One Minute Before Midnight (sermon)
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And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.
What is happening?
What is happening?
We are seeing the fulfillment of scripture before our very eyes.
Jesus in verses 2-12 gives 8 discernable signs first of all for the destruction of Jerusalem. However, Jesus goes beyond just the destruction of Jerusalem, Jesus also gives 8 signs that would happen prior to his return and prior to the end of the world:
False Messiahs (verse 5)
Wars and rumors of wars (verse 6-7)
Hunger and earthquakes (verse 7)
Persecution of the saints (verse 9)
Apostasy, betrayal, hatred (verse 10)
The rise of many false prophets and deception (verse 11)
An increase of sin everywhere and love growing cold (verse 12)
We have been eyewitnesses of all of these things in our lifetime. Even today, one of the ones that stand out the most is “wars and rumors of wars”. There is currently a conflict overseas between Russia and Ukraine that could possibly escalate to WWIII.
However, consider this from the side of those who do not believe the scriptures.
The Apostle Peter prophesied of these individuals when he said:
Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
These are they that will insist that the world has always had false deliverers, there has always been wars and rumors of wars, there has always been hunger and earthquakes. Then they will begin to question and say “what makes this time different than any other time in history?”
What makes this different than any other time in history? We’ve had wars before, we’ve had earthquakes before, we’ve had eclipses before that made the moon appear to be red like blood.
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
This is what we call in theological circles “Apostasy”. What is apostasy? Apostasy is “turning against God, as evidenced by abandonment and repudiation of former beliefs.” The term generally refers to a deliberate renouncing of the faith, by a once sincere believer rather than a state of ignorance or mistaken knowledge.”
This means that at one point you were saved but now you have abandoned your beliefs, you have renounced the faith.
Now, heresy is the denial of a part of the faith. It is a denial of the truth or a deviation away from the truth (scriptures). Hersey can be half truth, it can be preaching or teaching anything that is a part of scripture but the rest is fabricated or man-made doctrine from the imagination of man (Jesus said that this would happen too in the last day). Hersey is designed to pull you away from God, to pull you away from truth. Apostasy is complete rebellion against God. Listen to what Apostle Peter says about those who have partaken of apostasy:
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.
And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”
This scripture isn’t just for those who are apostate, this is for anyone who has been saved, and then they return back out into the world, return right back to living a life that opposes God. Peter says “I would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life.”
But then in the next chapter Apostle Peter states in chapter 3 that The Day of The Lord is Coming! You might think that the time that we live in is no different than in previous times, but you are sadly mistaken........we are currently “ONE MINUTE BEFORE MIDNIGHT!”
In these end-times, we see people forsaking the way of holiness. We see people leaving the church, rejecting the truth of the gospel, being led away by false-teachers, false-prophets, by lying media, books that tell lies and publish untruths, ignorant people getting their information from the internet, a place in which whatever floats your boat, whatever view point you might have, it will back it. From people who say that Jesus never existed, to people who say he existed but that he wasn’t the Messiah, to other people that say Jesus existed but he wasn’t divine, to whatever lie you can come up with to pull you away from the truth and what gets me is that some of these people think that they are real smart because they can look up information on the internet and there must be some truth to it. But little do they know.
In this age of what our former president coined “fake news” there are all types of conspiracy theories, all kinds of fake doctrine and lies and such and people don’t know what to believe anymore.......what you need to believe is “THE GOSPEL”. It has stood the test of time, the gospel is alive, it is powerful, it still works, the gospel still has the power to set free, it has power to deliver, it has power to forgive, it has power to heal.....if you believe the gospel!
People are leaving the church, young people are leaving the church because of the cares of this life, the deceitfulness of riches, they turn from God in rebellion, they turn from God because they stop believing, conflict causes them to turn from God, ignorance causes them to turn from God.
What Makes This Time Different From Previous Times?
What Makes This Time Different From Previous Times?
Yes there have been previous wars, I’m almost certain that when WWII occured, when Vietnam war occured, that Bishop Jones preached mightily concerning the end time.
There are wars that are being conducted even right now. There are some wars that are happening that we do not know about, such as wars happening in Africa. There is a war going on right now in the middle east that you don’t hear broadcasted often between UAE and Yemen. There is the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinians. We have a new war between Russia and Ukraine that is on the brink of escalating to World War III. We have North Korea, we have China, we have Iran, that have threatened us with war. Jesus did not say “war” (singular) but he said “wars” (simultaneous wars) and rumors of wars. No time in history that I can recall, have we had so many wars being fought all at the same time and it is only going to get worse. When we had World War I and II, it was never recorded in history that there were other wars, being fought, World War I and II culminated in several countries taking sides and fighting over shared interests. What we are seeing here today is different, everyone has their own agenda in mind. Much of it is tied to the “love of money” and “deceitfulness of riches”, then some of it tied to hatred of ones racial background or ancestry, lust for land and power, fighting because of religious ideological differences.
Then we have signs in the heavens. Record number of solar flares coming from the sun, we’ve seen all different types of eclipses this past several years, solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, blood moon eclipses. Then it seems like every other month astroids are coming close to hitting the earth.
And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
Very soon, with all these calamities going on, with all of these wars, deception, rampant sin, one day people will look up and suddenly they will see Jesus coming in a cloud with power and great glory!
Why is all of this stuff happening?
Why is all of this stuff happening?
God could stop all of the stuff that’s happening right? Yes, he could, but one thing that we must remember is that God created us with free-will. He can tell us what and what not to do, he can suggest to us......just like Satan can suggest you do something, but ultimately you are responsible for your actions. The reason why all of this stuff is happening is because of SIN!!! The reason all of this stuff is happening is because we are coming to the end-time.......IT IS ONE MINUTE BEFORE MIDNIGHT!!! Scripture is being fulfilled. The reason why so many are leaving the church is because of sin, it is because people are being deceived (don’t know the truth or they reject the truth), and it is because there HAS to be a falling away.
False Prophets:
Jesus said there would be many false prophets that would appear and deceive many people. I remember growing up, you didn’t here of too many people calling themselves “prophet”. Now I’m not saying this to insult or go after those who really are “true” prophets. But now everyone is a prophet, everyone is a prophetess.
These false prophets are departing from scripture, they are teaching things that sound like scripture because they use portions of scripture to backup their erroneous claims and because we live in a attention deficit society, people don’t take the time to learn the scripture for themselves. Yes, this society in which social media influencers, influence you as to what you ought to think, and nobody has a mind of their own anymore. These false prophets, use Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and these social media platforms to spew their false doctrine to the masses. That’s why I’ve taught and will continue to teach “be careful in what you hear and take in” because it can be part truth and the rest of it a lie.
You need to be like the Bereans:
The word of God always reinforces itself. Usually in scripture you will see several occurrences of a doctrinal truth that will support itself throughout the book.
Don’t just take man’s word for it. You need to first pray that God opens your understanding and then search the scriptures.
Sometimes, we go and ask other peoples opinion about things and the problem with that is that they may not have it right.
The Bereans heard Paul, an anointed man of God who was an apostle. But they didn’t just take his word for it....they searched the scriptures......DAILY!!!! The bible declares they had an open mind......God cannot teach you anything if you think you know everything. You have to have an open mind.....but just don’t have an open mind only. You need to search the scriptures to see if what they say lines up with the word of God.
Be careful of these new doctrines, these new, strange, and novel teachings that are popping up. If it doesn’t match ALL the way with scriptures....you better run the other way.
The end is speedily approaching. One of the sure signs that we know that we are living in the end time, is not because of the wars, it is not because of natural disasters, but it is because iniquity is abounding, and the love of many are waxing cold.
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
What Is our response?
What Is our response?
Unsaved response:
Unsaved response:
And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Saved response:
Saved response:
For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.
Disaster is going to hit this world, a time of tribulation that has never been seen upon this earth is coming......WE’VE GOT TO WATCH AND PRAY THAT WE BE ACCOUNTED WORTHY TO ESCAPE THE THINGS THAT ARE GOING TO COME UPON THIS EARTH!!!!
WE’VE GOT TO GET OUR HOUSE IN ORDER!!! IF WE NEED TO REPENT THEN REPENT, IF WE NEED TO CAST ASIDE THE WEIGHTS AND SINS THAT SO EASILY BESET US THEN WE GOTTA THROW THEM OFF OF US......Because if Jesus comes and catches you out of his will......you won’t have time to repent, you won’t have time to get it right......because:
Jesus is coming like a thief in the night! Jesus said:
And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
When Jesus comes, a trump is going to sound.....and the dead in Christ is going to rise, and those who are still alive......are going to be caught up to meet the Lord in the air!!!! The angels are going to gather the elect and we are going to get up out of here! We are going to get out of this sinful world, we are going to get out of this place of war, pain, evil, and death.