Are We Living in the Last Days?
Sermon Transcript
0:00:14.0
Well, we are living in perilous times, are we not? It seems as though stories of war and terrorism, economic turmoil, political revolution, even earthquakes, disease, other natural disasters—these are the things that seem to top the news stories of the day. And if we’re not careful, we let them create turmoil and unrest in our own hearts. Like other generations, ours wonders whether this could be the last days of planet earth and whether the return of Jesus Christ is just right around the corner. But we are not the first generation to wonder such things, and nor are we the first to experience a world that seems to be spinning into chaos. Just go back a century ago to the 20th century, and the greatest generation fought two world wars to start a century that had great promise to it. And by some calculations, those two world wars produced—and this is a staggering number—a 100 million causalities on this planet. Just a staggering number to think about that. They fought these wars in Germany and France and Poland. The images from those two world wars still haunt us. And when it was all over we learned that 6 million of those casualties were Jewish people incinerated by a guy named Adolf Hitler and his Nazi thugs. The Holocaust crushed any expectations that people of faith had at the beginning of the 20th century that it might usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth. Crushed it to smithereens. And then today, many of God’s people face intense persecution, torture, death, all kinds of threat to life in places like the Middle East, Asia and Africa. Brothers and sisters in Christ all across the globe are experiencing increased persecution. Some say it’s as great as it’s ever been in the history of the Church. And even in western civilizations, even in places like the United States of America, anti-Christian sentiment is on the rise. We’re all feeling that, like Christians, people of faith are the enemies today. In the last century, we also witnessed the return of millions of Jews to their homeland and the re-gathering of the nation of Israel. And for those who understand the place of Israel, God’s chosen people, in biblical prophecy, that was a significant event. Many thought in 1948 that it was the beginning of the end, that we were nearer than we’ve ever been before. And so here we are all those many, many years later. And we in our generation are wondering, are these the last days of planet earth? Is the return of Jesus Christ imminent? Is it right around the corner? Will we witness it in our time? And it’s no surprise that people of faith and otherwise turn to the Bible for answers. And specifically to the last book of the Bible called the Revelation of Jesus Christ. It’s the last book of the Bible, the last book of the New Testament. And it happens to be the one that garners the greatest interest in our era. It’s also one of the most mysterious books found in the pages of scripture. I noted in my book Mysteries of the Afterlife that the word “mystery” appears 39 times in the Bible, 39 times, but four times in the book of Revelation itself. In fact, the book of Revelation talks about the mystery of the seven stars, the mystery of God, the mystery of Babylon. Do you know that the Bible is really a tale of two cities? Babel, which became Babylon, and Salem, which became Jerusalem. You just study those two cities throughout the Bible, and you’ve got a good sense of the panorama of scripture. Revelation also talks about the mystery of the woman, which is a symbol of the nation of Israel in Revelation 17 and elsewhere.
0:04:31.5
So the book of Revelation is a mysteries book. I’ve titled this series “Mysteries of the Apocalypse.” The worse “apocalypse” has kind of a foreboding meaning in our world today. Hollywood loves to, you know, put out movies with apocalyptic terms, meaning something terrible is about to happen. But actually the primary meaning of the Greek word apokalupsis is “unveiling”. It’s the apocalypse of Jesus Christ. The revelation of Jesus Christ. The unveiling of Jesus Christ. And the primary person and character in the book of Revelation is Christ Jesus Himself. We’ll note that as we get into the early chapters of the book of Revelation. But it’s still a mysterious book. And over the course of this series, we’ll try to unveil some of the mystery. God is a revealer of secrets and mysteries, is He not? And a mystery in the Bible is something that was once concealed but is now revealed. And when it comes to the last chapter of world history, God pulled back the curtain in many places in the Bible, Old and New Testament, but in no place more broadly so we can peek into the final chapter, like He did in the revelation or the unveiling of Jesus Christ.
0:05:58.4
Now, before we get to the book of Revelation itself, I want us to ask and answer the question, are we living in the last days? And more importantly, if we are living in the last days, how are we to live as the bride of Christ and as followers of Jesus Christ? The answer to that question about the last days may be disappointing to you because every New Testament writer in one way or another agrees that we are, in fact, in the last days because the last days, technically speaking, began when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Okay? We are living in the last days. But the last days has been a period of time for at least 2000 years now. Why do I say that? Well, let me take you first to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews 1. The writer of Hebrews begins, “Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.” In other words, whatever the Bible means by the last days, the last hour, the final climax of world history, it began when Jesus Christ came to this earth, His first advent. All the Old Testament saints, they were looking forward to the first coming of Messiah. We as New Testament believers look for His second coming. We sang about it just a few minutes ago. But the last days is kind of a technical term the New Testament writers use. The last days, the last hour, the latter times. We are living in those times. Peter understood this. 1 Peter 1:20, “Christ was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you.” So are we living in the last times? Yeah, we are. The question is, are we living in the final days of the last days? That is a question we will explore as we go through the book of Revelation and other related Bible prophecy passages. Because we need to understand the book of Revelation not in a vacuum, but in the broader context of Bible prophecy. That’s gonna be a challenge to do over these weeks as we’re just primarily studying Revelation. But we need to go to some other places as well. And I want to go to some other places this morning to ask and answer the question, are we living in the last days and what does that look like?
0:08:28.2
The New Testament writers, as they talk about the last days or the last hour or the latter times, identify at least five characteristics of those times. And, yes, in any generation since the 1st century you could find these characteristics. But I understand these characteristics to be sort of like the birth pangs that Jesus talked about when His disciples asked Him about the specific signs of the end of the age just prior to His second coming. In Matthew 24 and 25 there is a section of scripture known as the Olivet Discourse, and it’s a fascinating ride through end times Bible prophecy spoken from the mouth of Jesus Himself to four of His disciples—Peter, James, John and Andrew. The five of them gathered on the Mount of Olives just outside of Jerusalem during holy week, just a few days before Jesus went to the cross. And the question was, “Jesus, what are the signs of the end of the age and of Your coming?” I would have loved to have been there, I mean, sitting on the Mount of Olives with Jesus as He waxes eloquently and talks about the general signs and specific signs of His second coming. And it was in that context that Jesus said, “Just prior to my coming these signs will be like birth pangs.” Ladies, mothers, you understand that. As you get closer and closer to the event, the birth pangs increase with frequency and with intensity. Jesus says, “That’s the way the signs before My second coming will be.” Now, I need to make a distinction between what we’re talking about this morning, which are characteristics of the last days, and the signs of the end of the age. Jesus was talking about this over here, these characteristics I’m finding in the New Testament writings. But I think they have the same implication as the birth pangs, that as we get closer and closer to the final days of the last days, these characteristics will not only be found in every generation, but increasingly so as we get closer and closer to the end of the age.
0:10:31.5
And what are those five characteristics? Well, number one, rapid moral decline. Let’s begin in 2 Timothy 3:1. The apostle Paul writes, “But understand this, that in the last days there will come difficult times. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedience to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness but denying its power.” And then Paul says to Timothy, “Avoid such people.” Wow. Well, okay. Because that’s a list, isn’t it? I mean, that’s a description of a culture that is just disintegrating right before us. And it’s true, Paul would suggest, in the last days. He says in the last days there will come times of difficulty. Paul writes as though he has seen this with his own eyes and experienced it. He’s come face to face with this kind of stuff even in his time. But, again, the implication is this will characterize the last days throughout all the generations. And then, as we get closer and closer to the end of the age, perhaps even intensify. He says there will be difficult times. The word “difficult” describes something that causes trouble, hardship and suffering with an implication of violence. A fair translation is, “Mark it down. In the last days you will experience violent suffering for your faith.” And certainly this has been the witness of the Church for 2000 years. One of the early church followers named Tertullian said “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.” And it has been for 2000 years. Starting in the early chapters of the book of Acts, Stephen was the first martyr. His blood was shed for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. You fast-forward to the book of Revelation. There’s more bloodshed in that book—and, yes, the blood of martyrs—as more seeds…not of the Church, because the Church is gone, but of those who would come to faith in Christ during the that’s spoken of in Revelation. And so it shouldn’t surprise us that even in our day there are brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the globe…I’m thinking of our Egyptian friends who literally lost their heads, beheaded for the sake of Christ by the hands of Islamic terrorists. Some say the persecution of Christians today is greater even than at other times, difficult times, Paul says. And he uses nine specific words and phrases. I could read through them again. They make us pause and wonder at the depth of sin and selfishness and intolerance in the human heart. And even beyond the obvious Islamic terrorism of our day, this describes the corrosiveness of our culture, does it not? And we can see this happening even in our own safe neighborhoods and communities. And just how our culture seems to be spinning out of control. We’re talking about moral decline as one of the characteristics of the last days.
0:14:27.8
Historians tell us that one of the reasons the Roman Empire fell was because it rotted from the inside out. In fact, one of my professors in seminary was Dr. John Walvoord. And he wrote about this and other civilizations that rotted from the inside out too. Dr. Walvoord was considered one of America’s most influential theologians. And he was one of the primary architects of the contemporary study of Bible prophecy. He’s written and edited almost 30 books. And one of those books that became a bestseller in popular culture out there was called Armageddon, Oil, and Terror. And Dr. Walvoord says, “History records how many great nations have risen to unusual power and influence, only to decline because of internal corruption and compromise and the loss of political will. He says, “It may well be that the United States today is at the zenith of its power, much as Babylon was in the 6th century B.C. prior to its sudden downfall at the hands of the Medes and the Persians.” You can read about that sudden downfall of the great Babylonian culture in Daniel 5, where the book of Daniel contains many, many prophecies regarding the end of the age. Dr. Walvoord goes on to say, “Any realistic survey of moral conditions in the world today would justify a judgment of God on any nation, including the United States of America.” All I’m saying is that one of the characteristics of the last days, perhaps even intensifying as we get closer, is the moral decline of our world. And we maybe expect that in other parts of the world, but now we’re beginning to see it so quickly even in the United States of America.
0:16:23.2
Here is a second characteristic of the last days. I would describe it as supernatural and celestial wonders. I want you to turn with me to Acts 2. It’s always good to understand the Church in any generation, and certainly in end times Bible prophecy, by going back to the birth of the Church, which is recorded for us in the book of Acts. And in Acts 2, you may remember that’s the Day of Pentecost, 50 days after the Feast of First Fruits in the Jewish calendar. And I guess 53 days after Passover. Jesus died on Passover. He rose from the dead on the Feast of First Fruits. Fifty days later was Pentecost. And on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came. And that was the day that Peter preached a sermon, and 3000 people came to know Jesus Christ. I remember when I preached my first sermon. I think three people came up afterwards and offered sympathy, you know. Three thousand people in his first sermon that he preached. And Peter is trying to respond to these tongues-speaking disciples and the response that the people had. The people were saying, “Oh, they must be drunk.” And he says, “No, it’s only the third hour of the day.” And then he goes on to do something really fascinating in his sermon. He quotes from the Old Testament prophet Joel. Now, Joel…the theme of Joel’s book is the day of the Lord. Different than the last days, the day of the Lord refers to a time in Bible prophecy which is still future. But it’s a specific time of seven years of tribulation on this earth, book end by the rapture of the Church and, seven years later, the second coming of Jesus Christ. It’s the worst of times on earth known as the day of the Lord, Jacob’s trouble, Daniel’s 70th week. Joel talks a lot about that. Peter reaches into that prophecy, and he pinpoints what’s happening on the day of Pentecost to something that Joel said. You follow me so far? Now, listen to this. Peter says, “And in the last days,” quoting from Joel, “it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” He goes on to say in verse 19, “And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, (0:19:00.1) blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke; the sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day. And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Two specific terms and phrases that are important to get in that prophecy from Joel, which Peter mentions on the Day of Pentecost. The phrase “the last days” is used, and from that he’s talking about the supernatural wonders. And then he turns and talks about celestial wonders related to the day of the Lord. And in so doing, he sweeps across the panorama of Bible prophecy and end of the age and end of the world prophecies there. From the beginning of the last days, where the supernatural signs and wonders came and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit to inaugurate the last days, to the celestial wonders (0:20:00.1) in the sky. Did you catch them there? Where the sun shall be darkened and the signs of the earth take place, “blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke…and the moon to blood, before the day of the Lord comes.” Now we’ve fast-forwarded far into future Bible prophecy. Supernatural and celestial wonders.
0:20:23.3
By the way, have you noticed all of the conversation and discussion today about the blood moons taking place in the heavens? If you haven’t, you need to look this up because it’s really quite amazing. Apparently, there’s a way in the orbital scheme of earth and moon and sun to where they can be in an arrangement such that when the sun shines it casts this red hue on the moon. It’s called a blood moon. It doesn’t happen very often. It doesn’t happen very often. And when it happens as consecutively as it has over the last couple of years, that’s attention-grabbing enough. And when it happens as consecutively as it has over the last couple of years and the times that it happens happens to fall on the Jewish festivals in the fall and in the spring, that makes that you step back and go, “Hmm, is God trying to say something to us from the heavens?” Because the prophecy talked about the moon turning to blood just before the day of the Lord. And so some have maybe made too much of it, maybe too little of it. I don’t know. But something related to celestial wonders will take place as we get closer and closer to the final days of the last days. You follow me so far?
0:21:55.4
Here’s a third characteristic found in the New Testament writings. And this has to do with an emerging apostasy. Let’s now go to 1 Timothy 4, where Paul writes, “Now the Spirit,” that is the Holy Spirit, “expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” Now, Paul was concerned about this in the 1st century. He understood he was in the last times. He’s writing this letter to a guy named Timothy, a young protégé in the ministry. And Timothy is about to assume the pastorate at the church at Ephesus. He’s a young pastor. Paul planted the church at Ephesus and was there for about three years. And then he departed. And upon his departure, as he’s talking to the elders on the seashore as he’s about to sail away, he talked about his concern about false teachers coming into the Church. He writes to Timothy and he says…he links it to latter times. He says, “The Spirit says,” very pointedly, “that in the later times some will depart from the faith.” You know, the faith that Jude calls “the faith that was once delivered to the saints.” We refer to it often as Orthodox Christianity. The death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, His soon return. I mean, just Orthodox teachings that have been with us for 2000 years. Paul says, even dating back 2000 years ago, some will depart from that. And he saw that departure. He saw false teachers as evidence that they were in the last times. He goes on in 1 Timothy 4 to give a little specific about the content of their false teaching. He says they forbid marriage and they talk about abstinence of foods, foods that God has given to all of us to enjoy. Interesting, I find, that the false teaching related to the latter times would have anything to do with marriage. And here we are in our time with the institution of marriage and the doctrines related to it viciously attacked by our culture from without and from false teaching from within. And I think we ain’t seen nothing yet with regard to the perversion of marriage, that institution that God gave us back even in the book of Genesis.
0:24:27.2
Now go with me to 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3, because Paul goes on. We’re talking about this emerging apostasy, this false teaching. He says, “Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.” He says, “Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come,” listen to this, “unless the rebellion,” the apostasy, “comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction.” Now Paul is writing to the church at Thessalonica. And apparently there were some false teachers that entered into that church. And they were doing what a lot of people do today. We call them date-setters. You know, people who try to set a date for the return of Jesus Christ. I’m old enough to remember a book called 88 Reasons Why Jesus Is Coming Back In 1988. You wouldn’t believe the revision in 1989 that the guy had to do. And there have been people trying to, you know, predict and date-set and all that. Well, back 2000 years ago there were some that entered the church of Thessalonica saying, “The day of the Lord has already happened. It’s already taken place.” And people were bothered by this, and their hearts were in an unrest. And Paul says, “Hey, listen. Don’t be quickly shaken by this, either by a spirit or a spoken word or a letter or some slick speaker that comes by telling you this. Because the day of the Lord will not take place until the apostasy or the rebellion takes place.” Remember, the day of the Lord is different than just the last days. The day of the Lord fast-forwards in Bible prophecy times to that specific seven-year period of time, Daniel’s 70th week, Jacob’s trouble, the Tribulation period. He says that won’t happen until the great apostasy takes place. And here is my sense of why this great falling away will take place at the beginning of the Tribulation period. Because the Church is gone. I know there is a lot of debate, a lot of discussion—and I want to hold this loosely—about the ordering of end times events. But I believe the next event on God’s calendar is the rapture of the Church. And when the rapture of the Church takes place and the Holy Spirit is even lifted from this place, just imagine millions of people in the true Church of Jesus Christ gone from this planet, and religious opportunists moving into that now empty religious structure. And they take the faith that was once delivered to all the saints, and they pervert it completely, simultaneous to a figure known as the Antichrist, the man of sin or lawlessness that Paul refers to here arising on this planet. My point is simply this. That as we’re living in the last days, just expect a growing and emerging apostasy, a falling away from the faith. Which begs the question, how do we, as followers of Jesus Christ, live during the last days? We have to stand firm on the faith that was once delivered to the saints and on the essentials of our faith, not to waver on that—that Christ died for our sins, that He was buried, that He rose again on the third day, that He paid the penalty for our sins, and that by grace and through faith alone are we saved, and that He alone is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him. We need to stand firm on that.
0:28:24.4
Here is a fourth characteristic, and I would call this a growing skepticism. 2 Peter 3:3-4, the apostle Peter now weighs in the last days. He says, “Knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.’” Later, Jude chimes in. Jude 1:17-18, “But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ, they said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions.’” Scoffers, mockers, people who mock the Word of God and those who deliver it. It’s been happening for 2000 years. It’s been happening for even longer than that. In fact, if you go into the Old Testament, the prophet Jeremiah’s critics mocked him by saying, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled.” The Israelites in Malachi’s day put the Lord to the test and fatigued Him when they said, “Where is the God of justice,” mocking the teachings of the prophets. Their skepticism even parallels the mockery that was aimed at the prophet Ezekiel. They doubted that the judgment promised through Ezekiel’s prophecies would come. They said, “The days go by, and every vision comes to nothing.” Tsk, tsk, tsk. Mock, mock, mock. Scoff, scoff, scoff. Skeptics. Skeptics that really are not honestly seeking the truth but are just mocking the truth. Bill Maher is perhaps one of today’s biggest scoffers of religion and Christianity. I mean, just a polluted mouth of scoffing and mocking of the things of the Truth. He is supposedly a comedian and a political commentator. But he recently said that Noah and the flood is a story “about a psychotic mass murderer who gets away with it. And His name is God.” He goes on to mock, “You know, conservatives are always going on about how Americans are losing their values and their morality. Well, maybe it’s because you worship a guy who drowns babies.” I mean, it’s just the mockery, you know, in primetime cable television now. He even described Jesus as “a Palestinian who walked on water and did magic tricks”. I mean, none of it in an effort to seek the truth, but to mock it and to scoff at it. Don’t be surprised by it. Don’t be surprised that people in the world mock your faith or are skeptical in a way that it puts it down. That’ll just increase more and more. In fact, the anti-Christian sentiment is on the rise in our culture today, is it not? And the mockery and the scoffing and the skepticism that goes along with it.
0:31:48.5
And that brings me to the fifth characteristic of the last days. And that’s what I would call anti-Christian sentiment. One more passage of scripture, 1 John 2:18. John the apostle writes, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” In the Bible and in Bible prophecy, antichrist is understood in a lowercase A, generally speaking. “Antichrist has come,” John says, “and many antichrists have come,” “anti” being “opposed to or in the place of”. And when he says many, “Many antichrists have come,” we’re talking about many who have risen up in opposition to the faith through their mockery or all kinds of different things. But the large capital A Antichrist pictures that sentiment being embodied in a single person that the Bible describes as the man of lawlessness and the man of sin who comes upon the scene after the rapture of the Church and takes the position in time as a world dictator during the Tribulation period. Not just influenced by the devil himself, but possessed by the devil himself. And we’ll get into all of that as we study the book of Revelation. But have you not noticed the antichrist, anti-Christian sentiment that is on the rise, even in our western civilizations where Judeo-Christian principles have had much freedom of expression for long, long periods of time. That freedom of expression, if it’s not being taken away directly and constitutionally, is certainly being challenged. And in every way attempts are made to silence the Christian voice in our culture today, suggesting that God has no place in the public square.
0:33:58.1
Well, these are some daunting characteristics, are they not? And I started this message in this series by saying we live in perilous times, and we do. But we also live in very exciting times. When you understand how the last book of the Bible ends, Jesus Christ as the victor…remember, it’s the revelation of Jesus Christ, the apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the unveiling of Jesus Christ. He is the victor. He is the winner. He is the final judge. And that’s an exciting thing to be a part of as the bride of Christ and as followers of Jesus Christ. Waiting for His return, waiting in anticipation, waiting in faith, waiting not with hands idle, but with hands busy about the business of His work and winning people to faith in Christ and even warning the world around us, much like Noah did for 100 years as he built the ark. It was a poke in the eye to those who didn’t believe, and it was a sign of warning to the world around. And Jesus even talked about how, as we get closer and closer to end of the age, that it will be like the days of Noah. And the ark is Jesus Christ Himself. And we have the opportunity of sharing that message and inviting people to come inside, because we know what the Book says. Not vague, general kinds of prophecies, but specific ones. And do you know that the prophecies concerning the second coming of Jesus Christ are more numerous than the prophecies concerning the first? And part of the reason God gives us Bible prophecy is, one, to reveal Himself to us. Remember, He is the great revealer of secrets and mysteries. But also so that we have confidence in the scriptures. When that confidence begins to erode, boy, the apostasy is hard to control. But prophecy gives us confidence in the scriptures, because when we see with such meticulous detail how God has already fulfilled at least half of the prophecies made in scripture…and if I didn’t say it earlier, know this. That 25% of the Bible when it was written was prophetic in nature. It had to do with the future. Half of that has already been fulfilled in meticulous detail, giving us confidence that the rest of it will be fulfilled in meticulous detail as well, just as God said it would. And the standard He sets for Himself is 100% accuracy.
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And so as we wait for the soon return of Jesus Christ, we wait being good students of the Bible, not backing away from this subject because it’s controversial or difficult to understand or too mysterious to get our minds and our hearts around. No, we study it because God has revealed Himself through the pages of Bible prophecy. And we study to prepare our hearts for the soon return of Jesus Christ, because we’re a bride waiting for our heavenly groom to come. That’s the picture of scripture. And we don’t know the day or the hour of His soon return, but Jesus said to His disciples, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am there you may be also.” And He was using wedding imagery from that time and that culture. Because in a Middle Eastern wedding, a groom, when he proposed and planned for marriage, he would leave and he’d go back to his father’s house and he’d build on extra rooms. And then one day he would go back and he would get his bride. And he would marry her, and they would come back and live in his father’s house again. That’s John 14. And so we are the bride of Christ. We are waiting for His soon return. And our heavenly groom, at a day or hour that neither the angels nor Jesus Himself knows—only the Father knows—He will come again and receive us unto Himself, “that where I am,” He says, “there you may be also.” We live in confidence expectation in that promise. Yes, the world is spinning into chaos. Yes, the news headlines can cause a little bit of unrest in our hearts. But let’s not fear, friends. Let’s not be alarmed by any of this. Let’s study it well, and let’s have confidence that our Savior and our heavenly groom is on His way. And be prepared with our lamps well-trimmed, because He could come at the midnight hour when we least expect it. He says, “I come like a thief. And beware the thief who finds you naked,” He says in the book of Revelation. Be clothed in the righteousness of Christ, so that when the thief comes in the middle of the night, others who are not prepared, that their lack of preparedness doesn't befall you. And you get yourself prepared and clothed in the righteousness of Christ, so the thief doesn’t come while you are naked. You do that by coming to the cross of Christ and receiving forgiveness through Him and being clothed in the righteousness of Christ and in the purity and beauty that is Him and Him alone. And I want to encourage you, if you’ve never done that, if you’ve never come to that cross as a sinner who needs a savior, that today is the day to do that. Let’s pray together.
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Father, thank You so much for Your Word and for the sure word of prophecy. The sure word that it is. There are so many that want to back away from a subject like this. It’s too difficult, too controversial, too mysterious for us, can’t understand it. But, Lord, You’ve given us the pages of Your Word. And You have revealed Yourself in, yes, what appears to be a very mysterious book. Help us to study well, to learn well, to prepare our hearts and to prepare in a way, Father, that we live life with that sense of expectation that You really are in control and You really are up to something good, that there is a new world coming, that there is a consummation to world history that You’ve already got figured out and Jesus Christ stands alone in victory. We thank You for that, Father. We want to see so many others come to faith in Christ just through the witness and ministry of this church and this place and in this time. And we look forward to how we get to be a part of that. In Jesus’s name I pray, amen.
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