The very first verse says the
Spirit, now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter
times, as time goes on, the days in which you and I are living,
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils. And it says now, now the Spirit
He's telling us something. He's very expressive, expressly
tells us. He's got some emphasis on this. And you know why? Because there
in verse 15 and 16 of chapter 3, he talks about how we're to
behave in the house of the living God, which is the church. And the church is the pillar
and ground of the truth. God makes this the church of
Christ, the church of Christ bought with his own power. It's
held up by this, by the truth, the foundation's own truth. And
this is the truth that is really established upon. Without controversy,
without any debate, without any argument about it, great is the
mystery of godliness. God Almighty was manifested in
the flesh. justified in the Spirit. The
Holy Spirit of God Himself proved that Jesus Christ our Lord was
who He said He was. And He not only proved it by
His birth, He was begotten of the Holy Spirit of God. He's
the Spirit bore witness to Him at His baptism. And the Spirit
justified Him in every act that He did on His life. And then
it justified Him when it raised Him again from the dead, and
prove that he has satisfied God's justice. And then he was seen
of angels. Angels took care of him. Oh,
how the angels, the angels were there when he was born. The angels
were there when he ascended back to glory. Angels were at the
tomb when the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Seen
of angels. Preached unto the Gentiles, preached
unto a bunch of dogs like us. Jews still, Orthodox Jews still
go home and wash themselves after they've been around a bunch of
pagans like us. And then look what he says, and
then he says, believed on in the world, what a miracle. Believed
on. To believe that God was manifested. We believe that. We believe it. That's our hope. And then, bless
his holy name, God took him back to glory, set him at his own
right hand. And now, now the Spirit speaks
expressly, that in the latter times, some shall depart from
the faith, what I just got through telling you, giving heed to seducing
spirits and doctrines of devils. Our Lord told his disciples that
when he, the Spirit of truth has come, he'll guide you into
all truth, and he'll show you things to come, show you things
to come, and that's what he's doing, he's showing us things
to come. And I tell you, He warns us, the Holy Spirit here warns
us that in these last days, lots is gonna depart from the faith.
And you know, just go back to your left to 2 Thessalonians,
in my Bible it's one page to your left. In 2 Thessalonians
chapter two, look what it says here. Now we beseech you, brethren,
by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering
together unto him, and that's gonna happen soon, that you be
not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit,
nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ
is at hand. That is gonna happen real, real
suddenly. Real, real, just, because they
sat down and quit doing anything looking for Christ to come. And
then he says this, let no man deceive you by any means, I don't
care what means he uses, let no man deceive you. For that
day shall not come, now listen to this, except there coming
a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, which
is the Antichrist, that's all he's talking about, the son of
perdition. And what you see there said that
days ain't coming until there comes a great falling away. Now
when he talks of falling away here, he's not talking about
falling away from religion. He's talking about falling away
from revealed religion. Revealed religion, falling away
from the truth of the gospel, the truth of salvation by Christ
alone. And there's lots of professing
Christians, and that's all they are, will follow and listen to
evil men who claim to speak for God. And that's what he called
them, seducing spirits. I listened to a young man, The
Doctrines of Devils. I listened to a young man this
morning, Shirley and I did. And he was dealing with Word
of Faith, Prosperity Gospel, and he's a very brilliant young
man. And the title of his church is Sovereign Grace. Title of his ministries is Sovereign
Grace Ministries. And he quoted verses that gave
God all the glory, attributed everything to God, even the lies
that men are telling. But he talked about this word
of faith ministry, where all you do is, if you're not healed,
it's because you ain't got enough faith. If you're not prosperous,
it's because you ain't got enough faith. And then there's that
name it and claim it. Oh, if you want something from
God, name it, claim it. And then there's that Holstein
bunch and Holstein bunch that you know is prosperity, prosperity,
prosperity. And one man said, you know, God
said, if I don't get $8 million in the next week, he said he's
gonna kill me. A man alive. Who'd be afraid of that? But
they do everything. And this is one thing he said
that just shocked me. And he named all the people.
And his name's Isaiah Peretz. But he dealt with this word of
faith thing. And he showed by all the different
preachers that were preaching that when Adam fell, that since
he was the creation of God and a son of God, that you yourself
are made in the image of God and when you make a profession
and you do what they tell you, then you don't need God, you're
God yourself. He said you're God yourself,
you're God. You've got all the power. And it was shocking. He named
names. I mean, he went through a list
of names. People, it's real popular today. But I tell you, beloved,
and they're seducing spirits. That's why it's called seducing.
You know, they seduce you. They entice you. They use flowery
speeches. They use words, and they use
something new, and they come up with something that'll just,
well, boy, I've never heard anything like that. That's interesting.
That's interesting. and oh my, and doctrines of devils. And these men, and here's the
reason, they're very covetous, very, very covetous, and they're
hypocrites. And they handle the Word of God
deceitfully. And I tell you, multitudes of
people handle the Word of God deceitfully. Men have always
done it, and they always will. As long as there s a Bible, men
s gonna misuse it, and they re gonna abuse it, and they re gonna
misinterpret it. They re gonna use, take things
out of context, and they re gonna twist and pervert the Scriptures.
Peter says, you know, that some men rest the Scriptures to their
own destruction. He said, Paul says he says things
to some are hard to be understood. He said, Brother Paul, that's
what he called him. And then he says, but yet those take what
he says and they're arrested and twisted and do it to their
own destruction. And I'll tell you, most churches
have to have two services on Sunday morning, they got so many
people. Do you reckon they're preaching
Christ every time they do? Do you reckon they preach the
sovereignty of God? Do you reckon they preach God's
sovereign electing grace? Do you reckon they preach that
man is lost? That he's a sinner? That he's
a wretched human being? That he ain't got nothing good
about him, never will have nothing good about him? And if God don't
intervene in his life, he'll live like he dies. A demon, a
half beast, and half devil. No, no, they don't say that.
Huh? Look over here in 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Look at
this. You know that's why Paul told
the believers, you know, stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has set you free. Be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. And look what he said here in
2 Corinthians 11, 3. But I'm fear, I fear, lest by
any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve. That word beguile means
that bewitched them, mesmerized them. that the servant begot thee through
his subtlety. So your minds should be corrupted
from the simplicity that's in Christ. That word simplicity
means singularity. The singularity that's in Christ.
He sung that song tonight, Christ is all, Christ is all, all I
need, all I need. And that's what that's saying
right there. If somebody corrupts your mind from the singularity,
the peculiarity, the particularity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
then he says, for he that cometh preaches another Jesus. You say,
has there another Jesus preached? Yes. You know what kind of Jesus
he is? He's standing with his arms open.
Please, please, please let me have my way with you. I love
every one of you. And I wanna save all of you.
But I can't do anything unless you let me. You got to choose
me. If you don't choose me, I don't
know what to do for you. I've done everything I possibly
can. I've shed my blood. I've borne
sins in my own body. But oh my, if you don't let me,
they come preach another Jesus that we have not preached. If
you receive another spirit, and that's why he says, you know,
try the spirits, whether they be of God or not, which you have
not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted,
you might well bear with him. You'll put up with him, but you
won't put up with the truth. That's what Paul was telling
these Galatians, I mean these Corinthians. He was very scared
for them. And that's why he said, oh foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you? bewitched you and took you away
from Christ. And some depart from the faith,
listen to and receive the lies and false doctrine. Oh, I tell
you, we know Arminianism and freewillism's false doctrine. But there's some more doctrine
that's very, very, very dangerous, very dangerous. You know, Jehovah
Witnesses. I read a thing where Paul Mahan
and Henry wrote this. He said, you know these Jehovah
Witnesses come to visit him. He said, do you know who Jehovah
Rafi is? No. Do you know who he is? Do
you know who Jehovah Nissi is? No. Do you know who Jehovah Sikkimu
is? No. Do you know who Jehovah Shalom
is? No. He said, well then if you
don't know anything about Jehovah, why do you call yourself a Jehovah
Witness? He named all the Jehovah's, Jehovah our righteousness, Jehovah
our peace, Jehovah our provider. And they didn't know any of those
things. He said, you're not a Jehovah's
Witness. I am, because I know Jehovah. I know his names. I
know his character. I know what he's like. And I
tell you this, departing from the faith. And these men make
great efforts to persuade men to to worship God and seek acceptance
before God by the works of their flesh. Ain't that what he says
here? He said, over here in verse three,
he said, commanding to abstain from meat, back over in our text
now, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving
of them which believe and know the truth. They want you to have
your acceptance before God by the flesh. You quit, you abstain
from certain meats, Abstain from marriage? Abstain from certain
foods on certain days? Observe certain days and rules
and days of fasting? Oh, there's some people out there
that it's unbelievable the things that they believe and go home
with. Absolutely unbelievable. You know, maybe y'all remember,
maybe they still do it, I don't know. When I was in school, I'm
gonna show you how powerful the Catholic Church is. Everybody
had fish on Friday. Every school had fish on Friday.
You know why they had fish on Friday? Because the Catholic
Church said you gotta eat fish on Friday. So to keep from offending
anybody there, they had fish on Friday. I didn't, you know,
it didn't make no difference to me. I'll eat fish about any
time if it's good. But I don't have to wait till
Friday. But they did that every Friday because of the Catholic
Church. Because Catholics eat fish on Friday. It's a thing that they have to
do. You know, you can't be a good Catholic if you don't eat fish
on Friday. You say, boy, I tell you, you're getting too personal.
Well, listen, I'm just telling you how powerful and how false
people are and what it takes just to make somebody be deceived. And I tell you, people are ready
to follow these men. You know why? Because natural
man, he was born self-righteous, and he was born to worship God,
even if he had to make one up. He was born to worship God. And
I'll tell you, if you give him a God to worship that'll suit
him and suit his whims and suit his nature and suit his fallen
nature, he'll jump on him. He'll just, oh yes, that's great
for me. Oh, but they reject and despise
spiritual worship. They despise the absolute dependence
on the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ and the mercy of
our Lord Jesus. And I tell you what Satan does,
he uses man's weakness against him. He uses his own
weakness against him. And by his ministers and by his
preachers, gives men something to do to give up for salvation. I tell you what, you give up,
you give up, you know, and I remember preachers preaching this. If
you deny yourself, if you love Pepsi, just deny yourself Pepsi
for a week. If you like some certain thing,
just deny yourself that for a month. And they go to telling you all
this stuff, that if you'll just give that up for just a while,
God will really bless you for that. He'll really bless you
for that. And I tell you, give up something
for salvation. You know, it's like that rich
young ruler, he came to the Lord Jesus Christ and he asked the
wrong question to start with. He said, Master, good Master,
what good thing can I do to inherit eternal life? Now he wanted,
then he said inherit it, but he also said, what good thing
must I do? That's the wrong question to
ask. But that's what most men ask.
And that's what most preachers are telling people. If you'll
give up this, you give up that. I remember, you know, I used
to have real, real long hair. I mean long hair and a big beard.
And boy, I tell you, people tell
me all the time, said, you need to clean up. You know, I started
going to services. I started going to churches.
Trying to learn something. And every time I'd go in there
and say, boy, you need to get that hair cut. You need to clean
up your life. And all this, if you smoked,
and back then I smoked, and they'd say, boy, listen, you ain't going
to heaven because they ain't got all their ashes put on St.
Peter. Stupid stuff like that. But people believed it. Oh, and it's like that woman
at the well. She said, this mountain's where
we're supposed to worship, and the Jews supposed to worship
up in Jerusalem. And our Lord said, listen, it's
not the place you worship, it's the person you worship. He said,
worship God, for He seeketh such, God is a spirit, and He seeketh
such to worship Him in spirit and in truth. And oh my. Now let our hearts
be established with grace, not with what we eat. And oh my,
look down here now in verse two and three. These men speak lies
and hypocrisy. You know, they're like the Pharisees.
They'll tell you what to do, but they won't do it themselves.
And here's the reason, having their conscience seared with
a hot iron. Their conscience don't bother them. Their conscience
has no qualm on them. Their conscience does not trouble
them whatsoever. Nothing, nothing, nothing whatsoever. And listen to what they say.
And they say, oh my. And what they're doing is they're
lording themselves over men's conscience. They make themselves
lord over another man's conscience. Now look what they say here.
Forbidding to marry, they're in verse three. Now why in the
world would anybody forbid somebody to marry? Huh? Why? Why would you tell
somebody not to get married? Don't marry that person. He's
a yahoo, don't do that. Don't marry that woman, you just
don't know what she'll do to you. But you know, we're talking
about marrying, but to tell somebody, don't get married, live a celibate
life. And then, oh my, didn't look
what else it says. Oh my, forbidding to marry. And
the scriptures tells us the marriage bed is honorable and all and
undefiled. And oh my, and here's the something
else they said, they command you to abstain from meats. That
word meats means just from food, certain foods, certain foods. You know, there is a certain
group that, They'll only eat, they won't eat pork. They won't
eat, there's a lot of things they won't eat. Cause it makes
them more holy and it'll defile them if they eat it. Or don't eat a certain meat on
a certain day. And it's all, it's just hypocritical. It's a pretense of living a holy
life and being very, very temperate. But look what it says now. He
said, to abstain from meat which God hath created, which God hath
created. I don't care what kind it is,
which God hath created. And he says, all these things
that they're telling you not to do is to be received with
thanksgiving. God made hogs, God made beef, God made birds, God made turkeys,
God made chickens. I like all of them. I like it
all. And surely there's an awful good
cook in it. But here's the thing, he went
on to say and said, Edward, Edward, God made all meat. And thank
God for it. He says, thank and receive them
with thanksgiving, them that believe and know the truth. Don't
stay away from something because you think it's gonna make you
better and more holy, make you more dedicated, show you got
a temperate life. I don't mean go out here and
gorge on something. Anybody's got the sense enough
not to do that. But what he's talking about,
God created all these meats, and when we sit down to eat something,
we give thanks for it. God created that, God made that. And God helped us to buy it,
and God helped us to pay for it, and God helped us give us
somebody to cook it, and we sit around and we say, Lord, thank
you for this. We know the truth, we believe
the truth. And I'm not gonna, listen, I've
never, by God's grace, ever imposed on anybody's conscience what
they can eat, where they can go, what they can wear, what
they can do. and who they can do it with.
I'm telling you, I'm not gonna do that, I'm not gonna start
that, go down that road. I know the preacher that you
couldn't get a dog unless you went and talked to the preacher.
Couldn't buy a car unless the preacher approved of it. Boy, ain't that some kind of,
listen, next time y'all get ready to buy a car, better check with
me. See how absurd it is? But there's preachers that have
done that. I know the folks that they done it to. And they was
in bondage. They was scared to death. That,
oh, don't refuse anything that God's created for food. Afraid you're going to be spiritually
contaminated. Oh, receive it with thanksgiving.
And then look what else he said. In verse 4. For every creature
of God is good. Every creation of God. Everything
that God made is good. Nothing to be refused, if it
be received with thanksgiving. Oh my. So if it's set in front of you,
thank God for it. Eat it and be grateful for it.
Because God, everything God made, He said, good and very good. Good and very good. You go back
over creation. He saw that everything he made
was good. Then he said, very good, very
good. And I tell you, nothing of itself
is common or unclean. If you use it with some kind
of temperance, you know, look over with me in Matthew 15. You
know, you've heard of gnat religion, ain't you? You know what gnat religion is,
don't you? They're the fellas that strain
in a gnat and end up turning around swallowing a camel. How can you strain it? That's
what he says. You got this little old bitty gnat there. and you
pick at the tiniest thing, that thing there that don't absolutely
amount to nothing, and then you make a great, great issue of
something over here, and there's this big camel, and you end up
taking and swallowing that camel, and that gnat don't amount to
nothing. But look what our Master says
here, verse 10. And he called the multitude and
said unto them, Hear and understand, Not that which goeth into the
mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth,
this defiles a man. Then said his disciples said
unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? Because they were all, my goodness,
they was into washing their hands and doing all kinds of things.
And our Lord, they said, don't you know that you hurt their
feelings? You offended them. after they heard this saying.
Oh, I tell you, you think that bothered our Lord? Oh, listen
to what he says. But he answers, said, every plant
which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.
He said, just let them old Pharisees alone. Just let them alone. They're
blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both of them's gonna be in the ditch. Then answered Peter and
said unto him, declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said,
are you also without understanding? Do you not understand that whatsoever
entereth in at the mouth goeth out into the belly and cast out
in the draft? Ye, something that's going right
on through you, that's what he's saying. But those things which
proceed out of the mouth come from the heart. That's what defiles
a man. Out of the mouth, out of the
bones of the heart, the mouth speaketh. For out of the heart
proceeds evil thoughts. And if you got a wrong heart,
evil thoughts coming out of your mouth. Murders, adulteries, fornications,
stealing, lying, blasphemies. These are the things that defile
a man. But to eat with unworshipped
hands, that don't defile a man. And oh my. And you know, believers
know that that's where their trouble's at, in their heart,
in their heart. All right. He says, and they
which believe and know the truth are freed from every yoke of
bondage, every ceremony, every invention of man. Christ is all
in all. Our Lord says, know the truth
and the truth will set you free. And whom the Son sets free, he's
free indeed. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. Now look what he says here in
verse, going back there, it said, if
it be received with thanksgiving, so it's sanctified by the word
of God in prayer. Then he said in verse six, if
thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be
a good preacher, a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up
in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou
hast attained. Oh, put the brethren in remembrance.
You know, Peter says, to put you in remembrance, even though
you know these things, I'm gonna put you in remembrance. And you
put the brethren in remembrance, that the end of the commandment
is charity. Love your neighbor as yourself,
love one another. That Christ came into this world
to save sinners. I mean bonafide, certified, God
made sinners. And that all mine, that God himself
came down in the world, that there was one mediator between
God and men, the Lord Jesus Christ. That God calls men and puts them
in the ministry. They don't put themselves in
the ministry. And that women ought to know how to behave themselves
in the church of God and teach other women. And I tell you,
the church is the pillar and ground of the truth. And I tell
you, he says, you teach this, you'll be a good minister of
Christ. Put them in remembrance of the
things that you know yourself, that nourish them up in this,
feed them with this. And look what he said. And he
says, all nourished up in the words of faith. All faith cometh by hearing of
good doctrine, good sound doctrine. The doctrine of Christ, the doctrine
of God, the doctrine of faith, all these wonderful doctrines
that we love. Doctrine of the Trinity, doctrine
of redemption. Well, until you've got there,
God's brought you there. And this is necessary, this is
so necessary. This is so, so necessary that
this be done. And look what he goes on to say.
That God's to be worshipped, and that's talking about nourished
up in the words of faith. Not by these old fleshly means
and means. The kingdom of God is righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. That's what it is. That all worship
God only. And if you teach these things,
you'll be a good minister of Christ, always feeding yourself,
nourishing your own soul, and feeding God's people in the truth
of faith and good doctrine. You've been taught and you follow
these things. But now let me hurry on here. I don't want to
take too long. But look what he says in verse 7. But refuse
profane and old wise fables, and exercise thyself rather unto
godliness. How about the thinking today
of all the things I've heard when I first come down here?
I mean, I've heard some strange things. You know, I don't know
if you've ever heard these things. Well, I'll tell you sometime
when we're, I won't take up time to tell you, but there's about
a half a dozen things, old wives' fables that people had. You know,
one of them was if you was bleeding, if you'd open up to somewhere
in Ezekiel and read it seven times, it'd stop bleeding. It's just one of them. It's just
a strange thing. Oh my. But refuse all these old
traditions. Refuse carnal fleshly commandments. Refuse false standards of holiness. They're just godless fictions.
Old sentimental tales. Men call it the old fashioned
way. What is the old-fashioned way? People talk about, boy,
back in the day, back in the day, back in the day. Well, listen,
everybody believes they've lived in the worst day that ever was.
I mean, 100 years ago, I believe people that, John Newton thought
he was living in the worst days ever was. Everybody 200 years
ago thought they was living in the worst days. And we think
we're living in the worst days. But what is this they call it,
the old-fashioned way, the knee-right way? Oh my. But I tell you what, if it's
new, it's not true. And if it's true, it's not new.
But look what he says. Now. But exercise thyself, verse
7, rather unto godliness. Oh, listen. Instead of listen
to that, seek the Lord. Look to God. Don't never take
your eyes off of Him. Never take your eyes off of Christ.
No matter what anybody says or does. Don't listen to that. Don't exercise you. Don't get
all upset and exercise your mind and worry for it. Keep on godliness. Exercise to godliness. And our
lesson, listen to this one. For bodily exercise profiteth
little. Now what in the world do you
reckon he's talking about right here? He's not talking about running,
jogging, playing tennis or golf, lifting weights. He's not talking
about that at all. That's not what he's talking about. Because
he's been talking about abstaining from, abstaining from, abstaining
from. And he says all of these things
that you'll do for your body to deny it and abstain from so
many things and do all these things to exercise your body
to be so you can be made more acceptable to God. Uh-huh. Oh, no. He means God will exercise. It means all outward actions.
Well, we can't pray if we ain't kneeling. We can't do anything
if we don't fast a certain while. We gotta eat certain things,
drink certain things, abstain from certain things, abstain
from sex, food, whatever that's undertaken for the sake of religion
and holiness. And look what he says now. That's
all these bodily exercises, it ain't gonna profit you. Profit
you very, very little. But godliness, godliness is profitable. The gospel, godliness, the things
of God, the things that's taught of God. And as you hear these
things, godliness is profitable unto all things. Oh, cause godliness
has the promise of the life that is right now. That's what you
know tonight. Nobody here would say, well,
I'm a godly person. But you're here to exercise yourself
unto godliness. You came here to listen to something,
to learn something. And so you, right here tonight,
are learning about godliness, exercising yourself unto godliness.
And as you hear this godliness, and you listen to these things,
then one of these things here is what it says. It has promise
of the life that now is. Oh, the peace and the joy that
we enjoy in God, in Christ, and in the gospel. And watch this.
And especially in that life which is to come. So I'm going to keep on coming.
I'm going to keep on exercising. In the things of God, in the
things of the Scriptures, in the fruit of the Spirit, love,
joy, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, against
such there is no law. Huh? Oh, don't let nobody entice
you. Don't let nobody entice you. Oh, our Lord, our great, glorious,
blessed God in heaven, How wondrously gracious you are, kind to us,
to let us listen to your precious word. Let us speak to, oh, it
speaks to our hearts, speaks to our understanding. It warns
us. Oh, it gives us great warning, explicit warnings. And so Lord,
you keep us. You keep us, Lord, as we sung
tonight. Teach us thy way, oh Lord, teach us thy way. Oh Lord,
teach us, teach us, teach us. and do it for Christ's sake.
Amen. Amen.