Participants: Pr. John Lomacang, Pr. John Stanton
Series Code: HCL
Program Code: HCL130015
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00:01 Hello friends, grab you Bible and a friend
00:02 and sit back as we explore God's word together 00:05 on this edition of "House Calls". 00:22 Welcome to another edition of "House Calls" 00:24 where we open the Bible, 00:26 as we open our hearts to the Lord. 00:28 Thank you for tuning in. 00:29 John and John are happy that you are here 00:31 and I am happy that John is here. 00:32 Good to see you, John. And I am happy to be here. 00:34 Man, I tell you, we have been doing this for little bit-- 00:38 how many years we're doing this? Nine years. 00:39 About nine years. Wow, wow. 00:41 And you haven't changed very much. 00:43 Well, you have either. I mean little grayer hair. 00:46 Little gray hair but that's okay. 00:48 We are just hanging on in the Lord there 00:50 and we thank you for tuning in, 00:52 so get your friends together, your family members together. 00:55 Well, whoever maybe there with you 00:57 and sit down and get your Bibles 00:59 because we are going to be walking through the Bible today 01:02 and covering your questions as well as the topic. 01:05 Kind of covering- would you say 01:07 our topic today will be covering end time events 01:09 and sequence maybe leading up to that. 01:10 Yeah, what's next? Okay. That's good. 01:12 You know, a lot of people wondering 01:13 what do we expect here in the near future. 01:15 All right, yeah. 01:16 Because there's a lot of things that are on the horizon 01:18 as it pertains to end time events 01:20 and sometimes people want to know how those things fit, 01:23 where we are in the timeline of the end of the world. 01:28 There are lots of things that are, 01:30 you know, speaking about the end of the world, 01:32 the end time scenarios 01:33 and the Bible has a lot to say about that. 01:35 But before we do anything like that, 01:38 we always have prayer. 01:39 And John is the guy that prays on here. 01:41 You may think I don't pray, I pray off air. 01:43 He always prays on air. 01:45 So let's have that word of prayer today, John. 01:47 Dear Father in heaven, thank you, Lord, 01:49 for another day here that we can spend in Your word 01:53 and together learn from You. 01:54 We invite Your Spirit 01:56 and we ask that he would instruct us 01:58 the spirit of truth in the way of God. 02:02 And just bless us during the special time together, 02:05 in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. 02:08 And friends, I know that many of you have a Bible question, 02:10 that's one of the reasons why you send them here to 3ABN. 02:14 So if you have anything that's on your mind today 02:16 and you want to send to us, 02:17 send those to housecalls@3bn.org. 02:20 That's housecalls@3bn.org. 02:23 That's the portal through which we get those questions 02:26 and the portal through which you get the answers is the Bible. 02:29 So thank you for all that you do. 02:31 John, let's dive right in. 02:32 What do you have today as our first question? 02:34 Well, I got a question from Erma. 02:37 Erma. Yes. 02:38 And it's not the 3ABN Erma but Erma, nonetheless. 02:42 She says, "Hi, John and John, 02:43 I am truly blessed each week by your program. 02:46 I am having a problem with reconciling these two texts, 02:50 1 Thessalonians 5:17 and Mark 11:24." Okay. Wow. 02:54 "Does daily prayer about an issue 02:57 show a lack of faith or should one nag-- 03:01 "nag" God until one gets the desired 03:04 or an acceptable answer to prayer?" 03:07 Hmm, nag. Good question. 03:09 Well, let's take a look at the texts first. 03:11 And I will read 1 Thessalonians5:17 03:18 which says, "Pray without ceasing." 03:22 Okay, pretty simple text. 03:24 Probably one of the most-- 03:26 one of the shortest at least verses in the Bible. 03:28 The one just above it is just as shortest, 03:31 the shortest but in words 03:34 but less letters, "Rejoice always." Okay. 03:36 It's interesting, "Rejoice always, 03:38 pray without ceasing." 03:39 So this is a good thing to pray without ceasing. 03:42 Something Paul is admonishing the members to do, 03:45 encouraging them to keep themselves rejoicing, praying 03:48 and the next text, giving thanks. 03:50 But let's talk about this issue of prayer. 03:53 Let's go to Mark 11:24. Okay. 03:57 And we will read that text as well. 04:02 In fact, I am going to start with verse 22, 04:07 "So Jesus answered and said to them, 04:09 Have faith in God. 04:11 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 04:14 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' 04:17 and does not doubt in his heart, 04:19 but believes that those things he says will be done, 04:22 he will have whatever he says. 04:25 Therefore I say to you, 04:27 whatever things you ask when you pray, 04:29 believe that you receive them, and you will have them." Right. 04:33 Powerful, powerful statement of faith and trust in God 04:37 and depending upon Him through prayer. 04:40 So does daily prayer about an issue show a lack of faith? 04:44 In another words, day to day if we continue 04:45 to pray about an issue, does it show a lack of faith? 04:48 And should we nag-- 04:50 "nag" God until we get a desired or acceptable outcome? 04:55 One thing these two verses are saying, 04:57 let's talk about were they absolutely agree. 05:00 Aren't just easy when you first read them, pray. 05:03 That's right. We need to be praying. 05:06 In fact, I think the issue isn't often that we don't-- 05:11 that we pray too much 05:13 as this issue is that's been raised 05:15 kind of suggest but then we don't pray enough. True. 05:20 I think God would much rather have us pray 05:21 constantly about something than never about anything 05:24 or never about that something. 05:26 So it's important to pray 05:28 and so Jesus is encouraging us to pray, 05:30 so is the Apostle Paul, 05:33 when he says, pray without ceasing. 05:35 There's a couple of things in this passage 05:37 from 1 Thessalonians 5. 05:39 Praying without ceasing can be perceived or interpreted 05:43 as praying constantly about a situation. 05:48 Praying without ceasing can also mean 05:51 that we are always praying in an attitude of prayer. 05:55 And the second, the later is the way 05:57 we have most often interpreted this. Right. 06:00 That Paul is saying that we should always be praying. 06:03 Even when you are not on your knees 06:05 as you are walking with God, pray. 06:08 Spend time with Him, talk to Him. 06:10 Praying doesn't have to be on your knees, 06:12 praying doesn't have to be in a specific position. 06:15 Praying is an attitude of being open to God constantly 06:19 and to be speaking and communicating with Him 06:21 and he with you. 06:22 So in that respect I think that's what Paul is saying, 06:24 be in that attitude of prayer always when it comes to God. 06:29 Now I do believe there's latitude here 06:31 for the interpretation that we should be praying 06:33 persistently about something. Right. 06:35 And we mentioned not too long ago 06:38 in one question about a parent's desire 06:40 to see their children saved that one of the things 06:44 they can do is to be constantly praying for them. 06:48 Your praying for them might be persistent and without ceasing 06:51 but your prayer might change overtime 06:53 according to their circumstances. Right. 06:56 So you might be prying for them that they be saved 06:58 but then they are going through a specific issue 07:00 and you might pray about that issue 07:02 and then you are praying about another aspect of their life. 07:05 So in that respect we should be constantly lifting people up. 07:08 Intercessory prayer is one of the keys there 07:11 for lifting people up constantly in prayer. 07:13 But I like what Jesus is saying here on another aspect of prayer 07:17 and that is believe. 07:19 You mentioned there, it doesn't show lack of faith. 07:21 It could show a lack of faith 07:24 to be constantly praying about the same thing. 07:26 And here's where I say this. 07:28 If we are praying about the same thing 07:30 because we want Him to answer our way 07:33 and the way that we are asking, then that can be persistence 07:38 and a discontent with the way 07:39 God may be answering your prayer. Okay. 07:42 But if we are praying about an issue 07:44 and we can say in our hearts, 07:46 "Lord, I am leaving the final result with You, 07:49 the way You want to answer this prayer, 07:51 I am leaving that with You, 07:52 not the way that I necessary in praying. 07:54 I am just praying that You be gloried." 07:56 That is not a lack of faith 07:58 because that's leaving it with God. 07:59 It says, "If Christ was praying--" 08:01 remember in the Garden of Gethsemane, 08:03 He wanted the cup to pass from Him 08:04 but He said in the end, not my will but thy will be done. 08:08 And so we have to be willing to say, 08:10 "Lord, answer this prayer that I am asking. 08:12 I may be asking for specific answers 08:14 but if you know a better way to fix this issue 08:16 or to resolve this problem, 08:18 I want to leave this with you to do whatever you see is best." 08:23 And so in that respect let's leave our confidence 08:27 in the all knowing God who knows what's best for us. 08:29 So it could be a lack of faith if we are constantly saying, 08:33 "You need to do this. 08:34 Next day, Lord, you got to do this. 08:36 Next day, got to do this." 08:37 And in a specific way, God may be saying 08:39 in response to your prayer, "Well, I got another plan. 08:43 Just wait and see and watch what I am going to do." 08:45 We have to be able to say, 08:46 "Okay, Lord, I'll let you do that." 08:48 And there been situations where I prayed about the same thing. 08:52 One of the examples we have in the Bible 08:53 about praying more than once. 08:56 I often ask the question, what did Daniel prayed for. 08:59 He prayed everyday three times a day. 09:01 What did he prayed for? 09:02 And when you look at some of the examples 09:05 that we have in the Book of Daniel, 09:08 one of the things that was really clear, 09:09 he was continually praying for his people. 09:12 The other thing is, he is praying 09:14 for their city to be restored. 09:15 He was praying for them to be returned 09:18 to Jerusalem to be freed from captivity 09:21 and he even prayed so long that 09:25 when the angel Gabriel came during the time of his prayer, 09:28 he says at the beginning of your prayer, "I was sent" 09:31 and he arrived at the time of evening oblation. 09:34 So he was praying for quite some time. 09:36 And, but, then-- then he was also told, 09:40 well, I just want you to know God loves you 09:42 but He's not going to tell you everything. 09:44 And so you may say, in that case, 09:47 Daniel may have persisted beyond that moment and said, 09:49 "Well, I am going to pray anyway because I want to know." Yeah. 09:54 And so we have to be in tune with the will 09:58 and when I say the will of God, 10:00 ask yourself the question what you are praying for. 10:02 Now John, you used some very good examples 10:04 and I believe this is true in my life 10:06 and that can apply the same to you 10:08 because of when a child is not living in harmony 10:10 with God's will, a parent would keep that child 10:13 before the Lord morning and evening. 10:17 Father, I pray for my son, I pray for my daughter, 10:21 I pray for my children, I pray that they will be saved. 10:24 And then I refer to that not so much as begging God 10:27 but contending, similar to the way that 10:30 Jacob contended with the angel. Jacob contended with God. 10:34 I won't let You go, I miss You. 10:35 Unless you bless-- I am not going to let You-- 10:37 I am not going to stop asking you, Lord. 10:39 And then some-- and then when this child is 10:42 finally returned to the God of his childhood 10:47 the parent would say, "I pray to you everyday. 10:50 I've been praying for you for the last 20 years. 10:53 I've been praying for You 10:54 morning and afternoon and evening. 10:56 I've kept your name. 10:58 I could show you my Bible, at certain points where I write, 11:00 Lord, I put a name in there and I pray for my son." 11:03 And like Yvonne Lewis, 11:08 some people know as Dr. Yvonne Lewis, 11:10 the head of Dare to Dream. 11:12 I was sitting in her office the other day 11:13 and her phone went off at noon. 11:15 She said, "I've set my phone at noon 11:17 everyday to pray for my sons. 11:19 Would you pray for them for me today?" 11:21 and I said, "Sure." 11:23 So you will ask yourself, is that a lack of faith? 11:25 No, That is in fact keeping before the one you love, 11:29 the ones you love. 11:31 Saying to Lord 11:32 and the Lord will sometimes answer these questions 11:35 or these prayers in certain ways. 11:37 Surely in some cases, in many cases, 11:40 He says, "Wait." 11:42 And when the Bible says, 11:44 "Those who wait up on the Lord shall renew their strength." 11:48 In time you will realize 11:49 that your prayer has not been in vain. 11:52 But I like this 1 John 5, 11:56 the Lord gives a wonderful admonition here 12:00 as far as guidance in prayer is concern, 12:02 he says, 1 John 5:14, 12:07 "Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, 12:12 that if we ask anything 12:13 according to His will, He hears us. 12:17 And if we know that He hears us, 12:19 whatever we ask, we know that we have 12:21 the petition that we have asked of Him." 12:25 So He is saying, I am going to answer you, I heard you. 12:29 But sometimes He answers us two years from now 12:32 because that's when the prayer is most apropo. 12:35 And then the other thing is, 12:36 this is the most beautiful part of our prayer, 12:39 sometimes a person would, 12:41 let me use a parent to a child illustration. 12:44 If a child comes to a parent and say, "I need the car keys." 12:49 And he made that comment at 10 o'clock in the morning. 12:51 And the dad looks over shoulder like this. 12:55 Then he comes back at 1 o'clock, 12:57 "Dad I need the car keys." 12:59 And he says, "You need the car keys, uh. 13:01 I heard you this morning." 13:03 Then he comes back at 4 o'clock 13:05 because he really needs to leave at 4:30, 13:07 "Dad, I really need the car keys. 13:09 You know, I promise I am going to be extra careful. 13:13 I promise all the counsel you have given to me, 13:16 I am going to put into-- 13:18 I am going to be home on time." 13:19 You know what's happening, his continual asking 13:22 is not changing his dad, its changing him. 13:25 And sometimes when we pray before God persistently, 13:28 we find that we are changing. 13:30 We get to the place where we begin to say, 13:33 "Okay, Lord, not my will but Yours be done." 13:37 I talked to a member yesterday 13:39 who's actually having a surgery today 13:43 and I said, "I want to pray for you my brother." 13:45 And he says, "I always like to pray for healing" 13:48 he said, "but I've learned to pray 13:53 that God will give me the strength 13:55 to be able to go through 13:57 whatever He's allowed to come my way." 14:00 And so he said because I know that 14:02 if I am not healed, I may get the answer 14:05 in your weakness my strength is made perfect. 14:08 So we don't always know 14:09 how God's working out our future. 14:11 We could be praying for God to send us to anyplace 14:16 but California as was the case with my wife 14:18 and I and then we could just say, 14:20 "Okay, Lord, we will go even to California." 14:22 And what happened as we pray to get involved in ministry 14:24 and you know the story. 14:25 It was when we gave God 14:27 full control of our lives that the answer came. 14:30 We prayed a long time but the answer didn't come 14:32 because we were not giving Him the full control. 14:35 So no, we could never nag God, 14:38 especially when it comes to prayer and talking to Him. 14:40 He's not the kind of guy that says, 14:42 "Oh, I got it." He loves to hear from His children. 14:47 So that's a beautiful thing. Pray without ceasing. 14:50 Anything more for that one, John? 14:51 No. Okay. 14:52 I think you got it. Very good. 14:53 I seem to have gotten all the esoteric questions today, 14:58 the ones that will draw out the very fiber of an answer. 15:02 This one comes from Lan-- and in Iowa. 15:07 I don't want to give too much detail 15:09 because somebody may say, "I know exactly who that is." 15:13 But if we come down on the papacy 15:16 for changing times and laws, 15:18 how do we justify the manipulation of the hours 15:22 on the sun down calendar from daylight savings times 15:25 and why do we observe the change 15:28 as it directly effects the Sabbath by one hour? 15:32 In another words under daylight savings time, 15:33 the Sabbath occurs one hour early in opposition to the sun 15:38 and people needlessly observe it for that false hour, 15:42 then under daylight savings time 15:44 when Sabbath ends one hour early in opposition to the sun, 15:48 it still actually exists for one more hour in which 15:51 no one in that particular time zone observes it. 15:54 Isn't this compromise on our part end hypocritical? 16:00 Thank you for your thoughts on this. 16:04 Let me say you this way. 16:06 You will never-- Let me give you an illustration. 16:13 In the Pacific, I think about a year or two ago 16:16 a shift was made in how the time, the daylight-- 16:21 how the time zone lines were going to be marked. 16:26 For example it was-- 16:29 you know, you go that not daylight saving time 16:31 but you actually go one day. 16:33 One way or one day the other way 16:35 just depending on how that line was drawn. 16:38 And somebody said, now that the line has been changed. 16:45 What it does, it forces those who used to keep Sabbath. 16:52 Now they say, "Well, now that it's changed, 16:54 we are honoring Sunday." 16:57 And others say, "Well, actually the way I see it, 17:00 if we keep the Sabbath, we are honoring Friday." 17:04 And this controversy almost split 17:07 that region in the Adventist church. 17:11 And the change was not made 17:15 in the sense that it was only effecting them, 17:19 excuse me, but it was effecting the whole world. 17:22 And it was not in the sense of we want 17:26 a new Sabbath or new day of worship. 17:28 It was simply the-- whoever decides to, 17:32 you know, draw the lines in the time zones made that change. 17:36 And I would say, you know, God sees these things 17:40 and understands carefully. 17:41 If you are struggling with daylight savings times 17:46 and if this is such an issue for you 17:48 that it comes down to the word compromise, 17:51 I would simply follow the Bible injunction 17:53 in Leviticus 23:32 which simply says, 17:56 "From evening to evening 17:58 shall you celebrate the Sabbath." 18:01 If you feel that its better for you 18:03 and you feel more comfortable 18:05 but let me just give a broader picture, 18:07 because of daylight savings time, 18:09 people are not going to be indicted 18:11 as violating the Sabbath or ending the Sabbath too early. 18:16 I am not seeing the issue here that-- 18:18 It's just gnat and camel kind of-- 18:20 The question is about man's way of keeping time. Yeah. 18:26 God's way of keeping time 18:29 is from sundown to sundown. Right. 18:31 And just because you change a time, 18:34 it doesn't change the sundown. Right. 18:37 The sun still sets. 18:39 I don't care we call it three or seven or five or nine. 18:44 When the sun sets that's when the Sabbath begins. 18:46 That's right. 18:47 So the individual here that's writing in 18:50 seems to be gauging time 18:52 as a number rather than sundown 18:57 as the start of the Sabbath. 18:59 And that's not what the Bible is saying. 19:01 Time isn't a factor here. 19:03 It's when the sun goes down. Right. 19:06 And so just whether that sun goes down 19:08 at whatever time it is, wherever you live 19:11 that's when you begin the Sabbath. 19:13 I think one of the other things 19:15 that is important here is even within a region 19:20 and a same time zone, 19:23 its interesting if you take the Pacific Time Zone 19:26 and you follow the line 19:27 when you get up to the northwest, 19:29 it cuts over and picks up 19:31 the entire area of Spokane and Northern Idaho. 19:36 The reason it does that is because North Idaho 19:40 is so aligned with the Pacific that, 19:42 that's the way they just have picked it up 19:45 and they drew the time zone. 19:47 Well, the interesting part of this whole thing is that 19:52 the sun will go down so much later 19:56 because you are talking about, you are so far north 20:00 and it's just different as to when that sun goes down. 20:02 You can drive, I can drive a matter of four hours 20:07 from where I live to Seattle 20:09 and the time change is almost an hour. 20:14 Might I am still keeping the Sabbath 20:15 when the sun goes down, 20:16 it doesn't matter what time it is. 20:18 So each location, I would check your sundown times 20:22 and whenever the sundown goes down, 20:25 keep the Sabbath. Right. 20:27 Don't put that responsibility all the time 20:29 in somebody else's hand 20:31 and say, well, they are being hypocritical 20:33 because it really comes down to your dedication, 20:36 to your worship, to your observance of the Sabbath 20:40 and then people will say as been the case, 20:43 "Well, we should guard the edges of the Sabbath." 20:46 The attitude of the heart is a huge heart. 20:51 And when we travel sometimes, 20:53 I know you'll put yourself in a situation like this, 20:56 if you are traveling from Australia, 20:59 you are coming back to the United States, 21:01 you could actually observe the Sabbath in Australia, 21:04 fly home and observe the Sabbath again. 21:07 And so would you say, "Well, wow, I've lost-- 21:10 this is an eight day week for me." 21:12 Because in reality that's exactly 21:14 you think about it, you have an eight day 21:16 because you'll observe one day twice. 21:18 Or you go the opposite way, 21:19 you actually can miss an entire day all together. 21:21 You can miss-- you go from Friday right to Sunday, exactly. 21:25 If you left here on Friday, 21:27 you will get to Australia on Sunday 21:28 and you will say, "Well, what about the Sabbath?" 21:31 It will be on a plane somewhere. Enjoy the Sabbath on a plane. 21:34 See, so you cannot make there such a time 21:38 you know, 6:48 and 6:29 or 7:29, 21:43 just look at the sundown 21:45 and that's going to be the most appropriate time. 21:47 And God is not going to-- that's not an issue of salvation 21:51 if you-- He knows your heart. 21:52 Yeah, He knows your heart here. 21:54 I remember one individual said to me and I remembered it. 21:56 I remember it to this day 21:57 and this is probably 10 years ago 21:59 and he said, you know, 22:00 we often instead of treating the Sabbath, 22:05 you know, like guarding the edges of it 22:07 just kind of preparing for the Sabbath 22:09 as it comes ushering in, we treat it like a stoplight. 22:14 You know, even sometimes a blinking red light 22:18 where it's go and then stop. Right, we are speeding to it. 22:22 We go 100 miles an hour 22:24 right to at sundown drop what you are doing, stop. 22:27 Well, we really need to be spending-- 22:28 and then when sundown happens on Saturday evening 22:32 and when its time for the week, 22:33 it's like going from red to green, 22:36 its 100 miles an hour. 22:37 And so we need to be a little more cautious 22:40 I think about that because the Lord 22:43 doesn't want us to just all of the sudden 22:46 at the end of sundown loose our time with Him. 22:49 Yeah, I am giving you 23 hours 22:50 and 56 minutes, Lord. Here we go. 22:52 Until I get daylight savings times back on the clock 22:55 or the count of flips every four years. 22:57 We have to allow it to be a relationship 22:59 and when it's about a relationship 23:01 you won't be-- you won't be sweating it over, 23:04 Okay, we got three minutes kids. 23:07 It's very frustrating that way 23:09 which we have to really get away with. 23:10 To say, try to get all the things 23:11 done before the Sabbath and be there as a family 23:14 welcoming the Sabbath then rather than, in some-- 23:19 there's a story about some children in England 23:21 where the families had made a Sabbath such a burden 23:25 that they would dread the Sabbath coming in 23:29 and they would look out the window toward the sunset, 23:32 couldn't wait for the Sabbath to leave. 23:34 And as soon as the sun disappeared over the mountain, 23:37 they just went back into as you said, 23:39 they turned their green light on 23:41 for all the things they wanted to do 23:43 and the red light off for all the things that pertain to God. 23:46 It's really not the way that Sabbath is intended. 23:48 It's a very strong relationship. 23:51 Welcome it in, it should be such a joy 23:54 that we would look forward to seeing it come 23:57 and be somewhat hesitant about it leaving so quickly 24:01 in a love relationship. 24:02 What else do you have for us here, John? 24:05 A question from Steven Karen and they say, "Hello, Johns'. 24:11 Please explain 1 John5:16, 24:14 sin leading to death and sin not leading to death." 24:17 Wow, I just read the verse 15. 24:18 Yeah, I know. I saw that. 24:21 Anyway, so this is a question 24:23 that's come up from time to time. 24:25 I don't know if we really answered it here before directly 24:27 but it's important to read and I will go ahead 24:30 and first of all read verse 16 24:33 and I will read verse 17 as well. 24:35 "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin 24:37 which does not lead to death, he will ask, 24:41 and He, that is Jesus, will give him life 24:43 for those who commit sin not leading to death. 24:47 There is sin leading to death. 24:49 I do not say that he should pray about that. 24:52 All unrighteousness is sin, 24:54 and there is sin not leading to death." 24:58 Just a quick connection here, 25:01 John, I think the only other place in Bible 25:04 that I've read just in a general terms of a sin 25:09 that leads to death, 25:12 that is difficult if not impossible 25:16 to pray for is the unpardonable sin. 25:19 That's exactly what this is talking about. 25:20 And so you've got to connect this 25:22 with the unpardonable sin 25:24 which is the blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, 25:28 which is someone who rejects the-- 25:31 knowingly rejects the influence 25:34 of the Holy Spirit in their life. 25:35 They basically said, "Go away. 25:36 God I can here you, don't talk to me. 25:39 I am not interested. Good bye." 25:41 There's nothing you can do about that. 25:42 You can't even pray for someone in that condition. Right. 25:45 Because they decided, 25:46 they do not want to have a part in everlasting life. 25:51 In fact Jesus said, "Elsewhere there's some who love evil." 25:55 They love evil. 25:56 That's just the way they are inclined 26:00 and they have gone with it 26:01 and they allow that to flourish in their life. 26:03 And so most of the time, praise God that we commit sin, 26:08 it's the sin that does not lead to death 26:10 because its sin that 26:11 when we are convicted of we would repent of. 26:14 And there are some sins that people 26:15 don't even know they are doing 26:17 that have an opportunity to be repented of later. 26:19 We should be always praying for that. 26:23 But I will always say, we ought to be cautious 26:25 about judging people as to whether or not 26:26 they have sinned the sin leading to death 26:29 because that's something we need to be careful of as well. 26:31 But at least topically 26:33 this is what this passage is talking about. 26:34 That's exactly what's it talking about. 26:35 Now let me use a couple of illustrations 26:37 and John, thank you for bringing that out 26:38 because this is been some what of a quandary for people 26:42 that said-- in another words 26:44 people have said, "Okay, so I could sin? 26:46 And this is sin that I can commit 26:47 that doesn't lead to death? Oh, which one is it?" 26:50 It's almost like, well, which one of the Ten Commandments 26:52 can I violate without being fearful of death? 26:56 That's not what this is saying. This is what's being said. 26:59 If a person is rejecting Christ, if a person is turning away 27:04 from the continual pleading of the Holy Spirit. 27:07 You don't say to your children, let me give you an example. 27:09 If a parent has a child that's just determine 27:11 not to give his heart to the Lord, 27:13 you don't say, pray about giving your heart to the Lord. 27:17 That's not something you want to-- 27:18 let me pray and let me see 27:19 if God impresses me to give my heart to him. 27:22 That's not something-- you don't pray about 27:24 giving your heart to the Lord. 27:26 You pray about giving up a specific sin. 27:28 You pray about turning away from a specific way of life 27:31 but you don't pray about whether or not 27:34 you should or should not give your heart to the Lord. 27:36 That's not something that God is going to say, 27:38 "Yeah, in this case, 27:39 I think you should give your heart to the Lord 27:41 and in this case you don't need to give your heart to the Lord." 27:43 The answer is always going to be the same, 27:45 give your heart to the Lord. 27:47 So if you want to say to somebody, 27:49 you are going down the wrong path, 27:52 you have continually rejected the Holy Spirit's 27:55 pleading to your life, you need to pray about 27:57 giving your heart to the Lord. 27:58 No, that's where they say-- 28:00 and I like the way that it puts it here, 28:02 "If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin 28:04 which does not lead to death, he will ask, 28:08 and He will give him life 28:10 for those who commit sin not leading to death. 28:13 There is a sin leading to death. 28:16 And I do not say that we should pray about that. 28:19 In other words if you are living the wrong way 28:21 and you continually reject the Holy Spirit, 28:23 you don't pray about accepting Christ. 28:26 You simply say this is what I need to do 28:28 because the answer will never be no for you, 28:31 yes for the other. 28:33 But that what we should pray about is, 28:35 you know, you have been struggling with alcohol. 28:37 You know, you have been struggling with, 28:38 whatever the case may be, 28:39 pray for God to give you strength 28:42 because that sin is a sin that has a remedy. 28:45 But the sin that leads to death is the sin 28:47 which is as John says 28:49 and as the Bible says in Matthew 12:31, 28:52 blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. 28:54 That's the one that's going to really cause your life. 28:57 Like somebody who say, 28:58 that's not your alcohol I am worried about, 28:59 if you won't give your life to the Lord. 29:02 It's not your cigarettes I am concerned about, 29:03 you just won't give your life to the Lord. 29:06 See, that's really what the issue is right there. 29:09 So anything else, John, on that? 29:11 No, that's covered it. Okay. 29:14 So you get it now? 29:16 It's not about what you are doing 29:17 as far as and itemized sin 29:19 but it's about rejecting the voice of God 29:22 and His constant appeal for you to give Him this heart-- 29:25 give Him your heart. 29:26 Well, I think we maybe opened some more doors 29:32 to give you some question but there are some of you 29:34 that are already thinking about what you want to ask us 29:38 and we get some really good questions. 29:40 But if you have any questions at all, 29:42 send those to housecalls@3abn.org. 29:45 That's housecalls@3abn.org 29:48 and we surely do appreciate 29:49 everything you do for this network. 29:52 There are many more programs that are preparing 29:54 people for the coming of the Lord and this is one. 29:57 And we thank you for being a part of our audience. 29:59 Now, John, tell us-- 30:01 I know we talked about that at the beginning of the program. 30:04 Well, let's go ahead and give a highlight here, 30:06 an overview of what our topic is gonna be for today. 30:08 Well, today we find the world is uneasy about what's coming. 30:14 And I'm not saying just about the end of the world, 30:16 just in general we look around us and we see... 30:20 our weather is going crazy, drastic shifts in temperatures, 30:26 we see different kinds of storms, 30:28 different-- it's intensifying. 30:31 We've seen just evidences 30:33 that this world is falling apart. 30:35 And yes we call it climate change 30:37 and we call it global warming 30:39 or whatever they want to assign it to. 30:41 But nonetheless what its resulting in is 30:45 what seems to be a path that is going toward 30:48 the end of the world. That's right. 30:49 So much so, even Hollywood has jumped on this. 30:52 Just recently you and I were 30:53 talking about this the other day. 30:55 There is a film called-- "The End." 30:58 "The End" or something like that. 31:01 So it's the end and it's- it's a comedy about at the end. 31:06 In other world, a comedy. 31:08 So they're trying to hear and listen to the world 31:12 and--and to people in their anxiety 31:14 and they are trying to make fun of it or light of it, 31:16 don't worry about it. 31:18 The end is just, you know, 31:19 we talked about it but it's just funny. 31:22 And this whole comedy is built on that 31:24 and you've got little demonic stuff in there, 31:26 making fun of that. 31:28 You've got other things going on where people are just-- 31:32 is just it really gives you the sense 31:36 that people aren't either taking it seriously 31:39 or those who do take it seriously 31:40 are very anxious about it. 31:42 So you've got a couple of camps there. 31:44 But we don't need to be anxious about that 31:46 and so in light of the fact that the end is coming 31:50 says the word of God, it would be good for us 31:53 to take another look, what to expect in the future. 31:57 This is kind of go through a-- 31:59 not a total chronological or secrets of events here. 32:02 But just let's talk about 32:03 the progression of the time of the end. 32:06 Where we are now and-- 32:08 and what to expect in the future. 32:09 And I want to start off with a text here. 32:11 Okay, which one? John 14. 32:15 Oh yeah. John 14 1-3. 32:22 This is the good one because it kind of pose 32:24 the anxiety aspect out of it. 32:26 It does. Worrying about the end time. 32:27 It really does. 32:29 John 14 starting with verse 1, 32:31 "Let not your heart be troubled," 32:33 and this is Jesus speaking. 32:35 "You believe in God, believe also in Me." 32:38 In other words for those that believe in God, 32:40 don't let your heart be-- Troubled. 32:42 Troubled, don't be anxious about this. 32:45 The time is coming where the end will come 32:46 but if you believe in Me, I will get you through it. 32:49 Verse 2, "In My Father's house are many mansions, 32:52 if it were not so, I would have told you. 32:55 I go to prepare a place for you." 32:57 Where does He go? 32:59 To heaven to prepare a heavenly city 33:02 for His people. That's right. 33:03 Verse 3, "And if I go and prepare a place for you, 33:06 I will come again, and receive you to Myself 33:12 that where I am, there you may be also." 33:16 You see, the disciples were anxious about the fact 33:18 that Jesus said, he was leaving and they said well, 33:21 "Where you are going, can we go with you?" 33:22 And He said, "No, you can't come right now. 33:24 But I will come back 33:26 and when I come back I will receive you to Myself." 33:28 In other words, I will bring you up, 33:32 as--as Paul speaks, they will be caught up 33:34 to meet Him in the air and then Jesus will take them 33:37 to the heavenly city to live with Him in heaven. 33:40 And so that is what Jesus is promising here in this chapter. 33:46 But before Jesus comes, He also speaks-- 33:50 this a few things that will happen 33:53 and I don't mean to spend verse by verse on this 33:55 but just maybe as an overview, 33:57 John, it would be good to take a look at Matthew 24. 34:03 And we'll start with verse 3. 34:04 It says that, as He, that is Jesus, 34:07 sat on the Mount of Olives, 34:09 the disciples came to him privately, 34:10 saying, tell us, when will these things be 34:14 and what will be the sign of your coming 34:18 and of the end of the age?" 34:21 In other words, Jesus You said, you're gonna come again 34:23 but we want little more information. 34:25 What will be the sign of Your coming? 34:27 What will be happening when You're about to come? 34:30 So that we may know that You are coming 34:32 to take us home. That's right. 34:33 And Jesus then begins to go through a dialogue 34:36 that last several chapters along here 34:39 but specifically the first chapter, Chapter 24, 34:42 about the signs of the end of Jesus' coming. That's right. 34:45 And--but I want to also emphasize 34:47 and I like that you read John 14 because a lot of times people, 34:52 well there, there is a perception 34:53 or there is actually a teaching 34:56 that we talked about this in the prior program 34:59 where people believes in dying and going to heaven. 35:02 It's important to understand the words of Jesus. 35:04 He says, "I will come again and receive you to Myself, 35:08 that where I am there you may be also." 35:10 It's important to remember 35:12 and mark the words of Jesus, where He said, 35:15 matter of fact in John 7:3 for he says, 35:17 'You will seek me and you will not find me 35:20 and where I am, you cannot come." That's right. 35:23 So He's not saying I'll see when you get there. 35:25 He says, I'll see you when I come back. 35:28 And He's not saying, when I come back, 35:31 I'll receive your bodies to Me. 35:33 He's saying, "I will receive you." 35:35 The Bible always speaks of the whole person 35:38 body, mind, soul. 35:39 Everything is together 35:41 and if there's one part that's missing 35:43 and you're dead, all of it's missing. 35:45 And so Jesus is saying when I come again, 35:47 that's when it occurs. 35:48 Right, and so this very, it's very important 35:51 as we look at some of the signs of the end. 35:53 We have talked about, I think there is a problem 35:55 we did which was referring to the most unobvious signs. 35:59 But then there are some obvious signs. 36:01 One of the things we cannot help 36:03 and, John, you led out by talking about this. 36:06 Is this something really happening in our world? 36:12 Let's just say, it's a phenomena 36:14 or let's just say it's coincidental 36:16 but if you want to connect to it, 36:18 I believe that creation itself is-- 36:23 is groaning to be delivered. 36:26 Paul the apostle said, he talked about that, 36:29 he's just how all creation groaneth. 36:32 And it's like the birth pangs creation 36:35 is expressing the birth pangs. 36:37 You wonder what's behind all these 36:39 terrible weather patterns, I mean we have-- 36:42 these things are sometimes 36:45 we would say seasonal but the intensity. 36:48 We did a study once and I presented this in of my sermons, 36:53 how if you just go back five years 36:56 and you look at the occurrence of killer tornadoes, 37:00 how they have exponentially increased in size 37:03 and in magnitude and in frequency. 37:05 And you say to yourself what-- 37:06 what actually is contributing to that creation itself 37:10 is really looking to be delivered. That's right. 37:13 In and of itself is saying, 37:15 we know that all things cannot continue 37:19 as they are at the present time. 37:22 My former job was in reinsurance. 37:25 Lot of people don't know what reinsurance is 37:27 but reinsurance is when insurance companies 37:30 actually reinsure a book of business 37:33 or specific policies that are very large, 37:36 which would include catastrophe insurance 37:39 to a reinsurer at much higher level, 37:41 so they can cap their risk. Okay. 37:44 And so what we had within the company 37:47 that I worked for were actuaries. 37:49 Actuaries were once that were very good in modeling 37:52 and predicting where needs were in the future 37:56 for they would attach reinsurance. 37:59 So that when a catastrophe were to occur, 38:01 we might pay out 50 million but then about 50 million, 38:04 we would have reinsurers that take the rest of it 38:07 and it splits the risk-- spreads the risk. 38:10 So actuaries would say, well, you need to attach, 38:12 you know, at 50 or you need to attach at 75 or a 100. 38:16 And then they would weigh whether or not 38:18 the cost of doing so was beneficial 38:21 and actuaries would help with that. 38:23 But one of the things they said, that was very-- 38:25 I thought very insightful. 38:27 And this is before I left the industry 38:29 that it happened right around the year 2000, 2001. 38:34 The comment was made that we understand 38:38 the ebb and flow of-- of the world 38:41 and catastrophic events in modeling 38:43 and that's what it's built into for us to understand 38:45 but something has changed. 38:48 They said just in the late 90s to the early 2000s, 38:53 it's like somebody flipped a switch 38:56 and the world's gone crazy. 38:58 They're predicting a future events and catastrophes, 39:01 the models won't work any more. 39:04 They were really struggling 39:05 and battling to find accurate models 39:08 that dealt with this exponential rise in not only catastrophes 39:13 but the dollars that it cost to recover from that. 39:17 And if the secular world and the business world 39:19 recognizes that, why don't we 39:22 as Christians recognize the world's gonna end? Right. 39:27 Furthermore you have about 20 years ago 39:30 where atheists used to say, 39:32 ah, it's just basically cycles that we're finding, 39:35 you know, this-- earthquakes happen 39:38 and then they don't happen for a while, 39:39 it's always been like this. 39:41 They're not saying anything more, 39:42 you know what they're saying? 39:43 They are saying that we're doing this to ourselves. 39:46 Right in other words-- You know, we're causing it, 39:48 it's just happening you know and--and the ozone layers 39:51 and those things, although they may have been playing a part, 39:54 I'm no denying some of the influence there 39:56 but they say basically that-- 39:59 that we're doing this to ourselves, 40:02 but they're taking God out of the equation 40:03 but regardless of what can pure in. 40:06 We're recognizing, we're approaching 40:08 an end time event or series of events 40:12 that could end our existence on this earth. 40:14 From a Christian perspective, 40:16 we believe it's the second coming. 40:19 From an atheistic perspective, 40:20 you believe that we're destroying our world 40:22 that cannot sustain life anymore. 40:23 Life will cease to end. 40:25 Regardless many are beginning to agree now 40:28 that we are heading toward to the end. 40:30 You know Jesus even talked about that in Matthew 16:3, 40:33 He said these words, He says, 40:35 And in the morning, actually starts from verse 2, 40:37 let me just go and the context to it here. 40:40 Matthew 16:2, He says, 40:46 He answered and said unto them, 40:47 "When it is evening, 40:48 you say, it will be fair weather, 40:50 for the sky is red. 40:52 And in the morning, it will be foul weather today 40:55 for the sky is red and threatening. 40:57 Hypocrites says, you know, 40:59 how to discern the face of the sky 41:02 but you cannot discern the signs of the times." 41:06 So you see clearly, the Lord is in essence saying, 41:09 what you just taught pointed out, 41:11 you're able to tell about the weather patterns, 41:13 you see, you could tell us, it's gonna be warm today, 41:15 it's gonna be cold today. 41:16 There's gonna be a cold front coming up 41:17 from the South burning with the-- 41:19 I mean, warm front, warm front from the south, cold front-- 41:24 that's some whether pattern-- 41:26 cold front from the north, say that 15 times. 41:30 And he said, you're-- 41:31 you're able to predict the weather 41:33 but you cannot see the signs of the times. 41:35 And if you think of these signs 41:37 that the Bible forecast how they are all around us. 41:41 The conditions are changing at such a rapid progress that 41:45 it is almost impossible to say 41:47 that there's not something behind that. 41:48 I like Luke 21 41:50 and we could spend a little time here in Matthew 24 41:53 but I want to point out something that Luke 21 41:55 brings to the table 41:57 about the conditions of what people are seeing 42:00 happen in the world around us. 42:03 Luke 21 and verse starting with verse 25 42:07 and then we'll go down to verse 28. 42:11 Luke says, "There will be signs in the sun, 42:14 in the moon and in the stars and on the earth." 42:18 Notice how it's gonna impact the world, 42:20 "distress of nations." 42:22 So we could look at this right away 42:23 and somebody was talking about this just the other day 42:27 and said, man we've got the fastest rising stock market 42:30 we've seen in six years. 42:33 I was kind of a guy in the water holding my breath 42:35 because I thought all it takes is for one nation to sneeze 42:39 and everybody else catches a cold. 42:41 And then after about a two or three week continual arise, 42:44 everybody is getting happy in the stock market 42:46 and people are singing-- singing in the glee club, 42:49 their money is really maturing very well. 42:52 And all the sudden there is a concern 42:54 in China over the issues 42:57 that are happening in the Middle East 42:58 and boom it starts just cascading down. 43:01 And it seems like this distress of nations 43:04 that will happen on a broader scale in the future 43:07 because of the signs that are talked about here. 43:09 There's a-- there's a general distress 43:12 that's happening in the world. 43:14 People are not as and we call this in-- 43:16 in America we call this consumer confidence. 43:19 Now we know there's a comeback on the, 43:21 on the real estate market, 43:22 we know that a lot of people are spending more money. 43:24 But if you-- if you were to say, 43:26 are you generally really comfortable 43:28 and confident about the future of our society. 43:31 Most people will say, 43:32 "No, I'm really holding my breath 43:33 to find out what's gonna next." 43:36 Read the rest of this, this is just really insightful. 43:39 It says, distress of nations verse 25 of Matthew--Luke21, 43:44 "With perplexity sea and the waves roaring." 43:48 Okay, let's stop there for a second. 43:50 The distress of nations 43:51 puts them in a state of perplexity 43:53 as to what do we do? Yeah, right. 43:56 And the sea and the waves roaring. 43:58 In other words, they're gonna past their borders. 44:01 That's right. They're gonna come up upon land. 44:03 You know one of the interesting things 44:04 I heard the other day, 44:05 John, and this just comes to mind. 44:08 One of the scientist got on to one of the newscast 44:11 and they were talking about the rising seas. 44:13 The seas could very well rise 44:15 over the next 30 to 50 years upwards of 2 to 3, 4 feet. 44:20 And then he made the statement, 44:21 he said, "And not all this is happening 44:23 because of the ozone layers and global warming." 44:27 He commented, he said, in fact most of it 44:29 more that he shed, he said, I believe 44:32 could be happening because the continents are sinking. 44:37 I've never heard that before. I don't know anything about it. 44:40 I'm just saying for the first time they said, 44:42 you know, also what's contributing to this 44:44 significantly is that our continents are settling. 44:48 So while the seas and the ice caps 44:51 and glaciers are melting, the continents are settling. 44:54 So they both together are causing the seas to rise up 44:58 and threaten coastlines. 45:00 The seas and waves are roaring 45:02 with perplexity, nations are distressed, 45:04 what do we do about this? There's no solution. 45:07 I think they did, they did the actual model 45:09 and I used a word model earlier. 45:12 They did some model, 45:13 some demographic models to see 45:16 what the new shape of the United States would be 45:19 if this were to happen. 45:20 How far, how much of Florida would actually disappear? 45:24 How much of the Southern States would actually disappear? 45:26 And how far, how much further north the water lines would be? 45:31 And I thought to myself wow, that's serious and-- 45:35 and you know these prognostications 45:37 are not without some kind of percentages 45:41 one way or the other but still what is actually being said, 45:44 it's for the first time in history 45:46 meteorologists, scientists and people that are studying 45:50 the behavioral patterns of the weather 45:52 are beginning to say, you know we've got to stop-- 45:55 we got to begin to look at the future 45:57 with some forethought in mind as to what are we going to do, 46:02 when these scenarios begin to manifest themselves 46:04 because we know that, 46:06 the-- the pieces that will make this 46:09 a reality are already in motion. 46:12 See it's like what do we do when a train arrives? 46:15 We know, it's coming. 46:16 And that's one of the perplexities 46:18 that the world is locked down by right now. 46:19 And then notice what happens here 46:21 and the rest of this, look at verse 26. Yes. 46:23 "Men's hearts failing them from fear 46:26 and the expectation of those things 46:28 which are coming on the earth, 46:31 for the powers of the heavens will be what? Shaken. 46:35 Then they will see the Son of Man 46:38 coming in a cloud with power and great glory. 46:43 Now when these things begin to happen, 46:45 look up and lift up your heads 46:47 because your redemption draws near." Right. 46:50 See that's the real, the good response, 46:51 the Christian response the one following Christ says, 46:54 when these things happen, Lord you are coming soon. 46:57 Right. You're near. 46:58 In fact I-- I believe in Matthew. 47:01 He says, "I'm at the doors of coming." 47:03 Now here is one of the things he doesn't say, John. 47:05 And we're gonna open up 47:06 different issues as we come through here. 47:08 I agree we probably don't have time go through all the signs 47:10 because that's not what this program is about, 47:12 it's more of a sequential thing or events 47:14 but, but some say before all these things really get bad, 47:20 all the Christians will be rapture out. 47:23 You won't even be here. 47:25 In the sequence here we're not finding any of that, 47:27 nor do we find that in Matthew. 47:29 We find repeatedly that these signs occur 47:32 and then we look up and see Jesus. That's right. 47:37 Visibly, audibly we see His presence 47:40 coming to take us home. 47:43 Not we're gone 47:45 and then the earth is left in chaos 47:47 for the wicked to have a second chance. Right. 47:50 And what I am happy about is I'm seeing more and more 47:52 on some of these chat forums in regard tom 47:55 you know, Bible questions, 47:56 people disbelieving the rapture theory. 47:59 There is- now, I'm not saying 48:01 how, to how much of a degree I don't know. 48:03 I'm seeing some out there basically say, 48:05 I don't really necessarily agree with that whole rapture thing. 48:08 Which praise God 48:09 because it's not in Scripture? It's a theory. 48:12 But yeah, it's very much a theory 48:14 but what we're saying here is look at the sequence. 48:17 Signs happening, earth is in distress, 48:20 men don't know what to do 48:21 and then they look up and Jesus comes. 48:24 It is definitely a time of distress that Jesus appears. 48:27 And so what's being suggested here as in Luke 21:28. 48:34 When you see these things begin to happen 48:37 look up and lift up your heads. 48:39 Matthew 24 going back there right now very quickly. 48:43 Matthew 24 speaks about the parable of the fig tree. 48:49 Now the fig tree is not a common tree 48:53 all throughout the United States. 48:55 It's more of a tree that will be found in the Middle East. 48:57 We had a fig tree in our backyard in New York. 49:00 I don't know if you ever had a fig tree before. 49:01 Yeah, we did, had a couple of them. 49:03 And--but the Lord has given this sign 49:07 and we could--we could associate this with flowers 49:09 that begin to blossom when the weather is changing. 49:12 And he talks about this in verse 32 of Matthew 24. 49:17 "Now learn this parable from the fig tree. 49:21 When its branch has already become tender 49:23 and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. 49:27 So you also when you see all these things know that 49:30 it is near at the very door." 49:32 And you pointed out that a moment ago 49:34 and this is the encouraging part about it. 49:36 You see, when we see these signs coming together collectively. 49:39 When we see men's hearts failing them for fear. 49:42 When we see the sea and waves roaring. 49:45 When we see the powers of heaven being shaken. 49:47 When we see perplexity of nations 49:50 because, you know, in the past there was some phenomena events 49:53 that occurred like the falling of the stars. 49:58 The great earthquake, Lisbon earthquake, 50:00 these things happened on a localized scale. 50:03 The falling all the stars upward northeast 50:06 but it hadn't happened 50:07 where the whole world was in perplexity 50:10 and where the seas and the waves were roaring 50:13 and we're generally in over the whole world, 50:16 men's hearts were failing them for fear. 50:17 Nations it says plural, 50:19 which means more than one local place. 50:21 Right, so we believe that these events 50:23 are gonna occur again on a grand or larger, 50:26 more momentous scale and that's why the Lord says 50:29 when it does, this generation verse 34, 50:32 will by no means pass away 50:35 until all these things are fulfilled, 50:38 heaven and earth--heaven and earth will pass away 50:41 but my word will by no means pass away. 50:44 So what does this generation mean in that is, 50:46 the generation that sees these events 50:49 all take place is the generation to see Him coming. 50:51 That's what it's saying. I agree. 50:53 That's exactly what it's saying. 50:54 And since He hasn't come yet, 50:56 there's a generation yet either in our day 50:58 or not too far distant from us 51:00 that's gonna witness all these things 51:02 happening in a collective manner. 51:04 But now the other thing I want to point out that he-- 51:05 that we cannot get too hung up on 51:08 because there are certain signs 51:09 that we repeat pretty much over and over and over again. 51:13 That are also included in the-- 51:15 in the smorgasbord of signs for the end 51:18 but we can't single them out. 51:21 But we'll also notice as Jesus points them out, 51:23 He also mentions a transitionary period 51:27 between the things that have continued to happen 51:30 and then all of a sudden a shift 51:31 from things that you cannot-- 51:33 things that do not directly affect you, 51:35 to things that directly affect you. 51:37 Look at Matthew 24. 51:39 John, why don't you start with verse 4? 51:42 Matthew 24:4, and then go to verse 8. 51:45 "And Jesus answered and said to them, 51:47 take heed that no man deceives you. 51:49 For many will come in My name, 51:50 saying, I am the Christ and will deceive many. 51:54 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars, 51:57 see that you are not troubled for the-- 51:58 for all these things must come into pass, 52:00 but the end is not yet. 52:02 For nation will rise against nation, 52:04 and kingdom against kingdom. 52:05 And there will be famines, pestilences, 52:06 and earthquakes in various places." 52:08 And look at verse 8. 52:09 "All these things are the beginning of sorrows." 52:12 That means they're not the end. 52:14 That they're beginning of what we see is sorrows. 52:16 But then look at the turn of the table. 52:19 "Then they will deliver you up to tribulation 52:22 and kill you and you'll be hated 52:23 by all nations for My name's sake." 52:26 Now when you pause there, you ask yourself the question. 52:30 What will possibly happen, what could possibly happen, 52:36 that the nations will be angry at the Christians. 52:40 It could-it's saying to me that some condition will occur. 52:44 That the condition that the Christians 52:47 will be blamed for 52:50 to bring about the hatred of all nations. 52:55 And you ask yourself, what could that possibly be? 52:58 Could it be--and let me just build some scenarios in hand, 53:01 we could talk about this vacuum, 53:03 could it be that the conditions of the world are gonna become 53:05 so dire that there is gonna be 53:07 some kind of universal plan were people will say, 53:10 God is angry with us, 53:12 if we do what God wants us to do, 53:14 then these calamities or these judgments will cease. 53:20 But then there are others that will say, 53:21 wait a minute, wait a minute. 53:23 We're not buying into that 53:24 because what you're suggesting 53:26 is in direct violation to God's Word, 53:28 so we're standing with God's Word. 53:31 We're not gonna do that. Yeah. 53:32 And the nation said, well, then you're the cause 53:34 of this bickering, we hate you for the fact 53:36 that you're not choosing to stand with us 53:38 to avert these continued calamities. 53:40 Well, Jesus seems to imply that's exactly what will happen 53:44 and here's how we that, so if you go on, 53:46 read on in this, it picks up in verse 21 53:49 in regard to the tribulation, a great tribulation it says, 53:52 "Such as not been since the beginning of the world 53:54 until this time nor no, nor shall ever be, 53:58 unless those days were shortened, 54:00 no flesh would even be saved, but for the elect's sake." 54:03 In other words there is a elect group, 54:06 that will be saved by the shortening of these events 54:10 but notice what it connects it with. 54:11 There seems to be a struggle indicated here 54:14 between two groups. 54:16 It says, "Then if anyone says to you, 54:17 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. 54:24 For false christs and false prophets will arise 54:26 and show great signs and wonders to deceive, 54:29 if possible, even the elect. 54:31 See, I have told you beforehand. 54:33 Now notice what this verse is saying, 54:35 John, this is powerful. 54:37 There will be people who follow this false christ, 54:41 who profess faith in a christ that isn't Jesus. That's right. 54:45 And because of that and the signs and wonders 54:48 he performs, fake miracles, 54:50 they will side with him against the elect. 54:55 It's not heathen versus Christian. 54:58 It is supposed a Christian 54:59 who follow this false christ versus elect true Christian. 55:04 The battle at the end of times, the spiritual battle is not 55:07 this what supposed it many Christians believe 55:09 which is the heathen are going to, 55:11 the atheists are gonna somehow, 55:12 you know, it is not about us and them. 55:15 It's about what the enemy has done, 55:16 doing or going to do through a false system of worship, 55:20 a false christ who sets himself up with power 55:23 because of the great miracles he performs, 55:25 they will be deceived by those, side with him 55:28 and persecute God's true people known here, 55:30 referred to here as the elect. 55:32 One of things, John, and you and I talked about this it is-- 55:35 it is Satan is diabolical in how he setting this up 55:38 because with all these continual, 55:42 thirsty audiences for these demonic movies, 55:45 he's making people think, 55:47 he's some hideous gargantuan 55:50 and ugly awful looking creature 55:52 but when he shows up, 55:54 the Bible gives us evidence to let us know 55:57 that when he shows up, 55:59 the reason why people are gonna be deceived is how he shows up. 56:02 He's setting everybody out today, 56:04 that he wants to do exact opposite tomorrow. 56:06 They're gonna say that he cannot be seen 56:07 because he doesn't look-- look he doesn't have horns, 56:10 he doesn't look like a crazy being, 56:11 he doesn't look some--some beast from the 20,000 fathoms. 56:15 But the Bible gives us 56:16 this warning here in 2 Corinthians 11:14, 56:20 "No wonder, for Satan himself, 56:24 transforms himself into an angel of light." 56:28 Not just transforms himself as in the transformation, 56:32 he transforms even what people appear or thought he was, 56:36 into this new being which is a false christ. 56:39 That's right and so this angel of light 56:41 that people are gonna be believing, 56:43 its Christ and we'll know 56:45 because he's gonna be walking on the earth that is not Him. 56:48 What we're gonna do? 56:49 Well we know he's walking on the earth 56:50 because he's walking on the earth that is no Him 56:52 because Jesus said, "that when he comes down 56:54 that we will meet Him in the air." 56:57 So He will not touch the ground. 56:59 So that's why he says in verse 26, 57:02 "Therefore if they said you, 57:03 'Look, He is in the desert!' 57:04 do not go out, or he's in the interims do not believe it. 57:08 And then we'll see 57:09 as we will continue in this particular topic. 57:12 One of the things that is-- 57:14 one of the unobvious signs of the coming of the Lord, 57:16 is all these things that are happening around us, 57:18 preparing the world for things 57:20 that mankind are not even aware that's-- 57:24 So we want to stoke the fires 57:25 and let people know here at House Calls, 57:27 yes the call is coming 57:28 and we pray that as your knowledge 57:30 of the Word of God increases, 57:31 when the call comes, you'll be ready. |
Revised 2014-12-17