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Series Code: ASHF
Program Code: ASHF000193A
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00:20 Hello friends. Welcome to our Wednesday night Bible Study here 00:24 at the 3ABN Worship Center. We are continuing lesson number 44. 00:27 It Is Coming, the Signs of the Second Coming of Christ. 00:31 We'd like to invite you to take you time and join us for the 00:35 next hour as we walk through the word of God finding out what 00:39 the Bible says about the soon return of Jesus. All you need is 00:42 a Bible. In just a moment, I'll tell you where to get a copy 00:46 of the lesson where you can download it. But invite your 00:49 family and friends and whoever may be with you whether in the 00:52 church or in your home by yourself. We'd like to take the 00:56 time to invite you to join us. Before we go any further 00:59 though let us bow our heads and ask the Lord to guide us in 01:03 prayer. Loving Father in heaven, we thank you for the opportunity 01:07 to open your word. We do pray that You'll speak to our hearts 01:10 tonight, that your word will be clear, that what we read will 01:15 not only be informative, but also transformative. We pray 01:19 that those who are watching and those who are listening will be 01:20 strengthened by this program. Teach us Lord. And we ask that 01:25 all the glory and the honor go back to you. In Jesus' name we 01:29 pray, Amen. Now we're on lesson number 44. We're beginning on 01:34 question number 6. If you'd like a copy go to the following 01:41 website: ASF.3ABN.org and let's download lesson number 44 and 01:47 you will be prepared to follow us along in this exciting and 01:53 informative study. But before we do anything else, we always like 01:56 to sing our theme song. You can join us as we sing the song 01:59 Victory in Jesus. ¤ ¤ 02:10 ¤I heard an old, old story, how the Savior came from glory¤ 02:16 ¤How He gave his life on Calvary¤ 02:20 ¤to save a wretch like me¤ 02:24 ¤I heard about his groaning of His precious blood atoning 02:31 ¤Then I repented of my sin and won the victory¤ 02:38 ¤Oh victory in Jesus my Savior forever¤ 02:46 ¤He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood¤ 02:54 ¤He loved me e'er I knew Him and all my love is due Him¤ 03:02 ¤He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood¤ 03:09 ¤I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory¤ 03:17 ¤And I heard about the streets of gold¤ 03:21 ¤Beyond the crystal sea¤ 03:24 ¤About the angels singing and the old redemption story¤ 03:31 ¤And some sweet day I'll sing up there the song of victory¤ 03:38 ¤Oh victory in Jesus my Savior forever¤ 03:46 ¤He sought and bought me with His redeeming blood? 03:55 ¤He loved me e'er I knew Him and all my love is due Him¤ 04:02 ¤He plunged me to victory beneath the cleansing flood¤ 04:20 Amen. And say amen again. We're glad to have you here. We're 04:26 going to continue our study tonight. You know the most 04:29 important event that is yet ahead of us is the soon return 04:33 of Jesus. And it reminds me to some degree of the story of Noah 04:39 You know, Noah preached for 120 years that the flood was coming. 04:46 He repeated it day after day over and over. It was his 04:51 repetitious sermon. He had one sermon, that the flood is coming 04:55 Can you imagine preaching for 120 years the flood is coming. 05:00 He kept preaching the flood is coming. And after a while the 05:05 people heard Wah, Wah, Wah, Wah. Mmm, Mmm. It became muted. 05:11 And the problem, the only problem that happens when people 05:17 hear this constant reminder that something is going to happen is 05:22 they believe, well it didn't happen 10 years ago, it didn't 05:27 happen 15 05:28 years ago, it didn't happen two decades ago, maybe it's not 05:31 going to happen in my lifetime and they tend to relax. But the 05:36 Bible tells us, let's go to Matthew chapter 24. I want to 05:40 just kind of lay some foundation here. The Bible gives us a very 05:45 subtle nudge, somewhat of an elbow to not allow the gospel 05:58 to become something that... Okay, Matthew 24:36. I'll look 06:09 at that one first. Let me see if we're going to hit that 06:14 again. No we're not going to hit that again, so I'm good. 06:16 Matthew 24:36, The Bible say: But of that day and hour... 06:22 how many of us know? No one knows, not even the angels of 06:28 heaven, but my Father only. So no one is aware, but now look 06:36 down at verse 42, verse 42. Watch. What's the first word? 06:41 Watch therefore for you do not 06:45 know what hour your Lord is coming. Now verse 44: Therefore 06:55 you also be together be ready for the Son of Man is coming 07:01 at an hour when 07:03 you do not expect Him. So we're told to watch. And then we're 07:10 not only told to watch and be aware and alert, we're not only 07:14 told that no one knows the day nor the hour, but we were told 07:17 as we're going to lead into this from next week, from last week, 07:21 we were told in verse 33, verse 33, and let's look at that. 07:28 Matthew 24:33, what were we told? So you also when you see 07:36 all these things know that, together, it is near, even at 07:43 the door. And so we are mindful of the signs that Jesus 07:48 prognosticated or pointed 07:50 out in Matthew 24: He says when you start seeing all these 07:53 things 07:55 you need to know that it's near, even at the door. My wife and I 07:58 fly quite frequently. The last flight we took, we got to the 08:05 airport on time, but we got a notice on our phones flight is 08:10 leaving a little later, 15 minutes later, 20 minutes later, 08:15 half an hour later, hour later, and it kept going. So I walked 08:20 up to the desk and I asked the guy after we got to the airport, 08:23 I said to the ticket agent, I said, do you know what time the 08:26 flight is leaving? I said well it hasn't even arrived yet, so 08:30 whatever time they just announced, that's going to be 08:34 pretty accurate, you can rely on that time. Well, we went away 08:38 to get something to eat and thankfully we came back because 08:43 experience tells us that no one knows when this plane is going 08:46 arrive. So we got there and then I looked at the time of the 08:50 departure and they actually moved it up 20 minutes earlier. 08:53 So good thing we were at the gate, because we've had those 08:56 experiences where... The one thing that we've made an 08:59 appointment, actually we've made an agreement with the airlines 09:02 and they've always honored their agreement. We've said if we're 09:05 not there at the gate when the flight is ready to leave, leave 09:10 without us. Now do you think that's an agreement I've made? 09:16 Is that a fact? That's a fact. If we're not at the gate when 09:22 that plane leaves, it's going to leave without us. And that has 09:27 happened not too many times, because we surely try to make 09:32 sure that we are on time. So we must understand that the coming 09:37 of the Lord is a certainty. The prophet Isaiah says to us: He 09:42 that shall come will come and will not tarry. So what we think 09:47 is a tarry or a wait or a delay is really not a delay. It's just 09:50 that we don't know the day nor the hour so we think that well 09:54 it's a delay, but it's not delayed. There's a day that 09:58 Jesus is coming. Matter of fact I believe it's in Acts 4:17. 10:04 Let's go to Acts chapter 4, is it chapter4? I'm thinking in my 10:07 mind... No, we'll go on. I'll get it in just a minute here. 10:22 It popped in and out of my head. But the day of the Lord, the 10:28 coming of the Lord, is a certainty and we need not be 10:33 concerned about it. We just need to be ready. The Bible says: Be 10:37 ye also ready. Okay. So let's go tonight. We're going to begin 10:41 with question number 6. And by the way, if you have the lesson 10:44 lesson number 44, we will begin with question number 6. And here 10:48 it is: 10:55 How else do we know. Matthew 24 verses 26 and 27, Okay. Matthew 11:08 24:26,27, Okay here I am. We read: 11:46 Now do I need to ask if lightening is visible? No, I 11:49 don't really need to ask that. Let's talk about that's how 11:52 visible the coming of the Lord is going to be. Lightening, the 11:55 brightest light we get outside of the sun during the day is a 11:59 good old flash of lightening. I think somebody once said, it's 12:03 like 55,000 volts in a flash of lightening. Whatever the volt is 12:07 it's visible. So the coming of the Lord is not going to be 12:10 invisible. So if you're writing the answer down. Just go ahead. 12:13 How else do we know that the second coming of Jesus will be 12:15 visible to the world? It's going to be as visible as lightening, 12:22 as lightening. Lightening doesn't need any help. When I 12:25 was young I didn't like lightening. As I got older I 12:28 liked lightening. I like lightening when it flashes but 12:33 I don't like when it flashes near. There are all kinds of 12:37 theories. People say that lightening could not affect you 12:40 if you're in your car because the wheels are rubber. Well 12:44 there are some instances when that doesn't work. Then they say 12:48 that lightening would not affect planes because planes are 12:53 not grounded. Well that's not always the case. So I said all 12:58 that to say this; the only thing that we can really trust is the 13:02 Lord will protect us if anything does happen, and praise God for 13:07 that. So we can place implicit trust in the coming of the Lord 13:11 knowing that it's going to be visible. Now we're talking about 13:16 the manner in which Christ will come. Let us peek down to 13:19 question number 7. Question number 7. All right: 13:33 We're going to go to the book of Psalms. We're going to go to 13:40 Psalm 50 and verse 3. Psalm 50:3. If you can't find Psalms 13:46 find the book of Job and it's right after the book of Job. 13:56 Here it is, Psalm 50:3 Mm and we are told in the Bible by the 14:07 psalmist, it says: 14:10 Our God shall come, and shall not keep what? Silent. Will it 14:19 be audible? Yes. A fire shall devour before him and it shall 14:25 be very tempestuous all around Him. 14:30 So the fire that will accompany His return and the lightening 14:36 and the sound. I'm not exactly sure what the sound will be 14:42 created by, but I believe that Divinity can do anything. The 14:46 Lord is going to create a sound that will be accompanying His 14:50 soon return. Why do you think He's going to use lightening and 14:54 sound and thunder? Why do you think He's going to use that? 15:01 So the whole world can know, exactly. What else, Larry? 15:07 Things we understand. Things we learned. To alert - Another good 15:17 one. So all of those are indicative that He's coming 15:24 again. 15:26 What are you saying? So that it won't be a secret. Have you ever 15:31 been to a secret fireworks show? Shhh, this is just for you 15:36 Pschwwr! There is no such thing. And I like fireworks shows but 15:41 there's no such thing as a secret fireworks show. Maybe 15:45 a private fireworks show, but it's definitely no secret. Why? 15:49 Why is it not secret? People could see it and what else? 15:53 They can hear it, that's right. Matter of fact, here in southern 15:59 Illinois what they often do is whenever July 4 is coming around 16:02 coming around they always put out a bulletin on the news 16:05 that says please keep your dog safe. Bring them inside, put 16:08 them on a chain so the dog won't run away. But I tell you in the 16:12 return of Jesus somebody is going to be running but it's not 16:16 going to be the animals. Let's go to Revelation. Let's see 16:20 what's going to happen. Go to Revelation chapter 6. There is 16:30 going to be some expectation. Revelation chapter 6. The answer 16:38 by the way to question 6: How else do we know that the second 16:44 coming of Jesus will be visible to the whole world. A fire shall 16:50 devour before Him. In what other component does the Bible connect 16:56 to the return of Jesus. Number 7. He will not keep silent. He 17:03 will not keep silent. The whole world is going to know. Okay, 17:09 Revelation chapter 6. Let's look at a scene that has been drawn 17:17 concerning the second coming of Jesus. All right. Starting with 17:25 verse 14: Let's look at it. The Bible says: Then the sky 17:34 did what? receded or departed as a scroll when it is rolled 17:40 up or rolled together. And how many mountains? Every mountain 17:46 and island was moved out of its place. What would have to 17:51 happen for islands and mountains to move? An earthquake, so 17:56 mighty and so great. Wow! Then look at the continuous 18:02 description: And the kings of the earth, that's the leaders of 18:07 nations, the great men, that is those who are very well known. 18:12 Somebody might say, well I know this person, he's dead now but 18:17 people might say well what did Elvis do when he heard the 18:20 sound? He was a great person. People that are well known; 18:23 That's referring to people that are very visible, very front and 18:28 center. The kings of the earth. The great men. The rich men. 18:32 Why the rich men? 18:34 Because rich people often think that they are excluded from 18:37 anything that's dangerous. The rich people. They think that 18:41 somehow their money can buy them exclusion from the second coming 18:44 of Jesus. But the rich men; the commanders. Who are the 18:49 commanders? Yeah, the mighty, yeah the military that's right. 18:55 We have the mighty men but also the commanders. The mighty 19:00 men. Those are the soldiers. Every slave and every free man. 19:05 Even up to the coming of the Lord there will be slavery 19:09 practiced somewhere in the earth What do they do? They hid 19:14 themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and 19:19 said to the mountains and the rocks, let's read that together, 19:24 fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the 19:28 throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. Here it is: For the great 19:34 day of His wrath has come and who is able to stand? Wow! And 19:39 all the categories mentioned in verse 15, nobody's going to be 19:43 excluded from it. You know there's no mountain that your 19:47 height is too high on to miss that, because it's going to 19:50 happen from above. There's no underground bungalow or bunker 19:55 that's going to be exempt from that because the earth is going 19:59 be shaken and there are people who are dooms-day preppers. 20:02 Have you heard of the dooms-day preppers, the off-the-grid 20:06 people. You know, they said I want a house. My wife and I like 20:09 the House channel. And there are some people that just want to 20:12 get away from the cities. We watched a program where somebody 20:16 got a house on an island way up in British Columbia. And another 20:20 person got one way down in Tahiti. They have to take a 20:23 plane to the main island, and a boat to a small island then 20:25 another boat to another island in the middle of nowhere and 20:29 they said this is living. We're off the grid; no one will find 20:34 us. Who will find them? There's nobody that can hide from the 20:38 coming of the Lord. Every island every mountain will be moved out 20:44 of its place. What a cataclysmic event is ahead of us. What's the 20:49 only safe thing to do? That's right. The only ones that will 20:54 be able to stand is those who are walking with Christ. And we 20:58 won't be running into the rock. I think we'll be running out 21:02 from the rocks, out from the caves. Matter of fact, go to 21:07 Isaiah 25:9. I think you know where I'm going, but let's see 21:11 the opposite to that, the opposite to what we just read. 21:15 Isaiah 25:9: Hmm. Beautiful text And it will be said in that day, 21:41 Behold this is our God, we have waited for Him and he will do 21:48 what? Save us. This is the Lord. We have waited for Him, we will 21:56 be what? We will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. 22:00 They're going to be glad and the others that are going to be 22:03 sad. They're going to be running to Him. There are those that are 22:07 going to be running from Him. They are glad to see Him. Others 22:12 are saying hide us. And who are they asking to be hidden from? 22:18 A lion? Who are they asking to be hidden from? A Lamb. 22:22 Isn't that amazing! One of the most harmless of creatures is 22:28 the very one that they don't want to see because they are at 22:31 odds with the Lamb. You see you'll be able to face the Lamb 22:34 on that day if you behold the Lamb of God in this day. 22:39 That's why John points us to the Lamb and what a day it will be 22:43 when Jesus comes. So what question are we up to now? 22:46 Number 8. Let's go to number 8. Question number 8 and look at 22:53 what the Bible says: 23:04 Go a few chapters forward and we're going to go to the book of 23:07 Jeremiah, Jeremiah. Jeremiah and Isaiah are books that will 23:15 swallow us up. They're very deep books when it comes to 23:20 prophecies. Jeremiah chapter 4 and we're going to look together 23:31 at verse... I'll start with verse 23 and then when we get to 23:39 verse 26 you could bring it up on the screen. The Bible speaks 23:44 about the conditions of that day I beheld the earth, verse 23 of 23:50 Jeremiah chapter 4. I beheld the earth and indeed it was without 23:54 form and void. And the heavens, they had what? No light. 24:02 Sounds like the _. I beheld the mountains and 24:05 indeed they trembled and all the hills moved what? Back and forth 24:12 I beheld and indeed there was no man and all the birds of the 24:21 of the heavens had fled, and this is the answer, verse 26: 24:40 But I want to just add verse 27 here. So let's answer to verse 24:43 26. How will Jesus' return affect the cities of the earth? 24:48 What would happen to them? What two words do you see together? 24:52 All the cities were broken down. That's right. I didn't bring it 24:56 up. Sorry about that. All the cities were broken down. Say 25:01 that together, broken down. Now if you're in a city like any 25:05 major city where they pride themselves in building 40 25:09 stories and above. Here in Thompsonville there's not a 25:12 single building's going to fall on us. You just have to walk 25:15 two feet away from the building and we're safe in some respects, 25:19 but if you're not in the Lord, it doesn't really matter how far 25:21 away from the building you are. But if you're in a city like New 25:24 York or Los Angeles or Detroit, Michigan, or Atlanta or just 25:30 pick anything, any major city for buildings that are called 25:34 sky scrapers. I can't even tell you to run cause how can you 25:42 run. For those of us who remember it 9/11: Two 110 story 25:48 buildings came down. Just imagine them all coming down at 25:51 the same time. That's just beyond belief. That's just 25:58 beyond description. I mean, here you are you're standing up on 26:00 the two twin towers. It's a sad reality. I'm not glorying in 26:03 that event at all, but just imagine. The Twin Towers are 26:07 coming down and I used to work in that area and all of a sudden 26:10 the Bankers' Trust is coming down, Merrill Lynch is coming 26:14 down, the phone company building is coming down or all the 26:19 buildings on Wall Street are coming down. Then all of a 26:22 sudden there's somewhat of a ripple effect from downtown to 26:25 uptown. There's a section called I think it's Harold Square. 26:29 Harold Square is a place right by Macy's on 34th street where 26:33 if you stand in the middle there are six different streets. It's 26:36 like an axle and every direction you look, it looks like this 26:40 like you're looking down a pipe because the buildings go like a 26:44 tunnel down that way, a tunnel down that way. Every direction 26:47 you look the buildings are sky scrapers, easily 30, 40 stories 26:52 I mean the short buildings, 30 stories is short for 26:55 Manhattan. That's like maybe an apartment complex. But even 26:59 those are tall. Just imagine all this city being broken down. Why 27:07 do you think they are being broken down? Put on your 27:11 thinking cap. Why do you think they're being broken down? 27:13 Okay great, a very bad earth quake. That'll definitely 27:19 accomplish that. But why do you think they're being broken down? 27:21 The Lord is coming? Okay. Let me pull the answer out. If a fire 27:29 works show is going off and the buildings are around you what do 27:32 people often say? I can't see it The buildings are blocking it. 27:39 What happens when the buildings come down? Their view is clear. 27:44 The Lord doesn't want anybody to miss that event. But the sad 27:48 reality is when buildings like that come down, Oh man! That's 27:52 when the Lord gave signs to the children of Israel about the 27:55 destruction of Jerusalem, He said pray that your flight not 28:00 happen in the winter nor on the Sabbath day. When Jerusalem was 28:03 destroyed the Roman armies had retreated long enough for all 28:06 the Christians to come out of Jerusalem, so when it came down 28:09 and was destroyed not a single Christian lost his or her life. 28:13 I think that's one of the reasons why we're counseled 28:15 to get out of big cities, to not live in big cities. Can you 28:20 imagine if the buildings come down, I'm kind of milking this, 28:23 do you think that the highways are going to stay up? Do you 28:27 think that those expanded road ways that look like spaghetti 28:30 all entwined, what do you think Tracy, are they going to stay up 28:32 The San Francisco earth quake when the Embarcadero freeway 28:37 pancaked, it just came down. And some people survived it, 28:41 others didn't. But you look at some of those cross places like 28:46 Atlanta, where they have those major exchanges like Highway 4, 28:52 Highway 10, they all... And they're one above the next. What 28:58 about the bridges? Let's talk about the bridges. Do you think 29:00 the bridges are still going to be up. I'm trying to magnify 29:03 this picture here. Anything that was built by man what's going to 29:07 happen? It's going to be broken down. It's coming down. The Bay 29:17 Bridge. What'll happen to the... Bay Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, 29:18 Manhattan Bridge, Verrazano Bridge, the bridge down from 29:21 Miami all the way down to Key West. Any bridge, it's coming 29:26 down. Yes? Anything built on this earth structure-wise is 29:34 going to come down. Except the Lord protects His people we're 29:38 all in a bad way. What a text. And so when we read verses like 29:42 this sometimes get so locked into just this description our 29:48 minds don't expand and begin to see this on a broad scale. But 29:52 the destruction is going to be quite fierce. As a matter of 29:55 fact go to Joel chapter 2. I want you to get another picture 29:59 of this. Joel chapter 2, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, go to the book of 30:06 Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel. Once you see Joel, chapter 2. 30:09 Because the minor and major prophets all contribute to the 30:17 picture that is drawn about the second coming of Jesus and what 30:19 a day it's going to be. Joel 2. I'm going to start with verse 1. 30:27 Remember you know for the great day of the Lord has come, 30:36 remember the great day of wrath has come and who shall be able 30:39 to stand it. Look at Joel 2:1, we are told, and this by the way 30:45 was specifically an event that had to pertain directly to the 30:53 children of Israel, but it has a dual application. Before we read 30:57 verse 1 of chapter 2 just look at verse 15 of chapter 1, just a 31:05 peek at that because I have so much stuff highlighted here. 31:08 Look at verse 15 of chapter 1. It says, Alas, for the day of 31:16 the Lord is where? At hand. It shall come as destruction from 31:23 the Almighty. Truly a tremendous day. Let's begin to see it in an 31:28 expanded view. Chapter 2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion and 31:33 sound an alarm in my holy mountain. That means, you know, 31:37 when you hear a trumpet sounding it says let all the inhabitants 31:40 of the land tremble. A trumpet sounds to _ man's urgency. 31:45 For the day of the Lord is coming, for it is where? At hand 31:50 Just what we read in Matthew 24:36-44. Look how it's 31:55 described: A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and 32:01 thick darkness, like the morning clouds spread over the mountains 32:06 A people come great and strong the like of whom has never been 32:12 nor will there ever be any such after them. At a later date I'll 32:17 explain this further to you. And it says: A fire devours before 32:21 them and behind them a flame burns. The land is like the 32:25 garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate 32:29 wilderness. Surely nothing shall escape them. And then we go to a 32:33 description that's found in Revelation 9 and Ezekiel 2. 32:40 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses and like 32:44 swift steeds so they run with a noise like chariots over 32:48 mountains they leap. Like the noise of a flaming fire that 32:52 devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle 32:57 array. What kind of effect is going to happen. By the way, 32:59 these descriptions, can I just give you a hint at what it is? 33:04 You want a hint? Are you ready for it? Okay. This is a 33:09 description when the Lord removes his restraining power 33:14 from all the angels that are evil and they are loose in the 33:21 land. Because look at the effect When evil angels are released 33:25 look at what verse 6 says. Before them the people writhe 33:34 in pain, all faces are drained of color, they run like mighty 33:39 men, they climb the walls like men of war. Everyone marches in 33:44 formation and they do not break ranks. They do not push one 33:48 another, everyone marches in his own column and when they lunge 33:51 between the weapons they are not cut down. They run to and fro 33:56 in the city, they run on the wall, they climb into the houses 33:59 they enter at the windows like a thief, the earth quakes before 34:06 them, the heavens tremble, the sun and the moon grow dark and 34:09 the stars diminish their brightness. The Lord gives voice 34:13 before his army, for his camp is very great, for strong is the 34:18 one who executes His word, for the day of the Lord is great and 34:22 very terrible, who can endure it? Now what a picture that's 34:28 coming. When people say... Let me just make a point here and I 34:30 want to emphasize something tonight in our study. When 34:32 people say Well you know okay I'm going to be lost, what's the 34:35 big deal? They have no clue. It's not like missing a car wash 34:41 or missing the premier of the movie that is a blockbuster. 34:44 It's not like missing a plane. Before destruction comes, the 34:50 Bible says this later on, in describing this day, it says men 34:55 will seek death and will not find it. In other words, it's 34:59 going to be of such magnitude... I'm minimizing it actually, 35:04 because you can't really imagine what it's going to be like. It 35:09 men are going to seek death, but they won't find it. And why? 35:14 Because they've turned their backs on the Lord. I want to 35:17 kind of give you a text here. Go with me now. Let me just 35:20 look at this very quickly. I'm going to find it right here. 35:23 Okay. What a day it's going to be. I'm going to find this 35:30 text here for you. Okay, here it is, coming now. Okay, got it. 35:42 Here it is. 35:43 Go to Proverbs 1, okay. Wow! In verse 20 down to verse 23 lays 36:19 a foundation as to the appeal the Lord is making. He's talking 36:25 about wisdom. He's saying we need to be wiser than we are. 36:29 Look at verse 24: Because I have called, and what happened? and 36:38 you refused, I have stretched out my hand and what? no one 36:43 regarded. Because you disdained all my counsel and would have 36:49 none of my reproof. Look at verse 26: I also will laugh your 36:56 calamity will mock when your terror comes. Your terror comes 37:02 like a storm and your destruction comes like a 37:05 whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you, they will 37:08 call on me but I will not answer They will seek me diligently but 37:14 they will not find me because they hated knowledge and did not 37:18 choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my 37:22 counsel and despised all my reproof. It's a sad day coming. 37:27 My rebuke, is it okay to say that? All the rebuke of the Lord 37:34 they despised them. They don't want to hear it. There is a 37:38 recalcitrance, the word recalcitrant means there's a 37:41 consistent, there's almost a concreting of the human heart. 37:45 People are being appealed to. The Lord is saying this is 37:47 what's coming, this is what's coming. And they hated knowledge 37:52 they despised counsel. I stretched out my hand to save 37:55 them, they said, I don't want it I've heard people say, it's okay if 38:01 I'm lost. I'll just go to hell and I'll be just fine. Well hell 38:04 is not going to be a vacation resort. Yeah. Ronald Reagan 38:11 this is so terrible. I saw this commercial a number of years ago 38:15 and it just popped up recently, he says I'm an unashamed 38:22 athiest whose not afraid to burn in hell. And I thought to myself 38:26 you actually would put that on television and tell the entire 38:29 world that you're an unashamed athiest, not afraid to burn 38:32 in hell. I'm thinking to myself 38:33 you have no clue, he has no idea what's ahead of us. What I'm 38:37 giving you is just a glimpse, I'm telling this to you in a 38:41 perfectly peaceful setting with you all sitting down. The only 38:45 thing you have is your imagination. But pull the 38:48 curtain back and turn on the effects like God has the ability 38:52 to do. What a day. That's why it's important to be ready for 38:55 the coming of 38:57 the Lord. Amen. It's important to be on the right side. Look at 39:01 Question number 9. Is that where we are. Question number 9. 39:16 Let's go to 2 Timothy. We're going to go to 2 Timothy. The 39:22 we're living in a world where there's unrest all over the 39:24 world. There's unrest all over the world. And by the way, 39:29 2 Timothy is a book that cannot be applied to any other 39:35 generation except the last days. This is one of those chapters 39:39 that has been reserved for the last days because it starts that 39:44 way. Okay. I'll go ahead and bring it up on the screen so if 39:50 you don't have a Bible you can see it. 39:54 But know this, that in the last days what kind of times? 39:56 Perilous times will come. 39:59 That means dangerous, stressful, overwhelming. Why? 40:04 For men will be lovers of themselves, what else? lovers of 40:12 money. Okay, not only that, lovers of themselves, lovers of 40:17 money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, what else? 40:22 disobedient to parents, what else? Unthankful, together, 40:28 unholy, unloving, unforgiving, without self-control, slanderers 40:37 that means they just tell lies on folks, they slander people. 40:41 Rather than just telling lies they always think bad about 40:45 people, that person's no good, nothing's ever come out of that 40:51 person that's good, do you see them, look at that. Slanderers, 40:53 just finding 40:55 pleasure in what you call character defamation. It goes on 40:59 Where am I now? Without self- control, brutal, despisers of 41:08 those that are what? Those that are good. Traitors, what else? 41:14 Headstrong, haughty, what a list lovers of pleasure rather than 41:21 what? Lovers of God. You know when you talk about that... 41:25 Having a form of godliness but denying its power, and from 41:29 such people that Bible say do what? Turn away. You know we 41:34 live in a generation where to say you're a Christian is a 41:36 popular thing. Nowadays you can be a Christian by just saying 41:41 you're a Christian. I'm a Christian. But our behavior 41:45 should be evidence of our profession, don't you think. So 41:50 if we say that we're Christian, our behavior should be evidence 41:53 of it. Nowadays, it's sad in our country, Lord save me from 42:02 myself, that the social, moral, political... The climate in our 42:11 world is of such that these things are so in our face that 42:16 there are some people that will see the behavior of a person to 42:19 degrading and they will say well that person said he's a Christian. 42:25 You can't judge them. Now the word judge is a word that we've 42:31 often thrown around so lightly. The Bible says by their blanks 42:38 you will know them. So what's that word. By their fruits. So 42:42 if I walk up to a tree can I judge it, by what? Give me an 42:51 apple, that's an orange tree. Well get me a pear, that's a 42:52 mango tree, you know. And we find that one of the ways we can 42:58 tell what's in a person's heart. Lot of people say, well you 43:01 cannot judge their heart. Well we can't judge a person's heart 43:05 if we don't know what's in it but the Bible does say: For out 43:07 of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So you don't 43:14 have to know what's in a person's heart. I've heard 43:15 somebody once say, listen long enough and you'll find out 43:19 what's in there. Because it comes out. So be careful when 43:22 we just think that people... Nowadays we live in a climate 43:26 where... and I'm praying that people are converted and are 43:32 changed because the Lord gives every one of us an opportunity 43:34 to have our lives turned around. Amen? Nobody could say well that 43:38 person is surely lost, but we must be mindful of where we are 43:43 and how we live and what we say and what we do so that our lives 43:46 won't be while we're looking at somebody else's behavior, our 43:51 lives won't be a castaway. We must know. So now how does the 43:57 Bible describes the social condition that will be 43:59 manifested prior to the return of Jesus? Okay, you want to know 44:03 how to put that in there. Here's the answer: You put a breakdown 44:06 of society. A societal breakdown The other thing you could do is 44:17 just say see 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Just circle the text because the 44:22 description is so amazingly detailed. It's amazingly 44:29 detailed when you look at it. So let me ask you a question. 44:35 Since we're talking about the signs of the coming of the Lord 44:38 Is this sign a reliable one? Say something. Is it yes or no? 44:43 You can see it all around you. Your right. The Lord said to 44:52 Paul, write this down because 1800 years from now they're 44:59 going to need that text. See? That's exactly what's happening 45:06 today. Our world is exactly the way the Lord described it would 45:10 be and amazingly enough when we read that it says, But know this 45:13 that in the last days? what day? Last days. We're living in the 45:20 what? Last days. Yes we are. And the closer we get to the last 45:27 days the last of the last days we are going to see that these 45:31 things are going to intensify amazingly, tremendously, 45:35 amazingly. Okay, now let's go to the next one. What's the next 45:41 question? Question number 10. And here's the question: 45:59 Let's go to the book of Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah is another 46:04 book that will really shake you up. Can I ask you a question? 46:10 Can the world use a good shaking up? And it's going to 46:19 come. The unfortunate thing, it's going to come for some 46:22 people too late... What am I looking for? Isaiah. Why am I 46:27 in the book of Micah. Here I am. I'm talking to myself and 46:31 going in the wrong direction. Isaiah 60 and we're going to 46:37 read verse 2. A condition that we just described in the book of 46:42 Joel. The Bible says, here it is 47:01 So, while the world is physically dark and then there's 47:06 spiritual darkness where will the light of God's glory be seen 47:09 where would it be seen. It'll be seen on us. So there's nothing 47:15 that we have to be worried about Matter of fact, let's talk about 47:17 this, let's just focus on this for a moment. Have you ever gone 47:21 outside at night with a flashlight? Do you think people 47:27 could find you at night if you had a flashlight? What about if 47:31 was a tiny flashlight? Could they still find you. Because the 47:34 darker the surroundings are the brighter and more obvious the 47:39 flashlight seems to be. Am I right? What the Lord is in 47:42 essence saying here, let's look at verse 1 now. So the answer to 47:45 that is Whatever sign that the Bible describes with physical 47:50 and spiritual application? The sign: There is darkness. Put 47:54 that word there, darkness. But I like verse 1. I have really 48:00 enjoyed Isaiah 60:1 and here it is: Let's read the first two 48:05 words together. Arise, shine, for your light has come and the 48:12 glory of the Lord has risen where? Upon you. So right now 48:18 we're seeing in this darkening, in the darkening environment... 48:21 We just not too long ago bought some lights for the front of our 48:26 house and we don't have to turn them off during the day because 48:30 they go off when it gets bright and they come on when it gets 48:33 dark and they are bright. I think if a helicopter flew over 48:40 southern Illinois could find our house. It's bright. And then we 48:45 have these lights that when you drive up, it's four Halogen lights 48:49 that turn on like, it's bright. The beauty of having light at 48:57 night is you can be seen. And the Lord is saying to those of 49:03 us who are in Him, our lights are going to shine. Amen. So 49:09 when the Bible says let your light so shine, that means, 49:11 don't worry about it. You don't have to make your light shine. 49:14 You have to do what? Let the light of God shine from you. 49:18 The timing of this is beautiful because Revelation chapter 14 49:24 talks about fear God and give glory to Him. How can we give 49:27 glory to God in a time of darkness? How can we give glory 49:30 to God at a time of darkness. Say it again. Letting our light 49:38 shine. That's right. And our light shining has a positive 49:43 impact. Look at verse 3. The Gentiles shall come to what? 49:50 To your light and the kings to the brightness of what? Your 49:57 rising. What does the word rising denote? When something 50:05 is rising, it's getting darker or brighter? Is it getting 50:07 brighter. 50:09 So the light of God is getting brighter and brighter and 50:12 brighter on those who are in Him So while the light of God is 50:17 getting brighter on those of us who are in Him, those who are 50:20 not in Him will come to the brightness of our rising. 50:23 They'll see it. That's why verse 4 is so significant. Lift your 50:30 eyes all around and see. They all gather together, they come 50:36 where? To you. Your sons shall come from afar and your 50:41 daughters shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see 50:46 and become what? Radiant and your heart shall swell with joy. 50:53 So the Lord is talking about the blessing of this. There's a 50:54 beauty that's coming out of the light that God gives to us, if 50:57 we allow that light to get brighter and brighter and 51:00 brighter. That's simply allowing the Lord to manifest His glory 51:03 in our lives. So the answer to question number 10: The sign 51:08 that a physical and spiritual what? Darkness. Darkness 51:13 covered the earth and deep darkness the people. And we talked 51:17 about that darkness just a moment ago. All right. Let's 51:21 scoot on down to question number 11. Question number 11. 51:27 And here it is... 51:36 Boy I'll tell you when I saw the news few days ago just recently 51:43 I thought man alive how true this is, how true this is. 51:49 Matthew 24:6-8. Okay, hmm. and we read the following... 52:21 But it goes on. And this we see not only wars and rumors of wars 52:24 but something happening internally... For nation shall 52:29 rise against what? Nation. And kingdom against what? Kingdom 52:32 And there will be what? Famines. What else? Pestilences, that's 52:37 diseases, and earthquakes in various places. And look at how 52:42 Matthew caps this off... 52:47 You know when you see the ocean rising unusually and if you put 52:51 those signs all together, some places are experiencing drought 52:54 that has never been seen before. Some places it's one fire after 53:00 the other after the other after the other, unchecked. Yeah, I 53:06 mean. I had this dream once that I had four or five times and I'm 53:10 just praying that it doesn't come to pass in a negative way. 53:13 But I dreamed we were in a large city and while we were in the 53:18 city just fire just started pouring out of the sky. Water 53:20 started rising above the height of the bridge. And we got 53:25 separated briefly but when we got to the other side of the 53:27 bridge, we were both together. Don't know how that happened, 53:29 but dreams have unexplainable parts to it. 53:32 But the picture that's 53:34 being drawn here, and I'll go back to that in brief moments, 53:37 when it talked about nation rising against nation, we have 53:41 unrest in so many parts of the world that you really can't keep 53:46 track of it. But here's the danger. The danger is getting 53:53 used to it. What is that called when you get used to something 54:00 and it doesn't affect you any more. Complacency, another one 54:07 I heard just a moment ago: Desensitized. One psychologist 54:16 said that children by the time their 18 they've seen so many 54:21 thousands of murders on television that the word murder 54:24 doesn't even move them anymore. They've seen so much bloodshed, 54:28 They've seen so much violence. The story was told about a young 54:33 boy and this story impacted me in a positive way. Talked about 54:38 a young boy whose family lived outside of the city. They 54:43 intentionally kept their children away from all the 54:46 polluting influences of the city They didn't even have a 54:49 television. So when this young boy got older he asked to spend 54:54 the weekend with a good friend of his, a classmate. His mom and 54:57 dad got to the point where they felt they could trust him and he 55:00 went to the house. They were watching a show on television 55:04 and he saw at age 15 he saw his first time a person who got shot 55:12 and killed. 55:14 He saw it on television and he got sick and he started throwing 55:17 up. And his friend said, What's wrong with you. He said they 55:19 just got killed. That's the first time he saw it. It 55:25 affected him so negatively. You know the news will say 55:28 now days this is quite, if you have children, they warn you 55:33 this is quite graphic they tell you and we sit there and we go 55:38 Ho-hum. Then we go to U-tube to look at the unedited version. 55:45 We've become desensitized. Am I right. Come on, can we say amen 55:49 to that. We have become desensitized, because the moment 55:53 they say you might want to turn away, we say what was the name 55:57 of the article? Then we go look up the... It's sad but that's 56:00 what the world has done to us. That's why I can't wait for the 56:03 day for Jesus to come that these things will not even be in our 56:06 presence any longer. Praise God for that. Because when you say 56:10 people are hungry, you say why do you have to bother me for 56:12 food. Can't they go ask some body else. We get desensitized 56:16 to human suffering. That's why whenever I hear mission programs 56:20 whenever we have a mission program on 3ABN it always kind 56:23 of recalibrates me. There was a beautiful story of a homeless 56:29 lady on the news. She was a pharmacist. This is a very 56:32 touching story. It was 56:33 on the news this evening actually before we came here. 56:39 They saw her at a gas station at a carwash and 56:41 all of her belongings 56:42 were on the side outside of her car and she was on a wheelchair 56:46 and she had a blanket wrapped around her. And two ladies 56:49 caught the ladies attention and they came. She had two dogs. 56:53 And they came to here and they said are you okay? Well 56:56 naturally she said I'm fine but they wouldn't take that as an 57:00 answer. They said, no really what's wrong? She said well I 57:03 used to be a pharmacist but I lost my pension, I don't have 57:10 any money, I have no health coverage. I could no longer 57:13 afford to live anywhere. The rent became too much for me 57:19 to even afford, so now I live out of my van. So I'm getting it 57:22 cleaned out and vacuumed out because I have two dogs. Those 57:27 two ladies, these two good Samaritans, they got together 57:30 and started reaching out, put it on social media. They got to 57:35 the place where they got her a brand new apartment, they 57:39 furnished it and they paid for the rent for two years and what 57:44 a touching story that was when I saw that. The two dogs, they fed 57:48 the dogs, they packed that apartment. I'll tell you, there 57:51 are still some good things to look for in the world, right? 57:54 Well you know friends our time is to an end so quickly, it's 57:56 sad. Keep studying God's word because one day it'll come into 57:59 A Sharper Focus. God bless you. |
Revised 2019-12-11