played that on the organ. And
I, of course, recognized it and I thought, well, I'd like for
Suzanne to sing that someday. But I think you mentioned it
to her about singing it. And it is excellent and a wonderful
message to it. And it was certainly a blessing
to me, and I know it was to you. If you would, get your Bibles
and turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. 2 Timothy and we'll look at chapter
2. who wrote this book by divine
inspiration, that being, of course, the great Apostle Paul. He encountered
many difficulties after his conversion. He didn't really run into so
much trouble before God saved him, but once the resurrected
exalted Redeemer, met him on the road to Damascus and knocked
him off his high horse of pride and brought him to believe him.
Three days later restored his eyesight, made known to him he
was a chosen vessel, ordained to preach the gospel. He went
forth in obedience to our Lord Jesus And as he did, he ran into
many troubles. He didn't know what troubles
were until God saved him, really. He had many difficulties in life. He writes of those in the book
of 2 Corinthians. He talks about being often in
perils of robbers, in perils of shipwreck. in perils in the
city, in perils in the wilderness. He writes of being in weariness. He writes of being in painfulness. He writes of being buffeted by
messenger of Satan, which most likely was his poor eyesight. He writes of being hungry. thirsty,
in prison, in cold, in nakedness. He met with many, many difficulties
as a preacher of the gospel. He had great wars and conflicts
and battles. There was the battle with his
own nature. with his own sinfulness. He talked about it in Romans
7 as being a warfare between the nature of evil, the nature
of sinfulness, which still possessed him, and yet there was the new
man. And so he speaks about the war
between the old man and the new man. There's the war with his
flesh. There's the war with Satan, who
was always a thorn in his side. In fact, he did, on one occasion,
beseech the Lord three times to remove that messenger of Satan. Whatever it was, and as I said,
most people believe it was difficulty with his eyesight. I'm sure Luke,
who traveled with him, and Luke was a physician himself, tried
to attend to the physical needs of the Apostle Paul. But this
was beyond his scope of expertise. And the great Apostle was in
need of divine healing and a restoration of his eyesight. And so he asked
the Lord, would you remove that messenger of Satan? He said he
did it three times, he asked God for that. And basically God
said, no, you'll keep that. But I'll give you sufficient
grace for your needs. Am I speaking to one of the children
of God and you have a thorn in the flesh? You have a weakness,
something that ails you, some serious condition, and you have
yourself besought the God of all grace. Oh Lord, would you
be pleased to remove this? Would you be pleased to heal
me? Would you be pleased to recover me and restore back to me my
customary health? And it may be that like the apostle,
you have besought the Lord several times. Rest assured of this,
whether God's pleased to remove that or not, His grace is sufficient. His grace is sufficient for every
need of His people. And then, of course, there was
not only the struggle within with his own flesh, and the wars,
the battles with Satan. But there was the warfare with
the secular world. As he wrote this book, 2 Timothy,
he is in prison for the second time in Rome. He is a prisoner of Nero. He's not going to live much longer. He's going to die. He's going
to be a martyr for the cause of Christ Jesus. I was struck
by the words of the song that she sang about, I saw a martyr. I saw a martyr with all the flames
engulfing him. And he said, Christ is all. I
hope God will give us that kind of grace if time comes for that
kind of tribulation and so forth. But the Apostle Paul, he was
experiencing the sufficiency of the grace of God. in the face
of the enemies of the secular world, and here he is in prison. As we read in the end of the
book of Acts, you get to Acts chapter 28, you find he's chained
to a soldier, but he is in some sort of a private residence where
he can receive visitors and he can still preach the gospel to
those who are of the household of Caesar. But he was receiving
much persecution from the secular world. He suffered at their hands,
and of course, at last, they will finally kill him. But more than anything, he suffered
at the hands of those who were his countrymen, Jews, people
that he loved, people that he cared for, people that he prayed
for. I asked Ron to read that passage
in Romans chapter 10, because it begins, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Of course, they had a zeal, but
it wasn't according to knowledge. They were going about to establish
their own righteousness, and they would not submit themselves
to the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, who is Himself
the end or the goal of the law. They didn't understand that.
And instead they were trying to work out a righteousness that
God would be pleased with. They were seeking, you need to
understand this, they were seeking salvation based upon their own
works, based upon their own obedience. And as a result of them believing
that message, and the apostle believing the message of salvation
by grace, That is, salvation by the substitutionary sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus. That salvation which is all of
God. His message so different with
their message that they rose up multiple times against this
great apostle and they persecuted him. And that hurt him. He didn't back down. But he even
said on one occasion in Romans chapter 9, I would wish myself
accursed for my kinsmen, my brethren in the flesh. I wish, I seek
God's will, I seek God's face for them that God would show
them mercy, that God would be gracious to them. And these were
the ones who ganged up on the apostle Paul. and were so in
opposition to him that they continually harassed him. They persecuted
him. They dogged him. They always
had vile things to say about him. These were the opponents
of this man of God. And the people that were his
opponents were people who said they loved Jehovah. who said
they loved Moses, who said they loved the Law of God, who said
they loved the Word of God. But they battled against the
man who preached Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Because you
see, they did not believe Jesus Christ the Lord. in our Bible
lesson, Bible class this morning out of Acts chapter 4 when the
impotent man of chapter 3 had been healed and the religious
authorities arrested Peter and John and then the next day brought
them before the council and they put them right in the middle
of them and they're all pointing the accusing finger at Peter
and John. They said, we want to know by
whose authority, by whose power, in whose name did you do this
miracle? And as I indicated in the lesson,
and also in the notes that I wrote for the Sunday School lesson,
if the preachers had answered, God did this, they would have
had no trouble. There would have been no issue.
If they had said, the God of our fathers did this, they'd
have said, Amen. If they had said, Jesus, or if
they had said, Jehovah did this, there would have been no quarrel.
But they said, we did this in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That's who they despised. That's
who the religious folks despised. And that's why they threatened
Peter and John. And in the case with the Apostle
Paul, these are the ones who, if he had said, if he had just
preached the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and not mentioned
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, he would have been just fine.
They hated the name of Jesus. The name that was given to him
by the Holy Spirit. The name that means Jehovah who
saves. God our Savior. That's the name
that they hated and as these men went forth preaching that
name, the glory of that name, the power of that name, the graciousness
of that name. They met with opposition and
specifically this man, the Apostle Paul, he met with opposition
from those within his own nation. Men who professed to believe
the Bible. And they rose up against him. Well, this is not surprising
because they rose up against his master. They rose up against
the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus said to his
disciples before he died, if they hated me, don't be surprised,
if they hate you, don't be surprised they hated me before they hated
you. They persecuted me, they're gonna persecute you. And here
is the Apostle Paul, and he is being persecuted for the cause
of Christ. This is false religion. rose up against Christ Jesus.
They all gathered to do whatever God determined before to be done,
but yet their hands are dripping with the blood of the Son of
God. And as they opposed Jesus of Nazareth, as they opposed
the Master of the Apostle Paul, so they opposed Him. At every
facet of His ministry, They're against him. They're against
him. Now, it isn't that the servants
of God were themselves trying to be offensive. Our Lord said to his disciples,
and he says to us, be as harmless as doves. Listen, if people are to be offended
by us, Let it not be from the way we conduct our lives. May
it not be by our attitude. God help us to live in this world
in a manner that adorns the gospel of God. In a manner that magnifies
his name. We represent, as it were, the
very truth of the gospel. And in all of our things we should
be honest and above board. The finest people on earth as
it were. Our behavior should be above
criticism. Honest, decent, very kind, very
charitable. Not harsh, not mean, not cruel. not holding grudges, but forgiving,
even as our Father, for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. If people
are to be offended by us, let it not be from our behavior,
or should I say, our misbehavior. Let it not be because of our
words or our bad attitudes. If they are to be offended, it
must only be because of the truth. because of the gospel of the
Lord Jesus. If somebody wrongs you as a child
of God, it's not for you to get even. No. The Lord says, vengeance is mine. I will repay. A preacher had
me to treat my enemies, love them. That's what the Savior says.
Love your enemies. Bless them. Do good for them. Our Lord is the perfect example
on this. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again. When he suffered, he didn't threaten
anybody. He committed himself to God who
judges all things righteously. And would to God that you and
I, as the people of God, as we encounter those in this world
who are disagreeable, they're hard to get along with. Can you
believe that there are people who are hard to get along with
in this world? There are people who are just kind of mean. When you encounter that kind
of people, don't give it back to them like they give to you.
The Scripture says, and this will take grace, turn the other
cheek. Love them that despise you. I
can't do that, preacher. You can by the grace of God.
But only by the grace of God. You see, the Apostle Paul, he
was one who suffered at the hand of his own countrymen. But his
attitude was never a get even attitude. I'll get you. I'll
get you. Yeah, you got me. But when you're
not looking, I'll get you back. That was never his attitude.
It was never the attitude of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so
through all of the opposition of his countrymen and the religious
zealots of his day, which were disturbing the apostle, Though
he was greatly opposed, he endured it all, even though it was painful
to his heart, because it came from people whom he loved. He
kept praying for them and asking God to save them. Listen folks, let me tell you
the problem. That neighbor that's troublesome
to you, or that boss who seems rather heartless. That which you're most interested
in for them is for God to reveal the gospel of grace to them.
Isn't that right? You want God to save them. You
see, they may have a bad disposition. They may have a fiery temper.
They may have a filthy mouth. Their problem though is not merely
one of morality or the lack of morality. They need the grace
of God. That's what they need. They need
salvation. They need the Lord Jesus. You
must be. I must be. God help us to be
gracious and merciful even to those Who mistreat us? The Apostle Paul was. However, he never would compromise the
message in order to get along with his enemies now. They wouldn't
do that. Because to compromise the gospel
of God's sovereign grace, of God's redeeming mercies, to compromise
this message is to then offend the God of glory. And that's
who you don't want to offend. If you're offended by the gospel
of God's free and sovereign grace, by electing grace, by the redemption
of our Lord Jesus, by the effectual grace of the Spirit of God, of
salvation, all of grace, if that offends you, bless your heart,
I love you and I'll pray for you, but I'm not going to water
down the message so you'll keep coming. We can't do that. Because as it were, I've raised
my hand to heaven and said, Lord, I will preach your gospel. I
love these people, even if they oppose me. Even if they're against
the message and they're against your servant. But I promise,
God giving me grace, I will not compromise the gospel. No preacher
of the gospel will. And the apostle Paul, he went
forth preaching Jesus Christ and him crucified, like the rest
of the apostles did, with the exception of Judas, who died
and went to hell. But the rest of the apostles
preached the gospel, and it brought them many, many hardships. And it meant death for every
one of them, with the exception of John, death for every one
of them by martyrdom. And they could have saved their
own lives if they had just watered down the message and make it
not to be so offensive to the natural man. But to do that would
mean their own death, their own destruction. Here in 2 Timothy chapter 2,
the apostle is greatly concerned with errors. Errors, errors concerning
the truth. Notice what he says here. Let
me just read you a few verses in 2 Timothy chapter two. He
says this, and he writes to Timothy, and Timothy is, he is blossoming
into a very good preacher and pastor. After all, Paul has sent
one letter to him already. And this is his second letter,
and this is Paul's last letter. This will be his final words. And he says to Timothy, look
at verse seven. He says, chapter two, verse seven. Consider what I say, and the
Lord give thee understanding in all things. Remember that
Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according
to my gospel. He raises the issue specifically
of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. And I'll show you how
that fits into the context in just a minute. In verse 9 he
says, wherein I suffer trouble as an evildoer. And by the way,
that evildoer, it is translated in the book of Luke as a malefactor,
as a convicted felon. as one worthy of death. Those
two thieves on either side of our Lord, they were convicted
malefactors. And our Lord Jesus was convicted
Himself as being a malefactor. And this is what the Apostle
Paul says, I suffer trouble, I'm in prison, as an evildoer,
as a malefactor, even unto bonds. But he says, the Word of God
is not bound. You can bind his preacher. You
can put his preachers in prison. You can lock them up and throw
away the key. But you can't bind the Word of
God. The Word of God will have free
flow. It will accomplish God's purpose
in the thing whereto he sends it, Isaiah chapter 55 says that. with Peter and John there, going
back to the Sun School class in Chapter 4. They were put in
war. They were put in prison overnight.
A little bit later in the book of Acts, Peter's gonna be put
in prison. But you can't imprison the Word
of God. The Word of God's gonna keep
going forward. The Word of God is going to accomplish His purpose.
The only apostle that escaped martyrdom, as I've said, is John.
He died probably 100 years of age. They tried to kill him a
number of times, but when they finally, he made them so angry
that he was exiled to an island, a rocky island, a prison island
called Patmos. Said, we know what to do with
this preacher. We figured out how to shut him
up, short of killing him. We've tried to kill him, but
we'll send him into exile on a lonely island called Patmos. And they sent him there, and
he writes, he says, I'm here for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I'm here because of the gospel.
And it was there that the resurrected Savior revealed unto him his
own glory. and then gave him the book of
Revelation. You can't stop the word of God.
And that's very encouraging to the preachers of the gospel.
It should be encouraging and it is encouraging to all of you.
That which God sends forth his word, the spirit of God can use
it in a mighty way. There in Acts chapter 2, I'm
sure you pointed this out this morning, they put the preachers
in a hold, in a ward, in holding. But meanwhile, the Word that
he had preached back in Acts chapter 3, which is his second
sermon, powerful message, that message continued to work in
the hearts of men and women and young people. And hundreds and
hundreds, yay, thousands of people came to believe the Word of God
while the preachers were in prison. Can't stop the Word of God. I don't know why you keep on
preaching if you believe that election business, you believe
Christ only died for His elect. Why would you keep on preaching?
Because the Lord has told me to, and because the Lord uses
the preaching of the gospel to save His people and to feed the
flock. So he says, look at verse 10,
so the word of God is not bound, verse 10, therefore I endure
all things for the elect's sake. that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. For
it is a faithful saying, if we be dead with him, we shall also
live with him. If we suffer, we shall also reign
with him. If we deny him, he will also
deny us. He says if we believe not, yet
he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself. He has some other
important things to say. Verse 14, of these things put
thou in remembrance, charging them. Remember, he's talking
to a preacher. You always got, as you read the
book of Timothy, books of 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, you always want
to keep this in mind. The man he's writing to is a
preacher. In fact, there's every indication that the Apostle Paul
is kind of grooming this man to in many ways take over for
him after he passes off the scene. So he's got some very critical
information and instructions to impart to this young man,
Timothy. He says in verse 13, if we believe
not, yet he abided faithfully, cannot deny himself. So he says
in verse 14 of these things, put them in remembrance, that
is, the elders and the people under your ministry, charging
them before the Lord that they strife not about words to no
profit. Words to no profit. Don't divide with people over
words of no profit. The only words that are truly
profitable are the words of our Lord, the gospel. There's nothing else worth differing
over. So don't strive with me. Sit
around, argue about this, argue about that. It'll all come out
in the wash. All that matters is the very
truth of God. That's all that matters. And
you get caught up in other things. You get caught up in politics,
that sort of thing. Those things ultimately, ultimately
are neither here nor there. But I'll tell you what is ultimately
here and there is the very truth of God. Those are the things,
the truth of the sovereignty of God, the depravity of man,
God's electing grace, Christ's redeeming grace, the Spirit of
God's effectual grace, the perseverance, the preservation of the saints
of God, salvation of all of God, we're kept by the power of God.
These are issues of life and death. No other issues like that. I was sharing with the Bible
class this morning I was down preaching for Jack Shanks many
years ago. Some folks that were really,
they were totally taken up with the issue of abortion. Wanted us to go, the preachers
to go to Washington and march on Washington about abortion. Listen, I'm very much opposed
to abortion. told Sun School class, I would
never vote for anybody who believes in murdering babies. I can't
do it. It goes against my conscience. It goes against the word of God.
It's murder. But that's not my issue. That's not the issue. The issue
that will take care of people aborting babies is if they ever
come to love and believe and worship the Lord of glory, Christ
Jesus, and they're saved by His free grace. That'll take care
of all this other stuff. What if we could close up the
red light district? What if we could get, okay, let's
do away with abortion, let's do away with, You've just been
lopping off the branches. That's all you're doing. We gotta
go to the root of the matter. And the root of the matter is
Christ Jesus and Him crucified. The way the God of the Bible
saves sinners. We're rebels against God, we're
sinners against God, we're totally depraved, and the only hope any
of us have got is Christ Jesus and Him crucified. And I know
that's the truth. And these other issues, don't
get bogged down with them. I'm telling you, don't get bogged
down with them. You'll just divide yourself from
another person, and it may be you'd sure like to tell them
the truth of the gospel, but you've already put up a barrier.
I'm telling you the truth. God be wise as serpents, harmless
as doves. And then Paul continues. He says in verse 14 again, of
these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord
that they strive not about words to no profit and to the subverting
of the hearers. That's the overthrow of the hearers.
You overthrow them and they won't listen to anything you've got
to say about the gospel. He says, study to show thyself
approved unto God. How can a man be approved unto
God? Study that. How can you be approved unto
God? How can I be approved unto God? Through Christ Jesus only. A workman that needeth not to
be ashamed, rightly dividing, rightly handling the word of
truth. Now look at verse 16. He says,
but shun profane and vain babblings. For they will increase more unto
ungodliness. And now he's talking about people
who are wrapped up in false religion. Especially those, and I think
this is one of the things that really hurt him the most. I know he was a great apostle,
but he was a man just like all of us are. He said their word,
their word, will eat as doth a canker, of
whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have
erred. Listen, here's what the Apostle
Paul's taken up with, the truth. The truth. What is the truth? Maybe you should ask the question,
who is the truth? Because our Lord Jesus said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Who concerning the truth have
erred, saying, and he goes back to this issue of the resurrection.
The resurrection has passed already. And they overthrow the faith
of some. He mentions two men. And it's
interesting, in his letters to Timothy, both of these letters,
he names more enemies of the gospel than in any other letter,
as far as I know. He mentions more enemies of the
gospel. And here's the thing that really affected him. They
were once with Paul. And then they left. That's disturbing. Because he says there in verse
18, who concerning the truth have erred. They gave lip service
to the truth, but then they erred, they turned around and left the
truth. That's really serious business.
It's bad enough to have never heard the truth, And it's a very
serious matter to hear the truth and then deny that it is the
truth. And that's pretty much the boat
that most of the Jews were in. They heard the truth of Jesus
Christ, of His identity as being God, as being man. They heard the truth of His death. which was a substitutionary sacrifice,
substitution on behalf of his people, a sacrifice to God, that
he died and was buried and rose again the third day, then ascended
back to heaven. It's one thing to refuse to believe
the truth. That's very serious business.
And of course, that's most of Paul's countrymen. But it's a
more serious thing to have embraced the truth to have taken hold
of the truth, to have walked with preachers of the gospel,
and then to err concerning the truth, and leave the truth, and
go back like a dog to his vomit, and like a sow to her wallowing
in the mire. And that was so serious. He even names two people here. He says, their word doth eat. It will eat as doth a canker,
as does gangrene. What does gangrene do? Got some
people in the medical field here. Gangrene, it just keeps on going. In fact, it'll just, it'll take
the whole body. Got gangrene in your toe. Your foot's gonna have to come
off. Well, I don't want you to cut off my foot. Do you want
to cut off your leg too? Do you want to die? For the good
of the body, cut off the gangrene. And this is what the apostle
is saying to Timothy. For the good of the whole body
of Christ, watch it. Watch these men. Because their
word, in which they've erred from the truth, is like gangrene. And if you don't step in, it'll
wind up destroying the whole body. So he names them. He names them, of whom is Hymenaeus
and Philetus. These were men who had fatal
errors. But these are not the only men that he mentioned. Go
back to 1 Timothy 1. Look at 1 Timothy 1 and verse
18. 1 Timothy 1 and verse 18. This charge, I commit unto thee,
son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before
on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare, holding faith,
and a good conscience, which some have put away concerning
faith." They've made shipwreck. Oh, they believed, or they said
they believed, but they've made shipwreck. They crashed on some
rock. Maybe the truth offended people
and that was a rock. They just crashed on that. He
says in verse 20, "'Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander?' whom
I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme. Go back to 2 Timothy. Go back
to 2 Timothy. Look at chapter one. 2 Timothy
chapter one in verse 15. This thou knowest, that all they
which are in Asia, they be turned away from me, of whom are phagellas
and hermogenes, They've turned away from me. They were turned
toward me, but then they turned away from me. Go over to chapter
four of 2 Timothy. Chapter four in verse number
10. For Demas, you know, when the apostle wrote to the church
of Colossae, he wrote that Luke and this man, Demas, were with
him. And he wrote that epistle, and
you can look it up in Colossians chapter 4 and verse 14, I believe
it is. If I've got the reference wrong,
I can correct it. I'm pretty sure that's it. But
he said, by the way, Luke and Demas said, tell you hello. That was then. First imprisonment
in Rome. Now he's in his second imprisonment
at Rome. Read the rest of it. For Demas
hath forsaken me. He was with me, but he's gone. What happened? Having loved this
present world. And then look down at verse 14.
Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward
him according to his works. These and others who profess
to believe the gospel, that hurt Paul when they left him, when
they left the truth. And you'll notice, and I'm sure
you've noticed as I read these, they're mentioned in pairs. Hymenius and Alexander. Fragilis
and Hermogenes, Hymenaeus and Philetus, and then Demas and
again Alexander. These dogs ran in pairs. They're
wild dogs. They're vicious dogs. They're
dangerous dogs. They're rabid dogs. And they're
spreading their false doctrines They're rabies. They're spiritual
rabies. They're spreading it everywhere
they go and they're telling people, I don't care what these preachers
say, there is no resurrection. You say, well, doesn't seem too
bad to me. In fact, if you go back and look
at verse 18 of chapter two, Here's what Paul says, who concerning
the truth have erred, and this is what they say, that the resurrection
has passed already. Already. What were they saying? They were saying the resurrection
of the soul, that is, regeneration. They didn't deny regeneration.
So they said the resurrections happened already. But they said
there is no future resurrection. Now that presents a real issue.
And this is a truth that's very key to the doctrine of the gospel. Go back to first, with me, the
book of 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
15. How serious is it to deny the resurrection? Well, we find
out right here. And a denial of the resurrection,
that's gangrene. That's got to be dealt with.
Because it will ultimately lead to a total denial of the work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. As you know, this is the resurrection
chapter. The resurrection chapter. So
there's a great body of evidence here given about the resurrection
in 58 verses, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Look with me in verse, well,
let's start at verse 12. Now if Christ be preached, that
he rose from the dead, I'll say some among you that there is
no resurrection of the dead. See, that era, like gangrene,
had crept into the church at Corinth. Very serious era. But he says this, and now follow
his spirit-led logic and reasoning. But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, You know what you're saying? Christ isn't risen. See, one error always leads to
another error. I promise you. Scripture tells
us that. Error is very slippery business. I'm talking about serious error
now. I'm talking about doctrinal error. Error concerning the way
the God of the Bible saves sinners. It always leads to more error. But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then Christ is not risen. And if Christ be not risen,
then our preaching is useless. And your faith is vain. It's empty. It's useless as well. It's nothing. In fact, he says in verse 15,
yea, and we're found false witnesses of God. because we have testified
that he raised up Christ. He raised up Christ. Whom he
raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the
dead rise not, then is not Christ raised, verse 17, and if Christ
be not raised, your faith is vain, you're yet in your sins. And those which have fallen asleep
in Christ Jesus, those who died believing the Son of God, they perished. They perished. You see, this is eras concerning
the very truth of God. These men were going after the
resurrection. If you deny the future resurrection,
then you deny the work of Christ Jesus that He redeemed, get this,
that He redeemed both the soul and the body. And if you say the body is not
going to be raised, you're saying He didn't redeem the body, and
ultimately you're left with this. He didn't redeem anybody. And here the apostle, he's bold. He loves people. He loves his
own countrymen. And these men who have left him,
he names eight of them, or seven of them. These men, he cares
about them. But listen, they have embraced
error, they said, and then they turn loose of it. John has a
really good verse on this in the book of 1 John. From us? Because they were not of us.
If they'd been one of us, they'd no doubt have still been one
of us. But they went out that it might be revealed. They're
not one of us. Oh, my friends, listen. May God enable us to embrace
the truth of God. Or maybe I should phrase it this
way. May the truth of God embrace us. May it take us in the tender
arms of mercy and reach out and bring us to Christ Jesus and
embrace us, hug us, keep us safe to the bosom of the Lord Jesus
Christ, lest we leave and make shipwreck of our souls. You can have errors on a number
of things in this world, and you'll still be all right. but
you must not err concerning the truth." That's a deadly error. A deadly error. God keep us on
the straight and narrow path that leads to life everlasting,
which is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Well, I'm going to
go back to this passage this evening,