Discover The Book Ministries050612am WNS-28 Matthew 24:24 As the end of the physical world approaches, so does earth’s darkest spiritual hour. Satan knows that God has plans to save “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm […]
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Watch Jerusalem
050417AM Matthew 24:15-16 COM-04 NR4-32 WNS-19 When Jesus told His disciples and us about the future he built every word of it around one spot on earth. In theological circles this message (Matthew 24; Mark 13; Luke 21) is called the Olivet Discourse. Jesus framed His words about the rest of the history of this […]
Anchored To Christ
050612AM Matthew 24:24 COR-01 NR4-41 WNS-29 Satan knows that God has plans to save “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands…” (Revelation 7:9). So to try to thwart […]
Signs of His Coming
081116PM WNS-07 Signs.doc WNS-40 Signs of His Coming Matthew 24:3 Are you living each day in light of the seven step plan God has for this world that stretches from Now to Eternity? We have just completed our look at the plan God left for us. Those are what I call the: Seven Steps: […]
Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth – #1 The Rapture
081109PM WNS-8 Rapture.doc WNS-39 Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth: #1 The Rapture I Thessalonians 4:17-18 Jesus enclosed a snapshot of what life on earth was like–just before He touched down on the Mt. of Olives, the Ground Zero of His Second Coming[1]. Those snapshots are in Matthew. So please open with […]
Are You Playing or Just Cheering?
081102PM WNS-7 Acts 29.doc WNS-38 Are You Playing Or Just Cheering? Acts 29 As we have been challenged this weekend, the great commission is actually our “every day” commission as believers. We are all to be disciple-making by lifestyle. To help us all get closer to that goal, I would like to direct your attention […]
Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth – #2 The Judgement of Believers – The Bema Seat
081026PM WNS-6 Bema.doc WNS-37 Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth: #2 The Judgment of Believers The Bema Seat Romans 14:10-12 What will matter when you stand alone right in front of Jesus? What do you wish to have in your hands to give to the One who loved you and gave Himself for […]
Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth – #2 The Judgement of Believers – Seeing in Heaven
081012PM WNS-5 Heaven.doc WNS-36 Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth: #2 The Judgment of Believers Seeing in Heaven Romans 14:10-12 As we open to II Peter 3, think about the greatest day of our lives. That will be the day we each get to stand before the Lord Jesus Christ—and kneel in front […]
Contentment – Are Your Rich Toward God?
081012AM WNS-4 Contentment.doc WNS-35 Contentment: Are You Rich Toward God? Luke 12:15-21 Jesus taught more about money than any other topic. He once asked his audience, ‘What does it profit someone to gain the whole world—and yet lose their own soul?” People have always been closely connected to their money. In the past week […]
The Judgment of Believers
081005PM WNS-3 Fire.doc WNS-34 Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth: #2 The Judgment of Believers The Fire II Corinthians 5:10 Please open with me to I Corinthians 3:10-15. This evening we look at one of the most sobering day of our lives as believers. The entire Trinity will be involved in that […]
The Second Coming
080928PM WNS-2 Return.doc WNS-33 Seven Big Events on God’s Calendar for Earth: #4 The Second Coming Matthew 24:21-22 As we open to Matthew 24:21-22, we come to the Second Coming of Christ, the 4th of 7 Big Events on God’s Calendar that we are examining from last to first. The Second Coming of Jesus […]
Prophecy by the Numbers – Signs of His Coming
080921PM WNS-1 Numbers.doc WNS-32 Prophecy by the Numbers Signs of His Coming Matthew 24:3, 8, 33 Please open with me to Matthew 24. The disciples ask Jesus a question that interests all of us, I’m so glad they did. Follow along as they ask in Matthew 24:3, and as Jesus answers them in verse […]
MOW God’s Rule of Nations
061019TH MOW God’s Rule of Nations.doc WNS-31 God’s Rule over the Nations— Daily Benefits in Trusting God One of the most powerful truth to strengthen and guide you through life is found in Jeremiah 1:12. The Creator and Redeemer, the Lord God Almighty who is the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe tells us that […]
Steps to Eternity
920126PM Steps-3 NR5-34 WNS-30 STEPS TO ETERNITY PART THREE God has been seeking man since creation: INDIVIDUALLY (Gen. 1-10) Creation, Flood and Fall 0 to 2166 BC NATIONALLY (Gen. 11 – Mal. 4) Abraham and Israel 2166 BC to AD 1 BODY Church Age (AD 30 to present) Rapture Tribulation: the purpose is to […]
Christ and the Antichrist
050605PM WN-20 Hitler.Christ.Ultimate Angel And Antichrist NR4-40 WNS-27 The Ultimate Angel Hitler, Christ and the antichrist Matthew 24:24 As the end of the world approaches, so does earth’s darkest hour. Hell will open and the pit will vomit out it’s demon hordes to run wildly throughout humanity. Other beasts from the abyss will […]
Is Your Soul Anchored?
050529am Wn-19 Shipwrecked NR4-39 WNS-26 Shipwrecked Souls Christ our Refuge Matthew 24:24 One of the most feared activities of the ancient world was sailing in a ship across the Mediterranean Sea. Why? Because shipwrecks were so common back then. Many who sailed never returned. The families of would be travelers and sailors most often […]
When Troubles Come in Overwhelming Waves
050522PM WN-18 Anchored By Clinging Hope.Hupomeno WNS-25 Anchored by Clinging Hope Matthew 24:13 Lamentations 3:21-25 Isaiah 40:31 For those of us who believe the Bible, the weeks since Christmas have been thrilling. Jesus said that the generation that sees His plan unfold for the end of days–will witness His second coming. That promise has […]
Beware – Asteroid Dead Ahead
050522AM WN-17 Anchored By Hope NR4-37 WNS-24 ASTEROID DEAD AHEAD Anchored by Hope Matthew 24:29 Jesus said that the generation that sees His plan unfold for the end of days–will witness His second coming. That promise has kept the church throughout the centuries in the Word, on their knees, and ready to go at […]
Living in Trusting Hope
050515AM WN-16 Living In Trusting Hope NR4-36 WNS-23 Living in Trusting Hope Matthew 24:21-22 Our God is a God of hope. Living in hope is Christ’s plan for our lives today. But when we dig into the prophetic portions of God’s Word the future looks very bleak and hopeless. So to balance what […]
Living in Waiting Hope
050508PM WN-15 Living In Hope NR4-35 WNS-22 EMP: LIGHTS OUT! Living in Hope Lamentations 3:21-24 For those who try to live in this world without Christ—their world just got a little darker and more hopeless this week! Remember why? Jesus said in Matthew 24, that a day is coming when it will be […]
Living in Hope
050501pm Wn-14 Cling-Resting-Sheltering Hope NR4-34 WNS-21 Living in Hope: by Waiting, Clinging, Resting, Sheltering Matthew 24:21-22 This evening join me as Jesus describes the most hopeless moment in our planets future; the moment when life is heading toward a complete extinction. This moment is somewhere near the end of the Tribulation. That where Jesus […]
The Final Siege of Jerusalem
050424AM WN-13 Final Seige Of Jerusalem Jerusalem NR4-33 WNS-20 The Final Siege of Jerusalem Matthew 24:15-16 If you read and listen to the news with a Biblical mind, you can often hear a faint whisper of some of the truths God’s Word faintly in the background. Think about the implications of this summary I read […]
Blameless
050410AM WN-11 Prophetic Hope NR4-31 WNS-18 Living in Hope! Matthew 24:15-16 Jesus enclosed a snapshot of what life on earth was like–just before the Ground Zero of His Second Coming. We have been looking at those snapshots in Matthew. So please open with me to the greatest sermon on the end of the […]
Jesus is Alive and at Work Today
050327AM NR4-30 ORS-06 WNS-17 “MEET THE RISEN CHRIST” THE GLORY OF JESUS REVELATION 1:9-18 Portraits 4-7 On the first Easter morning, Mary was looking at the empty tomb and met Jesus. She had come in sorrow and confusion. All the memories of Him flooded her mind. Jesus had loved her, forgiven her, and made […]
What is Jesus Doing Today?
050327AM EASTER JESUS DOING TODAY 1-3 WHATS NEXT-09 NR4-29 ORS-05 WNS-16 What is Jesus Doing Today? “MEET THE RISEN CHRIST” THE GLORY OF JESUS REVELATION 1:9-18 Are you consciously, expectantly enjoying what Jesus is doing today? On the first Easter morning, Mary was looking at the empty tomb and met Jesus. She had […]
The Prophetic Precision of Palm Sunday
050320am Palm-Prophetic Exactness ORS-07 NR4-28 WNS-15 The prophetic Exactness of palm sunday Matthew 21:1-11 One thing you can be sure of—God keeps His Word. You can count on Him, trust Him, and believe His Word. We have been looking at the future for the last few weeks in our Prophetic Series What’s Next. But […]
Folly of Date Setting
050313PM WN-07 25 Trends NR4-27 WNS-14 Twenty Five Trends that are Present When Christ Returns— that are present NOW! One of the greatest dangers in studying Biblical Prophecy—is coming to unbiblical conclusions. That has been the constant threat over the centuries since Christ’s messages on the side of the Mount of Olives. As […]
Jesus Explains Hell
050313AM Whats Next-06 Jesus And Hell NR4-26 WNS-13 What’s Next Series Jesus Explains Death and The Reality of Eternal Hell This morning I would like to remind you of the most horrible doctrines in God’s Word—the reality of an eternal Hell for those who do not believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The amazing […]
Signs We are at the End of Days
050306PM WN-05 25 Trends NR4-25 WNS-12 Twenty Five Trends that are Present When Christ Returns— that are present NOW! What does the world look like when Jesus come back? We can know if we read His messages about His Second Coming. And if we read carefully we see a very clear picture He describes. […]
A Tour of the Grave
050306AM Whats Next-04 Grave NR4-24 WNS-11 What’s Next Series One Moment after Death Luke 16:19-31 We are in the midst of our What’s Next Series. We are studying prophetic Scriptures that are coming to pass just as God promised that they would. This morning I want to look at the most frequently fulfilled […]
Seven Steps from Today to Eternity
050220am Whats Next-01 WNS-09 What’s Next Series Signs of His Coming Matthew 24:3, 8, 33 God left us the greatest book ever written. He watched over every word that is in this book. This book is our guide, our plan for how to live every day of our lives until Christ comes or calls. […]
Signs of His Coming
050220AM Prophecy By The Numbers Whats Next-01 NR4-21 WNS-08 Prophecy by the Numbers Signs of His Coming Matthew 24:3, 8, 33 Please open with me to Matthew 24. The disciples ask Jesus a question that interests all of us, I’m so glad they did. Follow along as they ask in Matthew 24:3, and […]
A Tribulation Survival Guide
050206AM The End Of The World-5 Prophetic-07 NR4-20 WNS-07 Tribulation Survival Guide Jesus Explains The End of the World Luke 21:7-36 For centuries, skeptics who deny God’s Word is reliable and inspired—have pointed to one entire chapter of the Bible that describes an event that has never happened. That event is the prophesied end of […]
Jesus Explains The Tribulation
NR4-19 WNS-06 050130AM Auschwitz and the Final Holocaust In Luke 21 Jesus preaches a sermon about the End of the World. The end of the world is easier to comprehend when we can compare it to the world around us. That is what Jesus does. He points to things they knew and said amplify […]
Earth’s Final Day
050123AM The End Of The World-3 NR4-18 WNS-05 Jesus Explains The End of the World Luke 21:7-36 I have been thinking about time all week long. New Year’s Day and birthdays always do that. Time is marching unstoppably toward the end–the end of the world, the end of life, the end of days. […]
Standing Before Jesus
050116pm Standing Before Jesus NR4-17 WNS-04 At the end of his life the great Reformer and servant of the Lord, Martin Luther shared what kept him going through such lifelong adversity and hardships. He said he lived by this simple truth: “I have but two dates on my calendar today and the day […]
When Is The End?
050116AM The End Of The World-2 NR4-16 WNS-03 Jesus Explains The End of the World Luke 21:7-36 All of the excitement about the great quake of 2004 is slowly moving away from the headlines of the news reports. Our military will soon be wrapping up aid flights. For us thousands of miles from the […]
How to Look Up
050109PM Standing Before The Throne NR4-15 WNS-02 ARE YOU READY TO stand BEFORE Christ’s THRONE? At the end of his life the great Reformer and servant of the Lord, Martin Luther shared what kept him going through such lifelong adversity and hardships. He said he lived by this simple truth: “I have but two […]
When is The End of the World?
050109AM End Of The World.Travel. Prophetic-01 NR4-14 WNS-01 Prophetic Series-1 Christ’s Return and the End of the World Tribulation, Tsunamis And Global Travel Luke 21:7-36 In Matthew 24 we get to see the Tribulation from Christ’s perspective. What will the end of days be like? Jesus tells us– Matthew 24:22 And unless those […]
Pestilences
050227am NR4-23 WNS-10 Whats Next-03 What’s Next Series Pestilences Luke 21:11 Tonight a menacing plague is stalking our planet. Quietly in farms and homes across Asia a global, deadly, unstoppable inflenza pestilence is mutating, strengthening—and trying to find a way out. Last time it got out almost four million people died in 1964. The time […]
When Jesus Seems Distant— Look For the Risen One
WNS-52 090412AM Jesus lives—The Tomb is empty. Death is defeated—The Grave is opened. God is in control—His Word is true. The Devil’s power is destroyed—God won. Historic Faith can say Christ Lives—but Saving Faith always says Christ Lives in me! SAVING FAITH SAYS CHRIST LIVES IN ME Have you cried out “God be merciful to […]
A Current Assessment of the Ten Signs of His Coming
Please open with me to Matthew 24[1].
The disciples ask Jesus a question that interests all of us, I’m so glad they did. Follow along as they ask in Matthew 24:3, and as Jesus answers them in verse 8 and 33.
This week I was examining just how much God has left for us to know about the future.
Saved to Have Hope
The closer we get to the end of days, the more we need the bright hope of the early church that radiated from the catacombs and arenas of persecution to radiate from our lives today.
As we open to Luke 21 we find Jesus explaining how to impact our lost world for Him on a daily basis. We can make a choice, that makes our life able to powerfully display Him to a watching world; and that choice is to live in hope. When we live in hope we redeem our time. Daily life when filled with hope makes every moment count for eternity.
A Living Hope in a Dying World
True salvation implants an inextinguishable hope within us. Prophecy is probably the most encouraging and affirming study we can do in God’s Word and especially prophecy. Prophecy has inspired believers since the very first recorded teaching on prophecy in the earliest days of Christ’s church; and it is the hope we have of Christ’s return that has inspired believers to face troubles, afflictions, and wearying persecutions. This morning, as we read the darkest hours of mankind’s earthly journey, note how Jesus weaves into this dark fabric, the rays of HOPE.
Thy Kingdom Come, Asking for Paradise on Earth
We have come to the twelfth and final promise God made to Israel.
God PROMISED in His Word that: Jesus will return as Israel’s Messiah, Jesus Christ the Pierced Messiah will rescue the Jews at their darkest hour, after defeating all their enemies and locking up their fiercest adversary the Devil they will rebuild their Temple in Jerusalem for all the world to visit, and finally that Jesus Christ, the Son of David will sit as the Promised King on the Throne of David.
God Keeps His Promises
The Millenium: Christ’s Return and Reign as the King of Kings
Nothing can ever compare to the return of the King.
Earth again will see its Creator no longer shrouded in the form of a humble servant. Christ’s Return is with the blazing glory that slightly glowed from the Mount of Transfiguration, but that on Patmos was as blinding as the Sun in the witness of the Apostle John.
So He come, powerfully splitting open the skies, majestically descending with the clouds. Before Him nothing can stand, every knee bows, all heads drop, the people of the earth begin to wail and moan. Their worst nightmares are now reality. The One who saw every secret, who heard every thought, and who felt every drop of their venomous hatred is coming, and finally—its too late.
Strategic Planning to Face the Coming End of Days
Each year we get to start a new fresh page.
This year that page is named 2010, and it contains 365 1/4 days, 8766 hours, 1/2 million minutes , and 31 1/2 million seconds.
But more than anything else, this new year is a new opportunity for each of us to invest as much of that time as we want to into the First Eternal Bank of Jesus Christ, located at the Throne of the Almighty Ancient of Days, at the source of the River of Life, in the center of the Crystal Sea, also commonly known as Heaven.
God’s Chosen People: Jerusalem, Armageddon and World War III
The God who recorded the beginning, that no one but Him witnessed in Genesis; is also the God gives us the ending, that no one but Him could have ever written, in Revelation.
Isn’t it amazing that God devotes 1/4th or 25% of the Bible to the indivisible union that the world’s destiny has with God’s Chosen People of Promise, Israel, Jerusalem, and the Jews? Never forget:
The Centrality of Israel
In the Bible
The Flashpoint: Mount Moriah, Golgotha, and Islam
As we open to II Chronicles 6, always remember that God has had His eye one very special piece of property for a long time.
• It is the spot that God’s Word tells us in Genesis 14 that the mysterious Biblical character named Melchisadek lived; who was called the King of Righteousness, and lived in this place then called Salem or “the city of peace”. We know so little about this mysterious figure from the Scriptures (he just may have been the oldest son of Noah named Shem) but we do know that is was on that spot he lived; and
• It is the spot that God sent Abraham to when he brought Isaac his son to be an offering in Genesis 22; and
• It is also the spot where David’s sacrifice stopped the angel of Death (I Chronicles 21) and the purchased ground where Solomon built the Temple. But most of all,
• It is the same spot where God Himself took human flesh, suffered, bled, died, rose from the dead, and ascended into Heaven.
• It is also the spot where 50 days later the Church was born on Pentecost.
• It is finally the spot to which Jesus will return when He comes as Israel’s Messiah to save them, end the Tribulation, and usher in the Millennial Kingdom.
The Temples God Describes: First, Second, Third, and Final
Tonight we need to ponder how the Tabernacle God intricately designed and described, as well as the four Temples God’s Word describes, fit into God’s great plan of the Ages. To understand we need to remember that:
The heartbeat of God’s Word is worship.
The only thing God seeks is worship.
The purpose of salvation is worshiping the God of Heaven.
So, to start with—is your heart the heart of a worshipper?
God’s Chosen People: Chastened
God has made hundreds of promises to the direct descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—know as the nation of Israel, the Jewish people. In fact, there are more verses and chapters of the Bible are devoted to the Jews, the Nation of Israel, and their future on Earth before the end of the world—than any other subject or topic in all of the Scriptures.
All of the promises and predictions that God made are part of His offer to us that identifies Him as the true God. We could boil all of those hundreds of promises down to 12 clear groups.
God’s Chosen People: Preserved
As we open to Jeremiah 30-31 tonight we are looking at the 12 keys God has given us in His Word to identify the nation among nations that will signal the end of days. Those people are the Jews, the nation of Israel, His Chosen People of Promise:
These keys are only part of the evidence, as we shall see, that the prophesied “last days” are upon us and that our generation will likely see the remainder of Bible prophecy fulfilled.
There are so many more specific prophetic passages to be fulfilled in the last days; based on the prophecies, which have already come true, we must conclude that these too will literally unfold in the not-too-distant future.
God’s Chosen People: Re-Gathered
God uses 12 promises in His Word to identify Israel as the nation that will signal the end of days. God has declared that the Jews, are the nation of Israel, and are His Chosen People of Promise:
I believe that the prophesied “last days” are upon us and that our generation will likely see the remainder of what God’s Word has foretold would happen to the nation of Israel.
God’s Chosen People of Promise: The Jews & the Nation Israel
WNS-57 090614PM God’s Chosen People of Promise The Jews & the Nation Israel Genesis 12:1-9 As we approach God’s Word we know that God has clearly and simply laid out His Word for us to know and live confidently for Him. Among the most fundamental truths in the Scriptures is contained in God’s eternal plan […]
The Third Temple: Jerusalem and the Dome of The Rock
Three thousand years ago the greatest human fortune ever amassed on Earth was passed on from father to son. Please turn with me to I Chronicles 22.
King David in 970BC gave Solomon 1 million talents of silver (that means somewhere between 60 and 100 million pounds of silver, or 30 to 50 thousand tons of silver, worth 14.4 to 24 billion dollars today at recent market closes of about $15/ounce).
David also gave Solomon 100 thousand talents of gold (that is between 6 and 10 million pounds of gold, or 3-5 thousand tons of gold, worth between 90-150 billion dollars today at $950/ounce).
Israel and the Jews: God’s Chosen People of Destiny
WNS-59 090712PM As we open to Romans 11, we all need to understand more and more about how God has worked in the past, and what He has planned for the future. One of the richest ways to do that is through a closer look at Israel and the Jewish people. God has declared that […]
Christ’s Guided Tour of the Grave
Jesus Christ is revealed in God’s Word as love personified. In His daily life He was most observed by those closest to Him as filled with compassion; and He described Himself as “meek and lowly in heart”. So what will be His response towards those who ignore or reject His free gift of grace?
In a culture where dogmatics, convictions, absolutes, and exclusive policies are frowned upon at best—what does Jesus actually teach us about the destiny of those who do not get saved, who don’t receive the only cure, and who do not come the only way? The first thing we note about Christ’s teaching is that when it comes to salvation, there is:
No Middle Ground
With Jesus
The Four Horsemen, Global Graveyards, Flu, Pandemics, and the End of Days
Adam’s sin allowed death to enter the world. Our original parents were first to taste the warmth of life, and also first to feel the coldness of death. Before the fall there was no disease, no coughing, fevers, convulsions, or death. But death brought sickness when it arrived, and now sickness accounts for the most deaths each year around the world.
Every cough is a reminder of our fallen world, every sickness is a reminder of our inevitable death, and all who will every sin, get sick or die need a Savior. So each new wave of diseases and death is actually an advertisement showing how desperately we all need a Savior.
Global Anti-Semitism: The Final Sign of the Ten Signs Christ Gave in Matthew 24 – Sign #10
Satan the Dragon has a fixation on destroying the people of the Name (Rev. 15).
God has written history, and put on paper that He is going to save a remnant of Israel at their final and most desperate hour (Zechariah 12-14).
Satan can read. He knows the written down parts of the plan, and for the past 2600 years since that plan and other parts were revealed, he has intensified his efforts to thwart God.
Satan wants to
Thwart God’s Plan
Palm Sunday Proclaims: God Always Keeps His Word
As you open to Matthew 21, you open your Bibles to the start of the greatest week since our Universe was spoken into existence by its Creator.
On this day, Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem at the time the Passover lambs were chosen. He proclaimed Himself as the Promised Messiah by riding on a donkey as prophesied in Daniel 9, coming from the East. But His true kingship would be demonstrated when He was sacrificed on the Cross as God’s Lamb.
Palm Sunday is a time of great invitation. On this day Jews of Christ’s time, had to choose a lamb to cover their sins, and so on this day we also need to choose our Lamb.
With Jesus in the School of Suffering
Please join me in Psalm 119 and look over God’s curriculum in “The School of Suffering”, where our Lord shares with us what He expects from each of us as we go through all the various painful forms of suffering, afflictions, trails, and troubles.
The longest chapter in the Bible is the summary of the entire Old Testament written by Ezra after he had copied all of the chapters of the Old Testament into what we would call Biblical Hebrew, In fact, the famous Dead Sea Scrolls would be copies of the scrolls that Ezra hand wrote as the founder of the Biblical Scribes.
When Ezra was inspired by God to write the 119th Psalm, God used him to give us the most complete explanation of how God uses suffering as a classroom to teach us lessons in His Great Faithfulness that can never be learned anywhere else.
Living for Jesus Through The School of Suffering
As we open to Psalm 119:71, we as a nation are in the midst of one of the most challenging times American’s have faced for over a generation. But as bad as it may seem, think about how hard life was here in the USA in 1917.
That year, World War I was sapping the finances, wearing down the resolve, and destroying the young men of this nation. In the midst of all that, there was no government security for the sick or unemployed.
People only lived on what they could make and scrape out on their farms or in the cities. Even the churches were struggling. So much so, that one church in Kentucky couldn’t afford to keep their pastor as a paid staff member any longer.
Do Believers Escape the Global Grave Yards?
Do we as present day believers get to escape all of the dangerous times of death and destruction of the Tribulation? In a precise, accurate, Biblical, and theological way the true answer is: YES. Christ’s church is not destined or appointed to go through that wrath (I Thessalonians 5:9).
However, if we go though just the normal struggles that many face today, and most have always faced—it may seem like the Tribulation to those of us in the English-speaking world. In historic perspective, we Americans are living in a bubble, and I believe the bubble—is already starting to pop.
Are we to prepare for the demonic invasion of Satan’s rampage through the earth in the Tribulation? No, but are you prepared this evening for what most believers alive on earth today, and throughout the past six thousand years, have faced? Probably not!
Getting Ready To Suffer
We can see on the horizon this evening, the world Jesus described as Earth at the End of Days.
As we open to Luke 21, remember, Christ’s sermon called the Olivet Discourse (Matthew 24, Mark 13, Luke 21) was His description of what the world would be like during the Tribulation’s horrors. But He framed His horrific description of the End of Days by these incredible words in one of these three parallel accounts, the one recorded in Luke 21:28:
“When you see these things (listen) BEGIN to happen, look up…”.
His Great Faithfulness in Our Great Suffering
When we listen closely to Christ’s words near the start of His ministry, we hear Jesus say to all believers of all time, “Rejoice when you face persecution” (Matthew 5:10-12). At the end of His public ministry, this same Jesus also goes on to say that for those at the end of days, the worst is yet to come (Matthew 24:9-10).
When we listen closely to Christ’s words near the end of His ministry, He tells us of a future time when all of us who know and love Him will suffer greatly; and when we add that to all of the struggles, trials, challenges, hurdles, and disappointments life brings—we get a huge amount of suffering in a lifetime.
So this evening as we turn towards Lamentations 3, we turn to the greatest reminder in all of God’s Word that when there are great sufferings, during them we can find the assurance of God’s greater faithfulness.
Global Apostasy: Ancient Truth vs. Ancient Heresies
Have you ever wondered what we look like from Heaven, as God looks down on us as we gather?
Please open with me to I Timothy 3:15.
God designed His Church to be pillars, grounded in truth as God’s household living on earth; but that truth is under assault –and God has said the war against truth will intensify as the world nears its final hour.
We have gathered as Christ’s Church. We are members of God’s household and part of His family; and our purpose is to uphold by what we live and say God’s Truth as recorded in the Bible. Please stand as we listen to God describing us this evening:
Global Apostasy: Shipwrecked
Please open to I Timothy 1:19-20.
The God of the Universe has revealed Himself by way of a Book that He wrote.
That Book called the Bible; and it contains propositional truth from the One who calls Himself the Author of Truth.
This God explains that as the countdown to the end of days approaches, so does the level of religious deception. False teachers, proclaiming a false gospel, with false prophets, heralding false messiahs would become the norm as Jesus explained in Matthew 24:24.
Global Pestilences: Sign #7
Jesus sat on the olive tree covered slopes of the Mt. of Olives, and gave His disciples a private briefing of the End of Days for Planet earth. In the shortest and yet most complete summary He describes life from His 1st Advent through to His 2nd. That sermon called by theologians the “Olivet Discourse” is again our focus, as we open to Matthew 24:7. Tonight we hear Jesus is describing another element of what the Earth would be like at His Coming.
Each of the other six elements we have studied, that are given in God’s Word (Global: Travel, Knowledge Explosion, Disaster Awareness, Communications, Commerce, and Apostasy) are actually trends that become full blown, global realities during what is known in God’s Word the Bible as the End of Days.
Global Signs of Christ’s Coming
As believers, God gives us an insider’s knowledge. There is an eventual major upheaval in the worldwide social and economic situation. All the currency of the world: its money, possessions, fashions, and whims, will be worthless at our death or Christ’s return, either of which could be very soon. This insight should utterly change our investment strategy.
Jesus explained to us in Matthew 24, verses 8 and 33-34—that these events would begin at the same time, run concurrently, and crescendo like the pains of a woman giving birth—the closer we get to His Second coming.
Matthew 24:8, 33-34 All these are the beginning of sorrows. 33 So you also, when you see all these things, know that it is near—at the doors! 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.
Global Apostasy: Ancient Heresies
Before the celestial “shock and awe” judgments of the Tribulation are unleashed, God’s Word describes a time characterized by false teaching and teachers SO strong, that it would even sweep away even true believers (Mark 13:22) if they were not sealed by the Spirit of God.
In Matthew 24 Jesus describes the world before He returns in His Second Coming, as a world where the love of most has grown cold because of false teachers (Matthew 24:11-12); and where “the Faith” will be nearly extinct (Luke 18:8).
The end of the church age is shown in Revelation 3 to be like the church at Laodicea where truth is light, self-centeredness is heavy; materialism and personal agendas run deep, and true Biblical spirituality is shallow.
Global Apostasy
WNS-42 090104PM As the end of the physical world approaches, earth’s darkest spiritual hour also arrives. Satan knows that God has plans to save “a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches […]
