This is Living Waters of Grace, the teaching ministry of Lewis
Harold, assistant pastor of Calvary Chapel of Westmoreland
County in Greensburg, PA. Now here's Pastor Lewis as he
continues teaching through God's Word.
But know this, Timothy, know that in the last.
Days. Perilous times will come.
So he's warning Timothy that all these things that I prepared you
to do, you need to have these things.
You need to be walking in these things so that when these
perilous times come, you won't. Fall by the wayside.
You won't be deceived. You won't be taken by the
trickery of other men. You won't give.
Up or give out, but you'll be. Able to stand.
No fighter steps into the ring without first preparing for the
fight. No soldier steps foot on enemy
soil without first training for battle.
Even with preparation and training, some endeavors are
perilous. It's risky to engage in these
things at all, to attempt to do so without being equipped.
It's just plain foolishness. In today's message, Pastor Lewis
shares with you that although the days you live in are
perilous, there are things you can do to prepare yourself for
the fight. These are things you can do to
equip yourself for battle. Now here's Pastor Lewis in the
Book of Second Timothy, Chapter 3, with today's edition of
Living Waters of Grace. Just to go back and give a a
quick recap we're. Talking about the perilous
times, we're talking about times of affliction.
We're talking about stressful times, dangerous times,
hazardous times, fierce times. As the writer says.
These are times. That are fierce.
And we know that join the whole chapter 2 or most.
Of chapter 2 that Paul. As he's speaking to his young
son in the faith, Timothy. He is.
Adequately preparing him. For these last days.
I remember when I was young and when I would.
Hear the older people pray. You know, they would always end
the prayer and please help us in these last and evil days.
And I never really understood what that meant.
Last days I understood. But evil days, Why are they
evil? And as we begin to study the
word. Of the God, we see why this
called the. Last and.
Evil days, as Paul calls it. There are.
Perilous times. Which is evil or wicked days?
And what we remember from last week, we know that Paul took
time to prepare Timothy to function or to do ministry in
these last days, and he taught them things Like he said,
Timothy, you need to endure. Hardship as a good soldier.
And he also told him, he said you need to compete or be
disciplined to compete as an athlete.
You need to have the the the discipline of an athlete so that
you can do exercise, not just. For the body, but exercise the
spirit and. Then he also talked with him
about being a hard working farmer.
That he should. Be a hard working farmer that he
should work diligently in ministry and then last but not
least, he said Timothy, you also need to be diligent in your.
Study of the word so that you rightly divide the word of
truth. And as he goes into these last
times and he begins to. Talk about these false.
Prophets and the. Character of the false.
Prophets and the the the. Unbelievers of that particular.
Time and how depraved that they will become.
The things that we're seeing right now, these things are
going to increase and get increasingly.
Bad as we get. Closer to the return.
Of our Lord. And he even tells Timothy some
things that he can do in order to prepare for that time and
over in chapter 2, verse 22. He says flee also youthful
lusts. And pursue righteousness, faith,
love, and peace with those who call on the Lord.
Out of a pure heart. He goes on and he says don't get
into. Disputes with people.
Timothy over words and and and and arguing about things that
have no eternal value. It's not important.
Those things are distractions. And he said that the man of God
does not strive, the man of God does not get into arguments.
The man of God does not quarrel, but he's gentle and he with
humility, correct those who are in opposition.
But then he comes to. Chapter 3 he.
Says, but know this. But know this, Timothy, know
that in the. Last days, Perilous times.
Will come. So he's warning Timothy that all
these things that I prepared you to do, you need to have these
things. You need to be walking in these
things so that when these perilous times come, you won't.
Fall by the wayside. You won't be deceived.
You won't be taken by the trickery of other men.
You won't give. Up or give out, but you'll be
able. To stand in the.
Perilous times. This is also a warning to us.
You know, the more I read this, the more it actually speaks to
me, and it speaks to. All of us about.
Being prepared as things continue to get worse and we.
See it we. See the news we.
Hear the reports. We see the things that are going
on in government. We see the things that are going
in our own neighborhoods. Things are becoming
increasingly. Worse, as we are in the last
days, the last days is. Anytime between the time that.
Jesus walked this earth. And he ascended.
To be with the Father. Until he returns.
That is the last. Days so we need to be.
Prepared. And as we go.
Through these. These different characteristics,
it's actually about 19 of them and we went through a number of
them last week and today I am endeavoring.
To be able to. Get to verse 9, but we're going
to start with the word unthankful.
We left off that. Disobedient to parents and I
think. We exhausted it.
But I want to get to the word unthankful.
He. Says at that time, not only
would there be and I'm going to start back at the beginning, he
said for men will be. Lovers of themselves.
And that. Is what kicks off this whole all
the other characteristics. It is the.
Overarching sin that brings to birth or brings to life all of
these other sins in between, he said that men will be lovers of
themselves, they'll be lovers of money, they'll be.
Boasters they'll be. Proud.
They'll be blasphemers. They'll be disobedient to
parents and they will be unthankful, unholy, unloving,
unforgiving slanderers without self-control.
Brutal. Despisers of good traitors.
Headstrong, haughty lovers of. Pleasure.
Rather than lovers of God and I'm going.
To stop right there. And I just want to go.
Back to talk a little bit. About these things.
As we go through. So he says I'm thankful.
And that just simply means that they are going to be ungrateful.
Men will be ungrateful, and that is due to their arrogance and
their selfishness. When we are selfish and
arrogant, we're not grateful. We're not thankful.
We think we're entitled to these things.
That people do for us, we think. We're entitled.
For what God does for us. And even Jesus himself was
thankful. He thanked, he went up, and he
thanked God when he went into prayer before he.
Ate he thanked God. He told him when he was at the
tell me, he said, Lord, I thank you.
I thank you. So Jesus was.
Always in a thankful state of mind to the Father.
And we should be that way. In fact, it's not that we're
entitled to anything, but God gives us things out of his own
heart, but those in that particular time as we get.
To the last days. They're going to become more and
more unthankful and and ungrateful, and that is against
God's Word in Ephesians 5 and 20, he says giving thanks.
Always for all things to God the Father.
In the name. Of our Lord Jesus Christ, he
said for all. Things for everything.
That we receive. Everything that we go through,
give them thanks. And then at First Thessalonians
5 and 18, he says in everything, give thanks.
That means in every situation, in every circumstance, not only
in our mountaintop. Experiences, but.
Give them thanks in our Valley experiences.
Give them thanks when we're doing well, but give them thanks
when we're also struggling. Give them thanks when things are
going great in our lives, but also give them thanks.
For all of the trials that we go through, because he's always.
Promised to be. With us.
And when he's. With us.
We know we're not alone, he says.
Give them thanks. And it's interesting because in
First Thessalonians Chapter 5 and 18 now people.
Always ask Well, will is the will of God.
There's several. Places in the Bible.
Where he will say, this is the will of God, this is.
One of them, this is one of them and everything give thanks for.
This is the will. Of God in.
Christ Jesus, for who? For you, for all of us.
To give thanks, he says we're going to be unholy and that
unholy really, you know, the Bible tells us all these things
really go against scripture that.
These that the that. We're going to start to see in
the last. Days, which is why we should
also. Do an inventory.
Of ourselves to see if. Any of us fall into any of these
things? I mean, this is something that
we have to look inward at and say, OK, am I unthankful?
Do I behave unholy? But with these particular men,
they are going to be unholy. The Bible tells us that we're to
be holy as he is holy and. That we're to be set apart from
the world and to be consecrated unto Him, but instead.
At that particular time, these people.
Are going to be profane. They're going to not.
Desire to do the. Things according to God's truth.
They'll be. Vessels of dishonor.
And instead of being set apart from the world, they're going to
be immersed in worldliness, immersed in worldliness, finding
pleasure in the fallen world system.
And most of it is going to be through compromise, through
compromise. Lot easier to compromise and
don't have to be by yourself and to compromise and be with
everybody. Else to look like everybody else
to. Sound like.
Everybody else that. Doesn't bring persecution, that
doesn't bring resistance, but it's when you stand alone and
often times you will. You will be in times, be in
situations where you will need to stand for righteousness, and
you will. Be by yourself and you.
Have to be willing to be able to stand as opposed to
compromising, he said. Unloving or without natural
affection. This breaks my heart because
when you talk about natural, without natural affection, he
said, you're going to be without natural affection.
It's a natural affection. For us to love our kids.
To love our parents. To love our wives or our our.
Our husbands, that's a natural affection.
It's something that should be built into us, that's born in us
to love. Our.
Children. But we have an example, a
biblical example. Of this.
Lack of natural affection. We have it.
In the Book of Solomon in the book of first Kings, Solomon,
when he. Had to judge.
Between the the two women who had sons, they both had sons and
and one of them rolled over in the sons in the middle of the
night and the one son died and the other one was alive.
The woman whose son died, she went over and she grabbed the
son that was still living out of the bed with the woman who was
still sleeping, put the live baby in her bed.
Took the dead baby. Put it in the other woman's bed.
They came before Solomon, they said.
You got to judge between the two.
The woman said no, that's my. Child.
The living child. Is mine.
The dead child is. Hers, the other woman said.
No, the living child is mine. The dead child is her.
Solomon said. I got the solution.
Bring the baby and bring me a sword.
Solomon put the baby on the table.
Took a swore he said I'll divide this child, I'll give.
One 1/2 and give the other one the other half and the woman
whose child it was not the woman who was not the mother, because
she didn't have a natural affection for that.
Child, she said. Yeah.
That's right, go ahead and divide the child and give.
Both of us half. And the woman who was the
mother, the true mother, the child, she said no.
Give her the baby, but please don't hurt the child.
That's natural affection. For a for a child.
That's natural affection A. Mother has that protective.
Nature in her if you really want to see the.
Worst. Of a woman mess.
With her kids. Threaten her kids and you will
see that woman do things that you never.
Thought she could do. You be in trouble and this is
exactly that's natural affection for the children.
But we're seeing now in days where there's no natural
affection. And in my research,
unfortunately, I looked at some things that.
Were just really, really. Dark in this society, one of the
things that I learned that the sex trafficking, the whole
industry of sex trafficking is really being motored not by
careless men or thoughtful men. But by parents who are.
Selling their children into sex trafficking for their own
selfish reasons. For their own selfish reasons.
Lack of natural affection. Abortion to kill.
A child that's. Growing inside.
Of you. That's a natural.
That's that's. Without natural affection.
Physical abuse. Sexual abuse.
Are all signs of a lack of natural affection.
Then he goes on, he says unforgiving and or
unreconcilable. People who will.
Just not agree to to forgive. Regardless of how long these
things have happened, it's been unreconcilable.
As we get. Closer to the time of Christ.
That will get worse. And they'll become truce
Breakers, which is another. Word that they use it's.
Truce Breakers in the King James version, and that's just not
even be able to. Keep oaths or keep?
Covenants. And that's why.
We have such a. Rise in divorce because we
become. Truce Breakers.
We'll become covenant Breakers, slanderers of false.
Accusers, people will start. To knock down and lie against
other people and tear down the the the reputation of other
people through gossip, through slander, and through lies and.
Hateful speech, that. Is not of God, That is not of
God. To sit down and to destroy or to
murder someone with the tongue is not of God.
It is not of God. And if we see these things in
ourselves? We should cry out to the Lord.
And ask him to help. Us to give us.
Grace to change these things and he.
Will he will, he says, without self-control.
That's just. Living a life of inhibition.
Live, just doing whatever feels good and that's.
Where we get the. Gambling from we get.
Abuse, sex abuse we get drug abuse, alcohol abuse all.
Leads from a lack of self-control, but not only that.
But the lack of. Self-control is also seen in the
church We. See that that that there?
Are people that are increasingly, not only in
church, but even outside of church, people that are
increasingly having a lack of self-control over their
emotions, over their emotions. So they blow up that things, the
smallest things, they blow up, they get angry and they hold
these things forever. No control over their emotions.
Incontinent is another. Word that is used for that
Brutal. And untamed.
This is like the this is like the result of a society where
people are so. Selfish that when they don't
get. Their way they can behave.
Violently, they can behave. Like, like savages, despisers of
good. And these are people who are.
Actually, they actually hate. Good or godly things.
In fact, not only do they despise good things, but they
even hate the people. Who try to live godly.
Jesus told us in John 15 that the world.
Hates you because. You are not.
Of the world you're. Living godly so the world does
not love people who are living. Godly, the world hates people
who? Are living in Golly.
But they love. Their own and then it says.
Traitors. People who are.
Or trading. They betray.
Each other, they betray the secrets of each other, betray
each other's trust a lot of. That's going to start happening
and as we go into. These last days, people.
Are going to be giving up to governors and giving up to
councils. Headstrong or or heady, which
means living. Reckless without.
Any kind of. Thought or forethought?
They just do things without thinking things.
Through which also. Comes from lack of control.
A lot of these things are very much interconnected.
It's like a person who just makes a decision and acts on
that decision without thinking things through.
People who are haughty. Or high minded and these are.
People who are just so proud that they take their.
Position. They use their position as a.
Way to put other? People down and to put
themselves up, there's a way of making themselves more important
and that's going to increase. They're high minded and Romans
12 and three says you know not to think of yourself more highly
than you want, but yet these people were going to be blinded
by self worth, blinded by their high thoughts of themselves and
then of. Course lovers of.
Pleasure rather than lovers. Of God.
And that's one need to spend a little bit of time on because
when you look at where this thing.
Started. We're talked about.
Men will be lovers of themselves.
That was the very. First one and then the one the
last one. Is lovers of pleasure rather
than lovers of God. I just want to make it clear
though, now these are people who are not making a choice between
loving pleasure and loving God. That is not the.
Choice because there is. Pleasure in.
God, God has pleasure. In fact, in Psalm 1611 it tells
us that in His presence there is fullness of.
Joy. And at his right hand are
pleasures evermore. So the difference is the
difference is worldly. Pleasure versus godly pleasures.
And their choice. Is that they'd rather have
worldly pleasure because that feeds the flesh, so the choice.
That they're making is to have. Worldly pleasures over godly
pleasures. And it's A and they're.
Deceived because worldly pleasures.
Are fleeting, worldly pleasures are temporal and anything
that's. Temporal is temporary.
So that means that their. Pleasures are just.
Fleeting, Moses said. Look, I don't even want to be.
Called the the daughter. The son of the daughter of
Pharaoh anymore. I don't even want to be called
that anymore. But I rather suffer.
Affliction with the. People of God.
Been to enjoy the pleasures of sin for season.
Moses understood that that was not going to last.
That was a temporary. Situation People who were
living, and it was me at one time who was living for the
pleasures. Of this.
World, we think it's going to go on and on and on like it's never
going to end. I'm going to have fun all my
life. I ain't ever going to give this
up. I'm having too much fun.
Yes, it ends. It ends and it usually doesn't
end well. It doesn't end well.
But these? These things are temporal, but
in. God, there are pleasures.
Evermore, Evermore. And that's the choice.
But then he goes down here and he says now.
All. These things.
That was just listed, the lovers of themselves lovers.
Of money boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to
parents, people who are unthankful, people who are
unholy, unloving, unforgiving. The Slanderers.
Those who are without. Self.
Control those who are, brutal those who are.
Despisers of self and. Traitors, those who are.
Headstrong, haughty, and. Lovers of pleasure.
Rather than. Lovers of God, all those people.
Have a form of godliness. It's a form of godliness.
So these people on the. Outside, they look religious.
They make even talk. Like they're religious.
They have a form of godliness, and it's form of godliness
actually means that it's a they have a shape of godliness or
semblance of godliness. They have an appearance of
godliness, but there's no fruit, there's no substance, there's
nothing. There's no life on the inside.
It's just a shell of an. Appearance of godliness.
It's an imitator. Of godly people without the
power. So it's like profession.
Without practice. Without no relationship
whatsoever. And this is what Paul is saying.
Paul is saying these people are going to look righteous.
They're going to. Look holy, they're going to look
religious, but. They won't have the Redeemer.
They will not have that. Relationship with the Lord.
None. These are people.
Who Jesus is. Talking about over in Matthew 7
when he says that they're going to be many that are going to
come to me and say. Lord, Lord, but everybody who
comes. To me saying Lord, Lord will not
enter the Kingdom of heaven. Oh, but they're going.
To put up the argument, Lord, didn't you know?
You know, didn't we? Prophecy in your name did not
cast out demons in your name did not do many wonders in your
name. And he's going to say depart
from me. I never knew you depart from me.
You who work lawlessness? Yes, you had an outward shell.
You had a. Appearance of godliness, but
there was never relationship. I never knew you.
There was never relationship and that's exactly what we're going
to see in the last. Days, these teachers, these
false teachers. That are going to have this
appearance of godliness. They're going to sound godly.
But their lives have. No.
Fruit. They're going to be.
Just like Jesus. Talked about over in Matthew
chapter 20. 3 when he talked about the woes.
Over in Matthew 23 and there's two woes in.
Particular that just. He gives me the chills.
That he talks about. And he basically saying chapter
25 verse 23. What are you?
Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites for you, cleanse the.
Outside of the cup. And dish but inside.
They are full of. Extortion and self indulgence.
And that's. Exactly what these false
teachers will be they'll be full of self.
Indulgence. Everything that you're teaching,
everything that they're doing is for selfish gain.
The Bible says they're. Feeding their own bellies and
then in verse 27 in the same. Chapter he says woe to you.
Scribes and Pharisees. Hypocrites.
For you are like whitewashed. Tombs which indeed appear.
Beautifully beautiful outwardly. And I remember Clark telling us
that he was in Israel and he stood up on the hill and he.
Saw these whitewashed. Tombs and how they glittered in
the sunlight and how. Beautiful they looked.
In the sunlight, he said. That's exactly.
What these false teachers? Are going to be.
Like like these whitewashed. Tombs which indeed appear
beautiful outwardly, but inside? Are full of dead.
Man's bones and all uncleanness. All uncleanness.
Here on Living Waters of Grace, we're in the books of First and
Second Timothy. Pastor Lewis Harrell is walking
us through these letters written from Paul to Timothy.
Toward the end of these letters, Paul is anticipating that his
time here on earth is coming to a close.
He's giving some final words of advice to his mentee.
Paul writes in Second Timothy 4, verse seven.
I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith wherever you are in your journey of faith
with God, our hope is that you have the willingness to fight
for what's true, not compromising, but holding fast
to the Word of God. Paul was reminding Timothy of
this, and it's a good reminder for you and for me today too.
For helpful input throughout this series, why not listen to
all of these teachings from First and Second Timothy on our
website? Go to calvarychapelonline.com to
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