“Living in Difficult Days”
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Welcome Everyone.
Announcements:
-Wednesday Sept. 4th at 6:00p.m.
-No men’s Bible Study next Monday due to Labor Day.
Open with Prayer:
Take a moment to go back over and cover what happens to infants when they die or those with infant minds. Share several scriptures.
15 for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
10 On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
Now we come to our main text in 2 Timothy.
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
The subject that I want us to look at this evening is that we are living in difficult days men.
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
As we look down through the early church we know for certain that there were difficult days. Not only was the early church dealing with persecution as most of the apostles gave their lives for Christ, we also know that they were struggling with false teaching and immoral behavior within the church. The dangers that were deadly within the church were ungodly teaching and ungodly living.
When we continue on into church history the Dark Ages were dark for a reason since many forgot about God. We then come to a time in church history where there needed to be reform and many church leaders gave their lives once again for the sake of Christ and the gospel. These were of course times of difficulty.
Let’s go back to Scripture so that we can understand the warnings about these difficult days.
Jesus himself warned us about these difficult days, that there would be false christs and false prophets who would come along and mislead people.
Peter warned us about false prophets.
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed.
John warned us as well.
18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
And finally Jude warned us.
4 For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
I wanted us to see this tonight in order for us to understand that not much has changed. False teaching and ungodly living have continued to hurt the church. That is why Paul is writing this to Timothy. Notice at the beginning of verse 1 that Paul urges Timothy to understand this. Timothy there is something you must realize, there is something that you must understand so please pay attention to this urgent warning against people who are living ungodly lives.
Paul also mentions here this short phrase “last days.” What does this mean? It seems clear to us that these “last days,” began with the ministry of Jesus as He came to earth to point men and women to God. In 1 John we see how John warned his readers in the early church that it is the last hour.
18 Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
We are still living in the messianic time between Christ’s first and second coming, all of which may properly be called the last days. And in these last days Paul says difficult times will come. The word time here does not mean chronological time as we might think of, but rather to periods of time like seasons or eras. As we await the return of Christ we will continue to see more frequent and intense periods of less and less peace and more lawlessness. What do I mean by this? Let’s look again at verses 2-4.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
Paul now lays out the specifics of these difficult days and the danger of these men.
1. Lovers of Self. The word for people here is actually leaders in the church and specifically men who not only claim Christ but also claim to be his ministers. These men were apostate leaders in the church and of course there would have also been apostate women. The meaning of “lovers of self” translates into having great affection for your self. Self-love always has been associated with worldliness. While the greek word (Phileo) is not a wrong kind of love because we see it used as the Father has a love for His own son Jesus, this is not what Paul has in mind here. Whenever we see a love for self, a love for God is lowered and even misdirected. Listen to what our Lord said about where our love should be directed.
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The 18th century preacher Samuel Johnson said, “He that overvalues himself will undervalue others. And he that undervalues others will oppose them. Self-love alienates men from God and from each other. Self-love is the supreme enemy of godliness and of genuine friendship and fellowship.”
This is so much different than self-seeking love. Paul said it like this.
3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
2. Lovers of Money. Another specific of ungodly people are those who love money. This is a phrase that represents materialism. Those who love money have a craving for more and more earthly possessions. This means that this type of person is covetous and not content with what the Lord has given to them. Paul is not speaking of the rightful earning and using of money here to take care of our basic needs in this life. Here is what Paul said about this specific matter back in 1 Timothy.
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Because false teaching most always leads to wrong living, it is not shocking that most false teachers promote the health and wealth gospel which suppose that godliness is a means of gain. These people are only thinking of themselves.
3. The third distinctive is those who are proud. Those who are proud are boastful and brag about their accomplishments or what they have. Like those who self-love and love money, the proud are related to those false teachers. These people always think that they are right, and are often the heroes of their own stories. This is the exact opposite of someone who is humble and kind.
4. Arrogant. Someone who is typically proud is also arrogant. The arrogant person is best illustrated by the Jewish religious leaders of the Lord’s time.
11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ 13 But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ 14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
5. Abusive. Someone who is abusive is blasphemous or slanderous. When you elevate yourself above everyone else your automatically lower and denigrate others. Many false teachers have a disdain or a cold heart toward people and therefore are unloving and abusive.
6. Disobedient to their parents. Some of you are dealing with this right now and have gone through some very painful experiences as you have witnessed children who are disobedient. As we have talked about earlier children are born with a sin nature and a desire to disobey. But then we add into the mix no godly fathers leading these children and moms who are now working many hours and we wonder why in the world are our children so disobedient? Children who are disobedient and rebel against their parents then will rebel against any other source of authority like teachers, police officers and other public figures. Men it should be no surprise to us that this generation of children are more sinful, disobedient, angry, hateful and misguided than ever before. We need men who will be the godly leaders of their household and step up to give guidance and discipline where it is needed.
7. Ungrateful. The person who has self-love and puts himself above others feels that he or she deserves everything good. When they don’t receive what they want or something good, they are ungrateful. They have a very difficult time with God’s grace and the idea behind this. May we not be ungrateful because we are reminded of all that God has done for us including His Grace.
8. Unholy. This word carries the idea that an unholy person is driven by self-love to gratify his lustful desires and passions. There is no thought to decency or even personal reputation.
9. Heartless. Those who are heartless are truly unloving. Those people who are lovers of self will also live lives without any kind of affection for others. This type of person cares nothing for the welfare of those who should be closest to him like his own family. His only care or interest is for what he believes in what others can do for him. To be unloving is heartless. We see this often today when a husband abuses his wife or even children. It seems that almost everyday now we hear of a story about some type of heartless abuse or unloving abuse.
10. Unappeasable. Someone who is unappeasable refuses to change no matter how bad things are in their own lives. They are determined to get their own way regardless of the consequences, even to the point of destroying their own lives or their families lives. They do not forgive and they do not want to be forgiven. They are beyond reasoning with, and are self-destructive. Nothing matters in their lives accept for doing whatever pleases them.
11. Slanderous. This word carries the meaning of gossip which is harmful, ungodly and sinful. Malicious gossip is a sin and a very destructive sin at that. When someone is a malicious gossip they do so with the intent of harming and hurting others around them. They might do this to promote their own self interests or to show jealousy and hatred for others. When someone gossips about others they are damaging reputations and destroying lives.
12. Without self-control. Are you a man who is disciplined? Are you a man of self-control? Those who are without self-control have no shame and do not care what people think about what happens to them when they live immoral lives. Those people who are lovers of self eventually get to a point where they have lost control and become slaves to their own passions and ambitions.
13. Brutal. This word here that Paul uses refers to savagery. This would often look like that of a wild beast who would chase after its prey and tear them apart. This type of character is malicious and cruel.
14. Not loving good. Paul uses this phrase here to help us see that these type of people hate what should be loved and love what should be hated. They may understand what is good and yet choose to despise it and go against it. The prophet Isaiah spoke against this very thing.
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
15. Treacherous. Those people who are treacherous often turn against their own family and friends. This type of behavior is often seen with those who love money, are boastful, ungrateful and live unholy lives. Often times whenever the church went through persecution, true believers were betrayed by their own family members.
16. Reckless. This type of person is careless, negligent and rash. The self-centered person is so consumed with his own interests that they will simply not notice people and things around them because they are so self-focused.
17. Conceited. The root meaning of this word carries the idea that someone is surrounded by smoke, so that what is outside one’s circumscribed world cannot be seen. Paul advised Timothy in his first letter that an elder should not be a new Christian, lest he become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. Someone who is conceited understands nothing because all they care about are their own interests.
18. Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. The final sinful characteristic that Paul lays out here is where we get the word hedonist and hedonism from. Along with all their other sins, this false teacher is a self-loving, pleasure seeking hedonist. The word for pleasure includes someone who has a desire for comfort, fine food, sexual satisfaction and other indulgences. Those who love pleasure more than God cannot possibly obey either the first or second commandments. They cannot truly love God or their neighbors, and they have no genuine desire to do this. Jesus made it very clear that a person can have only one God, and for those who love self, there god is themselves. We need to watch out for all of these ungodly behaviors men.
Questions?
Close in Prayer.