Terrible Times In The Last Days Series

INTRO.- ILL.- The doctor tells his patient: "Well I have good news and bad news..." The patient says, "Lay it on me Doc. What's the bad news?" "You have Alzheimer's disease." "Good heavens! What's the good news?" "You can go home and forget about it!"

The bad news is that we are living in the last days and we can’t go home and forget about it! I know that people would like to forget about it but how can you forget if you’re a Christian?

The last days. Those words don’t sound good but we, as God’s people, know very well that we are living in the last days and perhaps in several ways.

This is God’s last dispensation. We’re living in the Christian dispensation and we’d better be thankful for that! I’d much rather live in this dispensation than the Old Testament dispensation, wouldn’t you?

These are also the last days before Christ will come back and call a halt to this sinful world. Even though God promised to send Christ back over 2000 years ago and this hasn’t happened yet, we know that it could happen at any hour! Preparation is the key for all and no one is prepared without Christ.

And the problem with our text is that it speaks of many people who are not prepared for the return of Christ! Paul said, “There will be terrible times in the last days.” I think he’s right.

Terrible things happen all the time, every day. Watch the TV news. It’s in our faces constantly. Some time back I gave a communion meditation in which I mentioned these things:

- Al and Tipper Gore are divorcing after 40 years of marriage. They claim they have merely drifted apart. After 40 years you'd think they have it together somewhat. Also, they claim to be believers in Christ so how could this happen? It sounds like they are not practicing their faith.

- Actor Dennis Hopper died a while back and admitted to his huge drinking and cocaine habit over the years. He died and met God face to face, whether he was ready or not, I know not.

- Actor Gary Coleman also passed away at the age of 42. They showed a clip on TV of him saying in the past, “I will die when I say I will die.” And I don't think he took his own life. It was accident that he hadn't planned on and this could happen to anyone.

- Ex-governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich went on trial for corruption charges. Elaine said the way things are going that they will need a special prison just for Illinois governors. I read that six Illinois governors have been charged with crimes, either during their administrations or after.

- I read recently that 40 percent of all teens between the ages of 15 and 19 have had sex at least one time.

- Muslims constitute about 21.01% of the world population; thus amounting to 1.42 billions. Islam may well be the fasting growing religion in the world and they don’t teach the truth about God and Christ!

We have some serious problems in these last days.

PROP.- Paul plainly describes the character of people in the last days.

1- Lovers of self

2- Lovers of money

3- Lovers of sinfulness

4- Lovers of pleasure

I. LOVERS OF SELF

1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy...

Lovers of themselves or lovers of self. You see it everywhere and it starts early in life.

ILL.- The Toddler Property Laws:

1. If I like it, it's mine.

2. If it's in my hand, it's mine.

3. If I can take it from you, it's mine.

4. If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

5. If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.

6. If I'm doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.

7. If it looks just like mine, it's mine.

8. If I think it's mine, it's mine.

9. If it's yours and I steal it, it's mine.

This is not only the problem for most toddlers but also many adults. We are living in the “It’s all about me” generation.

This generation is characterized by such words as: "Be yourself," "Believe in yourself," “Take care of yourself,” “Watch out for number one,” etc.

ILL.- Here’s just one example of the “me generation” thinker. Alan Chhabra, who is 31 years old and works at a computer-server manufacturer, but he is not the sort of fellow who puts too much stock in old-school notions of corporate protocol.

As he puts it, "I have no problem knocking on the door and walking into the CEO's office or the CTO's (Chief Technology Officer) office on a whim – interrupting their schedule – and saying, 'I need to talk to you.'"