Episode 07 - The End Times Timeline

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:07] Speaker B: Good afternoon. My name's Pastor Peter and this is my wife Sherry. We are Eyes to See Ministries International and we are being recorded at Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania. Each Wednesday we have a Bible teaching. Eyes to See Ministries is a, an international organization where we are a non profit organization organization and we, we bring the Bible to people rightly divided. So tonight I'm going to give you an outline of what is called the end times. I'll speak a little bit on that. And then we are going to shift over to the book of Proverbs and the book of Psalms, which will enlighten you into why you need to pay attention to this outline that I'm going to give you. And also I'm going to give you some scriptures that say why you are not going to want to do this. In the book of Matthew, the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is asked a question. This is called the Olivet Discourse. So it's a speech that he's going to give a teaching to his disciples that ask the question. So chapter 24 and chapter 25 in the gospel of Matthew is Jesus answering a question. So we, we have. As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, tell us when will these things be and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age? And Jesus answered them. See that no one leads you astray. Most people, when they look at these chapters, they're going to talk about wars and rumors of wars, an increase in natural disasters. There's going to be all kinds of different phenomena that come that the world's never known before or seen before. But Jesus starts out and the first thing he says is, take heed that no one deceives you because we are already in a time of great deception. There's many false teachings on the Bible from false prophets, people claiming to be apostles. And if you go on, just, just scroll through the Internet, you will see arguments going back and forth about the end times. You'll see people claiming that there's no such thing as the Rapture because that word's not in the Bible. And we've already discussed that. But I'm going to walk you through an outline on Matthew. This also appears in the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of Luke. So Jesus Olivet discourse begins in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 24, verse 1. He's going to talk about the signs of this age. This is including what we call what we refer to as the church age. This will be verses 1 through 14. You'll also see this in Mark, chapter 13, verses 1 through 13, and Luke, chapter 21, verses 5 through 19. Then he's going to talk about the great tribulation again in Matthew 24, picking up in verse 15 through 28, followed by Christ's coming after this tribulation, verses 29 to 35. And then he's going to get into the unexpected coming of his return, verse 36 and 37 to 44. And then we have some parables, the faithful and unfaithful servants, verses 43 to 44, the wise and faithful servant, verse 45 to 51. And that ends chapter 24. Now, we spoke about the, the parables, what they are last week. The reason Jesus is giving them these examples, he's using his culture so that they understand what he's talking about. And he will repeatedly say, those with ears to hear, let them hear. After this week, we're going to get into the Book of Revelation, beginning with chapter one. It's important that you understand what's happening there. And then I will talk about in chapter two and three, the Jesus letters to the seven churches. In chapter 25, we have the parable of the talents, verses 14 to 30 or verse 1 to 13. That's what we went over last week, the parable of the ten virgins and how that was related to a first century Galilean wedding. The parable of talents follows that in verses 14 to 30. And then we have the judgment in verses 31 to 46. And that ends chapter 25. So you have two chapters of Jesus giving a speech. So what is this End end times timeline? The very first thing that's going to happen in the world is what's called the Rapture of the Church. This is where Jesus Christ, this is the next Bible prophecy to occur. And I know there's a lot of confusion with this. There's a lot of people that when they talk about Scriptures that pertain to the rapture or, or the catching up of the church and the second coming of Christ, they mix them together and it becomes convoluted. But if you look at the Bible, you look at the Scriptures rightly divided, you will see that there is an event, it's a prophetic event that Jesus spoke on that has not occurred yet. That chapter 24 and 25 that I gave you the outline of a minute ago is more of a broad sweep of what I'm going to go over here, but I'm going to break this down. The rapture of the Church is where Christ is going to come and the church, the. The true believers in Christ are going to be called up into the clouds. Now you'll see this in Thessalonians and also in First Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 52. In Thessalonians, Paul's letter to the church. He is going to, by inspiration of God, speak about this catching up. He's speaking to the Church because they had questions. So Paul says that the dead, those that have already died, the dead in Christ, those that were in Christ are going to rise first, followed by those on the earth that are still alive right now, that are in Christ, and they will follow to be caught up into the clouds. Jesus never touches down on earth. This is very important. And, and then at that time, the Bible says that we, the believers at that time, the dead in Christ first and those alive on earth in Christ will be for ever be with the Lord. These are very important scriptures for you to rightly divide the difference between this event and the second coming of Christ. Now, I've heard people arguing about that there was a first coming of Christ, the first advent. He was born in the flesh is the Word. And he also was crucified, died and was buried, was resurrected, and then manifested himself again. So if you look at the first coming of Christ, he came twice within that period. And you have to look at this at as the same. There's going to be him in the clouds. He's not going to touch down. He will during the second coming. And I'll go over that with you in a minute. The Rapture or the catching up is the next prophetic event to occur that was prophesied given by the Word of God. After this occurs, the church is no longer on earth. [00:09:59] Speaker A: That's not good. [00:10:00] Speaker B: When we get into the book of Revelation, you'll see Jesus evaluating the condition of seven churches throughout Asia Minor. This is still applicable today. And my own personal take on this is, is the number seven is completion. And I think he's using seven churches to cover the whole gamut of what could be the condition of the church, either good or bad. And we'll look at that in a minute when we get into the Book of Psalms, after chapter three in the Book of Revelations, the church is not mentioned in the Bible anymore. And there's a reason for that. It's because of this timeline. So the next event that happens after the rapture is the rise of the Antichrist after the church is caught up and taken away. 2nd Thessalonians, chapter 2, verses 7 and 8. A satanically empowered man will gain worldwide control over with who promises peace. You can see this in Revelations, chapter 13, verse 1. And Daniel prophesied this in chapter 9, verse 27. Now he will be aided by another person, another man who's called the false prophet. And he will head up the religious system that requires worship of the Antichrist. We see this in Revelation, chapter 19, verse 20. So there's going to be a mandatory one world religion and it'll be the Antichrist as the enemy that comes in. As this timeline is progressing, there will be what's called the tribulation. You were given that in Matthew chapter 24. This is a seven year period that will occur on, on earth. It's important that you understand because most people that I talk to think the tribulation, the terrible things that are happening on the earth are caused by the Antichrist and Satan. And in the beginning, the first three and a half years of this, God is pouring out his wrath. Now the church is already gone. It's, it's been caught up in the clouds and it's forever with Christ. So those that believed the word of God believed Jesus Christ by, by faith, you were saved by grace, by grace, through faith. Those people are not here anymore. I believe as I travel around and I listen to people try to give me an explanation and a definition of what is salvation? What does it mean to be saved? What is repentance, true repentance, there's going to be a great falling away and again, rightly divided. There's a huge argument going on in the church today, and I'm not going to use the phrase, marketing people would call it a tagline. It creates an immediate argument between two camps within the church and neither one of them will listen to each other to see what they have to say. But if you look at the scriptures rightly divided, you cannot cherry pick scriptures. One camp will say, I believe in these Scriptures and they're true. And then when you give them the other scriptures and say, well, how do you explain this then based on that doctrine? The answer is I can't. But let's go look at these scriptures that I just, we just talked about. You can't do that. You have to look at the whole counsel of God. As Paul wrote in the book of Acts, that whole counsel of God is what is going to cause persecution within the Church. If you're speaking the true counsel of God, the persecution that you get is going to come from the church before it comes from the enemy or the world. So this tribulation period is talked about in Revelation 6, 16, 10 chapters, the Antichrist is going to rise to power during this time during the tribulation on earth. Remember, the church is going to be with Christ in heaven. Now it is also thought at this time what's called the judgment seat of Christ and the marriage supper of the Lamb are going to occur. The judgment that is going to happen with the believers in Christ. And again I'm going to say in Christ, this is where rewards will be given by Christ for eternity with these people. This is not where they're going to be. This is not a condemned thing. They've already been rescued. They've already received salvation and they're going to be with Christ eternally at this seat, this judgment seat. Christ is going to give rewards. That's why that we have parables such as the parable of talents. What are you doing with your time here on earth? Because your time in eternity, which today counts eternity goes as far back as is. It never ends in the past and forward. What are we doing today for Christ. After this tribulation period three and a half years, God pours out his wrath upon the earth. Jesus Christ died the perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God to keep people from the wrath of God. That's an important scripture. If you're saved, if you received God's true, if you're truly are saved, you were spared from the wrath. The Bible says you were not called to wrath. And this is the period three and a half years where God's going to pour out his wrath on this earth. We, I believe right now are in what's called the birthing pains. We can see an increase in natural disasters throughout the world. There's rumors of wars. There's wars in the world today. And there are people proclaiming that they are going to bring peace, that there's peace that can happen. The fourth event that will occur now, the second half of the tribulation, Satan knows his time is is limited. He's going to pour out his wrath. So you will literally have hell on earth at this point. God pouring out his wrath from heaven, the enemy coming after anybody that that is going to attempt to be saved at this time to receive God's salvation. And this is where the Bible says if you're on your rooftop during this time, don't go in your house and get your clothes, run for the mountain, because you're going to be hunted down. So the fourth event that will happen in the first part of the tribulation is what's called the battle of Gog and Magog and we don't have time tonight to get into what these, what, what countries these are. But there's a great army that's going to rise up from the north in alliance with several other countries from the Middle east and Africa and they're going to converge on Israel. God is going to supernaturally intervene. You see this in Ezekiel chapter 38 and 39. So there is some different, there are different interpretations of exactly when this battle will happen during the tribulation, the start, the middle. But it is going to happen. And one of the things that will also happen, there's, there's a discussion in the Bible about ten kingdoms. And again, this is not for tonight. But you can be a king in the world today and have a kingdom without ruling over a geographical piece of land or real estate here on the earth. These technocrats that live in the, that are in the world today that are perpetuating as technology increases and the Bible says there will be an increase in knowledge as this happens. The, the technocrats and the one world banking system, those are kingdoms. There are two kingdoms that will be part of these 10 kingdoms. So I wouldn't go in the Bible trying to look at 10 countries and see where, where are these at. The world's going to also be divided into 10 regions. One of the concerns that I personally have right now is there's a war happening in Iran right now and Iran is going to be part of one of these 10 regions. It's the only one that is not allied right now. Which means, and I believe that's why you see Russia and China lightly criticizing America for their involvement in Iran but not engaging in a battle against the U.S. it's because Iran is going to be brought into subjection to these countries. That's one of the regions that you're going to see happen in the world in the future. So Iran is going to be weakened militarily and then it will come into this area and we'll talk about that at some point in the future. Right now you just need to know if you're alive on the earth today. You do not want to be alive alive when the tribulation comes. You want to be called by Jesus, you want to be a true believer. You need to look at Galatians, chapter 5 and other scriptures that say what you need to do and what, and if lifestyles you're living in you won't enter into the kingdom. You have to look at the Bible rightly divided and at some point we'll get a look. We'll Take a look at that. The fifth event that's going to happen is called the Abomination of Desolation. This is at the midpoint of this seven year tribulation. The Antichrist is going to break his peace covenant with the world at this point and he's going to walk into the temple, he's going to proclaim himself God and require every human being to worship him. That's, that's what Daniel talked about in chapter 12, what he called the abomination. So if you want to look beyond this outline you're giving tonight, if you want to watch the news, look at what's happening with Israel, because that's a marker right now. Israel has not built the third Temple, but they already have. We have the ability technologically today to prefabricate buildings. And my understanding is that Israel already has prefabricated the temple. And what that means is when they do start to build that third Temple, it's going to happen quickly. Just like a prefabricated commercial building goes up in much quicker time. There's also red heifers. They already have everything that they need. They're just waiting for the time to do this. So we want to keep our eyes on Israel. And you want to keep an eye on this outline that you're given. [00:23:14] Speaker A: I think I read recently that the three heifers, red heifers that they had, the priest had found blemishes. I haven't checked that myself yet, but that's what I had read. That was just recently, like this past week or two. [00:23:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I know that there were three red heifers. [00:23:34] Speaker A: I think they came out of Texas, actually. Yeah, the United States here. [00:23:39] Speaker B: And the last time I looked at that, I know one of them had a blemish. I think the second one did. I was unaware that the third one did. [00:23:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's what's happened. I haven't kept up on it. It's like, okay, so it might push the timeline out a little bit, but [00:23:58] Speaker B: yeah, there may be. The important thing is keep your eyes on Israel and the red heifers and the temple. The building of the temple are two important events. When you see this happen, then you'll see rapidly things are going to start to unfold very quickly in the world. [00:24:24] Speaker A: So just as a side, when you talk about the prefabrication of the temple, I had a prefabricated home years ago and it goes up so fast, it's astonishing. So you're very familiar with that. How long do you think it would take for them to do something like that? [00:24:39] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:24:40] Speaker A: You don't know? [00:24:42] Speaker B: I never looked at that. [00:24:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I think my house was up in like six weeks. [00:24:49] Speaker B: Yeah. They have cranes today that can bring whole sections of homes together. I never really looked into what actually is the third temple to be, but with the technology today, they will be able to assemble that temple quickly. One of the things that's going to happen at that time, because the Jews are going to be deceived. And remember, they haven't. Their Messiah in their theology has not come yet. So they're going to get back to offering sacrifices in the temple too. [00:25:31] Speaker A: That's all they know, right? [00:25:33] Speaker B: That's all they know. After the abomination of desolation, there's going to be a great persecution before this period ends that breaks out against all those that believe in Christ. Now the sad thing is right now, and again, I'm not going to name the phrase because people will. They'll just shut down this teaching at that point. But the two camps within the church, the biggest argument that's happening right now that relates to salvation, there are. If people don't have an understanding, if their eyes are not enlightened to the truth of the Bible, of the gospel, rightly divided with these scriptures that they're divided over, if they don't repent, there will be an awful lot of people that are professing Christians that go to church every Sunday and think they're living righteous lives and they will be left behind when the rapture comes. That's why we talked about the parable of the 10 virgins last week. In that parable, Jesus said half of them, half of believers, didn't make it. The door was closed on them. I would make sure that you read your Bible and that you go to a church where you're being taught the whole counsel of God. The scriptures rightly divided. And today in the world today with the events that are happening and the birthing pains the Bible talks about, if you're not hearing about this end times timeline and prophetic events that have happened and which ones have not happened yet, you need to either watch through modern technology or get into a church where somebody's speaking on this so that you don't get deceived. Because there is going to be a great deception. It's already here. The sixth event is called the Battle of Armageddon. And while I'm looking at this, I want to let you know there is a conference at the Wyndham in Gettysburg on Saturday. August 1st, beginning at 8 and concluding at 6pm the title of this conference is called Abraham who's the father of our Faith? Abraham to Armageddon. There's six speakers, very well educated speakers on this topic, theologians. And you can go on Friday and register. Even if you got your ticket now, it's $79. If you're going to attend live, I believe it's $25. It will be live streamed. But I would really recommend you attend if you can get to that conference. These are speakers that have been on Prophecy Watchers. They've been traveling around the world and they're speaking on this because of the time that we're in and the burden that are on some of us to make sure the church is not deceived at this time. [00:29:25] Speaker A: Stick it. [00:29:27] Speaker B: The battle of Armageddon is going to occur at the end of this seven year tribulation. This is where Jesus is going to return with the armies of heaven. You can read about that in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 14, verse 62. He's going to save Jerusalem from annihilation and defeat the armies of the nations that are fighting under the banner of the Antichrist. And if you look in your bat in your Bible, this is a fascinating set of scriptures because wars that we're familiar with today linger for years. It says Jesus comes and it's only a few sentences. This is going to be over very quickly. You'll see this in Revelation chapter 19. This is the beginning of a couple chapters where the church is going to be mentioned again. So the Antichrist and the false prophet are going to be captured at this time and thrown alive into the lake of fire. That's Revelation, chapter 19, verse 20. I'm not going to get into it tonight. But there is what's called a first death and a second death. We are spared from the second death. If you're a true believer in Jesus Christ, if you're in Christ, if you're alive today and you're in Christ, when he comes in the clouds, you will be caught up. It doesn't say this in the Bible. This is just me, my own opinion. I think when this happens, I can just see it being that we're going to slowly rise up to the clouds to meet Jesus in the air. Just like the disciples. Four of them or three of them saw him at the Mount of Transfiguration. They watched him go up into the clouds. I think that it's going to happen that way. I just my own belief so that the whole world, when this happens, they can actually see that what I'm speaking about today is a reality. And unfortunately there's many people following theology today that believe that they're going to be. They believe in the Rapture, but they're not going to make it. The seventh event that will happen is called the judgment of the nations. This is, this is not the judgment seat of Christ where he hands out the rewards to the believers. This is when the what's called the nations are judged. So the survivors of the tribulation, whether they're there. This is where the Bible says that there will be a separation of the goats and the sheep. Those that are righteous are the sheep and the goats are the wicked. And we're going to talk about that from the book of Psalms in a minute. The righteous are going to enter into the millennial kingdom at this time and the wicked are going to be cast into hell. Hell is real. Heaven is real. Jesus Christ is real. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He is the word of go, eternal word of God. He's the Lamb of God. We talked a little bit about the, the wedding feast of the lamb. So the eighth event that will happen on this timeline is Satan is going to be bound and held in a bottomless pit for thousand years. That's this. During this millennial kingdom, there is no devil on earth Right now. He's being bound up. He is the prince of the air. He has, he has some authority here on earth right now. And at this time he's going to be, he's going to be refrained for a thousand years. Now one of the things that you have to remember too, when the church is removed, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God is going to be removed. He's what's referred to as the retainer. So that's what's holding things back right now. But when the church goes and the retainer leaves with the church, this is going to be why there'll be wickedness like you can't imagine on earth now at this judgment of the nations. This is when people that did not believe in God or in Christ are going to see they were wrong at this time. And it was, it's too late. That door has already been closed. The ninth event is the millennium, what's called the millennial kingdom. This is where Jesus himself will rule the world. He'll be in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is going to be his capital and there will be a thousand year period of peace and prosperity on earth. [00:35:22] Speaker A: Hallelujah. [00:35:24] Speaker B: Memorial sacrifices will be offered in a rebuilt temple in Jerusalem. So you can see these events in Revel chapter 20. Isaiah prophesied about these events in chapter 60 to 62. And Ezekiel also in chapter 40 to 48. So these were prophetic words given to true prophets for the God's people. And then the 10th event will be the last battle. At the end of a thousand years, Satan's going to be released for a brief from his prison for a brief time. He will deceive the nations once again and there will be a rebellion against the Lord. He will be quickly defeated. This is what I was talking about, that what would happen. I prematurely gave it to you out of the sequence. But Revelation, chapter 20, verses 7 to 10. This will happen. Satan at this point will be cast into the lake of fire, never to reappear the great white throne of judgment. All those in hell will be brought forth and all the wicked from all eras of history will be resurrected to stand before God in a final judgment. You'll see that In Revelation, chapter 20, verses 11 to 15, the verdicts are red and all of sinful humanity will be cast into the lake of fire. And then the last thing will be the new creation. God is going to completely remake heaven and earth. This is where all the Bible says all tears will be wiped away. There's going to be a new heaven and a new earth. Now if you can imagine God almighty God, omnipotent God, all powerful God, the Creator of all things, created everything from nothing. There's going. It doesn't say fire. The Bible says a heat is going to come that is going to totally engulf, destroy and obliterate every element known to man today, known to mankind. And then the new heaven and the new earth are going to come. If you haven't received Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and given him the sovereign rule over your life, you have free will. And I'm going to talk about some scriptures on why you're not going to want to do that, why the world's resisted that to begin with. In the book of Psalms, this is broken down into five books. In book one is Psalm 1 through 41. It ends with verse 13 and 41. That's the book that we're in. A psalm by definition is a sacred song or hymn composed on a divine subject and in praise of God. So if we look at Psalm 1, there's just six verses. I'm going to read this from the King James Version because that's where I memorized this from. If you want to put a heading to these six verses, you can Say the way of the righteous. Now remember, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life, the way of the righteous. Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. Or you could say, instructions of the Lord. And in his law does he meditate day and night. So this is the blessed person. That word man means mankind. So women are not excluded. God is not a chauvinist. I actually heard a believer tell me that one time. They didn't use the King James Version or the new King James Version because God excluded women from this blessing. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither. And whatsoever this person does, shall prosper. This is your prosperity message, people. Blessed is the person that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. That's why we have to give the whole counsel of God. If you're a preacher or a teacher, if you're a believer, you're called the witness for Christ. You need to be giving people the whole counsel of God. Now, verses four through five. There's only two people groups in the Bible, according to God. There's the righteous and there's the wicked or the ungodly. Now you're going to hear what's going to happen to the ungodly. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore, the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. Remember, we talked about that. Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. Sinners will not stand in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish. Jesus is going to tell a lot of people one day, depart from me, you worker of iniquity. I don't know you. [00:42:10] Speaker A: Can I give the NLT version of that? [00:42:12] Speaker B: Yes. [00:42:13] Speaker A: Yes. So actually, at Psalm 1:5, where it says in the King, the King James, therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment. The NLT says they will be condemned at the time of judgment. Sinners will have no place among the godly. So it's very pointed. [00:42:39] Speaker B: Yes, there is condemnation. If you're a believer, there is no condemnation. The book of Romans talks about that in chapter eight. Now, I just want to talk about something for a minute. These are from my study notes on this psalm in verse 1. It said, Blessed is the man or woman. This is the first Psalm of 150, and it serves as an introduction to the entire book of Psalms. You'll see in the book of Psalms the contrasts throughout all 150 Psalms, the two kinds of people recognized by God, the righteous and the wicked. The definition of the godly, this is the first group, the righteous group of people. The godly, they're characterized by righteousness. The godly people are characterized by righteousness, that Hebrew word for righteousness. The definition means rightness. You're in right standing with God. Rectitude, justice, morally virtuous people, morally virtuous people and prosperity, love. They have obedience to the word of God and a separation from fellowship with the world. God said, I am holy, be holy. That means you're separate. We're to separate ourself from the world system, from the world. Not only that, but we also are. And the Bible's very clear on this. And this is what you're not going to hear many people speak about. But if there's people in the congregation of the righteous in the assembly at church that are ungodly, the behavior is ungodly. We're to remove them from the congregation. The saints. The saints are to remove that. Now there's, there's many cases today where people have fallen, people that have had a platform in the fivefold ministry. They've been reinstituted prematurely. There was no evidence or they didn't allow leadership, did not allow enough time to go by to make sure these people were restored. There's a difference between restoration and reinstitution. And they've fallen several more times. They're to be removed. We have to do this in love. Now, if you look at Psalm 1 in the English Standard Version, you'll see a man made heading, a sectional heading that says the way of the righteous and the wicked. And in the Amplified, it'll repeat that the Amplified Version in verse one says, blessed and then parenthetically fortunate, prosperous and favored by God. So this psalm is one where it's the reverse of what we see a lot of times in the Bible where it says blessed is the person that does something. And it is referring to that, but it's telling you that you're. You're not to do certain things. Now, before I get into Proverbs and I, I left my watch in the vehicle, so I'm going to rely on my wife because the sun will go down and come up before I stop speaking. If I'm unaware of it, I have 15 minutes. My wife says I have more time than I thought. In this first psalm, which sets the tone for the entire book. Actually, the book of Psalms gives you ways on how to repent if you've fallen king. David had sinned with Bathsheba, and it was the prophet that brought it to his attention. He actually committed adultery, fornication, murder, and he. He repented. So if you look at, I think it's Psalm. Is it Psalm 51? [00:47:39] Speaker A: 50 or 51. [00:47:40] Speaker B: It's called the, The. The. The penitent psalm. You'll see what true repentance really looks like if you truly repented, turned away. This is the psalm where David says, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me in the book of Isaiah 57, 15. For thus says the high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. One of God's names is holy, capital H, O, L, Y. I dwell with him also in the high and holy. Place them with a contrite and humble spirit. That's what David's asking for, to revive and God, that humble spirit and contrite heart. God will not turn away. He will revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite ones. So if you want revival, this is it. Humbleness. Humble yourself before God. Get down on your knees, ask the Lord to examine yourself, because I'm going to tell you why you can't examine yourself. And he'll revive you. Yes, it's 51 at Psalm 51, the penitent Psalm. [00:49:12] Speaker A: Yes. [00:49:13] Speaker B: Now that psalm, you could say the ways of man. And there's a reason why I'm saying this. The back three psalms, or verses four through six. Those are the ways of man, the ways of wicked, the wicked, the ways of the ungodly versus the ways of God, the godly or the righteous, which you'll see in verses 1 through 3. And I would also reference John 14:6, which is the verse that I gave you part of before. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man shall come to the Father but through me. Jesus is the gate. He's the door. Remember in Genesis, the door of the ark was shut by God. The wedding feast of the lamb. The door is going to be closed. Jesus Christ is the door. You need to enter that door and walk on that narrow path of righteousness to be able to be a true believer. Now, why do people resist this? And I'm going to go over one of the proverbs in a minute, touch base on that Proverbs 16, verse 2. This is God speaking. He's given this. This is wisdom, the book of wisdom. All the ways of a man are clean and innocent in his own eyes, and he may see nothing wrong with his actions. But the Lord weighs and examines the motives and intents of the heart and knows the truth. Do you know you were. If you're saved, you were saved by grace, through your faith. It was God's grace. God did it, and you responded in faith. So there's a We come under grace, not the law. Now, the law was fulfilled by Christ. Do you realize you can, and I'm going to teach on this at some point in the future. What are good works and what are dead works? I don't hear people speaking on that. But based on this proverb, I can go do what looks pure in my mind as a good work. And yet if my motive is wrong, it's a dead work. So God's going to examine our heart. And that'll be another teaching coming up shortly is the heart. Proverbs 21:2. Every man's way is right in his own eyes. But the Lord weighs and examines the hearts of people and their motive. So our motives are important. You know, if I see an old lady walking across the street with her hands full and I'm a Cub Scout, I was taught to go help her come across the street. If I go do that out of obligation and my heart's not in it, I just performed, I just made that action a law, and I'm now under the law. But if I go do it with gratitude and love to help somebody, that's a good work. So the same action on my part can either be a dead work or a good work based on my heart. Where's my heart positioned in that work? And what is the condition of my heart? What is my motive there? So God Almighty God is going to examine your heart. He sees all things, and your spirit, he's going to look into your motives. Jeremiah 17:9. The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is extremely sick. Who can understand it fully and know its secret motives. So why do you not want to follow Christ? Proverbs 16:2. Proverbs 21:2. Jeremiah 17:9 tells you why the ways of people in their own mind and their own motives are right and pure. I'm okay. I'm good. I go to church every Sunday. I help my neighbor mow her lawn. I do this, I do that. I, I, I, I. You have a self will. But if you have not made Christ The Lord of your life. And if you don't understand what salvation is, what the, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, what we call sanctification is, and what repentance is, you're in trouble. You're part of the ungodly. An unrepentant soul is. The condition of that person's heart is not right with God. Now, I've heard people tell me that if what I believe doctrinally in the Bible is true, that those believers will be the most tormented people on earth. And I disagree with that because I have joy, because I was given an understanding of what salvation is, study and teach the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And I was taught what true repentance is. So when I get with God at the end of every day and ask him to examine me, he's going to tell me where I fell that day, and I'm going to acknowledge that he's right and I was wrong and repent. So salvation is God's free gift. I would also say that repentance is a free gift by God. It's what keeps you in right standing with God. So when I repent, I may be sorrowful, but when I change my behavior, and part of repentance is your heart's been changed and the evidence is changed behavior. When I do that, I actually experience the joy of the Lord because I have a true understanding of salvation, sanctification, how to stay in right standing with God with repentance. And I can assure you I'm not tormented. If you don't have an understanding of this and you're running around trying to figure out everything on your own, you will be tormented. In the book of Psalms, Psalm 34, verse 4, it says, Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. So once more we have a verse about that wicked and deceitful and sick organ, the heart. Now, this is not. When God talks about the Bible talks about the heart, he's talking about your inner what you believe and your motives, your desires. And I'll show you this in Proverbs in a minute. I have three and a half minutes left. John, chapter 15, verse seven. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, and ask whatever you wish, and it will be given to you. Why will this happen? Because you understand repentance. You're walking in the way. Repentance is going to turn your heart from yourself, from your own way of belief, what you think is pure and holy to God's ways. And now you're going to start asking God in prayer for the same things that he wills for you and your purpose and his purpose for you on this earth. That's why these things will be given to you. This is how you pray effectively, which will be another teaching at some point. When we get through this. The seven letters to the churches. Psalm 51:10. That's the Psalm where David said, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right and steadfast spirit within me. Notice it's God that does this. We can't do this on our own. This is why it's important to understand what grace is. You know, when I have. I have to walk through a trial, a tribulation. Today I can cry out to God and ask him to remove that from me, save me from it. But I have the ability as a believer to cry out to God to ask the Holy Spirit to give me the grace to stand fast in this tribulation and walk out of it with God's grace and grow in my maturity in Christ, become closer to his image. So when I learn that I don't cry out to God to pull this out, pull me out of the fire, I ask him for the grace to get through. Through there. That's an important concept. So let's take a look at Proverbs real quick. Proverbs 1 Again, the very first proverb. This is. This is a long one. It's 33 verses. But I'm just going to read the first six to you because Solomon wrote this. And he's going to tell you what the purpose of Proverbs is and what the definition of it is. The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, King of Israel, to know wisdom and instruction. Remember, in Psalms we looked at you delight in the law, which also means in God's instruction. So the reason for the proverbs, excuse me, is for you to gain wisdom. You get the knowledge. Applied knowledge is the definition of wisdom. And you're going to follow God's instructions whether you like it or not. There's things God tells me to do that I don't like having to do them some days. But I do it because I hear his voice. And I know if I do that that I'm going to get closer to Christ and I'm obeying Him. And His. My obedience to him is going to depend. Or the manifestation of that obedience in any believer is the favor of God on their life. To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding, to receive the instruction of wisdom, justice and judgment and equity. Remember, we looked at the definition. The Hebrew definition of righteousness included these words to give subtlety to the simple, to make it simple to the young man. Knowledge and discretion. A wise man will hear and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain to wise counsels. Remember Psalm 1. Do not walk in the counsel of the ungodly. So to understand a proverb and its interpretation, to gain an understanding of what God's telling you, that's where you will become a wise person. The opposite of that. James wrote about this. He said, be a doer of the word of God, the instructions of God, and not a hearer only. If you're a hearer only and you don't do what God said, you're being the opposite of using wisdom, which means you're a fool. You're foolish. You're being foolish and you're deceiving yourself. How would you deceive yourself? We looked at that in Proverbs 16:2 and 21 and 2. You're going to convince yourself in your own mind, through your own motives and heart that you're right, God's wrong, and that you know better than God. That's what you're saying. That's what the unbelievers of the world are saying. There is no God. I know better than God. And as we go further along this timeline with deceptive teachings, you are going to see many, many people falling away. What are they falling away from? They're falling away. The Bible. This is your tagline marketing tagline. Because I'm not going to use one that's going to drive arguments. It says there's a falling away from the faith. And what was faith? Without faith, you cannot please God. The Bible says, and you were saved by God's grace through faith. There's a falling away from the faith. I choose that. If I choose that, God's going to let me go. And at some point my conscience is going to be weakened, it's going to be defiled. That's the next phase. And the third thing is I'm going to have a seared conscience. And what I believe was righteous today and holy. I'm going to denounce and believe the opposite. We see that in the world today. The conscience of the world seared. The unbelievers have a conscience. God gave all of us a conscience. And those with hardened hearts have been seared. God's going to turn people. God will turn a believer over to what the Bible says is your reprobate mind. He'll take his hand off your life and let you go and do whatever you want to do. Why is he going to do that? For the saving of your soul. So that you go bottom out again in life to where you got no options left. And you're looking in that pig pen that the prodigal son was in and you finally realize, I got nothing. God. The only way out of this is God. And you're going to cry out to God like the thief on the cross, and he'll. You'll be right with him again. Those that call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But you have to believe Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, that he was born of the Virgin Mary. He lived on this earth. The Son of God came in the flesh. He was crucified, died, and was buried. He ascended into heaven and sits. He was resurrected. And today, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever sits at the right hand of the Father. But one day, God the Father is going to say, go get your bride, son. Go get your bride. And that's when the rapture happens. So Eyes To See Ministries. If you believe, if you want to believe in Christ, you've got to believe that in your heart, that deceptive part of you, the part that your mind says, I don't need this. I can do life on my own. You'll see this when we get to the letters to the churches. If you want to know who Jesus Christ is, you can call us at 443-386-3941. And I'll be happy to go over the gospel, the power of God unto salvation. And we can talk about this, because there is going to be a prophetic event that happens, and it's sooner than later. If the believers in the Book of Acts thought it was going to happen, then we're a lot closer. And if you look at the news today, you'll see that we are probably on the verge, really close. It can happen anytime. That's why we talked about the imminent return of Christ. My wife's looking at me like she has something to say. [01:06:34] Speaker A: Well, I always have something. I was just trying to get that word in twice. Yeah. And really thinking about that, you know, there's a lot of people have a hard time wrapping their head around the fact, you know, that the Bible says, you know, that to look up, you know, your redemption drives, you know, draws near. But you know, the coming of the Lord is soon. But you have to look at it at more than just him appearing in saying that you know, his return is imminent. That could be just. You have to be aware of your mortality. [01:07:19] Speaker B: Yes. [01:07:19] Speaker A: Because, you know, you could be gone tomorrow. And that's. That is the return for you at that moment that, that Jesus shows up in your life because you're, you know, you're going to pass on to that time of judgment. So I try to keep that foremost in my mind that it's not, you know, looking at, he might come in three years. Well, he might come for me, you know, in a couple hours if I get in a car accident and I don't survive. [01:07:48] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:07:48] Speaker A: You know, so it's. And it goes right back to the tale of the ten virgins, you know, the five wise. You know, their eyes are constantly looking for his return. It's just not, you know, oh, it might be three years from now. It might be 30 years from now. It might, it could be today. [01:08:06] Speaker B: It could be today. So if I died today and I'm in right standing with Christ, then I am gonna qualify when the Rapture happens, because I will be one of the dead in Christ that rises first. [01:08:23] Speaker A: And also. [01:08:23] Speaker B: So we have to prepare ourselves. [01:08:25] Speaker A: And also it's really important, especially now. The Bible talks about the increase of lawlessness. And we're in that time. We're in that time. And Matthew 24:12 says that because of lawlessness abounding many, that the heart of many will grow cold. He's not talking to the people that don't know Jesus. He's talking to the people of the church, the Bible. The only people that read the Bible are the people that believe. So it's going to be, you know, that falling away that hardened heart because of lawlessness. You need to do what you have to do to protect your heart. And that's the only way you can do that, is to stay as close to Jesus as you can. [01:09:16] Speaker B: Yes, and I'll give you a homework assignment because I didn't have time to get into it tonight. But there is a command to obtain wisdom, and that's found in Proverbs 4:1, 27. That's the whole proverb. But look at verses 20 through 23. God will talk about the heart, and he'll talk about all things that pertain to life and godliness you can find in the Bible. There's only going to be a remnant, a very small percentage of people that are actually saved. But that proverb, as things get worse in the world, those four verses are going to tell you how you can stay in Christ. And you will have literally become like the Hebrews in Egypt, you can become your own Goshen, where no matter what happens in the world, God will provide water for you, food, whatever you need. And it's obedience to him and the favor, the unmerited favor that God will lavishly pour out on those people. So I will close in prayer. I apologize. I didn't open in prayer. I went right into it. Father, I thank you that your words will never return empty. Lord, I thank you for Community Media of South Central Pennsylvania for giving us the opportunity to speak the truth, to speak about Jesus. So, Lord, I ask you to take these words and take them over, over the airways and into every social media platform because there's people out there that are seeking. There's people that are hungry and thirsty. They just don't know what that means and they don't know where to go, that they can seek somebody out to give them the truth. Because time is running short and the time is at hand. Jesus said the time is already at hand. So I thank you that you will, Lord. You'll lead people to the truth. And we pray in Jesus name. Amen. [01:11:42] Speaker A: Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty early in the morning our song shall rise to thee Holy, holy, holy.