All service songs used by permission. CCLI #425103
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This week an errant spy satellite, usually
capable of reading a newspaper on earth from space, was shot down in low
earth orbit with a missile precise to the square foot where the actual fuel
tank was located, and we were able to see it happen on video from the
ground. Amazing indeed is all that “I can spy with my little eye” today!
Is it possible that Jesus will return in our
lifetime? It’s not just possible...but probable. I’m not a date setter,
and I’m not trying to make a prediction. But we need to recognize the signs
of the times, and I’d like to share with you some more compelling evidence
that at any time now Christ could explode onto the scene, rupturing the sky
and rapturing the saints! Can you imagine flying away? Can you imagine
being left behind?
End times events that precede the rapture are
being played out before our very eyes. The panorama for the second coming
is spread out like a table for Sunday dinner. The stage is set, the key
players have taken position, the cameras are rolling and the lights are
beginning to dim. A hush is falling across the audience in heaven and all
we need is for the Director to cry out, “Action!”
And if I die before the rapture, I want to
give advanced instruction to put on my tombstone, “He died surprised”.
Joke—a hypochondriac always complained about
the illnesses he felt that he had...but it was all imaginary. But he grew
old and eventually died. He had instructed the engraver to put on his
headstone, “I told you I was sick!”
Some say that every generation has believed
Christ would return in their lifetime...that simply isn’t true. Every
generation has hoped to see His return, but not all have expected it in
their lifetime.
Ill.—Sir Isaac Newton was not only a great
scientist, but also a theologian, especially late in his life in the 1700s.
He concluded that his generation would not see the return of Christ. He did
not see the signs of the end times coming just yet. He said, “About the
time of the end, a body of men will be raised up who will turn their
attention to the prophecies and insist upon their literal interpretation in
the midst of much clamor and opposition.”
Ill.—C. H. Spurgeon, one of the greatest
preachers of the 19th Century, asked, “Will Jesus appear in 1866
or 1867? I am inclined to think that He will not come at any such time. It
seems to me that there are a great many prophecies which much be fulfilled
before the coming of Christ. We shall go on many a day yet. We may have to
wait for another century.”
Another century has come and gone, but my
what has changed in that century. This leads to a powerful discussion of
the fulfillment of one of the lesser known prophecies of the Old Testament.
Daniel 12:4
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the
time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be
increased.
This verse makes us think of the
transportation age, and the knowledge explosion of this past century. Think
about it...
From the time God created Adam to this day,
about 6,000 years have passed, and for all but the last 100 of those years
man either walked, sailed, or rode horses. The 20th Century saw
man come up with automobiles, planes, jets, and spacecraft.
For centuries Bible scholars interpreted ‘run
to and fro’ as a coming increase in travel and in the speed of travel. It
was in the 17th century that Isaac Newton said, “A new mode of
travel shall be invented in the last days. Knowledge will be so increased
that man will be able to travel at a rate of [and then he went out on a
limb] 50 miles an hour.” He was highly criticized for making such a
statement. The atheist Voltaire said, “Newton thinks that someday men will
travel at 50 miles an hour, the poor dotard.” I wish he could see the space
shuttle today traveling at 20,000 mph!
And global communication today has man
traveling at the speed of light. The information age has placed anything
you want to know just a click away, and what used to take years to research
is available in seconds to virtually anyone! As a popular search engine
touts in commercials, “No one wants to look dumb.”
It took men 160 years to produce a steam
engine that worked, from concept to completion a couple of centuries ago.
But the nuclear bomb was built in just 6 years a few decades ago, and
today’s tech inventions flow from paper to prototype in days, and mass
production in weeks!
You’d have to be blind not to see it. The
knowledge explosion has been going on for more than a century, and is only
increasing in speed, and the Bible says this all will lead to Jesus’
explosion onto the end times scene.
Now, knowledge doesn’t make us any better
people. Our society is still in kindergarten morally. Educating someone’s
mind without changing their heart only adds pride to their already sin
filled resume.
Another verse you may have never thought
about is...
Zechariah 14:12
And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people
that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while
they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their
holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.
What does that remind you of? For years
Bible scholars wondered what kind of warfare this could possibly speak of?
Well, now we know!
Revelation 16:19
And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the
nations fell:
The next chapter says it happens in one
hour. For years we wondered how entire cities could be destroyed in an
hour...well, now we know!
Think of it this
way:
Many people in this
room in their lifetime, have seen mankind harness the atom, and develop
capabilities to destroy the entire earth in less than 30 minutes
Here’s a biggie:
In 1948 Israel was
again established as a nation, and the dispersed Jews have been returning to
Israel by the hundreds of thousands (just as the Bible predicted would
happen before Christ returns)
Jeremiah 23:3 3 And I will gather the remnant
of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring
them again to their folds; [see also Ezek 37]
Israel [v. 32—the ‘fig
tree’] has become the hub, the hotbed of all that goes on in the world.
v. 34 What is
the ‘generation’ that won’t pass? Some said 40 years, but it has been
almost 60. How much longer can those alive for this event continue to live?
Add to that these
facts: That
the cashless society is nearly a done deal / that you’ve heard of more
earthquakes in your lifetime than the previous 500 years put together! / 70%
of all medicines known to man have been invented in YOUR lifetime / 90% of
all the scientists who have ever lived...are alive today!
We used to wonder how
everyone on earth could see the bodies of the 2 witnesses lying in the
streets in Revelation, but everyone will see it online or on TV, replayed
over and over again. Just as surely as we were on the front lines watching
the shock and awe of Operation Iraqi Freedom a few years ago, the knowledge
explosion of transportation and technology is ready to give the world a
front row view to the end of the world...but it won’t be entertainment, it
will be horror beyond imagination!
If you are old enough
to get a discount at restaurants, then you’ve seen in your lifetime the
divorce rate go from 1 in 8 to what it is today where divorces outnumber
marriages every year / crime rate increase by over 500% / birth of the
church of Satan in 1969, which has been granted tax exempt status by the US
government / one-world government begin to be formed…the new world order /
one-world church…ecumenical movement / unprecedented increases in famines,
natural disasters, incurable diseases / there’s an intensity building up, an
expectancy is in the air…
…but as believers, we
need not run around w/ headline hysteria, we are to simply look up, for our
redemption draweth nigh! We are to faithfully and patiently wait for our
Savior, who will soon come bursting thru the blue w/ the sound of a trumpet,
in the twinkling of an eye.
When the Bible
says that, it means in a millisecond, in an instant…therefore, when the
rapture occurs, if you’re not saved, there will not be time to get saved, it
will be too late for you.
If you are a Christian,
and not living for God, there will be no time to make it right. Your
salvation is secure, but will you be ashamed when He comes? You won’t be
able to ask Him to wait…
“Wait, Lord, I want to
win a soul for you! My brother, my father, my spouse, my kids, my friend,
neighbor, my co-worker!
“Wait, Lord, I want to
obey you and be a tither / got bitterness in my heart toward someone /
looking at porn right now, let me turn it off / (stamp foot) let me
put this out!
The message of the
rapture is “be ready” / do it now, for the Lord could come at any moment.
Be watching…be ready!
Though we cannot know the day or the hour of
the second coming, the general season can be known.
v. 32-33 Underline the word ‘know’ in each
verse. We can know the season we observe around us. Even though Jesus will
return like a thief in the night, it doesn’t have to take the Christian by
surprise. We are not children walking in darkness but children of the
light.
Good men disagree on some of the specifics of
some of these verses, but all agree that the signs of the end are touching
us today, warning us, beseeching us to take cover, get ready, and to warn
everyone we can! We don’t have to be taken by surprise. But most of the
world will be caught off guard.
Ill.—how many of you are waiting for the
return of Christ? How many of you are WATCHING for His return? Nowhere
does the Bible tell Christians to wait, but to WATCH, as if it could be
today!
v. 43 The whole point is that the
thief doesn’t announce his plan to you in advance. Never does he call ahead
and say, “Hey, I’m gonna be breaking into a few houses in your neighborhood
tonite...and I was wondering if 2 AM would be a good time for me to stop by
your place?”
ill.—a man worked on a riverboat for 30 days
at a time, and couldn’t wait to return home. As the boat approached his
home port the captain announced, “Your wives are gathered on the dock!
There’s Bob’s Mary, and there’s Tom’s Betty, etc...” One man was
disappointed because his wife wasn’t there. He caught a ride home w/
another couple. He walked in to his house and there was his wife, who
smiled and hugged him and said, “Hey there, I’m so glad you’re home! I’ve
been waiting for you.” He replied, “Yeah, but the other guy’s wives were
watching for them.”
v. 44 Are you ready? Is your life in
order? How about your family and loved ones? Will Jesus find you
faithfully serving Him, or flirting with the world?
Some may be saved, but not right
with God, and that’s different. You have a relationship with God…He’s your
Father, you’re His child, and your eternity is secure, but you’re not in
good fellowship with Him. You still have a relationship, it’s just a poor
relationship, and in a way you’re being left behind…not experiencing the
abundant life God wills for you.
John 10:10
I am come
that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
Make sure you’re Right
with God, and not Left behind!
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