1Timothy 4:1-3
Right Now
I refer to and use this text often. The reason why is because it is
so relevant to our time. Let’s consider it in three thoughts.
1. What has been fulfilled.
2. What will be fulfilled.
3. What we must to do to remain faithful.
I. The Fulfilled
A. \\#1Timothy 4:1\\ "some shall depart from the faith"
1. It is not surprising that "some" have departed from the
faith. People have been walking away from Jesus since
before Jesus was crucified.
2. What is surprising today is how many are departing from
the faith.
a. Whole nations have departed.
(1) It may surprise some to learn but many nations
that are steeped in false religion and no
religion were once fairly strong in the
Christian faith.
(2) Great Britain for example.
(a) Britain was a Christian birthing country a
few centuries ago. They produced sound
Bible translations, revivals, and the
modern-day missionary movement was started
in England.
(b) Look up the Reformation and see England’s
importance in the work of God during the
1600-1800s.
(c) But they became cold to God and His Word and
eventually turned away.
(d) Today, they are one of the toughest mission
fields in the world. Our missionaries,
Bill & Norma Carter, spend decades there
getting one small work started for the
Lord.
(3) But they are not the only ones: Germany, Poland,
Hungry, Sweden, Ireland, Wales—just to name a
few.
(4) However, we are not really interested in history
but in what is happening in our lifetimes.
(a) On June 28, 2006, then President Obama said,
"America is no longer JUST a Christian
nation…."
https://www.factcheck.org/2008/08/obama-and-the-christian-
nation-quote/
(b) Some misquote him (myself included), stating
that he said, "America is no longer a
Christian nation…."
(c) Why do I misquote him? Because Christianity
is not a sharing religion. It is the stand
alone gospel. Anyone who worships gods
does not worship God. When Obama said we
no longer worship JUST Yahweh, he was
saying we no longer worship God.
(d) Even so, we did not need his statement to
see that America is no longer a Christian
nation.
i. The laws already on the books BEFORE he
made that statement—laws concerning
prayer, Bible reading, abortion—made
it clear that America was no longer a
Christian nation.
ii. If those weren’t enough, laws created
since on marriage, gender, and
homosexuality have loudly declared
America is no longer a Christian
nation.
iii. Added to that are the voices of
decreasing church attendance,
rejection of the Word of God as
inerrant, the acceptance of atheism,
evolution, socialism, the
participation of violence, drug
and alcohol use, sexual promiscuity
and perversion, and the whole nation
shouts out that America is no longer a
Christian nation.
(e) Sadly, in some of our lifetimes, we have
seen America depart from the faith.
(f) Interestingly, while America may not be the
first nation to depart from the faith, I
don’t think you will see another nation
depart from the faith.
i. Why?
ii. Because there are no more "Christian"
nations and it does not look as though
there will be another.
b. Churches have—and are-departing from the faith.
(1) I am not talking about small, out-of-the-way
churches, but city-leading churches are
departing from the faith.
(2) Be warned, I am not speaking locally, but Kathy
and I have heard of "First Baptist Churches" in
cities much larger than ours who have ceased to
preach and believe that Jesus is the only Way to
heaven, have hired homosexuals on their staffs,
have dissected sections of the Bible and labeled
them fiction.
(3) Not knowing these churches personally, I have to
suppose that there WAS a time when they were
strong in the faith, but no longer!
(4) Friend, when the main-line church denominations
are the ones turning from the faith, I believe
we can mark this prophecy FULFILLED.
B. \\#1Tim 4:2\\ "Speaking lies in hypocrisy"
1. Sadly, lies and hypocrisy abound today.
2. Such behaviors have been around for years in the secular
world but it has infiltrated the church—the true church—
in an astonishing way over the last 4 years though the
means of politics.
3. I never thought I would see the day when some of God’s
men, men I respect, would ever mock the victims of sexual
misconduct and abuse, or joke about and laugh at crimes
committed to cover up such sins, or turn a blind eye to
those who have committed such actions—while at the same
time, blasting those in another political party for doing
the same things.
4. You think what you want about my prudish ways, you stand
with whatever party you feel you must, but please don’t
defend one politician’s behavior while condemning another
who did the same thing.
5. Either call them both righteous or call them both sinful
but don’t be a hypocrite.
6. Such hypocrisy has a bad odor with it, especially when it
originates in the heart of a Christian.
7. When Christians speak the lies with hypocrisy, I believe
we can mark this sign as FULFILLED.
C. How about this one for being fulfilled in our lifetime.
Matthew 24:10 And then shall many be offended,
and shall betray one another, and shall hate
one another.
1. "And then many shall be offended."
a. Do you realize that is a stand-alone end-time sign?
b. Granted, most of the time when Jesus spoke of the
coming offense, He was speaking of the offense of
the cross or of Himself.
c. But in this passage, Jesus just spoke of a coming
time when people would be easily offended.
2. Has a society ever been so easily offended as the one we
are dealing with today?
a. NO.
b. Some call them snowflakes because snowflakes are so
easily destroyed. Catch one in your bare hand and
it will melt in seconds.
c. However, I think some are underestimating the force
of the snowflakes.
d. You see snowflakes that stick together can paralyzed
a city and freeze people to death.
3. With the easily-offended society we have today, I believe
we can mark this sign as FULFILLED.
II. To Be Fulfilled - While many signs have been fulfilled, not all
of them have—YES.
A. \\#1Tim 4:3\\ "Forbidding to marry"
1. That one has not happened—YET.
2. It will.
a. There may or may not be a law that actually forbids
marriage, but we have already begun down the road of
making marriage socially and politically incorrect.
b. As of this month, eight counties in Alabama no longer
issue marriage licenses.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage_in_Alabama
c. They figured if our government was going to let men
marry men and women marry women, why bother? They
were correct.
d. As if the home has not fallen into enough disrepair,
our country and world is actively working to
dismantle even more.
e. If Jesus tarries His coming, one day it will be
acceptable for adults to marry children and humans to
marry animals.
3. But for today, we would have to put this end-time sign in
the NOT FULFILLED YET category.
B. \\#Tim 4:3\\ "commanding to abstain from meats"
1. For some reason, I have always looked at this end-time
sign being a religious sign.
a. I have assumed it would be a re-kindling of the Jewish
laws dealing with clean and unclean meats.
b. Now I see, it probably will not.
c. Judaism is not exactly a flourishing religion. How
would that religion gain the clout to stop people
from eating meats.
d. No, this is probably not a religious sign at all.
2. The world is becoming more vegan every day.
3. It is already becoming socially and politically incorrect
to eat meat.
4. I believe that if Jesus tarries His coming, one day soon
it will be against the law to hunt, fish, even to eat
meat.
5. Just to be honest, I don’t see that has a far-stretch in
today’s world at all.
6. But for today, we would have to put this sign in the NOT
FULFILLED YET category.
C. Matthew 24:9 "they will deliver you up"
Matt 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be
afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be
hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
1. The sign mentioned here is that of being hated,
persecuted, and killed by ALL NATIONS for Christ’s sake.
2. This verse is not merely prophesying that Christians will
be hated, persecuted, and killed in some nations, but in
ALL NATIONS.
3. While such persecutions have been ongoing in some nations
ever since Jesus was crucified, as of this moment, it has
not yet happened in ALL NATIONS.
4. Yet, it will.
a. It will happen in the most civilized, cultured,
Christian nations just like it has happened in Iraq,
Afghanistan, China, and Russia.
b. All nations would include the United States of America
or whatever name this country will choose to be
called at that time.
5. It is beginning in mild ways today.
a. We remember the case of the Christian baker who had to
go all the way to the Supreme Court to defend his
right not to make an offensive cake.
b. Christians pharmacists and medical personal are being
fired today for refusing to provide abortion causing
drugs.
c. I read an article this week of a school teacher who
was fired for refusing to call a girl by boy
pronouns.
(1) The teacher offered to call her by her new name
and even not to call her by a pronoun at all,
but that was not enough.
(2) The high school principal who lead the charge to
first the teacher said of the teacher’s actions:
“I can’t think of a worse way to treat a child
than what was happening.”
(3) I can. What’s say we let them surgically
mutilate their body, warp their minds with
foolish and ungodly counseling, and alter their
physical appearance with drugs.
6. Even so, this is just the beginning. Right now this is
more inconvenience for our faith and not persecution, but
it is coming.
7. But for today, we would have to put this sign into the NOT
FULFILLED YET category.
Now, I am not finished with this message yet. We have one more point
to discuss. Namely, how do we remain faithful in an end-time world.
We will look at that thought tonight.
<OutlineIndex>
<Close Window>
