The Unsaved in the last days
Introduction: As I said last week in Sunday School you don’t have to look far to find the moral rot that is infesting our culture today. It’s so bad that felons feel like saints, they look around and see society is making them feel normal every day. But what I want to do this morning is point out what the Bible says about where we are headed if we do not repent. If there was ever a parallel in the Bible for America it is Rome. The difference of course is that America was founded on Christianity. European Christians fled religious persecution and founded this nation and dedicated the land to God. Rome never did that but where we are at now and where they were at in their end are exactly alike. If you knew nothing about the Bible nor anything about Rome and read the first chapter of Romans, you would swear you are reading a description of America today.
“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;” Romans 1:28
If God gave Rome over to a reprobate mind for immorality why wouldn’t he do the same today for those who are doing the same thing? This is a warning to all the wicked ones who are ruining our culture and by that ruining our country with their immorality.
Transition: I want to describe unbelievers in the last days in three ways this morning.
I. They hate God and they hate good
Notice first of all how the first part of this verse says “even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge..”
“They did not LIKE” - it doesn’t say ‘they didn’t know him’ - they Do!!!! There are many whose convictions tell them there is a God but they fight against those convictions daily in order to do the evil things they know they shouldn’t. They know there is a God but they wish they didn’t!!! After all, they are called God haters and you have to believe in God before you can hate him. (“God-haters” Romans 1:30). We know that Everyone is given a measure of faith. But instead of submitting to the one they have a measure of faith in they repress and suppress their faith in God thus “they did not like to retain God in their knowledge”. They don’t realize the tremendous blessing they have in God!! Divine protection, divine healing, divine provision, divine blessing. Hosea 4:6 says “my people perish for a lack of knowledge.”
Ill. Charles Haddon Sprugeon tells the story so beautifully of the time he visited a old woman’s house. She was once a servant in the house of a very rich man. He had passed away, and as a gift gave her a piece of paper. The old woman could not read, but thought the design was so pretty that she framed it. When he visited the old woman he looked at the framed piece of paper, it was a cheque. The old woman never knew that she would never have to ask for another penny off anyone, or that her grandchildren would never go hunger again. But she was robbed because of a lack of knowledge.
So sad to think of all the good things, that they’re missing, that God gives us richly to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17)
One thing we notice with the last day unbelievers is that they are never happy.
Not only do they hate God but they hate anything that is good (“not lovers of the good” -2 Timothy 3:3). Remember the 3 things God is: He Holy. He is Love. And God is good! In the last days the earth will be filled with those who hate what is good! Why do they hate what s good? I believe for the same reason a thief hates the policeman or the cockroach hates the light. Those who practice evil, hate those who practice good. Why do God-haters hate what is good? Because they hate the one behind all that is good in this world - who is God! The devil hates Me, and that’s ok, the feeling is mutual. I hate the evil that’s flooding this world, because I know the one who is behind it. So they hate the hood because they know who is behind it. We hate evil because we know who is behind it. They hate the God in me! I hate the devil in them!
What’s interesting is what Jesus said to the church in Ephesus “but you have this to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I too hate.” Revelation 2:6
Jesus never said he hated the Nicolaitans but he did say he hated their works. There were things Jesus had against this church but one thing they had in their favor is they hated the practices of the Nicolaitans which Jesus also hated. if you read Revelation 2:14 & 15 those works seem to be the same as the teaching of Balaam which taught idolatry and sexual immorality. There are a few who may not have anything spiritual going for them, they don’t pray like they should, they don’t go to church like they should, they don’t read or study like they should but at the very least they have enough common sense left that they hate the sexual perversion being hoisted upon them by our culture. What’s worse is that is being taught and accepted in many of the “modern churches”
[SHOW CHURCH MAILER] talk about cults 🤔
So just as evil hates what is good, we should hate what is evil because it is a blatant attempt to deceive those who we are trying to get saved! I believe some don’t realize where their hatred is coming from and why it is directed where it is. Satan has followers who don’t yet realize who their master is. Many millennials are being stirred up by celebrities, universities, and certain communities to believe a lie.
Survey by Breitbart says that 43% of millennials don’t know, care, or believe God exists.
One thing the unrepentant share in these last days is they hate what is good. We see a great effort underway to tear down every good institution there is. Education, Police, Military, The family, and even the church.
And they will continue to try to demoralize you by tearing down these institutions but “greater is he who is in me than he who is in the world.” And although the gates of hell are flung wide open, those demonic schemes & lies will not prevail against the church! God will always have a remnant!
Transition: Let’s turn our attention further to the second part of Romans 1:28 “. . . . God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things which are not convenient.” We know last day unbelievers are God haters and good haters. The second thing we know about last day unbelievers is they are selfish
II. They are selfish
There is no greater judgment than to be turned over to our own lusts. C. S. Lewis either intentionally or inadvertently describes perfectly what it means to be given over to a reprobate mind. He said “The Lost enjoy forever the horrible freedom they have demanded.” It isn’t as if God changes their mind to do things that are evil - it is that after a very long time of trying to change their mind to save them from evil, they blaspheme the Holy Spirit by constantly rejecting his urging, he finally lets them have the sin they demanded, and yet these poor fools will blame Jesus, instead of the devil for their destruction. They refused grace in order to have the liberty to practice what is described in Romans 1:29 “They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,” -Romans 1:29
“But understand this, that yin the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self. . . .” 2 Timothy 3:1,2
Selfishness is what makes the times terrible. Yes, they feel Love - the problem however, is they only feel love for themselves. That kind of love is dangerous because it keeps you from caring, helping, giving to, & loving others. Because they loved themselves they were filled with evil ....
ILL: The Dead Sea is correctly named because nothing lives in it. Because it is so salty that even salt life can’t live in it. It is said that the reason why is because there are many waters that flow into it but nothing or very little flows out of it. self love is like the Dead Sea, It keeps taking in but never giving out and as a result nothing else can live inside of it.
You’ve crowded your heart with so much of yourself that Christ can’t live there. Like the seed planted among the thorns - the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things choked it out so that it couldn’t live. (Mark 4:19)
Be careful not to fill your heart with self. You’ll end up miserable.
I’m not saying you should hate yourself but for your own sake - do not love yourself to death. Without compromising your biblical principles you must Be considerate of other people and their needs. Most importantly their need of a savior!
Transition: Finally let’s see the most despicable attribute in the last day unbelievers is that they are not only God haters and selfish but these things cause them to invent ways of doing evil.
III. They invent ways of doing evil
“backbiters, haters of God, spiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,”. Romans 1:30
Pedophilia
Transgenders
Homosexuality
They invent ways of doing evil.
[show picture from article]
There was an article in People magazine recently of a pastor who decided he wants to be a woman. But notice the title “Cast out by the Church ‘She’ helped build”
THEY INVENT WAYS OF DOING EVIL!!!!
Notice how the article tries to get sympathy from the reader by portraying the church as mean, insensitive, and bigoted. If the church casted out a pastor who is dressing like a woman, because He thinks he is a woman they did the church, that man, and the world a favor!! They did what was right!!!! And sadly people don’t know right from wrong anymore because they lack knowledge and they lack knowledge because we are too worried that the truth might offend someone! Guess what it will! It offends the devil! But it sets those who are bound under him free!
As you see in this church [show mailer] that wants to go along to get along. I’ve got news for you. Your efforts to appease this world is only helping the enemy. You are doing exactly what he is hoping you would do. Churchill said “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile hoping it will eat him last.” If you are making peace with your enemy on his terms you are losing!!! it proves you have no faith in the one who will throw his worthless hide 70 leagues deep in a lake of fire some day!!
These last day unbelievers don’t ever think of whether or not something should be done they just let their wicked imaginations drive them to attempt whatever evil they can conjure up
We see it today when these demon possessed people try to teach our children lies and not only to accept but to practice horrible perversions.
I don’t know how many of you saw the terrible video that was being played to first graders in NYC but it shows you how degenerate our society is and how far they’re willing to push this stuff on us. Romans 1:30 couldn’t be more true: and if you dare to call them out on it they will say it is not them, but you who are evil for trying to stop them. God must do a miracle in these people or a lake of eternal fire is in their near future.
Yet even in spite of their terrible choices, in spite of their open rebellion, in spite of their blasphemy there is still a chance for them to be saved. After the rapture The 144,000 Jewish evangelists will be preaching the gospel at that time giving them yet another chance. It just shows you how great Gods mercy is and how far he will go to see everyone saved!
Conclusion: We certainly mirror the Rome described in the first chapter of Romans. It seems that immorality has always signaled an empires destruction - from Babylon, to Persia, from Persia to Greece, from Greece to Rome and every empire has lasted an average of 200 years. Rome being the longest. We call America a super power but in their language America most certainly would be called an Empire. We have lasted 245 years. So far.
As King Theodin said when the orcs were marching on his keep “What can man do against such wreckless hate?” Ho do we win against such wreckless hate?
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Rom 12:21
The enemy knows who his enemy is. You’re not the only one who has an enemy, your enemy has you! Evil doers will scream for their rights to practice evil. Because they know you will be angered by it and may be tempted to sin by it. “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” -1 Peter 5:8. Don’t fall for his efforts to divide and conquer by getting you to hate one another - we are all allies in the war against the kingdom of Darkness.
[call to stand]
Will you say with me today “Lord, I want to be apart of that last day church in which the gates of hell shall not prevail against and I pledge to stand firm, serve faithfully and pray often; not only for my own resolution but for the resolution of my brethren who are constantly tempted to turn and fall away. Amen.”
