1---But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2---For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3---unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4---treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5---holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.
6---For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7---always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8---Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9---But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly was also.
The moral depravity and false teaching that will be rampant in the last days, are already at work. The frivolous and superficial, too, devoid of the true spirit of religion will be easy victims of those who pervert them by falsifying the truth.
Even in gospel times there would be perilous times; on account of persecution from without, still more on account of corruptions within. Men love to gratify their own lusts, more than to please God and do their duty.
When every man is eager for what he can get, and anxious to keep what he has, this makes men dangerous to one another. When men do not fear God, they will not regard man. When children are disobedient to their parents, that makes the times perilous.
Men are unholy and without the fear of God, because they are unthankful for the mercies of God. We abuse God's gifts, if we make them the food and fuel of our lusts. Times are perilous also, when parents are without natural affection to children. And when men have no rule over their own spirits, but despise that which is good and to be honoured.
God is to be loved above all; but a carnal mind, full of enmity against him, prefers any thing before him, especially carnal pleasure. A form of godliness is very different from the power; from such as are found to be hypocrites, real Christians must withdraw. Such persons have been found within the outward church, in every place, and at all times.
There ever have been artful men, who, by pretenses and flatteries, creep into the favour and confidence of those who are too easy of belief, ignorant, and fanciful.
All must be ever learning to know the Lord; but these follow every new notion, yet never seek the truth as it is in Jesus. Like the Egyptian magicians, these were men of corrupt minds, prejudiced against the truth, and found to be quite without faith. Yet though the spirit of error may be let loose for a time, Satan can deceive the nations and the churches no further, and no longer, than God will permit.
11---For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
12---instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age,
13---looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus,
14---who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
15---These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
The doctrine of grace and salvation by the gospel, is for all ranks and conditions of men. It teaches to forsake sin; to have no more to do with it.
An earthly, sensual conversation suits not a heavenly calling. It teaches to make conscience of that which is good. We must look to God in Christ, as the object of our hope and worship. A gospel conversation must be a godly conversation. See our duty in a very few words; denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, living soberly, righteously, and godly, notwithstanding all snares, temptations, corrupt examples, ill usage, and what remains of sin in the believer's heart, with all their hinderances.
It teaches us to look for the glories of another world. At, and in, the glorious appearing of Christ, the blessed hope of Christians will be complete: To bring us to holiness and happiness was the end of Christ's death. Jesus Christ, that great God and our Saviour, who saves not only as God, much less as Man alone; but as God-man, two natures in one person. He loved us, and gave himself for us; and what can we do less than love and give up ourselves to him!
Redemption from sin and sanctification of the nature go together, and make a peculiar people unto God, free from guilt and condemnation, and purified by the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is profitable. Here is what will furnish for all parts of duty, and the right discharge of them. Let us inquire whether our whole dependence is placed upon that grace which saves the lost, pardons the guilty, and sanctifies the unclean. And the further we are removed from boasting of fancied good works, or trusting in them, so that we glory in Christ alone, the more zealous shall we be to abound in real good works.
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