Harbingers Of Christ’s Coming Pt. 2
Introduction:
In our day, we have seen some HUGE BIBLICAL PROPHETIC TRUTHS BECOME HISTORICAL REALITY. THE HARBINGERS OF MATTHEW 24 walking on history’s stage 2000 years ago prophesying what is EXACTLY HAPPENING TODAY.
Hear it: “EVEN AS THE THING THAT FULFILLS THE HARBINGER PROVES THE TRUTH OF THE HARBINGER, SO TOO THE HARBINGER MUTUALLY CONFIRMS THE TRUTH OFTHE THING THAT FULFILLS IT.”
If you will:
“THE HARBINGER OF GOD AND THE FULFILLMENT ARE A TWO-WAY
STREET, AS EACH FULFILL EACH OTHER COMING AND GOING.”
Listen:
“SO EXACT ARE THE HARBINGER AND THE FULFILLMENT, THAT IT
SEEMS THEY ARE HAPPENING AT THE SAME TIME, THOUGH IN
FACT THAT ARE SEPARATED BY THOUSANDS OF YEARS.”
**
THE HARBINGERS-FORETELLINGS-PRECURSORS of Christ in Matthew 24 are not and cannot be, separated by thousands of years, simultaneously fulfilled by mere accident.
a. The DIVINE HARBINGERS could not be drawn down though so many generations by a lucky hit.
b. Listen folks:
“CHANCE CANNOT BE THAT UNIFORM, OR CASUALNESS BE
THAT CERTAIN.”
c. Indeed:
“TO CALL ALL OF THIS COINCIDENCE WOULD BE TOTALLY IRRATIONAL
TO THE RATIONAL MIND, AND TOTALLY IMPOSSIBLE EVEN TO
THE MOST SKEPTICAL MIND.”
**
QUESTIONS:
-Well, what do we do about this IN RESPONSE TO ALL OF THESE THINGS?
1. We see happening TODAY history’s newspapers reading exactly like CHRIST’S HARBINGERS IN THE FIRST CENTURY.
2. What do we do, sit around and play religion, of course, always taking religion in controlled dosages?
3. What do we do, sit around and decide WHETHER WE’RE PRE-TRIB, MID-TRIB, POST-TRIB?
4. What do we do, sit around and try and figure out WHO THE ANTI-CHRIST IS, where from, WHEN?!
5. What do we do, sit around, with our little calculator, and try to set a RAPTURE DATE, as some have!?
-NO, NO, NO, NO:
1. Did you know THAT THERE IS A PARTICULAR MINISTRY reserved by God FOR THIS VERY HOUR?
2. Did you know THERE IS A PARTICULAR REALITY OF THE WORD OF GOD reserved just for our day, JUST BEFORE THE END OF THE AGE COMES?
3. We shall see what that is as we bring HARBINGERS OF CHRIST’S COMING to completion.
*******
IV. HARBINGER #4 – PERSECUTION AND MARTYRDOM
1. Now let’s read together HARBINGER NUMBER FOUR in the words of our Lord in Matthew 24:9-10,
“Then they will deliver you to TRIBULATION, and will KILL
YOU, and you will be HATED by all nations on account
of MY NAME.”
“And at that time MANY WILL FALL AWAY, and will DELIVER
UP ONE ANOTHER and HATE ONE ANOTEHR.”
*
What MANY DON’T REALIZE, for they DON’T WANT TO REALIZE, is that Verses 9-10 are already happening today all over the earth in COMMUNIST LANDS, ISLAMIC LANDS, and even now in what was formerly known as FREE LANDS.
a. We say, well, this MUST BE TALKING ABOUT ANOTHER TIME, for this is the AGE of FREEDOM.
b. Wrong! Wrong! Wrong! Right now over a very large part of the earth’s surface the huge boot of Communism continues to come crashing down.
c. It is not THE AGE OF FREEDOM behind the Bamboo Curtain or in Central America.
d. In South America, places like COLOMBIA, where Christians have seen LOVED ONES MOWED DOWN BY MACHINE GUNS because they WERE CHRISTIANS. Colombia in recent years has seen the Marxist guerrilla group “Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia” (FARC) kill thousands of evangelicals and displace hundreds more. The guerrillas see Christians as a threat to their recruitment of YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN into the FARC. Their violent acts are funded by illegal drugs.
e. This is OUR WORLD, the beginning of the end!
*
The greatest enemy of COMMUNISM is FREEDOM, and the greatest enemies of ISLAM are JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY. In Communistic countries they will arrest you and HARD-LABOR YOU TO DEATH. In Islamic countries they will do exactly what HARBINGER #4 says they will do – KILL YOU – CUT YOUR HEAD OFF. The blood of the MARTYRS FLOWS TODAY IN UNPRECEDENTED PROPORTIONS FOR THE NAME OF JESUS.
a. In China, the only church alive and well is THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH! The official registered church, where little smatterings of people gather TO MAKE IT LOOK NICE, really are only CHINESE PROPAGANDA!
b. Believe me, when I tell you that is NOT THE REAL PICTURE! The real picture, the alive church, is THE UNDERGROUND CHURCH. More Christians are in prison or under detention in China than in any other country in the world. House churches (unregistered churches), which make up 90% of China’s Christians, experience unimaginable persecution.
c. People whose SUNDAY QUESTION is NOT WHETHER TO ATTEND SERVICES OR NOT! But rather, shall WE BAPTIZE PEOPLE TODAY AND GET STONED?
d. This is OUR WORLD, the beginning of the end!
*
The Middle East is a seething caldron against Christians and all other non-Muslims.
a. Christians in Pakistan increasingly suffer under SHARIA LAW. Things are particularly bad for Pakistani Christians in northern areas. Christians there live under constant threat from fundamentalist Muslims.
b. Iraq has become a barbaric bloodletting under ISIS against Christians as never seen before in the history of that 96.85% Muslim and 1.55% Christian country.
c. Iran’s state religion is Shi’a Islam. Increasingly anti-Christian and anti-Western, and followers of all other faiths are severely treated. Christians are treated as anti-government activists and incarcerated in the notorious Evin Prison.
-This is OUR WORLD, and the beginning of tghe end!
*
We haven’t even touched upon Africa and the bloody massacres of Christians by Muslims in Nigeria and Sudan etc.
a. Religious riots are common in northern Nigeria. Christian churches, home, and schools, as well as businesses are destroyed by Muslim rioters. Numerous Christians are murdered and many displaced.
b. Sudan is Africa’s largest county, and since the late 1900s about 2.5 million people have been slaughtered, including many Christians.
C. This is OUR WORLD, the beginning of the end!
*
This only scratches the surface of the words of our Lord in the 4th Harbinger:
“YOU WILL BE HATED BY ALL NATIONS, AND THEY
WILL KILL YOU.”
Not might, but will! Hear it:
“THERE ARE MANY LANDS TODAY, AND IT WILL COME TO ALL LANDS,
THAT TO CONFESS CHRIST AND DIE A MARTYR ARE THE
SAME REALITY. ALL NATIONS! THIS IS OUR WORLD,
THE BEGINNING OF THE END.”
*
2. Then Jesus goes on to say in Matthew 24:10,
“AND THEN MANY SHALL BE OFFENDED, AND SHALL BETRAY ONE
ANOTHER, AND SHALL HATE ONE ANOTHER.”
a. Where you read “MANY SHALL BE OFFENDED,” it means literally,
“MANY SHALL FALL AWAY TO SAVE THEIR NECKS.”
-Oh so true:
“BRING A MAN UNDER PERSECUTION AND THREAT OF DEATH,
AND THAT SHALL TELL HIM WHETHER THE SINCERITY OF
HIS FAITH OR THE SECURITY OF HIS TEMPORAL LIFE
AND STUFF ARE THE THINGS THAT HE
VALUES MOST.”
If you will:
“WILL A MAN SURRENDER HIS FAITH SO THAT HE CAN REMAIN
WARM IN HIS HOUSE AND ESTATE? THAT WILL TELL HIM
WHAT HIS TRUE TREASURE REALLY IS, AND WHERE
HIS REAL HAPPINESS TRULY IS.”
That is how Satan works on believers and unbelievers:
“HE INVERTS JOB’S WIFE’S ADVICE – CURSE GOD AND LIVE!”
*
b. A favorite trick of the anti-Christians governments is to get Christians to betray ONE ANOTHER for a certain reward!:
-In fact, to get CHILDREN TO BETRAY THEIR OWN PARENTS for worshiping and being CHRISTIANS.
-In Communist countries, Satan USES EVIL GOVERNMENT to suppress the TRUTH, and kill Christians.
-And certainly, Christians there CANNOT WITNESS, PROPAGATE THE GOSPEL, it is against the law!
-You MAY PROPAGATE ONE THING and that’s MARXISM, it’s against EVERY PRINCIPLE to share anything else.
***
BETRAYAL BY FAMILY AND FRIENDS
Talk about the end of the world and everybody gets interested. The disciples were too when Jesus predicted some apocalyptic events. “Well,” they asked with faces a shade paler than they had been moments before, “when will all that bad stuff happen?”
In answering them, Jesus gets even more vivid in predicting great and terrible things to come. But in reading the Bible, I am struck by one of the more painful things He said! In Luke 21:16 He enlarges and deepens Matthew 24:10 as He says that the day would come when Jesus’ followers would be BETRAYED by even FAMILY MEMBERS AND FRIENDS.
And friends…we have an advantage over the disciples who first heard those words in that we’re able to glance across the page in our Bibles to see the heading for “JUDAS AGREES TO BETRAY CHRIST.”
One wonders what thoughts flit through Judas’s mind when Jesus predicted that even friends would one day turn into betrayers. Did those words give Judas the idea? Probably not! He had been slouching in that direction within his heart for a while already. So did those words cause Judas to blush? To avert his eyes? To look down at his feet and shuffle his sandal in the dirt for a few moments?
***
PERSECUTION – NOT PREVENTABLE
I think it was MARK TWAIN who once observed that the Bible is far too brutal a book to read to children. And in truth, despite the longstanding practice of having devotions at the dinner table and reading the Bible to our children, a good deal of what is actually said by even Jesus can be CHILLING. Matthew 24 is a passage we’d all rather not hear. We want Jesus to say something else. We want a different set of HARBINGERS and an alternative set of promises. We want Jesus to say, “Don’t worry about trials and persecutions for I shall deliver you from them BEFORE they happen.” We want Jesus to say, “The world will be so impressed by the church’s rhetoric, accomplishments, and proclamations that they won’t dare lay a hand on you to begin with.”
Instead of that Jesus assures us that when it comes to the world’s hatred of us on account of His very name, there’s nothing to PREVENT IT. It will happen! But He will remain with us and in us when it does.
For those of us who preach, it’s difficult to imagine a more challenging message to deliver. Deep down, many of us pastors worry that if we preach this bluntly and boldly, some folks will leave our congregations to join up with those SUNNY-SIDE UP FOLKS up the street who promise 40 Days of Purpose and the theology of “your best life now.” North American Christians in particular like “possibility thinking,” and by “possibility” they most assuredly do not mean the possibility of getting persecuted to death!
***
TRUTH – SO UNSETTLING
William Willimon has written that when he was a young pastor in rural Georgia, a dear uncle of one of his congregation’s members died suddenly, and though this uncle was not a member of Willimon’s church, he and his wife decided to attend the FUNERAL. So Willimon and his wife drove to a back-woods, OFF-BRAND BAPTIST CHURCH for the funeral one sunny afternoon.
It was, Willimon said, unlike anything he had ever seen. They wheeled the casket in and soon thereafter the pastor began to preach. With GREAT FIRE and FLAILING HIS ARMS all over the place, this preacher thundered, “It’s too late for Joe! He might have wanted to do this or that in his life, but it’s TOO LATE FOR HIM NOW. He’s dead. It’s all over. He might have wanted to straighten out his life, but he can’t now. It’s finished!”
As Willimon sat there, he thought to himself, “Well, this is certainly a great comfort for this grieving family!” The minister continued: “But it ain’t too late for you! PEOPLE DROP DEAD EVERY DAY! Make your life count, WAKE UP AND COME TO JESUS NOW!”
“Well,” Willimon concluded, “it was the worst thing I ever heard. Can you imagine a preacher doing that to a bereft family,” he asked his wife in the car on the way home. He went on to say,”I’ve never heard anything so manipulative, cheap, and inappropriate! I would never preach a sermon like that.” His wife agreed: it was tacky, calloused, manipulative.” His wife then added,
“THE WORST PART OF IT ALL IS THAT WHAT HE SAID IS TRUE.”
*******
V. HARBINGER #5 – FALSE PROPHETS
And, if Satan can’t suppress from without, HE WILL PERVERT FROM WITHIN. Yes indeed Verse 11 about FALSE PROPHETS,
“And many FALSE PROPHETS will arise and MISLEAD MANY.”
-My, my, my, that is all we need. While the world is killing Christ’s true followers, there are all kinds of GOOF-BALL PPOPHETS trying to lead others away from Christ and His Word. All of them will be Satan controlled. Listen:
“NOTHING AND NO ONE IS AS BAD AS THE DEVIL, AND NOTHING
AND NO ONE IS WORSE THAN A LIAR.”
-Doctrinally and ethically, there has never been a time in the history of the church as in this END-TIME APOSTASY. Everything from EVERLASTING HELL to HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGE is being denied by today’s FALSE PROPHETS. Everything from ALL CHRISTIANS BEING LITTLE CHRISTS TO ALL RELIGIONS HAVING THE SAME GOD, are but a small part of END TIME FALSE-PROPHET POTPOURRI. The church in MANY INSTANCES has become a DOCTRINAL AND MORAL LOONEY FARM. And what is more painful, MANY BELIEVE THESE FALSE PROPHETS, AND REJECT THE TRUE PROPHETS.
–MANY false prophets will arise and deceive MANY. Have you noticed how difficult it is to CORRECT CHURCH PEOPLE TODAY, even when you put the clear teaching of the Bible right in front of their noses. For one thing, there are so many false prophets and so many that follow them, it is very hard to break through the SECURITY IN NUMBERS reality. For another thing, people by nature do not want to be told that they are wrong, especially when there are so many wrong with them who assure them that they are right.
Listen:
“AND WITH THE GLUT OF END-TIME FALSE PROPHETS AND THE MANY WHO
BELIEVE THEM, THE TRUE PROPHETS OF GOD WILL BE LOOKED UPON
BY THE APOSTATE CHURCH AS WALKING PESTS.”
-In fact:
“THE HIGHER THE TRUE PROPHETS OF GOD STAND FOR THE TRUTH,
THE MORE THEY ARE SHOT AT BY THE FOLLOWERS OF
THE FALSE PROPHETS.”
And so it was that the Apostle Paul asked in Galatians 4:16,
“HAVE I BECOME YOUR ENEMY BY TELLING YOU THE TRUTH?”
*
–And why is it that SO MANY WILL FALL FOR THE FALSEHOODS OF SO MANY FALSE PROPHETS IN THE LAST DAYS? Two reasons:
“FIRST, BECAUSE TRUTH IS THE REALITY THAT CARRIES WITH IT
TOO GREAT A SEVERITY TO COMPETE WITH SEEKER-FRIENDLY
SOFT-SOAP RELIGION THAT IS RAMPANT TODAY AND
THAT PEOPLE EAT UP LIKE CANDY.”
-And:
“SECOND, BECAUSE ERROR DOES NOT ALWAYS DISCOVER ITSELF
TO THE FIRST VIEW, FOR IT IS ALWAYS DESIRABLE AND
DECEITFUL, AND MANY WILL MISTAKE A HERESY OF
THE DEVIL FOR AN ORACLE OF GOD.”
EXAMPLE:
–For example, is there anything more desirable and more deceitful than the thoroughly heretical teachings of UNIVERSAL SALVATION and NO ETERNAL-HELL PUNISHMENT that is so rampant today? Innumerable thousands are falling for it, including pastors who are leading multitudes astray.
-A classic example of this is universalist and hell-denying Rob Bell as evidenced in his NOOMA VIDEOS. Bell is nothing more or less than a NEW AGER who teaches THAT ALL PEOPLE HAVE THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND ARE SUPER-POWERFUL BEINGS. Therefore all people are sons and daughters of God. He believes that all people will be saved, and that eternal hell is a myth. Bell is a cult leader that is leading thousands of people into darkness. If you know of anyone, young or old, that is part of the cult that espouses Rob Bell and the junk that he is teaching, do your best to get that person out of that organization now, or you might never get them back to truth.
*
-Hear it:
“HARBINGER #5 IS SCREAMING AT US THAT THE COMING OF
THE LORD IS AT THE FRONT DOOR.”
–We have not even dealt with the many today by name who call themselves PROPHETS but are not. Fact:
“MANY TODAY IF THEY WOULD PROPHESY LESS WOULD
PREACH BETTER.”
*
VI. HARBINGER #6 – HOT LAWLESSNESS AND COLD LOVE
And we go on to Verse 12,
“AND BECAUSE INIQUITY SHALL ABOUND, THE LOVE OF
MANY SHALL WAX COLD.”
a. The word INIQUITY means LAWLESSNESS, losing all RESPECT FOR LAW/ORDER/DECENCY!
–We are living in the time of lawlessness with an imposter president who is a man of lawlessness.
–Hear it:
“HE THAT SINS AGAINST GOD’S MORAL LAWS IS BAD ENOUGH, BUT HE
THAT MAKES LAWS TO PROMOTE AND PROTECT SIN COMES FROM
A DEEPER LEVEL OF HELL.”
–Barack Obama and his demoncrats are making laws to support abortion. as well as the legalizing of perversion and same-sex marriage.
b. And BECAUSE ADULTERY, FORNICATION, HOMOSEXUALITY, ABORTION-MURDER, RAPE, THEFT, and the like ABOUND, something CAUSE-AFFECT HAPPENS –THE LOVE OF MANY WAX COLD!
c. Can you think of a word for that phrase LOVE OF MANY WAXING COLD – APATHY, CALLOUSNESS, HARDNESS!
d. In CRIME-RIDDEN AREAS, lots of people stand by and WATCH MURDER, RAPE, THEFT, AND DO NOTHING.
e. And that word is AGAPE-Christian love-Christian compassion, which becomes APATHETIC, CALLOUSED, HARDENED
*
ILLUSTRATION
A friend of ours tells of HIS BROTHER WORKING IN A PLANT IN DETROIT. Some fellas were gathered in a circle, two fellas in the middle were IN A FIGHT, as the others watched! One fella pulled a knife, and began to STAB THE OTHER FELLA REPEATEDLY! (No one moved!)
This friend’s brother, a Christian, noticed it from a distance, and went to see what was happening. He saw it alright, and with one PUNCH, knocked the KNIFER out cold, his KNIFED VICTIM was hospitalized for one year.
Within a week, the KNIFER was back at work, attacked the KNOCK-OUT CHRISTIAN with two buddies, broke his ribs, beat him badly, and that IS WHAT verse 12 is addressing, SUCH IS OUR WORLD,
“IT IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END.”
*
LOVELESSNESS DESTROYS
In her novel, Ladder of Years, Anne Tyler introduces us to DELIA GRINSTEAD. DELIA is a lovely, loveable, and utterly giving wife and mother who regularly does her level best to keep her household running smoothly.
But as her children grow up, they become “great, galumphing, unmannerly, and supercilious creatures” who ignore Delia and who FLINCH FROM HER HUGS. What’s more, they expect that their favorite foods will always be in the pantry or the fridge, but they never thank Delia for purchasing these sundries (though they will complain loudly should she forget one day).
Meanwhile Delia’s husband is so wrapped up in his medical practice that he, too, brushes past Delia day in and day out, regularly failing to notice the spic-n-span house, the clean laundry, the warm food set before his distracted face each evening.
After years of this NEGLECT, Delia begins to feel like “A TINY GNAT, whirring around her FAMILY’S EDGES.” Their ongoing lack of love and gratitude has KILLED something in Delia–not all at once, mind you, but day by day Delia DIES a little, wilting like a flower that receives too little moisture. She doesn’t even realize how dead she has become until one day she meets someone who is kind, who thanks Delia for a little something. This stranger’s kind gratitude is like a few precious drops of water applied to her soul–a few little thankful droplets that reveal just how DRY, CRACKED, AND BARREN the landscape of her soul had become.
Finally the day comes when Delia just walks away from her family. She’s taking a stroll on a beach and just keeps on going. Once her family realizes she is missing, they have a curiously difficult time describing Delia to the police. They just can’t seem to recall the color of her eyes, her height or weight, what she was wearing when they last saw her. Of course, they’d never really seen her to begin with. They had been blinded by LOVELESSNESS AND THANKLESSNESS.
The landscape is littered with broken marriages and families and homes, because in the last days, THE LOVE OF MANY SHALL GROW COLD.
***
THE CALL TO ENDURANCE
And we read in verse 13,
“BUT HE THAT SHALL ENDURE TO END, THE SAME
SHALL BE SAVED!”
a. I want you to note, the word ENDURE, because BEING A CHRISTIAN IN THESE days TAKES ENDURANCE!
b. In THE LABOR PAINS BEFORE THE RAPTURE AGE, it will NOT BE EASY. It’s a TOUGH, MUSCLE, PULSATING, BLEEDING WORLD!
c. TO BE REALLY COMMITTED TO CHRIST, HIS CHURCH, HIS KINGDOM in a COLD, IMPERSONAL, MATERIALISTIC, PLEASURE-SEEKING, SELF-CENTERED WORLD – TAKES SINGLE-PURPOSED ENDURANCE!
d. But, PRAISE GOD, those WHO WON’T BE SUCKED UP by this MATERIALISTIC, APATHETIC, INDIFFERENT AND OFTEN BRUTAL AGE, but GO ALL OUT FOR JESUS, shall BE SAVED!
*******
VII. HARBINGER 7 – THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM
In Verses 7-13, Jesus has been talking about THE MAIN TRENDS that shall intensify as the CLOSE OF THIS AGE APPROACHES!
-But we have not definitely answered the disciples’ real questions in Verse 3,
“WHAT SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THY COMING, AND WHAT SHALL
BE THE SIGN OF THE END OF THE AGE?”
-Really, He has given HARBINGERS, but has not answered THE SPECIFIC QUESTION, what SHALL BE THE SIGN OF THE END OF THE AGE.
-Well, would you like to know the answer, THE FINAL HARBINGER? Well it is found in Matthew 24:14,
“AND THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE PREACHED IN ALL
THE WORLD FOR A WITNESS UNTO ALL NATIONS, AND THEN
SHALL THE END COME.”
-THERE it is, for 20 centuries, God has been WAITING FOR THIS HARBINGER TO BE FULFILLED.
–We must understand something powerful here about the GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM:
“THE ISSUE THAT WILL BRING EVERYTHING TO A HEAD WILL
NOT FIRST OF ALL BE THE CROSS OF CHRIST, BUT IN
FACT WILL BE THE THRONE OF CHRIST.”
Hear it loud and clear:
“EVERY GODLESS LEADER IN WASHINGTON D.C. AND THROUGHOUT
THE WORLD HAS ONE GOAL SPOKEN OR UNSPOKEN, AND THAT
IS TO USURP THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD.”
-It all boils down to one great issue:
“WHO RULES, GOD OR MAN; AND WHO HAS THE LAST WORD,
KING JESUS OR PRESIDENT OBAMA?”
–Washington and the leftists are not first of all concerned about whose blood cleanses from sin, but rather, WHOSE THRONE RULES OUR LIVES. That truth alone WILL POP HISTORY’S BOIL, AND BRING ABOUT THE CLIMAX OF THE AGES – WHO HAS THE FIRST AND LAST WORD ON EVERY ISSUE IN SOCIETY.
EXAMPLE:
-What follows briefly is but a small example of conflict between the KINGDOM OF GOD and the KINGDOM OF SATAN that are at war on everything, and I mean everything. That conflict will and must manifest itself on absolutely every issue in society.
-For instance, the leftists under Obama are trying to turn this nation into a WELFARE – COMMUNIST STATE. We are now at a 49% to 50% WELFARE NATION. That will lead to total government control! However, the Bible teaches in II Thessalonians 3:10,
“…that if anyone refuse to labor, neither should he eat.”
-Hear it:
“GOD SAYS THAT IT IS ALONE THE ACTIVE ARM AND THE BUSY HAND
THAT JUSTIFY THE CHEWING MOUTH AND THE FULL STOMACH.”
-So we read in Matthew 25:30,
“Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness, there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
–Understand this, that HEAVEN AND HELL are at odds on absolutely everything. It is impossible to establish a peace between antithetical polar opposites. The THRONE OF GOD and the Throne of Man is that conflict which now has come to a boiling point in the breast of history, and the citizens of Satan’s Kingdom are boiling over with rancor, hatred, and designs of evil. THIS IS WHERE THE ULTIMATE CONFLICT WILL EXPLODE.
**
-And it is UP TO US, did you know that:
I. THE CLOSE OF THE AGE rests with the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST!
2. THE RETURN OF JESUS for the church rests with the church of Jesus Christ!
3. WHEN WE PREACH, PROCLAIM, LIVE THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM, TO AND BEFORE ALL MEN, THEN SHALL THE END COME!
4. WE USHER IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. WE HIS CHURCH SHALL BRING JESUS BACK:
“FOR THIS GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM SHALL BE PREACHED IN
ALL THE WORLD, FOR A WITNESS UNTO ALL NATIONS,
AND THEN SHALL THE END COME.”
-But not just ANY GOSPEL, but rather, “THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM!”
**
Do you know WHOSE GOING TO BRING JESUS BACK? Well I do:
a. I believe it is going to be THIS GENERATION, you NEW CONVERTS.
b. I believe it is going to be YOU YOUNG PEOPLE, you’re going to be THE ONES to lead the way!
c. You’re going to SHOW US A LINE OF DEMARCATION. You are going to draw a line in the sand on every issue, for the earth is the Lord’s and all they that dwell therein.
d. The Divine Harbinger says:
-You will not only be baptized in water, but you will be baptized in fire.
-And the fire of the Holy Spirit in you will force its way out of you, and powerfully display its brightness.
-The Holy Spirit shall put lightning in your eyes and thunder in your voices.
–The Lord of hosts shall be your Captain, and heavenly hosts shall be your guard.
–You are going to be a generation of John the Baptists who call KINGS to repentance and to righteousness.
-Like John the Baptist you are going to expose shameful leaders and their sins, for sinful actions are no longer abhorred when the agents of sins are admired (Bill Clinton and Barack Obama).
-You’re going to live a life and preach a gospel that will get people off the fence, and off from their duffs!
–Your great passion for righteousness will be like a great fire within you that will burn all fears and difficulties before you like stubble.
-Either JESUS IS KING, OR SATAN IS KING, BUT WE DON’T WANT PHONINESS ANYMORE.
–No more silent pulpits on the issues and parishioners who don’t even realize that there is an election coming, let alone the issues that will shape or misshape society even more.
–No more churches that look like trees in the fall with a few tired leaves on the branches, and a whole bunch of dead leaves on the ground.
-We don’t WANT THIS NICE LITTLE RELIGIOUS JUNK anymore! Sunday morning Churchianity!
-You’re going to be the ONES and I say “PRAISE GOD”, bring HIM BACK KIDS, BRING HIM BACK!
-And doing so by AN ALL-OUT COMMITMENT, FOREVER TO SERVE KING JESUS WHO IS LORD OVER ALL!
-And I guarantee you, YOUR KINGDOM GOSPEL will not only “COMFORT THE AFFLICTED, BUT IT WILL AFFLICT THE COMFORTABLE.”
**
But, WHEN YOU LIVE AND SHARE THE GOSPEL OF KING JESUS, YOU DO TWO THINGS:
#1 – You bring down THE HEEL OF THE GOSPEL BOOT UPON SATAN’S HEAD!
#2 – You will bring THE END OF THE AGE, AND THE RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST!
-He’s been waiting for 20 centuries for this ONE THING TO HAPPEN!
-For the church TO PUT ON HER KINGDOM GOSPEL EXAMPLE, LIVE IT, AND PROCLAIM JESUS AS LORD OVER ALL, OR NOT LORD AT ALL IN EVERY AREA AND ON EVERY ISSUE! Christ is not coming for a WEAK AND CONTEMPTIBLE CHURCH, but for a church displayed to the world with the beauty of holiness, and the enabling giftings of the Holy Spirit.
–Everything about the church for which Jesus will come trumpets the fact that Jesus Christ is NOW KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. The church for which He comes shouts that Jesus Christ wields the scepter of Heaven and earth, AND WEARS THE IMPERIAL CROWN OF THE UNIVERSE – HEAVEN IS HIS TRHONE, AND THE THRONES OF KINGS HIS FOOTSTOOL. That Gospel of the Kingdom preached and lived by the church will bring Jesus back even as He said.
**
-And I believe THIS IS THE GENERATION that will do the JOB How? I’ll tell you how!
-Equipped WITH THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, the gifts of the Holy Spirit! The power of God!!
-And, you’re going TO DEMONSTRATE the Kingdom of Jesus, by the DYNAMITE/POWER OF THE SPIRIT!
-And, then we are going to see THE KINGDOMS OF THIS WORLD become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ.
**
What are the kingdoms of this world? U.S., Mexico, Canada, Russia, etc.?
-No, No, the Kingdoms of this world are THE NEIGHBORHOODS where you live – alcohol, divorce, humanism, etc.
-The kingdoms of this world are THE POT-SUCKING, BOOZE-SUCKING, RICH KIDS IN YOUR SCHOOLS!
-The kingdoms of this world are PAGAN EDUCATION CENTERS OF OUR LAND, AND THE RELIGIOUS CHURCHES WHERE PEOPLE ARE DEAD AS HAY!
-The kingdoms of the world are ABC, NBC, CBS, and HBO, which can only exist because the other kingdoms support them!
-The kingdoms of this world are the godless and anti-Christ Government and White House in Washington D.C.
***
CONCLUSION
1. The day Is coming WHEN ALL THOSE KINGDOMS shall become the kingdom of Jesus Christ!
2. You just wait till you see Jesus get a hold of education, the networks, the churches, everything!
3. And we are going to see THE MIGHTY FULFILLMENT of all of it in the great Millennium:
a. When all shall be in His hand!
b. And the KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD SHALL COVER THE EARTH, AS THE WATERS COVER THE SEA!
c. And, it SHALL:
“FLOW LIKE A RIVER, IT SHALL FALL LIKE THE RAIN, IT SHALL RISE
LIKE THE DAWNING IN GLORY OVER THE LAND,….AND THE
KNOWLEDGE OF THE LORD, SHALL FILL ALL THE EARTH,
AND THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD SHALL FALL.”
In closing, a KINGDOM, Dallas Willard wrote in The Divine Conspiracy, is a place where one person’s influence determines what is and what happens. In the case of the KINGDOM OF GOD, the kingdom is not for now a geographic spot on a map but rather the kingdom of God is present any place and every place where the influence of JESUS’ LIVING PRESENCE AND POWER determines the shape of life. Wherever and whenever Jesus’ wisdom, Jesus’ wit, Jesus’ savvy, Jesus’ words, Jesus’ love, and Jesus’ power mold the words, actions, thoughts, and life patterns of some person or group of persons, then this is where God’s kingdom is manifest.
We’ve got to SHOW the world how real THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS by how we conduct ourselves. KINGDOM GOSPEL PREACHING IS FIRST OF ALL LIVES LIVED AND NOT A SERMON SPOKEN. And the first, best way we can do that is to live as Jesus lived. Amen!!!
