0:00 Okay, 2 Timothy chapter 3. Let's pray again. Lord, I pray you'll speak to us. We want to hear your wisdom, Lord, and above all, we want to receive the wisdom that is Christ himself, not the word of knowledge, not not just 0:12 words of knowledge, Lord, that will puff us up. Um and not a letter of the law that will kill us, but the spirit of God that brings life. Please, Lord, speak to us. And uh speak through me, Lord, and speak to me even as I stand up here. 0:28 I pray that you'll give us a greater revelation of Jesus to become more sweet and more glorious and more precious to us in these days as our bridegroom. Thank you that you are that in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, 2 Timothy 3. 0:43 I'm going to like to speak to you today today about the coming tribulation. The coming tribulation. And uh maybe we'll read these first five verses of 2 Timothy chapter 3 and then I'll tell you what I mean by that, the coming tribulation. You'll hear the word 0:58 tribulation used a lot of times in circle in Christian circles especially. Uh persecution, tribulation, those kinds of words that refer to times that are coming upon us. Why? Because the Bible talks about them. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 5. 1:12 But realize this, that in the last days difficult, or some translations say perilous, or times of tribulation will come. Difficult, perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, 1:30 disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than the lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, 1:48 although they have denied its power, and avoid such men as these. I believe with all of my heart that there is a time of tribulation coming. And you know, persecution is one of those things that you'll get all kinds of perspectives of it if you listen to 2:04 different theologians. People in Christendom have they call it eschatology. People specialize in theological circles on eschatology, which is eschatology just means what's the end times. Is there going to be uh tribulation? Is there going to be 2:17 such a thing as the rapture? Which by the way, you'll never find the word rapture in the Bible. Um in that in that in the describing the church being lifted up before that before the tribulation. You don't that's not in God's word. 2:28 Uh will there be uh uh or will there be a millennium? What does that mean? A thousand year reign of Christ on this earth? There's a lot of people that have different perspectives. And I I don't claim to know that have the right answer on all of these things 2:40 because I'm not a theologian. I think you know that already. Never been to Bible school. Never been to seminary. Don't intend to ever go to seminary either. But I intend to know God. And I intend to know God's will for our lives. 2:52 That's far more important. I believe with all of my heart than any theological knowledge I could get. I I read I was reading recently I'm I'm reading again this book by Richard Wurmbrand called Tortured for Christ. And in it he says a very interesting 3:04 line. He says, "The truth is God. And the truth about the truth is his word. And the truth about the truth about the truth is theology." Do you follow that? The truth is God. And the truth about the truth is his word. And the truth about the truth 3:22 about the truth is theology. And unfortunately, because this is three levels away or two levels away from the truth itself, most people get stuck in theology thinking that they have reached the truth. When really it's the truth 3:33 about the truth theology it's important to have good theology. But even good theology, even theology that's correct, even doctrine that's correct, is the truth about the truth about the truth capital T if I could look look put it 3:47 that way. The truth God himself is what I'm really after. And if I get stuck in some of one of these other two steps, I I've missed it. And I think a great majority of Christendom has missed it. I know I missed it for many years. I got 4:01 taken up with various explanations and studying this and cross-referencing that. See, it's good. Doctrine is important and very good, but it must lead us ultimately to the truth, Jesus himself. "I am the way, the truth, and 4:13 the life," he said. So, when he is the truth and and we get stuck in the truth or in the the truth about the truth or the truth about the truth about the truth. And I really like how Richard Wurmbrand put that because he was talking about having come 4:27 out of much persecution and beatings in in the in the communist prisons there in Romania, he he came to the Western world to tell them about the suffering of people in Romania. And he found that in the in the prisons in communist Romania, 4:43 people who didn't know the Bible even because they didn't have a Bible because they were in jail. The Bibles were taken away from them. People who didn't have the Bible seem to know God better than the people he met in the West who had 4:54 Bibles in all kinds of translations and were experts on the Greek and the Hebrew and all these other things that people make a big deal out of. And it was he was saying it in a sad way that people who had never gone to Bible 5:06 school or never even perhaps read through the Bible completely because they were thrown into jail before they had time to read the Bible, knew their truth, knew God himself better. And it really spoke to my heart, witnessed to 5:18 my heart that that's what this is about. This is why we gather. It's not so that we can get up here and impress each other by how much we know of God's word or I I put together a sermon and you be impressed with it. It's not about that. 5:29 If the result of it is that we don't know God more passionately and more desperately hunger for him that we know even more of him, then we missed it. And I pray that we won't miss it. And I believe the end times will be characterized by something 5:43 that you might not think about because that's what we just read here read here in these verses. And um I but I do believe just I got off track, sorry. But what I do I was going to say was that I do believe that there is 5:54 coming a time of tribulation. And unfortunately, Western Christendom has uh has has resulted in a theology that teaches that somehow God is too loving to allow his church or his people to go through suffering. It's it's a complete 6:08 lie. Why? How do I know that? Because the captain of our salvation, the head of the body himself, went through suffering. And you look at the history of all the apostles, all 11 of the of the disciples besides Judas who who 6:21 killed himself, and John the apostle who they history tells us he died of old age, even though he was put in prison for a long time on the island of Patmos, all the others died for their faith. And we're fooling ourselves if we think, 6:33 well, somehow God loves me more than he loved those disciples, so he's not going to let me suffer. I'm never going to have to give up my life as a martyr for the faith. I don't know. I I don't know if I will or I don't know 6:43 if I won't, but I'm absolutely convinced that God could allow that for me. That could be part of his will for my plan for my life. Now, I actually also think that most of us, if somebody was to walk in the door and say, "Are you willing to die for 6:55 your faith? To deny Jesus or die right now?" I think most of us would say, "I'm not going to deny Jesus. He means too much to me." But the test of whether we will actually be able to go through difficult times comes in our daily walk, where we are 7:10 tested to compromise. That's what I'd like to talk to you about today. And so, I think this false notion that somehow uh the church is going to be delivered up from any kind of suffering comes from Western preachers in the Western world 7:21 primarily who uh have who tickle the ears of their congregations, you know, Paul talks about tickling your like their ears to be tickled. And we live in a in a in a world today, especially in the West, where we have so many comforts 7:33 and so many luxuries, and we like to hear good-sounding stuff. Your best life now. We like those kinds of messages. How you can have more money and have good health and and uh become famous and build your church to be conquer 7:45 thousands large uh and God still be pleased with your life. How you can have the best in this world and the best in eternity. There's no such thing. It's heresy. But unfortunately, because we've got a a Western Christendom that's that's likes 7:58 their ears tickled, preachers have been preaching and coming up with come up with all these kind of crazy doctrines that somehow God's not going to let you suffer. If you suffer, you know, like Job's preachers, there must be something 8:08 wrong with you. Get right with God. Have faith and you can have that uh that car. Whatever it is. Or have faith and you can have that more money. And have faith, look at me and I'm living in grand style. That's what the preachers 8:19 say. The last minutes of time. Turn with me to 1 John chapter 2. There's an interesting phrase that um John uses here in 1 John 2. I'd like to show you first of all. 1 John chapter 2 verse 8:36 15. This is This is perhaps one of the last letters written uh of the Bible. There's you know, if if you look at his historians have different uh ideas of which letter was the last. Certainly, 1 2 3 John and Revelation were near the end, written close to 100 8:56 AD, 100 years uh after 100 plus years after Christ was born. Uh and John, if you read his epistles, the the 1 2 and 3 John epistles, uh and the book of Revelation, but certainly in his epistles, he's writing to churches very 9:10 well aware that the end times are coming. And this is I'm talking 100 AD. We're talking 2,000 years ago. And I 1,912 years ago, whatever. Uh that far back, he thought it was the end time. Listen what he says. Do not love 9:26 the world, verse 15, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him, because all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh uh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life is 9:38 not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also it lusts, but the one who does the will of God abides forever. He says the world is passing away. So, you ask John, "How soon is this going to 9:50 happen?" He says, "Children, it is the last hour." You mean in 180 it was the last hour? What did Where does that put us? We're We're like in the dying minutes, I think, the dying seconds of this age in in God's time. I'm not predicting when 10:04 Christ is going to come, because Jesus said only the Father knows that. But I do know that we are in the dying moments of this age, how however long that is going to be, I don't know. But I certainly ought to live with that 10:14 mentality in mind, that Lord, I it could be any any day now. Things could change in around this world, and they are changing already, and Christ's return is imminent. Much nearer than it was when John wrote and said it's the 10:26 last hour. Imagine if you said, you know, you're writing it You We've all written exams and tests in school. Maybe I don't know if you ever had to write it like a three- or four-hour exam. I I did a few times. And imagine if they told you, 10:37 "Well, you've got an hour left." And you were just on the first question, maybe. What would you do? You'd be like, "Man, what happened? Where did the time go? I was sitting here for 3 hours, and I'm still working on the first question. I 10:47 have an hour left." And you watch that clock, and it just every second second that goes by, you think, "Well, that's a little less time." You know that that's the time we're living in. As the clock ticks by, as days go by, as weeks go by, and 11:00 months go by, and here we are towards the end of October. 2012 has come and gone. Did you miss it? Did you know that Christ's return is now even closer, that we are going to be in 2013 in a matter of 10 weeks or so? Christ's return is imminent. That ought 11:15 not to bring fear in our hearts, but it ought ought to bring up make an awareness in our lives of what's going on around us, and to be very certain that the devil's goal during these last few minutes is to grab as many as 11:27 possible. The devil knows he's running out of time. I don't think I I I know this, that he doesn't know either when Christ is coming back, but he knows it's short cuz he's he knows the Bible. He knows it better than any theologian ever 11:38 that that ever lived. Short of God himself, I think the devil knows the Bible the best cuz he's been reading it for thousands of years since it was written. Why? So that he can deceive people so he can see the warnings that 11:49 God himself has written in God's word and say, "I got to be careful about that and see if I can grab more people, deceive them before the time is up." That's the enemy we're dealing with. And unfortunately, most Christians walk 12:00 around go through their Christian life lazily and blindly and like and the devil wreaks havoc in our lives and does and has for so long, hasn't he? Because we're not aware. We must be aware of the devil's tactics and realize that he 12:13 knows his time is running out and his goal is to grab as many as possible. That's how wicked he is. It's not enough that he has so many going his way and serving wickedness and denying God and and mocking God. He does It's not enough 12:27 that he has so many in his camp already. He wants as many. He would take everyone in this room if we would let him. That's the enemy we're dealing with. So will will Christians be persecuted? Well, God's word says absolutely. 12:41 Let me show you in Matthew 24. If you read Matthew 24, actually let's not turn there, but read that chapter sometime and you'll see that Jesus was talking about persecution, but let's turn to back to 2 Timothy cuz I want to show you 12:50 some verses here in chapter 3 where God's word is absolutely very clear that we will be persecuted. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And that very first verse we read, "Realize this that in the last days difficult times will come." And it's not 13:05 just going to happen to the other people because then he says in verse 12, "Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted." So the question to ask is, "Will the church be persecuted?" It depends. If the church, 13:21 whatever it is you're talking about, desires to live godly in Christ Jesus, it will be persecuted. There's your answer. First 12. Any who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. All who live godly in Christ 13:36 Jesus and are seeking to do it will be persecuted. So, there's there's an answer. Christians are And the other the second reason why I believe that that the church will go through persecution is because it's going on today. And I 13:48 encourage you, my dear brothers and sisters, if you're wondering about something challenging to read, take a moment and read some of the biographies of these men that women that went into different parts of the world and took 14:00 the gospel and suffered for the sake of Christ. Read books like The Martyr's Mirror, which is a big fat book. Uh I haven't read through it. I'm just kind of going through it story by story. Or Foxe's Book of Martyrs. Stories that 14:10 will show you that the the the faith and the and the uh and the opportunity to have God's word in our hands cost so many people their lives. And yet we take it so lightly. For most Christians, the Bible will just sit on the bookshelf because it looks 14:24 good there. And yet in order for us to have a Bible in our hands, people had to die for it. In order for Paul to write us these epistles to give us instruction on how to live a godly life, he had his head chopped off. And Peter, likewise, was 14:37 hung on a cross upside down. And John suffered on the Isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Book of Revelation. It's through this suffering that God has given us his word. We must value it. We must treat it with that value. 14:50 So, and Christians are not not just then, even now. And like I said, I've been reading this book of the persecution in communist countries. And it's amazing the extent to which the devil was willing to harass and torture 15:03 Christians who didn't deny the name of Jesus. And I I I I can't even fathom it. I grew up in a third world country where you occasionally heard about stories of persecution. But even that's nothing compared to what I read about is 15:15 happening to Christians all over the world even today. But the devil's a smart enemy. Like I said, I think he knows that if he was to come and say, "Hey, I'll kill you if you if you if you don't deny Jesus." I I would be like, "You can take my life. I 15:28 don't have anything on this earth worth living for that's worth sacrificing eternity." Let me state that again. I do have things on this on this earth worth living for. I have a wife and our children. I have the body of Christ that 15:39 God has given me. You all here, you're worth living for and I don't want God to take me home yet. I'm not in a hurry to go to heaven. Why? Because I know that that I want with the time that I have left on this earth to serve God with my 15:50 whole heart. To give him everything that I have left. If he takes me now, I I won't be able to sing to him through my persecution and through suffering. If I go to heaven now, where will be any more opportunity for me to suffer and die for 16:03 the sake of Jesus? Because heaven's a great place. There's no suffering there. But when I can sing a song of praise and when I can deny myself and refuse the temptation of sin on this earth, God is glorified by that. And he makes me conforms me more and 16:17 more into the image of Jesus. So, I have a work to do on this earth yet. I'm not in a hurry to go to heaven yet. I want to go there. I have much to look forward there, but I have work to do on this earth. And I have things worth living 16:27 here for here on this earth. Spiritual things. Because heaven is not there. Heaven has already come down. Heaven came down and glory filled my soul. Heaven is here. Heaven is the presence of the Lord. And is he here in your life? Is he there in 16:40 your marriage? Is he there in your home? Is he there in your workplace? Is he there in your car or your truck as you're driving to work? Then you're in heaven. The physical reality is is something to look forward to as well. But 16:52 um I I However, what I said was I don't have anything worth living for here that is worth sacrificing what I have up there. And if you find yourself having to invest in things on this earth at the expense of an eternal weight of glory, 17:07 a little bit of pleasure, a little bit of lusting of the eyes, a little bit of uh love of money that that sacrifices the eternal weight of glory that you could earn, don't choose that. Don't let anything get in the way of 17:20 your eternal weight of glory. And so Satan's tactic is I don't believe it's going to be one with to hit the to hit the church with force yet. I think that he has the the world already in his hands and he has lukewarm Christians in his hands already, people 17:36 who claim to be Christians and they're not. But what he's after now is those who are serious about about God, who are serious about following Jesus, those who want to be wholehearted Christians, that's you and I, those who take their 17:47 Christian walk seriously. In Matthew 24 he says, "If possible, he wants to mislead even the elect." If possible. He says, "I you know, the worldly people who don't deny God, the atheists and all those other people, I already have them in my camp. Lukewarm 18:01 Christians, God's going to spit them out of out of his mouth, so I already have them, too. It's the elect that I'm interested in. It's the ones who are taking their walk seriously that I want to see if I can grab them, too, because 18:11 I have a short amount of time." If possible that he can mislead even the elect, very sobering words. I don't know if you read those words in Matthew 24, uh that it just brings a that that means the devil's after you. What if you knew 18:24 that there was a um a sniper or a gunman roaming the streets looking for you? "I'm looking for you." You because they're they're hunting for you some reason. I'd be I'd keep a low profile. I'd hide. I wouldn't make sure 18:34 I make sure I'm not seen because I know somebody's gunning for me. That's the devil, he's gunning for me. Should we hide? No, because we have somebody greater within us than who is in the world. We have a power within us that is 18:43 greater than anything the devil can bring against us. However, we must walk circumspectly and aware that he's trying to trip us up. He's trying to capture us. He's trying to trap us. And this cha these verses that we read 18:55 in 2 Timothy 3 talk about how the devil traps us. It's very interesting. I believe that the devil's tactic with the church is if you can't beat them, join them. Have you heard that phrase? If you can't beat them, join them. Let's 19:07 say you find that there's an enemy and this is a common tactic in enemy warfare. If you find that your enemy is stronger than you and in a punching fight, you would lose or they have more artillery than you do and they have a 19:18 greater military than you do. What should you do? Send a spy in there to somehow disorient them or to reduce their power, to confuse them. You see that God did that often in the in the Old Testament. It's pretty neat how 19:30 there were all these vast enemies that came against Israel and Israel was just a few people, but they got confused. There was a just you know, a little spy or something God caused to bring confusion in their midst. It's an 19:39 effective tactic and I believe it's something that the devil is using against the church today, against those who are wholehearted Christians. If you can't beat them, join them. So, do what? What we read here in 2 Timothy chapter 19:50 3. Realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. And if I was to just stop there at the end of verse 1, what would you think? In the last days difficult times will come. I'll tell you honestly what I would think. 20:02 I'd think, "Wow, so there's going to be persecution. They're probably going to throw us in jail. It's going to be hard to meet as a church. Um they're going to come and uh take away our Bibles from us." You know that that's not what he 20:11 says? This is the sign that difficult times are coming. This is the kind of difficult times that are in store for us, church, that the Bible is talking about. This is the kind of perilous tribulation, the coming tribulation. I 20:25 titled it that way. The coming tribulation for us is this. Verse 2. Men will be lovers of self. Is that such a bad thing? Do you Do you look at that as a tribulation? If you discovered when you went home this evening that you loved yourself a little 20:40 bit more, would that shake you into the reality of thinking, "This is tribulation. This is the coming difficult times that God that the Bible promised." The Bible promised that difficult times will come and I discovered it when I 20:52 went home that I loved myself and I thought I hated myself. I I saw that in a situation of conflict between me and my wife or some other person that I loved myself and I was trying to preserve myself. It's a sign that a 21:03 perilous time has come. That's the sign of the That's the coming tribulation. Men and women will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient, etc. We'll come back to that. But, I want to turn you again to 21:17 Matthew chapter 24 and show you these this verse that I think about often. I refer to it earlier. Matthew 24:24 was the verse I told you that false Christs and false prophets will come and will arise and will show great signs 21:34 and wonders so as to mislead if possible even the elect. That's Matthew 24:24. But, then he says in verse 12, and again, I I wish I could read the whole chapter because that's really the context, but maybe we'll begin in verse 21:48 9. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and will kill you and you will be hated by all nations on account of me. And at that time, many many will fall away. Fall away means what? That they were walking in the truth. They knew God. They were 22:01 attending church and they perhaps had an interest in godly things. Many will fall away. You know that when I read many, I think it's at least 50% or more. Really? You mean that in in God-fearing, Bible-preaching churches, more than 50% 22:15 if I read exactly what God's word says, will fall away and will deliver up one another and hate one another and many false prophets will arise and will mislead many. Look at how many times he says the word many, many, many. 22:32 It's like he's saying, "Don't assume that you will be in the minority." We like to assume that we'll be in the minority. Don't assume it. If I'm walking carefully, if I live with a clear conscience before God, if I hate 22:42 sin in my life, if I don't tolerate any unrighteousness and wickedness in my life, then I have nothing to be afraid of. God will preserve me. But, if I'm careless about my life and I love the things of this world and love myself and 22:52 love money and I'm careless with the way I look with my eyes, careless with my tongue, careless in how I treat others, to how I treat my wife and how I treat my husband, how I treat my children, I will probably be in that many that's 23:04 misled. And then he says, "And because lawlessness is increased." Do you see lawlessness being increased in the world around you? I hope you do. It is. The the the the things that children do now in schools and the the level of crime 23:18 the age of crime has gotten so low now. That's a sign that lawlessness is increased. I don't have to fear, but what should I be What should I be most concerned about? The latter part of verse 12, most people's love will grow 23:31 cold. This is the While the rest of the world is is plunging deeper and deeper into lawlessness, what's happening in the church? They They may not be going out and doing those wicked things and doing all those ugly things, but their love is growing 23:44 cold. That passionate love for Jesus that they had when they first came to the knowledge of salvation, that's grown cold. Their love for the brothers and sisters around them that God has called them to love is growing cold. 23:54 It's It's both of it Both of those things is a lowering. Lawlessness is increasing. Peop- People are becoming more and more wicked. But you see that at the same time what's happening in the church and it's just as dangerous is the 24:05 love growing cold. And so the devil's tactic with us as Christians, those who are serious about following Jesus, is to get our love to cool off somehow. Don't be so radical. I mean, you really have to take that radical a position in such 24:17 a matter? What's Do you really have to be so obedient? Do you really have to hate hate the love of money and resist the love of money? Is Do you really have to take it that seriously? What's so wrong with a little bit of this and a 24:27 little bit of that, a little bit of the world? And as in lawlessness is increasing in the world, most Christians love will grow cold. Satan's point of attack with you as a Christian is what or who you're in love with. You guys you can't see that very 24:43 clearly. But this is Satan's point of attack with you as a Christian, my dear friend. Remember this. As a As a wholehearted disciple of Jesus is one who's seeking to follow, this is the point that that the devil is going to 24:53 attack you to try to get your love to grow cold, to get my love to grow cold, what or whom I'm in love with. And so we see that he uses this word love back in 2 Timothy chapter 3. Let me show that to you again. 2 Timothy chapter 3. 25:08 This is the sign that difficult times have come in the last days. Is that the devil will bring things into our life that will compete with the affection that should be focused on Jesus Christ alone. The affection that we should have for God alone. That love 25:23 for him we should be He uses this word lover. Lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure verse 4. It's It's more than just saying I like that. I You know, it's It's It's saying that this is captivating my life. I am a lover of 25:37 self. That when it comes down to it, this is what I will preserve at the end of the day is myself, my dignity, my reputation, what people say about me. I'm going to defend myself. That's a lover of self. A lover of money is 25:47 somebody who's willing to make compromises in any situation for the sake of a little bit more money. And And sacrifice things that God calls him to invest or her to invest their life in for the sake of a little bit more money. 25:58 A lover of pleasure is one who's not willing to die to himself in circumstances. He would rather watch that pornographic movie or watch Look at that woman in lust because it's too difficult. I love pleasure too much or can't control their 26:11 gluttony and be and just wanting to eat all the best food all the time. This is the sign that the end times are here. It's not that all the other things around the world are going down the tube. That might happen, too. But the 26:22 sign that the end times are coming in the church is that God's people are being becoming lovers of self and lovers of money and lovers of pleasure. Look at the sign that they're lovers of self. Boastful. Is that true in the church? Arrogant. 26:40 Revilers. Disobedient to parents. This one struck me. Really? Is that a sign? Have you thought that when I see a disobedience in in child, a disobedient spirit in my child, that that's a sign that the devil's after them because he knows his 26:55 time is up. That's why disobedience is something we take seriously with our children. Disobeying Daddy and Mommy is an important thing. I was taught that. There were very few things that my parents took very, very seriously for 27:05 which we got the harshest punishments. These were some of them, disobedience, rank disobedience where I knew that Daddy or Mommy said something to me and I disobeyed, I didn't care. Because of this verse, because my parents loved me 27:16 enough to to show me that if I allowed that disobedience to fester in my life, it would take me right into the world. Disobedience to parents. What Some of the other things were speaking disrespectfully to parents. That my 27:29 parents treated that very seriously and I I've taken that to heart myself as a parent that those are the things to recognize the devil's tactics with our children as well. Not to live in fear, not to keep them in bondage, but to seek to set them 27:43 free, to rescue them from the devil's uh from the devil's captivity because we saw that at the end of the previous chapter, right? That this is our goal is to to set free those who have been held captive by the devil's will. 27:58 Disobedient to parents. They will be ungrateful. Really? You mean that the sign that the devil that Christ's return is near and that the church is is backsliding is that there's ungratefulness in our life. Really? I Most Christians don't take 28:12 ungratefulness that seriously. What's What's so bad with a little bit of complaining about this and I go to a restaurant and I'm just ungrateful. I just the salt's not right or the food's burnt and find something else to complain 28:23 about. They They didn't fix the roads or traffic's backed up, so I'm ungrateful about that. We live in a society where we're so pampered and have so many comforts and so many luxuries in our life that we've become ungrateful. 28:35 It's a sign that difficult times have come. Men will women will be lovers of self, lovers of pleasure, lovers of money. Unloving. Really? I thought that the fact that I have that unloving attitude towards that other person is not so bad. It's a sign that 28:52 there's a perilous time coming. Unloving. Unloving towards husband or wife or children or parents, brothers or sisters in the church. That unloving attitude. It's the devil's attack point to see if he can get me into his 29:04 kingdom. If he can somehow mislead even the elect. Irreconcilable. Irreconcilable. That means that I have a conflict with somebody that I refuse to get get it reconciled. I refuse to humble myself and lower my dignity and 29:17 apologize. I don't I don't allow myself to be reconciled. Paul says we have the ministry of reconciliation as God's ambassadors. That God is reconciling men to himself. That's the ministry he's given us. And the opposite of that, the antichrist, if 29:33 you will, is Christ came with a ministry of reconciliation. The antichrist will say, "Who cares about that relationship?" And we refuse to be reconciled. I allow things to fester between me and some other person. Me and 29:45 another brother or me and another sister, me and my wife, allow them to fester. Do you realize husband and wife, and I speak this to myself with fear and trembling, that if I allow an irreconcilable attitude to remain in my 29:56 home for even a few hours, that's that many hours that the devil has a foothold in my home. If I refuse to apologize for something I said to her that would hurt her or some other uh silent treatment I'm giving her, if I 30:09 allow that to remain for even a day, if I allow it to remain until the sun goes down because I think, "Well, I'm I'm entitled to that." Do you realize that that entire period of time is some is is an opportunity the devil says, "Good. I 30:22 have an irreconcilable marriage that's irreconcilable for even a few hours, and I'm going to try to take advantage of it." Because this is his tactic. Have you seen all of these as the tactics of the devil to bring in his influence into 30:36 our homes and into the church. Let's be aware of it and let's resist it. Realizing that this is his way of trying to mislead even the elect. The world, he's already got them. The half-hearted, the lukewarm Christians, they don't have 30:48 they they are irreconcilable and they can stay that way. But, it's the elect, the ones who are seeking to to live in commitment in their lives in commitment to each other that he's trying to bring in this irreconcilable attitude. 31:00 Let's be aware of it. Malicious gossips, really. God, there's there's perhaps I I I I read a statement once that said that there's more gossip in churches than outside in the world. And yet, he said this is the sign that the devil is 31:13 working. A malicious gossip that just loves to talk about other people. Do you hear this about so-and-so? And hear this about so-and-so? And what about her? And look at their children. A malicious gossip that loves to just drop a little 31:24 seed of gossip and say, leave it there. And we can just sometimes gossip is shared as prayer requests. How about that? Malicious gossips. It's a sign that perilous times are coming. This is the tribulation we are we are being 31:39 we're aware of. This is the tribulation we are watching out for. Not that they're going to come in here with guns and take me away. If they do that, that's fine. I can handle that. But, it's the malicious gossip mentality in 31:49 me. It's the treacherous, the ungrateful, unloving, irreconcilable, disobedient, abusive in speech, boastful, arrogant attitude in me that is the greater danger for me. If I'm if I'm not aware of it and if I treat it lightly, 32:06 I'm I'll be misled like the majority. Many will be misled. Malicious gossips, and you use the word brutal. I think he's talking about the use of our words. Have you come across Christians that are brutal with their words? I have. 32:23 And I think I've had brutal attitudes. By God's grace, maybe I haven't spoken brutally to anybody, but I've had brutal attitudes in my heart. I'm I'm aware of it. And I've had to repent of it. Recognizing that that's the devil's 32:35 trap. In some people, he can get them to deny Christ by uh uh confronting them with persecution. For those who say, "Well, persecution, devil, you got to do better than that. What's he going to do?" Something innocent like just a malicious attitude 32:47 towards somebody. A a resentment towards somebody, and every time you see him or her, you think, "Ugh, I just don't like that person." And you allow that to remain there. And like we heard we talked about during the Bible 32:57 study, we don't realize how much God has forgiven us. And we don't have a recognition and an awareness of how much we have been forgiven, so that we can forgive others, no matter what their faults. Lovers of money. And this this is a message that most 33:16 churches would reject. You mean the love of money? You mean this health and wealth gospel is actually a sign that tribulates the end time is near? I believe it with all of my heart that the more this gospel spreads that God wants 33:29 to bless you and give you all those financial benefits and heal you of all your sicknesses and and take care of all your problems and give you all these earthly benefits so that you can make a name for yourself. I see it very 33:39 clearly, according to 2 Timothy 3:2, that it's a sign that Christ's return is drawing near. And the devil will be able to mislead many through this love of money. Or a love of an earthly kingdom. Think about it. Patriotism can can masquerade 33:55 in this in the name of Christianity. God is interested in building his kingdom, the new Jerusalem, the new city that is coming down out of heaven, not an earthly kingdom. And he's looking for a remnant wherever they might be in this 34:06 world who is willing to follow him, be taken up with that kingdom. Lovers of pleasure. Unholy, without self-control. This is the sign that the end times are here. Do you find a a just a a love of pleasure? You You just like comfort. You like to 34:22 buy these comfortable things and those comfortable uh eat com- eat just luxurious food. And again, please understand, I'm not preaching law here. I'm not saying it's it's wrong for us to buy good things for ourselves or for our 34:33 children. I do buy things that the Lord gives gives me the grace and the freedom and the ability to buy without getting into debt. However, my love is not on those things. And the test is if something if my child spills something on that couch 34:46 that I just bought and I'm so proud of it and then my child spills something on it accidentally. Not I'm not talking about disobedience or not listening. Yeah, we teach them to be careful, but what happens then? Is my joy stolen? Or 34:57 I buy a car and then next thing you know, somebody opens the door or dings it in the parking lot. Now now I'm all worked up about that. And for days I'm just miserable because somebody dinged my car. It's an earthly thing. 35:08 Sure, we take care of the things that God gives us with responsibility, but my vested interest is not on the things of this earth. And that can be that love of pleasure. This is the one I'll tell you I struggle with the most that I find in 35:20 me like layers of an onion deeper and deeper and deeper layers of comfort loving in my life. I love comfort. I'll be honest with you. It's just part of the society we live in I think. We're finding more and more ways to live in 35:33 comfort. But do you recognize that that love of comfort, that love of pleasure that pleases myself is a sign that the devil is trying to mislead me because his time is running short. Lovers of pleasure. You know the um the two cities that that are 35:52 described in the book of Revelation are contrasted as the two kingdoms if you will, Babylon and the New Jerusalem, Babylon and the New Jerusalem. And I thought it was interesting as I was meditating on this that the word 36:03 described to use Babylon is is is is a is a word of adultery. She's called the harlot. Somebody that cheats on her husband. That's what it that's what Babylon is. Spiritually we're talking about, not in the physical. Sp- Excuse me. 36:17 Babylon, this is the characteristic of Babylon is that they have a wedding ring on if I could use earthly terminology. This is the spirit of Babylon. They have a wedding ring on. This is a woman that has a wedding ring on but sleeps with another man. Has a 36:29 wedding ring on but sleeps with another man. Spiritually, what does that mean? Babylon is not the world. Babylon is not the world. It's not the people out there in the world. It's a system that is permeating churches. Why? Because he's 36:42 talking about people who have the wedding ring on. They say, "I'm a Christian. I was born again on such and such a date." But I'm sleeping with the world. Look at what he says in James 4. You know this verse. See, in 2 Timothy 3, you if you read 36:57 that again, he he contrasts lovers of self, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Here is somebody that should be married to God, should be taken up with God, his his or her bridegroom, lovers of God. 37:11 Instead, they are lovers of all these other things while being married to God, while wearing the wedding ring, while attending church, while reading the Bible, while praying over every meal, while having devotional time with their 37:21 parents. They've got the wedding ring on. But secretly in the attitudes of their hearts and the goals for which they live their life, they're sleeping with the world. James 4. Verse 4, you adulteresses. An adulteress is not somebody who is not 37:39 yet married. Somebody who is married, who claims to be married, who's got the wedding ring on but is sleeping with some other that's that she's not married to. You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is 37:50 hostility towards God? That when you allow yourself to partake of the spirit of this world, you are cheating on God. Hostility towards God. You're spitting in his face about the wedding ring that he's put on your hand. Spiritually 38:03 again, I'm talking about Think about all the riches and the calling that God has given us. And yet we partake of the spirit of this world, this these things that I read in 2 Timothy 3. When we partake of it, he says, "You 38:12 adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God. Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." Do you want to be a friend of the world? Make yourself 38:25 an enemy of God. That's why he says the world and its lusts are passing away. In Matthew 24, I was also struck by this. Again, sometime read these chapters, 1 Peter chapter 2 Timothy chapter 3 in its entirety and Matthew 24. 38:43 Um and if you want Revelation 17 and 18, that's where he talks about Babylon, the the spirit of the harlot. I don't have time to go into it. But I was struck when I read this again yesterday evening by how many times he talks about a false something, like a 39:00 false Christ, another Jesus. And I believe that this is the way that Satan that Satan is going to attack the church to try to draw away the elect. We must be aware of his tactics. He's not going to come with another Buddha or 39:13 another Muhammad or another some other religion. We're not going to be drawn away by that, right? We're not. But if he comes with another Jesus that says, "You can have Jesus and you can go to heaven and you can be a lover of self 39:25 and you can have a little bit more money and you can do this and you can entertain a little bit of that internet pornography. It's okay. Nobody knows about it. It's You know, Jesus didn't really mean that you'd pluck your eye out lest you go to 39:35 hell. It's okay to treat your wife every now and then once a month you can yell at her. That's okay." That's another Jesus. And that is the sign that these are the end times. Look at that. Matthew 24, verse 5, "Many will come in my name 39:49 saying, 'I am the Christ.'" They're not saying, "I am you know, a Hindu or I am a Muslim or I I'm saying, "I am the Christ." And Christ looks like this. He's interested in blessing you and and allowing you to entertain that little bit of sin. It's 40:02 okay for you to commit adultery in your life. Just divorce her and find somebody else. You weren't meant for that first person anyway. Common in the church. Divorce and remarriage is more They say there's a greater percentage of divorce 40:12 and remarriage in the church. Let alone in the world. What is happening here? Is the devil has brought in this another Jesus that says, "God is loving. He's forgiving. He'll forgive you. It's okay. You made a mistake. You 40:23 married the wrong person. It's okay." I'm not I'm not here. This is not a message about divorce and remarriage. Please understand. But, I'm talking about the spirit of the world. God is not a judge. He won't send you to hell. 40:31 I mean, hell's not eternal. It's okay, you know. God is too loving to allow you to suffer like that. You'll hear this in Christendom. You won't hear it elsewhere in the world, but you'll hear a false Jesus that says, "Jesus loves you so 40:43 much, man. It's okay." And condone sin. It's okay to treat the the way you look at the at women, men, the way you look at women. It's okay to to to have a little bit of the love of money. These things that we just read in 40:55 2 Timothy 3. This is the sign. This is another Jesus. It's It's presented as Jesus. Because if you presented it as something else, I'd say I don't want that. But, when he's got when he looks like Jesus or my idea of Jesus and he's 41:08 using the name Jesus and speaking out of the Bible and preaching me a gospel that allows me to love myself, then it's another Jesus. Many will come in my name saying, "I am the Christ." and will mislead many. He says again in verse 11, "Many false 41:23 prophets will arise." False prophets will arise and will mislead many. They're false prophets. They're not false devils. They're not false demons. They're not demons and devils that are drawing away. How is the devil going to 41:35 draw you astray if you are serious about following Jesus? He's going to come as an angel of light holding up a Bible in his hand with a nice pinstripe suit preaching about Jesus and say saying the name of Jesus and singing songs that are 41:46 very moving about Jesus. And you're going to think it must be of Christ. He's singing about Jesus. We sing the same hymn at our church, don't we? The devil comes as an angel of light. Cuz his goal is to mislead you. His goal 41:58 is to mislead me. And if we are not aware of his tactics, we will buy into it hook, line, and sinker. My dear friend, it comes down to something we've been hearing over the last three or four weeks. Do you love yourself? 42:10 Are you interested in what pleases you the most? Then you can't build fellowship. We saw that a couple weeks ago in Philippians 2 that we must treat others as more important than ourselves. Then we can build fellowship. And it all 42:20 comes down to this. If I have a core that loves myself, I will be deceived. In this in the same context uh No, actually it's in 1 Thessalonians where Paul writes, he says, "God allows a deluding influence to come over them. 42:38 God deceives them." Why? "Because they did not love the truth so as to be saved." And when God shows you an area of selfishness or self-centeredness or self-seeking in your life where you're seeking your own pleasure, what will you 42:49 do with it? Will you love the truth and say, "Lord, save me from it." He wants to save you from it. He will save you from it if you trust him. Or will you say, "Oh, what's wrong with that? I have rights and I'm entitled to this and I'm 42:58 entitled to that." Matthew 24, he also then he goes on verse 23. I was trying to show you how many times he talks about false Jesus's, false prophets, false people preaching the gospel, preaching reading out of the Bible. Verse 23. 43:14 Then if anyone says to you, "Behold, here is the Christ. This is Jesus. This is how Jesus This is what Jesus would do. WWJD. This is what he would do." "Here is the Christ or there he is, do not believe him." Verse 24, "For false 43:26 Christs and false prophets will arise and they even better. He'll perhaps raise somebody from the dead. He will heal somebody a genuine healing. I'm not talking about false healing. He will do a genuine healing in the name of Jesus 43:39 but he loves money and he's a lover of self. And he's divorced his wife and married somebody else and he's sleeping around with his choir director and all this stuff that goes on in Christendom. But he's healing people in the name of 43:50 Jesus and most people are falling for that. I'm amazed by him. Because we don't see in God's word. Jesus warned us. It's right here. False Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders so as to mislead if possible even the 44:06 elect. And that verse to me strikes a chord of warning that the way the devil will be able to mislead me is when I see something, some miraculous work done in the name of Jesus, but I don't detect the spirit, I don't discern the spirit 44:19 that's behind that man or that woman. It's a spirit of loving self, a spirit that dishonors God's word, a spirit that rejects the authority that God has placed in his word, or the order that he has placed in the church and in his 44:31 body. A spirit that rejects a hating of self and a hating of the things of this world. And then again, verse 26, "If therefore they say to you see to you, behold he's there in the wilderness or this revival is coming to to this town or there he is 44:49 in Minneapolis or he's in Cleveland now. This revival meeting in Kansas City, there are all kinds of healings going on. If he says he's here or there, do not go forth. Behold, he is in the inner rooms, do not believe him there either." 45:05 If we allow ourselves to be deceived by the outward manifestation of things and we buy into a gospel that allows me to live with my love of myself and love of pleasure and love of money, I'll be deceived. The most prominent sign at the end of 45:20 times is that Satan will present another Jesus. We'll end there. I had a reference up there to the Tower of Babel. That's the origins of Babylon. You know, Babylon is contrasted, like I said, with with the New Jerusalem. And 45:35 it's interesting if you read the history of where the Tower of Babel, that incident in Genesis 12, I think, or 11, um where it happened, it's right after, I mean, at some point after the flood. That's really the first incident you 45:48 read about after the flood. God rescues this Noah and his family from the wickedness around them, save them through the ark, and you think, "Wow, now God's got a remnant." But you know that the devil is interested in that remnant. And shortly 45:59 after the redemption from the flood, what happens? Ham falls into sin and God curses him. And then things get worse and worse and worse. And then they build this tower of Babel trying to get up to heaven says, "We will make a name for ourselves. We'll 46:12 build a tower that goes up to heaven." It's a religious It's a religious work because they're trying to get to heaven. They're not making a name for us It's not a wide uh city. It was an upward city. They're trying to name a religious system, if 46:25 you will. That's what Babylon represents. And all the way back in the tower of Babel, you see that. And God had to bring confusion in their midst and separate them uh as as people. But you know what happens right after that? 46:36 God calls Abraham. Read that again. Genesis chapter 12, God says, "I've right after the incident in the tower of Babel, people spread out and then God says, 'Now I'm going to start my work with the people of faith, a people who are interested in my 46:48 promises, a people who will trust me.' And through Abraham comes the seed that is Jesus Christ. And in him we are his seed as well." And so I see the the the God drawing this line through history. He had redeemed his people through the flood, 47:02 saved Noah and his family, but then mankind was so wicked they went right back into wickedness and God says, "Now I'm going to call out an eternal covenant." He made an eternal covenant with with Abraham, one that would last 47:12 forever through Jesus Christ. That's the That's the hope we have. My dear friends, God is going to preserve us. I believe with all of my heart if we wholeheartedly determine that we will not allow any love of self, love of 47:24 money, love of pleasure to live in our lives, in our homes, in our hearts, in our minds, in our ambitions. God is on our side against the devil. He's greater. He is going to win. There's no doubt about it. You read the end of the 47:35 book of end of the Bible, the end of the book of Revelation, God's going to win. It's a question of who are on his side. And the ones are on his side are the ones who say, "Lord, I I don't seek any pleasure, pro- self-prominence, any love of money. 47:49 I don't seek any of these things on this earth. If you give it to me, I will be thankful and I'll give it back to you. You draw the circle around me. I want to be a light. I want to live a life that's pleasing to you. This, I believe, is the tribulation 48:02 that's coming. That the devil will test his church. Just test the church of Jesus Christ with How about a little bit of love of self? Entertain that in your life. A little bit of love of money, not so bad. That's worse, I believe. That's a 48:16 greater danger to us than if they were to come and haul us away in chains for the sake of the gospel. Let's be aware of it. Lord, I pray that you'll keep us aware of the enemy that we deal with. Aware of his tactics. That we should never live in fear, Lord. 48:30 Thank you that you have cast out all fear through your perfect love. And we walk in that perfect love, knowing that you love us and you care for us and you've made a way of salvation for us. We give ourselves completely to you, 48:41 Lord, knowing that the best possible plan for our lives is the one that you have written up. It's a plan for my welfare, not for my calamity, to give me a future and a hope. This is the God we serve. This is our loving heavenly Father. Thank you, Lord, 48:54 for showing yourselves to us that way. Encourage us, Lord, in this word and through this week. I pray for any that are sick, discouraged in any way. Uh pray for Joshua Martin, Lord, especially as you will touch his body 49:05 and heal him. Strengthen him, Lord, through his uh physical trial that you're taking him through. Thank you for preserving K and Riyadh's life there, Lord. Pray for Cliff and the family, also. Will you bless them? Others that 49:16 are sick, Lord, in our midst, different ones that are pregnant and suffering in sickness there, too, Lord. Will you bring healing in into our midst because we want to serve you, Lord, with health and the strength that you give us. We 49:27 want to live lives that are pleasing to you. Pray for any that are in financial needs, Lord. Will you give them strength and hope and provide for us, Lord, and um people who are struggling with emotional relationships, breakdown of 49:37 relationships with parents or others, Lord, or uh family members. I pray that you will bring healing there. Give us grace, Lord, to take the risk of love because you took the risk of love on us. Thank you, Lord. You'll do it. 49:50 Bless our week and provide for us. Lead us, Lord, as individuals, as homes, and as your gathering of believers here. In Jesus' name. Amen.
