Download II TIMOTHY 3:1

Pen Knife Religion
JEREMIAH 36:20-23
Pen Knife Religion
Introduction:
1. The story is told about an older woman and the preacher
who went to visit her and set up a “Bible Study” with her
regarding the need for baptism in order to be saved. The
study began, but shortly into the study the woman said
that this was just a waste of both their time because
baptism is not in her Bible. The preacher asked what she
meant and she said, “just what I said, baptism is not in my
Bible.” The preacher asked if he could examine her Bible
and sure enough every place he looked in her Bible for the
word “Baptism” or any variation of the word, was not
there. He asked what happened and she replied, “I don’t
believe that it (baptism) is necessary so I cut it out with
my knife”
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A. The story sounds stupid, unreal, funny, even brings
a few giggles. Never the less it happens. I actually
found someone who instead of “cutting out the
words” has simply taken a marker and “blacked them
out”.
B. Folks who do not want to place themselves under
the direction and commandments of God in one way
or another will try to just “cut out the portion that
they don’t want to obey or agree with.”
However, God’s Word DOES NOT CHANGE or GO
AWAY!
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• The early Christians suffered great persecutions under the
government of the Roman empire. The Apostle Paul and
the Apostle Peter and many other Christians were put to
death under the cruel reign of emperor Nero. During the
first 300 years of the church, persecution followed
persecution, and many believers were MARTYRED (put
to death because of their faith in Jesus Christ).
• In 303 A. D. the Roman Emperor Diocletian issued a royal
decree (EDICT) that EVERY BIBLE SHOULD BE
DESTROYED. As a result many Bibles were burned and
many Bible believers were put to death. This fierce
attack against the Bible did not last too long, because the
next emperor was Constantine who allowed freedom of
religion and who even ordered copies of the Scriptures to
be made.
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• Voltaire, the noted French infidel and one of the
most fertile and talented writers of his time, used
his pen to retard and demolish Christianity. Of
Christ, Voltaire said, "Curse the wretch!" He once
boasted, “Within 50 years the Bible will be no
more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it
took twelve apostles to rear."Shortly after his
death the very house in which he printed his foul
literature became the depot of the Geneva Bible
Society. That was over 200 years ago.
• [The above taken from Last Words of Saints and Sinners by Herbert Lockyer, page 133.]
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• Voltaire was convinced that he could destroy
Christianity and the Bible. He believed that people
would become so enlightened that they would
neither believe in God, the Bible or their need of
salvation through Jesus Christ.
• Voltaire died in 1778. Since Voltaire's death millions
upon millions of Bibles in numerous languages have
flooded the world.
• Today most people in our country have at least one
copy of the Bible, but few have the writings of
Voltaire! He is dead and gone, but the Bible lives on.
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I. Jeremiah and Jehoiakim - JEMERIAH 36:20-23
A. One of God’s great prophets never ceased
to try and bring God ‘s people back to the
“old” and right path. (Jeremiah 6:16)
B. Rejected, unheeded, hated, imprisoned,
despised, he worked on as God led him.
C. He spoke to the people the Words of God
that came to him - Jeremiah 1:4
“Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:”
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1. The people of God had completely left God, King Josiah
came along as a Good King and began a reformation of
the people, cleaning the temple , restoring God’s Word
until he was killed at Megiddo ( II Kings 22:1- 23:29)
2. His Son, Jehoahaz, then reigned for 3 months until he
was removed by Pharohnecho – (II Kings 23:30-33)
3. It is during the time of Josiah that Jeremiah is called by
God and introduced - Jeremiah 1:2
“The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests
who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, 2. to
whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah
the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of
his reign.”
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4. Jeremiah has been continual prophesying about
the coming destruction of Judah.
5. In Jeremiah 36:2 – God tells Jeremiah to write a
book which we now have concerning all the
words of God that He has given Jeremiah.
"Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the
words that I have spoken to you against Israel,
against Judah, and against all the nations, from
the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah
even to this day.”
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6. The purpose being – so it could be read and
re-read to the people to cause them to hear and
repent before it would be too late.
Jeremiah 36:3 “It may be that the house of
Judah will hear all the adversities which I
purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may
turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their
iniquity and their sin."
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7. Jeremiah calls his servant – Baruch. Baruch
writes while Jeremiah dictates - Jeremiah 36:4
“Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah;
and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the
instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the
LORD which He had spoken to him.
Note: “ …all the words of the Lord which He
had spoken…”
Not some or the ones that he liked, but all.
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8. Jeremiah sends Baruch to read the book to the
people – (perhaps because he is shut up in the
court of the prison when the king of Babylon
had seized Jerusalem. (32:1 and 33:1)but
perhaps not based on (36:26)
9. While Baruch reads the book (scroll) to the
people – he is called to come read the scroll
before all the princes of Judah.
Jeremiah 36:11-15
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11. When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan,
heard all the words of the LORD from the book, 12. he then
went down to the king's house, into the scribe's chamber; and
there all the princes were sitting--Elishama the scribe, Delaiah
the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the
son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the
princes. 13. Then Michaiah declared to them all the words that
he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the
people. 14. Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of
Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch,
saying, "Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read
in the hearing of the people, and come." So Baruch the son of
Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
15. And they said to him, "Sit down now, and read it in our
hearing." So Baruch read [it] in their hearing.
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10. It brings fear upon all of them as they hear
God’s word.
“Now it happened, when they had heard all the
words, that they looked in fear from one to
another, and said to Baruch, "We will surely tell
the king of all these words.“ (36:16)
11. In attempt to save Jeremiah and Baruch, the
princes tell Baruch to take Jeremiah and hide
themselves (39:19)
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12. They take the scroll/book to King Jehoiakim, King of
Judah, they tell him of the Words of God as they are
written, he in turn tells Jehudi to read the Words to
him in (36:21)
13. As Jehudi reads from the Words of the scroll/book
3-4 columns/pages, Jehoiakim takes out his
“PENKNIFE” (KJV) and cuts off those pages throws
them in the fire because he does not like what he
hears from God, he continues until the entire Book
is destroyed in the Fire. (36:23)
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21. So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he
took it from Elishama the scribe's chamber. And Jehudi
read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all
the princes who stood beside the king.
22. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the
ninth month, with [a fire] burning on the hearth before
him.
23. And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four
columns, [that the king] cut it with the scribe's knife and
cast [it] into the fire that [was] on the hearth, until all
the scroll was consumed in the fire that [was] on the
hearth.
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14. However, Jehoiakim can not destroy it because God commands
Jeremiah to write it all again.
JEREMIAH 36:27-32
27. Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words
which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the
word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: 28 "Take yet
another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in
the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.
29. And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, 'Thus says
the LORD: "You have burned this scroll, saying, 'Why have you
written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and
destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from
here?' "
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30. Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim
king of Judah: "He shall have no one to sit on the throne
of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat
of the day and the frost of the night.
31. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their
iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I
have pronounced against them; but they did not heed."
32. Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch
the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the
instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the book which
Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And
besides, there were added to them many similar words.
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II. Many People of the World and Of the Church
are Like Jehoiakim.
A. They don’t want to hear God’s
Warnings/Commands
B. They don’t like to hear God’s
Warning’s/Commands
C. They think they can just ignore God’s
Warning’s/Commands
D. They think they can just use their “penknife”
and “CUT OUT” what they don’t like and burn it
up and as a result it has just gone away.
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1. The following are just some examples of
“Penknife Religion”.
a. They are set in no order because that doesn’t
really matter for the purpose of illustration. They
certainly are not inclusive of every scripture to
which the illustration could be applied, but then
one could throw the whole thing into the fire as
Jehoiakim did and not bother with a passage here
and there. The outcome is still the same in the
end.
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Must be baptized
Mark 16:16, Act 2:38, 22:16 I Peter 3:21, etc.
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The Lord’s Supper every First day of the Week
Acts 20:7
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Live in Peace as much as possible, avenge not
yourself Romans 12:18,19
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Ignore the warning of the works of the flesh
Galatians 5:19-21
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Ignoring Church Discipline
Romans 16:17, II John 9,10, Titus 3:10
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Preaching the Word no matter what
II Timothy 4:2
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Forgiving others
Matthew 6:12-15
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Speaking only as God Speaks
I Peter 4:11
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III. God’s Word Can Not Be Destroyed or Denied
A. What comfort for some and a heartache for others.
B. People are going to Reject It, Cut it Out with their
“Penknife”, The Bible tells us so.
II TIMOTHY 3:1 “But know this, that in the last days
perilous times will come: 2. For men will be lovers of
themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, 3. unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without
self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4. traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God, 5. having a form of godliness
but denying its power. And from such people turn
away! “
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II TIMOTHY 4:3-4
“For the time will come when they will not
endure sound doctrine, but according to their
own desires, because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4.
and they will turn their ears away from the
truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
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However, God’s word will forever stand and remain
the judge of us all. John 12:47-48
47. And if anyone hears My words and does not
believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to
judge the world but to save the world. 48. He
who rejects Me, and does not receive My words,
has that which judges him--the word that I have
spoken will judge him in the last day.”
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Jesus says,
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no
means pass away.”
MATTHEW 24:35
Peter writes,
23. “having been born again, not of corruptible seed but
incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and
abides forever, 24. because "All flesh [is] as grass, And
all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass
withers, And its flower falls away, 25. But the word of
the LORD endures forever." Now this is the word which
by the gospel was preached to you. I PETER 1:23-25
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Conclusion:
1. Jehoiakim had a sad ending to his life for his rebellion
against God’s Word.
Jeremiah 22:18, 19 – 36:29-31
2. As will ALL who do the same today.
3. It does not need to be this way, Jesus’ Words are LIFE
SAVING if we will listen and heed what He says.
The Psalmist writes.
“Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven.”
Psalm 119:89
The Anvil – God’s Word
Last eve I passed beside a blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammer’s, worn with beating years of time.
“How many anvils have you had”, I said,
“To Wear and batter all these hammers so?”
“Just one”, he said, and then with twinkling eye;
“The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.”
And so, thought I, the anvil of God’s Word,
For ages septic blows have beat upon;
Yet though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The anvil is unharmed…… the hammers gone.
What Must You DO To Be Saved?
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Hear The Word Of God
Romans 10:17
Believe His Word
Mark 16:16, John 8:24
Repent of your sins
Luke 13:3, Acts 2:38
Confess your belief Romans 10:10, Acts 8:37
Be Baptized
Mark 16:16, Acts 2:38
For the Remission of Your Sins
Acts 22:16
Galatians 3:26, 27
• Live Faithfully
Titus 2:11-14