Participants: Pr. David Klinedinst
Series Code: DPR
Program Code: DPR000002A
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00:08 As we begin tonight I would invite you to bow your heads with me, for a word of prayer.
00:11 Heavenly Father, as we open Your Word 00:16 once again tonight we ask and pray for light, 00:20 and understanding we pray that as we begin this journey, you would help us 00:23 to see a picture of Jesus and we could have the assurance 00:28 of salvation through Him. This we ask in Jesus' name, 00:32 Amen. It was the end of the sceond shift 00:36 and Tom was ready to go home. 00:40 He had been working hard all day long and so when that bell rang 00:44 at 11 o clock he was out the door and made his way to his car 00:48 and he started driving down the interstate on his way home. 00:52 but since it was so late at night, Tom was having a hard time 00:57 staying awake so he decided to call one of his buddies on the phone 01:01 so he whipped out his cell phone, dialed the number, hooked the ear piece 01:05 to the ear and he started talking to his friend Bob. 01:09 Now they began going over the days events, and what they were planning to do 01:13 for the weekend but at the same time he was talking to Bob 01:17 he also turns up the radio in his car fullblast, 01:21 as it blares through the loud speakers. And in between his 01:25 conversations he even begins to lip sync some of the words 01:29 and move his body back and forth to the beat of the music. So picture 01:33 that. He is driving at night, talking on his cell phone, 01:37 lip syncing the words, and dancing back and forth when 01:41 all of a sudden, boom! He crashes through a 01:45 barrier in the middle of the road, and into a ditch at 60 01:49 miles an hour. The force of the impact knocked him 01:53 out. Minutes later there were flashing lights and 01:57 wailing sirens as police and paramedics arrived on the sceen. 02:01 Now fortunately they were able to rescue Tom from the 02:05 mangled car. He was wounded, bruised, and cut up but 02:09 he was still alive. Now the officer on the scene decided to 02:13 give him a sobriety test because he thought for sure 02:17 Tom must be drunk. You see Tom had been 02:21 driving on a road that was closed and the officer 02:25 wanted to know why. But the officer was rather surprised to discover 02:29 that Tom was quite sober. Not an ounce of liquor 02:33 was found in his blood. So the officer asked him 02:37 Why were you driving on a road that was closed? 02:41 Well Tom was shocked. He looked at the officer and he said 02:45 I didn't know the road was closed! 02:49 The officer could not believe this. He looked back at Tom and said, how could 02:53 you not know? There were signs up for the last 3 miles 02:57 that said the road was closed. 03:01 Well, Tom was flabbergasted. He just looked at the officer and 03:05 said, I never saw the signs. 03:09 And the officer responded, that is because you weren't 03:13 paying, attention. 03:17 See it is a dangerous thing to ignore the signs on the road isn't it. 03:21 Because those signs are there to tell you what is ahead. But in the same 03:25 way God has placed his signs in this world. They are called 03:29 the prophetic signs of the times and the purpose of those 03:33 signs are to tell us when earth's history is winding down 03:37 and to remind us taht we have to take seriously 03:41 our relationship with Jesus Christ. Tonight we are gonna seek to answer 03:45 two simple questions. Number one. What are the prophetic signs 03:49 of the times which the Bible talks about?And number two, 03:53 are these signs being fulfilled today 03:57 Because if they are we do not wanna be like Tom who 04:01 wasn't paying attention. So as we begin our 04:05 journey tonight I wanna invite you to take your Bibles and we are going to turn 04:09 to the book of Revelation chapter 14. 04:13 Now if you are here for the first time, you will find that I usually put the reference 04:17 on the screen for you because I want you to look it up in the Bible for yourself 04:21 50% of the time I will only have the reference 04:25 the other 50% I will probably write the verse out for you 04:29 just for the sake of time. So Revelation chapter 04:33 14 beginning in verse 6. I just wanna spend 04:37 a few moments in this passage as our foundation tonight. 04:41 Because later on in the seminar we are gonna spend a lot more time 04:45 in Revelation chapter 14. Revelation 14 verse 04:49 6. The Bible says, "then I 04:53 saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having 04:57 the everlasting gospel to preach to those who dwell on the earth 05:01 to every nation tribe tongue, 05:05 and people. Saying with a," what kind of voice? A loud voice 05:09 "fear God and give glory to Him for 05:13 the hour of his judgement has come and worship Him 05:17 who made the heavens and the earth and the sea 05:21 and the springs of water." Here in Revelation 14 05:25 we are given the symbolism of three angels who ahve 05:29 a super important message that must go to all the world. Every 05:33 tribe tongue and people. And so one of the messages 05:37 that we wanna look at tonight is this message of the first angel 05:41 it is specifically for those living in the time of the end. And the message 05:45 is to fear God and give Him glory, why. 05:49 What does the rest of it say. For the hour of His judgement is 05:53 come. Now that term hour of judgement that sounds a little bit 05:57 scary but what it is basically referring to is the time 06:01 of the end. God is sending us a wakeup message 06:05 to remind us of what period of earth's history we are living in 06:09 Why does God have to send us a wake up message? Becasue 06:13 God knows that in the last days this world 06:17 is going to be very distracted. We are going to be 06:21 distracted by our jobs, bank accounts, 06:25 TV. He knows that we are gonna be 06:29 paying attention else except our spiritual life 06:33 and our relationship with Jesus. So becasue He loves us 06:37 He sends us this warning message in Revelation 06:41 that we need to be paying attention to the signs that are 06:45 around us and that is exactly what we are gonna do tonight. 06:49 And so as we make our way down this path, I would actually like to 06:53 begin by looking at the words of Jesus in Matthew 06:57 24. Because of all the chapters in the Bible 07:01 Jesus gives us some very specific prophetic signs 07:05 to be looking for and all we are gonna do is see what the Bible says 07:09 and then we are going to judge whether those things are happening 07:13 today. So let us start now with Matthew Chapter 24 07:17 and I wanna begin in verse 3-5 07:21 and these are the words of Jesus 07:25 Matthew 24:3-5 07:29 If you are already there in Matthew 24 let me hear you say a loud amen 07:33 Alright verse 3. The Bible says 07:37 Now as he sat on the mount of Olives the disciples 07:41 came to him privately saying tell us 07:45 when will these things be and what will be the signs 07:49 of your coming in the end of the age 07:53 now notice the specific question the disciples ask they want to know 07:57 what will be the signs of your coming how will we know 08:01 the time is near. Jesus begins to answer them 08:05 in verse 4. He says, Jesus answered and said 08:09 to them, take heed that no one does 08:13 decieves you 08:17 many will say I am the Christ and will deceive just a few people 08:21 is that what it says? see I'm testing you It says well deceive many. 08:25 Now I am gonna stop there for a second so many times when it comes 08:29 to studying the scriptures we go through the passages of the Bible 08:33 much too fast and we miss the lessons there. 08:37 DO you notice that before Jesus begins to descrive 08:41 any specific sign, one of the first things he says 08:45 is he is concerned about people being 08:49 deceived. He is warning us that in the last days it will be 08:53 a very confusing religious world that there is gonna be a lot of 08:57 deception even in the religious realm 09:01 because when you think of it we live in a world were 09:05 there are so many religious voices aren't there? 09:09 In the yearbook of churches I wanna show you a statistic that I found. In the year 09:13 book of churches it says there are about 217 09:17 Christian denominations just in the United States alone 09:21 now I read another statistic that said there is 30,000 09:25 and I don't know which one is true let us just saying somewhere between the two. 09:29 But I want you to think about that. One God 09:33 One Bible One Truth, 09:37 217 different doctrines. Can you understand why 09:41 some people find the religious world to be very 09:45 confusing. So many different groups saying, believe us. 09:49 follow us, join us. In fact you can turn 09:53 the radio on one preacher will say this, and on the next another 09:57 says that. You can go to a church on one end of town they will 10:01 espouse this doctrine, go across the street and they will espouse a totally different 10:05 point of view. We live in an age where people 10:09 will even come to my door trying to tell me 10:13 what to believe. But Jesus warned us. It is going to be 10:17 a confusing place in the religious world 10:21 because there is going to be many different voices. 10:25 Now that may seem a bit discouraging 10:29 but it is also what causes people to ive up and say you know what 10:33 I will never be able to find the truth but you know if you were the Devil 10:37 wouldn't you want to make spiritual things seem so confusing 10:41 wouldn't you wanna make truth seem so difficult 10:45 to find that you frustrate people to the very core 10:49 of their being. Jesus says that is what it will be like 10:53 that is one of the religious signs even in the last 10:57 days. In fact Jesus goes on and He gets more 11:01 specific and he tells us that there will come a time when we may not even 11:05 be able tot rust certain leaders because there will be false christs and 11:09 alse prophets now i do not wanna spend a lot of time on that 11:13 we pretty much know the Bible talks about this kind of deception 11:17 but i just wanna focus on the last hundred years 11:21 think about the many false people that have arisen 11:25 now I just put a few on the screen. How many of you are old enough to remember 11:29 the incident with Jim Jones and the People's Temple could I see your hand 11:33 900 people were lead to their death by 11:37 drinking cyanide poisoning because they believed this man 11:41 was Jesus himself. Some remember the incident in 11:45 Waco, Texas with David Karesh. There was a man 11:49 named Brother Julius who claims to be the only Messiah. There is reverend Moon 11:53 and Jose Luis De Jesus Miranda 11:57 He passed away last year, but he is very popular 12:01 in Puerto Rico. He claimed to be both 12:05 Jesus and the Antichrist at the same time 12:09 Now i am not quite sure i understood that but that is the claim he made on his 12:13 website and even after his death he has an extremely 12:17 large following in Puerto Rico today 12:21 Statistics tell us that there are an estimated 12:25 2500 cults int he US alone. 12:29 Jesus is telling us when it comes to a point 12:33 when we hear that many voices we can know that 12:37 prophecy is being fulfilled. Now that 12:41 may lead us to ask a pretty important question. You might say, well Pastor Dave 12:45 with all these voices how in the world are 12:49 can I know the truth? How can I know what 12:53 voice to follow and what voice to ignore. 12:57 But I got good news for you. God has not left His people alone 13:01 in these last days. He has given us a very 13:05 powerful tool for deciphering between truth and error can you say amen 13:09 that truth is called the 13:13 Bible. You see this Bible is a compilation of 13:17 66 Books, written by 40 different authors over 13:21 a period of 1500 years and when i put all thsoe 13:25 66 books of the Bible together it forms a complete 13:29 system of truth can you say amen that is why Jesus 13:33 said in John 17:17. Sanctify them 13:37 by Your Truth, You Word is truth. 13:41 Notice it does not say my opinion is truth it says 13:45 God's Word is truth 13:49 And see what that tells me is 13:53 Truth is not necessarily what a preacher says 13:57 truth is not necessarily what the laws of a church may dictate. 14:01 And truth is not necessarily traditions that 14:06 have been around forever. One of the best things that we can do 14:09 in the time of the end is to be spending time in the word of God 14:14 every single day because when we have that 14:17 daily devotional life, not only wll be equipped 14:21 to know the difference between truth and error but this book will also 14:26 introduce us to Jesus our Lord and Saviour and 14:29 Redeemer because that scares me the msot 14:33 is sometimes when we go to church we do not bring our Bibles and we 14:37 are much too willing to accept what a preacher or teacehr says 14:41 hook line and sinker either becasue they have sold a lot of books 14:46 or maybe it is the biggest church in town, but you know that is the best 14:50 way to be deceived. Now of course God has His preachers 14:54 and His teachers that is a spiritual gift, amen? 14:58 But God does not want us to simply sit in our church pews or 15:02 sit at home watching a preacher on television and let them do 15:06 our studying for us. He invites us to go to the word of God 15:10 and to let the word of God change us 15:14 so that is one of the signs in the religious when there is a time of confusion 15:18 and deception but Jesus does not stop there. 15:22 In the next few verses he begins to tell us some signs 15:26 to look for in the physical world so since you are already in Matthrwe 15:30 24, let us satrt in verse 6-8 15:34 and Jesus is going to mention 4 very specific 15:38 signs. Matthew 24:8 15:42 the Bible says, and you will 15:46 hear of wars and rumors of wars 15:50 see that you are not troubled because all these things must come to pass 15:54 but the end is not yet for nation will rise against nation 15:58 and kingdom against kingdom and tehre will be 16:02 famines pestilences and earthquakes 16:06 in how many places? diverse or various places all 16:10 these are the beginning of sorrows. We are gnna stop there for a second 16:14 I am gonna give oyu a little quúhere, Without looking back at your bibles, 16:18 can you name the four signs that Jesus just mentioned 16:22 go for it. Wars, famines, 16:26 pestilences, and earthquakes. 16:30 All four. Now those 16:34 4 that you see on the screen I am going to ask you a sceptic 16:38 question that maybe we have not thought about 16:42 have those things been hapening since the beginning of time yes or no. 16:46 They have, so how can we say that they are signs 16:50 of the end when they have been happening all along, what does Jesus mean? 16:54 The clue is in verse 8. 16:58 You see, Jesus is not telling us that these things will be happening for the 17:02 first time at the end of time in verse 8 17:06 it says that these are the beginning of what. Sorrows. 17:10 In the original language you know what that is referring to? 17:14 That is referring to birthing pains 17:18 see what Jesus is telling us that the closer we get to the end 17:22 those signs are gonna happen with a greater 17:26 frequency, and a greater intensity 17:30 it illustrate that, how many of you ladies have been 17:34 through the joy of childbirth can I see your hands. 17:38 How many remember in detail going through child birth 17:42 I am sure you do. So let me ask you. On the day that you gave birth 17:46 to your child was that the first day you ever experienced 17:50 a contraction. Obviously not. 17:54 you began experiencing contractions, now Im not a doctor, but probably somewhere 17:58 in the 3rd trimester. At first they were pretty mild 18:02 and they were far apart, but the closer you get 18:06 to the end of your pregnancy the more 18:10 frequent and the more intense those contractions became didn't they 18:14 in fact I remember when Marquita was giving birth to our oldest 18:18 daughter Melanie and it was actually 18:22 a hard labor. i remember about 4 or 5 o clock in the morning, 18:26 she had gotten up to go to the bathroom and I guess she had seen some blood 18:30 and she said David I think we need to go to the hospital so we hopped in the car 18:34 and we rushed to the hospital we had planned to got o 18:38 and after talking to some of the midwives we had used a midwife at that time 18:42 as well, they told us well she isn't fully dilated so just 18:46 walk around the parking lot for awhile. 18:50 My wife is having a baby we are not gonna walk around the parking lot 18:55 I was a new father and they said you need to do that becauwe that will just help the 19:00 dialation so I believed them and we walked around for a while 19:04 finally they admitted her and i am telling you 19:07 she was in labor for 22 hours 19:12 anybody go longer than that? 19:16 Bless you folks. She had to push for 3 hours 19:20 why? because Melanie for some reason 19:24 in the womb decided that she wanted to put her hand 19:28 on her head and just the little bit of width 19:32 there in the finger made a difference 19:36 the closer you get 19:40 to the end of your pregnancy the greater and more frequent 19:44 those contractions will become. That is what Jesus 19:48 says those signs will be like. So let's take a look at those signs 19:52 let us see if they have happened with greater frequency 19:56 and intensity in the last hundred years. Let us start with wars and rumors of wars 20:00 now I saw a stistic I forget where 20:04 I read it but it told me the 20th century 20:08 was the deadliest century in human history as far as war was concerned. 20:12 A hundred and eighty million deaths 20:16 from war alone. If you think back to 20:20 all the conflicts this world has gone through just in our lifetime let us just 20:24 say the last 100 years. Now obviously I cannot put them all on the screen 20:28 we have been through 2 world wars, 20:32 seen a Rwandan genocide, a korean 20:36 and vietnam war, 20:40 a persian golf war and many numerous conflicts 20:45 that never involved this country. In fact at any given time 20:49 there is war going on in this world and the truth is we have 20:53 had very little peace. Now 20:57 I am gonna put a picture on the screen and as soon as I do I won't even 21:01 have to say a word you are gonna know exactly what it is. 21:05 Because I am gonna see the recognition on your face. Who knows 21:09 what this is. 9/11. 21:13 Ever since 9/11 you realize our world has changed. 21:17 We live in what is now called the age of terrorism. 21:21 Now I realize there was terrorism before that but for the first time 21:25 in history someone could hijack an american plane and use 21:29 it as aweapon to fly into a building aka 21:33 the twin towers. Now when that happened, i remember I was in 21:37 a kid, oh when JFK was 21:41 shot I remember exactly where I was when I heard that news 21:45 now as a kid i thought well that is because your old 21:49 i don't understand. Now that I have experienced 9/11 21:53 I do understand because i can tell you. I know exactly 21:57 where I was and what I was doing when that story hit the airwaves. How many of you 22:01 could say the same. You know where you were? Of course. 22:05 We were in Pennsylvania, and I was pastoring a church. We were outside 22:09 mowing my lawn and when I came inside i got on the 22:13 internet and this banner came on the screen plane 22:17 crashes into twin towers. I thought it was a hoax 22:21 I thought if that happened that would be one very station on TV 22:25 so iturned on the TV and it was on every 22:29 station. Why is that significant? 22:33 Because I believe that marks a momentus moment in 22:37 earth's history our world will never be the way it was 22:41 before 9/11. Security and air 22:45 will never be the same. Travel will never be the same 22:49 and even since that time we have slowly 22:53 begun to lose some of our privacies and even some of our freedome 22:57 that perhaps we do not even recognize. 23:01 But even beyond 9/11 we have seen rebellions 23:05 in the middle east. about 3 years ago Marquita and I 23:09 were invited to go to the country of Hungary and present a 23:13 seminar sow hile we were there we were staying in the 23:17 basement of a church members house. They actually had an apartment on the 23:21 lower level where we could stay in privacy. Now they had a televisons 23:25 there and of course in Hungary every station had 23:29 what language. Hungarian. Now I don't if you have ever been to Hungary 23:33 but if I was in a spanish country I could 23:37 figure out the words. In hungary you might as well forget it. 23:41 they put letters together I do not even know how to pronounce 23:45 the only station that they had in english was CNN 23:49 and I remmebr while we were there I sat transfixed 23:53 as I watched these rebellions in the Middle East happening one by 23:57 one by one do you remember it? The Egyptians. 24:05 ousted their president because they wanted freedom and I followed the libyan rebellion where they got rid of that guy 24:09 and then in suite following them came Yemen rebellion 24:13 and you have this cry for freedom and democracy 24:17 that is still coming from the citizens of the middle east 24:21 today. But farther than that. What 24:25 I want us to focus on is the weapons of warfare 24:29 I want you to think about what has changed in the last 100 years 24:32 We ahve gone from machine guns to 24:36 tanks to missles and bombs to stealth bombers 24:40 to germ warfare and chemical warfare 24:44 and nuclear warfare. 24:48 Do you realize that it is has only been in 24:52 this past generation that man could destroy 24:56 half of all living things on this earth with just the touch 25:00 of a button. That kind of potential for 25:04 mass destruction was never possible until this last 25:08 century the time in which you and I were 25:12 born. I want that to really sink in to our 25:16 hearts and minds because truthfully the only thing 25:20 that has kept this world from destroying itself is the restraining 25:24 power od God upon mankind 25:28 Jesus says when you see these things we can know 25:32 the time is near. But then Jesus goes on 25:36 to say 25:40 famines. This is not a sign that we tend to see 25:44 and take very seriously in America you know why? 25:48 Because none of us have experienced famine. Yes we have 25:52 pockets of poverty in america, and homelessness 25:57 but famine and poverty very 26:01 different things famine is when you have no food and 26:05 there is no potential to grow or get food 26:08 I saw a statistic that just amazed me 26:13 this may not be happeneing in the US but it does not mean it is not happening throughout many 26:17 countries of the world. The United Nations reports 26:21 that one billion people suffer from hunger on this planet. 26:24 Now I want you to comprehend that. right notw the estimate 26:28 how many people live on planet earth do you know? Somewhere around 7 Billion 26:32 that would mean one out of every seen people 26:36 do not get enough to eat. 26:40 I discovered that 70 million people died from 26:44 famine just in the 20th century alone 26:48 Jesus tells us, 26:52 when you see these things happening more and more it is a sign 26:56 that the time is near. 27:00 After famines do you know what Jesus mentions next? 27:04 well I just put it on the screen. Pestilence. Now this is not a word 27:08 we use too often int he 21st century maybe a better word for it is 27:12 disease. Now 27:16 this is a little more difficult for us to comprehend because you and I live in 27:20 america ina developed nation where we are blessed with medical technology 27:24 it has increased our life span 27:28 it has brought many blessing and we can thankful for that 27:32 but the majority of countries in the world do not have medical 27:36 technology. many underdeveloped nations, 27:40 their life span is not necessarily increasing it is decreasing 27:44 see, medical technology can make life longer 27:48 but in some cases does it necessarily make life 27:52 better? Let me put a few examples on the screen here 27:56 right now even in our modern world cancer is 28:00 one of the most prevalent diseases that we have. Now as far as we know 28:04 cancer did not exist 100 years ago, and if it did then we knew it by another name 28:08 but let me ask you a question. They say that one out of every 28:12 3 people will face cancer at some point in their life 28:16 how many of you tonight can say that either you or 28:20 someone you know have had to face an issue with cancer. 28:24 can i see your hands. look at all the hands that are up. 28:28 Now I have to yell you this came home to Marquita. 28:32 and I a few months ago. Back in 28:36 October it was time for Marquita's annual mammagram. And 28:40 at her mammagram her doctors told here they saw some things they did not like they wanted 28:44 to get a second one and so when they went back they said 28:48 there is some lumps of cysts that we aren't sure about and they wanted her to get 28:52 a biopsy done. Now if you have ever had a biopsy 28:56 done, you know that one fo the msot excruciating things 29:00 is having to wait that 2 4or 48 29:04 hours in order to get the results. 29:08 Now we were pretty sure nothing was there we were pretty sure it was just cysts. 29:12 But I gotta be honest with you. In that span of one or two days 29:16 a lot of thigns start going through your mind. 29:20 and it begins to put things in perspective. Now I am thankful to 29:24 say that everything came back negative they were just cysts and she 29:28 is fine can you say amen. But it also gives us an idea 29:32 things can change in an instant. And the 29:36 only thing that really matters is do I have a relationship 29:40 with Jesus Christ who is the center of all 29:44 prophecy. Look at the STDs that 29:48 are in our world today. Even AIDs in on the rise. now 29:52 thankfully it is not on the rise in this country. But do you 29:56 understand that medical scientists are telling us 30:00 that if something si not done soon in the continent of Africa, we are going to 30:04 have a serious problem. 40 million people 30:08 living with HIV in just Sansaharan Africa 30:12 and I have been there. My wife is a nurse, she was teaching some health classes 30:16 and it is true. What they say in the news is not 30:20 an exaggeration. In the last few years we have seen diseases 30:24 that never existed before. Mad Cow disease, bird, swine, 30:28 and i remember reading an article about 30:32 a year ago saying that the diseases 30:36 we have today are becoming resistant to our 30:40 antibiotics. In other words the antibiotics we have today will be 30:44 less effective tomorrow because these diseases are building 30:48 up a resistance. Jesus is telling us 30:52 when you see these things starting to happen we can know 30:56 the time is near and we need to turn our eyes 31:00 towards Jesus. The next sign that he mentions 31:04 is earthquakes. Now this one is a little bit harder to measure 31:08 the last 100 years simply because the seismagraph is 31:12 a fairly recent invention. But if you were to go to the US 31:16 geological survey you would discover that even government 31:20 statistics are telling us that major earthquakes 31:24 over seven on the rictor scale have absolutely increases 31:28 in the last few years. That is not a religious source telling us that 31:32 that is a government source. You know and truth be told 31:36 I don't even think we need statistics for this one because you and I 31:40 know it seems like every few weeks or every moth or two we hear 31:44 about some earthquake in some different part of thsi worlds 31:48 actually just two or three years ago 31:52 remember Haiti? That country was devastated. 31:56 316 Thousand people lost their lives 32:00 in a matter of seconds. 3 million people 32:04 were affected and even though there have been other stories 32:08 that have made into the enws CNN we dont talk about this one very much 32:12 the truth is that country has still not recovered. 32:17 they had 8 billion dollars worth of damages 32:20 just ina short period of time 32:24 remember the Japanese tsunami? That happened from an earthquake 32:28 that occured where. On the ocean floor. 32:32 ANd it caused this tsunami to over 32:37 take the coast of Japan, 25,000 people were 32:40 feared dead. I don't know if you saw any of the clips on youtube of how that 32:45 occurred i could tell you that would be my wife's worst nightmare she 32:49 does not like water and to be able to see that water coming 32:53 in land and carrying everything away would be frightening 32:57 Jesus says when you see those things know 33:01 that the time is near. We could even 33:05 talk about natural disasters. I wanna read a statistic 33:08 that comes from the natural disasters data book from asia 33:12 and what it is, it did a study of natural disasters from 1901, 33:16 to 2000. That is the century almost all of us were born in. 33:20 Notice what they reported. Natural disaster growth 33:25 have been increasing every year due to various factors 33:29 such as urbanization, population growth, destruction of naturla 33:33 environment and climat change 33:37 Even governmental resources are realizing that 33:41 natural disasters are increasing. Now of course theyre 33:45 attributing it to natural factors but that may be partly true 33:49 but we also know it is a fulfilment of Bible prophecy 33:53 now I do wanna say one thing about this 33:57 sometimes when we study the prophetic signs of the times we get the idea 34:01 oh this is all gloom and doom, I don't wanna talk about this 34:05 we get the idea that maybe God is just angry 34:09 and he is trying to stick it to the world 34:13 that is not necessarily a case. Why does God allow these things 34:17 to happen? Because he loves us enough 34:21 to get our attention .I mean let us be honest 34:25 human nature can be pretty stubborn cant it? 34:29 now I am german so I can say this 34:33 I have background by my name Kleindinst. I can be a pretty stubborn person 34:37 Marquita knows it takes a lot to get my attention 34:41 and get something through my skull, but she does it because she loves me 34:45 because God knows that we can get 34:49 so sucked into the things of this world that we 34:53 are so easily distracted, God will allow these things 34:57 to happen because he is trying to get our attention 35:01 not because he hates us 35:05 but because he want sus to be saved and he is trying to turn our eyes 35:09 towards Jesus. The signs are not about God's anger, 35:13 the signs are about pointing us to the cross of calvary 35:17 so that we can be saved, and have peace, and 35:21 have assurance through Jesus. That is what the signs are about 35:25 But you know we can go farther in this 35:29 all these things have increased in recent years 35:33 matthew is not the only book of the Bible that talksa bout the prophetic 35:37 signs did you know that? Let us go to 35:41 2 Timothy 3 35:45 and verses 1-5 35:49 becaus ein here paul begins to describe 35:53 somethings that would be happening in 35:57 society at the time of the end. What i am gonna do 36:01 is instead of just reading that through, I am gonna 36:05 go ahead and put a summary on the screen of what paul desribes. 36:08 and as you read those five verse it is rather 36:12 amazing, you would think that he is reading right out of the newspaper 36:16 today. This is how he describes what the world would be like 36:20 people would be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, 36:24 boasters and proud, disobedient to parents, unloving, 36:28 untahnkful, unforgiving, 36:32 no self control, 36:36 despisers of good, lovers of pleasure but not of God 36:40 brutal and violent 36:44 I would like to say that is not true of our world today. 36:48 but we know it is. I would love to be able to say that 36:52 I never struggle with any of those problems myself 36:56 but I know that is not true. I struggle with the human nature 37:00 just like you. That means everyday I need to be sure 37:04 that i am connected in my relationship to Jesus Christ 37:08 See he is the only one who can change our 37:12 hearts Heis the only one who can take those things that 37:16 are in society and make sure that they are not a part of our life 37:21 because when people see us they oughta see something different 37:24 than what they are seeing in the world today. They oughta be able to see 37:29 just a little picture of the character of Jesus in our lives. 37:33 see when you leave here tonight I would be happy if oyu just 37:37 went out with just this one lesson. Prophecy is 37:41 not about memorizing facts and statistics 37:45 prophecy is not being able to come up with some sort of soap opera 37:49 theory that will tickle the ears 37:53 it is all about getting my attention and pointing me to Jesus 37:57 if I study prophecy for any other reason 38:01 then I have missed the point. See 38:05 what kind of scares me is many churches today focus on antichrist 38:09 now again that is in the Bible for a reason, we are gonna study 38:13 that in depth but something we must keep in mind is 38:17 knowing who or what antichrist is is not gonna save me 38:21 that intellectual knowledge is not gonna get me into the kingdom of heaven 38:25 now it might keep me from being deceived but the only one 38:29 who can wash me clean the only one who can put 38:33 a perfect righteousness in my record book is Jesus 38:37 christ who died on calvary's cross cause really when you open 38:41 the Bible if you open the first chapter of revelation, the title of 38:45 that book is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Not the revelation of 38:49 antichrist, it is revelation of Jesus Christ.We are gonna 38:53 be getting into that but in Paul's description of society 38:57 the one that really strikes me is, he says society 39:01 in the end will be brutal and vile 39:05 the truth is we live in a very violent world 39:09 there is virtually no place in society that is safe anymore 39:13 it used to be that there were certain places you knew you would be safe 39:17 like a mall or church but that is not true anymore 39:21 in fact I am gonna put a picture on the screen 39:25 and i wanna see if you recognize what it is. 39:29 Who knows what that is 39:33 i'll give you a minute. it is a school, what school 39:37 Columbine. Do you remember what happened to Columbine 39:41 high school in colorado back in 1999? 39:45 two teenagers dressed in black trench coats 39:49 made their way inside the school and they indiscriminately 39:53 sprayed gunfire throughout the halls and the classrooms killing teacehrs 39:57 and professors and students on the spot 40:01 when that story hit the television sets, 40:05 society was shocked. We were out raged 40:09 we could not believe that something like that would happen 40:13 in our world. That was in 1999. 40:17 DO you know that ever since that moment, that act has been copied 40:21 and repeated numerous times throughout this world 40:25 we have had copy cats who have done the same thing now in many 40:29 different countries in high schools, colleges, 40:33 universiteis, even elementary schools. 40:37 in fact now you read in newspapers it is happening in malls 40:41 it is happening in workplaces and believe it or not 40:45 it is even happening in churches 40:49 I read a story a couple years ago where the guy walked through tthe door 40:53 while a man was preaching and shot him and killed him point blank 40:57 that worries me just a little bit because Im thinking wow 41:01 what if i preach someone that someone doesnt wanna ehar whats gonna happen to me 41:05 but you know we have to put ourselves in God's hands because anytime 41:09 we walk out the door it is only by God's grace and protection that we can 41:13 come home that night can you say amen 41:17 but you see the progression of what has happened in society 41:21 but then when you get to verse 5 41:25 Paul uses this phrase that at first we may not understand on the surface 41:29 he says society will have a form of godliness 41:33 but denying its power. 41:37 What does that mena? What does it mean to have a form of godliness? 41:41 it means that religion will be so 41:45 mething we only wear on the outside 41:49 there'll be no substance to it. We might sit in a pew 41:53 and listen to a sermon once a week if that 41:57 but there is no life changing relationship with Jesus Christ 42:01 you see just because I sit in a pew does not mean 42:05 that I am a christian it is one thing ti 42:09 go to church and listen to something 42:13 to let the preacher study for me and it is quite another thing 42:17 to open the word of God for myself and develop a relationship 42:21 a born again experience with Jesus Christ 42:25 that is true religion you see 42:29 a form of godliness is when I call myself a christian 42:33 but then i live and act like everyone else 42:38 that is form of godliness. It is a form of godliness that is 42:41 only on the outside when I go and I listen and read the teachings 42:46 of Jesus, but then when I leave the church 42:50 and in my home or workplace i do not live those 42:54 principles I do the opposite, it is a form of godliness 42:58 there is no substance to it. See when I let my Bible 43:02 gather dust on the bookshelf, and I never 43:06 spend time in it that is a form of godliness 43:10 that Paul is trying to warn us about 43:14 true religion is knowing Jesus, spending time with 43:18 Him, sharing ym life in prayer, 43:22 and being able to connect with Him in the word 43:26 of God. Because here is the truth 43:30 any relationship you have, in order for it to grow, what must you do 43:34 you gotta spend time together. So if Marquita and I all of a sudden 43:38 stopped spending time together what would happen to that relationship. 43:42 it would eventually deteriorate 43:46 it is no different in the relationship with Jesus. 43:50 You see the devil wants to keep us so busy 43:54 that we runa round like chickens wiht our heads cut off that we do not have time 43:58 for God. He does not have to tempt us to kill someone or rob a bank 44:02 just make us so busy we do not have time for God and the relationship 44:06 deteriorates. That is why God loves us 44:10 enough to let some of these prophetic signs happen 44:14 in order to wake me up and to get 44:18 my attention. Now before we end tonight 44:22 there is one more prophetic portion of scripture that I would like to go to. Now it is in 44:26 the old testament becasue Daniel talks about soem signs 44:30 in the prophetic world rather in the scientific world so iwant you to go 44:34 wto Daniel 12 verse 4 44:38 Daniel 12:4 44:42 Now if you were here last night, we spent the entire time 44:46 in the book of Daniel tonight I just wanna touch on this 44:50 one verse. Daniel 12 and 44:54 in verse 4 the angel that has lead Daniel through 44:58 all these visions in the book says something quite 45:02 significant to Daniel and I want us to pick this up. 45:06 Daneil 12 and verse 4. THe Bible says 45:10 but you Daniel shut 45:14 up the words and seal the book until 45:18 the time of the end then the angel describes 45:22 2 things he says, 45:26 many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase 45:30 now I gotta stop there 45:34 now we could spend a lot of time on that. I wanna focus on this running to and fro 45:38 Now there are two ways that could be interpreted 45:42 some have looked and it and said it is referring to 45:46 spiritual knowledge, in other words men will be running 45:50 to and fro desperately trying to understand the prophecy 45:54 of Daniela nd Revelation and when you thinka bout it 45:58 it has only been in the last 150-200 years 46:02 that Christian churches have really paid attention to the 46:06 books of daniel and revelation if you would live 200 46:10 years ago, you would have found that churches of all denominations 46:14 didn't spend mucht ime in the apocalyptic books 46:18 because it was believed the coming of Jesus was thousands of years 46:22 into the future, but you fast forward into this century 46:26 and all that has changed. Now Christianity 46:30 is very interested in the prophetic books 46:34 and you know who has also jumped in on the band wagon? Hollywood 46:38 how many movies has Hollywood made about the end times 46:42 things like armaggedon and the omega code and so many others 46:46 of course they are not doing because they want to educate us with truth 46:50 for them it is just a moneymaker and quite honestly 46:54 i would not go to hollywood to try to find the truth of Bible prophecy 46:58 we need tog o straight to the word of God 47:02 another way that can be interpreted, this running to and fro 47:06 I want you to think of the area of transportation 47:10 I want you to think what has changed in the area of travel 47:14 just in the last century, think about this we have 47:18 gone from automobiles to airplanes 47:22 to concord jets space shuttles 47:26 and manned space stations 47:30 where my daughter wants to work when she grows up 47:34 we will see how that goes maybe Dad will get to take a trip there 47:38 sometime. But think about that we have gone 47:42 from a place of taking horses and buggies just probably 47:46 a hundred years ago toa point where we can now go 47:50 anywhere on the face of the earth in a matter of 47:54 hours. Man has gone to the moon 47:58 to an international space station all in the last 48:02 100 years. 48:06 That prophecy is being fulfilled 48:10 in our lifetime Daniel goes on 48:14 and after he talks about running to and fro 48:18 what is the next thing the angel says. Knowledge shall increase 48:22 I want you to think of all the technological advances 48:26 in the last 50 years 48:30 now my dad likes technology iw ish 48:34 that he did not but he does, he will buy all the newest gadgets and tehn 48:38 call me and want me to explain how to use them 48:42 now I ask you have you tried to explain to an 84 year old 48:46 man over the phone how to use something that you cannot 48:50 even see. It is very very difficult but you know 48:54 it keeps his mind working so I'm not gonna complain about it 48:58 but statistics tell us we have come 49:02 farther in technical knowledge in the last 70 years 49:06 than int the previous 5000 years 49:10 of earth's history combined. 49:14 WOuld you be willing to say we live in the busiest genereation 49:19 of earth's history. Now I cannot prove that statistic 49:22 but I think it is just common sense. Would you be willing to say 49:27 that this past generation has seen more changes 49:31 than any other generation in history would you be willing to say that 49:35 yeah I think we can all agree on that. Do you realize my iPhone 49:39 can do more than an entire compute 60 years ago 49:42 that would take a whole room 49:46 all these things have happened but the question is 49:50 has the increase in knowledge necessarily made the world 49:54 a better place. In some cases yes 49:59 but truth be told man has tended to use it more 50:02 for evil than he has for good 50:06 so these are the prophetic signs we have studied tonight 50:11 religious confusion, war and rumors of war, 50:15 famine, disease, pestilence, natural disasters, 50:19 earthquakes, violence, moral decay, 50:23 running to and fro, and the increase of knowledge 50:27 I think if we honestly look at our world and say 50:31 Bible Prophecy is being fulfilled 50:35 right in front of our eyes. It is time to get 50:39 close to Jesus. Id like to end by 50:43 telling this story. There was a young boy and his father that 50:47 was fishing in the ocean. After they spent a dew 50:51 hours fishing together the boy looked up into the heavens and 50:55 he saw that the sky was getting dark. Storm clouds were rolling 50:59 in and he began to hear a faint rumble of thunder 51:03 in the distance. It was clear. A storm was coming 51:07 so the little boy got scared and he looked over to his father 51:11 and he said Daddy, a storm is coming I'm scared 51:15 and the fatehr just looked at him and said son you just stay 51:19 close to me and you will be alright and so the 51:23 little boy sat on his father's lap, while the father safely 51:27 rode him through the storm and tot he shore 51:31 you see that son knew when he saw 51:35 the signs that it was time to get close 51:39 to his father. The prophetic signs are telling you and me 51:43 that we need to take seriously our relationship with 51:47 Jesus and to stay close 51:51 to Him, and that he boils it down into one simple 51:55 statement, he says so you also when you see 51:59 these things know that it is very near 52:03 even at the very doors 52:07 My friends Jesus gives you this invitation 52:11 He says, Come to me, all you who are weart and burdened 52:15 and I will give you rest. You will find 52:19 You see the things happening in this world make you fearful an duncertain 52:23 Jesus says come you can lay your burdens on me 52:27 if the things happening in this crazy 52:31 world make you scared Jesus says come 52:35 I will give you peace. If you are struggling with guilt 52:39 and shame becasue of the past, 52:43 or issue in life today, Jesus 52:47 says come I will wash away all thsoe 52:51 sins and I will make you clean because the wonderful thing about 52:55 Jesus is you can always start over 52:59 again. Tonight I wonder if you might pray this prayer 53:03 in the privacy of your heart. Would you say Lord Jesus 53:07 I need to pay attention to my spiritual life 53:11 please come into my heart and 53:15 give me peace. 53:19 Jesus said he will never turn a sincere soul away 53:23 cause he does not desire for anyone to perish 53:27 all he asks is that you come and give it to 53:31 Him. |
Revised 2018-07-02