Troubling Times

Well, I think most of us would agree that we live in troubling times. The threat of international war, domestic and international terrorism, divisions in our country, moral deterioration all over the place. I think we would probably agree. We live in troubling times. I read two quotes this week that served to highlight the troubling times in which we live. One of them was from a Christian journal I get called Leadership Journal. Quote is this, the first great communications revolution followed the invention of the printing press. The first thing they printed was the Bible. The second great communications revolution was due to the computer and the first things computed on a computer were nuclear missile trajectories. It tells you a little bit about how far we've come. Second quote I read this week that indicates the troubling times in which we live. Quote goes like this, Sinicism has gone too far. We are becoming what the history books tell us the late Rome was. Mired in decadent self-absorption and lacking virtue. Get that description. Mired in decadent self-absorption and lacking virtue. I agree with that but what really caught my eye was who said that. You know who said that? Oliver Stone, a Hollywood producer and director. Now if people in Hollywood are telling us that we're mired in moral decadence, it's really bad. It's really bad. We live in troubling times. This morning we returned to the series in second Timothy so I invite your attention to the book of second Timothy chapter three and just to catch us up a little bit and remind us of the tone of this book. I've entitled this series of messages last words to a son and it is Paul's last words to his son in the faith Timothy. The tone of the book is very direct but yet tender and personal. Paul is literally sharing his soul, pouring out his heart to his young son in the faith Timothy whom he has placed in Ephesus in what was probably the most significant church in the first century. And as he places him there he writes the first letter, first Timothy, to him, to tell him how to operate the church, how to manage the church, how to operate himself as a pastor in the church. But in second Timothy he's just pulled the veil off of his heart. He just opened his heart to his young son. After opening the book in chapter one with a challenge to remember his spiritual heritage to develop his gift and depend on the Holy Spirit, he launches into the first subject of the book in chapter one which is the call to a son. When we looked at that some time ago we saw that it was a call to courage and to faithfulness in difficult times. And then we spent three weeks in chapter two. Chapter two describes the character of a dear son. And what Paul is telling Timothy in chapter two is these are the character qualities you need in order to minister effectively in these difficult times. You need to be strong Timothy. You need to be single-minded like a soldier. You need to be stripped on yourself like an athlete. Follow the rules of the Word of God. You need to be self-motivated like a farmer in work hard. You need to be secure in your position in Christ. You need to be steadfast. You need to be set apart. You need to have a servant spirit. Those eight character qualities we saw Paul say Timothy this is what you need to serve effectively. Now we come to chapter three. Paul launches into the third major topic of this personal appeal to his son. And that is the caution to a son. Paul gives us in this passage strong warnings about the dangers in these last days. Strong warnings about the dangers in these last days. Notice how he begins chapter three verse one. He says, but mark this. I read one commentator this week that said that reminds me of my marine days. When I was in the Marines they would say, now hear this. And it's a call to attention. It's a call to Timothy. Mark this. Now hear this Timothy. I'm wanting to get your attention if you're drifting off as you read this letter. I want to call you back to attention because what I'm going to say is extremely important. He will underscore and amplify something. Timothy should know, but he wants to drill home in his heart and his life and his mind. This is a reminder of reality that Timothy needs to come to grips with as he ministers in the troubling city and troubling at church and troubling times in Ephesus. Mark this Timothy. He says, Terrible times will come in the last days. Now we need to first of all stop and understand what the last days are. Typically when we hear that term the last days we think of the days right before Jesus comes back. And we're not sure for in them or not, but we look around us and we think, wow, we must be in the last days. And we refer to that last days as the time right before Jesus is going to come. That's not how the Bible uses the term. The Bible actually uses the term last days of the whole time period between the first coming of Christ and his second coming. One of the ways we're in the last days, regardless of what happens, whether Jesus comes back in five minutes or 500 years, we're in the last days already. And we have been in the last day since Jesus came to this earth in his first coming. One of the reasons we know that is looked at verse five where after he describes what the Terrible times are going to be like at the end of verse five, Paul says to Timothy, have nothing to do with such people. Indicating such people are alive and well right now Timothy in the first century. You are in the last days. And by the way, the Bible does define the last days for us. And Hebrews chapter one verses one and two, look at these verses on the screen. In the past, God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times in various ways, talking about speaking to the Old Testament, saints through the prophets. But notice in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed Arab all things and through whom he made the universe. So in Old Testament times, God spoke to people through the prophets. That's how he communicated his word by and large, other means, but by and large through the prophets. But then when Jesus came, he started communicating in a different way. And that is through his son. And that marks the beginning of the last days when Jesus comes. So don't try to figure out whether or not we're in the last days, just take the Bible for what it says. We're in them. We're in the last days now. And believers in Christ have been in the last days ever since the days of Jesus. So Paul's talking about our time right now. He's not talking about some time maybe in the future. He's talking about right now, right now. What will happen right now? There will be terrible times. Interesting word, terrible. It's only used twice in the New Testament here and in Matthew 828. Look at the Matthew 828 verse. It really sheds a lot of light on this word. When he arrived at the other side, Jesus arrived at the other side in the region of the Gatorines, two demon possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so and here's our word. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. The word translated terrible in first or second Timothy is the same word for violent of the men, the demon possessed men who came out of the tombs and were so violent. Nobody could even get close to them. So the word really means menacing, fierce, violent, troubling indeed. In the first century, if you were wanting to describe a wild animal, this is the word you would use. If you were wanting to describe a raging sea, this is the word you would use. We're talking about violent, menacing, fierce, troubling times. So what are they like? What's the description? Paul describes them in verses 2 through 4 with a list of 18 words or expressions. You say, oh boy, we're in for a long one today, aren't we, John? Well, actually, he summarizes first of all the heart trouble and then he gets to the lifestyle trouble. But let's look first of all at the heart trouble because what Paul does is he uses the word lovers of four times, two times at the very beginning in verse 2. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money. Then look down at the end of verse 4, right at the end of verse 4, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. He begins with two sets of lovers of, or one set of two, and he closes with two lovers of. Those are bookends. They are designed to be the summary of what he's talking about in the rest of those characteristics. Lovers of, lovers of four times, he says that. What he's describing about our culture, about our world is truly rooted in the heart. This is a heart issue. What he does is he identifies three loves that are mistaken loves, are loves that are substituted for the love of God. The love of God is the last one mentioned, but there are three other loves that people have a tendency to substitute for the love of God. And whenever you do that, whenever you get messed up in your heart and you substitute those three loves for the love of God, you will inevitably start living out the other 15 characteristics that he talks about. The real problem in our culture today is a heart problem, because everything else that's wrong in our country, in our society, in our culture, in the Western world, or the world as a whole, the trouble in the world flows out of misplaced love. And there are three loves that are misplaced, that take the place of the love of God. It's amazing as I begin to look into this this week, I find that these same three concepts are found in other places in the Bible. They seem to be foundational. When John said in 1 John 2, 16, that everything that is in the world has to do with the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, same three things, same three things, same three things that Satan tempted Jesus with in Matthew 4, same three things that he tempted Eve with in the garden. These are foundational, heart aberrations from what God intended us to be and to do. So what are these heart problems? These misplaced loves, the first one in verse 2, people will be lovers of themselves. You know Jesus said that everything God expects of us can be summarized in two commands. You know them, don't you? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. Love God, love others. You focus your life on that and you will do whatever God wants you to do. You'll be whatever God wants you to be. That summarizes everything. But this is a different kind of love. This is love that should go toward God and others, but is turned inward towards self. It is the me first philosophy. We live in a culture today. We live in a society that is dominated by love of self. Go into any bookstore. I love Barnes and Noble. Go into any bookstore. I love it because of the books and the coffee. But I love the books most of all. You go into any bookstore like Barnes and Noble. You'll find it separated in different categories. You'll find a category of history, category of current releases, category of medical issues, category of craft. You know they divide the books into different issues. One of the biggest sections in any bookstore is the self-help section. We are a culture that is absorbed with self-help, self-realization, self-discovery, self-actualization, self-fulfillment. Lovers of self. But there's a second misplaced love that distracts this world, our culture, from what God intended us to be, loving God and loving others. That is lovers of money. Notice it there in verse two. Lovers of money. It's interesting to me as I think again about Jesus ministry. Jesus said more about money than he did any other topic. Do you know that? He said more about money than he said about heaven or hell. And you've got to ask yourself why? He was not a fundraiser. He never built any buildings. He didn't have to meet a budget. He had no staff to pay. I don't think the disciples were paid necessarily. There's no even any indication he ever took an offering. So why did he talk about money all the time? I think one verse from his own lips in the sermon on the mount gives us the reason why. Matthew 6 verse 21. He said, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Your treasure, what you most highly value, which in our world today is mostly to do with financial resources, what you most highly value indicates where your heart is. It indicates either heart trouble or heart health. So that's why Jesus talked so much about money. He knew that it was an indication of whether you love God and others or you love self more than God or others. Check your attitude toward money and you'll figure out where your heart is. So love of self, love of money. The third misplaced love at the end of verse 4 is lovers of pleasure. Now pleasure, leisure, recreation, nothing wrong with those things. We all need those times and opportunities. Nothing wrong with those. The question we need to ask ourselves is has pleasure become the focus of my life? Has it become the focus of my affections? Has it become the focus of my energy and time? Has it become the focus of my resources? If so, I'm in danger of loving pleasure more than I love God and love others. Eric Metaxis in one of his books. He's the guy that wrote the amazing biography of Dietrich Bonhoffer. But in another one of his books, Eric Metaxis quotes Chuck Colson. Chuck Colson's now with the Lord. But in this particular book written in 2011, Metaxis quotes Colson talking about his hometown Colson's hometown in Naples, Florida, which Colson calls one of the garden spots of the world. And here's what Colson said about his hometown. I quote, it's an absolute Nirvana for all goffers and they all come here. They're all CEOs of major corporations and they retire to Naples and this is it. Everything they worked for. 27 golf courses and miles of sparkling beach and the best country clubs. I watch these guys Colson says they're powerful people. They have this New York look on their face. They're determined. But now all of a sudden they start measuring their lives by how many golf games they can get in. I often say to them, do you really want to live your life counting up the number of times you chase that little white ball around these greens? And they kind of chuckle but it's a nervous chuckle because in six months they've realized how banal how empty their lives are and they've got beautiful homes, castles. And when they get bored with that they build a bigger castle and they're miserable. And this is Colson's conclusion. The object of life is not what we think it is which is to achieve money, power, pleasure. That's not the holy grail. The object of life is the maturing of the soul and you reflect that maturing of the soul when you care more for other people than yourself. I believe Colson got it right. Now I'm not digging on those who retired of Florida. Please understand. I complete the order I get the more I hate cold weather the better I understand that. I'm not digging on that. I'm not digging on people who love to play golf. Don't throw any golf balls at me this morning. I'm not digging on you. What I am saying is there is a higher purpose to life than the love of pleasure. In fact the love of pleasure if that's your main focus in life will take your heart far from God. And what Paul does is he describes what's wrong with our world by starting with the heart and what's wrong with our world begins in the heart. It is not political solutions that's needed in our country today. It is heart transplant, spiritual, redeeming, regenerating grace of God in people's hearts. That is what is needed because we are in a culture and a world that is absorbed with the love of self, the love of money, the love of pleasure, the me first strategyful fulfillment, the priority of life on financial success and security, the consuming preoccupation with pleasure. All of that Paul says will take your heart far from God and it will inevitably produce the following lifestyle. That's the reason he book ends this whole list with that heart trouble diagnosis. The problem begins and ends with the heart. What happens if the heart is focused on me, on money, on pleasure? Well what happens next is the lifestyle trouble. In these 15 characteristics that we're just going to try to look through carefully or quickly and and at least define what they mean. We're going to see how much this describes our times but I don't want you to stop there. In fact that's the wrong place really to look. We're going to see this sounds like the evening news. It looks like the headlines in our newspapers almost every day but as I was thinking that way this week God got a hold of my heart and he said John he said you need to be looking not at what's happening out there in the culture. You need to be looking at how much of this spirit have you imbibed in your own heart. How much of you allowed this kind of spirit to settle into your own thinking and your own heart and I was stunned at how much there was of this there. So explore with me. Not the headlines in the evening news. Explore your own heart with me please. Because this is what it looks like when we get our love for God and others misplaced. The first word is boastful. We become boastful. Actually that word has to do more with the outer appearance. The Greek word does. It has to do with literally the word to be translated swagger. It is a swaggering bounce to the step that is reflected in self-promoting words. That's boastful. The next word abusive or proud excuse me proud. That has more to do with the thoughts. The word means haughty and arrogant thoughts that treat others with contempt because they're lower than me. The haughty, arrogant thoughts that I'm better than other people. So I disrespect them and treat them with contempt. The next word abusive. Interestingly enough the word literally is blasphemous. That's what the word literally means. And typically when we think of blasphemous we think of people who speak evil of God. But in the context of this passage this is talking about blasphemy speaking evil toward others. This is verbal abuse to other people. The abuse spoken of here is verbal abuse to others when you rip into someone else and do that for no other reason than putting them down. That's abusive and that is the spirit of this world. The next one disobedient to parents really has to do with no regard for authority. And it is endemic in our age. Is it not disobedience to authority? Disobedience to parents being the first authority a child comes into contact with? And certainly there are many parents who created such dysfunction in homes that they have bred disobedience. That's true also. But our culture is marked with and I hope our hearts are not marked with rebellion against authority. Next word, ungrateful. There are a couple of ways this can go and I think both of them are included in the word here. Ungratefulness is first of all a refusal to acknowledge that life and all we have comes from God. That's the first sign of ungratefulness. It's the sign that Paul camps on in Romans 1 that as a world when people turn their back against God the first sign of that is ungratefulness. They're not thankful to him for all the blessings he's given. So ungratefulness is first of all a disregard or refusal to acknowledge that my very life and everything I have comes from God. But then that leads to a lack of appreciation for what others do for us. If in your heart you have a disregard and a lack of acknowledging that everything we have comes from God and you're ungrateful I got this by hard work. I work my way up the ladder the American spirit. If that's how you think you got to where you are you are ungrateful. And that kind of ungratefulness will inevitably lead to a lack of appreciation for what others do for us. A lack of appreciation for what our military has done for us. A lack of appreciation for what our parents have done for us. A lack of appreciation for what our teachers have done for us. For others who have ministered to us or helped us in life. And we begin to adopt the attitude the world owes me. Now if that doesn't describe our culture today I don't know what does. I deserve this. I deserve that. I deserve the world owes me something that is born out of ungratefulness. First of all ungratefulness to God and ungratefulness to others. The next word unholy literally means no interest in God living a completely secular life. No interest in God living a completely secular life. The next one without love. The word for love here literally has to do with family affection and so the love that's being talked about here is the natural affection that we have or should have for families. And what Paul is saying is that the terrible times, the vicious brutal times, the menacing fierce times that we live in are characterized by even being heartless toward those that are the closest to you. And certainly we see that evidenced in news reports every day. You read the news or seen the news even in our area. It is sometimes appalling to me what people will do. The violence that is committed to people in their own family, to a grandmother and a grandfather, to a parent or a child. The violence that is perpetrated against one's own loved ones is appalling in our culture. And that's what Paul says will be a mark of these ferocious terrible times that we live in. The next word unforgiving literally the word means no truce. What the Greek word means no truce. It has to do with a person who will not respond to a truce, a person who will not respond to a solution that is offered. Hostility, one commentator said, this way, hostility so intense that it will not move cannot be persuaded. We'll not listen. That is an unforgiving spirit. And it is the spirit of this world. It has nothing to do. With Christ's likeness, no truce, hostility so intense that it will not move. The next word slanderous, that word means prone to accuse. It actually is the Greek word deoboloi which is the word for devil. The devil by definition is a slanderer. That's what the word devil means. He is called in Revelation 12 the accuser of the brethren. What we're talking about here is one who seeks to tear others down, who rips into other people with the purpose of accusing and tearing them down. That is what the word slanderous means. And it is the spirit of this world, not of Christ. The next one, without self-control. Now I know the first thing you think of when you think of without self-control is I'm not sticking to my diet. He's going to get all over me here. That's not the idea here. Whenever this term without self-control is used in what's called in the New Testament, the sin lists, different lists of sins, it has to do with a different kind of lack of self-control. It has to do with matters of moral failure. And the lack of self-control is being so weak morally that you are easily led in the sin. It doesn't take Satan very much to tempt you. It doesn't have to work very hard. You are so weak morally, you have not exercised the disciplines, the spiritual disciplines of being in the Word and communing with God in prayer to draw his strength and of serving and of the other spiritual disciplines that focus your mind and heart on loving him and loving others so that you're strengthened against temptation. You're weak morally, easily led into sin. That's the without self-control here. The next word brutal, the word means not tamed or not even civilized, savage, fierce, like a beast. Brutal, that is this world spirit. The next one not lovers of good literally means to hate that which is good and replace it with evil. So there is not a natural inclination or heart toward that which is good but toward that which is evil. An evil then is lifted up and honored as good. That which the Bible calls evil is just called an alternative lifestyle or my choice and you can't tell me it's wrong. In fact, it's good if that's what I believe I should do or how I should live. Our culture is saturated in this philosophy of what the Bible calls good is now described as evil. If you believe in what's good you're called intolerant, you're called a bigot. You're not tolerant of other people. If you believe in what the Bible says is evil is evil and good is good. We are being marginalized today to the outer fringes of society. There are a number of good Christian groups in our country today that stand for good moral issues and have promoted them in Washington that have been put on a hate list. A group of organizations that are supposedly called hate groups, one of them is the Family Research Council. Led by Tony Perkins, it's very similar to what James Dobson used to do with focus on the family. If you read that list, the former James Kennedy's organization down in Florida, if you would read that list of what is supposedly being called now hate groups, it's groups that are trying to take a stand for the American family and for godly biblical values and we're being labeled as hate groups today. Listen, our culture calls evil good and good evil. The next word treacherous. This has to do with a traitor. This is someone who will betray you. They will break any promise if it benefits them. Next word, rash. Interesting word. I'm not talking about a red rash on your arm. The word literally means the Greek word means to fall headlong and the idea is really a hasty reckless action without any thought. Hasty reckless action without thought being rash and then the last one conceded. Conceded means you're impressed with yourself, you're puffed up with your own importance. Quite a list, didn't it? Wow. It describes quite clearly what we see on the news. I think it describes perfectly these days in which we live. But the real question is how much does it describe my heart? How much does it describe my thinking, my words, my actions? How much of this world spirit, this heart trouble, lifestyle trouble have I imbibed into my own mind and thinking and heart and expressions? You know what I think the most amazing thing about this list is though how Paul ends it in verse 5, these people can be religious. They can be religious. Notice it talking about the same group of people having a form of godliness but denying its power have nothing to do with such people. These people may have religion but it is empty. It is just empty routine. They deny the power of godlings. What's the power of godliness? Well Paul said that the gospel is the power of god unto salvation. The inner working energy, the gospel does its work inwardly in the heart to convince us of our need of salvation. But when we are saved that same power of the gospel regenerates us gives us a new life and a new life direction. And what we're talking about here is people who may be religious but lost. They're part of the world system that has its morals all upside down but they're religious. They may go to church but their religion is just outward rituals, ceremonies, rejecting any of the life changing, regenerating power of the gospel. Religion for them is only lip service for respectability in the communion. It pays to go to church so that you be respectable in the community but no impact on the life, no change in the direction of the life. One commentator I was reading this week said it this way, this is not just religion that has ceased to function but religion that was never intended to function. This is not just religion that has gone bad. This is religion that has been adopted for the purpose of a veneer of respectability. Never intended to change the life. Never intended to give new heart, mind, life, direction. No, no, don't tell me to get right with God. Don't tell me to change the way I want to live. Just give me my religion. Let me be respectable in the community. There are loads of lost people like that in churches today. Well, that's the trouble in the world. We haven't gotten to the trouble in the church yet. I'm going to have to summarize that. Trouble in the church 6 through 9. And now Paul begins to speak of false teachers, religious leaders who use the church for their own purposes. These are not believers. They're false teachers. They're the leaders of cults and false religions and liberal churches that deny the basic truths of the Bible. Paul has warned about them time and time again. And now he describes, first of all, their religion. That's back in verse 5. Actually, verse 5 is one of those verses. Paul does this quite often. I call them swing verses. They're transition verses. And the verse can swing back to what we've just seen in verses 1 through 4. But it also swings forward and describes the kind of person that we see in 6 through 9. So it describes the worldling who does not love God, but it also describes false teachers. So what we said about the religion of people back in verse 5 can be said of these false teachers as well. But I want you to notice who their victims are. Their victims are found in verses 6 and 7. This is who false teachers go after. There are four characteristics of those who are targeted by false teachers. First of all, the church. False teachers go after the church, go after people in the church. Look at the little verse 6. They are the kind who worm their way into homes. Actually, literally, worm their way into the homes. Paul is very specific. These are the homes indicating well-known homes that were probably the places where the early church met in Ephesus. You know, don't you? There were no church buildings until after 325 AD. After the Roman emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, he started building churches all over the Roman Empire. But until that time, for 300 years, the church met in homes. And sometimes a large home would serve as a general gathering place, actually in the first part of the book of Acts. They were still meeting in the temple in Jerusalem. But sometimes when they got out to places like Ephesus and so forth, they would meet in a large home for corporate gatherings and then meet in smaller areas and other homes for other types of ministry. He's talking about those well-known homes where the church gathers. Sometimes if there were not a wealthy enough person to have a large home, they might gather somewhere else in a public place or a large area where they could gather. But in Ephesus, a well-established church with some well-known wealthy people in the church, there were homes where they met large homes and people, false teachers, love to, I love the word worm their way in. The Greek word letter means to creep in. To creep in using stealth and deception. The church is a target for false teachers. The second target, and really the second kind of person that's a target is the gullible. Notice what he says next. These are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women. Let me stop right there. You know what the Greek word really is? One word, it literally is little women, not Theresa May Alcott's novel. It was a term of disregard in Paul's day. Not speaking of their stature or their age, little women were women who were little and moral character. And so some translations use the word weak-willed, some use the word vulnerable, the NIV chooses the word gullible. And please don't misunderstand that. This passage is not saying that all women are gullible. It has been misused that way. It is not saying that. The emphasis here is not on gender evidently in Ephesus, the problem was with some women, but it could just have easily have been men. I've heard this passage used to teach that cultists go after women because women are gullible and most cults are started by women. I'm sorry, that's just not true. If you do a study, most cults are started by men. This is not an issue of gender. The emphasis in the language here is on the word gullible. In Ephesus, evidently women were the major problem in this targeting for false teaching, but it could just as well be men. The fact is, men or women, there are people who are easily persuaded, gullible, for any idea that comes down the pike. So the church, the gullible, then thirdly, the guilty. There are also targets of false teachers. Notice what he says next. Gollible women who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires. Obviously, these women are carnal, worldly, living, worldly lifestyles, immature, loaded down. Literally, the idea is an accumulation of sin and the guilt that comes from that, maybe even from their past, and they've not dealt with it right, but the guilt of sin is so heavy that it's unbearable and so they will listen to anyone who promises help or promises a new power to tap into or any solution that is offered is grasped whether or not it has anything to do with the Bible, whether or not it is biblical in its core. Just offer me help for all the guilt and load it down sin I've struggled with and I've jump at it. No discernment, no determining whether or not this is really biblical. Just give me some help and so they are targets for false teachers. Because of their guilt. And then the last target of false teachers is the unanchored. I'm going to call it that verse 7 says, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. This is describing an open mindedness to a fault, an open mindedness that is not anchored in biblical truth. So is open to any new fad of teaching or any new book that comes out that has the wild factor with it about something nobody's ever discovered before. Folks like this are impressed by the sensational claims of people because they are not anchored in the truth. And so they get swept up in the newest book like the Bible code a few years ago. You know that that said the Hebrew and the Greek have secret codes that God built into the letters and our computer now is able to pick out these codes and they talk about Bill Clinton and they talk about other historical figures and they talk about events like 9-1-1 and prophesied them through this code in the Bible. Anybody who knows the first grain of truth about God revealing his word and inspiring it knows that God wasn't hiding secrets. He gave his word to reveal himself. But people who don't understand Bible doctrine are easily not anchored in the truth are easily swept away into the newest fad that comes along and false teachers know how to target them. So the church people in the church who are gullible, guilty looking for any help they can get not dealing biblically with their past or their sin and unanchored in the truth. That's who false teachers target. What are their methods? Verse 8, imitation and deception. That's their method. Just as Janice and Jambri's opposed Moses, so also these teachers opposed the truth. They are men of depraved minds who as far as the faith is concerned are rejected. Janice and Jambri's are not mentioned anywhere else in the Bible but Jewish tradition tells us that these were probably the names of the magicians who imitated the miracles of Moses and even some of the plagues of Moses. Remember when Moses went back to Pharaoh and threw down his staff and it became a snake and remember the magicians, Egyptian magicians did the same thing and they did the same thing with some of the other miracles and even plagues. They were imitators. They had power, yeah, that power but it came from the wrong source, came from Satan. Satan is a master counter-fitter and he can make false teaching look like the real thing. Folks, some pastors in liberal churches, some leaders of cults, some leaders of major world religions that are not biblical, they're very nice people, they're very kind, they're friendly, but their teachings are deadly. They may use our language, the same biblical language, they may even have a Bible, they may have impressive buildings, impressive ceremonies, that appeals to people who are not grounded in the word for people who have no discernment. Leonard Sweet wrote a book a few years ago called The Gospel According to Starbucks. You'd love that book Jim. The Gospel According to Starbucks and he tells the story of Ed Fawbert. Ed Fawbert is what you would call in the coffee world a cupper. A cupper is in Laman's terms a coffee taster and Ed Fawbert has distinguished himself more than anyone else because his amazing taste buds are actually certified by the state of New York. He is the most well-known coffee taster in the world. Here's what Leonard Sweet says about him. So refined is Fawbert's sense of taste for coffee that even while blindfolded he can take one sip of coffee and tell you not just that it is from Guatemala but from what state it comes, what altitude it was grown at and what mountain it was grown on. That's nothing. Jim Simmons could tell you what side of the mountain it was grown on. That is a set of discerning taste buds and wood to God we had as discerning minds spirits and hearts. To be able to taste and know what is genuine, where it comes from and be able to spot the counterfeits the false teaching. You'll quickly notice they're failed you're in verse 9. The failure of these false teachers they will not go very far, get very far as is the case of those men. Their father will be clear to everyone. And that was true with the magicians in Egypt. There came a point where they couldn't reproduce what Moses was doing and they were easily seen as frauds and false teachers will be also even if not here surely when they stand before God in judgment they will be exposed and their true character will be revealed as false teachers. So don't be fooled by them. Ground yourself in the word so that you understand the difference. Don't be gullible so concerned with your guilt that you'll look for any any relief no matter where it comes from and unanchored in the word. Don't be like that or you'll be swayed by false teaching. Well I don't know about you but when I read a passage like this I can feel overwhelmed by all the trouble in the world and when I read the newspaper when I look at the evening news I can feel overwhelmed by all the trouble in the world and all the trouble that comes out of false religions today. What do we do? What do we do in the face of all this trouble? I mentioned Dietrich Bonhoffer earlier. If you've never read the biography of him you ought to it's powerful. Dietrich Bonhoffer was a German pastor in the 20s, 30s, early 40s and during the rise of Hitler he understood spiritually what was going on and he took a stand with what was called the confessing church and publicly denounced the policies of anti-Semitism and other policies that were being promoted by Hitler. He paid for it with his life. He was executed by the Gestapo just before the war ended and just before he was executed he could almost hear the stomping of the Gestapo boots coming to take him away. He knew he was going to be executed. He started writing down on paper what kind of people the church was going to need most. When he said the last bomb has exploded and the last person has been killed and this is what he said the kind of people the church needs is this what the church will need, what our century will need are not people of genius not brilliant tacticians or strategists but simple straightforward honest men and women of God. Bonhoffer we still need those people today. What we need in these troubling times is simple faith, a strong anchor in the word and an integrity to live out our faith live out the gospel in these troubling times. That's the kind of people we need in the church today. Would you pray with me? Father thank you for the description that you've given us in your word of the times in which we live these troubling times and indeed as we look at this list we can readily identify as we see ingrained in our culture these very attitudes and actions but Lord in my own life I'm more concerned about what I've seen of these things in my own heart in my own mind and in my own speech. So God cleans us today as your people who live in this world and are sometimes infected with the spirit of this world and so we clamor in the same terminology and with the same brutal spirit that the world has when we post something on social media or when we talk to or about our brothers and sisters in Christ forgive us deliver us from the spirit of this world. May we be your people in this time in Jesus name. Amen.