2 Timothy 3:1-15 - Perilous Times

this is a message from the Ministry of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara for more information about our church please visit calvary SB dot-com open up our Bibles to 2nd Timothy chapter 3 we're gonna begin at this evening we'll bring the house lights up so people can see their Bibles and thank you so much for praying for the ministry trip to Germany several people from our church team are going rob Laskin Linda's going as well right Rob yeah Robin linda and carol smullins is coming and scott Depar and myself and Engle Oh Angelo's already over in Sweden doing a women's retreat in Sweden she's gonna meet us there and several other pastors and leaders it would be a great time and but it is pastor drew described it really well it's a it's a it's meaningful for us who come and do the ministry but it really is a very meaningful conference for those who come all over Western Europe and so many pastors and leaders we had the chance to encourage your that so we look forward to it every year and I'll be preaching at a Calvary Chapel the Sunday before and the Sunday after and Rob Laskin is gonna be preaching at Calvary Chapel Wiesbaden right man well Rob that's awesome the Sunday after the conference before before well that's just great well so we do we so appreciate your pressure so appreciate the congregation sending us I think it's an effective wonderful way that that we really reach the world with the Word of God so are we open to second Timothy chapter 3 I gave you a couple minutes that was the preachers way of stalling so that you could find your way to the appropriate there so father bless your word to us here this evening open up our hearts to receive everything that you have to teach us we're so grateful for this time in this place speak to our open hearts now Lord we pray in Jesus name Amen 2nd Timothy chapter 3 beginning at verse 1 but know this that in the last days perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves lovers of money stirs proud blasphemers disobedient to parents unthankful unholy unloving unforgiving slanderers without self-control brutal despisers of good traitors headstrong haughty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god having a form of godliness but denying its power and from such people turn away what a radical first five verses that we confront ourselves with in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 do you have the scene in your mind of Paul riding this Paul's riding this from what we call it a prison cell the I mean in all likelihood if it's the place where we thought it where we think it is in Rome the mammer time prison and if it wasn't that specific spot it was almost certainly a place much like it we think of you know a square cell with bars and you know maybe a place that they're chained up in the ancient world and look this place was a pit there's basically just a hole in the ground where they threw people down and they had to fend for themselves and and we're not talking about anything that you would think of in the modern day as being a jail or a prison and what's more is that Paul had seen the inside of many jails this wasn't a new experience him and God had delivered him out of many jails but there was something different about this imprisonment there's something very heavy in Paul's heart and mine telling him Paul you're not going to make it out of this one you're gonna lay down your life one day probably very soon they're gonna call you out of your prison cell they're gonna lift you up out of it they're gonna take you to a place and they're gonna cut off your head Paul had this sense and the this sense hangs like a cloud over all of second Timothy but when we come to chapter 3 we have the sense that Paul is thinking more than ever about what's going to be in the church after he leaves see Paul realized that the work of God is not going to end when he passes from the scene and could we just thank the Lord for that we thank the Lord for the great men and women that he raises up to lead his work throughout the centuries but we're so grateful that God's work through his church is so much bigger than any great man or woman of God that he's raised up to do the work and even though a man like Paul passes from the scene God has others that are raised up but it's on Paul's mind the the threats that the work of God will face in the coming generations it's on his mind and so he's warns Timothy and notice how he warns him verse 1 but know this that in the last days perilous times will come very interesting phrase in that first part of verse 1 where he says perilous times will come that word translated perilous has the idea of troubles difficulty and stressful situations that's the kind of atmosphere that's going to mark the last days that that same word in classical Greek the one that's translated perilous right there in verse 1 in classical Greek it was used of wild animals and of the raging sea you want to know very interesting occasion where that same word perilous is use another place in the New Testament Matthew chapter 8 let me look at my notes here verse 28 uses that same word to describe the demon-possessed man at the tombs of gathering it says this that he was coming out of the tombs exceedingly fierce so that no one could pass that way exceedingly fierce is the same word that's translated perilous the times are going to be fearful and fierce and dangerous that's going to be the kind of times people live in in the very last days now sometimes people wonder about this phrase the last days and there are people who look at this and look at what the rest of the New Testament has to say about the last days and they just say flatly Paul was wrong Jesus was wrong Jesus and Paul predicted the end of the age was going to come very soon that they were in the last days and they would say obviously we're not I I think that's conceiving things in the big picture of the Scriptures in a completely wrong way I think when you take a look at it scripturally this is the understanding we come to is that the last days describe the culmination of the Messiah's reign and there's a sense in which the last days began or or at least we're ready to begin as soon as Jesus finished his work and ascended to heaven there is a sense in which instead of running towards the edge I'm gonna do a little illustration here instead of walking towards the edge just as I walk towards the edge of this and thinking well the edge that's the end of all things and you know how close you are shows how close you are to the edge it's more like this that until the time of Jesus and his completed work that the work of God in the plan of God came up towards the edge and now since the finished work of Jesus now it runs alongside the edge ready to go off at any time of Jesus's choosing and so we have been in the last days and we are in the last days but this is what God calls us to do is to say look at what the world will be like in the very last days and look around you and see if the world matches that kind of a description now I think that my integrity before you as a Bible teacher well it's very important to me I don't know how important it is to you but it's very important to me and and I need to be very honest that I believe that God has given every generation some reason to believe that Jesus Christ could return in their generation do you know why I believe because I believe God wants every generation to live in the expectancy of the return of Jesus the last thing in the world God wants for any of his people is to say what Jesus isn't coming back anytime soon that's the last thing in the world God wants his people to believe so well I believe that there are definitely reasons for us to look around in the world today and to say Jesus Christ is coming soon we should be ready for the return of Jesus I'm not trying to act like these conditions are completely unique to our times many of them existed before and many of them may exist in the future yeah I think you'd be a fool if you did not look around in the world to say so much of the world lines up with what the Bible said it would be like in the very last days therefore Paul gives this description but know this that in the last days perilous times will come I think that describes our present age pretty well verse 2 for men will be lovers of themselves I hardly know what to say because people have always been lovers of themselves I mean it's just something that just started in our current generation but you know what's so strange about our current generation I don't know if there has ever been such a deliberate calculated focused effort to teach a culture to deliberately love themselves the way it has been for the last 40 or 50 years in the Western world I mean the love of self has always been out there make no mistake about it it's not like we just learned how to do this but I don't know a time where entire curriculum of school districts has been focused on getting the students to love themselves more cuz I don't know about you but I could just speak for myself I did pretty good job loving myself I don't need any special training in it um that this is something that's just characteristic of people in general but oh how it seems so intense so so prevalent in our modern day now when I think about this whole phenomenon of loving yourself and self-love I think sometimes Christians get it wrong self-love is a sin but so also is self-hatred I don't think God wants us to hate our selves and there are people who have some really twisted messed up self conceptions that I can see why loving themselves would seem to be the answer to them I get that I think the better approach is to do what Paul said in Romans chapter 12 verse 3 where he said this for I say through the grace given to me to everyone who is among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly as God to dealt has dealt to each one a measure of faith don't think of yourself more highly than you should think by the way this this is so prevalent our day and age today it it's a it's it's really remarkable and look if I had done a better job preparing in every aspect I would have the statistics you know up on the screen for you but you're well aware aren't you that that statistics show that for example in the United States I won't speak for other nations right now but just in the United States that when they poll how students estimate their own ability let's say at mathematics they have a very high estimation of their own ability and then they test what the students can actually do at mathematics and it's not very high so they have a great image of themselves of what they can do with math they just can't do it very well what Paul says don't think more highly of yourself than you want but think soberly listen I don't want to preach to people that you should love yourself I don't want to preach to people that you should hate yourself I think we should think soberly about ourselves and who we are before God and when God says that I am and you are as well precious human beings made in the image of God worthy before God because we're his created beings we should believe that but when God also says that we are twisted sinners from the womb and we really need saving and transformation by Jesus Christ we should believe that as well the point isn't to say yourself or hate yourself the point is to say simply this believe what God says about who you are both the good and there's plenty of good but the bad as well and there's a good measure of bad so he goes on men will be lovers of themselves lovers of money men will be boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to parents men will be unthankful unholy now into verse 3 unloving unforgiving and we would say this that that since the beginning of time these things have been characteristic of humanity from the very beginning of time Cain murdered Abel but we look around at the world that we live in today and I look at it and I just sort of Franz I gasps just a little bit remember I told you about the gap that there is that they find statistically between how people estimate themselves and what they actually are capable of doing I think that in general in Western culture today there's a tremendous gap because overall in Western culture we think we're pretty good we look back on previous generations we come huh a bunch of losers they weren't enlightened to all the things were enlightened to you know look at all the things that they did wrong look at all the the sexism look at all the racism look at all the terrible things in general past and friends I'm here to take there's plenty of bad things in generations past I don't excuse any of it but if we forgot humanity in the last hundred years have we forgotten that the 20th century was the generation was the century of genocide have we forgot that in the 20th century communist governments were responsible for the systematic deliberate deaths of up to 100 million people a hundred million people and someone well yeah but we're pretty good and we've got the scourge of abortion on demand country which says in the United States that any child can be terminated at any time for any reason that there should be absolutely no restriction on abortion whatsoever do you realize that that is one of the most radical abortion laws in the entire world that you can count on one hand the countries that have this kind of radical abortion laws that the United States has any abortion at any time for any reason whatsoever but yet so much of our culture feels so good about itself today that we're really doing something look I could go through each item on this list lovers of themselves boy could we talk about that for a long time lovers of money oh boy boasters proud blasphemers and several times before when I've taught this chapter I've given a slice from the current news that illustrates each one of those things and it's easy to do to coin a phrase it's like shooting fish in a barrel I mean the fish are right there it's not hard they're just wow it's easy and I think about past times when I've taught this passage and I wonder I wonder if I taught it with the right heart there's almost a sense in which we read the terrible description of what humanity will be like in the very last days we see how how frightening ly accurate it is of a description of the present day and we just kind of wipe our hands and say well world's going to hell listen I I think there should be at least three definite reactions that we have in our number one we should be able to say we are living in the last days look I I really believe as I said before God gives every generation some reason to believe that Jesus is coming again and I think he's given us more than some reason I think he's given us a lot of reasons so if somebody wants to say well David couldn't God delay and and recreate the same conditions on the world a hundred years ago yes he could but I'm not gonna take that chance I want to be ready for the return of Jesus Christ today and I say come quickly Lord Jesus so we're ready for the return of Jesus Christ number one but number two and this is a very important point I think we recognize that humanity is not getting better we live in this bizarre world where we think that because we get a better mobile phone every two years that humanity is getting better by the way a lot of times I don't like the latest mobile phone that comes out I mean I I want the one that's a year or two old but that's another thing it's it might just because I'm old but that's another matter but we think that because technology gets better we think that because the things get shiny or and brighter and faster and and more of a woman that all that's better listen honestly I don't think people are any better if you do you think people seem worse Jesus is coming soon that's what it says number two it's houses people are not getting better but thirdly it tells us there's any walk away from this whole list that I'd like you to take it's this one brothers and sisters it's harvest time we look out on a world that is so messed up and so perishing and we should have the same attitude that Jesus had when he looked out over the Samaritans that were streaming out to meet with him and the well where Jesus had spoken with the women at the well and what did Jesus say he looked out over those people coming out from the village and he said the fields are white unto harvest they are ready to be harvested and we just say Lord let there be a great harvest father we see so much corruption so much decadence so much failure and brutality and weakness and life is cheap and we go on and we see it all today Lord father the times are so blocked would you please shine your light in a glorious way now's the time Lord brother because we love people and of course we know God loves people even more than we do we want you to rescue people from the brokenness and the depravity and the self-destruction of everything that this describes in the last days so we just don't wipe our hands go well the world's going to hell what are you gonna do you know we pray we work we speak we give we do whatever we can to say lord use us in the present age it's harvest time God may we be about your business but boy what a description it is men will be verse 3 slanderers without self-control brutal you guys saw the news about that young boy in the United Kingdom Alfie Evans I wonder about this because of course the teaching I do tonight is recorded and it'll go online somewhere and maybe a year from now somebody will listen to it you know what a year from now somebody listen they'll say who's Alfie Evans because something like this comes and it comes in our consciousness for a week or two and then it passes things like this should not be forgotten we didn't hear Alfie Evans was a young boy who had a rare degenerative mysterious brain disease doctors could not figure out what was wrong with him but he knew they knew he was in very serious trouble and the National Health Service of Great Britain which look I'm no expert on them I'm not going to speak to you this soon as of some expert in healthcare but for what I read plainly the officials at the National Health Service in the United Kingdom they decided against the pleas of the parents that the boy should just die and they refused him medical care they took him off the ventilator and the boy still lived so what did they do they refused him food and water they starved him to death and dehydrated him to death against the pleas of the parents let us go and then on top of all of this there was a hospital in Rome that said we'll take him the Italian government offered him citizenship we'll take him get him here we'll pay for everything just get him here that the government of Great Britain that the National salutely refused not only would they refuse to give him the care and so they demanded that that boy die men will be brutal and there's a brutality to today's big government and control over everything that makes me say come quickly Lord Jesus men will be despisers of good men will be traitors we're into verse for now headstrong haughty lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God now that that phrase really sticks out to me doesn't it to you doesn't that describe so much of the Western world again I'm not trying to act as if this is completely unique to our own generation we just seem to be more sophisticated and we have more ability to pursue pleasure than ever before but that's just it isn't it the vast majority of perishing people our world today they just say well I can love pleasure or I can love it's a no-brainer I'll reject God and pursue pleasure and you know if the great tragedy is behind that one of the great tragedy things is that when you make pleasure your main concern you're destined for misery but here's the thing when you make God your concern you'll get pleasure thrown in I love what it says in Psalm 16 verse 11 ready for this one the psalmist said at your right hand are pleasures forevermore right there at the right hand of God when we seek God when we seek first the kingdom of God pleasure gets a you don't have to choose between God and pleasure you don't have to make that choice but you know what you do have to choose between you do have to choose between the love of God and the love of pleasure that's a choice you have to make but you don't have to choose between God and pleasure because you pursue him and you pursue the one of whom it is promised at his right hand are pleasures forevermore and then he says in verse 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power you know we live in spiritual times do we not but these spiritual times that we live in so often they deny the very power of God when we talk about the power of godliness in our culture oftentimes it's meant the power to give me what I want but that's exactly the opposite of what Paul meant here the power of godliness that men will despise in the last days is the power of God to guide their lives the power of God to transform their lives the power of God to rule over us as a rightful sovereign that's the power of God that they'll despise and then he says in verse 5 from such people turn away listen I find it fascinating that when you go through this list you realize that the kind of people that this list describes their common today but what's striking about it is that in our own day often these people are our cultural heroes they're the models of conduct for a generation what just shouldn't be like that for us we should deliberately ask ourselves who are our models of conduct who are the people that we will deliberately pattern ourselves after now many people think it's enough if they say well I'm not like this but if you hang around people who are like this if you choose to make them your deliberate company spend enough time around them and you'll find that you end up in a similar place they'll influence you do you remember what it says in first Corinthians chapter 15 verse 33 it says this do not be deceived evil company corrupts good habits put yourself around enough evil company you will pick up their bad habits so from such turn away now those first five verses pretty depressing No yeah pretty pretty terrible let's look at Paul's alternative starting at verse 6 for of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins led away by various lusts always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth there's something in here in Paul's description verses 6 and 7 that speaks for something of the power of this kind of spirit of the last days and the power of it is expressed about those who creep into households these influences come into our very homes and look at the phrase in verse 6 they make captives of gullible women now I don't think Paul's on the lady's right there I think Paul has in mind women as being more gullible in this example because they're at home they're at the place where these influences come in and in many ancient cultures not universally but many ancient cultures women had more time for conversation and activity around the home again I'm not trying to say that was universal in the ancient world but oftentimes it was I think what it is is Paul saying that these things are especially dangerous among those who bring them into their home number one and number two have the time to entertain them let me think about our present age you think about everything that comes into our home what used to be the television and that was bad enough wasn't it then it was cable television that got even worse and then the internet and those of us who are old enough to remember what life was like before the internet you imagine that children you know born what in the last 15 20 years they have no concept of this whatsoever none and you see that even though the Internet provides unbelievable opportunity for the spread of the gospel and for the spread of God's Word and look I I thank God for the Internet I thank God for the ability to distribute great Bible teaching and great Bible resources worldwide over the you know what a gift that is but at the same time it does introduce a tremendous danger that can come right into the household so they creep into the household but then the other thing the idea of preying on the global women has a sense that they would have more time to be under their influence and lays it down I just want you to understand that in a historical perspective we in the Western world of the 21st century have a ridiculous amount of leisure time now you're saying David what are you talking about I feel stressed and busy in my job all the time and I get that I understand I'm not trying to you know put you down act like you're just you know kicking back all the time but you do have to admit that the kind of lives we live as busy as they are and as much pressure and stress were under were not under the stress of the man plowing his field 200 years ago wondering if the crops are gonna grow or he and his family are gonna die that year that's a different kind of stress I'm not trying to say we don't have stress in our own daily lives we do but when you compare the margin for leisure and recreation that we enjoy now compared to 50 a hundred a thousand years ago it's really unbelievable which makes it all the more dangerous for us to say we're not gonna put ourselves under those influences we're deliberately gonna choose godly influences and not be as it says there in verse six be led away by various lusts be those I love this phrase in verse seven those who are always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth isn't that a fascinating phrase always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth yes there's a value for intelligence there's a value for learning but it's possible to be always learning but never coming to the truth and God wants us to come to the truth to the one who is the truth Jesus Christ himself who is the way the truth and the life but before we move on to verse eight we just got to understand isn't it true in our day to day the people have even left the concept of the truth and they say there is no truth there's my truth and there's your truth and there's their truth but there is no true truth the Christian philosopher Francis Schaeffer used to talk about that and he was a man who saw things with unbelievable clarity decades before things really solidified into the world we are today but Francis Schaeffer said Christian's need to start talking about the idea of true truth things that are true whether or not we believe them not my truth of your truth or their truth but things that are true truth this is the danger in the world today people always learning but never coming to a knowledge of the truth now here in verses 89 there's there's this interesting relation that Paul makes to two figures from the Old Testament he says verses 89 now as Jonas and John braze resisted Moses so do these also resist the truth men of corrupt minds disapproved concerning the faith but they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all as theirs also was post trying to say that the spirit of the last days that he's been describing in the first seven verses these are typify dand two people from the Old Testament people that Paul calls Janice and John Riis what's fascinating about this is that nowhere on the pages the Old Testament do we find these names John us and genres but we know exactly who Paul was talking about because he these are the ones who resisted Moses these were the two Egyptian magicians that resisted Moses they're described in Exodus chapter 7 verses 8 through 13 chapter 7 verses 19 through 23 chapter 8 verses 5 through 7 in chapter 8 verses 16 through 19 in those four passages these Egyptian magicians and Janis and Chalmers they had their run-ins with Moses and what's fascinating about these men is that they were able to work at least in some regard real miracles not just sleight of hand but some kind of real miracles but they were miracles by the power of darkness and not by the power of God do you remember what happened when Moses threw his rod down and it became a serpent what happened when Janice and genres they threw a rod down it also became a serpent but what happened Moses a serpent ate theirs up which was awesome now I don't know it's possible that on that occasion it could have been a magician's trick but as you get into the miracles that they kept on doing or at least this so-called miracles when Moses turned water into blood they could do the same which again was one of the most hilarious backhanded things in the Old Testament what was the problem when Moses cursed the waters of Egypt and turned them into blood no drinking water so they had very little fresh water what did Janice and Jambres do they turned more of the fresh water that they had into blood will ruin more of the water would have been a better miracle if they could have made it clean again but they couldn't do that so they imitated that miracle when Moses brought forth a plague of frogs Janice and John Bray's could do the same yet eventually they could not match god and his messenger Moses miracle for miracle and their occult powers were shown to be inferior to what God provided therefore they resisted Moses it says there in verse 8 but look at it I love the conclusion there in verse 9 they will progress no further in other words there was a limit to how far Janice and Jambres could go they could impress Pharaoh they could impress pharaoh's court they could deceive many it was powerful it was real there was a distance they could go but there was a point where God said no further you're gonna go that's it you will go no further than this and that's exactly the idea that Paul is saying God has a limit for the wickedness of this world now you and I may have been saying for a long time God hasn't it reached that limit but God knows when that limit is he does and it's not wrong for us to cry out to God and say how long it's not wrong for us to say come quickly Lord Jesus again and again none of that is wrong for us but we got to understand God in His wisdom knows I have a strange image in my mind the image is somewhere on this globe maybe it's under a glacier and the one of the poles or something like that maybe it's on the hidden side of a mountain somewhere in the Himalayas but somewhere if you could sweep away everything that obstructs there's an expiration date right there on the earth just like there would be on a carton of milk and you know do not allow to go beyond this day God has that date God has that limit and sometimes we get a little shaken sometimes you see the wickedness and the brutality and the terribleness of this world sometimes we look over the last hundred years and we see the unbelievable carnage of the communist governments of the world wars of just the depravity of society we look at all we go Lord it's too much God says no I know I know what the expiration date is you may not know but I know and there will be a point where I will not allow it to go any further look at that phrase and verse nine they will progress no further there's a limit and God will establish that limit at the right time now verse 10 but you and this is where we get to the contrast in good part but you writing to Timothy have carefully followed my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering love perseverance persecutions afflictions which happened to me in Antioch at Iconium and at Lystra what persecutions I endured and out of them all the Lord delivered me yes and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution I confess I like the list of verses 10 11 and 12 a lot better than the list of verses 1 through 5 this is a great list this is a list of Paul reminding Timothy of the contrast Timothy yes bad times will come I'm telling you about the kind of people that will threaten the earth in the last days and you're gonna have to contend with these people in some regard in your own day Timothy but there should be a clear dividing line between you and the conduct of those men you verse 10 you have carefully followed and that's what made Timothy different than the spirit of the age listen if you want to be different from the conduct that's described in the first five verses that whole terrible list if you want to be different then this is what you got to do look at it right there you need to carefully follow Paul's now I need to pause right here Paul said something very important and another letter is he said this follow me as I follow Christ Jesus so when he told Timothy here follow my doctrine Paul doesn't even have it in his mind him apart from Jesus he's really follow Jesus now we believe and we believe with all our hearts that Paul was Jesus's inspired messenger there are people who like to drive a division between Jesus and Paul brother and sister don't fall for it oftentimes they want to paint Jesus as you know kind of that hippy loving flower child Jesus and Paul's the uptight guy that told everybody to knock everything off that is the most erroneous and superficial reading of both Jesus and Paul that you can imagine there's no division or divorce against Paul and Jesus now you could take a passage where Jesus is expressing the great love and compassion kindness of God and put it up against Paul speaking of the great corruption and sinfulness in society and it looks like they're at odds but you could so easily turn it around you could go to a passage where Jesus spoke with such condemnation against the corruption and depravity of society and turned around to a passage in Paul where he's been the great love and kindness and greatness of God so again it's an incredibly superficial reading that regards there being a difference so when I say this we understand that Paul is pointing Timothy look at me Paul was saying but we understand Paul is saying please follow me as I follow Christ Jesus back to this again I just didn't want there to be any misunderstanding verse 10 but you have carefully followed my doctrine manner of life purpose faith long-suffering love perseverance persecutions afflictions which happened to me at Antioch Iconium and at Lystra Timothy if you want to be different from those last days disasters that I described in the first by verses then you follow after the pattern that I taught you you stay faithful to what I taught you what a challenge for us this is is it not brother and sisters listen we live in a world that is very powerful very powerfully morally very powerfully maybe I should say very powerfully immorally a very powerful in its seduction very powerful in the social pressure it puts around us we will only withstand it by following hard after Jesus Christ and that's what Paul told Timothy to do follow me you've carefully followed my doctrine it all began with doctrine did it not the reason Paul lived the way he did was because he believed certain things it's so interesting in our modern age the way our modern age thinks is what you believe about God and religion has nothing to do with the rest of your life brother this is a complete lie it has everything to do who you conceived God to be is the most important thing about you it shapes your destiny it shapes who you are now and into the future so for Paul rightly so it all began with doctrine now listen I need to tell you it didn't end with doctrine not by any means and there are some believers out there who think the doctrine is the only important thing in the Christian life it's not the only important thing but it is an essential foundation I ran across a quote in the last week I wish it would have written it down ahead of my notes here this evening so I'm just gonna paraphrase it you know from my mom is it brilliant quote a great Bible teacher a great scholar of our present generation he said something like this he said I spend half my time telling people how important doctrine is and I spend the other half of my time telling him that proper doctrine isn't enough and both are true proper doctrine is very important but it by itself is not enough but it begins with there you followed my doctrine then look at it and my manner of life there was a certain way that Paul lived was it perfect not by any means but you can look at a man like Paul Jay that man is following Jesus I can take his example and matter of fact I can see him when he fails and falls short and I can follow what the example what to do then as well I love this as well I love this list followed my doctrine manner of life purpose oh you looked at the Apostle Paul and you said there's a man who has a purpose in life do you realize how many people are attracted and sold out to evil it was so true of the Communist world it's true today of the Islamic world how people will sell themselves out to incredible evil but it gives them a purpose in life and it's usually phrased as a very noble purpose is it not the lofty goal of the Communist they they claimed a great purpose in the mind of many of those who follow radical lahm they claim a great purpose but the problem isn't so much of the decadent West people live without any purpose that man Paul he had a doctrine he had a manner of living but he had a purpose in his life as well and he had just continued to list on in verse 10 he had faith long-suffering love he had all those things perseverance now into verse 11 persecutions afflictions now this is what really strikes me into verse 11 neither this oh the the purpose the faith long-suffering love perseverance but you think like a man like that would be Man of the Year wouldn't you but then he drops the bomb in verse 11 the man of that great purpose the man of that right doctrine the man of that christ-like manner of living the the man of that love and long-suffering that man was persecuted and we think about that we think about our many brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who faced terrible persecution hardly seems like two weeks can go by without hearing of some terrible massacre in Pakistan in Egypt in Iran in other places where Christians are terribly persecuted it makes us wonder as our own culture becomes more and more ungodly as it becomes more and more defiant against God is is some kind of persecution on the way for us it very well could be but then what I find is so fascinating about this is he lists the specific places you know look Paul's at a prison cell he knows his life is going to be over soon would you would you grant him a little trip down memory lane and so he's thinking about it he's thinking about the times he was persecuted and not that these were the only times at all but three ones stick out in his mind look at it there in verse 11 which happened to me at Antioch and Koni 'm and at Lystra at antioch paul was kicked out of the city for preaching the gospel you read about it Acts chapter 13 and Iconium Paul was almost stoned to death for preaching the gospel that's in Acts chapter 14 and then at Lystra they actually did stone Paul and they left him for dead that's in Acts chapter 14 verse 19 Antioch Iconium Lystra Paul wore each one of those like a badge of honor now the most the time God isn't a show.we god it's amazing how humble God is and God is so humble that that if people want to deny God's hands and things sometimes they can God is very humble God but if God were a little less humble and gave like fancy uniforms to his servants and pin medals on their chests could you imagine Paul showing the stripe here that was at the Battle of Antioch right there and this this little stripe this is from Iconium oh yeah and let me tell you what happened in the war at Lystra you know he's stripping his arm and showing his battle scars the third one he lists right there Lystra number three you know why he named that one Timothy was from Lystra Timothy reads that and something jumps in his heart I remember Paul I remember you were under a pile rocks we thought you were dead and when we saw your courage there in my own hometown fine that's the kind of man I wanted to follow and that's why Paul brought it up and that's why he says in verse 11 and out of all of them the Lord delivered me you know what's interesting I imagined Paul riding that and looking out at his jailer maybe he's chained to him maybe he's right outside the hole God delivered me out of all of those and maybe right now in the here and now I'm not gonna make it out of here alive but God will deliver me nevertheless I'm gonna be with Jesus cries for resurrection I wonder if Paul didn't didn't just think back on that phrase you know I wrote it and I believe it that to live as Christ to die is gain and God spared my life so many times through so many persecutions and if now I'm led to pay the ultimate price God will not forsake me even in death and I will only gain by laying my life down verse 13 but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse deceiving and being deceived but you must continue in the things which you have learned had been assured of knowing from whom you have learned them and that from childhood you've known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ listen Timothy I'm here to tell you that evil men imposters they're gonna get worse and worse I'm just trying to be real with you about it and it's almost as if Paul could look down the corridors of the sensories and see the 21st century right here right now if God gave him a flash of that vision it goes whew it's gonna get worse and worse if he could see literally the millions of dead from the 20th century if you could see that he could say evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse verse 14 but you must continue in the things which you've learned forget about those evil men Timothy I've got a focus for you you must continue in the things which you've learned Timothy we're not playing games you're living in a dangerous world these are perilous times out there we're not playing games you must continue in those things which you have learned you learn them you learn them from Paul you learn them from the others who have taught you these things and you began to learn them notice from childhood when you knew the Holy Scriptures Timothy continue in what you received but don't think that it began with Paul it's very interesting Paul brought the message to Timothy but Paul didn't create the message Paul just brought the message that had been existing from the Holy Scriptures before and I think Paul does a beautiful draw job here of drawing that line of continuity it's as if Paul's looking back at God's work from the very beginning because when he says the Holy Scriptures there in verse 15 what does he mean he means the Old Testament you'll learn the Old Testament from your mom and your grandma they told you the Bible stories they taught you the Bible you learn to love the Old Testament it's a beautiful heritage that was passed on to you and Timothy you're living in the continuity of that that God's work didn't begin with Paul God's work has been going on in this plan of the ages from the very beginning and we're just handing one torch to another so it's a beautiful and powerful thing isn't it that we belong to something that stretches back from the generations to the very beginning of God's plan of the ages we have this beautiful company of God's people the company of the redeemed throughout all the generations and one of the great connecting links we have with that is what we've received from the Holy Scriptures verse 15 which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ now why are they able to make you wise look at verse 16 because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that is one of the most wonderful single verses in the entire Bible and we'll have to leave it for the next time that we get together here on a Wednesday night I'm gonna break off here verse 15 where Paul really exhorts he continued in the things you have learned and he draws his attention to the Holy Scriptures and when we pick it up next time we'll see how Paul puts the inspiration of Scripture at just such this central place in the life and the development of the believer let let me conclude with this I want to draw your attention just back to something I said before we look at the depravity the danger the perilous times that we live in today we read the first five verses of 2nd Timothy chapter 3 we go wow that's today what's our reaction our reaction is threefold number one our reaction is we say well Lord your word is true you described it just as it would be we are in the last days number two we take it very seriously that even though we have better gadgets today than ever before that even though there's some parts of our lives that are more wonderful I don't want to go back to pre flush toilet days and pre you know I don't want to have to sail to Europe thank you very much I like flying there there's so much that we appreciate our modern age but we realize people aren't getting better in many ways people are becoming more corrupt even though so much of the culture doesn't think so and finally it just makes us a breath and sisters this is harvest time every one of us has some way that we can put our hand to the plow for God's work in this generation may we be obedient to what God tells us to do and join in to help reap these fields that are right for harvest father this is our prayer as we see Lord the critical nature of the times we live in give us a heart and a passion to love and serve this needy world and to go forward Lord never behind but always forward following in the same thing that you started us in in the crisps life that's simple following after Jesus Christ and if you put rare servants in our midst like the Apostle Paul that we can learn a lot from we're grateful for that but Lord our eyes are always on Jesus seeking to follow and glorify Him thank you for that in our midst Lord we pray this in Jesus name Amen this is a message from the Ministry of Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara for more information about our church please visit calvary us be com [Music]

Channel: David Guzik

Views: 25,846

Rating: 4.8005538 out of 5

Keywords: end times deception

Id: 1gQ9QsIT3SY

Length: 58min 23sec (3503 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 19 2018