Life in the Last Days
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our last day.
Matthew Henry
Tonight, we are going to be talking about the last days. When we say “last days” we need to understand that in some regards we are living in the last days.
I believe that the Bible teaches us that the earth is approximately 6,000 years old. I don’t know how you might divide up these days into segments, but we know that there were around 4,000 years before Christ and there have been 2,000 years since Christ.
We also know that Jesus taught that the last days began after He was ascended to heaven and we have been living in this period of time called the last days.
However, if we are living in the last days, we might refer to those final moments before Jesus returns as the final hours, and indeed I believe we are living in them right now.
You might think so too after we look at life in the last days as given to us by Paul in 2 Timothy.
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions,
7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith.
9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.
Pray.
1. The General Character of the Last Days (v.1)
1. The General Character of the Last Days (v.1)
1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.
Paul makes it very clear to Timothy that times are not going to get better as we see the approach of the Day of the Lord coming. They are actually going to get much worse. There will be times of difficulty.
As Christians, we have enjoyed a great season of freedom in this country to worship and express ourselves the way we believe the Bible says that we should. This has not been the case for many people around the world. Consider the people that live in oppressive regimes like in Iran or North Korea or China.
We look at these places and see the great difficulties that the believers there have and think that this is an aberration. We think that this is the exception.
Did you know that for most of human history, God’s people have been oppressed and persecuted for their faith?
Remember what John wrote,
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
John draws the contrast of Cain and Abel as illustration of those who belong to the devil and those who belong to God. Those who belong to Satan, which is most of the people in this world, are of his character, which is to be a murderer and a persecutor and a liar. Those who belong to God are full of His love.
We will be persecuted if we seek to stand up against Satan’s kingdom and we will be hated for our stance on the truth.
Some people think that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in America will protect them. I mean the First Amendment clearly says that we have the freedom to worship and say what we want to, right? But what is culture and the powers that be in this government were to wage a war on truth and redefine what even basic words mean?
Hasn’t that happened already? We see it with gender confusion and moral relativism where people redefine basic definitions to suit their lifestyle.
Who’s to say they won’t reinterpret the words of the First Amendment to exclude Christianity.
Who’s to say that the United States will even be around much longer?
We don’t know the future, but we see an increasing globalism in the world today and we read our Bibles and see that in Revelation, whatever the final kingdom that is also described in the Book of Daniel is, that powers in the world and kingdoms will give over their power to an antichrist that will be the Beast mentioned in Revelation 13.
Let me take you there for a moment.
Read Revelation 13:1-18
1 And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.
2 And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear’s, and its mouth was like a lion’s mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.
3 One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.
4 And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?”
5 And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.
6 It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.
7 Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,
8 and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.
9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear:
10 If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.
11 Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.
12 It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.
13 It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,
14 and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.
15 And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.
16 Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,
17 so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.
18 This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
These seem to be difficult times, right? This is not the postmillennial view that the Kingdom of God is going to come and gradually fill up the whole world until it ushers in this period of peace and God’s kingdom comes to earth.
The Book of Revelation and Jesus own words in Matthew 24 describe this Day of the Lord as a sudden thing that flashes across the sky and is visible to everyone.
Daniel saw this kingdom this way,
32 The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze,
33 its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34 As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces.
35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.
He goes on
44 And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever,
45 just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.”
Application
So what is the point of this survey of the Bible?
Understand that times of difficulty are coming and you should prepare yourself and your children for it.
Understand that you need to be sharing Christ as often and as much as you can while you can
Know that God is going to be victorious over these earthly and even spiritual kingdoms that are going to come in the last days and that even exist right now.
Conclusion
I want to tell you about something that God is doing around the world right now in some of these closed regions.
These governments that exist like the Iranians and the North Koreans and the Chinese exercise extreme control over their people.
However, they cannot stop the Word of God from going forth into their lands.
People are having visions and dreaming dreams and they tell of missionaries or people who will bring them the truth. They then get the gospel smuggled into them and people are coming to faith by the masses.
Do you want to know why the church in America is so sick? It’s because when you live in a prosperous nation and it’s easy to be a Christian, things become about you. You look for a church that meets your wants and wishes.
People don’t look for a place to serve, but to be served.
People don’t look for a place that teaches the truth, but they look for preachers that will tickle their ears and tell them that what they are doing is alright.
They create a god after their own likeness and image.
That’s after all what Nebuchadnezzar did when he had the vision and saw the image. Even after Daniel gave him the interpretation of the dream and declared that God is the one who reveals what will happen Nebuchadnezzar set up a golden image after the likeness of the dream and he made people to bow down and worship it.
Remember that the head of that statue and was to resemble his own kingdom.
People today are no different. They set up an image of a god that does what they like and tells them that they are great and don’t need to change. When you push back against that image, you will be thrown into the furnace. You will dropped into the lions den.
But, remember the God who walks with you in that flame and keeps you from even smelling like smoke.
Remember the God who closes the mouths of the lions so that they are like kitty cats and exist just to keep you warm through the night, but then opens them up that they might devour your enemies and crush them before they ever hit the ground.
Remember the God who is sovereign and will set up His kingdom that will grow like a mountain to the ends of the earth.
We are on the winning side. Even though times may get tough, we will never be defeated. God wins it all in the end!
2. The Fruit of the Flesh in the Last Days (vv.2-5)
2. The Fruit of the Flesh in the Last Days (vv.2-5)
3. The Final Result of the Last Days (vv. 6-9)
3. The Final Result of the Last Days (vv. 6-9)