0:00 so we have come to the last meeting 0:21 It's always very sad when we have to part from each other because as God's people we are one family 0:46 I am thankful that God gives me the opportunity to come here and share the word of God with you And I have been greatly encouraged to see how you all pay such close attention when we are speaking 1:09 And if you take to heart everything that you have heard in these days it can change your life and your home 1:39 It will change your church The church is built on the foundation of God's love for us That's the foundation of the building 2:01 And then on top of that the first story is our own personal walk with God And then the second story is our family life 2:24 And the third story is the church So the church cannot be built unless you have a good personal life And a good family life 2:46 And that is why the Bible says that If an elder brother cannot bring up his own children properly at home He cannot be an elder in the church Because if he cannot bring up three, four children in the fear of God 3:14 How will he bring up 500 people in the fear of God? So that teaches us the home is more important than the church So the order in our life must be first, the Lord Jesus 3:49 Second, our family at home And third, the church If you put ministry in the church as more important than your family You will ruin your family 4:10 Many people I have seen do that They neglect their home and their family And they are always busy doing some ministry 4:37 There are many pastors like that And what is the result? Their children are all go astray There are many elders in many churches today whose children are wayward 4:57 According to 1 Timothy 3, they have no right to be elders If even one of my children is gone astray, I have no right to stand here and speak 5:30 And that is like building the third story on a shaky second story Then I must strengthen the second story which is my home Then build the church There is so much dishonor brought to the Lord's name 6:00 Because of the way many Christian homes are today We must pray that our children will be filled with the Holy Spirit And they will walk in God's way 6:26 And they will preach the word of God It's no use they are getting good jobs and a good house and all that If they don't follow the Lord, all that is useless 6:46 So, let's turn again to Song of Solomon chapter 2 Which we have been looking at all these days We are aware of the Lord's name But we will tell the Lord's name in the Holy Spirit 7:07 Verse 13 The fig tree has ripened its figs The wines and blossoms have given their fragrance Arise, my darling, my beautiful one Come along 7:35 Here it speaks about the fig tree ripening In the Old Testament The fig tree was always a picture of the nation of Israel When Israel was in a bad condition God gave the prophets a vision 8:06 Of Israel like a basket of bad figs We read that Jesus once came in Mark chapter 11 He came into Jerusalem verse 13 8:35 From Bethany And at a distance he saw a fig tree Now remember that is a picture of Israel And he went near to see if there was any fruit there 9:04 That means he came to Israel to see if there is any real godliness and spirituality in Israel But he saw only leaves 9:32 The meaning of that is he only saw a lot of religious activity Religious activity is only leaves Meetings, singing, preaching, breaking of bread Or leaves 9:53 Yeah, leaves are good Trees need leaves But Jesus is coming looking for fruit That is Godliness in our life And Godliness in our home When he came to Israel 10:15 When he came to Israel he did not see that So what did he do? He said, he cursed it saying no fruit Nobody should eat fruit from you again And it did not dry up immediately 10:45 The next day Verse 20 When they were passing by in the morning Verse 20 They saw the fig tree withered from the roots And then Peter said Rabbi the fig tree which you cursed yesterday is withered 11:05 Jesus, we can say, cursed Israel at that time Particularly when they crucified him It was the nation of Israel rejecting God 11:26 Saying we don't want you So when you reject God you are automatically cursed But just like this fig tree did not dry up immediately 11:47 Israel did not cease to be a nation immediately It was maybe 30-40 hours later that they saw the fig tree withered up And it was 40 years after Jesus was crucified 12:12 That the nation of Israel was driven from Israel to all the nations of the world And then there was no nation of Israel Like the victory ceased to exist 12:37 There was no victory anymore But what did we read in Song of Solomon chapter 2 The fig tree is starting blossoming again The fig tree is starting blossoming again And Jesus spoke about that in Matthew 24 13:01 There he was speaking about the second coming of Christ And one of the signs he said was this See they asked him many things 13:23 Verse 3 the disciples asked him When will these things be? What will be the sign of your coming? What will be the sign of the end of the age? So he is replying to three questions 13:45 When will this happen? What is the sign of your coming? And what is the sign of the end of the age? Then he gave them many signs And the first thing he said was there will be a lot of deception in the last days Verse 4 14:06 That he repeated so many times Verse 4 Deception Verse 5 Many will be deceived Verse 11 14:27 Many false prophets and many will be deceived Verse 24 Many false prophets and many will be deceived Four times he speaks about deception Only once in verse 7 he spoke about famine and earthquake 15:02 But four times he spoke about deception Now many people think wars, famines, earthquakes means the Lord is coming But they don't think that deception is the biggest sign of the last days But they don't think that deception is the biggest sign of the last days 15:23 There is in Christian television today is full of deception That is the fulfillment of these four verses Many preachers will come and preach all types of things just to collect money from you and deceive you 15:50 And it says in verse 24 They will even show great signs and wonders to mislead if possible even the elect Then he said I have told you in advance 16:14 And then the question is how will we know when he has come And that is another thing a lot of people teach He will come secretly Nobody will know 16:34 But he said Verse 26 If they say to you Oh he has come secretly in the wilderness Or he has come secretly there Don't believe it When he comes When he comes It will be like the lightning from east to west which everybody can see 16:55 And then he said He said before I come Not only there will be a lot of deception There will be a lot of persecution of Christians 17:18 In the Bible the devil comes like a lion and he comes like a serpent In the Bible the devil comes like a lion and he comes like a serpent He came like a serpent in the garden of Eden That is the picture of deception 17:42 And then 1 Peter 5 says he will come like a roaring lion That is the picture of persecution And if you read the 2000 years of church history The devil has come with deception and with persecution 18:12 I was reading something the other day That in the last hundred years There are more Christians that have died for their faith because of persecution than in all the 1900 years before that 18:36 In the last two years We have seen more persecution of Christians in India and South India than ever before 19:02 I have lived in Bangalore for nearly 40 years I have seen more persecution of Christians in Bangalore in the last two years than in all the previous 38 years 19:22 But that is what Jesus said See what he says here Verse 9 Verse 9 They will deliver you to tribulation and kill you 19:45 And you'll be hated by all nations on account of my name And you will be hated by all nations on account of my name Now many preachers don't like to preach on that verse When you come to a verse like that you cannot jump over it and go to the next verse 20:11 What is the question they asked? What will be the sign of your coming? What will be the sign of the end of the age? The answer is this One of the answers Deception 20:31 And persecution The devil coming like a lion The devil coming like a serpent Like a serpent So what should we do? Now if you know there is a snake inside your house What will you do? 20:54 I think you will take a torch light and look everywhere Be careful If you heard that one lion has escaped from the zoo and is running around on the roads You will be careful 21:15 We must be prepared for deception and persecution The little trials that come our way today We must overcome Then only we can face the big trial of persecution later 21:37 If you fail in the first standard examination How can you pass in the tenth standard examination? See what the Lord told Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 12 21:59 Jeremiah 12 and verse 5 The first part of that verse If you run with men and you get tired How will you run with horses? 22:20 How can you run with horses? If you cannot run with men, how will you run with horses? If some small trial comes into your life and you are fallen and you start complaining 22:43 How will you face in the future day when Christians are persecuted? Now some people think God loves us so much that he will not allow us to face persecution Does he love you more than he loved Peter and James? 23:17 James' head was cut off by Herod When he was a young man, thirty, thirty-one years old Peter lived up to 65 or so And they crucified him 23:38 And he said I am not worthy to be crucified like my Savior So, please turn the cross upside down Paul One of the greatest servants of God 24:05 The king of Rome, Nero, cut off his head When he was 67 years old Did God love Paul and Peter? 24:27 Does he love you and me more than he loved Paul and Peter? Thomas He came to Kerala 2,000 years ago And established churches there And then he went to Chennai and he was killed there 24:49 All the apostles except John were killed And even John was persecuted tremendously even when he was 90 years old 25:09 Many of us think that if God loves us, he will not allow us to suffer He allowed all his apostles to suffer In the first, second, third centuries, there was so much persecution of Christians 25:30 They used to be tied to a pole and burnt They would tell them You just deny Jesus Christ with one word and you can escape Say that Caesar is Lord 25:57 He was the ruler of Rome And they would say Jesus is Lord What will you do if they catch you and ask you to say, "Jay" to some non-Christian God? 26:28 Will you say, "Jesus Christ is Lord"? We must be ready for that Today, we may face small troubles like you don't get a promotion because you are a Christian Or if you are from a scheduled caste, you become a Christian, you don't get those benefits 26:56 There are small, small trials But if we are faithful, we will become stronger and stronger to face bigger trials None of us are brave 27:20 I say, "Lord, I am not a brave man" If they persecute me and start pulling out my nails and pulling out my tongue Or tie me to a pole and beat me 27:44 I don't know what I will do But I know that you said, "My grace is sufficient for you" So, I want to be very close to you If I am close to you, I know I will never deny you 28:09 Even if they burn me, I will not deny you So, I want to live close to you Then I know that you will never allow me to be tested more than I can bear 28:31 Now, I want to tell you the truth in many areas in the Bible I have always told you the truth And in this area also, I want to tell you the truth and not just make you feel everything is going to be smooth and easy 28:53 It is like telling a student No, supposing a student is appearing for IIT examination It is a very tough examination What will the father tell him? 29:15 Oh, don't worry, that is easy, just go No, he says it's not easy One year, you must go for some coaching class, then only it is a very tough examination Is the father hating the child to say that? 29:37 No, he says it's good for you to get in because you will come to such a good position But you have to work hard That is what I am saying There will be persecution 29:58 There will be a much greater glory for those who have gone through persecution See, Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4 He faced so much persecution 30:19 Maybe I should show you chapter 11 first See what all he faced And remember, this is the greatest servant of God in the first century What all did God allow him to face? 30:44 2 Corinthians 11 verse 24 Five times I received 39 lashes from the Jews He got 195 lashes with a leather whip on his back 31:07 Why? He never stole any money He never did anything wrong Only for preaching the gospel Verse 25 Three times I was beaten with rods 31:29 Once I was stoned They threw so many stones on him They thought he died finally And in preaching the gospel Three times I was shipwrecked You think God will definitely protect the ship which Paul is traveling in? 31:55 He protected Paul But the ship was wrecked And Paul fell in the water And how long was he in the water? Verse 25 One whole night and one whole day 32:15 24 hours he was in the water swimming What for? He was traveling to preach the gospel not to make money Verse 26 Frequent journeys In danger when I cross a river 32:40 In danger from robbers on the road My own countrymen are planning to kill me The non-Christians are also planning to kill me When I am in a city there is a danger 33:01 When I am in the wilderness there is a danger When I am going in the sea also there is a danger And then some crooked people pretend to be brothers False brothers and come into the church They also cause me problems Verse 27 33:24 A lot of hard work and hardship Many sleepless nights Hunger and thirst and without food Sometimes he had fasted 33:46 Sometimes he didn't have money to buy food And cold and exposure He didn't have money to buy a blanket or a sweater This is the mighty apostle Paul 34:08 And these are all external things Verse 28 Inwardly The pressure of the problems in this church Corinth and Galatians So many churches he is carrying that burden inside In his body In his body 34:28 In his body In his body In his body In his body Our problems which you and I have What is that compared to all this? What is the biggest problem you have faced? Oh my mother-in-law shouted at me 34:55 I did not get a promotion This is all mosquito bites Here a man is being attacked by a lion And we are complaining about mosquito bites We must stop complaining 35:16 We have faced nothing compared to the apostle Paul Is it because God did not love him? No God has allowed his greatest servants 35:36 To go through tremendous pressures He could not do that in the Old Testament to Job When Job went through all those trials In the beginning he worshipped God 35:58 But after a few days he started complaining and grumbling and all that Because he didn't have the Holy Spirit But now God is showing his angels See Paul See what all he went through And what does he say? 36:20 He says rejoice in the Lord always In everything give thanks And the angels are amazed Lord We never saw this in Job But we see it in Paul How is that? Because he has been filled with my Holy Spirit God says 36:52 Now all these big big trials What does Paul call it? Chapter 4 verse 17 Chapter 4 verse 17 2 Corinthians 4 Verse 17 He calls all this problem a light affliction All this is a very small problem 37:15 All this is a very small problem This big list he calls a small problem And he has suffered this for so many 20-30 years And he says here this is only for a few moments 37:37 20-30 years of suffering is just like a few seconds So I want to tell you these are the examples we can follow in the last days And then Matthew 24 again 37:58 After the tribulation Verse 29 When After the tribulation Then 38:20 Verse 30 The sign of the son of man will come in the sky And the son of man will come in the clouds of the sky with power and great glory And the angels will be sent forth blowing a trumpet And in that moment they will gather together all his children from all the parts of the world 38:49 And we will be taken up to meet the Lord in the air And those who have died will rise up from the grave and also come to the earth When 39:11 After the famine And the war And the deception And the persecution And the tribulation Then The son of man will come But he said before that 39:31 There is going to be one little sign that is going to show that my coming is near Verse 32 The fig tree That is what we read in Song of Solomon chapter 2 The fig tree The fig tree which Jesus cursed 39:55 Which dried up Now It is going to come up again Still There is no fruit Only leaves Verse 32 The fig tree The fig tree will come forth and put some leaves The fig tree 40:17 Now Now I told you the fig tree is a picture of Israel From 70 AD Till 1948 There was no Israel in the world There was no nation called Israel The fig tree had completely dried up and withered and gone 40:41 But 62 years ago In 1948 In the month of May This nation came up In the same place 41:03 Israel And it has been there now for more than 60 years It is not a spiritual nation Not at all There is no fruit there Only leaves Religion 41:24 No spirituality But Jesus didn't say About fruit He talked about leaves And he said this Learn Learn something from the fig tree Verse 32 When the leaves come forth 41:49 You know summer is near In the same way When you see these things happen Recognize that he is near Right at the door And this generation will not pass away till all these things take place 42:17 Which generation Which generation The generation that sees Israel coming up like a fig tree Now the capital city of Israel is Jerusalem 42:40 And without Jerusalem You cannot say Israel is complete And when they got the nation in 1948 they did not get Jerusalem Then God arranged some circumstances in 1967 they got Jerusalem 43:10 That's a very important sign The generation that is seeing these things For 19th centuries nobody saw it See Luke chapter 21 43:32 Luke chapter 21 It says here about Israel in verse 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword and they will be led captive into all the nations of the world And that is what happened for 1900 years 44:02 And it says here Jerusalem will be ruled trampled underfoot means ruled by other nations You see even when Jesus was there the Romans were ruling Jerusalem And the 1900 years always some other nation was ruling Israel and Jerusalem 44:28 And the 1900 years always some other nation was ruling Israel and Jerusalem And even in 1948 Jordan was ruling Jerusalem And even in 1948 Jordan was ruling Jerusalem In 1967 June Israel got Jerusalem finally For the first time in 2500 years Israel got Jerusalem 45:00 For the first time in 2500 years Israel got Jerusalem And they went into captivity to Babylon And from that time for 2500 years 45:22 Jerusalem was always ruled by some other nation But then Jerusalem will come back to Israel And that is an indication that the times of the nations is over You know brothers and sisters 45:49 We are living in very exciting times Jesus Christ is returning soon He is at the door 46:09 He is about to open the door I hope you have confessed all your sins I hope you have confessed all your sins I hope you have asked forgiveness from everybody you have hurt I hope you have returned all the money you have stolen and borrowed 46:35 I hope you are living for Jesus Christ 100% Because he is coming soon Because he is coming soon Jesus said look at the fig tree See in the last days 46:57 Which we are living in There are only two places on the earth mentioned where there will be a lot of war And that is written in the Bible One is You see in Zechariah 47:21 In the book of Zechariah Chapter 14 Verse 2 I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle And then Verse 3 47:45 The Lord will come and he will put his foot Verse 4 on Mount of Olives That is the place where he went up from He will come back there Just before that There will be a lot of fighting around Jerusalem 48:07 That did not happen for nearly 2000 years Only nowadays you see everyday you open in the paper there is some fighting in Jerusalem And all the nations are arguing about Jerusalem 48:30 That is written in the Bible 2000 years ago And there is one more place mentioned in the Bible You see in Revelation chapter 9 Revelation is the book of the last days Revelation is the book of the last days 48:50 And in the last days It says here in Revelation 9:14 When the sixth angel is going to blow the trumpet The seventh trumpet is the last trumpet for the coming of the Lord That is written here 49:12 But before the seventh trumpet Just towards the end The angel says Release the four angels who are near the great river Euphrates And there will be war and so many people will be killed 49:32 Verse 15 and 200 million people will be in a war over there Where? Near the river Euphrates Now if you look up an atlas and see where Euphrates is 49:53 That is flowing right through the nation of Iraq Right in the middle So what he is saying is Just before the Lord comes There is going to be a lot of war in Iraq 50:13 Chapter 16 Revelation 16 Verse 12 This is again just before the last trumpet The angel poured out a bowl on the river Euphrates And its water dried up in the waves 50:34 Prepared for the kings from the east And the nations from the east and west are going to fight in Iraq Sure 50:54 Those are the only two places mentioned in the bible Where there is going to be war in the last days Jerusalem Iraq Up till about ten years ago There was no Iraq mentioned anywhere with war But the last four or five years everyday you are reading about Iraq 51:21 Which are the places you are reading about in the newspaper about war? It is not South America and China and Russia Jerusalem Iraq When I see this I am excited 51:42 I lift up my head I say Lord come Lord Jesus We are very close to the coming of the Lord And what do we read in that verse Song of Solomon? We hear that voice 52:04 He will say Arise come away with me Are you ready to hear that voice? Are you ready to hear that voice? Let me show you another verse 1 John chapter 2 52:24 In 1 John chapter 2 The Lord says that It says here When Jesus appears Verse 28 Little children Abide in Him So that you can have confidence 52:44 And not shrink away from Him In shame at His coming He is talking to believers Among believers There will be two types of people According to this verse He is talking to believers Among believers There will be two types of people 53:03 According to this verse Some Who will have confidence Yes Lord I am ready to meet you And others When the trumpet sound 53:24 Oh I am not ready They will run away instead He will come suddenly Like a thief in the night And I told you So many signs We see in these days That His coming is near 53:44 Particularly the fig tree And particularly Jerusalem And Iraq Wars and famines have always been there 54:04 Earthquakes also have always been there Persecution and deception has also been there But war in Iraq and Jerusalem is only now Israel getting Jerusalem is only now 54:28 So there are certain things this generation is seeing Which no generation saw for 2000 years Don't you believe this is the word of God Don't you believe this is the word of God 2000 years ago this is all written here 54:49 Now we must be ready for His coming Let me show you one last verse 1 Corinthians 11 It says here Verse 31 If we judge ourselves rightly 55:12 We will not be judged See we have to all stand at the judgment seat of Christ 2 Corinthians 5:10 So that the Lord will examine the lives of believers And I picture this in my mind 55:35 When Jesus comes He will set up His throne And one by one In a line We will come And I stand One person stands before Him And the Lord will play a videotape of His whole life 55:56 From the time He is born All the sins He has confessed Will be blotted out That won't be on the tape But other things will all be there 56:16 Any sin that you have not confessed Will be shown to the whole world But any sin that is confessed is blotted out And if we judge ourselves We will not be judged That means if I cleanse myself now 56:41 And I confess everything to God And I keep a clear conscience before God and before men And I come before the Lord And the Lord says let me see your record 57:01 Everything confessed Everything cleansed No charge against you Zero Here is a reward Well done Good and faithful sir 57:22 Okay, next Like that one by one Are you ready? Supposing Jesus comes now And says Who is ready to come first to be judged? 57:45 Will you say yes, me Lord, I am ready? Or will you try to run to the back of the queue? That is what it says in 1 John 2:28 58:05 Some will have confidence Yes, Lord, I am ready Because they have confessed every sin They are not people who never fell They confessed every sin They cleanse themselves They ask forgiveness from people 58:26 They ask forgiveness from God And they were ready for the coming of the Lord But there are some others Who will not be ready You say what will happen to them? What will happen to them? I don't know 58:48 But I don't want to be in that group That is not ready I want to be in the group that is ready And in all the people sitting here There are two groups Those who are ready Who have cleared their conscience before God and before man 59:08 And there are some sitting here who are not ready Because there is something you have not settled either with God or with man The Bible says 59:28 Now is the accepted time Now is the day of salvation Let's pray While our heads are bowed in prayer We are not living like people who lived 100 years ago 59:51 We have come very close to the coming of the second coming of Jesus Christ If we judge ourselves we will not be judged If you keep your conscience clear before God and man You will have boldness when Christ comes again 1:00:11 My dear brothers and sisters Let's get ready Tonight Confess every sin to God Settle everything with any man 1:00:33 And say Lord Jesus I want to be ready for your coming I don't want to be foolish like other believers I don't want to glory that I am in a good church 1:00:53 The Lord is not going to ask which church you went to He says your conscience clear before God and man Heavenly Father Help us each one To be ready for your coming 1:01:16 To have all our sins forgiven Cleanse us Make us ready Brothers and sisters One more thing I want to say Jesus also wants to heal you of your sicknesses 1:01:37 And to solve your problems If you have a sickness Or a problem Will you say that to the Lord now quietly in your heart Whatever your problem 1:01:57 Lord This is my need This is my problem This is the problem in my body or in my family Oh Father Please solve this problem Please heal this sickness 1:02:19 I am asking in Jesus name that you will do it God loves you He will hear you Heavenly Father I pray for those who are praying right now To some problem in their life 1:02:39 Some sickness Help them to forgive others and to keep their conscience clear I pray in Jesus name that you will heal them And You will solve their problems And show them that you are a wonder working God 1:02:59 I ask in Jesus name Amen
