John Piper – What we need to know about evil

piper John Piper preaching on 2 Timothy 3:1–13, shows us 6 things about evil that we need to know from these verses:

The times of evil.
The severity of evil.
The specifics of evil. -In verses 2–5 Paul lists 19 examples of the kind of evil people who will populate the last times — the now times — and worse at the end of the end. I’m going to do what I encourage you to do. I’m going to read the list and add my brief description of what I think each one means. The aim of a list like this is not to grovel in evil or gloat over others or savor indictments. The aim is to understand the untrue and varieties of evil and to spot these things in ourselves and others with a view to overcoming them and avoiding them.
- Verse 2: “For people will be lovers of self (narcissistic),
- lovers of money (materialistic),
- proud (loving to draw attention to their accomplishments),
- arrogant (with an inflated view of self),
- abusive (wanting to be verbally hurtful),
- disobedient to their parents (having a rebellious spirit),
- ungrateful (assuming that they have a right to the things they get),
- unholy (indifferent to the attitudes and acts that reflect the value of Jesus),
- heartless (unable to sympathize or empathize),
- unappeasable (unwilling to forgive),
- slanderous (devilishly distorting what other say and do),
- without self-control (a slave to their appetites),
- brutal (dead to all tenderness),
- not loving good (unable to see and savor moral beauty),
- treacherous (breaking promises for their own advantage),
- reckless (craving admiration for taking risks),
- swollen with conceit (blind to the ugliness of self-preoccupation and the beauty of admiring others),
- lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God (finding more satisfaction in physical titillation than in the divine admiration),
- having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power (using religion for personal gain without treasuring Christ above all).” (2 Timothy 3:2–5).
The creep of evil.
The limit of evil.
The alternative to evil.

2 Timothy 3:1–13,

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ⁶ For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, ⁷ always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. ⁹ But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

¹⁰ You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, ¹¹ my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. ¹² Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, ¹³ while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

you can read the entire transcript of this sermon here- http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/when-a-lover-of-good-thinks-about-evil