Paul says in verse 1, this know
also that in the last days perilous times shall come. But we're in
the last days. We have been in the last days
since our Lord walked on this earth, died on the cross and
ascended back to the Father. The apostles have been referring
to these days since Christ came to earth as the last days. It seems like that man's history
on this earth is divided into three parts, from Adam to Moses,
and from Moses to the Messiah, and then the last days. The Messiah
to his return. And some have believed and thought
that these last days would be a time of peace, a time of obedience to God, a time
of revival, refreshing. But I understand from the writings
of Paul and from the warning which our Lord gave in Matthew
24, if you'd like to turn over there with me, I'm going to read
a few verses Paul warns Timothy, and it seems
like our Lord warned us to expect the last days to be difficult
times, perilous times, just Paul called them. Matthew 24, verse
3, As he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to
him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? What
shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world? Well,
let's listen. Our Lord answered and said, Take
heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name
saying, I am Christ, and shall deceive many. You shall hear
of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not troubled.
For all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There shall be famines and pestilences
and earthquakes in diverse places. All these are the beginning of
sorrows. Then shall they deliver you to
be afflicted, and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of
all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended,
shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. and many
false prophets shall arise and shall deceive many and because
iniquity shall abound iniquity shall abound the love of many
will wax cold but he that shall endure to the end the same shall
be saved and this gospel this gospel of the kingdom shall be
preached in all the world for witness unto all nations and
then shall the end come look over at verse 21 same chapter
for then shall be great tribulation such as not since the beginning
of the world to this time nor ever shall be except those days
shall be shortened there should no flesh be saved But for the
elect's sake those days shall be shortened. Then if any man
shall say to you, O here's Christ or there's Christ, believe it
not, for there shall arise false Christ and false prophets, a
very religious time, a time of great iniquity, but a time of
great religion. There shall arise false Christ,
messiahs, prophets, preachers, shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that if it were possible,
they would deceive the very elect. So my message from 2 Timothy
3, coupled with what we just read, is divided into four parts. The first two verses of chapter
3, we read about perilous times. Just look at it. This know also
that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall
be lovers of their own selves. The economy is good. He doesn't
say anything here about no bread, no food. The young men are not at war. Most of us have good health.
Most of us have a comfortable living. But the perilous times,
I want you to watch the reading here, the perilous times indicates
a time of great iniquity. Great iniquity, ungodliness,
dishonesty. a destruction of morality and
decency and wholesome conversation, despising authority. Notice as
we read through this here, verse 2, 3 and 4, men should be lovers
of their own self, self-love. Why is that first? Well, self-love
is first because all error and vices and sin flows from self-love. He who puts himself first does
not love God and does not love others and so self-love promotes
any kind of activity, any kind of error, any kind of actions
that will benefit me no matter who inherits. Covetous. Love of money. Love of possessions
and materialism. Scripture says this is the root
of all evil. The love of money. People will
compromise all values for money, possessions, for comfort. Just to have material possessions. Covetous. Doesn't matter the
effect it's going to have on the lives of the community, just
do it. They were trying to, in some
place I was reading about this gambling and some kind of betting
and the reason the majority of people they interviewed gave
for letting it take place is because it will boost the economy. It doesn't matter the effect
it will have on the households and the children and the community. Just do it. We can get some money
out of it. That happened down in Cherokee.
You know these Indian communities can have wholesale gambling if
they vote to have it. They are not governed. reservation is not governed by
the laws of the state in regard to some of these things and they
can bring in the casinos and the gambling and the roulette
wheels and everything into the reservation if the Indians vote
to have it. Maybe against the law in Knoxville
and Gatlinburg but Cherokee. So they took a vote and this
was the what the vote was based on. Every Cherokee Indian living
on that reservation, male, female, baby, high school graduate, high
school student, gets a check from those people. Isn't that
correct? Every month a check comes to
every person on that reservation, several, many dollars. They couldn't pass it up. You
don't work for us, you don't do anything, you just come. So
they ruined their community with gambling. It just overflowed
the whole community. It's just a different place to
go to now because of the gambling. But they sold out. That's covetousness. That's last day's bolsters. What's that word? Bolsters. I
thank God I'm not like other men. I'm better than other people
in some areas. That's boasting. Proud. Nothing
is more offensive to God than pride. It robs him of his glory
which is his due alone. It exhausts the flesh which has
no cause to be proud. But men are proud. God said I
hate a proud look. I hate a proud look. Pride grows
before destruction. blasphemers. You know, you wouldn't think
that people blaspheme God from the pulpit, but they do. When I listen to the preachers,
women and men both, on television, they blaspheme God. I'll tell
you what blasphemy is. Any word, any expression about
God, which does not render to him full glory, any expression,
any word, using the name of God, or the person of God, or the
ways of God, or the acts of God, that renders to him any less
than full glory, is blasphemy. I think it's blasphemy. You don't render to God any less
than full glory if you do your blasphemy using the name of God. Disobedient to parents. This day is a tragedy. It's just perilous time. The
whole attitude today, teachers are resigning from teaching positions
because of The impossibility of disciplining children. They
can't discipline the children. They can't deal with the children.
You teachers know that. Their hands are tied. Authority. My rights is the issue. Not what is right, but my rights. That's the issue. I've always
thought it's kind of astounding that a parent is afraid to correct
their children now. They feed them, they clothe them,
they furnish them a place to live, spending money, buy them
a car, buy the tires and the gas, and yet they're afraid to
correct them, afraid the child will get mad at them. Afraid
to correct him. Afraid to instruct him. Because
he or she will pout and get mad at you. Think about that. Authority. It's just a thing of the past.
Disobedient to parents. Unthankful. Ungrateful. This is one of the reasons for
ingratitude, is that people think they're worthy. Deserving, so
they just don't say thank you. Unholy. You want to know how
unholy this day is? Just turn your television on
and you have to quickly flip the switch to another channel
if your children are sitting by you. The garbage that comes
into our dens and living rooms on television is shocking. It's
amazing. Is this on television? Are we
seeing what we're seeing here and what we're hearing? Are they
doing what they're doing? It's just unwholesome. Unholy is unwholesome. Without
natural affections. Is our country without natural
affections? What is natural? Well, homosexuality
is the opposite of natural affection. That's unnatural. That's perversion. Child abuse, child pornography,
that's unnatural. Contrary to nature. It's not
only contrary to God and spirituality and Bible, it's contrary to nature.
Animals don't even do that. Abuse their young. Parents killing
their children. Children killing their parents.
Children killing each other. We're so far out yonder in the
boondocks that it's perilous times. In the last days, perilous
times, perilous times. The things you see on television
and hear today, when most of you older folks were young people,
you didn't even know those things existed. Nobody ever talked about
that in the closet, let alone out in the public. These talk
shows are horrible. It's filth. Truce breakers, nobody's word
much is worth anything anymore. In the church it is, but out
yonder where you work it isn't. They break contracts, they break
promises, word means nothing. False accusers, that's liars. Incontinent, what's that mean? Uncontrolled. Not able to control
fleshly appetites, just impossible to control and do what we want
to do. Young people live together, not
married, it's accepted. Young girls have babies without
husbands, it's accepted. No control. No barriers. Nobody says no anymore
to drugs or drink. I read just today somewhere 61%
of the high school kids are drinking now. Is that true? I said surely
that's not true. Surely that's not true. Fears. If you don't believe people
are fierce, cut in front of somebody someday and you're caught. If
he had a gun, he'd kill you. They're fierce. They're fierce. Step in front of somebody in
line at the bank, they're fierce. And this is amazing. Men, I know
used to be that way. Now women are worse than men.
They're fierce women are. They've got a hold of some rights
and some ERAs and they can be rough. despisers of those that are good. Any person who tries to live
godly, stand for the truth and the glory of God and the word
of God, you'll be despised. That's right. Literally actually
despised. If young people try to stand
for anything In front of other young people they'll turn on
them. They despise them. That's right. They despise that
which is good. The media makes fun of anybody
who stands for something good. The old biblical values. You're a bigot. You can't even
oppose perversion. You're a bigot if you do. Think
about it. Traitors. In order to gain, they'll divulge
secrets, confidence, things people have told them privately. But if they make a
little money and write a book, it's horrible. Traitors. A traitor
is not only a person who betrays his country, it's betraying confidence. Anybody's confident. Heavy, high-minded,
conceited, pride over intelligence and accomplishments and gifts.
And then we're back where we started. Lovers of pleasure more
than lovers of God. Self-love. Self-love. That's perilous times. No control, no barriers, no fences,
no absolutes. Every man back there in the Old
Testament there was a horrible time when everybody did what
was right in his own eyes. I'll do what I please. And that's the contribution to
the mess we're in. But my second part of this message
starts with verse 5. It's not only prayerless times,
it's religious times. These people that we've been
reading about are religious. They are religious. Today's population
is religious. Peter, I mean, Paul described
them in a Ephesians 2, they're without God, they're without
Christ, they're without hope, but they're not without religion.
They've got religion. He calls it in verse 5, a form
of religion, a form of godliness. They have an external show of
godliness. They have a form of godliness. Outwardly. But now look, they
deny the power thereof. These people that we've been
reading about have a form of religion, a form of godliness,
but they deny the power. What does that mean? Well, they
profess the existence of God. There is a God. They talk about
God. They preach about God. They build
buildings to the honor of God. They are very religious. They
profess the existence of God, but they deny that God's sovereignty. They deny his power. They deny
his purpose. They deny his right to do with
his own what he will. He's God, but he has no power. They have a form of godliness,
but deny the power. God wants to, but he can't. God
would like to, but we won't let it. God wants to do this. He wants to bless. He wants to
be a part of your life. He wants to make the world right.
He wants people to be, but we won't let it. They have a God,
a form of God, but deny the power. What does it mean? They profess
the Scriptures to be their book, their standard of faith and practice. But they deny the power of the
Word. The Word has no power. It's preached,
but it does not have the power to quicken. It does not have
the power to convict. It's not the Word of life that
begets life, the seed, the incorruptible seed that gives faith and gives
life and makes a man regenerated in God's sight. The Word is read,
but it has no power, they say. Then they profess to believe
in Jesus Christ and His cross, but they deny His deity. He is
a good man. He is a prophet like Mohammed
or Confucius or Buddha, just one great prophet. They deny
His deity. They deny His righteousness,
without which we have no righteousness. They deny the efficacy of His
blood. He died for everybody, but He
didn't save anybody. They deny his power to quicken.
He said the son quickeneth whom he will. No he doesn't, they
say. They have a Jesus, but he's a
sweet little Jesus, Paul. He's a babe in a mother's arms.
He's a reformer on a cross, but he's not a sovereign, conquering,
reigning victorious redeemer who sits on the throne with all
power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as the
Father has given him. They have a form but deny the
power. They make much of the Holy Ghost.
They talk about the Holy Ghost more than they talk about any
other one individual in the Bible, but they deny his power to regenerate,
his power to quicken, his power to sanctify, his power to teach,
his power to reveal Christ. Where the Holy Spirit comes,
he doesn't try to come, he comes in invincible, irresistible power. You have to quicken who are dead. Christ said, and the Holy Ghost
will take the things of mine and he shall reveal them unto
you. They talk about a gospel, but
it has no power. Paul said his gospel was dunamis,
dynamite. Dynamite. He said, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel. It's the dynamite. It's the explosive. It's the power of God unto salvation. But their gospel is powerless. It's powerless to justify, it's
powerless to make men new creatures, and it's powerless to give life. These people are religious, but they are without Christ,
without hope, and without God in this world. Having a form
of godliness, but denying the power. From such, turn away. And it's a religious world that's
dominated by women. Look at verse 6. Of this sort
are they which creep into houses and lead captives, silly women,
laden with sins, led away with divers' lusts. It's a religion
dominated by women. Go back to the Old Testament.
It's the prophets. It's the men of God. It's the
patriarchs. It's the men who spoke for their
homes, like Joshua, that's for me and my house. His wife didn't
do the talking, he did. We'll serve the Lord. Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, David, men. Come to the New Testament,
apostles. Apostles. Paul, Barnabas, Silas,
Peter, James, John, these men led, they led. Think of the reformation, but
today every cult, every sect, every free will, Baptist, Methodist
church and program is controlled and dominated by women and not
men. And the Lord said plainly in
his word, let your women keep silence in the church. It's not
permitted for them to speak. To teach or to preach. Turn back to 1 Timothy 2 and
listen to Paul. If they would learn anything,
let them ask their husbands at home. That's what scripture said.
But today the men don't speak anymore. The girls and the women
speak. The girls and the women are now
being ordained. The Catholic Church moved in
the feminine direction when they exalted Mary. Exalted Mary above
Christ. And their reasoning was this,
well if I want anything from you, or you, or you, I can get
it a lot quicker by going to your mother than I can to you.
That's the reason They went to his mother when they ran out
of wine. Those fellas went to her. And she came to him. He said, what have I to do with
thee, woman? And I was not yet come. But here in 1 Timothy 2,
listen, verse 12. Verse 11, let your women learn
in silence with all subjection. I suffer not a woman to teach,
That ought to answer all this ordination business and deaconesses
and all this sort of thing. Women taking charge of religious
services. I suffer not a woman's eat, nor
to use of authority over the man, but to be in silence. Why? Adam was first formed and then
he goes back to the fall. It's the judgment God put upon
women in the fall. Listen. Adam was not deceived,
the woman was deceived being in the transgression. And God
said to her and to all of her sisters and her daughters, thy
husband shall rule over thee. Now that's just so and this is
the religion of today. Having a form of godliness but
denying the power. and dominated and controlled
by women. And there's some godly women,
believe me, godly women in the Old Testament. I go back and
name Rachel and Rebecca and all of these, and then the New Testament
great women, but Martha and Mary and all these great women who
served God, who served Christ, who served the church, who were
very important in every aspect, but not preaching and not setting
the The doctrines of the church and
the government of the church and the rule of the church, that's
not their place, just like it's not in the home. It's just not. It's just scripture
and if you go contrary to God, you're going to meet God. And that's the reason we don't
have women up here testifying and teaching The men's classes
and the young people, they teach the children, they teach the
women. Older women are supposed to teach
the younger women. Teach them to be faithful wives
and godly women and faithful believers and the word of God. You know, that was one preacher
came into a home and a man and his wife taught him. What was
that? Apollos or one of the fellows,
a man and his wife taught him. in the home, but not in the church. And it's certain to lead to confusion
when we go contrary to the deliberate will of God. Women are not to
preach, and I know they're all over television, and they're
just doing their thing, but God's not in it. God's not
in it. And you say, well, do you think
God will bless the ministry of a woman? Absolutely not. Absolutely
not. Absolutely not. And that's just the way they,
and he says here in verse 7, they're ever learning, never
coming to knowledge of the truth. What are they learning? They're
learning about missions. They're learning about prayer.
They learned about prophecy, they learned about the gifts
of the Spirit, they learned about church history, they learned
about how the tribes of Israel were divided, they're learning
all these things, but never, never, never coming to a knowledge
of how God can be just and justify the ungodly. How man can be clean
as born of a woman. How God can be God and holy and
righteous and yet put away the transgression of a believing
people. Ever learning. These religious
people are ever learning. They have to study courses and
training courses and retreats and everything else. But you can't go contrary to
the scripture and be blessed. You can't do it. It's just not,
it's not true. And he says in verse 8, don't
be surprised when these adversaries prosper. He said, Janes and Jambres
withstood Moses, those who were the magicians down in Egypt,
Pharaoh's magicians. And they withstood Moses. And the women withstand you today
if you stand for what I just got through saying. They opposed Moses, these magicians
did. And counterfeits deceive some
people. and men of corrupt minds and
reprobate concerning the faith. And they'll have some success
and they'll lead some people contrary to the Scriptures. But,
verse 9, they shall proceed no further than God allows them. They'll proceed no further than
the Lord allows them to go. For their folly shall one day
be manifested to all men. As these magicians in Egypt,
Moses, they cast down their rods and they became serpents, you
remember that. But I tell you this, every false religionist
and every adversary of the truth and every false preacher has
his appointment with the Red Sea. the pharaohs and the Jambres
and the Janeys and all the rest of them and all of these false
religious leaders today. They have their appointment with
destruction. That's what it says there in
verse 9. They shall proceed no further. Their folly shall be
manifested to everybody just as the people in Egypt who resisted
Moses. Paul talked about perilous times,
religious times, and now heart-searching times. Timothy, verse 10. He rhymes with Timothy. You have
fully known my doctrine. You fully know the doctrine I
preach. I preach Christ. Timothy knew
that. And you know that. We preach
who He is. You know who He is. We preach
what he did in his perfect obedience and death, burial and resurrection. We preach why he did it, because
we needed a perfect righteousness. We needed justice satisfied. God needed him to enable God
to be just and justified. That's why he came to this earth.
And he finished his work. And we know where he is now,
the right hand of God. We preach Christ. You know the
doctrine. He said, you fully know my doctrine. And you know my manner of life.
It's simple. It's not complicated. It's straight
from the shoulder. It's straight from the word.
It's plain. It's in one and two syllable
words. It's a ministry and a manner of life. Paul said, seeking the
well-being of men, the welfare of the church, and the glory
of God. You know that. We're not trying to impress anybody
or enamor people, draw a net, get
people to follow us. We don't follow up on folks,
you know. If they come and visit, we don't
run them down. You know our manner, our methods. Come and hear the word. If it
suits your taste, eat it. That's right. If it meets your
case, embrace it. If it doesn't, God bless you.
That's right. You know our matter of life.
You know our purpose. It's the glory of God. It's to
Christ be formed in you. It's to win Christ to be found
in him. It's to preach the truth. You
know our faith. We believe God. We wait on God. We trust Christ. We're faithful
to preach Christ and Christ Him crucified law. Patience. Charity. We love people. We want to help
them. You don't help people by lying
to them. You don't help people by misleading them. You don't
help people by deceiving them. You don't help people by saying
this doesn't mean this. It means something else. Patience. Well, what's this? And all of
that, you know my persecutions and afflictions which came to
me at Antioch, Iconium, Lystra. These persecutions we endure.
Out of them the Lord delivered us. Yea, and I'll tell you this,
everybody, he said in verse 12, that will live godly in Christ
Jesus, will preach Christ, love Christ, exalt Christ, Look to
Christ, he will suffer persecution. It's not just the preacher. Sometimes you'll suffer persecution
in the home, in the school, in the workplace, among your relatives. Somebody said to me recently,
my family is real religious, but they don't believe the gospel
of grace. I said, what do you do? He said, we just can't talk
about it anymore. There's a rule when the family
gets together, don't mention God. Can you imagine that? Don't mention the Bible. Why? Religious people Without
the gospel of grace, they hate God. And they hate Christ. They hate the gospel. And they
hate you if you believe it. All who will live godly in Jesus
Christ shall suffer persecution. Just so. And don't expect it to improve.
Verse 13. Evil men and seducers shall wax
worse and worse and worse and worse. There's only one way for
it to improve and that's for God to save a man. Strip him,
woman. Break him down, humble him in
the dust. Not before you or me, before
God. Before the gospel. Unless He does, they get meaner
and meaner. and worse and worse, deceiving
and being deceived and after a while, gospel hardened, Paul
said to the Thessalonians, God will send them strong delusions
and they think they are right. Stay in this attitude long enough
and God will blind you totally for eternity. He did it to the
Jews. And he did it to those people
in Thessalonica. They received not the love of
the truth, wherefore God sent them strong delusions that they
believe a lie and be damned for it. Isn't that what it said?
Alright, here's the last point. And that is, I call it our foundation. Verse 14. But continue thou in
the things which you've learned. And you've been assured of, from
the Word, knowing of whom you learned them. Of whom did you
learn them? We're taught of God. That's right. No man can come to me except
my Father which sent me draw him, and they shall be taught
of God. Every man that hath heard and
learned of the Father comes to me. That's where you learned
it. You learned it from God. He taught you. You continue in
the things which you've learned. You've learned them with an open
Bible, without some intellectual preacher saying, that doesn't
mean that, that doesn't mean that. I don't want to hear that
doesn't mean that. I want to hear what that means.
It means what it says. And you've learned them. And
you've been assured of it. God's given you evidence. You
know of whom you learned these things and from a child. Everybody here nearly has been
blessed. I was. I didn't understand these scriptures.
I didn't believe them. But this book and the love for
it was instilled in me by my parents when I was a child. From
a child. We've been reading this book.
From a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, Timothy,
that Abel, The Scriptures are able to make you wise unto salvation. You may not come to a full knowledge
of salvation and of Christ until you're 20, 25, 30, 30, 40, whatever,
but it will be the same Scriptures you learned when you was a child
that will save you. Don't go somewhere else. Stay
here. Stay here. Continue thou in the things you've
learned. Don't depart from the Word because
the Word is able to make you wise to salvation through faith
in Christ. If you young people here tonight,
if you're Gileaders and go off somewhere, come back. Come back. Don't leave the Word. Don't ever
leave God's Word. Because all Scripture is given,
it's God-bred. It's given by inspiration, by
breath. God breathed. All Scripture is
God breathed. Men of God spake as they were
moved by the Spirit. And it's profitable for doctrine,
reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness that the man
of God might be mature, truly, throughly, through and through,
inside and out, up and down, Backwards and forwards, freely
furnished unto all good works. It's the Word. That's what God
blesses. That's the man God will bless
that trembleth at my Word. The man with a contrite heart
that trembleth at my Word. That is fearful of violating
my Word. That is so conscious of the of
the glory of the word, of the importance of the word, of the
value of the word, of the awesome spiritual power of the word,
the word of God. Like a two-edged sword pierces
to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, to the marrow of
the bone, power of the word. Don't ever start putting question
marks on it. You're a goner if you do. Because
when you lose this, you've got no foundation. You lose God's
Word, there is no foundation.