If you will open your Bibles
with me to the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter
3. As you're turning, I'm going
to make a couple of announcements. Ron Meadows had a heart attack
yesterday evening. They don't think there was much
damage to the heart, but he did have a heart attack. And he has
over 90% blockage everywhere. I'm not sure what that means.
I don't know how many places, but this is everywhere. That's
the word I was told. He's in ICU now with some sort
of a pump relieving the pressure on his heart, and they intend
to do open heart surgery in the morning unless it becomes necessary
beforehand. So we want to remember him in
prayer. This place will not be the same
until Ron's back there manning his post. I've said so many times,
he warms everybody up. If I sat right here, And those
blinds were closed, and I didn't see, I'd know if Ron's here or
not. He warms everybody up. So he's been a blessing to every
single person here. And let's pray for him. Let's
pray for him. Also, this coming weekend, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, there will be a conference at Millsite Baptist
Church in Cottageville, West Virginia. The speakers are Greg
Youngquist, Clay Curtis, Todd Nybert, and myself. So covet
your prayers for that meeting. All right, 2 Timothy chapter
three, we'll read the first nine verses. This know also that in
the last days perilous times shall come for men should be
lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers,
disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection,
truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers
of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness,
but denying the power thereof, from such turn away. For of this
sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly
women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning,
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as
Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist
the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest
unto all, as theirs also was." We'll end our reading there.
Let's stand together as Sean leads us in singing our call
to worship. I once was a stranger to grace
and to God. I knew not my danger and felt
not my load. Though friends spoke in rapture
of Christ on the tree, Jehovah said, Kid, you meant nothing
to me. When free grace awoke me by life
from on high, Then legal fear shook, me, I trembled to die. No refuge, no safety, in self
could I see. Jehovah said, Can you? My Savior must be. My terrors all vanished before
His sweet name, My guilty fears vanished, with boldness I came. ? To drink at the fountain, life
giving and free ? ? Jehovah said, Ken, new is all things to me
? Okay, if you would, turn in your
red hymnal to song number 266. Fade, fade, each earthly joy. Fade, fade, each earthly joy,
Jesus is mine. Break every tender tie, Jesus
is mine. Dark is the wilderness, earth
has no resting place. Jesus alone can bless, Jesus
is mine. Tempt not my soul away, Jesus
is mine. Here would I ever stay, Jesus
is mine. Perish ye things of clay, born
but for one brief day. Pass from my heart away, Jesus
is mine. Farewell, ye dreams of night,
Jesus is mine. Lost in this dawning bright,
Jesus is mine. All that my soul has tried, left
but a dismal void. Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is
mine. Farewell mortality, Jesus is
mine. Welcome eternity, Jesus is mine. Welcome, O loved and blessed. Welcome, sweet scenes of rest. Welcome, my Savior's breast,
Jesus is mine. Turn with me, if you would, to
Proverbs chapter four. Proverbs 4. Here, ye children, the instruction
of a father, and attend to no understanding. For I give you
good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father's
son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He
taught me also, and said unto me, let thine heart retain my
words, keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom, get understanding,
forget it not. Neither decline from the words
of my mouth, forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee.
Love her, and she shall keep thee. Wisdom is the principal
thing. And we know, we say, Christ.
Christ is the principal thing. Therefore, get Christ, get wisdom. With all thy getting, get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote
thee. She shall bring thee to honor
when thou doest embrace her. She shall give to thine head
an ornament of grace. A crown of glory shall she deliver
to thee. Hear, O son, and receive my sayings. The years of thy
life shall be many. I've taught thee in the way of
wisdom. I've led thee in right paths. When thou goest, thy steps
shall not be straightened. When thou runnest, thou shalt
not stumble. Take fast hold of instruction.
Let her not go. Keep her, for she is thy life.
We'll end our meeting here. Let's pray together. Our Holy Heavenly Father, we
pray that this time of worship truly be a time of worship, that
it be all about Christ. Father, we pray that you grant
us Christ, grant us wisdom, and don't let us stray. We know that
everything is provided by your hand. Father, I pray that you
make us to not forget Don't let us stray. Remember that we are
dust and so taken up by these fleshly things. Set our hearts
and our minds on you, on things above and on Christ. Grant us
this time of worship for your holy name's sake. Grant us this
time to see Christ again. Bless our pastor with a message
from you. Bless our ears and our hearts
to hear and receive and understand. Father, we pray that you give
us life. Call the people according to your will and for
your glory. We pray for our loved ones, our friends and our family
that, to our knowledge, don't know you and don't show any interest,
and to our knowledge, are dead. Father, I pray that you give
them life. For your name's sake, draw them
to yourself. Show mercy. for your name's sake,
through Christ. We pray for those of our congregation,
those that we know that are undergoing trial, specifically for our sister
Barb and for Ron as they go through these physical trials. Father,
I pray that you heal according to your will and restore them
to us, that we can worship together again. We thank you for it. We
pray for other congregations, even that are meeting, even right
now, that your word go forth in power and accomplish your
will. Father, continue to be with us.
We thank you for the years of mercy and just outpouring of
blessings that you've given to us. We pray that that continue
according to your will. We pray this all thankfully only
in Christ's name and for his sake. you I love to tell the story of unseen
things above, of Jesus and His glory, of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because
I notice truth It satisfies my longings as nothing else can
do. I love to tell the story This will be my theme in glory,
to tell the old, old story of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story, it
is pleasant to repeat. What seems each time I tell it
more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story for
some have never heard. the message of salvation from
God's own Holy Word. I love to tell the story, it
will be my theme in glory. to tell the old, old story of
Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story for
those who know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest. And when in scenes of glory I
see song. T'will be the old, old story
that I have loved so long. I love to tell the story, t'will
be my theme in glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and
his love. If you would, open your Bibles
with me again to the book of 2 Timothy chapter 3. The title of the message this morning,
Assurance in Perilous Times. All my life long, I have heard
old preachers, and when I was a little feller, I thought all
preachers were old. They were old to me. I've heard
old men, as long as I can remember, say how wicked our generation
is, how it's getting worse and worse and worse. And they would
say, I don't see how it's going to get any worse. But they promised
us that it would. And I'll tell you, as a boy,
that made me kind of scared and depressed, thinking, what kind
of world am I going to live in? Well, I'm afraid this morning
I'm going to sound like an old man and tell you how bad it is. how bad, how wicked our day is,
and I'm utterly convinced it's getting worse and it will get
worse. I don't want to sound like a grouchy old man telling
you to get off my lawn. I don't want to do that. I want to be deadly serious with
you. Deadly serious. I want to always preach to you,
as a dying man, a dying man, always. I'm just deadly serious
about this. It's too serious. This matter
is too serious. I just don't have any time for
anybody playing any religious games. I don't have time for
it. I just got no time for it. I care what you hear and what
you believe. I can't make you believe it,
but it is my responsibility for what you hear. When someday I'm
called, to your sick bed, or I'm called to preach your funeral,
it's vitally important to me that I was faithful to you. Vitally
important. If you want to call me that,
a grouchy old man, I'll take it. I'll take it. I'm going to
be serious about this. And I'll try not to be grouchy. I'll try not to be. But I do
want to show you from God's word that the Lord said it would be
this way. It must be this way. Look at Paul says, verse one,
chapter three of second Timothy, this know also, that in last
days perilous times shall come. Now, as you've heard so often,
these last days are all the days from Christ's ascension back
to glory to his second coming. And scripture repeatedly tells
us those days will be perilous days. They'll be harsh, they'll
be fierce days that are full of danger for God's elect as
we travel through this world. And I want to use our text this
morning to give you both a warning and to give assurance to God's
people. Paul lists 18 ways that men will
behave, 18 behaviors that we will see in the last days that
make these days perilous days. And I'm not going to really take
the time to talk about how sinful these things are. People do them
out in the world, and they are all getting worse in the world.
There's no question about it. I just don't have time in one
sitting to cover that. I had a lot of notes I had to
cut out. And I came to this conclusion
that if you need me to tell you to love God, not yourself, not
be proud, not be a boaster, to be honest, to get control of
yourself as a way you behave yourself out in public, you need
me to tell you that. We got a whole lot of troubles,
you know. What I want to do is, our job as a church is not to
change the world. The world's not going to be changed.
It's not to govern the world, change the world. The job of
the church is spiritual. Just like our Lord tried to show
his disciples in a lesson this morning, this is a spiritual
kingdom. And the greatest problem in the
world today is in religion. We need to be warned about this
kind of behavior. Everybody here this morning has
some interest in religion or else you wouldn't be here. You
have some interest in it. And we need to be warned about
these kinds of things so we don't fall into them. They're perilous. They're perilous to our souls.
And I only say this about the general conduct of our world
today. Man's nature has not grown worse
over time. Totally depraved means totally
depraved. It means you can't get more depraved
than that, right? Being dead in sin means you're
dead. a little dead or partway dead.
Dead in sin means you're dead in sin. You can't get any more
dead. So man's nature has not grown worse over time. These
things that we're going to read about have always been in man's
nature and always will be. The difference between today
and years past, even in my lifetime, these things used to be a shame.
It used to be a shame for a man to cheat on his wife. It used
to be a shame. Something that somebody would hide. It used
to be a shame. Homosexuality used to be a shame.
Something that was even against the law. You know, it was a shame.
Something people tried to hide. Somebody who was dishonest in
business. Somebody who was a liar. Somebody
who was a false accuser. Those things used to be a shame. Today, they're applauded. They're
encouraged. What used to be a shame is encouraged
in our day. That's the difference, that's
the difference. And I have no question society's
gonna keep getting worse and worse and worse because of it.
But here is the issue, it's religion. Man's religion is what makes
these days such perilous days. First, it's the attitude of religion.
What is in the heart of religion? What is in the nature of it?
And what is out there in the world people have taken into
their religion and made it the nature of their religion. Man's
religion is marked by self-love. Paul says, these perilous days,
men should be lovers of their own selves. Pretty much all error
in conduct, all error in theology flows from self-love. It's self-love
that leads to the belief and the preaching of man's free will.
It's self-love that does that. It's self-love that leads to
the preaching and the belief that the merits of a sinner can
earn salvation instead of salvation being a free gift of God's grace.
It's self-love that does that. And man's religion is marked
by covetousness. You see this. It's just people
in religion. They're just, they're in it to
gain for their own belly. Verse two, Paul says they're
covetous, covetous. Man's religion, more than just
the money of it and trying to in it for their own belly, Man's
religion, what makes it so deadly perilous is this. It's marked
by trying to get praise and glory and honor to the flesh instead
of to God. That makes it so perilous. You'll
never hear these folks say, not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. You're not hearing them say that because they're covetous. They're saying unto us, give
us, unto us give glory. Look what we've done for God.
They tell you, if you want to be blessed, you got to do it
for God. It's covetous. The very nature in us that makes
us think I can do something for God so I can get from him, that's
covetousness. It's covetousness. It's not depending
on God's free grace, it's covetousness. Man's religion is marked by boasting
and pride. Paul says there'll be boasters.
And they'll be proud. Verse three says they'll be heady
and they'll be high minded. Oh, they're so high minded. They
have such a high opinion of themselves and such a low opinion of God.
That's just the nature of man. And they've taken it into their
religion. Religious people, people in man's religion, they're not
humble sinners. They're not completely dependent
upon the grace of God. Oh, I know they use the words
grace. They say saved by grace. But
what they mean, if you ask them the definition, what they mean
by grace is, well, something I earned that God gave me. He
gave it to me. Yes, God gave it to me, but he gave it to me
because I earned it. That's not grace. They're just not dependent. And I ask you, is there anything
more contrary to true religion than pride in the creature. Is
there anything? Of the seven things God says
he hates, pride was the very first one. There's nothing more
contrary to the heart of worship and religion than pride of a
creature made up of dust. Oh, they say it took grace to
save them. But you know why they got grace? They took the first
step toward God. They made a decision to accept
Jesus and God gave him grace. It's just full of pride. They
seem to forget the scripture in James four, verse six. If
you're going to, if you're going to have pride and boasting and
man's ability as a tenant of your religion, you're going to
have to cut out large sections of the Bible. James four, verse
six is one of them. God resisted the proud. There's a humility in that, in
that kind of religion. It just glorifies and puffs up
the flesh. Man's religion is marked by blasphemy, that he's
supposed to be blasphemers. I reckon what they do is blasphemous.
What they might say in other places might be blasphemous,
but I tell you what's blasphemous is their preaching. Preaching
is blasphemous. That which is supposed to glorify
God, that which is supposed to point a sinner to Christ crucified
is blasphemy. It's blasphemy because it's a
lie on God's character. Oh, they say look to God, but
now God wants to save you. But he can't unless you let him.
That's blasphemy. Oh, oh, they say. Yeah, look
to God, look to God. God is, but then they beg you
to do something for God. Instead of begging God to do
something for you. That's blasphemy. They talk about Christ crucified,
but they say now You got to do something to make His blood effectual
for you. You got to accept it. Blasphemy is blasphemy is character.
It's blasphemy to come to God with our works and our morality
instead of coming in the merits of Christ alone. That's blasphemy.
And in an earthly way, this word blaspheme, blasphemers means
to speak evil. It means slanderous. It means
railing. It means abusive, abusive talk
to and about people. Wasn't that our day? Have you
ever seen it that more prevalent in our day than it is today?
Just railing on people, this abusive talk to and about people,
just slanderous. It doesn't even have to be true,
just a lie. Your civility used to be valued. Used to, even if
you disagreed, civility was valued. But now evil and abusive talk,
that's valued. That's applauded in our day.
Oh, that's a person who stands up for what they believe in,
you know, no matter how they talk about people. And like I
mentioned a minute ago, people have taken that attitude from
the world and they brought it into religion and weaponized
their religion. They just, they're abusive, talk
about abusive about people and railing on people and slanderers
talk about God. Let me tell you this, we, you
know, we must point out error, what I'm doing right now, and
we must point out error. But railing on people, railing
on what people are doing wrong, that's not preaching. Preaching
is preaching Christ. Yes, we point out error. Let's
point out error by pointing to Christ's truth. See, that's preaching. Preaching is not railing on everything.
Of course, everybody's doing everything wrong. Preaching is
telling folks, you trust Christ. You trust Christ. Like I said
in the lesson this morning, I'll fix their wagon. Just trust Christ. Man's religion is marked by disobedience. Paul said, they'll be disobedient
to parents. And certainly that's something
in our day. I just, wow, the difference between
when I was a boy and today is utterly, utterly astounding.
But parents, when Paul talks about disobedient to parents
here, he means all authority. All authority that's ordained
of God, every authority that we have over us, Scripture tells
us is ordained of God. Have you ever seen a day when
people take more pride in disobeying authority? It's applauded, isn't
it? It used to be a shame. Now it's
applauded. Now it's applauded. Don't get
me started. But that's been brought into
man's religion. That's what makes it perilous. That's what makes
it perilous. Children are never taught to
obey their parents. They're in for a perilous life if they never
learn to be obedient to authority. Oh, it's deadly to your soul.
Deadly to your soul not to be taught obedience to God. Man's
religion scoffs at God's sovereign grace. They scoff at God's crown
rights to have mercy on whom he will have mercy, to be gracious
to him he will be gracious and to pass by whom he will pass
by. They scoff at that. They don't preach it and they
don't believe it because they despise the thought of God reigning
over them. They despise the thought that
God has the right to save me or damn me and whatever he does
is right. Whatever He does is right. Now I say that while I shake
in my shoes and I pray to God have mercy on my soul. Oh, it's
my chief desire for me and for you both. But if He doesn't,
He'll be right. That's just so. That's the God of the Bible. They're not thankful. People
are just, oh. The express commandment. The
express commandment of Almighty God is quit your works, quit
bringing your works to God, quit trusting your works and trust
Christ. That's the express commandment
of God Almighty. So not trusting in Christ is
not a matter of indifference. Not trusting in Christ is a willful
disobedience against God. They're proud of it. That's the
scary thing is they're proud of it. Then man's religion is
marked by being unthankful. Paul says there at the end of
verse three or verse two, they'll be unthankful. Well, of course
they're unthankful. Of course, their religion is
unthankful. Of course, their religion does not include true
thanksgiving. Why would it? I mean, really,
why would it? And why should they? If salvation
is dependent on your merit, why would you be thankful to God?
I mean, really? If blessings from God comes because
of your good behavior, and you do this for God, and you do this
for God, and you do this, this, that, and the other, why would
you be thankful? You earned it. Why would you
be thankful? You know why they're not thankful for God's blessing?
You know why they're not thankful for God's sovereign grace? They
think they deserve to be blessed. They're heady, they're high-minded.
They don't think they deserve to be damned. And if they do
say thank you, you know how they say it? Like the Pharisee praying
in the temple. The Lord said praying with himself.
Lord, I thank you. I'm not as other men are. Not
thankful, is it? That's not thankful at all. Man's
religion today is unholy. It's unholy. It's unholy because
it's based on man's self-righteousness. What man does for God. And I'm
telling you, that's the height of unholy. Man's religion is
unholy because there's no fear of God in it. And again, why
would there be? Would you fear the God they preach?
Why would you fear a God who will save you if you'll just
let it? Why would you fear a God that'll bless you if you'll just
let it? Why would you bow to him? Why
would you bow to a God that's not a sovereign, that's in your
hand instead of the other way around, instead of you being
his hand? Why would you bow to him? If God will ever teach us anything
about the holiness of God, I tell you, we'll live full of fear
and trembling, fear and trembling. At the same time, if God ever
teaches us anything about the holiness of God, we'll worship
him in the beauty of holiness. And we'll be thankful, we'll
be thankful. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
made his people holy, so they'd be accepted in him. See, we'll
be thankful. But there's none of that in man's
religion. There's none of that. To them, there's no need to be
made holy. Let's just do your best. Just
do your best. Even though it's all sin, just
do your best, you know. It's unholy. Man's religion is marked
by being without natural affection. At the beginning of verse three,
without natural affection. In our world today, I know, is
without natural affection in the sense that there's not the
love for a husband to his wife, or wife to her husband, or parents
to children. Certainly this applies to homosexuality,
that unnatural affection. But that kind of thought, people
have brought it straight into the church of God. To say that
God loves everyone, God loves you, so do I. Smile, Jesus loves
you. Say that God loves everyone without
exception, That's unnatural affection. That kind of so-called love,
it's unnatural because it's not natural to the character of God.
It's unnatural because it's against God's nature. God's word says
God does not love everyone. You need look no further than
Esau. No further. If God loves people,
he damns them anyway. To those who say God loves everybody,
I'll ask you this question. Is there anybody in hell? God
loves everybody, and I think we'd all agree there are people
in hell right now. Then what does the love of God have to
do with salvation? If God loves everybody and damns
them anyway, that's an unnatural affection. Do you want that kind
of love? That God love you and damn you
anyway? I don't think you do. Scripture says, oh, God is love. He is love. He loves his son. and he loves those who are in
his son. Now that's the kind of natural
affection that we need. The love of the father for the
son for his children. He'll save those people. The
in man's religion is a truce breaker. Verse three says truce
breakers. Tell you what a truce breaker
is. Two things. First is this. How often do you hear this in
religion? Oh, I'm in a mess. I'm in a mess. If you get me
out of this mess, I'll never miss a service. Oh, I'm sick. I'm laying here in the hospital.
God, if you get me out of this hospital, you get me back to
health where I can have my health and my strength back. God, I
promise you, I'll be nicer. I'll be nicer to my wife. I'll
be nicer to my neighbors. I'll be nicer to my coworker.
Oh, I'll just be so nice. Everybody love me. If you just
get me out of this hospital bed. Lord, I'm broke. I can't pay
the rent. Lord, if you just give me some more money, I promise
you, I'll give more. And they break it every time.
Every time. But I tell you what's worse,
a truce breaker. And that's their religion. You see, it's all based
on words. I do this. God, you do this.
They're bargaining with God. You don't bargain with the king.
You don't bargain with the sovereign. You're begging, but you don't
bargain. Here's the other thing about this truce breaker. man's
religion has absolutely no use for the covenant of God. God's
word says salvation is based upon God's covenant. God's covenant. I wouldn't know how many times
the word covenant is used in the scripture. God is a covenant
God. Salvation is based upon the promise
of God, the promise to give mercy, the promise to give salvation,
the promise to give life to a specific certain people for whom his son
would die. And they don't, I mean, I guess
you can't break God's covenant, but they don't want it. They
don't want it. They don't want God's promise.
They want to earn it themselves. They want to earn it themselves.
They're truce breakers. You know, they want to make these
deals with God. They want to make these vows with God. Let
me tell you this, you know, in the Psalms, I showed you this
when we were going through the Psalms and when David wrote about,
I'll keep my vow. That's the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. The only one who ever kept his vow to the Father is
the Lord Jesus Christ. The only one. And it's in that
covenant, that covenant of grace. The Father and the Son and the
Holy Spirit entered into agreement. The Father chose a people and
gave them to his Son. And the Son said, Father, this
is my promise. I'll save them. I'll come in
the flesh. I'll keep the law for them. I
will obey it in every jot and every tittle. I'll take their
sin and my own body on the tree. I'll suffer and die to put it
away, and I'll present every last one of them to you. I promise
I'll do it." And he did it. That's salvation. I'd a whole
lot rather salvation be based upon the work of the Son of God
than the work of this crumbling flesh, wouldn't you agree? But
they don't. This man's religion is a truth
breaker. Man's religion has no self-restraint. All it does is
it indulges the desire of the flesh. It indulges the desires
of the flesh for self-righteousness. In verse 3, Paul says incontinent
there. What he means is without self-control. It's got no self-control. Just
if it feels good, do it. Imagine religion does not promote
self-restraint. Not in the least. Even for the
glory of God, it doesn't promote self-restraint. Now, of course,
And this matter of self-restraint, maybe this'll help you. Of course,
the sin of God's elect is forgiven by the blood of Christ. I know
that, you do too. And we know this, even though
our sin is forgiven, the believer's still in this flesh. A believer's
two men in one body. There's the old man and the new
man. That old man, the flesh, he's just as sinful, just as
rotten, just as dead, just as stinking as he ever was. So of
course the believer's still gonna have the desires of the flesh.
We're still gonna see him. And when we sin, this is our
comfort. We have an advocate with the
Father. He's pleading His blood. Now, I know our sin is forgiven.
I know that God's children are not going to lose their salvation
when they sin. I know that. You need to. But why would you want to? I
mean, I know we're going to sin and we can't help it, but why
would you want to sin? Why would you want to live in
disobedience? Our sin that caused the Savior so much suffering,
why would you? You want sin that grace may abound? Of course not. Why would you want to give in
to sin? I know it's forgiven. I know God won't damn you for
it. But why would you want to give in to sin when it would
bring so much reproach upon the gospel of Christ? I know we'll
see. I know we can't help it. I know.
But let's not celebrate it either. Let's not celebrate it either.
The glory and the honor of the Savior means something to God's
people. Will God help us to live like
we believe what we say we believe? And not excuse myself, not excuse
my sin. Have some self-control about
yourself here. In man's religion is marked by being despisers
of those that are good. Verse three, being despisers
of those that are good. Man's religion despises chiefly
the goodness of God. The goodness of God. What is
the goodness of God? What did God say is his goodness?
It's a sovereign mercy to sinners that have mercy in whom he will
have mercy. And man's religion despises that goodness. Because they don't think they
need mercy. They want to choose for themselves because they think
they can choose righteousness. They think they can choose salvation.
They don't want God choosing mercy for them. God is good to
sinners. Oh, God is good to sinners. He
has chosen to save some of them. He couldn't damn them all. he
could justly damn alone. Instead, he chose to save sin.
He chose to save a number out of Adam's fallen race that none
of us could count. You can't count that high. And
instead of loving God's goodness, instead of that being good news
to them, they hate it. They hate it because they love
their own goodness, which is nothing but sin and iniquity.
They hate God's sovereign mercy and they hate those that believe
it. Verse four, They're traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of
pleasures more than lovers of God. That's man's religion. Man's religion is a traitor to
God's justice, God's mercy, and God's grace. They love the pleasures
of their self-righteousness more than they love God. They love
their own credit, their own glory more than God's glory, God having
the glory for his undeserved mercy and grace to sinners. Their
religion exalts the flesh rather than exalting God because they
love the flesh and they hate God. I know they don't hate the
God of their imagination. They don't hate the God of little
G they made up. But they hate the God of the Bible. And that's
the attitude of false religion. It's the attitude that is so
dangerous. It makes these last days so careless. You know why it's dangerous even
to a believer? Because we've got a nature that's drawn to
every bit of that. that is every bit of that, don't we? That's
why it's so dangerous. Right, number two, that first
point is a long point. The rest of them won't be that long. Man's
religion is a lifeless religion. There's no life in it, and it
can't give life. Man's religion has a form of
life. They have a form of religion,
but it's just like a dead body. It has the form, but it doesn't
have any life. Verse five, having a form of
godliness. but denying the power thereof,
from such turn away." See, they have a form of religion, but
they deny the power of it. They deny the power of God. They
deny the power of the Father in election. They say salvation
is based on their choice, not God's choice. They deny God's
power, His right. Then they deny the power of the
Son in redemption. They say, oh yes, Jesus died
on a cross, but now He died to give everybody a chance to be
saved, And you just got to do something to make it effectual
for you. They deny the power of the blood of Christ that cleanses
us from all sin. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
you and his blood truly cleanses from all sin that you're saved,
you're redeemed, and God's going to let you in on eventually.
But it's not this matter of it's up to us to make it effectual.
There's power in the blood. Power. But they deny it. They
deny the power of Christ's obedience to make his people righteous,
they say, you got to finish the job by your own obedience, by
your own morality. They deny the power of Christ's
sacrifice, saying that you just won't be saved by that sacrifice
alone. You got to add something to it.
And whatever it is, if it's, they make up all kinds of things
to add to it. Your decision, you're walking an aisle, your
morality, your giving, your baptism, whatever it is. But when they
add something to it, what they're doing is denying the blood, the
power, the sacrifice of Christ. They deny the power of the Holy
Spirit in regeneration. They say regenerate, they use
the same term, they use the term regeneration. But what they mean
by that regeneration is a decision that the flesh can make. It's
just a rededication to them, you know, and it's not a supernatural
work of God. And we say, I can make a decision
to be regenerated. I can make a decision to have
life. You know what we're doing? We're denying the fall of Adam.
You may as well just rip that old chapter, chapter 6 of Genesis,
out of your Bible. Because if the flesh didn't die
when Adam sinned, what's the point of the story? Salvation is a believer having
two natures, not one. They say there's just one, there's
just one. It's just the nature of the flesh and that flesh can
get some spiritual light. That flesh can get some spiritual
life and the, oh yeah, the spirit will, you know, kind of influence
you, but you know, really it's you that's doing it. He's influencing
you externally, not internally. Well, that message denies the
fall of man. That flesh denies, the scripture says, our flesh
is dead. That's saying there's some goodness in my flesh. So I don't need this supernatural
work of the spirit. It's a message, that is a message
that can never give life. It uses a lot of religious words,
but it can never give life. Number three, man's religion
follows the pattern of their father, the devil. Verse six,
for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive
silly women, laden with sin, led with diverse lusts. Now this
is following the pattern of their father, the devil. And that's
what our Lord told those religious people of his day. You're of
your father, the devil. How did Satan first work in the
garden? He attacked Eve. Not Adam, he
attacked Eve first. Now listen to me. That is not
saying that women are not as smart as men. Not saying that
at all. But you have to admit this, you
see this. How much false religion is dominated by women. The Catholic
Church has made a whole religion circled around a woman, hasn't
it? Married. False religion is dominated by these emotions of
the fairer sex. I know men and women both fall
into it, but when they do, they fall into the grips of false
religion, usually on the basis of emotion. There's a man I used
to work with, heard me preach on the internet. And he said,
well, that's good. He said, but that's too conservative
for me. He said, I need a lot of music
to get me in the mood. Emotion. It's religion that's
all emotion and no truth of the scripture. It's a religion that's
all love and no wrath. of justice. It's a religion that's
all mercy without any truth. It's all singing and no preaching.
It's all testifying. There's no teaching of the scriptures.
There's no thus saith the Lord. It's thus saith me. Listen to
my testimony. Give me religion that makes me
feel good about myself, that makes me feel good about my earthly
life. My earthly life's kind of in
the toilet. So if you do something to make my earthly life feel
better, that's the kind of religion I want. Don't give me something
that makes me feel bad. Don't give me something that
makes me feel bad about my sin. No, don't do that. Brother Ken Pack
tells me frequently, he said, thank you for making me feel
bad about myself. Thank you for telling me how rotten I am. That's
the only way I'll look to Christ. But don't do that. They don't
want that in their religion. And that's the whole goal of
Satan. The whole goal of Satan is to have you be religious.
Have yourself cloaked in religion, but it's emotion. It's trusting
yourself. It's trusting anything. It's
keeping you so busy that you cannot look to Christ. That's
the way Satan operates. Fourthly, man's religion is marked
by learning things, but not learning a person. Verse seven, ever learning
and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Oh, they
have a lot of classes to learn, don't they? Classes to learn
how to live better in this world. instead of studying where eternal
life is found in Christ. They have classes on how to have
a happier marriage, and I'm all for a happy marriage, but buddy,
we better learn about Christ the bridegroom, better learn
from him. They have classes on how to live a happier life, instead
of learning where joy in the Lord is found. They have classes
to learn about the mysteries of the second coming, instead
of learning about the one who's coming. When he's coming doesn't
really matter, who's coming, that's what matters. They have
classes on the prayer of Jabez. Instead of learning about the
God to whom we pray. See, they're learning things. Things, things,
things, things, things. But not a person. Not the Lord
Jesus Christ. And our Savior said, come and
learn of me. Learn of me. You know why they
haven't learned Christ? Oh, they've learned lots of things,
but they haven't learned Christ. You know why? They're not studying Him.
They don't hear Him preached. The inman's religion is marked
by resisting the truth. Verse 8, now as Janese and Jambres
withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of
corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. Janus and Jambres
were Pharaoh's magicians. You won't find their names recorded
in scripture, The old writers say these were the names. These
men were so famous in Egypt. Their names were passed down
all the way here to the day of the Apostle Paul. The Jews knew
their names. Two men, Janus and Jambres, they are Pharaoh's magicians. And Moses came to Pharaoh and
said, God said, let my people go. And Pharaoh said, who's God? I don't trust him. Remember those
miracles that Moses worked. He threw his staff down and became
a snake. And he picked it back up and
became a rod again. Well, Janis and Jambres did that too. They
had these magic tricks, sleight of hand, that they were doing.
Oh, see, we can do the same thing that this man Moses is doing.
And here's why they were doing it. You don't have to trust God.
This God's not real. This God Moses is telling you
about is not real. You don't have to bow to him. You don't have to believe
him. And false religion is doing the same things today. There's no life in it. Remember,
they got to form, but no life. They're using magic tricks. They're
using sleight of hand to make people think they have life and
they don't. Make people think they know God when they don't.
Man's religion imitates the work of salvation. Outward fleshly
actions. They're just imitating it. It's
sleight of hand. It's a magic trick that's not real. They preach
a reformed life, but not new life in Christ. They preach God
lowering his standards to save sinners. instead of God the Son
paying for the sin of his people and satisfying God's justice
for them by his death as their substitute. That's man's religion. And I've showed you these things,
these marks of man's religion as a warning. So you can from
such turn away, Paul says. Turn away from it. Turn away
from the people that are in it. Turn away from the preaching
of it. I mean, turn away and run from it. Cover your ears
till you get out of earshot. Perilous. You're putting your
soul in peril, hanging around it. You really are. You think,
oh, not me. Remember David, I think in Psalm
2, talked about the way of the wicked. First, David says, you
walk in it. I'm just, I'm not standing. I'm
just walking by. I'm just, I'm not standing. I'm
just walking by. Then David said, you stand. You
stand. Well, I'm standing. I'm going
to leave here in a minute. And then he said, you sit with
it. and your soul is perished. So be warned, be warned. All right, now these things are
everywhere, everywhere in our time. And like I said, it's getting
more and more and more bold, more and more and more applauded.
Look at verse 13. But evil men and seducers shall
wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. They're just
going to become more and more and more open with it, flooding
us with these things, with a temptation to act just like them. All right,
now if I can take off my grouchy old man hat, that's the warning. Now I'm going to give you some
comfort. What will stop a believer from
getting swept away in that torrent of man's religion? What will
stop you from getting swept away? Verse nine, but they shall proceed
no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as theirs
also was. I've given you this warning.
Now here's the confidence, assurance. These people in false religion,
it must be, it must be that heresies comes, need be. But these people
in false religion, they're gonna make a lot of noise. They're
gonna draw a large following after themselves, but they shall
proceed no further. No further. No further. No further than the Lord allows.
Look at Mark chapter 13. They will never go so far as
to harm the soul and take away the salvation of one of God's
elect. Never, ever, ever. Mark 13. For on those days shall be affliction
such as was not from the beginning of the creation, which God created
unto this time, neither shall be. Except that the Lord had
shortened those days, no flesh should be saved. But for the
elect's sake, whom he hath chosen, he hath shortened the days. And
then if any man shall say unto you, lo, here is Christ, or lo,
he is there, believe him not, for false Christ and false prophets
shall rise. They have to, they shall arise.
and they shall show signs and wonders to seduce, if it were
possible, even the elect. If it were possible. That tells
us it's not possible. It's not possible for God's elect
to be deceived because the Lord won't allow it. He bought him,
he bought his people, he's gonna have them, and he's gonna be
the one protecting them. Now I know false religion, They're
going to keep making a lot of noise. I know they're gaining
large followings, but let's not imitate their methods, their
message or their methods. Let's not allow that what they're
doing to make us quit looking to Christ and to make us move
one centimeter away, one millimeter away, one hair's breadth away
from preaching and trusting Christ alone. They're boasters. All right. Let's you and me be
boasters too. Let's boast in what Christ has
accomplished for us. Not our words. Let's keep preaching. Let's keep believing and hanging
on to the electing love of God that saves his people from their
sin. Let's keep preaching. Let's keep believing God's covenant
of grace. This is God's promise. That's
what makes salvation sure. Let's keep preaching. Let's keep
believing the life of Christ. His life is our life if we believe
Him. That's exactly right. We were
in Him doing what He did if we believe Him. His obedience is
our obedience because we were in Him when He was being obedient.
Let's keep preaching His life. And God forbid that we'd ever
just have the form of religion. That we'd ever just play church.
I did that when we were little. We played church. God help us
to never play church. Let's preach Christ. Let's trust
Him. Let's make Him our heart's desire. Let's keep preaching. Let's keep
believing the power of the Holy Spirit in the new birth. I don't
know when, but He's going to move. He's going to give life
to His people. He's going to do it through the
preaching of the word. Let's keep preaching the word and waiting
on Him to move. Let's not try to talk people into making a
decision. Let's just preach Christ. If the spirit moves, you won't
be able to stop them. You won't be able to stop them. Let's keep
preaching. Let's keep believing that supernatural
work of God in everything that pertains to salvation in life. It's not something that the flesh
does. Let's just keep exalting Christ. By God's grace, let's
keep exalting Christ and let's keep putting the flesh in the
dust. If God will enable us to do that,
I'll tell you what the result will be. God's people will worship. Absolutely will worship. They
won't leave Christ to go to the dead body of religion. They won't.
An unbeliever will, but now God's people won't. And I know this
false religion is making a bunch of noise in our day, but you
just wait. The folly of Jannes and Jambres
was finally revealed, wasn't it? At the Red Sea. Pharaoh and
his host, every last one of them was dead. Israel was on the other
side saved. Folly and the deadness of false
religion is going to be made manifest one day, the exact same
way. Christ is going to return. He's
going to put the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.
And their folly will be made manifest. And until then, may
the Lord be pleased to make us faithful, to keep looking and
to trust Christ. I hope that'll be a blessing
to you. I know I spent most of my time in that warning, the
bulk of the text did. So I hope that'll be a blessing
to you and you'll leave with that clinging to Christ. I've never seen somebody drown
in the sea, but I think if you threw them a life preserver,
they'd cling to the perilous seas, they'd hang on to it for
all they're worth, don't you reckon? Let's hang on to Him for all we're
worth. After we sing a closing hymn,
we're going to have a church dinner to celebrate Gary and
Janie Holbeck's 50th wedding anniversary. Thank God for you
and thank God for the love you have for each other and for your
family. You've been such a blessing to them. 50 years is a long time,
isn't it? I think it's worth celebrating.
Y'all hang around and have a bite to eat and we'll celebrate in
a minute. Have a good time together. Let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word. Father, we thank you for this
needed warning and instruction. Father, I pray that you give
us the faith to heed it, that we would constantly look away
from our flesh, that you enable us to trust Christ alone, to
preach him, to trust him, to look to him, to desire him above
all things. Father, bless your word to your
glory, to the hearts of your people, we pray. Father, we thank
you for this food. Thank you for this time of fellowship
we have. Thank you for Gary, for Janie. Thank you for the
love that you've given them, one to another, that you've given
them these many years to mark this milestone. Father, it's
your goodness to your people. Thank you. All these things that
we ask in that name which is above every name, in the name
of Christ, our Savior. Amen. If you would, please stand and
turn to page song 388. Have Thine Own Way, Lord. Have Thine own way, Lord, have
Thine own way. Thou art the potter, I am the
clay. Mold me and make me after Thy
will. While I am waiting, yielded and
still, Have thine own way, Lord, have thine own way. Search me and try me, Master,
today. Whiter than snow, Lord, wash
me just now, as in thy presence humbly I bow. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Wounded and weary, help me, I
pray. Power, all power, surely is thine. Touch me and heal me, Savior
divine. Have thine own way, Lord, have
thine own way. Hold, O my being, absolute sway. Fill with thy Spirit till all
shall see Christ only, always living in me.