Roots to Resist Drift • 2 Timothy 3:1-5

46:59 Teaching begins

Notes

I went through a phase in my life when I read a lot of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He said something that really impressed me with how true it was. He said,  “Any institution left to itself will over time become its exact opposite.”

There is a general trend in this world towards corruption. Things go from good to bad. Nations rise and then fall. Businesses rise and become something else different from when they started. Think about how Walt Disney started with cartoons. Now it’s pushing LGBTQ+. Look at the United States of America, what it used to stand for and what it stands for now.

Is the church safe from this? Look over history and you know. Given enough time the church has often become its exact opposite.

Can you be safe from this? Only if you find some way of not drifting. You need some kind of anchor for your soul. What God has made for us is living anchors called roots.

You need roots in order to resist drift.

Let’s read in 2 Timothy 3 (1-5).

1. Paul warns us that difficult times will come.

A. This word is used only one other time in Matthew 8:28. It describes the man who had 6,000 unclean spirits in him. There it’s translated extremely violent. He was so violent that nobody could pass by him. He would attack and possibly kill you. This demon-possessed man wore no clothes. He broke chains and was uncontrollable. He was difficult.

B. Difficult, extremely violent times are coming, says Paul.

2. It will be dangerous and destructive because men will love what they ought not to love.

A. We have a long list given to us describing what men will be like. It begins with “lovers of self”, and it ends with “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.” All the rest of the list shows what people are like when they love themselves rather than God.

B. There are several words that refer to pride.

1. Pride is thinking about yourself. You think that you are a better person than you really are. You are better than anyone around you.

2. This is not true. You are not really better than anyone around you. You’re not what you would like to be. So if you truly believe you are better than you really are, that is a lie. You honestly believe a lie. You are self-deceived.

C. You can consider this later: pride, thinking about yourself, leads to every other wicked thing.

1. This is a logical conclusion. If I am the best, then everyone else around me is not as good as me. They are not as valuable as me. Therefore I can treat others around me any way I like and it doesn’t matter.

2. Paul calls this unholy and unloving. Holy is like God. He is holy. God is love. That means He thinks about others. He gives to others and benefits them. If you act like God, you will be holy because you will love like God. You will treat God right. You will treat others right.

3. But if you are not like God you will not love people. You will not think about them and give to them and benefit them. You will take from people. You will not carry through on commitments if you decide it’s not in your best interests. You will lie to people, not care what happens to them.

D. You will serve other gods.

1. That’s not going after God to provide for your needs. You go directly after what you think you need to satisfy you. That’s money, pleasure, whatever makes you happy.

2. Without self-control you can’t say no even when these other gods do not keep their promise to satisfy you. Money, pleasure, and power fail. But you can’t say “No, I’m going to do something different.” You have no power to change. You are a slave of sin and corruption.

E. No good can come from this. It can only end in destruction and torment.

1. When you treat people badly they learn eventually. You will destroy your relationships. That destruction goes on and on. A woman wrote in to a financial advisor, “I divorced my husband because he spent all the money and now his debt-collectors are coming after me. What do I do?” The advisor answered, “Unfortunately, marriage is temporary, but divorce is forever.”

2. When you live contrary to God He will judge you unworthy of the life that He gave you. You lose everything in eternal judgment.

3. The only thing that satisfies is truth and love. That only comes through the power of godliness that is in Jesus Christ.

A. If you take this text and reverse it you can see what is the power of godliness. The gospel has power to make you a lover of God rather than a lover of self.

B. The gospel puts you to death with Jesus Christ. His death becomes your death. He died to sin, you died with him. With power He puts that “I love me” to death.

C. He rose from the dead with power. His resurrection becomes your resurrection.

D. In this new life you love God because He loved you when you were still a sinner. You didn’t love God at all. When you think about that it humbles you. That’s the opposite of pride. God makes you think about Him. He makes you think about others. He gives you the power to love others. The more you live with Jesus the more you realise you don’t deserve His love. But you keep receiving it because there is no substitute for that eternal love. You live because God loves you!

E. You have a relationship with God, you have relationships with others. The power of love makes those relationships satisfying. The greatest thing is to be loved and to love others. I hope everyone here today has it. If you don’t have that eternal relationship I’m truly sorry for you, you poor person. Receive Jesus as your Savior before you leave here today.

4. So what?

A. We are in the last days and these things are happening right now in the church.

1. These sins aren’t new, they are very old. They’ve been around since the fall of Adam. But when these sins are in the church we are in trouble. We are in danger of destroying ourselves in the church.

2. People have the appearance of godliness but no power to love one another. Church is an activity that is optional. Really, it’s too much trouble for some. Why bother?

B. How do you go from being a lover of God to being a lover of self? You do it by drifting.

1. There’s a current in this world that goes away from God. It’s flowing all the time. You have to deliberately watch where you are in order to stay in the love of God. But what if you don’t have an anchor for your soul? What if you don’t notice what’s happening around you? Without an anchor you drift away from God.

2. The lockdown showed that some people in the church don’t have that anchor in their relationship with God. They can come back now, they just don’t want to. You might be here today but just barely. If I bore you, you might just say, this is a total waste of time. You might be drifting. If you don’t stop you will go from being a lover of God to being a lover of self.

C. God made us to have living anchors. They’re called roots. Roots anchor a plant and receive what the plant needs to be satisfied. Only two things can satisfy us because that’s how we are made.

1. We need 100% truth in our minds.

2. We need 100% divine love in our hearts.

D. There is no substitute for the truth and for God’s love.

1. A petrol auto only runs on petrol because it was designed that way. You might think that’s getting too expensive. I think I’ll save money by putting sugar water in my auto. Do you think that will work? It will destroy your auto.

2. In the same way, if we put lies into our minds it destroys them. If we substitute something else for God’s love in our hearts it destroys us. We can’t live right with lies and something other than God’s love.

E. When you meditate on God’s word you get both 100% truth and 100% love of God. The word of God is spirit and it is life. The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth with love. The truth is that God loves you with everlasting love. And nothing can separate you from that love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

F. That alone will satisfy you, more than any created thing. And then you will be safe with Jesus in these evil last days.

Let’s pray.