We've certainly been blessed
here today in hearing the Word of God rejoicing in His goodness
to us. Brother Tim shared with us that the truth of God has to be revealed,
not something that a man can learn Though we spend much time
seeking after it, can't gain it. But the Lord is pleased to bestow
it. And he's pleased to show it unto men. And when the Lord has shown a
man his truth, it becomes precious to us, to him. And as Timothy writes here to, or as Paul writes here to Timothy, this is made manifest, this very
truth, that it does not matter what men say or what they claim
to know, or what they even may come teaching other men, if the
Lord is not pleased to give a man the truth, that man will speak
lies. Because lies are born in our
heart. We don't have to learn to lie. Scripture says that the wicked
go astray as soon as they are born speaking lies. And that's
just in us. You know, we love an error, more
than we love the truth by nature. And so we're not shocked at any
of these things that Paul writes to Timothy about as he speaks
of those who are traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure
more than lovers of God as we look here in the third chapter
of 2nd Timothy. And then he says something that
is so evident, but yet still is
such a powerful delusion that we see around us all the time,
having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from
such turned away. Now, when men would set forth a message that would
put the power of a man's eternal salvation in the hands of that
man, then he has definitely denied the power thereof. Because the power of a man to
be saved is not in his own hands. Now that's shocking to some and
it is disconcerting to others. You know, as men like to think
that they're in control of things in their life and that they're
pretty well gonna do what they want to do. Even as we heard
about Emilek. I mean, he had a plan, did he
not? And he figured that he knew how, or he expected how this
plan was gonna turn out, but the plan didn't turn out like
he determined it to be. It turned out like the Lord ordained
it from the beginning. And indeed, the Lord does raise
up wicked men in the world, just as sure as he raises up men to
do good things. They belong to him. He can make
one vessel under honor and another under dishonor as it pleases
Him and who's going to question His doing or say to Him, what
doest thou? There's not a thing in the world
that you and I can ever bring a railing accusation against
God. There's no way that a man can
accuse God of anything. What grounds would you have to
accuse God of something? He's made you. And so there are those that have
a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. He says to
turn away from them. There are many in this world
who say many good things. They have a form of godliness.
But the form of godliness is not what we're after. We're not
after something that appears. to be the truth. We want to know
what the truth is. And not only do we want to know
what the truth is, but we desire by the grace of God to have that
truth formed in us that we might walk according to that truth.
That's what it is to not deny the power thereof. And that is
to be without a form of godliness. See, religion is a form of godliness. And it is quite prevalent. Everybody
has a little bit of it. Even atheists, those that say
they don't believe in God, they have their own. Just like the
climate change people and the evolutionists. I mean, they all
have a faith. They all have a way in which
they believe. These are forms of godliness. Some of them sound pretty good. I mean, you get to listen to
some of these climate people and you'd think they just love
the world so much that they want to see it preserved. But what
in reality they do is they worship and serve the creature more than
the creator. I mean, that's the error of all
of this tree hugging and all that stuff, the error of it is
not in being concerned with the environment. Everybody ought
to take concern for the environment that they're in for the sake
of their brethren. I mean, yes, we ought to be concerned
with one another's welfare, no doubt about it, but we don't
come to the place where we believe that the creation takes on a
life of its own apart from that which God has ordained for it
to be. See, the Lord set an order in
the earth, and He made man to rule over it. And He made the
creatures that are in the earth to be subservient to men, not
men to be subservient to the creatures. And so it is that
these things are errors that creep in, and many of them or
sound in some ways, but ultimately, see, this is what we're looking
at and what we should be looking at each day. What is the ultimate
goal? You know, of whatever it is a
man comes teaching, what's the ultimate goal of it? Is the ultimate
goal to do nothing but give glory to God in it? Then that's a good
thing. But if there's any other ulterior
motive than that, then it ultimately devolves into nothing but a form
of godliness, denying the power thereof. We must fall down and
worship Him who made us. For it is He that hath made us
and not we ourselves. And this is the place, by the
grace of God, that Christ came into the world. This is that
for which Christ came into the world to redeem His people out
of a world which has gone awry. Now it didn't go awry from the
work and plan of God, but it went all right from that which,
as men would see it, would ultimately benefit them. Because the Lord
would bring us to the place to realize what actually benefits
us is His mercy and kindness to us. And that's the thing that
the Lord would teach us, and that is that which the Lord came
to redeem His people, to make us a people that are purified
before Him, made holy in His sight, cleansed by the grace
of God in the blood of Jesus Christ. It says, having a form
of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn
away. And then he describes some of
their activity. He says, for these of this sort,
these are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly
women, laid with sins, led away with divers lust. Now that's
kind of a humorous thing each time that I read it. And I know
that if I was a woman, I probably would take some offense at some
of the words that Paul's writing here, but he's not speaking about
all women as being silly. Now, there is a measure in which
all women are silly, just like there's a measure in which we
can say all men are stupid. I mean, you know, we all are
less than perfect. And one of the things that we
learn from this, and this is not meant as a knock upon women,
but it's just the way the Lord made us. Eve was deceived by Satan. In that way, you could say Eve
was a silly woman. She should have never listened
to Satan. Now, Adam, on the other hand,
he wasn't deceived. He wasn't silly. He said, hmm,
you know, this could turn out to be a pretty good thing, actually. And so he willingly sinned. Now, the Lord is ordained, and
he said it. I mean, I didn't make this up.
This is what, you know, the Lord, says that women are the weaker
vessel. I think that anybody that's honest
would agree that that is a true thing in just the normal carnal
things of the world. Now, we're trying in our society
to turn that around with all these men claiming to be women
going out here in these sporting contests. And amazingly, a man
that decides he's a woman, he's going to go out and enter a weightlifting
contest, and he's going to lift more weights than all the women.
That's amazing, isn't it? How that could happen? No, it's
not amazing at all. Common sense tells you that that's
going to happen. And what baffles me is people
that can't see that or don't want to see it. It's not that
they can't see it, it's that they just don't want to believe
it. But why? because they do not want to bow
their knee unto the order that God Almighty has made in the
earth when he made male and he made female. That's what's behind
all of this stuff. It's that men, by nature, we
want to abandon the truth of God. And that's just one way
in which it's seen. And so he says, these are they
which creep into houses and lead silly women captive. Now, again,
please don't accuse me of being a male chauvinist. I probably
am, but I'm not saying this for that reason. I'm just trying
to point out the truth. You know, as it is, now I have
observed this, that most cultic and error-prone religions focus
on getting women to get in them. And it is generally women that
form a great portion of their leadership. Now the Lord in the
scriptures, he says that he suffers not a woman to teach nor to usurp
authority over men. Now you can like that or you
can not like it, that's just what he said. And when you see
religious organizations or whatever that where women are prominent
leaders in that, then you can have an understanding that some
of this is what Paul's speaking about right here. And so it's
not that we are against women in any way. None of us would
be here was it not for women. I mean, thank the Lord for women.
And you know, men are in many ways inferior to women. I mean, many ways. I mean, emotionally. We're cripples, really. Most
men are really weak of mind and heart, and we're just done. We're like dogs. I often say
women are like cats and men are like dogs. Cats, they seem to
have a little bit higher intellect than dogs do. You know, dogs
ain't just going around and that main thing they're concerned
about is just getting something to eat. I mean, that's kind of
the way they are. And men, that's basically, I
mean, that's kind of what we live with those things, you know,
the desires of the body are mainly the things that men are primarily
concerned about. And we'll pursue these things
unto our destruction if it was not for the grace of God to restrain
us. And so it is that men are inferior
to women in many ways, but according to the order and purpose of Almighty
God, and that he might illustrate. See, all of these things are
done to illustrate the glory of Christ as the head of the
church. I mean, why did the Lord make
man the head of the woman? To illustrate that Christ is
the head of the church, not to exalt the man. There's neither male nor female
in the kingdom of God. I mean, these things are not
done in some way. You know, like the, I've been
reading a book here along and along about the Mormons. And, you know,
the Mormons, I often wonder what in the world would a woman want
to be in that, what is she gonna gain from that? Talk about being
silly women led, you know, why women would ever, because the
Mormonism is a man-centered religion. I mean, it exists for the benefit
of the man. In fact, a woman doesn't even
have any rights in eternal things unless a man seals her as his
wife. Now, you know, and I'll get into
all the silliness of that. I mean, that's silly. Men are
silly to be led astray with such ridiculous stuff as that. But
nonetheless, they are. Now, this is a good example of
this. Now, you know, you look at the
Mormon people are, as a general rule, kind of a morally upright
people. At least they want to project
that. Whether it's actually so or not, I can't tell. But they
have a form of godliness. But they deny the power thereof. Because they would add all sorts
of stuff. to the Word of God and say that
it is the Word of God when it's not the Word of God. And the
curses of the book of Revelation rest heavily upon their head. If anybody adds anything to that
which the Lord has given, let the curses of this book be upon
them. And so, Lead captive silly women
laden with sins led away with divers lust and I you know, we
it is a true thing Ever learn now listen to this ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth They're ever learning You see
false religion is ever learning The true religion of Christ is
not that way. Because you see, for a man to
be a follower of Christ, he learns the main thing that he needs
to know right to start with, and that is that Jesus Christ
is the Savior of sinners. We don't need to learn anything
else. I mean, what else do you need to know? I'm not saying there's not things
that the Lord will teach us along the way, but I mean, you know,
realistically, what do you need to know? Well, two things. One
is that you are a sinner without hope before Almighty God. And that, two, Christ is the
Savior of sinners. Now those are the two things
you need to know. You don't have to be ever learning. You've been
given the truth right there in a nutshell. That is the truth
if the Lord gives you ears to hear it. Christ is the Savior
of sinners. He's the Savior of those that
call upon Him. What a glorious Savior He is.
So they're never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Now see, without boasting, we can say, by the grace of God,
we have come to a knowledge of the truth. Well, what is the
truth? The Lord Jesus Christ said it to His disciples, did
He not? He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. I mean, that's the truth. If
you want to know what the truth is, when somebody says, well,
what is the truth? That would be it. I mean, that
is the very essence of the truth. It doesn't get any clearer than
that. It doesn't get any simpler than that. It doesn't get any
more complicated than that. Christ is the truth. If you want
to know the truth, look to Christ. And you will see it there. Because
he embodied it as he walked among men. He taught it as he walked
among men. He said, my sheep hear my voice.
I know them and they follow me. That's the truth spoken straight
from his lips. And anything that anybody comes
along telling you that is contradictory to those things that Christ himself
taught, then they cannot be the truth, can they? Because he is
the truth. They're never able to come to
that knowledge because they say, well, there's gotta be more to
it than that. Now, I know we believe that and all this, but
you need to do this. Or you need to walk in this,
or you need to have this type of thing, this experience, or
whatever it is that they say you need. I've sought out many things.
in my life. The Lord brought me down a pathway
that I wouldn't want any of you to go, but it might be good for
you if you did. But I thank the Lord he brought
me the way he did, even though, you know, I sought out many religious
things, all kinds of experiences, and this, that, and the other,
and finally the Lord just whacked me upside the head just like
that millstone that was dropped on a Biblical head. Now Bimelech didn't survive that,
but praise God, I survived. But he hit me upside the head
and showed me, look, it's Christ. Now, you don't need all of this
other stuff. Why are you out here seeking
out these experiences? Because somebody tells you, well,
brother, what you need to do is we got to lay hands on you
and you just start opening your mouth and let your tongue wobble
away and pretty soon, you know, you'll be, you just, I mean,
you'll be carried off to heaven somewhere. Thank God. He delivered me from that. I
mean, he showed me that it's Christ. And I come to play, I
don't want anything else. I'm not interested in anything
else. I've had people tell me, well,
you know, you need to read this book here and you need to get
this particular guy's idea about this prophecy and that prophecy
and all this. Look, I just want to know about
Christ. Because if that's what you're
seeking, and that's what you're focused on, and that's what the
Lord's pleased to reveal to you, you will never be wrong. It's
Christ. but they're never able to come
to a knowledge of the truth. Now as Jonas and Jambres withstood
Moses, so too do these, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate
concerning the faith. Now these two fellows, Jonas
and Jambres, they're nowhere else mentioned in the scripture
except we believe this is mainly according to Jewish tradition,
that Jonas and Jombras were the magicians that withstood Moses
whenever he stood before Pharaoh and he did the miracles. You remember he cast down his
staff and it became a serpent? And they said, nothing to that,
we can do the same thing. And they did that. Now the thing
that they didn't really figure out was what happened to their
snakes. Because the Moses rock, his swallowed
up their snakes. And they was looking around for
theirs when they got through. And they probably went to, hey,
how'd you do that? Because you see, they thought
that the power was in their hands. And that's the way that reprobate
men resist the truth, because they figure they can figure it
out. Now, you know, we've got this, you know, I've been to
this Bible school, and we know these things here, and we've
been taught this, and you know, we've got it. We don't need any
of that stuff there that you're talking about. Reprobate minds,
reprobate concerning the faith. See, men can be right about a
lot of stuff. There's a lot of, I was thinking
about this the other day, there's a lot of psychological stuff
that men talk about that probably is beneficial to men if they
thought about it. I mean, think for instance, if
you have a positive outlook on life, you're probably better
off than if you go through life with a negative view. Now, that's
not going to get you into the kingdom of God, however. I mean
the power of positive thinking will never take you one step
closer to the Lord. But there probably is some benefit
in this life of approaching life in that fashion. You know, I
believe, of course, the scripture teaches that God's people, as
we look at the fact that he's that one who is in control of
all things, that gives us a positive outlook, if we have a right understanding
of it. I'd be fearful to get out of
my house every day if I thought that things were just happening
by chance. See, because I know that he is
the one that controls all things. So there are benefits. in natural
things that men think and teach. The problem is that when men
think that these things, if they learn them, it's going to cause
them to know the Lord. It's not gonna help you. Because
the truth of God has to be revealed unto men. And men who are reprobate
concerning the faith, they don't believe that. They believe you
can learn it. You know, and if we can teach you, if you go to
come to our class, we'll have you straightened out in no time.
And you'll be a good Christian. Reprobate concerning faith. Men
of corrupt minds. Now see, a corrupt mind doesn't
have to be somebody that does something immoral. See, corrupt
minds are not necessarily immoral minds. Now, we think of it that
way, and of course, immorality, as we would define it, certainly
stems from a corrupt mind. But a corrupt mind is any mind,
again, that deviates from Christ as the central truth of all that
we should know and desire to know. What a glorious one he
is. For they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was. Now, speaking about Jannes and
Jambres. Now, when he says their folly
shall be manifest to all men, just like the gospel is manifest
to all men. Now, but the gospel is not revealed
to all men. See, there's a difference. I
mean, when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world, He didn't
come in secret. He came openly. Now everybody
didn't know about it. Everybody didn't care about it.
But those to whom the Lord would reveal it is made manifest plainly. And this is what I believe he's
saying here. For their folly shall be manifest unto all men. Not unto everybody. Everybody's
not going to know the errors. Not every individual in the earth
is going to know the error because obviously some are led astray
by it. But you see the Lord will make
manifest unto all. of his children these things. He will make them manifest even
as he did to his children when these magicians stood against
Moses in the same fashion. He says, but thou hast fully
known my doctrine. manner of life, purpose, faith,
long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which
came to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra, what persecutions
I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and
all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
Now, Paul said to Timothy, thou hast fully known my doctrine.
How could that be? I mean, did Timothy just, was
he a carbon copy of Paul? Did he know every individual
thing that Paul knew? No. But you see, he knew Paul's
doctrine because Paul's doctrine was not Paul's doctrine. See,
that's what he's saying here. He says, thou hast fully known
my doctrine. Because you see, the scriptures
that he has been taught, he goes on to say, I didn't read far
enough, and that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.
Now you see, how did Timothy know Paul's doctrine? He knew
it because when Paul came teaching it to him, he said, you know,
I've heard that before. You know, that's the truth. I believe this is a true thing
too, that God's people know the truth when they hear it. I can
remember the first time I ever heard the doctrine of God's sovereign
grace preached. I never heard it before in my
life. I said, man, that's true. Now, I'm not saying that everything
about it, I just automatically agreed with it, because I had
some questions about a lot of stuff, but brother, I knew this,
and it rejoiced my heart. I can still remember sitting
in a congregation. We was at a men's conference
somewhere, and they sang the song, Crown Him With Many Crowns. I'd never heard that song sung
in all my days. Now I'm not saying I never was
in a place where that song was sung. I said I never heard that
song till that day. And when I heard that song, buddy,
my heart swelled within me. Crown him with many crowns, the
lamb upon his throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem
sounds, all beauty. What a glory. Surrounds the Savior. Thou hast fully known my doctrine,
because you see, Paul's doctrine, Paul's manner of life, his purpose,
his faith, his longsuffering, his charity, and his patience
were all found in Christ. And Paul was just really a vessel
that the Lord used and worked in. And when Timothy was with
him day after day, what he saw in Paul was exactly what Paul
said. See, Paul didn't say one thing,
and then when him and Timothy got off somewhere else, he was
saying something else. No, his doctrine was the same.
His faith was the same. Because why? Because it was founded
on the truth. It didn't change. You don't have
to worry. You see, you don't have to worry about somebody
going astray if they're founded on this. Founded on that which
Paul's speaking about. Fully known my doctrine, manner
of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience. All these
things are evidences, dear brethren, of the spirit of God. And are
we not taught these things in the Word of God? I mean, are
these not the fruits of the Spirit that are wrought in the people
of God? And Paul said, you've known it.
You've seen it. And he said, persecutions, afflictions,
you've seen me stand. in spite of all these things
that came against us. Now, I don't know specifically
all the different things. We're told some of them in the
book of Acts of the things that happened to them. But Paul suffered
much throughout his life for the cause of Christ. And he didn't
have another agenda. That was his agenda. He said,
I suffer all things for the elect's sake. But the Lord, but out of them
all, the Lord delivered me. Yes, he did, and yes, he will.
Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer
persecution, and conversely, evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. Oh, that the
Lord might deliver us from the deceivers. They're out there. much of Paul's writings to those
whom he was given a mind, a right to concern, warning God's people
about deceivers. Because you know a deceiver, if you're deceived, you don't
know you're deceived. And only the Lord can deliver
man out of deception. You can't reason a man out of
deception if the Lord doesn't open his eyes, because he's convinced
he's right. You don't have to look any further
than Saul of Tarsus to know that that's true. I mean, he was a
man, but he believed what he was doing. He was convinced of
it, till the Lord opened his eyes and showed him. And what
did he show him? He showed him Christ. Oh, who
are thou, Lord? Oh, that the Lord might
give us a heart and mind today to seek after Him. He's not far from any one of
us. But we can't reach out and touch
Him according to our own volition. But by the grace of God, we can
seek Him. Because he said, if a man seeks
him with his whole heart, he'll find him. And he's the one that
gives a man the power to seek him. Lord, he might make us all
seekers. because I don't remember if it
was Brother Al or Brother Tim said earlier that we're constant
seekers. See, I mean, we were, I was taught
that, buddy, you know, you seek the Lord and then you find him
and then you're done. I mean, that's over with. You
can just go on, you know, about your life. Now, no, God's people
are seekers every day. We're seeking the truth of God
because we're seeking Christ. Oh, that he might give us such
a heart of mine.