Midweek Bible Study | 2 Timothy 3 | Gary Hamrick

survival's and go to our continuing study here on Wednesday nights through the book of second Timothy presently so we'll be in 2nd Timothy chapter 3 we do have a few Bibles for you if you need one you can raise a hand and an usher up and down the aisle will be glad to hand you a Bible if you need one second Timothy chapter 3 and in those church Bibles its page 843 second Timothy chapter 3 so again this is the final letter that Paul wrote before he is martyred for his faith so these are kind of the dying counsels of of Paul and though again your Bible is not in chronological order this is this is the last letter that he will write and it is part of the group of epistles referred to as the pastoral epistles Paul is with a pastor's heart riding to some young pastors Timothy and Titus and so 1st and 2nd Timothy and the book of Titus that follows are considered pastoral epistles and Paul is going to give godly advice by inspiration of the Spirit about how pastors should conduct themselves and how the church should conduct itself and how together we make up the body of Christ and so he's going to come here to chapter 3 and if you have read ahead you you know as we close chapter 2 last week I said that in chapter 3 Paul basically prophesized and he talks about the cultural climate of the world just prior to the second coming of Christ and so what we're going to read here in chapter 3 are 19 different characteristics of the culture that that will be prevalent just prior to the second coming of Christ what I find fascinating I think you will too as we go through is that you know here Paul writes this around 67 ad you know here we are now 21st century and and yet what we're about to read here is like he's he's writing an editorial or a personal column in in the in the New York Times I mean what he is explained I don't know the New York Times will be in touch with with culture so in the way we would but anyway use your imagination he's like he's writing a blog about that he's just writing a blog today and he's saying you know these are gonna be some of these because it's like we're reading our own news today as we look through this list I think you'll notice that with me but let's first pray and then we'll dive into chapter 3 this evening Lord we were grateful that we can come together tonight and that we can call you our Father that you hear our prayers Lord that you're so gracious to us you are patient with us we just love you Lord and we just thank you for the opportunity that we have to open up your word tonight to study together to fellowship with one another to sing songs of praise to you we just collectively want all of it to bring you glory and honor and may it bring you joy Lord as you as you look at us and as you see us wanting to read your word and do what it says so we trust and pray that we would bring delight to your heart and we are just grateful for the opportunity to be here together tonight use your word now to speak to our own hearts we love you and praise you together in Jesus name and everybody said amen so I want us to see here in chapter 3 both not just a list of the the cultural climate of the last days but I also want us to look at this and and not be detached because I think it's easy for us to look at this and say oh yeah I see that in the culture around me I see that in the culture around me but but are any of these elements in our own hearts and if so we need to we need to purge those things in our own lives because the the list that he gives us here is not a positive list this is us this is a sad sober list of the things that will Mar the last days that's how he starts your verse 1 but mark this there will be terrible times in the last days not a very cheerful beginning to chapter 3 but it is as I said a sober beginning there will be terrible times some of your translations say perilous times some translations say Grievous it is a it is a word in the Greek that can mean all of those things terrible perilous difficult Grievous it's interesting to note that in in classical Greek language that word happens to be used to describe dangerous wild animals or the raging of the sea so that's that's kind of the figurative picture that we have of what he's describing here very you know terrible ravenous you know raging this is going to be very difficult and grievous times in the last days now often when you see that that that phrase the last days he's speaking about and the Bible speaks about those things related to just prior to the second coming of Christ and in Matthew chapter 16 you don't need to turn there but in Matthew 16 in verse 3 it's kind of a gentle rebuke here the Pharisees and Sadducees of his day because he says he says you know how to interpret the appearance of the sky but he says you cannot interpret the signs of the times so he challenges the religious leaders of his own day he says you you guys you guys are are able to understand you know read in the morning you know take warning read at night sailor's delight all that kind of thing like you can you can look at the signs in the skies and realize the climate and the condition of the weather but you can't recognize the climate and condition of your own day and so paul is leading us here into a description about some of the signs of the times here some of the things that will mark the culture in the last days just prior to the second coming of Christ and so again we're gonna see 19 I'm gonna put all these up on the screen I'm gonna give some of these I'll add little commentary to some of them don't really need commentary they're words that are self-explanatory but let me read from verse two down through verse five and then we'll come back and enumerate the list this is what he says in verse two people will be lovers of themselves lovers of money boastful proud abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful unholy without love unforgiving slanderous without self-control brutal not lovers of the good treacherous rash conceited lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with them now does any of that just seem a wee bit familiar to our own culture so here he goes through this list and again it's 19 if you counted what I just read here and I'll give you you know three or four at a time the climate of the culture in the last days number one he says here people will be lovers of themselves it is the Greek word fill out toasts from two Greek words phileo meaning to love and out toasts meaning self so one of the things that Paul says here is you get closer to the return of Christ people will be more self-centered and narcissistic than ever there will be a preoccupation with me and you know I think that this is clearly a problem in our own culture now look don't read the opposite into this this is not to say that we should hate ourselves okay he's not saying you know being lovers of yourselves you know what you really need to be is haters of yourselves he's not he's not saying the opposite by by inference here but neither should we have this inflated view of ourselves so he's not talking about you know that the best place as a Christian to be is if you just hate yourself but he's also saying but we shouldn't be inflated in our view of ourselves either now Paul would say this in Romans 12:3 he says for by the grace given me I say to every one of you do not think of yourself more highly than you ought but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you in other words we must see ourselves as we really are that is to say both the bad of what we are in the flesh and the redeemed of who we are in Christ that's that's the so poor judgment and that's what he means here in Romans 12:3 about in accordance with a measure of faith that God has given you we should we should recognize if you're in Christ that there's there's the bad part of your flesh and there's the redeemed part of your life in Christ so we have to have a sober view of ourselves don't over inflate don't be self-centered narcissistic you know they used to say in the 70s you know when I was young and growing up they used to say in the 70s that the 70s was the me generation well the me generation of the 70s has been eclipsed by the generation of today because if we thought that we were the Me Generation then we don't hold a candle to the me generation now now we've become preoccupied with self we love to broadcast self we love to brag about self we love to post pictures about ourselves and so social media has now dominated a very self-centered culture and I know it's dangerous I don't want to I don't want to use a broad brush and say all social media is wrong it's not I remember you know when back in the day when when TVs you know became popular in everybody's house and that was the evil and is there some evil on TVs sure is there some evil and social media sure but there can be a good use of those things too but then it can also contribute to and fuel this desire of an evil human heart to want to be seen and affirmed and noted and and really that's the root of most social platforms it's wanting to broadcast self I mean it's not they tube it's YouTube it's about you right and so you know people are wanting to promote themselves in broadcast selves and and and it just has has become an indication of our culture being lovers of self this obsession with self has led to not only an unhealthy preoccupation with self but now according to psychologists the highest-ever diagnosis of people with NDP narcissistic NPD narcissistic personality disorder a couple of psychologists by the name of dr. Jean Twenge and and dr. W Keith Campbell wrote a book called the narcissism epidemic and it explores the rise of narcissism in American culture and explains how this can lead to aggression materialism and shallow values and just to give you a short excerpt from their book I think it describes our culture they said quote this is just in the introduction we didn't have to look very hard to find it it was everywhere on a reality TV show a girl planning or 16th birthday party once a major road blocked off so a marching band can precede her grand entrance on a red carpet a book has been published called quote my beautiful mommy which explains plastic surgery to young children whose mothers are going under the knife for the trendy quote mommy makeover it is now possible to hire fake paparazzi to follow you around snapping your photographs when you go out at night and you can even take home a faux celebrity magazine cover featuring the pictures this is all just in the introduction to their book a popular song declares with no apparent sarcasm quote I've that the world should revolve around me end quote people buy expensive homes with loans far beyond their ability to pay or at least they did until the mortgage market collapsed as a result babies wear bibs embroidered with quote supermodel or chick magnet and they suck on bling pacifiers while their parents read modernized nursery rhymes from this little piggy went to Prada people strive to create a quote personal brand also called self branding packaging themselves like a product to be sold high school students pummel classmates and then seek attention for their violence by posting YouTube videos of the beatings although these seem this is what the psychologists are writing in this book although these seem like a random collection of current trends all are rooted in a single underlying shift in the American psychology the relentless rise of narcissism in our culture not only are there more narcissist than ever but non narcissistic people are seduced by the increasing emphasis on material wealth physical appearance celebrity worship and attention seeking and quote and on and on it goes so you know clearly there have been you know the statistics and studies bear this out that more and more people are becoming lovers of themselves what I find interesting is when I read through this list I think what gee whiz if this is becoming even more prevalent in our culture I mean just how imminent is the return of Christ I mean I don't know how much more self-centered our culture can get than it is right now so lovers of themselves number two on the list is lovers of money it is the Greek word fill our gross again from two Greek words phileo meaning to love and are gross meaning silver people are living in a very materialistic greedy culture as well today now again please bear in mind that Paul is not saying there's anything wrong with success or even being wealthy he gives his warning about it in his first letter to Timothy chapter 6 verse 10 where he said for the love of money is a root not the root is a root of all kinds of evil some people eager for money have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs so he warned in the first letter about the the problem that materialism can have and how people live for the almighty dollar but he's not against or opposed to success or wealth the Bible's not opposed to success or wealth God enables people to be successful and wealthy so that they might use the resources and/or the platform that he has given them for his glory and and so we need to appreciate the the benevolent hand of God in our lives but not to become greedy with it covetous with it hoarding it but to be generous and to be a conduit of his generosity in in our world interestingly USA Today published a survey conducted recently by the Pew Research Center that asked 18 to 25 year olds in particular what's your most important life goal now a similar question was posed in 1967 and in 1967 when people were asked you know what's your most important life goal 85 percent of 18 to 25 years olds and in 1967 said that their most important life goal was quote to find a meaningful life but today according to this more recent study by USA Today when they asked 18 to 25 year olds what's your most important life goal 81% said to become rich and the second most popular answer 51% was to become famous which goes back to number one lovers of themselves you you some Bible commentaries say that the number one on the list lovers of themselves is really the foundation for all the rest of these because if you yourself too much if you have an inflated view of yourself rather than a sober view of yourself then you will also love money because you feel entitled you will also become boastful about yourself you will also be proud and you'll see the rest of the list too I think there's some validity to that observation that maybe lovers of themselves is really the root and the foundation of all the rest of these things so again the rest of the list goes on there to be boastful to brag about oneself to be proud john calvin once said that pride is the pregnant mother of all sins i think there's truth to that a lot of what we do is stem stems from just pride and arrogance in our own heart in terms of a lot of what we do sinfully and and so i think there's some truth to that going down the rest of the list that we read here in these verses number 5 is abusive paul says now that doesn't mean that people go around beating up somebody although certainly we see abuse in our world today but the actual Greek word used here is blessed famous which is where we get our English word to blaspheme so what it really means is those who speak abusively about God and again if we've ever seen an assault on Christianity and on faith it's it's in our day right now we're seeing people speaking abusively about God speaking blasphemously about God that's what he says is going to be one of the signs of the times here number 6 on the list is disobedient to parents I mean ever since there's been sin there's been disobedience to parents and so I don't know how you'd necessarily measure that but I think just from my observation this is just me speaking I tend to see in our culture what seems to me to be more disrespect from children towards their parents and I and I think and and if you if you allow disrespect and there's going to be disobedience and I think to be quite honest that parents need to shoulder the responsibility for that because I think far too often parents contribute to the disobedience and the disrespect to their children by never lovingly challenging them by allowing them to just talk I mean I've been in public places and I've heard I've heard kids little kids just talk in ways that my mouth would have been washed out with soap but they they're allowed to get by with it or they're just ignored or they're just dismissed like all you know every kid talks like every kid doesn't talk like that and and if we're not teaching our children how to respect us as parents when they grow up they won't respect their boss they won't respect their coach they won't respect any other Authority they won't respect their commanding officer they're not going to understand respect and obedience and Submission unless they first learn it in the home but it seems to be running rampant where kids are getting by with stuff and and being disobedient to parents is something Paul says it's going to happen more and more and more now in the Roman culture in which Paul's writing here you would be disowned in a Roman culture if you showed enough disobedience to your parents even worse in a Jewish culture in ancient times we're talking Old Testament right you'd be killed it was a capital offense I gave you the verse there Deuteronomy 21 I read it to you as a deterrent for anybody listening to this sermon who was a child I'm not advocating to the return to 3,000 years ago in terms of capital punishment I'm not advocating it don't take a little clip of what I just said and post it on your little social media platform like you know pastor G indicated he wants it and that's not what I'm saying don't take something out of Khan I'm just saying you listed a rope Deuteronomy 21:18 or 21 it's it's a strong deterrent this is what it says if a man is a stubborn rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders of the gate of his town and they shall say to the elders this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious he will not obey us he is a profligate in a drunkard and then also in other words he's not six right he's a drunkard and then all the men of his town shall stone him to death he must purge the evil from among you and all Israel will hear of it and be afraid I bet they would I mean how many and the reference here is basically they're old enough they're mature enough to be responsible they still district how many how many adult children does it take to be stoned to death before somebody gets the idea we probably shouldn't do that and so it's a strong again you know look I'm not advocating the return to capital punishment yeah I remember in my school days they moved away from corporal punishment you know used to be and those of you who grew up in going to Catholic schools you have some bruised knuckles don't ya or other parts of your body because sister so-and-so would take a ruler across you somewhere okay but and so even growing up I can remember coming into school and it was like the tail end of the corporal punishment years like where they used to be able to spank you in school so I don't I don't remember it myself but it was like the the tail end of and no pun intended the tail end of corporal punishment but but we've gone from capital punishment okay fine I mean that's Old Testament you know God rolls in grace now praise God right so that we've gone from capital punishment to corporal punishment to MC Hammer can't touch this I mean it like nobody's gonna be touch you touch anybody now we're talking lawsuit social services so okay all right that's fair but at some point parents lovingly need to give some guidance in their homes because the condition of our culture towards the return of Christ is going to be increased disobedience to parents number seven on the list is ungrateful I don't know that that really needs any commentary I mean how thankful are you we see people in our culture who are just ungrateful just ungrateful just not thankful about stuff number eight is unholy clearly a lack of righteousness here's some more on the list without love now this particular word in the Greek is a store gay whenever you see the word the letter A on a Greek word is the prefix that means it gives the negative connotation without or not and store gay which means love but it's a particular kind of love you have phileo which is brotherly love you have eros which is romantic you have Koinonia sorry agape which is a christ-like love and then you have storge in the Greek which is family love it's and so what he's saying you're in particular is that there's going to be less love within a family it's going to become more divisive they they will not be as close Jesus even said in Matthew 24 verse 12 when he was speaking you read Matthew 24 you go homie because Matthew 24 is a parallel passage to what Paul's writing here in Matthew 24 Jesus talks about the signs of the times just prior to the second coming one of the things that he says in Matthew 24:12 is that there will be an increase of wickedness and the love of most will grow cold the love of most will grow cold so there will be a waning of family love number 10 on the list he says unforgiving will mark the climate of the culture you know people holding a grudge and people being bitter that's part of the the culture of the end times slanderous number 11 to slander someone is is evil malicious talk intended to damage or destroy another person in proverbs 10 18 we're warned whoever spreads slander is a fool God actually calls us a fool if we slander someone number 12 people will live without self-control you know and I think we're seeing that too just people are just they're out of control people say things out of control they don't even know how to manage themselves or their or their lifestyle so we see an out of control culture number 13 on our list is brutal it's the Greek word and the anymore.i which again a meaning without or not and he morose meaning tame so we're not tame we're out of control we're brutal you know all you have to do is see some of these deranged you know just mass killings and things and you know I know some of that is mental illness and and some of it's just we're living in a deranged culture just people aren't they're not even tame anymore they're just brutal number fourteen not lovers of the good not lovers of the good we're living in an inverted time as a chapter five verse 20 talks about how Isaiah says woe to those who call evil good and good evil the things that used to be cherished as good and honoured and valued and loved as good now today because we're so inverted in our culture we call those things that used to be good evil and we call things that used to be called evil now we call it good not us but our culture it's a very perverted and inverted view of right and wrong in our day we've gone from being appalled at evil to applauding evil that's what's happened and and no longer do we really value and love what used to be intrinsically valued as good in our world and and and you you speak up about it you and you talk about it and people will begin to label you and and they will malign you because you actually see things that are good and see things that are evil instead of the way increasingly it's becoming in our culture which is just oh it's all just a big muddy you know it's whatever you call good whatever I call good and and it's up to everybody's you know own own self definition and number 15 treacherous and it literally means someone who betrays someone who betrays a lack of loyalty number 16 is the word rash in the NIV it means to be impulsive literally literally in the Greek it means to fall forward so it's it's like rushing into things being rash and you know we have a problem in our day of people just coming to rash conclusions and rash judgments and and we just need to you know calm down you know our culture just needs to chill out just stop stop being so rash about things number 17 is conceded conceded again if you believe the premise that the first one is lovers of themselves is indicative of the rest of these that make sense why someone would be conceited because they love themselves number eighteen lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God and that is the Greek word that whole phrase is one word in the Greek text and it's Phil Adonis again from phileo meaning love and hadou knows meaning lust or we get our English word hedonism there'll be an increase love of lust and hedonism than God I just read an article yesterday that was published by the CDC the Center for Disease Control the headline of the article is STDs hit an all-time high in the US for four straight years part of the article yesterday says this sexually transmitted diseases continue to hit all-time highs in the US with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting a 10 percent spike for a chlamydia gonorrhea and syphilis in 2017 the federal health agency said a report released on Tuesday yesterday that the numbers which include nearly 2.3 million new cases of the aforementioned diseases just in the US reflect quote a steep sustained increase and quote in STDs since 2013 the data which was presented at the 2018 STD prevention conference that must be a joyful conference to attend where are you going I'm going to the STD conference have a nice trip the data which was presented the 2018 STD prevention conference found a 67 percent increase in gonorrhea diagnosis which officials sounded alarm over due to the growing threat of untreatable strains we all know this right that the over prescription of antibiotics has now created bacteria resistant strains and and they're saying here that with such a 67% increase just over last year in gonorrhea diagnosis that they have a concern that antibiotics will not be able to treat it a lover of pleasure that's what that's about rather than being a lover of God and number 19 on the list is a form of godliness but denying its power in other words we're gonna live in a time where there will be religious appearance but no relationship experience with God there's a lot of God's speak in our world a lot of people who talk like they're born again and you know what makes it difficult is because we don't know somebody's heart sometimes I'm just like now I don't know when you say like born again are you talking like born again the kind of born again I think born again are you thinking different kind of born again what kind of born again and now we got even talk about what we even mean by terms because I'm a Christian what does that does that does that mean your follower of Jesus Christ does that mean you're Jewish you're not Jewish or you're not Muslim you're so people can use labels all kind of weird way and to me it just seems like there's a lot of gods squeak out there in our day and I just don't even know anymore you know how you can clearly figure out if somebody's part part of the tribe you know are they really part of the Christian community they're really followers of Christ because they say they are but then you look at their lifestyle you listen to some of the things they say and it and it doesn't it doesn't jive you know now listen I'm gonna give you an example that I'm gonna give you an example not to judge but an example of confusion okay because this sounds confusing to me God's God knows everybody's heart but I'm just going to give you an example confusion okay so kanye west talked about his faith in an interview they talked about his faith in an interview with with Kris Jenner in 2013 so there's a mixture of some very interesting people and this is what he said quote I'm a Christian and I wanted to let people know that that's what's on my mind it's important to me that I grow and walk and raise my family with Christian values and quote now on the surface of it okay that sounds cool but then when you look at some of the other things to figure out does that make sense or is that confusing so Kanye West has a song called I am God I am a God and he has an album called yeezus Yee zus and he even calls himself Jesus it's a perversion of the name Jesus and he has profanity all through his songs and he often wears an expensive chain necklace of the Egyptian god Horus around his neck and in his song entitled eyes closed he says quote I sold my soul to the devil so I don't know if that's is that just like artistic liberty or is that is that confute because that's confusing to me you know if you if you say I want to raise my family with Christian values but then you're dropping profanity in your songs it's confusing you see and so we're living in a culture where people like well we have a form of godliness but are we denying its power or are we really living in the power because we belong to him so again only God knows and I'm not trying to judge Kanye I'm just saying listen there are there are million Kanye's that just are saying one thing and doing something differently and it's confusing and if that's you you you need to really examine your own heart before God and ask yourself what kind of an example or witness am I being of the Living Lord Jesus in my life you will be casting a shadow of some kind you will either be representing Christ or you will be a poor example of Christ it's it's one the other there's no neutrality on this you will either be a a hindrance to people coming to know Christ or you will be a stepping-stone for people coming to know Christ by the way that you're living your life and hopefully it should then be consistent what you say and how you live with what you believe and where there is ever this contradiction where there's this godliness kind of God speak and we talk about God we talk about Jesus but we don't really live our lives like we're under the power of the Lord then then that contradiction breeds confusion and Paul says it's going to be one of the signs of the end times so let's read on here see how much further we can get so verse 6 he says well again at the end of verse 5 remember he says have nothing to do with them okay listen we need to we need to separate ourselves from the contradiction and it begins with us and then we can't be you know we can't be hanging around people that are living such a a duplicitous life starts with us but then we have to be careful you know in some ways it's better for you to hang out with somebody who doesn't know Jesus at all than for somebody who proclaims to know Jesus but by their lifestyle shows hypocrisy because you can at least be an effective witness to somebody doesn't know Christ so how have non-christian friends I hope you have non-christian friends I hope that you you know do life with non-christian friends he's not saying here you know just become a monk and join a monastery and just you know ignore the rest of the world so we still need to be salt light in our world we need to have non-christian friends we need to be a good influence but the worst thing is to be hanging out with other people that we call brothers and sisters but we're all living hypocritical duplicitous lives so he says have nothing to do with them and then in verse 6 he says they are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women some of your Bibles say gullible women who were loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth circle the word truth we're going to come back to that just as Janice and Jan brace opposed Moses so also these man opposed the truth there's the word again the men of depraved men of depraved Minds who as far as the faith is concerned are rejected but they will not get very far because as in the case of those men meaning Janice and Jan brace their folly will be clear to everyone so let me just summarize the culture from these 19 and then we'll come back and talk about what we just read there the summary of the 19 points is basically this that our world will be a self-absorbed generation that loves self money and pleasure rather than God appearing spiritual and being quote religious but denying the true power of God now you look at this phrase this summary and you ask yourself this does this look familiar we're living in familiar times and so I don't know when Christ is going to return but it sure seems to me that some of these things indicate that it may not be far off now he transitions here to talk about the truth and one of the things he says is that there's going to be an assault on truth and these verses we just read verses 7 & 8 along with if you'll jump ahead to verse 4 because I want to tie these these thoughts together if you jump ahead to verse 4 I want to read verses 3 and 4 and then I want to make a point here that I think he's trying to make about truth so in chapter 4 verses 3 & 4 he says for the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine instead to suit their own desires they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear they will turn their ears away from the truth there's that word again and turn aside to myths now Lord willing next week when we come together I'll have more to say about it when we get into chapter 4 but for the time being I just want to make these three points that I think Paul is making between chapter 3 verses 7 and 8 and chapter 4 verse 4 he says that when we get closer here this is still the same context when we get closer to the return of Christ there's going to be this assault on truth some will learn the truth but never acknowledge it that's what he says in verse 7 others will oppose the truth altogether that's what he says in verse 8 and in verse 4 of chapter 4 he said still others will turn away from the truth and embrace lies so again there's a battle over truth these days and and and so these are familiar things where there there are some people in our day who they learn the truth they hear the truth but they just don't want to live it they don't acknowledge it and others who oppose it all together I don't agree with it and then others who are even worse they turn away from the truth and they start to embrace lies a Barna research group survey on what Americans believe ask the question is there absolute truth 66 percent of adults that's all sixty-six percent of adults responded that they believe there is sorry this is this is the negative to it sixty-six percent of adults responded that they believe that there is no such thing as absolute truth and the answer that they gave is that different people can define truth in conflicting ways and still be correct a majority of Americans believe 66 percent there's no such thing as absolute truth that what you define as truth is good for you what I define for truth is good for me 72 percent of those aged 18 to 25 expressed this belief so 66 percent of a cross-section but specifically 18 to 25 year olds is even worse 72% said no such thing as absolute truth that's because we live in a world today of relativism we live in a world today of moral tolerance we live in a world today of political correctness and in the church it's creeping in there's a move toward ecumenical ISM which is a fancy word that just means can't we all coexist don't we all you know believe the same thing we don't all believe the same thing denominations can have differences and still be in fellowship there's no problem there but when when we're linking arms together singing Kumbaya because you know we we believe like Hindus we believe like Muslims you know we are Christians and we it's just you know a different path to get the same God that's nonsense we can't all be right and it's ridiculous to believe such a thing and so truth is truth is is being fought over today by the way that's not a you know a bigoted Christian thing to say any Muslim would say we don't we can't all be right any Hindu would say we can't all be right okay so so Paul is exposing here what will be an assault on the truth and he mentions two guys in verse 8 by the way in your Bibles you might have noticed back in chapter 3 verse 8 Janice and Jan breaks it's believed that because he speaks her specifically these are the guys who opposed Moses now in Exodus 7 to 8 these guys are not mentioned anywhere else in a Bible and Paul tells us their names and they're probably the magicians of Exodus 7 and 8 remember when Moses first goes to Pharaoh to announce that God has determined to set the Hebrew people free Pharaoh was reluctant Pharaoh doesn't want to let his free slave labor force go and so God uses a series of 10 plagues to pry Pharaoh stubborn heart loose that he is at least reluctantly willing to let him go and so Moses and Aaron show up and throw their staff downs and they turn to snakes to display kind of the power of God there are magicians who are really the word is in exodus 7-8 their sorcerers they're using what NIV says magic arts it's demonic they they counterfeit and they imitate that first thing that Moses and Aaron do throw the states to throw the the staffs down they become snakes and Paul tells us their names Exodus is silent about their name so Janus and Jambres throw their their staffs down and they become snakes and then they also replicate the first plague which is turning the the Nile to blood and they also replicate the second plague but when it comes to the third plague they can't replicate it any further you know Satan can only counterfeit so much but God is infinitely greater and Paul is bringing those examples of those guys into this letter to Timothy because he's like you know there was a couple guys who were counterfeiters too and they were really sold out to to Satan they weren't really you know certainly follower of the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and so in the same way there's gonna be guys even in your own day who are gonna be sold out to demonic things and they're gonna pervert the truth and therefore some will hear the truth but not acknowledge it others will oppose the truth and still others in chapter 4 verse 4 will turn their ears away from the truth and aside to myths so there's this assault on truth today and this is what our culture has become and is becoming even more and we need to ask ourselves a couple of questions how do we remain anchored in truth and at the same time discerning about our culture and how do we stand firm in our faith and unmoved by the shifting sands of society as it trends from bad to worse before the second coming of Christ Paul answers that so these are questions that we are confronted with you know we're living in a culture now truth is very relative everybody has their own definition of truth so how can we as Christians stand firm on the truth and how can we also identify the cultural trends so that we don't get swept up in all those cultural trends as we get closer to the second coming of Christ Paul has an answer for it and it's right there in chapter 3 that we'll have to get to next week yeah I got advice in Bible College once leave them hungry leave them hungry so that's what we'll pick it up next week but it's already 8:15 so let's pray together Lord thank you for this time in your word and as we consider these different characteristics of our culture we want to first examine our own hearts and see if any of these things are within us are we loved as lovers of ourselves are we lovers of money are we proud are we boastful are we disobedient to parents do we love pleasure more than we love you Lord may we look at our own hearts first and see if they're any of these things that we need to ask for nosov and may we just be more aware Lord these things are happening in our own day we're getting closer to the return of Christ we want to be wise about our culture we want to be able to influence our culture but we don't want our culture to shape us we want to present you Lord in in a way that represents you well not with hypocrisy or duplicity but genuine followers of Jesus Christ so that people can look on our lives and see you and be drawn to you so may we be an influence in our culture rather than a culture influencing us may we be bold in our day courageous in our day and may we honor you and glorify you in word in thought in actions in Jesus name we pray and all God's people said amen amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 3,763

Rating: 4.8666668 out of 5

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Calvary Chapel

Id: 2YwG75Yyeyk

Length: 47min 20sec (2840 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 16 2019