"DIFFICULT TIMES"
“DIFFICULT TIMES”
2 Timothy 3:1 - 17; Daniel 9:25; Acts 16:25; Acts 16:29-32
I wish to speak of difficult or perilous times, as spoken of in the first scripture read. These times have arrived. It says in the New Translation, “Difficult times shall be there” (verse 1), meaning that they shall be manifestly present at a given time. Prophetic announcements involve at some time or another their fulfilment. Fulfilment of a prophetic announcement is very real when it comes about, and so the word here is, “shall be there”. We may say now, They are here. They are marked by conditions in the world that are in great measure the occasion of the difficulty. Within living memory, of some of us at least, general economic, business, and domestic conditions have taken on extraordinary changes and have occasioned, and do occasion, largely what is referred to here. The word here means ‘difficult’ rather than ‘perilous’. Christians in employment in the world are exposed to demands upon them that they cannot conscientiously comply with. Conditions have arisen through the wise of this world scheming as to how to fortify men and women against conditions from which they suffer, by such things as trade unionism and insurance, different societies and associations too, other than trade unionism. These largely enter into the make-up of the difficult times that are not to be but are now, and are increasing.
Instruction as to how these difficult conditions or times are to be met is obviously of the greatest importance; and God has provided us with this instruction, which calls for uprightness and integrity in His people; for aside from uprightness and integrity, spiritual instruction cannot avail of much. Integrity is essential in dealing with the public situation at the [p. 285] present time. These difficult times are not peculiar to any country. They are now universal, for innovations such as I have referred to are spread abroad from christian lands into heathen lands; christians are beset with them wherever they go. Young people do well to face the matter and see whether the way is possible, for there is a way. God has foreseen conditions; they have not taken Him by surprise, nor is He legislating in view of them now. He has provided what is needed in the way of instruction, and He would have us to be learners so that we may find the way through with a good conscience; that is, not only a good conscience but a conscience enlightened by the truth and maintained good by one’s attitude and conduct; for a bad conscience means a weak christian. He must keep on the breastplate of righteousness, or he will fall down under the onslaughts of the enemy.
Now this chapter in 2 Timothy is devoted to this subject, and I read it because of that and to point out the divisions of the chapter. Attention is called to the evil difficulties of the moment, the concrete effects of the evil that is at work; for evil underlies the difficult times in which the enemy has his part, but in which leading men of this world have their part, too. First, attention is called to the generality of the people and what marks them in the list of things given. “For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, evil speakers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, profane, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, of unsubdued passions, savage, having no love for what is good, traitors, headlong, of vain pretensions, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; having a form of piety but denying the power of it” (verses 2 - 5). That is a generality and includes old and young; not necessarily the leaders yet but the generality of the people; and obviously a list is given so that the [p. 286] saints will not be in that list. We have a list of our own, and what is especially to be noted is what men love. First, they love self. They are marked by self-love, which is very common amongst young people, evidenced in the use of the mirror and the brush and other such things. And then, as you will observe, “lovers of money”, another feature that strikingly marks young people; not to hoard it, but because of what it brings. Money as it comes into the hands of young people usually leaves them quickly because of what it brings; they are not hoarders. And then we find that there are those who are not lovers of what is good. I am calling attention to the use of the word ‘love’, not only as to persons but as to things. There are those who are not lovers of good. And then we have lovers of pleasure and non-lovers of God. So we have quite a list of persons and things coming under this word ‘love’, either in the positive or the negative sense; particularly the last reference, “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God”. This is the list the Spirit of God gives immediately in calling attention to the difficult times that come and that we have to meet with day in and day out in our affairs, and the list is given obviously that each christian should challenge himself so that he should not be in this list.
And then, secondly, in this list or classification of people, we have leading men. “For of these are they who are getting into houses, and leading captive silly women, laden with sins, led by various lusts, always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth” (verses 6,7). And we complete the type of the opposition with, “Now in the same manner in which Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, thus these also withstand the truth” (verse 8). These are of the class, I think, already called into account. They would be outstanding persons of this class. They resist the truth by imitation. That is number two;
[p. 287] the second feature of the difficult times is that in this class of people we have outstanding ones who resist the truth according to a very old model, an Egyptian model; showing that whilst modernism enters keenly into the constitution of the difficult times, old or ancient evils find a counterpart in this condition. Jannes and Jambres are not found by name before this. We are not told earlier of them by name, and that in itself is a significant matter because when we have names they are apt to be fixed more in our minds, and we are to find them in their own place. In the Old Testament, they are found in the book of Exodus; not by name, but by their character. The Spirit of God is pleased to give us their names now, for surely He would remind us of the cumulative character of sin and that men did learn to sin in ancient times as they have learned to sin now. There are, as I said before, innovations; but at the same time sin is lawlessness. One of the definitions of it in Scripture is ‘lawlessness’; not as in the Authorised Version, “transgression of the law”; it is lawlessness. That is what sin is, and these two men were outstanding sinners of that kind because they had to do with the power of God in Moses and Aaron in a most striking manner, and they resisted it. They resisted it in the most lawless way by imitation, for it was manifestly the power of God, and they sought to set it aside by imitation.
The next thing is the remedy, how to meet all this, and that is the first thing that the apostle would bring forward after having said, “But they shall not advance farther” (verse 9). It is a most comforting word that great as their power is and intensive as their operations are, there is a point beyond which they cannot go: “but they shall not advance farther”. It is not by an act of arbitrary power on God’s side, but by exposure. They are exposed, dear brethren. “For their folly shall be completely manifest to all, as that of those also became”.
[p. 288] The exposure in Egypt was effective. It was manifest that they acted under the enemy’s power. They were controlled and energised by Satan in opposition to what God was doing by those two great servants in Egypt, that is, Moses and Aaron. Their folly was manifest to all, the apostle says of Jannes and Jambres. Everyone here would say, I should like to be in that; I should like to have to do with that which exposed this imitation. Well, it is not simply a matter of special ability. Every upright christian, every christian of integrity, is called into this service to expose imitation; that is, if I am real, I expose imitation, hence the importance of reality. The reality of the power operating under Moses and Aaron exposed the imitation under Jannes and Jambres, and so today. Only reality will expose imitation, hence the call for genuineness in us, for reality in us.
And then, as I said, there is the remedy. The apostle says, “But thou hast been thoroughly acquainted with my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, long suffering, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings: what sufferings happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra; what persecutions I endured; and the Lord delivered me out of all” (verses 10,11). We may not see all of this, but there is something of it. If God has not raised up personality amongst us, there are no models; but if God has raised up personality after Christ, there are models among us to some extent. Paul calls attention to himself, not that he had any pleasure in it, not that he wished to bring himself forward. It is the Spirit of God. There is no one more suitable to bring forward as a model in his day than himself; and hence he is brought forward and to the young man to whom he is now writing about this. And so I would appeal to the young here: Keep your eyes on the man of God, that is, in whatever measure there are men of God. As a matter of [p. 289] fact, Timothy is the only man in the New Testament called a “man of God”, a very striking thing; hence, it is within the range of every young man and young woman here. He was a young man, and he is called “man of God”. He was himself a model. The apostle Paul himself sent him to Corinth to be a model, but here Paul is calling attention to himself. Timothy, he says, You know me. It is an immense advantage that there was such a man as Paul in Timothy’s day, and Timothy availed himself of the advantage. That is the point, dear brethren, especially as to the young people. Avail yourself of whatever there is; if God has put any man of God near you, pay attention to him. Notice him. Not that I would make any partisan feeling or set anyone up as a perfect model — not at all! But this idea of a model is one of the leading things in Scripture, and Paul brings himself forward here and uses a list of things as over against the list I have spoken of in the early part of the chapter.
And then he says further to him what one is to do. “But thou, abide in those things which thou hast learned, and of which thou hast been fully persuaded, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast known the sacred letters, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation” (verses 14,15). What a word that is to all young people here! Pardon me for referring to young people, but there are parents here sitting by, as it should be in meetings like this; the children and parents are to be together as much as possible. And the parents know as they are sitting there what these young ones need. “From a child” — think of that! One loves to see the children sitting around in these meetings. “From a child thou hast known the sacred letters”. We learn earlier that faith had come through his grandmother and his mother. You must not forget the grandmothers and grandfathers, and we must [p. 290] pay attention to fathers and mothers; but now it is the child himself and that he himself (his parents are not mentioned here) from a child knew the Holy Scriptures. What a burden on parents to keep the Holy Scriptures before their children, especially in the morning readings! One has been impressed with the need for these readings because it is a frontal attack, and the attack is on the mind of the youth. How are we to meet it? We can only meet it by the instruction of the Scriptures, the children knowing them as children and growing up in them. They are there all the time, morning after morning, not simply in the Scriptures themselves but in the home character of the teaching, family teaching, where all can join in and where the Holy Spirit loves to enlarge on the truth so that the youths might imbibe it and develop in it. So this is how the matter is to be met positively. “From a child thou hast known the sacred letters, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Every scripture is divinely inspired, and profitable for teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work” (verses 15 - 17). It is something about the character of the Holy Scriptures themselves, for as children read the Scriptures morning by morning, they are to understand that every Scripture is inspired of God. It is not as some infidels would say, or some modernists, that some scriptures are inspired and some are not. The word ‘scripture’ alludes primarily to what is inspired. There are none uninspired, and the children are to understand it, and to stand up in their classes even, to do with the enemy’s opposition, that the Scriptures are inspired of God, and there is the proof of that that they are profitable. Furnish a book that is as profitable as Scripture! There is none. The first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis, is profitable, whatever [p. 291] they say. It is profitable for doctrine, as Paul says here, “For teaching, for conviction, for correction, for instruction in righteousness”. There is the positive evidence of the power of Scripture that it is profitable. There is no book like it. There are imitations, the Apocrypha, which has been added to both the Old and the New Testaments, but it is not profitable. It may contain certain historical things, but the Scriptures are profitable for all these things, for promoting what is of God in men and women. That is the idea. Well, now that is all I had to say. The man of God is referred to that he may be perfect, whoever he is. Timothy is the only one in the New Testament called “man of God”, not that there were no others. There were hundreds of them, but here is a young man called a “man of God”, as much as to say, It is within the range of all young men and young women. “That the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work”. So that the refutation of the imitation that there is in Jannes and Jambres, comes out in the reality of christians, in men and women, in every one of integrity, reality, and transparency. “That the man of God may be complete, fully fitted to every good work”.
Well now, I go on to Daniel to show how building follows on this. All I had in mind in reading the verse read was the last clause — “The street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times”. I appeal not now to the very young but to those who are active in service; not indeed, that every one is not to be a builder, for love builds up, we are told; that is, love will do something in the way of building. But this remarkable vision or prophecy is really an answer to a man praying. It is one of the most remarkable prophecies that you can get, and it is such a prophecy that is within the range of everybody who prays. Daniel gets this word from God through Gabriel because he prayed. He tells us,
“[p. 292] And whilst I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before Jehovah my God for the holy mountain of my God; whilst I was yet speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, flying swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, Daniel, I am now come forth to make thee skilful of understanding. At the beginning of thy supplications the word went forth, and I am come to declare it; for thou art one greatly beloved. Therefore consider the word, and have understanding in the vision” Daniel 9:20 - 23. Now that is remarkable. It is while he was praying. While telling us that he prayed and confessed, he returns to the thought of praying. “Whilst I was yet speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel ... touched me”. Daniel 9:21. That is one of the most encouraging things that I know of as to prayer, what may come to a man who is addicted to praying more and more. And so in our private prayers, we should not be too short. In our public prayers, be short; I would say that, but in our private prayers, you may go on all night; the Lord did, and we may be sure something will happen from God’s side; God loves to listen. His ears are open to our prayers. He loves to listen, but He is not quiescent always in listening and something happens, and I want to get into it. Indeed, one can speak a little about it, and I see it here in Daniel, “Whilst I was yet speaking in prayer”. Daniel 9:20. It was while he was speaking to God, that Gabriel came to him. Gabriel may be said to be our angel. Michael seems to be Israel’s prince. Gabriel is the priestly angel. Michael is a military angel, and so we have Gabriel in the New Testament also in relation to prayer. He stood at the right of the altar of incense at the hour of prayer, so he is the angel to keep in mind. He is a representative of God but at the same time he says [p. 293] here that you are remembered and greatly beloved. Think of being told that from God, from the messenger of God who comes all that way to tell a praying man that he is a beloved man, that he is well-known in heaven, and that they think well of him up there. What a thought that is! And then as regards what Daniel wanted to know, he says, ‘I have come to give you understanding; not only to tell you the bare facts, but to give you understanding as to what is to be’. “Seventy weeks are apportioned out upon thy people and upon thy holy city ...”. Daniel 9:24. And now he says in verse 25, “The street and the moat shall be built again, even in troublous times”.
That is why I read that passage, because God is looking for building, and I might say what I said earlier as to general instruction: however much I may receive in the way of instruction, there will be no building until I am established, for the work of the ministry is with a view to the “edifying of the body of Christ” (the word ‘edify’ is the same as ‘build’), “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”, Ephesians 4:12,13. If the enemy cannot hinder us in our Bible readings or the light coming to us, he will certainly hinder us on the line of building. He will say, ‘I cannot hinder a good meeting, but I certainly can hinder that young brother or sister in the business place or at home. I can keep them from the building side. I will keep them from that side of things. If building goes on, they will get beyond my reach’. Men and women do. Believers get beyond the power of Satan. “I have written to you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one”, 1 John 2:14. What a great thing it is when a man has power over the devil. He understands how to deal with him. Resist [p. 294] him, it says, and he will flee from you. A man understands that, and so the building goes on. I get built up in my soul in the office. My superior may be unfair to me, and that is the devil. The devil would hinder the building by unfairness from my superior, but the man in me enables me to go on nevertheless. You say, That is the devil. As soon as you can name the thing and overcome it in a sense, the building goes on. John says to the young men, “Ye have overcome the wicked one”. 1 John 2:14. I know full well there are other things that come in, but you have overcome the devil. But then there is the world; you are not to love the world. A young man wants to get on in business, have a better house, a better car, and all that sort of thing. That is the world. “Love not the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone love the world, the love of the Father is not in him; because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world”, 1 John 2:15,16. That is a further thought for the young men, but I am speaking now of the building and how a man who has overcome the devil can go on building, edifying himself, “building up yourselves”, Jude 20 it says. We are to edify one another, of course, but one edifies oneself in reading and meditation and prayer. He edifies himself, growing by the true knowledge of God.
Well now, in the vision here, Gabriel tells Daniel that there is to be building in difficult times, troublous times. We have this street and wall, as we get it here in the Authorised Version. The Spirit of God seems to use two words that are in mind in the prophetic eye. They are not those ordinarily found in history as under Nehemiah and in other building times. It is a street and a moat. The word ‘moat’ seems to be the better word, according to Mr. Darby. Others say that it is difficult to know what the word means.
[p. 295] That is what scholars say. I am only telling you what I have learned from others, but whatever it is, it is something to build; and there is something that we may not have yet named that has to be built. If it has to be built, then build it. Do not let the devil hinder you from building it. That is the idea. Nehemiah gives us an example of how he built. He built a wall. He does not tell us about the street, but the street is very important in the things of God. We know that well. It is important in the heavenly city. We know that it is important as a sphere of public testimony, and, may I add, in preaching the gospel. We commonly say, preaching the gospel in the street — a fine word that is. Well, here they were building a street and a moat, whatever it was, or a rampart, it was something protective that was needed against the enemy. If we do not see to it, the enemy will get in. Make sure of that! You say, I do not know what that word means. Well, never mind; whatever is to be built, whatever means an access for the enemy to come in, build against that. See to that. These were troublous times. Nehemiah gives us an illustration of how troublous the times were. Chapter 3 tells us about them. It is a remarkable account of the building of the wall. He tells us about Tobijah and another man saying, This business will not do. You see the enemy does not like the building. It shuts him out. It is closing up avenues through which he might attack us; whatever they are, name them. If you will name them, you will see that the thing has to be met, or the enemy will get a footing amongst us. So Nehemiah tells us in chapter 4, “And it came to pass that when Sanballat heard that we built the wall, he was angry and very indignant, and mocked the Jews. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, What do these feeble Jews? shall they be permitted to go on? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Will they revive the stones out of the heaps of rubbish, when they are burned?” Nehemiah 4:1,2.
[p. 296] This is a combination with the army of Samaria. They would combine, this man Sanballat and Tobijah the Ammonite, and the army of Samaria. That is the opposition. That is what we have to contend with. The enemy is working through these instrumentalities, and he is against the building. That is the point. “When Sanballat heard that we built”. Nehemiah 4:1. It is against the building.
Well now, dear brethren, I cannot enlarge on this, but just to show you how in Nehemiah’s time, we have illustrated troublous times. You see the trouble that arose from these men, Sanballat, Tobijah, and the other contenders, to set aside what Nehemiah and the Jews were doing, and their work was to despise. ‘What wretched stuff this is. These poor Jews; if a fox went up, it would break down their stone wall!’ Is that not irony? Well, Nehemiah prayed. He was a praying man, too, and the building went on. You say, I cannot go on with all this trouble; but then Nehemiah says, We did. Look what he says further down. “And I said to the nobles, and to the rulers, and to the rest of the people, The work is great and extended, and we are scattered upon the wall ... in what place ye hear the sound of the trumpet, thither shall ye assemble to us; our God will fight for us. And we laboured in the work; and half of them held the spears from the rising of the dawn till the stars appeared” Nehemiah 4:19 - 21. What energy! Dear brethren, this very chapter is written for us as we are here tonight, to make us builders and make us continual builders, in spite of the opposition and in spite of the troublous times. That is all I have to say on these chapters.
And now I want to say a few words on Acts 16, a well-known passage, but what I want to point out is that in the most difficult times conceivable, the [p. 297] service of God went on in Paul and Silas. Let each of us think of the difficulties that existed, as mentioned in these verses. They were cast into the inner prison with their feet fast in the stocks and their backs smarting from the scourges, and yet they carried on the service of God. It says, “And at midnight Paul and Silas, in praying, were praising God with singing, and the prisoners listened to them” (verse 25). You say, There are only two of them; but if there were two hundred of them there, it would be the same thing. They carried on the service of God. That is the point. They carried on the prayer, and out of the prayer came praises unto God. You see the prison resounded with their melodies, their spiritual melodies that went up to heaven. They did, beloved. Did God not think this was His service? It was as if He would say, They have been heard in heaven today, and the service of God has begun in Philippi; and you know it continued. The gospel went on, too, in the same place in perilous times, in most difficult times. They preached the gospel, and a beautiful gospel, too. “Believe on the Lord Jesus ...”. How delightful those words were to heaven. ‘Lord Jesus Christ’ seems not to have been in the original words of Paul and Silas. Here it seems more an affectionate than an official thought. The Lord Jesus Christ would carry the official thought, but these men are affected, all their feelings are in the matter. All their feelings were in the song of praise and prayers, and now their feelings have to do with this poor man, this hardened sinner that needs a Saviour, and he knows it. Their very hearts and beings went out to him. They are evangelical in the extreme. It is a gospel meeting of the highest order. “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house”. I know of no sentence just like it in the gospel. It is the first time we have the salvation of the house expressly mentioned in the gospel. “Thou” twice, and that man is so in our minds; he must be saved and his house. Let nobody say, The circumstances are difficult for the meetings, for the praise of God or for the gospel, in the presence of these scriptures. And thirdly, there is what we may say is the Bible reading too in verse 32. It cannot be denied it was a question of the Scriptures, the word of God which they spoke unto him. They had sung, they had prayed, they had preached, and now they speak to this man. You have the whole service of God carried on and gone into in that prison in Philippi in the most difficult circumstances, so let no one complain about the smallness of meetings and the difficulties of the moment. Let us go on and meet the difficult times with the provision God has made for us, and we shall find a way through and we shall have victory and there will be results.