Perilous Times

Perilous Times 2022 01 02 and 09

2 Timothy 3:1 – 9

 

If you watch news from any source, you will conclude that the world is in a TERRIBLE mess!  Regardless of how you look at it, our lives have been disrupted by a worldwide pandemic. Rather than becoming more peaceful and safe, the world is becoming more dangerous.  One war winds down in one place and three more start other places.  Young people are doing things that were hard to imagine a generation ago.  The war on drugs is lost, and morality is falling apart.  Evil is now called good and good is called evil.  Even the advertising on so-called family TV is becoming increasingly immoral. We are living in perilous times!

 

2 Timothy 3:1 – 9

 

God said in his word that in the last days, perilous times shall come.  This means that it is absolutely certain that perilous times will come.  Perilous means, “full of grave risk, hazardous, filled with danger.  This certainly describes the times we are now living in.  No longer do most people leave their cars or houses unlocked, even in our best cities.  Children cannot be allowed to roam about the neighborhoods any more without direct adult supervision.  Violence is on the increase, despite years of trying to educate it out of people.  More and more children are growing up without a father. People lie and cheat all the time, considering it a normal part of living.   That there is a worldwide agenda to bring about a new world order is an open secret.   These are perilous times!  Why is it like this?

 

The answer is that sin has caused great corruption in the world, and it continues to get worse.  Corruption only stops when it is cut out and thrown away.  What are the signs of these perilous times?

 

I Perilous Times

  1. The word translated as “perilous” means hard to do, to take, to approach, hard to bear, troublesome, dangerous, fierce, savage.
    1. These times right now are hard to take, troublesome, and even dangerous. They are perilous times, but this is nothing new.
    2. The last days began when the Church Age began. The Church Age is the last days.  It has been difficult, troublesome, and dangerous to be a Christian in many places in the world since the very beginning of the Church Age.
    3. One of the hallmarks of these last days is that it will keep getting worse until Jesus returns to rule and reign on the Earth.
    4. What are the characteristics of these perilous times?

 

II People Only Love Themselves  vv2 – 4

  1. It is for this reason that the statement is true that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
    1. They are covetous – what motivates so many people is the drive to have more and more money for more and more things “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” I Timothy 6:10
    2. They are boasters – they boast about the things they have, but Jesus said, “… thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:” Revelation 3:17
    3. They are proud, showing themselves above others, with an arrogant estimate of themselves, despising others, and even treating them with contempt.
      1. Pride is the greatest of all killers. Pride is what keeps a person from admitting he needs a Saviour.
      2. Pride is what puts most people in hell. It was the great sin of the devil, Lucifer, and it is the great sin of man. Of the devil, God says, “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!  For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:  I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Isaiah 14:12 – 14.
    4. They are blasphemers – everywhere you go, you hear God’s name being used in vain, even by professing Christians! This is an affront against God, forbidden in His law, and horribly foolish.
      1. The name of God is profaned by those who use his name in vain, those who deny his power, and those who make false claims about him.
    5. They are disobedient to parents – it was a problem in Jesus’ day that has worsened through the millennia! It’s not just children who are disobedient to their parents, but adults who show disrespect to their aging parents by pushing them aside as mere nuisances they are responsible for until they die, rather than being thankful for them and for the wisdom they have gained in life!
    6. They are unthankful – this is such a powerful sign of people who only love themselves – they believe that everything and everybody is for their pleasure and owed to them.
    7. They are unholy – rather than avoiding the things that displease God, they wallow in the things that displease God, reveling in things that are new and exciting, no matter how disgusting.
      1. There is a tremendous focus on extremes these days, including extreme personal risk, extreme sports, and extreme perversion, which itself is inextricably linked to the highly accessible world of pornography and drugs.
    8. They are without natural affection – this speaks specifically of the natural love of parents for their children.
      1. While it is easy to see throughout history how many pagan people sacrificed their children or destroyed those deemed unfit or weak, our so-called civilized western world kills children by the millions, calling it “a woman’s right to choose.” (More than 60 MILLION in the North America).
      2. Children are seen as things to have, possessions like fancy houses, cars, and boats, rather than as children to love and nurture.
    9. They are trucebreakers – their word is no good and they can’t be trusted to honour agreements.
      1. It used to be that a handshake was sufficient to settle a matter; now documents written by teams of lawyers, signed, sealed and witnessed, even between political leaders, parties and countries are often and casually broken and battled out in the courts or even worse, on the battlefield, itself.
    10. They are false accusers, or slanderers – people not only gossip, but even casually make up things about others to cause them harm, influence others, and make themselves look better. This has reached a fever pitch among our political leaders and mass media!
    11. They are incontinent – without self-control or spiritual strength, unable to say no to their passions and lusts.
    12. They are fierce, or harsh and cruel. They don’t care about other people and have no problem harming others to get what they want.
    13. They are despisers of those that are good – they hate and oppose those that do good in love and obedience to Christ. They do all they can to harm them.
      1. There is nowhere this is more obvious than the battle of sexual deviance against Christianity and the effort to force Christians to fully accept their lifestyle and give it hearty approval.
      2. Even mainstream “Christianity” so-called is now siding against true Christians in this.
  • There is pressure from apostate “Christians” and political leaders to force passages of the Bible to be redefined, dropped altogether, or to have the Bible labeled as hate literature.
  1. The Bible is about to be entrenched in Canadian law as mythology. No longer will certain educators and the like refer to it as mythology – on January 8th when Bill C-4 becomes law, it will clearly define the Bible as mythology as they entrench the notion in Canadian law that Biblically-established sexual norms are a “myth.” What is immensely sad is that so many who identify as Christians go along with this.
  1. They are traitors – untrustworthy, betrayers – they will betray their friends, family and “fellow Christians” for gain
  2. They are heady – reckless – rather than being deliberate and calm, they rush into things without care for consequence
  3. They are highminded – lifted up with pride about themselves. The Greek word so translated is used metaphorically, literally meaning to be wrapped in mist or smoke, and thus proud, puffed up with pride, insolent, blinded by pride or conceit and thereby rendered foolish or stupid.
  4. They are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God – it is astonishing how many people, when you offer them God’s gift of eternal life, will say they don’t need it. End of Part One

           

III  They Have Their Own Religion vv5,6

  1. They have religion, but they don’t have saving faith. The world is filled with religion!
    1. They go through the motions, but don’t really believe in God our Creator.
      1. They believe that if there IS a God, they are good enough the way they are and that the works that they do will make up for any shortcomings.
      2. They believe they are good. But Jesus said, “There is none good by one, that is, God.”Matthew 19:17.
    2. They have religion but they have not put their faith in Jesus Christ.
      1. They have missed out on the fact that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10).
        1. He came to die on the cross for all. His blood was shed to take away the sins of the whole world (1 John 1:2).
        2. Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved. Works, going to church, practicing religion, being good… none of these will help.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life:  no one comes to the Father but by me.” John 14:6. Religion, no matter how sincere, does not save anyone.  “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any many should boast.” Ephesians 2:8, 9
      2. They have their own religion. But in fact, religion is built upon the vanity of man, the idea that a human being can somehow earn his way to heaven.  “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciencefrom dead works to serve the living God?” Hebrews 9:14
        1. All of our works, without Christ are dead works. Our own sin makes a mess of everything, no matter how hard we might try. “But we are all as an unclean [thing], and all our righteousnesses [are] as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6.
          1. Everything we do apart from Christ, no matter how hard we try, is unclean and as valuable as a filthy rag. One of the great errors of mankind is to think we can actually create something of value to give to God.
        2. They have their own religion. Their lives are directed by the flesh instead of the Holy Spirit.
          1. How many times have we heard of TV evangelists who are caught in adultery? Instead of using their position of respect to lead people to Christ, they use it to seduce.
          2. Their religion may LOOK like Christianity to the world, but it is vain, empty, devoid of any value, carnal and worse than nothing – it is leading others farther away from the truth than they were to start with.

 

IV  Their Learning is all Vanity  verse 7

  1. Never has there been such a search for knowledge as there is in these days. Scientists are probing the universe for answers to where we come from and how the universe began, yet deny the very possibility that an almighty, self-existent God created everything.
    1. They are willfully blind to the truth, refusing to accept any evidence of a Creator, instead trying through theoretical math, theoretical physics and evolution to prove that God does not exist. Their reasoning is that God must not exist because if he did, he would reveal himself to us, yet they are blind to the vast amount of evidence of intelligent design all around us and the fact that God HAS revealed himself in what he has made!  Romams 1:18 – 20 says, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;   Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.  For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” 
    2. No one today professes more wisdom than some of the high-profile fools who say that God does not exist. “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”  Psalm 14:1

 

V They Resist the Truth  verse 8

  1. There is a long running war against the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres, by tradition the magicians in Pharaoh’s court who mimicked the miracles of God with their enchantments, stood against what they KNEW were the miraculous works of God, so people today WILLINGLY resist the truth, because they refuse to accept what is staring them in the face.
    1. One of the greatest WILLING denials of the truth, is the blanket acceptance of evolution, not as a theory, but as a fact, comparable to the theory of gravity. There is a HUGE difference between the two.
      1. The theory of gravity is observed all around us, all the time.
      2. Evolution has never been observed, neither can it begin to honestly explain the complexity of everything in this vast universe, yet it is embraced and hammered into impressionable minds because it removes the need to answer to an almighty, infinite, and intelligent Creator God.

 

VI  There IS a Limit  verse 9

  1. Just as God finally answered the deception of Jannes and Jambres, so he has set a limit on those who willingly resist the truth and think they’re getting away with it.
    1. These magicians, through their dark arts and deception, mimicked some of the miraculous things God did in Egypt, though nowhere near to the same degree.
    2. Nevertheless, Pharaoh accepted their deception because his heart was hard, and he did not want to submit to God.
    3. But God limited just how far these deceivers could appear to withstand the truth. “And the magicians did so with their enchantments to bring forth lice, but they could not: so there were lice upon man, and upon beast.” Exodus 8:18. God, by his infinite and sovereign power over creation turned the very dust of the earth to lice, so that they were even on the magicians who could not counterfeit the miracle.
  2. These are perilous times and there are many deceivers in this world who cry long and loud against the one true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Yet just as God set a limit to Jannes and Jambres, and showed by their failure their true foolishness, so those who stand against God, today, will be stopped and revealed.
    1. The only reason we see so much foolishness and violence around us today is because God is very patient with humanity and is waiting until the fullness of time when the last person on earth who will puts his faith in Jesus Christ. “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  2 Peter 3:9
    2. The signs are all around us that fullness of time is drawing very near.

 

Conclusion

These ARE perilous times.   We see the very things that were prophesied in the Bible coming to pass with greater frequency and in more places than ever before.  At no time in history has the very existence of an awesome, almighty Creator God who rules the universe been denied like it is being denied, today.  The signs are everywhere that the hearts of men are becoming harder and harder, and the end is coming closer and closer.  These are the last days of the last days.  They are perilous times, but they also mean that the return of Christ is closer than ever!  This is not a time to be wringing our hands or backing off, but a time to be ready and active in preaching the gospel to every person.  You need not worry; you need to be ready!  If Jesus Christ is your Saviour, then you ARE ready.  Rejoice!  Your redemption draws ever nearer!  If you have NOT trusted Jesus Christ as your Saviour, then you’re not ready, and are in very great peril.  You need to do that, right now.  Don’t put it off.  These are perilous times.  These are the last days.  Make sure you are ready for what lies ahead.  Make sure that Jesus Christ really is your Saviour.  And make sure you’re doing all you can to win souls while there is still time.