Are We In The End Times?
CCCAG 10-15-23
Scripture- Romans 1:18-32, 2 Tim 3:1-5, Matt 24:4-14
I want to begin this morning by recognizing that things have changed since the last time we were together.
This war in Israel has changed the dynamic in how we as Christians view our current reality.
I also want to recognize that we as believers are living in increasingly difficult and frightening times, and it’s not my goal on Sunday mornings to add to that. However, I wouldn’t be doing what God has called me to do if I just talk about sunshine, puppy dogs, rainbows.
I’m going address some of what we are seeing in the news, and what it means to you and I this morning.
So, a warning- this will be a difficult message for many of us to take in. I’m going to go through a lot of scripture today, and show how we got to where we are today, and what the bible says is still in store for us.
So I want to start us off today in prayer.
Prayer
It’s been a difficult week for the world. Israel, that has spent a time in relative peace has suddenly been thrown into chaos by Hamas attacking from Gaza and Hezbollah now attacking from Lebanon.
It needs to be noted by everyone here- Both Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist organizations are funded by Iran, and through back channels, funded by Russia.
The United States has responded by sending the Gerald Ford carrier group into the Easter Med, and special forces into Gaza to rescue hostages.
We also have to face a hard truth- American is fighting Russia in proxy wars in two theaters- Israel and Ukraine.
One of the things that has amazed me this week is the sudden interest from everyone about what our faith says about the end times.
Even people who have no interest in “organized religion” are looking around and thinking, “What is going on in the world?”
So, as Christians there is an obvious question- Are we in the end times?
The answer is- yes.
But, we really have been since the church was born. The prophetic clock started ticking at Jesus’ resurrection and the birth of the church and keeps ticking us closer to the rapture, the events described in Revelation, and the return of Christ to reign and rule on the earth.
It is definitely something we should long for, but in this longing for Jesus to return and set everything right, we shouldn’t lose sight on what these events mean to you and I today.
Instead of wondering if this is the end, perhaps a better question for us to ask is “How did we get here?”
The world, and the culture we lived in has changed a great deal even in my lifetime.
I’m 53 years old. In my lifetime, we have gone from a largely church going society- one that had a fairly common culture, ethos, and morality to one where everything goes, and now we can’t even define the difference between the male and female genders.
So, how did we get here? What started us on this road that seems to be speeding toward the events described in biblical prophecy?
It was through a series of compromises our world in general and our society in particular decided to make, and the church (meaning the entire realm of those who claim to be Christian) was largely silent about.
This started in the middle of the 19th century. In 1854, Charles Darwin published his book, the short title was “On the Origins of the Species” which introduced the scientific idea of macroevolution- that all life on this planet naturally evolved from simple cells to the organisms we see today.
The consequence of that book was the idea that we didn’t need a creator.
That was the start of the fall.
How do I know this? The bible says so.
Turn to Romans Chapter 1. Let me show you something interesting.
In the first chapter of Romans, The Apostle Paul begins with exalting Christ, explaining his ministry to the Gentiles, and then moves into some very deep teaching. At the beginning of this teaching, Paul describes what happens when a people begin to drift away from faith in God.
Do you know what the first thing he lists on this downward slide is?
Removing God as creator.
Romans 1:18-32
Vs 18- Suppress the truth about God- Darwinism
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
The suppression of truth.
I know we think that this is something that has just happened now. However, its the same tactic Lucifer used against Adam and Eve- deny the truth of the creator.
When you disconnect the creator from his highest creation, the light beings to dim, and the process toward darkness and depravity begins.
In the case of Darwin, his theories drove Europe to quickly abandon all semblances of faith. Many left the church, and many didn’t even notice because Europe then experienced a plague called the Spanish Flu and then two World Wars fought on their continent.
And by the time the dust cleared, the church in Europe was largely dead.
By the time we realized how spiritually dark Europe had gotten, Darwin’s theories began to take hold in America. Instead of our children being taught that they were fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of the creator, they were taught that they were simply animals that were slightly more evolved than their chimpanzee relatives.
The obvious result- people began to believe that lie, and if you convince a person that their nature is simply that of an animal, they might just start to believe it, and what a person believes in their spirit, they will act out in their lives.
As Romans 1:21 says-
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
You and I, all of humanity were created to be vessels that carried that presence and spiritual light of God to the rest of creation. However, when people began to be educated out of believing in God as creator, The light of God began to grow dimmer, and then the next stage of the downward slide was primed to go.
We saw this in the 1960’s
Vs 24- Sexual revolution
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
The sexual revolution of the 1960’s could be summed up this way- it was the pursuit of individual happiness above all else.
I was talking to someone recently, and we were talking about what was important in life. She was saying that she felt the pursuit of happiness was the most important thing that we could obtain in life. If we could just be happy, then everything else will fall into place.
I strongly disagree.
The bible never tells us to pursue happiness. Happiness is a temporary emotional high based on temporarily favorable circumstances. However, when the circumstances change, there goes happiness.
You might be curled up on the coach with the person you love, holding them or being held, and feel really happy at that moment.
However, the next day you get into a fight with that person. You’re no longer happy. Should that change your commitment to that person?
Chasing happiness was the catalyst of the sexual revolution in the 1960’s. People were chasing happiness highs from both drugs and sex, and the destruction that resulted to the moral fabric of our citizens and more importantly the family unit was terrible. As a result of the sexual revolution, families dissolved, the abortion industry took off, and we compounded our depravity by killing the offspring created by our pursuit of some nebulous feeling of happiness.
Then it got worse.
Vs 26- Falling off the moral cliff
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
When people apart from God discovered that they couldn’t find happiness through normal intimate practices, they began to look elsewhere.
In the 1990’s, same sex attraction began to become mainstream and accepted. What was once considered to be very shameful and only seen in the seedy parts of town now began to be celebrated openly. TV and movies began to show it in a favorable light, and one year a Barna research poll said that over 74% of the programs on TV had a homosexual character portrayed in a favorable and sympathetic light.
That in large part changed our cultures mind on this issue (called brainwashing by the way), and that led to Marriage laws changing to allow same sex couples to get married, and it’s my belief this provoked a divine reaction.
What was that reaction?
September 11th, 2001. Now I want to be very clear- God did not judge us because of homosexuality, abortion, or lasciviousness particularly. That isn’t the takeaway we should have here.
Unfortunately, many pulpits preached that abortion and gay marriage in particular triggered Sept 11th.
They called out the symptom, but not the disease- the disease was our nation and world turning their back on God the Father and His Word to us.
September 11th was meant to be a wake up call. It was a cry from heaven to make us stop this slide into further evil and return to God STOP THE DOWNWARD SLIDE!!!!
Otherwise, further and much worse consequences will come.
Unfortunately, the country and the rest of the world didn’t get the message- and we are at the last stage of this incredibly sad moral slide shown to us in Romans 1-
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
Pretty accurate description of where we are today. We ignored our wake up call, and now the world is reaping the whirlwind.
I’ll just say this now- if you think that a drag queen coming into a kindergarten classroom is a good thing- you need to repent right NOW because you are the person being described right here.
You are in mortal danger of your conscience being scarred so badly that repentance will no longer be possible because the Holy Spirit will have no access to your spirit. It’s called grieving the Holy Spirit, and Jesus HIMself said that is unforgivable.
It’s hard to believe that things could get much worse, but even a brief survey of the bible show us that thing can and will get much, much worse in the coming days. Not just the circumstances of war, but the character of many of the people that we will be surrounded by.
Paul teaches this to his young protégé Pastor Timothy when he says-
2 Tim3 1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
Can anyone here testify that this is what we are seeing in our society today?
We are living in a world that continually resists God and His Word. It is growing darker and darker, and that darkness permeates every human being until God has no choice but to bring destruction.
If you remember in the Old Testament, God frequently sent judgment to the nation of Israel, and if you read the minor prophets, other nations as well.
Some people look at these judgements some old, crabby God lashing out at his children for disobeying. For sure, God is a father, and any good father will bring discipline to His children.
However, God’s primary goal with any judgment this side of heaven is restorative. The bible says that God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked. It also says that God is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
God sends consequences and judgment to chastise us and bring us back to HIM. Time after time in the Old Testament we see God sending prophet after prophet to try to turn the people back to their creator.
However, there comes a tipping point where God’s patience runs out.
As the bible says, it’s a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. When a nation gets to that point, there is no return.
In the OT, The kingdom of Judah got to that point, and God told the Prophet Jeremiah-
Jer 11:14 “Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.
What happened soon after God told that to Jeremiah?
Judah ceased to exist- largely wiped out by Babylon.
I’m hoping and praying that we haven’t gotten to this point yet. It’s why I’ve been calling us to fast and pray for ourselves and our nation. However, if this continues, we are sure to begin to see the events in the book of Revelation come to pass in our lifetime.
Some people are beginning to ask the question- are the current events in Israel a prelude to World War 3, or Ezekiel’s war described in chapters 38-39 when Israel comes under a devastating attack and is supernaturally saved by God.
I say, it’s possible we are beginning to witness these events.
Even Jesus warned us what is to come. In Matthew 24, Jesus begins with a warning- make sure no one deceives you.
Matt 24:4-14
4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ, ' and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.
12 Because of the increase of wickedness, the love (Agape) of most will grow cold, 13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Going back to the question I posed in the beginning of the message-
Are we in the end times?
The answer- we are definitely heading there.
However, I do want to leave you with some hope this morning. I said earlier that God does not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, nor does HE want anyone to perish but all to come to repentance.
In the bible, God gives us examples into HIS character and desire for even the most wicked nations to come back to HIM in repentance.
In the Old Testament book of Jonah, we see God send a prophet to the capital city of the world superpower of that time- the Assyrian Empire and tell these pagan demon worshippers that God was about to wipe them off the planet for their sin.
Their reaction? Repentance and returning to God.
God’s reaction, He relents and holds back the judgement.
However, over the next century, the people of Nineveh start that Roman’s chapter 1 slide again.
About 120 years later, the Old Testament prophet named Nahum returns to Nineveh, announcing again the destruction of that nation.
This time the prophet is ignored, and Babylon wiped out Assyria and scattered the once most powerful nation on earth.
This is the prophetic example and warning to America today.
Do we repent, or do we fall into the dust bin of history? PAUSE
I close with this- what happens to nations also happens to individual people. If you were honest this morning, perhaps you are somewhere on this slippery slide we have studied this morning. Perhaps secret sin has entered your heart, and you desperately need to repent and turn back to the God who created you, loves you, and give you a way to return to HIM.
John 3:16-17
Prayer
