THE "DIFFICULT TIMES"
"WHAT ISRAEL OUGHT TO DO"
Evidently the apostle had not lived to this time, he is making known to Timothy what will come. The difficult days had not come when Paul wrote this epistle. He is preparing Timothy for them, and through him every servant. I suppose no one will deny that we are now in the difficult days. There is no other preparation for them than this. Chapter 4 is not the difficult times; chapter 3 is. Chapter 4 resumes this subject of chapter 2; we all here have learned something of chapter 2, that is, purging ourselves from vessels to dishonour. God's house is here and you cannot leave it, but you are called to purge yourselves from the vessels to dishonour. It is always in proportion to your separation from these vessels - persons, not their doctrine merely - that you are sanctified and meet for the Master's use. I think very few have an idea how one suffers from unhallowed society. It is not enough not to hold their doctrines; but their society contaminates. You are coloured by the lowest company you keep. Every effort has been tried in Christendom to weaken the force of this passage; every one is great in proportion to his separation. Luther was a great servant as long as he was separate.
Have the perilous times continued from Timothy's day until now?
Yes, we are in the last days. We cannot fix the day, but the servant is in this epistle prepared for the difficult day.
Do not you think that Timothy represents the ministry that goes on to the end, not the apostolic ministry?
Quite so; no one is up to the present days except he is up to this chapter.
The man who is suited to this day must be like-minded to this chapter?
Yes. There are two qualities which mark a good physician; the first is, that he knows what is the matter with you; the other, that he knows what will cure you. The first great obstacle is that the real state of things is not seen, and if you do not see that, you cannot apprehend the remedy. The great practical question is - Do you see things as God sees them? To be in concert with God's mind you must see things as He sees them, otherwise you are not in communion with Him.
Purging oneself from the vessels to dishonour is the true preparation for understanding chapter 3?
Doubtless; if you are not purged from vessels to dishonour you will never understand it.
What marks the man of God?
It indicates an individual path. If you are not right yourself you cannot set any one right.
Mr Wigram used to say, Do not tell me your lectures, but shew me your pupils. You never saw a man decline yet but he gave up the best bit of truth he had; it requires divine power to maintain the new growth in vigour. In plants you will find that the top-shoot is the first to suffer from the weather.
Is the man of God so with God that he sees things as God sees them and acts according to God?
Yes, quite so.
May not a sister be that?
Surely. Often sisters are before brothers in spiritual power.
You have in Romans 1 the state of heathendom; here you have the state of Christendom. The same evil principles are working; here they are under a cloak, the form of godliness.
I suppose it is the flesh in activity?
Yes, but the terrible fact is that man has used the Bible to advance himself, and while you have all the principles of evil working, you have the form of godliness. Men go on with evil and at the same time they go to church. It is not, as has been said, that the world has corrupted the church, but the church has corrupted the world. A nominal Christian can be a more wicked man than a pagan.
Do you think these are only nominal Christians?
Yes, I think a man that goes on in that way is not a true Christian. I should have to turn away from him.
It is not the individual here but the general state of things.
Quite so.
If I look abroad at Christendom the impression it produces upon me is that the Bible has ceased to be to them light from God.
Yes, but you must bear in mind they have got all their civilisation from the Bible; they now want to advance man on his own account. The great object of man in the Revelation is to get possession of the earth, to displace God.
Self is the worst form of evil that comes out.
Yes, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God.
Every form of evil man covers up under the cloak of sanctity?
Yes, that is the sorrowful fact; it is such dreadful deceit.
Is that what we get in Sanballat?
Sanballat wanted to bring them down to his level. "They which creep into houses" really want to bring others down to their own moral level.
I suppose all that is spoken of here has to a very large extent been realised in Christendom?
That is precisely what we all require to see.
Is it not less difficult to realise what you get in the first part than to understand what comes afterwards, the imitation?
Imitation is the great aim and object of the opposition.
In Christendom generally they pursue all kinds of evil for the exaltation of man?
Yes; here it is creeping into houses, forming a party.
A class of men who use their influence with others for their own purposes?
Yes, in chapter 2 they err from the truth, here they resist it.
Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses by imitating him.
The effort now is to produce in a human way the same as has been effected by the grace of God, like a Christmas tree decked with fruit and flowers which never grew on it.
Will you say a word about verse 5, and the divine power?
There is the root of the difficult times - the right form but denying the power. You do not get form in John, you get form from Paul but you get the power from John. Brethren have the right form, have they the power?
It is not simply the absence of the power but denying the power?
Yes.
But would not that open the way for human power?
Quite so. The church in accepting power from Constantine denied the power of God. As to verse 7, who are they?
Those who were led away, ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth; always listening but never apprehending the truth.
That is why they fall under the power of others?
Yes, quite so. You see Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses; that is the aim now.
What baffles them?
Life; the creation of life baffled Jannes and Jambres; nothing but life will baffle the imitation of this day.
I think, too, we ought to feel very much that all around us Christianity is ceasing to be a power. It is a principle abroad "ever learning" - no certainty. I suppose there are 250 Acts of Parliament passed annually for the improvement of man. Christianity has ceased to be a power, that is, the Bible is ceasing to be light from God.
I know places where souls did stand for God but it is not so now; the whole thing is gone, you do not find the power anywhere.
The evangelical movement has collapsed; the line of demarcation between the divine and human has been broken down.
Not very long ago the word of God was reverenced as the word of God, but now it is something they can speculate upon as to how much is the word of God and how much is not.
Oh, yes, the Bible has lost its power; man in a way is saying, we can do without the power; the setting up of man is the one great thought. There is a practical denial of Christianity; there is no godliness; there is no man for God.
This does not mean that they say that they deny the power?
No but the sole object of Jannes and Jambres was to frustrate the power of God by imitating it.
In what way does life baffle this effort?
Divine life in a practical sense manifested by those who have the truth.
It is just the difficulty we have encountered. Exactly. The conflict arose from not seeing how the believer receives life in Christ. Under the law it was, "this do and thou shalt live". Who lives? The man who keeps the law.
Now in grace "he that believeth hath everlasting life" - Who believes? Surely not the man who lives by keeping the law? The opposers wanted that life should be imparted without the change of man. They do not see that the believer gets life in Christ and not, as life was offered under the law, in Adam.
It is denying the power? Yes.
Is it like Sardis? thou hast a name to live.
That is merely reformation.
Form kills power?
Yes. but you must have form; but it is a terrible thing to have the form of godliness while denying the power thereof. It is very interesting to study Timothy. You get the church of Ephesus in four different aspects in Scripture:
1. Its natural state in the Acts.
2. Its brightest state in the epistles.
3. Its state in testimony in 1 Timothy.
4. Its fall in Revelation 3.
In the first epistle the church is in order.
Yes. No one understands the second epistle of Timothy who does not understand the first; if you do not know the right form how can you use the power?
How do these two things come out?
They come out in the servant at Ephesus. Before you can apprehend the remedy you must see the true state of things. First, in order to be able to meet the state of things you must be thoroughly acquainted with Paul's teaching. Surely Christendom has given it up, and we know but little of it.
Are we thoroughly acquainted with Paul's doctrine?
You must have the gospel as well as the church?
You cannot understand the church unless you know Paul’s gospel.
Fully followed up my doctrine?
It is really fully acquainted with me.
It is not to do great things but to maintain the truth.
Certainly. You cannot go back to the apostolic days; we have lost the candlestick. We should not traffic on the toleration of the world. In principle the Salvation Army is trying to get back the candlestick.
The work you were speaking of is more in detail now than in the aggregate?
Yes, God is looking at the workman sweeping the house diligently.
What is the meaning of "Do the work of an evangelist"?
When I address a company of professing Christians I give out a hymn; I would not give out a hymn if they were pagans. I believe the evangelist would have more power if he went from house to house.
You would rather preach in the open air? Yes.
In Acts 13 they went into the synagogue to preach the gospel?
The evangelist must be with God.
Your point is that a place for public ministry is gone.
What is godliness?
Godliness is the reverential sense of the divine presence.
The scriptures here were the Old Testament scriptures?
Yes. They set forth God in His dealings with men.
What would you say is the special value of the Old Testament scriptures?
You get all the principles of God in His dealings with man in them. If you want to learn a divine principle you will find it in the Old Testament.
The sixteenth verse would bring in the New Testament as well.
Assuredly, but no one could meet the present state of things who does not know Paul's doctrine. The moment you insist on Paul you should turn to John to support you.
You must get your gospel from Paul?
The gospel is on the ground of man's responsibility. If you preach the gospel from John you must bring in Paul. You must present the truth to man according to what man is. J.N.D. said John's was a Calvinistic gospel in contrast with the other three.
A very important point as to where you get the gospel.
If you got the gospel from the Old Testament it would be only the sacrifice.
Righteousness is the great question in the gospel?
Nothing but the work can give the conscience rest, and you do not get that in John.
The idea of the gospel is that God is acting in righteousness. What is the gospel?
God's glad tidings concerning His Son Jesus Christ.
The Spirit of God gives great prominence to the man "of whom thou hast learned"?
Yes. I must know Paul, I must know John,
I must know Peter. It is a great thing to know the man.
Timothy was fully acquainted with Paul.
We should be a wonderful company if we were fully acquainted with Paul?
The man that reads only the Old Testament is legal, the man that reads only the New is critical, but the man that reads both is practical.
Do you limit "all scripture" to the Old Testament?
I thought verse 15 was the Old and verse 16 introducing the New.
Yes the sixteenth verse embraces all.
In our day the most critical student of the Bible could not apprehend that an offence done to the assembly was an offence done to the Head.