Gooding, David: End of Age Challenges

Now, on our last occasion, responding to the idea of the end of age challenges, we read from Peter's second letter and chapter three, in which he predicted to his contemporaries that there would come scoffers in the last days, scoffing rudely and out of their passions, and saying, where is the sign of his coming? Where is the promise of it? It's all come to nothing. For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they did. Now that view called uniformitarianism, that all things have continued as they did, was for some long years advocated by the paleontologists particularly, and by the study of the rocks. It was a principle laid down that the, uh, rocks have been formed over the years by a process that has gone on uniformly without break. For that reason, I read, uh, uh, yesterday from the works of a professor of, um, uh, paleontology, uh, and uh, uh, uh, study of the rocks in Cambridge, in which he concluded that the old theory of uniformitarianism has now been proved wrong, and that the better explanation of our present world and its rock formation and so forth is that there have been from time to time very large catastrophes. So he prefers the term that he calls neo-catastrophism. The Bible, of course, has been saying it for a long while, holding up the flood of Noah as a catastrophe that God brought upon our world in the time past, using the elements of nature, the water, to destroy the world. And on that same, uh, uh, ground, Peter reminds us that there is coming another intervention of God at the end of time, when God will use fire to destroy the earth. Then will be the great, bright throne of God's judgment. Tonight, however, we leave, uh, Peter and come to the words of the Apostle Paul in chapter, in his second letter to Timothy and chapter three. Let's read the passage together. Second Timothy and chapter uh three. But know this, that in the last days, grievous times, times difficult to put up with, grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors, headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof. From these also turn away. For of these are they that creep into houses and take captive silly women laden with sins, led away by various lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And just as James and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also withstand the truth. Men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further, for their folly shall be evident unto all men, as theirs also came to be. But thou didst follow my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, long suffering, love, patience, persecutions, sufferings, what things befell me at Antioch and at Iconium and Lystra, what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me. Yea, and all that would live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. But evil men and imposters shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. But abide thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them, and that from a babe thou hast known the sacred writings which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is inspired of God. It is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work. That's far for our reading for the moment. And we notice Paul's prediction to Timothy. He must be prepared that in the last times, difficult times shall come. Why difficult? In the first place, not because of cosmic signs and terrors, but because of the predominant attitude of people. You will have noticed as we read Paul's description in some detail of human behavior, which he now warns Timothy will increase as the days go by. It would be tedious if I were to try to expound every one of the adjectives that is used of this uncommonly, or perhaps I ought to say commonly, difficult behavior. Let me just, uh, select two things. We're told in verse two that people will be lovers of self. Now, let us be quite clear that not all loving of yourself is necessarily a bad thing. We are told it is our responsibility to love our neighbors as ourselves. And if we don't love ourselves at all, then liking our lo- our neighbors as we li- I like ourselves wouldn't benefit them very much indeed, would it? Yes, we are to love ourselves, of course, and thank God daily for our creation and all his benefits towards us that we enjoy. But these people are, to say, lovers, uh, of themselves in the sense that they are completely self-centered. They're not really interested in other people, merely what they can get out of other people. Lovers of self. And of course, that attitude can be ruinous to pleasant relationships with one's family and neighbors and so forth. From it, endless evils come. Then a little lower down in verse four, Paul charges these people with being lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Now, once more, allow me to point out that pleasure is not in itself a bad thing. You'll see we are reliably told in Psalm sixteen that at God's right hand there are pleasures forevermore, do you see? And it's not, I must admit, a very high form of pleasure, but I love sausages, and, uh, you see, I hope you do too. Why shouldn't we enjoy our food? Nothing wrong in pleasure. God has made all things and provides all things that w- for to to richly enjoy. Ah, but these are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. They don't mind taking from God's hand all he has to give. They're not interested in God. They're not interested in God for his own sake. They might be interested in singing a few hymns if the music pleased them, but not interested in God himself. Interested may be in his word, if for some reason they find the story intriguing, but not interested in the word of God for its own sake, because it is God's word. Lazarus was a pleasure, rather than lovers of God. To put it in slightly more technical terms, this is, uh, an a- a- a- this is regrettable extreme of subjectivism. Being concerned with myself, my emotions, my joys, my interests. Not being objective and treating God as the great objective. Who calls upon me to be interested in him for his own sake. And to worship him. The great theologian T. F. Tor- Torrance used to say that God is not only the supreme object, he is the supreme subject. It is he that proposed to make our universe. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It is he that made us. He is the great subject, and when he decides to act, he acts. And what he decides about us is, of course, final. He is the great subject that speaks in our universe. But for the moment, let us leave it there. I shall not spend the time going through the detailed descriptions that Paul now gives us. It would be good advice to read it both in an old translation and in a modern translation, because some of the words that are in our glorious authorized version have gone out of date and no longer mean what they appear to say. So it's good to read some modern versions that will put the things in modern terms. But what I call attention to now is that throughout both this letter and his first letter to Timothy, Paul counters this modern tendency by appealing to the truth. As distinct from human subjectivism. God's objective truth. Let me cite you the passages concerned here in second Timothy, chapter two and verse fifteen. Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. It is vastly important, my dear fellow believer, in this changing world with its lowering standards, to lay hold of God's unvarying, established, objective truth, by which we can gauge all other things. And we shall find now Paul, uh, complaining that false teachers will attack this great word of God. Look at verse, um, eighteen: Men who, concerning the truth, have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. Look at verse twenty five of chapter two. In meekness correcting them that oppose themselves, if peradventure God may give them repentance unto the knowledge of the truth. Or three verse seven, about certain heretics, he says, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. And then again in verse eight, and like as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also withstand the truth. And chapter four, verse four, will turn away their ears from the truth and turn aside unto fables. God's God's great great revealed revealed. objective truth. And because that is a great issue at stake, I want now to call your attention to a certain development in modern education, and particularly in the departments of English, both in universities and in the higher schools. Because there has arisen in this last thirty or forty years, a so-called philosophy known as postmodernism. As a philosophy, it is not well spoken of and thought of in philosophical circles, but in English departments and other literary departments, it is very well thought of, and in fact taught, and has been now for two or three generations of students have been taught postmodernism in the literary departments. You say, what is the relevance of that, and why do we need to know it? Well, there are two sides to this postmodernism. The one is as follows. It states, there is no absolute truth. I repeat that. Your students, your sons and daughters may be taught it in their English classes, in a university study of English, and some other languages as well. There is no absolute truth. And it works out like this at a practical level. If the teacher, the lecturer, and the students are studying a particular book of literature, and the teacher gives his or her interpretation of it, then the teacher will say, but of course, that is, um, my truth. Uh, that's what I think it means, and I hold it as so. But of course, you may disagree. You may hold I'm a hundred percent wrong, but you mustn't say I'm wrong. This is my truth. Now, you have your truth, and I won't say that you're wrong, not even if you are contradicting me. I will admit that that's your truth. You see, there's no absolute truth. It's what is true for you and what is true for me. And you mustn't say I'm wrong, and I won't say you're wrong. We must be tolerant, do you see? Mm-hmm. And you will see what the effect of that could be. If students, um, accept it, when next you try to say that the Bible says this, though it be as plain as a pikestaff, they will merely say that's only Paul's truth, or that's your truth. That isn't my truth. And you mustn't say I'm wrong, even if I disagree, because there is no absolute truth. In the last days, difficult times shall come. Of course, it has its more serious roots. One of the scholars at the root of this movement was a French scholar, Derrida, and in his many writings on the topic, he gives us the reason why there is no absolute truth. Says he, you see, there is no logos. And you who know your first gospel will remember when, uh, the, the when, uh, sorry, the first chapter of John's gospel will realize that when it says, in the beginning was the Word, the Greek for that is Logos. In the beginning was the Logos, the expression of God, the very nature and, uh, expression, uh, uh, uh, and fullness and perfect expression of God. All things were made by him, without him was nothing made that was made. There is an eternal Logos. So your child's, your son's or daughter's study of King Lear or something in Shakespeare, or Oedipus Tyrannus in Greek, the Greek Sophocles or somebody or other, eventually impinges on this. Is there in this universe a divine logos by which all truth is to be measured? Of course, the statement that is made, there is no absolute truth, is in itself a nonsense, isn't it? Just let's pause and think about that, for this is a night for conundrums. There is no absolute truth, say the postmodernists. But wait a minute, that very statement, there is no absolute truth, sounds to be commonly like, uncommonly like, an absolute truth. And if there's no absolute truth, then why should I believe them to start with, when they pronounce an absolute truth, it is sheer nonsense. One is reminded of what the Holy Apostle says in Romans chapter one, professing themselves to be wise, they have become fools. What is our resource, my brothers and sisters, as we love our younger generation, oh, we must get God's truth into them. Ringing in my ears this last fifty years have been the advice of people that know better than I do, and they have said, David, keep it simple. Well, I wish I had their skill in making complicated things simple. But... they don't say that to the physics teacher, do they? Nor to the chemistry teacher. Nor to the teacher of advanced mathematics. Why should we keep our young people at the level of spiritual infants, when God has given us a whole inspired scripture, and we need to study it earnestly? It's part of the battle, and in these modern days, very much in the front line of the battle. The other facet of postmodernism is this, that all moral values are determined by, are set by society. In other words, there are no absolute moral values. The moral values that you possibly live by, according to this theory, are formed by the society you happen to live in. No absolute moral values. Lest you think I am indulging too much in theory, let me tell you a case. Four or five years ago, a dear friend of mine who is a Wycliffe translator, responsible for large areas of Africa, was interested in a younger man and brought him to see me. Was interest- interested in this younger man because my friend, before he became a Wycliffe translator, acted as a missionary in the south of France, and this young man came out to join the team as a believer. But when my friend brought this young man to me, into my home. He told me what I just repeated to you. There are no absolute moral values. All values, all moral values are determined and set by our society. You'll see, since being a a helper to missionaries in the south of France, he has attended a university, let it be nameless, and read political science and various other philosophies, and they had convinced him that there is no divine origin of moral value. All All values values. are set by society, and of course different societies have different values, and so long as you live according to the values of your society, all is well. I said to him, what about cannibalism then? And he said, yes, it's okay if they like it. What absurdity, of course. I'm glad to be able to tell you that after some years, the young man grew up and came back to the Lord. But this is not an imaginary de- uh, uh, d- danger. You see, it sounds on the surface good. We must be tolerant, you see. You mustn't push your view as though it were the only truth. Uh, your view is probably determined by your particular culture or the group you live with or converse with. Other people have different values. We have to learn to be tolerant. Don't a lot of people claim it's religion that's been the cause of many wars and so forth? So we must be tolerant. And certainly Christians should never fight either to defend or to propagate the truth, for our Lord forbid it. But wait a minute, this business of tolerance, what does it mean? You will remember that there was a dictator called Pol Pot. Now, Pol Pot, among many other curious things about him, he didn't like intellectuals. And anybody that wore glasses was potentially an intellectual, you see. So he eliminated them, killed them. You say that was intolerant. Well, it was indeed. But wait a minute, you just told me that I mustn't say he's wrong, and he mustn't say I'm wrong. So I have to tolerate his intolerance, do I? It's nonsense, of course. Professing themselves to be wise. They have become. But these views are expressed in the highest of universities in the United Kingdom, and in many a school where the teachers have been trained. What is our resource? Oh, Tim. Oh, Tim, says Paul, I'm about to be offered. I have run the race, I finished my course. I'm about to be poured out in martyrdom. Tim, preach the word, Tim. Preach it when you've got a good opportunity, Tim, in season, and preach it when you haven't got any opportunity, when it's out of season. Preach it. Get people to learn it. Why? Why the need for haste? Because the time will come when they won't endure sound teaching. They won't come and listen to it. They will want things more frivolous and entertaining, and will turn away their ears from the truth. Calls upon us, doesn't it, to examine how we go about teaching. Let's do each according to his ability. But if we would compete with this modern world and save our young people, we need to get them beyond the fairy ste- the fairy tale stories to the realities of God's word and get it into them, hook or by crook. I have seen too many professed Christians come up to the university, take part in the Christian Union, and upon leaving, turn to atheism. Oh, as we love our young people and all the people of God, let us seek God's help in our modern world to get God's word into their hearts and minds so that it becomes formative. I am not against music, you know. I love music. Oh, God, give us more. I understand there'll be specialized choirs up in heaven, such as you have never heard. What would you think of the physics teacher who interrupted his lecture on physics with a little jazz, just to keep the ch- the the students' attention? You say, well, physics, that is a boring thing, and uh, to say, mm-hmm, perhaps they would need it even to continue. Well, if that's so, uh, good, but... We need to take it seriously, don't we? If this is God's word. And to stress this matter of objectivity, the objective truth, do you see? We have Paul referring, uh, to the second coming of Christ. Look, for instance, in chapter four verse one: I charge thee in the sight of God and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom preach the word. It is not just theory, is it? The Lord is coming. And not merely for the church to take us home to glory, though thank God that is his intention. But he's coming as the judge. He shall appear. He shall judge the living and the dead. This is the objective fact. He's coming. And we need, by his grace, to be ready for his coming. And of course, then, uh, Paul calls attention in verses seven and eight of that same chapter four to Christ, the righteous judge, he says, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, not only to me, but also to all them that have loved his appearing. And now I worry, in case I've made this thing about the truth appear to be something hard and legalistic. So let's think as we close. What is the truth? I, says Christ, am the truth. You want to know the truth of about a daisy? Well, you can tell me how many petals it has and how it propagates itself and its root system and its leaf system and all the other things, and how to make a daisy crown. He invented it. There wouldn't be daisies without Christ. He is the truth about the universe. And yet, you will remember how, according to John's gospel, when he was brought before Pilate, Pilate had two interviews with him privately. At the first interview, he asked our blessed Lord, are you the king of the Jews? Christ said, is that your own idea, or did somebody else put it into your head? He said, I'm not a Jew, it's your own people that delivered you to me. And they were saying that Jesus was claiming to be king. And Pilate, with all his politics, was interested to know exactly what this man was. So our Lord Jesus said, I am a king, yes, but you see, if my kingdom were of this world, my disciples, now do watch how the Greek, what the Greek says. My disciples would have been fighting, that is in the Garden of Gethsemane, that I might not be delivered to the Jews. One disciple tried to fight, it was Peter, and our Lord told him to put up his sword into his sheath at once and heal the wound that he had inflicted. The Roman chiliarch, who Pilate had sent at the request of the high priests, with the arresting party to arrest the Lord Jesus, witnessed what was going on and would have witnessed, and not only that, but have told Pilate what happened. Christ forbade the use of the sword and stopped his si- his disciples from fighting and voluntarily delivered himself up to the arresting party. Pilate would have known that were true. You are a king then? Yes, for this cause was I born, and for this cause I came into the world, that I might bear witness to the truth. What is truth, says Pilate? What is truth? I've got enough to be in s- in charge of politics. What is truth? So Pilate went out and tried to release Christ, but the Jews shouted all the more vehemently. And when Christ told them, you take him and, uh, crucify him, no, they said, we have a law, and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God. Now, Pilate was an old pagan. And pagans had the view that from time to time there appeared on earth sort of men that were more than men, sort of demigods somehow, and you had to be careful how you treat them. So Pilate brought in Christ a second time to interview him in private. And this time he said, not are you a king, but young man, where are you from? And Christ made him no answer. Said Pilate, young man, you better start talking. Don't you realize I've got power to crucify you and power to release you? You better start talking, young man. Where are you from? It was Pilate wanting to know. Was he a son of God in some sense? What world did he come from? Our Lord simply said, you would have no authority against me, except it were given you from above. Therefore, the one that delivered you to me has the greater sin. You say, why didn't our Lord, at that moment, before that puzzled man, do some miracle, some show of his divine nature? Why, that would have shriveled Pilate like a cinder on the ground, had Christ put all his forms of glory on. I've come to bear witness to the truth, Christ has said. Tell me, what do you think about truth? Is this true? That God incarnate came down and stood in front of a man of six foot of clay and let the man decide what he would do with God incarnate. Is that true? I think you would reply, but not only true, it's the truth on which I base my whole hope for eternity. It's true. This is the true expression of God. He would give his son that we might not perish. God loves us with a creator's love. This is the truth. Oh, for the miserable success of Satan, the critic of God that manages to put people's back up against the truth of God incarnate in Christ. But he's coming again, isn't he? King David was old, mostly in bed, in fact, and he got no heat, and they devised a very curious form of hot water bottle for him, but to no effect. He was soon to pass away, and one of his many sons, called Adonijah, saw that the time was ripe, so he felt, to seize the throne. Before the king died, and while he was in this incompetent state, he would seize the throne, and none should be able to dispute it. So he's had a word with some priests and the, uh, the commander in chief of the army and a lot of friends, and persuaded them to support him, and he staged a virtual coronation, you'll see, and invited all the friends to come, and they joined the party, and it was great fun and games, and Adonijah was everything, you see. But Bathsheba and her loyal advisors heard about this, and they went into David. There he was in his bed, poor old boy, he was nearly had it. And they said, your majesty, is it your wish that Adonijah be king when you pass on? What did you say, he said? Adonijah? Yes. For Adonijah is already claiming the throne. And with that, King David sat bolt upright in bed. Adonijah never. I've said that Solomon should be my king, my, my successor. Let me tell Bathsheba, his mother, so, and let me tell you what to do. And thereupon King David, off his deathbed, staged the revelation of Solomon as king. They brought out the king's mule. They put Solomon on it, they had all the band and the orchestra and everybody of any importance, and they followed Solomon down the streets crying, Hosanna, long live the king, and everything else you'll see, and blew the trumpets. David staged the coronation of Solomon. And Adonijah and his party down in the valley, they suddenly heard the noise of the trumpet. And then they ca- caught some of the words. Solomon was king. They set down their glasses on the table and said, Solomon, sorry, my wife is at home and I must go and see my wife or something, and they left. It's coming a day, one Timothy six says it, when God shall stage the revelation and appearing of our blessed Lord Jesus. All the heavens shall grow with splendor. God will hang out all the bunting he has on the heavens to celebrate the manifestation of the Lord Jesus. Do you love his appearing and long for it? God grant us that we shall be faithful, so that when he comes, he shall find us on the right side, ladies and gentlemen. And supporting the claims of God and Christ and of his holy word.