2 Timothy chapter 3, looking at verses 1 through 5. Paul has already told Timothy in the book of 2 Timothy to teach the Word in Ephesus, to find others who will teach the Word after Timothy leaves, that he has to stop being afraid and be ready to face persecution and suffering for the sake of teaching the Word of God. In 2 Timothy chapter 3 we have a set of verses, chapters 3 verses 1-5 that we're looking at today, that Paul is going to identify the character trait or the vices of the type of people that will be living during this time period called the last times. Now we'll identify what the last times refers to or what it could refer to. But these times are going to be identified of people having 19 vices or general character traits that all kind of work together, that lead together from one step to the next. Now how they're all broken down and how they all interact are probably very complicated. as far as being in a society, or in this case, in the church. Remember, we're not talking in 2 Timothy about the world and about the culture, we're talking about the nature of the church during this time period. Now when we talk about church, we're not always talking about the true church, we're talking about those who are within the institution of the church, and clearly, In the church of Ephesus, as we see throughout the New Testament, within the church, the functioning church, the functioning believers, are people who have come in that are not believers, or they have compromised, or they're false teachers. Many of them are in leadership positions, and they're misleading people. And that's what we're talking about today. Now, before I read 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 5, that we're talking about today, I want to go back to 1 Timothy and read chapter 4, verses 1 through 5. which has some things that are similar, just so we've got a reference to this. Uh, in second and first Timothy chapter four verses one through five, Paul had already told Timothy these things. Now the spirit expressly says that in latter times, remember that phrase, latter times, Some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons. So again, they're leaving the faith, they're leaving the truth and going after doctrines and teachings, ideologies that are actually presented, not by the spirit of God, but by demons, by creatures, beings that are anti-God, that are against God in the spiritual warfare. Through their in sentence it through their in through the insincerity of liars whose conscience are seared They will forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with Thanksgiving notice right here within these teachings They are going to be teaching about God. They're teaching in the church about God, but it's demonic teaching It's not true and the practices that come out of these demonic teachings are asceticism, what we see right here, forbidding marriage and requiring people to abstain from food and drink that God received with, God created for these things, marriage and food and drink, to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. If you know the truth, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you will know how to receive marriage, sexuality, food and drink in the right proportions, at the right time, at the right place, the way God created it to be. For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer." Meaning God has made these things for you at this time. Now, I'm going to read the verses we're looking at today, and, well, let's just read them in the English Standard Version, 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 through 5. Paul tells Timothy after having explained to him in the first two chapters, I need you to keep teaching. I need you to find others who can teach the truth, that will handle the truth correctly. You've got to be faithful, but get ready to suffer. Do not be afraid. God has empowered you with his spirit, with the gift to accomplish these things, but to accomplish them, you're going to have to suffer. But now listen, he's going to say right here, chapter three, understand this. that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be that here's a list of nineteen vices or character traits for people will be lovers of 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 Quite a list. It almost seems redundant, but we can break it down. I want to break it down quickly and make some sense out of it, besides just a bunch of bad stuff. It says, finally, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Then he tells Timothy in verse five, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. So the people like this, they're going to give you the appearance of godliness. If you would look at them and rate them, your evaluation would be, these are godly people. These are people that are serving God. They're talking about religion. But the list there is completely the opposite. So we've got people that have separated from God's reality and have created their own religious system that to the average person, undiscerning person, they would say, these people are very godly. But you've got yet two levels of godliness. You've got godliness in the truth, which gives you freedom, and you've got godliness in this false reality that is corrupt in character, filled with vices, but yet they still present themselves as godly. It says here in verse 5, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. In other words, Timothy's being given an imperative, avoid such people at all times. Avoid them at all costs, because they are contrary. They're going to have an appearance of godliness, but their denial of the truth is going to be a denial of not just ideology truth, or philosophical truth, but the application of truth. They have no power in their lives. They've denied the truth. They've denied reality. They're not going to have the transforming power that the Word of God can have. We are sanctified by the Word. Jesus says that throughout the Bible. The truth sanctifies you. The truth sets you apart for God, which then, with the power of God, you're transformed into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ. There's a real truth, a very real reality, There is a truth that God presents to the believer that will renew your mind so that you can be transformed into the image of His Son and not conformed into the image of the fallen world. If you reject the truth, if you deny the truth, you're gonna then be left to embrace some form of asceticism, some form of something that people would say is godly, but there's no power there. You've denied the power, you've denied the source, and so you're left with nothing but more human works that is gonna get you into this vicious cycle of human works that's gonna lead to catastrophic events in your life, in the church, and then throughout society. Now this list right here, we're gonna look at here in just a minute, but let's go ahead and look at that first verse. Just break this down, because we want to identify when these last times are. Some of these things, I like to teach, because I'm a teacher, I like to teach things exact and precise and give you this is exactly what it means. But sometimes, as we weave scriptures together, we try and build the full concept of what is being presented in the word of God, you've got to present different approaches to different verses so that you don't lock yourself out of the truth. Because this verse, if you make it very narrow in its application, it may fit somewhere else in your building of your theology. And you've got it locked out. You'll never be able to use it because you've lost it. So I'm going to present to you four potentials. They all may be true at the same time. Maybe one more than the other but what does this mean the last times here it is but understand this that in the last days there will come times of Difficulty that's our first verse. Here's what is being said here The fact that says but understand this it's the word from a word from Gnosco It means to know or basically in this context. It means Timothy understand this Realizes it's calling him to know it to recognize it to perceive it to learn this to realize that this is true You Timothy you must realize that this is the way the last times are Realize this come to a knowledge that accept this as fact. This is the reality you're living in and So that is what is being said there. What the last days will be like this. Now the definition of last days, you get the word eschatos or eschatas in there for last or extreme, the final. That's the word eschatology, the study of the end, the study of the final, the study of end things. But he is saying here, the last day. So the days is a word. It just means a day. It's the Greek word Hermaeus, which means a day or a period from sunrise to sunset. It can be used to refer to a period of time in that day, in that time. Here it's being said in the final times, in the final period, in the final days, in the end times. Now, When you say end times, you immediately think of the last days before Jesus Christ returns, or the last days of the world. And this is true. That's exactly correct. But we understand that Paul is writing to Timothy in AD 67. And he's giving him advice on, this is what you need to understand. This is the way your church is. And so he's making an application to Timothy in that time. And this is what Timothy is seeing, is being told, this is what you see. You're to avoid these things. It's not like, you don't see it yet, Timothy, but someday it'll start looking like this in your church. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, this is what your church looks like today in 67 AD. So now you say, well, Paul must have believed it was the end times and Jesus Christ was coming back in the next few months. And now 2,000 years later, critics use that as a criticism of the New Testament. Clearly, Paul was wrong. Okay, you can say that if you want to, but I think you're rushing to a conclusion to discredit the scriptures. Because in Acts chapter 2, the overreaching phrase, end times, or the last days, is used by Peter on the day of Pentecost in 30 AD in Acts chapter 2, I'll read you the verse, when he identifies that they have just entered, that day, we have just entered the last days. meaning we were in a previous time period, but with the death, resurrection of Jesus Christ, his ascension into heaven, we have left behind the old age, which we would say in our terms the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, and we've entered into a new dispensation. We would call it the Church Age in theology. But Peter was identifying it, we have just entered the last days. So that stretches from 30 AD and the last days will end when Jesus Christ returns. That gives us this window of 30 AD to whenever Jesus Christ returns. These are the last days. Right. Now, if we're talking about eschatology and end times, are we living in the last days? The answer has been yes, we've been living in the end times. the last days, the final days, for 2,000 years. Okay? That makes sense when you consider all of time and the periods that God has had leading up to where we're at. We're waiting. From the ascension of Christ, we're waiting for Jesus Christ's return. We do not know when He's going to return. So these times, we are in the last times, the last days, the final days. And this is the character trait of these times. So that's one thing. Let me just read the verse to you, Acts. chapter 2, verse 14 through 24. There's no doubt that this is what this means. This is an absolute teaching, absolute truth. Acts chapter 2, verse 14. Peter is going to quote the writer of the Old Testament, Joel. Part of the book of Joel. But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and addressed them, Men of Judea, and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and give ear to my words. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel. And then he quotes, And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I'll pour out my spirit on all flesh. And that is exactly what just had taken place. The spirit was given to the church. And your sons and daughters shall prophesy, not just the prophets or the priests, but your sons and daughters will prophesy. They'll all receive the spirit, not just the king or the prophet or the priest, but all your sons and daughters will receive the spirit and will begin to prophesy. And that's what began to take place in Acts chapter two in 30 AD. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall see dreams." Nonetheless, it goes on. We're going to study Joel and go through the verse by verse sometime. But right here, that is clearly identifying Peter telling the men of Judea that they have just entered the last days. And so the last days are from 30 AD until Jesus Christ returns. So the church age is functioning in this time period, Noah's, the last days. And so these character traits that are going to be identified here, these 19 vices that I'm going to show you in just a moment, are characteristics of the church throughout church history. They'll be there throughout this time period. They're going to be there in Ephesus in Paul and Timothy's day. They're going to be there in our day because we're all during this time period. But it can also mean this. Besides being the entire time period and coming in, being applied to Ephesus, which obviously it is because that's where the book is being written, which means it can be applied to our day, if the last days were to intensify and they will as we near the final days, we'll see these vices intensify and expand and spread. The culture will become culture of the church overflowing into the culture of the cosmos. we'll have these in a more intense fashion. So we can say, yes, it talks about the church age, it talks about Ephesus in 67 AD, but it also talks about the very final time. If you see the final days kind of coming down to this point right here, the closer you get to the final days, the days before Christ returns, you'll see these character traits intensify both in the church and around the globe in cultures. So it's the character trait in an intense state. So it's true throughout the age, it's true in Ephesus, but it's especially true in an intensified form in the last moments, in the last years before Jesus Christ returns. One more thing, to make four applications to this, this is the way cultures would be in their final days. Not just the final days of dispensations, the last age, the church age, not just in the final days of the church age, the days before Jesus returns, but this is the way, the tendency of human nature in its final moments, the final throes of death as the culture is declining. So, if we were to take this out of the church that is being applied here in Ephesus, and just take these character traits and apply them in a general sense to the final days of a collapsing society, we could see this nature, these vices, in an extreme fashion, anywhere around the globe throughout history, taking place as a society goes into its final moments before it collapses or is overrun. So that is what we're talking about here, the last days. I believe in the text that Paul is telling Timothy, understand that in the last days, I think his emphasis is going to be on the final days before Christ returns, but working that back, he's seeing it already beginning in the church age in 67 AD, meaning We are seeing the signs of the vices within the church that are going to be there right before Christ returns. And so he's seeing them, but they're going to continue to develop until Christ returns because no one knows when Jesus Christ will return. Now it goes on and says this, after he says, understand this, you must realize this and have this in your knowledge base, that this is what the last days are going to be like. And then he tells them that there will be these last days will have We can just say it simply, difficult times. There will be difficult times. So the end times, and that is the last days, the final days, are going to be characterized by difficult times. Now the two words here, two Greek words, would be karyos, which represents time. Now he said the last days, now we're saying the difficult times. So days meant a period of time, days or 24 hour period, or this period of days, this period of time. Now we're talking about this is a karyos. This is another Greek word which identifies it as a season. or a time. It's more like the characteristics of fall or the characteristics of spring. These are the characteristics of these last days. The characteristics. These are the last days. This is the season that it will be like. It will be like this. These character traits and the times are identified as difficult. What will the character of the times be in the final days. The character or the season of the final days will be difficult. The word is difficult and it can be identified as terrible. Other translations see it as being fierce. We've got a classic definition of this word in Matthew chapter 8 verse 28 where two demon possessed men are identified with this very word. I'm going to read it to you. And when he came to the other side, side of the Sea of Galilee, to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed or demonized men met him, met Jesus, coming out of the tombs so fierce that no one could pass that way. These men were demon possessed and they were so fierce, they were so violent, they were so terrible that people would go around instead of passing through where these two men kind of ruled or had their dwelling. And Jesus, of course, is going to cast the demons out of them. Other translations say they were exceeding fierce. They were so savage. They were so harsh. They were so violent. This is the same word that says, in the final days, the season or the times will be terrible. It will be difficult. It will be savage. It will be terrifying. It will be exceedingly fierce. Josephus uses the word to describe Cleopatra. When Herod the Great had a deal with Cleopatra, she was so furious that he would not let himself be seduced by her because he knew the disaster and the terrible things she would bring upon the people. So the last days the church age, if you're reading it from Joel, applying it as Peter did in Acts chapter 2, this last 2,000 year period, or the days that had already begun in Ephesus that were going to culminate in the final days as the final days tamper down to that intensified moment before Christ returns, or the time before any culture collapses, if we make the application there, will be violent A season of violence. A season of savage behavior. A terrible, difficult time. Understand this, and this is what Timothy is being told. Understand, have this in your knowledge base. The final days are going to be savage times. It's going to be a savage season. A violent season. And this is how he identifies them. Then he says, for people will be lovers of self, lovers of money. And then he begins with 19 vices that are identified here. Now, I'm going to break these vices down for you and go through them all and give you some kind of a rundown of the verbs. They're not verbs. Some of them are verbs. But the words and their meanings and what they're like. Because you've got to take the Greek word and translate it with one word in the translation, your English translation. sometimes it's the edges are rounded off it's not as sharp and precise and it doesn't have the full meaning and you can't make all the connections that can be made with just one simple English word translating the Greek phrase or the Greek word so I'll try to give you a little bit of insight in that but let me break these down for you this way the list begins by saying people will be lovers of self Lovers of money is how lovers of self and lovers of money. This is then the first two it's followed then by 19 the last two are for they will be not lovers of God and Lovers of pleasure, so it's almost like it's cat. It's just like this is how the list is this is between it they they love self and instead of loving God. And because they love self and not love God, they're going to be lovers of money. And because they don't love God, they're going to be lovers of pleasure. So these two are pointing towards, here, this is for the vices, This is pointing towards 15 items in between this list. The list begins, because they're lovers of self and lovers of money, this is the way it's going to be. And it's going to continue to go through this list until finally the list ends, they are not lovers of God, they're lovers of pleasure. Or the last thing is, not lovers of God, they're lovers of pleasure. And then that goes back up to the list. So it's bookmarked, or bookend, with this right here. They're lovers of self instead of being lovers of God. The lovers of self means they're lovers of money. Because they don't love God, there's lovers of pleasure. And so now in between these two is going to be 15 items that are gonna be listed. We can break them into three, and then two groups of six. The first three, after it says, lovers of self and lovers of money they will be boastful proud and abusive with their words that is what because you're a lover of self and a lover of money you're going to be boastful proud and abusive with your words that leads into these six then there's another six right here but these six are going to be disobedient Unloving, ungrateful, unholy, unforgiving, and slanderous is these character traits which then lead into this where they have no self-control, they're savage, they have no love of good, they're traitors, they're impulsive in their behavior, they're rash, And they are conceded. And these are the six that are in between. I think we maybe see the character traits or these two different groupings right here. They actually go like this in the text of scripture. They might be two groups of six. But they're led into this because people are boastful, proud, and abusive with words. This is their attitude. This is the way they behave. And the reason for that is they love pleasure rather than God. And the whole thing began because they were lovers of self, which led them to be lovers of money. So the people, because they love themselves, they're after money. Because they don't love God, they're after pleasure. And because of that, These are the character traits we get and we live with during this time period. Again, that is a quick breakdown of that, if that makes any sense at all, with me flashing paper around at you right here. You've got notes online, and I'm going to go ahead and give you a breakdown, and I've got you there listed in Chapter 3. I'm going to give you a breakdown. First of all, it says in chapter three, verse two, lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy. The first phrase, simply lovers of self, it means they love themselves. This list is listing, basically leading into lawlessness and amorality. Not necessarily immorality, just no morality. They're just whatever they want to do. And lawlessness and no morals. Lovers of self is the beginning of shifting from reality. If you say this is reality, this is the word of God, these people are separating themselves, coming over here, and instead of loving the truth, instead of loving God, instead of loving what's good, instead of loving what God has created and learning His system of reality, instead of loving reality, They've separated and they love themselves. Now, they're still going to be living in reality, but they're going to have to twist everything so it serves themselves. And the first thing they're going to go after is they're going to be lovers of money. And, you know, just that's going to be the natural thing. If you're going to love yourself, you're going to want the materialism. And we're going to see here the false teachers are going to be going after those two things. It's going to be materialism and some kind of asceticism. Sometimes asceticism will flip into some kind of a pleasure, seeking a pleasure because they can't control themselves. Next, after being a lover of self, a lover of money, three words come up. Boastful, proud, and abusive. The word boastful is a word that talks, it refers to, it's outward expression. It's what people say. It's what their body language presents. It's how they behave. So it's what they say, how they present themselves. It's what they do. They're boastful. It's self-love expressing itself. Boastful. And one commentator writes this, they're boasting overpasses the limits of truth. stressing the fact to magnify himself in his attempt to impress others. So they're making statements that aren't true, going over the bounds, trying to impress others with what they're saying. Because this is how I think about myself, I'm trying to convince you to think the same way about me. It's presented outwardly. The next word after boastful is the word proud. which gives the impression of the inward thoughts. The first is self-love expressed outwardly. This is self-love expressed inwardly. You're proud inwardly, and it's gonna be expressed with your attitude and feelings. The boastfulness on the outside, the pride on the inside, is gonna lead you to abusive words. Abusive words is a word that means, it's translated the word blasphemy. but it's basically abusive speech, it's slander. You're not just boasting about yourself, but you're tearing everybody else down. So, because you love yourself and your pursuit is money, You're going to be boastful, talking about yourself in extreme methods. Inside is going to be a warped sense of self. And then you're going to then express towards others is going to be a destroying or abuse of your words to tear other people down. That leads us into our first list of six. So we've just identified five of the 19. This next six is going to be disobedient, unloving, ungrateful, unholy, unforgiving, and slanderous, or in the sense they're going to be spreading rumors. So here we go. After boastful, proud, and abusive, disobedient is a word, it actually is right in the text, it says disobedient to parents. It is the lack of respect for parents. Because of their loving of self, their overrating of themselves outwardly and inwardly, they're going to then turn on their parents. It's going to be a lack of parents, which will then lead to a lack of respect for any authority. The Ten Commandments say, honor your father and mother so that you may live long in the land. Ephesians says it's the first of the Ten Commandments with a promise. If you learn to obey your parents, you will live long in the land. That's in the Ten Commandments. That's in the Bible. That's a promise. The opposite would be if you can't learn to honor your father and mother, you will not live long in the land. That doesn't mean God's gonna strike you down like he struck down Sodom and Gomorrah. What it means is if you can't learn to honor your father and mother, things will not go well with you in the land. If you can't honor your father and mother, you won't be able to honor your teacher or respect any authority. If it'd be a coach, if it'd be a police officer, if it'd be your boss at work, if it'd be anybody, the governmental officials, If you cannot learn to respect your parents, your first line of authority, you're going to have trouble in your life. It's not going to go well. It says if you honor your father and mother, it will go well with you and you'll live long in the land. If you cannot learn to honor your father and mother, things are not going to go well with you. You're going to have trouble with your teachers and your coaches and the police and the government officials and your employer. And you may perish in the land because somewhere along the line those things are going to backfire on you. You're not going to be employed. You're not going to get an education. You're going to get in trouble with the law. You're going to get in trouble with the government. You're going to end up running contrary with reality. right here, the first thing after saying lovers of self and lovers of money, they are boastful, proud, and abusive, is the next thing is they're disobedient to their parents. And interestingly, the next word is unloving. And the unloving word in the Greek, it means, the Greek word means without family affection. It means, without love of kindred, destitute of love, toward those whom nature itself loves. In other words, worked into nature, worked into reality that God has created, there is natural affection. Even in nature, the beasts know this. The beasts take care of each other. Animals take care of their young. They do what they are designed to do. Humanity has a nature that has rebelled against God. They have the option. Animals do not. Animals do not have, in a sense, free will. They can decide where they want to eat, where they want to drink water, where they want to go. But they have a nature, they have instincts, and this is how they behave. Mankind has rebelled against God, and they now can make their own decisions. They ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You can now choose not to. And in these final days, which will create a season of difficulty, a savage season, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, and unloving. In other words, they have rebelled totally, completely against natural love, natural affection. It's just wired in. You love your parents, you love your children, you love your community, you work together. They are described as unloving. It goes on to give you some, with this unloving it is impossible now in this condition for the basic institutes that God gave man for the well-being of mankind to function. Those being personal responsibility, marriage, family, government, nationality. None of these things can function with a person or a people who is unloving, who've been trained to be disobedient to their parents. They're gonna be disobedient to their parents and every authority that comes their way, and they're gonna be unloving. All their natural affections, commitments are going to be undeveloped. This is this people that create a savage time, a savage season. After unloving comes the word ungrateful. Everything that their parents, every benefit their parents or their community or their culture gives them, they're ungrateful for. They're ungrateful for any benefit provided. Not only are they disobedient, they're unloving. They have no natural affection. They can't understand it. They're ungrateful for anything that was handed to them. Just whatever they have that they don't appreciate. Nothing's good enough. Then they are unholy. Don't get religious on me. Unholy means the ability to honor or consider something sacred. It can be God. It can be a religious institution. But it can be just the basic things of life once again. Something that you consider to be sacred, holy. It may be a memory for yourself personally. You may consider a person to be separate or set apart to be honored. It may be your favorite sports team if you want to really get secular with it. But this unholy means there's nothing sacred. Not only do they disobey their parents and are unloving naturally in their natural affections and ungrateful for anything that they've been given as they came into the world, they're unholy. Nothing is holy to them. Nothing is sacred. Everything can be destroyed. Nothing is worth preserving. Here it is, unholy. They are unholy or consider nothing sacred in the sense that they are offensive in their thoughts, talk, and actions in regard to everything decent in life. Now, as I'm giving you these definitions, please understand I am not talking to our culture today. I'm giving you the meanings of the Greek words that have been in the Greek language for 2,000, 3,000 years. I'm giving you quotes from commentaries that were written 25, 30 years ago. Church historians or church writers have covered these things for generations. So they say, oh, this you're talking about today. You're talking about society today. You're taking a cheap shot at people today. This is what you say, if the shoe fits, it fits. If you throw a rock into a pack of dogs, the dog that gets hit is the dog that yelps. I'm not talking about today. I'm not talking about 2020. Does it fit? I think it fits, but that doesn't change the notes. It doesn't change what is meaning in the Greek words. It doesn't change what Paul wrote Timothy in 67 AD. This is what it is. A savage season is coming in the final days. The entire church age is made up of things like this. It will probably intensify towards the end. Paul was dealing with it in Ephesus. But it is also the culture or the climate of not just the church age in the church, but it is also the character traits of the final moments of a society. people become lovers of self-lovers of money that boastful proud and abusive in their words they're disobedient to their parents have no respect for authority they become unloving they have no natural affection for anything or anybody they're ungrateful for anything that was given to them as far as their culture from their parents there are the holy nothing is sacred everything is worth being taken down and a lot of this one after saying unholy is the word is unforgiving irreconcilable some translations have the word implacable which means they resist all efforts of reconciliation if you say oh i see you're disobedient i see you're unloving you're ungrateful maybe we can can we talk and work this out someone wants to come alongside and say can we make this right what can we do to help They are programmed to be unreconcilable. They do not want peace. They do not want a treaty. It means this. It means hostility that allows no truce. Meaning they're hostile. They want hostility before they want peace or truce with anybody. They resist all efforts of reconciliation. A man who cannot come to terms with other people. This is identifying a man who cannot come to terms with other people. They thrive on holding grudges. They create an atmosphere where they always perceive themselves to be mistreated, which justifies their unwillingness to be apologized to. We're being mistreated. We're not going to be reconciled. We're against us. We'd rather be hostile than be at peace. We're unsatisfiable. You can't make us happy. That is disobedient, unloving, ungrateful, unholy, and now unforgiving is the phrase that can be translated. It means you cannot have peace with them. You cannot say I'm sorry often enough. You cannot make peace with them. They want war. and that after that word implacable or unforgiving comes the word slanderous which means instead of being reconciled they're going to slander you they're going to say bad things they're going to uh... the word slanderous uh... those who promote quarrels and hope that they may gain from them So in other words, right here, they're spreading rumors, and instead of being reconciled, the people that come to them and try to work through the problem, they've been offended, what can we do to make it right? They won't be reconciled, and when you turn and walk away, they begin to slander and bring you down. That's the list of the first six. Disobedient, unloving, ungrateful, unholy, unforgiving, and slanderous. It means disobedient to their parents and any kind of leadership, or authority, which means they are unloving in any kind of natural affection. Even beasts are smarter than they are. Animals behave better than they do. But because they've got a sin nature, they have the freedom to rebel against nature. They're ungrateful for anything that was given them by God or by their culture or by their parents. They're unholy. Nothing is sacred. Everything can be demolished and torn down. You say, well, what can we do to make you happy? You can't reconcile with them. They're unforgiving. They want hostility. And as soon as you offer them something, they're going to start to slander you. That's the first six that comes after lovers of self and lovers of money who are boastful, proud, and abusive. This describes them. The next six now. goes like this right here. There's no self-control. I'm looking for my notes right here. No self-control, treacherous. Yeah, I turned the page too early. No self-control, which basically means right there, they're without power. Without power to control themselves. And since they have no self-control, they will become savage, and that's the mixed phrase. Since they have no self-control, this is the mixed six. Since they have no self-control, they become savage, which means brutal. Another translation would be untamed. Uncivilized fear. uh... they resort to violence and this would be where we get the word the hamas from they they have no self-control they go right into a mosque in a in a sense of being uncivilized untamed brute beast uh... they have no love for good in other words anything that is good anything that is good if it be a character trait If it be something beautiful, if it be artwork, a building, if it be some kind of anything that is good, if it comes from God's goodness, or the goodness that God has placed in creation. God is good, God does good, but he's also placed goodness within creation. There's good within people. Within people there's good. Now again, we have a fallen nature, but we're made in the image of God. So there is goodness within people. They don't love anything that's good. There's good in a variety of things. If it's good, they're against it. They do not like good. That's what the word here means. No love of good. They cannot love anything good. They do not have the capacity to appreciate good or goodness. Another translation is without laws of good. In other words, there can be even an illegal system. You can have good laws and bad laws. You can have good justice or bad justice. And we should be able to identify this is good legally, this is corrupt or bad legally. This sense where it says no love of good means even in the governmental sense they have no desire to love justice, no desire to love anything that is good, In law, in government, in civility, in society, they want everything bad. They do not want good. That can range from God, through humans, to human institutions, to the law system itself. They do not want good. It's not that they just don't want this law. They don't want any good or fair law. They don't want justice. Justice is good. They don't want justice. And after no good, it's treacherous. or traitor or a betrayer. It means they will betray. Now to betray someone means you've got to have a treaty. You've got to have some kind of an oath. Now, before we studied where we looked in those, the first six that identified, there was the ideal of that. They, they did not want peace. They were unforgiving. That's what someone that had offended them, but they're probably moving in some kind of a group and within their group, they're going to have agreements or friendship or some kind of a partnership. They will not keep that partnership. They will betray that friendship. There is no oath they will not break. So the second six begins, they have no power of self-control, which means they're going to behave in a savage way. They have no love of good. Anything that is good from God to people to laws and government, they do not want good. And then what's left, if they are in their group, they're going to betray the very people they've been fighting alongside with against everything else. Then the next one is they're reckless, meaning they are impulsive. They do not consider the consequences. They do not think through, if I behave this way, if I break all my treaties, if I act like a savage, if I have no self-control, if I disobey everything, I have no natural affection, they just behave. They just respond. Without considering What is it going to result in? If you've torn everything down, do you understand you have nothing left? Don't have time to think about that. We're busy marching. And again, the word reckless, it means rash, hasty, reckless, impulsive, hotheads. They act impulsively to get the results they want immediately without thinking about the consequences. These are people who make themselves known by violence. This is right out of a commentary. Who wreck everything. Who take wild chances. They are reckless and fool-hearted in their decisions, in their words, and in their behavior. They say things they shouldn't say without thinking. They make decisions that aren't rational. and they behave in a way that brings them results that's not what they wanted. Right, because you didn't think about it. and then they are puffed up. It means, actually, it means to be full of smoke. You're full of smoke, and so you can't see. You're full of conceit. You're full of pride, and so you cannot see. These last two, with being reckless and full of smoke, it gives you the impression that they're not operating from a basis of understanding any logic. It's like, what is their goal? Their goal is everything's going to be destroyed. And they have no idea of what they're doing. They're clouded with conceit. They're clouded with reckless behavior. And they're just going to bring everything to its lowest comedy nominator with nothing left. And there they are. And then the last two, kind of the bookend, now we're at the end right here, the bookend, is their lovers of pleasure. rather than lovers of God. So we begin right at the beginning, they're lovers of self, lovers of money, then we begin this list, we go all the way through this list, and it ends with they're lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. So the two bookends, you've got they love themselves, they don't love God, they love money, they love pleasure, and then they work into this chaotic state. And there you have the conditions right there that Paul tells Timothy, and we have one more verse to look at, tells Timothy these people with these character traits, they're false teachers. He's addressing Paul's issue for Timothy is the false teachers in the church of Ephesus. He's talking not about the culture, he's not talking about Roman society, he's talking about the church in Ephesus. And now the problem is the false teachers are behaving this way. They love themselves. They don't love God. They're interested in money and pleasure. And so they're taking all these character traits on. And Paul says to Timothy, he says, having an appearance, these people have an appearance of godliness. but deny its power." In other words, appearance means a form, a shaping, it brings the shape. If you look at them, they're going to be, they're teachers in the church, they're teachers in a religious institution. They're going to give you some kind of an appearance of godliness. Now you say, how can that be? Because we've identified the character traits that are in their heart. On the outside, they're manipulating and playing the game. They have a form of godliness, but denying its power. Now when it says denying its power, it means not just denying in an academic sense or a confession sense. I deny some doctrine. It means to deny, for example, the truth and then to act upon it. They're not just denying in an academic sense. Their denial goes ahead and becomes an application in life. So not only do they deny it in a confession, they'll deny it in their actions, which makes it more severe, in the sense that they have a form of godliness, but in their lifestyle, you can tell they've denied the actual power of God. Now, if you have the truth of God, the Word of God, reality, which created the reality we live in, there's a power within that. The Creator Himself has given you the Word of God. Sanctify them by your word, is what Jesus prayed. It's a principle. The truth will sanctify. You'll set you apart and you'll begin to be transformed in the image of your Creator. That is what God wants. That's holiness. But if you deny this truth, you come over here and just present godliness like an image, a form of godliness, but you've denied the word, you've denied reality, you're going to be over here with a religious system with no power, with nothing. You're going to have to now imitate it. You're going to have to have some kind of false imitation of your godliness. Having a form of godliness, but denying its power. And this form of godliness that's going to have an imitation of power is going to come down to two things. It's identified in 1 Timothy and chapter 1 and chapter 4 we can see. One is going to be meaningless religious talk. These people over here with this form of godliness, they're going to be talking. They're going to be giving speeches and lectures. This fits so perfect into higher academics. They're over here with no power, with no tune of reality, but they're talking about meaningless words that have no power to transform and come in tune with reality and make things better. Just this whole image of slander and abusive language that is disobedient to all the institutions that God created. It's meaningless talk. And it gives you the formula, oh, these people are wise. They've got a form of godliness. But they don't. It's meaningless talk. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 6 through 7. Some have departed from these, the truth, and have turned to meaningless talk. They want to be teachers. of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. In other words, these teachers of meaningless talk, they're confident this is the way it is. It's like you've separated from reality. You're over here in la-la land, but they're confident. They want to be teachers, but they're saying meaningless, and they're giving the appearance of godliness, but they have no power. You can't touch reality over here. The second thing is, They're going to have asceticism, 1 Timothy 4, verse 3. Asceticism is where you deny certain things. You deny the good things that God has given in reality. For example, marriage, or sex, or sexuality. or food, or drink. You're going to separate from these things, calling them bad or corrupt, and you're going to have these meaningless talks, and then a form of religious asceticism that people are going to go, ooh, ah, and you're going to be against and call things evil that are not evil. Sexuality. Sex is not evil. But you've seen religious groups throughout history identify sex as a corruption. It's not a corruption, it just needs to be kept in the right place, in the right boundaries. That reality placed it, as God created it. food or drink. People go, this is bad to drink, you shouldn't drink this, you shouldn't eat this. It's like, okay, in its right context, there's a right place, just like sex in marriage is correct, there's a place for these food and drinks in the right place. You take no boundaries, of course, everything, everything in the world can become corrupt. The idea is to keep it in reality. So they've got a form of, they have an appearance or a form of godliness, but they deny its power, and then Paul tells them very clearly, Avoid such. And again, there's in the Greek the word chi for the word and is there, and avoid these. Avoid these is a reference not back to the character traits, although those 19 character traits should be avoided, those vices should be avoided. The context of chapter three, verse five, is avoid these people that are in this cycle of these 19 vices. Avoid these. And the word avoid means at all costs, at all times, Turn away from these people. That is chapter 3, verses 1 through 5 of 2 Timothy. And Paul is identifying for Timothy the problem within his church. He's going to continue in chapter 3, verse 6. He's going to go on and says, for among them are those who creep into households, and then begins to describe about how they manipulate people. He's going to identify some people that have done this in the church of Ephesus. And then chapter 3, verse 10, you, however, Have followed my teaching my conduct my aim of life meaning, you know, this is not the way to do it Come back over here to the and timothy is in the church with the truth fighting against this false reality and this form of godliness, this asceticism that is going to take people captive, but there's no power in. So the treacherous part of this whole message is Timothy has the truth, the people are attracted to these meaningless talking teachers who want to be teachers, who do not know what they're talking about. They have a form of godliness, just like a religious leader. Establishing these laws and legalism that provide no power, but make people feel like they're doing something, but it's going to lead right into the works of the flesh that are identified in Galatians 5, which include division. And thus we go right back into the cycle of people that are lovers of themselves, and not lovers of God. If you are a lover of God, you're going to love His truth. You're going to love His reality. You're going to love the way He created things. You're going to love the Word of God. If you say, I love God, despise His Word. If you say, I love God, but despise the way He created things, you do not love God. You love yourself. You do not love God if you do not love the truth, you do not love reality, you do not love the word of God, you do not love the way he's created things. You are trying to rebel against him. You are in revolt. You do not love God. You're a lover of pleasure and a lover of money, and you're on your way to destruction.