Turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter
3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. Every time we start one of these
studies here in 2 Timothy, I remind you that Paul is warning Timothy
of the lies of false religion. That's what he's doing here.
The damning lies of false religion by false preachers. And verse
7, He said, they are ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as
Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist
the truth. They're men of corrupt minds,
reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further
for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs was also. But thou hast fully known my
doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity,
patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch,
at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all
the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and
seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them. Those last two verses are the
text for today. And in reading those two verses,
I thought of Isaiah 45. And in turning to Isaiah 45,
I ended up staying there for all three of our messages today.
All three of our messages are gonna come from Isaiah 45. So let's read those last two
verses again, and then we'll expound on them in Isaiah 45.
Verse 13, he said, evil men and seducers, shall wax worse and
worse. Now let me just tell you that
I've never noticed that before. Never in my life. In studying
this, I had it in my mind, I've always had it in my mind that
as bad as it is, it's always been that bad. Bad as religion
is, it's always been that bad. And it has always been bad. But
that says that these evil men, These seducers are gonna wax
worse and worse. It's gonna get worse and worse. You can't even imagine it getting
any worse, can you? Verse 13, evil men and seducers
shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue
thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. Knowing of whom
thou hast learned them. When I read that, this declaration
came to my mind. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside me There's
none else. There's none else. Evil men and
seducers are going to wax worse and worse, deceiving and being
deceived themselves. But continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom
thou hast learned them." If we know the truth concerning God,
flesh and blood didn't reveal that to us. Meaning, if you know
the truth concerning God, I didn't reveal that to you. Or whoever
you heard the gospel from didn't reveal that to you. You can sit
and listen to a man preach the truth all your life and never
come to a true saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. It takes God
Almighty to do that. It takes God the Father to do
that. If we know that, our heavenly Father revealed it to us. And
when he does reveal the truth to us, this is what he reveals,
okay? Turn with me over to Isaiah 45. The heading over the top of my
page for verse 16, it says, idols are not to be compared with God. Idols are not to be compared
with God. That's what this is talking about in warning of.
Same thing Paul was warning Timothy of. That was the warning in the
Old Testament. That's the warning in the New Testament. Idols are not to be compared
with God. This is the same word from the
same God, okay? The word that Paul gave Timothy,
we just read it. This is the same word, but this
is directly from the mouth of God. In 2 Timothy, Paul spoke
through a messenger. This is directly from the mouth
of God himself. Verse 16, he said, they, false
religion, false preachers, false worshipers of false gods. They shall be ashamed and also
confounded, all of them. They shall go to confusion together
that are makers of idols. An idol is anything that a person
looks to or reverences with a heart of worship. Anything that when
you see it, reverence goes to it. That's an idol. Verse 16. They shall be ashamed
and also confounded, all of them. They shall go to confusion together
that are makers of idols. An idol doesn't exist until it's
made. An idol does not exist until
it's made, made in the heart of a man or a woman. It's not
something that already exists and then a man or a woman comes
to a knowledge of it. It's something that man creates
in his own heart. And as a side note, anything
that man creates on his own is sin. If man created it, it's
sin, it's evil, it's wicked, and it's dead. If man did it,
it's dead, evil, wicked, sinful. Verse 16, they shall be ashamed
and also confounded, all of them, they shall go to confusion together
that are makers of idols, but Israel shall be saved. God's people, God's chosen elect,
spiritual Israel. Israel shall be saved in the
Lord. That's the only way a sinner
can be saved. Trust me, we take that sentence
for granted. I wish people knew, I wish people
knew. You all live in a neighborhood.
Most of you live in some kind of neighborhood. Your neighbors
don't know that. The only way a sinner can be
saved is in the Lord, by the Lord. You tell them that, they'll
say, Amen, brother, that's right. They don't know what you're talking
about. That has to be revealed by the Heavenly Father. The only way a sinner can be
saved is in the blood of Jesus Christ, in the cross of Jesus
Christ, in the death of Jesus Christ. That's the only way.
Verse 17, right here, it says, but Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation. What God does is forever. If he saves, he keeps. If he saves, he keeps. Verse
17, Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without
end. Our God created this heaven and
this earth, and he has created another one. He's created another
one. And he's purposed, he has decreed
that this heaven and this earth is going to end because of sin. But he's purposed and he has
decreed that that new heaven and that new earth, it will never know sin. Never,
it will never know sin. And therefore, that new world
and that new life is never gonna end. How glorious is it? We're so worried about getting
sick. Is anybody not worried about getting sick? I mean, whether
big sickness or little sickness, I don't want a cold. Somebody
says, I got a cold. Get away from me. We're so worried
about sickness. I'm telling you, we're worried
about death. We're worried about it. Never again. The new heaven, that new earth.
No sin, no sickness, no end. Verse 17, but Israel shall be
saved in the Lord, With an everlasting salvation, you shall not be ashamed
nor confounded, world without end. For thus saith the Lord
that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth
and made it, he hath established it, he created it not in vain,
he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there's none
else. He said the whole reason I made this new heaven and this
new earth was to inhabit it with my people. That's the whole reason.
He said I'm gonna dwell there and all my people are gonna dwell
there. Turn over to Isaiah 65. I love reading this. Every time
we read this chapter, I just love it. Isaiah 65, verse eight. Thus saith the Lord, as the new
wine is found in the cluster, and one saith, destroy it not,
for a blessing is in it. So will I do for my servants'
sake that I may not destroy them all. And I will bring forth a
seed out of Jacob and out of Judah, an inheritor of my mountains,
And mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants shall dwell
there. That's who's going to dwell on
this new heaven and this new earth. Verse 17 says, For behold,
I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not
be remembered nor come into mind. All the pain, all the sorrow.
But be ye glad and rejoice forever in that which I create, for behold,
I create Jerusalem a rejoicing in her people of joy. And I will
rejoice in Jerusalem and joy in my people. And the voice of
weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. There shall be no more thence
an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not fulfilled his
days. For the child shall die a hundred
years old, but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be
a curse. And they shall build houses and inhabit them, and
they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. And they
shall not build and another inhabit, they shall not plant and another
eat. For as the days of a tree are
the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work
of their hands. They shall not labor in vain,
nor bring forth for trouble, for they are the seed of the
blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall
come to pass that before they call, I will answer, and while
they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall
feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock, And
dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy
in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord. Every word in this
book is spirit. Every word is spiritual. But
that's not just spiritual, that's physical. He said, that's what I'm gonna
do. And that's what he's already done. And he's going to gather every
one of his chosen saved people to that place with him. That wonderful place with him.
Go back to Isaiah 45. Verse 18 says, for thus saith
the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth
and made it, he hath established it, he created it not in vain,
he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There is one God. There's only
one God who can do this. There's only one God who has
done this. And it's not the God of man's
imagination. This is what I want to make very
clear. There's only this glorious thing
we just read about, just hard to imagine, hard to believe,
hard to get a hold of. There's only one God that can
do that. And it's not the God of man's
imagination. It's not the God of man's creation. It's the true and living God
of the scripture. It's the God who created all
things. It's the God who created the
world and all men and women in the world. It's the eternal owner. It's the eternal controller. He is the only God that there
is. Father, Son, and Spirit. Three
persons, one God. He's the only one. He's the only
one. Verse 18, thus saith the Lord
that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth
and made it, he hath established it, he created it not in vain,
he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I have not spoken in secret in
a dark place of the earth. He said, I've not done all this
in a corner. I've not hid all this under a
bushel. Have they not all heard? Have
they not all heard? This has been declared to the
whole world. The heavens declare it. You know,
they got these incredible telescopes now. Can we not see God in that? Can
we not see God in that? No, I don't see God. I see a
big, huge bang. The heavens declare it, the earth
declares it. The word of God Almighty declares
it. There's one God. There's only
one who has done all these things. And he's not the creator of man. He's not the creation of man's
imagination. He's the creator of man. He's the only savior of man.
He's the only hope that mankind has. He's the only one. Verse
19, I've not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth.
I said not unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. He said, I've never said to a
center, seek me and that center not find me. Never. If I say seek me, it's because
I purpose for that center to find me. The end of verse 19,
he said, I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I declare things that are right.
Barely, barely. This is the truth. This is the
truth. Verse 20, assemble yourselves
and come. Draw near together ye that are
escaped to the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image. and pray unto a God that cannot
save. An idol is something that's created
in the heart of man that he shows reverence to and worship to. When that creation comes out
of the heart and out of the mind of man and is fashioned into
something that can be seen with the eyes, It's called a graven
image. And I wanna like, let me really
make this clear. This is important. All right,
when it's in the heart, it's an idol. And when it makes its
way out of the heart and is fashioned into something that everybody
else can see, it's called a graven image. It's a symbol of religion. It's a symbol that represents
a man and a woman's religion. Anything that when someone sees
it, they reverence it and they worship it as being godly, as
bringing our attention toward God or that is a symbol of God,
that's a graven image. That is a graven image. In Exodus
20, our Lord said, thou shalt not make unto thee any graven
image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that
is in earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. If you want to paint a painting
or if you want to make a carving of anything in the world for
the beauty and the art and the enjoyment of doing it, go for
it. Go for it. But the moment you
paint something or you carve something for the purpose of
bringing man's attention to God by that thing, you've made a
graven image. Our teachers, teaching our kids
in these Bible classes, Sometimes they'll have a coloring page
for the little kids to color. You'll see them come out with
their coloring page. You can print them off the internet.
You can get all kinds of stuff to just print off, Sunday school
material, that kind of thing. Well, often these pages will
come with a cartoon image of God in the clouds. Or, you know, it'll be a man
who's supposed to be the Lord Jesus Christ, or it'll be hands
that are supposed to be God's hands. Most of them come with a cross
on it somewhere. Most of them do, pretty much
they all do. Well, our teachers cover those things up with another
piece of paper and recopy them. without those things on there.
And the reason is because those things are graven images. They're
graven images. You ever wonder why I don't wear
a cross on a chain around my neck? Or a white collar. I could go
buy a black shirt and just stick a little piece of white in it
right there. And you know what I would be doing? I would be
telling everybody something. Like by that, when you see that,
you're telling everybody something. I'm godly, I'm promoting godliness,
I'm promoting God. If I had a little white collar
right here, I would be telling everybody I'm religious, I'm
holy, you need to be too, you're welcome to come talk to me if
you need any help in religion. You need God right here. If I
did that, I would be a walking graven image. Honestly, the reason
we don't have crosses in here is not because we haven't finished
decorating yet. They're graven images. And I
know that a lot of people don't understand this and a lot of
people take offense to this, but this is the word of the Lord. These things are graven images.
All of this false religion is full of these things. It's just
full of these things. Something made by men's hands
to represent God. This is what the Lord God Almighty
said. He said, I'm not worshiped with men's hands in any way,
shape, or form. And I'm just going to continue.
If I make my hand go like this when I pray, I'm making a graven
image. I love fish like anybody who
knows me. You know, I've gotten so many
comments over that Filet-O-Fish statement. Why didn't you say Big Mac? I
don't ever go to McDonald's, so it's a real treat for me.
And I'm going to get a Filet-O-Fish if I can. I love fish so much. I really do. I love it all kinds
of ways. But the moment that I take two
curved lines and go like this. and put a little dot for an eye. I made a graven image. Don't
do that with anything in heaven. Don't do that with anything that
you could see on the earth or anything under the water. It's
a graven image. And the Lord God is not gonna
have it. All of these idols. Read through
the Old Testament. All of these religions with their
statues and their items and their things. The Lord used to tell
his prophets, you go in there with an axe and cut it all down. And that's what they would do.
They would go in and cut it all down. And this is what we're
doing with the acts of the word. We're just cutting it all down.
People think they can have confidence of being saved because they reverence
and they worship their own created images. The problem is when our eyes,
and this is the real problem, you say, yeah, but it's bringing
us to God. You know, it's talking about
God. Not really. It's stopping at that image. When our eyes are on these other
things, we're missing Christ. We really are. We haven't made
it to Christ yet. It's not the cross. You say, Gabe, why are you so
against crosses? You talk about it every message. Well, it's
not the cross. It's the Christ who hung there. It's the Christ who hung there. We don't need to kiss the cross. We need to kiss the sun. He must be the only object of
our reverence and worship. He must be it. You know, we have,
and you say, well, I don't reverence it and worship. Well, throw one
away, see how you feel about it. People come to me with Bibles,
old Bibles that are bad translations. They don't have good, well, I
can't throw it away, it's a Bible. You can. If it's a bad translation,
if it's not something that you want somebody to read, We're
not worshiping pages in ink, in a leather cover. But that's
a good example of what I'm talking about. That's a holy thing. No, it's not. It's not. In the Old Testament, Moses made
a serpent of brass and he put it on a pole. Okay, everyone
who looked lived. Well, years later, they had that
brass pole. They found that brass pole. It's in 2 Kings 18. They brought
it to King Hezekiah and they said, what do we do with this?
And he said, you break that thing into pieces. This is literally
the brazing serpent on the pole that Moses made. He held it up
and people looked. He said, you break that thing
into pieces. Why? Because if you don't, you'll
end up worshiping that image more than the one that image
was picturing. He called it Nahushtin. That's
what he called it. It's worthless brass. Melt it, make a ring out of it,
do whatever you want to do with it. Anything, if anything steals
our attention, if it steals our reverence, if it steals our awe
away from Christ, We're worshiping a God that cannot save. There's
no salvation outside of Christ. None. Verse 20 says, assemble
yourselves and come, draw near together ye that are escaped
to the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. They're ever learning, but they're
never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. Verse 21, tell
ye and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? Who hath told it from that
time? Have not I the Lord and there
is no God else beside me? A just God and a savior. There is none beside me. Paul told Timothy in 2nd Timothy,
he said, men are going to deceive because they are deceived. If
they knew the truth, they would tell the truth. They are deceived by all the
lies of false religion, all the idolatry, the graven images that
men tell people, you know, look to this and it'll save you, when
it won't. He said, Timothy, this world
is full of gods that cannot save. Stay focused on Christ. Stay
focused on Christ. He said, Timothy, you continue
in these two little words right here. Of whom? Of whom? There's none beside him. He's
the only just God and Savior. All right, now we're going to
stop for a minute. And when we come back together for our service,
we're going to pick up right where we left off.