This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
This is what the end times are going to look like.
It's going to have these deceptive people who appear to
be godly, but there's no relationship whatsoever.
And he says, Paul says now from these people, turn away, turn
away from these people, have no fellowship.
Have no fellowship with these people.
You got to turn away from them because they can be seductive,
they can be deceiving, they can be luring, so you need to turn
away from them. There's a lot of talk about
staying away from toxic people, but then the generally accepted
definition of toxic seems to be people who disagree with you.
But what if there were people out there who make you feel
good, but really they're drawing you away from God?
As Pastor Lewis points out in today's message, those are the
type of people you need to stay away from.
The Bible says not to have any kind of fellowship with those
who say they're of God, but their fruit tells another story.
Now here's Pastor Lewis in Second Timothy Chapter 3 with
today's edition of Living Waters of Grace.
They have a form of godliness, and this form of godliness
actually means that it's a they have a shape of godliness or
semblance of godliness. They have an appearance of
godliness, but there's no fruit, there's no substance, there's
nothing, there's no life on the inside.
It's just a shell of an appearance of godliness.
It's an imitator of godly people without the power.
So it's like profession without practice, without no
relationship whatsoever. And this is what Paul is saying.
Paul is saying these people are going to look righteous, they're
going to look holy, they're going to look religious, but
they won't have the Redeemer. They will not have that
relationship with the Lord. None.
These are people who Jesus is talking about over in Matthew 7
when he says that they're going to be many that are going to
come to me and say Lord, Lord. But everybody who comes to me
saying Lord, Lord will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Oh, but they're going to put up the argument.
Lord, didn't you know? You know, didn't we Prophecy in
your name did not cast out demons in your name did not do
many wonders in your name. And he's going to say depart
from me. I never knew you, depart from
me. You who work lawlessness, Yes,
you had an outward shell. You had a appearance of
godliness, but there was never relationship.
I never knew you. There was never relationship and
that's exactly what we're going to see in the last days.
These teachers, these false teachers that are going to have
this appearance of godliness. They're going to sound godly,
but their lives have no fruit. They're going to be just like
Jesus talked about over in Matthew chapter 23 when he
talked about the woes over in Matthew 23.
And there's two woes in particular that just gives me
the chills that he talks about. And he basically saying chapter
25, verse 23, what are you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites for? You cleanse the outside of the
cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self
indulgence. And that's exactly what these
false teachers will be. They'll be full of self
indulgence. Everything that they're
teaching, everything that they're doing is for selfish
gain. The Bible says they're feeding
their own bellies. And then in verse 27 in the same
chapter, he says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for you are like whitewashed tombs, which indeed
appear beautifully beautiful outwardly.
And I remember Clark telling us that he was in Israel and he
stood up on the hill and he saw these whitewashed tombs and how
they glittered in the sunlight and how beautiful they looked in
the sunlight. He said that's exactly what
these false teachers are going to be like.
Like these whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful
outwardly, but inside are full of dead man's bones and awe,
uncleanness, awe, uncleanness. This is what the end times are
going to look like. It's going to have these
deceptive people who appear to be godly, but there's no
relationship whatsoever. And he says, Paul says now from
these people, turn away, turn away from these people, have no
fellowship. Have no fellowship with these
people. You got to turn away from them
because they can be seductive, they can be deceiving, they can
be luring. So you need to turn away from
them. You need to break fellowship
with these people and have no further fellowship with them,
neither inside the church or outside the church.
He, you know, they actually mean to shun the people or to avoid
these people, but we treat them like unbelievers.
So we pray for them. We pray for them, we minister to
them. We don't just throw them away.
We don't just, we don't put, we don't talk about them and, and
put them down. We pray for them.
We pray that God would touch their hearts and that they would
and that they would turn from these things.
We intercede on their behalf, understanding that they are
taken captive by Satan. They're being used by Satan.
So we pray for them. And then he goes further.
And he said for of this sort are those who creep into households,
they creep into households that mean.
And, and what that probably means is that because they were
told to not have fellowship with these people, these false
teachers and these unbelievers who you know, who, who, who show
these kind of characteristics, these people are probably
they're not invited into the fellowship of the believers.
So they don't have access to the believers.
You know, they don't stand in the Congregation of the
Righteous. So these people creep into homes
and make their way or get access into homes of vulnerable people
who will listen to what it is that they have to say.
And, and, and what it says here is that they go into households
and make captives because in a spiritual war, just like in a
regular war, there's always captives.
In a regular war, there's captives, people who get
captive. But also that way for the, the,
the, in a spiritual war, they're captives.
People are taken captive. And he's saying that these they
take captives of these gullible women.
And just because it says, when I want to clarify this, just
because it says gullible women, that doesn't necessarily mean
he's talking about all women. He's not saying that all women
are gullible. We know that that's not true.
All women are not gullible. But what he is saying that these
are prompt is a section of people or a group of women that
was obviously identified that these false prophets had gone
into. These are women who were weak.
They were his a weak self will. They had no self will.
They're women who were not grounded and they went in
because they were gullible. Now there's, there's four things
that Paul mentions here that makes these women a target for
these false teachers. The one thing he mentioned, he
said they're gullible. They're gullible women.
That means they listened. They're open to everything.
They're willing to believe
anything that sounds good. I remember when I was young, I
heard a pastor once say, it's amazing what you remember when
you're young sitting in a congregation.
But the the pastor once said, he said if you don't stand for
something, you will fall for anything.
And I never forgot that. I never forgot that.
And that's exactly what's going on here.
These women didn't stand for Christ.
They didn't stand for truth, they didn't stand for true
doctrine. So they were willing to fall for
anything. And that's exactly what happened
with these particular women. So the first things that they
were gullible women. The second thing is that they
were loaded down with sins. So these are women who were
given to their own passions. They were given to their sinful
ways. They would rather those sins
were sexual sins, or rather it was, you know, sins of being
busy bodies or gossipers, sins of just being involved in
things, self sync, satisfying sins.
But they were loaded down with sin.
Not just sinful, they were loaded down with sins.
Sin is a burden. Sin is a burden by the way, it
does weigh you down. It weighs you down.
It causes you to feel like you're carrying something extra
on you like in your life, and you are.
You're carrying these burdens with you.
And that's why when we get saved, we feel so light.
When we give our lives to Christ, we feel so light because
we relieve those burdens. Did we drop those burdens?
We give them all to him. The sin, you know, the burden
bearer, we give them to the burden bear instead of us
bearing them, the burden bear takes them.
And that's why we feel so light when we get saved.
Do you remember that when you first got saved, how you just
felt so light? Everything outside looks so much
brighter. You look in the grass and look
greener. Flowers look more beautiful.
The sky look bluer. You know you're smiling at
everybody and talking to everybody because you were just
so free. You were.
You were, you were. You were free from those burdens
that once used to bound you. And these women are loaded down
with these sins also #3 they're LED away by various lusts.
So not just sexual lusts, but it could also be other lusts, like
the lust for things, lust for money, lust for jewelry, or
whatever it may be. But they're LED away by those
things. And those are the things that
control their passions. And then #4 is that they're
always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of
truth. In other words, these women are
always running somewhere looking for a fresh word.
And I've seen that, you know, people will go from church to
church, following speakers to go from church to church looking
for a fresh word, looking for a word that satisfies their flesh,
something that will tickle their ears, something that will
justify the lifestyle that they're living.
So they go from place to place searching, but they never come
to the knowledge of the truth. They never come to the knowledge
of the gospel. They never receive or experience
the power of the gospel. Regardless of how many services
you sit in, regardless of how many speakers you listen to, if
you don't accept the truth of the gospel, you will never come
to the knowledge of truth. And that's exactly what these
women were doing, just searching for the knowledge and never,
ever finding any. Just learning.
That's the danger of being ignorant of the faith, you know?
And that's why Paul, I believe This is why Paul said over in
First Timothy 211 that the women should learn, but they just need
to learn in silence. But they should learn.
They should learn. They should learn the word of
God. They should learn the doctrine,
but they need to learn in silence.
I think Paul was trying to avoid women being vulnerable.
And these false teachers take advantage of these women and
they fleece them of their money. They fleece them of their
loyalty, of their services. Titus, one in 10, says that
these these false teachers are teaching things that they ought
not for the sake of dishonest gain, for the sake of dishonest
gain. And not only do these teachers
come from without people who come outside of the church and
try to work their way in, but it's also people who were coming
from inside the church that raise up, that are raised up to
becoming a teacher. And they began to speak things
that are outside of the truth and they begin to deceive other
people. In fact, Paul warned about that.
He warned about that over in the book of Acts, over in the book
of Acts. He made it very clear over in
chapter 20 of the book of Acts, starting here verse 29.
He said, For I know this, that after many that after my
departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing
the flock also from among yourselves men will rise up
speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after
themselves. Therefore, watch and remember
that for three years I did not cease to warn every night and
day with tears. So these are these are the, the
people, these false teachers that are teaching perverse
things and getting people to follow them, getting people to
follow them. And it's going to get even worse
as it gets closer to the end time.
The Bible says even the very elect may be deceived.
And then in verse 8, as we get ready to come closer to a close
here in verse 8, he now describes how these false
teachers are resistant to truth and how they resist the gospel,
how they resist the authority of the Bible.
And he gives an example that I think is pretty interesting.
He says now verse 8, now as Janice and John Breeze resisted
Moses, now you might say, well, what did these names come from?
Because if you go back in the book of Exodus, you won't see
Jenny's and John Breeze back in the book of Exodus.
But Paul, through study, actually through the traditional
writings, he was able to discover who these two men were.
And he's talking about the two magicians, the two magicians,
the Egyptian magicians who stood in front of Moses and resisted
him. You know, Moses came to Pharaoh,
said, let my people go. They said, no, we're not going
to let your people go. Moses stood down or Aaron threw
down the rod and, and and it turned into a serpent.
And the because they are imitators, because that's what
Satan is. He's an imitator.
He threw down there did the magician stood down their rod
and it turned into a serpent. So of course Pharaoh said, well,
there's no need of letting you go because my God can do what
your God can do. So then the next thing he said,
well, you let my people go. He said, no, I'm not going to
let your people go. He turned the Nile River into
blood. If you remember that story, he
turned the Nile River into blood.
And of course, his magicians came right behind him and he
turned the Nile River into blood.
I'm not going to let you go. Why should I let you go?
My God can do what your God can do.
Came to the frogs, mostly let my people go.
I'm not going to let your people go.
I'm going to have frogs going to come and cover the land.
Now notice these magicians didn't do anything on their own.
They had to imitate after Moses, they couldn't come up and do
anything on their own. And that's what Satan does.
He doesn't do anything on his own.
He's an imitator. He's an imitator.
So they brought up frogs. And that's exactly what these
false teachers did. They brought up frogs too.
I'm not going to let you people go.
My gods can do what yours can do.
Then it came to the lice. Then it came to the other six
plagues that Moses was able, that the Lord did through Moses,
and they couldn't duplicate it. They could not duplicate it.
They were exposed. In fact, they even said over in
Exodus 8 and 19, they said this is the finger of God.
They finally realized it after all that time of resisting him
by not wanting to believe him, by trying to imitate him.
Finally they said this is the finger of God.
They realized that. And that's exactly what's going
to happen here with Paula saying, Paula saying just as
these do as these do, as so do these who resist the truth.
And that's exactly what they do. People who always want to
challenge the Bible, always want to deny the truths of the Bible.
They are resisting the authority of God's word and they're trying
to get other people to question it as well.
That goes all the way back to the garden.
It's exactly what Satan did in the garden, got Eve and Adam
tried to get them to, got try to get Eve to question God's word.
And that's what happens with these false teachers.
They, they, they get out a little bit of truth and the rest
of them is a lie and they try to get you to question God's word.
Did it really mean this? If that's what the word says it
meant, that's what it meant. That's what it means.
But they are going to resist. But they're because they're men
of corrupt or depraved minds. They're disapproved concerning
the faith. In other words, they have false
faith, counterfeit faith. It's not real.
It's not real, but verse 9 he says, but they will progress no
further for their folly will be manifest to all.
Yes, going to come to a point where they're going to be
exposed. They're not teaching the word of
God. They're teaching psychology,
they're teaching humanism, they're teaching philosophy.
We're hearing so much of that on TV and it's nothing but an
imitate. They look like preachers, they
look like preachers, they look like they're men of God.
They throw a word or two in every now and then to make it
sound like they're followers of God, that they're men of God,
that they, that they love Jesus Christ.
But the truth of the matter is they do not.
They're imitators. And, and it's, and they may have
7 steps to this or seven steps to that, You know, teach you, I
can improve your marriage, how to live happy and all those
things. But they don't teach about sin.
They don't teach about, you know, coming to salvation
through Jesus Christ and him being the only way to salvation.
They don't teach that. They don't teach that.
But we have to understand that faith doesn't come by teaching
psychology. It doesn't come by teaching
philosophy. Faith comes by hearing and
hearing by the word of God according to Romans 10 and 17.
Now I have to say, I have to say I've been coming to this church
now going on 13 years. We went on 13 years.
I've been coming to this church. I have never once seen any man
coming to this sacred desk and teach out of anything other than
the Bible, men or women that teach.
The women over there, they don't teach out of books.
They teach out of the word of God because this is the truth.
This is the power. This is what changes lives.
So here at Calvary Chapel, this is what we do.
That's what Ezra did. Ezra just simply, he read the
scripture and he explained it. That's what Jesus did.
That's what the the, the apostles did.
They read the scriptures and they expound on the scriptures.
That's the way it's been done and that's the way we do it
here. If you're looking for something
other than true doctrine, if you don't want to hear about sin, if
you don't want to hear about the grace of God, if you don't want
to hear about Jesus Christ being the only way, then this is
probably not going to be the church for you.
If you want to hear something that's going to tickle your
ears. If you want to hear something
that's going to cause you to feel you know good about
yourself. And you never have to look at
what the Holy Spirit is doing in your spirit to get you to to
obey Him or to get you to walk in a way that will allow you to
live a life that is separated unto Him.
If that's not what you want, then this is not going to be the
place. But as long as we're here, I've
always heard the Word of God line by line, chapter by
chapter, book by book. And that's the way we'll
continue to do it. But those who are not about
that, it's going to be exposed. They're going to be exposed.
Give it an opportunity to repent, but they're going to be
exposed. So This is why it's so important
to come and have fellowship. Hebrews tell us that we should
not be forsaking and forsaking, not the assembling of ourselves
together as is the matter of some, as some are doing, but we
need to encourage each other, exhort each other.
It's so much more as we see the day approaching, as it gets
closer to God, we need to be exhorting each other even more,
coming together, encouraging each other.
Jews says that we got to contend for the faith, which was once
for all one time it was given. There's no new revelation on the
faith. One time it was given for all,
delivered to the Saints. So even as in these perilous
times, we still have hope in these last and evil days, we
still have hope. And the hope that we have is in
Jesus Christ. He is where we are.
We we can hide in Jesus Christ. I have a Psalm that I just want
to end with, and it's Psalm 3. It kind of truly talks about how
we have to deal with perilous times.
This was David dealing with his perilous times.
He says, Lord, how they have increased.
Who trouble me? Many are they who rise up
against me. Many are they who say of me,
there is no help for him in God. Now, if it ended there, that
would be a sad story. If that was the end of the
story, that would be a sad story.
But it doesn't, he says. But you, O Lord, are a shield
for me. You're my glory.
You're the one who lifts up my head.
I cried to the Lord with my voice.
He heard me from his holy heel. In fact, even in the midst of
all the perilous times that David was going through, even in
the midst of all the people who were seeking to take his life as
he was running for his very life, he was able to say, I laid
down and went to sleep. That's the piece that brother
had. He laid down and went to sleep.
And even in our perilous times, when we have the peace of God
with us, in US and for us, we will be able to lie down and
sleep, he says. I woke up, for I didn't sustain
myself. It wasn't the people around me
that sustained me, but the Lord sustained me.
I will not be afraid of 10 thousands of people who set
themselves against me all around.
And then he says, arise, O Lord, save me, Oh my God, for you have
struck all my enemies on the cheekbone.
You have broken the teeth of the ungodly savage beast.
Men who are people who are untamed animals that are
untamed, their strength is in their teeth.
That's what we fear. We fear the teeth of wild
animals. And yet the Lord broke their
teeth, cause them to be harmless, defenseless.
He broke their teeth. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
Your blessing is upon the people.
We have a hope, and thank God we do.
And that hope that we have is in Jesus Christ and Him alone.
He came so that we would have hope.
He came to bless us. He came to take for us and to do
for us what we couldn't do for ourselves.
You've been listening to Pastor Louis Harrell here on Living
Waters of Grace. We're digging into all that Paul
shared with Timothy in the books of First and Second Timothy.
Timothy was commissioned to do the following fight the good
fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were
also called, and have confessed the good confession in the
presence of many witnesses. Timothy would be carrying on
what Paul had taught him and continuing on in ministry, even
though Paul knew that more hardships would come for
Timothy. This is the Christian life.
It's not glamorous. It's not some celebrity status.
It's hard fought. It's gritty, it's unpopular, but
it's worth it. Do you believe that today?
Are you willing to fight the good fight even at the cost of
earthly pleasures? Living the life of a follower of
Jesus will have its heavenly rewards.
To be a part of a community that's looking forward to that
heavenly reward, we invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel
Westmoreland. If you're in the Greensburg, PA
area, come be with us this Sunday at 10:30 AM at 400 E
Pittsburgh St. Ste. 6B.
Check out Calvary Chapel online.com For more information
on directions and any other details you might want to know,
and you can also download our mobile app from our website
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members who want to tune in, encourage them to listen on
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Thanks for prayerfully considering this, and thank you
for listening to Living Waters of Grace.