afflictions and to suffer the afflictions that accompany preaching the gospel.
You know, as you preach the gospel, as you're living a godly life, you will suffer persecution.
You will suffer afflictions.
Satan will come after you.
You will have a target on your back.
You know, the world is going to fight you.
Your flesh is going to fight you.
There will be some pushback from the enemies, okay?
And so the apostle Paul is encouraging him there in chapter two.
He tells him once again to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
He essentially tells him, hey, one of the reasons you should endure the Christian life
is not only because we want to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, because other people are watching
you, right?
This is why he says endure all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain
salvation which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
And that's a great incentive to stick it out in the Christian life.
Obviously we want to do it because we love the Lord, we love souls, but we also want
to do it because other people are watching us and they rely upon us enduring afflictions
because we are essentially their example.
They kind of look at what is brother so-and-so going to do in this particular situation.
Well, if so-and-so can make it through and pass with flying colors, that means I can
too.
So we enable others by our patience, by our endurance.
And parents, this obviously is very much applicable to you because we got to make sure that as
parents, we endure afflictions because our kids are watching us, right?
Our children are constantly looking at our example.
And if you set a pattern of quitting in the Christian life, your children are going to
be quitters as well.
And so it's important for us to recognize that.
And he explains a lot of that.
Let's go to 2nd Timothy chapter 2 real quick because I didn't get to finish the latter
end of it.
He talks about the importance of being prepared unto every good work, look at verse 22.
He says, "Flee also youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace with
them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
So it's not enough that you separate yourself from bad habits, from sin, and those who would
potentially tempt you to sin.
He says here that we need to follow righteousness, follow faith, charity, peace with them that
call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Meaning that it's not enough for you to disassociate yourself from the bad people, you also have
to associate yourself with good people.
Sometimes people are like, "Oh man, I just got to get away from these bad influences."
Correct, but that's not the only thing you should do.
You need to make sure you join yourself to a good group of godly people who have the
same spiritual objectives as you do, right?
That's why he says, "With them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
Now thankfully as Christians, we have access to this.
What is it?
The church.
It's easy for us to kind of get away from bad influences, and if we are in a local New
Testament church, have great influences around us, right?
Brothers and sisters in Christ who win souls to Christ, they read the Bible, they are also
living a life of sanctification and honor, they are placing spiritual priorities in their
life and that kind of enables us, it encourages us, it exhorts us to do the same.
So he says, you know, you need to flee these youthful lusts, but also you need to make
sure you associate yourself with people who are going in the same direction as you.
So folks, look, it's not enough for you to just determine, well, I'm just not going to
have this bad friend around me anymore.
There's bad influences in my life.
Well, go find some good influences because if you don't eventually, because you have
this void of relationships in your life, you will eventually revert back to that bad relationship
because we as God's creation are created to have fellowship, right?
We are social beings, some more than others.
But at the end of the day, we are social creatures.
We need friendships in our life.
We need influences in our life and we need to be influencing others as well.
It's for that reason that he says that he goes on to say in verse 23, but foolish and
unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender stripes and the servant of the Lord
must not strife, but be gentle to all men apt to teach patient, if meekness instructing
those that oppose themselves, if God perventure will give them the repentance to the acknowledging
of the truth that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken
captive by him at his will.
What this is saying is that when we preach the gospel to others, you know, we can't
force them to get saved.
We can instruct them and what the Bible says.
But at the end of the day, they have to recover themselves, meaning they have to make the
decision to actually believe the gospel, right.
And in doing so, they end up essentially recovering themselves from the deception of Satan.
We obviously know that people in this world, according to the Bible, are the children of
disobedience.
They're walking according to the course of this world.
They're majorly deceived.
But when the light of the glorious gospel of Christ shines in their hearts, they have
a decision to make, right?
And the decision is either I'm going to accept the gospel or I'm going to reject the gospel.
And so our job, obviously, is to instruct those that oppose themselves.
Now, let's get into chapter three, because chapter three still follows this theme of
hardships.
The difference is that in the previous chapters, it's like, hey, there's going to come hardships
through the gospel.
There's going to come hardships because we just have to endure hardness as a good soldier
of Jesus Christ.
But then he explains this third category of the source of hardships, and that's reprobates.
Okay?
False prophets, apostates, these are all used interchangeably to describe the same person.
And make no mistake about it, if you're serving God, you will have the workers of iniquity
seeking to come after you and to stop you from carrying out the work of the Lord.
Look at verse one of chapter three, he says, "This know also that in the last days, perilous
times shall come."
What he's saying here is that, you know, in the end of days, and obviously we would say
that now is especially those days, that dangerous times will come.
Now why is that?
Is there anything different today than there was in the apostle Paul's day?
No, sin has always been present, false prophets have always existed, apostates have always
been a real thing, but the quantity of those individuals has increased.
So the more there are, the more dangerous it becomes.
And he says that perilous times shall come for men shall 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 pleasure more than lovers of God.
Now I believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is describing the reprobate, okay?
The false prophet, the reprobate, and in fact the context of the chapter points to that.
And if you don't believe it, it says in verse five, "having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof."
Okay?
And I'll get into what that specifically means in just a bit.
But I want you to notice that verses two through four, the characteristics that we see highlighted
is very similar to Romans chapter one.
Is it not?
You know, they're disobedient to parents, they're unthankful, unholy, they are without
natural affection.
This accurately depicts and describes the sodomite, okay, the homo.
But we see here that in chapter three, you know, the homo is not necessarily being talked
about specifically.
Here, in the context, it's actually referring to the false prophet.
But they both fall into the spectrum of being a reprobate though.
When we talk about reprobates in the Bible, there is a spectrum that ranges from sodomites
all the way up to false prophets and apostates.
And both of those individuals fall into the spectrum of being a reprobate.
They are beyond the hope of salvation.
They are individuals who are past feeling as Ephesians chapter four tells us.
They have their conscience seared with a hot iron.
And here we see that they are known by these particular characteristics.
And so look at verse number three again, he says that without natural affection, this is
synonymous with what we see in Ephesians four that they're past feeling.
They're truce breakers, meaning you can't be making deals with these people.
You can't believe what they're saying because they will lie to you.
They will break their covenant to you.
They will break their promises to you.
It says that they're incontinent, they're fierce.
They despise good people.
They're traitors, heady and high minded.
And in fact, let me see here, go back up to verse number two, it also says that they're
covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.
And verse three, that's the part I want to look at, false accusers.
Now what does this mean?
It means they'll just outright lie about you, okay?
And for no good reason, other than just because they're evil, okay?
And you know, when you go to a church like this, okay, where the unadulterated gospels
being preached, you have doctrine being given, it's being explained.
If a person attends our church for years on end, okay, listen to me closely.
If a person attends our church for years on end, they're constantly hearing the gospel,
they're constantly hearing the truth, and they don't get saved, they become an apostate.
There's a real danger with coming to our church, did you know that?
If you choose not to get saved, okay?
Why is that?
Well, because the light is supposed to enlighten you to the truth.
But if you stare too long into the light without actually doing something about it, it can
blind you, right?
Make no mistake about it, God wants to save people.
He wants people to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And yes, he is very patient with individuals.
We've had people come to our church that weren't saved for a couple weeks, even a couple months,
and then they end up getting saved.
But let me just tell you this.
If a person comes to our church, okay, they're constantly hearing the truth, but they're
constantly rejecting it in their heart.
They're not getting saved, and they have this form of godliness.
You know what God eventually does is just make them a reprobate.
Why?
Because of the fact that they're literally treading on the border of the truth without
actually crossing over, and that's dangerous, okay?
It's essentially a slap in the face to God because they know what the Bible says.
They're tasting of the heavenly gift, okay?
They are made partakers of the Holy Ghost.
They're right there on the border, and yet they choose not to cross over.
Why?
Because they hate God.
Because anybody who is given the gospel presentation, they have the full understanding of it.
They recognize what the Bible says about salvation, and they don't want it, well, there's a big
issue there.
Why not?
And in fact, go to Hebrews chapter six, if you would, Hebrews chapter number six, Hebrews
chapter number six.
This lays it out pretty good here when it comes to this particular person.
Hebrews six is referring to the apostate.
It says in verse number one, "Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,
let us go on into perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works
and faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying on of hands and of resurrection
of the dead and of eternal judgment."
Verse three, "And this we will do."
Now, what does he mean when he says, "And this we will do"?
He's referring to the fact that if we're going to go on to perfection, that's what we want
to do.
Right?
And what does he mean by perfection?
It means let's move on from the foundational doctrines of the Bible.
Salvation, baptism, hell, things of that nature.
And he says, "Let us go on to perfection.
This we will do."
And the Lord says, "If God permit."
Now, that's a big point right there.
Okay?
He says, "We can go on to perfection if God allows us to go on to perfection."
You can learn deeper things about the Bible.
You can learn other doctrines, deeper doctrines of the Bible, if God allows you to.
Okay?
Meaning that there are certain instances where God does not permit people to go further.
And doesn't 2 Timothy 3 say that, "And these shall proceed no further"?
He says in verse 4, "For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted
the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away."
Now what does it mean to fall away?
Fall away means apostasy.
That's exactly what it's talking about.
And in fact, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 uses the same exact phrase, and it's referring
to apostasy.
Okay?
"If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance."
Now, why is it impossible to renew a person who has gone into apostasy?
Why is it impossible to renew them again unto repentance?
Well, because of the fact that the foundational doctrines that they rejected is repentance
from dead works and faith toward God.
How do you get someone, listen to me, how do you get someone to believe in the right
salvation when the reason they're in that situation to begin with is because they rejected
the right salvation?
You understand what I'm saying?
We can't renew them again into repentance because the reason they're apostate to begin
with is because they've rejected the right salvation.
He says it's impossible to do so.
This is why when people say, "Oh man, I can't believe you say that about homosexuals, about
sodomites," he's like, "Are you saying they can't be saved?"
Well, here's the thing.
What if they don't want to retain God in their knowledge?
How do you get someone, let's just use some liberal terminology here.
Will you allow me to?
How do you get someone to accept Jesus into their heart if they don't even want him in
their mind?
Right?
How's that possible?
It's like that dude who, the cartoonist who recently died, he's like, "I've accepted
Jesus as my Savior.
I just don't really believe in God though."
Like how does that even work?
He that cometh to God must believe.
So how can we renew someone again unto repentance if they've literally rejected repentance from
dead works and faith toward God?
God will not allow them to proceed further.
Why?
Because of the fact that they've rejected the fundamental doctrines of the Christian
faith.
Okay?
And this is what we commonly refer to as apostasy.
You see, the Bible doesn't teach you to lose your salvation.
This is literally not a concept in the Bible.
And people who propose it as being a biblical concept can't point to a single person that
lost their salvation in the Bible.
And I'll tell you why.
Because no one ever has.
Have people lost out on their opportunity to be saved?
Absolutely.
Have people apostatized like Judas?
Absolutely.
And that's what they bring up.
They're like, well, Judas lost his salvation.
John 6 literally says that he didn't believe from the beginning.
That's literally what it says.
That he was a devil from the beginning, he did not believe, he split hell wide open because
he did not place his faith in Jesus Christ from the start.
He did what first Corinthians 15 says, believed in vain.
It's an empty belief.
It's non-existent.
That's what it's referring to.
And you know, make no mistake about it, Judas fits this description here in Hebrews 6, you
know, we're talking about his proximity to the truth because this is what it's talking
about.
It's talking about how close someone is to the truth.
They're enlightened.
They taste of the heavenly gift.
They're just like right there, right?
They were made, they tasted of the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
meaning the Holy Spirit worked in that person's heart, okay?
They tasted of the good word of God, the powers of the world to come.
You know what's a good example of this is the nation of Israel that didn't get it to
go into the promised land.
Wouldn't that be a good example of a nation that were essentially just kind of, they just
died in the wilderness?
They got to see it with their eyes.
They even got to taste the grapes from the vineyards.
You know, they got to taste the grapes, they got to see it with their eyes, but they didn't
go in.
Why?
Because of unbelief.
That's why, okay?
But the point that I'm making here is that this is referring to this individual who has
gone apostate.
And you know, Christians today have a hard time with this doctrine.
They're just like, "I can't believe you're saying there's certain people that can't
be saved."
No, hold on a second.
I'm saying there's certain people who just won't be saved.
They don't want to be saved.
And in light of the fact that they don't want to be saved, God basically aids them in that
and says, "Okay, then I'll just remove your ability to ever be saved."
And then they get mad about that and it's like, "Bro, the reason he even did that to
begin with is because this person doesn't want salvation."
You can't force someone to get saved who doesn't want salvation.
You can't force someone to get saved who hates the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Mark my words, listen to me, Romans 1 says that the apostate, the reprobate, is
a hater of God.
What are you going to do about that?
How can you accept Jesus Christ as your savior if you hate God?
Those are incompatible.
It's like, "I hate him, but I'll take the gift."
What is that?
"If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance, seeing they crucified to
themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame."
So when you see people who claim to be Christian, and then they just start teaching weird doctrines,
and they're actually shaming the Lord Jesus Christ publicly, just mark it now, this person
is an apostate.
That's what the Bible says.
And then it goes on to give this illustration here in verse seven, "For the earth which
drinketh in the rain, that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs to meet for them,
by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessings from God.
But that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing whose end
is to be burned."
Now, these two verses here are giving us the result of what the word of God does to a person,
because the word of God can be likened unto rain, right?
It falls upon the ground, and when it falls upon good ground, what does it do?
It produces fruit, right?
It produces fruit, it brings forth herbs, meet for them, by whom it is dressed, receiveth
blessings from God, but then it falls on other ground, and it doesn't produce fruit.
You know what it does?
It brings forth thorns and briars whose end is to be burned, the Bible says.
You know what this is telling me?
That the way a person is made reprobate is the same way a person is saved.
In that they received the word of God, but they actually accepted it.
They took the light and guess what?
It benefited them unto eternal life.
The other person received the word of God.
They hate the Lord and you know what?
It blinded them.
That's what it's referring to.
So the problem is not the message.
The problem is the recipient of the message.
The problem is not the word of God.
The problem is not even the messenger.
The problem is the recipient according to the Bible.
Go back to 2 Timothy, 2 Timothy chapter 3.
The point that I'm making here is 2 Timothy 3 is referring to that apostate, the individual
who has rejected the word of God.
And look, going back to my previous point, this can happen to a person in our church.
And I'm assuming that everyone here is saved.
And I hope that you are, amen.
I just assume that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you know, the law of numbers says that eventually there's going to be someone who's
maybe faking it.
And has that happened?
Yeah, that's happened in the past, for sure.
You know, even within recent months that's happened.
Someone just, you know, left our church and they just made a complete 180.
As a Christian became a false accuser, just absolutely wicked and vile and disgusting
and just lying and railing against God's people and just trying to destroy men of God for
no good reason whatsoever.
Here's the reason why.
Because they're apostate.
That's why.
And that's how apostates behave.
Look, folks, you know, if I was a member of a church and I ended up not liking the pastor
for whatever reason, I mean, what's not to like about me, I'm just kind of throwing that
out there as an illustration.
But, you know, if you came to church and you just didn't like me, just go somewhere else
and move on with your life.
It's a weird thing when people begin to fixate on a particular man of God and just their
whole world revolves around that person.
Look, folks, pastors got to be exposed, you know, if pastors are involved in money laundering,
they're involved in criminal actions and grievous sin.
If they're like, you know, militant supporters of Zionism, send those clips over because
I need some content.
You know, things of that nature, yeah, they got to be exposed.
But you know what?
Even someone like me who exposes that, I don't live my life doing that all the time.
That's literally like a 60 second clip.
And the rest of the day, I'm literally doing other stuff, you know, like spending time
with my family, winning souls to Christ, teaching the Bible, things of that nature.
But when a person fixates on a particular person, you know, obviously this is a characteristic
of someone who is a despiser of those that are good, especially when there's absolutely
nothing wrong with that person.
They're criticizing.
Right.
And again, there's pastors out there that I don't really like, you know, those pastors
that I just don't get along with.
I don't like.
But you know what?
I don't really spend my life talking about them because I got bigger fish to fry.
But there's literally individuals out there who have left good churches and literally
their entire ministry in life is surrounded by trying to take this one person down.
And they think they're like making a difference.
They're making no difference whatsoever.
Okay.
They're under this strong delusion.
And that's something that apostates get folks.
You know, if you ever see something online, you're like, whoa, this person is just off
his rock or they're just going so far deep into like railing and it becomes so wicked.
What is that?
It's called a strong delusion.
Folks.
Thank God for sanity.
Amen.
So sanity is a blessing from God to be saying to have all your marbles is a great thing
because there's people out there.
They don't.
There's people out there that are literally living in fear because of the imaginations
that they've conjured up in their own mind.
The wicked do flee when no man pursues it.
They're constantly thinking someone's out to get them.
Something's going to happen to them.
And you know, dear old Bruce Mejia is just like knocked out snoring, you know, just on
my third dream or whatever, just enjoying life.
But there's people out there that literally lose sleep because they keep thinking because
they have these strong delusions.
That's how it works.
These are reprobates.
These are apostates.
And you know what?
We should have no fellowship with apostates, no fellowship with reprobates.
And so it gives these characteristics here.
So watch out for some of these things.
But it says in verse five, which is a proof text that this is referring to reprobates
and apostates.
It says having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.
So what does it mean to have the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof?
Here's how Jesus put it.
They're wolves in sheep's clothing, right?
Basically, they have the form of being a Christian.
They look like a Christian.
They talk like a Christian, but they actually deny the power thereof.
Here's another way of putting it.
You know, second Peter chapter two and verse number one, how does it start again?
Someone give me the first word.
For there were false teachers also among the brethren, even as there should be false prophets
among you, who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies, denying even the Lord God that bought
them.
They're deniers of the truth.
So they look like prophets.
They look like Christians.
They look like believers, but they actually denied the Lord Jesus Christ.
So in here, they don't really believe they're just masquerading as Christians like MLK Martin
Luther King is a perfect example of that.
You know, oh, you did so much for what?
Yeah, he did so much adultery.
That's what he did.
That's a perfect example of someone who had the form of Godness, but denied the power
thereof.
You know, people are like, "No, he was a good man."
He denied the virgin birth.
He denies the resurrection of Christ.
He denies that Jesus Christ is God.
He denies the second coming of Christ.
He mocks Christianity and says that it comes from Mithraism.
That's a person who has the form of Godness, but they're actually denying the truth.
That's an apostate.
And look, the reality check that I'm trying to give you is these people exist.
And the dumbest thing that you can do as a Christian is act like they don't.
"Well, I don't know about all that."
It says here that they exist.
They have a form of Godness.
And if you're the kind of person that makes excuses for people like that, you're the silly
women that the Bible's talking about here in 2 Timothy chapter 3.
I'm not joking.
I know that sounds funny, but it's true.
You're a silly woman, even if you're a man.
The end of verse 5 says, "From such turn away."
That means we've got to stay away from these people.
Why?
Because they're super wicked.
They'll lie to your face.
They'll take advantage of you.
Traitors, heady, high-minded.
They're blasphemers.
They're not to be trusted.
We would say in our modern vernacular they're psychopaths, and you're like, "Oh yeah, I
know that one."
Yeah.
Well, this is actually worse than a psychopath, in my opinion.
Well, you can call them psychopaths, okay?
It says in verse 6, "For of this sort, referring to these apostates, these reprobates, are
they which creep into houses and lead captive, silly women, laden with sins, led away with
diverse lusts."
So it says here that these reprobates target dumb women.
Silly means gullible, dumb, and I think obviously he's specifically saying women, but this
applies to men too, I think, because there are men who act like silly women.
And so they're just carried about with every wind of doctrine.
They listen to every rumor.
They listen to all types of railings and evil surmising.
They just believe anything that they hear, right?
So it says, "This sort, they creep into houses," and apparently what the apostle Paul's referring
to is even in the first century AD, these individuals were coming in like the Jehovah's
Witnesses and trying to do like Bible studies or something, because you have these women
who are staying home, keepers at home, and who does the reprobate try to target first?
He targets the women, just like Satan targeted Eve, right?
Because they're easily deceived.
If they don't have someone protecting them and guarding them, that is a major possibility
there.
He says that they creep into houses, leave captives to the women, laden with sins, led
away with diverse lusts.
Now, verse seven, in my opinion, can be interpreted in two ways, and I think both interpretations
are valid.
I'm going to give you the interpretation that I initially had, and then I'm going to give
you the second interpretation that I think it might be referring to, but both, in my
opinion, are pretty valid.
Verse seven says, "Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
So what is this referring to?
Well, the first interpretation that I've always taught is that this is addressing the
reprobate because it's a good description of what a reprobate is.
It's someone who's ever learning, but they're never able to come to the saving knowledge
of Jesus Christ.
Because if they're a reprobate, then the ability to be saved is removed.
Their ability to believe is no longer there.
They're reprobate concerning the faith, as we're going to see.
So it's accurate to say that they're ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth.
And that is definitely true with the reprobate, as we see in Hebrews chapter 6.
This we will do if God permit, insinuated that God can impede this person from going
on into perfection, they can ever learn, but they'll never actually come to the knowledge
of the truth.
Okay.
That's the first interpretation.
I think I believe it's valid, but based upon the grammar, it could also be referring to
the silly woman, the silly person, the person who's being deceived by the reprobate as well.
Because if we were to read it, it says four of this sort referring to the apostate are
they which creep into houses and leave captive silly women laden with sins led away with
diverse lust, comma, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
So this could also be applied to the person who's being deceived, right?
Now how so?
Well, I feel like within the last couple of years, especially, you know, because of the
internet, social media, Instagram, I've met so many people who know the Bible, but they
actually don't really know the Bible.
I mean, they know a lot of biblical lingo.
They got there.
They're fluent in Christian ease, right?
They know all the history, the church fathers.
They know, you know, every talking point, and they're like ever learning.
But then when you actually talk about salvation, they're just, they don't know anything.
They're just unsure.
They don't know if they're saved.
You know, like, okay, you know, it's just like this so-called apologist, Cliff.
You guys know what I'm talking about?
What's the guy?
Cliff is his name.
Cliff.
Okay.
Two people.
I've got contradicting testimonies here.
Okay.
Whatever he said.
Cliff connect four or whatever.
So Cliff, he's this apologist, and people esteem him a lot.
And I'm not really big on apologist.
I don't like that stuff.
I'm not into it.
Not interested.
People send me clips of people and I'm just like, I don't really care for that.
But you know, he's really popular amongst Christian groups.
Okay.
And they're like, this is the guy.
This is the guy, you know, he knows a lot.
He's really, you know, really well versed and all this stuff.
But when they asked him, I saw a clip of him when I asked him about eternal security, if
you could lose your salvation, and the guy just tipped over on the tulips.
He didn't really know what to believe about.
And it's just like, how do you know so much Bible?
I didn't know so much about apologies or whatever you want to call it, how to debate, these
Christian talking points.
But you don't know if you can lose your salvation or not.
That's like the most important thing.
It just reminds me of what Jesus said of Nicodemus, are thou a master of Israel and knowest not
these things?
Right?
You're dealing with Nicodemus.
Nicodemus is a master of Israel.
He's a man who's learned in letters, but he doesn't even know what it means to be born
again.
He's exactly the replica that we see today with people, right?
You know what we call that?
Someone who's ever learning, but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
They consume all this biblical information because the internet is filled with it.
They memorize everything that the Bible has to say, but they actually don't know themselves
regarding the simplest of doctrines such as eternal security.
That's a major issue.
But you know what?
This is the byproduct of being taught by false prophets.
Because false prophets who oversee congregations, they'll tell you about all the stories.
They'll regurgitate all the information.
They'll tell you about all the characters of the Bible, but when it comes to the nitty-gritty
doctrines of eternal life, of eternal security, whether you can lose your salvation or not,
they're unsure about that.
They can't really tell you for sure.
And I've even heard people say this, "Well, I believe I can't lose my salvation, but I
just don't know about everyone else."
It's like, "What?
Is salvation like categorized or something?
How does that work?"
Salvation is the same for everyone.
And look, folks, it's a major red flag when a pastor gets up and he just can't be clear
about salvation.
It's a major red flag.
I'm not saying the person is a full-blown false prophet, very much could be.
But what I'm saying is that you probably shouldn't be pastoring a church.
The only people who should be pastoring churches are those who are assured of the doctrines
of Christ.
And make no mistake about it, eternal security is the doctrine of Christ.
Because eternal security, like, "Well, they believe, you know, they believe in believing
in Jesus Christ for salvation.
It's just that eternal security."
They're one and the same.
What are you talking about?
What is that?
Eternal security is the gospel.
The fact that you can't lose your salvation is the gospel.
Because the fact that you can't lose your salvation is based upon the fact that we do
nothing in and of ourselves to get saved.
It's all through Jesus Christ.
And to assert that you can lose your salvation means that you believe you have to do something
to participate in it.
And I don't care if you think it's 2 percent.
If you believe you have to do 2 percent to be saved, you're not saved.
Because there's nothing on our end.
There's nothing that we can do in and of ourselves.
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved
us.
But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly.
His faith is counted for righteousness.
That's literally what the Bible teaches.
"Oh yeah, but faith without works is dead.
Well, hold on a second.
Finish that up."
Being alone.
That means it's there.
It's just not active.
The point that I'm making here is the fact that, you know, the ever learning and never
able to come to the knowledge of the truth can apply to both.
It can apply to the reprobate, but it can also apply to the person who's being discipled
by the reprobate.
And look, we've had people come to our church, you know, from social media, and they know
all kinds of Bible, but they just absolutely don't know if they're saved enough.
And, you know, we're not going to criticize them because we want them to be saved.
And I'm going to be like, "Excuse me?
What do you mean?"
You don't know how to be saved.
Whoa.
Are you guys all Christian?
That's weird.
Oh, man.
And you believe, you don't believe, you believe in replacement theology, but you're not saved?
That's kind of weird.
No, obviously we're compassionate because we want them to be saved.
And we all started off as unsaved at one point, right?
We did not have the truth in us naturally.
Someone had to teach us the gospel as well.
Okay, so never have this pompous, high-minded attitude that, "Oh, man, you're just a corner
of truth and shame on this person for not knowing this."
That's why they're here, because they want to learn.
The point that I'm making here is the fact that the byproduct of reprobates, the kind
of fruit that they produce, so to speak, are individuals who know a lot of information,
but they are actually not saved at all.
They just produce people who have a form of godliness, but they deny the power they're
of.
Look, false prophets produce things.
It's just not the right fruit.
Doesn't it say in Matthew 23 when talking about the Pharisees that they can pass land
and sea to make one proselyte, and when he is made, they make him twofold more a child
of hell than themselves?
That's what it says.
They don't necessarily make biblical converts.
They make proselytes is what they make.
They produce themselves in these individuals, and they end up becoming twice dead, plucked
up by the roots.
The point that I'm making here is that ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth.
Why?
Because even an unsaved person cannot bring someone to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
It's impossible.
Judas got no one saved.
How could he?
He didn't have the spirit of God dwelling within him.
He taught some information, but it ended there.
And again, you know, I don't base if someone is saved based upon how much Bible they know.
I don't.
There's people out there that know.
Believe it or not, I ran into Catholics who know the Bible.
Very few.
Very, very few.
He needs a little bit of people who are Catholic who know the Bible, but they're not saved.
How can you say that Catholics are not saved?
Because they believe you have to take the Eucharist to be saved.
If you believe that, you're not saved.
Point blank.
Well, how are you going to speak with such certainty?
Because John 6 isn't about the Eucharist.
That's why.
You know, John 6 isn't about the Lord's Supper.
It's not Jesus Christ instituted the Lord's Supper, since the Lord's Supper wasn't instituted
until Matthew chapter 27 or 26.
It was like way after John chapter 6.
So what happened between the beginning of the ministry of Jesus Christ up to John chapter
26?
And what about until John chapter 6?
Until the institution of the Lord's Supper in Matthew 26?
Are you saying people didn't get saved during that time?
Because according to their theology, that's the only way you get saved is by participating
in the Eucharist.
This isn't a sermon on Catholics, but it's always worth mentioning that.
And look, there are examples of people who are ever learning and never able to come to
the knowledge of the truth.
And it's crazy to me, right now there's a lot of Catholics who follow me because they
also are a replacement theology.
And they're like, "Hey, I'm Catholic and I just love your stuff."
And this is what I always respond with, "Doesn't your church believe that I'm an apostate
though?
What do you do in listening to a Baptist if I'm an apostate?"
They're like, "Oh, I don't know, I just really like your stuff."
Does your priest say it's okay for you to listen to me?
Because according to your doctrine, I'm an apostate because I left the Catholic Church
and I'm a fundamental Baptist and I reject the Catholic Church, so why would you be listening
to apostate?
But let me explain to you why Catholics listen to people like me.
Pay attention, this is why they listen to me, because they can't get the information
on their own, because they don't have the spirit of God dwelling within them.
So in order for them to learn the deep things of God, they have to get it from the same
person.
So if you ever run into an ortho or a Catholic who seems to know the Bible, just know this,
they didn't get it themselves.
They got it from someone who's actually saved.
I mean, that's literally how the Catholic Church started.
It's a bastardization of true Christianity.
Someone apostatized from Christianity and took all the information and started the Roman
Catholic Church and all the beliefs thereof.
He says in verse eight, "Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these," referring
to the apostates, "also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning
the faith."
Now it is generally agreed that Janus and Jambres is actually referring to the magicians
of Egypt.
Can we say that beyond a shadow of a doubt?
No we cannot, but it's generally agreed that's probably what it's referring to since it refers
to the fact that they withstood Moses and when you look at the story, those are the
people who withstood Moses in Egypt.
And it says that just as they withstood Moses in like manner, they resist the truth or withstand
the truth, meaning they stand against the truth, they resist the truth, they don't want
the truth.
It says men of corrupt minds, and here's the kicker, reprobate concerning the faith.
Now I don't remember when I preached, maybe it was last week or something, reprobate literally
means to be rejected, right?
That's the definition where we get from Jeremiah chapter six, reprobate silver shall men call
them for the Lord hath rejected them.
So reprobate and rejected are used interchangeably in that passage of scripture, showing us that
reprobate by definition means to be rejected.
Now the important thing is, is that, you know, what are we talking about exactly?
Because reprobate doesn't always mean someone who is rejected from salvation.
Okay.
There's instances where it just means to be rejected.
Okay.
And let me give you an example of this.
Okay.
Because, you know, sometimes people bring this up.
For example, first Corinthians chapter nine, and I think it's verse 27.
It says, "But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when
I preach to others, I myself should be a what?
A castaway."
Well, the word in castaway in the original language is the same word for reprobate.
Okay.
The difference is, is that when he's referring to being a castaway, it's referring to someone
who is basically out of the race.
He's rejected from the race.
Okay.
Reprobate in general is used to describe someone who's beyond the hope of salvation unless
the context says otherwise.
Now how do we know that?
Well, it says here that they are reprobate concerning what?
The faith.
And what is faith?
Believing.
Christianity.
You understand?
So when a person resists the truth, what is the byproduct of that?
That they are rejected concerning the truth.
They're no longer able to believe.
Different from what we see in first Corinthians chapter nine verse 27.
That's important to know because people will bring that up to you.
And they'll say, well, you know, castaway is the same thing.
It's like, yeah, well, reparate just means rejected, OK?
And the way we determine what's being rejected concerning what
is the context in which that term is founded, you understand?
So here we see that these individuals who
have the form of godliness, they deny the power they're of,
they're characterized by these wicked attributes.
They are leading away captive, silly women, gullible people.
They are ever learning, never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth.
These people are reprobate concerning the faith,
meaning they cannot be saved.
Now look, folks, there's a major difference
between an unsafe person and this kind of unsafe person.
So don't mix the two.
There's unsafe people out there.
They're all wicked, fornicators, they're drunkards,
they're involved in all types of wickedness
or whatever it may be, and you know what?
That person still can be saved.
I mean, didn't the apostle Paul
call himself the chief of sinners?
He says that he was the chief of sinners,
that he was injurious, he was a blasphemer,
but he said that he did it ignorantly in unbelief.
So there's a lot of wicked people out there
who are not saved.
Yes, you know, they're living wicked lives,
but it doesn't mean they're beyond the hope of salvation.
This kind of unsafe person is extremely wicked.
This person not only rejects the gospel,
but they become adversarial towards the gospel.
They seek to impede the gospel.
Now look, folks, this is a major difference.
I want you to listen to me.
There's a difference between a person
who gives you the bird, cusses you out at the door, right?
And if that hasn't happened to you,
you need to go sowing a little more often,
and it'll eventually happen to you, OK?
It's great, it's great.
You know, there's a difference between that person
and the person who tries to stop you
from preaching the gospel.
This is what the Bible says.
It talks about the wicked and unreasonable men.
And it says this, that have not faith.
This is a person who makes it their agenda, their objective,
to stop people from getting saved.
Now wouldn't you say that's an extremely wicked thing to do?
Foreign occasion is super wicked.
But it's the same common demand.
Stopping a person from getting saved,
that's a worker of iniquity.
That's what the Jews did, right?
Just stopping Paul from preaching the gospel,
that they might be saved, and they were literally
following the apostle Paul from city to city,
just literally hiring the baser sort
to blaspheme against Paul and lie about him
in order to discredit him from getting the message out.
That's wicked.
When you have Jews literally following the apostle Paul
through different cities, not so they can get people saved,
not so they can spread Judaism,
just literally to stop the apostle Paul
from getting people saved, that's wicked, evil.
That takes a special kind of wicked.
That takes a special kind of evil.
And look, we've encountered people like this
in our ministry.
One of them, it was years ago, like 2019,
we were in Ohio and there was a guy,
we were literally hosting a conference
called the Fundamentalist Conference.
And it was literally just about the fundamentals
of the faith.
We were trying to offer preaching to people
who didn't have churches in that area.
We were doing soul winning.
And literally we rented out a hotel conference room
to host the conferences.
And we had people who worked around the clock
to get us kicked out of those hotel rooms.
We literally ended up finishing the conference
in a different state because of it.
That's how wicked this person was.
He did everything in his power.
This guy did everything in his power to try to stop it.
And he literally sent infiltrators in person
to the conference.
I mean, just literally just stressing us out.
And I remember we ended up getting a hotel,
and we set up, I mean, Brother Marcus and I
were setting up, we're doing the live stream,
and it takes hours to set up
'cause we don't know what we're doing.
And that Mark was right there.
Remember that?
Remember when we were setting up the conference?
We finally got it together.
And then the owner of the, or whatever,
the manager comes and is just like,
"You have 45 minutes to get out of here.
"You guys can't host the conference anymore."
And we're like, "It took us three hours to set this up."
And they're like, "Sorry, you have like,
"we'll give you an hour," or whatever.
He said, "What did you do?"
Well, you know, we still did the conference.
We got a lot of people saved.
And I came back home mad as a hornet.
And I said, "We're doing a prayer meeting
"and we're praying in precatory prayers against this guy
"'cause he's a wicked and unreasonable person
"who tried to stop the gospel from being preached.
"We weren't harming anybody.
"We weren't even preaching against sodomites."
We're literally just like, "Read your Bible," you know?
We're just like, "Hey, you know, live a godly life
"and fundamentalism," and just all the fun stuff, you know?
And then he just stopped that.
You say, "What happened to that guy
"when we prayed against him for months?"
And then two, three months in,
he was brutally bludgeoned to death, taken out
under very questionable circumstances.
He was brutally bludgeoned to death.
You're trying to tell me that wasn't God punishing him
for impeding the gospel from being preached?
I'm gonna tell you something.
God holds that person extremely responsible for that
'cause it's not just a matter of committing some
regular grievous sin.
This is literally trying to keep people from getting saved,
mocking God in his heart,
stopping the men of God from preaching the gospel.
And you know what?
I believe that God destroyed him for that.
And it was a very public thing, by the way.
It wasn't like we just heard about it
through like family or something, friends.
No, it was like they put it out there.
And I'm talking about he died under very question,
like it was hard for those who know him to honor him
because it was just very questionable
some of the things that he was involved in.
And it wasn't like he just fell over and died.
He was bludgeoned to death.
And you know, if you don't believe that God did that,
you might want to look at what God did to Saul.
You might want to look at the fact that God allows Saul's body
not to just be bludgeoned, but to be desecrated, decapitated,
where they literally pinned his torso to the wall.
How about that?
You know, our loving God did that, yes.
Point that I'm making here is that God does not take stuff
like this lightly, you understand?
And look, I'm not for just praying in precatory prayers
just because, you know, you're not for someone.
I'm talking about those who are seeking to impede the truth.
And here's my philosophy, okay?
'Cause sometimes people are like,
"Oh man, that's not right, you know,
"you should pray for your enemies."
Yeah, I do pray for my enemies.
But there's a difference between my enemies
and the enemies of God.
Here's the thing, let me put your mind at ease, okay?
So you don't think I'm a weirdo or something like this.
Here's my philosophy.
You know, if I wanna pray in a precatory prayer
against someone, I do.
You know, if God doesn't wanna answer, he doesn't have to.
If it's not his will, it won't happen.
So why are you mad?
Why are you upset?
You can't do that.
Well, here's the good news,
if God doesn't wanna do it, he won't, right?
If it's not according to his will, guess what?
It's not gonna happen.
But at least I feel better by doing it.
At least after I'm done praying the impregnatory prayer,
I'm just like, well, that felt good.
I can move on with my life, you know?
Vengeance belongs to the Lord, you know?
He's gonna repay and I can just move on about my happy life
'cause I just, you know, poured my heart out to the Lord
of what I believe God should do to this person.
But hold on a second, what if he does do it?
Well, that means that it was according to his will.
What are you gonna say then?
Oh, you shouldn't have done that.
Are you saying that what God did was wrong?
It's a coincidence, folks, that that person literally died
after us praying for two months straight
for him to be destroyed by the Lord.
Sounds to me like we prayed according to his will.
And you know what, we need to bring back
in precatory prayers again, you know?
And again, not just against anybody.
I'm talking about those who are literally making it
their objective, their agenda to stop men of God
from preaching the word of God,
stop people from getting people saved.
This is wicked, this is vile in God's eyes.
And look, we're gonna see it
when we bring it to our prayer in chapter four.
Let's look at it right now.
Look at chapter four, verse 14.
In case you thought like this is not compatible
with biblical Christianity, you should not be doing that.
That's not right for you to do.
Well, look at it, verse 14.
Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil,
the Lord reward him according to his works.
I hope God just like punishes that guy for doing that.
And in fact, in first Timothy,
he says that he gave over Hymenaeus and Philetus
for the destruction of the flesh, right?
That they may learn not to blaspheme, how about that?
Point that I'm making here is that the reprobate
is a higher caliber of wickedness.
Look at verse 9 of chapter 3.
"But they shall proceed no further,
for their folly shall be made manifest into all men,
as theirs also was."
Now, here's the good news is that sometimes it's like, man,
what if there's an infiltrator, a wolf in sheep's clothing?
What are we going to do?
Well, luckily, the Bible promises us and tells us
that there comes a point where they can't proceed any further.
God will eventually expose them.
He'll make their manifest their folly.
And he will expose them for everyone to see,
because God doesn't want people like that in church,
deceiving people and so forth.
Now, I will say this.
I'm sure churches are filled with infiltrators,
because the pastor doesn't want to do anything about it.
And at that point, God probably just
allows them to be there, because the pastor doesn't really
care for a sheep.
Verse 10, "But that was fully known.
My doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering,
charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions,
which came into me at Antioch, and Iconium,
and Lystra, all persecutions I endured.
But out of them all, the Lord delivered me."
So he says, "Look, here's the contrast.
There's this person, and then there's me."
Now, what this reminds me of,
go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13, if you would,
2 Corinthians chapter 13, 2 Corinthians chapter 13.
This reminds me of what he says
in 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse number five.
It says here, "Examine yourselves,
whether you be in the faith.
Prove your own selves, knowing not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you,
except he be reprobates."
So that's like ironclad.
There's like no arguing against that, right?
He says like, "Hey, you're in the faith."
You know, he says, "Christ is in you,
except you be reprobates."
Implying that if you're a reprobate,
you can't have Christ in you, okay?
But that's not the first time I'm trying to point out here.
This is, it's the next verse.
"But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates."
So he's basically saying what he's repeating
in 2 Timothy, that was fully known my doctrine though.
I know that you know that I'm not a reprobate.
And of course, later on he says,
"Though we be as reprobates,"
meaning that though we're getting rejected
by some of the Corinthians,
you know that we're not reprobates.
Why? Because of what we believe.
Go back to 2 Timothy.
He says, "You've fully known my doctrine.
"Not only my doctrine, you know my manner of life.
"You know the persecutions that I endured,
"all the afflictions that came unto me
"in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra."
And he says, "I endured all of them
"because the Lord delivered me."
And verse 12 is a very powerful verse.
He says, "Yea, all the will of God,
"the in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."
In other words, you know, the longer you're a Christian,
the more you serve God,
you will suffer some level of persecution.
Your friends are gonna persecute you,
your family might persecute you.
You know, the world is gonna persecute you.
You're gonna experience some level of affliction
for the things that you believe.
Because if you're living a godly life,
that is the repercussion of doing so.
So be prepared for that.
Verse 13, "But evil men and seducers
"shall wax worse and worse,
"deceiving and being deceived."
Now, this can mean evil men and seducers
shall wax worse and worse,
as in the quantity of evil men and seducers.
That's definitely a possible interpretation, right?
Because obviously, the closer we get to the end times,
the more ungodly people increase.
But this could also be referring to the fact
that evil men and seducers
personally just get worse and worse.
And that's a very much a possible interpretation here, right?
Meaning that when a person becomes apostate,
they don't just stay at level one, right?
They actually get worse.
It's like, you know, when an apple goes bad
and it begins to rot, it's not just rotten in one part,
the rottenness spreads.
With time, it just becomes exceedingly worse.
And this is exactly how apostates are, okay?
Apostates progressively get worse and worse
in their doctrine, in their behavior,
in their conduct, in their speech.
They just begin to lose their minds, okay?
Evil men and seducers do wax worse and worse.
And the reason I'm telling you this
is because you're gonna see it.
Either that or you've already seen it.
You're like, what's going on with this guy?
I'll tell you what's going on.
Evil men and seducers wax worse and worse.
'Cause here's the thing, you know,
I'm not trying to give you the,
how the spiritual biology works in this,
but when a person is made reprobate concerning the faith,
as we see in Romans 1,
their ability to believe is attached to their morality,
like their moral compass,
which is why when they're made reprobate concerning the faith,
they're given over to these unnatural acts.
They're full of murder, deceit, they are sodomites,
they commit bestiality, pedophilia,
because their moral compass is removed, you understand?
Their ability to reject that which is abominable,
that which is disgusting is completely removed,
and they see nothing wrong with anything.
So if you have a person whose moral compass
has been removed, or as 1 Timothy chapter four puts it,
their conscience has been seared with a hot iron,
meaning it's numb,
then they can become exceedingly wicked
'cause there's no restraint.
You understand what I'm saying?
When it says the conscience has been seared,
the implication there is that our conscience
prohibits us from doing certain things.
We're disgusted at certain things, right?
It's like a protective measure that got places within us
to cause us to abstain from that which is abominable,
disgusting, that's unnatural, things of that nature.
Well the reprobate, when his ability to believe is removed,
it's like the bee, when it stings you,
basically its guts come with it, right?
You ever seen a bee?
I don't know, I've never been stung by a bee,
but you guys know what I'm talking about?
Am I right about that?
OK, they sting someone, don't look at me like that.
When a bee stings you, it leaves its stinger,
but it actually pulls all the guts out.
This is the best way I can describe it, sir.
So that's kind of how it works.
A reprobate, basically, the ability to believe goes,
but so does its moral compass.
The boundaries no longer exist.
So this is why a person who is apostate
becomes waxes worse and worse,
'cause there's no restraint in their mind.
They just, the only limitation is like the laws.
The only limitation is what, you know,
whatever situation they may find themselves in,
the opportunities that they have, or whatever it may be.
Point that I'm making here is that this individual,
the person that we're dealing with here,
is not just your run-of-the-mill sinner.
This is a very dangerous individual.
Let me just make it very clear, all pedophiles are reprobates.
All sodomites are reprobates, which
is why they're able to do the disgusting things that they do.
They do the things that animals do because of the fact
that their moral compass has been completely removed.
Because if people are like, oh, it's just a mental illness,
you're kind of right.
That's just like a nice way of saying it.
The Bible just says it's a reprobate mind.
The moral compass, the consciousness has been seared.
The moral compass has been completely removed,
along with their ability to believe,
which is why evil men and seducers wax worse and worse.
They just get worse and worse and worse as the years go by.
And so this is important for you to know,
because you will meet people like this,
hopefully not personally,
but you will hear about people like this.
You're like, what happened to this guy?
He was such a wholesome person here,
and now he's just so exceedingly wicked over here.
I'll tell you what it is, apostasy.
The moral compass has been removed,
and that's why they're behaving that way.
You say, well, can Christians become like that?
Well, here's the thing when it comes to Christians.
Obviously, our moral compass cannot be removed, right?
Because we cannot stop believing.
Salvation cannot be lost.
But you know what Christians can do
is they can become desensitized to sin,
meaning that certain sins don't bother you as much
as they used to, as they initially did bother you.
So the frequency of exposure to particular sins
can cause you to become desensitized
to that particular sin, whereas when you first saw something,
did something, maybe it bothered you initially.
You participated in something.
It bothered you initially.
But then later on, it doesn't really
bother you as much anymore because you
become desensitized to it.
Now what happens to the person, the Christian,
who becomes desensitized to certain sins?
Well, according to 1 Corinthians chapter 3,
you know, who started to follow the temple of God?
Him shall God destroy.
So according to the Bible, a Christian
can never get to a point where they start committing
filthy acts, because before they can get to that point,
God's just like, all right, you're done, taking you home.
Now, we don't have an explicit example of that
in the Bible other than Saul, because Saul was a safe person.
And what did Saul do?
He went to the witch at Endor.
He's like, Saul, what are you doing?
You're going to Star Wars-- no, not Star Wars.
The witch at Endor?
The Ewoks at Endor?
You're going to-- you're going to go commit necromancy?
Like, you're a believer.
He's like, how can a safe person do that?
Well, he did it, and what happened the next day?
He died.
God destroyed him.
So that kind of shows you that when you become
desensitized to certain things, God won't allow you
to exceed a certain limit before he just says,
all right, you're just done.
I'm just going to take you home.
And so I'm saying that to cause you to fear,
lest you become desensitized to sin
and then run the risk of being destroyed by God.
All right, let's finish up here.
"But continue down the things which thou hast learned
and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast
learned them, and that from a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise
into salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus."
Of course, I explained in previous weeks that Timothy
was obviously raised by believers, and his mother
and grandmother exposed him to the word of God,
and it made his heart tender to receive salvation later on.
That's what verse 15 is referring to.
Verse 16 says, "All scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be perfect,
thoroughly furnished unto all good works."
And I'll finish off with this, is
that the Bible's telling us here, Paul's saying,
that, you know, we need to make sure
that we are consistently digesting the Bible, right?
Why, because the Bible is the source of instruction
and wisdom and righteousness and doctrine.
And in order for us to be perfect,
and perfect, of course, doesn't mean sinless.
Perfect means complete, entire.
In order for us to be useful,
as 2 Timothy chapter two tells us to be,
we need to make sure we have all scripture, okay?
And let me just throw this in here for good measure.
This is how we know the first century AD Christians
had the Bible.
Oh, the Bible wasn't canonized
until the Catholic church came about.
Well, that's funny.
Then how are Christians able to become perfect,
prepared into every good work,
if they needed all scripture
and they didn't have all scripture, right?
How can that command be carried out?
It's just like, oh, just kidding, sorry.
I know you guys don't have,
you won't have all scripture
until like 300 years later or something like that.
But good luck.
The reason that command can be given
is because they have all scripture.
No, it's not till the Roman Catholic Church
came and decided what was to be canon or not.
Wrong.
If the Bible says to study,
to show thyself, approve them to God,
a workman that needed not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
How is that possible
if they didn't know what the canon was?
What are they rightly dividing?
How can they be made perfect,
thoroughly furnished into all good works
if they didn't have all scripture?
It's logic folks, common sense.
So read the Bible, be complete,
thoroughly furnished into all good works.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
There's so much good truth in 2 Timothy chapter three, Lord.
Help us as your people to avoid those who are,
who have the form of godliness
but deny the power they're of.
And in my assessment of many Christians,
of course, I'm specifically referring to those
on the internet, widespread throughout the world.
They just don't, they lack the discernment
available to us from the word of God
to avoid these individuals who have the form of godliness,
but they're actually apostates.
And I pray that Lord, you'd help us to take these things
to heart to learn from the scriptures.
You've taught us so much about false prophets,
so much about reprobates and apostates, Lord.
We need to make sure we apply this to our lives
and recognize that these individuals do exist.
Help us to stay away from them,
to continue in the things that we have learned, Lord,
and to allow the scriptures to make us perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works.
We love you, we thank you.
Pray these things in Jesus' name.