For Men Shall Be…

Last week we introduced the current Mayday Series titled “Perilous Times” and showed with absolute certainty that the passage of 2 Timothy 3 is referring to the state of the CHURCH in the last days.

We showed how todays “Fairweather Christians”, whose desire is to ONLY hear things palatable to their tender ears, are precipitating those days.

We did not go into all the evident madness of Charismatic Chaos, and how that moved so quickly to the spiritual insanity of Pentecostal Pandemonium. We did not speak of the state of contemporary churches that have abandoned the word of God and chosen to entertain the goats rather than feed the sheep, nor did we speak of the social gospel of the Emergent Church that naturally develops when the Bibles is cast behind their backs

We did not talk about Roman Catholicism, the Eastern orthodox Churches, The Reformed Churches, and nothing about about the shift to the ecumenical religious system that will usher in the Global Religion of the last days;

NO, we spoke about how Christians, even in Fundamentalist Baptist Churches, are helping to precipitate the very PERILOUS TIMES Paul warned of to Timothy, because THEY WILL NOT READ THEIR BIBLES nor spend time with the Lord in Prayer;

My charge against the brethren of the Lord, yes those who are wonderfully saved by the blood of Christ, true and genuine Christians, was that, “IF YOU ARE NOT READING YOUR BIBLES, NOR SPENDING TIME EACH DAY IN PRAYER, you are adding to a facilitating the perilous times to come”

TWO of the Seven Churches ‘TYPES’ identified in Revelation 2-3 remain before the Lords coming, one is Philadelphia, the other Laodicea  Which will you be a part of?

We will take a look at those Churches next time.

“This KNOW also….” Was the title of the Sermon

We demonstrated JUST A TASTE of the warnings found in 26 of the 27 books of the New Testament encouraging us to KNOW a description of the state and nature of the people who will represent the bulk of the Churches in the last of the Last Days.

And we beloved, have witnessed just a taste of it in our own congregation ten weeks ago!

Last time we introduced the Perilous Times as that which we ought to KNOW identifies the soon coming of Christ for his church, “THIS KNOW ALSO…” wrote the apostle to Timothy…

Today we will consider the sampling Paul gives of the character of the MEN who shall fill the churches of the Last Days.

The Title of the Sermon therefore is simply;

“FOR MEN SHALL BE…“

Lets take a quick look again at the passage, as you read I desire that you may gain for yourself the ability to IDENTIFY such people when they present themselves.

2 Timothy 3:1–9

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

Pray

Lovers Of Their Own Selves

2 Timothy 3:1–2

1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 

The specific phrase “The Last Days” appears no less and no more than 7 times in the scriptures. The first who desired to speak of that which will befall his people in “The Last Days” was Jacob as he addressed his sons before he died in Genesis 49 speaking of the events respecting Israel in those days;

Genesis 49:1

1 And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

There has always been a time in history that would culminate with the END OF HISTORY, a time of the end, a time of The Last Days.

Isiah wrote of it in Isaiah 2 describing the house of the Lord during the Millennium, Micahwrote of the same time in the fourth chapter; three occurrences of the phrase in the Old Testament, but four in the New. 

The first was spoken by Peter as he described that which was written of by Joel in his 2ndchapter (Joel 2:28) respecting that which will occur AFTER the coming of Messiah, then Paul in the passage before as he describes the state of the Church as it nears the end. 

James testifies AGAINST the people IN HIS CHURCH as they have their focus on the accumulation of wealth in PREPARATION for the last days;

Turn there;

James 5:1–3

1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3 Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Then lastly we have Peters epistle as he too warns of corrupt men in the Church who come to deny the Lord is returning anytime soon;

2 Peter 3:3–4

3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Now, here in this passage in 2 Timothy 3, the first description that we have of the character of men in the last days is that they “shall be lovers of their own selves“;

The balance of the passage gives the natural consequence of such self-affection and aggrandisement, consider it in the scope of SELF LOVE and ask if such characteristics follow in the nature of those who “esteem others better than themselves” (Phil 2:3)

2 Timothy 3:2–4

2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

This kind of SELF-LOVE seems distinct from the assumed self love that is to “love thy neighbour AS thyself” (Mt 19:19)

What we might consider of the “self-love” of 2 Timothy 3:2 is an EXCLUSIVE self love, a love of SELF that is to the EXCLUSION of everyone else. If it were not distinct from that self love assumed by Christ, it would not be written of here as for a time yet future;

“This know also, for in the last days perilous times shall come, for men SHALL BE lovers of their own selves…“

How does such EXCLUSIVE self love develop?

In their seminal book The Coddling of The American Mind, authors Greg Lukianoff and Johnathan Haidt; One, a Constitutional Lawyer, and the other an American Physiologist, discovered that the level of protection, or rather, “wrapping children in cotton wool“, so evident both in many parenting techniques today and almost every school in the western world, is creating a generation of adults so weak in their ability to handle adversity, that they strike back against any person who does not think of them as high as they like to think of themselves.

““By the standards of our great-grandparents, nearly all of us are coddled. Each generation tends to see the one after it as weak, whiny, and lacking in resilience. Those older generations may have a point….”

In 2013 the Time Magazine had as its cover page an image of an older teenager laying on her front holding her iPhone far enough from her face to take Self Image. Suddenly a new word entered the English Language, the Selfie (Interestingly, An Australian slang word that won the International Word of the Year in 2013 by Oxford Dictionaries)^[1] . 

The Title of the 2013 Time Magazine was simply, 

“The ME ME ME Generation” Subtitled “Millennials are lazy, entitled narcissists who still live with their parents“

In the article the Author Joel Stein wrote;

“Here’s the cold, hard data: The incidence of narcissistic personality disorder is nearly three times as high for people in their 20s as for the generation that’s now 65 or older, according to the National Institutes of Health”

He goes on to say;

“Millennials got so many participation trophies growing up that a recent study showed that 40% believe they should be promoted every two years, regardless of performance. 

They are fame-obsessed: three times as many middle school girls want to grow up to be a personal assistant to a famous person as want to be a Senator, according to a 2007 survey; four times as many would pick the assistant job over CEO of a major corporation. 

They’re so convinced of their own greatness that the National Study of Youth and Religion found the guiding morality of 60% of millennials in any situation is that they’ll just be able to ‘feel’ what’s right.”^[2]

You will note that this article is ten years old, those 20 something Millennials are in their mid thirties today, and if they have grown up believing that “feeling hurt” equates to “being hurt“. They will also become individuals who will justify ANYTHING that might come close to proving their feelings justified.

When the best JUDGEMENT that an individual can employ to JUDGE something is their emotional response, no relationship will EVER survive in the long term.

The entirety of the description given in 2 Timothy 3:2, is perfectly represented by a generation of young people, now up to their mid thirties, who need “trigger warnings” so they can move to a “safe Space” and here nice things about themselves. That is TODAYS GENERATION OF Millennials and upcoming final generation (Sorry, referring to GEN Z).

In his book “Antifragile”, Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb, a Lebanese born Statistitian, stock trader and Polymath and current professor of Risk Engineering at New York University, wrote of how we are weakening a generation of people by not permitting the trials that strengthen them to endure. He says;

“Just as spending a month in bed . . . leads to muscle atrophy, complex systems are weakened, even killed, when deprived of stressors. Much of our modern, structured, world has been harming us with top-down policies and contraptions . . . which do precisely this: an insult to the antifragility of systems. This is the tragedy of modernity: as with neurotically overprotective parents, those trying to help are often hurting us the most.”^[3]

In an educational opening statement to his book he writes; 

“Wind will extinguish a candle, but energises a fire” his advice is that we do not turn our children into candles, but QUOTE “You want to be the fire and wish for the wind”^[4]

What Taleb has discovered is that hard trials generally make for more resilient ADULTS, but soft touch coddling of feelings almost ALWAYS leads to neurotic, narcissistic people. 

Our passage in 2 Tim 3 demonstrates that this is going to be the general state of the modern Church in the last days, and it is not too difficult to see it as true. 

The modern contemporary “feel good church” is bursting at the seams with meaningless emotional drivel designed to first Please the Crowd and then with their music, dull their senses into altered states of consciousness so they can leave the Church in the same sinful state, but feel better about it.

2 Timothy 4:3–4

3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

Beloved, relationship are NEVER proved during the good times. It is not difficult to love those who love you, it is never difficult to have a relationship with someone who agrees with everything you say and do, as long as this is all that is expected in a relationship, be sure you leave your candle in a breathless room.

Relationships are PROVED THROUGH TRIALS AND DISAGREEMENTS. If they endure this, they will certainly grow in greater agreement, the wind has blown but they have chosen to persist AND THE FIRE OF their love toward another gets stronger.

Those described in 2 Tim 3, “men lovers of their own selves” etc, are made evident by their willingness to “Endure Sound Doctrine”. The unwillingness to do so will see them come up with all manner of excuse to leave the church. 

Watch for them, this is a Sign of the Times, for.

2 Timothy 3:13

13 …evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.

NOTICE however how the verse we have under consideration frames itself,

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

Each phrase sets itself up for the next in a natural sequence and consequance. Those who Love Themselves, is inferred to the exclusion of all others, for we all naturally love ourselves, there is therefore a distinction in this passage.

We naturally become “Covetous”, we lust for that which we think will give to us that which we ought to gain from our relationship to Christ. In January I preached a Sermon titled “A Bag With Holes”, in that sermon is stated that the covetous relationship that many Christians have with Money testifies that money is the final frontier of Christian idolatry, our love of it displaces our love for God, for in it we believe to receive all the comforts, security, happiness and opportunities that would otherwise come from God. 

Boastfulness and Pride are co dependant both to each other and to the one that loves himself. God help you if you ever say anything to such a person that diminishes what he/she thinks of themselves. 

The SELF ESTEEM movement has destroyed proper self enquiry. Reciving a participation award just for showing up and created a plethora of self entitled people whose love for themselves has outweighed the Gospel.

Blasphemers: The word is pertinent of the individual who loves himself MORE, as is seen in the next verse.

Disobedient to parents: naturally, if you love yourself to the exclusion of all others, you will have NO regard for the advice or direction of parents.

Unthankfulness is the most hurtful of all that is above. What do you do when you have shown abundance of love and gone out of your way time and again, you have cared and prayed, stayed up late at night ministering to a brother or sister, gotten up in early mornings and spent regular time. What of parents who have so wonderfully provided for their Children and find themselves SHOVED aside, placed into nursing homes and rarely ever visited?

How do you deal with unthankfulness? How does the LORD?

What can we do with ingratitude beloved? You cant discipline it. What can you do? 

You will do as the Lord does, Feel Pain!

UNHOLY: is the culmination of Self Love, it is the assessment of oneself according to personal perception and not according to rule. The UNHOLY man has no governing principal in life other than what he wants to attend to for himself. There is no rule and no law; “Do as thou wilt shall be the whole of the law“…now where did I get that quote from?

 “Peple with the condition might seem charming and charismatic at first, at least on the surface, but they generally find it difficult to understand other people’s feelings. They often:

• break rules or laws
  • behave aggressively or impulsively
  • feel little guilt for harm they cause others
  • use manipulation, deceit, and controlling behavior”^[5]

Without Natural Affection

2 Timothy 3:3-4

3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 

“For men shall be…Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers etc” 

We notice that a change has occurred respecting natural tendency. The passage is descriptive of a nature within them that is antithetical to what they ought to be.

There is no change in clause between verses 2 and 3, so what we have is a continuation of the description of those Timothy is to know about concerning the nature of people in the CHURCH in the last days.

They role on perfectly naturally from FIRST becoming “Lovers of their own selves” 

“For men shall be…3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 

While we are so naturally seeing such a rise of the population of both the world and the Church of people being exclusively “Lovers of their own selves”, we are also seeing a dramatic rise in a personally disorder known technically as “Antisocial Personality Disorder”, or more popularly known as Sociopathy.

The Bible refers to these people simply as “without natural affection” and then goes on to show the result, .

Winston Smith, in his Substack article titled “Origins of Sociopathy“, subtitled ‘The Etiology of Guiltlessness’ describes the nature of the Sociopath as distinctly “Without Natural Affection“;^[6]

He writes of them saying;

“There seems to be a general inability to process emotional experiences in the way most people would….

The sociopath may marry and have children but is unable to truly love them. They can appear to display the right emotions but it is contrived and doesn’t come from the heart, but is a practiced skill, like a second language, never native.

The author does on to state the difference between the perfect “self love” of the Narcissit and the Sociopath, stating;

A narcissist may feel the pain of being alone, without relationship because of his narcissism, and will want relationship but is completely ill equipped to maintain a relationship. The sociopath simply does not care about anyone or any relationship in this way. People are only useful as far as they are a utility.

According to Healthline, the Characteristic of those the Bible refers to as “without natural affection“, but the world refers to as “Antisocial Personality Disorder” AKA Sociopathy;

“People with the condition might seem charming and charismatic at first, at least on the surface, but they generally find it difficult to understand other people’s feelings. They often:

     •   break rules or laws

     •   behave aggressively or impulsively

     •   feel little guilt for harm they cause others

     •   use manipulation, deceit, and controlling behavior”

• little to no guilt or remorse, or a tendency to justify actions that negatively affect others
• seem charming at first until their self-interest becomes clear
• low empathy and emotional intelligence
• difficulty learning from mistakes
• lack of concern for the safety of others
• a tendency to intimidate and threaten in order to maintain control^[7]

Now this is important as to how such conditions arise.

In her book titled, “The Sociopath Next Door” subtitled “The Ruthless versus the Rest of Us“, Dr Martha Stout writes of the development of this condition evidently concentrated in the state run Orphanages of Communist Romania, under the psychopathic ruler Nicolae Ceausescu.

In the 1990’s it was discovered that these Romanian Children were kept in terrible state-run institutions with 1 staff member per 40 children, staff were instructed to ensure they had MINIMAL Contact with the children and provided the children only just enough food to live on.

Once these institutions were exposed, compassionate Westerners began to adopt these Romanian orphans and discovered it was a difficult journey;

She wrote;

“…a couple in Paris would discover that their beautiful ten-month-old Romanian daughter was inconsolable, and only screamed louder when they tried to hold her. Or a couple in Vancouver would walk into their three-year-old son’s bedroom, to find that he had just hurled the new kitten out the window. Or parents in Texas would finally have to admit to themselves that they could not keep their adoptive five-year-old son from spending his days staring into a corner, and that he sometimes viciously attacked their other children in the middle of the night as they slept. Western Europe and North America had imported an attachment disorder nightmare created by a sadistic Romanian sociopath who was no longer even alive. Having been completely deprived of attachment in infancy, many of these rescued children were loveless.”^[8] (Stout, 2021, p. 132)

It is interesting that there is a massive rise in Sociopathy in the west, a study as early as 1991 found the disorder doubled from the previous 15 years in the WEST;

Dr Stout cites;

“North American culture, which holds individualism as a central value, tends to foster the development of antisocial behavior, and also to disguise it. In other words, in America, the guiltless manipulation of other people “blends” with social expectations to a much greater degree than it would in China or other more group-oriented societies.” (Stout, 2021, p. 136-137)

Its difficult to imagine how the exponential rise in Childcare Centres in the western world WONT LEAD to an entire generation of Sociopaths both now and in the future. Children from 6 months old are dropped off to be “cared for” by others. Sadly, the instruction given in many of these centres are to ensure there is a limit on personal affection toward these little ones, and especially to ensure it is not from any one particular carer. 

Let me put this together;

We should expect to see an ongoing rise of people “without natural affection” as Children are deprived from the love and affection that should come from their distracted parents.

With the dramatic rise of divorce through the satanic attack on the family, and the rise of parents placing their children in Childcare early in the morning while they ‘go to work’ and not collecting them until they are ready for bed in the late evening, there is NO DOUBT Sociopathy is going to be huge in the last of the last days.

An interesting note Dr Stout wrote of  respecting the value of the emotionless, unempathetic sociopath might have as a soldier or even a law enforcer who does not question the morality of their instructions;

“because they experience no horror while killing (or while ordering killing) and no guilt after the deed is done.” P 139^[9]

The extreme end of this state of being, this time to come when they shall be “without natural affection” was given to us by Jesus when he spoke to his disciples concerning the time to come;

Matthew 10:21

²¹ And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. 

A Form of Godliness

2 Tim 3:5-8

5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. 6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. 

Psalm 5:9

⁹ For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue. 

Isaiah 29:13

¹³ Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: 

Ezekiel 33:31

³¹ And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, buttheir heart goeth after their covetousness. 

Matthew 7:15–20

¹⁵ Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ¹⁶ Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? ¹⁷ Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. ¹⁸ A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. ¹⁹ Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. ²⁰ Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. 

They Shall Proceed No Further

2 Timothy 3:9

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

Just as Jannes and Jambres had limitation placed on their sin, so too shall all men of “corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith” not proceed any further than that which God permits.

Absalom rebelled against his father David, he first stole the hearts of the people his father was anointed to govern, deceived many of the leaders of his father to follow him and anoint him king, while he planned the overthrow of his father. Only to end with himself caught high in a tree and struck down.

In the book of Esther we see Haman build a gallows to have Mordecai hung on after he deceived the King into signing a godless order to destroy ALL THE PEOPLE of Mordecai, simply for his hatred of him. In the end it was Haman himself who was hung on the gallows he built for Mordecai.

IN the book of Daniel we find those who falsely accuse Daniel of error cast into the den of lions whose mouths testified who was innocent and who it is that were guilty.

The Bible teaches often of how the wicked dig a pit for others but they themselves fall into.

Proverbs 26:27

27 Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

Proverbs 28:10

10 Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit: but the upright shall have good things in possession.

King David wrote;

Psalm 57:6

6 They have prepared a net for my steps; my soul is bowed down: they have digged a pit before me, into the midst whereof they are fallen themselves. Selah.

Beloved; The perilous times Paul warned Timothy of is a testimony of the proximity of the Lords return for his Church.

As you see these things come to pass, and as you witness so many cought up in such sin today, look up and know that the Blessed appearing of our Lord and saviour is near.

Be ENCOURAGED, do not hold more tightly to people than you do to the Lord. Seek to PLEASE HIM and you will be blessed even though you may be persecuted.

Jesus said

Luke 6:26

26 Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets.

John 15:18–20

18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. 20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

{$NOTE_LABEL}. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/19/selfie-australian-slang-term-named-international-word-of-the-year

{$NOTE_LABEL}. https://time.com/247/millennials-the-me-me-me-generation/

[3]. “Antifragile” Nassim Taleb, P 5

[4]. “Antifragile” Nassim Taleb, P 3

[5]. “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM-5-TR),

{$NOTE_LABEL}. https://escapingmasspsychosis.substack.com/p/origins-of-sociopathy#footnote-anchor-7-50646953

{$NOTE_LABEL}. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/sociopath#signs

[8]. Stout, M. (2021). The sociopath next door: The ruthless versus the rest of us. P 132

John Murray Press

[9]. Stout, M. (2021). The sociopath next door: The ruthless versus the rest of us. P 139