OPEN YOUR BIBLES TO Matthew 24 & 2 TIM 3
1. There are a few things we notice about time…
• #1 Time just marches on… #2 – Time stops for no one.
• And #3 - Things HAVE CHANGED over the years. Consider that…
IN 1980 when the first Walkman’s came out there were $169! Now? Free Promotions
When the first VCR came out it cost over $5000! Today, DVD’s rule the scene.
YOUNG PEOPLE WHO START COLLEGE THIS YEAR WERE BORN IN 1986…
• They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and most don’t even know he had ever been shot.
• Bottle caps have not only always been screw off, but have always been plastic.
• They have no idea what a pull top can looks like.
• Atari pre-dates them, as do vinyl albums.
• The expression "you sound like a broken record" means nothing to them.
• They have never owned a record Player.
• Most have never seen a TV set with only 13 channels, nor have they seen a black and white TV. -- They don’t know who Mork was or where he was from.
• McDonalds never came in Styrofoam containers.
• They have no idea when or why Jordache jeans were cool.
NOTE: We’re reminded that TIME MARCHES on. It moves FORWARD. And Jesus predicted that in the last times it would get worse, not better. Very intense, Very fierce. – Matthew 24:3ff
NOTE: That’s where Paul picks up here in CH3, encouraging young Timothy not to be discouraged by the signs of the times.
• REMEMBER, Paul is only days away from his own execution. He will have his life taken at the hands of Nero.
• So he’s writing to his disciple Timothy, the difficult days are coming but you can, you should stand fast in the Lord.
I. (3.1-9) Perilous Times
1. (1) Know this… Perilous Times will come.
a. I’m sure many thought the last days had already come.
b. With Nero raging, and Christians being martyred. Hiding out. Gathering underground… surely this has got to be it.
c. But Paul points even further saying that it WILL get worse.
d. Timothy, maybe you’ll see it & be caught up in the rapture.
e. Be ready for it. Don’t let your guard down.
NOTE: I believe Paul lived as if the rapture would happen in His lifetime. That was his expectation, his hope!
• AND… I believe that it will happen in my lifetime!
• I look forward to seeing the Lord Jesus Christ return! You Do?
• Hold on a second… some say! Why are you always talking about the end times, the rapture, the return of Jesus Christ?!
• What if you’re wrong? What if you’re mistaken like the many men before you? Here’s THE key.
1 John 3.2-3 Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
SO WHAT about those that thought He would return in their lifetimes and He didn’t?
• Even though He didn’t come as they thought, it impacted their lives so that they left a mark on history and helped to shape the work of the Lord beyond their lifetime.
APP: If you want to live a zealous, exciting, fulfilling kind of Christian life, then look for, eagerly expect the coming of the Lord!
• It will change YOU and everyone around you!
• But if you choose to say, ‘well you know Jesus didn’t come then, he’s not coming now…’. Then watch out.
• Your spiritual life will shrivel up… and soon die.
Paul says perilous times will come… ‘Fierce times, hard to bear, troublesome’… they’re coming. Guys… I believe we’re seeing them!
2. (2-5) A description.
a. This sounds like a typical weekly newspaper.
b. Something from the Denver Post or TIME Magazine.
c. Now as we read through these, there are commas separating each event but I’m not so sure Paul wanted them that way.
d. All of these things go on to describe the person that loves himself more than he/she loves God.
NOTE: Don’t we see that in our own society? We have watched a culture develop around the LOVE OF SELF.
• You can see it develop over the years with the different magazines that have come out on the racks.
• First there was LIFE Magazine. - Then came PEOPLE Magazine.
• Then they came out with US. - Now there’s a mag entitled SELF.
• What’s next? ME MAGAZINE?! (I’m sure it’s in the works!)
SO… here’s the PROGRESSION, the signs of the times!
1. (2) Lovers of themselves. – That’s where it begins.
2. (2) Lovers of Money. – You become covetous. Money becomes our passion, our goal, our all-consuming desire.
• We want more stuff, more things.
• THINGS begin to control our decisions. Debt increases.
• And then life revolves around getting out of debt.
Consumer Debt Doubles In 10 Years
In an article at Yahoo! News, "Consumer debt hit a record $1.98 trillion in October 2003, according to the most recent figures from the Federal Reserve. That debt — which includes credit cards and car loans, but not mortgages — translates to some $18,700 per U.S. household."
Most people would laugh off the old saying of Benjamin Franklin today, “It’s better to go to bed supperless than to run into debt for breakfast.”
• But the end times will see people do anything for money, on TV, behind closed doors, as long as it pays… PERILOUS TIMES!
3. (2) Boasters & Proud & Blasphemers
• The songs will reflect. The best selling novels, the TV shows.
• Blasphemy will be on the lips of the politicians, the movie stars, the elite of society.
4. (2) Disobedient to Parents.
• Spanking and discipline will be labeled old-fashioned.
• A wave of youth will run wild with no restraint.
“Teacher punches student in face at NY school.”
“Netherlands shocked by first deadly school shooting.”
“In the Graduating class of 2002, 48% had ever used drugs and 78% had ever used alcohol in the past year.” THE LIST CAN GO ON AND ON!
NOTE: In the Old Testament, disobedience wasn’t tolerated.
• Let’s turn to Deut. 21.18-21
5. (3) Unthankful & Unholy & Unloving & unforgiving.
• Unloving, translated in the KJV is ‘w/o natural affection’.
• Look what’s happening today with child abuse, and abortion, parents abandoning their kids.
• There’s even what we read of in Romans 1 as men and women leave the natural love for the opposite sex and go after the same sex saying it’s from God.
• Then there’s UNFORGIVING… could be translated irreconcilable… that’s a buzz word in divorces today because many refuse to be reconciled.
6. (3) Slanderers & without self-control, brutal
• A Wacky, Wild, out of control, society.
7. (3) Despisers of Good
8. (4) Traitors & Headstrong & Haughty
9. (4) Lovers of Pleasure rather than lovers of God!
• That’s interesting. There’s nothing wrong with loving pleasure, because God created it!
NOTE: He created us to have pleasurable moments, pleasurable emotions and sensations… to enjoy friendships, and food, and a day at the beach… to enjoy sex in context of marriage.
• God made sex. He invented it!
• He’s not up there saying, “Wow, how did they figure that out?!”
• God made us to enjoy all sorts of things…
• THE PROBLEM is when we love pleasure more than we love God.
• So we’re reminded of the balance by Jesus Christ, or should we say the imbalance toward God in life…
Matthew 6.33 "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
3. (5-9) Turn Away From them.
a. They have a form of godliness. They pretend to love God.
b. FORM, literally ‘an outward appearance’.
c. The people here only have an outward façade, they are good actors… hypocrites at their core.
d. They’ve never been born again, they have no power from God in them, just human initiation & invention.
Matthew 7.15-17 "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 "You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
NOTE: It breaks my heart watching men and women spend so much time & energy & resources on the FORM, the outward show.
• How do you dress? How do you speak? How do you look?
• I don’t smoke, I don’t chew, I don’t run with those that do!
• But that time would be better spent cultivating your relationship with Jesus and being real.
• Understanding that there will be roadbumps in life and that as Christians we come alongside each other and help. Gal 6:1-2
V6 goes on to say that they creep into households…
• Making captive of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts…
2 Tim. 3.6 (NLT) They are the kind who work their way into people’s homes and win the confidence of vulnerable women who are burdened with the guilt of sin and controlled by many desires.
• The EMPHASIS isn’t on the gullibility of women, but immaturity.
APP: These types of people worm their way into the houses of the unsuspecting. They get in by trickery & stealth & false pretenses.
• They bring confusion and false doctrine.
• NOTICE in v7, they’re always learning. They’re always studying.
• But they never really come to know the truth, to know Jesus.
EVERY FALSE DOCTRINE, every false teaching, every false movement lacks a true understanding of Jesus Christ.
• That’s why we can measure everything & everyone by the question… Let’s look at 1 John 4:1-3
NOW in v8, Paul uses an example from Scriptures.
• The OLD testament never names the magicians of Pharaoh in Exodus 7-8, but here Paul names them.
• Jannes & Jambres resisted Moses… rather than learn from the truth, they counterfeited it.
V9 – They will progress no further and their folly will be evident.
• What are we to do then? “And from such people turn away!”
II. (3.10-17) Powerful People
1. (10-11) Timothy, you know what I’ve been through.
a. Now if Jannes & Jambres were ministers of Satan’s work, then Paul is our best example of a worker for the Lord!
b. I’ve modeled this for you Tim.
c. As the world progresses further and further into the perilous, difficult, immoral times.
d. The believer stands out more and more as God’s child!
NOTE: I’m so thankful for godly examples… models to follow.
• WE CAN WATCH the life of Paul, or Timothy, and Jesus making our life His… A life of purpose and direction.
• We can read through Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith and see so many people just like us… but they give us hope!
• We fall short, but more & more Jesus is making us like this by the power of His Holy Spirit…
• We’re being changed from strength to strength, glory to glory.
AND OH How the end of v11 rings so true to our hearts.
• THE LORD DELIVERED ME OUT OF THEM ALL!
Psalm 34.19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.
Psalm 37.40 And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, And save them, Because they trust in Him.
Psalm 91.2-5 I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust." 3 Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler And from the perilous pestilence. 4 He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your shield and buckler. 5 You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Hebrews 13.5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
2. (12) Desire to live godly… suffer.
a. This isn’t one of those verses that they put in those little Scripture promises boxes, or on the daily encouragement calendars.
b. You know, I actually have it highlighted in my Bible.
c. What was I thinking? This is a promise I hold on to? YES!
2 Cor. 1.20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
NOTE: it’s interesting that many of the promises of God that we underline our Bibles are not like this one.
• These aren’t the ones that you hang on to, but it’s true.
d. It doesn’t say that you MIGHT suffer, or that MAYBE it will happen, but it says YOU WILL, I WILL SUFFER.
e. We can count on it! We should be surprised at all.
3. (13-15) Evil men will increase.
a. it’s so the Lord as he works these things out.
b. As I was typing this message out, an e-mail came through.
c. The header was “He’s Back!” In part it read:
January 14, 2004 - The Lord said He would return on a cloud, where all could see Him, and this prophecy is now fulfilled. The Lord has His own website, where all may "see" Him, and thus it is revealed that Jesus knew the internet would arise, although He spoke poetically and figuratively about it, to inspire many, many generations besides just the modern one. How do I know for sure that this is my Lord? I know, because He is the ultimate spiritual Master, just as Jesus was in His day. This One brings East and West together in a totally harmonious presentation, revealing that enlightenment is the key that unlocks Heaven’s door. AND The babbling went on…
SO I forwarded it to LOUIE… I thought he might want to know!
• But didn’t Jesus tell us, that a sign of the times would be…
Matthew 24.5 "For many will come in My name, saying, ’I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.
• Evil men & imposters will grow worse and worse…
BUT v14, you MUST continue in the things which you have learned.
• Timothy, you’ve been taught, you’ve learned them.
• It wasn’t just me, but others have taught & trained you.
• You come from a godly heritage. Stick with what you’ve learned.
AND FOR US TODAY, in 2003… it’s a word from the Lord directly.
• It doesn’t matter what the new fad or trend is.
• It’s not essential to keep up on the new winds of doctrines.
• You, I, we, need to hold on to the truths that we’ve learned!
• Why? Because the Holy Scriptures are able to make you WISE for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus!
• We teach the kids, “THE B-I-B-L-E, that’s the book for me. I stand alone on the word of God, THE B-I-B-L-E” Don’t leave it.
4. (16-17) All Scripture is profitable!
a. It’s all valuable. Genesis, 1 Samuel, Leviticus…
b. The gospels, the epistles… all of it!
c. All Scripture is given by INSPIRATION OF GOD. God inspired the human authors to write His Word.
d. Literally, All Scripture is “God Breathed”
JUST as God breathed the breath of life into Adam’s Body, so did He breath His own divine life into the very words of Scripture!
2 Peter 1.21 for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
You know how people will come to the Bible and say something like, “well that’s just a book written by men”…
• Well you can answer that by saying, “yes men wrote it down, but God inspired, or literally, carried them along” as they did!
All Scripture is INSPIRED and PROFITABLE. It profits the reader.
• Remember the promise in the book of Revelation?
Rev. 1.3 Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Now it says that Word of god is profitable.
DOCTRINE – Teaching us Truth about God.
REPROOF – Teachings us what’s wrong
CORRECTION – Teaching us how to fix what’s wrong.
INSTRUCTION – Teaching us How to maintain what is right.
17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
• Let’s close with Psalm 119.33-40
