Hi, this is Hackberry House. Welcome to God's Word. Lord, we're coming to the end of this and we're seeing the urgency of your Word in these last words of the Scripture. I pray for grace, Lord, to communicate what you're saying. In Jesus' name, Amen. Hackberry House can be accessed by going to myheartcry.net and when you get there you can go to the library page, and when you've found the library page, you can find these Bible studies. Now, the Bible study that we're on today is Lesson 49. We've done the front page already. We're on the back page. If you want to get that now, just find it and print it out, and you can write the questions out with us, the answers to them as I give them. Or you can just listen, and we're glad to have you along. We're about to end about a year and a half of study on the Internet through sermon audio and it'll be a few more weeks yet, but we just wanted you to know we're winding down. Lesson 49 is 1 Peter, 2 Peter, 2 Timothy and Jude, some of the later epistles that were written in the New Testament. We're going to 2 Timothy first. While you're on the website, you may want to look for the Scarlet Thread series or the Women in the Church series that we just completed. The work on Daniel is one of my special favorites. There's other persons who have put things on the website that I think you'll find very valuable, ex-priests and ex-nones and so on. Why don't you check it out? It's all free. And every once in a while I like to hear from people just saying, yes, we listened, thank you, and that sort of thing. When you can do that, that's very appreciated. We will not be sending you anything in response unless you ask for something. And it's not a matter of money or any of those things. We'd just like to know who is listening. It's 2 Timothy, a short final epistle of the Apostle Paul written to Timothy again. And verse 3 of that first chapter talks about how he always is praying for Timothy. He says that about a lot of the people that he writes to, which tells us that his prayer life was very, very much intact. And the great men of God down through the years have had a prayer life. He's so excited about Timothy because he knows the family that Timothy came from, how that they were all praying faithful people Lois, the mother, and Eunice, the grandmother, or vice versa, and he's just confident it's been passed down to him too. His father, evidently, has not come around to the Lord yet, or he would have been mentioned, I'm sure. So he says to Timothy to stir up the gift of God. We've all been given of the Holy Ghost. We've all been given of Christ if we've called upon the name of the Lord. Sometimes we need to stir that up. Sometimes we need to bring it to the surface. Sometimes we need to pray a little more. Pray a little louder. Pray a little longer. Read a little more. Witness a little more to others. Stir it up. Don't let it just die dormant. That which is in you. And that which is in you, verse 7, is not a spirit of fear, but of power. You'll notice he's talking to Timothy on these a couple different times here, several different times, leading us to believe that Timothy was a little bit timid, that he was a little bit fearful, and that because of his youth he felt perhaps just a little bit, you know, not quite as good as the rest of the group, inferior. So he has to keep being built up by Paul. We believe that he was eventually successful. Don't be ashamed, he says, verse 8, of me, his prisoner. Paul is back in jail. Now, I didn't even give you the introduction. Let me read that to you. The year is AD 67. Paul is in a Roman cell again. This time he's alone. He's facing a second trial, even though he's been acquitted at his first trial. He's been free for maybe three or four years. We're not sure all the circumstances that brought him back to jail. Opposition to Christians is mounting in the person of Nero. Evidently he's rounding up all the ringleaders of the Nazarene sect, putting them in jail. Nero's trying to blame the Christians for everything. It could be that Peter is already dead at this time. And though his death seems to be certain, he's writing a letter of encouragement to his son Timothy, son in the faith. urging him to persevere, warning him of the coming apostasy, and charging him to preach the word while people still will hear it. So, that's the background of this book. He calls himself, in verse 8, the prisoner again. We know he'd been released, but now he's back in. This is the last time. He talks about God that saved him, how God called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purposes, the purposes that were hidden all these years but now have been revealed in Jesus by the appearing of Jesus. Everything that the prophets had said is now being fulfilled through Jesus, the last message to the church. And he's rejoicing in verse 11 that he was appointed a preacher of all this, an apostle of this, a teacher of the Gentiles. And he suffers all the things that he suffered. He's in jail right now because of his message to the Gentiles. He says, for this reason I suffer these things. I'm a teacher of the Gentiles. That's the reason. If you stayed with us, you understood what happened there that turned the events around in his life when he ministered to the Gentiles and let the Jews know that he wanted to bless the Gentiles. The Jews turned against him. The Jews did what they could to get rid of him and they turned him over to the secular arm, to Rome. as the Roman church did down through its history, not wanting to take credit or blame for any of the things that it did against the people of God. It always turned people over to the secular arm. Verse 13, he has a charge for Timothy to hold fast the words, the pattern of words which he got from Paul. That good thing which was committed to you, what? The pattern of sound words. or the gift in the Holy Spirit. We're not sure exactly, probably both, but everything that was good, that was committed to Him is to be kept by the Spirit who lives in us. Make that general statement about all believers that He, the Holy Spirit, dwells, lives inside of us. Verse 15, he tells the sad story of those who are turning away from Him. He says, everybody in Asia, and I don't think he means, well, obviously he doesn't mean the Asia that we know of, nor is it what we would call all of Asia Minor, but a province inside what we call Turkey today is what he's talking about. And perhaps Ephesus is in there, maybe Antioch. It's a small province, but many of his churches were there. For some reason, they've all turned away from Paul. What a sad state that the church is already in. It didn't have to go down to our age to get into a sad state. He was having problems in the first century. Any church that would turn away from an Apostle of Jesus Christ is in a sad situation. We've got a whole bunch of them today too. How many churches worldwide could we say that have turned away from the Apostle Paul also? He mentions a couple of names here and then blesses Onesiphorus and his family for refreshing him and actually seeking him out there in Rome. Not ashamed that he's a prisoner. Others turned away from him because he's a prisoner. What's he doing in jail again if he's from God? You know, that's the mentality of the immature or the unbeliever. Of course God's people get put in jail. They have the mentality now that only the lukewarm are going to go through the tribulation and then they'll turn into martyrs somehow. No, that's not what my Bible says. The Lord grant to Onesiphorus mercy in that day. You know how he ministered to me. He's so blessed with this man that would come and seek him out. He was a true saint because he recognized that even his Lord Jesus had been arrested and crucified. There was no shame attached to this. In fact, there was glory attached to it. He wanted to be a part of that. You better believe that in that day, verse 18, he will be a part of it. Chapter 2. Be strong, Timothy. Be strong. having to build him up again. He's strong in the grace. And what you heard from me, I want you to turn around and give that to some faithful men. He's still telling him to build an eldership there in the church. Timothy's not to be the pastor of that church. Timothy's not to be the one-time, one-and-only, secure, forever leader of that church. No. Get some elders who will be able to teach others, and then you can go on and do other things, Timothy. You must endure hardship, verse 3. Endure hardship. Share it with me. Share with me this hardship, it says in the Greek, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Now, if you're going to be a soldier, you can't be entangling yourself with civilian things. You do what you have to do, but it doesn't look like Timothy is married here. So, he doesn't have to get entangled at all. Remember, Timothy, you've got to please the one who drew you into this thing. Not me, but Jesus Christ. He's your enlistment officer. Please Him. You know, if you were an athlete, verse 5, you wouldn't get to be crowned king of a stadium unless you were competing according to the rules. And our faith has rules too, Timothy. Keep these rules. Do what I've been telling you to do. You know, if you were a farmer, you'd have to work real hard, but you'd get to be first partaker of the fruits. You've got good things coming to you, but you've got to do this hard work to get it done. In the Spirit of the Lord, do that thing. Consider what I tell you. Verse 8, Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel. My gospel. The gospel I've been preaching. And boy have I been, and he says it again just like he did in chapter 1, I've been suffering trouble from that. Even to the point of chains. I'm in jail because of this, Timothy. You get the word out for me. That's why I'm in jail. I'm doing the right thing here. You can believe that. But the Word of God is not chained. Even though I'm sitting here bound, you better believe God's Word is not bound. This thing has caught hold so well, he says, and it's going all over the earth right now. That's why I endure things. Because there are chosen people of God, verse 10, and I want to obtain salvation. And I want them to obtain salvation with me. Oh, it's going to be a wonderful day. Verse 11. If we died with Him, you see, Timothy, we're going to live with Him. Notice this. This is a faithful saying. It looks like maybe he's quoted this part of verse 11 and all of verse 12 and 13, maybe quoted it from something else. He says it's a faithful saying, or it's a true quotation I'm giving you here. This is the truth. I don't know where he got it from, but wherever he got it, these couplets that seem to go together. If we died with Him, we shall live with Him. You can see that in Romans 6, verses 5 and 8, but not exactly like that. If we endure, we'll reign with Him. My Bible refers me to Romans 5.17 and 8.17 for that, if you want to look that up. Then it says, if we deny Him, He will deny us. Is it possible for a believer to deny Jesus? If so, what kind of a denial will he receive from the Lord? Simply, you don't get a whole bunch of rewards or something worse. Here's where the theologians fight it over again. Are we once saved? Are we always saved? Is our salvation so secure that even if we were denied, it says we, we, believers, look him in the face or look Nero in the face and say, no, I don't believe in Jesus anymore. Would that just show that we never were saved at all? I want to give you both sides to this. Would that just show that we never were saved at all? But it does say we here, as though we're talking about saved people. Or does it mean that even believers can deny, but when we do deny, we will get denied, but we'll only lose rewards? Or does it mean we lose everything if we deny Him? Verse 13, if we're faithless, He remains faithful. Why? Because He cannot deny Himself. That means faithless is different than denial. You know, you're trying real hard, but you just stumble and fall. And you weren't as faithful as you needed to be. You didn't give at all. You gave some, but you weren't really faithful all the way. But He's still going to be faithful to you because He's inside of you. He's inside of you, even if you lose it. You know, that's why maybe there's a difference between the people in verse 12 and verse 13. I'll let you figure that out as you grow in your Christian life. Those are good questions to be asking. And, you know, if you ask different people, you'll get different answers. You don't have to ask them. But you do have to ask God to see exactly what he's saying. Whatever it is, you don't build your character around what God is saying about eternal security. Do you? You're not going to change how you love and how you live, are you? I hope not. Verse 15, I'm so glad that the new King James did correct this. The word study in the Old King James is correct, of course, but it's old. And to us, the word study is look into a book and read it. And many people thought that meant you look into the Bible and you read it and they said, study to present yourselves approved of God. When you study, you're approved of God. That's not the truth at all, is it? That's not the truth. And you'll see the word study in a couple of other places in Scripture. In our day, the word has changed in its meaning and study means try hard, be diligent, do your best. To do what? To present yourself approved to God. Do your best, do everything you possibly can do to present yourself approved to God. Oh, you're approved in Christ as far as your salvation is concerned. You're in, brother, because of the grace of God, you're in. Now that you're in, do everything you can, not to stay in, but to be approved to God, to be a good son, a thankful son, a son or daughter who is so excited that Jesus saved him or her, that that person just wants to do everything, that God will just smile on them and say, yeah, I approve you. A worker that doesn't need to be ashamed. Are you ashamed of your work? Are you ashamed of your life? You shouldn't have to be. Stay away from vain babblings, people just going around saying things they shouldn't be saying because they're not trying so hard. Stay away from people who have messages that are spreading all over the church that are false teachings. Stay away from them. There's people back in Paul's day saying that the resurrection's already passed. This is crazy. He says, stay away from that. That's poison. It's poison. They're overthrowing the faith of some of those people, I believe, who are saying that there's going to be a catching away and then some other Christians are still going to be left behind for seven years. I don't believe that. And I don't believe God said that. And I believe they're going to stir up a lot of problems someday. You watch when those disappointed saints, they see the Antichrist rise and they're not raptured and They're saying, well, I guess maybe none of this is true. We need to correct this issue. Oh, the solid foundation of God stands. The Lord knows those who are His. Verse 19. Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. That's the foundation of God. God knows you. You're already saved in Him because of His work. But now that you're in Him, depart from iniquity. That's the foundation stone. We need both of those things. We need grace. And we need the works that come because of grace, not to get grace. We've got some people that are made to dishonor, and some that are made to honor. And verse 21 just describes how you can become one of those people who is made for honor. Timothy is a young man. Stay away from those youthful lusts, Timothy. Just don't do that. Pursue other things and you'll find that you don't need that stuff anymore. Righteousness, faith, love, peace, pure heart. Stay away from the foolish and ignorant disputes. Now, we've got to dispute. We've got to contend for the faith. But there's silly stuff that people argue about. Let God give you discernment about what is silly and what is not silly. Stop arguing about silly stuff. Just turn away from all that. You're not supposed to be arguing. The servant of the Lord has got to stop strife, got to stop arguing. He's got to be gentle with people. Able to teach and patient. Verse 25. Inhumility. Inhumility. Correcting those who are opposing you. They're going to try to start arguments with you. When they come to you, just calm down a little bit and correct them. Be in calmness. Maybe God will let them repent, but don't you enter into it and need to repent yourself. Let them come to their senses, verse 26. They're going to escape the trap of the devil if they do. See, people who get into these stupid arguments have been taken captive by the devil. That's what it says. So yeah, contend for the faith, but don't contend for silly things. Chapter 3. in the last days. He said this in 1 Timothy also. The Spirit just told him clearly, the last times are going to be horrible times. And he describes, as in 1 Timothy 4, exactly what kind of people these are going to be. Lovers of themselves. Lovers of money. Boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. You can read the rest yourself. These are the kind that have the form of godliness. They have religion, forms and ceremonies. And when you see them in church, they look very holy. I'm not just talking about Roman churches. I'm talking about Protestant churches too. You've got your forms and your ceremonies, and there are some Protestant churches that need to melt down. Order is one thing. Routine and ritual is something else. You have your form of godliness, but who in your church is really getting a hold of the Gospel? Really getting a hold? of the life that's in Christ. Who is it? If you would teach a really good Gospel teaching and challenge your people, how many of them would stick around for another week of it? He says, turn away from people that have religion, but that don't have the power that religion is. What's the power? What's the power? It's the Gospel. The Gospel is the power. Anyone that doesn't believe the Gospel is lost. It's the Spirit. Anyone who doesn't have the Spirit of Christ is none of His. It's the Word. A person who denies the living Word of God in these scriptures is not of God. Turn away from those people. That's the kind of people, it says, that lead gullible women into immorality. They come into your church, these men, these teachers so-called, these people who are just kind of free thinkers. They say, well, you know, I don't want to be bound by this and this. And they're just kind of free. And they're free with everything. They're free with their bodies. They're free with their lust. Stay away from them. These are the kind of people that are always asking questions, verse 7. Always wanting to learn something, but they never seem to get there. They never seem to be satisfied with anything you tell them. They take it into their head, and now they've got another fact there, but they've never come to grips with the truth of the Gospel. Never accept it. They're hoping that someday they'll figure it all out, and then they're going to really get busy. But they never seem to do. And because they never seem to do, and because they approach everything intellectually, they come against the leadership of the church, just like Janice and Jambers, who weren't named in the Old Testament, but who resisted Moses. And they resist the truth. They're people with corrupt minds, disapproved. But they won't go any farther. If you'll expose them, Timothy, expose them. Just expose their folly. Eventually, they'll all be exposed, he says, but you need to do that, Timothy. Just stop them. Now, I'm not one of those, he says. Verse 10, you've followed my doctrine. You know about my life. I want you to follow their doctrine. I want you to look at their life. Follow it, meaning learn it. Find out what they're teaching. Like you did me. You know all about my life. You know why I'm here, what I did, how much I believe, how much I suffered, all the love that I had. You know all this about me. You know all the persecutions. Know these men. And the Lord delivered me out of all these things, you know. And He'll continue to deliver. You know, it says in Psalm, many are the afflictions of the righteous. But the Lord delivers Him out of them all. And that's what Paul is claiming here. I've been delivered out of all these things. And he's not worried that this might be the one that he's not delivered out of. But so far, he says, I've been delivered out of all of them. Now, that's one way to look at it, Paul. Thank God for your attitude. But, you know, we wouldn't look at it that way, would we? He went through shipwreck. Well, he didn't drown. He went through beatings. Well, he didn't die. He doesn't mean I never had any trouble. I had many afflictions. But the Lord delivered me. What's he mean? He kept going. He kept him on the pathway. He kept him on so that he could finish his course. Oh, he had a lot of trouble. He fell down a lot of times in pain, I'm sure. Many times. But he kept going. The Lord delivered him and kept him going until the final time. And that's no big deal, because he's going on right to be with the Lord now. Continue in these things that you've learned, verse 14. Just stay with it. Stay with it. Know. You know who you got it from. Your own mama. Your grandma. You got it from them. They passed it on to you from a child. You've known your Bible, verse 15. You know the Bible can make you wise to salvation. The Bible itself, by itself, won't save you. But it makes you wise to salvation. It tells you to call on the name of the Lord. That's how you get saved. And all that Scripture you've been reading, Timothy, it's all given by God. It's God breathed, in the Greek it says. God breathed. It's inspired of God. It's profitable. It's profitable for teaching. Well, it's also profitable for reproof. If somebody in your church needs somebody to speak some word of reproof to them, you can use the Scripture. For correction, for instruction, anything you need to teach your people, it's there. You don't need anything else, Timothy. Wait a minute, am I right? That the man of God may be complete. Yes, I'm right. I'm right that it says that we can say that all we need for God's people is the Bible. The man of God is complete just knowing these Scriptures. That's what he says. Thoroughly equipped. They had the whole Old Testament right then. The Gospels were circulating by then. Most of these letters, all these letters are passing around the church somewhere. The Bible is just about in place already. He says everything that you're reading is God-breathed. Use it. pass on to others. He's telling them, pass all my stuff on. So all the epistles of Paul are considered scripture. Peter did consider them that too, because they were apostles. What they spoke into the church was the truth. So I charge you. Chapter 4, here's your final charge. Preach the Word. Preach the Word. The Word that I've just been talking about. The scripture that's God-breathed. Preach it. Be ready. Whether you feel like it or don't feel like it. Well, it seems to be time for it or not time for it. Whether they want it or don't want it, just keep preaching it. You convince them. You rebuke them. You exhort them. There's going to come a time, Timothy. Church, it's come, hasn't it? It came a long time ago. When they won't endure just the sound teaching, they're going to want some other things. It's not going to be quite satisfied because they're going to be talking to other people in the world. They're going to see trends in the world. They're going to want the church to change. And they're going to come to you, pastor, man of God, and they're going to say, we've got to change this. And if you're a political pastor and you want favor in your church, you're going to change it so you won't lose your people. God help you. God have mercy on you if you do that. If you're a man of God, you'll say, sir, We can't change this. This is the living Word of God. It doesn't change. We must change. We must repent. Be watchful, verse 5, in all things. Do the work of an evangelist. Now, Timothy was not a pastor. He was one of the apostles. He was going to be doing the work of a pastor for a while. Paul also says, go out and bring souls to Christ too. Tell them the good news. fulfill your whole ministry. You've got other gifts that you need to be using. Does every pastor have to be an evangelist? No. Does every evangelist have to be a pastor? No. Billy Graham should not have tried, for one, to try to be a teacher in the church. That's where he failed us and failed himself. He did great in preaching, but when he started to become a leader in the sense of trying to start movements and bringing churches together and teaching this and teaching that, he was wrong. He is an evangelist and should have stuck to that. Verse 6, I'm already being poured out as a drink offering. He's about to die. Remember Peter, who said, I'm about to leave this tent behind. I'm out of here. And Paul's saying the same thing now, probably after Peter. The time of my departure is at hand. I'm about to go. Thank God I fought the good fight. I finished the race. I kept the faith. I know there's a crown There's no doubt in his mind. No doubt in his mind that he was heading for a crown. That Jesus was going to give him a crown. Not just him, but anybody who loves his appearing. His appearing. When he appears, we'll just go up to be with him, won't we? And so shall we ever be with the Lord. Paul knew it. Do you know it? Do I know it? Are we secure like that? At this point in our life, we've done everything the Lord wanted us to do. Or maybe He's giving us another chance now. Maybe we did pass it by back there. Let's go back and do it, if possible. And if it's not possible to geographically go somewhere, I believe the Lord will bring it back to us in another form. But He wants us to finish the course. There's a road of perfection for you. And He'll take you home when you've finished the course. You know how you skip a chapter in a book every once in a while, but you go back to the chapter and finish it, and then you can pass that test at the end. Come to me quickly, verse 9. He says, I really need some company here. Boy, it's really lonely. Even Brother Demas. Remember Brother Demas? He was such a good brother. He's forsaken me, Timothy. He loved this world. This present world that's going to burn up. He fell in love with this. All the stuff that he could get. It suddenly started seeming improper for him to hang on to something that he couldn't see out in the future. And he's left us, Timothy. He's gone. He's gone to Thessalonica. Brother Crescens has gone to Galatia. Now, we're not told if Crescens fell away or what. Titus to Dalmatia? I don't think Titus fell away. Titus was just gone. He's saying, these guys are doing what they need to be doing, but nobody's here with me, except Luke, verse 11. Would you bring Mark? Ah, here's a change to man. He's already mentioned Mark before, how he thinks he's profitable. Now he says he's useful for ministry. Bring him with you. Bring Mark along. He's useful. What a change. Colossians 4.10 mentions him also. Bring Mark along. Our feud is over. Tychicus, I had to send out to Ephesus. As much as I would like to have his company, I had to send him over to Ephesus to deal with that church. By the way, Timothy, I left a cloak there. Would you bring it along and bring the books and the parchments? All personal notes. What are these parchments? Some people believe it was the originals of the epistles. Others believe it was the skins on which he made his tents for a living. Don't know. But Timothy's to bring those along. Then he starts talking in verse 14 about Alexander, the coppersmith. Oh, he bothered me so much. And he's been hurting many other people too. You've got to beware of him. Remember Alexander in Acts 19.33, a fellow Jew? But he stood up among the other Jews to come against Paul. But when they found out he was a Greek, they didn't want to listen to him. But he finally recovered and began to raise support against Paul. Number 16. I think I got that a little wrong. He was silenced by the Greeks when they found out he was a Jew. All right. Verse 16. I've already had a trial and not one person stood up for me. That's another reason, since he's in Rome, And we believe Peter was there for a while, too. We've got to believe that Peter is gone right now. Or, that Peter never came to Rome, that that was all just tradition. We can deal with that one on your own, too. He says just what Jesus said, when people turned against him, may it not be charged against them. Stephen said that, and Jesus. There's something about God's people. When they're under this pressure, they understand other people. I hope you're learning the lesson about other people. That you're no different than them. You didn't understand at one time. You were in darkness at one time. And so you ask God to forgive as much as you possibly can to forgive people. Now they're all gone, but the Lord's with me, verse 17. The Lord's with me. Because that message is going to be preached through me. One way or another, the Gentiles are going to hear. I've been delivered out of the mouth of the lion so far. I don't know what he... He's already said that he thinks he's going to die. He says it's close. But so far, I'm being delivered out of Rome's grasp. The Lord will keep delivering me from every evil work. This thing of cutting my head off or whatever, He doesn't consider that evil, because as I said, that sends Him to God. Well, some greetings there at the end. Priscilla and Aquila, Erastus. Verse 20, Erastus stayed in Corinth. Metrophimus I have left in Miletus sick. You don't want to make a hole out of this, but the fact that he could not get enough faith together, and this is how some would put it, to get Miletus healed, had to leave him there sick. What's happening here? He's telling Timothy, what? Drink a little wine for your stomach's sake. He's telling Timothy again, here's another one that I left over here sick. That's twice now, that the gift of healing is not working for some reason. And so, if it isn't working in your life, if God hasn't answered a prayer for you, take heart. You know, the Apostle Paul, a couple of times, went to just medicine. The conventional wisdom is that we do what we can do first. Just go ahead, not trusting yourself, but just doing what you can do. And then, when you get into that impossible situation, you give it all to God. So, try to come soon. Like before winter, if possible, Timothy, because, you know, it gets cold and snowy out, and I need you here. Eubulus greets you. Eudonus, Clinus, Claudius, and all the brethren of Jesus be with you. And there we have the book of 2 Timothy. Let's do the questions. We've got 18 of them. Number one, what plus factors did Timothy have in his family? His grandmother and mother were believers. Number two, does the spirit within rise automatically in all situations? I think we've got to stir it up, don't we? Number three, how shameful is it to be a prisoner? Well, not at all if it's for believing Jesus. And that's the answer to number four also. Number five, describe Paul's present desolation. Well, all the Asians are against him. Demas is gone, Crescens is gone, Titus is gone, and Alexander's a troublemaker, so he's pretty desolate. Number six, describe the simplicity of church leadership. Be strong in grace and then pass it on. That's how it works. Don't pass it on to somebody that doesn't have it, the basic requirements. Number seven, what three pictures describe the man of God? Soldier, athlete, farmer. Number eight, why does God remain faithful even when we do? Because he himself is in us when we do not. Number nine, what sorts of teaching are to be forbidden? Words, profanity, vanity, foolish disputes, arguments. All that kind of teaching we don't need in the church. 10. What false teaching was already circulating that the resurrection is already past? 11. In both of his letters to Timothy, Paul is certain that history is going to go what direction? And that is, of course, down. 12. What should our attitude be toward the religious, but lost, trying to influence the church? Turn away from them. 13. What promise does Paul offer for all who live godly in Christ? You're going to suffer persecution. That's in verses 10-12 of chapter 3. Verse 12, I did not read to you. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 14. Does knowing the Bible save you? No, but it makes you wise to salvation. 15. Why do we say the Scriptures are all sufficient? because all these things are given to us that we might be complete and equipped. 16. What other names are given in the Scriptures? The Word, the Doctrine, the Truth. 17. What requirement is here given for the crown? Well, to get the crown, you've got to love His appearing. You've got to be looking for Him to come. And you won't be looking for Him to come if you're ashamed of Him or if you're too busy doing other things all the time. You won't even be thinking about Him until church time each week. You're not looking for his appearing. 18. What change about Mark? Well, now Mark is suddenly useful. Mark has changed. Paul has perhaps changed also. Let's go to the book of Jude. The book of Jude, the very almost last book of the Bible. Go to Revelation and there it is right before Revelation. It's one chapter. We've got some more false teachers coming into the church. and more severe warnings by Brother Jude." This time it's from Jude. He's the younger brother of the writer of the book of James, James himself. Both of these men, half-brothers of the Lord. We know it's not an apostle because of verse 17. I'll read it. Remember the words which were spoken before by the apostles of the Lord. He's speaking of apostles as in third person. I don't think he's including himself in that. We know not exactly to whom or where he wrote, but there is a strong similarity between his and Peter's words. If you look at 2 Peter 2, verses 1-3 and verse 4, and compare that to Jude 4-18, you see how similar they are. Peter seems to be predicting while Jude is saying it's already happened. Jude even quotes 2 Peter 3-3 verbatim, and credits it to the Apostles. The date is probably shortly after 2 Peter. We'll say A.D. somewhere between 66 and 69. Maybe the last of the Epistles before John. So, let's take it real quickly here. Again, we know who it is in verse 1 that it's talking about. He mentions that it's written to just a group of Christians, and this is us too, the ones who are called. That's the Church. sanctified, set apart by the Holy Ghost, and preserved, kept, until that day that He comes. And a greeting to them. That's where the nice stuff ends, because it gets very serious, very soon. He says in verse 3, I wanted to write to you about our common salvation. I wanted to write some positive stuff, some happy stuff, because we have so many wonderful things in common. But I have a more urgent need that's kind of possessed me here. I've got to talk to you about this. I want you guys to start fighting for the faith. It's been delivered to us once, but you need to fight for it. I don't need you to create any more. We don't need any more revelations. Take what we already have and let's get it going here. Let's contend for it. Because people are coming against it right and left. Now what is this faith once delivered? Is it the whole Bible intact? Not yet. Revelation has not even been written yet. And the Gospels or the Epistles of John. The Epistles of John have not been written yet. And so, Jude is saying something else. Jesus' death, Jesus' burial, Jesus' resurrection, His ascension, Day of Pentecost, what happened on the Day of Pentecost, and the things that are being spread around, all the truths that they have so far. As far as Jude is concerned, the Gospel has been delivered. God through Jesus. Jesus is the last message. And that message has been delivered very clearly. Jude says, contend for it. Fight for it. Everything you know about this so far, fight for it. There's been some people that have crept in. In fact, they've been galloping in ever since then. They've crept in kind of like worms, creeping, you know. Before the foundation of the world, they were already seen and known and condemned. And you must agree with heaven's judgment. They're taking the grace of God and turning it into license. They're saying that because God forgives sin so graciously that you can just go out and sin, do anything you want. That teaching is still with us and it's big time among us. So many people believe that you can just do what you want, when you want. That's a lie. They're denying the Lord by saying this. They're denying the Lord God and His laws. And they're denying Jesus. and His grace. But I want you to know, verse 5, judgment's going to come to those people. Look at this, the children of Israel, verse 5, the ones that came out of the land of Egypt, they were all destroyed, the originals. This sounds a little bit like Peter. They were all destroyed. That's example 1. These people that are coming in and turning you away from the faith, you better realize what happens to those who turn away from the faith. Second example, verse 6. There's these angels who didn't keep their proper domain. Their proper domain was in the heavenlies. They wanted to become a part of earth and take earth over. And so they hatched a plot whereby they would become sexually involved with the women of earth and create a super race. Well, it didn't work. But it doesn't matter that it didn't work. They're punished. They're gone. They're history. They are reserved in everlasting chains. They're bound. under darkness in the pit. They're waiting for their judgment to be revealed. Oh, there's a second example. Third example, Sodom and Gomorrah. All the cities around them living ungodly, unholy lives like these people want you to lead. Going after strange flesh, that's homosexuality. All these examples are their force of God who is a holy God and a just God who will judge sin. Don't you see it? Turn away from the sin. These men, verse 8, likewise, are people who defile the flesh, like the Sodomites did. These people are also like rejecting authority, like the angels did. They speak evil of high things that they don't know anything about. They come against angelic beings. They speak evil of Satan. Of course, Satan is evil. But Michael, verse 9, The archangel, the good angel, when he was fighting with the devil, he didn't even say, I rebuke you. He didn't even come against the devil on a person-to-person basis. He wanted the Lord to do that. He asked the Lord to rebuke him. But these guys go around thinking that they've got personal relationships with all the angels and all the saints and they can just say whatever they want. They've got so much pride in their mind that they know everything. You know, I'm thinking of some people that I see strutting on television when I think of this. No, they're like brute beasts. They're like animals. They're just like Cain, verse 11, who offered the wrong sacrifice. He was in rebellion. He did what he wanted to do. He offered what he wanted and was rejected and started pouting and then got angry and killed. No, that's like these people. They're doing what they want. They're like Balaam because they're in this thing for the money. And they're like Korah, absolute rebel. against the things and the men of God. He came against the dignitary, the worthy, the man that God had set in charge. He came against him. May God have mercy on us when we come against God's people, God's men, in an evil way. Now, if God's people go off, we're responsible to get them back on track again, restore them in the spirit of love. And we're also responsible, if they will not repent, to go to God's children and warn them of these people. who are spreading false things. Oh, he has nothing good to say about these evil men. Verse 12, there's spots, there's stains in your feast. There are clouds without water. There are trees without fruit. They're dead, dried up, but they also don't have any fruit. They're twice dead, pulled up by the roots, too. the waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame, wandering stars. They're going to be in the blackness of darkness forever. There's a lot of room out there in the universe, isn't there? Everybody that goes to hell, if hell were out in the universe, could go follow a star somewhere or be a star somewhere and just wander forever. and never touch another living soul. Such lonely darkness. They'll stay alive too, because they're getting new bodies also. Enoch talked about them. Enoch? Do we have the words of Enoch? Well, he's going to quote here the apocryphal book of Enoch. The book itself is not sanctioned, because the apostles didn't sanction it. But this quote is, because Jude used it. Jude believed that this particular quote was true. So we find that there can be truth in an uninspired book if it's accepted by the apostles. Not all of those books of doubtful origin, the apocryphal books, not all of them are bad books. They just have a couple things in them that are not accepted, so you can't have anything in the canon of scripture that's not perfect. But they got some good things in some of them. And this was not even an apocryphal book. This is a book farther removed away than that from the truth. But it did have this nugget in it. And Jude went after it. He says that Enoch prophesied that the Lord is coming with ten thousands of his saints. And He is. And when He comes, He's executing judgment with them. Do you hear me? You know how the saints are going to escape the wrath of God? Not through rapture seven years before, but through rapture here. Because when Jesus comes, He's coming with the sword to execute judgment. But the church will be caught up first, right then. Right then. Then the judgment comes. Here's your rapture. Right at the end of all things. Verses 16 and 17. He cannot stop talking about how evil these men are. They're murmurers. Watch out. Some of these things that we're talking about seem to describe some of us and some people we know. Be careful. Who are these people? Don't you become like them in any way, murmurers, complainers in the church. People who want what they want, walking after their desires, speaking big, swelling words. Stay away from them. Flattering people. Are you a flatterer to gain advantage over them? Just remember what Jesus said. Just remember what the Apostle said, verse 17 and 18. 2 Peter 3.3 is what he quotes here. They told you there'd be mockers in the last times who would walk according to their own ungodly lusts. That's exactly what Peter said. And there will be. We won't talk about that verse again. These are sensual persons. They obey their senses. They do what their senses tell them. Whatever their eyes tell them, whatever their mouth tells them, whatever their taste and feelings tell them, they just, they're totally controlled by sense. Their soul, they're soulish people. They're not spiritual people. Sometimes we confuse soulish and spiritual. That's why we follow soulish people, because we don't know the difference between the two. But you brothers, you're not like this. You build yourselves up in the Holy Ghost, would you? Pray in the Holy Ghost. What's that mean? Check it out. Do you know what praying in the Holy Ghost is? We need to know. If we're told to do it several times in Scripture, we ought to know what it means. Pray in the Holy Ghost. Keep in the love of God. Keep yourself. Well, isn't God going to keep me? Yeah, but you keep yourself too. Keep yourself in God. Let's have a two-way relationship with God. Let's don't ask Him to do it all, because He's already determined He's not going to do it all. He really wants you to enter into this. You build yourself. You keep yourself. And you look for the mercy of God. It'll come. That mercy that comes. We're not looking for judgment, are we? We're looking for His mercy to come one day. Let it come now, too, in forgiveness. Oh, we need that mercy now. Someday His great mercy will come and save this world. Then he talks about who we should deal with and how in verses 22 and 23. Some people have compassion on them. Feel sorry for them. Cry with them. Weep with them. Try to understand them. Give them a little room. Give them a little space. Give them a little time. They're going to come around. Ask God to tell you the difference between this kind and the other who needs to be pulled out of the fire right now. Pull him out right now. Save with fear. Brother, I'd like to feel with you and all this stuff, but you know what? You're in big trouble. You need to repent of this thing right now, or you're going to lose it all. Get him out. You need to know the distinction between those two. and then His great doxology, to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise. To Him be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and forever. Amen. I won't try to tear that apart. That surely says what needs to be said. Number one, why does Jude write tells him, I want you to fight for the faith. Number two, what example does Michael give us? Be careful how we address the spirit world. Use Jesus' name. Be careful treading over there. Three, how do we know about Enoch's words from an apocryphal book of Enoch? Number four, what different attitudes to false people? Well, compassion on some, some right now. Pull them out. There you have lessons 49. Let's go to Lesson 50. With the few minutes that we have, we definitely want to introduce the book of 1 John. Let's introduce the book of 1 John. Our third last lesson, Lesson 50, is going to take us all the way through all the epistles of John 1, 2, and 3. Then we're going to start the book of Revelation. We're going to start only the book of Revelation, chapters 1, 2, and 3. Then we're going to break right there after chapter 3, because I believe church history intervenes there. And you have the whole history of the church before you even get to those last things that are talked about in Revelation. So I put some church history in there. Part 1 of church history will be right here. Anyway, 1 John. We've only got tradition to inform us of the later years of this disciple that Jesus loved. That tradition indicates that he left Jerusalem in the late 60s. He ministered in the Asian churches, especially Ephesus. It's believed this letter was written in Ephesus, through those other Asian churches, perhaps in John's older years, in the 90s A.D. Now, all the people of Asia turned away from Paul. They were backsliding. Perhaps that's why John moved into that. I want you to note that no personal affairs are mentioned in 1 John. Only fatherly counsel about Jesus and His Father, who is light and love and life itself. Strongly worded warnings also against false teachers, especially the Gnostics who were so cruel about knowledge, knowledge, that matter was evil. It was a combination of myth and Greek philosophy called Gnosticism, based on the word know. Know, gnostic. We know these things. Well, John, you know how many times he uses the word know in 1 John, and I'll point it out when we get there. Then they're also in that mess that was coming up in the 1st century, the Dorsetists from dokitai, from dokein, which means to seem. It seemed that Jesus was the Son of God, but He wasn't really. That was the teaching. Seemed that Jesus was God in the flesh, but He wasn't really. They denied the incarnation and they lived terribly immorally. 2 John is written by the same person at about the same time and perhaps in the same place as 1 John. This one is addressed, but students of the word disagree as to whether the address is literal or figurative. Not going to worry about it. The message is roughly the same, but condensed. And the message is, love one another and stay away from the false teachers. Third John is also from John while he's in Ephesus, 90s AD, this time to a man. His name is Gaius, no controversy. but we don't know who Gaius was. John praises Gaius for his generosity while warning the brothers about a false leader, Diotrephes. There you have the introduction. I think we have time just to start a little bit of 1 John. I don't want to waste any time. I told you about who the Gnostics are. I told you about who the Dositists are. John starts right out telling them, we know. We've seen it. We've heard it. We've looked on it. We've handled it. We know who the Word of Life is. We're eyewitnesses of this. We're just telling you what we saw. Life was manifested. We've seen it. We're bearing witness to this life which we've seen and heard. We're telling you, verse 3, because we want you to have fellowship with us, you people who can hear me. We want you to know what we have is real. It's real. Everything that we have. was sharing with you. Our fellowship was with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Makes no question here about His deity. These things we write to you that your joy may be full. Right up front, He lets them know there's no question about it. This is the message we've heard from Him and declared to you. What? That God is light. God is light and there's no darkness in God. You guys going around saying you have fellowship with God, but you're walking in your sin, you're lying, you're lying, you're lying. You're not practicing the truth. If we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another. The blood of Jesus cleanses us, keeps cleansing us. The tense of the verb in Greek here is so very important in this book. That blood just keeps on cleansing us. It's not a one-time thing. If we walk in the light, and we keep on walking in the light, not just a one-time thing, we have fellowship with one another. If we say we have no sin, we're surely deceiving ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just. So John makes a big argument about a personal relationship with God that involves working. It involves loving. It involves light. If you've got light, you do certain things. If you don't do those things, if you're walking in immorality like these Gnostics and Gnosticists are, that's a sure sign that they don't know God. We do know God. If we say we haven't sinned, we're making a liar. His word is not in us. This is all for the believers. We, we, we. Even we believers sin. But we have an advocate. When we sin once, that's in chapter 2, verse 1. I want you not to sin. But if anybody sins, we've got that advocate with the Father Jesus. He is the propitiation. Big word there simply means an atonement. He's the victim. He paid the price. He's the sacrifice, the expiation. Call it whatever you like. He's the one who paid the price for our sins and brought us into reconciliation with God. He Himself. Not just for us, but for the whole world if they'll accept it. Jesus loved the world. God loved the whole world so much that He laid down His life for everybody if they will accept it. Now, there's a natural break there in the text. I want you to see this thing about sin, though. If anyone sins, and the Greek verb is a one-time action there. You sin one time, alright, you're forgiven. Oh, you sinned again over here? God will forgive you. But later on we're going to find out if you keep on sinning, practicing sin, no, you're not really one of His at all. and your constant sin lets us know that. Fine line between those two ideas. Some people call it a contradiction, but in fact, that's how we live, by grace, not by boasting. And we're not so much in liberty that we can just keep on sinning, but we do have that advocate, we do have the lawyer standing right beside us. The questions so far, number one, what proof does John give of the truth of his message? He saw, he heard, he touched. Number two, what two benefits flow from walking in the light? You have fellowship with God, and your sin is cleansed. Number three, what follows from walking in darkness? You're going to be in self-deceit. No truth in you. Number four, what does God expect? I'm sorry, does God expect no sin from His people? Well, He desires no sin, but He understands us. He's prepared. The blood of Jesus, which isn't cheap, still is free for us. Let's stop right there at number five. We covered some ground today, didn't we? We're about to wrap this up, as we've been saying now several times. Study ahead of me. Get to 2nd and 3rd John. Finish 1st John. Do a little bit of Revelation. And if you'll start on page 77, if you have the Older Halley's Bible Handbook, 757. Start reading there all the way up to 767, about 10 pages. You'll be able to stay with me in the church history too. I'll talk to you more about that next time. God bless you today.