Are We Living In The End Times?

so what's wrong with the world Doug yeah besides everything yeah what's wrong with the world is we rebelled against God so ten minutes after the world went wrong in the Garden of Eden it didn't look like the world had gone wrong it still looked like paradise yeah so when our first parents disobeyed in the garden it didn't go from color to black and white it you know it was still a glorious beautiful world but things started to come unraveled started to come unstuck in fact it got so bad before the flood that God wiped the antediluvian civilization out it was so bad and erased the memory of them and then the whole thing started over again built up so you had the great pagan empires of Babylon and Greece and Rome and in the middle of that God back in Genesis God had promised a messiah so he was going to let he was gonna let us run out to the end of our tether you know so we rebelled and just just made a glorious mess and so the Lord Jesus came and born of a virgin born of a woman born under the law and he said just as the principle of sin had to work its way out over centuries so God wanted a pinprick of righteousness to work its way out so there was one active to beat disobedience that grew into ever-increasing wickedness yeah and then the Lord Jesus was born and lived a perfect sinless life and died on the cross the first Adam disobeyed at a tree and the second Adam obeyed on a tree hmm right and God reversed everything from that point but the reversal was like the devil the the the reversal was like the catastrophe at the beginning okay everything didn't yeah so 10 minutes after Adam and Eve sinned it wasn't like the day you eat of the fruit of the tree you shall surely die well we're still here maybe the serpent was right and yeah you know that sort of thing but they were they died they were separated from God ten minutes after Jesus ascended into heaven the disciples could look around and say well everything's pretty much the same old world yep right same old world look like nothing was done look looked like nothing was done yeah except Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman put into if flour so you put the king you put the kingdom of God in that and it slowly inexorably works out over time it's like a mustard seed that grows or it's like a rock that's cut without hands and Daniel and it grows to become a mountain that fills the whole earth so all of it is gradual methodical and inexorable yeah so boring whoo yeah some people yeah and you could always say you could always say well it's pretty much the same as it was five years ago mm-hmm right and you know you can find stretches where it's worse now than it was five years ago or worse now that it was 50 years ago but that's because we're not thinking big enough we're not thinking and big enough increments yeah look at human history and 500 year increments and and it becomes apparent that the Christ's Kingdom is growing and advancing and his conquering and will and will conquer yeah so what's wrong with the world disobedience sin rebellion what's right with the world the obedience of Christ which is sort of the the pitch that he hit that enables us to imitate him so because he obeyed that imputation ISM that obedience is imputed to us and then we're set free forgiven so that we can risk obedience okay right because if if my salvation of my justification dependent in any way I my works I don't want to risk it yeah because I'm gonna screw it up yeah I mean I'd be damned for my good days and yeah that's right yeah and and so what Jesus does by his death burial resurrection is he provides a free forgiveness that means that I'm set free to be grateful and I'm and I can risk the obedience and that's why the kingdom of God grows as slowly as it does but also as steadily as it does mm-hmm that's right so there's this popular view of you that the kingdom of God is gonna drop kind of all at once and that's coming soon right maybe maybe and and then when it gets too soon isn't the time it's later a little later and but the idea is it's gonna drop on history and that's where Jesus is really gonna rule in the way that he was intended to rule if throw all those prophecies yeah except that the Jesus never says the kingdom of God cometh like the 82nd airborne that's right and it's it's not a qu domain it's not an in full force invasion right yeah the thing that I shared a lot of the assumptions of the outlook that you're talking about and then I couldn't I couldn't get it to come out of Scripture I understood the system but I couldn't get it from Scripture so I tried to I tried to be nothing for a while sort of an eschatological agnostic yeah I'd say Jesus is coming again don't push me you know the that's all I know and I was reading in 1st Corinthians 15 and I was in that frame of mind and I was reading in 1st Corinthians 15 and it said for he must reign until he has put his in all his enemies under his feet and that's of course Psalm 110 the Lord said to my lord sit at my right hand until I make your enemies he doesn't say sit at my right hand and tell it's time for you to smack down your enemies and then you go subdue them yea the Lord says sit at my right hand until your enemies are made a footstool and so I as so that that verse snapped on my head for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet and I realized that when he comes he's going to destroy the last enemy death but in the the system I'd been taught he would have to the first enemy to be destroyed would be death right so if everything is just going from bad to worse the words that the world's a hellhole and then finally Jesus comes back and the first thing that happens is the resurrection of the Dead the first first thing that happens is that death is destroyed but Paul says the last thing that happens is that death is destroyed yeah all the lesser enemies of Christ every vain thought every every system of unbelief as it says in 2nd Corinthians 10 we we are taking every thought captive that that's what we're about every disobedience captive we want to subdue everything to Christ knowing that we can't without his personal reappearing we can't destroy we can't take out the last redoubt yeah we can't take out the last Fortress of the enemy which is death but we can take out all the others right and we do it through gospel preaching we do it through church planting we do it through worship we do it through evangelism and apologetics it's peaceful yeah it's not it's not an imposition from the top it's gospel driven our weapons are not carnal but they're powerful we're for throwing down strongholds so I believe that we are in a period of great opportunity where we have many many enemies before us that gives us something to do right one of my favorite stories there's a Marine general in the Korean War it was we had pushed the Koreans back up into North Korea and then the Chinese came into the war and this Marine general was surround his unit was completely surrounded Chinese every you know just overwhelmingly surround it and he looked around all of the adversary and you said well they can't get away now that's all right that that's how Christians need to think that's right but right here's another example from history Latimer and Ridley were great bishops and in the English Reformation and they were burned to the stake by Bloody Mary and when they were they were together about to be burned and Latimer says play the man Master Ridley we shall today light such a candle as by God's grace as I trust it such a candle in England as I trust by God's grace shall never be put out so he's about to be burned at the stake and he is saying in effect we've got them now what what kind of faith can do that can talk that way well only Christian faith can talk that way yeah right and you hit what you aim at if if Christians believe that we're just gonna lose you probably plays on sports teams everybody on the team is convinced that you're gonna lose well guess what you're going to lose because you're going into it mm-hmm you're thinking that way but suppose suppose God has promised us that we're going to win what would that look like and why don't we take his promises at face value suppose suppose the Great Commission will be successfully fulfilled and all the nations will be discipled and they will be they will all be baptized and they will all be taught obedience to everything Jesus has spoken suppose when Jesus told us to do that he meant that we were supposed to do that Yeah right but we'd like to go out key off of what we see with our eyes right I like to say you know David went out to meet Goliath and everybody in the Israelite army was saying that Giants too big to fight and David is thinking well that Giants too big to miss yes that's right that's right so he had beside of a barn look at that yeah look at that guy yeah and so why why is it that we think that size matters what matters is the promises of God yes right right if God has promised it then if God has promised it then there's nothing they can do to withstand it if God has not promised it there's nothing we can do to bring it about yeah maybe I'm wrong you were there yeah I was there same thing I believed a certain thing about the future and what was ahead of us and I couldn't get it out of Scripture I started seeing things that were conflicting with what I was what I was believing so short of going back to scripture saying nah I was taught all that in Bible but I can't really see it but is that text actually saying when I was taught right it is saying so I always try to get across to people who are now saying okay let's let me let me what does the scripture say I said okay well the Bible tells us promise to Abraham he would have descendants as numerous as the stars that's a lot of stars a lot of descendants you can't see if you wanted at the end of history if you want to see the whole church yeah you're gonna need a Hubble yeah let's go yeah hey so that's a lot that's brand yeah and then you move forward you have promises that are so abundant it's difficult to even just just discuss just promises the nations coming all the nations returning to the Lord worshiping the Lord and then the premiere text that you quoted from from first Corinthians 15 psalm 110:1 this is the most popular Bible verse it's God's favorite bible verse so when he quotes the most from a New Testament sit on my right hand so let me carries a footstool for your feet and you have text after text after text talking about the kingdom of Messiah coming into history his role coming into history and it actually says things like you brought up Daniel to a stone that becomes a mountain so small to large Isaiah 9 popular Christmas verse of the increase of his government if there will be no government will be on his shoulder that's right and it increases it grows and you have Jesus coming to talk about it like a mustard seed that becomes a tree 11 and a lump of dough and see you see there's a steady thing of progress that takes place in the scriptures in in terms of how this kingdom is going to grow now Jesus said he brought it the Apostles say he brought it the Bible says it had to come in that time period and here we are yeah under the rule of Christ for God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world yes but that the world through him might be saved so if I say God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world and I say stop right there what do most Christians think Jesus is going to do when everything said and done condemn the world yeah right they they say Jesus is going to come again and then boy you know it's a that's it's all over except for 15 or 16 of the faithful yeah yeah so but that that's an admission of defeat God's declared purpose was I'm gonna that world that world is a mess and I am gonna glorify my name by saving it yeah so he could he could glorify his justice by destroying us in our rebellion or it could glorify His mercy by saving us but he can't glorify anything by trying to save it and failing right that's right so if Jesus if Jesus says God is God's intention it's not to condemn the world I believe that I'm living in a world that is not condemned right this is the propitiation for our sins not for our sins only but also the sins the whole world alright so I am laboring in a saved world declaring salvation to them because they must believe in order to appropriate it right they must believe but it's the tension you see in 2nd Corinthians 5 where God was forgot it was in Christ reconciling the world to himself therefore we plead with you be reconciled to God so our plea to non-believers is to be reconciled to a God who has already reconciled to the planet you live on you know God has already purchased the world he's already purchased the nation's he's already purchased all of these tribes and languages and kindred with his own blood so why don't you come along quietly just put down your gun yeah III think we ought to think more of non-believers as like that Japanese soldier in the Philippines who came down out of the jungle in the nineteen seventy you know in the 1970s he comes down and finally surrenders decades after the war's over yes right yeah I think that that's how we ought to think of the futility of unbelief unbelievers can't manage the world they can't govern the world they can't control the world they aspire to deity and it's a Sorcerer's Apprentice sort of thing everything comes apart yeah that's right and the reason we let it happen is because the Christians have sort of backed away from their confidence and their joy and their gladness which would all be grounded in the problem Oh God for history and when Jesus ascends he comes up to the Ancient of Days he's given a kingdom Daniel 7:13 through 14 was that the Son of Man comes up to the Ancient of Days and is given a kingdom Dominion and a glory that all the peoples nations and men of every language might serve him a Dominion that's everlasting and never passes away a kingdom that's never destroyed Jesus he goes up but before he does he says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me right and so all this belongs to Jesus right whether people accept it or not he's the lord of the world he's King of Kings Lord of lords today so okay so here's the problem though Doug and this is what everybody always faces I faced it I'm sure you probably had these thoughts too you finally realized that how Jesus really is the king of the world and he's made promises about what he's gonna do to redeem and save and we can trust he saw her and he can accomplish everything he can give the gifts of faith and repentance he really can no one could stop him but then you look around and you say man this place it broke down and it's the first question everyone asked me dogs they always say okay I see it they say but what does that mean how much longer do we have to go what do you think and I always say I think would you say often Suze I think we're in the infancy of the church we have a long way to go right so here's what I want to ask you tell me about ranking rocks I was building my house with my son Nate and we had we were getting ready for concrete pour and we were building the house paying as as we went and sometimes we had time to work and sometimes we had money and someday you know it was like a three-legged race at the fair and so one time I was up there with Nate and said okay let's rake this gravel and and they said dad I'm pretty sure that we've raked this gravel already that we've leveled it out and we've raked it and I said twelve lists right there that's great the rates of gravel anymore because I didn't that's all I had to do and they said why we were raking the gravel we already raked the gravel and I said well we have gravel and we have rakes and that's all that's all we have yeah all right so if I had more I'd do more right but I want to be faithful with what I've got yeah so to whom much is given much is required you'll want to live up to what you've already attained if you've got two pennies and you're a widow lady you throw those two pennies into the into the temple Treasury in front of Jesus not knowing that he's there and you make it into the Bible right that's right right so and your faith is held out as a model to the end of the world yeah and it was just two pennies right that was her breaking ground well that was that was that was her gift that was her sacrifice so what you you want to be at your station at your post doing what God called you to do and and then he's the general we're not the generals so all we were the foot soldiers we're the ones who need to be obedient where we are and let him sort out the big me you know the the big picture yeah but it's meaningful to rake rocks yes if that's what God has given you to do to bring glory to himself because he has a plan in that land that he's given you yeah and if it means you're raking rocks for now it's okay one day there'll be a house oh yeah yeah yeah another illustration I was when I was in the Navy I was on a submarine and when a submarine goes to war you've got all these men in the submarine doing different things yeah and and you have to understand you have to stack everybody's vocation teleologically right so suppose you go into the cook the crews mess and you say hey are you fighting the enemy you say no I'm cooking eggs yeah well you're not just cooking eggs you're cooking eggs to feed the sailors who are gonna go to the torpedo room or you know so you have all these different it Paul would describe it as body life there are different functions the the livers the liver is not fighting the enemy the heart is not fighting the enemy that the hands and maybe but the everything else the supply Corps yes right is doing its station and got everybody's performing well at their station and it's God's responsibility to have it all blend together right you know he's the one who gives the increase he's the one who further supplies the coordination we don't do that yeah so I think what I like to encourage people to hear from us isn't is not this overblown sort of insane optimism that doesn't even take into consideration the facts of the world we're saying that there is suffering there is trouble there is there are trials ahead of us but that God can do mighty things and that there is guaranteed full assurance of what he's gonna do in the world which means that I think it's important to talk about because you give a sermon one so it's really really a blessing to me you talked about how how God works in history is from mustard seeds which means that I can have hope that God is doing big things in the world and then I can trust his promises and I can do that with just my family and the business that he's given to me and the little community around me there is real genuine hope for tremendous gospel transformation right there right yeah don't despise the day of small beginnings right as it says in the prophets so don't despise the day of small beginnings we're faced with a pagan civilization and Christians say we could never over over we could never overcome that I said what we did it once yeah if we if we build Christendom 2.0 it yeah it would be Christendom 2.0 yeah right but paganism used to rule the world that's right and now it doesn't Constantine stopped the blood sacrifices the pagan blood sacrifices which is one of the most momentous events in the history of the world so you had the temple destroyed in 70 AD where the Jews stopped offering blood sacrifice but centuries later Constantine put a stopped animal sacrifice in in the pagan world because the Christians had won yeah all right so and the Christians had won with no divisions no arsenals no armories no what do we what do we have yeah beaten up like God beaten up a lot yeah and the and the saying of the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church so that happened once what what on earth makes us think it couldn't happen again on top of that what what on earth makes us think it isn't happening again so if you look at how Africa is how rapidly Africa is becoming Christian how rapidly Christianity is making inroads among Muslims in Africa when you look at what's happening in South America when you look at the global South Philip Jenkins books the next Christendom and there's another one he's written a couple of books it's it's happening as we speak right and we are fearful and full of unbelief so go back to riddle Lattimer and Ridley so Latimer says to really play the man we've got them now well you know he is go get him let's take that hill right and but a modern North American evangelical is sitting in his lazy boy with his remote watching the news on the big flatscreen that's mounted on the wall and he watches the news and some terrible story and he turns it off and he goes into the kitchen to talk to his wife and he opens the fridge which is a state-of-the-art fridge and he and he takes out a cold drink and he closes the fridge says honey it's the last days it is terrible out there yeah and vladimer Ridley in the martyrs and the Virgin's being thrown to the Lions in the Coliseum they've got this we can do it we can take these guys Yeah right and they did and we have astounding resources at our disposal yes and we say we can't can't do it we can't do it and we don't yeah

Channel: Apologia Studios

Views: 106,241

Keywords: jeff durbin, apologia studios, is this the time of the end, end times, rapture, proof of the rapture, are we living in the end times, left behind, blood moon, john hagee, proof of the end times, the end of the world is soon, is jesus coming soon, pre tribulational rapture, is the rapture true, steven anderson end times, douglas wilson, end of the world, tribulation, end times prophecy, marching to zion, apologia end times

Id: 31G003JI_Ps

Length: 23min 29sec (1409 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 06 2018