2 Timothy chapter 3, and let's begin reading tonight in verse 12. Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned, and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable. for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And I want to look at the subject tonight on stability in perilous times. Stability in perilous times. Back up in the context which we've looked at, and we have spent some time here, a matter of fact, many weeks, if you will, in chapter 3. And if we took time to go over every one of those characteristics of the perilous times, we would be here for about 15 or 16 more weeks. And I want to just kind of move on and through this tonight to get to the subject matter for us. But just to recap a few things to lay the foundation for what we're looking at. Paul writes to Timothy, this young preacher, and tells him of a truth that he would have him know, and not only him, but other preachers know, and not only other preachers, but churches know, that there is a time that would be coming that is known as perilous time. This time would be marked by rampant false teaching that leads to the perilous times. And as you look at 2 Timothy chapter 3, what you do is you see a contrast between what all the instability in the perilous times and the stability for God's people in the midst of these times. It is marked by rampant false teaching. In 1 Timothy chapter 4, he mentions doctrines of devils, he mentions seducing spirits, and that is what leads up to this time. And so, when you come to the house of God, and you read your Bible, and you hear the Bible preached, and when you go home and you read your Bible, your Bible is an open book about what is going on in the present time in which we live, and in future. As a matter of fact, you have a whole book, the book of the Revelation, that lays out future events for you to look at and to see. And so we do not have to fear the last days, we do not have to fear those who may have some measure of power in the last days, but we are to trust God in the last days. The fact is that there is much, much false teaching in the world And I know that sometimes I bear down heavy on that. As a matter of fact, I even name names in false denominationalism. And the reason I do that is not because I hate people. It is not because I hate the people that are wrapped up in that falsehood, but I have a concern for them, and more importantly, I have a concern for the flock that God has given me the overseership of. I am to warn you and to watch out for your souls. Some of you have friends who are tangled up in the systems of this world, the religious systems of this world, and you are to be an influence toward them and not vice versa. They're not to be an influence on you to weaken your faith, but you are to be an influence on them so that they might have saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because there are damning systems in the world, and they're marked here. The Bible says that at this time, this perilous time, and we've looked at this and I just want to touch upon it just for a moment, that this perilous time would be certain It shall come, and it shall come in the last days, and we are in the last days, and we've said, and I believe this, the Bible proves this, that we've been in the last days for 2,000 years. But we are in the climactic part, it at least appears to be, the climactic part of the last days when these things are prevalent and becoming more prevalent that are mentioned here in the text. The characteristics of the time is the emphasis of this text. And I've, you know, mentioned this in the past. Now, in Bible prophecy, there's all kinds of things that you can look at. You can look at events in Bible prophecy. The Bible speaks about the man of sin and what he's going to do, and that's an event in Bible prophecy. But some people are date setters, and they try to figure out who's who, and they try to say, yeah, this Mussolini, you know, back in World War II, they thought that Mussolini was the Antichrist, and then they thought that Hitler was the Antichrist. And you even heard, I had a book in my office one time, I don't even know if I still have it or not, and they thought Bill Clinton was the Antichrist. I'm sure there are people who think Donald Trump is the Antichrist. Some people thought Obama was the Antichrist. You can find all these kind of things, but there's no biblical proof for that, and all people are doing there is getting off track. clear evidence of what the last times will look like and its characteristics, at least the people of that day. And there are 19 things that are mentioned in our text. We just went over a few of them, of the characteristics, but they start in verse 2, 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, incontinence, fears, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." And here's the clincher, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. So many of these people are religious people. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the true power of God. And so he lays this out and he tells us, and we saw this, we can know what to look out for, the characteristics. We can know who are easy victims. And I do not want you to be a victim of the last days. If you're careless, if you're gullible, if you're sensual, you will be easy prey in the last days. And so he mentions that in verse 6 where he says, "...for of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led away with diverse lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." So that's who the easy victims are, and there are those to look out for, or the characters. And the characters are the religious charlatans who mishandle the Word of God, or even those people who don't even know what the Word of God is and have their false religion, they do these things. The Bible mentions them here in verse 8 where it says, Now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning faith. And then verse 13 says, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And you should know this. You can just go to an encyclopedia and find out about how religion has increased since the days of Christ. And that in the name of Christianity, all kinds of foolishness goes on. It really is, beloved, blasphemous what is going on. The text even mentions that the men would be blasphemers. All kinds of blasphemers. And that is the characteristic of the time. You know, to be a blasphemer is someone who does not hold God in reverence or in His rightful place. And so it is, even in Christendom, Christ has been replaced. For instance, in Catholicism, Christ is replaced by Mary. She's replaced by the Pope. Excuse me, Christ or the Holy Ghost is replaced by the Pope. You remember, the Bible teaches us who the Vicar of Christ would be. You know who the Vicar of Christ is? Someone who takes the place of Christ. Now if you don't know that Christian, you need to know it. The person that takes the place of Christ is the Holy Ghost. He's the Comforter that would come. But in Catholicism, the Vicar of Christ isn't the Holy Ghost. The Vicar of Christ is the Pope. He takes the place of Christ. And so, the fact is, that's blasphemy, because what it does, it doesn't hold Christ in regard, it doesn't hold God in regard, it doesn't hold His name in regard. So whenever your pastor, from time to time, gets on Catholicism, he doesn't do it, I didn't do it this morning, he doesn't get on Catholicism, and not only that, but Mohammedism or whatever it may be, the fact is that those that are serious, what we're talking about is not child games and toys, this is serious business. Because it is damning. That's why it's serious. It is damning. And so there are men who deceive. Now either I'm deceiving you, I'm one of those men that are deceiving, and you're being deceived. Or they're deceived and being deceived. And you can't have it both ways. The fact is that the Scripture will let us know what's right and wrong. And that's how you can judge my words. I don't want you to take my word for it. I want you to take the Scripture. The Apostle Paul says, search the Scriptures, whether those things are so. That is what the Brians did, they searched the Scriptures to see whether those things were so. So we go to the Word of God, we have the sure Word of God, and we can go to that and find out what is right. And that's what we come to in our text. If you'll notice how the Apostle writes that lays this out, first he goes for what is perilous and then he gives us stability in the midst of this great peril. You know, when calamity comes, when perils come, people want safety. He's contrasting peril, warning, that which will destroy where there is safety. That's what we want for you. I would want everybody in this building to have safety. Now this safety will not exempt us from persecution. For the Bible says, Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You're going to suffer some form of persecution if you go after God like you're supposed to be going after God. If you live godly, you're going to suffer some kind of persecution. It may be someone in your family who says you're too fanatical. That may be the persecution that you suffer. It may be that you'll lose your head for Christ. It may be that drastic a persecution because there are believers who will not recant their faith in Christ. and the Muslim considers you an infidel. Whether you're a Sunni or a Shiite doesn't matter. That is, whether it's a Sunni Muslim or a Shiite Muslim, it doesn't matter. You're the infidel, and under that law, their law, their Bible, you've got to get your head cut off if you don't submit to Allah. Which means, you know what Allah means? Allah just means the God. That's what the word Allah means. You know, the Bible speaks about the God of this world, doesn't it? So they worship the God. They don't worship the God, but they do worship the God. And I'm working on something. And it's very interesting that there are two religions And it's interesting how these two religions are knit together, and I'll get to my subject, how they're knit together. One follows after a woman, and the other follows after a man. And one is Mary, and one is Muhammad. And they're wedded to them, and they want them wedded together, and they're working on getting them wedded together, Muhammad and Mary. They're working on that. You don't believe that? You can look in 1964 and Pope John Paul in what he wrote about the Muslims and how there are brothers and how they worship the same God. They don't worship the same God I worship. You see, because my God has a son named Jesus and the Muslim says that God has no son. Now how is it now, let me just, bear with me now, how is it that the head, that the head of supposedly the Christian Church, the head now, he's a Catholic now, he's a Pope, he's the head of the so-called Christian Church and he says that we worship the same God but my God, the Bible's God, has a son but the Muslim God doesn't have one. How is that? How does that work out? I'll tell you how that works out, you don't know what he's talking about. And that is a very serious matter. Very serious. Very serious. Because you know where life is? Life is in the Son. He that believeth in the Son hath life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. You can't get to heaven apart from the Son. You can't get to God apart from the Son. If you don't believe in the Son, the wrath of God... So here's somebody who's my brother and the wrath of God's abiding on him. But we're all going to go to heaven. It just doesn't work. And he goes on to say in that thing that he wrote that they pray like we pray. They pray to the God that we pray to. But that's just not true. It's serious. But in the midst of all the deception, in the midst of all that's going on, the apostle says, Timothy, you've got something to stand on. There's persecution. You know what persecution does to real Christians? It makes them stronger. That's what it does to real Christians. When persecution comes, they're like those over in China that are being persecuted right now. Real Christians can stand up and say, I'm trusting God. It makes them stronger. They don't abandon their faith. Now false Christians, they'll say, well, whatever you want, buddy, I don't want any of this stuff. I never believed in Jesus anyway. I just did that because of my mama, you know, or my daddy, or Uncle Joe believed that kind of stuff. I don't believe that. When we come to the Bible, He says in verse 13, But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and has been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith. which is in Christ Jesus. So the security is what we're looking at, the stability in perilous times. And you know what the security and stability in perilous times is? It's the Bible. It's the Holy Scriptures. We are living in perilous times in the last days and there is a great disregard for truth and there is a growth of deception and how can you know what is right? How can you know? Is your truth and His truth and her truth and their truth all the same when they're all contrary? No. But you have stability in the Word of God. And the knowledge and the use of the Holy Scriptures should encourage us in the last days. The Word of God should bring us comfort and hope in the last days. Now if you don't have assurance, you're not going to have any comfort. But if you have assurance, and that's what he tells Timothy here, he says, these are like that, but you have something different. These people are, these old silly women, they're just carried away, but you have stability. They don't believe every word, you believe the Bible, you have stability. That's what we have in the last days, stability. And we have it. Matter of fact, from a child, Timothy was taught the value and the certainty of the inspired Word of God. His mother and his grandmother, Lois and Eunice, they taught him the Word of God and to value the Word of God above everything else. He didn't even have the whole book that we had, but what book he had? What part of the Word of God he had, he learned to value that part of the Word of God. And as the Scripture is written, he values more of it. Now we have the whole book that we can value and highly esteem. And the Word of God should bring us comfort. Psalm 19. Psalm 19 and verse 7. Psalm 19 and verse 7. The Bible says there this, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. If you need to be converted, you got a book that'll do it. It's the law of God. You know, to be converted just means to be changed. And here it is, to be changed, to be converted. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting to Saul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. Now, if you want to have a heart that will rejoice, and you want to be able to see right, to know what's right, to know what's wrong, God's left you a book. And in these last days you can see things that other men can't see. The Bible talks about in the Gospels, Jesus talked about the mysteries of the kingdom. And you know what the mysteries of the kingdom? He said it's hidden from these folks and it's revealed to you. You have the privilege as God's children to know certain things. You've been inducted. You've been inducted by the Spirit of God and you can know some things. But you've got to work for it now. He doesn't just zap it and pour it in your mind. You've got to work for it. But you have the ability to know things. You have ability to know what's going to transpire in this world. And you know where we get fear at? We get fear in the unknown. A little child. My little daughter last night. I told you I had about 3 or 4 hours sleep last night. My little daughter comes to the room. I just got home about midnight. She comes to the room about 12.30, I don't know what, sometime along there. and maybe one o'clock, and I was awakened by a figure in the crack of the door. And she thought that somebody had told her about, I don't know, something or other that eats people's feet. And so she was afraid that something was going to eat her feet that night. So she comes and gets in bed, and then she lays down beside. You know what her problem was? She had the fear of the unknown. Things that weren't even there. She feared things that were told to her that wouldn't even happen. So God comes along, listen now, and adults have the same kind of fear. They have a fear of the unknown. And God comes along and He gives you knowledge so you can know some things. You know what that'll do with you? It'll make you where you won't have to fear it. You can just trust Him about it. Here you've got a book that says, listen guys, this is the way it's going to be, this is the way they're going to do, and here's what's going to happen to you. Don't worry about it, don't sweat it, I've already taken care of it. Isn't that comforting? To me that's comforting to know what's going to transpire and know how these things work out, and we can prepare for that. And what's said to us is sure, true, real. We don't have to worry about it. We don't have to wonder if he's telling me the truth or not. So you have to worry about whether the truth is coming out to you other ways, other sources. You have to worry about that. You need to be concerned about that, what's being said to you is true or not. But you don't have to do that with the Word of God. It's sure, it's right, it's true. So as we read and meditate and study the Holy Scriptures, we have greater understanding of God and His dealings with us in our life. And in context, He's telling Timothy, this is what's going to perfect you, ground you in the last days. And through a knowledge of God's Word, we're able to face whatever awaits in these last days. And so we should be encouraged by this. It's important for us to see this, to see the importance of the stability. Now, in our text, we find that there is, first of all, stability because of our new birth. 2 Timothy 3, verse 15, And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation. See, the holy scriptures, first of all, are used to bring us to salvation. If you're here today, you're trusting in Christ for your salvation, for your righteousness, you found that out through the book. And so, in the book of 1 Peter, 1 Peter 1 and verse 23, it's the Word of God that God uses to bring about salvation. In 1 Peter 1 and verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed. We know how we were born again. We know how God operated in that thing. We were born again, the text says here, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man is the flower of the grass, the grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you. So the Holy Scriptures, the Scripture that you have, gives you stability because you know you have an unending life that was given to you through the power of the book that you hold in your hands. The Holy Spirit is the agent, if you will, in regeneration or the giving of spiritual life, the new birth as the text says. In James chapter 1, that's why preaching is important. Preaching is not important because I'm important. Preach is important because that's the way God has designed to bring salvation to His people. And so that's why we come here and preach. That's why we go out these doors and preach. We go to the park and preach. We go on the street and preach. We go, you know, preaching at other places, Bible conferences, revival meetings. We go to the nursing home and preach because it is through the power of God's Word that men are brought from death to life. In the book of James chapter 1 and verse 17, the Bible says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning of his own will. Beget he us with the word of truth. The word of God's important and God has always used His Word in the deliverance, the salvation, the giving of spiritual life to His people. And He's done that in both Testaments. Whether He spoke audibly or whether He spoke through a messenger, God has used His Word in the salvation of His people. Let me show you. Now there are people who don't believe that. I talked to a boy who came here to church one time and he said, I've always been saved. And he's not always been saved. I don't believe he's saved now, but I know he's not always been saved. The Bible says that we're saved by faith and faith come by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Galatians chapter three and verse six, the Bible says, even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith the same are the children of Abraham, and the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen, that's us, through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed." So God Himself preached the gospel to Abraham. So those who try to minimize the importance of the Scripture, in essence, minimize the importance of salvation. Salvation is important. So when we come to this text, there's security in the Word because it is through the Word of God that God has brought about your own deliverance. It's also important for your spiritual growth. There is, beloved, some security that you have in the Word of God and that security will be manifest as you grow spiritually. Now you're going to need to grow spiritually in these days in which we live. And that's what Paul's saying to Timothy. He's saying, Timothy, listen. They're going to wax worse and worse. You're going to wax better and better. They're going to go off and you're going to be stronger in the faith. You're going to believe. You're going to grow. You're going to grow in faith as you apply the Word of God in your life. They're going to go out and get anybody that will tell them anything they want to hear. That's coming up in the next chapter. They've got itching ears and they want people to say soft words to them. They want to go to a church that has a sign that says, hey, if you'll come back to church, we won't throw the book at you. That's a slogan on signs. They put that on signs. If you come here, we won't throw the book at you. Come as you are and leave as you came. Now I don't mind people coming as they are, but I want them leaving different. And that's what the book's for. I talked to my neighbor the other day after the graduation. He said, Troy, he said, I really enjoyed the message you gave to your children. He said, if I didn't have to, this was his word, if I didn't have to go, I won't name the church. He said, I wouldn't. I'd come over there to church. And then he said, we talked a little bit, and he talked about his preacher a little bit, and then he talked about going to a Southern Baptist convention, where they have big things that they do, and a man's preaching there, a preacher out of Georgia, and he says, I asked him, I said, how can you preach so hard against sin and not lose anybody? He said, who says we don't lose anybody? And his pastor's just, you know, a thousand, two thousand member congregation. He said, who says we don't lose anybody? We lose people all the time. They don't like hard preaching. He said, but we gained some back. And the problem is not hard preaching. The problem's itchy ears. The problem is the instability of the last days and what people want. That's the problem. The problem is not the Word of God. The problem is hard hearts. The problem is not the Word of God. The problem is people who have not been quickened by the Spirit of God. The problem is not the Word of God and what it can do. The problem is that people love their sin. That's the problem. And he says to Timothy, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable. for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. Now in that list of four things there, two are negative and one is positive and one is neutral. Doctrine is neutral, reproof and correction are negative, and instruction in righteousness is positive. I could show you that through the Word of God, how often times it's that way. It's usually 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4 that it's negative versus positive. Do you know why that is? Because there are some things in our life that need to be knocked off. You take a hard knock, you've got to put a grinder to it. You've got to get down in there real good tight, you know, and get it smoothed out. And it takes some hard things. But I'll tell you what, when you get it smoothed out, look at that table. Isn't that table pretty? Look how smooth that is. It didn't just happen. It had to go through a machine that got it knocked off. Knocked off. Knocked off. Then you had to take some sandpaper and get it smoother and keep on working on that thing to get it smooth like that. And that's the way it is with us. And some of us have areas of our life that's got harder knots than others. And so the Word of God comes along and it hits that spot in that place and it kind of drags a little bit. You know, then you got to dig a little deeper to get it all smoothed out again. But it's good for us. We need that. You need that. I need that. It's important for our spiritual growth. The importance of the Word of God can be seen by its profitability to the child of God. The child of God receives doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness on how to live a righteous life before God so that he can be what he needs to be and sometimes thinks he already is. Perfect. That's what it says. That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. That's what we need. We need to be perfected. God uses things to perfect us. He uses trials, tribulations. He uses His Word to perfect us. It really boils down to the fact that we are what we eat. If you consume the Word of God, you'll be stabilized. And then of course, it is important, and we close with this, this security for our warfare. Though warfare is not directly mentioned in this text, it is by way of reference to the first part of the text. Because we are engaged in this society in which we live. And either we'll be overcome, or we will overcome. Either we'll stand our ground or we'll be swept away. Either we'll be compromised or we will compromise. The fact is, beloved, is we're in a spiritual warfare that our dear Lord warns us about. And so it says in verse 15, And that from a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise." Now, excuse me, verse 15 of chapter 2, it says, Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Chapter 2, verse 1, Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." You know that the Word of God is interwoven into the fiber of our spiritual armor according to the book of Ephesians chapter 6. We have on the blessed plate of righteousness, we're girded about with truth. Our shoes are held together by the Word of God. We are sobbed with the preparation of the gospel of peace. And we have a shield, the shield of faith, and we have a sword. It's the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The Word of God is the very substance of the weapon that we battle with. And so there's stability there. God has equipped us in these last days. We don't have to fear. And we don't have to be duped. We don't have to be taken captive. We don't have to be. We can stand our ground. Having done, the Bible says there in Ephesians, having done all to stand, stand. Because God has equipped you There is some stability and security in these last days. Perilous times, well, they shall come. They really will. Where do you fit in? Are you one of the nineteen? Lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Are you there? Are you one of those that are led astray because you're silly, gullible? Or are you one of those that can have assurance, knowing of whom thou hast learned? May God give us strength to stand in His grace and for His glory. And as we face a hostile world with all kinds of falsehood, may we have a word of peace and truth for them. And may we stand for Christ no matter what, knowing that He willingly gave His all for us. I am satisfied with Jesus. Are you tonight satisfied with me? He's done so much for me. But the question comes to me. Think of Calvary. Is my master, is he your master? Is my master satisfied with me? Oh, He's equipped us well. Let's not deny His name. Let's stand firm in these days. Thank you for your attention to God's Word tonight.