Times of Difficulty Have Come

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.” (2 Timothy 3:1-9 ESV)

Now, since all of us were born into sin, with sin natures, in the image of Adam, not one of us is without sin. All have sinned, and all have come up short in our sinful natures of attaining God’s divine approval and his righteousness. In our flesh natures, not one of us is righteous, no not one. All of us like sheep have gone astray. And not one of us is capable of saving our own selves from our sins or from the punishment of sin, nor can any of us do anything in our flesh to be acceptable to God and to have eternal life.

[Rom 3:9-26; Rom 5:12-19; 1 Co 15:21-22,42-49; Eph 2:8-10]

So sin has always existed ever since the first man Adam sinned against God. So, to a certain extent, all the sins listed in this passage of Scripture have always existed in human beings. But the closer that we get to the return of Jesus Christ the more we are seeing an increase in these sins to where what is described here is more the norm than is godly and holy living by the grace of God, in the power of God. I believe we are seeing so much more of what is described here in our society, as a whole, here in America where I live.

I was born into this world the last day of and in the last 6 hours of 1949, so I have seen a lot in my lifetime of 74 years. And I have observed how much things have changed from generation to generation, especially with the introduction of television, and then home computers and the internet, and then cellphones and smartphones. As the years went by, more and more of the world crept into the lives of the people of God via TV and movies and the internet and eventually smartphones. And a moral decline took place.

Further and further people moved away from God and were drawn into the trappings of the world. And then the church at large (not all congregations) made the choice to incorporate their gatherings as businesses under the state, and they began following after human-based marketing schemes and goals and tricks in order to “draw in large crowds of people from the world” into their gatherings. And then the gospel message began to be altered to make it more acceptable and less offensive to the people of the world.

So now that the church at large (not all congregations) had lost its saltiness and had hidden its light under a bushel, because it was busy entertaining the people of the world and making “church” more comfortable for the people of the world, and so it was becoming more like the world to attract the world to its gatherings, that is when the things listed in this passage of Scripture really began to increase and become predominant in nature. For the church was now too much like the world and not much like the body of Christ.

And so we see in our culture a massive decline in morality and in godly living, and we hear preachers giving “believers” in Christ free license to continue living in deliberate and habitual sin against the Lord under the auspices of God’s grace. And so many professers of faith in Jesus Christ feel at liberty to keep on in their sinful practices without feeling guilty, because they are being given a free pass to keep sinning without consequence and without punishment, but with a false promise of heaven for eternity.

So, yes, in our culture today, even within the gatherings of “the church”, we are seeing much in the way of people being lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. And so many are addicted to sexual immorality, too.

And many “church” congregations have men in positions of “pastor” who are like these men who were talked about in this passage who creep into households and capture weak women (and men), burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. For these men oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. For they are “wolves in sheep’s clothing” masquerading themselves as “servants of righteousness.”

But one day God is going to judge this “Laodicean” church here in America, and perhaps in other nations, too, but I believe for the purpose to bring so many of them back into right relationship with the Lord in pure fellowship with him, now walking in obedience to his commands in holy living. And in this way he will make his bride ready for his return and ready to be with the Lord for eternity. For the way the church is now, biblically speaking, not many are headed to heaven, but they are still on their way to hell, for sin is still their practice, and not righteousness, and not obedience to God/Christ.

[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Peter 1:15; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]

My Heart’s Desire  

An Original Work / June 29, 2013

Based off Romans 10:1-21; Luke 9:23-26; Ephesians 4:17-24

Loved Ones, Oh, my heart’s desire

Is that you might come to Jesus.

Many appear zealous for God,

But they do not trust in Him.

They have not submitted to the One

Who saved them from their sins;

Not forsaken their sins,

Nor have they obeyed their King.

The word of the Lord is near you:

The word of faith we’re proclaiming:

That you must confess your faith

In Jesus as your Lord and King:

Believe in Him as your Lord, 

And follow Him where’er He leads.

Share the gospel; be a witness,

And meet others’ needs.

Beautiful are the feet of those

Who bring the good news of Jesus:

Anyone who would come to Him

Must deny himself today;

Die to sin and self, and

Let the Spirit transform you in heart;

Put on your new self in Jesus,

Yielding to the cross. 

https://vimeo.com/115643303