2 Timothy chapter 3. We've got two more chapters, and we will have completed the body of Paul's 13 letters in the New Testament. But realize this, that in the last days difficult or perilous times will come, for men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers or blasphemers, Disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power, avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with sins. led on by various impulses, always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Janus and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also opposed the truth. Men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith, but they will not make further progress, for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Janus' and Jambres' folly was also. Father, thank You again for this Word. We thank You, Lord, that You have sent Your Son. We thank You that You have sent Your Spirit, that we might know You, that we might know the way of salvation. We thank You for this Word. And Lord, we read that Your Word is truth. Your Son prayed that You would sanctify us by this truth. And that is our prayer tonight, Lord, that this Word would have a transforming effect on us, in Christ's name. Amen. As Paul wrote this final letter to Timothy, he was for a second time a prisoner in Rome. He was facing imminent execution. He and the rest of the apostles were being martyred. And it would soon fall to a second generation of gospel ministers to carry on the building of Christ's church. So, Paul continues to exhort Timothy to preach the word, to stand firm in sound doctrine, and to be an example of godly life and conduct among the flock of Christ. And to do this even in the face of the false teaching and the persecution that was certain to come. He said in chapter 2, verse 15, And so his consistent message to Timothy has been, to handle the word of truth rightly, to avoid the waging of thoroughly useless word battles with the charlatans. And in both letters, he's told them this. Don't wrangle about useless things. Paul repeats this message over and over again. Don't wrangle about myths and genealogies, the things that are engaged in by some of those who had arisen among the assembly in Ephesus and wanted to be regarded as teachers of the law. And in chapter 3, the danger of false teachers and false prophets and the damage that they can cause to believers is again in focus. So in the final verses of chapter 2, Paul reminded Timothy that the visible church, church on earth, will always contain both wheat and tares, true believers and some who are not true converts. But he also reminded Timothy that he used the words, the firm foundation of God stands. It is built on God's eternal decree. It's built on the covenant of redemption between father and son. It's built on his election of a people in Christ. It's built on the work of Christ. And it's built on the gospel. So the gospel is going to go forth in the midst of rejection, in the midst of error, in the midst of opposition. And it's not going to return to our Lord without having accomplished its purpose. And Paul reminded Timothy, verse 22, to keep on fleeing from youthful lusts, to keep pursuing righteousness, pursue faith and love and peace. He says to them, verse 23, avoid foolish and ignorant speculations, knowing that they produce quarrels. Look, what matters is we're all sinners, and we come into the world sinners under the wrath of God, and that Christ has come and rescued us. And that those who believe in Him have eternal life in glory with Him. Now he tells them, you got to resist these false teachers, but at the same time the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, has to be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition. So you got kind of a stand firm against the false teaching, but you got to be gentle and patient. Our mission is to win the loss to Christ. That's why we're here. Not to win an argument or to prove ourselves right. So we must avoid quarrels. The objective, we must never lose sight of the objective, which is to win people to Christ. So we have to treat people with kindness, have to gently correct those who are in opposition. And you know, he tells Timothy, your gentleness is not going to always be reciprocated. It's not going to be appreciated. Faithful teaching is going to meet at times with ridicule, with abuse, with insult. And when this happens, you got to be patient under these attacks. So even towards the most unworthy, we must exercise ourselves with meekness. And though at first there's no appearance of success in bringing men to faith, have to stay at it and pray that God will grant repentance, leading to saving faith. And so he's writing to Timothy clearly, but these things apply to all who would share the gospel over the centuries. Now, verse 1 of chapter 3, a much misunderstood verse, but realize this, that in the last days difficult or perilous times will come. Now, there's an unfortunate tendency in our day to read Scripture as though we in the 21st were the only audience ever intended by the Scriptures, that we are the immediate audience, that he's writing not to Timothy and to Ephesus in the first century, but he's writing to us. Some tend to neglect there was a particular person and a particular assembly of people to whom Paul and other New Testament writers were directing their teaching, their instruction, and their exhortations, as well as their words of caution. And this is particularly true when Paul or the other writers use terms like the latter days or the last days as Paul does here. Now people, and you've heard people say this, they see that, oh, there's a war over here in the Middle East and there's volcanoes going on everywhere. It must be the end. The evil in the world has reached such a point that this must be the end. And they bank that on this verse. And this verse has nothing to do with that. The last days cover the entire period from Christ's first coming to His last coming. That's what Scripture tells us. All Scripture has application for us today. And Paul will write in verse 16, all Scripture is inspired by God. It's profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness. But the immediate audience for this letter was an overseer in the church in Ephesus in Asia Minor in or about the year 63 AD. And by extension, the audience was all the believers in Ephesus. And they had this problem of men who were both false teachers and were wicked. Paul instructed Timothy to teach others these things to instruct them concerning the things that he had taught them. Now, here, Paul wanted Timothy to realize that in the last days, difficult times will come. Now, was Paul warning Timothy that in the 21st century, or maybe later, men would turn from Christ and be given over to all manner of self-indulgence? If he was, of what use would that information have been to Timothy in the first century? Well, obviously, such information would have been of no use to him at all, or to any of the Christians in Ephesus in 63 AD. But we're surrounded by fortune tellers in the world, especially today. And the futurists in our day read these words, hear of a war in Syria, and say, I can see the signs. It looks like we're at the end. Well, they're not right. When Paul uses the term, the last days, he's not talking about the final few weeks before Christ returns. He's talking about the entire period of Christ's church here on earth. The last days refers to the whole time from the completion of Christ's redemptive work until He comes at the end. And within these last days of the world, there will be grievous seasons. And this is clear from verse 5. If you look at verse 5, Paul says to Timothy, you've got to avoid such men. Avoid such men as these. But look at what the scripture says. Isaiah chapter 2, verse 2. Now it will come about that in the last days, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills, and all the nations will stream to it." Because of course, the coming of Messiah. And Micah 1 writes exactly the same thing. Many make the mistake of reading Joel, chapter 2, verse 28, as speaking of events that are still far in the future. Now, Joel said this, "...it shall be in the last days that I will put forth My Spirit on all mankind, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams." Now on the day of Pentecost, Peter spoke of these words and he quoted them as the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. He said, this what you see here at Pentecost. He says, these men are not drunk. This is what was spoken through the prophet Joel. So this prophecy in the last days was fulfilled on Pentecost on the first century. Now, there are, regrettably, two causes of much error in the church today. One is a kind of untoward fascination with the future. Now, I know everybody wants to look to the future. We want to know what the future is. And there's fortune tellers all over the place and who claim to be in the church. And maybe some of them are. And the other, of course, is a romanticism concerning ancient Israel. But hear what the writer of Hebrew says. He says, God, after He spoke to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. So plainly, according to Scripture, the last days began with Christ's appearing. And we are still in them. 1st John 2 18 one more children it is the last hour what were people to think it was that the last hour of human history no it's the last hour he wrote and just as you heard that Antichrist is coming Even now many Antichrists have appeared. From this we know that it is the last hour. It's important that we understand what the last days and last hour are. Yes, there will be some final days, but this term is used in Scripture to speak of the entire time between Christ's first advent and His second. And so let Timothy, and this is written by Chrysostom in the year 400, they're dealing with the same things. Let Timothy and all gospel ministers remember that it was so from the beginning. And Chrysostom in his commentary goes through, you notice here was the serpent coming at Eve, and then there was Cain coming at Abel, and it went on down throughout the centuries. And so there's always been an opposition to God and His people. And so he says, in short, there was no time when falsehood was not set up in opposition to truth. So let us not be distressed that it would be so was foretold from the beginning. This is a pretty wise man. 400 A.D. So all of this to say that when Paul wrote in the last days, difficult or perilous times will come, he wasn't speaking only of the final days before Christ's return, but of this entire period of the church. And he was warning Timothy that those difficult times were going to come in Ephesus, in Asia Minor, during his lifetime. Again, look at verse 5. Avoid such men as these. In verses 2 through 7, Paul speaks of the evils that will characterize men in those days. The list has 18 or 19 items, depending upon who's counting. There's a similar list we find in Romans 1, verses 29 through 31. But if you look at verses 2 through 5, you see the evil characteristics of mankind, of fallen man that make these times so difficult. And folks, it's always been this way. The church has always been under attack. It's under attack today. It'll be under attack tomorrow. It was under attack in Chrysostom's time, in Calvin's time, and throughout the ages. Verses 6 to 9 though, well then he'll zero in on Timothy again. Now Timothy, in light of this, here's what you have to do. We're only going to get through verse 5 tonight. But look at the list here. Men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant or overbearing, revilers or blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, unforgiving, malicious gossips, slanderers, without self-control, untamed, brutal, haters of what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. I made a note that I don't think I have to explain the meaning of any of these sinful traits to you. And I, in reading Calvin's commentary, he made the same point. And then he just went about not explaining what the meaning of these things. He said that to spend time explaining every word would be superfluous. The words do not need exposition. But let us observe that self-love, and this is from phileo, not from agape, which is the first one here we regard as the source from which flow all the vices that follow. And that's true. And we are going to look at each word. You suppose that such men will exist only in the final days before Christ's return? Anybody think we're only going to see these kind of men only in those last few weeks before Christ comes back? Obviously not. Men and women have been marked by these characteristics since when? The beginning. In the garden. Fall of Adam. This is what has marked mankind. So men love themselves rather than God. We come into the world. We love ourselves. We love ourselves rather than God or our neighbor. And those are the two commandments that Jesus said. These are the two great commandments. Love the Lord your God with all the heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is love your neighbor as yourself. And we come into the world and who do we love? Ourself so the natural state of man when he comes into the world is not only one of survival But of self gratification of self indulgence So we don't have to be taught to love ourselves that comes to us naturally We don't buy a car for example for somebody else who do we buy a car for I? Ourself who do we buy a house for do we just go see I'm gonna go look at houses, and I'll we buy a house for ourself We don't put a new roof on somebody else's house Put a new roof on our own house Now, I'm not saying that's sinful, but I'm saying this is how our minds and our desires are geared toward serving ourself. One of the commentators quotes, and this guy Trench gets quoted often, he uses the illustration for self-love of the hedgehog, which rolls itself up in a ball, keeps the soft, warm wool for itself, and what's outside is these sharp spines to anyone who comes in here. That's self-love. So we serve ourselves, and it isn't necessarily always sinful, but notice that's our basic instinct, is to serve ourselves. And we spend far more time gratifying ourselves than we do, say, serving the needs of others. And what is it that enables men to serve themselves? What do you need to serve yourself? Anybody say money? We need money to serve ourselves. Money is what enables men to serve themselves, to fulfill their fleshly desires. Self-love and love of money kind of go together. Selfishness is evidenced by a love of money. It's the means for gratifying what the self wants. And it was no different in Ephesus in the first century than it is in the USA today. So Timothy has to realize he's going to serve God in difficult times because people who The gospel calls to serve God and to love Him will be lovers of self and lovers of money. He's going to serve in a world, in addition to that, where men are boastful, prideful, arrogant, Men want other men to think well of them, so they're prone to boast about themselves. And sometimes, you know, we can just kind of slide it into the conversation. You know, when I was up in the Hamptons, whatever. People can do that. Men are prone to boast about their wealth, their material possessions, their accomplishments, their talents. John 12, 43, they love the approval of men rather than the approval of God. And Paul's not speaking only of the world here. In fact, he's warning Timothy about these kind of men with these kind of traits in the church. Next, Paul says such people are overbearing in their attitudes towards others. They're haughty, uppish. He calls them revilers. Some render this abusive, and the word is blasphemeo. So many render this blasphemers. Now what's a blasphemer do? He speaks falsely of God, doesn't he? But a blasphemer or a reviler is one who speaks ill of others. He speaks to cause others to have a low opinion of someone else. That's what a reviler does. They use scornful language both in relation to God and to other men. They're disobedient to parents. Ungrateful, unholy. I'll translate these three the same. I was talking to this woman. She's a grade school teacher, third grade. And I was shocked. She was telling me that the kids are almost uncontrollable, disrespectful, not interested in orderliness of any kind. And I mean, I thought that was just shocking, but that's third grade now. Disobedient to parents, disobedient to teachers, not being taught at home, obviously, to be obedient, to be respectful of elders. And to be disobedient to parents, or teachers in that case, is a manifestation of ingratitude. to be unappreciative of the acts of kindness and care and provision that have been made by parents or by others. It's to be unappreciative toward other people or toward God. A hundred years ago, Richard Lenski wrote in his commentary on this passage. He wrote, this is the frightful signature of our present time. Now, as I said, Calvin didn't want to cover all this, but I can tell you if he had, he would have made the same statement about 1540. This is all the result of sin. When Jesus came over and looked at that tomb and saw everybody weeping around him, he weeped because he was beholding the ravages of sin. And all of this is the ravages of sin. A civilization that turns its back on God. ungrateful. God extends his kindness toward all his creatures. Let me read Psalm 149, I'm sorry, 145 verse 9. The Lord is good to all, and his mercies are over all his works. You know, it isn't just Christians who ought to live in gratitude to God. Even the wicked because he's given his gives the rains fall on both the wicked and the good But life itself comes from God the fact that there's food available comes from God Far too many have no gratitude at all for his kindness Unholy They don't reverence God These are people in churches They don't reverence his person, they don't reverence his work, they don't reverence his church. And this implies, the next item here, that they are heartless, unfeeling, lacking even in natural affection, such as parents have for children. It isn't present. And they exhibit this same kind of callousness in their dealings with others. They hold grudges. You ever get in a situation where somebody's holding a grudge against you and won't let go of it? Any perceived offense to these kind of people is carried through their whole life. We had this, I see this in families often. Especially at the time when one family member dies, and now we have to divide up the spoils. And then from that day forward, you can have grudges that are never let go of. And so, Paul calls these kinds of people irreconcilable. ESV calls them unappeasable. In other words, they're unforgiving. King James calls them truce breakers. I'm not sure that that term is the best or that's the best translation. But there are people who will simply refuse even somebody's genuine declaration of sorrow for what they've done. Now we have a final group here that shows how these inner attitudes express themselves outwardly in words, words of hatred, and in deeds. They are, he calls them, malicious gossips. They are slanderers. You know, why do people gossip? When you gossip, who are you gossiping about? Do you gossip about yourself? Not you, any of you personally. But when one gossips, does one gossip about themselves? Or does one gossip about others? People gossip about others. Now, when people do that, what is their usual objective? Is it to exalt that other person and make people see him in a better light? No, it isn't. Chrysostom again puts it this way. He says, those who are conscious that they have no good in themselves, while they commit many sins and offenses, find consolation in defaming the character of others. Think about it. I'm not very good, but look at him. And they slide it into the conversation. And you can even do it as an expression of concern. Isn't that too bad about so-and-so? Then out comes the story which makes that person look bad It may be that way they may just be people who openly hurl charges at others They invent and spread false stories about others and in all cases. They are imitators of Satan the deceiver and Next, without self-control. They've never learned to control themselves. They're devoid of power to check their own impulses. Now, some people just do whatever they feel. And there's a philosophy at work in the world today. Just do what you feel. In fact, that was almost a saying of the 60s. If it feels good, do it. Nothing holds them in check. And I believe that, in part, was the product of the false theory of evolution. Evolution says, look, we just came from a pollywog, no God created us, so it doesn't matter. Do what you like. And that's what the atheists, I mean, that's their way of life. Doesn't matter. Incontinent. with respect to both their tongue, their appetite, and everything else. There's just no control. Well, we get to the next one, brutal. King James renders it fierce. Because they've never Gotten control of themselves, so they living in an untamed savage kind of manner They're restrained by nothing and I'll bet every one of us has somebody or some people were thinking of as we say these things But no people like this And it comes from a purposelessness in life Without Christ. What is the purpose of life? Find some trick into eternal glory? They are haters of good. They have no love for what is good. Some people hate what's good. You know, they always hate the good kid in the school, whoever the teacher likes and is behaving. He becomes quickly the subject of ridicule, or she becomes quickly the subject of ridicule. They despise virtue. Why? Why would people despise virtue? Because they're jealous because they are un-virtuous. They're not virtuous. So you say that virtue, that's no good. That's why so many not only do not love Christ and his people, they hate them. They hate Christ. We've seen it across our news, across our internets now for especially the last three, four, five years. It is a hatred. I saw a story the other day. An attorney walked into, maybe some of you have seen it, to a courtroom. She had a cross, a little necklace thing with a cross, and the judge tells her to remove that cross. We can't have any proselytizing here in the courtroom. And she stood up to him and read him the Constitution and her right to free exercise of her religion. But the judge, think about it, wanted her to remove the cross. He wouldn't have made her remove a crescent moon. He wouldn't have told her to take off a yarmulke. Get that cross out of here. Anybody who doesn't think that attitude isn't out there in large numbers is missing something. They want to be rid of Christ. That's this group. Haters of good without love for what is good. And good is Christ. They want to be rid of Him and they want to be rid of this church. Writ large. They're treacherous. Some translate that traitors. If someone is a traitor, treacherous, what's that mean for you in terms of your dealings with that person? Do you trust that person? That's a person who can't be trusted. When you read treacherous in your Bible, or traitor, it means this is somebody who can't be trusted. Why not? What's a traitor do? He betrays. He's ready to betray him. He's supposed to be a close friend, and he's ready to betray him at every opportunity. But treacherous, there are people who cannot be trusted. Now he's talking about not just people in there, but people who are teaching, proclaiming their own truth. Reckless, headstrong, rash, plunging ahead without thought. And we kind of saw this same thing up above here with untamed and savage, without control, conceited. Is it important to most people to think well of themselves? In order to think well of yourself, what do you have to do? I mean, you have to focus on what you perceive to be your good qualities. You set aside your not-so-good qualities. Put together, all of these, they rashly plunge ahead. They act recklessly. Remember in Ephesus when they all stormed into the marketplace after Paul. That's kind of the people he's talking about. In fact, I'll turn there. Acts 19. Paul's in Ephesus. And I'll begin in verse 23. Here these people are. About that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way. That's us. For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith who made silver shrines of Artemis, was bringing no little business to the craftsmen. These he gathered together with the workmen of similar trades and said, Men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business, and you see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people saying that gods made with hands aren't really gods. How about that? Not only is there danger that this trade of ours fall into disrepute. No, they're selling these little things and claiming they're divine. They're these little gods. Disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis be regarded as worthless, and that she, whom all of Asia and the world worship, will even be dethroned from her magnificence. When they heard this and were filled with rage, they began crying out, Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! The city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia. Reckless, headstrong, plunging ahead without thought, conceited, lovers of money, revilers, slanders. See all of those characteristics right in that little passage. And this blindness that they have is spiritual, it's moral, it's rooted in the heart. Because people in the natural state are utterly selfish and self-indulgent. So at the end of this listing of 19 things, Paul returns to his starting point. All these sinful traits flow from men's love of self, the self-indulgence and desire for and pursuit of self-gratification. All of this flows from that. They're pleasure loving, Paul says, rather than God loving. That's the climax. They don't love God at all. They love themselves. This is the mark of worldly men today. It has always been the mark of worldly men. They are those who are of the flesh, as Paul writes to the Romans. And they, from the earliest days of the church, have invaded the membership of the church everywhere. And that's why Jesus talked about wheat and tares. These people have no love for God or for His revelation of Himself in Christ or for His people. And even if they're excommunicated from the church, they may still pretend to be Christians. They're described here by Paul as having a form, a semblance or appearance of godliness. But they deny and have denied for all its power. They've denied its power. Faith, Chrysostom then comments, without works, without an evidence of that faith, is fitly called a mere form without the power. A Christian should look like a Christian, should appear to be a Christian to others, should talk like a Christian, and certainly should live like a Christian, doing all things to the glory of God. Chrysostom draws a little picture here. He says, For as a fair and florid body, when it has no strength, is like a painted figure, so is a right faith apart from works. For if a man claimed to be a true worshiper of God, but is marked by these characteristics, his claim to faith and godliness is false. Obviously. And today we see the formation of godliness in many places. Roman Catholicism, they've got all kinds of form of godliness, but they've got a false gospel. New Ageism, there's a form of spirituality. You ever hear somebody say of someone who's a non-believer, she's very spiritual, very spiritual. What does that mean? I don't know. Heretical sects like Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, and there are many others. And of course, the false religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam. In what are called Christian lands, the world adopts many Christian forms. You know, people love to look at the founding documents of this nation. Our rights flow from God. God created all men equal. But how many in this nation believe in that God who sent his son to die for us? So there's a form there. People used to love to say this is a Christian nation. Well, clearly that's in question. But there's a form that says we're a nation that is under and subject to the word of Christ. It's a form of godliness. I've seen these national days of prayer. Did anybody see these this year? We have a national prayer breakfast and some woman gets up there and is promoting an obviously sinful lifestyle. Women with women. Women trying to turn into men. Men dressing up as women. This is the day of prayer. This is the prayer breakfast. There's a national day of prayer. Who's there? Well, some Christians attend these things, but there are also Roman Catholics, there are Muslims, there are Hindus, there are all these people. Who's everybody praying to? Are they all praying to the same God? It's a form of godliness, and it denies its power. We are to have no partnership with the unbelieving, particularly when we go before God. Where's the power in a Muslim's prayer? Where's the power in one who prays to Mary, the mother of Jesus? Where's the power in one who prays but doesn't believe Jesus is God? There is no power. There is no divine, regenerating, renewing, sanctifying power. Where's the true gospel in the Jehovah's Witness? Where's the true gospel in the Mormons who believe Christ is a created being? It's totally absent. There can be no power where there is no truth. And this emptiness of power tries to invade and infiltrate the true churches and their members. That's what he's telling him here. And lest anyone doubt was we look back to when he says in the last days, this is going to come. Yeah, it's been coming like a flood for 2000 years. So when we summarize all of this. There's going to be difficult times during this church period, and they've been marked out in God's eternal decree. Nothing comes as a surprise to him. After all, he sent his own son to the cross. So certainly he's going to permit these kind of times. So in sum, he who loves himself, he's all about himself. He despises others at heart. He's covetous of others. He can't be trusted because he's always going to act in his own self-interest. And he's ungrateful for the blessings of this life. And Paul cautions Timothy, avoid such men as these. This is what you're going to deal with, Timothy. You avoid such men as these. And so clearly, as we started at the beginning, this tells us Paul wasn't writing of difficult times far in the future only, although they'll be there too, but times of trouble that Timothy would face. The pastors of the Christian church will have a great deal to do with wicked and ungodly men, just as the prophets did in the Old Testament. Just as Jesus did, I mean, who were the religious leaders of Judaism in which he was raised and in which he observed their laws? Who were the leaders? Pharisees, were they his friends? Did they pretend to be those men of God? Anybody with an outfit like that and a hat like that is trying to convey something to people. So these difficult times are going to come. And so we have to be prepared and we must be ready to deal with them. Try to deal gently. Try to lead people to Christ. Because these difficult times, Calvin says, you know, these aren't going to come in war or in famine or in diseases, although those things may occur, but they're not the threat to the church. And it's people that these kind of men are. Or that these traits can be, this self-indulgence can be. The difficult times are not going to consist in the calamities and the inconveniences that we're going to face, but in the wicked and depraved actions of men. And they whom he describes here are not external enemies. They're men who wish to be reckoned among the members of the church. Now, he said that in 1540. It hasn't changed. Even in the present day, Calvin writes, although the lewdness of the popish clergy is such that it stinks in the nostrils of the whole world, still, in spite of their wickedness, they do not cease to arrogate proudly to themselves all the rights and titles of saints. And then a few years ago, we read of a lot of these men as child molesters. That doesn't mean every Catholic priest is a child molester. If you read Calvin, he's living in the time of a Reformation. They're breaking away from this false gospel and from this institution where a Pope is claiming essentially monarchical authority. But we had this and have had it all along. So it's not going to be a sign of the end, but it's going to be present in every age. And so we must learn, Calvin says, to groan patiently under this burden as we are informed that this is the lot of the Christian church. Well, Father, thank you for your instruction. Thank you for your warnings, your caution. Thank you for opening our eyes to your truth. It's a true blessing, Lord, to know that you, even as you spoke to Timothy, that you, in your Word, have application for us today. And so, Lord, let us hear you tonight, and I pray that you will deliver this Word to us, to our hearts, in the power of your Spirit. and that we will be transformed by it. In Christ's name, amen.