But Know This, and Continue

Paul’s teaching from 2 Timothy 3 presents prophecy as a practical gift that warns of the moral and spiritual decline of the last days, exposes the emptiness of mere outward religion, and calls believers simply to continue in the truth they have already received so they stay equipped for every good work until Christ returns.  

What difference does it make to keep walking in the Scriptures when the culture around us grows more self-focused and deceptive?

As you attend school or as some of us had attended school in the past, did all the subjects seem as important as one another? Did you perhaps have a subject that you thought, I just don’t see a lot of value in this long term. It’s funny, coincidentally, it came up as we were driving to services today. Some of my children prefer English, some prefer math. Not so much the science. I relate to the science thing. I didn’t particularly care for chemistry. I had to take it twice. Part of it’s because I had moved. But I remember the teacher trying to prove to each one of us that it is important, and it will be important in your life. And so he had us name, “What will your profession be?” And I’ll tell you why chemistry will be important for you. But you can’t really trick high school kids like that because they’re smart. It doesn’t always work. So when he came to me, I told him that I planned to be the president of the United States. And he tried to tell me why I need chemistry. I said, “No, I got people for that. I don’t need that. Chemistry is good, chemistry is important, and I’m glad that we have understanding for it, but we all have different proclivities and things that we enjoy.”

And that might be true also when it comes to our Bibles. There’s different topics that we might get into and really enjoy, and then some we might avoid. We just don’t understand it very well. It’s not as interesting to us. One of those is doctrine. Maybe a little boring, just saying it out loud, but doctrine is very important. What about Christian living and how it applies? That is what’s really important to me and really jumps out to me when I read through the Gospels. I get excited. What about prophecy? Prophecy for some people is very exciting, and for others, it’s not as exciting. Sometimes we push it aside, it’s not as important to us because maybe it’s hard to understand, or we’ve seen some people that get so wrapped up in the foretelling of the future that maybe they’re a little bit unbalanced, and we recognize that.

Well, there is a value to prophecy, tremendous value to prophecy, different things that we can receive from it, and God gave it to us in abundance. We think of Jesus Christ’s return, that’s an event that He told us will happen in the future, that’s prophecy. There’s a lot of that. And what do those things give us? Did He tell us all these things that will come to pass because He wanted us to feel proud? No, that’s not a reason for prophecy. Neither to share with us secret dates that only we know. Jesus even said, “I don’t even know. The date isn’t the important part.” Is it given to us so that we can draw people to ourselves, show people how important we are? No, that gets back to the pride thing.

The reason why prophecy is so valuable to us, well, there’s a list. That includes encouragement and hope, as we know, as things progress into the future. Despite the hard things we go through, there’s something wonderful coming. The good guys win. I personally like the good stories, the ones with the happy endings. That’s what the Bible is. Prophecy also reveals God to us. It shows us His plan, it shows us His work and His actions, and as we look back on fulfilled prophecy, it gives us that reverence and awe of the sovereignty, the divinity of our God. When’s the last time you went through the seventy weeks prophecy? I know you guys have here at North Canton several years ago. It’s an encouraging piece of information to see the details of God’s plans and that He makes them come to pass. It builds our faith. It helps us to be prepared. Knowing events that are going to come helps us to know what we need to do, how to be active. So prophecy is valuable in that way. And specifically, prophecy helps us to change how we live. It helps convict us about who we need to be, what we need to do. So prophecy is very valuable.

We’re going to look at some prophecy today, maybe not the place that you might think we would jump to. But this is a piece of prophecy, a piece of information given to us, and I’m specifically speaking of a foretelling of events, information coming ahead of time of what will come to place. We’re going to find this piece today in 2 Timothy chapter three. And for most of the message, we’re going to be in these passages, so if we jump out, just know that we’ll probably be coming right back.

Second Timothy chapter three, we have a personal letter, the second that we have recorded of Paul writing to Timothy, Timothy who was a pastor, Timothy that was a young man compared to Paul and had a lot of good instruction, he had a good foundation, a good base. Paul was continuing to encourage him and teach him about his role, about his steps, about how he could help other individuals. And so we read in 2 Timothy chapter three and in verse one, it says, “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come.” In the last days. This is prophetical. This is speaking of a time in the future from when he penned this paper. This is information in advance. Why do perilous times come? Well, if we read verses two to five, and we will, we notice that perilous times come because of the way men are acting. The way they are choosing to be, mankind is like this. Mankind has done this in the past.

But before we take a closer look at these symptoms that he mentions, we’re going to try to catch more of the context of the letter because there’s a greater purpose involved than just identifying what is coming. There’s a purpose involved. So let’s look at chapter two. We’re not going to review the whole letter, but let’s look at chapter two, and we’re going to jump through a few of these scriptures to catch a context. 2 Timothy chapter two, let’s read verses fifteen and sixteen. It says, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.” Paul is encouraging Timothy here, stick close to God, stick close to the foundation, the Word, avoid the others, avoid the rest that is out there.

Verse nineteen, he says, “Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal, the Lord knows those who are His, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor.” Paul talks about a contrast here. He talks about a contrast of people, and again, he’s saying, “Stay close to God. Stay close to God. Avoid the opposite. Know that the choice is yours.” Just like we had heard in the first message, we have a choice on whether or not to follow through with those commands. We have a choice in who we become.

Verse twenty-two, “Flee also youthful lusts, but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife.” You start to see a pattern here as Paul continues to encourage Timothy to pursue God, pursue the good things, stay away from those others, stay away from harmful things, stay away from vain things, those that don’t have spiritual value. One more here, verse 25. He writes, “In humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.” As Paul writes this personal letter, it is very clear it isn’t only about Timothy. Paul is teaching Timothy and how he can help others, and the pattern is the same. Teach others to stay close to God and to avoid the bad things, because we have an adversary that is out there. The adversary is consistent among the whole world. He is against us, the devil is against mankind.

And now this leads into where Paul is stating that in the last days perilous times will come. Now, what’s a little bit interesting in scripture is that there are evidences in Paul’s letters prior to this that he believed that the end was right then, that it was going to happen while he was there. Some examples are in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, when he says, “We who are alive,” you know the rest. The idea is that he pictured himself as being one of the living at the time of Christ’s return and the resurrection of the saints. 1 Corinthians 15 is similar. He says, “We shall not all sleep.” Romans thirteen verses eleven and twelve, he makes a comment, “The day is at hand.” But now as we get to Second Timothy and we’re near the end of his writings on earth, we can jump forward in the story, you can read in chapter four, where it seems that Paul does expect that he is going to die before Christ’s return. And so he’s writing to Timothy, part of that next generation. In the latter days, you are going to see these things. Be ready, he has a warning to give.

So we’re going to read through some of these descriptions here, and I’m going to ask the question, who in the Bible fits this description? Just consider today, who fits this that we’ve already seen, even though we know this is prophetical, verse two of chapter three. Perilous times will come for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. As you’re thinking about where this fits biblically, what do you think? Where have we seen this before in the Bible? On one level, we could say, “Well, mankind in general fits this. Don’t we have bad examples going all the way back to Genesis?” And the answer is, “Yeah.” At one point, God said, “Enough,” and He caused a flood, and He took humanity off the planet except for one man and his family. So how then would this be helpful that this is going to happen again at the end time?

Well, maybe we would say, “Okay.” If you go back and look at what some of Jesus said about the time of His return, He said things would be going around pretty much like normal, like in the days of Noah. People’d be marrying and giving in marriage, so maybe there’s a clue there that we can see that it’s going to be a surprise because mankind hasn’t changed. But is there a people that really fits this description well? What about the Pharisees? What if we went through the Gospels? Looked at the interactions of the Pharisees with God’s people and with Jesus Christ, would they fit some of these descriptions of the woes that Paul say will happen in the end times? I think that you could find examples for every single description. In fact, I invite you to take some time and do that for a Sabbath study, for a study of your own. See if you can line up these descriptions with actions and words of the Pharisees.

For example, lovers of themselves, that first one. If we turn to Matthew chapter twenty-three, we can read Jesus’ interaction with the Pharisees. I’m not going to turn there now. But you notice that they’re clearly self-seeking. They do think something of themselves. They’re pretty proud. The next one here, lovers of money, in verse two, lovers themselves, lovers of money. The author of the book of Luke, Luke, literally wrote Luke 16 verse 14. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money. It’s exact. They absolutely were lovers of money. How about were they boasters? Well, in the Book of John, the Pharisees brag that they are disciples of Moses. They’re pretty proud about that. We understand that Jesus gave the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector going up to the temple, and what did the Pharisee do? He boasted to God. I’m not going to go through each one of these, but let’s read them all, at least.

Verse two, “For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from such people turn away.” So as we continue to consider the Pharisees here, just this last one here, a form of godliness, could we say that the Pharisees had a form of godliness? They fasted, they tithe, they prayed, they prayed publicly, they were well versed, they knew the scripture, they dressed the part.

Hold my spot here and jump to Matthew chapter fifteen. Matthew chapter fifteen. Here’s one of the interactions. In verse one, Matthew chapter fifteen, the scribes and the Pharisees who were from Jerusalem came to Jesus saying, “Why do your disciples transgress the tradition of the elders, for they don’t wash their hands when they eat bread?” I just want to jump down to verse seven here, as Jesus is talking to them, he says, “Hypocrites, hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying, ‘These people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, and in vain they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” They had a form of godliness.

This warning that Paul delivers to Timothy can carry with us to today, as we understand that we’re closer to the end of this age than Paul was. After the time of Jesus Christ, religion can be separated from true worship and love of God. It has been done before, and Paul warns it will happen in the latter times. He doesn’t say can happen, he says it will happen. Now, warnings in scripture typically precede suggestion or advice what we can or should do with the warning. And immediately Paul says, “Well, turn away from these people.” But there’s more that he said about this circumstance and about what will happen in the latter days.

So we’re going to keep reading through here, verse six of chapter three, Second Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 6. For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women, loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, always learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. As we read this scripture, does it give you vibes of the serpent and the Garden of Eden creeping into a household? A lot of the translations say worming their way in. You kind of get the idea of the slither, the deception. This word for gullible women or silly is like six syllables in Greek, so I’m not even going to try. It’s G 1133. It’s the only time this word is used. And it says a little woman, but we understand the context of what Paul is talking about is somebody spiritually vulnerable. He’s not literally talking about little women being a target, he’s talking about those spiritually vulnerable. That could really apply to any within the church, not just women. Those that are vulnerable, they’re targets. They will be targets.

And as it says in verse seven, they’re constantly have this desire to learn. But they don’t come to that complete knowledge, they don’t come to that fear of the Lord, they’re interested in something different. And this can be said in different ways. One that ties to the study we’ve been going through in James is that belief, faith without works is dead. We can’t only be learning. We must be practicing, we must be doing. We must learn the fear of the Lord that comes through doing, that comes through action and practice. And Paul’s giving Timothy that encouragement for, not just him, for the brethren. That applies to us.

Verse eight now is Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses. Now those might have a silent J or we say Jannes if we’re pronouncing it from the Greek, but we’re not Greek, so Jannes and Jambres, those are magicians from Egypt. Now, in your Bible margins, you might have a reference here to Exodus seven through twelve, but what you’d notice in Exodus is it doesn’t actually say the names, it just says Egyptian magicians. But there are Jewish traditions that talk about these two being well known at one time as those magicians. This goes beyond the Jewish traditions and church fathers after the teachers that we have recorded in the Bible that brought it up. There’s actually pagan references that also identify these two names as Egyptians within Egypt. And then there’s a likely Dead Sea Scroll reference, but some of that stuff is a little bit harder to determine, but that predated Paul, so our conclusion is that he was speaking about the Egyptian magicians and they just didn’t feel like you need to explain it, and two thousand years later we’re like, “Are we sure?” Well that’s our conclusion.

So these Egyptian magicians, they attempted to discredit God. When Moses and Aaron did something that was truly miraculous, well, they did this thing that was a mimicry of it. They tried to produce a similar result, and if they did that successfully, it would make Moses look like a fake, somebody that’s not real, somebody that’s not genuine. Especially to Pharaoh, but also to the other Israelites. So verse eight, now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds disapproved concerning the faith. These men had contentions with the true word of God. They had these clever arguments, these suppositions, these ways to make somebody question and challenge the authenticity of God’s word. He said to expect that, like the Egyptian magicians tried to do, but as we know, God’s truth stands. Those magicians were proven to be the insincere, the ingenuine, they weren’t the real. God’s power is the real, and just like that, these individuals will be proven over time for what they are. In the New King James, it says disapproved, but some of the others will say the reprobate or the disqualified or the counterfeits. In regards to the faith. It’s part of the warning that we’re given of what will happen in the latter days.

Verse nine. But they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was. We’re still waiting for the advice. We’re still waiting for what does Paul have to say about these things? What instruction do we have? Verse ten. But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. And Paul, at different times, writes proof down of who he was. Because as you can imagine, with the false teaching also came the arguments against somebody like Paul. So Paul, at different times, lists, “Here is the proof a true Christian acts.” A true Christian does, has fruits, and proves who they are by how they live, what they say, what they do. They stand on that truth, and the reality is we all go through hard things in our lives. Sometimes the Christians do because they’re Christians.

The learning that a true Christian does goes beyond hearing, understanding, being able to recite, and moves into action. Who they are. And ultimately, despite the persecution that does happen, will happen, they are delivered. The good guys win. Jesus Christ will return, even those that were martyred will be resurrected, and there’s nothing that the opponents can do concerning God’s ultimate judgment, mercy, love, and power. We’re told to be good even when they’re not good to us. Paul was. Paul was good even though he suffered those things. And we’re supposed to be like our Father in Heaven. Matthew chapter five, Jesus says, “Be like our Father.” He’s good to everybody. He makes it rain on the good and the bad. Despite what they say, despite what they do to us in persecution, we’re still supposed to be that light, the steady, the constant, the true. Proving who we are and what we do.

Verse thirteen, continuing here, “But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” The end result from a life of sin is a spiral into this unhappy, inglorious ending. I like to read this from the Amplified version, it gives a little bit more depth. Amplified version of verse thirteen says, “But wicked men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and leading astray others, and being deceived and led astray themselves.” These people, they stumble. They’re stumbling in the dark, and people don’t stumble in the dark accidentally onto the path of God. The path of God is something that He calls people to. It’s a special invitation, but we know the consequence of it. They deceive others, and they themselves are self-deceived. They may truly believe the things that they say, even though they’re not true.

This certainly fit Judah, in the time of Paul and shortly after, as we go through the histories, we read about their contentions and their fightings amongst themselves. Even when Jerusalem was taken over by the Romans, siege destroyed, ultimately in AD 70, even during the siege, there were factions of the Jewish people that were still fighting with one another inside. They weren’t unified. You can read about that from Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews. But the question we want to ask is, as Paul is putting this context into the latter days, can we see this in our world today? What about our country and our culture that we live in? Do you feel like our leaders have been increasingly moral or having high integrity as time has gone on? Over two hundred and fifty years, can we look and say we’ve gotten even more righteous? I think many of us would say, “No, no, we don’t see that.” In our country or culture, do we feel that deception is very uncommon, it doesn’t happen very often, or is it a normal thing? How about identity theft? How many of you got a text or a call or an email trying to solicit information for you over the last month? Probably about everybody. It’s very common. They have no shame, apparently no guilt over stealing from anybody. Doesn’t have to just be the wealthy, it can be the poor widow. Shame on them.

Is it limited to our country and our culture? Are we just the bad guys? Look around the world. The world has a lot of dysfunction, dishonesty, pride. Loving of themselves, we are in the latter days. There are a lot of good-intentioned people. And we know that there are people that we are grateful to have as neighbors or family that don’t have the whole truth of God, but we know the end of self-deception of those that don’t have the truth. Sin is sneaky. It doesn’t ask to go completely against all morality, it just asks for compromise, one piece at a time. Compromise in this? Compromising that, forgive yourself for this, and on and on until the morals that maybe were once espoused are now, well, they’d be good if other people listened to them. It’s sneaky.

Paul has advice for Timothy that we need to consider for ourselves as we are in the latter days. Now, we’ll notice it doesn’t say you need to hunt and identify who these people are. Find them. It doesn’t say that. No, the instruction is for ourselves, and if we follow it, we can be a help to others, just like Timothy. So verse fourteen, finally. But as for you, continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Again, Paul isn’t telling Timothy at the end of this, “Boy, you need to know who these people are, identify these false teachers. You need to figure out dates. You need to convince others that you are correct.” He doesn’t say these things. He tells Timothy, “Know this, these things will happen,” and then he says, “Continue.” Continue to stay close to God. It’s a simple message, but it’s priceless advice. Priceless advice for us. And it’s encouraging because this is so doable. We can do this. It’s not something so far off or hard to achieve. We can learn to fear God on a regular basis. We can learn and grow and continue in the path.

So we’re going to briefly go through some takeaways here. In verse fourteen, as he says, “Continue in these things.” The takeaway is to continue in what you have learned. Now, some of us have come into the faith later than others. Continue into the faith that you have learned from when you have. That faith is given to us by God. Romans chapter twelve verse three mentions, “We are given that.” Continue in practice. Verse 15, the takeaway is to know the Bible, know it, know the Holy Bible. This doesn’t happen by coming to services once a week. That’s a good thing, and we should do that. But one service a week won’t make you knowledgeable of the Bible. This leads to wisdom. Wisdom is that action that’s applied to the knowledge that we have. Wisdom for salvation, as Paul puts it. What does salvation mean to you? Eternal life, forgiveness, a life of purpose. That’s a good purpose. So know the Bible, and this points back to the first point of continuing. Know the Bible that helps us to continue the faith, the faith, our faith that is in Christ Jesus, our King, our Savior, our elder brother.

Verse sixteen, all scripture is given by inspiration of God. We can, here’s the takeaway, go to God’s word to learn and for help. Go to God’s word to learn. That’s doctrine, beliefs, principles. That’s instruction, instruction in righteousness. That’s where we go to learn the good things. But we also go to the Bible for correction, help, and sometimes we just need a little course correction. It’s all there. All that we need is in here. Paul encourages, “Go to it for the help that we need. Go to God’s Word.” And in verse 17, last takeaway, “Be ready. Be complete.” Be ready and equipped for work, not just to know, for work, every good work. God has an expectation for us to be, not just to know. This fits with words that Jesus gave in Matthew chapter twenty-four and twenty-five. Where he’d let his people know that they needed to be prepared, they needed to be ready, and they needed to be doing when Christ returns. We need to be equipped so that we can do these works.

So why is prophecy important? Why is it important for us to know events in the future? It’s for encouragement, it’s for hope, it’s for helping us to be able to move forward. It reveals God, it reveals His plan, it reveals His purpose. It shows His divinity when we can look back and understand all the things that God said Christ would do and that He has completed, and then hope for what He will come and do again in the future. Prophecy helps us to be prepared. And it helps us to change how we live, because it convicts us.

So in 2 Timothy, Paul adds to his encouragement for Timothy to stay close to God by sharing with Timothy some prophecy about the last days. He gives him a warning of what will come. And then he shares with him what should be done. We know the unfortunate direction that mankind goes. We know that even in sincerity, some people disconnect worship with true worship or religion with worship of God and following through with love of Him. But we, by reading our Bible daily, can stay connected to God, and that is an essential part of being a Christian soldier. Being connected and ready for every good work that God has for us to do, knowing that we are living in the prophesied latter days, the worst time before Christ’s return.