2 Timothy chapter 3 beginning in verse number 1 the Bible says this know also that in the
last days perilous times shall come and the word perilous means dangerous times will come
and I believe that we're living in those days and the Bible says in verse number 2 the reason
why those days are going to be perilous or dangerous or bad in many ways it says for
men shall be lovers of their own selves and it lists a whole bunch of other things but
really that's the crux of where all this begins all the sin that's listed here it all begins
with men shall be lovers of their own selves because that's what would cause a person to
be covetous what is a covetous person it's one who desires to have more for themselves
than what they have they're not content with what they have that's the opposite of covetousness
contentment but they want more for themselves they look at what other people have and they
wish that it belonged to them that's covetousness boasters obviously a person who loves themselves
is going to boast about all their achievements and about all their great attributes right
proud well that goes right hand in hand with being a boaster and with loving your own self
blasphemers well if you love pleasures at the end of verse 4 more than you love God
and if you're a lover of your own self and you're a proud boaster of course you're going
to speak against the Lord and speak blasphemous things because you're thinking of yourself
more highly than you ought to think so you're going to take down God a notch or two so it
says proud blasphemers disobedient to parents see the type of person who's proud arrogant
boastful they don't want anybody to tell them what to do they don't want any authority
in their life so they're going to be disobedient to their parents they're going to be disobedient
to the boss at work they're going to be disobedient to whoever is a legitimate authority in their
life unthankful unholy without natural affection truce breakers false accusers incontinent
fierce despisers of those that are good traders heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more
than lovers of God so let's stop and look at these oh one by one here lovers of their
own selves the way that we can see this in our generation is the obsessive and just over
the top number of selfies that people take now I'm not saying there's anything wrong
with taking the occasional selfie but I'm talking about where it's just constant uploading
of images of yourself and taking pictures of yourself I mean I've been out and about
and seeing people in public do like an hour photo shoot or a 90 minute photo shoot of
themselves and they're just they're just posing and they're they're all by themselves just
taking all kinds of pictures I mean it just goes on and on and on and you're like how
long are they going to work on this and they're just staging it and taking so many pictures
of themselves and we see the the muscle heads that they go to the gym and work out and look
I I love to work out I I'm all for staying in shape but did you know that you can stay
in shape without taking a picture of yourself in front of the mirror did you know that yeah
what if I told you that you could actually build big muscles and not take off your shirt
and take a photograph in the mirror flexing and upload it everywhere and every and here's
the thing you think that oh man this picture picture looks so good because you love yourself
so much but honestly it looks silly to everyone else of why is this guy uploading all these
pictures where he's flexing and showing us his muscles and everything like that just
seems it seems kind of silly and just the constant and then that you know it's not just
the guys that do it because the women they do it they make all these faces and they they
it's like a daily selfie and now they even decorate it with animal attributes and stuff
who knows what I'm talking about what is up with that now they put like whiskers and ears
on themselves and just think but it's just like you know you could go overboard just
taking pictures of yourself and just being obsessed with yourself and just staring at
yourself in the mirror and just loving yourself too much it's an epidemic today so we need
to make sure that we get things in their proper order in our lives and this is the order Jesus
then others then you that's how you spell joy Jesus others and then you but the people
that are being described here is just all about them they just love their own selves
they despise those that are good they'll break truces what's a truce breaker that's somebody
who makes an agreement or a covenant or a contract and they break their word they commit
to doing something and they don't get it done they'll falsely accuse people because they
only care about themselves they don't care about other people so of course they're going
to be a truce breaker a false accuser they despise those that are good they only love
themselves they love pleasures for themselves more than they love God so they don't have
Jesus in his proper place as the the preeminent first place in their life they don't have
other people in mind as the second priority and putting themselves last but rather they
put themselves first in everything that they do they become covetous they just desire to
gratify themselves with more possessions and more goods then it says next boasters
let me give you something to think about whatever a person boasts about is usually where they
lack the most you show me what you boast about and I'll show you where you lack because you'll
find people boasting about things that are a weakness for them because they're trying
they have a need to persuade you that they're good in that area because they're not you
know whenever somebody tells you what a hard worker they are and they keep singing that
means they're probably a pretty lazy person if they're constantly telling you what a good
worker they are you know if somebody brags about this achievement or that achievement
it probably means that they're not good at it you know I remember that there were guys
in high school that would brag about how much they could lift but then you'd say okay well
there's a set of weights in the other room let's go see it oh why because people tend
to boast about things that are actually an area of insecurity for them so they're trying
to convince everybody that they're strong in that area so boasters braggarts right telling
everybody how the Bible says let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth now little
children will tend to praise themselves little toddlers they'll come up and tell you about
all their achievements but what that means is that when we get mature when we grow up
we should grow out of that that's a childish behavior that's a babe in Christ that's a
juvenile thing to do when you're bragging about yourself and and boasting coverage is
boasters proud obviously pride goes hand in hand with boasting pride is when you think
more highly of yourself than you ought to think blasphemers disobedient to parents and
unthankful they don't appreciate what other people do for them they don't give other people
any credit they're not grateful for what other people do why because the focus is all on
self they're just lovers of their own selves they're unholy they're without natural affection
truce breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despised of those that are good what
does it mean to be incontinent that means that you cannot contain yourself it means
that you cannot resist the urge to commit fornication it means that you cannot resist
the urge to take another drink you cannot resist the urge to take drugs or to smoke
a cigarette or whatever you just indulge everything you're incontinent you can't contain your
desires and urges and lusts fierce you know this could refer to violence the Bible says
despisers of those that are good they don't like people that are good traitors what's
a traitor somebody who betrays you someone that you put trust in and they stab you in
the back that's a traitor Judas was the traitor because he betrayed Christ heady is another
word that has to do with arrogance or pride high minded again pride lovers of pleasures
more than lovers of God so if we look at the list here how many of these things have to
do directly with pride let's count lovers of their own selves boasters for sure right
proud unthankful I would say these things directly are connected to pride very strongly
despisers of those that are good why because they're all that in a bag of chips and they
despise the people who really have it together okay that's five heady and high minded that's
six seven so seven of these things are just pretty much other ways of saying they're prideful
they're lovers of their own selves so that's a strong emphasis in this passage and people
like that make the world a dangerous place why because these people have no bottom they
have no they'll sink to all depths they'll do any anything so this is where the world
becomes and this is the kind of generation that we're raising today in America a lot
of children are just being raised to just think everything's about them the world revolves
around them they're lovers of their own selves they're disobedient to their parents their
parents are sparing the rod and they are going to grow up and be wicked people that are going
to harm every aspect of society let's flip over to Galatians chapter five there's a pretty
similar list of sins over in Galatians five when it talks about the works of the flesh
the works of the flesh are manifest which are these I always love the lists of sins
in the Bible you know like Romans chapter one lists a lot of the sins that the the reprobates
are into or when Jesus lists all the the evil things that come out of the heart of man or
we've got this list in Galatians five of the works of the flesh we got the list in second
Timothy three I love these lists in the New Testament where he lists off all these sins
and it's interesting to see how things are kind of connected in that list because we
just saw a serious connection in the list we just looked at right seven of them directly
had to do with pride and then pretty much everything else indirectly stemmed from that
same prideful attitude we'll look at Galatians chapter five we find a similar list and you
can see how things are put in categories in a sense it says in verse 19 now the works
of the flesh are manifest meaning these things are obvious we can see them blatantly exposed
in people's lives these are clearly not things that are spiritual these are clearly things
that are of the flesh the works of the flesh are manifest which are these adultery fornication
uncleanness lasciviousness let me ask you something do those four things go together
absolutely these all have to do with sins that would have to do with the bedroom right
fornication adultery uncleanness and lasciviousness are just four categories of that same type
of sin so it makes sense that it's all in one verse there right let's look at the next
verse we see another cluster of sins or group of sins idolatry witchcraft hatred variance
emulations wrath strife seditions heresies now that's a pretty interesting list first
of all let's look at the first few here let's let's we're gonna come back to idolatry and
witchcraft but let's talk about hatred variance emulations wrath stripes additions okay think
about this progression right the person who is a lover of them their own selves from second
timothy three right what else do they do according to second timothy three they despise those
that are good don't they so isn't despite another word for hatred in many contexts you
know if i despise someone that's similar to hating someone those words are very similar
so they despise those who are good they have hatred in their heart toward those who are
good how about their parents for example remember disobedient to parents that could be an example
of of who they could despise they could despise their parents they could despise their pastor
despise their teachers despising anyone who's in authority over them they have hatred and
they despise them which leads them into variance now what is variance variance is basically
being different for the sake of being different this is the person who disagrees with everything
that you say even when it's totally not necessary they want to disagree they're just a froward
or contrary person just a contrary individual i think it's contrariate is the word and this
type of person practices variance they just want to be different so basically the teacher
tells them something the pastor tells them something from the word of god or let's say
they're at home and their parents tell them something they just automatically want to
go with the opposite or go with something different why because they despise that person
so hatred leads them to variance right variance just being different for the sake of being
different argumentative froward whatever you want to call it then we go from variance into
emulations now what are emulations well to emulate someone is to try to be like them
now this could be a good thing like for example paul said that he wanted to provoke to emulation
those that were of his flesh that he might save some of them you know he wanted some
of them to emulate him in a good sense meaning follow him be like him and so forth but these
type of emulations is envying or coveting that person's position or what they've achieved
or who they are it's basically being a a poser right you know is that an 80s term or 90s
or what is that emulations has to do with being a poser think about you're too old sorry
think about you're too old sorry you know think about think about a simulator think
about simulation right it's a similar word to emulation right to simulate something is
you feel like you're doing it well emulations is you know you want to be somebody else or
you want to take the place of someone else so it's similar to covetousness or envy emulations
wrath which is intense anger which makes sense if you if you hate somebody you're going
to get angry at them strife this is when you're not getting along you're contending that makes
sense if you're practicing variance you're going to be constantly getting in arguments
and not getting along sedition what is sedition sedition is when you sneak around and try
sneak around and try to create rebellion right sedition would be if i go around try to get
my faction together and try to draw away people and and have a rebellion or sedition sedition
you have you ever heard of those of you who are american history buffs have you ever heard
of the alien and sedition act who knows what i'm talking about passed by john adams right
am i right about that it's been a while since i read those books okay well three people
know exactly what i'm talking about with sedition they know what sedition means the rest of
you're gonna have to look it up in the dictionary but sedition has to do with a rebellion that's
basically kept secret it's done uh uh you know behind closed doors it's done under the
cover of darkness that's what sedition is heresies heresies what's heresy well obviously
that's teaching things that are contrary to the bible teaching false doctrine teaching
things that are just in direct opposition to what the scripture teaches heresy and you
can see how the person who has disgust for authority doesn't want to get along wants
to be different for the sake of being different and practicing sedition would end up going
into heresy because when you start wanting to be different for the sake of being different
you end up teaching heresy you see you know last night we were talking about this in the
preaching class i don't remember who it was that that brought this up but they they said
hey you know you should always i think it was you jared you always start with the the
traditional view always start with the default view of what our parents did and what our
parents have believed and our grandparents have believed and what baptists who've gone
on before us have believed that's what we should always start with and we should only
discard tradition if it's wrong but there's a lot of tradition that's good paul said hold
the traditions which you've been taught whether by word or our epistle so we shouldn't just
be ready to just change on a dime ready on a hair trigger to discard tradition and to
just be carried about with every wind of doctrine that's just you know that's just variance
when you're just looking for things to change let's see if we can find something wrong with
the way the baptists are doing it so that we can be different so that we can lift ourselves
up and be variant and emulate great men without being a great man but rather through heresy
now think about that this is what happens all the time people trying to be different
they want to start something new you know that's how joseph smith got started he baptized
himself because nobody everybody's wrong go baptize myself look the holy spirit's been
on this earth for a couple thousand years they've always been believers they've always
been people preaching right and so what we ought to do is by default we should stick
with tradition stay and you know any ah you're so interesting yeah we are because we're not
just carried about with every wind of doctrine we're rooted and grounded in certain things
everything's not on the table everything's not up for grabs if we're going to change
our doctrine or change our beliefs on something there must be a compelling reason to do so
and the burden of proof should be on the weird new doctrine not on the traditional doctrine
the traditional doctrine is by default that's what we should stick with unless we can prove
beyond any shadow of the doubt hey it's wrong the bible's saying something different then
we need to go with what the bible says because the bible always trumps tradition we never
want to make the word of god of none effect through our tradition so for example you know
a lot of people have a strong tradition of the pre-trib rapture i mean that's what their
parents believe that's what their church believes that's a pretty strong tradition well here's
the thing obviously that shouldn't be discarded by them lightly but when you show them just
clear scripture as plain as the nose on your face and when there's no bible verse that
says it's pre-trib there's not even one in the whole new testament and you can prove
it six different ways to sunday that it's false then that tradition must be discarded
but that doesn't mean that we're just going to start throwing out everything no wrong
and when i rejected the pre-trib rapture i didn't do it lightly i studied and studied
and studied and read and read and memorized you know i didn't just say well let me be
different and listen i've never tried to be different when i was an independent fundamental
baptist teenager going to an independent fundamental baptist church and just sitting in the pew
you know what i walked into church believing that the pastor was there to preach me the
truth ready to hear ready to receive the word of god not trying to pick it apart and figure
out how i could be different you know i went into it believing what he said and giving
him the benefit of the doubt until something he said would just directly contradict scripture
of course then i'm going to go with scripture but i didn't go into it like this you know
just trying to be variant trying to be different and you know when i started this church i
didn't try to start it to be different i actually just was just trying to be biblical and i
was following the independent fundamental baptist heritage that i'd been taught but
obviously when you come to situations where the tradition contradicts the bible you go
with the bible but what we have is a bunch of unlearned new believers people who've barely
even read the bible a few times just following all kinds of half-baked doctrine half-baked
theories whatever is floating around on the internet or floating around on youtube and
they're just because they just have a desire to be different it's the same just like a
teenager who dyes his hair green they want to be different they want to stand out they're
insecure and so they want to be different so they dream up these things so we can see
how the hatred leads to variants emulations wrath strife seditions and ultimately to heresy
you say where does idolatry and witchcraft fit in well the bible says rebellion is as
the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry so two things that
you could relate with idolatry and witchcraft are rebellion and stubbornness and guess what
rebellion is like sedition and stubbornness is when they preach the heresy and it's disproved
by the bible and they just dig in yeah and stay with the heresy and then he lists other
sins in the next verse but let's go back to second timothy chapter three this know also
that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own
selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy without
natural affection truce breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that
are good traitors heady high minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of god why would
they despise those who are good why did cain hate apel because his own works were evil
and his brothers righteous marvel not my brother and if the world hates you despisers of those
that are good think about this what if you were a poser in some other area of life right
let's say on a skateboard you're a poser all right well guess what you're gonna despise
those who are good because they show you to be the fraud that you are you understand what
i'm saying and that's obviously a silly juvenile illustration but now apply that to spiritual
things you can see why the poser would despise those who are good the bible says in verse
four traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of god having a
form of godliness you know so you could look at these people and think that they're spiritual
if you're not careful because they do have a form of godliness meaning that outwardly
you could see something that looks like or is shaped like godliness but they deny the
power thereof from such turn away for this sort of they would creep into houses and lead
captive silly women laden with sins led away with diverse lust these are pretty bad people
right i mean if they're creeping into houses and leading captive silly women laden with
sins led away with diverse lust ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of
the truth these people are always learning new things they're always coming up with new
things but it's never true it's not right doctrine they're bad people they creep into
houses i believe this is referring to a literal creeping into houses in the sense of adultery
because the bible does say that these people are reprobate and in second peter chapter
two it talks about how they have false teachers and false prophets have eyes full of adultery
and they cannot cease from sin so this could refer to a literal creeping in and seducing
women but it could also refer to figuratively today in two thousand seventeen because we
have the internet we have the television we have the radio this is how false teachers
could creep in and deceive silly women too through the computer through tv through radio
the tv preachers that is now as janice and jamborees withstood moses so do these also
resist the truth again they dig in right stubborn men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning
the faith but they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest unto all
men as theirs also was you see every false prophet or false teacher is always ultimately
exposed they're always exposed the bible tells of false teachers and false prophets
they're like janice and jamborees they withstand real men of god like moses and it says their
folly shall be manifest or exposed or obvious unto all men as theirs also was but thou has
fully known my doctrine so paul puts himself as the contrast he's saying look these wicked
false teachers they're gonna get worse and worse they're reprobate they're evil they're
creeping in they're deceiving people they're prideful they're arrogant yeah they might
seem godly outwardly but inwardly they're ravening wolves they only love themselves
they despise those who are good they love pleasure more than they love god they don't
really love god in their hearts but then the contrast is he's using himself as the example
he says but thou has fully known my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering
charity patience persecutions afflictions which came unto me at antiok and at iconium
and at lystra what persecutions i endured but out of them all the lord delivered me
yea and all that will live godly in christ jesus shall suffer persecution so let me just
stop here and remind you of the theme of the book of second timothy what second timothy
all about look chapter one hammered it don't quit timothy don't change don't compromise
don't go into false doctrine don't water down the message don't soften the preaching don't
shy away from persecution endure affliction you know do the work of an evangelist be steadfast
be unmoved i mean that's what he just keeps pushing and you can almost feel when you read
this book especially chapters one and two that he's it's like he's nervous that timothy
is gonna quit because he's talking about how everybody else has forsaken me and he really
wants timothy to carry the torch in the next generation because he says i'm about to die
the time of my departure is at hand timothy you need to commit these things to other faithful
men who will be able to teach others also or else there's gonna be nothing left but
compromises he's telling him there's gonna be nothing left but false teacher he's really
concerned that timothy's gonna drop the ball and that's why he keeps bringing it up in
every chapter and he's trying to tell him timothy follow me be like me don't follow
these guys they're wicked he says you've fully known my doctrine and he lists off these things
one of the things he lists is persecutions and afflictions because that's another theme
in timothy he keeps telling him hey you got it you got to preach hard and be willing to
be persecuted he goes into that a lot he says all that will live godly in christ jesus
shall suffer persecution verse 13 but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse
deceiving and being deceived meaning they're only going to get worse than they are now
but continue thou in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing
of whom thou has learned them now that's a pretty good phrase right there continue thou
in the things which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has
learned them you know it matters where you learn things from you know you can be more
sure of things if you know who you learned them from if you know where they came from
it makes you feel a little more confident about those things right
i mean if there's a doctrine or teaching that's coming from somebody that's saved it's coming
from somebody who loves the lord coming from somebody who's who's a top tried and tested
and true soul winning christian you know that's going to give you a lot more confidence that
if it's coming from unsaved people right or if it's coming from people that are backslidden
or or people that are lame christians or lazy or whatever right know who you learned it
from now there are some different sources that you can learn things from right some
things you get directly from the holy spirit right you're reading your bible and god shows
you something in the bible right so there are a lot of things where it wasn't a specific
person that taught it to you but you just got it directly from the holy spirit through
reading scripture right another way that you can learn things is from your parents and
some of the best doctrine that i've learned in my life i didn't even learn in church i
learned from my parents both my mom and my dad taught me key critical doctrines at a
young age and i'm very thankful for that one of the best things that they did for me was
to just ground me in some great doctrine that i still hold on to today and it's it's just
part of the core of what i believe and i you know what i learned it from my parents i know
who i learned it from i know who they are and that's a good source for me to get things
from my parents my parents have been saved now for about you know both each of them has
been saved for like 55 years they've pretty much been a fundamental baptist the whole
time they've they've gone to church they've seen a lot of different uh experiences over
the years they've been in church they've read the bible they they have you know wisdom that
comes with old age and just they're okay they're not that old but you know old age and just
learning and experience and being in church and seeing things you know so that's a pretty
good source to learn things from right christian parents your godly parents i mean you know
them better than just every yahoo that you know johnny come lately that you run into
i mean your parents you know better than a lot of people i'm not saying everything that
your parents teach you is right but if they teach you biblical truth and it lines up with
the bible that's a pretty good source okay what about pastor anderson now if you don't
think that pastor anderson's a good source why do you even come here you should even
be here i mean if you're here it should mean because you think hey this is a good source
to learn the bible this is a pastor that's doctrinally sound and if i'm not doctrinally
sound well don't you dare come back because you know what what kind of lies am i going
to teach you you should go to someone that is a doctrinally sound teacher it's not going
to lead you astray right so you got your pastor you got your parents what about just other
independent fundamental baptist preachers you know you know they're king james you know
they're soul winning you know those could be good sources and obviously everything needs
to match the bible right because if you look down at your bible there it says but continue
down the things which i was learning has been assured of knowing of whom thou hast been
a knowing of whom thou hast learned them and and that from a child thou hast known the
holy scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which faith
which is in christ jesus so obviously you got to know the scriptures too right in order
to check out what you're learning but good sources are bible believing preachers independent
fundamental baptist preachers uh people especially people that you know in the flesh your parents
people that you've seen have a track record of a godly life these are good sources to
learn things from and the more the more respect you have for that person or the more confidence
you have in that person the more weight that doctrine is going to have but ultimately it's
all checked with the bible right but stuff that's coming from random people online they're
not even a pastor they're not even baptist stuff that's coming from other denominations
stuff that's coming from people that aren't even saved stuff that's just coming from who
knows where it should be very suspect it should be very suspect it should be guilty until
proven innocent now stuff that's coming from your godly parents or from your pastor or
from you know other bible believing preachers and king james bible baptist type preachers
you know that stuff by default you should be ready to receive the teaching unless it's
contradicting the bible but this other stuff you should be super wary and super skeptical
of it matters where you get things from you know this junk that that came into our church
this this oneness heresy the modalist oneness pentecostalism it's not it's not taught by
any independent fundamental baptist preachers it's not taught by any southern baptist preachers
the only people that you can find that are teaching it are oneness pentecostals that's
a pretty bad source when you think about the fact that oneness pentecostals believe that
you have to be baptized to be saved oneness pentecostals believe that you have to speak
in tongues to be saved they abuse acts 238 that's like the john 316 of oneness pentecostalism
is acts 238 right i mean they're obsessed with it they abuse it they twist it it's the
only verse that many of them know if you run into them out solely it's their it's the only
verse they know and they know it frontward backward sideways i've even seen these churches
that are called acts acts 238 pentecostal church that's the name of the church i've
seen that multiple times in different cities okay so that's a terrible source to get stuff
from right that's a wicked source to get something you know and tyler baker he said when when
when brother segura and i confronted him about this the first time he said well well i didn't
even know that the pentecostals teach this i didn't even know that the pentecostals believe
this is that what he said he's like i didn't or what no no what did he actually he said
i promise right i promise i promise that i didn't know that you know and and so he said
oh i just got it on my own from reading the bible just got it on my own but then a minute
later he said well i just found this one verse in first timothy 6 and then i ended up talking
to elliot and then elliot told me about it and rick told me about it or whatever of course
multiple people in our church stood up at the preaching class the next day on that tuesday
night and said that they'd been talked to by these guys and one of the things that was
brought up was that how elliot had watched these debates on youtube between oneness pentecostals
and trinitarians and how the oneness pentecostal just destroyed the trinitarian in this debate
so that's of whom he learned it from oneness pentecostals that's where they're getting
these arguments from you say no no let's take his word for it look if somebody got this
on their own from reading the bible that's even worse it's even worse because if you
go to the bible and you're getting oneness pentecostalism from the bible you're getting
a doctrine that denies the trinity from the bible then that's just crystal clear that
it's not the holy spirit that's showing you anything that's an unclean spirit that just
shows that you're not even saved if you can read the bible and come up with such a bizarre
anti-bible doctrine and you say well you're offending me right now i want you to get off
those guys you know what why don't you just go hit the road jack and don't you come back
no more okay because this church needs to be solid on what we believe and we need to
hammer this nail down even further and so the thing about that is that you know if you're
reading the bible and coming away with heresy what in the world is wrong with you are you
not saved because if you have the holy spirit inside you look i got the holy spirit inside
me i'm reading the bible the last few weeks i see the trinity on like every page who's
been seeing it on every page because like i've never had the trinity on my mind so much
before i'm just being honest like i've always just taken this doctrine for granted you know
you want to know the mistake that i've made over the years i've taken this doctrine for granted
because you did it's something that i just grew up with and you hear it and it's just like it's
just a given everybody believes in it and i'll admit let me admit to you i've seen sermons on
the trinity or videos on the trinity and i just skipped them because i thought well too basic
you know what i mean just like i you know i was talking to somebody today and they said yeah you
know i whenever i see a sermon on the trinity i just skipped it because i just thought well duh
so you kind of just take it for granted and and look i was wrong to have taken it for granted
because apparently it is something that can be attacked and and something that that can be people
can get twisted up on and so you know over the years i took it for granted you know i've never
properly given it its importance in preaching or in anything even though i believed it right even
though i understood it and i've always said and don't let these people lie to you i've always
believed the exact same thing and by the way my parents have believed the exact same thing since
they got saved in 1960 we've always had a strong doctrine on this but i have not taught it as much
as i should have i've not taught it as clearly as i should have and frankly there were times if i if
i go way back to my oldest sermons where i made some just downright sloppy statements about the
trinity and even wrong statements just because you don't realize how important it is to be exactly
clear in what you're saying because you just you never thought that anybody except a wild-eyed
acts 238 quoting Pentecostal would ever believe in it but now i realize the need to tighten it up
and to make sure that it's airtight to make sure that it's watertight but look now that i have it
on my mind and i know you guys have it on your mind because i keep putting it on your mind it's
been on my mind more than it's ever been i'm seeing it every time i read my bible i've not
read my bible over the last two weeks or however long it's been three weeks i've not even read my
bible one time without just the trinity just being everywhere just it's jumping off the page who
felt the same way you just seeing it over and over again and and the thing about that is that
that's because i'm saved and i have the holy spirit and i'm seeking truth and i'm just it's
just everywhere so the fact that these guys can just read the bible and come away with oh we got
it on our own that's even scarier because at least if you had an excuse that you watched a bunch of
oneness Pentecostals that deceived you and seduced you and tricked you at least that'd be an excuse
if you got it on your own then that means the devil's in you instead of the devil being in
that other guy that explained it to you and look i'm not kidding up here this doctrine is wicked
it's heresy it's blasphemy it's it's it's i mean it's it's i don't know where god draws the line
but it's almost like another jesus or even another god you know when you're done denying the trinity
you know i mean i i don't know where god draws the line but it's it's that scary of a doctrine
and i don't want to go too deep into that tonight i just wanted to put that out there
that we need to know who we learned this stuff from where did it where did this come from
you know it's like paul said to the galatians will this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you
who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth and the galatians are like oh we got
this on our own reading the bible uh-uh who has bewitched you right who you've been listening to
and if they did get it on their own he says i'm afraid of you lest i've bestowed labor on you in
vain those are the two options either you got bewitched by some devil or you're the devil
i don't see another option where this blasphemous heresy could come from
it's out of the imagination of a wicked heart that has even dreamed up in the first place
this doctrine let's keep going and that from a child that has known the holy scriptures which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in christ jesus
and i love that verse because it shows us that salvation is through faith right and it shows
us that the scriptures are what get us saved because the scriptures make us wise unto
wise unto salvation which is through faith in christ jesus not through works not through the
deeds of the law it's through it's through faith in christ verse 16 all scripture is given by
inspiration of god and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction and
righteousness that the man of god may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works so the
bible tells us here that the word of god it's profitable for doctrine all of it all of it what's
doctrine teaching it's what our beliefs are reproof what's reproof it's for telling someone
that they're wrong correction that's telling them how to get it right and then instruction
and righteousness i've heard it explained this way that doctrine is to tell you what's right
reproof is to tell you what is not right correction is to tell you how to get it right
and instruction and righteousness is to tell you how to keep it right right so there's a
four-point outline there what's right what's not right how to get it right and how to keep it right
the bible will do that for you and all scripture will do that part that means we can preach out of
any book of the bible like no preacher should ever get up behind the pulpit and say hey turn
to this book and people think it's a wrong book to turn to right because all scripture is given
by inspiration of god and it's all profitable for doctrine now today in 2017 any old testament book
it has profit for us today in the light of the new testament it needs to be interpreted
but it's all relevant today it's all profitable for doctrine today
that the man of god may be perfect perfect there means complete
thoroughly furnished unto all good works so what's the purpose of knowing doctrine what's the
purpose of having the right doctrine it's not so that we can sit around and do nothing with it
it's not though so we can sit around and be smart and be close to the truth or
all the way into the truth it's so we can actually do work
right i mean look i would rather go to a church i'd rather go to a church that had
a couple minor things and i emphasize minor things wrong doctrinally obviously if if if
they have major false doctrine or heresy obviously that's a deal breaker but i'm saying i'd rather go
to a church that had a couple minor errors doctrinally if they were doing a great work
for god then to go to a church where i agreed with all the doctrine and they're doing nothing
because look i've been in some churches that were doctrinally sound but they're dead there's not a
soul winning going on there's nothing great being done for god you know i would go down the street
to the church even if i agreed with them more at the dead church i'd go over to the church that's
actually doing work for god because when jesus judges the church that's the first thing he looks
at you say how do you know well revelation two and three the seven churches in asia what's the
first thing he says to all of them i know thy works i know thy works i know thy works i he
didn't say i know how you guys are just right on with everything doctrinally he brings up the good
doctrine he brings up fighting false doctrine but first and foremost he says i know your works
and by the way if you don't do the first works i'm gonna cast you out from being i'm gonna take away
the candlestick so that's a deal breaker for god not working that the man of god may be perfect
thoroughly furnished into all good works you know when i went to i went to hyles anderson college
and i originally i didn't want to go to bible college i wanted to be trained out of the local
church i thought that was more biblical and my pastor he kept saying he was going to train me
and i thought great you know i'll just be trained a local church but it just kind of never happened
he kind of kept putting it out there oh yeah i'm going to train you i'm going to train you i'm going
to train you but it was just kind of not happening so i started to realize you know the only way i'm
ever gonna get into the ministry the only way i'm ever going to become a preacher is i'm gonna have
to go to bible college because my local pastor here is not doing it for me and i wouldn't really
know where else to go to be trained in a local church so i guess i'm just gonna have to break
down and go to bible college and you know i looked at a whole bunch of different bible colleges it's
a big decision right you know because you're gonna move across the country and you want to pick the
best one you're gonna be there for years you're gonna learn a lot or not learn anything so it's
important to pick the right one right and so as i was looking at these bible colleges you know
the one that i ended up going to was hyles anderson college and i did not go to hyles
anderson college because i agreed with them doctrinally the most there were some doctrines
about hyles anderson when i went there that i i could see that they were weak on you know i
mean they had the essentials of being king james and salvation by faith and and so forth but you
know there were a few doctrines that i could see that they were weak on stuff that i didn't agree
with but i went to hyles anderson for one reason because hyles anderson had a reputation for being
the people who work the hardest and i saw a lot of hyles anderson graduates that they were hard
workers that they were doing a lot of work and and everybody who talked about going to hyles
anderson they said man this place teaches you to work hard they run you into the ground and i you
know i knew that laziness was something i struggled with as a young man and i wanted to go to hyles
anderson to get cured of that and to learn how to work hard and you know what hyles anderson did
that for me so even though you know there were a lot of bad things about hyles anderson i got out
of it what i went there to get i went there to learn how to work hard and i learned how
to work hard and i came out of there a better person and the reason i illustrate that is that
you know that work needs to be a priority in our lives it was a priority for me to go to the
because i thought to myself you know i've already learned a lot of good doctrine from my parents
i'm learning great doctrine from my local independent baptist church i'm reading the bible
on my own getting great doctrine i don't want to go to bible college to get doctrine as much as i
just wanted to learn how to do the work that's why i chose that college and look i don't recommend
any bible college i don't recommend hyles anderson i don't recommend any bible college i think you
should be trained in the local church which is my original intent anyway but the difference is that
i actually will train people and send them out to start churches from faithful word baptist church
gladly and so will our other pastor friends they're eager to train young men or even middle
aged men to go out and start churches and do a great work for god i didn't have that opportunity
so i went to bible college but that was the criteria and that's a biblical mindset of hey
let's go where the action is let's go where the work is being performed let's go where something's
happening let's not go to a place that just crosses every doctrinal t and dots every doctrinal i
but they're letting everybody go to hell they're not growing they're not winning any souls they're
not doing any work should be based on work and you know what god can't use you if you're a lazy
person that's that's a fatal flaw if you're lazy you are fatally flawed as a servant of god you
must fix that that's why i identified a weakness in my own life and i looked at the college that
was going to fix it and that's where i went that was the doctor that i needed to go to was the one
that's going to fix what needed to be fixed and the difference between me and a lot of people
that are 22 years old or 21 years old is that i realized what the problem was and went to somebody
who could help fix it and whip me into shape and teach me how to work and you young men that are
20 21 22 if you struggle with work ethic you better fix that or god can never use you
you know you need to you need to learn to work hard and put your nose to the grindstone it's
good to bear the burden in your youth so the man of god needs the word of god to do work to do good
works you say why do we need to be doctrinally sound so that we can be a better worker for god
and false doctrine will destroy our works it'll turn our works into works of iniquity
it'll it'll destroy everything so we got to keep the doctrinal purity but let's remember why we
want to keep doctrinally pure so that we can do a great work for god there are people that help us
accomplish that work and there are people that are a hindrance to that work there are people
that bring forth great fruits and then there are other people that have to be purged so that we
can bring forth more fruit and so it's important that we don't let disease or decay or mildew
corrupt our tree here and i'm not talking about this tree but our spiritual tree here we don't
want it to get a disease have you ever seen trees when they get a disease and they start turning
like black or or just one branch will start dying and then it starts to spread and then it's like
man if we don't cut off that branch it's going to kill the whole tree you know you don't want
to sacrifice the whole tree you'd rather cut off that branch so that you can stay what you are
today and keep bringing forth fruit and not get corrupted and so this is a great chapter for us
today in the end times what what kind of a world are we dealing with and what's the answer the
answer is to be like the apostle paul number one the answer is number two to be like timothy
and listen to the apostle paul's in our life whether that's our parents our teachers our
pastor whoever is pulling us in the right direction spiritually listen to those kind of people and
reject the janice and jamborees of this world the false teachers the false prophets and and
know where you learn stuff know of whom you learn it make sure it's coming from the word of god
or that it's coming from sound biblical teachers not from the charismatics or from other false
religions and false prophets this bar is never word of prayer