2 Timothy 3 (Part 1)

--- Here on Sunday morning, we're studying through the New Testament. We are in 2 Timothy 3, so I'd like you to turn there if you would, please. Wednesday nights, we're in the book of Ezekiel, as we're making our way through the Old Testament. But here we’re in 2 Timothy 3, we are going to take the first 9 verses of the chapter. Follow along with me as I read from the ESV.

Stop there, let's pray. Heavenly Father, give us wisdom and the ministry of your spirit to look into these verses and just to talk about what they mean and what they mean for us. Lord, we pray that you would help us to gain a heart of understanding, to know just how to respond to what is happening in the world, what we're seeing every day, and how we need to continue to be the light of Christ for others to see. Be with us, we pray, Father, in Jesus’ name, amen. This is not Paul's 1st warning or prophetic warning to Timothy concerning what would happen in later days. In Paul's 1st letter, you might remember that he made an interesting statement, not about the world, but about believers, or at least those who had been believers. Let me put it up on the screen for 1 Timothy 4:1. It says, 1 Timothy 4:1 The Spirit expressly says that in later times, some will depart from the faith. You'll remember when we went through 1 Timothy, we talked about that in quite some length, and we talked about what it meant. That was a message to people or concerning people who had previously walked in faith. And he said that there will come a time when people will depart from the faith. They will gather teachers around them who tell them just what they want to hear, and they won't put up with or tolerate the truth of God’s Word anymore. But what we're looking at here in 2 Timothy 3 is kind of a different message. This isn't a message about people of faith, or even people leaving the faith. This is a message, or a prophetic word, about the world and the condition of the world in the last days. And frankly, what's so challenging about reading these verses here in 2 Timothy 3 is the fact that we have no trouble recognizing this is the world in which we live. These are not prophetic words about a time to come; these are prophetic words about a time that is here. All the things, all the descriptive words that Paul gives to Timothy related to the characteristics of the world in the last days, these are here now. This is the world that we live in. This is it. I didn't mean to bum you out or anything, but this is just it. This is where we are. And you'll notice that Paul begins in verse 1 by saying, "In the last days, there will come times of difficulty." The NIV says, "terrible times." Interestingly enough, the New King James uses the word "perilous." "In the last days, perilous times will come." I looked it up. The Greek word literally means, "hard to bear." So if you've been struggling with what's going on in the world today, just know this, God told you ahead of time it would be hard to bear. So if you're feeling that way, maybe that will give you a little comfort. But I think one of the most telling descriptions that is given in this passage about the world today, the world that you and I are living, is probably what is written in verse 2. ---

--- If you look with me in your Bible, where Paul says, "people will be lovers of self." And I just, I got to tell you, I believe that one of the reasons that Paul listed this first, this is the one that kicks off the rest of the descriptions of the world in the last days, again, our days. But the reason he mentioned it first is because all the other characteristics of the world that follow find their source in this particular description, love of self. Love of self. We hear the word, "self," all the time today. Everything from a magazine that bears the name to what we do with our phones – we take selfies. Everything surrounds self, and the concept has so permeated our society that many Christians have been drawn away and fallen prey to it. You know, I talked to believers from time to time who have so swallowed the narrative of the world as it relates to self. I talked to people from time to time who believe that they truly believe that you cannot love others until you learn to love yourself. You've probably heard that. I mean, there isn't an ounce of truth in it, not an ounce, but yet it's believed by many people. And there's also, I think, a fair number of Christians who believe that one of the problems or one of the reasons for a lot of negative and destructive behavior by people of the world today is because they have low self-esteem. That's another self-element that we as the church have largely just gulped down. And we've just kind of thought, yeah, it makes sense to me. And they believe that the answer is for those people to learn to love and accept themselves, you know, and only then will they be productive members of society once we build up their self-esteem. And I think there are a lot of Christians who would say, yeah, I agree with that. You'd probably be surprised. I don't know, maybe you wouldn't. But that's a philosophy of the world that has very much made its way into the church. I will go so far as to say that love of self is what is behind the moral and social collapse of the family, of our nation, and the world. Love of self. So you might be kind of wondering, where did all this love of self come from? Is that something we just kind of came up with here in the last decade or so? Well, self-love is generated by self-awareness. By the way, self, there's a bunch of words, they're all parts of the self-sins, but they all come essentially from self-awareness. And self-awareness is one of the very first things that surfaced when sin was introduced into humankind. ---

You might remember that in Genesis chapter 2, it ends with a statement prior to the introduction of sin. But one of the last things it says concerning the man and the woman is that they were naked and they felt no shame. There was no shame concerning that particular situation. And I think there are a lot of Christians who never ask themselves why Adam and Eve were unashamed even though they were naked. Well, it's interesting that the whole answer to that question is revealed in the following chapter when we see sin introduced into the world. Let me show you this in Genesis chapter 3 on the screen. Now, here it says,

"And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden (by the way, this is after they had already committed sin) in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, "Where are you?" And he said, "I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself." Did you catch that? And look at this question from God, he said, “Who told you were naked?” It's an interesting question. And that single question, for which, by the way, Adam did not answer because I don't think he had to. That single question reveals what sin did to humankind. And the reason Adam didn't have to answer the question when God said, "Who told you were naked?" is he knew. He knew that no one told him he was naked. He knew it instinctively. Because he became self-aware. Prior to sin we were God aware, oh, what a glorious thing that is when we get our eyes off ourselves. Have you ever had that glimpse of that? Sometimes when we're praying or we're worshiping or we're in the Word, we get this glimpse and it's just like this cool breeze that blows in for just a second. And we lose sight of ourselves, just for a second, and the weight of the world lifts off us, and the joy of the Lord fills our hearts, and we are just focused on Jesus, and his glory, and his majesty.

And then of course it goes away, because we start thinking about ourselves again, because we just, ever since this happened in Genesis, we've given birth to generations of people who are self-aware. We were born self-aware and it is the curse of sin and self-awareness leads to shame, as we see here, as we saw there in Genesis 2 and all the other self-related sins because you see the sins of self are the antithesis of the message of Jesus. He came to show us the opposite. We don't need anybody to tell us what selfishness is all about. We do need people and we needed Jesus to come along and show us what selflessness was all about, and He modeled it. He modeled it perfectly. You say, well how? Just look no further than the cross. It's all there. The selflessness of God in the midst of selfishness of man. And of course, that picture, that model of the cross, that's the pattern we're supposed to live by. That, you know, that's what God is doing in your heart. You know, you say, well what is God doing in the heart of his people? He's drawing them away from self-centeredness, self-awareness, and more into an awareness of God and others. Let me show you what Paul wrote to the Philippians. Philippians 2, he says,

"Do nothing from selfish ambition (the desire to promote self, that's what that means) or conceit, but (he says rather) in humility, count others more significant than yourselves." That's almost laughable. We don't do that naturally. My flesh will never look at you and think that you're better. It's only through the spirit. Only through the spirit. So he says, "Consider others more significant than yourselves." He says, “Let each of you look not only to his own interest (that's what comes naturally), but also to the interest of others (that comes supernaturally)." You might say, oh, no, wait a minute, Pastor Paul, I disagree with that. I know unbelievers who are very caring people. I got to tell you something. We care for others because of what we get out of it in the flesh, even when we do acts of concern, care, and even compassion for others, we do it for what we're going to get out of it. We are far more selfish than we even realize. We like to explain it away, but it is part of our DNA.

So, what are the far-reaching implications of this hardwired self-awareness, self-centeredness, self-focus that we've entered into because of sin? Well, very simply, it's the source of all pride and rebellion against God. It starts off right away in the next chapter in Genesis. It's the reason Cain murdered his brother— self-awareness, jealousy that, of course, grew out of that self-awareness, and so on and so forth. And, you know, if you read a little bit farther in Genesis, you come to the building of the Tower of Babel—or Babel. Babel is probably the more correct way to pronounce it. But it's interesting that the building of that tower—why, you know, you're reading in Genesis chapter 1. Why did they start building a tower? And why did God care? Why did God even care? What was so bad about people getting together and just building a tower? Well, do you remember what God said to Noah and his sons after the flood? Let me put it on the screen. It's recorded in Genesis 9:1.

You know what that's another way of saying? Spread out. Spread out. That was God's command. But mankind, in his self-centered, self-aware heart, said, no, I'm not going to do that. Let me show you Genesis chapter 11.

"As people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar (and that's basically Babylon) and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn (or your Bible may say, ‘bake’) them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. And then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth (like God wants us to).”

In other words, they said, we want nothing to do with the command of the Lord. We're going to make a name for ourselves. God said, spread out, and we say, no, we're staying right here. It's childish, isn't it? It's rebellion. It's what children do. No, it's what we all do. We see it in our kids, and we try to stop it, but it's hardwired: that whole idea of rebellion. And it all originates from the self-focused life, which, of course, comes from self-awareness. And now we're living in a world where we've come up with new ways to thumb our nose at God and say, no, you don't. We're not going to do it your way. On June 26, 2015, the United States Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in all 50 states, and the Obama White House took the colors from God's rainbow and lit up the outside of the White House to celebrate that decision. Did you notice one of the descriptions of the last days? Paul said to Timothy that man will be filled with pride, but it's not good pride. It's pride in himself – pride, actually, in his open rebellion. And that's what that was, when the White House lit up the colors of the rainbow, that was human, open rebellion. That was a man pointing his finger at God and saying, oh, no you don't. Not today. We're going to have our way. We will not allow you to define our lives. We will define it, thank you very much. You know, hey, you know, listen, it's the same reason that evolutionary theory is being taught in our schools as fact. You know, we think it's an educational issue. It's not an educational issue. It's rebellion. It's an open rebellion. You know, that's all it is. It's simply people refusing to acknowledge that there is a creator. That's all. That's it. Evolution is simply the atheist's religion. He says he's not religious, but he is. He is simply his own God, that's all. And you know, there's another popular message of rebellion that's really sweeping our country right now and it's causing great devastation. It's again something that God said in Genesis chapter 1. Let me put it on the screen:

That's what God's Word says, but mankind in his pride and rebellion says, no, no, no. We will not be defined by you or anyone else. We will define ourselves. We are our own gods. I did a quick search while I was studying. The website of Women's Health Magazine makes this statement, “Genitalia does not equal gender.” And these are the people telling you to trust in science when it comes to a pandemic, but they don't apply it when it comes to other things. Science tells you there are two genders, just like God’s Word says. Yet, they go on their website to say this, "Forget about the two-gender binary." They go on to say that, “gender is a term that relates to how we feel about ourselves.” You know, you and I look at it, and we roll our eyes and we go, oh, that's so dumb. It's rebellion, you guys. It's a child stomping his feet, holding his breath, banging his head against a wall, and saying, no, no, no. That's it. That's all it is. It is just an open rebellion. It's a man saying, no, no, I refuse. So, how are we to look at all of this, you know? I mean, it kind of presents this pretty rotten picture of the world today. I would like you—I'm going to do something I don't normally do on a Sunday morning. I don't normally have you turn to a different passage, but I'm going to do that today. I'm going to have you turn with me over to the Psalms, and I'd like you to open up your Bible to Psalm chapter 2, okay? Pop over there, if you would please, with me. Psalm Chapter 2. The reason I want to go to this Psalm is because it is a message to the rebellious world. This is God's response, okay? We know what our response is. Like I said, we—you know—we roll our eyes, we go, oh, good grief, you know. But what is God's response to this world that has absolutely lost its mind from the standpoint of applying any kind of reason or common sense or science or anything like that? Those reasons, common sense, and science, they don't have any problem with the Bible, and the Bible doesn't have any problem with them. But we're living in a world where those things have gone away. So, how in the world are we to, you know, think about this whole thing? Well, Psalm chapter 2 (ESV), I love how the way this begins. It starts off with a question,

By the way, that word "rage" means to be in an uproar. And actually, I think one of the Bible translations, I can't remember which one, actually says that, "Why are the nations in an uproar?" That's really a good translation. And he says,

Now, I need to tell you here that the word "anointed" is the Hebrew word for "Messiah." It is the word "Mashiach." And if you were to talk to someone who speaks Hebrew today, and they taught would speak of Messiah they would probably pronounce it just that way. They would talk about Mashiach, Messiah. The Greek version is, Christ, Christos. We say Christ in English. So what's going on here? The kings of the earth and the rulers of men rally together, taking counsel among themselves against the Lord and against his Messiah. This is a Messianic prophecy. Well, what are the people saying? Look at verse 3, this is what we've been talking about the whole time,

And this is all kinds of poetic language, describing mankind's desire to come out from under the rule of God. He's saying, let us throw it off. In fact, I think it's the NIV that says, “Let us throw off their fetters.” A “fetter,” by the way, is anything that restrains you. See, the world thinks that when we say, listen, there are only two genders. There's male and female. They go, oh no. We will not be restrained by that. We're going to throw off that restraint. And we're going to live the way we think we ought to live. We're going to do it according to our understanding, our knowledge, our insight. Not yours, God. We reject you and we reject your word. And that's what this Psalm is saying, “Let us throw off their restraint. Let us cast away their cords from us.” So the world is just saying, we refuse. We refuse.

Have you noticed in the world there is a desperate attempt to normalize things that the Bible calls sin? Whatever the Bible considers a sin or wrong in any way, the world's trying to normalize it. And you know what? They're doing a really good job. Because not only, and we expect the world to convince themselves about these things, but they've convinced Christians that these things are normal. Yeah, they've convinced born-again believers. They've been sucked into this normalizing of sin. We either call it a disease that we can't help, or we just say, no, it's just totally normal. That's the way I was born. And there are a lot of Christians who back down on that right away when somebody says to them, well what if somebody's born that way? We just go, well you know, I guess I don't have an answer for that one. As if that's an excuse. Let's give them that argument for just a minute. How about we'll just say, okay, I'll give that one to you. You were born that way. Do you want me to tell you all the ways I was born? Do you want me to tell you all the sins that I was born with? Is that permission for me to express it without remorse? Is that freedom for me to live my life of sin? You know, you see what I'm saying? You see what a ridiculous argument that is? He was born that way. She's born that way. Yeah, I was born as a liar and a cheat and all the other rotten things and so are you. So is that the way we're going to live? I was born that way, you know. Can you imagine a child telling their parents after they steal something or use some foul language or something like that? You can't punish me. I was born that way! Yeah. So here's God's response, ready for verse 4? “He who sits in the heavens laughs…” Now that might sound a little bit odd to you, I got it. This is a biblical stated reaction. We have a long word for this, it's called, “anthropomorphism.” And that's a word that simply describes a reaction of God using human language. But God is not like us in that sense. So we're not saying that God sees man's open rebellion and thinks it's funny. In fact, this laugh that the Bible describes as God's response to man's open rebellion is really more of a response of contempt, which is why this very verse goes on to say at the end of verse 4, “...the Lord holds them in derision.” And that is another word for you know, contempt.

And then it goes on to say, “5Then he will speak to them in his wrath…” Now remember, this is talking about people who have completely rejected God in all his ways. We're not, and can I just stop for just a moment just so, just to make sure the enemy doesn't get a hold of your heart. Listen. Christians, born again Christians, struggle with sin. That doesn't mean you're any less of a Christian. We're not talking about people who struggle with sin; we're talking about people who have rejected God and have chosen to rebel and to remain in open rebellion against God and His Word. And they're not just, they're not struggling with sin. They're normalizing it. People, oh, I wish I could get into people's hearts sometimes and convince them of some things. But people write to me and they're like, Pastor Paul, I'm struggling with sin. I'm wondering if I'm even saved. And I kind of come back to them and say, the fact that you're struggling with sin proves that you're saved. Did you struggle with sin before you came to Jesus? I sure didn't. I thought it was a big, fat party. I was having a good time, and I didn't stop to think about it. And then I got saved, and Jesus filled me with His Spirit. The problem is, I still had this raunchy, sinful nature living in me, and so now I started this journey of struggling with sin. And I still struggle with it today. But I'm struggling and you are too. We're struggling every day. We're in the battle. We're fighting the good fight, aren't we? Do you understand? So when we talk about sin, and we talk about God's wrath and stuff like that, we're not talking about that wrath being expressed to people who are struggling with sin, because we still possess this sinful nature. Guys, do you understand that there is no wrath of God for you? It has been consumed in the person of God's Son on your behalf, and there is, therefore, now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus

. Get that through your heart, and don't let it slip away. Now, once we settle that, we can talk about wrath and not get all worried. He says in verse 5, “Then he will speak to them in his wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me (God says), I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.” You see, man has been all this time saying, I am the king of my own life, and I have set my own throne here in my life, and I myself sit on that throne. And God's response is, well, as for Me, I too have chosen a king and he sits in Zion on my holy hill.

And of course He's talking about the Messiah here, which is why he goes on in verse 7 to say, “I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my son; today I have begotten you.” (You know, that verse is actually quoted in Hebrews chapter 1 of Jesus…concerning Jesus.) “8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel.” This is talking about the rule of Jesus Christ during the Millennial Kingdom. When the nations of the world will come against Israel to destroy her, and Jesus will come back to this earth. And this very kind of an idea is given to us in Revelation 19. Let me put this on the screen.

“From his mouth (John says, he's seeing Jesus in this vision) comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. (And) On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” That's going to be an important moniker, an important message at that time because man will be at the end of his earthly rebellion, and Jesus will be established as the King of all kings, and the Lord of all lords. Let's keep reading in Psalm 2 here—chapter 2:10, this is a message now to the rulers of the world. He says, “Now therefore, O kings (here's the message), be wise (in other words, be smart); and be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear…” And that means repent of your rebellion and your open defiance of the Lord and he says, “...and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” So there you have this warning to the kingdoms and the rulers of the earth. Let me ask you a question, are they heeding God's warning? Are the kings of the earth, the rulers of this world heeding the warning? This is a warning given to the rulers of the earth, right there in the Word of God. Be careful, be smart, be wise. Are they doing it? I think we can safely say no.

And because of that, the world is becoming a darker place. Would you agree? You know, but there's something very interesting about the world getting darker. I don't know if you've noticed, but when the world gets darker, the righteousness of God shines ever brighter. And so there's two things happening at the same time, there's darkness that's creeping in, and there's light that's getting brighter. That's exactly God's MO. Let me show you a passage from Isaiah Chapter 60:

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” Look at it, look what it says, “For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;” In other words, they will literally be just enveloped in darkness. But what's going to happen during that same time? “But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.” Now. I got to tell you something in the context of this passage. This word was originally given to Israel and it relates specifically to Israel. But there's a principle here that applies to God and his people for all time. And that's why I'm sharing it here with you. And so the times are getting darker and the times are getting lighter at the same time. I think most of you would probably agree with me when I say that the last year and a half or so that has surrounded this pandemic, we have probably seen more darkness unleashed during this last 18 months or so than maybe in any other time in history of that duration. I mean, it's just been absolutely crazy, and yet, when the whole world was going crazy, what was the body of Christ doing? When everybody was staying indoors and during the initial lockdown when people couldn't leave their homes, churches and businesses were being shut and shuttered and the streets were empty, what was the body of Christ doing during the lockdown? We know what the world was doing. They were sitting in a corner in a fetal position, whimpering and crying, and filled with fear and dread. But what was the body of Christ doing?

--- In just a moment I want to show you what the body of Christ was doing by playing just a brief video, because what you're going to see here is that while people's lives were being turned upside down in the pandemic, the body of Christ was giving glory to God. And the video that we're going to look at here shows that when the world gets dark, the light of Jesus shines on His people. And they begin to focus not on the present crisis, but on the glory of Him who holds all things in his hands. I’ve got to tell you, just as a word of warning, when I first watched this video, I bawled like a baby. I'm not kidding. I'll tell you why. It impacted me so powerfully because I'd been watching the news, something I kind of stopped doing because I just got so sick and tired of all the negativity and infighting and division and all that stuff, but of course when the pandemic hit, none of us knew what was going on. Do you, you know, it was kind of like the fog of war, you know? And we were kind of all like, what in the world is this? We'd never really, I had never lived through pestilence like that before, and we didn't know how it was going to impact us exactly. And, frankly, the world, all the news sources, the media, one of the guys down in the conference called them the "media knights." I thought that was an interesting term. He says, yeah, the media knights. They're all they're against you. But they were all, you know, just giving this bad news, bad news, bad news, you know, and fear and dread. And did you notice, remember, you guys, remember it was just a year and a half ago, you know, the president was on TV nonstop, they stopped all the other shows. And we were just hearing from doctors and hearing all these reports and all this stuff. And then, I was watching all of that. And then I saw this video, and I was reminded of a new and different reality. So, we're going to watch this, and then I'll come back and close in prayer. (music video plays at the 39:50 minute mark) ---Begin transcript of the music video--- Do you feel the world is broken? (We do) Do you feel the shadows deepen? (We do)

But do you know that all the dark won't stop the light from getting through? (We do) Do you wish that you could see it all made new? (We do) Is all creation groaning? (It is) Is a new creation coming? (It is) Is the glory of the Lord to be the light within our midst? (It is) Is it good that we remind ourselves of this? (It is) Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? The Lion of Judah who conquered the grave He was David's root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave Is He worthy? Is He worthy? Of all blessing and honor and glory Is He worthy of this? (He is) Does the Father truly love us? (He does) Does the Spirit move among us? (He does) And does Jesus, our Messiah hold forever those He loves? (He does) Does our God intend to dwell again with us? (He does) Is anyone worthy? Is anyone whole? Is anyone able to break the seal and open the scroll? The Lion of Judah who conquered the grave He is David's root and the Lamb who died to ransom the slave From every people and tribe Every nation and tongue

He has made us a kingdom and priests to God To reign with the Son Is He worthy? Is He worthy? Of all blessing and honor and glory Is He worthy? Is He worthy? Is He worthy of this? He is! He is! He is! He is! Is He worthy? Is He worthy? Of all blessing and honor and glory He is worthy of this He is. ---End transcript of the music video--- Let's stand together. So while nobody was able to leave their home or go out, the people of God were giving glory to His name. Father, thank you so much for the reminder that you are the Lord, you're in charge, and you will have your way. We praise you, O Lord God, because you are worthy. We worship you, the King of all kings, the Lord of all lords. In Jesus name we pray, and all God's people said together, amen. God bless you. ---