God Not Self

I. The Coming Dilemma.

A. Paul warns Timothy of a time of spiritual apostasy that is coming to the church.

1. The time will come. Paul says “Know this”. He is saying “mark my words”. Often times we speak of apostasy as occurring in the world. And it is true that the world will become more sinful. But that isn’t what Paul is talking about here. He is saying it is coming to the church. One of the signs of the end times is a church that has gotten so far away from God that it is not even recognizable. Rev. 3:20 shows us a church in which Jesus is outside knocking on the door, asking to come in. just as Israel’s judgment in the OT was preceded by ungodliness in the Temple, the Second coming of Christ will be preceded by ungodliness in the church.

2. The time will be perilous. That word is used in Matthew 8:28 to describe the demon possessed men in the Gadarenes. They lived in the graveyard, bound in chains, naked, violent. Perilous times are times of indecent dress, violence, a fascination with darkness and death. You see folks Satan is going to try and transform the church into a spiritual graveyard filled with immodest, violent, lost people.

3. It is important that we are not ignorant of this. We have to be on our guard. There will be people in church just not on fire. The falling away doesn’t mean that people necessarily leave the church. In many cases it may mean more people come to church. It simply means that God’s truth will be ignored, standards will be lowered and less people will be genuinely saved.

B. The church has always experienced destructive doctrines.

1. We need to understand that the church is Satan’s target. Why? Because it is the object of Christ’s great love. What Jesus loves the devil hates. It is the headquarters of the gospel message in a community. Satan hates the gospel. It is the training ground for God’s saints. Satan wants believers to be ignorant and weak. Just like a lion feeds off of a pack of zebras, satan feeds off of God’s sheep. And he finds them huddled together in a pack in the church. Churches attract Satan because he finds his nourishment from destroying us and what we do.

2. Satan primarily works through false doctrine. He is continually saying “Did God really say this?” Bad doctrine will eventually lead to bad living. Satan is the original false teacher and he is the absolute best at it. Never ever let a person tell you that doctrine is not important. It is important. Paul told Timothy in 1 Tim.4:1 that doctrines of devils would try to sneak into the church.

3. Doctrines throughout church history. James Montgomery, a well known Lutheran theologian and apologist wrote a book titled “Damned through the church” over 40 years ago. In it he listed seven movements throughout church history that have been destructive to the people attending the church. In the Middle Ages he says Sacramentalism (the church) became god. Then Rationalism was introduced and reason became god. Orthodoxism came and doctrine became god, dead and cold, politicism came and the state became god, ecumenism came and unity/fellowship became god, experientialism came and experience became god and finally subjectivism came and self became god. I think that is dead on.

C. The threat we face today. We are battling against a compounded enemy. The church is 2000 years old and Satan has left a legacy of lies that impact the church if we are not careful.

1. Love of self is a great threat to the church. Paul gives an in depth description of the character traits of the last day generation. But I want you to notice what he sandwiches this list with. Look at verse 2 “lovers of their own selves” and then look at verse 4 “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God”. I think Paul is saying we can summarize the problem with an improper love of self.

2. The church has latched on to this psycho babble about loving ourselves. I’m not being mean but I have to be honest. Whitney Houston sang these lyrics “learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all” and everyone cried and sang and held up their lighters. The church of Oprah Winfrey grabbed hold of it. And now the motto of America is love yourself, please yourself, no matter what because that’s always best. But folks that is where sin comes from. It comes from putting our self-first. That doctrine is attractive to the flesh. Why did that man walk out on his family for the cute little thing that worked with him? Because he loved his self and his will too much. That’s why.

3. The Bible assumes we love ourselves a lot. It doesn’t tell us to love ourselves. It assumes we do already. “Love your neighbor as yourself” that assumes we love ourselves a lot, right. I mean Jesus isn’t saying love your neighbor a little bit is He? The Bible says deny self, crucify self and assumes we love ourselves. If this church age Paul speaks of were a movie star it would be Charlie Sheen, a singer Lady GaGa, a smurf it would be vanity smurf. It’s all about me!

II. The Cultural Description. There are about 16 traits I want us to consider here. I am going to try and group them together so we can go through them a little more quickly. I could preach a sermon on each of them, but that would drag this series out 16 weeks longer!

A. Sins that deal with the ego.

1. They think too highly of themselves. In verse 4 they are described as “highminded”. The word means conceited and comes from a word that means “enveloped in smoke” When you are enveloped in smoke you can’t see outside of your little circle. We also see the word “heady” in verse 4. In our terms it may mean “the big head”. It describes a person that is preoccupied with self, so preoccupied that he can’t even notice the folks around him. The Bible says let nothing be done through strife or vain glory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.” (Phil. 2:3) A big ego is not a godly virtue, it is a sign of apostasy.

2. They love money. We see that in verse 2. That’s what “covetous” means. There are even movements in the Christian church that say “God wants you rich.” that mindset can lead to all types of sin. Greediness, oppression, forsaking fellowship for work.

3. They brag. Verse 2 says there will be “boasters”. That’s the outward manifestation of self-love. We are our favorite subject and we love to talk about our favorite subject. Immediately after “boasters” we see “proud”. The proud boast. They love themselves way too much. They have a feeling of superiority over others. You see there are many ways an inflated ego reveals itself. But more than anything we become self centered. We get an “I” problem. And when we get that we have difficulty seeing anything or anyone else.

B. Sins that deal with family. Satan wants to destroy the family because it is the building block of society.

1. They are disobedient to their parents. Look at verse 2 and you’ll see that. In the OT children could be stoned for being rebellious to or striking their parents. The reason was simple. If you will assault or rebel against those that love you the most then you will assault or rebel against anyone. You were a threat to society. The word “traitor” used in verse 4 describes a person that betrays, turns against their own family. You see the rebellion starts in the home and then comes to the church. Many people want a preacher or a youth minister to do something for their child they wouldn’t do.

2. They are unthankful. Notice that comes in verse 2 right after “disobedient to parents”. There is a connection there. A generation is coming Paul says, in the church that feels a sense of entitlement, they deserve everything. Our culture promotes it and if we allow it, it will be in our church. Listen folks I don’t deserve anything except death and hell. Everything good I get is only because of God’s grace in my life. It’s tough to go to a birthday party and see the birth day boy getting ready to open his presents. We are scared to death they’ll roll their eyes or toss our gift aside! We breathe a sigh of relief if they look halfway interested in it!

3. They are unloving. Look at verse 3 and you will see the phrase “without natural affection”. These words refer to the proper affection a person is to have for their family: mom, dad, brother, sister. It’s natural that we love them. It’s easy to see we are suffering there with the abuse & divorce that is rampant in the family today. Satan will try and tear apart the family, he will enter the church and encourage these actions and attitudes.

C. Depraved activity.

1. They are unholy. We see that at the end of verse 2. Holy is not a four letter word. It is a standard to which the believer is called. To be unholy means to be driven by self, to be passionate about your own desires. If it feels good you’ll do it. In fact look at the end of verse 3. “Despisers of those that are good”. The unholy person loves sin and hates righteousness. there is coming a time in the church when those that are holy will be assaulted by those that are not. Division will occur because of morality.

2. They have no self- control. We see that in verse 3. “incontinent” means that a person is a slave to their own passions. The next word is “fierce” and it describes the savagery of a wild animal, especially the idea of its violence and attacks. So there will be people that infiltrate the church that are a slave to their own passions, they will be violent. This is the exact opposite of the self-control that the Holy Spirit brings into our lives.

3. They are trouble makers. Verse 3 says they are false accusers. It means malicious gossips. they destroy reputations and lives. It is the Greek word “diablos” and Satan is called by that very title 34 times in the New Testament. They are also called “blasphemers” in verse 2 which is a word that is also used to describe the action of denigrating another person. Their tongues are swords. they speak evil to others and of others. And they will infiltrate the church. And the last thing I want us to see in these descriptions is in verse 3. The term “trucebreakers” describes a person that refuses to change. They are who they are and they boast in that. If that doesn’t describe our culture I don’t know what does. “Be yourself” is not in the Bible folks. God says lay aside the old you and be recreated by the new birth. You say “I was born this way” well, be reborn! If you refuse to change shame on you. You are, as Paul puts it in verse 4 a “lover of pleasure more than a lover of God!”

III. The Christian Duty.

A. Have a godly church.

1. There were people in the church at Ephesus that had a form of godliness. “Form” is from the word “morphsis”. It refers to the outward shape of something. These people had the appearance of a Christian, they were like shadows however, the substance was not there. Sadly the mere form of Christianity is accepted today. If you believe the facts about Jesus, join a church, get baptized, carry a Bible, we stamp “Christian” on you. You have the form so many assume you are a genuine believer.

2. Paul says there is a type of religion that we must turn away from. He says that in verse 5 “from such turn away”. There must be an effort on our part to walk away from the dead religion that some would try to bring into the church. To be specific, it is a religion without power. If you let a powerless religion continue in the church it will spread like a plague and the church will turn into a spiritual funeral home.

3. A godly church is a powerful church. Acts 1:8 says that believers receive the very power of God at salvation. The purpose of that power is so that we can be witnesses. Power to endure trials and keep our faith, power to overcome temptation, power to share the gospel to a lost world, power to pray and see the Hand of God move. If you are not godly your religion is merely a form and not the substance because when Christ steps into a life He fills it with power.

B. Have a grasp of what we believe.

1. There were some in the church that were being deceived. Look at verse 6 and you will see that. The ones in particular at Ephesus were women. The KJV calls them “silly women” the word means “weak” and implies they were easily deceived. I think these were probably lost women. We see they were loaded down with sin and driven by a lust for more sin in verse 6. Clearly they did not have the power of God within them. If you live in sin you will be deceived, in fact you are already being deceived. But a life of sin opens you up to more deception, you will be gullible, weak and confused about the faith.

2. There were some in the church that were deceiving. In verse 8 two men are mentioned by the names of Jannes and Jambres. Rabbinical tradition taught that these men were two of the magicians that opposed Moses in Pharaohs court. If you remember they were able to duplicate some of Moses miracles with their own magic. The false teacher’s in Timothy’s church were like those guys, they had a form of godliness but were not actually getting their power from God. verse 6 says they were creeping into homes, that word describes how a worm moves. these guys were worms, spiritual creeps preying on the weak in the church. Verse 8 also says they were “men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith”. “reprobate” is an interesting word in the Greek. It comes from a word that means ‘rejected” and was used to describe metals that did not pass the test of purity. These guys didn’t pass the faith test. When you put the Word of God alongside of their belief system and their character, they failed. They invented their own religion and it contradicted God’s.

3. It is important that we know what God says in His book. Look at verse 7. the problem was that there were people always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. that could be for a couple of reasons: 1) They are studying the wrong thing. In this age of information that is not difficult to do. If we listen to the wrong people we will be on the wrong road. 2) They are not applying what they are learning. It does no good to know the truth if we do not practice the truth. Folks we need to get in the Word of God and get the Word of God in us!

C. Trust that God’s church will prevail.

1. It would be easy to get disappointed with these verses. The future looks a little bleak. And at times it gets frustrating in church. We look around and wonder why folks aren’t getting saved, why people that come to church seem so dry and dead, captured in sin. It can get depressing. It’s kind of like being a Bulldog fan the last couple of years, you just wonder “What’s the point?”

2. Those that resist the truth will eventually stop resisting. Look at verse 9. “they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was”. Jannes and Jambres lost. They were stopped. They were humiliated. They found out that the power of self is not match for the power of God.

3. God cannot lose. The gates of hell will not prevail. Now if we choose our own way and our own power we will lose. But if we live our lives God’s way and do church God’s way we will be victorious.

When Self Gets In The Way

"Some of us are so full of ourselves," says a writer in the Canadian Baptist, "and our busy servings, that we cannot see Christ in all His beauty. Some years ago, when I was away on a preaching appointment, my wife and little daughter stayed at the home of a friend. On the bedroom wall, just over the head of the bed in which they slept, there was a picture of the Lord Jesus, which was reflected in the large mirror of the dressing table standing in the bay of the bedroom window. When my little daughter woke on her first morning there, she saw the picture reflected in the mirror while she still lay in bed, and exclaimed, "Oh, Mummy, I can see Jesus through the mirror!" Then she quickly kneeled up to take a better look, but in so doing brought her own body between the picture and the mirror, so that instead of seeing the picture of Jesus reflected, she now saw herself.

So she lay down again, and again she saw the picture of Jesus. She was up and down several times after that with her eyes fixed on the mirror, Then she said, "Mummy, when I can't see myself, I can see Jesus; but every time I see myself, I don't see Him." How true it is that when self fills the vision we do not see Jesus! "

- Sunday School Times