Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Living in Liberty Pt.7

A lot of exciting things are going on in Africa. Just to try to keep you updated, Tony's taking a couple of days off. I told him to get a couple of days rest, and they went down to the reserve in Nakuru. He said it's almost surreal as you look out from the lodge there and you see the wild animals that are roaming through the area--all of the pink flamingos--and he had just a good time of refreshing. He has really been carrying a load over these last months since they went back, overseeing all of the men there. There is an exciting thing that's been taking place. The churches are growing. The Kwanjenga church has doubled in the last three months. Can you say praise God for that? The ministry in Eldoret is growing by leaps and bounds. Tony gave a testimony; he said it just brought tears to his eyes. The Kenyans are afraid of the rain. It's not like a voodoo thing, but if you get a cold over there, it's not like getting a cold here. The one thing you don't want to do is go to the hospital over there. You're better off to take your chances. They try not to get sick, and many of the different things, but they don't like the rain. Tony was getting ready to preach. They were going to hold some meetings, and he said the sky was kind of threatening, but they decided to go anyway. So he takes a load of people out--they were an excited bunch of people from the church--and they're gathering, and starting to minister to people along the streets. He went back to get another load (of people), and they had put the sound system out, etc. As he was gone, the skies opened up and it was a deluge just as he was bringing in the second group. So he actually just turned around and took the second group home, and was coming back to pick up the first group with the sound equipment. The sound equipment had all been put away where it was dry. He said, as he pulled up--and some of us have been over there and seen them huddled under all of the different little shacks, and all of the corrugated steel, and different things, people are just standing in there to try to stay out of the rain--and they all head for cover; but they become a captive audience because everybody's afraid to go out in the rain. He said he pulled back up, and here was James, standing out in the middle of the muddy street, no PA system, whatever, just out there preaching the gospel, praise God. It's pouring rain.

The Kenyans are used to seeing American religion. The missionaries that have come over there don't want to be inconvenienced; they don't want to experience any discomforts. They've brought the American culture to Africa, and not the gospel. We've really blown these people's minds because even bwana works. They see us as we come over there and we put our hands to the plow. We work as hard as they do and longer than they do. They've never seen white men come over there and exert themselves. They look at us and they think, "There's something different about these people; they don't think they're better than us." It's very strange for these Africans to see white men not looking down on them. They could not believe it when we went over there and laid hands on Charles and ordained him a senior pastor of a church, an autonomous church. It's never been done; they've never seen that happen. In the body of Christ, there's not male or female, amen? Jew or Gentile, black or white, we're all just people saved by grace, praise God, needing the same grace of God to finish this race. Amen? We all need the same faith every day to finish this course that we're on. Lifting up one another's hands and always pointing to the lordship of Jesus Christ. The men have done a good job of that and we've shared with them, "Don't in any way put yourself off as superior. Become transparent. Let people see through you to Jesus. He's the head of the church. No man, no organization; Jesus is the head of His church." Tony said, as he pulled up and saw these men out there just preaching the gospel, just laying their lives down, imbibing that spirit; that it caused him to see that there is the remnant, and there is that faithful, faithful fellowship that's manifesting itself.

Many of you that went over there last year, there wasn't even a church in that town that was bringing this gospel message. You went, came back, and there's a church there now. You contributed to that. Every one of you who have been praying; you don't have to go. Many of you have given money; you don't even have to give money. Everyone that's prayed, everyone that's given, everyone that's gone, think about it. One of these days when we stand before the Lord, somebody's going to walk up to you and say, "I appreciate it, man." What was that one song? Oh, yeah, Thank You. I don't know about you, but every time I hear that song.... You just can't hear that song that it doesn't break your heart and cause you to weep. "Thank you for giving unto me." Just keep praying. Just keep believing. There's a remnant being saved. I wish I had Tony's email right now. He speaks toward that. He says, "Tell the people we know that it's not us. We're over here but we know that it's not us; we know that it's the prayers; we know that it's the intercession that's going on at home that is carrying us through." Just keep holding them up, praise God. Those of you that are preparing to go; it's going to be an exiting time, and we're all going to be heading out in just a couple of weeks. We're looking forward to seeing what Father has for us.

Jimmy LaRock from Baltimore is getting to go and stay. Jim was saying that the other day his Mom said something that just blessed me, as there was talk about him going, and staying there, and in her own mind she had these ideas of what was going to take place, and she thought, "Well, it's so hard to let your child go, and I know that he'll be living with Tony, and Karen, and they're going to take good care of him." As we were praying and talking with Tony, and Tony said, "Whatever you want." He said, "Now he can't live with us in the place we're living," he said. "We'll sell that, and get a bigger place, whatever you want." I said, "Well, tell me. What's the best that's going on over there?" Number one, we want him to be safe and that's the main thing. As Tony prayed, he came back and said, "I think I know what the solution is, and what the Lord would have us do." I said, "What's that?" "Right behind Bet's house, there's this...." (They call it a room. I can't wait to see this place; I'm sure Jimmy can't either.) He said, "There's a place back there, and Jimmy can stay there, and they can live back there. There's another young man in the church, and the two of them can room together. It's really safe; it's there on the grounds with Bet's house." I thought, "Praise God, what a great opportunity!" Can you imagine being 18 years old and getting to go to Africa and preach the gospel? Just live over there and share, and some of you say, "Oh, that would be so neat!" How about being 18 years old and preaching the gospel in Sterling? It's just as important. Amen? There's no more glory in Africa than there is in Sterling. The people in Sterling are just as lost as the Africans--more so, because of our affluence. Pray for him; he's going to go over and Karen's not going to be cooking. He's going to be out there on his own hot plate. He's going to learn real quick how to make chapatti and a little bit of ugali. How many of you had ugali when you were over there? Anybody? It's kind of horrible. It's like somebody made a mistake with their cornbread; but it will keep you alive. We had some. It wasn't green, so it had to be good, praise God. Be prayerful; the group is getting ready to go over there--some exciting times. That's one of the things where we really want to continue to hold up their hands.

Since we're on break here for discipleship training and we have a number of people that are out of town, I thought I would deviate a little bit from the teaching we've been on. I want to deal with conscience tonight. We want to do a teaching on "do not let your conscience be your guide." We've all heard it said, "Let your conscience be your guide." We all have seen what people have done with their conscience guiding them. It doesn't take long; just look around you. I was watching a thing on TV the other night on taboos. Did any of you see it? It had to do with taboo food and how different cultures eat different things. It was showing all the gross things that people eat around the world (like McDonald's) and different things. It was kind of interesting because it also went into cannibalism and people with good conscience. The Scripture says love your brother, don't eat him. With good conscience, it's like, "What ever happened to George?" You can't just say that a person's conscience can guide them because, with conscience, people do eat one another, and with conscience, people live under laws where it's lawful to have multiple wives, and it's lawful to commit all kinds of bizarre acts; so your conscience cannot be your guide. Your conscience has to be constantly strengthened and cleansed with the eternal truth of God's Word. Amen? When your conscience is revealing the Word of God, then you're safe. You take what you inwardly are sensing and compare it to the revelation of the Word of God, and if they agree, then you can follow that intuitive voice that's within you. Otherwise, you're acting on cultural input. You're acting upon many different aspects that have to do with social influence and acceptability. Your conscience is constantly being formed by secular humanism in the society that you're living in and people in good conscience just massacre babies and think nothing about it. That's the world that we're living in. We don't get involved in the politics; we don't get involved in many of the social issues, because the answer to every social issue is that you must be born again. Amen? You can't fix it.

When Clarence Thomas asked me that time.... (You don't always get a Supreme Court justice asking you this question.) Can you imagine you're talking to one of the most powerful men in the world and he asks this question, "What can we do to save our nation?" I said, "It can't be fixed; and the only hope that we have is to rescue a remnant." The nation is broken and it can't be fixed. We've gone beyond the capacity to return to our roots. We don't go out to try to reform our society; we go out to reach a remnant. There are people there that still need to hear that Jesus is Lord, that Father loves them and has reconciled them back to Himself through the blood of Jesus Christ, that Jesus died for their sins, that He was raised again, and that He's gone to prepare a place for us. Can you say praise God for that? He said, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will [surely] come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also" (John 14:3). "Let not your heart be troubled: [He said in that passage,] ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house there are many [dwelling places]..." (John 14:1-2). He's gone and prepared a place and He's coming back real soon The Scripture says that He is going to appear to those who are looking for Him, and He's going to appear to those who love His appearing.

As we were at the race last Sunday, a guy walked up to me and said, "What's that scripture say? Kill your opponent?" That's what he said. He said, "What's that mean?" I said, "Well, actually, no, it doesn't say that. It basically says to kill yourself. Die to yourself, and having died to yourself, that Scripture says, "I have finished [the race].... Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, ...and not to me only but unto all them also that love His appearing" (2 Timothy 4:7-8). Are you looking for that soon coming of Jesus? If we are aware of that, and we're aware that everybody around us is dying, then we're going to go out and tell somebody. Have you had that opportunity this week? If not, the week's not over, praise God. Go out and share, amen? Find somebody and tell them.

We had a great weekend this last weekend; we were able to share with all kinds of people. They were coming out of the woods and we gave out every piece of literature we had, with the super gas car. There were some others that didn't pertain to the particular cars, but we were giving it out. All the super gas literature was gone, and we had a ton of some of the others. We didn't run out of a couple of the different cars, but it was amazing! I don't know that in all the years I've preached the gospel--and I've heard people say--it had ever happened to me the way that it did Saturday night. Now, I'm a person who's been on the streets ministering the gospel. I've taken people out door-to-door, streets, malls, you name it. I told you one time, when we were out in California--it was kind of interesting--it was getting late one night, and I had a bunch of kids out just sharing the gospel with everybody. I was walking down the road and a guy was sitting on a bench, a bus stop, so I sat down beside him, kind of looked over at him and said, "How you doing?" He said, "Fine." I said, "Well, I just stopped to ask you a question. Has anybody ever shared the love of Jesus Christ with you?" He said, "Yeah, you're the fourth person tonight." I thought, "Praise God, the kids are doing a great job!" I've shared the gospel, like I said, in rescue missions, with people in the gutters. I shared with you, as that one time I was in that crash pad with those kids, the marijuana was so thick. It was a 12 by 12 little shack they were all living in. You literally couldn't even see across the room. I mean, that place was just full; it was more than "one toke over the line, sweet Jesus." (That's for you old guys.) I was just sharing in there. A couple right behind me on a cot with a blanket hanging down were having sex; and I'm sitting on the foot of the cot sharing the gospel. I wonder what they were thinking. That never dawned on me till just this moment. Anyway, I'm just sharing Jesus with these kids and a whole bunch of them got saved. They came to church that night and a whole bunch of them got saved. Most of them were runaways and about half of them went back to their parents. We got letters later about these kids and their lives being set back on course.

That's exciting stuff, but I don't think I ever had anything happen like Saturday night. I was sitting in the super gas car, the Corvette. You do a lot of sitting around, and it gives me a chance to pray sometimes. I'm sitting there, and all of a sudden, I almost began to weep at the futileness, the lost humanity, as I watched all these faces go by. I was watching all these people walking around, and thought virtually every person here has never experienced the love of God, the saving grace of Jesus Christ. That thing that is real to you and I, and yet, so many times we take it for granted. The peace that it brings with it, the assurance of eternal life, and the knowledge that we're the sons of God, heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ. We take it for granted, just like we take the prosperity in this country for granted. I just said, "Father, thank you for the opportunity to share with these folks." But, then I decided to do something we hadn't done before. We've always had people come to us around the cars and we've handed stuff out. I still had my driving suit on, and Greer and I actually went down. The bleachers were packed with thousands of people. It's kind of a rowdy group going on up there, and they're all betting. Everybody has a wad of cash, and they're betting on this car, and they're betting on that car. (They do have family sections, no drinking, no cussing.) We began to walk down in front of the bleachers and up into the bleachers and began to hand out literature. People were saying, "Yeah, man, let me have one. Yeah, yeah." Just about as fast as you could walk through there, people are taking the tracts. We were able to stop and share with a few of them about the gospel and what Jesus is doing; it was just a great opportunity. We're having a good time just sharing, just ministering. We had a lady out of the stands who came over to the trailer and said, "I'm brand new believer, but I'm still fighting the flesh. God has been delivering me from drugs. I've been free but I'm afraid; can you pray for me?" We laid hands on her and prayed for her, and gave her one of the grace books, and said, "This thing will set you free." How many of you would have liked to have one of those books on grace a few weeks after you got saved? I would. It would have saved me a lot of knots on the head in my spiritual growth. We were able to get that in her hands and pray, and so it was great. We had a good night with different things going on.

We got up the next morning getting ready to go to chapel, and I don't normally do this, either. I told Greer to grab some of the books, because we've never done this. I never like to put myself forward in these meetings in the chapels so much. I usually talk to the chaplains on the side. Many of them have come to us for counsel. We're kind of low key, which is our personality. I shared with her to get some books and stuff; we're going to give everybody there a book, and some of our handouts. We're getting ready to go down to chapel and things looked kind of quiet down there. It just so happened, in this huge complex, that as I stepped out to the road, one of the officials was coming by. I waved him down and I said, "What's the deal with chapel? Is it still down there at the same place? He said, "No, the chaplain called at the last minute and we had to cancel." I said, "Do you mean you just cancelled because you didn't have a preacher?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "Well, you've got one now." He gets on his little walkie-talkie and he calls up to the head tower and he said, "We've got a guy down here that said he will preach chapel for us." I heard it come back on the other side he said, "The Finish the Race guy?" He said, "Yeah." "Tell him okay." The next thing we know, they're announcing chapel over the loud speaker, and Finish the Race Ministries, and whatever. We go down there and had a good group show up. We had a phenomenal service, just a great service! We got our literature out to everybody and got to pray with a lady who was really warring that day. She had just gotten up and heard that right in an area where her son was, five had been killed that evening over in Iraq, and she was fearful. We prayed with her, and were able to minister to a number of folks there. We just had a great time, just a great time in the Lord!

Just watching our steps being ordered the night before, the opportunity we got to minister was just phenomenal. Cindy and Adele were up there in the stands witnessing to people and sharing the gospel with people. Every time you turn around, Greg is talking to somebody and handing out literature and just having a great time. We're getting ready to head back and a guy comes running down and he said, "You're the Finish the Race guy, right?" I said, "Yeah." He said, "You haven't heard yet?" I said, "No, what's that?" He said your cars just won Best Appearing Car here. I said, "Really? That's cool! Which one?" He said, "All of them. We've never had that happen before, but just bring them all down." We said, "Okay." We bring all the cars down for the picture for all the magazines and all that kind of stuff. They're taking the pictures, and we're sharing the gospel with everybody. (Come to find out that the track owner's mother was on life support. He had to make a decision the next day whether to take her off support or not, and I was able to share with him and minister to him some.) We're just having a good time.

We get that done and we run down and we start the race. As the day goes on, we just keep winning, and winning, and winning, and winning, and the next thing we know, we're in the final round. I'm rolling up to stage the car; we've never been there before. This is our first time in a championship round. This is what you look for; this is what you're waiting for. You've got to understand, people who have been out every weekend for twenty years never win one of these things. I'm not exaggerating. I'm talking about every weekend for twenty years; ninety-five percent of everybody that's been doing it that long has never won. That would get discouraging, wouldn't it? We're rolling up there for the last round--it's really funny, because I'm rolling up (and I'm not a real competitive person anyway) and we're rolling up there--and the only thing that's on my mind, as I'm getting ready to roll into the pre-stage bulb, is what a great weekend of ministry this has been! My mind is going to all of these people that we were ministering to and I thought, "Praise God, what a great time! Lord, you just did so many neat things," and I better get this thing staged. I roll in there and this is on my mind and I'm in pre-stage. All of a sudden, I thought, "Okay, I'd better pay attention," and I roll into the stage, push a button, pow! Let go, win the race. As you go across the finish line, they have these lights that will come on sometimes. Well, they come on all the time, but sometimes you don't see them and it shows whether you won or not because you can't see; everything is behind you. A lot of times, at 160 or 180 miles an hour, you don't always catch them as you're going by. I looked up as we came across the line and I didn't see my win light, and I thought, "Huh, I must have broke out and lost. What a great weekend this has been!" I thought I lost so when I pulled it around and came back down, they handed me the time slip. I didn't look at it because a lot of times, I play a game that if I don't see the win light, I won't look to see if I won or not. I wait to see the reaction at the trailer. I'm driving back down the return lane and I'm thinking what a great day this has been. I'm thinking that I lost; this is cool. I feel sorry for them because we had such a good day, and I thought, "Aw, that's too bad. They're going to really be disappointed. What a great day of ministry we've had!" This guy was waving and has me pull over. I thought, "What's he doing?" The next thing I knew, I saw the cars lined up, so I pulled my time slip open and saw that we had won, as he pulled us over there for all of the cars that had won. Just sharing that to say there isn't anything like touching a life. "I'm so glad you gave." We're living in that day.

Let's finish off. Turn over, if you would, to the book of Timothy. I didn't expect to take that long with our announcements. It's an exciting time to be alive, yet all around us there is another gospel being preached. There's another Jesus that's being represented, and He's being packaged with everything that Fifth Avenue can come up with. It's a Jesus that's being presented to our generation based upon demographics, polls. People are polled, "What would you like church to be?" "Short. Short, no offerings, free food, beer and a Lazy Boy; get rid of those pews." It's sad to say that a lot of churches have almost gone there. You go to most churches today and the teaching is ten minutes--"Sermonettes for Christianettes"--and they're afraid that people won't stay. Paul said, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation...." Paul told Timothy, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." Paul told Timothy, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; ...that thou shalt might both save thyself, and them that hear thee."

Tragically, in so many pulpits today--and I'm not looking to just to be critical of other people--what I'm saying is, in so many of the churches today, the main problem is that the preachers haven't taken heed of themselves first. How do I pray? How much time do I spend in the Word of God? How willing am I to do the Word of God? How willing am I to take up my cross and follow Him daily, to die to myself, to be willing to die to my own reputation, to not be the big shot, to not have to have the biggest church, to not have to have the prettiest stained glass windows, whatever it might be that motivates in our success-driven society, our "bigger is better" society? Bigger is not better; better is better. Paul says very clearly that is what you and I have to be aware of in this generation that we're living in, and what we need to keep our eyes upon. Look at the epistles of Timothy; we'll take a few minutes here. Like I said, we're not going to deal with conscience like I was planning on. I didn't realize that this snuck up on us the week off.

In 2 Timothy, chapter 3, we're going to look at Thessalonians a little bit, and Peter. I'll try to be considerate of the hour, but not to the place of compromising the Word. The passage that we just quoted in 2 Timothy, chapter 2, verse 15: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God...." The problem is that too many people are studying to show themselves approved unto men, how educated and how aware they are of political and social problems today. Some want to be versed in the newest jargon and vernacular. You go to church and you're called like a "Yo, dog" or something, the newest vernacular that's out there. We're not showing ourselves approved unto men, but unto God. Anytime that someone stands behind this sacred desk, this pulpit, some people get something out of it; others don't. As teachers, very few times do you ever leave this pulpit and think, "You know, that wasn't too bad." It's always, "Man, I didn't get it across. It wasn't what it needed to be." The times that I have thought, "That was really good," I found that nobody got anything. The times that God approves are the times that the Word was rightly divided. That's an interesting phrase when you look at that passage. The word "rightly divided" in the Greek means to cut straight through. More preaching needs to cut straight through. We need to put away all of the nonsense, all of the religious jargon. We need to get through all of the politics, the "seeker-friendly" mentality, everybody's got to be comfortable in church, and cut to the chase and deal with the fact that every one of us is a sinner. There is nothing good in any of us and we need the grace of God to finish this course that we're on. Every day we have to grow, and every day we have to die. There's a cross to be taken up, praise God. Christianity is not easy. It's not something that appeals to the masses. It's not something that you can market.

The cross, the Mel Gibson thing that was just out, the cross you saw was what the cross was about. It is the object of death; it is torture to the natural man. Every day we're making the decision to die with Him, to be crucified with Him. Everybody else is choosing to make life easy on themselves, to satisfy their flesh, to take the easy route. We're following a King who says, "This course that you're on is straight, it's narrow, it's tough, but it has some eternal rewards." Oh, we all know that there are times that we really enjoy. We know that, as Christians, we can have fun and we can enjoy ourselves. We know that we're in the world, and we're not of it. We know that sin doesn't have dominion over us; we can go out and not be afraid that the devil is going to overtake us. We're aliens. We're new creatures. When you become born again, you're not the same person anymore. When I got born again, I know my family thought that I was abducted. They were trying to figure out what happened to me. "Whatever happened to that nice, arrogant, prideful, nasty son that we loved? Who is this guy? You're no longer our son." I told you that my parents disowned me and took all my college tuition, gave it to my brother, and cast me out for accepting Jesus as my Lord. I was a new creature; they didn't know what to do with me. I heard the gospel that cut straight through; it was rightly divided, and I believed it. I believed that I was a sinner and I believed that Jesus paid the price for my sins, and if I would accept His work as being sufficient, and let Him be Lord of my life, He would give me dominion over sin, and I could walk free from the sin that used to dominate me. The things that I used to love, I now hate, and the things I used to hate, I now love.

Aren't you thankful for the love of God? What are we doing to simply share that with people? We want to go out and tell them, if you accept Jesus, all of your problems will go away. They may, but most likely they won't. In fact, I want to tell you something. You're going to get new problems. Our biggest problems come from people who say they're Christians. I found that the world is not a problem. It's the people that say they're Christians that deny the power of the gospel, that live by their own self-righteousness, that live by a humanistic perspective, and have never known the reality of death to self, and regeneration, that makes you a new man. Watch what happens here as we see what Paul says. He said, "This know also, that in the last days [chapter 3] perilous times shall come." I personally believe that we're in the last days, the last moments of the last days. I believe that the trumpet can sound at any moment, hallelujah, and the dead in Christ are going to rise, and those of us that remain are going to be changed in a moment. Corruption will take on incorruption; mortality, immortality. Think about that. Are you tired of lugging this flesh around? I am. I hate the sin that's in my members. I hate having to battle with it on a daily basis. Can you imagine a day when there's no more war? No more war with your flesh. No more temptation within, only the freedom to perfectly glorify Jesus in every way, the ability to honor God with every thought, every word, every action. To see the glorification, the finished work of redemption in our lives. It's not about us; it's about the glory of God.

You were not saved to make life easy on you. You were not saved to keep you from going to hell. You were born again to glorify God. Amen? It's about Him; it's not about us. We're living in a day when the gospel has changed and the gospel is all about you. The gospel is about you. The gospel is about twelve-step programs to get you healed because you're a victim; you're sick, everything's a disease. When I was a little kid I had a disease. It's symptom was that I used to hit all the other little kids. I don't know what you call that disease--Mike Tyson disease or something. It said it on my kindergarten report card (I still have it). "Bob hits kids for no reason." "But it wasn't my fault. It was a disease; I was a victim." I was a sinner perfecting my nature as a sinner to prefer me over everybody else. When we went to play and they had the little blocks, and the little kid was in there, I felt that was my space; he's coming out. If he didn't come out--I got in trouble for this on numerous occasions--I'd bury him alive. Remember the big box we used to have for blocks? Do you all remember that in kindergarten or first grade they were--I don't know what, they were 2 by 3--and they were heavy. They were like big things, and you'd stack them, and make little forts, and that was back in the days before everybody was afraid if it wasn't plastic. They were big and heavy and they worked real well; you could just bury kids in there. Attention deficit something, what is it? No. How about mean? How about just a mean kid that needed the snot beaten out of him? I told you my dad used to say, "Oh, 15 minutes have gone by. Somebody grab Bob and whip him; he's done something." That was true. I was just flesh. I was just a sinner. I was just doing what came natural, preferring me over everybody else. But today, nobody is responsible for their actions, nobody is a sinner. Nobody is selfish, prideful; everybody's a victim. We're being told that by society and we're being told that by preachers.

"[But] in the last days perilous times will come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy." My goodness, what an unthankful generation we live in! Everybody needs more. Everybody's got to have better and bigger. Everybody's got their wallet full of unthankful cards. (We call them credit cards.) Whatever happened to a content society? Whatever happened to making do with what you had? I know that's something for us old fogies. Some of you kids don't have a clue what I'm talking about. My grandma--I was just with her the other day--she still remembers that was their motto. She was one of 13 kids--make do. You didn't have to have new; you made do and were thankful for what you did have. When you've been through the depression, and you've been through the dust bowl, and you've been through rationing during the war. We live in a society of abundance. We want more, and we're not thankful. But we're being told--and we're talking about in the churches--we're being told that we deserve more, and that God's whole purpose for being is to give us more, that God's plan is to make us prosperous and content with who we are, and that we should be accepted as we are. The word that cannot be tolerated in our generation is intolerance, and yet the gospel is absolutely intolerant with those who would name the name of Jesus and still profess to be Christians, while living like the world, while still catering to their flesh, while seeing no change in their behavior as new creatures, while still seeking their own at every turn, instead of seeking the good of others and honoring the Lord, Jesus, in word and in deed.

Who are these people? "...Unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent [that word means without self-control]...." We're living in a generation that is out of control. Everybody believes that they're the exception. Discipline is unheard of. The apostle says, "Now listen; in the last days this is going to be what manifests itself in abundance." "Now, here's where the problem is," Paul says. Not that this stuff is manifesting in our generation; it's so obvious. Kids are totally out of control today. People think nothing.... I was standing in line the other day; I wanted to slap this guy upside the head. He's on his cell phone; I'm standing in line. (Speaking loudly) "Yeah, well, you know, it's kind of like...." I don't want to listen to your conversation. He's totally oblivious to anybody else being around. We see it in the way we drive. That light doesn't really mean for me to stop; it means for everybody else to stop. It wasn't put there for me; it was put there for my convenience, to stop everybody else. It doesn't apply to me. I pulled around the corner at CVS just the other day. It's drizzling rain and as I'm getting ready to go into CVS, this car slams its brakes on in front of me. I stop, a lady jumps out, her flashers are on and she runs into the store. Every parking place is empty, so I pull over and park. I walk in the store and one of the workers is there--I think he was one of the managers--and I said, "You might want to check outside. There's a car illegally parked along your curb out there without a driver." This lady comes running up, "Oh, it's mine." Blonde. "It was raining and I was late and in a hurry." Well, who's not? I wish I was driving two cars. I would have parked in front of her and behind her and she would have been late. You say, "That's not the Christian thing to do." It wasn't. She shouldn't have done that.

Now look what [Paul] goes on to say. The issue isn't that all this is going on; this has always gone on. Paul isn't saying everybody was good until the last days. Man has always been a sinner. Man has always lived this way. This is the natural behavior of unsaved man. Here's the problem. Look, these people are "...traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; [Here's the problem. Look at verse 5.] Having a form of godliness, [religion, they say they're believers, they say they're Christians but living like that.] but denying the power thereof...." Denying the power to be free from that, to live different than the world, to be that new creation. Here is what a lot of people have trouble with, and we'll start winding this thing down here. Look at it, "...from such turn away." Don't hang out with these folks, they'll kill you. They'll present to you another gospel. They'll tell you there's another Jesus. They'll tell you there's a lower standard of Christianity that's still accepted. There's only one standard; this [the Bible] is it right here, amen? "Let God be true, but every man a liar." People don't want to hear that in our day.

Years ago in this country, even people that were not Christians, when you said, "The Bible says," people would say, "Well, I guess that settles that." But not in this generation. There is no respect for the Word of God, even among Christians. They hear it but they won't do it. They excuse their behavior and would believe, instead, the vain babblings. Listen. "These people," Paul goes on to say, "...creep into houses...." Note that term "houses" there. Remember where the churches met in this day? In houses, in the homes. So today, you could just say this, "[They] creep into [churches], and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts." Is that a bum rap on women? When Paul is speaking here, and the Holy Spirit is speaking by him, he's not putting women down, he's going back to the original sin. What Paul is speaking toward here is the original sin of Eve coming out from under Adam's headship, broken order. The "silly women" here that he's making reference to are those that are out of order. These are women that are out from under their husband's spiritual oversight. Where does that put the responsibility for you, men?

The problem is that most of our churches today are run by women. Most of our governments are run by women, our local governments. It's really getting dangerous because the homeowners' organizations.... You say, "What's wrong, Pastor, you don't like women?" I like them. I'm surrounded by women. What I don't like is chaos. I don't like broken order. I don't like the spirit of antichrist that dominates our churches today, that talks about equal rights, and esteems social perspective above biblical principles. I believe that children are to obey their parents. I believe that husbands are to be the head of their homes, to be the head of the wife, and that women are to support and submit to their husbands. I believe that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for them. I believe that husbands are to honor their wives as the weaker vessel. Weaker doesn't mean less capable. Many of our wives are smarter than us, and they say, "Amen." The only thing we'd question is why you married that guy, if you were so smart. Our churches are just like the world. Our houses are out of order. In so many churches today, the percentage of unwed mothers is just the same as in the world. The majority of churches have no young people marrying as virgins. In fact, if they're virgins, they're laughed at.

Look what he goes on to say. The Scripture, as he's speaking here, these are people that despise holiness and goodness. The Scripture goes on to say that they're inventors of evil things. These are people--and we'll finish with this--that are, "Ever learning, [verse 7 says] and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." They love Bible studies. They love to talk about the Bible, but nothing changes in their lives or in their homes. "...A form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." Paul says, "Thou hast fully known [verse 10] my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, [and my faith, identify and understand, verse 12, that] ...all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.... But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned...." "Remember who taught you," the apostle Paul says. "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures... [and it's good, 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."

Father, we thank You for the Word of God tonight. We're living in a day when the Word of God is ignored among Christians. How can we be Christians without Christ? Your Word says that God and His Word are one. Your Word says that heaven and earth will pass away, but Your Word will not pass away. Jesus, You said, "Thy word is truth." In a day when men's doctrines are held up against the Word of God, let us fill our hearts with enough Word that we would speak toward it boldly, and say, "It is written." That is not true, it is written. When they talk about women's rights, it is written. When they talk about children's rights, it is written. When they talk about homosexual rights, it is written. When they talk about individual rights to live anyway you want and still call yourself a Christian, it is written. "If ye love me, [you will] keep my commandments [and they will not be grievous unto you.]" It is written: "Do not call me Lord and not keep my commandments." It is written, "Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, [live it before men,] him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." Father, it make it real, we ask, and cause us to become the light of the world. Cause us to shout from the housetops what we've heard in the inner chambers of our hearts, that men would see the good works in us, and glorify our Father in heaven. Father, that's our heart's desire. It's what we ask, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "You're the light of the world." Amen. Go in peace; God's love go with you.

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