Reference: II Timothy 3:1-8
If we were to look up the word perilous in the dictionary, we would find this word means danger. Dangerous times was prophesied for the last remaining days upon this earth. The last days will be perilous because of the condition that people would become. The conditions as stated above will be the condition of men because they will have removed all sensible human morals from within them by their refusal to receive and obey the word of God as revealed in the gospel. Man in these last days fit the above conditions but yet he confesses to be of God possessing salvation. Man today has been blinded from his true moral condition by the deceiving tactics of Satan. The Bible tells us that the heart is evil above all things and is desperately wicked. Man today is one hundred percent void of the truth concerning his natural state of being while he is yet in the flesh being prone to its desires. Very few people realize their sinful condition before they confess christianity. If you do not come to the knowledge of your condition and what it takes to bring you out of it, then you will be easy prey for Satan to lead you into false doctrine. You are taught in today's churches that all you have to do to become a born again child of God and made a new creation in Christ is to accept Christ as your personal Saviour and confess it to the public.
What this simple belief boils down to is that you have a very small stain of sin that can be washed away as simply as a little speck of dirt on your clothing that you wear. If you want to know the truth of the matter, you are so stained with sin that all the soaps and detergents in the world could not scratch the surface of your disease of sin if it were half way possible for soaps to make you clean. The only thing that will cleanse you from your stain of sin is the blood of Christ. Christ does not wash you clean from your sin with his blood by your believing he died for you on the cross and shed his blood. Christ shed his blood for the New Testament. The New Testament is the covenant of God that Christ brought to this earth hundreds of years ago. When Christ died on the tree this put into effect the New Testament which will cleanse you from your stains of sin if you will receive and obey it. Please notice that Jesus told his disciples that they were clean through the word that he had spoken to them, as recorded in John 15:3. My friend it takes the same word to cleanse you from your sin as it cleansed the disciples from their sin. Jesus was with his disciples for three and one half years teaching them the revealed truth of the mysteries concerning the kingdom of God. This revealed truth is what cleansed the disciples from their sin. How much of the revealed truth have you received that the gospel contains? Is your church teaching you the mysteries of the kingdom of God, or does your church teach you that we cannot understand the mysteries of God? If you think you become a born again child of God by just your confession of Christ taking him as your personal Saviour then you think you are only stained with sin that can be removed like erasing words on a piece of paper with an eraser on a pencil. My friend can't you see the fact that you cannot be cleansed in this simple manner? How is it possible for you to become a new creation in Christ and manifesting the same works and character as Christ on such a simple belief as you are holding to? This kind of belief is like thinking you are a magician that can make things transpire right before your eyes at the snap of your finger. Are you aware of the fact that you can think you are actually doing something when all the time you are doing nothing at all? You may go as far as thinking you are some great historical figure of the past such as Napoleon or Christopher Columbus, but just thinking you are one of these characters does not make you what you think you are. The Bible tells us if we think we are something when we are nothing then we deceive ourselves. We of course must believe by faith that we are what we confess to be, but Satan can very easily cause you to be led astray into false doctrine that will cause you to think you are something when all the time you are nothing. The apostle Paul tells us that if any man thinks himself to be spiritual or even a prophet, then he must acknowledge that the things that he wrote are the commandments of God. Many people today think and believe they are born again children of God but they are not acknowledging that the things that the apostle Paul wrote are the commandments of God. I say this because most people are totally ignorant of what the apostles wrote in the Bible. The most common belief today is that one is a child of God by their confession only of Christ being the Lord and the Saviour. How can this make you a new creation in Christ where old things have passed away and all things have become new? Most people today have what the Bible calls a form of godliness. To have a form of godliness means that you do not possess what you think you do. If you have not come to the knowledge of the truth that the gospel reveals, then you are being led by Satan's blind ministers that will lead into the ditch. You may believe that you are a born again child of God but if you do not obey the gospel truth then you are putting on a form of godliness and denying the power of God as revealed in his holy word. You may think that what you are believing is the truth but if you are not placing your trust in the word of God which is proven by your trust in your church doctrine not truly knowing if it is the truth of the gospel, then you have been deceived. Unless you realize that your sinful condition is completely depraved and free from any divine nature altogether, then you will never come to the knowledge of the truth that will cleanse you from your sin. Your confession of Christ does not make you a new creature in Christ filled with the Spirit of God. The church today is blind and naked but they do not realize nor believe it when they are told about it. Your condition is proven as to what you believe. If you believe the truth then you will be a true born again child of God, but if you are believing a false doctrine then you are revealing a form of godliness not possessing true Bible holiness. You must acknowledge what the apostles wrote in the gospel to be a true born again christian. The church today will blaspheme what the apostle Paul speaks about and wrote in his books of the gospel. Most people will not accept what has not been written in red ink of the Bible saying they will believe what Jesus said but will not believe what Peter or Paul may have said about the subject.