0:20 Good Bible teaching uh will emphasize whatever I mean in the new covenant age, whatever the new covenant emphasizes. It means whatever is written a lot in the about in the New Testament, 0:39 we must study a lot and we must hear a lot about it. And whatever is written very little in the New Testament, we speak about very little. Whatever the New Testament is silent on, you know, there are so many subjects, 0:57 we're silent on, but we can give our opinion. Paul gave his opinion in 1 Corinthians 7. He says, "I don't have a commandment from the Lord, but I give my opinion." So, that's the balance. And uh if a church is receiving good Bible 1:12 teaching, there'll be particularly this balanced teaching where all that the New Testament emphasizes to a great extent will be emphasized to a great extent. And nothing will be left out. The what the New Testament emphasizes a little 1:27 will not be left out, but will be emphasized a little. What the New Testament is silent on, uh the New will be silent on, but give our opinion. For example, the New Testament doesn't speak much about family planning or birth control. 1:46 Hardly anything. The Old Testament, there were verses. So, there there's an area where we can have our own opinion, but we can't force another person to have our opinion. That's just one example. There are a lot of areas where the New 1:58 Testament speaks a lot and one of those areas what I want to do speak on today is the second coming of Jesus Christ. I don't know when was the last time you heard a message on the second coming of Christ. We speak a lot about sanctification and 2:12 holiness. It's all very, very important. But do you know those things are related to the second coming of Christ? Because it says in 1 John in chapter 3 and verse 2. 2:30 1 John 3:2, beloved, now we are children of God. And it does not yet appear what we shall be. That's talking about when in the future will I be now I'm already a child of God. That's not something in the future. Christ came into my heart sometime ago 2:50 and I became a child of God. Trust that's true of most of us here anyway. And but how will it be in the future? We don't know yet very clearly. But we know one thing. There are many things about the future we don't know. A lot of 3:07 people ask me about questions, how is it going to be in eternity and in heaven and all this? I say, I don't know. It says here um it's not clear. But there's one thing I do know and that's what he says, but we know that when Christ appears, he's talking 3:20 about his second coming, we will be like him and that's the important thing. That my character will become 100% like Jesus Christ. That's what I look forward to. Because we will see him exactly as he is and that that's another 3:38 thing we don't see very clearly everything and if you have this hope fixed on you, what is that hope? The hope of the second coming of Jesus Christ and our becoming like him. For many people the hope is only Christ will come back. 3:56 Read carefully. We know that when he appears we shall be like him. And if this is your hope that he will appear, we will see him as he is, and we will be like him. It's a double hope. Never forget that. Cuz most Christians never speak that 4:14 second part of that hope. They always speak about Christ is coming back. I'm looking forward to see him. Great. But do you know the second part of that hope is I'll be like him. And it's because that second part of that hope is missing 4:27 in the lives of many believers just because they don't read the scripture carefully. Do you know the number of people who have told me, "Brother Zac, how is it I didn't see that in the scripture till you pointed it out?" I said, "It's because you don't 4:37 read carefully. That's all." It's there in your Bible all along. How many of you knew that your hope is that Christ will come back and then you'll be like him. That's just an example of how carelessly we read scripture. 4:51 Everyone who has this double hope fixed on him, what will he do? He will purify himself until he reaches the standard of Christ's purity. Why? Because God has predestined us to become conformed to the image of his son. 5:10 And we will be like him. And so that's my goal. My goal is not heaven. Nowhere in the Bible does it say my goal our goal is heaven. There are many Christians who have that false goal. They say, "Oh, I'm sick and tired of living on this earth 5:23 and I'm going to a place where there'll be no more sorrows and my tears will be wiped away and there'll be streets of gold and mansions and all." And there are even songs about I'm satisfied with the cottage below because I'm going to get a 5:33 mansion up there. I'll tell you honestly, I'm not worried about a mansion. I'm not interested in that at all. What will I do with a 14-bedroom mansion in heaven? You can have it if you like. I want to be with Jesus. All these things are pictures. 5:47 Jesus used pictures because we can't understand heavenly things. Our what I look forward to is that all the things I'm fed up of in my life and I tell you the things I'm really fed up of is not sickness. It's not the opposition of others. It's 6:06 not criticism. It is not trials and difficulties. That's not it. I'm sick and tired primarily of un-Christ-likeness in my behavior, in my thoughts, attitudes, motives. And if that's what you're sick and tired of you really look forward to seeing the 6:23 coming of Christ you'll be rid of that. It doesn't bother me if there's going to be suffering in heaven. There there isn't going to be suffering, I know. But it doesn't bother me because if I'm become like Christ these other things 6:34 are unimportant. I want to ask you, what are you looking forward to when you think of the second coming of Christ? Is it freedom from the burdens of earth and the trials of earth and sickness and sorrows? You got it all wrong then. 6:50 To me those are the little bonuses. It's not your salary, you know, when you work in a company you don't work for the bonus, you work for the salary. The bonus is something just thrown in. So the bonus that's thrown in is my 7:02 tears are wiped from my eyes and my sorrows will disappear and there won't be any sickness. Those are not the main thing. The main thing I'm going to get is I'm going to be like Jesus. That's if I have that hope. If I really 7:16 say that not theoretically, I mean now that you've heard me say that if I were to I give you a question paper and ask you to answer, what are you looking forward to you can say I'm looking forward to the coming of Christ but that doesn't prove it. If you 7:28 really have this hope what you're going to do in your daily life is you're going to purify yourself. We can ask God to cleanse us from the guilt of the past. That is his work. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. 7:46 But there's another cleansing which we have to do, which God we cannot ask God to do it. So, you purify yourself. Let us second Corinthians 7:1, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. 8:04 So, there's a cleansing that God does which only relates to our past life. That's all. And there's a cleansing we have to do which relates to the corruption of our nature, from which we have to cleanse ourselves all the time. 8:19 So, we see here this is what we have to purify ourselves. So, we got to keep that in mind as we approach the end of time. So, I want to share a few things in relation to the second coming of Christ. First of all, let's turn to Matthew 8:32 chapter 24. What I gave there in those verses was a sort of introduction to which we must keep at the back of our mind all the time when studying the second coming of Christ. Otherwise, we can get so taken up with the bowls of wrath and the trumpets and 8:50 what's going to happen to Israel and so many things. I said, we don't have to be very clear on that if we see the main thing is we got to purify ourselves and be ready for Christ's coming. Matthew 24. They asked the disciples came up and 9:08 asked Jesus when he said that the temple would be destroyed. Verse three. "When will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" And I want you to see carefully exactly 9:28 what Jesus said. Now, most Christians, if you were to ask them, what are the signs of the second coming? Some people would say something's happening in Israel or There's to be earthquakes and famines and wars and all. He came to all that. 9:38 But the first thing he said is "Be careful that no one deceives you." Deception in Christendom is going to be the number one mark of the last days. You may say there's always been deception. 9:57 Even in the first century there were false teachers and preachers. Yes. It's going to be intensified. It's like saying there were wars always. I mean from the time of Jesus there's always been wars in every century, but it's 10:10 going to be much more in the last days. There've always been earthquakes. There's always going to be much more. There's always been deception, but it's going to be much more in the last days. And that's the number one thing Jesus 10:22 pointed out. We had to be careful that we are not deceived. And again he repeats it in verse 11, "Many false prophets will arise and mislead many or deceive many." He never He mentioned famines, earthquakes, and wars and all 10:40 just once in verse 6 and 7. He never repeated it. But when it came to deception he repeats it again. You'll be careful that you're not deceived. And again further on in verse 24 "False Christs and false prophets will 10:59 arise and to mislead if possible even the elect. I told you in advance. Remember." Three times he mentions deception. More than other things. So I see in relation to the second coming of Christ one of the first things I see is there's 11:17 going to be a tremendous amount of deception in Christendom. And this is not just the teaching of Jesus. You see the apostles emphasized it, too. In 1 Timothy 4 it says the spirit speaks expressly 11:39 that some will fall away from the faith. Paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons. 1 Timothy 4:1. He's not talking about just deception among unbelievers. There's a lot of that going on. 11:57 You know, unbelievers not being uh taught the pure gospel or the pure gospel not being proclaimed to them. Here he's speaking about people falling away from the faith. That's not non-Christians. That's not even nominal Christians. 12:16 To fall away from something, if you fall away from the roof of a building, you've got to the roof first. Only then that you fall away. So, you have the faith and then you fall away from the faith. So, you know, I don't know how people 12:32 believe that once you come to the faith you'll never fall away. Once saved, always saved. It doesn't say that. In the last days there will be people who fall away from the faith. And when you read uh the epistles, please remember one thing 12:49 that when Paul wrote his letter, there were no chapter divisions or verses or any such thing. It was just a letter. When you get a letter from somebody, there are no chapters or verses. It's been divided into chapters and 13:01 verses just 4 500 years ago for our convenience. So, when you read a scripture, let me tell you a simple principle, read the verses before it and after it. You'll understand it in its context. The context is verse 16 of chapter 3, 13:19 the previous verse. The secret of godliness. The secret of godliness is that Christ came in our flesh and was vindicated in the spirit, declared righteous by the spirit. This faith 13:37 that we can walk as Jesus walked. People are going to fall away from him. That's the context. If you have ears to hear, because they're going to pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons who will teach in the last days 13:56 that one way to become holy is verse three by not getting married or by not eating certain foods by certain other methods of holiness. That's the context. Be careful. The hypocrisy of liars, verse two. 14:14 That itself warns me about two great sins I must avoid in the last days. One is pretense, hypocrisy. And the other is lying. Turn with me now to 2 Thessalonians in chapter two. So we saw that in 1 Timothy, you notice 14:32 in 4:1 the spirit speaks expressly that people will fall away deceived by doctrines of demons. So deception is another thing mentioned in relation to the last days. And second 1 2 Thessalonians 2 as well. Uh verse one, we request you brethren 14:50 with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him. That's what we call the rapture. When Christ will come and we'll be taken up in the air to meet him. That you may not be quickly shaken from 15:03 your composure or be disturbed as if that day has come. Let no one deceive you. Notice how Jesus and the apostles are always mentioning deception. Not wars and rumors of wars primarily, but deception in relation to the last 15:19 days. Because that day will not come until the Antichrist comes first. I don't know whether you know that. The Bible teaches there's going to be a period of tribulation for Christians before he returns. During which time the Antichrist will 15:38 arise. That day will not come until there's a great apostasy means a falling away. Again, the same teaching there's going to be a great falling away of believers from the faith. Do you see how many believers have fallen away in the last 20, 30 years? 15:56 Or if you look at the gospel that was being preached in even in the United States 70, 80 years ago. 70, 80 years ago. Very different from what is being preached today. Today, it's all about 16:14 money, prosperity, and health. You go back and listen to the preachers of 70, 80 years ago. It was completely different. You go back 120 years ago, it was totally different. There's been a gradual drift away from the true gospel. 16:33 There's been a falling away that's slowly taken place. I think particularly after the Second World War. And he goes on to say about false signs. See verse 9, the activity of Satan. Chapter 2, verse 9. 16:51 Power and signs and false wonders. There was never so much I I mean deception in false healings and false miracles and wonders as there is today compared to 100 years ago. 17:09 We're living in the last times. It's exact fulfillment of everything we read in scripture. Power, signs, and wonders. Just keep all this in mind. There are many things. I want to show you a few of those. There's going to be false wonders. So, 17:23 when I see a a miracle, so-called miracle take place, I'm going to be alert today and say, "Is this Is this a genuine one or a fake one? Is this guy trying to fool me over television or like some magician or some psychological 17:36 trick?" I want to be very alert. And this is going to be done with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish. We can ask ourselves, "Why does God allow this deception?" in the church. See, for example, I would not allow a 17:55 deceiver to come into my house and talk to my children. Isn't God a more loving father than me? God says, "My ways are not your ways." The best father on earth is not like God. He's far superior and his ways 18:12 of dealing are very different from ours. His thoughts are different. He allows deception in the midst of Christendom to sift out the really wholehearted from those who are not. And I'll just come to that in a moment. I don't know whether you realize that 18:30 God is always in the business of sifting. Sifting so that the real pure gold will remain in the church. He's going to eliminate all pride and hypocrisy 18:47 or those who live in those sins. And here it says, "With all the deception of wickedness for those who perish because" and verse 10 and 11 are very important verses if you want to escape deception. You've probably heard me say that many 19:03 times. I'll never get tired of speaking it because it's one of the most important things if you want to escape deception in the last days. Please read verse 10 and 11 very carefully. Why were they deceived? Two things. 19:22 They did not receive the love of the truth. That's verse 10. And they did not want to be saved. And whenever the New Testament speaks about being saved, it does not speak about being saved from poverty, it does not speak about being 19:36 saved from sickness, it does not being seek about being saved from death. It speaks about being saved from sin. There is only one salvation spoken of in the New Testament. And that is salvation from sin. So, 19:53 if I don't love the truth, and I don't want to be saved from sin. Just two things. If I don't love the truth, and I don't want to be saved from sin, I'm a prime candidate for deception. However much of the Bible I know, 20:11 I can have gone through a Bible school, and I can be deceived. Remember, the people who were most deceived in the first century were the Bible scholars. The entire Old Testament, they studied, studied. There were people called 20:27 scribes who studied, studied, studied, studied the Old Testament. And you know, from Genesis to Malachi, every book speaks about Jesus Christ. Every book. I don't have time to show it to you, but you read sometime Luke 24 when Jesus was 20:43 walking with the disciples to Emmaus. It says he opened the scriptures. That long 7-mile journey, 2-3 hour journey, he opened the scriptures and showed them things concerning himself all the way from Genesis to Malachi. 21:00 In the law and the prophets, it says. The law and the prophets refers to Genesis to Malachi. And he explained, showed how all they spoke about Christ the Messiah coming. Okay, these scribes studied it, studied it, and when Christ the Messiah came 21:16 into their midst, you know what they called him? Beelzebub. Prince of devils. The Roman Centurion said this is the son of God. Pilate said, "No, I don't believe he's a deceiver." Unconverted idol worshipers recognized him, 21:33 but the great scholars felt he was a deceiver. He was the devil. Can you imagine how wrong they can be? Christ has come and they think he's the devil. That's how wrong Bible scholars can be. That's how wrong people who go to Bible 21:51 college can be. That's what I learned when I read the Gospels. So wrong that they killed him. Reading the scriptures. You think that can't happen today? People who study study the Bible? Why is it they were deceived? They did not love 22:06 the truth, and they did not want to be saved. Jesus said you shall to those Pharisees he told them in John 8:32, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." So here we see two things. If you love the truth, 22:22 and you want to be saved from sin, you'll be protected from deception. If you don't love the truth, you don't want to be saved from sin, however clever you may be, however much you study the scriptures, you will be deceived even if you sit in this church. 22:36 So what does it mean? Because And it says for this reason, verse 11, it was for this reason that God himself sends a deluding influence. This is the only verse in the whole Bible that says God sends a deceiving influence on his people. 22:54 Why does he do that? I will not send a deceiving influence on my children, but since I'm not as great as God, that's why. But God sends it because that's the way he sifts out for example, here's a church with 50 people and God wants to sift out in that church 23:11 who are the ones here who really love the truth. Everybody pretends to love the truth, all 50 of them. Who are the ones sitting here who really want to be saved from sin? All of them act as though they want to be saved from 23:25 sin, they'll even testify they want to be saved from sin, but I the Lord says, "I want to know deep down in their heart, in their daily life, who are serious about you know, wanting to be free from sin and who are really loving the truth." 23:39 So God sends a deceiving influence. And the shifting takes place. It's like the way people use methods to sift out different metals and uh in laboratories they separate one element from another. 23:57 God uses this method and we may not see the results till Christ comes back. The people are deceived may be sitting next to us in the same church. And when the Lord comes back, there'll be a suddenly 24:15 say, "Wow, I thought this guy was a sincere believer all along." And some other person who we didn't think much of because he was a bit dumb perhaps and couldn't preach well is there. The Lord manifests him as one who loves 24:34 the Lord. God sends a deluding influence, so that's the reason why he does it. So let's look at these two things. What does it mean to love the truth? First of all, it means to love the truth about myself. Whenever the Holy Spirit shows me, the 24:52 Holy Spirit has come to show me wherever I'm un-Christ-like. That is primary ministry to show me where I am un-Christ-like, to make me Christ-like in that area. First to show me, 2 Corinthians 3:18, 25:10 he will show me Christ and make me like him. You know, when Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord, he immediately got convicted, "Oh, I'm a man of sin." And the next thing we read, the fire from the altar came and touched his lips 25:21 and cured him. So, when I see the glory of the Lord, immediately I see my sin. I Not other people's sins, my own. And I say, "Oh Lord, I'm not like you in this area." And I cry out to you and say, "Woe is me, for I'm a man of unclean lips or 25:38 unclean thoughts or unclean something else." And the Lord says, "Okay, I'll cleanse you." Wherever I acknowledge honestly, I can think of numerous situations where the Lord says, "That was selfish, the way you acted there." 25:53 If I try to justify myself, "No, no, no, there was a reason why I did that." Lord says, "Okay, I won't say anything more to you. Go your selfish way." Scared. I want to say to you, my dear brothers and sisters, whenever the Lord tells 26:09 you, "That was a selfish way you acted or that was a selfish way you spoke." Bow your head low. Say, "Lord, I love the truth about myself. I see corruption in my flesh. I want to be cleansed from it. 26:28 You will never be deceived. You will be cleansed. I can't think of the number of times the Lord's spoken to me like that. And if the Lord sees that you are one who responds immediately, instead of arguing and like um Adam saying, "No, Lord, but you know, 26:47 my wife said this and that is why I ate the fruit and all that." He'll leave you alone. I've seen that. I've seen believers who do terrible things. And the Lord doesn't seem to 27:05 do anything to them. Doesn't discipline them. I say, "Lord, never let me be like If I do 1% of that, Lord, I want you to judge me, discipline me." I've seen so many believers do terrible things. You know, you you suddenly you 27:21 hear of pastors and preachers who lived in sin for so long, preaching away great messages in the pulpit, but living in sin. How is it that they the Holy Spirit never convicts them? I'll tell you. They don't love the truth about 27:36 themselves. They So long as nobody catches them, they're okay. It's true. Vast majority of Christians live by one commandment, "Thou shalt not get caught." So. It's scary. 27:54 Love the truth about yourself in those inner areas and motives. For example, your motive. The Lord may I he's pointed out to me, that's how I know. I can I know everything about your life because I know everything about my life. 28:07 And you got the same flesh as me. And I I see the Lord says, "What is the motive with which you did that? What is the motive with which you wrote that in that email? What is your real motive? Tell me. What is your motive with which you said 28:25 that to that person?" It's been searching. It's like the blinding searchlight of God coming into my heart. And I say, "Lord, I want to be clean. I want to love the truth about myself and cleanse myself." It's It's so good. 28:41 It's like getting a free scan. Being cleansed of a little bit of cancer over there at the early stages before it spreads and ruins me. And the other area of truth is John 17:17, Jesus said, "Sanctify them through the truth. Thy 29:01 word is truth." So, the second truth is first is the truth about myself, the second is the truth in God's word. John 17:17. So, when I read something in scripture, particularly the New Testament, and it seems to go contrary to 29:19 everything I have been taught and believed so far in whatever whatever church I grew up in. And I say, "Lord, this is not what I grew up believing." You love the truth or not? 29:38 Are you afraid of what your relatives or priests or pastors or somebody will say if you don't believe that. I'll give you two examples from my own life. I was born again in 1959 when I was 19 years old. And I was born in a 30:01 Assyrian Orthodox family. So, they sprinkled some water on me when I was a little baby and gave me a name and called that baptism. There are millions of Christians like that who are baptized as babies. Not baptism really, it's christening. 30:19 And then as I read the scriptures, I realized that the water baptism is something which one takes after one is born again. But then I met so many people, they were even believers who were not baptized in water. Yeah, good believers whom I respected 30:38 who were not baptized in water when Methodist churches and Anglican churches. So, I said, "Lord, what is the truth? I want to know what is the truth." I studied the scriptures, and I found there was not a single child that was 30:50 baptized in the New Testament, not even one. And uh it was always he who believes and is baptized is what Jesus said, and a child can't believe. So, I realized it's wrong. But then some of my friends in those churches told me, 31:07 "Listen, if you go and join a church full of believers, they don't need to hear about salvation. It's this dead Orthodox church where people needed to hear about salvation. So, this is where you need to be. So, if you can preach the gospel 31:18 here, and if you get baptized, now this church will throw you out, and you won't have an access here." I said, "Hey, that sounds reasonable." So, I didn't get baptized for 1 and 1/2 years, because I wanted to be a witness in this church where I 31:33 thought the unbelievers But you know, every time I knelt down to pray, it's as if the Lord was saying, "You're not listening to me. Why should I listen to you?" Till the time came when I got fed up. I said, "I don't care which church throws 31:44 me out. I'm going to obey God." And I got baptized and my spiritual life took off like a rocket. I'll tell you honestly, this is exactly what happened. My progress from the time I was born again till I got baptized and what it 31:56 was, it was there, but it was very, very slow, and then it suddenly took off. Not because of baptism, but because of obedience. It's not baptism. There are many people who are baptized, nothing great happens to them. But for me, it 32:11 was a big step of obedience where I was breaking away from uh opinions of priests and pastors and friends and relatives. And that's the thing. Uh and it made a terrific difference in me. So, there's an example where I'd seen 32:28 the truth in the Bible, but I didn't love the truth, and I remained in deception for a year and a half. And I'll tell you another thing, that that year and a half I didn't really progress much spiritually. Another area where I had to love the truth which I 32:41 found in the scriptures. See, after I was born again, baptized, I was attending a good brethren assembly. And I was working in the navy in down in south south of India. And um they believed that Christ will suddenly come in secret and 32:56 take every believers up and then there'll be a seven-year period of tribulation. And then we'll come back with Christ. So, I believed that and I even believed it and I was just 22 23 years old, I believed it and I taught it. 33:10 As I studied the scriptures carefully, I mean, one verse was enough. Matthew 24 and verse 29 to 31. Matthew 24 verse 29 to 31. I read immediately after 33:29 the tribulation, the son of man, verse 30, will appear in the sky and his elect will be gathered up, the trumpet will sound, the angels will come and his elect will be gathered from one end of the sky to the other. I said, "Wow." 33:44 So, the rapture is going to take place, according to Jesus, verse 29, after the tribulation. And he described some things of the tribulation earlier on. So, then I studied. I'm not saying that you should just go by one verse and 33:58 change your mind. I didn't. I studied and I studied it more carefully and I was so so clearly there's not a single verse in the New Testament that teaches there'll be a secret rapture. But there'll it is after the tribulation. In fact, in right here, 34:15 Jesus said, "If somebody says to you, in verse 26, that he's in the wilderness or he's there or he's in the inner room or he don't believe them. Because when he comes, it won't be secret. Verse 27, it'll be just like the lightning from 34:27 east to west and everybody will see it." It was so crystal clear. And I said, "How in the world did this deception come about in Christendom?" Then I studied a little more about Christian history and I discovered that this doctrine came out of a 34:42 comfort-loving Christianity in England and America over the last couple of hundred years. Nobody in the persecuted countries like China, Romania, Russia, and all believe this. It's countries that have never experienced persecution for a couple of 34:55 hundred years. They begin to think that tribulation is all always not for us. Yet the early Christians faced persecution for 300 years. All the apostles were killed except perhaps John. So, tribulation is something from man. 35:12 It's something that God has allowed his greatest saints to face. Why should the saints of the last generation escape it if the saints of the first generation did not escape it? If the greatest apostles that walked on this earth were beheaded and crucified 35:30 and killed, why should the greatest saints on the last generation escape it? If we if uh we believe in a comfort if you are a comfort-loving people, we will believe in a comfortable Christianity. So, I changed my view to scripture. 35:46 I had to love the truth and I want to tell you 95% of born-again believers don't believe it. They believe the church will be raptured before tribulation. I said, "Lord, I'm ready to stand against not only 95% I'm willing to stand against 100% of 36:00 Christians if necessary if I see it in scripture." That's what I mean by loving the truth. And I'll tell you this, the amazing things God has revealed to me in scripture when I began when he saw that I would stand for what I saw in 36:14 scripture, it's absolutely amazing. There are many things which you miss in scripture if God sees that he shows you something in scripture and you don't accept it. Subsequently, God showed me the truths about overcoming sin. Romans 6:14 was in 36:30 my Bible from 1959, but I never understood it till 1975 or 76. Many, many other things like that. Love the truths. The second thing mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2 is to be saved. 36:49 So, I must love the truth, which relates to my personal life and to the word of God. And secondly, I must have a desire to be saved from sin. If I don't have a passionate desire to be saved from sin, I will be deceived. 37:03 And when I look around at the Christians who I believe are deceived, the preachers who I believe are deceived preaching a wrong gospel of prosperity and healing, I can see one thing common about all of them. They don't have a passionate desire to 37:18 be saved from all anger. No, they don't want to come to a life where they never get angry. They don't believe it's possible. They teach what the psychologists say that anger has got some good functions and things like that. 37:35 I'll tell you something about anger if you want to know. To me, Jesus is the perfect example. He is the word made flesh. So, if you can't understand the word written down in the Bible, compare it to the word made flesh and 37:48 you will see. And I see what in Jesus' life about anger. Whenever people did anything against him personally, he never got angry. You could spit on him. You could call him the devil. You could say what you like. You're an 38:04 illegit- You know they even called him an illegitimate child. You know that verse in the Bible that says, "We were not born of fornication." In brackets, "Like you." Have you seen that verse? Yeah, they they They said all types of things 38:19 against him. He never got offended. Never got angry. So I learned one thing, any anger because of I get hurt, somebody said something against me or did something against me or did not do something which I expected them to do 38:36 is sin. But I see Jesus getting angry when he saw people making money in the name of religion. Oh, how angry he got. He made a whip and chased them out. Another time he sees the Pharisees not allowing a man with a withered hand to 38:53 be healed and says in Mark chapter 3 he was angry. When I see people exploiting others and not allowing them to come to the liberty in Christ, I must get angry. So I learned two things about anger from Jesus. One, if people make money in the name of 39:07 religion and Christianity, I must get really angry with them. If I don't get angry and I can sit and watch that television program where people are some preacher is swindling poor people of money, I'm not Christ-like. I must get angry when I see 39:20 it. And I must expose it. And secondly, if I see people not allowing others to be liberated like the uh uh Jesus saw the Pharisees not allowing this withered man with the withered hand to be healed, I must be angry with such leaders. 39:37 I never see Jesus angry with adulteresses or the five times divorced Samaritan woman or the murderer on the cross. Never angry with people who fall into sin, always compassionate seeing to lift them up. 39:55 Angry with religious hypocrites who were trying to swindle poor people of their money in the name of God or who were not allowing people to be liberated. So that's far as anger goes, in the same way I find that if I I find a lot of people 40:14 don't seek to be free from sexual sin in their thought life. Seems to be something oh well, I'm a man, I will be tempted. It's something you got to live with. You don't have to live with it. People ask me sometimes about certain 40:30 sexual sins that men practice. Is this wrong? This is not adultery is wrong. What about something like this? I say just ask yourself one question. Jesus was a man. You think he did that? You've got your answer straight away. 40:47 You think he his thoughts revolved around all that? You believe what it says in Hebrews 4:15 that he was tempted exactly like us in every area. Hebrews 4:15 is an amazing verse that changed my life. He was tempted like me in every area. 41:06 So, I'm I'm talking about this matter of passionate desire to be free from sin, a passionate love for the truth, and a passionate desire to be free from sin. If you have these two, according to 2 Thessalonians 2:10-11, in 41:20 the last days you will not be deceived. That's for sure. The rest, I can only say, God have mercy on them. And I want to say something more about how it things are going to go downward 41:37 and downward in the last days. Turn with me to Luke chapter 17. Luke 17, Jesus spoke about First of all, he mentions again that the coming of the Lord will It's a number of times mentioned in 41:57 scripture, it will not be secret. Luke 17:24, as the lightning shines from one part to the other, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Like that. There is no secret rapture. It's going to be like the lightning. Everybody will 42:15 see and will go up. But what will the world be like just before the second coming of Christ? There are two particular examples from the Old Testament that Jesus says are pictures of how it will be in the last days. One, 42:32 verse 26, the days of Noah. They were committing so many sins in the I'll just show you in the Old Testament. Particularly sins related to sex and violence or what we would call terrorism today. The last days will be characterized by 42:48 tremendous amount of perverse sexual sin. Not just ordinary sexual sin, perverse sexual sin. And um murders and violence and terrorism. That's number one. But while they're doing all this, 43:07 they were, verse 27, eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage as if nothing's happening. All this was going on around them. We see the world exactly like that. Now turn back to Genesis 6 and see how it was in the days of Noah. 43:22 In the days of Noah, one of the things mentioned here is verse five, the Lord saw, Genesis 6:5, the wickedness of man was great on the face of the earth. 43:41 And every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. Why is pornography a billion-dollar industry in the United States? Every thought of man was evil. Going to be like that in the last days. And the Lord was so sorry. 44:06 Verse six, it's an amazing verse. The Lord was sorry that he had ever made man on this earth. His heart was grieved. Do you know that God's heart is grieved today? He's just talking about the days of Noah, by the way. Talking about the days of Noah, Genesis 44:22 six is all about the days of Noah. And the Lord said, "I'll blot out man whom I've created." But verse eight, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. So, every intent of man was evil. 44:41 Verse 11, the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. Violence means murder. Rampant murder. Filled with violence means what? Can you say that San Francisco is filled with murders? Not 44:59 yet. It was terrible those days. I mean, certain parts of the world right now are filled with murders. Yeah, unfortunately. People being beheaded left, right, and center, and murders, and violence, and terrorism, and suicide bombers. 45:16 It's referring to the days of Noah. See, when the Lord says the last days will be like the days of Noah, you can't say, "Oh, Lord, please don't let the last days be like the days of Noah." How can I do that? He said it's going to be 45:25 like that. He says there's going to be violence. I can't say, "Oh, Lord, don't let there be no violence." There will be. It's one of the signs of the last days. Terrorism, suicide bombers, and all types of corruption, and 45:39 in the same way with sexual evil. I I don't believe I can pray that we will have a city free from sexual evil. It's not going to happen. I'll tell you that. It's going to be worse and worse. There are more going to be more adult 45:57 sex shops, and more adult uh movies which will come out even in prime time and everything else. Um it's just going to go that way. Cuz Jesus said it. I've got to just keep myself free from it and keep my family free from it, keep 46:13 my children free from it, but I can't pray that all that will change. It will not. Jesus said it'll happen. The days of Noah. Noah kept his family pure. He couldn't change the world around him. He preached for 120 years because the 46:27 Lord said, "Here, the his days are numbered and I I'll just give man 120 years." Verse three. And you know the flood came when Noah was 600 and so he was 480 years old when God showed him, "You got to build an ark." And in all those 120 years, 46:47 nobody was saved. Nobody came to join Noah's church except his little group of eight. So when the Lord says the last days are going to be like the days of Noah, it also means that there will be people like Noah in the last days. 47:03 Who have godly families. All of whose children are saved. Noah had three sons. They all got saved. He was a God-fearing man who made sure that his sons married God-fearing wives in that corrupt society. Do you think in that 47:20 corrupt society of Noah filled with sex and violence and all that it was easy to find a godly girl? No. All the girls must have been immodestly dressed and perverse and corrupt. And in the midst of that, Noah and his wife 47:37 looked around and said, "We're not going to let our boys marry any one of these girls. We're not going to let our boys say, 'Oh, I fell in love with somebody. I'm going to marry her.' No, son, you're not you're going to listen to me. 47:47 You're not going to marry that girl." He was a good father. He made sure that all three were godly. How do I know that? Cuz all of them joined him for 120 years and they were in the ark together. They didn't rebel against their 48:04 father-in-law or their husbands. They stayed in the ark in those cramped circumstances for 1 year. So, the last days will have families like Noah's. It says Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord because he was a righteous man. 48:24 The other thing that was uh uh evil in Noah's day is sexual perverseness. Uh it says here in verse 4, "The Nephilim were on the earth." I don't know what that means. Maybe some type of giants or something. And also afterward when the sons of God 48:42 came into the daughters of men. Now, this probably refers to it says in verse 2, "The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful and they took wives for themselves whomever they chose." So, 49:02 there were no born-again sons of God those days. Sons of God is an expression used in the new in the Old Testament to refer to angels. Sons of God are those who are not were direct creations of God, let's say. Direct creations of God. Angels are 49:17 direct creations of God. They were not they don't reproduce. Adam is called a son of God in Luke chapter 3 because he was a direct creation of God. When we are born again, we are called sons of God because we are a direct 49:33 creation of God. It's not because my father was born again. Sons of God refers to direct creations of God. Only only Adam is called a son of God among all human beings and those who are born again are called sons of God and 49:46 then the angels, created beings. Now, these angels uh they have no ability to have sex. But they saw these very pretty women and they wanted to have sex with them. The only way they could do it is by possessing some man. 50:05 Having sex and enjoying themselves. It's some perverseness. I I can't understand it. What it says here. They came into the daughters of men, verse four and It was perverse sex. And that has applications in many, many 50:25 ways. So, that's another type of thing that's going to be characteristic of the last days. Not just adultery, but perversion. I mean, it's just not just ordinary men and women having sexual sin. 50:42 See in Romans chapter 1, it speaks of the way man goes down downward to the pit of corruption. It's a very interesting passage. Romans chapter 1 and verse 18, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all 51:01 ungodliness. The New Testament speaks about the wrath of God. Wrath is a much stronger word than anger. God is fiercely angry. Against all ungodliness, all unrighteousness. People who suppress the truth 51:20 in unrighteousness. Romans 1:18. See, today is very popular to speak about God loves you all. I know you're a sinner, but God loves you. No matter what sin you're living in, you can live in all types of sexual sin. God loves 51:31 you. I know God loves us, but that's not the only truth in the Bible. I know that Jesus came to call sinners, but he says he came to call sinners to repentance. That means to give up their sin, not to live in their sin. 51:46 Man is living in a sin. I'm not going to go and tell him that Jesus loves you. I say Jesus loves you enough to deliver you from your sin. You are in a terrible sickness and Jesus wants to save you from it. Not leave you in it. 51:59 And see this downward trend from verse Romans 1:18 all the way down to verse 32. By the time you come to verse 30 to 32, you find uh sorry, 29 to 32, you see the depth to which man has fallen. Unrighteousness, wickedness, 52:15 greed, evil, envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. Verse 29. Gossip, slanderers, haters of God, arrogant, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, etc., etc. Oh, 29 to 31, a terrible 52:29 description of this depth to which man sinks. But it begins here. They knew that there is a God. Verse 20. Creation proves that there is a God. You know, you can't look up into the sky and say there's no God. 52:47 That all this came by accident. Or some big bang or something. If I If I say this watch someday there was thunder and lightning and a watch came out of it, nobody'd believe it. But I say we keep watch by the stars. Yeah, they keep small perfect time than 53:02 this watch. This needs a battery, they don't That doesn't need a battery. And you can believe this was made by an intelligent person and this entire universe was came with a bang or from nothing. That requires more faith. I tell you 53:17 honestly, it requires more faith to be an atheist than to believe in that there is a God. So, all these things are there. His divine nature, I mean, is clearly seen in in the heavens and everything else. But even though they knew God is there, 53:34 it says here in verse um verse 21, they did not honor him as God or give thanks. Unthankfulness for this wonderful God who has done so many things for me. The first step 53:53 by which man goes down. Please remember this all your life. And lepers are healed, only one came back. Jesus said, "Where are the nine?" Not because he wants people to come and thank him. For their good. They will become better people if they 54:08 learn to give thanks. Our children will become better children if they learn to say thank you to someone who does some good to them. Be thankful to their parents. That's why we must teach our children to be thankful to their parents. 54:23 For all the sacrifices the parents make. It says they would didn't give thanks and then the downward trend begins. You know, if I'm not grateful for what God has done for me. The fact that we have health and we have freedom and 54:36 so many other things when so many other people don't have it. Thankful, thankful. If I stop being thankful and I only criticizing, complaining, finding fault. I'm on my way down. They did not give thanks and then what happens? 54:51 They go down, they think they are wise verse 22, they become fools and gradually they go into idolatry. Verse 23. Glory of the incorruptible God is made in the form of animals and crawling snakes and things like that. Are people worshipping these things 55:07 today? And then then you see three times you see this expression, God gave them up verse 24. God gave them over. Verse 26, God gave them over. Verse 28, God gave them over. God, it's you know, it's downward, downward. Okay, you go downward and you 55:25 don't give thanks, you go down. And then you make idols, okay, God gives you up. Then you go to lower level, lower level, lower level. Idols are not only idols of wood and stone, you can worship money. A lot of people who worship money are 55:37 biggest idolaters on earth. Okay, what did God give them up to? To the lusts of their heart, verse 24, to impurity. That their bodies might be dishonored among them. 55:55 He's speaking about sexual evil. Lusts of their heart, they dishonor their bodies with all types of sexual practices. Evil. And they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. That means they 56:14 wanted to please men more than they wanted to please God. They wanted to please men more than they wanted to please God. It's a very serious thing. But to worship and serve a creature more than the creator. When I'm concerned about what does 56:28 so-and-so think about me, I'm making him my God. Oh, sir, what do you think about me? I worship you. Rubbish. I don't care what he thinks about me. I want to know what God thinks about. Don't worship and serve the creature 56:42 more than the creator. Okay? God gave them up to that. Next step, then next step lower is God gave them verse 26 over to degrading passions, where the women exchanged the natural sexual function for that which is unnatural. 57:00 Mhm. In the same way, the men also abandoned the natural sexual function of the woman and burned in their desire toward other men. Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving their own persons the penalty 57:18 due to their error. Believe this is the word of God. And they did not want to acknowledge God any longer or his word. God gave them up to a depraved mind. They may be very wise and intelligent in many other ways, but they have a depraved 57:37 mind do things which are not proper. Oh, how the devil has come to make sure people never read these scriptures or never preach about these scriptures. That is the word of God. 57:57 And every true prophet will proclaim God's word. The other thing Jesus said was turn with me to Luke 17. The Lord He He said about His second coming, the last days will be like the days of Noah. And then He also said 58:14 it'll also be verse Luke 17 like the days of Lot. Only two people He mentioned from the Old Testament. One was Noah and the other was Lot. So, what was the peculiar feature of Lot's time in the Old Testament? 58:32 Lot went to live in a place called Sodom from which we have got the English word sodomy. It came from Sodom. And Lot went to live there. And the last days will be like the days of 58:52 Lot where we read here it's You want to see a little bit of the perversion of Lot's time in Sodom. You turn to Genesis 19. Genesis 19, two angels came to Sodom to deliver Lot from that terrible city. You know that Lot went to Sodom just 59:08 because it was a rich place. It was Uh let me just show you what how Sodom is described. Turn to Luke is Genesis 13 verse 10. It's the only place in the Bible where it says there was a place on earth that was just 59:28 like the Garden of Eden. After sin came into the world. Read this. Genesis 13:10, the Lord lift you know, Abraham said, let's separate. And Lot lifted up his eyes to the valley of Jordan. And before the Lord destroyed Sodom and 59:41 Gomorrah, Genesis 13:10, it was like the garden of the Lord. It was like Eden. So, Lot chose that. But the men of Sodom were corrupt. Verse 13, the men of Sodom were wicked 1:00:03 exceedingly. Lot said, it doesn't matter, I can make money there. So, what if the people are wicked? It's not What is the result? He lost his daughters. Messed up. They married people of Sodom. He lost his wife finally, you know the story. 1:00:23 Coming to that, Genesis 19. Two angels came to Sodom to warn Lot about what was going to happen to Sodom. And he rose up and respected them and he invited them into the house. Now, see verse four. The men of the city of Sodom surrounded 1:00:39 Lot's house when they saw these The angels looked like very handsome good-looking men. The angels came disguised as men. They were very, very handsome good-looking men. They These men saw, hey, these good-looking men have gone into Lot's house. 1:00:56 And they surrounded Even the young men, verse four, surrounded. It's not just the older people. Young 18-year-old men surrounded Lot's house for what? They said, where are these two men who came them? Bring them out that we can 1:01:11 have sex with them. It's Sodom. Those good-looking two men who came to your house, bring them out. We want to have sex with them. And Lot went out and said, "Please, don't act so wickedly." 1:01:30 Listen to this. This is amazing that a father would do this. They respected strangers and visitors so much and protected them those days that they say he said, "Listen, verse 8, I've got two daughters who are virgins. Let me bring them out to you. You want 1:01:46 to have sex, okay, have it with them. Please, don't touch these men." They said, "No, we don't want those girls. We want those men." "Stand aside." You read these scriptures? The men 1:02:03 What did Jesus say the last days? Be like the days of Lot. So, when I see things happening in the world around me, I'll tell you, I'm excited. Jesus is coming back. Praise the Lord. That's how I look at it. 1:02:22 I don't go fighting with what's happening in the world around me. I can't change the world. But I can draw out of the world those who desire godliness. Those who want to be a light in the midst of darkness. That's my calling. 1:02:37 That's your calling as a church. To be a unashamed witness for Christ, unashamed witness for the truths of God's word. To explain that God's wrath, like we read in Romans 1, God's wrath is against all this type of sin. Can't We can't force people. We can love 1:02:56 them, but also tell them truth. Good doctor will tell you the truth. If you got cancer, you got cancer. Not gloss it over and say, "Oh, well, it's not nothing serious." So, that's the situation, dear brothers and sisters. These are days in which 1:03:11 we're living. Violence, terrorism, murders, people being killed everywhere, taking their guns everywhere to schools, to theaters, everywhere and killing people here and there, and somebody gets a little upset with somebody, kills. 1:03:31 These are days of Noah. And um sexually evil, perverse sex in the days of Noah, and especially in the days of Lot. And Jesus said, "Suddenly, it'll be like that." Luke 17. The day when the Son of Man is revealed, be ready. 1:03:49 Be ready. Two will be working together in an office. One will be taken, and the other will be left. Two women will be working together. One will go, and the other will be left. When Christ comes, it'll be like that. He warned us. Now, let's turn to 2 Peter 1:04:09 and chapter 2. 2 Peter chapter 2. Again, speaking about the last days. False prophets arose among the people in those days, and there will be false teachers among 1:04:28 you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies. And verse 2, many will follow their sensuality. Because of them, the way of truth will be maligned. Sensuality means sexual sin. Preachers 1:04:45 involved in sexual sin. And thereby, denying the Christ who bought them, as if Jesus took that lightly. Oh, well, the blood of Jesus will cleanse me. It's okay. And many will follow their sensuality. Well, they say, "If the preacher can do 1:05:03 that, why can't I do it?" And because of them, the name of Jesus Christ will be dishonored. Is this the Christ you follow? I remember some years ago watching on YouTube 1:05:22 the argument a Muslim man who scholar had with a very famous preacher from America about whether Islam was right or Christianity was right. And that man had studied that Muslim scholar had studied the Bible so well he 1:05:41 demolished this American preacher completely. And then uh he the the Muslims just put that all on the YouTube. And um then this American preacher a little later fell into terrible sexual sin. And that Muslim said that see see 1:06:01 this is the guy who was defending the Jesus Christ and the Bible before. Way of truth verse two is malign. Name of Jesus dishonored. And the other thing about these 1:06:21 preachers is verse three their greed. Sexual sin and tremendous greed for money. I must get money from my flock so that I can live buy my private planes and I have no time to travel not even first class in regular flights. 1:06:40 I must have my own plane. And their judgment from God is not idle. Their destruction is not asleep. God who did not spare even the angels who sinned is not going to prosper any preacher who sins. He's talking about those angels who 1:06:59 committed sin in the days of Noah. Cast them into hell. You know he's talking about those angels who committed sexual sin in the days of Noah because of the next verse he says, "But he preserved Noah." Verse five. And Noah is called a preacher of 1:07:15 righteousness here in verse five. So in the last days, if the days are like Noah, there must be people like Noah who are preachers of righteousness. Who bring up What do we know about Noah? He was a preacher of righteousness. 1:07:35 He preached judgment. God is going to judge the world in a unimaginable way. You know, there was no rain until that time and read that in Genesis 2. Rain wasn't didn't fall in the earth until the days of Noah. So when he spoke about rain, 1:07:50 they said, "What rain? There's never been any rain." Because the earth was watered by dew that came up from the earth, it says. Genesis 2. So when Noah preached about something that had never happened before, they didn't 1:08:01 believe. Like today when we preach about judgment, people don't believe. He was a preacher of righteousness. He preached judgment upon an ungodly world. He brought up his entire family in a godly way, made sure they were all 1:08:14 saved. And made sure this his sons all married children all married God-fearing partners. And what else do we need read about Noah? He built the ark with his own money. There will be in the last days preachers 1:08:33 who serve the Lord at their own expense. Like Paul. Like Noah. Won't be many. There were not many in Noah's time. There were not many in Paul's time. There won't many be many in the last day, but there will be. People who 1:08:51 weren't willing to give their money build the church. I believe if I was living in Noah's time, I'd invest everything in the ark. It's the only thing that's going to survive. It's what I live for. I cooperate with Noah 100%. 1:09:08 I mean, I'd support myself in some way in some job if I were living there, but I say the ark is the thing I've got to concentrate on. I want to ask all of you, do you have a burden to build a church? Who you are? Say, "Lord, this is not just a little 1:09:21 extra I do on Sunday morning. It's the passion of my heart to build the church." Say, "What about your secular job?" Yeah, the secular job is earn a living so that you can take care of your family and feed them, clothe them, educate 1:09:35 them. That's all good. You need to buy a house and live live. That's necessary. But don't make that the main thing. Main calling is to build a church. That's how Noah was. He also supported himself. He had to go and earn his 1:09:49 living. He had to sell some of his property to get the wood for the ark and etc. etc. But boy, was he wise. The second person mentioned here is Lot. Verse six. See how Peter also repeats what Jesus said. God condemned the cities of Sodom and 1:10:08 Gomorrah to destruction, reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live in the same ungodly way thereafter. Who is listening to these things nowadays? And in the midst of it he rescued 1:10:26 righteous Lot. I I didn't think Lot was so righteous choosing to go and live there, but since the Bible says so, I'll believe it. That means, you see, he was righteous in the sense he was willing to listen to the angels. 1:10:43 He didn't allow himself to be corrupted by the sexual immorality of the people around him. And he was oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. I want to ask you, my brother. Okay, we may say Lot is not righteous, 1:11:02 but you are righteous, right? Are you oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men around you? You see these things, you say, "Lord, what dishonor to your name." That's one part of righteousness, to be 1:11:21 disturbed by dishonor brought to the Lord's name, because the Lord taught us to pray. The first request in your prayer always must be not heal my backache or heal my cancer, but hallowed be your name. Our Father, who art in heaven, whatever 1:11:36 else you don't do for me, hallowed be your name. I can honestly say for years and years and years and years, my prayer and my primary burden is India. I said, "Lord, your name is so dishonored in India." I want the name of Jesus to be honored. 1:11:52 That's how we That's why we started our church. I saw so much dishonor in what was going on in so many other churches. I said, "Lord, even if it's just a few of us, even if it's a drop in the ocean, I want to make sure that one drop is pure. 1:12:05 Let the entire ocean be corrupt. But I want the name of Jesus to be honored. And that is my burden today. Pressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men. Because by what he saw and heard, today 1:12:24 we are also hearing and seeing the media. This righteous man is righteous soul was tormented. Verse 8, day after day with all the lawless deeds these people were doing in Sodom. Okay? 1:12:42 Maybe I can follow Lot in one area. Don't run after money like he did, but there's another aspect of righteousness. All these Old Testament people, they were not perfect in every area, but one thing I can learn from each of them and one 1:12:56 thing I can learn from Lot is to have my soul fermented with the evil around. Lord, let your name be glorified. Let your name be honored. The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation. Especially those who indulge in the 1:13:14 flesh and its corrupt desires. So, those are the days we're living in. Let me conclude with one verse in 1 John chapter 2. Verse 28. 1:13:34 1 John 2:28. Now, little children, abide in him. So, that when he comes, there're going to be two types of people at his coming. Those who have confidence say, "Lord, ready to meet you." 1:13:54 And those who shrink away from him. Lord, the things I've not settled. Please wait. There's somebody I have to ask forgiveness from. Somebody I've not forgiven. There's some debt I've not repaid. There's some sinful thing in my life 1:14:12 I've not given up. Shrink from shame. The two groups of people among believers are waiting for his coming. Those who will boldly say, "Lord, this is the day we're waiting for." Those who shrink away in shame. And it is to such people he says, 1:14:29 verse 3 of chapter 3, you have this hope, purify yourself as he is pure. It's exciting. You know, uh maybe I there's one more words I want to say about Paul's attitude to the second coming of Christ. That is 1 Thessalonians 1:14:49 4. You know, towards the end of Paul's life, he told Timothy that Lord has shown me the time of my departure is at hand. 2 Timothy 4. I'm going to go, but until the Lord showed him that, you know what his attitude was? If you notice 1:15:02 this little word, one word, in 1 Thessalonians 4, he's talking about the second coming of the Lord. Um he's talking in verse 15, the coming of the Lord. Lord will descend, verse 16, from heaven. 1 Thessalonians 4:16. With 1:15:19 a shout. And verse 17, the word we. That excites me. We who are alive. And if I were there, I'd say, "Paul, you mean to say you're going to be alive when Jesus comes?" Yes. He did not live. 1:15:38 Later the Lord showed him going to go. But until the Lord shows me that, I have to believe I'm going to be alive when Christ comes. That's what I learned from there. I don't look forward to death. There's a song, you know, it is well, it is well 1:15:55 with my soul. You know that song? One line of it goes, the sky, not the grave, is our goal. I like that. My goal is the sky, not the grave. That means I'm waiting for Jesus to come, not to die. I'm not like these miserable old people 1:16:12 who say, "Oh, I wish I would die and leave this world." I don't wish that at all. I'm waiting for the Lord to come. I don't care how old I am. You know, if I live up to 100 years old, age, I'm going to wait for the Lord to come. 1:16:24 I'm not waiting for death. I'm waiting for Jesus to come. We who are alive. Always say that. You know, I'm older than probably all of you here. And I say, I who am alive when Jesus comes, I'm going to be raptured. Christ comes again. I hope you're ready, 1:16:39 too. Purify yourself as he is pure. That's the only right attitude we can have in these days we are oppressed by the evil around us. But we know that that is only a fulfillment of scripture. In the days of Noah and Lot we want to 1:16:52 be like Noah. Our family is ready for Christ coming. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Father, once again I pray that words we have heard 1:17:11 will not be taken away. Produce lasting fruit in our hearts. Everyone should be ready for your coming. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.
