Plainly Speaking Bible Study
Title: Perilous Times
by Pastor Karl Forehand
Perilous Times
But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will
come. (2 Tim. 3:3)
Mom and the kids awoke to find dad driving very intently.
“Where are
we?” they asked. At first there was not reply.
“Dad! Where are we?” they asked again.
“I’m not sure,” he said “but we are making good time.”
In the 29 years that I have been a Christian, I have heard many people
say, “This is it…this is the time when Jesus is coming back.” It almost
makes my cynical some time, because we understand that these last days,
or messianic times began when Paul wrote this passage. They actually started
after Christ’s resurrection.
Christ’s return is supposed to always be a primary concern of ours – not
to try to determine the date; but to give us an urgency to our walk. That
aside, what are some of the signs of the times?
For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers,
disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious
gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless,
conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; (2 Tim. 3:2-4)
1. People worship everything except God
There are 18 characteristics mentioned here that all express one thing
– misplaced love. The love that we should have for God first, we distribute
randomly to many other pursuits. We love ourselves, our wealth and our
way. That causes us to be unholy, ungrateful and unreliable. In short,
we love our pleasures rather that God.
Some might say, “But I go to
church.” But the question might be, “What keeps you out of church? What
makes you miss a Sunday?” We might say “I study my Bible?” But we can
ask “What takes you out of your quiet time?” What tend to become more pressing
and important than God in your life?
In recent days, we have all become concerned with the tragedy. During
stressful times, we say “As soon as God solves my problems and/or smoothes
my life out, then I will get back to serving Him properly.” Over time,
we realize that God isn’t as interested in solving our problems as he is
in changing and growing us amidst our problems. If you can’t worship God
in the valley, we will never worship Him on the mountaintop.
We would
never pray for tragedy, but look what God is doing in New York in the middle
of such a terrible situation.
In these last days,
2. People experience everything except God’s power
holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and
avoid such men as these. (2 Tim. 3:5)
All over the world, we see churches and people that appear religious and
play religious games, but never experience God’s power. During a special
service, a guest told me, “I’ve been to church all my life, but I have never
experienced the Spirit working like I experienced today.” Our church is
far from perfect, but I thought it was sad for a believer to never experience
God’s power.
The real question is not, have you served on the board
or sang in the choir or taught Sunday School. The real question is “Have
you experienced God power in your life? How do we find that power?
1.
Accept a God-sized task (a faith-based initiative)
2. Realize you need God’s help
3. Get in God’s Word and let Him speak to you
4. Admit to God “I need Thee”
5. Watch what God does in and through you
Remember the key to God’s power is often humility.
3. People learn everything but the truth
always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (2
Tim. 3:7)
If we are going to reach Generation X and whatever generations follow,
we have to “get it” to be able to share it. The world, right now, doesn’t
care who Moses’ second cousin was. They don’t care if you can spout doctrinal
distinctives. They are not impressed that you know all the verses to Amazing
Grace.
What do they want to know? They want to know if God grace is
really amazing and can you tell them about how it IS in your life. In other
words, is this truth real and how can it affect my life?
We’ve spent so much time becoming religious that we don’t understand the
truth. We shouldn’t read God’s Word just to prove a point. We shouldn’t
read it just to learn more facts. We have to read it to discover truth.
If we know the truth, it will set us free to minister.
4. People challenge everything but evil
And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the
truth, men of depraved mind, rejected as regards the faith. But they will
not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, as also
that of those two came to be. (2 Tim. 3:8-9)
Years ago, in business, it became popular to be a “devil’s advocate,”
meaning you try to find the fault in everything. I realize there are some
advantages to critical thinking; but we have become so good at challenging
everything else, and have forgot to stand up to evil. We “go to the mat”
for things that don’t matter and then we wink at the evil in our communities
and schools.
We do just the opposite of what we should. We throw up
a smoke screen of criticism for our church and schools to hide the evil
in our hearts. God tells us to confess our (personal) sins one to another,
then stand up to the evil in our own lives first. Our churches and communities
and schools will get better when WE get better.
If we know how to recognize perilous times, we also have to know how to
survive them.
But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,
persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium
and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord
delivered me! And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus
will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to
worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things
you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned
them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which
are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which
is in Christ Jesus. (2 Tim. 3:10-15)
1. We must carefully follow
We must examine everything in the light of Scripture. Christian books,
radio and television programs and even the Sunday morning sermon must be
held up to Scripture. I’m often thankful that my congregation doesn’t
just hang on to every word that I say.
How can we be united around
the truth:
- Look with respect to men God has appointed to lead you.
- Study what
they teach you
- Pray that God will give you clarity
This will give us a chance of being together and unified around the truth.
The alternative is when we are too lazy to study ourselves and we just accept
whatever someone feeds us. This is almost a guarantee that we’ll be off
base.
Here are some things to beware of when you follow a leader
- Beware the national anthem scripture that is raised at the beginning of
a message and never referred to again. If a preacher just uses a Scripture
to jump start his own message, he is in trouble.
- Beware all emotion and no substance.
- Beware a preacher that stays
on the same theme too long. Surely we have nagging issues in the Christian
walk, but someone who hammer a particular doctrinal distinctive is ignoring
the whole counsel of God.
- Beware a sermon that doesn’t convict. God’s Word is light and it should
be helping eliminate darkness.
- Beware a sermon that doesn’t lift up Jesus.
- Beware of sermon that promote loving self, loving money, being boastfull.
Watch out for messages that inspire revenge, reviling or retaliation. In
other words, beware of a message that inspires or cause you to sin.
In prayer, discover God’s leaders for your life and follow them carefully.
2. Graciously suffer
Very simply, Christians have to stop running from suffering. We have
to learn to embrace it, learn to endure it and learn to share the burdens
of suffering. Some of us are suffering silently at home because we don’t
figure that a good Christian would have to suffer. That is not true and
not how we should handle suffering. We have to share our burdens. Realize
they are: necessary, natural and need to be nurtured.
3. Patiently continue
Realize that God does not always deliver us out of struggles. Complex
problems, such as sin, take patient continuance. We must commit ourselves
to staying in the race. But, how do we endure?
- Know the source – God’s Word
- Know the result – we are headed to the salvation of the lost and the maturity
of belivers – that is the goal
- Know the auther – we must have a vital relationship with the one who created
– Jesus Christ.
Karl J. Forehand, 2001
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