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- Hi, this is Pastor Tom, and we are in Second Timothy chapter three this week.

Remember the book of Second Timothy, the four chapters are all about last
things. First chapter is about the last hope that we have because of Jesus
Christ. He is our first and last hope.

Chapter two is about the last instructions that Paul gives for growth and
ministry. And here chapter three, it's about the last days. And it begins when I
read these first few verses, verses one to five, they are not the most positive
beginning that you've ever heard, but there's powerful truth in these verses.

And there's truth about my life and your life that can lead to some very
positive decisions. The Bible says this, Second Timothy chapter three, verses
one to five, but mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days.
People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive,
disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving,
slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous,
rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of
godliness, but denying its power, have nothing to do with them.

Those are verses that I think when a lot of us see them, we think I can
recognize that, I can see that in our day. And when the Bible says terrible
times in the last days, we read these verses and we think, well, it must be the
last days. These verses, they are expressions of a self-centered culture, a
worldliness in the culture.

There are really three expressions of a self-centered culture that are in these
verses, individualism, secularism, and narcissism. Individualism is others don't
matter. And you see that throughout these verses, lovers of themselves, lovers
of money, other people don't matter, other people aren't to be served, it's just
all about me, that's individualism.

Secularism is God doesn't matter, having a form of godliness, but denying its
power, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. I'm just going to live for
myself, I'm going to ignore God as if he's not even there, even though everything I
see shows me that he's the creator of everything. Individualism, secularism, and
then narcissism, which is all that matters is me.

What makes somebody brutal? What makes somebody unforgiving? What makes somebody
conceited and rash and treacherous?

I just care about myself. That's all it takes is that selfishness of I just care
about myself. Now many people read these verses, beginning in verse one,
terrible times in the last days, and they wonder what are the last days?

In one very strong sense, we have been in the last days since Jesus's first
coming. The minute he went back into heaven, ascended to heaven, the clock has
been ticking, waiting for him to come again. So there is one sense that we are
all waiting for these last days, but we're also in the last days of waiting.

If you take a close look at the New Testament, it very clearly tells us as
believers that if we have wisdom, there are signs that we can see of the second
coming of Christ. To know that this world is not all there is, that Jesus is
going to come again, things are going to change, there is going to become a new heaven
and new earth someday. If you look through the New Testament, there are really
three specific kinds of signs, and one of them is particularly in these verses.

In the New Testament, you have signs pointing to the end, you have signs that
directly precede the end, and you have signs that accompany the end, the end
times. Signs pointing to the end, those are signs that we've had since Jesus'
first coming, that this world is not all there is, that we can be confident that
he is going to come again. Jesus said there's going to be wars, there's going to be
earthquakes, there's going to be people who falsely prophesy in my name.

That's going to happen, and it's a sign of the fact that this world isn't made to
last. Why with all of our human intelligence do we still have wars? Why with all
of our ability, we think, to control things, are there still earthquakes?

Wars tell us that we can't control ourselves. Earthquakes tell us that this
world is not made to last. That's why it shakes sometimes.

These are signs that have pointed to the end since Jesus' first came, and if you
want a picture of this, I guess it's like a car. In your car, you hear this
noise, and you know the noise says there is something wrong. Now, you can ignore
the noise, you can pretend it's not there, but in the back of your mind, you
know that noise means something is wrong with this car.

The wars that we have, the earthquakes that we have, the ways that we talk about
God and treat each other, it's a sign of the fact that something's wrong with
this world. You don't have to really look very far to see it. It's a sign of the
fact that Jesus is going to come again and change all that because he loves us.

So there are signs that point to the end. There are also signs that directly
precede the end. The Bible tells us that as the time approaches, it gets near
that Jesus is going to come again.

There's going to be some specific signs that directly precede that. For those who
are wise, we can see it, and it talks about things like apostasy. That means
people falling away from the faith.

We're going to talk about that as we talk through 2 Timothy. In chapter four, we're
going to see that apostasy, the falling away from faith, is a sign that's talked
about. Another sign that's talked about is the one we see right here, the
increase of personal evil.

Mark 13, 12 says, "Brother will betray brother to death. " And here, the last
days, terrible times, people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient. Now, there are other signs that precede
the end.

Scaffers will come, there will be many false prophets, but this sign of the
increase of personal evil, Paul is talking to his son in the faith, Timothy,
about it right here. It's a sign of the fact that it could come at any moment.
Now, I said there's a third kind of sign, and that's the sign that accompanies
the end.

That's the sign of the stars falling from the sky. That's the sign, if you're
thinking about your car, that's the sign of not just a noise, but the engine
actually falling out of the car. Then you not only know something is wrong, but
it's all gone wrong, and that's going to happen at the end.

Why does Paul talk to us about this? His son in the faith, Timothy, but also us?
Because he wants to warn us.

At the end of these verses, he says, "Have nothing to do with them. " He's
really focusing on the character of false prophets and helping us to be honest
about ourselves, and the fact that we can all be influenced by false teaching,
because false teaching appeals to our pride. False teaching appeals to our
selfishness.

Listen to what he says in verses six to nine about what happens because of false
teachers. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over
weak-willed women who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of
evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as
Janus and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men oppose the truth.

Men of depraved minds, who as far as the truth is concerned, are rejected. As
far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far,
because as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.

Now, first in these verses, what is the problem with you and I not confronting
false teachers? Some people think, hey, somebody just disagrees with me about
the Bible, who am I to be judgmental and tell them I confront that false
teaching? Who am I to be judgmental and say, I don't want to have anything to do
with you?

Paul is warning us here that false teaching is an indication of selfishness. And
that selfishness will always hurt God's people. There is nothing worse than a
selfish shepherd.

Out in the field, it would kill a sheep because the sheep is vulnerable. And the
same is true of you and the same is true of me. I am vulnerable to false
teaching because there's something about pride that attracts me.

There's something about selfishness I want to latch onto. That's why he talks
about weak-willed women here. Some people think, well, is he only concerned
about women?

No, he's talking about women here because they were extremely vulnerable in that
society. And false teachers always target the vulnerable. They're learning, he
says, but they're never changing.

They've got information, but no transformation. And Paul, in these verses,
actually gives us a picture from the Old Testament. Guys by the name of Janus
and Jambres.

Now, those names aren't in the Old Testament. The verses that are talked about
is Exodus 7, 10 to 12. Those names come from Jewish history.

But Jewish history points to, and the New Testament in these verses helps us to
understand that these were the names of these guys, two magicians in the court
of Pharaoh who, when Moses did his miracles, they came up and did magic tricks
that looked just like the miracles. They fooled people for a minute. But Paul
says, eventually their folly became available to all.

And that will happen to false teachers too. But what's going to happen to you?
What's going to happen to me in the meantime if I allow that pride, that
selfishness, to get into my life?

What Paul is saying here is don't look at the show, but look at the heart, look
at the character. Somebody might be able to preach a good sermon, even work
great miracles of healing. Don't look at the show, look at the heart, look at
the character.

Have nothing to do with them, not to judge them, but to judge yourself and
realize I could fall to that prideful temptation. These verses about lovers of
themselves and lovers of money and being boastful and proud and abusive, these
verses, if we're going to admit it in our pride, are not just about others, they're
about ourselves. Someone on our research team said, "I embrace myself to be wary
of these bad actions "until I realize that I'm guilty of committing "one or more
of these acts daily.

" We think this is just about false teachers, but who of us haven't been without
love sometimes? Who of us haven't been unforgiving sometimes, without
self-control, rash, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God? This isn't
just about somebody else.

This is about the temptation and the tendency that all of us have to go in this
direction. That's why the false teaching of selfishness is so dangerous. Even as
believers, we tend to mirror the ways of the world and follow the ways of false
teachers.

Now later in this chapter, we're going to see how God can change that, but at the
beginning of the chapter, Paul says, "Watch out, be careful, "realize what it
can do to you "and have nothing to do with it. " Now as we pray today, I want to
pray particularly for those, maybe a friend that you have, somebody that's close
to you, that's caught up in some false teaching. Lord, we do pray.

We all have friends, people in our families, that it may be a religious false
teaching, it may be a philosophical false teaching, but the false teaching has
caught our friend up in the ways of selfishness and pride, and they're just
focused on themselves. And God, we see in our friend's life what it could mean
that they would have faith, what it could mean that they would follow you, but
they're so caught up in this wrong way of going, this wrong way of living. Lord,
I pray that you help them to see the truth.

We pray this together. The truth of who you are and how you can change our lives
and the truth of your love that changes everything. And we ask this, Jesus, in
your name, amen.

Tomorrow, we're going to talk together about the difference that God's truth makes
in our daily lives.