I invite you to open with me in God's Word to 2 Timothy 3. 2 Timothy 3, we're going to look at a relatively large section of Scripture tonight, at least comparatively to some of the other sections that we've taken out of 2 Timothy. We're going to consider nine verses this evening, 2 Timothy 3 and verses 1 through 9. 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 9, I remind you that this is Paul's, as it were, last will and testament, his final words to his young disciple in the faith, Timothy, as Timothy looks ahead to future ministry. Let's now hear from God's Word, 2 Timothy 3, beginning at verse 1. But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all. as was that of those two men." This ends this reading in God's Word. Let's look again to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we are so thankful for a sure word from heaven in the midst of the uncertainty of human opinions and of popular opinion and of even intellectual opinion. Lord, how good it is to have a word from the living God. We pray, Lord, that You would enable us to pay heed to Your Word today. Pray, O God, that You would help the one who preaches it to preach it in truth, with accuracy, pointing our eyes to Jesus Christ. Pray, Lord, that You'd give each of us receptive hearts for the glory of Your name, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, what time is it? That's an important question. It's a question we often ask through the day because the time often determines our behavior. What time it is often determines whether we're going to sleep or eat or make a trip to the store. If we're at work, the time often determines what kind of task we're going to try to tackle. In a sport, if you're playing a sport, How much time is left determines whether you need to score quickly or whether you're trying to hold on to the ball. What time is it? Well, that question, what time is it, is also an important question in the Christian life because the time in which we live determines, in large measure, how we live. We need to live in view of the times. Well, what time is it in the Christian life? Well, the Bible tells us that the time that we live in is the last days. I could take you to any number of scriptures that really refer to the last days or the latter days or those upon whom the end of the ages has come as referring to those who live between the first and the second comings of Jesus Christ. And so, according to the Bible's timetable, We are now living in the last days. And the reason is, is because the next great redemptive event, the event that we keep our eyes on and eagerly expect, is the return of our Lord Jesus Christ and the consummation of His kingdom. So we are those who live in the last days. and whose attitude and life is to be determined by that reality. Now, what are these last days characterized by? Now, on the one hand, they're characterized by the advent and advance of the Kingdom of Christ. It is in these last days. In which the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the risen and ascended Christ has been given to the church that the Word of God is being sown widely, a harvest of souls is being gathered in, and the Kingdom of our Lord and Savior is ever expanding until that time when Christ returns. and it shall be consummated in all of its glory." And so it is a time of the advent and advance of the kingdom of Christ and we're to live in light of that. But these last days are also a time of the intensification of Satan's attempts to crush the work of God. that Satan continues to be at work, and so these last days are also a time characterized by ungodliness and opposition to the Lord Jesus and to His kingdom. That's exactly what Paul is telling Timothy in this verse. You see that in verse 1. Understand this, that in the last days, there will come times of difficulty. And He's preparing Timothy and He's preparing us and all Christians who live until the coming of our Lord Jesus, He's preparing us for the days that are to come. They are days in which Timothy lived. You'll notice later in this passage, it actually switches to the present tense. So it's both future and present for Timothy. There are days in which Timothy lived. They are days also in which we live. Paul is preparing young Timothy and he's preparing us as well for life and ministry in these last days. Well, with that as introduction then, I want us to see really just two points today with three sub-points under each point, but the two points are these. First of all, the characteristics of the last days. and secondly, our response in the last days." So the characteristics of the last days, and secondly, our response in the last days. One of the things that this verse does for Timothy is it describes what these last days will look like. the characteristics of the last days. And I want to describe what these nine verses say with just one sentence, and then we're going to unfold that sentence by dividing it into three sections, okay? So the key sentence is this, is that there will be increasing moral depravity that will infiltrate the professing church, and many will be deceived. That's the sentence. We're going to break it up into three parts and look at each of those parts in turn. The first part of that sentence is this, is that there will be increasing moral depravity. What are these last days characterized by? There will be increasing moral depravity. And we see that in verses 1 through 4. He says, understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Now, what is the difficulty that we will face? Why will these last days be so perilous? And he goes on to describe not the outbreak of a deadly disease. He goes on to describe not a world war or the exhaustion of the earth's natural resources. But rather what he goes on to describe is an outbreak of sin. And he says, it is sin which will make those times perilous. And in verses two through four, he lists a catalog of 18 different sins that people are going to increasingly be marked by. Now, we're not going to spend much time on each of these 18, but rather I want you to notice just a few different things about this list. First of all, notice that this list begins and ends with misdirected love. For people, verse 2, will be lovers of self, lovers of money. Then if you skip ahead to verse 4 at the end of the list, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. God has created us to love Him first and foremost. Is that not the greatest commandment, that we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength? But as it were, the fountainhead of all sin is when that love is directed elsewhere rather than God. And so, the last days are gonna be marked by people who will love self and love money and love pleasure. And indeed, where love is misdirected, that then leads to misdirected energies, misdirected priorities, misdirected behavior. Everything is thrown off, as it were, when we don't love God first of all. And so that's really the fountainhead of sin is when people do not love God first of all. But then a second thing I want you to notice about this list is that this list then includes attitudes which cripple human relationships. Look with me at verse 2. He says people are going to be proud, that is, self-centered in heart. They're going to be arrogant, that is, self-centered in speech. They're going to be abusive, that is, using others rather than helping them. Skip ahead to verse 4 again, they're going to be treacherous, that is disloyal in their relationships, reckless, that is careless toward others, and then swollen with conceit. Okay, each of these are attitudes where self is at the center, and where self is at the center, we don't love others well and human relationships break down. But then the third thing to notice about this list is that the list includes the deprivation of basic godliness. Now, what I mean here is that there are actually eight words in this list which begin with the Greek letter alpha. And wherever a word begins with alpha or A, it negates what follows. And so, for instance, we have the word atheist, atheist, one who does not believe in God. And there are eight such words here showing that people are going to lack those things which constitute basic godliness. And so they are going to be not obedient to parents. Not thankful. Not holy. Not compassionate. That's heartless. Not appeasable. Not self-controlled. We're skipping over slander, so we'll get to that one. Not, or brutal, where it says brutal, the idea says not gentle. And then not loving good. It's saying that these basic spiritual graces are not going to be present in people's lives. Now, sandwiched in the midst of that list is the word slanderous that I skipped over. It's actually the Greek word diabolos, which means devilish. It's where you get the word devil from. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Paul included that right in the middle of the list. The devil himself is the one who stands behind this kind of behavior. What a list this is. Does not this list, in large measure, characterize the day and age in which we live? Here is a list that we ought to say, God, help me to not be like this. Now we could certainly add to this list, as Romans 1 and elsewhere does add to it, but do not these 18 words describe in large measure present life, life in these last days? You know, it's very interesting. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a great age of optimism in many ways. It was the advent of a kind of what's now called secular humanism. People celebrated that they had thrown off the shackles of religion, that mankind would now advance into his true glory. If we just had a view of life that centered around man and what man could achieve, well, everything would be better. Well, what happened in the 20th century, this great age of mankind? Two world wars happened. the Holocaust happened, the failure of a communist utopia, the rise, the exponential rise of violent crime, the breakdown of the family, rampant pornography, spousal, child abuse, untold millions murdered in the womb. We could go on and on, couldn't we? The humanists were wrong. The Bible was right. Mankind left themselves to grow, as it were, more and more sinful. The theologian Reinhold Niebuhr says that human sinfulness is the most empirical of all Christian doctrines. Is that not the case? So in these last days, what are these days characterized by? Well, they're characterized by this kind of increasing moral depravity. So there will be an increasing moral depravity. Secondly, what is this going to be characterized by? That will infiltrate the professing church. That's the second part of our sentence. That will infiltrate the professing church. Verse 5 contains a statement that is actually really surprising at first glance. When after describing the moral depravity, the increasing moral depravity of people, it goes on to say, verse 5, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power. In other words, it's saying that these immoral people described in verses 2 through 4 are not only immoral people in the world, but they are immoral people within the walls of the church, that there is among them an appearance of godliness. Now, let me say this, that those who are truly God's people. bought by the blood of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit indwelling them, will indeed be preserved and increasingly sanctified, morally changed, conformed to the image of Jesus Christ until that time when they enter into glory. But what this is saying is that in the midst of that, there is going to be much false religion. People who claim to be religious people even who claim to be Christians and who keep, as it were, religious forms and practices and religious language, but have their religion, as it were, morphed into the spirit of the age. That's the idea here, is that such things are gonna characterize people who say that they're religious. Thomas Oden puts it this way. He says that among apostate experimenters, religion is seldom overtly abandoned or denied. Worse, it is co-opted in the service of sin. Lacking power, religion now is an empty shell that protects the agents. of sin." And I think that's a very insightful statement. Do you see what he's saying? Again, that when people depart from biblical truth, it's not that they become anti-religious, but rather religion is co-opted, so we're in service of their sinful designs. And this is why Jesus in Matthew 24, speaking about the last days, says that they're going to be marked by false teachers and prophets. by delusions, by abounding iniquity, and by the love of many waxing cold. And so these last days are characterized by people who claim to be Christian or religious while abandoning every aspect of Christian orthodoxy. And that is exactly what we see in our day. Abandoning the ethics of Holy Scripture, substituting the moral relativism of our day and still wanting to call it Christianity. People abandoning the doctrines of hell and of judgment and avoiding the doctrine of sin and still wanting to call it Christianity. We see in our days a kind of individualized or privatized spirituality that says that the church is unnecessary. You can have your belief and I can have mine, and yet it's still good, it's still religious, it's still spiritual, it's still Christian. These are the kinds of things that we hear. People are still spiritual and religious. They, as it were, keep the form in many ways. But they have abandoned the truth of God's Word where all true power, power unto godliness, is to be found. He says these last days are going to be characterized by that, not only an increasing moral depravity, but an increasing moral depravity that then infiltrates the professing church. But now the third point is... And finishing that sentence is this, and many will be deceived. And many will be deceived. We see this in verses 6 and 7. Paul goes on to say to Timothy, for among them, that is among those who in their moral abandonment have an appearance of godliness but lack its power, among that group there are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth." Now, these are certainly unusual words. Timothy was likely far more aware of the situation that Paul is describing than we are. But what it appears that was happening was that false teachers were using the pastoral office to, as it were, creep into and become friendly with families of the faithful and to lead them into error. In particular, it seems that the victims of this were women. There are those whom Paul calls here literally little women, but it's a term which means immature or gullible or weak-willed. Now, Paul isn't making a kind of generalized statement about females here, but rather he is saying that probably because of their low social standing and lack of education, and perhaps because of their greater religious interest than males often, that certain women were more susceptible to being deceived. And these women in particular, it says, were burdened with a heavy kind of consciousness of guilt. and also certain passionate desires that made them even more vulnerable. So, again, the picture is of women who were in a spiritually vulnerable place. And what happened was that they were then preyed upon by these false teachers. It says that these false teachers would creep into households. Again, the picture is of them being sly and cunning in their approach. And then they captured these women, which again, it's a spiritual term here. The idea is that they captured them with their false religion. So these false teachers took advantage of the infirmities and the troubles of these women in order to advance their own selfish ends. They, as it were, made disciples out of these women who were very spiritually vulnerable. And because what they taught them was false, these women then who became disciples, it says, would then always be learning seeking to learn more and more, and yet, because what they were taught was false, they would never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. And what a sad state that was. Being disciples of false religion, no matter how much they learned, they were never any closer to the truth at all. And so the picture that Paul paints here is that of deception. Again, does this not characterize day and age in which we live, in which false religion, false teaching, as it were, preys upon the natural desires and infirmities and the lack of discernment that is found in people everywhere. Let me just give you a few examples. Is not this exactly the thing that the health and wealth gospel does? preying on the poor, who would desire to have more material things, to live in a nicer home and to drive a nicer car and to have more of their needs met, and false teachers come in and they make all of those promises. If you just have enough faith, if you just give enough money, these things will be yours. They advance their own selfish ends through promoting a false gospel to those who are in a weak and vulnerable position. Roman Catholicism does much the same. It says that the people burdened with guilt, if you do enough good works, if you participate in this activity, You perform this kind of superstition, then those things themselves, they'll make you right with God. And so, again, through the ages, how many have gone on pilgrimages and said their Hail Marys? Done other things with hope of being right with God someday through those things. Again, false religion preying upon the natural tendencies and infirmities of people. Cults often do the same thing. capitalizing on people's desire to belong and to be part of something. So they become a part of it, but it's false religion. Liberal Christianity does it in the name of being open and tolerant and affirming. Who doesn't want to be open and tolerant and affirming? So that's the slogan that is trumpeted. That's the kind of religion that we have. Again, often people who are not very discerning are deceived. by those things which aren't true. The list could go on and on, but do you see what is happening here in each of these cases? Multitudes deceived by the errors of false religion. Now, so as we've gone through each of these three things, increasing moral depravity that infiltrates the church and that deceives many, Is this not describing life in our day? This was written 2,000 years ago by the pen of the Apostle Paul, and yet it very accurately describes these last days in which we live. So that's the first thing that we've seen are the characteristics of these last days. But now secondly and more briefly, what should our response be, our response in the last days? Here also we're going to have three subpoints, but they're very short subpoints, just three words. Well, the third point is two words, but essentially three words that we need to remember here. How should we respond to what we see here in these last days? And the first is this, we must understand. That's the first word, the word understand. We see that in verse 1. He says, but understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. He's saying, open your eyes, see the things that are happening around you and notice that it is exactly what the Bible describes would happen. And that's important because the fact that many in our day turn against biblical Christianity and turn against biblical morality, and the fact that the professing Christian church is so apostate in our day, doesn't erode our confidence in the truth, ultimately, of Christianity and of God's Word, but rather just the opposite. It's exactly what the Bible said would happen all along. And so when we see many departing from the truth, we say, that's what God said would happen in His Word, and we understand our age through the lens of Holy Scripture. And friends, brothers and sisters, we need to have discernment that recognizes what is false and doesn't just blindly accept everything that we see in the day in which we live, but that realizes that there is There is false religion that will be pressed upon many, and we need to understand it for what it is. We need to see it for what it is. We need to not be shaken by it. Let me just give you this illustration. If you were just walking along the street, you didn't see a person come up behind you, and they came up behind you and gave you a big shove in the back. What would happen? Well, you'd lose your equilibrium, okay? You'd possibly even fall down, skin a few knees, or a couple of knees, you only have two usually. Skin, but the idea is that you would fall down. Well, what happened if instead of receiving an unexpected shove, if you saw the person coming and you knew that they were going to try to shove you? Well, then what do you do at that point? You brace yourself. You get in a position where when they try to shove you, you're not going to move very easily. Well, friends, we ought, as it were, to see the shove coming. It's exactly what God said would happen in His Word. And so when we do see godlessness in our day, when we see apostasy, we don't panic. We aren't thrown off kilter, but rather we see it and we understand the times in which we live in light of God's Word. So that's the first word. We need to understand what is happening. Secondly, we need to avoid. What's the second word? Avoid. We see that in verse 5. He says, Avoid such people." Avoid such people. Okay, if we can return to that illustration that I was using, if you expect the person to come and to try to shove you, well, even better than bracing yourself is to sidestep the person or to turn the other way. And that's the idea here. Be careful. Watch out. Sidestep when you can. In other words, don't overestimate your ability in yourself to withstand error. Be watchful. Be prayerful. Ask God regularly, oh God, keep me from being drawn in. to the spirit of this age. Avoid it. What does this mean very practically? I think it means, on the one hand, that we need to beware of having too close of associations either with those in the world or with those who propound error in the church. Your very best friends need to be best friends who are godly. When you look to get married, you need, you need, you must get married to one who loves the same Lord that you do, that doesn't love self and doesn't love pleasure more than loves God. That's how we avoid some of the godlessness of our age. It means that as a church, We are careful to associate ourselves as a church with others who hold, as it were, like precious faith, not just with everything or everyone that calls themselves Christians, but we need to have discernment as a church. We need to be aware what kinds of associations we enter into, we need to be careful what kind intake we have through the media, through the things that we read. We need to be careful, again, about where we're spending our time. That's why it's so important to be regular at the meetings of the church because what we're doing is we're hearing from God's Word rather than the errors of our age. Now, again, this doesn't mean that we leave the world entirely, not at all. We're to be salt and light. We're to witness to the world around us, but we witness to them not by becoming like them, but by having something of the savor of Jesus Christ. So we need to be careful. We need to avoid such people, as he says. So we understand, we avoid. Thirdly, we remain confident. We see this in verses 8 and 9. He says, just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses. Now, let me stop for a second there. You say, I've read my Old Testament. I've never seen those names. You're exactly right. This is referring to the court magicians of Pharaoh who opposed Moses when he was seeking to liberate the Israelites out of Egypt. But these two names come from other Jewish sources, kind of a Jewish tradition. There's no reason to think that the names aren't accurate, indeed. And we find, again, reference to these court magicians in Exodus 7 and Exodus 8. But he pulls their example and he says, just as they opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of these two men." And we see a couple of things in this example that he pulls of Janus and Jambres. On the one hand, that error has always been opposed to truth. And in every age when God's people have lived, that there have been those who have opposed the truth. So let us not be surprised when we see it in our age as well. But the second thing that this example teaches us. is that truth always triumphs over error. Truth always triumphs over error. At the end of the day, it is the work of God that remains. God did liberate His people from Egypt despite opposition. The Lord Jesus, as we have seen out of John's gospel, went to the death of the cross to liberate His people from their sin and rose again from the dead despite opposition to Him. And friends, despite all of the opposition that Satan and his minions mount against the church of Christ today, the truth will prevail. And lies, as one writer has said, lies, all lies have an expiration date. We've seen this in church history. You know, at times in church history, error has seemed to reign and prevail if you were to go into the fourth century. Arianism, we mentioned it this morning as an ancient heresy, Arianism was everywhere. The vast majority of people, the professing church was Arian. Athanasius virtually stood alone, championing the truth of the deity, full deity of Jesus Christ. But what happened? The truth prevailed. God was with him. God preserved his truth. Or go into the later medieval period of the church. Again, superstition, abuse, false doctrine seemed to prevail throughout medieval Roman Catholicism. Jan Hus was burned in Bohemia. The Waldensians were persecuted. William Tyndale would not receive a hearing. The cause of truth and of God appeared weak and ineffectual and impoverished in that age. But what happened? What happened? Truth prevailed. So it happens time and again. And so, friends, we can have confidence that though we live in an age, we do live in such an age, and such an age will continue in which there is a moral depravity and godlessness and an apostate church in some measure. Friends, though we live in such an age, God will protect His people and preserve His truth until the day when the kingdom will be consummated in the new heavens and the new earth, and that entire new creation is going to be flooded with the presence and with the knowledge of the true and the living God. To quote Thomas Oden again, he says that God is not threatened by counterfeits. Amen. He's not threatened by counterfeits. But rather such counterfeits in our day remain as a trial for the church to prove the faith and the patience of the church of Jesus Christ. And so what are we to do then? We are to remain confident that God's truth will prevail. What was Timothy to do in such a day? Well, as we're going to see in future weeks, what Timothy was to do was to apply himself to the pursuit of godliness and to the study of Scripture. And he was not to become preoccupied with every intellectual and cultural fad. And whatever he did, he was to not depart from the truth of Scripture or to adapt his life and his message to the current age. And so it is with us also. We must continue, continue, continue in what we know to be true. We do so confident that as the hymn says, God's truth abideth still, His kingdom is forever. That must be our response in these last days in which we live. Might God grant that it be so? Let's pray together. Lord, our God in heaven, we thank You that the prevailing winds of error, of immorality and of apostasy, don't disprove Your Word, but prove the truth and the validity of it. Thank You for preparing us for such days. And we do pray that by Your grace, O Lord, that we would understand the times in which we live, that we would avoid that which is evil. and that in holy allegiance to You that we might be confident that in the end Your truth will prevail. Lord our God, grant to us such a spirit of faithfulness, dependence upon You and Your grace. Oh Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.