2 Timothy Study #7

“It Ain’t a Pretty Picture”

2 Timothy 3:1-9

Study #7 in 2 Timothy Series 

INTRODUCTION:

In my library I have a novel by an Irish author named Frank Delaney. The book is simply entitled, Ireland, and back when it was written in 2005 it was on the New York Times Bestseller List for quite a while. Delaney was born in County Tipperary in the South-Central part of the Republic of Ireland, and he is an amazing storyteller. His word-pictures are so well done that in your mind’s eye you can see the scenes that he describes, and hear the sounds, and smell the fragrances. He paints pictures with words, beautiful pictures, captivating pictures. Words have great power, to instruct, to inspire, to lift us up, or to bring us down. Words paint pictures that do not require canvases or oils or brushes.

TRANSITION:

In our text for this week the Apostle Paul paints a picture with words of what the world will be like in what he calls, “the last days.” He is not specific as to the date when these things will occur, but under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit he was allowed to look down through the corridor of time to see a future day when these things would become reality.

Specifically, he is looking at human beings and the direction in which humanity is traveling. Of course, we know that since the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden mankind has had a serious sin problem. God tells us in His Word that all of us are sinners, both by nature and by choice, and all of us fall far short of His perfect standard in every way. Every son of Adam and every daughter of Eve is wicked to the core and in need of a Savior and it has been like that since the Fall. However, the Bible also says that humanity is in a downward slide, growing worse and worse, and here in 2 Timothy 3 Paul gives us specifics of what to look for as time draws to a close, and we move into what he calls the “last days.”

However, I believe we are already there. I believe that he is describing our present reality. I believe that the characteristics of “last days people” are what we see all around us. And I believe that it will not be long before King Jesus returns to wrap up this whole sorry mess that we have made.

NOTES on the Text:

Verse 1: But realize this that in the last days difficult times will come. 

• “But realize this…” The Greek imperative verb, gínoske, means to understand, to comprehend, to know deeply and completely. It is much more than surface knowledge. What are we to understand? That “in the last days difficult times will come.” To what “last days” is Paul referring? This phrase has already appeared in these letters. Look back at 1 Timothy 4:1-3. “But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, ² by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, ³ men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth.” So, Paul has already broached this subject of what things are going to be like in the end times. The Spirit of God has given him some insights into what is coming. As I look around, I believe we are living in those times he was only seeing from afar. For us it is our present reality, and for this reason we need to pay close attention to this instruction.
• “…difficult times will come.” What does Paul mean by “difficult times”?  The word means grievous, or hard. But what will make these last days difficult? Hold that thought for a while and we will come back to it later.

Verse 2: For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,   

• “For men [i.e., people, generic usage] will be…” So here we start to get an idea of what Paul was thinking. He foresees changes happening in people, and these are not changes for the better. In verses 2-5 Paul gives 19 specific descriptions of how people will be in the “last days.” Let’s take a brief look at them, one by one.
• #1. Last days people will love themselves and will emphasize things like self-worth, self-value, and self-esteem. Sound familiar? They will become the center of their own little universes, thinking mainly of what is good for them.
• #2. Last days people will be in love with money, willing to do anything to get more of it, no matter who gets hurt. They will be greedy!
• #3. Last days people will be boastful [an old word meaning an empty pretender] – “I did this, I did that, I built those, Look at me,” etc.
• #4. Last days people will be arrogant/haughty, [lit. “to appear over”, means “showing oneself above others”]. They will constantly be comparing themselves to others, seeking advantage.
• #5. Last days people will be revilers [lit. blasphemers], speaking terrible things about God and about His people, attacking their character and Christian values.
• #6. Last days people will be disobedient to their parents, and not just disobedient but refusing to honor, respect, or care for their parents.
• #7. Last days people will be ungrateful, with an attitude of entitlement, never satisfied with what they have, but always wanting more.
• #8. Last days people will be unholy, holding nothing as “sacred,” including marriage, sex, promises, their word, etc.

Verse 3: unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 

• #9. Last days people will be unloving [Greek, astórgoi, without family love/parental love], having no natural tenderness or compassion but hardened, even against those closest to them including parents, siblings, and children.
• #10. Last days people will be irreconcilable [lit. trucebreakers], so rigid in their thinking that they refuse to bend or change, even to make and keep peace.
• #11. Last days people will be malicious, diabolical gossips [lit. diáboloi], slandering whomever and whatever they do not like or understand.
• #12. Last days people will have no self-control, doing whatever feels good without thinking of the consequences.
• #13. Last days people will be brutal, enjoying inflicting pain on themselves and others, viewing it as a sport.
• #14. Last days people will hate things that are good and pure, preferring things that are dirty, sordid, and shameful.

Verse 4: treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 

• #15. Last days people will be treacherous [lit. traitors], turning even on those closest to them, stabbing friends, spouses, business partners, and children in the back to gain advantage for themselves.
• #16. Last days people will be reckless [lit. falling forward], seeking cheap thrills just for the “rush”, risking everything for nothing in return.
• #17. Last days people will be conceited and vain [lit. puffed up], self-absorbed and preoccupied with their appearance, weight, physique, and sexual prowess. They are filled up with the fetid gases produced by their putrid pride.
• #18. Last days people will love pleasure more than they love God, having their priorities completely inverted and twisted.

Verse 5: holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power. Avoid such men as these.

• #19. Last days people will embrace their own self-made religious ideas, rather than biblical truths, settling for a counterfeit Christianity devoid of real Holy Spirit power.

• And how does Paul say we should deal with such people described by these 19 characteristics? “Avoid such men as these,” meaning, “avoid these kinds of people.” But then how can we ever win them to Christ? If we refuse to engage with them, how will they ever hear the life-changing truth of the Gospel? Remember, this instruction is given in the context of church doctrine and practice. Paul would certainly say that we can engage them on the outside, in society, but we cannot tolerate such people within the membership and fellowship of the church. There is a big difference!

Verse 6: For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 

• Here is where things really start to get interesting! And ladies, I am hoping you will hear me out before you start throwing tomatoes at me. Paul says that among these last-days pseudo-Christians are scoundrels who will talk their way into people’s homes to lead folks astray. He uses the verb “to creep” to describe how they get in, much like cat-burglars and cockroaches. He says that they sneak in and take gullible, sin-filled women captive with their lies. Here he uses a military term that means to take prisoners in war. He is saying that these guys sneak in and wreck homes, marriages, churches, and families by finding the weakest link.
• I am not saying that women are weak or naïve or stupid. However, we need to keep in mind that Satan first attacked Eve. In that case the devil knew that she was the weakest link so that was where he struck first. But why would Paul zero in specifically on women like this?
• Go back and reread verses 6 and 7 together. Paul uses three identifiers to describe why certain women make easy targets:

1.    “Weak women weighed down with sins” Now do not jump to conclusions. They are not weak because they are women, but because they are sinful. Sin will always make a Christian weak, whether male or female. Sin robs us of spiritual strength and vitality. These women are only weak because of their sins.

2.    “…led on by various impulses” Christians are to be “led by the Spirit” not by their impulses. Acting from emotion rather than from principle and reason will often lead us into trouble, and women often make emotional decisions, let’s face it.

Verse 7: always learning and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

3.    “…always learning and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Did you know that women are by far the biggest buyers of books, but especially of self-help books? Did you know that by far they make up the majority of users of psychologists, counselling centers, and help-seminars? They buy and read books like The Shack and sign up for “The Course” [aka, ACIM, A Course in Miracles]; they watch Oprah and fall for every shaman and spiritual whack-job that walks across her stage; they watch Joel Osteen on TV and think he is just “wonderful, and so spiritual.” They are by far the major movers and shakers of nearly every charismatic church. In fact, if the women were to pull out, the Charismatic Movement would fall apart. 

• We must always remember that the “natural man” cannot understand spiritual truth. The veil must be removed first, and according to 2 Corinthians 3:14-16, that only happens when people turn fully to Christ. Listen. Paul is referring here to the Jews, but it applies to any unbeliever: “But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is only removed in Christ.  ¹⁵ But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; ¹⁶ but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” So that is why I believe that these “weak women” Paul is describing here in 2 Tim. 3 are not genuine believers, but rather are self-deluded, trying to fool themselves and everybody else. Sadly, the more these women search, the more lost and confused they get because they are not searching in the right place.

Verses 8: Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. 

• Now Paul gives us an object lesson rooted in the Old Testament. It is interesting though, the way he does it, because he refers to two guys we have never heard of before, and whose names appear only here in the pages of Scripture. He is referring to a situation described back in Exodus 7:8-13, although in that passage the men in question are not mentioned by name. However, their names have come down to us through the mists of time, kept alive by Jewish storytellers who still love to recount the details of what happened back then.
• Maybe you remember the story. God told Moses and Aaron to go to Pharaoh and command him to let the children of Israel to go free; to make their way up to Canaan to the Promised Land that God was giving to them. However, Pharaoh refused to listen so in obedience to God Moses told Aaron to throw his staff on the ground, and immediately it became a serpent. The Scriptures record: “Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts. For each one threw down his staff and they turned into serpents. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.” Now although their names are not listed here, Jewish history records that the names of the two principal shamans in Pharaoh’s court were Jannes and Jambres. Along with Pharaoh they stood in opposition against God and against the leadership of Moses and using their “black arts” they were able to do a couple of counterfeit miracles, but in the end were made to look stupid. And it happened several times. They tried their best to match Moses’ miracles one-for-one but after the first three they ran out of gas and said to Pharaoh, “This is the finger of God.” They had run out of options and were made to look foolish in the eyes of Pharaoh and all who were in Egypt.
• Now look again at what Paul says here in verse 8: “Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.” Look at the three things Paul observes about the false teachers of our day.
• “They oppose the truth” This word means to take a stand against.
• “They have depraved [lit. corrupted] minds” This is what happens when people reject the truth.
• “They have been rejected [lit. not standing the test] in regard to the faith” Their moral sense has been perverted and their minds have become clouded with their own futile speculations.
• In other words, they have proved by their attitudes and actions that they are not really Christians at all, but fakes and charlatans. 

Verse 9: But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’ and Jambres’ folly was also. 

• “But they will not make further progress” God will only let these wicked people go just so far, and then He will pull the plug on them, and on all who oppose the truth and spread lies.
• “…for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’ and Jambres’ folly was also.” What Paul is predicting is that the fact that these men are wicked fools will eventually be proved to everyone. It will be made obvious, just as in the case of the two men who went toe-to-toe with Moses and lost. In the Bible, “folly” always includes wickedness, not just stupidity. “The FOOL saith in his heart, ‘There is no God.’”
• Remember that God will always have the final word and the “last laugh.” The Bible says in Galatians 6:7, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” And in Psalm 2:1-4 we see puny man shaking his fist at God and making big threats; but notice what God thinks of men who try to rebel against Him and deny His lordship over them: “Why are the nations so angry? Why do they waste their time with futile plans? The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the Lord and against His anointed one [lit. Christ/Messiah]. ‘Let us break their chains,’ they cry, ‘and free ourselves from slavery to God.’ But the One who rules in Heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them.” 

CONCLUSION:

In the beginning of this study, I said that we would revisit the phrase we found up in verse 1 where Paul says, “But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.” My question is this, “What makes these last days so difficult?” Certainly, the answer is related to the 19 characteristics Paul lays out describing the actions and attitudes of “last days people.” We know that because verse 2 starts out, “For men will be…” Let me see if I can summarize what I think Paul had in mind here.

These last days are difficult because…

1.    So many of the things happening around us run totally counter to Christian teaching, yet these “last days people” claim to be Christians.

2.    We are unsure how to confront sin in professing Christians in our churches, so we shirk away from even getting involved.

3.    These are church-splitter kinds of issues that bring disunity to the Body, but we feel inadequate to take them on.

4.    We are ashamed and convicted of sins in our own lives and feel unworthy to deal with the sins of others, no matter what they might be. 

I believe we are already in the “last days” because like never before, these are the marks of our civilization and much of the American Church. But do not despair! God is still in control, and He has His hand on the rudder. We can trust Him no matter what the future may bring! Look up, for redemption draws nigh!