Descriptiption of These Last Dark Days
INTRO. This is a message the Lord is leading me to prepare although at this time I don't know where or when I will preach it. It's the end of another year…2003 is about gone and another year is upon us. Will 2004 be a better year than 2003? I wish I could say "yes," but according to our text, things will not get better. We are without a doubt in the last days. I call this message, "DESCRIPTION OF THESE LAST DARK DAYS." Let me read our text for you…(2 Tim. 3:1-7). Does not these verses describe today? How can things get worse? All you need do is to read the Book of the Revelation and you will agree that things will get worse. If we Christians really understood what is about to happen to this old world, we would all become flaming evangelists, but the Word of God does not say that will happen. Well, let me give you a DESCRIPTION OF THESE LAST DARK DAYS.
I. THERE WILL BE A DEPARTING FROM BIBLICAL TRUTH.
(2 Tim 3:7) "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."
- Dislike for the verbal inspiration of the Bible. Today the average Bible Seminary is putting out so called "scholars" who deny the verbal inspiration of the Bible. I wonder why they have to go to some modernist Cemetery when they can get that from the world. We need more preachers who believe that the Bible is divinely inspired and without error …..that there are no mistakes in the originally inspired Word of God….. that In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth….. that this world is not billions of years old…..that evolution is the lie of the devil …..that God created man and women…..that the union of a man and women is the only kind of marriage God sanctions…..that the world would have stopped with Adam and Eve if they believed in homosexuality ….. that man of his own free will chose to sin …..that the only remedy for sin is the shedding of blood…..and that Jesus was the one and only Son of God…..that He shed His blood on the cross as the final penalty for sin …..that the only way of salvation is through Jesus Christ…..that one must confess his sins and cling to Christ as the only Savior…..that Jesus was born of a virgin…..that He lived a sinless life…..that the miracles of the Bible are true…..that sin is exceedingly sinful…..that Jesus rose from the grave…..that He will come again…..that we who are saved will be raptured from this world…..that the Tribulation Period of 7 years will then take place…..that the Man of Sin, the Anti-Christ will be revealed…..that He will deceive the nations…..that he will meet his doom…..that there will be a 1000-year Millennial Reign of Christ from Jerusalem…..that all lost people will be judged at the Great White Throne Judgment and sent to hell and to the Lake of Fire…..that all saved people will be judged at a different time at the Judgment Seat of Christ and will spend eternity with the Lord. These are the truths that ought to be proclaimed everywhere.
- Departing from the Bible teaching of the virgin birth. (Isa 7:14) "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Some so-called Bible read "a young women" instead of "virgin." Well, there's no miracle in a young women conceiving. It happens every day. If Jesus was born of just a young women, He could not be the sinless Son of God. Virgins don't conceive and have children. So the modernists decided to change the word so people would buy their versions. But I stand on the true originally inspired text which says that a "virgin" conceived and bear a son, the Son of God. (Acts 4:12) "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." There is no other way! Jesus is the only way!
- Denying the substitutional suffering, blood atonement, and bodily resurrection. (Heb 10:19) "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus," (1 John 1:7) "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (Acts 1:3) "To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:" Let me tell you something: Jesus died in my place, suffered as no man ever suffered for me and His blood is the atonement for my sin. We worship a risen Saviour and because of that I am saved today! Hallelujah! Amen!
II. THERE WILL BE A DOUBTING OF THE REALITY AND EXISTENCE OF GOD (2 Tim. 3:2) "For men shall be lovers of their own selves." (Rom 1:18-21) "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; {19} Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. {20} For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: {21} Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened." Never has there been a time when people have denied the existence of God. Let me read you a poem that conveys the thoughts of many today.
INVICTUS – By William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
You want to live a life with that kind of attitude? I don't! I am grateful that I am not the master of my fate and that God is the captain of my soul!
- If you doubt the fact of God, you cannot have trusting faith in God.
- If you doubt the love of God, you cannot totally look to God.
- If you doubt the power of God, you cannot believe in the pardon of God.
- I have a couple verses for all the Christ-rejecters and God-haters. (Rev 1:7) "Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen." (Isa 45:23) "I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." (Phil 2:11) "And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."
III. THERE WILL BE A DENIAL TO THE CALL OF FULL SURRENDER 2 Tim. 3:2-4 (read) (1 John 2:15-17) "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. {16} For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. {17} And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
- Christians today don't want to be different; that is separated from the rest of the world. What ever happened to the verse in (2 Cor 6:17) "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you," Does that verse apply to today? What does the Bible say about it? (2 Tim 3:16) "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:" I believe all the Word of God is for today. But today you don't hear many preachers hit on the subject of "worldliness." You can preach against sin, but don't name it. If you do mention certain sins or what is worldly, you are classified as a "legalist." And who wants to be a legalist?
- Church-going Christians who want to cling to the habits and dress of the world are what the Bible calls "lukewarm" Christians…and you know what God thinks of lukewarmness.
- A lukewarm Christian is a part-time Christian…and a part-time Christian is a problem Christian who plays church and promotes carelessness. Why would anyone want to become a Christian when Christians are no different?
- Yes, lukewarmness among Christians, lack of conviction, no separation, and playing church are signs of the last days. Are we in the last days?
IV. THERE WILL BE AN INCREASE OF OPPOSITION TO THE LORD AND HIS WORK (2 Pet 3:3) "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,"
