Marcus Mecum - 5 Attitudes In The Last Days - Part 2
So, the bottom line of a false teacher, the first quality that you see is they call other people false teachers. That’s how you know. The moment someone takes somebody’s picture and they put it up here and says, «This person’s bad and I’m good,» probably your warning. It’s a quiet church. But I wanna show you how Paul talked about it, not how I’m gonna talk about it. I don’t have no picture of anybody up here. But this is what he said. So, he introduces these two people, Philetus and Alexander. And the way that this worked is Paul would go into a community, and he would win people to Christ. He would disciple them, he would love them, he would establish the foundation of a church.
Eventually, he would find a young person, a young man, a leader to come and pastor that church. And then Paul would move on to another city, win some people to Christ, begin to build a church there. Or he will go check on another church, or many times he’s in prison. That’s when he’s writing this letter. So, when he’s not in prison, he’s planting churches, taking care of churches, building churches. When he is in prison, he’s sending letters like this to young pastors like Timothy talking to them about how they’re going to run into different obstacles as leaders. Not knowing that this letter is going to get into the cannon of scripture and that we’re going to read it at the time.
So, that’s what Paul is primarily doing. And he says, «So what happen is I’m here, I plant this church, I win these people to Christ, I teach them, I give them a basic foundation, I put a pastor over them, I move on to this next place, and then people come in behind me, and they start eroding away at what I’ve done, who I am, and what I’ve taught them». If you read the commentaries, this is exactly what it says these people did and almost every letter from Paul, you see him dealing with these people. They all felt a need to come in behind Paul’s back and correct his teaching. They were corrective in saying Paul is inadequate or incomplete, and their claim, this is, read any commentary. Take this, go home and study it. They claim to have a superior understanding of God, God’s word, and God’s will than Paul. In other words, Paul is inferior, we’re the anointed ones.
What are the marks of these people? They quarrel about with words, Godless chatter. For what? The ruin of the hearer. To cause a lack of confidence in the person that God has put out front storming the beach. Let me put it in a way that we live in our day with this. Have you ever heard of the 12th man in football? There are 11 men on the field and there’s the 12th man who is the crowd. And their noise level determines how they participate in the game. Well, the primary way a 12th man comes into play is when their team is on defense. When their team is on defense, what happens is you get to third down or maybe you’re at the goal line and they don’t want the other team to score, so they increase the noise level, they start screaming, they start shouting, they start doing anything they can do to cause miscommunication, misunderstanding, and confusion on the field so the offense does not advance, right?
They’re not on the field, they’re just making noise about what’s happening to cause confusion. If you’ve ever been to a basketball game, you would see this. The person’s at the free throw line. And behind the basketball goal, there’s all kinds of people with their noodles, and they got noise things, and they got, they’re doing all kind of things that they can. They’ve got signs, and their goal is to distract the person at the free throw line from putting the ball through the hoop. They’re the 12th man. And he’s got a job to do, and that job that he’s been qualified to be right there at that moment, and he has to know who’s qualified him to be there, and that’s not the distracters in the crowd, and he stands up to free throw line. And the more he can remove the distractions, the more he can put that ball through that net and score over and over again.
And what Paul is telling Timothy, «Timothy, do not be distracted. I’ve called you, I’ve anointed you, I’ve placed you in the game, I want you to storm those beaches, I want you to make the play, I want you to move the ball down the field, I want you to put the ball through the hoop, I want you to win souls, preach the gospel. That’s what I want you to do». But I want the church to know that there are those who are gonna come out and try to distract that from happening. And he said what happens is they cause gangrene, which is sudden pain followed by numbness. The result is the tissue dies, it cuts off blood flow from the rest of the body. So, it’s a part of the body, it' a functioning part of the body. It’s a thriving part of the body, something hits that area, causes pain, numbness, it cuts off the blood flow from the rest of the body.
The next symptom of gangrene is it immediately goes to the mind and it causes confusion in the mind. The goal of gangrene is that the mind doesn’t understand that the body’s at stake. Because if gangrene is not cut off the rest of the body goes septic and dies. Do you see the goal of a false teacher? It’s to hit you, cause confusion in your life, not have confidence in what’s going on, and the ultimate goal is to kill the body. And what Paul does with Timothy is he says, «Hey, listen, what I wanna do is I’m gonna give you a Bible study and let’s go back to Moses». And he goes into Moses and how Moses had jannes and Jambres that opposed him. «And, by the way, Timothy I have Philetus and Alexander that are opposing me. And, by the way, Timothy, you’re gonna have stuff that comes against you».
And, by the way every generation of the church is going to have people that come in behind the Pauls and say they’re the bad ones, they’re the wrong ones, I’m the right ones. I’m not talking about this church, I’m not even talking about you, this church is so sound and unified, it’s beautiful. I’m speaking to those who are maybe beyond this place, outside of this place. This church speaks to way more people than what are inside of the rooms that we call 7 hills. And what I want you to get is that the pharisaical attitude that Jesus dealt with, that crucified him, the pharisaical attitude that turned Peter upside down and crucified him. The pharisaical attitude it’s always the same, it’s the people who do not feel like they’ve worshipped until they’re correcting everybody else. Their worship is I’m correcting everybody else and they oppose what God’s doing by the people who God’s doing it with. They criticize because they are the smallest size.
And Paul said, «Stay away from this attitude, take heed to yourself it will ruin the hearer». 2 Timothy 3:10, Paul gives the answer he says, «You know my teaching, and you know my way of life,» isn’t that beautiful? It’s important not just to know what somebody says but do you know their way of life? Do you know their track record? Don’t let someone come in and distract you from that. «The Lord knows those who are his». Many times we do not, but the Lord knows those who are his. It goes on to say, in 2 Timothy 3:14, «Continue in what you have learned because you know from whom you have learned it». You know what I think he’s saying here? Because he calls Timothy his son he’s saying, «Timothy you’re gonna have to learn something as the dad of this church now, you’re gonna have to learn that you should have a problem if somebody wants to come into your home and discipline your kids». Right?
In the Mecum home, you come in and discipline my kids you better have taken some self-defense classes. 'cause I’m a dad first, preacher second right? That’s why we say at 7 hills that the greatest gift you can give the church is your relationship with Jesus Christ. Done. That’s it. We want you to love him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Get that clear, settle it. And those who are spiritual the Bible says we restore, we don’t attack, we don’t criticize, we don’t judge, we don’t slam people. We don’t burn people at the stake, that’s not what we do, we first take heed to ourselves that we’re not distracted or deceived by the people, the 12th man in the stands that’s opposing the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Number two, attitude is mercy. He said, «Do not be troubled». The word «Troubled» means agitated. Don’t allow an attitude of agitation to come on you. Everyone’s on edge, everyone’s attacking. Even if you’re right in doctrine or principle you can be wrong in spirit. Simon Peter says to Jesus, «Thou art the Christ, the son of the loving God,» and then at Gethsemane he has a sword out and he’s cutting the guy’s ear off. Right in doctrine, wrong in spirit. In the old testament the place that the Lord dwelled was over the mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled. So you have the ark of the covenant, on top of the ark of the covenant you have the mercy seat where the blood from the high priest would be sprinkled. Above that you have two angels, or two cherubims and they’re facing each other but they’re not looking eye to eye, their heads are down representing humility. Their wings are stretched out touching one another.
Notice where they’re focused, they’re focused on mercy. They’re touching even though they don’t see eye to eye. Because the biblical principle of how we always find God in every single area of our life with every single relationship is not that we see eye to eye it’s that we can touch, we can have harmony, we can have unity together because we’re focused on the mercy and the blood of Jesus Christ. And we’re all flawed. We all miss it and we have to extend mercy one to another don’t be agitated, don’t be troubled.
Number three is an attitude of endurance. He says, «Lawlessness will abound and the love of many will grow cold. But those who endure to the end,» everybody say, «Endure… Will be saved». Lawlessness is different than sin. Sin is, «Oops, I messed up. I know it was a sin, I know I made a mistake and I wanna get right». Lawlessness is a decision to continue in a sin and you have a callous or hard heart about it. You don’t care what the Bible says, you don’t care what God’s word says, you’re gonna continue in it no matter what. And it says that lawlessness will abound, in other words, it will be everywhere, convenient, easy, and prevalent. And because of this convictions will be snared at, biblical standards will be dismissed, there will be no separation from the world, and Christians will look just like the world.
They’ll act like the world, they’ll go with cultural trends, and they’ll be saying things like, «I’m just trying to be like them so I can help them,» when the Bible says you, actually to help the world you have to come out from among them and be separate. And it says, when you don’t do that and you allow lawlessness to continue, again not sin, not making mistakes, we all do that, but a condition where you are just gonna do it and you don’t care. It causes the heart condition to be of such that you don’t have endurance.
If you are an endurance athlete you would know the most important muscle is the heart muscle. You can have a guy that squats or deadlifts 800 pounds at the gym, got legs like an oak tree but can’t run a quarter mile. Because in endurance the most important health is heart health, cardio health, and what Jesus is saying is in the end times people will lose sight of the importance of keeping a pure and a clean heart. You gotta keep your heart strong, that’s how you endure, that’s how you finish strong, that’s how you stand. The Bible says in order to do this we don’t look to the world for our standard, but we look to Jesus, is what Hebrews says, the author and the finisher of our faith who endured. He endured the cross, that’s what we’re to look at.
We’re to look at the cross of Jesus Christ, that’s what endurance looks like. He’s bleeding, he’s dying, he’s taken on our weight, our sin, our infirmity, our sickness. He’s taken all that on and he’s enduring. He’s not quitting, he’s not giving up, he’s not capturing lawless, no, he’s focused on the father, he’s focused on the joy that was set before him, and so «He endured the pain of the cross. Endured to the end,» is what he says. An attitude of I’m not going to give up, I’m not going to stop, I’m not going to allow this world to anyway, no matter how much there’s an opportunity to jump in at any type of sin I’m gonna keep Jesus as my focus.
Number four, in verse 10 he says, «Many will be offended,» so you need an attitude of forgiveness in the last days. The word offense in the Greek means «Skandalon» where we get the word scandal from, and it refers to a trap that’s both camouflaged and baited. And Jesus is saying in the last days many will take the bait. Many will make a choice to take on an offended spirit. You have to make the decision, «I’m going to be unoffendable, I’m not going to take the bait no matter how camouflaged it is I have to be sensitive and I have to be aware».
And the only way to get free from the bear claw of offense, the bear trap of offense is you make the decision to exercise forgiveness. And can I help you? It’s painful every time. More than likely there’s not a day you will live on this planet that you do not need to exercise forgiveness. And every time you forgive it hurts. It hurts to kiss revenge goodbye, it hurts to watch people get away with how they hurt you. It hurts to watch justice, in your mind, not be appropriated, but healing follows forgiveness, healing never follows an offended spirit. Jesus would say it like this, «You bless those that curse you, you pray for those who mistreat you,» in Luke 6. And you know what John Calvin said about that prayer? «This kind of prayer is exceedingly difficult, but if you don’t forgive you relive».
And Jesus is saying in the last days they’re gonna wanna get you all caught up on this thing and that thing, but more important than all that is you gotta keep your forgiver strong. Relationships break down, families break down because our forgiver is not strong. You gotta keep your forgiver strong, you gotta make a decision. Jesus is talking to the disciples and are trying to figure out how strong should it be and he says, «Seventy times seven». Four hundred and ninety times a day, once every 90 seconds you gotta keep on forgiving. And you know what they said? They said, «Increase our faith».
In other words, they’re saying, «We can’t do it, we don’t have the faith to forgive at that level,» and he’s like, «I know». And so he breathed on them and gave them the power to forgive. You and I don’t have the power to forgive at this level. Well, you and I do not have the strength to forgive at this level we’re too weak for that but God through his spirit can breathe on us and we can have the strength of God come on us and we can forgive no matter what someone’s done, and we need a strong forgiver in these last days.
Number five, a soul-winning attitude. He finishes by saying, «Preach the gospel». That’s what we’re to do, to preach the gospel into all the earth. I’m so proud of this church, I’m so proud of what you do each and every week because you’re a soul winning church. People say it’s a big church and I say, «No, it’s a soul-winning church». Very difficult to keep a soul-winning church small. But with that being said, I wanna bring some clarity to what I just said. I got saved in a 70 member church. I was discipled, I was taught to pray and read the Bible in a small church. I love small churches. I owe my salvation, I owe my discipleship to small churches. I’m so grateful for every church.
My first ministry opportunity came through a mid-seized church, probably about 400 or so. Volunteered position with 30 young people, that was my first opportunity to do what God’s called me to do. I got my first pastoring opportunity in probably a five or 600 member church at the time, be considered a mid-sized church and now I pastor a larger church, and I just wanna say, I love the local church. I’ve given my life to 'em, small, mid-sized, or large. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter we’re the church of Jesus Christ. Big is not bad, small is not bad, God’s tribal, to each his own. Let God use 'em all to win souls in Jesus' name. For 33 years, outside of about a 18 month hiatus, prodigal season, 'cause I got hurt by church and was focused on girls in my freshman, sophomore year of college. Outside of that 18 month season for 33 years, I’ve preached the gospel.
My first time I preached a sermon was I was 16 years old, I’d been a Christian for three months. It was in the backyard some barbeque. I still remember the scripture I used, 1 Timothy 4:12, «Let no one look down on your youth but rather be an example in faith, love, and purity». I used to sit in my pickup truck and I would preach to the steering wheel, spit everywhere. I would give altar calls in that little purple ford ranger. I literally give altar calls and I would jump over in the passenger seat 'cause there was no one there to get saved and I would answer my own altar calls. An end time attitude, don’t ever let there be an anti-soul-winning attitude that gets a hold of you. We’re to preach the gospel into all the earth, why? So he can come back, so he can finally bind satan and throw him into the lake of fire, and the church of Jesus Christ can finally come into God restoring all things.