DISCIPLE

Donald Norbie   Text: 2 Timothy 3:1-5 The general condition of mankind will make life difficult for Christians and the Gospel. Paul gives a lengthy description of men in those days. It is not that each person will reveal all of these characteristics, but these will characterize the world’s culture in the end times. Evil and selfishness will be rampant. There are nineteen descriptive terms that Paul uses. There does not seem to be a formal or logical progression in the list, although there are certain groupings. It is a passionate description of evil, rather than a methodical analysis. The first two go together, “self-lovers” and “money-lovers.” An obsession with self characterizes many today. There is worship of the human body, a probing of one’s thought processes, psychoanalysis, concern about self-esteem, self-realization, self-fulfillment. Commitment in marriage is marginal; self-realization must not be jeopardized. And love of money goes hand-in-hand with this self-wor...

example of the worldliness of evangelical music A. W. Tozer "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost " (Titus 3:5). A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible to "accept" Christ without forsaking the world.      But what saith the Holy Ghost?  "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God" (James 4:4). And "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15).      This requires no comment, only obedience.       It is an error to assume that we can experience justification without transformation. Justification and regeneration are not the same; they may be thought apart in theology, but they can never be experienced apart...