1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter
times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and
doctrines of devils;
2 Thessalonians 2:3 speaks of the great falling away. The word expressly
means clearly with no ambiguity or confusion.
The Holy Spirit is saying, “Let me make one thing perfectly clear…in
the latter (end) times some shall desert or revolt against the Lord of the
universe. It’s not a matter of just
quitting. When I took a vow upon joining the military I was told that from that
moment until my enlistment was up, it was a crime to refuse a direct order or
to fail to live up to government standards.
You cannot be born again…again. You have been reborn and renewed. For this reason backsliding is considered
treason against God. Some say you can
never lose your salvation and if you continue in our Lord that is absolutely
true. This is not to say you can’t give
up your salvation. Hebrews 6:4-6 says
that once you have had the revelation of Christ’s sacrifice, accept His
gracious gift and then knowingly fall away, you cannot be redeemed again to
salvation. Your end after that is to be
burned. In God’s eyes you have put His
Son to open shame.
Sadly, many will give ear to spirits whispering seductive
ideas and thoughts and demonic doctrines that sound just close enough to the
truth to cause some to stumble. I
watched a play tonight and the actor reminded a woman who was trying to be one
with the universe that the universe didn’t die for her. The Creator of the Universe died for her and
it didn’t make sense to serve the creation rather than the creator when He was
available. Satan is the father of lies
(John 8:44). Our God is the God of
truth. He does not lie…ever.
2 Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience
seared with a hot iron;
It’s bad enough to be a liar who won’t tell the truth. It’s bad enough to be a hypocrite who won’t
live the truth. When you are a lying
hypocrite who lives and tells a lie at the same time you are going to awaken
one morning not knowing where you are, who you are or what you are doing. You have become like the drug addict who
knocks down an old lady in the street to steal the money from her purse and
then runs off leaving his bleeding mother behind weeping for her lost
child. You have become what the Bible
calls a brute beast (2 Peter 2:12; Jude 1:10), without conscience or
morals.
When something is seared with a hot iron, it becomes scar
tissue. Blood no longer flows through it
and though it keeps its integrity of shape there is no real feeling because all
sensitivities are dead. Since you are
but scar tissue you are dead and unable to reproduce. Your conscience no longer experiences the
love of a parent or spouse. You are twice
cursed, cut off from mankind and God. In
Psalm 51 David cried to God, “10 Create
in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and
take not thy holy spirit from me. 12
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation…”
David’s great fear was that his sin might cause God to turn
him off. God doesn’t use a literal hot
iron to sear your conscience. We are so
full of ourselves that we think we have created God with our minds or come to
Him because we chose to do so in our own strength. The only reason we love is because God gives
us love (Romans 5:5-6), and the reason we have faith to believe is that God
gave us that too (Romans 12:3). Ephesians
4:29-32 explains how we ought to care for one another, even those who have hurt
us. If you are angry with your brother,
even with good cause as the world sees good cause, you are are weak,
unprotected (by God) and fail to acknowledge the gift of Christ in your life
and fail to apply that mercy to others in your life.
I can witness but I can’t make or convince someone to
believe in God. Only the Holy Spirit can
do that. I have however planted a seed
and suggested to that person to give God a chance to prove Himself. I have said, “If you find yourself wondering
if all this is true and desire to know the truth, ask God to prove Himself to
you. If you really want to know and ask
Him to show you the truth He will.” I
didn’t say they had to believe in God. I
didn’t scream at them that they are going to Hell. I suggested lovingly and with real concern
that they simply ask for themselves.
Some of us make it so hard to want to be saved. We curse them out or tell them they’re going
to Hell. We make them feel miserable
about who they are when they might be good or bad people but they have told
themselves they're okay. Any time you
threaten someone they will fight to defend themselves, even from a
thought. It’s better to leave them with
the knowledge that if life really hits them hard it might be a good idea to ask
God if He is real and if so …will He help?
Let them know that if they do find themselves in real need they can ask
Jesus to come into their hearts and help their situation.
Once you have done this it becomes God’s responsibility to
water that seed and make it grow. You
haven’t threatened them and you haven’t forced them to face a life they might
not be able to face right now. Sure
there are times to ask someone to receive Christ but it’s probably after
someone else has already planted a seed of love and the person has come
unknowingly to you to bring in the harvest.
Sure there are times to tell someone that Hell is real and everyone must
choose, but it needs to be done in love.
It needs to leave them with a question in the back of their minds that
they want answered and you made it easy to ask God the question.
3 Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from
meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which
believe and know the truth.
Every religion and many of their leaders have embraced
asceticism at one time or another. In
biblical doctrine there is a purpose and time for fasting but even then we are
admonished to temper that with the enjoyment of married life so we do not tempt
ourselves into committing sin. Consider
the Catholic practice of forbidding priests to marry. Paul admitted that he had no real need to be
married at the stage of life when Christ approached him (1 Corinthians 7). He even stepped outside of God’s commandments
and admitted that in his mind men would be better off if they were comfortable
remaining unmarried.
That was the end of his opinion. Paul continued to say that if two people were
beginning to see each other as more than brother or sister and they were
unmarried then they should marry. He
said it was better to marry than to burn with lust for that sexual
companionship (1 Corinthians 7:9). In
the Catholic church priests are forbidden to marry which is odd since they believe
Peter (a married man) to be the first Pope.
Since male priests are cloistered away in their apartments and female
nuns are cloistered away in theirs, was it any surprise that those unrequited
sexual urges found an outlet that was are more deplorable than a priest who was
married.
Because of this unscriptural restriction toward marriage the
priesthood began to draw men and women who had no interest in the opposite
sex. They still had needs and drives,
simply no safe outlet for them. This is
as unsurprising as it was unnecessary.
Had they continued to allow priests to experience the whole of life like
Paul instructed, they would have had well rounded ministers of the Gospel
rather than an unhealthy percentage of predators. When you take away the freedoms God gave us
for the sake of deeper consecration you fail to take into account that every
man and woman differs in strength of will and character. He allows men and women to marry to procreate
and to fulfill the needs of our natural human side. Once these powerful human needs are met in a
healthy and sanctified manner our spirit can lead unimpaired.
As for foods, in the Messianic movement today we see
Christian ministers abstaining from non-kosher foods in an attempt to get
closer to their Jewish roots. I won’t
argue that some non-kosher foods are less healthy than kosher ones because that
isn’t the point. Peter didn’t just
decide to start eating whatever he wanted, God commanded him to (Acts
10:13-15). It wasn’t just about food; I
understand that God was also speaking of ministering to Gentiles. It was about the entire scope of our
Christian walk. Did it change the 10
commandments? Not at all. What it changed were the peculiar laws that
made Israel unique and separate from the rest of humanity. Most of these were spiritualized and held in
our hearts. Some, like marriage being
between man and woman only, were reinforced in the New Testament and
unchanged.
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be
refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: 5 For it is sanctified by the
word of God and prayer.
We have eaten everything from blood pudding (yuck) to haggis
to things I don’t even want to think about.
Knowing God’s prohibitions against some foods in the past, there are
some I would not eat now for two reasons.
One is that some of the delicacies eaten throughout the world are
awful. I’m sure that John the Baptist
thought locusts and wild honey were wonderful but I will pass on the voracious
grasshopper lunch. The other reason is
that I might cause someone to stumble if they see me eating certain foods. That I have the freedom to eat what I want
with the exception of things strangled or offered to idols or blood, I should
not use these things against those with a weaker sense of freedom.
This is particularly important. Just because God released certain things to
you and said they are perfectly fine if taken with thanksgiving, does not give
you the right to cause others to stumble (1 Corinthians 8). If my rights send me down a path where I
cause someone else to falter, where is my love?
Scripture says if I do this the love of God does not abide in me. Whatever we do we must do for love.
6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these
things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the
words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
Sometimes you forget that this powerful and life changing
document we have been studying is just a letter, written by a father to a
son. I can read it as if it is written
to me. The lessons here are mine to grow
by. If I never had any other book to
read and study, this one would be enough to walk before God in Christ. Doctrine is here. Ministry gifts are here. The books of first and second Timothy are
books of great wisdom written by one of the great Bible teachers of all
time. If we can live them, we can have
the blessings of God.
7 But refuse profane and old wives 'fables, and exercise
thyself rather unto godliness.
If you get your wife pregnant on the second Tuesday of the
month in the South bedroom you will have a boy.
No seriously; this is proven.
Okay, I admit I made it up. You
don’t have to throw salt over your shoulder or spit to scare away evil spirits.
Come on; you have even more that I haven’t heard of. God said that if a couple is faithful in love
and sanctification in soberness to God the woman will be preserved in child
bearing (1 Timothy 2:15). You don’t need
an old wives tale for that; just a promise of God and two people living right. Do you know who you are in Christ or
not. Is your lifestyle up to His
standards or not. Is one of your
lifestyles up to it but the other isn’t?
Guess what? It matters. I guess unequally yoked is not a good
idea. I’ll tell you something shocking. A minister who puts his church ahead of his
wife and family is not much of a minister.
First natural then spiritual. If
you are faithless to a wife or child you have proved yourself faithless toward
God and He will hear the cries of that wronged woman and child.
Another thing, stop worrying about Friday the 13th. It’s just a day. If 13 is unlucky, why is the most important
chapter in the Bible the 13th chapter. No, I’m not telling you which one it is; it
should be jumping out at your mind.
Every nation or religion has good numbers and bad numbers. Do they matter? Only in as much as God supports certain
numbers and dates. Mostly we just need
to learn how to obey God fully. I read
the other day a man was going to quit his job because his employee number was
666. I admit I might ask for a new
number but quit a job I need because of it?
I would pray and ask God to sanctify my employee number and keep on
ministering the Word of God.
Beloved, I believe with all my heart that the most
successful saints are going to be the ones who won’t change direction because
someone complained and don’t care about which food someone eats or drinks
because they believe God’s Word implicitly.
Am I superstitious? If I am it is
very little and I’m working on that. I
love my Lord and will continue in Him until all doctrines of demons have been
eradicated from my life and my flesh says, “I surrender.”
8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is
profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that
which is to come.
I’m getting fat.
Sorry it’s true. I don’t have a
working scale right now but I might be a few pounds over my all time high. I have had people tell me exercise is a sin
because they read this verse. What this
verse says is, “Exercise for your physical body will only profit you for a short
span while you live on the Earth but godliness profits your life in every
single area and is eternal. Are you
still alive? Godliness isn’t just a
blessing in the life to come, but blesses your life even now while you are
living in this weak and beggarly flesh.”
I am reminded of something a great preacher (in my mind),
Kenneth Copeland once said. He was
really getting obese and God told him he needed to work out and lose most of
that weight. When he asked God why, God
said Copeland wouldn’t be able to keep up with God’s pace if he didn’t stay in
shape. I’ve known pastors who were
gluttons in every sense of the word. One
man was married, about five hundred pounds and had diabetes so bad his earlobes
had fallen off. He still kept eating
until he died. Wonderful pastor, loved
his people but wouldn’t control his stomach.
Was it his time to go or did he force the issue. I wonder what God said when he arrived? “What are you doing here son? You’re not due for thirty more years.”
You can’t do whatever you want just because the Bible says
we are free in Christ Jesus. No matter
your level of freedom, love will constrain you to treat people right, care for
this body God has given and eat sensibly.
Be temperate in all things beloved.
Let God know you can be trusted to do the right thing.
9 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all
acceptation. 10 For therefore we both labor and suffer reproach, because we
trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, specially of those that
believe.
No matter what you eat, someone will disagree. No matter if you ordain women or refuse to
ordain women, someone will disagree. No
matter if you exercise or not, forgive or not, encourage or not, marry or not,
have children or not, you will find those who agree with you and those who call
you a fool. You can be the most
gracious, loving and kindly person in the world and someone will hate you for
some perceived flaw. Human nature gossips. Human nature hates and blasphemes. Human nature will argue unto death that they
are right and you are wrong. Don’t agree
with me? See? I was right.
You cannot serve someone who is holy, righteous, loving,
kind, gracious, giving, merciful, perfect and everything else you could expect
in a perfect God and not irritate those men and women who are not willing to
love your God. Someone will be upset by
you and some might hate you enough to try and kill you. This life is not for the weak of heart.
11 These things command and teach.
In Mark 8:38 Jesus said that whoever is ashamed of either
Him or His Words when Jesus comes for us in glory He will be ashamed of them. Perhaps you became a Christian and are not
one of those who rush out to tell everyone about Jesus. I’m certain the world would breathe a sigh of
relief, but take care. This is not a
good frame of mind to be in. Paul, and I
am persuaded God, order us to command and teach God’s Word.
I have had men and women tell me, “That works for you but I
don’t believe like you do. You are a
minister and I’m not. I love God. He knows my heart. I don’t want to cause a scene.” I hear you and don’t like to create scenes
either. Having said that, I don’t
believe in temporizing God’s word and leaving parts of it off as too painful or
difficult to follow. Many of you
actually follow the words but are too embarrassed to teach them to others.
I have been threatened before and my response is often, “I
may not have the political, financial or physical fighting skills to take you
on but my spiritual skills will ruin your life if you continue this
course. God defends me when I pray or
even if I am unable to pray. He is not
afraid of you and you should be afraid of Him.”
We are not our own. We are bought
with a price and should be willing to be spent completely if that is God’s
choice.
12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example
of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in
purity.
The young are full of fire and passion while the more mature
have the wisdom of their years. In this
case, Timothy had trained under a great man of God and his knowledge was years
ahead of most others. Notice how he was
supposed to keep himself. The word
translated believers was faithful. Be a
pattern of faithfulness worthy to be followed.
Do you think this is important? I
stated earlier that you are always being observed and followed by someone. Hold that faithfulness in obedience to God’s
Word, in how you behave seen or unseen, always walking in God’s agape love. Will those who follow you stumble or mount up
higher and higher in the spirit of God, His faith and holiness? The wise follow God but the simple follow a
man. Will they succeed following you? Will they grow into wise and mature saints if
they follow you?
13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to
exhortation, to doctrine.
Paul always hoped to have an opportunity to come to them but
lacking that he taught by letter. We
have the Holy Spirit. We have anointed
leaders sent by God and we have this man’s God breathed knowledge. I know those who hate to read but you cannot
grow without His Word. Get the Bible on
tape and listen to it exhaustively so whenever an anointed man of God explains
a particular passage you are already familiar with it and ready to step up to
the next level.
I used to drive a tractor at work and would listen to my
Walkman and the Bible on cassette. One
90 minute cassette would last all day flipping it over again and again. The next day I would listen to the next tape
and within a few months I would have heard the entire Bible several times, and
while that is not as thorough as sight studying it was a wonderful
foundation. We would get together often
and play Bible trivia or other Bible games and others were often amazed at my
knowledge of scripture. We took that time
to encourage one another and make sure we kept our doctrine untainted by
worldly pursuits or desires.
My favorite Bible reader is Alexander Scorby who passed away
years ago. I have the entire King James
Bible read by him on MP3 now and loaded onto my phone. You can also find it in CD. While driving alone or riding my bike, I will
let the scripture wash over me listening to God’s Spirit for moments of
revelation. One important point to
consider. If you don’t want to
study and don’t want to fellowship and don’t want to pray it is
past time to fast and pray. We are drawn
to God by the working of His Holy Spirit and if that gentle tug has ceased or
become weak you are too far from God in your daily consecration. Don’t wait until sin or calamity forces you
back into your Savior’s arms. Climb back
up there yourselves through fasting and prayer.
14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given
thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.
This is much like my last comment. There was a time when I ceased regular prayer
and church attendance. I followed after
pursuits that seemed more fun…like that’s the most important thing. I still went to church every month or so and
prayed when things got bad but I was not hearing God; my prophetic gifts were
rusty and one day when I returned fully to God I realized, I couldn’t pray in
tongues any more. Right now I can easily
pray in tongues and they come forth like water over a rocky stream; but back
then I couldn’t.
I was told a few years ago that I pray in tongues too loud;
some might even think too much. I don’t
care. Paul said, “I thank God that I
pray in tongues more than ye all (1 Corinthians 14:18).” We choose to hang on verse 19 to the
exclusion of 18 but that is a trap that leads to neglecting one of God’s
gifts. In my case I must pray in tongues
to minister in the Spirit because that is how my giftings work. I don’t think God was going to take a chance
that I would neglect that gift again.
I’ll tell you what I think though. I think we’re embarrassed to be seen (or
heard) praying in tongues. How can we
fellowship with those other churches who don’t do the whole tongues and
prophecy thing? We need to be more like
them. Hogwash. If we are using all the gifts God has given
us as well as observing sound doctrine and scriptural living we are better off
than dropping one or the other. Some
call Pentecostals backward hillbillies because so many don’t learn the deep
doctrines of God’s word while the Pentecostals call those others dead and dying
because the fire and intimacy of hearing God seems to be missing.
Both are wrong because you need both. Paul always taught deep doctrine and a
powerful prophetic gifting. He never
told a prophet they didn’t know what they were talking about but that even with
the warning he was going forward. God
warns us so we can be prepared in prayer and fasting, not necessarily so we
won’t go through the trial. I know this
from experience. Tongues just sends a
shiver through me every time I pray. It
is easy to get addicted to it since you have nothing to do with the prayer
except air over your vocal cords, it’s all God.
What a wonderful thing.
15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to
them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
2 Peter 1:5 And beside
this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience
godliness; 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness
charity. 8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye
shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. 16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them:
for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
Sound familiar? There
are many instances of what the Jews call remez,
a hint of another verse. In this case
the scripture from Peter is a remez and the one from Paul is simply the fact
that he considers these things to be absolutely imperative for the work of
God. I don’t think Peter and Paul were
giving each other crib notes. Peter as
we know was very highly in tune with the Holy Spirit (Acts 3:6). This unlearned fisherman made a lot of
ignorant mistakes when he first got saved; but once he was filled with the Holy
Spirit those mistakes ceased.
Philippians 4:8
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things. 9 Those things, which ye
have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of
peace shall be with you.
16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine;
continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that
hear thee.
Paul spoke of the importance of doctrine twelve times in his
letters to Timothy alone. In Philippians 3:14 he tells us to press toward the
mark; in fact if you were to write all the teachings of Paul as a list (and I’m
sure someone somewhere has) it would repeat each of these valuable lessons
several times which shows how desperately important all these admonitions are
for our daily walk with God. As
important as it is in our own lives, it is apparently equally important to
those we tell.
I guess what I’m saying is… “Can I get a witness?”
Bishop J
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