End Times - Matthew 24 and 25

well now I want to start this session by mentioning a phrase that has already been used in my presence a number of times here at this conference and it's not in the Bible the phrase is the end times if you heard that phrase it's used all over the place and people say we're in the end times were in the end times some say to me are we in the end times I prefer that to the statement but it's not a biblical phrase the biblical phrase is the last days and we've been in the last days for two thousand years they began at Pentecost with the first prophecy of the last days fulfilled at Pentecost I know what people mean they mean are we in the last last days or to put it very bluntly are we in the generation that will see Jesus come back and my answers I don't know it's getting a bit tight I'm 83 and so he's got to hurry up if I'm to see him back but the question is really does the Bible tell us we are in the last last days are we the final generation it's funny but most of those who tell me we are busy making preparations for their retirement and pension and where they're going to live and so on which is a little inconsistent my answer would probably be we are in the beginning of the last last days but how long they're going to last well I don't think the Bible tells us it is a phrase that has become very common since Israel was established in 1948 and since Jerusalem came over to Jewish control in 1967 and funny enough it's these events in the Middle East that have convinced quite a lot of Christians that were in the last last days indeed some of them were convinced that Jesus would be back in that generation but he hasn't come yet the important thing is look into the Bible especially the New Testament and the events in Israel are nowhere said to be a sign of the Lord's return not once check me out in your Bible and don't let the events in Israel of the last few decades mislead you into thinking that Jesus is about to return go to your New Testament and find out what Jesus said would be the signs of his coming and I thought we'd just do that in this session and I'm going to read a chapter to you and then simply make a Bible study of it and then we're more sure to know where we are in relation to God's diary and God's calendar I have seen so many clock faces in Christian publicity that shows a clock with the pointer at 1 or 2 minutes to midnight as if this is God's clock and as if this is the time every Christian generation should live to be ready for the Lord's return but that doesn't mean expecting him this book is a book full of predictions 735 predictions about the future are in its pages 1/4 of the verses of the Bible have a prediction in them it's essentially a prophetic book from beginning to end those some books concentrate more predictions than others of the 735 predictions 596 have already happened and come true literally according to the prediction that there was in scripture 81 percent of all the predictions in the Bible have already happened and some of those predictions were made centuries before the event it doesn't take much faith to believe that the other 19 percent will also happen I mean that's a very high score there's no astrologer ever reached anywhere near that score of being right the Bible has proved a hundred percent right for every prediction that could have been fulfilled by now and therefore I don't have to have a lot of faith to believe the rest of the rest most of them are concerned with Jesus actual return and what follows that how many of those predictions remain to come true before Jesus gets back the answer is about 20 and I'm waiting to see those happen first before I look for the Lord's return he told us watch and pray what have we watch you can't stand still watching the clouds to wait for meeeeee to appear that's not what he meant he meant watch what's happening in the world to see what signs I gave you to prepare the signs are signals and let me add one other thing people get too absorbed in the predictions about the future and start drawing charts and working out God's diary for him which is rather presumptuous but he told us to watch for certain things happening and many of those things have not happened yet with the speed of world events they could happen quite quickly or they might not we are to live as if he's coming back tomorrow but not to expect him tomorrow I believe that the signs that he gave us must be fulfilled first so let's turn to a well-known passage Matthew chapter 24 where the disciples asked him what will be the signs or signals of your return how will we know when it's about to happen and Jesus gave a very straight clear answer to their question thank God they asked him and he gave a very clear answer he gave a much clearer and fuller answer in the book of Revelation but here he gives us summary of the signs that will precede his coming and so I'll read them to you from verse three as Jesus was sitting in on the Mount of Olives the disciples came to him privately tell us they said when will this happen and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age and jesus answered watch out that no one deceives you for many will come in my name claiming I am the Christ and will deceive many you will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed such things must happen but the end is still to come nation will rise against nation Kingdom against Kingdom there will be famines and earthquakes in various places all these are the beginning of birth pains then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death and you will be hated by all the nations because of me at that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other and many false prophets will all will appear and deceive many people because of the increase of wickedness the love of most will grow cold but he who stands firm to the end will be saved and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations and then the end will come so when you see standing in the Holy Place the abomination that causes desolation that oval phrase is a from the prophet Daniel of course spoken of through the prophet Daniel let the reader understand then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house let no one in the field go back to get his cloak how dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers pray that your flight will not take place on the Sabbath for then there will be great distress unequaled from the beginning of the world until now and never to be equaled again if those days had not been cut short no one would survive but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened at that time if anyone says to you look here is the Christ or there he is do not believe it for false Christ's and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect if that were possible see I have told you ahead of time so if anyone tells you there he is out in the desert do not go out or here he is in the inner rooms don't believe it for as the Lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west so will be the coming of the Son of Man wherever there is a carcass there the vultures will gather immediately after the distress of those days the Sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light the Stars will fall from the sky and the heavenly bodies will be shaken at that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky and all the nations of the earth will mourn they will see the Son of man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory and he will send His angels with a loud trumpet call and they will gather his elect from the four winds from the one end of the heavens to the other now learn this lesson from the fig tree as soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out you know that the summer is near even so when you see all these things you know that he is near right at the door I tell you the truth this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened heaven and earth will pass away but my words will never pass away no one knows about that day or hour not even the angels in heaven nor the son but only the father I'm going to stop there because I think that's about as much as I can covering the time if we have time for more I'll read on the Bible is a book of history and it's unlike any other book of history that you can get from any public library the Bible's history begins with the end of the world the beginning of the world and it ends with the end of the world no other history book has ever been written that covers such a vast span our events on planet Earth partly because there was no one there at the beginning to observe it and record it so no one kind of thority diddly write the beginning of our world God was there so he's the only one who can write down what happened and the end of the world in fact the whole future is largely hidden from us we can guess but we can't say how the world will end you are the only people in the whole world who know how it will all end that's unique excuse me on you that was coming we know how it will all end and the reason why the Lord told the future to his disciples was not to satisfy curiosity it was to get them ready so that they were prepared for the future and would not panic when it came and would not misunderstand it when it came thank God Jesus was so honest with us as to share with us what the future holds now than in the passage I read to you he gave four clear signs of his coming and of those four signs one is already here the other three are not that's the reason I asked the question are we in the end times we are in the beginning of the end times but we're certainly not in the middle of them and we're certainly not at the end of them so don't panic well now what are these four signs he gave us very clear none of them is in Israel except for the third the first is clearly disasters in the world and dimensions for example wars famines earthquakes and these are certainly happening but they've been happening for 2,000 years they are getting more intense wars are now able to use technology to kill each other planes can now be sent into the air with bombs with no human beings on board and guided to their destination and drop their bomb and come back without any human being on board that's a new thing in warfare due to technology Wars will get worse because of it and there are civil wars as well as international wars but they haven't been ten years in human history without a war somewhere or another when you read history it's a history of conflict nowadays there's more conflict within a nation than between nations I've lived through two world wars that involves the whole Western world in any way but since World War two there have been 36 international conflicts and if you count the civil unrest in the civil wars the number is even higher than that there is a constant pageant of war earthquakes they seem to be coming increasingly frequent but that's because of the media that tells the world immediately there is such a happening they have not increased but they have increased in damage and devastation because the world is more populated and there are more people living in vulnerable areas and so the death roll from earthquakes is shooting up and there are even earthquakes happening in places where they never happened before in the center of India for example they never happened before now but now they're happening there England experiences 20 or 30 earthquakes a year but most of them are so mild that many people don't even notice them but we have pictures on the wall shaking and various signs but earthquakes have not started happening recently and famine that's been with us for so long but he's becoming worse and worse as one part of the world takes most of the food and leaves the rest hungry so we certainly are in this first sign there are already Wars rumors of wars earthquakes famine and Jesus says don't be deceived he's going to say that again and again all the way through the danger as we get nearer to the end is deception deception inside the church and outside the church but in this case he says from false christs false messiahs people who will take advantage of the turmoil of natural disasters to present themselves as saviors and we said never into that as well there are well known cases of people who have set themselves up as saviors and taken people with them into desert places and then finished in disaster some of the Moon mass suicide but there plenty of false christs around false saviors Muniz and who arise and claim to be the promised deliverer from all our troubles and the more troubles there are there will be more false deliverers but Jesus advice to us is don't be alarmed don't let your hearts be troubled when you hear of a new war and a new disaster and a new famine breaking out he said a surprising thing he said these are painful experiences but they are not death pangs they are birth pains birth pains when you read disasters in the paper he's saying these are the pains that means something new is about to be born and that should change our attitude altogether and people will say to you I don't know what the world's coming to and you say I do see what they say then we should not be alarmed not be dismayed not be as troubled as the world will be by these things happening disasters in the world of birth pains of a new world to be born and therefore the we feel in a different attitude we have sympathy for those who are suffering in disasters and hopefully express it in help but in our hearts we are not alarmed we are hopeful we're looking to a new birth of a new world and therefore we're not dismayed or depressed by all the troubles in the world well now his advice is therefore not to panic not to be troubled but you even to rejoice and say these are all signs of something new happening the second sign of his coming is not in the world but in the church disasters in the world of the first sign developments in the Church of the second and just as he gave three paths to the first sign wars earthquakes and famines he gives three paths to the second sign all happening within the church and their first persecution that we will be hated in every nation that's never been true yet but it will be true in son number two there will be persecution of the church universally every nation will be against the church against true Christians everywhere the second sign will be a great reduction in the size of the church the love of most will grow cold when the pressures on the whole church there will be many nominal Christians leave even many real Christians their love will grow cold under the pressures of universal persecution that's a very sad sign and the third part of the sign is the big surprise and the gospel will be preached to every ethnic group now I have seen those three things on a local scale in many countries I've been to where the church is really hated and where nominal Christians Sunday Christians are left because they can't face the pressure and when the church has grown evangelistically because the pressure has purified the church and the Christians who are left get on with the job that Jesus left them to do and preach the gospel and that is why the church is growing in countries where the church is under pressure and in countries like England where there isn't yet much pressure it's declining it's the church that is persecuted that is growing around the world today it's the church under pressure that is growing in quality and quantity and the gospel will be preached that's the third part of the sign a purified smaller church will have a bigger effect on the world that's what he's saying it sounds contradictory but from my experience of traveling to churches around the world I've seen it happen what country is the church growing most quickly China with the church has been under real pressure for so long yes nominal Christians left but those that will remain preach the gospel and God honor that now those are three developments in the church what will be the great danger that is associated the danger will not be false Christ's false messiahs can't do much to the church but false prophets can and so the danger of deception in all this will be false prophets and we know what false prophets teach they teach peace when there is no peace their message is one of comfort rather than challenge the message will be it's all right it won't happen everything's okay everything's wonderful the church is safe that's false prophecy and they may well be responsible for the many who will leave the church at that time so we have disasters in the world the danger of deception by false messiahs and then within the church persecuted but preaching we have false prophets giving false predictions about the future to comfort people to make them feel happy again and again that's begun to happen but it's nowhere near the sign that he gave once again there's a danger of false prophecy and the advice of Jesus now is don't give up don't give way to these false prophets that endures to the end will be saved and thus Jesus advice when that sign appears his advice to all Christians when all parts of the church are hated by the world why should that happen the answer is the wheat and the tares grow together and the nearer they come to full maturity the greater will be the conflict between the two and it makes utter sense that towards the end Christians will be everywhere under great pressure so there's not much Sun of that in Singapore there is in countries not far from you but the hatred will come here too and Christians are social misfits we don't belong to this world you don't belong to Singapore your citizenship is in heaven you're different and it's because you're different that that hatred will come Jesus was so different from everybody that he drew that hatred to himself but he said if I'm hated in the world you will be it's not very nice to be hated that brings us to the third sign of the end of the end times the third sign is distress in Jerusalem distress in Jerusalem it will be very narrowly located geographically and here Jesus quotes the predictions of Daniel and there is a figure in the prophecies of Daniel who's labeled the abomination of desolation and three times Daniel mentions what does it refer to what's it all about it's about a human being a man who sets himself up in the very city of God and who calls himself God and will not acknowledge anyone else's will above his own a dictator who's coming will affect the whole world but who will be based in Jerusalem the City of God in the Holy Place now this dreadful prediction was fulfilled once already about a hundred and sixty years before Christ came in a man one of the descendants of Alexander the Great a Greek called Antiochus Epiphanes and he invaded Jerusalem and did terrible things that caused a man called Judas the Maccabean to lead a revolution against him but what did Antiochus Epiphanes do he marched into the Jewish temple and he sacrificed a pig on the altar from the temple knowing perfectly well that nothing could be more offensive to the Jews than this to sacrifice an unclean animal on the holiest temple was the biggest insult and then he filled the temple rooms with prostitutes and encouraged people to come and engage in pagan rites which were centered around illicit sex he did many other things he built a huge Stadium in Jerusalem we're naked games could take place and Greek gymnastics were all done totally naked and everything he did made it things worse and he occupied Jerusalem for exactly three and a half years and that figure is going to become very important when there is a second fulfillment of that happening interesting the book of Revelation has three times defined the big trouble of a Great Tribulation when troubles for the Church of Christ reach your climax and three times the book of Revelation talks about a time times and half a time which means three and a half times and then defines it as forty-two months which is three and a half years and then defines it as 1260 days which is again to say how often does God have to say a thing in different ways before we get the point Jesus didn't actually say any of those things here but he did say unless the time was kept short no one would survive which means that in three-and-a-half years that's just long enough for true Christians to survive unless they're martyred many will be martyred in that time but the faithful Christian can say to himself well it's only for three and a half years and stick it out now since the center of all this will be a dictatorship in Jerusalem there is clear advice to his people living in Judea the country nearest Jerusalem to get out of there as quickly as possible he's talking about the figure that elsewhere John calls the Antichrist and Paul talks about the man of lawlessness there are different titles given but it's all referring to the same dreadful dictator who will rule for seven years in Jerusalem and the first three-and-a-half will be welcomed by the world because it'll be good it'll bring peace and security and that will be his message I will keep you safe and peaceful and the world will welcome that it's only halfway through that seven years that his rule will change as has happened with every world dictator Nero did good things for the Romans in the first part of his reign and then power corrupted him and he became the persecutor of Christians that we know and the name Nero has gone down in the annals of history as a bad dictator it happened to Hitler Hitler did very good things for Germany when he came to power he said I want everybody to have a car and he got a man called Porsche to design a people's car a Volkswagen which you may have heard of and it was a brilliant little car air-cooled it could go anywhere in the world it was a good little car and millions of them were built later he build roads he was the first motorway builder to build roads for the people's car and the outer bonds of Germany are fine roads he was the first to do he got them out of a financial mess you had to buy a loaf of bread with a wheelbarrow full of Deutsche marks such was the inflation in Germany and he got inflation under control and the people could have formed real money again but all that's forgotten because power corrupted him and he became the dictator the destroyed millions of people that will happen to the Antichrist his first three and a half years according to my understanding of the New Testament he will offer peace and security and since the world peace seems to revolve around peace in the Middle East that's the kind of danger zone he will bring peace and security first there and then to the world and the world will fall for it and then in just half way through his rule power will corrupt him and there'll be more distress more trouble than the world has ever seen before and it will be for three-and-a-half years 42 months 1260 days and Jesus is predicting it and he says if you live in your deer get out quickly don't even stop to pack pray that it won't be on the Sabbath that's when there will be no public transport and think particularly of nursing and pregnant mothers they will all have to get out get away quickly from the center of this terrible now he says for you for you remember that it will be kept short and keep at it but he says now the big danger will be false Christ's and false prophets all together and he said rumors will happen don't listen to them he says use your eyes and not your ears watch for the final sign and don't move from where you are he said you will hear rumors that I've come and people will say he's there and he's there and people will run about looking for him because they've listened to teachers rumors of spread you know it's funny but we've got into a kind of state where people Christians all of the world is saying where is God always in Toronto and people are spending all their money and buying tickets to Toronto to go and find God and then it's shifted further south to somewhere else Penza : Oh where's God now let's go to Pensacola and find him and I'm afraid Christians are prone to rush around the world whenever they're here God's there listen God is here you can find him here you don't need to go halfway around the world to the latest place of the breakout of certain phenomena please don't get into what I call the Mecca complex that you've got to go halfway around the world to find God it's tragic but we've got into that complex Argentina thing was the next and there's a little place in Wales called Cumbre that's the same thing happening you don't need to chase anywhere don't move around don't think that Christ is here that everywhere noticed too that by the third sign two things have not happened number one Christ has not come yet whatever rumors you hear and there will be rumors don't listen to them don't leave where you are stay stay put stay where you are Christ has not come yet it's the third sign but it's not yet the other thing I want you to notice carefully is that Christians have not gone yet now that's very important there is a false teaching that has captured thousands of Christians all over the world and is mainly exported from America but was first exported from Britain to America about the 1830 and that was the idea that before the big trouble Christ would come secretly and take all the Christians out of the world before these things happened but I find no trace of that in these signs to you he says don't move from where you are and he's not coming to take us out of the world before the big trouble there is not a single clear statement in your New Testament to that effect it has been built on a series of logical deductions from Scripture by human reason and if you want to hear all those reasons get my book when Jesus returned and 1/4 of that book is given over to the 7 arguments used to prove that Jesus were take us out of the world before the big trouble comes they are all human logical deductions from Scripture but none of them is actually in Scripture and that's why I have never been able to find it the study of the end times is called eschatology but that view I call escapology the idea that were all going to escape the big trouble don't swallow that use your eyes to watch for the signs that Jesus gave us don't use your ears to listen to rumors even teaching that is misleading you from the plain word of script scripture so he gives a warning of false prophets and false messiahs and false prophets will bring signs and wonders and that will deceive many people because the devil can produce miracles there are demonic powers abroad we will need discernment in the end times as much as any other gift of the Spirit to descend whether the signs and wonders are divine or demonic there will be one of the other and the Antichrist will be accompanied by a religious figure a false prophet who will back up the Antichrist by performing signs and wonders and Jesus warns us not to be fooled by ministries that have signs and wonders discern whether they're really of God even I dare to say whether they're really happening they can appear to be happening and not happening don't be fooled once again as this warning don't be led astray it's as if in the last time when the final crunch comes between the kingdom of God between and the kingdom of Satan between the wheat and the tire tears the greatest danger for Christians will be to be misled by deception and deception is always a subtle mixture of truth and error you won't be fooled by lies you'll be fooled by half-truths that's where you stay strictly with the Word of God if you're worried about what I'm saying then the best thing you can do to be ready is to know the whole Word of God it's balanced in the ship it holds you steady and you have a better discernment of what's going on when you really know the whole Bible that's the point of reading it and reading it all until your outlook is shaped by it and that's the best protection I can recommend Corrie ten Boom how many have heard of that wonderful lady good Simoes renew her Corrie ten Boom had a terrible experience have family hid Jews from the Germans in a false wall I've been in a home and seen the false wall it only leaves a space about that much behind it but the Jews that were hiding would crowd into that narrow space through the back of a cupboard and they managed to hide the Jews because her father was a great Christian who believed solidly in the Word of God and they hid the Jews but then they were betrayed by a friend and the Germans came and found the hiding Jews and Corrie and her sister well the whole family were taken to concentration camps none of them survived except Corrie she had an amazing experience in the concentration camp she was there with her sister and her sister had an illness which had to have certain medicine every day and Corrie managed even though she was stripped naked she managed to smuggle in a bottle of medicine for her sister and she could dose her every day with this medicine and that kept her sister alive but when they got into the camp she found that in the same Hut were a number of other people suffering from the same illness and she had the medicine but only enough for her sister what was she to do as a Christian and she decided to give the medicine to all who were suffering and it was only a little bottle and so she shared it out for a whole week and for another week and for a whole month and another month and the velum month and by Sheree down that bottle was never empty and the medicine multiplied in a beautiful eventually her sister died and she was the only one left and after she came out she travelled around the world as what she called a of the Lord and shared a Testament until one day she noticed at the back of the audience she was addressing the concentration camp officer who had cruelly treated her in the others and she felt I can't speak to that man I must get out of the meeting as quickly as possible after I've spoken but God told her to go to the mat she said forgive him dear lady now she went to China and she found many many Christians in China who were then suffering terribly who had been toured by American missionaries that God would take them out of the world before the great trouble began and they now were experiencing the Great Tribulation on a local scale and it was rough and Corrie ten Boom made up her mind then that she would travel the world preparing Christians for the big trouble and that's what she did and she said I'm preparing for the big trouble by learning the Bible and by storing God's Word in my heart well now the big trouble came to her but not even locally just personally she had a terrible stroke which left her totally paralyzed and totally unable to communicate she lost all of her senses and lay comatose for the last few years of her life I learned only after she died that there were two things that could reach her one was her name whew peter van vernon playing the violin he was the boy if you've read his story who had to dress a puzzle as a girl to ride a bicycle past the germans and peter van vernon is a lovely man he played the violin torah she lay comatose and she would begin to move and respond to the music so he spent hours playing the violin to her on the shores of lake geneva where she was then in his own the only other thing that she responded to in those final years and I'm very humbled to tell you this were the tapes of my Bible teaching and I didn't know at the time but they played them to her for hours and she just responded a bit to that because she'd stored the Word of God in her heart well it was her trip to China that told her how misleading this rapture teaching was that Christians need not prepare for big trouble I would only add that I'd rather be wrong my way than the other way I'd rather tell people to be ready and find they don't have to then tell them they not going to be troubled and find that they are that would be really on my conscience but I believe the New Testament is clear jesus said watch for these signs and this is sign number three the trouble is that when there's a carcass vultures gather and what is really meaning is when these disasters come there will be plenty of people trying to take their pickings from it so be careful and watch then he says the false sign of his coming will come immediately after that so we shall know when he's coming we should be ready when those three and a half years of great distress come to an end the very next sign will be immediately after and when that Sun comes there will be no danger of false prophets or false messiahs there will be no deception it will be too quick and what will happen is that all natural light will be switched off the Sun will go dark the Stars will fall there are many predictions of this all the way through the Bible as I predicted the heavens will be rolled up like a carpet all natural light will go which will leave the world in total darkness apart from artificial light and people wonder what's happening what's going on Christians will say this is it get ready we've reached the final sign I was taken as a boy to the theatre as a little boy my first pantomime and it was in the Theatre Royal in Newcastle on ton I remembered vividly and I was so excited my first pantomime my first visit to a theatre and we sat there waiting and the lights of the theatre began to go out one by one until we were all sitting in darkness I can remember so vividly my little heart was beating it's so exciting it's going to begin any minute now and then the curtains went back and revealed a brilliant little stage and there was the hero center stage people all round him and the whole thing was exciting from then on and you know I've thought of this that's exactly what will happen the whole world remained darkness and it's about to begin Jesus then said when you see all these things you know that he's at the door about to step in to step back onto the stage of history and it begins with a flash of lightning from east to west and the entire world will be lit up more than lit up by lightning another natural light but as sharp some natural light from east to west and there he'll be coming back as he went on the clouds of heaven I can even give you the weather forecast for the day would you believe it if he's coming on clouds of heaven and he's coming back to Jerusalem then the wind must be from the West it will be a wet when not a dry wind here am i giving you a weather forecast for the day Jesus gets back but there'll be no clouds unless the wind is that direction and he's coming on the clouds he makes the clouds his chariots he's coming back in exactly the same way as he went I still don't know if I told you this I having taken two conferences in the same place I'm 82 year 83 year old memory has to recall what I've said to the different people but I've told some people in this room that my grandfather's grave has a stone David ledger portion I'm named after him and underneath his name and the date of his death in 1934 when I was only four so I hardly knew him is a real preacher for the Lord and underneath that of three words what a meeting but it's not a quote from the Bible it's from an old Methodist hymn for he was a Methodist pastor and it's a hymn about the second coming because we'll all meet him your first free flight to the Holy Land some of you have gone there but you're all going there and a free flight his people will be gathered from all over the world to meet him in the air that is the rapture and that word comes from the old Latin translation of 1 Thessalonians 4 we shall all be snatched up to meet him in the air and the Latin verb for snatched up is wrapped Oh from which we get the word rapture when you caught up in feelings and so the word rapture is right but the theology that is built about the rapture believes that it will come before the big trouble it'll come because Jesus is not coming back twice in my new testimony is coming back once and that's when the rapture will take place and we shall be caught up to meet him that's when we shall leave the situation we've been in and be taken up with him in the air and the last sign just before that happens is the Sun and the stars and the moon ceasing to shine where God switches off the lights of heaven to prepare for the blazing light of the Lightning the announced his return and then he comes on the clouds back to Planet Earth and we meet him and since there'd be a fairly big crowd were not meeting in an earthly stadium there isn't one big enough we're meeting him in the air and that's big enough he's looking forward to your first free flight to LA Leland he's not an exciting prospect I'm not playing games with you that's the truth well there are the four Cylons and he says when you see all these things you know that he is at the door just about to step through and then he gives a very simple statement about a fig tree and this is where many Christians have gone astray he says when you see the fig trees and the branches are tender and the leaves appear you know that summer is coming and therefore he says when you see all these things happen you know that we're there now that analogy of the fig tree is not an allegory I mean by that it's a very simple analogy from everyday experience such as Jesus often did in his teaching you see the fig tree doing this you say the summer is coming and it will come and in the same way when you see these fall signs you know the summer's coming unfortunately people have read it as an allegory and they rightly say that in the Old Testament Israel is likened to a fig tree and so they read that into this verse and say when you see Israel blossoming and that's the way they brought Israel into the signs of his coming but you know it brings Israel in it entirely the wrong place if Israel was going to be mentioned it should have been mentioned much earlier among the false islands but it comes in after the darkened sky and after the return of Christ it's not Israel at all and my proof for that is very simple in Luke's Gospel chapter 21 Luke has another version of this statement a fuller version he's remembered all that Jesus said and this is Luke's version when you said they see the fig tree and all the trees blossoming you know that he is near now that's very different what are all the trees quite simply all the trees the fig tree is the first to blossom and very quickly all the other trees follow in Israel and so Luke has recorded the full version now that doesn't mean Matthews got it wrong he didn't even remember the fig tree and that's important and it's still true that when you see the fig tree blossom but he is not saying when you see Israel blossom but I meet hundreds of Christians who tell me that this is Israel and that Israel blossoming is the sign of Christ's coming and that's what has led many to say we must be in their very end times and they expect Christian around the corner Christ to come around the corner tomorrow and it's aroused people in panic now I've got 20 more minutes left and I'm tempted to say I'd love to go on so would you like to go on right let's go on as it was in the days of Noah so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man for in the days before the flood people were eating and drinking and getting married up to the day Noah entered the Ark and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away that is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man two men will be in the field and one will be taken and the other left two women will be grinding with a hand mill one will be taken and the other left therefore keep watch because you do not know on what day your Lord will come but understand this if the owner of the house had known at what time the thief was coming he would have kept watch and not allowed would not have let his house be broken into so you also must be ready because the Son of Man will come at an hour where you do not expect him who then is the faithful and wise servant whom the Masters put in charge of the servants in the household to give them food at proper time it will be good for that servant whose master finds him so doing when he returns I tell you the truth he will put him in charge of all his possessions and suppose that serve but suppose that send is wicked and says to himself my master is staying away a long time and he then begins to beat his seller fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him as an as a now he doesn't he is not aware of he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and the rest of this sermon of Jesus goes on to three parables the parable of the wise and foolish virgins the wise virgins who whose lamps were still burning when the bridegroom came and the foolish bridesmaids whose lamps had gone out and they've gone away to try and get some oil and mist the bridegroom's arrival and therefore were shut out of the wedding and then he went on to the parable of the talents and talked about some receiving 10 talents some 5 someone and the master went away and came back and asked now what have you done with the talents are left with you and the man with 10 said I've got another 10 man with five said have got another file the man with one said I've done nothing with it I buried it because I know you're a hard man and you reap where you haven't sown and you you want money from me and what a terrible thing to say and we'll look at what Jesus said the master said to him then and the final parable is not a parable a straight prediction but with an analogy in it of the sheep and the goats if you go to Israel sheep and goats graze together the goats will be black and the Sheep will be white they're easily recognized and when evening because sheep are not so Hardy as goats the Shepherd when the Sun sets divides them up and takes the Sheep into a walled enclosure a sheep fold and leaves the goats outside because they can cope with : bad weather very vivid when you go to Israel you see the Bible in front of you with your own eyes and he finished that parable with dividing nations everybody and then telling them why he divided them because those who are on his left hand are those who ignored Christ in Christians and insofar as they didn't help the least of these his brothers they were doing it not to him or the people on his right he said you saw Christ in my brethren and in as much as you did it to the least of these my brethren you did it to me he is not dividing people into those who did philanthropy and those who didn't the key is the meaning of the word brethren and when Christ said brethren he always meant his own followers go and tell my brethren that I've risen from the dead you'll find brethren is a key word to Christ it means those who follow me and he's simply saying whatever you've done to Christians or not done for them was done to me or for me or not for me Christ is what's divided them their attitude to Christ as revealed by their attitude to Christians that's the principle on which you divided now let's look at all that we've just read first there is a warning that nobody has Rod's diary that not even jesus knew the date of his return angels didn't know it no man knew it and we should have a healthy ignorant of the date of his return nearer the time as we watch for the signs we will know but I don't know at the moment when he's going to return because not all the signs have appeared I'm watching for them the first sign is clear the second is becoming clear the third has not happened and the fourth is certainly not happened so I don't know if I'm in the very last days or not and I cannot preach that so I'm afraid I don't use the word n times in my preaching because I think that conveys an impression that we are the final generation and that were just about to see him come back if I believed that I'd certainly be different and this brings me to the second important point did you notice that in the parable of the household and the parable of the virgins and the parable of the talents did you notice one phrase that came in all three it says the householder was a long time returning it says the bridegroom was a long time coming it says that the person who gave the talents went away for a long time the real test of whether you're ready for Christ when he comes is not what you're doing when he returns it's not what you do in the last three-and-a-half years when you know he's returning it's what you do now when he's been a long time away the real test of whether you're ready is not what you do if you think is nearly here and coming back soon it's what you do when he's been away for a long time whether you've been a faithful servant whether you've kept your lamp burning whether you're using the talents he gave you that's the real test because when he comes back is not interesting what you're doing then if you're just beginning to put things right and live the Christian life then or even for the last three and a half years it means you're not ready for his coming what he's looking for is your faithfulness when he was away a long time that's what he wants to look for and he will say to those who've been faithful all the time he was away well done good and faithful servant enter into the joy of your Lord and there is reward there the householder when he came back and finds the faithful servant who's been looking after the food and looking after the other servants in the household he says to the bad servant too because the master was away a long time started slipping and began to eat with and drink with drunkards and began to beat the other servants saying it's all right he's not coming back for a long time that person listen to the words again he will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth and that's language that Jesus always used about Hell now hear this that man had been a server in the household of God and he's finished up in hell that's once again a passage that tells me once saved always saved is not the truth he was a servant of the Lord and he finished up there I fear going to hell I'm a Christian I'm serving the Lord but I still fear hell because most of Jesus warnings on hell were given to born-again believers and I don't want having preached to others to be disqualified myself notice about the ten wise and ten foolish virgins just to lighten things there was a preacher in London who asked his congregation a rhetorical question that means he was asking something he didn't expect an answer to but thought he knew the answer and he pointed up to the gallery in the church and he said you young men in the gallery why would you rather spend eternity with the wise virgins in the light or with the foolish virgins in the dark and he got a unanimous answer from the young men in the gallery and they answered out loud to him you should be careful before you ask for Torah tour questions but to be serious all these were bridesmaids invited to the wedding and ready to come who'd accepted the invitation and now half of them were shut out in the darkness it's a serious parable and the question is not are you a bridesmaid of the bride are you part of the Bride of Christ the question is is your lamp still burning when he gets back not has it been burning earlier but is it's still burning when the bridegroom comes that's the important question it's not whether you were converted 20-30 years ago it's is still burning for the Lord are you still a shining light for him doesn't really matter what happened 20 years ago when he comes it's are you still ready and even the parable of the talents it's very interesting that the man who had only one talent buried it and some Christians look at other Christians with more talent than they have and they bury their talent they may only have one little gift to look after but they bury it because other people have more when Christ comes he's not bold about all the other people he will ask you what did you do with what I gave you did I get any interest he says to this man at least you could have put it in the bank and I've had some interest interesting comment there of Jesus on investment but what he's saying is what are you doing yes I maybe only gave you one gift but I expected you to use it I expected to profit from that gift and the man with one gift said you're a hard man you expect things that you expect to reap where you haven't sown you expect us to bring us interest for you what an extraordinary complaint what did Jesus say to him his master replied you wicked lazy servant so you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed well then you should have put my money on deposit with the banker so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents for everyone who has will be given more and he will have an abundance but whoever does not have meaning doesn't have anything to show me of what they've done even what he has will be taken from him and throw that worthless servant outside into the darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth here's a believing person who has been given a talent to use of the Lord and who has done nothing with it and has nothing to show for that talent and the end is hell when Jesus talks about darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth he's talking about hell every time so once again here is a believer finishing up in hell because they didn't use the gift they'd been given so that Jesus would get some benefit from having invested in them these are all serious things it means quite simply and that clock is rushing by of only three minutes it means that when Jesus gets back there will be a separation of pea people in the church in the kingdom there will be signs before he gets back but when he does get back there will be a separation between believers of those who are ready for his return by having been faithful during the long time he was away I can't put it more simply than that and some will be welcomed and given more responsibility as a reward and given charge of the whole household he says in one parable and to another I will put you in charge of 10 cities now when Jesus gets back he will reward you with more work isn't that exciting well if you don't I work you won't get excited but there was a brilliant scientist in Germany who labored for years in an old shed under trying conditions to make a discovery that would benefit mankind and after years of laboring under these very bad conditions in a shed he discovered what has benefited us all and as a reward the German state built him a new laboratory with every convenience and every piece of apparatus that he could desire and they said this is your reward for making that discovery under those poor conditions that's very like Christ Christ has you've been faithful here's more you've been good at looking after a little he is more and people have been faithful in looking after a little money for Jesus will be given more money not to spend but to use for him so here we are I'm going to assume for the moment that you are all Christians I never ought to assume that but I'm going to for the purpose of this talk you are all Christians that doesn't mean you're all safe there will be that separation at his coming between the faithful who've gone on doing what he left them to do however delayed his coming was who everyday remember that he's coming back and who kept to the job and endured the suffering and been his good and faithful servants and between those who've because he didn't come soon have fallen into bad ways God drunk with drunkards their lamp has gone out and they no longer shine for Jesus and they have buried their talents and Jesus will separate those two groups the Bible calls it the judgment seat of Christ Paul refers to that in took 2 Corinthians 5 and he says we must all appear and he's writing to Christians before the judgment seat of Christ to receive his reward or punishment for what we have done in our body whether good or evil so Christians will come into judgment and could finish up in hell I hope that when that day comes everybody here will be on the right side that's what it's all about I don't teach about the Second Coming to satisfy people's curiosity about the future but to get people ready for the day when the Lord gets back amen you

Channel: David Pawson - Official

Views: 202,514

Rating: 4.6992059 out of 5

Keywords: David Pawson, Christianity (Religion), The Bible (Religious Text), End Time (Belief), Gospel Of Matthew (Religious Text)

Id: sFgxYVXAs6Y

Length: 90min 55sec (5455 seconds)

Published: Tue May 26 2015