0:18 I want to turn with you to 2 Timothy this morning to chapter 3. 2 Timothy and chapter 3 Paul, this is Paul's last letter as far as we know that he wrote. 0:38 And he had a great burden for Timothy because Timothy was the only one among all his co-workers who had the same spirit that Paul had. And Paul had a great burden that when he left this earth 0:55 there should be another generation of at least a few people who had the same motive, spirit, life, ministry that he had. Nobody could duplicate Paul. I mean, when God calls an apostle like Paul, you cannot replace him because it's God's unique 1:13 choice. But you could follow him to some extent and Timothy followed him more than anybody else. That shows something of Timothy's discernment that he realized that the best life I can live is to follow the life of a man like Paul 1:32 whom God has provided for me as a spiritual father. I may not have Paul's ministry, but at least I can follow his life. And because he Paul wrote that follow me as I follow Christ. And so Paul was particularly concerned 1:50 to write to such people who had the same spirit and who had a longing to make sure that they got the best and he warns him but something I mean, Paul did not know the future. He did not know when Jesus Christ would return. 2:07 Jesus said when he was on earth as a man, he himself did not know the date of his second coming. So there's nobody who knows the exact date of Jesus' second coming and a lot of people talk about it in the world and the internet is full of 2:25 people who predict when Christ will come and any sensible Christian will call it all nonsense. Paul did not know. You know, Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 4, he said, "We who are alive will be caught up." 2:44 1 Thessalonians 4 That means he expected to be alive when Christ came. That's why he says we. He doesn't say those who are alive. He says we who are alive will be caught up. But that was written but 12 13 years 3:02 before he died in 1 Thessalonians where chapter 4 and verse 15. But by the time he 13 years later when he writes 2 Timothy, he knows he's not going to be caught up because God 3:20 showed him very clearly. We read in 2 Timothy and chapter 4 um verse 6, "The time of my departure is at hand. And I finished my course. So now I'm just waiting for the final 3:39 day of judgment. I will not be caught up." So he's he knew the Lord had shown him some way when he was in prison. Okay. Paul, you're not going to be alive till I come. You're going to die. But he did not know whether Timothy 3:55 would be alive till Christ's coming. Because you know, many of those people in the first century uh Paul died around 67 AD or something. And there are many people who expected that before the end of 100 years, Christ would come. 4:09 Paul did not know. If Jesus did not know, Paul certainly did not know. So he thought Timothy may be alive till the Lord's coming. So he warned Timothy. And of course that warning applies to all of us today because we believe we 4:23 are also in the last days now. He said, "Timothy, remember this in 2 Timothy 3:1. Realize it. Understand this very clearly that in the last days difficult times will come." And he's not talking about persecution. The Living Bible makes it very clear. 4:43 It'll be very difficult to be a Christian. Now there are many ways in which is difficult to be a Christian because there are a lot of jobs today where is difficult to be a Christian. Because you have to tell lies 5:01 or cheat or you know, a lot of salesmen and accountants and all that have to cheat and tell lies in many jobs. Uh I'm not saying it's impossible. There are people who live upright lives in all those places and sometimes they 5:18 lose their job because they are upright. But it's going to be very difficult to be a Christian uh because of those reasons. But that's not what he's talking about. He's not talking about it's difficult going to be difficult to be a Christian but there'll 5:30 be much more persecution. There was a lot I mean, hardly anybody has experienced persecution like Paul. He got 195 stripes on his back, stoned to death, imprisoned so many times and people trying to kill him all the time. 5:43 So that is not what he's talking about. I don't know if Timothy ever got suffered as much as Paul. But he says it's going to be difficult to be a Christian in the last days because listen to this. Because verse 5 the people around you who claim to be 6:03 Christians in your church verse 5 will have a form of godliness but not the power. The form means the dress like I spoke earlier about the dress of humility but not real humility. It's a fake. It's a counterfeit and 6:22 there he speaks about a dress of godliness. The that What is a dress of godliness? That means they will they'll speak the right language. They won't be non-Christians. They'll be Christians who say we are evangelical Christians. We are fundamental in our 6:39 doctrines. We believe in the Trinity. We believe in being born again. We believe in water baptism. We believe in the baptism in the Holy Spirit. We believe in all the gifts of the Holy Spirit. We are waiting for the Lord's coming and all that. That 6:51 is the form of godliness. But it'll only be a form. You know, when Jesus spoke about a wolf in sheep's clothing. The sheep's clothing is the doctrine. Absolutely correct. But inside that doctrine is a wolf. 7:09 A person whose nature is wanting to bite at others, grab at other sheep look for the little lambs and exploit them. There are Christians like that. There are pastors like that. There are preachers like that. Any pastor who 7:25 tries to get money from poor people in his church, he's a wolf. I have no hesitation in saying he's a wolf. But he's got the right doctrine and he's more dangerous when he has a right doctrine and is interested in you know, if a wolf comes into a 7:42 a fold he only he's not know this he's not coming there to bless the sheep. He's coming there to bite and take what he can from the sheep. Bite off some of their flesh and eat up some of the sheep and any person whether he calls himself pastor, 7:57 preacher, archbishop or whatever it is if he comes to take advantage of you to get something from you for himself maybe bring you under his authority so that you just blindly listen to him and you don't have any direct connection 8:14 with Christ, he's a wolf. Be careful. The form of godliness is there tremendously in these days. In every denomination, we talk about nominal Christians as those who don't claim to be born again. You say that that's different from 8:33 churches like brethren and Pentecostal and CFC and etc. where we don't we stand against be nominal Christianity but I'll tell you there's as much of the form of godliness in all these churches including CFC churches as there is anywhere else. 8:50 Because as time goes on people tend to be taken up with the external, the doctrine more than the inner life. And the moment you find in your thinking your inner devotion to Jesus becomes secondary to the your external testimony before 9:10 men, you've already started drifting. That's a very good test to test yourself in. I mean, I test myself in that all the time. Cuz I'm living in a corrupt world just like you know, you why do we take a shower? Why do we bathe? 9:25 Because you smell otherwise in a hot country there you perspire and perspiration doesn't smell nice. You perspire and you sweat. And and you feel so sticky. You want to be clean. So every day you cleanse yourself and you use soap and get rid of it. We must 9:45 do something like that every day in our Christian life as well. What do I need to get rid of? I need to ask myself, has my inner devotion to Jesus Christ been replaced by a desire to impress other people that I'm spiritual. 10:02 Then you're stinking. That's a stink. Then you need to have a bath and come back to the place where the stink of wanting to impress other people has been cleansed away. I hope you will learn something today. 10:20 That the thing that makes you stink or me stink or anyone is when we want to desire impress other people in our church or other Christians that I'm a spiritual person or that I'm a humble person or that I'm a holy person. That's an 10:34 absolute stink. And so then I've already started backsliding. But if I can be free from that and I say my inner devotion to Christ is the is what I want to preserve that I am fervently in love with Jesus Christ because the first commandment is love 10:50 your Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. And I want to check myself to see if I really love the Lord in the midst of a world where people don't love him. That is the form of godliness. And when you see people like that 11:07 and you sense this guy's pretending. It says here in verse 5, "Avoid such men." It doesn't just say that okay, be careful. It says avoid them. Because you'll get the infection from them. If you spend too much time with 11:25 them, you will get the infection from them no matter how careful you are. If you hang around always with people who got infectious leprosy, you'll get it. There are infectious diseases that you can easily get. We won't move around too closely with 11:44 someone. We won't let our children move around too closely with someone who's got AIDS. Very infectious. A small cut on your finger and you can get it through that person. So why are we so careful about infectious diseases 12:02 but not careful about spiritual infection that we can get from people who only have a form of godliness. I I want to obey the scripture which says avoid such people. People ask me, "Brother Zach, why can't you fellowship with all the believers?" 12:16 I said because the Bible says I must avoid certain people. You know because Paul had earlier told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2, look at this. He says, "If you want to be 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 21, last part. 12:34 If you want to be a vessel sanctified useful to the master and prepared for every good work, you know what you should do? There are a couple of things you should do. And I think all of us should have a desire to be a vessel 12:49 useful to the Lord for every good work. Then here are some instructions. First of all, verse 21, cleanse yourself from impurity. From all wickedness, it says in verse 19. Cleanse yourself 13:09 and then you'll be a vessel for honor. Now there's a cleansing that God does that is my past life. I can't cleanse myself from my past sins. Because all my righteous deeds are like filthy rags. My past sins only the blood of Jesus can cleanse me. 13:28 But my present life I can cleanse myself. There are many verses that speak about cleansing myself. Here's one of them. 2 Corinthians 7:1 says we cleanse ourselves from all filthiness 13:45 of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God. We cleanse ourselves. 1 John 3:3 says we purify ourselves as Christ is pure. These are three of the important verses. Uh 2 Corinthians 7:1, 1 John 3:3, and 14:04 here in 2 Timothy 2:21 where it speaks about we cleansing ourselves. There are two sides to cleansing. One is what God does that is my past life which I cannot cleanse myself. And the other is my present walk, my 14:21 inner attitudes. God is not going to do that if you don't want to do it yourself. Of course, I need God's power to do it. It's through the help of the Holy Spirit that I cleanse myself, but I have to do my part. In other words, I have to judge 14:37 myself and say, "Lord, I see something in me. I want the power of the Holy Spirit to get rid of that." And if I cleanse myself like that and I also do something else, verse 22, I run away from youthful lusts. There is no point in standing trying to 15:00 conquer a temptation which is too much for you. Do you know that Jesus didn't just teach us to overcome evil, he also taught us to pray, "Lord, lead me not into temptation that is too strong for me." If I find a temptation too strong for 15:19 me, I would I should run away. If you find there is some girl in your office who's a temptation to you, avoid her as much as possible. Sometimes in an office you cannot avoid these seductive women. But avoid her as much as possible and 15:37 don't let her get too friendly with you. Don't try to be popular with seductive women. Run away. Avoid. And you'll keep yourself pure and you'll be a vessel that God can use. I really believe there are many many brothers and 15:52 sisters who are not keeping themselves pure and that is why God cannot use them. That is why the church suffers. Because there's such a lack of powerful ministry from brothers and sisters. I'm constantly grieved by that. 16:12 We should have had lots of mighty anointed men in CFC in these all our churches in these 40 years. I find very few. We should have had many mighty anointed women who bless and encourage the other younger sisters to be godly. 16:29 Not who jump on them and give them advice, but who are such an example that young sisters will feel like going to them and say, "Sister, can you please help me?" That's the only type of sister you should go to. Not somebody who jumps on you with 16:44 advice where you see her and you want to run away. No, one who you see a a godliness where you'll want to go and say "I want something that you have." We need brothers and sisters like that. And those are people who will flee from 17:01 youthful lusts. And Timothy was probably 45 years old. He's not 20 years old. A 45-years-old Paul is writing to him, "You listen, don't think you're so old and you won't be tempted. Just flee from youthful lusts. Just run away. 17:16 Don't We don't run away from the devil. The Bible says resist the devil. If you see the devil coming in front of you, don't run away. Resist him in Jesus' name. But if you see a tempting woman come come in front of you, run away. 17:33 That's what the Bible says. And think of this. I don't run away from the devil, but I run away from a tempting woman. That's practical advice. It's like telling David, "Don't run away from Goliath, but run away from Bathsheba. 17:46 She's stronger than Goliath." And that woman is stronger than the devil to knock you down. Cuz you resist the devil, he will run away from you. But you don't resist that woman, she'll knock you down. Flee. It's not just run. 18:00 Flee is a the type of way way you run if a lion is chasing you. Flee from youthful lusts. And don't just run aimlessly. You run in a direction which is righteousness, verse 22, and faith 18:20 and love and peace and don't run alone. It's a beautiful verse, verse 22. First of all, you run away from all these things that cause temptation. From links on your phone or computer, run away from it. People have asked me, 18:36 "What shall I do, brother, when I'm sitting in front of a computer and I'm tempted to go to some polluted link or dirty link or I've got a phone in my hand and what shall I do?" I say, "Turn it off and and run away from there." 18:52 Run away from sitting in front of the computer. If you got a phone, turn it off. And go and try and find some fellowship. Go for a walk at least. Go somewhere out in the open where you're in the midst of people where you 19:02 won't be tempted. Or go and seek fellowship with somebody. If you obey this practical advice to flee you're resisting resisting and you find your resistance is weakening, you're about to fall, run away. I tell you you will come to a victorious 19:19 life because God sees your desire to run away from there. You say, "Lord, this is too much for me." This temptation is too much for me. I'm not going to try and stand here and conquer it. I'm going to obey your word. I'm going to pursue righteousness, 19:30 faith. I'm going to look for someone who's got a pure heart, verse 22, and I want to fellowship with him. If I can't find somebody immediately, I'll just go out for a walk in the open. But I'm not going to sit here and try to 19:42 resist something which is too much for me. If you're serious about it you will really overcome. So in the last days it's going to be very difficult to be a Christian. And it describes here the type of people that will be in the last days in 2 19:55 Timothy 3 who will have a form of godliness. Remember all these verses, verse 2, 3, and 4 are not talking about unbelievers. No. All these verses, 2, 3, and 4 may refer to the characteristics of unbelievers, but here he's referring to 20:12 believers, so-called believers who have a form of right doctrine and the right language and appear spiritual and say the right things and but you can see that God can see that they're lovers of themselves. Number one. 20:31 They don't really love you. They love themselves. And they're only trying to show you how spiritual they are. You see, anybody who's trying to show you how spiritual he is, he's a lover of himself. And apply that to yourself. If you are a 20:49 person who's to trying to show other people how spiritual you are, you don't love that person. You love yourself. Think of a father who's trying to teach his son mathematics. If he's just trying to show off to his 21:07 son how clever I am, he's not going to be a good teacher. He's trying to just trying to show off what a clever mathematician I am. That poor child will learn nothing. A good father will not try to show off to his child, I know more than you. 21:24 The child already knows you know more than him, but that's not what you want to show off to your child. You want to help that child who is struggling with some arithmetic problem. Help him to answer that problem in his maths paper which he doesn't know how to 21:40 solve. And don't try to show off how good you are in that subject. So, that's a good father. That's a good person. Even a good elder brother who's helping his younger brother will not try to show off, hey, you're in second standard, I'm 21:54 in 10th standard. That's not the thing. Help him to understand. And if you're really a spiritual person, you will never overawe a people person with your spirituality. You will never make say things to make him feel so small in front of you as if 22:11 you're a great man of God and he's a nobody. And one way you can find that out is this. When you're talking to people, supposing somebody comes to visit your home, whoever it is, maybe a younger person, and you do all the talking. 22:28 There are some people like that. They imagine themselves to be a spiritual. They are the proudest and most carnal people they are. I've heard complaints like that. I go to visit that brother and he does all the talking and I sit there like a dumb 22:41 person listening to him. But he gives me good food, so I visit his home. What's that? That's not Christianity. If you're really It's a such a person is a lover of himself. Avoid such people. 23:00 All these people listed here from verse 2 to 4, at the end of it it says in verse 5, avoid them. Avoid them. Avoid them. Avoid a person who's got all the right doctrines, but he's just trying to show you how spiritual he 23:15 is. Run away from such a person. Don't visit his home. That's my advice. He will not help you to godliness. He's only trying to impress you with how spiritual he is or how hospitable he is or some such garbage like that. He's not 23:29 trying to draw you to Jesus Christ. He's only trying to draw you to himself. All these people are people who draw people to themselves. And remember that verse I quoted the other day in John chapter 10, all who come before came before me 23:44 are thieves and robbers. That has two meanings. That means anyone who came before me in time was a thief and a robber. He was the truth and the life, Jesus Christ. And the other meaning of before in English is come in front of me. 24:00 Anyone who comes before me is a thief and a robber. So, if you come before Jesus Christ in the sense of in front of Jesus Christ when you're talking to someone, you're a thief and a robber. You are pre- preventing that person from seeing 24:13 Jesus. He's seeing you. He admires you. He's not drawn to the Lord. He's drawn to you. Beware of drawing people to yourself. Such a man is a lover of himself. Don't let people admire you for your preaching or your singing or your Bible 24:29 knowledge or your music or anything. Be one who says like John the Baptist, I must decrease so that Christ must increase. That is the only person who sincerely deep down in his heart, in his contact with other believers wants to decrease in their 24:45 eyes so that they'll be drawn to Christ. That is the only person who can know, I'm not a lover of myself. So, that's the first type of person who we are warned against. And then the second person mentioned here in verse 2 is a lover of money. 25:02 Not one who has a lot of money. Many people sitting here have a lot of money. I think most of the people sitting here have probably got 10 times what some of our CFC believers in the villages have. Your salary is 10 times what people in 25:16 the village have. Some Some people more than that. So, it's not a question of having money. It's not a question of owning a house. Well, many of you own your own houses. It's a question of loving it. There are many people who have little 25:32 who love money. There are many people who have much who love money. And this is a lover of money who still has a form of godliness. And I tell you the Christian world is full of it. Most of these pastors you see on television, 25:46 they are the biggest lovers of money of all. And I noticed another thing in Christian television both here in the United States and here that most of these Christian television preachers are people who speak in tongues and claim to be baptized in the Holy 26:03 Spirit. Most of them, perhaps 90% of them. And they are the most covetous lovers of money on the face of the earth. Because they're always asking for people's money. And they take those poor people's money and buy big cars and 26:16 planes and big houses and all that for themselves. But they speak in tongues. That shows the whole thing is a counterfeit. Because if a person is filled with the Holy Spirit really, he should be more free from the love of money. 26:30 He should be more free from desiring money from other people. I'm surprised that so many believers can't see through this deception on Christian television from all these preachers. How is it you don't see it? How is some of you want to go and listen 26:43 to some of these men and some women also who are just out You say, oh, but they preach so well. Uh-huh. So, you're more interested in the outward garment than the inner life. You're more interested in head knowledge. You want to be moved emotionally. 27:00 They've got a tremendous ability to preach. If you want to be moved emotionally, go and listen to some politician. They hold people's attention for 2 hours, some of them. Very good. They're not necessarily godly people. 27:14 So, we need to be very careful. I find these are days of tremendous deception. We are mistaking a person's eloquence for anointing. Uh I really believe one of the greatest needs in our day is to distinguish between eloquence and 27:29 anointing. Eloquence many worldly people have. Many politicians have. There are some politicians I've heard who are amazingly eloquent. They can hold your attention for a long time. They speak in such an interesting way. 27:46 They can speak for 2 hours and you won't lose your You won't be distracted. It's not anointing. It's eloquence. It's a human gift. And when such a person can become a Christian and a preacher, he can preach without an anointing. An anointing will 28:04 draw you to Jesus Christ. Not make you just impressed with that person. An anointing will convict you of sin, convict you of the the need for righteousness, and convict you of judgment. Because that's what the Holy Spirit 28:17 does. Eloquent people won't convict you of sin and righteousness and judgment. So, lovers of money, be very, very careful. Avoid such people. I want to avoid such people. I want to avoid listening to such people on the internet 28:33 or television. I want to know if this guy's a lover of money and a lover of himself. I don't want to go anywhere near that person. I don't want to attend his meetings. I don't want to listen to him on television because he will not make me 28:45 godly. He will influence me in the wrong direction. And Paul said, in the last days, it's going to be difficult to be a Christian because people will not have the discernment to know that this guy is just a lover of himself, lover of money, because he's 28:58 got this form of godliness. The third person mentioned here is boastful. One who I mean, this is a crude way of trying to show off to others. That also, unfortunately, there are Christians like that who say subtle things to show 29:15 that they are superior to you. Beware of any person who says things to you claiming to be a testimony, but the motive behind that testimony is not to help you to go that way, but the motive is to show, you see, what a great 29:32 man of God I am. Beware of such people who are saying things to you only to show off. It says, avoid such people. Avoid such people completely. And then another You know, he uses a number of words for pride. 29:51 So, not only boastful, but arrogant. And that is a certain attitude. And I'm sorry to say I've seen that in some elders, in some preachers, and arrogance in the way they speak to others. Not the spirit of a servant. I'm not talking about rebuking sin. When 30:10 you rebuke sin, you have to be very strong. But there's a lot of difference in rebuking sin. And supposing a person has made a mistake. Anybody can make a mistake. Even this leader can make a mistake. I must distinguish between the way I 30:28 correct a person for sin, which is rebellion, and the way I correct him for a mistake that he's made. Okay, that mistake caused some problem. And that often happens in the church when we work together, when we are running a conference, or 30:45 we're doing so many things in the church. We got to distinguish between rebellion and a mistake. It's very important if any of you have responsibility for others. Distinguish and see is this guy doing it in a rebellious spirit, or is it a 31:00 mistake? And you can see your arrogance in yourself, in the way you correct somebody, in the way you speak to people. There we can learn from Jesus. He was very strong when he rebuked unbelief and sin. But at other times he was very gentle 31:18 with his own disciples' arrogance. And then it speaks here about revilers. These are all people who have these characteristics, but who have a form of godliness. Revilers are people who blaspheme, say things about God in a loose, light way. There are many 31:36 people nowadays who crack jokes about the Bible, and about hell, and about God, and they think they're very funny. It's blasphemy to make fun of biblical things. It's blasphemy to make fun of spiritual things. Marriage, for example, is a very 31:55 holy thing God has created. It's it's wrong to make fun of it in such a way that people don't value the sanctity of marriage. It's there's many things which are very close to blasphemy. You don't have to just curse God. 32:12 There are many things like that. It's It's This is what reviler means. Someone who doesn't take holy things seriously. He makes fun of hell, and makes fun of people who are burning in hell. And uh it's terrible. I mean, I've heard some 32:28 things even so-called believers speak, which are I don't even want to mention them. They make a joke about something that Jesus said. Be very, very careful that we don't make fun of biblical things. Don't be a blasphemer. Don't be a reviler. And you 32:45 And some of these people who do this, I've heard myself, are people who claim to be born again. So, we want a purity in our CFC churches where people don't have these qualities. Because, you know, we have a tremendous form of godliness in CFC. 33:00 We preach some of the some of the highest doctrines that are being preached in India. And it's very easy to have that garment, and behind that garment have all these qualities, especially in the last days. And then it says disobedient to parents. 33:14 This is so fundamental. Even in the Old Testament it spoke about the seriousness of disobeying parents. But to have a form of godliness, you young people, especially you children, you are not at all godly if you disobey 33:26 your parents. Let me tell you that straight to your face. I'm not saying that you got to obey your parents if they tell you to do something sinful. Many of you from non-Christian homes, if your parents tell you to bow down to an idol, you have to say, 33:40 "Sorry, Dad, Mom, I can't do that. Because I respect you. I'll do it in a Speak to them in a loving way. I respect you. I love you. I'm thankful for you took care of me from the time I was born, and cared for me, and educated me, all 33:55 that. But Dad, Mom, please don't ask me to bow to an idol, because not because I don't respect you, but because God is above you. And I don't believe that God can be represented in the form of some brass statue or 34:13 wooden statue. So, please, please respect my conviction. It doesn't mean I despise you. It doesn't mean I devalue you. It doesn't mean I'm ungrateful to you for all that you've done. But please don't ask me to do that. There you have to stand against 34:28 your parents in a very respectful way. Or if they ask you to marry someone who's an unbeliever, say, "Dad, Mom, I love you so much. I respect you. I want to please you, but do you want to make my life unhappy? You want me to be unhappy all my life, 34:43 marry someone who's not going the same direction I'm going in a certain direction, and this person may be going in that direction. You put us together, we'll be having constant conflicts, which may one day end in divorce. Do you 34:55 want me to face that, Dad, Mom? Please don't ask me to marry someone who's not got the same view as me in spiritual things. It's very important. There we have to stand against the parents. But other things, we have to be respectful and obedient. 35:11 That means maybe you're tired, and your parents ask you to do something. Get up and do it. Don't just say, "Dad, Mom, I'm too tired. I can't do it." That's disobedience. That's got nothing to do with spirituality. And if you're like that, I tell you God 35:30 will honor you. That when you're tired and exhausted, or you urgently want to go and play a game or something, and your mom asks you to do something, obey her. Obey your parents is one of the first things that we need to teach children. 35:43 In fact, God gave only one commandment for children. He gave many for the adults, but for children only one. Obey your parents as long as you're at home. As long as you're dependent on them financially, you're living in their 36:01 house, and they're supporting you, you have to obey them. Once you leave home, and you set up your own home, whatever it is, then you must still respect them, and honor them till the end of your life. But you don't have to obey them. 36:20 I honored my parents till the end of their life. But I didn't obey them once I left home. I let the Lord lead me. So, please remember this. It's one of going to be one of the characteristics of the last days. Young people disobedient to their 36:39 parents, but pretending to be very spiritual. It's a deception. Form of godliness. What is the rule? Avoid such people. Don't hang around with people who are have got that spirit of disobedience. Don't hang around with 36:59 children in your school who are always criticizing the teacher. You may disagree with your teacher, but don't speak evil of her or him. That's not good Christianity. You don't have to fight with those people who criticize teachers. Just 37:12 avoid them. You don't have to be a some type of judge or prophet there. No, no, no. Avoid is easy. He's not asking you to correct them. No, don't correct them. Avoid them. And the other thing it says, and especially, you know, if you don't start 37:28 with children when they are young, they will grow up. There are so many cases I've seen of little children who act in a very rude, disobedient way to the parents, and the parents take it lightly. "Oh, it's only a little child." 37:44 Yeah. But little snakes grow up to become big snakes. Don't forget that. And little tigers grow up to become big tigers. So, don't forget that. Uh so, disobedience to parents is something that must start from the beginning. I believe the most important 38:03 thing that we need to teach our children is obedience, respect for parents. And if they respect parents, they will respect all older people. When you don't teach respect for parents, 38:22 they will not respect older people, also. And very often, let me say this to wives, the way you treat your husband may be what your child is seeing, which one day makes him disobedient to Daddy. He grows up like that. 38:41 It happens. We've had a few cases like that in this church of who young men who would uh despise their father, and they ended up despising the elders in the church. 39:00 The only thing we could do such with such people is put them out of the church, and say, "Never come to CFC again." Where did it start with? I believe it started with the mother not respecting the husband, the children learning that, 39:14 and the children don't respect their father, and over a period of time they don't even respect the elders. Some people think this is a small thing. It's not a small thing. You know what they used to do in the Old Testament? 39:27 You read in Deuteronomy. A father had to bring his disobedient son to the elders, and say, "This son of mine has been disobedient and arrogant." And you You the elders did to him? Stone him to death. 39:45 That was the Old Testament law. How seriously God took it. What did the guy do? He didn't kill anybody. He didn't commit adultery. He was just arrogant and disobedient to his father. Some people think we act too strongly. No, 40:03 we don't stone anybody to death. We just put them out of the church. Because it's serious. We don't want people in this church who have a form of godliness and don't respect their parents or don't respect older people. And then it speaks in verse two about 40:19 those who are ungrateful. Now, this doesn't look like a very serious crime, but it is. It's good to go through all these things carefully and slowly and some of us read through this. I'm just trying to help you to read the Bible slowly 40:32 like I often teach. Ungrateful, is that a sin? A lack of gratitude? I find this is another very common thing among children who are not grateful to their parents for all the sacrifices the parents have made for them. Learn to say thank you. 40:52 I encourage people at least once a year on the birthday of your father and your mother write a thank you note to them. I want to encourage all of you to do that. Even even if your dad is 85 years old. Even if he's not a Christian, thank him 41:11 for the things he did for you. I'm not asking you to do it every day. Can't you do it once a year? And if you've never done it so far, give him a surprise this year. You never know. He may be drawn to Jesus Christ 41:30 just by that little act of gratitude. Express your gratitude. Express your gratitude to your father-in-law. A couple of years after I got married to Annie and I saw what a wonderful wife she was 41:48 for me because we were very poor and she was willing to live in the very simple way we lived. I wrote a letter to her father. I said, "I'm very thankful for the way you brought up your daughter because that's been such a help for me 42:05 now that she's my wife." I'm sure that letter made his day. You know, it's I didn't write to him to make his day. I just I was since I meant it 100% sincerely. I didn't do it to make friends. I was I said, "This is what I have to do as a 42:23 Christian." As a Christian, I have to be thankful when somebody's done something for me. If somebody has trained up a girl in a very good way to do all types of lowly jobs and then I get her as a wife, don't you think I should thank that person? 42:39 Sure, I felt it was my responsibility. So, sometimes we take so many things in the world for granted. Of course, I'm such an important person. I deserve all that. I'm not such an important person. I don't deserve anything. I'll tell you 42:53 what I deserve. I deserve hell. And anybody who does anything for me which is better than that, I must thank them and mean it from my heart. And it doesn't matter if other people don't thank me for what I do because I don't 43:06 I'm not looking for that. Learn the habit of gratitude. Because it says in the last days, there'll be a lot of ungrateful people. Avoid them. Don't be listed in this category of people. Grat- ungrat- ingratitude is a sin. 43:24 It's a sin. It's just like lover of self, lover of money, arrogant, proud. We don't usually put ungrateful along with disobedience to parents and lovers of self. No, no, no, but it is. It's just lumped in there along with that. 43:38 So, learn to be grateful for somebody who did something for you. Even a cup of water, like I've often said, Jesus would thank a person who gave him a cup of water. Jesus told his disciples, "If somebody gives you a cup of water in my name, he 43:52 won't lose his reward." So, I picture this in my mind that in the final day of judgment, Jesus calls up somebody whom nobody knows about and says, "Hey, I remember 2,000 years ago you gave a glass of water to Peter when he was really thirsty and come by 44:06 your town and nobody was there to give him even water, you gave it. And I want to give you a reward." I can believe that. That he remembers a cup of water 2,000 years later. And there I something I learned from that is I said, "I want to 44:22 thank people who helped me long, long ago." I I remember writing to somebody saying, "Brother, I remember 20 years ago I was in your town and I needed to go some place. I couldn't get a cab and you took me in your car to that distance. 44:38 I haven't forgotten it, brother. I'm just want to thank you for that." I mean, I sent it as a New Year greeting but reminded him of this because I wanted him to know that I was thankful of what what he did for me at a time when 44:51 there was no other way to go from one place to another. Ungrateful, I never in my life want to be listed under that category. List of ungrateful people, Zac Poonen, never. Lord, I never want to be in that list. Never, never, never. 45:08 Learn to be grateful for your husband and wife and at least once in a while express your gratitude to her. Uh I know in the West they bring flowers and all. I never brought flowers to my wife. I'll tell you that because 45:23 it I think it's an absolute waste of money. That's my opinion. Um get something practical and useful. You put those flowers up there, they disappear in 2 3 days. It's far better to get something that she can use for many days which will make her life a 45:38 little easier. Um maybe a vacuum cleaner instead of of flowers. Now, God bless all those people who express their gratitude with the flowers in the West. I'm not against them, but it's not the type of thing I believe in. 45:56 I I believe in practical help. I mean, if you have a wife who likes to smell flowers always all the time, please go ahead and get that. I've no objection to it. But what I mean is something that she really appreciates and values, not something which is 46:10 worthless. So, we express our gratitude in different ways. And then it speaks about unholy. I think this is talking about impurity in some way where little little things we're not we've 46:29 spoken much about impurity. You know, the Bible speaks about the pleasures of sin. And there are many things in the world today which are impure. If you go to the internet and many of you do 46:49 I want to say it's loaded with impurity. Even you're looking for some site and then some dirty picture on the column on the right. You're not interested in that, but it comes up there when you're looking for something important for 47:02 something else. That's how careful we have to be. It wasn't like that years ago because you went looking for something for a book or something in the library, you won't find some dirty picture on the right side of that book. 47:15 But now it has become like that. The internet is like a book. You look for something and there's a dirty picture on the right. You got to just avoid it. You got to be very, very careful these days. And people who are careless in like 47:28 that, the last days, they will end up with a form of godliness and destroy themselves. Pray this prayer, "Lord, lead me not into temptation." Very, very important for our time. Then it speaks about those who are unloving. 47:43 Those who don't have natural affection. It's a very common nowadays. Peop- mothers who abort their children are all people who have na- don't have natural affection. I'm not talking about a case where the doctors advise that the mother's life 48:01 can be saved only by removing the child. Unfortunately, there are cases like that, but I'm thinking about people who say, "No, we don't want to have children right now. We hear of cases of um people who say, "I want to build a house first and then 48:16 we'll have children." God may sometimes punish such people by never having children. Because uh you're interested in a house, go ahead, build as many houses as you want. See, without natural affection, God has created women to when they get married 48:32 to have a natural affection and a desire to have children. But we live in a world where they say, "No, no, no, we got to make money first. Money is more important." Well, I tell you, I've never seen such a person becoming spiritual. 48:45 They may sit in CFC and speak the right language. You got to be careful about those who lack natural affection. Irreconcilable, that's the other thing mentioned here in verse three. Those are people who will never yield. No matter how much you 49:02 try to convince them, they will not yield. They're irreconcilable. They will not You offended them in some way, they just don't want to be friends with you anymore. Don't be like that. Jesus was insulted and hurt and spat 49:17 upon and he forgave them. Don't be categorized as those who We must be eager to pursue peace with all men. Of course, be careful about those who want to be reconciled but to carry on the quarrel. No. But otherwise, for our side, the Bible 49:36 says, "As much as it lies in you, be at peace with all men." Romans chapter 12. That must be our attitude. And when somebody comes wants to come and have a fight with you, just stop the conversation. Say, "Listen, let's talk about something 49:51 else. I don't want to pursue that subject." Malicious gossips. Do you know the word in the Greek language from which this is translated is a word called diabolos. Diabolos means devilish. The word for gossip, 50:09 person who gossips in the Greek language is devil. A gossip, a gossiper is a devil. I hope you remember that all your life. Diabolos diabolical is English word for demonic, devilish. And that's the word used here of a 50:28 person who gossips, who speaks about a whole lot of things. They don't have any control over their tongue. Yeah, I've seen good believers who just don't have control over their tongue. It's as bad as not having control over 50:45 dirty thoughts. It's like a person constantly going to pornography. What to do, brother? I'm addicted to it. There are gossips like that. They hear some type of bad news about somebody and they spread it. I remember years ago reading an article by 50:58 Tozer. It's a wonderful article. You look it up somewhere sometime on the internet called five spiritual vows. Five spiritual vows that every Christian should take. And one of them is this. He said, "If you hear something bad 51:14 about somebody, don't go and tell others about it." Tell the elders of the church if they can sort out that problem. Yes, but don't talk about it to somebody else. But have you seen in your in your heart desire to immediately go and tell somebody, "Hey, 51:29 did you hear what um happened to this person or what this person did? I'm just telling it to you." What a lie. Just telling it to you. They go and tell a thousand people. Say, "I'm just telling it to you." And that person is going to spread it 51:45 further. We don't spread good news like that. Hey, do you know that guy got a promotion? His salary got doubled. That's not the type of thing we spread. It's usually something evil. That shows that our nature hasn't changed. 52:01 This gossiping, gossiping, loving to say something bad about somebody else, loving to show others how good I am compared to that person who behaved like this. That's essentially the reason why gossips speak. Gossiper speak to show, "I hope 52:19 you can see that I'm not so bad as that person I'm talking about." And there are many gossipers in CFC. And um the Bible says, "Avoid such people." Gossips, we have had gossips who were removed from eldership because they 52:34 gossip. I mean, so it's a very serious thing. Avoid such people completely. Without self-control, self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. It says we must avoid people who don't have control over their tongue, over their life. 52:50 See, the word uh for without self-control in the original language is uh from the word you get impotent. Impotent is a word used sexually for a man who does not have the ability to have children. 53:09 He's impotent. Now, most men would be thoroughly ashamed if they are impotent and they cannot have children. But that's the word used here. If you're not if you don't have self-control over your tongue, your eyes, you are 53:24 impotent. Remember that. You should be as ashamed of it as your total inability to have children even though you're married. You rejoice in the fact that you're not impotent, that you're very potent sexually. Well, then also rejoice in the fact that 53:42 you should you have self-control over your eyes and your tongue. That is the meaning of without self-control. It's exactly the same. So, put these in the same category and you'll see how evil it is, how you would be ashamed 53:57 to be impotent sexually, then be equally ashamed that you're without self-control. Well, I want to rest through this. You can meditate on yourself. It says about brutal. It means very hard and haters of good. And treacherous. Treacherous means they are 54:17 not loyal to one another. They betray one another. Reckless. Reckless means they You know, there's a saying in English that you look before you leap. Before you leap jump. Reckless means careless in the way they go into 54:34 something without realizing, "Where is it going to take me to?" They careless. They don't think seriously about, "What if I go and take this job? Where am I going to end up? Am I going to end up without any fellowship for years and 54:45 years and years? And maybe just make a lot of money." Reckless in the way they take a decision. Take a decision without considering spiritual factors. Only money and how much I'll gain. There are many people who do this. They are 54:57 reckless. Conceited. See, again, already there are words like boastful, arrogant, and again conceited. See how the Holy Spirit emphasizes pride, pride, pride in different ways. And finally, I don't have time to meditate on all of this. Lovers of 55:14 pleasure rather than lovers of God. When I love pleasure and comfort and ease, it is an opposite to loving God. That's what I see here. Lover of ease. Now, there's pleasure that is clean and good, like having a good meal, 55:33 the pleasure in that. Or going for a picnic or enjoying a vacation, that type of pleasure is good. But it's referring to pleasure that is sinful or that which just makes me lazy. It's all right for little children to play video games, but if you're an adult 55:51 and you get the pleasure out of video games all the time, so you're You're a kid. You're a child. If that's what you're interested in, you should be more serious about studying the Bible. I mean, um video games are all right for little 56:07 children below the age of 12. I think once you get to 12, you should have grown out of it. Otherwise, you're like a dwarf. You know, that's what it what it really Some of these things talk about being a dwarf. Not really grown, you know, it speaks in 56:23 verse six about weak women who weighed down with sins and led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. That means a dwarf. I mean, some of you would not be very happy if when you're 30 years old, you 56:42 were just about 3 ft high. How would you feel if you're just 3 ft high? 1 m high. And you're 30 years old. That's what he's talking about, people who are spiritually at that level. I mean, just like you'd be so sad. 57:00 Lord, what is wrong with me? I mean, everybody else is at least more than 5 ft and I'm 3 ft. I'm 30 years old. That's the way you should feel if you've been so long in the church and you've heard so much and you still only 57:14 have a form of godliness and you don't have the power. You know, if we compare ourselves in this physical realm, we see how serious it is these type of things. And the Bible says, "Avoid such people." And I believe the reason why many of us 57:32 have not grown as much as we should have is because we have not taken these things seriously. And especially in the last days, it's going to be difficult to be a Christian because there are a lot of people who are going to claim to be Christians who 57:44 have all these qualities. And why has the Holy Spirit taken pains to write so many individual bad qualities? Is it just for me to read through in 2 minutes and go to the next verse? You think I wasted time for 1 hour going through in this in 58:03 detail? Because probably some of you have never in your entire life, even though you've been a believer for 30 years, gone through these verses in detail. Because you say, "Ah, yes, I know all that." Really? 58:21 Ever learning, verse seven. Always learning and never able to come to spiritual knowledge of the truth. Let not Let that not be said about any of us, my brothers and sisters. I'm not saying all this 58:40 to condemn any of you. In the church, like we sing, "I'll always be in the church because I've never heard a discouraging word." I believe that. Any godly person who gets up here to speak will not speak a discouraging word. It'll be a challenging word. 58:58 It'll be a convicting word. It'll be an uplifting word. It'll show you your true condition. It'll be a true scan of your heart, but it will never be a discouraging word. It'll not be to push you down, but a word from heaven saying, "My son, my 59:15 daughter, come up higher." And I hope you've heard it like that today. The Lord Jesus saying to you, "My son, my daughter, come up higher. Don't be one who keeps on having knowledge of the truth, but not coming to a spiritual understanding of 59:31 it." Let's bow before God. Our heavenly Father, thank you for being so specific and detailed in all the trouble the Holy Spirit has taken to 59:50 mention one after the other, a big list of different different things that we can have and yet pretend to be godly. Please have mercy on us and give us light. First of all, if we have any of these 1:00:09 qualities ourselves, to cleanse ourselves, purify ourselves, and secondly, to have the discernment where I see other people having it, not to judge them, but to avoid them. We're not here to judge anybody, but you've commanded us to avoid peace 1:00:28 certain type of people, and we want to do that, Lord, because we want to be a pure testimony for you. We don't want the salt in us to lose its savor. We don't want the light in us to become dim, and we don't care who we offend, who 1:00:42 gets offended with us. We want to please you more than anything else. Help us to be men and women like that, we pray. Everyone here, we pray that you'll raise up an army of godly men and women in CFC in the coming days. We pray in Jesus name. 1:00:57 Amen.
