0:09 All right. Can we can we pray again, please? Our heavenly father, we come to you through the blood of Jesus, Lord, seeking for a word from you today. Lord, digging, tell us whatever you want us to say. Let our hearts be open to you. In 0:23 Jesus name I pray. Amen. All right. So, I want to start with this picture. I just found this picture on a site that I go get photos and stuff, but do you know who I'm trying to capture here? What biblical figure? I don't have 0:40 a current picture of this biblical figure, obviously. So, who am I trying to get? Joey. >> Peter. Peter. Do you guys know much about Peter? Few things, few stories. I thought I would give give kind of a recap. I made some notes here of some 0:56 things about Peter. I I admire Peter tremendously and when we get to eternity, I I would love to sit down with Peter and just talk and tell him how much he encouraged me and and uh and just things like that. Maybe maybe 1:10 that'll happen. But uh you know, his first encounter with Jesus is after uh you know, a miraculous catch of fish. And as soon as he saw what the miracle that was happening, he falls down at Jesus's feet and says, "Go away from me, 1:28 Lord, for I'm a a sinful man." You know, he's he's uh just, you know, so taken up with his own sinfulness when he encounters Jesus. Yet, you know, another story, he has faith to go out on the water and when he, you know, to walk out 1:47 on the water and and follow Jesus. and he has faith until he starts to notice the winds and the waves and then he doubts and then sinks into the water but at the same time has enough uh you know his last thing he's going to say is cry 2:01 out to Jesus to save him and Jesus saves him and you know that experience and also too he gets he gets revelation you know he seems to be one of the first to get revelation that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus says you're blessed 2:16 that you got that revelation You know, that's a story from uh Peter's life. And then shortly after that, Jesus calls him Satan and says, "Get behind me, Satan." Because Peter was essentially trying to keep Jesus from going to the cross. And 2:33 Jesus uh smelled that out. He recognized that. And he uses a very harsh word towards Peter. But it doesn't discourage uh Peter. In fact, you know, in John 6 when you have all these disciples, there are a lot of disciples and Jesus starts 2:51 teaching about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and all the disciples say, "This is too hard." And they start going away. It's Peter. When Jesus says, "Hey, do you want to go too?" Peter is the one that says something that has 3:04 encouraged me over and over again throughout my life. Lord, where where am I going to go? Where else am I going to go? you have the words of eternal life. That was Peter. Peter got to witness the transfiguration. He got to be on that 3:18 mountaintop with Jesus. You know, when uh Elijah and Moses showed up, you know, he got to see Jesus in his radiance and he said something foolish then, right? And again, the Lord was merciful uh to Peter. So, you see that, you know, you 3:33 also have failure in Peter's life. You know if we if we believe this if we believe this statement by Jesus you know that if you deny me before men I will deny you before my father in heaven you know that the seriousness of doing 3:49 that then Peter denied denied the Lord three times and imagine the gravity of thinking of what Jesus said and realizing what you have done but then imagine the hope of seeing Jesus on the shore when you're fishing. and you're, you know, you fished all 4:07 night without a catch and you recognize your Lord again. Imagine that hope and what you went through, you know. So, Peter went through that. I mean, there's I'm just hitting I'm just hitting a few of them. And then even after the 4:18 resurrection, Peter, that same failure, you know, preaches and 3,000 people are converted just off of like, you know, a short sermon. You know, there was a power in him. And there was a power with Peter's the one that Ananas 4:34 and Safh came up to and says, "Well, you know, he's the one that had the boldness to say, will you lie to the Holy Spirit?" And they dropped dead right before Peter. And so, you just see uh, you know, there were other miracles in his life. He was 4:48 miraculously released from jail twice. And so, just so many things with Peter. He's such a prominent uh prominent figure in this book. and he writes only two epistles. They're about eight chapters in total between the two of them. And they're 5:05 just filled with nuggets. They're just filled with so much wisdom. And so, it's that second epistle I want to focus on this morning. If you can go ahead and turn there. Uh, you know, sometimes I I go ahead and put the verses up here. Sometimes I just put 5:21 the reference. I really want you to see these things in your Bible. And so, you know, I do it sometimes because, you know, not all of you pick up my American accent. So, sometimes I'll, you know, the slides help you know where I'm at or 5:35 what passage of scripture. But if you look at the first chapter in verse 14, Peter's essentially saying, "The Lord has made clear to me, I'm going to die. I'm going to die." 5:53 And if you look in the last chapter, he says one of the most encouraging things about our our heavenly father that he desires that none not a single person perish but all come to 6:11 repentance. And that the end that last chapter is filled with all kinds of hope looking forward. But in the middle of these two statements, the first in you know in in chapter one where he says I'm going to die and then chapter three where he says 6:27 that you know that our heavenly father doesn't want any to perish. In that second chapter there's a very stern warning and I want to read that. I'm going to read the whole chapter to you and and please follow along in your 6:40 Bible in case I I misquote it. And it's a warning. You know, in this church, we want to take everything that comes from the Lord seriously. We want to take all his warnings seriously, and we want to take all his promises seriously. We want to claim 6:58 every single promise and we want to obey every commandment. Everything the Lord offers, we want because it's for our good, because we recognize that he is good. And so, this is a very strong warning. So, please follow along with me as I 7:12 read it. It says, ' But false prophets also arose among a people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon 7:28 themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them, the way of truth will be maligned, and in their greed, they will exploit you with false words. Their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God 7:45 did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell, and comm committed them into pits of darkness reserved for judgment, and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of right righteousness, with 7:59 seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. And if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly 8:15 lives thereafter. And if he rescued righteous Lot oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. For by what he saw and heard that righteous man while living among them felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless 8:34 deeds. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment. And especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. 8:50 Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic ma majesties. Whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like unreasoning animals, 9:07 born as creatures of instinct, to be captured and killed, reviling where they have no knowledge, will in the destruction of those creatures also be destroyed. Suffering wrong as the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure 9:22 to revel in the daytime. They are stains and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions as they corouse you, corrals with you, having eyes full of adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart trained 9:39 in greed, a cursed children, forsaking the right way, they have gone astray, having followed the way of Balum, the son of Bor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. But he received a rebuke for his own transgression. For a mute donkey 9:56 speaking with the voice of a man restrained the madness of the prophet. These are springs without water and mist driven by a storm. From whom the black darkness has been reserved for speaking out arrogant words of vanity. They 10:13 enticed by fleshly desires, by sensuality those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption. And by what a man is overcome by this he is enslaved. 10:31 For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 10:47 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn away from the holy commandment handed to them. As it happened to them, according to the true proverb, a dog returns to his own vomit and a sa after 11:04 washing returns to wallowing in the mire. Wow, Peter, that's what you want us to hear? Very strong words. Remember, this is the one who got the hardest rebuke probably from Jesus when he was called Satan. 11:22 And he's not wasting any words. He wants us to take this very seriously. And the phrase that I want you to hear is in verse 20 because this is what I don't want for any one of us. That the last state has become worse for them than the first. We 11:39 see this pattern in the Old Testament often that that people start out very well, but by the end, especially the kings, by the end, they've gone they've gone south. And that's what I don't believe the Lord wants that for any of us. 11:55 I think he wants us to finish better than we started. But I wanted you to keep that phrase in mind uh this morning. The last state has become worse for them than the first. because there's something like it uh in another passage 12:10 actually two other passages and I'd like you to turn there and I want to read those as well. First turn to Luke 11 and we'll start at verse 24. This one's much shorter. Thanks for bearing with me 12:27 on the other one. Luke 11:24 says, 'When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless 12:46 places seeking rest and not finding any, it says, I will return to my house from which I came. And when it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits more evil than 13:04 itself. And they go on and live there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. All right. One more. Go to Matthew chapter 12. Start at Matthew 12 verse 43. 13:41 It says, "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through water, waterless places, seeking rest and does not find it." Then it says, "I will return to my house from which I 13:59 came." And when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself. And the last state of that man 14:17 becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation. This was one of those passages that I never took seriously. I told you like, you know, when I was in my younger days of reading the Bible, I would read stuff 14:34 about elders and deacons. I'd be like, that's not for me. I'd be like kind of relieved that some of these commandments and scriptures didn't apply to me. Or I would I would read verses about rich people. I'd be like, "Lord, I'm not 14:46 rich, so you must be talking to somebody else." In the same way, I believe I always viewed this uh these passages that we just the last two that we just read, which are very similar, as intended for people who had had demons 15:00 cast out of them. These script these passages were for like the Mary Magdalines or demoniacs that had had uh demons cast out of them and never filled it by asking Jesus into their heart. That's the always the kind of the way I 15:14 viewed it. I'm not as sure anymore. As I read it again and I read that passage from second Peter, I wonder if maybe I misunderstood that because it doesn't say demon. It says an evil spirit and spirit. I looked up I looked up spirit 15:30 to see what what do they translate spirit there and it actually is the Greek word num numa from where we get the word pneumatic like air pressure power from the air pneumatics and so it can mean that word can mean a lot of 15:43 different things and so it's something like this if I have a spirit of addiction like I'm really addicted to drugs or alcohol and again I could use any example I'm just picking one that if if the Lord sets me free. 16:00 If the Lord sets me free from it and he empties it and Jesus comes and he cleans up my life and suddenly I'm not bound by that anymore. But if I remain unoccupied, in other words, I'm I'm just content that I don't have that addiction 16:18 anymore, but there's nothing there to feel it, then I'm in a very dangerous place. That it's very possible that the last state, my last state, could be first even when I was an addict. That other things could come and fill me like pride 16:34 and hypocrisy and other types of immorality. And so I want to take this seriously and go, "Okay, Lord, I used to think these verses didn't apply to me, but I don't want my last state to be worse than my first. So I'm going to take this 16:49 seriously this morning." And I see a need there. And I also see that in the scriptures, the Lord wants to do more than just come into come inside of us. This is talking about the inside of the house. This isn't just talking about a 17:05 an external Christianity. It's talking about the inside being swept and things put in order inside yet it's unoccupied. It's empty. And so I'm realizing as I I look back at scriptures, maybe I'm maybe we miss something. 17:23 Maybe the Lord is trying to show us that, you know, it's not enough that the Lord cleans up your even your inner life. Maybe he needs to fill it. So let's look at the let's look at some scriptures in light of this. Remember 17:37 the purpose is we take that warning seriously. Lord, we take your word seriously and we want we don't want to end up worse at the end than we did at the beginning. So Lord, how do we not do this? And I think it's important that everybody in this 17:52 church know what the first two promises of the new covenant are. I hope you're like, "Yeah, I already know that." Great. Let's look at it again. So the first one is in Matthew 1:21. And my experience in Christianity before 18:07 coming into the new covenant teachings was that the that most of Christianity doesn't even know this promise. Doesn't even fully understand it because they view Jesus as just a forgiver of sins. This this is my experience. This is what 18:23 I lived for many years. Thank God Jesus died on that cross because now everything is taken care of. Everything has been paid for. Jesus paid it all. I'm good to go. But this promise is not that Jesus will forgive your sins. And 18:40 please turn to it if you don't know this. Matthew 1:21. The promise is that Jesus will save you from your sins. He will deliver you from your sins. I used to do a skit with the boys. There was a, you know, we would do a skit 18:57 where like a, you know, the dad, dad's sitting there reading his newspaper would tell the boys, you know, one of the boys goes, "Hey, dad, can I go outside in the backyard and play?" And the dad says, "Sure, you can go out 19:08 in the backyard and play, but there's a big pit that was dug for the sewage line. It's about 10 ft deep. Don't go anywhere near the pit." And the boy says, "Yes, sir." But he goes outside and he starts getting very curious about that deep pit. You know, 19:22 what's in there? What's at the bottom? and he starts getting closer and closer and sure enough he falls into the pit. And so the son then calls out, "Dad, dad." And the dad folds up his newspaper. If they were younger, I'd 19:34 probably still have him act it out. It's pretty pretty good skit. So he folds up his newspaper and the dad walks out and he goes, "Son, did you did you did you are you in the pit?" He says, "Yes, Dad. I disobeyed you. I I you said not to go 19:48 near the pit, but I went near the pit. I fell in." And the father, this is the punch line of the whole skit, says, "I forgive you." And then walks away and goes back to reading his newspaper. You see the problem? Doesn't help the 20:01 son get out of the pit. Just leaves him in there. And that's most people's Christian life, right? I remember a pastor was was preaching one time and he got one of the hardest questions. Like there was an atheist woman in his in his meeting and 20:15 he he went up to her afterwards and it was probably something like this. And uh she said he she he she asked him a very hard question. She said, "What has Jesus saved you from?" Like, "What sin has he saved you from that you don't do 20:29 anymore?" And he said he was taken back by the question. He hadn't considered it. What sin did he save you from? I have sent I'm not I'm not going to list them, but it's a good question. The Lord has done it. He saved me from this sin. 20:43 There are things that I was absolutely a slave to that the Lord has saved me from. And I hope he reveals more and I hope he saves me from those. But that is the first promise that he will do it. But even if he does it right, even if he delivers me from the 21:02 sin and sweeps everything up and and cleanses me on the inside and leaves me unoccupied, right? I'm not he's not done. So we need the second promise. The second promise is in Matthew 3:11. If you don't know it, please turn there. 21:20 Even if you do know it, it'd be good to turn there and read it again. This is John the Baptist talking about Jesus. He said, "As for me, I will I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than 21:38 I, and I am not fit to remove his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And that word baptized was ne wasn't translated. It means immerse. And I put a sponge here. And when the two girls when Hannah and 21:57 Angel got got baptized, one of the things we elders told them was, "Hey, make sure you plug your nose. Close your mouth. We don't want the water going inside of you. You'll you'll drown. That's a bad thing." or wor actually the 22:11 worst was that as they go back the water goes up their nose and it's very painful. I did that when I got baptized. That's probably why I brief it every time. Hey, make sure you plug your nose. You don't want the pain painful 22:22 experience I I went through, right? And so I emphasize that. But when we talk about the Holy Spirit, when we talk about that unoccupied part that Jesus has cleaned up, we need to be filled, immersed like a sponge. Every part of me 22:40 needs to be immersed in him. It's not enough just to have Jesus even save me from my sins. I need to be occupied by his spirit. That possessive spirit. Maybe it's a spirit of Josh, 22:58 you know, that that never let go of of control. You know, it says that that that one spirit that left, if you go back and look at those two passages, it says, "I'll go back to my house, right? That's my house." He gets seven 23:11 more demons and he goes back to my house. There's something about our heart about everything about us that needs to be yielded to him and say, "It's his house. It doesn't belong to me anymore. It belongs to him. And I need to be 23:25 completely filled up with him, immersed in him, full of him." That's how I can ensure that for the rest of my life I will finish better than I started because of him. I was thinking about this verse and you've heard this before. 23:43 One of the elders brought this up. I want you to hear it again. You know this uh John 14:15 says, "If you love me, keep my commandments." But I was thinking about that in light of this the greatest commandment. Like in other words, if so if I love Jesus, 24:01 then I'll keep Jesus's commandments. Well, let's start with the first and greatest commandments to love the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. So, I wind up with the if I if I do some substitution there, I got I wind up kind 24:17 of confused and perplexed. If you love me, love me. Okay, how do Okay, that's kind kind of confused, Lord. Honestly, I'm kind of confused. And I've talked to very intelligent people that that want to debate this this verse and it got 24:33 nowhere. Um I believe I'm happy to talk to about this verse with humble people, especially some people that this is a reality for them. I want to hear everything you have to say. But if you're an intellectual person and you 24:47 want to debate how you just simply obey this verse, you know what comes to mind honestly when I think about this verse is Peter in uh John 21. You know the story or the Peter and Peter gets a big catch of fish again, 25:05 right? 153 fish. Man, that would be a lot of cash. And and Jesus asked Peter, "Do you love me more than these fish?" It's essentially what he's asking. And this is one of the times that it's good to know there's two different words for 25:21 love. And this is the way I see this commandment, you know, where the Lord, imagine the Lord breaks breaks up this meeting right now and he walks in and he says, "Josh, I want to ask you a question." He said, "You're Jesus." Jesus walks in. 25:36 He says, "I want to ask you a question. You're up there, you know, preaching to everybody. Do you obey that? Do you love me? I think I do. I think I'd be like Peter because the question Jesus says, "Do you agape me?" You know, "Do you love me with the 25:54 highest love?" And Peter says, "I love you with a brotherly love." You know, Peter's honest. He can't say that he's reached the the pinnacle of love for the Lord where everything about him loves him because he knows that he's 26:10 the weak weakness of his he knows the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and so he's very careful to say with absolute certainty I obey this commandment and so just starting here and it's a beautiful passage and and I'd encourage 26:25 you to go go read it and you know Peter's grieved by the end of it because the Lord keeps asking do you love me Do you love me? Do you love me? And he does. I believe he does. But he can't be so arrogant and bold in all his favors to in and all his 26:42 failures to say that he's reached this yet. So what do we do? We keep reading. You know, unfortunately in my Bible, there's a break. you know that in between John 14 26:58 uh 14:15 and 14:16, they decided to put a title in there. And I've actually drawn arrows to make sure that I never read 14:15 by itself. If you're not there, please turn there. It's almost like the Lord knows us. 27:20 It's almost like he walked in the likeness of our flesh when he was on this earth. And he knows that if he knows that if we hear something like, "If you love me, keep my commandments that we'll almost think about the greatest commandment." And even the 27:38 second one, you know, do I love my neighbor as myself? Do I love every do I love Lord? Do I even love anybody in this church the way I love myself? Lord, I don't even know if that's true. you know, and so you have this wonderful passage 27:55 or this one. So, put 14 and 15 together. I actually have arrows connecting the two. I don't want to ever read them apart. Jesus says, "I will ask the father and he will give you another helper." Where where does it leave us when the 28:12 proof of our love is obedience to the Lord? It leaves us needing help. And so Jesus says, "I know you're going to need help. I know you're going to need help. And look at the helpers that you already have. The father himself is your helper. 28:27 It was him who gave his only begotten son and let him be nailed to a cross. Our father has been helping us. Jesus, our savior, is our our helper." And Jesus says, "I'm going to go away and you're still going to need help, 28:43 but I've already thought of that. I'm going to go to the father. I'm going to be interceding at the right hand of of the father on your behalf. I'm going to still be helping you from heaven. I'm going to be interceding. I I will 28:56 live to make intercession for you. That's in Hebrews 7. But even more than that, I'm going to I'm going to send the helper and he will occupy you. He will give you help. And the beautiful thing about it, I want 29:14 you to notice the very last word of this passage. What is it? >> Forever. It's not just like, you know, I'll give you a a, you know, break in case of an emergency outlet if you need it and you 29:33 just break the glass and then you can if you getting yourself in a bind, you break the glass and then suddenly you'll have some help. Jesus says, "I'm going to send the Holy Spirit and he will dwell inside of you. He will occupy you forever." 29:51 That is how I know my last state will be better than my first because the Holy Spirit himself will be with me forever. That is a wonderful, wonderful promise. 30:08 So I take the warning seriously. Lord, I agree. Like I I I see what you were telling Peter. I recognize that in my generation, why you have to be so bold and you have to speak with such authority on these things because we live in a generation 30:27 that takes sin so lightly when its cleansing has to be paid at such a high cost. So, I accept the warning, but I also accept your promises. And I also accept your help, and I'll ask for your help often. 30:46 And I accept your invitation for the Holy Spirit to dwell with me forever. I'll finish with this verse that describes the ministry of the Holy Spirit. It says, "We all with unveiled face." We're not not like Moses where that we 31:03 have an encounter with the Lord and over time the glory wears away. We're not like Moses. We're in the new covenant because of the power of the Holy Spirit. We can behold as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. We can see 31:17 dimly. One day we'll see perfectly, but we see the Lord through the Holy Spirit revealing Jesus to us. And it's changing us every day from one degree of glory to another. And it says that this is from the Lord. Well, which Lord are you talking about? 31:36 The Lord our father, the Lord the Son, the Lord the Spirit. The Holy Spirit wants to transform us every day from one degree of glory to another. The Holy Spirit wants to transform our thoughts, our attitudes, everything about us. wants to transform 31:56 that into the mind of Christ, into the attitude of Christ, into the thinking of Christ, and he promises that he'll do it. So, let's recap what we heard. So, we considered Peter's letter, his last letter. Remember, he's going to 32:14 die. He knows it. It says, "The Lord has made it clear to me. I'm going to die." And so, you're like, "Well, why not some encouraging words? Why don't you write something lovely?" And he does. There are some there's some 32:26 good things in there. But he's under a conviction like I have to tell the world the truth. I have to tell you guys I have to warn you that some of you some of you the last for some of you the last will will be far worse than the 32:41 first. And so we say okay Lord is it I? And Lord how can it not be I? I take your warning seriously. And then we looked at that phrase how it came up that the last state of that man will be worse than the first. We saw that in 32:55 another passage in the Gospels and we we decided, okay, Lord, if that's if there's something there we need to see, then show it to us. Reveal it to us. And we see that inside we can be all swept up, everything can be all swept up 33:09 and and put in order and nicely arranged and everything can start going better, but it can be unoccupied. And we see that we need something to occupy it. That is the true vacuum. I used to hear about this God-shaped vacuum that's in everybody's heart. And 33:25 I don't believe that every human being has it. I believe that vacuum is filled with everything else in the world. And it's only Jesus who can remove that remove the things out there and create that vacuum. But then that vacuum needs 33:40 to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We consider the first two uh promises of the new covenant. The first is that he will save his people from his their sins. And the second is that he will baptize his people with the Holy Spirit 33:53 and with fire. And until we come to that reality, we keep asking our father to give us that promise. He promised, Lord, do it. You promised. You haven't done it yet, but you're going to do it because you're my daddy. 34:13 So, fill me. give me all the power I'm lacking. And then we see that he wants to help us. That Jesus said, I'm going to send another helper. You know, the father helped you. The son helped you, but you still need another helper to 34:28 dwell with you and be with you forever. And it is in this way, it is in this way, I believe, brothers and sisters, that for us, the the end will be better than the beginning. that our last state will be better than our first state. So just the 34:47 opposite by taking the warning seriously and taking the promises seriously I believe that each one of us can end up better than where he started. That's all I have brothers and sisters. God bless you. Thank you, brother Josh, for speaking 35:15 the warnings from second Peter chapter 2. I've read this chapter many times in the last few months. U there are a lot of warnings. It's interesting that Peter, Paul and Jesus when they came to the end of their lives, when they gave warnings, it's 35:34 about warning about false prophets. We see that in 2 Peter 2. Uh we we just heard that and I want you to open Matthew 24 quickly. I just want to see what Jesus is saying about the last days when people said what are the signs of 35:54 your coming and the end of the age when disciples asked that question in Matthew 24 verse4 and Jesus answered and said to them see to that no one misleads you so he doesn't say there will be no one 36:13 misleads but you don't get misled see to that no one misleads you. Uh because the next very verse says for many will come in my name saying I'm Christ and will mislead. So the problem is there will be some people who will always mislead. But 36:30 it is up to you how you protect yourself from being misledent. Uh when it comes to the end of the time signs of the end of the times we see nations rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom. All of that are are there but first and 36:45 foremost is the deception is all across. And then 2 Timothy Paul is writing to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 3. The heading of that passage is difficult times will come. But I just want to highlight couple of verses here. 37:03 Um verse 13 3:13 2 Timothy 3:13. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse. If you ever think that it is going to get better, no, it is going to get from bad to worse. Deceiving and being deceived. But there is hope for 37:22 all of us. What what is the how do we protect with the very next verse? Verse 14. You Timothy however continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from the childhood 37:39 you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus and the verse 16 which is one of the most popular words I think all of us memorize. All scripture 37:52 is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for a correction, for training in righteousness. So that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. The scripture is our protection. All scripture is given 38:08 by the inspiration of God. It's profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training. We go back to the word. We go back to the word. When the false prophets come, what do we do? We go and check whether what they say is 38:21 true or not. Be like Burian. You will never find a letter to berants in the scripture because they always examined every day whether it was so. Even when Paul was speaking to them, they were examining every day if it were so. They 38:37 were checking, checking and checking. That's how they protected themselves. And that's why Paul is saying uh to Timothy, protect yourself. You know the sacred writings. You know all that scripture is given by the inspiration of 38:48 God. And even coming back to second Peter 2, if you go back few verses in first chapter, Paul builds a case. We are not we did not follow a cleverly devised tales and made known to you uh the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. But 39:06 we were the eyewitnesses of his majesty. And uh they heard u God saying to them to Jesus this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And they heard the utterance. And then verse 20 chapter 1 verse 20 it says no prophecy of a 39:23 scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. It is a truth in the scripture. It's not for you to interpret the way you want. Got to go back to who the Holy Spirit verse 21. For no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved 39:41 by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. The author of the scripture is the Holy Spirit. And as Joshua was mentioning, we continuously being filled with the Holy Spirit. He will guide us. He will help us to obey. And we see all the scripture 39:53 is written by the Holy Spirit. It is not for man's own interpretation. That's why the lot of false prophets come in chapter 2:1. False prophets also arise among people and false teachers not outside among you who will secretly 40:10 introduce destructive heresies even denying the master who bought them bringing swift destruction upon themselves. These false prophets and false teachers will introduce heresies destructive heresies secretly not in public. So the verse two is what bothers 40:27 me a lot. There is many will follow their sensuality and because of them the way of truth will be maligned. I hope the word said few will follow but that's not the case. The truth is many will follow. The people who protect 40:41 themselves the remnant will be always a small percentage. I pray that all of us will be in that small percentage where we will not follow their sensuality because of them the way of the truth will be malin. We will protect like 40:53 barriers. We'll go back to the word. We will check everything against the scripture and make sure test it. Test it again and again. Don't take anyone anyone's interpretation at their word. We have scripture. We have truth to 41:06 compare against. And then we see the in this chapter a lot of scenes um that uh uh Peter mentions starting about angels the spirit of rebellion God judge angels and during Noah and all of that and Sodom and Gomorrah he briefly touches a 41:23 lot of things and the verse 14 having eyes of adultery that never cease from sin uh they have gone astray in the way of Balum and lot of things and that springs with without water driven by a storm but The sad part here is as verse 41:39 20 says once they tasted they escaped the defilements of the world by the knowledge of the Lord and Savior but they are entangled again. It's not just to come to the narrow gate but to walk in the narrow path and emptying 41:53 ourselves and continuously being filled with the Holy Spirit. Many of the false prophets, their heresies and their life in sin, they both go together. false prophecy, false teachers and the sin go together. It's always uh it is proven 42:10 you can see look back when people speak false prophets prophecies and then we can also see that in their life there is sin. So for us we not we for all of us we need to be rooted in the word of god and also it's not just enough to come to 42:26 the way of uh the gate narrow gate but to the way is important and emptying ourselves continuously filling ourselves with the knowledge of the word of god and seeking for the power from the holy spirit so that uh we we will never these 42:41 verses will never be uh these warnings we'll take seriously and we will never go astray uh even Even if there are false prophets and false teachers among us, we will protect ourselves and our family. So, I'm going to pray now. After 42:55 I pray, please uh stay where you are. I have an announcement and Josh is going to share an announcement. Uh after I pray, please uh stay. I mean, we have we need few minutes after that. Heavenly Father, thank you for the warnings from 43:08 the scripture. All scripture is given by the inspiration of God. Uh and Lord, thank you. Uh it's a light in the darkness. We are living in this dark sinfilled world. Only your word is a lamp unto my feet and light onto my 43:22 path. Help us Lord to be rooted in your word all the time. This is the only protection. You warned us, Paul warned us and Peter warned us and we want to take every warning seriously. Please help us not to forget what we heard 43:36 today, but to take those warnings to heart and check our lives, Lord, and help us to dwell in the scripture and uh uh receive your instructions, Lord, and protect ourselves, our church, our families. We pray uh that you'd continue 43:49 to continue to help our church, Lord, be with us, guide us, and lead us in the days to come. I pray that your presence will be continually with us. the fire of your presence, Lord, that will expose every sin, every form of hypocrisy, 44:06 every veneer of hypocrisy, every form of acting, Lord, and let everything be done away with. We want to be cleansed of all sin, we want to be purified, and we want you uh to the work that you have begun that you would continue, Lord, as we 44:20 purify ourselves just as you are pure. Thank you, Father. We ask all these things in the most exalted name of our Lord and our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Please stay seated.
