Hi thetruth,
2Tim 3:1-5 Know this also, that in the last days grievous times will be at hand. For men will be self-lovers, money-lovers, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, unyielding, false accusers, without self-control, savage, despisers of good, traitors, reckless, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power of it; even turn away from these.
The church does know the Scripture say that when you repent and are baptized you will receive the Holy Spirit. So they go through the motions and believe they have it. They lack understanding of what the Spirit of God is and how it is received, and so neither do they understand what it means to have the Spirit inwelling and be dying to self. If you have never experienced the indwelling of the Holy Spirit how could you understand what it is? They look to church elders and their preachers to see their example of what a 'righteous' person should be... Some religious people put on a pretty good act. But real righteousness is not an act. Our old self must die/be crucified/decrease so that Christ can live in us.
Rom 6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
v. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin.
Rom 6:17-18 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
mercy, peace and love
Kat