The Godless Last Days

2 Timothy 3:1-9

Immanuel – 7/12/26

          Few people I know have an optimistic view of our world. And if you spend any time looking at the news, it’s no surprise. Moral decay weakens society. The economy isn’t what it once was. World leaders seem either unable – or unwilling – to solve systemic problems. The news seems continually filled with earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars.

          In church culture it’s become commonplace to hear that we’re living in the last days. Among others, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard 2 Timothy 3:1 cited as a proof text: In the last days there will come times of difficulty. Or, as the NIV reads, There will be terrible times in the last days. “See! The times are terrible! Certainly these are the last days.” And so the predictions go, as they have been going for all of my 40+ years.

          But I want to show you today is that Paul might have had something else in mind when he wrote this passage.

          Chapter 3 marks a major transition in this second letter to Timothy. In chapters 1 and 2, Paul exhorts Timothy on what he must think, believe, and do as he pastors the church in Ephesus. “This is the kind of man that you are called to be, and how you must pastor the flock that is among you, Timothy.” All of the instruction is immediate and demands urgent attention.

          But a shift occurs in chapter 3, and Paul moves from the immediate, to times Timothy must be prepared for – times that are coming.

          3:1 – In the last days there will come times of difficulty.

          3:12 – All who desire to live a godly life…will be persecuted.

          4:3 – A time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching.

4:6 – Paul begins talking about his own death – a moment even closer at hand.

          In each of these statements, Paul is speaking about troubles Timothy himself must be prepared to face. He is imparting knowledge which will help Timothy remain steadfast as he pastors the church in Ephesus. Each one of these statements relates to soon coming times.

          And here – in these first 9 verses of chapter 3 – we will see that in the days of Timothy’s ministry, godlessness would infiltrate the church.

          Main Points

1.      Timothy was living in the last days.

2.      Terrible difficulties would arise from within the church.

3.      Counterfeit Christians were the source of those difficulties.

          Read vs 1

          From verse 1 of chapter 3, to 4:8, Paul is deeply concerned about the last days. Therefore, it’s going to be very important for us to understand what Paul means when he says, “last days.”

And before we look at this, let me ask you a question: Is it possible that your thoughts have been shaped more by culture, rather than the testimony of the New Testament? For more than half my life, I know mine was.

What does the New Testament say about the last days?

First, let’s look at what Paul himself says.

Regarding the ancient rebellions of Israel, Paul wrote, Now these things happened to [rebellious Israel] as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.                        -1 Corinthains 10:5

          Paul doesn’t tell the Corinthians that the end of the ages will someday come upon them. He says it has come upon them. And how did they know the end of the ages had come upon them, that their days were the last days?

          Listen to the writer of Hebrews.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.     -Hebrews 1:1-2

          In other words, when the Word became flesh, when the Son of God became a man and proclaimed the kingdom of God, the last days broke upon the earth. Indeed, in the Gospel of Mark, the first words spoken by Jesus communicate the same.

          “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.”                                                                      -Mark 1:15

          Jesus was the eschatological pivot of the ages. A transition had begun. The kingdom of heaven was dawning upon the earth. Covenant with God was no longer centered in a temple of stone, but was now mediated through Christ himself. God had come to dwell in human hearts!

          On the day of Pentecost, during the inaugural sermon of the church, Peter quotes the prophet Joel, In the last days…I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh.

                                                                                      -Acts 2:17

          Peter proclaims that Pentecost fulfills that promise! The pouring out of the Spirit signaled the last days! Then, in that same Pentecost sermon, embedded within his quotation of Joel, Peter also preaches the last days will come with dark and troubling times. These are the same times for which Paul is preparing Timothy.

          (Parenthesis)

          I know many of you are asking the question, “How can Paul and Timothy be living in the last days when we are all here 2,000 years later?”

The last days are called “last” not because they are the final few years before Christ’s return, but because they marked the passing away of the old covenant order and the arrival of the new covenant in Christ. 

In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.           -Hebrews 8:13

          As I have demonstrated in past teachings, the entire New Testament was written within a 40-year overlap of the ages. It was the closing era of the old covenant and the dawning of a new age: the Church Age.

          But understand this, the Bible talks about another Last Day: when Christ returns, the dead are raised unto judgment, and the eternal state is entered. This is the Last Day we all still await!

          (Close Parenthesis)

OK, now that we understand the timing Paul has in mind, the pressing question then becomes, “What are the coming troubles during the last days?” And what might surprise you is that Paul identifies people in the church as the source of those troubles.

Read vs 2-5

          The difficulties Paul wants to prepare Timothy for are people. And for two reasons, we know he is talking about people within the church. The first reason is verse 5: they have the appearance of godliness.

          The second reason we know Paul refers to people within the church is because he warned Timothy of this in his first letter.

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.  -1 Timothy 4:1

          In these later times, people will depart from gospel faith for demonic teachings. Indeed, they will even have the appearance of godliness.

          Paul doesn’t need to warn Timothy that bad people are in the world. That’s obvious. He needs to prepare Timothy for the outbreak of false godliness that would threaten the church. There will be people who – on the surface – look like Christians; like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones (Matthew 23:27). Isn’t this how Jesus spoke? Weeds among the wheat, wolves in sheep’s clothing, betrayers, and false prophets.

          And though there might have been a spike of wickedness in the church during these last days, it doesn’t mean it isn’t true in our day. For the whole Church Age, to varying degrees, counterfeit Christianity has always threatened the church.

          How is Timothy to know who is a counterfeit? How are we to know? Paul identifies 18 markers of a counterfeit.

          I’m not going to dissect all 18 of them. But I do want to point out the bookends.

          The first mark of a counterfeit Paul lists is that he/she will be a lover of self. The counterfeit Christian may not deny Christ. In fact, they might be an incredibly emotional worshipper, knowing all the right things to say. No! Christ is not denied, he is simply displaced. The preferences of self are desired over the commands of Christ. They crave people’s compliments and affirmation while disregarding self-sacrificial honor for the Son of God. A lover of self attempts to take the King of the universe, and manipulate him into the service of me, me, me.

          The final mark of a counterfeit Paul lists is being a lover of pleasure rather than a lover of God. A lover of pleasure seeks happiness in all kinds of desires: sexual gratification, food, drink, possessions, applause, vacation, even good gifts like family. A lover of pleasure craves comfort and security. A lover of pleasure consistently chooses ease over obedience.

          But this is priorities in precisely the wrong order. God is to be trusted for all these things. If we seek his kingdom, all these things will be added to us.

To have enthroned your own self-gratification is to have enthroned yourself. This last mark is the same as the first, a lover of self rather than a lover of God.

          And when people displace God to be the king of their own life, evils spill out of their cancerous kingdom: greed, pride, boasting, abuse, broken families, ingratitude, unholiness, heartlessness, dissatisfaction, slander, absence of self-control, brutality, indifference for good, treachery, recklessness, and deluded conceit.

When you hear all the markers of a selfish, counterfeit Christian, don’t think these belong only to others. That’s what a narcissist would think. But a wise disciple would ask, “Am I marked by any of these?” And if some are found after praying and seeking council, the wise disciple doesn’t excuse the gangrene. He lifts the knife of repentance and cuts it away.

A counterfeit never considers such a thing!

          A counterfeit merely has the appearance of godliness, but they deny the power of godliness – as verse 5 says. We’ve already seen this power earlier in Paul’s letter. Power is the glory of God’s grace given to us! For by grace, the Holy Spirit generates strength for following Jesus, serving and suffering for his name’s sake and not ourselves, that he might increase and we might decrease and by grace, the godly have been given the power to repent!

          But if there is someone in the church who is making themselves increase, while Christ decreases, yet still they put on a façade of godliness, at the end of verse 5 Paul commands Timothy to “Avoid such people.” They are the gangrene in the body of Christ. The church must not tolerate or embrace such people.

          If they are tolerated, their gangrene will spread.

          Read vs 6-7

          With our modern ears, we hear Paul talking about weak women and are tempted to conclude that he has a low view of women. But once again, don’t let the culture shape your understanding of Scripture.

Paul’s concern is not to belittle women. His concern is to expose counterfeit Christians. Notice, counterfeits don’t merely sit quietly in the pews. They go on the offensive. They creep into households, seeking out spiritually vulnerable people whom they can exploit.

Paul explains what made these women vulnerable. They were burdened with sins and led astray by various passions. Though they had attached themselves to the church, they had never learned to leave those burdens at the foot of the cross. They remained enslaved to old desires. Week after week they heard the truth, yet they were “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” They accumulated information without ever being transformed by it.

That is the kind of person counterfeit Christians love to find. They prey on people who are religious but spiritually unstable – people who know Christian language but are not firmly grounded in the gospel. 

Notice also how these counterfeits work. They don’t persuade the whole church through open proclamation. They creep into homes. They work quietly, privately, and deceptively. Genuine shepherds proclaim the truth openly. Counterfeit Christians manipulate people in the shadows.

In an age when churches met in homes, this made them especially dangerous. They didn’t merely oppose the church from the outside; they infiltrated it from within, capturing unstable souls one household at a time.

          Counterfeits continue to creep into homes. Today it is rarely through the front door. Now it’s through the screen in your pocket. Beware of teachers and preachers with a high view of marketing and a low view of scripture, with messages that communicate how amazing a man of God they are, versus the God who became a man.

          Paul isn't finished exposing these counterfeit Christians. He now reaches back into the Old Testament.

          Read vs 8

          If you’re wondering who Jannes and Jambres are, you won’t find their names in the Old Testament. But Jewish tradition holds that these are the names of Pharaoh’s magicians. Do you remember what they did?

When Moses performed signs before Pharaoh, the magicians were initially able to counterfeit them. Their miracles looked convincing. They looked powerful. Pharoh was convinced they possessed the same authority as God's servant. But as Moses’ signs intensified, the Egyptian magicians could no longer match the power of God. Their illusion collapsed. Jannes and Jambres were exposed as the counterfeits that they were.

This is exactly Paul’s point in verse 8: Counterfeit faith has always existed. Just as Moses faced religious imposters, Jesus faced religious imposters, Timothy would face religious imposters, and until Christ’s return, so will the church.

There will always be, especially in the last days, people corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. Their corruption is deeper than having bad theology. Their minds have become twisted. The very instrument God gave them to know truth has become bent toward deception.

That is what counterfeit Christianity does. When self sits upon the throne, truth becomes a servant rather than a master. Scripture is no longer obeyed; it’s manipulated. Christ is no longer worshiped; he is used.

          But God will not allow their deception to prevail.

Read vs 9

That is a remarkable promise. Imagine Timothy hearing these words. False teachers are infiltrating the churches. Some believers are being deceived. The gospel appears to be under attack.

Might Timothy wonder, “Will the church survive?” Paul answers a resounding, “Yes! They will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all.”

Counterfeits may spread, but they do not win. Jannes and Jambres performed their tricks for a season, but eventually their folly was exposed before all. The same is true of every counterfeit teacher. Perhaps not immediately, but inevitably, God exposes falsehood. The kingdom of self eventually collapses under its own weight, but the kingdom of Christ cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28).

          Perhaps you’ve already begun to wonder if there are any counterfeits you know. Careful! Remember the warning from earlier. The narcissist hears this passage and immediately applies it to other people.

The disciple hears this passage and asks, “Lord...is it me?” I do want you to be able to identify counterfeits, but it might be more important to ask:

Who reigns in my heart?

When my desires collide with His commands, which one wins?

When obedience becomes costly, what do I treasure most?

Is Christ increasing, or am I?

Counterfeit Christianity is not simply bad doctrine. It is disordered love. It is loving self more than God, and trying to hide it under the robes of religion.

And right here, in this morally repulsive place, the gospel bursts with good news. Jesus Christ came precisely for lovers of self. Every one of us entered this world loving ourselves more than we loved God. We have all attempted to enthrone ourselves. Every one of us has attempted to manipulate the King of heaven to serve our own kingdom.

Listen! The gospel announces something glorious. Jesus Christ left His throne. He took upon Himself our flesh. He lived the godly life we refused to live. He died the death our selfishness deserved. And then he burst from the grave in victory, defeating sin and death!

Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?                                                                   -1 Corinthians 15:54-55

Now, according to the grace of this covenantal age, the Holy Spirit gives us new hearts. Indeed, he enters our hearts to dethrone the self! He teaches us to love God, and expose anything that might be counterfeit within us.

Brothers and sisters, Paul wrote these words because he loved Timothy, and wanted to prepare him. I preach these words because I love you, and I want you to be prepared to spot the counterfeits. How many there are in our day!

Do not be deceived by appearances, look for the fruit of genuine repentance, look for humble obedience, look for growing love of Jesus, look for people whose lives consistently proclaim, “Not my will, but Yours be done.”

And above all, make certain that your confidence is not in the appearance of godliness, but through abiding in Jesus. Your relationship with him is the most important thing about you.

What do you need to do today, what posture of the heart must you adopt, to make Christ increase and you decrease?