How many of you believe that we may be living in the end times? I mean it sure feels like it could be doesn’t it? So how do we know that? We know it because of what we will read in today’s text. It will come from the Gospel of Matthew. So if you have your Bibles with you please open them there to chapter twenty four and look at verses three through fourteen. Again that is Matthew twenty-four verses three through fourteen. Here is what it says: Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”
4 And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. 10 And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. 11 Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. 12 And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.
Let’s make one thing clear, I am not here this morning to try and scare you into getting closer to the Lord. In fact as I travel the country with my preparedness programs I often say “don’t be scared, be prepared”. With that said I do believe that many of the things happening today are just what Jesus predicted in our text.
In my own lifetime and many of you as well, we have witnessed people like Jim Jones and the People’s Temple, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. Marshall Appelwhite with the Heaven’s Gate cult. And Charles Manson and the family. Did you also know that witchcraft is actually a cult that many still practice today?
Jesus said, “Many will come in my name saying I am the Christ and will mislead many. So that has happened and in fact continues to happen today.
And there in verse 6 it states: And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.
If you don’t believe that is happening and has happened than you haven’t watched much news lately. Consider all of the saber rattling in North Korea, the unrest in the Middle East. Yep war and rumor of wars abound daily.
And then we get to verse 7 where it states: For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
Did you know that we have had earthquakes right here in Mississippi? Since 2015 there have been three in Madison County, from 1976 to 1996 there have been three in Clark County and one in Saucier in 1975. These are only 7 of the 17 that I found on record since 1931. And oh by the way there were over 1300 hundred around the world in the last seven days.
Now like I said I am not trying to scare you this morning. But take a look at verse 9: Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.
Have you paid any attention to what’s happening in Afghanistan? I am going to quote part of an article from Persecution International Concern. This a monthly magazine that reports on Christians being persecuted around the world. This is from August 23rd. Here is part of what they report:
We are telling people to stay in their houses because going out now is too dangerous,” a Christian leader in Afghanistan, whose name is being withheld for security reasons, told International Christian Concern (ICC) last week. While a general amnesty has been announced by the Taliban, this leader feared Christians will still be targeted by Taliban fighters patrolling Kabul and other cities.
“Some known Christians are already receiving threatening phone calls,” the Christian leader told ICC. “In these phone calls, unknown people say, ‘We are coming for you’.”
While ICC has not confirmed any targeted killings of Christians, Release International’s Spokesman, Andrew Boyd, claimed at least one Christian has been killed by the Taliban.
“The Taliban have been checking phones to check if there are any bibles downloaded onto their phones,” Boyd to GB News. “We have a report that at least on Hazara has been killed as a result of this.”
I mean right here in the United States if you are a Christian today you can be attacked both verbally and physically.
Consider what we read in 2 Timothy 4:3-4: says, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.
In my opinion and many others agree with this, this describes the United States today. We have itchy ears. What once was a Christian nation is now far from it. Listen to what David says in Psalm 12: Help, LORD, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men. 2 They speak idly everyone with his neighbor; With flattering lips and a double heart they speak. 3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, And the tongue that speaks proud things, 4 Who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail; Our lips are our own; Who is lord over us?” 5 “For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, Now I will arise,” says the LORD; “I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.” 6 The words of the LORD are pure words, Like silver tried in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times. 7 You shall keep them, O LORD, You shall preserve them from this generation forever. 8 The wicked prowl on every side, When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.
Wow does that sound like us or what?
God is going to allow a time when people will no longer listen to sound and truthful teaching. This will happen to fulfill His plan and His purpose. But it will be only for a set amount of time.
Every Sunday morning I am thankful for those who come to the altar. But I am convinced the church is in this “proper season” today. We are living in a time where people find it hard to be corrected, a time when people will not listen to being told that they need to change their ways.
Timothy is telling us there will come a time when people only want what makes them feel and look good. He encourages us to be prepared for those who will resist the truthful teachings of the Bible.
Listen Christ is coming again. The Bible says it and I believe it. Even Jesus told us that we don’t know the day or the hour. And I am glad we don’t. If we did many of would wait around to the last moment and than try to do something about our salvation. Well truth be told there are some people who are already doing that; in fact there might be some in here this morning doing it.
But let me share something with you, there is coming a time when you won’t be able to come to the altar and repent. The second coming of Christ will be swift and sudden. There won’t be any last minute opportunity for repentance.
If you don’t believe me, than listen to what Jesus says in Matthew 24:36through 44: “But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 40 Then two men will be in the field: one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill: one will be taken and the other left. 42 Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into. 44 Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
I hope you have noticed that the choice of where you will spend eternity will have already been made. The only safe choice is to choose today. But sadly the majority of today’s population really doesn’t believe any of this. Friends, how much clearer can God make it to us?
So I began this morning sermon asking how many of you believe we may be living in the end times. Well as we have seen we don’t know. But what I do know is that you and I have a choice of where we will spend eternity. How amazing is that? God in His love for us, allows us to decide to believe and accept, or to not believe and reject.
Now I don’t know about you, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
Pray as led.
