“The End –Coming Soon!”
February 28, 2016
2 Peter 3:3,8-11
“Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.”
“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.”
The World has seen some dark times since God created it. Once it was so bad that God regretted that He ever made man. If it had not been for one – just one – righteous man God would have destroyed the world. Let’s read it again.
“The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:5-8
If you read the story of Noah you will find he was far from perfect. He made some huge errors of judgment but he obeyed God as far as he knew God’s will – and God found him righteous. The rest of the world gave into their evil thoughts and the evil inclinations of their hearts. It was a wicked time in our history. But it wasn’t the only one. Another time came when Israel had crossed over the Jordon and claimed the Promised Land. It was a land flowing with milk and honey – in others words it was a wonderful, prosperous, sweet land. But God’s people forgot Him and it make came evil. Listen again to the story.
“After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the LORD’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the LORD gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.” Judges 2:10-15
“(There was no king in Israel in those days, and every man did whatever he thought was right.) Judges 21:25
That phrase “Every man did whatever he thought was right” kind of sums up the attitude of a rebellious nation. Another way of saying it would be that every man did whatever he thought was best for him! Or, Every man did whatever he felt like.
The world becomes an evil place without God. Because man’s heart is inclined to evil continuously – whenever he does whatever he felts like he can get away with it results in evil.
Another dark time in our history we call “The Dark Ages”. Wikipedia says this about it:
“Dark Ages is a term of historical periodization traditionally meaning the Middle Ages. It emphasizes the cultural and economic deterioration that supposedly occurred in Western Europe following the decline of the Roman Empire. The label employs traditional light-versus-darkness imagery to contrast the "darkness" of the period with earlier and later periods of "light". The period is characterized by a relative scarcity of historical and other written records at least for some areas of Europe, rendering it obscure to historians.
The term once characterized the majority of the Middle Ages, or roughly the 6th to 14th centuries, as a period of intellectual darkness between extinguishing the "light of Rome" after the end of Late Antiquity, and the rise of the Italian Renaissance in the 14th century.”
This is a secular definition. It says nothing about the spiritual state of the world. They note the cultural and economic deterioration but neglect the to mention the cause – spiritual deterioration. They really don’t get that the term is used to describe the Spiritual state. Jesus is the Light of the World and came to disperse the darkness. The point I am trying to make is this – Without the Light of Christ shining in the world it becomes a dark and evil place.
I believe we have come to another such time. In the history of the world I don’t think there has been a more evil time. Can you imagine living in some of those Islamic countries? If you are a professing Christian – you live in constant danger. Without a strong faith in Christ you would live in constant fear. Only a strong faith survives in that kind of climate where beheadings and beatings are common. They are so common that children are taught to cut off their enemies heads. I have seen pictures of children as young as 7 or 8 cutting off the heads of the dead soldiers that were killed. Women are so abused it breaks my heart to think what so many of them go through. Little girls become sexual play things. Older evil women mutilate the genitals of little girls in a horrible fashion with no anesthesia. One of our brave Green Berets was punished for stopping a Police Chief who had chained a young boy to his bed for his sexual pleasure and then beat his mother when she reported it. The Green Beret slapped the Chief around and freed the boy. His reward? Getting kicked out of the service.
I could go on with incident after incident – but I don’t need to convince you that the world has become a more evil place than what most of us grew up in. And what is happening in some of those Godless Third World Countries is beginning to happen here in America. Why? Because the United States is no longer a Christian nation. Who president boldly and proudly declared it recently. And when God is no longer in control and people do the things that they think best things like abortion and homosexuality become good and normal. God and prayer and the Bible gets kicked out of our schools and legislators and halls of justice. Individuals lose their rights and the government takes over. I could talk about the ranchers and farmers losing their land and water to the government and the rural areas losing their representation – but some of you know much more about it than I. I will say that we are entering into a dark time in our history once again. I think it is the last dark time that God is going to put up with. I think He is about fed up with the evil and sin and is not going to allow the world to fall into that sin pit once again. I believe “The End is Coming Soon!”
I base that statement on what God has revealed in His Word. A number of things need to happen before the end. I will mention just a couple. First, a one World government needs to come into power.
Now, when I was a kid, if anyone mentioned such a thing, even when I read it in the Bible, I couldn’t imagine the United States of America giving up her sovereignty to anyone else. Did you hear about this?
“Representatives attending the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in Mexico this week have set up a structure for future conferences on gun control that include a veto-proof decision making process.
According to Reuters, representatives from 130 countries gathered in Mexico, although only 72 countries have fully ratified the treaty. They determined that Geneva will be “the seat of the permanent secretariat for the ATT” and they unanimously decided that unanimous agreements would not have to be reached on gun control decisions going forward.
This gives the body a veto-proof process for making gun control decisions going forward.
Secretary of State John Kerry signed the ATT on September 25, 2013.
“In the pre-dawn hours the morning of March 23, 2013, the Senate narrowly approved a measure to oppose the ATT. By a narrow vote of 53-46, the Senate passed an amendment to the budget bill “to uphold Second Amendment rights and prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.”
Imagine that: Ten weeks ago, America was four votes away from the Senate giving our Second Amendment Constitutional rights over to the United Nations!”
If you read the bill, if passed, the UN could confiscate, by force, all our guns. Our forefathers knew that without guns we would be easy pickings for a totalitarian government. We were only four votes from losing our sovereignty to a one world government. It is only a matter of time before it happens. If we don’t elect in this next election a godly conservative I fear we are doomed. If a godly man is elected the end may be postponed for another hundred years like happened in Nineveh. Read about it in the book of Jonah. If a godless and anti-religious person is elected – I predict that we will be entering the final seven years of trials and tribulations. Here are some indicators.
Prophecy Sign #1: The restoration of Israel to her land (happened in 1948)
Prophecy Sign #2: The occupation of the City of Jerusalem by the nation Israel... (Then the Dividing of the city of Jerusalem by the nations...)
Prophecy Sign #3: Dramatic Increase in Travel and Knowledge. Global Satellite Communications
Prophecy Sign #4: The Revival of the Roman Empire
Prophecy Sign #5: The Rise of the Antichrist
Prophecy Sign #6: Temple Rebuilt & Sacrifices Reinstated
Prophecy Sign #7: A seven year covenant signed with Israel
Prophecy Sign #8: The Mark of the Beast
Prophecy Sign #9: Antichrist receives a Deadly Head Wound
Prophecy Sign #10: The Antichrist is revealed. AKA The Abomination of Desolation
Prophecy Sign #11: The Beginning of the Birth Pains
Prophecy Sign #12: The Preaching of the Gospel to all Nations
Prophecy Sign #13: The Rise of the False Prophet
Prophecy Sign #14: Gog of Magog attacks Israel
Prophecy Sign #15: Mystery Babylon Revealed & Destroyed
Prophecy Sign #16: Martyrdom of the Church and Jews
Prophecy Sign #17: The Coming of Elijah (One of Two Witnesses)
Prophecy Sign #18: Cosmic Signs and Disturbances in the Sky
Prophecy Sign #19: The 144,000 Sealed
Prophecy Sign #20: The Rapture of the Church
I want to reiterate that God doesn’t want anyone to perish. He is so patient and kind. He is so loving and forgiving. He wants to give every opportunity for people to repent. But a time is coming when the world becomes so evil that He will take His People home, destroy (or allow to be destroyed) all those who choose evil, and create a new earth that is sinless and without an external tempter. The End is Coming Soon!.
So the question is: What do we do in the meantime?
God asks and answers that question.
“Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives.” 2 Peter 3:11
That’s all. “Live holy and godly lives.” And how do you do that? How do you live a holy and godly life?
Well, you are either holy or unholy. An unholy person is a sinner. It is a person in rebellion with God. It is a person who does his own thing and goes his own way. He is a person who follows his own instincts and evil inclinations with no thought of God.
A holy person is one who has accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and is living in obedience to His known will in his life. His sins are forgiven and that state of obedience is what we call holiness. If you have asked God to forgive you for your sin and you can inspect your heart and see no rebellion, you are holy through the blood of Jesus.
How do you live a godly life? It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit and He bears the fruit of his presence in our lives. The fruit of the Holy Spirit, Galatians, chapter 5, tells us is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
No matter what is going on around us – whether the world is falling apart of entering into revival – our job is to live holy and godly lives. Are you doing it?
Are you ready to enter the tribulation period, be taken up with Jesus in the Second Coming, or live in an evil and fallen world? What is going on should not affect how we live other than to be lights shining in the darkness. We need to do all we can to turn our world to Christ – from voting to sharing the gospel to getting involved in government. Live holy and godly lives no matter what?
If you aren’t – now is the time to repent. Now is the time to turn to Christ. Now is the time to ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit. You do it with a simple prayer like this:
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for being so patient with me. Thank you for loving me so much. Thank you for dying for me and my sin. Please forgive me for not following You but doing my own thing and going my own way. Help me from this point on to live for you. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit and produce your fruit in my love.
In Jesus Name I pray,
