Father, we ask that the Holy Spirit would move in our hearts and help us to see and understand ourselves in your word.
And we give you thanks and praise, Father, that your word speaks the truth about us,
not a truth that is brutal, that destroys us or diminishes us or hurts us,
but a truth, Father, that is always for our good to lead us to a truer and deeper knowledge of Jesus and what he did for us on the cross,
a truer and deeper knowledge, Father, of your great love for us and a truer and deeper knowledge of ourselves and others.
So, Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit would do that wonderful, gentle and powerful work in our lives this morning.
And we ask this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.
Is this sit down, please? Is this working right?
It seems like it's good.
Okay, then not only am I nose running, but my ears aren't working right.
That's not a very good sign.
There's about a year and a half ago, I don't know, maybe it's a, I've lost track of time.
You know, it's COVID makes it hard to figure out how long ago anything was.
I don't know for you folks, it's just pre-COVID seems like a hundred million years ago to me.
It's hard to imagine there was, but I was just watching ER is on Netflix.
And it's just shocking to see what the doctors do with masks or don't do with masks.
It's like, whoa, what? That actually used to happen before COVID?
Anyway, so there was a big scandal that rocked the Christian church, I don't know, about a year and a half ago or so.
And it was a very, very hard revelation, series of revelations about Ravi Zacharias.
And many of you are probably familiar with it.
Ravi was a best-selling author, a Christian apologist, started a large organization that helped to defend and describe the Christian faith.
And then there had been some allegations just before he died, but they sort of seemed to be dealt with.
But then after he died, more and more revelations came out.
And it turned out that he had been a sexual predator for a long time.
Like just actually a terrible sexual predator.
And if he had not died before these revelations come out, he would definitely have been fired.
And he might very well have been in jail.
And it was a very, very hard thing for a lot of people to get their mind around.
And for some people, it weakened their faith in Christ.
I was just talking this week with somebody who was describing one of their friends who was part of a church where some sexual things had been going on.
And in this particular case, it was with teenage boys, younger, like 12 to 15-year-old teenage boys that had gone on and what happened.
And it just led their friends to basically lose their Christian faith over such a terrible thing to have been revealed.
I mean, it's interestingly enough, there's a part of the, what we're going to look at today actually speaks very directly to this problem.
In fact, it's one of the things which is very interesting about it.
It really struck me this week.
There's a part of the text that we're about to look at today that for many, many years, when I would teach this in a Bible study,
there would be a range of people who wouldn't like the text because they thought it was misogynistic, that it was sort of sexist.
It was a problem for them.
But as I was reading and studying this text this week in light of things like the Ravi Zacharias scandal and other scandals that have gone on in churches,
and not only in churches, of course, right, in Hollywood, in government, in the media, in, you know, different swamis and yogis and all that.
It's been a big scandal.
But in the Christian church, it's been a scandal.
And I realized that this was actually a very, very powerful thing that the text speaks into this situation.
And in fact, just to give you a bit of a teaser, I think as we grasp what the Bible is going to be saying to us this morning,
it will help us to realize that we shouldn't lose our faith over revelations about things like Ravi Zacharias.
And I'll tell you why.
I don't know how many of you are vaccinated.
And one of the things, by the way, that we can do is there is so much division and divisiveness and anger is rising in our culture at an exponential rate.
And we need to really, as a church, start to try to pray into that, that there can be actually, that people can have civil conversations
and just disagree over this without going nuclear and everything.
But anyway, for those of us who are baptized, for those of us who are vaccinated, I mean, we took the vaccines because of the promise that it would protect us from COVID,
that it would protect us probably from death, that it would be something very good for our life.
And if five years or two years down the road, it turns out that half of the people who got vaccinated developed cancer, well, we would be very mad.
I mean, I'm putting it mildly.
We would be absolutely furious.
Why?
Because the promise and prediction is one thing, but the outcome is completely different.
And so we're angry.
And one of the things which is very interesting about this biblical text, concealed within a part that many people, when they look at it from a different context,
find maybe insulting to women, that rather than that, it's actually a very, very profound warning about the human condition.
And in fact, a precise warning about the perennial problem of predators.
So in other words, it's as if it isn't as if God said, listen, believe the gospel and follow Jesus and none of this stuff will happen.
And it's, no, no, listen, this is going to be a constant problem.
You know, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, Church of the Messiah, this is going to be a constant problem.
So you have to deal with it.
So let's look at the text.
So if you'd like to turn your Bibles to 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 1.
If you're a guest this morning coming on, we preach through books of the Bible.
And so this is where we are in the book of 2 Timothy.
And 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1 to 9.
And it goes like this.
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
Now, we're going to stop and pause there for a second.
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
Now, if you're here as a guest and you haven't traveled and hung out with Christians for very long,
or if you're watching us online and you haven't hung out with Christians for very long,
or maybe you have hung out with Christians and you're in recovery and checking us out to see if maybe there is,
after being really burned by types of Christianity in churches, that maybe there is something in this Jesus thing.
I mean, just by the way, the biggest barrier for me becoming a Christian was the church,
which I try to remember as a pastor.
And I'm not saying that we do everything perfect, but that was part of my background that was a hard thing to get over.
But it's very interesting here that it says,
In the last days there will become times of difficulty.
And difficulty is a good word for the original language.
But don't think of difficulty as the difficulty that you have because you go to your coffee shop
and you have to wait 90 seconds longer because the person ahead of you is confused.
And you think, gosh, this is difficult.
Okay, that's what's called a first world problem.
Take a chill pill and, you know, pray for the person.
Like, do something productive with your time.
Like, what it's describing here is deep difficulty.
Like, really serious difficulties.
That's the way you have to understand that word.
But here's the significance.
If you travel with Christians, they'll often talk,
Oh, this person's going through a very, very hard time.
And what will Christians, many Christians often say,
Oh, they're obviously going through a time of attack.
The Bible here says that's wrong.
If you could put up my first point,
Life will always be difficult.
Aren't you glad you came to church?
I get to tell you that life will always be difficult.
It's not necessarily a time of special attack.
It's called normal life.
Life will always be difficult.
So following Jesus and learning from him as you walk with him is wise.
Life will always be difficult.
I mean, that's a...
It's actually very interesting for a moment.
Why is it that we don't like hearing that?
Like, what does it tell us...
What does it tell you about yourself that you don't like hearing that?
You know, the fact of the matter is that we live in a culture that's been very, very, very deeply formed by this idea that if you manage techniques, if you manage science, if you have a proper way of managing organizations and governments, and if you read this self-help book,
in self-help books, or different self-help gurus or coaches, they're going to teach you these different steps,
and if you follow these steps, then your marriage will be easier, your job search will be easier, your finances will be easier, your health will be easier, and on and on and on.
And we have this basic acceptance of the idea that life should be easy.
And Christians easily fall into it if you just have this experience of the Holy Spirit, if you have this breakthrough in your life, if you have this Bible study technique, if you are part of this church,
if you listen to this celebrity pastor tell you the steps for dealing with anxiety or this or that, then life will be easy.
It's as if that's normal life.
And when it's not easy, there's something wrong with you.
Or something wrong with your boss or something wrong with your wife or something wrong with your kids or something wrong anywhere else.
But we have this deep addiction to a myth that life is going to natural life is easy.
And if it's not easy, dang it, it's the school board's fault or the union's fault or Trump's fault or Biden's fault or Trudeau's fault or Toul's fault or fill in the blank.
The Bible says life is difficult.
Why am I saying that?
Because, you see, the last days began when Jesus rose from the dead.
It's not talking about some special time of season that happens the week or the month or the year or seven years or three and a half years before Jesus returns.
It's talking about what happened.
We live in the last days right now.
And it's very important that the Bible puts it in terms of the last days, you see, because the last days has a very, very powerful pull on our imagination.
That, you know, the last days will either be when the back when I was a kid, there was a very popular song.
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius.
As if we were dawning the age where there would be peace and there would be love and there would be harmony and all of that type of stuff.
You know, there's intellectuals who talk about, there was an important intellectual that talked about how with the collapse of the Soviet Union, we'd reach the end of history.
And on the other hand, the end of the days can also be something that gives you license to do whatever you want.
The world is about to come to an end.
The comet's about to come.
We just do whatever.
We murder, rape, pillage, because it's all going to end.
And no, no, the Bible is saying we are in the last days.
And the last days means that your life's going to often be very difficult.
And then the Bible goes immediately into describing part of the reason why life is difficult.
And part of the reason life is difficult, you're going to be really glad you came to church this Sunday.
Part of the reason, you want to find out part of the reason why your life is difficult, the Bible says, look in a mirror.
And it doesn't mean look in a mirror to see what's behind you.
Look in a mirror to see what's around the corner.
Look in a mirror to see yourself.
And what the Bible is about to do now is to actually begin to describe the human condition.
So what does it do?
Let's look.
Verses 2 to 5.
What I'm going to do is I'm going to read through the list.
And then we're going to sort of just think about the list a little bit.
And then we're going to look at it in a little tiny bit of detail so that some of the points are brought home to you.
But listen to what it says.
So I'll read verse 1 again.
But understand this, that in the last days there will become times of difficulty.
For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents,
ungrateful, 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.
Avoid such people.
Actually, literally it says cut them off.
Now that's quite a list.
And almost all child-raising books that are published in the secular and even much of the Christian world
says this isn't true.
I was just talking to somebody who'd been observing some child-care-raising practices
and at the heart of those child-care-raising practices is fundamentally the idea that this isn't what human beings are like,
that human beings, their children are fundamentally good.
And they were following techniques to try to deal with children that assumes that children are fundamentally good.
It's part of a lot of educational curriculum at an undergirding level that children and others are natural learners.
It doesn't entertain the idea that, naturally speaking, kids might spend six hours looking at TikTok or playing video games
and never actually wanting to master mathematics or physics.
That they'd much rather read a silly, easy book than to be stretched by a book.
This is a very, very hard list.
If you could put up the point, that would be very helpful.
The Word of God brings you the bad news that the human condition is bent and disordered.
So life is difficult.
In other words, life is difficult not just because you age,
not just because you don't always get that promotion,
you don't always get the marriage,
you don't always get the children,
you don't always get that friendship,
you don't always get the house,
you don't always get these things.
It's hard and difficult because you live with people
that are at least partly described by some of the things on this list,
and life is difficult because you were partially described in this list.
Some of you know me reasonably well.
And you could probably pick different things
where you could see that this is a weakness in my life.
You would look at this list and say,
I can see George.
I could see how George would be tempted.
I could see how George has sometimes been a little bit like this
and a little bit like this and a little bit like this.
And my only hope is that if you ever reveal it to me,
you do it in a way that's not brutal.
Because if you do it in a way that's brutal,
you're in the list too.
You see, this isn't just describing the world,
it's describing the world that includes those who come to church.
It's describing Christians as well as non-Christians.
Now, this is a very, very interesting list, you see,
because it's not saying that human beings are all completely and utterly bad.
And it's not saying that human beings are by very, very nature good.
And if you just have the right religion or the right educational system
or the right form of government,
or if you're a part of the right group,
that this won't be characteristic of you.
It's far more nuanced.
And by the way, this is a very persistent problem.
You see, the heart of critical theory,
which is like, in a sense,
there's sort of several different things that go on
in how people think and talk in the media
and in educational institutions.
And part of it is this sort of a deep belief still
that there is something about people being fundamentally good.
But it's sort of mixed up a little bit with critical theory,
which is sort of the grandchild of Marxism,
which divides the world into classes.
And when you divide the world in classes in classic Marxism,
I mean, it doesn't really say that there's something wrong with the proletariat,
but there is something wrong with the owner class.
And critical theory has taken that and developed it.
So it might just be that if you're a white male like me,
then of course I'm going to be most of these things in the list.
But if you're some victim class,
that there's something about them in that victim class
that they don't lie, they don't lie.
Well, one moment, the Bible says that's not true.
This list describes everybody.
And just apart from a type of learned blindness,
we see it all the time.
And so you see, here's what the Bible is saying.
It's not that we're all bad or all good.
Like, take the idea of overcome with conceit.
Well, what's conceit?
Conceit, and this describes nobody in the room, okay?
Conceit is actually having too high opinion of your own ideas.
There's nobody here who never remembers
the time they made a prediction that it was wrong.
But they remember all the times
they made a prediction that it was right.
There's never been a time, any of us,
where we've made a proposal for a way to move forward,
and later events would show that if it had been followed,
that it would have been disastrous.
But we do remember the times we made proposals
where because it wasn't followed, there was disaster.
There's nobody here who thinks that they're sort of always right,
or that they're always the smartest person in the room,
or they're always the wisest person in the room.
There's nobody here that describes that.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Isn't that ridiculous?
Some of us are squirming, and others are saying,
I sure wish my best friend was here to hear this,
or I really wish, I hope my husband is paying attention
to what George just described.
But you see, what's the problem with that?
The Bible doesn't say that you never have good ideas.
The Bible doesn't say you never have good proposals,
that there's just something completely dirty and wrong about you.
The Bible doesn't say that.
The Bible says the problem isn't that you never have good ideas,
is that there's something disordered in you,
and you're conceited.
You don't recognize that sometimes you're just wrong,
and you don't acknowledge it.
Right?
You see, the Bible here is very subtle.
That's why it says that the human problem,
there's something bent and disordered about human beings,
and that that's the human condition.
The human condition isn't that we have,
as Buddhism says, that we have desire,
and we have to kill desire,
and get rid of that through different techniques,
so that we will no longer have problems.
It doesn't say that the failure is because we don't understand
that all things are one.
The Bible isn't saying it's because we're part of the wrong class,
or the wrong group,
or that we haven't had the right education.
It's just saying this is the human condition,
and we have to deal with it.
But let's go through the list.
We have a few minutes.
Let's just go through the list again,
and just look at it,
about what it actually says.
For people will be lovers of self.
The Bible isn't here saying that you should never have
a positive regard for yourself.
But what it is saying is this,
that your concern for yourself,
and your desiring the best things for yourself,
is very easily disordered.
You see, here's the problem.
Most of us want love.
But if you are too much in love with yourself,
it will be impossible for you to love another person.
Why is that?
Well, you see, because partly what's loving another person,
is forgetting yourself for a moment,
is to say to yourself,
you know, gosh,
you know, whatever it is,
my wife, you know,
my kid,
gosh, they're a cute kid.
You know, gosh,
they did a really good job with that.
You know, gosh,
my wife is,
that was a really kind thing she did.
Gosh, she's beautiful.
But if every time you have an interaction with a person,
all you're thinking about is,
does my hair look good?
Like, am I coming across right?
Like, and all you're doing is thinking about yourself,
then it's hard to notice the other person.
It's hard to actually love the other person.
So the problem isn't that you just so love the other person
that you forget about yourself.
The problem is that your love is disordered.
You've got them out of,
it's in the wrong order.
Oops.
Good thing that was closed.
And then look at the second one here.
So that was the first one.
Lovers of self,
lovers of money.
The Bible isn't here saying,
I was talking to a business person the other day
in one of my favorite coffee shops.
And I said to him,
you know,
the Christian ideal,
because he obviously likes to make money.
And I said,
you know,
the Bible doesn't say you shouldn't be making money.
He provides employment for a lot of people.
And my guess is he's a really good boss.
I'd probably easily have one of my grandkids or kids
or recommend one of you to work for him.
I think he looks like he's a very conscientious boss,
cares about his employees,
probably pays them as fair as he can.
And I said,
you know,
the Christian ideal isn't like you see often in Hinduism or Buddhism,
where you have an emaciated person living an isolated life.
And that somehow is the pinnacle of the human life.
Christians believe in feasts.
You know,
the Sabbath is not just a day of rest.
It's a day that you should feast
and that you should share the food with other people if you can,
if it's a non-COVID world.
Have people over.
Remember,
bring out the pumpkin pie.
Add lots of whipped cream.
Bring out the best wine if you're not an alcoholic.
And if you're an alcoholic,
well,
bring out the best Coke.
Don't get the no-name stuff.
Buy it.
Get the real stuff.
You know,
give them the full experience.
Like,
it's not,
and I said,
you know,
I mean,
the Christian wisdom would be,
like a very one is,
you know,
earn as much as you can
and give as much as you can
because if money starts to control your life,
your life is just going to be miserable.
So,
you know,
a very standard piece of advice is,
you know,
live on 80% of,
you know,
give 10% of your money away
for the good of people
and the furtherance of the gospel.
Save 10%
because that's a wise thing for the future.
And with the other 80%,
have fun.
You sort of looked at me,
what Christians would say,
you can have fun.
Yeah,
have fun.
Like,
if you can afford an expensive car,
afford an expensive car.
See,
part of the way you deal with money
having control of your life
is giving it away.
Just giving it away.
And by the way,
if you're watching this
or if you're here
and you don't come to the church,
we don't want you to put any money
in the plate,
okay?
If you're not with Jesus,
we don't want you to give us any money.
I don't say that
so you give us money.
But for Christians,
you have to wonder,
you know,
is money running your life?
We can see how money runs
other people's lives
and it ruins them,
but does money run your own life?
Well,
you only actually experience that
if you try to give the money away.
Let's look at the rest of the list.
Sort of proud,
obvious,
arrogant,
abusive.
Abusive is here,
meant not just physically abusive,
but abusive with your tongue.
Being like a bull
in a tea shop,
being just very,
very domineering
in meetings
or groups
or your family.
Disobedient to their parents.
We'll talk a whole type
of thing about this,
but it's just
for children
who are still
under their parents
that there is a...
Okay.
I'm not telling you
to get a vaccine necessarily.
I'm trying to stay out
of that whole debate.
I just want things
to be divisive.
But I do know
that some people
don't want to get a vaccine
not because they have
good medical reasons,
and I know people
who have valid,
valid concerns about it,
but there's something
like the government
telling them what to do.
Okay, time out.
That's not a good reason.
That's just not a good reason.
I'm sorry.
I have all the time
in the world
for people
I have other concerns about.
I really do.
And I just was suggesting
to somebody
at the end
of the 8 o'clock service,
I said,
because they sent an email
about my latest blog,
which I wrote yesterday
about whether vaccinations
against COVID-19
are a mark of the beast.
And I said to them,
you know what would be
really wonderful?
I'd love it if I could get,
there's a wide range of views
on this in this congregation.
Wouldn't it be good?
Would you be willing
to be part of this,
to have 12 people
from the congregation
to represent the whole range
of things
and we'll get together,
we'll all share Coke
and have something to eat
and just see if we can have
a civil conversation
about this
and try to hear
how other people think?
Like that could be,
I mean if we could
actually manage that,
we should probably
put it on YouTube
and try to get it promoted
because there doesn't seem
to be anywhere
where people have
civil conversations
about this thing.
I'm getting off
of my sermon topic.
It just began
with that one thing of,
I know there's valid
reasons to take it
and I'm double vaccinated
and I understand
those who have
other concerns
but just because
the government
tells you to do it
is a reason not to do it.
That's not a biblical reason.
Sorry, it's not.
Ungrateful, unholy,
heartless, unappeasable
is an interesting one.
The actual word is,
the opposite to unappeasable
is a treaty person.
A person who's willing
to get into a treaty.
A person who's willing
to say,
okay, we've made these claims,
they're wrong,
we're willing to set them aside.
Okay, we acknowledge
that we've done these things
and we need to stop them
and you'll stop them
and being able to enter
into a treaty
with a person
where it's not just a treaty
because you've just
completely and utterly
annihilated them
and while you have
your knee on their back
and a gun to their head
they have to sign something
but one where you actually
have a treaty
and you acknowledge
problems on both sides
and things you have to give up
to have a treaty.
The opposite of that
is the word here.
A person who never
enters into a treaty.
Never acknowledges
that they're wrong.
Never gives an inch.
Everything is somebody else's fault.
I have to get my way.
That's what this is describing.
Where am I here?
Slanderous,
without self-control,
brutal,
not loving good,
treacherous,
reckless,
swollen with conceit,
lovers of pleasure
rather than lovers of God.
Once again,
the Bible isn't saying
that you shouldn't go home
and get that pumpkin pie
from Costco
and add a whole pile
of whipped cream
and just enjoy it today.
We're not world denying.
But if pleasure starts
to rule your life
rather than God,
it means you'll never
pick up and cross
and follow Him.
You'll never be generous.
You'll never show
compassion to people.
If your pleasure
ends up being
what rules you,
you'll never do
these things
which are just good
and just so needed
for the social order
and having the appearance
of godliness
but denying its power
avoid such people.
So, you know,
just to go back,
the Word of God
brings you the bad news
that the human condition
is bent and disordered
and so life is difficult.
But the Bible
doesn't tell us this
just to depress us.
See, the thing
which is so powerful
about the Bible,
well, here,
before we get to it,
let's just look at
the type of thing
that happens.
There's another concern
that Paul has
with Timothy
that's,
you see,
what all,
actually,
what we'll do,
it's not going to be in,
you can't look at it
on the screen.
This is part of chapter 3
and chapter 3
culminates with this
very, very, very
powerful phrase.
If you have your Bibles
with you,
you won't have it
on the screen,
I should have had it
up here,
but if you look at
verses 15 and 16 and 17,
all of this bad news
is setting up the stage
for us to appreciate
verses 15, 16, and 17,
and how from childhood
you have been acquainted
with the sacred writings,
that's the Bible,
which are able to make you
wise for salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus.
All Scripture is breathed out
by God and profitable
for teaching,
for reproof,
for correction,
and for training
in righteousness,
that the man of God
or the woman of God
may be complete,
equipped,
for every good work.
And so the Bible
is giving us
this bad news
to make us understand
why we need the good news,
that we need a mirror
that actually shows us
who we are.
But the Bible
doesn't confront us
with these things
about ourselves
so that we despair.
The Bible's not
being brutal.
The Bible's getting us
to realize,
I need a Savior.
I need wisdom.
I need insight.
And I need wisdom
and insight
that isn't bent
and disordered.
I need something
that comes ultimately
from outside
this world condition
that ultimately
comes from God.
Like, I need this.
That if one or more
of these things,
the 19 things,
describe me,
then how can I ever
fix myself?
How can I leave myself
to save myself?
How can I leave myself
to fix myself?
I can't leave myself
to do this.
I need a Savior.
Like, either this
is condemning me
to a life
where there's never
any point
in trying to repent
or change
or anything like that.
This is trying
to communicate
why the good news
which has been described
in chapter 1 and 2
and will be later on
in chapter 3
and later on
in chapter 4,
why it's good news.
Let's look at
verses 6 to 9.
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.
So, what the text
is saying here
when it says
from among them,
what it's basically
saying is that,
actually it's a bit
out of order, Claire,
could you just put up
my third point
right now?
Denying the truth
of the human condition
creates fertile soil
for predators
to prey on the weak
and the vulnerable.
Denying the truth
of the human condition
creates fertile soil
for predators
to prey on the weak
and the vulnerable.
That's what it's saying,
that out of these
things in the human condition.
So, what Paul is saying
to Timothy,
what he's saying
to us as a church
is you need to preach
about the human condition.
You need to preach
about the human condition
in the context of grace.
And you need to organize
around the human condition.
Not that your mind
is never going to be right,
but that there's a possibility
that you can fall too much
in love with your mind.
Not that you're always
going to have wrong plans,
but that you can forget
the times you were wrong.
And you need to remember
these things.
You need the Bible
to help to bring this
to some type of a clarity.
And you need to be able
to have a Savior
that you can walk with it.
You can call out to Him
and say,
Jesus, I really need you
to be my Savior
and I really need you
to be my Lord
because my relationship
with alcohol,
my relationship with money,
my relationship
with myself,
my relationship
with power,
my relationship
with others
is out of order.
And I can't just
white-knuckle at Jesus.
I have,
Jesus,
you need to be
that higher power.
You need to be that one
who can bring the order
in my life
that I can't create myself
and I need to be
constantly reminded of it
and I need to be part
of a community,
a church,
that will remind me of it
and will show grace
and will speak to me
in a way which is not brutal
and will tell me
about Jesus
and that will teach
in such a way
that will not just,
we don't want,
I don't want to be a predator.
I don't want to have predators.
We need to protect
the weak and the vulnerable.
But out of that teaching
which ignores
the human condition
creates a fertile soil
for predators
to prey on the weak
and the vulnerable.
See,
what,
if you know,
any of you have met
anybody who's a bit
of a predator,
predators have
a sixth sense
of picking out,
like I'm talking about men
who pick on women,
they have a sixth sense
about who's weak.
They'll go into a room
or they'll be part of a group
or a church
for a little while
and they can just tell
the women
who will just,
in a sense,
in a way that's,
you know,
Jesus loves you
but give them the finger
and put them
in their place
and they can tell
the women
who will be completely
and utterly,
well,
they're weak
and vulnerable.
Predators have a sixth sense.
And part of the issue
with the Ravi Zacharias thing
wasn't that they
as an organization
never believed
in the fall
but they didn't believe
that Ravi was fallen.
They thought everybody
in the world
was fallen
except Ravi
so they didn't have
normal checks
and balances
on how he spent
his money.
They'd believe him
when they'd say
that he could be
paying for women
to travel with him
and masseuses
to travel with him
but somehow
he was never
in a room alone
with them
and they'd believe it
because they just
thought as if
Ravi wasn't fallen.
And part of the whole
Me Too movement
developed very specifically
out of the sexual revolution
and the naturalness
of sexual desires
and this belief
that somehow
using sexual desires
or somehow natural
and right and good
yet to have
such a type of ideology
and such a type
of teaching
is fertile soil
for sexual predators
to be sexual predators.
The Bible here
isn't describing
that all women are weak
it's describing the fact
that if you don't deal
with the human condition
and preach against it
and you turn a blind eye
to normal types
of discipline
and normal types
of things
to try to prevent it
that sexual predators
will flourish.
it's also saying
that if when you hear
about an act
of sexual predation
or any other type
of predatory behavior
and if you don't discipline it
it will continue.
Like you can't stop it
from happening
because that's part
of the human condition
but you definitely
will encourage it
to happen
if you talk
as if there's certain people
where there's something
about the human condition
which is just natural
and good
and that there's nothing
evil about it
there's nothing bent
or disordered about it
and if you just
talk like that
then you'll turn
a blind eye to stuff
and it also makes it
harder to discipline it
when it happens
and the Bible here
is basically saying
to Timothy
because he's going
to be talking
to Timothy
and if you look
at 1 Timothy as well
which talked about
you deal with it
Timothy
like preach against it
and you deal with it
you set up things
and you deal with it
because the weak
and the vulnerable
matter to God
the weak
and the vulnerable
matter to God
and if they matter
to God
they should matter
to Christians
and they should matter
to the church
some of you know
that I had a role
in putting somebody
who had sexually abused
young girls
into jail
I had a role in that
and it was a family member
caused great division
in my family
and you would not believe
how many godly Baptists
and others
wrote me
and phoned me
and told me
that what I was doing
was wrong
and they wrote me
and told me
that I should be concerned
about the family
and the reputation
rather than the victims
and I can also tell you
I will not name them
one of these people
as a social justice champion
in Canada
folks if this happens
in the church
the last thing
we should concern about
is the reputation
of church and the Messiah
what we should be concerned about
is the weak
and the vulnerable
and that shouldn't even be
something that we have
to think about
we shouldn't even have to say
we have to pray about that
just to wrap us up
the time story
when you understand
the bad news
you understand
your need
for the good news
when you understand
the bad news
you understand
your need
for the good news
you see here's the wonderful news
about the good news
for God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son
to the end
that anyone who believes in him
will not perish
but have everlasting life
when it says perish
what does that mean
means God knows
that those 19 vices
in 2nd Timothy
describe me
and even though
that God knew
that those 19
vices
describe me
still Jesus
died on the cross
for me
and he died on the cross
for me knowing
every single one of them
he knows the times
I've been brutal
to my wife
and to my kids
he knows the ways
that I've damaged
my marriage
or my family
by being a lover
of myself
rather than a lover
of my wife
for my kids
he knows all that
and he died
for me
and he died for you
and I don't know
how you can have
a moral self-examination
if you want to
if you're going to be
constantly thinking
that you need to
justify yourself
and manage your appearances
I don't know
how you manage it
I know people do
and God loved them
that they do
that's common grace
but let me tell you
as grace grips you
as you understand
more fully
that
for God so loved
the world
that he gave
his only begotten
son to the end
that all who believe
in him will not
perish but have
eternal life
when you understand
that he knew
we were perishing
and he knew
why we were perishing
and still he loved us
and came and died
for us
and that in a sense
no sin in my life
will ever surprise
Jesus who died for me
and my standing
before God
my justification
before God
is not that he
weighed my merits
but that he
pardoned my offenses
and it's not
that I was able
to get a great score
in ethics
and a great score
in theology
but I am covered
by the blood
of Christ
and that's my
justification
and that becomes
a stance
as that becomes
more real
and deep to my heart
that I can say
you know what
I can be really
ungentle
with my tongue
I can be like this
I can be like that
and I can call out
to Jesus
and thank him
for dying for me
and I can say
Lord Jesus
help me to be better
help me to be more
like Christ
help me to be less
a lover of myself
and more a lover
of you
help me to be less
a lover of money
and more a lover
of you
and what the money
that you've entrusted
to me for a while
could do for the furtherance
of the kingdom
and the relief
of the poor
and bringing glory
to you
see that's why
knowing the bad news
helps you appreciate
the good news
and one final thing
just as you all stand
the challenge here
is to teach the Bible
and discipline biblically
to help people
thrive in Christ
and to protect
the weak
and the vulnerable
that's why this section
is here
teach the Bible
and discipline biblically
why?
to help people
thrive in Christ
and to protect
the weak
and the vulnerable
please stand
just bow our heads
in prayer
Father
we confess
that it
it's
we really like it
when the Bible
speaks about other people
it can be hard
when it speaks
about ourselves
but Father
we thank you
that you press
through that
that your Bible
speaks to us
and that as the Holy Spirit
has a deeper role
in our lives
the Holy Spirit
will bring the Bible
to see how
it's describing us
describing me
describing our church
and so Father
we thank you
that you confront
to connect
and you confront
and you connect
so that we know
our need for a Savior
and your great grace
and Father
we give you thanks
and praise
that when we've accepted
Jesus as our Savior
and Lord
that we can repent
with hope
we can repent
Father
knowing that even
if we're going to fall
a hundred times more
over the next couple of years
but that every time
we can repent
that we don't have to make
a treaty with evil
we can make treaty
with others
for the good of the kingdom
and out of love
and being self-effacing
but we don't make treaties
with evil
we don't make treaties
with hurting the weak
and the vulnerable
and that Father
as the Bible grips us
so we can look at ourselves
we can repent
in the hope
that the final word
about us
will not be
bent and disordered
but made new in Christ
filled with the Holy Spirit
and that we can have
some victory
over these sins
on this side of the grave
that we can pick up
our cross
and follow Jesus
and become more like him
Father
help us to know
the bad news
so that we will love
the good news
and that we can repent
and amend our lives
with hope
and we ask this
in the precious name
of Jesus
and all God's people said
Amen