What in the world is going on?- Part 2

What in the world is going on?

Text: Psalm 2:1–12 (KJV 1900)

1 Why do the heathen rage, And the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, And the rulers take counsel together, Against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, And cast away their cords from us.

* We are now in our second message in a series of what looks to be a 3 part series of messages entitled “What in the world is going on?”

* Again, I want to remind you that the primary interpretation of our passage in Psalms 2:1 is speaking of the millennial reign of Christ when he rules the nations of the earth with a rod of iron just after the battle of Armageddon.

* Even though this passage speaks mainly of the end of the millennial reign, it still applies to the world we live in today because the Devil knows that the return of Jesus to judge the world is at hand.

* Last week I reminded you of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:6:

see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.

7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.

8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

* We are now living in the days just before the return of Jesus. Jesus called this “the beginning of sorrows”

* The beginning of sorrows is the time just before the Antichrist reveals himself to the world and sets up his “One World Government.”

* With breakneck speed, the God of this world, the Devil, is preparing the world for the rule of the Antichrist and his “One World government.”

* We live in very uncertain and frightening times.

* Most of us have lived out our lives in a time when the “Fear of God” has prevailed in our society.

* We grew up in a time when society, as a whole, had a reverence for the Bible and the things of God.

* When I grew up, we didn’t lock the doors when we left home for a few hours, We didn’t lock our doors for fear of someone harming us in the night.

* These things did not come by accident to us. The safety and freedom we have all enjoyed in our lifetime was the result of churches full of men and women who taught their families to fear God.

* Children were taught the fear of the lord. Children were taught that the Bible is the Word of God, and that it was a Holy book!

* Most people think that the world holy means, good or sinless, but the world holy means “Not like anything else,” “set apart.”

* Children grew up with the knowledge that God and the Bible was “high and set apart,” holy and was to be feared and revered.

* Over the last couple of generations this understanding of God and the Bible has gradually been changing.

* One of the biggest contributors to this has been the systematic breakdown of the basic building block of society, the family.

* The God ordained institution of marriage and family has been under attack by the Devil and ungodly men and women for several generations.

* This breakdown of the family started with the change in attitude about divorce. Now more than half of all marriages in this county end in divorce.

* We have become like the people just before God judged the world the first time with the flood.

* Listen to the words of Jesus as he described the condition that the world would be in right before He comes back to judge the world again:

Luke 17:23–30 (KJV 1900)

24 For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.

25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.

* Friends, we are living in the last few years before Jesus comes back not as a savior, but as the Judge of this wicked world. Jesus said here though, that He must suffer many things and be rejected of this generation.

* What generation, Jesus’s generation or the generations that will be alive on the earth when Jesus comes back to judge the earth?

* Jesus here is referring to this generation in which we live right now, the generation that will see the return of Jesus to judge the world!

* As I said before, we are living in very frightening and uncertain times!

* It seems the world has gone crazy!

* Things are happening in the world today that make us wonder what is going on in the world:

* The ungodly people, (heathen), have taken over the government and are using the government to wage war against God in our society.

2 Thessalonians 2:2–12 (KJV 1900)

3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,

* The Bible teaches that just before Jesus comes back to judge the world, there will be a great Apostasy, or turning away from God.

* Notice that this must happen just before the Anti-Christ is revealed:

* Last Sunday I dealt with the wars and rumors of wars and famine and pestilences. For time’s sake, I cannot repeat all that we dealt with in that message. that Jesus said would come right before His return, this morning I would like to talk about the “Great falling away,” or apostasy that Jesus said would come in the last days.

* I would like at this time to share some articles from the past few weeks that reflect this “great falling away.”