Man, good to see you this evening. Would you turn with me in your Bibles to 2nd Timothy,
Chapter 4. 2nd Timothy, Chapter 4. As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter, beginning
in verse 1. I didn't bring my glasses, so hopefully I don't mispronounce anything. What's
that? No, I'm good. 2nd Timothy, Chapter 4. The Bible says, "I charge thee therefore before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and
his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all lung-suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure
sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having
itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto
fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist,
make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept
the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord,
the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me. For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved
this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Cretians to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.
Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me
for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas
with Carpus, when thou comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially the
parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him
according to his works. Of whom be thou were also, for he hath greatly withstood
our words. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I
pray God that it may not be laid to their charge, notwithstanding the Lord
stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known,
and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the
lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me
unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Salute Prisca and Achilla and the household of Inesiphorus. Erastus abode
at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at Militum sick. Do thy diligence to come
before winter. Ebulus greeteth thee and Putin's and
Linus and Claudia and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit.
Grace be with you. Amen. Brother Tony would you pray for us? We're in the last
chapter of 2nd Timothy there. Chapter number 4. Title of my sermon tonight is
Preach the Word. Just a recap from last week. Let's just turn back to chapter
number 3 and verse number 13. I just kind of want to cover the last part of
this. I always feel like I'm hurrying to finish up stuff that I really wanted to
kind of study out a little bit more. So I am gonna kind of go back to this just
for a little bit here. So last week at the end of the passage it came to verse
13 it says, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse deceiving
and being deceived." And again kind of the theme of 2nd Timothy is Paul
encouraging Timothy to continue on and it seems as if a lot of years have
probably passed since 1st and 2nd Timothy and Paul is telling him, "Hey, I'm
getting ready to be done here." And even in this last chapter here he's
basically saying, "It's over, you know, and I'm ready to depart and I've
finished, I've fought the good fight, you know, all that stuff." So and then he's
also really focusing on doctrine through this whole book about the
importance of doctrine, the importance of Bible, Bible reading, Bible study and he's
kind of hit on that in every chapter. And then evil men and wicked men, he's kind
of hit on that in every single passage too. And this is the same thing in this
passage too. But, you know, in chapter four also all these things are covered
again, doctrine, Bible reading, and then Bible preaching. And so verse 14 says,
"But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured
of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them." So, you know, I did cover this last
week, but, you know, in light of kind of what happened this last week also, with
Pastor Minnis stepping down and stuff, I just kind of wanted to say this, that, you
know, you know, obviously there's people that in this life that, you know, he's
saying, "Hey, you continue though." So it says, if you just encapsulate those two
words right there, it says, "But continue." So even though evil men and seducers are
waxing worse and worse, it's not getting better and better, it's getting worse and
worse, and, you know, it's been 2,000 years since the Apostle Paul penned those
words down, and nothing's changed. Things are still getting worse and worse, and
it's not going to get better and better, so we're not going to usher in the
kingdom by us just spreading the word, and it's just going to get better. No, the
Bible teaches it's going to get worse, so, and so much that it's going to get to the
point where it's the worst persecution that ever has been seen. So, but he's
saying, "But continue." You know, even though you see these things happening, even
though things are going rough for you in your life, Timothy, hey, you still need to
continue, and I would say that that's a good message for us also as Christians,
that even though we see failures in people, look, everybody fails. We all fail,
but even though as someone that we highly esteemed and looked up to, that we
followed, and we learned a lot of great things from, and did a lot of great
things for us, you know, even though we've seen a failure last week,
that shouldn't get us down to the point where we don't continue. The Bible says
"but continue," and I'm not saying that Pastor Mendes is an evil man that
waxes words and words. Don't get that out of this. I'm just, you know, we can't
discount what he did do for us, you know, and obviously what happened is not
great. It's not something that I feel good about, and I'm sure there's a lot
of people that feel the same way, but men morally fail. That's just the fact.
And, but the true doctrine that they teach, and the time, and the times past,
like Pastor Jimenez taught a lot of great things. He taught me a lot of great
doctrine. He taught me a lot of great principles that I still hold to, to this
day, because when he was teaching right, when he was doing right, you know, it's,
he was right, and so just because someone fails morally, it doesn't mean that you
throw everything out from the past that they taught you. Doesn't mean all of
their preaching that was from the past. It's like, okay, discount everything that
they ever said. No, that's, that's not true. Just because someone has failed in
one area of their life, it doesn't, it doesn't mean his life is over as a
Christian either. You know, hopefully it's not. So, and you know, when, when
they're, because Paul says, you know, but continue down the things that thou
has learned. See, the things that you've already learned, they're good, you know,
continuing those things and has been assured of, Hey, you know, how are you
assured of it? Because you learned it in the Bible. A spirit filled man of God
also teaches you in the Bible, you know, these things. And you know, obviously
the spirit of God teaches you in your Bible reading. But also when you go to
church, you're perfected by the preaching of God, hopefully. And you
know, those things you've been assured of, of whom and of whom you've learned
them, you know, just because, and again, just because somebody fails at one
point in their life, it doesn't mean everything else that they said was wrong.
So, and Pastor Jimenez started a church from scratch and he built a church in,
in Sacramento that was a great church.
And so that can't be taken from him.
That cannot be taken, uh, from Pastor Jimenez.
And, you know, obviously he started our church was the first one that he
stepped out by faith and taught.
And, you know, our church is still here and we're still winning souls and we're
still, you know, preaching doctrine and doing great things for God.
And he started a church in Boise and that church obviously is like really
know that not there anymore, but you know what?
There's still a remnant of people there that are still teaching the
truth and preaching the truth.
Um, brother David has been, you know, I mean, brother, uh, Deacon
Russell has started a church plant there.
Brother David is, is leading that.
And there's people that are going to that church.
And so the truth is still being taught there.
So, uh, you know, and those people were at that original church and just
because people fail doesn't mean that everything's a failure.
So there's a, there was a church in Fresno that was planted.
There's a church in Manila that had 20,000 people saved last year.
And those things wouldn't have been possible without pastor manages leadership.
So I, you know, and look, I'm just as disappointed as anybody else is.
But again, we got to, you know, hits are going to keep coming.
I mean, evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse and men are going to fail.
You know, look, we can't just put our trust in men.
The Bible says we're supposed to put our trust in God.
And so we follow men as they follow Christ.
But when men fail, you know, don't we shouldn't just be let down.
You know, sometimes when when a man fails
in a church, you'll see all the people will leave that church.
It's like, why was it were you going for that man or something?
Like, that's not the reason why we go to church.
We go to church to worship God and to sing out to him and to, you know,
sing his praises and to be edified by whoever's preaching the Bible at that place.
You know, it's like, did God stop showing up there
because that guy failed? No, that's not true.
So, you know, it's just an important lesson that we can learn from recent events
that we never put our we never put a man on a pedestal higher than what he should
be on, you know, we and we have to understand that men do fail.
Even, you know, great men of God that teach us great things can fail.
Let's turn over to Jeremiah, Chapter 17, Jeremiah, Chapter 17,
Chapter 17, verse five, the Bible says, "Thus saith the Lord, 'Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the
Lord.'" So we should never put a man in place of God ever.
There shouldn't be this cult of personality that we just follow a man more than we
follow God. It's like next man up.
That's a sport. That's a sports terminology.
But, you know, it's when a person gets hurt on a sports team, you don't just say,
oh, that guy is hurt. So now we just give up.
No, there's a next man up mentality where the next guy just comes up.
And that's what needs to be done in Christianity, because people die.
People fail.
People get replaced or whatever happens.
People just fall off.
But sometimes people just pass away.
And there's been many generations since the Apostle Paul was here.
There's been many generations since
Jeremiah, the prophet, stood by himself and preached the word of God.
But in verse six, it says, for he shall be like a heath in the desert.
And a heath is like a is like a kind of
a desert plant that can survive in very harsh areas.
And it says, And shall not see when good
cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness in a salt land
and not inhabited. So when we put our trust in man, what's he saying?
He's saying like things aren't going to be real great for you.
Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is.
So again, he's saying, Hey, don't put your trust in man, put your trust in the Lord.
He's who we should be the, you know, God should be the focus and not man for he
shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spread without her roots by the
rivers and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green and shall not
be careful in the year of drought.
Neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
See, because you're not going to, you're not going to really notice it.
You're not going to, you're not going to notice when things are going super bad
because your trust is in the Lord and it's not in whoever failed you.
That's making you fall out and it's, you know, if you're trusting more
in man than you are in God, you're in a bad position.
There is a lot of cult of personality that goes on in Christianity, you know,
and it goes on in our circles too.
Or someone just like, no matter what such and such pastors write about
everything he says and everybody else is wrong.
And that's not the truth.
Everybody is wrong about something.
You know, I would, I would tell you that I'm wrong about stuff.
But then we'd both be wrong.
So, no, I'm just joking.
That is a joke.
I am probably wrong about stuff.
I, I'm, I really don't mean that.
So I was just kidding, but, but look what it says in verse nine, the heart is
deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it.
And that's, and that's really kind of what I wanted to get to is that our
heart is so deceitful that we can't really know how deceitful it really is.
It's, it's, it's so deceitful.
It's above all things.
And so how, is it possible for anybody to fail in this life?
Absolutely.
Because the heart is deceitful.
We cannot trust our heart.
All these stupid songs that are sung on the radio or you hear them at Walmart,
like listen to your heart, all these that don't listen to your heart.
No, the Bible says it's wicked.
The Bible says it's desperately wicked.
It wants to do things that it shouldn't want.
You know, that saying the heart wants what it wants, that's wrong.
That's, you know, that's a stupid, uh, retarded saying that shouldn't be said.
It's not, that should not come out of Christian's mouth.
Well, you know, I just, my heart wants what it wants.
That's what fags say.
Okay.
So we shouldn't be saying stuff like that.
It says I, the Lord searched the heart.
I tried the reins even to give every man according to his ways and according to
the fruit of his doings, look, we're responsible for our own actions and we
can't just say, Oh, that guy failed.
So I'm just going to dip out now.
No, that's an excuse and that's weak.
So we need to be, and we still need to be responsible and serve God.
No matter what happens, like we shouldn't depend our Christian life on
what some other man does or stop going to a church because some man failed.
No, we need to just keep going.
It says, but continue that.
And he's expecting Timothy, even though it's going to be a rough ride.
Tim is what he's basically saying to him in this whole letter, Tim buckle up
because I'm going to be gone now.
And guess what?
You're going to be the one that's getting all the brunt of everything.
You're going to be the gazing stock.
You're going to be the wash pot.
You're going to be the one that everybody hates.
So buckle up buttercup.
It's going to be a hard ride and you need to continue though.
But that would be something that should be said to us too.
You know, we don't always have easy rides either.
We have sicknesses and all kinds.
It might not, it might not be some heavy persecution that you get, but maybe it's
just sickness that just seems to keep dragging on or, or just any, you know,
maybe it's job woes or, you know, money woes, whatever it is, you know, we go
through hardships and we go through different things, stresses in our life
throughout our life that make our years.
Sometimes our years are great and easy and sometimes they're hard, but a lot of
times they're hard or there's hardship going on, but we shouldn't let that
stuff take us out.
Um, go ahead and turn back to second Timothy, but I'm going to read actually,
no, go ahead and turn to Psalm chapter one 46, Psalm one 46, but it's always good
to redirect and, uh, refresh your pen or whatever and remember who it is that
we're supposed to be putting our trust in.
I mean, it seems obvious to say that, but there's a lot of people that they'll
think that some pastors failed and they're like, okay, I'm out of here.
I'm done.
It's like, what?
Well, first of all, like what you don't think that men can fail people, people
just act like pastors, like walk on water or something, you know, in their spare
life, they're just like hovering over water or something, you know, they float
to every place they go to or something.
It's just a weird, it's just weird.
I mean, yeah, we're held to a higher standard, but like, we're still men.
We still fail.
But what it says in verse, uh, Psalm 146 verse three, it says, put not your trust
in princes, nor in the son of man in whom there is no help, his breath goeth forth.
He returned us to his, to his earth.
In that very day, his thoughts perish.
Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord is God.
So when you have your, your affections and your hope in the right place, then God,
you know, God's pleased by those things.
He's a jealous God.
You know, when he sees our affections are misplaced,
or maybe you're trusting in some person or some man
above what you should, then it's gonna upset him.
You know, just like your spouse is gonna get upset
when you're putting your affection
towards somebody else besides them.
Well, God feels the same way.
So if you, I mean, I feel like he, when you're married,
he helps us to understand how he feels.
You know, when we kind of cheat on him, so to speak,
when we're devoted to something else
more than we are to him.
And then husbands and wives can kind of figure that out.
It's like, yeah, now I see how God feels, you know?
And so we should kind of take those things to heart.
Go back to our text, 2 Timothy chapter three, verse 15.
It says, "And that from a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
And kids, this is good for you because it says,
the Bible says, "From a child thou hast known
the holy scriptures."
And if your parents have brought you to church,
which there's some children in here this evening,
that's a good place to be.
And hopefully they're at home teaching you the scriptures
and showing you and helping you to learn
and read the Bible.
And learning to read the Bible out loud
and to memorize memory verses and things like that,
it's good to know the Bible.
Why?
Because it says it's able to make the wise
unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.
And all scripture, which means from Genesis to Revelation,
everything that you see in this book right here,
this is all scripture.
Anything outside of this is not scripture
unless it was actual scripture printed in another book.
But they got like John and Romans and stuff like that
that they'll print or the New Testament
with the Psalms and Proverbs or something.
That's still scripture, it's just not the whole book.
But from Genesis to Revelation, all scripture,
that's all scripture, everything in between.
And it's given by inspiration of God,
which means that God breathed and inspired from God,
and it is profitable for doctrine.
So that means that everything in the book
is for our learning, is for our admonition.
And so when people are like, "That's for the Jews,"
it's like these dispensationalists are saying,
"That's written for the Jews.
"That doesn't really belong to us.
"The only things that apply to us really are what Paul said."
It's just like, "Okay, well,
"then we just cut the whole Bible out.
"None of that applies to us.
"No, the Bible says..."
Paul says, if we're gonna listen to just Paul,
well, Paul says all scripture, okay?
So, and he says it's given by inspiration of God,
and it's profitable for doctrine.
So, and I'll just tell you this,
that a lot of the doctrine that we have in the Bible,
we learn from the Old Testament.
The Old Testament is like four times the size
of the New Testament, it's huge.
And if you've ever read the Bible all the way through,
you know, it's just some of it's tough to even get through.
You know, you get through those major prophets
and it's like, you know, Ezekiel,
and then like Ezekiel, it gets pretty negative.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, you know,
at least Isaiah has some positive stuff in it,
but like Jeremiah is like pretty negative.
Ezekiel's pretty negative.
I mean, until he starts talking about the temple,
I mean, that's pretty much the positive stuff.
And then, you know, they're just Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Daniel's got some negative stuff
and some horrific apocalyptic imagery involved in it.
I mean, there's not a lot,
I mean, the Bible's about two-thirds negative.
And so we should probably get that, you know,
there's about two-thirds negative things
that should be preached in the Bible when you're in church.
And so when people have this idea that like,
well, church should be all positive.
Well, does that reflect what the Bible shows?
No.
If we're gonna preach the way the Bible says,
then it should probably be a reflection
of what the Bible shows us.
And reprove, rebuke, exhort,
with all long-suffering and doctrine
is what the Bible actually says.
But it says that it's profitable for doctrine.
So what is doctrine?
It's teaching.
And for reproof, for what?
Telling people that they're wrong.
Telling people where they're going wrong
or what the mistakes are.
And then for correction, what is correction?
It's how to get it right.
So the word of God is profitable for us
for many different things.
It helps teach us what?
The doctrines, the teachings of the Bible.
And for reproof, to tell us where we're going wrong.
And the Bible, you know, there's a lot of verses
that tell us where we're wrong.
We shouldn't skip over that stuff.
But yet a lot of churches will skip
over the negative parts in the Bible.
They like the first part of Psalm 139,
but they don't like the last part of Psalm 139, do they?
They don't like the do not, I hate the, you know,
they hate thee oh Lord, they don't like, you know,
they'll stop right there.
Like, oh, that's the end of the study,
next we'll be on to Psalm 140.
You know, they just won't teach that stuff
because they can't reconcile it in their mind
because they learned everything's positive.
Nothing's negative.
David was wrong to say those things or whatever.
It's like, oh, he was wrong to say, you know,
all those imprecatory prayers, they're all wrong.
They're all just in the Bible as our song book
for the Bible, but they're all wrong for him to say.
I don't think so.
So I think you're wrong.
I think you're too positive.
And that's like why I wanted to emphasize
on getting the song sung in our church services so much
because we're not getting the full,
we're not getting the full monty
that we should be getting through the song services
because what songs are negative in the song book?
Can you think of one that's actually negative?
Almost persuaded, yeah.
But you know, there's a lot of Baptist churches
that sing that one a lot actually.
One more stanza.
Someone needs to come up here and you know,
and bow down or what, but there are some negative ones.
There are some ones that are just like, hey you know,
you need to get saved or whatever.
But there's not a lot, the Psalms have some pretty
negative things in them.
And I'm just saying that there needs to be some balance.
There needs to be some balance in the Psalms.
And it's like Psalm 11 is gonna give you some balance.
You know, it's gonna show you that, you know, God,
it's gonna teach doctrine.
You know, because there's a lot of great doctrine in the Psalms,
but there's also imprecatory prayers in the Psalms.
There's curses in the Psalms, you know.
And so if God's people only have a positive mentality
when it comes to the song services,
why would God say come unto me singing praises
and come unto me with singing,
and he puts a song book in there,
and then nobody ever sings the songs
that are in that song book?
Isn't that weird?
And yet, and then he put,
those are specifically songs that he puts
that are negative in there,
and then we never sing them.
Like, that's not balanced.
So we need to have some balance,
and that's why it's so important
that we sing the songs, right?
So anyway, so it says for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
and the correction again is that,
you know, God just doesn't tell us we're wrong,
and you know, go stand in the corner.
He gives us passages on how we correct the things
that are wrong with us.
And as when we're preaching,
you know, when men get up and preach the Bible,
we should give both.
You know, we should say, hey, we're wrong for doing this,
but here's how we correct it.
This is what we're supposed to do to correct it
and for instruction in righteousness.
And so what is that?
Well, the things that God expects us to do
so that we would be righteous in his eyes, right?
And it says that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished onto all good works.
And I mean, you can still insert yourself.
It's not just talking about a pastor here.
It's talking about anybody that's saved, right?
I mean, you can apply it to anybody that's saved.
That everybody needs to know the word of God
so that we can be perfect
and throughly furnished onto all good works.
So, let's see, let's see.
So, Psalm 12 says the words of the Lord are pure words
as silver tried in a furnace of earth,
purified seven times.
Thou shalt keep them, O Lord.
Thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever.
So, God's job is to preserve them
and make sure he inspired them.
They're not doubly inspired.
He doesn't need to keep re-inspiring them.
They're inspired one time.
Like, Rukmanites will teach that a double inspiration
and that the King James corrects the Greek
and all this nonsense.
It's like, no, you're going too far with it now.
And that's why people think that King James,
only people are weird,
because of stuff like that Rukman taught.
And we're not Rukmanites here.
He only needed to say it once.
And God said, he spoke the word of God,
and he spoke it through the prophets,
and it's been written down.
Psalm 119 verse 89 says,
"Forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.
"Thy faithfulness is unto all generations.
"Thou has established the earth and it abideth."
So God settled his word in heaven,
and his faithfulness is in all generations.
So does all mean all?
Yeah, it does.
So his word is just a settled thing.
It's not changing, it's not evolving,
it's not changing with the times.
But this is what liberal theologians wanna do.
They wanna just scrutinize and change things,
and we gotta come up with a new Bible every,
so often, and change the Greek text
and all this other stuff.
It's like, no, why change it?
People wanna change the King James
and try to get people off the King James.
You know why they wanna do that?
'Cause they want people to stop being saved.
People get so mad when I rip on people like James White
or these fruitcakes that are trying to change
all the Bible versions and stuff,
and why I hate modern Bible versions so much,
well, it's 'cause they're changing the word of God.
They're making the word of God have no effect.
They're trying to get where people won't get saved.
That's why they're saying that,
hey, I wouldn't give a kid a King James Bible.
Why?
'Cause you don't want them to get saved, that's why.
I mean, what other reason would you not wanna give a kid
a King James Bible?
Because they can understand it better than you can
because they're actually, and when they get saved,
they can understand it just fine.
They seem to be able to follow along just fine
in their Bibles and our church services
and understand exactly what's going on.
I would put our kids in this church
up against a lot of congregations of people
that aren't getting the full word of God,
the full counsel of God preached to 'em,
or they're in some kind of lame NIV cookies and Kool-Aid,
purple lights and drum set behind the plexiglass,
all that kind of stuff, those churches.
'Cause they're getting, what, 15 minutes
of a bunch of different Bible versions?
Here, they're getting that real drip.
They're getting the drip of God's holy perfect word.
You know, that real straight coffee?
You know, they're getting, what was you,
what is that, the pure arabica or whatever?
(laughing)
They're getting real coffee.
They're getting the good stuff here.
It's not, you know, soy milk lattes over here.
It's, they're getting the full King James Bible,
and it's not that hard to understand if you're saved.
So, the Bible says every word of God is pure.
He is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee,
and thou be found a liar.
Psalm, or excuse me, Proverbs chapter 30,
verse number five and six.
So, you know, I mean, God doesn't want his word messed with,
but yet, why is there a new Greek,
Nestle's Greek, underlying Greek,
made every other couple years?
They said, no, this is the last time we're revising it,
and then they revised it again.
Why are they changing words in the Bible?
Why are they taking hell out and putting Gehenna and sheol
and all these other words that don't exist
in our modern vernacular?
Nobody knows what that means.
Nobody, anybody that even goes to like these types
of churches, they don't say that.
They know what hell is.
Nobody knows, every kid in America knows what hell is.
Instinctively sometimes I think.
They just know what it is.
They might think it's a cuss word
if they accidentally say it or something.
But you know sometimes they'll be giving them the gospel
and like, so what is this place?
And they'll be like, they'll be scared to say it.
It's like, it's okay kid.
You know, I'm not gonna tell your parents.
(laughing)
But look, the Bible, the way it was translated,
you know, it was given to holy men of old
and they just, you know, Baruch was asked,
you know, how'd you do this?
And he's just like, you know, he just told me the words
and I wrote it down with an ink pen, it's like real simple.
You know, it's not super complicated
and Greek and Hebrew are not mystical languages
that you have to learn to be able to understand
God's word more perfectly or something.
That's baloney.
Pastor Anderson proved that wrong.
And you know, it doesn't mean something different
in the Greek than it does in the English.
God speaks all languages and you know,
he would have to have spoken, you know,
it's not like he doesn't, the words don't mean
the same thing in other languages.
They mean the same thing.
That's why God spoke them.
So, and then when they're translated correctly,
they mean the same thing.
Why would he make it so that every,
so that they mean a bunch of different things?
Then it wouldn't be a fluid thing.
It wouldn't be settled like the Bible says, it's settled.
You know, his word is settled
and his words are inspired and they're preserved.
So if they're inspired and preserved,
then how would they be changing all the time?
How would they change from language to language all the time?
It just, that doesn't make sense.
The words are what they are and they're what he says they are.
And so don't add to his words,
let's he reprove the end that we found a liar.
So, and then, you know, it's funny
because I was just thinking about this
while I was writing the sermon.
In Matthew 23 verse 13, it says,
"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees."
You know, the scribes,
he was ripping on the scribes the whole time too.
And the scribes, why was he ripping on them?
'Cause they just, I don't know.
I don't know why they were so bad,
but they're bad today too, aren't they?
Well, I'm always ripping on the scribes too
when I talk about the King James.
'Cause there's a group of scribes out there
that are not faithful in their translation.
They're not faithful in writing things down.
They're a bunch of liars,
and they act like the King James is some foreign language
that you can't understand.
You know, Wes Huff or whatever that idiot gets up
and starts saying,
"Well, I don't recommend the King James."
Well, I don't recommend you, Wes Huff.
Professor, you know, he acts like he,
I mean, the guy probably is smart,
but he's stupid in the fact
that he's trying to challenge the King James
because he's wrong.
He says, "Oh, I love the King James."
Sure you do.
If you're telling people that you don't recommend it,
then you don't love it.
You're just a liar.
And his little arguments about it are stupid.
So anyway, so when translated correctly into any language,
it is the word of God, period.
And there, you know, people will say,
"Well, are you saying the King James Bible
is the only right Bible in the world?"
No, we don't say that.
There's other languages that have, you know,
they have some good translations
or perfect translations also.
But we advocate for the King James
'cause we speak English.
I'm sorry, but I'm dumb, I don't speak other languages.
I just speak English, that's all.
Now, there's people that speak Spanish in this church,
there's other people that speak different languages,
whatever, and I would recommend other Bibles for those ones,
but I don't speak the languages,
so I don't really always know the right ones, okay?
But other people do, but I'm gonna talk about the King James
'cause that's the one I, I know what the English says,
you know, so that's the one I'm gonna promote.
But were there other, you know,
were there other English translations that were good?
Yeah, I mean, the Great Bible was good.
It just wasn't perfect.
So, I mean, there was other English ones that were good,
they just weren't great, they weren't perfect.
That's why the King James had to be done.
So, and in Middle English there was translations.
You know, there was one that was translated,
the first English Bible that was translated, you know,
and it's difficult to read
because it was kind of at the end of Middle English,
but you can still make it out,
but it was translated from the Latin.
So it's probably not even perfect,
but it's still better than the ones you'll see
in the modern versions today, at least the,
I mean, there's a lot of, you know,
I haven't read the whole thing obviously,
but sure there's problems with it,
but at least the guy was trying to get it into English
instead of just like letting these popes just rule over.
And you know, he was, he died, I think preaching.
I think he had a stroke while he was preaching,
but you know, he died doing what he loved.
So anyway, let's go back to our text,
2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16 it says,
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God
"and is profitable for doctrine, reproof,
"or correction for instruction of righteousness."
So, you know, all scripture would include
the Old Testament, the New Testament,
poetry, Psalms, Proverbs, all of it, the whole thing.
And again, the teaching is most doctrine, you know,
again, that's already been established in the Old Testament,
plus the New Testament has changed some things.
And then the reproof, again, telling or showing someone
that they're wrong, correction is guiding or fixing the error.
And then instruction and righteousness
is detailed information on how to do that,
which is righteous in God's eyes.
So let's get to our main text here.
And it says, in verse number one,
so this is the charge of the man of God to preach the word.
Look at verse number one, it says,
"I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
and his kingdom.
Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season,
reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine."
So chapter three ends off saying,
hey, the word of God is the most important thing.
And then what his charge is, is that before God,
I'm telling you, before Jesus Christ,
who's gonna judge the quick,
which means the people that are alive
and the people that are dead at his appearing, at his kingdom.
And he says, preach the word.
He doesn't say, preach your opinion.
And if I get up and say something that's my opinion,
I'm going to tell you it's my opinion.
Or if I'm not 100% sure, but I'm just
going to tell you this is what I think about this,
I'm going to tell you what I think.
I'm not going to say this is what the Bible says.
And that's important.
But the text itself should be read.
The text itself should be gone through.
The text itself should be preached.
And if people aren't-- that's why we read the scriptures,
before, so people can get the context of what's
being said in the passage before the passage is
being preached on.
And so people can go, oh, he's not even
preaching what the text says.
And we should preach what the text says, guys.
Obviously, you can extrapolate one or two verses out
of something, but it shouldn't be
meaning the 100% opposite of what
the context was of that passage.
So preach the word.
And this is the problem in America.
And in other countries also, obviously, in other countries,
is that people are not preaching the word of God today.
And that's the number one charge that he gave to Timothy,
preach the word.
And he says, be instant.
That means just be ready to do it in season,
like when it's popular, when things are happening
in your world, and when it needs to be preached about,
be instant.
Just be ready to preach about it and when it's out of season.
Be ready to do it when it's out of season
at the drop of a hat, whenever it needs to be preached.
Because it might not be popular, but it
might be something that's needed whether it's popular or not.
And that's a lot of times the case.
Because we live in a world that's topsy-turvy,
and up is down, and left is right, and right is left,
and sweet is bitter, and bitter is sweet, and salty is whatever.
We live in a world where being a virgin is frowned upon,
where saying the Lord's name in vain is popular,
but if a Christian said a quote unquote cuss word,
that's-- you're bad.
Well, I can't believe you're a Christian.
But really, what's worse, to use the Lord's name in vain
or to say a colorful word?
I'll take someone saying colorful words around me
all day long, but when I hear the Lord's name in blasphemy,
it bothers me.
That bothers me way more, and it bothers God more,
because it's the death penalty.
I mean, which one's the death penalty?
Does it say, you know, saying a four-letter word
for human excrement is the death penalty,
or does it say using God's name as a cuss word
is the death penalty?
It says that he will not hold him guiltless
if he uses his name in vain.
So it says, "Pray the word be instant in season,
out of season, reprove, rebuke, so tell people they're wrong.
Tell people they're wrong in harsh ways, rebuking, exhort,
so encourage people to do the right thing
with all longsuffering and doctrine."
So you teach them with the Bible.
You preach the word.
This is the charge to Timothy,
and this is what every person that preaches the word of God,
every person that gets up at this pulpit,
I mean, I remember we did a men's preaching night,
and this guy gets up and doesn't preach one single verse.
He doesn't even use a verse in the Bible at all,
and instead he preaches Philippians 3:16,
and then preaches why you have to repent of your sins
to be saved, and I thought he was joking,
but no, he was really, that's, I mean, it was weird,
and I had to get up and rebuke him.
Who was here that day?
There were still some people here.
That was uncomfortable.
I mean, I'm like just a satellite leader.
I've never, you know, had this happen before,
and I'm just like, everybody's kind of looking at me
like, are you gonna do something about this?
I was just waiting for like the punch line,
you know what I mean?
I was like, this guy can't be serious.
But yeah, the only Bible verse he used
was Philippians 3:16, which isn't a verse, by the way.
He's talking about leaving up the toilet seat
and upsetting your wife or something like that.
But yeah, I had to get up and just rebuke him.
That's why I say, I will get up and rebuke you
if you're saying something in a sermon
that is stupid or wrong.
And people that were here that day,
they know that I'll get up and do it.
So, but yeah, so look at verse three.
It says, "For the time will come
"when they will not endure sound doctrine,
"but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves,
"teachers having itching ears."
And so, what is it saying?
Well, you need to preach the word of God
because there will be a time when people won't endure this.
They will not listen to sound doctrine,
but instead they're gonna heap to themselves,
teachers having itching ears.
So, you know, and this is what happens today.
People wanna listen to anybody but a real man of God.
They wanna listen to, you know, bozos on the radio,
bozos on YouTube that have no business
in getting up and preaching the word of God.
You know, it's rolling into the next video or whatever,
and it's, you know, Charles Stanley or something.
Or it's, you know, Chuck Missler or, you know,
he missed the boat a long time ago.
Or, you know, just, it's always, you know,
it used to be it would roll into somebody
that was just these false prophets all the time.
It's like, why is this, like,
I listen to specific people preaching.
Why is it rolling into these dirt balls
that are false gospel preachers and stuff?
And it's like, you know, is this a joke?
Am I a joke to you?
Or, you know, what's going on?
It's like, you know, showing T.D. Jakes
and there's all these like, why are you showing me this stuff?
It's because I feel like YouTube was just doing this
on purpose to us accepting they were trolling us.
But, you know, people are gonna keep to themselves
and look, there's a lot of people
that listen to a lot of bad teaching, you know?
And the itching ears, they wanna have their ears tickled.
They wanna be told what they want to hear
instead of what they need to hear.
And, you know, when people get offended and leave,
it's usually over a sermon that they didn't like,
that hit them right between the eyes,
that stepped on every toe on both feet.
And instead of just internalizing it
and getting over the, you know,
'cause a lot of times people just think
that was directed just at me.
Well, even if it was, you should still just take it
and say, hey, you know, maybe my pastor loves me
and he's trying to help me to correct
some kind of character flaw I have
or to correct something that's wrong.
Instead of just getting mad, throwing a fit,
I'm never coming back.
You know, the hard thing to do is to correct yourself
because we're prideful people
and we think we have it all figured out.
We think we're never wrong.
And this is the number one reason why people
would leave a church like ours
because they hear something they don't like, you know,
or, you know, and sometimes people are just ready to quit
and they're waiting for something that they don't like
so they can say, he said this
and that was the final straw, you know,
and then you have your excuses
of why it was the pastor's fault
that you had to leave the church, which is garbage,
because the pastor shouldn't have to wear
your baggage for you, honestly.
You know, if you're gonna just be weak and quit,
then that's, you know, you just own it.
But people never do.
It's always somebody else's fault,
whether it was my fault
or somebody else in the church's fault.
It's never their fault.
It's never that they couldn't cut it.
It's never that they couldn't keep coming.
It's never that they just wanted to quit soul hunting
or whatever it was that they wanted to do.
It's never their fault.
Trust me, it's never their fault when people leave.
It's never like, it's just too far for me to travel.
I found a church that's better, it's never that, usually.
Not never, I guess never's a lot of, never's absolute.
But most of the time, it's always pinned on the pastor
or some church member that they didn't like.
And that's wrong.
Just own it.
Just say, "I just can't do this anymore."
Just be honest with yourself.
It says, "And they shall turn away their ears
"from the truth and shall be turned unto fables."
And so the reason why they want to hear
this kind of preaching is because
they don't want to be corrected anymore.
They don't want to keep getting just bombarded
with preaching that's just crushing them every week
because they don't want to conform to the word of God.
And they want to turn, it says,
"And they shall turn away their ears from the truth."
So who's turning their ears away?
They're turning their own ears away from it.
And they shall be turned into fables.
What are fables?
Fables are fictitious tales, things that aren't true.
So people would rather hear about some missionary
that was able to use the gift of tongues in the 1800s
or whatever, some stupid missionary story
that you hear at a Baptist church
from some Presbyterian missionary story.
It's like, why are you telling Presbyterian mission stories
that you can't even verify happened?
It's like, I thought you thought that the signed gifts
went away after the first century,
but why are you telling me this stupid story
about this missionary?
You know what I'm saying?
Like, you've got the flannel graphs.
It's got, you know, sorry, I thought that was my phone.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, I don't know if anybody has experienced that
in a Baptist church before,
but like, where they're telling these missionary stories
of these different denominations,
like, why are you talking about these people?
They didn't even believe in eternal security.
Like, John Charles Wesley didn't believe
in eternal security, so why are you preaching about them?
Why are you talking about them
as if they were these great missionaries?
They were heretics.
They are in hell today, period.
They're the ones that started the Church of Christ
and these types of things.
That's what the Church of Christ came from.
Do you want to know where it came from?
Charles and John Wesley.
It is.
Anything that's like where they believe
you can lose your salvation,
it came out of that movement.
Pentecostals came out of that movement.
All that stuff came out of that movement.
So it says, "And they shall turn away from their ears
"from the truth and be turned to fables."
So look, and it's just the heart of people, you know?
And God weighs people into balance
and sometimes they're found wanting.
And turn to Jeremiah five, Jeremiah five.
There's nothing new under the sun though.
People have always been doing this.
People have always turned away their ears.
And especially when leadership gets bad,
like in the time of Jeremiah, all the leadership was bad,
all the princes were bad, all the prophets were bad,
and all the priests were bad.
And so like, God just called Jeremiah
and said, "Don't be afraid of their faces.
"Just preach what you gotta preach."
And he was basically just standing alone for years.
He had a couple of friends, but really not very many.
He had Baruch, and I think he had like one other friend,
but even his own family hated him and wanted to kill him.
But why?
Because he told it how it was.
He had prophets walking up and smacking him in the face
and putting him in prison and all kinds of stuff.
Look at verse 20.
So declare this in the house of Jacob
and publish it in Judah, saying,
"Hear now this, O foolish people,
"and without understanding, which have eyes and see not,
"which have ears and hear not,
"fear ye not me, sayeth the Lord?
"Will ye not tremble at my presence,
"which have placed the sand for the bound of the sea
"by a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass it,
"and though the waves thereof toss themselves,
"yet can they not prevail, though they roar,
"yet can they not pass over it."
So he's saying, like, waves of the ocean are so powerful,
but God says, like, this is as far as you're gonna go,
and they don't go any further.
Like, you'll see, like, you've ever been to the beach,
like, at, like, Cannon Beach or whatever,
and then you see these big waves roll in,
but then they don't go up any further
than what, you know, God allows them to go.
And God is super powerful,
and he controls, you know, nature like that.
But people are just not afraid of him.
That's kind of what he's saying here.
Yeah, they just, they can't,
but the waves of the sea listen to him,
and they're more powerful than we are.
But this people hath a revolting and rebellious heart.
They're revolted and gone.
Neither say they in their heart.
Let us now fear the Lord our God,
that giveth rain both to the former and latter in his season.
He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Your iniquities have turned away these things,
and your sins have withholding good things from you.
You're saying, hey, you'd have great things
if you would just listen,
if you would just turn your heart toward me,
if you'd actually fear me.
You know, and in this country,
we need a little bit of fear of the Lord to come back.
And people are not afraid
to speak against the name of the Lord.
People are not afraid to mock God.
And even God's people are not afraid
to speak against man of God,
to speak against the things of God,
and to mock him and things like that.
And it's just wicked.
It says, "My people are found wicked men."
They lay wait as they that set a snares,
they set a trap, they catch men.
And so, look, this isn't changed.
Among God's people today are found wicked men.
The Bible talks about it in the New Testament a lot.
The tears among the wheat,
the wolves in sheep's clothing
that come into our churches.
And yet, and the people are always like,
"Well, I think that guy has the right gospel.
"I think he's saved, you know.
"He just, look, I mean, in 1 John,
"he just kind of explains, like, this person's wicked.
"You know, this person doesn't like, you know, I mean,
"John just kind of just says it how it is in 1 John.
"And I think that we should just listen
"when God says that somebody's wrong.
"Somebody's wicked."
And I'm not saying that everybody that turns against
our types of church is always unsaved,
but, you know, some weirdo turned them that way
to where they're negative against the things of God.
But it says, "Among my people are found wicked men
"that lie in wait and set as snares."
People are always setting traps,
and, you know, it's like someone's a trapper.
What do they do? They put bait on something,
they put a way to catch that animal,
and then they wait for that animal
to come through and snare them up.
And so they're doing that to God's people.
They're amongst us, and we don't realize it.
And it says, "As the cage full of birds,
"so are their houses full of deceit.
"Therefore, they are become great and wax and rich.
"They are waxed and fat, they shine.
"Yea, they overpass the deeds of the wicked.
"They judge not the cause, the cause of the fatherless,
"yet they prosper.
"And the right of the needy do they not judge.
"Shall I not visit for these things, saith the Lord?
"Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
"A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land.
"The prophets prophesy falsely,
"and the priests bear rule by their means,
"and my people love to have it so."
And what will you do in the end thereof?
And you know, when people get up and preach these stupid sermons,
and they're just like, "Oh, no, but I'm still gonna listen to them."
It's like, no, they're preaching falsely.
Like, have you not figured out this by now?
They're preaching falsely.
Stop listening to false preaching.
I mean, this is how Paul started off this passage,
is that he's just like,
"Hey, there's gonna be people they're gonna get up,
"and they're gonna tell lies.
"They're not gonna listen to doctrine anymore.
"They're gonna turn their ears away from the truth
"and heap to themselves teachers having itching ears."
But this was happening in Jeremiah's time.
He said, "The prophets prophesy falsely."
Why?
To gain advantage, to trap men.
And what's the end advantage,
the end thing that they want?
It's like, you're like,
"Why would someone wanna do that?"
So they can get you out of church.
So they can get you to stop serving God.
That's why.
It's not really that hard to figure out.
They're evil.
They're wicked.
That's what's wrong with them.
And then when God's people follow them off of a cliff,
they're happy about it.
They sit back and laugh.
So when somebody gets up and tells you don't tithe,
what are they telling you?
They're telling you to rob God.
Because that's what the Bible says.
Shall a man rob God?
And then someone's like, oh, I'm not going to tithe anymore.
What?
What are you talking about?
Or when they say, oh, nobody has to go soul winning.
And then it's like, well, what did Jesus say to the Church of Ephesus?
I'm going to take your candlestick away.
Unless you go and do the first works, you've lost your first love.
Or how about, you know, going to church isn't that important.
God's not going to do anything if you just feel like it.
You can just skip church whenever you feel like it.
That's not talking about church attendance.
That's not talking about-- and by the way,
God just doesn't punish you anymore.
He just doesn't chase in his children,
even though the Bible says it in the New Testament multiple times.
So what's he trying to get you to do?
Start down the path of forsaking the assembly.
Because once you start doing it, it becomes a habit.
And then all of a sudden you just realize, I'm just out the door.
People will start sitting in the front.
And then finally, this church is not going to be that easy.
But I mean, in churches I've been to in the past,
I've watched people go from the front of the building
and work their way in their seating arrangements
where they're almost at the back.
And they're just flipping out the back door.
Soon as the pastor starts to pray, they're gone.
And then you just don't see them anymore.
They were Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
And then Wednesday night starts getting skipped.
Sunday night starts getting skipped.
You see them Sunday morning.
And then you just don't see them at all.
It's a progression.
It really is.
And you're like, well, I don't like this kind of preaching.
Well, you know, I don't care.
Because that's what I'm supposed to preach about.
Or, you know, you have all the sanctification you're ever going to get right now.
But why does the Bible say to be filled with the Spirit?
Are you always filled with the Spirit then?
No.
And if you slowly learn things, it's like when you first get saved,
you think that you're like, say you get saved,
you're drinking and you're smoking cigarettes.
Are you automatically sanctified right then?
You're going to heaven forever.
There's no doubt about that.
But sanctification doesn't just mean you're going to heaven.
So, you know, when the priest had to wash themselves
before they did certain things, you know why they had to do that?
Because they had to be clean.
And so it's a picture, obviously, of being clean before God.
But look, God still wants our lives to be cleaned up.
He wants us to maintain good works.
Why?
Because he just doesn't care?
He just says it for no reason?
No, because he wants us to live a holy life.
But when someone says, you don't have to do that,
God doesn't punish you at all,
then what is that a signal to somebody to say?
Well, you can just do whatever you want.
What's the consequence?
So how is that not prophesying falsely?
I mean, and if that's just on a repeat,
and that's what you preach about every week
for months, and months, and months, and months,
and that-- how about it's not about a bunch of do's and don'ts?
It's not a religion, it's a relationship.
Or drinking in moderation is just fine.
What is that going to make you do?
If somebody gets up and starts saying that stuff,
you better just get up and walk out.
Because that's just saying, go get drunk.
That's what it's saying.
And you might not think that at the time,
because look, they're slick, and they're
going to say these kind of things.
But look, they are undermining you.
And they're-- it's just a slow burn.
It really is.
And you're like, I'm sick of you preaching about this, Pastor.
Well, I'm sick of people leaving because of stuff like this.
Leaving churches and getting caught up in this idiotic doctrine.
The Christian life is sacrifice.
It really is.
So if you don't think it is, it is.
It's a sacrifice to drive here.
And God appreciates it.
He appreciates when we obey him.
If we just did whatever we wanted, then how is the kingdom of God going to move forward?
Because didn't he leave us here to do some stuff?
We're not Calvinists here.
So if nothing's important anymore--
I mean, isn't someone evil affecting your mind by saying that kind of stuff?
Why in the world would you listen to someone like that?
And look, that's what Paul is talking about.
That's what Jeremiah is talking about.
That's what's God saying.
Don't listen to these kind of people, because they're affecting you in a way
that you might not even realize at the time.
And you might not even believe it.
But then all of a sudden, you find yourself doing it.
You find yourself listening to it.
And that's why, look, unsubscribe is a good button.
And then, okay, look at verse five.
It says, "But watch thou in all things.
"Endure afflictions.
"Do the work of an evangelist.
"Make full proof of thy ministry."
So he's telling him to make sure to watch,
pay attention to what's going on,
and then endure the afflictions.
What is that? Persecution.
He's telling Timothy to make sure to endure these things.
Do the work of an evangelist.
Make sure, make full proof of that ministry.
For I'm now ready to be offered.
And the time of my departure is at hand.
So, and I'll just say this, at the end of the day,
the goal is to finish the Christian life.
The goal is to finish the Christian life.
Not to quit, not to retire early, but to finish.
And Paul is a good example of somebody that finished well.
Jesus finished well.
I mean, it cost him his life, but he still finished well.
He died, you know, way too young, but he did it for us.
You know, he finished well.
So, Jesus is an example of who we should look to
when we're thinking about finishing the race,
because that's what Jesus did.
He thought about what the goal was.
You know, he thought about what the goal was,
and that's what we should do.
What is the goal?
For us to finish well.
For us to please the Lord.
You know, and for us to, you know,
if we have goals that we want to meet as Christians,
that we think about what Jesus did for us.
I mean, if you want to follow a man fully,
follow the man Christ Jesus.
He's a good man.
He was the best man.
I mean, he did it all.
And so Paul says, "I'm ready now to be offered.
My time of departure is at hand.
I have fought a good fight.
I have finished my course.
I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness
which the Lord the righteous judge shall give me at that day,
and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."
And so what's that day?
Well, that day is the day that Jesus comes back for us.
Amen.
And it says, "And not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."
Hey, and I hope you love his appearing and that you're ready for him to come back.
I mean, if you knew he was coming back tomorrow,
what preparations would you make in your life?
We don't know, obviously, that he's coming back, but, you know, when he's coming back.
But, I mean, we should live our life like he could come back.
Obviously, he can't come back at any moment.
The Bible doesn't teach that like the preachers say,
but he still told us to be prepared.
He said, "Hey, but watch out on all things. Be ready."
Because things can change quickly, as we saw in 2020.
They can change, the landscape can change quickly.
I mean, just recently, all this talk of war just, I mean,
just came out of nowhere.
Like everybody is fighting, you know, all these treaties and,
you know, we're taking over countries and,
you know, and then we're threatening Iran and all this other stuff.
It's like all of a sudden wars and rumors of wars are being talked about.
It's like, and then people saying, "Peace and safety."
I heard Trump out of Trump's mouth saying, "Peace and safety."
I'm just like, ah, not saying he's the Antichrist or anything like that.
I'm just saying that that was a model of the Roman Empire too.
But it's funny that it's also a model of the Antichrist or something the Antichrist says.
When they say, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction is going to come upon them, right?
So it's a mantra that is repeated in the end times government.
But it says, "Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord the righteous judge shall give to me in that day, and not to me only,
but unto all them that love his appearing."
So, and look, it's not just about the leaders, pastors, apostles, and all that.
It's obviously to whom much is given is much required.
And ministers do have a huge responsibility or they have a lot of stress.
But all Christians do.
All Christians have it hard in some way, shape, or form.
This life is not easy.
And the Christian life is not easy if you're actually living the Christian life, that is.
But the way of the transgressor is hard too.
You know, these people that you see kind of just talking to themselves and screeching and
walking in the middle of the street trying to kill themselves or whatever.
You know, I'll take the Christian life any day.
I mean, as hard of Christian days as I've ever had, I've had some pretty hard,
you know, transgressor days too, where I was not saved.
And I'll take being saved any day of the week over being unsaved.
So, and you know, being a Christian is way better than being a heathen.
So, but I want you to write these verses down because I got to be done here.
But these are some verses and I'll just go through them.
You can just write them down in your Bible if you want.
Or write them down on a piece of paper.
But these are some verses that can help you when you're thinking about like maybe, you know,
hanging it up or you're having a hard time.
And you know, these are good strong finishing verses.
Second Timothy 4.7, of course, where we're at.
I've fought a good fight.
I've finished my course.
I've kept the faith.
Galatians 6.9, "And let us not be weary and well-doing, for in due season we shall reap
if we faint not."
Hebrews 12.1, "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sandwich dust so easily beset us and let
us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross,
despising the shame and the set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
1 Corinthians 15, 58, "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always
abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know, that your labor is not in vain in the
Lord." 1 Corinthians 16, 13, "Watch ye stand fast, and the faith quit you like men be strong."
Isaiah 40, verse 28, "Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord,
the creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary, there is no searching of
his understanding, he giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might, he increases strength,
even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait
upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall
run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." And then James 1-12, "Blessed is the man
that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive a crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love him." And you know, God is always going to be there for us and those
are some great verses that like if you're kind of just down or you feel like you just can't go
anymore and you're not feeling strong, that you can just kind of look through and maybe it'll help
you and maybe it'll encourage you. Especially Isaiah 40 when you're getting older and you feel
like you're out of energy and like you just can't go anymore. I mean just pray to God and ask Him to
give you some strength because you know He's got plenty of it. So and then verse 9, so Paul even if
everyone forsakes us the Lord never will. So in verse 9 he says do thy diligence to come unto me
shortly unto me for Demas have forsaken me. Having loved this present world and is departed
from Thessalonica, Cretians to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. And you know friends even fellow
Christians have forsaken me at many times of my life and I'm numb to it pretty much. But
it doesn't mean that it doesn't still hurt. It does hurt when people forsake you and friends
and people that you thought you know were you know going to be your friends forever and they're not
now. But you know it's just not a huge shocker to me anymore when it happens. So it's just happened
so much. But it doesn't change the way that I am. I still want to make new friends and still want
to reach out my hand and still be friendly to people. It doesn't stop me. You know I don't want
to, I don't want to change because people are you know suck sometimes. And in reality there's a lot
of people that aren't very good friends. But my philosophy on that is to be the friend that you
want people to be to you and don't change that way you know. And if someone betrays you, if someone
forsakes you. I mean Paul talked about how all of Asia forsook him. I mean he started all those
churches and they forsook him and then he says Demus one of his one of his you know homies or
whatever one of the guys that he was ministering with forsook him. Demus has forsaken me having
loved this present world you know and then he forsook John Mark because John Mark forsook him
but then later on here he's going to say hey Mark bring John back you know. So I mean you know
there's there's there's ways that you can redeem friendships sometimes and not everything's always
a lost cause so but I'm not going to go to the verse the verses I had in here but you know Paul
Paul you know he had a lot of heartbreak he had a lot of heartache he had a lot of people turn
against him and look at verse 14 it says Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil the Lord reward
him according to his works of whom thou beware also for it greatly withstood our words and so
he's giving us warning about Alexander and he's naming the name this guy is in the Bible forever
as a villain and so Paul wasn't afraid to do this and so sometimes we name names and people
get upset about that but you know there's names that are in the Bible forever you know YouTube
videos get deleted um sermons get forgotten but Paul uh you know he puts people's names on blast
forever and ever and ever this is in the word of God and you know I mean maybe you shouldn't
have messed with the apostle Paul so but he says of whom thou beware also he's like hey Timothy you
got to beware of this guy too because he you know there are some people that are bozos and they're
easy to destroy and you know with the word of God but some of these people they greatly withstand
our words and they you know they're very uh they're foes that are are hard to beat sometimes
because they're good at their craft and so we got to understand that sometimes people will seem to
have good answers or seem to have you know good ammunition but you know in the end God is going
to sort this out so but it says at my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me so
whatever alexander the copper smith did to him he probably accused him of something but to the
point where all men forsook him now look this happens to to to pastors and preachers a lot
where people just first completely forsake them and turn against them and it's wrong you know we
shouldn't forsake men of God in their time of need especially if there's no evidence or proof
that it's actually true and i i preach this quite a bit but i still stick to my guns no matter who it
is you know i i mean i i would say the same thing about pastor men is that people are speculating
on what he did you know and not i mean obviously nobody i haven't heard anybody just flat out
accuse him of anything and i think that's wise don't accuse him of something because you don't
know and if there's rumors going around we shouldn't listen to those rumors especially
they're not substantiated so and again that just goes for anybody you know i mean i just
think that we really need to get this as god's people and you know when everybody forsakes
somebody you know paul did paul deserve to be forsaken doesn't sound like they were right but
even his friends forsook him you know this is not something that's some crazy thing that happens to
just people in our time but i've seen it happen seen it happen to people i've seen it happen to
me i've seen it happen to other people and i'm not saying that everybody's forsaken me but there's
been times when i felt forsaken yeah but not completely forsaken not by my church necessarily
but like you know sometimes you know being a pastor is a lonely road but you know paul says
but you know he god is the one that strengthened him so it's not what's saying the lord stood with
me and strengthened me and so even though if everybody forsakes you in the world god will
always stand with you especially if you're doing what's right and that by me the preaching might
be fully known and that all the gentiles might hear and i was delivered out of the mouth of the
lion and the lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly
kingdom to whom he be glory forever and ever amen so paul you know he just he's being very
positive here he's saying hey even though people forsook me you know god still stood by me jesus
still stood next to him the lord stood with me and at the end of this you know i'm going to just
skip through to the end here but you know jesus you know paul's still very um he's still very
positive even though you know everybody forsook him i mean but he's i think that his story can
encourage people to keep going on i think that that's one of the great things about the apostle
paul the apostle paul encourages me you know i can't wait to meet him in heaven i really love his
his teaching and his preaching and the word of god and at the end i don't know if you if you have
these footnotes in your bible or not but i'm not saying this is scripture this is even true but in
my bible in my bible notes uh where i where i copy and paste my scriptures it says the second
epistle from unto timotheus ordained the first bishop of the church of the ephesians written
in from rome from paul when he was brought before nero the second time so i don't know
if that's true i don't i mean i'm not saying it is but that's just an interesting note but
so we can't trust footnotes obviously and i'm not trying to like evil affect you by saying that i'm
just saying that like paul was saying though that his time was over so and the rumor like people
think that paul was was martyred for his faith but like we don't really know i mean but nero was
the caesar that was in charge when he did go before roman he was a nut job and he was a psychopath
so i mean i don't know maybe he became that way after he talked to paul i have no idea
there's not like a a lot of written down evidence about stuff like that but anyway that's the book
of second timothy let's pray let's go home lord we thank you so much for the the book of second
timothy lord i pray that you just help us to always keep these things in perspective and lord
help us to not be offended when the word of god is preached help us to not forsake great doctrine
help us to always use the word of god as our test for everything help us to study it help us to
listen to good men that can teach us things and help us to not just get off the path and and
listen to the things that are going to weaken us and not strengthen us and not exhort us and build
us up help us to lord to lift each other up in prayer and lord help us to be strong in the faith
and uh we thank you lord for the apostle paul's teachings through the holy spirit
and we thank you we pray that you just bless us as we go home and keep us safe
until sunday in Jesus name we pray amen closing him is number uh 67 this is my father's world
six seven in the blue together on the first this is my father my father closes with the birth