The Christian Family: Marriage and Household Order: The Family

Resisting the Truth - Part 2

Transcript: AI Transcript

Professor: John Weaver

Subject: Family Government

Genre: Sermon

Dictation Name:

Date: 2006-01-08

Synopsis: In this sermon, John Weaver continues his study of 2 Timothy 3, focusing on how people resist the truth. He explains that beyond resisting the messengers of the truth (covered in Part 1), people also resist the message of the truth through denial, denigration, and compromise. He illustrates these with biblical examples and applies them to modern church life, warning that those who resist the truth ultimately believe a lie to their own destruction.

[John Weaver] Let's open our Bibles into 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And we're going to read the first nine verses. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And this is the second part of the message that I began last week, resisting the truth. So it is resisting the truth part two. We'll take a few moments to review. So 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, Paul writes, This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away.

[John Weaver] For of this sort are they which creep in the houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Janice and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be made manifest unto all men, as theirs also was."

[John Weaver] Now, I mentioned last week it seems absolutely unreal to entertain the idea that there are some people who do not wish to know the truth. However, Scripture tells us very plainly in verse 8, that there are some who resist the truth and they fight against the truth. Verse 8 specifically names Janice and Jambres who withstood the truth as Moses was teaching and preaching to them. And then he says in verse 8, even so do these.

[John Weaver] In other words, he is then talking about the false prophets that were alive and the false teachers that were alive during Paul and Timothy's days. But the same fact then applies also to false teachers in our day. And what he's saying is that these men resist the truth. Now, the plain fact of the matter is there are a lot of individuals who are not necessarily false teachers or false prophets who resist the truth. So I begin to ask, what does it mean to resist the truth?

[John Weaver] You remember last week I discussed momentarily a theory known as cognitive dissonance. And cognitive dissonance means just simply the fact that many times there is a disagreement between what we think and what we believe and what we see and observe or what we hear. And then there is also and always a fight in our minds to try to reconcile what we have been taught and what we believe with what we see and hear, especially when what we see and hear is different. from the way we have been taught. Now, regardless of whether or not the theory of cognitive dissonance is true, it is true that we always fight against the truth, especially when that truth is contrary to what we've been taught or what we've believed all of our lives.

[John Weaver] It's one thing to laugh at error and to mock at heresy and to snicker at things that you and I know that are untrue. But when you and I perceive that something may possibly be true, and it's absolutely contrary to what we have believed and what we have been taught, there is always a resistance to that truth.

[John Weaver] Now, that is just simply human nature. But when you get to verse 8 in 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul is comparing the two magician sorcerers, Janice and Jambres, to the false teachers that existed in his day. Likewise, we can also compare them to the false teachers that exist in our day and the false teachers that exist throughout history. Why? Because I shared with you last week, and I want to very quickly review this, There are several categories that all false teachers fall into. First of all, in verses 2 through 4, Paul points out that all false teachers are idolatrous.

[John Weaver] In fact, he says, without me reading all of it, skip down to verse 4, traitors, petty, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. So they put themselves and they put their desires ahead of God and any and everything else. You remember I pointed out in Philippians 3 in verse 19, the Apostle Paul described these, he said, as he said, whose God is their belly. That is, they live basically for themselves. And then in verse 5, I pointed out that they were idiocrats, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.

[John Weaver] I told you the word idiocracy, if you would look it up, means peculiar to oneself, or particular to oneself. So these false teachers are those who make up the rules as they go along. They have their own form, they have their own little outline of things, and if it doesn't fit, fine, that's alright, we'll make up something different. In other words, their belief system is peculiar to themselves.

[John Weaver] So God says they are idolaters, they are idiocrats, and then in verse 5, they are immoral. He says, or verse six, he says, for these are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away of divers lusts. And by the way, I pointed out last week how that this is usually the secretive side of life where it says they creep in the houses, but inevitably they are idolatrous. They are idiocrats. They are immoral. And then finally, in verse seven, they are intellectual. He says ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now, let me point out very quickly, as Paul did, that their intellectuality is basically thoughts, because they are individuals who are constantly and continually learning, but never, ever able to come to the truth. I told you last week that there is a difference in the Bible between the two Greek words gnosis and epignosis. The word Gnosis is where we get the English word Gnostics from, who believed in salvation through knowledge.

[John Weaver] Gnosis is a word which talks about general knowledge, but epignosis means full or precise knowledge. And the Bible says here very plainly, they're never ever able to come to a full or precise knowledge. Here are individuals that may know a lot about the Bible, but they don't know the Bible. They may know a lot about Christ, but they do not know Christ. They do not have a precise knowledge, and God says, therefore, their intellectuality is false.

[John Weaver] Now, in answering the question, how did Janice and Jambres and all false teachers resist the truth, I gave you last week one main point. That is, the first way of resisting the truth is by resisting the messengers of the truth. Do you remember in Exodus chapter 5, without turning there, when Moses dared had gone to Pharaoh and said, thus said the Lord, let my people go. It was Pharaoh who replied, I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. What was he saying?

[John Weaver] I don't recognize your God. Consequently, I don't recognize his authority. And if I don't recognize his authority, I don't recognize your authority. And I gave you very quickly three ways that Moses and Aaron were withstood. They were withstood by imitation. That is when Pharaoh called his magician sorcerers there to imitate what Moses and Aaron did. And if you'll remember, I told you they could only imitate in three particular areas. When it came to the fourth one, the bringing forth of life, they could not do that. The only thing those three magician sorcerers did was bring forth death and add to the misery of the Egyptians. They could not produce life. So there was imitation, and then secondly, insinuation and how individuals can be destroyed by insinuation, and then thirdly, by intimidation where very Clearly, Pharaoh said to Moses, if you see my face anymore, you'll die.

[John Weaver] I'll get you get out of here. And then I pointed out how many of God's people today supposedly intimidate the pastors. So the pastors will not preach or teach the whole word of God.

[John Weaver] Now, today, I want to deal with the second point. The second way of resisting the truth is not just simply by resisting the messengers of the truth, but secondly, by resisting the message of the truth. Have you ever wondered how men resist the message of the truth?

[John Weaver] Now, if you'll think about it for a moment, I am sure that there are numerous ways that truth could be resisted. But I want to give you what I'm going to call today an irreducible minimum. That is, I'm going to give you three ways, which are the most prominent way that people resist the truth. The first way is denial. Now, this is very obvious, that an outright denial of the truth really and truly needs no explanation.

[John Weaver] Because all someone has to do is just simply say, I don't believe that. That's not true. However, you've got to understand that there is a difference between an intellectual denial of the truth and a practical denial of the truth. You know, there are intellectual atheists. And then there are practical atheists. So likewise, there are intellectual deniers and there are practical deniers. I was noticing it was either on the Drudge Report or World Net Daily about Richard Hawkins of England. Now, Richard Hawkins is, I think, pretty well famous, and he's an atheist, and he already has produced some TV shows that are going to be shown over in England, and he likens Moses to Hitler.

[John Weaver] He says teaching Christianity to children is child abuse. And I mean, he's just blatantly, and he's atheism. Here's a man that is very brilliant, and he is what you and I would call an intellectual atheist. He is someone who would say outright, there is no God. The Bible is not true. Don't bring me that superstition. I don't want to hear it. I want you to note that always an intellectual atheist believes himself, or if there's more than one, they believe themselves to be superior to everyone else intellectually. And that if anyone believes the Bible, they're dumb, ignorant, and superstitious. So, you have an intellectual atheist, which everyone can understand, or an intellectual denier. But what most people do not understand is there is a practical atheist and there is a practical way to deny the truth.

[John Weaver] This is where most professing Christians fall. In other words, it is absolutely possible for someone to acknowledge God, to confess the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, to say very openly the Bible is indeed the inerrant, inspired Word of God. They confess and acknowledge all of these truths. But with their lives, they deny practically everything that they confess. You say, how can that be true? Well, I want you to hold Second Timothy, but turn in your Bibles to Titus chapter one in verse 16, just a page or two over Titus. Look at one and verse 16. Look what Paul writes to Titus. And here is a way of practically denying the truth. He says they profess that they know God, but in works they deny him.

[John Weaver] being abominable and disobedient unto every good work reprobate." Now this is precisely where modern day Christendom falls. Here are polls that will show a high percentage of people in this country believe in God, believe in Christ, believe in the Bible. However, a very small percentage of that high percentage actually apply the Bible to their lives. You see, it is one thing to confess and acknowledge truth. It is quite another thing to apply and to live that truth in your everyday life. So that is why the Apostle Paul is saying that they profess that they know God, but in their works, that is, in their daily lives, They deny him being abominable and disobedient under every good work reprobate. So here are Christians then all over this country that will be in church today worshiping what they call the one true and the living God, acknowledging that the Bible is the word of God.

[John Weaver] Then they walk out the doors and forget about him totally and completely. forget about all the principles and the truths of the Word of God, and live and act six days during the week as if God had no authority, had never spoken, and not one thing that He has said is binding upon them. In other words, they do their own thing. They live as they please. They do not live as God pleases.

[John Weaver] Now ask yourself this question. How can professing Christians live such unbiblical, unholy, and ungodly lives? There are only two answers. The first one is, they're not genuinely converted to begin with. They're just not saved. That's all there is to it. Or secondly, some who are genuinely converted have never understood and never learned to apply the principles of the Word of God to their everyday lives. I'm going to tell you something, people.

[John Weaver] It is important that you and I stop and think, Lord, what would you have me to do? What does your Word declare about this situation? How am I to respond? How am I to live? What am I to do in light of your teaching and in light of your word. And if you don't start doing that and make it a habit of that, then you will turn out to be nothing more than a practical atheist or a practical denier of the truth.

[John Weaver] You will confess it with your mouth, but you will deny it with your lives. So one way to resist the truth is by denial, and it does not have to be an outright intellectual denial. It can be a very practical denial where you confess it with your mouth. But you live as if it had no binding influence upon your life. Now, there's a second way to resist the message of the truth.

[John Weaver] And that is by denigration. Now, if you don't know what denigration is, I'm going to tell you in just a moment, but if you look at Acts chapter 17, Acts 17. I will give you a practical illustration of denigration. Acts chapter 17. The Apostle Paul is on Mars Hill. He has been preaching the resurrection from the dead. And in verse 32, the Bible says this, And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, and others said, We will hear thee again on this matter. Now note the Bible says, And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. The Athenians were mocking the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead.

[John Weaver] Now, they were denigrating the message. What do I mean? They were saying that either the message was not true, and some said we'll hear thee again concerning this matter, or that there was no urgency about it. There's no importance to it. It's really not worth thinking about right now. The Greek word for mock means to mock, to deride, to jeer, to make fun of. You know what the Bible says in Proverbs 14 verse 9? Listen carefully. Fools make a mock at sin. What's that mean? They jeer it. They laugh about it. But fools not only make a mock at sin, they mock any and everything that is holy, right, just, and good.

[John Weaver] Now let me show you another passage of the scripture that teaches a practical denigration of the message. Look in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 14. Luke 14, and let's begin reading there verse 16. Luke 14 and verse 16. By the way, the word denigrate actually means to blacken, to smear, to mock. So when you denigrate something, you're blackening its truth or its name. You're smearing it. You're mocking it. Watch this, I'm just showing you there is a practical denigration. Look at Luke 14 verse 16.

[John Weaver] Then said he unto him, a certain man made a great supper and bade many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to them which were bid and come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I bought a piece of ground and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excuse. Another said I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excused. Another said I married a wife and therefore I cannot go.

[John Weaver] Now let me ask you a question. I want you to think about this with me just for a moment please. Is there anything unbiblical about buying a piece of ground? No. Is there anything unbiblical About buying oxen? No. Is there anything unbiblical about being married? Thank God, no. What is the problem here? First of all, he said, I bought a piece of ground and I need to go and see it.

[John Weaver] Now, if anybody in this room will buy land sight unseen, I have something to say. I mean, you're not a very good businessman if you do that. And then the next one said, I bought five yoke of oxen. I need to go prove them. If you will buy oxen without them being proven or tested to you, you're not a very good businessman either. The third one was the one who had the best excuse. I married a wife. My candidate comes. She won't let me.

[John Weaver] Now, we laugh about these things, but here is what Luke 14 is telling us. It is not unbiblical to buy land. It is not unbiblical to buy oxen. It's not unbiblical to be married. But what these people were doing was this. They were putting everything ahead of and before and in front of the gospel and the truth of God. In other words, they were letting everything practical come in the way of serving God.

[John Weaver] For instance, well, I missed you at church last Sunday. Well, I just didn't feel like coming. Oh, were you sick? No, but I just didn't feel like coming. But did you feel like doing anything else? Oh, yes, we went out to the lake. You see what I'm saying? Well, you know, preacher, I would do this, but I'm doing this extra work over here, etc. What are we doing?

[John Weaver] We're taking legitimate things and prioritizing them ahead of God, ahead of Christ, ahead of the truth. And by doing that, we are denigrating God, Christ and the truth. We're saying that our practical everyday living is more important than God, Christ, and the Bible. So we're smearing, we're blackening the name of God and His truth. You look at how the Word of God is even ignored in most Christian homes. What's that mean? We're practically saying it's not important.

[John Weaver] There's really no value to it in our lives. We really don't need it. We can live our lives without God, without truth. We are resisting the truth. You can resist the truth, not just by denial, but by denigration. I can quote this verse, but I want you to see it. Look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter two. To me, this is one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible. I want you to look at the complaint that God utters. Jeremiah 2 and verse 32. Watch it carefully. Jeremiah 2, verse 32. God asks, can a maid forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Now, there's not any of you women going to come out of the house without your jewelry on. or fully dressed, you're just not going to do it. Can a bride forget her wedding year? No. Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

[John Weaver] Isn't that a sad thing? God says, yet my people, not his enemies, but my people have forgotten me days without number. How? By denigration. Everything else ahead of and before him. And then just saying, There are other things more important than truth. Other things more important than Christ. So how do men resist the truth? First way is by denial. The second way is by denigration. Here's the third way. The third way is by compromise.

[John Weaver] Now, let me tell you what I did. I thought this was amusing. I sought for another word that began with a D just to keep my alliterations going, denial, denigration, etc. So compromise, I'm going to show you from the scripture, that was the word that I really needed. So I took my thesaurus and I looked up the word compromise, so if I could find a synonym that began with D. And the only word I found that began with a D was diplomacy. Isn't that interesting? It's a synonym for compromise.

[John Weaver] So what that means is when our politicians are having diplomatic talks, they're selling us down the drain. That's what it means. They're compromising. But anyhow, so I stuck on the word compromise.

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to see this is why we resist the truth. I want you to look in your Bibles to Exodus chapter eight, because it was Pharaoh who suggested the compromise. You remember now how Moses and Aaron said, Thus saith the Lord God, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness. Well, after some of these plagues, Pharaoh got to thinking, well, maybe I have been a little too hard. Maybe I can bend a little bit. So look at Exodus chapter 8 in verse 25. Here's the first compromise. And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said, Golgi, sacrifice to your God. Where? In the land. Sacrifice to your God in the land. In other words, now Moses and Aaron, if you want to worship God, that's fine.

[John Weaver] The whole land's right here. You just go ahead and worship him. In other words, but you worship him in Egypt. You don't leave the land. What was he saying? Well, you know, we can all just get along. And we all want to serve a God. And you can serve your God in the land the way we serve our gods in the land. Moses said, no, sir, that will not work. Our God is totally separate from your false gods. And we'll have nothing to do with the land of Egypt. Egypt is full of idolatry and wickedness will have nothing to do with it. We will not worship our God in your land. God has commanded us to leave.

[John Weaver] Do you realize This compromise has affected so many churches. By that, live like the world, act like the world, dress like the world, look like the world, do what the world would have you to do. In other words, let there not be any difference between Christianity and the world. And you look in the average church and the teenagers look like worldly teenagers, listen to the same ungodly rock that the worldly crowd listens to. There's no difference. You look at the parents. There's no difference.

[John Weaver] You cannot single one out and say that one is a Christian. They all look alike. They all dress like and act like the world and think like the world. All Pharaoh was saying, let's compromise. You worship your God and they'll let you be like us. No. Moses said we're not going to do that. God has called us to be different. We're to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works. Look in chapter 10. You're going to see the second compromise. Exodus 10, verse 7.

[John Weaver] And Pharaoh's servant said unto him, How long shall this man be astern to us? Let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God. Knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh, and he said unto them, Go serve the Lord your God, but who shall they be that go with you? And Moses said, We will go with our young, and with our old, and with our sons, and with our daughters, and with our flocks, and with our herds will we go, for we must hold a feast of the Lord. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, and I will let you go, and your little ones look to it, for evil is before you. Then he says, Not so, go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord, for that you did desire. And they were driven from Pharaoh's presence. Now Pharaoh said, All right, I'll tell you what.

[John Weaver] You want to go out of the land? Fine. But only the men go. The women and children stay here. If that's what you wanted, head on out of the land. Let me ask you a question. How many men that you know are willing just to forsake their wives and their children? Now I know some do. But the average man is not willing to do that. And what did Pharaoh know? Pharaoh knew that if the men left their wives and their children, the men were ultimately coming back.

[John Weaver] Everything would be the same. So Pharaoh said, here's what you do. You that are men go and serve him. We'll keep the women and the children. Well, I tell you what, there's a lot of homes that are like that, where you will have one godly parent. and the others ungodly and the children are ungodly. But that's not all. Look in chapter 11. I'm sorry, no, it's still chapter 10, verse 21. Chapter 10, verse 21. I may, I hope I didn't have the wrong verse down. OK. Verse 21, And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days. But all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord, only let your flocks and your herds be stayed.

[John Weaver] Let your little ones go with you also. Now what Pharaoh was saying, look, you want the white women and children to go, go ahead and go. But your flocks and your herds are going to stay here. And of course, verse 25, Moses said, that's not going to work. Thou must give us also sacrifices and burn offerings. The women are sacrificable to our God. So now Pharaoh was saying, all right, I'll let the women and children go. But all your possessions are going to stay here. What's that mean? That means ultimately they're going to be coming back because all their wealth, everything they will have will be right there. Now, listen carefully. As the first compromise would have entailed the Israelites worshiping along with the Egyptians and saying, basically, our God is just like your gods on the same level, on the same bar, which would have been a horrible compromise. The next two compromises would have entailed either the loss of the women and children, or the loss of their possessions.

[John Weaver] Now, are you listening to me? The truth is, when we compromise the Word of God, we usually will either lose our children or our possessions. That's a fact. Let me ask you, why is it that the real message of the gospel is so compromised today? Why is it that you can go into the average Bible believing church and not hear the whole counsel of God?

[John Weaver] Now, I want you to stop and think about that. There are plenty of churches in this land that profess to believe the Bible, to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He is indeed God in the flesh, and yet you go to those churches and you can only hear basically the same message over and over and over. Why is it that the Word of God is so compromised in the average Bible-believing church?

[John Weaver] One of the main answers to that question is this. Because of church debt. D-E-B-T. Debt.

[John Weaver] Now, you remember I preached a whole series on the Christian debt. Now, I'm not going to re-preach that series. But it is exceedingly unbiblical for a church to be in debt. Someone says, well, We're going to have to have faith. We're going to have to have faith that we're going to build this million dollar building here and that God will supply the need that we can pay it off. Well, why don't you have faith that God will give you the million dollars before you build it so you can pay cash for it?

[John Weaver] Now, listen to this, folks. The reason the whole word of God cannot be preached in the average church is because the average church is so far in debt up to their eyeballs, they cannot afford to lose any member because every member is needed to help pay the sinking fund payments. Therefore, nothing divisive, nothing offensive, nothing controversial is going to be preached or taught. They're not going to take any chance on making anybody mad or upset. Because they need those shackles coming in every week to make that sinking fund payment. It's just that simple. They cannot afford to be like our Lord.

[John Weaver] And preach the hard doctrines. And just let the chips fall where they may. You say, what are you talking about? Well, let me show you. Look in your Bibles. to Matthew 15. Matthew 15 and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Matthew 15 in verse 10. Here's a good illustration. Matthew 15 verse 10. And he called the multitude and said unto them, hear and understand not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

[John Weaver] Now, in other words, this teaching is directly contrary to the teaching of the Pharisees. Watch verse 12. Then came his disciples and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. Let them alone. They be blind leaders of the blind, and the blind lead the blind.

[John Weaver] Both shall fall into the ditch. What did our Lord say? When his disciples said, know you not that you've upset the Pharisees? Our Lord said, there's no skin off my nose. Let him alone. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. They're going to be gone anyhow. They're blind and if the blind leave the blind, they're both going to fall into the ditch. They're going to be perishing.

[John Weaver] That's all there is to it. But that's not all. Look in John, chapter six, I want you to turn there because in John, chapter six, Jesus Christ is teaching that he is indeed the bread of life. Notice John, chapter six, and let's begin reading their verse 48. John six, verse 48, watch carefully. John six, verse 48. John 6 verse 48, Christ said, I am that bread of life.

[John Weaver] Your fathers did eat man in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. Now watch, the Jews therefore strove among themselves saying, how can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the Living Father hath sent me, and as I live by the Father, so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.

[John Weaver] This is that bread which came down from heaven, not as your fathers did eat and are dead. He that eateth of this bread shall live forever. These things said he in the synagogue as he taught in Capernaum." Watch, many therefore of his disciples, note, of his disciples, many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? We can't take this straight heart preaching. Watch. When Jesus knew himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said to them, does this offend you?

[John Weaver] One of you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before. It is the spirit that quickened it. The flesh profited nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit in their life. But there are some of you that believe not, for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it were given him of My Father.

[John Weaver] Watch, from that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more." What were they saying? We can't take this. We don't understand this. This straight hard preaching, he's claiming to be. Everything that he is, we can't handle this. Let me show you how impressed. Our Lord was with their fickleness and their faithlessness. Verse 68, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him, then said Jesus unto the 12th.

[John Weaver] Would you go away also? Everybody else is leaving me. Will you go away also? Let me tell you something, folks. If you preach the truth of God, inevitably, there's going to be a separation of the weak from the chaff. You cannot help, but as you preach, some will be made mad and some will be made glad. Many times there must be indeed a backdoor revival before there can ever be a front door revival in the church. And listen to this, folks. Let's be honest.

[John Weaver] If our Lord, who was and is the perfect teacher, with perfect understanding and perfect communication skills, if He had people leave Him, how much more will people leave us? who are imperfect teachers with imperfect knowledge and imperfect skills. All I'm trying to show you is this, folks. If you preach and teach the whole counsel of God, inevitably, some are going to leave you. Some are going to fall by the wayside.

[John Weaver] I want to tell you this, and I want you to listen carefully. I have said this repeatedly. I have preached for over 40 years. And the two hardest lessons that I have ever learned in preaching can be summed up in two sentences. The first most difficult lesson that I ever learned was this. You can't help everyone. You can't. Some people are just going to get mad and leave. Some people will not listen. Some people will not receive counsel. You can't help everyone. That's a difficult lesson to learn, especially when you're a young preacher, because you think then that you're going to be able to convert the world. The second lesson I learned is even more difficult than the first one. The first one was you can't help everyone. The second and even greater, more difficult truth is this. Sometimes those you can't help are your own family and friends. And that really When you know you have the truth, and your own family and your own friends will not listen, nor receive it, nor apply it.

[John Weaver] That's why our Lord looked at the twelve, His family, and what did He say to them? Will you go away also? Will you leave me because I'm teaching and preaching the truth? The two most difficult lessons. You can't help everybody. And sometimes those you cannot help are your own family and your own friends. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 2. Roy and I discussed this verse over the phone, but I want you to see it. I want you to look at this. What does it mean when you learn you can't help everyone, And sometimes those you can't help are your own family and friends. It simply means this, listen carefully, that those who resist the truth, those who deny and denigrate the truth, or those who want to hold and follow a compromise message must be allowed to go their own way. It's sad when you can't have fellowship with your own family. It's sad sometimes when you can't have fellowship with your so-called friends. But listen to me.

[John Weaver] When someone either denies or denigrates or wants to compromise the Word of God, there is absolutely no help for them except from a supernatural work of God. How can I say that? Look in 2 Thessalonians 2. Beginning there with verse 10. Look what the Scripture says. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish. Why were they perishing? Because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie. That they all might be damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. You see, folks, when you refuse the truth, the only thing open to you is a lie. Humanly speaking, there is no hope for anyone who will not bow to the truth of God's Word. You can't help someone who will not listen. Those who deny who denigrate or compromise the truth of God do not and cannot have the truth of God.

[John Weaver] Do you remember Pilate in John chapter 18? Jesus Christ is standing right in front of him and Pilate has the audacity to ask, what is truth? Truth was standing right in front of him and he never even saw it.

[John Weaver] Now let me show you something. I'm not going to ask that you turn to these passages. I'll just quote them. Let's answer what is truth. First of all, John 14, 6, Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth and the life and no man cometh to the Father, but by me. So Jesus Christ is truth. In John 14 in verse 7, The Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. Did you know? In 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 7, the Scriptures are called the Scriptures of Truth. And in Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4, God is called the God of Truth. Now listen carefully. When anyone denies and denigrates the truth, he is denying and denigrating God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and the Holy Scriptures. For Jesus Christ is truth, the Holy Spirit is truth, the Scriptures are truth, and God the Father is truth.

[John Weaver] Let me make some applications. We've been talking about resisting the truth. I like the confrontation that Moses and Aaron had with Janice and Jambres. You remember how Aaron threw down his rod and his rod became a serpent. Well, magicians threw down their rod or rods. And their rods became serpents too. But do you remember what Aaron's rod did? It swallowed up the magician's rods. There's only one rod left. Likewise, God's word will ultimately swallow up all error and heresy and his word alone will be left as the absolute truth. Do you realize what he said in Psalm 119 in verse 89, forever, oh Lord, is thy word settled in the heavens. Do you know what the Bible said in Psalm 138 in verse 2, thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

[John Weaver] Let me tell you something, folks. If the word of God ever fails, then God is not God. God has magnified his word above all his name. has said, My word is truth. And I got news for you, just as surely as God is God, just that surely shall His truth prevail. He said, My word shall not return to be void. It shall accomplish that where unto I send it and that where unto I purpose it.

[John Weaver] You can mark her down. Ultimately, God's word is going to destroy all error and all heresy. Number two, we need to make sure that we're not practical deniers of the word of God or compromisers of the truth. What's that mean? That means this, folks, all of God's word is truth. We have to embrace it. We have to believe it. We have to apply it. You say, Brother Weaver, how do I apply this message?

[John Weaver] I'm trying to show you right now. You leave this building. You go home and say, Lord, your word must have priority in my life. You must have priority in my life. And I will regulate my life according to your truth.

[John Weaver] Now, this follows right along, turning your Bibles to Matthew, chapter 10. I want you to see this. Matthew, chapter 10, verses 37 and 38. Here's the third application. We must not denigrate God or His Word by denying their priority in our lives. You remember the word denigrate means to blacken, to smear, to cheapen? Well, look what our Lord said in Matthew 10, beginning there with verse 37.

[John Weaver] He said it like this. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. What is our Lord saying? He comes first in our lives. And when we allow our husbands, our wives, our children, and anyone else to take priority and allow them to do that which we know is wrong, we're denying and denigrating him and saying, you just really don't matter.

[John Weaver] My child or my spouse matters more than you. Think of the Christians that denigrate the truth. And here's the fourth application. Those who refuse, resist, and hate the truth can only believe a lie and a delusion. They resist to their own destruction. In resisting the truth, they are trading the truth for a lie.

[John Weaver] Now listen, I began this message last Lord's Day, and I begin it by asking a question. Who would want to believe a lie? And here's the answer. All those who hate the truth, they want to believe a lie. If you hate the truth, you want to believe a lie. And that lie will ultimately destroy you. God the Father's truth God the Son is truth. God the Spirit is truth. And the Scriptures are truth. And if we don't want to believe a lie, we must believe them. Let's pray. Father, we do ask in the name of Jesus Christ for Your grace and for Your mercy in our lives. Lord, teach us to make application of Thy truth. Teach us, Lord, to live holy, godly, obedient lives and bring our lives in conformity to your word. And may we, Father, give the honor and praise of Christ's holy and blessed name. Amen.

Resisting the Truth - Part 2

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	32706201457
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Marriage and Household Order: The Family
Genre	Sermon
Date	2006-01-08
Dictation Name
Book	Book 037: Resisting the Truth — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	73

Formatted Transcript

Review of Part 1

Weaver reviews the previous message, recalling that false teachers are idolatrous, idiocratic, immoral, and intellectual, and that the first way of resisting the truth is by resisting the messengers of the truth.

Let's open our Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And we're going to read the first nine verses. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And this is the second part of the message that I began last week, "Resisting the Truth." So it is "Resisting the Truth Part Two." We'll take a few moments to review. So 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, Paul writes,

Scripture Reading — 2 Timothy 3:1-9

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

"For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was." Now, I mentioned last week it seems absolutely unreal to entertain the idea that there are some people who do not wish to know the truth. However, Scripture tells us very plainly in verse 8, that there are some who resist the truth and they fight against the truth. Verse 8 specifically names Jannes and Jambres who withstood the truth as Moses was teaching and preaching to them. And then he says in verse 8, "even so do these."

In other words, he is then talking about the false prophets that were alive and the false teachers that were alive during Paul and Timothy's days. But the same fact then applies also to false teachers in our day. And what he's saying is that these men resist the truth. Now, the plain fact of the matter is there are a lot of individuals who are not necessarily false teachers or false prophets who resist the truth. So I begin to ask, what does it mean to resist the truth? You remember last week I discussed momentarily a theory known as cognitive dissonance. And cognitive dissonance means just simply the fact that many times there is a disagreement between what we think and what we believe and what we see and observe or what we hear. And then there is also and always a fight in our minds to try to reconcile what we have been taught and what we believe with what we see and hear, especially when what we see and hear is different from the way we have been taught. Now, regardless of whether or not the theory of cognitive dissonance is true, it is true that we always fight against the truth, especially when that truth is contrary to what we've been taught or what we've believed all of our lives.

It's one thing to laugh at error and to mock at heresy and to snicker at things that you and I know that are untrue. But when you and I perceive that something may possibly be true, and it's absolutely contrary to what we have believed and what we have been taught, there is always a resistance to that truth. Now, that is just simply human nature. But when you get to verse 8 in 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul is comparing the two magician sorcerers, Jannes and Jambres, to the false teachers that existed in his day. Likewise, we can also compare them to the false teachers that exist in our day and the false teachers that exist throughout history. Why? Because I shared with you last week, and I want to very quickly review this, there are several categories that all false teachers fall into. First of all, in verses 2 through 4, Paul points out that all false teachers are idolatrous.

In fact, he says, without me reading all of it, skip down to verse 4, "traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." So they put themselves and they put their desires ahead of God and any and everything else. You remember I pointed out in Philippians 3 in verse 19, the Apostle Paul described these, he said, as he said,

Scripture Reading — Philippians 3:19

"whose God is their belly."

That is, they live basically for themselves. And then in verse 5, I pointed out that they were idiocrats, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof." I told you the word idiocracy, if you would look it up, means peculiar to oneself, or particular to oneself. So these false teachers are those who make up the rules as they go along. They have their own form, they have their own little outline of things, and if it doesn't fit, fine, that's alright, we'll make up something different. In other words, their belief system is peculiar to themselves.

So God says they are idolaters, they are idiocrats, and then in verse 5, they are immoral. He says, or verse six, he says, "for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts." And by the way, I pointed out last week how that this is usually the secretive side of life where it says they creep into houses, but inevitably they are idolatrous. They are idiocrats. They are immoral. And then finally, in verse seven, they are intellectual. He says "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Now, let me point out very quickly, as Paul did, that their intellectuality is basically thoughts, because they are individuals who are constantly and continually learning, but never, ever able to come to the truth. I told you last week that there is a difference in the Bible between the two Greek words gnosis and epignosis. The word gnosis is where we get the English word Gnostics from, who believed in salvation through knowledge.

Gnosis is a word which talks about general knowledge, but epignosis means full or precise knowledge. And the Bible says here very plainly, they're never ever able to come to a full or precise knowledge. Here are individuals that may know a lot about the Bible, but they don't know the Bible. They may know a lot about Christ, but they do not know Christ. They do not have a precise knowledge, and God says, therefore, their intellectuality is false.

Now, in answering the question, how did Jannes and Jambres and all false teachers resist the truth, I gave you last week one main point. That is, the first way of resisting the truth is by resisting the messengers of the truth. Do you remember in Exodus chapter 5, without turning there, when Moses and Aaron had gone to Pharaoh and said, "Thus saith the Lord, let my people go." It was Pharaoh who replied, "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." What was he saying? I don't recognize your God. Consequently, I don't recognize his authority. And if I don't recognize his authority, I don't recognize your authority. And I gave you very quickly three ways that Moses and Aaron were withstood. They were withstood by imitation. That is when Pharaoh called his magician sorcerers there to imitate what Moses and Aaron did. And if you'll remember, I told you they could only imitate in three particular areas. When it came to the fourth one, the bringing forth of life, they could not do that. The only thing those three magician sorcerers did was bring forth death and add to the misery of the Egyptians. They could not produce life. So there was imitation, and then secondly, insinuation and how individuals can be destroyed by insinuation, and then thirdly, by intimidation where very clearly, Pharaoh said to Moses, "If you see my face anymore, you'll die."

"I'll get you get out of here." And then I pointed out how many of God's people today supposedly intimidate the pastors. So the pastors will not preach or teach the whole word of God. Now, today, I want to deal with the second point. The second way of resisting the truth is not just simply by resisting the messengers of the truth, but secondly, by resisting the message of the truth. Have you ever wondered how men resist the message of the truth?

Now, if you'll think about it for a moment, I am sure that there are numerous ways that truth could be resisted. But I want to give you what I'm going to call today an irreducible minimum. That is, I'm going to give you three ways, which are the most prominent way that people resist the truth. The first way is denial. Now, this is very obvious, that an outright denial of the truth really and truly needs no explanation.

Introduction to Resisting the Message of the Truth

Weaver introduces the second main point: resisting the message of the truth, and states he will give three irreducible minimum ways this is done.

Now, today, I want to deal with the second point. The second way of resisting the truth is not just simply by resisting the messengers of the truth, but secondly, by resisting the message of the truth. Have you ever wondered how men resist the message of the truth? Now, if you'll think about it for a moment, I am sure that there are numerous ways that truth could be resisted. But I want to give you what I'm going to call today an irreducible minimum. That is, I'm going to give you three ways, which are the most prominent way that people resist the truth. The first way is denial. Now, this is very obvious, that an outright denial of the truth really and truly needs no explanation.

Denial

The first way is denial, which can be intellectual (outright rejection) or practical (professing belief but living as if God has no authority).

Because all someone has to do is just simply say, "I don't believe that. That's not true." However, you've got to understand that there is a difference between an intellectual denial of the truth and a practical denial of the truth. You know, there are intellectual atheists. And then there are practical atheists. So likewise, there are intellectual deniers and there are practical deniers. I was noticing it was either on the Drudge Report or World Net Daily about Richard Dawkins of England. Now, Richard Dawkins is, I think, pretty well famous, and he's an atheist, and he already has produced some TV shows that are going to be shown over in England, and he likens Moses to Hitler.

He says teaching Christianity to children is child abuse. And I mean, he's just blatantly, and he's atheism. Here's a man that is very brilliant, and he is what you and I would call an intellectual atheist. He is someone who would say outright, "There is no God. The Bible is not true. Don't bring me that superstition. I don't want to hear it." I want you to note that always an intellectual atheist believes himself, or if there's more than one, they believe themselves to be superior to everyone else intellectually. And that if anyone believes the Bible, they're dumb, ignorant, and superstitious. So, you have an intellectual atheist, which everyone can understand, or an intellectual denier. But what most people do not understand is there is a practical atheist and there is a practical way to deny the truth.

This is where most professing Christians fall. In other words, it is absolutely possible for someone to acknowledge God, to confess the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, to say very openly the Bible is indeed the inerrant, inspired Word of God. They confess and acknowledge all of these truths. But with their lives, they deny practically everything that they confess. You say, how can that be true? Well, I want you to hold Second Timothy, but turn in your Bibles to Titus chapter one in verse 16, just a page or two over Titus. Look at one and verse 16. Look what Paul writes to Titus. And here is a way of practically denying the truth. He says "They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him."

"being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Now this is precisely where modern day Christendom falls. Here are polls that will show a high percentage of people in this country believe in God, believe in Christ, believe in the Bible. However, a very small percentage of that high percentage actually apply the Bible to their lives. You see, it is one thing to confess and acknowledge truth. It is quite another thing to apply and to live that truth in your everyday life. So that is why the Apostle Paul is saying that they profess that they know God, but in their works, that is, in their daily lives, they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. So here are Christians then all over this country that will be in church today worshiping what they call the one true and the living God, acknowledging that the Bible is the word of God.

Then they walk out the doors and forget about him totally and completely. Forget about all the principles and the truths of the Word of God, and live and act six days during the week as if God had no authority, had never spoken, and not one thing that He has said is binding upon them. In other words, they do their own thing. They live as they please. They do not live as God pleases.

Now ask yourself this question. How can professing Christians live such unbiblical, unholy, and ungodly lives? There are only two answers. The first one is, they're not genuinely converted to begin with. They're just not saved. That's all there is to it. Or secondly, some who are genuinely converted have never understood and never learned to apply the principles of the Word of God to their everyday lives. I'm going to tell you something, people.

It is important that you and I stop and think, "Lord, what would you have me to do? What does your Word declare about this situation? How am I to respond? How am I to live? What am I to do in light of your teaching and in light of your word?" And if you don't start doing that and make it a habit of that, then you will turn out to be nothing more than a practical atheist or a practical denier of the truth. You will confess it with your mouth, but you will deny it with your lives. So one way to resist the truth is by denial, and it does not have to be an outright intellectual denial. It can be a very practical denial where you confess it with your mouth. But you live as if it had no binding influence upon your life. Now, there's a second way to resist the message of the truth.

Denigration

The second way is denigration, which means to blacken, smear, or mock the truth. This includes mocking holy things and prioritizing everyday life over God.

And that is by denigration. Now, if you don't know what denigration is, I'm going to tell you in just a moment, but if you look at Acts chapter 17, Acts 17. I will give you a practical illustration of denigration. Acts chapter 17. The Apostle Paul is on Mars Hill. He has been preaching the resurrection from the dead. And in verse 32, the Bible says this, "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." Now note the Bible says, "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked." The Athenians were mocking the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead.

Now, they were denigrating the message. What do I mean? They were saying that either the message was not true, and some said "we'll hear thee again concerning this matter," or that there was no urgency about it. There's no importance to it. It's really not worth thinking about right now. The Greek word for mock means to mock, to deride, to jeer, to make fun of. You know what the Bible says in Proverbs 14 verse 9? Listen carefully. "Fools make a mock at sin." What's that mean? They jeer it. They laugh about it. But fools not only make a mock at sin, they mock any and everything that is holy, right, just, and good.

Now let me show you another passage of the scripture that teaches a practical denigration of the message. Look in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 14. Luke 14, and let's begin reading there verse 16. Luke 14 and verse 16. By the way, the word denigrate actually means to blacken, to smear, to mock. So when you denigrate something, you're blackening its truth or its name. You're smearing it. You're mocking it. Watch this, I'm just showing you there is a practical denigration. Look at Luke 14 verse 16.

"Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come."

Now let me ask you a question. I want you to think about this with me just for a moment please. Is there anything unbiblical about buying a piece of ground? No. Is there anything unbiblical about buying oxen? No. Is there anything unbiblical about being married? Thank God, no. What is the problem here? First of all, he said, "I bought a piece of ground and I need to go and see it."

Now, if anybody in this room will buy land sight unseen, I have something to say. I mean, you're not a very good businessman if you do that. And then the next one said, "I bought five yoke of oxen. I need to go prove them." If you will buy oxen without them being proven or tested to you, you're not a very good businessman either. The third one was the one who had the best excuse. "I married a wife." My can't, it's she won't let me.

Now, we laugh about these things, but here is what Luke 14 is telling us. It is not unbiblical to buy land. It is not unbiblical to buy oxen. It's not unbiblical to be married. But what these people were doing was this. They were putting everything ahead of and before and in front of the gospel and the truth of God. In other words, they were letting everything practical come in the way of serving God.

For instance, "Well, I missed you at church last Sunday." "Well, I just didn't feel like coming." "Oh, were you sick?" "No, but I just didn't feel like coming." "But did you feel like doing anything else?" "Oh, yes, we went out to the lake." You see what I'm saying? "Well, you know, preacher, I would do this, but I'm doing this extra work over here," etc. What are we doing? We're taking legitimate things and prioritizing them ahead of God, ahead of Christ, ahead of the truth. And by doing that, we are denigrating God, Christ and the truth. We're saying that our practical everyday living is more important than God, Christ, and the Bible. So we're smearing, we're blackening the name of God and His truth. You look at how the Word of God is even ignored in most Christian homes. What's that mean? We're practically saying it's not important.

There's really no value to it in our lives. We really don't need it. We can live our lives without God, without truth. We are resisting the truth. You can resist the truth, not just by denial, but by denigration. I can quote this verse, but I want you to see it. Look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter two. To me, this is one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible. I want you to look at the complaint that God utters. Jeremiah 2 and verse 32. Watch it carefully. Jeremiah 2, verse 32. God asks, "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?" Now, there's not any of you women going to come out of the house without your jewelry on, or fully dressed, you're just not going to do it. Can a bride forget her wedding attire? No. "Yet my people have forgotten me days without number."

Isn't that a sad thing? God says, "yet my people," not his enemies, but "my people have forgotten me days without number." How? By denigration. Everything else ahead of and before him. And then just saying, "There are other things more important than truth. Other things more important than Christ." So how do men resist the truth? First way is by denial. The second way is by denigration. Here's the third way. The third way is by compromise.

Compromise

The third way is compromise, illustrated by Pharaoh's three compromises with Moses: worship in the land, leave the women and children, and leave the flocks and herds. Compromise leads to loss of children or possessions.

Now, let me tell you what I did. I thought this was amusing. I sought for another word that began with a D just to keep my alliterations going, denial, denigration, etc. So compromise, I'm going to show you from the scripture, that was the word that I really needed. So I took my thesaurus and I looked up the word compromise, so if I could find a synonym that began with D. And the only word I found that began with a D was diplomacy. Isn't that interesting? It's a synonym for compromise.

So what that means is when our politicians are having diplomatic talks, they're selling us down the drain. That's what it means. They're compromising. But anyhow, so I stuck on the word compromise.

Now, I want you to see this is why we resist the truth. I want you to look in your Bibles to Exodus chapter eight, because it was Pharaoh who suggested the compromise. You remember now how Moses and Aaron said, "Thus saith the Lord God, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness." Well, after some of these plagues, Pharaoh got to thinking, "Well, maybe I have been a little too hard. Maybe I can bend a little bit." So look at Exodus chapter 8 in verse 25. Here's the first compromise. "And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land." Sacrifice to your God in the land. In other words, "Now Moses and Aaron, if you want to worship God, that's fine."

"The whole land's right here. You just go ahead and worship him." In other words, "but you worship him in Egypt. You don't leave the land." What was he saying? "Well, you know, we can all just get along. And we all want to serve a God. And you can serve your God in the land the way we serve our gods in the land." Moses said, "No, sir, that will not work. Our God is totally separate from your false gods. And we'll have nothing to do with the land of Egypt. Egypt is full of idolatry and wickedness, we'll have nothing to do with it. We will not worship our God in your land. God has commanded us to leave."

Do you realize this compromise has affected so many churches. By that, live like the world, act like the world, dress like the world, look like the world, do what the world would have you to do. In other words, let there not be any difference between Christianity and the world. And you look in the average church and the teenagers look like worldly teenagers, listen to the same ungodly rock that the worldly crowd listens to. There's no difference. You look at the parents. There's no difference.

You cannot single one out and say that one is a Christian. They all look alike. They all dress like and act like the world and think like the world. All Pharaoh was saying, "Let's compromise. You worship your God and they'll let you be like us." No. Moses said "We're not going to do that. God has called us to be different. We're to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Look in chapter 10. You're going to see the second compromise. Exodus 10, verse 7.

"And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence." Now Pharaoh said, "All right, I'll tell you what."

"You want to go out of the land? Fine. But only the men go. The women and children stay here. If that's what you wanted, head on out of the land." Let me ask you a question. How many men that you know are willing just to forsake their wives and their children? Now I know some do. But the average man is not willing to do that. And what did Pharaoh know? Pharaoh knew that if the men left their wives and their children, the men were ultimately coming back.

Everything would be the same. So Pharaoh said, "Here's what you do. You that are men go and serve him. We'll keep the women and the children." Well, I tell you what, there's a lot of homes that are like that, where you will have one godly parent, and the others ungodly and the children are ungodly. But that's not all. Look in chapter 11. I'm sorry, no, it's still chapter 10, verse 21. Chapter 10, verse 21. I may, I hope I didn't have the wrong verse down. OK. Verse 21, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed."

"Let your little ones go with you also." Now what Pharaoh was saying, "Look, you want the wives and children to go, go ahead and go. But your flocks and your herds are going to stay here." And of course, verse 25, Moses said, "That's not going to work. Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God." So now Pharaoh was saying, "All right, I'll let the women and children go. But all your possessions are going to stay here." What's that mean? That means ultimately they're going to be coming back because all their wealth, everything they will have will be right there. Now, listen carefully. As the first compromise would have entailed the Israelites worshiping along with the Egyptians and saying, basically, "Our God is just like your gods on the same level, on the same bar," which would have been a horrible compromise. The next two compromises would have entailed either the loss of the women and children, or the loss of their possessions.

Now, are you listening to me? The truth is, when we compromise the Word of God, we usually will either lose our children or our possessions. That's a fact. Let me ask you, why is it that the real message of the gospel is so compromised today? Why is it that you can go into the average Bible believing church and not hear the whole counsel of God?

The Consequence of Compromise in the Church

Weaver argues that church debt forces compromise, preventing the preaching of the whole counsel of God because churches cannot afford to offend members.

Now, I want you to stop and think about that. There are plenty of churches in this land that profess to believe the Bible, to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He is indeed God in the flesh, and yet you go to those churches and you can only hear basically the same message over and over and over. Why is it that the Word of God is so compromised in the average Bible-believing church? One of the main answers to that question is this. Because of church debt. D-E-B-T. Debt.

Now, you remember I preached a whole series on the Christian debt. Now, I'm not going to re-preach that series. But it is exceedingly unbiblical for a church to be in debt. Someone says, "Well, we're going to have to have faith. We're going to have to have faith that we're going to build this million dollar building here and that God will supply the need that we can pay it off." Well, why don't you have faith that God will give you the million dollars before you build it so you can pay cash for it?

Now, listen to this, folks. The reason the whole word of God cannot be preached in the average church is because the average church is so far in debt up to their eyeballs, they cannot afford to lose any member because every member is needed to help pay the sinking fund payments. Therefore, nothing divisive, nothing offensive, nothing controversial is going to be preached or taught. They're not going to take any chance on making anybody mad or upset. Because they need those shekels coming in every week to make that sinking fund payment. It's just that simple. They cannot afford to be like our Lord.

And preach the hard doctrines. And just let the chips fall where they may. You say, "What are you talking about?" Well, let me show you. Look in your Bibles to Matthew 15. Matthew 15 and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Matthew 15 in verse 10. Here's a good illustration. Matthew 15 verse 10. "And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."

Biblical Examples of Uncompromising Truth

Jesus' teaching offended Pharisees and caused many disciples to leave, showing that preaching truth inevitably separates wheat from chaff.

Now, in other words, this teaching is directly contrary to the teaching of the Pharisees. Watch verse 12. "Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." What did our Lord say? When his disciples said, "Know you not that you've upset the Pharisees?" Our Lord said, "There's no skin off my nose. Let him alone. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. They're going to be gone anyhow. They're blind and if the blind lead the blind, they're both going to fall into the ditch. They're going to be perishing."

That's all there is to it. But that's not all. Look in John, chapter six, I want you to turn there because in John, chapter six, Jesus Christ is teaching that he is indeed the bread of life. Notice John, chapter six, and let's begin reading there verse 48. John six, verse 48, watch carefully. John six, verse 48. John 6 verse 48, Christ said, "I am that bread of life."

"Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Now watch, "The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me."

"This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum." Watch, "Many therefore of his disciples," note, of his disciples, "many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" We can't take this straight, hard preaching. Watch. "When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?" "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."

Watch, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." What were they saying? "We can't take this. We don't understand this. This straight hard preaching, he's claiming to be everything that he is, we can't handle this." Let me show you how impressed our Lord was with their fickleness and their faithlessness. Verse 68, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve." "Will ye also go away?" Everybody else is leaving me. "Will you go away also?" Let me tell you something, folks. If you preach the truth of God, inevitably, there's going to be a separation of the wheat from the chaff. You cannot help, but as you preach, some will be made mad and some will be made glad. Many times there must be indeed a back door revival before there can ever be a front door revival in the church. And listen to this, folks. Let's be honest.

If our Lord, who was and is the perfect teacher, with perfect understanding and perfect communication skills, if He had people leave Him, how much more will people leave us, who are imperfect teachers with imperfect knowledge and imperfect skills. All I'm trying to show you is this, folks. If you preach and teach the whole counsel of God, inevitably, some are going to leave you. Some are going to fall by the wayside.

The Hardest Lessons in Preaching

Weaver shares two difficult lessons: you cannot help everyone, and sometimes those you cannot help are your own family and friends.

I want to tell you this, and I want you to listen carefully. I have said this repeatedly. I have preached for over 40 years. And the two hardest lessons that I have ever learned in preaching can be summed up in two sentences. The first most difficult lesson that I ever learned was this. You can't help everyone. You can't. Some people are just going to get mad and leave. Some people will not listen. Some people will not receive counsel. You can't help everyone. That's a difficult lesson to learn, especially when you're a young preacher, because you think then that you're going to be able to convert the world. The second lesson I learned is even more difficult than the first one. The first one was you can't help everyone. The second and even greater, more difficult truth is this. Sometimes those you can't help are your own family and friends. And that really when you know you have the truth, and your own family and your own friends will not listen, nor receive it, nor apply it.

That's why our Lord looked at the twelve, His family, and what did He say to them? "Will you go away also? Will you leave me because I'm teaching and preaching the truth?" The two most difficult lessons. You can't help everybody. And sometimes those you cannot help are your own family and your own friends. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 2. Roy and I discussed this verse over the phone, but I want you to see it. I want you to look at this. What does it mean when you learn you can't help everyone, and sometimes those you can't help are your own family and friends. It simply means this, listen carefully, that those who resist the truth, those who deny and denigrate the truth, or those who want to hold and follow a compromise message must be allowed to go their own way. It's sad when you can't have fellowship with your own family. It's sad sometimes when you can't have fellowship with your so-called friends. But listen to me.

The Fate of Those Who Resist the Truth

Those who resist the truth are given over to strong delusion to believe a lie, as 2 Thessalonians 2 teaches. Truth is personified in God the Father, Son, Spirit, and Scripture.

When someone either denies or denigrates or wants to compromise the Word of God, there is absolutely no help for them except from a supernatural work of God. How can I say that? Look in 2 Thessalonians 2. Beginning there with verse 10. Look what the Scripture says.

Scripture Reading — 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12

"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

You see, folks, when you refuse the truth, the only thing open to you is a lie. Humanly speaking, there is no hope for anyone who will not bow to the truth of God's Word. You can't help someone who will not listen. Those who deny, who denigrate or compromise the truth of God do not and cannot have the truth of God.

Do you remember Pilate in John chapter 18? Jesus Christ is standing right in front of him and Pilate has the audacity to ask, "What is truth?" Truth was standing right in front of him and he never even saw it. Now let me show you something. I'm not going to ask that you turn to these passages. I'll just quote them. Let's answer what is truth. First of all, John 14:6, Jesus Christ said,

Scripture Reading — John 14:6

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

So Jesus Christ is truth. In John 14 in verse 17, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. Did you know? In 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 7, the Scriptures are called the Scriptures of Truth. And in Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4, God is called the God of Truth. Now listen carefully. When anyone denies and denigrates the truth, he is denying and denigrating God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and the Holy Scriptures. For Jesus Christ is truth, the Holy Spirit is truth, the Scriptures are truth, and God the Father is truth.

Applications and Conclusion

Weaver applies the message: God's Word will ultimately swallow up all error; we must not be practical deniers or compromisers; we must give God's truth priority; and those who resist the truth trade it for a destructive lie.

Let me make some applications. We've been talking about resisting the truth. I like the confrontation that Moses and Aaron had with Jannes and Jambres. You remember how Aaron threw down his rod and his rod became a serpent. Well, magicians threw down their rod or rods. And their rods became serpents too. But do you remember what Aaron's rod did? It swallowed up the magician's rods. There's only one rod left. Likewise, God's word will ultimately swallow up all error and heresy and his word alone will be left as the absolute truth. Do you realize what he said in Psalm 119 in verse 89, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Do you know what the Bible said in Psalm 138 in verse 2, "thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."

Let me tell you something, folks. If the word of God ever fails, then God is not God. God has magnified his word above all his name. He has said, "My word is truth." And I got news for you, just as surely as God is God, just that surely shall His truth prevail. He said, "My word shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." You can mark 'er down. Ultimately, God's word is going to destroy all error and all heresy. Number two, we need to make sure that we're not practical deniers of the word of God or compromisers of the truth. What's that mean? That means this, folks, all of God's word is truth. We have to embrace it. We have to believe it. We have to apply it. You say, "Brother Weaver, how do I apply this message?"

I'm trying to show you right now. You leave this building. You go home and say, "Lord, your word must have priority in my life. You must have priority in my life. And I will regulate my life according to your truth."

Now, this follows right along, turning your Bibles to Matthew, chapter 10. I want you to see this. Matthew, chapter 10, verses 37 and 38. Here's the third application. We must not denigrate God or His Word by denying their priority in our lives. You remember the word denigrate means to blacken, to smear, to cheapen? Well, look what our Lord said in Matthew 10, beginning there with verse 37.

He said it like this. "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." What is our Lord saying? He comes first in our lives. And when we allow our husbands, our wives, our children, and anyone else to take priority and allow them to do that which we know is wrong, we're denying and denigrating him and saying, "You just really don't matter." "My child or my spouse matters more than you." Think of the Christians that denigrate the truth. And here's the fourth application. Those who refuse, resist, and hate the truth can only believe a lie and a delusion. They resist to their own destruction. In resisting the truth, they are trading the truth for a lie.

Now listen, I began this message last Lord's Day, and I begin it by asking a question. Who would want to believe a lie? And here's the answer. All those who hate the truth, they want to believe a lie. If you hate the truth, you want to believe a lie. And that lie will ultimately destroy you. God the Father is truth. God the Son is truth. God the Spirit is truth. And the Scriptures are truth. And if we don't want to believe a lie, we must believe them. Let's pray. Father, we do ask in the name of Jesus Christ for Your grace and for Your mercy in our lives. Lord, teach us to make application of Thy truth. Teach us, Lord, to live holy, godly, obedient lives and bring our lives in conformity to your word. And may we, Father, give the honor and praise of Christ's holy and blessed name. Amen.

Study Guide

Major Themes

Resisting the Truth

Summary: The central theme is that people resist God's truth through denial, denigration, and compromise, leading to spiritual destruction.

Evidence: Weaver states, 'there are some who resist the truth and they fight against the truth' (2:11.6) and outlines three ways of resisting the message of the truth.

Practical Denial vs. Intellectual Denial

Summary: Many professing Christians deny the truth practically by living as if God has no authority, even while confessing orthodox beliefs.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him' (Titus 1:16) and explains that this is where modern Christendom falls.

The Danger of Compromise

Summary: Compromising God's Word, like Pharaoh's proposals, leads to loss of distinctiveness, children, or possessions, and is often driven by church debt.

Evidence: Weaver details Pharaoh's three compromises and states, 'when we compromise the Word of God, we usually will either lose our children or our possessions.'

The Cost of Preaching Truth

Summary: Preaching the whole counsel of God inevitably offends some and causes separation, as seen in Jesus' ministry.

Evidence: Weaver cites John 6 where many disciples left Jesus after hard teaching, and says, 'If you preach the truth of God, inevitably, there's going to be a separation of the wheat from the chaff.'

Truth Personified in God

Summary: Truth is not abstract but embodied in God the Father, Son, Holy Spirit, and Scripture; to resist truth is to resist God Himself.

Evidence: Weaver quotes John 14:6, John 14:17, 2 Corinthians 6:7, and Deuteronomy 32:4 to show that Jesus, the Spirit, Scripture, and the Father are truth.

Key Arguments

Practical denial is as serious as intellectual denial

Summary: Weaver argues that living as if God's Word has no authority is a form of denying the truth, even if one verbally confesses it.

Evidence: He cites Titus 1:16 and says, 'they profess that they know God, but in their works, that is, in their daily lives, they deny him.'

Denigration prioritizes everyday life over God

Summary: Weaver contends that putting legitimate activities ahead of God and His truth is a way of mocking or cheapening God.

Evidence: He uses Luke 14:16-20 to show that the invited guests made excuses, prioritizing land, oxen, and marriage over the supper, thus denigrating the invitation.

Compromise leads to loss of distinctiveness and blessings

Summary: Weaver argues that Pharaoh's compromises would have kept Israel in Egypt or caused them to lose their families or possessions, and similarly, compromising truth today leads to spiritual loss.

Evidence: He explains the three compromises in Exodus 8-10 and applies them to modern churches losing their children or possessions.

Church debt forces compromise of the message

Summary: Weaver asserts that financial debt in churches prevents the preaching of hard truths because churches fear losing members and their contributions.

Evidence: He says, 'the reason the whole word of God cannot be preached in the average church is because the average church is so far in debt... they cannot afford to lose any member.'

Those who resist truth are given over to delusion

Summary: Weaver argues from 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 that rejecting the love of the truth results in God sending strong delusion to believe a lie.

Evidence: He reads the passage and concludes, 'when you refuse the truth, the only thing open to you is a lie.'

Scripture References

2 Timothy 3:1-9

Context: The primary text of the sermon, describing perilous times and false teachers who resist the truth.

Philippians 3:19

Context: Cited to show that false teachers make their belly their god, living for themselves.

Titus 1:16

Context: Used to illustrate practical denial: professing to know God but denying Him by works.

Acts 17:32

Context: Shows the Athenians mocking the resurrection, an example of denigration.

Proverbs 14:9

Context: Quoted to show that fools mock at sin and holy things.

Luke 14:16-20

Context: The parable of the great supper, used to illustrate practical denigration by prioritizing everyday matters over God.

Jeremiah 2:32

Context: God's lament that His people have forgotten Him days without number, showing denigration.

Exodus 8:25

Context: Pharaoh's first compromise: worship God in the land.

Exodus 10:7-11

Context: Pharaoh's second compromise: let only the men go.

Exodus 10:21-25

Context: Pharaoh's third compromise: let the people go but leave flocks and herds.

Matthew 15:10-14

Context: Jesus' teaching offended the Pharisees; He was unconcerned, showing uncompromising truth.

John 6:48-68

Context: Many disciples left Jesus after hard teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood; Jesus asked the twelve if they would also leave.

2 Thessalonians 2:10-12

Context: Those who do not receive the love of the truth are sent strong delusion to believe a lie.

John 18:38

Context: Pilate's question 'What is truth?' while Truth stood before him.

John 14:6

Context: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

John 14:17

Context: The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.

2 Corinthians 6:7

Context: The Scriptures are called the Scriptures of truth.

Deuteronomy 32:4

Context: God is called the God of truth.

Psalm 119:89

Context: God's Word is forever settled in heaven.

Psalm 138:2

Context: God has magnified His Word above all His name.

Historical References

Jannes and Jambres

Context: The magicians who withstood Moses, mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:8 as types of false teachers who resist the truth.

Richard Dawkins

Context: Mentioned as a modern intellectual atheist who likens Moses to Hitler and calls teaching Christianity to children child abuse.

Pharaoh's magicians imitating Moses' miracles

Context: Referenced from Exodus 7-8, where the magicians imitated the first three plagues but could not produce life.

Important Quotes

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Significance: Used to show that even Jesus' perfect teaching caused many to leave, demonstrating the cost of preaching truth.

Will ye also go away?

Significance: Jesus' poignant question to the twelve after many disciples left, highlighting the pain of rejection even from close followers.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Significance: The sobering consequence for those who resist the truth, a key warning in the sermon.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Significance: Weaver uses this to establish that Jesus Christ is truth personified.

For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Significance: Quoted to affirm the eternal, unshakable nature of God's truth.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Significance: Used in application to stress that God must have priority over family, lest we denigrate Him.

Discussion Questions

What is the difference between intellectual denial and practical denial of the truth, and how might we be guilty of practical denial?

Context: Weaver explains that many professing Christians deny God by their works even while confessing Him with their mouths.

In what ways do we denigrate the truth by prioritizing everyday activities over God?

Context: Weaver uses Luke 14 and Jeremiah 2:32 to show how legitimate things can become excuses to neglect God.

How do Pharaoh's three compromises parallel the compromises we face today in our walk with God?

Context: Weaver details the compromises of worshiping in Egypt, leaving families, and leaving possessions.

Why does church debt often lead to a compromised message, and what should be the biblical approach to church finances?

Context: Weaver argues that debt forces churches to avoid controversial topics to keep members and their money.

How should we respond when preaching the truth causes people to leave, even family and friends?

Context: Weaver shares his hardest lessons in ministry and points to Jesus' example in John 6.

What does it mean that God sends strong delusion to those who reject the truth, and how should this sober us?

Context: Weaver reads 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 and warns that rejecting truth leads to believing a destructive lie.

How does understanding that Jesus, the Spirit, Scripture, and the Father are all truth affect our view of resisting truth?

Context: Weaver connects the personification of truth to the seriousness of denying or denigrating it.

What practical steps can we take to ensure God's Word has priority in our lives and we are not practical deniers?

Context: Weaver concludes with applications to embrace, believe, and apply all of God's Word.

Applications

Examine for practical denial

Summary: We must ensure we are not practical deniers of the truth, professing faith but living as if God has no authority.

Evidence: Weaver says, 'we need to make sure that we're not practical deniers of the word of God or compromisers of the truth.'

Give God's Word priority

Summary: We must regulate our lives according to God's truth, making it the ultimate authority in all decisions.

Evidence: Weaver exhorts, 'Lord, your word must have priority in my life. You must have priority in my life. And I will regulate my life according to your truth.'

Do not denigrate God by misplaced priorities

Summary: We must not love family or anyone else more than Christ, thereby cheapening His place in our lives.

Evidence: Weaver cites Matthew 10:37-38 and says, 'when we allow our husbands, our wives, our children... to take priority... we're denying and denigrating him.'

Embrace truth to avoid delusion

Summary: Those who resist truth will believe a lie; we must embrace God the Father, Son, Spirit, and Scripture as truth.

Evidence: Weaver warns, 'If you hate the truth, you want to believe a lie. And that lie will ultimately destroy you.'

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:27:51Z

deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T00:31:40Z

Clean Transcript

Resisting the Truth - Part 2

Clean readable transcript. This view follows the Commentary.net cleaned segment text while preserving timestamps for audio follow-along.

Let's open our Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And we're going to read the first nine verses. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And this is the second part of the message that I began last week, "Resisting the Truth." So it is "Resisting the Truth Part Two." We'll take a few moments to review. So 2 Timothy 3 verse 1, Paul writes, "This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."
#1 | 0:00 to 1:05 | cleaned
"For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was."
#2 | 1:05 to 1:35 | cleaned
Now, I mentioned last week it seems absolutely unreal to entertain the idea that there are some people who do not wish to know the truth. However, Scripture tells us very plainly in verse 8, that there are some who resist the truth and they fight against the truth. Verse 8 specifically names Jannes and Jambres who withstood the truth as Moses was teaching and preaching to them. And then he says in verse 8, "even so do these."
#3 | 1:36 to 2:11 | cleaned
In other words, he is then talking about the false prophets that were alive and the false teachers that were alive during Paul and Timothy's days. But the same fact then applies also to false teachers in our day. And what he's saying is that these men resist the truth. Now, the plain fact of the matter is there are a lot of individuals who are not necessarily false teachers or false prophets who resist the truth. So I begin to ask, what does it mean to resist the truth?
#4 | 2:11 to 2:45 | cleaned
You remember last week I discussed momentarily a theory known as cognitive dissonance. And cognitive dissonance means just simply the fact that many times there is a disagreement between what we think and what we believe and what we see and observe or what we hear. And then there is also and always a fight in our minds to try to reconcile what we have been taught and what we believe with what we see and hear, especially when what we see and hear is different from the way we have been taught. Now, regardless of whether or not the theory of cognitive dissonance is true, it is true that we always fight against the truth, especially when that truth is contrary to what we've been taught or what we've believed all of our lives.
#5 | 2:46 to 3:45 | cleaned
It's one thing to laugh at error and to mock at heresy and to snicker at things that you and I know that are untrue. But when you and I perceive that something may possibly be true, and it's absolutely contrary to what we have believed and what we have been taught, there is always a resistance to that truth.
#6 | 3:46 to 4:07 | cleaned
Now, that is just simply human nature. But when you get to verse 8 in 2 Timothy chapter 3, Paul is comparing the two magician sorcerers, Jannes and Jambres, to the false teachers that existed in his day. Likewise, we can also compare them to the false teachers that exist in our day and the false teachers that exist throughout history. Why? Because I shared with you last week, and I want to very quickly review this, there are several categories that all false teachers fall into. First of all, in verses 2 through 4, Paul points out that all false teachers are idolatrous.
#7 | 4:08 to 4:51 | cleaned
In fact, he says, without me reading all of it, skip down to verse 4, "traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God." So they put themselves and they put their desires ahead of God and any and everything else. You remember I pointed out in Philippians 3 in verse 19, the Apostle Paul described these, he said, as he said, "whose God is their belly." That is, they live basically for themselves. And then in verse 5, I pointed out that they were idiocrats, "having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
#8 | 4:51 to 5:28 | cleaned
I told you the word idiocracy, if you would look it up, means peculiar to oneself, or particular to oneself. So these false teachers are those who make up the rules as they go along. They have their own form, they have their own little outline of things, and if it doesn't fit, fine, that's alright, we'll make up something different. In other words, their belief system is peculiar to themselves.
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So God says they are idolaters, they are idiocrats, and then in verse 5, they are immoral. He says, or verse six, he says, "for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts." And by the way, I pointed out last week how that this is usually the secretive side of life where it says they creep into houses, but inevitably they are idolatrous. They are idiocrats. They are immoral. And then finally, in verse seven, they are intellectual. He says "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Now, let me point out very quickly, as Paul did, that their intellectuality is basically thoughts, because they are individuals who are constantly and continually learning, but never, ever able to come to the truth. I told you last week that there is a difference in the Bible between the two Greek words gnosis and epignosis. The word gnosis is where we get the English word Gnostics from, who believed in salvation through knowledge.
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Gnosis is a word which talks about general knowledge, but epignosis means full or precise knowledge. And the Bible says here very plainly, they're never ever able to come to a full or precise knowledge. Here are individuals that may know a lot about the Bible, but they don't know the Bible. They may know a lot about Christ, but they do not know Christ. They do not have a precise knowledge, and God says, therefore, their intellectuality is false.
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Now, in answering the question, how did Jannes and Jambres and all false teachers resist the truth, I gave you last week one main point. That is, the first way of resisting the truth is by resisting the messengers of the truth. Do you remember in Exodus chapter 5, without turning there, when Moses and Aaron had gone to Pharaoh and said, "Thus saith the Lord, let my people go." It was Pharaoh who replied, "I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." What was he saying?
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I don't recognize your God. Consequently, I don't recognize his authority. And if I don't recognize his authority, I don't recognize your authority. And I gave you very quickly three ways that Moses and Aaron were withstood. They were withstood by imitation. That is when Pharaoh called his magician sorcerers there to imitate what Moses and Aaron did. And if you'll remember, I told you they could only imitate in three particular areas. When it came to the fourth one, the bringing forth of life, they could not do that. The only thing those three magician sorcerers did was bring forth death and add to the misery of the Egyptians. They could not produce life. So there was imitation, and then secondly, insinuation and how individuals can be destroyed by insinuation, and then thirdly, by intimidation where very clearly, Pharaoh said to Moses, "If you see my face anymore, you'll die."
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"I'll get you get out of here." And then I pointed out how many of God's people today supposedly intimidate the pastors. So the pastors will not preach or teach the whole word of God.
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Now, today, I want to deal with the second point. The second way of resisting the truth is not just simply by resisting the messengers of the truth, but secondly, by resisting the message of the truth. Have you ever wondered how men resist the message of the truth?
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Now, if you'll think about it for a moment, I am sure that there are numerous ways that truth could be resisted. But I want to give you what I'm going to call today an irreducible minimum. That is, I'm going to give you three ways, which are the most prominent way that people resist the truth. The first way is denial. Now, this is very obvious, that an outright denial of the truth really and truly needs no explanation.
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Because all someone has to do is just simply say, "I don't believe that. That's not true." However, you've got to understand that there is a difference between an intellectual denial of the truth and a practical denial of the truth. You know, there are intellectual atheists. And then there are practical atheists. So likewise, there are intellectual deniers and there are practical deniers. I was noticing it was either on the Drudge Report or World Net Daily about Richard Dawkins of England. Now, Richard Dawkins is, I think, pretty well famous, and he's an atheist, and he already has produced some TV shows that are going to be shown over in England, and he likens Moses to Hitler.
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He says teaching Christianity to children is child abuse. And I mean, he's just blatantly, and he's atheism. Here's a man that is very brilliant, and he is what you and I would call an intellectual atheist. He is someone who would say outright, "There is no God. The Bible is not true. Don't bring me that superstition. I don't want to hear it." I want you to note that always an intellectual atheist believes himself, or if there's more than one, they believe themselves to be superior to everyone else intellectually. And that if anyone believes the Bible, they're dumb, ignorant, and superstitious. So, you have an intellectual atheist, which everyone can understand, or an intellectual denier. But what most people do not understand is there is a practical atheist and there is a practical way to deny the truth.
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This is where most professing Christians fall. In other words, it is absolutely possible for someone to acknowledge God, to confess the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, to say very openly the Bible is indeed the inerrant, inspired Word of God. They confess and acknowledge all of these truths. But with their lives, they deny practically everything that they confess. You say, how can that be true? Well, I want you to hold Second Timothy, but turn in your Bibles to Titus chapter one in verse 16, just a page or two over Titus. Look at one and verse 16. Look what Paul writes to Titus. And here is a way of practically denying the truth. He says "They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him."
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"being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate." Now this is precisely where modern day Christendom falls. Here are polls that will show a high percentage of people in this country believe in God, believe in Christ, believe in the Bible. However, a very small percentage of that high percentage actually apply the Bible to their lives. You see, it is one thing to confess and acknowledge truth. It is quite another thing to apply and to live that truth in your everyday life. So that is why the Apostle Paul is saying that they profess that they know God, but in their works, that is, in their daily lives, they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. So here are Christians then all over this country that will be in church today worshiping what they call the one true and the living God, acknowledging that the Bible is the word of God.
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Then they walk out the doors and forget about him totally and completely. Forget about all the principles and the truths of the Word of God, and live and act six days during the week as if God had no authority, had never spoken, and not one thing that He has said is binding upon them. In other words, they do their own thing. They live as they please. They do not live as God pleases.
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Now ask yourself this question. How can professing Christians live such unbiblical, unholy, and ungodly lives? There are only two answers. The first one is, they're not genuinely converted to begin with. They're just not saved. That's all there is to it. Or secondly, some who are genuinely converted have never understood and never learned to apply the principles of the Word of God to their everyday lives. I'm going to tell you something, people.
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It is important that you and I stop and think, "Lord, what would you have me to do? What does your Word declare about this situation? How am I to respond? How am I to live? What am I to do in light of your teaching and in light of your word?" And if you don't start doing that and make it a habit of that, then you will turn out to be nothing more than a practical atheist or a practical denier of the truth.
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You will confess it with your mouth, but you will deny it with your lives. So one way to resist the truth is by denial, and it does not have to be an outright intellectual denial. It can be a very practical denial where you confess it with your mouth. But you live as if it had no binding influence upon your life. Now, there's a second way to resist the message of the truth.
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And that is by denigration. Now, if you don't know what denigration is, I'm going to tell you in just a moment, but if you look at Acts chapter 17, Acts 17. I will give you a practical illustration of denigration. Acts chapter 17. The Apostle Paul is on Mars Hill. He has been preaching the resurrection from the dead. And in verse 32, the Bible says this, "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter." Now note the Bible says, "And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked." The Athenians were mocking the doctrine of the resurrection from the dead.
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Now, they were denigrating the message. What do I mean? They were saying that either the message was not true, and some said "we'll hear thee again concerning this matter," or that there was no urgency about it. There's no importance to it. It's really not worth thinking about right now. The Greek word for mock means to mock, to deride, to jeer, to make fun of. You know what the Bible says in Proverbs 14 verse 9? Listen carefully. "Fools make a mock at sin." What's that mean? They jeer it. They laugh about it. But fools not only make a mock at sin, they mock any and everything that is holy, right, just, and good.
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Now let me show you another passage of the scripture that teaches a practical denigration of the message. Look in your Bibles to the book of Luke chapter 14. Luke 14, and let's begin reading there verse 16. Luke 14 and verse 16. By the way, the word denigrate actually means to blacken, to smear, to mock. So when you denigrate something, you're blackening its truth or its name. You're smearing it. You're mocking it. Watch this, I'm just showing you there is a practical denigration. Look at Luke 14 verse 16.
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"Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come."
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Now let me ask you a question. I want you to think about this with me just for a moment please. Is there anything unbiblical about buying a piece of ground? No. Is there anything unbiblical about buying oxen? No. Is there anything unbiblical about being married? Thank God, no. What is the problem here? First of all, he said, "I bought a piece of ground and I need to go and see it."
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Now, if anybody in this room will buy land sight unseen, I have something to say. I mean, you're not a very good businessman if you do that. And then the next one said, "I bought five yoke of oxen. I need to go prove them." If you will buy oxen without them being proven or tested to you, you're not a very good businessman either. The third one was the one who had the best excuse. "I married a wife." My can't, it's she won't let me.
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Now, we laugh about these things, but here is what Luke 14 is telling us. It is not unbiblical to buy land. It is not unbiblical to buy oxen. It's not unbiblical to be married. But what these people were doing was this. They were putting everything ahead of and before and in front of the gospel and the truth of God. In other words, they were letting everything practical come in the way of serving God.
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For instance, "Well, I missed you at church last Sunday." "Well, I just didn't feel like coming." "Oh, were you sick?" "No, but I just didn't feel like coming." "But did you feel like doing anything else?" "Oh, yes, we went out to the lake." You see what I'm saying? "Well, you know, preacher, I would do this, but I'm doing this extra work over here," etc. What are we doing?
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We're taking legitimate things and prioritizing them ahead of God, ahead of Christ, ahead of the truth. And by doing that, we are denigrating God, Christ and the truth. We're saying that our practical everyday living is more important than God, Christ, and the Bible. So we're smearing, we're blackening the name of God and His truth. You look at how the Word of God is even ignored in most Christian homes. What's that mean? We're practically saying it's not important.
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There's really no value to it in our lives. We really don't need it. We can live our lives without God, without truth. We are resisting the truth. You can resist the truth, not just by denial, but by denigration. I can quote this verse, but I want you to see it. Look in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter two. To me, this is one of the saddest verses in the entire Bible. I want you to look at the complaint that God utters. Jeremiah 2 and verse 32. Watch it carefully. Jeremiah 2, verse 32. God asks, "Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire?" Now, there's not any of you women going to come out of the house without your jewelry on, or fully dressed, you're just not going to do it. Can a bride forget her wedding attire? No. "Yet my people have forgotten me days without number."
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Isn't that a sad thing? God says, "yet my people," not his enemies, but "my people have forgotten me days without number." How? By denigration. Everything else ahead of and before him. And then just saying, "There are other things more important than truth. Other things more important than Christ." So how do men resist the truth? First way is by denial. The second way is by denigration. Here's the third way. The third way is by compromise.
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Now, let me tell you what I did. I thought this was amusing. I sought for another word that began with a D just to keep my alliterations going, denial, denigration, etc. So compromise, I'm going to show you from the scripture, that was the word that I really needed. So I took my thesaurus and I looked up the word compromise, so if I could find a synonym that began with D. And the only word I found that began with a D was diplomacy. Isn't that interesting? It's a synonym for compromise.
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So what that means is when our politicians are having diplomatic talks, they're selling us down the drain. That's what it means. They're compromising. But anyhow, so I stuck on the word compromise.
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Now, I want you to see this is why we resist the truth. I want you to look in your Bibles to Exodus chapter eight, because it was Pharaoh who suggested the compromise. You remember now how Moses and Aaron said, "Thus saith the Lord God, let my people go that they may serve me in the wilderness." Well, after some of these plagues, Pharaoh got to thinking, "Well, maybe I have been a little too hard. Maybe I can bend a little bit." So look at Exodus chapter 8 in verse 25. Here's the first compromise. "And Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron, and said, Go ye, sacrifice to your God in the land." Sacrifice to your God in the land. In other words, "Now Moses and Aaron, if you want to worship God, that's fine."
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"The whole land's right here. You just go ahead and worship him." In other words, "but you worship him in Egypt. You don't leave the land." What was he saying? "Well, you know, we can all just get along. And we all want to serve a God. And you can serve your God in the land the way we serve our gods in the land." Moses said, "No, sir, that will not work. Our God is totally separate from your false gods. And we'll have nothing to do with the land of Egypt. Egypt is full of idolatry and wickedness, we'll have nothing to do with it. We will not worship our God in your land. God has commanded us to leave."
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Do you realize this compromise has affected so many churches. By that, live like the world, act like the world, dress like the world, look like the world, do what the world would have you to do. In other words, let there not be any difference between Christianity and the world. And you look in the average church and the teenagers look like worldly teenagers, listen to the same ungodly rock that the worldly crowd listens to. There's no difference. You look at the parents. There's no difference.
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You cannot single one out and say that one is a Christian. They all look alike. They all dress like and act like the world and think like the world. All Pharaoh was saying, "Let's compromise. You worship your God and they'll let you be like us." No. Moses said "We're not going to do that. God has called us to be different. We're to be a peculiar people, zealous of good works." Look in chapter 10. You're going to see the second compromise. Exodus 10, verse 7.
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"And Pharaoh's servants said unto him, How long shall this man be a snare unto us? let the men go, that they may serve the Lord their God: knowest thou not yet that Egypt is destroyed? And Moses and Aaron were brought again unto Pharaoh: and he said unto them, Go, serve the Lord your God: but who are they that shall go? And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold a feast unto the Lord. And he said unto them, Let the Lord be so with you, as I will let you go, and your little ones: look to it; for evil is before you. Not so: go now ye that are men, and serve the Lord; for that ye did desire. And they were driven out from Pharaoh's presence." Now Pharaoh said, "All right, I'll tell you what."
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"You want to go out of the land? Fine. But only the men go. The women and children stay here. If that's what you wanted, head on out of the land." Let me ask you a question. How many men that you know are willing just to forsake their wives and their children? Now I know some do. But the average man is not willing to do that. And what did Pharaoh know? Pharaoh knew that if the men left their wives and their children, the men were ultimately coming back.
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Everything would be the same. So Pharaoh said, "Here's what you do. You that are men go and serve him. We'll keep the women and the children." Well, I tell you what, there's a lot of homes that are like that, where you will have one godly parent, and the others ungodly and the children are ungodly. But that's not all. Look in chapter 11. I'm sorry, no, it's still chapter 10, verse 21. Chapter 10, verse 21. I may, I hope I didn't have the wrong verse down. OK. Verse 21, "And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days: They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days: but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings. And Pharaoh called unto Moses, and said, Go ye, serve the Lord; only let your flocks and your herds be stayed."
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"Let your little ones go with you also." Now what Pharaoh was saying, "Look, you want the wives and children to go, go ahead and go. But your flocks and your herds are going to stay here." And of course, verse 25, Moses said, "That's not going to work. Thou must give us also sacrifices and burnt offerings, that we may sacrifice unto the Lord our God." So now Pharaoh was saying, "All right, I'll let the women and children go. But all your possessions are going to stay here." What's that mean? That means ultimately they're going to be coming back because all their wealth, everything they will have will be right there. Now, listen carefully. As the first compromise would have entailed the Israelites worshiping along with the Egyptians and saying, basically, "Our God is just like your gods on the same level, on the same bar," which would have been a horrible compromise. The next two compromises would have entailed either the loss of the women and children, or the loss of their possessions.
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Now, are you listening to me? The truth is, when we compromise the Word of God, we usually will either lose our children or our possessions. That's a fact. Let me ask you, why is it that the real message of the gospel is so compromised today? Why is it that you can go into the average Bible believing church and not hear the whole counsel of God?
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Now, I want you to stop and think about that. There are plenty of churches in this land that profess to believe the Bible, to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that He is indeed God in the flesh, and yet you go to those churches and you can only hear basically the same message over and over and over. Why is it that the Word of God is so compromised in the average Bible-believing church?
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One of the main answers to that question is this. Because of church debt. D-E-B-T. Debt.
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Now, you remember I preached a whole series on the Christian debt. Now, I'm not going to re-preach that series. But it is exceedingly unbiblical for a church to be in debt. Someone says, "Well, we're going to have to have faith. We're going to have to have faith that we're going to build this million dollar building here and that God will supply the need that we can pay it off." Well, why don't you have faith that God will give you the million dollars before you build it so you can pay cash for it?
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Now, listen to this, folks. The reason the whole word of God cannot be preached in the average church is because the average church is so far in debt up to their eyeballs, they cannot afford to lose any member because every member is needed to help pay the sinking fund payments. Therefore, nothing divisive, nothing offensive, nothing controversial is going to be preached or taught. They're not going to take any chance on making anybody mad or upset. Because they need those shekels coming in every week to make that sinking fund payment. It's just that simple. They cannot afford to be like our Lord.
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And preach the hard doctrines. And just let the chips fall where they may. You say, "What are you talking about?" Well, let me show you. Look in your Bibles to Matthew 15. Matthew 15 and let's begin reading there with verse 10. Matthew 15 in verse 10. Here's a good illustration. Matthew 15 verse 10. "And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man."
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Now, in other words, this teaching is directly contrary to the teaching of the Pharisees. Watch verse 12. "Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch."
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What did our Lord say? When his disciples said, "Know you not that you've upset the Pharisees?" Our Lord said, "There's no skin off my nose. Let him alone. Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up. They're going to be gone anyhow. They're blind and if the blind lead the blind, they're both going to fall into the ditch. They're going to be perishing."
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That's all there is to it. But that's not all. Look in John, chapter six, I want you to turn there because in John, chapter six, Jesus Christ is teaching that he is indeed the bread of life. Notice John, chapter six, and let's begin reading there verse 48. John six, verse 48, watch carefully. John six, verse 48. John 6 verse 48, Christ said, "I am that bread of life."
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"Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." Now watch, "The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me."
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"This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever. These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum." Watch, "Many therefore of his disciples," note, of his disciples, "many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?" We can't take this straight, hard preaching. Watch. "When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?"
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"What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."
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Watch, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him." What were they saying? "We can't take this. We don't understand this. This straight hard preaching, he's claiming to be everything that he is, we can't handle this." Let me show you how impressed our Lord was with their fickleness and their faithlessness. Verse 68, "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve."
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"Will ye also go away?" Everybody else is leaving me. "Will you go away also?" Let me tell you something, folks. If you preach the truth of God, inevitably, there's going to be a separation of the wheat from the chaff. You cannot help, but as you preach, some will be made mad and some will be made glad. Many times there must be indeed a back door revival before there can ever be a front door revival in the church. And listen to this, folks. Let's be honest.
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If our Lord, who was and is the perfect teacher, with perfect understanding and perfect communication skills, if He had people leave Him, how much more will people leave us, who are imperfect teachers with imperfect knowledge and imperfect skills. All I'm trying to show you is this, folks. If you preach and teach the whole counsel of God, inevitably, some are going to leave you. Some are going to fall by the wayside.
#60 | 42:47 to 43:26 | cleaned
I want to tell you this, and I want you to listen carefully. I have said this repeatedly. I have preached for over 40 years. And the two hardest lessons that I have ever learned in preaching can be summed up in two sentences. The first most difficult lesson that I ever learned was this. You can't help everyone. You can't. Some people are just going to get mad and leave. Some people will not listen. Some people will not receive counsel. You can't help everyone. That's a difficult lesson to learn, especially when you're a young preacher, because you think then that you're going to be able to convert the world. The second lesson I learned is even more difficult than the first one. The first one was you can't help everyone. The second and even greater, more difficult truth is this. Sometimes those you can't help are your own family and friends. And that really when you know you have the truth, and your own family and your own friends will not listen, nor receive it, nor apply it.
#61 | 43:26 to 45:23 | cleaned
That's why our Lord looked at the twelve, His family, and what did He say to them? "Will you go away also? Will you leave me because I'm teaching and preaching the truth?" The two most difficult lessons. You can't help everybody. And sometimes those you cannot help are your own family and your own friends. I want you to turn in your Bibles to 2 Thessalonians 2. Roy and I discussed this verse over the phone, but I want you to see it. I want you to look at this. What does it mean when you learn you can't help everyone, and sometimes those you can't help are your own family and friends. It simply means this, listen carefully, that those who resist the truth, those who deny and denigrate the truth, or those who want to hold and follow a compromise message must be allowed to go their own way. It's sad when you can't have fellowship with your own family. It's sad sometimes when you can't have fellowship with your so-called friends. But listen to me.
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When someone either denies or denigrates or wants to compromise the Word of God, there is absolutely no help for them except from a supernatural work of God. How can I say that? Look in 2 Thessalonians 2. Beginning there with verse 10. Look what the Scripture says. "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." You see, folks, when you refuse the truth, the only thing open to you is a lie. Humanly speaking, there is no hope for anyone who will not bow to the truth of God's Word. You can't help someone who will not listen. Those who deny, who denigrate or compromise the truth of God do not and cannot have the truth of God.
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Do you remember Pilate in John chapter 18? Jesus Christ is standing right in front of him and Pilate has the audacity to ask, "What is truth?" Truth was standing right in front of him and he never even saw it.
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Now let me show you something. I'm not going to ask that you turn to these passages. I'll just quote them. Let's answer what is truth. First of all, John 14:6, Jesus Christ said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." So Jesus Christ is truth. In John 14 in verse 17, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of Truth. Did you know? In 2 Corinthians 6 and verse 7, the Scriptures are called the Scriptures of Truth. And in Deuteronomy 32 and verse 4, God is called the God of Truth. Now listen carefully. When anyone denies and denigrates the truth, he is denying and denigrating God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and the Holy Scriptures. For Jesus Christ is truth, the Holy Spirit is truth, the Scriptures are truth, and God the Father is truth.
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Let me make some applications. We've been talking about resisting the truth. I like the confrontation that Moses and Aaron had with Jannes and Jambres. You remember how Aaron threw down his rod and his rod became a serpent. Well, magicians threw down their rod or rods. And their rods became serpents too. But do you remember what Aaron's rod did? It swallowed up the magician's rods. There's only one rod left. Likewise, God's word will ultimately swallow up all error and heresy and his word alone will be left as the absolute truth. Do you realize what he said in Psalm 119 in verse 89, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven." Do you know what the Bible said in Psalm 138 in verse 2, "thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name."
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Let me tell you something, folks. If the word of God ever fails, then God is not God. God has magnified his word above all his name. He has said, "My word is truth." And I got news for you, just as surely as God is God, just that surely shall His truth prevail. He said, "My word shall not return unto me void. It shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it."
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You can mark 'er down. Ultimately, God's word is going to destroy all error and all heresy. Number two, we need to make sure that we're not practical deniers of the word of God or compromisers of the truth. What's that mean? That means this, folks, all of God's word is truth. We have to embrace it. We have to believe it. We have to apply it. You say, "Brother Weaver, how do I apply this message?"
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I'm trying to show you right now. You leave this building. You go home and say, "Lord, your word must have priority in my life. You must have priority in my life. And I will regulate my life according to your truth."
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Now, this follows right along, turning your Bibles to Matthew, chapter 10. I want you to see this. Matthew, chapter 10, verses 37 and 38. Here's the third application. We must not denigrate God or His Word by denying their priority in our lives. You remember the word denigrate means to blacken, to smear, to cheapen? Well, look what our Lord said in Matthew 10, beginning there with verse 37.
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He said it like this. "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." What is our Lord saying? He comes first in our lives. And when we allow our husbands, our wives, our children, and anyone else to take priority and allow them to do that which we know is wrong, we're denying and denigrating him and saying, "You just really don't matter."
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"My child or my spouse matters more than you." Think of the Christians that denigrate the truth. And here's the fourth application. Those who refuse, resist, and hate the truth can only believe a lie and a delusion. They resist to their own destruction. In resisting the truth, they are trading the truth for a lie.
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Now listen, I began this message last Lord's Day, and I begin it by asking a question. Who would want to believe a lie? And here's the answer. All those who hate the truth, they want to believe a lie. If you hate the truth, you want to believe a lie. And that lie will ultimately destroy you. God the Father is truth. God the Son is truth. God the Spirit is truth. And the Scriptures are truth. And if we don't want to believe a lie, we must believe them. Let's pray. Father, we do ask in the name of Jesus Christ for Your grace and for Your mercy in our lives. Lord, teach us to make application of Thy truth. Teach us, Lord, to live holy, godly, obedient lives and bring our lives in conformity to your word. And may we, Father, give the honor and praise of Christ's holy and blessed name. Amen.
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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | clean_readable_transcript | 2026-06-05T13:27:51Z

Resisting the Truth - Part 2

John Weaver | Freedom Ministries

In this sermon, John Weaver continues his study of 2 Timothy 3, focusing on how people resist the truth. He explains that beyond resisting the messengers of the truth (covered in Part 1), people also resist the message of the truth through denial, denigration, and compromise. He illustrates these with biblical examples and applies them to modern church life, warning that those who resist the truth ultimately believe a lie to their own destruction.

Review of Part 1

Scripture Reading — 2 Timothy 3:1-9

"This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."

Scripture Reading — Philippians 3:19

"whose God is their belly."

Introduction to Resisting the Message of the Truth

Weaver introduces the second main point: resisting the message of the truth, and states he will give three irreducible minimum ways this is done.

Denial

The first way is denial, which can be intellectual (outright rejection) or practical (professing belief but living as if God has no authority).

Denigration

The second way is denigration, which means to blacken, smear, or mock the truth. This includes mocking holy things and prioritizing everyday life over God.

Compromise

So what that means is when our politicians are having diplomatic talks, they're selling us down the drain. That's what it means. They're compromising. But anyhow, so I stuck on the word compromise.

The Consequence of Compromise in the Church

Weaver argues that church debt forces compromise, preventing the preaching of the whole counsel of God because churches cannot afford to offend members.

Biblical Examples of Uncompromising Truth

Jesus' teaching offended Pharisees and caused many disciples to leave, showing that preaching truth inevitably separates wheat from chaff.

The Hardest Lessons in Preaching

Weaver shares two difficult lessons: you cannot help everyone, and sometimes those you cannot help are your own family and friends.

The Fate of Those Who Resist the Truth

Those who resist the truth are given over to strong delusion to believe a lie, as 2 Thessalonians 2 teaches. Truth is personified in God the Father, Son, Spirit, and Scripture.

Scripture Reading — 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12

"And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

Scripture Reading — John 14:6

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

Applications and Conclusion

Resisting the Truth - Part 2

John Weaver | SermonAudio

Lecture Metadata	Details
Speaker	John Weaver
Source	SermonAudio
Media ID	32706201457
Subject	Family Government
Course	The Christian Family: Marriage and Household Order: The Family
Genre	Sermon
Date	2006-01-08
Dictation Name
Book	Book 037: Resisting the Truth — Chapter 2
Source Timed Segments	73

Lecture Guide

Outline

Review of Part 1: Weaver reviews the previous message, recalling that false teachers are idolatrous, idiocratic, immoral, and intellectual, and that the first way of resisting the truth is by resisting the messengers of the truth.
Introduction to Resisting the Message of the Truth: Weaver introduces the second main point: resisting the message of the truth, and states he will give three irreducible minimum ways this is done.
Denial: The first way is denial, which can be intellectual (outright rejection) or practical (professing belief but living as if God has no authority).
Denigration: The second way is denigration, which means to blacken, smear, or mock the truth. This includes mocking holy things and prioritizing everyday life over God.
Compromise: The third way is compromise, illustrated by Pharaoh's three compromises with Moses: worship in the land, leave the women and children, and leave the flocks and herds. Compromise leads to loss of children or possessions.
The Consequence of Compromise in the Church: Weaver argues that church debt forces compromise, preventing the preaching of the whole counsel of God because churches cannot afford to offend members.
Biblical Examples of Uncompromising Truth: Jesus' teaching offended Pharisees and caused many disciples to leave, showing that preaching truth inevitably separates wheat from chaff.
The Hardest Lessons in Preaching: Weaver shares two difficult lessons: you cannot help everyone, and sometimes those you cannot help are your own family and friends.
The Fate of Those Who Resist the Truth: Those who resist the truth are given over to strong delusion to believe a lie, as 2 Thessalonians 2 teaches. Truth is personified in God the Father, Son, Spirit, and Scripture.
Applications and Conclusion: Weaver applies the message: God's Word will ultimately swallow up all error; we must not be practical deniers or compromisers; we must give God's truth priority; and those who resist the truth trade it for a destructive lie.

Major Themes

Key Arguments

Practical denial is as serious as intellectual denial

Weaver argues that living as if God's Word has no authority is a form of denying the truth, even if one verbally confesses it.

He cites Titus 1:16 and says, 'they profess that they know God, but in their works, that is, in their daily lives, they deny him.'

Denigration prioritizes everyday life over God

Weaver contends that putting legitimate activities ahead of God and His truth is a way of mocking or cheapening God.

He uses Luke 14:16-20 to show that the invited guests made excuses, prioritizing land, oxen, and marriage over the supper, thus denigrating the invitation.

Compromise leads to loss of distinctiveness and blessings

Weaver argues that Pharaoh's compromises would have kept Israel in Egypt or caused them to lose their families or possessions, and similarly, compromising truth today leads to spiritual loss.

He explains the three compromises in Exodus 8-10 and applies them to modern churches losing their children or possessions.

Church debt forces compromise of the message

Weaver asserts that financial debt in churches prevents the preaching of hard truths because churches fear losing members and their contributions.

He says, 'the reason the whole word of God cannot be preached in the average church is because the average church is so far in debt... they cannot afford to lose any member.'

Those who resist truth are given over to delusion

Weaver argues from 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 that rejecting the love of the truth results in God sending strong delusion to believe a lie.

He reads the passage and concludes, 'when you refuse the truth, the only thing open to you is a lie.'

Scripture References

2 Timothy 3:1-9: The primary text of the sermon, describing perilous times and false teachers who resist the truth.
Philippians 3:19: Cited to show that false teachers make their belly their god, living for themselves.
Titus 1:16: Used to illustrate practical denial: professing to know God but denying Him by works.
Acts 17:32: Shows the Athenians mocking the resurrection, an example of denigration.
Proverbs 14:9: Quoted to show that fools mock at sin and holy things.
Luke 14:16-20: The parable of the great supper, used to illustrate practical denigration by prioritizing everyday matters over God.
Jeremiah 2:32: God's lament that His people have forgotten Him days without number, showing denigration.
Exodus 8:25: Pharaoh's first compromise: worship God in the land.
Exodus 10:7-11: Pharaoh's second compromise: let only the men go.
Exodus 10:21-25: Pharaoh's third compromise: let the people go but leave flocks and herds.
Matthew 15:10-14: Jesus' teaching offended the Pharisees; He was unconcerned, showing uncompromising truth.
John 6:48-68: Many disciples left Jesus after hard teaching about eating His flesh and drinking His blood; Jesus asked the twelve if they would also leave.
2 Thessalonians 2:10-12: Those who do not receive the love of the truth are sent strong delusion to believe a lie.
John 18:38: Pilate's question 'What is truth?' while Truth stood before him.
John 14:6: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
John 14:17: The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.
2 Corinthians 6:7: The Scriptures are called the Scriptures of truth.
Deuteronomy 32:4: God is called the God of truth.
Psalm 119:89: God's Word is forever settled in heaven.
Psalm 138:2: God has magnified His Word above all His name.

Historical References

Jannes and Jambres: The magicians who withstood Moses, mentioned in 2 Timothy 3:8 as types of false teachers who resist the truth.
Richard Dawkins: Mentioned as a modern intellectual atheist who likens Moses to Hitler and calls teaching Christianity to children child abuse.
Pharaoh's magicians imitating Moses' miracles: Referenced from Exodus 7-8, where the magicians imitated the first three plagues but could not produce life.

Important Quotes

From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

Used to show that even Jesus' perfect teaching caused many to leave, demonstrating the cost of preaching truth.

Will ye also go away?

Jesus' poignant question to the twelve after many disciples left, highlighting the pain of rejection even from close followers.

And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

The sobering consequence for those who resist the truth, a key warning in the sermon.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Weaver uses this to establish that Jesus Christ is truth personified.

For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Quoted to affirm the eternal, unshakable nature of God's truth.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

Used in application to stress that God must have priority over family, lest we denigrate Him.

Discussion Questions

[Question]

What is the difference between intellectual denial and practical denial of the truth, and how might we be guilty of practical denial?

[Context]

Weaver explains that many professing Christians deny God by their works even while confessing Him with their mouths.

[Question]

In what ways do we denigrate the truth by prioritizing everyday activities over God?

[Context]

Weaver uses Luke 14 and Jeremiah 2:32 to show how legitimate things can become excuses to neglect God.

[Question]

How do Pharaoh's three compromises parallel the compromises we face today in our walk with God?

[Context]

Weaver details the compromises of worshiping in Egypt, leaving families, and leaving possessions.

[Question]

Why does church debt often lead to a compromised message, and what should be the biblical approach to church finances?

[Context]

Weaver argues that debt forces churches to avoid controversial topics to keep members and their money.

[Question]

How should we respond when preaching the truth causes people to leave, even family and friends?

[Context]

Weaver shares his hardest lessons in ministry and points to Jesus' example in John 6.

[Question]

What does it mean that God sends strong delusion to those who reject the truth, and how should this sober us?

[Context]

Weaver reads 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 and warns that rejecting truth leads to believing a destructive lie.

[Question]

How does understanding that Jesus, the Spirit, Scripture, and the Father are all truth affect our view of resisting truth?

[Context]

Weaver connects the personification of truth to the seriousness of denying or denigrating it.

[Question]

What practical steps can we take to ensure God's Word has priority in our lives and we are not practical deniers?

[Context]

Weaver concludes with applications to embrace, believe, and apply all of God's Word.

Applications

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deepseek | deepseek-v4-pro | weaver_study | 2026-06-06T00:31:40Z