Behavior of Unbelievers in the Church – 2

Transcript

GR 1393
02/01/2009
Behavior of Unbelievers in the Church - 2
II Timothy 3:3-5
Gil Rugh


We are in II Timothy 3 in your Bibles. Paul's letters to Timothy have much to say about the conflict that the church has to face. The church is called to stand for the truth. In I Timothy 3:15 Paul reminded Timothy that the church is the pillar and support of the truth. And if the truth is corrupted in the church then the giving out of truth in the world will be marred, the power will be drained from it. In fact the reason Paul had left Timothy in Ephesus back on a previous trip, according to I Timothy 1:3, was so that he could instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines. In spite of Paul's three-year ministry in Acts 19 when he founded the church, then his follow-up meeting with the Ephesian elders at Miletus not too long after that in Acts 20, then the letter he wrote to them called the letter to the Ephesians, then Paul visiting there again with Timothy and then leaving Timothy as we noted in I Timothy 1:3 and reminding Timothy in that first letter that he must fight the good fight of faith, he must stand for the truth, he must oppose error and those who teach error, Paul finds it necessary when writing this second letter to devote a large portion of the letter to the danger facing the church from the inside. One of the master strokes of the devil is he is a great counterfeiter. And he can produce in his followers the appearance of genuineness, even genuine believers. And yet in reality they are fakes. But when they infiltrate the church and are accepted as believers and begin to spread their influence and then begin to promote their teachings which are contrary to the truth of God, they begin to weaken the church and ultimately destroy it, according to the plan of the devil.

What Paul is doing as we come into II Timothy 3 is giving Timothy a description of these false teachers who have infiltrated the church. We have to remind ourselves that we are talking about people who have come into the church, they have a form, a veneer, as we'll see in a moment, of godliness, genuine Christianity, but there is no substance to it. Because as you read these qualities and characteristics you'd say no one would accept them as believers. But they are being revealed for what they really are. They are followers of the devil and doing his will. And no matter how nice they seem, no matter what kinds of friendships they build, their influence is ultimately destructive, destructive to our testimony for Christ, destructive to the ministry of His truth.

So what Paul does in the first five verses of chapter 3 is unfold a series of characteristics of these individuals. I've listed 18 of them. Some, as we'll see when we get to the end of the list, add another 19th on there. But these characteristics reveal them for what they are. It's built around two commands, one to start the list and one to end it. Chapter 3 verse 1 the command is realize, the command given in the present tense. Timothy must keep this before himself, he must not forget it, he must know it, have it fixed in his mind all the time, that in the last days. Those last days are the days of Messiah, from the first coming of Christ to the Second Coming of Christ. Timothy was living in the last days, we are living in the last days. And in the last days difficult times will come. The word difficult means difficult, can mean violent, very hard times. The word times means seasons, periods of time. It's not every day and every week is the same, but there will be times for the church, for our local church when there will be very difficult times, hard times, violent in the sense we will have conflict in the church as we have to deal with error and false teaching. And we need to take the command of the Word of God seriously. Know this, have it fixed in your minds. We tend to get lax, tend to settle back and say as long as we're being biblical there won't be any problems. Where do you think the devil will attack? Where people aren't biblical? He already has them, he will attack where people have a desire to be biblical and faithful to the truth. So know this, difficult times will come.

And then he concludes with a command at the end of verse 5, avoid, having nothing to do with these kinds of people. They shouldn't be your best friends, you shouldn't sit under their teaching, and they shouldn't be tolerated in our church. We've been moving through this list and we started in our last study. We've looked through the first six items in the list. The difficult times, the hard times will come because of the character of these counterfeit Christians who will infiltrate the church and will attempt to spread their influence and their teaching.

Let me just go through the list that we've covered, the first six of the eighteen. Men will be lovers of self, focused on self, it's all about me. I see everything through the lens of me, what I like, what I want, how I like it, when I want it. They love themselves. They are lovers of money. You know for some people the church is the place of influence, the place to make contacts, the place to be seen and known. And that naturally follows, if you love yourself you love material things to make yourself comfortable. And so life for them is about themselves and the things that would give them enjoyment and pleasure, and that will be elaborated later.

They are boastful and arrogant. Boastful, they brag, they are always ready to tell you about themselves. They are arrogant, they see themselves as above others, superior to others, they look down on others. They are revilers, the word blasphemy. They speak against and insult God and they speak against and insult God's people. You realize when you disagree with the Word of God you are insulting God, you are speaking against Him. That's what these false teachers do. As we saw in chapter 2 some denied there was a coming bodily resurrection. That's an affront to the living God. He says He will bring resurrection to the bodies of believers and some of these teachers will say He won't. That's blasphemy. Do you understand that false teaching is blasphemy? It's not just cursing at God, it's speaking against God, it is insulting God, it is saying God is not right here, I'm right. Then of course that carries over then the way we deal with other people as well.

The next characteristic, disobedient to parents. And we looked at this one and looked at some other passages. It's not just talking about the disobedience of children who are in the home, that is an issue and very early our sinful character manifests itself, but it has to do with the whole issue of honoring your parents, respecting them, giving them their due, if you will. Remember we looked back in Matthew and during Jesus' earthly ministry He rebuked the religious leaders of His day because they had found a way to avoid being responsible for caring for their elderly parents. And what He said is you nullify the Word of God by your traditions. They thought they were clever, God is not impressed. Even though they thought they found a way to maneuver around the Word of God, the Word of God stands firm. It is true. So they were guilty of blaspheming against God, an offense against Him by not honoring their parents as He had said.

The next characteristic where we pick up is still in verse 3, they are ungrateful. And this would follow naturally out of the previous one. Ungrateful, unthankful, those who show no honor to their parents are showing that they are not thankful. They don't appreciate what their parents did, the sacrifices they made for them, the provision they made for them. They are ungrateful, unthankful. The Mosaic Law in Exodus 20:12, one of the Ten Commandments—honor your father and mother. Now it's interesting when Paul wrote his earlier letter to the church at Ephesus, in Ephesians 6:2 Paul quoted from the Old Testament law—honor your father and mother. And he said this is the first commandment with a promise. And we noted this seems to be an issue with the church at Ephesus and we looked at this relationship to the parents, and it carries over to being thankful, being grateful. Young children should learn to appreciate and be thankful for the provision their parents make. As we get older we have opportunity to show our gratitude to our parents as they may need special care or special help from us.

And this lack of gratitude goes both toward God and man. You know the foundational problem again is the lack of gratitude, the lack of thanks to God. One commentator I thought put it very well. He says we talk about common grace. You know what common grace is, that's the grace that is common to all men. The Lord makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. So God's gracious provision is made for all creation. That's common grace. He says there is common grace but you know there is no such thing as common thanks. We live in a world that does not turn and give God thanks. We live in a country that has been blessed but we don't pause and give God thanks, we don't honor Him as God. Now if we're not thankful to God who ultimately is the source of every good thing, how will we be thankful to one another? So men who are lovers of self and unthankful toward the God who created them, toward the God who sustains them, do we expect they are going to be thankful to one another? It doesn't happen. And they refuse to acknowledge God and men in their gratitude.

Romans 1:21 is describing fallen man and it says this, even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks. All the creation reveals God. In that sense everyone knows God and something of what He is like through His creation. But they don't honor Him as God and they don't give thanks. They are unthankful, ungrateful. That's their characteristic. Luke 6:35 tells us that God is kind to ungrateful, there is our word, unthankful, ungrateful and evil men. He continues to be kind to ungrateful, unthankful and evil men. Now Romans 2 will expand and tells us that those who are unthankful and evil are storing up wrath for themselves in the coming day of judgment because they continue to reject the kindness of God, His mercy, His grace. We sometimes wonder how God can be so patient. Don't you have the thought sometimes, if I were God I would just intervene and strike them dead, I'd wipe them out, I'd put an end to them now. But God is kind, He is patient, even to unthankful, ungrateful, evil men.

The eighth in our list is unholy, unholy. We are in a list of words, and I'm not going to pronounce them for you because it would be meaningless. But there is a repetition of sound in most of this list, a large portion of this list. In Greek when you want to make something negative you can just put the letter “a” on the front. So in the front of thanks or thankful you put the letter “a” and it means not thankful, you're not grateful. Here unholy is another one of those words. So we'll come to unloving as the next one. So as Paul gives this out it's a constant reminder of what they are not, and even the repetition of the sound, the same letter in Greek would emphasize that. They are unholy. This is conduct that is directly opposed to God, they have no respect for God or what God desires or requires. They reject His Word, they reject His standards. God says that in marriage the bed is undefiled, sex within the marriage relationship is part of His ordained plan. What do they want to have? They want to have sex not with a man or a woman in the marriage bond, they want sex with whomever they want, whenever they want, and why should I get married. They think nothing of flaunting that. The standards of God don't impress them, they have a disregard for God and a disregard for what He says. Now keep in mind we're talking about people who have infiltrated the church and have been accepted as believers and some are teaching. How do they do this? In subtle ways. They don't just stand up and say, we don't believe this. They find ways to explain it away so God's standards become nullified. So pretty soon what is acceptable in the word becomes acceptable in the church. And you can track and look over even the history of your life and you can see certain things were viewed as wrong in the world and they were wrong in the church, the church stood for what the Word said. But as the world changed the church found ways to adapt and make its teaching more acceptable to the world. It usually starts out we don't want to make it an issue because we don't want people to think we are against everything. But we are against everything God is against and we are for everything God is for. And you are known for what you are against as well as what you are for. Keep in mind it is God who has directed the Apostle Paul to write this negative list describing those that do not know Him or have a relationship with Him. They are unholy. They have no respect for anything we would call sacred.

The ninth characteristic, they are unloving. A unique word as far as the New Testament is concerned here. We have it in the negative, it appears in the negative again in the list in Romans 1. But it's not one of the words for love we are familiar with, because we are familiar with agape love and phileo love, agapao love. Here the word is storgay. Storgay is family love, a love you have between parents and children, the children for their parents, the parents for their children. Family kind of relationships and affections. These people don't hold to those kinds of relationships, they are astorgos, they are not loving. Even that which is so basic and foundational. Romans 1 says the world has abandoned it, look around. The whole issue of divorce, abortion and so many other ways. We say the family is disintegrating. You know this is nothing new. Two thousand years ago the Spirit of God directed Paul to write about what was going on in the church at Ephesus. And there were men in that church who were astorgos, unloving. They already had the breakdown of the family.
Look what has happened. It used to be in the world for a period of time that divorce was frowned upon. It became a common thing, now among evangelicals the divorce rate is about the same as the unbeliever. It just has become acceptable. I mean, if it's all about me and I love myself, I'm not getting any pleasure out of this relationship anymore, I don't enjoy it anymore, there is nothing in it for me anymore. It begins to break down. And then, why would I want to have this child? I mean, we were just having a little bit of fun. So now we kill the child. Where is what we call natural affection? It interferes with me, it's just not a good time for me to have a baby so we'll kill it. This is not new. We think abortion, what's happening to our society. We've studied before and looked in Rome, common practice, every night there were babies left at the coliseum, parents didn't want them. They had certain things they could use for abortion but they didn't have the modern techniques that we can do it by the millions. They just abandon them. The baby would die from exposure or slave traders would come by and take them and raise them until they were old enough to be sold into slavery.

I mean, you understand sinners have been sinners and their character doesn't change. And you know what? When you put a veneer of Christianity over an unredeemed person, nothing changes. The appearance looks different but nothing has changed. You can take a person dying and in terrible condition, put on the right clothes, put the right makeup on and you would say, he really looks good. You know nothing has changed in his true condition. That's what we're talking about with sinners here.

I was interested, listen to this quote. It was written in 1958 so you get a time setting. He is commenting on this passage and this word, astorgos, unloving. The very foundations of family life are destroyed. This adjective describes the absence of natural attachments based on love. An examination of present day divorce statistics show how rapidly we are pursuing this course. Now we thought the '50s were the days. He thought you could already see it infiltrating. I wonder how much more strongly he would write that if he were writing it in our day.

The tenth in the list, they are irreconcilable. Now this is the word for a truce or an agreement with that “a” on the front. They are not reconcilable. It describes a person of very harsh and bitter attitude that you can't reconcile. Now you can't trust them and when his mind is made up it is settled, there is nothing you can do to reconcile them. How do they make their way in? You see they drive a wedge in but they are right. Now you see what happens here, people can take these things and say, we don't want to be like these people who are irreconcilable and can't be joined together, so some well-meaning Christians then reduce the doctrinal standard and think now we are reconciling. There can be no compromise on truth. The problem with these people is they are either corrupting the truth in their teaching or in their practice. And they are a divisive element in the church. And there is no reconciling them. So the efforts in that sense are futile.

Come back to the letter Paul wrote to the Ephesians on an earlier occasion, Ephesians 4:31. It doesn't use this same word here, but keep in mind these are irreconcilable, they have a bitterness, a harsh attitude that is closed to the reconciliation you would normally desire. Verse 31, let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Things going on, and it gets promoted by these false teachers and unregenerate people who promote this. I can't compromise on doctrine but some of my personal preferences I can compromise on. We don't need to divide over nonessential things.

I can't tell you the number of people who have come to me over the years of ministry and they want to start out by saying, I want you to know first of all that I don't have any doctrinal problem. I have to say, and maybe you've been one of them, now I tell you what I was thinking. Then why don't you just be quiet and leave. Do we have to talk about your personal preferences? Is it a big enough issue that it has to be a divisive matter over the preference? You know, you know when you touch people's hearts. I preach doctrine every week and you people receive it well, thank you. We talk about changing the seats in the auditorium, got more response on that than I got on my sermon. Sort of hurt. Now I know what people are passionate about. Are they going to change the seats, or the carpet, or the style? And not that we don't talk about it, we don't work through it. But let's face it, some people are going to be happy and some people aren't. Some people are saying I hope they change the seats and other people are saying I hope they don't, somebody is not going to get their way, right? And then pretty soon I begin to think they got their way because they have influence, they got their way because they know somebody, they got their way because they give more money. Now all of a sudden I have to say, I have this kind of attitude? I mean, I'm here to die for the truth, not the color of the paint, the color of the carpet, whether we put an addition on, whether somebody sat in my seat or somebody didn't say hi. You know, people find the silliest ways.

I've told you, I pastored a church for several years and it was an old church, it had its 100th anniversary when I was there. When I went there they had the center aisle and there were the two families, and I won't say their names, one sat on each side. I soon found out the first few weeks that was the division of the church. I sat the two parties down, I said we need to resolve this. They said, young man, this battle has been going on long before you came and it will continue on long after you are gone. I learned something. Where is the center aisle in this church?

Back to II Timothy 3, the eleventh in this list, malicious gossips. That's a single word, diabolos. Some of you recognize it, you know what it is usually used for in the New Testament? The word for the devil, he is the slanderer. Malicious gossips. In fact back in II Timothy 2:26, they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the, there is our word, the devil. Having been held captive by him to do his will. You know we need to keep in mind, when Paul talks about, II Timothy 2:24, the Lord's bond servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, that doesn't mean you tolerate anything and everything. It means you present the truth to them, not with bitterness, not to be argumentative, but so they can be exposed to the truth if perhaps maybe God will grant them repentance. Some Christians say, we don't want to argue, we don't want to quarrel, we'll be patient. We do it with patience but this is the truth. We think when Paul writes this in chapter 3, is this kind to say these people are devils. I mean, he has just used the word as a title for the devil. Some Greek translators translate this word devils, they are devils. They mean slanderers, they are those who go around and have always something negative to say about someone, they are undermining their reputation. And how does this happen?

We had a staff person one time, some people that were very close to me said to me, we almost left. I said, well why? Every time we visited with him he never criticized you, he just always left a doubt in our mind. And over time you begin to wonder, maybe there’s something going on. How often we do that. We say, I don't know for sure if this is true, but.... I'm not saying that the person did this, but …. But we want to pass it on so now it's in the person's mind. I'm not saying that they were doing this, but I want to tell you what I heard they were doing. And pretty soon to one degree or another we are slandering. Whether there is any truth or not, I didn't say it was true. But if I just keep bringing up doubtful things about someone pretty soon you have doubts about them. That's how the devil weakens the church, because can you trust the elders. They've been together and they probably don't have enough contact with the people and they probably are. So pretty soon you don't have confidence in the leaders. And then I know you hear things about me, not always good. And that puts a doubt. You have to wonder. I appreciate some of you have called me or stopped in my office and said, I heard something and I just wanted to ask you. And I can answer it. That's the way to deal with it. Sometimes we just need to tell people, if you don't know it's true and you haven't talked to the person maybe we ought to just let it go. But these people are here to undermine and weaken. And they are never satisfied. Sooner or later something else comes up and they are a constant wedge of division.

James 3, spends the first 12 verses of that chapter talking about the dangers of the tongue. You know what he says about it in verse 8? It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. Just what is said? They are slanderers, they are doing the work, the will, as verse 26 says, of the devil, the slanderer. Like John 8:44, you are of your father the devil, you always do what he wants you to do. He's a liar, you're a liar; he's a slanderer, you're a slanderer.

The twelfth, they are without self-control, they never learn to control themselves. They are unrestrained, uninhibited, they are driven by their desires. You know, I happened to turn on the television and there was a fallen evangelical leader on this past week. This guy is talking and I think I have to listen. It ends up being a well-known talk show program, first time I ever saw it. Everybody talks about it and so on. So I thought I'll see what this guy says. You know the amazing thing to me is? Fallen Christian leader who got into sexual sin, homosexual sin. And the talk show host saying, and here is this guy's wife sitting here, his two grown children sitting here. I mean, he has brought disgrace on his church, on his family. You know what the talk show host says? The real problem then was you weren't following your urges. All these years you had suppressed your urges. You had tried to hold back what you really were. The disgrace wasn't that he had sinned against God, his wife, his children; the sin was that he had been trying to suppress what he really was. You might say, well that's just a mindless talk show host. But you know what? Everybody in the audience starts clapping, one idiot applauding another idiot. They have no concept of right and wrong. If everybody is going to just follow their urges then what? I mean, you have a strong desire to do that, you have to do it. Where does that stop? I'd like to just sit down in a chair and ask that person, what determines for you what is right and wrong? This person should follow their urges because you want to promote homosexuality today. What about other things? Do you have any things you think are wrong? Some people have strong urges to do things that we would think would be disgraceful. Even you would think it would be disgraceful. But you're saying they are denying what they are if they don't follow their urges. You see they are unrestrained, without self-control. And so it goes on. So you ought to be able to do it. And then the argument comes, I was born this way. God wouldn't have created me this way if it weren't His intention for me.

I keep an article in my file by a prominent psychiatrist, graduated from perhaps the leading university in our country. He was on his way to prison for child molestation. But you know what his defense was? I was born this way, why can't you people accept it? I never forgot that statement. You know we are born in sin, in sin did my mother conceive me. So there is an element of truth in it. But there is a responsibility to control those sinful desires. But these are uncontrolled, so here they are twisting the scripture to find a way to make things acceptable that are not acceptable to God.

The thirteenth, they are brutal, they are savage. Literally, they are untamed, they are like an animal that has never been tamed. They are wild, they are brutal, they only consider their own selfish desires, so they are destructive. They become a terribly damaging influence in the church. There is no reasoning with them.

The fourteenth, they are haters of good. We're continuing this list with the “a” on the front of these words, so the word hate doesn't appear in this word. It's literally not lovers of good. It's the not in the front, then the word phile or phileo as the verb of it, and agathos, which is good. They are not lovers of good, they don't love good. Here's a foundational thing, whatever is pleasing to God, whatever is acceptable to God, they don't love that. They are not lovers of good. The things, the people that God loves, they don't love. They are not lovers of good.

Jot down Isaiah 5:20, realize nothing new. Isaiah the prophet was hundreds of years before Christ and in Isaiah 5:20 the Lord directed him to write, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. We see it in the world around us, but we see it in the church. The church sees nothing wrong with it, conduct and behavior that is directly contrary to the Word of God. Well, we don't want to be too quick to judge. No, we don't want to be too quick to judge, no quicker than God has been. We don't want to go beyond His Word, but when God has spoken, do we love good or don't we? I mean, they are not lovers of good, that's the problem.

Come to II Timothy 3:4. Don't you get tired of a list like this? You say, I got the point. Yet there are a number of these lists, like God driving the point home to us. They are treacherous, they are traitors. Word used two other times in the New Testament. Acts 7:52, it's used of the Jews who killed the prophets in the Old Testament when they told them the truth of God. You see these are a people who claim to be the people of God, claim to want to obey God, but when the prophets came with the word of God they killed them. They were traitors, treacherous. They weren't really committed to what they said they were committed, to obey God. It's used of Judas in Luke 6:16, of his betrayal of Christ. He claimed to be a follower of Christ, but he was a traitor, he was treacherous.

So you know it is foolishness to think you can negotiate and work with these false teachers. They can't be trusted. They claim to follow Christ, but there is no loyalty there. It's just a veneer. It's like the person who is trying to deceive you to steal your money or get your credit card or whatever. He may be trying to be as nice and help you out but his real motive is otherwise. We have people think, we can work it out with them, they are reasonable people. They are not reasonable people, they are untamed, uncontrolled. They are haters of good, they don't love the good. They are treacherous. This idea that we can work it out, it will just take time, don't be too quick. You know the church gets influenced because we don't deal with it and it gains influence.

The sixteenth, they are reckless, rash and thoughtless. This is a man who is controlled by his passions, his desires. These are some of these things we mentioned when we started out, they are lovers of self. This controls them. I mean, these people talk without thinking, they are impulsive, they are thoughtless. And yet they are having an influence in the church because the way they do it, they just charge on. These are the kind of people we want to be people of influence among believers.

They are conceited. Well we already said they are braggarts, they think a lot of themselves, they are arrogant. Now they have a big head, could be a literal translation. One Greek commentator said the literal English is swelled headed. Their head is swelled up, that's what the word means. Their head is blown up. We use it today, we say, he has a big head. Means he thinks a lot of himself and his opinions, sees himself as important. And of course that's what we do, we are critical of others, we are slanderers of others, when we're always discontent, when we're always fomenting discord. Why? We think a lot of ourselves, we have a pretty good opinion of ourselves. Interesting, this word is a perfect passive participle. That denotes a settled condition. They are in a settled condition of having a big head, high opinion of themselves.

We come to the eighteenth, they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. It’s put together because the contrast is they love pleasure instead of loving God. Lovers of pleasure. This word, phile, has been used a number of times here. It started out in verse 2, men will be lovers of self, lovers of money. And then they are not lovers of good, literally we have it haters of good. Not lovers of good, there that word for love, we usually hear it in English phileo love, the verb form. Now he closes out the list with what they love, they love pleasure. They don't love God. So again he talks about, starting out, what they love and now we come back to here's where they are again, it's what they love. They don't love good but they do love pleasure, they don't love God.

Now these are those who have infiltrated the church, that act like believers, that even are teaching some, but they love pleasure. They don't love God. We get the English word hedonism, hedona is the Greek word. We carry it over, hedon, hedonistic. What is hedonistic? It's the pursuit of pleasure, it's a life lived for pleasure, for self-gratification. It's what these people are doing. They are lovers of pleasure, they have a hedonistic lifestyle, a hedonistic goal in life. They don't love God.

Let me read to you again from the same author who wrote in 1958. He said personal pleasure is paramount in their lives. This describes a time when the church will be characterized by loving entertainment more than loving God. Certainly the church of today which so often seems to feel the need to compete with the world in order to gain a following needs to be aware. 1958. How much more has the church become absorbed in its pleasure seeking. We don't call it pleasure seeking, but that's basically what it is. I have a book that was mailed to me, it was mailed to a lot of preachers without invitation, free. Entertainment Evangelism. Now there is an oxymoron from a moron. Entertainment Evangelism. Appeal to those who love pleasure with pleasure and you'll be evangelizing them. You know we have to be careful, we say we wouldn't do that. But think about it, how often we think what do I like, what do I want. I don't enjoy that anymore, I don't like that. I'm looking for a church that will be like this.

You know many, many years ago when I was young my parents got saved. They left the Methodist church, I voted not to. But that was before the days that parents had learned and gotten educated that their children's vote counted. I'm glad my parents didn't pay attention to me. I was picking the church on the basis of where my friends were, what I liked, what they did. What does that have to do with what a church is? We have grown up adults who claim to know the Lord and they are going to a church where the Word of God is really not taught but their kids like it. Lovers of pleasure, and we want to be happy. I like the music, I like the setting, I feel good there. So? What does that have to do with anything? We have people who go to the bar and get drunk because they like the atmosphere, they like the setting, they like the people there. That's why you go to church? So you see lovers of pleasure, my own desires, my own interests creep in in little ways. I'm not saying you can never leave this church and go to another church. But what are we looking for? The Word of God, the church is the pillar and support of the truth. My children have to learn that we pick a church on the basis of the Word of God taught here. I appreciate it and never forgot, I was in my early teens when my parents explained to me why we were leaving the church we had been part of. Because we found a church where the Bible is taught and we're going to go there. Well that's not the best reason, I mean, I have a church where I have friends, I like it. You see little ways, the pleasures, so we begin to look for what pleases us. If you look for a church, the Lord leads from here to wherever, in the city or out, what do you look for? A church that pleases God, the focus is on Him, His truth. The other things fall into place. Why did they build such an ugly building? Why do you go sit in an ugly building? Because I like the truth. It's a beautiful building. Yes, but I didn't come for the building, I came for the truth. The people are so friendly, I'm glad to have friendly people but I didn't come for friendly people, I came for the truth. They have lots of programs for everybody. That's fine, but I didn't come for the programs. We have lots of programs now, lots of opportunities for various people. You know when I came here there was one person in the whole junior and senior high age group. I'm glad people came even though we didn't have that. People were looking for truth. Lovers of pleasure instead of lovers of God. You ought to see the contrast, lovers of pleasure instead of lovers of God. You cannot love God and mammon, as Jesus said. And you cannot love God and pleasure. I cannot put my desires out there and also claim to be loving God.

So we wrap it up in verse 5, they hold to a form of godliness although they have denied its power. There is the shocker. They are holding to a form of godliness, that word is used of true Christianity in the New Testament, it's the character of God. They hold to a form, a morphe of godliness, they have a shell, a veneer. So we see this description of them and say, we didn't see that. They were some of the nicest people and I liked a lot of his teaching. What does that have to do with it? He has a veneer. You say, are you scrutinizing everyone? No, but we need to be careful. I mean, Paul is writing to Timothy in a church that Paul has poured years of his life into. And this is the description he gives of some of those in that church. They have a veneer, a form, an exterior appearance of godliness, of being genuine.

But they have denied its power, the power. The gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. The indwelling Holy Spirit brings the power of God into our lives and transforms us and enables and empowers us to live new. They are denying it, they are claiming to be believers and you can be a believer with an unchanged life. They deny the power as though you make a statement, I believe in Jesus, I'm saved. Now it doesn't matter what you do. I could have brought you a book from my library written by a seminary professor a number of years ago in an evangelical school who came out with that teaching that has infiltrated churches everywhere. He says that as long as you have placed your faith in Christ, at a later time you may deny Him, you may blaspheme, but you're going to heaven. That's a lie from the liar, the devil, because the power of God's salvation transforms a life. It's not that I clean up my life, God's power. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things have passed away, behold new things have come, Paul wrote in II Corinthians 5. They have denied its power. That word denied, perfect passive participle. You're going to learn the perfect tense, something that happened in the past, it continues in the present. They are in the settled condition of denying the power of the gospel. Whatever else they are doing, they are denying God's power and what it does in a life. People going around, they can't control their temper, they are being immoral, they are being slanderous. And we're saying, I know they've trusted Christ. How in the world do you know that when what they are manifesting is the manifestation of someone who has a veneer of Christianity? But someone who is in the settled condition and denying its power. You aren't brutal, you aren't out of control, you aren't focused on your own pleasure, desires and on the list goes, if the power of the gospel has impacted your life. Don't lie.

I had a person come, and we close with this, many years ago, not in our church here, probably know him well. Involved in an immoral relationship, he's married, know his wife. And they sat and talked to me and he says I can't help it, I can't stop. I know I'm a believer but I can't stop. I said, well, first thing we have to settle, you're a liar. I don't know which side you are lying about, but you are a liar, you are not telling the truth because you say you can't stop this immorality. Yet you say you are a Christian. If you're not a Christian you can't stop, you are under control of your sinful passions. You are out of control. So you are lying by telling me you are a Christian. If you are a Christian you can stop, but you don't want to. Now you have to decide what it is. And I have to say a few weeks later I was contacted by him and he said, you were right. I could stop, I just didn't want to. But I have. And he has and his life has changed, his relationship with his wife has gone on. And praise the Lord.

We act like, what do I say, they can't stop, they are addicted. Well the Bible says they are addicted, every sinner is addicted. He who sins is a slave of sin, Jesus said. Right? I don't know what to do, I'm addicted. I know what to do, if the Son shall set you free you shall be free indeed. I know I'm a Christian. Wait a minute, you know there are no liars going to heaven. You continue to tell me you are a Christian, but you are enslaved to sin. The Bible tells me that those who are truly born again have been set free. Now which is it? We need to come down where the Word of God comes down. God changes a life. If I'm a slanderer, then I'm doing the will of my father, the devil, I'm held captive by him. Go through the list. We have people who have developed a veneer of Christianity, but they have denied its power.

I praise God that the salvation that He brings, the only salvation there is, is a salvation of power. It changes a life, it cleanses us from sin, it breaks the power of sin, the power of the devil and sets us free. Now I am clean, I have the righteousness of Christ, and I can exercise self-control and live a life of obedience to Him.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for your truth. Thank you for the power of your Word. Thank you that your gospel is powerful for salvation. When you save a sinner you set him free from the passions, the vices that have controlled and dominated the life. Does not mean there won't be temptation, but Lord, we are free in Christ, we are new in Christ. Lord, may we not lower the standards for your church. May we be faithful to the truth, intolerant of those who would corrupt the truth in any way, but loving in the presentation of the truth that you might bring salvation to the lost. We pray in Christ's name, amen.