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There are some hymns that take us deep into commitment, and that is certainly one of them.

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Would you open your Bible with me please to 2 Timothy, the third chapter.

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We hear a lot about the good old days, right?

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Someone has defined the good old days as when men rode chargers instead of marrying them.

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You may have to think about that.

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However you define the good old days, I'm not sure that the good old days were ever

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what they were said to have been.

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The one thing is for sure, and that is that the good old days will never come again.

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Time passes on.

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It marches unhaltingly toward destiny, and the world around us marches onward too, and

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if I may say so, downward.

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I may be accused of pessimism, but I don't think that that's pessimistic to say is simply

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biblical.

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It's the nature of things in this sin-cursed environment in which we live to degenerate.

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Even the laws of physics testify to that.

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In the end, the world system and its organization, its attitudes, its nature will be just like

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God said it would be.

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There are still a few of those billboards around that say so and so whether man on a

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local station said it would be like this.

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Remember seeing those?

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Well, sometimes he was right and sometimes he was wrong.

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One thing is absolute, and that is that when God says something is going to be, it's going

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to be.

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As we go about serving the Lord, we are to do so with certain expectations, not probabilities

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but certainties, things that will be.

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In our study of 2 Timothy, in chapters 1 and 2, we study the theme about serving the Lord

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acceptably, and what that means for us as servants of Christ.

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Now in chapters 3 and 4, we're going to study the theme serving the Lord expectantly.

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As we go about serving Him, we can expect the world will oppose our efforts.

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That's one thing we can know for sure.

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We can also expect that the Word will achieve its ends.

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We can know that.

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The third expectation that we can have in our service for Christ is that the Lord will

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reward His servants.

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That's not a maybe.

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That's a sure thing.

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Let's explore this theme, the first theme, in our text today in 2 Timothy 3, verses 1

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through 15.

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And that is this, as we serve the Lord, we serve Him expectantly, knowing that the world

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will oppose our efforts.

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The apostle writes, but realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.

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For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient

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to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without

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self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather

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than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power, and avoid

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such men as these.

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For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with

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sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of

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the truth.

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And just as Janys and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth, men of

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depraved mind rejected as regards the faith.

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But they will not make further progress, for their folly will be obvious to all, as also

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that of those two came to be.

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But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions,

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and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Elystra.

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What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me.

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And indeed all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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But evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

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You however continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from

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whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings

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which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is

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in Christ Jesus.

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Our service for the Lord Jesus Christ will be opposed by the society in which we live.

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Therefore, we should never be surprised by its intensity or overcome by its persistence.

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Notice with me first the description of society that is found in our texts for today.

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The Apostle says, in the last days.

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That is an interesting phrase that is found elsewhere in the New Testament.

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That phrase refers to the whole of the age in which we now live.

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After all, if you look at the outline of human history, even 2,000 years could be called

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the last days.

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For thousands of years went before these 2,000 years of this age of grace.

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The term is used in that way in Hebrews 1 and 2 where we are told that in these last

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days God has spoken to us by His Son in contrast to the former days when He spoke in bits and

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pieces through the prophets.

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In these last days, since the coming of Jesus Christ as the Savior and as the fullness of

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the revelation of the Father, since He came 2,000 years ago, the last days have been in

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progress and will be until He comes again.

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But this phrase also has a more narrow meaning than that, and it seems to be used in that

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way here.

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It refers not just to the age as a whole, but to the conclusion of this age.

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What the Apostle calls in 1 Timothy 4.1 the latter times.

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So what the Apostle is going to say here applies not only to the 2,000 years of past history

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since Christ came, but it applies in particular, I think, to the days in which we live and

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of those days just before the Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

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He says that in the last days difficult times will come.

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The word difficult means savage.

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It means grievous.

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It's been paraphrased as times hard to deal with, pressure-filled times.

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The word is used only one other time in the New Testament in Matthew 8.28.

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There it is used of violence and the violence of a man possessed by a demon.

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There's an interesting suggestion by that.

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It is that the pressure, the trouble, the savageness of the last days will result from

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spectacular demonic action, and I believe that.

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We heard this morning a letter from a missionary family that we love and support, members of

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our church serving in Indonesia.

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Can you imagine being with them in that hut a few weeks ago as they mourned the passing

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of this one man?

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And there were others around in that filth who were weeping and wailing, talking to the

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dead man's spirit, and then watching as people who were seated on this side of the room were

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carried to this side of the room by demons?

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Did you hear them say that in the letter?

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That's what they said they observed.

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The people didn't walk from one side to the other.

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They were carried by demonic forces.

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You say, well, that only happens in pagan lands.

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Listen, I believe that we are going to see more and more overt demonic activity right

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here.

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Indeed, a young man who attended our church, I'm not sure he's continuing to attend,

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but he attended some, was delivered of demons about three weeks ago by one of the pastor

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teachers in our small churches who's had experience doing that on the mission field.

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So whether it's overt in that sense of personal possession or only behind the scenes, I am

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convinced that in these last days it's going to get more and more difficult because demons

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are going to become more and more active.

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They are going to put the pressure on.

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Now notice that he describes our society socially in verses two through four by listing 18 characteristics

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of people in the last days.

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We might summarize it as degenerate.

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That would be the one word that would summarize all of these.

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Let's just look down the list.

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Lovers of self.

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Now as you go down the list, think, does this describe the world in which I live today?

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Lovers of self.

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Have you ever seen a time when people were so concerned about self-realization, self-actualization,

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self-fulfillment, self-this, self-that?

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Lovers of money, materialism, boastful.

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The word means empty pretenders.

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In other words, people will pretend to be something or to be able to do something they

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can't really do.

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Arrogant, that is conceited, proud.

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Revilers, blasphemers, not just against God but against people.

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Disobedient to parents.

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Children have always struggled with disobedience because that is the sin nature of man.

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But in the last days it's going to become more pronounced.

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Why?

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Because I think it's going to be encouraged in the society around us.

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Ungrateful, unholy.

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Nothing will be held sacred anymore in the last days.

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I mean, even something as mundane as our language is abused and given, words are given double

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meanings and so on.

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You can't speak to a young man or young woman on the college campus except by being very

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careful because the language you use may have double meanings to them.

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There's nothing that's set apart and kept sacred or holy or untouchable.

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Nothing is dragged down to the gutter, even the very words we use.

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Unloving.

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Specifically, it means no family love.

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In the last days there will not even be that natural kind of affection that God built into

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His creation between parents and children.

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Perhaps the abuse that seems to be growing in our own society right now would be an example

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of this.

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Ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable.

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That means people will be unwilling to compromise.

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Whether it's between management and labor or two individuals involved in a lawsuit,

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there will be no desire to compromise because my side is right and come whatever may, even

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the destruction of this company or the destruction of our relationship, I will not compromise.

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I will not be reconciled.

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Malicious gossips.

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The word here is diabolos.

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Do you see any word in there?

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Diabolos.

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It's the Greek word for devil.

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You know there's no one who is so mostly conformed to the image of the devil as a gossip

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because his very name means that.

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One who gossips about other people.

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Gossip, malicious gossip.

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We've prominent in the last days.

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Without self-control.

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Brutal.

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People will be like animals.

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Haters of good.

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Treacherous.

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Betrayers.

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No sense of loyalty.

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Reckless.

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Conceited.

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That is puffed up.

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Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

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In other words, even the worship that goes to God is going to be devoted to pleasure.

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That will be the big thing to seek.

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During this last holiday weekend of the summer as we call it, where even some of God's people.

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Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.

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That is the description of our society socially.

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And what the apostle says here is only going to increase and intensify as the age comes

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to its climax.

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Now there's a description also here of our society spiritually beginning in verse 5.

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If degenerate would describe our society socially, apostate would describe it spiritually.

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He speaks generally.

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He says he introduces the idea in verse 4, but he goes on in verse 5 to say, holding

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to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.

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You and I are both form and we are power or life, personality.

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Our form is our body, but the power or the life principle or the personality of us is

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inside, it's invisible.

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When that leaves the body we die and the body is left behind and it decays.

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That is a picture of what's going to happen to Christianity or Christendom may I call

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it in the last days.

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It will have a body.

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It will have a form.

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It will have an organization, but it will deny the power, the life of it.

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That is there will be no spirit of God moving through it.

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There will be no force to it that's of God because it's only a shell.

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It's only a form.

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It's only an outward appearance.

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That is apostate Christianity.

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There's no place for God in it.

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Just as our bodies decay and we bury them out of sight when loved ones die because even

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though we love them we can't bear to look upon the corruption that takes place.

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So it is my friend with the organization of Christendom in the last days.

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Being without life it will corrupt.

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It will decay.

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It will become a foul stench in the nostrils of God.

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Having described what's going to happen generally to apostate Christianity he goes on more specifically

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to talk about its leaders whom he calls false teachers, people who are guilty themselves

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of apostasy.

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Now I'm using that term and it's an important one to define because sometimes it's misused.

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In fact it's helpful if we get three terms straight.

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One is the term heresy.

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The word heresy means division.

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It refers to a division over doctrine or over some issue.

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Another word is the word error.

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It refers to a mistake or an incorrect understanding of some doctrine.

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Now listen, one can be in the faith, be a true believer and be a heretic, be a divisive

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person.

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One can be in the faith and be in error, but one cannot be in the faith and be an apostate.

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The word apostate means to fall away from.

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An apostate is one who professed to believe, who professed to be a Christian, who was under

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that umbrella so to speak and then fell away from it, proving that he was never a possessor

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of the real thing.

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He is one who has fallen away from the truth, Peter tells us in 2 Peter 2.1, that there

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are two specific doctrines to watch.

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One is the deity of Jesus Christ and the other is the sufficiency of His blood shed for our

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sins because those are the two doctrines that apostates will inevitably deny in some fashion.

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One who is an apostate will not accept the fact that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son

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of the Father come in flesh.

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In some way that doctrine will be denied.

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And secondly, an apostate will deny the sufficiency of the blood shed on Calvary for our sins

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and added to the work of Christ will be human effort of some sort.

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Something we must do to gain salvation or eternal life or nirvana or whatever they want

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to say comes.

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Apostates profess at one point and then fall away.

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And there are many of them.

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Indeed, they are like a swarm of flies over the decaying carcass of this age.

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Notice how the apostates are described here in our text.

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They are described as using methods which deceive people, especially those who are impulsive

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and easily changeable, those who flit from one place to the next, those who are gullible

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and vulnerable.

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The apostle seems to be thinking of a specific situation in Ephesus and thus he mentions

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in verse 6 the weak women weighed down with sins and led by various impulses.

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Paul is not attacking women at this point.

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He is talking to Timothy, I think, about something specific and Timothy would have recognized

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immediately what Paul had in mind.

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Believe me, women are not the only ones who are gullible and vulnerable.

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We all are, apart from the truth that God has given to us in His Word.

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Apostates feed on people like that to deceive them.

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It says that they emphasize learning in verse 7, always learning.

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Now there is nothing wrong with learning, as that learning leads one to the truth.

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But notice what happens with the apostates, always learning and never able to come to

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the knowledge of the truth, of the faith that God has given to us.

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They never are able to recognize the truth.

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They just keep learning and they go off in some direction and tangent.

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He says furthermore that they not only cannot recognize the truth, but they oppose the truth

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in verse 8, just like the magicians in the court of Pharaoh opposed Moses.

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Publicly claiming superiority over it, they lead people into increasing error away from

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God and not to the truth.

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By the way, those two magicians named here also use supernatural means to try to persuade

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that what they were teaching was true.

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Don't ever fall for the idea that just because a miracle seems to have happened, that therefore

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what is said must be of God.

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Because just as in Moses' day, still today miracle workers are a broader group than just

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those from God.

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The devil's got his people out there too.

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And one of the ways they deceive is by performing signs.

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This happened.

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It must be of God.

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Else how would this be?

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And the result is that they deceive and lead impulsive people into some new truth.

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Always watch out for the guy that comes down the road with some new truth that no one's

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ever thought of before.

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So I was driving Pastor Wiersby home for dinner a couple of weeks ago.

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I said, boy, I really appreciate your message this morning.

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He said, oh, that's fine.

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He just kind of showed the compliment aside as he usually does.

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And then he said, your people didn't hear anything new.

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I said, well, maybe not, but they appreciated it and I did too.

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And he says, always be careful of the person that comes with something new.

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He says, if somebody gets in your pulpit and gives some new thing, you've invited the

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wrong person to your pulpit.

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Of course, I've heard that from him before and I've heard it from others before as well.

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Watch out for the person who's got that new idea, that new concept, that new revelation.

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No one's ever thought of this before.

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He says furthermore about these apostates that they're depraved or corrupted in mind.

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They're reprobate with regards to the truth, the faith.

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The word rejected is a very strong word.

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It means that these people who have professed and then fallen away have fallen beyond the

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point of being able to be saved.

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They are rejected by God.

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They are reprobate by God.

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I want to emphasize that he is not talking here about one who is a true believer.

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One who is a true believer cannot, by the very nature of things, be an apostate.

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He's talking about a pretender who has fallen away.

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He has fallen away without hope.

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In verse 13, he tells us that these things are going to get worse and worse.

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Evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse.

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The word impostors is interesting.

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It refers to people in the ancient days who would give incantations and they would do

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these spells by shrieking and howling.

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That was part of their thing.

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It came to be used then of those who were magicians and used sleight of hand, tricksters.

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That's what the apostle calls apostates.

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They are charlatans.

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But he encourages us by saying in verse 9 that these people will have a limit to their

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progress.

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Eventually, their folly will be made known to everyone.

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They will be exposed.

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I want to say some things that I think are important or else I wouldn't be saying them.

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Not everyone here is going to appreciate what I'm going to say.

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We are living today in the midst of unprecedented apostasy.

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I believe it's only going to get worse as the age comes to a close.

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We are seeing today an increasing falling away from the revelation of God given in this

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book and in His Son, Jesus Christ.

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I believe that it's going to be intensified by several events that are going to take place

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probably in the next five years.

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I want to emphasize that what I'm about to share is my opinion.

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I am not speaking ex cathedra like the pope does.

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This is not revelation I'm giving, but I'm going to give you my opinion.

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Obviously I think I'm right or I wouldn't be saying it.

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I believe one of the events that's going to happen in the next five years that's going

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to hasten the apostasy is the collapse of the Charismatic Movement.

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I know that may offend some of you, but I believe that the collapse of most of the Charismatic

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Movement, which is impending, is going to disillusion so many people that they will

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completely reject what they have heard and will go in the other direction to error.

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I believe that coupled with that is going to come the collapse of many of the fundamentalist

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empires that are being built, at least in our country today too.

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Maybe they are out there on a shoestring or less.

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I believe that we are facing difficult economic times in the near future.

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That plus some other things will cause the collapse of some of the empires that are so

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well known and spouted across our country today.

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That too is going to cause a retreat toward apostasy and disillusionment.

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I think thirdly that we are going to see an aggressive rebound of liberalism, both politically

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and religiously.

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We have been writing a crest of conservatism that began perhaps in the early 70s politically.

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I don't know what the next election is going to bring, but my hunch is that it is going

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to start the pendulum moving back in the other direction toward liberal politics, being in

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control instead of reacting.

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At the same time that that happens, as often happens, there is going to be an upsurge of

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liberal theology.

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There are some people who think that religious liberals are dead.

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They are not.

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They have been caught off guard the last few years, but they are not dead.

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When some of these things that I have talked about begin to collapse, they are going to

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seize the opportunity of the moment to rise up.

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I believe one of the things they are going to do is to embrace a new theology that just

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now is beginning to come out of the shadows in the guise of what is called the New Age

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Movement.

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Time Magazine this last week had an article on New Age Music, which is a part of that.

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The theology of the New Age Movement is basically unitarian.

355
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God is whatever you say God is.

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After all, all roads lead to God, and their special emphasis is that man himself is his

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own God and can become God.

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I believe that that is going to become the new thing, the new fad that will sweep across

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this country theologically in the near future.

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The result of that, that all that I have talked about, is going to be a reaction to people

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like you and me.

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Whatever our politics, whether liberal or conservative, we are definitely on the conservative

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end theologically.

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We are going to begin hearing things like, if you believe that your religion is the only

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way to God, that is too narrow for the American way.

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For we are a pluralistic society, and there is not room for your kind of narrow thinking

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in our society.

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I am convinced that once our society realizes that we say that Jehovah God is the only true

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God, that Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation, once they understand we say that

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and we mean it, we really believe that there is going to be a reaction to it that will

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involve persecution.

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It may get to the point of becoming a governmental kind of persecution, so that we will be told

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that we cannot continue to operate as churches and believe those kinds of outdated ideas.

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You say, well that seems pretty far-fetched to me.

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Maybe it is.

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Maybe these are only the nightmares of one preacher, but I think they are more than that.

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I believe that we are living in the midst of unprecedented apostasy, but it has only

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begun folks.

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It has only begun.

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We are going to see hellish days come upon us in the Western culture.

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Others have already experienced this, but we are going to see it come upon us.

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We need to be ready for it.

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As we serve the Lord, we need to expect that the world is going to oppose us, and not by

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slapping our wrists.

385
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How do we prepare for it?

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The apostle gives us some direction here, and that is the second part of our text.

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I am going to close very quickly.

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He gives us direction to saints, and it is this, follow after the apostolic example.

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Notice he says that in verse 10, you followed my teaching and so on.

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He also outlines several important areas of life, and he says, look, Timothy, things are

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going to get tough.

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If you are going to stand, you are going to have to follow my example.

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Secondly, he tells him in verse 14, continue in your convictions.

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Let me ask you a question.

395
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Do you have any convictions?

396
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What are you willing to die for?

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That tests your convictions.

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We are living in a day when there are very few Christians with convictions.

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I am sad to say.

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00:34:00,160 --> 00:34:06,080
Frankly, if someone were to come up to me and say, look, Carl, I didn't like what you

401
00:34:06,080 --> 00:34:11,480
said about what you expect in the future, and you either recant of those opinions or

402
00:34:11,480 --> 00:34:14,880
I am going to shoot you, you know what I would do?

403
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:20,680
I would recant on the spot.

404
00:34:20,680 --> 00:34:25,720
Because I am not about to die for some opinion that I have.

405
00:34:25,720 --> 00:34:34,000
But on the other hand, if someone comes up to me and says, look, your teaching that Jesus

406
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:43,020
Christ is the only way of salvation is outmoded, it's not wanted, and if you expect to continue

407
00:34:43,020 --> 00:34:51,280
in ministry and have a church, you are going to have to update your message a little bit.

408
00:34:51,280 --> 00:34:55,120
Now we are getting serious.

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Because now we are dealing with conviction.

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00:34:59,240 --> 00:35:06,360
I want you to know that it could very well come to that point in the near future in our

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00:35:06,360 --> 00:35:09,360
nation.

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Therefore, we need this charge from Paul to Timothy to be our own.

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Continue in your convictions.

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Why?

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Because of the trustworthiness of those who told you.

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In Timothy's case, it was his mother and grandmother and Paul himself.

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I can't go on without pointing this out.

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00:35:29,400 --> 00:35:31,600
Paul Timothy was a little boy.

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00:35:31,600 --> 00:35:39,520
In his childhood, as was customary in the Jewish home, he was taught the truth of God's

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revelation from the Old Testament Scriptures.

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Do you know how to make your life count for the most?

422
00:35:45,640 --> 00:35:52,800
Do you know how to really get the return on the investment of your energy, your gifts,

423
00:35:52,800 --> 00:35:53,800
your talents?

424
00:35:53,800 --> 00:35:56,520
I will tell you how to do it.

425
00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:03,520
Go teach a Sunday school class.

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Because there you are teaching a child who is going to grow up and affect the next generation

427
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:12,960
beyond your own.

428
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:15,840
Work in a wanna.

429
00:36:15,840 --> 00:36:18,440
Instruct your children.

430
00:36:18,440 --> 00:36:20,960
Spend time with the little ones.

431
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:21,960
Teaching them the truth.

432
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:22,960
Oh, I know.

433
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:27,080
There is this idea, well, I don't want to force anything on my kids and when they grow

434
00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:29,280
up they can make up their own minds.

435
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:30,280
Baloney.

436
00:36:30,280 --> 00:36:31,280
That's garbage.

437
00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,680
That is of Satan.

438
00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:43,160
God expects us to train up our children in the way they should go when they are young.

439
00:36:43,160 --> 00:36:44,520
Timothy was taught as a young man.

440
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:50,720
Paul says, look Timothy, don't put away your convictions because you know who taught

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00:36:50,720 --> 00:36:52,080
them to you.

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00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:57,320
And because, he says to him, and even more importantly, what you believe is derived from

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00:36:57,320 --> 00:37:02,240
scriptures, the sacred writings, and they finally have brought you salvation.

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00:37:02,240 --> 00:37:04,420
They've changed your life, Timothy.

445
00:37:04,420 --> 00:37:08,680
Do not forsake your convictions.

446
00:37:08,680 --> 00:37:09,680
Continue in them.

447
00:37:09,680 --> 00:37:16,640
And then as a word of encouragement, in his direction as saints, the apostle says this,

448
00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:19,880
look, be assured of the Lord's deliverance.

449
00:37:19,880 --> 00:37:21,040
Tough times are going to come.

450
00:37:21,040 --> 00:37:24,880
But notice what he says to Timothy here about his own experience.

451
00:37:24,880 --> 00:37:28,440
He says in verse 11, what persecutions I endured.

452
00:37:28,440 --> 00:37:33,380
And remember he was even stoned, put to death, and was raised from the dead.

453
00:37:33,380 --> 00:37:37,920
He says, out of them all the Lord delivered me.

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00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:39,440
You see his encouragement there?

455
00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,480
He says, Timothy, tough times are ahead.

456
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:45,960
But listen, the Lord's with you.

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00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:54,760
He hasn't forsaken you, and he is going to deliver you out of those tough times to come.

458
00:37:54,760 --> 00:38:02,040
However sharp the opposition may be, it's already defeated, ultimately, because Jesus

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00:38:02,040 --> 00:38:03,160
has prevailed.

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00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:09,800
My friend, as you and I serve the Lord, we better not be naive.

461
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:14,480
We better recognize that we're serving the Lord in terrible times, and it's going to

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00:38:14,480 --> 00:38:16,360
get worse.

463
00:38:16,360 --> 00:38:21,400
And we must not allow that to deter us.

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And yet, if I may say so gently, there are some of us today who are facing tough times

465
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:29,280
and we're ready to quit.

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How are you going to stand it five years from now, my friend, when it's really tough?

467
00:38:38,640 --> 00:38:41,520
Now is the time we better be getting our strength together.

468
00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:43,320
We better be laying the foundation.

469
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We better be building our courage.

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This is not the time to quit.

471
00:38:49,440 --> 00:38:54,600
This is the time to redouble our efforts, to rededicate every part of us, as the song

472
00:38:54,600 --> 00:39:02,000
sang before we began to preach this morning, to give it to the Lord so that our lives can

473
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:09,760
count in the tough times ahead and we can stick with our service for Jesus Christ.

474
00:39:09,760 --> 00:39:13,240
It may be that you're really discouraged and you feel heavy in your burden because of some

475
00:39:13,240 --> 00:39:14,240
things in your life.

476
00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:22,360
Maybe you are facing some hellish times yourself, tomorrow or this week.

477
00:39:22,360 --> 00:39:28,960
May I remind you the Lord is with you, if you're one of His.

478
00:39:28,960 --> 00:39:32,400
And just as He delivered Paul, He's able to deliver you.

479
00:39:32,400 --> 00:39:34,920
And so come to Him with that burden.

480
00:39:34,920 --> 00:39:38,800
Come to Him with those fears that are very real that you have.

481
00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:43,840
And let Him bring deliverance from them all.

482
00:39:43,840 --> 00:40:11,840
Let's pray together.