When a Lover of Good Thinks About Evil

let's pray father I ask that you would grant understanding of the nature and varieties of evil in the world and I ask that you would read us to grieve over its presence in ourselves and in the world and I ask that you would grant that we would cherish the gospel which alone can deliver us from the power of evil and it's damning effects and I asked that you would grant us to pursue the lost and shun the evil and I pray that one of the effects of this message would be that you would vaccinate your people with this measure of evil so that they would not die of these diseases I pray this in Jesus name Amen one of the great blessings of being a Bible saturated Church with a Bible saturated eldership and a Bible saturated people is that strange juxtapositions in the Bible the coming together of seemingly contrary emotions and emphases and truths prevent us the juxtaposition that keeps happening in the head of Bible saturated people of unlikely things coming together prevents us from being a superficial simplistic lopsided people for example a simple superficial lopsided person might watch someone get angry at an attitude a sinful attitude in a group of people and draw the quick conclusion that that angry person cannot be a compassionate person that angry person can't have empathy that angry person can't weep with those who weep he's angry a Bible saturated person will not draw that conclusion too often in his experience of God's Word things have come together that banish that thought out of his mind forever for example mark 3 5 says Jesus looked around on them with anger grieved at their hardness of heart so forever the thought that you can't feel angry in a holy soul and be brokenhearted with grief at the same time that's God in a Bible saturated mind this is one of the great wonderful things about being a Bible saturated people these juxtapositions of contraries juxtapositions of strange bedfellows coming together over and over again in the Bible are stripping away our simplicity and making us more like God's complex holiness who is angry with the wicked all day long and can be grieved day after day week after week year after year Bible saturated minds and hearts are being formed member Romans 12 being formed by of deep and wonderful juxtapositions in the bible the people is being created whose instincts and inclinations are as complex as the Bible whose responses to situations are often as little understood as the Scriptures as we get closer and closer to the mind of Christ so here we are 2nd Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 to 13 it is a predominantly bleak and ugly text in verses 1 to 5 a list of 19 ugly characteristics of evil people in verses 6 to 9 the description of how those people creep into houses and take women captive and then a glimpse into history of how it's been this way for centuries and then in verses 10 to 13 a description of what it costs you to be faithful in a culture like that is really bleak would not be the kind of text I would choose to preach on which is why it is so good to have to preach through books you just don't walk around text when you move through a book 19 specific distortions moral ugliness and there's a longer list in Romans one night 29 to 31 is this the same Paul who said whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable if there is any excellence if there is anything worthy of praise think about those things not these things well why are you giving it to us then welcome to the Bible welcome to life welcome to reality welcome to the complexity of holy souls and the mind of God Almighty I love this book its power to shape you into an inexplicable person is so wonderful so here we are of course every holy soul prefers and delights more in lingering long and deep over the beauties of holiness then the ugliness of immorality but the Bible saturated soul knows there is such a thing as evil and we better not be ignorant of its nature and varieties first as it appears in the mirror and second as it appears in the media so he begins verse 1 understand this literally know this know this are you Beauty loving people there is something that Bible saturated Beauty loving people need to know about ugliness moral ugliness so I see six at least six things that he wants us to know about evil number one the times of evil number two the severity of evil number three the specifics of evil number four the creep of evil number five the limit of evil and number six the alternative to evil that's what I see in the flow of this text that's the flow of my message number one the times of evil verse one but understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be and here come the nineteen filthy mind messing up statements of immorality Paul believes that there will be an intensification of evil in the last days he says in chapter four now this spirit expressly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teaching of demons Peter the Apostle Peter says scoffers will come in the last days Jude says in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions they all agree in the last times it will get worse ugly and they all agree we're in them and have been since Jesus came into the world you know that the arrival of the Messiah the kingdom of heaven is at hand was the beginning of the end first John 2:18 children it is the last hour Hebrews 1:2 in these last days God has spoken to us by his son first Peter 1:20 Christ was made manifest in the last times for your sake so we live and have lived for 2,000 years in the last times and the evils that are to characterize the last times have cropped up and burst forth with more or less intensity over and over again as John said there are now many antichrists that have gone out into the world and as the end of the end comes it will get worse I think that's implied in these teachings this will happen that is the end gets darker while the faithful remnant of God's people experience white-hot devotion to Jesus otherwise they would not survive or get the Great Commission finished against such murderous opposition there will be wonderful willingness for martyrdom it will be beautiful to behold most beautiful moral thing you've ever seen amidst the ugliness now that means we must be very careful not to assume two things number one we must be very careful not to assume that the degeneration of culture at the end of the age is owing to the failure of the church to be holy I hear that all the time it's not true there is no promise in the Bible that the holiness of the church guarantees the transformation of culture none don't go there there are reasons to be holy as a church and there is no guarantee that our success at that will transform culture none it's going to go the other direction that's warning number one here's number two almost in the other direction we must be careful not to assume that our day is the last of the last days how do you know you don't you shouldn't the Bible says you can't so it may well be that God Almighty in His mercy and Providence has yet in store for the church a massive revival and a glorious awakening for the world and then 500 years from now we experienced the end of the end and it's darkness I don't know which means how do you pray and how do you evangelize you don't agree with the darkness please we don't agree with the darkness we fight the darkness we preach Christ and the light of the world we pray for awakening and transformation in the church and reviving in his people and awakening in the world the timing of evil number one number two the severity of evil verse one understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty difficulty is a very weak translation that word is used one other time in the New Testament in Matthew 8 verse 28 referring to the Demoniacs of Gadara like this two demon-possessed men met Jesus coming out of the tombs so fierce that's the word so fierce that no one could pass that way therefore I prefer to translate verse one like this understand this that in the last days will come fierce seasons that's I think closer there were difficulties like I can't get a car started in other words evil will not simply be ugly to watch it will not simply be Grievous to the holy mind it will be violent at times and it will be fierce at times and Christians should not be surprised verbally fierce physically fierce this means among other things that the invincible joy of the Christian because of the work of Christ forgiveness of our sins reconciliation with God is our Father and the absolute security that we're going to make it to the end and have everlasting joy in his presence the the invincible joy of the Christian must not depend upon the absence of Aurel ugliness you get that our joy must not depend upon in our culture the absence of moral ugliness nor must it depend upon the absence of danger physical danger otherwise the juxtapositions of joy and danger although the New Testament make no sense whatsoever oh how easy I speak from my own soul now oh how easy it is to slip into a morose pity-party that our little heaven on earth is becoming a hell our little America our little family our little lake home I thought I could carve out some heaven we were never promised in the Bible anywhere that earth would be our heaven before Christ comes to reign and if you are preparing for yourself a little heaven on earth you are in for a great disappointment now or later we rejoice in hope of the glory of God Romans 5:2 in this hope we were saved who hopes for what he sees but if we hope for do not see we wait for it with patience and not only patients but unutterable and exalted joy having not seen him you love him and having not seen him you believe in him and rejoice with joy unendurable and full of glory in Hope in Hope while everything around my soul gives way he is my hope and stay we do not join the pity party folks that our America is gone we don't it's not ours we're not citizens here mainly it's an accident that you were born here it was no accident you born again number three the specifics of evil verses 2 through 5 19 examples of the kind of people who will populate the last times that is now and worse at the end of the end and I'm gonna do now next two minutes what I encourage you to do I thought what do you do with these 19 ugly things and I'm gonna do what I encourage you to do I'm just gonna read it and after I mention each one I'm gonna give another word or phrase that I think it means because I think when you do that you sit at home tonight or tomorrow and just write down the list you know you won't do this many times it's too ugly and just it's not the thing you want to do but it's here and therefore it's good for us like vaccinations are good for us so you right now and then you try to think now what does that mean and you put it in other words and that helps it go down deep and you okay here's my reading of the list verse two people will be lovers of self narcissistic lovers of money materialistic proud loving to draw attention to their accomplishments arrogant inflated view of self abusive wanting to be hurtful especially verbally hurtful wanting to be mm-hmm I want to hurt you that kind of person disobedient to their parents having a rebellious spirit ungrateful assuming that they have a right to the things they get unholy indifferent to the attitudes and acts that reflect the value of Jesus verse three heartless unable to sympathize or empathize unappeasable unwilling to forgive slanderous devilishly distorting what others say and do consciously twisting without self-control a slave to their appetites brutal dead - all tenderness not loving good unable to see and savor moral beauty verse for treacherous or traitorous breaking promises for their own advantage reckless craving the admiration of others for taking risks swollen with conceit blind to the ugliness of self preoccupation always talking about your self and the beauty of admiring others blind to it lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God finding more satisfaction in physical titillations than divine admiration verse 5 having the appearance of godliness but denying its power using religion for personal gain without any treasuring of Christ above all now you can see that Paul knows he's in the last days because he begins this list in verse 1 and 2 by saying these kinds of people are going to come in the last days and he concludes it in verse 5 by saying to Timothy avoid such people well there there duh they're here the times are here I'm telling you they're coming and so avoid them now because they're here they're in your church avoid them when he says avoid them we know he doesn't mean never talk to them because he says in chapter 4 verse 5 do the work of an Angeles which means talk to unbelievers whatever their character what he means when he says avoid them just don't hang out with them as though there's no problem that's the problem with worldliness we just started home with with wicked people we're at home with wicked movies at home with wicked songs at home but just at home and we never get around to saying there's a problem in your life that will destroy you because we're just hanging out forever don't think that fits the word avoid the sheer fact that Paul gives such a long list of evil shows he's seen a lot of evil in his day doesn't it and he had thought a lot about it and the way it ravages the human soul and you will see a lot a lot of you have seen a lot you will see and you have seen a lot and I want you to think deeply about where it comes from and understand it I want you to grieve over it I want you to pray about it I want you to care for people who manifest it and I want you to cherish the gospel more and more because of the power it has to save you from it and I want you to pursue holiness with all your heart that pleases the Lord number four the creep of evil verses six and seven avoid such people for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women burdened with sins and led astray by various passions always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth the gospel coalition women's conference last June was historic for several reasons a lot of our women with it was historic because it was reformed in its theology it was historic because it was complementarian rather than egalitarian in its understanding of how men and women enjoy their differences and thirdly it was it was historic because it wasn't about women's issues it was about God for women and maybe a fourth reason it was historic is because 4,000 women from all over the world were willing to show up under those banners which made me thrilled to be a part of it but the reason it is so important is because of verses 6 & 7 these evil people are creeping in and preying upon the weakness of women the guilt of women and the passions of women now the last thing this text is is an endorsement of that this text is a loud cry for churches and conferences to announce it is not God's will that women be weak in discernment theological biblical moral discernment it's not God's will that women be weak in moral biblical theological discernment so that they're sitting ducks for creeps it's not God's will that they be burdened with sin it's not God's will that they be led about by passions it's not God's will that they be vulnerable like this to these moral and Theological errors that are coming into the church and looking for the weakest now that vulnerability may have been the case in Timothy's church looks like it was that women were especially vulnerable and you can think of all kinds of reasons why they were given the cultural milieu in which they lived and the attitudes towards education and so on in those days the point here is not to encourage that but that evil is insidious it creeps toward the weak weak women weak men we children that's what evil does he's not going up against the strongest women men children they're going it's gonna snoop out the person with the least discernment happened to be a lot of women vulnerable like that in Timothy's Church I am thrilled that owing to extraordinary ministries here and extraordinary women that's not very much the case here but would be wrong with me not to wave the banner of the text anyway the ask of a church is to make men and women and children mighty in the Word of God Bible saturated with the Word of God so that women and men stand against the wiles of the devil women and man don't dabble forever in every new thing coming across the internet ever unable to land anywhere solid and firm and unshakable no it's not the kind of women we're going to breed or men or children so let it be said loud and clear that the vision of biblical complementarity complementarity between men and women and their different roles in that vision at Bethlehem and represented by that conference and the gospel coalition both men and women are to be deeply and solidly grounded in Bible and doctrine you will know the truth women and men and the truth will set you free free from weak discernment through the Bible free from heaps and heaps of guilt for sin through the gospel and free from being led everywhere by passion through the power of the Holy Spirit free women number 5 the limit of evil verses 8 and 9 just as Janice and Jan brace opposed Moses so these men these creeping men also opposed the truth men corrupted in mind and disqualified from regarding the face that they will not get very far for their folly will be plain to all as was that of those two men I think this means that those who are true Christians will not be taken in by the creeping opponents for very long true Christians will not be taken in by the opponents of truth for very long Janice and jamberries those names don't occur anywhere else in the Bible they are from the Jewish Talmud tradition the names of the magicians who went up against Moses remember that back in X I mean Exodus chapter 7 verse 11 Moses came he's gonna turn some water into blood they did the same thing through his stick on the ground became a snake they did the same thing three times in the ten plagues they did it and then they could do it no more that's the point here they will not get very far like three out of ten that's over they're exposed they're not the real deal that's satanic magic this is God Almighty in the hand of Moses and he's making the analogy between these false teachers and they're coming in and they've got some stuff to show they have a form of godliness right probably able to do some miracles but those who are Bible saturated know how to discern and they won't get very far with those people they will with the world and they will with the carnal and the undiscerning but not not the remnant not the true the Lord knows those who are his and he grants discernment to his people number six and lastly the alternative to evil verses 10 to 13 this is now the goodness hard good news but goodness you however have followed my teaching my conduct my faith in life my I'm sorry my aim in life my faith my patience my love my steadfastness my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me in Antioch at Iconium and at Lystra which persecutions I endured yet from them all the Lord rescued me indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters go on from bad to worse deceiving and being deceived no what's the alternative to evil the alternative to evil is godly suffering and final deliverance godly suffering if you want to join the evil you can avoid that but if you choose to be an alternative people to the culture it will cost you that's the first alternative the alternative to evil is suffering godly sufferings and the second is final deliverance so he says Timothy you've seen my persecutions you have followed my life verse 11 you've seen my sufferings now I'm telling you Timothy that with this kind of evil in the world that we've been talking about anyone not just me anyone who takes a stand for godliness who seeks to live out a life of positive purity love holiness who rescues the perishing will be persecuted all of them not just apostles if if they live that way verse 12 says that indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted that's a reflex of the kind of evil that is surrounding and hating that godliness so Christian don't think it's strange no it's coming it isn't here for you and remember Paul says remember my patience my love my steadfastness and imitate me and the last the last point is this where's that where does the power come from to take those those stands just I'm gonna stand for what's true and right and pure and good and holy let the chips fall where they will at work or in my family or in the neighborhood just gonna do it where do you get the power to do that and Paul I think answers the confidence of your blood-bought deliverance from every evil let's read verse 11 again here it is at the end of verse 11 which persecutions I endured yet from them all the Lord rescued me that can't mean he didn't let him suffer because he just said you've seen my sufferings in my persecution so so the rescue isn't I'm rescuing you in fact in him he names Lister here well remember what happened in Lystra he was stoned in Lystra stoned he was stoned so severely they drug him out and thought he's dead that's how he was stoned so the rescue did not include that not happening so you might think yeah but he's live it's not dead he's writing this letter so he was rescued his physical life was rescued is that what he means hmm maybe I don't think so I don't think that's what he means I think he means now show you why the Lord stood by me he never first sucked me and he preserved my faith so that I'm still walking with Him and haven't given up on him and he's got me on the path that leads to his heavenly kingdom and I by grace will make it and you'll never let me not make it he will rescue my faith from every opposition he will rescue me from apostasy he will rescue me from making shipwreck of my life by copping out on my Christ through suffering he will rescue me why do I think he means that instead of he rescued my life from every one of those perils I think that because of what he says in Chapter four and once you turn here we're gonna close with these two verses they are sweet to me I preached on this text at the end of my first year at Bethlehem 31 years ago and took it for myself then and and willed with all the greater emotion take it for myself continually starting at verse 17 of chapter 4 the Lord stood by me and strengthened me so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it so I was rescued there's that word again so I was rescued from the lion's mouth could be the Colosseum could be Satan but here's the point verse 18 the Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom that's it to him be glory for ever and ever amen in other words Timothy every one of God's children who has endured the persecution that comes through taking a stand for holiness will be rescued yes they will the final rescue is entrance into the heavenly kingdom when Paul was finally killed in Rome he was rescued for the heavenly kingdom are we there when Paul was finally killed in the Coliseum in Rome God rescued him for his heavenly kingdom he did not go to hell and he did not deny the faith and so I promise you on the authority of God's Word if you stand by faith in your crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ you will be delivered from every evil deed in this world yes you will your faith will be delivered your soul will be delivered often your body will be delivered but in the end when your body is no longer delivered you will be delivered because maybe we just end this the the flag flying over your afflicted life the flag flying over your afflicted life is your God will rescue you from every evil and bring you safely to his heavenly kingdom and when he does with the greatest joy you know what we're gonna say among other things goodbye evil let's pray Lord I'm so ready to say goodbye to evil mainly I hate my own I'd like to be done with it and I'm thankful for the promise in the gospel of Christ crucified for me and risen that I can know as I walk out of here you will deliver me and us from every evil does deed and bring us safely to your heavenly kingdom so god if there's any in the hearing of my voice who is ready to turn away from Jesus because of the cost I pray that they would think again the heavenly kingdom is a beautiful place there will be no ugliness there no immorality there no sorrow there no disease there no corruption there no pain there no brutality there no abuse there it will be wonderful and anything we must pay in the cost to be pure will be worth it so draw them to yourself I pray in Jesus name you

Channel: Desiring God

Views: 8,934

Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism, Evil, Sin, Sanctification, Love, Justification, Salvation, Gospel, Wicked, Evil Age, Sermon, Message, Holiness, Temptation, Purity

Id: R3vrHOKxuCs

Length: 47min 1sec (2821 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 02 2018