'Fully set in them to do evil'

When Paul warns Timothy that "perilous times shall come," the term "perilous" is the idea of dangerous. Talking about his life, Paul writes in II Corinthians 11:26, "In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren."

“All of those conditions are dangerous conditions that can kill you, can overwhelm you; they're horrendous and can overpower you,” explains Jordan. 

“In Romans 8, Paul uses the term in an interesting way. Verse 35 says, ‘Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?’

“Perilous times can have to do with you just being taken out and slaughtered. They’re dangerous times.

“When he describes them in II Timothy 3, the nature of the age under grace—it’s not going to be getting better.

“I remember in the ’80s, right after I’d come up from Alabama to Chicago, preaching a message at North Shore Church and I quoted a verse in Ecclesiastes. Afterward, I had three people come up to me and ask, ‘Where is that verse?’ I thought everybody knew the verse but I came to find out people don’t read the Book of Ecclesiastes.

“Ecclesiastes 8:11 says, ‘Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.’

“Isn’t that what Peter said about the dispensation of grace? II Peter 3 says, ‘The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.’

“Man doesn’t say, ‘Wow, I’m glad I missed the wrath! Thank you for not destroying me!’ He says, ‘Oh, He doesn’t see. I’ll go out and do some more.’

“Isaiah 26:10 says, [10] Let favour be shewed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness will he deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD.

“You know what the longsuffering of God demonstrates? The complete depravity of humanity. And the longer the dispensation of grace goes on, the longer you’re going to see a more and more mature depravity overtake mankind.

"De-evolution, not evolution, is man’s pattern. That’s why that image in Daniel 2 starts at the head and winds up at the feet. Man doesn’t go from the dust to glory; he goes from glory to the dust.

“Occasionally they’ll be a little burst forth of life and light as the Reformation was when it finally anchored itself in England . . .

“You know, until that last person gets into the Body of Christ, that day of grace keeps going and then it will be over. Now that’s God’s timing. I have no idea to tell you when He’s going to do it; when He activates it. That’s up to Him.

“What we do is just be faithful and consider every day to be the last day. When you look at the world around you, instead of saying, ‘Oh, woe is me, how terrible it all is,’ just say, ‘Well, it’s exactly the way God said it was going to be. Thank God for the testimony.’

“Years ago, when I was young, I used to preach on the street with a guy in his mid- 40s who’d been saved out of a gangster’s life. He’d been a bootlegger, a robber, a thief, pretty much everything.

“Elbert had been in a knife fight when he was young and his face was cut from here to here and they did a botched job of sewing him up so he couldn’t talk out the right side of his mouth because it was nerve-dead.

“One day we were out passing tracts and some smart aleck business guy came along and started mocking Elbert about the Bible, saying, ‘What do you know? Look at you!’

“And Elbert reached up, took his fingers and got that guy’s nose and just twisted it and the guy’s nose started bleeding. He was screaming and hollering and Elbert looked at him and said, ‘Bud, thank you for the testimony,’ and walked off.

“I said, ‘Elbert, what it the world?!’ and he said, ‘The Bible says the wringing of the nose bringeth forth blood (Proverbs 30:33). Still true!’ ”