1John 2:18
Ready?
John says that we are in the last days. He bases that on the fact that there
are many anti-christs in the world. John wrote around or before 100 BC. If the
anti-christ seeds were already being to sprout, by now they must have brought
forth a gigantic harvest. If we were in the last days in John’s day, we must be
in the end of the last days by now.
The Evidence:
1. Religious anti-christs are in every seam of religion.
From churches who have no doctrine to those who have new doctrines,
from churches that are so lifeless you can’t stand them to those who are
so emotionally heated that you couldn’t sit in them.
Religions are forming faster than rabbits.
They milk their people like dairies and fill them dreamed up ideas like
fairies.
2. We also now have in abundance our political anti-christs who want to
legalize every immoral and perverted thing the Bible condemns.
Homosexuality, violence, drug trafficking - It seems that instead of the
law conforming criminals that the criminals are conforming the law - a
godless society.
3. However, armed with the knowledge that we are in the last of the last
days, most Christians do not seem concerned! No concern about
backsliding, about prayerlessness, about lost souls, about world
affairs, about anything! Why?
a. We are becoming the Laodicea Church.
b. We are relying on the rapture to get us away from it all.
I am a believer in the imminent, pretribulation, premillennial
rapture. I believe the rapture could occur at any moment, but I have
never believed that rapture would protect the church from all the
effects of the ever devolving, anti-christ society that we live in.
I. Scriptures that Describe the Pre-rapture Church
A. A church with itchy ears
2Tim 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves
teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be
turned unto fables.
1. Unsound in their doctrine. Listening to fables philosophy
instead of the truth of the Bible.
2. Lustful in their heart. They will be a materialistic people.
3. Teachy in their actions. It is not that there will be no
ministry. It is that their ministry will be unsound,
unbiblical.
B. A church with failing love
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy
first love.
1. The first love will always be a love for Jesus.
2. My guess is that this church will be steeped in activity but will
have forgotten why they are doing it.
C. A church that falls away
2Thess 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come,
except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the
son of perdition;
1. No one knows for certain what type of "falling away" is meant.
2. Probably doctrinal as already mentioned.
3. Perhaps also in attendance.
D. \\#Luke 18:1-8\\ - A faithless church
Luke 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the
Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
1. The church will no longer believe that God still gets involved in
the affairs of mankind.
2. This verse is added on to a parable concerning prayer.
3. If we do not have faith in Jesus doing things for us, we will be
a prayerless church.
E. A weak church unable to stand in the evil day.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
1. Not a prophetic passage.
2. If we have become prayerless, faithless, unsound, no longer
in love with Jesus, I can assure you, the church will be weak
and unable to stand!
F. Let me ask you two questions:
1. What makes us so sure that we won’t become that Church?
2. What makes us so sure that we are not already that Church?
G. We must prepare ourselves that we never be a part of that church!
II. What do we need to do? It is time for God’s people to get some godly
character about them!
A. We need to develop DISCERNMENT!
1. DISCERNMENT is the ability to perceive spiritual leadership.
2. To have discernment would require we developed 3 characteristics.
3. I call these characteristics our Spiritual Trio. They can be
found in many verses: \\#Pro 2:2-4, 3:19-20, 8:12-14, 9:10,\\
and others.
Proverbs 2:6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and
understanding.
a. Knowledge
(1) Knowledge is being aware of the true facts.
(2) God’s people are woefully ignorant of truth.
Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine
in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the
words of the LORD:
(a) We have an abundance of religious programing, books,
and new bibles (which if they helped as advertised
the world be a different place by now!).
(b) But is any TRUTH being proclaimed?
(3) What we need is the knowledge of Biblical truth!
b. Wisdom
(1) Wisdom is seeing things from God’s prospective.
(2) Wisdom has been outlawed in the school, political, and
public arena.
(3) Most Christian homes are not practicing it either.
(4) I have been asked to teach on the home and to relate the
problems are homes are facing to the Bible.
(5) Most homes have substituted man’s philosophy for God’s
Word.
(6) We are foolishly being lead into Satan bondage.
c. Understanding - Comprehending the relationship between our
actions and their results.
(1) Prayerless, powerlessness.
(2) No moral absolutes, no morality.
(3) No God, no goodness.
B. We need to develop dedication!
1. Dedication is the difference between knowing the will of God
and doing it!
2. I believe that if you attend a good Bible-believing faithfully
for 3 or 4 years, you know most of the basic truths of the
Bible.
a. Prayer, Bible reading, holiness, sanctification, 2nd Coming,
salvation by grace, eternal security, Biblical leadership,
b. But that does not mean we will do what we know.
C. We need to develop determination!
1. Determination is the difference between starting for God and
finishing for God.
2. The problem with many Christians today is that we just aren’t
determined to finish the course as God would have us!
a. Things are tough, and they are going to get tougher!
b. Are you determined to make it?
D. In that same vain, we need become more durable.
1. Get ready for even tougher times.
2. IF we stay faithful and IF the Lord tarries His coming, here’s
how I see this thing playing out.
a. We are going to be more and more different!
(1) The world is going to keep doing more things wrong and
we are going to keep on objecting.
(2) abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia, polygamy,
illicit relationships with children, wife swapping,
legalized prostitution, legalization of drugs, incest,
socialism, bestiality, murder, even cannibalism will
be accepted by people.
(3) The only thing that has ever been a definitive for
right and wrong is the Word of God.
(4) We are seeing today in the schools and society the
effects of doing what is right in your own eyes.
b. We will move from the place of being mocked to being
classified as extremist and dangerous.
c. We will be placed on some list of extreme religious groups.
d. If we persist, we will be prosecuted, persecuted, and killed.
3. In the midst of all of this, we must remain:
a. Bold enough to preach the truth.
b. Strong enough to endure the persecution.
c. Loving enough to forgive the persecutors.
d. Christ-like enough to create a spiritual thirst.
4. That is going to require some durability.
E. We must come disciplined.
Jeremiah 12:5 If thou hast run with the footmen,
and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou
contend with horses? and if in the land of peace,
wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then
how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
1. We must discipline ourselves to pray.
2. We must discipline ourselves to worship God.
3. We must discipline ourselves to study the Word.
4. We must discipline ourselves to win others.
5. We must discipline ourselves to train them out to stand.
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