This is the second letter that
was written to a young preacher. That preacher was a man by the
name of Timothy. And Paul writes to this man and
he warns him of very troublesome and perilous times that would
eventually come upon the scene. when people would be given over
to the desires of the flesh. He warns of a day that would
be coming, a day of immorality, a day of lawlessness, a day of
lack of respect for authority. And yet, he says of these very
perilous times, He said it will be a day of religion. And he says that, if you would
look back in chapter 3 to that passage Brandon read to us, verse
5. He says of these people, they
have a form of godliness. But it's just an empty, empty
shell. It has no substance. It's empty
of life. It's empty of our Lord Jesus.
It's empty of the Gospel. Religion is very, very plentiful
in the world. It's everywhere you turn. I'm certain, I've looked at a
few statistics, this is the most religious time that's ever been
in the history of the world. More churches, more denominations,
more preachers, more priests, more rabbis, lots of people involved
in religion, and yet it's a day of ungodliness. It's a day of wickedness. It's
a day in which the Word of God ought to be respected and ought
to be followed, but the Scriptures aren't. They aren't respected. He speaks in this passage of
Scripture of a spiritual apostasy. That is, of people who appear
to embrace the truth, and yet they forsake the truth of God
They go away from the gospel. You see, the gospel is all about
a person and his work. It's all about the grace of God. It's not about you. People today
want to hear about themselves. Preachers make me feel good about
myself. That's why I came today. and
as you make me feel good about myself, I'll be happy as I leave
rejoicing in the blessings that God has given to me." Well, the
service isn't for your good really. Though we want God to speak to
people, the service is for God. That's the reason we gather.
We gather morning and evening on the Lord's Day and we gather
Wednesday night. And what we're about is worship. We're all about honoring God. Now, as we honor God, He does
indeed feed us and bless us and speak to us. But our reason for
meeting is not to exalt the flesh. It's not to exalt the preacher.
You don't even need to know who I am. I had conducted funerals before. I conducted a funeral not too
long ago. And a person after the service
was over was asked, who was that that preached the service? And
the person didn't know me. He said, I don't know. So they
came and asked me. They said, who are you? You don't
need to know me. I'm just a voice. That's all. I'm just a voice in the wilderness.
It's like John the Baptist. He was the messenger who prepared
the way of the Lord Jesus. You need to know John the Baptist's
name. Who's John the Baptist? He's
just a man called by God, equipped by God, taught by God, but he's
just a man. You don't need to know John the
Baptist. You don't need to know me. You
need to know my Master. You need to know my Savior. You
need to know the One who is the Lord over all, blessed forever. But this is a day of religiosity
in which men love to set forth themselves in their ministry.
You will rarely, if ever, hear any television preacher ever
avoid speaking his own name. They love to say their own names.
They love the sound of it. But we're nobody talking about
somebody who's able to say, poor sinners like us. And here's Timothy and he speaks.
And he speaks of a day of leaving the truth, of leaving the Word
of God. And I do believe today is a day
of a spiritual famine. Don't you believe that, Alan?
I believe it's a day of spiritual famine. With only a few rare cases. where a person is preaching the
Gospel, most everything you hear is wrong. And I'm telling you, just being
honest with you, and most of you know this, and I want you
who are watching to know this, you cannot trust every man who
comes to you carrying a Bible and says, well, I'm speaking
for God. You just can't trust them. That's
a dangerous thing to do. Because even those who say they
believe the Word of God really don't. Those Pharisees of our
Lord's day, the scribes, the Sadducees, and the rabbis. Why, they all said they loved
the Word of God. They all said they believed the
Scriptures. But they did not preach Him whom
the Scriptures always set forth, even the Son of God, who loved
us and gave Himself for us." This is a day of very spiritual
famine. And I want you to look with me
back in the Old Testament and go to the book of Amos. And if
you have difficulty finding the book of Amos, find Hosea, Joel,
and then Amos. Daniel, Hosea, Joel, and Amos. And I'll get you to look at Amos
chapter 8. Amos chapter 8. One of the minor
prophets, but that doesn't mean minor in importance. It's major in importance. All
of the books of the Bible, all of the words of the Bible are
major in importance. It's just one of the books that
are not very lengthy. And we'll look in Amos 8. Chapter 8, look at verse 11,
and also verse 12. And I want you to wait until
I hear the pages stop turning, because I want you to read this
as I read it aloud. I want you to read it silently.
Listen what a solemn passage of Scripture this is. Amos 8,
verse 11. Behold, the days come. Who says so? Who's making this
statement? Is it Amos? Wait a minute. No. Saith the Lord God. He's speaking through the ink
pen of Amos. He gives the words to Amos, but
these are God's words. He says that I will send a family. Who's going to send it? God sends
it. You see, He controls everything. He controls times of harvest
when we sow the good seed of the Word of God like Simon Peter
did on the day of Pentecost. And He brings forth the harvest.
Thousands of people converted. Who did that? God did that. He can either send a harvest
or He can send a famine. And what can we do about it?
That's up to the Lord. He can bring forth an increase,
or He can leave things as they are, or He can take some of His
people away so that the number of the saints of God and the
number of those places that preach the Gospel, they seem to be diminished. This is all in God's hands. So
it says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord. Behold, look,
listen. Pay attention, that's what behold means. The days come,
saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land. Now
I believe we're living in that day and there have been other
eras, other ages when people were living in these sorts of
times when God would send a famine in the land. Now watch it. Not
a famine of bread. Lots of food. And not a thirst
for water. But of what? Hearing the words
of the Lord. It is a famine of spiritual bread. Our Lord Jesus is the living
bread that came down from heaven. But who's setting Him forth?
Who's presenting Him? Who's saying this is the Son
of God and this is the One we eat of and live? He said, if
you eat of My flesh, you'll live forever. He's talking about faith
in Him. You'll live forever. But who's
setting forth the bread? And who's setting forth the water
of life? There's a well of salvation.
It's abundant with water. It satisfies the soul. Where
can the well be found? Most religions today, most churches
are just like dried up cisterns. There's nothing to them. And I know there's some people
who, they believe, well, you know, if I'm going to be out
of town, I just think we need to go to church somewhere. I
don't subscribe to that. Not at all. I'm not going to
go hear error. I'm not going to go hear somebody
drag the name of my sovereign God through the mud. I won't
do it. I'll stay home and read the Scriptures.
Wherever I happen to be, vacationing or whatever, I'll take the time
to listen to our program, whoever's speaking for me. I'll listen
to the very truth of God's Word, but I'm not going to sit under
false teaching. Because there's no bread there. But that's a judgment of God.
Now don't forget that. He sends the famine. Do you know
the reason that we can come together and hear the very truth of redeeming
grace? Of the bloody sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ? It's because God has heaped blessings. He keeps on heaping blessings
upon us so we can hear the truth. But He who gives the truth, He
who establishes a lighthouse in an area, can take it away. And I say the greatest blessing
God can give to a community is a Gospel preaching church. And the greatest curse God can
bring upon a city or a locality, take that truth away. Because
if He takes that truth away, you're dead while you live. That's
it. He can send the harvest, or He
can send a famine. And it's a famine for hearing
the words of the Lord. And look at verse 12. And they
shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the
east, They shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord,
and shall not find it." That's a sad situation. People want to hear something,
but there's nothing to hear. There's some folks watching tonight,
assuming we have internet service and the message is getting out,
but there are people all over that I hear from. They write
me letters or they email me or they text me. And they'll say,
Jim, do you know of anybody in the area where we live, for instance,
up in Canada? We have several people in Canada
who listen to us. Do you know of anybody up here
preaching the Gospel? Out in California? Several people
have written me. Do you know of anybody out here
in New Mexico? Colorado? I mean, I can just
go on and on. Do you know of anybody in our
community, in our city? And I'm not saying that I know
all the true gospel preaching churches. I don't. But I'll tell you, there are
just enough. Did you know that? They're just
enough. And it's the Lord's business
if He's going to send a famine. And maybe somebody who's watching
tonight by way of the internet, you're thinking, well, I wonder,
Jim, is there anybody in our area preaching the gospel? Well,
I hope there is. But here's the litmus test. As you listen to somebody set
forth the Word of God, here is the test of all tests. Who is
getting the glory? That's the test. And if in any
way man is getting some of the credit, some of the glory, the
Gospel is not being preached. If man's worth is being set forth,
if man's works are being set forth, or man's will is being
set forth, you're not hearing the truth of the gospel of Christ.
This message of good news is that everything a holy God demanded,
His Son provided for us. He is the propitiation for our
sins. That's a big, long word that
means He satisfied divine justice for us. I had a dear lady, as she left
the auditorium today, gave me a great big hug and she said,
this message of God's judgment and God's justice being poured
out upon the Son of God, that that satisfied Him. She said,
not many people hear that message. And that's sad. That's sad. Why don't men set forth this
message? Why don't they proclaim the grace
of God in Christ? Well, I'll tell you why they
don't proclaim it. They don't know. Because they can't tell what
they don't know, as Brother Mahan used to say, any more than you
can come back from where you haven't already been. He said
that a bunch of times, didn't he? I'll tell you what God has sent
in this day is a spiritual famine in various locations, and in
many nations. It's only due to the grace of
God there's no famine in here. It's only due to the grace of
God there's no famine up your way. Oh, the bread of life. Somebody
tell me about the bread. Tell me about that bread that
came down from heaven. That heavenly manna! Tell me
about the rock Christ Jesus who was smitten and the water of
life came freely forth from Him. This is a day of spiritual blindness. It is a day of spiritual ignorance. It is a day of the religion of
antichrist. You say, well, who do you think
Antichrist is? Everything that's not for Christ
is Antichrist. Does that make sense? If you're
not for Him, you're against Him. And most so-called churches are
not for the Lord of glory. They're not for Christ Jesus.
They don't want to honor Him. They don't want to magnify Him.
They don't want to glorify Him. They want some glory themselves.
They're anti-Christ. And the Savior said, He that
is not with Me is against Me. To be against Him is to be anti-Christ. That's the religion of this world. You see, anti-Antichrist religion
in the Bible is set forth as Babylon. Babylon. The city of demons. The city
of false religion. She looks beautiful. She looks
alluring. She's like a harlot. And Solomon
paints this picture of false religion in Proverbs chapter
7. She's so gorgeous. Religion today is so attractive
and it just lures people in. Only that they might continue
in their blindness. Because it's anti-religion. I know the religion today is,
listen, be charitable. Do good deeds. Live by the golden rule. And
preachers say that and they smile. They smile. And as you do good, as you do
good and as you seek to do things that please God, Well, then He
will, in return, give you good things. That's the religion of
man. Do something for God, God will
do something for you. That's man's religion right there.
And yet, we look at the Word of God, and the Word of God talks
about our spiritual impotence. of our spiritual inabilities. That we by nature are spiritually
dead in trespasses and in sins. That we cannot lift one little
spiritual finger to aid us spiritually. And men don't want to hear that
because they say, tell me what to do preacher. Don't you have some rules for
me to obey? Aren't there ten things that
I could do and then I can be saved? Can I climb some steps like Martin
Luther tried to do many years ago? Surely if I deprive myself
of some things, God will take notice? It's not you. It's not something
you do because you're the problem. You're the one who's spiritually
sick. The only one who can help us
has to be the great physician. And that's Christ Himself. And
you don't hear that kind of preaching much anymore. You'll hear a preacher say a
few things and then at the end he'll say, now, I don't want
to close the program or close the service without giving you
a chance to make Jesus Lord. And if you would repeat this
prayer with me, and if you will, you'll be saved. God be merciful
to me a sinner. Well, repeat that. Can you repeat
that? God be merciful to me a sinner.
Well, now you're saved. Don't ever doubt it. Is that
all it is? What about the work of the Spirit
of God in raising the spiritual dead? In quickening us? In regeneration? In the new birth? It's much more than you answering
yes to a few questions. I remember when I was a little
boy, sitting right here toward the front, not in this building,
but in Bassett, Virginia. And the preacher preached, and
he said, you don't want to go to hell, do you? Man, I don't
want to go to hell. I didn't want to go to hell when
I was six years old. Don't want to go now. He said,
if you don't want to go to hell, then you surely want to go to
heaven. I said, yeah, I want to go to heaven. He says, all
you got to do, accept, believe, and confess. Well, I can do that. A-B-C. Accept, believe, confess. He said, when we sing the invitation
song, you come down here and shake my hand. That shows you
mean business with God. And I did. I slipped out, went
down and shook hands with him. He said, you believe on Jesus?
I said, yeah. He said, you don't want to go
to hell, do you Jimmy? I said, no. He said, you want
to go to heaven when you die? I said, I really do. He said,
just believe Jesus died and buried and rose again the third day
and be baptized and live for Him. Live for Him. I said, I
will. And I started trying to live
for Him. There's it. No miracle of grace. Nothing
about what God had to do for me. Nothing about the necessity
of our Lord Jesus Christ suffering death on the behalf of His guilty
people. Nothing about that. It's just
believe He came, He lived, He died, He arose, He's gone back
to heaven. Let me tell you something. The
devil believes that. But he sure isn't saved. So I believe. Just a minute. Excuse me. You say, I believe
there's a God. Well, whoop-dee-doo. Congratulations. I think we ought to give you
a medal. The devil believes he knows there's
a God. He goes one step further. He
trembles. But you don't. Because he has
a much better understanding of who God is than you do. You know that? He's got a much
better understanding of who God is. But we're wrapped up in this
false religion, in this spiritual apostasy. We're in a mess. You say, boy, our country sure
is in a mess. You don't know the half of it.
It isn't a political mess. It's not an economic mess. It's
a spiritual mess. And the only way out of it is
if our great and glorious God would have mercy on our poor,
pitiful souls. That's the only hope we've got. The major beliefs of all organized
religions in the so-called Christian world, they're all purely Roman
doctrines. That's the truth. It's a free will salvation and a works justification. It's a day of evil things. It's
a day in which people say evil is in things. That's why preachers... When I was growing up, you had
to give up this, had to give up that, don't do this, don't
do that, because it's evil. There's no evil in things. The evil's in us. That's where
the evil is. There was a fellow back in the
1800s, Sam Jones. He was a Southern Methodist. His entire ministry was dedicating
to wiping out alcoholism and drunkenness. Now, I'm opposed
to drunkenness. The Bible says, be not drunk
with wine, where it is excess. But this was his ministry. He
wanted all alcoholic beverages outlawed. Okay? That was his ministry. And if he had been successful
It had been a dry country, still going to hell. Right? It's still perishing. Because he preached that sin
is in the bottle. No, sir. Sin is not in the bottle. It's in the human heart. That's
where it's at. Our Lord Jesus, The Pharisees
came to him and said, why do your disciples eat with unwashed
hands? And they meant you should always
wash your hands as an indication of spiritual commitment, dedication,
and purity. With them, it was a ceremonial
thing. Now we believe you ought to wash
your hands before you eat. We've been preaching that. Wash
your hands while you sing Happy Birthday. Wash your hands, wash
your hands before you eat. It's good. I remember a little
bit ago that I hadn't sanitized my hands and I shook hands with
all you sinful people and I tried to get the filth off my hands. But they believed it was a ceremonial
thing. Because if you didn't, then if
you ate something that a Gentile had touched, oh, you take that
evil into your heart. And the Savior said, that's not
your problem. He said, it's not what you're
putting in your mouth that's the trouble. It's what's coming
out of it. The source is an evil heart.
An evil heart of unbelief. People don't know that. It's a day of sin is in things. I grew up, you couldn't go to
a baseball game on Sunday. You couldn't go swimming on Sunday. Why not? It's sin to swim on
Sunday. You can swim on Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday and Saturday, but you can't swim on Sunday. And we
had this drilled into our minds. When I was in elementary school,
if you permit me to tell a little bit of personal history, I've
always had a love for music and I decided that I wanted to join
the band in the fifth grade. So I started playing an instrument.
And we went to a very strict Baptist church. And as I got
older and then got to the age where I was in marching band,
I just assumed that'd be okay. My parents said, you can't march
in a marching band. That's sinful. And I said, well, I didn't know
that. They said, because you're marching to music. So it's just like dancing. And we laugh. Hey, it is kind
of funny as I think back about it. But that's what religion
does to you. It just straps you down. It lays
these heavy burdens on you. That's what Peter said. to those
Jews, said, why do you put laws on people that our forefathers
couldn't keep? These heavy restrictions. It's
not sin marching in the band, or doing a lot of other things.
Sin's not where you go, or what you do, or what you eat, or what
you drink. Your sin, is that right? That's right, your sin, See,
we have this idea today, well, hey, I try not to lie. Good for
you. I try not to cheat. Great. I try to always tell the truth.
Wonderful. But I'll tell you something.
Within you, down there deep where you can't get to, you're evil
on the inside. Now what are you going to do
about that? And the answer is, absolutely
nothing. See, that's why salvation's got
to be of the Lord. That's why we preach the Word.
That's what the Apostle Paul told Timothy. Preach the Word!
Be instant in season. Go back over here to our text
in 2 Timothy. I'll wind this up, but I'm going
to bring part two of this next Sunday evening. But he says this
in 2 Timothy chapter 4. He goes through and he talks
about the Scriptures. Then he gets to chapter 4 and
he says, I charge thee therefore before God, Timothy, you're a
young preacher, now listen to me, he says, I'm going to give
you this charge, this order. Before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing
in His kingdom, you preach the Word. Be instant, in season,
and out of season. You preach when they want to
hear it and you preach when they are not even interested at all. You magnify My name when nobody
wants to listen, and You magnify My name when everybody wants
to listen, in season and out of season. Because there is no
season when the Word of God ought not be preached. He says preach the Word. Instant. Be urgent. In season and out
of season. And I don't know whether you
believe, the message of grace or not. But I hope, I hope and I pray,
that as you listen to this man preach, that it is obvious to
you, I do believe what I preach. I believe who I preach. You may not believe. I can't
do anything about that. But I know this, God Almighty
has given me faith to believe salvation His way by grace alone. Electing grace, redeeming grace,
calling grace, preserving grace, perfecting grace. God's given
me grace. It's all of God. I can't help
but tell people about the grace of God in Christ Jesus. It just
comes out of us, doesn't it, Alan? It's like, okay, get up
and preach to us. It's like turning the faucet
on. You surely expect to get water when you turn the faucet
on. You turn one of God's preachers loose, say, hey, talk to us,
preacher. Preach to us, preacher. The water's
going to flow. We've got to tell what we know.
Years ago, I was sitting in a preacher's office and I was teaching a Sunday
school class and God was teaching me the gospel. And I didn't want to speak contrary
to what He was preaching the pulpit and I knew in my heart
I needed to be honest with Him that my message that I was teaching
was very inconsistent with His message because His message was
a message of free will. My message was a message of God's
will, sovereign will. God's sovereign grace. He saves
whom He will. And that preacher, he was a very
nice man. Nice man. He said, you acquainted
with Arthur A.W. Pink? And I said, yeah, I like
the writings of Pink. He pointed up on a bookshelf. He said, you see those three
volumes there, The Sovereignty of God? I said, yeah. I said, somebody gave me that
book. I read it all one night. And he said, well, I believe
everything's in those three volumes. That's the way I. C. Heron Dean
published that. He's been here. He's been here
years and years ago. And he told me, he said, I believe
that everything A. W. Pink wrote in those books
published by I. C. Heron Dean. And I said, but
you don't preach it. Why don't you preach the truth? He said, you don't understand.
If I preach what's in those books, which I know is the truth, he
said, I'd get fired. I understand I was a very young
man then. And I said, well, the way I see
it, sir, you really preach what you really believe. And if you
really believed that God is sovereign in salvation and in divine providence
and the dispensing of His grace, if you really believed the truth
of God's Word, you'd say, it doesn't matter what men think.
I'm going to set forth the truth. He said, I just can't do it.
And I said, well, Who was the guy at the end of Job? Eliphaz? Is that who it was? He said,
I'm just full of the matter. I said, you know, I'm kind of
like him. He said, I'm going to bust wide open if I don't
tell this truth. And I told him, I said, well,
I can't stay here any longer. I left. Never looked back. Never looked back. Tell you what, I believe this
Gospel. I believe God who's the author
of this Gospel. And this message of God's salvation
by Christ, it will get the job done. All you've got to do is
preach it. Not twist Him by His arms. Hey,
I'm not going to back you in a corner. I'm not going to have
an altar call. We don't ever have an altar call here. Don't
have an altar. How can you have an altar called
Alan if you don't have an altar? Our altar is in glory. Seated
at the Father's right hand. I compel you to come to Christ
Jesus. I point you to Him. But I know
who's got to sovereignly and effectually draw you to Him.
That's the Lord. Ain't nobody going to have to
beg you. I'll give you one more story if you don't mind. Years
ago, I finished preaching. I said, well, we turn the final
hymn. I forget what it was. Because
it's back in Rocky Mount, Virginia. I said, we'll sing a final hymn.
We'll sing all four stanzas. And then as I was walking up
the aisle, as I do sometimes, I decided we'd just sing one
verse. You're not surprised at that,
are you, John? So I said, hey, first verse,
that's all we're going to sing. Y'all go on home. We'll gather
tonight. And a lady stepped out and she
said, wait! She said, the Lord's done something
for me. And I want everybody to know
and I want you to baptize me. I said, wait a minute, everybody,
wait a minute. Nobody begged her. Nobody bribed
her. Nobody coerced her. Nobody put
pressure on her. Well, how did that happen? That's the work of the Spirit
of Grace. And I'll tell you what, if you're
brought to believe the Gospel of God's grace in Christ Jesus
to unworthy sinners, I'll guarantee you, you'll find a way to tell
me about it. And then I'll baptize you. Is
that right, Alan? That's the truth, isn't it? Well, I've said enough. I'll
finish the Lord willing next Sunday night. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. That's what
Paul told Timothy.