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So we are continuing this morning
in our series in 2 Timothy, guarding the gospel. And we come to 2
Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 to 9. It can be found on page 996
in the Pew Bible. So you please turn with me to
2 Timothy chapter 3. This is verses one to nine. Hear now the eternal living word
of God. 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 Janice 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 So there's a video of a church
service in Florida that has gone viral. It's gained a lot of attention.
Less than a month ago, a pastor of this church invited a drag
queen, a man dressed like a woman, to come to the front of the service
and deliver the children's sermon and to then take a role in the
Eucharist. The pastor wrote in a Facebook
post describing this man who was dressed as a woman as an
angel in heels, appearing to shepherds in the fields of the
night shift, telling them that good news had arrived on their
doorstep. But it actually gets worse. The man who was dressed
in drag was also a candidate as ordination for a pastor in
his denomination. And this man has a video where
he stated some of his beliefs in the form of a poem. In it
he said, the Bible is nothing. He goes on to say, God must be
nothing. Religion must be nothing. It
is all nothing until we wield it into something. And so in our series through
2 Timothy, Paul has been encouraging Timothy, exhorting him to stay
focused and firm in this task of guarding the gospel. And now, starting in chapter
2, Paul's changed his focus to false teachers that were influencing
the church there in Ephesus. This is where Timothy was the
pastor. And he charged Timothy to distinguish himself from these
false teachers by reminding the people of the gospel of Jesus
Christ, by charging the people not to quarrel. And he wanted
Timothy to continue to rightly handle the word of truth, teaching
the whole of the gospel. And then in our last passage,
Paul painted the picture of two types of teachers in the church.
The honorable vessel. Those who teach the true gospel
and pursue godly living fleeing from sinful desires like Paul
himself Timothy and so on Then there are dishonorable vessels
false teachers and he compares their teaching to an infectious
disease and said it spreads like gangrene and Those teachers are
quarrelsome. They speak irreverent babble.
They're upsetting the faith of some in the church and Now, what
is happening in that church in Florida is a more extreme example
of a much bigger problem in the church. There are people teaching
all kinds of falsehoods in the church. And these people claim
to represent Jesus Christ. They claim to represent the gospel.
But before we get into what Paul has to say about that, I want
to remind you what Paul said to Timothy in the passage right
before this. Speaking to Timothy, specifically
about his dealings with false teachers, in chapter two, verse
24, he says, and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but
kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting
his opponents with gentleness. And so when we consider the false
teachers of our day, even though their behavior and what they're
teaching is an abomination to God, were to be kind to them,
patiently enduring the evil that they're doing. We are to correct
them, but to do so with gentleness. Because if we show them the love
of Christ, Paul says, God may perhaps grant them repentance,
leading to a knowledge of the truth. And they may come to their
senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured
by him to do his will. And so this clearly applies to
the false teachers in our day that we're talking about. They
clearly have been snared by the devil. But we are to treat them
and correct them with the gentleness and love of Christ. And so with
that in mind, we come to our passage this morning, chapter
three. And here Paul gives Timothy some
details about the false teachers. And so for us, we see in this
passage three truths to remember about false teachers. First is
that they love themselves, but they don't love God. Second,
they pretend to be Christian. And the third is they won't succeed. Now, Paul has just said that
God may grant some of these false teachers repentance, that some
of them may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil.
But he begins our passage today in verse 1, but understand this. that in the last days there will
come times of difficulty. And so Paul's creating this contrast
with what he just said. Although God may grant some of
them repentance, this is not always going to be the case.
He wants Timothy and all of us to understand that some, if not
many, of these false teachers will remain false teachers. They're
not all going to repent. And these false teachers will
create times of difficulty, times of confusion and stress in the
church. Now I want to note when Paul
says last days, it's easy to think that he's referring to
some time in the future, maybe even the distant future that
applies to the days immediately preceding the return of Christ.
But that's not the way this phrase last days is used in the Bible,
and it really doesn't fit the context of our passage. Throughout
the New Testament, The phrase last days is used to represent
the new age that was promised in the Old Testament. And this
begins with the arrival of Jesus Christ. And so with the coming
of Jesus, the old age has started to pass away and the last days
have arrived. We see an example of this in
Acts chapter two. On the day of Pentecost, the
apostle Peter quotes the prophet Joel and he says, and in the
last days it shall be God declares that I will pour out my spirit
on all flesh. So he's clearly talking about
after Jesus ascended and the Holy Spirit comes upon God's
people. He's talking about the whole age of the church. Another
example is in the opening two verses of the book of Hebrews.
The author wrote, long ago, at many times, and in many ways,
God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days,
he has spoken to us by his son. And so Paul's use of this term
is the same as the other places in the New Testament. where it
means the time between the first coming of Christ and the second
coming of Christ. It's referring to the age of
the church. And so Paul was writing about
not only the time that Timothy found himself in that moment,
but the time that we find ourselves in this moment. It applies to
the whole of church history, and which this will continue
until Christ returns. So during this time, during these
last days, Paul's saying that the church will find among its
teachers some false teachers, some who will not repent, and
they will cause times of difficulty. And so this is the universal
condition of the church of Jesus Christ. This is what Timothy
is going through. This is what the church in the
United States is going through right now as well. The church
has seasons of great stress and difficulty, and they're caused
by false teachers. Paul begins to tell us why these
false teachers will cause great difficulty. Starting in verse
2 he says, 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. So Paul gives a long list
of attributes that describe these false teachers that not only
plague the church in Ephesus, but continue to plague the church
throughout church history, including today. And so Paul bookends this
list with things that these false teachers love. The first is that
they are lovers of self, lovers of money. And then it ends with
they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And so this
is our first truth about the false teachers in the church.
They love themselves, but they don't love God. The list of attributes
shows us that they have an inverted love compared to what Christians
have in a Christian our hearts have been replaced. God has changed
us We no longer solely love ourselves The Holy Spirit brings us to
spiritual life so that we can then love God the gospel taking
root in someone's heart, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
is what enables us to love God. So while for all of us there
is this struggle that continues between our love of God and our
love of ourselves, and it will continue as long as we're in
this life, we do have that struggle. For the false teachers, there's
no struggle. They just love themselves. Their
love of themselves reigns supreme in their heart. There's no room
for the love of God. They haven't been converted.
The gospel hasn't changed them. And so this is a key distinction
between a false teacher and a true servant of the Lord. That is
conversion. Has the person been transformed
by the gospel? A man who comes to the front
of a sanctuary in the midst of a worship service of the living
and true God, dressed in a wig and a sequined dress and high
heels to deliver the children's sermon, is only loving himself. He's making a mockery of the
worship of God. He's not loving God at all. And
that behavior is really an outgrowth of the bigger problem. Both his
theology and his behavior show a man that has not been changed
by the gospel. Therefore, his desire to be a
teacher in the church comes from something else, most likely his
love for himself. When God is replaced by a love
of self, all sorts of vices inevitably come from this. And so this list,
it really points us to a primary issue. That is, do they love
themselves or do they clearly love the Lord? And so let's briefly
look at this list that Paul gives us. Paul says that there are
lovers of money as well. That would just be an extension
of the love of themselves. Money, in and of itself, is not
bad. It's a useful tool. But the greed
that can take place in someone's heart is evil. It's actually
in Paul's first letter to Timothy, referring to these false teachers,
that he famously wrote, the love of money is a root of all kinds
of evil. The false teachers are also proud,
arrogant. They think of themselves instead
of God and they do so in a prideful way and they also speak about
themselves in a prideful way. The word arrogant actually can
be translated as boastful. They boast in themselves rather
than boasting in the Lord. As Paul puts it, boasting in
the cross. They're abusive, disobedient
to their parents. They're ungrateful and unholy. Ungrateful for all the blessings
and gifts God has given them, they're unholy in their lifestyle.
It says they're heartless and unappeasable. They lack affection. They don't have a love, not only
for God, but for God's people. And unappeasable actually means
unforgiving. They lack interest in forgiving
others and reconciling wrongs. And all of this is clearly contrast
to the ways of God, the ways of God's people. And he also
says, slanderous, without self-control, and it just goes on. They're
brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit. At the conclusion of the list,
they are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. And that
really summarizes who they are. But then Paul says something
important about them in verse five, that they're having the
appearance of godliness, but denying its power. It's amazing
that these people that Paul's been describing, godlessness,
selfishness, they have malice and so many bad attributes, would
have the appearance of godliness. What it means is that they're
not only professing religion, they're not only saying they
believe, but they're spreading it, they're promoting it. They
are teachers in the church. It's one thing for these men
to attend the church and sit in the pew, but it's another
to be in the pulpit, to be a teacher, spreading their lies and deceptions.
And so while their lifestyle clearly shows someone who hasn't
been changed by the power of God, they're still the ones teaching
the church. And so the second truth about
the false teachers we see in this passage is they pretend
to be Christian. And this is something that has
always been a problem in the church. False teachers claiming
to be Christian, using biblical language, but they're teaching
something different than the gospel. They're twisting it and
distorting it. Jesus speaks of this in what
we had in our responsive reading from Matthew 7. It was in the
Sermon on the Mount. He said, beware of false prophets
who come to you in sheep's clothing, but are inwardly, inwardly are
ravenous. They're in sheep's clothing,
means they appear to be Christian. They seem like they're sheep.
of the great shepherd. But they're actually something
else altogether. Inwardly, they're ravenous wolves. And so Jesus
tells us how we can recognize them. He says, you will recognize
them by their fruit. And this is similar to what Paul's
been saying. These men give the appearance of godliness. They
talk the talk. They use biblical lingo. They
come in sheep's clothing. But their fruit is rotten. You
can recognize them by their bad fruit. Paul gave us a long list
of the fruit of these men, and it's clearly not the fruit of
the spirit. It's actually the fruit of the
flesh, the fruit of the sinful nature of mankind who have not
been brought to spiritual life. And so there's bad fruit in their
lives. Clearly their behavior is unbecoming
of someone who's in Christ. But there's also the fruit of
their ministry. They may have the appearance of godliness.
They may be in a physical church building, saying things from
the Bible in a pulpit, using Christian language. But Paul
says they are denying its power. There's a power that comes through
the word of God rightly handled. As Paul puts it in Romans, the
gospel is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes. When a man chosen by God filled
with the Holy Spirit is preaching the true gospel and the word
of God, the power of God is unleashed. And God reveals and works his
power through his gospel. And so those who pursue godliness
in their lives are tools for God to do this. The more we see
in this country liberal theology taking hold in a church, that
is, theology that denies the truth of God, that denies who
Jesus Christ is, the more the church is on that path, they
are on the path to death. Mainline Protestant denominations,
they continue to teach this watered-down, godless theology, and they've
been losing all of their members because they lack the power of
God. Church growth, true church growth,
people being saved comes through the Word of God rightly and truly
taught. And so a church that lacks the
gospel is a church that lacks the truth of God's Word in its
preaching and teaching, lacks the power of God. People aren't
saved by someone claiming the Bible is nothing or God is nothing
until we make it something. That's exalting the power of
man, not the power of God. And so this kind of teaching
is completely devoid of God. But the gospel of Jesus Christ,
the word of God, has the full weight of the power of God with
them. And Paul tells Timothy to avoid
such people. He's not telling him to avoid
sinners in general. Rather, what he's saying is that
unrepentant false teachers should be excommunicated until they
repent. Paul then gives an example of
the ministry of these false teachers, starting in verse six. He says,
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. So the ministry of these teachers
was to creep in the household and capture weak women. The households
he's referring to probably are house churches where these men
would sneak in and teach their falsehoods. And creeped in, it
says they were sneaking in, they were doing it in secret. And
the people who believed them were described as weak women.
It actually literally translated as little women. And so he's
not speaking about all women clearly, just the specific women
that became disciples of these false teachers. And that they
were weak or little suggests that they were immature, childish
women. And Paul then describes these
women first as burdened by sin and led astray by various impulses. So these women were first morally
weak, living sinful lives in contrast to godly ones. And the
false teachers probably preyed upon their feelings of guilt.
And they were also always learning and never able to arrive at the
knowledge of the truth. And what we see is that they
were gullible. Their always learning means they
would listen to anyone, but they never came to a knowledge of
the truth, which means they never came to a saving understanding
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel never took root in
their heart and brought about a relationship with God through
faith in Jesus Christ. The only type of disciple who
would follow an unsaved, ungodly teacher are those who are unsaved
themselves. If they were to come to a realization
of the gospel, they would reject these false teachers. And so
that's an example of the ministry and the disciples of these false
teachers. But then Paul gives an illustration about them in
verse eight. He says, just as Janus and Jambres
opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth. Men corrupted
in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. And so what this is
referring to is in Exodus, chapter 7. There's an account where Moses
is going before Pharaoh for the first time. and Aaron is with
him. And Aaron's commanded to throw
his staff on the ground and it became a snake. And so then Pharaoh
summons sorcerers and magicians himself and they come and they
throw their staffs on the ground and they become snakes. But then
Aaron's snake swallows their snakes whole. And so the names
of these sorcerers are not mentioned actually in the Old Testament
account. But Jewish tradition says that two of those men, the
magicians from Pharaoh's court, were named Janus and Jambres. And Paul is saying, just as those
men opposed Moses, who is a true servant of the Lord, they therefore
oppose God himself. And these false teachers in Ephesus
who are opposing Paul and Timothy, who are true servants of the
Lord, are also opposing God himself. And just as God was with Moses
and Aaron, defeating the magicians, he will be with Timothy, defeating
the false teachers. And then Paul concludes in verse
nine, but they will not get very far, for their folly will be
plain to all, as was that of those two men. Just as the men
who opposed Moses didn't get very far, these false teachers
won't get very far. And that really applies to all
false teachers. And that brings us to our third
truth here about false teachers in the church. They won't succeed. We don't need to overreact to
what's going on, to these heretics, opponents of the truth. Even
when it's right in our face, even if it's absurd, their rotten
fruit will become plain to all. because they don't preach the
true gospel of Jesus Christ and the word of God. They lack the
power of God in what they're doing. They're opposing God.
And so just as Timothy lived in these last days between the
first and second coming of Christ, we still live in those days. There are difficult and dangerous,
stressful times in the church, but God is sovereign over all
times. And there are those in the church
that live wicked lives, that teach heretical falsehoods about
God and Jesus Christ. They love themselves. They don't
love God. They pretend to be Christians,
but they will be exposed. They lack the power of God and
they will ultimately fail. The Lord knows who are His. He's
not deceived. They may be successful for a
short while, but it won't last. There may be places where it
seems like the lies are winning, when you see what has happened
to once great seminaries, once great denominations in the kingdom
of God that have fallen completely to falsehoods and lies. But they
won't last. Their folly will be plain to
everyone. And once this age comes to an
end, when Jesus finally returns as promised, he will bring about
the consummation of all things in final judgment and salvation. And our future hope in his return
is guaranteed. We don't need to be afraid that
the church of Jesus Christ will fail. We don't need to worry
about these ridiculous, godless, false teachers that they'll win
out. They may have their time, where
their false teachings will spread like a disease, but when Christ
returns, all his enemies will be judged. And that includes
anyone who opposes the truth about Jesus Christ. Unless they
repent, they will face him in judgment. And those who love
Christ, those who love the truth of the gospel, our salvation
will be complete. We'll be in our future resurrected
bodies in glory, in the new heavens and the new earth with Jesus
Christ for eternity. So your job as a faithful servant
of the Lord is to continue to pursue godliness in your life,
continue to flee sinfulness, be kind to everyone, patiently
enduring evil, loving even your enemies, being gentle to those
who oppose you, And we do this knowing that no matter what happens
in this world, Jesus will return and make all things right. We
have a hope that unbelievers, heretics, anyone who hasn't been
transformed by the gospel doesn't have. A future hope of guaranteed
glory promised by God upon the return of his son. So don't be
swayed in your faithfulness to the Lord. Don't be swayed in
your faithfulness to the word of God and his gospel. While
there are many heretics and false teachers loving themselves more
than they love God, you will love God with all your heart,
mind, soul, and strength. While the false teachers who
appear to be Christian, living godless lives, lacking the power
of God, you in your house, you will serve the Lord. And you
have the power of God and the power of his gospel with you.
The Holy Spirit indwelling to empower your life and your work
for the kingdom. And we do all this knowing that
the mission of God to call a people to himself, to change our hearts
and to bring about the redemption of all of creation will not fail. So let us take heart knowing
that the truth is on our side. Therefore, God is on our side. And so no matter how much we
might suffer now, no matter how bleak it may look on this side
of heaven, no matter how blatant and obscene the false teachers
become, one day we will be with God in all His glory for the
rest of eternity. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we come before
You knowing that You are a great and sovereign God. While there
are times of difficulty, there are always seasons of those who
oppose us that oppose you, that make a mockery of you. We will
stay strong in your word. We will hold fast to the gospel
of Jesus Christ. We will continue to do your work
in this world. Lord, send us your spirit that
we may remain faithful in suffering that we become more godly each
day, pursuing you and pursuing holiness, fleeing from sinfulness,
that we may be a light in this world, that we may show with
our lives what is possible with a people that are transformed
by the power of God. And we pray all of this in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, amen.
Living in the Last Days
Series Guarding the Gospel
| Sermon ID | 1023221622296257 |
| Duration | 30:10 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday - AM |
| Bible Text | 2 Timothy 3:1-9 |
| Language | English |
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