Isn’t it interesting that the apostle sits here in this dungeon and writes these words in 2 Timothy?  He comes to us in the third chapter, and speaking to young Timothy, he said, “The last days are coming.”  The last days are upon us, and here’s what will manifest itself, constantly, prior to the coming of the Son of Man.  As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be; amen?  And he says, “Men, of course, will be lovers of their own selves, covetous,”—he goes down through the list there, “disobedient to parents, unholy, without natural affection, traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God.”  Verse 5 is what I want to emphasize.  “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power….”  Our greatest enemies in these last days will be professed believers.

We’ll see in just a moment that Paul will speak toward that and say these are people who are seducers.  They’re seducing you away from the true gospel.  They’re seducing you away to another “god.”  And even in this particular hour, we see that great revelation of all of the eons that have gone by, of all of the “gods” that have existed, that have been created in men’s minds and by their hands; the preeminent idol is self.  You can take all those other idols and put them together, and they will not be as dangerous to you as self.  Every false doctrine ever taught is not as dangerous to you as self, the idol of self.  The thought of somehow “we” being preeminent, the thought of independence, and how we have to guard against that, Paul is saying, in this last hour.

Paul was speaking and admonishing young Timothy, the pastor of this great church of Ephesus.  Those of you who have visited there, just in your mind, see that tremendous cosmopolitan area.  The trade that went through there; the philosophies that were exchanged in the marketplaces; the great theater of Ephesus, one of the great wonders; the library, second to only that in Alexandria.  How many of you remember the facade of the library there when we were in Ephesus?  And here’s this young man with this thriving church, commended in the book of Revelation by Jesus on their stand against false doctrine, apostasies.  And yet they lost their first love, and a people who had to be called into order.  From the outside they looked great.  From the Holy Ghost perspective, these things shouldn’t even be in your midst or spoken of by you.  Amen?  And we see the reproof that’s coming from the Holy Ghost through the apostle.  A great church.

We need each other to finish this race.  Amen?  We’ve got some young people here in our midst deciding whether to move away or not, and they’re all for secular reasons.  Let me tell you something.  Two are better than one.  You get out there on your own; you’re going down in this hour.  A threefold cord is not easily broken.  We need each other.  And I’m not talking about Facebook time.  I’m not talking about whatever those broadcasts are where everybody is sitting at home in their pajamas, thinking they’re in church because it’s on some screen somewhere.  That’s not the church coming together.  The church is that that heals and pours in the oil and lifts up the hands that are hanging down.  Amen?  The church, the body of Christ, each knit together; placed as it pleases Him.  Who are you to rip yourself out and go somewhere else when Jesus has placed you?  You don’t have that authority.  “We have rights.  I can do whatever I want.”  Of course you can.  You can sin anytime you want.  You can elevate your self‑will anytime you want, but you can’t do whatever you want if you truly see yourself as a member of the body of Christ, because He’s the Head of that organization (amen?) and will place us as it pleases Him.  “Well, it’s so hard to live here in this area.”  It was hard to be in this sewer too!