The truth about last days people being "lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God"

Believers, remember 2 Timothy 3:1-5:

"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, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."

At first, one would think vs:1-5 is just about people who are sinning openly and leading outwardly vulgar lifestyles but consider verse 5 which they all have in common: "having a form of godliness but denying its power...." The NLT version says-

"They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly."

Such people have a form of godliness (righteousness.) On the outside, they preach, look and act all religious, moral, holy and righteous but on the inside, they are all the evil things that Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:1-4. Such reject the power of God in making the sinner godly (righteous.) Unless the Lord exposes their evil deeds, you will think that they are really godly and do not commit sin at all! Paul spoke of such people that "reject the power that could make them godly" in 2 Corinthians 11:15-

"And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."

These ministers of Satan that have "a form of godliness" are pastoring churches and preaching their brand of righteousness straight from the pulpit. They sound and act extremely moral and righteous and preach strongly against sin. They are well-respected because they preach a lot about righteousness and living a godly life, just like the Pharisees, but herein lies what exposes them as agents of Satan: their own method of attaining righteousness (being godly) in the sight of God and overcoming sin is never through what Christ has done to make us righteous and enjoy God's blessings but on what we must do by ourselves, by human effort.

They teach that one can be godly (be like God) by living life using the knowledge of good and evil aka keeping the law which gives us the knowledge of good and evil, the same way Satan deceived Eve by seducing her to eat from the tree of the same name. It seemed good to Eve, as it seems good to many in the church today. But the end is death. We can do nothing without Christ least of all be godly, but these ones deny God's power in making us righteous just as Christ is righteous.

This is how God makes the sinner godly/righteous but they reject His power:

"For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Our sins for Christ's righteousness. Any other brand of righteousness is "a form of godliness." Our own righteousnesses (from law-keeping and the good things we do) are filthy rags according to Isaiah 64:6

Many of us look at the people who are in the sinner box in the quoted passage above and think that we are "not that bad;" but consider James 2:10: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble at one point, he is guilty of all."

Meaning the law does not grade on the curve. Under law, the one who only lied about his location for a good reason is as guilty as the child-molesting rapist murdering ritual killer and under the same curse.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:20- "But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!" Do we really think that we can beat the Pharisees at law-keeping? Even if we could, Romans 3:20 says 

"For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are"

We can't have one leg on Mt. Sinai (law) and the other on Mt. Zion (Grace.) See Paul's analogy of law and grace in Galatians 4. Isaac (the church today) was not a combined product of Hagar (law) and Sarah (Grace.) He was borne purely of the power of the Spirit. No human effort involved. We can't say "I will do my best to keep the law and Jesus will see that I have tried and consider me." This is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ spoke of in Revelation 3.

It is either works (human effort at keeping the law) or grace (undeserved, unmerited favour.) Romans 11:6-

"And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work."

This verse is used in the context of God showing us that the reason believers do not do what the world is doing is because He reserved us the same way He reserved the 7000 who did not bow to Baal in the days of Elijah. Plus for those who think we still have to keep the law to "maintain our salvation" and remain in God's good books after being born-again, Galatians 5:4 says "For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

No hope for man through keeping the law so God made a way for us to be righteous and save us from sin and death. Because He loved us so, "...He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Receiving this gift of His Righteousness is the only way to not be in the group of sinners in the intro; to be godly (righteous) and reign over sin; and it isn't by human effort: Romans 5:17 says-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Not our own righteousness that comes from keeping the law and doing good things (they are filthy rags according to Isaiah 64:6) but His righteousness that is given to all who believe as a gift. With Christ we don't Give to Get; we GET to GIVE. When we seek His righteousness and not ours, "all these things shall be added unto you." We get to live right.

The Holy Spirit will teach you all things.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.