PRODUCERS of a HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT-VII—2Timothy 3:1-9
The last days will be characterized by a hostile(antagonistic) environment.
The Apostle Paul, revealed to Timothy that a hostile(antagonistic) environment will characterize the last days.
A(n) hostile(antagonistic) environment will characterize the last days.
Why will hostility/antagonism characterize the last days?
23 producers of a(n) hostile(antagonistic) environment.
“Perilous/Difficult”—calepov—Hard to do, to take, to approach; Hard to bear, troublesome, dangerous.
‘....it is hard to keep our integrity in the midst of general corruption.’—Matthew Henry(1721)
A(n) hostile(antagonistic) environment is produced by,
a distortion of….
1. Self(:2a)
2. Wealth(:2b)
3. ACHIEVEMENT/Ability(:2c)
4. VIEW/Pride(:2d)
5. Reverence(:2e)
6. Authority/Respect(:2f)
7. Position/Grace(:2g)
8. SEPARATION(:2h)
9. AFFECTION(:3a)
10. RECONCILIATION(:3b)
11. ACCLAIM(:3c)
12. CONTROL(:3d)
13. DIGNITY(:3e)
14. Goodness(:3f)
15. Loyalty(:4a)
16. CIRCUMSPECTION / Uprightness(:4b)
17. SUPERIORITY/Humility(:4c)
18. LOVE(:4d)
19. GODLINESS(:5a)
20—A hostile(antagonistic) environment is determined by…
A Distortion of JUSTICE / Reason(:5b)
Explanation:(:5b)
:5b—“having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!”
‘Justice’—The quality of being fair & reasonable.
“Turn away”—apotrepw—To turn one’s self away from; To shun, avoid.
If the church allows people in leadership positions who appear godly, yet actually/really deny God’s power personally, then that church cannot be an agent of redemption in the world.
Argumentation:
Mat. 18:15-18—““Moreover if your brother sins against you, go & tell him his fault between you & him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. “But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ “And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen & a tax collector. “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, & whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
1Cor. 6:1-8—“Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unrighteous, & not before the saints? Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world will be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Do you not know that we shall judge angels? How much more, things that pertain to this life? If then you have judgments concerning things pertaining to this life, do you appoint those who are least esteemed by the church to judge? I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who will be able to judge between his brethren? But brother goes to law against brother, & that before unbelievers! Now therefore, it is already an utter failure for you that you go to law against one another. Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated? No, you yourselves do wrong & cheat, & you do these things to your brethren!”
Rev. 18:4—“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her[Babylon], my people, lest you share in her sins, & lest you receive of her plagues.”
2Cor. 6:16-17—“And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell in them And walk among them. I will be their God, And they shall be My people.” Therefore “Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you.””
*Rom. 16:17—“Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions & offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, & avoid them.”
Mat. 7:15-20—“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. “You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? “Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. “A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.”
*1Cor. 5:9-13—“I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people; I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous & swindlers, or with idolaters; for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he should be an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler--not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. REMOVE THE WICKED MAN FROM AMONG YOURSELVES.”
Illustration:
America shying away from the ‘melting pot’ mentality & moving toward Division/Parceling/Segregation by tolerance/Distortion of JUSTICE
Small churches can be tempted to allow the ungodly a place—simply to keep body count up/Distortion of JUSTICE
Application:
?You guilty of Distorting JUSTICE / Reason?
?You contribute to a Hostile Environment or a Friendly/Benign one?
21—A hostile(antagonistic) environment is determined by…
A Distortion of Freedom / Purpose / Captivity(:6a)
Explanation:(:6a) “Captives”
:6a—“For of this sort are those who creep into households & make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,”
They are present in every church. They hear the preacher preach, the teacher teach, experience the fellowship BUT personal sins control their thinking & actions. These immediately fall prey to any wind of doctrine.
“Creep”—endunw—To put on, to envelop in, to hide in; To creep into, insinuate one’s self into, to enter. Used 1X only here.
“Make captive/Captivate/Lead captive”— aicmalwtizw—To lead away captive; To capture one’s mind, captivate.
“Gullible women/Silly X/Weak X/Weak-willed X” —gunaikarion — Silly women—used contemptuously. Diminutive form of ‘woman.’(gunh) Used 1X only here. More in next point.
Prov. 14:6—“A scoffer seeks wisdom & does not find it, But knowledge is easy to him who understands.”
Isa. 30:9-10—“That this is a rebellious people, Lying children, Children who will not hear the law of the LORD; Who say to the seers, “Do not see,” And to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us right things; Speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.”
Mat. 13:10-13—After the parable of the sower & the seed—“And the disciples came & said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered & said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. “For whoever has, to him more will be given, & he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, & hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”
Argumentation:
Lk. 4:18-19—““The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.””
Titus 1:10-11—“For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers & deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.”
*2Pet. 2:18-21—“For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord & Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them & overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.”
*2Cor. 10:4-6—“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments & every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, & being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”
Rom. 8:20-21—“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.”
Illustration:
Warner Bros. cartoon/‘You are so cute....I’m going to love you & hold you & hug you, & squeeze you & keep you in a cage!’/Distortion of FREEDOM
Application:
?You guilty of Distorting FREEDOM / Purpose / Captivity?
?You contribute to a Hostile Environment or a Friendly/Benign one?
22—A hostile(antagonistic) environment is determined by…
A Distortion of ACCEPTANCE(:6-7)
Explanation:(:6-7)
:6b—“For of this sort are those who creep into households & make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,”
“Gullible women/Silly X/Weak X/Weak-willed X” —gunaikarion — Silly women—used contemptuously/insulting. Diminutive form of ‘woman.’(gunh)—We might use the term ’Womanettes.’ Used 1X only here.
— ‘Physically mature women who are Spiritually & thus Morally immature’
“Loaded down/Laden/Weighed down”—swreuw—To heap together, to heap up, to pile up; To overwhelm one with a heap of anything; To load one with the consciousness of many sins. Used 2X, here & Rom. 12:20.
“Sins”—amartia—To be without a share in, to miss the mark, to err, be mistaken, to wander from the path; That which is done wrongly, an offense, a violation of the divine law in thought of act; Collectively, the complex or aggregate of sins committed either by a single person or many.
“Lead away/Lead on/Swayed”—agw—1) To lead, take with one; 2) To lead; 3) To pass a day, keep or celebrate a feast, etc. 4) To go, depart.
“Various/Divers”—poikilov—1) Of various colors, variegated; 2) Of various sorts.
“Lusts/Evil desires”—epiyumia—Desire, craving, longing, desire for what is forbidden, lust. The active side of vice.
:7—always learning & never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
—Intellectuals/Intelligentsia— ("always learning")—Smart of mind but idiotic of heart.
1Cor. 1:19—“For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”....“ ....the world through wisdom did not know God....””
Acts 17:21—At the Areopagus(Mars Hill)—“....all the Athenians & the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing.”
Argumentation:
Isa. 28:9-13—““Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.” For with stammering lips & another tongue He will speak to this people, To whom He said, “This is the rest with which You may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That they might go & fall backward, & be broken And snared & caught.”
Eph. 4:11-16—“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, & some pastors & teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith & of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to & fro & carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- from whom the whole body, joined & knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
2Pet. 3:17-18—“You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard lest, being carried away by the error of unprincipled men, you fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace & knowledge of our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory, both now & to the day of eternity. Amen.”
Illustration:
Me as a teen/Never accepted facts of doctrine/Everything so confusing because never taught Bible was objective truth/My mother thought, & taught me, The Bible had been translated over & over until it was questionable/BUT—we attended church regularly/Distortion of ACCEPTANCE
Soap operas in general/Always a group who have the intelligence & money/Treat others like dirt/Their own sins make it apparent that they are the bad guys/Distortion of ACCEPTANCE
Evangelism team visits/Agrees to facts but never accepts Christ/Distortion of ACCEPTANCE
Application:
?You guilty of Distorting ACCEPTANCE?
?You contribute to a Hostile Environment or a Friendly/Benign one?
23—A hostile(antagonistic) environment is determined by…
A Distortion of APPROVAL / Resistance / Opposition(:8-9)
Explanation:(:8-9)
:8—“Now as Jannes & Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;
“Jannes”—“He who seduces” or “He vexed”
“Jambres”—“He who makes rebellion” or “Foamy Healer”
—No mention of Jannes & Jambres in the OT….But in Jewish, pagan & Christian literature—Possibly 2 of Pharaoh’s magicians. Possibly symbolic names assigned later.
—Jewish tradition holds that these men feined conversions to Judaism in order to undercut God’s liberating Israel thru Moses.
—The Targum of Jonathan—“& Pharaoh called the wise men & the magicians; & Janis & Jambres, the magicians of the Egyptians, did so by the enchantments of their divinations.”
Targum—An Aramaic interpretation/very loose paraphrase of the Hebrew(except Ezra, Nehemiah & Daniel), in use by 300AD.
*These men attempted/sought to emasculate God’s work thru Moses/Aaron by imitating the plagues!
“Resisted”—anyisthmi—To set one’s self against, to withstand, resist, oppose; To set against.
“Corrupt”—katafyeirw—To corrupt, deprave; To destroy. Used 2X
“Disapproved/Reprobate/Rejected”—adokimov—Not standing the test, not approved; That which does not prove itself such as it ought.
:9—“but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was.”
“Progress”—prokoptw—To beat forward; To go forward, advance, proceed.
“Folly”—anoia—‘Without consciousness’—Want of understanding, folly; Madness expressing itself in rage. The negation (a) of ‘the mind’(nouv)—‘the intellectual organ of moral sentiment’. Used 2X.
—Lk. 6:11—After Jesus healed the man with the withered hand on the Sabbath—“And they were filled with madness; & communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.”
“Manifest”—ekdhlov—Evident, clear, conspicuous.
—People will be hurt in the process. Churches will face division/tearing
Argumentation:
Acts 7:51—Stephen to the council—“You stiffnecked & uncircumcised in heart & ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.”
Acts 13:5-12—“And when they arrived in Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. They also had John as their assistant. Now when they had gone through the island to Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man. This man called for Barnabas & Saul & sought to hear the word of God. But Elymas the sorcerer (for so his name is translated) withstood them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith. Then Saul, who also is called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him & said, “O full of all deceit & all fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? “And now, indeed, the hand of the Lord is upon you, & you shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a time.” And immediately a dark mist fell on him, & he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had been done, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.”
*Jude 4-5—“For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness & deny the only Lord God & our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you, though you once knew this, that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe.”
1Cor. 11:19—“For there must also be factions among you, that those who are approved may be recognized among you.”
2Tim. 2:15—“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
Illustration:
The “Pastor” in Charlotte who meets in a bar, encourages smoking & drinking—‘As a means of reaching the lost’/He will take down many who are looking for blessing upon their sins/Distortion of APPROVAL
Coach Harbison/ “I’m glad my father(a Lutheran minister) is dead because it would have destroyed him to witness how the Lutheran Church has accepted openly gay people as pastors/Churches actions are a Distortion of APPROVAL
Application:
?You guilty of Distorting APPROVAL / Resistance / Opposition?
?You contribute to a Hostile Environment or a Friendly/Benign one?
It is vital to the health of a local church body—and in her official associations— that they have people Approved of God in ALL leadership positions!
CONCLUSION:
Action:
A hostile(antagonistic) environment is produced by,
a distortion of….
20. JUSTICE(:5b)
21. FREEDOM / Purpose / Captivity(:6-7)
22. ACCEPTANCE(:6-7)
23. APPROVAL / Resistance / Opposition(:8-9)
A hostile(antagonistic) environment is produced by,
a distortion of….
1. Self(:2a)
2. Wealth(:2b)
3. ACHIEVEMENT/Ability(:2c)
4. VIEW/Pride(:2d)
5. Reverence(:2e)
6. Authority/Respect(:2f)
7. Position/Grace(:2g)
8. SEPARATION(:2h)
9. AFFECTION(:3a)
10. RECONCILIATION(:3b)
11. acclaim(:3c)
12. CONTROL(:3d)
13. DIGNITY(:3e)
14. Goodness(:3f)
15. LOYALTY(:4a)
16. CIRCUMSPECTION / Uprightness(:4b)
17. SUPERIORITY/Humility(:4c)
18. LOVE(:4d)
19. GODLINESS(:5)
Presented 02/28/2010am to:
Needmore Baptist Church
1620 Mt. Vernon Rd.
Woodleaf NC 27054
