while evil men and imposters go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
5 sermons cite this verse
… and he says, not only will I face these things, but indeed all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you've been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." The longer I live, the more convinced I am that, although I didn't always understand this, that to be brought up within the framework of a Christian home under the tutelage of those who know Jesus, love Jesus, and love the Bible is an immense privilege. And so when I read 2 Timothy and I read of the influence of his grandmother and his mother and so on, and then of course of the influence of those who mentored him in the Christian life, this is something that many of us will be able to identify with. …
Just checking for Episcopalians in the group. That's all right. All right. A brief prayer. Father, what we know not, teach us. What we have not, give us. What we are not, make us. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I chose the second letter of Timothy somewhat arbitrarily. The more I read it, the more I said to myself, there is some sense in which 2 Timothy provides us with a mentoring manual. Admittedly, Timothy's circumstances is different from many other people, and Paul is unique. But to the extent that it is an older man counseling a younger man, as this older man has now reached the end of his journey. In chapter 4, he says, the time has come for my departure. I'm already being poured out like a drink offering. So he is absolutely committed to making sure that his young mentee, Timothy, is going to hold the line. You know, to one degree or another, all of us are here today as a result simply of those who have had an influence for good on our lives. And as you go through your life, all the stages of life, it is important, once you get to a certain age at least, that we all have a Paul and that we all have a Timothy, that we have a mentor and that we have a mentee, that we have someone that we are constantly looking to, and that there are others who may in turn be looking to us. …
4. They show that they set at nought the glory and excellency of Christ, in that they seek not a conformity to that glory and excellency. A natural man may seek to be holy, but it is not for holiness’ sake, it is only that he may escape wrath. He has no desires after holiness, nor is it indeed holiness that he seeks, because he is all the while an enemy to holiness. A natural man has no desires to have his soul conformed to the glorious beauty and excellency of Christ, nor to have his image upon him. If he prized or delighted in the excellencies of Christ, he would necessarily desire to be like him so far as he could.—This we see in ourselves and in all men: when we see any qualifications in others that are pleasing to us, it is natural for us to endeavour to imitate, and to be conformed to those persons. Hence men are apt to learn of those for whom they have a great esteem: they naturally fall into an imitation of their ways and manner of behaviour. But natural men feel within themselves no disposition or inclination to learn of Christ, or to imitate him. Their tempers and dispositions remain quite contrary to Christ’s, neither do they grow at all better or more conformed to him, but rather worse. 2 Tim. iii. 13. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.” I. This doctrine may teach us the heinousness of the sin of unbelief, as this sin sets all the glory and excellency of Christ at nought. It often appears strange to natural men, that unbelief should be spoken of as such a heinous and crying sin. They cannot see such evil in it. There are other sins which often trouble their consciences, when this troubles them not at all, though it be that which brings far greater guilt upon them, than those sins about which they are more troubled. …
This should be insisted on. Do we think to become better men by knowing more? Little knowledge is required for religious obedience. The poor and rich, the learned and unlearned, are here on a level. We have all of us the means of doing our duty; we have not the will, and this no knowledge can give. We have need to subdue our own minds, and this no other person can do for us. The case is different in matters of learning and science. There others can and do labour for us; we can make use of their labours; we begin where they ended; thus things progress, and each successive age knows more than the preceding. But in religion each must begin, go on, and end, for himself. The religious history of each individual is as solitary and complete as the history of the world. Each man will, of course, gain more knowledge as he studies Scripture more, and prays and meditates more; but he cannot make another man wise or holy by his own advance in wisdom or holiness. When children cease to be born children, because they are born late in the world's history, when we can reckon the world's past centuries for the age of this generation, then only can the world increase in real excellence and truth as it grows older. The character will always require forming, evil will ever need rooting out of each heart; the grace to go before and to aid us in our moral discipline must ever come fresh and immediate from the Holy Spirit. So the world ever remains in its infancy, as regards the cultivation of moral truth; for the knowledge required for practice is little, and admits of little increase, except in the case of individuals, and then to them alone; and it cannot be handed on to another. "As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be," such is the general history of man's moral discipline, running parallel to the unchanging glory of that All-Perfect God, who is its Author and Finisher. …
But even though Huldah's message be supposed not to reach him, still he was doubtless soon undeceived as to any hopes he might entertain, whether, by the express Word of God informing him, or by the actual hardened state of sin in which the nation lay. Soon, surely, were his hopes destroyed, and his mind sobered into a more blessed and noble temper,--resignation. I call resignation a more blessed frame of mind than sanguine hope of present success, because it is the truer, and the more consistent with our fallen state of being, and the more improving to our hearts; and because it is that for which the most eminent servants of God have been conspicuous. To expect great effects from our exertions for religious objects is natural indeed, and innocent, but it arises from inexperience of the kind of work we have to do,--to change the heart and will of man. It is a far nobler frame of mind, to labour, not with the hope of seeing the fruit of our labour, but for conscience' sake, as a matter of duty; and again, in faith, trusting good will be done, though we see it not. Look through the Bible, and you will find God's servants, even though they began with success, end with disappointment; not that God's purposes or His instruments fail, but that the time for reaping what we have sown is hereafter, not here; that here there is no great visible fruit in any one man's lifetime. Moses, for instance, began with leading the Israelites out of Egypt in triumph; he ended at the age of an hundred and twenty years, before his journey was finished and Canaan gained, one among the offending multitudes who were overthrown in the wilderness. Samuel's reformations ended in the people's wilfully choosing a king like the nations around them. Elijah, after his successes, fled from Jezebel into the wilderness to mourn over his disappointments. Isaiah, after Hezekiah's religious reign, and the miraculous destruction of Sennacherib's army, fell upon the evil days of his son Manasseh. Even in the successes of the first Christian teachers, the Apostles, the same rule is observed. After all the great works God enabled them to accomplish, they confessed before their death that what they experienced, and what they saw before them, was reverse and calamity, and that the fruit of their labour would not be seen, till Christ came to open the books and collect His saints from the four corners of the earth. "Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived," is the testimony of St. Peter, St. Paul, St. John, and St. Jude. …