The Waxing Worse of

Evil

in the Last Days

Beloved, open your hearts and your Bibles, for the Word of the Lord is a lamp unto our feet in these darkening times.

Today we turn our eyes to the solemn warnings of Scripture, that we might be sober, vigilant, and anchored in the hope of Christ’s return.

I. The Plain Testimony of the Holy Spirit The Apostle Paul, under inspiration, wrote to his young disciple Timothy these piercing words:

“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” —2 Timothy 3:1–5 (ESV)

Mark it well: “in the last days”—not in some distant age, but in the season just before the coming of the Lord. And the Spirit does not merely say evil men exist; He declares they “wax worse and worse.”

II. The Explicit Prophecy of Degeneration Turn with me to the very next verses:

“Evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” —2 Timothy 3:13 (ESV)

The Greek here is chilling: prokoptō—“to cut forward, to advance.” Evil does not plateau; it progresses. Like a cancer, it metastasizes. Like a storm, it intensifies. The trajectory is downward, darker, deadlier.

III. The Lord Jesus Himself Confirms It Our Savior, in His Olivet Discourse, painted the end with the broadest strokes of peril:

“And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” —Matthew 24:12 (ESV)

Lawlessness (anomia)—the rejection of God’s rule—does not merely linger; it multiplies. And as it spreads, hearts once warm grow icy. Families fracture. Societies crumble. Even the church is infiltrated by those who “honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me” (Matthew 15:8).

IV. The Ancient Parallel: “As in the Days of Noah” The Lord likened His return to the days before the flood:

“For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” —Matthew 24:38–39 (ESV)

But do not miss Genesis 6:5:

“The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

And verse 11:

“Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.”

Violence. Corruption. Continual evil. This is the benchmark. And Jesus says, “So shall it be again.”

V. The Final Intensification: A Time of Trouble Unparalleled Now, beloved, lift your eyes to the climax. The prophet Daniel, peering into the distant future, was shown:

“At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book.” —Daniel 12:1 (ESV)

And the Lord Jesus echoes Daniel with divine authority:

“For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be.” —Matthew 24:21 (ESV)

VI. The Closing Seal in the Apocalypse Finally, the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John on Patmos:

“And the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands… nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.” —Revelation 9:20–21 (ESV)

Even under the bowls of wrath, evil hardens. It does not relent. It waxes worse—until the Lamb Himself breaks the sky.

VII. The Benediction of Warning and Hope Hear me, church:

• The night grows blacker.
• The hearts grow colder.
• The deceivers grow bolder.
• The tribulation will be greater than ever before, and never again.

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man… and He will send out His angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather His elect…” —Matthew 24:29–31

Therefore:

• Watch.
• Pray.
• Repent.
• Resist the spirit of the age.
• Cling to Christ, the coming King.

For the worse it waxes, the nearer He is.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20