is all their righteousness
and holiness and wisdom and redemption. Let somebody come along like
that and declare the truth of God to them. And you'll see how
fierce they become. You'll see how fierce they become.
That form goes out the window. It goes out the window. They
despise those that are good. That's what they do. And the
scripture says, reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. You can declare
the truth to a scorner, to a man with a form, and he'll hate you.
He says, but rebuke a wise man, and he'll love you. He might
not right off the bat, because he's flesh too. And his flesh
may rise up at first and say, well, how dare you? But when
God sanctifies it to his heart, he'll love you. He'll love you.
Then in verse 4 it says, they're traitors. They may sit a long
while under the sound of the gospel, but as soon as their
false refuge is threatened, they turn on everyone around them,
just like Judas betrayed Christ with a kiss. All it took, all
it took for God to unleash the restraints off Judas for him
to do what was predetermined for him to do by his wicked hands.
All it took was for Christ to rebuke him. That's all it took.
And when Christ rebuked him, strongly rebuked him, it says
he went out that night and consorted with them how to take him, how
he would betray him. Traitors. But God's power, you
know what he does to a believer? He makes him a faithful dog.
Faithful dog. We just read all that about Israel. And there was no difference between
Israel and Caleb. No difference. But the scripture
says Caleb had another spirit. Caleb means faithful dog. Where
did he get that spirit? God gave it to him. God gave
it. In his flesh he was just like all that rebellion you read
about. And rebelled. Often. But in that new man, by
God, in Christ, he was a faithful dog because of God's faithfulness
to keep him and not regard his old man of sin because Christ
put it away. Verse 4 says, Turn over to 1
Corinthians 1. I got to hurry, but I want to
show you this. 1 Corinthians 1. Their preachers are bold. It's what heady means. They're
bold. And if you listen to them, I'll tell you this, I'm not trying
to be too harsh on them, but that's about as good a description
as I know of heady. Everything they're talking about
just sounds so heady. It's just like so above everybody. The way they talk and the words
they use and the things they say and it's just, it's heady. Bold. But listen to this. They
try to make converts. by crafting their words. That's
their headiness. They glory in men for making
them take their form, for getting them to be baptized, to join
the church, to take the Lord's table, or not take it, and on
and on. Listen to true godliness. 1 Corinthians
1 17. Paul said, Christ sent me not
to baptize. That's true godliness. This is
the work of true godliness. He didn't send me to make converts.
That's not my mission. I hope he makes some. I hope he calls some people.
But that's not my mission. He sent me to preach the gospel. That's what he sent me to do.
Not with wisdom of words. Not heady. Lest the cross of
Christ should be made of none effect. Not to take the effect
out of the cross. Not to tell men that they got
to make it effectual. Not to take the offense out of
it. For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. Who considers the preaching of
the cross foolishness? Who considers it unnecessary
and a vain thing? Only those who perish. That's
who. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. It's not the act of preaching
alone or attendance on preaching that is the power of God. Many
have that. That's a form. It is that through
the preaching of the cross of Christ, the power is God. The power is of God. That's what
Paul said. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. God works his power this way.
That's what he said. They craft their words. They
adopt methods and music. They creep into houses and they
lead silly women captive who are laden with sin. And as Janes
and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these resist the truth.
Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the truth of faith.
Janes and Jambres were pharaohs, magicians. They were pharaohs,
preachers. When Moses did a miracle by the
power of God, there's a picture of a gospel preacher working
a miracle of God's grace, not by his power, but by God's power
working in the centers to whom he preaches. Then these men come
along and they imitate that form by sleight of hand, by crafting
their words, so that they got many signs and wonders all around
them, so that if it was possible they'd deceive the very elect.
Because you look at it and you say, God must be in that, look
how many people they got. But it's magic, just like Jannes
and Jambres, withstanding Moses and with rejecting the truth.
High-minded, puffed up, swelled up, speaking great swelling words
of vanity because of their confidence in their form of godliness. And
look at this last thing, verse 4. Lovers of pleasures more than
lovers of God. They do, they love, the things
they love, the pleasures they love are these things they do
and say to keep up this outward form. It's not just going out
there and going to the ball games and all that stuff. It is the
form of godliness that they take pleasure in. They love it. They
love it. They love it. But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, unto the Greeks foolishness,
but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ
the power of God and the wisdom of God. What you got down there?
What you got to offer me? Christ the power and wisdom of
God. What am I going to do when I
come down there? How are you going to entertain me? We're
not. We're going to preach Christ,
the wisdom and power of God. That's what we're going to do.
Well, aren't you going to try to give me an invitation and
get me to come down to the front to an altar and aren't you going
to persuade me and aren't you going to try to get a profession
out of me and guilt me into making a profession and then after you've
done that bring me back under the yoke of the law so you can
keep me here and prod me and push me and bind me and mold
me and make me what you want me to be? No, sir. None of that. I'm fearful of that. The Apostle
Paul said this. He said, 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, but in the power of God. What's the demonstration
of the Spirit and of power? It's not necessarily that a man's
yelling. It's not necessarily how he's
preaching. It is the fact that he will not
preach anything else but Christ and Him crucified. Only the power
of God will make a man do that. And do it with boldness, unapologetically,
knowing this is the message God's going to call His people with.
Because He's experienced it. He's experienced it. The same
way we receive this mercy is the same way we continue. By
His power. by His power. All right, let
me give you two or three applications. First of all, back in our text,
here's the first one, 2 Timothy 3, 5. From such turn away, from
such turn away. They shall proceed no further,
he says in verse 9, their follies shall be made manifest unto all
men as Janice and Jambres also was. Those with a form of godliness
only desire to rob you into glory in what they make you do. This
is the thing. I told somebody here recently.
I said it's not leaving where I preach that gives me sorrow. That's not what gives me sorrow.
If you went to a gospel church where the gospel is preached,
I'd be happy for you. It's not me. I'm not just wanting
you sitting under me. That's not it. What I'm sorrowful
about is you're going to go out here where men are going to use
this craftiness And they're going to make you think they're out
for your good when all they're doing is robbing you, robbing
God of His glory and setting themselves up fat in the process.
And that makes me sorrowful. That makes me sorrowful. Understand
this too. This is why we preach Christ
and Him crucified in every message. Folks will say, well, why don't
you preach about something else? I declare God is just in every
message because Christ bore the sin of His people and declared
Him to be just. He's a just God. And He's the
justifier because it was God in Christ doing the justifying.
So that we're made righteous not by a thing we do but by God. And this is the message that's
going to bring us from boasting in our works and to truly walking
godly from the heart and walking in those works which God has
before ordained that we shall walk in. This is the message
that's going to do it. No other message. I said to you
before, when you preach a message about a practical thing, the
first thing to do is to show how that by our flesh and by
us, we have not done it. Not before or after conversion.
Shut us up first off with it. And then secondly, show how that
Christ came and he perfectly fulfilled it so that by what
he did, we have perfectly done it before the eye of God. And
then that message, if applied by God in the heart, that'll
make a man abhor himself and strive to really want to do that
practical thing by the power of God, not by his own power.
Alright? Know this. Thirdly, a form of
godliness will do you no good. It'll do you no good. Going to
church don't matter. It's not just any church or any
preaching. Those who think soldiers have
a form of godliness. Men who say, belittle the gospel. Belittle the gospel by saying,
oh, it doesn't really matter who I'm sitting under. I can
get something out of it. Yes, it does matter. Paul said,
if they preach another gospel which we've not preached to you,
let them be a curse. That's serious business. It does
matter. God's not blessing every message.
He said, the prophets that prophesy in their name and teach lies,
I did not send them. A form doesn't help you. Being
baptized won't help you. That won't save you. Coming to
the Lord's table won't save you. These things won't help you.
We need Christ, the power and wisdom of God. We need Christ. We need Christ. We need Him alone. So brethren, is your religion
without spiritual life? Is it just mundane? Is it tiresome? Is it a bore to you? What good, this virgin said,
can you warm yourself by a painted fire? What good is a form? Is there no comfort in your religion?
You can't get it from brother or father. Second-hand religion
is no good. And if I'm sitting here today
hearing the gospel preached, and today somebody comes to me
and says, gives me a reason why I shouldn't believe it, and I
can be persuaded to leave it and walk away from it, I was
persuaded to come there in the first place by a man. That's
right. You hear Brother Don say this
all the time. If I could persuade you to do something, somebody
else would come along and persuade you not to do it. I want your
persuasion to be of God and not of men. That's got to stay in
power, the staying power of God. So you can't get it from any
other. So ask God, if He's given you a heart to do so, ask Him
to create in you a clean heart and a right spirit, like David
did. And come to His feet. God, I pray, will come in power. and put all pretense away of
worship and make us honest with God and make us want to serve
Him and want to worship Him and put all our trust in Christ.
This is the substance of true godliness and it's of God. Amen.