This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “II Timothy” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 19, 1988.

I think we are in 2 Timothy 2, beginning with verse 24, and we will be reading through chapter 3, verse 9. This is 2 Timothy 2, verse 24. hear the Word of God. And the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God for adventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

This know also, that in the last days, perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, petty, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. From such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lust ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be manifest unto all men as there is also one. with me briefly now.

Our hope, our God is in your word. You have sent your servants to the ends of the earth that that word may be proclaimed. Salvation is found through the proclamation of that word through the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We confess this Lord. We know it to be true. We ask that we may well participate in the harvest that is set by you unto the end of the age. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

You are not to feel distant. From what you read here in Second Timothy. You are not to allow yourself the thought. Well, this was written centuries ago. What does it have to do with me? Paul is writing. To Timothy. And Timothy is serving a congregation. In Asia Minor. The church at Ephesus. But the relevancy of this writing for us. Is underlined by the fact that you see all in effect is writing for all the apostles.

As if they were all in him. In hearing him you hear them all. And Timothy the pastor. Is as if he were in the place of all past. Regardless of when they live, whether the first century or the twentieth century. Or if the Lord carries the twenty-first century. All pastors are in Timothy, all the apostles speaking to all the past. Well, that’s the fossils and pastors. What about the church? The Ephesian church. Is in this instance, as if it were all churches. As if this very congregation here in Switly were in the church at Ephesus. So all possible speaking to all pastors. to all congregations until Christ comes again.

That is what makes this word of such great importance, and this is what brings to light the authority of this word. It truly is normative for the people of God until Christ returns. the relevancy. The relevance. We find it then. Ourselves, particularly. Pastor and people, me and you. In this text and that by divine design. That in keeping with what God has intended. So, if it’s news to you this morning, you are in the Bible. Have you ever thought of yourself that way? You are a figure in the Bible, and God is speaking to you in the Scripture.

Now, Paul is progressing in his instructions to Timothy this task. And he has told him, Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. The first verse of the second chapter. And he has gone on to say to him that what you have heard from me what you have observed in me and in my ministry that I want you to communicate to others. And throughout the course of the second chapter, then Paul is making clear to Timothy.

What constitutes a good servant of the Lord? And what then makes for a dishonorable serve. Thus we move through the second chapter. We come to the conclusion of that second chapter, and we’re faced with somewhat of a difficulty in which spoken about that difficulty before. And I read the appropriate verses this morning for you versus twenty four to twenty six.

The Lord’s bond servant writes Paul. must not be quarrelsome, but kind to all, able to teach, patient when wrong, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. They may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been led captive by him to do his will. Now, part of the difficulty which these verses present us with is this. Looking at them, one pastor, Timothy, others may well imagine that their word, their ministry, their efforts will meet with uniform success.

Why, if I just master these characteristics, these qualities of personality, If I am determined not to be quarrelsome, if I major in kindness, if I pay attention to the gift of teaching and am patient when wronged, if I am gentle and cultivate that gentleness, why, all men will call me blessed, and when I present my case, they will immediately recognize the force of it and repent on the spot. just like a chapter out of father knows best. Correcting the children. At the end of the half hour episode everything was just fine. But of course we realize.

That there are difficulties and there are even problems that remain unresolved. A minister may look optimistically upon a circumstance. He may look optimistically upon an entire congregation and be expected of good and wonderful things his word received as it should well be conveying the message of God, directing people’s attention to the Scriptures and to the gospel of Christ.

The disappointments, however, come and Paul has not been a stranger to those difficulties, and neither has Timothy. But now, Paul wants to place those difficulties in perspective. So we move on into the third chapter. And Paul opens up that third chapter with these words. But realize this. Now, even though, Timothy, you are to be a man of peace and gentleness, realize this.

Don’t be surprised Don’t be surprised by many of the things that take place in the church, because, as he goes on to say, in the last days, difficult times come. Here is the explanation that Paul gives to this pastor and to other pastors. Here is the explanation that Paul the Apostle gives to the church.

The struggle, the severe difficulty, the severe disagreements, the anguish, the presentation of the truth, and the fact that people can even blind willfully walk away from that truth when it is presented to them. How can they do it? You may well ask yourself, given the gospel and the power of God and the power of Jesus Christ, how can they do it? The reason that is offered here by the Apostle is this.

The gospel ministry, as the apostle understands it, participates in and is a sign of the last days. The last days are difficult times, and the preaching of the gospel And the gospel ministry are participating in and are a sign of. The last day. So what are the last days in the estimation? Of Scripture. But first of all, the last days are not the last day. The last days are not the day of the Lord, and there’s been a great deal of confusion about this whole matter. The day of the Lord is set. The last day is set by God.

And Jesus himself speaks about that last day and tells us that the last day overtakes us like a thief in the night. What is necessary for us is that we be prepared. Paul makes the same point in his first letter to the Thessalonians, the fifth chapter, the second verse. And he warns the Christians there about speculations about the last day when it will occur.

But the last day is a future event, it is the culmination of human history, the history of the world as we know it. It is in the future and ever draws nigh, and we are to be prepared for it. But you see, in contrast to the last day, which is future, and yet to come, are the last days, which are here and now. you are living in the last day. And the people of God have been living in the last day. Since the coming of Jesus Christ. Think of.

How the last days are described in Scripture. Do you remember, for instance, the sermon by Peter on the day of Pentecost, recorded in Acts 2. He quotes from Joel’s prophecy, and he quotes it in this fashion. It shall be in the last days, God says, that I will pour forth my spirit upon all flesh. Peter, in preaching that sermon, is declaring that God’s activity, which is inseparably bound to the last days, God’s activity has commenced in keeping with the arrival of the last day.

The last days are here. They are not future, they are present. In other portions of scripture, Peter, for instance, In the third chapter of the second epistle speaks of the last days in a similar vein to what Paul is speaking of here. In second Timothy. Jude eighteen along the same line. And. In first Corinthians, the tenth chapter, the eleventh verse tells those Corinthians, you are those upon whom the end of the ages have come. The end of the ages came. Then you see, in that first century context and situation.

We can’t pass over the beginning of Hebrews. God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many in these last days has spoken to us in his son. When he appointed arable things through whom also he made the world. So the last days are not days for which we wait. They are days that have come already and we are living in them. The last days are that period of extraordinary activity by God.

When he sends his son, when he sends forth his spirit for the sake of his people, but simultaneously, and this is why the conflict and the struggle is so severe, the last days are also pictured as that period of extraordinary activity, not just for God, but also for Satan.

Satan is at work, you see, actively seeking to confound the Church in her progress, to confound the Church in her message, to confound the Church in her life. and the severity of that struggle is coming to expression around the ministry of the world. And that is why there will not be uniform success for Timothy at Ephesus or any pastor anywhere before the coming of the Lord.

It will be a struggle because that conflict is raging. There is a war on, a holy war, said John Bunyan. That is in progress. A severe struggle in which the truth is asserted against falsehood, against evil. Now note, as Paul goes on to describe the decline, the sin, the rebellion. In the subsequent verses, we may well be tempted to place what he’s speaking of out there in the world. As we think about the conflict that exists between the people of God and the forces of evil, we are liable to think that Evil is something that exists out there, but you will know that as Paul goes through this rather extensive catalog, that the force and power of it is that this evil is not out there, it’s in here.

So that the struggle in great measure is an internal struggle. And that is why the church and why ministers of the gospel must always be on the alert. They must always realize this, that in the last days, difficult times come. Because God himself is at work now, as he’s never been at work before. And Satan is busy to confound that work, destroy the message, and upset the life of the people of God.

You may well be tempted, as you fly off into a bit of rebellion, Did you cultivate in your heart some of the things that are listed here by Paul? You may well be tempted to think that I am making decisions for myself. I’m my own person. I’m doing it for me. Don’t you understand?

You’re not free. You’re not acting for yourself. You are in the service of hell. And you have become a slave of Satan. The last days presents you with the urgency of your circumstance. These are the last days. There are no more opportunities. This is the prelude to the end. The offer is being extended. You must turn now. You must repent and embrace the truth and live for God. But please, don’t be naive about your circumstances. Your rebellion is not some sort of expression. Of yourself. It is an expression of. The kingdom of faith. Which is involved in mortal conflict. With the kingdom of God. The last days that.

Bring before us the urgency of the message. But wonderfully they convey to us the comforts of the gospel. For it is in these days that Christ has come he has died for sin. It is in these days that the Spirit has come to give us life that we might live forever. Yes urgent. flee or sin, but find the comfort that is found nowhere else but in the gospel.

I remember the days of my childhood, halcyon days to be sure, in many respects. I remember sitting in a very, very large church, which was my home church in the old United Presbyterian Church of North America. Second pew to the far right of the pastor. Right in front of the Logan’s right beside the Coopers and over my right shoulder, the Every week. They were all there. In those wonderfully serene days of the 50s. When we were all so happy. Even the littlest among us.

I used to fight my brothers and sisters. Yes, there was conflict in the church in those days. I used to fight my brothers and sisters for that seat next to my father. It’s his father’s day after all. And the reason that I fought my brothers and sisters for that place, and I think you’re ahead of me, is because during the sermon I could lay my head down on his lap and go to sleep.

And no little lamb rested more peacefully than I. But I also when I was awake. The delight to look across the sanctuary to that grand stained glass window. And trace. In the pewter outline. The form of the angel. that visited the shepherds on that night so long ago. And again, the serenity, the peace. And when I was 12, I was stung by the music that I heard that morning. I didn’t know what it was. I asked my mother, who knew everything, and she told me that it was a piece by Bach called Jesu Joy of Man’s Desire.

Well, here I was, beautifully enfolded in the arms of that grand church with all of those comforts and all of those securities around me, completely ignorant of the fact, as was that church that there was a war on, for the souls of men and women. There was no sense in that church that we were, in fact, living in the last days. And there was no sense of urgency whatsoever to the message that was preached week by week. Instead, it was, relax, forget about it, don’t worry about the world and the struggle between the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of hell.

The emptiness of all of that has been exposed, yes, to this fellow who grew up, not very easily either, and to many others who now understand just how hollow all of that was. For all of the country, for all of its beauty, It was a deception in the end. Paul has a different message for a bunch of people that beat in somebody’s house in the city of Asia, in the city in Asia Minor, Ephesus. They didn’t have the stained glass windows. They didn’t have the wonderful pipe organ. They didn’t have everybody sitting well and wonderfully all in line in queues every morning there, every Sunday morning there for you to see.

And he tells them, as he tells their pastor, look, realize this, won’t you? Don’t be naive, don’t be foolish, don’t be stupid. In the last days, difficult times come, and the struggle is on. Don’t forget that. You have been enlisted into an army. and you are a soldier of the cross.

Let’s pray. Lord God, we ask you that we would realize that the last days have come because Christ has come and the Spirit has come. We ask, Lord, that we would remember, as Timothy was encouraged to remember, the significance of the coming of those last days. And let us not forget the urgency that then comes to us because these are the last days. But, Father, we pray that in the midst of the struggle and in the midst of the disappointment that may well heap up to us The comforts as well are extended by the Savior and we delight in those comforts, the eternal comforts and the eternal peace and security that comes to us from heaven, our home. We pray these things through Christ.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.