found in that black folder. And I started to tell you to
just read the words to it, but they enunciated every word so
good we could understand them all. And that was a great blessing. It comes right out of John chapter
number 10. Thank you so much, ladies. If
you would, open your Bibles again tonight to 2 Timothy, and once
again, we will go to the second chapter of 2 Timothy. Well, this great apostle has
been writing to his, well, he called his son in the faith. His name is young preacher by
the name of Timothy. And, of course, as I said this
morning, Timothy is being kind of groomed to, in a few areas, to take over for the
Apostle Paul. That is, he's not going to have
apostolic authority or anything like that. Here it is, the Apostle
Paul understands that his ministry is ebbing. He's about to leave
the scene. As you get to the last chapter
of 2 Timothy, he talks about having fought a good fight, and
he's finished his course, that course that God had laid out
for him, and he understood that. He had a full awareness of the
fact that his days on this earth were, they weren't very many,
and of course he was writing in his second imprisonment in
Rome, and it wouldn't be long before his life would be forfeited
for the gospel's sake. He was considered to be an evildoer. An evildoer, if you'll look at
2 Timothy 2 and verse 9, he says, wherein I suffer trouble, and
I probably should read the eighth verse, because he says, remember
that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the
dead according to my gospel, according to the gospel that
I preach. And he then says, that's the
reason that I suffer trouble. He said, I suffer trouble as
an evildoer, as a malefactor, as one who is a guilty convicted
felon, as a vile criminal, as a rapist or a murderer. You say, well, what was he guilty
of? He was guilty of preaching the
gospel. This was what stirred up the anger and the wrath and
the malice of the Jewish authorities, and of course, they in turn stirred
up the wrath and the anger and the malice of the Roman authorities,
and therefore, the apostle is put into prison. Now, he did
have some liberty in prison, Because he does say at the end
of verse, again at verse nine, wherein I suffered trouble as
an evildoer, even unto bonds, but the word of God is not bound.
He was, but the word wasn't. You can stop the preacher, but
you can't stop the word of God. That word which God gave to the
Apostle Paul, he continued to preach while he was in prison,
and moreover, he continued to right. He wrote prison epistles. He
wrote to the saints of God. We benefit, we have portions,
we have all that he wrote by the divine inspiration of God,
and a big portion of that which he wrote, he wrote while he was
in prison. So though they put him away in
order to silence him, yet he did have limited, limited liberty
in preaching the gospel, but he also had liberty to write
as the Spirit of God led him, and he wrote these prison epistles. Now, if you are a negative person,
And there are some of God's people, I'm sure there were some back
then, and there are some of God's people now, dear people of God,
who always see the glass as half empty. They're just people who
are like that. And we as the people of God,
we would ask God to make us to be a very positive people. Well, I don't preach or I don't
know how you could be positive. I'm positive because God's on
the throne. That's why I'm positive. I don't
want to be negative. I don't want to look at things
as the glass is half empty. I want to look at things this
way. Our God reigns. He is never defeated. His purpose
is always successful. Everything that God has set out
to do, He has done, He is doing, He will finish it and it will
all be to the glory of His great name and it will all work out
for the good of His people. There is no reason for any of
the people of God to ever be negative. There's no reason at
all. But there are some of God's,
some dear saints of God, people who love the gospel, but it just
seems to be part of their DNA. They're negative-minded people. And if you were negative-minded
back in the days of the Apostle Paul, you'd be looking at things
this way. Oh my, God's preacher's in prison. I don't know what we're gonna
do. Well, there goes it all. And to beat all, those men who
were with us, they were companions of the Apostle Paul. They were
also preachers of the gospel. Now they have forsaken the truth.
They have deserted the gospel themselves. And of course, we
know in the context that the Apostle Paul mentions a couple
of these men down in verse 17, and we mentioned them this morning.
And their word doth eat as doth a canker. of whom is Hymenaeus
and Philetus. And of course, he's mentioned
other men as well. And I'm sure there were negative
people then, there are negative people now who say, I don't know
what's gonna become of the cause of God. Here's the greatest apostle
of all, and he's not going around on his missionary journeys anymore. Well, where is he? Well, he's
in Rome. Well, what's he doing? He's locked
up. He's chained to a soldier. Well, he can't go forth preaching
the gospel anymore. No, he can't. And I'll tell you
something else on top of that. All of these men or many of the
men who sat under his ministry, they're going forth and they're
like gangrene. Their era, they're sending it
forth. They're spreading the era. that
there's no resurrection and other errors that also had arisen from
these men. And so if you were a negative
person, you just kind of throw up your hands and say, oh no,
I don't know what's gonna become of us. I don't know what's gonna
become of our church. I don't know what's gonna become
of the cause of God. Well, I'm not saying that we
should be unconcerned about the errors of the day. But I am saying
that in the midst of our concern, we must never lose sight of who
governs over all. It isn't that I turn a blind
eye to heresy. I know what's out there. I hear
it. I read it. There are preachers
on the television, preachers on the radio. They think nothing
is spewing out their error. And I know there are those who've
forsaken the gospel, who've left men and women who profess to
believe the truth of grace, who have left. and they no longer
attend a gospel preaching church, and they've gone out and they've
mixed with other religions, or maybe they've quit altogether
religion. They've just quit it. I don't
deny that. But we've got to remember two
things. Number one, what the apostle
has said up in verse nine. The word of God is not bound. In other words, the word of God
will always fully accomplish that which God has purposed.
There's just no question about that. The reason we have doubts,
the reason we have fear, The reason we worry when we see troublesome
things happen is because we forget that God is sovereign in all
things. He is sovereign when the truth
is preached, but He's also sovereign when error is preached. Is that right? He's gotta be
sovereign. He is sovereign all the time.
If he isn't sovereign all the time, he isn't sovereign any
of the time. God governs over all. Listen,
our Lord Jesus, whom God sent into this world to be our Savior,
to be our Redeemer, who has accomplished God's purpose of redemption,
who by himself won the victory when he died upon the cross of
Calvary, who shed his blood to wash away all the sins of all
of the sheep that they sang about. This is the good shepherd who
laid down his life for the sheep. He has accomplished that which
God gave him to do. He finished the work of redemption. He's gone back to glory and he
has sat down and he has been given all authority, all power
over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many
as the Father has given him. Don't ever lose sight of that.
And if we can remember that, we won't be negative minded.
We'll say, well, the Lord's gonna work this out. I don't understand
how. Yeah, his preacher is in prison.
And yes, these men are going forth with their heretical doctrines. But, though I can't understand
it and I can't perceive all that God is doing, I know he is actively
working out by providence that which he has predestinated and
so I'll be at ease in my mind. And I'll rest my soul in the
God of the ages. That's the attitude that the
people of God should have. No matter the situation, the
king has not left his throne. He has not given up his crown. Regardless of how things may
appear, regardless of how dark the days may be, the savior who
died and rose again, he is executing his sovereign will always, everywhere. Never lose sight of that. Yes,
the preacher may be bound, but the word of God isn't bound.
It will accomplish that which God has purposed in the thing
whereto he sent it. You see, I've read the last book
of the Bible. I know how it's going to end.
I preached for you through the book of the Revelation. Do you
remember the theme of the book of Revelation? The victory of
the lamb and his followers over the dragon and his followers. I've read the last chapter of
the book. I know how it's going to wind
up. Now I don't know all the particulars of how we gonna get
to the end, but I know how we gonna wind up. Jesus reigns and
he shall ever reign for the glory of his Father and for the good
of his saints. I said we must remember two things. Remember that. Remember that. The word of God is not bound,
it is not confined. You can't hold back the purpose
of God nor the word of God. You can't keep God, nobody can
keep God from doing what he's purposed to do. None can stay his hand. A heathen
king said that, Nebuchadnezzar. Of course, God had to take him
out and teach him a few things. Teach him that he was no wiser
than a mere beast of the field. But after God got through with
Nebuchadnezzar, he said, I bless the most high God, whose dominion
is an everlasting dominion, and nobody can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? And he said, he's able to abase
the proud. He learned that. I tell you,
God's able and he is actively engaged to accomplish his will. And the second thing that we
must remember, look down in verses 17 and 18. Their word will eat,
here in chapter two, their word will eat as doth a canker, as
a gangrene, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning
the truth have erred, saying, that the resurrection is past
already and overthrown the faith of some. Nevertheless, oh, I
love that. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure. These heretical teachers seem
to be doing much damage overthrowing the faith of some. These evil influences were at
work. And they upset many of the people
of God. There were defections from the
group. Defections. but defectors from
the gospel is nothing new. And it's not a strange thing. It's an awful thing when people
err concerning the truth, but it isn't a new thing. There were
multitudes who followed the Savior, who ate of the fish and the loaves. who then followed him to the
other side of the lake, and the next day heard him teach them
that he is the bread come down from heaven. They heard him teach,
all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. They heard
him teach, this is the Father's will, that of all which he's
given me, I'll lose nothing. I'll raise it up at the last
day. They heard him teach, no man can come to me except the
Father which has sent me draw him. They heard him teach, I
am the bread of life. They heard him teach, except
a man eat my flesh and drink my blood, he hath no life. They heard him teach all of these
things and they were offended. They were offended. He said, does this offend you?
Well, what if you see the Son of Man going up to heaven where
He came down from? And they said, this is a hard
saying. These are hard doctrines. The
doctrine of Jesus of Nazareth. That's too hard for us. We're
defecting. We're leaving. And they did. And the scripture
says in John six, many of them that followed him, they followed
him no more. We're done with him. Defectors. Where are you going back to?
We're going back to Judaism. We're going back to the law.
We're going back to Moses. We're going back to salvation
by works. We're going back to self-righteousness. That's too much grace for me.
That blood redemption, that's too much for me. You mean I don't
have to do anything? I don't wanna hear this anymore.
I don't care who he is. I'm not gonna listen to him,
and I'm going away. And they all left, a bunch of
defectors. That's more defectors even than
the Apostle Paul had. Was our Lord Jesus upset? Did he say, I'm sorry, please
come back? Nope. He looked at his 12 disciples
and said, well, what about y'all? You going away too? Will you
defect? Are you going to abandon the
truth? Will you go away? And Simon Peter answered him
and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered them saying,
have I not chosen you 12? And one of you is a devil, one
of you is a defector. You men don't know who he is,
but I know who he is. because I can see his black,
evil heart. One of you will err from the
truth. And out of all the multitudes,
the scripture says 5,000 men, besides women and children, ate
of the loaves and the fishes. And I don't know how many thousands
of them followed him, but they abandoned him, they defected,
they went over to the side of the enemy and never followed
him again. And one of his own 12 disciples,
he was gonna prove to be a defector. He's left with 11. You wanna give up and quit? No. Lord, to whom shall we go? What if everybody else leaves?
Will you follow the multitudes? Or will you say like Simon Peter,
Lord, to whom shall I go? You're the Savior I need. This
is the salvation my soul requires. And by the grace of God, and
this is my attitude, because I've seen I've seen a lot of
people defect. I've seen a lot of people leave. I've seen men leave the ministry,
and I've seen people leave the congregation of the righteous. They profess faith in Christ
Jesus, but obviously they left and never went to the truth again,
and they're gone. And here's what I say when I
see that. I say, Lord, please keep me. Keep me, lest I go too. Because I promise you this, if
you can leave the truth, you will. Because God can put right in
your pathway such difficulties and such obstacles that you say, I can't handle it anymore. I'm
leaving. I'm leaving. But notwithstanding the defection
of preachers and those who profess to follow the Lamb of God, here's
what encourages me. The second thing, the foundation
of God. stands sure. There is something
in this world that's sure. There's something in this world
that is steadfast. There's something in this world
that is going to last. And that's the truth of God. And God giving me grace, no matter
the fact that Satan is busy at work and heretics are there occupied
setting forth their heresies. Nevertheless, by the grace of
God, we will continue because we know this. The Word of God
isn't bound. And the foundation of the Lord
stands sure. after men have preached their
lies, after Satan has been busy sowing all sorts of seeds, even
sowing tares among the wheat, after all the false preachers
and the demons have conspired together to overthrow the truth
of God, to none effect. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. I love Psalm 2. He that saitheth
in the heaven shall laugh. The most high shall have them
in derision. God says my counsel shall stand. It's sure. And I will do all
my pleasure is what the Lord says. I have purposed it. Who shall disannul it? And any time you get discouraged,
any time you get distressed, any time you look around and
say, you know, we don't have any conversions, we're not growing,
and you get negative, just remember, the Word of God is not bound,
and the foundation of God standeth sure. And God says to all of his enemies,
and his enemies are our enemies. God says to all of his enemies
and to all of your enemies, hitherto thou shalt come, but no further. This is where you stop. And here thy proud waves shall
be stayed. Job 38.11 says that. What a mercy
to have such a God. I'd stop preaching right now.
I would have stopped preaching a long time ago if I didn't believe
that God's purpose would be fulfilled. Every iota of his eternal purpose
is progressing right on schedule. And the heresies of men, The
defections of many professors of faith in Christ, and even
the powers of Satan, all of these combined cannot stop, they can't
slow down, they can't defeat the purpose of God. I sow the
seed according to the ability that God has given me, and I
know the result will follow according to his will. It may be that after all the
years that I've been preaching, whenever God says that's your
last sermon, it may be that according to the measurements of men, I
may not have had a successful ministry. Because the measurements
of men are numbers. That's the measurements of men. but I'm preaching to glorify
God, declaring His truth. If there are numbers saved, bless
the Lord. If like Noah, I preach a long
time and don't have anybody to show for it but my family, still
gonna bless the Lord. I think people And even some,
maybe some of you, maybe some of you watching by way of the
internet or listening to this message later on, I think you
have the wrong idea if you judge success, the success of a man's
ministry by the numbers who attend the services or by the numbers
of people who make professions of faith or the numbers of baptisms. That's how the world judges success. Now, if that's the way you want
to judge success, you'd have to say, you're forced to say,
if that's your judgment, if that's your criteria in establishing
the successfulness of a man's ministry by how many people are
saved under his ministry, you're forced to conclude Especially
after the illustration I just gave you from John chapter 6
of multitudes forsaking the Lord Jesus, you're forced to say,
His ministry was a failure. You'd be forced to say that.
And you wouldn't dare say that, would you? Of course not. Because His ministry was not
a failure. Those whom God called through
the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, the ones He called were
the ones the Savior redeemed. And the ones He redeemed were
the ones that God set apart for salvation before the foundation
of the world. He wasn't a failure. He was a successful preacher. He was a successful Savior. And
all of his preachers are always successful doing the will of
God. We're always a success. In fact, the Apostle Paul talks
about that in 2 Corinthians 2. He said we always triumph. That's exactly what he said.
We always triumph. in them that perish and in them
who are saved. And this is what I think a lot
of people forget. The reason why we preach the
gospel. Are you hearing? Let me tell
you. The reason we preach the gospel, number one, is for the
glory of God. Don't forget that. If you lose
sight of that, then you're going to say, well, boy, we don't have
many new people coming. Well, I'm thankful when new people
come. I'm thankful when God converts
people. But listen, what if nobody believed? Should we just quit? What about
Brother Noah? I preached about Noah, several
messages. He preached 120 years. He was
a preacher of righteousness. Should he have just quit? Should
he have said after, well he preached 120 years building the ark, should
he have said after about 100 years? I tell you honey, talking
to his wife, after church service, you know I'm getting tired just
preaching every Lord's Day to my family. I don't think there's
anybody gonna be saved, I believe I'll just quit. He wasn't a failure. because
he honored the righteousness of God. That's what he did. And whether you believe or whether
somebody else believes, you who are watching, whether you believe,
whether we believe or don't believe, we exalt the Lord Jesus Christ
in our preaching because that's the right thing to do. That's
what we're called to do. I'm not here to make you feel
better about yourself. I'm here to tell you about the
God of glory. Worship Him, and if you won't
worship Him, there are some people who will and who do. Oh, this is my encouragement.
I know there are defectors. I know, I've seen them, and it
hurts. To a little bit of an extent,
I can understand what Paul says. Because I've had people that
I've preached to and had confidence in them and men who preach for
me, men who taught Sunday school class, then all of a sudden they
got offended and they left. It's a painful thing. Very painful
thing. They leave, go out the door.
One fellow, he became a Southern Baptist preacher. Denied free
and sovereign grace. And I had helped him, our church
helped him move. Because I went and preached for
him when he was pastoring a little church. And I went down and preached
the truth. And they voted him out. And so we paid to move him. and his wife, and he went well for a little
bit, and then he left. He's gone. That hurts. I don't deny the pain. I don't
deny the disappointment. But he went out from us because
he wasn't one of us. I thought he was one of us, but
he wasn't. These things do hurt. They go
out and preach heretical things. That's terrible. But always remember
this. Two things, always remember.
You can't bind the word of God. It's gonna do its work. In fact,
you may be, I may be talking to somebody who's got a heart,
heart is a rock. you're adamant against the truth.
I'm gonna tell you something, sovereign grace can bust your
rock just like that. Is that right? David said, thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. You go ahead
and resist the truth. But I'll tell you what, if you
belong to God, he's gonna get you. Grace is going to arrest
you. Grace is gonna come after you,
and God's gonna make you willing to be saved in His way, in the
day of His power, and you're gonna bow to King Jesus. Old
Saul of Tarsus. Man, he hated the gospel. He
hated the name of Jesus of Nazareth. That was a name he absolutely
despised. I'm going to arrest everybody
who believes in salvation by Jesus Christ. You watch it, I'll
stamp that out. I'll do away with that. We'll
see. We'll see. Off he goes to Damascus
and he goes to the high priest and says, give me the authority.
If you would, too, give me the authority so I can arrest anybody
who believes in that way. Well, yeah, here's the authority. Go after him. Boy, it's like
he's foaming at the mouth. He's full of wrath. And there
he goes. He's off toward Damascus. And
all of a sudden, a bright light shines on him and blinds him. knocks him right off his horse.
And all of a sudden, he's in the dust before King Jesus. Don't tell me there's somebody
who's gone too far, or they're too dead in sins, or they're
too adamant in their rebellion against God. No. Ain't nobody too far gone where
God can't get them. He got you, didn't he? And I'm going to tell you something.
You were as far gone as anybody else. How far gone was it? You were dead, weren't you? That's
pretty far gone, Alan. Be dead. And the Son of God came
by and said, live in the time of love. He said, live. And he
breathed into you the breath of spiritual life and you lived
and you repented toward God and you believed on the Lord Jesus
Christ. The word of God's always successful. And the foundation of the Lord
standeth sure. Let me give you these things
quickly. There are some things that are sure. The mercies of
God are. They're called in Isaiah 55 in
verse three, the sure mercies of David. Talking about David's
son. You know why the mercies are
sure? Because of whose they are and who's given them. It's Christ
the Lord, the sovereign Christ. I tell you something else that's
sure, the everlasting covenant of grace. This was David's confidence
on his deathbed, 2 Samuel 25, 5. Although my house be not so
with God, yet he's made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure. There's something that's sure.
You can build your house on that. That's not gonna fall. The covenant
of God. David on his deathbed, where
you find your assurance, David? He said, in the covenant of God.
That everlasting covenant of God. He loved me. He chose me. I'm His. My salvation depends
upon His faithfulness in keeping His covenant promises and He
won't ever fail. In fact, David said, this is
all my salvation. This is all my desire. The covenant
of grace cannot be a failure. It's sure because of whose covenant
it is and when it was made. It was made before you ever lived,
before anybody ever lived, breathed, or existed. It was made before
the devil even come around. It was made before time ever
began. Before an angel sang the glories
of God, that covenant was made. It's sure. Tell you something
else that's sure, number three, the word of God is sure. Psalm
19, seven, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The word of God. And another
thing that's sure is the dwelling place of the people of God is
sure. Isaiah 32, 18, my people shall dwell in a peaceful habitation
in sure dwellings. Heaven is sure. It's a sure place
for a people who are certain to be saved because of the certainty
of the covenant of grace. And I'll tell you, this foundation
of God is sure. What is a foundation? It's the
basis, the basis of an edifice. It's the basis of a building. God's building a temple. made up of spiritual stones.
And the foundation of that building is sure. And I'll give this to
you quickly. Number one, the foundation is
the divine purpose of God. Though men may prove to be fickle
and false and wicked and may disturb many of the saints, nevertheless,
You gotta love that word. Y'all go through the Bible, the
number of times the word nevertheless, but yet. Yeah, I know the preacher's
in prison, nevertheless, but yet. I know the heretics are
going out there, nevertheless. Nevertheless. The foundation is the divine
purpose of God. His purpose according to election
is going to stand. None can perish if chosen of
God. I think of the thief on the cross,
that thief who believed. Who would have ever imagined
or dreamed that he'd be brought to faith in Christ Jesus? The
few saints of God scattered around the cross, the women, I'm sure
they looked at him and said, boy, you know, them two thieves
did some awful things. They didn't get what they deserve. And I'm sure the devil was quite
confident that both the thieves would perish. and hell itself enlarged her
jaws to swallow up both men. But the Son of God would not
bow his head and say, it is finished, until he finished the work. There was
the work of redemption, but there was also the work of a rescue. He's on a rescue mission. He's
hanging there on the cross, in weakness, bloodied, and yet he
isn't weak, he's the son of God. He's almighty to save. How almighty
to save is he? He saved that thief. And then he paid for our sins,
and then he said, it's finished. It's finished. Our foundation is the purpose
of God. Our foundation is the divine
truth of God. And our foundation is a person,
the Lord Jesus Christ. Other foundation can no man lay
that is laid, which is Christ Jesus. In Ephesians 2 it says,
we build upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. You mean we're building on them?
No. We build on the same foundation
they built, the same foundation all the apostles built on, Jesus
Christ the Lord. That's why we sing, on Christ
the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. I read that passage of scripture
there from Matthew chapter 7. The wise man built his house
upon the rock. It's one of the many, many courses
that I learned when I was just young. The wise man built his
house upon the rock. The wise man built his house
upon the rock. You know it, sing. The wise man
built his house upon the rock. And the rain came tumbling down. The rains came down and the floods
came up. The rains came down and the floods
came up. The rains came down and the floods
came up. And the house on the rock stood
firm. The foolish man built his house
upon the sand. The foolish man built his house
upon the sand. The foolish man built his house
upon the sand. And the rains came tumbling down. The rains came down and the floods
came up. The rains came down and the floods
came up. The rains came down and the floods
came up. And the house on the sand went
Smash. It fell. Didn't have a good foundation.
But I'll tell you, Christ our Lord, He's a sure foundation. You build on Him. You build all
your hopes for eternity on Christ Jesus. Oh, I'm telling you, you're
building on the rock. It can't possibly sink. It just
cannot. And then, and I'll give this
to you quickly, my time's gone. I want you to consider the reason
behind the laying of a firm foundation and its sureness. Look here in
our text in verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation
of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them
that are his. The Lord knoweth. What's that? That's the everlasting love of
God for his people. You see, the Lord is a very discriminating
Lord. He said to Israel, you only have
I known of all the families of the earth. There's some he knows
and love, and there's some he doesn't know. He said, Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. He will say to some people in
the last day, depart from me, I never knew you. But if his
own, he says, the Lord knoweth them that are his. We're his
by sovereign grace, we're his by special love. And then consider
that these, the Lord loves, are sealed. Ephesians chapter one,
we're sealed by the Holy Spirit. He's sealed, he's preserved us.
We're kept by the power of God. And then lastly, let me get this
to you quickly, because it's very important, consider our
responsibility because of what God has done
for us. Now watch the last part of the verse. And let everyone that nameth
the name of Christ. Is that you? I do. I name the name of Christ. He's
my Savior. And I've got part of his name. I'm a Christian. I'm a Christian. Let everyone the name of the
name of Christ depart from iniquity. Don't miss this now. If you profess to follow him,
here's what he says. Depart from iniquity. What's
iniquity? Inequity. Anything that isn't equal to
perfection and rightness. First of all, in general, depart
from every evil way and thing. From everybody and everything
that is opposed to Christ and his gospel and everything that
is opposed to you and your soul. Adorn the gospel in your life. Depart from iniquity. In fact,
the scripture says depart from the very appearance of evil.
That's your responsibility. But keep it in the context. Always gotta keep verses in the
context. Specifically, depart from the
iniquity of false doctrine and false teachers. If you would not go down to the
pit yourself, then you must separate yourself from them. That's what
he said. It's like Peter. It's like Peter
said in Acts, the second chapter. He said to those Jews to whom
he was preaching, he said, save yourselves from this untoward
generation. What did he mean? Save yourselves
from this crooked but religious generation. You better get away
from them. It's kind of like that rebellion
in the days of Korah and Dathan and Abiram, who sought to take
the place of Aaron, and they thought they could come to God
as well as he could. They don't need a high priest.
We'll bypass him. Really? You're gonna bypass Christ
Jesus? God's a consuming fire. And we
don't need you, Aaron. Well, that didn't turn out too good
for those fellas. And this is what the Lord told
Moses to tell the people the next day. He said, depart from
them I tell you, depart from all these wicked men and touch
nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed with their sins, because
they're going to die an unusual death. And if you don't want
to go down to the pit with them, you better get away from them." Boy, and they started leaving.
And here's these fellows and their family that's still there
and said, I tell you, we can serve the Lord as good as y'all
can. And the earth opened up. It just swallowed them right
down to hell. Closed right in upon them. I bet that kind of
quieted that crowd down, don't you? I don't want to go down
to the pit. I'm going to depart from iniquity.
I'm going to get away from, I'm going to stay away from those
who preach error, those who don't magnify Christ, those who They
say, He died for everybody. It's all up to you now. God's
done all He can do. It's all up to you. I'm going
to get away from those people because God's going to swallow
them up. Hell's going to enlarge her jaws and swallow them folks
up. And I'll tell you why. They're
trying to steal God's glory. Won't do it. You can go ahead
and say, I believe in free will. I believe it's up to man. You'll
find out. Oh God, help me to bend the knee
to the king and believe his word. And remember these two things.
His word will accomplish its purpose. And God's truth stands on a firm
foundation. It's gonna hold up. Nevertheless,
no matter what people say, It's gonna be all right. People of
God, it's gonna be all right. Don't worry. Well, I'm so sick. Well, that's in the purpose of
God, isn't it? You reckon God controls sickness?
Well, I've got this disease. You reckon God controls disease?
You reckon God forgot that you're sick? Good thing the Lord's full of
mercy, isn't it? For folks like us. Because in
here we'll say, Amen, that's right, and we'll go right out
them doors. And we'll find something to grumble about. Terrible thing,
isn't it? Terrible thing to be a sinner,
and yet a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Spirit's made
him so. He makes us to know we need Christ
Jesus every moment of every day.