Perilous Times Pt 1 Hope Baptist Church Podcast

 Perilous Times Shall Come. 



(2 Tim 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.



“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times“, is the opening line to the famous Charles Dickens book, “A Tale of Two Cities“, and it is curious how well the line fits respecting the biblical history of the world and the description of the last days.



For on the one had we all rejoice as we see the world developing in a manner that so perfectly identifies the nearness of the return of Christ for his Church.



The Word of God is confirmed as TRUE each and every day and our joy in the knowledge that we will not be ashamed of our faith grows each and every day.



We look for that “blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Tit 2:13) and know that all our sorrow and trials is coming to a close with noting but the absolute fulness of joy on our very doorstep. 



I have said it before and know it to be true, ‘there is no problem I have today that the Rapture will not fix’. That someday soon, and IMINENTLY SOON, we who have believed the Gospel to the saving of our souls, shall be “caught up…to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1 Thess 4:7)



All that we see occurring in the world, and as we shall see through this 2024 MAYDAY Series, In the CHURCH, proves to us that the time is very near!



And yet we also despair as we see the suffering and trials of what can only be described as indicators toward “Perilous times“.



But it is when we consider further the lines that come after the first line of Dickens most famous novel that we ought to ponder its message as it seems to align with that “time yet future” the Bible tells us of;



  It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.



The contrasting worlds written of by Dickens was that of London and Paris before and then during the French revolution, where great love together with innocent sacrifice for that Love was demonstrated, and all in the midst of the greatest societal transformation in the history of one city being undertaken.



The world is undergoing just such a societal transformation, not suddenly, but gradually yet with an almost routine suddenness jolts of change.



After the event we call “Covid”, People had begun to question the dramatic changes they were seeing around them, but could not believe.



The “Incredulity” that Dickens identified in his opening paragraph was reflected in this early 21st Century, just as it wa