Left Behind

Introduction

Good evening and welcome back!

Tonight’s sermon may be a little different than what you are used to.

We are going to dive into a subject that I’ve taught about on Wednesday night but don’t know if I’ve ever preached a sermon on.

As I was praying and trying to determine the direction the Lord wanted me to go in this sermon, I kept going back to the “End Times” and the obsession that we have with the “End Times.”

There are books and movies and teachings galore on the subject of the “End Times.”

However, our obsession is not so much with the ultimate outcome but rather recognizing the signs of the “End Times.”

We want to know when it’s going to happen.

We want to know what to expect.

And I think some of us are looking at loopholes about how to get around it or out of it.

And we have different groups that fight back and forth about how it’s all going to go.

Some think that the Tribulation of the End Times won’t happen until after the rapture.

Others think that the Tribulation has already started and we will be raptured after it’s all over.

Some think that there is no rapture and we live through it just like normal, only that things will be harder.

Then there are ideas about what the Tribulation will be like.

What 666 really means.

What the One World Government looks like and who will be running it.

And it goes on and on and on.

And my take on that is, that none of us really know for sure.

And in the grand scheme of things none of it really matters very much.

It really doesn’t matter whether you think you will have to live through the Tribulation or if you will be taken in the beginning or middle of it.

It really doesn’t matter whether you think the UN is the One World Government or something else is going to crop up.

None of that really matters in the grand scheme of things.

The only thing that matters is that we win.

Or rather God wins and we are along for the ride.

All that really matters is that we are ready and we stay ready.

Loopholes are not going to get us anywhere.

We must be ready.

But ready for what?

Well, that’s what we are going to get into a little bit tonight.

First though, I’m going to read you a short tidbit of Revelation 12.

In this, John writes this . . .

Scripture Focus

Revelation 12:7–12 NIV - Anglicised

And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

Satan Is Defeated

Now, what I read there was just a short portion of what is recorded as the Great War in Heaven.

This is when Satan actually rebelled against God and tried to take control of Heaven by force.

And while it is a compelling account of how Michael cast him out of heaven and down to the earth, it is also very telling about God’s nature and about God’s attitude toward His creation.

Sometimes we forget that God created the angels too.

We are not God’s only creation.

And if there is one thing that we and angels share in common is our free will to choose.

Satan had a choice.

He could choose to follow God and stay loyal to God or choose to reject God.

God does not force any of His creation to love and follow Him.

We all choose what we will do.

And we think from our perspective that this is crazy.

Why would Satan who was present in God’s throne room, the very presence of God, choose to reject Him?

Well, for many of the same reasons we do.

Pride, selfishness, greed, the thirst for power.

Satan got in his mind that he could do a better job of running the universe than God, and decided he would take over for the Old Man.

And that did not work out too well for him.

He and all those he convinced to follow him were cast out of heaven.

Again starting in verse 8 it says . . .

Revelation 12:8–9 NIV - Anglicised

But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.

And when he got here, Satan continued with his rage and selfishness and greed and lust for power and control.

Ever since that day, he has done everything he can to try and destroy God’s creation.

And he has been successful in many instances because, just like Satan, we have a free will.

We freely choose to follow and love God.

We freely choose whether or not we are going to continue to follow God or if we are going to be enticed by Satan to go back to our old ways.

It is a choice that we consciously make, every single day.

But God knows Satan’s plan and has sent us a path of salvation.

That path…Jesus.

Look again at verse 10 . . .

Revelation 12:10 NIV - Anglicised

Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.

And verse 11 . . .

Revelation 12:11–12 NIV - Anglicised

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”

And what I want us to get from this is that those who overcome Satan, do not do so by looking for loopholes.

They do not do so by worrying about being “left behind.”

They do not do so by analyzing passage after passage trying to pinpoint which sign of the “End Times” is happening.

NO!

The Bible tells us that . . .

Revelation 12:11 NIV - Anglicised

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Get Ready

Satan is overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of our testimony.

In a nutshell, they were ready and they stayed ready.

Over in Matthew 24, first starting in verse 12 . . .

Matthew 24:12–13 NIV - Anglicised

Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

And skip down to verse 36 . . .

Matthew 24:36 NIV - Anglicised

“No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

But we will ignore this.

We will focus so much on all of the other descriptions there in Matthew 24, which by the way talks about the signs of the End Times, that we forget the main point Jesus is making.

First, Jesus is telling us that . . .

Matthew 24:13 NIV - Anglicised

but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

And that is really all we can do because . . .

Matthew 24:36 NIV - Anglicised

“No-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

And he says it again . .

Matthew 24:42 NIV - Anglicised

“Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.

But we don’t listen.

We spend hours and days and weeks looking into the sky for Christ, looking around trying to identify the anti-Christ, trying to figure out which war and rumor of war Jesus was talking about, that we miss the main point.

Which is to be ready and to stay ready.

Over in 1 Peter, Peter wrote this for us . . .

1 Peter 5:6–9 NIV - Anglicised

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

We need to stop focusing on the distractions that Satan has placed in our path and start focusing on getting ready and saying ready.

Jesus has already promised us when he told us. . .

John 14:1–3 NIV - Anglicised

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

We need to trust God.

Sound the Alarm

And when we have done that, then we also need to be sounding the alarm to others.

We need to be helping others shift their focus away from trying to find the loopholes and the signs and just being ready to go when Christ calls.

Because when He comes there is not going to be time to make a decision.

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 . . .

1 Corinthians 15:51–52 NIV - Anglicised

Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.

It happens in an instant, a flash.

It is not a long drawn out process.

And I will say this, it is the same whether Jesus comes back and gets us in a rapture or if we go by the way of death.

Sometimes the process of dying takes a while, but when we take that last breath, that’s it.

In an instant we are transformed.

And the point again, is be ready . . .

1 Corinthians 15:58 NIV - Anglicised

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

And help others get ready.

Because we are the alarm.

We are the ones that sound the trumpet call that Jesus is coming.

And I will tell you He is coming soon.

I don’t know when.

I don’t know how.

But I know He is, because the Bible says so and He told us so.

That’s really all I need to know.

He’s coming and I had better be ready.

Altar/Challenge

So tonight the question really is, are we ready?

Are we focused on the main thing?

Or have we been distracted by all the fear mongers in the world trying to scare us into buying their latest book or video series on the “End Times,” which most of the time isn’t even Biblically accurate?

Because I will tell you, their motivation is not salvation, it is money.

They prey on people’s fears and desire to be able to recognize the “signs” and people’s need to try and make sense of what is going on in the world.

And that’s all fine and good, but that is not the main point.

The main point is being ready and helping others get ready.

So, if we are ready, have we done our job in sounding the alarm?

Have we started helping others recognize and get ready themselves?

Those are really our two questions tonight and only you know the answer.

So, let’s pray. . .