Living in the Last Days 2 Timothy 3 ( NO INTRO - just GO!) // TEXT & EXPOSITION We’re just going to jump right into the text this morning, because there is much to discover I want to give you my TOP 7 indicators that we are living in the Last Days 1- Natural Disasters increasing infrequency and intensity 2 - Wars/conflicts and rumors of wars 3 - Famine and pestilences 4 - Moral decay 5 - Proliferation of false prophets and false teachers 6 - Increasing persecution of Jesus’ followers 7 - False prophets, false religions Folks, it’s a field out there filled with spiritual landmines! And this is why Paul tells young Timothy that… But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. (2 Timothy 3:1) So right out of the gate this morning, Paul is shifting to the ESCHATON - the Last Days The study of the End Times is called Eschatology And I fully believe that we are living in the Last Days And this is why I press so hard on evangelism It's not because I’m opposed to worship, or discipleship - it’s because the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation for anyone who believes, first to Jews, and then the Gospel came to the Gentiles Thus, we have been given the mandate to bring it to all who will listen and receive it, in these Last Days Evangelism is one of those things that you can’t do in Heaven, so we must do it now, while we are here! But if you’ll allow me, I want to present a comparison and contrast on some views of the Last Days, because not all Christians agree on how they are going to play out PreMillennialism We are still before (PRE) the thousand years mentioned in Revelation 20 during which holiness is to prevail and Christ is to reign on earth It will be a period of great happiness and human perfection, living in God’s actual Presence in the New Jerusalem Postmillennialism: In this view, Jesus will return to reign on earth at the END of the Millenium during which the Church will have conquered all earthly institutions and governments, and created the perfect conditions for Christ to return to In this view, things on earth and supposed to get better and better as humanity progresses The only problem with this view is that we’re living the opposite reality So toss that one out Amillennialism: it literally means “no millennium” (prefix “a” is a negation) It is not taken as a literal 1000 year reign of Jesus, but taken figuratively or allegorically to mean a present reign of Jesus in the hearts of Christians now It was Origen, an early church father, who established this line of thinking He embraced a hyper-literal hermeneutic that failed him after He read in Matthew 5:30, which says, "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell". And because he took that literal, wooden interpretation, he emasculated himself in misguided obedience to that text, which he later regretted He clearly took Matthew 5:27-30 too literally [27] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ [28] But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. [29] If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. [30] And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Listen to me, your hand doesn't cause you to sin, your heart does That’s why you need a new one! Nevertheless, Origen went on to systematize Christian doctrine in terms of Hellenistic (Greek) thinking He established an extreme pattern of allegorizing Scripture which heavily influenced later Christians, because if his personal experience Why Amill fails The OT is replete with promises of a Messianic rule on earth - it is precisely why the Jews stumbled over Jesus in his first coming! They Jews were expecting the Kingdom to come in force with a military and political dynasty! As an aside, this is also why we must be careful to remember that the destiny of national Israel is wrapped up in this issue of eschatology... Luke 1:30-33 - [30] And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. [31] And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. [32] He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, [33] and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Gabriel promised that Mary's child would sit on David's throne David's throne didn't exist in Jesus' day - they were under Roman occupation The Jewish ruling King at that time, Herod, was actually an Edomite So Jesus never sat on David's throne during his Incarnation *Where is Jesus right now? On His Father's throne So to dismiss or explain away the millennium (which hasn’t happened yet) is a huge problem But let’s go on… [2] For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, [3] heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, [4] treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God… So people will love SELF in the last days? Do we see that happening all around us? I sure do! And it’s only getting worse! It’s increasing exponentially! And do you know what is one of the MAIN issues in this whole thing??? Obedience to parents! Why? Why would that be a lynchpin issue in all that’s happening in our day? The reason is that a lack of discipline with children is because the parents become apathetic, and soon, the kid’s rule the roost, not the parents Hence, we are living in the most narcissistic generation in the history of the world They are obsessed with with SELF above all else And additionally, money makes the world go round! It seems like everyone is out to get as much money and mammon (stuff) as they possibly can The reason for this is their worldview If you think that this life is all there is, you’re going to claw and fight to get what you think is your’s (and probably get what’s not yours as well) This is what drives our culture - an existential dilemma by which most people think that this life is as good as it gets And they’re right about that! …IF they do not have faith in Jesus Christ, the saving One But for those of us who do put our faith in Jesus alone for salvation, we don’t need to join the rat race, running after temporal, silly things that we can’t take with us anyway But because NOW is all they have, people in our culture aren’t generally looking for altruistic paths to do good for the sake of others What I see is people doing good for themselves, to make much of self, to elevate themselves higher so as to be thought of as good But without Jesus, there is no good Don’t believe me? Let’s go through that list again Arrogant - Revilers - Ungrateful - Unholy - Unloving - Irreconcilable - Malicious gossips - Without self-control - Brutal - Haters of good (and therefore haters of God, because God is the greatest good) [5] having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. [6] For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, So they will hold onto an outward form or appearance of Godliness That means, it’s only an outward display, so as to be seen by others But true Godliness doesn’t seek to been seen or praised by others, though that may happen True Godliness results in only caring about what God sees and how we honor and love Him as individuals And we read here that some of these people that were just described go on to work their way into other people’s homes and families in order to captivate weak women and families weighed down with sin, to take advantage of them They’re driven by the flesh and led by their sinful impulses Paul tells Timothy and us to avoid people like this at all costs Yes, preach the Gospel to them when you can, but beyond that have nothing to do with them Allowing people like that into your life, your home, the Church will inevitably multiply more sin So cut it off as quickly as you can [7] always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. They are always learning what is good, and true, and right, but can never arrive at the truth It’s reflected in how they live life This is a sad state of affairs, and having been a campus minister at a major university in the southeast for many years, I’ve seen this one up close The indictment of the post-post-modern skeptic is that they’re on a perpetual quest to “learn” But they don’t have any desire to arrive at any conclusions or firm positions And in our culture today, it is even seen as unloving to claim that we know something to be true (yeah, it’s that bad out there!) But I don’t care about “safe” - I care about truth! Candidly, I think college is a scam, at this point and if you’ve got a student whose thinking about it, I would strongly caution him or her not to waste the time That student is going to be in a perpetual battle of worldview every minute that he or she is on that campus And now, DEI has infiltrated into every nook and cranny of our culture DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Not diversity of thought, mind you, but diversity of race and color Not equality, which I learned all through school by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, but equity - meaning we should all have the same regardless of how hard we work This is a symptom of a nation rejecting God and His Word and His ways And I can assure you, a person who lives apart from God’s way will not naturally arrive at the Truth And I have no pretenses that we are still a “Christian” nation The American Church is in steep decline, and the churches that are growing the fastest are generally the ones peddling false gospels Yes, we should always be learning - that’s an important facet of our stewardship while we’re here on earth But that learning must push us on to THE WAY, THE LIFE, and THE TRUTH He alone is the gateway to the Father [8] Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. [9] But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. This harkens back to the Old Testament and Jannes and Jambres opposing Moses when God called him to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt These men that oppose the truth do so because they are depraved in their minds They lack the very thing that they most need - a relationship with the One true and living God So Paul is making the point to Timothy that these men that he’s been describing (false teachers/false prophets) are rejected by God when it comes to leadership in the Christian faith Now, they’re free to repent and come under sound teaching and orthodoxy, but they will not hold a leadership position, which is what they most desire This section reminded me of those times when people have stood up to preach or teach in the campus ministry I served, and also in a previous church In those contexts, we who were leaders were not going to let a perfect stranger walk in and preach - No way, no how! But what was more shocking was how shocked some of the students were that I wasn’t going to allow them to speak just because they wanted to, or felt like they had a “Word from God” or whatever… People who presume that they can walk in and be the center of everything happening are clanging gongs It’s just like the lady that interrupted my worship set one day, when I was filling in for the worship leader at a church back in Athens, GA She just decided that the Lord was prompting her to play the drums while I was leading worship No warning, no practice, and unfortunately, no talent or sense of rhythm I struggled through that first song, and went straight to the pastor while the announcements were being shared, and made sure that she wasn’t going to continue to “USE HER GIFT” going forward in the service I’ve seen some wild things in Church!! It was presumption and her thinking that she had something good to share, when she did not I told the pastor, “Either you keep her in her seat, or I will rebuke her in front of everyone here!” He made the wise decision She thought she was a good musician, but that wasn’t actually true It was only true in her mind The lesson is, you cannot oppose the Truth - all Truth is God’s Truth And that phrase is strongly associated with Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer, who used it to emphasize the idea that all genuine truth, regardless of its source (science, history, philosophy), ultimately originates from God and aligns with His revelation in the Bible The practical outworking of this MUST stand in opposition to relativism Schaeffer used this phrase to combat the idea that truth is subjective or relative to the individual He argued that a true understanding of reality must be grounded in God's perspective All areas of life, including science and ethics, are influenced by one's underlying worldview, and therefore, a Christian worldview should inform all aspects of truth-seeking So the conclusion is that there is no true knowledge outside of God's created order And while that is not explicitly stated in the Bible, this concept aligns with the idea that God is the source of all knowledge and understanding, and there is no other But getting back to the text…. [10] You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, [11] my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Paul refocuses on Timothy and gives this admonition above, which we just read Timothy had kept up with Paul’s ministry through writing and receiving letters back and forth And Paul’s life and conduct had become Timothy’s aim The same should be true of us But what’s missing here is any bragging or self-exaltation about all that Paul had accomplished And this is SOOOO important for anyone who hears this message in person or online… It’s not about YOU! It’s only ever about JESUS! So we do not strive to make much of ourselves Instead, we strive to make much of Jesus, our Savior and our Deliverer! What Paul DOES make much of is the antithesis of what we typically celebrate We usually make much of ourselves, but Paul was making much of Jesus, and so must we It is true that persecution is not desirable according to the flesh But it is also true that persecution can serve to strengthen us in the Spirit We must choose that which is lasting, and not that which is fleeting [12] Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, [13] while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (sing) Standing standing standing on the promises of God my Savior… This is, at first, a staggering statement that ought to stop everyone in their tracks if they are even considering giving their lives to Christ But upon closer inspection, we can see clearly that this is the most logical, right, and good course of action that anyone could hope to take It is also a promise from God If you desire to live a life that honors God, then in this life, you will have trials and tribulations and trouble Why is that the case? Because Satan is the “god” of this world, and he wants to hinder the Gospel going forth as much as he can Yes, it is a path frought with danger, but in the end, it is the ONLY path that will bring you into God’s eternal Kingdom All other paths end in death - physical death AND spiritual death eternal, having been consigned to the Lake of Fire So as a child of God, live a godly life, but know that you will be persecuted You will have troubles in this life But these things are temporal - they are temporary And Heaven is our eternal abode, and we will ever be with the Lord [14] But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it [15] and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Those who are truly in Christ will continue in what they have learned And just like Timothy, they will make sure they are studying the Scriptures to know and understand what they are saying to us The call to faithfulness has been given to us in Christ Jesus Now we must walk in it with faithfulness If you are young person, find someone who models godliness and spend time with that person Ask questions of that person Observe all that you can But v15 is very important for parents of younger children It is implicit that the parents are the first teachers in any child’s life, for good or for bad And it is so important for you, as parents, to take on that role and engage with that responsibility It’s not for the school system to do It’s not even exclusively for the Church to do YOU are the steward of your child/children, and God will hold YOU responsible So YOU (mom and dad) get in the Word daily and on your knees, pleading for wisdom from on high! That’s the single best thing a parent can do When it comes to learning and especially the Truth of God’s Word, we must continue going forward if we want to grow And I can’t speak for any of you, but I want to go on to know Christ more deeply every day Some of us grew up in Christian homes, and some did not, but it doesn’t matter at this point how we started It’s how we will finish, so…Paul tells us in Philippians 3:15: Philippians 3 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. So even the Apostle Paul, moving towards his own demise, was admonishing Timothy (and himself) to keep pressing on towards the upward calling in Christ Jesus If you are truly IN Christ, then you must continue in the things that you have learned Read and study your Word! This is not Man’s best thoughts about God What you have in front of you is God’s very Word! What a treasure! We should carry it and treat it as such! And Timothy had been studying, and he was acquainted with the sacred writings (what we call the Old Testament) It is the Scriptures that make one wise unto salvation, and impart wisdom [16] All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, [17] that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. So all Scripture is THEO PNEUSTAS THEO - God PNEUMA - Wind or air; literally “to breathe” So the Bible that we have is breathed out by God In other words, these are HIS words, not Man’s best thoughts about God Therefore, we can trust it and stand firmly on it as our foundation And in doing so, we will be adequately equipped for every good work in Christ Jesus! The progression looks like this: All Scripture is God-breathed (the doctrine of Inspiration) - it relates to the text of the Bible which is given from God What is inspired is the text itself, not the human authors that God used Inerrancy means that there are no errors in the original text (this doesn’t necessarily apply to the paper Bible you are carrying now (and if you’re wondering about your Bible and whether it’s a good version, I’m happy to help) Infallibility is the concept that God’s Word never fails Sola Scriptura is about the authority that the Bible wields and thus it is sufficient - we don’t need any other words/texts from God We have what He wants us to have right now 2 Peter 1:3 [3] His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence… // APPLICATION False teachers and false “gospels” have led, and continue to lead many astray in our world Anything that deviates from, or goes against God’s Word is NOT the Gospel It’s as simple as that God gave us His completed Word so that we could stand on it and know what He has said to humanity False “gospels” lead people astray and away form the truth of God’s Word, and into sin And yes, we have the testimony of Creation, but that’s only a first step It is the Scriptures that hold the power of God as His breathed-out Word to humanity So share with those around you what He has already said, so that they, too, can have relationship with the God who made us His divine power has already given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us to His own glory and grace! // PRAY // SING // GO The take-away this morning is simply this: all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted And we have to change our mindsets about this We can be frustrated and hurt by it, or we can see it as a badge of honor What I mean is simply this - you can hide your Light from the world in an effort to be accepted here and now, or you can let your light SHINE, as God intended, so that others might see and be drawn near It’s something to think about in all of our Holiday festivities Go out from this place with God’s Word in your mind, His love in your heart, and His Gospel on your lips!