Signs of Second Coming of Jesus by Zac Poonen

I'm sure you've heard many messages about the second coming of Christ and that's a very popular subject with many people many preachers but if I were to ask you from all the messages you've heard about the signs that would indicate that the coming of Christ is near what are the first signs that come to your mind from all the messages you have heard in your life about the signs that point to the second coming of Christ I've heard a lot of sermons in my younger days and as I heard them now the signs that would come from oast frequently to my mind is wars and rumors of wars and tsunamis and earthquakes and Israel coming into the land etc etc but one of the things that I have sought to do is to try and approach the scriptures with a mind that is completely open not bound by the traditions I inherited from my church background I was born into a orthodox syrian orthodox church family so i was baptized as a baby christened so when i was born again when i was 19 and a half i wondered should i get baptized again there's only one baptism i was bound by that tradition for one and a half years and i studied the scriptures and i saw there's not a single verse about child baptism in scripture but there are millions of christians who baptized their children so millions of Christians are wrong there are even born-again Christians in some denominations who baptize their children John Wesley was one of the greatest men of God who lived in England two hundred and fifty years ago but he didn't baptize adults - Martin Luther and many others like that great men of God so that teaches us great men of God can be wrong millions of Christians can be wrong hmm so there's only one guide for our earthly life written guide that's the word of that the Bible I find that many Christians say that the Bible is the Word of God but they don't read it as much as other books then they are dishonest and I'll tell you one thing God loves honest brothers and sisters if you were to make a list of the sins that Jesus condemned the most if he were to make a list of the most serious sins we would put murder adultery stealing but Jesus hardly ever spoke about those sins he spoke about hypocrisy the opposite of hypocrisy is honesty he hated hypocrisy it was not to murderers and thieves that he said you will go to hell it was the hypocrites so I want to encourage you my brothers in more than 50 years of being a believer I have discovered that God loves honest people and so one aspect of honesty is this if you say something act according to it if you say among all the millions of books there are in the world there is only one book that God has written and that is the Bible I'm sure all of you say that but if you are honest you will study this book more than watching television more than watching movies more than other books if you don't do that I have to tell you you're dishonest you don't speak the truth you say something with your lips you know the jesus said that these people draw nigh to me with their lips but their heart goes after their covetousness they study the stock market more than they study the Bible because there you can make money here you get only spiritual riches and they prove by their life that they are really interested more in material riches than spiritual riches but theoretically if you ask them a question answer paper is the Bible the Word of God yes it is is that the only book that God is written yes it is but they don't go by it well I decided to go by it and when I compared what the Bible said with what I saw being taught in the Orthodox Church I discovered a lot of it was not in Scripture what did I do I just threw it away from my life and then I came to another assembly these were born again people and they emphasize certain things in the scripture but they did they study the scripture like we study history or some other subject in school it's all academic they didn't speak about the Holy Spirit so I never knew anything about the baptism in the Holy Spirit in that church but they really studied the scriptures and I'm thankful for that but I found I knew all this academically but I didn't have power in my life and again as I read the scriptures I saw that this church though they preached water baptism did not preach baptism in the Holy Spirit and that's what I needed and then the Lord filled me with the Holy Spirit and then I knew that I needed supernatural gifts to serve him I can't serve him with my natural ability the Bible says I must covet to prophesy every believer is urged to do that if I want to serve God and I began to do that and then I went to Pentecostal churches and I found so many different emphases on the different gifts of the Holy Spirit and in every time I said just like I did with the Orthodox Church I gave up that traditions comparing it with Scripture and then I was with the Brethren and I compared them with Scripture and then I saw what to start in the Pentecostals and I compared it to Scripture and I said nobody's gonna convince me about anything I don't care if a million people say something if I don't see it in the Word of God I won't accept it and I want to tell you that is what saved me from going astray and I would recommend that to you let me show you a verse in Acts of the Apostles chapter 17 in Acts of the Apostles chapter 17 we read about Paul and Silas going to a place called Thessalonica preaching the Word of God and they were number said 1 and number of people were converted we read there in verse 4 and joined Paul and Silas and there was a little church in Thessalonica and that's the church to which Paul wrote the letter to the Thessalonians earlier he was with a church in Corinth he wrote a letter to the Corinthians we read later on in chapter 19 he was in Ephesus he wrote a letter to the Ephesians he had the habit of writing letters to the churches he was in Galatia you read earlier in chapter 16 and he wrote a letter to the Galatians but there was one church one place he went to and planted a church he never wrote a letter to them have you wondered why and that was in a place called Berea a lot of people don't know about that they know about Ephesians Ephesus and karynda and Thessalonica some Christians have never heard about Berea let me tell you about Berea from Thessalonica verse chapter 17 verse 10 acts 17 10 the Brethren sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and they came there and did the same thing went to the synagogue and preached now listen to this the Holy Spirit's commendation and certificate of the people in Berea is this they were more noble minded than the believers in Thessalonica I'd like the Lord to say that about me that brother Zack was more noble minded than certain other believers I say Lord can you say that about me don't you want the Lord to say that about you how did the Holy Spirit give answered because the reason is given is first of all they received the word with great eagerness they didn't sit there in the meeting with their mind wandering here and there wondering what should i do tomorrow or what should I do this week or worried about something that happened last week they sat in the Word of God in the church listening with great eagerness that's the number one quality and not only does it apply to listening to God's Word in the church they when they read the scriptures they we had to read it with great eagerness that's number one that's why they were noble minded people who read the scriptures casually people who listened to God's Word in a church casually they are not noble-minded the Holy Spirit compares believers in Thessalonica with believers in Berea and the Holy Spirit will compare you with believers in some other place you'll compare one church with another Church and said they are more noble minded or this believer with that believer and say this believer is more noble minded I want a certificate like that from God and the Bible tells me how I can get it by going to God's Word this book with great eagerness they received the word see those days they didn't have a Bible this type of Bible has been available only in the last 500 years since printing was invented in the early days there was no bible the only bible that was in the synagogue where they had a scroll and are also only the Old Testament most of these letters were not even written so these early Christians how could they study the Bible they didn't when they came to the meeting they couldn't come with the Bible in their hand they'd there were no Bibles and there was no Bible in their home if they wanted to study the Scriptures they had to go to the synagogue and look at the scrolls and search the scriptures there was absolutely no other way to do it maybe a few rich Jewish people could afford to buy one of these expensive parchments of the Old Testament Bible most poor believers just couldn't afford it so when it says it searched the Scriptures they examined verse 11 the scriptures daily this is why they were called noble-minded they I mean if the Bereans had a Bible like this they'd have been thrilled they say we don't have to go to the synagogue now we can sit at home and search it daily they took the trouble to go to the synagogue and look at the scriptures to search the Scriptures every single day they had their work they were not all full-time workers you know doing God's work they were in a secular job they had to earn their living every day and then when that was over they went to the synagogue to search the Scriptures daily I am NOT surprised the Holy Spirit cause them noble-minded and what were they searching the Scriptures for they were searching the scriptures to find out this great Apostle Paul what he's saying is it right or wrong isn't that amazing that they knew this man was a great man of God it planted churches he'd healed the sick and done miracles and he'd seen Jesus face-to-face that's all very good but I still want to check whether this so-called great man of God was seeing Jesus face to face and done miracles all that is great but I still want to check whether he's preaching according to the scriptures I'll tell you this if you can look at every man of God called great man of God who does miracles and tells you about all the wonderful things he did in different places etc and no matter what he preaches you say brother that may be all right but I still want to check whether he what are you saying is I mean God's Word you'll be safe and the Holy Spirit will say you're noble-minded that's what I decided I don't care even if it's the Apostle Paul which have a great man of God today there is I want to see if he is preaching according to the scriptures and so you know when they heard the Apostle Paul speak on the synagogue on Saturday they've come to him and say praise the Lord brother Paul good to hear you but we like to check up the scriptures and tell you next week whether we agree with you or not isn't that great to walk up to an apostle and say that and so they would check and come back to Paul and say yeah now we accept what you say now today we don't have to wait a whole week you got the Bible right in front of you and if a man preaches to you anything anything under the Sun and he cannot show that to you in Scripture I'd say don't believe it it may be his own theory it may be his experience experience is not Scripture a lot of people have experiences you know Paul was thrown off a horse and saw Jesus face-to-face is that a doctrine that was his experience okay but his experience I don't have to be thrown off any horse and I don't have to necessarily see a vision of Jesus on a road that was an experience he had which was a genuine experience but it's not for me and you didn't have it either because the Acts of the Apostles let me tell you one simple thing is not a book for getting doctrine it's a history book and many people are dishonest when they come to the Acts of the Apostles they pick out certain verses to prove doctrines which are their favorite doctrines and they will reject other verses which are also in the same book that's what I mean by him being dishonest the Berean searched the Scriptures daily now if you go to the Acts of the Apostles I remember once I was with a group of people in North America god-fearing born-again believers who were called the Hutterites now I don't know whether you've heard of them there's a branch there's a group of Christians who were persecuted in Europe in the fifteen sixteenth century Amish Mennonites Hutterites Anabaptists they're all part of the same group and there are slight differences among them the Hutterites are people who believe in communal living that means they did what it says in the Acts of the Apostles they all had a common purse they nobody earned his own money they had worked together in a farm and one leader would keep all the money and they didn't eat together in a common hall they said this is how the early Christians lived this is how we going to live and they had a verse for it Acts chapter 2 verse 44 all those who believed had everything in common they got that doctrine from Acts of the Apostles all those who believed had everything in common all people had all things in common they say we're just obeying Scripture but they were against the doctrine of the baptism in the Holy Spirit they didn't believe in speaking in tongues or any other gifts to the Holy Spirit so I was invited to speak there once and we had a question time with a number of young people sitting in a home and they were trying to grill me and the leader said brother Zack doesn't it say in acts 244 that all those who believed had all things in common why don't you practice that I said before we go to verse 44 let's go to verse 4 they were all filled with the Holy Spirit I said they all spoke in tongues why don't you do that end of discussion end of argument they had for years picked out one verse and neglected the other that is what I mean by dishonesty in coming to the Acts of the Apostles and then I told them you cannot get doctrines from the Acts of the Apostles it's a history book you read there that Paul circumcised Timothy Acts chapter 16 what doctrine you get from that you go to acts 20 in 22 22 you read Paul shaved his head in the temple what doctrine do you get from that Paul fought with Barnabas they separated what doctrine you get from that many many other things like that it's a history book if you want to get a doctrine go to the episodes don't go to the historical I mean I've studied the Bible for 54 years and I'll tell you a simple principle of understanding scripture if you want to listen to me if you try to get a doctrine from the historical sections of Scripture you will be dishonest you will pick out the ones that prove your favorite tradition and doctrine and you will neglect things which dis which contradict what you believe that's what these Hutterites were doing so I go to a Pentecostal group we have a discussion and they say to me brother Zach doesn't it say in acts 2:4 they were filled with this spirit and they all spoke in tongues I say right I say to the Pentecostal let's go to acts 244 they all believed and they all had all things in common why don't you preach that end of discussion because if Hutterites picked out one verse in the pentagon's would pick out another both are wrong because they got the doctrine out of the Acts of the Apostles and they pick out the verses which they like and they're absolutely dishonest by not taking everything you either take everything or say that's not a book for doctrine well if you want to be protected from deception there's a simple principle there in the New Testament episodes we have everything necessary for doctrine now the same thing applies in the Gospels if you go to the Gospels and read the historical sections of what all Jesus did and say we've got to experience all that you'll get a wrong doctrine for example there are numerous places in scripture in the Gospels where we read jesus healed everybody who was sick not 99 percent 100 percent another place he healed them all what doctrine do you get out of that which place do you see every single person being healed there are as many sick people in Pentecostal churches as there are in Brethren assemblies who don't believe in healing now I'm not against praying for healing I prayed for the sick I've experienced healing in my own life and I've seen healing in answer to prayer but numerous people in our own church I've seen barren women giving birth to children in answer to prayer I believe in it but I still do not believe that everybody is healed among believers I don't preach that doctrine because I don't find it in the new in the episodes I know it's there in the gospel Jesus healed them all but I don't get a doctrine from the historical sections of Scripture and I want to say just one thing about healing there's something better than healing and that is health I don't pray for healing I prefer health and I would recommend that you pray for health say lord give me wisdom to preserve my body and health so that you know prevention is better than cure and if it if sickness comes then we ask God for healing but let's not assume that everybody's gonna be healed Paul was not healed of his thorn in the flesh 1 Timothy 5 we read that Timothy had a stomach's infirmity that frequently troubled him all the time Paul laid hands on and Timothy he was not healed that was Timothy's thorn in the flesh it kept him humble I'm just saying that in passing if you want a doctrine get it from a clear teaching of Jesus all the teaching of Jesus is clear absolutely clear for example Luke 9:23 you cannot follow Jesus if you don't take up the cross every single day it is impossible anybody you have to die to yourself every day if you want to follow Jesus not just go to church and sing songs and read the Bible you got to deny yourself and die every and anybody who thinks he can follow Jesus or she can follow Jesus without denying themselves every single day has not read Luke 9 verse 23 that's not history that's doctrine so when I go to the Gospels I retake all the teachings of Jesus literally exactly but when I read the history of what he did I say that's history there's no doctrine there because I also read in John chapter 5 where Jesus went to the Pool of Bethesda where it says there was a great multitude of sick people and He healed one person and walked out he didn't heal them all because Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit we read in Acts chapter 4 there was a lame man sitting at the gate of the temple we read in acts 4 that he was 40 years old and from birth he was lame and he'd been kept at the gate called beautiful he was always begging for arms and he'd been there at all if he was 40 years old he'd been put there probably for thirty years to be a beggar and when Peter came you know he asked for gold silver and gold P and Peter said I don't have any and he healed him but long before Peter came Jesus walked by that beautiful gate of the temple numerous times in three and a half years of his ministry and he saw that man and the man would ask him for money and Jesus would tell Judas give him some money because Jesus didn't live by rules such as thou shalt heal everyone who is sick no he lived by the leading of the Holy Spirit and so whenever he saw a sick person he would seek the will of the Father fathered what do you want me to do for this person now father you're leading me to go to the Pool of Bethesda and there's so many hundreds of sick people sitting here father what do you want me to do go to that man sitting there in the corner healing and Jesus would healing what next father walk away that's how Jesus lived he didn't live by rules he lived by the leading of the Holy Spirit we tend to form rules and say it must always be like this that's law we don't live under law we live by the leading of the Spirit and it's a wonderful thing to live by the leading of the Spirit Jesus lived like that all the time sometimes he would do something and sometimes he wouldn't he was led by the Spirit and so he came by this man at the beautiful gate of the temple Father what shall I do give him some money so it's a Judas give him some money he'd come by that same gate two weeks later what about now father he gave him some money regularly for three and a half years he walked in and out of that beautiful gate of the temple every time that man begged for money he gave him money if Jesus had healed him he would not have been sitting there when Peter came by and we read in acts 4 for 5000 people were saved seeing that man healed they would not have been saved because Jesus did something on his own two years earlier you see the wisdom of listening to God and when the father tells you don't heal him just give money do that a lot of people don't understand that we live too much in our soul we don't understand the difference between soul and spirit we act on human compassion and that's the normal way there are Hindus and Muslims who act on human compassion you don't need the Holy Spirit to act on human compassion I know numerous organizations in India I know Hindu leaders who have who set up hospitals in India where they give free treatment out of compassion Hindus you don't need the Holy Spirit for that there's a element of human compassion and a lot of people even atheists if not everybody's hard-hearted so if if we act on human compassion I think of the story of the prodigal son supposing you were living next door to the prodigal son and you saw this poor boy about to eat what the pigs are eating I know what you do you'll give him some food and every day you'd give him some food and make sure that he never goes back to his father's house because you're feeding him but the father out there has got more wisdom he's not gonna send any money to my son and he hears a message that his son is living with the pigs you know let him live with the pigs I want him to come back home I wanted him to get so sick and tired of his life that he comes back home but some soulish Christian next door can keep on giving him money and food and make sure he never goes back to his father's home because that soulless Christian does not seek God he doesn't know how to live by the spirit and you and I don't realize how much we have hindered the work of God by acting according to our reason the Bible says in proverbs chapter 3 now I'm talking about the type of Christian life which most people don't know anything about but that's the life you're supposed to live if you're really filled with the Holy Spirit that's the way your life can be most effective on earth not just to do what other people say come here go there do this do that and do everything they say Jesus never lived like that the Bible says trust in the Lord with all your heart proverbs 3:5 heart or spirit proverbs 3:5 and do not lean upon your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him listen to the spirit and he will tell you exactly what you're supposed to do have you read proverbs 3:5 and 6 you know as the as a child of Adam we all have grown up responding to particularly two sources of information one what comes through our eyes and the other what comes through our ears what we read what we see what we hear this is our main sources of information we have a little bit of information from touch and smell etc but mostly 90% of our information comes through what we see and what we hear you look at your own life and our mind is influenced a lot by what we see and hear and if you don't filter I mean if you're not spirit-filled if you're not really wholehearted then you live by what you see in here but when you're filled with a spirit and you want to walk in the spirit you're not going to just respond to what all that you see like I said the other earlier about an advertisement this advertisement says you cannot live without this you filter that with the Holy Spirit and saying I can live without it I don't need to buy that expensive stuff in order to live on this earth so it says about Jesus I want to show you a wonderful passage about Jesus which shows what a spiritual life is which many people don't understand you know we're not supposed to I'm not talking about milk now and this is what I'm sharing is meat and I trust that all of you have drunk enough milk in your life that you're ready for some solid meat we're not supposed to be babies forever we're supposed to grow up and this is solid meat Isaiah chapter 11 in Isaiah chapter 11 it is talking about the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus and he's our example Jesus is the perfect example of the spirit filled man there was there's nobody more perfect than him and so whenever I want to know what what does it mean to be filled with the spirit I look at Jesus he's my example I can't go wrong when I see people laying hands on somebody and pushing them down and saying that's the Holy Spirit okay I want to compare it with Jesus I go to the scriptures and I see where do I see Jesus laying hands on people and pushing them down never I see Jesus peeking people lying on down on the ground and lifting them up and these people are doing the opposite and there is a verse in the there's a word for that which is the opposite of Christ in Scripture you know what it's called Antichrist Anti Christ Christ lifts people up you push them down but how many Christians have discernment on that how many Christians are bold enough to speak about it I've had people tell me Oh be careful brother don't speak against the Holy Spirit I see you're gonna you're not gonna scare me with verses like that when the devil also quoted a verse to Jesus saying it is written and the Jesus said don't scare me it's also written you shall not tempt the Lord your God so when people say to me it's written don't blaspheme against the Holy Spirit I say it's also written in 1 John 4:1 beloved don't believe every spirit but test the spirits see whether they're of God if you don't know the scriptures people will scare you with verses if you know the scriptures like Jesus you know how to counter one verse with another do you know that the devil can quote scripture he quoted scripture of Jesus don't you think he'll call scripture to you perhaps through a preacher you gotta be careful so Isaiah chapter 11 speaks about the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon Jesus verse 2 speaking about you know the one who came out of Jesse and David in verse 1 that's Jesus the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him you know in the book of Revelation you read about the seven spirits of God or the Sevenfold holy spirit seven characteristics of the holy spirit all seven I hear the Spirit of Jehovah spirit of wisdom spirit of understanding spirit of counsel spirit of strength spirit of knowledge and the spirit of the fear of the Lord that's the Sevenfold Holy Spirit and that was upon Jesus and out of all these seven one particular characteristic is picked out the fear of the Lord the spirit of the fear of the Lord the Holy Spirit if he feels a person brings within him a tremendous reverence for God fear means not that being afraid of God I'm not afraid of God he's my dad I'm not afraid of my dad but I have a tremendous respect for him and the more filled with the spirit I am the more I respect him because the Holy Spirit is a spirit of reverence for God and if you don't have a reverence for God I say you're not filled with the Holy Spirit I'll tell you this when I hear some of these modern cheap charismatic songs I say these are not this is such a lack of reverence in some of them I'm not against them some of them are really good but some of them when I hear that I say these are love songs some half converted cowboy when he was in his unconverted days wrote love songs for his girlfriend now he's half converted and he writes love songs with Jesus like hold me close never let me go who are you talking to brother are you talking to Almighty God or you converted all those love songs you sang to your girlfriend now to Jesus I can't imagine Peter singing songs like that hold me close never let me go and all that type of stuff I'm just telling you how I hear songs like that and I say in that church never again we're not gonna sing that the Spirit of God is a spirit that brings reverence for God and everything we sing must have reverence we must mean what we say and that's why I often tell people when you sing a song pay attention to the words because we're saying a prayer or a Thanksgiving or a praise don't just sing it just because it's a nice to know because somebody wrote it mean it and if you don't know the meaning find out the meaning for example for so many years maybe 20 30 years of my Christian life I used to sing many songs of Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna I never knew what it meant I was saying to God something which I don't even know the meaning many of you sang Hosanna today in that song tell me what does it mean what did you tell God what exactly did you tell God when you said hosanna in that song do you know the answer I mean hallelujah you know it means praise the Lord hallelujah you are short for yova praise the Lord what about Hosanna oh you say it's there somewhere in scripture it says in Matthew 21 Hosanna hosana is a hebrew word just like it's a combination of two words just like hallelujahs hebrew our men is hebrew many people don't know the meaning of our min we say i'm in so many times I've done it I'm telling you from my own mistakes I'm trying to teach you from my own mistakes I said I mean I mean I mean to me I mean only meant the prayer is over we can open our eyes but that's not what I mean means the word are mean is a Hebrew word which you could translate it as it shall be so it says the first time it comes in scripture is an ax sorry Genesis 15:6 where it says God said to Abraham you'll have children like the stars of the sky Abraham said amen abraham believed in the Lord and called our men Abraham amen the Lord so when I say I meant to a prayer it's not just the prayer is over it means what that brother said I believe it will be so it's an expression of faith when I say I'm into my own prayer I say something I say I'm in sometimes we repeat amen and when some brother says something I hope you mean it shall be so it's an expression of faith well the times of ignorance God overlooked but now onwards you know what you're gonna say the same thing with Hosanna Hosanna is a it's quoted from psalm 118 and it means save now we beseech you that's the meaning of that save us now we beseech you O son of David it's from psalm 118 towards the end save us now we beseech you psalm 118 let me read you that verse some 118 and verse 25 26 lord save wash our now we beseech you blessed is he verse 26 who comes in the name of the Lord now you know the meaning so when you say Hosanna you're saying O Lord save us now we beseech you from what you know those his/her lights wanted to be saved from the Romans save us from the Romans who are ruling us today Christians say save us from hell but Jesus didn't come to save us from the Romans or from hell he came to save us from our sins you shall call his name Jesus Matthew 1:21 because he will save his people not from the Romans not from Hell but from their sins is that what you up meaning just now when you said Hosanna oh and not just a small request oceania means we beseech you Lord we are desperate I want to be saved from my anger I want to be saved from my lust Hosanna Oh Lord hosanna save me now from I beseech you it's not just a weak request Lord it's an earnest request please remember that next time you sing Hosanna I'll tell you how I found out because I decided I am never going to tell a lie to God and I discovered that I was telling more lies to God on Sunday morning when I sang songs without understanding the meaning than any other day and I think it's true with many Christians there are beautiful songs in the among the Christian faith like take my life and let it be take my silver and my gold not a mite what I withhold really take my voice and let me sing always only for my king really you only want to sing for your king you want to give every single night of your silver and gold to God are you telling lies to God all to Jesus I surrender really I hope so otherwise it's a lie imagine coming before you wouldn't do that in a court of law would you go to a court of law and stand before the judge and say I'm giving all my money and to this person if you don't mean it what we say it in church to someone who's far greater than a judge to Almighty God dear brothers and sisters you know why the spirit of the fear of the Lord is missing the reverence for God is missing there's carelessness in our speech and that's the reason why God doesn't anoint us when we speak the word I when I sought God and said Lord how can you how can I ensure that you always be with my mouth when I speak your word the Lord said be careful with your speech all the time 24/7 then I'll be with your mouth when you stand in the pulpit but if you're careless with your mouth the rest of the time in your conversation God said backbite speak he will don't expect me to be with your mouth when you stand in the pulpit and I was so desperate I was so desperate I'm still desperate that God will be with my mouth when I stand in the pulpit that I said Lord I'm determined I'm gonna be careful with my speech 24/7 a lot of things people speak about I just keep quiet I have nothing to say I don't want to speak evil I don't want to backbite I don't want to gossip because I want God to be with me whenever I stand in a pulpit because I know so many people are dependent on what I'm saying not only in my church but which they watch and listen to me on the internet sometimes years later now to be extremely careful that it's God's Word that's going forth so the spirit of the fear of the Lord no come back to Isaiah 11 it says here when the Spirit of the Lord will make Jesus delight in the fear of the Lord and as a result he will not judge by what his eyes see he will not make a decision by what his years here this is completely opposite to the way the children of Adam live I told you that 90% of our information comes through our eyes and our ears and here it says about Jesus he would not take a decision by what his eyes told him or his ears told him he'd say no I have to listen to the spirit but with righteousness he would decide with fairness verse 4 he will not judge by what is I see and I remember years years ago when I was seeking God to be filled with the Holy Spirit in the spirit of the reverence of the Lord and the Lord showed me this you have to undo this way of life that you have inherited from Adam of making you know forming an opinion by what you have seen or taking a decision by what you hear a lot of things you hear may not be true a lot of things you see there may it may not be correct for example you see the Sun moving in the sky it's not moving it's a deception but you think it's moving you think the earth is not rotating under your feet it is rotating under your feet pretty fast you don't feel it to teach us that we can't trust our senses and much more in the spiritual realm there's only one book that can guide me that's God's Word let God be true and every man a liar it says in Romans chapter three and I decided that long ago we have to face the fact that all of us have inherited traditions from our church background and if you are if you say no no no I have not inherited then I can say nothing to you you're just deceiving yourself you and I we have got a lot of information packed in our mind and in our memory which you have got through what we seen and what we have heard from childhood maybe from preachers and what you read from different books of your own particular denomination and that is in a sense brainwashed you and you're convinced it's right and in those younger days you did not know the Scriptures well enough to compare Scripture with what you heard and you accepted it and you accepted it for so long that it gradually you felt that is the truth and we can say that in your mind you have a doctrine like a ways which is a vessel which is in a particular shape that is your doctrine the Orthodox have got a vessel in one shape and the Baptist of God in one shape and the bread in one shape the Pentecostals have got in one shape the Nazarenes have got one shape and the Methodists have got one shape everybody's got a doctrine a different shape vessel which has means molded in our mind through many many years and then we take Scripture and like pouring water into this mold or it's like pouring plastic they make plastic things by pouring it into a mold and it comes out that shape and you have the Methodist shape and the Baptist shape and the Brethren shape in the Pentagon shape because and they've got all God verses for it everybody's got verses for it because they are pouring scripture into a predetermined mold you'll never know the truth that way that's one of the things I had to fight in my life I said Lord I've lived all my life but what I read and seen and heard now I want to come to scripture just like Jesus said like a babe you remember the verse I quoted Matthew chapter 11 verse 25 I thank you Father you have hidden these things from the clever and the intelligent 11:25 and you'll reveal them to babes you know a babe comes into the world knowing nothing it's a very blessed position to be in it knows nothing if you teach that babe from childhood two plus two is five it'll grow up believing two plus two is five completely wrong so if you come to the Holy Spirit it won't teach you two plus two is five will teach you the truth but we've already got so much cleverness and intelligence because we are great Bible scholars we've studied the Bible we heard so many preachers we heard and we have not been like the Bereans comparing every single thing with Scripture even if it is the mighty Apostle Paul who preached we're not noble-minded we need to be noble minded to understand Scripture then we will not be deceived so I was telling he's talking about what is the sign of the Lord's coming now let me turn you to Matthew 24 when the disciples asked Jesus what is the sign of your coming that's a specific question what will be the sign of your coming Matthew 24 verse 3 what is the first thing jesus said not about Israel not about Wars not about tsunamis not about earthquakes what is the first thing he said make sure nobody deceives you deception is going to be one of the greatest characteristics of the last days and that's the only thing he kept on repeating wars and rumors of wars he said in 1 verse verse 6 and never mentioned it again Israel if you count Israel as the fig tree he mentioned it in verse 32 once and that was it but when it comes to deception he kept on repeating it see to it that no one misleads you verse 4 verse 11 many false prophets will arise and mislead many again deception and again it's he says in those verse 23 if someone says to you that here is Christ and there's Christ don't believe them because many false Christ's false prophets will arise and even show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible even the elect behold I have told you in advance verse 25 deception is going to be the greatest characteristic of the last days and when you turn to the episodes you find the same thing it's consistent what Jesus said is repeated by the Holy Spirit in 1 Timothy chapter 4 it says the Spirit explicitly says now when the everything is written by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament in the Bible what does it mean the Spirit explicitly says it hasn't he said all the other things this is like when you get a letter from your father and he underlines some things or you get an email from someone and it is highlighted in bold or in red that's the meaning of this if Paul were writing an email he would put this in bold and in red the Spirit explicitly says that in the last days some will fall away from the faith this is talking about believers it's not Hindus and Muslims to fall away from the faith they're not in the faith at all it's people who are in the faith Christians who will fall away from it how paying attention to deceitful spirits now if you believe that you're in the last days and you read this highlighted bold underlined statement of the Holy Spirit that people will fall away from the faith listening to deceiving spirits boy that you'd be very alert on that Lord I don't want to be deceived I don't want to be deceived how can I protect myself from deception great apostles like Paul Peter different ones come and preach how do I know whether they are preaching what's right be like the Bereans ask them to show it to you in Scripture compare what they say with Scripture I do not listen to people who just get up and hardly ever quote the Word of God if you have heard any of my sermons you'll find that almost every five minutes I quote a scripture you know why because I do not want your faith to stand in the wisdom of my cleverness but in the Word of God and most people don't know the Word of God enough to be able to tell you where the scripture is they say yeah it says this says that how do I know brother please show it to me in Scripture I don't have to go to the synagogue during the week now I've got the Bible right with me tell me where it is another verse 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 again speaking about the last days we request you brethren with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together our rapture with him let me tell you something he says that day will not come the rapture will not take place verse 3 until the Antichrist is revealed the man of sin for so many years I believed because I was taught that that will be raptured before the Antichrist and the tribulation I believed it for years and I even taught it till I studied the Scriptures more carefully and I got rid of this theological mold that I had formed pouring every verse into it I threw it in the trash and I said I want to go to there like the Bereans and search the scriptures and I discovered that the church will go through the tribulation and then Christ will come like jesus said like the Lightning shines from one end of the sky don't believe those who say oh Christ has come here secretly there don't believe he said second Thessalonians chapter 2 he goes on to say that the Antichrist will rise one who opposes and exalts himself and then he says be careful because in the last days verse 9 this one is going to come with the activity of Satan 2nd Thessalonians 2:9 with power signs and false wonders so one of the things I'm warned about in the last days is there's gonna be a lot of miracles being done by people who are not really leading you to Jesus they will come in his name but they will not manifest his character I see one thing about Jesus ministry he never took any money from the people he healed I don't see a single example of that in Scripture never never never never and he did far greater miracles than anybody's ever done I never see the Apostles taking money from those whom they prayed for healing but that is the main thing I see today and that proves to me these are not servants of God you can disagree with me if you like if you listen to me in the day of judgment you'll thank me for being protected from deception do not be deceived my brothers and sisters then he goes on to say these people come worst and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish and listen to this because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved I want you to think of this little expression it's very important receiving verse 10 the love of the truth so as to be saved receiving the love of the truth so as to be saved not just accepting the truth but loving the truth not just loving the truth but loving the truth so as to be saved not to be saved from the Romans not to be saved from hell not to be saved from sickness but to be saved from sin thou shalt call his name Jesus we he shall save his people from the sicknesses no he shall save his people from the Romans no he shall save his people from Hell no he shall save his people from their sins that's the meaning Matthew 1:21 the first promise in the New Testament he shall save his people from their sins that is the love of the truth chose to be saved and now listen to what I call the scariest verse in the New Testament you think the scariest verse is going to hell no the scariest verse in the New Testament is verse 11 of 2nd Thessalonians 2 that God Himself will deceive you now I'll tell you the devil is called a deceiver revelation 12 8 to 10 the devil is a deceiver of the whole world Ephesians 4 verse 22 I think says my lusts are deceitful the devil is deceitful he's a deceiver my lusts are deceitful Jeremiah 17 verse 9 says the heart is deceitful above all things look at the things that are out to deceive me Satan my lusts a heart my only salvation is if God protects me from deception and if God also begins to deceive me I'm doomed and it says your God will deceive some people read it have you read that verse that's why I say it's the scariest verse in the New Testament if Almighty God also joins the forces to deceive me I'm finished there's no hope for me I can think I'm very clever I'm smart I know the Bible but if God tries to deceive me I'm finished the devil can try as much as he likes if God is on my side the devil will not be able to deceive me my lust will not be able to deceive me my heart will not be able to deceive me I must have God on my side now who are the people whom God allows to be deceived who are the people he says God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they may believe what is false you mean God makes people believe what his father read your scripture God would make them believe a lie he'll make them believe they are born-again when they are not born again I have met numerous people like that he will make them believe that they are filled with the spirit when they are not filled with the spirit they don't manifest the Spirit of Christ he'll make them believe that they have a certain gift of the Spirit when they don't have the gift of the Spirit take the matter of speaking in tongues I believe there's a tremendous amount of deception in this area a lot of counterfeit tongues I've got numerous counterfeit tongues myself see unfortunately the word tongues has been translated tongues what it means is a language tongues is language they spoke in other languages on the day of Pentecost and 1 Corinthians 14 it's a gift of speaking in a language a supernatural gift of language you never learnt but it's a language and I'll tell you the deception I see in this supposing you hear somebody speaking in Chinese you can't understand a word of Chinese but when you hear and speak you know it's a language if you speak if you hear somebody speaking in Hindi Indian language you don't understand a word of it but you can make out if it's a language but if you get up if you hear a person saying ah ba ba ba ba ba ba ba and you call that a language that's not a language you can make that out and that's what's happening to a lot of people and they live all their life in that deception that they see these two three syllables back and forth and say skal it speaking in tongues my wife way back in 1969 came from the Brethren assembly she was totally against the gifts of the Spirit like all brethren assembly people are but she was in desperate need because we were poor extremely poor those days she was very active as a young person in medical college now she was married she was married to a very poor person and we had a child and we were struggling financially discouraged we didn't even have our own home to live in and in the midst of discouragement she went to pray with a godly sister now remember she's 100% against the gifts of the Holy Spirit and she was praying with this sister crying out lord please help me she had to confess bitterness and wrong attitudes that she had to different people and cleared out her heart before God and the Spirit of God fell upon her and she began to speak in a language it was not about Baba it was a language that flowed out of her she said it was so sweet that she didn't want to stop she didn't want to come back to English she just wanted to do that she spoke in English but she said no I don't want that and she continued that was a genuine gift it changed her life forty-four years ago I know when I pray to the Lord in tongues it's a language it's not an empty repetition of two three syllables back and forth it's a language that you can go on and on and on and on it's a wonderful gift God doesn't give it to everybody I don't know why but it's a the Bible says he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself and I know when it's a genuine gift because it edifies me I was such a slave to discouragement and depression frequently discouraged but now since I receive the gift of tongues discouragement disappeared from my life because I'm tempted but whenever I'm tempted I just keep speaking in tongues pray and pray and pray and pray in tongues and it's gone I thank God for it I believe the scripture this he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself I say with the Apostle Paul I thank God I speak in tongues more than all of you and I wish you all spoke in tongues but God has gives it to some I'm just telling you there's a lot of deception there's a lot of counterfeit and what are the things that are counterfeited in the world nobody counterfeits toilet paper when you go to the store are you afraid this is a counterfeit toilet paper no nobody counterfeits newspapers what do they counterfeit gold diamonds hundred-dollar notes I think even one dollar notes are not counterfeit it's not worth it they only counterfeit things that are expensive so if there's counterfeit things they're counterfeit tongues the original must be pretty good and valuable if there's any counterfeit that the gifts of the Spirit the original must be pretty valuable that's what I discover so I must make sure I mean how many of you would go and buy a diamond and spend thousands of dollars and not even check whether it's a genuine one I don't know head or tail about buying diamonds a goal I never bought it in my life but if I ever have to buy it in some situation I'd take some expert with me I said listen I don't know head or tail about this I'll get fooled they'll give me a piece of glass and say it's a diamond I don't want to be full and much more I don't want to be fooled in the gifts of the Holy Spirit if it says this that he who speaks in a tongue edifies himself and I don't edify myself then probably what I got is a counterfeit maybe I just wanted to join the club but everybody says I speak in tongues and I'm not I'm not speaking in tongues so i manufacture something so hey hey I've also joined the club dear brothers and sisters there's a lot of deception and if you don't love the truth God will allow you to be full to deceive yourself God will allow you to believe what is false now do you feel that something is shaking in your life good if your foundation is solid nothing will happen if you're founded on the rock no storm no message nothing can shake you but if you find something shaking you better check up check up with the Scriptures not without I say check with the Scriptures be like the Bereans don't allow the devil to deceive you these things are so important I want to know that I'm really saved I want to know that I'm really filled with the Holy Spirit I don't want a counterfeit I don't want to just give a testimony to impress you that I'm filled with the spirit what is it what is your testimony mean for me what what human beings think of me is fit for the trashcan their opinion of me is worthless I mean if some really godly man like the Apostle Paul was going to give me an opinion about myself that I would listen to because the man is a God man but most people are not so spiritual their opinion is fit for the trashcan if they called me a prophet throw it in the trash can if they call me the devil throw it in the trash can the opinion is worth nothing they don't know my inner life don't be satisfied that people think you're spiritual live before God and see are you overcoming sin let me show you one verse James chapter one James chapter one and verse I'll show you one area where a lot of Christians are deceiving themselves James 1:26 James 1:26 it says if anyone thinks himself to be religious or what we would call spiritual and he cannot control his tongue his whole Christianity is worth zero if anyone thinks he is spiritual and he cannot control his tongue he loses his temper he back fights and gossips gossips gossips gossips he cannot control his tongue his whole Christianity is worth zero whatever version of Christianity he has Baptist brethren Pentecostal whatever it is if he cannot control his tongue his religion his Christianity is worth zero I'd like to know how many Christians believe that I could not control my tongue when I got married I I didn't know about victory over sin those days I was born again but I didn't know victory over sin I didn't take this verse seriously but I remember the day I took this verse seriously I saw people who would speak in tongues in other tongues in the Pentecostal church Sunday morning and in the afternoon in their mother tongue shouted their wife I said what type of language is this you mean the spirit can control your other tongues but cannot control your mother tongue that can't be the Holy Spirit I said I don't want that I said lord I don't I'm not able to control my mother tongue I don't want just other tongues I want control over my mother tongue as well that's how I knew that my other tongues was genuine if the Holy Spirit cannot control my mother tongue and I I've got some other tongues I'd say I'm fooling myself how is it that the Holy Spirit can give you an unknown language but cannot control your mother tongue it's not really the Holy Spirit or some other spirit there are Muslims who speak in tongues Buddhist who speak in tongues it's not from the Holy Spirit so let's take these scriptures seriously and if I'm honest that's all you got to do go to scripture be like the Bereans compare everything in your life with God's Word and you'll never be deceived God has given his his inspired word to guide us protect us from deception in these last days to protect us from deceivers compare every preacher with Jesus I always before I invite people to speak in my pulpit I check certain things I say is this man a humble man is he approachable Jesus was the most approachable person of all he didn't have four bodyguards around him when he was moving around like some preachers today he didn't say my minimum fees is ten thousand dollars a night if you want me to come and speak you see all this deception that's going on today and people think oh great man of God he's not a man of God is just a deceiver I compare everybody one with Jesus and you'll never be deceived if you compare with Jesus is he approachable is he humble what's his attitude to money Jesus received money it says in Luke chapter 8 verse 3 that even the rich Herod's palace manager gave money to Jesus and he accepted it but he never asked anybody for money he never went around saying hey I'm doing a great ministry will you guys support me that's all today's deceivers who say all that Jesus trusted his Heavenly Father for his knees that's how the apostles lived then we won't be deceived if you compare everyone with Jesus that we see around I tell you we're living in the last days because exactly like Jesus said there's tremendous amount of deception there's another Jesus being preached today another Jesus who can forgive your sin but cannot save you supposing I go to a non-christian in India and I tried to give him the gospel hey you and I are sinners I tell him you know we need to be forgiven Jesus is Almighty he's God he died for your sins and then that non-christian says that's great I want that but can this Jesus help me and save me from shouting at my wife and I said well he can't save you from that but you will keep shouting at your wife but you can forget you can ask him to forgive you he'll say to me I don't want this Jesus you keep it I wanted God will help me to overcome my anger and if your wretched God cannot can only forgive my sin you're fooling me don't isn't he right to expect that Almighty God can at least help us to control our town what sort of gospel are we giving to others a gospel that doesn't work in our home if you have a DVD player that doesn't work in your home will you pack it up and give it as a gift to somebody I hope you don't if you have a gospel that has not worked in your home do you give that to somebody I hope you don't another Jesus who forgives us but cannot save us another spirit who gives us excitement but doesn't make us holy everybody agrees unclean spirits make people unclean evil spirits make people evil Holy Spirit cannot make us holy he just helps us to make a lot of noise I remember one man walked into our church once Sunday morning he was a Pentecostal man and he said to me you don't have the Holy Spirit here I said how do you don't you live in my home see how I talked to my wife do know do you know how I handled money do I know you know what's going on how I live it at home how I brought up my children you don't any of those things how do you know whether I have the Holy Spirit or not he said you don't have enough noise in your meeting ah I said your Trinity is father son and nosy spirit my Trinity is Father Son and Holy that's the difference I believe in shouting and praising the Lord but that's not the mark of the holy spirit a drunken man can do that another spirit and another gospel another gospel that says come to Jesus he will give you well he'll give you a better house he'll give you a better car I have been to some ex communist countries and some of them tell me when the Communists were ruling here we had some good Christians here but then communism went and the Americans came with their money and Christianity in this country's become corrupt I've heard people tell me that in Romania Poland different countries another gospel money he you can watch movies now and it doesn't matter if there are a few bad scenes there just fast-forward it people who don't have time to read the Bible dear brothers and sisters I have shared the truth with you I hope you will take seriously we are approaching the coming of Christ we should not be ashamed when he comes let's wake up that old gospel that some of your ancestors who lived 80 years ago and experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in Romania they had the truth some of us have drifted away from that they had godliness they had poverty there now they were not so wealthy as you they didn't have all the gadgets you have in your home but they had godliness let's go back to that gospel which they had a genuine power of the Holy Spirit that's what we need in our day amen

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 38,916

Rating: 4.7651124 out of 5

Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Zac Poonen

Id: 0_ozQfdGITg

Length: 70min 15sec (4215 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 15 2014