The Dangers of Irreverence Before God — Robert Wurtz II

To me, He is so wonderful. We love Him because He first loved us. That's what the Scripture teaches us. I appreciate all those who have helped us tonight. Amen. Brother Dalen asked this morning, he just kind of leaned over and asked if maybe I had something to share tonight.

And brother, I would sure be willing to if the Lord should give me something. And it's interesting, when he said that, it never even crossed my mind that while he was preaching, the Lord had already put a thought in my head for a sermon.

And I'd written kind of the first part of the notes down to it, and I thought, well, I'll just probably maybe write a blog about this subject, which is kind of my pattern these days. But the Lord had other plans, and the Lord knew what He was doing.

Paul’s Charge to Timothy

And I want to share with you tonight, if you have your Bible, I want to begin in 2 Timothy chapter two, beginning at verse 10 and following. Paul is writing to the young man, as it were, Timothy. I don't know how young he was.

He might have been of adult age, but yet, still he was sort of a son to Paul the Apostle. And Paul is writing to him under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit along these lines. Now bear in mind that this will be the last time Paul writes anything, as far as we know, to the churches.

He's writing this to Timothy, but he's writing it also to us and to all of the saints. And being his last real correspondence, there are many things that he says in this particular epistle that are very worthy of our attention.

And this particular section of Scripture, I feel the Lord has laid on my heart tonight for this service. Therefore, I, Paul speaking, endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

This is a faithful saying, for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. Brother Dalen made reference to that this morning. We are dead with Christ. We are crucified with Him. If we are in Christ, emphasis on if, if we are in Christ, we are dead to sin.

For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful. He cannot deny Himself.

Remind them, a word in the Greek that means go on reminding them. Keep reminding them. Keep hammering it home. It's in the present active in the Greek. Of these things. Charging them before the Lord. Now that's a little more than just man giving some advice.

Charge them in the presence of the Lord. This is a spiritual thing. It's not just tell them to do it. Give them a charge. In the Old Testament, the Levites were charged to keep the temple and the things of God.

And they were given a charge. And they were to keep that charge. And that's sort of what Paul's saying here. Charge them in these things. Charge them first before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit to the ruin of the hearers.

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

Be diligent, a word that could be translated zealous, to present yourself approved to God. Now, that word there in the Greek is dakimos. You will know this word because adakimos means rejected or it's translated typically as reprobate.

So to be unapproved is to be reprobate or rejected. But to be approved is to be accepted. That's God putting His stamp, as it were, of approval. Be zealous, Paul is saying, to present yourself to God in this way.

A worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. The word rightly divided means to cut straight. Any of you have ever done carpentry work, you know there's a saying, measure twice, cut once.

Hmm? You don't cut now and then put it up to the wall. It's easier to take some more off than to add a little bit. And the word of God is to be cut straight. Study it. You think it says something? Study it again.

Make sure. You think that's what it means? That's what you've heard it means. Go back. Study it again. Look at it closer. Make sure that's what it says. Cut it straight. If it's fourteen and seven-eighths, don't cut it at five-eighths.

Make sure it's exactly cut the way God intends for it to be cut. This is what Paul is saying to Timothy. Rightly dividing the word of truth. Verse 16. Powerful verse. But shun profane and idle babblings for they will increase into more ungodliness.

We'll come back to this verse. And their message will spread like gangrene. That's your word. Their message will spread like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort who have strayed concerning the truth saying that the resurrection is already past and has overthrown the faith of some.

Nevertheless, the foundation of God stands sure having this seal. The Lord knows those who are His. Amen. You can take that to the bank. The Lord knows those that are His. We may not. I may look out here at you and think every one of you are the Lord's.

But only the Lord knows if that's true or not. The foundation of the Lord stands sure having this seal. The Lord knows them that are His. And let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

Fleeing from Iniquity and Becoming Vessels of Honor

Flee. Run. Run for the hills. Get back. How many of you know if this building was about to blow, we'd flee this place? That's the language that's being used. That is the strength of the wording. As a matter of fact, this is a reference back to Numbers 16.

And we're going to talk about that in a minute as well. But in a great house, in other words, in a palace, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. Vessels that are of honor and some to dishonor.

If you were to walk into a palace, you're going to find the whole gamut of things. You're going to find gold. You're going to find silver. You're going to find earthenware, pots that have been fired in a kiln.

You might even find cups and dishes that are made out of wood. But in the midst of that reality, there is also two separate designations, one of honor, one of dishonor. In other words, put it this way, one that's clean and one that's filthy.

I don't know if you've ever gone to the cupboard or maybe you've been in a restaurant and you've drank about half your drink only to notice that somewhere near the bottom there was something hardened.

Or even worse, you look up and something's floating in the top. We all want a clean cup, don't we? I don't know about you, but when I get a cup out, I usually kind of hold it up in the light, make sure.

And if it's even questionable, I'm going to have it over in the sink, rinsing it out. Anybody else do that? So, you know, we have a dishwasher, but it's not infallible. If you put something in there and it's still dirty and something's caked on, you know, where it's set overnight, that dishwasher's liable not to get it.

And I'm not about to be drinking that. And you know what? The Lord don't want us being like that, being His Spirit poured out of that. We're a vessel. He wants us to be clean. Watch this. Therefore, verse 21, if anyone cleanses himself from the ladder, he will be a vessel of honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.

I want to pray tonight. Lord, we're just thankful for Your Word. We're thankful for those that have come out tonight. Lord, I'm just thankful, Lord, that You would count us, Lord, able to come up and to share on Your stead, to be ambassadors for You, Lord, to share the words of eternal life.

Lord, I just pray that the word of Your grace would be here tonight. Give us ears to hear what You would say to us, Lord. In Jesus' precious name, amen. Paul is saying a lot of things. He's saying a mouthful here.

And if you read through these passages over and over and you begin to do a study of what he's talking about, he's making a distinction here between individuals who preach or teach or name the name of Christ who have a reverence for God and it shows in everything they teach, everything they preach, everything they believe in, everything they stand for.

And then there's another group over here that he likens to those that are spreading gangrene. Do you know gangrene is a deadly thing to have? Well, we don't really think about that today, do we? We just go get us a shot of penicillin.

Or maybe we get us a few cups full of amoxicillin and it takes care of our gangrene issue. About three generations ago, on the worse side of our family, I have a grandpa. His name was Casper. Casper Wurtz.

He was a Civil War veteran and he lived to be a fairly old man, but when he got into a convalescent home, as I think they called him in those days, probably in the late 1800s, he developed a corn on his foot that he tried to cut out, probably with a pocket knife.

It developed gangrene and killed him. That's what he died of. Gangrene. Gangrene is like an infection, an infectious disease that just spreads and it's mortal if you don't deal with it. It starts eating away and spreading and if it starts at the bottom of your foot, it's going to work its way up.

It's going to get in your bloodstream and it's going to kill you. That is the language that Paul is using about certain individuals that are preaching and teaching from a position of a lack of the reverential fear of God Almighty.

Powerful thing. I think about when I was young, a kid, probably 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, young teenager, and I mentioned this in the Sunday school class this morning. You see, when I was a kid, I'm thankful that good folks like here at Rose of Sharon, they came and picked us up and brought us to church.

I'm thankful for Sunday school teachers right down here in the classes that our kids still go to today that taught me the reverential fear of God. But the thing that I'm probably most thankful of in my life, and I tell you this in all sincerity, it's not the home I own.

It's not the car I drive. It's not anything. It's not my job. It's not any of these things. The thing that I am most thankful of is that nobody got to me when I was young to corrupt my concept of God.

To make me think of God in a way differently than He really is. Nobody came to me preaching an overemphasis on God's love and grace so that I totally did not understand what it meant to know the God of judgment and holiness and righteousness.

And on the flip side, I didn't have somebody come around that that's all they preached to me was the justice and judgment of God to where I didn't realize that God is also a loving God. But rather, I would sit down on the couch when nobody was around because in those days, we thought that nuclear war was imminent.

Anybody else know what I'm talking about? You live in the 80s, 70s, 60s? Between teachings on the rapture and nuclear war, we thought, man, we could be out of here at any minute. And sometimes things would happen that would seize me and it would be like fear would seize me as a child.

We're living in the last days. And I would think, I have got to get to God's Word and begin to read and find comfort. And I would sit on the couch a lot of times right after school and I would get out the big family Bible and I would begin to open it up and those big old pages, I'd set it on my lap and begin to turn it like this.

And I started in the book of Matthew and Jesus systematically taught me by the Holy Spirit a reverential fear of God. You see, I didn't get a guided tour through God's Word. I said that this morning. You go to North Korea today and they'll give you a guided tour.

See, they won't take you and show you that if you're a Christian in North Korea and you're found out, they're not only going to kill you, but they're going to kill three generations of your family whether they're believers or not.

They're going to kill your parents. They're going to kill your children. And they're going to kill your brothers and sisters. They're going to put them in death camps. That's what they do in North Korea.

Some of you look at me like I'm lying to you. Investigate it yourself. That's what happens. And if you go there, they will take you on a guided tour and all you will see is all the things that look so good and they'll stage everything for you.

That's a guided tour. Back in the days when Soviet Russia was in place, you could take a guided tour and they would take you around and show you all of the positive things, but you didn't see the other side of the fence.

God is no North Korea and God is no Soviet Russia. But I'm going to tell you God is a lot more than just love and peace. God is a God of divine retribution, my friend. Everything that I know about hell, I was taught by Jesus.

Do you know that? Everything I was taught about reverence in God, I was taught by Jesus Christ. The one that everybody thinks, you know, He's walking around with a lamb in His arm and a staff in His hand.

But do you know that the Bible said He rides on a white horse? Out of His mouth goes a sharp and two-edged sword. He has on Himself a vesture dipped in blood and His name is called the Word of God. If you were to look down His side, it says King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Do you know Him? The old preacher asked that question. Do you know Him? Do you really know Him? Have you let Him teach you who He is? I think about a passage of Scripture that always would stick out to me in the book of Luke after Jesus had given the parable of the talents.

Some call it the parable of the pounds or the minna. But when He gets through talking about how He had distributed these talents and He had gone away on a far journey that He came back and He dealt with the people, when He gets to the end of the story, I want to read this Scripture verse to you.

And let it sink deep down into your ears. But those Mine enemies who did not want Me to be king over them, bring them here and slaughter them before Me. Luke 19, verse 27. Look it up if you have your Bible.

Don't take My word for it. The Greek word is slaughter. In another place, God said it like this. He said it very clearly. Do not fear them that just are able to destroy the body, but after having destroyed your body, is able to cast your soul into hell.

Do you realize tonight that God has your breath in His hands? Oh, we love Jindal, Jesus meek and mild. That's wonderful, isn't it? That way we can walk out that door and keep living the way we want to and think that He's never going to bring judgment.

But the Bible says in the book of Proverbs 16, 6, watch this, By mercy and truth iniquity is purged. Praise the name of the Lord for His mercy. But watch this, but by the fear of the Lord, men depart from evil.

It is the fear of the Lord that can anchor us so that when the love of God that we like to sing about and talk about so much is running low, will tether us and keep us from going into evil. To keep us from doing that thing that could potentially damn our everlasting soul.

I used to say that. I have a rob verb along this line that's probably 20 years old. When the love of God runs out, the fear of God better kick in. Do you take the Bible seriously? If you fear the Lord, you do.

It's not a book of suggestions. It's a book that God meant what He said. And He said what He meant. That's why it must be rightly divided. That's why we must not add to or take away from. That's why we must not present a God different than the way He is.

Overly emphasizing one aspect of His character more than the other, so that we present in effect a false Jesus. An idol. A version of Jesus made in our own image or after our own lusts. He is who He is.

And He is not changeable. He cannot be altered. I cannot, out of my own lusts, take a tool and retool some aspects of His personality to shape what I would like Him to be. That's what the Old Testament idolaters did with gold and silver and wood.

They just shaped the thing out the way they wanted it to be. But God doesn't respond to the tools of men. He is who He is. And it is for us to learn who He is. To understand who He is. To spend our lives discovering who He really is.

Not a guided tour. But letting Jesus teach us who He truly is. In the 16th verse, Paul told Timothy, avoid irreverent talk because it will lead to more ungodliness. Avoid irreverent talk because it will lead to more ungodliness.

Think of the awesomeness of this. If a person is talking flippantly about God, avoid them. Don't hang around them. If that's your favorite preacher, stop listening to them. Avoid a person who treats God in an irreverent way.

I heard about, and even seen it with my own eyes, there was a t-shirt that went around here about 10 or 15 years ago when I was youth pastor. Jesus is my homeboy. Well, not my Jesus that I serve isn't anybody's homeboy.

Avoiding Irreverent Images of Christ

There's a flippancy and there is an irreverence. There is a profanity, that's your word, profaning. It means to take something that is holy and sacred and make it commonplace. I think about songs that have been sung that sound so happy and jolly and everything about Jesus.

And you know, how's it go? There's a song that went back in the old days talking about Jesus in a whole new way. Yabba-dabba-doo-ya. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Avoid that kind of stuff.

That will literally gangrenize your concept of God. It will instill in you the notion that God can be trifled with. God cannot be trifled with, my friends. You're all looking at me now. You say, well, it's easy to do because you still have breath in your lungs.

When that breath goes out of you, everything I'm saying today is going to be so real to you. It is going to be so real to you, you're going to say, Brother Robert didn't tell us the half of it. Where is He?

Where is He? You didn't tell us the half of it. Here I am standing before God. My knees are knocking. I'm prostrate on the floor. Why didn't you preach God stronger than you did, Brother Robert? You laid back.

You held back. When you get to heaven, my friend, you're going to be in a different reality. You're going to be in a place where when God says go, and people go like a lightning bolt. When God says come and people come, there's going to be a reverence given to God whether people want to give it to Him or not.

He said every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. See, this is the other side of the coin. This is the pancake when we flip it over.

We've about burned this side up. It's black. We've burned the love and grace side up. Let's flip this over tonight. Let's cook the other side. God is not to be trifled with. If you've even cursory read the Old Testament, you know what I'm saying is true.

Korah’s Rebellion and God’s Judgment

In the book of Numbers 16 that Paul is making reference here, and I'd like you to turn over there if you have your Bible, I want to show you the God you're serving. This is referenced not just here in 2 Timothy, but it's also referenced in the book of Jude, Numbers 16.

Very powerful thing. There was this individual by the name of Korah. And he's going to lead a rebellion. Now here's God. He's led the children of Israel out of bondage. He's led them out metaphorically of this present evil world.

He has drowned Pharaoh and his armies in the water a type of the devil and his angels. Think of this. God has put the world, the devil, and the influence behind them. But here's this guy by the name of Korah going to try to lead a rebellion in Israel.

Think of what he says. Verse 13. Is it a small thing? He's talking to Moses. That you have brought us up out of the land flowing with milk and honey. Now that's his description of Egypt. His concept of the world is a land flowing with milk and honey.

In his eyes, Egypt was a great place. And you've taken us out of Egypt. You've brought us into this wilderness. If there's anybody that truly were a picture or poster child of, you know, God got Israel out of Egypt but couldn't get Egypt out of Israel, this guy is it.

Listen to what he's saying. Is it a small thing that you have brought us out of the land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in this wilderness? Think of that. Do you realize that God was listening to this?

God's listening. God is listening to every word that's coming out of this man's mouth. That you should keep acting like you're a prince over us. Now think about it. Moses is a type of Jesus. He's a type of the one who was to come.

Moreover, you have not brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey nor given us inheritance of field and vineyards. Will you put out the eyes of these men? We will not come up, he said. He's in rebellion.

And if he had an opportunity, he'd raise himself up as a leader and take the people right on back to Egypt. Think of this. He's wanting to take the people in a totally different direction than what God's leading.

And this person was of the priesthood. So the Lord spoke to Moses saying, verse 23, speak to the congregation saying, get away from the tents of Korah. Get away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abraham.

Get away from them. Stand back. I was watching a program the other day on smart bombs and how some of our bombers can be flying like this. They can push a button and drop a bomb within just a few feet of where they want to hit.

How many of you know when they say they're about to drop it, you better get back? Get back. Airstrikes are on the way. Get back. That's the language that we're hearing here. Get away from the tents. Verse 26, and he spoke to the congregation saying, depart now from the tents of these wicked men.

He's telling them again, get away from these people. Touch nothing of theirs, lest you be consumed in all of their sins. You see, God had to teach us in the Old Testament about Himself. About how He feels about sin.

These things are programmatic. We think, well, you know, that's the Old Testament God. Hang on a minute. The Old Testament God? Do you not know that God does not change? Just because God deals with us differently under grace doesn't mean that He has changed in any way, shape, or form about His attitude towards sin and rebellion.

Verse 31, Now it came to pass, as He finished speaking all these words, listen to this. Here's Korah over here. He's about to be judged. They got their censors up. I mean, if you read this whole story, it's really long.

We don't have time for it. You can read it tonight. Or maybe tomorrow. They got their censors up. And God's ready. We're having a showdown. How many of you know the devil likes to always bring things to a showdown?

And that's where we are today in the churches of God. Who is on the Lord's side? Who's on the side of righteousness? Who's on the side of holiness? Who's going to be on the other side? This is what's being asked.

Watch this. And the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up. I don't know if you guys have watched this stuff. It comes up on the news from time to time how places like over in Russia and down in South America, the earth is opened up.

And I mean, it's just a hole. And you can look down 100, 200, 300 yards down into the earth. Has anybody seen this or just me? I mean, holes, listen, are opening up in the earth and they are swallowing things up.

There was a man in Florida that was laying in his bed in his bedroom. The earth literally opened up underneath and swallowed him down into it. And his brother in the other room heard him screaming. But it was too late.

He could not help him. I think about this Corvette sales area where this sinkhole opened up, boom, there went all of these expensive Corvettes, boom, down into the earth, totaled all of them, or most of them.

You say, well, the earth would never open up like that. We see it happening almost every other month. It can and it did happen. And it was these people that went down into the earth that were rebelling, and God had ordered it.

Think of the awesomeness of what's happening here. The earth opened its mouth, swallowed them up with their households and all the men of Korah with all of their goods. It's like everything these guys touched was contaminated.

God wanted to wipe the very remembrance of these people off the face of the earth, their sinfulness. He utterly consumed them just like He did Sodom, just like He did the world that then was. He consumed them.

So they and all that were with them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from among the assembly. This event is what Paul is referencing in 2 Timothy when he's talking to Timothy.

He's referencing this event. You say, well, why would he do that? He said, because these things are written for our learning. They're written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the earth have come.

They weren't written for these people. I mean, they're dead. They weren't written for the people contemporary with them because those people knew what happened. They were written so that the generations that followed would have a record of what happened and that these things would be programmatic to the thinking of people.

This is what can happen. This is God's estimate of this behavior. If He never did it again, we don't need another example. Hear what I'm telling you. If God never smote another person dead in all of history for what these people did, we don't need another example.

We have one in the Scripture. God has shown us His estimate of this attitude, of this behavior. We don't need any more examples. We don't need three more illustrations. If God shows us once, it's sufficient.

How many people would God have to slay before we got the message? These people were enough. And this is what God is showing us and teaching us. He continues on, verse 38. The censers of these men who sinned against their own souls, let them be made into hammered plates as a covering for the altar because they presented them before the Lord.

Therefore, they are holy, and they shall be assigned to the children of Israel. The people that held the censers, these people take their censers, beat them into sheets, and wrap it around the altar. Now imagine that being here.

Imagine there were some people that were acting out. They had some censers. God smote them dead. They fell down. So we took their censers, said, Well, we better make sure we don't forget this happened.

So we just, boom, right across the altars. We just lay them right across there, almost like we just coated it, wrapped it. I don't even know what the word would be. We wrapped the altar in the censers after they were hammered out.

Think of that. Very powerful thing to consider. Why? Because in the midst of God trying to deal with His people, trying to lead them out of Egypt, trying to lead them to Himself, there was a voice that came up and said, We're going to take the people back into sin.

We're going to take the people back into compromise. We're going to take the people back into this present evil world. In our eyes, Egypt was a land flowing with milk and honey, and we're going to propagate that notion that Egypt wasn't a bad thing.

God didn't react to that very good. And that's what Paul is talking about when he's talking to Timothy. He's telling him to avoid these type of people. Avoid Korahs. Avoid Korah-type ministers. Avoid Korah-type Christians.

People that are forever looking in the rearview mirror trying to go back to the very thing that God delivered us from. Don't hang around them. The Bible uses this illustration of them. In the last days they will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears that tickle the ears that tell you everything you want to hear.

How would you heap to yourself teachers in those days? I mean, there were only a handful of preachers in a whole region. I'll tell you how. On the internet, on the television, on the radio, in the bookstore.

You can just keep heaping them to yourself. Heaping to yourself teachers that will just keep telling you everything. Korahs. Korah on the bookshelf. Korah on the radio. Korah on the television set. Trying to make it seem as though sin is not such a bad thing.

Compromise ain't such a bad thing. Paul told Timothy, charge these people before the Lord. Charge them. Don't just tell them. Charge them before the presence of God. That's how serious it was. It wasn't a minor thing.

It was very serious. And this is what Paul goes on to say. And I want to read this verse. And this is where I want to focus. Just for a few minutes. He's telling Timothy that if he will cleanse himself of these things, then he will be a vessel of honor.

Ready for the Master's use. Verse 19. Nevertheless, the foundation of the Lord stands. The Lord knows everyone who's His. And let everyone who names the name of Christ flee from iniquity. Flee from lawlessness.

It's a dangerous thing. Listen to what I'm telling you. To name the name of Christ and to live in sin. It's an even more dangerous thing to have an attitude of disrespect towards God. And when I say that, I mean you don't agree with what God has said in His Word.

Faithfulness to God Over Loyalty to Family

Some people say, well, I honor God. Well, we honor Him with our mouth. And we draw near to Him with our lips, but our heart is far from Him. The Bible talks about a love in word and in tongue, but another love in deed and in truth.

When we truly love the Lord, when we truly honor the Lord, when we truly worship the Lord, we will come into agreement with the things God has said. Do you know it is irreverent to act with an attitude towards God and the things He said?

As if, oh well, you know, I can take it or leave it. Or, you know, as if I said this this morning, I said, kind of like your mom was talking to you. How many of you know, some of you, many of you probably had mothers and you had fathers in the home, not everyone.

But of those who did, how many of you know it was a lot easier a lot of times to go to mom than dad? And if there was trouble, you usually probably wanted mom to deal with it rather than dad. Is that generally true?

I know it's not true in every case, because there's some pretty mean moms out there, you know. I mean, there's some moms that could tear you up with a weeping willow switch. There's some grandmas that will fire you up.

I know that firsthand. But generally speaking, you would rather go to your mom than your dad. Do we have, is that agreeable? Because you know why? Because there's a sense in which you can kind of be a little bit flip with mom.

You know, if mom tells me to do it, I might or might not do it. I might or might not clean my room. But there's something about when your dad's voice thunders down the hall that you get about what mom said to do.

Shouldn't be that way, but let's just face it. And in a figure, we tremble at the word of dad. But we don't so much tremble at the word of mom. Though we should. Though we should. But listen to me. There are people that have an attitude that they're not talking to God.

You know, that's not God speaking to them. It's mom. It's somebody lesser than an authority figure that demands absolute obedience. And there's this flip attitude. And the Bible said, listen to what I'm telling you, that that attitude will spread among a people like gangrene.

Let one person get it, and it'll spread to the next person. It'll spread to the next person, and it'll spread to the next person. Paul said it a different way. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

A little compromise will compromise everybody. You say, well, man, brother, you are just so stiff. Man, I used to like him. Listen, we have to stand up for what's right. If not, let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.