Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Depravity on Parade │ Msg 814

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Depravity on Parade │ Msg 814 · 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 ranks of
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Speaker 1: the churches, Christian organizations, businesses around the world. The gathering
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Speaker 1: was called a Catalyst. It's a conference that began thanks
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Speaker 1: to Andy Stanley's vision along with John Maxwell's The gathering
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Speaker 1: was held in an arena in Atlanta. Some 13,000 young
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Speaker 1: up-and-coming men and women who gathered there for encouragement and challenge.
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Speaker 1: I couldn't believe Andy connected with me and wanted me
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Speaker 1: to come talk to them. And I asked him, I said,
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Speaker 1: you sure you want me to do this? He said, dude,
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Speaker 1: you're the godfather of this thing. So I thought, well,
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Speaker 1: I'll go and talk to the mafia when I'm there.
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Speaker 1: I talked to them about how to do God's work
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Speaker 1: God's way. I was encouraged because it reminded me that
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Speaker 1: there are still thousands who have not bowed the knee
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Speaker 1: to Baal. Easy to discount and feel demoralized about the
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Speaker 1: up-and-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 authenticity. They 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, 2 Timothy chapter
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Speaker 1: 3 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 expose.
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Speaker 1: It is a verbal autopsy of depravity. When you locate
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Speaker 1: 2 Timothy 3, please stand for the reading of 2
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Speaker 1: Timothy 3, beginning at verse 1. 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, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal,
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Speaker 1: haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather
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Speaker 1: than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness
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Speaker 1: although they have denied its power. avoid such men as these.
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Speaker 1: For among them are those who enter into households and
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Speaker 1: captivate weak women, weighed down with sins, led on by
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Speaker 1: various impulses, always learning and never able to come to
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Speaker 1: the knowledge of the truth. Just as Janice and Jambres
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Speaker 1: opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men
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Speaker 1: of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith, but
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Speaker 1: they will not make further progress, for their folly will
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Speaker 1: be obvious to all, just as Janice and Jamboree's folly
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Speaker 1: was also. And finally, verse 13, But evil men and
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Speaker 1: imposters will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
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Speaker 1: Remain standing for a brief moment of prayer. Our Father,
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Speaker 1: if ever we wondered if your word was relevant, the
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Speaker 1: wonder is gone. You have just spoken to us about
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Speaker 1: 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 expose 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 ask 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 2 Timothy chapter 3. 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, 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 1, he
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Speaker 1: is saying, realize this. What is this? Well, the this
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Speaker 1: could be described in four English words that appear in
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Speaker 1: the text. Difficult times will come. Before we analyze those words,
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Speaker 1: look before them and you will see the terms in
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Speaker 1: the last days. Some have been led to believe that
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Speaker 1: the last days would be the last few weeks before
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Speaker 1: Christ's coming. Or the last few years during a time
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Speaker 1: there will be great tribulation. Certainly those are last days. However,
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Speaker 1: these terms refer to that period of time between Jesus
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Speaker 1: coming in Bethlehem as a baby and his return in
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Speaker 1: Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives to set up his kingdom.
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Speaker 1: It is centuries long, these last days. and they will
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Speaker 1: go from bad to worse, as we will see a
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Speaker 1: little later on. Keep on remembering that, Timothy. There is
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Speaker 1: a societal degeneration, and don't be unaware of it. Don't
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Speaker 1: close your eyes and wish for better times. Don't act
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Speaker 1: like they're not as difficult as they are. They are,
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Speaker 1: in fact, difficult. Interesting Greek term translated here, difficult, used
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Speaker 1: only one other time in the New Testament, and that
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Speaker 1: would be in Matthew 8, verse 28, 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 spent 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. Let's use those words here. Realize this,
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Speaker 1: that in the last days, extremely violent times will come.
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Speaker 1: The term means hard, harsh. Hard to deal with. vicious, dangerous, menacing.
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Speaker 1: Same word is used in classical Greek to describe wild
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Speaker 1: animals that cannot be controlled and a raging sea that
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Speaker 1: cannot be calmed. All of those terms are not meant
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Speaker 1: to tantalize you, but to make you aware of the
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Speaker 1: seriousness of the term that appears rather mildly in the
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Speaker 1: verse as difficult. Think of those words describing our times.
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Speaker 1: One of my mentors preferred the word savage. In the
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Speaker 1: last days, never forget Chuck, savage times will be upon us.
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Speaker 1: What will characterize the times between the Lord's arrival at
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Speaker 1: Bethlehem and then his second coming on the Mount of Olives? Well,
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Speaker 1: the word for in verse two is an explanatory connective,
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Speaker 1: that little three-letter word for. When you see that in
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Speaker 1: your Bible, think because, or for example, So let's read
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Speaker 1: it that way. But realize this, that in the last days,
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Speaker 1: savage times will be upon us. Let me explain. Men
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Speaker 1: will be. Good time to pause over that word, men.
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Speaker 1: It is not the word for simply the male of
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Speaker 1: the genders, but anthropos, mankind, which would include women. It
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Speaker 1: would include teenagers. It would include men and women. It
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Speaker 1: would include humanity in general. In other words, we are
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Speaker 1: not living in perilous times because of a bad environment,
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Speaker 1: because of pollution, because of a wrong or broken economy.
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Speaker 1: We are living in evil times because of evil anthropoi,
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Speaker 1: evil men and women, evil teenagers. evil hearts, evil minds.
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Speaker 1: After these abrupt and very firm comments, the apostle begins
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Speaker 1: to elucidate. If you were to take your pen or
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Speaker 1: pencil and mark the characteristics that follow, you would come
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Speaker 1: to 19 of them. In a concentrated space, there are
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Speaker 1: 19 characteristics of savage times named by the apostle, for
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Speaker 1: Timothy to read and remember and for us to do
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Speaker 1: the same. Nineteen characteristics, and on your chart, on the outline,
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Speaker 1: I should say, you will find the words, an unvarnished
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Speaker 1: expose of last day's depravity. Every word chosen on every
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Speaker 1: outline you're given is worked over, thought through, planned carefully,
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Speaker 1: never just designed to fill the space. This is an
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Speaker 1: expose that's unvarnished of these days in which we live
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Speaker 1: called last days in verse 1. But we've now learned
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Speaker 1: that they have been going on for centuries of time
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Speaker 1: and they are getting increasingly worse. As I work my
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Speaker 1: way through the list, you will nod on occasion remembering
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Speaker 1: some news broadcast, some tragic event. some shocking bit of
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Speaker 1: information that you have become aware of just in this generation.
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Speaker 1: And you will see that what the Bible is saying
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Speaker 1: in ancient days is written for our learning in these
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Speaker 1: modern days. Notice the beginning and the end of the list,
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Speaker 1: if we could put them as bookends on these 19 things.
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Speaker 1: It begins with men will be self-lovers. And look at
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Speaker 1: the end, verse 4, rather than lovers of God, the
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Speaker 1: Greek says God lovers. People will be self-lovers, not God lovers.
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Speaker 1: In fact, four of the 19 characteristics are connected with
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Speaker 1: the word lovers. Self-lovers. Verse two, money lovers. Verse four,
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Speaker 1: pleasure lovers rather than God lovers. Those who love themselves
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Speaker 1: are narcissistic. The world revolves around them. their achievements, their superiority,
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Speaker 1: their significance, their achievements, their name, their title, their reputation.
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Speaker 1: It's all about them. It's called narcissism. Money lovers, that's
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Speaker 1: called materialism. And it would be more than just cash
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Speaker 1: in your pocket. bank account or in your wallet. This
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Speaker 1: has to do with things, that which money can buy.
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Speaker 1: We live in an era where money talks, as we say.
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Speaker 1: Money lovers are materialistic individuals. Society is shot through with that.
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Speaker 1: Pleasure lovers would be called hedonism. So we have narcissism, materialism,
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Speaker 1: hedonism because of the absence of a love for God.
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Speaker 1: Look further. The remaining 15 that appear, that fall between
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Speaker 1: these four, have to do with twisted love. It's a
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Speaker 1: lengthy description of a breakdown of relationships. Notice, for example,
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Speaker 1: the The early words mentioned in verse two, men and
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Speaker 1: women and teenagers will be boastful. This is what we
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Speaker 1: do in our depraved nature. Arrogant, that is what we are.
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Speaker 1: And as a result of it, we boast. Revilers is
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Speaker 1: another word for blasphemers. The Greek term is literally blasphemers.
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Speaker 1: If I could analyze each of the three quickly without
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Speaker 1: being tedious, boastful, these would be those who call attention
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Speaker 1: to themselves. They brag. And they do that because of
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Speaker 1: who they are. Arrogant. It means to show oneself above others.
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Speaker 1: To have an exaggerated opinion of oneself. Revilers. That literally
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Speaker 1: is blasphemers. It's the idea of being tedious. slanderous, insulting, abusive.
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Speaker 1: Don't answer out loud, but before we go any further,
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Speaker 1: you know anybody like that? No, I said not to
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Speaker 1: answer out loud. Ever seen a professional athlete act like that?
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Speaker 1: Of course you have. You will not see a professional
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Speaker 1: ball game without watching arrogance and bragging on parade. insulting
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Speaker 1: things taking place. Broken contracts going on behind the scene. Why?
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Speaker 1: Because I deserve more. He's making that, I need to
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Speaker 1: make this. You're not going to pay me something less
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Speaker 1: than that person makes at the same position. Boastful, arrogant, revilers.
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Speaker 1: How about entertainers? Seen any entertainers lately that are guilty
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Speaker 1: of that? How about talk show hosts, newscasters, physicians, attorneys,
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Speaker 1: worst of all, pastors? Heartbreaking to think of that. But
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Speaker 1: even the clergy has within the ranks those who are
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Speaker 1: boastful and arrogant, slanderous and insulting to congregations. One of
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Speaker 1: the comments I made to the group at Catalyst was
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Speaker 1: that it's dangerous to succeed when you're young. It's dangerous.
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Speaker 1: And I fear most for those who are very young
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Speaker 1: and very gifted. Because you don't have the wisdom that
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Speaker 1: can only be gained through the pain and the hurts
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Speaker 1: of life's journeys. And before long, you're catapulted to a
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Speaker 1: level you can't handle. And I've just described many of
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Speaker 1: those I mentioned earlier in the professional athletic ranks. Making
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Speaker 1: far too much money with far too little wisdom. and
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Speaker 1: knowing how to handle it. But when they're money lovers,
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Speaker 1: of course, that's what you do. And that's what the
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Speaker 1: agent encourages them to be. The next five in the
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Speaker 1: list fall into domestic category, the family life. Look closely,
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Speaker 1: if you will. In fact, let me analyze the five
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Speaker 1: words before we unload the comments about each one. See
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Speaker 1: the words, disobedient, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable. English words are
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Speaker 1: interesting words. I'm a bit of a word vulture, and
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Speaker 1: so I spend time on them. In the English language,
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Speaker 1: there are terms we use that if we add a
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Speaker 1: prefix to those terms, we offer just the opposite. Someone
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Speaker 1: is loving, but if you put the prefix un- on it,
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Speaker 1: they are the opposite of loving. They are unloving. Some
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Speaker 1: people are grateful, but if you add the prefix you in,
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Speaker 1: it means the opposite. They are not grateful, unloving. Some
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Speaker 1: are thoughtful, but if you add you in, they are unthoughtful.
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Speaker 1: If you have good taste, you're tasteful, but you can
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Speaker 1: be distasteful. See these prefixes? In the Greek text, it's
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Speaker 1: always the letter A. It's called the alpha prefix. The
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Speaker 1: letter A negates the meaning of the term itself or
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Speaker 1: offers the absence of what the term should represent. Now
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Speaker 1: that I've lost most of you, let's get back to
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Speaker 1: what it says here. This is stressing the absence of
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Speaker 1: qualities that one would expect in a home. And look
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Speaker 1: at them. Disobedient to parents. Insolent. I have in my
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Speaker 1: little lifetime witnessed disobedience as I never thought I would
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Speaker 1: between kids and their parents. Sometimes you just want to
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Speaker 1: slap them. I know I shouldn't think that, but I
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Speaker 1: haven't done that. I said I think about it sometimes.
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Speaker 1: Or you want their parents to pull them aside, shake
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Speaker 1: them by the shoulder, Teach them the importance of respect.
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Speaker 1: Heard about the little kid who had a little pack
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Speaker 1: over his back and he was just going as fast
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Speaker 1: as he could and the cop pulled over and said,
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Speaker 1: young man, where are you going? He said, I'm running
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Speaker 1: away from home. Really? How far away is home? Well,
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Speaker 1: I don't know. It's two or three blocks back there.
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Speaker 1: I'm running away. What's wrong? Well, mom and dad won't
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Speaker 1: mind me anymore. Disobedient parent. How unattractive. How frequently it
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Speaker 1: goes on. Ungrateful. Ungrateful means devoid of appreciation. Listen closely.
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Speaker 1: It's the failure to see the value of another sacrifice.
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Speaker 1: Children who don't realize the sacrifice of their parents are
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Speaker 1: ungrateful children. And not until they become parents do they
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Speaker 1: understand something of the sacrifice. The unselfishness of parenting. Ungrateful.
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Speaker 1: The third word is unholy. It means the failure to
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Speaker 1: possess the basic decencies of life. Doing what is unnatural
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Speaker 1: and occasionally what is inhuman. Think of that. Unloving, obviously,
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Speaker 1: lacking in affection for siblings, for parents, and parents for children.
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Speaker 1: No close ties. Occasionally, I rub shoulders with some young
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Speaker 1: men and women at Dallas Seminary, and we will talk
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Speaker 1: about their home and families. And I've learned not to
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Speaker 1: be shocked at comments I hear among those who are
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Speaker 1: distant from their moms and dads. Some haven't talked to
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Speaker 1: their parents. I met a man today who told me
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Speaker 1: of a rift in their family and it started when? 1992.
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Speaker 1: Still going on where brother and sister won't talk to
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Speaker 1: each other. There is a cold, unloving relationship. It's a
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Speaker 1: characteristic of these days. And to make it all just dreadful,
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Speaker 1: there is an irreconcilable spirit. The word means no room
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Speaker 1: for forgiveness. An inability to release an offense, the dragging
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Speaker 1: around of a grudge. I have to ask, you're not
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Speaker 1: doing that, are you? You're not holding someone hostage is
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Speaker 1: something that they've done against you, are you? Surely not.
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Speaker 1: Don't go there. Because you lose. Someone has said a
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Speaker 1: lack of forgiveness is like taking poison thinking the other
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Speaker 1: person is going to die. You lose. The building blocks
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Speaker 1: of wholesome and healthy family relationships change. Call for supportive
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Speaker 1: and meaningful characteristics in the relationship. Among them, respect and
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Speaker 1: obedience that's gone. An attitude of gratitude pretty much absent.
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Speaker 1: Moral decency and purity rarely found. Mutual affection between siblings,
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Speaker 1: between parents and children, gone. Understanding and forgiveness. Gone. The
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Speaker 1: absence of these building blocks create havoc, disharmony, and chaos.
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Speaker 1: In other words, we begin to live like uncivilized savages.
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Speaker 1: Perilous times have come. Now in the next group, there
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Speaker 1: are seven listed and they represent destructive and vicious qualities
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Speaker 1: that can wreck a home, a business, a church, a school,
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Speaker 1: a ministry. If you read through the list that begins
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Speaker 1: with malicious gossip, it takes you down to the word conceited.
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Speaker 1: Look at the list. Malicious gossip. You know what the
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Speaker 1: Greek term is? Diaboloi. It's the word for devil. Gossip
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Speaker 1: is devilish. If you ever find yourself saying, you know,
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Speaker 1: I really shouldn't say this, slap your hand over your
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Speaker 1: mouth and don't say it. Because you shouldn't say it.
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Speaker 1: Conscience is an amazing thing. And you sear your conscience
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Speaker 1: by ignoring its message. You know, somebody told me this.
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Speaker 1: They told me not to tell anybody. Put your hand
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Speaker 1: over your mouth and don't tell anybody. The longer I live,
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Speaker 1: the more I believe that it's easier to find purity
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Speaker 1: than confidentiality. Most people cannot keep a secret. Malicious gossips.
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Speaker 1: If you gossip, All of us here would appreciate your stopping.
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Speaker 1: You're hurting the church. You're hurting your business. You're hurting
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Speaker 1: the school. Malicious. Notice he adds to the word gossip. Malicious.
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Speaker 1: And then on top of that, no self-control. Look at this. Without. self-control,
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Speaker 1: no boundaries, ungovernable, brutal. The picture turns darker now. No sensitivity,
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Speaker 1: little sympathy, brutal. One of the books in my library
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Speaker 1: that I've read more than once is entitled Snakes in Suits.
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Speaker 1: It's a study of the pathology of The sociopath who
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Speaker 1: was on the loose in the business world. He's a
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Speaker 1: snake in suits. Or she is. Brutal. Cynthia was at
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Speaker 1: the pharmacy last evening getting something at the last minute
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Speaker 1: before her trip today. She told me when she got back,
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Speaker 1: we were having breakfast this morning, and she said to me...
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Speaker 1: saw something interesting last night there was a woman there
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Speaker 1: that looked like she is victim of abuse heart went
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Speaker 1: out to her said her husband was literally cursing her
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Speaker 1: right there in the aisle of the pharmacy she was
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Speaker 1: trying to find something she really needed If he'll curse
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Speaker 1: her in public, what on earth is he doing in private?
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Speaker 1: If you are brutal, you are ruining your life and
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Speaker 1: the life of others. The scene is hideous. Look at
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Speaker 1: the next one. Haters of good. This is the thought,
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Speaker 1: the moral palette has lost its taste. Treacherous, that's one
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Speaker 1: who turns against another. This is a disloyal friend. Someone
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Speaker 1: who turns on you when you often need an advocate. Treacherous, reckless, conceited.
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Speaker 1: Racing on without applying the brakes. Being so filled with
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Speaker 1: self and uncaring how it hurts others. Press right on.
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Speaker 1: Let me tell you something, folks. If you're raising a
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Speaker 1: child like that Do the world a favor and put
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Speaker 1: a stop to it. Whatever it takes, whatever help you need,
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Speaker 1: however long it may require, however expensive it may become, please,
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Speaker 1: while still under your roof, don't release someone that out
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Speaker 1: of control. We live in a reckless, treacherous day. where
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Speaker 1: a man will plan and then invade an elementary school room,
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Speaker 1: bar the door and rape the little girls in that room.
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Speaker 1: We live in a day where children will take a
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Speaker 1: weapon and will literally use it to kill another classmate
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Speaker 1: because of bullying that's been going on. We live in
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Speaker 1: a day when the serial killers will proliferate, when men
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Speaker 1: will lock up women in portable buildings and hide them
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Speaker 1: for sexual pleasure as they breed with them like with
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Speaker 1: an animal, leaving broken lives that will never be fully repaired. Treacherous, savage,
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Speaker 1: horrid times. If that isn't bad enough, some hold to
32:22
Speaker 1: a form of godliness, although they have denied its power.
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Speaker 1: 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,
32:59
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
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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 1: but it was a form without power. Outward show without
33:44
Speaker 1: inward reality. Religion without morals. Faith without works. Which is
33:55
Speaker 1: actually an abomination to the Lord. This is the kind
34:09
Speaker 1: of passage... the health and wealth gospel will not address
34:14
Speaker 1: attention to. You will not hear this in many a
34:19
Speaker 1: church where you're encouraged just to feel good. And there's
34:24
Speaker 1: nothing wrong with feeling good if it's under the Spirit's empowerment. Truth, however,
34:30
Speaker 1: sets us free and makes us aware of what we
34:33
Speaker 1: are dealing with and keeps us from being disillusioned. That's
34:36
Speaker 1: why Paul says to Timothy, keep on realizing this. Keep it.
34:40
Speaker 1: Keep it in your mind. Don't let it throw you.
34:44
Speaker 1: Don't think that God's lost control. It's passages like this
34:51
Speaker 1: that cause some people not to exposit the scriptures. My responsibility, however,
34:57
Speaker 1: is to take you to the truth and leave you there.
35:01
Speaker 1: Because I believe the truth sets us free. And if
35:05
Speaker 1: Timothy needed to remember these things, so do I. It'll
35:09
Speaker 1: keep me from being disillusioned. It'll keep me from inappropriate
35:17
Speaker 1: responses when I read about it and hear about it.
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Speaker 1: It's going to mark our times. Why on earth would
35:26
Speaker 1: someone think he could make it without the Savior? Now,
35:30
Speaker 1: what do you do about people like this? Timothy, should
35:33
Speaker 1: you run with folks like that in your church? Should
35:36
Speaker 1: you be around people like that? Will you look at
35:39
Speaker 1: the command at the end of verse 5? Avoid such
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Speaker 1: men as these. The Greek is even more blunt. And
35:51
Speaker 1: these turn away from. I hope you are teaching your
35:57
Speaker 1: children and you are learning yourself that great character is
36:01
Speaker 1: seen not only based on those with whom we keep company,
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Speaker 1: but those whom we avoid. We are not to run
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Speaker 1: with every person on the planet. We're not to be
36:13
Speaker 1: chummy with all individuals. Some of them will hurt us
36:20
Speaker 1: and will drag us down. Let me show you a
36:22
Speaker 1: verse of scripture you may have missed. and you're reading,
36:24
Speaker 1: look at 1 Corinthians 15, 33. It's one of the
36:30
Speaker 1: early verses that I memorized when I was spending time
36:34
Speaker 1: with a navigator years ago. He said, I want you
36:37
Speaker 1: to memorize 1 Corinthians 15, 33. I was in the
36:42
Speaker 1: Marine Corps at the time. I was 8,000 miles away
36:45
Speaker 1: from home, away from wife, away from family, away from
36:49
Speaker 1: direct accountability would have been an easy place for me
36:52
Speaker 1: to let this problem occur. He said, I want you
36:55
Speaker 1: to memorize this. I want you to remember this. Look
36:57
Speaker 1: at verse 33, 15 of 1 Corinthians. Do not be deceived.
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Speaker 1: Paul often began his commands with that. Bad company corrupts
37:09
Speaker 1: good morals. If your Bible is like mine, I use
37:12
Speaker 1: the New American Standard Bible, that statement is in quotes,
37:17
Speaker 1: which means Paul is quoting it from something. If you
37:20
Speaker 1: do the research, you find that he's quoting a pagan
37:23
Speaker 1: Greek playwright named Menander. So he's pulling a line from
37:29
Speaker 1: a Greek play of their day, which became a byword
37:32
Speaker 1: so well known it was a proverb used among the
37:35
Speaker 1: people in his day. It's as if we were to say,
37:38
Speaker 1: remember the line, the world's a stage and we are
37:42
Speaker 1: actors on it, as Shakespeare once wrote. Paul is here
37:44
Speaker 1: quoting Menander. And what's he saying? Bad company corrupts good morals.
37:49
Speaker 1: We have the saying, birds of a feather flock together.
37:52
Speaker 1: You run with bad kids, you'll get bad. My mother
37:55
Speaker 1: used to say, Charles, stop spending time with Eugene and Freddie.
38:01
Speaker 1: She said, I know you like them, but they're not
38:04
Speaker 1: good for you. And I'd say, mother. She said, every
38:06
Speaker 1: time you're around them, you're worse when you come home.
38:10
Speaker 1: And I know you've been with them. And they're worse
38:12
Speaker 1: because they've been with you. You're not good for each other.
38:16
Speaker 1: Bad companies. will make you bad. Deceitful people will make
38:23
Speaker 1: you deceitful. Vicious people will make you insensitive and more vicious.
38:31
Speaker 1: Bad company corrupts good morals. So I thought of an
38:34
Speaker 1: illustration that is so silly you will never forget it.
38:38
Speaker 1: Let's say it's a rainy afternoon and you look out
38:42
Speaker 1: back and you see that area that doesn't have any grass.
38:45
Speaker 1: You put on white, beautiful kid gloves Beautiful white gloves.
38:50
Speaker 1: And you go outside when the rain lets up and
38:53
Speaker 1: you play patty cake in the mud. You make a
38:58
Speaker 1: little mud ball. The mud never gets glovey. The gloves
39:04
Speaker 1: always get muddy. I've never seen glovey mud in all
39:08
Speaker 1: my life. The white doesn't come off on the mud.
39:13
Speaker 1: The mud comes off on the white. Good company doesn't
39:18
Speaker 1: help bad people. Bad company corrupts good people. The only
39:25
Speaker 1: good that can come from bad is the regenerating work
39:29
Speaker 1: of God in the heart. When that happens, it is remarkable,
39:34
Speaker 1: the transformation. Today, in light of the changes that's happened
39:38
Speaker 1: in my life, I wouldn't be interested in hanging around
39:40
Speaker 1: Freddie and Eugene. But in those days, it seemed a
39:43
Speaker 1: lot of fun. Why? Because I was young. And getting
39:48
Speaker 1: in trouble sounded exciting. And it often brought with it
39:52
Speaker 1: fascinating things. I'm not going to tell you what those
39:58
Speaker 1: fascinating things were, though I'm tempted. Back to 2 Timothy
40:06
Speaker 1: chapter 3. Avoid such men as these. 4. See our
40:13
Speaker 1: word again? We're teaching each other how to get things
40:16
Speaker 1: out of the Bible. See the little connective? It's an
40:18
Speaker 1: explanatory connective. Because, or for example, for among them, among whom?
40:27
Speaker 1: Such men as these. It modifies such men as these.
40:31
Speaker 1: For among them, those kind of people, are those who
40:35
Speaker 1: enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins,
40:40
Speaker 1: led on by various impulses. 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
40:59
Speaker 1: time and they would be the ones that the predators
41:03
Speaker 1: would prey on. They would knock at their door. They
41:08
Speaker 1: would find ways to get their information into their hands.
41:12
Speaker 1: And the women who were gullible and lacked discernment and
41:17
Speaker 1: discipline would fall prey to this information. 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 1: And what happens? They're always learning, verse 7, and never
41:39
Speaker 1: able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Isn't
41:42
Speaker 1: that a characteristic of our times? People are always looking
41:47
Speaker 1: for the fascinating. They're always trying to read into some event,
41:50
Speaker 1: some specific Bible prophecy. One man writes this, some devote
41:57
Speaker 1: their lives to the rediscovery of the mysteries of the
42:02
Speaker 1: heart or the discovery of the numerical key to prophecy,
42:07
Speaker 1: as in the spurious bestseller, The Bible Code. Just this
42:13
Speaker 1: past week, for example, I was sent an email by
42:15
Speaker 1: a good friend. And he really wanted to know because
42:17
Speaker 1: he doubted it, but he said, maybe you'd know better
42:20
Speaker 1: than I. But the email included an information that he
42:23
Speaker 1: had been sent by another friend. And the information said
42:27
Speaker 1: that Jesus, when he was on earth, revealed the identity
42:30
Speaker 1: of the Antichrist. 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 and transliterating the words and using all kinds
42:42
Speaker 1: of semantic footwork very cleverly. And he finds two words
42:46
Speaker 1: that 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 hogwash. Nonsense! Stay away from that
43:02
Speaker 1: kind of stuff, that stupid stuff. Believe me, the kind
43:06
Speaker 1: of Bible scholars of yesteryear, if the Antichrist could have
43:09
Speaker 1: been identified, he'd have long 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 until he arrives. And
43:21
Speaker 1: then you'll be shocked. And the magnificent winsomeness of the individual.
43:28
Speaker 1: He will have the world charmed By his presence and
43:33
Speaker 1: by his power and miracle working ability. Thanks to the
43:37
Speaker 1: source of his life and that's Satan. Always learning and
43:41
Speaker 1: never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
43:44
Speaker 1: I love the words of William Barclay here. We're not
43:46
Speaker 1: meant to titillate our minds with the latest intellectual crazies.
43:51
Speaker 1: We are meant to purify and strengthen ourselves in the
43:54
Speaker 1: moral battle to live the Christian life. Stay away from
43:58
Speaker 1: nonsense like that. It's silly, stupid, it's twisted, it's incorrect,
44:05
Speaker 1: it's false. Other than that, it might be worth your time.
44:11
Speaker 1: And you know what's dreadful about all of this? Verse 13,
44:15
Speaker 1: look at it again. Evil men and women and imposters
44:19
Speaker 1: will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
44:24
Speaker 1: He gives a biblical illustration here that's interesting, I find,
44:27
Speaker 1: verse 8. Just as Janna's and Jamboree's opposed Moses and
44:32
Speaker 1: you look in your, you look in your lexicon and
44:35
Speaker 1: I have, I have an exhaustive lexicon. It is exhausting
44:38
Speaker 1: as well. And I looked up every J word I
44:41
Speaker 1: could define Janna's or Jamboree's and they're not there except
44:45
Speaker 1: listed here from the passage that we're looking at now.
44:49
Speaker 1: But it says that there are Janna's and Jamboree's who
44:51
Speaker 1: opposed Moses. So I look back into Exodus, read through
44:55
Speaker 1: chapter 6, 7, 8, 9, when he's making his plea
44:58
Speaker 1: before Pharaoh to let the people go. And I don't
45:02
Speaker 1: find Janus and Jambres. What's interesting is by the time
45:06
Speaker 1: Paul writes his words, information about the sorcerers that Pharaoh
45:14
Speaker 1: used had broadened, had expanded. The Targums, for example, include
45:20
Speaker 1: the names Janus and Jambres. as among those that Pharaoh
45:24
Speaker 1: brought in to work his miracles. Quick background. Moses is
45:29
Speaker 1: speaking to Pharaoh, saying, I'm representing the living God. You're
45:32
Speaker 1: to let God's people go. And to prove that, Aaron
45:35
Speaker 1: brings his staff. The staff is dropped down. It turns
45:38
Speaker 1: into a snake. Remember the story? I mean, it's supposed
45:41
Speaker 1: to make Pharaoh go, whoa, that's got to be from God.
45:45
Speaker 1: So he lets the people go. Nope. Pharaoh calls in
45:48
Speaker 1: his magicians, among whom are Jannes and Jambres. says the Targums.
45:54
Speaker 1: And they do that same miracle with the power of Satan.
45:57
Speaker 1: So Pharaoh isn't fazed. I'm not going to let these
45:59
Speaker 1: people go. My men can do just what Aaron did.
46:04
Speaker 1: Look at the verse now. Just as Janice and Jambres
46:07
Speaker 1: opposed Moses, so these men opposed the truth. Men of
46:15
Speaker 1: a depraved mind and rejected in regard to the faith.
46:21
Speaker 1: How bad can it get? Corrupt and depraved in mind, counterfeit,
46:26
Speaker 1: rejected in 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 is to slit my wrist. I mean,
46:39
Speaker 1: this is terrible. How bad can this get? This is awful.
46:43
Speaker 1: But you haven't read verse 9. Don't miss verse 9.
46:49
Speaker 1: They will not make further progress. Isn't that a great word?
46:55
Speaker 1: Isn't that a great encouragement? All of this has a
46:59
Speaker 1: temporary shelf life. This evil that's going on, be encouraged.
47:05
Speaker 1: I know James Russell Lowell wrote, truth forever on the scaffold,
47:08
Speaker 1: wrong forever on the throne. Sounds like wrong is going
47:11
Speaker 1: to be ruling forever. Truth will hang on to the
47:13
Speaker 1: scaffold for dear life. But go to the rest of that.
47:18
Speaker 1: Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne.
47:20
Speaker 1: Yet that scaffold sways the future. And behind the dim
47:24
Speaker 1: unknown standeth God within the shadows, keeping watch above his own.
47:28
Speaker 1: I love the ending of it. It's called This Present Crisis,
47:31
Speaker 1: written by James Rosaloa. It has a thousand verses, but
47:35
Speaker 1: that's the best part of the whole thing. It's wonderful,
47:37
Speaker 1: wonderful words. It's like the book of Esther. You can't
47:40
Speaker 1: find God's name. So it's easy to think God's gone.
47:44
Speaker 1: But you've got God's footprint, God's handprint. God's voice is
47:48
Speaker 1: in the woodwork of the book of Esther. Just as
47:52
Speaker 1: God is at work right now, even though he's not
47:55
Speaker 1: standing on the edge of heaven whistling, saying, don't forget,
47:58
Speaker 1: I'm still in charge. God is at work. In the end,
48:03
Speaker 1: God wins. What a great thought. Why? Because the progress
48:08
Speaker 1: is going to appear to all. There is something patently
48:12
Speaker 1: spurious about heresies. There is something self-destructive in all evil.
48:20
Speaker 1: There's something self-evidently true about righteousness. Look at it. They
48:28
Speaker 1: will not make further progress. Their folly will be obvious
48:33
Speaker 1: to all, just as Janice and Jambree's folly was 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 1: In the end, God wins. One of the signs of
49:04
Speaker 1: youth is short-sightedness, and we start thinking it's all to
49:08
Speaker 1: no avail. Oh, what is it Jesus said? I will
49:12
Speaker 1: build my church, and what? The gates of Hades will
49:17
Speaker 1: not prevail against. it. That's a promise. That's reassuring. So
49:25
Speaker 1: when you hear the news and when you read the periodicals,
49:28
Speaker 1: when you watch the Dow Jones averages, it's easy to
49:30
Speaker 1: think all is lost. When you listen to talk show hosts,
49:33
Speaker 1: please don't spend a lot of time doing that. But
49:36
Speaker 1: if you listen to talk show, when you learn of
49:38
Speaker 1: 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
49:59
Speaker 1: obvious to all. Nothing will last of these. latest impostors,
50:05
Speaker 1: writes the message. Can I give you a principle that
50:09
Speaker 1: you can hang on to for this week? God specializes
50:13
Speaker 1: in overcoming overwhelming odds. God specializes in overcoming overwhelming odds.
50:22
Speaker 1: I've never seen America in worse condition than we are
50:24
Speaker 1: right now. I've never seen it in my lifetime. I've
50:29
Speaker 1: never seen more people depressed. I've never seen the economy
50:32
Speaker 1: do what it's done. I'm aware of that. But I
50:36
Speaker 1: also serve a God who is beyond our economy. I
50:39
Speaker 1: believe in a God who is greater than whoever may
50:42
Speaker 1: be calling the shots. And I trust in him. So
50:46
Speaker 1: maybe a few illustrations or a few examples and I'm closing.
50:50
Speaker 1: Joseph did live to see justice roll down. Pharaoh did
50:56
Speaker 1: finally let the Hebrews go. Moses and the Hebrews did
51:00
Speaker 1: cross 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
51:12
Speaker 1: forces of the enemy. David did defeat the much larger
51:16
Speaker 1: and more intimidating giant, Goliath. Daniel did survive the lion's den.
51:23
Speaker 1: Nehemiah did rebuild that wall around Jerusalem against incredible opposition.
51:28
Speaker 1: Jesus' resurrection did follow his crucifixion. And that handful of
51:34
Speaker 1: ordinary men called disciples, 11 of them did turn the
51:38
Speaker 1: world upside down. Isn't that good news? In the end,
51:42
Speaker 1: God wins. Say that. In the end, God wins. One
51:47
Speaker 1: more time. In the end, God wins. Let's bow our
51:52
Speaker 1: heads together. Perhaps in your short-sightedness, which is a characteristic
51:58
Speaker 1: of the youth and of those who are untaught, In
52:03
Speaker 1: your short-sightedness, you may have lost hope. You may have
52:10
Speaker 1: never come to know this Savior, Jesus, who died for
52:16
Speaker 1: you and has been raised for you. He stands available
52:21
Speaker 1: and ready and willing to invade and transform your life
52:27
Speaker 1: if you will simply trust him. Let us help you
52:31
Speaker 1: do that. When this meeting ends, we're right here. When
52:37
Speaker 1: this week unfolds, we're right here to help you on
52:42
Speaker 1: that journey. Remind us again and again, our Father, that
52:47
Speaker 1: in the end, you win. And when you win, all
52:54
Speaker 1: is well. All is well. In the meantime, these occasions
53:00
Speaker 1: in which we live Force us to drop to our
53:03
Speaker 1: knees and to look to you and say, Lord, get
53:07
Speaker 1: us through this. Lord, get us beyond this. Guard us
53:11
Speaker 1: from bitterness, disillusionment, retaliation, grudge. Keep us from becoming evil
53:18
Speaker 1: like the society around us. Make us winsome, gracious, confident
53:27
Speaker 1: Christians who stand for the truth, Against impossible odds. Human impossibilities.
53:35
Speaker 1: But not divine. And remind us again and again. That
53:39
Speaker 1: they will not make further progress. Their folly ultimately will
53:44
Speaker 1: be obvious. To all. Father I do pray. That you
53:51
Speaker 1: will find us faithful. Thank you for your. Winning ways.
53:58
Speaker 1: You have won our hearts. And today we. pledge our
54:02
Speaker 1: allegiance to you our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ in
54:06
Speaker 1: your name we pray everyone said Amen Duplication of copyrighted
54:14
Speaker 1: material for commercial use is strictly prohibited