2Tim 3:1-9
Them/Us/Him
Paul moved in his letter to Timothy from the present to the future.
Remembering that Paul was in prison, expecting soon to be executed,
it makes sense that at some point he would at least the future to
Timothy. \\#1-9\\ Describe the Coming Days.
There are three thoughts that we can gather from these words from
nothing more than a quick read of them.
1. This is future. \\#1\\ Paul used the phrase "shall come," the
future tense of the verb. There are some future days coming
that were to be bad days. Paul’s days were bad days. He and
many others were dying for Christ by some very cruel means;
yet, these coming days would be a different kind of bad days.
What was and is to come is uniquely bad. This is the future.
2. This is certain. Nothing can stop these coming days. No
amount of preaching, no amount of praying, no amount of
soul winning, no amount of reviving—nothing can stop these
coming days. God has determined that this is how the church
age will end. Now, while we cannot stop these days from
coming, we can do our best to keep them from coming in our
day. If we preach, if we pray, if we win others—perhaps we
can turn the tide of evil in our day, but even if we do, it
will come. How will we know if we are sucessful? The most
obvious wll be there will either be a revival or a rapture.
3. Things are going to get worse. What Paul was describing are
the last days, the days in which Jesus will come for the
church and the tribulation will begin. The fact that Jesus
has not returned for the church yet is an indication that we
have not reached the bottom of the barrel yet. Things are
going to get worse.
There are two ways to look at that fact:
a. We can consider ourselves in a sinful freefall.
b. We can consider this an opportunity to serve God!
As the title of the message suggests, this chapter is a chapter of
contrast. As we approach the coming days,
\\#1-9\\ describes their behavior,
\\#10-13\\ describes what should be our behavior,
\\#14-17\\ describes what Paul wanted Timothy’s behavior was to
be.
I. \\#1-9\\ The Coming Days-"THEM"-It is interesting how God used
different books to give us different details about the end time.
Some focus on the devil, rising in power. Some the church,
shrinking in power. This passage focuses mainly on the people.
A. \\#1-4\\ They will be slipping in character.
1. For 4 verses, Paul wrote about the evil character of
mankind in the coming days.
2. Words are used which paint the image of selfish; greedy;
arrogant, disrespectful to others, to parents, and to God;
having no natural affections; angry; violent; evil;
traitors; and pleasure seekers.
3. We are getting close to this kind of character but,
apparently, we have some more sinking we can do.
a. The "me, me, me" generation must grow some more.
b. A few more of the ethical must leave this world yet.
c. We were working at the church today and Danny
Collier’s came by to tell him to watch as his house
had been broken into. After, Brother Danny—not
trying to be critical, simply said of the man, "He
lives in a humble home and hasn’t got much. Why
would anyone break into his house?" The answer is
because we are to the place that a man would steal
your last two cents and think nothing of it. Yet, we
must sink lower yet.
d. Road rage must increase yet. We must get some "Little
League" rage, some basketball final rage, some "My
child didn’t make the honor roll" rage.
e. We need more public officials who will cheat on their
wives or husbands, who will sell their office and
influence, who will betray the people who elected
them. We have a lot of them, but more are coming.
f. We need more teachers to sleep with their students;
more preachers to deny the Bible they preach;
more trivial lawsuits to be awarded;
and more able body citizens to be on disability and
welfare.
4. It is sad to say but violence, theft, cheating, race
baiting, and bullying will yet step it up.
B. \\#5\\ They will have a shallow, shadow of godliness.
1. I find it interesting that the image of godliness will not
have completely disappeared in these days. The image,
the covering, the shadow of godliness will still be
visible—however, it will not run deep but will be
superficial, shallow, of a surface depth only.
a. A few years ago, we put some imitation wood flooring
into the parsonage. It looks like wood but it is not.
The surface is made to look that way, but it is
tougher and easier to care for than wood.
b. I have seen come commercials in which they say they
have a tile that looks like marble. It is not marble
but it looks like it.
2. Shallow, surface coatings do fine on floors and tiles, but
when it comes to godliness, a surface coat will not do.
3. Godliness must run deep—in fact, it must spring forth
from the converted and devoted soul or else will
accomplish nothing.
a. Take a sledge hammer and hit one of those marble
floor tiles like you would a marble slap and you will
find quickly what is marble and what is not.
b. Take a saw to the imitation floor and you will see
what is wood and what is not.
c. Put the trials of life to those with nothing more than
a form of godliness and you will find out what is
real and what is not.
4. The people living in the coming days may have the right
credentials and titles, but what they have will not even
help them, let alone others.
C. \\#6\\ They will be silly followers.
1. We seem to be moving from people in general to a
description of people in the churches during these
coming days.
2. The religious will follow those shallow shadows of
godliness.
3. Could it be that this passage is being fulfilled by
our Robert Shullers, Joel Osteens, and Benny Hinns?
a. I find it interesting that the Bible depicts this
phenomenal happening by the shallow shadows of
godliness "creeping into the houses" of silly women—
not the silly women coming to the house of the
shallow shadows of godliness.
(1) Isn’t that just how it is happening today?
(2) Television has made that possible.
b. I also find it interesting that these shallow shadows
of godliness will use lusts as their main ploy. "Sew
a seed and reap a financial harvest!"
c. And I find it interesting that these shallow shadows
of godliness will target women.
(1) Don’t be too offended.
(2) It may be because women are simply more tender to
God than men.
D. \\#7-8\\ They will have a short learning cycle.
1. Always learning but never growing in knowledge.
2. \\#8\\ Paul gave two examples, Jannes and Jambres who the
Hebrew targum said were the Egyptian magicians that
withstood Moses in \\#Ex 7:11\\.
3. I do not know if they targums got the names connected to
the right incident or not but I do know that somewhere in
Moses’ life Jannes and Jambres withstood him—not because
of a targum but because Paul under the inspiration of the
Holy Ghost said they did.
E. \\#9\\ All of these people will have a sure end.
1. The people of the coming days will be dealt with by Jesus
Himself when He returns.
2. And while it may seem to those who are living in those
days that there are no bounds on the behaviors of the
people, there will be—and when people cross it, God will
move things along to the next phase.
II. \\#10-13\\ Contrast-"US."
A. How the unbelievers and deceived behave in the end days is
between them and God, but we who the righteous have a way
that we will respond.
1. Note-The behavior of the righteous is not dictated by
the conditions around us or by the effect it has on
others.
a. In the days Paul was speaking of, behaving as God
leads will probably have very little impact on those
around us.
b. The godly will do it anyway.
2. Our behavior is dictated by the Word of God and we will
obey because it is the right thing to do.
B. \\#10\\ BUT - Paul connected what he was about to say about
himself and proper behavior back to the what he had said
about the behavior of those in the coming days.
1. Paul did not expand on specifics concerning his behavior
and life.
2. But he did encourage Timothy to follow his life not the
lives of those who would come in future days.
3. So do I. We may have to guess a bit as we look at some of
what Paul meant, but one thing is for certain, if a
Christian imitates Paul’s life, he will not go badly
wrong.
C. How did Paul live?
1. You know my doctrine.
a. Christians live according to what we believe.
(1) That is often in opposition to how we have been
treated or to what we want.
(2) Paul had been an example to that many times and
he refers to his being mistreated \\11-13\\.
b. The implication is that the righteous will do right
no matter what the world does or does to us.
c. Bob Jones use to say, "Do right. Do right. Though
the stars fall from heaven, do right!"
2. His purpose.
a. Paul had two primary purposes in life.
b. It was to glory God and to tell others about Jesus.
Ga 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ…
Php 1:21 For to me to live is Christ….
c. This should be our purpose—no matter what days we
live in and no matter how successful we are at it.
d. Christians must remember that we are not working for
the effect but for the effort. Our reward is based
on our effort. God will take care of the effect.
3. His faith. Paul had faith…
a. In the God who ruled over all things.
b. In His Son who died for our sins.
c. In the power of the Holy Ghost who could save sinners.
d. And in the reward of the righteous.
4. His suffering. They did not stop him.
5. His demonstration of love.
a. The word charity has changed some since our Bible was
translated but the general idea is still there.
b. When you do charity work, you are demonstrating your
love for others.
c. Paul demonstrated his love for Christ, for the church,
and for fallen man.
6. His patience.
a. If you read the life of Paul, you might conclude that
he was not patient with sin, but you would also have
to conclude that he put up with more than we would to
help sinners come to Christ.
b. That is patience.
7. His life.
a. A reference to the totality of Paul’s life.
b. Paul was mentioning some elements of his life, but
Timothy had been with Paul long enough to remember
much more than Paul was going to say.
III. \\#3:14-4:5\ Command - Relates specifically to Timothy’s
behavior.
2Tim 3:14 …continue thou in the things which
thou hast learned…
A. Take the things that you have learned of me and keep doing
them.
1. As far as Paul knew, Timothy would be alive in the days
that he had prophesied of in \\#1-9\\.
2. I do not think anyone thought the Lord would be gone for
2,000 years!
3. Paul wanted Timothy to do right regardless of what
direction the world went.
B. That is what I want for my life, for the lives of my family,
for the life of this church, and for your life.
Let’s ask God to make it so!
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