The Relevance of God's Word

Turn to your Bibles again to John chapter 17. Remember from last week, this is part of the upper room discourse—really one of the most famous passages in all of scripture, John 13 through 17. Our Lord is giving final marching orders to his disciples on the night before his death. It all culminates in chapter 17 with prayer.

Jesus loves his disciples. He's helping you. He's being the wonderful promises, profound instruction, clear warnings, but he loves them by praying for them. And you remember for three hours, he was looking at that. And when he goes to pray, chapter 17 verse one says he lifts his eyes up towards heaven. The point we made last week is that when Jesus worshiped, when he prayed, he was speaking to the Father. When we worship, when we sing, when we pray, we are worshiping the Father. We might be doing it for each other's benefit and even our own, but the Father is the audience.

Only God Can Sanctify Us

I want you to notice this: the first few words. "Jesus spake these things." That's better read in the Greek as "after Jesus spoke these things." In other words, he did all of this teaching for three hours. And after he did his teaching, friends—now here's probably the primary principle there—only God can sanctify us as believers.

You could read the Bible all day, every day. You could pray. You could witness. You could serve. But spiritual growth comes by God's hand. So Jesus does all of this teaching, but that's not enough. He prays that the Father takes the teaching and applies it to the heart of the disciples so that it might profit them spiritually.

Now I don't know if you've ever thought about this, but we could have church every day. You could be here every day, and we could get the best singers and the best preachers in the world to come. But if the Father doesn't take all of that and begin to transform your heart, I can't do it, and neither can you.

So the point is it would be a good practice for all of us before we come to church to be praying—praying that the Father would take all that happens here and use it to transform our hearts. And then after we leave Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the Father would take all that we learned and transform our hearts. That's the biblical pattern.

So I've been praying for you this week. The elders have been. Many of you have been praying that this morning God would take all that happens here and transform our hearts.

Let's pray together. Father, we are so grateful that you are the God who sanctifies the human soul. At salvation you have set us apart unto yourself, and you are transforming us into the likeness of your Son. That is a task for God and God alone. We praise you that you are different than this creation. And we praise you that you've set us apart unto yourself and you are transforming us into the likeness of your dear Son. So again, we pray this morning that your Spirit would do that wonderful work of sanctification right here in our midst this morning. And we'll thank you for it in Jesus' blessed name. Amen. Amen.

It's through to try through us. If we tremble not, in faith we can endure. Exodus 34, and we're going to be reading through verses one through nine. Okay, this is God's word.

"Now the Lord said to Moses, 'Make yourself two stone tablets like the former ones. And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the former tablets, which you shattered. So be ready by morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No man is to come up with you, nor let any man be seen anywhere on the mountain. Even the flocks and the herds may not graze in front of that mountain.' So Moses cut out two stone tablets like the former ones. And Moses rose up early in the morning and went up to Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him. And he took two stone tablets in his hand. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him. As he called upon the name of the Lord. Then Yahweh passed by in front of him and proclaimed, 'Yahweh, Yahweh, God, compassionate and gracious, slow in anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.' Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship. He said, 'If now I have found favor in your sight, oh Lord, I pray let the Lord go along in our midst. Even though the people are so obstinate. And pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as your own possession.'"

Let's pray. Lord, we come before you, dear Father. You are God alone. You are the great God of the universe, Almighty God.

When we look at the passages that we just read, Lord, we see that you spoke these words to Moses and revealed exactly who you are. You are Yahweh, the one true God, a self-existent God. Lord, you need nothing from anyone. You're absolutely sovereign. He said in the chapter before that you will be gracious to whom you'll be gracious, and you'll have compassion on whom you have compassion. Lord, you're absolutely free to do what you please. Lord, our God is in the heavens. He does all that he pleases. No one can say anything to you, Lord. You own everything and everyone, and every single person has to answer to you, Lord, for the life that you've given them.

When we're here, we see in this passage that you, Lord, are compassion and gracious. Lord, those who have been brought to faith in your Son, who you saved for—we know that to be true. You are a compassionate God. You are so gracious, Lord. And you are slow to anger. Your patience is unbelievable, Lord, for sinners like us who even after coming to a knowledge of the truth, even after being transferred and regenerated, born again, Lord, brought to faith in your Son, made new creatures in Christ Jesus—even we, Lord, still sin. We're still in this flesh. We know you to be a God who is slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, that your covenant faithfulness to your people. It was obvious and evident in the Old Testament. Even here, Lord, these Israelites have just sinned greatly against you, made a false god, started worshiping him. And here you are, Lord, hearing the mediator Moses and forgiving the sin of this people, Lord. And we know that to be true ourselves, oh God. You always are faithful. You can be completely dependent upon you. You always do what you say you will do. Your promises are absolutely true. Your loving kindness is eternal. And you are faithful. You are truth. You are the absolute truth. Jesus, you are the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through you.

Lord, you forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. You described sin in three different ways to include all sin—willful sin and rebellion against what we know would be right. When you forgive it, sin we're unaware of, Lord, you've forgiven. Lord, you forgive all sin. There's no one here that's ever done anything so bad that you are not willing, ready, and able to forgive. Lord, we see in your word you forgive murderers. You forgive prostitutes. You forgive liars. Lord, you forgive those who understand their sinfulness and repent and trust in your Son, Lord. You are a forgiving God.

And Lord, we see here that you will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. You are a just and a righteous God. For this section of scripture should make those who know you tremble, and those who don't know you tremble, because you are a God who is just. And the only way that we could stand here forgiven is because you punished your Son in our place. You will punish all sin, and you punish our sin on the back of your Son. You put your Son to death for us that we might be forgiven, Lord, because that's what sin deserves. He took our hell punishment so that we wouldn't have to suffer it. And it was all because of your grace, all because of your mercy, all because of your compassion.

We are so grateful to you. And those here who don't know, Lord, I pray that they would know just this morning from what we've just read that they will by no means go unpunished if they turn away from your forgiveness, if they turn away from your gift that you offer them—the gift of the gospel. That they can be completely forgiven if they'll only repent, change their minds, admit that they're sinners, admit that they need forgiveness, admit that they can never earn their way to heaven, and that Jesus is the only one, the only one who can save them. Place their trust in him and him alone, and they'd be completely forgiven.

Praise to you, Lord, for what a great God you are, what a loving and merciful and kind God you are. I pray this morning that as we hear the preaching, like pastor brought up, that you would do a work of sanctification in our hearts. Lord, you didn't save us to keep us the way we used to be. And if you saved us just to save us, you could take us to heaven. But you saved us and kept us here so that we might become more like your Son and might be better witnesses to this lost and dying world so that they might see the truth of the gospel.

So please don't let what we hear and everything my pastor said that's done here today not change us from the old one. We need you to do this. Holy Spirit, we pray that you would change us, that you would fill us with the fruit and the righteousness of the Son of God, that you would help us to have a holy hatred for sin and a love for righteousness. Lord, change us. Make us more like Christ. We need you, Lord.

Bless this time that we have together, Father. Grow us in our love for each other. Keep us united in one spirit, in one truth, Lord. And we pray that you continue to bless this place, continue to grow and strengthen us in the faith, Lord.

We pray, Lord, for our country. We pray for this world, Lord, that seems to be toppling further and further downward. Lord, we pray that you'd bring revival, Lord, in this country and around the world for Christ, that you would raise up pastors and preachers and ministers and everyday Christians to proclaim the gospel, Lord, and that you might save sinners and turn this world around. Lord, we know that ultimately this world will get worse till the day you return. So, Lord, we just surrender to you, Lord. We know that the final victory is in Christ, that he is the victor, and that we are more than conquerors through Christ who loved us. We have nothing to fear but you. You completely control whatever it may be, Lord. We know you love us, and everything that happens to us is for our good and to your glory.

So, Lord, work a mighty work in each one of us. Lord, we lift up our missionaries in Poland, Tim and Claire Peterson. Lord, we pray that in this country that is in need of Christ, like every place is in need of Christ, that you would continue to work mightily in their hearts, continue to grow them in the faith, strengthen them in their walk with you. We pray that you continue to teach them the Polish language that they could clearly explain the gospel to the lost ones. We pray that you would bring many people into faith in Christ within their ministry, and that it would spread like wildfire, that country would be won over for Christ. Lord, please.

We pray that you give wisdom to Timothy as he teaches preachers through the foundational doctrines of the faith this fall, that you'd help him to teach the truth to his new believers, Lord, and that you do a work of sanctification in that church as well, Lord. Grow them in the faith, strengthen them, that they would go out and spread the truth of the gospel to all those around them.

Lord, we pray you bless the remainder of this time. Lord, we pray for those who are sick and ailing in our church, Lord. We thank you for our pastor and for him. Certainly continue to heal him, Lord. We just thank you for our pastors, all of them, Lord. What a wonderful gift they are to us, Lord, teaching and preaching the word of God week in and week out, pointing us to the truth, Lord. We're so blessed here, Lord. We just thank you so much, Lord, for everything. We give you glory. We lift up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, our King and our Savior, Lord. Like Mary said, she needed a Savior just like we do, Lord. He's the one and only Savior, Lord. We need a Savior. We thank you. And for those of us who have been saved, we lift those up who have them. The night you were saved. We love you. We thank you. It's in the mighty name of Christ we pray. Amen.

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It is debated whether the French philosopher Voltaire made this statement right before his death in the late seventeen hundreds. It's been attributed to him, saying something to the effect of "this generation after my death the Bible will be completely outdated." He figured within his lifetime, after that, he was an opponent of the Bible. What he taught, he believed it. It is said that after his death, within one generation, the Bible would be obsolete.

Now whether he said those words or not, the truth of the matter is many people take that view today. They believe that the Bible does not speak to our day. The Bible is irrelevant. People will say it's outdated. And even in some circles, preachers are taught you have to somehow make the Bible relevant.

That, I would say, you don't make water wet. You don't make fire hot. And you don't make the Bible relevant. The Bible is relevant. And you see in the word of God, it speaks with incredible accuracy and precision when it speaks about who God is, when it speaks about the condition of mankind, when it speaks about history—incredible accuracy.

But I wonder how many of you this morning realize that the Bible speaks with absolute prophetic precision when it describes the very day in which we are living. If I were to ask you this morning, could you describe our culture? Could you describe the characteristics of the majority of the people in our culture? What would you say? How long would it take you to write some things down?

One preacher I know said it would take him a matter of seconds. He said, "I could just get my Bible out. I would open my Bible to Second Timothy chapter three verses one through nine, and you will get the most accurate description of our culture and all the cultures of the world for that matter."

You could cut it out of your Bible and you could hand it to any newscaster on the nightly news, any channel, and that newscaster could start out and say, "Well, I'm gonna read to you the condition of the people of our culture in the day in which we live."

The apostle Paul wrote that text to Timothy, who was a young pastor in the church in Ephesus. Paul was in prison at that time. He wrote that letter to first of all caution him about the dark days that were going to come upon his ministry and the time in which he lived, and he wanted him to be prepared.

You and I are called to be prepared to live out our faith in Jesus Christ amidst an ever-increasing ungodly culture. How are we to do that? Open your Bibles to Second Timothy chapter three. Because we're going to see this morning that, like Timothy, we need to be prepared, and we're gonna see how.

Understanding the Times and Evaluating the Culture

The steps to do that are:

• Understand the times
• Evaluate the culture
• Employ our defense

We are going to look verse by verse, phrase by phrase, and see what it is that God has to say to us this morning.

Step One: Understand the Times

Look in verse one. Paul begins this letter to Timothy. He says, "But realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come." Now that word "realize" is the Greek word that simply means take knowledge of something. Understand.

When David is speaking about the mighty men, some of the men who supported him back in First Chronicles chapter 12, verse 32, he described some of these people, the sons of Issachar. He says, "These were men who understood the times."

And I want you to listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ says in Luke chapter 12, verse 54. Jesus says this: "He was also saying to the crowds, 'When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, a shower is coming. And so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, it will be hot. It will be a hot day. And it turns out. You hypocrites. You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present age?'"

Jesus said you're missing it. You're not analyzing this present age. The Messiah is here, and you're missing it.

And likewise, he's saying here, Timothy—he's telling him, "Understand this oppression that you're facing." Timothy understood that in that day believers were being oppressed because his mentor, the apostle Paul, if you look at Timothy chapter two, verse nine, it says, "For which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal." So Paul was imprisoned because of his witness for Jesus Christ. Timothy knew the gospel meant persecution. But what Paul is telling him here is: you need to be prepared because this opposition is not fleeting. It's going to continue, and you need to respond in the right way.

Now he says here, "In the last days, realize this. In the last days, difficult times will come."

When you and I hear that phrase "last days," our minds naturally go to that immediate time just before the Lord Jesus Christ comes back again. But when the New Testament speaks of the last days, more often than not, it's speaking about the time frame from when the Lord Jesus Christ came, when he lived, died, was buried, resurrected, and ascended into heaven—from that time all the way out until the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what he means when he speaks of the last days.

So in that sense, Timothy lived in the last days. We live in the last days. If Jesus doesn't come for two hundred years, those people will be living in the last days. It's that period of time.

We know that because in Joel chapter two, Joel spoke about the last days in prophecy. And on the day of Pentecost, when Peter was preaching that tremendous sermon on Pentecost, he mentioned that prophecy of Joel that said the last days have come, and Peter said, "These days are here now."

In fact, listen to what the writer of Hebrews says, how he begins the book of Hebrews: "God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days he has spoken to us in his Son."

He says here, we're in the last days. He says difficult times are going to come. That word "difficult" in the Greek means hard to bear. The classical Greek description of that word would mean an untamed, savage animal or a raging sea. That's how he describes it. In Matthew chapter eight, verse 28, when he speaks about those two men who were possessed with a demon, the Bible uses the same word "difficult," but it speaks of them being violent and fierce.

He's saying, "Timothy, listen. Fierce, violent times are going to come." And he says here, these are gonna be periods of time, and he says they're going to come. And the imagery there is it's going to set in. It's not gonna be like an August day that's 95 degrees and then the next day it's 22 degrees like you're in the middle of February. No. These are gonna sit in like a season, periods of time throughout the church—seasons of darkness are going to set in. They're going to be difficult.

And you see the scriptures prophesied—oftentimes there's a double fulfillment of prophecy. So we can speak of the last days of the last days, if you will. There will be those last days, which will be the climax of evil and wickedness on the earth, but he's saying here, when we get to verse 13, we're gonna see that he prophesied in scripture. He tells Timothy, "Timothy, things are gonna get worse. They're going to go from bad to worse. That's what the scripture says."

And if you read Matthew chapter 24, you will see that's what our Lord Jesus Christ said as well.

So Paul tells Timothy, he's telling us this truth—he's saying, wake up. Look around you. Understand the times we are living in.

If you were looking out one of these windows and it got pitch black and a category five hurricane came ripping across Long Island, we would be totally unprepared. Right? We would wonder, "How am I gonna get home? How am I gonna lock up my house? What are we gonna eat? What are we gonna do?"

But if you knew it was coming in three or four days, you would prepare. You'd stay home. You would make sure your patio furniture was locked down.

In the same way, in the midst of ungodliness, we ought to be prepared to live out our faith, understanding this is part of God's eternal plan. This is God's will. God has decreed the culture we're living in. He has allowed it. He hasn't caused it. We're gonna see what the cause of it is in a moment.

And the apostle Paul—he was a real optimist. Because he viewed all of his circumstances, he viewed them as an opportunity for the gospel. But Paul in no way downplayed evil and wickedness and sin.

And brothers and sisters, we are not to be gloomy, pessimistic, as we look at the days ahead. And you'll run into believers like this—I mean, whatever happens, the sky is falling. Something happens in China, all of the world's ending. Something happens here. And I remember in the seventies there were books and books written about this—"The Late Great Planet Earth" and this and that—all kind of foolishness, stuff that makes the church the mockery of the world.

We are not to be pessimistic. We are to understand the times in which we live, that we might live godly in them, understanding darkness is setting in and it's getting darker and darker as we look around us.

But that's not enough to just understand the times. Because now what he's going to do is we need to evaluate the culture.

Step Two: Evaluate the Culture

He is going to go through verses two through eight, and he is gonna give a description that is absolutely alarming. You could put this in the newspaper. You could have this on the newscast. You are not gonna find a more accurate description of our culture than what Paul's gonna bring up in this passage.

And I wanna give you a caution before we even look at this. Here is the caution to you: As we look at these characteristics of the ungodly world around us, resist that temptation to feel proud in your heart, to think, "Well, that's those people. I'm not like them. That doesn't describe me."

Let me tell you something. That describes every single one of us before we were saved. You're gonna hear a description of who we were before we were in sin. So we need to understand that.

Not only that, but I encourage you as we look at this list, be sensitive to the Holy Spirit, perhaps moving in your heart and my heart—even as I was preparing this—to say, "Well, wait a minute. Am I drifting back to some of these attitudes in my life?"

That's why Paul would say in Romans 12:2, "Don't be conformed to the pattern of this world. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind."

That word "be conformed"—J.D. Phillips did a paraphrase of the New Testament, and he translated that verse: "Don't let the world pour you into its mold."

You ladies know if you're baking a cake, you can make it rectangle, square, heart shape. It all depends on the mold. Don't let the world pour you and me into its mold. If we see any of these attitudes developing in our hearts, we need to turn from them.

But what he's gonna do here is he's gonna tell us—look how he begins verse two: "For men..."

Now that describes men and women generically. And here we're gonna see: this is the reason for the dark times. This is the reason fierce, wicked times will come upon us and are coming. Because of men and women who have rebelled against God.

And in Romans 1, he talks about God turning people over to their wickedness. These times will be fierce and come about because of people. They are the cause.

And he's going to give the characteristics of these people in the last days. These people in our day—listen to the way he described them beginning in verse two.

Lovers of Self

"For men will be lovers of self."

Do we ever live in a day when people love themselves? And you see, this is a pervasive sin of making ourselves our own god. We think we're God. That's what lost man thinks, small "g." Life revolves around me. Everything is for me. Everything is to be the way I want it. And this is the foundation of all of these things we're gonna look at this morning. And this is so pervasive in our culture—the idolatry of self-worship.

Just look on social media. All these things—selfies, right? People putting themselves out there. And you would think if you looked online, no one has a problem in the world. Everyone is solving and promoting themselves. It's all around us. It's a fantasy land.

But you see, Jesus said, "If you're gonna be my follower, you need to deny yourself." Jesus said, "You need to die to yourself. Self must be put to death."

But he says, "No. In these days, men will be lovers of self."

Lovers of Money

"Men and women will be lovers of money."

Self-idolatry leads to materialism. The accumulation of things to gratify me. I want to accumulate things so I could spend it on me to make myself happy.

And you see people chase after money, love money. First of all, it gives them power. Some people chase after money because they think it gives them a sense of security: "I'm gonna be okay in my old age." People use money to control other people, and let's be honest, it's greed.

Paul says in Colossians chapter 3, verse 5: "Love of money is greed, and that is idolatry."

We live in a culture and a society that is driven by the love of money, driven by greed. People will lie for money. People will steal to get money. People will cheat. Some will even murder for it.

That's why Paul says in First Corinthians 6:10, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil."

And when he talks about the qualifications of a pastor in First Timothy chapter 3, verse 3, he said one of the qualifications is: "They must not be lovers of money. Must not be lovers of money."

Isn't it interesting? We have a whole set of prosperity preachers who love money. And they—as one pastor said—"They play to the greedy and they prey on the needy."

He says that will characterize our culture: love of money.

Boastful

Now look where he goes on. "Boastful."

That flows from self-love. He's talking about people who know it all. People who know everything. Boast about their accomplishments, boast about their achievements, boast about their education, they boast about their intellect. "It's my house. It's my this. It's my children, my grandchildren."

He said that's gonna characterize the last days. And friends, we live in a culture that exalts pride as though it's a virtue. And the Bible says, "If all things God hates, you can put right on the top: pride."

He says that in Proverbs chapter 8, verse 13. Proverbs chapter 16, verse 5: "God hates pride."

It caused Satan to fall and it has destroyed lives ever since. But he says that is what will characterize our culture.

Listen, it can happen to pastors: "Boastful, my church, my this, my that." And he says that should not characterize us.

What Paul says—let him who boasts, boast in what? Boast in the Lord. Boast in the Lord Jesus Christ. End of story. Galatians—boast in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Arrogant

But then he goes on. Not only boastful, look what he says: "Arrogant."

He says that is going to describe people. And that goes right from boastful.

These are people who look out on other people with contempt. That's all around. People look down on other people because they have a higher position or station in life, whatever their occupation is. People look down on other people because of their intellect or their education or they have letters after their names. People look down on other people because of the color of their skin. People look down on other people because of where they live.

God says it's all evil. It's all arrogant.

I'm thinking of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about him. He was lowly. Jesus said, "Blessed are the meek." Jesus said, "Look at me. He says, 'I am gentle. I am humble in heart.'" Our Lord says this.

But he says, "Listen, Timothy, in your day, this is gonna characterize the people you have to minister to, and it's the same in the day in which we live."

Revilers

Then he says, "Revilers."

Look at that. You say, "Well, what does that word mean? Revile?"

The Greek word literally means to blaspheme. He says, "They're gonna live in a day of blasphemers."

May I ask you a question? When was the last time you heard somebody get angry...

Recognizing the Signs of the Last Days

And they yelled out, "Oh, Buddha. Oh, Mohammed." What name do they say? They take the precious holy name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because they don't reference him, they don't love him, they are against him, they disdain the name of Christ. They revile us, he says. They malign the name of God. And Paul said in 1 Timothy 1:13, "Before I'm saved, I was a blasphemer." And if I asked you this morning how many of you were blasphemous—listen, how many of our hands would go up and took the Lord's name in vain? We were just like that. And he says, that's going to describe the culture.

Disobedient to Parents

He says in verse two: disobedient to parents. Do we ever live in a day where children are disobedient to their parents? I'm going to let another voice say far better than I ever could. Listen to this quote:

"The disobedience of children to parents in our day has become endemic. And the cause is not hard to find. Not only are children born with a bent to self-will and disobedience, but the disappearance of mothers into the workforce and the spiritual failure of fathers is exacerbated by the prevailing philosophy of self-love that is promoted in modern society, including many classrooms and churches, making disobedience to parents all but compulsory."

What an indictment. You know, our culture encourages us. You turn on a TV show. You look over the last thirty years at any sitcom or any movie—have you noticed it's always the parents that are made to look like fools? The parents are... especially the father. The father is always portrayed as a fool or an idiot. Why is that? You don't think that's deliberate? You don't think Satan's behind that? The people in Hollywood who make these movies, they're depraved in their minds. They seek to undermine God's order. And it's happening all around us, and it's been happening for years and years.

What does he say in Ephesians 6:1? "Children, obey your parents."

Ungrateful

And then he goes on to say: ungrateful. We live in a culture of entitlement. People feel if something good happens in my life, I deserve that. Listen, you and I deserve nothing from God. If we got what we deserve, we wouldn't be here. We'd be like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. We'd be spending eternity in hell. But we live in a culture where people have this sense that "I deserve to get what I want." And we have so many blessings. How easy is it for us as believers to fall into that same thing? We complain about this and that, money, taxes, and all these things. We are so fast to do it. And you could put me at the top of that list. We fall into these patterns. But he says that's what the world is going to be characterized by.

Unholy

And then he says: unholy. Verse two, the end of verse two: unholy. That means people will have a lack of basic decency. There will be no decency among them. There will be an unholiness toward that which is sacred. We live in a day where human life is not safe, not considered sacred. People will not only allow it, but think about this: there's a segment of our culture that when a child is killed in a mother's womb, not only will they allow it, they celebrate it. What kind of dark culture is this?

And listen, we can be desensitized too. We hear about things happening and we think, "Oh, well, 175 little precious children, schoolgirls in Iran killed." And we look and we say, "Oh, that's terrible. What am I having for dinner?" We're so desensitized by this world, this wickedness around us.

Unloving

And then he says here: unloving. He says they're unloving—that is, hard, harsh people. No empathy. No sympathy for other people. This speaks about what is happening in homes: husbands and wives treating each other unlovingly. Parents treating children unlovingly. Children treating parents the same way.

Irreconcilable

Then he goes on. Look what he says: irreconcilable. This describes people who are always at odds with other people, always looking for a fight, always having to get their way. Never forgiving other people. He says that's going to describe the culture in which we live—irreconcilable, people unforgiving. If there's anything we're called to be as believers, it's forgiving, right? Forgiving one another.

Malicious Gossips

Well, look what he says back in verse three. Then he goes on: malicious gossips. Gossip is bad enough, right? Speaking about someone behind their back. But he says malicious gossips. That word is diabolos. You know what word we get from that? Thirty-four times in the New Testament, that word is translated as "the devil." And he's saying when someone seeks to destroy the reputation of another person, we're doing the work of Satan. Malicious gossips.

Without Self-Control

Then he says: without self-control. We live in a day where there is such a lack of self-control. We know that it's only the Spirit of God that brings self-control. It's one of the fruits of the Spirit that he puts forth. People lacking control over their appetites. People can't control their tones. All around us. He says that's going to characterize our culture.

Brutal

Then he says: brutal. Look at that. That word "brutal" was used in the original language to describe a wild, vicious, savage animal that would tear people apart. What does Paul say? And listen, we live in a day—you turn on the news—this is the kind of person that walks into a schoolhouse and just mows children down. This speaks of a mother who could just kill her own children. He says that is the day we're living in: brutal.

Haters of Good

Then he says: haters of good. He says they are haters of good. There are people you can't even do good to them. I think of what Isaiah says in Isaiah 5:20: "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil."

Treacherous

He says: treacherous. That word treacherous comes from Luke 6:16, where it's used of Judas. That means betraying another for personal gain. We see that all around us. Treacherous. If you've ever had someone you've trusted, someone you've loved, and they've betrayed you, it's terribly painful. It's devastating. But he says that's the way it's going to be.

Reckless

And then he goes on to say: reckless. This speaks of people who are rash, people who are thoughtless. They couldn't care less how their actions affect anybody else. He says that's going to characterize our culture. And this all flows from the love of self.

Let me give you the most extreme example I can think of. Have you ever driven on the Southern State Parkway at ten at night? You got two cars driving a hundred miles an hour, racing, cutting in and out. No concern for precious lives on the highway. What kind of people think like that? I'll tell you who: he says here, people who are depraved, who care nothing for God or other people.

Conceited

This is the picture Timothy—that's the day which we're going to live. And he says: conceited. We've spoken about that—prideful arrogance.

Lovers of Pleasure Rather Than Lovers of God

And then he says in verse four: lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Lovers of pleasure. And that flows from self-love.

Now listen, God is not against pleasure as long as it fits within God's will for your life and my life, as long as it's within the confines of what God has prescribed in his word. There are many wonderful pleasures God has given us in this world. But he says there are going to be people who love these pleasures more than they love God.

A Form of Godliness Without Power

Now, you say, "Well, wait a minute. Could it get worse?" Yes. Because shockingly, we're going to see not only are these types of people in the culture who have these attitudes, and yet they claim to be religious. They claim to be followers of Jesus. Look what he says in verse five: "Holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these."

What does that mean—holding to a form of godliness? He's speaking about outward religion, like the Pharisees in Jesus' day. Remember Jesus said, "You are like a whitewashed tomb. You look great on the outside. But on the inside, it's dead men's bones." This describes the practice of dead, empty religion and ritual, and it has no power. He says they have denied its power. There's no power to live righteously in that system because the power to live righteous comes when you're born again, when you have the Spirit of God living on the inside of you, when you have Christ on the inside of you. He says, "But no, this culture is going to be full of people who are spiritually dead, who are living an outward religious life, but on the inside, it's violent and wicked, just as he described here." And these people are dangerous.

False Teachers in Homes

Look at verse six. He tells Timothy, "For among them are those who enter into the households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins and led on by various impulses."

You say, "What is he saying there?" Well, here are these false teachers—empty religionists we might call them—and he said they would go around in that day into people's homes. Quite possibly when the man, the husband, was at work, they would come around door to door, almost like you'd see Jehovah's Witnesses today, go into these homes and talk to these women and teach them their false doctrine, their false, empty, man-made religion.

Now, he says they are weak women. He's not speaking of women generally here, nor is he speaking of all the women in the church at Ephesus, but there was a segment in that church who were intellectually weak in that they were so easily deceived. Yeah, they would listen to any kind of teaching, any kind of teaching that came along. They would listen to it. They would weaken in the truth. They would weaken in the word of God. Not only that, but they were morally weak. He said they're led on by all kinds of impulses, and they were being influenced by these false teachers.

Always Learning but Never Coming to Truth

But look in verse seven because this describes these false religionists, but it also describes these women in that church. He says, "They're always learning, but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth." Always learning. And that describes men and women who are religious today. They're always learning. They're reading books—usually bad books, some weird junk reading that—some of them are even going to seminars. And he says here, they never come to a knowledge of the truth, never understand the true Gospel, what the Gospel says.

And he says here that false teaching creeps into holiness. False teaching creeps into our homes through the television. We don't need people coming to the door. We have the television. We have the Internet. We have podcasts, YouTube, you name it. It's all around us. And let me just say this: when we talk about this, it is a weak woman who understands the scriptures, who understands who Jesus Christ is, yet buys into this feminist system of others.

He says, "Stay away from these people. Avoid them."

Depraved Minds

He says in verse eight, "They're like Jannes and Jambres, men of depraved minds."

Oh, Jannes and Jambres. Well, these were the magicians at the time of Moses in Exodus 7. And they were the ones who opposed Moses and Aaron. And he says they are depraved. He says, "Avoid them. They're rejected in the faith."

How to Live Godly in an Ungodly Culture

Now you hear that, and we say, "Wait a minute. That is depressing." You say that's the state of the world in which we live, and that's what's infiltrating the church. Well, it's the precedent if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ. If you know Christ as your Lord, it's not depressing.

How are we to live godly in the midst of this onslaught of depravity? How are we to do it? Now I want to leave you this morning with employing our defenses—with four defenses we're going to see right in the text this morning on how we are to combat this.

Defense 1: Observe the Folly of the Ungodly

First of all, observe the folly of the ungodly. Look what he says in verse nine: "But they will not make further progress; their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes and Jambres' folly was also."

So those men who opposed Moses—and we don't have time to look at the text—but they were made to be fools. Yes, it happened before Pharaoh and all of his servants. And he's telling us here: those who live apart from God, those who are ungodly, the futility of their lives will be evident. It's going to be obvious.

You say, "Well, I see people who are ungodly who are progressing in their lives." But if we're not progressing spiritually, we're not making any progress. It's spiritual progress. Those who love themselves—listen, life apart from Jesus Christ is futile. Absolutely futile. And those... listen, you can try to stuff everything in your heart. There's nothing that can satisfy. You say, "How do you know that?" That's what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:11. God has set eternity in the hearts of men and women, and he says nothing can satisfy that.

You can have all the money in the world. You can have all the pleasure. You can go on all the vacations. You can do anything your heart desires, and you'll be like a bucket that has a hole this size on it. You keep pouring the water in; it keeps going out. Because it will never fill up that God-sized void that is in every single human heart.

Life apart from Jesus Christ is absolutely futile. Have you ever seen someone on their deathbed who lived their life rejecting Christ? Coming to that very last mile—I'm talking about hours before they die. Have you ever looked in the eyes of someone in that state? I have. You want to talk about futility? Coming to the end of your life, you have absolutely nothing. And you're going to face your Creator, Almighty God. It's futility.

Defense 2: Imitate the Lives of the Godly

And he said... Paul says here, look. You're not going to progress. They're not progressing. But not only that, Paul says we should observe and imitate the lives of those who are around us who are godly. Those godly men and women that the Lord has put in your life—look what he says in verse 10 to Timothy:

"Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch and Iconium and Lystra—the persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord rescued me."

He's reminding us how Timothy saw his godly example. Look at those around you who are godly. Look at those in your life who are walking with the Lord. And he says here, Timothy, you knew—you knew my teaching. You followed my teaching. Follow the message of the lives of those around you who are godly. Look to those who are older than you, who have been in the faith longer than you have. Listen to them when they talk about scripture. When they give biblical insights. Look at the pattern of their lives. Look at the conduct of their lives.

Paul says, "You followed my purpose." Look at the purpose of their lives. The purpose of the godly is to live for Jesus Christ, to love him, to serve him. Look at their personal walk.

Look what Paul says in verse 10: "Followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, but he says you followed my faith, my patience, my love."

Look at those around you in your life who are trusting in the Lord, those who are walking with the Lord, those who are patient and persevering, those who refuse to give up—a persistent spirit. Look around at those who are characterized by love: love of Jesus Christ, love of other believers, love of people who are lost. He says, look around you. Look at the godly people. Observe them. Imitate them. But imitate their response to suffering.

Paul told Timothy, "Listen, you followed. You saw my suffering." Timothy went around with Paul, so he saw many of the times Paul was persecuted. I'm sure he saw Paul beaten. I'm sure he saw him abused. And he watched how he reacted. Look around you at the godly men and women in your lives. How do they react when hardship and suffering come? Look to their lives. Look how they respond.

I could name four or five people in this congregation who have gone through hardship and who are just so encouraging to see—the example of how you trusted in Christ in the midst of that. That encourages and strengthens the body of Christ, to see how other believers persevere in the midst of difficulty, trial, and suffering.

Expect Hardship

There's another defense to employ. First of all, observe and imitate the life of the godly. But number three, expect hardship. Look what he says in verse 12: "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

John Stott says this: "The godly arouse the antagonism of the worldly. It has always been so." He says, that's just the way it is. It's always been that way. We are in spiritual conflict. This is a war. We are in the kingdom of life and the kingdom of darkness. And he says here, expect it.

Look in chapter two, verse three. Paul says, "Endure hardship with me as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." Isn't it amazing that he likens us to soldiers? It's almost like he's saying to us, "Come on. Man up. Woman up. You're a soldier for Jesus Christ."

And in verse 13, that's where he says, "But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived." People are being deceived by the millions. It's safe to say it's going to get worse, but expect hardship. That's a part of the Christian walk. That's a part of being in the kingdom of Satan. The Bible says the god of this world is Satan. "The whole world lies in the power of the evil one." But listen, we are in the kingdom of life.

Continue in the Word of God

And he gives us the last defense, and that's simply this: continue in the word of God. Look what he says to Timothy in verse 14: "Timothy, you, however, continue in the things which you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned."

What is he talking about? Verse 15: "From childhood you have known the sacred writings." He's talking about the scriptures. Verse 16: "All Scripture is given by God, inspired of God."

He says here, Timothy, continue in that which you have learned. Timothy had a godly mom named Eunice and a godly grandmother named Lois. But he also sat under the apostle Paul's teaching. He had the apostolic teaching of Paul and the Old Testament—as we have the new and the old, the fullness of revelation.

And Paul says, "Listen, continue in that which you have learned, that which you have become convinced of. Have you become convinced of the word of God? You could give a testimony. You know the truth of Scripture. If you've come to this church for any time, you've heard teaching, you've heard the truth of the word of God. You're convinced of it. You know God is who he says he is. You know he's a prayer-answering God. You know he's a God who is faithful."

He says, "Continue in the word of the living God. Timothy, dark times are coming. They're here. But we don't despair."

He says, "Timothy, we don't despair. Why don't we despair? Well, we're in a battle. We are in a spiritual war. And listen, God has ordained what is going to happen. God is in complete control. God is sovereign. So you're a soldier of Jesus Christ. There's no retreating in this army. We're in it. This is a battle. But listen, we know we have the victory. We have the victory in Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ is going to prevail. No matter how dark it gets, no matter how evil it gets."

A number of years ago, I was coming into the church service, walking through those back doors. A brother, one of our deacons, brother Jacob, was beside me. I casually said to him, "Good morning, brother. How are you doing?" And he gave me an answer that stuck with me to this day. He answered my question with a question. He said to me, "Is God still on the throne?" I said, "Of course, yes." He said, "Then I'm doing great."

Isn't that a great response? Brothers and sisters, Christ our God is on the throne. Amen.

And let me tell you how this is all going to end. This is what the Bible says. This world will keep going. One day the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back, and he's coming in power and he is coming in glory. Every eye will see. Not only that, he's going to make all things right. All that will oppose his rule, all who have rejected him, he's going to destroy.

So what are you and I called to do? He's left us here to be that light in the darkness. All the darkness in the world can't put out one candle. He has called us to shine the light of Jesus Christ in the midst of this dark world in which we live, pointing people to the light, pointing people to the one who can bring forgiveness of sins, pointing them to the one who can bring peace and internal lives, peace with Almighty God. That's what our calling is to do as believers in Christ.

And if you've never trusted in Christ, listen to what the Bible says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. Today is the day of salvation."