YOU MIGHT AS WELL KNOW

2 Timothy 3:1-9 (KJV)

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

Paul held nothing back in this last letter to Timothy did he?

Timothy already knows that being a Christian has a price – being a preacher maybe even more so.

Jesus – our very Lord, was crucified

Stephen and James had been executed

Paul was in prison awaiting the very same fate

The purpose of this letter is to give Timothy the last tools Paul has at his disposal to aide him in carrying on after Paul’s death.

Now Paul tells him, “This know also…”

I think we have done Christians in America a huge disservice the last, probably 50 years.

We have had it so good that, rather than preparing them for trials in their faith, we have just cheered them on with the promise of immediate rewards for their faith.

We all know that the Bible tells us difficult times will come, but none of us want to think it will happen in our lifetime.

Here we are facing an election that has the potential to spell the end of our spiritual liberties[1] and I am discovering Christians who are either in full-blown panic, or just sticking their head in the sand and hoping it all goes away.

Paul gives Timothy these lessons concerning the coming peril:

*I. THE GENERAL TREND

Vs 1-5

The word perilous comes from a root that means chaos or chasm.

The concept is a lowering, a decline.

I know that the Bible is not written about the United States in particular, but if we wanted to use the United States as a benchmark, an argument could be made that we reached a high point in the presidency of Ronald Reagan, when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Iron Curtain fell.

I think we have been on a pretty sharp decline:

·   Spiritually

·   Morally and

·   Economically

ever since.

The elections that are before us right now are just a sign of the perilous times that face us.

But our country isn’t the whole story is it?

Is there any region in the world that is on the rise or is the whole world sliding lower and lower?

·   Europe is on the ropes so badly that Great Britain recently voted to withdraw from the European Union

·   South America has never been a place of great prosperity

·   Several of the countries that were in the former Soviet block are undergoing serious government crises right now

·   I just heard the South Korea is challenging their current president and

·   China is in an economic crisis too

The whole world appears to be hanging over a chasm of disaster.

The Bible lists eighteen characteristics of men in those perilous last days. I am going to group them in three sets:

A. Selfish

Vs 2

They really only love one person, themselves. Everything is for them and them alone.

·   They think too much of themselves

·   They speak too much about themselves

·   They disrespect their parents

·   They dishonor God and

·   They denounce holiness

B. Hard hearted

Vs 3-4

Since they only love themselves they cannot rightly care for anyone else.

·   They make promises they have no intention to keep

·   They accuse others of things they know they did not do

·   They give in to any and every lust of their flesh

·   They hate those who have the moral strength they lack

C. Hypocrites

Vs 5

They look and act spiritual but in reality they are only religious.

The Bible says the thing to do is to turn away from them.

Notice

*II. THE BASIC RESULT

Vs 6-7

A. The character of these people is such that they will deceive and destroy the silly and the simple.

I am reminded of Proverbs 7:6-20 (KJV)

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:

And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

It’s not just the silly woman who is “laden with sins” and “led away with divers lusts” is it?

So it’s not just silly women who can be led captive to their own destruction.

The reason to turn away from them is because they can ruin you.

Further,

B. They never learn anything

Vs 7

How can they?

·   They deny the power of God.

·   They divest themselves from certainties

·   They devote themselves to pleasures

If they ever declared a thing to be true,

·   They would have no reason to pay someone to study it further and waste government money

·   They would have no purpose for the existence of most government jobs and

·   They would have no excuse for their wicked life away from God

Notice finally

*III. THE EVENTUAL END

Vs 8-9

There are three consequences given in these two verses. I am going to give them in reverse order:

A. They will be exposed

Vs 9

…their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

Those who are spiritually discerning will recognize them for the fools that they are.

B. They will be stopped

Vs 9

But they shall proceed no further: …

Though they will  appear to “rise to the top” for awhile, God has a plan to stop them.

C. They will be reprobate

Vs 8

Romans 1:28 (KJV)

And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

The word reprobate means “castaway” or “unredeemable.”

I am convinced that there is such a thing as quenching the Spirit of God to the place where he will no longer convict a lost person to be saved and without that conviction, they cannot be saved. That is what it means to be given “over to a reprobate mind.”

Since I can’t tell when a person has that reprobate mind I am compelled to witness to them and plead with them to be reconciled to God as long as they have breath.

*But the doctrine of reprobation:

1. Gives warning to the unsaved to not toy with God over their soul and

2. Gives comfort to the Christian that God is keeping good accounts and will reward the saved and judge the lost in His time.

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[1] I am not prophesying that the end will come if this election doesn’t go well, only that our country is in a poor place right now and the candidates for president don’t appear to be the sort that can pull us out of a crisis.