End of The World, Second Coming

I've talked to a lot of the folks who have been members of our church for many years, and they remember the wonderful days of Dr. Head and Dr. Level, 40 and 50 and 60 and 70 years ago, and Bob Smith and Brother White, and the long succession of pastors of this church. And remember how often they have preached, as this church has proclaimed in her past, the proclamation of the message of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. And I think that it's very appropriate today that I shall preach to you on that subject. In fact, I'm going to begin this morning a four -part series on events which will be relative to the end of the world and end -time things that are yet to happen in the future. And I'm going to preach this morning on the second coming of Christ, and next Sunday on the great white throne judgment, the following Sunday on heaven, and the fourth on hell. And so, for the four Sundays of April, we shall be giving our consideration to these eschatological events. Now, this morning, I want you to turn in your Bibles, if you have them, please, to Matthew chapter 24. And we're going to look at verse 3, and then 36 through 42. Matthew chapter 24, first of all, verse 3. And as Jesus 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? Now, verse 36. Jesus, and this is a continuation of a part of his answer. But of that day, he has given them some signs by which to go. But he says, Of that day really knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away. So shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall be two in the field. The one shall be taken and the other left. Two shall be grinding at the mill. The one shall be taken and the other left. Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. At any moment, the coming of Jesus Christ may occur. Some of the last words that Jesus said when he left this earth were, For I shall come again, over 300 times the Bible promises the return of Christ. His coming is going to be in secret, as a thief in a night. When Jesus comes, it will be without announcement and without prior warning. He says, stay ready. It's going to happen at any time. When Jesus Christ comes, the believers will be caught out of the world. The living and the dead. He will bring the souls of them from heaven with him, Thessalonians says. And their bodies will come out of the grave, the dead Christians. They will be glorified. The soul will enter a new body. A body not susceptible to sin and death. We shall be translated and we'll receive our new body, we who are alive. And we'll be caught up with them to meet the Lord in the air. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, all hell's going to break loose here on earth. Because the Holy Spirit who indwells believers will have been taken out of the world. There will be no more restraining force against evil. And crime and violence and evil and chaos and confusion will cover the earth. Finally, in the resultant chaos and confusion and bewilderment that will occur, someone is going to step forth and bring harmony and unity out of the chaos. This someone will be heralded as a great world leader. He will become so powerful that all of the world's controls will be given unto him. He will be the Antichrist. He will ultimately declare that he is God and will usurp the throne promised to Christ, the throne of his father David in Jerusalem. When he starts to do that, the king, King Jesus, and his saints and all the holy angels will come with him. And they will converge on the hills of Jerusalem in the battle of Armageddon, the prize being the throne. For who rules the world will rule from the throne in Israel. Therefore, all of our attention will be focused on the holy land. In the battle of Armageddon, the Bible says that the coming Christ will destroy the enemies of God with the brightness of his coming. He will be so glorious in his return that in all probability there will never be a shot fired. But that he will blind the enemies of God by his Shekinah glory brightness. and in the resultant blindness and confusion, they will probably turn and slay each other. Then there's going to be peace on earth. Now the Bible tells us that Christ is going to reign. Men used to believe that the world was going to get better and better. And finally, when things were so good, the Savior was going to come back. But now we understand that in fact, the earth is going to get worse and worse. Society will be decaying and falling apart. On every hand, there will be lawlessness, iniquity, confusion, perplexity of nations, literally no way out. Financially, militarily, socially, economically, every way the world will deteriorate. The Bible tells us in Colossians 1, 16 and 17, all things were made by Christ and for Christ. And in him, Christ, all things consist. That means stick together. But he's been left out. He's the glue of society. So the world is falling apart. So Jesus will not come back to reign and bring peace on earth when the world is finally so good it can get along with him. But when it's gotten so bad, it can't get along without him. Now, when's it going to happen? Legend has it that in an ancient forest, there's a sundial and travelers who lose their way come upon this little sundial and often meditate long at the words thereon would say simply, it's later than you think. Just so in the wilderness of today, there is a sundial called the word of God. And the Bible tells us some signs by which we can know that Christ's coming and the end of the world is very near. All of them are signs which relate to the fact that a world who has forgotten her creator and her savior are trying in rebellion without discipline and authority to do their own thing and go their own way. And they will have made a terrible havoc and confusion and mess of life on earth without God. Now, there are 25 signs that Jesus gave his disciples. Don't worry. I'm only going to talk about one or two of them. Actually, it appears to me that both of these two signs I'm going to mention briefly today are two sides of the same coin. The choir sang about them a moment ago. They are listed in verse number 12. Let's look. Two signs. Matthew 24, verse 12. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. And one of these will actually serve as a catalyst to trigger off the other. First of all, just before Jesus comes, the world is going to be characterized by abounding lawlessness. Now, the word abounding literally means everywhere you look, at every stratum of society, at every level of life, perplexity of nations. And society will be characterized by an independence from God in law, in school, in art, bewilderment, confusion, because man is trying to do his own thing. How many times have you realized that in a nation's art form, you can look back through culture and see what people were saying and see what they were thinking and what was in their soul. I saw not too long ago, some very famous portraits, which were nothing but black walls and purple walls. And everybody came and stood and looked at the black and purple walls. And if you look very carefully, you might notice that there were a few streaks and splotches as though some grade school kids had painted a Sunday school class. But that was the, the walls, not the class, the walls of the Sunday school class. And that was the idea that you see, God is, is, is just really everything and yet he's nothing. And God is what you think he is. And whatever you see in there, that's what God is. That's what art is today. It's very abstract, no fine lines, no disciplines, no controls. It's just what everybody wants it to be. The prophet talked about a time when everybody did that which was right in his own sight. Now the Bible says that, that when men become a law unto themselves and they go farther and farther away from God, trying to create a life and a world in a society devoid of all discipline and authority and control in which man is himself, God, and do your own thing is the order of the day. Look up your, your, your redemption draweth nigh. The word abound literally means out of bounds. It means everywhere in the church, in the home, in government, in school, in art, in athletics, in the church, in morals, in government, everywhere you look, men are, are experiencing a breakdown of the legislative control of government and lines and disciplines and authority, and anybody does whatever he wants to do. Second Timothy tells us, in the last days, know this, perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high -minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. In essence, an emerging anarchy where man himself becomes God. Man becomes a law unto himself, and every man does that in his own sight, which he considers to be right. And we live in it. You can walk out of the front doors of this church, you can go six blocks in a radius of where you are seated right now, and for less than $10, you can buy, hear, see, or experiencing, experience just about anything that the mind can think of. In Los Angeles last year, venereal disease increased 126 % in one year. One Los Angeles doctor said that venereal disease is more common among California, Southern California teenagers than is the common cold. Now, unless you think I'm looking on, picking on Southern California, we have our own problems. But let me tell you something. You and I live in a land that is characterized by being the Bible Belt. You talk about the Bible Belt, Brother Houston's the buckle on the Bible Belt. We've got more Bible gospel preaching churches here than any city in the nation. And as wicked as it is, probably more righteousness. You see, that's the axiom of the faith. It's strange that where there is great righteousness, there is also great evil. And we're going to see why in just a moment. But our city, with a tremendous dynamic thrust, is still, as bad as it is, one of the most godly cities in America. The Reader's Digest this week carried an article about sensational, dynamic Houston and called it the greatest city in the world. In Southern California, there's a 35 % unemployment rate. But Houston is thriving. I wonder if there's any truth to what the Lord said, any application when He taught us righteousness exalted the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. I say to you that the strongest bulwark of the stability and the economic strength of the city of Houston and of the nation is righteousness which exalted the nation. And Houston and every other nation and every other city in our nation, as we are close to the Lord and honor and love Him, are going to find our economic perils to be a whole lot less. The Bible tells us in the last days that crime will be on the increase. The Bible tells us in the book of Romans in the last days that men will be without natural affection. That literally means homosexuality. In 1960 through 1970, the population increased 13%. But crime in Texas increased 167%. Many bizarre, almost demonic events occur every day in the world of crime. A woman ran out of gas in Boston, walked five blocks to buy some gasoline for a car. She was overpowered by 19 young hoodlums who poured gasoline on her and made a living torch out of her. And a man could go on all day and become a photographer of lurid events and sordid places. A rape occurs every 14 minutes. A murder every 33. An assault every minute in America. A robbery every 50 seconds. A burglary every 15 seconds in the United States of America. There are six major crimes a minute all around the clock in America being committed. Ladies and gentlemen, when the nation, when her government, when her officials, when her artists, when her leaders, when her businessmen, when her politicians and preachers turn from the old time religion, from the word of God that has built great churches like this one for 134 years to anything else. To that degree, the nation starts to rot. And economic suicide and social suicide always follows the moral death of a nation. Jesus said one of the main signs of the end of the world will be an abounding lawlessness. But it's not only going to be taken outside of the church, but a parallel sign of his coming will be occurring inside the church. For on the other side of that coin, Jesus said there would be not only abounding lawlessness, but abating love. Lawlessness in society, lovelessness in the church. And by the hundreds and thousands, apostasy will be occurring. Men and women will be turning away from the faith once delivered to the saints. Why? Because men and women that are shaky in their faith, that are not in Bible churches, that are not reading and grounded in the Word of God, are going to find that the social pressures of the proximity and availability of sin in the world is too much. There's only one thing that cools off a man's love for Jesus Christ, and that's sin. And because sin is abounding, it used to be in the gutter, it used to be in the slums, it used to be in the brothel. Now it's in the drive -in news, now it's in the drive -in grocery stores, now it's on television, it's everything. You can go to a GP movie, which is supposed to be just barely mild, and blush in the theaters, in the schools, everywhere. Sin is everywhere. And men and women who are not close to God find that because sin is more accessible, it becomes more acceptable. They've started doing things in junior high that used to go on in high school. They have a drug clinic in New York City to try to teach kindergarten teachers how to notice and tell when a kindergarten child is being exposed to drugs. It's everywhere. And because crime and sin and lawlessness and iniquity are available, they become more accessible and they cause the believer's love for Jesus Christ to cool off. The Bible tells us in the last days that paralleling lawlessness in the world will become lovelessness in the church. What happened to good old -time Christian commitment? What happened to prayer meeting and visitation when the Methodists and the Baptists and the Presbyterians used to have mourners' benches and men would pray through and pray all night and the preachers preached with fire and the Word of God and the altars were filled and men trembled before God and righteousness from the government, from the president down to the janitor rang and made a great nation under God. The churches have cooled off and I'm saying to you that it is the responsibility of any church that bears the name first to be a pace setter and a standard raiser in a city to the testimony of the Word of God and the truth that righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people and let this church on this anniversary day make afresh her commitment to the Word of God and to her responsibility to her beloved city of Houston. You know, I've noticed something. Old -time commitment seems to be a thing of the past. Almost very passe today. A preacher said to me not too long ago the trouble with our church is we're too close to the lake and everybody goes to the lake. I wonder if it's how close we are to the lake or how close we are to the Lord that really makes the difference. I've never been in a church in a city that the preacher didn't say something like well, this is the Bible Belt this is the South they've heard it or this is the North and they've never heard it up here or this is the Florida and they all retire here or this is California and they're all entertainment crazy out here or we're too rich or too poor it's too cold it's too hot you should have been here last week you should have only come next week there's always something but the church that will make a commitment to the Word of God whether school keeps or not whether hell freezes over that we shall give and preach and proclaim the Word of God whose members give and pray and live righteous lives and who are committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ that church will be blessed and used of God and I say to you that when we see lawlessness and coldness and theological liberalism and indifference do you know that in one of the major cities of the world in St. Louis Christianity Today Herald of the News just a few weeks ago that 52 of the 55 professors could not sign a doctrinal statement saying that they believed in the virgin birth of Jesus the efficacy of the blood of Christ on the cross for our sins and the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ but when a church is willing to pay the price to go forward in faith to herald the news to keep a hot heart that they believe in the Word of God and live righteous lives and proclaim the message of the coming King I say to you that the greater the other churches fall away the more the responsibility to those that love the Lord and love the Word of God and God will bless us as long as we are true to Him what about your life are you true to Christ is there warmth and fire or has the accessibility and availability of sin cooled off the hot heart that once you had for Jesus Christ In 1955, Dwight Eisenhower was president of the United States. He was on a vacation in California when a little boy named Paul Haley was dying. And one of the aides of President Eisenhower brought to him one day the news from the newspaper clipping in the paper that this little boy who was dying had one request. More than anything in the world, he wanted to meet the President of the United States. In his wonderful Christian demeanor, early on a Sunday morning, unannounced, the President made a visit. About 7 .30 a .m., the long black limousine pulled up, unannounced and unexpected, in the front of the home of David Haley. His father, Paul Haley, had arisen that morning early, but he was in his pajamas and kind of a soiled, a shirt and unshaven and unkept tousled hair. There came a knock at the door. And he said, yeah, what is it? And going out to the door, he's peered for the first and only time in his life, person to person, in the face of the President of the United States. Paul Haley said, I will spend the rest of my life remembering that the one time I had to meet the President, I was not prepared. But many of you are going to spend your eternity remembering that you were not prepared for the coming of Jesus Christ. In an hour that you think not, Jesus said, Behold, the bridegroom cometh. Two will be sleeping in the bed. One will be taken, the other left. Some of these mornings, some of you men that have come to church and heard the Gospel all your life are going to awake early in the morning. You'll flop your hand over on the other side of the bed. The blankets will be empty. Your wife will be gone. You'll run down the hall to the nursery. Your little girl will be gone. You may realize what's happening. Go screaming into the room where your little boy sleeps and he'll be gone. Two will be grinding at the mill. Two will be working. One will be taken, the other left. Men will be on an operating table. The Christian doctor will be taken. The patient will die. An airplane will be flying along. The Christian pilot will be taken. And the plane will crash to the ground. Jesus says, Two will be working in a field. One will be taken, the other left. Commerce will continue. Business will go on. Marrying and giving in marriage. Eating and drinking. Right on to the end like you had forever. And Jesus says over and over and over again, Be ready in an hour that you think not. Behold, the bridegroom cometh. I don't want you to be left. It's going to be awful when Jesus takes out His church and there'll be no other chance, no hope for men and women that have said no to Jesus Christ. Are you ready? My hope and prayer is that you shall be on this very invitation verse. Let's bow our heads together. Our Father, You don't give us forever to make decisions. You've said today the bridegroom cometh. You've said behold, it's near. Behold, he cometh with clouds. You've said of that hour knoweth no man, not the sun, not the angels, but my Father only. But Lord, You did give us some signs to go by. And not just these two, but all of them are saying with resplendent consistency that just seems to brighten the sky and obviate the reality of Jesus' imminent coming to those who will listen and be sensitive and believe, be ready, be ready, the King is coming. How we pray, Father, that every one of us shall make the decision in this service and this day right now that we would make if we knew Jesus Christ were coming in the next three minutes. Lord, grant that no one here shall ever spend the rest of his life knowing that he had one chance to look in the King of Kings' face and spend eternity realizing that he was not prepared and that he missed it. Thank You, Lord, that You've warned us. Thank You that we have this opportunity in this verse of invitation. In Jesus' name we pray. Now his heads are bowed and eyes are closed.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention Matthew 24 · chapter mention Matthew 24:12