Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / January 26, 2022 | End Times: Follow the Signs with Patty Diliberto - Session 2: What Jesus said About the End Times

Transcript

January 26, 2022 | End Times: Follow the Signs with Patty Diliberto - Session 2: What Jesus said About the End Times · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's pray.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, thank you so very much for the things that we are going to see today.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you especially, Lord, that you are in control, that you are the sovereign of the universe, and that we don't have to worry, we don't have to fret.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: We can trust in you because you are trustworthy.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: There is a lot of confusion when you talk about the end times, right?
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Just the terminology alone is a bit overwhelm overwhelming.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Because it might be called the end times, the last days, the day of the Lord, the latter days, the last times, and the time of the end.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Have you heard all those phrases?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Are they used interchangeably or are they different?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And uh do they mean the same thing?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one of the things I want us to look at right away tonight.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: The theological term for the end times is eschatology.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And eschatology is the study of the last things.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So Mark Hitchcock, who I have really enjoyed, he's a Dallas uh professor, Dallas theological seminary professor, has written lots of books on prophecy.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Really great guy.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: He says, when we talk about the last days and the end times, we have to distinguish between the last days for the church, which we are in now, and the last days for Israel, which is still in the future.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about the end times, we are referring to all the events beginning with the rapture of the church all the way through eternity.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Thus, the end times include the rapture, which ends the last days of the church age, and the last days for Israel, which followed the rapture.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, the term last days refers most often to the last days of the church of the church age.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: The last days for the church began with Christ's first advent when he first came as a baby in a manger, and it will close with the rapture.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So the entire church age.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: And that could technically be called the last days, last days of the church.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Dwight J.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: Dwight Pentecost says, the day of the Lord is that extended period of time beginning with God's dealings with Israel after the rapture, at the beginning of the tribulation, and it extends through the second advent of Christ, the second coming of Christ, through the millennial age and into the creation of the new heaven and the new earth after the millennium.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the day of the Lord.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's that time period.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a huge chunk of time, right?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: We are not currently in the day of the Lord.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: That this current age is the age of the church, the church age, and it's often referred to the age of grace.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think I mentioned this last time too.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: But this quote that we're going to look at from Mark Hitchcock goes along with what I was talking about last week about judgment and how God absolutely judges.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we see through the Old Testament.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: He judges.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: And we we kind of determined that we want him to judge.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: We want him to bring wicked people and the wickedness, evil people and the wickedness that they are doing.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: We want him to bring them to judgment.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: So listen to this quote.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: A feature of this day of grace is that for the most part, God is not dealing openly and directly with human sin.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: He may impose swift judgment in some cases, but evil people often flourish.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: They enjoy health and wealth and succeed in their endeavors, even though they are not Christians and do not honor the Lord.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: A person today may even arrogantly blaspheme God, angrily declare to be an atheist, or openly denounce God and teach destructive ideas.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yet seemingly God does nothing about it.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's the part I want you to latch on to.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that good?
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because we, I'm sure all of us, have often said, why isn't God doing something?
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Why isn't he dealing with this situation or these people or this grievous sin?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Why is he not doing something?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: He will.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: He will, just not yet.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: God makes it clear that that there is a time coming when he's going to do just that.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: He will rule with an iron rod over the entire earth.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: Psalm 2, verse 9.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: You will break them with a rod of iron, you will dash them to pieces like pottery.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: He will administer absolute justice.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 11, 4 through 5.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: With righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, with the breath of his lips, he will slay the wicked.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Righteousness will be his belt, and faithfulness the sash around his waist.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: He will do those things.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: Just not yet, because we are still in the age of grace.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: When I read that, I was just like, oh goodness, why haven't I seen this years ago?
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because it just makes so much sense.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: So how soon, how soon, Jesus told us what to look for to determine how soon he was going to come back.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: And in your homework, you compared the Olivet discourse between Matthew chapter 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope that was beneficial to you.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a typo.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: It should have been Revelation 16 instead of Revelation 8 when you got to the second part.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Chrissy pointed that out to me today.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Chrissy.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: So in Matthew 24, verse 3, when Jesus' disciples asked him, What is the sign?
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: What's the sign of your coming?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus didn't, he didn't say, Don't worry about that.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's a long ways off.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have nothing to worry about.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't chastise them for asking or saying, it's none of your business, because it was.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 24, he outlined several specific and general signs of the end of the age.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: And since he gave us these signs, clearly he wants us to know them, right?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at some clues that Jesus gave about the timing by looking at the context.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: You looked at Matthew 24.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to back up to Matthew 23, which is in the context, and we see Jesus giving the Pharisees and the religious leaders an earful as he launches into, just before he launches into Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: These verses help us understand the time frame of Matthew 24.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is talking to the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, and he's giving him those seven woes.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Woe to you, woe to you.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: This is the section where he calls them hypocrites, blind guides, fools, whitewashed tombs, snakes, and a brood of vipers.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: So he absolutely lets them have it.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: Doesn't sound like the meek and mild Jesus that we see on all the movies.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then he says this in Matthew 23, 37 through 39.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: How often I have longed to gather your children together, but you were not willing.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Look, your house is left to you desolate.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you this: you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Remember who he's addressing.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: The teachers of the law, the Pharisees, and the religious leaders.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's who he's talking to.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Jewish people, his chosen people.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: And he tells them what is going to precede the next time that he comes.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see that?
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: And did you see what it was?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It's basically when Israel repents and believes and receives him as Messiah.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: When is that going to happen?
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is it going to happen during the church age or is it going to happen during the tribulation?
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: During the tribulation.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's the time frame.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's when he's talking about this.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Immediately before he returns.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some of these things are birth pain.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the things, the signs that we're going to look at tonight are still birth pains, and we'll look at, we'll we'll be talking about that next week as well.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: But most of what Jesus says in Matthew 24 takes place during the tribulation.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: So as Jesus is leaving those furious Pharisees, because he's just blasted them, he points up to the temple where they're leaving from, and he he points out to the temple and he says this to his disciples Do you see all these things?
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see all of this temple?
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone will be thrown down.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: As Jesus was sitting at the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: Tell us when will this happen?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: So the first part of their question is when is the temple going to be destroyed?
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: When is that going to happen?
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what when is that going to come down?
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't directly answer them, but he has just given a prophetic statement to them.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Because it is fulfilled in 70 AD when Titus comes, the ruler, the Roman emperor under Titus, destroys the city, completely destroys the temple.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: So the second part of the question is from the disciples what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: So what are the disciples specifically asking?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: They want to know what the sign is to be looking for.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it can't be his first coming because he's already here.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it has to be a sign for his second coming.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now this is super important.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: The signs that Jesus gives in Matthew 24 are for the second coming and what happens after that.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: The signs are not for the rapture of the church.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: There are no signs for the rapture.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: It is a signless event.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_00: The signs you have looked at this week, and we are looking at today and tonight are for the second coming.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see the difference?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is very important because the signs are for the second coming, not for the rapture.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that we see these signs being fulfilled before our very eyes gives evidence to how close we are to the rapture and to his second coming.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: Tonight we're going to look deeper at these signs and to discover if they truly are visible.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: What are we seeing?
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Does it match up with what Jesus said?
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus concluded his discourse with the parable of the fig tree in Matthew 24, 32 through 33.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now learn a lesson from the fig tree.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way, when you see all these things, these signs, you can know his return is very near right at the door.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: So you know when you go to a play or a musical and and you sit down and you start hearing the orchestra starts warming up.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're sitting close enough, you can see people walking behind the behind the curtain.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've done that, I've had that opportunity once, and then the the curtain moves every once in a while, and you know that they are setting the stage for the play, that the play is getting staged and ready to begin.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: And all of that preparation gives an anticipation of what you're going to experience and helps you be excited.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thomas Ice and Timothy Demi say this God is preparing the world stage for his drama of the ages.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: The curtain is still down.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: But God is allowing world events to take place and players to assume their roles for the drama to begin.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Before the curtain goes up, the church will rise in the air to meet the Lord at the rapture.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that is the curtain.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe us going up is the curtain, and then bam, it's all on.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: Sometime after the rapture, the Antichrist will arrive on the world scene, and at that point, all the pieces and players will be in place, ready to play their roles in the final drama of the ages.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Isn't that great?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: The current events of our day are providing us with signs of the times.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: One day some Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and they asked him to show them some great sign.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: He rebukes them for failing to recognize the signs of the times that heralded his first coming.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 16, 3.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: He replied, You are good at reading the weather signs of the skies.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: Red sky tonight means fair weather tomorrow.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Red sky in the morning means foul weather all day.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: But you can't read the obvious signs of the times.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: These Jewish leaders of all people, of all people, should have been reading the signs and being ready for Messiah to come.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: They were ready, but they didn't anticipate him coming the way he came.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 7 14.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: They, of all people, should have gotten that.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: They should have recognized his first coming.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: But how much more should we be seeing the signs of his second coming?
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because they are way more obvious than the first.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: And there are five times as many passages about the second coming than there was about the first coming.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look at the first sign, and it is deception.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: At least six times in the Olivet Discourse, Jesus warned his disciples against false teachers and deception.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: In verses 4, 5, 11, 23, 24, and 26.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: What point was he making?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we got it.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: Today it feels like everything is suspect of being a deception.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, holy moly.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: We are in an epidemic of deception right now.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: We don't trust elected officials, we don't trust governmental leaders, we don't trust the media, we don't trust religious leaders.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: We are questioning everything and everyone, and all of that doubt is is and questioning leaves us feeling anxious and easily alarmed.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: The very thing Jesus said not to be.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: We find it hard to trust because it is hard to trust because of the deception that is taking place right now.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus made it really clear that spiritual people should be analyzed, spiritual people, spiritual ones, should be analyzed and not blindly followed.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: He says, watch out for false prophets.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are for ferocious wolves.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you know this, but the New Age philosophy is exploding right now.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like never before.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is incredibly subtle, and it sounds so legitimate because they talk about God.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: They talk about God, but it's not the God that you and I worship, it's another God.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And these people have bought into a false religion that sounds good on the surface, but it leads down some very dark roads, and it is not truth-oriented, right?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Many truthers fall into this category, and Satan's demons can sound very altruistic and sincere.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: They really can.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: And because the people saying them are deceived, they believe what they are saying, and they believe it with all of their heart that what they are saying is true.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you hear someone saying that God is within you and you are part of God, turn them off, because that's new age philosophy.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, prophets today, I don't know if any of you listen to prophets in here, but they have sprung up like crazy, right?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: They may or may not be part of the deception.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just because a person says they are a prophet doesn't mean that their message is approved of by God.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am suspect of anyone who seems to be building a social media platform or wanting to get a big following.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm suspect of that.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: God's prophets in the Old Testament were not popular people.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: There was a whole line of people that wanted to kill them because of what they were saying.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: They were speaking truth, they were speaking the word of the Lord, and people did not like what they said.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you are listening to a prophet, a basic rule of thumb is that if the person says anything that clearly contradicts scripture, then his or her teaching should be rejected.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Just rejected.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: When I listen to something that I'm gonna reject, I'm gonna speak that out loud and say, God, I reject what I just listened to.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I have listened to several who claim to be prophets who have done a really excellent job of explaining passages of scripture.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And they've handled those passages of scripture with with integrity, with with scriptural integrity.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: You don't want to listen to those who are just trying to tickle the ear, who are just trying to get people to follow them.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm very suspect of anyone who says, Thus saith the Lord, and who claims direct revelation from God.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: It means I'm not going to put as much weight in what that person says as I am with Scripture.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um 1 Thessalonians.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Did I miss that?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Thessalonians.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Do not quench the spirit, do not treat prophecies with contempt, but test them, hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so that's telling us don't look contemptuously at prophets, but at the Same time listen very carefully with a lot of discernment.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: And like I do, if you hear something that you say this doesn't sound right, reject it.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Say it out loud.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_00: I re I just reject, I let go of that, Lord.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: If there's something that you do need to hear, and and it does resonate with you, with the because of the spirit inside of you and with scripture, then hold on to it.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: Hold on to what that person says.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that makes sense.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if Paul had to warn the Thessalonians to do this, then how much more do we need to be warned of this today, right?
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going to listen to prophets, then turn on the analysis, turn on your thinking and ask yourself, am I going to hold on to this or am I going to reject this?
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: Everything comes down to whether a teaching aligns with Scripture.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why you should study the Bible regularly, so that you know, okay, this doesn't align or this does.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: The apostle Paul had to warn the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, for such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: It is not surprising then if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Their end will be what their actions deserve.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then the apostle John had to warn as well.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is how you can recognize the spirit of God.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: So some false teachers are blatantly false, but probably the more dangerous ones will accept him as a God, small g, but not as God Almighty.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: So never trust a teacher who doesn't believe in the virgin birth of Jesus, who doesn't believe in his sinless, perfect life that he lived, who doesn't believe in his sacrificial death on the cross, his bodily resurrection, and the fact that he is coming back a second time physically to this earth.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Those are the things you want to hear from anybody that you're listening to.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Always ask: Does this message or this teaching glorify Jesus?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: The most dangerous teachers are those who will speak well of him, but they won't exalt him as and by recognizing him as a special object of worship and love and service.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: Satan will try to get people to disbelieve and to rebel against God altogether, and if he can't do that, then he will get him hooked on false teachings and false doctrine to lead them astray.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And Satan is having a heyday.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew Henry says, Satan acts most mischievously when he appears as an angel of light.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: The cover of the greatest good is often the cover of the greatest evil.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: We think it's bad now, and it is.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: But can you even imagine when we when it gets to the tribulation how bad the deception will be?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_00: It will be the worst deception the earth has ever faced or will ever face during those seven years.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the contest between God and Satan and truth and deception will reach all new heights.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: It will be horrible.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: Satan will go out all out with deceiving spirits, with signs and lying wonders.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: So much so that if it were possible, even the elect would be deceived.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus asked this question in Luke 18.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: Will he keep putting them off?
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that he has to ask that question speaks volumes, right?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: Sadly, this is exactly what we're seeing today, like never before.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, almost almost every week I hear of somebody else who has who has fallen away from the Lord.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Christianity and Bible doctrine are just the essentials of our faith are being rejected by many, and they are embracing other philosophies.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: The new age is attracting more and more people, and the dis and and um the deceived don't even know that they're embracing teachings that are taught by demons.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's what 1 Timothy 4, 1 through 4 says.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit clearly says that in latter times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: Such teachings come through hypocritical liars whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_00: They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are we there yet?
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: We are.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: We absolutely are.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt that we are witnessing these scriptures being fulfilled today.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: We are living in the days of deception, and that deception is leading to apostasy.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: When a person abandons the faith, we call that apostasy.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the Greek word translated apostasia is defined as a falling away or a departure from that which was given at the first.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Apostasy is a departure from the truth, from both doctrinally and morally.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: An apostasy can't really get going unless there are false teachers who take part in it, right?
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: And that who are able to attract a loyal following.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: How do they attract followers?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: They do what is at the end of that first Timothy verse.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: They tickle ears of those who are listening.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: If there is an audience, they're going to appear, kind of like cockroaches with a light, you know.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: They start appearing because people want to hear what they want to hear.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have an opinion or a theory about something, you can find someone who shares that opinion or that theory.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's not hard at all.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: Please don't think that I am talking down to you.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am not.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I listen to these same voices.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: I bet I listen to the same voices that you guys listen to.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: Much of it makes sense.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I have gone down those rabbit holes, and I've come back out of them going, holy cow.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm saying is that you can't believe everything you hear, and you have to exert a lot of discernment when when you listen to some of this stuff.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of like if you have a that scale balance thing, you know, that has the scales.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got the word of God and you've got what other people are saying, which is gonna weigh more for you?
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Scripture is gonna weigh more than than what somebody else is saying.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: And and they're not gonna equally, I mean, maybe there's gonna be some elements of truth, but there but always scripture is gonna weigh more.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so keep the balance, keep that balance of the weight on the word of God.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: I really like trying to figure all of this stuff out, and maybe you do too.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um but there's there's nothing innately wrong with that, but the danger comes in whenever you buy into false philosophies.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: Also, remember how we established last week that all the end time prophecy deals with Israel.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: With Israel.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: No other nation is the focus, not even the United States, not even America.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: So everything that everybody is telling you is going to happen may be a distraction for what is happening in Israel.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even know.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, another aspect of the signs.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, wait, no, let me go back.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 24, 10.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's another thing that we are seeing.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: The the fighting and the division is is bad now.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that it's a huge sign or indicator of where we are in the end times.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: After the catching away of the believers who are in Christ after the rapture, all who truly are in Christ are going to be gone, right?
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: They won't be here.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, no one will be here.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: Those people who have worked to bring about deception will probably still be here.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: And people will be looking for answers about what happened to the millions and millions of people who suddenly disappeared.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: And these people who are working deception are going to have a deceptive answer that's also going to lead people astray.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: But, praise God, there's going to be 144,000 witnesses that have the seal of God on their foreheads who are also going to be speaking truth, who may say those millions and millions that have just disappeared have gone because they believed in Jesus as the Messiah and they have been caught up to heaven with him.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: And so some may come to faith in him because of their testimony, but the deceivers will put their own spin on it, and it will be, it will not be truth.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, signs.
• 33:13
  SPEAKER_00: The next sign is wars and rumors of wars.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: Matthew 24, 6.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: You will hear wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Such things must happen, but the end is still to come.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: There have been 15,000 wars in recorded history, human history.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: But the 20th century has been bloodier by far than any previous century.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Far more people have died in wars during the past hundred years than in all of the centuries before that.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 24, Jesus used two Hebrew idioms that his Jewish audience would have understood and quickly recognized.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is from Isaiah, and that idiom is nation against nation, and kingdom, sometimes translated kingdom against kingdom, and he was speaking about a war started by two nations, but then before you know it, all of the nations have come and have gathered into it.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 24, Jesus said, had the world in view, and so he's basically saying, when you see a war started by two individual nations that are quickly joined by many nations and followed by unprecedented famines and pestilence and multiple earthquakes at the same time, you have the sign.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's fulfilled, it's there.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: The second idiom is the beginning of sorrows, the beginning of sorrows.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: He said, all of these are the beginning of sorrows.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: And that term is used by the prophets to describe a woman in labor.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And how and it and for and it pictures for Israel, it's the beginning of sorrows for Israel.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: And you know how labor starts out slow and it's not very intense, and then as it gets closer, it picks up in intensity and in frequency, the pains.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is what he's what he's talking about here.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: My entire life, I have been hearing about Russia for my entire life.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: Russia's doing this, China's doing this, Taiwan's doing this, and all the Arab states are doing this.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we don't know what peace is like because we've lived with it for our whole lives, of all of these voices telling us what's happening.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: So remember that these two idioms would have really resonated with his Jewish listeners and audience.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: And how did Jesus tell them to respond?
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, See that you are not troubled.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: Don't be alarmed.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: And why should they not be troubled?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Two reasons.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_00: Such things are gonna have to happen, they have to happen.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to happen.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the end is not yet.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: These wars and threats of wars are going to intensify.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't benefit us individually if we panic at every mention of a war or a fight that's breaking out.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: And don't let fight or flight kick in or your brain just shut down.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what Jesus wants us to do.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: He wants us to be aware and he wants us to keep our heads and to not necessarily buy into everything that's being said.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: The next sign is the natural disasters, famine, disease.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_00: A Yale study that I looked at said that there's been a staggering rise in the number of extreme weather events over the past 20 years.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: From 2000 to 2019, there were 7,348 major natural disasters around the world, which killed 1.23 million people.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: So this past year, there were massive floods in Germany, in Canada, in Belgium, and in China.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Did you know that?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see them?
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: They were massive, like nothing I've ever seen before.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: That rare winter storm that hit Houston last year.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Fires out of control in California and recently in the wildfire in Colorado that burned down all of those homes.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: Media will attribute all of this to climate change, but I attribute it to God fulfilling what he said would happen in the end times.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: Luke 21, 11 says, there will be great earthquakes, famines, and pestilence in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Those that fearful events in the Greek literally means terror.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sights of terror are terrifying things.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Some say earthquakes are on the rise, and I personally think that they are, but some people say no, they're not on the rise.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're just better size, whatever those machines are.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they're picking up, there's more of those, and so they're just picking up more.
• 38:30
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: That makes sense.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: But but it seems like there are more earthquakes to me.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: But for sure, the increase in the intensity and the magnitude of earthquakes has increased in the t in the past 20 years.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the frequencies of tsunamis caused by earthquakes, just last week there was a tsunami in the middle of the ocean.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: Did you see that?
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: Huge tsunami.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I mean a huge volcano that erupted under the ocean and it sent a tsunami to Tonga, to Hawaii, and to Australia.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Tim Lahay says, earthquakes have been God's way of getting man's attention.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John warned that the worst earthquakes ever to hit the planet will occur during the tribulation.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: He says, I believe that we will continue to see increases in intensity and frequency of all these natural disasters the closer we get to the tribulation.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: The secular scientific world of, of course, is going to excuse it and claim that it is climate change, but we know God's word.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we're going to cling to.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: Famines are caused by drought, and they are dramatically increasing in the world.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, there's a terrible one in Afghanistan that I didn't even know about until staff meeting Tuesday.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: But water shortages in some parts of the world are causing more droughts while the water is causing other problems because of too much water in other parts of the world.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Are weather patterns being manipulated by someone on the planet?
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's highly likely that they are.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: I really do.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Based on what I've what I've seen and read.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: But we do know that that in the past God has used droughts, he's used famines, he's used pestilence to get people's attention.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Think about whenever Jacob, who was who is his name was changed to Israel, and how his sons had to go down to Egypt, where God was moving them to Egypt because of a drought.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: They had to go where the food was.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: So he has done this all through all through human history.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that that modern man has the ability to create man-made plagues, bioterrorism, and chemical warfare.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: We know that that's possible.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Bioterrorism basically consists of compounds created in a laboratory with the express purpose to gain function to use as a weapon to cause sickness, disease, and death like anthrax.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: That is a bioweapon.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_00: Since we know it's possible that bioterrorism is out there, we would be foolish not to take it seriously.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I think as we continue toward the end, we're going to see evil people using that more and more and more.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: But in the book of Revelation, we also see that God Himself brings down the plague, brings down plagues, bring down, brings down all of these things, much like He did with Egypt.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so whether it's God or whether it's man, it may be a combination of both.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: It probably will be a combination of both.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: But it will get much, much worse.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: The next one and the last one is moral decline and lawlessness.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_00: People will do whatever they want to and get away with it.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Matthew 24.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Double speak will increase.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 5.20.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: Double speak.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: The laws of God and individual rights will be ignored.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: Second Timothy 3, 1 through 5.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: But mark this, there will be terrible times in the last days.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power, have nothing to do with such people.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: And love will be difficult to find.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of many will grow cold.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: So familial love in a family, love for others, love of righteousness will decline, and in its place we will see humanism, which is love of self, we will see materialism, which is love of money, and we will see hedonism, which is love of pleasure.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's interesting that humanism, materialism, and hedonism are three of the most prominent philosophies of our world today.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus talks about lawlessness, he's not talking about just breaking the Ten Commandments.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_00: It goes way deeper than that, right?
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: Summer before last, we saw how bad things could be with the riots and with all of the chaos in numerous cities.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Are we we we are seeing things that I never thought I would see in this country, and I'm sure you agree.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: We are seeing good people being fearful of doing good things because they fear the backlash from many, many people, many other groups.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: People who are purposefully stirring up conflict between races by accusing others of racism.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: Rioters, Antifa, and troublemakers do what they will while law enforcement is ordered to stand down while at the same time ordered to arrest innocent citizens.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_00: And as our world continues to polarize, we will see this more and more.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, it's going to break all of our hearts to see it.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: These are the signs of the times that we are living in.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_00: Ed Heinsen says, God's clock, the clock of history, is ticking away.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: It never speeds up and never slows down.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_00: It just keeps on ticking, continually and relentlessly, moving us closer and closer to the end of the age.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_00: How close are we to the end will only be revealed by time itself.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: But we can look at the signs, right?
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, the signs are not for the rapture of the church, they are for the second coming of Christ.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that we see them so clearly tells us how close we are to the rapture.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: Father God, we bless you.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: We tell you that you are God alone.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: There is no other beside you.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: We love you, we worship you.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_00: We want to bring you honor and glory for all the days that we have left here.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus, keep us centered on you, on your word, so that we will not be fearful or alarmed when we see these signs more and more and more.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, we don't want to be guilty of missing it either.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so give us that great balance of seeing it and understanding it by your spirit, but at the same time of just centering ourselves in you.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: Keep us close.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_00: Keep us tucked in under the shelter of your wing.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_00: Keep us close to your heart, Lord.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we want to be.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: We know we can trust you.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: We know you are good.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we know that all of the things are going to happen the way you say they are.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for that assurance.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: And together, collectively, we cry out to you and say, Come, Lord Jesus, come.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.