Now, open your Bibles and let's
read the first five verses, 2 Timothy chapter 3. Now, notice some changes that
I'm making. Folks, we're going to make a study of some words
today, or the beginning of a study of 18 words in verses 2 through
4. Fifteen adjectives, two nouns,
and the verb. All descriptive of the last of
the last days. Now when I say we're going to
do a word study, I mean just that. We're going to do a word
study. I've done my best over the last several days to dig
into each one of these words and to get the most out of it
I could possibly get. So let's read verses 1 through
5. But this you be recognizing,
in the final days difficult times shall be present. Now today, our study, verses
2 through 4. Notice I said people rather than
men. And I'll tell you why as we make
a word study this morning. For the people shall be self-lovers, notice this, money-lovers, bolsters,
arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
without natural affection, or devoid of instinctive affections. I'm elaborating now for a moment.
slanderers, without self-control, untamed, not lovers of good, traitors, reckless, high-minded. Now there is the verb, it's used
as a participle here. High-minded we'll let that go
for the time being do we get into the word? Pleasure lovers
more than God lovers Now let's read verse 5 to complete this
long verse this long sentence having a form of piety But who
have denied the power of it, you be turning yourself away
from these." Boy! Anybody can read, can understand
that. Are we living in the last days?
No, let's put it like this. Not going back and rehashing
what we gave last Sunday. We're living in the final days
of the last days. In the final days of the last
days. And I'm no date setter. And you're
not going to hear me set one. Paul describes, beginning with
verse 2, the manner of life manifested by apostates. And we have 18 words. Hopefully, folks, you want to
make a real study of this. And I'm going to expose you to
as much as I possibly can this morning. And if I do not complete
it this morning, I will finish next Lord's Day. So let's begin
now with verse 2. Take it slow. 18 words, 15 adjectives,
2 nouns, and the verb used as a participle. But let me also
hasten to say this. They are all in the nominative
case. That's the designation case. That's the subject case. I said they're all in the nominative
case. Many of them are compound words. Some of them are made up of three
different Greek words. Therefore, in order to really
understand the meaning of the word as we would like, we have
to go into all of those words and then put it together. all
the different parts and put it together. So Paul describes the apostates'
manner of life which manifested their depravity, the heinousness
of their sins. Sin which is getting worse and
worse and worse. So let's see how he begins in
verse 2. You've got to go back and realize
that we have the future middle indicative verb to close the
last part of the first verse. So now he says, for, for the
people, anthropoi, But anthropoi, the plural of anthropos, is used
generically. Not just talking about men alone,
but it is used generically. Speaking of mankind or speaking
of all people, generally speaking. So we need to have that understanding
to begin with. So we have a future middle indicative
of the verb, I, me, to close the first verse. To be, to exist,
to happen, or to take place. And now he says, for since, since then, and since this is
true, what do we have? First of all, The first adjective
that Paul uses is philatoi. Compound word. Compound adjective.
Made up of philis. We've already studied philis.
We did this two weeks ago today. And agape or agapao. The verb or the noun. Here we
have philis or philotas. Philotas Phyllis and Otis and
Otis means self or oneself So what do I have? self-love Now
notice Self-love is the very first one So he started correctly Self-love in this verse is that
narrow and wicked affection which confines an individual to his
personal good on earth under the garb of religion. Now notice what I said under
the garb of religion. Verse 5, having a form of piety,
but denied, devoid, if you please, of the power of Christianity.
Isn't that true today? Isn't that true? I hope it's
not true of anyone who's a member of this assembly. So to love oneself is the opposite
of loving God. And we'll conclude like with
that in the fourth verse. The self-lover thinks he is equal
to God. All you have to do is listen
to people today. They think they're equal to God. Self-love is the cause of all
the other enormities that are given in this passage of Scripture
that we're studying. All the heinous sins that follow
us, they begin with self-love. Unless grace enters one's life,
all his ignorance is knowledge. All of his folly is wisdom. And all of his darkness is light
to him. Think that through. I can't get
any stronger than that. Someone has said, self-love is
a disease which includes all others. In other words, all other
diseases. So self-love is such an enormous
disease, it contains all other diseases. Self-love is a sin
that includes all the other sins. The more lovely one is in his
own eyes, the more loathsome he is to God. You see, there is a religious
self-love. The self-centered person makes his own eye, I'm
talking about personal eye in quotation, the center of his
thinking, willing, feeling, and doing. It's what I think. It's what I do. I feel this way. I will do this. So there it is,
folks. Now let's pause a moment. There
is a justifiable self-love and there is an unjustifiable self-love
according to the scriptures. So you have to look at this subject
in its entirety. Let's do that for a second. Self-love does not refer to justifiable love. We're told in Ephesians 5, 28
and 29, men ought to love their wives as their own bodies, their own bodies. Unjustifiable love, self-love,
is expressed in the following statements that we're going to
study. They all flow from self-love. Every one of them. All the other 17. You see, that's why it gets so
big and so important, a subject. Unjustifiable love is the cause
of hard times that you and I are facing, and they will continue
to get worse. Yes, within professing Christendom. Unjustifiable self-love often
causes men to follow Christ for His blessings. Watch what I'm
saying. For His blessings. while they
reject God's government. Unjustifiable self-love is often
the principle that first excites the flesh, then puts fervor to
prayer. Unjustifiable self-love is often
active in religious activity for personal recognition. That's why some love recognition, and that's another
compound word, warning the preeminent place. And phyllis is used with
it, the adjective, with another word, and you'll find it in 2
John. I'll say, folks, that all the
problems, I would say 99% of all the problems I've had to
encounter in my Christian life, in my Christian ministry, has
been over one sin, that's someone wanting preeminence, desiring
something for which he is not qualified. unjustifiable love, is never
willing to empty oneself of personal recognition for the honor and
glory of God. Now, folks, what I'm giving this
morning, if I were to give this to a congregation that I had
never seen before, or had never spoken to, I would probably be
tarred and feathered before I got out. If they didn't literally
do it, they would wish they could do it and get by with it. I know
what I'm talking about. Think it over. So we have a compound
adjective to begin with, phyllis and altos. Self-love. That is at the foundation
of all problems. And all other sins spring from
it. Now let's look at the second. So, Paul says, for the people
shall be self-lovers Now, money lovers. That's the next one. That's the
next word. What is the word? The adjective
is philagra. Philagra. Phyllis and argyros. Argyros is the word for money
and phyllis is the adjective speaking of love. Literally, it means for any form
of exchange. The word money, agoras, means
any exchange. I tried to dig into this to find
the root of this, and I finally came to the conclusion it's any
exchange, any exchange. It's translated covetousness.
in the King James. I'm not going to translate it
that way. It's just money lovers, self lovers, money lovers. So
money lovers is the moral corruption that follows falsely directed
love, self-centeredness, and personal
or material advantages. become the chief objects of affection. But let's look at some things
here in connection with this. Self-love is barren of grace. One may as well expect a crop
of corn on a barren rock as a crop of grace in a covetous money-loving
person, where that takes all of his time
and energy. When we think about money lovers,
that is found in the area of commerce, if you want to enlarge
on it. I can't take the time to do it,
but I want to mention these things, because I've looked at it from
these points of views, and I've done some research. not only
found in the area of commerce, but in the area of industry,
in the area of legislation, in the area of literature, folks. I said literature. You know why
a lot of people write books? Make money. Folks, I'm so thankful that I've
never had a desire, you know, We've sent out about a million
books, and that means if they were bought on the market, take
them all, that would be about ten, eleven million dollars worth. Literature. So watch all the
books that are going to be written on the O.J. Simpson trial, not
only by Simpson, whoever he chooses to be his ghost writer, The lawyers
both defense and prosecuting reporters and what have you they'll
be making movies and everything else So I'm talking about money
lovers is found in the area of commerce industry Legislation
literature Ambition And folks I'm not going to leave
religion out of it either I said religion. If self-love is the prevailing
form of sin, money-loving may be regarded as the prevailing
form of selfishness. Church membership is often covetousness. The person covets some personal
gain. I've even had people to join
a church of which I was pastor. They don't do it now because
we're too small. So if somebody has something to sell, he doesn't
want to fool with us because we're too small to begin with. But I can remember at Belfort, We had men who would, if they
were selling insurance, they would join our church and then
they had to go, come the next week or go to the church secretary
and want a copy of the church roll. And then they would start
at the A's and start visiting trying to sell insurance. Boy,
when I'd hear about it, I'd face them and I'd tell them I wouldn't
permit that. In fact, I would call their name
from the pulpit if it was necessary. And they didn't stay long. And
you know what they would do? Well, I have checked upon some,
they'd just hop in from one church to another. As soon as they would
canvas all the people as members of one church, then they'd move
over and join another church, and they would start with their
membership. What about ambition? Ambition
is often covetous. The solicitude of office or authority
does not care who is hurt just so long as the goal of ambition
is reached. So, self-lovers, and the very
next one is money-lovers. And then you'll notice how he
concludes these compound adjectives, pleasure-lovers, that's the way
he concludes later on, more than God-lovers. So notice the order
there. What an outline for a sermon.
You begin with what? You begin with self-lovers, and
then money-lovers, and the conclusion is pleasure-lovers. Don't they
all go together? But let's look at number three.
We have a noun this time, not an adjective, but a noun. Eladzonese. And that's the inflected form
of alladzone. And it means arrogant, pretentious,
or ostentatious. Boastful could be translated
boaster. This word is also used in Romans
1, 21 through 32. Some of these words are used
in Paul's description of the people, including the homosexuals,
and the Lord removing His restraint at that time. And the Lord is
removing His restraint today to a great extent. And more and
more we're seeing. So bolsters. are persons who
are inordinately lifted up with high esteem and admiration of
their excellences and their accomplishments. Know what I'm talking about? I like what Lord Bacon once said. Listen to this, quote, The less
you speak of your greatness, the more I shall think of it." End of quote. Men of greatness
in history did not perpetually look in the mirror to make sure
of their own greatness. So men of integrity are not continually
looking in the mirror to make sure of their own size. Men's mouths full of their own
praise signify hearts empty of grace. Full vessels, folks, full of
grace make little noise. The emptiest ears of corn stand
highest. Men should labor for modesty, and folks, it takes grace to
labor in that manner. Human boasting is vain. I read this, and I'll share the
illustration with you. One fellow, to condemn boasting,
came up with this parable. He said, the gourd, gourd, that
wound itself around a lofty palm tree said, quote, I have grown
as tall as you in fewer days than you count years. End of quote. The tree replied,
I know that very well. Every summer of my life a gourd
has proudly climbed around me as you, but they have all been
as short-lived as you." Folks, that's putting it right where
it belongs. Let's look at the fourth adjective
that Paul uses. The fourth one is a compound adjective. Huperaphenoi, or aphenos, comes
from the preposition huper, which means above, and phaino, the
verb. And so we have the adjective
huperophanous. It means arrogant or proud. Appearing above others. You see,
huper, the preposition meaning above. And showing off above
others. You know, pride is so base a
sin. Listen to this. This is not original
with me, but this is a tremendous statement. Pride is so base a
sin that even the pride or the proud themselves hate it in others. Think about that. Listen to this
closely. Pride is so base a sin that even
the proud themselves hate it in others. You know what I'm
talking about? Have you ever seen someone who
is proud and is always condemning another person for being proud? We're told in Proverbs 16, verse
18, pride goes before destruction. Let me give you a classic example
of this. I witnessed this last week on TV. The defense team
in California, they just knew after having Dr. Lee, the expert, to testify that They had the
prosecutors running for cover. Well, last week, the last part
of last week, the prosecutors had an FBI expert on footprint. And I listened to every word
of his testimony. He's not through yet. They'll finish tomorrow.
I'll listen to that. He annihilated Lee, the expert. And when Lee heard what had taken
place, and of course he's in Connecticut, did you know that
he called a press conference? And he said he will not. The
defense lawyers had said that he said some things he did not
say, which are true. And they were pointed out. I
know what they are. And he said, I will not testify. I'll not be brought back to testify.
I don't know if they can subpoena him to do it or not. But boy,
they've got a job on their hands this week. What I'm getting at
is this. Oh, the Bantam rooster, Mr. Proud himself, walking around
like a proud peacock, and he's had conferences. Folks, he was
put where he belongs. Pride goes before destruction. He who is proud of his graces has no grace. Notice what I said. He who is
proud of his graces, plural, has no grace, singular. Pride makes men objects of contempt. They slight God. Who is the Lord
that I should fear His voice? And folks, we see this in religion
today. I'm not a politician, but I'm
using illustrations, folks. I'm trying to make what I'm giving
practical. I listened to Colin Powell. I
thought he would be a good role model for the blacks until last
week. Folks, I'm not going to say, but you can think what you want. When he took the stand he took,
he's a pro-abortionist, that's enough for me. I put him with
all the rest of them. Did you know that Bush, the former
president, really formed behind him? Well, you know what I think
of Mr. Bush. Anyone else who goes contrary
to the principles of Holy Scripture. So pride is the fruit of ignorance
in reality. Who can be proud in the light
of man's total corruption? Whatever I am, folks, I am by
the grace of God. So you have a compound adjective, huporophanos. Let us look now at number five,
another adjective, blasphemous. What does it mean? It means speaking against God.
insulting, slanderous, curses of that which is injuriously
about another's good name. And folks, we are blasphemy all
the time today. That word means persons who are
slanderers, revilers, or speak injuriously about another's good name. I
like what Bishop Mole said on this. He renders the word foul-mouthed, a mark of the loose language
that abounds today. And when applied to Jehovah God,
blasphemy means to speak of Him unjustly. It means to ascribe to Him acts
and attributes which He does not possess. And that's why,
folks, I have no time for any person who says, My Lord could
say it. Absolutely no time. Do we really
stand up for the Lord today? I'm sure this black man might
not have known some of the technical terms. Talking about the black
butcher last week. But when I laid it out, boy,
he hit the ceiling. He acted exactly as I acted and
reacted to what I heard the first time about Jesus Christ and sin. I was ready for a fight to the
finish. No one can speak against my Lord
in that manner wherever I am, and I keep my mouth shut. Let's look at the sixth word.
You see, we're not going very fast. We have eighteen of them. And then to close out this section,
verse five, which really is a message within itself. Number six is
another adjective. What is it? Apithes. is the word, its inflected form
is apithes. Now there is more than one word
used here. Disobedient to parents. So you
have the word for parent and you have the word for disobedient.
And apithes means rebellious. Let me give you the verses where
this particular word is used, this adjective is used. Luke
1.17, Acts 26.19, Romans 1.30, the passage we are now studying,
Titus 1.16 and 3.3. Disobedience to parents is lack
of parental respect. Folk, I've never seen so much
of that as I'm witnessing today. This has been the crime of paganism
in every age. Such disobedience was punished
by the Jewish law with death. With the Hindus, it is attended
with the loss of the child's inheritance. This scene reminds one of those
in the daily newspaper, doesn't it? Now, this adjective comes from
the verb, which begins with alpha and then
pytho, apytho. which means to persuade, convince,
or win over. But it is negated by Alpha, the
first letter of the Greek alphabet. So it means unpersuaded, uncompliant,
disobedient. So Alpha negates persuasion. It negates obedience. It negates
compliance. But today you can't spank your
children, you know. And folks, they need it. A disobedient
child needs the rod. But that's not politically correct. So let's face it, folks. We've
got our job cut out for us. disobedient to parents. It's
getting worse, isn't it? It certainly has gotten worse
in my lifetime. It certainly has gotten worse
in my years of ministry. Let's look at number seven. Oh,
but preacher, we're living in a civilized, highly educated
age. Yes, I notice that. Got a bunch of civilized idiots when it comes to biblical principles. Number seven, archeristos, the plural is archeristoi,
unthankful. Now, this is an interesting word. It is a compound word, by the
way. In other words, it comes from Alpha and Chorus. Now watch this, folks. Watch
this. Unthankful. This is the way it's
translated. So it's a Greek word that is
used only here and in Luke 6 and verse 35. It means ingracious
or ungrateful. But I went further than that.
I wanted to go back. All of these words where I could
trace back and find where they came from, I did that. So this
one was an interesting one. I noticed, I could see, knowing
enough about the word charis, I could see in this word charis.
And then I could see that it begins with alpha and is translated
unthankful. So I said, We have chorus negated
by alpha. So I did some research on it.
So it literally means, folks, it literally means without grace. Now, think it over with me. Chorus
is the main stem and chorus is the word for grace. It is negated
by alpha. And it's translated unthankful.
But literally, it means without grace. So an unthankful person
is without grace. That's the reason he's unthankful. It means he's void of piety. Void of piety. So it's used in Luke 6.35 and
II Timothy 3.2. Now, a slightly different word
is used in Romans 1.21, but we're not going to that passage. I'm
not teaching Romans this morning. So ask number 7. Interesting
word, isn't it? Interesting word. Acheristas,
Alpha and Chorus, devoid of piety, are without grace, therefore
unthankful." Does that mean more? Did I say more? Then let's look
at... Well, let me give you the verb
form before we leave it. The verb form is Eucharisteo. Eucharisteo means give thanks,
be grateful. And it is from the adverb eu,
which means well, good, right, well done, and so forth, anchoris. Anchoris. So it's made up of
eu, anchoris. Such persons are oblivious to
any good of either God or man. They take everything for granted. I'm describing the unthankful
person. I'm describing the person who is without grace. He's void of piety. Such persons
have no need for God as long as things go well. But they use
Him to accuse when things go badly. Don't you know people
like that? I do. There are three usual causes
for ingratitude upon a benefit received. Number one, envy. Number two, pride. And number
three, covetousness. Now let me explain those. Envy
looks more at another's benefits than one's own. Pride looks more
at oneself than the benefit. And covetousness looks more at
what one would have than what he already has. We're going to go one more this
morning. I'll try to get about halfway
through this morning. Then we'll finish them and close
out next Sunday with verse 5. Number eight, another adjective. And again, we have a compound
adjective. It's made up of alpha and hosios. Hosios is the word for holy.
And so when you negate it, you have unholy. Unholy. So the word is, if you'll notice,
unholy. asias So unholy persons have no reverence
for God Folks that's true today Among even most religionists
It's because they don't know the God of the Bible They have
a God that has been framed in their own imagination They're totally wrapped up in
themselves. Ingrown love for self. You see
it working. So the Bible becomes a medium
to unholy persons for what is imagined to be pornographic,
funny, or hilarious. Have you ever noticed when you're
watching TV, when some reference is made to the Bible, a lot of
times they laugh? Boy, I tell you folks, when it
comes to the book, and the book is quoted or some reference is
made, it's not frivolous. And when I see people laugh and
make a joke of things, I don't care if they're church members.
Boy, I can write them off. I can write them off in nothing
flat. See, they don't know these things. They do not know them. So we
have a compound word, alpha, and hosios, holy, which is negated,
therefore unholy. So hosios means holy, sacred,
and refers to blessings or promises. Literally means holiness. Let's look at number nine and
we'll stop with this. Another adjective. And by the way, another compound
adjective, another one that begins with alpha, which negates what
it's talking about. And what is this one? And this
is a good place to stop. But I want to read you something
in closing. I want to make it very practical for you this morning. And it'll be hard for you to
believe what I'm going to read to you. Without natural affection
is a way that astargoi is translated. And it's astargos. Astargos. Alpha and stargei is
the stem. What does it mean? Unfeeling. Unfeeling. So it denotes the world of affection in regards to a husband for his
wife, or the parents for the children, the children for the
parents, etc., etc. Devoid of affection, which is
natural, which is natural. Now, without natural affection,
see, it's negated. Let me read you something, folks.
Let me read you something from China. And you know our women, our women
and world women have just come back. And the first lady has
just come back from China. What do you think about fetal
cannibalism? Is that natural? I'm here to
tell you that homosexuality is unnatural. Lesbianism is unnatural. Abortion is unnatural. But listen to this. Human fetuses have begun to appear
on the menus of Chinese restaurants as a delicacy and health tonic. Doctors take them home to eat.
In terms of nutrition, a fetus would be a good source of protein,
fats, and minerals. Eating aborted fetuses, this
person says, is barbaric and shows what happens when a culture
devalues human life. Now, I want to ask you a question
this morning, folks. Are we very far behind? Now, I'm going to take it further
than that. They are using parts of fetuses,
and I call it not fetuses, but parts of aborted children, babies,
brephos, used not only for an unborn child
as well as it is used for one that has been born. Same Greek
word. What about taking parts of a
child and using it as we're using it for medicine today, for cosmetics? What's the difference in that
and the Chinese serving them on their menus at restaurants?
Is that natural or unnatural, folks? Do we have our work cut out for
us? I want to read you that one. Without natural affection, without natural feeling, devoid of affection. That's where we are today in
America. It's worse now than it was 50 years ago. It's worse
now than it was even 15 years ago. I wouldn't vote for any man running
for the presidency of the United States who believe in abortion. That'd be enough for me. So I don't have to vote. I've
already cast my vote. That's not to vote. These are sad days, aren't they? This is not easy to listen to,
but folks, I love this portion of God's Word just as I love
any portion of God's Word. It teaches me a lesson that is
valuable for me, and therefore I love all of it, not part of
it. Let's stand.