“Paul said: ‘There will be terrible times’”
II Timothy 3:1
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus.
A little over fifty years ago, back in 1966, Clint Eastwood starred in a movie called, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Today, some call it the best and the most important Western movie ever made.
The story begins as three bounty hunters plan to kill a Mexican bandit named Tuco, (he’s the “Ugly” one). But when he manages to escape, he teams up with “Blondie,” (he’s the “Good” one), and “Angel Eyes,” (he’s the “Bad” one), to find a grave filled with $200,000 in Confederate gold.
And after a long and complicated series of events (isn’t that how it always goes!), it all comes down to a final showdown, a gun battle in the hot desert sun. When it’s over, Tuco dies, and “Blondie” and “Angel Eyes” make off with the money. Good defeats evil and they live happily ever after, (or as happy as you can be in a western movie).
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. That sounds a lot like our text for today. I’ll read the words of II Timothy chapter 3, starting at verse 1: “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, 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” (II Timothy 3:1-5).
Paul’s second letter to Timothy is his final letter, the last letter he would ever write. He was in a Roman prison, and he was waiting to die.
Yet in spite of all that he faced--the end of his ministry, imprisonment, persecution, and death, he took time to write to a spiritual son named Timothy, to warn him of the difficult days to come.
And so he wrote in chapter 1, verse 1: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God according to the promise of the life that is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.” Verse 5: “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” And verse 8: “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began.”
And after encouraging him to be bold and to remain faithful in the face of false teaching, he warned him of the days to come. Chapter 3, verse 1: “But understand this, mark this, know this, that in the last days, hard times, difficult times, terrible times will come.”
Then in verse 2 he goes on to say just how terrible they’ll be. Let me read it from a more contemporary translation: “People will love only themselves and money. They’ll be proud, stuck-up, rude, and won’t even obey their parents. They’ll be ungrateful, godless, heartless, and hateful. Their words will be cruel, having no self-control or even pity. They’ll hate everything that’s good. They’ll be sneaky, reckless, and puffed up with pride. And instead of loving God, they’ll love pleasure. And even though they’ll seem as religious as religious can be, their religion won’t be real. Stay away from them. Don’t have anything to do with them” (II Timothy 3:1-5).
But that can’t possibly be, can it? I mean, after all, we live in amazing, unprecedented times! Things have never been as good as they are now, right?
Think, for example, of our technology! Thanks to the cell phones we carry in our pockets or our computers at home, we can know the weather instantly anywhere in the world. We can know the history of anything we want, anytime we want. We can buy almost anything we want, anytime we want, and have it shipped directly to our door, in some places even by a flying drone. And we can do it all from our phones, almost anywhere in the world.
Imagine that you and your family are on vacation, driving down the road at right about seventy miles an hour. Not only do you have a GPS that tells you exactly where you are and that’ll automatically recalculate if you happen to get off course, you’ve got a couple of iPhones, an iPad, and a laptop computer all hooked up to the internet, posting real-time pictures and videos to Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, just so people can share in your trip to the Rocky Mountains anytime, anywhere in the world.
We live in amazing, unprecedented times!
But don’t let any of that fool you, for our world can be a very evil place.
For example, US News and World Report writes, “Just as in the United States, crime is on the rise in almost every country around the world. From London to Moscow to Johannesburg, crime is fast becoming a major menace that’s changing the way in which many people live. It’s becoming more violent. More criminals are using firearms, even in nations where gun control is strict.”
Then the article goes on to say that not only does the United States lead the world in science and technology, it also leads in crime and violence. Last year, in 2019, more than 19,000 lost their lives by homicide. Forty-seven thousand committed suicide. And the most dangerous places to live aren't New York or Chicago, Illinois. It’s places like Baltimore, Maryland, St. Louis, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee.
You’ve heard of Andrea Yates? Sure you have. Back in June of 2001, she drowned all five of her children, ages seven, five, three, two, and six months old. Though she was found not guilty by reason of insanity, she’ll likely spend the rest of her life at a Texas state mental hospital.
And speaking of mental health, due to the pandemic, professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology, Roger McIntyre, says that, over the past few months, online prescription company Express Scripts has seen a forty percent increase in prescription pills for anxiety, a twenty percent increase in depression pills, and a fifty percent increase in sleeping pills. Clinical psychologist Shannon Kroner adds, “Anxiety, stress, obsessive thinking, paranoia, depression, and thoughts of suicide have greatly increased among individuals with and without previous mental health issues. People who normally don’t regularly drink alcohol have turned to drinking daily in order to numb the stress of multitasking.” And she said, “I have personally spoken to many mothers who have turned to day drinking in order to just get through a day of helping their kids with schoolwork, keeping the house clean, making sure everyone is fed, and trying to keep up with their jobs through teleconferences and zoom calls.”
Add to that multiple children in different grades, or an infant, or a child with special needs, and the stress can be overwhelming to any parent. And that’s not to mention the strain on marriages due to sharing the same space twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, especially if there are children involved.
Even worse, in what’s been called the largest crisis this generation has seen since World War II, one author wrote, “Why are liquor stores and marijuana dispensaries considered essential, yet churches are not?”
Or think of the advertising slogans from recent years--”Break all the rules”...”To know no boundaries”...”Relax: No rules here”...”Peel off inhibitions. Find your own road” ...and “Just do it.”
That’s the message--answer to no one. Make your own rules. Your universe revolves around you.
But as the prophet Isaiah once wrote: “You call evil good, and good evil. You turn darkness into light, and light into darkness. You are doomed!” (Isaiah 5:20).
Or think of a twenty-four year-old woman, Rehema Kyomuhendo who, this past May, was staying with her aunt, when she called a friend to ask about Jesus Christ. And as her friend explained the way of salvation, Rehema believed and accepted Jesus as her Savior. She was so overjoyed, she woke up her father, who was sleeping in another room.
But when he, a Muslim, found out what she had done, he slapped her, kicked, and beat her. Then he poured burning fuel on her. She’ll live, but she’ll carry the scars for the rest of her life.
“Mark this,” writes Paul. “Understand this, pay attention to this. Don’t be naive and think everything’s going to be okay, because it’s not going to be okay. But if you know what’s going to happen, you won’t be surprised when it does.”
So how can we stand in a world that’s literally falling apart? Paul writes in verse 14: “But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (II Timothy 3:14-15).
In other words, be a people of the Book. Be a church of the Book. Be a family of the Book. Be men and women of the Book. And may those who know us, if they know nothing else, know that we are a people of the Book.
As Luther wrote, “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.” And he wrote, “Let us learn, in great and horrible terrors, when our conscience feels nothing but sin and judges that God is angry with us, and that Christ has turned His face from us, not to follow the sense and feeling of our own heart, but to stick to the Word of God.”
Robby Robins was an Air Force pilot during the first Iraq war. And after flying his three hundredth mission, he was surprised to find that he could immediately pull his crew together and fly his plane home.
So they flew across the ocean to Massachusetts, then had a long drive to western Pennsylvania. And after driving all night, his buddies dropped him off at his driveway just after sun-up. That’s when he saw a huge banner across the garage. It said, “Welcome Home, Dad!”
How did they know? No one had called, and the crew themselves hadn’t expected to leave so quickly.
He said, “When I walked into the house, the kids, about half-dressed for school, screamed, ‘Daddy!’ Susan came running down the hall, looking terrific--hair fixed, make-up on, and a crisp yellow dress. How did you know?” he asked.
She answered, “I didn’t. But once we knew the war was over, we knew you’d be home one of these days. We knew you’d try to surprise us, so we were ready every day.”
In the words of a hymn: “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon His face, the One who saved me by His grace. When He takes me by the hand, and leads me to the Promised Land, what a day, glorious day, that will be.”
You’ve made it plain, dear Father, that in the last days, terrible times will come. Help us to wait hopefully, patiently, and expectantly, as we find our hope and strength only in You, for Jesus’ sake. Amen