The Danger of Misplaced Love

1:20On april twelfth, nineteen sixty three, Martin Luther King Jr. and fifty civil rights leaders were arrested in Birmingham, Alabama. Alabama. Their peaceful demonstrations were intended to bring national awareness to racism and its impact on the African American community in one of the most segregated cities in our nation. That same day that he was arrested, eight Alabama clergymen published a statement calling African Americans to withdraw their support from Dr. King and from the peaceful demonstrations, calling them unwise and untimely.

2:01On April 16th, four days later, King was still in jail, and he read the statement. He requested a pen and paper, and he wrote what is the defining document of the civil rights movement, the letter from Birmingham Jail. He says this in the letter: I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the white citizen's counselor or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to order than to justice, who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace, which is the presence of justice, who constantly says, I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action, who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom, who lives by a mythical concept of time. And who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a more convenient season?

3:05Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection. King is lamenting in this letter whom he calls the white moderate. These people who are neither on the extreme side of the white citizens' counselor or the Ku Klux Klanner, nor are sympathetic and helpful to their cause, but those people in the middle, many of whom who profess to be Christians, because what he says is that they loved order more than they loved justice.

3:49They loved order more than they loved justice. In other words, they had misplaced love. And their misplaced love led them to directly or indirectly oppose the truth that all men have been created equal by God and therefore deserve equal rights and treatment. They caused further delay in the pursuit of justice for all. But, friends, misplaced love is not confined to 1960s Alabama. Misplaced love and its evidence are all around us today. We see evidence of it everywhere. It's a basic experience that we've all seen and participated in since the beginning of time.

4:30And the authors of Scripture generally refer to this as idolatry. That is, loving someone or something other than God, or more than God. That's what misplaced love is called in Scripture. And that misplaced love leads us to oppose that which God has revealed to be true, both through creation and through his word. And so, friends, what we're going to learn as we go through 2 Timothy 3, verses 1 through 9 today, is that misplaced love results in opposition to the truth. Let's take a look now at verse 1.

5:06Paul begins and says, Understand this: that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Now, this phrase, the last days, is probably familiar to you if you have been in the church for any length of time. It's also known as the end times. And what it's describing is the period between Jesus' ascension into heaven, 40 days after his resurrection, and when he returns again, his second coming. In Acts chapter 2, all of these Jewish people from around the world had come back to Jerusalem. It was the time of Pentecost, this great celebration.

5:45They had come back, and the gospel was preached, and many people believed the good news and were gathered together. And when they believed the good news, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them, and they began speaking in other languages. Everybody could hear the word of God, the gospel message, declared in their own language. And so some people began to say, well, these men are just drunk. They're just being crazy. And Peter said, no, no, they're not drunk. This is a fulfillment of what the prophet Joel said hundreds of years before. Look at Acts chapter 2 on the screen. Peter said, In the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.

6:38Even on my male servants and female servants, in those days I will pour out my spirit, and they shall prophesy. And the reason that this is important to remember is because a lot of times we think of the last days as something that are way far off. We read this in Scripture and we think this is a long time from now when things really start to go south, but it's clear from Joel's prophecy and Peter's pointing out that it was fulfilled when the Holy Spirit came in the first century that we are now living in the last days.

7:09The last days are just the time between Jesus' ascension into heaven and when he returns again. We are living in the last days. And what does Paul say is coming in the last days? Times of difficulty. And that phrase translates this Greek word that means something like great. Trouble and suffering. It implies violence that's going to happen. And Timothy needs to understand that because, as we say often here at New Life, our expectations determine our responses.

7:48Our expectations determine our responses. And if you have had a recent relational conflict with your spouse, with your boyfriend or girlfriend, with your roommate, with a friend, chances are, in more cases than not in the room, it was due to differing expectations. I thought you were going to do this chore and you didn't. I thought you were going to be home at this time and you weren't. I thought we were going to do this and not that. The expectations determine our responses.

8:19And it's the same way in the Christian life generally. So if we believe as Christians, what many people in our country believe, what many people in Africa today believe, what many people around the world are being taught, that if you follow Jesus, you will be healthy and wealthy, what's going to happen when suffering and trial come into your life? You only have two things to conclude at that moment. Either one, God lied to me, or two, I must not have enough faith. Because if I had more faith, I wouldn't be going through this struggle.

8:58You see, Paul doesn't say there must be a faithfulness. Might come times of difficulty in the last days. He says there will be times of difficulty in the last days. And in the same way, Jesus does not say in this world, you might have trouble. That might happen. No, he says, in this world, you will have trouble. That is coming for you. So it was critical for Timothy to understand this and for ourselves to understand this, because this was not going to be a temporary storm that we could just ride out if we all hunker down for a while.

9:31No, instead, this is going to be the state of our world from the time that Jesus went into heaven until the time that he returns. We could be in this for a very long time. We've been in this for 2,000 years so far. So Timothy needed to understand that. And friends, Jesus has not yet returned, which means that we are still living in the last days. But it doesn't seem that many Christians, many professing Christians, are aware of that.

9:59It doesn't seem like many of us are expecting to be living in difficult times. And I observe that, and you probably have as well, that instead of laying down our rights, instead of turning the other cheek, instead of being ready and willing to accept persecution, we've done the opposite a lot of the time. We've demanded our rights. We have rebelled against being persecuted and ostracized. We've acted surprised when those things have happened. To us. But I want you to listen to this description of Christians from the first century. Look at the screen, Hebrews chapter 10. The author says, But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward, for you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.

11:18What a challenging passage. I think sometimes when we read the Bible, we come to the conclusion, you read the book of Acts, or you see these descriptions, you're like, man, people in the first century were just superstar Christians. They were just more faithful. They were just willing to endure all of these things without complaint. Friends, the reality is they were men and women and children, just like you and me. They weren't super Christians. But what we do learn is that they were prepared through the teachings of Jesus and through the teachings of the apostles to be ready to receive trial and suffering. They weren't under any misconceptions. To become a Christian was to sign up for a life of hardship. And I think we've lost. Some of that. We no longer expect to suffer for Christ, but we should because we're living in the last days, and Paul says there's going to be times of difficulty. And starting in verse 2, Paul is going to tell us why this is the case. Look at verse 2.

12:17He writes: For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. See, many people look around the world today and they think, okay, things are so difficult because of global warming or global cooling. Natural disasters are the biggest problem that we're facing. Hurricanes and tornadoes and earthquakes and tsunamis.

13:10But Paul says that in the last days, natural disasters are not going to be the biggest problem that we're going to face. He says, human sinfulness is going to be the biggest problem that we face. This list is long. There are 19 words or phrases that are used to describe people living in the last days. Days, and when you read this list, immediately you're like, Yes, yes, that is true. That accurately describes the world that we are living in today.

13:43And when you read this list, you realize that the whole problem can be succinctly summarized as misplaced love. When you read this list, it begins and ends with this idea that we've loved someone or something more than we love God. We love someone or something more than we love God. And the rest of the terms in the list just add clarity to those truths. So I want to look at those three main categories and all of the subcategories that fall under them now. First, Paul says people are going to be lovers of self rather than lovers of God.

14:25I mean, the whole human problem can basically be boiled down to this one sentence. We love ourselves instead of God. That is basically the whole human problem. Our sinful nature was passed down from Adam and Eve, and that means we are born as lovers of self. And if you have children of your own or if you work with children on a regular basis, you know this is the case. From birth, kids scream to get their own. Way. From birth, kids are just naturally bent towards loving themselves rather than God or others. We know this is the case from our experience. So the rest of Paul's descriptions just add clarity to what he means when he says we are lovers of self rather than lovers of God. First, lovers of self are proud.

15:26We're proud. We think that we're better than we really are. Lovers of self are arrogant and swollen with conceit. Not only are we proud, not only do we think that we're better than we really are, but we're arrogant and swollen with conceit, meaning that we let everybody else around us know that we are better than them. That's what those terms mean. Lovers of self are ungrateful. When you love yourself more than you love God or other people, you carry around a sense of entitlement.

16:03So you just think, because I am better than everybody around me, I deserve better. I don't deserve to have to wait in line. I don't deserve to be treated in certain ways. I love myself, and therefore I'm ungrateful. I just expect to be treated well. Lovers of self are slanderous. Lovers of self speak ill of other people. See, all of those things, and Paul summarizes this well in Romans chapter. 1, what it looks like to be a lover of self and why. Look on the screen. He's describing the human race. He says, For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

17:00He says in that text that we don't, we're not grateful to God for creating us in his image and likeness. Instead, we've swapped it out. We've swapped his glory for the glory of mortal man, rather. We've exchanged his perfect image for images resembling people and animals and things. We are idolaters at heart with misplaced loves. We're lovers of self rather than lovers of God. He goes on and he says, Second, we'll be lovers of money rather than lovers of God.

17:40And lovers of money are people who love the gift rather than the giver. And again, this is so apparent if you have kids or if you've been around kids much at a birthday party or at Christmas time, really little kids, what do they do when there's gifts in the room for them? They just run at them and tear into them. They pick up the gift and they run away. Because that's what it was all about. It was about the gift. They haven't yet been conditioned by society that that's not a very good thing to do. Instead, you're supposed to feign interest in the gift. You're supposed to be like, oh, you know, thank you so much. And I just love you. It's not about the gift. It's about you. They haven't learned all those things yet. And so they just do what comes naturally to them. They love the gift. It's not about the gift. It's not about the giver. It's about the gift.

18:31And so Paul adds clarity to what he means by lovers of money by noting several things in this section. First, lovers of money are heartless. They're heartless. When we love money, our hearts don't go out to the poor and needy. We don't care that they're suffering, that they're homeless, that they don't have clothes to wear. We just care about ourselves and what money can buy us. Lovers of money are unappeasable. Nothing is ever good enough for our expensive tastes when we love money. We're always disappointed in everything. The food that we eat, the products that we get. We're unappeasable. You can't be happy if you love money. Lovers of money are reckless.

19:22And that means not only do we spend money in reckless ways when we love it, but we are reckless in the sense that we're willing to do. Illegal or unethical things to get more money. We're reckless. I want you to remember back to 1 Timothy chapter 6 from the fall semester. Look at what Paul wrote. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

20:11And I want you to look at those verses and I want them to sink in because what Paul is condemning are the issues of the heart. For the love of money, those who desire to be rich, you can be very wealthy and very generous and not love money at all. And you can be very poor and be very greedy and hold on to what you have because you desire to be rich. Your desire for more plunges you into ruin and destruction. And I think so many of us think, well, that won't be me. I will be the exception. I will be the one guy, the one girl who can get rich and not love money. Just be careful.

20:58Let's not pretend that Jesus. Jesus didn't say, it is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Paul says, people are going to be lovers of money rather than lovers of God, and that can take us away from God entirely. And then, third and finally, he says, people will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Back in the mid-1980s, Neil Postman wrote this book called Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business. Now, I want you to hear what I just said. This was written in the mid-1980s. This wasn't written last year. 30 years ago, he wrote this book. And this book is described as a prophetic look at what happens when politics, journalism, education, and even religion become subject to the demands of entertainment.

22:02Now, I have no idea whether Neil Postman was a Christian or not, but I do know that his ideas parallel exactly what Paul is saying is going to happen in the last days. That we will be lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, that we are going to amuse ourselves to death. And there is evidence of this all around. You go to an amusement park these days, like Disney World or Six Flags, and while you're waiting, In line for the ride, they've got huge flat-screen TVs with shows going on because you can't possibly stand there for 20 minutes with nothing to do. You would die.

22:45We are amusing ourselves to death. We're lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. There is a serious disease in the 21st century where we are addicted to entertainment. Addicted is the right word. I see it all the time. As soon as there's a break in the action, any action at all, you're at a basketball game or a football game. We've got some of the finest teams in the country. There's a two-second break in the action. If you're like, cannot be bored. Oh, the play. Oh, it's over. Cannot be bored.

23:24It is an addiction to entertainment. We are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, and it's really concerning. So Paul adds clarity here to what this means. And look at what he says: lovers of pleasure are abusive and brutal. Now, this is so important for us to think about. When we love pleasure more than we love anything else, we will abuse other people in brutal ways in order to please ourselves. The pornography epidemic is ever. Evidence of this. When we love pleasure more than we love God or others, we are willing to abuse others in brutal ways to please ourselves.

24:10He says, lovers of pleasure are disobedient to parents. I mean, good parents set up rules and boundaries for children. That's what good parents do. But kids rebel against mom and dad. Why? Because when you ask them to do chores or when you ask them to just contribute around the house, you're asking them to delay their pleasure in order to do something to help the family. They become disobedient because you're getting in the way of what they want.

24:38He says, lovers of pleasure are not lovers of good. And that's because when pleasure is our highest goal, our highest aspiration, well, then what is actually good isn't our highest value. It's whatever feels good. That becomes our highest value. So I want you to listen to what Jesus says in his parable of the four soils. Look on the screen. So he is describing these four soils that represent four types of people. And this is the third type of person. It's these, the seed of the word of God has fallen in the soil that has thorns in it. Thorny bushes coming up. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not matter. Mature.

25:33So the problem here is that the pleasures of life actually choked out their hearing and obedience to the Word of God. That's a scary reality. And so, friends, until Jesus returns, there are going to be times of difficulty and suffering because people love themselves, because they love money, because they love pleasure instead of God. And that's why the times that we're living in are so hard. But for people living in the 21st century, like you and me, most of this stuff is not really that shocking. This is just an accurate description of what we see all around us. What is really shocking is what we find in the second half of verse 5. Look at what it says. They have the appearance of godliness, but what do they do? They deny its power.

26:28These people that he is describing look godly on the outside, but deny the power of godliness on the inside. What Paul is saying is these people are not out there somewhere. He's saying that these people are in here, among us. These are people who profess to be believers, who are connected to the church, who would call themselves Christians. They have an appearance of godliness on the outside. They look godly, but they aren't actually godly people on the inside. And that's what Paul has been describing. I mean, you go back and you look at verses 2 through 4, and all of these are attitudes, they're heart postures towards God and towards other people. This is what Paul has been describing: people who look fine on the outside, but who are not fine on the inside. And that was the problem of the Pharisees.

27:30Look on the screen at Luke chapter 11. While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. This guy would have a major problem in my house. And the Lord said to him, Now, you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.

28:19See, while we may have an appearance of godliness, we deny its power when we don't live holy lives. And that's the very thing that Paul is lamenting in Romans. Chapter 6, there's this whole group of people that is professing to be Christians but is still living the same sinful lives they were before they professed faith in Jesus. And so Paul says, What are you thinking? Should we go on sinning so that grace may increase? How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

28:52The obvious answer is we can't. We can't live in sin any longer if we have died to it. We have died with Christ through faith. We have been raised to walk in new life. We're new creations. The old has gone and the new has come. And so let me remind you of what John said. We looked at this last week as well. This is just such an important passage. 1 John 3, verses 4 through 6. Let this sink in. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. Listen to this. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous as he is righteous.

29:52Now, notice, John doesn't say, whoever sins doesn't know him. We all sin. He says, whoever makes a practice of sinning, whoever keeps on sinning, whoever refuses to repent, to turn away from his or her sin, that is the person that doesn't know Jesus. Friends, a Christian is a repentant sinner. It's a man or a woman or a child who acknowledges that they have sinned against God and that they are in need of forgiveness, and that forgiveness only comes through repentance and faith in Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection. And nobody who abides or remains in Jesus keeps on sinning.

30:39So people in our society can say all day long, I'm a Christian, I'm born again, I'm an evangelical. You can use any modern label you want, but God's word is clear. If you have an appearance of godliness on the outside but deny its power through your life, you are not a Christian. You are not a Christian. And that is not Alan's opinion. That's what God's word says. I would also say it takes one to know one.

31:23And many of you know, for the first 19 years of my life until I was a student at AM, this was. A perfect description of me. I was the most involved kid in my church growing up. I was at church every time the doors were opened. I was the leader of our Sunday school class. I was a leader in our youth choir. You name it. I was there. I was a part of it. Everybody looked at me and would have said, Alan for sure is a Christian. But they didn't see the inside. They didn't see all of these descriptors that would have been accurate of me in my life.

32:03They didn't see all of the sin that I was hiding. I would have professed to be a Christian. I had an appearance of godliness, but I denied its power through my life. And maybe that's you too, or maybe that was you. So, what is Timothy supposed to do about these people? Let's look at the second part now of verse 5. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jonas and Jombris opposed Moses, so also these men opposed the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.

33:01So, what does Paul tell Timothy to do about these people? He says, avoid such people. Avoid those who have an appearance of godliness but deny its power. Now, Paul is not saying we avoid every person who sins. We'd have to avoid everyone. And somehow, magically, we'd have to avoid ourselves, too, because we sin. Now, who does Paul have in mind when he says, avoid such people? He has in mind unrepentant sinners who claim to be Christians, people who go on sinning, who make a practice of sinning while naming the name of Christ. I think 1 Corinthians chapter 5 adds such clarity to what Paul means in this section. Look at 1 Corinthians 5.

33:54I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. Not at all, meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy, and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. But now, I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother, if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler, not even to eat with such a one.

34:30You see who Paul has in mind? He's saying, you need to avoid anybody who's professing to be a Christian but not living like one. And just a few weeks ago, we covered church discipline and membership class and why this principle is so important. It's important for two reasons. First, because acting as though a person who professes to be a Christian but lives in unrepentant sin is okay, that is the most unloving thing that we can do.

35:01And it's the most unloving thing that we can do because what we're doing is we're acting as though the Bible doesn't say the wages of sin is death. When we refuse to confront someone in our life who is professing to be a Christian but living in unrepentant sin, we're not loving them. We're more scared about what that's going to do to our reputation or to our relationship than we are about them and their soul. The most loving thing that we can do is not live and let live, but to go to them and say, brother or sister, you profess to be a believer in Jesus, but your life is not backing up that claim. You're not honoring the Lord.

35:47And the second reason this is so important is because it destroys the church's witness. What is the number one charge leveled against the church? They're just a bunch of hypocrites. Well, yeah, I mean, if we just let people who are professing to be Christians live in unrepentant sin, that is hypocrisy. Christians are repentant sinners. So, anyone who is a sinner and who acknowledges that and confesses that and seeks to turn away from that, that person is a Christian. That person is welcome in the church. That is who the church is for, repentant sinners. And as I've said before, some of the best opportunities come when we go to our non-Christian co-workers and roommates and other people and say, I sinned against you. What I did was wrong.

36:44And that's exactly why I need a Savior. I need forgiveness from God, which can only come through Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. And I need forgiveness from you because I've wronged you again with my sin. Will you please forgive me? There's no hypocrisy in that at all. It's acknowledging the truth. And so we are to avoid people who claim to be Christians but go on living in unrepentant sin. And specifically in the context of this part of 2 Timothy, we should avoid false teachers who have an appearance of godliness but who deny its power. Look again at verse 6. Look what they're doing. These men creep into. Into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.

37:45These men are creeping, worming their way into households, and they're capturing. That's a military term. It means taken hostage. They're capturing these weak women. Now, I want you ladies and all of us to understand this is not an indictment on women generally. If Paul was intending to indict women altogether, he wouldn't have used the adjective weak. He would have just said women. This is a specific type of woman. This is a weak woman that he's talking about here. And I think there's so much fake news out there with respect to Jesus's and Paul's views on women that it also bears saying that Jesus and Paul were two of the most progressive men who ever walked the face of the earth.

38:30You have to understand in first century Jewish and Roman society, women had no rights whatsoever. They were treated as property. They couldn't vote. They couldn't speak in court. And it's in this society that Jesus and Paul ministered to and ministered alongside women. In fact, Paul goes so far in his letters to name at least three women who held official positions in churches that he started. Eodia, Sintiki, he goes on and names these three women who are holding official positions in these churches. So don't believe the ignorant statements that are out there that Jesus and Paul were chauvinists, that the Bible is against women. I mean, that's just not true.

39:18So Paul is talking about these false teachers who are going in, they're creeping into these houses, and they are leading astray these weak women. And what is so concerning about the whole situation is that they're making a concentrated effort. They're making a concentrated effort to do this. They are putting forth energy. They're doing this stealthily, probably while their husbands are at work or away. They're coming in stealthily, trying to lead these women astray. And the context suggests that maybe they're gratifying their lusts with these women, or maybe they're just trying to draw followers after themselves. One or both of those things are true here.

40:02And these ladies, they're always learning, but they're never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. They're like these people that Paul describes in Ephesians 4. They're blown around by every wind and wave of doctrine. And so Paul compares these men to Jonas and Jombras. Now, you might be like, who are they? I've never heard those names before. And this is the only place they're named in Scripture. But according to historical, Sources, these were the names of the two magicians that opposed Moses in Pharaoh's court.

40:38And so he's saying, just like these two men oppose Moses, so these false teachers oppose me and the gospel. They have three defining characteristics. And the first is that they oppose the truth. So it's no wonder that these women were never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. You had these guys creeping into their homes who oppose the truth. How could they arrive at a knowledge of the truth? They're corrupted in their mind. You may remember back to 1 Timothy, where he was talking about the conscience that gets seared like with a hot iron. You know, when something gets burned that badly, it can't feel anything anymore. And in the same way, he's saying, corruption in mind is like that. When your mind is corrupted, you can no longer see or hear or perceive the truth. That's how these guys were. And then lastly, he says they're disqualified regarding the faith. Because they oppose the truth, and Jesus is the truth, they're disqualified. And they don't bear the seal that Paul talked about in chapter 2. They're not departing from iniquity. So they're neither making the right profession nor living a life that would say that they actually trust in Jesus.

41:52So back in Acts 20 that we read at the beginning of the service, Paul is talking to the leaders of this church and he says, guys, after I leave, Savage wolves are going to come in here. Ravenous wolves. And they're going to seek to devour the flock. So you've got to watch out. And Jesus said the same thing years before. Look at Matthew 7 on the screen. Jesus said, Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

42:29That's why he needs to avoid such people. They look the part. They have an appearance of godliness. But these men are not sheep. They are wolves, ravenous wolves in sheep's clothing, looking for someone to devour. Now, all that seems like kind of a bit of a downer, right? I mean, you read the first eight verses, and it's like, wow, is there any hope in this passage? I think there is. It comes in verse 9, so let's look there and close with that verse.

43:02Paul says, but they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. Ungodly people are opposing the truth and leading others astray, but the good news is that they won't get very far. I don't know if you've read Exodus before or not, but Jonathan John Briss, they didn't get very far either. You know, God appeared to Moses and he gave him all these miraculous signs. To do, but the first few signs, the staffs turning into snakes, the Nile becoming blood, they were able to do a lot of those first signs with their dark magic. But it came to a point after the second plague that they were exposed. They could no longer replicate the miraculous signs that God was doing through Moses, and they stopped and they said, This is the finger of God.

43:58Their folly was evident to everybody. They couldn't keep up. And in the same way, the folly of men who oppose the truth is going to be exposed for everybody to see. One characteristic of the truth is that it's buoyant. So a buoy is something that you put in the water, in a lake or in the ocean, to mark a spot. And you know, if you ever push on a buoy before, you can shove it down under the water, but eventually, just a few seconds later, it's going to pop right back up to the surface. That's exactly how the truth is. It eventually comes to the surface.

44:37You can try to hide it. You can try to cover up sin. You can try to cover up crimes. But eventually, that truth is going to come to the surface. And that's the reason that Paul has been so adamant in these letters. You don't rush people into leadership in the church. Because over time, character is exposed. The truth comes out, and so you have to be patient. Now, friends, when we read a section of scripture like we read today, this is hard. It's hard to read. It's hard to hear a sermon on this.

45:16And I think it can be hard for a few reasons. I think for some of us, you hear the description of these people living in the last days, and you think to yourself, that's me. Maybe I didn't see it before today, but I am a lover of self, a lover of money, a lover of pleasure, not a lover of God. And if you've come to that realization this morning, it is so important for you to know that Jesus died for you. And he died for you right now where you're at. So many people think, I can't come to Jesus because my life isn't clean enough yet. I need some time to establish a track record of church attendance and doing good works and all of those kinds of things. Friends, our sin is so numerous and so great against the God of heaven and earth that there is no way we could ever possibly do enough good works to clean ourselves up. Jesus died for you now while you are yet a sinner, while you are still his enemy.

46:28You may have been opposed. To the truth, Jesus is the truth. So I want to call on you this morning to receive Him today through repentance and faith. Turn to Him as your only hope for salvation and forgiveness from God. Turn away from your misplaced loves of self and of money and of pleasure. But I think there's a second type of person who's probably here today, and that's those of us who are already believers but who feel discouraged as we read this passage and as we think about the world that we're living in.

47:04You look at the world around you, sometimes even in the church, even in our own lives, and we get discouraged. And maybe you have been hurt. Maybe there's somebody in your life that fits this description who has hurt you in a very real way. And you feel sad and discouraged about that. Both for yourself and the pain that you've gone through, as well as for them, and the fact that sin within them has led them to do those things to you. But I want you to remember this morning that if the grace of God is powerful enough to save and to change you and me, then the grace of God is powerful enough to save and to change anybody in your life.

47:54Your awful co-workers or your boss. Your roommates or your family members, maybe a professor or a fellow classmate who wronged you. The grace of God is powerful enough to save and change them as well. That's the good news of the gospel. Nobody is beyond the amazing grace of God. So, friends, misplaced love results in opposition to the truth. But thanks be to God. Jesus died for those who opposed Him. Let's pray. God, I want to begin by praying for any men or women or children who are with us today who, for the first time, saw themselves clearly.

48:55They may even have had an appearance of godliness for a long time. And even now, they're wrestling with: How can I admit that I'm haven't been a true believer in Jesus? Everybody in my life thinks I'm a Christian. God, I pray that they would be willing to confess to you and to others that they were, in fact, lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers of you. Because in the end, all that matters is your approval. It doesn't matter if we have the approval of you. Approval of man or not. And so, God, I pray that you would draw people to repentance and faith here today.

49:40And, Father, I pray that you would encourage all of us who are Christians, who are discouraged because we look around the world. If we look around our community, we look even sometimes inside of the church and at our own lives, and we are discouraged because of the effects of sin and how hard it is to live in this world. Would you pick up our gaze so that we're no longer looking at our circumstances, but we are looking at you, Jesus, the one who overcame the world?

50:23Help us to hope in you. Help us to trust in you, even when things are so hard. Father, we are glad that when we are discouraged, we have your word and we have each other, so we can come together and hear it and build each other up. And I pray that we leave encouraged today by the good news of the gospel. In Christ's name, we pray all these things. Amen.