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Depravity on Parade Msg 8 14 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: Part of my week was spent with a younger generation
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Speaker 1: of up and coming leaders that will be filling the
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Speaker 1: ranks of the churches, Christian organizations, businesses around the world.
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Speaker 1: The gathering was called a Catalyst. It's a conference that
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Speaker 1: began thanks to Andy Stanley's vision along with John Maxwell.
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Speaker 1: The gathering was held in an arena in Atlanta, some
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Speaker 1: thirteen thousand.
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Speaker 2: Young up and coming men and women.
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Speaker 1: Who gathered there for encouragement and challenge. I couldn't believe
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Speaker 1: Andy connected with me and wanted me to come and
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Speaker 1: talk to them. And I asked him, I said, you
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Speaker 1: sure you want me to do this? He said, dude,
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Speaker 1: you're the godfather of this thing. So well, I'll go
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Speaker 1: and talk to the mafia and I'm there. So I
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Speaker 1: talked to them about how to do God's work, God's way.
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Speaker 1: I was encouraged because it reminded me that there are
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Speaker 1: still thousands who have not vowed the need of bail.
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Speaker 1: Easy to discount and feel demoralized about the up and
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Speaker 1: coming generation. We have no reason to feel that way.
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Speaker 1: There are thousands of young men and women who love
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Speaker 1: Christ and want to serve him. They want help. They
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Speaker 1: also want authenticity from those of us who have gone
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Speaker 1: before them. They don't want perfection. That's phony. Nobody's perfect.
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Speaker 1: But they want authentic You want us to live in
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Speaker 1: a real world, and help them know how to do that.
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Speaker 1: And it was a pleasure to be a small part
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Speaker 1: of that large gathering. Speaking of realism. Tewod Timothy chapter
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Speaker 1: three is a case in point. If you've not opened
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Speaker 1: your Bible yet, please do so to this incredible expos
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Speaker 1: It is a verbal autopsy of depravity. When you locate
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Speaker 1: Second Timothy three. Please stand for the reading of Second
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Speaker 1: Timothy three beginning at verse one. But realize this that
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Speaker 1: in the last days, difficult times will come. For men
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Speaker 1: will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers,
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Speaker 1: disobedient to parents, grateful, unholy, onloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips without
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Speaker 1: self control, brutal haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited lovers
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Speaker 1: of pleasure, rather than lovers of God, holding to a
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Speaker 1: form of godliness although they have denied its power. Avoid
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Speaker 1: such men as these, for among them are those who
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Speaker 1: enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed down with sins,
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Speaker 1: led on by various impulses, always learning and never able
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Speaker 1: to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as
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Speaker 1: Janis and Jamborees opposed Moses, so these men also oppose
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Speaker 1: the truth. Men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to
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Speaker 1: the faith. But they will not make further progress, for
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Speaker 1: their folly will be obvious to all, just as Janis
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Speaker 1: and Jamboree's folly was also finally Verse thirteen. But evil
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Speaker 1: men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse. Deceiving
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Speaker 1: and being deceived remained standing for a brief moment of prayer.
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Speaker 1: Our Father, if ever we wondered if your word was relevant,
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Speaker 1: the wonder is gone. You have just spoken to us
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Speaker 1: about today's news, today's world, the culture in which we live,
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Speaker 1: the society in which we exist. And were it not
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Speaker 1: for your grace, we would be numbered among those who
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Speaker 1: have lost their way. Some in this gathering, have some
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Speaker 1: within the sound of my voice at this moment, have
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Speaker 1: lost their way. I pray that as a result of
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Speaker 1: this very realistic expos of unvarnished depravity, we all might
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Speaker 1: realize the potential for evil in each one of us,
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Speaker 1: and that there is no hope apart from the gift
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Speaker 1: of righteousness through the death and resurrection of Christ. We
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Speaker 1: give our donations today because we believe in the message
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Speaker 1: of the Gospel. May it go forth with greater ease
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Speaker 1: and broader breadth than it would otherwise be able to
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Speaker 1: do because of our contributions. Today we give out of
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Speaker 1: grateful hearts. And we asked this in the name of Christ,
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Speaker 1: and everyone said, amen, please be seated. Sometime it helps
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Speaker 1: just to cut to the chase. There's no reason to
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Speaker 1: mess around. We need to just plunge in without introductory
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Speaker 1: comments to that subject at hand, which is before us
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Speaker 1: in Second Timothy, chapter three. Really it needs no introduction
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Speaker 1: because the scene is abrupt and harsh and raw. It
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Speaker 1: is a verbal autopsy of depravity found rarely in some
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Speaker 1: small section of scripture, though there is the theme of
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Speaker 1: this throughout scripture. The bold way Paul begins this subject
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Speaker 1: is intentionally blunt and abrupt, he says to Timothy.
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Speaker 2: Realize this.
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Speaker 1: It's almost as though he has his long index finger
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Speaker 1: punching against Timothy's sternum. Get this straight, Timothy, more, literally,
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Speaker 1: keep on remembering this. Let this never get very far
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Speaker 1: from your awareness. If you look at verse one, he
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Speaker 1: is saying, realize this, what is this? Well, this could
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Speaker 1: be described in four English words that appear in the text.
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Speaker 2: Difficult times will come.
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Speaker 1: Before we analyze those words, look before them, and you
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Speaker 1: will see the terms in the last days. Some have
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Speaker 1: been led to believe that the last days would be
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Speaker 1: the last few weeks before Christ coming, or the last
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Speaker 1: few years during a time there will be great tribulation.
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Speaker 2: Certainly those are last days.
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Speaker 1: However, these terms refer to that period of time between
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Speaker 1: Jesus coming in Bethlehem as a baby and his return
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Speaker 1: in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives to set up
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Speaker 1: his kingdom. It is centuries long, these last days, and
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Speaker 1: they will go from bad to worse, as we will
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Speaker 1: see a little later on. Keep on remembering that, Timothy,
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Speaker 1: there is a societal degeneration, and don't be unaware of it.
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Speaker 1: Don't close your eyes and wish.
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Speaker 2: For better times.
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Speaker 1: Don't act like they're not as difficult as they are.
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Speaker 2: They are in fact difficult.
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Speaker 1: Interesting Greek term translated here difficult used only one other
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Speaker 1: time in the New Testament, and that would be in
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Speaker 1: Matthew eight, verse twenty eight.
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Speaker 2: Turn if you wish.
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Speaker 1: It's the ending of a story of the two men
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Speaker 1: who were filled with demons, and they spend their lives
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Speaker 1: among the tombs, and they cannot be held back even
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Speaker 1: with chains. They were able to break them with the
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Speaker 1: supernatural strength given them by demons. When you get to
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Speaker 1: the end of the story of their lives, you will
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Speaker 1: read this word. But it isn't there rendered difficult, It
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Speaker 1: is rendered extremely violent.
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Speaker 2: Let's use those words here.
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Speaker 1: Realize this that in the last days, extremely violent times
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Speaker 1: will come. The term means hard, harsh, hard to deal with, vicious,
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Speaker 1: dangerous menacing. Same word is used in classical Greek to
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Speaker 1: describe wild animals that cannot be controlled and a raging
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Speaker 1: sea that cannot be calmed. All of those terms are
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Speaker 1: not meant to tantalize you, but to make you aware
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Speaker 1: of the seriousness of the term that appears rather mildly
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Speaker 1: in the verse as difficult. Think of those words describing
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Speaker 1: our times. One of my mentors prefer the word savage.
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Speaker 1: In the last days, Never forget, Chuck, savage times will
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Speaker 1: be upon us. What will characterize the times between the
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Speaker 1: Lord's arrival at Bethlehem and then his second coming on
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Speaker 1: the mount of Olives. Well, the word four in verse
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Speaker 1: two is an explanatory connective. That little three letter word four.
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Speaker 1: When you see that in your Bible, think because or
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Speaker 1: for example, So let's read it that way, but realize
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Speaker 1: this that in the last day, savage times will be
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Speaker 1: upon us.
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Speaker 2: Let me explain men will be.
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Speaker 1: Good time to pause over that word men. It is
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Speaker 1: not the word for simply the male of the genders,
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Speaker 1: but anthroposs mankind, which would include women, It would include teenagers,
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Speaker 1: It would include men and women, It would include humanity
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Speaker 1: in general. In other words, we are not living in
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Speaker 1: perilous times because of a bad environment, because of pollution,
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Speaker 1: because of a wrong or broken economy. We are living
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Speaker 1: in evil times because of evil anthropoi, evil men and women,
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Speaker 1: evil teenagers, evil hearts, evil minds. After these abrupt and
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Speaker 1: very firm comments, the Apostle begins to elucidate.
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Speaker 2: If you were to take.
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Speaker 1: Pen or pencil and mark the characteristics that follow.
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Speaker 2: You would come to nineteen of them.
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Speaker 1: In a concentrated space. There are nineteen characteristics of savage
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Speaker 1: times named by the Apostle for Timothy to read and remember,
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Speaker 1: and for us to do the same. Nineteen characteristics. And
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Speaker 1: on your chart on the outline, I should say, you
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Speaker 1: will find the words an unvarnished expose of last day's depravity.
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Speaker 2: Every word chosen.
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Speaker 1: On every outline you're given is worked over, thought through,
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Speaker 1: planned carefully, never just designed to fill the space. This
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Speaker 1: is an expose that's unvarnish of these days in which
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Speaker 1: we live, called last days in verse one. But we've
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Speaker 1: now learned that they have been going on for centuries
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Speaker 1: of time, and they are getting increasingly worse. As I
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Speaker 1: work my way through the list, you will nod on
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Speaker 1: occasion remembering some news broadcast, some tragic event, some shocking
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Speaker 1: bit of information that you have become aware of just
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Speaker 1: in this generation. And you will see that what the
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Speaker 1: Bible is saying in ancient days is written for our
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Speaker 1: learning in these modern days. Notice the beginning and the
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Speaker 1: end of the list, if we could put them as
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Speaker 1: book INDs on these nineteen things. It begins with men
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Speaker 1: will be self lovers, and look at the end verse four,
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Speaker 1: rather than lovers of God, the Greek says god lovers.
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Speaker 1: People will be self lovers, not God lovers. In fact,
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Speaker 1: four of the nineteen characteristics are connected with the word.
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Speaker 2: Lovers, self lovers.
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Speaker 1: Verse two, money lovers, verse four, pleasure lovers rather than
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Speaker 1: God lovers, those who love themselves.
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Speaker 2: Are narcissistic.
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Speaker 1: The world revolves around them, their achievements, their superiority, their significance,
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Speaker 1: their achievements, their name, their title, their reputation. It's all
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Speaker 1: about them. It's called narcissism. Money lovers, that's called materialism,
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Speaker 1: and it would be more than just cash in your
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Speaker 1: bank account or in your wallet. This has to do
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Speaker 1: with things that which money can buy. We live in
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Speaker 1: an era where money talks. As we say, money lovers
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Speaker 1: are materialistic individuals. Society is shot through with that. Pleasure
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Speaker 1: lovers would be called hedonism. So we have narcissism, materialism,
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Speaker 1: hedonism because of the absence.
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Speaker 2: Of a love for God.
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Speaker 1: Look further, the remaining fifteen that appear that fall between
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Speaker 1: these four have to do with twisted love, so linked
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Speaker 1: the description of a breakdown of relationships. Notice, for example,
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Speaker 1: the early words mentioned in verse two. Men and women
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Speaker 1: and teenagers.
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Speaker 2: Will be boastful.
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Speaker 1: This is what we do in our depraved nature.
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Speaker 2: Arrogant.
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Speaker 1: That is what we are, and as a result of
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Speaker 1: it we boast. Revilers is another word for blasphemers. The
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Speaker 1: Greek term is literally blasphemers. If I could analyze each
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Speaker 1: of the three quickly without being tedious boastful. These would
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Speaker 1: be those who call attention to themselves. They brag, and
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Speaker 1: they do that because of who they are. Arrogant It
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Speaker 1: means to show oneself above others, to have an exaggerated
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Speaker 1: opinion of oneself. That literally is blasphemers. It's the idea
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Speaker 1: of being slanderous, insulting, abusive. Don't answer out loud. But
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Speaker 1: before we go any further, you know anybody like that? No,
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Speaker 1: I said not to answer out loud. Ever seen a
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Speaker 1: professional athlete act like that?
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Speaker 2: Of course you have.
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Speaker 1: You will not see a professional ballgame without watching arrogance
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Speaker 1: and bragging on parade, insulting things taking place, broken contracts
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Speaker 1: going on behind the scene. Why because I deserve more
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Speaker 1: he's making that. I need to make this. You're not
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Speaker 1: going to pay me something less than that person makes
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Speaker 1: at this same position. Boastful, arrogant revilers. How about entertainers.
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Speaker 1: Seen any entertainers lately that are guilty of that? How
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Speaker 1: about talk show hosts, newscasters, physicians, attorneys, worse of all, pastors.
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Speaker 1: Heartbreaking to think of that, But even the clergy has
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Speaker 1: within the ranks those who are boastful and arrogant, slanderous
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Speaker 1: and insulting to congregations and to other people. One of
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Speaker 1: the comments I made to the group a catalyst was
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Speaker 1: it's dangerous to succeed when you're young. It's dangerous, And
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Speaker 1: I fear most for those who are very young and
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Speaker 1: very gifted, because you don't have the wisdom that can
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Speaker 1: only be gained through the pain and the hurts of
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Speaker 1: life's journeys. And before long you're catapulted to a level
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Speaker 1: you can't handle. And I've just described many of those
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Speaker 1: I mentioned earlier in the professional athletic ranks, making far
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Speaker 1: too much money with far too little wisdom and knowing.
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Speaker 2: How to handle it.
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Speaker 1: But when they're money lovers, of course, that's what you do,
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Speaker 1: and that's what the agent encourages them to be. The
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Speaker 1: next five in the list fall into domestic category, the
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Speaker 1: family life. Look closely, if you will. In fact, let
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Speaker 1: me analyze the five words before we unload the comments
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Speaker 1: about each one. See the words this, obedient, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable.
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Speaker 1: English words are interesting words. I'm a bit of a
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Speaker 1: word vulture, and so I spend time on them. In
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Speaker 1: the English language. There are terms we use that if
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Speaker 1: we add a prefix to those terms, we offer just
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Speaker 1: the opposite. Someone is loving, but if you put the
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Speaker 1: prefix on on it, they are the.
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Speaker 2: Opposite of loving. They are unloving.
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Speaker 1: Some people are grateful, but if you add the prefix
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Speaker 1: you in, it means the opposite. They are not grateful unloving.
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Speaker 1: Some are thoughtful, but if you add you in, they
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Speaker 1: are unthoughtful. If you have good taste, you're tasteful, but
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Speaker 1: you can be distasteful. See these prefixes in the Greek text.
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Speaker 1: It's always the letter A. It's called the alpha prefix.
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Speaker 1: The letter A negates the meaning of the term itself,
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Speaker 1: or offers the absence of what the term should represent.
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Speaker 1: Now that I've lost most of you, let's get back
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Speaker 1: to what it says here. This is stressing the absence
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Speaker 1: of qualities that one would expect at home, and look
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Speaker 1: at them. Disobedient to parents, insolent, surly. I have, in
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Speaker 1: my little lifetime witnessed disobedience as I never thought I
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Speaker 1: would between kids and their parents. Sometimes you just.
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Speaker 2: Want to slap them.
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Speaker 1: I know I shouldn't think that, but I haven't done that,
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Speaker 1: I said, I think about it sometimes, Or you want
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Speaker 1: their parents, to pull them aside, shake them by the shoulder,
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Speaker 1: teach them the importance of respect. Heard about the little
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Speaker 1: kid had a little pack over his back, and he
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Speaker 1: was just going as fast as he could in The
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Speaker 1: cop pulled over and said, young man, where you go?
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Speaker 2: And he said, I'm running away from home? Really? How
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Speaker 2: far away is home? Why don't know? It's two or
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Speaker 2: three blocks back there? And run away? What's wrong? Well?
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Speaker 2: Mom and dad won't mind me anymore?
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Speaker 1: Disobedient parents, how unattractive, how frequently it goes on? Ungrateful?
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Speaker 1: Ungrateful it means devoid of appreciation. Listen closely. It's the
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Speaker 1: failure to see the value of another's sacrifice. Children who
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Speaker 1: don't realize the sacrifice of their parents are ungrateful children,
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Speaker 1: And not until they become parents do they understand something
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Speaker 1: of the sacrifice, the unselfishness of parenting.
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Speaker 2: Ungrateful. The third word is unholy.
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Speaker 1: It means the failure to possess the basic decencies of life,
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Speaker 1: doing what is unnatural and occasionally what is inhuman.
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Speaker 2: Think of that unloving?
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Speaker 1: Obviously lacking an affection for siblings, for parents and parents
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Speaker 1: for children, no close ties. Occasionally I rub shoulders with
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Speaker 1: some young men and women at now seminary, and we
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Speaker 1: will talk about their home and families. And I've learned
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Speaker 1: not to be shocked at comments I hear among those
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Speaker 1: who are distant from their moms and dads. Some haven't
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Speaker 1: talked to their parents in years. I met a man
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Speaker 1: today who told me of a rift in their family,
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Speaker 1: and it started when nineteen ninety two still going on,
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Speaker 1: where brother and sister won't talk to each other. There
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Speaker 1: is a cold, unloving relationship. It's a characteristic of these days.
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Speaker 1: And to make it all just dreadful is an irreconcilable spirit.
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Speaker 1: The word means no room for forgiveness, an inability to
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Speaker 1: release an offense, the dragging around of a grudge. I
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Speaker 1: have to ask, you're not doing that, are you? You're
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Speaker 1: not holding someone hostage is something that they've done against you,
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Speaker 1: are you surely not? Don't go there because you lose,
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Speaker 1: someone has said a lack of forgiveness is like taking
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Speaker 1: poison thinking the other person is going to die.
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Speaker 2: You lose.
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Speaker 1: The building blocks of wholesome and healthy family relationships call
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Speaker 1: for supportive and meaningful characteristics in the relationship, among them
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Speaker 1: respect and obedience. That's gone an attitude of gratitude pretty
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Speaker 1: much absent, moral decency and purity rarely found. Mutual affection
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Speaker 1: between siblings, between parents and children gone, understanding and forgiveness.
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Speaker 2: Gone. The absence of.
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Speaker 1: These building blocks create havoc, disharmony, and chaos. In other words,
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Speaker 1: we begin to live like uncivilized savages. Perilous times have come.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: In the next group, there are seven listed and they
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Speaker 1: represent destructive and vicious quality that can wreck a home,
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Speaker 1: a business, a church, a school, a ministry. If you
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Speaker 1: read through the list that begins with malicious gossip, it
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Speaker 1: takes you down to.
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Speaker 2: The word conceited. Look at the list malicious gossip.
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Speaker 1: You know what the Greek term is diaboloi. It's the
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Speaker 1: word for devil. Gossip is devilish. If you ever find
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Speaker 1: yourself saying, you know, I really shouldn't say this, slap
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Speaker 1: your hand over your mouth and don't say it because
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Speaker 1: you shouldn't say it. Conscience is an amazing thing, and
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Speaker 1: you sear your conscience by ignoring its message. You know
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Speaker 1: that somebody told me this and told me not to
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Speaker 1: tell anybody. Put your hand over your mouth and don't
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Speaker 1: tell anybody. Longer I live, the more I believe that
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Speaker 1: it's easier to find purity than confidentiality. Most people cannot
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Speaker 1: keep a secret. Malicious gossips. If you gossip, all of
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Speaker 1: us here would appreciate your stopping. You're hurting the church,
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Speaker 1: you're hurting your business, you're hurting the school. Malicious notice
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Speaker 1: he adds to the word gossip, malicious.
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Speaker 2: And then on top of that, no self control.
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Speaker 1: Look at this, without self control, no boundaries, ungovernable, brutal.
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Speaker 1: The picture turns darker now, no sensitivity, little sympathy, brutal.
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Speaker 2: One of the.
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Speaker 1: Books in my library that I've read more than once
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Speaker 1: is entitled Snakes in Suits. It's a study of the
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Speaker 1: pathology of the sociopath who was on the loose in
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Speaker 1: the business world. He's a snake in suits, or she is.
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Speaker 2: Brutal.
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Speaker 1: Cynthia was at the pharmacy last evening, getting something at
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Speaker 1: the last minute before her trip today, and she told
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Speaker 1: me when she got back. We were having breakfast this morning,
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Speaker 1: and she said, to me, saw something interesting last night.
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Speaker 1: There was a woman there that looked like she is
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Speaker 1: victim of abuse. Heart went out to her said her
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Speaker 1: husband was literally cursing her right there in the aisle
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Speaker 1: of the pharmacy. She was trying to find something she
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Speaker 1: really needed. If you'll curse her in public, what on
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Speaker 1: earth is he doing in private? If you are brutal,
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Speaker 1: you are ruining your life and the life of others.
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Speaker 1: The scene is hideous. Look at the next one, haters
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Speaker 1: of good. This is the thought the moral palate has
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Speaker 1: lost its taste. Treacherous. That's one who turns against another.
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Speaker 1: This is a disloyal friend, someone who turns on you when.
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Speaker 2: You often need an advocate.
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Speaker 1: Treacherous, reckless, conceited, racing on without applying the breaks, being
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Speaker 1: so filled with self and uncaring how it hurts others.
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Speaker 2: Press right on.
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Speaker 1: Let me tell you something, Folks, you're raising a child
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Speaker 1: like that. Do the world a favor and put a
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Speaker 1: stop to it. Whatever it takes, whatever help you need,
31:10
Speaker 1: however long it may require, however expensive it may become. Please,
31:17
Speaker 1: while still under your roof, don't release someone that out
31:21
Speaker 1: of control. We live in a reckless, treacherous day where
31:28
Speaker 1: a man will plan and then invade a elementary schoolroom,
31:34
Speaker 1: bar the door, and rape the little girls in that room.
31:38
Speaker 1: We live in a day where children will take a
31:40
Speaker 1: weapon and will literally use it to kill another classmate
31:46
Speaker 1: because a bullying that's been going on.
31:48
Speaker 2: We live in a day.
31:49
Speaker 1: When the serial killers will proliferate, when men will lock
31:55
Speaker 1: up women in portable buildings and hide them for sexual
32:00
Speaker 1: pleasure as they breed with them like with an animal,
32:04
Speaker 1: leaving broken lives that will never be fully repaired, treacherous, savage,
32:13
Speaker 1: horrid time. That isn't bad enough. Some hold to a
32:23
Speaker 1: form of godliness although they have denied its power.
32:27
Speaker 2: Look at that. We've seen that in our own generation.
32:37
Speaker 1: We have literally seen it where a handful of men
32:42
Speaker 1: can name the name of their god Allah, and fly
32:47
Speaker 1: a plane into tall buildings and kill thousands of lives
32:53
Speaker 1: while uttering the name of their god. In this fanatical,
33:00
Speaker 1: twisted religion. Before, however, we limit it to those wild eyed,
33:11
Speaker 1: fanatical extremists, let's remember that the same can be true
33:16
Speaker 1: of us. John Stott writes, they evidently attended the worship
33:22
Speaker 1: services of the church in Timothy's day. They sang the hymns,
33:27
Speaker 1: they said the amen to the prayers, and put their
33:31
Speaker 1: money in the offering plate. They looked and sounded egregiously pious.
33:37
Speaker 2: But it was a form without power.
33:42
Speaker 1: Outwards, showed without inward reality, religion without morals, faith without works,
33:54
Speaker 1: which is actually an abomination to the Lord. This is
34:08
Speaker 1: the kind of passage of the health and wealth. Gospel
34:13
Speaker 1: will not address attention to you. Will not hear this
34:19
Speaker 1: in many a church where you're encouraged just to feel good.
34:24
Speaker 1: And there's nothing wrong with feeling good if it's under
34:26
Speaker 1: the spirit's empowerment. Truth, however, sets us free and makes
34:31
Speaker 1: us aware of what we are dealing with and keeps
34:34
Speaker 1: us from being disillusioned. That's why Paul says to Timothy,
34:38
Speaker 1: keep on realizing this, keep it in your mind.
34:41
Speaker 2: Don't let it throw you. Don't think that God's lost control.
34:49
Speaker 1: It's passages like this that cause some people not to
34:52
Speaker 1: exposit the scriptures. My responsibility, however, is to take you
34:58
Speaker 1: to the truth and leave you there, because I believe
35:02
Speaker 1: the truth sets us free. And if Timothy needed to
35:06
Speaker 1: remember these things, so do I. It'll keep me from
35:10
Speaker 1: being disillusioned, It'll keep me from inappropriate responses when I
35:18
Speaker 1: read about it and hear about it. It's going to
35:21
Speaker 1: mark our times while on earth. Would someone think he
35:26
Speaker 1: can make it without the Savior? Now, what do you
35:30
Speaker 1: do about people like this?
35:32
Speaker 2: Timothy? Should you run with folks like that? In your church?
35:36
Speaker 1: Should you be around people like that? Will you look
35:39
Speaker 1: at the command at the end of verse five avoid
35:44
Speaker 1: such men as these? The Greek is even more blunt,
35:49
Speaker 1: and these turn away from I hope you are teaching
35:57
Speaker 1: your children and you are learning yourself that great character
36:00
Speaker 1: is seen not only based on those with whom we
36:03
Speaker 1: keep company, but.
36:05
Speaker 2: Those whom we avoid. We are not to run with
36:09
Speaker 2: every person on the planet.
36:12
Speaker 1: We're not to be chummy with all individuals. Some of
36:17
Speaker 1: them will hurt us and will drag us down. Lem
36:21
Speaker 1: Me show you a versus scripture you may have missed
36:24
Speaker 1: and you're reading. Look at First Corinthians fifteen thirty three.
36:30
Speaker 1: It's one of the early verses that I memorized when
36:32
Speaker 1: I was spending time with a navigator years ago. He said,
36:37
Speaker 1: I want you to memorize First Corinthians fifteen thirty three.
36:41
Speaker 1: I was in the Marine Corps at the time. I
36:44
Speaker 1: was eight thousand miles away from home, away from wife,
36:47
Speaker 1: away from family, away from direct accountability. Would have been
36:51
Speaker 1: an easy place for me to let this problem occur.
36:54
Speaker 1: He said, I want you to memorize this. I want
36:56
Speaker 1: you to remember this. Look at verse thirty three fifteen
37:00
Speaker 1: First Corinthians do not be deceived. Paul often began his
37:04
Speaker 1: commands with that bad company corrupts good morals. If your
37:11
Speaker 1: Bible is like mine, I use the New American Standard Bible.
37:14
Speaker 1: That statement is in quotes, which means Paul is quoting
37:18
Speaker 1: it from something. If you do the research, you find
37:21
Speaker 1: that he's quoting a pagan Greek playwright named Menander. So
37:27
Speaker 1: he's pulling a line from a Greek play of their day,
37:30
Speaker 1: which became a byword so well known it was a proverb.
37:34
Speaker 2: Used among the people in his day.
37:37
Speaker 1: It's as if we were to say, remember the line,
37:40
Speaker 1: the world's a stage and we are actors on it.
37:42
Speaker 1: As Shakespeare once wrote, Paul is here quoting Menander, and
37:46
Speaker 1: what he's saying, bad company corrupts good morals. We have
37:50
Speaker 1: the saying birds of a feather flocked together. You run
37:53
Speaker 1: with bad kids, you'll get bad. My mother used to say, Charles,
37:57
Speaker 1: stop spending time with Eugene and Fred. She said, I
38:02
Speaker 1: know you like them, but they're not good for you.
38:04
Speaker 1: I'd say, mother, She said, every time you're around them,
38:08
Speaker 1: you're worse when you come home. And I know you've
38:10
Speaker 1: been with them, and they're worse because they've been with you.
38:14
Speaker 1: You're not good for each other. Bad company will make
38:19
Speaker 1: you bad. Deceitful people will make you deceitful. Vicious people
38:27
Speaker 1: will make you insensitive and more vicious. Bad company corrupts
38:32
Speaker 1: good more so, I thought of an illustration that is
38:35
Speaker 1: so silly you will never forget it.
38:38
Speaker 2: Let's say it's a rainy afternoon and you.
38:41
Speaker 1: Look out back and you see that area that doesn't
38:44
Speaker 1: have any grass. You put on white, beautiful kid gloves,
38:48
Speaker 1: beautiful white gloves, and you go outside when the rain
38:53
Speaker 1: lets up, and you play patty Cake in the mud.
38:57
Speaker 1: You make a little mudball. The mud never gets glovy.
39:03
Speaker 1: The gloves always get money. I've never seen glovey mud
39:07
Speaker 1: in all my life. The white doesn't come off on
39:12
Speaker 1: the mud. The mud comes off on the white. Good
39:17
Speaker 1: company doesn't help bad people. Bad company corrupts good people.
39:25
Speaker 1: The only good that can come from bad is the
39:28
Speaker 1: regenerating work of God in the heart. When that happens,
39:32
Speaker 1: it is remarkable. The transformation.
39:36
Speaker 2: Today.
39:37
Speaker 1: In light of the changes that's happened in my life,
39:39
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be interested in hanging around Freddy and Eugen,
39:42
Speaker 1: But in those days it seemed a lot of fun.
39:45
Speaker 1: Why because I was young and getting in trouble sounded exciting,
39:51
Speaker 1: and it often brought with it fascinating thing. I'm not
39:57
Speaker 1: going to tell you what those fascinating things were, though.
40:00
Speaker 2: I'm tempted.
40:04
Speaker 1: Back to two Timothy Chapter three. Avoid such men as these.
40:12
Speaker 3: Four.
40:13
Speaker 1: See our word again. We're teaching each other how to
40:15
Speaker 1: get things out of the Bible. See the little connective.
40:18
Speaker 1: It's an explanatory connective because or for example, for among them,
40:26
Speaker 1: among whom such men as these, It modifies such men
40:30
Speaker 1: as these, for among them those kind of people, or
40:35
Speaker 1: those who enter into households and captivate weak women, weighed
40:39
Speaker 1: down with sins, led on by various impulses.
40:42
Speaker 2: Now I know some read.
40:44
Speaker 1: This and they say, there's Paul again putting down the woman.
40:48
Speaker 1: Which shows ignorance when you make statements like that. So
40:51
Speaker 1: let's do a little better research. In those days, women
40:55
Speaker 1: stayed home, men worked. Women at home often had some time,
41:01
Speaker 1: and they would be the ones that the predators would
41:03
Speaker 1: prey on. They would mock at their door, they would
41:08
Speaker 1: find ways to get their information into their hands.
41:12
Speaker 2: And the women who.
41:13
Speaker 1: Were gullible and lack of discernment and discipline would fall
41:19
Speaker 1: prey to this information.
41:20
Speaker 2: That's what he's saying.
41:22
Speaker 1: So here come these who creep in, these religious sneaks,
41:29
Speaker 1: and they captivate these who are led on by various impulses.
41:34
Speaker 2: And what happens?
41:35
Speaker 1: They're always learning verse seven and never able to come
41:39
Speaker 1: to the knowledge of the truth. Isn't that a characteristic
41:44
Speaker 1: of our times? People are always looking for the fascinating.
41:48
Speaker 1: They're always trying to read into some event, some specific
41:52
Speaker 1: Bible prophecy. One man writes this, Some devote their lives
41:59
Speaker 1: to the rediscovery of the mysteries of the heart, or
42:04
Speaker 1: the discovery of the numerical key to prophecy, as in
42:08
Speaker 1: the spurious bestseller of the Bible Code. Just this past week,
42:14
Speaker 1: for example, I was sent an email by a good friend,
42:16
Speaker 1: and he really wanted to know it because he doubted it.
42:18
Speaker 1: But he said, maybe you'd know better than I. But
42:21
Speaker 1: the email included an information that he had been sent
42:24
Speaker 1: by another friend, and the information said that Jesus, when
42:28
Speaker 1: he was on earth, revealed the identity of the Antichrist.
42:32
Speaker 2: Whoa who wouldn't want to know that?
42:35
Speaker 1: So the guy goes into all kinds of Hebrew and
42:37
Speaker 1: Aramaic terms, transliterating the words and using all kinds of
42:42
Speaker 1: semantic footwork very cleverly, and he finds two words that
42:47
Speaker 1: are kind of meshed together, and a little later on
42:49
Speaker 1: he finds another thing and twists that around. We got
42:52
Speaker 1: the identity of the Antichrist. It's a great Greek word
42:55
Speaker 1: for that. It's called hog wash, nonsense. Stay away from
43:02
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, that stupid stuff. Believe me, the
43:06
Speaker 1: kind of Bible scholars of yesteryear. If the Antichrist could
43:09
Speaker 1: have been identified hit along since been identified by minds
43:13
Speaker 1: much brighter than mine and ours put together, you never
43:17
Speaker 1: will know the identity of him.
43:19
Speaker 2: Until he arrives, and then you'll be shocked.
43:24
Speaker 1: And the magnificent winsomeness of the individual. He will have
43:29
Speaker 1: the world charmed by his presence and by his power
43:34
Speaker 1: and miracle working ability thanks to the source of his life,
43:38
Speaker 1: and that Satan, always learning and never able to come
43:42
Speaker 1: to the knowledge of the truth. I love the words
43:45
Speaker 1: of William Barclay. Here, we're not meant to titillate our
43:47
Speaker 1: minds with the latest intellectual crazies. We are meant to
43:52
Speaker 1: purify and strengthen ourselves in the moral battle to live
43:55
Speaker 1: the Christian life. Stay away from nonsense like that.
44:01
Speaker 2: It's silly, stupid, it's twisted, it's.
44:04
Speaker 1: Incorrect, it's false. Other than that, it might be worth
44:08
Speaker 1: your time. And you know what's dreadful about all of
44:13
Speaker 1: this verse thirteen, look.
44:15
Speaker 2: At it again.
44:17
Speaker 1: Evil men and women and impostors will proceed from bad
44:21
Speaker 1: to worse, deceiving in vagancy. He gives a biblical illustration
44:26
Speaker 1: here that's interesting. I find verse eight, just as Janas
44:29
Speaker 1: and Jambrees opposed Moses, and you look in your you
44:33
Speaker 1: look in your lexicon, and I have. I have an
44:36
Speaker 1: exhaustive lexicon.
44:37
Speaker 2: It is exhausting as well.
44:39
Speaker 1: And I looked up every j word I could to
44:42
Speaker 1: find Janas or Jambres, and they're not there except listed
44:46
Speaker 1: here from the passage that we're looking at now. But
44:49
Speaker 1: it says that there are Janas and Jambres who opposed Moses.
44:53
Speaker 1: So I look back into Exodus Red through chapter six, seven,
44:56
Speaker 1: eight nine, when he's making his plea before Pharaoh to
44:59
Speaker 1: lie let the people go, and I don't.
45:02
Speaker 2: Find Janis and Jambres.
45:04
Speaker 1: What's interesting is by the time Paul writes his words,
45:10
Speaker 1: information about the sorcerers that Pharaoh used, had broadened, had expanded.
45:17
Speaker 1: The targums, for example, include the names Janas and jambers
45:23
Speaker 1: as among those that Pharaoh brought in to work his miracles.
45:27
Speaker 1: Quick background, Moses is speaking to Pharaoh, saying, I'm representing
45:31
Speaker 1: the living God.
45:32
Speaker 2: You're to let God's people go.
45:34
Speaker 1: And to prove that, Aaron brings a staff. The staff
45:37
Speaker 1: is dropped down. It turns into a snake. Remember the story.
45:41
Speaker 1: I mean it's supposed to make Pharaoh go, WHOA, that's
45:44
Speaker 1: gotta be from God. So he lets the people go. Nope,
45:47
Speaker 1: Pharaoh calls in his magicians, among whom are Janis and Jambres,
45:52
Speaker 1: says the targums.
45:54
Speaker 2: And they do that same miracle. But the power of Satan.
45:57
Speaker 2: So Pharaoh isn't phased. I'm not gonna let these peop
46:00
Speaker 2: will go. My men can do just what Erin did.
46:04
Speaker 2: Look at the verse.
46:05
Speaker 1: Now, just as Janis and Jambres opposed Moses, so these
46:11
Speaker 1: men oppose the truth. Men of a depraved mind and
46:16
Speaker 1: rejected in regard to the faith. Wow, how bad can
46:22
Speaker 1: it get? Corrupt and depraved in mind? Counterfeit rejected in
46:27
Speaker 1: the faith. He starts with a command know this Timothy,
46:31
Speaker 1: things are going to go from bad to worse. And
46:34
Speaker 1: about now some of you are thinking, well, good night.
46:36
Speaker 1: Only thing left us to slit my wrist. I mean,
46:39
Speaker 1: this is terrible.
46:40
Speaker 2: How bad? Can this get? This as awful?
46:43
Speaker 1: But you haven't read verse nine. Don't miss verse nine.
46:49
Speaker 1: They will not make further progress. Is that a great word?
46:56
Speaker 1: Is that a great encouragement? All of this as a
46:59
Speaker 1: temporary show life.
47:01
Speaker 2: This evil that's going on be encouraged. I know.
47:05
Speaker 1: James Russell Lowell wrote Truth Forever on the scaffold, Wrong
47:08
Speaker 1: forever on the throne. Sounds like wrong is gonna be
47:11
Speaker 1: ruling forever. Truth will hang on to the scaffold for
47:14
Speaker 1: dear life. But go to the rest of that truth
47:18
Speaker 1: Forever on the scaffl Wrong forever on the throne. Yet
47:20
Speaker 1: that scaffold sways the future, and behind the damn unknown
47:24
Speaker 1: standeth God within the shadows, keeping watch above his own.
47:28
Speaker 2: I love the ending of it.
47:29
Speaker 1: It's called this Present Crisis written by James Russelle has
47:34
Speaker 1: thousand verses, but that's the best part of the whole thing.
47:36
Speaker 1: It's wonderful, wonderful work, just like the Book of Esther.
47:40
Speaker 1: You can't find God's name. So it's easy to think
47:43
Speaker 1: God's gone, But You've got God's foot print, God's hand print,
47:47
Speaker 1: God's voice is in the woodwork of the Book of Esther,
47:52
Speaker 1: Just as God is at work right now, even though
47:54
Speaker 1: he's not standing on the edge of heaven whistling saying,
47:57
Speaker 1: don't forget, I'm still at charge. God is at work.
48:02
Speaker 1: In the end, God wins. What a great thought. Why
48:07
Speaker 1: because the progress is going to appear to all. There
48:10
Speaker 1: is something patently spurious about heresy. There is something self
48:17
Speaker 1: destructive in all evil. There's something self evidently true about righteousness.
48:26
Speaker 2: Look at it.
48:27
Speaker 1: They will not make further progress. Their folly will be
48:32
Speaker 1: obvious to all, just as Jennis and Jamboree's folly was.
48:38
Speaker 2: Also.
48:39
Speaker 1: The whole point is this evil has this short shelf life.
48:45
Speaker 1: Even if deceivers proliferate, even if opposition is growing, even
48:49
Speaker 1: if falsehood becomes unfashionable, even though there seems to be
48:53
Speaker 1: more error than reliable, solid truth, all of that's temporary.
48:59
Speaker 2: In the end, God wins. One of the signs of youth.
49:04
Speaker 1: Is shortsightedness, and we start thinking it's all to no avail.
49:10
Speaker 2: Oh, what is it? Jesus said, I.
49:12
Speaker 1: Will build my church and what the gates of hades
49:17
Speaker 1: will not prevail against it.
49:21
Speaker 2: That's a promise that's reassuring.
49:25
Speaker 1: So when you hear the news and when you read
49:27
Speaker 1: the periodicals, when you watch the Dow Jones averages, it's
49:30
Speaker 1: easy to think all is lost when you listen to
49:32
Speaker 1: talk show hosts.
49:33
Speaker 2: Please don't spend a lot of time doing that.
49:36
Speaker 1: But if you listen to talk show, when you learn
49:38
Speaker 1: of actual accounts of evil, identity, theft, toxic faith, religious charlatans,
49:45
Speaker 1: the health and Wealth gospel, people getting healthier and wealthier,
49:49
Speaker 1: and you think in the end it's going to all
49:52
Speaker 1: turn against No, no, no, no, you miss verse nine.
49:57
Speaker 1: They will not make further progress. The folly will be
50:00
Speaker 1: is to all. Nothing will last of these latest impostors,
50:05
Speaker 1: writes the message, Can I give your principle that you
50:09
Speaker 1: can hang on to for this week? God specializes in
50:13
Speaker 1: overcoming overwhelming odds. God specializes in overcoming overwhelming odds. I've
50:22
Speaker 1: never seen American in worse condition than we are right now.
50:26
Speaker 1: I've never seen it in my lifetime. I've never seen
50:29
Speaker 1: more people depressed. I've never seen the economy do what
50:32
Speaker 1: it's done I'm aware of that, but I also serve
50:37
Speaker 1: a God who is beyond our economy. I believe in
50:40
Speaker 1: a God who is greater than whoever may be calling
50:42
Speaker 1: the shots, and I trust in him. So maybe a
50:46
Speaker 1: few illustrations are a few examples, and I'm closing. Joseph
50:51
Speaker 1: did live to see justice roll down. Pharaoh did finally
50:56
Speaker 1: let the Hebrews go. Moses in the Hebrews did cross
51:01
Speaker 1: the Red Sea dry. Jericho's walls did fall down flat.
51:08
Speaker 1: Gideon's much smaller army did prevail over the much greater forces.
51:12
Speaker 2: Of the enemy.
51:14
Speaker 1: David did defeat the much larger and more intimidating giant Goliath.
51:19
Speaker 1: Daniel did survive the Lion's den Nehemiah did rebuild that
51:25
Speaker 1: wall around Jerusalem against incredible opposition. Jesus' resurrection did follow
51:30
Speaker 1: his crucifixion, and that handful of ordinary men called disciples,
51:37
Speaker 1: eleven of them did turn the world upside down. Isn't
51:40
Speaker 1: that good news? In the end, God wins, say that
51:45
Speaker 1: in the end, God went one more time. In the end,
51:49
Speaker 1: God wins, let's bow our heads together. Perhaps in your
51:55
Speaker 1: short sightedness, which is a characteristic of the youth and
52:00
Speaker 1: of those who were untaught. In your shortsightedness, you may
52:05
Speaker 1: have lost hope. You may have never come to know
52:12
Speaker 1: this savior, Jesus, who died for you and has been
52:17
Speaker 1: raised for you. He stands available and ready and willing
52:23
Speaker 1: to invade and transform your.
52:25
Speaker 2: Life if you will simply trust him.
52:31
Speaker 1: Let us help you do that. When this meeting ends,
52:35
Speaker 1: we're right here. When this week unfolds, we're right here
52:41
Speaker 1: to help you on that journey. Remind us again and again,
52:46
Speaker 1: our Father, that in the end, you win, and when
52:53
Speaker 1: you win, all is well, all as well. In the meantime,
52:59
Speaker 1: these these occasions in which we live, force us to
53:03
Speaker 1: drop to our knees and to look to you and say, Lord,
53:07
Speaker 1: get us through this, Lord, get us beyond this. Guard
53:11
Speaker 1: us from bitterness, disillusionment, retaliation, grudge, keep us from becoming
53:18
Speaker 1: evil like the society around us. Make us winsome, gracious,
53:24
Speaker 1: confident Christians who stand for the truth against impossible odds,
53:33
Speaker 1: human impossibilities, but not divine, and remind us again and
53:39
Speaker 1: again that they will not make further progress. Their folly
53:43
Speaker 1: ultimately will be obvious to all.
53:49
Speaker 2: Father, I do pray.
53:51
Speaker 1: That you will find us faithful. Thank you for your
53:56
Speaker 1: winning ways you have won our hearts. Today we plague
54:02
Speaker 1: our allegiance to you, our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ.
54:06
Speaker 2: In your name, we pray. Everyone said amen.
54:12
Speaker 3: The preceding message, Depravity on Parade, was copyrighted in two
54:17
Speaker 3: thousand and nine and twenty fifteen, and the sound recording
54:20
Speaker 3: was copyrighted in twenty fifteen by Charles R. Swindall, Inc.
54:24
Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
54:29
Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited