Introduction:

The last days are mark by many evil characteristics. There seem to be too many examples of this in modern society to pick out a few examples. There was a time when most people thought letting people live was good and killing them was generally a bad thing. Today, we live in a culture when the simple good of life is now despised and attacked, through abortion, through euthanasia, through the glorifying of violence and murder.
Just last week a deranged man indiscriminately beat a 70-year-old woman in a bald-faced daylight attack in the East Village of NYC. Police said, the disturbed man hit the woman over the head with an unknown object as she stood on East 14th Street near Second Avenue around 10:40 a.m. on Friday. How many horrible and brutal beatings and killings are reported daily?

When people become lovers of their own selves and covetous, there will be a change in the affection of what they love, followed by…

III A Change in Attitude (3:2c-e)

1. In the last days people will become boasters, which means braggarts (3:2c). People in the last days will also be proud (3:2d), which means they put themselves above others and their opinions above the Word of God. This is where we left off.

2. Blasphemy defines the last characteristic of a change in attitude that the Apostle Paul foretells us will be the sign of the latter days. Jesus Christ cannot be mentioned in prayer but it’s ok to blaspheme his name. Blasphemy means to slander people or God. People who have an over inflated view of themselves are always verbally abusive and irreverent. Let’s not join the culture and use our tongues to blaspheme Christ or abusively slander others.

We finished five signs with thirteen more seen in this fourth and final point there will be in the last days…

IV. A Change in Actions (3:2f-5)

1. Change will be seen in the basic institution of society “the home”- for children will become disobedient to parents (3:2f). Some believe that the absence of parents from the home and a generation of “latchkey” children led to rebellious children.
The love of self and money in our generation is doing its greatest damage to our children. Today, money is more important than mothering, and finances are more important than fathering. Parents need to do a better job at being responsible people. Proverbs 30:11-13

A Harvard University study found that 6 of every 10 juvenile delinquents had fathers who drank to excess; many had mothers who did the same; 3 out of 4 lacked parental interest or discipline; and 4 out of 5 had parents who took no interest in their friends or amusements. Many wayward children came from broken homes, and few had religious training of any kind.

2. But even when parents are not perfect God give us this command in Exodus 20:12a Honour thy father and thy mother: One of the 10 commandments! This command was given because God knows the importance of strong families. The Hebrew word translated honor (KABAD, kuh-bod) means to esteem or respect. Remember boys and girls: “Who chose your parents?” This command also implies that parents are to teach their children such respect.

We’d raised a generation of young people who are disobedient to their parents. We also have that in the church. Disobedient children are a danger to the church. Dr. John MacArthur writes, “It’s the sin of a society’s demise- a rebellious generation of children will wipe out the unit of solidarity of our nation “the family”. “If there’s any one sin that I could point to in America that spells the end of our nation as we know it, it is a rebellious generation of children.” The liberal colleges picked up on that and have turn children against their families. Too many young children speak disrespectfully to their parents and grow up with a sense of entitlement. Which leads us to the next changes in actions…

3. In the last days people will also be unthankful (2 Timothy 3:2g), which is the result of pride and arrogance. People think they deserve everything and therefore feel gratitude for nothing. Unthankful people are always miserable, regardless of what they have. Our society is absolutely selfish and it all flows out of the lie that the deepest problem of the human heart is the lack of self‑love therefore we give a premium to self‑love and the result is an ungrateful society…ungrateful people…thankless people. Self-love is ungrateful, it never has enough.

We know that people with meager possessions can be happy if they are thankful for what they have. God wants us to be happy. 1 Thessalonians 5:18. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. To be thankful in everything is the result of focusing on what we have, rather than on what we don’t have. It is to give praise to the creator for all things. Ingratitude to God had led to an immoral wicked society that we live in. Romans 1:18

3. Paul also describes the last days as unholy (2 Timothy 3:2h). This translates a Greek word that literally means “profane” or “gross indecency.” It refers to people who gratify every immoral lust and passion. This is also the blight of homosexually on our society today.
Application:
A 63-year-old married woman wrote to Dear Abby to justify her adultery. She writes: I am having an affair. “We meet once a week at a motel for three hours of heaven. My husband knows nothing about this, and neither does my lover’s wife. However, I am not denying my husband anything. I teach a class at church every week, but for some reason, I feel no guilt.”

4. The last days will be a time when people are without natural affection (3:3a). The word used here for natural affection (STORGE, stor-gay) is the Greek word for love of family. Therefore, without natural affection is a lack of love for one’s own family. Husbands abusing their wives verbally, emotionally, and physically is epidemic in the United States. Forty-two percent of murdered women are killed by a boyfriends or spouses. Many fathers desert their families, and financial support for their children can only be achieved through court intervention. This is another sign of the last days. Crime is epidemic in cities because of this.

5. Trucebreakers (3:3b) translates a word (aas-pon-dos) that means without a treaty or covenant “unrelenting” or “irreconcilable.” It refers to people, who, it doesn’t matter what agreements are made, what vows, what promises, they will disregard them for their own personal desires. You cannot go to them and appeal for harmony. You cannot go to them and appeal for resolution. These are unforgiving people, it must be their way or the highway.

6. Continuing to give signs of the last days, Paul says people will be false accusers (3:3c), which translates the Greek word for “devil” (Diabolos). It means “malicious talkers.” It refers to people who delight in spreading rumors and gossip. Destroying another person’s good name gives them a demented delight. The evil spirit (the devil) leads us to gossip and tear people down. It so much a part of our culture and the media feeds off it. The Bible teaches us in Ephesians 4:29 – Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

7. Incontinent (2 Timothy 3:3d) refers to people who do not have the self-control to restrain their words or actions. It means that they just don’t have any inhibitions. They’re just slaves to passion, unrestrained lust. They are shameless in their conduct. Open sex acts in the city…

8. The word fierce (3:3e) means unfeeling, rude, and crude. It translates a word that pictures a savage wild animal attacking and tearing its victim to pieces. It refers to those who ruthlessly violate others with words or actions. In the vernacular of today we call it “Active Shooter”- the expression that has been applied to murders committed by employees in acts of workplace rage and generally to describe fits of rage. How much of this have we seen in the news…it is alarming.

9. The phrase despisers of those that are good (3:3f) describes those people who in the last days will hate what they should love and love what they should hate. Unbelievable that people would get to the place where they actually hate what is good, where they hate what is righteous, where they attack what is righteous.
God gave us warning about such people in Isaiah 5:20. Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet …

We should love what is good and resist evil, it should not be admired, elevated or praise or to love it. Today people praise the likes of Anton LaVey who authorized the formation of the Church of Satan in April of 1966. Home based in San Francisco. He opened local chapters, or grottoes, across the United States. In the 1970s a number of schisms occurred, including the defection of one of his key lieutenants, Michael Aquino, who founded the rival Temple of Set.
10. People in the last days will also be traitors (2 Timothy 3:4a). This refers to people who will betray the trust of family and friends to make a dollar or get ahead. There will be people everywhere trying to take advantage of others. We see all kinds of new ways people are becoming traitors with the epidemic of deceptive telemarketing, deceptive “get-rich-quick” schemes, etc. The Enroe scandal robbed people of their pensions…
11. The word translated heady (3:4b) means reckless or negligent. It is people who act foolishly without concern for the consequences of their actions. This includes people who do drugs or get involved in immoral sexual behavior.

12. High-minded (3:4c) and blinded by their pride and arrogance. They think they are above the consequences of their actions. In the last days people will be

13. Lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. This means they are controlled by pleasures rather than by God. This is indicative of the nature of the Laodicean Church (I believe we are in that era of time) in the last days recorded in Revelation 3: 16-18.

Paul concludes this list by writing: Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof (3:5a). The phrase form of godliness means they are religious, go to church, and use religious cliches, but it’s all a sham. They know about Christianity but know nothing of Christ’s power to transform lives. They just masquerade as Christians.

When we talk about the power of godliness, we often mean it in the sense of “power to give me what I want.” But this is exactly opposite of what Paul meant here. The power of godliness that men will despise in the last days is the power it should have to guide their lives; power in the sense of rightful authority – and many, many, today deny that God has the power to tell them what to do through His Word.
In regard to such people, Paul writes: From such turn away (2 Timothy 3:5b). This means flee those who claim to be Christians but who deny the transforming power of the Gospel.

Conclusion:

In the last days there will be a change in affection, attitude, and actions. Too many Christians are like the pilot who informed his passengers, “we are lost, but we are making great time.”
We must burn our lamps brighter than ever before to show the lost people of this nation the hope that can only come in Jesus Christ.